John c breckinridge biography

Early Life

John Cabell Breckinridge was born on January 16, 1821, at Cabell’s Dale near Lexington, Kentucky. He was the only son of Joseph Cabell Breckinridge and Mary Clay Smith. The couple named Breckinridge after his grandfather, John Breckinridge, who was a U.S.

senator and who served as attorney general in the Jefferson administration.

The younger Breckinridge attended Pisgah Academy in Woodford County, Kentucky, and graduated from Centre College, Danville, Kentucky, in 1839.

He later attended the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) and he studied law at the Transylvania Institute, in Lexington, Kentucky.

Breckinridge joined the Kentucky bar in 1840.

John c breckinridge cause of death

After briefly living in Iowa, he returned to Kentucky and began his law practice. In 1843, he married Mary Cyrene Burch and the couple settled near Lexington. Breckinridge served as a major of the Third Kentucky Volunteers during the Mexican-American War (1846 – 1848).

Upon his return from Mexico, Brecki