Clark-Montgomery County KyArchives Biographies.....GORDEN, Randal Richardson December 15, 1821 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ky/kyfiles.html ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: J. Robison normadeplume@wmconnect.com October 22, 2008, 6:56 pm Author: Unknown 1880 History of Christian County, Illinois. R. R. GORDEN Mr. GORDEN is a Kentuckian by birth. His ancestors were formerly residents of Virginia. His grandfather, John GORDEN, was one of the patriotic sons of Virginia who fought in the American army during the Revolutionary war. He served through the whole seven years struggle with Great Britain. His home was on the James river, seventeen miles from the city of Richmond. In the year 1796 he emigrated from Virginia to Kentucky, and settled in Clark county on Four Mile creek, four or five miles from Winchester. He lived there till his death. Randal GORDEN, the father of the subject of this sketch, was born on the James river in Virginia in the year 1784, and was twelve years old when the family moved to Kentucky. When the family settled in Kentucky it was a new and wild country, still containing many hostile Indians. The family reached their new home in the wilderness by way of the Ohio river, and in floating down that stream they were obliged to lie in the bottom of the boat to prevent being shot by the Indians from the banks. Randal GORDEN was married to Rachel BABER, and moved from Clark to Montgomery county on Slate creek, where he resided the remainder of his life, a period of nearly fifty years. He died in November, 1853, when nearly seventy years of age. The BABER family were from the same part of Virginia as the GORDENS. Mr. GORDEN's mother was nine or ten years old when she came to Kentucky, and was accustomed to relate incidents which occurred as she rode a pack horse on a trail across the mountains on their journey from Virginia to Kentucky. Randal Richardson GORDEN, the subject of this biography, was the next to the youngest of a family of eleven children, and was born in Montgomery county, Kentucky, on the 18th of December, 1821. All of his brothers and sisters grew to years of maturity, and all married and had families except Mr. GORDEN's oldest brother, who was a lawyer, and died at Little Rock, Arkansas. Mr. GORDEN was raised in his native county in Kentucky. The schools which he attended when a boy, were of the kind common at that time in Kentucky-- subscription schools held in log school-houses with puncheon floors and split log benches. His first marriage occurred in November, 1848, to Isabelle WARREN, who was born and raised within three miles of Winchester, Clark county, Kentucky. She only lived eighteen months. When twenty-four years of age he learned the blacksmith trade near Camargo, in Montgomery county, Kentucky. He had first visited Illinois in the year 1845, but the country at that time offered so few attractions to the settler, and malarial diseases prevailed to such an extent, that he had little notion of making his permanent home in this state. In 1856, however, he concluded to remove to Illinois. While on his way to this state on the 28th of February, 1856, at Cincinnati, Ohio, he married to Nancy FROST, who was born on the 15th day September, 1833, and was raised in Montgomery county, Kentucky. She was descended from a Virginia family. On reaching Illinois, Mr. GORDEN lived for one year on the farm of Ellington ADAMS in this county, and then settled on the place where he now lives, in section 22 of township 14, range 1 east, where he has since lived. He has ten children living: Martha Elizabeth, Belle W., Jennie, Randal Richardson, Rachel, Isham, Mary, Nannie May, Fannie and Annie. The last two are twins. Besides the above- named there are two children deceased. In his political principles Mr. GORDEN is one of the old democrats, who began life as a democrat, and has never swerved from democratic principles. He is a much respected citizen of Prairieton township, and is a quiet and peaceable man who has lived on terms of friendship with all his neighbors, and has never sued any one, nor been sued, in all his life. He is one of the old Kentuckians, who retain a fondness for the noble pastime of the fox-chase. Nothing delights him so much as occasionally to mount a good horse and join in this old-fashioned sport, though opportunities for its exercise are comparatively rare. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ky/clark/bios/gorden484gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/kyfiles/