Robert Breckinridge (1754-1833)
Son of Robert Breckinridge (1732-1772) and his first wife, Sara Poage & half brother of James Breckinridge (1763-1833) and John Breckinridge (1760-1806). Served in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. Speaker of the Kentucky State House of Representatives, 1792.
For a more detailed biography, read Robert Breckinridge, Man of the Frontier.
James Breckinridge (1763-1833)
Brother of John Breckinridge (1760-1806). Born near Fincastle Va., March 7, 1763. Son of Robert Breckinridge (1732-1772) and his second wife, Lettice Preston. Served in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War; member of the Va. state house of delegates 1789-1802 & 1806-1808 &1819-1821, &1823-1824; US House of Representatives from Va. 1809-1817: General in U. S. Army during the war of 1812. Died Botetourt Co. Va. May 13, 1833.
Letitia Preston Breckinridge (1786-1831)
Peter Buel Porter (1773-1844)
Samuel Miller Breckinridge
(1828 - 1891)
Samuel Miller Breckinridge was born on November 3, 1828 in Baltimore
Maryland, the second child and first son of the Rev. John Breckinridge
(1797-1841) and Margaret Miller (1802-1838). Rev. John was the
pastor of the second Presbyterian church of Baltimore and was
the second son of Senator and Atty. General John (1790-1806) Breckinridge
and Mary Hopkins Cabell. The first daughter, Mary Cabell was born
October 26, 1826 and their secind daughter was born March 24,
1832.
The three children's mother (Margaret Miller) died in 1838, when
Samuel was 10 years old, at which time the two sisters (12 &
6 years old) went to live with their grandparents (Rev. Samuel
Miller) at Princeton. Samuel remained with his father.
" The election of Dr. Breckinridge (SMB's father) to the
chair of Pastoral Theology in Princeton Seminary, brought him
to Princeton. There, the death of his wife led to the placing
of his only son, Samuel, in the family of Dr. Jas. Alexander,
where he became the boy-favorite and room-mate of the celebrated
Professor Addison Alexander. The learned professor wrote poems
and tales for him, and read to him the sermons which he was then
preaching in a special course in the college, and which subsequently
were published in a volume of sermons. He would ask Samuel how
he liked this or that passage or illustration, and what impressions
the sermon made upon him. It is not strange that young Breckinridge
came to regard him with a hero worship, which left its impression
on all of his future life. His deep affection for Prof. Alexander
was the chief reason for his return in later years, to Princeton
to complete his collegiate education." ... "Upon the
death of his father, in 1841, when he was 13 years old, Samuel
was left in the care of his grandfather: Dr. Samuel Miller and
of his uncle: Rev. Robert Breckinridge His collegiate studies
were prosecuted at Centre College, KY., Union College, New York,
and the College of New Jersey, at Princeton. After graduation
he went to Lexington, KY and entered the law school of Transylvania
University. There he completed the required course of legal studies,
and was admitted to the bar at the early age of eighteen. Remaining
in Lexington two years, he came to St. Louis in the year 1850,
where he began the practice of his profession." .......
(Rev. S. J. Niccolls, D.D. Biographical Sketch of Hon. Samuel
Miller Breckinridge)
On October the 8, 1850, Samuel Miller Breckinridge married his
first cousin (they shared a Cabell grandparent) , Virginia Harrison
Castleman. Of his legal abilities it was reported: "Although
barely of age, he soon attracted much attention by his scholarship,
and ability in his profession, and by the grace and eloquence
of his oratory." On December 15, 1853 Virginia and Samuel
had the second of their children, who they named: Virginia Castleman.
For the years 1854 and 1855, Samuel Miller served in the Missouri
State Legislature. In 1859 he was elected Judge of the Circuit
Court of the State of Missouri, and while on the bench, he was
chosen a member of the State Convention, which continued in existence
until 1863. He became Elder of the Second Presbyterian Church
of St. Louis in 1871. In 1874 he was a member of the General Assembly
which met in St. Louis; in 1873 he was a member of the committee
on fraternal relations, appointed to meet a similar committee
of the Southern Presbyterian Church.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, Judge Breckinridge took a prominent
position among staunch Unionists of Missouri, and his anti-secessionist
speeches aided materially in turning the tide of sentiment in
favor of the general government. He knew president Lincoln, and
once approached him in behalf of his kinsman John Breckinridge
Castleman who had been captured and whose life was in serious
jeopardy.
The president handed Samuel a handwritten note" in the strictest
confidence... to be used in a case of emergency";
"Major General Hovey, or
Whomsoever may have charge:
Whenever John B. Castleman shall be tried, if convicted and sentenced,
suspend execution until further notice from me, and send me the
record. A. Lincoln"
In 1866 he was appointed surveyor of customs of the port of St.
Louis, and held the office for one term. During the administrations
of Presidents Hayes and Harrison he was prominently mentioned
in connection with appointments to the United States Supreme court
bench. During President Harrisons administration the Western press
urged his appointment to a cabinet position. For many years he
was the attorney for the St. Louis Bridge and Tunnel company,
and later for the terminal railroad association.
For several years he was a member of the Presbyterian General
Assembly, and for five years a member of the committee on revision
of the book of discipline. He was in attendance at a session of
the General Assembly in Detroit Michigan at the time of his death.
He had just finished an address to that body when he flee to the
floor and died.
He was survived by his wife and five daughters and two sons. Mrs.
Margaret Breckinridge Long (wife of William S. Long) ; Mrs. Virginia
C. Bates, wife of Onward Bates; Mrs. Mary C. P. Cross, wife of
Richard K. Cross; Mrs. Almy H. Edmunds, wife of Judge Henry Edmunds;
Miss. Elizabeth L. P. Breckinridge and David C. and John Breckinridge.
Letters of administration upon the estate of Samuel Miller Breckinridge,
filed Missouri Circuit Court, 22nd Judicial Circuit, Probate Division,
St. Louis City, 10 North Tucker Blvd., St. Louis MO. 63101. Case
number 18342, Filed June 11, 1891 by Virginia C. Breckinridge,
in the presence of He children: Margaret, Mary, Virginia, Elizabeth,
John and David. Samuel Miller died intestate.
Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans.
Editor and Chief: Rossiter Johnson, Volume 1, Published at Boston,
by The Biographical Society, 1904; republished 1968 by Gale Research
Company, Book Tower, Detroit, 1968 pp. 97.
Virginia Harrison Castleman ( 1827- 1902 )
Great grand daughter of Carter Henry Harrison (brother of the
Signer) and his wife Susanna Randolph, daughter of Isham Randolph,
whose sister was Thomas Jefferson's mother.
Robert Jefferson
Breckinridge (1800-1871)
Rev. Robert Jefferson Breckinridge* D.D., L.L.D., was born March
8, 1800, at Cabell’s Dale, Fayette County, Kentucky, and
was the son of Hon. John Breckinridge and his wife, Mary Hopkins
Cabell. He was taught in the schools of the state under Thompson,
Wilson, Kean O’Hara and Brock, popular teachers of that day,
and at the age of sixteen entered Princeton College, where he
remained two years; spent one winter at Yale, but graduated in
the fall of 1819 at Union College, Schenectady, New York, then
under the presidency of the famous Dr. Samuel Nott. After returning
to Kentucky, spent three years in the management of his mother’s
and his own farm, and in a wide course of reading; in 1824, began
the practice of law in Lexington, in partnership with Charleton
Hunt: espoused with great warmth the “Old Court” and
“Anti-Relief” side in politics and was elected to the
Lower House of the Legislature in 1825, 1826, 1827, 1828; during
the session of 1828, was attacked with a severe illness, from
which he never recovered, his long subsequent life being full
of physical weakness and pain; in 1831, ran as an independent
candidate for the Legislature in advocacy of gradual emancipation
and the abolishment of Sunday maild, but withdrew before the close
of the election; in 1828 was grand orator of the Grand Lodge as
his brother, Cabell, had been before him and as his nephew, John
C. Breckinridge, was afterward. He joined the Presbyterian Church
and in the spring of 1832, was licensed to preach; went to Princeton
and after pursuing his studies in the Theological Seminary for
a few months, became successor of his brother, Rev. John Breckinridge,
as pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church, Baltimore, Maryland;
in 1831 and 1832, had been a member of the General Assemblies
and had become a prominent leader of what was known as the Old
School Wing of the Church; was author of the “Act and Testimony,”
and, under his lead, the Assembly of 1837 passed the celebrated
acts which settled the controversies for thirty years; soon after
settling in Baltimore, engaged in an exciting controversy with
the Catholics and Universalists; in 1835 was one of the founders
of The Baltimore Literary and religious Magazine, of which he
afterward became sole owner and editor. “The Spirit of the
Nineteenth Century,” was published for nine years; through
his efforts the Bible was introduced into the public schools of
Baltimore; and the colored people of Maryland presented him with
a gold snuff-box, in gratitude for his efforts in defeating a
bill designed to prevent free colored people from residing in
Maryland. For thirteen years he continued his connection with
the Church of Baltimore, in addition to his various arduous labors,
excepting one year, 1836, which he spent as a delegate from his
General Assembly to the Protestant Churches of Europe; while in
Scotland held a debate on American slavery, continuing two weeks
at Glasgow, with the notorious George Thompson, and out of that
debate sprang his famous letter to Doctor Wardlow on slavery.
In 1841, was elected Moderator of the General Assembly; in 1845
became the president of Jefferson College, Cannonsburg, Pennsylvania,
only remaining in that position two years, his enfeebled constitution
being unable to bear the severity of the climate; resigned in
1847 to become pastor of the First Presbyterian Church at Lexington;
in the same year was appointed by Governor Owlsey, superintendent
of public instruction; was reappointed by Governor Crittenden,
and in 1851 was elected by the people, and resigned both positions
in 1853 to become Professor of Theology in the Seminary at Danville,
of which he was chief founder, and to him is largely due the establishment
in Kentucky, in 1849 was a candidate for the Constitutional Convention
as an Emancipationist, but after one of the most spirited contests
in the history of the state was defeated; he was one of the original
stockholders and directors of the State Agricultural Society and
took an active interest in the formation and maintenance of every
public enterprise. He delivered the oration at the laying of the
cornerstone of the monument to Mr. Clay at Lexington; opposed
with great ability, but unsuccessfully, the loan of county aid
for building railroads and was a successful farmer and breeder
of thoroughbred cattle; and in 1836 received three prizes for
agricultural essays. He delivered scores of speeches, sermons
and lectures yearly, and contributed constantly to secular and
religious papers, participating freely in all the controversies
of the day. His open letters to Doctor Wardlow in 1837, Charles
Sumner and William H. Seward in 1856; and upon the American question
in 1855; to Gen. John C. Breckinridge in 1860; and on the temperance
question in 1852; and upon the revision of the Bible in 1858,
were extensively copied and read throughout the country. In the
late war he espoused the cause of the National Government with
great intensity and with pen and voice exerted his utmost capacity
in support of the administration; and published a magazine called
the “Canville Review” as his special organ; was delegate
to and temporary chairman of the Republican Convention which met
at Baltimore in 1864, and there refused to permit the nomination
of Andrew Johnson as candidate for Vice President to be made unanimous
on account of his distrust in him; and his great moral and intellectual
worth gave strength to the cause of the Government, not only in
his own state, but abroad, and during the great conflict he arose
to his greatest height as a writer, statesman and patriot. He
was a man of indomitable will and unquestioned courage; profound
and sincere in his convictions; of ardent, intense nature; possessed
a singularly quick, active intellect; of quick impulses; was a
warm and generous friend, and probably not always a just enemy;
fought with all his power and forgave with absolute completeness
when he professed to forgive. His information covered every department
of knowledge; his memory was almost perfect, and his capacity
of labor, with an enfeebled body, was apparently without limit;
as a debater he never met his superior; was for thirty years the
acknowledged leader in every Church Court in which he sat, and
was as formidable before the people as on the floor of a deliberative
body; had all the personal gifts of the genuine orator and was
undoubtedly the most powerful member of the Breckinridge family.
In his personal manners, habits and tastes, he was plain, simple,
frugal, and severe; but as a friend and host was indulgent and
exceedingly attractive, having uncommon conversational powers
and a free, unaffected hospitality, certainly displaying himself
to as great advantage among his friends a at his home, as in his
great contests before the people. His children were his companions,
and were treated by him as equals and he gave them his confidence,
his paternal affection being of the most tender and forbearing
nature. In stature he was nearly six feet, erect, active, graceful
and muscular; but toward the close of his life, his continued
bad health and incessant labors bent his frame somewhat and gave
him the appearance of feebleness; but to the last he maintained
his great mental vigor, and displayed all the noble traits of
his life. In 1869 he resigned his professorship in Danville Seminary
and after two years of continual suffering died December 27, 1871,
in Danville, Kentucky, his last words being, “More light.”
Doctor Breckinridge was twice married; first, March 11, 1823,
to his cousin, Ann Sophonisba Preston, daughter of Gen. Grand
Preston, of Virginia and granddaughter of Gen. William Campbell.
She died in 1844, leaving a large family. In 1847, he was married
to Mrs. Virginia Shelby, daughter of Col. Nathaniel Hart of Woodford
County. Doctor Breckinridge left seven children, four sons and
three married daughters. His oldest daughter, who most resembled
him in person, character and intellect, married William Warfield,
a well-known, successful and influential farmer and breeder of
fine cattle in Fayette County. His second daughter married Rev.
William C. Handy, a Presbyterian minister of New York, and his
youngest daughter married Dr. Theophilus Steel, who was a colonel
of cavalry in the Confederate army and afterward a physician in
the City of New York. His youngest son, John R., was murdered
at Lebanon, Tennessee in 1874 while a student at Cumberland University.
James Douglas Breckinridge (tbd-TBD)
Peter Augustus Porter, Sr. (1827-1864)
Peter Augustus Porter, Jr. (1853-1934)
US House of Representatives
Mary Carson Breckinridge,
(1881-1965)
Mary Breckinridge introduced a model rural health care system
into the United States in 1925. To provide professional services
to neglected people of a thousand square mile area in southeastern
Kentucky, she created a decentralized system of nurse-midwives,
district nursing centers, and hospital facilities. Originally
called the Kentucky Committee for Mothers and Babies, later the
Frontier Nursing Service (FNS), the system lowered the rate of
death in childbirth in Leslie County, Kentucky, from the highest
in the nation to substantially below the national average. Thanks
to FNS, nurse-midwives were no more than six miles away from any
patients. Providing both preventive and curative nursing, FNS
continues to serve this region. Staff members of the FNS formed
the beginnings of the American College of Nurse-Midwives in 1929.
The first school of midwifery was started at the Maternity Center
in New York in 1932 by a FNS-certified nurse-midwife member. The
FNS began its own school in 1939.
"I rode through the Kentucky mountains on horseback... staying
where nightfall found me. Dysentery was carrying off the babies,
and I stayed to care for them and to tell the mothers what to
do." * Mary Breckinridge
See the book: Wide Neighborhoods (1952) published by
Lieutenant General
James Carson Breckinridge, U.S.M.C. (September 1877 - March 1942
)
The following is taken from THE QUARTERLY BULLETIN OF THE FRONTIER
NURSING SERVICE, Volume 17, Number 4, Spring 1942. A memorial
by his sister, Mary Breckinridge.
Marine Corps Records
General Breckinridge was born September 13, 1877, in Memphis,
Tennessee, and was appointed a Second Lieutenant in the Marine
Corps (for the war with Spain) July 11, 1898, and was honorably
discharged March 1, 1899; was promoted to Captain, July 23, 1901;
Major, June 12, 1916; Lt. Colonel, August 29, 1916; Colonel, July
1, 1918; Brigadier General on October 31, 1931 and Major General,
February 1, 1935. On October 1, 1941, he was transferred to the
retired list and commissioned a Lieutenant General by reason of
having been decorated for individual bravery in combat.
During the latter part of 1899 and the early part of 1900 he served
at Cavite, Philippines Islands. From September 1902 to October
1903 he commanded a Marine Detachment at sea, and again from November
10, 1905 to July 15, 1907, and from January 1908 to November 1,
1909. He served ashore in Panama and Nicaragua from December 1,
1909 to January 1911, and from March to June of the latter year
was on temporary expeditionary duty in Cuba. In command of the
Marine Detachment USS UTAH, he participated in the capture of
Vera Cruz in April 1914, and was commended by the Department for
eminent and conspicuous conduct in
battle at that place.
From April 1916 to August 1917 he served as assistant Naval Attache
at Petrograd, Russia and from August 1917 to September 1918, as
Naval Attache at Christiana,
Norway, and Copenhagen, Denmark and at Stockholm. He was awarded
the Navy Cross "for distinguished service in the line of
his profession as Naval Attache to
the American Legations at Christiana and Stockholm, and for a
time also at Copenhagen. At all of these posts of duty, the service
of information established and
conducted was of great value to the United States and allied Powers."
From February 1919 to October 1920, he commanded the 15th Regiment,
2nd Brigade of Marines, in the Dominican Republic, and from October
4, 1920 to May 5,
1921, was in command of the Guardia National Dominicana. In 1922
and 1923 he completed the course at the Army War College. From
August 1923 to September 1925 he was in command of the Marine
Barracks, Washington, D. C.
From October 4, 1925 to November 8, 1927, General Breckinridge
was attached to the USS SEATTLE as Fleet Marine Officer and aide
on the Staff of the
Commander in Chief, U. S. Fleet.
From December 1, 1927 to December 25, 1929, he was on duty at
the Marine Barracks, Quantico, Va., where he served as Chief of
Staff and Commanding the First Regiment until July 1928 when he
was placed in command of the Marine Corps Schools at Quantico,
which duty he performed until his detachment....
From January 28, 1930 until March 13, 1932, General Breckinridge
commanded the Marine Detachment, American Legation, Peiping, China,
at which latter date he
was detached and ordered to the United States. Upon arrival in
the United States he was ordered to the Marine Barracks, Quantico,
Va., and assigned as Commandant,
Marine Corps Schools at that post, which duty he performed until
January 6, 1935, when he was ordered to San Francisco, California,
to assume command of the
Department of the Pacific. On June 24, 1937, he returned to Quantico,
Va., to assume command of the post, until September, 1939.
From Quantico he went to Marine Barracks, Parris Island, S. C.
where he was Commanding General until his retirement effective
October 1, 1941, having attained the
statutory retiring age of 64 years.
In addition to the Navy Cross, General Breckinridge held the following
decorations: Spanish Campaign Medal, Philippines Campaign Medal,
Cuban Pacification
Medal, Mexican Campaign Medal, Victory Medal, Marine Corps Expeditionary
Medal, and Military Medal of Merit of the Dominican Republic.
A Sketch of His Life
An appraisal of what he meant to his friends and associates is
easily given in their own words. One.. .Admiral wrote, "He
always did the right thing, because he did not know of any other
way to do things. " A retired Commandant of the Marine Corps
wrote, "I loved Breck as a brother and through my long and
intimate association
with him I know him as a true friend, a most efficient officer,
and honorable, kind, generous and high-minded man." another
fellow general of Marines wrote, "The
General has left a record of outstanding service that has materially
added to the luster of the Service to which he was so devoted,
and which has such high regard for
him." A Federal Judge who was his closest friend in civil
life.. wrote, "No better man ever lived. I have never known
a greater soul. I shall cherish his memory
always." again and again. occur these two phrases: "He
was what we mean when we say an officer and a gentleman";
"He lived our motto, `Semper Fidelis'."
In his father and mother, in their understanding of him and the
freedom they gave him he was.. .fortunate. From his childhood
until her death, he and his mother were
rare friends. In his marriage on December 27, 1922, to Dorothy
Thomson he gained a companion with as fine a loyalty, devotion
and courage as his own. The
completion of his personal life came with his sons, James and
John. "Jimjohn" he called them in his letters when they
were little because-they were inseparable in his
heart. "I would not take anything whatever," he wrote
in 1940, "for being their friend...."
Of his forty-three years in the Marine Corps, eight years and
three months were spent on foreign duty and ten years and one
month were spent at sea. He himself felt
that his best work was done as Commandant of the Marine Corps
Schools. He so organized the work of the Schools that the Marines
were ready to fight this war
(WW II) and when it came in terms of modern strategy and tactics
and not in terms of outmoded strategy and tactics. He had a high
belief, and taught in the Schools,
that military training should include statecraft so that if military
ends could be achieved without bloodshed it was better so. In
speaking of the duty of any officer, he
often said, "Loyalty begins at the top and works down."
As to the permanence of his influence upon. the Marine Corps Schools,
he was a major force in training the
young officers of the Corps who...represent the high tradition
of the Marines all over the world.
For a man the greater part of whose life was spent roving, he
had a singular love of home. This ardent love of a home attached
itself in later years to an island in the
Muskoka Lakes of Canada which was bought at the turn of the century
by his parents and called "The Brackens" because the
family name comes from the brackens
and these ferns were on the island. Whenever he was in North America
he spent his leave there and he wrote often that he could reach
the island in imagination and
affection whether in the snows of Russia or Norway or the steaming
heat of the Caribbean.
He and his wife, Dorothy, had a knack of making a home out of
any transient stopping place. He loved to work with his hands
and a hobby of his was the repair of
old furniture, like his grandfathers desk and the frames of old
pictures. He and Dorothy were both lovers of gardening and Quantico,
Peking, Parris Island, wherever
they were stationed, they created a garden at their quarters.
He said he like to think that others who came after them would
find flowers and shrubs and sometimes
even a pool.
A Marine does not need to be appraised as a Soldier When he was
a young officer in the Corps, General Elliott said of him. ...
"Damn it! If I ordered Breckinridge to
go to hell, he would be on his way before breakfast in the morning."
He worked and fought through many hells but never without compassion
for the underdogs he
found in these hells and indignation towards the...wrongs that
kept whole areas of human beings in destitution and revolt.
His last command was at Parris Island where he worked without
respite to train and ship all over the world the thousands of
men who came to Parris Island as
civilians and left as Marines. With burning loyalty he did his
part to get ready for the war (WW II) he knew would soon come.
He took no leave those last two years
and his strength was depleted appallingly, first by the hurricane
of august 1940 and then by a severe attack of influenza with threatened
pneumonia.
Up until this period of his life it had seemed incredible to him
that he could grow old. In 1939, he attended a service at Arlington
Chapel and sat back of some old
friends among the retired officers. In a letter.. he recalled
the places in which he had known them in distant parts of the
world. He wrote: "Hair had turned gray,
shoulders were bowed. The appearance of vivid life had departed
from them." He said he had never before been aware of a change
in them, and then he wondered if
such a change was coming to him.
When he left Parris Island for "Flagstop," his home
in the Shenandoah Valley, he wrote briefly: "My last orders."
On March 2, 1942, came quietly the swift death he
had so often faced in action. He had telegraphed on December eighth
to offer his services again anywhere in any capacity. How much
he longed, and plotted, to fight
again only the heart of another Marine could fully understand.
He wrote a...cousin: "There is a war and for the first time
in over forty years I am not in it. The Marines
are on the move again. They go to the far corners of earth. ..
but I stay home."
We shall leave him as he crosses the threshold of.. .death....
Because of the war, only a few Marines from Washington and Quantico
could get to "Flagstop" for his
funeral services. The messages and flowers that poured in from
those who could not come made his family feel the warmth of the
love and friendship of the Corps.
Quantico sent a flag to cover his casket and Parris Island sent
a message saying, "Parris Island grieves with you over the
loss of a great Marine. "His body was brought to Kentucky
to be buried with the generations of his people in the old Lexington
cemetery. His kinsmen and family friends and two Marines, one
to represent the General Commandant of the Marine Corps, received
it. After the committal service, after Taps, the flag was lifted
from his casket by the younger Marine and given to his wife for
his sons. Then his wife laid on the casket the scarlet and gold
roses from the United States Marine Corps, to be buried with the
body in which he had served the corps for forty-three years.
Scott Dudley Breckinridge,
Jr.
Deputy Inspector General CIA. & Author
John Bayne Breckinridge
US House of Representatives
John Fore Hines, Jr.
Rear Admiral US Navy
Clifton Rodes Breckinridge (1846 - )
US House of Representatives, US Minister (ambassador) to Russia.
William Mattingly Breckinridge (1905-1996)
Major General US Army.
Mary Marvin Breckinridge ( )
WW2 international broadcaster, photojournalist, photographer
