McConnell Springs
Famous Lexington Residents
Henry Clay (1797-1852): Known as the “Great
Compromiser,” this famous lawyer, U.S.
representative and Senator ran for president and
lost on three separate occasions. His most famous
quote is, “I’d rather be right than president.”
Ashland, which is Henry Clay’s mansion and estate,
is preserved as a museum on East Main Street.
John C. Breckinridge (1821-1875): Becoming Vice
President of the United States at the age of 36,
Breckinridge later lost to Abraham Lincoln in the
1860 presidential election. During the Civil War,
Breckinridge became a general and Secretary of War
for the Confederacy. After the Civil War,
Breckinridge returned to his law practice in
Lexington. A statue of Breckinridge stands on the
lawn of Lexington’s old courthouse on Main Street.
(The former courthouse is now the Lexington History
Museum.)
John Hunt Morgan (1825-1864): Perhaps the most
talented cavalry commander of the Civil War, Gen.
John Hunt Morgan was known as the “Thunderbolt of
the Confederacy.” His family home, the Hunt-Morgan
House, is now a museum in Lexington’s historic Gratz
Park neighborhood. His statue also graces the lawn
of the Lexington History Museum on Main Street.
Thomas Hunt Morgan (1866-1945): Considered the
father of modern genetics, Morgan was a Nobel
Prize-winning scientist who also pioneered the field
of embryology. Having taught at Johns Hopkins
University, Bryn Mawr and Columbia University,
Morgan also founded the Division of Biology at the
California Institute of Technology. At least seven
of his students were also awarded the Nobel Prize.
Mary Todd Lincoln (1818-1882): From a blueblood
Kentucky family, Mary Todd married a young attorney,
Abraham Lincoln, in 1842. Facing both personal and
national tragedy at her husband’s side, Mary Todd’s
influence on U.S. history is only now beginning to
be appreciated. The Mary Todd Lincoln House, on West
Main Street, is the only museum in the United States
dedicated to a First Lady.
Jefferson Davis (1808-1889): Born in Western
Kentucky, Davis was briefly a resident of Lexington
while attending Transylvania College, now known as
Transylvania University. Davis later went on to
become a U.S. Senator, Secretary of War and the
President of the Confederate States of America. The
house Davis lived in while a student still stands on
East High Street and contains a restaurant.
Belle Breezing (1860-1940): The famed madam
after whom the Belle Watling character was patterned
in Margaret Mitchell’s book, “Gone With the Wind.”
One of Brezing’s former houses of ill fame now
houses the women’s locker rooms next to the athletic
field used by Transylvania University.
Isaac Burns “Ike” Murphy (1861-1896): The
winningest jockey of all time. In the late 19th
Century, Murphy was to horse racing what Tiger Woods
is to golf. Murphy’s 44 percent winning rate has
never been equaled and is considered unapproachable
by horse racing experts. His grave is located at the
Kentucky Horse Park, near the grave of Man O’ War,
one of the greatest Thoroughbred horses of all time.
Adolph Rupp (1901-1977): Retired as the
winningest basketball coach of all time. Rupp
coached four NCAA championship teams at the
University of Kentucky in 1948, 1949, 1951 and 1958
and one NIT championship team in 1946. Kentucky
basketball teams coached by Rupp appeared in 20 NCAA
tournaments and captured 27 Southeastern Conference
titles.
Dr. Thomas D. Clark (1903-2005): One of
America’s greatest 20th Century historians, Clark
was an ardent preservationist and archivist who is
largely responsible for assembling the core
collection of documents at the Kentucky Department
of Libraries and Archives. Named as Kentucky’s first
Historian Laureate, Clark was also known as the
“Dean of Historians.”
Those Beautiful Horses
Educational Excellence
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