Captain Solomon Brandenburg

from Who Was Who In Hardin County

Hardin County Historical Society

Captain Solomon Brandenburg was the son of Matthias and Hester Brandenburg, who came to Hardin County, Kentucky, in an early day.  Matthias was killed by one William Hardin.  His wife, Hester Brandenburg, died at Brandenburg, Kentucky, September 12, 1821, aged 77 years.  In 1804 Solomon Brandenburg was inspector of pork and beef for Hardin County.  On May 14, 1807, he was married to Elizabeth (Swan) Kennedy, born 1780, died September 22, 1838, at Brandenburg, Kentucky.  She was the daughter of Captain John Swan, a Revolutionary soldier, who was killed by the Indians soon after the arrival in Kentucky with his wife, Elizabeth VanMeter, daughter of Jacob VanMeter, Sr., and his wife, Elizabeth Stroud.

Captain Brandenburg moved early to Meade County where he was the founder of the town of Brandenburg.  He built a double log house of hewed walnut logs.  This famous building was known as the Old Walnut Log Tavern.  The old tavern was famous for roast pig.  Here stopped General James Wilkinson and Aaron Burr.  In this celebrated hostelry the wanderers of the west found genuine hospitality.  Within these walls the gifted John James Audubon, the great ornithologist, was a visitor.  Solomon Brandenburg cleared East Hill and raised a crop of corn that was talked about for years by the early settlers.  Before his marriage he hunted, fished and ran flat boats down the Ohio River.

His children were:  Hester, Eliza, Swan, Louisiana, Solomon, Jr., Thomas Swan, David and Elizabeth.  Hester Brandenburg, born February 29, 1808, married at Brandenburg, Kentucky, October 8, 1829, to Burr Harrison Crutcher.  They reared their family at Big Springs, Kentucky.  Later the family moved to Owensboro, Kentucky, where he died July 28, 1902, at the age of 98 years.  One of their daughters, Mirabel Pocahontas Crutcher, married Benjamin Helm, son of Henry B. and Mary Jane Logan Helm, of Elizabethtown.  William Ernest Crutcher, born May 8, 1850, the youngest and only surviving child of the twelve children, is now living at Salinda, Colorado.

Eliza Brandenburg married April 4, 1832, Isaac R. Semple and lived in Ballard County, Kentucky.  Swan Brandenburg married January 30, 1844, Sarah W. Wathen, and lived at Brandenburg.

Louisiana Brandenburg married December 29, 1833, Hon. George Calhoun, of Lebanon, Kentucky.  He was a lawyer of note and a man of prominence in Kentucky politics.  In 1837 he moved to Canton, Mississippi, to which place he was followed by his family in September 1838.  Their son, Hon. Solomon Saladin Calhoun, born January 2, 1838, at Brandenburg, was a prominent lawyer of Jackson, Mississippi.  He married Margaret McWillie, daughter of William McWillie, who was Governor of Mississippi 1858-1860.  Another son was John Calhoun, a lawyer of Holly Springs, Mississippi.

Elizabeth Brandenburg married Christopher Dowell, of Breckinridge County, Kentucky, and moved to Walnut Ridge, Arkansas, in an early day.  David Brandenburg died April 21, 1858, New Orleans.  He married Elizabeth Fairleigh McLure.

Captain Solomon Brandenburg went to Madison County, Mississippi, with the family of his daughter, Louisiana Brandenburg Calhoun, and died there in 1845, and was buried there.