Inscription on his headstone found in the Edwards Cemetery,
Rock Springs, Barren County, Kentucky
James G Hardy
Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky. By his widow
M. K. Hardy. The subject of this memoir was born
May 3, 1795; expired July 16, 1856. "Beneath this
slab deposited the remains of the Statesman, Friend,
Father and Husband."
Source: Barren County, Kentucky Cemetery Records pg113
James G. Hardy was a son of Isham Hardy, of Rock Spring, Barren County, Kentucky. His father, Isham Hardy, was a teacher and surveyor. who settled in Barren County, between 1795 and 1800.
James G. Hardy settled at Rock Spring where he succeeded his father as a teacher & surveyor. The town of Hardyville in Hart County was named for him.
Chronology: Elected to represent Barren County in the State House of Representatives in 1827-1830, 1838-1839, 1844-1845, and 1847; 1855, February 22, nominated for Lieutenant-Governor at the Know-Nothing or American Convention in Louisville; 1855, August 6, elected Lieutenant-Governor over Beriah Magoffin (q.v.) by a vote of 68,104 to Magoffin's 64,430; 1857, December, died
James G. Hardy was married three times, first on January 25, 1814, to ELIZABETH EDWARDS. They were married in Barren County. She was the daughter of Alexander and Anne E. (Bohannon) Edwards.
His second marriage was to a widow Smith.
The following note accounts for his third wife,
"Mrs. M. K. Hardy (Minerva Guffy), widow of the late Lieutenant-Governor James G. Hardy died in Rumsey, Kentucky, Sept. 21, 1871. She was 61 years old, 3 months and 21 days, " See bibliographical note (d).
James G. Hardy had four children, one son and three daughters;
(1) His son, Elder Samuel Hardy, lived in Missouri in 1885.
(2) The second daughter married Rev. McNeil Bohannon
(3) The third daughter married Squire W. W. Smith, of Glasgow
Source: Governors of Kentucky 1792 - 1942 by G. Glen Clift, Copyright 1942, page 192 - 193
(Personal Note: The above states that Anne E. Bohannon was the mother of Elizabeth Edwards which does not seem to be confirmed by other sources. I left this as it was found in this book. Further research is needed. Bennetta Elliott)
..., James G. Hardy, settled at the (later) E. S. Edwards homestead near Rock Spring and succeeded his father as a Teacher and Surveyor. James G. first married Elizabeth, the second daughter of Alexander Edwards who settled in the spring of 1791 near Savoyard as already stated. His second wife was a Mrs Smith, and after her death he married Miss Minerva Guffey who survived him. In addition to many of his father's gifts James G. was gifted as an orator, and in his day there were few who could contend successfully with him as an extempore stump speaker. He was elected many times to represent the county and district in the Legislature, and I have been told that he served more terms than any other man in the county. In 1855 he was elected as Lieutenant Governor, and a year later he died, having presided over the Senate only one session. The town of Hardyville in Hart County was named for him in remembrance of a great victory he gained there in a political argument with some of the famous Whig speakers of the State. He died in Glasgow where he resided in his later years He raised a large family and many descendants are mostly in Hart County; one daughter married Rev. E. S. Edwards and her children and numerous grandchildren mostly live around Rock Spring, and his youngest daughter married 'Squire W. W. Smith, of Glasgow, and I have been told that she is still living. Her descendants are well known in the county.
Source: Excerpt from "Cyrus Edwards' Stories of Early Days and Others" In What Is Now Barren, Hary, and Metcalfe Counties. Edited and Compiled by Florence Edwards Gardiner, 1940 The Standard Printing Company Inc. Louisville, Ky. pp.198
SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF COL. JAMES GREENE HARDY. Col. Hardy, son of Isham Hardy, was born in Lunenburg County, Virginia, May 3, 1795. His father emigrated to this county at an early day and settled in the Blue Spring neighborhood. Hardy early gave promise of more than ordinary talents; his education was limited, but as good as the country in his neighborhood afforded; he was however, self-educated, a good speaker, and succeeded in making a favorable impression on his neighbors, and being unable on account of a white swelling to work upon the farm he taught a school near home for some time. While teaching he improved his mind and speaking greatly, and became a fluent speaker. His language was good, his pronunciation also. He was not a logician but a sophist. He was elected to the House of Representatives of the Kentucky Legislature in 1827, '28, '29, '30, '38, '39, '40, '44, '45 and '47. As a Democrat he was frequently defeated, but he bore his defeats manly. He became a candidate for Lieutenant Governor as a "Know Nothing" with Charles S. Morehead who was the "Know Nothing"
candidate for Governor in 1855. They were elected by a considerable majority. He was admitted to be the most talented man of his party (Democratic) in this county, and he had no superior in the state as a debater. After he identified himself with the "Know Nothing" party he fell in the estimation of most of the Democrats. He was an able debater in his canvasses, and always conducted them like a gentleman. He was an honest man; in the Legislature if his party declared for measures which he thought wrong he never sustained them. In middle age he was an unsuccessful merchant, and later in life he was a Master Commissioner in Chancery. In his early manhood he married Miss Elizabeth Edwards, daughter of Thomas Edwards, a large family distinguished for their natural good sense. By her he had eight children. Some years after the death of his wife he married a second time, Eliza J. Smith, widow of Elias Smith, by whom he had two children. His third wife was Miss Menerva K. Guffy. Most of his descendants reside in Hart; three in this county. He early united with the Baptist church, and was an active and
influential member until his death. He died in Glasgow, July 16, 1859.
Source: The Times of Long Ago, Barren County, Kentucky. By Franklin Gorin. John P. Morton &
Company Incorporated, 1929. Published originally in the Glasgow Weekly Times, 1870's. pp.
123-124.
JAMES G. HARDY was a prominent citizen of Barren county, and an active, zealous church member. He served eight years in the Kentucky Legislature, and was Lieutenant Governor of the State, from 1854, to 1858. When the split occurred in Green River Association, in 1839, he adhered to the Missionary party, and became a member of Rock Springs church, in Liberty Association. Elder Samuel Hardy, now of Missouri, is a son of his.
Source: A History of Kentucky Baptists From 1769 to 1885, Including More Than 800 Biographical Sketches, J. H. Spencer, Manuscript Revised and Corrected by Mrs. Burilla B. Spencer, In Two Volumes. Printed For the Author. 1886. Republished By Church History Research & Archives 1976 Lafayette, Tennessee. Vol. 2, p 117 [Barren County]
1855 Governor - Charles S. Morehead
Lieutenant Governor - James G. Hardy
Secretary of State - Mason Brown
Attorney General - James Harlan
Auditor - Thomas S. Page
Treasurer - Richard Wintersmith
Clerk, Court of Appeals - Jacob Swigert
Librarian - Edward Hensley
___________________________________
1856 Governor - Charles S. Morehead
Lieutenant Governor - James G. Hardy
Secretary of State - Mason Brown
Attorney General - James Harlan
Auditor - Thomas S. Page
Treasurer - Richard Wintersmith
Clerk, Court of Appeals - Jacob Swigert
Librarian - Edward Hensley
___________________________________
1857 Governor - Charles S. Morehead
Lieutenant Governor - James G. Hardy
Secretary of State - Mason Brown
Attorney General - James Harlan
Auditor - Thomas S. Page
Treasurer - James Garrard
Librarian - Edward Hensley
___________________________________
1858 Governor - Charles S. Morehead
Lieutenant Governor - James G. Hardy
Secretary of State - Mason Brown
Attorney General - James Harlan
Auditor - Thomas S. Page
Treasurer - James Garrard
Clerk, Court of Appeals - Rankin R. Revill
Librarian - A.W. Vallandingham
Source: KY Department for Libraries and Archives - Online Publications and Resources - Kentucky's Elected Officials: 1851 - 1875
Lt. Gov. James G. Hardy
(Marker Number: 1491)
County: Hart
Location: Near Barren County line, US 31-E
Description: Politician and outstanding orator who came to Barren Co. at an early age. He was born in Virginia in 1795, and is buried near here. A surveyor and teacher who for many years represented Barren Co. in the Kentucky Legislature. Town of Hardyville in Hart County named for him. Hardy was elected Lieutenant Governor in August, 1855. Served one year until his death, 1856.
SOURCE: Kentucky Historical Marker Database - Kentucky Historical Society
*Isham Hardy, *James G Hardy, Samuel W Harlan, Thomas Harlon, Wier D Harlon, Margaret Harlow, Samuel Harlow, James A Harman, Absalom Harper, John Harper, Robert Harper, Elijah Harris, Henry Harris, James Harris, John R Harris, William Harris, William Harris, Robert Harrison, Samuel Harrison, Thomas J Harrison, Poliner Hartegrove, Clairborne Harton, Jesse Harton, Abner Harvey, Austin Harvey, Charles Harvey, Martin Harvey, Thomas Harvey, Archibald Hatcher, Barnett Hatcher, Benjamin Hatcher, Elizabeth Hatton, James Hatton, James Hatton, Henry Hawkins, Smith Hawkins, Henry Hays, John Hays, William Hays, William Hay, Wyatt Hazlewood.
Wiley Hede, Thomas J Helm, Benet Henderson, Benjamin Hendricks, Duke Hendrick, William Hering, Armstead Hester, Francis Hester, Jesse Hickman, Gabriel Higden,John M Higden, Joseph Higden, Thomas Higden, Jane Hilder, Cary Hill, Robert R Hill, Nathaniel Hilton, John Hindman, Robert H Hindman, *Willis A Hinds,
Source: Excerpt from 1830 Barren County, Kentucky Census. Abstraced from "Barren County, Kentucky Census 1810 through 1840, © Sandra K. Gorin, Gorin Genealogical Publishing, 205 Clements Avenue, Glasgow, KY 42141-3409.
Board of instruction was composed of ...Mrs. James G. Hardy, teacher of natural, moral, and mental sciences...
Source: "Barren County Heritage" A Pictorial History of Barren County Kentucky," Compiled by The South Central Kentucky Historical and Genealogical Society, Inc. Cecil E. Goode & Woodford L. Gardner, Jr. Editors, Homestead Press, Bowling Green, Kentucky, 1980.
Kentucky Land Grants
Grantee: Hardy, James G
Acres: 75
Book: G
Survey Date: 4-21-1819
County: Barren
WaterCourse: None
Reference: THE KENTUCKY LAND GRANTS
Volume 1
Part 1
CHAPTER VI KENTUCKY LAND WARRANTS (1816-1873)
THE COUNTIES OF KENTUCKY
page 581
_____________________________
Kentucky Land Grants
Grantee: Hardy, James G
Acres: 12
Book: 32
Survey Date: 1-25-1850
County: Barren
WaterCourse: None
Reference: THE KENTUCKY LAND GRANTS
Volume 1
Part 2
CHAPTER X. GRANTS IN THE COUNTY COURT ORDERS (1836-1924)
THE COUNTIES OF KENTUCKY
page 1323
_____________________________
Kentucky Land Grants
Grantee: Hardy, James G
Acres: 11
Book: 39
Survey Date: 4- 1-1853
County: Barren
WaterCourse: Little Barren R
Reference: THE KENTUCKY LAND GRANTS
Volume 1
Part 2
CHAPTER X. GRANTS IN THE COUNTY COURT ORDERS (1836-1924)
THE COUNTIES OF KENTUCKY
page 1323
_____________________________
DATABASE SOURCE INFORMATION:
Kentucky Land Grants
Description:
This wonderful database contains the records of the Kentucky Land Office from 1782 to 1924. The work is intended as a source book for historical workers, genealogists and others who need a complete and chronological index to the early documentary land records and history of Kentucky. Due to the large amount of early records contained in these two volumes, The Kentucky Land Grants has been termed "the rarest book of its size, covering early Kentucky history and genealogy, to be found anywhere."
Bibliography:
Jillson, Willard Rouse. The Kentucky Land Grants, - Vol. I-II (2). Louisville, KY: Filson Club Publications, 1925
Information obtained from AncestryPlus
For more information click on link below and
check out excerpts regarding James Green Hardy from the book
"Governors of Kentucky"
CLICK HERE
Below is an account of the life of Lieutenant Governor James Greene Hardy prepared by
The Rev. Dean H. Lewis
PO Box 94
Medanales NM 87548
Dean Lewis is a great-great grandson of James Greene Hardy and a great-grandson of his son, Elder Samuel Henry Hardy.
Prepared August 15, 2004
Rev. Dean H. Lewis
_________________________________________
JAMES GREENE HARDY
May 3, 1795-July 16, 1856
Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky
1855-1856
James Greene Hardy came to Barren County Kentucky from Virginia as a boy in the early 1800’s and for the forty years of his adult life was a prominent educator, churchman, community leader and politician. He was known particularly as a gifted public orator. He was the first person from Barren County to be elected to state-wide political office when he was elected Lieutenant Governor in 1855 after serving nine terms in the Kentucky House of Representatives. The town of Hardyville in Hart County, according to Cyrus Edwards, “was named for him in remembrance of a great victory he gained there in a political argument with some of the famous Whig speakers of the state.” James Greene Hardy was married three times, losing his first two wives in death. He was the father of eleven children. James Greene Hardy died in Glasgow, Kentucky on July 16, 1856 while the incumbent Lieutenant-Governor and is buried in a family cemetery near the Rock Spring Baptist Church in Barren County.
Birth and Early Life of James Greene Hardy
James Greene Hardy was born to Isham Hardy and Mary “Polly” Snead Hardy on May 3, 1795, most probably in Pittsylvania County Virginia. Most records, including his obituary, identify his place of birth as Lunenburg County Virginia. However, his parents were married in Pittsylvania County on August 14, 1792 and an older brother was born and died in infancy in Pittsylvania prior to 1795. Pittsylvania was formed in November 1766 from Halifax County, which itself had been divided from Lunenburg in 1752. Both his father Isham and his grandfather Thomas Hardy had been born in Lunenburg County and the family may well have continued to refer to Lunenburg as their place of origin. It is also possible, of course, that Isham and Polly Hardy did return to family land or relatives in Lunenburg before James G. was born in 1795.
James G. came with his parents to the Blue Spring Grove in Barren County as a boy of twelve or thirteen. His grandfather Thomas Hardy and his Uncle George Hardy had settled in that area well before 1800. Some reports put Isham’s arrival in the 1790’s but that is very doubtful. Isham’s son and James G.’s brother William George was born in Virginia in 1807 according to the 1850 Census. Isham Hardy must have come shortly afterward, since he shows up on land and church records in 1808.
James G. probably worked with his father and brothers in clearing the land that Isham had bought “on time” in the Blue Spring Grove, although Franklin Gorin in The Times of Long Ago wrote of James G. that “being unable on account of a white swelling to work upon the farm he taught a school near home for some time. While teaching he improved his mind and speaking greatly, and became a fluent speaker. His language was good, his pronunciation also.” The school at which he taught was the well-known Hardy School at Rock Spring.
Isham Hardy had been drafted by his neighbors to set up the Rock Spring school, which opened August 1, 1810, because they “recognized his qualities as an intellectual and classical scholar,” according to The History of Education in Kentucky. James G. undoubtedly learned much from his father, either at home or in the school, and when Isham retired many years later, James G. did follow him as the teacher in the Hardy School. James G. Hardy was also listed as one of the organizing trustees of the Blue Spring Seminary near Hiseville when it was chartered by the Kentucky Legislature on February 11, 1834.
James Greene Hardy and Elizabeth Edwards - 1814-1832
On January 25, 1814 at the age of 18, James Greene Hardy was married to Elizabeth Edwards in Barren County by the Rev. William Ratliff. Elizabeth was born on January 22, 1793, the daughter of Alexander Edwards, one of the earliest settlers in Barren County, and Rebecca Noblett Edwards, of French Huguenot descent through Ireland and Pennsylvania to North Carolina.
In September 1817, James G. Hardy purchased 100 acres of the Blue Spring Grove from Isham and Polly Hardy for $100. Six months later, he bought 5 acres from his Uncle George Hardy for $7.50; and in 1819, he purchased another 175 acres of the Grove from Isham Hardy for $2000. Though he continued to add to his farm holdings through the next thirty years through both purchases and grants, these holdings in the Grove continued to be his “home place” to which he was carried for burial at his death. Trained by his father as a surveyor, he apparently sought out tracts that were legally unowned because of imprecise earlier surveys. These lands devolved to the counties in 1835 and were granted through County Court Orders. From 1839 to 1851, James G. Hardy was granted a total of 314 acres in nine such grants.
In 1827 at the age of 32, James Greene Hardy added the career of politician to those of educator, surveyor and farmer when he was elected as a Democrat to the Kentucky House of Representatives “after holding various minor civil offices and the office of Colonel of State militia” according to an entry in Battle, Perrin and Kniffin’s History of Kentucky. Franklin Gorin indeed refers to him as “Col. James Greene Hardy” though elsewhere he is more commonly identified as “Major Hardy.”
James G. Hardy was subsequently elected from Barren County to the Kentucky House in 1828, 1829 and 1830; in 1838 and 1839; in 1844, 1845 and 1847. How many times did he run and lose? Franklin Gorin, who was elected in some of the years that James G. Hardy was not, and therefore quite probably a victor over him, wrote: “As a Democrat he was frequently defeated, but he bore his defeats manly...He was admitted to be the most talented man of his party in this county, and he had no superior in the state as a debater...He was an able debater in his canvasses, and always conducted them like a gentleman. He was an honest man; in the Legislature if his party declared for measures which he thought wrong he never sustained them.”
In a 1928 letter, Cyrus Edwards who, as a boy growing up a mile and a half above the Hardy farm, knew James Greene as Major Hardy, wrote in a similar vein: “The Major was well educated and in his early life was a school teacher and surveyor, and was later a noted politician and public office holder, and was generally conceded to be the best off hand public speaker in the Green River country. He represented the county and district many times in the Legislature from 1820 to about 1850 when it took a Democrat of great personality to be elected to any office in Barren County.”
James Greene Hardy and Elizabeth Edwards had nine children before her death in 1832 or early 1833:
Henrietta born November 9, 1814 who married Joseph McNeal Bohannon
Hester Ann born in 1816 who married Henry W. Tisdale
Rebecca born March 12, 1817 who married John Burks Edwards
Elizabeth Amelia born August 21, 1818 who married Samuel J. Wilkes
James Lawrence born August 1, 1820 who married Mary Ann Owen
Mary Snead “Polly” born February 17, 1822 who married the Rev. John Woodward
Jasper Newton. born ca. 1824 and died in 1846
Samuel Henry born July 5, 1828 who married Priscilla T. Owen
Lucetta Perrin born May 6, 1830 who married Edward Steele Edwards
James Greene Hardy and Eliza J. Smith - 1833-1848
A widower with eight children still at home, James G. and Eliza Smith, the widow of William Smith, were married by the Rev. Jacob Lock on October 14, 1833. In an instrument dated November 23, 1830, Eliza had identified herself as the daughter of Sarah Yancey and the granddaughter of Mary Jennings of Hanover County Virginia and conveyed two-thirds of what was due her from her grandmother’s estate to her five Smith children: Cornelia, Mariah, Frances, John and William. However, a prenuptial agreement between James G. and Eliza, dated October 10, 1833, names only “the four children said Eliza now has,” with the name of William missing. Eliza brought land and five slaves to the union, and the new household now had an even dozen children.
James Greene Hardy and Eliza Smith had two children of their own before her death on January 11, 1848:
Thomas J. born on September 22, 1834 who married Zerilda “Lillie” Vertrees on September 4, 1856, seven weeks after his father’s death.
Martha Ann born on March 14, 1838 who “married William W. Smith in 1855 in the Old State House in Frankfort while her father was Lieutenant Governor” according to her 1923 obituary; however a family Bible record says that they were married by Elder S. P. Forgy in Glasgow on May 27, 1856. It could well be, of course, that the license was obtained in Glasgow and the wedding took place in Frankfort.
James Greene Hardy: Churchman
No account of the life of James Greene Hardy would be complete without mention of his deep involvement in religious affairs. He grew up in the Blue Spring Baptist Church where both his father Isham Hardy and his father-in-law Alexander Edwards were leaders. Alexander Edwards was named a Messenger from the church to the Green River Association in 1802 and 1803 before Isham Hardy and his family came to Kentucky. Isham Hardy first served as a Messenger shortly after his arrival in 1808, and again in 1814, 1816, 1822 and 1823 before withdrawing to the Three Springs Baptist Church where he first served as a Messenger in 1824 and in 14 of the next 17 years.
Isham’s withdrawal from the Blue Spring congregation opened the way for leadership for his son. James G. Hardy was elected as a Messenger to the Green River Association each year from 1824 to 1834 and again in 1836 and 1839. He did not shirk from theological controversy. In the chapter on the Green River Association in The History of Kentucky Baptists, it is noted of him: “When the split occurred in the Green River Association in 1839, he adhered to the Missionary party and became a member of the Rock Spring Church in Liberty Association.” Though no stranger to controversy, he also sought reconciliation. In May 1841, James G. Hardy, along with Charles Witt, John Brockman, Wm. Erwin, David R. Smith, Jehial Forest, Elder R. Petty and Elder Thomas Edwards were named by the Rock Spring Church “to meet at Lafayette on the first Monday in next June to propose a plan upon which a Union may be perpetuated between those brethren who differ in opinion in relation to Benevolent Societies.”
In those days, Baptist churches would request specific nearby Baptist congregations to send “Helps” to assist them in settling controversies or judging charges brought against members. These cases might deal with either doctrine or discipline (charges of drunkenness and fornication were frequent) but could also deal with civil matters. Considering his reputation as an orator and debater and his religious zeal, we can presume that James G. Hardy was often a “Help.” In August 1819, for instance, “Br. DALE request this Church (Dripping Springs) to acquit him of the Charge against him brought in by Sister SHIRLEY for trying to take her land away.” Helps were requested from six churches including “Blew Spring” which named James G. Hardy as one of three. The Minutes of Dripping Springs note: “Agreed that the Church and the helps sit together to settle the Distress among us the Reference cald for from our last meeting and after consideration it was Concluded the Charge stands and was Dismist.”
In November 1824, charges of polygamy were brought in the Dripping Springs Baptist Church against Brother Carter and James G. Hardy was one of the Helps who assisted the church in reaching a finding that he was “justifyd by all the church present and the helps except too (two).” However, some months later in September 1825 the church agreed to reconsider the matter and asked for the same Helps to reconvene for that purpose. The record for the Friday before the first Saturday in October 1825 notes that the Helps, including J. G. Hardy from Blue Spring, “together with the church proceeded to reconsider the refference from last meeting and it is agreed that the part of the records of the Friday before the 1st Saturday in November 1824 be altered...to read “the Church with the helps then attended the case above and after obtaining all the information that could be had with Br. Carter’s own statements that his first wife had left him and said her last child was not his and that he had not seen her for at least 30 years, he is therefore acquitted by all the Church present and the helps except too (two) and was then dismiss in order.” We do not know whether James G. was one of the two who dissented from the judgment.
In what may have been one of James Greene Hardy’s last acts of religious benevolence, on December 3, 1853 he deeded to the Rock Spring Church the land on which to build a new house of worship.
James Greene Hardy’s son Samuel Henry Hardy, my great-grandfather, was ordained a Baptist minister two years after his father’s death, on June 5, 1858, and served several churches in Green County Kentucky from the mid-1860s until 1882 when he moved to Missouri. He was a prominent leader in the Shoal Creek Association in Newton County Missouri, serving as Moderator and as pastor or evangelist in more than a dozen churches before his death in 1901. His friend T. L. Largen who wrote his obituary noted: “I heard him say that perhaps he had baptized as many as two thousand persons.”
James Greene Hardy and Minerva K. Guffy - 1848-1856
After the death of his second wife, James Greene Hardy and Minerva K. Guffy of Morgantown were married by the Rev. Eli B. Crain on September 27, 1848. Minerva Guffy was some fifteen years younger than James G. Hardy, having been born June 1, 1810, and was perhaps a teacher, certainly well-educated. She was also a woman of property. In a prenuptial agreement executed on September 27, 1848, she was identified as “seized in her own right of certain lands in the County of Logan....and is also possessed of personal property, and cash and demands for cash.” The agreement stated that “it is expressly intended that the said Minerva shall not be liable in her property to the creditors of the said James for any demand against him either in law or in equity” and placed all her holdings in a trust held by Nathaniel H. Parrish of Barren County, with the proviso that she could draw, sell or add to the assets by her own decision.
Minerva Guffy apparently took over as teacher of the Hardy School at or possibly before her marriage to James Greene Hardy. The marriage license refers to them both as residing in Barren County. At any rate, when the State of Kentucky organized the system of public education in those years, the Rock Spring School became Barren County District 1 and Mrs. James G. Hardy was named its first teacher.
In 1850, James G.’s son Thomas assumed management of the farm. In spite of his other accomplishments, James G. listed his occupation as “farmer” in the census of 1850.Two or three years later, James G. and Minerva moved to the county seat at Glasgow. They bought a house at Front Street and Lexington. According to Cyrus Edwards, “His house stood on the right hand as you go up the street (leaving the old Columbia road at a large, two story house -steps quite high) on the west side of the road and running westward toward the old Allen Lodge College. And was probably the second house on the right hand going up the street.”
On September 5, 1851, James G. Hardy executed an agreement to allow his father Isham’s widow, Barbara Crain Hardy, “a peaceful home at the residence and farm where she now lives .... so long as she may live, or chooses to reside on it.” It is probable that he felt it useful to tie that agreement down legally as part of the move to Glasgow. Barbara remained in the house until her death in 1866.
In 1854 and 1855, James G. and Minerva bought three lots in Glasgow, one from Elizabeth Halton, one from Joseph Underwood, and one from Harvey Spear, as well as a four acre tract near Glasgow from William Cole.
It was apparently during this period that James Greene Hardy attempted to operate a business in Glasgow. Franklin Gorin writes: “In middle age he was an unsuccessful merchant, and later in life he was Master Commissioner in Chancery.” He may have already established his unsuitability for a business career by 1848, which would provide some background for Minerva Guffy’s desire to insulate her assets from present or potential creditors.
Lieutenant Governor James Greene Hardy
From Glasgow, what proved to be the final chapter in James Greene Hardy’s long career of political campaigning and oratory unfolded in December 1854 when he traveled to Louisville with Franklin Gorin’s father, J. W. Gorin, for the convention of the Sons of Temperance, commonly known as the Prohibition Party. Ex-Chief Justice Robertson presided over the deliberations and “J. W. GORIN of Barren co” served as a member of the seven-man committee that drafted the platform. On the final day, after the adoption of the platform, a difference of opinion arose over whether to make nominations for Governor and Lieutenant-Governor immediately or wait until the Whigs and Democrats had made their nominations. The Louisville Journal reported that “An interesting debate ensued, which lasted until 2 o’clock...During the day several able speeches were made, and the proceedings were conducted with harmony and dignity.” We can surely presume that one of those able speeches was given by James Greene Hardy “the best off hand public speaker in the Green River country....who had no superior in the state as a debater.”
The final vote was 31 to 18 in favor of immediate nominations, each county represented having as many votes as members of the Legislature. Again, according to the Journal, “George W. Williams, of Bourbon county, was unanimously nominated for the office of Governor, and Jas. G. Hardy, of Barren county, for the office of Lieutenant Governor.”
Another and more favorable nomination was waiting in the wings. Did James Greene Hardy anticipate that and work toward it? Whatever else may have been in his mind, he had exciting Christmas news to share with Minerva and the family on his return to Glasgow. Another campaign was in prospect for the old warhorse, approaching 60.
We do not know when James Greene Hardy aligned himself with the Native American movement, more commonly known as the Know-Nothings. The movement had been active for at least twenty years in the Northeast and Middle Atlantic states before reaching Kentucky. It was a secret society that drew much of its energy and adherents from anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic sentiment and has been called “The Protestant Crusade.” In early days, the party would name its nominees only a few days before an election and sweep the election because all its members had taken an oath of secrecy; when asked about what their party stood for they would answer “I know nothing.” Very destructive anti-Catholic riots, inflamed by the rhetoric of Protestant clerics, had marred elections most notably in Baltimore and Philadelphia. In the mid-1850s, the movement swept across Tennessee and Kentucky like wildfire, capturing both people and political leaders. James Greene Hardy was one of them. In the 1928 letter noted previously, Cyrus Edwards wrote of him that “like many other Democrats he was seduced by the Know Nothing Wave and in 1855 was elected on that ticket for Lieut. Governor.”
The Louisville Daily Journal reported on February 26, 1855: “THE KNOW-NOTHING CONVENTION It appears that the convention recently in session in this city did make nominations for State officers. It is understood that Judge Wm. V. Loving of Warren, was nominated for Governor, Major Hardy of Barren, for Lieut. Governor, and the present incumbents for the other State offices. Judge Loving is a Whig, has been circuit judge in his district, and has also represented Warren county in the Legislature. Major Hardy is a Democrat and received the nomination for the same office by the late Temperance State convention.”
Charles S. Morehead of Frankfort was named gubernatorial nominee of the American party on June 10, 1855 when Judge Loving withdrew on account of ill health. The tenor of the campaign is illustrated by this quote from an editorial in the Louisville Journal: the day before the election:
People of Kentucky; the argument is closed; the issue is made up; and the case submitted for your verdict. Vital principles of American nationality and existence are at stake. We now call on you to rally.
Rally to crush a faction of foreigners, political Papists, and Anti-American native demagogues - who falsely charge that we are hostile to religious freedom, whilst we, at the very time, not only declare its sacred principle in our platform, but are actually engaged in conflict with its most formidable and deadly foe. Until the light of Protestantism shone in the world there was no religious freedom. Popery, with its iron heel, treads out the life of religious liberty as fast as it was born. The Romish corporation, under pretense of being the Bride of Christ, has ever been the prostitute of Satan. Millions have suffered martyrdom because they would not surrender their consciences into the keeping of the prostitute. The hierarchy is yet drunk on the blood of the saints - and has the audacity to charge with tyranny the native American friends of constitutional liberty.
Rally to preserve the homogenous character of American institutions from the corrupting influence of a mixed foreign rabble.
And that is but the introduction! As a direct descendant of James Greene Hardy, I wince at the thought of that decent, honorable and intelligent man placing himself at the service of such venomous prejudice. Then I remember what I saw and heard during the McCarthy era of hysterical anti-communism and indeed what I see and hear today in the uncivil politics of hate that characterizes so much of contemporary political discourse. When strong fevers are loose in the body politic, even the healthiest will sometimes succumb.
Election day came on Monday August 6, 1855. The result in Kentucky, as had been the case in Tennessee a week before, was a stunning victory for the American Party or Know Nothings. James G. Hardy was elected Lieutenant Governor over Beriah Magoffin, the Democratic candidate, by a vote of 68,104 to 64,430. The Know Nothings swept all state offices, elected six Know Nothings to the ten member Kentucky delegation to the U.S. Congress, and 61 Know Nothings over against 39 Democrats to the Kentucky Legislature. The Senate over which James G. Hardy was to preside would be composed of 25 Know Nothings and 13 Democrats.
However, the inflammatory rhetoric of the campaign culminated in a terrible riot in Louisville on election day, remembered long afterward as “Bloody Monday.” Fighting broke out in several parts of the city, particularly in the First and Eighth wards. A rumor that arms and powder were concealed in houses and buildings owned by “foreigners,” “ excited to phrenzy a mob of Americans (Know Nothings) already crazed with similar excitement.” The mob rampaged through the streets, with a cannon at the head of one group, burning houses and shops. A number of persons were burned to death in these buildings and others were shot trying to escape. “Between 7 and 1 o’clock at night, 12 houses were set fire to and burned on the north side of Main east of Eleventh....Patrick Quinn, the owner of most of them was shot and his body partially consumed in the flames.” The new Catholic church on Shelby Street came under attack but was saved by the intervention of Mayor Barbee and other prominent citizens. At least 22 persons died, most of them “foreigners” and many more were wounded. Many houses were burned along with “Armbruster’s large brick brewery and his dwelling...two Irish cooper-shops on Main....a frame grocery, corner of Madison and Shelby.”
James Greene Hardy would have been at home in Glasgow on election day and thus neither a party nor a witness to the events in Louisville. Though in that era, the Lieutenant Governor was not inaugurated on the same occasion as the Governor, I like to think that he would nevertheless have traveled to Frankfort to participate in the inauguration of Charles S. Morehead on a rainy September 4, 1855 only a month after “Bloody Monday.” If so, he would have heard in person the words of Governor Morehead that were surely written with those events in mind:
In every free government, parties must and will necessarily exist, but amid all the violence of excited passions incident to the ordeal of an animated party canvass, an unconditional acquiescence in the decision of a majority is acknowledged on all hands as the vital element of republican liberty. But, although a majority must rule, in our happily organized government the rights of the minority are alike and equally protected with those of the majority, and I can never be unmindful, though elevated to office by a party, that I am the chief magistrate of the whole people and bound by every consideration of duty as well as of patriotism to act with unvarying and never faltering impartiality.
The constitution of our State secures to all the enjoyment of equal rights and privileges. The native and the adopted citizen are placed on terms of perfect equality, and while the party which has elevated me to office desires a revision and modification of the laws in relation to emigration and naturalization, it neither proposes nor desires to impair this equality. Both the native and adopted citizens are subject to the same penalties for a violation of the law, and so far as I am concerned shall receive equal protection in the exercise of their civil, political and religious rights. The functions of religion and the rights of conscience are sacredly exempt from all civil jurisdiction, and I need not add that all religious sects or denominations are entitled to and shall receive equal protection.
The Journal of the Kentucky Senate for the ensuing session which began on December 31, 1855 begins with the following:
At a General Assembly, begun and held for the State of Kentucky, at the Capitol in the town of Frankfort on Monday the 31st of December one thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, it being the day appointed by law for the meeting of the General Assembly , James G. Hardy, the Lieutenant Governor appeared and having taken the several oaths required by the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution and laws of this State, took his seat as Speaker of the Senate...
We can imagine the feelings that welled up in James Greene Hardy as he “took his seat as Speaker of the Senate” on the raised platform under the imposing oil portrait of Isaac Shelby, the first Governor of Kentucky with whom his father-in-law Alexander Edwards had fought at King’s Mountain. Having served nine terms in the House of Representatives chamber across the rotunda, he would have been thoroughly familiar with the building and its incredible circular staircase of precisely cut and fitted limestone. Those earlier elections had been through the suffrage of the voters of Barren County only; he was now seated as Speaker by the will of the electorate of the entire State of Kentucky. What a sweet moment for this man who so loved public life!
The threat to Kentucky and the Federal Union posed by the escalating national struggle over slavery bracketed the legislative session from start to finish. On the second day of the session, New Years Day of 1856, Governor Morehead’s State of the State message ended with somber reflection on “the present condition of our federal relations”:
The real enemies of the Union are those who persist in sectional agitation -those who are banded together to bring the action of a common Federal Government for all the States into an attitude of hostility to the property of a part - they are the practical disunionists. They forget or disregard all the compromises which impart vitality to the constitution. The dark and rampant spirit of abolitionism and freesoilism, regardless alike of the admonitions of patriotism and the dictates of justice, is threatening in its mad career to destroy the very foundation of the Union......
The Federal Government being one of limited powers, cannot impart to or take from anything its attribute of property. If it cannot establish slavery in a territory, it cannot destroy it. Whatever is property in any one of the States, if carried into a territory cannot lose its character of property by the action of the General Government. I am deeply and profoundly impressed with the conviction that the only safety to the Union is the firm establishment of the doctrine that the Federal Government should abstain unconditionally from all hostile action upon the subject of slavery.
Two days later, Senator John Barlow of Barren County, James G.’s home, entered a proposed joint resolution commending the abrogation of the Missouri Compromise by the Kansas-Nebraska Act and asserting that “the repeal or modification of the fugitive slave law would also greatly endanger the safety of the union.” After referral to the Senate Committee on Federal Relations and the House of Representatives, the resolution was reported out and passed.
On the last day of the legislative session, March 10, 1856, a resolution was introduced deputizing every male citizen of Kentucky to arrest without warrant any person “suspected of being a negro stealer or abolitionist” and providing a payment of $500 by the state upon conviction of such “outlaws and pirates.” Senator Weis’ motion to table was lost and he was joined by only three other senators in voting against the resolution which passed 22-4.
We do not know where James G. Hardy stood on these and other issues, though as a slave owner who had affiliated with the American Party, we can assume with some assurance that the sentiments expressed by Governor Moreland were his as well. Since the Speaker did not vote, chair or serve on committees or introduce legislation, there is little record of the activity of Lieutenant Governor Hardy during the Session. However, the record for Monday February 18, 1856 contains this note:
The following communication was received from the Lieutenant Governor, to wit:
Hon. Theodore Kohlhass,
Frankfort, February 18,1856
Indisposition prevents me from presiding over the Senate today, and Mr. Senator Kohlhass will oblige me by taking the chair for the day.
James G. Hardy, Speaker of the Senate
Whereupon Mr. Kohlhass took the chair.
Though there are no other such references in the Journal , there is a clue that the indisposition may have been more than minor and for more than one day during the session. A Resolution of the Senate on the final day of the Session states the following:
Resolved , That the thanks of the Senate be tendered to Theodore Kohlhass and John Barlow, Senators from the counties of Clarke and Barren, for their able, dignified and impartial bearing as Speakers of the Senate during the the illness of the Lieutenant Governor.
One of the final acts of the Kentucky Senate on March 10, 1856 was adoption of the following
resolution:
Mr. Irvine moved the following resolution, to wit:
Resolved, That we hereby cordially tender to the Hon. James G. Hardy, Lieutenant Governor and Speaker of the Senate, our thanks for the dignified and impartial manner in which he has presided over the deliberations of the Senate.
The final entry in the record notes: “Whereupon the Speaker, having delivered a valedictory address. Adjourned the Senate ‘without day.’ The legislative reporter of the Frankfort Commonwealth added a bit of substance to the “valedictory address”:
Mr. Speaker (HARDY) then addressed the Senate, in which he returned his thanks to the Senate for the kind
and accommodating disposition they had shown during the session, and for the forbearance they had indulged in toward each other. He also thanked them for their kindness toward him and for the assistance they had given him in keeping order and attending to business, and after wishing each of them a speedy and safe return to the bosom of their families and friends, he pronounced the Senate adjourned sine die.
Did James G. Hardy sense that this was truly a valedictory address? The “indisposition” of which he wrote on February 16 was serious. After a lifetime of teaching and acclaimed public political and religious oratory, Lieutenant Governor James Greene Hardy died at his home in Glasgow scarcely four months later. Strangely, his death is not recorded in the official register of Barren County deaths in 1856. An obituary notice was printed in the Glasgow Journal on July 19. 1856:
At half-past 12 o’clock on Wednesday night, July 16th, 1856, James G. Hardy, Lieutenant Governor of
the State of Kentucky, died at his residence in Glasgow, KY and was carried to his farm in the country and interred in the family burying grounds on Thursday evening....He had a large family and left a widow and ten living children to mourn his death.
He had, during his life, been frequently elected to the State Legislature by the force of his personal popularity. For although Barren county has for many years had a majority of Whigs he has often been elected as a Democrat. When the American movement reached this part of the country, he united himself with, and at once became a prominent member of that party. In 1855 he was nominated as the American candidate and elected Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky. Soon after the beginning of the session of the last Legislature, he was attacked with an affection of the brain from which he never recovered and of which he died.
Major Hardy was distinguished for the urbanity of his manners, the generosity and kindness of his dis-
position and for his high social and personal qualities. In his death his family and friends, his country and the State have lost a most estimable member and a faithful public servant. He had for many years been an exemplary member of the Baptist Church, and on the day before he died, with a perfect consciousness of his situation and of his approaching dissolution, he spoke to his wife with calm serenity of the change that was about to take place. He said the shroud in which he would soon be clothed was but an emblem of the robe he would wear on high. He expressed no fears, no apprehension of death or its consequences, but left the world full of Christian faith, hope and confidence.
In the medical terminology of 1850, what was “an affection of the brain?” Was there any connection between his final illness and the “white swelling” that kept him from working on the farm as a boy? Whatever the answer, it struck down James G. at the zenith of his political career, barely 61 years of age. Would he have been a candidate for Governor in 1859? If so, would he have been able to prevail over the man who was elected that year - Beriah Magoffin -whom he had defeated in 1855?
In January 1857, Minerva Hardy had a large stone cover, made by J. M. Taggart of Glasgow, installed over the crypt of her late husband. The inscription reads:
Inscribed to the memory of James G. Hardy, Lieutenant Gov. of Kentucky By his widow M.K.H. The
subject of this memoir was born May 3, 1795 and expired July 16, 1856.Beneath this slab are deposited the remains of the Statesman, friend, father and husband. In the exercise of the duties pertaining to those stations in life, the Christian graces show predominantly. In his last lucid moments the Christian hope buoyed him above the pangs of dissolution. Peace to his ashes till the Resurrection morn. O weep not for those in the tomb.
The burial plot on the farm near Rock Spring is neglected and overgrown with weeds and bushes. The stone has fallen from its supporting walls and was shattered into three or four pieces, though a descendant of Alexander Edwards, James E. Remer of Leawood KS, has recently made some repair. No historical association or state or county agency seems to care about the upkeep of the final resting place of this man who served Barren County and the Commonwealth so faithfully over such a long period of years.
On September 8, 1856, Minerva K. Hardy “In consideration of....certain personal property belonging to said James G. Hardy” which had been surrendered to her, relinquished “all claim of every kind upon the estate either real or personal of the said James G. Hardy decd” in favor of his ten children named in the instrument. The inventory of his estate included Josephus’ History in four volumes; an Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, a comprehensive commentary, and two lots of books. The bulk of the personal estate consisted of notes and bills due, perhaps a testament to his failed business career. In 1865, in a series of transactions, James Greene Hardy’s daughter Lucetta Perrin Hardy Edwards and her husband Edward Steele Edwards, Sr. bought up the interests of Lucetta’s siblings in James G.’s farm at Rock Spring and shortly thereafter built the imposing two story, columned “Edwards House” which is now abandoned and crumbling away.
Minerva K. Hardy remained in Glasgow after the death of Lieutenant Governor Hardy. She had already continued her teaching career in Glasgow before James G.’s death. In an ad in the Glasgow Journal on September 15, 1855, she is listed as teacher of Natural, Moral and Mental Sciences in the Allen Lodge Academy and presumably remained on the faculty there until the school closed during the Civil War. In 1865, the Rev. Caleb Sewell organized the Glasgow Male and Female Institute, introducing co-educational instruction to Barren County. He was assisted by Mrs. M. K. Hardy, Miss Mary Reader and Miss Kerr. She sold the Front Street house to Joseph Dickey for $1460 on January 2, 1858; and the lot and residence in which she was then living at Front and Lexington to James Miller for $600 on November 2, 1865.
Minerva K. Guffy Hardy died in Rumsey Kentucky on September 21, 1871 at the age of 61 years, 3 months and 21 days. That was almost exactly the age at which James Greene Hardy died.
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