James Craig, who was the first clerk of Shelby County. He then acted as sheriff of the county several years, studied law, and was admitted to the bar about the year 1816. In 1818 he was made clerk of the Shelby County Court, which office he held for over thirty years. He held other positions of honor and trust, discharging his duties honestly and faithfully. In the War of 1812 he was an active participant, raised a company of fine, vigorous, brave men, and was commissioned as their captain. He served with distinction as such until he was promoted to major. His military life was not of as long continuance as that of his father, but it was most honorably and usefully passed in service to his country. He died in Shelbyville, in the eighty-sixth year of his age. He was a serviceable, intelligent, and honored citizen.

RICHARD T. WHITAKER.

L..

Lieutenant Colonel Richard T. Whitaker was the third son of Major James S. Whitaker, and was born in Shelbyville, Kentucky. He graduated with distinction at Bacon College, Harrodsburg, and was a merchant for several years in his native town. He volunteered as a soldier in the late civil war in the service of the United States. For military knowledge and efficiency he was promoted from the regiment in which he enlisted to the position of second lieutenant in the regiment commanded by his brother, Gen. Walter C. Whitaker. He was next promoted for courage and military acquirement to the position of major. After a hard and arduous service, for distinguished gallantry on the battle-field he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel of that veteran regiment, the Sixth Kentucky U. S. Volunteer Infantry. He died at the age of thirty-eight years, respected for his truth, honor, and accomplishments, loved and esteemed by all who knew him.

CHRISTOPHER GRAHAM, M. D.

The life of Dr. Christopher Graham is so identified with Kentucky, that I would feel that I had not completed my work without a sketch of his most eventful career. A more remarkable man, in many respects, never lived in the State.

He is, moreover, the only link and witness that remains between the living and the dead-the present and the former inhabitants of Kentucky-having a perfect recollection of Boone, Clark, Harrod, Ray, and all the old heroes of those trying days and bloody struggles in Kentucky. And now, though they have all passed away, and sleep in their silent graves, the last remains to speak of acts he witnessed, and of things he heard from their own mouths. There have been but few men anywhere, acting in his sphere, of more wide-spread fame, or who have been more extensively known. Born with no other heritage than poverty, he has attained the high position he occupies in the community by the force of his own talents alone. His native genius, assisted by the ardor of his exertions, has carried him to the goal of highest perfection as a bold and fearless adventurer, as a successful financier, of indomitable courage and perseverance, of most unquestionable integrity and unbounded liberality. He was born the 10th day of October, 1787, at the station of his uncle, four miles southeast of Danville, in what is now Boyle County. His uncle was from Cork, Ireland, and in the conquest of the West was a captain under General George Rodgers Clark. His mother was Irish, his father one of the celebrated Long Hunters of Kentucky and a native of Virginia, and his grandfather hailed from the house of Montrose in Scotland. Dr. Graham was born at that period of time in the history of Kentucky most propitious to develop and render healthful the native energies of a man. At this early period, except around a few stations, Kentucky was almost a trackless wilderness. The fertility of the soil and the abundance of game had only attracted a few early adventurers, who suffered all the fatigues and inconveniences which the first settling of a new and uncultivated country could produce. These adventurers knew nothing of Lycurgus, or Greece; but as the same causes, under the same circumstances, produce the same effects, the Kentuckians of that day all became Spartans, and, war being their trade, muscle, manhood, and endurance were necessary in their numerous encounters with the wild beasts and savages. Shooting, swimming, running, hunting, climbing, wrestling,

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and fighting were their constant exercises, and contributed to make them soldierly, bold, and manly.

The subject of this sketch was five years old at the time Kentucky was first formed into a State, and was only eight years old when Indian incursions and hostilities ceased to afflict and disturb the tranquility of the State. His age, of course, forbade that he should have had much to do with the Indians, but he was often engaged, before he was ten years old, in the chase or hunt of panthers, bears, wolves, deer, and turkeys. On one occasion, when quite a boy, he drove a panther from a deer not quite dead, cutting the throat of the deer, and chasing the panther away. Running home to his father's cabin and procuring assistance, he saved the venison, which was exceedingly fat and fine. Upon another occasion, having killed a fawn and hung up as high as able, when he returned to take it home, he found that a panther had eaten the most of it and hid the remainder under the leaves; and now, determining to watch the thief, he, at the approach of night, hid himself behind a log. While awaiting the return of the panther, he saw a coon descending a tree, and when within six or eight feet of the ground, a panther leaped up the tree and caught it, the coon squalling terribly as the panther leaped off with it. Whether the panther or the Doctor got to this spot first, he' could not tell, as the coon tree was some fifty paces from him, down in a dark ravine. The claw marks, said he, are yet upon the tree, as panther and bear scratches are seen upon many of the forest trees of Kentucky up to this day.

The extraordinary activity of the Doctor at his present extreme age, both of body and mind, is, doubtless, mainly attributable to his early habits of life; for even now, in the eighty-fifth year of his age, he can walk twenty miles a day as a pleasure exercise, and, without glasses, can beat, I doubt not, any man in the State at off-hand rifle shooting, which requires both muscle and vision. To show the influence of early habits in giving, even to boys, boldness and manly intrepidity, even to Roman endurance, I mention a single case of many related to me by the Doctor. His father was one of a party who pursued some Indians who had murdered several