Lawyers and Lawmakers of Kentucky, by H. Levin, editor, 1897. Published by Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago. Reprinted by Southern Historical Press. p. 226. Franklin County. JOHN CRITTENDEN RUSSELL, only son of Captain John W. Russell, was born in Franklin county, Kentucky, on June 30, 1849. He was the grandson of James Russell, who in 1796, with his wife and twelve children, left their home in Rockbridge county, Virginia, to make the long perilous trip through the mountains over the famous wilderness road to Kentucky. James Russell served several years during the war for the independence of the colonies in the Virginia artillery from Rockbridge county. He was in the battle of Yorktown and many other battles under Generals Washington and Green. A land warrant, No. 1,009, from the state of Virginia, was issued to him in consideration of his military services during the Revolutionary struggle, which warrant, however, he never located and would not accept. He settled in Franklin county, Kentucky, five miles from Frankfort, on Benson creek, where he remained during his life and devoted himself to farming until the time of his death in 1849. John W. Russell, son of James Russell and the father of John C. Russell, was born in Rockbridge county, Virginia, and was only a few months old when his father came to Kentucky. At the outbreak of the war of 1812, he joined the Kentucky volunteers and enlisted in Captain Peter Dudley's company at Frankfort, continuing in the service during the whole war. He was among the Kentuckians in charge at Fort Meigs, who were reprimanded by General William Henry Harrison for having an excess of courage and for their reckless impetuosity. After the close of the war of 1812 he at once commenced his career as one of the pioneer steamboatmen on the Mississippi river. By his great courage and many daring adventures with pirates, who at that early day infested the lower Mississippi, he soon rose to a great prominence and commanded, as captain, some of the largest and finest boats on the Mississippi river. On one occasion he had a personal encounter with La Fitte, the noted pirate, a full account of which, with many other thrilling incidents in his life, is given in his obituary written by George D. Prentice and published in the Louisville Journal of August 2, 1869. Natchez under the hill was perhaps more infested with thieves, pirates and cut-throats than any other place on the Mississippi river. The passengers on steamers were frequently robbed at Natchez, and Captain Russell, as he was familiarly called, had given timely warning to all such characters that he would personally resent any such outrage attempted on any of his passengers. On one occasion, a passenger of Captain Russell's boat, while at the Natchez landing, walked into one of the little shops near the river bank and bought some trifling article, for which he threw down a fifty-dollar bill. The storekeeper contended that it was only a five dollar bill and gave the change accordingly. Captain Russell was appealed to by the wronged passenger and immediately demanded the restoration of the money. Upon the refusal of the storekeeper to comply with this request, he ordered his men to fasten the cable of the boat around the little store. This was done at once and the boat swung out into the river, the cable began to tighten, and it was apparent that, in another moment the store and its contents would have been pulled into the river. Just at this juncture, however, the storekeeper ran frantically out of the house with the fifty dollar bill in his hands and implored Captain Russell not to pull his house into the river. The request was, of course, promptly granted. He was elected to the Kentucky senate in 1846 from the counties of Franklin, Anderson and Shelby, and served until the expiration of his term in 1850. He was an intimate personal friend of John J. Crittenden (for whom his son was named), a Whig in politics and a devoted follower of Henry Clay. His mother and father were of Scotch descent, with an intermixture of Welsh. At forty-five years of age he married Ann M. Julian, whose father had recently removed to Kentucky from Frederickburg, Virginia. The Julian family (originally St. Julien) were a French Huguenot family who fled to Scotland at the time of the massacre of St. Bartholomew. There they lived for more than a hundred years, marrying into Scotch families, until their descendants were more Scotch than French. About the year 1725 some of the family emigrated to America. Mrs. Russell was a devoted and working member of the Presbyterian church, and was superintendent of the Sunday-school of the Franklin church, near Frankfort, for over ten years, there being no man in the congregation who would accept the position. She died in Frankfort in February, 1890, over twenty years after the death of her husband, which occurred on August 1, 1869. John Crittenden Russell attended the private school of B. B. Sayre, of Frankfort, and afterward took a special course in the scientific department of Yale College. He graduated in the law department of the University of Louisville, in 1874, and immediately commenced the practice of law in Louisville, where he has always enjoyed a fair practice, chiefly a chancery business. He has for over ten years been a director of the Louisville Trust Company, and for the last five years on the executive committee of said institution. He is president of the Grahamton Manufacturing Company, vice-president of the Southern Electric Railroad Company of St. Louis, Missouri, a member of the Scotch-Irish Society of Kentucky, of the Sons of the American Revolution for Kentucky and of the Filson Club. He was chairman of the Democratic committee for the fifth district of the city of Louisville in 1895 and 1896, but resigned in the spring of 1896, when the Democratic party adopted a free-silver platform, afterward accepting the same position as chairman of the Democratic National party for the same district. His church membership is in the Second Presbyterian church, Louisville, of which he has also been one of the trustees for several years. He married Lila P. Anderson, daughter of W. George Anderson, of Louisville, Kentucky, on the 27th of June, 1882. Mrs. Russell lived only about one year after the marriage, leaving one child, Lila Anderson Russell, who also died when eleven months of age. Mrs. Russell was a great favorite in social circles in Louisville and a devoted and active member of Christ church (Episcopal), Louisville. Russell Julian St._Julien Anderson Prentice = Rockbridge-VA Scotland http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/franklin/russell.jc.txt