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 JOHN CHAMBERS 
 
 AUTOBIOGRAPHY 
 
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY 
 
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY 
 
 OF 
 
 JOHN CHAMBERS 
 
 EDITED BY 
 JOHN CARL PARISH 
 
 PUBLISHED AT IOWA CITY IOWA IN 1908 BY 
 THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF IOWA 
 

 COPYRIGHT 1908 BY THE STATE 
 HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF IOWA 
 
EDITOR'S PREFACE 
 
 During the last year of his eventful life.Ub-iii-Oham-' •' 
 bers, second Governor of the Territory ofvlowsi,^ ^i-ote'-J, 
 out in response to the request of his youngest son, 
 Henry Chambers, an autobiographical sketch. For 
 over half a century this important manuscript has 
 remained in the possession of the family of Henry 
 Chambers of Louisville, Kentucky, carefully preserved 
 but never published. 
 
 As a result of correspondence with Mr. John Cham- 
 bers^ and a visit to Louisville, Kentucky, where he was 
 entertained at the home of Mrs. Henry Chambers, Pro- 
 fessor Benjamin F. Shambaugh, Superintendent of 
 The State Historical Society of Iowa, secured the 
 manuscript for publication by the Society. Acknowl- 
 edgments are due, therefore, not only to Mrs. Henry 
 Chambers and her family but also to Professor Sham- 
 baugh both for the discovery of the manuscript and for 
 valuable advice and assistance in preparing its pages 
 for the press. 
 
 Access was also had to other valuable material, 
 among which was a shorter sketch of Governor Cham- 
 bers, together with a record of the births, marriages, 
 
 ^ The grandson of Governor Chambers and the son of Mr. and Mrs. Henry 
 Chambers of Louisville, Kentucky. 
 
 974.4(>7 
 
viii EDITOR'S PREFACE 
 
 and deaths of his children. The sketch and entries are 
 in the handwriting of Governor Chambers and are 
 found in a small leather bound book entitled Family 
 Record. At the close of his autobiography Governor 
 , Chambers in speaking of this record refers to it as his 
 'Family 'Register. It has seemed of sufficient value in a 
 ,«iippietie.nta:l , ;^ay to warrant its publication along 
 with the autobiography. 
 
 The writing of the autobiography is explained in a 
 letter written by Governor Chambers to his son Henry 
 Chambers on December 5, 1851, in which he says: 
 **For some days past I have spent an hour or two in 
 preparing the sketch of family History which you re- 
 quest in your last letter, but as I soon tire of writing 
 it progresses slowly — I am pleased however that you 
 made the request as neither of your brothers seem to 
 have ever felt or expressed any interest in the subject. 
 It will at last be a mere outline without interest to any 
 person out of the family, when I get through I will 
 send it to you." 
 
 Several weeks passed before the arduous work was 
 completed. Indeed, it was not until January 12, 1852, 
 that he wrote : ''I send you by the mail that takes this 
 the ^sketch' you asked for some time ago.'' Before the 
 end of the month he must have received something of 
 an enthusiastic acknowledgment from his son; for on 
 January 26, he wrote : ^ * I am glad you are pleased with 
 the little * Biographical Sketch' I sent you." In the 
 same letter he laments his inability to put the material 
 
EDITOR'S PREFACE ix 
 
 in satisfactory literary form, saying: "It has been one 
 of the troubles of my whole life that I never could at- 
 tain a style in writing, with which I was satisfied and 
 I never wrote anything and laid it a side for a short 
 time, [in] which I did not find much to correct in the 
 style & language when I came to examine it again." 
 
 "While on the subject of the * sketch' ", he continued, 
 "let me add that your brothers have both been here 
 since I sent it to you and having mentioned to each of 
 them the fact that you had such a paper, Sprigg said 
 he would get you to copy it for him and Frank very 
 modestly requested that I would write a similar paper 
 for him, which I assured him I would not do. They 
 had both been very anxious for something of that kind, 
 but unwilling to ask for it, for fear of giving me 
 trouble. ' ' 
 
 The original manuscript covers thirty-three closely 
 written pages about eight by ten inches in dimensions. 
 It is in the characteristic handwriting of Governor 
 Chambers and is quite legible. In editing the work the 
 effort has been to make as close a reproduction as pos- 
 sible in the matter of spelling, punctuation, and capi- 
 talization. Letters and words have been supplied in 
 editorial brackets and foot-notes added simply to make 
 clear the context. 
 
 John Carl Parish 
 The State Historical Society of Iowa 
 Iowa City 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Editor's Preface ........ vii 
 
 Autobiography of John Chambers . . . . . 1 
 
 Family Record of John Chambers ..... 35 
 
 Index .......... 45 
 
PLATES 
 
 John Chambers, from an oil portrait ■ . . . . frontispiece 
 
 John Chambers, from an ivory miniature . . . opposite 16 
 
 Hannah Taylor Chambers, from an ivory miniature opposite 16 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN CHAMBERS 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN CHAMBERS 
 
 "Washington Kentucky 2d December 1851 
 
 My dear Henry 
 
 In your letter of the 27th ulto. you say you "have 
 often had occasion to regret your ignorance of our family 
 history and near connections" and ask me at some leisure 
 time to give you "an outline sketch of it, particularly my 
 own life and its prominent events." And as that which is 
 to be done ought always to be done promptly, especially 
 with persons of my advanced age and unstable health, I 
 proceed to comply with your request, promising that there 
 is very little in our family history to distinguish it from 
 the history of thousands of other families in this country. 
 
 I never saw either of my grand parents, or any relative 
 of my beloved mother. My grandfather Chambers, with 
 two or three of his brothers, were early settlers on the 
 Juniata river in Pen[n]sylvania where my father and his 
 three brothers, and one sister were born, the family were 
 the (I think immediate) descendants of Irish parents, but 
 I have understood that they were of Scotch origin, and 
 from a conversation between my father and a very aged 
 Scotchman when I was a boy, I learned that my more re- 
 mote ancestors were of the Scotch clan Cameron^ and bore 
 the name of the clan, but refusing to join in the rebellion 
 of 1645, they were compelled to emigrate, and took shelter 
 in Ireland, changing their name to Chambers, which they 
 were afterwards permit [t]ed by an act of the British Par- 
 
2 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN CHAMBERS 
 
 liament to retain, from Ireland therefore came the first of 
 the family of which I have any tradition. My grandfather 
 married an Irish woman whose name was Sarah Lee, a 
 woman of strong and cultivated mind and imperious tem- 
 per — they had four sons, of whom my father (Eowland) 
 was the oldest, and one daughter.^ My uncle James was 
 the next oldest to my father, then came Joseph, Benjamin 
 and Betsey, the latter of whom I never saw. My father in 
 early manhood was sent to New York and was employed as 
 a clerk in an extensive mercantile established^ belonging to 
 a Mr. Joseph Forman, who had married Betty Lee, my 
 grandmothers sister. From your grandfathers account of 
 Mr. Forman, who was always called by a numerous connec- 
 tion ''Uncle Josey", he must have been one of the most ex- 
 cellent men of his day — his wife, a woman of vigorous in- 
 tellect and violent temper, was just the reverse of her 
 husband — they were the parents of I think five sons, the 
 only one of whom, who made much noise in the world, was 
 David who rose to the rank of general in the State line of 
 the Jersey malitia in the War of the Eevolution, and was 
 notorious for his active and energetic pursuit of the ad- 
 herents of the British Crown, then called tories. they were 
 numerous in the lower counties of New Jersey, and some of 
 them became the victims of their ill judged attempts to 
 subject their Whig neighbors to the depredations of ma- 
 ruading parties of the British Army, and their adherents — 
 Genl. Forman, then commonly called by them "Black 
 David" was charged with the illegal and murderous execu- 
 
 " An unpublished genealogy of the Chambers family, prepared by Mr. Harry 
 Brent Mackoy, a great grandson of Governor John Chambers, names seven 
 children of this marriage — four sons and three daughters. One of the daugh- 
 ters is presumed to have died in early childhood. The remaining six children 
 are mentioned in the will of their father, James Chambers. 
 
 ' The word * ' establishment ' ' was evidently intended. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN CHAMBERS 3 
 
 tion of some of them, without trial, and it lead to retalia- 
 tion on the part of the British, these charges against Genl. 
 Forman were unfounded, the utmost extent of his conduct 
 went no further than to hunt diligently, and punish prompt- 
 ly, under the sentence of Courts Martial, such tories as had 
 made themselves active partisans against their country, 
 this I have ascertained from several of the old officers of 
 that day & it was confirmed by your grandfather. Of 
 ''uncle Josey's" other sons I rem[em]ber only the names 
 of Ezekiel and Joseph, they were all respectable, but not 
 distinguished men — "Uncle Josey" was a brother of the 
 great grandfather of the present generation of the Formans 
 now residing in this county and including your brother-in- 
 law Mr. J. S. Forman his brothers & sisters, that is to say, 
 he was the uncle of old Mr. Thos. Forman who lived & died 
 on the old Forman farm adjoining this old town. After 
 the death of my grandfather and mother, my aunt Betsey 
 [(] their only daughter) then a young girl, was placed un 
 der the care of her aunt Betty Forman, (who had no daugh- 
 ter) and was so har[s]hly & crueally treated by that 
 wretched woman, as to render her insane, before even my 
 father, who lived in the family discovered the cause of it. 
 After her recovery she married a Mr. Irvin and became the 
 mother of several children, one of whom, a man of gentle- 
 manly manners and fine appearance, once called on me at 
 Washington City — held some place in the quarter master's 
 department I think, but I have no further knowledge of 
 him. My uncles James and Joseph settled at an early day 
 in the western part of Pen[n]sylvania, the former had but 
 three children, two sons and a daughter. In the year 1840 
 I saw the youngest of the sons at C[h]illicothe, he was an 
 extremely rough man, and told me he was the only sur- 
 vivor of his fathers family, had himself a large family and 
 was poor — he lived in Ohio. My uncle Joseph removed to 
 
4 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN CHAMBERS 
 
 Ohio and lived in Jefferson county, some miles from 
 St[e]ubenville. he raised a very numerous family, and 
 died a few years ago at a very advanced age — I have seen 
 two of his sons, and have learned that a larger portion of 
 the family are by no means respectable. Your grandfather 
 remained in New York several years after the death of 
 '* Uncle Josey Forman" engaged in some business con- 
 nected with the foreign commerce of that city and went sev- 
 eral voiges to European ports, after which he married my 
 mother whose name was Phebe Mulican,* an orphan girl 
 raised on Long Island. I have heard her say that when she 
 was married she had no living relatives that she knew of, 
 except one brother who commanded a vessel trading be- 
 tween N. York and Liverpool which perished shortly after- 
 wards at sea, with all who were on board of her — After 
 the birth of your uncle William and Aunt Davis (in New 
 York) my father formed a partnership with a Mr. John 
 Martin, an Englishman, who owned a fine farm and exten- 
 sive mills on the north branch of the Raratin river,^ in 
 Somerset County New Jersey, at a place called Bromley 
 Bridge, but afterwards extensively known as the Burnt 
 Mills — ® They established an extensive retail store at that 
 place and dealt largely and prosperously in the produce of 
 the country, 'til the War of the Revolution commenced — 
 Mr. Martin claimed large estates in England and perhaps 
 was allied to the aristocracy of that Kingdom, and finding 
 his position in the United States (Colonies) becoming dan- 
 gerous, he sent to my father to collect all the money he could 
 
 *Thi8 name is spelled in the Mackoy genealogy, Phoebe MuUican. 
 
 ' The Earitan Eiver. 
 
 • Neither the name Bromley Bridge nor Burnt Mills appears on the map of 
 New Jersey to-day, but the place may be approximately located by its position 
 on the north branch of the Earitan Eiver, in Somerset County, New Jersey, 
 two miles from Pluckemin. See page 254. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN CHAMBERS 5 
 
 and meet him in N. York without delay, he did so, and gave 
 what money he had raised to Mr. Martin without well un- 
 derstanding the object he had in view. Mr. Martin then 
 told him that he was hiding from the American authorities, 
 and had a vessel in port ready to sail for England the 
 moment he went on board. Your grandfather urged in vain 
 the necessity of some adjustment of their business, but Mr. 
 Martin was too much alarmed for any thing of that sort, 
 but assured my father that on his arrival in England, he 
 would immediately furnish him with full evidence of per- 
 fect right to all property in Jersey which in the meantime 
 he was to consider as his own including the lands & mills. 
 Mr. Martin left, and died soon after his return to England. 
 My father settled up the business, paid all the debts and 
 discontinued the store, but kept the mills in operation un- 
 til a flash of lightning struck & consumed them at noon day, 
 with a large amount of flour and grain. In the meantime 
 Independence had been declared and the Eevolution was in 
 full progress. Your grandfather became an enthusiast in 
 the cause, lavished all his means in support of it, took the 
 command of a regiment of the Jersey Malitia, and from ex- 
 posure in his first tour of duty became a cripple from a 
 rheumatic attack, which rendered him unable to mount his 
 horse, and after being lifted to and from his saddle for 
 some time, was compelled to retire from the service, and I 
 think never resumed his command, but as soon as he was 
 able, was again actively employed in obtaining supplies for 
 the army, yielding up without compensation or account the 
 products of his farm and expending his means without 
 stint. I remember to have seen a note to him from Genl. 
 Washington, written after the battle of Trenton, when en- 
 camped at Plackimin,''^ two miles from the Burnt Mills, de- 
 
 * Pluckemin, Somerset County, New Jersey. 
 
6 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN CHAMBERS 
 
 scribing the shoeless and naked condition of the army in 
 the midst of a severe winter, and their total destitution of 
 provisions, and appealing most earnestly to your grand- 
 father to endeavor to send them something to eat — (I have 
 often regretted the loss of that note.) 
 
 When your grandfather moved into New Jersey he took 
 with him his youngest brother, (Benjamin) then a youth. 
 At the commencement of the war he procured for him a 
 Capt[ai]ns Commission in the regular army, in which he 
 served until the close of the war retiring with the rank of 
 Majr.(all the officers having been promoted one grade before 
 their discharge) — he then settled in Maryland and mar- 
 ried his cousin, a daughter of Mr. Ezekiel Forman, one of 
 the sons of ''uncle Josey". he was for many years Clerk 
 of the Superior Court of Cecil County, & known as General 
 Ben. Chambers. He was the father of the present Judge of 
 the Supreme Court of Maryland, Genl. Ezekiel Forman 
 Chambers, who[m] I first met with in the winter 1828 as a 
 Senator in Congress from his state, he was then a general 
 of the state of Maryland, he had several brothers & sisters 
 whom I have never met with, two of the former settled in 
 Mississippi as cotton planters, one of whom died there, but 
 the other was alive the last time I heard of him. 
 
 After the "War of the revolution your grandfather found 
 himself greatly reduced in his circumstances, but full of 
 enthusiasm at the glorious result of the War, and being a 
 man of very remarkable vigor of intellect, prompt and 
 capable, he was in attendance upon all the public meetings 
 preliminary to the formation of the government, and con- 
 stantly associated with the officers of the late army, he soon 
 fell into intemperate habits (as did a very large proportion 
 of the Officers of the late army.) Business was abandoned 
 or so neglected that everything went to ruin. And to cap 
 the climax, the Heirs of Mr. Martin came over from Eng- 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN CHAMBERS 7 
 
 land and claimed the land we lived upon, and Mr. Martin 
 not having performed his promise to convey it, before his 
 death, it had to be given up, and thus the family were with- 
 out a home and with very slender means of support, in this 
 immergency, your uncle William returned from the "Wes- 
 tern Wilderness where he had spent two or three years, 
 and gave so glowing an account of Kentucky, that it was 
 determined that the family should emigrate, and all the 
 stock and other property that remained was sold off, and 
 two Jersey waggons procured with two stout horses for 
 each, and thus equip [p]ed, with some beds & their furni- 
 ture, the clothing of the family and necessary provisions, 
 in the summer of the year 1794 we commenced our journey 
 to ''the land of promise." And after a most tedious and 
 laborious journey across the mountains, we reached the 
 Monongahela river, where we were detained several weeks 
 before we could get boats to prosecute our journey, and 
 there we found ourselves surrounded by the ''Whiskey In- 
 surrection" — a rebellion against the payment of duty on 
 stills & distilled spirits. We were accompanied on our 
 journey by the family of Mr. Eobt. Davis who had married 
 my oldest sister, (your Aunt Davis who[m] you remember) 
 and of his brother Mr. Peter Davis, each of whom had a 
 waggon and team, these two families preceeded us in the 
 first boat that was finished & we soon followed and joined 
 them at this place. Your uncle Jas. Chambers was left in 
 New Jersey as a clerk in a country store, his health being 
 delicate it was doubted whether he could bear the journey, 
 which of course had to be performed on foot, by the male 
 part of the family. Arrived in Kentucky, the family con- 
 sisted of my father and mother, my two youngest sisters, 
 your uncle Benjamin and myself. I was now fourteen years 
 old and my education had been sadly neglected. I could 
 hardly read or write intelligibaly, and had passed rapidly 
 
8 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN CHAMBERS 
 
 and carelessly through the common rules of Arithmetic^ 
 and had my language corrupted and mixed up with a sort 
 of ''low dutch" (descendants of the Hollanders who first 
 settled New York (New Amsterdam) and from thence 
 spread over New Jersey, and with whose descendants I had 
 been associated as playmates and school-fellows. [)] A few 
 days after we became settled here, My father in a fit of ill 
 humour, which had now become very common with him, told 
 me I must seek some employment and that he could not 
 maintain me in idleness — two hours afterwards I was be- 
 hind the counter of a new comer by the name of Moore who 
 had just opened a small stock of goods, he paid my board, 
 and when he had pretty nearly sold out his stock, I found 
 employment on the same terms behind the counter of a Mr. 
 Wiggins, the next spring your uncle Wm came and pro- 
 posed to send me to Lexington to go to school at the 
 ''Transylvania Seminary", and in March 1795 I went there 
 — in July a vacation occurred and there was some difficulty 
 in the school which I thought rendered it doubtful whether 
 it would be resumed, and as my brother had by frequent 
 admonitions to diligence and some estimates of the expense 
 of my education, convinced me that he could not afford to 
 educate me there, I determined to return home, to which my 
 father yielded with manifest displeasure, and was very 
 stern and distant with me when I got home. I found he 
 was cultivating a little field of corn, & the morning after 
 my return I got up early and fed & watered his old horse 
 and went to ploughing — Nothing was said, and after sev- 
 eral days diligent labors I had put the little field in good 
 order, and then, for the first time went down town, where 
 I found a new store just opening under the firm of Brown- 
 son [ ?] and Irvin, and soon became their assistant behind 
 the counter. In all these employments a part of the agree- 
 ment was that they were to pay my boarding at home, sa 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN CHAMBERS 9 
 
 that by early rising I could always make my mothers morn- 
 ing fires and bring water for the days consumption. I was 
 now drawing towards the close of my fifteenth year and 
 continued with these gentlemen until I was seventeen, and 
 became very much attached to them, as they seemed to be 
 to me 
 
 The next year, Mr. Eobt. Davis having removed to Au- 
 gusta and your Aunt Logan (who was married soon after 
 we reached Kenty. under an engagement made in New 
 Jersey) to Jefferson County and my sister Polly having 
 died in the summer 1795, it was thought necessary that my 
 father and mother should go to Augusta to be near one of 
 her daughters, because my mother had then become sub- 
 ject to periodical fits of strong convulsion, which it may be 
 well here to remark continued, during the residue of her 
 long life to afflict her, without in the least impairing her 
 general health or her mind. 
 
 In the year 1797, District Courts were established in 
 Kenty., and the seat of one of the Courts fix[ed] at this 
 place, and your uncle Francis Taylor, then a practising law- 
 yer was elected Clerk of the Court — The jurisdiction of 
 this Court was limited to important civil cases and to the 
 trial of criminals & and consequent [l]y the fees of the 
 Clerks office were very inconsiderable and but for the hope 
 that additional jurisdiction would be extended to the Court, 
 the office would hardly have been worth holding. Towards 
 the close of 1797 Mr. Taylor applied to my employers to 
 release me and let me go into his office, which with some re- 
 luctance they consented to. Mr. Taylor had a tolerable 
 library for that period and urged the benefits I might de- 
 rive from reading and especially in studying law, which the 
 small amount of business in the office would enable me to do. 
 He agreed to board me and cloth [e] me, I finding my own 
 bed & furniture and he proposed that my father should bind 
 
10 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN CHAMBERS 
 
 me to liim until I was twenty one years old, which I agreed 
 to, with the remark that an Indenture of that kind would 
 do very little good, as if a sense of duty did not bind me, 
 the indenture would not, and I never heard of the indenture 
 afterwards — I applied myself with unremit[t]ing atten- 
 tion to the business of the office and at the end of six 
 months thought myself the better clerk of the two, and in- 
 deed was able to do all the duties of the office with very lit- 
 tle instruction from anybody. In the Spring of the year 
 1800 Mr. Taylor wished to remove to his farm on the river, 
 and proposed to me to give me the fees of the office, if I 
 would stay in town and take charge of it — he was not will- 
 ing to resign because he still clung to the hope of its be- 
 coming more valuable. I accepted his proposition and kept 
 an accurate account of the available fees for one year & 
 found them fall something short of four hundred dollars, at 
 which I had estimated them. In Novr. of that year, one 
 month after I attained my twentieth year I obtained a Law 
 License, for which I was certainly anything but well qualli- 
 fied, but I had read a great deal in three years, not only of 
 law, but of almost every thing I could lay my hands on. 
 And thus at twenty years old I found myself a lawyer, by 
 License. The next Spring finding my mothers situation 
 by no means comfortable notwithstanding that I had appro- 
 priated a considerable part of my little income to her use, I 
 proposed to bring her and my father here and to live with 
 them this I soon accomplished, and soon succeed [ed] in 
 making her more comfortable than she had been for many 
 years. This was a source of great gratification to me, for I 
 loved & venerated my mother beyond all others of Gods 
 creation, and the arduous & suffering struggle she had 
 made to raise her children and keep them together when 
 young, and impress correct principles upon their minds, en- 
 titled her to all, and much more than all, I was ever able 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN CHAMBERS H 
 
 to do to make her happy 
 
 My 
 
 father 
 
 the autumn of 1821 when 
 
 he sunk to the grave in the 66th year 
 
 of his age, and thus ended a man endowed by nature with 
 an uncommonly clear & vigorous mind, educated, & pos- 
 sessing the highest qualifications for business .... 
 . I had now begun to obtain some small business 
 as a lawyer, and occasionally a case which gave me an op- 
 portunity of exercising my speech-making faculties, and I 
 was enabled to keep a servant for my mother and to live 
 comfortably with strict economy, and thence forward was 
 made to feel that my efforts to get along were appreciated 
 favourably, and a good [d]eal of small business in the in- 
 ferior courts came into my hands. Ardent and devoted to 
 my clients, they soon became friends, all which improved 
 my prospects and increased my business. About the lat- 
 ter part of the preceeding year my brother James came to 
 Kentucky & brought with him his wife and one child, (now 
 Mrs. Phillips). In the Session of the Legislature of 1802-3 
 the district and quarter sessions courts were abolished and 
 in their stead Circuit Courts established, embracing the 
 jurisdiction of both. Here was a clerkship established 
 worth having, this took away a part of my means of living, 
 but I felt that I could live without it. Mr. Taylor who had 
 lost an office worth nothing to him, and Capt[ai]n Thos, 
 Marshall who had lost the quarter sessions court clerkship 
 worth a handsome annual income, were candidates for the 
 new office. I was urged by my friends to enter the lists, 
 and I believe if the office had been then, as now, elective by 
 popular vote, I would certainly have obtained it, but I hesi- 
 
12 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN CHAMBERS 
 
 tated until advised by one of the three judges upon whom 
 the appointment depended. He advised me to offer assur- 
 ing me of his vote, and of his belief that another would 
 vote for me, but he was mistaken, that one really pre- 
 fer [r]ed Captn. Marshall, who finding that neither of the 
 others would in any event vote for him, joined with the 
 third judge to persuade his friend to vote for Mr. Taylor. — 
 this I learned long afterwards. I consented however to en- 
 ter the list of candidates and here seemed for a while to be 
 the turning point of my fortunes. I was denounced imme- 
 diately as a monster of ingratitude towards Mr. Taylor, 
 who it was said had taken me into his office through charity, 
 and now I had the presumption to oppose him for one of 
 the most valueable offices in the state — to all this I only 
 replied that I did not believe Mr. Taylor would deny that I 
 had faithfully fulfilled all my obligations to him, and that 
 I certainly never would have entered his office, with either 
 an express or implied understanding, that through all time 
 to come I must yield to him unresistingly every office for 
 which he might choose to be a candidate and especially an 
 office which I had served four year to quallify myself for. 
 But there was more involved in. the controversy than the 
 office or the question of gratitude to my late employer. In 
 the preceeding year his half sister, Margaret, the only child 
 of his father by his second wife, came to Kentucky on a 
 visit to her brother and his family — She was an accom- 
 plished and lovely girl and from my earliest acquaintance 
 with her I became attached to her, and at the time this 
 clerkship was depending we were engaged to be married, 
 but the secret rested with ourselves. I consulted her about 
 withdrawing from the contest as the evident effect of it 
 was to estrange her brother and myself and insure his op- 
 position to her fathers consent to our marriage. She met 
 the question as only such a woman could. She said my 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN CHAMBERS 13 
 
 withdrawal and our subsequent marriage would give rise 
 and plausibility to the imputation that she was sold to me 
 as the price of my withdrawal from the contest, and altho 
 she knew her brother, being an only son, had great influence 
 with her father, she did not fear it. She had been raised 
 in his bosom from her very infancy, without a mother, and 
 she knew he had confidence in her judgment and prudence 
 and would not sacrifice her happiness under any influence 
 that could be brought to bear upon him. Mr. Taylor was 
 elected Clerk and I soon after informed him of my engage- 
 ment to his sister, and stated my object in doing so, to be to 
 give him time to communicate with his father, as his sister 
 & myself were both about to address him on the subject,^ 
 the reply was very stern and to the effect that he would im- 
 mediately send his sister home to her father. I told him 
 such had been her wish, but that her health was then very 
 delicate and I had earnestly advised her against encounter- 
 ing the journey of 500 miles on horseback, (then the only 
 means of travel,) he answered that she could as well make 
 the journey then as when she came to Kenty I reminded 
 him that more than half the journey had then been made on 
 the river and that her health was then good, he persisted 
 however in saying that she should return immediately to 
 her father, and upon my telling him that in that case I 
 should accompany her, he answered abruptly that I should 
 not do it — here I thought forbearance ought to stop and 
 I told him so, and that I would in defiance of him or any- 
 body else go with her, and that any attempt to obstruct me 
 would be fatal to who ever made it — That if he would 
 treat her kindly until her fathers pleasure was know[n], 
 that it was her determination & mine for the present to 
 submit to it. I heard no more of her being sent away, and 
 in due time her father answered her & her brothers & my 
 letters, regret [t]ing that she had placed her affections upon 
 
14 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN CHAMBERS 
 
 a young man who [m] he did not know and could not judge 
 of, and especially one whom her brother disapproved of. 
 To Mr. Taylor he expressed his regret at what had taken 
 place, but said he had raised that daughter without a moth- 
 er and she had inspired him not only with the most un- 
 bounded affection, but with great confidence in her judg- 
 ment and prudence, and to her he was willing under all 
 circumstances to commit her fate in the matter of her mar- 
 riage, and that his, Mr. Taylors opposition to her 
 marriage he hoped would at once cease, to me he said that 
 nothing but his unbounded confidence in his daughter could 
 have induced him to consent to her marrying a young man, 
 poor, and dependent upon his own exertions alone for even 
 a living, which he commended my candour in stating to 
 him without reserve. He concluded by saying he was not 
 able or willing under existing circumstances, to make ad- 
 vances to his daughter. We were shortly afterwards mar- 
 ried at Mr. Taylors,^ and a melancholy scene it was, one 
 young man at my request, and one young lady at hers, at- 
 tended — the next day I took her home, for I had provided 
 a home for her tho[ugh] a poor one. I took her the next 
 year to visit her father and after giving birth to two still 
 born children (both females), she died in rather less than 
 four years after our marriage.^ In her death I met the 
 first shock of that kind, after I attained manhood, it was 
 a severe one, and I felt as if I was alone in the world. In 
 the year after our marriage her father expressed his wish 
 to send her some servants, but I declined it, hinting gentle- 
 ly at his former remark on the subject. But my old friend 
 Mr. Vestner [1] then a merchant here called to see Majr. 
 Taylor and advised him to send the servants, for which 
 
 • This marriage took place on June 16, 1803. 
 •The date of her death was March 4, 1807. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN CHAMBERS I5. 
 
 purpose he made arrangements, and the first knowledge of 
 it I had, was the arrival of the servants — a woman and 
 boy, a small girl and three children, at the death of their 
 Mistress I (as she had wished) emancipated the woman, 
 and then applied to Mr. Frank Taylor to receive the others 
 for his father, as under the laws of Maryland they could 
 not be sent into that state again, he refused and said he 
 knew his father would not receive them, and it so turned 
 out. he said there was no person so well entitled to them 
 as I was. 
 
 On a subsequent visit to Maryland I found your dear and 
 excellent mother, just in the full bloom of womanhood, ad- 
 mired by every one, and sought after by some gay dis[s]a- 
 pated and unpromising young men of ''the first families" 
 I at once saw her danger, her mother had died two or 
 three years before and she was at the head of her fathers 
 family. I advised her aunts and sisters to caution her 
 against two young men particularly, as unworthy of her, 
 but the answer was, they were young men of great promise 
 and well connected and would be good matches for any 
 girl in the County. My first wife had been dead but a few 
 months and I felt the delicacy of proposing so soon to mar- 
 ry again. I pondered seriously upon it, and ask[ed] my- 
 self the question shall, I leave this young and lovely crea- 
 ture to be sacrificed to a reckless sot, or enter the lists and 
 carry her off, to wait longer may be fatal to her future 
 happiness. I hesitated no longer and in a few days she 
 flew to my arms for affection and protection, and no wife 
 ever more deserved or enjoyed both — here let me remark 
 that both the young gentlemen, I had wished her to avoid, 
 married lovely girls whose parents were rich (one of them, 
 a cousin of your mother) and ended their respective car- 
 ries ^° before middle age in great poverty and perfectly be- 
 sotted. 
 
 " The word ' ' careers ' ' was evidently intended. 
 
16 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN CHAMBERS 
 
 Upon communicating to your grandfather Taylor my 
 wish to unite myself again with his family, he expressed 
 great pleasure at it, and on my return to Kenty. your uncle 
 Taylor was kind enough to say that if he had had to choose 
 a husband out of the whole circle of his acquaintance for 
 his sister, the choice would certainly have fallen upon me. 
 Your grandfather 1^ died before my return to Maryland, 
 suddenly, at McConnellstown in the mountains, when re- 
 turning from the Bedford Springs w[h]ere he had been in 
 the hope of finding relief from a severe attack of gravel, to 
 which he had long been subject. I found his three orphan 
 daughters residing with their sister Mrs. Jos. Sprigg,^^ 
 who married your Uncle Sprigg on the same day that 
 your grandfather married his half sister, Mrs. Hall,^-'^ 
 afterwards the mother of the three orphans I have 
 just mentioned. I married your mother and brought 
 her immediately to Kentucky, and went on prosperously 
 in the practise of my profession, until in an evil hour, I 
 was induced to engage in the Hemp business, built a Rope 
 walk and at the end of four or five years found myself 
 twenty thousand dollars loser, and in debt beyond ray 
 means of immediate payment. I kept my business to my- 
 self and maintained my credit until I struggled pretty well 
 through my indebtedness, living economically and wasting 
 nothing, about this time (1812) the United States were 
 compelled by circumstances to declare War against Great 
 Brittain. the whole country was thrown into great excite^ 
 ment. Men of business were required for Legislators and 
 
 *^ This refers to Ignatius Taylor, the father-in-law of John Chambers. 
 
 "Evidently a daughter of Mr. Ignatius Taylor by his first wife, and a sister 
 of Mr. Francis Taylor. 
 
 " Mrs. Barbara Bowie Hall was the third wife of Ignatius Taylor and tho 
 daughter of Mrs. Hannah Lee Bowie who later married a Joseph Sprigg. Sec 
 page 275. 
 
i 
 
 t, 
 
 [ 
 
 
16 ArTOBKXVRAPHY OP JOHN CHAMBERS 
 
 *^<r! ' ommunicating to your grandfather Taylor my 
 (^ myself again with his family, he expressed 
 re at it, and on my return to Kenty. your uncle 
 and enough to say that if he had had to choose 
 '* of the whol^ circle of his acquaintance for 
 loice woailcf certainly have fallen upon me. 
 •r" di^ before my return to Maryland, 
 at McConnelji^towTi in the mountains, when re- 
 luniiug from the Bedford Springs w[^ id been in 
 
 the hope of finding reliew fcom a sever —nvel, to 
 
 which he had long been^uBject. I fon aphan 
 
 daughters residing with Isbeir sister Mrs. Jos. Sprigg,^^ 
 who married your Uncle Sprigg on the same day that 
 your grandfather married his half sister, Mrs. Hall,^^ 
 afterwards the mother of the three orphans I have 
 just mentioned. I married your mother and brought 
 her immediately to Kentucky, and went on prosperously 
 in the practise of my profession, until in an evil hour, I 
 was induced to engage in the Hemp business, built a Rope 
 walk and at the end of four or five yen" *- - -^ myself 
 twenty thousand dollars loser, and in id my 
 
 means of immediate pa^nent. my busine.^s to my 
 
 m\f and maintained myjreiiit uiiii d pretty well 
 
 ♦ ' "IneffS, Gving ♦• and wasting 
 
 i *'"*5> tl81*J) in.- I Milt- i States were 
 
 '*- , I iiii;>i.iS<«g to declare War against Great 
 
 Brittain. the whole coimti!|r was thrown into great excite- 
 ment. Men of businessjv^e^-e required for Legislators air^l 
 
 s « 
 
 " Thin wtfetB to Ignatius Tanor, the father-in-law of John Chambers. 
 
 ' V a daughter of Mrxignatiua Taylor by his first wife, and a sister 
 of . . . aicis Taylor. 
 
 * Mrs. Barbara Bowie Hall was the third wife of Ignatius Taylor and the 
 daogbter of Mrs. Hannah Lee Bowie who later married a Joseph Sprigg. See 
 Tpmg^ 275. 
 
I 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN CHAMBERS 17 
 
 I was made a candidate for the House of Eep's and elected 
 through a very fierce and close contest, and was fortunate 
 enough to please my constituents. The next year I de- 
 clined being a candidate, intending to make a campaign that 
 fall if possible, a good many voted for me notwithstand- 
 ing, the present Judge Eeid was a candidate and very 
 popular, having made a bloodless campaign of thirty days 
 the proceeding fall, he was of course elected, and I believe 
 he yet thinks he achieved a triumph over me on that oc- 
 casion. The winter of 1812 while I was a member of the- 
 Legislature was a time of deep and painful feeling in Ken- 
 tucky. Genl. HulP* who had been intrusted with the com- 
 mand of about two thousand men to strengthen DeTroit 
 had ingloriously surrendered that post. General Winches- 
 ter^^ followed with a large but temporary force, enlisted for 
 thirty & sixty days. Many of them were Kentuckians 
 Genl. Harrison ^^' then governor of Indiana, who had dis- 
 tinguished himself at the Battle of Tippecanoe in the pro- 
 ceeding year against an Indian force, was now invited to 
 Kentucky and upon coming here, tho[ugh] not a citizen in 
 fact, was appointed a Majr. General of Kentucky, and led 
 out a portion of the force intended for Winchesters com- 
 mand who[m], (he being only a Brigadier General,) Har- 
 rison under his Kentucky commission took the command 
 of in chief to the great gratification of the army, but feeling 
 the awkwardness of his position as a states officer com- 
 manding a XJ. S. general who had been expressly designated 
 to the command, he, after organizing the army as well as he 
 could, prepared to retire and had made his farewell address 
 to the troops, when an expressed ^'^ reached him, with a U. 
 
 " The word * ' express ' ' is evidently intended. 
 
 ^William Hull. 
 
 "James Winchester. 
 
 *• William Henry Harrison. 
 
18 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN CHAMBERS 
 
 S. Majr. Generals commission, and orders to assume the 
 command in chief, which he did and immediately detached 
 Genl. Winchester to advance rapidly to the rapids of the 
 Maumee river and there secure his position, and wait the 
 arrival of the main body of the army, but instead of obey- 
 ing his orders, Winchester pushed on to the river Eaison^^ 
 within striking distance of the British and Indian strong- 
 hold at Fort Maiden, from thence he informed Genl. Har- 
 rison of what he had done, and urged his advance. Har- 
 rison at once saw ruin in the movement, it was midwinter, 
 the ground covered with ice & snow, and it was impossible 
 to save these in advance, and he irmnediately so informed 
 Govr. Shelby^® by express and urged him to stand ready 
 to reinforce him. He then proceeded by forced marches, 
 but before he could reach Winchester he met the few fugi- 
 tives from the battle ground^*^ who had escaped mas [s] acre 
 and capture, and fell back to Maumee, where he erected 
 Fort Meigs, and awaited the arrival of reinforcements. 
 Govr. Shelby had communicated Harrisons letter to the 
 Legislature and with closed doors they had prepared the 
 necessary measures for the anticipated result of Winches- 
 ters disregard of orders. The news of the defeat came by 
 express & arrived after night and was suffered to spread in 
 a crowded theatre, where the wives and daughters of nearly 
 two full companies and many office [r]s were collected. I 
 never saw and hope never to see again such another scene 
 of wild distress and agony. Many were helpless widows 
 and orphans, who went there as they thought happy wives 
 & children. Immediate measures were adopted to reinforce 
 
 " The Eiver Eaisin flows into the west end of Lake Erie between the Detroit 
 Eiver and the Maumee Eiver. 
 
 " Isaac Shelby, Governor of Kentucky from 1792 to 1796 and from 1812 to 
 1816. 
 
 *This disaster on the Eiver Eaisin occurred January 22, 1813. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN CHAMBERS 19 
 
 Harrison, but it was about midwinter and the weather un- 
 usually severe, and before the troops could be embodied, 
 clothed & provisioned Spring came, and with the return of 
 Spring came the British & Indians to the attack of Fort 
 Meigs. During the seige, the Kentucky reinforcement ap- 
 proached, and an express sent out in the night from the 
 fort, directed the advance to take boats, land just above 
 the fort on the enemies side, destroy some batteries 
 there, spike the guns and return immediately to their boats 
 and descend to the Fort in full view. The landing was af- 
 fected, the guns spiked and all precisely as ordered, but 
 having driven off the enemy stationed there, the impetuous 
 Kentuckians must have a race after the flying enemy, and 
 their gallant Colo. Dudl[e]y2^ could not controul them, this 
 gave the whole British and Indian force from below time to 
 meet them, and a slaughter commenced. Many were kill[ed], 
 more made prisoners and a few only reached the boats and 
 landed safely at the fort. The British shortly after re- 
 treated and the fort remained safe, but they renewed the 
 attack afterwards, when the fort was under the command of 
 Genl. Green Clay,^^ Genl. Harrison being in the interior of 
 Ohio preparing for the increase of his force and to advance 
 upon the enemy, the seige again proved abortive and the 
 enemy retreated to their stronghold, (Fort Maiden.) I have 
 given you this historical detail rather as a key to my own 
 subsequent course than from any necessity for it, because it 
 might all be found in the official correspondence of Genl. 
 Harrison of that period. The excitement throughout Ken- 
 tucky consequent upon the defeat of Winchester and Dudley 
 was excessive, and revenge for the slaughter of our citizens 
 
 " William Dudley. 
 
 ** Green Clay of Kentucky was the father of Cassius M. Clay and a cousin 
 of Henry Clay. 
 
20 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN CHAMBERS 
 
 was the order of the day. In the siuniner succeeding, Govr. 
 Shelby offered to lead in person, a body of men to the sup- 
 port of Harrison sufficient to insure success. His offer was 
 accepted and in August he marched with about 3500 men 
 all on horseback. Just before he set out he wrote to me of- 
 fering me a place in his staff, but I had previously promised 
 to join Genl. Harrison as a volunteer aid de camp, as soon 
 as he would inform me that the active opperations of the 
 campaign were about to commence. Here it is proper to 
 remark that Genl. H. and myself were strangers and that 
 his invitation to me, was given upon the recommendation of 
 some of the officers of the army to whom I was known, and 
 in August he requested Colo. Bodley who was returning 
 from the lines to call on me, and urge my joining him imme- 
 diately. I did so, and found him at Camp Seneca^^ on the 
 Sandusky river about the first of September, and was an- 
 nounced the next morning in general orders as an aid of 
 the commander in chief. Here was entirely a new Theatre 
 for me. Ignorant as the horse I rode of everything like 
 military life, I had to begin with the a, b, c, of my study, 
 but determined to make myself useful if possible, I began 
 to look about me for something to do, and from the de- 
 ranged state of the Genls. military papers, I soon found 
 employment for myself and two educated soldiers, (drunk- 
 en lawyers who having ruined themselves by their intem- 
 perance took shelter from starvation by enlisting) with 
 their labour under my direction I soon produced order out 
 of confusion, to the generals very great gratification. 
 
 On the tenth of September Commodore Perry^* encoun- 
 tered the British squadron on Lake Erie. We could hear 
 
 *• This camp was located on the Sandusky Eiver in the northern part of what 
 is now Seneca County, Ohio. 
 ** Oliver Hazard Perry. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN CHAMBERS 21 
 
 the guns at Seneca, near ninety miles from the scene of 
 battle, the next morning the Genl. gave orders for the ad- 
 vance of the army towards the Lake, and followed the first 
 detachment accompanied by myself and two Indians about 
 five miles from the camp and an equal distance from Lower 
 Sandusky he received by express. Perry's celebrated 
 note — ''We have met the enemy and they are ours" — he 
 then advanced at full speed and instantly ordered off all 
 the force at Lower Sandusky towards the Lake and the 
 next morning followed them with a regiment of Pen[n]syl- 
 vanians, and that evening we found ourselves encamped on 
 the shore of the Lake with a few artillerymen and their 
 guns, the next day the troops from Seneca began to arrive 
 and the succeeding day Govr. Shelby came in with his great 
 reinforcement. In a day or two Commodore Perry landed 
 his prisoners and in the next three days the army embarked 
 for Cannada in the ships of the squadron & eighty old trans- 
 port boats. We landed at "Put-in Bay" on the Isleland 
 and concentrated the army there, from thence in two 
 -days reached the Cannada shore. The Kentuckians 
 horses being left on the American side. The remainder of 
 the campaign is history and I must refer you to it. My own 
 part in it remains to be told, it was much more distinguished 
 by cheerful, and perhaps energetic discharge of all the du- 
 ties assigned to me, than by any personal achievement. Yet 
 I was specially noticed, with a few others, in the generals 
 official account^^ of the battle of the Thames,^^ as having 
 given Genl. Proctor^'^ a severe chase after he fled from the 
 battle ground, from which Harrison said he only escaped 
 
 ^ See report of General Harrison to John Armstrong, Secretary of War, 
 October 9, 1813. 
 
 '* In this battle, fought on October 5, 1813, the American army under Gen- 
 -eral Harrison completely routed the combined forces of the British and Indians. 
 
 "Henry A. Procter was at that time in command of the British forces. 
 
22 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN CHAMBERS 
 
 *'by the fleetness of Ms horses." It was an act of great 
 rashness, rather deserving censure than praise, for nine of 
 ns to pursue a British Genl. with his life guard of forty 
 dragoons, and some Indians until night stop[p]ed us, but 
 like many thousands of other acts of rashness in battle, it 
 became fame, as far at least as the circle of our personal 
 acquaintance extended. 
 
 At the close of the campaign, I received a letter of thanks 
 from the commanding General, with permission to return 
 to my family, his thanks to his aids by name were also ex- 
 pressed in his official letter to the Secretary of War. I 
 pushed for home without delay and found my family uniting 
 in the general rejoicing through out the land in the glorious 
 result of the campaign. Thus ended my very brief mili- 
 tary carier, and I have often thought of it since as one of 
 the follies of my younger days. 
 
 I had left a wife and three children at home, badly pro- 
 vided for if I had have died or been killed, to engage in a 
 business of which I was wholly ignorant and in which the 
 chances were more than equal that my ignorance would ex- 
 pose me to ridicule if not to censure. The next year I was 
 urged to be a candidate for the Legislature but declined it. 
 The succeeding year I was elected very contrary to both my 
 inclination and interest, (Your uncle James Chambers was 
 elected at the same time to the Senate, having frequently 
 served before in the House of Eepresentatives) from 
 thenceforward my rapidly increasing family deter [r]ed me 
 from engaging in popolitical life again until 1828, when a 
 very exciting election in which the member of congress 
 from this district resigned his place and was the Whig 
 candidate for Govr. ( Metcalfe )2® brought me out by the 
 
 * Thomas Metcalfe "was a member of Congress from Kentucky from 1819 
 to 1828, was Governor of that State from 1829 to 1833, and was in the United 
 States Senate from 1848 to 1849. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN CHAMBERS 23 
 
 nomination of a convention to supply the vacancy. I was 
 elected and at the end of the term again retired. In 1831 
 and 1832 I was again a member of the State Legislature. 
 In the last of those years I was offered a seat on the bench 
 of the Court of Appeals on the recommendation of both the 
 political parties of the day, but declined it, and in the win- 
 ter 1834-5 was appointed to that Court and would probably 
 have taken my seat in it, but a severe attack of dyspetia 
 deter [r]ed me and I resigned in April, and soon after be- 
 came a candidate for Congress, partly in the hope that the 
 exercise and excitement of the canvass would restore my 
 health, and it did do so effectually. I was again elected and 
 again in 1837. In March 1839 I retired. Here I should have 
 remarked that the death of your excellent mother took place 
 in Novr. 1832 but for which I should probably never have 
 again taken any oflSce which would seperate us for any con- 
 siderable time, but your sister Hannah and her husband 
 having come to live in the family, I felt that my children 
 would be as safe with her affectionate care of them, as if I 
 remained with them & I again launched into politics as I 
 have stated, but when I retired in 1839 I had determined 
 to continue in private life and to continue my practice as a 
 lawyer, then considerably diminished by my frequent and 
 long absences in Congress. But the candidacy of Genl. Har- 
 rison in the next year again forced me into the political 
 arena. The infamous slanders propogated against his 
 moral and military char[ac]ter, render [ed] it a duty in- 
 cumbent upon those who knew personally the falsehood of 
 many of those slanders, to stand forth in his vindication. 
 I was one of those, and from the great convention here in 
 April of that year until the election I devoted myself to the 
 work, as the general & many others were pleased to say, 
 with considerable efficiency. This with his previous friend- 
 ly feeling towards me, rendered me a marked personal 
 
24 AUTOBIOGEAPHY OF JOHN CHAMBERS 
 
 favorite with him, which in the honesty of his heart, he fre- 
 quently stated before and after his administration com- 
 menced, to my no small annoyance, for it brought upon me 
 innumerable applications for the exertion of my supposed 
 influence, to obtain offices for friends and even strangers, 
 which to avoid becoming an annoyance to him I had de- 
 termined not to attempt for any person, and I carried it 
 out. I went with him to Washington and with the under- 
 standing that I was not to be recognized as such, performed 
 the duties of his private Secretary which place was to be 
 filled by his son-in-law, Wm. Taylor, as soon as he was able 
 [to] join him with his family. The General (now Presi- 
 dent) avowed to his cabinet his wish to induce me to re- 
 main at Washington, and he charged them to designate 
 some office for me which would induce me to do so. The 
 Office of Treasurer was designated as the least laborious 
 & best paid of any other. I declined it, and he became evi- 
 dently anxious & uneasy on the subject, and when I deter- 
 mined to return home, he told me it would have a most 
 singular appearance if I did not take office under his ad- 
 ministration that, it was universally expected and if I re- 
 fused it, it would render my friends who were also his, 
 unfriendly towards him. I told him I could easily obviate 
 that by causing it to be published as upon my authority, 
 that my private affairs had induced me to decline office, but 
 this did not seem to satisfy him, and I at last told him I 
 would accept the office of Govr. of Iowa, which he had pro- 
 posed and I had previously refused, but I told him it was 
 probable that I should retain that office but a short time. I 
 was appointed the same day, but urged by some of the 
 cabinet not to accept, but to agree to remain which it was 
 urged was essential to the Presidents happiness, as his 
 heart seemed to be set upon having me near him, but I had 
 upon very mature reflection come to the conclusion that the 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN CHAMBERS 25 
 
 personal friend & conj&dent of a President was by no means 
 so enviable a position as was generally supposed, and that 
 the very reputation of occupying it was the certain means 
 of creating unceasing & inveterate vituperation & slander. 
 In one short month the kind old man was called to his final 
 account.^^ I closed his eyes, saw him laid in his vault, re- 
 mained with his daughter-in-law and grand children one 
 week, made private memorandoms of his business for his 
 son and set out for Iowa. You know the rest. I served 
 under his appointment four years, was reappointed by 
 President Tylor and removed by James K. Polk, about six 
 or seven months after he came into the administration to 
 make room for a political partisan, this probably saved my 
 life for the time being, for my health had so entirely failed 
 that that I could not have sustained myself under a further 
 prosecution of the laborious duties of office. I should too 
 have considered myself in some measure degraded by hold- 
 ing office subject to removal by Mr. Polk. I knew the man 
 personally — he was a third rate statesman, a sprightly 
 county court lawyer and an unscrupulous partisan. — Peace 
 be to his ashes. 
 
 Thus ended my political & professional life, for both my 
 age and health forbid the idea of a further prosecution of 
 the latter. 
 
 In this sketch of our family and of my own life, I have in 
 order to render the chain unbroken as far as I could, passed 
 over some other family relations which must now be sup- 
 plied. My grandfather Chambers had one, and perhaps 
 more sisters, but I have been only able to trace the descen- 
 dants of the one who married a Mr. Alexander and settled 
 in Virginia. I have met with a number of her descendants, 
 of whom the late Judge McClurg was one, on his mothers 
 
 "President Harrison's death occurred on April 4, 1841. 
 
 6 
 
26 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN CHAMBERS 
 
 side. Jas. Alexander Paxton, was another — an obscure 
 family in Fleming County by tbe name of Alexander were 
 the immediate descendants of that great aunt, the father of 
 the family being her son and having the family name of 
 Kowland. his likeness to my father was most striking. 
 My grandmother and Aunt Betty Forman had two or more 
 brothers, one of whom settled in Virginia and one in Mary- 
 land Genl. Henry Lee of Virginia, commonly called 
 ''horse Harry" from having command [ed] the Virginia 
 Light-horse in the Eevolution, was a descendant of the one 
 who settled in that state.^° The general was a man of tal- 
 lents, a gallant and distinguished officer, but a very reckless 
 and dishonest man in all his business transactions obtain- 
 ing money by a total disregard of honesty & spending it in 
 wanton waste. Of the one who settled in Maryland, the 
 descendants as far as I have been able to trace them, were 
 very respectable. One of them I think served as a Govr. of 
 the state, and a descendant of his, was some years ago a 
 very promising young lawyer in Fredericktown. 
 
 Here I must remark that I have never taken any pains to 
 trace my relationship to remote relatives without I found 
 them both poor and respectable. The rich want no distant 
 relations, and the worthless don't deserve any. The de- 
 scendants of my grandfathers brothers are exceedingly 
 numerous in Pen[n]sylvania, and I have found them in 
 every state in which I have traveled. 
 
 I have said very little of my brothers. You know the 
 families of the oldest & youngest of them Wm. and James. 
 Your uncle Benjn. was an unsettled and wandering man in 
 
 ** The statement that Light-Horse Harry Lee was a descendant of a brother 
 of the grandmother of Governor John Chambers is a mistake, as will be easily 
 seen by consulting the genealogy of the Lee family of Virginia. The second 
 wife of Governor Chambers was, however, a direct descendant of the Lees of 
 Virginia, her maternal grandmother, Hannah Lee Bowie, being a daughter of 
 Philip Lee, grandson of Eichard Lee, the emigrant. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN CHAMBERS 27 
 
 early life. He married at about 24 or 25 years old in Jeffer- 
 son County, a girl very favorably spoken of by those who 
 know her. I never saw her. She lived but a year or two, and 
 left no offspring. He then wandered for several years and 
 wound up his travels by a marrying again — a coarse but 
 good woman — the mother of his three sons, whose history 
 you know, he became intemperate and lived at my expense 
 principally until he and his wife died in the same day, when 
 their children were sent to me, and gave me much trouble 
 and expense — the only survivor of them, is I believe in 
 California — 
 
 the next one (the doctr.) 
 
 you know died two years ago childless, the youngest, James 
 died leaving some children in Hlinois. Your Aunt Logan 
 now the only survivor of my brothers & sisters, you know. 
 Here husband was an educated man, but entirely inefficient 
 to any useful purpose. For many years I had to furnish 
 them a home and the principal means of subsistence. 
 
 It is now proper that I should give you some idea of your 
 mothers family — the most singularly connected & mixed 
 up family I have ever known, owing to the fact that your 
 grandfather Taylor married three widows each of whom 
 had children before he married them, so that the brothers 
 & sisters of the half blood had brothers & sisters also of 
 the half blood who were in no way related to other brothers 
 & sisters — for instance, your Uncle Taylor & Aunt Sprigg 
 had a half brother and sister, (their mothers children) 
 named Paren [f], who were in no way related to either of 
 my wives. My first wife had two half brothers named Jour- 
 dan [ ?] who were in no way related to your Uncle Taylor 
 & Aunt Sprigg or to your mother. Your mother had a half 
 brother, Thos. B. Hall and several sisters of the Hall 
 family who were not related to your Uncle Taylor & Aunt 
 
28 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN CHAMBERS 
 
 Sprigg or to my first wife. And the connection was still 
 further complicated by the marriage of your grandmother 
 Taylors half brother, Joseph Sprigg, to your grandfather 
 Taylors oldest daughter, by which she became the aunt of 
 her sisters, and he the brother-in-law of his nieces. And it 
 extended still further. Joseph Sprigg father of your uncle 
 Jo. Sprigg married a widow Bowie who at that time had 
 two daughters, your grandmother and her sister Mrs. Belt,^^ 
 by their mother he had a numerous family, towit your 
 uncles Jo. Sprigg, — Osborn Sprigg, — Thos. Sprigg, — Cor- 
 bin Sprigg, Wm. Sprigg (long known in the West as a 
 Judge, first of the Supreme Court of Ohio, then of the ter- 
 ritorial court of Louisiana & then of Illinois,) and two 
 daughters, Mrs. Charles Carrol of Bellview, and Miss Han- 
 nah Sprigg who died unmarried, these were your grand- 
 mother Taylors half brothers & sisters. After the death of 
 their mother their father married again, and by this mar- 
 riage had one son (yet alive, Hon. Saml. Sprigg of Prince 
 Georges County Maryland — ex-governor of that state — ^^ 
 he of course was not related to your mother, and was my 
 attendant as grooms-man when I married her — by the way 
 he was the devisee of a rich uncle, his fathers brother, and 
 married a lady of large fortune and has lived most magnifi- 
 cently upon it until (I understand that) it has evaporated. 
 This outline embraces I think as much of our family his- 
 tory and perhaps more than you will feel any interest in. 
 There have been many incidents in my own life, that I have 
 past over as being of no importance, but which in their ef- 
 fects & consequences were very interesting to me at the 
 time of their occurrence — for instance it was quite an in- 
 teresting event to me when in my 18th year I was made 
 
 " A genealogy of the Lee family in the New England Historical and Genea- 
 logical Register, Vol. XXVI, p. 62, gives this name as "Bell". 
 ** Samuel Sprigg was Governor of Maryland from 1819 to 1822. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN CHAMBERS 29 
 
 Clerk of the board of Trustees of this old towii,^^ and again 
 when I advanced to the dignity of a town Trustee, Justice 
 of the Peace, Attorney for the Commonwealth &c. &c. In 
 all these little offices I contrived by diligence to make my- 
 self useful and was generally considered as influenced by 
 considerations of public good in accepting them. 
 
 In two volumes of "Harpers Family Library" entitled 
 the life of Perry, you will see a number of extracts of a 
 letter from me to the present Commodore ''Mathew C. 
 Perry "^^ relative [to] my knowledge of and intercourse 
 with the ''Hero of Lake Erie" — his deed, brother, it was 
 the result of one of my army associations which I enjoyed 
 exceedingly. I am refer [r]ed to by name as the writer of 
 the letter by Capt[ai]n Mackenzie,^^ better known by the 
 name of Slidell — now dead — a man of fine talants and 
 great firmness of character. It was him who hung Spen- 
 c[e]r, the son of the Secretary of War,^^ for mutiny at sea. 
 
 In my long life (for remember I was seventy one years 
 old on the sixth day of October last) I have had many 
 rivals, who sometimes became enemies for the time being, 
 it has been my rule never to exult over those who were less 
 fortunate in our professional and political contests, and so 
 far as I know, there is not now nor has there been for the 
 last ten or twelve years, a single one of my old competitors 
 who do not meet me with great cordiality, except per- 
 
 " Washington, Mason County, Kentucky, 
 
 •*It was Mathew Calbraith Perry who in 1854 negotiated a treaty which 
 opened the Empire of Japan to western influences. 
 
 " Alexander Slidell Mackenzie was the son of John Slidell. The name 
 Mackenzie, being that of his mother, was added to his own at the request of 
 a maternal uncle. In 1842, while in command of the brig "Somers", he 
 hung three men for mutiny, one of whom was the son of John C. Spencer, at 
 that time Secretary of War. He was tried by court martial at his own re- 
 quest and acquitted. 
 
 "•John Canfield Spencer was Secretary of War from 1841 to 1843. 
 
30 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN CHAMBERS 
 
 haps two middle aged lawyers, wlio[m] I can only treat 
 with passing civility, because I know them for knaves, and 
 they are too well aware of it, to attempt to approach me 
 familiarly. 
 
 Old men who have spent much of their time in public life 
 or the pursuit of popularity and office, are generally consid- 
 ered when they retire from such pursuits from the necessity 
 indicated by age and some times by disease, as disposed to 
 condemn their own pursuits & censure those who are pur- 
 suing the course they have abandoned. Such is not exactly 
 my course. I would not however with my experience pur- 
 sue the same course if I had my life to live over. It leads 
 to the neglect of some of the duties which a man owes to his 
 family, of much more importance to him & them and per- 
 haps to the Country than any services which he can render 
 to the Eepublic, without indeed he happens to be one of 
 those rare individuals of whom an age produces only a 
 few — a very few examples. It leads too in many instances 
 to habits of neglect in matters of business and not unfre- 
 quently to dissipation — of these I have known many pain- 
 ful instances : but truely I am unable at present to call to 
 recollection an instance in which a clever man of ordinary 
 or even a little more than ordinary capacity, beloved by his 
 acquaintances, and to use the appropriate term popular, 
 has either benefit [t]ed himself or his family in a life devot- 
 ed to the public service, and it almost makes me shudder to 
 look back upon the numerous instances that have come un- 
 der my observation, in which such men and others much 
 more distinguished, have left, or have yet to leave ruined 
 families — ruined in fortune, ruined in their morals, de- 
 graded in their habits and course of life — the only reward 
 of a life devoted to the public service by their fathers. 
 There are two evils of very extensive prevailence in this 
 our land. One is the effect of imputed talents in particular 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN CHAMBERS 31 
 
 individuals of numerous families, from which every ass of 
 a whole generation claims distinction. The other is the 
 arrogance of poor stupid wretches who found their claims 
 for notice, if not for distinction, upon the wealth of some 
 ancestor or relation, or perhaps worse, upon the accidental 
 possession of it in their own persons. I have yet to see 
 wealth pass by de[s]cent beyond the third generation, but 
 I have seen & see every day the second generation who 
 have squandered the labours of their predecessors or are 
 squandering it, in miserable low degrading dissapation, or 
 more disgraceful gamblings with the most degraded of the 
 black-leg tribe, with whom they would not lock arms in the 
 street & yet shut themselves up with them night after night 
 & day after day, permit [t]ing their pockets to be picked by 
 them. I pray God to guard my descendents against evil 
 habits, but especially against drunken [n] ess & gambling. 
 
 I had intended to copy this and curtail it, there being a 
 good[d]eal more of it than necessary but I find writing 
 more laborious than usual and must send it to you just as 
 it is, knowing that it will not be exhibited to anybody, ex- 
 cept your brothers and sisters to whom you would of 
 course not object to showing it if they should wish to see it. 
 
 I will at some other time send you a copy of my ' ' Family 
 Eegister", (which is in a bound book.) 
 
 Your affectionate Father 
 Mr. Heney Chambers 
 Louisville 
 
 Kentucky 
 
FAMILY RECORD OF JOHN CHAMBERS 
 
FAMILY EECOED OP JOHN CHAMBERS 
 
 [The sketch and entries here printed were written by 
 Governor Chambers and cover ten pages of a small leather- 
 bound book on the back of which appear the words Family 
 Record. Six additional pages are given np to entries con- 
 cerning the family of Henry Chambers and concerning the 
 parents of the wife of Henry Chambers. These entries are 
 of course of a much later date and by a different person. 
 In the back of the book several pages have been removed 
 and this explanation written in: "Some accounts cut out 
 here". The remaining pages are blank. The record kept 
 by Governor Chambers in this book is here printed with 
 the autobiography since it contains much that it not found 
 in the larger sketch.] 
 
 [1] 
 
 37 
 
 John Chambers son of Rowland and Phebe, was born on 
 the 6th day of October in the year seventeen hundred and 
 eighty at Bromley Bridge in the County of Somerset, State 
 of New Jersey, and in the summer of 1794 left that county 
 together with his father & mother and their entire family 
 for Kentucky (detained some time in the Monnongahala^^ 
 Country waiting the arrival of his father who had taken 
 the city of New York in his way) and arrived at Limestone 
 (Maysville) after a very tedious and laborious passage 
 down the Ohio river, late in the month of October 1794 & 
 settled immediately in Washington in the County of Mason. 
 
 " The figures in brackets indicate the paging of the original manuscript. 
 *• Monongahela. 
 
36 FAMILY RECORD OF JOHN CHAMBERS 
 
 In the winter and spring of 1794-95 assisted occasionally 
 in a retail store belong [ing] to a Mr. Wiggins 
 
 [2] 
 
 and a very short time in one belonging to one Lewis Moore. 
 In [the] Spring [of] 1795 was sent to Transylvania Semi- 
 nary at Lexington, remained at school there until June or 
 July, when some difficulties between the president of the 
 institution (Harry Toulman) and the Trustees lessened 
 the reputation of the institution which combined with pe- 
 cuniary difficulties, precluded all hope of regular Education. 
 And a clerkship in the retail store of Messrs. Brawnson [?] 
 and Irvin in Washington was resorted to for employment 
 and subsistence. In December 1797 entered the office of 
 Francis Taylor Esqr. Clerk of the Washington District 
 Court, and a practising attorney, with an agreement that 
 the time not occupied in the duties of the Clerks Office 
 might be employed in reading law. continued to reside in 
 
 [3] 
 
 his family until the spring [of] 1800 when he [Taylor] ^^ 
 removed to his farm on the Ohio, and very liberally gave 
 up the emoluments of the office (to the deputy) as a com- 
 pensation for attending to its duties — (and it afforded a 
 decent competence. In the November 1800 obtained a li- 
 cense and ioamediately commenced the practice of the law 
 in the inferior courts. *See page 12.'*^ 
 
 [12] 
 *See page 3 
 
 "The name Taylor is written in at some later date in pencil. 
 
 *• It is evident that Chambers wished to insert here the material that ap- 
 pears on pages 12, 13, and 14 of the original manuscript. That order has 
 therefore been followed in editing the manuscript. 
 
FAMILY RECORD OF JOHN CHAIVIBERS 37 
 
 In 1812. was elected to the House of Representatives of 
 Kentucky. 
 
 1813. Served as a volunteer Aid de Camp to Genl. Harri- 
 son and was in the Battle of the Thames in upper Can- 
 nada — see Genl. Harrison['s] letter to Secy, of War and 
 his letter of thanks to J. C. 
 
 1815. Again elected to the House of Rep's of Kenty. 
 
 Served [second] ^^ year in the office of District Atto. for 
 
 the Commonwealth 
 1828 Elected to the House of Rep's of the United States 
 
 for one Session to fill a vacancy, declined a re-election. 
 
 1831 & 1832 
 
 1830 & 1831 — Served as a member of the House of Repre- 
 sentatives of Kentucky .^2 
 
 1835 Appointed a Judge of the Court of Appeals of Ken- 
 tucky, resigned without taking a seat in the court & was 
 elected a member of the 24th Congress. 
 
 1837 Re-elected to Congress and served 
 
 [13] 
 
 to the close of the 25th Congress (3d Iklarch 1839) de- 
 clined a re-election 
 
 *^ This word was written in the original manuscript and then crossed out. 
 
 ** This entry appeared in the manuscript on page 13 after the entry for 
 1837, but was preceded by a symbol which also appears after the entry for 
 1828, indicating that the writer wished it to be read in that connection. The 
 editor has therefore placed the entry in its proper chronological position. 
 
38 FAMILY RECORD OF JOHN CHAMBERS 
 
 4tli March 1841 and from thence to 4th Apl. same year 
 acted as the private Secretary of President Wm. Henry 
 Harrison (without appointment & not so called) having 
 in the mean time towit, on the 25th March 1841 been ap- 
 pointed by the President, Governor of the Territory of 
 Iowa, upon the duties of which office he entered on the 
 13th May of the same year. 
 
 Appt. a Commissioner in conjunction with T. H. Crawford 
 Esq. Comsr of Indian Affairs & J. D. Doty Govr. of Wis- 
 consin to treat with Sac & Fox Indians, in Oct. 1841. 
 Negotiation failed. 
 
 Septr. 1842. Appointed sole commissioner for the above 
 purpose. Succeeded fully on 11th Octr. 1842. 
 
 July 1843 Appt. Commisisoner to treat with the Winne- 
 bago Indians. Negotiation failed. 
 
 [14] 
 
 1844 Eeappointed Governor of Iowa — by President Tyler. 
 
 Octr. 20th 1845 — Eemoved from office by President Polk^ 
 to make room for a political partisan. 
 Let it be remembered that this removal from office was 
 made without the imputation of improper conduct or of 
 neglect of duty, or other cause assigned. 
 Augt 1849 Appointed Comr. jointly with Govr Eamsey^^ 
 to treat with the Sioux Indians in Minnesota. Suc- 
 ceed [ed] only in part. 
 
 ** Alex. Ramsey was Governor of the Territory of Minnesota from 1849 to 
 1853, and Governor of the State of Minnesota from 1860 to 1863. 
 
FAMILY RECORD OF JOHN CHAMBERS 39 
 
 [3] continued 
 
 1803 June 16tli married Margaret Taylor, daughter of 
 Majr. Ignatius Taylor (then) of the County of Washing- 
 ton State of Maryland. 
 
 1804— 12th May. A still born female child 
 
 1807. 22d Feby. another still born daughter. 
 
 1807 — 4th March. Margaret the wife of John Chambers 
 departed this life, having then nearly completed her 26th 
 year. She was born 22d May 1781 
 
 [4] 
 
 1807 October 29th Married (near Hagerstown in Mary- 
 land) Hannah Taylor daughter of the above named Majr. 
 Taylor and sister of the half blood to the deed. wife. 
 
 Hannah Taylor, the second wife of John Chambers was 
 born on the 9th January 1791. 
 
 Of this last mentioned marriage came the following 
 children. 
 
 Margaret Taylor Chambers — Born 2d December 1808 
 at 11 Oclock & 30 minutes P. M:— who on the 12th of 
 September 1826 married to Hugh Innis Brent of Paris 
 in the County of Bourbon, Kncky. H. I. Brent died 2d 
 September 1845 
 
 Joseph Sprigg Chambers — Born 30th October 1810. One 
 clock P. M. Married Martha Ann Phillips 
 
 Hannah Chambers — born 16th July 1812 1 Oclock 
 A. M. — married to Doctr. John Wm. Henry September — 
 1831. died 8th July 1847 15 minutes of seven Oclock A. 
 M- [leaving an infant about a week old called John Cham- 
 bers who died in the succeeding winter.]** 
 
 ** This entry was written in the manuscript but crossed out. 
 
40 FAMILY RECOED OF JOHN CHAMBERS 
 
 [5] 
 
 James Chambers — born 4th March 1814 half past 7 
 Oelock P. M. — a healthy and beautiful child. He died 
 on the 29th of April 1814— 11 Oelock P. M. having suf- 
 fered much for several days. 
 
 Matilda Chambers— born 17th March 1815. 9 Oelock A. 
 M. Married to Charles Scott Brent 10th February 1835 
 — (C. S. B. is brother of Hugh I. Brent & resides also in 
 Bourbon Cty. Kentucky) 
 
 Francis Taylor Chambers— Born 29th July 1817— Mar- 
 ried Frances Marshall July 1838 — on the 31 Jany. 1840. 
 She gave birth to a male child, (named John Marshall) 
 and died on the 12th day of the Feby. 1840— He after- 
 wards married Eliza Durret who left one child a daughter 
 named Elizabeth and in 1848 married Elizabeth Febi- 
 srer. 
 
 Jane Chambers — Born 18th August 1819 — i/^ past 3 P. 
 M. — Married to John Samuel Forman 8th March 1838. 
 [Died on the 18th day of August 1853 at 11 oelock & 20 
 minutes A. M. in Washington Ky. Buried in the Forman 
 cemetery]*'' 
 
 Mary Chambers — Born 18 August 1821 about 6 oelock 
 P. M. died 2d Sept. [18]49 12 oelock Merid[i]an buried 
 in the same grave with her sister Laura. 
 
 [6] 
 Laura Chambers — Born 19th September 1823 at 30 min- 
 
 * This entry, made subsequent to the death of Governor Chambers, is in the 
 handwriting of another party. 
 
FAMILY RECORD OF JOHN CHAMBERS 41 
 
 Tites after 11 oclock A. M. Married to Doctr. John A. 
 Lyle of Paris Ky. 1848 
 
 Died 2d Septr. 1849 buried at Paris in the same grave 
 with her sister Mary. 
 
 John James Chambers — Born 20th November 1825 at 
 30 minutes after 6 o'clock P.M. — Died at Paris, Ken- 
 tucky at Y2 past 12 o'clock, Merid[i]an 30th September 
 1844. Buried at Washington. Thus ended one of the 
 most amiable noble boys of his race — 
 
 Henry Chambers — Born 24th January 1828 at 30 min- 
 utes after 4 o 'clock A. M. 
 
 [7] 
 
 Lucretia Chambers — Born 14th March 1830 at 5 o'clock 
 P. M. died 5 March 1836. 
 
 Hannah the 2d wife of John Chambers died on the 11th 
 November 1832 at five o'clock in the morning. 
 
 John Chambers, by whose hand all the foregoing mem- 
 oranda (save that of Jane Chambers' death) were writ- 
 ten, died on the 21st day of September 1852 at 15 minutes 
 after three o'clock P. M. at the residence of his son-in- 
 law — Charles S. Brent in Paris Ky. He was buried in 
 the old grave yard in Washington Ky. He was at his 
 death near the completion of the 72d year of his age. 
 (H. C.)4« 
 
 ** These are the initials of Henry Chambers by whom this final paragraph 
 was inserted. 
 
INDEX 
 
INDEX 
 
 Alexander, Mr., 25 
 Alexander, Eowland, 26 
 Autobiography of John Chambers, 1 
 Bedford Springs (Maryland), Igna- 
 tius Taylor at, 16 
 Belt, Mrs., 28 
 Bodley, Colonel, carries message to 
 
 John Chambers, 20 
 Bourbon County (Kentucky), 39 
 Bowie, Mrs. (Hannah Lee), marriage 
 
 of, to Joseph Sprigg, 28 
 Brawnson and Irvin (See Brownson), 
 
 John Chambers clerks in store of, 36 
 Brent, Charles Scott, 40; death of 
 
 Governor Chambers at home of, 41 
 Brent, Hugh Innis, 39 
 British squadron, defeat of, on Lake 
 
 Erie, 20 
 Bromley Bridge (Somerset County, 
 
 New Jersey), 4, 35 
 Brownson and Irvin (See Brawnson), 
 
 John Chambers clerks in store of, 8 
 Burnt Mills (Somerset County, New 
 
 Jersey), 4 
 California, 27 
 Cameron, Scotch clan, 1 
 Camp Seneca, John Chambers joins 
 
 Harrison at, 20; reference to, 21 
 Canada, army embarks for, 21 
 Carrol, Mrs. Charles, 28 
 Cecil County (Maryland), 6 
 Chambers, Benjamin, 2; marriage and 
 
 career of, 6 
 Chambers, Benjamin, brother of Gov- 
 ernor Chambers, 7; later career of, 
 
 26, 27 
 Chambers, Betsy, aunt of Governor 
 
 Chambers, 2 
 Chambers, Ezekiel Forman, career of, 
 
 in Maryland, 6 
 
 Chambers, Francis Taylor, request of, 
 for an autobiography of Governor 
 Chambers, ix; entries concerning,. 
 40 
 
 Chambers, Governor John, autobio- 
 graphical sketch written by, vii; 
 family record kept by, vii, viii; 
 letters of, to Henry Chambers, viii^ 
 ix; Autobiography of, 1; arrival 
 of, in Kentucky, 7, 35; acts as 
 clerk in store, 8, 36; goes to Tran- 
 sylvania Seminary, 8, 36; enters 
 employ of Francis Taylor, 9, 36; 
 becomes deputy clerk of court, 10; 
 receives license to practice law, 10, 
 36, attitude of, toward parents, 10, 
 11; law practice of, 11; candidacy 
 of, for Circuit Court clerkship, 11,, 
 12; engagement of, 12, 13; inter- 
 view of, with Francis Taylor, 13; 
 marriage of, 14; death of first wife 
 of, 14, 15; marries Hannah Taylor,. 
 15; engages in hemp business, 16; 
 elected to Kentucky legislature, 17; 
 joins staff of General Harrison, 20; 
 arranges papers of General Harri- 
 son, 20; part of, in Battle of the 
 Thames, 21, 22, 37; commendation 
 of, by General Harrison, 21, 22, 37; 
 election of, to Kentucky legislature, 
 22, 37 ; election of, to Congress, and 
 to Kentucky legislature, 23, 37; ac- 
 tivity of, in campaign of 1840, 23; 
 accompanies President Harrison ta 
 Washington, 24, 38; appointment 
 of, as Governor of Iowa, 24, 38; at- 
 tends President Harrison at death, 
 25; career of, in Iowa, 25; election 
 of, to minor offices, 29; letter from, 
 to Mathew C. Perry, 29; attitude 
 
46 
 
 INDEX 
 
 of, toward political life, and preva- 
 lent evils, 29, 30, 31; Family Bec- 
 ord kept by, 35; appointed Judge 
 of Court of Appeals, 37; treats with 
 Indians, 38; family of, 39, 40, 41; 
 death of, 41 
 
 Chambers, Hannah, 39 
 
 ■Chambers, Henry, sketch of Governor 
 Chambers written for, vii; letters 
 of Governor Chambers to, viii, 
 ix; Autobiography addressed to, 
 1; family of, 35; birth of, 41 
 
 'Chambers, James, settling of, in Penn- 
 sylvania, 1; marriage of, to Sarah 
 Lee, 2; sisters of, 25 
 
 Chambers, James, uncle of Governor 
 John Chambers, 2, 3 
 
 Chambers, James, brother of Gover- 
 nor Chambers, 7; migration of, to 
 Kentucky, 11; election of, to Ken- 
 tucky legislature, 22; reference to, 
 26 
 
 Chambers, James, 40 
 
 •Chambers, Jane, 40, 41 
 
 Chambers, John, correspondence with, 
 vii 
 
 Chambers, John, 39 
 
 Chambers, John James, 41 
 
 Chambers, John Marshall, 40 
 
 •Chambers, Joseph, uncle of Governor 
 John Chambers, 2, 3 
 
 Chambers, Joseph Sprigg, 39 
 
 Chambers, Laura, 40 
 
 Chambers, Margaret Taylor, 39 
 
 Chambers, Mary, 40 
 
 Chambers, Matilda, 40 
 
 Chambers, Mrs. Henry, Professor 
 Shambaugh entertained at home of, 
 vii 
 
 Chambers, Mrs. James (Sarah Lee), 
 marriage of, 2; brothers of, 26 
 
 Chambers, Mrs. John (Hannah Tay- 
 lor), marriage of, 15, 39; children 
 of, 39, 40, 41; death of, 41 
 •Chambers, Mrs. John (Margaret Tay- 
 lor), engagement of, 12; proposed 
 
 return of, to Maryland, 13; mar- 
 riage of, 14, 39; death of, 14, 15, 
 39 
 
 Chambers, Mrs. Eowland (Phoebe 
 Mullican), marriage of, 4; removal 
 of, to Augusta, Kentucky, 9; re- 
 turn of, to Washington, 10; atti- 
 tude of John Chambers toward, 10, 
 11; reference to, 35 
 
 Chambers, Polly, death of, 9 
 
 Chambers, Eowland, conversation of, 
 concerning ancestry, 1; early life 
 of, 2; life of, during the Revolu- 
 tion, 5; business of, 6; removal of, 
 to Augusta, Kentucky, 9; return 
 of, to Washington, 10; death of, 
 11; reference to, 35 
 
 Chambers, Sarah (See Logan, Mrs. 
 Joseph), marriage of, 9; reference 
 to, 27 
 
 Chambers, Sprigg, desires copy of 
 Autobiography, ix 
 
 Chambers, William, birth of, 4; re- 
 turn of, from Kentucky, 7; John 
 Chambers sent to school by, 8; ref- 
 erence to, 26 
 
 Chillicothe (Ohio), 3 
 
 Clay, Green, in charge of Fort Meigs, 
 19 
 
 Contents, xi 
 
 Crawford, T. H., appointment of, to 
 treat with Indians, 38 
 
 Davis, Mrs. Robert (Phoebe Cham- 
 bers), birth of, 4; marriage of, 7 
 
 Davis, Peter, migration of, to Ken- 
 tucky, 7 
 
 Davis, Robert, accompanies Chambers 
 family to Kentucky, 7; removal of, 
 to Augusta, Kentucky, 9 
 
 Detroit, surrender of, 17 
 
 Doty, James D., appointment of, to 
 treat with Indians, 38 
 
 Dudley, William, defeat of, 19 
 
 Durret, Eliza, 40 
 
 England, estates of Mr. Martin in, 4; 
 departure of Mr. Martin for, 5 
 
INDEX 
 
 4T 
 
 Erie, Lake, victory of Perry on, 20 
 
 Family Becord, published with Auto- 
 iiography, vii, 35 
 
 Family Eegister, reference to, by Gov- 
 ernor Chambers, viii, 31 
 
 Febiger, Elizabeth, 40 
 
 Forman, Betty, cruel treatment by, 
 3; marriage of, 3; reference to, 26 
 
 Forman, David, career of, in Eevolu- 
 tion, 2, 3 
 
 Forman, Ezekiel, 3, 6 
 
 Forman, John Samuel, reference to, 
 3; marriage of, 40 
 
 Forman, Joseph, son of "Uncle Jo- 
 sey", 3 
 
 Forman, Joseph (Uncle Josey), fam- 
 ily of, 2, 3; death of, 4 
 
 Forman, Thomas, 3 
 
 Forman cemetery, 40 
 
 Fort Maiden, 18, 19 
 
 Fort Meigs, attack on, 19 
 
 Fredericktown, 26 
 
 Great Britain, war between United 
 States and, 16 
 
 Hagerstown (Maryland), 39 
 
 Hall, relatives of Hannah Taylor 
 named, 27 
 
 Hall, Mrs. (Barbara Bowie), marriage 
 of, to Ignatius Taylor, 16 
 
 Hall, Thomas B., 27 
 
 Harper's Family Library, 29 
 
 Harrison, William Henry, in command 
 of western army, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 
 22; offers staff position tp John 
 Chambers, 20; report by, of Battle 
 of the Thames, 21, 22, 37; cam- 
 paign of, for President, 23; efforts 
 of, to give position to John Cham- 
 bers, 24, 38; death of, 25 
 
 Henry, Dr. William, 39 
 
 Historical Society of Iowa, The State, 
 manuscript sketch secured for pub- 
 lication by, vii 
 
 Hollanders, descendants of, 8 
 
 Hull, William, surrender of, 17 
 
 Illinois, 27, 28 
 
 Indiana, General Harrison Governor 
 of, 17 
 
 Iowa, Territory of, John Chambers 
 Governor of, vii; appointment of 
 John Chambers as Governor of, 24, 
 38 
 
 Iowa, The State Historical Society 
 of, manuscript sketch secured for 
 publication by, vii 
 
 Ireland, ancestors of Governor Cham- 
 bers in, 1; migration from, 2 
 
 Irvin, Mr., marriage of, to Betty For- 
 man, 3 
 
 Irvin, Brownson and, John Chambers 
 clerks in store of, 8, 36 
 
 Jefferson County (Ohio), 4, 9, 27 
 
 Jourdan, relatives of Margaret Tay- 
 lor named, 27 
 
 Kentucky, migration of Chambers 
 family to, 7, 35; courts in, 9; trip 
 of Margaret Taylor to, 13; refer- 
 ence to, 16, 39, 40, 41; troops of, 
 17, 19 
 
 Lake Erie, victory of Perry on, 20 
 
 Lee, Betty, marriage of, to Joseph; 
 Forman, 2; cruelty of, 3 
 
 Lee, Henry, 26 
 
 Lee, Sarah (See Chambers, Mrs. 
 James), marriage of James Cham- 
 bers to, 2; brothers of, 26 
 
 Lexington (Kentucky), John Cham- 
 bers in school at, 8, 36 
 
 Limestone (Maysville, Kentucky),. 
 Chambers family reaches, 35 
 
 Liverpool, 4 
 
 Logan, Mrs. Joseph (Sarah Cham- 
 bers), marriage of, 9; reference to,. 
 27 
 
 Long Island, 4 
 
 Louisville (Kentucky), family of Hen- 
 ry Chambers at, vii 
 
 Lower Sandusky, 21 
 
 Lyle, Dr. John A., 41 
 
 McClurg, Judge, 25 
 
 McConnellstown, death of Ignatius. 
 Taylor at, 16 
 
48 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Mackenzie, Alexander Slidell, John 
 Chambers mentioned by, 29 
 
 Maiden, Fort, 18, 19 
 
 Marshall, Frances, 40 
 
 Marshall, Thomas, candidacy of, for 
 Circuit Court Clerkship, 11, 12 
 
 Martin, Mr., partnership of Kowland 
 Chambers and, 4; departure of, for 
 England, 5; heirs of, 6; failure of, 
 to transfer land, 7 
 
 Maryland, Chambers family in, 6; 
 Taylor family in, 15; trip of John 
 Chambers to, 15, 16; reference to, 
 26, 28, 39 
 
 Mason County (Kentucky), 35 
 
 Maumee Eiver, army advances to, 18 
 
 Maysville (Kentucky), Chambers fam- 
 ily reaches, 35 
 
 Meigs, Fort, attack on, 19 
 
 Metcalfe, Thomas, resignation of, 
 from Congress, 22 
 
 Minnesota, Sioux Indians in, 38 
 
 Mississippi, Chambers family in, 6 
 
 Monongahela Country, delay of Cham- 
 bers family in, 35 
 
 Monongahela Eiver, Chambers family 
 reaches, 7 
 
 Moore, Lewis, John Chambers clerk 
 in store of, 8, 36 
 
 MuUican, Phoebe (See Chambers, 
 Mrs. Rowland), marriage of Row- 
 land Chambers and, 4; removal of, 
 to Augusta, Kentucky, 9; return of, 
 to Washington, 10; attitude of 
 John Chambers toward, 10, 11; ref- 
 erence to, 35 
 
 New Jersey, Tories in, 2; Rowland 
 Chambers moves to, 4, 6; Holland- 
 ers in, 8; reference to, 9; birth of 
 John Chambers in, 35 
 
 New York (City), Rowland Cham- 
 bers sent to, 2; references to, 4, 5; 
 Rowland Chambers visits, 35 
 
 New York, settlement of, 8 
 
 Ohio, 3, 4, 19, 28 
 
 Ohio River, trip down, 35 
 
 Paren, relatives of Francis Taylor 
 named, 27 
 
 Paris, (Kentucky), 39, 41 
 
 Parish, John Carl, Editor's preface 
 by, vii 
 
 Parliament, British, act of, concern- 
 ing name Chambers, 1 
 
 Paxton, James Alexander, 26 
 
 Pennsylvania, Chambers descendants 
 in, 26 
 
 Perry, Oliver Hazard, victory of, on 
 Lake Erie, 20; message of, 21; let- 
 ter from John Chambers concern- 
 ing, 29 
 
 Perry, Mathew C, letter to, from John 
 Chambers, 29 
 
 Phillips, Martha Ann, 39 
 
 Phillips, Mrs., daughter of James 
 Chambers, 11 
 
 Plates, list of, xiii 
 
 Pluckemin (Somerset County, New 
 Jersey), camp of Washington at, 5 
 
 Polk, James K., removal of Governor 
 Chambers by, 25, 38 
 
 Procter, Henry A., pursuit of, 21, 22 
 
 Put-in-Bay, army lands at, 21 
 
 Raisin River, massacre at, 18 
 
 Ramsey, Alex., appointed with John 
 Chambers to treat with Sioux In- 
 dians, 38 
 
 Earitan River, mills of Rowland 
 Chambers on, 4 
 
 Reid, Judge, a candidate against John 
 Chambers, 17 
 
 Revolutionary War, persecution of 
 Tories during, 2; commencement 
 of, 4 
 
 Sac and Fox Indians, negotiations 
 with, 38 
 
 Sandusky, Lower, 21 
 
 Sandusky River, Camp Seneca on, 20 
 
 Seneca, Camp, John Chambers joins 
 Harrison at, 20; reference to, 21 
 
 Shambaugh, Benjamin F., visit of, to 
 Louisville, viii; acknowledgements 
 to, vii 
 
INDEX 
 
 49 
 
 Shelby, Isaac, receives news from 
 Harrison, 18; joins General Harri- 
 son, 20, 21 
 
 Sioux Indians, negotiations with, 38 
 
 Somerset County (New Jersey), 4, 35 
 
 Spencer, John C, son of, hung for 
 mutiny, 29 
 
 Sprigg, Corbin, 28 
 
 Sprigg, Hannah, 28 
 
 Sprigg, Joseph, marriage of, 16, 28 
 
 Sprigg, Joseph, marriage of, to Mrs. 
 Bowie, 28 
 
 Sprigg, Mrs. Joseph, marriage of, 16, 
 28; reference to, 27, 28 
 
 Sprigg, Osborn, 28 
 
 Sprigg, Samuel, Governor of Mary 
 land, 28 
 
 Sprigg, Thomas, 28 
 
 Sprigg, William, 28 
 
 State Historical Society of Iowa, 
 manuscript sketch secured for pub- 
 lication by, vii 
 
 Steubenville (Ohio), 4 
 
 Taylor, Francis, John Chambers em- 
 ployed by, 9, 36; removal of, to 
 farm, 10, 36; candidacy of, for 
 Circuit Court clerkship, 11; appoint- 
 ment of, 13; objection of, to mar- 
 riage of sister, 13; John Chambers 
 married at home of, 14; remarks 
 of, concerning marriage of John 
 Chambers, 16; reference to, 27 
 
 Taylor, Hannah (See Chambers, Mrs. 
 John), marriage of, 15, 39; chil- 
 dren of, 39, 40, 41; death of, 41 
 
 Taylor, Ignatius, letters of, concern- 
 ing marriage of Margaret Taylor, 
 13, 14; servants sent to daughter 
 by, 14; death of, 16; marriage of 
 daughters of, 39 
 
 Taylor, Margaret (See Chambers, 
 
 Mrs. John), engagement of, to John 
 Chambers, 12; proposed return of, 
 to Maryland, 13; marriage of, 14, 
 39; death of, 14, 15, 39 
 
 Taylor, William, son-in-law of Presi- 
 dent Harrison, 24 
 
 Thames, Battle of the, part of John 
 Chambers in, 21, 22, 37 
 
 Tippecanoe, Battle of, 17 
 
 Toulman, Harry, President of Tran- 
 sylvania Seminary, 36 
 
 Transylvania Seminary, John Cham- 
 bers in school at, 8, 36 
 
 Trenton, Battle of, 5 
 
 Tyler, John, Governor Chambers re- 
 appointed by, 25, 38 
 
 United States, war between Great 
 Britain and, 16 
 
 Virginia, 25 
 
 Vertner, Mr., advice of, to Major^ 
 Taylor, 14 
 
 Washington, George, letter from, to 
 Eowland Chambers, 5 
 
 Washington, D. C, reference to, 3; 
 refusal of John Chambers to re- 
 main at, 24 
 
 Washington (Kentucky), Autobiogra- 
 phy written from, 1; reference to, 
 29; Chambers family settles at, 35; 
 reference to, 36 
 
 Washington County (Maryland), 39 
 
 War of 1812, outbreak of, 16 
 
 Whiskey Insurrection, in 1794, 7 
 
 Wiggins, Mr., John Chambers clerks 
 in store of, 8, 36 
 
 Winchester, James, in command of 
 army, 17; defeat of, at Eiver Rai- 
 sin, 18, 19 
 
 Winnebago Indians, attempt by John 
 Chambers to treat with, 38 
 
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