Jessamine County KyArchives Biographies.....Lafon, John 1800 - 1848
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com August 6, 2007, 9:46 pm

Author: Bennett H. Young

John Lafon.

   The Lafons who came to American were refugees from France during the Huguenot
persecution. The founders of the family settled in South Carolina and Virginia,
and their descendant, Richard Lafon, married Miss Anna Maxey, removed to
Kentucky and settled in Jessamine county in 1793. They came over the Wilderness
Road, With their herds and household effects and slaves and settled, through a
patent, a thousand acres, comprising the original Fountain House tract, being
the lands now occupied by Burner, Phillips, Bryants, and Elkins and others,
about two and a half miles from Keene, toward Lexington. Richard Lafon was a man
of unusual education for that period. He left a reasonable fortune, although he
died a comparatively young man. He built one of the first brick dwelling houses
in the county.

   His son, John Lafon, was born December 4, 1800. He early had every social and
literary advantage, and traveled not only in the United States but abroad. He
was a man of unusual energy. great judgment, broad and comprehensive views, and
was a born leader of men. As a result of his trading and manufacture he spent
his winters in Cuba and New Orleans and his summers in Kentucky on his farm. At
one time he leased all the hemp factories in three counties and shipped their
product to the South by way of the Kentucky and Ohio rivers.

   He was a close friend of Henry Clay and in many important matters his
adviser. He was the moving spirit and the president of the Lexington &
Harrodsburg Turnpike Company at the period of its completion. The road was
commenced in 1834, by the state, then abandoned and then leased by the state to
Lewis Singleton for twenty years. Singleton died shortly after the acquisition
of the road, and it was then taken up by John Lafon and completed through to
Perryville in 1847. The work near the Kentucky river was done under Mr. Lafon's
administration, and required very large outlay and a high order of engineering
skill. He had tremendous difficulties, both physical and financial, to overcome
but with his master mind he worked out a magnificent success and in the
completion of this turnpike rendered Fayette, Jessamine, Mercer and Boyle
counties an incalculable benefit.

   Backed by his energy and financial ability, this great thoroughfare was built
in the face of great difficulties. Such improvements in those days could only be
carried on at large expenditure, relatively much larger than now, and to
undertake the construction of a graded road such as this pike, through the
country on either side contiguous to the Kentucky river demonstrates that he was
a man of a high order of moral courage as well as the possessor of great
sagacity and unyielding will.

   He married Mary Ann Barkley, whose grandfather had been compelled to leave
Ireland, where a price had been placed on his head. And in the struggle for
Irish independence he was the friend of Robert Emmett and devoted to the liberty
of his country. Mrs. Lafon was also a descendant of the Higbees and they came
from New Jersey. In early days they built boats on South Elkhorn and hauled them
to Brooklyn and other landings on the Kentucky and launched them, from whence
they were floated to New Orleans.

   A man of culture himself, possessed of a large estate, inherited both from
his father and his mother, he made a home in every way attractive and
delightful. His hospitality was unbounded; he accumulated one of the best
libraries in Kentucky, collected curios, and by his intelligence, his enterprise
and his talents became associated with and was the friend of many of the leading
men of the state. His home at one time almost rivaled Chaumiere. He built a
beautiful house, he laid out handsome grounds, erected bath houses and spring
houses, built laundries with hot and cold pipes, constructed artificial lakes,
and improved charming drives. There was on his land an apparently bottomless
spring from which boiled up a great volume of water. This, by a splendid
circular stone basin, he changed into a most attractive fountain and called his
home after it-Fountain House. With these surroundings he founded an elegant and
ideal home, He secured rare flowers and adorned his yard with every variety of
tree that could be grown in the locality. He died in 1848 in the very meridian
of his career. His early demise was a great loss to his native county in its
social, physical and educational interests.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

A HISTORY OF JESSAMINE COUNTY, KENTUCKY,
FROM ITS EARLIEST SETTLEMENT TO 1898.
By BENNETT H. YOUNG,
PRESIDENT POLYTECHNIC SOCIETY; MEMBER FILSON CLUB; MEMBER CONSTITUTIONAL
CONVENTION, 1890; AUTHOR HISTORY OF THE CONSTITUTIONS OF KENTUCKY, OF "BATTLE OF
BLUE LICKS, ETC, ETC.

S. M. DUNCAN, ASSOCIATE AUTHOR.

Every brave and good life out of the past is a treasure which cannot  be
measured in money, and should be preserved with faithfullest care.

LOUISVILLE, KY.: COURIER-JOURNAL JOB PRINTING CO., 1898.


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