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Elizabeth Taylor Thruston

Elizabeth Taylor Thruston

Female 1785 - 1838  (53 years)

Personal Information    |    Notes    |    Sources    |    All    |    PDF

  • Name Elizabeth Taylor Thruston 
    Birth 13 Feb 1785 
    Gender Female 
    Death Mar 1838  Louisville, Jefferson County, KY Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Person ID I21932  Bob Juch's Tree
    Last Modified 31 Dec 2022 

    Father John Thruston,   b. 15 Oct 1761, Louisville, Jefferson County, KY Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Relationship natural 
    Mother Elizabeth Thruston Whiting,   b. Abt 1771, Virginia, USA Find all individuals with events at this locationd. Jul 1822, Kentucky Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 51 years) 
    Relationship natural 
    Marriage 13 Oct 1782  Virginia, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  [1
    Family ID F8372  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family Worden Pope,   b. 1776   d. May 1837, Louisville, Jefferson County, KY Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 61 years) 
    Marriage 11 Sep 1804 
    Family ID F8292  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 31 Dec 2022 

  • Notes 
    • In 1804 Worden Pope married Elizabeth Thruston, a lineal descendant
      of the Thruston of the revolution, an eloquent divine who left his pulpit
      and fought gallantly in the Colonial ranks against Great Britain and who
      in consequence of his courageous service has ever since been known by the
      sobriquet of "The Warrior Parson." She was a daughter of John Thruston,
      who represented Kentucky in the Virginia Legislature before the former
      became a State, and also the niece of Judge Buckner Thruston, who was one
      of the first two United States Senators from Kentucky. She was also the
      sister of Charles M. Thruston, of Louisville, a great lawyer and a
      speaker,
      who, when in the mood or aroused, was the equal of any one.
      The fruit of the marriage of Worden Pope with Elizabeth Thruston was
      a large family. Of all the children, thirteen in number, Hamilton Pope
      alone has reached an old age. He has enjoyed a long, successful and most
      honorable career at the Louisville Bar, and is a man of decided ability
      and marked characteristics. Averse to public life, he has never sought
      office; indeed, he has declined several times the nomination for Congress
      tendered him by the Whig party, although in early life he was induced to
      serve the people of Louisville in the Legislature and in the Senate at
      Frankfort. Had he chosen to follow the paths which lead to public honor,
      he would have achieved a national fame and been eminent in the councils of
      the Nation. Standing six feet and four inches high, he is a man of
      commanding presence, of the very purest private and professional
      character,
      of an integrity that has never been sullied, and is possessed of a
      magnetism which has made his personality potent in its influence with all
      those with whom he has come in contact. In the fall of 1855 he was
      married to Mrs. Prather, of Washington County, Kentucky, the daughter of
      Mr. Samuel Booker, and a woman of many personal attractions, of brilliant
      attainments and gifted with rare conversational powers.
      Patrick Pope, the eldest son of Worden Pope, died in his
      thirty-fourth
      year. Graduating as valedictorian from St. Joseph's College, Bardstown,
      Kentucky, he began the practice of law in the city of his birth, in 1827.
      He speedily rose to distinction in his profession. By his ability and
      eloquence he overcame a Whig majority of one thousand, being elected to
      the Legislature over the beloved and talented Henry Crittenden. When he
      made this brilliant canvass he was not yet twenty-five years of age. He
      ably co-operated with his father and the other members of his family in
      bringing out General Jackson for their presidency. Declining the place
      of Secretary of State, tendered him by Governor Breathitt, he was elected
      in his twenty-eighth year to Congress, which position he filled with
      credit
      and reputation to himself and with acceptance to his electors. He died
      May 4, 1840. Notwithstanding his premature death Mr. Pope had attained an
      enviable public rank. His conversational powers, integrity of character
      and eloquence, made him one of the first lawyers of his time.
      Edmund Pendleton Pope, who was generally known as Pendleton Pope, was
      the third son. He was tall and slender, with a strong and most pleasing
      face, and graceful person; graduated with honor in the regular course at
      Transylvania University; was, like his brother Patrick, gifted with rare
      conversational power, and inherited the constitutional intrepidity of his
      father. He was for fifteen years clerk of the Circuit Court, and
      afterward practiced law with great success to the day of his death, which
      occurred in his forty-seventh year. More than thirty years ago the
      writer heard his argument in defense of Johnson, who killed Lawrence, and
      so great was the impression then made, that the more eloquent parts of
      his speech remain in the memory of the write to this day. He married
      Nancy, the daughter of Colonel James Johnson, of Scott County, Ky., and
      has three sons--Judge Alfred Thruston Pope, Captain James Worden Pope and
      Hamilton Pope, Jr., who survive him.
      Curran Pope, the fourth son, graduated at West Point in 1836, and
      after a short service in the army he resigned to take one of the
      clerkships
      made vacant by his father. He held the office for seventeen years, the
      last
      four of which were by election by the people. He was a citizen of much of
      much public spirit; one of the original projectors and directors of the
      Louisville & Nashville Railroad; one of the main promoters of Louisville
      Water Works; devoted much of his time as trustee of Danville College, and
      as trustee of various educational institutions of Louisville especially to
      a seminary organized and established by himself and others in the old
      homestead of his father; served for eleven years in the General Council of
      Louisville; and on the breaking out of the late war he espoused the cause
      of the Union. He raised the Fifteenth Kentucky Regiment, which, after a
      varied service, was decimated in the battle of Perryville, which, for the
      number and length of time engaged, is said to have been the bloodiest
      battle of the war. Early in the action Colonel Pope's horse was killed
      under him, and toward the close of the engagement he was shot through the
      shoulder. E.P. Humphrey, D.D., LL.D., the scholarly author of "Sacred
      History from the Creation to the Giving of the Law" who was the co-laborer
      in many fields of usefulness with Colonel Pope, and who was his life-long
      friend, thus writes of him a short time after Colonel Pope's death: . .
      "through his father, the late Worden Pope, Esq.--in his day one of the
      foremost citizens of the commonwealth--and through his excellent mother
      and
      amiable wife as well, he was allied to some of the most influential
      families in the country. . . His ample private fortune released him, in a
      large measure, from professional labor; so that he was able to devote the
      last twelve years of his life to the general interests of society.
      As an office-bearer in one of our largest city churches, and in many
      other positions, he rendered the most important services. He brought to
      all his trusts a fine capacity for business, public spirit, unwearied
      diligence, habits of system, order, and punctuality, and a nice sense of
      duty. Few men of his generation here have performed as much gratuitous
      and
      arduous labor for the common good. It happened to him to be of the number
      of those in whom all the great issues of life flow together in a single
      hour of supreme necessity and peril; when the high qualities, which have
      been for nearly fifty years slowly maturing within them, are brought to a
      final and fiery test, and suddenly emerge all aglow with consummate
      splendor. Colonel Pope met that hour on the bloody slopes of Perryville,
      and took the crown. The writer of these lines was during the whole day
      within hearing distance of the artillery and musketry; was at one time on
      the outskirts of the field, and before the dead were all buried he
      carefully surveyed the ground on which the battle was fought. The carnage
      over, the whole field was frightful, and Colonel Pope stood in one of its
      hottest positions. His regiment was posted upon the brow of the hill; the
      enemy was arrayed in two lines on the slope below him, one of these lines
      being partially concealed in a field of standing corn, the other protected
      by a substantial stone-wall. The positions of the rebels being down the
      hill gave them this important advantage. They would not be likely to fire
      too high, while Pope's troops, being so much above them, could hardly
      avoid
      that mistake. Besides, the foremost rebel line had the stone-wall in
      their
      rear, to the cover of which they could at any time retreat, and to which,
      in point of fact, they did retreat under the fire of our gallant
      Fifteenth.
      Furthermore, the right of the regiment rested on a barn, which, early in
      the action, was set on fire by s shell from the enemy, so that our troops
      on that wing were nearly roasted by the flames. And, more than all, the
      brave Jouett and Campbell were shot down in the very beginning; the noble
      McGrath, who went to Jouett's assistance, was instantly killed. Pope's
      horse was shot under him; he himself was wounded, and his men were falling
      in heaps around him. Colonel Pope stood near the center of the column,
      about four feet from the line of battle giving direction to every
      movement.
      Just in front of the position was a low rail fence; further down the hill
      are two trees, the trunks of which are about the size of a man's body. The
      bullet marks in trees and in the rails leave us in wonder how any human
      being standing in that line of battle could have escaped death. Yet such
      was the intrepidity of the regiment and of its commander that they held
      their ground, until ordered to another position, when they filed out into
      the road and marched off in perfect order. Colonel Pope, on reaching his
      new position, ordered his men to lie down under the brow of the hill as a
      protection from the enemy's shells. General Rousseau, observing some
      change in the field, rode up and suggested to Colonel Pope the propriety
      of
      showing his forces to the enemy. Colonel Pope instantly gave the order;
      the men sprang to their feet and marched in line to the battle, to the top
      of the hill. The General was so much struck with their promptness and
      discipline, that he put his cap on his sword and waved it with the cry,
      `Hurra for Kentucky!' Night soon set in; and, of the Fifteenth,
      seventy-two
      slept in death, about a hundred and seventy staunched, as best they could,
      their bleeding wounds, and the others rested on their arms. Colonel Pope
      remained with the army a few days and joined in the pursuit of Bragg, who
      fled to the mountains; but, finding himself utterly exhausted, he returned
      to Danville, where he lingered three weeks and died. He looked forward to
      the eternal world with pious composure, and expressed his unwavering
      confidence in the Savior. But for this opportunity on the field of
      battle,
      none, not his most intimate friends even, would have known the man. In
      him
      we have an instance pointing out the fine distinction between certain
      brutal ferocity, which sometimes passes by the name of courage, and that
      more humane and exalted sentiment which springs out of a nice sense of
      honor, the love of country and the fear of God. Such was Colonel Pope's
      quiet, and amiable, and even diffident manner in society, that no man, not
      even he himself, knew what a brave and gallant heart was hidden in his
      bosom, patiently waiting the hour of his grant manifestation. The hour
      came; the man was fully revealed to the homage of his countrymen, and his
      life was finished, wearing "the beauty of a thing completed" a good work
      well done. He name is enrolled with the dead heroes of the Commonwealth.
      She will never suffer his memory to perish."
      Wm. R. Thompson, in his "Historical Sketch of the Pope Family," thus
      speaks of Colonel Pope: he "was the idol of the men he commanded. Though
      of
      a very gentle and inoffensive disposition, he was one of the bravest, most
      resolute men in the Union army, equally ready to oppose and smite a giant,
      or to soothe and protect a child, and many a tear was shed by his brave
      and
      scar-covered soldiers when he had to leave them. The writer of this, who
      saw Colonel Pope Monday after the battle Perryville, has heard many of his
      soldiers say that after a long and tiresome march, when night came and
      they
      went into camp, other officers sought a house to sleep in, but Colonel
      Pope
      laid down upon the ground with his men, and took their fare. He looked
      upon
      them as a father looks upon his children, and he said it was his duty to
      be
      with them and take care of them. He never sought or claimed any better
      fare
      than his soldiers got; hence his immense popularity with his men who
      revere
      his memory to this day with the affection of a child for its father. When
      you meet one of the Fifteenth Kentucky who fought at Perryville, ask him
      what he thinks of Colonel Curran Pope, and he will give you a better
      eulogy
      than I can write, more graphic and to the point; he can tell facts I know
      not in his undying praise and he will love to talk to you about him. The
      writer of this article was well acquainted with Colonel Curran Pope before
      the war, and saw him several times in his camp after he entered the army,
      and he can bear witness to his great worth as a man, citizen and soldier.
      The slaughter of Pope's regiment at Perryville was so great, that
      afterward
      it was given the sobriquet of the `Bloody Regiment.'"
      General Sherman succeeded General Anderson to the command in Kentucky
      in the earliest stage of the war. His headquarters were at Louisville,
      and
      there he often met Colonel Pope, who had already determined to enter the
      army of the Union. General Sherman had abundant opportunity to form a
      correct estimate of Colonel Pope's character, a correct estimate of
      Colonel
      Pope's character, both as a soldier and as a gentleman. A few days after
      he learned through the public prints of the death of Colonel Pope,
      although
      he was burdened with the absorbing responsibilities of a great military
      command, he wrote Colonel Pope's widow the following letter:

      "Headquarters, Memphis, Tenn.,
      November 10, 1862.

      Dear Madam: --
      . . . . I know you will pardon me, afar off, if, at this your dread
      hour,
      I come to bear my feeble show of honor to him whose name you bear and
      and whose child will in after years look back upon as one of those heroes
      who labored and gave his life to his country. Well do I recall the soft
      and gentle voice of Curran Pope, the peculiar delicacy of his approach,
      the almost unequal courtesy of hi manner and the first faint doubt that
      one
      so gentle, so mild, so beautiful in character, should be a warrior; but
      another look, and his eye, the plain direct assertion of a high and holy
      purpose, with the pressure of his lips, told that he was a man; one to
      lead; one to go where duty called him though the path led through the hail
      storm of battle. Among all the men I have ever met in the progress of
      this
      un-natural war, I cannot recall one in whose every act and expression was
      so manifest the good and true man; one who so well filled the type of
      the Kentucky gentleman.
      He died not upon the battle-field but of wounds inflicted by
      parricidal
      hands on Kentucky's soil and his blood is the cement that will ever more
      bind together the disjointed parts of a mighty nation. Though for a time
      smitten down by the terrible calamity, may you and your child soon learn
      to
      look upon his name and fame as encircled by a halo of glory more beautiful
      than ever decked the victor's brow. Curran Pope is dead, but millions
      will
      battle on, till from his heaven-home he will see his own beloved Kentucky
      the center of his great country, regenerated and disenthralled from the
      toils of wicked men.
      I fear that in trying to carry comfort to an afflicted heart, I do
      it rudely, but I know you will permit me in my blunt way to bear my
      feeble testimony to the goodness, braveness, and gallantry of the man who
      more nearly filled the picture of the preux chevalier of this age, than
      any man I have yet met. I know you are in the midst of a host of friends,
      but should in the progress of years any opportunity come by which I can be
      of service to any of the family of Curran Pope, command me.

      With great respect,
      Your obedient servant,
      W. T. Sherman.
      Maj. Gen. Vols."

      Curran Pope was married to Matilda Prather, a daughter of John I.
      Jacob, by whom he was blessed with one daughter, Mary Tyler Pope, who is
      possessed of many accomplishments, great force of character and intellect,
      and of much beauty, and who still lives in the home of her heroic father,
      the happy wife of Judge Alfred Thruston Pope, and the devoted mother of an
      interesting family.

      Pope Walker May Ormsby Brown Penn Marshall Field Daniel Rowan Jacob
      Thruston Johnson Humphrey Jouett Campbell McGrath
      =
      Bullitt-KY Nelson-KY Washington-KY Scott-KY Westmoreland-VA AL IN

  • Sources 
    1. Details: Film #: 537564, Page #: , Ordinance #:.