(1) Name: Elizabeth Morgan BEDINGER
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Birth: December 30, 1798 Nicholas County, Kentucky
Father: Maj George Michael BEDINGER
Mother: Henrietta CLAY (1776-)

Misc. Notes
The following article written by Daniel Bedinger was found concerning Elizabeth but it appears he did not know the whole story as is evident by the information on the son, Robert.

To the Editor of the COURIER-JOURNAL. You said in your issue of November 18 that $10,000 of the money used by the State Board of Education to purchase 776 shares of stock in the National Bank of Kentucky, and held by it when the bank failed, was from the estate of Elizabeth Bedford. I wonder how many of your readers know who that lady was or the history of that bequest, the first of it's kind in this state. Before she married Robert Bedford, she was Elizabeth Bedinger. Her father was Major George Bedinger, a Kentucky pioneer. Her mother was Henrietta Clay, the daughter of Henry Clay, M.D., of Paris, Bourbon Co, KY, and his wife Rachel Povall. Three of Dr Clay's younger daughters also married Bedford men, so Elizabeth had ample precedent for her choice of husband. "Betsy" as she was called by her family and friends, was regarded by them to be an unusual, peculiar and eccentric girl, because of her consuming desire for knowledge and liberal education. Only disappointment and ridicule met her aspirations and longings. In that early day in Kentucky she was told that all a woman need know was how to win and manage a husband, how to handle a baby, how to conduct her household and incidentally how to get maximum amount of work out of her servants. During Jefferson's first administration, her father went to Congress. While at Washington he bought a copy of the Encyclopedia Brittanica. At great trouble and expense he brought it home over the mountains. It was the only one in Bourbon County, probably in the State. Here provided "Betsy's" chance to shake her thirst at a fountain of knowledge. She fell upon that mighty work and devoured those meaty volumes from beginning to end, from "Abacus" to "Zylo", feasting with equal zest and relish upon "Algebra" and "alligators" and earning for herself a reputation as the best informed person in the State, at least on the distaft side. Learning, marriage and motherhood did not end her troubles. Her husband soon died, leaving her with an only child, Robert Jr. Her ambitions revived and centered on that boy. She resolved to educate and fit him for a distinguished career. The boy refused to study or take an interest in books, business or a career. Thwarted here, yet hoping that money might give him a place and prominence his personality could not compel, she exclaimed: --"Then, I'll gild him"! Thereafter until she died she devoted all her thoughts, time and energies to making and saving money. Again frustration. The boy died unmarried. However she did not relax her efforts to accumulate. There arose within her the secret purpose and design, in so far as she was able, to provide for others those opportunities for learning which had been denied her. No one knew who was to have "Aunt Betsy's" property until her will was read and it was found that "her ruling passion strong in death", she had left her entire estate to the "County Common School Fund". This story I heard first from her brother, my grandfather, later oft repeated by my father. The sequel forms a fitting climax to a tale of hard luck. (Daniel L. Bedinger, Louisville KY)


Spouses
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1: Robert BEDFORD Sr.
Birth: 1797 Bourbon County, Kentucky
Death: July 1829 Bourbon County, Kentucky Age: 32
Father: Benjamin Francis BEDFORD (1762-1822)
Mother: Tabitha CLAY (1767-1864)
Marriage: January 29, 1824 Nicholas County, Kentucky
Children: Robert (1825-)

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Last Modified: June 19, 1999
Created: February 28, 2003