Historical Marker

George Graham Vest

Established Owensboro's second newspaper, The Gazette, near here in 1852, with Robert S. Triplett, an Owensboro businessman. Vest was U.S. Senator from Missouri, 1879-1903. Author of world famous "Tribute To A Dog." This spontaneous oration in court in defense of a backwoodsman's dog, "Old Drum," won case for the client and gained George G. Vest world fame.

(Reverse) "Tribute to a Dog" - "The one absolutely unselfish friend that man can have . . . the one that never deserts him and the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous is his dog. . . . He guards the sleep of his pauper master as if he were a prince. When all other friends desert he remains."-From a pleading before a jury by George Graham Vest.