Part 13

_Davis._ Mr. Burton N. Harrison, in his graphic "Century" narrative of the Capture of Jefferson Davis, records the last "War" speech of the Southern President. It was addressed to a column of cavalry, under the command of General Duke, at Charlotte, N. C., the soldiers waving their flags and hurrahing for "Jefferson Davis." The speech was brief. He thanked them for their cordial greeting; complimented the gallantry and efficiency of the Kentucky cavalrymen; and expressed his determination not to despair of the Confederacy, but to remain with the last organized band, "upholding the flag." This was all. He said later to his faithful Secretary, "I can not feel like a beaten man."

In a private letter written by Secretary Harrison to his mother about this time (unpublished), he says: "Thaddeus Stevens recently sent us an offer to become one of Mr. Davis' counsel if it were agreeable to us to have him serve." Mr. Harrison's letters to his family are admirably written and full of interest.

It was the trained sagacity of an English statesman which in the midst of universal doubt and misconception enabled him to comprehend at a glance the difficulties encountered by Jefferson Davis in bringing order out of the wild chaos of secession in the Southern States. "He has created a Nation"--said Mr. Gladstone. Doubtless, posterity, in full possession of the facts, will be disposed to let the judgment stand. These facts have never been more ably and accurately stated than in the eulogy by Colonel William C. P. Breckinridge upon that able and daring pilot in this great extremity of the South. The eulogist was competent to speak; he was early in the field; he was close to the inner councils of the war; he saw and shared the struggle in every phase; and at the close, he calmly accepted the results. His clear and rapid summary will carry historic weight:

"When the world once understands how it was possible for the government, inaugurated at Montgomery, without a battalion of soldiers, or a ship of war, without arms or munitions of war, without provisions and military stores; a government not possessing within its borders a single factory at which a single weapon of war, or a single part of a weapon of war, could be manufactured, without credit or funds; a nation with her ports soon blockaded so as to be deprived of access to the markets of the world; a republic composed nominally of thirteen separate States, of which Kentucky, Tennessee and Missouri were practically under the control of its enemy--how such a nation could maintain such a war for a period of four years against the United States of America, and bring into the field an army more numerous than its entire adult white population, feed it, clothe it, transport it, arm it, take care of it and keep it in such condition that it won unprecedented victories, has been an unsolved mystery. When it is added that during those years personal freedom was maintained, order preserved, courts kept open and no rights usurped, thinkers will conclude that he who was the head and life, the spirit and chief must have been a very great man."

The London _Times_, in its obituary notice, said: "As he was the first to perceive the true nature of the struggle, so was he the last to admit that the battle was lost. He fought a losing battle with unquestionable ability and unflinching courage. His achievements will secure him an honorable place in his country's history."

In the last public address of Jefferson Davis, delivered in the capitol of Mississippi to the Legislature in joint convention, he said: "The people of the Confederate States did more in proportion to their numbers and men than was ever achieved by any people in the world's history. Fate decreed that they should be unsuccessful in the effort to maintain their claim to resume the grants to the Federal Government. Our people have accepted the decree; it, therefore, behooves them, as they may, to promote the general welfare of the Union; to show to the world that hereafter, as heretofore, the patriotism of our people is not measured by the lines of latitude and longitude, but is as broad as the obligations they have assumed and embraces the whole of our ocean-bound domain. Let them leave to their children and children's children the grand example of never swerving from the path of duty, and preferring to return good for evil rather than to cherish the unmanly feeling of revenge."

_Davison._

_Davy_, or Davey.

_Dawe._

_Dawkins_, or Dakin.

_Dawson._

_Day._

_Deacon._

_Dean._

_Dearing_, or Deering.

_DeLacy_, or Lacy.

_Delmar_. An abbreviation of De la Mare.

_Denis_, or Dennis.

_Denney_, or Denny.

_Denton._

_Derry_, for D'Arry or D'Airy.

_Desha._ (Fr. Deshayes.) A grandson of Governor Desha of Kentucky, visiting many years ago the Valley of Wyoming, the ancestral home-place of the Desha family, found a venerable scion of the pioneer stock, who invariably spelt his name Deshay. Fields, woods, hedges, etc., give surnames to families. In the following line from an old French writer we find two family names, or at least words familiarly used as such:--_On lui dressoit des sentiers au travers des hayes de leurs bois_. The name Desha is accented on the second syllable, in Kentucky, this doubtless being the original pronunciation as implied by the ancestral orthography--"Deshay." Beyond the Seine in old Paris; beyond the Latin Quarter and the Faubourg St. Germain, near the fortifications, there stands--or did stand in the closing quarter of the last century--a block of antique villas. One of these was known as the _Villa Deshayes_. Captain Deshayes, of the French man-of-war _Le Grand Joseph_, made a gallant fight against two British frigates during the Colonial wars.

General Joseph Desha, after a brilliant military and political career, became Governor of Kentucky in 1824. His administration (says Collins, the old Whig historian) was strong and efficient. The message of Governor Desha of Kentucky, November 7, 1825, says Professor W. G. Sumner of Yale, "deserves attentive reading from any one who seeks to trace the movement of decisive forces in American political history."

Judge Bledsoe (the father-in-law of Governor Desha) is reported to have said that "Desha commenced his career with as sound a set of politics as any man in Kentucky, but it was his misfortune never to change them."

Even Desha's enemies concede that he made a brilliant and impressive appearance upon the hustings. His handsome person and carriage contributed much to this effect. He is described in that Hudibrastic skit, "The Stumpiad" (1816):

"With chapeau-bras and good broad sword, And fine as any English lord."

(Vide sketch and portrait of Desha in No. 18 of the Publications of The Filson Club: Battle of the Thames.)

_Devereux._

_Devine._ William le Devin, Normandy, 1180-95.

_Dewey._

_Dickens_, or Digons. Digin or Diquon, an early "nurse-name" of Richard. Digg, Diggery, Dickman, Digman, Digins, Diggins, "Dickens"--name of the novelist. Also, Dickson, Dickenson.

"Dickins," used as a nickname of Satan, is a contraction of the diminutive _Devilkins_.

_Dietrich._ (Scan.) Didrik. Didrich, Diderk, Diderisk. (From a list of Frisian Personal and Family Names--Barber.)

_Dimmett_, for Diment.

_Dimmitt._

_Dixie._ Armorially identified with Dicey. From Diss, Norfolk, which belonged to Richard de Lucy, Governor of Falaise. The Confederate war-song, therefore, bears a Norman name.

_Dodson._ The son of Dode, Alwinus Dodesone, occurs in Domesday as a tenant-in-chief. It is an open question whether it is Scandinavian or Anglo-Saxon. Even Lower is doubtful. There is a large connection of this name in Maryland and Kentucky. One branch is connected with the Botelers of Virginia. A good English stock.

_Doggett._

_Doniphan._ Probably an early form of Donovan. By old writers (says Lower) the name is written Dondubhan ("the brown-haired chief")--changed to Doniphan by the familiar substitution of p for b. The Doniphans of Kentucky were a strong race--lawyers, soldiers, physicians, etc. General William Nelson's mother was a Doniphan.

Joseph Doniphan came to the Fort at Boonesborough in 1777. He is said to have been the first school-teacher in Kentucky.

At the battle of Bracito, the Mexican leader of a large force called upon Colonel Doniphan (a Kentuckian) to surrender, with the alternative "no quarter."

"Surrender, or I will charge your lines!"

The answer came at once--"_Charge and be damned_!"

There was no surrender. The Mexicans lost.

Colonel Alexander Doniphan was a close maternal kinsman of General William Nelson, of Kentucky, and like him in many respects.

_Dougles_, or Dougless.

_Dover_, from Douvres or Dovers, Normandy. A baronet family which derived its name from a Scandinavian Dover at the conquest of Normandy, 912. Dover, Kentucky, is doubtless in the same line of descent.

_Dowell_, for Doel or Dol. Rivallon, Seneschal of Dol, ancestor of the Counts of Dol; connections of the du Guesclins (of France) and Stuarts (of Scotland). Passing into a Celtic environment, a Norman Dol or Dowell would naturally assume the Celtic prefix, "Mac," as in like circumstances English settlers have done. In Lord Stair's list of _Macs_, he gives _Dowale_, _Douall_, _Dowell_. McDowell is the form the name assumes in Virginia and Kentucky, one branch of the family (McDowells) being known as the _McDoles_, a traditional pronunciation of the name. The progenitor of the family, Colonel Samuel M. Dowell, was a Colonial leader in Virginia, and conspicuous and influential as a pioneer in Kentucky. He was President of the Convention that organized the State.

The common derivation of "Dowell" is from _Dougall_, and was intended in the Highlands to apply exclusively to the _Lowlander_; though quite as applicable to the "man from below." (Vide Lower: _Dhu_, black; _gall_, a stranger.)

_Downing._ Old English name familiar in Kentucky. A loc. n. Worc. (Eng.)

_Drake._ There is no reason to doubt that the Drakes of Devon were all originally of the same race. They bore a dragon (Draco), showing that their name had been Draco. The father of Daniel Drake came to Kentucky in the closing years of the Eighteenth Century, settling in the rich bluegrass county of Mason. Along with a rifle and an axe, he brought five books to the wilds of Kentucky, to wit, a Bible, a hymn book, an arithmetic, a spelling book, and the "Famous History of Montellion, a Romance of the Ages of Chivalry." "The Letters of Lord Chesterfield,"--borrowed by the father of Daniel from a friend in the neighboring Virginian colony--"fell in mighty close"--says the son--"with the tastes of the whole family." Chesterfield and Montellion:--ideal educators even in this "school of the woods," as it was happily termed by its most distinguished graduate, Doctor Daniel Drake.

Daniel Drake was not only a skillful physician and accomplished scholar, but he was the founder of a famous medical school, and an author whose productions, in the estimation of competent critics, have given him and his country a splendid and enduring renown. His elaborate and systematic treatise upon the Diseases of the Valley of the Mississippi is a work which lays broad the foundations of medico-geographical research in the Western Hemisphere, and foreshadows in masterly fashion the rigorous methods of physical science that are now universally in vogue. The author was an explorer by right of birth. He was a true son of his pioneer father, and a typical scion of an adventurous race. The daring navigator, Sir Francis Drake, the son of a Devonshire yeoman, was a true kinsman in spirit, and probably in blood. The same passion for exploration which drove the one to circle the universal seas in an English keel inspired the other to toil through the vast spaces of a continental wilderness and explore the haunts of pestilence upon the shores of the Mexican Gulf. It is doubtless as the author of that unique work--"The Diseases of the Great Interior Valley"--that Daniel Drake will chiefly be remembered, and certainly no one could desire a better title to remembrance. The motto of his famous "Journal," E SYLVIS NUNCIUS, is a succinct and happy characterization of the man. He was indeed an ambassador from nature, and his credentials have passed unchallenged to this day.

_Drewry._

_Duckworth._

_Dudley._

_Duer._

_Duncan_, or Dunkin.

_Duke._ Le Duc, Normandy, 1180-98. Radulphus Dux (or Duke), of Bucks, England, 1199. The name keeps its old distinction in Kentucky. It will long survive in social tradition and always hold a high place in the history of the State.

AN ANGLO-NORMAN FAMILY. _Dr. Basil Duke_, born in Calvert County, Maryland, 1766; died in Washington, Ky., 1828; married, 1794, Charlotte Marshall, born, 1777, in Fauquier County, Virginia; died in Washington, Kentucky, April 17, 1817. She was a sister of Chief-Justice Marshall.

1. Thomas Marshall Duke, born 1795, died about 1870; married: 1. Bettie Taylor. 2. Nancy Ashby. 3. ---- McCormick.

2. Mary Wilson Duke, born February 7, 1797; married, May 7, 1818, Dr. John F. Henry; died September, 1823.

3. James Keith Duke, born, Washington, Ky., 1799; died August 2, 1863; married, February 5, 1822, Mary Buford.

4. Nathaniel Wilson Duke, born 1806; died at Paris, Ky., July, 1850; married, October 4, 1833, Mary Currie. Parents of General Basil Duke.

5. John Marshall Duke, born, Washington, Ky., October 29, 1811, died in Maysville, Ky., 1880; married Hannah Morton.

6. Lucy Ann Duke born Washington, Ky., January 11, 1814; died Rock Island, Ill.; married, January 20, 1835, Charles Buford.

7. Charlotte Jane Duke, born Washington, Ky., January 20, 1817; died February, 1886; married, January 14, 1840, Harrison Taylor, "War" Speaker of the House of Representatives. (Kentucky.)

The Dukes of South Mason are descended from Alexander Duke of Maryland, a tall, vigorous specimen of the Anglo-Norman breed who lived to be nearly one hundred years of age. His son, Dr. Basil Duke, was a brigade surgeon in the Confederate service.

_Durrell_, from Durell. Armorially identified with Darrell, Durrant, Durran, Durrock, and possibly Durrett. (Vide Durrett.) Note how slight a change converts the Norman name Clarte into Claret. So, Druett into Durrett.

_Durrett._ A surname traceable beyond the Conquest, and having all the marks of a Norman surname. If not of literal record in our various lists, it is evidence of defect in the list itself. It is a familiar tradition in Colonel Paul Durrett's family that the original form of the surname was _Duret_, and that the family was of French extraction. Widely separated branches of the same stock have the same tradition. Every village in Normandy--says Camden--has "surnamed" a family in England. It is easy to perceive, therefore, that the number of surnames thus derived, added to the number derived from other sources, would oblige the compilers of genealogical dictionaries from sheer exhaustion to _omit_ many names. There is a simple process of linguistic mutation which explains the genesis of many words. It is known as _transposition_. It may be a transposition of _letters_, as in the simple name _Crisp_, transpose the terminal letters and we have the familiar name _Crips_; or it may be a transposition of _syllables_, of which we have a famous example in _Al-macks_, _decelticized_ for Anglican uses by a simple transposition of the syllables in the Celtic surname--_Mack-All_. So, Durand, Durant (vide Battle Abbey Roll and D. B.), DeRuelle, Durelle, Druell, Durell, Durel, Durell (Huguenot, London, 1697), Durrell; so, too, Drouet (Nor. Fr.), Druet, Druett, Durrett. _Duré_ is a French surname easily Normanized by the addition of the diminutive suffix _et_ or _ett_, giving us Duré, Duret, or Durett; and when consonantally _braced_ (more Anglico) by doubling the "r," we have _Durrett_--a familiar surname in Kentucky. _Dur_, the adjective, means _hard, durable, enduring_; the noun _Dur_ is _door_; _ett_ is a Norman suffix; giving the ancient surname _Durrett_ a characteristic Norman stamp, structure, and _cachet_.

_Dye_, for Deye.

_Dyer._

_Eames._ Ames.

_Edmonds_, or Edmunds.

_Egerton._

_Eckert._

_Eliot._

_Ellis_, or Alis, from Alis near Pont de l'Arche. The sensational duel between Major Thomas Marshall and Captain Charles Mitchell was fought upon the place of Mr. Washington Ellis, near Maysville, Ky. It has been well described by Dr. Anderson Nelson Ellis, his son, an accomplished writer and physician.

_Ellison._

_Emet_, or Emmett, from Amiot, Normandy.

_English_, or Inglis; families of this name are all Norman. England is another form of Anglicus.

_Eve_, or Ives.

_Everett_, from Evreux. (Normandy.)

_Fail_, for Faiel, Fales. William Faiel, Normandy, 1180. Reginald Fale, England, 1272.

_Faint_ for Fant.

_Falconer_, or Falkner.

_Farish_, or Fariss or Ferris.

_Farley_, or Varley.

_Farrer_, armorially identified with Ferrers of Bere. Ferrers, Farrow, the same. A large family, well and widely connected in Virginia and Kentucky. Archdeacon Farrer is of the same gens. The name is variously spelled Farrer, Farrow, Farra, Farrers.

_Faulconer_, for Falconer; also Faulkner.

_Fell_, _Fayle_, or Fail, Fales.

_Fickling._

_Field._ Richard de la Felda is mentioned in Normandy, temp. John (Mem. Soc. Ant. Norm. V. 126). Burke (Landed Gentry) states under the head De la Field that this family was originally seated in Alsace near the Vosges Mountains. The author of "The Norman People" says the name embraces both English and Norman families. Pierce's great two-volume "Genealogy" (profusely illustrated) exhibits the prodigious growth in America, including such names as Cyrus Field, Justice Field, Marshall Field, and Judge Curtis Field. The Kentucky Fields were connected by marriage with the Clays of Bourbon. Pierce's genealogy gives very pleasing views of "Auvergne," the home of the Field-Clays. This estate was inherited by Hon. Cassius M. Clay, Jr., of Bourbon. Henry Field (Eng. 1611) came to Virginia in 1635. Lieutenant Henry Field, Culpeper County, Virginia, married Ann Lightfoot, May, 1771. His will made November 19, 1777. His daughter, Judith Field, married Francis Taylor, of Maryland, in Louisville, Ky., February 14, 1774. Francis Taylor studied law with Judge Sebastian in Louisville. Lucretia, a daughter of Francis and Judith Taylor, married Captain James B. Robinson. The Fields family of Tennessee (afterward of Kentucky) are now in the North, the brothers James and Henry being conspicuous in the management of important steel and iron trusts. Their sister, Mrs. Charles D. Lanier, is a resident of New York City. Her husband (a son of the famous Southern poet) is now at the head of "The Review of Reviews."

_Fillpot_ or Philpot, from Philipot, diminutive of Philip.

_Finch._

_Finney._

_Fisher._

_Fisk_, or Fyska.

_Fitch_, or Fitz.

_Fitzgerald._

_Flanders_, or Flamders. Common in England after the Conquest.

_Fleet._

_Fleming._ The Flemings of Fleming are derived from the Flemings of Virginia.

_Fleming._ The Flemings of "Wigton" came from Flanders in the train of William the Conqueror. Sir Thomas Fleming came to Virginia in 1626. Colonel John Fleming (another Wigtonshire Fleming) came from Virginia to Kentucky in 1790. His grandson, John Donaldson Fleming, was also a pioneer and served with marked efficiency as United States District Attorney for Colorado.

_Fletcher._

_Flowers._

_Foakes_, or Fowkes.

_Foley._

_Folk._ Governor of Missouri. A political leader of distinction.

_Follett._

_Force_, de Forz.

_Foreman_, or Forman for Fairman. The Forman family of Kentucky (local pronunciation _Fur_-man) forms one of the largest and most influential connections in the State. They are Scandinavians of a high type.

_Forrest._

_Forrester._

_Forster_, or Foster. James Lane Allen was a Foster in the maternal line.

_Fountain_, de Fonte.

_Fowke_, Gerard, a Kentuckian, directed the later Horsford Excavations at Cambridge. He is a descendant of the "Elizabethan" Fowke, a Virginian pioneer. His latest paper described his explorations of the Lower Amur Valley. It was a cold trail, but the story is one of singular interest.

_Fowkes_, or Fowke. See Foakes.

_Fowler._

_Fox_, or Reinard. The Norman name was translated in England after the Conquest, being previously Rainer, Renard, etc. The celebrated Fox family of England was derived from Le Fox, Normandy. Renard de Douvres is familiarly known in Kentucky as "Fox of Dover." The Fox family of Dover are descendants of a wealthy Virginian, Arthur Fox, distinguished among the pioneer citizens of the State. Judge Fountain Fox of Boyle and the Southern novelist, John Fox, were doubtless derived from the same Anglo-Norman stock.

_Francis_, Governor of Missouri; Organizer of the World's Fair in commemoration of the Louisiana Purchase.

_Frazee_, Fraser, Frazier, Fraize, a loc. n. in France. Fr. Fraiseur. From _fraiser_, to fortify with stakes. Samuel Frazee, a revolutionary soldier, came to Madison County, Ky., in 1792. Progenitor of a large and prominent family in the State. Doctor Lewis J. Frazee, of Louisville, was author of "A Medical Student, Europe," a mid-century publication.

_Freyer_, or Frier. (Old Norse.) Armorially identified in Normandy with Frere. Ansgot Frater, of Normandy, 1198. In England, 1326.

_Gaines._

_Gairdner_, or Gardner (C. Jardinier).

_Gambier._

_Gamble._

_Garland._

_Garrard_, for Gerard; Ralph and William Gerard, Normandy, 1180-95. Twenty-six of the name in England, 1272.

_Garratt._ Roger and William Garrett, of Normandy, 1180.

_Garrett._

_Gaskin._

_Gaskins._

_Gates._

_Gault._

_Gay._ Ralph Gai, Normandy, 1180. Robert de Gay, a benefactor to Osney, Oxford.

_Geary_, or Gery, Normandy, 1165. William de Gueri. Of this name are the baronets Geary.

_Gentry_, Chantry. From Chaintre, near Macon.

_Gibbon_, or Gibbons.

_Gibbs._

_Gibson._

_Gilbert._

_Gill_, Gille or Giles.

_Gillman._

_Gilpin_, Galopin.

_Glen_, or Glenn.

_Goble_, for Gobel.

_Goddard._

_Godfrey._

_Goggin_, or Gogin, Normandy, 1195; England, 1272. William L. Goggin was a mid-century Governor of Virginia. Lucien B. Goggin, his brother, was a prominent citizen of Kentucky. This ancient surname is distinctly traceable by record from Normandy to England; from England to Virginia; from Virginia to Kentucky. And this is but one out of _many names_, officially recorded in Normandy, that reappear, hundreds of years afterward, in Kentucky.

_Goode._

_Gooding._

_Goodman._

_Gordon_, or Berwick (Anglo-Norman, also a Celtic clan name).

_Goring._

_Gosling._

_Gossett._

_Gowan._

_Graham_, in all the early records of England, means Grantham in Lincoln. William de Graham, who settled in Scotland, came from Grantham. Ralph, hereditary chamberlain of Normandy, had two grandsons--(1) Rabel, ancestor of the Chamberlains of Normandy. (2) William de Graham, ancestor of Montrose and Dundee.

_Grand_, Le Grant, Grand; Scottish Grants are Celtic.

_Graves._

_Gray_, Greey or Grey. From Gray, Normandy, near Caen.

_Grenfell._ Recalling the name of the gallant Englishman that rode with Morgan.

_Gresham._

_Gunn._ William de Gons, Normandy, 1280. William Gun, England, 1272. Dennis Gunn, Kentucky, 1870.

_Gurney_, from De Gournay.

_Gurdon_, from Gourdon, near Calais.

_Hailie_, for Hailly or D'Aily.

_Haines._ From Haisne, near Arras.

_Haley_, for Hailey.

_Haley_, for Hailey. Percy Haley is notably Anglo-Norman.

_Hall._

_Halliday_, or Holliday. Recalls the famous Overland Route.