Elizabeth Taylor Thruston

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

Elizabeth married Worden Pope on 11 Sep 1804. Worden was born in 1776; died in May 1837 in Louisville, Jefferson County, KY. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]