Lewis Collins, the Kentucky historian, was born near Lexington,
Kentucky, on Christmas Day, 1797. When a boy he entered the printing
office of Joel R. Lyle, editor of _The Paris Citizen_, where he worked
for more than a year as a printer. He removed to Mason county,
Kentucky, to become associate editor of the _Washington Union_. On
November 1, 1820, Lewis Collins purchased the _Maysville Eagle_, which
had been established six years prior to his purchase, and he made it
one of the best country newspapers ever published in Kentucky. In 1823
he was married to a sister of Benjamin O. Peers, afterwards president
of Transylvania University. Collins was editor of the _Eagle_ for
twenty-seven years, when he retired in order to give his entire
attention to his _Historical Sketches of Kentucky_ (Maysville, 1847).
This was the first illustrated history of Kentucky, and easily the
most comprehensive that had appeared. The histories of Marshall and
Butler began at the beginning, but both concluded with the year of
1812, while Collins brought his work down to 1844. His was a mine of
historic lore, arranged in departments, and not altogether readable as
a continuous narrative. It was the foundation upon which his son,
Richard H. Collins, was later to build the most magnificent state
history ever published. Lewis Collins was presiding judge of the Mason
county court from 1851 to 1854. He was a just judge, a painstaking
chronicler of his people's past, and a fine type of Christian citizen.
Judge Collins died at Lexington, Kentucky, January 29, 1870. The
Kentucky legislature passed an appropriate resolution in which his
life was commended and his death deplored.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. _History of Kentucky_, by Z. F. Smith (Louisville,
Kentucky, 1892); _Kentucky in the Nation's History_, by R. M.
McElroy (New York, 1909).