Farmington, a historic residence completed in 1816 for John and Lucy (Fry) Speed, was built to a Jefferson-inspired plan by Paul Skidmore that includes octagonal rooms rare in 19th-century Kentucky. As many as 64 African Americans enslaved there worked the 550-acre hemp plantation. Abraham Lincoln spent three weeks there in 1841 as a guest of the family of his closest friend, Joshua Speed, and after his visit he described a group of shackled slaves he saw on his steamboat trip home, later calling the memory a “continual torment to me.” During the Civil War, the Speeds supported the Union, and Joshua Speed’s ties to Lincoln helped secure Kentucky for the Union. Lincoln appointed James Speed Attorney General in 1864.
