Allan Bowie Magruder, poet and historian, was born in Kentucky, about
1775. He received an academic education, studied law, and was admitted
to the Lexington bar in 1797. He contributed very fair verse to the
_Kentucky Gazette_ in 1802 and 1803, which attracted considerable
comment in the West. That his fame as a poet was wide-spread, is
indicated by a letter from an Ohio writer published in the _Lexington
Intelligencer_, January 28, 1834, in which Magruder's verse is highly
praised and further information concerning his career is sought. After
stabbing poor Tom Johnson's little pamphlet of rhymes to the heart,
Magruder is placed upon his pedestal as the first real Kentucky poet;
and that his work was superior to either Johnson's or George Beck's is
obvious, continues the caustic correspondent. The truth is, of course,
that the verses of neither of the three men merit mention for anything
save their priority; and the young Lexington lawyer's muse was not as
productive as Tom's or Beck's, no more than three or four of his poems
having come down to us. His first prose work was entitled _Reflections
on the late Cession of Louisiana to the United States_ (Lexington,
1803). This little volume of 150 pages was issued by Daniel Bradford,
for whose periodical, _The Medley_, Magruder wrote _The Character of
Thomas Jefferson_ (June; July, 1803). This essay attracted the attention
of the President, and he appointed Magruder commissioner of lands in
Louisiana, to which territory he shortly afterwards removed. He was
later a member of the State legislature; and from November 18, 1812, to
March 3, 1813, Magruder was United States Senator from his adopted
State. The next few years he devoted to collecting materials for a
history of the North American Indians; and he also made notes for many
years for a history of Kentucky, which he finally abandoned, and which
he turned over to his old friend, John Bradford, who made use of them in
his _Notes on Kentucky_. Allan B. Magruder died at Opelousas, Louisiana,
April 16, 1822, when but forty-seven years of age. He was a man of
culture and of high promise, but once in the politics of the country his
early literary triumphs were not repeated, and he appears to have never
done any writing worth while after his removal from Kentucky.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The Lexington Intelligencer_ (Lexington, Kentucky,
January 28, 1834); Appletons' _Cyclopaedia of American Biography_
(New York, 1888, v. iv).