Willis Benson Machen


Willis Benson Machen was a Democratic U.S. Senator from Kentucky.

Early life

Willis B. Machen was born the son of Henry and Nancy Machen on April 10, 1810 in Caldwell County, Kentucky. He attended the common schools of the area and became a farmer. Machen attended Cumberland College in Princeton, and then engaged in agricultural pursuits near Eddyville.
In addition to farming, Machen worked at the Livingston iron forge. Soon, he and a partner opened their own business, but it failed and nearly led Machen to financial ruin. Eventually, he was able to repay his debts, and he began building turnpikes. An injury forced him to abandon that course as well, so he turned to the practice of law. He was admitted to the bar in 1844 and quickly built up a large clientele.
Machen married Margaret A. Lyon, daughter of U.S. Representative Chittenden Lyon and granddaughter of U.S. Representative Colonel Matthew Lyon.

Political career

Machen was delegate to the State constitutional convention in 1849, was a member of the Kentucky Senate in 1854, and was a member of the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1856 and 1860.
When a group of secessionist Kentuckians formed a Confederate government for the state, the Kentucky Confederate legislative council elected Machen as its president. Machen represented Kentucky's 1st congressional district in the First Confederate Congress, serving on the Accounts and Ways and Means Committees. He was re-elected to the Second Confederate Congress and worked in the quartermaster and commissary departments. In total, he served in the Confederate Congress from February 22, 1862 until its dissolution in April 1865.
After the close of the war, Machen, fearing reprisals for his alignment with the Confederacy, fled to Canada; his third wife and daughters Minnie and Marjorie joined him there. In 1869, President Ulysses S. Grant issued a pardon for Machen, and he returned to Kentucky.
Friends encouraged Machen to run for governor, but there were questions about his eligibility, and he declined. On July 9, 1872, Kentucky's delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Baltimore, Maryland nominated Machen for the office of Vice-President of the United States; he received one electoral vote.
On September 22, 1872, Governor Preston H. Leslie appointed Machen to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Garrett Davis. When the Kentucky Senate re-convened, he was formally elected to the seat on January 21, 1873, defeating Republican Tarvin Baker by a vote of 104-18. He served from September 27, 1872, to March 3, 1873.

Later life

Following his congressional tenure, he resumed agricultural interests. He also jointly owned several iron furnaces in Lyon County; it was at one of these furnaces that William Kelly invented his process for making steel rails. In 1880, Machen was appointed to the Kentucky Railroad Commission, serving one full term.
Following his term on the railroad commission, Machen retired to Mineral Mound, his estate on the Cumberland River near Eddyville, where he raised tobacco. He died September 29, 1893 at the Western Asylum in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, and was interred in Riverview Cemetery in Eddyville.
Today, Machen's former estate is the site of Mineral Mound State Park.
Machen was the grandfather of Zelda Fitzgerald. He died before she was born.