Person

Robert Spreul Crawford Aitcheson Alexander (Woodford County, Kentucky, stock-breeder, planter, real estate investor, and iron furnace owner )

b. 1819-10-25 d. 1867-12-01

Woodford County, Kentucky, stock-breeder, planter, real estate investor, and iron furnace owner. Frankfort, Kentucky, native. Subject of Great Britain. Son of Robert Alexander and Eliza Richardson Alexander. Moved to England in 1837. Groomed by his uncle, Sir William Alexander, to manage the iron-ore operation at Airdrie and Cowdenhill estates, in Lanarkshire, Scotland. Inherited Airdrie and Cowdenhill estates in 1842. Graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1846. Relocated to Woodford County in 1849. Owned and operated Woodburn Stock Farm in Woodford County from 1849 to 1867. Owned thirteen enslaved persons in Woodford County in 1852. Owned 119 enslaved persons in Woodford County in 1860. Owned 126 enslaved persons in Woodford County in 1865. Established Airdrie Iron Works of America in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, in 1851. Owned additional properties in Illinois and Chicago, Illinois. Purchased famed thoroughbred horse Lexington in 1856.

Details

Sex
Male
Race
White

Bibliography

Diane Bundy and Jennifer Howard, "The Alexander Family of Woodburn Farm, Woodford County, Kentucky," Ancestors 45, no. 1 (Autumn 2009): 4-14. Alexander Family Papers, 1509-1969, Finding Aid (MSS 9), Kentucky Historical Society. The Biographical Encyclopædia of Kentucky of the Dead and Living Men of the Nineteenth Century, vol. 1 (Cincinnati: J. M. Armstrong & Company, 1878), 82. "Robert Aitcheson Alexander," Daily Journal (Louisville, Ky.), November 22, 1867, p. 4. Kentucky Tax Lists, 1792-1887, Woodford County, Kentucky. William Preston Mangum, A Kingdom for the Horse: The Legacy of R.A. Alexander and Woodburn Farms (Harmony House Publishers, 1999). William E. Railey, History of Woodford County, Kentucky (Frankfort, KY: Clearfield, 1938), 27-28. Consolidated Lists of Civil War Draft Registration Records (Provost Marshal General's Bureau; Consolidated Enrollment Lists, 1863-1865), NARA RG 110, Records of the Provost Marshal General's Bureau (Civil War), Consolidated Enrollment Lists, 1863-1865 (Civil War Union Draft Records), Woodford County, KY, Jul 1863, p. 1, (Accessed via ancestry.com). Find A Grave, "Robert Spreul Crawford Aitcheson Alexander (1819-1867)," Memorial #44119878, http://www.findagrave.com/memorial/44119878/robert-spreul crawfordaitcheson-alexander (accessed December 8, 2017).

Citation

Alexander, Robert Spreul Crawford Aitcheson. Accessed via the Civil War Governors of Kentucky Digital Documentary Edition, https://discovery.civilwargovernors.org/document/S32212775 (November 12, 2026).

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