Note 51 — Front matter (continued 2)

(page page 88).—Richard M. Johnson was born in Kentucky in 1780. From 1807-19 he was a member of Congress from that State. In 1813 he raised a volunteer cavalry regiment, of which he was colonel, to serve under General William Henry Harrison. He distinguished himself at the battle of the Thames, and was long thought to have killed Tecumseh by his own hand; but to this doubtful honor he was probably unentitled. Appointed an Indian commissioner in 1814, he was early in the region of the upper Mississippi; he is known to have been at Prairie du Chien in 1819. In that year he left the lower house of Congress to go into the Senate, where he served until 1829. He was then re-elected to the house, in which he held a seat until 1837, when he was elected Vice-President of the United States. He died in Frankfort, November 19, 1850, while a member of the Kentucky legislature. Johnson had the reputation of being a courageous, kind-hearted, and talented man.