From: Bill LaBach [labach@adelphia.net] Sent: Tuesday, June 14, 2005 1:27 PM To: KY-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Russell.William.Henry.Fayette-Nicholas.BIOS The biography of William Henry Russell from the Dictionary of American Biography (New York, 1935) follows (note that he was actually born in Fayette County, KY but practiced law in Nicholas County, KY): RUSSELL, WILLIAM HENRY (Oct. 9, 1802-Oct, 13, 1873), politician, California pioneer, was born in Nicholas County, Ky., the son of Robert Spotswood and Deborah (Allen) Russell and grandson of Gen. William Russell. He practised law in his native county and in 1830 represented it in the legislature; about this time he married Zanette Freeland of Baltimore. He early came to the attention of Henry Clay, who befriended him, and it is said that for a time he was Clay's secretary. In 1831 he emigrated to Callaway County, Mo., and in the following year served in the Black Hawk War; in 1841 he was appointed United States marshal of the District of Missouri, which included the Indian Country. He had by this time acquired the courtesy title of "colonel." His term ended in 1845, and in May 1846, near Independence, Mo., he joined a wagon-train of California emigrants, among whom was Edwin Bryant, later the author of What I Saw in California (1848), in which Russell figures. He was elected captain of the company but near Fort Laramie was displaced. With Bryant and seven others he continued the journey on muleback by way of Fort Bridger to the site of the future Salt Lake City and then across the Great Salt Desert, the first to follow Fremont's track of the year before. Arriving at Sutter's Fort on Sept. 1, and proceeding to Yerba Buena and Monterey, Russell joined Fremont's California Battalion with the rank of major and was one of the peace commissioners who framed the treaty of Cahuenga, Jan. 13, 1847. Fremont [q.z:] a few days later appointed him secretary of state. On the downfall of the Fremont administration in March, Russell left for the east by way of Santa Fe, reaching the Missouri settlements in July and thence going to Washington; he was one of Fremont's principal witnesses in the court-martial, which began in November. In 1849 he returned to California and practised law at San Jose and elsewhere until at least 1854. Later he went east again and in 1861 was appointed consul at Trinidad, Cuba. By 1865 he was back in the United States, and two years later sought vainly to get the post of consul-general at Havana. He died in Washington and was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery. Russell appears as "Col. R___"in one passage in Parkman's The California and Oregon Trail (1849, ch. x) and in many passages in other Western books of the time. He was a large man, expansive in manner, boastful and bombastic in speech. His egotism sometimes made him the sport of his companions. In a story often told about him, he is said to have mistaken the chorus of "tu-whoo's" from a flock of owls for a challenge of "Who are you?" and to have thundered back, "Col. William H. Russell, of Kentucky--a bosom friend of Henry Clay!" Ever after he was known as "Owl" Russell. He was, however, a man of many substantial and endearing qualities, and was widely popular. He is sometimes confused with William Hepburn Russell [q.v.], the founder of the Pony Express. [Anna Russell des Cognets, William Russell and His Descendants ( 1884); W. H. Davis, Seventy-Five Years in California (1929); H. H. Bancroft, Hist. of California, vol. V (1886); L. H. Garrard, Wah-To-Yah and the Taos Trail (1850), chs. xxm-xxv; Appletons' Ann. Cyc., 1878; Daily Nat. Republican (Washington, D. C.), Oct. 14, 1873; information from Ludie J. Kinkead and Mrs. Jouett T. Cannon, Frankfort, Ky.] W.J.G. His obituary from the Daily National Republican newspaper of October 14, 1873, Washington, DC: The death of Colonel William H. Russell is announced as having occurred yesterday at his residence, 1211 I street, in this city, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, aged sixty-nine years. Colonel Russell was formerly private secretary to Henry Clay, with whose family he was connected by the marriage of one of his daughters to a son of Mr. Clay. Colonel Russell was a man of superior attainments and refined cultivation, who filled several official positions with honor to himself and usefulness to his country. He was at one time United States marshall of the State of Missouri, and later was appointed by the late President Lincoln as consul at Trinidad, Cuba. His funeral will take place to-morrow at 3 o'clock p.m. from his late residence, and remains will be interred at Oak Hill. Some account of his public life and services is given in the following letter of Hon. Robert J. Walker to President Andrew Johnson. Washington, D. C., May 9th, 1867. To his Excellency, The President of the United States: I am prompted to this act by my knowledge of the eminent fitness of Col. Russell for the position, and my conviction that his appointment would secure the faithful and intelligent discharge of the duties of a responsible position. Col. Russell is a native of Favette county, Ky. He was a member of the Legislature of that State in 1830; and was mainly instrumental in securing the election of Mr. Clay, an old political opponent, to the U. S. Senate in 1831; so acknowledged by Mr. Clay himself. In the fall of 1831, Col. Russell emigrated to Missouri; and in the summer of 1832 was Judge-Advocate of a regiment in the Black Hawk war. In 1838 and '40, he was a member of the Legislature from Ca!loway county of that State; serving in 1839 as a member of the Harrisburg Convention, and urging with consistent zeal Mr. Clay for the Presidency. In 1844, he was appointed, by President Harrison, Marshal of Missouri - comprising at that time Missouri proper, Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas, and Nebraska. In 1846, he went to California at the head of a large emigration. On his arrival there he was appointed, by Commodore Stockton, Secretary of State, while Fremont was acting Governor. In 1848, he was a member of the Philadelphia Convention that nominated General Taylor, but withdrew before the nomination was made, because he opposed that of Gen. Taylor and regarded the Whig party as having degenerated into a mere personal party. In 1849, Col. Russell returned to California, where he was made an honorary member with Gov. Waller of the Convention that framed the State Constitution. In 1851, he was appointed Collector of Customs at Monterey, which position he held until his successor was appointed by Mr. Pierce. He practiced law with the late Senator Baker and Edward Stanley of North Carolina, in San Francisco, Cal. In 1861, he was appointed by Mr. Lincoln, U. S. Consul at Trinidad de Cuba, which office he held until after the assassination, receiving the plaudits of all for the faithful manner in which he discharged his duties, especially for his successful effort to rescue the Joseph Maxwell from the claims of the Spanish government, she being a prize of the Confederate steamer "Sumpter". His record is spotless, and I most earnestly commend him to your favorable consideration. Yours very respectfully, R. J. WALKER. Note: Robert J. Walker was Secretary of the Treasury in the James K. Polk administration and was appointed Governor of the Kansas Territory by President Buchanan.