People from Harrison County, Indiana - Dennis Pennington (Paperback)

Chapters: Dennis Pennington. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 55. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Dennis Pennington (May 18, 1776December 2, 1854) was an early legislator in Indiana and the Indiana Territory, speaker of the first Indiana State Senate, speaker of the territorial legislature, a member of the Whig Party serving over 37 years in public office, and one of the founders of Indiana. He was also a stonemason and member of the Grand Lodge of Indiana. His major political contributions where his strong opposition of slavery and his support of squatter's rights, and he was responsible for the construction of Indiana's first state capitol building. Dennis Pennington was born in Cumberland County, Virginia just before American Independence on May 18, 1776 to Edward Pennington. He had four brothers and one sister. The Pennington family owned several slaves while they lived in Virginia, but freed them all when they left the state. One of the slaves, "Aunt Fannie," refused to be left behind. She stayed with Pennington's for the rest of her life as a free household servant, she later died as one of the several freed slaves living in Corydon. In the fall of 1773 the Penningtons moved to the frontier in Kentucky. They became friends of Henry Clay shortly after he moved to the territory. In 1799 Pennington supported Clay in his attempt to make Kentucky a "Free State." While Pennington lived in Kentucky, he farmed land east of Louisville and married his wife Elizabeth (English). In 1784 he crossed the Ohio River at Clarksville, Indiana and entered the Northwest Territory for the first time. There Pennington purchased land from George Rogers Clark near present day Lanesville, Indiana. He moved his family there and built a homestead to farm the land starting in 1802. He moved again in 1...More: http: //booksllc.net/?id=1602451