John Wooleston Tibbatts

Tibbatts pushed Texas annexation.

John Wooleston Tibbatts deserves a prominent note in history.

A former lawyer, statesman, and soldier, the Newport man introduced the congressional bill to annex Texas. He led a group of Northern Kentucky volunteers to war. He also served as military governor of Monterrey, Mexico in an era when the city was a caldron of bushwhackers, thieves, and rioters.

Today, however, it is hard to find any evidence in Northern Kentucky that Tibbatts was ever around. The current telephone book lists no one with the last name of Tibbatts in Northern Kentucky or Cincinnati.

Newport once had two streets named in his honor. One street - a main thoroughfare - was later renamed; the other is a short street lined by a few houses and no longer open to traffic.

The Tibbatts' name fairs a little better in Covington, where a street still bears that name, but it is not in the main stream of activity.

Tibbatts was born in Lexington on June 12, 1802. He attended Transylvania College, studied law, and in 1826 he was admitted to the bar.

But instead of setting up his law practice in Lexington, Tibbatts moved to Newport, where he met and married Ann Taylor.

Ann Taylor was the daughter of Gen. James Taylor and Keturah Moss Taylor.

James Taylor was the founder of Newport and namesake of today's Taylor Park at the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers in Newport.

Keturah Moss was the daughter of Maj. Hugh Moss, a Revolutionary War soldier from Virginia. Her first husband was David Leith, who founded the first settlement in Campbell County. The settlement was along the river in the area that is now Wilder. When Leith died, Keturah Moss married James Taylor.

In addition to his law practice, Tibbatts became involved in the Democratic Party. He was elected to the state House of Representatives, serving in 1828 and 1829.

An 1832 Newport city directory lists Tibbatts' law office on Taylor Street, which was named in honor of his father-in-law. Taylor Street now is known as Third Street. An 1839-40 city directory, listed Tibbatts' residence on Monmouth Street in Newport.

Tibbatts became politically active again in 1842, and in March, a Democratic committee meeting in Carlisle in Nicholas County picked Tibbatts as a Northern Kentucky congressional candidate.

Tibbatts declined the nomination because a friend of his, John O. Beasman of Harrison County, was already announced as a congressional candidate.

In a letter published on May 13, 1842, in the Licking Valley Register, Tibbatts described Beasman as an honest, kind-hearted, generous man - "a good and true patriot in peace and a tried soldier in war."

Tibbatts did run for state Representative from Campbell County and won. The Licking Valley Register - a staunch supporter of the Whig Party - termed Tibbatts a member of the "Loco-foces." That was the nickname for Democratic Party's radical wing.

The Northern Kentucky congressional seat was open the next year, and Tibbatts was encouraged to run. He did.

Tibbatts won the Democratic nomination and defeated a Whig candidate named "Wall" by 345 votes.

At the time, the Northern Kentucky district included the counties of Boone, Bracken, Campbell, Gallatin, Grant, Harrison, Kenton, Mason, Nicholas, and Pendleton.

Tibbatts joined Congress during a turbulent session. The focus of debate was the annexation of Texas.

Originally Texas was part of Mexico, but in 1835 the Texans revolted. Their cause was very popular in Northern Kentucky. After winning, Texans set up an independent republic in 1836.

Texas was still operating as an independent country in 1843 when Tibbatts was elected to Congress, but efforts were underway to have Texas become a state. The chief stumbling block was Mexico, which still felt Texas belonged to her. Mexico threatened war if the United States annexed Texas.

Tibbatts quickly became an outspoken supporter of annexation. In a speech before Congress on May 7, 1844, Tibbatts termed the matter a re-annexation. He felt Texas had belonged to the United States all along.

He said that when all the facts were presented to the American people "not a true friend of liberty, not a patriot will be found in the land, who will not be in favor of re-annexation."

Tibbatts said the question of Texas statehood was the most important issue the country faced and was worth achieving even if it meant war with Mexico.

The Licking Valley Register disagreed with Tibbatts. In the same issue in which it ran a copy of Tibbatts' speech to Congress, the Covington-based newspaper said the United States could not dismiss Mexican claims so casually.

The newspaper also accused Tibbatts of trying to wage a smear campaign against Henry Clay, a U. S. Senator from Kentucky, who in 1844 was the Whig candidate for president.

Tibbatts was accused of writing to Baptist ministers and telling them Clay was a duelist and murderer - a charge Tibbatts denied and which the paper later retracted.

Tibbatts felt strongly enough about the Texas issue to introduce a bill in Congress in January 1845.

A Licking Valley Register story that Jan. 18, said the bill called for the admission of Texas as a state and pledged the protection of the American government to Texans while the details of statehood were being worked out.

Tibbatts was up for re-election that year. To oppose him the Whigs nominated John P. Gaines.

Gaines was a popular Boone County Whig and the Licking Valley Register minced no words in who it supported.

The newspaper described Gaines as a bold, fearless man and one of the most admirable stump-speakers. Tibbatts, the newspaper added, was no match on any account.

The newspaper attacked Tibbatts also as a man who had inherited most of his land from his father-in-law and as a man out of tough with the common people. The newspaper accused Tibbatts of favoring free trade, which it said would hurt Americans by flooding the country with cheap British products.

Meanwhile, the Kentucky Intelligence newspaper lashed out at Gaines. And while Tibbatts apparently took the newspaper attacks in stride, Gaines did not.

On the eve of the 1845 election Gaines ended up in a fist-fight with the editor of the Intelligence.

Tibbatts won re-election to Congress, defeating Gaines 3,419 to 3,198.

With the question of Texas still hanging, President James Polk sent an envoy to Mexico that fall offering to buy New Mexico and California from Mexico for $25 million.

Polk also asked Mexico to set the Rio Grande River as Mexico's northern boundary. The boundary would effectively eliminate any Mexican claims to Texas.

The offer was turned down and on Dec. 29, 1845, Texas was admitted as a state.

Mexico was in the midst of its own revolution, and her earlier threat to declare war on the United States did not happen. But Mexico did break off diplomatic relations with the United States.

The United States declared war on Mexico in April 1846, after an American Army sent to set up a border on the Rio Grande was attacked and defeated by Mexican troops.

Gaines, still smarting from his congressional defeat, quickly organized a company of soldiers in Boone County for service in the war. Gaines and his men were later surrounded and captured without a battle by Mexican troops.

His capture without a fight made Gaines a central figure of debate in the war. Friends rallied behind Gaines saying he surrendered only to save his out-numbered troops from needless slaughter. Opponents termed Gaines inept and a coward.

Tibbatts left Congress on March 3, 1847, and petitioned federal officials for a commission to organize his own regiment.

On March 10, the government authorized the formation of 10 new regiments for service in the Mexican War. The 16th Infantry with 1,000 men in 10 companies was placed under the command of "Colonel" John W. Tibbatts.

Tibbatts began recruiting almost immediately from the Northern Kentucky area. Charles J. Helm of Newport was named the regiment's recruiting officer and first lieutenant.

An advertisement in the Licking Valley Register that April 3 said recruits had to be between the ages of 18 and 35 and stand at least 5-feet-3.

The army provided the officers and paid them according to regular army scale, but the recruits' pay scale ranged from $7 a month for privates to $17 for master sergeants. Recruits also were offered a $12 signing bonus, and if they were disabled in the war, they were offered either $100 or 160 acres of government-owned land.

Tibbatts used the nearby Newport Military Barracks as his recruiting headquarters.

Tibbatts ended up being assigned the military governor of Monterrey, Mexico. The Americans captured that important northern Mexico city earlier in the war, but conditions there would continue to be a problem for American officials.

In addition to the normal problems of occupying a hostile city, Monterrey was being rocked by murders and robberies by Mexican bandits and looting by the Americans - especially those troops from Texas, who were seeking revenge for past offenses.

Tibbatts ordered all Monterrey bars closed and prohibited all sale of alcohol to soldiers and civilians. He also restricted travel in the city, requiring those who were not residents to check-in first with American military officials.

He also closed all gambling houses in the city and prohibited people from carrying unauthorized weapons.

The war ended on Feb. 2, 1848, when a treaty was signed in which Mexico gave up all claims to Texas and agreed to sell to the United States California and the New Mexico territory, which included all of today's states of Arizona, Nevada, and Utah, and parts of New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming. The price was $15 million.

After the war, Tibbatts returned to his law practice in Newport.

His old post in Congress was won by Gaines, who later went on to become territorial governor of what is now Oregon and Washington.

Tibbatts died on July 5, 1852, after a short illness. The newspapers compared Tibbatts to Henry Clay, who had died a short time before. Tibbatts was described as one of Kentucky's best statesmen.

It is not clear how many children Tibbatts had.

One newspaper account in January of 1895 listed a "John W. Tibbatts" as the son of Col. John W. Tibbatts. The younger Tibbatts was apparently the victim of a self-inflicted gunshot wound; he had been found Jan. 1 in a room at the Aspine Hotel in Alexandria.

Another account in 1913, however, listed the younger John W. Tibbatts as the brother of Julius Tibbatts, who died that year in San Francisco. John and Julius were the sons of Leo Tibbatts, who was apparently a brother of the former congressman.

Tibbatts had at least one daughter, Keturah Tibbatts, who was apparently named for her grandmother. She married George Hodge, a Newport attorney, who was a member of the Confederate Congress and a general during the Civil War. He later became a judge in Campbell County.

Of the Newport streets named for Tibbatts, the main street was renamed Tenth Street when Newport adopted a numbered street-name system in the late 1890s. The other street, which is no longer open to the public, use to run off Home Street in south Newport.

In Covington, Tibbatts Street runs between Southern Avenue and 38th Street. In that same area there is a Hodge Street. Prior to the time Covington adopted a numbered street system, 38th Street was known as Taylor Street.

Tibbatts is buried in Evergreen Cemetery.

The study of Northern Kentucky history is an avocation of staff writer Jim Reis, who covers suburban Kenton County for The Kentucky Post.