Muhlenberg County Kentucky

Old Muhlenberg map

Local History

The Weirs of Greenville

The following was from an old newspaper clipping.

No name is better known in Muhlenberg than that of Weir. The first Weir came to the couty in 1798, and since that date the name has been identified with Greenville.

James Weir Sr., “Old Man Jim Weir,” was the original Weir.

James Weir Sr. was the son of a Revolutionary soldier. He was a surveyor by profession and at the age of 21, came to Muhlenberg County on horseback from his home in Fishing Creek, South Carolina.

This was the first of his many long horseback rides over the country, and he often told of an experience he had on that trip. While passing through Knoxville, Tennessee, so runs his story, he chanced to see a husband and wife in bitter dispute. When the man began to beat the woman, Weir got off his horse and made an attempt to defend her. The husband and wife then turned their fists on him and called him “a ruffled-shirt beau,” for he wore a ruffled shirt and was dressed in keeping with his station in life. He not only never interfered with any more domestic quarrels, but always ended this little story by strongly advising others never to meddle with an altercation between husband and wife.

James Weir Sr. arrived in Muhlenberg County several months before the county had been formed in 1798. He took an active part in the first county court meetings and also helped Alney McLean lay out the town of Greenville and did as much (if not more) as any other of its early citizens toward the moral and commercial development of Muhlenberg. He was instrumental in getting a number of people to locate in the county, among whom were his sister, Jane Weir, who married Joseph Poag, and his brother, Samuel Weir, one of whose daughters, Sally, married James Hancock.

James Weir Sr. was the first merchant in Greenville. His business increased very rapidly. In the course of time he ran mercantile houses in Henderson, Hopkinsville, Morganfield, Madisonville, and Russellville. He also had a store in Shawneetown, Illinois, but Greenville, from the time of its beginning, was always his home and headquarters.

The old James Weir bought practically all his merchandise in Philadelphia, to which place he made more than a dozen trips on horseback, accompanied by no one except his faithful body servant, Titus. Most of his goods were shipped to New Orleans by boat and thence up the Mississippi and Ohio on their way to his various stores. The boxes intended for Muhlenberg County were sent up Green River, unloaded at Lewisburg, and then hauled on wagons to Greenville. These wagons were always at the river landing when the freight arrived, but the teamsters were often obliged to wait many days for the expected boats.

These boats, on their return trip down the river, not only loaded on raw hides and wild pork, but also Muhlenberg cotten, which Weir sold in New Orleans. During the first quarter of the 18th century, the people of this county experimented extensively on cotton growing and raised more than was required for home consumption. A few families still cultivate all they need for their own household purposes.

Some of James Weir's supplies came from Pittsburgh, down the Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Weir, on one occasion, traveled this route to Greenville. They had furnished their own state rooms with the best furniture that could be bought in Philadelphia, and upon their arrival in Lewisburg, had it sent to their home in Greenville.

James Weir Sr. was born in North Carolina in 1777, and died in Greenville on August 9, 1846, aged 69. His first wife, Anna C. Rumsey, mother of his children, was born in 1792(?) and died in 1818. She was a daughter of Dr. Edward Rumsey (of Christian County) who was a brother to James Rumsey, the inventor. Dr. Edward Rumsey was the father of eight children, four of whom were identified with Muhlenberg history: the Honorable Edward Rumsey, who married Jane M. Wing; Anna C. Rumsey, who married James Weir Sr.; Harriet Rumsey, who married Sam Miller and whose only child, Harriet R. Miller, married E.R. Weir Sr., and Emily Rumsey, who married Richard Elliott of Hartford, Kentucky.

James Weir Sr. was the father of five children:

  1. Edward R. Weir Sr. who, as just stated, married Harriet R. Miller.
  2. James Weir Jr., of Owensboro, who married Susan C. Green. At the time of her death he was the oldest bank president in the state. He was the author of “Long Powers” and other historical romances.
  3. Sallie Ann Weir, who married Edward Elliott, of Jacksonville, Illinois.
  4. Susan M. Weir, who married William L. Green, the first promoter of higher education in Greenville.
  5. Emily Weir, who married Samuel M. Wing.

Of the old James Weir's five children, only one, Edward R. Weir Sr. lived in Greenville all his life and is now buried there. Edward R. Weir Sr. was born in Greenville on November 29, 1816, and died February 5, 1891. He was an influential merchant, lawyer, and politician, an author, a slave holder, an abolitionist, and a strong Union man. He was wealthy and charitable, always active in church work and in the elevation of his fellow man. Nearly every act of his life was directed toward the moral and commercial good of Muhlenberg County.

The large brick residence erected by E.R. Weir Sr. about the year 1850 on South Main Street at the foot of Hopkinsville Street, was, in its day, one of the best built homes in the county. It not only afforded him and his family every possible comfort, but stood as an example of what enterprise can do. He dug what is probably the most symmetrical stone-lined well ever made in Kentucky. The brick cabins built for his slaves and the greenhouses and icehouse have been town down, but the solid old residence and hexagon-shaped office near it still show that well.

His wife, Harriet R. Weir, was born March 16, 1822, and is now [1913] living with her son Miller Weir in Jacksonville, Illinois. Few Muhlenberg women, if any, were better known in their day than Mrs. Weir. She took an active interest in her husband's affairs and always helped him in his business and his various efforts to do good. During the last 50 years of her life she was invariable referred to as Lady Weir, for all who knew her realized that she was a noble woman in every sense of the word. Five of the children born to Mr. and Mrs. Edward R. Weir Sr. reached maturity:

  1. Colonel E.R. Weir was born August 13, 1839, and died March 30, 1906. Eliza T. Johnson was his first wife and the mother of his children, who were Frank Weir, who was killed September 19, 1890, in Eastern Kentucky, while in the revenue service; Jerome Weir, of the U.S. Army; Harry Weir, who married Ruth Grundy; Louise B. Weir, who married W.D. Reeves, and Anna C. Weir, who married Max Layne. Colonel Weir's second wife was Alice Calbertson, of New York State, to whom he was married in 1898. After the close of the Civil War, Colonel Weir became a merchant in Greenville and later a leading lawyer.
  2. Anna C. Weir, who married David W. Eaves, a son of Saunders Eaves.
  3. Miller Weir, who, early in life, settled in Jacksonville, Illinois, where he married Fannie Bancroft.
  4. Virginia Weir, who died at the age of 16.
  5. Max Weir, who was a bachelor, a popular merchant in Greenville, and a devout Christian, born December 23, 1863, and died May 18, 1904.

Citation: Rothert, Otto A. “The Weirs of Greenville.” The Kentucky Explorer. Oct 2014. 76-77. Print. Rpt. of “The Weirs.” A History of Muhlenberg County. Louisville: John P. Morton & Co., 1913.

Updated November 25, 2015