1. Samuel McDowell was a soldier in three wars and political leader in Virginia and Kentucky.
21 Facts About Samuel McDowell
1. 2.
Samuel McDowell served under George Washington in the French and Indian War, as an aide-de-camp to Isaac Shelby in Lord Dunmore's War, and under Nathanael Greene during the Revolutionary War.
3.
Samuel McDowell then relocated to Kentucky and became a surveyor.
4.
Samuel McDowell became a leader of the movement to separate Kentucky from Virginia, and presided over nine of the state's ten constitutional conventions.
5.
Samuel McDowell was the son of Captain John McDowell and grandson of Ephraim McDowell, a Scots-Irish patriot in the English Revolution of 1688.
6.
Samuel McDowell was well-educated in his youth, at one time studying under Archibald Alexander.
7.
The most famous of Samuel McDowell's sons was Dr Ephraim Samuel McDowell, who performed the first ovariotomy.
8.
Ephraim Samuel McDowell later married the daughter of Isaac Shelby, his father's former commanding officer.
9.
Samuel McDowell was the 2nd great-grandfather of First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln through his daughter Elizabeth.
10.
At age twenty, Samuel McDowell participated in the French and Indian War.
11.
Samuel McDowell was captain of a company, serving under George Washington at Braddock's Defeat at the Battle of the Monongahela.
12.
Samuel McDowell attended a second conference in Williamsburg, Virginia in 1776 where he declared the rights of man and instructed the Continental Congress to declare the colonies' independence.
13.
Samuel McDowell was a founding trustee of Liberty Hall which in 1776 became a college and relocated to Lexington.
14.
Samuel McDowell participated in the Battle of Guilford Courthouse while serving under General Nathanael Greene.
15.
The elder Samuel McDowell was present at Charles Cornwallis' surrender at Yorktown.
16.
Samuel McDowell was appointed surveyor of Fayette County, where he relocated in 1783.
17.
Together with John Floyd and George Muter, Samuel McDowell was appointed to the district court in Harrodsburg, the first such court in Kentucky.
18.
Samuel McDowell continued to host meetings of the Club at his residence from time-to-time, and participated in its activities for its entire four-year existence.
19.
Samuel McDowell presided over nine of the ten conventions that drafted the first Kentucky Constitution.
20.
Samuel McDowell was chosen as one of Mercer County's electors to choose the first governor and senators from the state.
21.
Samuel McDowell died near Danville on September 25,1817, at the home of his son Joseph.