Our Italianate home was built during the civil war. It was a wedding present to John Y. Brown and his wife Rebecca from her father, the then Lt. Governor Archibald Dixon. Archibald Dixon was a grandson of one of the original Transylvania Land Company owners. The house was started at the end of 1860 or the beginning of 1861 and was completed around 1863.
John Y. Brown served as a Colonel in the Confederate Calvary and served in the U.S. House of Representatives before being elected as Governor of Kentucky in 1891.
John Y. Brown and Rebecca married on September 3, 1860 and raised their family in this house. The Browns had 8 children, Elizabeth in 1861, Arch Dixon in 1863, John Y. Brown, Jr. in 1865, Virginia in 1867, Susan in 1869, twins Dudley and Vance in 1870 and their last child Evelyn in 1872. The Browns lost their first daughter Elizabeth at age 5 in 1866 and both the twins as infants. Susan would die at age 22 in the Governor's mansion in Frankfort. And Arch, who served as his fathers personal Secretary while he was Governor, was fatally shot toward the end of his term reportedly by a jealous husband, Fulton Gordon.
John Y. and Rebecca returned to Henderson after his service as Governor. He passed away on January 11(my birthday) in 1904 and Rebecca died in 1922.
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