Richmond daily register. (Richmond, Madison County, Ky.) 1917-1978, 1921-04-04
The STORY my
old kENTlKY HOME"
Young E. AIIisoniives Some In
teresting Data IN "Federal
Hill" at Bdstown
By Assccia Press)

Louisville, hyApr1l 4.-tam-
Gus i'll song and sty as the birth
place of My bid Kentucky
Home, Goodnid," Federal
HILL" which is I'd preserved by
popular subscriPn, has a his
tory that few olYlantations can
equal.
Young E. Allis /, of Louisville,
from personal designation of
history and trad dbns, tells the
Story of "Feder4Iill."
Mr.. Allison, b is a widely
known KentucE j., iIIuminates
the record with teresting side
lights on person famous in the
state i'll their tin
About one me- from Bards-
town, over the liSeshoe bend in
Beech Fork r er i'll Nelson
county, Kentuckp he writes, is
the old Rowan tate and home
OF Federal HillIamous in song
and story and ttures as the
place where in lie summer Of
1852 Stephen Collins Foster
wrote the words hd music Of My
Old Kentucky Il me- This the
house and estate of 2l0 acres
which the pcopl9f Kentucky are
invited to purclie and preserve
as a state parB4n honor of the
song. 1t is one { the most his
toric places in whole middle
west, dating BAT to 1895 when
John Rowan. ben d brilliant
young lawyer, Prn in Pennsyl-
vania, built it the midst of a
l.500-acre plant Gon and made it
the center Of tt political. legal
and social life If the Kentucky
Of olden times.
Judge RoW3 was to become
congressman United States
senator, chief jsticc of the state
and TO die as commissioner Of the
United States t define the bOun-
Diary line Of Nj Ekico in an effort
to avoid the wa Iof 1S47. He was
a great lawyeI famous i'll the
practice of civi and criminal law,
strong before iEies because OF his
profound rea pning and elo-
qucnce. At ID Inc had, with his
father. fought idians in the west
and was a dea shot. He fought
one Of the earlI st and most dead
ly ducls in thcE cEtate's history and
in his will lcitl bis duelling pistols
TO his eldest Sn to be handed
do@n and use only in "the de-
tense of his bnor." The will is
recorded i'll Il ilisville.
" Judge Row Jln loved, the prac-
tice of law a tried to avoid
public office. dbme of the greatest
early lawyers jof Kentucky stud
led i'll his off {. He accumulated
a great fortui ie in those days. He
had residelte in Louisville and
made it his lsme'for some years,
dying here i l843. He enter
tained I-afaystte on his visit in
1924. pavinoi all the public eX-
penses and t fixing him to Federal
Hill for a ret, Judge Rowan is
buried in tn. family cemetery at
Federal Hill His children and
grandchildren have married into
noble familiss in Europe and have
won distinction in many ways.
One marritd a grandee of Spain
and was lidy-ir-waiting to the
Queen, andther was Princess Ros-
piglioso of Italy and others mar
ried into the English and French
Deerages.
Young John Rowan, who
succeeded his father on the Fed
eral Hill estate, was remarkably
handsome, accomplished and elO-
lent. He. too. was a duellist and
/ dead shot. He declined nom
nation for governor and to con-
yress and refused all office except
DnCe to carry his district for the
legislature. President fillmore
induced him to become minister
o the Sicilies, where he liv-
ID for several years at Naples
md Rome and returned in 1852.
"1'he old home at Federal Hill
5 filled with history. General
Lytel was a nephew of
he elder Rowan and often visit
ID there. He wrote the poem, L
IN dying, Egypt, dying There
lso visited Theodore O'Hara, au-
horl of 'Bivouac of the Dead
The house is filled with antique
mahogany and rosewood furni-
ure, fine paintings and historic
ouvenirs. 1t is essentially a
manor house of the old type, well
reserved and crowded with ira
ition, tragic, romantic and his
oric.
stephen C. Foster was not a
lentuckian. He was born on the
ftieth anniversary of the Declar
ton of independence in 1926, in