Background
Reuben Thomas Durrett was born on January 22, 1824. He was descended from the French family. Reuben Thomas was the son of William and Elizabeth (Rawlings) Durrett.
(Traditions of the earliest visits of foreigners to North ...)
Traditions of the earliest visits of foreigners to North America, the first formed and first inhabited of the continents. Atlantis tradition -- Phoenician tradition -- Chinese tradition -- Norse tradition -- Irish tradition -- Madoc tradition -- Madoc tradition in Europe -- Madoc tradition from Hakluit -- Madoc tradition in Welsh history -- Madoc tradition in America / introduced by John Smith -- Reverend Morgan Jones' statement -- Letters from Reverend Morgan Edwards' history of Baptists -- Captain Isaac Stewart's statement -- Charles Beatty's statement -- Benjamin Sutton's statement -- Reverend John Williams' inquiry into the truth of the Madoc tradition -- Levi Hicks statement -- George Burder's Welsh indians -- George Catlin's work on the indians -- Bryant & Gay's popular history -- Madoc tradition in Kentucky -- Filson's account of the tradition -- Opinions of prominent Kentucky pioneers at club meeting -- What Filson says in his history of Kentucky -- Lieutenant Joseph Robert's statement -- Maurice Griffithes' statement -- Thomas S. Hinde's letter -- Destruction of whole tribes of Indians -- America the oldest of the continents -- Agassiz on age of America -- America first inhabited on the continents -- Jefferson on first inhabitants of America -- Relics of Quaternary man found in Europe -- Relics of Tertiary man found in America -- Implements in glacial drift of Delaware River -- Relics in Auriferous Sands of California -- Bourbois River Mastodon -- Mummy of Mammoth Cave, Kentucky -- Florida Reef skeleton -- Skeleton of the Mississippi Delta -- Mound builders -- Burial of pioneer widow's sons -- Our love of the ancient natural -- Catlin on extinction of the Mandans -- Catlin on Welsh Colony -- Windsor's history of Island of Atlantis -- Bryant & Gay's history of Madoc tradition -- Bancroft on Atlantis and aboriginal races of America -- George Croghan to Governor Dinwiddie -- Speech of Caractacus before Claudius -- Description of the Welsh by Giraldus -- "Universal history" on the Madoc tradition -- Welsh a maritime people -- John Williams on culture of the Welsh -- Information from General Bowles -- What Morgan Jones knew of the Welsh Indians -- Binon's account of Welsh Indians -- Speech of the Emperor Montezuma -- Selections from the Gentleman's magazine -- Unbelievers in the Madoc tradition -- Lord Littleton on the Madoc tradition -- William Robertson on the Madoc tradition -- List of the members of the Filson club -- Brief catalogue of Filson club publications. 444 Pages.
https://www.amazon.com/Traditions-earliest-foreigners-inhabited-continents-ebook/dp/B01LKIUM6M?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B01LKIUM6M
(The Woods-McAfee memorial, containing an account of John ...)
The Woods-McAfee memorial, containing an account of John Woods and James McAfee of Ireland, and their descendants in America. 544 Pages
https://www.amazon.com/Woods-McAfee-memorial-containing-account-descendants-ebook/dp/B00S9QXSOW?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B00S9QXSOW
Reuben Thomas Durrett was born on January 22, 1824. He was descended from the French family. Reuben Thomas was the son of William and Elizabeth (Rawlings) Durrett.
Reuben Thomas grew up on his father’s farm, spent two years, 1844-46, at Georgetown College, Kentucky, and in 1849 acquired the degree of Bachelor of Arts from Brown University.
The following year, spent in the law school of the University of Louisville, brought him a degree and a sufficient knowledge of law to serve as the basis of a successful, though not uninterrupted, practise for thirty years.
In 1852 Durrett served as a member of the city council of Louisville; from 1857 to 1859 he was editor and half-owner of the Louisville Courier, exchanging expletives and pistol-shots with the redoubtable George D. Prentice, editor of the rival Journal; and in 1861 he spent a few weeks in military prison because of his outspoken approval of secession. In these formative years he found time to acquire a reputation as a writer of blank verse and a wider reputation as an orator. Many of these things, however, appear in perspective as merely the excesses of youth. Durrett’s greatest usefulness came after he gave up his practise in 1880.
An extensive law business combined with fortunate investments in natural gas had by this time brought him a large fortune, so that thereafter he was able to give liberal indulgence to his tastes.
Always a book lover, he now turned his energies to building up his library with the ambition of securing a copy of every book written by a Kentuckian or about Kentucky. His ambition gradually widened to include the entire Ohio Valley with the result that by the time of his death he had acquired what was probably the most valuable private library in the West. Counting some fifty thousand volumes, chiefly on western history, with unique collections of manuscripts and files of old newspapers, the Durrett library became a Mecca for workers in the field of western history.
Durrett’s reputation was chiefly made by his library but did not altogether depend on it. Utilizing the material he had himself collected, he began to write history, his first work appearing in the Southern Bivouac and his later works as publications of the Filson Club which he founded in 1884 and of which he was president until his death.
For thirty years he was a Maecenas to all history workers in the West. His library was always open to the student, and his influence on historical work in Kentucky can hardly be overestimated. His interest in books was evidenced not only by his own collection but also by the fact that In July 1912 Durrett suffered a stroke of paralysis from which he never recovered.
He lived for a year unable to talk and with the right side of his face paralyzed. Upon his death in 1913, his library, which he had offered to give to the city of Louisville provided it would build a fireproof building for the storing of it, was sold to the University of Chicago and was removed thither.
(The Woods-McAfee memorial, containing an account of John ...)
(Traditions of the earliest visits of foreigners to North ...)
In 1852 Durrett married Elizabeth H. Bates of Cincinnati.