Joseph Rogers Underwood

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Birth Date

1791-10-24

Death Date

1876-08-23

Gender

Race Description

White

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Person

"Joseph Rogers Underwood" in the Civil War Governors of Kentucky Digital Documentary Edition, discovery.civilwargovernors.org/document/N00004989, (accessed November 4, 2025).

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Warren County, Kentucky, attorney, judge, and politician. Goochland County, Virginia, native. Son of John Underwood and Francis Rogers Underwood. Married to Elizabeth McCowes Trotter Underwood in Barren County, Kentucky, on March 26, 1817. Father of Eugene Underwood, Julia Underwood Cox, Eliza L. Underwood, and Jane Underwood. Married to Elizabeth Cox Underwood in Washington, D.C., on February 25, 1839. Father of John Underwood, Robert Underwood, Thomas Underwood, Edith Underwood, Elizabeth Underwood, and Josephine Underwood. Graduate of Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1811. Read law with Robert Wickliffe in Lexington in 1811. Served in the 13th Regiment of the Kentucky Militia as a lieutenant in the War of 1812 in 1813. Admitted to the bar in 1813. Member of the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Kentucky from Barren County from 1816 to 1819. Presidential elector from the Third Congressional District of Kentucky in 1824. Member of the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Kentucky from Warren County from 1825 to 1827. Unsuccessful Opposition candidate for Lieutenant Governor for the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 1828. Resident of Warren County in 1830. Owned three enslaved persons in Warren County in 1830. Associate justice of the Kentucky Court of Appeals in Frankfort from 1828 to 1835. Resident of Warren County in 1840. Owned thirteen enslaved persons in Warren County in 1840. Member of the Whig party. Member of the United States House of Representatives from the Third Congressional District of Kentucky from 1835 to 1844. Presidential elector for the Whig party from the Third Congressional District of Kentucky in 1844. Member of the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Kentucky from Warren County from 1845 to 1847. Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 1846. Member of the United States Senate from 1847 to 1853. Attorney in Warren County in 1850. Farmer in Warren County in 1850. Owned five enslaved persons in Warren County in 1850. Attorney in Warren County in 1860. Owned seven enslaved persons in Warren County in 1860. Member of the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Kentucky from Warren County from 1860 to 1863. Delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois, in 1864. Attorney in Warren County, Kentucky, in 1865.

Fifth Manuscript Census of the United States (1830), Population Schedules, Kentucky, Warren County, p. 84.
Sixth Manuscript Census of the United States (1840), Population Schedules, Kentucky, Warren County, p. 86.
Seventh Manuscript Census of the United States (1850), Population Schedules, Kentucky, Warren County, District 1, p. 63A.
Seventh Manuscript Census of the United States (1850), Slave Schedules, Kentucky, Warren County, District 1.
Eighth Manuscript Census of the United States (1860), Population Schedules, Kentucky, Warren County, District 2, p. 639.
Eighth Manuscript Census of the United States (1860), Slave Schedules, Kentucky, Warren County, District 2, p. 452B.
Ninth Manuscript Census of the United States (1870), Population Schedules, Kentucky, Warren County, Bowling Green, p. 12B.
Kentucky Marriage Records, Madison County Courthouse, Richmond, Kentucky, Barren County Marriages, Film 209767, p. 54.
Washington, D.C., Old Marriage Records, 1811-1858, vol. A-K, p. 417. D.C. Records Center, Washington, D.C. FamilySearch Microfilm, "District of Columbia, Marriage Record Index," Genealogical Society of Salt Lake City, Salt Lake City, UT, Film #24610539011.
Internal Revenue Assessment Lists for Kentucky, 1862-1866 NARA RG 58, Microfilm Series M768, Roll 7, Warren County, Kentucky, 1865, p. 52.
Index to Compiled Service Records of Soldiers who Served During the War of 1812, NARA RG 94, Microfilm Series M602, Roll 0213.
"Joseph R. Underwood," Chicago Tribune, (Chicago, IL), 27 Aug 1876, p. 4.
The Biographical Encyclopædia of Kentucky of the Dead and Living Men of the Nineteenth Century, vol. 1 (Cincinnati: J. M. Armstrong & Company, 1878), 271.
H. Charles Ulman, Lawyers' Record and Official Register of the United States, (New York: A.S. Barnes & Company, 1872), p. 539.
"Underwood, Joseph R.," Appleton's Cyclopædia of American Biography, vol. X, eds. John Fiske and James Grant Wilson (New York: Appleton, 1889), 210-211.
Richard H. Collins, Collins' Historical Sketches of Kentucky: A History of Kentucky, vol. 2, (Covington, KY: Collins & Co., 1878), pp. 737-741.
Nancy L. Priest, "Joseph Rogers Underwood: Nineteenth Century Kentucky Orator," Register of the Kentucky Historical Society, vol. 75, no. 4 (October 1977): 286-303.
"Joseph Rogers Underwood (1791-1876)," Find A Grave, Memorial 7781081, accessed November 2, 2023, http://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7781081.

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