Person

William Wesley Dowden (Lexington, Kentucky, student and merchant)

b. 1834-04-12 d. 1873-01-26

Lexington, Fayette County, Kentucky, merchant, soldier, and sheriff. Kentucky native. Son of Edward W. Dowden and Ann Frances Darnaby Plunket Dowden. Married to Francis "Fannie" Shryock Dowden in Woodford County, Kentucky, on November 14, 1858. Father of William W. Dowden, Ethelbert Dowden, and Fannie Dowden. Student in Fayette County, Kentucky, in 1850. Merchant in Lexington in 1860. Served in the 21st Kentucky Volunteer Infantry Regiment (U.S.A.) as captain and major from January 2, 1862, to April 19, 1863. Wounded in Rutherford County, Tennessee, on January 2, 1863. Resigned from service on April 19, 1863, on account of disability. Merchant in Lexington in 1863. Sheriff in Fayette County in 1865.

Details

Sex
Male
Race
White

Bibliography

Seventh Manuscript Census of the United States (1850), Population Schedules, Kentucky, Fayette County, District 1, pp. 126A-B.

Eighth Manuscript Census of the United States (1860), Population Schedules, Kentucky, Fayette County, Lexington, p. 386.

Ninth Manuscript Census of the United States (1870), Population Schedules, Kentucky, Fayette County, Lexington Ward 2, p. 240A.

Compiled Service Records of Volunteer Union Soldiers Who Served in Organizations From the State of Kentucky, NARA RG 94, Microfilm Series M397, Roll 0337.

Consolidated Lists of Civil War Draft Registration Records, Records of the Provost Marshal General's Bureau (Civil War), NARA RG 110, Fayette County, KY, July 1863, p. 14.

Kentucky Birth, Marriage and Death Records (1852-1910), KDLA, Frankfort, KY, Roll 9940058, Wooden County Marriages.

Lineage Book: National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, ed. Flora Myers Gillentine (Washington, D. C.: National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, 1891-1939) vol. 110: 1929, p. 180.

Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Kentucky, vol. I, 1861-1866 (Frankfort: Kentucky Yeoman Office, 1866), p. 68

"Suicide of a Well-Known Citizen," The Cincinnati Enquirer (Cincinnati, OH), January 28, 1873, p. 1.

"William W. Dowden (1834-1873)," Find A Grave, Memorial 83695846, accessed December 8, 2022, http://www.findagrave.com/memorial/84695846.

KYR-0001-004-2632.

Citation

Dowden, William Wesley. Accessed via the Civil War Governors of Kentucky Digital Documentary Edition, https://discovery.civilwargovernors.org/document/S32209562 (November 12, 2026).

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