MAGOFFIN, GOV. BERIAH Lawyer and Farmer, was born April 18, 1815, at Harrodsburg, Mercer County, Kentucky. His ancestry were Scotch-Irish ; his father, Beriah Magoffin, Jr. , was a native of the County of Down, Ireland ; a successful merchant, and was President of the Commonwealth Bank of Kentucky, at Harrodsburg. His mother was of Scotch-Irish origin, a native of Kentucky, and daughter of Samuel McAfee, one of the early settlers from Virginia, of Kentucky, and cousin of the late historian and statesman, Gen. Robert B. McAfee. (See sketches of the McAfees.)
Gov. Magoffin received a liberal education, graduating at Center College, Danville, in 1835, under the Presidency of Rev. John C. Young. He studied law under the direction of his brother-in-law, Charles M. Cunningham ; graduated in the law department of Transylvania University, under Judges Robertson and Mayes; and entered upon the practice of his profession at Jackson, Mississippi, in 1838, in partnership with Judge Harney, a relative of Gen. Harney ; was very successful from the first, in his profession, and while in Mississippi was elected reading clerk for the State Senate, in the Winter of 1838-39. After two years of lucrative and honorable practice in that State he returned to Kentucky and settled at Harrodsburg, on the estate inherited from his father, where he has since resided. After returning home, he was associated in practice with his law preceptor, whose death soon after left him in control of a large and valuable business, which he carried on with exceptional professional and pecuniary success. When first commencing practice at Harrodsburg, he received the appointment of Police Judge from Gov. Letcher, and was one of the few Democrats ever favored with an appointment from a Whig administration.
In 1844, 1848, 1852, and 1856, he was Democratic candidate for Presidential Elector, either for his district or the State at large, and was elected in 1856, casting his vote for Buchanan and Breckinridge. In 1850 he was elected to the State Senate without opposition ; was Chairman of the Committee on the Court of Appeals; and was author of the bill regulating the present public-school system of the State; in 1851, was offered the nomination for Congress, but declined ; in 1855, was candidate for Lieutenant-Governor against the Know-Nothings, but was defeated ; in 1859, was elected Governor, by a majority of 8,904 votes, over the Whig candidate, Hon. Joshua F. Bell, and served as Governor through the most eventful and exciting period of the State’s history, until, finding his views and acts at utter variance with the dominant party in the Legislature, he resigned, August 18, 1862, and retired to his home in Mercer County. He was author of the Feeble-minded Institution, established near Frankfort, in the success of which he took the deepest interest, and recommended, in a message to the Legislature, a stringent law for the prevention of the marriages of first cousins. He was at no time a Secessionist, and, after making some bold and able efforts to avert the war and lay the foundation for a permanent peace settlement between the sections, and failing in this, favored armed neutrality for the State, and issued his proclamation to that effect. In this he was undoubtedly actuated by the highest sentiments of regard for the safety and welfare of the people, both of the State and nation, firmly believing in the supremacy of the State government over its own affairs.
He is one of the most able men who has ever filled the gubernatorial chair of Kentucky. In 1848, he was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention, at Baltimore; was also delegate, for the State at large, to Cincinnati in 1856, and at Baltimore in 1872, and to Charleston in i860. In 1867, he was elected to the Legislature from Mercer County, without opposition, and favored every measure for the improvement of the State ; but, differing widely from his party, in favoring negro testimony in the courts, and accepting the Constitutional Amendments and the changed state of affairs in the country, has been but little connected with politics, and has not sought office since his voluntary retirement in 1862. He has been very successful in business, and is probably the most wealthy Kentuckian who has been much in public life. He is a man of great honor and dignity of character, and genial and attractive in his social manners.
Governor Magoffin was married, in 1840, to Anna N. Shelby, daughter of Isaac Shelby, and granddaughter of Gov. Isaac Shelby. Of their ten children, three boys and three girls are living. One of their sons is a prominent citizen of Minnesota, and now member of the Legislature of that State, from Ramsey County.
