From: KyArchives [Archives@genrecords.org]
Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2005 2:05 PM
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Subject: Alexander.Robert.Aitcheson.1819.Franklin-Woodford.BIOS


Robert Aitcheson Alexander October 25 1819 - December 1 1867
Franklin-Woodford County KyArchives Biography

Author: The Biographical Encyclopaedia of Kentucky, J. M. Armstrong & Co.

Robert Aitcheson Alexander, son of Hon. Robert Alexander, and grandson of 
William Alexander and his wife, Miss Aitcheson, of Airdrie House, Lanarkshire, 
Scotland, was born October 25, 1819 in Frankfort Kentucky. His father was born 
and educated in Scotland, and was one of the most intelligent, wealthy, and 
influential men of the famous Blue Grass region of Kentucky. (See sketch of 
Robert Alexander.) His mother was a daughter of Daniel Weisiger, one of the 
early valuable citizens of Frankfort, Kentucky. Robert Aitcheson Alexander was 
educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated about 1844, having 
gone to England for that purpose in 1837. He returned to Kentucky in 1851, with 
a view to making it his home, and with the determination to improve the stock 
of this country. The estate of Misses Aitcheson, of Airdrie House, had passed, 
by entail, to his uncle, Sir William Alexander, and the entire estates in
Scotland fell to him, by the law of entail in that country, on the death of
his uncle in 1842. In order to hold the Airdrie estates, he retained his
British citizenship, and an act was subsequently passed by the Legislature
of Kentucky enabling him, as a foreigner, to hold real estate in this
commonwealth. The income from that estate amounted to one hundred thousand
dollars annually, and gave him great advantage over the other stock-breeders
and importers of the country. He imported largely short-horns and sheep in
1853, and for several succeeding years. In 1856, he purchased Lexington, the
celebrated horse, from his owner. Ten Broeck, for fifteen thousand dollars;
in the following year he bought and imported Scythian, another horse, which
had become famous in England; and at various times imported many fine cattle
and other stock. During his life the trotting and race stock of Woodburn,
his home in Woodford County, was, doubtless, the most extensive and best in
the United States. Equal attention was also given by him to the breeding of
fine cattle. The race-horses of Woodburn are, Asteroid, King Alphonso,
Australian, and Glen Athol; Belmont, Membrino, and Harold are celebrated
trotters; there are others, young horses, whose names are known among
turf-men; and all the racers, cattle, sheep, and hogs are thoroughbreds.
During his life the stock of Southdowns on the farm sometimes reached eleven
hundred head. On this great estate an annual public sale occurs, in which
all young thoroughbreds, racers, etc., are sold, the sales often reaching
sixty or seventy thousand dollars; the private sales annually reaching
nearly the same amount. But Robert A. Alexander's work was not confined to
the improvement of the breeds of horses and cattle in this country. He
brought over, from Scotland, Charles Hendry, his Scotch mining
superintendent, and through his means discovered, in the Green River section
of Kentucky, the "black band iron stone," or ore, so well known in Scotland.
In Muhlenburg County, on the Green River, he purchased about fifteen
thousand acres of the rich mining lands, and spent a quarter of a million
dollars in building furnaces, etc., when the breaking out of the civil war
suspended all operations. This property, by his will, is now owned by his
sisters and nephews, and is leased to a company of which Gen. Buell is
president. Although many Kentuckians are now the rivals of the Alexanders,
doubtless no man ever did so much in improving the horse and cattle stock of
the United States as he. Mr. Alexander was a man of great energy and
activity; about five feet eight inches in height, and slightly built,
weighing not over 140 pounds. He was never married. He died December 1,
1867, at Woodburn, Woodford County, Kentucky.


Submitted by: Sandi Gorin
http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00002.html#0000404



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