DEATH OF A MODERN SAMPSON. -
Captain John W. Russell died in Franklin county, Ky., last week, aged 75 years. The Louisville Courier-Journal says:
He was famous among Western pioneers for his strength and intrepidity. He served in the war of 1812, was a member of the State Senate, and an intimate personal and partisan friend of Henry Clay. He was for many years a Mississippi steamboat captain. The incidents of his force of will and power to command would fill a volume. On one occasion, in New Orleans, he had a personal rencounter with the pirate Lafitte, and unarmed, whipped him and ejected him from a ball room. On another, while landed at Natchez, a passenger of his boat was robbed by the gang which infested that portion of the town bordering on the river, and known as "Natchez under the Hill." By surrounding with his crew the house in which the robbers took refuge, he passed a cable around it and under threats of pulling it, with its inmates in the river, he compelled restitution of the money, and made himself a terror to the thieves and gamblers who then infested the river towns. Of his great strength, persons who knew him only in his later years, when enfeebled by age would have had but little conception, though when in his prime it was known from Pittsburgh to New Orleans that he had lifted a shaft weighing 1647 pounds, and that he had carried entirely across the deck of the boat an anchor of 1242 pounds weight.
The Lafayette Advertiser.; Vermilionville, Louisiana.
August 28, 1869; Page Two.
dm wms (#47395868)
***Additional information supplied by James Kelly****
RUSSELL, CAPTAIN JOHN W. Franklin County, Born 11 Oct. 1794 on the farm where he died; "in 1813 he joined Peter Dudley"s company and bore part in the siege of Fort Meigs and other engagements on our northern frontier." He died 1 Aug. 1869. C, 6 Aug. 1869
Captain John W. Russell died in Franklin county, Ky., last week, aged 75 years. The Louisville Courier-Journal says:
He was famous among Western pioneers for his strength and intrepidity. He served in the war of 1812, was a member of the State Senate, and an intimate personal and partisan friend of Henry Clay. He was for many years a Mississippi steamboat captain. The incidents of his force of will and power to command would fill a volume. On one occasion, in New Orleans, he had a personal rencounter with the pirate Lafitte, and unarmed, whipped him and ejected him from a ball room. On another, while landed at Natchez, a passenger of his boat was robbed by the gang which infested that portion of the town bordering on the river, and known as "Natchez under the Hill." By surrounding with his crew the house in which the robbers took refuge, he passed a cable around it and under threats of pulling it, with its inmates in the river, he compelled restitution of the money, and made himself a terror to the thieves and gamblers who then infested the river towns. Of his great strength, persons who knew him only in his later years, when enfeebled by age would have had but little conception, though when in his prime it was known from Pittsburgh to New Orleans that he had lifted a shaft weighing 1647 pounds, and that he had carried entirely across the deck of the boat an anchor of 1242 pounds weight.
The Lafayette Advertiser.; Vermilionville, Louisiana.
August 28, 1869; Page Two.
dm wms (#47395868)
***Additional information supplied by James Kelly****
RUSSELL, CAPTAIN JOHN W. Franklin County, Born 11 Oct. 1794 on the farm where he died; "in 1813 he joined Peter Dudley"s company and bore part in the siege of Fort Meigs and other engagements on our northern frontier." He died 1 Aug. 1869. C, 6 Aug. 1869
DEATH OF A MODERN SAMPSON. -
Captain John W. Russell died in Franklin county, Ky., last week, aged 75 years. The Louisville Courier-Journal says:
He was famous among Western pioneers for his strength and intrepidity. He served in the war of 1812, was a member of the State Senate, and an intimate personal and partisan friend of Henry Clay. He was for many years a Mississippi steamboat captain. The incidents of his force of will and power to command would fill a volume. On one occasion, in New Orleans, he had a personal rencounter with the pirate Lafitte, and unarmed, whipped him and ejected him from a ball room. On another, while landed at Natchez, a passenger of his boat was robbed by the gang which infested that portion of the town bordering on the river, and known as "Natchez under the Hill." By surrounding with his crew the house in which the robbers took refuge, he passed a cable around it and under threats of pulling it, with its inmates in the river, he compelled restitution of the money, and made himself a terror to the thieves and gamblers who then infested the river towns. Of his great strength, persons who knew him only in his later years, when enfeebled by age would have had but little conception, though when in his prime it was known from Pittsburgh to New Orleans that he had lifted a shaft weighing 1647 pounds, and that he had carried entirely across the deck of the boat an anchor of 1242 pounds weight.
The Lafayette Advertiser.; Vermilionville, Louisiana.
August 28, 1869; Page Two.
dm wms (#47395868)
***Additional information supplied by James Kelly****
RUSSELL, CAPTAIN JOHN W. Franklin County, Born 11 Oct. 1794 on the farm where he died; "in 1813 he joined Peter Dudley"s company and bore part in the siege of Fort Meigs and other engagements on our northern frontier." He died 1 Aug. 1869. C, 6 Aug. 1869
Captain John W. Russell died in Franklin county, Ky., last week, aged 75 years. The Louisville Courier-Journal says:
He was famous among Western pioneers for his strength and intrepidity. He served in the war of 1812, was a member of the State Senate, and an intimate personal and partisan friend of Henry Clay. He was for many years a Mississippi steamboat captain. The incidents of his force of will and power to command would fill a volume. On one occasion, in New Orleans, he had a personal rencounter with the pirate Lafitte, and unarmed, whipped him and ejected him from a ball room. On another, while landed at Natchez, a passenger of his boat was robbed by the gang which infested that portion of the town bordering on the river, and known as "Natchez under the Hill." By surrounding with his crew the house in which the robbers took refuge, he passed a cable around it and under threats of pulling it, with its inmates in the river, he compelled restitution of the money, and made himself a terror to the thieves and gamblers who then infested the river towns. Of his great strength, persons who knew him only in his later years, when enfeebled by age would have had but little conception, though when in his prime it was known from Pittsburgh to New Orleans that he had lifted a shaft weighing 1647 pounds, and that he had carried entirely across the deck of the boat an anchor of 1242 pounds weight.
The Lafayette Advertiser.; Vermilionville, Louisiana.
August 28, 1869; Page Two.
dm wms (#47395868)
***Additional information supplied by James Kelly****
RUSSELL, CAPTAIN JOHN W. Franklin County, Born 11 Oct. 1794 on the farm where he died; "in 1813 he joined Peter Dudley"s company and bore part in the siege of Fort Meigs and other engagements on our northern frontier." He died 1 Aug. 1869. C, 6 Aug. 1869
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