A Glimmer from the Past; Art of the Silversmith in Hardin & LaRue Counties of Central Kentucky

by Gary Dean Gardner, Independent Scholar of Southern History & Material Culture 

Beginning in the 1920s and continuing through the Depression and 2nd World War, Americans were becoming fascinated with their past, especially as increased pressures of immigration began to reshape our national identity.  Restoration came to the forefront with the efforts at Colonial Williamsburg in 1926, fostering a “Colonial Revival” movement that inspired research and sparked preservation enthusiasm across the country.  While Kentuckians had long treasured a rich oral history, accompanied by several good comprehensive history publications beginning in 1784 (John Filson) and followed in 1793 (Imlay) and 1812 (Humphrey Marshall), we had failed until this period of awakening to give just credit to the artists and artisans whose substantial impact upon the Commonwealth’s cultural development was nearly lost to time. 

June 1947 Issue of The Magazine Antiques featuring the decorative arts & antiques of Kentucky

In 1931, the landmark publication by Paul Burroughs, Southern Antiques, announced to the nation the significance of regional Southern furniture, igniting a fire of interest in long forgotten relics extending to silver, pottery, textiles and fine arts from below the Mason-Dixon Line.  Following in the next decade, the importance of Kentucky decorative arts in particular was first made known to the public at large during the 1940s through the New York publication The Magazine Antiques.  In July 1945 a preliminary list of Kentucky silversmiths was printed, followed in 1947 by a Kentucky issue which showcased portraiture, architecture, cabinetmaking, and silver making in early Kentucky.  This attention prompted the first generation of collecting and scholarship of coin silver in the Bluegrass, focusing primarily upon those well know, prolific smiths who worked in Louisville, Lexington, and a few other larger communities.  Interest became great enough that Noble and Lucy Hiatt published the first actual book on the subject, The Silversmiths of Kentucky, in 1954.  Their research, though incomplete and at times based on misinformation and faulty legend, gave legitimacy to a field of study that previously would have been dismissed by the academic world who for generations scoffed at the importance of any decorative arts crafted south of Baltimore.

April 1974's revisit of Kentucky art & antiques in The Magazine Antiques

Collecting of Kentucky silver would for the most part remain rather stagnant during the late 1950s and early 1960s, relegated to the activity of a few individuals and an even fewer dealers who sought out the gleaming juleps and ladles of generations past until the important coinciding “Southern Silveri” and “Southern Furniture & Silverii” exhibitions of 1968 in Texas and Louisiana that gave special attention to the work of Kentucky’s silversmith.  The Magazine Antiques once again brought attention to the state and this particular art with the publication of a new issue in 1974 dedicated solely to the antiques of Kentucky.  This issue featured two illustrated articles on Kentucky silversmiths and their products, and firmly established the romantic association of coin silver with the pre-war (antebellum) Bluegrass aristocracy.  Collecting and research became newly refreshed as a new decade was ushered in, as witnessed in 1980 with the Transylvania University milestone exhibition  “Silver In Kentucky Lifeiii” that coincided with the publication of Mark Boultinghouse’s most complete biographical reference to date,  Silversmiths, Jewelers, Clock and Watch Makers of Kentucky 1780-1900.  This 368 page work provided enthusiasts with comprehensive backgrounds on the craftsmen, along with photographs of marks and discussions of evolving styles and tastes of silversmiths and their patrons during the 19th century.  Here for the first time we find specific references to the work of small town smiths across the Commonwealth, many of which were previously unknown even to local historians.

Hodgenville Town Square with its antebellum Court House, much as it would have appeared before the Civil War

As with any such work, research is never truly completed.  Of the hundreds of craftsmen included, the most obscure ones simply were not easily found prior to printing.  This was the case with the silversmiths of Hardin County and her neighboring LaRue County.  Only those working as jewelers late in the 19th century were readily located and verified through business directories and advertisements of the day.  Those active in Hardin County and nearby communities prior to 1860 proved to be much more elusive, their stories being left to the work of succeeding scholars.  Actually, Boultinghouse only located one of the true artisans working silver by hand in Elizabethtown before the War.  That was D. H. Gardner, who was noted even earlier by local historian Samuel Haycraft where, in his 1869 history, it is recorded, pertaining to the great fire of August that year, the loss of “D. H. Gardner, silversmith, $500.”  This blurb might lead one to believe that Gardner was simply a jeweler, the common trend with the advent of industrialized methods of production by that period which made actual handwork by the silversmith inefficient and outdated.  Upon further research we find that “D. H.” stood for David Holmes Gardner, born July 29th, 1835 to Senator James Jefferson and Elizabeth (Spur) Gardneriv.  By the time of the destructive Elizabethtown fire, Gardner had been at work providing silver to the populace for over 20 years.  He had set up his business back in May of 1844 on the “south side of the public square formerly occupied by A. Fairleigh” per the “Kentucky Register” issue for May 14th of that year.  Not only does this advertisement give us a span for Gardner’s career, it also denotes the end of an earlier silversmith’s work in the community.

Downtown Elizabethtown, Hardin County's Seat, little changed from before 1861

Again, we turn to the advertisements of the early Elizabethtown newspapers for documentation of the other early Hardin County craftsmen such as the above mentioned “A” or, as we now know, Andrew Fairleigh, representative of an early and prominent family associated with Goodin’s Fort in Nelson County across the river from Lyon’s Station which fed the eventual settlement in and around Tonnieville, a railroad community in northern LaRue County.  Born in Elizabethtown in 1808 to Andrew Fairleigh Sr. and Letitia Swan, and a descendant as well of the famous Dubois family of silversmiths in New Yorkv, young Fairleigh had established a shop prior to 1830, as evidenced by his August 26th, 1830 ad in the “Western Sentinel” where he indicated he had “re-established himself in his business above Morris’ hatter shop.”  It is not clear where Fairleigh had been working prior to this date.  Per his date of birth, one might assume he completed his apprenticeship locally and then tried unsuccessfully to ply his trade away from Hardin County.  If he did learn his craft at home or nearby, there were few to whom he could have been apprenticed.  Only one man, J. R. Gardner (who still remains a bit of an enigma), might have been capable of becoming his master.  Otherwise he might have served his apprenticeship in Bardstown or Louisville.  Regardless, Andrew Fairleigh advertised regularly in Elizabethtown until April of 1837 when he took a partnervi.  That year he teamed up with another young local, James Phillips, of that revered old family that settled the southern portion of Hardin County which would become LaRue. 

James Phillips had left Hardin County in 1827 for Cincinnati where he was apprenticed to another local silversmith, Samuel Musgrovevii.  The partnership of Fairleigh & Phillips may have been short lived, as few surviving examples of their “silverwork manufactured by themselvesviii”, marked “A FAIRLEIGH & CO,” have come to light.  Fairleigh would go on to marry Jane Talbott of Elizabethtown the 2nd of March 1829, begin a family, and work as a silversmith until about 1843.  Fairleigh seems to have left his Kentucky business for good between then & 1845 to ultimately relocate in Savannah, Missouri.  The Fairleigh family would remain there only one year, relocating to St. Joseph, Missouri in 1846.

Some of this is confirmed by a brief biography of William & Jane's son, W. G., as provided by the St. Joseph Museums group taken from a History of Buchanan County, Missouri printed in 1881.  They preserved for us that:

William G. Fairleigh was born in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, on February 9, 1830, the son of Andrew Fairleigh and Jane Tolbert. The father was a silversmith, and examples of his work are still in the hands of his descendants. In 1843, when William was thirteen years of age, the family moved to Weston, Missouri, then a busy Missouri River port to which settlers of the new Platte Purchase were coming. William's first job was selling apples to the passengers on the steamboats. After a brief stay in Weston the family moved to Savannah, where William secured a job as hotel clerk, and later as clerk in the store of Felix Robidoux, the son of Joseph Robidoux, founder of St. Joseph.

In the spring of 1846 the Fairleigh family came to St. Joseph, a small town of eight hundred, which had been laid out by Joseph Robidoux only three years before....Gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill in California in January 1848, and news of the discovery was first reported in the St. Joseph Gazette in October. Early in the spring of 1849 the gold rush was on. The files of the Gazette reflect the mounting excitement and traffic as the flood of emigrants began. They came by steamboat and bought their wagons and supplies here. The business of Tootles & Fairleigh boomed. Mr. Fairleigh's father was attracted by the gold excitement, so he took his family to Sacramento, California, where he died.

As mentioned in the anecdotes of his son, William Fairleigh would follow the infamous “49’ers” to California, but in his case he was shrewd enough not to pan for gold, but rather to set up a silver and jewelry store, only to die three months after opening it.  In the end he had forsaken his path as silversmith and succumbed to the lure of the gold mines.  Andrew Fairleigh’s son William George, while never trained as a silversmith, did work for a time as a jeweler in Missouri.  Andrew’s wife and two daughters would later operate a hotel in Sacramento, Californiaix.

A set of spoons made in Elizabethtown by A. Fairleigh & Co. prior to 1843

It is unknown if Phillips followed Fairleigh to Missouri, though the use of their mark on silver with handle forms reminiscent of styles from the late 1830s to the very early 1840s could indicate as such.  It is more plausible, however, that these rare surviving examples of their output were all crafted in Hardin County before his departure and the ultimate dissolution of Fairleigh and Phillip’s partnership.

Sauce Ladle by Fairleigh made for the McDougal family of Hodgenville

Fairleigh is known to have taken in only one apprentice during his tenure in Elizabethtown who went on to engage in the silversmithing and jeweler’s trade, that being James McClure.  This was logical, since McClure’s auntx was married to Andrew Fairleigh’s older brotherxi.  Born in Hardin (now LaRue) County August 15th in 1825 in the area around Mather’s Mill near Hodgenville, McClure came from Scotch-Irish stock with ties to Kentucky’s earliest days.   His father, Robert H. McLurexii, diedxiii when the boy was but 5 years of age.  His mother Lydia, daughter of LaRue County matriarch Mary Books LaRue Enlow, had been considered the most beautiful woman in Hardin County during her youth, and naturally remarried soon after Robert’s untimely deathxiv.  

April 23, 1861, The Louisville Daily Courier 

James McClure likely completed his training under Fairleigh around 1843.  The actual length of his career in Elizabethtown &/or Hodgenville can only be guessed at, though it might have been just a few short years as he would relocate to Bowling Greenxv in Warren County to become one of that town’s earliest & most prominent silversmiths and jewelersxvi.  

McLure would be active by himself and in several partnerships on Bowling Green’s squarexvii until his deathxviii. 

McLure's grave in Fairview Cemetery, Bowling Green, KY

Samuel Musgove, already mentioned, is generally associated locally with his native LaRue County and elsewhere with Nashville, but to keep in context with the period he was actually born (ca. 1797) & raised in Hardin County in that portion which would be cut off in 1843 to form the new county of LaRue.  His Loudon County, Virginia-born father, Cuthbert Musgrove, was a pioneer educator in the county, having migrated from Virginia to Hardin County at least by the 1790s, then moving to teach in Lexington by 1810, Warren County through the 1820s and 1830s, back to present day LaRue County by 1840 and into the 1850s, Edmonson County in 1860, and at some point Springfield, Kentucky in Washington County.  At age 78 the elderly educator was yet operating a school in Hodgenville.  Both Cuthbert and his wife Elizabeth Moore Musgrove would die near Brownsville in Edmonson County shortly after the 1860 Federal Census.

A spoon by Musgrove from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum, Gallery 774

 The young Sam completed his apprenticeship to an unknown master and went into partnership by 1820 in Cincinnati, inferring that perhaps he learned his trade in that city.  Musgrove remained active as a silversmith in Cincinnati until about 1840-41xix, at which time it has been alledged that he worked for a brief span in Maysville, KY where some of his distant paternal relations had settled. It should be noted, however, that the given name Samuel is common in the Musgrove family, even in Tennessee, which can cause confusion in determining the silversmith’s exact whereabouts prior to the late 1840s. In all liklihood Musgrove did wed a Mason County girl, Elizabeth R. Reed, and per the 1830 Mason County, Kentucky Census resided there for a scant few years, but soon after returned across the river to reside and keep shop in Cincinnati per tax assessment records from 1834 to 1838.

LaRue County Kentucky records indicate, though, that he had relocated his family back to the community of his birth by at least 1847xx.  This is substantiated by the Federal Census of 1850 which lists Samuel Musgrove as a gold and silversmith residing in LaRue County (Hodgenville).  His tenure in his old home was brief.  Records indicate he had moved again, this time to Nashvillexxi, Tennessee, by 1851xxii where he remained with his shop on Deadrick Streetxxiii until the beginning of the War Between the Statesxxiv.  From that point, city directories note his several moves to varied locations in the cityxxv.  (xxvi xxvii) The year 1867 marked his final entry in the Nashville City Directory.  His demise and final return to his native LaRue County in the autumn of 1867 was marked by the local paper: 

MUSGROVE Died in Nashville on 27th Oct [1867], Samuel Musgrove in the 70th year of his age. His remains were forwarded to Sonora, Ky., for interment. He was long and well known in this community, having been established in business here since 1852 and was held in high esteem by all who knew him as a worthy and industrious man whose word was his bond. He was truly "an honest man - the noblest work of God." He leaves an interesting family of four daughters and one son to lament his demise. May he who promises to be Father to orphans wmfort them in this great bereavement. -Nashville Gazette. 29 Ocl 1867

To have been an obscure small town smith, Musgrove was fairly prolific in his output during his 40+ year career as attested to by the surviving examples of silver bearing his mark of “S MUSGROVE.”  Samuel’s sister Nancy married George Thurman whose descendants remain in Hardin and LaRue Counties even now.  That branch would have collateral descent with the Phillips family that included James who had been sent to Samuel Musgrove to learn the “art and mystery” of the silversmithxxviii.

A "cartouche" mark used by Musgrove, who as well utilized an incised or intaglio mark.

Our final Elizabethtown silversmith, John R. Gardner, was likely the earliest to have worked in that community, though it seems very likely he could have as well kept a shop for a brief period early in his career to the south in Hodgenville.  In addition, the least is known about Gardner than any of his colleagues.  Even his lineage is undetermined, though he undoubtedly was associated with that family out of Chatham and Danville, Virginia near the North Carolina border that took up land grants for their Revolutionary War service in that part of Hardin County, Kentucky which later became Hart County just south of both LaRue and Hardin Counties.  His competitive advertisements in the “Kentucky Register” offering “engraving done on my work free of charge” started appearing in 1837xxix but either Gardner, or his father by the same name, were active locally much earlier than this as proven when their surviving output is examined stylistically.  Only a handful of teaspoons exist to mark Gardner’s career, all of a form indicating fabrication in the 1830s and earlier, though Gardner advertised “ladles, table, dessert, tea & salt spoonsxxx”.  One sole extant pair of teaspoons, bearing a variant initial mark of “JRG” was fashioned for the Owsley family of Hodgenville and sports a modified “coffin end” handle which had been in fashion ca. 1800-1810.  Gardner likely, though, was copying a style in vogue the generation before but still popular with his local customers in Hardin County.  The original owner, Epsworth Owsley, was active in land & slave transactions ca. 1819-1827xxxi, so it is logical to assume the spoons that Gardner crafted for his family date to ca. 1820, though likely not much later and maybe a few years prior.  All other existing spoons by Gardner reflect in design a date late in the 1820s or early 1830s, and bear his full script mark of “J R GARDNER.”  This would support an assumption that Gardner had died by early in 1840, the year his wife Margaret remarriedxxxii.  Of all the smiths, excepting Phillips & Gunning to whom no surviving example is attributed solely, J. R. Gardner’s work must be considered the rarest.

Like Phillips, no silver has yet been identified as having been made by Hugh Gunning of Elizabethtown, though as least one tall case clock exists in a private collection to document his work as a clockmaker in that communityxxxiii.  Gunning’s life & career remain a bit of a mystery.  He was born one of 6 children in Stranorlar, County Donegal, Ireland to John B. and Elizabeth Gunning.  The date of his migration to America remains to be found, but it would appear most of his immediate family remained in Irelandxxxiv.  There is indication that he followed the path of an earlier generation of his father’s family who had settled in Pennsylvaniaxxxv.  He perhaps detoured through New Jersey, as reference is found in the Pennsylvania Gazette of 28th March 1792 of a Hugh Gunning in a list of insolvent debtors in Salem County.  Gunning is definitely well established in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, however, by 1825.  In that year he ran for, and lost, an election for City Trusteexxxvi.  Little else is known of him until his deathxxxvii on November 14th, 1835 and the subsequent filing of his willxxxviii.  His estate inventory provides a fascinating glimpse into the shop of an antebellum central Kentucky craftsman.  The auction of Gunning’s personal property in January of 1836 included finished timepieces as well as parts and tools and was attended by other regional craftsmen including Andrew Fairleigh of Elizabethtown and John Simpsonxxxix, the esteemed Nelson County silversmith and surveying compass maker from Bardstownxl.  If one might judge from a man’s belongings, then Gunning must have been a fine dresser, or a “dandy” of the day per the prices paid for his clothing!  The amount of building materials sold would as well indicate that perhaps Gunning was preparing to erect a more substantial brick shop &/or private residence when his sudden death brought a halt to his construction plans.

Lot #3 on the Court Square of Elizabethtown, once owned by Hugh Gunning, later sold in 1827 to partners John Morris, a hatter, and Bardstown silversmith & clock maker Jonathan Simpson, upon which near a century later in 1922 the Joplin Hotel was constructed

One last craftsman can be included in this list due to his activity in the county on the eve of the War, after which virtually no silver would be crafted by hand again in Kentucky.  E. S. Kimber called himself a silversmith in his 1860 listing for the Kentucky State Gazetteer & Business Directory, but his advertisements locally in the Elizabethtown papers for 1859xli describing himself as a clock and watchmaker were likely more accurate.  In essence, Kimber was a jeweler who retailed coin silver made in Philadelphia or New York, along with clocks from Connecticut and jewelry purchased from the wholesalers in Cincinnati or Louisville.  Silver may someday come to light with his mark, but by the middle 19th century most silversmiths had evolved into retailing jewelers, buying cheaper, mass produced silver from large scale manufactures.  These large silver houses accepted orders directly from the small town jewelers, stamping spoons & other items with their name & sometimes their town as well, along with a name or logo for the manufactures.  (Numerous examples of coin silver are documented with names of Kentucky silversmiths like William Kendrick or J. B. Akin, along with the initial PLK for Peter L. Krider of Philadelphia.)  It was simply a more cost effective and efficient way to sell silver.  These local tradesmen could not compete with the northern manufacturers who fabricated rolled sheets of silver and stamped out decorative bands and parts to make silver in an assembly line-like fashion.  Even more damaging to silversmiths in towns like Elizabethtown were the larger silver shops in Louisville, who advertised in the local papers each week in direct competition with the small town smith or jeweler.  With the introduction of rail lines, commerce outside of Elizabethtown was a possibility not considered previously by consumers, and the small communities and counties to the south became a whole new target market for the Louisville wholesalers.  Thus, men like Kimber represented the last of their trade in central Kentucky.  With the approach of war and a devastated economy, there would never again be a demand for hand crafted coin silver.

These few men may not be the only ones to have worked in Hardin County as craftsmen in silver, but they are the sole representatives of their craft found so far that can be attributed with complete certainty to Elizabethtown and the surrounding area.  The research provided here is preliminary at best, and it is hoped by the author that future historians will delve further into this project to better develop the full story of their work and legacy to the cultural history of Hardin County and Kentucky.


 Following the War, the following jewelers are found associated with Hardin & surrounding counties (dates reference periods of advertisement in the communities onlyxlii):
J. H. Adams- Hudsonville, Breckinridge County, active 1859
Doctor H. Allen- Brandenburg, active 1879
John A. Allen- Grayson County, active 1876
George H. Casperke- Brandenburg, active 1887-1894
Virgil H. Churchill- Elizabethtown, active 1879-1892
Mrs. Virgil Churchill- Elizabethtown, active 1893-1894 (“Manufacturing Jewelers”)
W. H. Cooper- Hodgenville, active 1887-1894
Frederick N. D’Huy- Hardinsburg, active 1887-1892
Thomas F. Duncan- Elizabethtown, active 1876-1880
D. H. Gardner- Elizabethtown active until 1880 (jeweler)
A. A. Grief- Big Spring, active 1887-1892
D. P. Kasey- Vine Grove, active 1879-1880
P. R. Kasey- Big Springs
T. C. Lewis- Hardinsburg, active 1887-1894
L. C. Lock- Buffalo (LaRue County), active 1887-1892
J. A. Mahan- Brandenburg, active 1893
R. L. Marshall- Elizabethtown, active 1891
J. P. McClure- Leitchfield, active 1891
Carl Ruhl- Elizabethtown, active 1879-1888


                                                         
 i The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX 9/27-11/10 1968.
ii Anglo-America Art Museum, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 9/15-11/15 1968.
                                                                                                                                                                                           iii May 11-18, 1980.
iv Special thanks go to William Voss for his assistance and access to his expansive genealogical charts detailing the intricate and involved family relationships of so many American silversmiths.
v Voss files
vi The (Elizabethtown) Kentucky Register, 5/20/1837.
vii Jacob Deterly diary
viii Kentucky Register, 4/29/1837.
ix Biographical Record of Buchanan & Clinton Counties, Missouri, 1893.
x Elizabeth “Betsy” Enlow, sister to Lydia Enlow McLure, would marry William Fairleigh, brother to the silversmith.
xi Leckey, Howard L., The Tenmile Country & Its Pioneer Families, 1977.
xii Family records indicate the use of both McClure and McLure as correct spellings, as they were used interchangeably by the family.
xiii Born 1798, died in LaRue County 1830 age 32 years, 6 months, burial at historic Nolin Baptist Church graveyard.  Benningfield, Edward, LaRue County Kentucky Cemeteries, 1982, p. 98.
xiv She would marry George Read that next September 13th, 1831 and die in New Orleans May 14, 1856.  See Six generations of LaRues and Allied Families, pp. 97-99.
xv One might speculate that McLure opted for a larger patron base in Warren County when competition came to the very small community of Hodgenville with the opening of Samuel Musgrove’s shop toward the middle 1840s.
xvi Connelley, W. E. and Coulter, E. M., History of Kentucky, 1922, p. 532.
xvii Hawes, Ky. State Gazetteer & Business Directory of 1859-60.
xviii McClure’s death date is referenced both ca. 1875 per Judge Otis Mather in Six Generations of LaRues and Allied Families, and as May 26, 1881 in Bowling Green per Fairview Cemetery records and the stone for McLure that was erected there.  It must be assumed that the death year quoted by Mather was incorrect.
xix Shop at Post Office Alley between 3rd & 4th.  Deming, The Cincinnati Directory 1834.
xx Misc. Records of the LaRue County Clerk
xxi Listed as a silversmith residing at 118 N. Cherry St. in 1853/54.  Campbell, Rev. John P., The Southern Business Directory Vol. 1, 1854.
xxii He was listed briefly in 1855-56 on the Public Square, per Campbell’s Nashville Business Directory, Vol. 2.
xxiii King, E. Doug, compiler, Singleton’s Nashville City Directory, p. 250 reflected Musgrove as a watchmaker, residing at #32 S. Summer Street and shop at #17 Deadrick.
xxiv Williams, Nashville City Directory, 1860-61, cites Musgrove’s gold & silver workshop at #20 Deadrick.
xxv In 1867 he is found with a shop on #3 North Summer and residence on South High near Wilson’s Spring along with other members of his family.
xxvi Glasgow Times 8/25/1914.
xxvii Most of his remaining family members were then residing in Barren County, Kentucky until the War.  Afterward, Nashville City Directories would indicate some had moved to Davidson County, TN.
xxviii Many of these silversmiths like Musgrove, Phillips, & McLure have familial ties to the area around Sonora, Kentucky where present day Hardin and LaRue Counties meet and in fact share possession of this small community.
xxix April 8th, 1837
xxx Kentucky Register
xxxi Hardin County, Ky. Deed Books G, H, & K covering the years 1818-27
xxxii Marriage Records, Hardin County Clerk, 8/3/1837 John R. Gardner to Margaret Miller; 3/10/1840 Margaret Gardner (second marriage) to William Showers.
xxxiii This clock was in use for many years in a river town funeral home some miles to the west and down river from Hardin County.  It was offered for sale by its owners, thus the current whereabouts of the tall case clock are unknown.  
xxxiv As referenced below, notice of his death was published in the Irish papers.  No other siblings are found in records for Hardin County, KY, though it’s probable that nieces &/or nephews resided there.  Gunning’s only sister “Eliza” was living in County Donegal at the time of her marriage to James Moore 1/6/1838.  Hugh Gunning’s will references what might be a daughter born out of wedlock to a member of the locally prominent Enlow family.  This relationship would ironically have created a collateral family connection with James McClure.
xxxv An earlier Hugh Gunning in Pennsylvania may have been an uncle.
xxxvi 38 male citizens of Elizabethtown cast votes for 10 candidates.  Gunning received 7 votes.  Bits & Pieces, the Hardin County Historical Society Newsletter, Vol. XXIV #3, Fall 2005.  In addition, Gunning’s name was posted in the Western Herald edition of July 20, 1825 announcing an unclaimed letter to be picked up at the Elizabethtown Post Office.  
xxxvii Compilation of vital statistics of County Donegal, Ireland from published announcements and obituaries in the Strabane Morning Post, the Londonderry Standard, and the Londonderry Sentinel.
xxxviii Hardin County KY Will Book D-242 12/31/1834.  Gunning’s will lists his parents and siblings Elizabeth, John, Henry, Robert, and James Gunning.
xxxix MESDA recently acquired a fine compass by Simpson made for James Kerr McGoodwin, the father of another south central Kentucky silversmith/jeweler, Isaac D. McGoodwin who worked in Bowling Green as a contemporary of James McLure.
xl Hardin County, KY Estate Inventory Book “I” pp. 85-89.
xli Original issue in author’s collection.
xlii Boultinghouse, Silversmith, Jewelers, Clock & Watch Makers of Kentucky 1785-1900.