 Concerned for the education of his children , Captain Rowan moved the family to Bardstown , Kentucky in 1790 . There , John Rowan began his education under Dr. James Priestly at Salem Academy . Salem Academy was , at the time , considered one of the best educational institutions in the west . Among Rowan 's classmates at the Academy were future U.S. Attorney General Felix Grundy , future U.S. Senator John Pope , future U.S. District Attorney Joseph Hamilton Daveiss , and future Kentucky state senator John Allen . Rowan and Grundy were members of a debating society called the Bardstown Pleiades which may have been an outgrowth of Salem Academy . Other notable members of the society included future Florida Governor William Pope Duval , future U.S. Postmaster General and Kentucky Governor Charles A. Wickliffe , and future Kentucky Senator Benjamin Hardin . 
