Person

Beriah Magoffin (Governor of Kentucky 1859-1862)

b. 1815-04-18 d. 1885-02-28

Twenty-first governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, attorney, real estate investor, judge, and state senator. Harrodsburg, Kentucky, native. Married to Anna Nelson Shelby Magoffin on April 21, 1840. Father of Susan Shelby Magoffin, Beriah Magoffin, Gertrude Magoffin, Sarah Magoffin, Shelby Magoffin, Isaac Magoffin, Jane Magoffin, Letitia Magoffin, Ebenezer Magoffin, Anna Magoffin, and Samuel Magoffin. Educated at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, and Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky. Practiced law in Jackson, Mississippi, and Harrodsburg, Kentucky. Real estate investor in Chicago, Illinois. Appointed Harrodsburg police judge in 1840. Democratic Party presidential elector in 1856. Delegate to the Democratic national convention in 1848, 1856, 1860, and 1872. Represented Mercer County in the Senate of the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 1850. Owned twelve enslaved persons in Mercer County in 1850. Governor from August 30, 1859, to his resignation on August 18, 1862. Owned eleven enslaved persons in Franklin County in 1860. President of the Military Board of Kentucky from May 24, 1861, to September 25, 1861. Member of the Democratic and Southern Rights Parties.

Details

Sex
Male
Race
White

Bibliography

Seventh Manuscript Census of the United States (1850), Slave Schedules, Kentucky, Mercer County, Harrodsburg District 2, p. 913.

Eighth Manuscript Census of the United States (1860), Slave Schedules, Kentucky, Franklin County, Frankfort, District No. 1, p. 24.

Lowell H. Harrison, "Beriah Magoffin (1859-1862)," Kentucky’s Governors, ed. Lowell H. Harrison (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2004), 78-81.

"Programme of the Ceremonies of Inauguration, on the 30th August, 1859," Daily Courier (Louisville, KY), August 24, 1859.

Citation

Magoffin, Beriah. Accessed via the Civil War Governors of Kentucky Digital Documentary Edition, https://discovery.civilwargovernors.org/document/S32201291 (January 13, 2026).

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