Powell-Martin House

Lazarus Whitehead Powell, born in Henderson on October 6, 1812, attended private schools there until age 14, graduated from St. Joseph's College in Bardstown, Kentucky in 1833, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1835. He returned to Henderson to open his first law office and formed a partnership with Archibald Dixon that lasted until 1850. Elected to the Kentucky Legislature in 1836, he later returned to law after failing to be reelected, then rose to prominence and won the governorship of Kentucky in 1851 against Dixon, serving from 1851-1855. From 1859 to 1865 he served as a U.S. senator representing Kentucky during the Civil War. Dedicated to neutrality, he campaigned against Kentucky's secession and also opposed the use of military force to preserve the Union, preferring compromise in Congress to resolve the conflict. His stand brought accusations of disloyalty: in October 1861 the Kentucky Legislature requested his resignation, and in February 1862 Garrett Davis presented a Senate resolution to expel him, arguing that Powell's neutrality was not that of Union men. The Committee on the Judiciary advised against the resolution, the expulsion failed, and before the war ended Davis retracted his accusation. After the war Powell resumed his law practice in Henderson. He died at his home near Henderson in May 1867, six months after losing his final Senate bid to Garrett Davis. A year after his death, the state voted to erect a monument over his grave and to pay for the publication of 3,800 copies of his biography. Powell was buried in Fernwood Cemetery in Henderson.

Henderson, Kentucky · United States