Mrs. Catherine W. Casey House
125 W. High St. Lexington, Fayette
County, Kentucky
Judge James H. Mulligan Birthplace
Built 1829
Source: Old Houses of Lexington, C. Frank Dunn, typescript, n.d., copy located in the Kentucky Room, Lexington (Kentucky) Public Library.
Mrs. Catherine W. Casey and Melissa Nelson (later Melissa Cheris) purchased a lot here August 20, 1829, from Wm. Bowman. It began "at the corner of the lot formerly owned by Gen. George Trotter, dec'd, on High St."
Dr. Richardson in building the "Royle House" next door to Mrs. Casey seems to have used the wall. The 1838 Directory lists "Mrs. Casey, dressmaker, 7 E. High St."
Mrs. Casey died in 1849 and her will was attested by "D. Mulligan and Ellen Harn."
Dennis Mulligan was the father of Judge James H. Mulligan, author of the world-known poem, "In Kentucky," and was a tenant living in this house when James H. Mulligan was born here in 1844.
Mrs. Casey devised her estate to her nephew, John A. Hampton, appointing C.C. Rogers as trustee for him.
Hampton settled in Hannibal, Mo., where he died in 1892. George W. Hampton, in deeding the house in 1896 to Richard H. Barnes, mentions that "it was owned by John A. Hampton at the time of the death of Mrs. Casey in 1849 till the time of his own death in 1892."
Lexington should purchase the house and preserve it as the birth place of Judge Mulligan whose poem has brought so much fame to the Blue Grass State.
Transcribed by pb May 2003
Updated December 13, 2025.