History of Kentucky
JUDGE CHARLES KERR
Editor
WILLIAM ELSEY CONNELLEY
Author of "Eastern Kentucky Papers"
and
E. M. COULTER, Ph. D.
Department of History, University of Georgia
IN FIVE VOLUMES
VOLUME V
THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY
CHICAGO AND NEW YORK
1922
-L 1
TO NEW YC
PUBL
180784 A.
-
Copyright, 1922
BY
THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
John Todd Shelby. Human life is like the waves
of the sea; they flash a few brief moments in the sun-
light, marvels of power and beauty, and then are dashed
upon the remorseless shores of death and disappear
forever. The passing of any human life, however
humble and unknown, is sure to give rise to a pang
of anguish in some heart, but when the "fell destroyer"
knocks at the door of the useful and great and removes
from earthly scenes the man of honor and influence and
the benefactor of his kind, it means not only bereave-
ment to kindred and friends, but a public calamity as
well.
In the largest and best sense of the term the late
John Todd Shelby, of Lexington, was distinctively one
of the notable men of his day and generation, and as
such his life record is entitled to a conspicuous place
in the annals of the State of Kentucky. As a citizen.
he was public spirited and enterprising to an unwonted
degree ; as a friend and neighbor, he combined the qual-
ities of head and heart that won confidence and com-
manded respect; as an attorney who had a comprehensive
grasp upon the philosophy of jurisprudence and brought
honor and dignity to the profession he followed with
such distinguished success, he was easily the peer of
any of his brethren of the Kentucky liar.
To refer to him as a lawyer in the phraseology which
meets requirements when dealing with the average
member of the legal profession would not do him jus-
tice. He was, indeed, much more than eminently suc-
cessful in his legal career, as was indicated by his
long, praiseworthy record at the tor. He was a master
of his profession, a leader among men distinguished for
the high order of their legal ability, and his eminent
attainments and ripe judgment made him an authority
on all matters involving a profound knowledge of
jurisprudence and of vexed and intricate questions of
equity practice. His life and labors were worthy be-
cause they contributed to a proper understanding of life
and its problems.
John Todd Shelby, the only child of Thomas Hart
Shelby and his first wife, Frances Stuart Todd, was
born in Springfield, Illinois, on the 25th day of Janu-
ary, 1851, while his mother was on a visit to her
parents, Doctor and Mrs. John Todd, of that city,
where they had located in 1827, after migrating from
Kentucky to Illinois ten years before, Doctor Todd
having been a surgeon with the Kentucky volunteers
in the War of 1812 and present at the battle and
massacre of the River Raisin, where he was captured.
Mr. Shelby's mother, who was a granddaughter of
Gen. Levi Todd, one of the early settlers of Fayette
County, whose son, Robert S. Todd, was the father
of Mary Todd, who married Abraham Lincoln, died
a week after his birth and he was brought to Ken-
tucky, where he grew to manhood at his father's
home, "Bel Air," a beautiful country seat in the
Walnut Hill section of Fayette County.
His father, Thomas Hart Shelby, who at the time
of his death in 1895 was collector of United States
internal revenue for the Seventh District of Kentucky,
was a grandson of Isaac Shelby, the first governor of
Kentucky and one of the heroes of the King's Moun-
tain campaign and battle, often referred to as the
turning point of the Revolution in the South, in the
autumn of 1780. "And without venturing into any
controversy respecting this important event in the
War of the Revolution and the history of our coun-
try) it may be fairly said that he conceived the cam-
paign and was one of the main spirits in its prosecu-
tion to a successful termination." There is no figure
more familiar to the reader of Kentucky history than
•Isaac Shelby, who, again chosen governor, after an
interim of many years, upon the commencement of
hostilities with Great Britain in 1812, is no less famed
for his distinguished services in that conflict than for
his valor in the days of the Revolution, leading in
person the dauntless Kentucky volunteers on the battle-
field of the Thames, October 5, 1813, and winning for
himself lasting renown by the part he played in the
achievement of the sweeping victory over Proctor
and Tecumseh, which resulted in the rout of the allied
British and Indians by the Americans under Gen.
William Henry Harrison and the death of Tecumseh,
an event which practically marked the close of British
and Indian operations in the Northwest. Governor
Shelby, who was a son of Gen. Evan Shelby, also a
Revolutionary soldier of note, and his wife, Laetitia
Cox, married Susanna Hart, daughter of the well-
known Capt. Nathaniel Hart, one of the first settlers
of Kentucky and one of the proprietors of the Colony
of Transylvania. Thomas Hart Shelby, the elder, son
of Governor Isaac Shelby and grandfather of Mr.
Shelby, owned about 2,000 acres of the very best land
in Fayette County, it being located west of the Rich-
mond and Lexington Turnpike and near Walnut Hill
Church.
Mr. Shelby's paternal grandmother was Mary Ann
Bullock, daughter of Edmund Bullock, the second,
speaker of the Kentucky House of Representatives,
whose wife was Elizabeth Fontaine, of Jefferson Coun-
ty, while his maternal grandmother, Mrs. John Todd,
was before her marriage, Elizabeth Fisher Blair Smith,
a daughter of Rev. John Blair Smith, D. D., one of
the eminent Presbyterian divines of the eighteenth
century, who was the second president of Hampden-
Sidney College, Virginia, and later the first president
of Union College at Schenectady, New York, and
who died in 1799 as pastor of the old Pine Street
Church, Philadelphia. Doctor Smith married Eliza-
beth Fisher Nash, of Prince Edward County, Vir-
ginia. His brother, Rev. Samuel Stanhope Smith.
D. D., was the first president of Hampden-Sidney
and afterwards president of Princeton College.
Gen. Levi Todd, great-grandfather of Mr. Shelby,
was a prominent figure in the early military and civic
annals of Kentucky, and a brother of Col. John Todd
and Gen. Robert Todd, both conspicuous in its early
history, the former having been killed at the battle
of the Blue Licks in 1782 and having theretofore been
appointed colonel commandant and county lieutenant
of Illinois, with the civil powers of governor, upon
its erection as a county of Virginia in 1778. These
three brothers were nephews of Rev. John Todd, of
3
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
Louisa County, Virginia, long a leading spirit in Han-
over Presbytery, who, deeply interested in the early
immigration to Kentucky, was, like Col. John Todd
himself, one of those most influential in obtaining
from the Legislature of Virginia the charter and
endowment of Transylvania Seminary, and who was
instrumental in furnishing to that institution a library
that became the nucleus of the present invaluable li-
brary of Transylvania University at Lexington.
Mr. Shelby's preliminary education was obtained
principally in the schools of Fayette County. In 1866-7
he was a student at Centre College, Danville, Kentucky,
and in 1867-8, attended Kentucky (now Transylvania)
University at Lexington. In the fall of 1868, he entered
Princeton, from which he was graduated with high
honors, though one of the youngest members of his
class, in 1870, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts.
In 1873 Princeton conferred upon him the degree of
Master of Arts, and in 1904 the Agricultural and Me-
chanical College of Kentucky (now the University of
Kentucky) conferred upon him the degree of Doctor
of Laws.
After leaving college Mr. Shelby applied himself to
the reading of law under his uncle-in-Iaw, Judge Wil-
liam B. Kinkead, of Fayette County, and on March 2,
1872, was admitted to the bar at Lexington, during the
incumbency of Hon. Charles B. Thomas as Circuit
Judge. He entered the office of Breckinridge & Buckner,
at Lexington, a firm composed of Col. William C. P.
Breckinridge and Judge Benjamin F. Buckner, where he
practiced alone until he formed a partnership with
Judge J. Soule Smith, the style of the firm being Smith
& Shelby, an association which lasted until September
1, 1875, when he entered into partnership with Colonel
Breckinridge under the firm name of Breckinridge
& Shelby, a relation that continued unbroken until
the death of Colonel Breckinridge on November
19, 1904. Thereafter Mr. Shelby was alone in
practice until December 1, 1907, when with his son, John
Craig Shelby, who had that year graduated from the
Harvard Law School, he formed the firm of Shelby &
Shelby. On July I, 1910, R. L. Northcutt became a
member of the firm, the name of which was changed on
December 1, 1913, to Shelby, Northcutt & Shelby, and
as thus constituted it continued until Mr. Shelby's
death. During his early practice he taught equity and
pleading, and somewhat later, pleading, evidence and
practice in the Law College of Kentucky (now Transyl-
vania) University.
Mr. Shelby's active practice at the Fayette County
bar covered a period of forty-eight years, to the day,
his death occurring at his home in Lexington on March
2, 1920, after an illness of comparatively short duration.
His life was to a remarkable degree intertwined with
the history of Central Kentucky, and there is absolutely
no question but that he ranked with the greatest who
have honored and adorned the legal profession in Ken-
tucky. During this period there were few notable cases
in which his services were not engaged and few public
movements in which he was not an influential factor.
Though a Presbyterian in early life, Mr. Shelby had
been for nearly twenty-seven years a communicant of
Christ Church Cathedral at Lexington, the oldest Pro-
testant Episcopal parish in Kentucky, and continuously
during the same period an active member of the vestry,
being junior warden of the cathedral from 1903 until
1907, and senior warden from 1907 up to the time
of his death. He was chancellor of the Diocese of
Lexington from 1898 until his death.
In politics he was originally a Democrat, but during
the first McKinley-Bryan campaign, in 1896, he changed
his support to the Republican party, with which he was
afterwards affiliated. For three years, from 1908 until
1910, during the administration of Governor Augustus
E. Willson, he was the Republican member of the State
Board of Election Commissioners.
On November 7, 1872, in Christ Church, Saint Louis,
Missouri, Mr. Shelby married Miss Elizabeth Morris
Brooking Craig, of that city, who was born in Carroll
County, Kentucky, near Ghent, and who had spent
much of her girlhood in the Walnut Hill neighbor-
hood of Fayette County, near Mr. Shelby's boyhood
home. She was a daughter of Robert Edward Brook-
ing and his wife, Elizabeth Morris Craig, but was
adopted in early childhood by her maternal uncle,
John Anderson Craig, whose name she thereafter bore.
To this union were born four children, Thomas Hart,
Francis Todd. John Craig and Christine, the second
of whom died in infancy. Mrs. Shelby died in Lex-
ington on December 12, 1917, and their three children,
Thomas Hart, who married Mary Agnes Scott, of Jessa-
mine County. John Craig and Christine, and a grand-
son, John Todd Shelby, who married Virginia Berenice
Lindsey, of Roanoke, Virginia, and Lexington, son of
their son Thomas Hart, survive, residing at Lexington.
Mr. Shelby is also survived by his half-brothers, Thomas
H. Shelby, of Lexington, Wallace M. Shelby, of Fayette
County, and Edmund B. Shelby, of Charlotte, North
Carolina, and his half-sisters, Mary C. Shelby, of
Lexington. Elizabeth S. Post, of Kingston, New York,
Fanny S. Matthews, of Lexington, Florence M. Shelby,
of Lexington, Alice S. Riddell, of Irvine, Rosa S.
Richardson, of Lexington, Kate S. Scott, of Lexing-
ton, and Willie I. Shelby, of Charlotte, North Caro-
lina, children of his father's second marriage, to Flor-
ence McDowell. Another half-brother, George S.
Shelby, of Lexington, predeceased him.
In many ways Mr. Shelby had an important part in
the development of his section of Kentucky and was
financially and otherwise interested in a number of
important enterprises. He was one of a group of
citizens who built the Belt Line Railroad, which after-
wards passed under the control of the Chesapeake &
Ohio Railway Company. He also helped to organize
the Belt Electric Line Company, the Central Electric
Company and the Hercules Ice Company, predecessors,
respectively, of the present Lexington street railway
system, electric lighting system and ice plant, and was
at one time president of the First National Bank of
Lexington.
For a long time he was attorney for the Lexington
Waterworks Company and at the time of his death bad
for many years been counsel for the Chesapeake &
Ohio Railway Company. He was a director of the First
and City National Bank of Lexington, and of the
Fayette Home Telephone Company, attorney for both,
and one of the organizers of the latter. He was also
attorney for the Adams Express Company and the
Southern Express Company. For over thirty-five years
he had been attorney for the Louisville & Nashville
Railroad Company in Fayette and adjoining counties,
and for many years attorney for the Southern Railway
Company in Kentucky. In his early practice he served
as city attorney and later was a member of the Board
of Aldermen of the City of Lexington.
He was for many years a director of the Young Men's
Christian Association at Lexington, and served for many
terms as vice-president of the Kentucky Society of
Sons of the Revolution, and for one term was its
president. From 1890 until 1895 he was a member of
the Board of Commissioners of the Eastern Kentucky
Lunatic Asylum at Lexington, and from 1910 until 1913,
a member of the Board of Trustees of the Lincoln In-
stitute of Kentucky at Simpsonville.
Probably no better review of Mr. Shelby's personal
characteristics and mental qualities could be written than
was embodied in the splendid tributes paid him in the
press at the time of his death and also at a memorial
meeting of the Lexington Bar Association by those
who had known him long and intimately, as well as in
resolutions adopted by various bodies of which he was
a member, and from which excerpts are freely made as
follows:
"No lawyer of his generation stood higher in the
estimation of this bar than did the distinguished
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
jurist whose passing we are this day called upon to
lament. For nearly fifty years past he has borne an
unsullied reputation as a leading exemplar of the highest
civic virtues as well as of the noblest ethics and tradi-
tions of the legal profession. His abilities and his at-
tainments were such as to excite admiration and com-
mand respect from friend and foe alike. No lawyer
in any era of Kentucky's history has ever surpassed him
in acuteness of intellect, in clarity of thought, or in
lucidity of expression. From the beginning to the end
of his busy career he met and mingled on equal terms
with those whom this bar and the bar of Kentucky
generally have accounted greatest in the profession of
the law, and we can recall no instance when he can
fairly be said to have been overmatched. His knowl-
edge of the law was varied, accurate and profound,
and his powers of logical analysis in presenting any
question or in advocating any cause were at all times
the despair of his adversaries as they were the subject
of enthusiastic and unqualified praise by his associates
and colleagues. * * * As a counselor, Mr. Shelby
was remarkably free from any appearance or sugges-
tion of aggressive self-assertion, and even when his
advice was most eagerly solicited he seemed to invite
the views of those who sought his guidance rather than
to impose upon them any opinion of his own. His
gracious, tactful and considerate manner toward all
who approached him has been a matter of constant
comment by every thoughtful member of this bar. * * *
"Be It Resolved, That in the death of Honorable
John Todd Shelby, this bar has suffered a grievous
and irreparable loss ; that his long and honorable career
has conferred imperishable lustre upon this bar, the
consciousness of which is not confined to this city and
county, but is widely recognized throughout our own
and other states; that his eminence as a laywer, his
leadership as a citizen, and his worth as a man are
most keenly appreciated by those of us who have en-
joyed the privilege of daily contact and association and
personal acquaintance with him ; that none know better
than ourselves or can better appraise his studious habits,
his unflagging industry, his large experience, and his
absolute fidelity to his profession, and none can more
truthfully or more emphatically testify to his sterling
character, his liberal culture, his extraordinary legal
attainments, his public spirit, his unfaltering courage,
his flawless courtesy, and to that rare combination of
qualities, both of mind and temperament, which have
stamped him as a shining example of the Christian
gentleman, the erudite scholar, the upright counselor,
the faithful advocate, and, above all, as the exemplary
citizen ; and that, while none had a better right to boast
of an illustrious ancestry, no man who has ever graced
the bench or bar of Kentucky had less occasion or need
to rely upon pride of birth or the blazon of lineage to
justify his title to distinction." — (From resolutions
adopted at a meeting of the Lexington Bar Association,
held on March 4, 1920.)
"As an expounder of equity jurisprudence (referring
to his teaching in the Law College of Kentucky, now
Transylvania, University), neither Yale nor Harvard,
nor any other great university of our country, could
produce his superior. * * *
"I believe I can say in all sincerity that of all the
lawyers with whom I have been thrown in contact,
Mr. Shelby had no superior in learning, in acuteness
of intellect, and especially in splendid powers of dis-
criminating analysis. His arguments in this court were
to my mind models of legal argument. He was always
courteous to the other side, though maintaining his own
position with firmness and force, never letting go a
proposition that he believed sound. We all know with
what great success he met in his practice. * * *
"Mr. Shelby was tenacious of every opinion which he
believed to be valid, and presented it with an acuteness
of intellect, a power of logic, a lucidity of expression
that very few in my memory or knowledge equaled.
Not only that, but, above all, Mr. Shelby was a Chris-
tian. For many years he had been connected with
Christ Church, was senior warden of the church, a
member of the vestry for many years; and every one
who knew him in his daily life, in all his conduct, saw
that there ran through all his actions the faith that he
had in his belief in the precepts of the Christian re-
ligion. This bar has lost a great man, modest and un-
pretentious as he was. I desire to pay this tribute of
admiration for his character, this testimony of my
respect for him, and of my profound reverence for his
learning and ability. To the younger members of the
bar I can only say that they could have no brighter
example of all that is best in our profession than the
life and character of Mr. Shelby, and no young man
could do better than to follow, as far as he can, his
footsteps and his example."— (From remarks by Col.
John R. Allen at the meeting of the Lexington Bar
Association.)
"He was a man who had the tenderest and most
loving sympathy and solicitude for his friends when
they were in trouble or distress that I have ever known.
His simple, childlike, unwavering faith in the efficacy
of the redeeming blood of the crucified Christ was the
most beautiful thing I have ever seen. My talks with
him along this line, his abiding hope, his confident ex-
pectation to meet and be reunited with the loved ones
that had gone on before gave me stronger hope and
belief in a future existence and a happier state for man
than all the sermons of all the preachers I have ever
heard."— (From remarks by Hon. W. C. G. Hobbs.)
"Measured by all of the standards of human excel-
lence, he was a well-rounded and unusual man. All of
us, I trust, possess in some degree his great qualities
of mind and heart, as exemplified in his long, active
and useful life. But without intending to depreciate
the ability and character of this bar, it may be safely-
said that no one of its living members possesses in the
same high degree all of his great qualities."— (From
remarks by Hon. W. P. Kimball.)
"I cannot realize that from this stand I shall never
again call from your number the name of John Todd
Shelby; that I can never again ask his counsel or
advice; that I can never again counsel with him con-
cerning the things that are nearest and dearest to me.
I might, indeed, say of him as Horace, the old Latin
poet, said of his friend Varus, 'He was modest, true,
just; he is mourned by all good men, and who is there
to take his place?'
"The silver cord has indeed been loosed, the golden
bowl been broken. I know, except for the memories,
the sweet associations of thirty-six years, that he has
gone forever out of a life into which he came at its
most critical period. Without education, without ex-
perience, with nothing to recommend me to the con-
sideration of one who possessed all the graces which
education and culture supply, I went into his office and
introduced myself to him and his partner Colonel
Breckinridge, and asked them if they would lend me
some law books. From that moment until the very last
conversation I had with him, only last week, there was
never a time when I did not feel that I could go to
him with anything that troubled me, that I could ask
from him advice upon any subject, and never did 1 go
when he did not receive me kindly, courteously, sweetly.
In all the vicissitudes through which I have passed,
many of which have been purely personal, I always re-
ceived just that encouragement I needed, that sympathy
I craved. I might say, too, on those occasions when
he knew I was perplexed, that I was bearing some un-
disclosed burden, he has, with gentle, sweet concern
sought me. This to me is one of the most perfect
forms of true, enduring friendship."— (From remarks
by judge Charles Kerr.)
"A Christian without reproach, a gentleman without
6
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
fear, a Kentuckian of Kentuckians, John T. Shelby
typified the loftiest traditions, exemplified the noblest
aspirations of his people.
"A lawyer who met as equal the greatest of his gen-
eration, whose mind entitled him to be ranked in the
first flight of the great lawyers of the State, whose
erudition made him the cherished companion of the
most learned, John Shelby was greater as a man than
as a lawyer or scholar. With the utter courage of
absolute honesty he had the gentleness of a woman ;
with the transparent veracity that is the companion of
perfect fearlessness, he never had thought, even, of
expressing a harsh or bitter word. Only those priv-
ileged to be admitted to his intimacy could have full
appreciation of the combined elements of strength and
gentleness, of courage and kindliness, of duty and gen-
erosity, that made him long since aptly and justly-
described as the 'First Gentleman of Kentucky.'
"Simple of life, forgetful of self, he never sought
nor desired place or power, nor would accept public
position. He would have graced and have lent dis-
tinction to the Supreme Court, for which he was most
eminently fitted, to which he might have been appointed
had he but indicated his desire to have a position thereon
tendered to him.
"From early manhood he carried with never flickering
courage and ever present cheerfulness burdens that
would have crushed a weaker man. Frail of body, his
mind worked with unceasing and never flagging in-
dustry. But there was no labor so great, no bodily
frailty so poignant that could dim his sense of humor
or cloud his wit. No grief, it mattered not how des-
perately it wrung his heart, could make him lose mas-
tery of himself." — (From editorial by Desha Breckin-
ridge in the Lexington Herald of March 3, 1920.)
"Man may approach the perfect, but he cannot attain
it. And yet the late John T. Shelby did not fail in
any of the essentials which bring us within an appre-
ciable nearness of the ideal. His antecedents, his rear-
ing, his education, his innate sense of refinement and
culture, all lent their influence in producing the com-
pleted whole. His ancestry carried him back to a gen-
eration that was conspicuous in laying the foundation
of the State; in overcoming the vicissitudes of a fronter
community; in establishing homes for their descendants,
and founding a stable society. Whatever profession he
might have chosen, he would have adorned ; whatever
pursuit might have won his endeavors, he would have
been recognized among its leaders. The legal profes-
sion was congenial to one of his inquiring mind. Rea-
son and logic were to him the coefficients of truth, and
no matter where truth led he followed it with relent-
less exactitude. He reduced every proposition to a
syllogism. His conclusions were reached through a de-
ductive rather than through an inductive process of
reasoning. When his advice was sought he reasoned
from the facts presented to a determination that was
as accurate as a problem in Euclid. His was not a
mind that could predetermine what a result ought to
be and then construct a theory that would reach the
end desired. The final determination with him came
as the result of laying his premises in truth. In nothing
did he seem to delight more than an a priori argument.
Given the antecedent, he reached the consequent with
a skill and lucidity that baffled his most astute adver-
saries. So clear was he in statement that nothing was
left for argument. * * *
"Every branch of the law yielded at his approach, but
in pleading and equity jurisprudence he had no su-
perior among the lawyers of Kentucky. With him
pleading was a science. As such he studied it, as such
he practiced it. Had he lived in the days of Chitty
and Mansfield he would have been, par excellence, one
of the most skillful among the English pleaders. For
an ill-prepared and loosely-drawn pleading he had a
repugnance that amounted almost to a contempt. He
delighted to parry in this branch of the profession with
one that was worthy of his own skill. Simple, quiet,
unobtrusive, many an adversary was forced to suffer
all the torments of that discomfiture that comes from
lack of skill or preparation, when he stood before the
bar with him as opponent. * * *
"With him equity was that branch of the law which
supplied all the deficiencies of the common law. It
was a system of common justice as well as common
morals. He did not believe there could be a wrong
without a remedy. Any system for the adjustment of
human relationship that did not accept this as a truism
was inherently defective. His innate sense of justice
was, therefore, naturally and irresistibly drawn towards
that branch of the profession which was founded on
the spirit rather than the letter of the law. * * *
But whether he followed the letter or the spirit, it
was justice, in the end, that determined his course. One
of the last acts of his professional life was to refuse
participation in an action which he conceived to be
wrong and wholly lacking in moral substance.
"And thus it was he approached the ideal, not alone
in character, not alone in being the Shakespearian pos-
sessor of all those attributes that unite in making the
man, but in the ethics and practice of his profession, as
well. Of him it might be said, as it was said of another
distinguished member of the Lexington bar, 'He was a
man before whom temptation fled.' So high was his
sense of honor, so correct the standards which he had
erected for his own conduct, that he never had to
combat those seductive influences to which so many
of the profession have fallen victims. He was the
embodiment of the best traditions of the bar. He per-
sonified a type that is passing. As Horace said of
Varus, there is none to take his place. He ennobled
a profession that could not ennoble him. His was a
nobility begotten of Nature." — (From an appreciation
by Judge Charles Kerr in the Lexington Herald of
March 7, 1920.)
"He was a director of this company from its organ-
ization to the date of his death, was its vice-president
and general counsel, and in all those capacities he served
it with that intelligence, wisdom and fidelity which char-
acterized his performance of every duty.
"Those who knew him best loved him most, and
we are grateful for the privilege of association with
him for so many years. We feel that any attempt
on our part to eulogize him would be — to use a
phrase which he frequently employed with refer-
ence to others — an effort to 'paint the lily' ; and yet
we cannot forbear to record our admiration for the
gentleness and purity of his life, for the unfailing
courtesy and consideration for others which was as
much a habit with him as breathing, for the strength
and elevation of his character, for the upright-
ness and nobility of his conduct. The clearness of
his intellect, the vigor of his reason, were not more
remarkable than the directness and disinterestedness of
his action. His lofty ideals were not marred by in-
consistency of conduct. He had the faith of Lincoln
that might makes right ; he sought the truth, and, hav-
ing found it, he dared to follow where it led. With
the gentleness of a woman he combined the courage
of a lion, and being true to himself, could not be
false to any man." — (From resolutions adopted by the
Directors of the Fayette Home Telephone Company.)
"A man of unusual mental ability, of the highest
sense of honor, of keen appreciation of the service
which he should render to his fellow-man, of rare
Christian character, he brought to the discharge of
every duty a determination to give his very best efforts.
His counsels were wise, his judgment sound, and his
integrity above reproach. In the death of John T.
Shelby this community has lost one of its best citizens,
this bank a wise and safe counselor, his church a
Christian gentleman, and his friends one of their
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
choicest spirits." — (From resolutions adopted by the
Directors of the First and City National Bank, of Lex-
ington.)
"As a man, he was gifted, highly trained, of incor-
ruptible integrity; as counselor and adviser, clear-
visioned and wise; as a friend, loyal and true; as a
Christian, humble, devout and consistent. We honored
him, we loved him, we shall miss him sorely. The
Church is better because he lived and worked in it.
It is poorer now because he has gone from us. While
our sense of bereavement is so fresh and vivid, we
shall not attempt to make a balanced estimate of his
life and work, or pay complete and fitting tribute to his
character. We would only express our thankfulness to
God for what Mr. Shelby was and for what he did
among us, and our sense of bereavement in his loss."' — ■
(From resolutions adopted by the Vestry of Christ
Church Cathedral, Lexington.)
Chilton Wallace Elliott. The younger business
element of the thriving little city of Rochester, Ken-
tucky, has a worthy representative in Chilton Wallace
Elliott, who within a short space of time has established
himself thoroughly in public confidence. A product
of the agricultural districts, in his former environment
he came into contact with matters that gave' him a
knowledge of connections affecting the milling business,
and during his connection with the Rochester Ice and
Milling Company he has used this information to good
effect in his position as secretary and manager.
Mr. Elliott was born July 12, 1892, on a farm in
Ohio County, Kentucky, a son of Luther and Mary
(Brown) Elliott, and a member of a family which has
been well and favorably known in Ohio County for
several generations, his grandfather having been a
lifelong farmer in that county, although dying at
Hopkinsville. Luther Elliott was born in Ohio County
in 1864, and throughout a long and uniformly success-
ful career has followed the pursuits of farming and
raising stock. At this time he is the owner of an ex-
tensive property, well improved and highly cultivated,
ships many cattle and hogs annually, and is accounted
one of the substantial agriculturists of his community,
as well as a good and dependable citizen. In politics
he is a democrat, and his religious connection is with
the Baptist Church, of which he is an active and gen-
erous supporter. Mr. Elliott married Mary Brown,
who was born in 1866, in Arkansas, but reared in Ohio
County, and five children were born to them : Otie,
who died young; Hallie, the wife of Audrey Taylor, a
merchant of Ohio County; Charles, a coal miner of
Muhlenberg County ; Nola, who died at the age of eight
years ; and Chilton Wallace.
The education of Chilton W. Elliott was gained in
the rural schools of Ohio County, and until he was
twenty-one years of age he was associated with his
father in the cultivation of the home farm. At that
time he went to Butler County, where he commenced
farming on his own account, and this enterprise en-
gaged his attention until 1918, when he came to
Rochester and became manager and secretary of the
Rochester Ice and Milling Company, a position which
he has held to the present time. His associates in this
venture are W. M. Brown, president, and Carl Willis,
treasurer. The flour mill, an up-to-date structure, is
situated just off Main Street, and its capacity is fifty
barrels per day, while the ice manufacturing plant has
a daily capacity of five tons. In the performance of
his duties with this concern Mr. Elliott has shown a
thorough understanding of the business, good judgment,
foresight and acumen, and has so deported himself in
his various transactions as to gain the confidence of his
associates and the good will and respect of those with
whom he has come into contact in a business way.
Mr. Elliott is a democrat and is rendering Rochester
valuable services in the capacity of member of the
Board of Town Trustees. His religious faith is that
of the Christian Church. He resides in his own home
on Russellville Street, one of the comfortable residences
of Rochester, in which town he has formed and held
many friendships. Like other loyal and public-spirited
citizens, during the World war he gave freely of his
time and means in supporting the various movements
inaugurated for the support and relief of America's
fighting forces, and all worthy enterprises in times of
peace have also met with his approval and cooperation.
Mr. Elliott married in 1912, in Ohio County, Ken-
tucky, Miss Nannie Tanner, daughter of Will and
Novella (Brown) Tanner, farming people of this
county who reside at Rochester. One child has come
to Mr. and Mrs. Elliott: Barbara, born April II, 1913.
William Fayette Owsley, M. D. The profession
of medicine has been notably prominent in the wonder-
ful scientific discoveries of the past and present cen-
turies. Through the bequests of men of large means
trained medical men are concentrating their efforts in
laboratories equipped with every possible adjunct for
research and investigation, to the solving of the prob-
lems which so definitely concern humanity, its be-
g'nning, existence and end. Not every physician is
granted these opportunities, however enthused he may
be with professional zeal and ardor, but the discoveries
which come to him and the achievements which are his
in his consideration of daily practice are, perhaps, quite
as creditable, and certainly they are frequent enough
to demonstrate great ability. Since 1901 Dr. William
Fayette Owsley has been numbered among the efficient
physicians and surgeons of Cumberland County, and
during that period has proved his skill as a professional
man and his worth as a citizen of Burkesville, where
he has always made his home.
Doctor Owsley belongs to one of the oldest families
of Burkesville, and was born at this place July 22, 1879,
a son of William Francis and Sallie A. (Alexander-
Owsley. His paternal great-great-grandfather, William
Owsley, was a pioneer from Virginia to Burkesville in
the early history of this community, and here was born
the great-grandfather of Doctor Owsley, Dr. Joel
Owsley, who was an early physician and surgeon and
followed his profession here throughout his career. He
was likewise an early believer in the Christian or Camp-
bellite faith, and preached the doctrines of that church
even before the arrival of. Alexander Campbell. Dr.
Joel Owsley married Mary Ann Lewis, who was born
and died at Burkesville.
William Francis Owsley, the elder, the grandfather
of Dr. William Fayette Owsley, was born in 1812 at
Burkesville, -and was reared to mercantile pursuits, in
which he was engaged until reaching his thirty-fifth
year. At that time, in partnership with Fayette W.
Alexander, the maternal grandfather of Doctor Owsley,
he established a branch house of the Louisville Bank,
which was conducted until into the '70s. When he sev-
ered his connection with this institution Mr. Owsley
turned his attention to the brokerage business, and from
that time forward concerned himself with the handling
of mortgages, farms, etc. He married Mary Agnes
Bledsoe, who was born in 1834 at Burkesville, and
died in 1881. He survived her for many years and
passed away while on a trip to Louisville, in June, 1908.
William Francis Owsley, the younger, father of Dr.
William F. Owsley, was born August 2, 1852, at Burkes-
ville, and as a young man elected to make farming his
life work. That he made a wise choice has been dem-
onstrated in his subsequent career, for he has been a
leading and successful agriculturist, and at the present
time is the owner of a valuable property in Cumber-
land County. In addition to his general farming
activities he was a raiser and handler of horses, having
an extensive stock farm, and his horses, particularly
the Red Squirrel breed, are known all over the United
States. While somewhat retired from active pursuits,
having reached the psalmist's three-score-and-ten years,
8
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
he supervises his large enterprises and take a keen in-
terest in business affairs, as well as in matters which
affect the community life. He is a democrat in politics,
but has never been an aspirant for public honors.
Reared in the faith of the Christian Church, he has
always been a liberal supporter of its movements. Mr.
Owsley married Miss Sallie A. Alexander, also a mem-
ber of an old and honored family of Burkesville, who
was born here in 1852, and died in March, 1904. They
became the parents of the following children : Susie
King, who died in 1916, aged thirty-six years, at Burkes-
ville, the wife of Dr. John G. Talbot, a physician and
surgeon of Burkesville, a sketch of whose career ap-
pears elsewhere in this volume ; Dr. William Fayette,
of this review ; Mary Agnes, the wife of Dr. R. C.
Richardson, a dental practitioner of Leitchfield, Ken-
tucky; Grant A., a resident of Burkesville, who during
the World war was stationed at Camp Taylor, subse-
quently was sent to other training camps, commissioned
a first lieutenant, and was ready for overseas duty
when the armistice was signed; and Helen, the
wife of S. M. Young, vice president of the Bank of
Cumberland, Burkesville.
William Fayette Owsley attended the public schools
and Alexander College, Burkesville, following which
he entered Center College, Danville. He lacked only
three months of graduation when ill health forced him
to leave that institution, and upon his recovery entered
the Hospital College of Medicine at Louisville, where
he spent three years. Following this he pursued a
course in the medical department of the University of
Kentucky at Louisville, from which he was graduated
in 1901 with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. In
that same year he graduated from the Louisville School
of Pharmacy with the degree of Graduate Pharmacist.
In 1902 he took two post-graduate courses at the Uni-
versity of Kentucky, one in the spring and one in the
fall, specializing in diseases of women and diseases
of children.
Doctor Owsley began his practice at Burkesville in
1901, and since that year has built up a splendid prac-
tice. A man of unusual ability, he has always taken a
progressive stand upon matters pertaining to his pro-
fession. Always devoted to his work, he is constantly
endeavoring to add to his store of knowledge and
widen his field of action. Having devoted so many
years to his calling he has been liberally rewarded by
the bestowal of confidence and the enjoyment of praise
honestly won. Doctor Owsley is the owner of his
modern residence and offices on Glasgow Street, one of
the most desirable and comfortable homes in the city,
an old Colonial brick structure. He is likewise the
owner of a farm of 250 acres, part of which extends
into the city limits, and carries on general farming and
stock raising thereon.
In politics a democrat. Doctor Owsley is a profes-
sional man rather than a politician, but has accepted the
responsibilities of public office on occasion. In 1906 he
was appointed a member of the Board of Town Trus-
tees to fill out an unexpired term, and in the following
year was elected to that post for a full term of four
years. At the present time he is United States ex-
amining surgeon for Cumberland County, and formerly
for six years was health officer of the county. He be-
longs to the Cumberland County Medical Society, the
Kentucky State Medical Society and the American
Medical Association, and is a deacon of the Christian
Church. During the World war he was very active in
local matters, being examining surgeon for the Cumber-
land County Draft Board, food administrator of Cum-
berland County and chairman of the civilian relief
committee, in addition to helping every drive be put
"over the top." With Mrs. Owsley he organized every
local chapter of the American Red Cross in the county.
On October 25, 1905, Doctor Owsley married at Lex-
ington, Kentucky, Miss Annie Pearl Owings, a daugh-
ter of W. A. and Nannie (Rue) Owings, residents of
Lexington, where Mr. Owings is a well known trotting
horse owner, breeder and developer. Mrs. Owsley
was graduated from the public schools of Danville,
Kentucky, at the age of thirteen years, and four years
later graduated from Caldwell College, now the
Woman's College of Danville, with the degree of
Bachelor of Arts. She took a postgraduate course at
the Kentucky State University, and finally pursued a
course at the Western College for Women. She is a
woman of superior intellect, graces and accomplish-
ments, and is a leader in the club and social life of
Burkesville. To Dr. and Mrs. Owsley there has come
one son, William Fayette, Jr., born August 16, 1906,
who is now a student in the Burkesville High School.
Frank Crim, whose death occurred on his home
farm, on the Haley Turnpike in Fayette County, May
30, 1888, was but forty-eight years of age at the
time of his demise, but had left a distinct and worthy
impress as one of the vigorous and successful repre-
sentatives of farm industry in this county and as a
citizen of sterling character and marked civic loyalty.
He was born in Kentucky in the year 1840, and was a
son of Lewis and Susan (Duvall) Crim, who were
residents of Woodford County, this state, at the time
of thejr deaths. Lewis Crim removed with his family
to Texas, but after remaining in the Lone Star state
for a period of three years he returned to Kentucky,
accompanied by his wife and all of their children ex-
cept James, who there remained until his death. Wood-
son, another of the sons, later returned to Texas, where
he passed the remainder of his life, and Clifford and
Samuel were bachelors at the time of their deaths, in
Kentucky.
Frank Crim was reared and educated in his native
state and here passed his entire life with the exception
of the period of three years in Texas. He was twenty-
six years of age at the time of his marriage, in 1866,
to Miss Mary Haley, who was at that time nineteen
years of age. She was born on her father's old home-
stead farm in Fayette County, the same being situated
on the Haley Turnpike, which was named in his honor.
Mrs. Crim, who now resides in the city of Lexington,
is a sister of W. W. Haley of Bourbon County, in
whose personal sketch, on other pages of this work,
is given adequate record concerning the Haley family.
After his marriage Mr. Crim established his residence
upon the farm given to his wife by her father, on the
Haley Turnpike, and after his death his widow re-
mained on this farm more than thirty years. Mrs. Crim
finally sold the property and has since maintained her
home at Lexington. While on the farm she was an
active member of the Baptist Church, on David's Fork,
her parents likewise having been zealous members of
this church. She is now a member of the church of
this denomination in the City of Lexington, and the
religious faith of her husband likewise was that of the
Baptist Church. He was a man of strong mentality,
was vigorous and resourceful in his farm activities, and
commanded the high regard of all who knew him.
Of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Crim the eldest is
Etta, who is the wife of Thomas Hagan, a skilled
mechanic residing at Winchester, Clark County, he be-
ing a brother of the wife of William L. Crim; Susie
is the wife of James A. Liter, a prosperous farmer in
Bourbon County; William L., the next in order of birth,
will be more specifically mentioned in later paragraphs;
Miss Mary Ella remains with her widowed mother in
their attractive home at Lexington ; Stanley married
Miss Leila Smithey, and is successfully engaged in
farm enterprise in Bourbon County; and Thomas, who
married Miss Willie Mai Bruce, is engaged in the auto-
mobile business in the city of Lexington.
William L. Crim, who resides on his well improved
farm nine miles east of Lexington, was born on the old
homestead farm mentioned in a preceding paragraph,
and the date of his nativity was August 3, 1873, and he
was a lad of fourteen years at the time of his father's
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
death. He was reared on the home farm, received the
advantages of public schools and has never severed his
allegiance to the basic industries of agriculture and
stock-growing, in connection with which he has
achieved noteworthy success. In 191 3 he purchased his
present farm, which comprises 116 acres of the fine
Blue Grass land of Fayette County, the place being a
part of the old landed estate of George Daraby, and
the house on the farm having been erected by a former
owner, David Ware. Mr. Crim has made numerous
improvements upon his farm, including the erection of
modern barns and a silo of large capacity, and he is
known as one of the progressive exponents of agricul-
tural and live-stock industry in Fayette County, with
special attention given to the raising of cattle. Both
he and his wife are members of the Baptist Church.
The year 1903 recorded the marriage of Mr. Crim
to Miss Rose Hagan, daughter of J. F. and Anna (Tal-
bott) Hagan, a personal sketch of her father being
given on other pages of this work. The Hagan home-
stead is situated two miles east of Clintonville, Bourbon
County, and the widowed mother of Mrs. Crim still
resides on this place. The male representatives of the
Hagan family are remarkable for mechanical ability,
and of the ten sons of the late J. F. Hagan there is not
one who lacks such ability, while four or more of the
number are or have been identified with the manu-
facturing of gas engines and other machinery, at Win-
chester, Clark County. Mr. and Mrs. Crim have a
winsome daughter, Mabel, who is the light of the at-
tractive home.
William A. Ward, the efficient and popular post-
master of Paintsville, county seat of Johnson County,
naturally shows unqualified loyalty to his home town,
for he is a native son of this county and a representa-
tive of a sterling family whose name has been worthily
linked with the history of this section of Kentucky
since the pioneer days.
William Anderson Ward was born at River, Johnson
County, on the Big Sandy River, and the date of his
nativity was October 1, 1863. He is a son of John M.
and Pauline (Meek) Ward, both likewise natives of
this county, the father having been born in the vicinity
of the little village of River and mother at Ward City,
a place now known as Whitehouse. John M. Ward
died in 191 2, at the venerable age of eighty-one years,
his wife having passed to eternal rest in 1891 and both
having been earnest members of the United Baptist
Church.
William A. Ward, grandfather of the postmaster of
Paintsville, was born and reared in Virginia, of Col-
onial ancestry, and was one of the venerable and hon-
ored pioneer citizens of Johnson County, Kentucky,
at the time of his death. He developed one of the pro-
ductive farms of the county and in the early days gave
attention each year to the trapping and hunting of
the wild game, which was then plentiful in this section.
John M. Ward was for years actively engaged in the
navigation trade on the Big Sandy River, he having
operated a push boat, by means of which he trans-
ported merchandise, produce, etc., to the various river
points between Catlettsburg and Pikeville. His asso-
ciation with this enterprise continued thirty-five years
or more. He was in full sympathy with the cause of
the Confederacy in the Civil war, was a democrat in
politics, and both he and his wife were active in church
work, he having aided in the erection of the building
of the United Baptist Church at Ward City, a place
named in honor of the family of which he was a mem-
ber.' Of their five children two died in infancy; Trin-
vella, who died at Whitehouse at the age of thirty-five
years, and the wife of Washington Brown ; Sallie, the
wife of Wallace Borders, was twenty-six years of
age at the time of her death, at Whitehouse ; and the
subject of this sketch is thus the only surviving mem-
ber of the immediate family.
William A. Ward attended school at River and also
the rural school at the mouth of Two Mile Creek, it
having been necessary for him to walk the five miles
between his home and the latter school each day. At
the age of thirteen years he initiated his service as cook
for his father in connection with the latter's transporta-
tion business on the Big Sandy River, and he continued
his active association with the river trade for a full
quarter of a century, twenty years of this period hav-
ing found him in service as pilot and captain on steam-
boats. For fourteen years of this time he was asso-
ciated with John C. G Mayo, and among the boats
with whose operation he was identified were the Sipp
Bayes, the Beulah Brown, the Argyle, the Andy
Hatcher and the Thelka, the last mentioned having
been named in honor of Mrs. John C. C. Mayo, the
owner. Mr. Ward was associated with Mr. Mayo also
in all of the latter's trips through the Big Sandy Valley
and the mountains when he was investigating and buy-
ing coal leases.
In 191 s Mr. Ward was appointed postmaster at
Paintsville, and his administration has been signally
efficient and satisfactory. He is a staunch advocate of
the principles of the democratic party, is affiliated with
the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and both he
and his wife are members of the Mayo Memorial
Church, Methodist Episcopal, South, at Paintsville.
As a youth of eighteen years Mr. Ward was united
in marriage with Miss Mittie Ellen Borders, who was
born in Lawrence County, a daughter of John Borders.
She was born in 1865, and her death occurred on the
9th of July, 191 1. Of the five children of this union
four are living: Hester is the wife of J. T. Powell, a
merchant at Grahn, Carter County ; John is in the em-
ploy of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad Company ;
McGuffy is his father's assistant in the postoffice at
Paintsville; Smith is in the service of the Chesapeake
& Ohio Railroad Company; and Carrie B. died at the
age of nineteen years. On the 8th of August, 1914, was
solemnized the marriage of Mr. Ward with Miss Effie
Casady, a daughter of Samuel Casady, of Martin
County, and she is the popular chatelaine of the
pleasant home at Paintsville.
As the owner of a fine farm on the Big Sandy River
Mr. Ward is deeply interested in the advancement of
the agricultural and live-stock industries in his native
county, and in his civic attitude he is essentially pro-
gressive and public-spirited.
G. E. Garth. The Garth family has contributed able
and influential men to the agricultural, business and
civic affairs of Todd County since pioneer times. One
of the family is G. E. Garth, a well known banker
at Trenton.
His grandfather, founder of the family in Todd
County, was William Edward Garth, a native) of
Virginia, who came west when the district beyond the
Alleghenies was still new, and cleared up and de-
veloped a good farm in Todd County, living on it, near
Trenton, until his death. He married Betsy Saffrons,
who was born in Virginia in 1810 and died at the old
homestead near Clinton in 1885.
Their son, G. E. Garth, Sr., was born near Trenton
December 4, 1839, and died January 16, 1920, having
spent all of his long and useful life in the one com-
munity. He became successful as a farmer and wide-
ly known as a breeder of Jersey cattle and saddle
horses. He was a democratic in his political affiliations.
G. E. Garth, Sr., married Miss Louise Ware, who was
born near Trenton in 1842 and died on the homestead
in 1917, at the age of seventy-five. She was the mother
of six children : Nora, of Nashville, Tennessee, widow
of N. K. Allensworth, who was a farmer near Guthrie,
Kentucky; Ella, who became the wife of S. E. St'
and both died at Trenton, where Mr. Steger was
ly known as the founder of the Bank of Trenton
farmer; William Edward, an attorney by educa
r\
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
11
October 10, 1911, was formerly Miss Elizabeth Archer,
a daughter of George P. and Emma J. Archer, Mr.
Archer being cashier of the Bank Josephine at Pres-
tonsburg. Mrs. Wells, who survives her husband, lives
at Prestonsburg with their two daughters, Emma Alice
and Elizabeth Jane, is a devout member of the Meth-
odist Episcopal Church, South, and a woman of many
graces and accomplishments.
William Wallace Jones. It is generally accepted
as a truism that no man of genius or acknowledged
ability can be justly or adequately judged while still in
the heyday of life, chiefly because time is necessary to
ripen the estimate upon work which can only be viewed
on all sides in the calm atmosphere of a more or less
remote period from its completion. This is in no way
inappropriate to the life accomplishments of Judge
William Wallace Jones, who has long occupied a con-
spicuous place in the history of Adair County. No
man in the community has had warmer friends or is
more generally esteemed. He is a man of refinement
and culture, deeply read, a leader of the county bar,
president of the Bank of Columbia, and one who has
achieved success in his affairs.
Judge Jones was born January 19, 1855, in Cumber-
land County, Kentucky, a son of Levi and Nancy
Obedience (Gearhart) Jones. His great-grandfather,
Charles Jones, was born in Wales, and as a young
man immigrated to America and settled in Virginia.
Shortly thereafter the colonies began their fight for
independence, and Charles Jones joined the Patriot
Army under the leadership of Patrick Henry in his
first enlistment. Later he re-enlisted and was with the
forces of General Lee. He married Fannie Thorpe,
a native of Virginia, and shortly thereafter came to
Adair County, Kentucky, as a pioneer, here spending
the remainder of his life in the pursuits of agriculture.
William Thorpe Jones, the son of Charles and Fannie
Jones, was born in 1798, in Adair County, Kentucky,
and as a young man went to Cumberland County,
where he married Mary E. Baker, a native of that
county. Mr. Jones farmed in Cumberland County for a
few years and then moved to Casey County, where he
spent the rest of his life as a tiller of the soil and
died in 1868.
Levi Jones, the father of Judge Jones, was born
in 1835, in Cumberland County, where he was educated,
reared and married and where he farmed for a few
years. About 1859 he removed to Casey County, where
he continued his agricultural operations during the re-
mainder of his life and died at the age of forty years,
in 1875. He was a Union sympathizer during the war
between the states, but a democrat in his political al-
legiance. His religious faith was that of the Baptist
Church, and as a fraternalist he belonged to the
Masons. He married Nancy Obedience Gearhart, who
was born in 1839, in Cumberland County, and died in
Casey County in 1907. They became the parents of
five children, as follows : Maude, who died in in-
fancy; William Wallace, of this notice; Mary E., who
died at the age of eight years; C. C, who is engaged
in agricultural pursuits in Casey County ; and Quincy
R., a farmer of Glendale, Arizona.
William Wallace Jones acquired his early education
in the rural schools of Casey County, and in 1874,
when not yet nineteen years of age, began teaching in
the country districts of Casey County. During 1874
and 1875 he taught two free schools, following which
he pursued a course at Columbia Male and Female
School, Columbia. Next, at home, he finished a course
of study equivalent to graduating from Center Col-
lege, Danville, Kentucky. From that time to the pres-
* ent he has continued his studies and it is safe to say
■tthat Judge Jones is today one of the best-rounded
f scholars in the state. He reads Virgil, Tacitus and
c Ovid, is a thorough Latin anad Greek scholar, and is
J well versed in both ancient and modern literature gen-
erally. In 1877 Judge Jones was admitted to the bar
and at once engaged in practice, having since had a
constantly increasing general civil and criminal prac-
tice at Columbia, where his offices are located in the
Jones Building, a business structure owned by him
on the southwest side of the Public Square. He is
also the owner of a modern residence on Greensburg
Street, one of the most desirable homes of Columbia.
In politics a republican, Judge Jones has long been
before the public, but rather in an official than a po-
litical capacity. W. W. Jones was elected judge of
the Twenty-ninth Judicial District of Kentucky in 1892
and re-elected without opposition in 1897, serving until
January 1, 1904. He was nominated by the republican
party as its candidate for judge of the Court of Ap-
peal of Kentucky in 1898. His only fraternal con-
nection is with Columbia Lodge No. 96, F. and A. M.
While his profession and his public duties have en-
grossed a large part of his attention, Judge Jones
has also been a leader in financial affairs in this section
for a number of years, and has been president of the
Bank of Columbia since 1905. In 1900 he assisted in
the organization of the Bank of Jamestown, of which
he was vice president and a member of the Board of
Directors until 1914, at which time he was elected
president. He resigned the presidency in 1918. In
1895 Judge Jones was one of the main factors in the
organization of the Monticello Banking Company, of
which he was vice president and a director until 1905,
at which time he disposed of his quarter interest in
the bank and retired therefrom. During the World
war he took an exceptionally active part in all local
war activities. He was chairman of the Adair County
Chapter of the American Red Cross all through the
war period and retains that position at the present time.
He was likewise chairman of the first two Liberty
Bond drives in Adair County, and assisted in all the
campaigns for all purposes, likewise buying bonds and
contributing to the various organizations to the limit
of his means. In addition he worked helpfully and
unremittingly during the epidemic of the influenza.
From the elevated plane of public service down through
the fields of its usefulness to the community and into
the privacy of his family circle the track of the life
of Judge Jones has been characterized by a constant
and consistent uprightness born of high principles.
He married at Columbia, Kentucky, in 1885, Miss
Loulie Wheat, a daughter of Sinclair and Fannie
(Garnett) Wheat, both deceased, Mr. Wheat having
been a merchant and farmer at Columbia. Judge and
Mrs. Jones have one daughter, Fannie, the wife of
George R. Reed, an insurance man residing at the
Jones' home on Greensburg Street.
Marcus Alvin Dodson, for a number of years was
engaged in educational work. It was congenial, and a
profession where his qualifications showed to the best
advantage. However, about ten years ago he accepted
a call to the cashier's desk of the leading bank at
Science Hill, and has found in banking a satisfactory
substitute for a scholastic career.
The Dodson family of which the Science Hill banker
is a representative is of Danish descent. From Den-
mark it was transplanted to Scotland, and from Scot-
land to England. One branch of those in Scotland
changed the name to Dotson and carried it to Ireland
and from Ireland to America. Hence the Dotsons of
this country are of the qriginal family of Dodsons but
are of immediate Scotch-Irish descent. The Dodsons
came from England to America, hence their immediate
descent is Scotch-English. They were among the earli-
est settlers of Virginia at the Jamestown Colony.
From Culpeper County, Virginia, Thomas, Leonard
and Robert Dodson moved over the mountains while
Kentucky was still a part of the old Virginia. The
title to the lands they bought in what is now Madison
County was very soon contested, and from there
12
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
Robert moved to what is now Warren County, Ken-
tucky, where he reared a large family, while Thomas
and Leonard Dodson came to what is now Wayne
County, making settlement there while Kentucky was
still an Indian battle ground. Leonard took up land in
the community known as Cedar Hill. He had two sons,
Eli and Stogdon, Eli moving to Missouri, while Stog-
don went to Danville, Indiana, where his family be-
came prominent.
Thomas D. Dodson, the other of the three brothers,
saw service as a minute man of the Revolutionary war.
His place of settlement in Wayne County was on what
is now known as Roily Creek, a tributary to Sinking
Creek. Here he reared.a large family, six sons, named
George Teaman, John, Jesse, James, Rollo C. and
Leonard, and five girls : Mrs. John Robinson, who
settled at Danville, Indiana ; Mrs. Thompson, who also
went to Danville ; Mrs. Rheuben Sloan, Mrs. I. Burnett
and Mrs. Mathew Denney, all of whom remained in
Wayne County. The two oldest sons, George Teaman
and John, were volunteers in the War of 1812 and rifle-
men in the Battle of New Orleans. From Kentucky
they settled at Marion, Missouri. When John left
Kentucky for Missouri he had a family of ten boys.
The oldest of these, Ishmael, graduated from the Kirks-
ville Normal School of Missouri, became a Confed-
erate colonel in a Texas Regiment in the Civil war,
and was one of the framers of the Texas Constitution.
George Teaman left two boys in Wayne County, James
and Josiah Dodson, Josiah settling on what is known
as Dry Fork of Sinking Creek, and his sons were
Andrew, George, Aaron and Thomas. James Dodson,
the other son of George Teaman, married Manervia
Tuttle, settled on Fall Creek, and reared a family of
four boys and six girls, the boys being : Thomas, who
moved to Texas ; Josiah, who settled on Meadow
Creek: Marshall and Teaman, who settled on Fall
Creek; while the girls were: Rhoda, who married
James Morrow and settled on Cumberland River in
Wayne County ; Polly, who married James McCoin, of
Edmonson County ; Jane, who married Job Morrow
and settled on Cumberland River in Wayne County;
Anna, who never married; Nettie, who married John
Dodson and settled in Beach Valley near Monticello;
Neatha, who married Junes Taylor and settled on
Cumberland River in Wayne County.
Jesse Dodson, the third son of the Revolutionary
her. 1. settled on Sinking Creek. He reared two sons,
Thomas and John. Thomas, who later became known
as Big Tom Dodson. had two sons, Jesse and John,
who settled at Wichita, Kansas. John, known as Jack
Dodson, settled at Steubenville and reared three sons,
Thomas, John and ' ieoi
James, fourth son of Thomas D. Dodson, settled on
Sinking Creek and reared one son, known as Miller
George, who also had a son George, called little George.
This brings the family account down to Rollo C,
the fifth son of Thomas I). Dodson. Rollo C, who
died in 1884, spent his life in Wayne County. He
settled on what is known as Roily Fork of Sinking
Creek. He married Mi^s Burnette, sister of Rev. Isom
Burnette, a Baptist minister. He reared five sons and
four daughters, the sons being Isom, George, Leonard.
Jesse and James. Of the daughters the oldest was Mr>.
Carl Gholson. who settled in Cincinnati, Ohio. Ruth,
the second daughter, married Ximrod Morrow, and her
oldest child was Joseph Moifow, who grauated from
the Kentucky State University in 1899, later attended
the Baptist Theological Seminary at Louisville and be-
came a Baptist minister. The third of the daughters,
Mrs. Elizabeth Denney, is the mother of Jerry Denney,
a Baptist preacher. Mrs. Mary Simpson, the fourth
daughter, had four children, the youngest, Rhoda, being
now in the Baptist Bible Institute at New Orleans
training for missionary work.
Isom Dodson, oldest of the sons of Rollo C, settled
on the Dry Fork of Sinking Creek, and reared three
sons, Floyd, James and William.
Leonard Dodson, the third son, settled on Sinking
Creek, married Elizabeth Tuttle, sister of Ivan Tuttle,
and reared a son George, who in turn had three sons,
Elmer, Emory and Leonard, Elmer graduating from
the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary at Fort
Worth, Texas, in 1918, and is now a Baptist minister.
Jesse Dodson, the fourth son, settled at Frazer, Ken-
tucky and reared a family of three sons and two
daughters. James Dodson, the youngest son, settled in
what is known as Wright Valley, near Steubenville,
married Harriet Simpson, reared a large family there
and later moved to Foss, Oklahoma. His second son,
George, became a Baptist minister, graduating from
the Baptist Theological Seminary at Louisville in 1015.
The second son of Rollo C. Dodson was George Dod-
son, who was born in Wayne County in 1834, settled
in Beach Valley near Monticello and spent his active
life on that farm, where he died in 1010. He married
Dorcas Young, who was born in Wayne County in
1835 and died at Monticello in 1919. They reared a
family of two boys and three girls, John and William
being the sons. William died in early manhood un-
married. The daughters were : Mary, who married
Floyd Dodson, son of Isom Dodson, and moved to
Texas ; Ann, who married Bascom Ballou and later
moved to Texas with her family ; and Emma, who
married Frank Smith and settled in Beach Valley.
John M. Dodson. oldest of the sons of George, and
a grandson of Rollo C, was born at Monticello in
1859, settled in Beacli Valley and lived in that one
community during his youth and mature years. He
is noted as one of the largest land owners and most
successful farmers and stock raisers in Wayne County.
He has 1700 acres and has done an extensive business
with cattle and hogs. He serv'ed a term of five years
as assessor of Wayne County, is a democrat, one of the
leading members of the Baptist Church and is a Mason.
John M. Dodson married Nettie Dodson, daughter
of James Dodson of Fall Creek, above referred to.
She was born near Monticello in 1859. Of the five
children born to their marriage two. Martin and James
T., died in infancy-. The three living are : Marcus
Alvin, cashier of the People's Bank of Science Hill;
Walter Cleveland, cashier of the First State Bank of
Eubank; and Flora Elizabeth Jane, a graduate of the
Training School of the Baptist Theological Seminary
at Louisville and who went as a Baptist missionary to
Canton, China, in August, ['917,
Marcus Alvin Dodson was born at Monticello
October 5, 1882, and passed most of his youthful years
on his father's farm, attended rural schools, graduated
from the Monticello High School in 1900, and in 1904
received the A. B. degree from the Kentucky State
College at Lexington. For one year he was a teacher
in the graded schools of Bell County, and during part
of the year 1905 was a surveyor in the oil fields of
Wayne County. Beginning in 1906 he was for a year
principal of the graded school of Science Hill, during
1907 was grade school principal at Greenwood, and
was principal of the high school at Princeton, Ken-
tucky, in 1908. During 1909 he was head of the
department of mathematics at Dixon College at Dixon,
Tennessee, and during 1910-11 was professor of mathe-
matics and Latin in the Elk Creek Training School at
Elk Creek, Virginia.
In the fall of 191 1 Mr. Dodson entered the Peoples
Bank of Science Hill as cashier, and has been steadily
with that institution, serving it faithfully and promot-
ing to the best of his ability its advancement and suc-
cess for ten years. The Peoples Bank was established
with a state charter in 1006, and has capital of $15,000
surplus and profits of $18,000, and deposits of $150,000.
Silas G. Adams is president, Dr. G. W. Plimell is vice
president, with Mr. Dodson as cashier and in executive
management.
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
13
Mr. Dodson is a democrat, a deacon in the Baptist
Church, is a past master of Mount Gilead Lodge No.
255, F. and A. M., at Science Hill, a member of Somer-
set Chapter No. 25, R. A. M., Somerset Commandery
No. 31, K. T., Pulaski Lodge No. 75, I. O. O. F., at
Somerset and of Crescent Lodge No. 60, K. P. Dur-
ing the World war he was chairman of all local com-
mittees for sale of Liberty Bonds and raising of funds
for Red Cross purposes, and he deserves not a little
personal credit for the successful issue of the later
Liberty Loan drives in the Science Hill precinct. Mr.
Dodson owns a modern home on Sandford Street. He
married in Science Hill in 1907 Miss Lucy Denton,
daughter of Alexander and Mary E. (Young) Denton,
the latter a resident of Science Hill, where the father
died in 1919. He was a retired farmer. Mrs. Dodson
attended the State College at Lexington and also
Georgetown College. They have one daughter, Flora
Lucille Dodson, born August 4, 1918.
Hon. Frank M. White, state senator representing
the Sixteenth Senatorial District, is a resident of
Tompkinsville and for many years has been prominent
in Monroe County as a lawyer, farmer and man of af-
fairs.
He was born on his father's homestead in Monroe
County and represents one of the oldest families in
this section of the state. John White, his great-grand-
father, was a Virginia soldier of the Revolution, a
follower- of General Marion, and immediately after the
war settled in Monroe County, Kentucky, where he
took up farming. Recently the Government marked
the grave of this Revolutionary patriot in the White
Cemetery at Sulphur Lick. John White, Jr., his son,
was born in Kentucky in 1801, and lived on his farm
at Sulphur Lick until his death in 1871. His wife
was Betsy Payne, a native of Kentucky, and they were
the parents of a large family of children.
Their son, Jordan White, father of Senator White,
was born at Sulphur Lick in 1829, was a member of
the Home Guards during the Civil war, and soon after-
ward married and located at Tompkinsville, where he
was elected sheriff of Monroe County. After his term
in office he engaged in farming near Tompkinsville, and
thus continued until his death on July 19, 1902. He
was a republican for many years, later became a popu-
list, and was a faithful member of the Christian
Church. He married Martha L. Monroe, who was
born in Cumberland County March 8, 1834, and is still
living.
Frank M. White, whose brother, Dr. James A. White,
is represented on another page of this work, grew up
on the old home farm, and remained there until he
was twenty years of age. In acquiring his early educa-
tion he walked two miles from the farm to attend
school in Tompkinsville. Later he attended Liberty
College at Glasgow, Kentucky, and Valparaiso Uni-
versity in Indiana and took his law course in the South-
ern University of Huntington, Tennessee, where he
graduated in 1895. He was admitted to the Tennessee
bar in May of that year, and soon afterwards returned
to Tompkinsville and entered the law offices of Judge
D. R. Carr at Glasgow. He was admitted to the Ken-
tucky bar in 1898 and thereafter until 1906 devoted his
time almost exclusively to his law practice at
Tompkinsville. During all those years he has like-
wise kept in close touch with farming, and now owns
the old homestead of 230 acres two miles south of
Tompkinsville.
Senator White has done his part in the educational
work of the state, and taught in public schools from
1888 until 1897. He is a stanch republican in pol-
itics. He was first elected to the State Senate in 1898
from the Nineteenth District, comprising Barren, Met-
calfe and Monroe counties. He served until the begin-
ning of 1904. In 1915 he was elected a member of the
Lower House of the Legislature, serving in the ses-
Vol. V— 2
sions of 1916-18. On November 8, 1921, he was elected
a member of the State Senate for the Sixteenth Dis-
trict, comprising the counties of Monroe, Cumberland,
Clinton, Russell and Wayne. At this election he had
a magnificent majority of 9,000 votes. Senator White
is a real public leader, a thoughtful student of public
affairs, a gifted orator, and his political success is due
to his deep sincerity and personal integrity. He was
also a trustee of the town of Tompkinsville for six
years, 1906-12, and has been a member of the Board
of Education.
In 1898 he married Miss Mollie Kidwell, daughter of
I. D. and Sallie A. (Williams) Kidwell. They have
two children, Jordan Sam and Eva, the former a
teacher and the latter a student in the high school at
Tompkinsville. Senator White is affiliated with the
Modern Woodmen of America, and he and his family
are members of the Christian Church.
Richard Landrum Hale, cashier of the Inez De-
posit Bank, and one of the men of Martin County
whose names stand for reliability and sterling in-
tegrity, is a native son of the county, having been born
on Wolf Creek in this county January 28, 1872, a son
of George W. and Sallie (Parsley) Hale, both mem-
bers of old and honored families of the country.
The birth of George W. Hale took place on John's
Creek in Floyd County, Kentucky, in 1840, and he died
in 1903. His wife was born in what is now Mingo
County, West Virginia, and she died in 1904. George
W. Hale's parents came to Floyd County, Kentucky,
from Virginia, and were there engaged in farming,
becoming prominent in the local Baptist Church, of
which both were consistent members. After the close
of the war between the states George W. Hale came
to Martin County. During the war he had served in
the Fourteenth Kentucky Volunteer Infantry as a
Union soldier, and participated in the battle of Cynthi-
ana, during which engagement he was shot through
the thigh, and this injury crippled him for a long
period. Upon coming to Martin County he located on
Wolf Creek, at Pilgrim, and began to take an active
part in politics as a republican, was elected on his party
ticket county clerk in 1882, and again in 1886, following
which he served two terms as circuit clerk. The duties
of these offices necessitated removal to Inez, and here
he spent the remainder of his life, which he made a
useful one in spite of his serious injuries received in the
defense of his country. Early united with the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South, he long served it as a trus-
tee, and for years was a teacher in the Sunday school.
He was also a member of the Board of Stewards of
the church. Made a Mason, he maintained member-
ship with Crescent Lodge No. 672, F. and A. M., and
served it as worshipful master. He also belonged to
the Odd Fellows. Five sons were born to him and
his wife, namely: John W., who is serving Martin
County as assessor, is a farmer of Pilgrim; Richard
Landrum, whose name heads this review ; Wiley M.,
who is cashier of the Kermit State Bank at Kermit,
West Virginia, was cashier of the Inez Deposit Bank
from the time of its organization until he was suc-
ceeded by his brother, Richard Landrum ; Julius C,
who is a merchant at Pilgrim, Martin County, Ken-
tucky; and Wallace B., who is a merchant at Blocton,
West Virginia.
Richard Landrum Hale attended the public schools
of Inez, and Morris-Harvey College at Barboursville,
West Virginia. For the subsequent thirteen years he
was engaged in teaching school in Martin County, be-
coming principal of the Inez schools. For a long time
he was also deputy clerk under his father. Judge A. J.
Kirk appointed him master commissioner, and as such
he took an active part in the gas and oil development
in this county. For a time Mr. Hale was with the
lease title department of the Tripple-State National
Gas & Oil Company, which later became the United
14
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
States Gas Company, and still later was merged into
the United Fuel Gas Company, Mr. Hale continuing
with these several companies for fifteen years, for three
years of the time being at headquarters at Huntington.
In 1918 he was made cashier of the Inez Deposit Bank,
where he has found congenial work and has won the
appreciation of his associates and the depositors of the
bank.
In 1906 Mr. Hale married Lucy Cassady, a daughter
of Philip Cassady. She died in 1916, leaving two
children, namely: Mildred Esther and Richard C.
Mr. Hale subsequently married Mrs. Josephine (New-
berry) Roach, a daughter of S. W. Newberry, .and
they have one son, Samuel N. Mr. Hale is a steward
and trustee of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South,
and is active in Sunday school work. During the late
war he was chairman of the sales committees for the
Liberty Bonds, and was otherwise active in war work.
He is now worshipful master of the local Blue Lodge
of the Masonic fraternity, and maintains membership
with the Odd Fellows, being treasurer of its local
lodge. In politics he is a republican. Quietly and
capably he has pursued the even tenor of his way,
doing his full duty in each position he has occupied,
and rising steadily from one to another with increas-
ing responsibilities with each change. As a citizen he
has been loyal to local interests, and has lived up to
his conception of civic duty.
Green Feeback. In the country districts around
Carlisle, Green Feeback has enjoyed a high reputation
as a good farmer and a good citizen for upwards of
half a century, and his career is in every way worthy
of record among the representative ctizens of Nicholas
County.
Mr. Feeback's farm home is on the Carlisle and
Sharpsburg Pike, two miles northwest of Carlisle. This
is not far away from' where he was born January 1,
1856. His parents were John T. and Rachel (Mc-
Daniel) Feeback, both natives of Nicholas County,
where they were reared and educated, and after their
marriage settled eight miles north of Carlisle. Subse-
quently they lived on a farm two a half miles north-
east of Carlisle, and were in that locality until the end
of their days. They were active and devout members
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, while the father
was a Mason and a republican. Of their six children
three are now living: Lucy, wife of W. S. Feeback,
of Carlisle; Mary J., wife of George Kennedy, of Car-
lisle; and Green.
Green Feeback up to the age of twenty-one lived
with his parents, helped them run the farm, and ac-
quired a common school education. For several years
he hired out his labor to other farmers, but for the
past quarter of a century has been doing for himself.
November 12, 1896, he married Pearl Ross, who was
born in Fleming County, Kentucky, August 23, 1870,
daughter of John W. and Edna (Robertson) Ross, also
natives of Fleming County. Mrs. Feeback was reared
in Nicholas County aand had a high-school education.
Mr. Feeback takes an active part in the Methodist
Church, while Mrs. Feeback is a Baptist. He is a re-
publican voter. His farm home comprises forty-eight
acres, and he has earned his prosperity out of the soil.
Willard Rouse Jillson, director and state geologist
of the Kentucky Geological Survey, is the accepted
authority on the economic geology and mineral re-
sources of Kentucky. Only thirty-one years of age,
and at the time of his appointment the youngest state
geologist in the United States, Doctor Jillson has a
list of honors and achievements to his credit which
place him among the leading American scientists of
the present generation. He is both a scholar and a
man of action who has inherited his gifts to some
degree at least from a line of notable English and
Scotch-Irish ancestrv.
He is a member of the Sons of the American Revo-
lution, the Jillson and Willard families going back to the
first settlements of Massachusetts. It was in the year
1635 that one of his great-great-grandfathers, Maj. Simon
Willard, an English emigrant, bought the land from the
Indians and established the Concord (Mass.) Colony.
His grandfather, Robert Dalzell Jillson, was born at
Stockbridge, New York, in 1830, and died at Binghamp-
ton, that state, in 1904. Most of his life was spent
at Hornellsville and Syracuse. He was a printer dur-
ing his youth, and later occupied positions of trust in
railroad and express service in New York. At one time
he was mayor of Hornellsville and for several years was
publisher of a paper at Goshen, Indiana. His wife
was Grace Meloy Rogers, a very gifted and talented
woman, who has a national reputation as a public enter-
tainer in native dialects. She is now, though seventy-
five years old, actively engaged in her profession in the
Yosemite Valley and Pasadena, California.
Willard Rogers Jillson, father of the Kentucky
geologist, was born at Chenango Forks, New York, in
1867, and is a resident of Syracuse. He was reared
in his native town and at Hornellsville. For twenty-
five years he was connected with the Associated Press
and at the same time carried on operations as a
practical farmer in Onondaga County. Since then he
has been director, sales manager and part owner of the
Onondaga Photo-Engravers in Syracuse, New York.
In early life he learned telegraphy, and during the
World war, though over fifty years of age, he volun-
teered and served in the Army of the United States
in the Signal Corps. He is superintendent of the
Sunday School of the First Presbyterian Church of
Syracuse, one of the very old churches of Central New
York. He is a republican and a member of the Masonic
fraternity. At Syracuse he married Anna Delle Bailey,
who was born in that city in 1868. Willard Rouse is
the oldest of their six children. Edward Landfield is
an oil operator at Okmulgee, Oklahoma. Frederick
Fellows is a lawyer at Syracuse, and the younger chil-
dren, at home, are Ruth Bailey, Alma Elizabeth and
Helen Ann.
Willard Rouse Jillson was born at Syracuse, May 28,
1890. The family removing a few years thereafter to
the small yet historic village, Onondaga Hill, he came
to spend practically all of his youth in the country on
his father's farm. He attended the rural schools, and
found in a rather exceptionally good library there great
interest in books on natural science, geography and
travel. At the same time the rich physical features of
the countryside afforded him many opportunities to ob-
serve for himself while at play with his fellows the
fundamental points of elementary geology. This he
did to good account, for his record at Syracuse High
School, from which he graduated in 1908, shows that he
excelled in the physical sciences. While in high school
he was editor of the Syracuse High School Recorder,
a sixty-page monthly publication. Dependent upon his
own resources for the funds for his schooling, he early
came to feel the necessity of this editorial work and
much outside newspaper reporting as a means of making
his way through high school and college. He received
the Bachelor of Science degree from Syracuse Uni-
versity in 1912, and while there specialized in geology
and mineralogy. He was prominent in the various
student activities, being editor of the Syracuse Daily
Orange for two years, and president of his class, two
of the highly coveted student honors. At the same time
he was a reporter for the Syracuse Herald. The year
following his graduation Doctor Jillson was employed
in publicity work by the well known Syracuse shoe
manufacturing company of A. E. Nettleton & Company,
and later went to New York City as assistant advertis-
ing manager for Pathe Freres. But the old love for
the great out-doors he had known as a boy caused him
to resign and go to Seattle, Washington, where he tool:
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
15
up graduate studies which led to his life work. He
became later an instructor in geology at the University
of Washington, from which he received his Master
of Science degree in geology in June, 1915. During
the summer of 1915 Doctor Jillson was one of a party
of topographic engineers of the United States Geological
Survey engaged in mapping the Mount St. Helens'
quadrangle in the Cascade Mountains. In the fall of
1915 he accepted a Fellowship in Geology in the Uni-
versity of Chicago, where he continued his research
work in geology under Professors Chamberlin, Salis-
bury, Williston and Weller. In the spring of 1916 he
was given a traveling Fellowship to the Permian Red
Beds of Texas, where he collected vertebrate rep-
tilian fossils. During the summer of 1916 he was em-
ployed as field geologist by the Carter Oil Company
and mapped the oil geology of the northern portion of
the Osage Nation in Oklahoma. During 1916-17 Doctor
Jillson had a graduate Fellowship in geology at Vale
University, where he studied under a very notable
group of American geologists, including Professors
Schuchert, Barrell, Lull, Pierson and Gregory.
Doctor Jillson did his first professional geological work
in December, 1912, when he examined for New York
parties several gold-sulphide properties in the north
Temiscaming Lake region of Ontario, Canada. He be-
gan his real work as a consulting geologist for various
oil and gas corporations in Oklahoma in 1916, but his
investigations also took him into Kansas, Oklahoma,
Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee and Georgia.
One of his engagements led him from the Mid-Conti-
nental oil field to Prestonsburg, Kentucky, and for the
past five years practically all his work has been done
in Kentucky and adjoining states as consulting geologist,
teacher and as state geologist. During the war Doctor
Jillson was assistant professor of geology in the Uni-
versity of Kentucky, giving instruction in geology in
the Reserve Officers Training Corps. In 1918 he was
also employed as a valuation geologist on oil and gas
properties in Kentucky by the United States Depart-
ment of Treasury.
In the fall of 1918 Doctor Jillson was made assistant
state geologist of Kentucky and given charge of the oil
and gas investigations of the state. In February, 1919,
Governor A. O. Stanley appointed him state geologist
of Kentucky in the department of geology and forestry.
At the session of the Legislature in March, 1920, the
state department of geology and forestry was abolished,
and the (Sixth) Kentucky Geological Survey reorgan-
ized. In April, 1920, Governor Edwin P. Morrow
chose Doctor Jillson for the post of director and stale
geologist of the new Kentucky Geological Survey. This
is one of the admirable appointments under the present
governor, an appointment based on the preeminent at-
tainments of Doctor Jillson as a scientist. His head-
quarters are in the old Executive Building at Frank-
fort. Syracuse University, his alma mater, honored
him with the degree of Doctor of Science at its fiftieth
commencement in June, 1921.
The results of Doctor Jillson's scientific investigations
in Kentucky and elsewhere are available in a large num-
ber of books and pamphlets, the chief of which are:
The Oil and Gas Resources of Kentucky, 630 pages,
1st and 2d ed., 1919, 3d ed., 1920; the Geology and Coals
of Stinking Creek, Knox County, Kentucky, 103 pages,
1919 ; Contributions to Kentucky Geology, 264 pages,
1920 ; Economic Papers on Kentucky Geology, 304 pages,
1921 ; Production of Eastern Kentucky Crude Oils, 100
pages, 1921 ; The Sixth Geological Survey, 286 pages,
1921 ; Conservation of Natural Gas in Kentucky, 215
pages, 1922; The Coal Industry in Kentucky, 86 pages,
1922; and Oil Field Straigraphy of Kentucky, 1922: ;
besides about one hundred pamphlets, maps, and printed
reports bearing on the geology of Kentucky and other
states. Doctor Jillson is also author of a biography
of the present governor of the state, entitled, "Edwin
P. Morrow — Kentuckian," and a book of poems, "Songs
and Satires," which has been widely read.
He is a Fellow of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science, and the American Geographi-
cal Society, is a member of the Kentucky Academy of
Science, the American Association of Petroleum Geolo-
gists, the Southwestern Geological Society, the American
Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, the
American Mining Congress, the Kentucky Mining
Institute, the National Drainage Congress, the Associa-
tion of American State Geologists, the Kentucky His-
torical Society, the Filson Club, the National Geographic
Society and the Frankfort Chamber of Commerce.
Doctor Jillson served three years as a member of
Troop D of the First Cavalry of the New York
National Guard while living in Syracuse. He is a mem-
ber of the Syracuse Chapter of Delta Kappa Epsilon,
the Yale Chapter of Gamma Alpha, graduate scientific
fraternity, and Theta Nu Epsilon. His religious views
are Unitarian and in politics he is a Republican. Doctor
Jillson owns and lives in a modern home at 120 East
Campbell Street in Frankfort. He married at Prestons-
burg in Floyd County, Kentucky, September 10, 1917,
Miss Oriole Marie Gormley, daughter of Louis Henry
and Marie (Smith) Gormley. On her mother's side
Mrs. Jillson is a direct descendant of the gifted and
affluant John Graham, the original Scotch-Irish Vir-
ginian emigrant of the upper Big Sandy Valley of
Eastern Kentucky. He it was who pioneered, surveyed
and settled in what is now Floyd County many years
prior to statehood. Mrs. Gormley is now residing in
Frankfort, Mr. Gormley having died May 4, 1911, in
Ironton, Ohio. A native of New Castle, Pennsylvania.
he was one of the first real oil operators of this state
and was successful in opening up the Beaver Creek
pool in Eastern Kentucky in 1891. Doctor and Mrs.
Jillson have three children, two girls and a boy. They
are : Marie Gormley, born May 7, 1915 ; in Prestons-
burg; Oriole Frederika, born September 3, 1918, in
Prestonsburg ; and Willard Rogers, born August 20,
1920, in Frankfort, Kentucky.
Covington U. Bramblett is one of the veteran busi-
ness men of Nicholas County, and for a quarter of a
century has been located at Carlisle in the real estate
and insurance business.
Mr. Bramblett was born in Bourbon County, Decem-
ber 10, 1854, son of Henry and Malinda (Utterbach)
Bramblett. His father was born in Nicholas County in
1832 and his mother in Bourbon County in 1831, both
grew up on farms, were educated in local schools, and
were married in Bourbon County. Henry Bramblett
spent his active life as a farmer in Bourbon and Nicho-
las counties. He began voting as a whig. His wife
was a member of the Christian Church. They had a
family of five sons: John W., deceased; Covington U. ;
B. H., a retired farmer at Carlisle; Thomas S., a re-
tired farmer at Mount Sterling; and George W., a
farmer in Clarke County.
Covington U. Bramblett spent the first eighteen years
of his life on his father's farm, and while there ac-
quired a common school education. For three years
he was in business as a country merchant, and in 1882,
nearly forty years ago, moved to Carlisle, where he
established a livery business and a horse sales stable.
From 1893 for several years he was a trainer of trot-
ting and pacing horses for the track, and among others
he owned Investigator, a trotter with a record of
2:1754, which for several seasons was a popular favor-
ite on the tracks of Kentucky, Indiana and Texas.
Mr. Bramblett sold his racing interests in 1896, and has
since been engaged in his present business as a real
estate and insurance operator. He also has the local
agency for the Overland automobile. His home is a
beautiful residence a quarter of a mile east of Car-
lisle on Main Street, where he has three acres of land.
16
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
He is a stockholder in the local tobacco warehouse,
and for twenty-four years has served as election com-
missioner of Nicholas County. He is a republican.
December 9, 1897, Mr. Bramblett married Laura B.
Thomas, who was reared and educated at Carlisle. She
is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Robert A. Atkinson, whose home is eight miles
southeast of Carlisle and a mile and a half north of
Sharpsburg, went on that farm as a renter early in
his married life, and such prosperity^ has attended his
labors and good management that he now owns one
of the highly productive and attractive farm homes of
Bath County.
Mr. Atkinson was born near Moorefield, Nicholas
County, October 9, 1861, and his birth occurred in the
same house where his father was born. He is a son
of James A. and Maria (Templeman) Atkinson. His
father was born in March, 1835. and his mother was
born in Bath County, Kentucky, October 25, 1840. The
father died April 30, 1865, four years after the birth
of Robert. The mother survived until 1909, and was a
very devout member of the Christian Church. There
were three children, only one now living, William S.,
born August 2, 1858. who married Florence E. Stephen-
son ; Robert A., and James F., born November 30, 1863,
and married Lida Sledd.
Robert A. Atkinson lived out his youth on a farm
near Moorefield, where he had a common school edu-
cation. On November 20, 1884, at the age of twenty-
three, he married Emma Coons. They started house-
keeping at Moorefield, but on March 1, 1886, moved to
their present place, where for several years they rented
and then bought and have since paid out on a fine farm
of 150 acres.
Mr. and Mrs. Atkinson have had six children : Al-
bert, born December 22, 1886, married Pearl Coons
and lives in Lexington; Ollie C, born August 30, 1889,
married Blanche Crouch and lives on the home farm ;
Robert A., Jr., born June 8, 1892, is a graduate of
Sharpsburg High School and of Smith's College at
Lexington, is married and lives in North Carolina;
William H. and Ila are both deceased ; and Ella, a
graduate of the Sharpsburg High School, lives at home.
The family are members of the Christian Church and
Mr. Atkinson is an elder. He is affiliated with Ramsey
Lodge, F. and A. M., two of his sons are Masons, and
Mrs. Atkinson is a member of the Eastern Star.
Robert A., Jr., is also affiliated with the Knights of
Pythias. The family are democrats in politics.
Thomas Terry. The banking interests of any com-
munity are naturally among the most important, for
financial stability must be the foundation-stone upon
which are erected all great enterprises. The men who
control and conserve the money of corporation, coun-
try or individual must necessarily possess many qual-
ities not requisite in other lines of endeavor, and along
these high commercial integrity, exceptional financial
capacity, poise, judgment and foresight may be men-
tioned. Public confidence must be with them, and this
fact has been demonstrated on numerous occasions
when panics that threatened even the stability of the
Government have been averted by the wisdom, sa-
gacity and foresight of men whose whole training has
been along the line of finance. A citizen who has
been prominently identified with the banking interests
of Grayson County for a number of years and who
has done much in the effective building up of his
county and town along additional lines is Thomas
Terry, president of the Bank of Clarkson.
Mr. Terry was born near Big Clifty, Grayson County,
Kentucky, on his father's farm. May 25, 1885, a son
of J. W. and Bettie (Hatfield) Terry. The family to
which he belongs is of Scotch-Irish origin and was
founded in America during Colonial times, when the
first immigrant established his home in Virginia. In
that state in 1809 was born the grandfather of Thomas
Terry, John S. Terry, who became a pioneer into Gray-
son County, Kentucky, in young manhood and here
applied himself to agricultural pursuits. He became
a well-to-do man through his industry and good man-
agement, and also wielded an influence in local public
affairs, serving for some years as sheriff of the county.
He died near Big Clifty in 1884. Mr. Terry married
for his second wife Eliza Wooldridge, who also died
near Big Clifty, and among their children was J. W.
Terry, the father of Thomas Terry.
J. YV. Terry was born in 1855, near Big Clifty, and
early in life decided to follow in his father's footsteps
and devote his energies to agricultural pursuits as the
work of his career. He has followed this course and
in so doing has found prosperity and contentment, be-
ing at this time the owner of a valuable farm two
miles east of Big Clifty, on which he now makes his
home. He is a democrat in his political views, and in
religion is a member and active supporter of the Chris-
tian Church. Mr. Terry married Miss Bettie Hatfield,
who was born in 1857, near Big Clifty. Four children
were born to this union : John, a merchant of Clark-
son, who died in 1918, aged thirty-nine years ; Ward,
a mechanic in the car shops at Louisville ; Thomas ;
and Sam, a farmer and dealer in feed and fertilizer at
Big Clifty.
Thomas Terry received his primary educational train-
ing in the country district school in the vicinity of his
father's farm, and was reared on the home place, where
he remained until reaching the age of eighteen years.
At that time he pursued a course in the normal school
at Clarkson, after his graduation from which he be-
gan teaching school in the rural districts, and continued
to be thus engaged for three years. He was next
located at Louisville, where for one year he was a
teacher in the Bryant & Stratton Business College, a
position which he left in 1906 to enter the Bank of
Clarkson, with which he has continued to be identified.
When he entered this institution it was as assistant
cashier, from which position he was promoted to the
cashiership in 1909. In 1916 he was elected president,
a position which he has held to the present time. Mr.
Terry is an example of the type of banker who par-
ticularly deserves success because he persistently uses
his position of power for the safe-guarding of the
interests of the community. Bankers of this type are
invaluable protectors of the public prosperity from sud-
den storms or injurious attacks. The Bank of Clark-
son was founded in 1904 as a state bank, and has
shown a healthful development and growth, its present
capital stock being $15,000; surplus and profits, $16,000,
and deposits, $425,000. The banking house is located
on Main Street, and the officers are : President, Thomas
Terry; vice president, W. C. Keller; cashier, E. R.
Keller ; and Board of Directors, J. N. Higdon, a re-
tired farmer of Clarkson; R. L. Pulliam, a railroad
agent of that city; Daniel Downs, a farmer of Millers-
town, and H. R. Jones, a wealthy citizen of Leitchfield.
Mr. Terry is an adherent of the principles of the
democratic party, and formerly was chairman of the
Board of Trustees of the Town of Clarkson, a posi-
tion which he resigned January 3. 1920. He is a mem-
ber and generous supporter of the Christian Church,
and as fraternalist holds membership in Wilhelm Lodge
No. 720, F. and A. M., and. Leitchfield Chapter No. 143,
R. A. M., in which he has numerous friends. He owns
a modern and comfortable home on Patterson Street.
Mr. Terry took an active part in all local war work
in Grayson County and was county chairman of the
Third Liberty Loan drive, in addition to taking an active
part in the various other movements, to which he con-
tributed liberally.
On April 22, 1916, Mr. Terry married at Louisville,
Kentucky. Miss Eula Keller, a graduate of the Leitch-
field High School and a woman of many graces and
marked accomplishments. Her parents, W. C. and
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
17
Allie (Graham) Keller, are residents of Clarkson, Mr.
Keller being vice president of the Bank of Clarkson.
Mr and Mrs. Terry have one child, Nell, born Sep-
tember 20, 1921.
John G. Roberts. The men who faithfully and suc-
cessfully discharge the onerous duties pertaining to
the office of sheriff of a county are rendering their
communities a service that, while generally recognized,
is not always appreciated as it should be, for these men
take their lives in their hands the day they go into
office and for the remainder of their lives are not safe
from attack from the men they succeed in placing
within the power of the law because of serious in-
fringement of the statutes. The criminal of today is a
highly specialized worker, and when interrupted in his
nefarious calling seeks to avenge himself upon the
one he deems responsible for the failure of his care-
fully laid plans. To meet and thwart such a criminal,
to capture him and place him in confinement, and to
secure the evidence necessary to convict him requires
qualities of no mean order, and ones not possessed by
every person. There must be grit and courage; de-
termination and perseverance; a knowledge of men,
and especially those of the underworld, so as to out-
guess and out-plan the man against whom the move-
ment is inaugurated, and an unflinching honesty and
an unfaltering resolution to uphold the oath of office
no matter what the temptation may be to deviate from
the line of duty. When the citizens of Montgomery
elected John G. Roberts their sheriff they felt convinced
that he would live up to the highest conceptions of the
office, and his subsequent career has more than justified
their expectations, for he is one of the best men in
this office the county has ever possessed.
John G. Roberts was born in Montgomery County,
March 7, 1866, a son of James H. and Sallie (Guy)
Roberts, natives of Bath and Clark counties, respec-
tively. She died in the fall of 1866, leaving four chil-
dren, of whom two are now living: Nannie, Edward
Martin, John G. and Bettie, the latter of whom is a
milliner of Mount Sterling. Subsequently James H.
Roberts was again married, and John G., then only a
little over one year old, was taken and reared by his
stepmother. When he was ten years old the family
moved to Mount Sterling, and for four years he at-
tended its schools, but when only fourteen years of age
he began life on his own account. For the first year
he received 25 cents per day. The second year he was
paid $10 per month, and the third his remuneration
was $16.67 per month. Going with Childs, Bean &
Company as a salesman when he was eighteen years
old, he received $25 per month for his services. After
four years with this company, during which period
his salary was raised, Mr. Bean sold his interests, and
Mr. Roberts went with the Childs-Thompson Grocery
Company, and remained with that organization for
twenty-five years as a salesman. Leaving it, he spent
one year with Steward Henley & Company of Cincin-
nati, Ohio, and then returned to Mount Sterling and
ran for the office of county assessor, for which he was
defeated by only thirteen votes. Four years later he
again made the race, and was elected by a large ma-
jority and held the office of county assessor for a term
of four years. Returning to the employ of the Childs-
Thompson Grocery Company, he continued with it for
about six years, and then purchased the retail depart-
ment of the company, the new organization becoming
Roberts, Young & Duff, and this association continued
for two years and then became known as Roberts &
Ringo. Five years later Mr. Roberts sold to his partner,
and went into the wholesale grocery business, and op-
erated it alone under his own name. Too close appli-
cation to business resulted in a breakdown nine months
later, he was forced to seek a more bracing climate
and went to Colorado and there spent seven months.
Returning with health restored, he was nominated by
his party for sheriff, made a splendid campaign, and
was elected by a gratifying majority.
Sheriff Roberts married in April, 1901, Miss Nora
Daugherty, who was born in Fleming County, Ken-
tucky, and educated in the public schools. There are
no children. Sheriff Roberts belongs to the Christian
Church, and is serving as deacon of his congregation.
Fraternally he maintains connections with the Odd Fel-
lows. In politics he is a democrat. After assuming
the duties of his office he installed Mrs. Roberts as his
assistant in the office work. She is a very proficient
business woman, an expert bookkeeper and a great
aid to her husband not only in his office, but also in
the seed business they are carrying on with such ex-
cellent results. Both stand very high socially, and are
recognized as being among the leading and represent-
ative people of the county.
John W. Letton. All the seventy odd years of his
life John W. Letton has kept his home and his inter-
ests centered on the farm where he was born. This
farm is on McBride's Run, three miles northeast of
Carlisle, in Nicholas County.
Mr. Letton was born there September 22, 1848, son
of William W. and Lucy A. (Williams) Letton. His
father was born in Nicholas County, November 25,
1809, and his mother in Indiana, May 1, 1809. They
were married October 17, 1833, and the mother died
December 19, 1863, and the father March 31, 1883. The
community knew William W. Letton as a very success-
ful farmer and as a citizen of worth in all his rela-
tionships. He was frequently honored with public
office at the hands of the democrats, and was affiliated
with Daugherty Lodge No. 65, F and A. M. Both he
and his wife were active church members. They were
the parents of seven children, of whom John W. is
the only survivor. He was the youngest. The others
were: Berton R., born September 26, 1834, married
Eliza N. Baldwin, and of his nine children six are still
living, several of them with their uncle, John W. Let-
ton, who has never married ; Martha I. Letton, born
November 1, 1836, was the wife of Silas W. Willett ;
Mary E., born October 28, 1838, married L. C. Jones;
Laura, born March 21, 1841, died in infancy; Elton K.
was born January 1, 1844; Abitha, born February 3,
1846, died in girlhood.
John W. Letton acquired a public-school education
and for half a century or more his activities have been
taken up with the home farm of seventy acres. He is
a democrat in politics. The six living children of his
brother, Berton R., are : Robert E., a Bourbon County
farmer; Maude E., wife of Ed Alexander; Charles G.,
Thomas J. and Lucy M., all at home ; and Bertie, wife
of Carl D. Payne.
Leon Lewis Miles is president and manager of the
Louisville Taxicab & Transfer Company, one of the
largest corporations of its kind in the South, operating
a complete taxicab, touring, baggage and trucking sys-
tem covering the city of Louisville.
Mr. Miles is a practical mechanic and leajned his
trade and worked at it until he took an increasing share
in executive responsibilities. He was born at Eminence,
in Henry County, Kentucky, September 17, 1877. His
father, J. M. Miles, is also a native of Henry County
and is still in business as an agricultural dealer at
Eminence. The mother of L. L. Miles was Lydia
Jones, daughter of Thomas Jones of Shelby County.
L. L. Miles finished his education in Eminence Col-
lege and soon afterward came to Louisville and obtained
employment at the Henry Vogt Machine Company.
He also worked as a mechanic for the Kentucky Auto
Company, and subsequently operated the Miles Auto
Company until 1912. In 1913 he became president of
the Southern Motors Company and continued as active
head of that corporation until 1918, and from that
18
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
date until August, 1921, he was one of the directors.
In August, 1921, he became vice president of the Han-
nah Miles Company, this company being distributors for
the Dodge cars. In 1918 Mr. Miles became president
and manager of the Louisville Taxicab & Transfer
Company. At that time the stock was increased to
$500,000. The present extensive buildings and plant
of the company were erected in 1918. The business
furnishes storage for a hundred and ninety cars. The
Brown and Yellow Taxi system of a hundred cars is
owned by the Louisville Taxicab & Transfer Company.
There are 200 employes and in 1920 the cabs covered a
total of 2,000,000 miles. For the transfer department
of the business the equipment comprises twenty-five
vans and trucks. Among other directors of the Louis-
ville Taxicab & Transfer Company are Judge R. W.
Bingham, Otto Seelbach and the late A. T. Hert.
L. L. Miles is a member of the Rotary Club, Presi-
dent of the Louisville Safety Council, and is affiliated
with the Masons, Independent Order of Odd Fellows
and Elks, and belongs to the Juniper Hunting Club,
Pendennis Club, Louisville Country Club, and Audubon
Country Club.
At the age of thirty Mr. Miles married Florence
Long, daughter of Dennis Long and widow of Jno. D.
Taggert. Dennis Long was founder of the Long
Iron Foundry at Louisville. Mr. and Mrs. Miles have
a son Irving Long and he has a stepdaughter Mary
Catherine Taggert, who is a graduate of high school
and finished her education in the Finch School in New
York.
Hubert Prentice Myers, district manager of the
Central Home Telephone and Telegraph Company, is
one of the business men of Bowling Green who has
worked his way from small beginnings to a position of
independence and importance. In no period of his
career has he been specially favored by fortune or cir-
cumstance, but through the ready recognition and use
of ordinary opportunities he has been able to rise stead-
ily and his life is therefore one of typical self made
manhood.
Mr. Myers was born in Warren County, Kentucky,
October 12, 1882, a son of \V. H. and Helen (Kirby)
Myers. He belongs to a fam'ly which is of Scotch-
Irish origin and the American progenitor of which immi-
grated to this country some time in early colonial days,
settling in Virginia. In that state, in 1822, was born
the grandfather of Hubert P. Myers, George W. Myers,
who became a pioneer in Allen County, Kentucky, near
Allen Springs, where he died in 1897 after many years
passed in agricultural pursuits. He married Miss So-
phia Barrick, who was born in Barren County, Ken-
tucky, in 1823, and died near Allen Springs, in October,
1920.
W. H. Myers was born near Allen Springs, Warren
County, Kentucky, where he was reared and married
and became the leading citizen of his community, where
he was not only an extensive and successful farmer,
but a successful distiller, a sawmill owner and a gen-
eral merchant. When he was elected deputy sheriff
of Warren County, in 1904, he moved to Bowling
Green, and served in that capacity until 1910, in which
year he was elected county assessor. This office he held
until 1914, when he was made deputy county assessor
for four years, and in 1918 was again made deputy
sheriff, for a period of four years. Mr. Myers has won
the complete confidence of the people of Bowling Green,
where he resides in a pleasant home at No. 741 Twelfth
Street. He is a democrat in his political views and his
church affiliation is with the Methodist Episcopal con-
gregation. Fraternally he holds membership in the Ma-
sons, Bowling Green Lodge 320, B. P. O. E., and
the Improved Order of Red Men. Mr. Myers married
Miss Helen Kirby, who was born in 1862 at Alvaton,
Warren County, and to this union there have been born
four children : Hubert Prentice ; Willie, who is the wife
of W. C. Brownfield, a teacher of penmanship in the
public schools of Cincinnati, Ohio ; Essie, a teacher in
the high school at Elizabethtown, Kentucky ; and Rodes,
professor of languages at Ogden College, who resides
with his parents.
After attending the public schools of the rural com-
munity of his birth, Hubert S. Myers pursued a course
in the Southern Normal and Bowling Green Business
University, from which he was graduated in 1902. In
the latter part of that year he began working for the
Bowling Green White Stone Company, as stenographer,
but March 1, 1903, resigned his position and entered the
employ of the Southern Electrical Construction Com-
pany, where he was timekeeper and paymaster until
July 1, 1903. Mr. Myers then entered the service of
the Home Telephone Company, starting as collector
and bookkeeper and gradually working his way upward
by industry, fidelity and ability, until in January, 1908,
he was made manager for the company. On January
I, 1919, he was advanced to district manager of the
Central Home Telephone and Telegraph Company, a
position which he holds at this time. Mr. Myers'
district comprises the exchanges at Bowling Green,
Russellville, Morgantown, Woodburn and Lewisburg,
and toll lines from Elizabethtown to Hopkinsville and
from Scottsville to Rochester, Kentucky. Under his
supervision there are eighty employes, his offices and
immediate exchange being located at 804 College Street,
Bowling Green.
Mr. Myers is a stockholder in the Kankakee Auto-
mobile Company of Kankakee, Illinois, the Comet Au-
tomobile Company of Illinois and the O. K. Giant
Battery Company, of Gary, Indiana. He owns a mod-
ern residence at No. 1217 High Street, one of the com-
fortable homes of Bowling Green. A citizen of public
spirit and loyalty during the World war, he was a
generous contributor to all movements inaugurated for
the assistance of our fighting forces and assisted the
various drives in Warren County. Mr. Myers is a dem-
ocrat in politics, and with his family belongs to the
Baptist Church. Fraternally he affiliates with Bowling
Green Lodge No. 51, I. O. O. F., and Bowling Green
Lodge No. 320, B. P. O. E., and is president of Post
I of the T. P. A. at Bowling Green.
Mr. Myers was united in marriage in 1906 at Bowling
Green to Miss Sarah Hendricks, daughter of Mr. and
Mrs. J. W. Hendricks of this city, the latter of whom
is deceased, while the former has held the post of city
assessor for many years and is one of this locality's
most highly respected citizens. Mr. and Mrs. Myers
are the parents of one child: Sara Katherine, who was
born September 24, 1920.
John T. Sims, who has passed the age of three quar-
ters of a century, has spent most of his long and useful
life in Nicholas County. He has been identified with
business and industry as a merchant and also as a
farmer, and the home of his later years has been an
attractive country place a quarter of a mile south of
Carlisle, on Plum Lick Pike.
This home is not far from his birthplace. He was
born May 29, 1845, son of William A. and Anna
(Campbell) Sims. His father was born about six miles
north of Carlisle in 1817, a son of Ambrose Sims, who
came to Kentucky from Virginia in 1793. Ambrose
Sims married Rachel Adair, who died in 1871. Their
children were Mary A., William A., Robert, Margaret,
Willis, Rachel and Lucinda. William A. Sims grew
up in Nicholas County, and after his marriage to Anna
Campbell, who was born in 1818 and died in 1875, he
settled on the Maysville Pike at Forest Retreat, and
conducted a country store there. Later he was in busi-
ness as a merchant at Carlisle, then lived on a farm
two years, and became an extensive dealer in livestock.
At one time he had invested $10,000 in hogs, and while
they were being shipped to market, but before he had
received the proceeds, the entire lot was destroyed by
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
19
fire. This practically ruined him, and he began build-
ing up his fortune by renting a farm. Later he bought
128 acres, and was gradually making his way back to
prosperous circumstances when he died in Iowa, Jan-
uary 5, 1894. He was the father of six children, two
of whom are still living, John T. and Miss Juliet, the
latter of Indianapolis, Indiana.
John T. Sims spent some of his boyhood in the
home of an uncle. He was educated in common
schools, and at the age of twenty-three started out for
himself. He clerked in stores at Carlisle, was also for
a year a timekeeper on the Kentucky Central Railroad,
and spent the winters of 1872-73-74 in Georgia with
his uncle, Robert Sims. For several years he was in
the saddlery and harness business. He still owns three-
quarters of an interest in a business house at Carlisle,
and his homestead farm comprises twenty-eight acres.
Mr. Sims was made a Mason in 1875, and has had
an active affiliation with that order for forty-five years.
He is also a member of Nicholas Chapter No. 41, R.
A. M. He is a democrat and a member of the Chris-
tian Church.
On November 16, 1875, he married Virginia Maston,
who died October 15, 1882. Of her three children two
are still living, William and Anna, both unmarried.
February 21, 1884, Mr. Sims married Georgiana Wil-
liams, who was born in Bath County, Kentucky, Jan-
uary I, 1859. They have two children: Georgia, wife
of O. H. Crouch and living at Lebanon, Indiana ; and
Lida, wife of Russell Kinkingbeard, of Kenton County,
Kentucky.
James Miller by his purposeful life and character
gained a notable place in the community of Millers-
burg, where for many years he was successfully identi-
fied with farming and other interests. His family
still live there, on the old homestead a mile and a half
out of Millersburg on the Maysville Pike.
James Miller was born on a farm adjacent to his
homestead May 6, 1854, and died there August 29, 1897.
at the age of forty-three, but with substantial achieve-
ments to his credit. He was a son of William Mc-
Miller and Susan (Collier) Miller, and a grandson of
Alexander Miller. William McMiller married Susan
Collier, who was born January 14, 1804, daughter of
James H. and Elizabeth H. (Jones) Collier. Both the
sons of William McMiller, Charles and James, are now
deceased.
James Miller was reared in the country, attended dis-
trict schools, and graduated from a school at Catletts-
burg. After leaving school he returned home, and
thereafter his time and energies were fully bestowed
upon his business as a farmer.
June 27, 1875, he married Miss Elizabeth B. Howe
Mrs. Miller was born at Covington, Kentucky, October
6, 1856, daughter of Robert and Catherine (Merring)
Howe. Her father was a native of Canada and her
mother of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Her father
had some pioneer experiences in the California gold
fields. Her parents were married in Cincinnati and
then moved to Covington, Kentucky, where for many
years her father was successfully identified with busi-
ness. He was a member of the Methodist Church, a
Knight Templar Mason and a republican. In the Howe
family were three children : Elizabeth B., Julia I., who
graduated from the Millersburg Female College and
lives in Covington ; and Robert H., who died at the
age of fourteen.
Elizabeth B. Howe grew up at Covington, attended
the Wesleyan College of Cincinnati and the Female
College of Millersburg, from which she graduated with
the A. B. degree. Since the death of her husband she
has shown an apt business ability in handling her in-
terests. She owns 265 acres in the home farm near
Millersburg and is also a stockholder in the Liberty
National, the First National and the Citizens National
banks of Covington.
Mrs. Miller is the mother of eight children: Robert
H. married Gertrude Whaley and lives in California.
Charles K. graduated from the Bowling Green Busi-
ness College, married Cornelia Bootsman and lives in
Alberta, Canada. Alexander graduated from the
Millersburg Military Institute and married Ethel John-
son. Joseph H. is a graduate civil engineer from Pur-
due University at Lafayette, Indiana, and married
Lucille Dailey. James W, who graduated from the
Millersburg Military Institute and spent two years in
Kentucky University, was a volunteer in the World
war, serving as second lieutenant of infantry, and had
seven months of service in France. He married Frances
Oney, a graduate of the Lexington High School.
Katherine S. Miller is a graduate of the Millersburg
Female College, where she taught music until her mar-
riage to William A. Butler. Julia H. Miller was also
a graduate of the college at Millersburg, was a spe-
cial student of English at Transylvania University, took
the Library course in Iowa, and was at Somerset, Ken-
tucky, teacher in the high school, and also catalogued
the Carnegie Library there. She died in 1915- Lliz-
abeth B., the youngest of Mrs. Miller's children, is a
graduate of the Millersburg College, and has the Mas-
ter of Arts degree from Transylvania University. Mrs.
Miller besides her own accomplished children has four
grandchildren.
James M. Berry. No name stands higher in the
Moorefield community of Nicholas County than that
of Berry. It is a name that has been associated with
agriculture, with banking, with the important work of
the locality, and a sturdy and upright good citizenship
through a long period of years.
The stalwart -example and fine character of the late
James W. Berry still exert an impressive influence over
that community. James W. Berry was born near
Moorefield, August 5, 1859, grew up on a farm, but
acquired a good education, at first in the public schools
and later in the college at North Middletown, where he
graduated with the A. B. degree. The following year
Pattie Evans graduated from the same college with
the same degree. The friendship begun in college
ripened into marriage, but when they made their start
they possessed a capital of only $27.50. Fames W.
Berry with the aid of his good wife enjoyed increasing
good fortune, and at the time of his death owned 400
acres of land and was president of the Frst National
Bank of Carlisle. He was in every sense a gooA citi-
zen and a liberal supporter of church and other good
movements. He died December 10, 1919. His wife,
who was born at North Middletown, September 12,
1865, died October 5, 1903. They were active mem-
bers of the Christian Church, in which he was an elder
and was a democrat in politics. The three children of
these honored parents are : Evans, who is unmarried,
Pansy, a graduate of Hamilton College of Lexington
with the A. B. degree, who died December 10, 1910, and
James Milford Berry.
James Milford Berry, who has successfully en-
deavored to follow in many ways the honored foot-
steps of his father, is a banker and farmer, living on
his farm a quarter of a mile east of Moorefield. He
was born there September 5, 1889, and that has al-
ways been his home. He is a graduate of the Sharps-
burg High School, received his A. B. degree from the
Kentucky Military Institute, and graduated in law
from Transylvania University at Lexington. Mr. Berry
practiced law at Carlisle one year, but then retired from
his profession to take charge of his farming interests.
He owns a highly improved general and stock farm
of 325 acres, and is president of the Moorefield De-
posit Bank and vice president of the First National
Bank of Carlisle. Mr. Berry is an active member of
the Christian Church, is affiliated with B. F. Reynolds
Lodge No. 443, F. and A. M., Nicholas Chapter No. 41,
R. A. M., Adoniram Council, R. and S. M., Carlisle
20
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
Commandery No. 18, K. T., and Oleika Temple of the
Mystic Shrine at Lexington. He is a democrat in pol-
itics. ,
John W. Knox belongs to the prosperous farmers of
the Blue Grass section of Bourbon County, has achieved
prosperity through his close attention to business over
a long period of years, and still enjoys the comforts
and fruits of his fine farm two miles from Millers-
burg.
He was born near Boyd Station in Harrison County,
May 14, 1855, son of Isaac N. and Lucinda (Ingles)
Knox. His mother was a native of the same locality.
His father was born in Illinois, and was left an orphan
at the age of one year and was then taken into the
home of his uncle, Harvey McNice, and grew up on
a farm in Harrison County, Kentucky. After com-
pleting his common school education and after his mar-
riage he settled on a farm near Boyd Station, where
he lived out his life and where he was known as a
good farmer and a substantial citizen. He was a
democrat in politics. There were four children : Nan-
nie, wife of Albert Colvin ; John W. ; James H., a
farmer near Boyd Station ; and Thatcher, a miller at
Boyd Station.
John W. Knox lived on the farm of his father dur-
ing his youth, attended the common schools, and at
the age of twenty-one started an independent career
as a farmer, soon afterward purchasing twenty-five
acres at Boyd Station. He farmed there and later at
Cynthiana for six years, and in 1912 moved over the
line into Bourbon County, where he still conducts his
farm, comprising 140 acres.
Mr. Knox married Ida Roberts, who died leaving
three children : Emma, wife of Luke Goodman, of
Berry Station; Anna, wife of John Fogle, living near
Boyd Station ; and Miss Nannie. February 4, 1897,
Mr. Knox married Miss Frances Childers. They have
three children: George B., Ella G. and Esta. The
family are all members of the Baptist Church, and Mr.
Knox in a democrat.
Mrs. Knox was born near Boyd Station, Kentucky,
April 7, 1867, daughter of Archibald R. and Mahala
Byrd Childers. Her father was born in Virginia, April
8, 1828, and her mother on January 9, 1827. Archibald
Childers was a son of Elisha and Elizabeth (Hurst)
Childers, both natives of Virginia, where they lived
for several years after their marriage, and on coming
to Kentucky settled in Wolfe County. Archibald
Childers married in Wolfe County, and later moved
with his family to the vicinity of Boyd Station in Har-
rison County, where he spent the rest of his days de-
voted to agriculture. He was a member of the Metho-
dist Church and a republican in politics.
Alfred Bradley, M. D. A physician who has found
his work in a congenial country environment, and looks
after a large professional clientage while living on his
country place seven miles south of Carlisle, Doctor
Bradley is a graduate of the University of Louisville,
and has practiced in his present home community for
the past ten years.
He was born at Mount Olivet in Robertson County
June 21, 1875, son of J. W. and Elizabeth (Hitt) Brad-
ley. His parents were native Kentuckians, his father
born at Little Rock in Bourbon County. Both are now
deceased. They spent their active lives on a farm in
Robertson County. They were members of the Metho-
dist Church, and the father was a Mason and republi-
can. Of their eight children six are still living.
Dr. Alfred Bradley grew up on the farm in Robert-
son County and was educated in the common schools
and Mount Olivet Academy. For several years he was
a successful teacher in his native county, and he edu-
cated himself for his profession. He was graduated
M. D. from the University of Louisville Medical School
in 1909, and for three years practiced at Blue Lick in
Nicholas County. In 1912 he moved to his country
home on the Maysville Pike, on rural route No. 3
out of Carlisle. He has eight acres of land, which he
uses for agriculture on a modest scale. Doctor Brad-
ley is a member of the County, State and American
Medical Associations, and he and his family are mem-
bers of the Christian Church. He is affiliated with
Blue Lick Lodge No. 295, F. and A. M., Nicholas
Chapter No. 41, R. A. M., and is a past chancellor
commander of the Knights of Pythias. In politics he
is a republican. Doctor Bradley in 1902 married Miss
Pearl McDowell who was reared and educated in
Robertson County. They have two daughters, Gloid
and Hazel, both of whom have completed their public-
school courses.
James Guthrie, who was secretary of the treasury
during the administration of President Pierce and one
of Kentucky's United States senators following the
close of the Civil war, was a native of Kentucky, and
the state is justly honored by his many brilliant
achievements.
He was born in Nelson County, Kentucky, December
5, 1792, of Scotch ancestry. His father, General Adam
Guthrie, came from Virginia to Kentucky and as a
pioneer developed one of the large plantations of Nel-
son County. He participated in some of the Indian
campaigns in the early history of Kentucky, and was
a member of the Legislature from 1800 to 1805 and
again in 1808.
His son James Guthrie was reared on his father's
farm and finished his early education in McAllister
Academy at Bardstown. For several years he was in
the flatboat trade on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.
He studied law under Judge, later United States Sena-
tor, John Rowan of Bardstown, and began practice in
that city. At the age of twenty-eight, following his
appointment as commonwealth attorney by Governor
John Adair, he moved to Louisville, and his subse-
quent career is identified with that city. He was many
times honored to a seat in both Houses of the Legisla-
ture. His influence as a lawyer and citizen and also
in the Legislature made him instrumental in the found-
ing of three great institutions of the state, the Uni-
versity of Louisville, the Louisville & Nashville Rail-
road and the State Bank of Kentucky. He helped
secure the charter of the bank in 1834, and for many
years was one of its directors. He promoted the con-
struction of the railroad from Louisville to Frank-
fort in 1833, and when the Louisville & Nashville
Railroad was organized and incorporated its property
he became president of the company. It was through
James Guthrie that the City of Louisville voted a dona-
tion in 1837 for the University of Louisville, and for
thirty-two years he was one of the trustees of the
institution.
James Guthrie was elected a member of the Con-
stitutional Convention of 1849, and was presiding offi-
cer of the convention. He became secretary of the
treasury in President Pierce's cabinet in 1853, and was
the most influential member of that President's cabi-
net, and many students have testified to his reputation
that he was "the ablest secretary of the treasury since
Alexander Hamilton." In i860, at the Democratic
Convention in Charleston, he was Kentucky's favorite
son for the nomination for president. He was a
Union democrat during the war, and as president of
the Louisville and Nashville Railroad made that road
an instrument of great service and value to the Federal
government. It is said that President Lincoln offered
him the post of secretary of war, which he declined
on account of age and infirmity. He was a delegate
to the Peace Convention held in the city of Washingto
in February, 1861, and a delegate to the Democrati
National Convention at Chicago in 1864. He remainei
loyal to the traditions of his old party, and befor^
the close of the war the Legislature elected him t>
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John Caperton
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
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the United States Senate, in which he took his seat
March 4, 1865. He was then past seventy, and in
1868 resigned his seat and died on March 13, 1869, at
his home in Louisville.
In 1821 he married Miss Eliza Prather. They were
the parents of three daughters, the oldest, Mary, be-
coming the wife of John Caperton of Louisville, and
her son is John Hays Caperton of that city. The
other two daughters were Mrs. J. Lawrence Smith and
Mrs. William B. Caldwell. The former was the wife
of the distinguished American chemist and scientist,
J. Lawrence Smith, whose achievements gave him an
international reputation but whose home for a number
of years was in Louisville where he died October 12,
1883.
John Caperton. Lives worthily lived and worthily
ended have made in America noble records and tradi-
tions in the Caperton family, which has been one of
special distinction in connection with the history of
Kentucky.
The Capertons were identified with the frontier of
Western Virginia prior to the Revolutionary war, and
from what is now the State of West Virginia came
over into Kentucky. The following account can note
only briefly some of the deeds of a great importance
in which the Capertons have been figured. While the
history of Kentucky is in part a record of the Caper-
ton family, the story of the family in complete detail
must also be abbreviated.
According to a tradition held by the several collateral
branches of the Caperton family, both in the United
States and Great Britain, it had its distinctive origin
in the south of France during the Middle Ages, the
first emigration occurring over 200 years ago, when
Capertons settled near Melrose, Scotland, and in Eng-
land on the Wales border, where some are reported
still to reside.
It was probably about the year 1725 that John Caper-
ton came by the way of the north of Ireland and within
a short time established his residence in Virginia, near
the present dividing line between Monroe and Summers
counties, West Virginia. On the voyage across the
Atlantic came also a young Englishwoman, Polly
Thompson, and upon arriving in America she became
the wife of her fellow passenger, John Caperton. They
passed the remainder of their lives in what is now
West Virginia, and there they reared their family of
three sons and one daughter. The sons Adam and
William were the founders of the family in Kentucky.
Adam served as a soldier in the war of the Revolution,
as did also his brother Hugh, who remained in Vir-
ginia, and the first engagement in which they par-
ticipated was the battle of Point Pleasant, October 10,
1774, both having been members of Colonel Preston's
command. Adam Caperton served as deputy sheriff of
Greenbrier County, Virginia, in 1780. He married Eliza-
beth Miller, and they became the parents of three sons
and one daughter — George, John, Hugh and Elizabeth.
In 1782 Adam Caperton came with his family to Ken-
tucky, and here he was killed by the Indians, in the
historic battle of Little Mountain, or Estill's Defeat on
the 22d of March of that year. Of this battle the
general history of Kentucky in another volume gives
ample record.
Hugh, youngest son of Adam and Elizabeth (Miller)
aperton, returned to Virginia several years after the
leath of his father and made his home with his uncle,
"apt. Hugh Caperton, near the old homestead of his
grandparents. He eventually, in 1805, was elected sheriff
of Monroe County and established his official residence
at Union, where he married Jane, daughter of Michael
and Margaret (Paulee nee Handley) Erskine. Of
Hugh Caperton the following record has been written :
"Hugh Caperton of the third generation appears to
ave been a man of large physique, quite handsome
resence, and both forceful and agreeable personality.
He built 'Elmwood,' on the outskirts of Union, and
after many years' service in the Virginia Assembly
represented Virginia in the Thirteenth United States
Congress. His second wife was Delila (Alexander)
Beirne. Both wives predeceased him. There were no
children by the second marriage. Of the ten children
surviving the first marriage of Hugh Caperton, with
Jane Erskine, there were four daughters and six sons."
This embraces the record of the family down to John
Caperton, whose name is given at the beginning of this
article. John Caperton became a widely known citizen
of Louisville, where he lived for many years. He was
born in Virginia, January 15, 1817, and was educated
in the University of Virginia. In early life he was
given to some of the adventures and undertakings
which attracted young men of that time. About the
close of the war with Mexico he went to Texas, was
engaged in some expensive land transactions there, and
about the time gold was discovered on the Pacific coast
he started overland by way of El Paso for California
A most interesting record of this period of his life is
found in some letters that have been preserved, written
chiefly to Allen P. Caperton at Richmond. They de-
scribe the incidents of his trip across the plane and
the exciting life of early San Francisco. He served as
a deputy sheriff at San Francisco, and had a rather
prominent part in the affairs of that remarkable city.
After returning East he located in Kentucky and
married Mary Guthrie, daughter of the distinguished
Judge James Guthrie, whose career as an eminent Ken-
tuckian is sketched on other pages. After his marriage
John Caperton lived in Louisville, and died in that city
July 18, 1900. Mrs. John Caperton was born January 16,
1823, and died April 23, 1901. Of the four children
born to their marriage, only one, the oldest, John Hays
Caperton, is still living, and the account of his life is
presented in a following sketch.
John Hays Caperton has been a prominent factor
in the real estate business at Louisville for forty
years, and the business established and built up by
him is conducted today, with offices in the Taylor
Building by himself and his son Hugh.
John Hays Caperton was born at Louisville, Septem-
ber 12, 1858, son of John and Mary (Guthrie) Caperton.
The history of his father and the Caperton family has
already been told. There is also an article on the
career of his maternal grandfather, James Guthrie.
John H. Caperton was educated in the public schools
of Louisville. As a young man he entered the real
estate business, and to that profession has devoted the
best years of his life. He is an acknowledged authority
on property values and business interests of his native
city, and has been satisfied with the substantial success
coming to him from his knowledge and practice and
the service he has been able to render as a progressive
citizen.
In 1892 John H. Caperton married Miss Virginia
Standiford, daughter of E. D. Standiford, a former
president of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad,
whose life history is also contained in this publication.
The only son of John H. Caperton is Hugh J. Caperton.
Hugh J. Caperton, only son of John Hays Caperton,
and actively associated with his father in business at
Louisville, was born in that city July 16, 1893. He at-
tended the public schools of his native city, graduated
from the Hill School of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, in
1913, and soon afterward entered his father's business.
During the World war he was in the army stationed
at Camp Joseph E. Johnston at Jacksonville, Florida.
After his honorable discharge he resumed his business
connections at Louisville.
June 6, 1918, he married Dorothy Bonnie. They have
two children: John Hays, second, born May 15, 1919;
and Dorothy Bonnie, born April 12, 1921.
22
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
J. Lawrence Smith. In the realm of scientific
thought and discovery J. Lawrence Smith was one of
the foremost Americans of the last century. Man}
publications concerned with the history of the progress
of economic chemistry and medical science make record
of his work. For the last thirty years of his life his
home was at Louisville, and the city reaped some of
the benefit of his widely extended fame. He married
the daughter of one of Kentucky's foremost statesmen.
While his life and work came to an end nearly forty
years ago, there is still importance and significance
indicating that the fame he enjoyed during his life-
time was well deserved.
J. Lawrence Smith was born at Charleston, South
Carolina, December 17, 1818, and died at Louisville
October 12, 1883. As a brief sketch ihat contains the
principal facts in the several lengthy published biog-
raphies, one published in the Cyclopaedia of American
Biography a few years after his death contains the
information needed to fulfill the purposes of the bio-
graphical section of this History of Kentucky.
He entered the university of Virginia in 1836. and
devoted two years to the study of chemistry, natural
philosophy and civil engineering, after which for a
year he was assistant engineer in the construction of
a railroad line between Charleston and Cincinnati.
Abandoning civil engineering, he studied medicine and
was graduated, at the Medical College of the State of
South Carolina in 1840. After studying in Paris
he determined in 1841 to devote himself to chemistry,
and thereafter spent his summers in Giessen with Baron
Justus von Liebig and his winters in Paris with Theo-
phile J. Pelouze. He returned to Charleston in 184^,
began the practice of medicine, delivered a course
of lectures on toxicology at the medical college, and
in 1846 established the "Medical and Surgical Journal
of South Carolina." Meanwhile he had published in
the "American Journal of Science" several papers, in-
cluding one "On the Means of detecting Arsenic in
the Animal Body and of Counteracting its Effects,"
(1841), in which certain of the conclusions of Orfila
were shown to be erroneous and one on "The Composi-
tion and Products of Distillation of Spermaceti" (18423
which was the most elaborate investigation on organic
chemistry published by an American up to that time.
Doctor Smith's fondness for chemistry led to his ap-
pointment by the state of South Carolina to assay the
bullion that came into commerce from the gold fields
of Georgia and the Carolinas. About this time his
attention was directed to the marl-beds in the vicinity
of Charleston, and his investigations of the value of
these deposits for agricultural purposes were among
the earliest scientific contributions on this subject. He
also investigated the meteorological conditions, soils
and modes of culture that affect the growth of cotton,
and made a renort of these subjects. In 1846 he was
invited by the Sultan of Turkey, on the recommenda-
tion of James Buchanan, to teach Turkish agriculturists
the proper method of cotton culture in Asia Minor.
On reaching the East he found the proposed scheme
to be impracticable, and was then appointed by the
Turkish Government to explore its mineral resources.
For four years he devoted his energies to this work,
and the Turkish Government still derives part of its
income from his discoveries. Besides the chrome ore
and coal that lie made known, his discovery of the
emery deposits of Asia Minor was of great value, for
the island of Naxos was at that time the only source
of simply, and in consequence of the opening of new
denosits the use of the substance was extended. The
subsequent discovery and application of emerv in this
country is due to his publications on the subject. In
i8sO he severed his relations with the Turkish author-
ities, spent some time in Paris, and protected there the
inverted miscroscope, which he completed after his
return to the United States in October. Doctor Smith
then made New Orleans his home and was elected to
a chair in the scientific department of the university
of that city, but in 1852 he succeeded Robert E. Rogers
in the professorship of chemistry in the University of
Virginia. While Idling this chair with his assistant,
George J. Brush, he undertook the "Re-examination
of American Minerals," which at the time of its com-
pletion was the most important contribution to mineral
chemistry by any American chemist. He resigned
this appointment in 1854 and settled in Louisville, Ken-
tucky. On June 24, 1852, in Louisville he married Sarah
Julia Guthrie, daughter of James Guthrie, Secretary
of the Treasury in 1853-57. Doctor Smith filled the
chair of chemistry in the medical department of the
University of Louisville till 1866, and was superin-
tendent of the gas works in that city, of which he
also acted as president for several years. He estab-
lished a laboratory for the production of chemical
reagents and of the rarer pharmaceutical preparations,
111 which he associated himself with Dr. Edward R.
Squibb. From the time of his settlement in Louisville
he devoted attention to meteorites, and his collection,
begun by the purchase of that of Dr. Gerald Troost,
became the finest in the United States. It is inferior
1 mly to those of London and Paris and is now owned
by Harvard. His interest in this subject led to the
study of similar minerals with the separation of their
constituents, and while investigating smarskite, a min-
eral rich in the rare earths, he announced his discovery
of what he considered a new element, to which he
gave the name of Mosandrum. Doctor Smith was ex-
ceedingly ingenious in devising new apparatus and
standard methods of analysis. He was a chevalier of
the Legion of Honor, and received the order of Nichan
Iftabar and that of the Medjidieh from the Turkish
Government, and that of St. Stanislas from Russia.
In 1874 he was president of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science, and he was presi-
dent of the American Chemical Society in 1877. In
addition to membership in many foreign and American
scientific bodies he was one of the original members
of the National Academy of Sciences of the Institute
of France to succeed Sir Charles Lyell. The Baptist
Orphan Home of Louisville was founded and largely
endowed by him. In 1S67 he was one of the com-
missioners to the World's Fair in Paris, furnishing
for the government reports an able contribution on
"The Progress and Condition of several Departments
of Industrial Chemistry," and he represented the United
States in Vienna in 1873, where his report on "Chem-
icals and Chemical Industries" supplements his ex-
cellent work at the earlier exhibition. At the cen-
tennial exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876 he was one
of the judges in the department relating to chemical
arts, and contributed a valuable pacer on "Petroleum"
to the official reports. His published papers were
about 150 in number. The more important of them
were collected and published by him under the title
of "Mineralogy and Chemistrv. Original Researches"
( Louisville, 1873: enlarged, with biographical sketches.
[884). Mrs. Smith transferred to the National
Academy of Sciences $8,000. the sum that was paid
bv Harvard University for Doctor Smith's collection
of meteorites, the interest of which is to be expended
in a Lawrence Smith medal value at $200 and pre-
sented not of tenet" than once in two years to any person
that shall make satisfactory original investigations of
meteoric bodies.
As to the personal side of his life and character
perhaps nothing more suggestive could be added than
the following tribute from the editorial columns of
the Courier-Journal : "No record of archives or sta-
tistics could do justice to the charming simplicity, the
childlike modestv and sincerity, the flower-like aroma
of his private life. Eminent in his profession, he was
more than eminent in his home. He was a gentleman
truly, but he was a man of affairs, a man of convic-
tions, a man among men, who though absorbed in
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
23
scientific pursuits took a sincere and profound inter-
est in public questions and events. Though the pos-
sessor of a large fortune, he was singularly unostenta-
tious, dispensing his hospitality bountifully but with
reserve, and doing his charity, which was liberal and
constant, in his own quiet way. He had not an enemy
on earth despite the positivity and transparency of his
opinions, and he goes to his last rest leaving the people
with whom he was so long identified to mourn the loss
of a citizen of whom all were proud and whom every-
body loved and honored."
Elisha David Standiford, in a lifetime of less
than sixty years, became one of the foremost men of
achievement and constructive leadership in business and
public affairs in Kentucky. In his early life he had
earned success as a physician, and turned from his
profession to other interests with even greater success.
He served a term in Congress, was a banker and for
several years was president of the Louisville and Nash-
ville Railroad.
Doctor Standiford was born in Jefferson County,
Kentucky, December 28, 1831, and died at his home in
' Louisville, July 26, 1887. His birthplace was a farm
within a few miles of the city where he spent all the
active years of his life. He was a son of Elisha and
Nancy (Brooks) Standiford, his father being a success-
ful farmer. The Standi fords came to Kentucky from
Maryland and settled in that colony from Scotland. The
Brooks family were of Irish descent and were estab-
lished in Kentucky early in the last century. Nancy
Brooks was born in Pennsylvania and was brought by
her parents to Louisville, but she grew up in what was
then a frontier settlement near Shepherdsville in Bullitt
County. Brooks station in that county was named for
her father who had large landed interests there. Sturdi-
ness of character, thrift and progressiveness were
marked characteristics of both the Standiford and
Brooks families, and the boy who was to become in
later years a power in politics and in the business and
financial world, was richly endowed by nature with
those qualities which wrest favors from fortunes and
win success for their possessor in any field of effort.
Elisha D. Standiford was educated principally in the
schools of Jefferson County, completed an academic
course in St. Mary's College near Lebanon, Kentucky,
and began the study of medicine with Dr. J. B. Flint
of Louisville. After graduating from the Kentucky
School of Medicine, he began practice at Louisville, and
was soon profitably engaged.
Preferring, however, a more stirring and varied busi-
ness, he abandoned his profession and engaged in agri-
cultural and other enterprises of larger and more public
character. One writer said of him that "he was in the
broadest sense the best and most successful farmer in
Kentucky," though farming as a matter of fact was
largely incidental to his other activities. He invested his
means somewhat heavily in manufacturing and banking,
and for a number of years was president of the Red
River Iron Works, which developed into one of the
greatest operations of the kind in the West or South-
west. The Louisville Car Wheel Company, while he
was its president, was the largest concern of its kind
in the valley of the Ohio. He was also president of
the influential and strong Farmers and Drovers Bank
on Market above Fourth, then the leading bank of
deposit in the state.
In 1873 an election by the directors of the Louisville
and Nashville Railroad added to his numerous duties
the responsible relations of vice president of that cor-
poration. Two years later he was promoted to the
presidency of the road, an office he held until 1879.
One familiar with railroad activities wrote during his
. lifetime: "Under his management the commercial im-
f ortance of that road has been greatly advanced, its
itire working thoroughly systematized, many of its
iperfluous officers dispensed with, the running ex-
penses of the road largely reduced, its actual condition
greatly improved, its local business increased, its gen-
eral earnings greatly augmented, and the standing of
the road permanently fixed in public confidence."
It is probably no exaggeration to say that the way
was prepared by the presidency of Doctor Standiford
for the present power and far-reaching influence of the
Louisville & Nashville. He was also prominently asso-
ciated with the project of the Louisville Southern Rail-
road, and for some dozen years before his death was
president of the Louisville Bridge Company.
A more general estimate of his life and character is:
"He is a man of uncommon business and executive
ability; is ready for any emergency; is remarkably clear
sighted; is possessed of uncommon energy; turns almost
everything he touches to advantage and is emphatically
one of the most active and enterprising public-spirited,
successful and valuable business men of Louisville.
Doctor Standiford is attractive in manners, genial and
companionable ; is over six feet in height, in the very
prime of life, and is a splendid specimen of physical
manhood."
A man of such power and indubitable success could
never look upon politics in any other light than as an
opportunity for community service. He served faith-
fully for several years on the Louisville Board of
Education, and by the suffrages of his fellow citizens
was sent to the State Senate in 1868, and was returned
to the same body in 1872. While in the Senate he was
instrumental in securing important legislation looking
to the large and permanent benefit of the state. Be-
fore the close of his second term he was chosen by the
democrats of the Louisville district to represent that
constituency in Congress. He was elected and entered
Congress and went to Washington at the opening of
the forty-third Congress. Here, says one authority, he
was distinguished as an active worker and a debator
of great ability, and was influential in the passage of
the bill authorizing the Government to take possession
of the Louisville and Portland canal, a measure greatly
beneficial to the interests of commerce on the Ohio
River, his speech on the subject exciting favorable
comment throughout the country. He also appeared
prominently in the debates opposing the reduction of
wages for revenue agents, the reduction of certain
tariffs, the repealing of the charter of the Freedman's
Savings and Trust Company, and in favor of granting
a charter to the Iron Moulders' National Union, these
and other activities constituting an honorable and valu-
able congressional record. At the close of his term he
was tendered the renomination by both parties, but de-
clined, believing that in his large business and home
interests he could better serve the people. He will long
be remembered as a man who helped to make much of
the history of the City of Louisville and the State of
Kentuckv. He accumulated a vast amount of property
and at his death left one of the largest estates ever
probated by a citizen of Louisville.
Doctor Standiford was reared a Presbyterian, but
later in life inclined to the Methodist faith, although
not a formal member of any church. He married first
Miss Mary A. E. Neill, who died in 1875, leaving four
daughters and one son, the latter of whom died in early
manhood unmarried. Daughters Florence, Mary,
Nannie and Virginia became the wives respectively of
George L. Danforth, Murray Keller, James G Cald-
well and John Hays Caperton, all of Louisville. In
1876 Doctor Standiford married Miss Lily Smith, who
died ten years later, leaving two children. Less than
three weeks before his death he married Miss Lorena
Scott of Paducah, Kentucky.
Carl L. Long. One of the farms in the noted Blue
Grass section of Nicholas County that has responded
to the intelligent care and cultivation of one family
for more than half a century is that occupied and
owned by Carl L. Long. The farm is his birthplace.
24
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
and it is situated eight and a half miles west of
Carlisle, on the Headquarters and Hooktown Pike.
Mr. Long comes of a family of scholars, and his
brothers and sisters have achieved distinction in the
world of education and letters, while he has been
satisfied with the substantial honors of service in the
role of an agriculturist.
He was born September 7, 1874, son of James Riley
and Armilda (Cheatham) Long. His parents were
also born in Nicholas County, his father in May,
1848, and his mother November 9, 1851. They grew
up in the same neighborhood, attended the same
schools, and after their marriage began housekeep-
ing at the place where their son Carl now lives. Here
they spent their honored lives in industry and in the
discharge of their duties and obligations as church
members and home makers. The father was a past
master of Orient Lodge No. 500, F. and A. M., and
stood high in democratic politics in Nicholas County,
filling the office of county assessor. Of their family
the oldest is O. Floyd, who was born in 1870, gradu-
ated A. B. from the Kentucky Wesleyan College in
1890, A. M. in 1893, a"d received his Doctor of Philos-
ophy degree from Johns Hopkins University in 1897.
He is one of the prominent American scholars in
classical languages, and since 1897 has been connected
with Northwestern University at Evanston, Illinois,
holding the chair of Professor of Latin since 1910.
Carl L. is the second son. The third of the family,
Eva, attended the Millersburg Female College and is
the wife of Ora H. Callier. The fourth, Orie Wil-
liam, who was born at Millersburg in 1882, graduated
from Center College at Danville in 1903, holds the
Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees
from Harvard University, and has been a teacher of
modern languages and is now assistant professor in
Williams College at Williamstown, Massachusetts. The
fifth of the family, Mamie, graduated from the Mil-
lersburg Female College, received another degree at
Northwestern University, and is teacher of English
at Sweetbrier, Virginia.
Carl L. Long grew up on the home farm, attended
the district schools and the Kentucky Wesleyan Col-
lege, took a course in telegraphy and for a time
had charge of the Postal Telegraph Company's busi-
ness at Cynthiana. He also had some further com-
mercial experience as a bookkeeper at Louisville, but
finally returned to the farm and has been very suc-
cessful in the role of an agriculturist, managing the
177 acres in the old homestead. He is a democrat
and a member of Orient Lodge No. 500, F. and A.
M., and is an elder in the Indian Creek Christian
Church.
In October, 1897, Mr. Long married Miss Eula
Snodgrass, of Cynthiana. She was born near Shady
Nook in Harrison County July 17, 1874, daughter of
William and Kate (Bowen) Snodgrass. She is a
graduate of the Kentucky Female Orphans School
and for sixteen years was a teacher.
John Breckinridge Castleman during his active
years achieved a high place on the roll of eminent
Kentuckians. He was a Confederate officer and loyal
Southerner during the period of civil strife. He
inherited the estates of one of the oldest families
of the Blue Grass region. After the war though he
studied law his years were chiefly devoted to the in-
surance business at Louisville. His name is also
interestingly associated with the history of Kentucky
thoroughbreds. He was born at the historic family
homestead of Castleton in Fayette County June 30,
1841, son of David and Virginia (Harrison) Castle-
man. His great-grandfather Lewis Castleman was
born, reared and educated in England and on coming
to America in 1720 established a home in Virginia.
His son Lewis was born and reared in Virginia and
came to Kentucky about 1780. On the land he ac-
quired in the Blue Grass region he developed a home-
stead known as the "Old Mansion" in Woodford
County about five miles from Versailles. His son
David Castleman was born at the Old Mansion in
1786 and was the father of the late Gen. John B.
Castleman. His long life was given to the manage-
ment of his extensive landed estates. He was twice
married. His first wife was Mary Ann Breckinridge
and his second wife Virginia Harrison. They were
first cousins. Virginia Harrison represented the fa-
mous old Virginia family of that name. Her father
Robert C. Harrison was a son of Carter Harrison
of Clifton, Virginia, who married Susannah Randolph,
daughter of Isham Randolph of Dungeness. Carter
Harrison was a brother of Benjamin Harrison, a
signer of the Declaration of Independence, and father
of Gen. William Henry Harrison, and they were sons
of Gen. Benjamin Harrison, one of the early gov-
ernors of Virginia. These Harrisons were descend-
ants of Benjamin Harrison who was born in 1599
in Surrey, England. Robert C. Harrison was an
intimate friend of the elder John Breckinridge and
they married sisters, members of the famous Cabell
family of Zion Hill, Virginia. Robert C. Harrison
and John Breckinridge came to Kentucky and acquired
about 8,000 acres of land adjoining in Fayette County.
The homestead on the Breckinridge plantation was
called Cabellsdale and that on the Harrison place Elk
Hill, from the name of the Virginia home of the
Harrisons.
John Breckinridge Castleman was educated at Fort
Hill Academy in Fayette County and was a student
in Transylvania University at Lexington when the
war broke out between the states. He left Lexington
soon after it was garrisoned by the Federal troops
and joined the forces of Gen. John H. Morgan as
captain of Company D in what was later known as
the Second Kentucky Cavalry. He was with General
Morgan in many of his campaigns and commanded
the regiment in several battles. He had the rank of
major at the close of the war. Early in 1864 the
Confederate Government gave him a commission to
effect the release of Southern prisoners in the Northern
states. During this hazardous venture he was captured
at Sullivan, Indiana, and was held in solitary con-
finement in the Federal prison at Indianapolis from
September, 1864, until July, 1865. He was then re-
leased on parole after giving his promise to leave
the United States and never return. He remained
in exile in Europe until December, 1866. President
Johnson gave him authority to return. On returning
to Kentucky General Castleman studied law, graduated
LL. B. from the University of Louisville in 1868.
but instead of embarking on the routine of his pro-
fession accepted the management of the business of
the Royal Insurance Company of Liverpool for the
Southern states. That was the beginning of the old
established insurance firm of Barbee & Castleman at
Louisville. After the death of Mr. Barbee the firm
name was retained with General Castleman as the
executive and administrative head, and largely due
to him it became one of the largest insurance organ-
izations in the South.
The death of General Castleman on May 23, 1918,
closed a career of half a century of business activity.
The grateful memory of this distinguished Kentuckian
survives for many important services rendered in civic
affairs as well. For twenty or more years he was
president of the City Board of Park Commissioners
of Louisville. His influence was conspicuously directed
to the institution of modern street paving. The mili-
tary experience of his youthful years he turned to
the advantage of his state in its military establish-
ment. In 1878 he organized the Louisville Legion,
in its day undoubtedly one of the best disciplined
and best known military bodies in the United States,
and of which for many years he was commander.
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
25
Under appointment from Gov. J. Proctor Knott he
served as adjutant general of Kentucky four years
until 1886. In 1898 lie promptly tendered his services
and those of his regiment to the Government at the
time of the Spanish-American war and was com-
missioned a brigadier general. For many years he
was actively identified with the United Confederate
Veterans Association.
General Castleman was chosen to represent Ken-
tucky in 1888 as a delegate to the dedication of the
Washington Monument in the National Capital. He
was a member of the Kentucky Commission to the
World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.
During 1891-92 he was chairman of the Democratic
State Central Committee, and in 1892 was delegate
at large to the National Convention at Chicago. For
his many distinguished public services General Castle-
man had the unique honor of having erected during
his lifetime by his fellow citizens in Kentucky an
equestrian statue dedicated to him. General Castle-
man was in command of the Kentucky troops during
the troubles following the assassination of Governor
Goebel.
In 1892 General Castleman organized the American
Saddle Horse Breeders Association, with the object
of breeding and perpetuating the highest type saddle
horses in the United States. He was made presi-
dent of that association and held that post of honor
for many years. November 24, 1868, he married Miss
Alice Barbee of Louisville, daughter of John Barbee.
To their marriage were born five children : David,
•Elsie, Breckinridge, Kenneth and Alice.
Edward S. Jones, secretary and treasurer of the
Hazard Insurance Agency, Incorporated, is one of the
alert young business men of Hazard who is devot-
ing his time and talents to protecting the interests
of his fellow citizens against unforeseen losses by
means of desirable policies in reliable companies. He
is also a veteran of the World war, and together
with his associates in this war, is deserving of special
consideration at the hands of his community, because
of the service he rendered when his country had need
of him.
Mr. Jones was born on a farm near Kirksville,
Madison County, Kentucky, December 4, 1888, a son
of Woodson Stewart and Fanny (Lafoon) Jones, the
former of whom was born in Madison County, and
the latter in Jessamine County, Kentucky. He is now
sixty-three and she is fifty-nine, and their home is
now on a Fayette County farm near Lexington. All
his life he has been an active democrat. Both are
devout members of the Christian Church, and he is
a Mason. The Jones and Lafoon families are both
from Virginia. Edward S. Jones is one of four sons.
His brothers, George and Charles are Madison County
farmers, and Armer is with the First National Bank,
Hazard, Kentucky.
Although he attended the Transylvania College, de-
fective eyesight necessitated Edward S. Jones leaving
school before his graduation. He went into business
at Lexington, Kentucky as a tobacco merchant, with
the W. L. Petty Company, and was doing well when
he left his affairs to go into the service, and was
sent to France with the Barrow Hospital Unit. Mr.
Jones entered the service in December, 1917, and went
overseas in March, 1918, returning home in March,
1919, with the rank of sergeant. He was stationed
at Southampton, England, and had a strenuous service.
Not long after his discharge Mr. Jones came to
Hazard as manager of the Hazard Insurance Agency.
His business associates are J. A. Roan, cashier of
the First National Bank, and L. F. Brashear, cashier
of the Perry County Bank, both gentlemen of un-
questioned financial solidity and high standing in the
community.
On March 8, 1921 Mr. Jones was married to Jeanette
Kinzie of Blueficld, West Virginia. They are mem-
bers of the Presbyterian Church and popular in the
congregation. Mr. Jones is a Master Mason and
belongs to Lexington Lodge No. 1, A. F. and A. M.
An aggressive business man and well-versed on in-
surance matters Mr. Jones has brought the affairs
of his agency into prime conditions and is doing an
excellent line of work. He regards his exertions
with reference to writing policies as a public service
as well as a plain business proposition for he realizes
the prime necessity which exists for everyone to be
properly protected, and has found it obligatory to
do a vast amount of educational work in this line
in order to create a proper appreciation of insurance
in the average citizen. That he is succeeding the
volume of business he is writing distinctly proves,
and while he is doing this he is also winning the
place in his community to which he is justly entitled.
John P. Cozine for many years enjoyed a place
of leadership among Kentucky newspaper men. He
was in the newspaper business in Indiana, but his
best work was done at Shelbyville, Kentucky, where
for many years he was editor and publisher of the
News.
He was born in Mercer County, Kentucky, May
3, 1843, son of Harvey and Mary (Snyder) Cozine,
both natives of Virginia. After their marriage the
parents came to Kentucky, about 1820, and were
pioneers in Shelby County, but later moved to Mercer
County, where they spent the rest of their days.
John P. Cozine was reared in Mercer County, ac-
quired a common school education, and as a youth
at the outbreak of the Civil war moved to Indiana
and enlisted in Company I of the First Indiana Heavy
Artillery. He was with his regiment in active service
until the close of hostilities. He then returned to
Indiana, and had his first active associations with the
newspaper business at Salem and later at Leaven-
worth in the same state. For a time he did news-
paper work at Louisville and in 1873 moved to Shelby-
ville. Here he had several associates in the newspaper
business, and eventually established the Shelby News,
of which he remained editor and publisher until his
death on January 27, 1897.
John P. Cozine was a republican in early life, but
later a democrat, and published the News as a demo-
cratic newspaper with great and far-reaching influence.
He was a member of the Methodist Church, and was
affiliated with the Masonic Order, Independent Order
of Odd Fellows, and the Knights of Pythias.
At Leavenworth, Indiana, in 1869, he married Miss
Nannie C. Bell, a native of Kentucky and daughter
of John and Mary (Weather) Bell. They became
the parents of seven children, six of whom are still
living.
Benjamin Bristow Cozine, son of the late John
P. Cozine, has followed in the footsteps of his honored
father and really acquired his education in the news-
paper business. He has been the proprietor and editor
of the Shelby News for the past quarter of a century.
Mr. Cozine was born in Shelbyville June 21, 1877,
and while he acquired an education in schools the
chief source of his knowledge was his father's print-
ing plant. In July, 1896, he took active charge of
the business, and a year later, when his father died,
he succeeded to the ownership of the plant and news-
paper and has continued it with steadily increasing
success. Mr. Cozine for many years has been actively
identified with the Kentucky Press Association. He
is a democrat, a progressive citizen, and during the
World war was local director of the Liberty Loan
Sales. He is a Master Mason, Knight of Pythias
and Elk and is treasurer of the Christian Church.
May 23, 1901, Mr. Cozine married Miss Mason Rice,
daughter of Captain James H. and Nannie Elizabeth
26
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
(Middelton) Rice, of Shelby County. She is a grand-
daughter of Anthony Middelton, whose career as a
pioneer is published in the preceding sketch.
Mat. Foxhall A. Daingerfield. Some of the great-
est horses that ever contributed to the sire fame of Ken-
tucky on the turf and in the show ring were assembled
at one time or another at Castleton near Lexington, and
that famous place was under the management and direc-
tion of the late Maj. Foxhall A. Daingerfield for James
R. Keene.
The late Maj. Foxhall A. Daingerfield was born in
Rockingham County. Virginia, at Westwood, February 8,
1839. He was educated at Washington and Lee Univer-
sity in Virginia, in the class that was broken up at the
beginning of the war between the states. During that
war he served as captain under General Stuart in the
Eleventh Virginia Cavalry, was promoted to major of
the regiment and was five times wounded. Following the
war he practiced law at Harrisonburg, Virginia, for a
quarter of a century, and then, to get the benefit of out-
door life he took up the breeding of trotting horses at
Culpeper. Virginia, remaining there three years until
he accepted the invitation of his brother-in-law James
R. Keene of New York, to take charge of his thorough-
bred horses at Castleton near Lexington, Kentucky.
Maj. Foxhall A. Daingerfield on November 4, 1863,
married Miss Nettie Gray of Harrisonburg. Virginia.
She was the mother of eight children: William Parker.
who died at nine years of age; Algernon, secretary of
the Jockey Club of New York City; J. Keene. an at-
torney of Lexington ; Bessie Parker, and Elizabeth
Pinkney: Henderson, now Mrs. A. C. Norman of
Seattle, Washington; Juliet Parker; and Mary J., wife
of A. C. Van Winkle, a Louisville attorney. Mrs. Dain-
gerfield the mother of these children died August -'.
1921, at the home in Haylands, where the family have
resided since 1918.
James R. Keene established Castleton in the fall of
1893, leasing the land from A. J. Ford. When the
lease expired five years later the ground was purchased
and also the adjoining place of Gen. Joseph Breckin-
ridge, giving a total of 1,000 acres. The residence at
Castleton was built by David Castleman, whose first
wife was a Miss Breckinridge, who inherited a part of
the old Breckinridge estate called Cabels Dale.
It was under the ownership of Mr. Keene and the
management of Foxhall A. Daingerfield that Castleton
achieved its world wide fame for the production of thor-
oughbreds. All of Mr. Keene's thoroughbreds were col-
lected there at one time or another, and at the end of
twenty years of breeding the production took first place
in the world. Up to that time the greatest winners for
any one year were owned by the Duke of Portland.
All of Mr. Keene's greatest winners except one were
linil at Castleton Foxhall A. Daingerfield kept his in-
terests centered in the breeding and not in the racing
end of the business. He constantly advised Mr. Keene
in the purchase and selection of the horses that came
to Castleton. Among the noted horses bred on this
property may be mentioned : Colin, who retired un-
beaten. Ultimus. Disguise. Ballot. Commando. Celt. Peter
Quince, Peter Pan. Castleton, Superman, Von Tromp,
Delhi, Sysonby (raised, not bred), Cap and Bells (who
won the English Oaks). Maskette. Pope Joan. Noonday.
Melisande. Gretna Green, Veil, Sweep. Cataract. Court
Dress. Wild Mint, Restigouche. Philander, Novelty,
Dazzling and many other notable horses which were
bred and raised at Castleton by Major Daingerfield.
James R. Keene died January 3, 1913, and Major Dain-
gerfield followed him in death on the fifth of the same
month.
Elizabeth Daixgerfielp acquired a thorough
knowledge of Kentucky thoroughbreds under her
father, the late Foxhall A. Daingerfield, and her
work has been a continuation of Iter father's career,
and her independent achievements probably rank her
as the foremost woman in the world as an authority
on thoroughbred horses.
The Daingerfield family now own and reside at
Hayland's Farm, three miles northeast of Lexington,
on Maysville Pike. Any horseman in the world would
appreciate the compliment paid Miss Elizabeth recently
when Samuel D. Biddle of Philadelphia, owner of
the "super-horse" Man o' War, the world's greatest
racer, chose Miss Daingerfield to manage this famous
horse, which lias been brought to the Hinata farm,
leased by Miss Daingerfield. Miss Daingerfield's sole
energies and interests are concentrated in the work
of thoroughbred breeding. She is not essentially a
racing woman, and has never been active in politics
or society. Some of her own horses are mentioned
in the "History of Churchill Downs." published in
icjjo, by Dan O'Sullivan, a Louisville attornev.
Miss Daingerfield began her work at Castleton, and
afterwards she succeeded her father as manager of
this, the greatest stud the world has known. Castle-
ton was owned by the late James R. Keene of New
York, the millionaire mine owner and stock broker,
wdio married Sarah Jay Daingerfield, a sister of the
late Foxhall Daingerfield.
James R. Keene established Castleton in the fall
of 1893, leasing the land from Mr. Ford. When the
lease expired five years later the ground was pur-
chased and also the adjoining place of Gen. Joseph
Breckinridge, giving a total of 1,000 acres. The resi-
dence at Castleton was built by David Castleman.
whose wife was a Miss Breckinridge, who inherited a
part of the old Breckinridge estate. The present
proprietor of Castleton is David Look of New York.
It was under the ownership of Mr. Keene and the
management of Foxhall A. Daingerfield that Castleton
achieved its world-wide fame for the production of
thoroughbreds. All of Keene's thoroughbreds were
selected there at one time or another, and at the end
of twenty vcars of breeding the production took lir-t
place in "the world. Up to that time the greatest win-
ners for any one year were owned by the Duke of
Portland. All of Keene's greatest winners except one
were bred at Castleton. Foxhall A. Daingerfield kept
his interests centered in the breeding and not in the
racing end of the business. He constantly advised Mr.
Keene in the purchase and selection of the lior-es that
came to Castleton. Among the noted horses bred on
this property may be mentioned: Colin, who retired
unbeaten ; Ultimus. Disguise. Ballot. Commando, Celt.
Peter Quince, Peter Pan. Castleton. Superman, Von
Tromp, Delhi. Svsonbv (raised, not bred). Caps and
Cells (who won" the English Oaks). Maskette, Pope
loan. Noonday, Melisande. Gretna Green, Veil, Sweep.
Cataract. Court Dress. Wild Mint. Restigouche, Phil-
ander, Novelty, Dazzling, and many other notable
1 • were bred and raised at Castleton by Major
Daingerfield.
James R. Keene died January 3. 1013. and Mr.
Daingerfield followed him in death on the 5th of tin-
same month. Miss Elizabeth Daingerfield then suc-
ceeded her father as manager, and the stud was kept
complete at the Kingston farm on the Russell Cave
Pike, on leased land, by Miss Elizabeth Daingerfield.
The stud was sold the September after Mr. Keene's
death, almost as a whole to Price McKinney and kept
together by him with Miss Daingerfield as manager
for four years. The final disbursal sale of the Keene
horses occurred January 15, 1918.
In the spring of 1918 Miss Daingerfield moved to
the Haylands Farm, where she continues her opera-
tions in the breeding of thoroughbreds, and she also
leases other lands for her business, including the
Hinata farm. Miss Daingerfield bred Step Lightly,
the Futurity winner of 1920. During her first year's
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
27
independent operations she sold four fillies at Sara-
toga for $26,000, one of these being Step Lightly,
whose dam, Tripping, she still keeps, together with a
number of other brilliant animals.
The late Foxhall A. Daingerfield was born in
Rockingham County, Virginia, at Westwood, February
8, 1839. He was educated at Washington and Lee
University in Virginia, in the class that was broken
up by the outbreak of the war between the states.
During that war he served as captain under General
Stuart in the Eleventh Virginia Cavalry, was pro-
moted to major of the regiment, and was five times
wounded. Following the war he practiced law at
Harrisonburg, Virginia, for a quarter of a century, and
then took up the breeding of trotting horses at Cul-
peper. He remained there until he accepted the invita-
tion of his brother-in-law, Mr. Keene, to take charge
of Castleton. He was largely responsible for Castle-
ton's fame as a thoroughbred selection center, and he
also made the home widely known for its hospitality,
and during his life entertained many prominent people
there.
Foxhall A. Daingerfield married Miss Nettie Gray,
of Harrisonburg, Virginia, who is still living. She
was the mother of eight children : Algernon, secre-
tary of the Jockey Club of New York City ; J. Keene,
an attorney at Lexington; Bessie Parker; Miss Eliza-
beth ; Henderson ; Mrs. A. C. Norman, of Seattle,
Washington; Juliet Parker; and Mary J., wife of A. C.
Van Winkle, a Louisville attorney.
Some interesting comments on Miss Daingerfield's
work and achievements were recently made in the
columns of the New York Herald following the an-
nouncement of her taking charge of Man o' War :
"Miss Daingerfield was the chief assistant to her
father, the late Major Foxhall A. Daingerfield, when
that distinguished expert in horse breeding had charge
of the Castleton Stud for his brother-in-law, the late
James R. Keene, in Fayette County. There was no
more profound student of blood lines in the United
States than Major Daingerfield, who before he moved
to Kentucky bred both thoroughbreds and trotters in
Virginia. His daughter Elizabeth absorbed much of
his knowledge, which was responsible for a galaxy of
magnificent performers, including Ballot, St. Leonards,
Disguise and Commando and the sons of Commando,
among them Colin, Peter Pan, Celt and Superman,
with such mares as Disguise's daughters Maskette and
Pope Joan. These raced with great distinction here,
and when taken to France by the late William K.
Vanderbilt helped found a great stud, which has re-
cently passed to the ownership of A. K. Macomber,
who is racing abroad as well as in the United States.
"It is an unusual occupation for women, but Miss
Daingerfield has a neighbor, Mrs. Elizabeth Kane, who
has managed the Nursery Stud of August Belmont
most capably since the death of her husband a few years
ago, while Mrs. Herbert Wadsworth, directing the
Ashantee Stud at Avon, in the Genesee Valley in this
state, has been the chief ally of the Breeding Bureau
of the Jockey Club in its work of general purpose horse
improvement in that fruitful region.
"There are reasons why women should succeed in this
line of endeavor. The motherly impulse prompts them
to see that mares and foals are comfortable at all times.
Those who have ever seen Miss Daingerfield in the
paddocks or pastures with her charges have a picture
they recall with pleasure. Mares and foals crowd
about her, eager for some token of affection or recog-
nition until her progress is actually impeded. It is the
same way with the yearlings which have been reared
by her; they are gentle in the extreme. One of her
rules is that there shall be no blows or harsh treatment.
As a result few bad tempered horses have come from
her nursery.
"Man o' War, the greatest horse of his day on the
race track, could not be entrusted to more capable
Vol. V— 4
keeping. At Haylands he will have his old companion,
the superannuated hunter, Major Treat, for company.
His surroundings will be congenial, and if he fails to
send to the races children gifted with his own marvelous
speed and undaunted courage it will not be the fault
of those who are to administer to his well being."
Anthony Middelton was an honored old time resi-
dent of Shelby County and member of one of the.
first families to locate in that section of Kentucky.
He was born in Shelby County March 27, 1808,
and his entire life was spent on the farm that was
his birthplace. This farm, known as Cross Keys, was
located by his father in 1800, when he came to Ken-
tucky from Virginia.
Anthony Middelton was a son of Adam and Mary
(Fulton) Middelton. His father was born in Virginia
August 2, 1770, and his mother, February 20, 1775-
They were married in 1794, and in 1800 removed to
Shelby County and began the development of the farm
that has been so long in the family. Adam Middelton
was a blacksmith by trade.
Anthony Middelton married Madeline Mason, who
was born" in Shelby County August 6, 1816, daughter
of Peter Mason, a pioneer of Shelby County from
Virginia. Anthony Middelton died at his country home
August 16, 1879, and his wife on August 22, 1870.
They had four children: Adam M., Georgia, William
P. and Bettie.
George Washington Gosnell has been a resident
of Louisville seventy-five years, and his active life
has been given to the contracting business and also
in later years to stock farming. He is now prac-
tically retired, and lives at 120 East Ormsby Avenue.
Mr. Gosnell was born at Louisville February 22,
1845, son of Edward and Elizabeth (Baxter) Gosnell.
His father who was born near Baltimore, Maryland,
came to Louisville when a young man. He was in
business as a merchant tailor at Louisville for some
fifteen or twenty years. His wife Elizabeth Baxter
died in 1855. She was a native of Louisville. Of
their seven children three sons and one daughter
survive. After the death of his wife Edward Gosnell
went out to California, locating at Sacramento, and
for many years was in the mining industry. He lived
to the age of eighty. He was a democrat and a
member of the Methodist Church.
George Washington Gosnell was ten years of age
when his mother died. He acquired his early edu-
cation at Leitchfield, and Louisville, Kentucky, and as
a youth learned the saddler's trade. He worked at
this trade and also on the farm until 1863, when at
the age of seventeen he enlisted in the Eighth Ken-
tucky Cavalry in the Confederate army. He was in
several skirmishes and battles and at Green River
in Muhlenberg County was captured and for some
months was a prisoner of war at Camp Morton, Indi-
anapolis. He was then exchanged and taken to City
Point near Richmond, Virginia, and after rejoining
his command was with the cavalry forces engaged in
skirmish duty until the close of hostilities in 1865.
The war closed before he reached his majority and
Mr. Gosnell then returned to Louisville and for about
nine years was employed in the city engineer's office.
Having in the meantime acquired a comprehensive
knowledge of city public work, he began contracting
for the construction of streets and sewers, and for
many years handled much of the contracting of that
kind at Louisville. He owns a beautiful farm near
Louisville, where he breeds horses and Angus cattle.
Mr. Gosnell has always been affiliated with the demo-
cratic party, though a man of independent leanings.
He is a Presbyterian. May 10, 1870, he married Katie
Yates, a native of Leitchfield, Kentucky. They had
two children : Martha Y. and Horace S., who mar-
ried Anna Pearl Pollard, of Batesville, Mississippi.
28
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
Hart M. Boxley, M. D., a prominent physician at
Millersburg, has been steadily engaged in his pro-
fession for twenty years and was formerly an esteemed
member of the community of Kirksville in Madison
County.
Doctor Boxley was born in Christian County, Ken-
tucky, September 15, 1870, son of John C. and Judith
(Hart) Boxley. His parents were natives of Louisa
County, Virginia, were reared and married there, and
his father served in the Confederate army with the
famous cavalry organization under General Stuart. In
1866 the family came to Kentucky and located in
Christian Count}', where the parents spent the rest
of their lives on a farm. They were members of
the Christian Church and the father held the post
of deacon and elder. He was a stanch democrat in
politics. Of five children three are now living: How-
ard and O. D. Boxley, both farmers in Christian
County ; and Hart M.
Hart M. Boxley grew up on the home farm, attended
the rural schools, and spent two years in McLean
College in Kentucky. After some varied experiences
he entered the medical department of the University
of Louisville, and graduated M. D. in March, 1901.
Doctor Boxley at once located at Kirksville in Madison
County and had his home and practice in that locality
for fifteen years. In 1915 he removed to Millers-
burg and is now a member of the Bourbon County
Medical Society. . He is also a member in good stand-
ing of the State and American Medical Association.
In 1914 Doctor Boxley married Emma Fry of Madi-
son County. She is a graduate of the Richmond
Female College. Doctor Boxley is a member of Amity
Lodge No. 40, F. and A. M., and is a stockholder
in the Farmers Bank at Kirksville.
Dock Baisden Stephens. As the demand for only
sound banking institutions increases and the value of
such concerns to the community is being more and
more appreciated, the character of the men who ad-
minister their affairs is receiving closer attention, and
when these individuals have been proven efficient and
worthy, confidence in their financial institutions is in-
creased. The influence of a conservative and practical
banking house is wide and its results for the attain-
ment of beneficial conditions is far-reaching. With-
out such a concern in its midst no community can
hope to take its place among the progressive cities
and towns, and it will lose the valuable assistance of
outside capital, which is such a big factor in develop-
ment. Therefore it may be truly said that the growth
and development of a town or city depend largely
upon the quality of its banks, which means the sagacity
and integrity of the men who stand at their heads.
In this connection, Allen may be said to be one of
the fortunate communities of Floyd County, in that
it possesses as an asset the Floyd County Bank, the
president of which is a man of proved ability and
integrity. Dock Baisden Stephens.
Mr. Stephens was born at Alphoretta, Floyd County,
Kentucky, August 5, 1877, a son of Samuel A. and
Sarah (Osborn) Stephens, both of whom were born
at the forks of the Beaver in this county. Samuel
A. Stephens, who was born in 1824 and died in 1887,
was a son of Samuel Stephens, who came to Kentucky
from Virginia in 1820. and received a patent to 5,000
acres of land at the forks of the Beaver, a property
which was covered with the finest of timber and under-
laid with coal. On this farm there is also a wide
acreage of bottom land, said to be the finest on the
Big Sandy. Here Samuel Stephens passed his life
in the pursuits of agriculture, and died in 1885, when
ninety or more years of age. He was the father of
a large family of children. One son went to Cali-
fornia; another, Alexander, an attorney, rose to the
rank of lieutenant-colonel in the Union army during
the war between tin- Males.
Samuel A. Stephens, father of Dock B. Stephens,
was a teacher in his younger years in the Beaver
Valley, but later gave his entire time and attention
to his farming operations, in which he greatly pros-
pered. Edward Lou Osborn, the maternal grandfather
of Dock B. Stephens, was born in Virginia, whence
he came in young manhood to Kentucky and settled
on the left Beaver, about a mile above the forks.
There was born his daughter, Sarah, who died in
1903, aged fifty-seven years. Samuel A. and Sarah
Stephens had seven sons and six daughters : Susan,
the wife of T. G. Allen, of Northern, Kentucky; E.
L., first a school teacher, later a collier in Magoffin
Count}', subsequently a banker at Salyersville, and
now engaged in oil development at that place ; Bascom
B., a merchant at Langley, Floyd County; Rhoda, the
wife of S. B. Osborn, of Northern; F. C. and E. M,
twins, the former a farmer at Northern, and the
latter engaged in the same vocation in Greenup County,
this state; Sydney, who is the wife of Logan Dingus,
a merchant at Martin, Floyd County; D. C. a farmer
and stock raiser at Salyersville; Dock Baisden, of
this review ; Irvine, who is engaged in oil operation
at Tulsa, Oklahoma; Mary, the wife of J. T. Johns,
of Northern; Flora, the wife of William Flannery,
a farmer of Martin ; and Dolly, the wife of E. S.
Pratt, a farmer of Drift.
When a lad, Dock B. Stephens went to live with
his brother, E. L. Stephens, and also received his
education under the preceptorship of his brother, who
was then teaching school. Dock B. Stephens also
started his career as an educator, teaching his first
school when he was but sixteen years of age in Knott
County, where he spent one year. He then taught
two schools at Alphoretta, Floyd County, after which
he went to the West and for the next four years
lived at Colorado Springs and other places, being
variously engaged. Returning to Kentucky, he secured
a position in the bank at Salyersville. and later be-
came assistant cashier of the First National Bank
of Prestonsburg, remaining in that capacity for four
years. He was also, for one year, bookkeeper in the
Bank Josephine, and then became chief clerk of con-
struction for the Bell Telephone Company in Kentucky
and North Carolina, but resigned after one year. In
1912 he organized the Sandy Valley Hardware Com-
pany and became secretary-treasurer and manager, posi-
tions which he still holds, and November 8, 1920,
organized the Floyd County Bank of Allen, of which
he has since been president. Mr. Stephens' success
has been his own and his record illustrates the fact
that opportunity is open to all. With a nature that
could not be content with mediocrity, his laudable
ambition has prompted him to put forth untiring and
practical effort until he has long since left the ranks
of the ordinary many and taken his place with the
successful few.
In 1907 Mr. Stephens was united in marriage with
Miss Myrtle Hall, daughter of Judge Malone Hall,
of Allen, and a graduate of the schools of Prestons-
burg. Mr. and Mrs. Stephens have one daughter :
Oriole. They are faithful members of the First Baptist
Church of Beaver Creek, the movements of which
they support actively and generously, and in which
Mr. Stephens is serving as a member of the board
of trustees Fraternally he is affiliated with the local
lodges of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and
the Knights of the Maccabees. He is a democrat in
his political convictions, but takes only a good citi-
zen's interest in political affairs.
William L. Cannon. While his home for the past
thirty years has been in the country on a large and
attractive farm near Midway, William L. Cannon bears
a name that suggests the history and romance of the
old time river traffic. He was for years associated
with his father as a river man, and his father, the
\
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
29
late Capt. John W. Cannon, was perhaps Kentucky's
greatest pilot and river captain, and his exploits and
his boats were known all up and down the Mississippi
and its tributaries both before and after the Civil war.
William L. Cannon was born at the old Capitol
Hotel in Frankfort, August I, 1856, son of Capt. John
W. and Louisa Hickman (Stout) Cannon and grand-
son of John H. and Ann (Coston) Cannon. John
H. Cannon died in 1846, and had come to Kentucky
in 1818" from Maryland. Capt. John W. Cannon was
born at Hawesville, Kentucky and lived on a farm
until he was fifteen. His brother Elijah had in the
meantime gone to New Orleans, where he served as
United States Marshal, and through his friendship
with the captain of the Mediterranean, then the big-
gest Mississippi steamboat, John W. Cannon secured
passage on that vessel to the Southern city in 1833.
He rapidly mastered the mysteries, the art and the
science of river navigation and by 1838, when he
was twenty years of age he was steersman for the
Diana. After returning to Kentucky he cut a load
of hooppoles and after making up a cargo of hoop-
poles and coal he made another trip to New Orleans
in 1840. He was steersman on the Velocipede, and
all through the '40s was a pilot and captain on the
Mississippi, Red River and Ouchita River. Out of
his earnings he saved $4,000, and with this sum bought
four negro slaves, one of whom died and the others
ran away. The first boat owned by him was the
Dallas. In 1848 he built the Louisiana at Jefferson-
ville. She blew up at New Orleans, killing many,
including his partner, and this disaster left him $20,000
in debt. He then secured credit and built the Downs,
at a cost of $17,000, which left the shipyard in the
spring of 1851. Others threatened to build a faster
boat, but he never knew a rival individual or organ-
ization with whom he could not compete on even
terms. The Bella Donna was built by him at a cost
of $41,000. He made money rapidly, though he lost
in many ventures. He paid $40,000 for the Rocka-
way, and made it all back in one season of operation.
The McRae was built for $40,000 and the W. W.
Farmer, for $17,000, but low water prevented naviga-
tion for eighteen months and at the end of that time
he was practically bankrupt. Later he built the Vicks-
burg and the General Quitman. The Vicksburg suc-
cessfully ran the blockade at the siege of Vicksburg
where she was turned over . to the Confederate gov-
ernment, her machinery to be used in a gunboat being
built on the Yazoo River. Captain Cannon took the
Quitman up the Red River and held it until after
the war. Perhaps his most noted achievements are
associated with the Robert E. Lee. He built the first
vessel of that name, at a cost of $223,000, and was its
captain for ten years. He then built the second boat
of that name. The first Robert E. Lee was the fastest
boat ever on the river and was a steamer of palatial
accommodations. He finally built a splendid, boat,
which he owned personally and which bore his name,
John. W. Cannon. This was the finest boat except
the White, built by another party about the same
time, of any of the craft that ever plied on the rivers.
In the files of the Courier-Journal under June 8,
1878, may be found a description of the John W.
Cannon. He also built at the Howards Shipyards
at Jeffersonville, Indiana, at a cost of $135,000 The
Ed Richardson. Before the war in 1856 the Princess
had the first fast time to Natchez, and the record
of that boat was never beaten until 1870, when the
Robert E. Lee became a contender for the honor.
Then ensued a race between the steamers Robert
E. Lee and Natchez, long celebrated in song and story
from New Orleans to Saint Louis on July 4, 1870.
The Lee won the contest handily, and throughout the
entire course thousands of people thronged the banks
of the stream and a great multitude witnessed the
finish at Saint Louis. The elks horns, one set given
for the race in 1856 and the trophy for the race in
1870, being also a magnificent twelve point set of horns
are now in possession of W. L. Cannon and used for
ornamental purposes in his home. A large number
of vessel owners at a meeting in Saint Louis planned
to consolidate the Mississippi River steamboat traffic,
and gave the general management to Capt. John W.
Cannon. However, he died at Frankfort, April 18,
1882, and never took this post of responsibility. He
had two homes, one at New Orleans and one at Frank-
fort, and is buried in that Kentucky city.
William L. Cannon gained his first experience on
the river with the first Robert E. Lee as an office
man, and later was captain of the John W. Cannon
on its first trip. He was also captain of the Laura
Lee and the Clinton, but most of his work was in
the business management. He succeeded his father
as manager of his extensive affairs, and continued to
make his home and business headquarters at New
Orleans until 1889.
In 1891 Mr. Cannon moved to his present home on
a 364 acre farm a mile north of Midway. In 1880
he married Miss Florence Berry, daughter of Hiram
and Eleanor Berry. Her father was connected with
W. A. Gaines & Company, makers of the Old Crow
whiskey at Frankfort. Mr. Berry had bought the
farm near Midway from Captain Kidd, the famous
auctioneer. He died after owning it only a few years,
and it then came into the possession of Mr. and Mrs.
Cannon. The residence was erected by a Mr. Buford
in 1835. The brick and lime were burned on the
farm, and two other similar homes in the same vicinity
were built about the same time. That stately old
country place was the home of the Bufords for many
years. Mr. and Mrs. Cannon have a family of three
sons and two daughters : Eleanor, wife of Isaac F.
Starks, of Louisville; John W., connected with the
Walworth Manufacturing Company of Boston, Massa-
chusetts; Hiram B., superintendent of the Perfection
Stove Works at Sarnia, Ontario; George B., sales-
man with the Walworth Manufacturing Company; and
Miss Florence B., at home. Mr. Cannon, outside of
his extensive business affairs, has been rather prom-
inent in republican politics. He made the race for
the State Legislature and also for Congress and was
a delegate to the national convention at Chicago when
Roosevelt was nominated for a second term. He has
served as local magistrate.
Hon. Hillard Hagan Smith represents the fifth
generation of his family in Eastern Kentucky, and is
one of the strongest and ablest of the entire line of
strong and resourceful men, whose power and prestige
seem to have increased with each successive generation.
As a family they have lived close to the soil. In a race
of farmers H. H. Smith is an exception through the suc-
cess he has achieved in the profession of law, though
he has not divorced himself altogether from the char-
acteristic interests of his ancestors, since he is one of the
large landowners in Knott County.
His pioneer ancestor in Eastern Kentucky was his
great-grandfather, Richard Smith, a native of Old Vir-
ginia. A number of years prior to 1800 he came into
Eastern Kentucky and settled at Troublesome Post Office
in Perry County. He became one of the largest land
owners in the state, and at one time owned most of the
land included in what is now Perry, Knott, Letcher
and Breathitt counties. His wife was Lishia Combs,
and their large family of children were : William,
Thomas, Nicholas, Joshua, James, Isaac, Samuel, Ander-
son, Kissin (Catherine) Elizabeth, Polly, Hannah and
Nancy. The second generation of this Kentucky family
was headed by William Smith, who was born in Perry
County, and maintained the traditions of the family by
his success as a farmer and stockman. His extensive
30
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
property was located on Carr's Forks, above the mouth
of Irishman Creek, in what is now Knott County. He
died there in 1873. His wife was Millie Combs, a daugh-
ter of Jeremiah Combs. Their children were John,
William, Alexander, Richard, Thomas, Jeremiah, Sarah,
Matilda and Malvira.
The grandfather of the Knott County lawyer was
William Smith, better known as "Med" Smith, who
was born in Perry County, now Knott County, in 1825,
and owned most of the old homestead farm, on which
he engaged in farming and stock raising until his death
in 1891. Perhaps the best picture of this old time citi-
zen is presented by recalling the fact that in his day he
was known as the "Bully" of this section, a term" not
used so much in disparagement as a tribute to his re-
markable physical strength and ability and his prowess
in all physical sports. He was the champion wrestler,
and his grandchildren used to hear from his lips many
interesting stories about his meeting with other strong
men, when each would strip to the waist to find oul
who was the best man. He was a Union soldier in the
Civil war in Company L of the Fourteenth Kentucky
Cavalry, enlisting December 15, 1862, and was mustered
out March 22, 1864. He was once wounded, and foi a
number of years drew a pension.
Mr. Smith married Martha Ashley, who was born
in North Carolina. Her father. Rev. Jordan Ashley, wa
a native pioneer preacher of the United Baptist Church
and carried his religious messages all over Eastern Ken-
tucky. He was very gifted both in intellect and in
eloquence, and ranked with the best preachers of his
day. The children of "Med" Smith and wife were
Mary Ann, John A., Hillard, Barbara. Millie, Laurania.
Nancy Jane, Granville C, Melvina and Lucinda.
John Ashley Smith, father of Hillard Hagan Smith.
was born in Knott County in 1852, and in a business
way never had any interests outside of those of the
old homestead farm on which he remained. He wa a
successful stock man. Served a number of times as
deputy sheriff and magistrate, and had a place of lead
ership in his community. His death occurred Decem-
ber 2, iqoi. His wife, Elizabeth Jane Hagan, still liv-
ing at Hindman, was of a family that originally spelled
the name Higgins. Their children were: William, who
died in infancy: Hillard H. ; Martha, wife of John M.
Smith, of Knott County; Barbara Alice, "wife of lames
V. Maggard, living on part of the original homestead
of her great-grandfather Smith in Knox County; John
1). \\ .. who has served as commonwealth's attorney of
his district and lives at Prestonsburg.
Hillard Hagan Smith was born at Carr's Forks on the
north branch of the Kentucky River December 31, 1X75,
and he learned to appreciate and to emulate the strong
characteristics of his forefathers. He acquired a liberal
education in the public schools of Hindman and in
Buckner Academy, graduated in 1899 from the Bowling
Green Normal School and was a student in Washington
and Lee University at Lexington, Virginia, during 1902-
3. Mr. Smith was admitted to the bar in June, 1899,
and for over twenty years has carried on a successful
practice at Hindman, where he is a member of the
firm Smith & Combs. Mr. Smith is attorney for a
number of large corporations doing business in Eastern
Kentucky. He was appointed police judge of Hindman.
master commissioner, and in 1907 was elected a member
of the State Senate, serving from 1908 to 1912, from the
Thirty-third District, comprising ten counties. Mr.
Smith is a republican, and has served several terms as
master of Hindman Lodge No. 689, F. and A. M., and
belongs to a number of other social and civic organiza-
tions. He is the largest stockholder and is one of the
organizers of the Bank of Hindman, and is chairman
of its board of directors and was formerly vice presi-
dent, an office now held by Mrs. Smith, his wife.
December 31, 1903, Mr. Smith married Miss Leodicie
Francis, daughter of Hiram H. and Sarah (Day)
Francis. Her father, now deceased, was the foremost
merchant and man of affairs at Hindman, and at the
time of his death was the wealthiest citizen of the
county. In personal influence he was one of the best
known men in Knott County. The children horn to
Mr. and Mrs. Smith were: Ruth, who died in infancy;
Hillard H, Jr.; Leo Dale; Lois Gay; Miriam Melvira;
Dorothy Day, who died at the age of two years; Carol
Hope; and Major Andre. The family are members of
the Methodist Episcopal Church.
The rugged physique of his ancestors has come down
to Mr. Smith. He took an active part in sports while
in college, and was the champion runner of every school
and college he attended. He is liberally equipped by
natural gifts and training for the place of leadership
he enjoys in that county. A successful lawyer, a large
land owner, he has prosecuted his affairs with excep-
1 '.< mal credit, and has a breadth of interest and sympathy
that keep him in touch with every vital movement
effecting the welfare of his part of the state. Mr. Smith
lias been one of the very prominent men in the Hind-
iran Settlement School, and is head of the Local Ad-
visory Board. During the World war he served as
chairman of the Draft Board and chairman of all the
drives for Liberty Loans.
Ben F. Wright, M. D. A physician and surgeon
with an extensive practice at Seco in Letcher County,
is Doctor Wright who lives today in the same environ-
ment where he was born, an environment in which
the Wright family has played an interesting and his-
torical part for generations.
The Wrights came from Virginia to Kentucky in
ifoo, and settled around the Gap at the head of Elk-
horn Creek at the head of Big Sandy, and on Boone
Fork or the head of the Kentucky River, in the same
I cality where the Consolidation Coal Company and
the South East Coal Company are now operating.
The father of Doctor Wright was the late W. S.
Wright, known as Bill Wright. He was born in [855
on Wright's Fork of Boone Creek, where the Town
of McRoberts now stands. Without educational ad-
vantages until after his marriage, by a rigid course
of self instruction he fitted himself for the perform-
ance of all the duties of his business career. He
was a prosperous farmer and for some years Letcher
County representative for the Asher Lumber Com-
pany. For sixteen years he was a magistrate. He was
a man of liberal sympathies, tolerant in a broad range.
but when aroused to a sense of right and justice he
was unyielding and active in the suppression of law-
ss. It is said that the Wrights never forgot
e ther friend or foe. W. S. Wright like every other
strong man had his enemies and in January, 1900, a
shot from ambush brought him death. He was a
leader in the Methodist Church and every morning
saw his family gathered together under his leader-
ship to bow the head in reverent worship. Though
little more than a child at the time of the Civil war
he did some scout duty for the Confederate Govern-
ment. During his own youth the country in which
he lived was the scene of one feud after another and
after his death at the hand of a hidden foe bis son
William was shot from ambush wdiile in an official
capacity under John Wright. He was pursuing the
men who had slain his father. William Wright, the
son, was then only eighteen.
W. S. Wright at one time was democratic candi-
date for county judge, losing the election in a strong
republican county by a few votes only. He married
l.ettie Bates, whose father James Bates was a Con-
federate soldier and was killed during the war while
at home doing farm work. The Bates family came
from Virginia about 1800 and settled at the head
of Millstone and Rockhouse creeks near Knott County.
Lettie was born at the head of Millstone in 1851 and
now lives at her old home near Seco. Of her eleven
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
31
children all are living except the son William. Nancy
is the wife of James Johnson, living on Robinson
Creek in Pike County; Henrietta is the wife of L. B.
Tolliver at Democrat on Rockhouse Creek ; Martha
is the widow of William Venters and lives at Seco ;
Samuel Tilden Wright is a real estate dealer, magis-
trate and Baptist minister at Millstone; Mary is the
wife of W. W. Craft, a farmer at Millstone; William
is the son previously mentioned; Dr. T. G. Wright
is a dentist at Lynch, Kentucky, and is interested in
the ownership and operation of a number of moving
picture houses in that and adjoining towns; Dr. J. F.
Wright is also a dentist, practicing at Russell near
Ashland; John W. is a merchant at Seco; the next
in age is Ben F. ; Lettie Dallas is the wife of A. C.
Craft, a farmer and real estate dealer at Thornton,
Kentucky.
Ben F. Wright grew up at the old home in Letcher
County and beyond the limited education he acquired
in home schools his higher training was the result of
his own efforts and earnings. He attended the East
Kentucky State Normal at Richmond and the high
school at Clintwood, Virginia. For six years he taught
in Letcher County, Kentucky, and in Wise County,
Virginia. In 1913 he entered the Medical Department
of the University of Louisville, graduating in 1917.
He stood high in his classes at the university, but
the strain of continuous labor left him at the time
of graduation so impaired physically that when he
volunteered his services to the Government they were
rejected. Failing in his effort to get into the army
he returned home, and has since built up a very ex-
tensive practice. During the influenza epidemic he
treated over 3,000 cases. Doctor Wright has a large
practice for the mining companies at Seco and Mill-
stone, and' a large clientage outside as well. He is
a very skillful surgeon.
In 191 1 he married Miss Fannie Hall, daughter of
L. M. Hall of Wise County, Virginia. Two children
were born to their marriage the only one living being
Eva Irene. The deceased son was named Edgar Allen
Poe. Doctor Wright is a member of the Methodist
Episcopal Church South at Richmond. In Masonry
he is affiliated with the Lodge at Jenkins, the Chapter
at Whitesburg, the Commandery at Winchester and the
Shrine at Lexington. He is Deputy Grand Chancellor
of the Knights of Pythias and a member of the Im-
proved Order of Red Men. Doctor Wright was in-
strumental in securing the establishment of the post-
office at his old home town, known as Seco Postoffice,
and has been postmaster there from the inception of
the office. He is also a trustee of the local schools.
Stanley Forman Reed is a member of the Mays-
ville law firm of Worthington, Browning & Reed, and
in the decade since he was admitted to the bar has
achieved an influential place in association with some
of the most prominent men and interests in that sec-
tion of Kentucky.
Mr. Reed was born in Mason County, Kentucky,
December 31, 1884, son of Dr. John A. and Fannie
(Forman) Reed. He is a member of the Kentucky
society of the Sons of the American Revolution, and
his patriotic ancestry includes some historic characters
of the great west in the colonial period. He is de-
scended from Tolliver Craig, who was born about
• 1705 and came to Kentucky prior to the Revolution.
He was a lieutenant in the Revolutionary war. His
wife was Polly Hawkins, whom he married in Bote-
tourt County, Virginia, in 1730. She was one of the
water carriers at Bryant Station. Another ancestor
was Lewis Craig, a famous Baptist preacher whose
life is told in G. W. Ranck's "The Traveling Church,"
and in Thompson's "Lewis Craig." He removed to
Kentucky in 1781 and continued his labors in this
western wilderness until his death in 1828. He was
head of the "Traveling Church" and founder of many
of the churches existing today. His wife was also
a Bryant Station water carrier. Two other ancestors
of the Maysville attorney were Gen. David Chiles, a
brigadier-general of Kentucky Militia at the battle
of Thames in the War of 1812, and Capt. Richard
Soward, who was in the Third Regiment of Poage's
Mounted Kentucky Volunteers in the same war. The
father of Mr. Reed, Dr. John A. Reed, graduated in
medicine from the University of Pennsylvania in 1865,
and spent his entire active career as a practicing
physician in Mason County, Kentucky, where his name
is still held in the highest esteem. Stanley F. Reed
graduated in the classical course from Yale College
in 1906, and from 1906 to 1909 was a law student
of the University of Virginia and Columbia Uni-
versity. The year 1909-10 was spent in travel and
in following courses in law at the University of Paris,
the Sorbonne. He was admitted to the bar in July,
1910, and since that date has practiced at Maysville,
except for the time he was a lieutenant in the Army
Service Corps, receiving his honorable discharge at
Camp Upton, New York, December II, 1918.
Mr. Reed is president of the Maysville Warehouse
Company and a director of the Bank of Maysville,
the Sphar Brick Company and other corporations. He
is regarded as one of the ablest leaders in the demo-
cratic party jn Eastern Kentucky, and represented
Mason County in the Lower House of the Legis-
lature from 1910 to 1914. He was a delegate to the
Democratic National Convention in 1920. Mr. Reed
is a member of the Lexington Club at Lexington,
the Pendennis Club at Louisville, Southern Society of
New York, and Delta Phi Fraternity. May 11, 1908,
he married Winifred Elgin of Maysville. They have
two children: John A., born December 31, 1910, and
Stanley F. Reed, Jr., born August 5, 1914.
Major Solomon B. Casebolt, M. D. Earning the
rank of major during his service in the Medical Corps
of the American Army, Major Casebolt soon after
his return from abroad began practice in Pike County
at Virgie, where he is physician to one of the large
mining companies operating here and also has an
extensive general practice.
Solomon B. Casebolt was born on Shelby Creek in
Pike County October 21, 1885, son of Harvey G. and
Arminda (Tackett) Casebolt. His father is a prom-
inent old time farmer and business man is Pike
County, and was formerly actively engaged in the
timber business on the Big Sandy and also a lumber
manufacturer. He is now in business as a merchant
on Robinson Creek.
Doctor Casebolt is a man who to a large extent
has achieved his own opportunities and has been re-
sponsible for his own advancement. He acquired his
preliminary education at Pikeville, where two of his
best instructors were Philip Bevins and T. M. Riddle.
For seven years he was one of the successful teachers
in the schools in Pike County and he continued teach-
ing while doing his preliminary work in medicine.
From 1907 he attended the Medical School of the
University of Louisville, graduating in 191 1, and in
1913 returned to Louisville for post-graduate work.
His first regular work in his profession was done at
Elkhorn City, where he was physician and surgeon
in charge of the hospital during the construction of
the railroad through the breaks of the mountain. This
gave him valuable experience. He practiced for a
time at Pikeville and was then physician and surgeon
two years for the Rock Castle Lumber Company in
Martin County, Kentucky, with office at Offutt. Early
in 191 7 Doctor Casebolt returned to Pikeville and in
June, 1917, received a commission as first lieutenant
in the Medical Reserve Corps. After six weeks in
the Medical Officers Training School at Fort Ogle-
thorpe, he was sent to Syracuse, New York, and as-
signed to active duty with the Forty-ninth Infantry.
32
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
For ten months he was at one of the chief army em-
barkation camps, Camp Merritt, New Jersey, and spent
one month also at Camp Upton, New York. He saw
twelve months of service in France with the Eighty-
third Division. Doctor Casebolt was promoted to cap-
tain in February, 1918, and received his commission
as major in March, 1919. He was in the service
over two years, receiving his honorable discharge and
returning home in July. 1919. Since then his home
has been at Virgie, where in addition to an extensive
general practice he is physician in charge of the Rogers
Brothers mines.
In December, 1919, Doctor Casebolt returned to
France and on the 16th of that month married Mile.
Simone Pineau, a charming and cultured French girl
whom he had met while in the service. They have
one daughter, Claire. Doctor Casebolt is a member
of Pike County, Kentucky, State and American Medical
associations, is affiliated with the Masonic Lodge at
Pikeville and is a democrat in politics.
Robert C. Gatewood. The Gatewood family is one
of the long-established ones in Montgomery County,
and among those of the name to attain to prominence
who are still living are Robert C. Gatewood, a pros-
perous farmer, residing on the old Magown farm,
and A. J. Gatewood. also a farmer, residing at Mount
Sterling. Both are sons of James W. and Janella
(Ewing) Gatewood. James W. Gatewood was born
in Montgomery County, Kentucky, in the vicinity of
Mount Sterling, May 8, 1832. and his wife was born
August 28, 1847. Her parents. Andrew J. and Lydia
W. (Connor) Ewing, were natives of Virginia, who
came to Kentucky after their marriage and settled
on a farm in Bath County. James W. Gatewood and
his wife had five children, namely: Robert C, who
was born February 3, 1867 ; A. J., who was born
September 15, 1868; Elva, who is the widow of Ben
Gay; Mary, who is the wife of David C. Fox; and
Colonel, married Miss Laura Gager, Chatanooga, Ten-
nessee. The death of James W. Gatewood occurred
December 26, 1918. His father, Harvey T. Gatewood,
married Mary Stoner, the former a native of Mont-
gomery County and the latter of Bath County, Ken-
tucky, both families being farming people. Following
their marriage Harvey T. Gatewood and his wife
settled on a farm near Mount Sterling, and they be-
came large landowners and had many slaves. It was
on this farm that James W. Gatewood was reared,
and he acquired his educational training in the dis-
trict schools, but after his own marriage he purchased
a farm near Ewington, and there he spent the re-
mainder of his life, and there his children were born.
Both he and his wife were Episcopalians in religious
faith, while in politics he was a democrat.
Robert C. Gatewood grew up on the homestead,
received but a limited educational training. Until
he was married he remained with his father, but then,
at the age of twenty-five, June 1, 1892, was united
in marriage with Mary Magown, and they moved to
the old Magown farm, where they have since resided.
This property was acquired by Mrs. Gatewood's great-
grand father, James S. Magown, who came to Ken-
tucky from Virginia at a very early day. Mr. and
Mrs. Gatewood began with 200 acres which she had
inherited from her father's estate, and have added
to it until they now have 1,000 acres, all of their
present ample means having been earned through farm-
ing operations. They have no children of their own,
but have given a home and parental love to an adopted
daughter, Laura Williams, great niece of John S. and
Sarah (Gorden) Williams, the former of whom at
one time represented Kentucky in the United States
Senate. Mr. and Mrs. Gatewood are consistent mem-
bers of the Christian Church. Fraternally he belongs
to Mount Sterling Lodge, B. P. O. E., while politically
he is a democrat. For some years Mr. Gatewood
has been interested in the Montgomery National Bank
of Mount Sterling, which he helped to organize in
1902, and he is now a member of its board of di-
rectors. This is one of the solid banks of the county.
A. J. Gatewood was reared on the farm near Ewing-
ton, and attended the public schools of his district
and a private school at Mount Sterling. At the age
of fifteen years he went to live with his grandfather,
A. J. Ewing, in Bath County, and resided there until
he was twenty-eight \ears old. At that time, Decem-
ber 16, 1896, he married Virginia Gathright, of Louis-
ville, Kentucky. She is a graduate of the public
schools of her native city and finished her education
in the East. For the following four and one-half
years Mr. Gatewood continued to reside at Louis-
ville, where he was engaged in the milling business
with his father-in-law, but then returned to Mont-
gomery County, and, locating at Mount Sterling, for
ten years was occupied with selling life insurance.
He then took up farming, and has been occupied with
this line of work ever since, but continues to reside
at Mount Sterling. His farm is on Wayne Street,
at Maysville. and his residence is within the city limits.
A. J. Gatewood and his wife have one daughter,
Mildred E., who was born September 10, 1903. They
belong to the Christian Church, in which both are
active. Like his father and brother, Mr. Gatewood is
a democrat.
Howard L. Burpo, president of the Adamson Coal
Company and passenger engineer of the Baltimore
& Ohio Railroad, is one of the substantial business
men of Jenkins, and one who has a wide circle of
warm, personal friends. He was born at Martins-
ville. Morgan County, Indiana, October 7, 1886, a son
of John and Elizabeth (Stotts) Burpo. John Stotts
was a blacksmith, who died when his grandson was
four years old. and the lad lost his mother when he
was eleven. He continued to live with his grand-
mother until he was sixteen years old, and in the
meanwhile attended the public schools at Martinsville.
Leaving school at the age of sixteen, he went to Cin-
cinnati. Ohio, where he found employment with the
Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and first worked in the
roundhouse. Later he was made a fireman, and still
later an engineer, his run taking him out of Cincinnati.
In 1912 he had the distinction of running the first
engine over the Shelby branch of the Baltimore &
Ohio, this trip taking four days for a distance of four
miles, as his train was doing construction work. Later
Mr. Burpo went into coal production, and had charge
of the construction and opening of the Adamson
mine, September 8, 19^0, and he is now president of
the company controlling and handling its produce. He
is also the owner of an orange grove at Fort Pierce,
Florida. In addition to his other duties Mr. Burpo is
still taking his run on the Shelby branch, and is one
of the most reliable men in the employ of the road.
On December 23, 1914, Mr. Burpo was united in
marriage with Miss Eunice, a daughter of George M.
Hackney, of Fort Pierce, Florida. Mr. and Mrs. Burpo
have one son, Howard L., Jr. Mr. Burpo belongs to
the Methodist Episcopal Church, but his wife is a
Baptist, and both of them are interested in the im-
provement of the moral standards of their community.
Fraternally Mr. Burpo is a Thirty-second Degree Ma-
son, maintaining membership with the Consistory at
Covington, Kentucky. He also belongs to the Blue
Lodge at Cincinnati, Ohio; the Chapter at Jenkins,
and the Mystic Shrine at Ashland, Kentucky. A re-
publican, Mr. Burpo is deeply interested in the suc-
cess of his party and takes a very active part in civic
affairs. A practical man, he knows how to handle
the various problems which arise, especially in com-
munity work, and his fellow citizens have come to
look to him for guidance in many matters for they
know that he keeps himself well informed and that
his judgment is excellent.
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
33
Hon. Ferdinand Thomas Hatcher. Still a young-
man, with the best years of his career before him,
Hon. Ferdinand Thomas Hatcher, president of the
Day and Night National Bank of Pikeville, and from
January, 1916, to January, 1920, a member of the Ken-
tucky State Board of Control, has achieved a success
that" might well be envied by many individuals, even
after a full life of earnest effort. Mr. Hatcher, who is
popularly and familiarly known as "Tom" Hatcher
throughout the community, was b rn at I ikcville, Jan-
uary 31, 1880, and is a son of Ferdinand C. and Jane
(Mayo) Hatcher, natives of this state and members of
families long identified prominently with Kentucky
affairs.
The Hatcher family was founded in Kentucky in
1800, when James G. Hatcher migrated to this state
from Virginia and settled at the mouth of Mud Creek,
where he spent the rest of his life as a store-keeper
and farmer. His son, Ferdinand C. Hatcher, who was
born in Floyd County, Kentucky, in 1848, followed in
his father's footsteps and was engaged in agriculture
and merchandising in Floyd County until 1879, in which
year he came to Pike County and settled at Pikeville.
Here he continued his activities as a merchant and tiller
of the soil, and rounded out a long and honorable
career, passing away December 31, 191 1. His public
services included his capable discharge of the duties
of deputy county clerk of Pike County, and for one
term he also served in the office of county clerk. In
politics he was a stalwart democrat, and his fraternal
affiliation was with the Masonic Blue Lodge at Pres-
tonsburg, Kentucky. He belonged to the Methodist
Church, South, which is also the faith of Mrs.
Hatcher, who was born in 1848, in Floyd County, and
who survives him as a resident of Pikeville. They
were the parents of nine children, of whom seven are
living, all being residents of Pike County. _
Ferdinand Thomas Hatcher received his education
in the public schools of Pikeville, and even as a youth
displayed a marked predilection for public affairs. He
was only eighteen years of age when he was made
deputy county clerk of Pike County, and from that
time to the present has been known as an earnest
worker and a constantly growing influence in the
ranks of the democratic party. He served as deputy
county clerk for six years, and subsequently was com-
missioner of the County Court, under Judge Roberson.
In the meantime, for years he was engaged in buy-
ing land and abstracting titles of the Northern Coal
and Coke Company, and eventually became one of the
organizers of the Day and Night National Bank of
Pikeville, of which he is president, and in the suc-
cess of which he has played a leading part. Mr.
Hatcher is also president of the Pikeville Bottling
Company, and has various other interests. A man of
sound judgment, foresight and acumen, he possesses
the ability of instantly recognizing opportunities and
readily grasping them, but his transactions have ever
been carried through in an honorable and straightfor-
ward manner, and his standing in the confidence of
his associates and the general public is of the highest.
During the four years that he served as a member of
the Kentucky State Board of Control, he labored con-
scientiously and with effect in behalf of the interests
of his fellow-citizens and his native state, thereby
adding to a reputation for public-spirited and con-
structive citizenship.
On February 12, 1902, Mr. Hatcher was united in
marriage with Miss Delia L. Leslie, daughter of Jack
Leslie, of Pikeville, and to this union there have been
born two children : Jack L. and Julia Virginia. Mr
and Mrs. Hatcher are consistent members of the Meth-
odist Church, South, in which Mr. Hatcher is serving
as a member of the board of trustees and the board
of stewards. He is a Mason of high standing and a
Noble of the Mystic Shrine at Ashland, Kentucky.
He has friends throughout the state and well-wishers
in every community in which he is known.
Burton Egbert Wyman. A native of Graves
County, Burton Egbert Wyman after a number of
years of business connections with Paducah has re-
turned to his native county and is cashier of the Bank
of Lowes. He is one of the active men in the man-
agement of this well-known financial institution, and
is a citizen always ready to work for the welfare of
his community.
Mr. Wyman was born at Lowes, February 20, 1882.
He comes of an old Kentucky family. His great-
grandfather, Adam Wyman, was born in Germany
and was five years old when his parents came to this
country and settled in Kentucky. He lived for many
years in Meade County, where Milton Wyman, grand-
father of the Lowes banker, was born. Milton Wy-
man at an early day moved to Graves County. He
combined with farming an active interest in the Bap-
tist Church, as a circuit rider and preacher. He died
in Graves County many years ago. His wife was a
member of the Thorpe family of Meade County.
Thomas D. Wyman, father of Burton E., was born in
Graves County in 1855, and has spent his active life
as a farmer. He moved to the Lowes community in
1875, and is still living there. He has been deeply
interested in the church in which he was reared, the
Baptist, and for many years has been a deacon. Po-
litically he casts his vote independently. Thomas D.
Wyman married Susan Virgin, who was born in
Graves County in 1855, and she and her husband re-
side at Lowes. They had a large family of ten chil-
dren : Wilbur, a traveling salesman with home at
louesboro, Arkansas; Ernest L., a farmer at Lowes;
Edwin, a farmer at Guthrie, Kentucky; Birdie, wife
of Will Ford, a traveling salesman with home at
Mayfield ; Burton E. ; Vonie, wife of Dr. I. C. Young,
a physician and farmer at Hickman, Kentucky ; Elyer
M., cashier of the Bank of Lovelaceville in Ballard
County; Myrtle, wife of V. Allen, who is connected
with a transfer company at Paducah; Leta, wife of
R. L. Bishop, assistant cashier of the First National
Bank at Paducah ; and Ferrell, who lives with her
parents at Lowes.
Burton E. Wyman acquired a public school educa-
tion in his native village, and later spent a year in
the Southern Normal University at Bowling Green,
one term in the Hall Moody Institute at Martin, Ten-
nessee, and was in the Southern Normal University at
Huntingdon, Tennessee, until 1903.
On leaving college Mr. Wyman located at Paducah,
where for three years he was clerk in the transpor-
tation department of the West Kentucky Coal Com-
pany, for three years was bookkeeper for the Rhodes-
Burford Furniture Company, for a similar period was
bookkeeper with the Paducah Brewing Company, and
for two years was bookkeeper and confidential man
for M. Michael & Brothers.
December 1, 1919, Mr. Wyman came to Lowes as
cashier of the Bank of Lowes. The president of this
institution is T. H. Barriger and the vice president,
J. E. Breckinridge. The bank, located on the main street
of Lowes, has a capital of $15,000, surplus and profits
of $10,000, and average deposits of $125,000.
Mr. Wyman is a member of the State Bankers
Association. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Inde-
pendent Order of Odd Fellows and the Improved Or-
der of Red Men. He married at Paducah in Septem-
ber, 191 1, Miss Alma E. Adams, daughter of Mr.
and Mrs. C. L. Adams, the latter deceased. Her
father is now living at Los Angeles. Mr. and Mrs.
Wyman have two daughters, Dorothy, born October 4,
1912, and Susan, born October 15, 1915.
W. F. Peebles, M. D. Accepted by his associates
and fellow citizens as one of the skilled and depend-
34
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
able physicians and surgeons of Hickman County, Dr.
W. F. Peebles, of Clinton, holds an enviable position
in his profession and community. He is a Kentuck-
ian by birth, having been born near Milburn, Carlisle
County, this state, September 13, 1877, a son of John
S. Peebles, and grandson of John Peebles, a native of
Virginia. His father, the great-grandfather of Doc-
tor Peebles, was a soldier in the American Revolution
from Virginia, in which colony his ancestors had set-
tled when they came to this country from Scotland.
John Peebles served as a soldier during the War of
1812, at its close returning to Virginia and continuing
to live there until 1838, when he migrated to Carlisle
County, Kentucky, and there became a very success-
ful farmer and man of affairs. He was married to
Mary Frazier, a native of Virginia. His death oc-
curred in Carlisle County before his grandson was
born.
John S. Peebles was born at Cynthiana, Kentucky,
in 1834, and he is still living, making his home at
Paducah, Kentucky. His parents located in what is
now Carlisle County, but was then Ballard County,
Kentucky, in 1838, and there he was reared, educated
and married, and there he resided for many years.
Later on in life, after having been eminently success-
ful as a farmer, he went to Arkansas and lived at
Pine Bluff, that state, for six years and then moved
to Paducah. In him the democratic party has a stanch
supporter. A man of religious tendencies, he has
always been an earnest and effective member of the
Methodist Episcopal Church. During the war between
the North and the South he espoused the cause of the
latter section and enlisted in the Third Kentucky In-
fantry, C. S. A., and when his regiment was shot to
pieces he was transferred to General Forrest's cav-
alry, with which organization he remained for two
years, or until the close of the war, when he returned
home and resumed the occupations of private life,
and in spite of the hardships and discouragements of
reconstruction days was able to achieve a more than
ordinary success. He was married to Sallie Ferguson,
born in Kentucky in 1839. She died at Milburn, Ken-
tucky, September 16, 1877, having borne her husband
the following children : Jeff, who lives at Banks, Ar-
kansas, is foreman of a railroad crew on the Yazoo
& Mississippi Valley Railroad; Mollie, who married
Jack Wilkerson, a farmer of Graves County, Kentucky,
resides near Hickory Grove, that county; Thomas, who
was a mechanic and woodworker, died in December,
1918, at Pine Bluff, Arkansas ; Fannie, who married
John Graves, a farmer of Carlisle County, Kentucky;
Samuel, who is a farmer of Graves County, Ken-
tucky; Scytha, who died in infancy; Ora, who mar-
ried George Graves, a carpenter and builder, lives at
Bardwell, Kentucky ; and Doctor Peebles, who was the
youngest born.
Doctor Peebles attended the rural schools of Graves
and Carlisle counties, and was reared by his aunt,
Mrs. Mary Killough, from the time he was three days
old. Later on he attended Clinton College at Clinton,
Kentucky, and then entered the Hospital College of
Medicine at Louisville, Kentucky, and was graduated
therefrom in 1905, with the degree of Doctor of
Medicine. Immediately thereafter he began the prac-
tice of his profession at Springhill, Hickman County,
where he remained until January, 1918, when he went
into the service of his country during its participa-
tion in the great war. He had enlisted in June, 191 7,
in the medical corps, but was not called until January
of the following year, at which time he was commis-
sioned a first lieutenant and sent to the training camp
at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia. After six weeks there
he went to Garden City, Long Island, and remained
there until July 15, 1918, when he went overseas and
landed in England. He was first at Camp Flower-
down, near Winchester, for a few days, and then for
fifteen days was at Rendcomb Aerodrome. From there
he went to Northhold, near London. He was returned
to the United States, December 11, 1918, and was mus-
tered out at Camp Taylor, January 9, 1919, as first
lieutenant. On August I, 1919, he established himself
in a general medical and surgical practice at Clinton,
with offices in the Clinton Bank Building, and in addi-
tion to the duties pertaining to his private practice he
is serving as county physician for Hickman County.
As a member of the Hickman County Medical Society,
the Kentucky State Medical Society and the Kentucky
Southwestern Medical Association he keeps abreast
with the advance made in his profession. In politics
he is a democrat. He is a member and steward of the
Methodist Episcopal Church. A Mason, he belongs to
Springfield Lodge No. 574, A. F. & A. M.
On May 30, 1908, Doctor Peebles was married first
to Miss Erne Caldwell at Springhill, Kentucky. She
was a daughter of James and Mary (Chester) Cald-
well. Mrs. Caldwell is deceased, but Mr. Caldwell sur-
vives and lives at Springhill, where he has farming
interests. Mrs. Peebles died December 18, 1910, leav-
ing one daughter, Effie, who was born December 15,
1910. On March 20, 1912, Doctor Peebles married
Miss Ada Avey at Columbus, Kentucky. She is a
daughter of John Avey, a merchant of Columbus,
Kentucky, who is now deceased, as is his wife, who
was a Miss Miller before her marriage. Mrs. Peebles
is a skilled musician in both vocal and instrumental
music, and was graduated in her art from one of the
leading conservatories. Doctor and Mrs. Peebles have
one son, Richard, who was born March 16, 1913.
As one of the men of his profession public-spirited
enough to sacrifice personal interests to a sense of
duty and intense loyalty, Doctor Peebles is entitled
to the confidence and support of his fellow citizens.
In the stress of the days following the signing of the
armistice the people of this country hove to a certain
extent neglected to give open expression to the grati-
tude which is at heart entertained for the men, who
beyond the draft age and with home needs holding
them back, went into the service and ministered to the
soldiers, saving many thousands of young lives and
healing the wounds of the stricken. When the Ameri-
can people are a little further away from the numb-
ing effects of the great conflict they will awaken to
their duty toward the returned service men and ren-
der to them the appreciation which they have so richly
earned and to which they are certainly entitled.
Roy P. Clark. Recognizing the fact that business is
the very life blood of national health and prosperity,
Roy P. Clark, one of the successful business men of
Hickman, is doing his part to promote the welfare
of his locality as secretary, treasu-er and general
manager of the Hickman Milling and Feed Company,
Incorporated. He was born in Fulton County, Ken-
tucky, April 27, 1880, a son of Alonzo P. Clark, and
grandson of Obadiah Clark. The latter died in Ful-
ton County, Kentucky, in 1882, and there his wife,
Mrs. Helen (Tyler) Clark, also died. They were
farming people who came to Fulton County at an
early day.
Alonzo P. Clark was born in Fulton County in 1850,
and died at Oakton, Hickman County, in 1889. He
was reared, educated and married in his native county,
and there he became a farmer and saw-mill owner
and operator. In 1883 he moved to Hickman and re-
mained there the rest of his life. In politics he was
a democrat. Very religious, he found in the creed
of the Missionary Baptist Church the medium for the
expression of his faith and early joined it and re-
mained one of its stanch supporters. He was a Mason.
Alonzo P. Clark was married to Lizzie Adams, who
was born in Fulton County, Kentucky, and died in this
county in 1902. Their children were as follows : C. L.,
who is a merchant of Hickman ; Roy P., whose name
heads this review ; Lizzie Gage, who married Burrus
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
35
Brasfield, is now deceased, but her husband lives at
Dumas, Arkansas ; and L. G., who married C. M. Bras-
field, a farmer of Dumas, Arkansas.
Roy P. Clark attended the rural schools of Fulton
County, and added to his store of knowledge by taking
a commercial course at Draughon's Business College
of Nashville, Tennessee, from which he was graduated
in September, igoi. For the next sixteen years he
was engaged in farming in Hickman County, Ken-
tucky, and then sold his farm and bought the flour
and feed mill owned by E. E. Reeves at Hickman and
organized the Hickman Milling and Feed Company,
Incorporated, with the following officials: H. C. Helm,
president ; A. J. Walker, vice president, and Roy P.
Clark, secretary, treasurer and general manager. The
capacity of the plant is fifty barrels per day. The
mills are located near the Chicago, Memphis &; Gulf
Railroad tracks. Like his father, Mr. Clark is a
democrat and a member of the Missionary Baptist
Church. Fraternally he belongs to Elm Camp No. 3,
W. O. W. He owns a modern residence just at the
edge of the city on the south side, where he has a
comfortable home and spacious grounds.
In 1907 Mr. Clark married at Hickman, Kentucky,
Miss Louise Warren Rogers, a daughter of J. W. and
Lou (Cowgill) Rogers, residents of Hickman, where
Mr. Rogers is living in retirement, although formerly
he was one of the leading merchants of the city. Mrs.
Clark was educated at Hickman College, of which
she is a graduate. Mr. and Mrs. Clark became the
parents of three children, namely : John Newlin, who
was born December 20, 1912; Adrian Louise, who was
born in August, 1914; and Tansil, who was born in
1917. Mr. Clark not only possesses experience and
business ability, but the will and resourcefulness which
bring about gratifying results. He stands well with
his associates and competitors, and is recognized as
being one of the men of moment not only at Hick-
man but throughout Fulton County.
Edward Thomas Bullock, district counsel for the
Mobile & Ohio Railroad, is one of the leading corpora-
tion lawyers of Hickman County, and a representa-
tive citizen of Clinton. He was born at Hickman, Ken-
tucky, September 13, 1847, a son of E. I. Bullock, and
a member of one of the old established families of the
country, the Bullocks having come to the American
Colonies from England long before the Revolution and
settled in Virginia.
E. I. Bullock was born in Culpeper County, Virginia,
in 1808, and died at Columbus, Kentucky, in 1883.
He was graduated from William and Mary College at
Lynchburg, Virginia. In 1841 he was married at Jim-
town, Kentucky, where he had located in 1840, and
established himself as a lawyer and surveyor of public
lands, but left Jimtown for Mill's Point, as Hickman
was then called, and was there engaged in the practice
of his profession until 1855, when he moved to Clinton.
There he remained for two years, and then, in 1857,
moved to Columbus, Kentucky, where he continued in
an active practice until his death. He was a democrat,
and was honored by his party, serving as attorney of
Fulton County for one term, being the first to hold
that office, and he was circuit judge of the First Judi-
cial District and a member of the committee that re-
vised the statute laws of Kentucky, then called the
general statutes, but now called the Kentucky statutes.
During President Buchanan's administration he was
United States attorney, and discharged every obligation
laid upon him with dignified capability. All of his ma-
ture years he was a communicant of the Episcopal
Church, and was a very strong churchman. He was also
a Mason. His landed property interests were heavy.
In every way he measured up to the highest standards
of manhood and good citizenship. E. I. Bullock was
married to Maria Emerson, who was born in Cum-
berland County, Kentucky, in 1810, and died near
Columbus, Kentucky, in 1880. Their children were as
follows : Maria, who married R. W. Walker, an attor-
ney, now deceased, resides at Clinton, Kentucky, where
she is held in high respect. John M., who died at
Hickman, Kentucky, was an attorney of note, although
only twenty-four years old at the time of his demise.
Hettie, who was married first to Col. M. B. Harris,
an attorney, who died at Clinton, Kentucky, a colonel
of the Twelfth Mississippi Infantry, C. S. A., wounded
in 1865 and never recovered. She was subsequently
married to Richard Sneed, a farmer, who died at Jack-
son, Tennessee, and she was then married to William
Hall, a farmer and extensive landowner, now de-
ceased. Edward Thomas was fourth in order of
birth. Pinkie, who is the widow of John G. Samuels,
of Bardstown, Kentucky, a farmer, and at one time
sheriff of Nelson County, Kentucky, resides at Clin-
ton, Kentucky. Mary is the widow of Kit Rudd, a
steamboat and railroad man, and resides at Greenville,
Mississippi, during the winters and at New York City,
New York, during the summer months.
Edward Thomas Bullock attended the rural schools
of Hickman County, Kentucky, and then entering the
State University of Missouri at Columbia, Missouri,
was graduated therefrom in 1867. He then read law
in the office of L. D. Husband at Paducah, Kentucky,
and was admitted to the bar in 1868, beginning his
practice at Paducah and remaining in that city for
three years. He then moved to Columbus, Kentucky,
where he remained until 1881, continuing his prac-
tice, but in that year came to Clinton, and has con-
tinued to reside in this city ever since. His offices
are located on Clay Street, in the postoffice building.
Mr. Bullock is district counsel for the Mobile & Ohio
Railroad, with jurisdiction all over the State of Ken-
tucky, and is now police judge of Clinton, which
office he has held for the past eight years. He is
a stanch democrat in his political affiliations. The
Methodist Episcopal Church holds his membership,
and he is very active in church work, having been
a delegate to the district conference held at Lone Oak
Kentucky, in 1920. He belongs to the Clinton Bar
Association, and is now its president. The family
residence is at 117 Washington Street, and Mr. Bul-
lock is a property owner in Columbus, Kentucky.
He took a very active part in all of the local war
activities, including the Red Cross and Liberty Loan
drives, and was one of the most effective of the "Four
Minute Men," making speeches all over Hickman
County.
In 1871 Mr. Bullock was married at Princeton, Ken-
tucky, to Miss Bettie Pettit, a daughter of Mr. and
Mrs. Thomas Pettit, both of whom are deceased. Mrs.
Bullock died at Columbus, Kentucky, in 1873, leav-
ing one son, E. T., Jr., who lives at Louisville, Ken-
tucky, where he is connected with the Avery Manu-
facturing Company. In 1891 Mr. Bullock was mar-
ried at Clinton, Kentucky, to Mrs. Delia (Cobb) Reid,
born at Hickman, Kentucky, and they have one daugh-
ter, Delia, who married H. D. Hendren, editor of the
Hickman County Gazette. Mr. and Mrs. Hendren are
residents of Clinton, Kentucky.
Mr. Bullock comes of sturdy and religious stock,
and inherits from his forebears a high character and
decisive ideas about the duties of a citizen. He is
upright in his principles, practical in his methods,
and an authority in matters of law. On the bench he
is noted for his practicality, and his judgments are
almost without exception sustained by the higher
courts. His originality of thought, his independence
of action, and his fearlessness in defending his posi-
tion on any subject and in advocating the principles
for which he stands have won for him the confidence,
the admiration and respect of both his political friends
and foes. As a corporation lawyer he has few peers,
and in his connections with one of the great railroads
of the state he has opportunity to utilize to the utmost
36
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
the knowledge of this branch of the law which he has
gained through years of study and wide experience.
James Luther Moss. Although now retired from
the strenuous requirements of former years, James
Luther Moss of Clinton is still a representative citi-
zen of Hickman County, and a man whose influence
is felt and recognized. His holdings are extensive,
and he retains stock in several institutions of the city.
The record he made as a business man reflects credit
upon his ability and integrity, and sets a standard for
younger men to follow.
James Luther Moss was born at Greensburg. Ken-
tucky, April IS, 1S47, a son of George B. Moss, and
grandson of Thomas S. Moss, who was a capta.n in
the War of 1812, and a pioneer physician of Greens-
burg, Kentucky, where he died in 1851. He married
Julia C. Bullock, who was born in Green County,
Kentucky, in 1793. and died at Clinton, Kentucky, in
1868. Four of their sons, James W., Luther C,
Thomas E. and William, served in the Confederate
army during the war between the North and the
South. James W. Moss was colonel of the Second
Kentucky Infantry, C. S. A., and was killed at Jones-
boro. Luther C Moss was a lieutenant of a company
in his brother's regiment. Thomas E. was major of
the same regiment, and William H. served as a
private.
George B. Moss was born in Green County, Ken-
lucky, in 1818, and died at a mineral spring resort
in Tennessee in 1882, although he was a resident of
Hickman County, Kentucky, his farm being located
near Columbus. He was reared, educated and mar-
ried in Green County, Kentucky, where he was en-
gaged in business as a mule trader. In 1856 he came
to Hickman County, settling then on the farm he
bought in the vicinity of Columbus, and became one
of the extensive landowners of this region, having
about 600 acres in his homestead. He was a demo-
crat. The Presbyterian Church held his membership,
and he was an elder in it and very active in the
church work. The Masonic fraternity also had in
him a faithful member. George B. Moss was married
to Elizabeth Marshall, who was born in Green County,
Kentucky, in 1823, and died at Greensburg. Kentucky,
in 1847. Their children were as follows: John Luther,
who died in infancy in Green County; and James
Luther, whose name heads this review.
Growing up in his native county, James Luther
Moss attended its schools and those of Hickman
County, and later St. Mary's College of Montreal,
Canada. He was also a student of Bethel College at
Kussellville, Kentucky, but left college when he was
nineteen years of age and returned to the home farm,
and there spent eight years. However, he was too
ambitious to be satisfied to remain a farmer, and so
accepted the appointment which made him deputy clerk
of Hickman County and brought him to Clinton. After
serving as such for a couple of years he was elected
county clerk, and held that responsible office for six-
teen years. In 1896 he took over the machinery sup-
plies and agricultural implement business in which
he had been interested for the preceding ten years
in partnership with his uncle, L. C. Moss, and con-
ducted it until 1809, when he withdrew his capital
from the business. About this time he was made
president of the Clinton Bank, of which he has been
a director since its organization, and served for two
years, and then resigned and retired from active par-
ticipation in business life. He owns one of the finest
modern residences in Clinton, which, is on Washington
Street, and another dwelling in the city as well as a
very valuable farm of 200 acres near Columbus, Ken-
tucky. At one time Mr. Moss belonged to the Odd
Fellows, Knights of Pythias and Knights and Ladies
of Honor, but of late years has withdrawn from these
fraternities.
In 1883 Mr. Moss was united in marriage with Miss
Love Beeler, a daughter of Dr. George and Viola
(Wayne) Beeler, both of whom are now deceased.
Doctor Beeler was the pioneer physician of Clinton,
Kentucky, and was a man widely known and univer-
sally beloved. Mrs. Moss attended Clinton College.
She died in 1892. at San Antonio, Texas, having
borne her husband the following children: Blanche,
who married Jerry R. Johnson, and they live with
her father, Mr. Johnson being actively engaged in
extensive agricultural operations in the county ; and
Jenola, who married Ernest C. Carter, a farmer. Mr.
and Mrs. Carter reside on their farm ij4 miles south-
east of Clinton. During the many years he has lived
at Clinton Mr. Moss has been connected with much
of the constructive work of his community, and while
he was county clerk he made the acquaintance of prac-
tically all the people of Hickman County, and In them
all he is held in high regard, for he earned their re-
spect and confidence for the efficient and dependable
manner in which he discharged the duties ut his
important office.
James C. Prestox, M. D. A very competent physi-
cian and surgeon in Kentucky, who since his reli ase
from duty in the medical corps has practiced at Hel-
lier in Pike County, has chosen as a field for his
professional career a portion of Kentucky with which
his family have been identified for many years.
Doctor Preston was born at Alphoretta in Floyd
County, Kentucky, September 24, 1890, son of M. Lee
and Amanda (Dingus) Preston, the former a native
of Johnson County and the latter of Floyd County.
His father is now sixty-two and his mother titty years
of age, and he is a Methodist while she is a Baptist.
M. Lee Preston has been for many years a practical
farmer, but is widely known in Eastern Kentucky as
a musician and musxal instructor and has taught many
singing classes in the Big Sandy district. His address
is now Smalley Postoffice, or the Town of Martin,
which was built on his farm.
Doctor Preston is one of a family of four sons and
lour daughters. His brother Oscar was in the navy
(luring the World war. Doctor Preston gained h s
early education in the home schools, later began his
medical studies in Valparaiso University in Indiana,
and in 1917 graduated from the Chicago School ot
Medicine and Surgery.
Almost immediately he joined the med'eal corps as
a first lieutenant, was trained at Camp Greenleaf,
Chickamauga, and was in the army service until tne
close of the war. He then chose as the scene of his
professional activities the Town of Hellier where lie
lias an extensive general practice and is also physi-
cian to the Greenough Coal Mine and the Edgewaier
Coal Company. He is a member of the Pike County,
Kentucky State and American Medical association-, 1-
affiliated with Pikeville Lodge of Masons and El I Lisa
Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Ashland, and is a
republican in politics. In 1919 Doctor Preston mar-
ried Miss Mary Douglas Porter, daughter of J. M.
Porter of Prestonsburg, Floyd County.
John S. Cline. Faith in the future of his com-
munity, ability to look ahead and visualize conditions
as they were to be in the coming years, and patience
in waiting for his dreams to materialize have been
important factors in the success of John S. Cline, of
Pikeville. An attorney by profession, Mr. Cline has
traveled far in his chosen calling, but it has been as
an investor in Pike County land that he has found
the greatest measure of material prosperity.
Mr. Cline was born in what is now Mingo County.
West Virginia, near Dolorme, July 10, 1869, a son oi
Perry A. and Martha (Adkins) (."line, a grandson of
Jacob Cline, and a great-grandson of Peter Cline.
Liter ("line came from Eastern Tennessee in I7<m and
sc\
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
37
settled at the mouth of Peter's Creek, named in his
honor, a small stream in the western part of West
Virginia. Perry A. Cline, a noted character in West
Virginia and Eastern Kentucky, was born on a farm
at the mouth of this stream, in 1845, and at one time
was the owner ot the home property, which he traded
for a farm on the west side of the Tug River, in Ken-
tucky. He had the advantages of only about three
months of schooling, but was blessed with good com-
mon sense, and through reading, observation and the
use of his inherent qualities never allowed his early
educational disadvantages to handicap him. He was
elected sheriff of Pike County for two terms and
served capably in that offce from 1876 to 1880, was
school commissioner two terms and a member of the
State Legislature in 1886 and 1887. He then studied
law and was admitted to the bar, but his career was
cut short in 1891, when he was only forty-three years
of age. His widow, a native of Pike County, survived
him until March 2, 1920, and was seventy-three years
of age at the time of her demise. In politics, Perry
A. Cline was a Union democrat. While he was too
young for service at the outbreak of the war between
the states, he was an ardent Union sympathizer, and
his brother served in the Federal Army. Mr. and
Mrs. Cline were the parents of eight children : John S. ;
A. D., a minister of the Methodist Church in Pike
County: Roxana, the wife of P. F. Preston, of Leb-
anon. Ohio; Myra, who died at the age of thirty years
at Pikeville, as the wife of Watt Curnutte ; Ella, the
wife of William A. Richards, of Columbus, Ohio ;
W. O. B., a farmer at Oak Hill, Ohio; Jacob P., an
engineer on the C. & O. Railroad; and Maude, the
wife of W. L. York, of Pikeville.
The early education of John S. Cline was secured
in the public schools of Pikeville, following which he
pursued a course at the Agricultural and Mechanical
College, at Lexington. Having determined upon a
career in the law, he took up the study of that pro-
fession under the preceptorship of his father, and in
1887 was admitted to the bar, after an examination
before the Kentucky Court of Appeals. When Mr.
Cline began his law practice he had for two years as
his partner W. K. Steele, but at the end of that time
the association was dissolved, and Mr. Cline has since
practiced alone. While he is a general practitioner,
much of his law business has ' been identified with
land titles, for this is a field in which he is greatly
interested personally, and has naturally made a close
study of the subject. Mr. Cline belongs to the various
organizations of his calling, and is held in respect by
his fellow-members in the profession, who have always
found him an observer of the highest ethics of the
calling. He is capable, learned and shrewd, and has
a great capacity for industry in his profession, his
success in which has been fairly earned and is well
deserved.
Years ago, even before the possibility of a railroad
had been brought up, Mr. Cline began buying land in
east Kentucky, for the most part coal land. During
the time that he has been thus engaged, it is said that,
at different times, he has owned a greater acreage of
coal property than any other one individual. He had
the vision and patience, could see success at the end
of a long period of time, and was content to wait for
his award. The pioneer in this line of endeavor, he
has continued therein to the present time, and as Pike-
ville has extended its boundaries it has spread con-
stantlv over Cline land. Mr. Cline donated the ground
at Pikeville occupied by Grace Avenue, which was
named in honor of his daughter Grace, who died in
tqi6. at the age of twenty-seven years, as the wife of
William H. Vest, of Lynchburg, Virginia.
In 1891 and 1892 Mr. Cline served as sheriff of Pike
County and made an efficient and conscientious official
in that position, as he did also in the office of county
attorney, which he filled for two terms. He is a mem-
Tol. V— 5
ber of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks,
and a Mason of high standing, being a member of the
Commandery at Ashland, as well as a noble of the
Mystic Shrine. He and his family are faithful mem-
bers of the Presbyterian Church.
In 1887 Mr. Cline was united in marriage with Miss
Rebecca Scott, daughter of William M. Scott, of Pike-
ville, and of the five children of this union, Grace is
deceased, as before noted, the others being : Octavia,
the wife of J. H. Smith, Jr., of Lynchburg, Virginia;
Thelma, the wife of Sid Trioette, of Pikeville; Gene-
vieve, who is unmarried and resides with her parents;
and John S., Jr., also at home.
W. M. Hays succeeded his deceased brother in the
office of county superintendent of schools of Bell
County, on the 1st of May, 1921, and is most effectively
carrying forward the progressive scholastic and execu-
tive policies initiated by his brother, the while the
excellent success of his administration is being fur-
thered materially by the loyal co-operation of the
Bell County Board of Education and the people of the
county in general. Mr. Hays is a native of Bell
County, where he was born September 13, 1880. His
father, Samuel Hays, was born in Claiborne County,
Tennessee, in 1856, and there was reared and educated.
About the year 1876 he came to Kentucky and estab-
lished his residence on a farm on Straight Creek,
Bell County, where he continued as one of the exten-
sive and successful exponents of farm industry until
1909, when he removed to his present well improved
farm, near Barbourville, Knox County. He is a man
of progressiveness and broad views, and has brought
to bear in his farming operations a large measure of
energy and good judgment, with the result that sub-
stantial success has attended his well-directed activi-
ties. He is a loyal supporter of the principles of the
republican party, is affiliated with the Junor Order of
United American Mechanics, and both he and his
wife are earnest members of the Baptist Church.
Mrs. Hays, whose maiden name was Alice Hendrick-
son, was born in Bell County, in 1861, and in this
county her marriage was solemnized. Of the children
W. M., of this review, is the eldest ; R. B., who had
been a popular teacher in the schools of Bell and
Knox counties, Kentucky, died at Boulder, Colorado,
in 1917; Alvers died at the age of nine months; John,
who died at Ashbury, North Carolina, March 16,
1920, was at the time county superintendent of schools
for Bell County, Kentucky, a position to which he was
elected in November, 1917, by the largest majority
ever accorded a candidate for this office in the county,
he having been previously a specially successful teacher
in the public schools of his native county, and his
administration having been notably successful, while
his fine attributes of character made his untimely
death a cause of deep regret in his home county;
Mattie is the wife of Charles G. Cole, who is engaged
in the wholesale grocery business at Barbourville,
Knox County; and Marcellus J. remains at the parental
home.
The rural schools of Bell County gave to W. M.
Hays his preliminary education, and thereafter he con-
tinued his studies in Williamsburg Institute, now
known as Cumberland College, at Williamsburg, Whit-
ley County, until 1907, though, at the age of eighteen
years, he had initiated his successful career as a
teacher in the rural schools of his native county. His
effective service as a teacher in the public schools
of Bell County covered a period of twenty-one con-
secutive years, and from the second year of his work
he held a first-grade certificate. When his brother
John died and left a vacancy in the office of county
superintendent of schools Mr. Hays was recognized as
a most logical successor in this important office, to
which he was appointed May 21, 1921, to fill out the
unexpired term which ends in January, 1922. So
38
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
well is he discharging his official duties and co-ordi-
nating the educational work of the Bell County schools
that his re-election to office will virtually be a mat-
ter of his own acceptance of renomination. On ac-
count of the illness of his brother, the regular incum-
bent, he assumed full charge of the office in August,
1920, and thus his record had been well established
when he was formally appointed as successor of his
brother.
Mr. Hays is a republican in political allegiance, he
and his wife are members of the Baptist Church. He
is affiliated with and is past chancellor of Mountain
Lodge No. 189, Knights of Pythias, at Arjay, Bell
County, in which village he maintains his home, though
his official headquarters as county superintendent of
schools are in the courthouse at Pineville. At Blanche,
this county, he is a member and past sachem of
Delaware Tribe No. 157, Improved Order of Red
Men ; and in his home village he is affiliated with
Evening Star Council, Daughters of America, as is
also his wife, and with Arjay Council No. 233, Junior
Order of United American Mechanics, of which he
has served as recording secretary since 1917. He is
an active member of the Kentucky Educational Asso-
ciation, is a stockholder in the Bell National Bank at
Pineville, and in addition to his official service he is
engaged in business as a broker in real estate and
government bonds. He ascribes great credit to the
members of the Bell County Board of Education for
the successful and progressive work being accom-
plished in the schools of the county, the members of
this board, in addition to himself, being as here desig-
nated: W. T. Robbins, of Wasioto; M. F. Knuckles,
of Beverly; J. C. Hembree, of Tinsley; J. W. Par-
sons, of Calloway; and Chesley Thompson, of Calvin.
In the various works in support of the nation's
war activities in connection with the great World war
Mr. Hays was active and loyal in patriotic service in
the various campaigns in his home county, where
he helped in all of the drives for the sale of Govern-
ment war bonds and savings stamps, besides making
his personal subscriptions as liberal as his available
resources permitted.
In Claiborne County, Tennessee, in the year 1910,
was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Hays to Miss
Katherine Howard, daughter of F. B. and Hannah
(Smith) Howard, the former of whom died on his
farm near Clear Creek Springs, Bell Count}', Kentucky,
where his widow still maintains her home. Mr. and
Mrs. Hays have one son, William Curtis, who was
born November 23, 1915.
William Hays, grandfather of W. M. Hays, was
born in Tennessee, in 1833, and became a pioneer far-
mer in Claborne County, that state. He represented
Tennessee as a gallant soldier of the Union in the
Civil war. In later years he was for twenty years a
resident of the west, having passed a portion of the
period in Kansas and California, and the closing years
of his life having been spent near Barbourville, Knox
County, Kentucky, where he died in 1916. His wife,
whose maiden name was Laura Dodson, was a native
of Tennessee and died in the City of Topeka, Kansas,
her ancestors having come from Ireland to America
in the Colonial days, and the Hays family, of English
lineage, having been founded in North Carolina in the
Colonial period of our national history, representatives
of later generations having been pioneers in both Ten-
nessee and Kentucky, as previous statements in this
context duly intimate.
Cumpton I. Mahurin is one of the prominent old
residents of Webster County, long identified with the
farming interests of that section and now carrying the
important responsibilities of county sheriff.
Mr. Mahurin was born in Grayson County, Ken-
tucky. November 22, 1872, a son of Joel H. and Mary
(Edwards) Mahurin, of a prominent and well known
family of Grayson County, where his father was
also born. His paternal grandfather came to Ken-
tucky from Virginia. Joel H. Mahurin spent his
active life as a farmer and died in 1885. His brother,
Isaac Dean Mahurin, was at one time sheriff of
Grayson County. The maternal grandfather of Sheriff
Mahurin was William Edwards. Sheriff Mahurin's
maternal grandmother is one of the oldest women in
Kentucky at this writing, being 101 years of age.
Cumpton I. Mahurin grew up on his father's farm
and acquired a common school education. He was
one of a family of ten children, five of whom reached
mature years. When he was seventeen he started
out to battle life alone, coming to Webster county in
1889. His first employment here was as a farm hand,
and after several years he married and began farm-
ing for himself, his hard work and good manage-
ment keeping him steadily in the road of progress
until he had acquired a good farm of his own, and he
is still interested in the practical side of farming so
far as his official duties permit.
Mr. Mahurin was elected sheriff in 1917 on the demo-
cratic ticket. His qualifications for that office were
well known, since for four years he had been deputy
sheriff under L. B. Vaughn. Mr. Mahurin is affiliated
with the Masonic Order, Independent Order of Odd
Fellows and is a member of the Methodist Church.
In 1892 he married Alice V. Coffman, who died in
1916, leaving five children. In 1919 Mr. Mahurin mar-
ried Miss Naomi Mayme Shown, of Hartford, Ken-
tucky. She had for several years been a popular
teacher in the Dixon schools.
Leslie L. Hindman. Brilliant in intellect, noble in
character, great in high aims and lofty purposes, Les-
lie L. Hindman, county attorney of Hickman County,
is one of the leading attorneys of this part of Ken-
tucky, and a dependable citizen of Clinton, where he
has other interests outside of his profession. He is
logical in thought, clear in expression, and courageous -
in following his convictions. Responsive to the popu-
lar will, he is, nevertheless, honest with himself and
true to his settled convictions of duty, and is an ideal
official, loyal to his constituents, faithful to his trust,
able and fearless in expressing and advocating his
views, and devoted to those policies which he believes
to be for the good of all.
Leslie L. Hindman was born in Hickman County,
Kentucky, January 30, 1882, a son of James M. Hind-
man, grandson of Mark Hindman, and a member of
one of the old-established families of the country.
The Hindman family originated in Scotland, from
whence its representatives came to America at an early
day in its history. Mark Hindman was born in Hick-
man County, Kentucky, in 1822, and died in Missis-
sippi County, Missouri, in 1912. He was one of the
prosperous farmers of Hickman County, but when he
retired he moved to Mississippi County, Missouri, and
there rounded out his days in ease and comfort. Dur-
ing the war between the North and the South he
served in the Confederate army, and although he par-
ticipated in some of the most bitterly contested bat-
tles of that unhappy conflict, he was spared for many
years of usefulness.
James M. Hindman was born in Hickman County,
:entucky, in 1849, and died near Water Valley, Graves
County, Kentucky, although his home was over the
line in Hickman County. The year of his demise was
1912, the same year of the death of his father. He
was reared in his native county, and spent his entire
life within its confines, and was very successfully en-
gaged in farming. In politics a democrat, he never
swerved in his allegiance to that party. The Metho-
dist Episcopal Church, South, held his membership
and had his active and effective support, for he was a
very religious man. He was married to Susie Hicks,
a native of Hickman County, Kentucky, where she
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
39
was born in 1853. She died in that same county in
1880, having borne her husband the following children :
M. L., who died in June, 1920, was a farmer of
Graves County, Kentucky; and Edward, who lives at
Dallas, Texas, is a traveling salesman. After the death
of his first wife James M. Hindman married Frances
Walker, who resides on the home farm in Hickman
County, near Walter Valley. She was born in this
county in 1856. By his second marriage James M.
Hindman became the father of the following children:
Leslie L., whose name heads this review ; Ernest, who
lives on the old farm in Hickman County with his
mother; Ina, who married J. H. Stephens, a farmer
of Clinton, Kentucky; Ella, who married B. O. Walker,
a farmer of Beelerton, Hickman County, Kentucky ;
and Lewis, who is employed in an automobile plant at
Detroit, Michigan.
Leslie L. Hindman attended the rural schools of his
native county, and then became a student of the State
College at Lexington, Kentucky, now known as the
State University, and completed the sophomore year
in the literary course, but left that institution in
1902 and for the subsequent five years was engaged
in teaching school in Hickman County. Having saved
the necessary money, he entered Cumberland Univer-
sity Law Department, at Lebanon, Tennessee, and was
graduated therefrom in 1907, with the degree of Doc-
tor of Laws. That same year he entered upon the
practice of his profession at Clinton, and built a
valuable connection in civil and criminal practice. He
is a democrat, and has several times been his party's
choice for local offices. For one term he was city
judge of Clinton, and then, in November, 1913, was
elected county attorney, taking office in January, 1914.
After four years he was re-elected to succeed him-
self, in 191 7, and is the present incumbent of the office.
He is to be found in the courthouse. Mr. Hindman
owns a modern residence on Washington Street, which
is recognized to be the best in the city. It was com-
pleted in 1920 and is equipped with all conveniences
and comforts, and the house is surrounded by large,
beautifully kept grounds. He also owns a farm in
Hickman County, and is secretary and treasurer of the
Federal Land Bank of Louisville, Kentucky.
In 1912 Mr. Hindman was married at Paducah, Ken-
tucky, to Miss Ruby Samuel, a daughter of Reuben
T. and Ida CWellingham) Samuel, both of whom are
deceased. Mr. Samuel was one of the early agricul-
turalists of Hickman County, Kentucky. Mr. and Mrs.
Hindman have no children.
Mr. Hindman belongs to Clinton Lodge. I. O. O. F.,
of which he is a past grand ; to Mayflower Camp,
W. O. W. ; and to Cameo Camp, M. W. A. Profes-
sionally he is a member of the Hickman County Bar
Association, which he is now serving as secretary and
treasurer. Although in the very prime of useful man-
hood, Mr. Hindman has traveled far on the road to
success, and, judging the future by the past, other
honors without doubt lie in store for him, as his con-
stituents recognize his ability and fidelity and feel that
their interests will be safeguarded if placed in his
capable hands.
Michael Bohan is one of the older residents of
the Town of Burlington in Hopkins County, was for
a number of years in the railroad service, both as
engineer and conductor, but about twenty years ago
established himself in a small way as a merchant and
has made his business grow and prosper with the pass-
ing of time until he has one of the best appointed
and best patronized stores in Hopkins County.
Mr. Bohan was born in Springfield, Tennessee, Au-
gust 8, i860. His father Michael Bohan was born in
Cork, Ireland, in 1811, married his first wife in Ire-
land and they came to this country and settled at
Springfield, Tennessee. He spent many years in rail-
road service. He was employed in the railway station
at Springfield and while there he enlisted and served
in the Confederate army with a Tennessee regiment.
He was all through the war. In 1871 he moved to
Gallatin, Tennessee, continuing as a railroad man, and
in 1878 came to Earlington, after which he lived prac-
tically retired until his death in 1893. He was a demo-
crat and a faithful Catholic. By his first wife he
had one son, Dennis, who for many years was con-
nected with circus organizations and died at Earling-
ton. Michael Bohan, Sr., married for his second wife
Honora Shey, who was born in County Kerry, Ire-
land, in 1833, and died in Earlington, Kentucky, in
1908. Her children were five in number : James who
died at Springfield, Tennessee, at the age of nine
years ; Dan, a railway employe who died at Sebree,
Kentucky, in 1884; Michael, Jr.; Cornelius, a railway
engineer living at Earlington ; and John, who died at
Springfield, Tennessee, in childhood.
Michael Bohan, Jr., acquired some education in pri-
vate schools in Springfield, Tennessee, but the neces-
sities of the family were such that he early had to get
out and make his own way and the best part of his
education has come from reading, experience, and
unceasing contact with men and affairs during a busy
lifetime. He was practically earning his own living
when only ten years of age as a mule driver during
the construction of a railroad grade. He worked
at that two years, then became a section hand at
Prospect, Tennessee, and before he gave up that work
five years later had achieved the responsibilities of
section foreman. Coming to Earlington in 1878 Mr.
Bohan found employment in the local railway shops,
later earned a run as a locomotive fireman, and even-
tually became a locomotive engineer with the Louis-
ville and Nashville Railway. For a time he had a
run as an engineer for the Southern Railroad between
Chattanooga and Atlanta. He finally gave up his posi-
tion at the throttle of an engine to work up to an-
other line of railroading, beginning as a brakeman
with the Louisville and Nashville, and in the meantime
returning to Earlington in 1893. After three years as
brakeman he was promoted to freight conductor, and
continued in the railroad service in that capacity until
1901.
In that year Mr. Bohan made his modest start as a
local merchant at Earlington, and has enjoyed a stead-
ily increasing patronage. He owns both the store
and the store building at Railroad and Clark streets
and has much other local property including his home.
Mr. Bohan, who has never married, is a democrat in
politics, member of the Catholic Church, and is af-
filiated with Henderson Council of the Knights of
Columbus. To the extent of his influence and abili-
ties he assisted all the local committees in raising funds
and prosecuting other war activities and is a citizen
of stanch Americanism.
Joseph Carlyle Carter is one of the prominent
lawyers of the Mayfield bar, whose work, based on
sound talents and liberal education, has brought him
a measure of success promising a broad career of pro-
fessional and public usefulness.
Mr. Carter was born at Dukedom, Tennessee, Janu-
ary 3, 1893. He has Revolutionary ancestors. The
Carters were Scotch-Irish and were Coionial settlers in
North Carolina. His grandfather, Isaiah Carter, was
a native of North Carolina, an early settler and farmer
in Weakley County, Tennessee, and left his farm
to volunteer in the Confederate army and died on the
battlefield. He married Martha Jones, who was born
in Tennessee and is still living, in Weakley County, at
the age of eighty-five. M. L. Carter, father of the
Mayfield attorney, was born in Weakley County in
1858, was reared and married in that section of Ten-
nessee, was a successful merchant at Dukedom a num-
ber of years, and from 1900 continued his merchan-
dising at Mayfield until he retired in 1919. He is a
40
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
democrat in politics. M. L. Carter married Sallie Ann
Williams, who was born in Graves County, Kentucky.
They have two children, Jean and Joseph C, neither
of whom is married, and both living with their parents
on South Seventh Street. Jean is a graduate of West
Kentucky College.
Joseph C. Carter attended public school at Mayfield,
West Kentucky College, the Union City Training
School in Tennessee, and finished his liberal and pro-
fessional education in the University of Kentucky at
Lexington. He spent three years in the academic de-
partment and three years in the law course, receiving
his LL. B. degree in 1915. He is a member of the
Sigma Nu college fraternity and the Mystic Thirteen
College Society.
Mr. Carter began practice in 191 5 at Mayfield, in
the office of Robbins & Robbins, and the following
year was appointed assistant county attorney. In the
fall of 1917 he was elected city attorney, and has per-
formed the duties of that responsible office since Jan-
uary, 1918. On November I, 191S, he joined the Cen-
tral Officers' Training School at Camp Zachary Taylor,
Louisville, to train in the Field Artillery, but was mus-
tered out December 31, 1918. Mr. Carter. is a demo-
crat, a member of the Baptist Church, and is affiliated
with Mayfield Lodge No. 151. Independent Order of
Odd Fellows, and Mayfield Lodge No. 565 of the Elks.
Jerome B. White, mayor of Williamsburg, the judi-
cial center of Whitley County, is giving a most pro-
gressive administration of the municipal affairs of this
thriving little industrial and commercial city of South-
eastern Kentucky and is amply justifying the popular
confidence and esteem which led to his selection for
this office. He is a man of exceptional initiative and
executive ability, and this has been shown not only
in the splendid work which he has achieved during his
regime as mayor of Williamsburg, in which position
he is serving, in 1921, his third consecutive term, but
also in the success that has attended his various busi-
ness and industrial enterprises. At Williamsburg he
owns and conducts the leading wholesale grocery busi-
ness in Whitley County, and he established and suc-
cessfully conducts a similar enterprise at Jellico, Ten-
nessee.
Mr. White was born in Hardin County, Kentucky.
September 14, 1870, and thus is in the very zenith of
his strong and resourceful manhood. His father, F. H.
White, was born at Tazewell, Tennessee, in 1825,
was there reared to manhood and there his marriage
was solemnized. He was a carpenter by trade and
vocation and in i860 he came to Hardin County, Ken-
tucky, where he became a successful contractor and
builder, and where he continued his residence until
1893, when he retired from active business and estab-
lished his home at Williamsburg. Whitley County,
where he remained until his death, in 1910. His wife,
whose maiden name was Mary Perry, likewise was a
native of Tazewell County, Tennessee, and she preceded
him to the life eternal by about two years, her death
having occurred in 1908. Jennie, the eldest of their
children, died in 1916, at Joplin, Missouri, in which
city her husband. Thomas Heady, is still engaged in
the meat-market business; John R. resides on his farm
near Ramsey, Indiana, and was formerly engaged in
the mercantile business; Mollie became the wife of
Charles L. Burch, who is a merchant at Bowling
Green, Kentucky, and there her death occurred in
1906; James D. is superintendent of the Illinois Cen-
tral Railroad terminals at East St. Louis, Illinois;
Jerome B., of this review, was the next in order of
birth ; and Florence died at the age of eighteen years.
The present mayor of Williamsburg attended the
rnral schools of Hardin County until he was fourteen
years old, and he then served an apprenticeship to the
trade of telegraphist. After becoming a competent
operator he was employed as such for thirteen months
at the station of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad
at Bonnieville, Hart County, and during the ensuing
two years he was telegraph operator for this railroad
at Lebanon Junction, this state. In 1890 he was ap-
pointed station agent of the Louisville & Nashville
Railroad at Williamsburg, and after retaining this of-
fice seventeeen years, he resigned in 1907 and here
engaged in the general merchandise business, in which
he continued until 1913, when he established a whole-
sale grocery business both in Williamsburg and at
Jellico, Tennessee. He has directed these enterprises
with characteristic ability and progressiveness and
both have precedence as leading concerns of the kind
in the territories covered by their operations. The
dual enterprises are conducted under the corporate
title of the White Grocery Company, and the founder
is president of the company. The Williamsburg estab-
lishment of the company is situated on Depot Street,
is well stocked and equipped and controls a large and
substantial business, as does also the comany's equally
modern establishment on Main Street in the City of
Jellico, Tennessee. Mr. White owns the buildings thus
utilized, and at Williamsburg he owns and occupies
one of the city's most modern and attractive residences,
on Pine Street. He is the owner of 800 acres of val-
uable coal land in Whitley County, and holds an inter-
est in two farms in the State of Oklahoma, one of
these being already leased for oil-productive ex-
ploitation.
Of the administration of Mr. White as mayor of
Williamsburg too much commendation cannot be given,
and the citizens pay high tribute to him for the splen-
did results that have been achieved under his regime
as executive head of the municipal government. He
has brought about excellent improvement of the streets,
including the construction of one mile of asphalt pav-
ing, has carried vigorously forward the construction
of cement sidewalks, and under his administration the
city's effective sewer system has been installed, at an
expenditure of $100,000. He has been loyal to his con-
stituency in every way and has endeavored to con-
serve economy in municipal affairs, though not at the
sacrifice of needed public improvements. Mayor White
was associated with three other citizens in the financing
and building of the Williamsburg telephone plant and
system, and aided also in financing the company that
began the development of the Williamsburg water-
works system. In both of these public utilities he has
since sold his interests
Both officially and in a private capacity Mayor White
was foremost in the promotion of World war patriotic
service in Whitely County, where he gave effective
aid in the campaigns which caused the county to sub-
scribe its quota to the Government war-bond issues,
savings stamps. Red Cross service, etc., besides which
his individual financial contributions were limited only
by his available resources subject to such application.
Further than all this, he gave his eldest son to the
nations' military service in the great war, as will be
more fully noted in a later paragraph. In politics he is
a staunch democrat, and he has been a leader in the
local councils and campaign activities of his party.
In the year 1892, at Williamsburg, was solemnized
the marriage of Mr. White to Miss Florence McVey.
daughter of the late William and Lou (Smith) Mc-
Vey. the father having been a substantial farmer near
Williamsburg for many years prior to his death. Of
the children of Mr. and Mrs. White the eldest is
Jerome P., who was born May 29, 1894, arid who is
now serving as city judge at Jellico, Tennessee. He
was a gallant young soldier with the American Expe-
ditionary Forces in France, where he participated in
the great conflicts of the St. Mihiel and Argonne For-
est sectors, where in the front lines he "went over the
top" seventeen times, and where he thus endured the
full tension of the greatest war in the world's history,
his rank having been that of sergeant at the time when
.nd
jerry,
rlington,
years
trade 01 iv~
operator lie was eni4.
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
41
he received his honorable discharge. At Jellico he is
associated with the business of the White Grocery
Company, of which his father is president. Mary is
the wife of A. S. Logan, bookkeeper and clerk in the
commisary department of the Paint Cliff Coal Com-
pany and the St. Michael Coal Company at Paint Cliff,
McCreary County, he being a stockholder in each of
these coal-mining companies. Maude is the wife of
T. C. Llewellyn, principal of the high school at Brasel-
ton, Georgia; Hubert, who was born September 20,
1901, is, in 1921, a student in Cumberland College, at
Williamsburg; Robert, born March 28, 1904, is in the
employ of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, at Wil-
liamsburg; Dolores was born July 23, 1907, and is a
student in the Williamsburg high school; and Lucile,
born August 9, 1910, is attending the graded schools
of her native city.
George W. Greer. The value in business of con-
centrating one's forces upon a given line of activity,
of correctly gauging its importance among the needs
of the world, and keeping pace with the ever-changing
conditions surrounding it, is confirmed anew in the
success of George W. Greer, of Pikeville, identified
with the firm of R. T. Greer & Company. Mr. Greer
has been studying the herb question ever since boy-
hood, and it is in this connection that he has won his
worth-while success.
George W. Greer was born in Watauga County,
North Carolina, February 8, 1866, a son of Shadrach
and Louise (Winkler) Greer, natives of the same
county. Shadrach Greer, a carpenter whose activities
were devoted largely to the building of farm homes in
the rural communities, served as a member of the
Home Guards during the war between the states, and
was a supporter of the Confederacy. He and his
wife were faithful members of the Methodist Episco-
pal Church, South, in the faith of which both died,
the father in 1895, at the age of seventy-one years,
and the mother in 191 1, when eighty-five years of age.
Of their large family, only three grew to maturity;
Laura, who died in 1914 as the wife of L. G. Maxwell,
whose farm was on the county line separating Watauga
and Ashe counties, North Carolina; and Alice, de-
ceased, who was the wife of John Holdway.
George W. Greer attended school in Watauga and
Ashe counties in his youth and began his career as a
school teacher, twenty years being passed in this voca-
tion, in Watauga, Ashe and Wilkes counties, North
Carolina, during which time his salary ranged from
$•5 to $30 per month. When he was a boy his parents
were poor, and, in order to help out the family income,
he made a study of the herbs of a monetary value,
which he would collect during his spare time and sell
to whoever had use for them. With the knowledge
thus gained, after he gave up his work as an edu-
cator, he became associated with A. D. Cowles, a
dealer in herbs, and subsequently traveled over South-
ern Virginia, Eastern Kentucky and Western North
Carolina, buying herbs from country merchants for
J. Q. McGuire. Eventually, Mr. Greer formed a part-
nership with J. T. Laurence, under the firm style of
Greer & Laurence, and two years later there was formed
the firm of McGuire, Greer & Co., with headquarters
at Marion, Virginia, in 1904. In 1905 the firm opened
a place of business at Pikeville, with Mr. Greer in
charge, and of this business he remained the head
until 1908, when there was organized the firm of R. T.
Greer & Company, with which concern Mr. Greer has
been identified ever since. During this time he has
built three large warehouses, and is now paying to the
people of Pike County something like $100,000 annu-
ally, the annual business of the concern being in ex-
cess of $600,000 each year. Places of business are
located at Marion, Virginia, Brownwood, North Caro-
lina, Pikeville, Kentucky; and Knoxville, Tennessee,
and the herbs of this concern are shipped all over the
world. The company also does a profitable side line
business in hides and wool.
Mr. Greer and his family belong to the Methodist
Church, in which he is a member of the board of trus-
tees and of the board of stewards. He is a democrat
in politics and is fraternally affiliated with the Inde-
pendent Order of Odd Fellows. He is truly a self-
made man, climbing from the bottom round of the
ladder without other aids than a kindly and courteous
nature and large capacity for painstaking industry.
He is public-spirited and progressive, and always has
advocated those worthy undertakings which were cal-
culated to advance the community in which he lives.
In the past he has served as a member of the town
council and the board of public works, and was a
member of the city council when the street paving
was inaugurated.
In 1890 Mr. Greer married Emily Yates, daughter
of Squire Yates of Ashe County, North Carolina, and
to this union have been born five sons and four daugh-
ters, who are being given excellent educational advan-
tages. Guy Greer, the eldest son, a graduate of West
Virginia University, attended the First Officers Train-
ing Camp, at Fort Benjamin Harrison, and subse-
quently supplemented this by training at Fort Leaven-
worth, where he received a first lieutenant's commission.
Sent overseas, he was on the battle line in France,
and at the end of his service was appointed to the
Reparation Commission and is still in France. Mar-
shall Raymond Greer, second son, is a graduate of the
United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, and dur-
ing the World war was assigned to duty on the United
States battleship "North Dakota," which, at the sign-
ing of the armistice was in dry dock. He is now a
junior lieutenant on that vessel. The other children,
all of whom reside with their parents at Pikeville,
are attending school.
William Lindsay Mosby, M. D., one of the leading
physicians and surgeons of Carlisle County, is engaged
in a general medical and surgical practice at Bard-
well, where he is greatly beloved. He was born in
Carlisle County, one mile south of Bardwell, on his
father's farm, November 30, 1861, a son of William
W. Mosby, and grandson of Daniel Boone Mosby, who
was born in Boone County, Kentucky, in 1792, and
died near Bardwell, Kentucky, in 1877. He lived the
greater part of his life in McCracken County, Ken-
tucky, which afterward became Ballard County and
later Carlisle County. His wife, Elizabeth (Stewart)
Mosby, was born in Kentucky, and died in Carlisle
County when she was fifty-five years old. The Mosbys
are of Scotch ancestry, the family having been founded
in America during Colonial times by its representa-
tives from Scotland.
William W. Mosby was born in McCracken County,
Kentucky, in 1825, and died at Bardwell, Kentucky,
in 1908. He was reared in McCracken and Ballard
counties, and was married in that portion of Ballard
County which later became Carlisle County. Until 1905
he resided at Arlington, but in that year moved to
Bardwell, where he lived in retirement until his death.
He was a farmer upon an extensive scale and was
very successful, becoming wealthy in the course of his
operations. He also raised and bought and sold stock,
and was well known as a stockman over a wide area.
The democratic party had in him an active worker
and supporter, although he never cared to enter the
arena for public honors. His religious views made
him a Methodist, and it was his duty and pleasure to
donate very liberally of his time and money to the
advancement of his church. An Odd Fellow, he took
an active part in the work of the local lodge of that
order. It is interesting to note that all of his sons
and sons-in-law were also democrats, Methodists and
Odd Fellows. His wife was Matilda Frances Berry,
and she survives her husband and lives at Arlington,
42
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
Kentucky, with her daughter, Mrs. Minnie Stanley.
Mrs. Mosby was born in Ballard County, Kentucky,
in 1834. She and her husband had the following chil-
dren : James, who died at the age of thirty five years,
was engaged in farming near Arlington in Hickman
County; Jack, who died at the age of seventeen years;
Robert D., who is a prosperous farmer living near
Arlington ; Doctor William L. Mosby, who was the
fourth in order of birth; Sallie L., who married Albert
G. Elsey, a traveling salesman residing at Bardwell ;
Henry L., who died near Arlington in 1917, was a
prosperous farmer; Bedford, who is a successful
farmer living near Arlington; and Minnie, who mar-
ried R. E. Stanley, a substantial farmer, vice presi-
dent of the Arlington Bank, and a resident of Arling-
ton. There were also three children who died in in-
fancy.
Dr. William L. Mosby attended the rural schools of
Carlisle County and Milburn Academy, where he was
prepared for college. He then entered the Washing-
ton University at Saint Louis, Missouri, from which
he was graduated March 6, 1883, with the degree of
Doctor of Medicine. Since then he has taken post-
graduate courses in the polyclinics of St. Louis, Mis-
souri, Chicago, Illinois, and New Orleans, Louisiana.
In 1883 he began the practice of his profession at
Arlington, Kentucky, and remained there for a period
of eighteen months, when, in 1884, he came to Bardwell,
and since then has built up a fine and remunerative
general practice. He owns a modern residence on Elm
Street, corner of Elsey Avenue, which is one of the
finest in the city, and his office adjoined his residence
until the year 1921, when he assisted in establishing
the Bardwell Clinic, of which he is a senior member.
He is also a stockholder in six business houses at
Bardwell, and owns 300 acres of valuable farm land
\l/>. miles north of Bardwell, and did own three or
four other farms, but has sold them. He is a director
in the Bardwell Deposit Bank, a strong local financial
institution of Bardwell. A democrat, he has served
on the county Board of Health for many years, and
has long been its chairman. For ten years he was a
member of the Bardwell Board of Trustees of the
high school, and the greater portion of that time was
chairman of the board. He took a very active part
in all of the war activities, was a member of and
examiner for the Carlisle County Draft Board, was
chairman of the Carlisle County Council of Defense dur-
ing the war, and assisted in putting over all of the Lib-
erty Loan drives. Doctor Mosby is a Mason and an
Odd Fellow, and belongs to the Carlisle County Med-
ical Society, of which he has been president for three
terms ; the Kentucky State Medical Society, of which
he is vice president; the Southern Medical Association;
the American Medical Association ; the American As-
sociation of Railway Surgeons ; the Illinois Central
and Y. M. V. Railway Surgeons Association, being
surgeon to this system, and the Southwestern Ken-
tucky Medical Association, which he has served as
president. He assisted in organizing the Southern Na-
tional Life Insurance Company of Louisville, Ken-
tucky, serving it as vice president and director. This
concern was later merged with the Inter-Southern Life
Insurance Company.
In February, 1885, Doctor Mosby was married at
Cairo, Illinois, to Miss Mattie Pauline Petrie, a daugh-
ter of Dr. J. S. and Martha (Henderson) Petrie. The
father was a physician and surgeon who died at Bard-
well, Kentucky, in 1912. The mother survived him
until 1919, when she passed away at Clinton, Kentucky.
Mrs. Mosby was educated in the Cairo, Illinois, High
School, graduating therefrom. Doctor and Mrs. Mosby
became the parents of two sons: William E., who
was born February 5, 1887, was graduated from the
Kentucky State University, class of 1910. He is a civil
engineer of the Illinois Central Railroad, and now
assistant engineer of tests and resides at Chicago, Illi-
nois. Hazel Petrie is a physician and surgeon now
connected with the Rockford Clinic, Rockford, Illinois.
He was graduated from the University of Louisville,
medical department, class of 1910, and for the subse-
quent year was an interne in the Augustana Hospital
at Chicago, Illinois. Coming to Bardwell, he was en-
gaged in practice with his father for two years, and
then for 2V2 years was with Mayo Clinic at Rochester,
Minnesota, completing his fellowship. Like so many
of the younger members of his profession, Dr. H. P.
Mosby entered the United States service in the Med-
ical Corps as a lieutenant and was sent overseas. He
saw service in England, Scotland and France, and
after eighteen months was mustered out early in 1919,
with the rank of captain, and located with the Rock-
ford Clinic, where he is doing splendid work.
Roy M. Shelbourne, county attorney for Carlisle
County, and one of the leading lawyers of this part
of the state, is a forceful factor in his profession and
politics, and has the support of the best element at
Bardwell, where he resides, as well as throughout the
county. He was born at Bardwell, November 12, 1890,
a son of M. T. Shelbourne, and grandson of Moreau
Thomas Shelbourne, who was born near Owensboro,
Kentucky. His death occurred in Ballard, now Car-
lisle County, Kentucky, before his grandson, R. M.
Shelbourne, was born. He was the pioneer of the
family into Ballard County, and here developed im-
portant farming interests. His wife, who bore the
maiden name of Mary Ann James, was born in Ver-
mont in 1797, and died in Ballard County, Kentucky,
in 1867. The Shelbourne family is of English descent,
representatives of it having come to the American
Colonies from England at a very early day in the his-
tory of this country.
M. T. Shelbourne was born in Ballard, now Car-
lisle, County, in 1851, and is now a resident of Bard-
well. He was reared in this county and here he re-
ceived his educational training. Mr. Shelbourne is an
attorney, and practiced his profession in Ballard County
before Carlisle was created, and, following that act,
he moved in 1887 to Bardwell, where he has built up
a fine civil and criminal practice. Very active as a
democrat, he has been called upon to accept of office,
and was the first commonwealth attorney of the First
Judicial District, composed of Graves, Hickman, Car-
lisle, Ballard and Fulton counties, under the present
constitution. He is a member of the county, state and
national bar associations. Recently he has been living
somewhat retired. He owns a modern residence on
Chatham Street, and one farm one-half mile south of
Bardwell, which comprises fifty acres, and another
farm of 150 acres which is six miles east of Bardwell,
both valuable properties. In addition he owns the
Shelbourne-Mosby Block on Front Street, in partner-
ship with Dr. W. Q. Mosby, and the hotel building on
Front Street.
The first wife of M. T. Shelbourne was Cora Hen-
drix, who was born in Ballard County and died in Car-
lisle County. They had children as follows : Claude,
who died in infancy; and Arthur Lee, who was an
attorney and later a lumber dealer of Bardwell, died
in this city when he was forty-three years of age. As
his second wife Mr. Shelbourne married Jennie Lynn
Dennis, who was born at Memphis, Tennessee, May
22, 1861. She died at Saint Louis, Missouri, May 25,
1902, having borne her husband the following children :
Lillian, who married H. A. Porter, member of the
hardware firm of Harlan, Porter & Walker, of Colum-
bia, Tennessee; and Roy M., whose name heads this
review. As his third wife M. T. Shelbourne married
Mrs. Sallie (Smith) Waggoner, born at Blandville,
Ballard County, Kentucky. There are no children by
this marriage.
Roy M. Shelbourne attended the public schools of
Bardwell, including the high school, and then entered
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
43
Union University of Jackson, Tennessee, from which
he was graduated in 1912 with the degree of Bachelor
of Arts. He then entered Cumberland University at
Lebanon, Tennessee, from which he was graduated in
1913 with the degree of Doctor of Laws. He is a mem-
ber of the Greek Letter fraternity Kappa Sigma. In
1913 Mr. Shelbourne began the practice of law with
his father at Bardwell, and this partnership continued
until January, 1918, when it was dissolved on account
of the election of the son to the office of county at-
torney in November, 1917. He assumed the responsi-
bilities of his office in January, 1918, for a term of four
years, and is ably discharging them. His offices are
in the Shelbourne-Mosby Building on Front Street.
He is a democrat and was elected to office on his
straight party ticket. Fraternally Mr. Shelbourne
maintains membership with Bardwell Lodge No. 499,
A. F. and A. M., and Rosewood Camp No. 38, W.
P. W. He is a stockholder in the Bardwell Deposit
Bank, owns a modern residence on Elsey Avenue, and
has a half interest in the hotel building on Front
Street which houses one of the best managed hotels
in Western Kentucky.
On October 8, 1914, Mr. Shelbourne was united in
marriage with Miss Edith Richardson at Paducah,
Kentucky. She is a daughter of William and Elizabeth
(Gray) Richardson. Mr. Richardson was proprietor
of the Bardwell Hotel and died at Bardwell. His
widow succeeded him, and is now conducting the hotel
in a thoroughly efficient manner. Mrs. Shelbourne at-
tended McLean College of Hopkinsville, Kentucky.
Mr. and Mrs. Shelbourne have two children : Mahlon,
who was born September II, 1915, and Mary Jane, who
was born March 10, 1919.
A man with broad vision and a strong sense of civic
responsibility, Mr. Shelbourne is giving to the duties
of his office the benefit of his skill and knowledge of
the law, and is safeguarding the interests of the peo-
ple of the county. He is a young man of marked
ability, and is likely to go far on the road of popular
esteem, to judge from present conditions, for his con-
stituents realize that in him they have an able and
conscientious representative, and one in whom the
utmost trust may be implicitly placed.
Thomas Juett Marshall, M. D. When the history
of this century is written by those yet unborn, due
credit will be given to the efforts of the physicians
and surgeons of this country who labored long and
faithfully not only to cure the ailments of mankind,
but to bring about a decrease in mortality, and to gain
definite control of diseases formerly believed incurable.
Among the men who belong to this noble profession
in Southwestern Kentucky, Dr. Thomas Juett Marshall
ranks in a foremost place in the phalanx of those who
accomplish much. His career is one of useful and
helpful endeavor, and his name is honored at Bardwell
and throughout Carlisle County, in which he is engaged
in a general medical and surgical practice.
Doctor Marshall was born at Blandville, Ballard
County, Kentucky, August 9, 1883, a son of Jacob Cor-
bett Marshall, and grandson of Charles Sims Mar-
shall, who was born at Lexington, Kentucky, in 1830,
and died at Clinton, Kentucky, in 1893, after a long
and useful career. The greater part of his life he
lived at Paducah, and was one of the early attorneys
of that city. A man of unusual ability, he was elected
judge of Ballard County and later circuit judge of the
First Judicial District of Kentucky. In politics he was
a republican, and consequently his election was a
tribute to his personal popularity and an appreciation
of his qualifications for these offices, for this region
is strongly democratic. Judge Marshall was married
to Emily Corbett, who was born in Ballard County,
Kentucky, in 1832, and died at Clinton, Kentucky, in
1915. The Marshalls came from England to Virginia
during the Colonial epoch of this country.
Jacob Corbett Marshall was born in Ballard County,
Kentucky, in 1857, and died at Wickliffe, Kentucky, in
1901. A man of high character, he followed his father's
example and studied law, was admitted to the bar, and
was engaged in an active practice at Wickliffe for a
number of years. He was also interested in farm lands
in the vicinity of Wickliffe, and was active along sev-
eral other lines. He, too, was a republican. The
Christian Church held his membership, and to it he
gave a strong support, being very generous of his time
and money in its behalf. He was a Mason. Jacob
Corbett Marshall was united in marriage with Addie
Utterback, who was born in Ballard County, Kentucky,
and she survives him and resides in her native county.
Their children were as follows: Doctor T. J., who
was the eldest born; Charles Sims, who is a lumber
dealer, lives at Meridian, Missisippi ; George Utter-
back, who is a farmer and lives at Wickliffe ; Emily,
who died at the age of sixteen years ; Humphrey, who
is -connected with the Ford Motor Company, lives at
Detroit, Michigan; and Mary, who resides with her
mother.
Doctor Marshall was reared at Wickliffe by careful
parents, and attended its schools. Early deciding upon
a medical career, he bent every energy to properly
prepare himself for the hard toil before him. Going
from the public schools to Blandville College, he took
a four years' course, and then spent a year in the
State University at Lexington, Kentucky. Following
this he entered the Hospital Medical College of Louis-
ville, Kentucky, from which he was graduated in 1906,
with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. That same
year he entered upon the practice of his profession
at Blandville, but two years later came to Bardwell,
and has here since remained. He is now associated
with Dr. William L. Mosby and Dr. George William
Payne, in the Bardwell Clinic. He owns his modern
residence on Elm Street. He is a democrat, has been
very active in party matters, and has been the success-
ful nominee of his associates for councilman of the
City of Bardwell. He has also been president of the
Carlisle County Board of Health, and has been health
officer of Carlisle County. Reared in the faith of the
Christian Church, he has found in it his religious home
and has long been a member of it, and is now serving
it faithfully as a deacon. As a Mason he maintains
membership in Bardwell Lodge No. 499, A. F. and
A. M. Professionally he belongs to the Carlisle County
Medical Society, the Kentucky State Medical Society,
the American Medical Association and the Southwest
Kentucky Medical Association.
In 1909 Doctor Marshall was married at Blandville,
Kentucky, to Miss Essie Sheets, a daughter of J. C.
and Eva (Wyman) Sheets, who reside at Baton Rouge,
Louisiana, where Mr. Sheets is a train dispatcher.
Doctor and Mrs. Marshall have three children, namely :
Thomas Juett, Jr., who was born October 4, 1910 ;
Joseph Corbett, who was born January II, 1912; and
Humphrey, who was born July 30, 1913.
A close student, Doctor Marshall has kept fully
abreast of the spirit of the times not only in his pro-
fession but along many lines. A man of public spirit,
he has always devoted considerable thought to civic
problems, and both in a private and public capacity has
effected many reforms, especially in sanitary matters.
While in the council he was constantly urging upon
his colleagues the importance of installing proper equip-
ment for a pure water supply and sewerage disposal,
and has never relaxed his efforts to bring Bardwell
up to the highest standards and to maintain all im-
provements already secured.
As a physician and surgeon Doctor Marshall is
skilled and capable. His patients are his friends, and
have learned to rely on his judgment, so that he exerts
a beneficent influence. During the late war, as one
of the real Americans whose roots reach back into
the very beginnings of this country, he took a deep
44
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
and effective interest in forwarding all of the local
activities, and has also been equally useful during the
reconstruction period, whose problems have been even
more trying than those of war times. It is such men
as Doctor Marshall who raise and maintain high stand-
ards of citizenship and professional ethics, and it
would be difficult to find one who is held in higher
esteem anywhere than he, or one who is more deserv-
ing of the confidence and support of his fellow citizens.
Urev Woodworth Patrick, secretary, treasurer and
general manager of the Star Milling Company, Inc.,
is one of the sound and reliable business men of Clin-
ton, and is a veteran of the great war. Although yet
in the very prime of active young manhood, Mr. Pat-
rick has traveled far on the road to success, and is
accepted as one of the rising young men of South-
western Kentucky.
Mr. Patrick was born at Madisonville, Kentucky,
August 28, 1896, a son of W. H. Patrick, and grand-
son of E. W. Patrick, who was born in 1838, and died
at Evansville, Indiana, in 1908. By profession he was
a physician and surgeon, and he spent the greater
part of his life at Evansville. The Patricks were orig-
inally from Ireland, but the family was founded in
this country long before the American Revolution.
W. H. Patrick was born at Columbus, Ohio, in 1861,
and is now a resident of Evansville, Indiana. He was
reared at Vincennes, Indiana, but after his marriage
moved to Evansville. At the time of his marriage he
was a traveling salesman for a large drygoods house
of St. Louis, Missouri, and while at Princeton, Ken-
tucky, on business, he met Alva Kevil, who was born
in that city in 1869, and later they were married. Mr.
Patrick then became auditor for the Hercules Buggy
Company. He is a member of Saint Paul's Episcopal
Church of Evansville. A Mason in good standing, he
has attained to the thirty-second degree in that fra-
ternity. The children born to W. H. Patrick and his
wife are two in number : Urey W. and his sister, Caro-
line. She was graduated from the Evansville High
School and Lennox Hall Seminary for young ladies,
class of 1919, and is most accomplished and charming.
Urey Woodworth Patrick attended the public schools
of Evansville, and was graduated from its high school
in 1916. Immediately following that event he came
to Mayfield, Kentucky, and was employed in the flour
mills of R. U. Kevil & Sons, and there learned the
flour milling business from start to finish, remaining
there until September, 1917, when he came to Clinton
and became secretary and treasurer of the Star Milling
Company, Inc.
He was nicely started on his business career when,
like the majority of the young men of the country,
he cheerfully left it to enter the service of his country
in the fall of 1917 as a cadet in the aviation branch,
and in January, 1918, went overseas to France. After
his arrival abroad he was stationed at Colombey Les
Belles in the Nancy Toul sector, and was there until
August, 1918, when he was called back to train for
flying, and completed this training just before the
armistice was signed. On May 10, 1919, he was hon-
orably discharged with the rank of cadet, Aviation
Corps. Mr. Patrick returned to Clinton in June, 1919
and upon his arrival he was promoted to general man-
ager of his company in addition to the two offices he
was already holding, and he is acting in the three
capacities today. This company is incorporated, and
its officers are, in addition to Mr. Patrick : J. W.
Kevil, of Mayfield, Kentucky, president ; and R. W.
Kevil, vice president. The mills are located by the
Illinois Central Railroad tracks. They have a capac-
ity of 200 barrels per day.
Reared in the faith of the Episcopal Church, Mr.
Patrick is one of its communicants. He belongs to
Hickman Lodge No. 131, A. F. and A. M.; Calvert
Chapter No. 85, R. A. M. ; Fulton Commandery No.
34, K. T.; and Rizpah Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of
Madisonville, Kentucky. He is also a member of May-
field Lodge No. 565, B. P. O. E., and also of the
American Legion, being vice commander of Clinton
Post.
On March 18, 1920, Mr. Patrick was united in mar-
riage with Miss Ida Scott Flegle at Clinton, Kentucky.
She is a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. E. C. Flegle, resi-
dents of Memphis, Tennessee, where Mr. Flegle is
distributing agent for storage batteries. Mrs. Patrick
was graduated from Marvin University of Clinton,
Kentucky, and she also took a three years' course in
the Conservatory of Music at Cincinnati, Ohio, and is
recognized as one of the most talented and skilled
musicians of Hickman County, her specialty being in-
strumental music. Mr. and Mrs. Patrick maintain
their residence on West Washington Street and are
delightful entertainers, their numerous friends enjoy-
ing their hospitality upon many occasions. Mrs. Pat-
rick is the center of a congenial circle of music lovers,
and her remarkable talent is a source of great pleasure
to those who have the privilege of hearing her exer-
cise it.
Thomas Joseph Stroud, one of the skilled veterinary
surgeons of Hickman County, is a valued resident of
Clinton, where he has been living since 1916 and which
he makes his headquarters, his practice extending all
over the county. Doctor Stroud was born in Mc-
Cracken County, .Kentucky, February 19, 1875, a son
of Thomas Stroud, who was born in Tennessee and
died in McCracken County in 1876.
Thomas Stroud was reared and married in Ten-
nessee, but while still a young man came to McCracken
County, Kentucky, where he bought a farm and carried
on farming in addition to working at his trade of shoe-
making. In politics he was a democrat, but he never
aspired to public honors. The Methodist Episcopal
Church had in him one of its earnest and devout mem-
bers. During the war between the North and the
South he served as a soldier in the Confederate army.
Thomas Stroud was married to Ann Craig, born in
Tennessee, and their children were as follows: Henry,
who is a clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
lives in Oklahoma; Ella, who married R. H. Barclay,
a farmer of Hickman County, Kentucky; Emma, who
married J. W. Bone, a farmer of Hickman County ;
J. W., who is also a farmer of Hickman County; and
Dr. Thomas Joseph, who was the youngest born.
After the death of Mr. Stroud his widow was married
to John Kell, who survives her and lives on his farm
ten miles east of Clinton, she having died in Hickman
County in 1906. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Kell
were as follows: J. M., who is a farmer of Hickman
County; M. R., who is a traveler; O. L., who is a
machinist of Detroit, Michigan; and Willie, who died
at the age of three years.
Doctor Stroud attended the rural schools of Hick-
man County, and was reared to be a farmer by his
mother, with whom he remained until he was twenty
years of age. He then began farming on his own
account and was occupied with agricultural matters
until 1916. In the meanwhile he studied veterinary
surgery and began to practice his profession in 1912,
carrying it on in conjunction with his farming, but by
1916 it grew too heavy for him to divide his interests,
and he left the farm, moved to Clinton and since then
has given his undivided time to its duties, being now
recognized as the leading veterinarian of Hickman
County. His offices and livery barns are at no North
Jefferson Street, and he resides on this same street.
In politics he is a democrat. For some years he has
belonged to Baltimore Lodge No. 361, A. F. and A. M.
In 1898 Doctor Stroud was married in Fulton, Ten-
nessee, to Miss Radie Latham, a daughter of William
and Rhoda (Rambo) Latham, both of whom are de-
ceased. For some years prior to his death Mr. Latham
-'
/^^^ca^ ^^
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
45
was a farmer of Hickman County. Doctor and Mrs.
Stroud have one daughter, Vera, who married Claude
A. Piller, and they reside east of Clinton, where he
is engaged in farming.
Col. George Washington Bain. It is not in Ken-
tucky alone but in practically every state of America
that memories and associations are kindled anew in
the hearts of thousands of the old and middle-aged
at mention of this name of one of Lexington's oldest
residents. Colonel Bain forty years ago began trav-
eling and appearing on the popular lecture platform,
usually in the role of a pleader in the temperance cause,
and he carried his thrilling messages to literally thou-
sands of audience's 'from coast to coast and from the
Rio Grande border to the limits of civilization in
Canada.
Colonel Bain was born in the City of Lexington,
Kentucky, September 24, 1840. He retired from the
lecture platform only very recently, and has the dis-
tinction of being the oldest lecturer with the Redpath
Company. The president of that company offered to
continue Colonel Bain on the active force of lecturers
as long as he lived. Colonel Bain is a son of George
Washington and Jane E. (West) Bain. His father
was born on the eastern coast of Maryland, while his
mother was a native of Lexington, Kentucky. The
lather from Maryland moved with his parents to Vir-
ginia, was educated in that state, and when about
twenty years of age came to Lexington, Kentucky.
He was a merchant tailor, and had a very successful
business in Lexington. Later he moved to Moreland
in Bourbon County, where he had a general store as
well as a tailoring business. He died there in i860,
at the age of forty-three. He was one of the prom-
inent Odd Fellows of Kentucky, having held all the
important offices in the order, including grand warden
of the Grand Lodge. He was also a leading layman
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and in pol-
itics was a democrat. His widow survived him a great
many years and died at Lexington at the age of eighty-
three. Of the four children, George W. is the only
survivor. The oldest was Warren, while the third and
fourth were Harvey W. and Frederick.
Col. George Washington Bain was educated in the
public schools of Bourbon County, attending school
there from 1848 to 1858. His various experiences
were those of a farmer and in connection with a dry
goods house at Lexington. He early became interested
in the temperance cause as represented by the organ-
ization of Good Templars, and from 1870 to 1875
served as grand counselor of the Good Templars of
Kentucky, and from 1875 to 1880 as grand chief tem-
plar. He was also editor of the Good Templar Advo-
cate, and as an organizer he went all over the State
of Kentucky and instituted lodges of Good Templars
and personally gave the pledge to over 40,000 people
in his home state. He was a powerful force in giving
solidity to the local option law, and caused that law
to be invoked in a great many Kentucky towns. Forty
or fifty years ago, when his work of this nature was at
its height, his was a dangerous mission. Again and again
his life was threatened, especially in the mountainous
district of Eastern Kentucky, and it required all the
courage of the militant Christian to carry out the mis-
sion Colonel Bain set himself to perform. Beginning
in 1880, his services were more and more required for
the popular lecture platform, and for a number of
years a Lyceum or Chautauqua course was hardly con-
sidered complete without George W. Bain being in-
cluded as a speaker. For twenty-two successive years
he lectured in Canada, and he delivered thirty-six lec-
tures on the Ocean Grove platform at Ocean Grove,
New Jersey.
Cokmel Bain has been a devoted member of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, since he was fifteen
years of age. Politically he has supported parties and
candidates that promise the greatest good and effi-
ciency in government.
On August 30, i860, Colonel Bain married Anna M.
Johnson, of Bourbon County. They were happily mar-
ried more than half a century. She died January 9,
1917. Her father, Jackson Johnson, was a farmer and
trader in Bourbon County and widely known as a
citizen in that section of the state. Mrs. Bain was the
fourth in a family of seven children. Five children
were born to Colonel and Mrs. Bain : George A., now
vice president of the Union Bank 8? Trust Company of
Lexington ; John, who is an auctioneer by profession ;
Edward, who died in infancy; Laura, wife of Dr. H.
C. Morrison, president of Asbury College in Kentucky;
and Anna, wife of Calvin T. Roszell.
Hon. Fonse Wright. The modern educator has to
meet and overcome many obstacles of which those of
an older day knew nothing. The enlarging of the
curriculum of the public schools, with the demand
for the practice of pedagogy, necessitates a long and
careful training and constant subsequent study and
reading on the part of those to whom is entrusted
the training of the plastic mind of youth. Popular
demand has resulted in the development of a class
of men who have had no superiors in history in their
various fields of educational labor. Their knowledge
of their work and of matters in general is extensive
and profound, and at the same time they possess sound
judgment and a keen insight into human nature that
make it possible for them to arrange for each pupil
to receive the individual attention now regarded as so
necessary for the full development of character.
Among those who have thus distinguished themselves
in a broad and comprehensive way is Fonse Wright,
superintendent of schools of Pike County.
Mr. Wright was born on Island Creek, near Pike-
ville, Kentucky, May 26, 1886, a son of Samuel H.
and Nannie (Huffman) Wright. The family origi-
nated in Wales, whence it came to America at an
early date in this country's history, and was probably
established first in Virginia, where was born Samuel
Wright, Sr., the great-great-grandfather of Fonse
Wright. He was the founder of the family in Ken-
tucky, where he spent the rest of his life in agricul-
tural pursuits, a vocation that was also followed here
by his son, Samuel Wright, Jr. Joel Wright, the
grandfather of Fonse Wright, was born in 1848, on a
farm in Pike County, Kentucky, and was little more
than a school boy when he enlisted in the Thirty-
ninth Regiment, Kentucky Volunteer Infantry, for
service during the war between the states. During
his service, he contracted illness, from which he never
fully recovered, and his death occurred in 1888, when
he was only forty years of age. During the war pe-
riod, some members of the family were in the Union
service and others in the Confederacy, and the political
opinions have also been at variance at times, but the
religious faith of the family has been principally that
of the Methodist Church.
Samuel H. Wright was born in Pike County, in 1869,
and has passed his life in agricultural pursuits. He
has been prominent and influential in public affairs,
having served six years as master commissioner of the
Circuit Court, and at the present time is serving his
second year as field representative of the Kentucky
State Tax Commission. He is a republican in his po-
litical allegiance. Mr. Wright is also well known in
fraternal circles, being noble grand of the Independent
Order of Odd Fellows, in which he has represented his
local lodge in the Grand Lodge of the state, having
taken the Grand Lodge degree. Mr. Wright and his
wife, who was born in Pike County in 1870, are the
parents of the following children: Fonse; Arthur, who
is identified with the Consolidation Coal Company, at
Jenkins, Kentucky ; Bertie, who is the wife of Wilbur
White, a railroad locomotive engineer of Fort Pierce,
46
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
Florida; and William, who is still attending school at
Pikeville.
The early education of Fonse Wright was secured
in the public schools of Pike County, following which
he attended Pikeville College for three years. With
this preparation, he entered upon his profession, and
for ten consecutive years taught school in his home
district, and one year on Greasy Creek. In 1918 Mr.
Wright was elected superintendent of schools of Pike
County, a position which he has held to the present
time and in which he has done much to advance and
elevate educational standards in his part of the state.
The extent of his responsibilities may be seen when
it is noted that under his supervision, Mr. Wright has
200 rural schools, six graded schools and three high
schools, each of which he visits once a year. He has
the esteem and respect of his co-workers, the teachers,
and is a general favorite with teachers, parents and
pupils alike, which assists him greatly in his labors.
Mr. Wright is an interested and active member of the
Kentucky Educational Association, and a constant and
tireless student. During the World war period he
gave up much of his time to supporting the various
movements inaugurated for the support of our fight-
ing forces, and served as chairman for Pike County
of the Committee on Publicity. He made a countless
number of speeches in behalf of war work, and in
many other ways rendered meritorious service. He
has not lost interest in the Red Cross, which continues
to profit bv his labors.
Mr. Wright was married July n, 1918, to Miss Grace
Hackney, daughter of Henderson Hackney, of Mouth-
card, Kentucky, and they are the parents of one daugh-
ter: Marian. Mr. and Mrs. Wright are members of
the Methodist Church, in which he serves as an offi-
cial. In politics he is a republican, and his fraternal
connections are with the Independent Order of Odd
Fellows and the Masons, in the latter holding mem-
bership in the Blue Lodge at Pikeville, and the Chap-
ter and Commandery at Ashland. Mr. Wright is the
owner of the home farm upon which he was born,
but makes his residence at Pikeville, where he has a
comfortable and attractive dwelling.
Joe Ely, postmaster of Benton, is one of the best
known men in Marshall County, and is very active in
the councils of the democratic party. He comes of
one of the old families of this region, and is proud
of his family and the record it has made among the
substantial people of the state. Joe Ely was born at
Benton, March 4. 1802, a son of Pete Ely, and grand-
son of W. B. Ely, who was born in Middle Tennessee
in 1834, and died" at Benton in October. 1879.
When he was a young man W. B. Ely came to the
vicinity of Benton, Kentucky, and bought land, which
he farmed, and he was not only successful in that
calling but also as a saw-mill operator, manufacturing
buggies and wagons. He also was a blacksmith, and
was one of the pioneers in that industry in Marshall
County. Taking an active part in local affairs as a
democrat, he was elected on his party ticket sheriff
of Marshall County, and served ably as such. He
belonged to the Masonic fraternity, and in every way
measured up to a fine type of manhood. His first wife,
who bore the maiden name of Susan Stallings, was
born near Benton, Kentucky, in 1834, and she died at
Benton in 1863, having borne her husband the follow-
ing children : Joe, who died at Benton at the age of
seven years ; Pete, who was second in order of birth ;
Ellen, who died in infancy; and another daughter who
also died in infancy. As his second wife W. B. Ely
married Miss Ollie Riley, who was born in Kentucky,
and she died at Benton. The only one of the children
living of this marriage is Mary Elizabeth, who is the
widow of Henry Wilson, a mechanic, and lives at Pa-
ducah, Kentucky. As his third wife W. B. Ely mar-
ried Katie Barry, who was born in Kentucky in 1850,
and died at Mayfield, Kentucky, in iqiS- .The only
child of this marriage who is living is Willie May,
of Paducah, Kentucky, who married Jesse Cooley now
deceased.
Pete Ely was born at Benton, Kentucky, September
1, 1855, and he still resides here, having always lived
in this locality. He has been active as a stock dealer,
but is now retired. As the other members of the fam-
ily. Mr. Ely is a democrat, and served as jailor for
two terms and as sheriff of Marshall County for two
terms, being elected to the latter office on the demo-
cratic ticket. Fraternally he maintains membership
with the Odd Fellows. Pete Ely was married to Mary
F. Barnes, born at Benton, Kentucky, in 1862. Their
children are as follows: Nina. who married Clint
Strow, a merchant of Benton; Will B., who is con-
nected with the Foreman Automobile Company ; and
Joe, who is the youngest.
Growing up in his native city, Joe Ely attended its
public schools and completed the junior year of the
high school. He then took a commercial course at
the Bowling Green Business University at Bowling
Green, Kentucky, which he completed in 1912. From
then until 1916 he was engaged in buying and selling
cattle at Benton, but in the latter year was appointed
postmaster of Benton and after four years was re-
appointed in 1920. Brought up in the doctrines of
democracy, it was but natural that he should adopt
them for his own, and his natural inclinations led him
into politics. He belongs to Benton Lodge No. 701,
A. F. and A. M.; Benton Chapter No. 167, R. A. M.;
and Paducah Commandery No. n, K. T. He owns a
modern residence at Benton, which is one of the finest
in the city, and here he and his charming wife welcome
their many friends and enjoy a pleasant home life.
In 1915 Mr. Ely was married at Benton to Miss Lala
Lovett, a daughter of John G. and Laura (Frizzell)
Lovett, residents of Benton, where Mr. Lovett is in
practice as an attorney. Mrs. Ely was graduated from
the Benton High School, and then attended a young
ladies' seminary in Virginia, being a very accomplished
and cultured lady. Mr. and Mrs. Ely have a son, John
Lovett, who was born July 17, 1917. Under Mr. Ely's
capable administration the affairs of the Benton Post
Office have been well managed, the volume of busi-
ness has increased very materially, and he is handling
the various problems of his position with dependable
efficiency.
John M. Weddle. On the basis of his two terms of
efficient service as sheriff, John M. Weddle is undoubt-
edly one of the most widely and favorably known cit-
izens of Pulaski County. He has a particularly loyal
following in the agricultural districts, since he is him-
self a practical farmer, most of his years when not in
public office having been devoted to the tilling of the
soil.
Mr. Weddle was born on a farm near Waterloo in
Pulaski County, March 30, 1859, grandson of John M.
Weddle, a native of Virginia and a pioneer in the
agricultural districts of Pulaski County, where he lived
out his life. Solomon Weddle, father of Sheriff Wed-
dle, was born in Pulaski County in 1822, and from
the time of his marriage until his death, in 1889, lived
on his farm a mile south of Waterloo. He cultivated
a large farm, was extensively engaged in crop raising,
and the ability with which he prosecuted his private
affairs also distinguished him as a citizen. For a num-
ber of years he served as magistrate and for eight
years was deputy sheriff. In politics he was a repub-
lican. Solomon Weddle married Patsy Tartar, who
was born in Pulaski County in 1822, and died on the
homestead near Waterloo in 1906. She was the mother
of thirteen children: Jeanette, deceased wife of Jacob
Warner, a blacksmith and farmer near Faubush in
Pulaski County ; Galen, who was a Union soldier and
a farmer, died in Pulaski County; Mollie, wife of
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
47
John A. Jasper, a retired farmer at Somerset and also
a veteran Union soldier; Elizabeth, wife of Joseph
Rainwater, who fought on the Union side during the
Civil war and is now a farmer in Texas ; Jacob T.,
formerly a merchant and now a farmer at Somerset;
Maggie, of Somerset, widow of Jerome T. Tartar, an
attorney; Emely Esthan, a farmer in the northern part
of Pulaski County; Lucy, living in Russell County,
widow of David Cooper, who was a merchant for
some years in Pulaski County and later in Russell
County; John M., ninth among these children; Helen,
wife of C. C. Compton, a farmer in Casey County,
Kentucky ; Abraham Lincoln, a farmer in Mississippi ;
Andrew Johnson, a merchant in Lincoln County, Ken-
tucky; and Doretta, wife of Hannibal Gosser, a farmer
in Russell County.
John M. Weddle was reared on the home farm until
he was nineteen, attending in the meantime the rural
schools and after leaving home farmed independently
until 1891. For six years he was store keeper and
gauger at Somerset in the internal revenue service,
then went back to his farm. In November, 1909, he
was first elected sheriff and served a four-year term,
beginning in January, 1910. During the next four-
year period he looked after his farming interests and
in November, 1917, was again a successful candidate
for the office of sheriff, and his present term began
in January, 1918. He lives on Monticello Street in
Somerset, but still owns a well-improved farm of
ninety acres three miles southwest of the county seat.
Part of Sheriff Weddle's official term coincided with
the war period, and he was active as an official and
also as a patriotic citizen in all war movements. He
is a republican and is affiliated with Crescent City
Lodge No. 60, Knights of Pythias.
In 1879, in Pulaski County, he married Miss Elvira
Brown, daughter of Floyd and Hannah (Pennington)
Brown. Her mother is still living near Somerset, and
her father is a farmer in Pulaski County. Mr. Weddle
lost his wife in 1915, after they had been married more
than thirty-five years. There are four children. The
first two are Achilles and Cornelius, twin brothers,
the former a graduate in medicine from the Univer-
sity of Louisville and now practicing his profession in
Harland County. Cornelius is a farmer in Pulaski
County. Andrew, the third son, is a farmer at Hazen,
Arkansas, and Mollie is the wife of Adam Adams, a
farmer in Pulaski County.
Hugh Edward Prather, M. D. Possessing the will
and energy to serve, the ability to accomplish, the per-
severance to overcome obstacles, an intimate and thor-
ough knowledge of the science and practice of medi-
cine and surgery, there is little wonder that Dr. Hugh
Edward Prather, of Hickman, has reached a com-
manding position among the men of his profession in
Southwestern Kentucky.
Doctor Prather was born in Fulton County, Ken-
tucky, on the Prather military grant, May 2, 1878, a
son of Dr. Hugh Logan Prather, grandson of Richard
Cox Prather and great-grandson of Thomas Prather.
Thomas Prather was born in Jefferson County, Ken-
tucky, March 28. 1795, a son of Basil Prather, a soldier
under General Morgan during the American Revolu-
tion. Thomas Prather served as a soldier in the War
of 1812, serving under General Tackson in the battle
of New Orleans, Louisiana. He married Elizabeth
Cox, born July 19, 1794, in Powhattan County, Vir-
ginia, the ceremony taking place in Jefferson County,
Kentucky. February 24, 1818. She died in Jefferson
County July 21, 1864, and he had passed away in the
same locality December 25, 1843.
Richard Cox Prather was born December 25, 1818,
in Jefferson County, Kentucky, and died at his home
in Fulton County, Kentucky, January 27, 1904. He
married, October 27, 1840, at La Grange, Kentucky,
Miss Martha Jane Givens, daughter of Alexander and
Nancy (Logan) Givens, born January 22, 1819, in
Trimble County, Kentucky, and she died in Fulton
County, Kentucky, December 29, 1891. Coming to
Fulton County in 1840, Richard Cox Prather located
on the Prather military grant, which was given to his
grandfather, Capt. Basil Prather, for service in the
Revolutionary war. For many years he was engaged
in farming, and he later became cashier of the old
Southern Bank. From 1848 to 1854 he served as sheriff
of Fulton County. Although he was otherwise inter-
ested at times, he always maintained his residence on
the farm.
Dr. Hugh Logan Prather was born on the Prather
military grant August 9, 1854, and died at Hickman,
Kentucky, of yellow fever during the terrible epidemic,
September 27, 1878. His early training was received in
his native county, which he left when appointed to a
cadetship at the naval academy at Annapolis, Mary-
land, and he later took a course in the University of
Louisville, Kentucky, to secure his medical knowledge,
and was graduated therefrom with the degree of Doc-
tor of Medicine. This brilliant young man had only
been practicing a year when he was stricken with what
was then the scourge of the South, and left a young
widow with their only child in Mississippi County,
Missouri, where he had located.
On July 11, 1877, Dr. Hugh Logan Prather was mar-
ried to Miss Mary Lavinia Morrow, who was born
September 23, 1855, in Newton County, Missouri, and
she survives him and makes her home at Hickman.
She is a daughter of William Lindsey Morrow, born
April 26, 1831, and died May 16, 1874, and Sarah Ann
(Glenn) Morrow, daughter of Daniel and Mary
(Bransford) Glenn, born March 20, 1836, in Sumner
County, Tennessee, and died April 17, 1909, at Cedar
Rapids, Nebraska. Mrs. Prather is a granddaughter
of Dr. William Isaac Irvine Morrow, whose mother,
Priscilla (Doherty) Morrow, was the daughter of
Gen. George Doherty of the American Revolution.
Doctor Morrow was born in Jefferson County, Ten-
nessee, November 25, 1802, and died March 4, 1875,
at Neosho, Missouri. His educational training was
obtained in the Eastern Tennessee University. On
June 15, 1826, Doctor Morrow was united in marriage
with Lavinia Lee Jarnagin, a granddaughter of Capt.
Thomas Jarnagin, who was a member of Harry Lee's
celebrated Light Horse Brigade in the Revolutionary
war. Doctor Morrow took a medical course in Tran-
sylvania University at Lexington, Kentucky, during
1829 and 1830. In 1834 he was a member of the con-
vention which framed the constitution of Tennessee.
Two years later he was surgeon for the United States
army, and in 1838 he came west with the Cherokees
in that capacity. During 1843 and 1844 he was a mem-
ber of the General Assembly of Tennessee, and dur-
ing 1849-50 he was clerk of the Senate of Tennessee.
In 1851 he was appointed by President Fillmore agent
for the Quapaw, Seneca, Shawnee and Osage tribes
of Indians on the western borders of Missouri. Hon-
ors were accorded this distinguished man in his new
home, for during 1856 and 1857 he was engrossing
clerk of the House of Representatives of Missouri,
and he also served for many years as clerk of the
Circuit Court and County Court of Newton County,
Missouri. His wife was born January 7, 1808, and
died on March 24, 1886. Her brother, Spencer Jar-
nagin, was United States senator from Tennessee from
1844 to 1850. She was a niece of Senator Barton, the
first United States senator from Missouri. Both the
paternal and maternal grandfathers of Dr. William
Isaac Irvine Morrow served in the Revolutionary war.
Dr. Hugh Edward Prather was graduated from the
University of Louisville, Kentucky, with the degree of
Doctor of Medicine, and was first honor man of his
class. He was interne in the Louisville Hospital, and
then became assistant to Dr. Ap Morgan Vance, of
Louisville, but following the severance of that asso-
48
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
ciation he has carried on a general practice in med-
icine and surgery at Hickman. He owns a modern
residence at 306 East Moulton Street. His offices
are located in the Farmers & Merchants Bank Building.
He is a democrat, and has been health officer of Fulton
County. A member of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South, he takes an interest' in the work of his church,
and is a member of its Official Board. Doctor Prather
belongs to Hickman Lodge No. 761, F. and A. M. ;
Hickman Chapter No. 49, R. A. M., of which he is
past high priest; Louisville Council No .4, R. and S. M. ;
DeMolay Commandery No. 12, K. T., of Louisville,
Kentucky; and Rizpah Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S.,
of Madisonville, Kentucky. Professionally he belongs
to the Fulton County Medical Society, the Kentucky
State Medical Society, the American Medical Asso-
ciation, the Southern Medical Association, and to the
Association of Military Surgeons of the United States.
He also belongs to the Kentucky State Historical So-
ciety, to the Southern Historical Society, and to the
Louisville Literary Club. In addition to his private
practice, Doctor Prather is surgeon for the Mengel
Box Company of Hickman, which employs goo peo-
ple, and he is examiner for the United States Public
Health Service.
Doctor Prather is one of the men of his profession
who volunteered his services to the Government during
the great war, and is entitled because of that alone to
special consideration on the part of the public. No
physician who willingly laid aside his practice, built
up through hard work, left his family and gave of his
skill and knowledge to serve the sick and wounded
soldiers of his country during the period it was at war
will be forgotten by the right-thinking people of his
community. Such self-sacrificing service is a mar-
velous carrying out of the highest conception of the
oath of Hippocrates. His first work in behalf of the
Government was done as a member of the Draft Board
of Fulton County, he being its medical examiner, and
then, on July 26, 1917, he was commissioned a captain
in the Medical Corps and was on active service in the
United States Army Base Hospital No. 5Q at Rimau-
court, France. He received his honorable discharge
at Camp Dix, New Jersey, February 23, 1919, and
returned home to gather up the threads of his former
peaceful occupation.
On February 8, 1900, Doctor Prather was married
to Miss Sue Elizabeth Murphey. of Fulton County,
Kentucky, a daughter of James Knox Murphey, who
was born in Obion County, Tennessee, September 27,
1839, and died in Fulton County, Kentucky, December
?7, 1881. During the war between the North and the
South he served as a lieutenant in the Fourth Tennes-
see Infantry, C. S. A., from May 1861, to April 1865,
under Generals Cheatham and Johnston, and partici-
pated in the battles of Perryville and Nashville, was
one of the first over the breastworks at Franklin, and
was at Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge and in the
fighting around Atlanta. Georgia. After the close of
the war he settled in Fulton County, Kentucky, and
became an extensive farmer and stock-raiser. He was
a democrat, a member of the Christian Church and a
Mason, and lived up to the highest conceptions of all
three organizations. He married Miss Elizabeth Miles,
who was born in Fulton County. Kentucky, September
5, 1846, and died in Fulton County November n,
1881. Doctor and Mrs. Prather became the parents of
the following children : Richard Givens, who was born
Tuesday, August 6, 1901, at 615 West Broadway, Louis-
ville, Kentucky, is a cadet in the United States Mil-
itary Academy at West Point, New York ; Hugh
Logan, who was born Wednesday, February 4, 1003,
in Hickman, Kentucky, is a cadet in the Virginia Mil-
itary Institute at Lexington, Virginia; and James
Murphey, who was born Tuesday, June 12, 1906, in
Hickman, Kentucky.
L. K. Hickman. Immediately on leaving school
L. K. Hickman went to work acquiring experience and
knowledge in mercantile affairs, by a dozen years of
faithful service earned a partnership, and for several
years past has been a member of the firm Baker &
Hickman, whose department store in Madisonville is
one of the leading concerns of its kind in Hopkins
County.
Mr Hickman was born on a farm in Hopkins County
December 9, 1882. His grandfather, William Harrison
Hickman, was a native of Virginia, but in early life
came west to Tennessee, and for several years was a
farmer and hotel proprietor. He lived at Paris and
in Union City, Tennessee, and died at the latter place
when thirty-eight years of age from pneumonia. He
married Miss Martha Jenkins, a native of North Caro-
lina, who died at the home of her son, H. H. Hick-
man, in Hopkins County, Kentucky. H. H. Hickman
was born in Paris, Tennessee, in 1858, lived there until
early manhood, and about 1878 moved to Hopkins
County, Kentucky, where he married and where for
forty years he was a substantial member of the farm-
ing community. Since 1905 he has lived on his farm
two miles east of Madisonville. He is a democrat, an
active worker in the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South, and is a man highly esteemed in his community.
He married Miss Cammie Browder, who was born in
Hopkins County in 1863. They have two sons, L. K.
and Herchel. The latter is an employe of the Victoria
Coal Company at Madisonville.
L. K. Hickman was educated in the rural schools to
the age of sixteen and about that time he went to work
as clerk for E. J. Ashby, and later the firm of Ashby
& Baker. He made himself valuable to this firm for
a period of twelve years, then acquired a partnership
interest, and since 1912 the business has been con-
ducted as Baker & Hickman, the name that appears
over their large department store on East Center
Street, opposite the Court House.
Mr. Hickman has also had other interests, both in
a business and political way. He is one of the stanch
democrats of Hopkins County, served as city tax com-
missioner of Madisonville, and is a member of the
Steering Committee of the Democratic County Central
Committee. For several years he owned a farm, but
sold this property in 1918. He is a member of Mad-
isonville Lodge No. 738 of the Elks.
Mr. Hickman, whose home is on Scott Street in
Madisonville, married at Mortons Gap in 1908 Miss
Lula Edwards, daughter of A. J. and Lizzie .(Sisk)
Edwards. Her parents now reside at Sturgis, Ken-
tucky, her father being connected with the Western
Kentucky Coal Company. Mr. and Mrs. Hickman
have one daughter, Helen Morton, born August 25,
1910.
Ernest Newton has been one of the chief business
men and citizens of Earlington for the past twenty
years, and is the present postmaster of that important
business and industrial center of Hopkins County.
Mr. Newton was born in Ohio County, Kentucky,
October 12, 1878, of English ancestry. His family
first settled in Virginia, and came to Kentucky in
pioneer days. His father, Isaac Newton, was also
born in Ohio County in 1836, was reared and married
in that locality, and was a graduate in medicine from
the University of Louisville. He practiced his pro-
fession at Buford in Ohio County until 1884, and in
that year removed to Clarksville, Arkansas, where he
continued his able work as a physician and surgeon
until his death in 1900. He was a Confederate veteran,
having served as a surgeon in the Southern army. He
was a very devout Christian, an active member of the
Missionary Baptist Church, a democrat and a Mason.
Doctor Newton married Jennie Hinchee, who was born
near Hartford, Ohio County, Kentucky, in 1854, and
?fcU£</ $cu&y f^U^u
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
49
is now living at Fort Smith, Arkansas. She is the
mother of five children : Rosa, wife of C. H. Flynn,
in the restaurant business at Fort Smith, Arkansas;
Ernest; James H., a locomotive engineer living in
Texas ; George, a farmer near Fort Smith ; and Edwin,
salesman in a general store at Fort Smith.
Ernest Newton was about six years of age when
taken to Northwestern Arkansas, attended the rural
schools of Johnson County and graduated in 1896
from the Clarksville High School. The following four
years he worked at Webbers Falls in old Indian Terri-
tory, first as a ranch hand and later as clerk in a dry
goods store. In 1900 Mr. Newton returned to his
native state, and for about a year clerked in a store
at Owensboro. He has been a resident of Earlington
since the spring of 1901. The first eighteen months
here he was manager of the grocery store of John
M. Victory. He then set up a shop as a general black-
smith and wagon maker, and has developed a very pros-
perous business in that line, still owning the shop on
West Main Street.
Mr. Newton was appointed postmaster of Earling-
ton after a competitive examination, and entered Upon
his official duties for a term of four years February 1,
1919. He also served as city judge of Earlington two
years. He is a democrat, is chairman of the Board of
Stewards of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South,
is past chancellor commander of Victoria Lodge No.
84, Knights of Pythias at Earlington, and a member
of Eureka Camp No. 25, Woodmen of the World, at
Madisonville. Mr. Newton got out and worked and
took the lead in securing Earlington's quota in the
several campaigns for funds during the war, and spent
his own personal resources and credit in the purchase
of bonds and war savings stamps. Mr. Newton owns a
comfortable home on West Main Street in Earlington.
He married in this Hopkins County town in May, 1902,
Miss Nannie Stokes, daughter of Judge A. J. and
Fannie Stokes. Her mother is still living at Earling-
ton. Her father, the late Judge Stokes, was city judge
of Earlington and for many years was head carpenter
for the St. Bernard Mining Company and one of the
early settlers of Earlington. Mr. and Mrs. Newton
have three children : Louise, born in 1903, and Virginia,
born in 1906, both students in the Earlington High
School; and Earnest, Jr., born in 1914.
Charles C. Wyatt. While his early life was de-
voted chiefly to merchandising, for the past seventeen
years Charles C. Wyatt has been actively engaged in
banking at Mayfield, where he is cashier of the First
National Bank, one of the largest and strongest finan-
cial institutions in Western Kentucky.
Mr. Wyatt, who is also an extensive farm owner,
was born in Graves County March 23, 1879. He comes
of a family that was identified with the early Colonial
settlement of old Virginia. His grandfather, Harry
Wyatt, was a native of that commonwealth, as was
his father, Roll Wyatt. Roll Wyatt was born in Vir-
ginia in 1824 and came to Kentucky when a young
man, was married in Christian County and at once
moved to Graves County, where he spent many years
successfully engaged in agriculture. He died in Graves
County in February, 1917, at the venerable age of
ninety-three. He was a stanch democrat, and an active
worker in the Christian Church. Roll Wyatt married
Nancy Elizabeth Payne, who among her family was
alwavs known as "Jack." She was born in Christian
County in 1833 and died in Graves County in 191 1.
They had a large family of children: John H., a
farmer, who died in Graves County in June, 1920 ;
Fannie, wife of J. D. Pullen, a farmer of Graves
County; B. S., well known in the agricultural district
of Graves County; J. D. and J. T., both prosperous
farmers of this county; Nellie, wife of J. R. Usher, a
farmer and tobacco broker at Mayfield; W. D., who
operates an extensive farm and landed interests at
Troy, Texas; G. L., a farmer of Graves County;
Roll, Jr., who died when seventeen years of age ; and
Charles C, the youngest of the family.
Charles C. Wyatt spent his early life on the farm.
He attended rural schools, the high school at Sedalia
and was a student in a business college at Hornbeak,
Tennessee, until 1896. After teaching school in his
native county for a year he became associated with
his brother-in-law, J. R. Usher, in the mercantile busi-
ness at Sedalia. He remained there until he sold out
six years later, and at the time of the organization of
the Farmers National Bank of Mayfield in 1903 ac-
cepted the post of cashier. In March, 1919, the Farm-
ers National Bank and the First National Bank was
combined, and Mr. Wyatt continued as cashier of the
consolidated institution, known as the First National
Bank. This bank has a capital of $150,000, surplus and
profits of $200,000, while its deposits aggregate $1,600,-
000. Of the other officers some account is made on
other pages. They are Ed Gardner, president, and
N. A. Hale, vice president.
Charles C. Wyatt is almost the only member of his
family who has found business dominating his agri-
cultural interests, though he has always been associated
with farm management and ownership, and at the pres-
ent time is owner of five complete farms in Graves
County. He is also president of the Hinkle Capsule
Company of Mayfield and the Mayfield Home Tele-
phone Company. He owns one of the business build-
ings on the Public Square and a modern home on
South Seventh Street.
Mr. Wyatt is now serving in his second four-year
term as county treasurer of Graves County. His term
of office expires in May, 1922. He has long been prom-
inent in democratic politics, serving as secretary of the
Democratic County Central Committee eight years and
as chairman two years. He is a deacon of the First
Christian Church, treasurer of the Missionary Board,
and has served as superintendent of the Sunday
School. Fraternally he is affiliated with Mayfield Lodge
No. 679, A. F. and A. M., and Mayfield Lodge No.
159, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of which he
is a past grand.
On December 17, 1902, in Graves County, he married
Miss Mary Wilson, a member of an old and prom-
inent agricultural family of that section. Her father,
the late G. M. Wilson, gave his life to farming in
Graves County. Her mother now lives with Mr. and
Mrs. Wyatt. Three children have been born to Mr.
and Mrs. Wyatt : Tighlman, born September 13, 1904,
in the second year of the Mayfield High School; Geor-
gia May, born in April, 191 1; and Charles, Jr., born
in February, 191 5.
Wallis B. Taylor. Honored by his fellow citi-
zens in election to public office for a longer period
than any other man now at the courthouse of Pike
County, Hon. Wallis B. Taylor is capably discharg-
ing the duties of circuit clerk, and enjoying the full
confidence of all with whom he comes in contact.
He belongs to one of the old and honored families
of this region, and his relatives have been connected
with much of the constructive citizenship of Pike
County. He was born in a log house on the Rock
House fork of Big Creek, in Pike County, August
4, 1868, a son of Kelsey and Mary (Collinsworth)
Taylor, whose useful lives were spent in Pike County,
where he died, January 6, 1901, when sixty-six years
old, and she September 20, 1894, at the same age.
The Taylor family originated in Virginia, from
whence Allen Taylor, grandfather of Wallis B. Tay-
lor, migrated prior to the birth of his son, Kelsey.
He lived to the unusual age of ninety-three years,
passing away in 1900, having passed the greater part of
his life in this vicinity. He and his sons were all
farmers and large landowners. Kelsey Taylor be-
came a man of large means and developed into one
50
HISTORY' OF KENTUCKY
of the largest stockraisers of the county. He, like his
father and brothers, was very law-abiding, holding
the laws of his country and community in great re-
spect and honoring them by strict observance. All of
the family belonged to the Regular Baptist denomi-
nation.
Kelsey Taylor and his wife became the parents of
six children, namely: James M., who is engaged in
farming near Ashland in Boyd County, Kentucky;
Joseph A., who is a farmer of Pike County, lives near
the mouth of Coon Creek; Mina Jane, who married
Allen Cassady of Martin County, Kentucky, died at
the age of fifty-three years; Wallis B., who was the
youngest, and two others who died young.
Wallis B. Taylor attended the private school taught
by T. J. Kendrick. of whom mention is found on other
pages of this work. Completing his schooldays in 1889
Mr. Taylor began to be self-supporting by working
in the timber woods, and, forming a partnership with
\Y. S. Litteral and J. F. Pauley, was engaged in the
lumber business for four years. These partners had
saw mills, but also floated timber out on the Big
Sandy to the Ohio River to the extent of millions
of feet of logs. He worked very hard and prospered,
being in all in this line of endeavor for twenty years.
In 1906 Mr. Taylor received the republican nomina-
tion for county clerk, and was elected. After his first
term in office he was again the successful candidate
of his party for the same office, and then was placed
in the office of circuit clerk as the successful nominee
of his party, which office he still holds. His long
occupancy of an official positon at the courthouse
makes him the dean of all of the incumbents. Dur-
ing the late war he rendered a very efficient service as
food official.
In 1802 Mr. Taylor was united in marriage with
Miss Harriet Stepp, a daughter of Aaron Stepp.
Mrs. Taylor was born at the mouth of Big Creek.
Mr. and Mrs. Taylor have one son, Kelsey, who was
horn in Pike County, October 20, 1894. He was gradu-
ated from Pikeville College, and is now one of his
father's deputies. During the war he served for
eleven months in France, and participated in some of
the most important of the drives, but was fortunate
enough to escape uninjured after making a very credit-
able record as a soldier. Mr. Taylor is a Royal Arch
Mason. In politics he is a republican, and has long
been one of the leaders in his party in Pike County.
A man of reliable character, steadfast and honor-
able he has ably discharged every obligation of life,
and won the approval of all with whom he has been
associated.
C. E. Graham, a native son of Green County, Ken-
tucky, is a young man whose career has been varied
in its activities, and he has developed in his native
county a large and substantial real-estate and insur-
ance business, his agency being one of the most impor-
tant of the kind in this county and his office headquar-
ters being maintained in the Wilson Building at
Greensburg. the county seat. Mr. Graham is a scion
of a family whose name has been worthily linked with
the history of Green County since the early pioneer
days, his grandfather, Joseph Graham, having been
horn in this county in 1820 and having here passed
his entire life. Joseph Graham was here successfully
associated with farm industry during his entire active
career, and here his death occurred in the year 1895.
His father was born in Virginia, a representative of a
family, of German origin, that was founded in the
Old Dominion Commonwealth in the Colonial period
of American history, and he it was who became the
pioneer settler in Green County, Kentucky, where he
reclaimed a farm and where he continued to reside
until the close of his long and useful life.
C. E. Graham was horn on a farm in the Brush Creek
district of Green County, July 24, 1889, and is a son
of Judge Elliott Graham and Nannie (Marcum) Gra-
ham, both likewise natives of the Brush Creek neigh-
borhood of Green County, where the former was born
in 1853 and the latter in 1856. After their marriage
the parents established their residence on their present
homestead farm twelve miles west of Greensburg,
where their children were born and where they have
resided continuously save for the period from 1901 to
1913, during which they maintained their home at
Greensburg, Judge Graham having been county judge
during this interval and his service in this important
office having been for three consecutive terms, of four
years each. He has one of the large and well-improved
farm estates of his native county, and is a citizen of
prominence and influence, his having been loyal serv-
ice in furthering the civic and industrial progress and
prosperity of Green County. The judge is a staunch
democrat, is affiliated with William B. Allen Lodge No.
704, Free and Accepted Masons, at Summersville, of
which he is past master, and both he and his wife
are zealous members of the Baptist Church. L. V., the
eldest of their children, is one of the prosperous farm-
ers of the Brush Creek section of his native county;
Lee is proprietor of a hotel at Campbellsville, Taylor
County; Minnie is the wife of R. L. Cantrell, a farmer
on Brush Creek ; C. E., of this sketch, was the next in
order of birth ; Grover is successfully engaged in the
poultry business at Denton, Texas; Mollie is the wife
of Professor Leslie Miller, who is now a member of
the faculty of a college in South Dakota ; Lura is the
, wife of Ezra Gumm, a farmer near Summersville,
Green County; and James and Coy remain at the
parental home, where their assistance is given in the
operations of the extensive farm.
As a boy C. E. Graham began to lend his aid in
the work of the home farm, and his early scholastic
advantages were those of the rural schools of the
locality. He remained at the parental home until he
had attained to the age of sixteen years, when he
became a locomotive fireman on the Big Four Rail-
road. After having been thus employed one year he
went to Springfield, the capital of Illinois, near which
city he was employed at farm work until he had at-
tained to his legal majority. He then returned to his
native county and spent eighteen months as a clerk
in the general store of Woodson Lewis at Greensburg.
He then resumed his association with railroad work,
as a brakeman in the service of the Louisville & Nash-
ville Railroad, but after six months he so injured his
right arm when engaged in coupling cars that the
amputation of the arm was imperative. This physical
handicap did not discourage him, but tended to in-
crease his resourcefulness, as shown by the fact that
in 1913 he established himself in the real estate and
insurance business at Greensburg and that in this im-
portant field of enterprise his success has been notable.
Mr. Graham is found loyally aligned in the ranks of
the democratic party. He served one year as police
judge at Greensburg. He was elected county judge of
Green County in November, 1921. This county usually
goes republican by about 600, but Mr. Graham won by
293 over F. E. Wilson, the republican candidate. Mr.
Graham and his wife are members of the Presbyterian
Church, as was also his first wife, and his fraternal
affiliations are here briefly noted: Greensburg Lodge
No. 54, Free and Accepted Masons ; Greensburg Chap-
ter No. 36, Royal Arch Masons; Marion Commandery
No. 24, Knights Templars, at Lebanon ; and Greens-
burg Camp No. 560, Woodmen of the World. He
owns an attractive home property on North Cross
Street. The loss of his arm made Mr. Graham ineli-
gible for military service in the World war, but he
showed his patriotism through loyal support of the
various war activities in his native county, throughout
which he made spirited speeches in the drives for the
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
51
sale of the various issues of Government war securities,
besides making personal subscriptions to the limit of
his means.
In the city of Louisville, in December, 1912, Mr.
Graham wedded Miss Catherine Hatcher, whose par-
ents, Mr. and Mrs. B. H. Hatcher, are both deceased,
the father having been a successful farmer in Taylor
County. Mrs. Graham passed to the life eternal on
the 1st of June, 1916, and is survived by one son, Gar-
nett Davis, who was born July 3, 1914.
In December, 1918, was solemnized, in the City of
Louisville, the marriage of Mr. Graham to Miss Pearl
Thompson, who likewise was born and reared in Green
County, where her parents, Joseph B. and Mollie
(O'Banion) Thompson, still reside on their fine farm
on Little Byron River Mr. and Mrs. Graham have
one son, C. E., Jr., born February 14, 1921. Their
pleasant home is known for its generous hospitality.
John W. Crenshaw, M. D. To assure authority and
consistent comprehensiveness in the various family re-
views appearing in this work, it has been found not only
consistent but also imperative to avoid repetition of
family data in all personal sketches. Thus, in connec-
tion with Doctor Crenshaw's career reference may read-
ily be made to the adequate family history appearing
on other pages, in the personal sketch of his older
brother, Judge Robert Crenshaw, of Cadiz.
Doctor Crenshaw, who has long been established in
active practice at Cadiz, as one of the representative
physicians and surgeons of Trigg County, is a scion of
one of the old and honored families of this county.
John Walden Crenshaw was born in the Casey Creek
precinct, Trigg County, on the 24th of September, 1849,
and his preliminary education was received in the rural
schools, this being supplemented by his attending the
Oak Hill Seminary, in Christian County, where he was
a student when the late Rev. George P. Street, a clergy-
man of the Christian Church, was the executive head
of the institution. While attending the seminary he also
gave earnest attention to the study of medicine, under
the preceptorship of Dr. William McReynolds, and later
he entered the celebrated old Jefferson Medical College,
in the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in which he
was graduated as a member of the Class of 1870. The
doctor has been insistent in keeping at all times abreast
of the advances made in medical and surgical science
and has conserved this purpose materially by post-
graduate courses in the Bellevue Hospital Medical Col-
lege, New York City, and in the Chicago Polyclinic,
where he specialized in the study and treatment of dis-
eases of the eye, ear, nose and throat. On the 1st of
May, 1870, shortly after receiving his well earned de-
gree of Doctor of Medicine, Doctor Crenshaw engaged
in practice at Hopkinsville, Christian County, but on the
first of the following January he returned to his native
county and established his residence and professional
headquarters at Cadiz, the county seat. Here he has
continued in active and successful general practice dur-
ing the intervening period of nearly half a century, and
his high standing as a physician and surgeon attests
alike his professional ability and his unqualified personal
popularity. He is to-day, in point of years of continuous
practice, the dean of the medical profession in Trigg
County, and he maintains his offices in a building oppo-
site the court house, on Main Street, this business build-
ing being owned by him. It is needless to say that Doc-
tor Crenshaw controls a large and representative prac-
tice and that he is held in affectionate esteem in the
many family homes in which he has ministered with
all of ability and earnest solicitude. He has been for
the past twenty years chairman of the Board of Health
of Trigg County, and he holds membership in the
American Medical Association, the Kentucky State
Medical Society, and the Trigg County Medical Society.
He was a member of the Trigg County examining
Board at the time when young men were here drafted
for service in the World war, and he was otherwise
active and influential in the support of war activities in
his home county. In politics the doctor classifies him-
self as an independent democrat, and he has taken loyal
interest in community affairs and in furthering the civic
and material advancement and prosperity of his home
city. He served a number of years as chairman of the
Municipal Board of Trustees of Cadiz, and as a citi-
zen he has given his influence and support to enterprises
that have been of marked benefit to the community. He
is the owner of valuable real estate in Cadiz, including
his beautiful residence property and the building in
which his office is established, as previously noted. In
1891 Doctor Crenshaw became associated with his
brother-in-law, E. R. Street, in the organization of the
Trigg County Farmers Bank. He served as president
of this private banking institution, and Mr. Street as
its cashier, -until it was consolidated with the Bank of
Cadiz, in 1900, the title of the Trigg County Farmers
Bank being retained in the consolidation. At the time
of this merger Doctor Crenshaw resigned the position
of president, but he continued a member of the Board
of Directors of the institution until 1919, when he sold
his interest in the same. In 1920, in association with
his son, John S., and others, the doctor obtained the
charter for the Peoples Bank of Cadiz, but this charter
was later surrendered, when a consolidation was effected
with a new institution, the Cadiz Bank, which took pos-
session of the People's Bank Building on Main Street,
opposite the court house. Doctor Crenshaw and his son
retain stock in the Cadiz bank.
Doctor Crenshaw and his wife are zealous and in-
fluential members of the Christian Church at Cadiz, in
which he is serving as an elder. He was for seventeen
years president of the South Kentucky Sunday-school
and Missionary Association of the Christian Church.
September 23, 1873, recorded the marriage of Doctor
Crenshaw to Miss Julia Street, daughter of the late
John L. and Mary (Roberts) Street, the father having
long been engaged in business as one of the leading
merchants of Cadiz. Mrs. Crenshaw, a popular figure
in the representative social life of Cadiz, is a graduate
of the South Kentucky College, at Hopkinsville, Chris-
tian County. Doctor and Mrs. Crenshaw became the
parents of eight children, two of whom died in infancy ;
John S., who resides at Cadiz, will be more specifically
mentioned in a later paragraph; Miss Mary S. remains
at the parental home and is a talented teacher of instru-
mental music ; Berta S. is the wife of A. P. White,
manager of the Cadiz Milling Company ; George W.
is a stockholder and general manager of the J. H.
Anderson Dry Goods Company, in the city of Hopkins-
ville ; Katie S. is the wife of Rev. George H. C. Stoney,
a clergyman of the Christian Church and also a repre-
sentative business man at Winston- Salem, North Caro-
lina ; and Miss Gertrude remains at the parental home.
John S. Crenshaw was for several years cashier of
the Trigg County Farmers Bank and is one of the most
progressive and influential citizens and business men
of Cadiz at the present time. He is president of the
Williams Coal Company, of Christian County; is na-
tional treasurer of the Farm Bureau Federation and
treasurer of the Kentucky Farm Bureau Federation;
and at the time of the World war he was most active
and influential in the furtherance of governmental
agencies in support of war activities. He is an able
public speaker, and as such his services were much in
demand in the campaign for food conservation and in
the various drives in support of the government war
loans. He and his wife were, and still remain, at the
head of the Red Cross Chapter in Christian County,
his wife having been before her marriage Miss Goldie
Rice, of Louisville. Mr. Crenshaw is an enthusiast and
potent factor in the work of the American Farm Bureau
Federation, of which he is treasurer, and in a recent
52
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
interview, he gave voice to the following well taken senti-
ments : "The Kentucky Farm Bureau stands for the
elimination of politics from the control of educational
affairs. The farmer boy and girl of Kentucky are
entitled to the best mental training it is possible to
secure. The question for years past has been, how can
this be accomplished? Now the solution is presented in
the new school laws. The Kentucky Farm Bureau
endorses unqualifiedly the law creating the new county
boards of education, and will wholeheartedly give its
aid in any county asking for assistance in advising the
people of the great opportunity it offers, for happier
homes, for more prosperity, for the greater service, and
for the bigger living. The lives of people can not be
greater than their ability to live, and their ability to
live is measured by their knowledge of life. If we are
saved to serve, and born into the world to render serv-
ice, to make the world a better place because of our
having lived in it, then we must look to the public
schools for preparation for life; for the intellect of a
people will never rise higher than its public schools."
Troilus Melcoy Radcliffe, M. D. Like all other sec-
tions of Kentucky, Livingston County has located in its
midst a number of skilled and dependable physicians
whose lives are spent in ministering to the sick and con-
structive working for the prevention of disease. These
men of medicine are worthy citizens of their great state,
and fully entitled to the prestige which they enjoy. One
of them who is making a specially enviable record is
Dr. Troilus Melcoy Radcliffe of Tiline, who was born
at Hampton, Livingston County, Kentucky, October 6,
1875, a son of M. E. Radcliffe, grandson of Thomas
Radcliffe, and a member of one of the old and aristo-
cratic families of the South, the Radcliffes having come
to the American Colonies from England and settled in
North Carolina many generations ago.
Thomas Radcliffe was born in North Carolina in 1828,
and died near Lola, Kentucky, in 1888. He moved into
Kentucky in young manhood and for a time lived in
Lyon County, but after his marriage, came to Living-
ston County, and from 1866 to his death, was engaged
in farming in the vicinity of Lola. He was married to
Laura Church, who also died in Livingston County.
M. E. Radcliffe was born in Lyon County, Kentucky,
in 1850, and is now a resident of Lola, Kentucky. Until
he was sixteen years of age, he lived in Lyon County,
but at that time came to Livingston County, and has
here spent the remainder of his life. For many years
he was very profitably engaged in farming upon an ex-
tensive scale in the vicinity of Hampton, but is now
retired. In his political views he has always maintained
an independent attitude. The Methodist Episcopal
Church holds his membership, and has in him one of
its most earnest and generous supporters, and he is a
man who carries his religion into his everyday life. M.
E. Radcliffe was married to Maggie D. Hunter, who
was born at Hampton, Kentucky, in 1855, and they be-
came the parents of the following children : Doctor Rad-
cliffe, who is the eldest ; Bertha, who married Alexan-
der Workman, lives near Lola, where he is engaged in
farming ; Yulee, who is engaged in farming in the vicin-
ity of Lola; and Orville H., who is an oil operator of
Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Doctor Radcliffe attended the rural schools of Liv-
ingston County, Kentucky, and later took his medical
course in the University of Louisville, from which he
was graduated in 1904, with the degree of Doctor of
Medicine. Immediately thereafter he began the prac-
tice of his profession at Lola, Kentucky, but within four
months moved to Tiline, where he has since remained,
and here he has built up a very desirable connection in
the general medical and surgical practice for which he
is so well fitted. His offices are located on Main Street.
In politics he is a democrat, and he is now serving as
health officer of Livingston County. During the late
war Doctor Radcliffe took an active part in all of the
war work of his locality, and did everything in his power
to assist the administration in carrying out its policies.
He owns 500 acres of very valuable land three and one-
half miles south of Tiline, and a modern residence on
Main Street, which is the best in Tiline.
Fraternally Doctor Radcliffe belongs to Dycusburg
Lodge No. 232, A. F. & A. M., of which he is past
master ; Paducah Lodge No. 217, B. P. O. E., while pro-
fessionally he maintains membership with the Livingston
County Medical Society, the Kentucky State Medical
Society, the Southwestern Kentucky Medical Society and
the American Medical Association.
On August 21, 1901, Doctor Radcliffe was married
near Hampton, Kentucky, to Miss Josie Morris, a daugh-
ter of James and Sophronia (Bryan) Morris. Mr. Mor-
ris was a farmer, but is now deceased. Mrs. Morris
is living and resides at Carrsville, Kentucky. Doctor and
Mrs. Radcliffe have two children, namely: Jesse Glenn,
who was born September 30, 1905; and Hallie, who was
born August 30, 1907. A sincere man, devoted to his
profession, and endeavoring to give to it the best of his
efforts, Doctor Radcliffe has earned and retains the
respect and affection of a wide circle of personal friends
and no man stands any higher in his neighborhood than
he.
R. Lee Stewart, assistant secretary of state, one of
the best known and most efficient men of Kentucky, won
distinction as a member of the State Assembly before
his appointment to his present office, and proved his
worth as a dependable business man. The common-
wealth now has in office some of the most dependable
men of the state, and its affairs are being admirably
administered. Mr. Stewart's interests have always been
centered in Kentucky for it is his native state, he hav-
ing been born in Letcher, now Knott County, February
4, 1873, a son of Dr. A. H. Stewart.
The Stewart family was founded in this country by
the great-great-grandfather of R. Lee Stewart, Alex-
ander Stewart, a native of Scotland, who located in the
Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, at a very early day, and
became a prosperous planter of that region. He married
a Miss Sheets, a native of Virginia. Their son William
Stewart, was born in the Shenandoah Valley, but moved
to Knox County, Kentucky prior to 1806, and there
developed valuable agricultural interests. He married a
Miss Crank, a native of Virginia. The grandfather of
R. Lee Stewart, Dr. Jasper Stewart, was born near
Barbourville, Knox County, Kentucky, in 1829, and died
near Hindman, Kentucky, May 3, 1914. He lived in
Perry and Knott counties the greater part of his life
and was actively engaged in practice as a physician
and surgeon, attaining to distinction in his profession,
and he was also engaged in farming. He married Nancy
Mullins, who was born in Virginia in 1829.
Dr. A. H. Stewart was born in Perry County, Ken-
tucky, December 7, 1852, and is now a resident of Law-
ton, Oklahoma. He was reared in Perry and Letcher
counties, and for a number of years was engaged in
teaching school in the latter county. Studying medicine,
he was graduated from the Ohio Medical School of
Cincinnati, Ohio, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine,
and he later took post graduate courses in Bellevue Hos-
pital, New York City. Doctor Stewart began the prac-
tice of medicine at Prestonsburg, Kentucky, where he
remained until 1892, when he moved to Richmond, Ken-
tucky, and was there married. Going to Lawton, Okla-
homa, in 1901, he soon established himself in a valuable
practice, which he has since continued. He is a republi-
can and was sent to the State Senate from Floyd County,
Kentucky, representing the Twenty-third Senatorial Dis-
trict, and served for two terms, or from 1887 until 1893.
From 1896 until 1898 he was physician at the Frankfort
penitentiary. During the Spanish-American war, he was
captain of Company K, Fourth Kentucky Volunteer In-
fantry, under Colonel Colson. Doctor Stewart was mar-
ried to Margaret Pigman, who was born in Letcher
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
53
County, Kentucky, in l8S4. and died in that county in
1876, having borne her husband two children, namely:
R. Lee; and Burt. The latter has been a clerk in the
post office at Lawton, Oklahoma since 1905.
R. Lee Stewart attended the rural schools of Floyd,
Letcher and Knott counties, Kentucky, and then, during
1891 and 1892 was a student of the Kentucky State Uni-
versity. For six terms he was engaged in teaching
school in Knott County, and then during 1896 and 1897
was enrolling clerk of the General Assembly. Mr. Stew-
art then attended law school at Danville, Indiana, and
was graduated from the Central Normal College there
in 1898, with the degree of Bachelor of Law. From
January 1, 1900 until December I of that year he was
storekeeper and gauger in the Internal Revenue service,
residing at Hindman, Kentucky, and from the latter
date until July 1, 1905, was deputy collector of Internal
Revenue. On July I, 1905, he was again made store-
keeper and gauger and so continued until the fall of
1906, when he went to Oklahoma and was in the vicinity
of Lawton until the fall of 1908, having gone there on
account of ill health.
Returning to Hindman, Kentucky, he was made gen-
eral storekeeper and gauger, and had charge of ten
counties for the Internal Revenue department during
1910 and 191 1, at which time he became private secre-
tary to Congressman John W. Langley of the Tenth
Congressional District and spent some time in Washing-
ton. During 1912 and 1913 Mr. Stewart was deputy
United States marshal, with headquarters at Jackson,
Kentucky, although he still maintained his residence at
Hindman. Resigning from office, Mr. Stewart then
went upon the road, representing first Swift & Company
of Chicago, then the Ouerbacker Coffee Company of
Louisville, and finally the Emmons-Hawkins Hardware
Company of Huntington, West Virginia. He left the
road when he was elected to the General Assembly in
November, 1919, as a representative of the Ninety-ninth
Legislative District comprising Knott and Magoffin coun-
ties. While serving, he was chairman of the Redisrict-
ing Judicial Committee, and a member of the Rules, Cir-
cuit Courts, Criminal Law, Charitable Institutions, Min-
ing and Mining and State University committees, and
was connected with some of the most important legisla-
tion of that session. On March 23, 1920, Mr. Stewart
was appointed clerk in the office of the Secretary of
State, and was further honored by being appointed As-
sistant Secretary of State May 1, 1920, and assumed the
duties of the office, May 17th. His offices are in the
new state capitol. Mr. Stewart lives at No. 612 Shelby
Street, but maintains his legal residence at Hindman.
He is a republican and has been elected to office on his
party ticket. In 1899 ne was a candidate for the State
Assembly from the Ninety-first District, but was de-
feated in a strongly democratic community and was
again the nominee of his party for the same office from
the same district, and once more met with defeat from
the same cause, in 191 1.
Well known in fraternal matters Mr. Stewart belongs
to Hindman Lodge No. 689, A. F. & A. M., of which
he is past master ; Hindman Lodge No. 163, I. O. O. F.,
of which he is past grand; Hindman Camp No. 43,
K. O. T. M., in which he has passed all of the chairs ;
and Rhoda May Council No. 164, Junior Order, United
American Mechanics, Jackson, Kentucky. He owns a
modern residence at Hindman, which is a comfortable
one and a farm in Knott County.
On December 23, 1901, Mr. Stewart was married at
Hindman, Kentucky, to Miss Lucinda Everade, a daugh-
ter of Joseph and Sarah (Tate) Everade. Mr. Everade
died at Hindman in 1890, after a life spent in agricul-
tural activity, but his widow survives and makes her
home at Hindman. Mr. and Mrs. Stewart have two
children, namely : Mary, who was born November 12,
1909; and Mattie, who was born February 12, 1916.
In every office Mr. Stewart has held he has shown
a conscientious conception of his duties and a willing-
ness to exert himself which have gained added honors
for him. While he considers Hindman his home city, he
is deeply interested in Frankfort, as are all good Ken-
tuckians, and having spent considerable time in the
capital city, understands its needs, and recognizes its
advantages. Such men as he are bound to travel far
on the road which leads to political distinction, and his
journey is in no way completed.
James D. McClintock has been a resident of Paris,
judicial center of Bourbon County, from the time of
his birth, is a representative of an old and honored
family of this section of the Blue Grass state, and in
the varied relations of life he has well upheld the pres-
tige of the name which he bears. He is now engaged
in the general insurance business in his native city, and
his agency receives a large and substantial supporting
patronage.
James Davis McClintock was born at Paris on the 19th
of August, 1855, and is a son of James and Margaret
G. (Todd) McClintock. The father was born in Bour-
bon County in the year 1812, and he was eighty-five
years of age at the time of his death, in 1898. The
father of James McClintock was numbered among the
early settlers of Bourbon County, where he developed a
productive farm and where he continued to reside until
his death. James McClintock was reared to the sturdy
discipline of the home farm, and in early manhood he
continued his active association with agricultural indus-
try. For the long period of sixty-five years he was
engaged in the general merchandise business at Paris,
where for fully half a century he was senior member of
the firm of McClintock & Davis, the junior member of
the firm having been his nephew, J. T. Davis. After the
death of his honored coadjutor in this representative
business establishment Mr. Davis closed out the business,
and from that time forward he lived virtually retired
at Paris until his death, when nearly eighty-four years
of age. The old store building of the firm, on Main
Street, was several times remodeled, and here the firm
of McClintock & Davis long conducted a large and pros-
perous business. James McClintock was a man of fine
mind and noble character, he was loyal and liberal as a
citizen, with a high sense of personal stewardship, and
he was generous and considerate in his association with
his fellowmen. He was a zealous and devoted member
of the Presbyterian Church, as was also his wife, and in
the same he served in turn as deacon and elder. His
gracious characteristics showed forth most fully in the
ideal relations of his home life, and he did all in his
power to promote the contentment and happiness of
his family, his devoted wife having been eighty-three
years of age at the time of her death. Of their seven
children one died in early childhood, and the other six
were all present at the funeral of the father. Elizabeth,
the eldest of the children, became the wife of Joseph
Croxton, and is now deceased. John J., was for thirty-
six years cashier of the Agricultural Bank at Paris,
a position which he retained until the consolidation of
the institution with the Bourbon Bank, when he resigned
and effected the organization of the Farmers & Traders
Bank, of which he served as cashier until failing health
compelled his retirement, about one year prior to his
death, which occurred in 1919. He was for twenty
years a deacon and also the treasurer of the Christian
Church of Paris and was a citizen of prominence and
influence in the community. His only child, Belle Pal-
mer, died when about twenty years of age. Laura Bell,
the second daughter of James and Margaret G. (Todd)
McClintock, is deceased, she having been the wife of
George W. Judy, an ex-deputy sheriff of Bourbon
County and now a member of the police department of
Paris. William L. was for many years a gauger in the
internal revenue service, and was a stockholder in the
Agricultural Bank of Paris, in which he served for a
number of years as clerk. He became a zealous com-
municant of the Protestant Episcopal Church and was
54
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
a member of the vestry of the church at Paris for a
number of years prior to his death. Margaret is the
wife of Archibald Paxton, who is engaged in the mer-
cantile business at Paris.
James D. McCIintock acquired his youthful educa-
tion in the schools of his native city and was a lad of
fifteen years when he began to assist in the service
in his father's mercantile establishment, with which he
continued his active association thirty-two years — until
the death of his honored father. For the major part of
this long period he had the active management of the
business. He now conducts a well ordered and success-
ful insurance business in his native city, and is a citizen
whose high standing in the community sets at naught
any application of the scriptural aphorism that "a prophet
is not without honor save in his own country." For
thirty years Mr. McCIintock has been the local agent
for the Cincinnati Enquirer, a paper that has a sub-
stantial circulation in Bourbon County.
The year 1906 recorded the marriage of Mr. McCIin-
tock to Miss Margaret Rogers, daughter of Warren and
Louise Rogers, of Scott County, where her father was a
representative farmer. Mr. and Mrs. McCIintock have
one daughter, Rachel, who is attending the public schools
of Paris at the time of this writing, in 1920. Mr. Mc-
CIintock is an earnest member of the First Presbyterian
Church of Paris, and he is serving as an elder in the
same.
Joshua W. Meshew, M. D. Distinguished not only
because he is the oldest practicing physician of Barlow,
but also on account of his experience, skill and kindly
sympathy, Dr. Joshua W. Meshew is one of the lead-
ing men of his profession in Ballard County. In ad-
dition to carrying on his large practice. Doctor Meshew
is connected with a number of the interests of his com-
munity, and is relied upon as one of its most public-
spirited citizens.
Doctor Meshew was born at Lovelaceville, Ballard
County, Kentucky, September I, 1863, a son of James
N. Meshew and grandson of Benjamin Meshew, a
native of France. Coming to the United States in
young manhood, Benjamin Meshew located in Hick-
man County, Kentucky where he became a prosperous
farmer, and where he died in 1843. He married
Martha D. Swain, and she, too, passed away in Hick-
man County.
James N. Meshew was born May 15, 1844, in Hick-
man County, Kentucky, and he died in Marshall
County. Kentucky, in 1875. Reared and educated in
Hickman County, he became a physician and surgeon,
and after his marriage he moved to Ballard County,
Kentucky, where all of his children were born. There
be continued to reside until 1874, when he went to
Marshall County, Kentucky, but his death occurred a
year later. In politics he was a democrat. The Bap-
list Church held his membership, and he lived up to
its highest ideals and took an active part in the coun-
cils of his denomination. He was a Mason. During
the war between the North and the South he served
under General Forrest, and was in the battle of Gun-
town, where his brother Charles was killed. Dr. J. N.
Meshew was married to Martha Elizabeth White, who
survives him and lives with her son, Doctor Meshew.
She was born in October, 1845, in Ballard County,
Kentucky. She and her husband had the following
children : Doctor Meshew, who was the eldest ; Francis
M , who died at Fulton, Kentucky, in 1887, was a
teacher in the public schools although only twenty-one
years old at the time of his demise; Charles A., who
lives at Barlow, is superintendent of the water plant
of Barlow : Ben C, who is employed in a factory at
Muncie, Indiana ; Mary S., who married a Mr. Wilson,
of Akron, Ohio, associated with the Goodyear Rubber
Company of that city; and Jimmie Newton, who died
in infancy.
Doctor Meshew attended the rural schools of Ballard
County, and for two years was engaged in teaching
school in his native county, and for two years more
taught in McCracken County. He then entered the
medical department of the University of Louisville,
Kentucky, September 23, 1886, and was graduated
therefrom March I, 1889, with the degree of Doctor
of Medicine. Immediately thereafter he established
himself in a general practice at Barlow, where he has
since remained, building up a connection which is very
valuable. He owns a modern residence and offices at
the corner of Main and Maple streets, which is one
of the finest in Barlow, and he owns other real estate
in this city, as well as two farms north of Barlow,
comprising 142 acres. He erected and owns the water
plant of Barlow, which he completed in 1905; is a
stockholder and director of the Bank of Barlow, which
he helped to organize, and served it as president for
twelve years. Like his father, he is a democrat, and
he is now serving as a member of the county Board of
Health. He belongs to the Ballard County Medical
Society, the Kentucky State Medical Society, the
American Medical Association and the Southwestern
Kentucky Medical Association. Well known as a
Mason, he belongs to Hazelwood Lodge No. 489, A. F.
and A. M., of Barlow, which he served as worshipful
master from 1900 to 1901 ; to Hesperian Chapter No.
74, R. A. M., and Fulton Council, R. and S. M. During
the period this country participated in the great war,
Doctor Meshew was very active in local war work, and
served for a time as food commissioner of Ballard
County.
On March 6, 1890. he was united in marriage with
Miss Mattie Hinkle at the home of her parents, George
and Tina (Clampete) Hinkle, who were then residing
near Hinkleville, Kentucky, but who are now deceased,
he passing away in 1905. Mr. Hinkle was one of the
early settlers of that locality, where he engaged in
farming, and Hinkleville was named in honor of his
brother, Charles Hinkle. Doctor and Mrs. Meshew
became the parents of the following children : Hinkle,
who was born in 1891, died at the age of four months;
Opal, who was born in 1892, died at the age of one
year; Stella, who was born in 1894, died in infancy;
Gladys, who was born in 1896, married Clayborne
Finch, principal of the Kenton High School, lives at
Kenton, Tennessee ; Joshua W., Jr., who was born
in 1898, is in the employ of the Goodyear Rubber Com-
pany and resides at Akron, Ohio ; Merle, who was
born in 1900, married Dewey Girard, a saw-mill
operator and lumber dealer, and lives at Lovelaceville,
Kentucky; George, who was born in 1907. is the
seventh in order of birth; and Frank, who was born
in October, 191 1, is the youngest.
Doctor Meshew is a man who holds his friends in
good account and likes to have them about him. He
has great mental resourcefulness, and has accomplished
surprising achievements, not only in his calling but in
other lines. Always holding the good of his com-
munity at heart, he has generously worked for it,
and has found at Barlow his inspiration and congenial
surroundings, which have aided him in his life work.
He is a man of personal charm, culture and wide in-
tellectual interests, and his fellow citizens are very
proud of him and the principles for which he has
always stood.
George Washington Plimell, M. D. A Union sol-
dier during the Civil war, a graduate in medicine at
Cincinnati some years after that struggle, Doctor Pli-
mell has been in practice in the interesting rural and
mountainous section of Eastern Kentucky at Science
Hill for the past thirty-five years, and both in his pro-
fession and as a citizen ranks as one of the foremost
men of influence in that locality.
Doctor Plimell was born on a farm in Madison
County, Ohio, September 14. 1839- His grandfather,
John Plimell, was a Virginian, born in 1761, and in
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
55
1818 moved to Madison County, Ohio, where he lived
out his life as a farmer and where he died in 1845.
His son, John Plimell, was born in Virginia in 1800,
was a young man when he went to Ohio, and he was
a resident of Madison County for nearly sixty years.
He owned a large tract of land, was successfully en-
gaged in farming and stock raising, and was also a
leader in community affairs, serving as township
commissioner, was a democrat and Methodist. John
Plimell, who died in Madison County in 1877, married
Winnie Lewis, who was born in Virginia in 1808 and
died in Madison County in 1892. Her children were
eight in number : William Lewis, a farmer who died
in Madison County at the age of twenty-three; James,
a farmer who died in" the same' county when eighty-
two years of age; Elizabeth, who died at the age of
seventy, wife of Isaac Canada, a farmer who also
died in Madison County ; Martha, who died aged sixty-
two, wife of John Ayle, a farmer in Madison County;
Abram, who died when nine years old; John T., who
became a physician and surgeon and died in Cali-
fornia at the age of eighty-two ; Winnie S., who lived
to be seventy, was the wife of Carleton Gregg, a trader'
and farmer who died in Madison County; and George
Washington Plimell, the eighth and youngest of the
family.
Doctor Plimell, who has passed the age of four-
score, acquired his early education in country schools
while living on his father's farm in Madison County.
September 5, 1861, he enlisted and was mustered in
September 10th in the Fortieth Ohio Infantry. He
served three years until the fall of 1864, and in the
meantime participated in the battles of Chickamauga,
Lookout Mountain, being with the Army of the Cum-
berland. At Lookout Mountain a spent ball wounded
him in the right breast and the wound subsequently
became infected and caused much suffering, so that
after the battle of Rocky Face Gap, during the cam-
paign of Northern Georgia, he became disabled and
was mustered out October 13, 1864, at Pine Top Moun-
tain. Returning home he taught school in Madison
County three years, studied medicine privately, and in
the spring of 1877 received his M. D. degree from the
Eclectic Medical Institute at Cincinnati. For- nine
years Doctor Plimell practiced his profession in Union
County, Qhio. Then on account of ill health he de-
cided to seek the advantages of the mountain regions
of Kentucky, and in April, 1886, moved to Science
Hill, a community that has known and esteemed him
for thirty-five years. All this time he has enjoyed
a very successful medical and surgical practice and he
made a living from his profession at the very begin-
ning, owing to the fact that a number of families from
his section of Ohio had preceded him to this Ken-
tucky locality. In earlier years Doctor Plimell, like
most old time physicians, compounded his own medi-
cines in the absence of a drug store or apothecary,
and carried his stock of medicines about with him
when he rode or drove over the country. Doctor Pli-
mell owns his office building and a modern home at
the corner of Main Street and Railroad Avenue. He
has done much work and interested himself in numer-
ous activities that are vitally associated with the wel-
fare of the community. He helped organize the Peo-
ples Bank of Science Hill in 1906, and is its vice
president. He has served as local health officer and
for several terms was a member of the town board.
He votes independently, is a trustee of the Methodist
Church, is affiliated with Mount Gilead Lodge No.
255, F. & A. M. ; London Chapter, R. A. M., at Lon-
don, Ohio; a member of the Modern Woodmen of
America; and is affiliated with the State Medical
Association. He gave generously of his means and
influence to all war causes.
In 1868, at Tradersville, Ohio, Doctor Plimell mar-
ried Louisa E. Lee, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Enoch
Lee, deceased. Her father was a farmer in Madison
County, Ohio. After they had been married nearly
fifty years Mrs. Plimell died of heart trouble sud-
denly in 1916. She is survived by one daughter, at
home with her father, Clara G., wife of Edward Webb,
postmaster of Science Hill.
William Henry Dunbar is one of the capable
county officials of Caldwell County, and a widely and
well known citizen of that section of the state, where
he has lived all his life and where his people have
been closely identified with the most substantial affairs
of the community for several generations.
He was born near Princeton July 20, 1888. His
grandfather, William Dunbar, was of Irish ancestry,
and gave a good account of his life as one of the
practical farmers of Caldwell County. He died be-
fore the birth of William Henry Dunbar on the old
Dunbar farm, ten miles north of Princeton. George
W. Dunbar, his son, was born in Caldwell County in
1862, and likewise gave the devotion of his years,
strength and abilities to farming and the responsibili-
ties of private citizenship. He died on his farm in
1905. He was a republican and a very persistent
worker in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. He
married Miss Johnnie Cash, who was born near Du-
laney in Caldwell County in 1868 and is now living
on the old homestead ten miles north of Princeton.
William Henry is her oldest child; Miss Maggie lives
at home; Ola is the wife of Price Morse, a farmer
near Liberty, Kentucky; Bessie, Nellie and Pyron all
live at the home farm with their mother.
William Henry Dunbar made the best possible use
of his advantages in the rural schools of Caldwell
County and stayed on the farm with his mother until
he was twenty-one years of age. After leaving the
farm he clerked in a store at Providence, Kentucky,
three years and then resumed his work on the home-
stead until 1916, when he came to Princeton. Here he
followed the carpenter's trade until 1918. In Novem-
ber,' 1917, he was elected county tax commissioner,
and began his term of four years in January, 1918.
His offices are in the Lisanby Building on West Court
Square.
Mr. Dunbar owns one of the most desirable of the
homes of Princeton, a modern residence surrounded
with well kept grounds and made conspicuous by many
handsome old shade trees. Mr. Dunbar is a republi-
can in politics, is a deacon and active member of the
Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and is affiliated with
Clinton Lodge No. 82, A. F. and A. M., is a past grand
of Princeton Lodge No. 50, Independent Order of Odd
Fellows, a member of Silver Leaf Camp No. 92, Wood-
men of the World, Princeton Camp No. 12962, Modern
Woodmen of America.
October 3, 1906, he married Miss Ella M. Boitnott,
daughter of J. F. and Lou (Phelps) Boitnott.
Her parents still live on their farm two miles north
of Princeton. Mr. and Mrs. Dunbar have no children
of their own, but have an adopted daughter, Virginia
Berry, who was born June 6, 1918.
Ira Z. Barber, M. D. A physician of high standing
who has practiced at Princeton for the past fifteen
years, Doctor Barber is a specialist in eye, ear, nose
and throat, and as such his skill and abilities have
been sought by a large clientage all over that section
of the state.
Doctor Barber was born in Calloway County, Ken-
tucky, September 7, 1877. His grandfather Ira Barber
was born in Wilson County, Middle Tennessee, in
early life moved to Calloway County, Kentucky, and
lived as a farmer on the place where several years
after his death his grandson, Doctor Barber was born.
Alfred A. Barber, father of Doctor Barber, was born
in November, 1844, in Calloway County, and is living
today a mile and a half from his birthplace on what
56
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
is known as "Barber Farm" five miles southwest of
Murray. He has lived in that locality since early
manhood and has practiced agriculture on a rather
extensive scale. In politics he is a republican and early
in life united with the Methodist Episcopal Church,
and that has been one of the strong attachments of
his life. He married Margaret A. Jackson, who was
born in the same vicinity of Calloway County in 1855
and died there December 5, 1917. Ira Z. is the oldest
of their four children ; May is the wife of W. W.
Paschal, a farmer near Crossland, Kentucky ; Raleigh,
a daughter, died at the age of three years; and Alfred
LaFayette lives on and operates the old homestead.
Ira Z. Barber attended rural schools near the Barber
farm, and completed his general education in the Uni-
versity of Tennessee at Nashville, where he spent two
years. He received his Doctor of Medicine degree in
1905 from the University of Louisville. In the course
of his general practice for several years he found his
work more and more congenial and satisfactory in
certain lines, and preparatory to exclusive devotion to
his specialty he spent the year 1919 in the Chicago Eye,
Ear, Nose and Throat College, and received a special
diploma for his work there. He began practice at
Princeton in 1905. His home and offices are in the
Moore Building.
Doctor Barber is a member of the County, State and
American Medical associations, and served as city
health officer of Princeton from 1916 to 1919. As a
private citizen he was a worker in behalf of the various
causes for the promotion and successful prosecution
of the war. He is a stanch republican, and is a mem-
ber of Princeton Lodge No. 1115 of the Elks.
April 28, 1909, Doctor Barber married at Princeton
Miss Anna B. Hunter, a daughter of Oscar and Alice
(Wylie) Hunter both now deceased. Her father was
a Caldwell County fanner.
Frederick O'Brien See is one of the youngest min-
ing captains in Eastern Kentucky, an expert in every-
thing connected with the equipment of mines and their
operation, and his present post of responsibility is as
superintendent of No. 30 mine for the U. S. Coal &
Coke Company at Lynch.
Mr. See is a native of Eastern Kentucky, born at
Louisa in Lawrence County December 11, 1896. His
people have lived there since pioneer times and since
his grandfather, David See, came out of Virginia to
Lawrence County, where during his active life he was
a timber dealer. David See was of Scotch Irish an-
cestry and of a Colonial Virginia family. His wife
was a Miss Goff, a native of Mississippi, who died in
Lawrence County, Kentucky. F. M. See, father of
Frederick See, was born near Roanoke, Virginia, in
1851, but lived nearly all his life in Lawrence County,
with home at Louisa, where he died in 1919. He was
a contractor in the building of railroads and also
owned a large amount of farm land. For eight years
he was sheriff of Lawrence County and one of the
most influential men in the democratic party there.
He gave liberally of his time and means to the Baptist
Church, and was affiliated with the Masonic fraternity.
F. M. See married Tennie Shannon, who was born in
Lawrence County in 1865 and is living at Louisa. She
is the mother of six children: Andrew David, a build-
ing contractor at Louisa ; Ira, connected with a large
coal company at Beaver Creek, Floyd County; Fred-
erick O'B ; J. B., assistant mine foreman for the
U. S. Coal & Coke Company at Lynch; Miss Madge
Ray, at home; and Scott, a student in the Kentucky
Normal College at Louisa.
Frederick O'Brien See acquired his early education
in the public schools of Louisa, graduating from high
school in 1913. Following that he pursued the mechan-
ical engineering course in the Ohio State University
at Columbus, where he completed his junior year, but
during the fall of 1916 remained at home assisting his
father, and early in 1917 joined the Elkhorn Piney
Coal & Mining Company on Beaver Creek in Floyd
Count3r, as superintendent of construction. The way
in which he handled his work there attracted atten-
tion to him from the U. S. Coal & Coke Company,
and on September 1, 1918, he entered the service of
this subsidiary of the U. S. Steel Corporation as
assistant superintendent of construction at Lynch. He
was for much of the time the man in charge of the
great undertaking involved in planning and building
this model mining community and the equipment of
the mines at Lynch, and when the construction work
was completed on October I, 1920, he remained as
superintendent of No. 30 mine.
Mr. See who is unmarried,, is a democrat and is
affiliated with Benham Lodge No. 880, F. and A. M.,
at Benham, Kentucky. He is a member of the Ameri-
can Association of Engineers. During the World war
he was a leader in his community in behalf of
patriotic causes, and as foreman was largely respon-
sible for the success achieved in the local Red Cross
drive.
Orie S. Ware, commonwealth's attorney for the
Sixteenth Judicial District of Kentucky, is a lawyer
by profession, in which his achievements rank him as
one of the foremost members of the Kenton County
Bar, and he is also one of the most prominent Masons
of the state.
Some four or five generations of the Ware family
have been identified with Kentucky since pioneer times
to the present. Isaac Ware, a Virginian, came to Ken-
tucky at a very early day and developed a large planta-
tion in Campbell County, where he lived out his years.
His son, Daniel Ware, a native of Campbell County,
became a Baptist minister, and did much for the up-
building of that denomination over a large section of
Kentucky. William Ware, a son of this Baptist min-
ister, was the grandfather of Orie S. Ware. William
Ware was born in 1818 and died in 1888, spending all
his life in Campbell County, Kentucky, where he had
large farming interests and was one of the influential
citizens of his day. William Ware married Nancy
Grizzell, who was born and reared in Kenton County
and died in Campbell County, on the old homestead.
Her father was Solomon Grizzell, who died in Kenton
County.
The name of this Kenton County pioneer was be-
stowed upon his grandson, Solomon Grizzell Ware,
who was born near Alexandria in Campbell County,
July 4, 1855, but later became a well known business
man of Covington. He died March 30, 1916. He was
reared and educated in his native county, attending the
celebrated seminary at Cold Spring conducted by
Doctor Pettit. After his marriage in Kenton County
he moved to Peach Grove in Pendleton County, where
he operated a farm and also a general store. In 1886
he moved to the old homestead where he was born,
near Alexandria, living there three years, and in 1889
located at Covington, where he was employed in com-
mercial lines for five years. The next three years he
lived on the home farm of his wife's people in Ken-
ton County, but for a number of years before his death
was a salesman for the Moore Oil Company at Cov-
ington. He served as city auditor of Covington two
years, 1912-14. He was a democrat, for many years a
deacon in the Baptist Church, and was a Royal Arch
Mason.
Solomon G. Ware married Ida Petty, who is still
living, at Covington. She was born near Independence
in Kenton County in i860. She became the mother of
seven children. William Haden, the oldest, is a farmer
in Kenton County, and Orie S. is the second in age.
Vernor Edwin has an extensive business as a con-
tractor and builder at El Paso, Texas. His next
younger brother, Howard Thomas, associated with him
in business at El Paso, is a graduate of Yale University
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
57
in civil engineering, and during the World war was a
first lieutenant in the Quartermaster's Construction
Department. Beulah, the fifth of the children, is the
wife of Norbert H. Gainey, a salesman, advertiser and
commercial artist living at Lakeland, Florida. Elmer
Petty Ware, a lawyer and law partner of his brother
Orie S., was a second lieutenant in the National Army
during the World war period. Arthur Eugene, the
youngest, now a traveling salesman for a wholesale
paint house at Dallas, Texas, was attending the naval
training school at Lexington when the armistice was
signed.
Orie S. Ware was born on a farm at Peach Grove
in Pendleton County, Kentucky, May II, 1882, but the
greater part of his life has been spent in Covington,
where he attended public schools. He finished his
literary education in the private academy at Inde-
pendence of Professor George W. Dunlap. Leaving
this well known school at the age of seventeen, he
clerked in a store at Covington a year and then be-
came stenographer in the law office of W. McD. Shaw,
who later was Circuit judge of Kenton County. He
was then with Judge Shaw as stenographer and law
student for four years, and during the same time com-
pleted a three year course in the Cincinnati Law
School, where he was graduated LL. B. in June, 1903.
Since that year Mr. Ware has been engaged in law
practice at Covington. On January 1, 1910, he formed
a partnership with Judge W. McD. Shaw, a congenial
relationship that was continued until the death of the
judge on November 27, 1912. After that Mr. Ware
practiced alone until January 1, 1919, when his brother,
Elmer Petty Ware, became his partner and took over
a large part of the duties of the firm, while the senior
member was postmaster. Their law offices are in the
First National Bank Building.
Mr. Ware was for five years clerk of the Board of
Election Commissioners. He was appointed postmaster
of Covington in July, 1914, beginning his official duties
September 1st of that year. In July, 1918, he was re-
appointed for a second term of four years, resigning
this office July I, 1921, to make the race for Common-
wealth's attorney of the Sixteenth Judicial District of
Kentucky, which comprises Kenton County, and on
November 8, 1921, by the unprecedented majority of
6,104, he was elected to this office. He assumed his
duties January 2, 1922.
Mr. Ware was prominent in all war activities in Ken-
ton County, cheerfully assuming the additional burdens
imposed upon him as a Federal official, also cooperat-
ing with local organizations for the raising of funds
and other purposes. He was secretary of the Kenton
County Council of Defense and was general campaign
chairman of the War Savings Stamps drive. Mr.
Ware is a director of the First National Bank of La-
tonia, Kentucky. He owns one of the very comfort-
able modern residences in Covington, at the corner of
Fifth and Garrard streets.
On September 19, 1906, at Covington, in the Madison
Avenue Presbyterian Church, he and Miss Louise Cul-
bertson were united in marriage. Mrs. Ware, who is
a graduate of the Covington High School, is a
daughter of Louie and Kate (Huffman) Culbertson.
Her mother, who is still living at Covington, was born
in Lincoln County, Kentucky, and is an art teacher
in the Covington public schools. Mr. and Mrs. Ware
have three children: William Orie, born September 25,
1908; Louise, born February 8, 191 1 ; and James Cul-
bertson, born February 3, 1913.
Mr. Ware's record in Masonry lends special distinc-
tion to his name in the state. He served two terms as
worshipful master of Covington Lodge No. 109, F.
and A. M., is a past high priest of Covington Chapter
No. 35, R. A. M. ; is past thrice illustrious master of
Kenton Council No. 13, R. and S. M., past commander
of Covington Commandery No. 7, K. T., is a member
of Kosair Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Louisville
and Indra Consistory No. 2 of the Scottish Rite bodies
at Covington. He has been honored with the degree
Knight Commander of the Court of Honor and in
1913 was elected grand master of the Grand Lodge of
Kentucky and at present is chairman of the committee
on jurisprudence in the Grand Lodge. He is also a
member of Covington Lodge No. 314 of the Elks, of
Myrle Lodge, No. 5, Knights of Pythias, Old Kentucky
Lodge No, 1359 of the Moose, and Covington Aerie
No. 329, Fraternal Order of Eagles.
Mr. Ware is a deacon in the First Baptist Church
of Covington and has the responsible office of president
of the Kenton County Children's Home Society, an
organization of 2000 members, each of whom pays five
dollars annually to carry on the work of this splendid
auxiliary to the Covington Protestant Children's Home.
Mr. Ware is a member of the Kenton County and
State Bar Associations, Kenton County Historical
Society, Covington Industrial Club and the Fort
Mitchell Country Club.
Breckinridge Viley. The achievements of the Viley
family through several generations would represent a
number of contributions to the history of Kentucky
thoroughbreds, racing and agricultural affairs. It is a
noted Blue Grass family, and Breckinridge Viley lives
at the old homestead that has been the center of the
family life and achievements for the past seventy
years, and before that time was one of the rendezvous
for good Kentucky society. This homestead is the
Stonewall Stock Farm, located three miles north of
Versailles and in Woodford County.
The old house which shelters him today was the
birthplace of Breckinridge Viley, where he was born
March 5, 1854, son of Warren and Catherine Jane
(Martin) Viley. His grandfather, Captain Willa
Viley, was one of the noted Kentuckians who gave
special prominence to the thoroughbred racing stock,
and was a contemporary of General William Buford,
father of General Abe Buford. Stonewall Stock Farm
lies adjacent to the old farm owned by General Abe
Buford. Just one horse owned by Captain Willa Viley
may be mentioned to indicate his prominence as a
thoroughbred owner. This was Richard Singleton,
which was a starter in fourteen four-mile-heat races,
and the winner of all but two. This wonderful achieve-
ment was made in 1832 or 1833. In one noted race he
ran sixteen miles, winning three heats out of five. A
picture of Richard Singleton, painted in 1833, still
adorns the walls of the Stonewall residence. At that
time he was undoubtedly the greatest racing horse in
Kentucky.
The Stonewall residence was erected in 1839-40 by
Captain Shouse, who was a partner with James Coie-
man, owner of the farm. Coleman operated a hemp
factory, making rope bagging and furnishing an im-
portant market for local hemp growers. The farm
then passed to Chapman Coleman, of Louisville,
Shouse remaining as overseer until 1852, when the
place became the property of Warren Viley. It then
comprised 366 acres, and the name Stonewall Stock
Farm was selected by Warren Viley's wife. Captain
Willa Viley had his home in Stock County, and that
was also the home of Warren Viley until 1852. War-
ren Viley continued the interests of the family in the
thoroughbred industry and was breeder of King Al-
phonso, a noted racer and sire, and also of Capitola,
dam of King Alphonso. He bred many other noted
animals. Captain Willa Viley had helped lay out the
race track at Lexington in 1826, and was a charter
member of the association, his son Warren continuing
in the same relation, as has also Breckinridge Viley.
John R. Viley, a brother of Warren Viley, was for
years president of the Lexington Racing Association,
and owned a farm on Leestown Pike near Lexington.
Warren Viley was a man of exceptional powers and
vigor, and continued active in affairs until past four-
58
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
score. He finally retired from his farm to Midway
and died at the age of eighty-four. He probably never
appeared as a candidate for public office, but was in-
fluential in politics and wielded a great deal of power
in his time. He was a great friend of Joe Blackburn,
and in a barbecue held on the Viley farm introduced
Blackburn, then making his first campaign for the Leg-
islature. He was also a friend of John C. Breckin-
ridge, a friendship commemorated in the name of his
son, though the two families were related by marriage
as well. Another intimate friend of Warren Viley was
Senator Beck, and the late Stoddard Johnston frequent-
ly enjoyed the old southern hospitality of Stonewall
Farm. Many of the barbecues, formerly an indis-
pensable feature of politics, were held in the grove of
the Viley homestead. Mrs. Warren Viley was a social
leader, and the open hospitality of that generation has
been modified very little by the present owner, Breck-
inridge Viley.
Breckinridge Viley remained with this father as a
lad and young man, and attended Georgetown College
until failing health compelled him to give up his
studies. He returned home to take charge of the
establishment, and now, as years are advancing upon
him, he has the satisfaction of seeing his own sons
perform a like service. Besides King Alphonso whose
record is associated with the Stonewall Stock Farm,
Breckinridge Viley bred other splendid racers whose
records swelled the distinctions of Stonewall Farm,
among them being Hospadar, W. Overton, Bab, winner
of the Kentucky Oaks stakes, Tenpenny, also a Ken-
tucky Oak winner, Miss Galop, Belmar, Buckvidere,
winner of the Tennessee Derby, Joe Frey, who won
the California Derby, Elkhorn, Crockett, a winner of
the Kentucky Oak stakes. Mr. Viley has sold his
yearlings at Saratoga and Sheeps Head Bay, and. his
string of horses have followed the grand circuit from
Sheeps Head Bay to New Orleans. Two of his noted
sires were Belvidere and Linden, and the present head
of the stud is Vandergrift, with many winners to his
credit.
Mr. Viley is one of the men who have never deviated
in an important degree from the thoroughbred indus-
try in spite of the obvious handicaps and difficulties
imposed by events in recent years. In politics he is
strictly independent, and has voted for the man that
appeals best to his judgment. He served four years
as captain of a State Guards Company. At the age
of twenty-six he married Flavilla Surles, of New
Orleans. She died twenty years later, leaving no chil-
dren. For his second wife he married Mary Phil
Parrisli. of Woodford County. They have three sons,
Warren and Breck, both students in the Versailles
High School, and Philemon. Mr. Viley has been a
Mason since he was twenty-one, has passed the chairs
in the Chapter and Commandery and is a past grand
commander of the Versailles Commandery. He en-
joys all the outdoor sports, has kept a pack of hounds
and hunted coons and foxes and has gone to Mis-
sissippi for deer and other big game, and on hunting
excursions has usually taken his sons along.
Walter Anderson Wilson, manager of the Kentucky
Leaf & Transit Company, is one of the dependable and
alert business men of flopkinsville, who not only has
built up a solid reputation for his ability, but also has
gained the respect and confidence of all with whom he
comes in contact. Mr. Wilson was horn in Trigg
County, Kentucky, August 3, 1871, in the little village
of Wallonia, where the family had been located for
many years. He is a son of William A. Wilson, and a
grandson of John F. Wilson, who was born in Halifax
County; Virginia, in 1808. He brought the family into
Trigg County. Kentucky, and was a solid farmer of that
region. His death occurred at Wallonia in 1862. His
wife, who was Augusta Foard prior to her marriage, also
died at Wallonia, passing away in 1875. She was born
at Churchill, Christian County1, Kentucky.
William A. Wilson was born eight miles west of Hop-
kinsville, on a farm in Christian County, Kentucky, in
1848, and he died at Wallonia, Kentucky, in February,
1875. He was only a boy when his parents located at
Wallonia, and there he was reared, educated and mar-
ried, and there he developed into an extensive farmer.
In politics he was a stalwart democrat. He was a mem-
ber of the Masonic fraternity. When only sixteen years
old he enlisted in the Confederate army during the war
between the states, and served until the close of that
conflict. William A. Wilson married Lucy Boyd, who
was born at Wallonia in 1852, and died there in 1873.
They had two children, Walter Anderson and his sister
Lucy, who died at the age of nineteen years.
Walter Anderson Wilson attended the schools of Wal-
lonia, the private school conducted by Maj. J. O. Fer-
rell at Hopkinsville, and Bethel College at Russellville.
but left the latter institution after a year, in 1892, and
then spent four years on the home farm. In 1896 he
came to Hopkinsville and dealt in tobacco until 1909,
when he became a buyer for the American Snuff Com-
pany. These various activities made him a well-known
figure in the tobacco business, and in the fall of 1912
the Kentucky Leaf & Transit Company made him a very
flattering offer, which he accepted, and he has continued
to be their manager for the past eight years. The large
new rehandling house and offices of this company are
located at the corner of Fourth and Clay streets. This
building is a modern brick structure and the most com-
plete rehandling house in the city. The headquarters of
the Kentucky Leaf & Transit Company are at New York
City, and the}' have a local central office at 1107 Broad-
way, Paducah, Kentucky. Mr. Wilson is, like his father,
a democrat. He maintains membership in the Methodist
Episcopal Church. He resides on East Ninth Street.
In 1895 Mr. Wilson was married at Cadiz, Kentucky,
to Miss Sudie Bacon, a daughter of Dr. T. L. Bacon,
formerly a physician and surgeon of Hopkinsville, where
he died in 1918. Mrs. Bacon survives and still resides
at Hopkinsville. Mrs. Wilson was graduated from
Logan College at Russellville, Kentucky. Mr. and Mrs.
Wilson have four children, namely : Lucy, who married
Rev. D. M. Spears, a clergyman of the Methodist Epis-
copal Church, South, resides at Bowling Green, Ken-
tucky; Thomas, who is engaged in an automobile busi-
ness at Hopkinsville, lives at home; Emma, who was
graduated from the Hopkinsville High School, lives at
home ; and Susan, who is a student in the public schools.
Mr. Wilson discharges the duties pertaining to his
business and civic responsibilities without the bias of
prejudice or narrowness that is the penalty of restricted
horizons, and demonstrates in every way his broad-
mindedness and ready sympathies, and at all times
maintains a high standard of good citizenship and a
proper conception of good government.
William Walker Barrett. Within the present gen-
eration there has not arisen in Kentucky a more able
lawyer or a finer citizen than William Walker Bar-
rett, county attorney of Pike County. Beside note-
worthy powers of both a professional and public na-
ture. Mr. Barrett is a scholar, and is recognized as a
polished and eloquent orator on national and local
issues. He was born in Tazewell County. Virginia,
July 28, 1892, a son of Isaac C. and Harriet L.
(Walker) Barrett.
Isaac C. Barrett and his wife came to Pike County
in 1893, and became farming people of this locality.
Her death occurred in May, 1918, but he survives and
now lives at Draffin, this county. Early uniting with
the Methodist Episcopal Church. Isaac C. Barrett and
his wife became very devout Christians, and he has
long been one of the stewards of the local congrega-
tion of his denomination. His home has always been
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
59
open to the circuit riders to whom a hearty hospi-
tality is shown. In politics Isaac C. Barrett is a strong
republican. He and his wife became the parents of
ten children, eight of whom are still living, and all
are residents of Pike County.
William W. Barrett attended the Phelps High School
and the Phelps Military Academy, Pikeville College,
Transylvania University at Lexington, Kentucky, and
the Jefferson School of Law at Louisville, Kentucky,
being graduated from the latter institution in IQI5-
During the period he was attending school, he taught
school for seven years, in this way earning the funds
to prosecute his educational training. In 1915 Mr.
Barrett went into partnership with the present assis-
tant attorney general of Kentucky, William P. Hughes,
which association continued until Mr. Hughes became
an ensign in the United States navy for service during
the World war, in which he was a member of the
transport service. In 1917 Mr. Barrett was elected
county attorney, being opposed by Judge J. M. York
and A. S. Ratliff. During the period of the war Mr.
Barrett rendered a very effective service by serving
on the various local committees, as a member of the
draft board and as government appeal agent.
In 1912 Mr. Barrett was married to Miss Martha
Thornberry, a daughter of Rev. James Thornberry, a
minister of the Baptist denomination. Mr. and Mrs.
Barrett have two children, namely: Ruth Darrell and
William Prentice. Mr. Barrett is a Ihirty-second de-
gree Mason, and he and Mrs. Barrett belong to the
Baptist Church. He has always been prominent in
Masonry, both as a York and Scottish-Rite, and main-
tains membership with the Blue Lodge and Chapter
at Pikeville ; the Commandery and Shrine at Ash-
land, and the Consistory at Covington. He also belongs
to the Elks at Catlettsburg, Kentucky. In politics he
is a republican. Although one of the younger lawyers
of this part of the state, he has won ever-increasing
distinction as a professional man, influential citizen
and public official. The promptness and ability he has
always displayed in both his private practice and the
conduct of the affairs of the county have marked him
as a lawyer of unusual parts, and convinced his
fellow citizens of his wisdom and efficiency. Compan-
ionable, warm-hearted and generous, admiration of his
masterful abilities is combined with the warmer recog-
nition of the man.
The Bowman Family. Among the honored residents
of Fayette County, Kentucky, living three miles west of
Lexington, on the Gunn Pike, are Henry C, Jr., Anna
Belle and Sally Bowman, each a representative of a fam-
ily which has been held in high esteem for many years
in this state. These three are children of Henry C. Bow-
man, Sr., and Sally (Bowman) Bowman, and grand-
children of Abram and Nancy (Trotter) Bowman.
Abram Bowman was born at Elkhorn, Fayette County,
Kentucky, a son of Col. Abram Bowman, an officer of
the Continental line during the Revolutionary war. He
married Mrs. Sarah (Henry) Bryant, the widow of Col.
David Bryant, who met a soldier's death while serving
with Colonel Bowman. Colonel Bryant had lived on
what is now the Phelps farm in Fayette County, and
Colonel Bowman was a near neighbor, to whom Colonel
Bryant entrusted the care of his family at the time of
his death. Colonel Bowman and wife were buried orig-
inally on what is now known as the Helm farm, but
recently his remains were transferred by his three great-
grandchildren, Henry C, Jr., Anna Belle and Sally Bow-
man, to the cemetery at Lexington.
Abram and Nancy (Trotter) Bowman passed their
entire lives near what is known as the Helm farm, Mr.
Bowman having attained the remarkable age of ninety-
six years. He and his wife were the parents of five
sons : Thomas, who died in Mercer County, Kentucky,
where the parents had settled originally; William,
Abram and Andrew, who went to Missouri, the last-
Vol. V— 7
named locating near St. Joseph ; and Henry C. Henry
C. Bowman, Sr., was married first to Sally Bowman, a
daughter of William Bowman, son of the first Abram
Bowman. Mr. and Mrs. Bowman lived on Parker's Mill
road, where both died, she when about thirty years of
age and he when eighty-two. His second wife bore the
maiden name of Elizabeth Reed. By his first union Mr.
Bowman had four children : Lou, who became an artist,
taught art in Hamilton College for eight years as well
as in the public schools of Lexington, and died in 1910;
Anna Belle, Sally and Henry C, Jr. In his second fam-
ily there were the following children : William, a re-
tired farmer living at Lexington; Lee, a banker of Bel-
lairs, Ohio ; Bush H., a real estate and oil operator of
Perry, Oklahoma; Andrew, deputy sheriff, residing at
Lexington ; and John, a breeder and ranchman of Mcin-
tosh, New Mexico, specializing in Hereford cattle, who
holds sales in the East as well as the West, which are
largely attended, buyers coming from everywhere.
Anna Belle, Sally and Hal C. Bowman, Jr., reside on
their farm, located three miles west of Lexington, a
community in which they have maintained the family
reputation for integrity, probity, clean citizenship and a
clear conception of an individual's responsibility in the
way of charity and education. They have long taken
an active part in the work of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, although their parents belonged to the Christian
Church. Their acquaintance is extensive and their
friendships are numerous and sincere.
Meredith Woodson Hyatt, M. D. The work of
Doctor Hyatt as a physician and surgeon has been
performed in Washington County, Kentucky, through
a period of a quarter of a century. From 1904 to 1917
on entering the army Doctor Hyatt was the county
health officer of Washington County.
Doctor Hyatt was born in Shelby County, Kentucky,
May 21, 1867, son of Joseph Martin and Amanda Meri-
field (Moore) Hyatt and grandson of Meredith and
Judith (Easley) Hyatt, the former a native of Virginia
and the latter of North Carolina. Doctor Hyatt's father
was born in Shelby County and his mother in Washing-
ton County. When he was a small child his parents
moved to Anderson County and he grew up on their
farm and acquired his early education in country schools.
Doctor Hyatt also attended the Kentucky Normal Col-
lege at Lawrenceburg, receiving a diploma in the Spe-
cial Science Course in that institution in 1889, and in
1894 he received his M. D. degree from the Kentucky
School of Medicine at Louisville. He practiced two
years in Anderson County and since then his name and
reputation have been favorably known in Washington
County. His home has been in Springfield since 1901.
Upon his return from the army in 1919 he with Dr.
J. N. Mudd, Springfield, Kentucky, founded the Lincoln
Hospital, an institution with twenty-four beds. This
firm was dissolved August I, 1921, and since that date
Doctor Hyatt has resumed his private practice at Spring-
field, Kentucky.
He is a member of the Washington County, Kentucky
State and American Medical Associations. He is a
democrat, a Knight Templar Mason, being affiliated with
Springfield Lodge F. & A. M. and the Commandery at
Lebanon. He is a member of the Christian Church.
In 1899 he married Miss Margaret Motch Durrett, of
Bloomfield, Kentucky. Their two children are Mere-
dith R. and William D., twin boys.
Since October, 1917, Doctor Hyatt has had much of
his professional talent engaged in Government work.
He was the medical officer of the Draft Board of Wash-
ington County from June until October, 1917. In May,
1917, he was commissioned a captain in the Medical Re-
serve Corps and he reported for active duty at Camp
Zachary Taylor, Louisville, October 6, 1917, being as-
signed as Regimental Surgeon of the Three Hundred
and Thirty-fourth Infantry. He was with the army
fifteen months. In February, 1919, he was appointed
GO
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
War Risk Insurance Examiner and in September, 1921,
was appointed Attending Specialist for Tuberculosis on
the War Risk Insurance Board, affiliating with the War
Risk Insurance Unit at Lebanon, Kentucky.
Charles Irvin Ross. While his active career covers
little more than twenty years, Charles Irvin Ross is
widely known over Eastern Kentucky, especially in his
home county of Pulaski. He enjoys well deserved
prominence as a leader in the republican party, and
for a number of years has filled with every degree of
capability the office of Circuit Court clerk of Pulaski
County.
Mr. Ross was born at Mount Savage in Carter County,
Kentucky, September 14, 1879. He is a son of Charles
Ross, who was born at Cincinnati April 14, 1844. He
grew up in Eastern Kentucky, in the vicinity of Ashland.
was married in Greenup County and for a number of
years was a worker in iron furnaces, and continued that
employment and also did mining in Carter County.
Since 1906 his home has been at Barrenfork in Mc-
Creary County, where he has charge of the stock and
feed for a large mining company. He was a Union
soldier in the Civil war, enlisting in 1861 and serving all
through the struggle with the Twenty-second Kentucky
Infantry. He was at the siege of Vicksburg. Charles
Ross has been married three times. His first wife was
Mary Coffey, a native of Eastern Kentucky, who died in
Greenup County. They had four children : the oldest, a
son, was scalded to death when three years of age ;
Pearl, living with her father, is the widow of W. H.
Moore, a carpenter; Minnie, of Barrenfork, is the widow
of John Skene, who was superintendent of the Eagle
Coal Company at Barrenfork and widely known as one
of the most skillful mining men in that section of the
state ; and Ed, the youngest, who died at the age of
twenty years.
The second wife of Charles Ross was Sophia Baker,
who was born in Greenup County in 1859 a"d died at
Mount Savage in 1892. Charles Irvin Ross, of Somer-
set, is the oldest of her three children ; May is the wife
of R. H. Rhonk, of Somerset, a fireman for the South-
ern Railway Company and also owner of a farm in West
Virginia ; John, the youngest, died at the age of seven
years. The third wife of Charles Ross was Laura Law-
son, who was born at Willard in Carter County in 1878
and died at Barrenfork in 1918. She was the mother
of five children: Oliver, employed in the coal mines
at Hazard, Kentucky; Christine, with her father; Tem-
perance, who died at the age of fifteen years; Florence,
who died in infancy ; and Harry, also in the coal mines
at Hazard.
Charles Irvin Ross acquired his early education in the
public schools of Mount Savage and a grade school at
Denton, but his educational advantages ended when he
was fifteen, and even before that he had clerked in
stores evenings and on Saturdays. When he left school
he took charge of a small store at Music in Carter
County for the Lexington & Carter Mining Company.
He was at that work two years, and then under the
same company was employed for six months managing
the tipple and weighing crews at Mount Savage. For
another six months he was brakeman and weighman on
the short line railroad running from Flatrock to the
Eagle Coal Company's mines at Barrenfork. For two
years he was bookkeeper for the Eagle Coal Company,
and thereafter was the company's general purchasing
agent until 1907, when his growing prominence and in-
terest in politics brought him the appointment of Cir-
cuit Court clerk of Pulaski County to serve the one year
of unexpired term of Napier Adams, who had been
elected clerk of the Court of Appeals. In November,
1909, Mr. Ross was elected Circuit Court clerk, begin-
ning his six year term in January, 1910. He was re-
elected in 1915, and his present term expires January I,
1922. On November 8, 1921, he was elected sheriff of
Pulaski County. When America entered the World war
there was a special need for his experience in the coal
mining industry, and at the request of the coal admin-
istration he turned over the duties of his office to Napier
Adams, and for three years was general manager of the
Eagle Coal Company. He resigned this office in Decem-
ber, 1919, and was then engaged in the retail coal busi-
ness at Somerset until December, 1920.
Mr. Ross has won all his political battles and at the
same time has given much strength to the republican
organization of Pulaski and adjoining counties. He was
chairman of the Republican County Committee from
191 2 to 1920, when he resigned.
Mr. Ross is a member of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South, is affiliated with Burnside Lodge, F. and
A. M., at Burnside, is a past grand of Somerset Lodge
No. 238, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, a member
of Somerset Lodge No. 1021 of the Elks, of Somerset
Council No. 193, Junior Order United American Me-
chanics; Queen City Camp No. 11494, Modern Wood-
men of America; and Crescent Lodge No. 60, Knights
of Pythias.
__ He and his family have their home on Mount Vernon
Street in Somerset. He married at Barrenfork April
2, 1902, Miss Madge Craynon, daughter of John and
-Mary Craynon. Her mother lives at Barrenfork. Her
father was a locomotive engineer and died at Barren-
fork. Mr. and Mrs. Ross have five children. Paul,
born December 24, 1902, is an apprentice machinist in the
Ferguson shops of the Southern Railway Company at
Somerset. John Sherman, born in October, 1904, is a
high school student in Somerset and very prominent in
high school athletics. Norma, born in 1906, and Grace,
born in 1908, both attend the graded school, and the
youngest of the family is Kate Crawford, born June 4,
1917.
William Curtis Travis, D. V. M., of Kuttawa, the
only veterinary surgeon of Lyon County, and a veteran
of the great war, is one of the substantial men and
highly-respected citizens of his locality. He was born in
Marshall County, Kentucky, in the town of Birming-
ham, December 31, 1889, a son of Thomas Anderson
Travis, and grandson of Thomas Travis, a native of
Tennessee, who died at Maple Spring, Kentucky, in
1891. He was the pioneer of his family in Kentucky,
locating in Marshall County and there following the call-
ing of a farmer as well as his profession as a clergyman
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, both of
which occupied him in his old home near Cottage Grove,
Tennessee. He was first married to a Miss Collie, and
afterward to a Miss Howard, the latter being the grand-
mother of Doctor Travis. She died at Maple Spring,
Kentucky. The Travis family originated in Ireland, but
its representatives came to this country during its Colo-
nial epoch.
Thomas Anderson Travis was born in Marshall
County, near Maple Spring, Kentucky, in 1858, and was
there reared, educated and married. He developed into
one of the prosperous and extensive farmers of his
county, and still owns his farm, which is located one-
fourth of a mile west of Birmingham, Kentucky, al-
though he is now living retired at Birmingham. A
democrat, he has always been interested in local affairs
and has served as city judge of Birmingham. The
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, holds his member-
ship, and he is an active supporter of his local con-
gregation. Fraternally he belongs to T. L. Jefferson
Lodge No. 622, A. F. and A. M., of Birmingham;
Red Oak Camp No. 71, W. O. W., and Birmingham
Chapter, O. E. S. Thomas Anderson Travis was mar-
ried to Mary Jane Collie, who was born near Maple
Spring, Kentucky, in i860, and died on the farm in
August, 1909. Their children were as follows: Walter,
who resides on his farm north of Birmingham; Lula,
who married Luther Goheen, a farmer, but formerly a
merchant, and resides at Birmingham ; Florence, who
married Tom Nunley and lives on her father's farm ;
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
61
Ethel, who died in infancy ; Doctor Travis, who was the
fifth in order of birth ; Roy, who lives on the home
farm ; Helen, who married Rennie Cornwell, a farmer
of Birmingham ; and Terrel, who is a farmer of Lyon
County.
Doctor Travis attended the rural schools of Marshall
County and was reared on his father's farm and re-
mained there until he was twenty-three years old. Leav-
ing the farm, he went to Birmingham and for two years
was engaged in clerking in a store, but not being satisfied
with this line of work he decided to enter a profession
and became a student in the Terre Haute Veterinary Col-
lege at Terre Haute, Indiana, taking the regular veter-
inary course, and was graduated therefrom in April,
1918, with his degree. He began the practice of his pro-
fession at Birmingham during his vacations, and was
at Morganfield, Union County, Kentucky, for two
months after his graduation. On August 13, 1918. Doc-
tor Travis enlisted in the Veterinarian Medical Re-
serve Corps, and was called to duty immediately and
sent to Camp Greenleaf, Georgia, where he remained
for four months, and then was honorably discharged
December 14, 1918.
In January, 1919, Doctor Travis established himself
at Kuttawa, and has built up a very large practice, and
is also serving as livestock inspector of Lyon County.
In politics he is a democrat. His fraternal connections
are those which he maintains as a member of T. L. Jef-
ferson Lodge No. 622, A. F. and A. M., of Birmingham,
and Cumberland Camp, W. O. W., Kuttawa.
On May 28, 1919, Doctor Travis was united in mar-
riage with Miss Faylyne Johnson at Elizabethtown, Illi-
nois, a daughter of John and Eva (Doom) Johnson,
of Kuttawa. Mr. Johnson is a retired farmer. Doctor
and Mrs. Travis have one child, William Curtis, Jr.,
who was born April 2, 1920.
Thomas E. King, commonwealth's attorney for the
Eighteenth Judicial District, has been a practicing lawyer
at this bar for over twenty years, and success and high
standing in his profession has been accompanied by
many public relationships. He was born in Bourbon
County, Kentucky, April 13, 1876, a son of William and
Mary (Griffin) King, the former a native of Ireland
and the latter of Bourbon County. His father was
reared and educated in Ireland, and at the age of nine-
teen came to the United States, spending some time at
Cincinnati and then removing to Kentucky. After his
marriage he settled on a farm in Bourbon County, and
the rest of his life was identified with agricultural pur-
suits. He died in 1914. He was a stanch democrat in
politics.
Thomas E. King, one of seven living children, grew
up on his father's homestead. He attended the public
schools, also N. F. Smith's private school at Cynthiana,
and finished his literary education in the State Univer-
sity. He read law in the office of W. T. Lafferty, and
was admitted to the bar in 1898. Until January, 1906,
he practiced with his law preceptor, the partnership being
dissolved when Mr. King was elected county judge. He
as such administered the fiscal affairs of the county for
two terms, eight years. Resuming private practice for
four years he was again called to the office he had so
creditably filled. Mr. King received the democratic
nomination for commonwealth's attorney for the Eigh-
teenth Judicial District for a six year term, beginning
in January, 1922, and was elected to the office November
8, 1921. This district comprises the counties of Harrison,
Pendleton, Nicholas and Robertson.
Mr. King is one of the directors of the Harrison
Memorial Hospital. In November, 1905, he married
Ruth Addams, daughter of William Addams, whose
sketch is found on another page.
Paul- Martin Basham, County Judge of Breckin-
ridge County, is a young man who is proving the advan-
tage of acquiring a broad and liberal education, for he
is an attorney as well as a highly educated man, and
made a name for himself as an educator of the county
before he went into politics. As one of the active re-
publicans of this region he has received the rewards
to which his party service entitles him, and is recog-
nized as one of the strong elements in the political
life of this part of the state.
The birth of Paul Martin Basham occurred on a farm
in Breckinridge County, near Stephensport, July 25,
1891, and he is a son of Winston L. and Malissa Belle
(Shellman) Basham, both of whom were born in Breck-
inridge County and descended from Virginian ancestors.
The paternal grandfather was George Basham, who was
also born in this county. The maternal grandfather
James Shellman, was born in Breckinridge County. The
parents have spent their lives on their farm. The father
was reared a Presbyterian and the mother as a Metho-
dist. In politics he is a republican. He had a brother
Thomas Basham, who was a soldier in the Union army
during the war of the '60s, and who was killed at the
battle of Knoxville, Tennessee, while in the service. An-
other brother, Joseph Basham, now nearly ninety, was
also a Union soldier. There were four children born
to Winston L. Basham and his wife, namely: James T.,
who is county attorney of Grayson County; Mary Belle;
Paul M. ; and Eva, all of whom except Paul M. are
married.
Growing to manhood on his father's homestead, Paul
M. Basham attended the rural schools, and then took a
course at the Western Kentucky State Normal School,
Bowling Green, Kentucky, from which he was graduated
in 1914. For eighteen months thereafter he was engaged
in teaching school, and if he had so desired might have
remained indefinitely in that profession, for he showed
ability and won the approval of the parents and the
affection of the pupils of his schools. In 1915, however,
he was elected Circuit Court clerk, which office he held
till his election, on the republican ticket, without oppo-
sition, as county judge of Breckinridge County, being
only twenty-nine years old at the time. He studied law
under a private preceptor, and was admitted to the bar
in 1916. He was assistant sergeant-at-arms of the na-
tional convention of the republican party held at Chi-
cago in 1920, and for the past four years has been cam-
paign chairman of his party in Breckinridge County.
Mr. Basham is a Knight Templar Mason and a Noble
of the Mystic Shrine. Admittedly one of the most bril-
liant young men of this part of Kentucky, he has a
bright future before him, and' his friends expect great
things of him both in politics and in his profession, and
judging by his past achievements they are not liable to
be disappointed.
Ebenezer B. Hemphill, county superintendent of
schools for Knox County, has the scolastic and execu-
tive ability that have enabled him to give most loyal
and effective service in this important office, in which
he has done much to co-ordinate and advance the
standard of public-school work in his native county,
he having been born on his father's farm, five miles
south of Barbourville, the county seat, on the 5th of
November, 1866. His father, the late James L.
Hemphill, was born in McMinn County, Tennessee,
in the year 1834, and died at Barbourville, Kentucky,
in 1890. He was six years of age at the time when
his parents established their home in Knox County,
where he was reared and educated and where his mar-
riage was solemnized in his young manhood. He gave
loyal service as a soldier of the Union in the Civil war.
in which he was a member of Company H, Seventh
Kentucky Volunteer Infantry. During a period of
3V2 years his military career was virtually co-incident
with the gallant record of his regiment, with which he
took part in many engagements, including a number
of the important battles of the war — Shiloh, Chicka-
mauga, Lookout Mountain, Stone's River and the siege
of Vicksburg. In one engagement he received a bul-
62
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
let wound in his left side. After the close of the
war he served three consecutive terms, of two years
each, as sheriff of Knox County, and thereafter his
productive energies were given to his extensive farm
enterprise, five miles south of Barbourville, during the
remainder of his active career. His sterling character
and fine mentality made him well equipped for leader-
ship in community affairs, and commended him to the
high esteem of all who knew him. He served thirty
years as a deacon of the Baptist Church, of which his
wife likewise was a devoted member, and lie was affili-
ated with Mountain Lodge, No. 187, Free & Accepted
Masons, and with the Grand Army of the Republic,
his political faith having been that of the republican
party. His wife, whose maiden name was Amanda
Ingram, was born in Bell County, Kentucky, in 1X48,
and she survived him by more th?n a quarter of a
century, her death having occurred at Barbourville.
in 1918. Of the children, Ebenezer B., of this review,
is the eldest ; Thomas died at the age of two years ;
Dora H. is the wife of W. M. Tye, of Barbourville,
who is a leading merchant in this city, a representa-
tive farmer of Knox County and now county agricul-
tural agent; Carrie A. is the wife of Prof. W. C.
Faulkner, former superintendent of the Barbourville
High School and now an executive in the John A.
Black National Bank at Barbourville.
The public schools of Barbourville afforded the pres-
ent county superintendent his earlier education, and
in 1888 he was graduated in the high school depart-
ment of Union College, this state. He thereafter con-
tinued his higher academic studies in Centre College,
at Danville, in which he was graduated as a member
of the class of 1892 and with the degree of Bachelor
of Science. As a boy he had proved an exception-
ally receptive and ambitious student, and he was only
fourteen years old when he initiated his successful
career as a teacher in the rural schools of his native
county. His active pedagogic career as a teacher in
the public schools covered a period of twenty years,
within which he taught in Knox, Bell and Mercer
counties, and established a specially high reputation in
his profession. He was for one year principal of the
high school at Salvisa, Mercer County, and gave a
similar period of service as principal of the Pine-
ville High School in Bell County. His work as a
teacher continued until 1917, in November of which
year he was elected to his present office, for a term
of four years. The Board of Education has appointed
him to the same position beginning with January I,
1922, so he continues as county superintendent. He
first assumed his executive duties as county superin-
tendent of schools of Knox County in January, 1918,
with offices in the court house at Barbourville, and it
may readily be understood that with his liberal educa-
tion and the experience gained in many years of active
and effective school service, he was admirably fortified
for the responsible duties of the new office, in which
he has made an admirable record. Under his super-
vision are the ninety-four schools of the county, in-
cluding the city schools of Barbourville, and lie has
the earnest co-operation of a corps of no efficient
teachers, the while the enrollment of pupils in the
schools of the county is 7,000, Knox being one of the
most populous and important counties in Southeast
Kentucky. Mr. Hemphill has been appointed county
superintendent.
The republican party receives the loyal allegiance of
Mr. Hemphill, he and his wife are active members
of the Baptist Church, and his fraternal relations afe
here briefly noted : Mountain Lodge, No. 187, Free &
Accepted Masons, at Barbourvile ; Barbourville Chap-
ter, No. 137, Royal Arch Masons ; Barbourville Coun-
cil, No. 77, Royal & Select Masters ; LaBelle Lodge,
No. 159, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in his
home city, he being past grand of this lodge ; Wau-
kesha Tent, No. 156, Improved Order of Red Men, of
which he is past sachem; Swan Pond Council, No. 39,
Junior Order of United American Mechanics, of which
he is past counselor. He is an active and honored
member of the Kentucky Educational Association. Mr.
Hemphill owns the attractive residence property which
represents his home, at Barbourville, and takes deep
interest in all things touching the welfare of his home
city and county. During American participation in the
World war he was chairman of the Knox County cam-
paigns for the sale of war savings stamps, aided in all
of the drives in support of the Government war bond
issues, and made his personal subscriptions as liberal as
his means justified.
April 19, 1906, recorded the marriage of Mr.
Hemphill to Miss Eva Parker, daughter of W. M. and
Emily (Bryant) Parker, who now reside in the State
of Idaho, where Mr. Parker is a successful farmer
and also follows the profession of surveyor. Mr. and
Mrs. Hemphill became the parents of seven children,
whose names and respective years of birth are here
recorded: Parker Tye, 1908; James Blaine, 1910; Alice,
'913; William, 1914; Love, 1916; Hazel, 1918; and
Ebenezer B., Jr., 1920. All of the children are living
except the last mentioned, who died at the age of
fifteen months.
Thomas Hemphill, grandfather of Ebenezer Hemp-
hill, was born in Virginia, in 1803, and died in Knox
County, Kentucky, in 1870. Thomas Hemphill was a
scion of a sterling family of Scotch origin, the origi-
nal American progenitor having settled in Virginia in
the Colonial period of our national history. Upon
coming to Kentucky, when a young man, Thomas
Hemphill first settled in Bell County, and there was
solemnized his marriage to Miss Tinsley, a native of
that County. He was engaged in farm enterprise in
Bell County until he came, many years ago, to Knox
County and continued his productive activities in this
same line of industry, both he and his wife having
here passed the remainder of their lives.
An interesting chapter in the career of Ebenezer B.
Hemphill is that which gives record of his service as
a soldier in the Spanish-American war. At the in-
ception of this conflict he enlisted, in February, 1898,
in Company A, Fourth Kentucky Voiunteer Infantry,
and with his command he was in training at Lexington,
Kentucky, until the regiment was sent to Anniston,
Alabama, where he continued in service until he re-
ceived his honorable discharge in February, 1899, his
regiment not having been called to the stage of active
conflict but having been brought up to a high standard
of military efficiency. He was discharged with the
rank of sergeant.
Ambrose Dudley Leach. The life of Ambrose Dud-
ley Leach is an illustration of the possible control over
early limitations and of the wise utilization of ordinary
opportunities. His career has been identified with Bour-
bon County for half a century, during which time he
has accumulated a large and productive property, while
at the same time attracting to himself through integrity
and fair dealing the esteem and confidence of those
among whom he has lived.
Mr. Leach is a native of Harrison County, born near
Lee's Lick December 27, 1858, his parents being Ambrose
Dudley and Frances (Forsythe) Leach. Hezekiah
Leach, his grandfather, was born in Virginia, came as a
young man to Kentucky, and spent the rest of his life
in farming in Harrison County, where he died October
20, 1827. He was married February 16, 1800, to Millie
Bentley, who died May n, 1857. Ambrose Dudley
Leach, the elder, was born June 3, 1818, in Harrison
County. He had a common school education and started
to work at an early age, and June 15, 1846, married
Frances Forsythe, who was born September 7, 1826, in
Harrison County, a daughter of Augustus Forsythe, who
was also a native of that county, where he passed his
life as an agriculturist. Ambrose D. Leach and his wife
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
G3
and children came to Bourbon County about 1870, first
settling on the Clay and Keyser Turnpike, where, be-
cause of his modest finances, the elder Leach at first
rented land. Later he purchased a property near Center-
ville, on the county line of Bourbon and Scott coun-
ties, mainly in the former county, and there rounded
out his career. This is the same land that is now owned
and operated by his son Ambrose D. of this review.
The father was a democrat in his political allegiance,
but did not care for public affairs and took only a
public-spirited citizen's interest in public matters. His
death, which was mourned as the loss of a good citizen,
occurred November 16, 1897, his widow surviving until
February 20, 1900. This worthy couple had a family of
ten children : Ann Eliza, who married Joseph May, of
Bourbon County; Emily Frances, who married William
Sageser and lives near the old home place ; Jesse A.,
a leading farmer of the Centerville community; James
W., who died September 14, 1894, at the age of twen-
ty-eight years; Augustus, who was the same age when
he passed away, January, 3, 1897; Ambrose Dudley;
Joseph L., who is engaged in farming five and one-half
miles northwest of Paris ; John, who is farming in the
locality of Centerville ; Mollie, who died soon after her
marriage to Sam Sageser; and George Thomas, who
farms near his brother Joseph L.
Ambrose Dudley Leach was given the advantages of a
common school education, and his boyhood and youth
were passed on the home farms in Harrison and Bour-
bon counties. When about thirty-one years of age,
March 26, 1890, he was united in marriage with Miss
Sophia Sageser, who was born May 20, 1863, one of
three sisters to marry three brothers, and a daughter
of James and Margaret (Jones) Sageser. James Sage-
ser was born in Fayette County, Kentucky, and passed
his life in farming, dying near Centerville in 1897,
when seventy-two years of age. Mrs. Sageser was
born in Kentucky, of Virginia parentage, was married
in her 'teens, and survived to the age of eighty-three
years, her last years being passed with her daughter,
Mrs. Sophia Leach. In the Sageser family there were
eleven children, of whom eight reached maturity : Sarah
Elizabeth, who married Lee Cox and resides near Paris ;
Mary, who married Elza Harp, and after his death
Stephen Shipley, and died while in middle life ; Wil-
liam Henry, residing on the old home place in Bourbon
County ; Lucinda, who married Thad Cummings and
lives on the old home place ; Noah, a resident of Scott
County; Margaret, the wife of Joseph L. Leach, a
brother of Ambrose D. Leach ; Sophia ; and Florence,
the wife of George Thomas Leach, a brother of Am-
brose D. Leach. The old Sageser farm is on the Haw-
kins and Cummings Pike.
Ambrose D. Leach secured the old Leach farm in
company with his brother George Thomas, and four
years later bought out his brother's interests in the
home property, of which he is still the owner. After
his marriage he spent six years in renting in Bourbon
County and three years on a small farm which he
bought in Fayette County. About 1900 he bought the
Reverend Gano farm of 140 acres, and to this later
added the 280 acres adjoining, south of Centerville, in
addition to which he has the old home farm of 104
acres in Fayette and Scott counties and another tract
in the latter county. He has paid as high as $175 per
acre for some of his land, all of which has been
brought to the highest state of productiveness. Mr.
Leach applies his energies to general farming and stock
growing and feeding, and in all lines of agricultural
work is conceded to be thorough, progressive and highly
capable. He has never held office and has not sought
public preferment, but always supports movements of
a character beneficial to his community.
Mr. and Mrs. Leach have had two sons, both now
deceased. Clifford, born September 25, 1895, died
January 19, 1910. Charlie, born December 10, 1897,
was killed April 20, 1916, in a premature explosion
while blasting in a cistern. These were both excep-
tionally bright boys who gave promise of brilliant
futures. They were popular with all, and their deaths
were sincerely mourned in the community, where they
were general favorites. Clifford played the violin, as
his favorite instrument, and was a gifted musician.
Charlie was a gifted mechanic and loved the profession.
Robinson Swearincen Brown is an electrical engi-
neer by profession, but for many years his interests
have been closely identified with his large and attractive
farm and stock breeding enterprise at Harrods Creek
in Jefferson County. He represents a family that has
been in Kentucky since earliest pioneer times, and the
name has long been one of commercial distinction at
Louisville.
Mr. Brown was born at Louisville March 30, 1886.
His grandfather was J. T. S. Brown, who was born
in Virginia in 1792. The first of the family to come
to Kentucky were two brothers who came over the
mountains in the expedition commanded by George Rog-
ers Clark. One of these western pioneers and soldiers
was James, who was killed in the battle of Tippecanoe.
The other was William, who also lost his life in the
western wilderness. William Brown kept a diary, and
that valued document is now in possession of one of
the descendants of the Brown family, a distinguished
Chicago physician, Dr. William A. Pusey, who is a na-
tive of Kentucky. J. T. S. Brown came to Kentucky
when twelve years of age, and he spent his active life
at Munfordville, where he was a merchant and farmer.
The father of Robinson S. Brown was George G.
Brown, who was born at Mumfordville September 2,
1846, and died at Louisville February 27, 1917. He lived
in Louisville from the time he was sixteen, and com-
pleted his education in the high school of that city.
As a young man he entered the wholesale drug store
of John Chambers, and in 1874 became a member of
the company Chambers, Brown & Company, whole-
sale liquor dealers. This business was later Brown,
Thompson & Company, and since 1886 has been a cor-
poration, Brown, Foreman & Company. After the death
of George Foreman, George G. Brown succeeded as
president, and since his death his son Owsley has been
president. For a number of years this company operated
a distillery at St. Mary's, and manufactured the famous
brand "Old Forrester." George G. Brown helped or-
ganize the Model License League, and served as its
president. He was a democrat, a member of the Pen-
dennis Club and the Country Club at Louisville.
George G. Brown married Amelia Owsley, who was
born at Danville, Kentucky, a daughter of E. Boyle and
Elizabeth Owsley. Her grandfather was the noted
Kentucky governor, William Owsley. He lived at Dan-
ville, his old home being built there in 1803. The resi-
dence of Mrs. G. G. Brown at Harrods Creek contains
the mantle taken from the old Governor Owsley home.
Mrs. Brown was twelve years of age when her parents
moved to Louisville. Her father was a member of the
firm Owsley & Craddock, pork packers, operating the
O K pork packery. E. Boyle Owsley died in 1882. The
children of George G. Brown and wife were : Mary Gar-
vin, who died at Los Angeles in 1910, the wife of Hill
Hastings ; Owsley, president of Brown, Foreman & Com-
pany; Elizabeth, wife of Howard Hammond, a real
estate dealer at Stockton, California; Robinson S. ;
Innes ; and Amelia B., wife of Thomas H. Payne, vice
president and manager of the Winnipeg Oil Company
in Canada.
Robinson S. Brown finished his studies at the Uni-
versity of Virginia in 1910, and began his career as an
electrical engineer with the Bland Electric Company at
Louisville, and later did similar work at Los Angeles.
In January, 1913, he took possession of his Woodland
farm, comprising 280 acres of the old Barrickman and
DeHaven estates at Harrods Creek in Jefferson County.
The attractive old country home was erected by Jack
G4
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
Barber about the time of the Civil war. This is a stock
farm, specializing in Hereford cattle and Berkshire hogs.
Mr. Brown for the past six years has been superintend-
ent of the swine department at the State Fair. He is
also vice president and a director of Brown, Foreman
& Company. Mr. Brown is a member of the Pendennis
Club and the Presbyterian Church.
On June 10, 1913, he married Miss Mary Rogers
Lyons, of Louisville. Her father, W. L. Lyons was head
of the W. L. Lyons & Company, Louisville brokers.
Mr. and Mrs. Brown have one son, Robinson, Jr., born
in 1917.
William Wilson Broaddus is one of Richmond's
leading business men, and from an experience be-
ginning as a clerk for a local coal and feed firm lias
developed an enterprise of his own that is one of the
largest of its kind in Madison County.
Mr. Broaddus was born in Madison County Janu-
ary 17, 1876, and bears the same name as his grand-
father who was a lifelong resident and prominent
farmer, and before the war a slaveholder in Madison
County where he died in 1879. His father was one of
the very early settlers of this section of Kentucky.
William W. Broaddus, Sr., married a Miss Ballew, a
native of Madison County who died in 1882. George
S. Broaddus. father of the Richmond merchant and
now living with his son at Richmond was born in Sep-
tember, 1854, and during his active years conducted
an extensive farm in the eastern part of Madison
County on the Speedwell pike. He was a demo-
crat, a member of the Baptist Church and the Inde-
pendent Order of Odd Fellows and Improved Order
of Red Men. George S. Broaddus married Mary
Tyree, who was born in Lincoln County, Kentucky, in
1857. Of their three children William W. is the oldest.
Charles is an insurance man at Nashville, Tennessee.
Floyd has for twenty-five years been in the railroad
service, is a conductor for the Louisville & Nashville
Railroad and lives at Nashville.
William Wilson Broaddus was born in Madison
County January 17, 1876, grew up on his father's farm,
and attended rural schools until he was sixteen. Soon
after leaving school and the home farm he came to
Richmond and entered the employ of L. R. Blanton, a
coal and feed dealer. He was with that concern four-
teen years, familiarizing himself with every detail of
the business and was well equipped in every way when
he established himself independently in 1909 as a re-
tail dealer in coal, feed and building materials. Ik-
owns his office building and yards on Orchard Street,
also a warehouse and yards on Orange Street, and
leases 300 acres of farm lands where he conducts
farming operations as a means of using profitably and
to the best advantage the teams required by his busi-
ness in the winter season.
Mr. Broaddus also owns one of the most attractive
homes of Richmond, a complete modern residence.
built in 1921, in a fine residential section on Sunset
Avenue. As a man interested in the w'elfare of his
community he served two terms on the City Council,
is a democrat, a member of the First Christian Church,
and is affiliated with Madison Lodge No. 14, Inde-
pendent Order of Odd Fellows, Floating Canoe Tribe
No. 76. Improved Order of Red Men. and Richmond
Lodge No. 581, B. P. O. E. He kept his time and
means and influence generously at the disposal of the
government throughout the period of the World war.
In 1896 at Richmond Mr. Broaddus married Miss
Mattie McCollum, daughter of Isaac and Sarali (Par-
son) McCollum. Her father died at Richmond and
her mother is now living at Lexington.
William David Laswell, M. D. A highly compe-
tent and well trained physician and surgeon, Doctor
Laswell is also a thorough business man and has com-
bined medical practice with the ownership and opera-
tion of some extensive farming interests. Doctor
Laswell has practiced in several localities, but for half
a dozen years his home has been at Kings Mountain.
He was born at Orlando, Rockcastle County, Ken-
tucky, October 7, 1875. His paternal ancestors were
Scotch-Irish and located in America in Colonial times.
His grandfather, Jerry Laswell, was born in Indiana
in 181 8 and as a young man moved to Rockcastle
County, Kentucky, where he married and where he
followed farming until his death in 1842. His wife
was Mrs. Elizabeth (Taylor) McClure. She was born
in Green County, Kentucky, in 1800, and died at Rock-
castle County in 1875.
David Laswell, father of Doctor Laswell, was born
at Orlando in 1838 and died there in 191 1, having spent
all his life on one farm. He had the qualifications of
a good farmer, and made a more than ordinary suc-
cess of his business. As an Eastern Kentuckian he
was a republican in politics. David Laswell married
Flury Jane Clark, who was born at Johnetta, Kentucky,
in 1844, and died at Orlando in 1913. Her father was
Wallace Clark, who was born in Madison County,
Kentucky, in 1801 and died in Rockcastle County in
187;, having lived in Rockcastle County from the time
of his marriage. He was a hatter by trade, but during
the greater part of his active life followed farming.
He was a member of the same family as Gen. George
Rogers Clark. Wallace Clark married Mary Abney,
who was born in Rockcastle County in 1812 and died
there in 1852.
The children of Mr. and Mrs. David Laswell were :
Wallace, a farmer in Rockcastle County; Mary Eliza-
beth, wife of William Adams, an oil operator and
farmer at Tulsa, Oklahoma ; Nancy Jane, wife of B. G.
Mullins, a farmer in Rockcastle County; Oliver Pres-
ton, who died at the age of twenty-one: Manilla, wife
of Isaac A. Chastine, farmer and school teacher in
Rockcastle County; Jerry R., of Tulsa County, Okla-
1 ; Celia. wife of Wilmor Chesnut, a farmer in
Rockcastle County; Dr. William David, who is the
nth in this large family; Flury Hays, wife of
George Evans, a bridge carpenter in Rockcastle
ty; Lillie Belle, whose first husband was Dr. H.
Hundley, a physician and surgeon, and she is now the
wife of Henry L. Smith, an oil field worker in Tulsa
ty, Oklahoma; Effie, a trained nurse living at
Mount Vernon, Kentucky, wife of Bennett Ballard;
and Jack Moore, a farmer in Rockcastle County.
William David Laswell grew up on his father's farm
in Rockcastle County, and while there attended rural
schools, supplementing these advantages by attending
Mount Vernon Collegiate Institute and Berea College
af Berea. For seven years of his younger life he
taught in rural districts of his native county. On July
4. tooj. lie graduated with the M. D. degree from the
Hospital College fit Medicine at Louisville, and for the
;eventeen years has given his time and energies
almost completely to his practice. For three years he
practiced at Orlando, another three years at Wildie.
located at Kings Mountain in 1910. remained there i'j
. then for 2^2 years practiced at Mount Vernon,
and in 1015 resumed his professional interests and
at Kings Mountain. His residence and offices are
on Stanford Street, and he is a member in good stand-
>f the County, State and American Medical as-
; His.
Doctor Laswell owns and with the assistance of his
sons carries on productive operations on several farms.
one. of 7854 acres, in the Highland section on the
Stanford and Somerset Pike in Lincoln County, another,
of eighty acres, near Kings Mountain, and one, of 176
acres, on Green River in Lincoln County. Doctor Las-
well is a republican, a member of the Baptist Church,
is affiliated with Waynesburg Lodge, F. and A. M., is a
Royal Arch Mason, a member of Mount Vernon Lodge,
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and Kings Moun-
tain Camp, Modern Woodmen of America. His time
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
65
and means were freely disposed to aid the Government
during the World war.
In 1899, in Rockcastle County, he married Miss Leta
Cuemile Reams, daughter of George and Mrs.
(Hickey) Reams, the latter deceased. Her father is
now a farmer and blacksmith at Trenton, Missouri.
Mrs. Laswell, who died in 1912, was the mother of
five children : Edith, wife of J. C. Venson, a farmer at
Arabia, Kentucky; Orville Preston, assistant to his
father on the farms; Harrison Edward, William
David, Jr., and George Sheldon, all attending public
school. In 1913, at Berea, Kentucky, Doctor Laswell
married Miss Eunice Parker Ball, daughter of Mr. and
Mrs. Haskeu Ball. Her father is a farmer and cabinet
maker at Honaker, Virginia, and her mother is now
deceased. Dr. and Mrs. Laswell have three children :
Mary Elizabeth, born October 26, 1915; Wallace Has-
keu, born August 29, 1917; and Margaret, born' April
18, 1920.
Corydon F. Mantz. Even as he has proved his
success-winning powers in connection with farm in-
dustry in Taylor County, so has Mr. Mantz demon-
strated his ability in his effective, administration in
the office of high sheriff of the county, a position of
which he is the valued incumbent at the time of this
writing, in the summer of 1921.
Sheriff Mantz was born in Medina County, Ohio, on
the 30th of January, 1861. His father, F. R. Mantz,
was born in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, in 1838, and
was a representative of a family that was founded in
the old Keystone State in the pioneer days. He was
a resident of Logan County, Ohio, at the time of his
death, in 1910. He was a son of Reuben Mantz, who
was born and reared in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania,
where his marriage was solemnized and whence he
removed to Medina County, Ohio, about the year 1842,
he having there become a successful farmer and hav-
ing there passed the remainder of his life. The orig-
inal American progenitors of the Mantz family immi-
grated from Switzerland and established residence in
Pennsylvania in the Colonial period of our national
history.
F. R. Mantz was reared to manhood in Medina
County, Ohio, there his marriage occurred and he de-
voted his entire active life to farm enterprise. In 1886
he came to Taylor County, Kentucky, and here he
continued his activities as a farmer until 1908, when
he retired and established his residence in Logan
County, Ohio, where his death occurred about two
years later, his wife having died within the period of
their residence in Taylor County, Kentucky. Mrs.
Mantz, whose maiden name was Phoebe Edson, was
born in Medina County, Ohio, in 1840. Of the chil-
dren the present sheriff of Taylor County is the eldest;
Cassius was a representative physician and surgeon in
the City of Toledo, Ohio, at the time of his death ;
Charles, a lawyer by profession, died at Colville, Wash-
ington. The father was a staunch republican, and
prior to coming to Kentucky had served six years as
county recorder of Medina County, Ohio. During the
last three years of the Civil war he served as a valiant
soldier of the Union, he having been a member of
the Forty-second Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He was
affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and the Grand
Army of the Republic, and both he and his wife were
zealous members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
The district schools of his native county in the
Buckeye State afforded Corydon F. Mantz his early
education, and he continued to be associated with the
activities of his father's Ohio farm until 1S85, when
he came to Taylor County, Kentucky, and engaged in
independent farm enterprise. He remained on his
farm until 1902, and thereafter he owned and operated
a flour mill at Campbellsville until 1918, when he sold
the mill and business and resumed his activities on his
farm, which he still owns. He continues to give a
general supervision to his well improved farm, situated
three miles north of Campbellsville and comprising 160
acres. The place is devoted to diversified agriculture
and the raising of good types of livestock.
Always inflexible in his allegiance to the republican
party, Mr. Mantz has been one of the influential repre-
sentatives of the same during his residence in Taylor
County, and in 1919 he was elected and assumed the
office of sheriff of the county to fill out two years of
an unexpired term. He became a candidate for re-
election in 1921. The sheriff is a deacon of the
Presbyterian Church at Campbellsville, and his wife
likewise is an earnest member of the church. He is a
director of the Taylor County Milling Company, and
at Campbellsville is affiliated with Pitman Lodge, No.
124, Free and Accepted Masons, and both he and his
wife are members of the Eastern Star. He took an
active part in the furtherance of Governmental agen-
cies working in support of the nation's participation in
the World war, and subscribed liberally to the various
Government bonds and the war savings stamps.
July 28, 1883 recorded the marriage of Mr. Mantz
to Miss Belle Elmer, who was born in Massachusetts.
P. V. Ellis, M. D. To sptak from the intelligent
standpoint of a physician, that greatest of human bless-
ings, health, is the harmonious adaptation of the body
to its environment, and no one but an experienced
medical man understands how seldom is this harmony
maintained. It is his beneficent office to bring it about,
if within the scope of his skill, and, if this be im-
possible, then to ease pain and apply every remedy
known to medical science to ameliorate further suffer-
ing. In no profession is the responsibility greater than
that of medicine, and in no profession are found higher
types of sterling manhood and conscientious bene-
factors of humanity. A prominent member of this
noble profession in Carroll County, Kentucky, is Dr.
P. V. Ellis, physician and surgeon at Ghent, where
he has been established in practice for a quarter of a
century.
Doctor Ellis was born in the pleasant little City of
Ghent, March 16, 1865, the eldest of three sons born to
Dr. P. C. and Drusilla (Tandy) Ellis. His one living
brother, Gen. James Tandy Ellis, is a prominent resident
of Lexington, Kentucky. He served as adjutant-
general of the State of Kentucky under the adminis-
trations of Governor McCreary and Governor Stanley,
retiring in 1918. Dr. P. C. Ellis, for many years a dis-
tinguished physician and surgeon at Ghent, was born
in 1818, in Bourbon County, Kentucky. His parents
were David and Nancy (Clarkson) Ellis, descendants
of pioneers from Virginia, farming people who lived
near Paris, Kentucky. Dr. P. C. Ellis was graduated
from the medical department of the University of
Louisville in the class of 1844, settled at Ghent when
it was but a village and spent his life here, retiring
from active practice in 1870 and dying in 1892. He
was held in great esteem all over Carroll County, was
staunch in his adherence to the democratic party, al-
though never an office holder, was one of the early
Masons, and for years was active in the Christian
Church. He married Drusilla Tandy, who was born
at Ghent in 1834 and died here in 1884.
Dr. P. V. Ellis received his primary and his college
education at Ghent, a feature being made of the
classics, and then spent two years in college at George-
town, Kentucky, before entering the medical depart-
ment of the University of Louisville, from which he
was graduated in 1886, with his medical degree. Al-
though he immediately began practice, Doctor Ellis
has never felt that he, with all his years of study and
experience, has ever reached the limit of knowledge in
his beloved profession. He dedicates some months
every few years to post-graduate work in the different
66
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
great medical centers of the country, and has taken
courses in the Chicago and also in the New York
Polyclinics, working under the supervision of some of
the most eminent physicians and surgeons in the world.
In 1886 Doctor Ellis opened his first practice at
Augusta, in Hancock County, Illinois, and remained
there five years, removing then to Marshalltown, Iowa,
and five years later, in 1896, came to Ghent, and has
remained here. He is the present health officer of
Carroll County, and his professional services are highly
valued both publicly and privately. He is a valued
member of the Carroll County and the Kentucky State
Medical Societies, and the American Medical Asso-
ciation.
In 1887, at Augusta, Illinois, Doctor Ellis was
married to Miss Nancy Skinner, who was born at
Augusta in 1871 and died at Ghent, Kentucky, in 1901.
At Ghent, in 1904, Doctor Ellis was married to Mrs.
Hallie (Howard) Bailey, daughter of the late John
and Mary (Scott) Howard. Doctor Ellis has three
children, born to his first marriage: Lawrence, who
now lives at Tucson, Arizona, enlisted for service in
the World war in an artillery corps in September, 1917,
spent one year in training at Camp Shelby and was
then mustered out of service on account of disability ;
Victor, who served in the United States Navy all
through the World war, in American waters, is now
operating one of his father's farms in Gallatin County,
Kentucky ; and Ruth, who resides at home. Doctor
Ellis and his family belong to the Christian Church
at Ghent, in which he is a trustee.
In politics Doctor Ellis has been a life-long demo-
crat, but professional and other interests have too
closely claimed his time for him to become active in
the political field. During the World war he served
as medical examiner for the Carroll County Draft
Board, and otherwise did his full duty in all the local
war activities. He has always lent encouragement to
home business enterprises, is president of the Ghent
Electric Light Plant, and owns and conducts in part-
nership with Dr. J. S. Brown, the leading drug store
in this part of Carroll County. In addition to this
property he owns his office building, also on Main
Street, a handsome modern residence and other im-
proved realty. Doctor Ellis also has 400 acres of rich
farm land in Gallatin County. He is a member of
Ghent Lodge No. 344, F. and A. M., of which he has
been master several times.
Andrew J. Grundy. There is much of interest at-
taching to the personal career and ancestral history of
this now venerable and honored citizen of Marion
County, where he resides upon the fine old homestead
farm of 300 acres and where he is living virtually re-
tired after many years of earnest and effective asso-
ciation with business and industrial enterprise.
Andrew January Grundy was born at Maysville,
judicial center of Mason County, Kentucky, on the
18th of October, 1842, and is a son of Rev. Robert
Caldwell Grundy and his second wife, Sarah Ann
(January) Grundy. He was the only child of this
union and was six years of age at the time of the
death of his mother, who was born May 8, 1822, and
who was but twenty-six years of age at the time of
her death, in 1848. The father first married Hannah
Maria Canfield and they had one daughter Elizabeth
who is deceased. The second Mrs. Grundy was
a daughter of Andrew McConnell January, of Mays-
ville.
Rev. Robert C. Grundy was born in the year 1807
and his death occurred in 1865. He was one of the
five sons of Samuel R. Grundy, who was a prominent
business man and influential citizen of Washington
County, Kentucky, where he owned a large tract of
land. Hon. Felix Grundy, a brother of Samuel R.
Grundy, was born on his father's farm in Washington
County, Kentucky, and became one of the most dis-
tinguished lawyers and jurists of the Blue Grass State,
with high reputation as an eloquent orator and re-
sourceful criminal lawyer, besides which he served as
a member of the United States Congress, as United
States senator from Kentucky and as attorney-general
of the United States.
Rev. Robert C. Grundy was a man of high in-
tellectual attainments and became one of the repre-
sentative Presbyterian clergymen of his native state,
his first pastoral charge after his ordination having
been at Maysville. In 1857 he became pastor of the
Presbyterian Church at Memphis, Tennessee, and in
the climacteric period leading up to the Civil war he
courageously and loyally opposed the secession of the
southern states. He was the only Union clergyman
in the City of Memphis at this time, and after the war
was precipitated and the city was occupied by Con-
federate troops they compelled him to close his church,
besides which he suffered other indignities by reason
of his adherence to his convictions. When the Union
forces under General Grant occupied Memphis Mr.
Grundy was requested to reopen his church, and this
he did — to both soldiers and citizens. His position be-
came untenable at Memphis as the war progressed, and
in 1862 he accepted" a call to the pastorate of a church
in the City of Cincinnati, Ohio, where he continued
his zealous and faithful ministrations until his death,
in 1865, about the time of the close of the Civil war.
After the death of his mother Andrew J. Grundy
was taken into the home of his maternal grandparents
at Maysville, and with them he passed the major part
of the period of his childhood and early youth. He
was afforded excellent educational advantages, and in
June, 1863, was graduated from Center College, at
Danville. Thereafter he taught one year in the cele-
brated Maysville Seminary, and he was then appointed
principal of the high school at Maysville, he having
been the first to receive this appointment, which came
through the medium of the City Council. There he
continued his residence until 1868, when he removed
to the City of Terre Haute, Indiana, where lie estab-
lished a book and stationery store and developed a
prosperous business. On the 26th of December, 1871,
he was united in marriage to Miss Willie Josephine
McElroy, daughter of the late John and .Lou Ann
(Skiles) McElroy, whose home was a fine farm on the
Bradfordville Turnpike, nine miles from Lebanon,
Marion County. Mr. and Mrs. Grundy thereafter con-
tinued their residence at Terre Haute, Indiana, about
one year, and they then came to the home of Mrs.
Grundy's parents, who were in much impaired health.
Under these conditions Mr. Grundy sold his business
at Terre Haute and assumed the active management
of the old McElroy homestead, which then comprised
700 acres of Marion county land. This was known as
the old McElroy homestead. On the site of the
original house has been erected a commodious and
substantial modern building, which constitutes one of
the most attractive homes of this locality. Mr. Grundy
has diversified property interests in addition to his
valuable real estate holdings in Marion County. He is
one of the principal stockholders of the Citizens
National Bank of Lebanon, of which he was vice-
president, and was elected president in October, 1921,
upon the death of the late president Robert E. Young.
Mr. Grundy is also the owner of a one-fourth interest
in the Maysville Cotton Mills, which base operations
on a capital stock of $200,000. He is one of Marion
County's most honored and influential citizens, his busi-
ness career has been marked by vigor and by suc-
cessful achievement, and he has so ordered his course
in all the relations of life as to merit and receive the
high regard of his fellow men. Both he and his wife
are zealous members of the First Presbyterian Church,
and though he has had no desire to enter the arena of
so called practical politics he is well fortified in his
convictions concerning economic and governmental
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
67
affairs and is a loyal supporter of the principles of
the republican party.
Of the eight children born to Mr. and Mrs. Grundy
six are living: John, Andrew, born October 17, 1872,
and James Caldwell, born April 28, 1890, who are
bachelors and maintain a partnership alliance in the
control and management of the old home farm, with
secure place as representative agriculturists and stock-
raisers of Marion County. Sarah January Grundy is
the wife of William Russell Deemer, a prominent
lawyer and bank president at Williamsport, Pennsyl-
vania, and a son of Hon. Elias Deemer, who for three
terms represented that district of Pennsylvania in the
United States Congress. Bessie May Grundy is the
wife of Roy Ford Clary, a successful broker and real
estate operator in the City of Great Falls, Montana.
Louise, the next younger daughter, is the wife of
John J. Baucus, who likewise is one of the representa-
tive business men of Great Falls, Montana. Miss
Harriet Cochran Grundy, remains at the parental
home, is a young woman of high attainments and
gracious presence, and she was graduated at the
National Park Seminary, an exclusive school for young
women at Washington, D. C, and one which all of
her sisters likewise attended. She completed her edu-
cation in a college in the State of New York, and she
is a popular figure in the leading social activities of
the home community.
Charles Lincard Cecil, whose death occurred on
the 2d of March, 1921, was an honored veteran of
the Confederate army and spent his life except for
the war period on the old Cecil estate at St. Mary's.
This is a home of many interesting associations, and
has been continuously in the Cecil family, handed
down from one generation to another, for more than
a hundred years.
Mr. Cecil was born there October 28, 1841. His
grandfather, Mathew Cecil, came from Maryland to
Kentucky, and as a pioneer acquired 100 acres
on Hardin's Creek, adjacent to the present site of St.
Mary's. He married a Miss Howard, member of a
very distinguished family of Marion County and
Kentucky. Mathew Cecil and his son Mathew J. Cecil
were both planters and slave owners. Mathew J. Cecil
married Angeline Hagan, and they had nine children.
Three sons, Wallace, Mathew and Mathew died in
infancy. Six grew to maturity : Sallie ; Charles L. ;
John H., who volunteered in the Confederate army in
1861 as a member of Capt. John B. Castleman's
Company in Morgan's Command, was captured during
one of the raids into Ohio, and while a prisoner of
war at Camp Douglas, Chicago, was shot and killed
as he attempted an escape; Flagie ; Mary Victoria; and
Emma.
Charles L. Cecil grew up on the old homestead
and was about twenty years of age when the war
broke out. He was educated in St. Mary's and in i860
graduated in the classical course from Cecilian College
in Hardin County, Kentucky. This college was
established and conducted for many years by his first
cousins, Henry, Thomas, Ambrose and Charles Cecil.
Charles L. Cecil and his brother John, both volun-
teered in 1861 in Company B of the 9th Kentucky, in
what was known as the Orphan Brigade. They en-
listed at Bowling Green. The brigade was composed of
boys or very young men, but displayed all the qualities
of great soldiers in some of the hardest fighting of
the war. Mr. Cecil participated in nine big battles in
the Western army, beginning at Shiloh and ending
with the campaign in Northern Georgia. For three
months during the Atlanta campaign he was under
constant fire and was wounded in front of Atlanta, on
the Augusta Road, at the extreme right of the Con-
federate army on July 22, 1864, while participating in
a charge against the Federal army. For several
months he was retired on account of his wounds, and
was then put in charge of the Tax in Kind Commissary
Department in Northern Alabama. Subsequently leav-
ing for the Mississippi River, he found the Confed-
erates had surrendered, and then started home. At
that time there was much hostile feeling in some dis-
tricts against returning Confederate soldiers, and he
did not reach home until July 12, 1865. His' father
had died April 7, 1865, and the farm was stripped of
all its movable property, the negro slaves had gone,
and there was no money to aid in reconstructing the
home and property. Mr. Cecil showed the courage of
a soldier in resuming civilian duties under these
obstacles and handicaps, and in later years found ample
prosperity and did much to renew the substantial repu-
tation the Cecil family has always enjoyed in this
community. The Cecils are Catholics in religion. Mr.
Cecil during the later years of his life, lived retired
at St. Mary's.
_ On April 7, 1874, he married Miss Susan M. Mat-
tingly, of St. Mary's. Her father at that time was
the largest individual distiller in Kentucky. Three
children were born to their marriage. Bennet D., the
oldest, born in 1886, operates the old homestead. He
married Elizabeth Johnson and has three sons and
three daughters. John M. Cecil, born in 1890, lives at
Akron, Ohio, is conductor on an interurban electric
line, and by his marriage to Florence Mills has a son,
Joseph C, born in 1918. The youngest, Angela, born
in 1894, is the wife of Everett Wingfield, of Daviess
County, Kentucky. They were married September 28,
1919, and have one daughter, Dorothy Cecil, born in
July, 1920. Everett Wingfield was through the World
war under General Dickens, commander of the Third
Division, saw some of the heaviest fighting on the
western front, and was wounded in the hip, receiving
a permanent injury and partial disablement.
William Oglesby Sovars was born at Slaughters-
ville, Webster County, Kentucky, April 22, 1892, a son
of Dr. James Thomas Soyars and Medora Oglesby
Soyars. His father, Doctor Soyars, was born in Chris-
tian County, Kentucky, January 11, 1838, and died in
Webster County, Kentucky, February 7, 1896. In 1847
he removed with his father to Hopkins County, Ken-
tucky, where he was reared. In 1858 he commenced the
study of medicine with Dr. D. A. DeForest of Ashby-
burgh, Kentucky, and in 1859 attended lectures at Star-
ling Medical College, Columbus, Ohio, from which he
was graduated in 1861.
When war was declared between the two sections of
the country he enlisted in Company A, First Kentucky
Cavalry, C. S. A., and for a time served on the staff of
General Helm. Later he was transferred to the secret
service of the South, in which organization he was cap-
tured, to be released in 1864.
Following his release from military prison he located
at Slaughtersville, Kentucky, and there built up a lucra-
tive practice of his profession, in which he continued
until his death. A zealous Mason, he was advanced ten
degrees, and served as high priest of the Slaughtersville
Chapter, R. A. M. In politics he was a staunch demo-
crat and became a leader of his party, and for many
years was chairman of the Democratic Central Commit-
tee of Webster County. He married Medora Oglesby,
who was born in Daviess County, Kentucky, July 20,
1850. She survives her husband and lives at Hopkins-
ville, Kentucky. Their children were as follows : Mary
Thomas, who married Edmund Starling, resides at Hop-
kinsville ; lone, who married Holland Garnett, a farmer,
lives on the Clarksville Pike in Christian County ;
Martha Ellis, who married William C. Peterman, lives
in Brooklyn, New York ; and William Oglesby, the
youngest, who is the subject of this sketch.
The paternal grandfather, Col. John Soyars, was born
in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, in 1805, but moved to
Christian County, Kentucky, in 1831. He was a son of
James Soyars, also a native of Pittsylvania County, Vir-
68
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
ginia, who entered the American Revolution when only
sixteen years of age and served through the war, being
at Valley Forge with General Washington in the ter-
rible winter of that campaign. He was wounded and
captured, but paroled toward the close of the war, and
returned to his home, where he died in 1845. He was
twice married and was the father of nine sons and seven
daughters, all of whom reared families. James Soyars
was a magistrate, high sheriff and representative of his
county for sixteen years. Having served under General
Lafayette, he was one of the committee of reception
during that French general's last visit to America in
1824.
Col. John Soyars was married to Elizabeth Cannon,
a daughter of Enoch and Elizabeth Cannon, of Halifax
County, Virginia, born in 1805, and died in 1844. Enoch
Cannon was one of the first preachers of the Methodist
faith in America. Their children were as follows :
Edward C, Mary F., who married William A. Orten
and Dr. James Thomas.
The maternal grandfather, William Alonzo Oglesby,
was born in 1816 in Jefferson County, Kentucky, and
died in Daviess County, Kentucky in i860, shortly
before the outbreak of the war between the states. He
married Katherine Harding, daughter of Alexander and
Louisa Hite Harding, of Virginia, and she died in
Webster County, Kentucky, in 1875.
William Oglesby Soyars attended the public schools
of Hopkinsville, Kentucky, his mother having moved to
this city in 1898, and was graduated from its high-
school course in 1910. He then entered Swarthmore
College, at Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, and was gradu-
ated therefrom in 1914, with the degree of Bachelor of
Arts. Following his graduation Mr. Soyars continued
his reading of law in the ofHce of Trimble & Bell of
Hopkinsville, Kentucky, and was admitted to the baf
in 191 S, since which date he has been engaged in a gen-
eral civil and criminal practice. In 1917 he was ap-
pointed city prosecutor by the City Commissioners of
Hopkinsville, Kentucky, which office he held for four
years. In 1921 he was nominated without opposition
by the democratic party for the office of county attorney
of Christian County, and was elected by a majority of
548 votes, overcoming the republican majority of 1518
at the election of the preceding year. He is a member
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, of the Greek
letter college fraternity Phi Kappa Psi and Book and
Key, honorary society ; an officer of the Hopkinsville
Lodge of the B. P. O. E. ; a member of the American
Academy of Political and Social Science ; a charter
member of the American Legion, St. Louis Convention,
and has served on the State Executive Committee of the
same.
During the first month of the World war Mr. Soyars
entered the United States service, enlisting in the First
Reserve Officers Training Corps at Fort Benjamin Har-
rison near Indianapolis, Indiana, May 8, 1917. He was
stricken with appendicitis soon afterward, and sent home
where he underwent an operation. Twice thereafter he
volunteered and was rejected on account of the recent-
ness of this operation, and for a time served as Govern-
ment appeal agent for Christian County. In April, 1918,
he re-enlisted in the United States Marine Corps as a
private, was trained at Parris Island, South Carolina,
and assigned to ship duty with the marine detachment of
the U. S. S. "Cincinnati," first Atlantic Patrol Division.
He was discharged March 29, 1919, holding ship war-
rant as a corporal, and returned home to resume his
practice.
George W. Calhoun who since 1918 has represented
some of the very extensive interests of his family in
Kentucky, is president of the Frankfort Elevator Coal
Company and a resident of the capital city. Mr.
Calhoun is a great-grandson of the great southern states-
man John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, whose eminent
position in American history is too well assured to re-
quire any reference here. It should be stated merely to
establish the lineage that John C. Calhoun was born in
South Carolina in 1782 and died at Washington in 1850.
He was a grandson of James Calhoun, who came from
Ireland to Pennsylvania in 1733. The father of the
South Carolina statesman was Patrick Calhoun, who
married Martha Caldwell. The Calhouns established
the Calhoun settlement in the upper part of South
Carolina in 1756, and the name has been prominently
identified with that state and with other southern states
for more than a century and a half.
A son of John C. Calhoun was Andrew Pickens Cal-
houn, grandfather of the Frankfort business man.
Andrew P. Calhoun was born at Fort Hill, South Caro-
lina, and spent his life there as a planter. He married
Margaret Green, who also died at Fort Hill.
Patrick Calhoun, father of George W. Calhoun, was
born at Fort Hill, South Carolina, in 1857, and is now
living practically retired at Calhoun Falls in South Caro-
lina. He grew up at the old Calhoun family seat until
the death of his father, studied law in St. Louis, and
at the age of twenty-eight was general counsel of the
Southern Railroad. He was a member of the firm
Calhoun, King & Spaulding at Atlanta, Georgia, where
he lived for a number of years. Alexander King, of
this firm, was solicitor general during Wilson's second
administration. Giving up law practice, Patrick Calhoun
for several years was an extensive operator in Wall
Street, New York, handling real estate investments and
coal. He was president of the United Railroads in
San Francisco, and maintained offices both in New
York City and San Francisco and also at Cleveland. He
gave up his railroad interests a few years after the
San Francisco earthquake and fire. He also had large
property interests in Cleveland. In 1916 he returned to
his large plantation at Calhoun Falls in his native state,
where he owned 15,000 acres, including a portion of the
old Calhoun estate. He also has a large property at
Fort Royal, South Carolina, and is owner of some val-
uable coal properties at Beattyville, Kentucky. Captain
Calhoun is a stanch democrat. He married Sallie Wil-
liams, who was born at Charleston, South Carolina,
in 1866. Of their eight children Martha, the oldest,
is the wife of Wilson B. Hickox, of the firm Hamil &
Hickox, steel merchants and real estate owners at Cleve-
land ; Margaret, wife of Paul Scott Foster, who has
charge of the Foster Company and lives at San Rafael,
California; Patrick, Jr., vice president of the Beattyville
Coal Company at Beattyville, Kentucky ; George W. ;
John C, in charge of the southern interests of his
father's estate and a resident of Port Royal, South Caro-
lina ; Andrew Pickens, of Frankfort, secretary of the
Frankfort Elevator Coal Company and treasurer of the
Jett Coal and Transportation Company at Carrollton,
Kentucky; Miss Mildred, who lives with her brother
John at Port Royal ; and Sallie W., whose home is with
her brother George W. at Frankfort.
George W. Calhoun was born in New York City
October 5, 1892. He was prepared for college at Pom-
fret, Connecticut, and attended Yale University to the
middle of the junior year. He is a member of the Psi
Upsilon college fraternity. Leaving Yale in 1916, Mr.
Calhoun spent a few months with the great Cleveland
steel and coal firm of M. A. Hanna Company, follow-
ing which he took charge of his father's plantation at
Port Royal one year. He took the summer agricultural
course at Cornell University, and then resumed charge
of the South Carolina plantation. When America en-
tered the war with Germany his brothers enlisted for
service, and George felt in duty bound to assist his
father. In June, 1918, he came to Frankfort to take
charge of the Frankfort Elevator Coal Company, a
business he is active in managing today. He and his
father and his brothers Andrew and Patrick are behind
a great development work in improving transportation
facilities on the Kentucky River, chiefly for handling
coal. They own an extensive fleet of coal vessels and
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
69
are now building a shipyard at Frankfort. The Cal-
houns are pioneers in this development and have already
done a great deal for Kentucky in that line. Of the
brothers Patrick, Jr., has charge of the mines at Beatty-
ville, Andrew has charge of the transportation facilities,
while George Calhoun is sales manager for the busi-
ness, his offices being at the foot of Steele Street in
Frankfort.
Mr. Calhoun, who is unmarried, lives in the Crom-
well Apartments in Frankfort. He is a democrat, a
member of the Episcopal Church, and is affiliated with
Frankfort Lodge, No. 530, of the Elks. Among other
business interests he is vice president of the Jett Coal
and Transportation Company and is secretary and treas-
urer of the Calhoun Falls Company.
Wilford Monroe Rice is one of the youngest bank
executives in Kentucky. He received his early training
as a banker in one of the metropolitan banks at Cin-
cinnati. On March 1, 1920, the Hebron Deposit Bank
was established, and Mr. Rice was called to his present
duties as cashier, being at that time only in his twentieth
year. This bank has made a splendid record during its
first year. It has capital of $20,000, an earned surplus
of $1,000, and deposits of about $65,000. Joel C. Clore,
postmaster of Cincinnati, is president of the bank, and
the vice president is J. B. Cloud.
Wilford Monroe Rice was born at Newport in Camp-
bell County, Kentucky, September 13, 1900, and is a
member of one of the old and prominent families of
the state. The Rices have been Kentuckians for more
than a century and through four generations. Mr. Rice's
great-great-grandfather was a native of England and on
coming to America located at Kalamazoo Springs, near
Erlanger in Boone County, where he developed a farm
and where he lived the rest of his life. His son, James
Rice, was born at Kalamazoo Springs July 16, 1812,
and also spent his life there as a farmer. He died in
Boone County in 1870. December 10, 1829, he married
Judieth Carpenter, who was born in Boone County Feb-
ruary 13, 1814, and died in 1868. Their children were
John Milton, Lucy Ann, Elizabeth Rebecca and
Theopolus.
Theopolus Rice, grandfather of the young Hebron
banker, was born in Boone County and spent practically
all his life as a livestock trader and butcher at Walton,
but died while visiting in Louisville in 1896. He mar-
ried Elizabeth Records, a native of Boone County, who
died at Walton.
William Felix Rice, their son, was born at Walton
in 1874, was reared and educated in his native town, and
for a number of years has lived at Latonia in Covington.
He is a flagman for the Louisville & Nashville Rail-
road Company. In politics he votes as a democrat, is a
member of the Baptist Church at Walton, and is
affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows
and the Junior Order of United American Mechanics.
William F. Rice married Pearl Snethen at Newport.
She was born at Knoxville, Kentucky, in 1880, and died
at Latonia in 1901.
Wilford Monroe Rice, only child of his mother, was
reared at Walton, where he attended the public schools,
finishing his sophomore year in high school. He took
the course in commercial law and bookkeeping at Mil-
ler's Business College in Cincinnati and in December,
1917, began his active career. For seven months he was
assistant postmaster at Walton, and then became book-
keeper in the Fifth-Third National Bank of Cincinnati,
and had been advanced to the auditing department when
he resigned early in 1920 to give his time and talents to
the Hebron Deposit Bank.
Mr. Rice was only seventeen when America entered
the war with Germany, but he proved the value of his
patriotic services by doing some splendid work as a sales-
man, particularly in the War Savings Stamps drive.
One day he sold $90,000 worth of these issues and on
another day $70,000. He is an active member of the
Baptist Church at Walton and superintendent of its
Sunday school. April 24, 1920, at Walton, Mr. Rice
married Miss Grace Gladys Dudgeon, daughter of
W. T. and Mattie (McCormick) Dudgeon. Her father
is postmaster at Walton.
W. M. Merriman. A successful figure in business
affairs at Moreland for a number of years, W. M. Mer-
riman has had a life of work and gradually accumulating
influence and prosperity, all earned by reason of his
earnest and determined ambition to achieve something
worth while for himself and his family.
Mr. Merriman was born on a farm near Nicholas-
ville in Jessamine County July 24, 1875. His grand-
father, Milton Merriman, spent most of his life as a
farmer in Jessamine County. He was born in 1823 and
died in Mercer County in 1897. W. M. Merriman, Sr.,
was born in Kentucky in 1858, was married in Fayette
County, where he farmed for several years, and after
1883 had his home on a farm in Boyle County until
1896, when he moved to Mercer County and entered
the scrap iron and hide business. He continued active
in that line until his death at Burgin September 5,
1920. He took a prominent part in local democratic
politics and his membership in the Baptist Church was
one of the strong ties of his life. He married Lizzie
Goss, who was born in Jessamine County in 1858 and
is now living at Burgin. W. M. Merriman, of More-
land, is their oldest child ; Lula is the wife of Phil
Hendron, a farmer at Burgin ; Walter is a farmer
at Harrodsburg; Maggie is the wife of Clyde Noel,
who assists W. M. Merriman in the business at More-
land; Annie is the wife of Will Stone, a factory em-
ploye at Cincinnati ; Ephraim lives at Harrodsburg and
with his brother Thomas, whose home is at Burgin,
succeeded to their father's scrap iron and hide business ;
Ethel is the wife of William Baker, connected with the
wholesale poultry business at Moreland.
W. M. Merriman learned the lessons of industry at a
very early age, and he acquired his education principally
while employed in practical pursuits. From the time
of his marriage until he was twenty-seven, for six years,
he was associated with his father in the growing of
hemp in Boyle County. He then bought a farm in
Lincoln County, lived on it a year, and in January, 1906,
came to Moreland, where he has since been in the gro-
cery business, in the scrap iron and hide business, and
up to 1916 he also operated a poultry plant, but sold
this branch of his interests. His residence, his poultry
house and stores occupy the entire block of land he owns
on Main Street. His business is one of the largest com-
mercial assets of the Moreland community. He is a
director in the Bank of Moreland, gave liberally of his
time and funds to support the war, is a democrat and
a member of Moreland Camp No. 11663, Modern Wood-
men of America.
In Mercer County, at the home of the bride near
Harrodsburg in 1896, Mr. Merriman married Miss Annie
Watts, daughter of Uriah and Malinda (Sholt) Watts,
the former now deceased, and her mother now lives in
Anderson County, Kentucky. Mr. and Mrs. Merriman
have an interesting family of nine children : Florence,
wife of Arthur Wilkinson, in the wholesale poultry busi-
ness at Lebanon, Kentucky; James, business assistant to
his father ; Miss Lottie, at home ; Eva, wife of Estill
Price, a rural mail carrier at Moreland; Esther, in the
Moreland High School; Erma, Harry and Lee, all at-
tending grammar school ; and Roy, the youngest.
James H. Glasscock, who resides in his pleasant
home on a small farm adjoining the City of Lebanon
and who has long been a successful exponent of agri-
cultural and livestock industry in Marion County, is
a representative of the fourth generation of the Glass-
cock family in this county. His great-grandfather, Hor-
ton Glasscock, was born and reared in Culpeper County,
Virginia, and became the founder of the family in
70
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
Marion County, Kentucky, where he settled in the early
pioneer days and instituted the reclamation and de-
velopment of a farm. He served as a private in the War
of 1812 and took part in the battle of New Orleans.
His son, Elijah, grandfather of the subject of this re-
view, passed his entire life in Marion County, where he
became a substantial farmer and where he was an hon-
ored pioneer citizen at the time of his death.
James H. Glasscock was born in what is now known
as the Haysville District of Marion County, on the 16th
of August, 1853, a"d is a son of Chaffin and Susan
Glasscock, both of whom remained on their farm in this
county until their deaths. The father began his inde-
pendent career with no financial resources or backing,
and it was by the most arduous application, self-denial
and economy that he and his devoted wife eventually ac-
quired a good farm and enjoyed the prosperity and
comfort that were eminently their due. Concerning their
children the following brief record may consistently be
entered at this juncture: Sallie was born in 1851 and
died in 1894; James H, of this sketch, was the second
child; Elijah was born in 1855 and died in 1913; Vir-
ginia was born in 1858 and died in infancy; George,
who was born in 1861, resides on his father's old home
farm near Lebanon; Winnie, who was born in 1863, is
the wife of William Canghnangher, of Lebanon ; Frank
W. died in infancy; and Buenavista, who was born in
1871, died in 1894.
Owing to existing exigencies and conditions, James
H. Glasscock received but limited educational advan-
tages in his youth, but through self-discipline and
through his active association with the practical
affairs of life he has effectively overcome this youthful
handicap and is a man of business ability and mature
judgment. He continued to assist in the work of his
father's farm until he had attained to his legal ma-
jority, and on the 26th of January, 1875, he gained a
worth}' helpmeet by his marriage to Miss Elizabeth
Hays, who was born in Marion County on the 14th of
January, 1855, a daughter of John and Augusta (Cox)
Hays, the former of whom was born in Marion
County, February 22, 1833, and the latter was born in
Washington County, July 15, 1833. Her father was
born in the old fort at Frankfort, this state, and his
parents later established their home in Washington
County, .where he was reared to manhood and proved
himself worthy of his sterling pioneer ancestry. John
and Augusta (Cox) Hays became the parents of five
children, of whom Elizabeth, wife of the subject of
this sketch, is the eldest ; James A. was born March
10, 1858, and his death occurred October I, 1874;
Virginia was born July 15, 1864, and died July 11,
1865 ; Samuel was born August 7, 1867, and his death
occurred April 28, 1888; Mary Lee was born April
25, 1870, and now resides in the southern part of the
State of Kansas.
After his marriage Mr. Glasscock established his
residence on a farm of sixty acres on North Rolling
Fork, and to this tract he later added at intervals until
he had accumulated a valuable property of 288 acres,
this land being still in his possession. On this farm
Mr. and Mrs. Glasscock maintained their home for
twenty years, and both were indefatigable in their
labors, even as they conserved economy by every pos-
sible means in order to place themselves in a position
of financial independence and to provide advantages
for their children. In that period prices for farm
products were low, and Mr. Glasscock recalls that he
received for hogs raised on his place at one time only
zVi cents a pound. For the decade between 1875 and
1885 Mr. and Mrs. Glasscock considered they were
doing well if they could add $100 annually to their
savings. After applying himself vigorously to work
all of the daylight hours Mr. Glasscock would wait till
evening to make his trip to the mill for necessary flour
and feed. With the passing years increasing pros-
perity attended his efforts, and upon leaving the farm
he removed to Bradfordsville in order to afford his
children the advantages of the schools of that place.
He remained at Bradfordsville sixteen years, and then
sold his residence property in that village, in 1910,
and purchased twenty-eight acres adjoining the City
of Lebanon on the north. The house on this place
was destroyed by fire in 1916, and for the following
month he and his wife lived in the barn on the tract,
as they did not wish to invade the homes of the neigh-
bors, all of whom offered them generous hospitality
and urged them to accept the same. Finally Mr. Glass-
cock purchased an adjoining five acres from J. F. Bar-
ber, and the modern house on this place has since
represented the home of himself and his wife. In
1919 he became associated with his son, Joseph, in the
purchase of a valuable farm of 107 acres, facing two
modern turnpike roads and constituting one of the
choicest farm properties in Marion County, both by
reason of fertility and on account of its excellent im-
provements and eligible location for platting as a sub-
division of Lebanon. This farm is under the manage-
ment of Joseph Glasscock and is devoted to diversified
agriculture and stock-growing. Mr. Glasscock has
achieved success entirely through his own efforts and
the effective co-operation of his wife, who has shared
in his labors and responsibilities and who with him
enjoys unqualified popularity in the county which has
been the stage of their productive endeavors. Both are
active members of the Baptist Church at Lebanon, and
in politics Mr. Glasscock is a staunch democrat.
In this concluding paragraph is given brief record
concerning the children of Mr. and Mrs. Glasscock.
James R., who was born February 6, 1876, married
Miss Nellie Thornton, and they have two children :
Imogene, born November 23, 1902, and Hugh, born
May 17, 1905. Imogene is the wife of John Beard,
of Lebanon, and they have two children : Elizabeth
and Caroline. John C, who was born December 11,
1877, married Miss Ella Dehoney, and they have two
children: Elizabeth and John C, Jr. Benjamin T.,
who was born May 29, 1880, is a bachelor and resides
at Birmingham, Alabama, he being a postal clerk in
the railway mail service. Verna, who was born Feb-
ruary 6, 1884, first married James E. Willis and is
now the wife of Lawrence Walker. She has two chil-
dren by the first marriage : Madelyn, born March 6,
1902, and Hall G., born January 3, 1906. Samuel H.,
who was born January 26, 1888, married Miss Nora
Isaacs, and their one child, Leland James, was born
July 28, 1917. Joseph, the youngest of the children,
was born December 3, 1893, and represented the fam-
ily and his native state in the nation's military servii e
in the late World war. On the 24th of July, 1918,
he entered service and at Camp McClelland, Alabama,
was assigned to Battery C, Thirty-fourth Artillery. Of
his company of 196 men all except ihirty-four were
confined to the hospital during the epidemic of in-
fluenza in 1918, but he was one of those who escaped
this affliction. The epidemic caused the revocation of
the order for his command to sail for France, and
when a second order was later given this, too, was re-
voked, owing to the signing of the armistice two days
prior to the date set for sailing. Since receiving his
honorable discharge Joseph Glasscock has become as-
sociated with his father in the ownership and opera-
tion of the farm mentioned in a prior paragraph.
Roy E. Rader. A number of young men of ex-
ceptional initiative and executive ability are enlisted
in the directing of large and important industrial and
business enterprise centered about the Village of Bond,
Jackson County, and among the number is Mr. Rader,
who is assistant general manager of the Bond-Foley
Lumber Company and vice president of the Bond State
Bank. Further interest attaches to his rise in the local
business field by reason of the fact that he is a native
of Jackson County and a representative of an hon-
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
71
ored and influential family of this section of the
state. He was born at Annville, Jackson County, June
21, 1888, and his father, Dr. John E. Rader, who was
born in Owsley County, this state, in 1858. In his
native county Doctor Rader was reared to the age
of twenty years, and he then established his residence
at Annville, Jackson County. After his graduation in
the old Hospital College of Medicine, at Louisville,
he continued in the practice of his profession at Ann-
ville until 1892, when he removed to Jackson, Breathitt
County, where, as a leading physician and surgeon of
exceptional talent, he continued in active general prac-
tice until 1894, when he met a tragic death, at the
hands of a cowardly assassin, who had consistently
become known as "Bad Tom" Smith. This dastardly
murderer expiated his crime through legitimate legal
action, and was hanged by the authorities of Breathitt
County, the only man ever thus legally executed in that
county. Doctor Rader "was a man of fine character and
he manifested his personal and professional steward-
ship in his effective service to his fellow men. He
was a democrat in political adherency, was affiliated
with the Masonic fraternity, and both he and his wife
held membership in the Baptist Church. His wife,
whose maiden name was Armina Bowling, was born
in Jackson County, in 1863, and this gracious woman
likewise met a tragic death, in 1899, when she was
murdered by her second husband, who then killed him-
self. Of the children, Roy E., of this sketch was
the second in order of birth ; the eldest, Oscar M., re-
sides at Berea, Madison County, and is a traveling
salesman for the Belknap Hardware & Manufacturing
Company, of Louisville; Jessie is the wife of F. W.
King, a conductor on the line of the Rockcastle River
Railroad, and they reside at Bond.
Roy E. Rader, who was but six years old at the
time of his father's death, was reared in Jackson
County, to whose public schools he is indebted for
his youthful education. Thereafter he was for four
years a student in the Kentucky University, at Lexing-
ton, and in 1912 he was graduated in the Bryant &
Stratton Business College in the City of Louisville.
In the meanwhile, when eighteen years of age, he
began teaching in the rural schools, and he followed
this vocation six years, in Jackson and Rockcastle
counties. In 1912 he became a teacher of bookkeeping
and penmanship, as well as rapid calculation, in the
Bryant & Stratton Business College at Louisville, and
he continued his effective service in this capacity until
1914. After about a year's period of rest and recrea-
tion he entered the employ of the allied corporations,
the Bond-Foley Lumber Company and the Rockcastle
River Railway Company, and through faithful and
able service he has won advancement in this connec-
tion, as attested by the fact that he is now assistant
general manager of the lumber company and secre-
tary and treasurer of the railway company, besides
being vice president of the Bond State Bank.
Mr. Rader is aligned in the ranks of the republican
party. He is affiliated with Bond Lodge No. 105,
Knights of Pythias, of which he is past chancellor;
and with Annville Council No. 190, Junior Order of
United American Mechanics, of which he is a past
counsellor. He took a vigorous part in the local war
activities during the nation's participation in the World
war, and his individual subscriptions to the Govern-
ment bonds were most liberal and loyal.
May 14, 1913, at Bond, recorded the marriage of Mr.
Rader to Miss Minerva Cornelius, daughter of Frank
and Nancy (Edwards) Cornelius, the father being now
a prosperous farmer near Amelia, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs.
Rader have four children, whose names and respective
dates of birth are here noted : Howard D.. March 3,
1914; Vernon C, October 6, 1915; Lucille Helen, Sep-
tember 11, 1918; and Fred P., March 5, 1921.
Reverting to the ancestral history of Mr. Rader, it is
to be recorded that his grandfather, William Rader,
was born in Jackson County, Kentucky, in 1832, and
died at Welchburg, Jackson County, Kentucky, in 1918,
where he became a pioneer farmer and where he was
for many years a citizen of much prominence and
influence. He was a leader in the local ranks of the
democratic party, served as United States marshal in
his district, as well as county sheriff, and was a gal-
lant soldier of the Lhiion in the Civil war. He married
Sallie Chesnut, who was born in 1833 and who passed
her entire life in Kentucky, her death having occurred
shortly after that of her husband, in 1918.
Clinton F. McAfee for many years was prominent
in the affairs of Lebanon, was a representative and
descendant of that famous McAfee family which came
to Kentucky in the early part of 1773, about the same
time as Daniel Boone and other noted pioneers, and
made their settlement not far from Harrodsburg in
Mercer County. All authorities agree in giving them
a conspicuous place in early Kentucky history, not only
because of their early arrival, but on account of their
courage, resolution, their ability to defend and make
homes in the hostile wilderness, and certain qualities
in leadership that have been continued through their
descendants.
The late Clinton F. McAfee was born in Mercer
County December 10, 1845. His remote ancestor was
John McAfee, Sr., of Scotland, who married Elizabeth
Montgomery. Later in the seventeenth century, when
James II ascended the throne of Scotland and began
the persecution of Protestants, John McAfee, Sr., was
one of the leaders in the emigration to the North of
Ireland, accompanied by members of the Montgomery,
McMichael and McCown families. His son, John, Jr.,
went with him to Ireland and both of them enlisted
in the army of the Prince of Orange and fought at the
battle of the Boyne. John McAfee, Jr., at the age of
thirty married Mary Rogers, and they had four sons
and six daughters. The second son, James McAfee,
was born in 1707 and in 1737 married Jane McMichael,
who was termed the "flower of Erin." She was Irish
and he was Scotch, and their children were real Scotch-
Irish. This is the Jane McAfee, who is buried at
Harrodsburg, from whom many of the McAfees are
descended. James McAfee on coming to America
brought three children, John, James and Malcolm.
Malcolm was named for the highland chief, Malcolm
McAfee, one time King of Scotland. Malcolm, Jr.,
died during the voyage. John and James arrived
safelv in America, and their brothers and sisters born
in this country were George, Margaret, Robert, Mary,
William and Samuel.
The pioneers in Kentucky in 1773 were James,
George and Robert McAfee. The story of their com-
ing and their location at McAfee Station or McAfee
Springs, in Mercer County, where much of the land
is still owned by their descendants, is part of the gen-
eral history of Kentucky, upon which this sketch will
not encroach. Of the brothers, George McAfee was
the father of William McAfee, and William was in
turn the father of Clinton F. McAfee.
Clinton F. McAfee attended school at Selvisa, and
at the age of sixteen went to work in a drug store in
that village, thoroughly mastering the business. Sub-
sequently, at Harrodsburg. he owned and operated a
drug store for a number of years.
In 187s Clinton McAfee married Miss Minnie Shuck,
nf Lebanon, daughter of John and Lucretia Shuck.
Her father was a very talented and prominent Ken-
tucky lawyer, born in 1808 and died in 1873, and the
record of his work in the profession appears in many
of the court records of Central Kentucky. His wife,
Lucretia Finley, was born in 1812, was a woman of
wonderful vitality and faculties and lived to the age
of ninety-seven.
In 1876 Clinton McAfee removed to Lebanon, where
Vol. V— 8
72
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
he established a drug business and continued one of
the leading merchants of that city until his death on
February 4, 1890. He was very progressive in his
citizenship, seeking whenever possible to advance the
interests of his community as well as his own, and
exemplified many of the strong characteristics of his
ancestry.
His only child, Lucia, was born August 30, 1876,
graduated from Potter College in Bowling Green,
Kentucky, and on April 17, 1901, became the wife of
Hugh Murry. Mr. Murry was also a druggist, and for
many years conducted the leading business of the kind
in Marion Count)', at Lebanon. He died August 8,
1920. Surviving him is his widow, Mrs. Murry, and
their only daughter, Margaret Coleman, who was born
March 28, 1902. This daughter seems to inherit much
of the beauty ascribed to her remote Irish ancestor
known as the "flower of Erin." She is a graduate of
Sayre College at Lexington, and on June 30, 1920,
became the wife of James E. Durham. Mr. Durham
was born at Lebanon June 20, 1898, son of John R.
and Maggie (Mayes) Durham. Maggie Mayes Dur-
ham descended from the Forsythes, who were allied
with the McAfees in early generations, and the
Forsythes were also among the earliest Kentucky pio-
neers. James E. Durham is a successful business man
of Lebanon, and is associated with his father in the
management of a hardware and plumbing establish-
ment at Lebanon and extensive farming interests.
James E. Durham was educated at Center College,
Danville.
Johx Richard Barber. One of the very prominent
families of Washington County has been that of Bar-
ber, represented by the late John Richard Barber, who
was one of the county's wealthy citizens and who
shared much of his individual prosperity with the
community.
He was born in Jefferson County, Kentucky. June 5,
1841, son of Philetus Swift and Cecelia (Smith) Bar-
ber. Philetus Swift Barber was a native of Buffalo,
New York, and had a youth of struggle and adversity.
As a young man he removed .to the City of Louisville.
He had an expert knowledge of the hatter's trade,
and followed that occupation at Louisville for several
years. Later he became a furrier, and bought and
gathered furs over a wide extent of country, even in
Canada. The surplus from his business he invested
wisely in real estate, and in course of years was pros-
pered, so that his fortune was estimated at more than
$300,000, an amount that spelled wealth at the time.
His wife, Cecelia Smith, was a native of Washington
County, Kentucky, was of humble parentage, but pos-
sessed of strong intellect and force of character, and
her keen business judgment was largely responsible
for her husband's success. He was not a man of edu-
cation, but was actuated by high purpose and had won-
derful resources of both mind and body. His wife
was of Catholic parentage, and throughout life was a
devout Catholic, winning her husband over to the same
faith and, of course, her children. When they married
and for several years afterward they lived near Louis-
ville, removing then to a farm in Washington County.
Their final years were spent at Bardstown, where both
died at advanced age.
John Richard Barber completed his education at St.
Mary's College in Washington County. In 1861 he
entered the Confederate army and served in the famous
Orphan Brigade. He was captured and for months
was held a prisoner of war at Rock Island, Illinois.
After the return of peace he identified himself with
the old home in Kentucky, soon married and settled
on a farm in Washington County. While farming was
his life occupation, he had various extensive interests.
He was a builder of a fine hotel building and an opera
house at Springfield, and his time and means were
always at the disposal of progressive interests.
John Richard Barber, who died at his country home
near Springfield February 14, 1920, married first Miss
Piety Yancy, of Clarksville, Tennessee. She was sur-
vived by four sons, Philetus S., Jr., and John L., of
Springfield, and Thomas Yancy and Kent C, of Bards-
town. In 1885 John R. Barber married Miss Mary
Anderson. She is the mother of three sons and two
daughters, Joseph Alexander, Samuel L., Richard O.,
Marie Cecilia, wife of Dr. H. J. Boone, a dentist, and
Mrs. Sarah Louise Dudley. The family are Catholics,
and Mrs. Barber and several of her children still live
at Springfield.
James Thomas Prather. During an active life of
nearly forty years Mr. Prather has become prominently
known in Washington County as a teacher, farmer, a
positive influence in politics and civic affairs, and dur-
ing the past four years as county clerk.
Mr. Prather was born on a farm in Washington
County, March 22, 1864, a son of Isaiah and Elizabeth
( Sutton) Prather, natives and life-long residents of
Washington County, and a grandson of Thomas W.
and Elizabeth (Colter) Prather. Isaiah Prather, who
lived to the age of seventy-two, devoted his years to
farming, but was also active in republican politics and
for nearly twenty-five years a justice of the peace. He
was a member of the Baptist Church. His first wife,
Elizabeth Sutton, was a daughter of James Sutton,
who married a Miss House. Elizabeth Prather died at
the age of thirty years, the mother of three children:
Amanda F., deceased; James Thomas; and Preston
Bramlett, one of the leading farmers of Washington
County. Isaiah Prather's second wife was Fannie
Hardin, and they reared two daughters. Flora and
Lula.
James Thomas Prather acquired a good education
in rural schools and in the high school at Perryville,
and as a young man began teaching, a vocation he
combined with increasing interests as a farmer. His
home was in the country until he moved to Springfield
to take up his duties as county clerk. Mr. Prather
was elected on the republican ticket to this office in
1917. He is a member of the Baptist Church and is
a Master Mason. On August 28, 1883, he married Miss
Elizabeth Scruggs, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William
Pearson Scruggs.
Sawyer A. Smith is a leading member of the bar of
Knox County, is engaged in the practice of his pro-
fession at Barbourville. the county seat, with offices in
the Hoskins Building, on East Knox Street, has served
as a member of the Kentucky Legislature, and from
1909 to 1913 he held the position of assistant United
State district attorney, with official headquarters in the
City of Covington. Kentucky.
Mr. Smith was born on the family homestead farm.
twelve miles north of Barbourville. Knox County, on
the 9th of April, 1883. His paternal grandfather, Rob-
ert Smith, was born and reared in North Carolina,
where he passed his entire life and became a pros-
perous farmer, and where his death occurred when his
snn. George W.. father of Sawyer A., was a child.
The founders of the Smith family in North Carolina
came from England in the Colonial period of Amer-
ican history-
George W. Smith, who now resides at Pineville.
judicial center of Bell County, Kentucky, was born in
North Carolina in 1851 and, as already noted, was a
child at the time of his father's death. He came
with his widowed mother to Knox County._ Kentucky,
where he was reared to manhood, where his marriage
occurred, and where he developed the fine old home-
stead farm on which his son, Sawyer A., was born.
There be continued his constructive activities as one of
the successful agriculturists and stock-growers of
Knox County until 1915. since which year he has lived
virtually retired at Pineville. He is a man of strong
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
73
individuality, was influential in community affairs dur-
ing the long period of his residence on his Knox
County farm, is a republican in politics, and is an
active member of the Baptist Church, as was also his
wife. Mrs. Smith, whose maiden name was Sarah
McKinney and who was better known by the personal
name of Sallie, was born in Knox County in 1851,
and here her death occurred on the heme farm, twelve
miles north of Barbourville, in the year 1898. Eliza-
beth, eldest of the children, became the wife of Joseph
Hammons, who now is engaged in farming five miles
distant from Lancaster, Garrard County, and she died
in Knox County when only twenty-seven years of age.
Robert was serving as deputy sheriff of Knox County
at the time of his tragic death, on the 2.4th of Decem-
ber, 1919. In pursuit of his officials duties he was
striving to effect the arrest of two negro thieves, one
of whom shot and killed him at Artemus, this county,
on the date above noted, his home having been at
Barbourville. Sawyer A., of this sketch, was the next
in order of birth and is the youngest of the children.
Reared under the invigorating influences of the home
farm, Sawyer A. Smith initiated his educational work
by attending the rural schools, and thereafter he con-
tinued his studies in the Baptist Institute at Barbour-
ville and Cumberland College, at Williamsburg. In
preparation for his chosen profession he entered the
law department of Valparaiso University, at Val-
paraiso, Indiana, and in this institution he was grad-
uated as a member of the class of 1906. After thus
receiving his degree of Bachelor of Laws he returned
to Barbourville, was forthwith admitted to the bar
of his native state, and he has since continued in active
and successful general practice at the judicial center
of his native county, the broad scope and importance
of his law business bearing definite assurance of his
professional ability and his unqualified personal pop-
ularity. He is official attorney for the First National
Bank of Barbourville, in which he is a stockholder,
and is local attorney for fully fifteen large coal-mining
corporations operating in Southeastern Kentucky. He
owns and occupies one of the modern and attractive
residences of Barbourville, at 324 East Knox Street.
He is a member of the Kentucky State Bar Association,
is a vigorous advocate of the principles and policies for
which the republican party stands sponsor, and has
been influential in the ranks of his party in this sec-
tion of Kentucky. In November, 1907, he was elected
representative of the Sixty-ninth Legislative District in
the Lower House of the Kentucky Legislature, his
district comprising Knox and Whitley Counties. The
campaign of 1908 was that in which Hon. W. O. Brad-
ley, republican, defeated Hon. J. C. W. Beckham, dem-
ocrat, in the election to the office of United States
senator, and Mr. Smith was Senator Bradley's floor-
leader in the Kentucky House of Representatives dur-
ing the legislative session of 1908, in which also he
made an effective record in the furthering of wise
legislation and in advancing the interests of his con-
stituent district. It has already been stated that he
served as United States district attorney at Covington
from 1909 to 1913.
Local activities in connection with the nation's par-
ticipation in the World war received the effective and
loyal co-operation of Mr. Smith, who gave material
assistance in the Knox County drives in support of
the Government war loans, savings stamps, etc., as a
member of the executive committees, and who was a
member of the committee which directed the Red Cross
campaign in Knox County. In ■■- furtherance of these
war measures he made many patriotic speeches through-
out his home county, and his financial contributions to
the loans and other war objects were of liberal order.
Without asking any compensation he served as a mem-
ber of the Knox County Exemption Board during the
entire period of America's association with the war.
December 29, 191 3, recorded the marriage of Mr.
Smith to Miss Effie Barton, daughter of the late George
and Mary (Sevier) Barton, who were residents of
Knox County at the time of their death, Mr. Barton
having long been engaged in the merchandise business
at Gray, this county. Mrs. Smith was graduated in the
Kentucky State Normal School at Richmond, and for
four years prior to her marriage she was a successful
and popular teacher in the high school at Middlesboro,
Bell County. Both she and her husband are active
members of the Baptist Church at Barbourville. They
have no children.
William A. Waters. The public service Judge
Waters has rendered during his many years of resi-
dence in Springfield and Washington County entitles
him to a high position of honor in the community
and demands some representation in a volume of rep-
resentative Kentuckians.
He is a native son of Washington County, born Jan-
uary 23, 1856, a son of Alexander and Nancy (Trow-
bridge) Waters. His father, a native of Lincoln
County, was a son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Souther-
land) Waters, who came to Kentucky from Maryland
and moved to Washington County when Alexander,
their son, was two years old. Nancy Trowbridge was
born and reared in Washington County, daughter of
Alexander and Eliza (Johnson) Trowbridge. She
lived to the age of seventy and her husband to sev-
enty-five. Of their five children one died in infancy
and four are still living. The family are Baptists, and
Alexander Waters was a staunch republican in pol-
itics. He spent his life as a farmer, and it was on a
farm that William A. Waters grew to manhood.
William A. Waters acquired a country school edu-
cation, and as a young man left the farm and became
a drug clerk. Later for a number of years he was in
business for himself as a druggist at Springfield. In
1897 President McKinley appointed him postmaster.
That office he held for sixteen years, and made it an
opportunity for complete and effective service to all
the patrons of the office. He resigned to become su-
perintendent of Grundy's Orphanage Home, a Presby-
terian institution, and that was his post of duty for
four years.
Long active in republican politics, Mr. Waters had
a very unusual honor, one significant of his personal
standing and popularity as much as his political affili-
ation when in 1917 he was elected county judge, being
the first successful republican candidate for this office
in twenty-five years. He is giving a well-ordered and
efficient administration of county affairs.
Judge Waters is a Royal Arch Mason and a mem-
ber of the Presbyterian Church. In 1881 he married
Miss Lula N. Lee, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Thorn-
ton Lee, of Washington County. Their four living
children are Elizabeth, William A., Jr., Robert Allen
and Thornton Lee Waters.
William Caldwell McChord, of Springfield, has
been a member of the Kentucky bar for practically
half a century. His name ranks high among Ken-
tucky lawyers, though doubtless he will be longest re-
membered on account of the leadership and the spe-
cial services he has rendered in public affairs and the
public life of his home county of Washington and the
state at large.
His early life was one of struggle, the necessity of
self-support interfering with the rapid achievement of
his ambition to become a lawyer. His boyhood fell in
the troublous period of the Civil war and reconstruc-
tion, when the family fortune had been shattered, and
he represents some old and distinguished names in
Kentucky history.
The founder of the Kentucky branch of the family
was John McChord, who came to this state from
Maryland. He was of Scotch-Irish lineage and his
religious faith that of the "old blue stocking" Presby-
74
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
terian Church. He was one of the pioneers of
Washington County. His son, Rev. James McChord,
attained a distinguished name as a Presbyterian minis-
ter at Lexington. However, the line of descent to the
Springfield lawyer was through his son, John McChord,
Jr., who married Lydia Caldwell. Lydia Caldwell was
a daughter of William T. and Mary (Wickliffe) Cald-
well. Mary Wickliffe was the oldest sister of Gov-
ernor Wickliffe of Kentucky. Their father, Charles
Wickliffe, married a Miss Hardin, a sister of Ben
Hardin, the great Kentuckian, and was an early pio-
neer of Kentucky. The Hardins, Wickliffes and Cald-
wells all came from Virginia. William T. Caldwell was
identified with the beginning of history in Washington
County. His place of settlement is still referred to
as the Caldwell farm. On his land there in 1794 he
built a brick residence, one of the finest structures of
that kind in the state.
It was in this historic home that William Caldwell
McChord was born July 3, 1S50. He was a son of
Robert Caldwell and Laura (Hynes) McChord. His
father, who was born in Washington County Decem-
ber 24, 1824, and died in Marion County at the age
of eighty-two, had inherited the old Caldwell home-
stead. The land of the Caldwell farm was patented
to William T. Caldwell by Patrick Henry, then gov-
ernor of Virginia. It remained in the hands of some
members of the Caldwell family until 1863, when the
ravages of the Civil war scattered the fortunes of
Robert Caldwell McChord, then the owner, and he was
compelled to sell and transfer his title to the property.
For a brief period Robert Caldwell McChord and his
family resided in Boyle County and then removed to
Marion County, where he lived out his years. His
wife had died in 1879, at the age of fifty. She was a
woman of great strength and beauty of character, and
was born and reared at Bardstown. She and her sis-
ter were small children when her parents, Mr. and
Mrs. Abner Hynes died, and she grew up in the home
of her uncle, Dr. Alfred Hynes.
William Caldwell McChord spent his early life in
the country, and was thirteen years of age when his
parents moved from Washington County to Boyle and
thence to Marion County. With only the advantages
of the ordinary country schools, he at the age of
seventeen became a clerk in the store of Mr. Phillips,
then and for many years the leading merchant of
Lebanon. Not long afterward he arrived at the im-
portant decision to become a lawyer. His purposes
were communicated to Mr. Phillips, who tried to dis-
courage him, partly because he did not want to lose
a good clerk and also because of Mr. McChord's lim-
ited education. Fortunately the young clerk was not
to be turned aside from his decision, though there fol-
lowed some years of struggle with adversity that might
have discouraged one of less determined temper.
Leaving Lebanon, he secured a clerkship in the office
of the circuit clerk of Washington County, at a salary
not enough to live on. While there he studied law,
and in 1872, at the age of twenty-two, was admitted
to the bar. He continued to serve as deputy in the
Circuit Court clerk's office and in 1874 was elected
county attorney and in September of the same year
appointed master commissioner of the Washington
County Circuit Court. He discharged the duties of
commissioner six years and for eight years was county
attorney, doing the work of both offices part of the
time. Through these official positions he gained rec-
ognition for his abilities as a lawyer, and on leaving
office had an extensive business awaiting him as a
private practitioner. In 1887 he was elected from
Washington County to the Lower House of the State
Legislature. During the following session the Legis-
lature provided for the calling of the Constitutional
Convention of 1890-01. In that convention Mr. Mc-
Chord was a delegate, and when the work of formu-
lating the organic law was completed, Governor John
Young Brown appointed Mr. McChord, John D. Car-
roll and James Sims as a committee of three to revise
the Kentucky statutes to conform to the new consti-
tution. That was a labor of a year.
In 1908 Mr. McChord was again returned to the
Legislature. He took a conspicuous part in the delib-
eration of that body, particularly toward securing leg-
islation favorable to the interests of tobacco growers.
Subsequently he became counsel for the Burley tobacco
growers of Kentucky, and was instrumental in secur-
ing some of the legal relief from the oppressive con-
ditions under which the growers had labored, and
also did much to educate public opinion through a
concise statement of economic conditions which he pre-
pared and had circulated.
To Mr. McChord is due much credit for the improve-
ment of Washington County's transportation service.
He took the lead in building what is now known as the
Louisville & Springfield branch of the Louisville &
Nashville Railroad. For many years he has been at-
torney for that railroad.
In addition to an extensive law practice Mr. Mc-
Chord for many years had had important farming
interests. He is a stanch democrat, and his name has
been one of great prestige and influence in the party.
He has been affiliated with the Masonic Order since
1872, is a Knight Templar, and in 1900 was elected
grand master of the Grand Lodge of Kentucky Masons.
He is a member of the Presbyterian Church.
In 1875, while a young and struggling lawyer, Mr.
McChord married Miss Nannie McElroy, and their
home throughout their married life has been in Spring-
field. Five children were born to their marriage, one
of whom died in infancy. The four living are:
Charles M. McChord, a lawyer at Springfield ; William
C, Jr., assistant cashier of the First National Bank of
Springfield; Annie, wife of Rev. W. H. Williams, a
Baptist minister at St. Joseph, Missouri; and Jack
Hynes McChord, also an attorney, now connected with
the law department of the Louisville & Nashville Rail-
road at Louisville. Jack Hynes McCord was a vol-
unteer for service during the World war, received his
commission as a captain in the Officers Training School
at Fort Benjamin Harrison, and was sent overseas to
France, but had no opportunity to get into front line
duty before the signing of the armistice.
Leslie W. Morris is a Frankfort lawyer of many
substantial business connections and interests, is a
former state senator, and for a number of years his
name has been one of exceptional note in the state,
and he is one of Kentucky's honored sons.
He was born in Woodford County December 3, 1885.
The family were settled in Woodford County in pioneer
times by his grandfather, John R. Morris, a native of
Virginia, who prior to the Civil war owned extensive
tracts of land and many slaves in Woodford County, but
lost much of his fortune as a result of the war. He died
in Woodford County. He married a Miss Deering,
a native and lifelong resident of old Woodford. E. H,
Morris, father of the Frankfort lawyer, was born in
Woodford County in 1845, grew up and married and
became a farmer in that section, and was identified
with agriculture until he retired in 1904 and has since
lived in Frankfort. He is a democrat and a member
of the Catholic Church. His wife was Eddie V. Ste-
phens, who was born in Franklin County, Kentucky,
in 1857 and died in Frankfort June 6, 1915. She was
the mother of four sons, Leslie being the third in age.
All the others followed commercial careers as travel-
ing salesmen. William L. lives at Charlestown, West
Virginia; Ralph H. died at Frankfort in 1908 at the
age of thirty-three, while Chester D. lives at Frank-
fort and represents the Florsheim Shoe Company of
Chicago in Alabama, Florida and Georgia.
Leslie W. Morris during his youth attended the rural
schools in his native county, and for six years was a
lO ^yiA^s~-2x^-<s
,^„„.„ _ n the 1
lating the organic law was completed, uovernor juim 3v
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
75
student in the Excelsior Institute, a noted educational
institute of Franklin County, where he was prepared
for college. He left this school in 1902, graduated
in 1903 from the Frankfort Business College under
Professor H. C. McKee, and in the fall of 1903 began
his law studies and was employed as stenographer in
the office of John W. Rodman at Frankfort. Mr.
Morris was admitted to the bar December II, 1906,
and for fifteen years has been a leading lawyer both
in the civil and criminal branches of practice. His
offices are in his own buildings at 226 St. Clair Street.
Mr. Morris is an extensive property owner at Frank-
fort, some of his holdings including two stores and
apartment buildings on Broadway, two brick build-
ings on Bridge Street used for commercial and resi-
dence purposes, two dwelling houses on Steel Street,
and a half interest in five residences at the foot of
Fourth Street and also a warehouse property there.
He lives in a modern home owned by his father at
212 Campbell Street. Mr. Morris is a stockholder
in the Frankfort Oil Company, is attorney and stock-
holder in the Farmers Deposit Bank of Frankfort, and
attorney for several local corporations.
He is vice president of the Frankfort Bar Associa-
tion and a member of the State Bar Association, and
was chairman of the Legal Advisory Committee in
Franklin County under the selective service law ap-
pointed by Governor Stanley and did a great deal of
work during the war in behalf of the various patriotic
movements, making many speeches for the Y. M. C. A.
and Red Cross.
As a member of the State Senate he represented
the Twentieth District, comprising Franklin, Ander-
son and Mercer counties, and was in the special ses-
sion of 1917 when the new tax law was adopted. He
also gave the strength of his influence toward a tax
on coal production, a measure that was defeated. _ Mr.
Morris is a democrat, a member of the Christian
Church, and is affiliated with Capital Lodge No. 6,
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Franklin Lodge
No. 530 of the Elks, Frankfort Aerie No. 923 of the
Fraternal Order of Eagles, and the Masonic Order.
In 1918 at Louisville he married Miss May Hocken-
smith, daughter of Albert and Bettie (Holton) Hock-
ensmith. Her mother is still living, with home at the
Forks of Elkhorn and Franklin County. Her father
was a farmer and an extensive breeder of trotting
horses, a business which to a considerable degree is
still carried on by Mrs. Morris and her sister, Miss
Daisy Hockensmith, who own a number of trotting
horses and brood mares. Mrs. Morris finished her
education in Georgetown College at Georgetown,
Kentucky.
Jefferson Henry may consistently he designated as
the honored dean of the bar of Green County, and
during the course of his long and successful profes-
sional career he has been identified with much of the
important litigation in the various courts of this sec-
tion of the state. Though he is not a native of Ken-
tucky, he is a scion of one of the old and honored
families of Green County, this state, his paternal
grandfather, Belfield Henry, a native of Virginia, hav-
ing been comparatively a young man when he came
to Kentucky and numbered himself among the pioneer
settlers of Green County, where his death occurred a
number of years prior to the birth of the subject of
this review. He became one of the extensive land-
holders and farmers of the county, and prior to the
Civil war owned a large number of slaves. He was
of Scotch-Irish lineage, and the original representa-
tives of the family in America came from Ireland to
Virginia in the Colonial era of our national history.
Belfield Henry married Miss Elizabeth Kirtley, like-
wise a native of Virginia, and both were well ad-
vanced in years at the time of their deaths.
Jefferson Henry, who is familiarly known by the
abbreviated name of "Jeff," was born in Cedar County,
Missouri, on the 26th of February, 1849, and is a son
of James L. and Margaret (Brownlee) Henry, both
natives of Green County, Kentucky, where the former
was born in 181 1 and the latter in 1810. The father
died at Canehill, Arkansas, in 1871, and the mother
subsequently passed to the life eternal at Burnet, Texas.
James L. Henry was reared and educated in Green
County, and here became a successful agriculturist and
stock-grower. In 1840 he removed to Cedar County,
Missouri, where he became the owner of a large farm
estate, including a stock ranch, and where he main-
tained a force of thirty or forty slaves in his extensive
operations as an agriculturist and stock-grower. He
continued his residence in Missouri until 1862, when
he removed with his family to Grayson County, Texas,
where he became the owner of a large ranch near
Kentuckytown, and where he took, his slaves, who there
remained with him until the close of the Civil war,
which effected their emancipation. In 1865, shortly
after the close of the war, Mr. Henry removed to
Canehill, Arkansas, with the primary object of giving
his children the advantages of Canehill College, and
there he remained until his death, in 1871. He was
an uncompromising advocate of the principles of the
democratic party, was more or less active and influ-
ential in political affairs in Kentucky, Missouri and
Texas, and served as county judge of Cedar County,
Missouri, from 1840 until i860. Both he and his wife
were zealous members of the Cumberland Presbyterian
Church. Of their children the eldest was C. M., who
was a prominent and extensive agriculturist in the
vicinity of Canehill, Arkansas, for many years prior
to his death, which there occurred when he was sev-
enty-three years of age. He served as colonel of a
Confederate regiment in the Civil war, near the close
of which he received the brevet rank of brigadier
general. Elizabeth became the wife of James T. Moore
and both passed the remainder of their lives in Texas,
where Mr. Moore was a prosperous farmer. He was
captain of his company in a Confederate regiment in
the Civil war, and was severely wounded in an en-
gagement at Froggy Bayou, Louisiana. Martha died
at Burnet, Texas, when forty years of age. Malvina
became the wife of Dr. A. J. Culberson, a leading
physician at Burnet, Texas, and there her death oc-
curred. Jefferson, immediate subject of this review,
was the next in order of birth. Malvina became the
wife of William E. Culberson, and both died at Burnet,
Texas, where he had been engaged in a mercantile
business for a long period. William was drowned in a
cloudburst in Wyoming when twenty-five years of age.
T. A., who was for many years successfully identified
with the banking business, died in 1919, at Red Fork,
Oklahoma. The above record shows that the subject
of this sketch is now the only surviving member of
this family of children.
The rural schools of Missouri and Texas afforded
Jefferson Henry his preliminary education, and after
the removal of the family to Canehill, Arkansas, he
there attended the high school two years and the Cane-
hill College for an equal period. In the meanwhile he
had applied himself also to the study of law, and on
the 22d of January, 1872, he was admitted to the bar
of Kentucky. In that year he established himself in
practice at Greensburg, where he has since continued
as one of the leading members of the Green County
bar and where he has long controlled a large and rep-
resentative law business, which has extended into both
the civil and criminal departments of law and re-
corded the winning of many court victories of impor-
tant order. Mr. Henry is a man who has ever been
a student, and his reading and study have covered a
remarkably wide range, with the result that his cul-
tural powers are of the finest type and his intellectual
horizon very wide. At his pleasant home, known for
76
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
its generous and unpretentious hospitality, he has one
of the best private libraries in Kentucky. His law
offices are maintained in the Henry Building, of which
he has been the owner since 1S78, and which is situ-
ated on the west side of the courthouse square in
Greensburg, his modern residence being at the corner
of Main and Cross streets and being one of the finest
in the city. In addition to these urban properties Mr.
Henry is the owner of a well-improved farm on the
rich bottom lands at the mouth of Big Russell Creek,
Green County. He has always adhered to the ancestral
political faith and is a leader in the ranks of the dem-
ocratic party in this section of the state. He served
eight years as county attorney of Green County, but
in the main has had no desire for public office, as he
has preferred to give his undivided attention to his
large and representative law practice. Both he and
his wife are active members of the Presbyterian
Church in Greensburg.
The perennial youth of Mr. Henry has been largely
due to his vital interest in men and affairs, and the
questions and issues of the hour receive his appre-
ciative attention. Thus it was to be naturally assumed
that he would take a prominent part in the various
local war activities when the nation became involved
in the great World war. He was chairman of the
advisory board of Green County, served on other war
committees in the county, aided in the various cam-
paigns in the sale of war bonds and savings stamps,
and to the full limit of his means he subscribed to these
issues and gave earnest support to Red Cross and Sal-
vation Army service.
December 12, 1872, recorded the marriage of Mr.
Henry to Miss Josephine L. Perry, daughter of
Joseph and Elizabeth (Tebbs) Perry, of Green County,
where both continued to reside until their deaths, Mr.
Perry having long been a substantial capitalist and
leading banker of Greensburg. Mr. and Mrs. Henry
have but one child, Claudia, who is the wife of Early
Vaughan, a successful farmer near Greensburg.
T. H. Hardesty, M. D. A prosperous physician and
well-known citizen of the St. Mary's community, Doc-
tor Hardesty earned his earfy reputation and success
in his profession by performing the arduous service
of a country doctor in a district where he attended
calls night and day, over bad roads, and many miles
from home. He has exemplified the fine type of char-
acter, the self-sacrificing, devoted and able physician,
and to an unusual degree has been able to mold life
according to his own ambitions and effort-.
Doctor Harde'-ty was born in Meade County, Ken-
tucky, November 4, 1862. son of John S. and Sarah
(Stephens) Hardesty. His father was a native of
Kentucky and his mother of Indiana. The Hardestys
came to Kentucky from St. Mary's County. Maryland,
and were of Irish ancestry. John S. Hardesty spent
his life as a farmer in Meade County. Four of his
children reached mature years: Ida L., wife of T. M.
Knott, of Meade County ; Frank, who lives at Tulsa,
Oklahoma, and married Nora Squires ; Augustus, who
married Daisy Payne, of Meade County.
Dr. T. H. Hardesty grew up on a farm and shared
in the heavy toil of a country district with only com-
mon school advantages. He earned all his higher
education, and put forth strenuous efforts to achieve
his early ambitions. For a time he was a student in
the Theresa Academy in Meade County. Being unable
to acquire the means for a professional education in
his home environment, he went West, to Colorado,
and became a laborer in the mines. He earned $3 a
day at regular wages, and then by work after hours
unloading ore wagons added substantially to his pay
envelope, and by living very economically acquired
the capital that enabled him to enter the School of
Medicine of Louisville University, where he graduated
with the M. D. degree in 1894. Doctor Hardesty be-
gan practice in his old home locality in Paynesville.
It was a rugged country, with bad roads, and there
are few physicians still in practice who braved the
elements and did more physically exhausting labor in
looking after their practice in early years than Doctor
Hardesty. His sound talent and ability supplemented
this professional zeal, and it is not strange that at
one time he had the largest practice any physician
ever enjoyed in that county.
In 1916 Doctor Hardesty removed to Stithton, Har-
din County, where he practiced from December of
that year until September, 19.18. The Federal authori-
ties located Camp Knox in that section of Kentucky,
and his property with others, was appropriated for
Government use. He was called upon to perform hos-
pital duty for the army until February 10, 1919, when
he removed to St. Mary's and bought a beautiful and
sightly home adjoining the town, where he has thirty-
five acres in his estate. From here he continues his
work as a physician.
Doctor Hardesty in 1881 married Mary A. Clark,
who died October 26, 1S94. By this union he had four
children: Edith, born February I, 1885, is the wife of
Oscar Burch, a well-known farmer in Meade County,
and they have four sons and three daughters; Lena is
the wife of John E. Flaherty, a Meade County farmer,
and has five sons and two daughters ; C. Alonzo, a
farmer in Hardin County, who married Blanche Brown
and is the father of two boys ; Emma O., born Feb-
ruary 24, 1892, completed the eighth grade course of
the public schools, attended Bryant and Stratton Busi-
ness College, for one year was a bookkeeper and
stenographer, and then joined the Sisters of the Good
Shepherd and is now located at Carthage, Ohio. Octo-
ber 3, 1896, Doctor Hardesty married Miss Ada Har-
rison, of Meade County. She died in June, 1898, leav-
ing one daughter, Mattie L., who died May 10, 1913,
at the age of sixteen. On January 9, 1900, Doctor
Hardesty married Mrs. Dorothy (Campbell) Pollock.
The three children of their union are : Louise, born
October 15, 1903, a high school student ; Thadeus, born
December 20, 1908, now in the sixth grade ; and Clar-
ence, born in 1910. Doctor Hardesty, as this record
shows, has a large family of children and grandchil-
dren, and much of the impelling force of his early
professional work was to provide "properly for his chil-
dren, and he thoroughly educated them and helped
them to start in business. He is a public-spirited and
broad-minded citizen and a faithful Catholic.
Joseph M. Mattingly, whose home is three miles
from Lebanon, on St. Mary's Pike, is a member of
a very prominent family long socially identified with
the agricultural, business and religious affairs of
Marion County. Mr. Mattingly started his career as
a banker, but after his father's death became a farmer,
and is one of the men who have made for progress
in Marion County agriculture.
He was born in Marion County July 27, 1865, son
of Edward H. and Althair (Spalding) Mattingly. His
father was born in 1818 and died in 1891, and his
mother was born in 1822 and died in 1890. Both were
natives of Marion County. The grandfather was Basil
Mattingly. Edward H. "Mattingly and wife had eight
children.
The oldest was the late Dr. W. E. Mattingly, a dis-
tinguished physician and philanthropist of Marion
County. He was educated in St. Mary's College, studied
medicine, graduated from Louisville University, began
practice at Lebanon, and earned the gratitude of an
entire community by his courage and faithfulness dur-
ing the cholera epidemic of 1873, when he remained
at his post of duty and then, as always, gave his serv-
ices and abilities without distinction as to rich or poor
or any other class. While much of his practice was
among the poor and gratuitous, he amassed a fortune.
He married Capitola Buckler, of a prominent family
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
77
of Owensboro, Kentucky. Doctor Mattingly died Feb-
ruary i, igio. He was devoted to the Catholic Church
and at the time of his death made some generous be-
quests to church causes in his locality and also set
aside a fund of $5,000 income which was to be devoted
to the welfare of the worthy poor in Lebanon.
The second child in this interesting family is Mary
Susan, wife of Charles Beaven, of St. Mary's. The
third, Florence Elizabeth, is the widow of James J.
O'Sullivan, a man of brilliant talents, a great math-
ematician, and he was associated editor of the Nash-
ville Banner at Nashville, Tennessee. He died in 1875.
The second son and fourth child, Thomas Basil Mat-
tingly, for many years was an extensive mule dealer
over the South, has always lived in Lebanon and is
now retired. He married first Teresa Twyman, of
Scott County, and for his second wife, Eliza Polin.
Julia Mahala, the fifth child, is the wife of Edward
M. Roney, of St. Mary's, and now lives at Lebanon.
George Mattingly, the sixth in the family, was born
October 14, 1852, and is a prosperous farmer on a
portion of his father's estate. His first wife was Mattie
Clark, and on January 28, 1898, he married Delia Mills,
who was born at Calvary, March 25, 1869. George
Mattingly and wife had four children. The oldest,
Annie Josephine, born December 31, 1899, after a
four years' course graduated with the last class of
the noted Loretta Academy in 1918. The younger
children are : George L., born August 8, 1902, finisheo.
his education in St. Mary's and is a farmer; Joseph
Alphonsus, born July 2, 1903, who attended school at
St. Mary's and is preparing for the priesthood; and
William Earnst, born September 3, 1904.
_ Ben S. Mattingly, the seventh child, is a prosperous
livestock commission merchant living at 920 Cherokee
Road in Louisville. His first wife was Annie E. Twy-
man and his second marriage was to Lela Elkin.
Joseph M. Mattingly was the eighth and youngest
of the family. He was educated in St. Mary's, worked
according to his increasing strength on his father's
farm, and on leaving the farm became associated with
the Marion Bank in Lebanon. His father prior to
his death in 1891 had requested that the old home-
stead remain in the family, and in order to do his
part toward carrying out that request Joseph M. Mat-
tingly left the bank and he and his two brothers bought
from the other heirs the old homestead of 365 acres
and then divided it. Joseph M. Mattingly lives in
the comfortable old home erected by his father in
1857, and has given his best energies to agriculture
for the past thirty years.
On February 16, 1898, at St. Mary's, he married
Eliza Catherine Mattingly, of the same family name
but not related. She was born January 10, 1870, a
daughter of John A. and Teresa (O'Daniel) Mattingly.
To their marriage were born seven children : Mahala,
born December 15, 1898, died at the age of four years.
Joseph M., Jr., born September 10, 1900, was educated
in St. Mary's College, and on his eighteenth birthday,
September 10, 1918. became subject to the draft and
two days later was called. He was anxious to get
into the service, but the armistice was signed before
his preliminary training had been completed. The
third child, Mary Cecelia, born June 17, 1902, was edu-
cated in St. Catherine's Academy, and is a finished
musician, having a great deal of technical ability as
a pianist. She lives at home. Imelda C, born June
6, 1904, is a student in the St. Cnarles High School;
Edward H., born August 4, 1905, also in the St. Charles
High School ; Richard F., born January 20, 1907, at-
tends school at St. Charles ; and Mary Teresa, born
March 17, 1910, died in infancy.
Mrs. Joseph Mattingly had three nephews, sons of
F. X. and Annie (Mattingly) Rapier, who were dis-
tinguished young soldiers in the American forces over-
seas. Their names are John Mattingly, H. Claude
and Julian Rapier. John and Julian saw some of the
heaviest fighting on the western front, were "over
the top" many times, and frequently in the very storm
center of warfare. Both returned to civilian life after
the armistice. Their brother, Claude, who was also
abroad, did not have the fortunate to get into the front
lines during the war, and his ambition as a soldier not
being satisfied by that experience he re-enlisted, waiv-
ing his privilege of returning home, and spent a year
with the Army of Occupation at Coblenz, Germany.
As these records show the Mattingly family have
long been prominent in the Catholic Church. An aunt
of Joseph M. Mattingly was the noted Sister Generose,
who began her career in the Church of St. Charles,
and lived to celebrate her diamond jubilee as a sister.
The Loretta Sisterhood was founded at St. Charles.
Aaron G. Moss erected and equipped in 1909 the
modern flour mill which he owns and operates at
Greensburg, judicial center of Green County, and the
enterprise is one of much importance in connection
with the industrial activities and general civic life of
the community. In addition to operating this mill
Mr. Moss is engaged also in the lumber business,
though not on so large a scale as in former years. He
was born at Gradyville, Adair County, Kentucky, July
28, 1864, and in the same county his father, P. A.
Moss, was born in the year 1835, and he passed his
enlire life in that county, in the vicinity of Gradyville,
where he was long the most extensive landholder and
successful farmer of the community. He was a
staunch republican, and served a number of years as
a magistrate in his home district. Both he and his
wife were earnest members of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South. P. A. Moss was a son of Clark and
Nancy (Read) Moss, both of whom continued their
residence in Adair County until their deaths. The
father of Clark Moss was a native of Virginia and
became one of the pioneer settlers and substantial farm-
ers of Adair County, Kentucky. The death of P. A.
Moss occurred in the year 1902, and his widow met
an accidental death in 1907, when she was drowned in
Big Creek at Gradyville. Her maiden name was Mary
Pickett and she was born near Gradyville in 1840. Of
the children the eldest is N. H., a prosperous farmer
near Gradyville; Theora is the wife of P. H. Davis,
who is a clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South, and they maintain their home in the City of
Louisville ; A. G., of this sketch, was the next in order
of birth ; C. O. is cashier of the Gradyville State Bank ;
R. D. is the owner and operator of a public automo-
bile garage at Greensburg; W. M., a flour-miller by
vocation, died in the City of Louisville, at the age of
forty-seven years ; H. A. is one of the interested prin-
cipals of the Louisville Cooperage Company and re-
sides in the Kentucky metropolis; C. F. died at Grady-
ville when twenty-six years of age.
The public rural schools of his native county af-
forded A. G. Moss his early education, and he was
reared to the sturdy and invigorating discipline of the
old home farm, with the activities of which he con-
tinued his association until he had attained to his
legal majority. Thereafter he became a lumber in-
spector, and he continued his services in this capacity
until 1891, when he engaged in the retail lumber busi-
ness at Greensburg, where he still conducts this enter-
prise, though he has curtailed the same to a large
extent since engaging in the operation of his flour
mill, which, as previously stated, was erected by him
in the year 1909, this being the most important mill in
Green County and having a capacity of fifty barrels
a day. The products of the mill are of high grade
and command ready sale, the trade being largely of
localized order. The mill is eligibly situated between
Water and East Main streets, near the railway station,
and on West Main Street is located the modern resi-
dence of Mr. Moss.
Mr. Moss is not only one of the leading business
78
HISTORY OF KENTU( k\
men of Greensburg but is also one of its most liberal
and progressive citizens. He is a republican in political
allegiance, and served a number of years as a mem-
ber of the City Council. He and his wife are active
members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South,
and he is a trustee of the church of this denomination
in his home city. He is a past master of Greensburg
Lodge No. 54, Free and Accepted Masons; past high
priest of Greensburg Chapter No. 36, Royal Arch Ma-
sons; and is affiliated with Marion Commandery No.
_'4. Knights Templars, at Lebanon, and with Kosair
Temple of the Mystic Shrine in the City of Louisville.
He was active and liberal in support of all local war
measures and campaigns during the nation's participa-
tion in the World war.
In Metcalfe County, Kentucky, in the year 1889. was
solemnized the marriage of Mr. Moss to Miss Viola
Hodges, daughter of B. A. and Susan (Frazier)
Hodges, both of whom are now deceased, the father
having been for many years one of the representative
farmers in Metcalfe County. In conclusion is given
brief records concerning the children of Mr. and Mrs.
Moss : Virgil Otis, who was born in 1890, is bookkeeper
in the office of his father's mill; Addie G. is the wife
of C. J. Vaughan, of Greensburg; Susan is the wife
of T. Z. Leachman, a farmer and stock-trader residing
at Greensburg; Mattie Lee is the wife of James
Buchanan, a traveling salesman, and they reside at
Campbellsville, Kentucky; and H. L. and Hodges A.
are, in 1921, students in the Greensburg High School.
Robert Boggs Lyle, of Lebanon, ttntil his retirement
was one of Kentucky's foremost farmers and stock-
raisers, and helped develop and train some of the great
Kentucky horses of his time. A successful business '
man and honored citizen, he is also held in high esteem
for his prominent family relationships, the Lyles and
their kin having been identified with Kentucky since
almost the first settlements.
Mr. Lyle was born in Fayette County August 9, 1843.
His first American ancestor was John Lyle, who came
from Ireland to America and located in Rockbridge
County, Virginia, where he died in 1758. Though he
came from Ireland, his forefathers were Scotch, and
the family is therefore what is known as Scotch-Irish.
A son of John, the immigrant, was John Lyle. born
in Rockbridge County in 1746. His son, Rev. John
Lyle, was born in 1769 in Rockbridge County, and was
a distinguished character in Kentucky religious and
educational history. He was one of the first Presby-
terian ministers in the West, and taught the first board-
ing school for girls in Kentucky, this school being
located at the old Ryan House at Paris. He was
also editor of the pioneer newspaper, the Paris Ken-
tuckian. Rev. John Lyle married Margaret Irvin.
widow of the noted Doctor Lapsley.
John Reed Lyle, son of Rev. John and father of
Robert Boggs Lyle, was born at Winchester, Ken-
tucky, August 8, 1800, and died in 1866. In early life
he studied medicine, though he never practiced, then
became a lawyer, and had many cases in the courts of
Bowling Green, and was also an extensive farmer and
planter. He was a man of kindly and most generous
character. When the Civil war came on he was the
owner of forty slaves, and when they were freed by
the Emancipation Act the loss was estimated at $40,-
000. Had he been willing to exercise his legal rights
over his property he might have avoided the loss.
However, he would never sell a slave or in any way
break up the families, even though he had no use for
forty darkies on his farm. In order to keep his slaves
busy he contracted his surplus labor, some eight or ten,
to other planters for food and clothing and a hundred
dollars a year, not for the sake of profit, but to insure
good treatment of his blacks.
John Reed Lyle married Sarah Martin Irwin, who
was born in 1809 and died in 1887, daughter of Robert
Irwin, who was born in Virginia in 1768. Two other
generations of American residents separated Robert
trom Abram Irwin, who was a Scotch-Irishman, com-
ing direct from Ireland to Virginia. John Reed Lyle
and wife had nine children, eight sons and one daugh-
ter, the three reaching maturity being William Joel,
Robert Boggs and Edwin Reed.
Robert Boggs Lyle spent his early youth in a man-
ner befitting the son of a prosperous planter and farm
owner. He had advanced his higher education to the
junior year of Center College at Danville when, in
1863, as a result of the emancipation of the slaves,
he left his studies and assisted his father in operating
the farm. After his father's death in 1866 he, with
his two brothers, continued the farming operations
until 1874, when he sold his interest in the estate to
his brothers;
On November 26, 1873, be married Miss Mary Eliza
McElroy, of Marion County. In 1874 he bought 447
acres near Bradfordsville, and that was the scene of his
prosperous operations as an agriculturist for some fifteen
or twenty years. While lie conducted a general farm, he
always specialized in blooded stock, and raised many
thoroughbreds and for about fifteen years had his horses
on some of the noted Kentucky courses, gaining their
full share of honors. Mr. Lyle sold his farm and in
1906 bought the old picturesque home of Doctor Shuck
in Lebanon. There is no other home in this city with
so many features of beauty and interest. The home
itself is surrounded by ten acres of ground, laid out
like a park, and altogether is an ideal environment in
which to spend the declining years of life. Mr. Lyle
has three children.
John Robert Lyle, the oldest, born November 25,
1874, has never married. He attended the grammar
schools of Lebanon, graduated from Center College
in 1896, with the degree Bachelor of Science, and for
two years was a teacher in the schools of Lebanon.
For ten years he was secretary to Federal Judge Coch-
ran at Maysville, Kentucky, then for a time was in the
revenue service and has since been connected with the
Louisville offices of the United States engineers.
Lucy Underwood, the second child, was born De-
cember II, 1877, was educated in the public schools of
Lebanon, at the noted Thane Miller School in Cin-
cinnati, following which she took a two-year course
and graduated as a trained nurse from the Norton
Infirmary. Her first duties in her profession were as
director of physical training and head nurse at St.
Mary's College, an Episcopal institution at Dallas,
Texas. According to her plans and specifications the
college hospital was built, and she remained in active
charge for several years. On October 30, 1907, she
became the wife of Judge Samuel C. Blackburn, of
Lebanon. His uncle, the late Senator Joseph C. S.
Blackburn, appointed him a Federal judge in the Canal
Zone, and he lived on the Isthmus of Panama and
continued his duties on the bench for ten years, finally
resigning in the spring of 1918, on account of ill health
and returning to Lebanon. Judge and Mrs. Blackburn's
two children were born in the Canal Zone, Henrietta
Lyle on August 4, 1908, and Samuel E., Jr., on August
9, 1910.
Evelyn Brown Lyle, the third child, was born Sep-
tember 21, 1879, was educated at Lebanon, spent three
years in the Conservatory of Arts at Cincinnati, and
is a well-known Kentucky artist, excelling in crayon
and water color work. Some of her work has been
awarded prizes in competition with the leading artists
of the country. The Lyle family are all devout Pres-
byterians of the old school.
Thomas P. Hamilton, whose death occurred on the
18th of June, 1898, passed his entire life in Marion
County, Kentucky, where he was born in May, 1844,
and where he achieved substantial success and a posi-
tion of prominence and influence as a progressive ex-
ASTOtt, LENOT ANP
TILX.EN i
(TL+^as*—c&>r
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
79
ponent of agricultural and livestock industry. He was
a son of Charles and Mary (Turner) Hamilton, who
were honored citizens of Marion County at the time
of their deaths, the father's active career having been
marked by close and effective association with farm
enterprise in this county. Mrs. Hamilton was a sister
of Rev. Jeremiah Turner, who entered the Dominican
order of the Catholic Church and who gave in the
priesthood many years of earnest and consecrated
service in the missionary field, with headquarters in
the City of St. Louis, Missouri. Father Turner was
self-abnegating in his arduous and saintly labors in
the vineyard of the Divine Master whom he served,
and was one of the revered priests of the great mother
church of Christendom.
Charles and Mary (Turner) Hamilton were devout
communicants of the Catholic Church, in the faith of
which they carefully reared their children. The sub-
ject of this memoir was the second in a family of
twelve children and was reared on the old home farm
of his parents in Marion County. He continued to
remain at the parental home until 1870, in which year
was solemnized his marriage to Miss Frances John-
son, daughter of Patrick L. and Elizabeth (Carrico)
Johnson, who passed their entire lives in Kentucky
and who died on the farm now representing the home
of their widowed daughter, Mrs. Thomas P. Hamilton.
For six years after his marriage Mr. Hamilton con-
ducted farm operations on rented land, and he then
purchased the old homestead farm of his wife's mother,
this being a part of the Carrico landed estate in
Marion County. Here Mr. Hamilton devoted the re-
mainder of his life to vigorous and successful enter-
prise as an agriculturist and stock-grower, and he so
ordered his course as to merit and retain the unquali-
fied confidence and esteem of all who knew him. He
was a zealous communicant of the Catholic Church,
as are also his widow and children.
Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton became the parents of five
children : Johnson, who was born in 1871, married Miss
Allie O. Daniel, and his death occurred in 1903, no
children having been born of the marriage; Virginia,
who was born in 1874, is the wife of James Mudd, a
prosperous farmer in Marion County, and they have
ten children. Elizabeth, who was born in 1878, is
the wife of James William Spalding, of Lebanon, and
they have two children. Henry W., the fourth child,
was born June 6, 1884, and remains with his widowed
mother on the home farm, of which he has the active
management. In his youth Henry W. Hamilton met
with _ a fall that resulted in the splintering of bones
of his right arm, and after years of intense suffering
as a result of this injury he found it necessary to sub-
mit to the amputation of the arm at the shoulder. In
his activities since that time he has refused to look
upon this affliction as a handicap, and has applied him-
self successfully to all manner of work in connection
with the farm, including mechanical work that requires
no little manual skill and dexterity. He received ex-
cellent educational advantages, including those of
Ellendale College, at Owensboro, the Southern Ken-
tucky Normal School, at Bowling Green, and
Draughon's Business College, in the City of Nashville,
Tennessee. Though he is an expert bookkeeper and
accountant, he has preferred to give his attention to
farm enterprise, and in this important industrial field
his success has been unepuivocal. Henry W. Hamilton
is a renowned shot with rifle and pistol. He began
shooting when a child only nine years old, and is one
of the best shots known. Several times he has been
written up in Field and Stream sporting magazine, in
which his likeness also appeared. January 14, 1914,
recorded his marriage to Miss Euzabie Blanford,
daughter of Edward C. Blanford, a representative
farmer of Marion County, and the names and respective
dates of birth of the four children of this union are
here recorded: Marie, December 27, 1914; Magdalene,
February 27, 1916; Florence, December 28, 1919; and
Endocie, August 21, 1921. Mr. Hamilton, his wife and
his mother are communicants of the parish of St.
Augustine Catholic Church at Lebanon. Mary Eliza!
the youngest of the five children of the subject of
this memoir, is the wife of Richard Blanford, a pros-
perous farmer of Marion County, and they have five
children. The Hamilton homestead farm is situated
three miles north of Lebanon and one mile west of the
St. Rose Turnpike.
Richard Harrison Sowards, sheriff of Pike County,
is one of the best-known men of this part of Ken-
tucky, and one who has won the approval of his fellow
citizens through his personal courage and faithful per-
formance of the duties of his responsible office. He
was born August 15, 1881, on the property at the fork
of the rivers in Pike County, now the home of Judge
Ford. His parents, William H. and Linchie (Price)
Sowards were also born in Pike County, the former
in 1847, a son of Capt. Lewis Sowards.
William H. Sowards and three brothers served under
their father in the Union army during the war between
the states, and the latter survived his military service
for many years, dying on the farm where he had lived
for sixty years, at the advanced age of ninety-two
years. His farm was located at the mouth of Shelby
Creek, eight miles above Pikeville. His wife was a
member of the Morgan family of Virginia. Until
1902 William H. Sowards lived in Pike County, and
was occupied with agricultural activities, but in that
year went to Washington, and is still a resident of
that state. During the administration of President
Benjamin Harrison, he served as postmaster of Pike-
ville, and he was continued in that office by President
McKinley. All of the Sowards have been republicans
since the organization of that party. In religious faith
he is a Presbyterian and his wife is a Methodist. They
are the parents of seven sons and five daughters.
Growing up in Pike County, Sheriff Sowards at-
tended the Pikeville public schools, having among
others David Blythe as a teacher. He was a very
bright pupil, and as soon as the law permitted, passed
his examination and received a first grade certificate,
following which he was engaged in school teaching for
two years. At the close of that period he became
foreman of the construction work of Johnson, Briggs
& Pftts on the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, holding
this position for five years. For the subsequent five
years he was deputy United States marshal for Pike
County, and for three years was the Government dep-
uty for the counties of Pike, Floyd and Knott. Leav-
ing the Government service he became walking boss
for Pitts & Burgess on the Sandy Valley & Elkhorn
Railroad, but three years later bought the old Sowards
farm on Shelby Creek, and was engaged in operating
it until his election to the office of sheriff in the fall
of 1917. Since assuming the duties of this office he
has made a fine record as one of the most efficient
and fearless officers Pike County has ever had, and he
has made his name feared by the criminal class,
although at the same time he has established a reputa-
tion for positive fairness in all of his dealings.
_ In July, 1899, Sheriff Sowards was united in mar-
riage with Miss Rebecca Moore. They are consistent
members of the Christian Church. Fraternally Sheriff
Sowards belongs to the Benevolent and Protective
Order of Elks, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows
and Improved Order of Red Men, and is very popular
in all of these organizations. His long experience in
the Government service, as well as in railroad work,
fitted him in an unusual degree for the onerous duties
of his present office, for in these connections he learned
to understand human nature and the motives govern-
ing the actions of all classes of men. Broad in his
views, tolerant in his beliefs, he knows how to make
80
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
due allowances, while at the same time insisting upon
a strict enforcement of the law and the maintenance
of order. Such men as he are rare in office, and their
abilities are appreciated when they are found and their
services are secured.
R. A. Alexander. One of the enterprising and pro-
gressive representatives of the business interests of
Eddyville, R. A. Alexander, has been the architect of
his own fortunes, and the large ice manufacturing
plant of which he is now the sole proprietor repre-
sents the results of years of industry and close appli-
cation to honorable and straightforward business pol-
icies. Like a number of other substantial business
men, Mr. Alexander is a product of the agricultural
districts of Kentucky, having been born on a farm near
Cadiz, in Trigg Cpunty, February 2, 1881, a son of
E. F. Alexander, and is descended from an old Vir-
ginia family which located in the Old Dominion dur-
ing Colonial times.
E. F. Alexander was born in 1852, on the farm on
which he now makes his home, 4^2 miles southwest of
Cadiz, and on which he has passed his entire career.
He has devoted himself uninterruptedly to the pursuits
of agriculture, and industry and good management have
brought him worth-while and honorable success, for,
in addition to his home property, he is the owner of
four other farms in Trigg County, all valuable and
productive. In spite of advanced years he is still
actively engaged in operating his various properties
and is known as one of the leading farmers and stock-
raisers of his locality. He is a democrat, although not
a politician, and is a consistent member of the Meth-
odist Episcopal Church at Siloam. Mr. Alexander
married Ada Elizabeth Hendrick, who w:as born in
i860, in Trigg County, and nine children have been
born to them: Viola, who died at the age of thirty-
two years as the wife of T. B. Stone, a farmer of
Trigg County ; R. A. ; George Earl, a general work-
man of Henderson, Kentucky ; Ira, who is engaged in
farming near Cadiz ; Vallie, the wife of Garnett
Atwood, a farmer near Gracey, Kentucky; Hewlett,
who is engaged in farming near Cadiz ; Bertie, the wife
of Earl VanZandt. a farmer near Cadiz; Beulah, the
wife of Tandy Mitchell, carrying on farming on one
of Mrs. Mitchell's father's farms; and Harvey, who
lives with his parents on the old home place.
R. A. Alexander received his early education in the
district schools of the rural community of his birth,
following this by a course at the high school at Cadiz.
Leaving school at the age of nineteen years, he as-
sisted his father on the home place until he was twenty-
four years of age and at that time began to learn the
trade of blacksmith near Rockcastle, in Trigg County,
where he remained seven years. Mr. Alexander then
invested his earnings in a mercantile and ice manu-
facturing business at Cadiz, which was carried on for
one year under the style of Alexander Brothers &
Company, and in 1913 removed to Kuttawa. where he
followed ice manufacturing for one year. In 1914 he
came to Eddyville and established his present ice plant.
as Alexander Brothers & Company, and in 1915 dis-
posed of his holdings at Cadiz and became the sole
owner of the business at Eddyville, of which he has
been the proprietor to the present time. The modern
plant is located on Levy Street, corner of Main, just off
Wall Street, in a building owned by Mr. Alexander,
the capacity beint; six tons every twenty-four hours. Mr.
Alexander has built up a splendid and paying business
and has established a reputation among his associates
and the general public as a man of sound integrity.
He is the owner of one of the most attractive and mod-
ern homes at Eddyville. His political belief is that of
the democratic party and his religious connection with
the Methodist Episcopal Church at Siloam. Frater-
nally he is affiliated with Hill City Camp No. 20. Wood-
men of the World, and Cadiz Camp, Modern Wood-
men of America, in both of which he is very popular
and has numerous friends.
On September 14, 1905, Mr. Alexander was married
in Trigg County to Miss Pearl Dyer Holland, a daugh-
ter of Mr. and Mrs. S. M. Holland, the latter of whom
is deceased, while the former still resides on his farm
near Rockcastle. Mr. and Mrs. Alexander have one
child; Lawrence Jackson, born May 13. I9°8.
Basil M. Taylor, M. D., has not only gained dis-
tinctive prestige in his exacting profession but has
also been prominent and influential in connection with
public affairs in his native state, as is evidenced by the
fact that he has served with characteristic ability and
loyalty as a member of the Kentucky State Senate.
He is established in the successful practice of his pro-
fession at Greensburg, judicial center of Green County,
and is a representative citizen who specially merits a
tribute in this history.
Dr. Basil Mitchell Taylor was born in Taylor County,
Kentucky, on the 5th of November, 1869, and both his
paternal great-grandfather and his maternal great-
grandfather were numbered among the sterling pioneer
settlers of Green County, this state. The paternal
great-grandfather, John Y. Taylor, was born and reared
in Virginia and, as before stated, became one of the
pioneers of Green County, Kentucky, where he played
a large part in early civic and industrial development
and where he had the distinction of serving as first
circuit judge of the county. His son, Dr. Richard
Aylett Taylor, was born at Greensburg, Kentucky, in
1797, and here his death occurred in the year 1872,
he having passed his entire life in his native county
and having long been one of its leading physicians and
surgeons — a man of fine mentality, sterling character
and conscientious civic and professional stewardship,
so that he wielded large influence in community life
as a leader in popular sentiment and action.
Aylett Taylor, father of Doctor Taylor of this re-
view, was born at Greensburg in 1830, was here reared
and educated, and he passed the greater part of his
life in Green County, where he became extensively en-
gaged in farm enterprise. He removed to Taylor
County in i860, and was there engaged in farming
until 1881. when he returned to Green County and here
resumed his active alliance with farm industry, with
which he continued to be successfully identified until
his death, March 17, 1897. In all of the relations of
life he fully upheld the prestige of the honored fam-
ily name. His political allegiance was given to the
democratic party, and he served twenty years as an
elder of the Presbyterian Church, of which his wife
likewise was a devoted member. Mrs. Taylor, whose
maiden name was Adne Mitchell, was born at Har-
rodsburg, Kentucky, in 1848, and her death occurred
at Danville, this state, April 27, 1920. Thomas W.,
eldest of their children, is engaged in the insurance
business at Campbellsville, Taylor County ; Elizabeth
is the wife of Rev. A. W. Crawford, a clergyman of
the Presbyterian Church, and they reside at Greens-
boro', North Carolina, where he has a pastoral charge
at the time of this writing, in the summer of 1921 ;
Dr. P.asil M., of this sketch, was the next in order of
birth ; Dr. W. W. is a dentist by profession and is
engaged in practice in the City of Lexington ; Fannie
is the wife of Scott Buchanan, a prosperous farmer
near Burdick, Taylor County; Virginia is the wife of
Charles Caldwell, a successful farmer near Danville,
Boyle County.
Reared under the vitalizing influences of the home
farm, Dr. Basil M. Taylor gained his early education
in the rural schools of Taylor and Green counties, and
in the former countv he attended also the private
school conducted by W. M. Crenshaw. In 1800 he was
graduated from Taylor Academy, at Campbellsville,
and he then entered the medical department of the
University of Louisville, in which he was graduated
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
81
as a member of the class of 1892 and from which he
received his degree of Doctor of Medicine. In 1898
he further fortified himself for the work of his pro-
fession by completing an effective post-graduate course
in the celebrated New York Policlinic, in the national
metropolis, where he gave special attention to surgery,
as did he also in his post-graduate work in the same
institution in the following year. The doctor is a close
student and keeps insistently in touch with the ad-
vances made in medical and surgical science, in the lat-
ter branch of which he specializes and has attained to
high reputation, with many successful major and minor
operations to his credit. In connection with his pro-
fessional work he makes yearly observations in the
leading medical schools and hospitals of Louisville,
and in 1919 and 1920 did special post-graduate work
in the Lankenau Hospital, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
On the 21st of March, 1892, almost immediately after
his graduation from medical school, Doctor Taylor
opened an office at Greensburg, and here he has since
continued to be successfully established in the general
practice of his profession, with special attention given
to surgery. He now maintains his well appointed
offices in the building of the Greensburg Deposit Bank,
and he is the owner of one of the attractive residence
properties of the judicial center of the county in which
his ancestors settled more than a century ago. The
Doctor is retained as a member of the surgical staff
of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, a position of
which he has been the incumbent for the past fifteen
years. He maintains active affiliation with the Green
County Medical Society, the Kentucky State Medical
Society and the American Medical Association.
Doctor Taylor and his wife are zealous members of
the Presbyterian Church in their home city, and he
is serving as elder of the same. He has thrice been
elected master of Greensburg Lodge No. 54, Free and
Accepted Masons, and was master of this lodge in
1921. His affiliations include also his membership in
Greensburg Chapter No. 36, Royal Arch Masons, and
Marion Commandery No. 24, Knights Templars, at
Lebanon.
The democratic party claimed the allegiance of
Doctor Taylor until 1896, when he found the free-
silver policy of the party at variance with his ideas
and therefore transferred himself to the ranks of the
republican party, in which he has become much of a
leader in this section of the state. In November, 1915,
he was elected to represent the Thirteenth Senatorial
District in the Kentucky Legislature, in which he
served during the regular assemblies of 1916 and 1918,
as well as in two special sessions. He proved a loyal
and influential representative of his constituent dis-
trict, comprising Green, Hart and Larue counties, and
as an active and influential working member of the
State Senate. The Doctor introduced a bill to pro-
hibit the transportation of intoxicating liquors into
local-option districts of the state, and this bill, enacted
with only minor changes, continued an effective law
of Kentucky until national prohibition rendered its
functioning unnecessary. He also introduced and ably
championed the bill abolishing the office of county
assessor and creating county tax commissions in each
of the counties of the state, and this bill, as enacted,
is proving of great value in making for efficiency in
the fiscal affairs of the state and its counties. The
Doctor was influential in the advancing of other pro-
gressive legislation, and made an admirable record as
a member of the Upper House of the Kentucky Legis-
lature.
Doctor Taylor's patriotism and loyal stewardship
were manifested effectively during the period of the
nation's participation in the World war, for he took
a vigorous part in all war activities in Green County,
assisting in the various drives for subscriptions to
the Government war bonds, Savings and Thrift
Stamps, etc., was liberal in his own subscriptions, and
was the organizer of the Green County Chapter of
the Red Cross.
On the 18th of January, 1905, was solemnized the
marriage of Doctor Taylor to Miss Cora Cort,
daughter of Rev. A. B. and Nellie (Bartlett) Cort,
who now reside at Shelbyville, Missouri, where the
father is pastor of the Presbyterian Church. Mrs.
Taylor was graduated in the college at Maryville,
Tennessee, and her culture and gracious personality
have made her a popular figure in the social activities
of her home community, even as she was also in those
of the Kentucky capital during the period of her hus-
band's service in the State Senate. Doctor and Mrs.
Taylor have a winsome little daughter, Adne Eugenia,
born January 9, 1920.
Romulus Skaggs, president of Russell Creek
Academy, is one of the leading exponents of his pro-
fession in this part of Kentucky and a man whose
earnestness and sincerity, combined with his natural
qualifications for his work and his careful training,
make him a very important factor in the cultural life
of Campbellsville. He was born at Pennington Gap,
Virginia, December 25, 1885, a son of J. F. Skaggs,
and grandson of Jeremiah Skaggs, who was born in
Lee County, Virginia, and died in a federal prison in
1864 during the war between the North and the South,
in which he participated as a Confederate soldier. He
was a planter and slaveholder, and a man of large
means when the war broke out. His capture by the
Union forces took place at Cumberland Gap, Vir-
ginia.
J. F. Skaggs was born at Turkey Cove, Lee County,
Virginia, in 1857, an(l is now living at Pennington Gap,
in Lee County, having spent his life in this county.
He has been an extensive farmer and leading mer-
chant at Pennington Gap. where he was the first man
to open a store, and he is still engaged in these lines
of business. For four years he served as a county
commissioner of revenues of Lee County, and for two
terms was a justice of the peace. As a member of
the Baptist Church he is a strong supporter of his
denomination, and an earnest and devout Christian
man. Fraternally he maintains membership with the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He was married
to Evaline Jane Howard, who was born in Harlan
County, Kentucky. Their children have been as fol-
lows : E. E., who resides at Pennington Gap, is an
attorney-at-law ; J. H., who is store manager at Nor-
ton, Virginia, is also interested in the coal mines of
that vicinity; Minnie Belle, who married Jasper Bryant,
a coal miner, lives at Norton, Virginia; Professor
Skaggs, who was the fourth in order of birth ; Remus,
a twin brother of Professor Skaggs, is with his
parents; Birdie Lee, who married William Kauffman,
lives near Pennington Gap ; W. C, who is a public
school teacher and lives at Bernardsville, North Caro-
lina; G. C, who is an electrician of Burnsville, North
Carolina; Bessie, who is married, lives at Saint
Charles, Virginia, where her husband is a coal miner ;
Alpha, who is a teacher at Dante, Virginia; Ruby,
who is a teacher of Dante ; Marvin, who is a student
of the Richmond University at Richmond, Virginia ;
Jesse and Virgil, both of whom live with their parents;
Oscar, who died in infancy; and Mervin, who also
died in infancy. J. F. Skaggs had been previously
married to a Miss Andis, and there was one child by
this marriage, C. A., who is an electrician, living at
Ben Hur, Virginia.
Professor Skaggs attended the rural schools of Lee
County, the Lee Baptist Institute for his high-school
training, and then matriculated at Wake Forest Col-
lege, North Carolina, from which he was graduated
in 1913 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. In the
meanwhile he had been engaged in teaching in the rural
schools of Lee County for three years, beginning at
the age of eighteen years. For two years while at-
82
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
tending Wake Forest College he taught in the high
school, and also in the night mission school of the
cotton mill while in college. Following his gradua-
tion he was elected principal of the Watauga Academy
of Butler, Tennessee, and held that position for five
years, when, in 1918, he was elected president of the
Russell Creek Academy at Campbellsville and entered
upon the discharge of his duties. This is a Baptist
denominational institution, founded in 1906. There are
four buildings, the administration building, the two
dormitory buildings, and the president's residence, all
being surrounded by grounds of eighteen acres, sit-
uated in the northwestern part of Campbellsville.
Professor Skaggs has twelve teachers and 300 pupils
under his supervision, and has placed his institution
in the front ranks of its grade in this part of the
state. He is a democrat. The Baptist Church holds
his membership. A Mason, he belongs to Butler Lodge
No. 679, F. and A. M. He also belongs to the Modern
Woodmen of America and the Junior Order United
American Mechanics. During the late war he took
an active part in all of the local war work, and bought
bonds and stamps and contributed generously to all of
the war organizations.
On May II, 1915, Professor Skaggs was married at
Fayetteville, North Carolina, to Miss Bernice Olive,
who was born in Wake County, North Carolina. She
was graduated from Oxford College, Oxford, North
Carolina, with the degree of Bachelor of Science. Pro-
fessor and Mrs. Skaggs have a son, Romulus, Jr..
who was born December 6, 1919.
Carter L. McDowell. In the East Bernstadt district
of Laurel County coal mining represents an industrial
enterprise of marked importance, and as an owner and
operator of a mine in this district Mr. McDowell has
a secure place as one of the influential business men of
this section of the state. He was born in Laurel
County, on a farm, eight miles east of East Bernstadt,
and the date of his nativity was December 2, 1882.
His paternal grandfather, Dr. H. F. McDowell, was
born in Lee County, Virginia, and became a pioneer
farmer and physician in Kentucky. He came to this
state when a young man and first settled near Boone-
ville, Owsley County, where his marriage was solem-
nized and whence he and his wife later removed to
Laurel County, where he continued his pioneer ac-
tivities as a farmer and where he gave many years
of earnest and able service as a physician and surgeon,
he having been ever ready to respond to calls upon him,
no matter how great the distance or how inclement
the weather, so that he did a noble work in the allevia-
tion of human suffering in his community and gained
the high regard of all who knew him. He passed the
closing years of his life on his farm eight miles east
of East Bernstadt, and his widow survived him by
many years. Her maiden name was Roberts, and she
was born in Owsley County in 182.-;. The closing
period of her life was passed in Jackson Count}', where
she died in 1908.
James M. McDowell, father of Carter L. of this re-
view, was born in Owsley Count}', near Booneville, in
the year 1848, and was a boy at the time of the family
removal to Laurel County, where he was reared to
manhood on the old homestead farm which was the
birthplace of his son Carter L, his educational ad-
vantages having been those of the common schools of
the locality and period. In this county his marriage
was solemnized, and here he continued his activities
as a farmer until 1886. In that year he removed to
the vicinity of Annville, Jackson County, where he
continued his farm enterprise until 1801. removing then
to a farm near Tyner, that county. There he was en-
gaged in successful farm enterprise until 1904, when he
became proprietor of a general store at Livingston,
Rockcastle County. A year later he returned to Jack-
son County, where he has since given his active super-
vision to his well improved farm near the Village of
Bond. He is a stalwart democrat, is affiliated with the
Masonic fraternity, and is a member of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South, as was also his wife. As a
young man James M. McDowell wedded Miss Mary E.
Pennington, who was born in Jackson County in 1852,
and whose death occurred at the family home near
Annville, that county, on the 1st of June, 1890. Of
the children the eldest is Syrena, the wife of A. J.
Simson, a farmer and school teacher in the Moore's
Creek district of Jackson County; Lillie is the wife
of T. C. Powell, and they reside at Bond, Jackson
County, Mr. Powell being master mechanic for the
Rockcastle River Railroad; W. P. is a successful con-
tractor and builder at Overpeck, Ohio; H. F. is a
rural mail carrier at Nicholasville. Kentucky ; Carter
I., of this sketch, was the next in order of birth; and
James A. is the owner and operator of a moving-
picture theater at Ravenna, Estill County.
The rural schools of Jackson County gave to Carter
I.. McDowell his early education, which was supple-
mented by an effective course in the Bowling Green
Business University, in which he was graduated as a
member of the class of 1905. For eighteen months
thereafter he held the position of assistant station
agent for the Louisville & Nashville Railroad at Liv-
ingston, Rockcastle County, and for the ensuing six
months was station agent at Fariston, Laurel County.
In 1007 he established his residence at East Bernstadt,
this county, where in the service of the same railroad
company, he was assistant station agent three years,
at the expiration of which he was advanced to the
office of station agent, of which he there continued
the incumbent eight vears. In 1918 he engaged inde-
pendently in coal-mining operations in this locality, his
coal mine being situated il/i miles east of East Bern-
stadt, on the A. & M. division of the Louisville &
Nashville Railroad. Here he has developed a sub-
stantial and prosperous mining industry, and the mine
produces an excellent grade of bituminous coal, an
average force of fifty men being employed and the
output capacity being 125 tons a day. Mr. McDowell
maintains his office in a building opposite the Louis-
ville & Nashville Railroad station at East Bernstadt.
He owns an interest also in the McCarthy Coal Com-
pany of East Bernstadt, which operates a mine with
an output capacity of fifty tons a day.
Mr. McDowell is aligned in the ranks of the demo-
cratic party, he is a steward of the Methodist
Episcopal Church. South, in his home village of East
Bernstadt, and his Masonic affiliations are as here
noted : Tohn Pitman Lodge No. 690, Free and Ac-
cepted Masons; Mount Vernon Chapter No. 140. Royal
Arch Masons: London Commandery No. 20. Knights
Templars ; and Kosair Temple, Ancient Arabic Order
Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, in the City of Louis-
ville. At London he holds membership in Lodge No.
249 of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and he
has served as chancellor of East Bernstadt Lodge No.
163. Knights of Pythias, his service in this capacity
having covered four terms. Mr. McDowell is the
owner of a well improved farm of 2355^ acres near
Paint Lick, Madison County.
The local war activities in Laurel County gained the
earnest and Inval co-operation of Mr. McDowell dur-
ing the nation's participation in the great World war,
and his financial contributions were in consonance with
his resources.
At Mi ■unt Verncfti, Rockcastle County, in 1009, Mr.
McDowell wedded Miss Martha V. Daily, daughter
of S. S. and Belle (Bowman) Daily, who reside on
their farm near that place. Mrs. McDowell was sum-
moned to the life eternal on the 25th of February.
70i8, a devoted member of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South, and she is survived by four children,
whose names and respective dates of birth are here
recorded: Overton, July 26, 1910; Gordon Lay, Janu-
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
83
ary 2, 1912; Glenn Daily, August 30, 1916; and Carter
Neal, January 2, 1918.
On the 26th of January, 1920, was solemnized the
marriage of Mr. McDowell to Miss Nannie B. Bow-
man, daughter of James and Elizabeth (Pennington)
Bowman, who reside at Manchester, Clay County,
where Mr. Pennington is jailer of the county jail.
Of this marriage has been born a fine little son, James
Wayne, the date of whose nativity was November 22,
1920.
John O. Polin. One of the leading law firms of
Washington County is Polin & Polin, composed of
Joseph O. and John A. Polin, both sons of John O.
Polin, long and prominently known in the county,
where the family was established more than seventy
years ago.
The Polins are of Irish ancestry and have long been
prominently identified with the Catholic Church in
Washington County. One of the first of the name
here was Thomas Polin, who came to America and
settled in Washington County as early as 1819. He
became a priest of the Dominican Order at St. Rose
in Washington County. Still another member of the
family was Dr. John H. Polin, who identified himself
with Washington County in the early part of the
nineteenth century. His two sons Daniel O. and
Francis E., took up medicine, and Francis E. Polin
achieved high rank as a surgeon.
The grandparents of the Springfield lawyers were
John and Margaret (O'Prey) Polin. The former was
born in County Down, Ireland, in 1816 and the latter
in the City of Belfast. They were married in Ireland,
and in 1849 immigrated to the United States, landing
in New York City and coming on direct to Washing-
ton County, Kentucky, where they arrived on the 29th
of April. This county was destined to be their home
the rest of their lives. John Polin died in 1897, at the
age of eighty-one, and his wife died in 1899, aged
eighty-nine. Of their three "children Enos was born
in Ireland, and the other two Mrs. Rosa McAlister and
John O., in Washington County.
John O. Polin was born in Washington County
October 19, 1850, and his career has been that of a
very successful farmer. He is a bank director at
Springfield, and for sixteen years held the office of
justice of the peace. He is a stanch democrat. John
O. Polin married Julia Scannell. She was Born in New
York City, February 16, i860, daughter of Michael and
Joanna (Fitzgerald) Scannell, both of whom were
born in the City of Cork, Ireland, in 1S16. They were
married in Ireland, and they crossed the ocean in the
ship George Washington, reaching New York in the
early '50s. They were naturalized in New York, and
after a few years came to Kentucky and settled in
Washington County. Michael Scannell reached the
age of eighty, while his wife was in her hundredth
year when she died. She was remarkable not only for
her great age but for the strength and gentleness of
her character and intellect and her devotion to her
chosen religion. One of her daughters became Sister
Benedicta at St. Catherine's in Washington County,
and the son, Patrick Joseph Scannell. a priest of the
Dominican Order of St. Rose. This Dominican priest
in 1878 answered the call for volunteers to care for
the sick during the yellow fever scourge at Memphis.
and while in the performance of duty himself fell a
victim to the malady.
John O. and Julia Polin reared four children, Joseph
O., John A., Emma, who was born August 20, 1891,
and married P. Hubert Simms January 20. 1915, and
Julia Belle, who was born December 28, 1894, and is
now known as Sister Julia of the Dominican Order at
St. Catherine's.
Joseph O. Polin, senior member of the law firm of
Polin & Polin, was born in Washington County April
28, 1883. He holds the degree of Master of Arts from
Vol. V— 9
St. Mary's College, Kentucky, graduated in law from
the University of Louisville in 1907, was admitted to
the bar in the same year, and for fourteen years has
practiced with growing success and prestige at Spring-
field. He was elected on the democratic ticket as
county attorney in 1913 and re-elected in 1917. He is
a member of the Knights of Columbus. In 1910 Joseph
O. Polin married Miss Pearl Edelen. The Edelens
are an old and prominent family in Kentucky, and the
first of the name came to America from England,
either in the ship Ark or Dove. That was in Colonial
times. Mr. and Mrs. Joseph O. Polin have six chil-
dren.
John A. Polin, the junior member of Polin & Polin,
was born in Washington County October 16, 1884. He
holds the degree of Master of Arts from St. Mary's
College, Kentucky, and graduated in law at the Uni-
versity of Louisville in 1909. Except when absent
during the World war he has steadily practiced at
Springfield. In 1912 he was elected on the democratic
ticket to represent Washington County in the Lower
House of the Legislature, and was re-elected in 1914,
giving a highly creditable and capable service to the
county and state. He volunteered early in the war,
entered the Officers Training School at Fort Benjamin
Harrison, was commissioned a second lieutenant, was
on duty at Camp Zachary Taylor and Camp Sherman,
Ohio, until August 30, 1919, when he was sent overseas
with the 84th Division. In France he and others of
this division became replacement troops in the 26th
Division. He received his honorable discharge at Camp
Devon, Massachusetts, in 1919, at once returning home
and resuming his law practice. At present he is cap-
tain of Troop A, 53 M. G. Squadron, Kentucky Na-
tional Guard. He is unmarried, and, like his brother,
is a Knight of Columbus and a member of the Cath-
olic Church.
Jack E. Fisher. One of the distinguished yet un-
assuming members of the Kentucky bar, Jack E.
Fisher, of Paducah, commonwealth attorney, has
achieved his splendid success through a systematic
application of his abilities to the profession of his
choice, a profession that is peculiarly exacting in its
demands. A native of Kentucky, he was born March
24, 1884, in Benton, Marshall County, which was like-
wise the birthplace of his father, the late James M.
Fisher. He is of English extraction, his great-grand-
father on the paternal side having immigrated from
England to America in Colonial times, settling first in
Virgmia and later moving to Tennessee.
John J. Fisher, grandfather of Jack E. Fisher, was
born in 1833. in Davidson County, Tennessee, and was
there trained to agricultural pursuits. Coming to
Marshall as a young man, he bought land near Benton,
and on the farm which he improved spent the re-
mainder of his life, dying in 1909. He married in
Benton, Susan Gatlin, who was born in Marshall
County, Kentucky, in 1832, and died in Benton in 1904.
Born in 1856, James M. Fisher spent his entire life
in Benton, passing to the life beyond in 1907. A man
of talent and ability, he entered the legal profession
when young, and by means of industry and skill, built
up an extensive patronage. He served as county at-
torney of Marshall County three terms and as county
judge one term. A sound democrat in politics, he was
county commissioner of Marshall County schools for
some time, but otherwise was not active in public
affairs. A consistent member of the Christian Church,
he was one of its active supporters. Fraternally he
belonged to the Ancient Free and Accepted Order of
Masons, and to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
He married Ida Eley, who spent her brief life in
Benton, her birth occurring in i860 and her death in
1889. Four children were born of their marriage, as
follows : Bessie, widow of the late C. R. Holland, a
former merchant of Benton, where she now resides;
84
rliSlUKY Uf KtlN 1 UIKi
Reece, who was employed as a clerk, died in Benton in
1908; Jack E., of whom we write; and Georgia, wife
of R. D. Wolfe, of Owensboro, Kentucky, chief clerk
of the Hodge Tobacco Company.
Having received his elementary education in the
public schools of Benton, Jack E. Fisher continued his
studies for one term at Bethel College in Russellville,
Kentucky. Beginning his career at the age of nine-
teen years, he taught school at Sanders Ridge, Mar-
shall County, for a year, and the following year had
charge of the Canada district school near Calvert City.
In the meantime, having devoted all of his leisure time
to the study of law, he was admitted to the bar in
1905, when but twenty-one years of age, and has since
continued in the practice of his profession at Benton,
where he resides and still has an office. Elected com-
monwealth attorney for a term of six years in the
fall of 1915, he assumed the duties and responsibilities
of the position in January, 1916, his offices being at
814 City National Bank Building, Paducah, county
seat of McCracken County.
Prominently associated with various legal organiza-
tions, Mr. Fisher is vice president of the Common-
wealth Attorneys' Association ; and belongs to the
McCracken County Bar Association ; the State Bar
Association ; and to the National Bar Association. Re-
ligiously he is a valued member of the Baptist Church.
Fraternally he is a member of Benton Lodge No. 401,
Ancient Free and Accepted Order of Masons; of
Benton Chapter, Royal Arch Masons ; of Benton Camp,
Woodmen of the World ; of Benton Camp, Modern
Woodmen of America ; and also the Sigma Nu frater-
nity.
Mr. Fisher married, iii 1910, Evalie G. Martin, a
daughter of G. W. and Sue R. (Ramsey) Martin, who
reside in Birmingham, Kentucky, where Mr. Martin is
engaged in business as a tobacco exporter. Mrs. Fisher
received exceptionally fine educational advantages
when young, having graduated from the Princeton,
Kentucky, High School, Lebanon College, at Lebanon,
Tennessee, and Tennessee College, at Murfreesboro,
Tennessee, after which she took a post graduate course
at Kroeger's School of Music in St. Louis, Missouri,
her talent and accomplishments, combined with her
native good sense and congenial disposition, rendering
her a most desirable companion and a general favorite
in social circles. Mr. and Mrs. Fisher have one child,
Emma Jean, born July 5, 1912.
Robert Yandell Shepherd, M. D. In the pro-
fession of medicine Doctor Shepherd is continuing at
Taylorsville the service formerly rendered by his father
in the same community. He is a talented physician
and surgeon, was a captain in the Medical Corps dur-
ing the World war, and is one of the valued citizens of
Spencer County.
Doctor Shepherd was born at Chestnut Grove in
Shelby County, Kentucky, February 14, 1879, son of
Dr. William Ellis and Mary (Campbell) Shepherd.
His paternal grandparents were Absalom Waller and
Emelina (Clark) Shepherd. His grandfather was born
in Virginia in 1812, son of John Shepherd, a native of
Culpeper County, Virginia, who founded the family in
Kentucky in pioneer times. Dr. William Ellis Shepherd
was born in Shelby County, Kentucky, January 3, 1851,
and after graduating in medicine from the University of
Louisville, located at Chestnut Grove, also spent eight
years at Atchison, Kansas, practiced at Southville, Ken-
tucky, and in 1898 moved to Taylorsville, where he
continued his splendid work as a physician until his
death December 30, 191 1. His wife, Mary Campbell,
now lives with her son, Doctor Shepherd, at Taylors-
ville. She was born at Nashville, Tennessee, daugh-
ter of Robert Campbell and of Scotch-Irish lineage.
She is the mother of three children.
Robert Yandell Shepherd was given liberal educa-
tional advantages. He graduated Bachelor of Science
from Center College at Danville in 1902, and in 1904
entered the Medical Department of the University of
Louisville, from which he received his degree July 30,
1907. He at once returned to Taylorsville, and that
community has been the scene of his professional work
ever since except for the period of the war. He volun-
teered in the Medical Reserve Corps and was com-
missioned a captain April II, 1918. In June of that
year he reported for duty in Maryland, where he was
stationed for ten months. He received his honorable
discharge March 5, 1919. Doctor Shepherd organized
and is commander of Spencer Post No. 51 of the
American Legion. He is unmarried, is a Baptist, a
democrat, and belongs to the Spencer County and Ken-
tucky State Medical associations.
Hon. Joe F. Bosworth. former state senator and
speaker of the House of Representatives in 1920, has
been in the public eye in Kentucky for thirty years,
and perhaps no one individual has done more to pre-
pare the way for the great industrial uplift and prog-
ress of Eastern Kentucky than this Middlesborough
lawyer, coal operator and legislator.
Mr. Bosworth was born near Lexington in Fayette
County October 3, 1867. His birthplace at that time
bore the colloquial name of Slickaway, but is now
called Fort Spring. His father, Benjamin Bosworth,
was of an old Kentucky family, though at the time
of his birth on July 6, 1834, his mother was visiting
at Philadelphia, Tennessee. Otherwise his life was
spent at the Fort Spring community in Fayette County,
where he owned a fine Blue Grass farm and was iden-
tified with its work and management. He died there
in 1906. He was a democrat, and a very faithful Bap-
tist in religious affiliations. His wife was Miss Mary
Cloud, who was born in Fayette County in 1841 and
died at Lexington in 1919. Several of their children
have achieved distinction. Henry, a farmer living at
Lexington, is former state treasurer and former state
auditor of Kentucky. The second of the family,
J. Cloud, is a prosperous farmer in Fayette County.
Miss Hattie lives at Lexington. Hon. Joe F. is the
fourth of the family. Doctor Lewis is one of the able
men in the medical profession at Lexington. Clifford.
a Lexington business man, was formerly state fire
marshal of Kentucky. Powell, a farmer living at Lex-
ington, was at one time deputy sheriff of Bell County
and was elected sheriff of Fayette County, November
8, 1921. Ben, of Lexington, former assistant state fire
marshal and in a business way is identified with a
large tobacco warehouse. Miss Mary, the youngest
of the family, lives with her sister at Lexington.
Joe F. Bosworth grew up on his father's farm, and
the first country school he attended was taught by
the distinguished Kentucky novelist. James Lane Allen.
He also spent three years in Kentucky State Univer-
sity at Lexington, and pursued his law studies in the
University of Virginia at Charlottesville and in the
office of Judge Joe D. Hunt at Lexington. He was
admitted to the bar in 18P9. and for a brief time
was located at Omaha, Nebraska. September 4, 1889,
he began his practice at Middleshorough, and for ten
years was busily engaged in handling a general law
practice, but since then business and public affairs
have taken precedence over his distinctively professional
work. Mr. Bosworth is general manager and a direc-
tor of the Yellow Creek Coal Company, with head-
quarters at Middlesborough. operating mines with a
capacity of a thousand tons per dav. These mines are
situated near Middlesborough in Bell County. He is
also vice president and director in the Mingo Coal &
Coke Company, whose general offices are also at Mid-
dlesborough. The mines are in Claiborne County, Ten-
nessee, and have a capacity of 800 tons a day. Mr.
Bosworth is a director and secretary of the Middles-
borough Coal Land Owning & Leasing Company, a
company holding 5,000 acres of coal and timber lands
^7 ^^v^^tA7>^y^
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
85
in Bell County; and he is also president of the Appa-
lachian Indemnity Insurance Company, with headquar-
ters at Louisville, Kentucky.
Mr. Bosworth has made his public record as a re-
publican in politics. While his public record has been
a source of incalculable good and benefit to the entire
state, he has recognized as the first call of duty
the welfare of his home town. He was a member of
the first city council in 1890, and in November, 1893,
was elected city judge, being re-elected in 1897. He
held that office for eight years, beginning in 1894.
He was city attorney in 1902-03. In 1905 he was
elected to the Lower House of the Legislature as rep-
resentative of the 94th, the largest district in the
state, comprising Bell, Harlan, Leslie and Perry coun-
ties. In November, 1907, he was elected to the state
senate to represent the 17th Senatorial District, com-
prising Bell, Jackson, Knox, Laurel, Pulaski, Rock-
castle and Whitley counties, and in November, 1911,
was re-elected, so that he was in the senate for eight
years until 1916. In November, 1919, Mr. Bosworth
was again chosen to the legislature as representative
of the 84th District, comprising Bell County. In the
session of 1920 he was chosen speaker of the House
and in 1921 became a candidate for re-election without
opposition, which office he now holds. He has also been
elected republican minority and floor leader in the Lower
House of the Kentucky Legislature. Mr. Bosworth
earned the complete admiration and confidence of the
House on both sides for the dignified and impartial
manner in which he exercised his powers as speaker.
In protective and progressive legislation it is doubt-
ful if any Kentuckian could point to a record sur-
passing in quantity and value that of Mr. Bosworth.
His friends have frequently pointed out that of the
various amendments made to the present state con-
stitution, four are directly due to his leadership and
influence. Altogether there are twenty-two measures
to his credit in legislative enactment, some of them
affecting in some way the interests and welfare of
Bell County and Eastern Kentucky. During his first
term in the Legislature following his election in 1905
he was instrumental in securing the repeal of the
Roundtree Bills. Those bills had been passed by the
previous Legislature and had completely tied up all
available and prospective revenues of Middlesborough
to the benefit of the municipality's creditors. By the
repeal of these Roundtree Bills by Mr. Bosworth, ar-
rangements with the bond holders were made permit-
ting a graduated payment of the obligations and
resulting in a saving of hundreds of thousands of dol-
lars, and, more important still, permitting the town to
begin a hopeful task of recreating its financial and
material prosperity.
Mr. Bosworth helped secure the law by which Mid-
dlesborough became a third-class instead of a fourth-
class city and thus gave it a session of the Circuit
Court, and he also had passed the law giving the city
and all third-class cities of the state a commission
form of government. He had passed the bill creating
the 33rd Judicial District, composed of Bell, Harlan
and Whitley counties, and later the bill creating tht
34th District, composed of Bell and Harlan counties.
Among other laws credited to him were those per-
mitting property owners of Middlesborough to pay for
street improvement on the ten-year installment plan ;
Kentucky's Pure Food and Drug Law ; the appropria-
tion bill that completed the beautiful State Capitol
at Frankfort ; and secured the constitutional amend-
ment preventing the employment of convict labor in
competitive industries and making convicts available
for labor on the public highways.
Mr. Bosworth is perhaps most widely known as au-
thor of a Kentucky Modern Good Roads movement.
This was a work carried on over eight years, during
which the constitution was several times amended, the
first measure being what is known as "The Bosworth
and Wyatt Good Roads Constitutional Amendment,"
permitting the state to lend its funds and credit to sup-
plement the enterprise of counties and road districts
in the building of permanent highways. As a result
of Mr. Bosworth's eight years of untiring effort in
behalf of the cause of Good Roads in Kentucky, his
first Good Roads measure putting his constitutional
amendment into effect became a law, thus creating the
Department of Good Roads and the office of state road
commissioner at the 1912 session of the Legislature.
And by his efforts these laws were further perfected
and beneficially revised in 1914, by reason of which
■ laws together with his efforts as a member and speaker
of the House of Representatives and the efforts of
other Good Roads enthusiasts, in 1918 our present
road laws became a reality. In recognition of the
splendid pioneer service he thus rendered Mr. Bos-
worth was elected in 1909 the first president of the
Kentucky Good Roads Association, and was known
the "Father of Good Roads in Kentucky."
Mr. Bosworth is prominent in the Order of Elks,
being past exalted ruler of Middlesborough Lodge No.
119, B. P. O. E., and was president of the Kentucky
Elks Association in 1920. He is a member of the
Baptist Church. During the war he was constantly
active in committee works and otherwise for the Lib-
erty Loan, Red Cross and other drives in Bell County.
In August, 1890, at Tazewell, Tennessee, Mr. Bos-
worth married Miss Elizabeth Veal, daughter of Cap-
tain James and Eleanora (Chorn) Veal. Her father
is a retired farmer now living with Mr. and Mrs. Bos-
worth, and was a Confederate soldier under General
John Morgan during the Civil War. Mrs. Bosworth
completed her education in the Bellewood Seminary
at Anchorage, Kentucky. Mr. and Mrs. Bosworth have
two children: Joe F., Jr., born in August, 1891, is
bookkeeper at the Yeliow Creek Coal Company's mine
in Bell County. He married Miss Bennie Johnson
of Bell County, and their two children are Paralee
and Joe F. III. The daughter, Eleanora, born in Sep-
tember, 1897, is the wife of Richard Ramey of Mid-
dlesborough. Mr. Ramey is chief bookkeeper and man-
ager of all the offices of the Yellow Creek Coal Com-
pany, the Mingo Coal & Coke Company, and the Mid-
dlesborough Coal Land Owning & Leasing Company.
Mr. and Mrs. Ramey have two children : Frances
Bosworth, born in 1917, and J. Richard, Jr., born
in 1919.
Clement V. Hiestand, M. D., is a representative of
the third generation of the Hiestand family in Taylor
County, and here has gained secure status as one of
the leading physicians and surgeons engaged in practice
at Campbellsville, the county seat of his native county.
The original American progenitors of the Hiestand
family came from Switzerland and settled in the beau-
tiful Shenandoah Valley of Virginia in the Colonial
period of our national history, three brothers of the
name having been the founders of the American
branch, and later generations having been identified
with civic and industrial development in various other
states of the union. Doctor Hiestand was born after
the death of his grandfather, Jacob Hiestand, who was
born at Hillsboro, Ohio, and who came to Taylor
County, Kentucky, shortly after his marriage to Miss
Eva Landis, a native of Virginia. He became one of
the pioneer farmers and distillers in Taylor County,
and during the period of the Civil war he served as a
colonel in the local organization of the Kentucky State
Guards. He was one of the sterling citizens who did
a worthy part in the development and upbuilding of
Taylor County, and his name merits place on the roster
of the honored pioneers of this section of the state.
Both he and his wife continued their residence in this
county until their deaths, and they became the parents
of nine children, all of whom are now deceased, name-
ly : Ferdinand, Josiah, an M. D. ; Matthew ; Allen, an
86
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
M. D.; Felix, Oliver P., an M. D.; Araminta; Isabelle
and Demarius.
Dr. Clement V. Hiestand was born at Campbells-
ville, Taylor County, his present place of residence,
and the date of his nativity was May 26, 1871. His
father, Ferdinand J. Hiestand, was born at Campbells-
ville in the year 1820, passed his entire life in Taylor
County, and was one of its venerable and honored
citizens at the time of his death, in October, 1898, In
earlier years he was a distiller, but his major work was
in connection with farm industry, of which he long
stood as one of the extensive and influential exponents
in his native county. His political allegiance was given
to the democratic party, and he was called upon to
serve in various public offices of local order. He was
postmaster at Campbellsville four years, and gave an
equal period of service as county sheriff, besides which
he was county tax commissioner two terms, of four
years each. He was a leader in the local councils and
campaign activities of the democratic party, and was
a man whose character and achievement marked him
as worthy of the unqualified popular esteem in which
he was ever held. He served as master of Pitman
Lodge No. 124, Free and Accepted Masons, at
Campbellsville, and was affiliated also with Taylor
Chapter No. 90, Royal Arch Masons. His wife, whose
maiden name was Mary Rucker, was born in Taylor
County in 1837, and she survived him by nearly twenty
years, her death having occurred at Campbellsville in
April, 1917, and both she and her husband having been
earnest members of the Baptist Church. Of their chil-
dren the eldest is Leora, who is the wife of James
Crittenden, a prosperous farmer of Taylor County;
Viola is the wife of Alexander Smith, likewise a
farmer of this county; Sallie is the wife of C. W.
Ramsey, former clerk of Taylor County, and he is now
engaged in farm enterprise in this county ; Nellie is
the wife of G. W. Hord, another of the progressive
farmers of this county ; Dr. Clement V., of this review,
was the next in order of birth; Daisy is the wife of
D. O. McGee, a merchant in the City of Birmingham,
Alabama; and S. Bruce is a successful farmer in
Taylor County.
After having availed himself of the advantages of
the public schools of Campbellsville Doctor Hiestand
here entered Taylor Academy, in which he was gradu-
ated in 1892. He taught in one of the rural schools
of the county during the school year of 1892-3, and in
the autumn of the latter year entered the medical de-
partment of the University of Louisville, in which he
was graduated as a member of the class of 1896 and
with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. For one year
thereafter he was engaged in practice at Mineola,
Wood County, Texas, and he then returned to his
native county and established himself in practice at
Merrimac, in which village he maintained his pro-
fessional headquarters until January, 1918, when he
returned to the county seat, his native place, where he
has since controlled a large and representative general
practice and has secure status as one of the successful
and popular physicians and surgeons of his native
county. His well appointed offices are established in
the Taylor National Bank Building, and he owns and
occupies one of the fine modern residences of Camp-
bellsville, the house being situated in a seven-acre tract
that is adorned with fine trees and shrubbery and witli
the lawns of the best type of the famous Kentucky Blue
Grass. The Doctor is the owner also of a well im-
proved farm in Casey County. He is serving as secre-
tary of the Taylor County Medical Society at the time
of this writing, in the summer of 1921, as is he also
as secretary of the County Board of Health and as
health officer of Campbellsville. He holds membership
also in the Kentucky State Medical Society and the
American Medical Association. He is a close student
of the best standard and periodical literature of his
profession and insistently keeps in touch with the ad-
vances made in modern medical and surgical science.
Doctor Hiestand is found staunchly arrayed as an
advocate and supporter of the cause of the democratic
party, in the faith of which he was reared, and he is
one of the liberal and progressive citizens of Taylor
County. He served eight years as a member of the
County Board of Education, and was its secretary dur-
ing this entire period. He has given effective service
also as chairman of the county democratic committee,
in which capacity he had much to do with the directing
of political forces in the county. The doctor is a past
master of Pitman Lodge No. 124, Free and Accepted
Masons, and in the time-honored fraternity his affilia-
tions include also his membership in Taylor Chapter
No. 90, Royal Arch Masons, at Campbellsville, and
Marion Commandery No. 24, Knights Templars, at Leb-
anon. He took active part in all local war service,
helped in all of the drives in support of subscriptions
to the various Government bond issues in connection
with the World war. and was himself a liberal sub-
scriber, with a loyal sense of personal stewardship.
He and his wife are members of the Methodist Episco-
pal Church, South.
At Merrimac, Taylor County, on the 5th of January,
1898, was solemnized the marriage of Doctor Hiestand
to Miss Mattie Hogan, who likewise was born and
reared in Taylor County and who is a daughter of
Thomas and Lydia (Rhodes) Hogan, her father hav-
ing been one of the representative farmers and to-
bacco growers of the county at the time of his death
and the widowed mother being now a member of the
home circle of Doctor and Mrs. Hiestand. In con-
clusion is entered brief record concerning the children
of Doctor and Mrs. Hiestand: Nydia is a graduate of
the local high school, remains at the parental home
and is a popular factor in the social life of her native
place. Val, who was graduated in the Campbellsville
High School, enlisted in the United States Army in
January, 1921, and is at the time of this writing sta-
tioned at San Antonio, Texas; Clemmie Vera and
Fannie Ena are students in the home high school; and
the younger children are Regina Elizabeth, Johnnie
Lucile, Zara Blanche, Harriet Enid, Grace Hogan,
Thomas Ferdinand and Richard Stewart.
Omar H. Shively, M. D. The central district of
Kentucky claims its full quota of able and successful
physicians and surgeons, and among the number _ is
Doctor Shively, who is established in general practice
at Campbellsville, judicial center of Taylor County.
The Doctor was born in Green County, Kentucky, on
the 16th of August, 1871, and is a son of Dr. Alexander
Shively, who was born in Taylor County in 1839, and
who now resides at Campbellsville. The greater part
of his life has been passed in his native county, though
he was for a time engaged in practice in Green County,
and he long held a secure place as one of the leading
physicians of Taylor County, where he controlled a
large and representative practice for many years. Since
1917 he has lived virtually retired at Campbellsville.
He was graduated in the medical department of the
University of Louisville, and in his character and
service has honored and dignified alike his profession
and his native state. He is a staunch democrat, well
fortified in his convictions concerning economic and
governmental policies, has long been a zealous mem-
ber of the Baptist Church, in which his first wife like-
wise held membership, and he is affiliated with the
Masonic fraternity. In 1861, shortly after the incep-
tion of the Civil war, Doctor Shively enlisted in a
Kentucky regiment that entered the Union service, and
he continued a member of this command during one
year, at the expiration of which he received his honor-
able discharge. His wife, whose maiden name was
Jennie Massie, was born in Adair County, Kentucky,
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
87
and she was forty-five years of age at the time of her
death, which occurred on the home farm five miles
south of Campbellsville, on the Columbia-Campbells-
ville turnpike, Dr. Omar H., immediate subject of this
review, being the only child of this union. For his
second wife Dr. Alexander Shively wedded Miss Annie
Miller, who was born and reared in Taylor County
and whose death occurred on the old homestead farm
mentioned above, no children having been born of the
second marriage.
The rural schools of Taylor County afforded Dr.
Omar H. Shively his preliminary education, which was
supplemented by his attending Taylor Academy, at the
county seat. Thereafter he was for two years a
student in the old Kentucky University at Lexington,
and in preparation for the profession of his choice he
entered his father's alma mater, the medical depart-
ment of the University of Louisville, in which institu-
tion he was graduated as a member of the class of
1893 and with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He
has insistently held himself in touch with the advances
made in medical and surgical science, and to thus
fortify himself he completed a special post-graduate
course in the Baltimore Medical College, Baltimore,
Maryland, in 1804, and in 1896 a special course in
surgery in the celebrated Chicago Polyclinic, in the
great metropolis of the West. Upon his graduation he
engaged in practice in Taylor County, but two years
later removed to Greensburg, judicial center of Green
County, where he continued in successful practice for
the ensuing twenty-two years, during which he won
and maintained precedence as one of the leading phy-
sicians and surgeons of that county and was prom-
inently identified with the Green County Medical
Society. In IQ17 Doctor Shively returned to Taylor
County and established his residence and professional
headquarters at Campbellsville, and he has since de-
veloped and controlled a most substantial and repre-
sentative practice, in which his able services have added
new distinction to the professional honors attaching
to the family name. The Doctor has his well appointed
office in the Davis Building, on Main Street, and owns
and occupies an attractive modern house on Depot
Street, this being one of the best residence properties
in the thriving little city. Doctor Shively is actively
affiliated with the Taylor County Medical Society, the
Kentucky State Medical Society and the American
Medical Association. While a resident of Greensburg
he served as a member of the Board of Health of
Green County.
When the nation became involved in the late World
war, Doctor Shively manifested his patriotism and
professional loyalty by enlisting, on the 16th of Sep-
tember, 1918, for service in the medical corps of the
United States Army. He was sent to Camp Greenleaf,
Georgia, for preliminary instruction in the Officers'
Training Camp, and there he received commission as
captain in the medical corps. After there remaining
three weeks he was transferred to Camp Mills, Long
Island, New York, and December 14, 1918, was assigned
to service at the Debarkation Hospital in New York
City, where he continued in specially active service until
Tuly 3, 1919, when he received his honorable discharge.
Since that time he has given himself earnestly to the
work involved in his large and important general prac-
tice in Taylor County.
Doctor Shively is a staunch democrat, takes a lively
interest in community affairs but has had neither time
nor inclination for political office. While living at
Greensburg he there served as a member of the Board
nf Education and also as a member of the Board of
Pension Examining Surgeons for Green County. He
and his wife are members of the Baptist Church, and
he is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity.
In 1894 was recorded the marriage of Doctor Shively
to Miss Mattie Smith, daughter of the late Pilson
Smith, who was a prominent farmer and influential
citizen of Green County, where both he and his wife
died. Doctor and Mrs. Shively have but one child, Vir-
ginia, who was born January 31, 1902, and who is, in
1921, a student in Shorter College at Rome, Georgia.
Rev. Samuel Shively, grandfather of the Doctor, was
born in Taylor County in the year 1800, and here he
passed his entire life, having been a clergyman of
the Baptist Church and having given many years of
earnest service in the work of the ministry. He died
on the old home farm of his son Dr. Alexander Shive-
ly, in 1883, and there also occurred the death of his
wife, whose family name was Penn and who likewise
passed her entire life in Taylor County, where both
the Shively and Penn families settled in the early
pioneer days. The father of Rev. Samuel Shively came
to this county from Virginia, and became one of the
pioneer exponents of farm industry in this now favored
section of the state, where he endured his full share
of hardships and vicissitudes incidental to the frontier
and where he finally met his death at the hands of
hostile Indians.
Reuben Hale Falwell has made singular good use
of his time and opportunities to incorporate his energy
and influence into the civic and business affairs of
Murray and that section of Calloway County. He is
owner of a prosperous business, and his energies are
readily enlisted in every movement undertaken for the
general welfare of his town and county.
His grandfather was born at Philadelphia, Pennsyl-
vania, and his name was Joseph W. Bertran. He was
an infant when his parents died, and he was then
placed in the care of a guardian named Caleb Scatter-
good. At the age of four he was stolen from his
guardian, was taken West and grew up and was reared
by the widow Folwell at Nashville, Tennessee, when
that city was a small hamlet in the western wilderness.
Later he spelled his name Falwell, a spelling that has
been followed by his descendants. He became a
plasterer by trade, and lived near Nashville, Franklin,
and in Memphis, and late in life came to Calloway
County, Kentucky, where he died. He married a Miss
Ford, a native of Tennessee, who died at Memphis.
Monroe Falwell, father of the Murray business man,
was born at Franklin, Davidson County, Tennessee, in
1837, grew up in that community, and at the age of
twenty-one came to Jackson's Purchase and acquired
a new farm fourteen miles east of Murray, in Callo-
way County. Later he sold this place and bought an-
other, seven miles east of Murray, and on that home-
stead reared his family of seven children. He finally
retired and spent his last days at the home and farm
of his son Reuben, two miles south of Murray, where
he died in 1915. He was a democrat in politics and at
the age of twenty-five united with the Missionary Bap-
tist Church at Elm Grove, and was one of the stanch
upholders of that church all the rest of his life. He
married Sarah S. Futrell, who was born six miles east
of Murray December 20, 1840, and is still living in
Calloway County. Her father, Joseph Winburn Fu-
trell, was born in North Carolina in 1812 and was one
of the early residents of the farming district of Callo-
way County, and died on his farm seven miles east of
Murray. He married Elizabeth Vinson, who was born
in Tennessee in 1813, and died in Calloway County in
1890, the same year as her husband. Monroe Falwell
and wife had a family of seven children : Joseph W.,
a farmer on the old place seven miles east of Murray;
Kiltie, wife of W. A. Vance, a Calloway County
farmer at Blood ; Bettie, wife of John Sellars, also a
farmer in the Blood community; Noah H, who is a
foreman in the mechanical department of the Foreman
Automobile Company at Paducah ; Mary Jane, wife of
B. F. Caraway, a farmer seven miles east of Murray;
Ina, wife of Herman Young, a street car motorman
at Detroit, Michigan ; and Reuben Hale, youngest of
the family.
88
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
Mr. Falwell's early memories are associated with the
old farm east of Murray, and his first advantages
were acquired in the nearby country schools. For two
years he attended Fairview Academy at Centerville,
Tennessee, finishing there in 1908. In the meantime
he had qualified as a teacher and for six years was
more or less actively identified with the teaching pro-
fession in Calloway County. He also spent one year
at Duck River, Tennessee.
Mr. Falwell entered politics in 1908 as candidate for
the nomination for County Court clerk, was nominated,
was elected in November, 1909, and began his official
term in January, 1910. He was in office four years,
and in 1914 engaged in the real estate business at
Murray. After nine months he bought a half interest
in a general fire and life insurance agency from W. F.
Jordan in September, 1914, and since March 5, 1917,
has been sole owner of a business, which, largely due
to his sagacity and enterprise, has become the leading
fire and life insurance business of the town. On Feb-
ruary 1, 1921, he took in as a partner and associate
in this business J. K. Matheny. Their offices are in
the First National Bank Building. Mr. Falwell is vice
president of the First National Bank of Murray and
is interested in considerable real estate, owning one
of the very attractive and well located homes of the
town at the corner of Twelfth and Main streets.
Mr. Falwell was a speaker and otherwise active
worker in all the local war campaigns, in behalf of
Liberty Loans and Red Cross and other causes. He is
choir leader of the Sunday school of the Missionary
Baptist Church, member of the church, is a democrat
in politics and is affiliated with Faxon Camp, Wood-
men of the World, Murray Lodge No. 95 of the Odd
Fellows, and is a past chancellor commander of Murray
Lodge, Knights of Pythias.
On December 23, 1908, at the Elm Grove Church in
Calloway County he married Miss Frocie J. Outland,
daughter of Andrew W. and Alpha C. (Parker) Out-
land, her parents being farmers four miles east of
Murray. Mrs. Falwell was liberally educated, and be-
fore her marriage held a first class teacher's certificate
and taught in Calloway County three years. They
have one son, Reuben Hale, Jr., born October 29, 191 5.
James R. Sanders, who resides at Campbellsville,
county seat of Taylor County, is a native son of this
county and is the efficient incumbent of the office of
deputy collector of internal revenue for the Kentucky
revenue district in which he resides.
Mr. Sanders was born on a farm five miles south-
east of Campbellsville, on the 21st of August, 1866, and
he is a representative of one of the old and well known
families of this section of the state. His father.
Lafayette Sanders, was born at Clay Hill, Taylor
County, in 1841, and he passed his entire life in his
native county, his death having occurred on his home
farm in 1886. He established his residence on this
farm in 1869, and gained precedence as one of the ex-
tensive and successful exponents of agricultural and
livestock enterprise in Taylor County. He was a man
of fine mentality and in his youth had prepared him-
self for the legal profession, though he never engaged
in active practice. He was graduated in a college at
Hanover, Indiana. Mr. Sanders was a democrat in
politics, was influential in the directing of community
affairs of public order, was affiliated with the Masonic
fraternity, and he and his wife held membership in
the Presbyterian Church. During the Civil war he
gave evidence of his loyalty to the cause of the Con-
federacy by serving in the command of Gen. John
Morgan, the famed Confederate raider, for whom he
acted as a scout. He was wounded by guerrillas in an
engagement on Little Muldrough Hill, Taylor County,
and as the shot struck him in the forehead, the wound
was a severe one and caused him trouble during the
remainder of his life, which was undoubtedly shortened
by this injury. Mrs. Sanders, whose maiden name was
Ann Mary Patterson, was born in Green County, Ken-
tucky, in 1846, and she passed the closing period of her
life at Campbellsville, where she died in 1907. Of the
children the first born, Nora, died in infancy; James
R., of this review, was the next in order of birth;
C. P., who died at Jonesboro, Arkansas, at the age of
forty-six years, was a traveling salesman for the
Belknap Hardware Company of Louisville, Kentucky,
and was the organizer of the Farmers Deposit Bank
at Campbellsville, though he sold his interest in this
institution some time prior to his death ; Dr. H. G. is
a representative physician and surgeon at Campbells-
ville; Dr. R. A. is successfully established in the prac-
tice of dentistry in Campbellsville ; Mary M. died in
infancy; W. B. is a farmer near Glasgow, Montana;
S. M. is engaged in the hardware business at Camp-
bellsville; Cary, who died at the age of forty-five years,
was the wife of J. D. Edwards, who still resides on
his farm in Taylor County; Nellie is the wife of
George Barbee, a druggist at Syracuse, Nebraska; and
Bettie is the wife of Harry T. Edwards, who con-
ducts a feed store at Campbellsville.
James R. Sanders undoubtedly has his share of pro-
test against the study and confinement that attended his
boyhood application in the rural school near his home,
but he profited duly by the advantages there afforded
and later was graduated from the high school at
Campbellsville as a member of the class of 1886. By
this time he was fully alive to the value of education
and had so advanced himself as to prove eligible for
pedagogic honors, in connection with which he gave
one year of effective service as principal of the high
school of Campbellsville. In 1890 he was graduated in
Central University at Richmond, Kentucky, from
which institution he received his well earned degree of
Bachelor of Arts, and in which he became affiliated
with the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. It was after his
graduation that he held the position of principal of the
Campbellsville High School, and he had initiated his
second year of effective service in this capacity when
the work was interrupted by the burning of the high-
school building. In this emergency he accepted the
position of teacher of mathematics in Pike College,
Bowling Green, Missouri, where he remained thus
engaged for three years and where also he studied law,
under the preceptorship of the firm of Clark & Demp-
sey, the senior member of which was the distinguished
Missourian, Hon. Champ Clark, later member of Con-
gress from that state. Mr. Sanders was admitted to
the Missouri bar at Bowling Green in 1895, and soon
afterward he assumed academic and executive charge
of the S. W. Buchanan Collegiate Institute at Camp-
bellsville, Kentucky, which had been recently
established under the auspices of the Presbyterian
Church. He retained this incumbency two years and
del excellent work in building up the institution. In
1897 he was made master commissioner of the Taylor
Circuit Court, and in this capacity he continued his
service until 1910, the while he also was engaged ac-
tively in the practice of law at Campbellsville. In 1909
he was elected county attorney, and he assumed this
office in January, 1910. Re-election continued him in
office after the expiration of his first term, of four
years, but after serving about six months of his second
term he resigned the office, in July, 1914, to assume
that of deputy collector of internal revenue, to which
position he had been appointed by T. Scott Mayes, the
United States collector for the Fifth Revenue District
of Kentucky. He continued his effective service under
such jurisdiction until July, 1919, when the various
revenue districts were consolidated into one, known as
the District of Kentucky, and he then received ap-
pointment as deputy collector of the state district,
with headquarters in the City of Louisville.
Though his official headquarters are in the metropolis
of Kentucky, as noted above, Mr. Sanders still main-
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
89
tajns his home at Campbellsville, where his fine sub-
urban residence occupies a tract of thirty-four acres
and constitutes one of the attractive homes of his
native county. In addition to this fine property he
owns a one-third interest in a farm of no acres, four
miles south of Campbellsville.
Mr. Sanders is a stalwart in the ranks of the demo-
cratic party. He is a member of the Presbyterian
Church at Campbellsville, and his wife a member of
the Baptist Church. In his home city he is affiliated
with Pitman Lodge No. 124, Free and Accepted
Masons, besides which he retains membership in
Quiver Lodge No. 242, Independent Order of Odd
Fellows, at Bowling Green, Missouri. Mr. Sanders
played a loyal and vigorous part in furthering the vari-
ous campaigns for subscriptions to the Government
loans and Savings Stamps in connection with the
nation's participation in the World war, and he per-
sonally subscribed to the limit of his means.
In 1896 Mr. Sanders wedded Miss Minnie Graves,
who likewise was born and reared in Taylor County,
and in their home her father now resides, the loved
wife and mother having passed to the life eternal. Mr.
Graves is a retired farmer and is one of the highly
esteemed citizens of Taylor County. Mr. and Mrs.
Sanders have three children : Ellen was graduated
from the University of Louisville with the degree of
Bachelor of Arts, and is, in 1921, taking a post-gradu-
ate course in that institution ; Fayette, who remains at
the parental home, is a student in the Russell Creek
Academy at Campbellsville, and the same conditions
apply to Elizabeth, the youngest of the children.
Henry Sanders, great-grandfather of the subject of
this review, was born and reared in Virginia and be-
came a pioneer farmer and distiller in Taylor County,
Kentucky, where he was a prominent and influential
citizen of the early days and where he and his wife
continued to reside until their deaths, their son James,
grandfather of James R. of this review, having been
born in this county, though the same had not been
organized under this name at that time. He devoted
his entire active career to farm industry in his native
county, and his death occurred in the Muldrough Hill
district of the county prior to the birth of his grand-
son, James R. He married Mary Griffin, who was born
in Adair County, this state, and who survived him by
several years.
William O. Wear, proprietor and publisher of the
"Calloway Times," is one of the newspaper men of
this region who has fairly earned the right to domi-
nate public opinion, and is responsible for much of the
progress which has been made of recent years in this
section of the state. He is an experienced man in his
line and understands the grave responsibilities resting
upon him. He was born at Murray, Kentucky, Janu-
ary 21, 1847, a son of A. H. Wear, and a member of
one of the aristocratic Southern families. The name
was originally spelled Weir, and those bearing it came
to the American Colonies from Scotland, locating first
in Virginia, from whence migration was later made to
Alabama and thence to Kentucky.
A. H. Wear was born at Tuscumbia, Alabama, in
1817, and died at Murray, Kentucky, in November,
1903. His parents came to Calloway County, Kentucky,
when he was a lad, and here he was reared, educated
and married. After the Town of Murray was organized
A. H. Wear settled in it and continued to make it his
home until his death. He was the pioneer druggist of
the place and of Calloway County, and two of his
sons still conduct his original store. He was a strong
democrat. The Christian Church had in him one of"
its earnest members and generous supporters. A
Mason, he was a member of Murray Lodge No. 105,
A. F. and A. M., for many years, and for fifty years
served it as treasurer. He was married to Sallie
Meloan, who was born at Mount Sterling, Montgomery
County, Kentucky, in 1830, and died at Murray, in 1910.
Their children were as follows : William O., who is the
eldest; Samuel, who died at Murray when still a boy;
Emily J., who died at Murray when she was seventy
years of age, was the wife of Edrnond Starks, a
farmer, now deceased; Lucy, who died in Florida, was
the wife of the late D. W. Jones, a merchant while
living at Murray, but a farmer after going to Florida,
where he, too, passed away; Andrew M., who is a
saddler and harnessmaker, lives at Jackson, Tennessee;
John M., who died at Los Angeles, California, was also
a saddler and harness maker; D. M., who was a
farmer, died at Murray in 1918; H. P., who is engaged
in conducting his father's old drug store at Murray;
Mattie E., who is unmarried, resides at Murray ; J. V.,
who died at La Center, Kentucky, was a newspaper
publisher; B. B., who is a partner of his brother, H. P.;
and E. W., who is the publisher of the "La Center Ad-
vance," lives at La Center, Kentucky.
William O. Wear attended the public schools of his
native city and was graduated from its high school in
1867. Upon leaving school he went into his father's
drug store. In 1875 he established the "Calloway
Times," and has been its sole proprietor ever since.
This is the official democratic paper of Calloway
County, and is the leading pioneer newspaper still in
existence in this part of the state. The plant and
offices are on Fifth Street, and the former is equipped
with modern machinery and appliances for the proper
conduct of a first-class newspaper. This journal circu-
lates in Murray and Calloway and surrounding coun-
ties. Mr. Wear is a strong democrat, and has served
in the Murray City Council, and was elected to succeed
himself. He is a member of the Christian Church, and
belongs to Murray Lodge No. 105, A. F. and A. M.;
Murray Chapter No. 92, R. A. M. ; and Murray Coun-
cil, R. and S. M. His residence on Fifth Street, which
he owns, is one of the finest in the city. During the
late war Mr. Wear used his paper to promote all of
the local activities, and through its columns and per-
sonally was an effective participant in all of the drives
in behalf of the Liberty Loans, the Red Cross and
similar organizations.
In 1869 he was married at Murray to Miss Mary
Linn, a daughter of R. C. Linn and his wife Jane
(Irvan) Linn, farming people, both of whom are now
deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Wear became the parents of
the following children : Sallie, who married W. E.
King, a machinist, resides at Baton Rouge, Louisiana;
Reubie, who is unmarried, lives with her parents ; and
Boyd, who lives at Murray, is assisting his father on
the paper. At one time he belonged to the Kentucky
National Guard. Mr. Wear's grasp of public affairs is
clear and comprehensive, and he knows how to present
them and local topics of special interest in such a
manner as to meet with the approval of his readers.
He has always been fearless in his support of those
measures he deemed to be for the good of the ma-
jority, and has never failed to put his shoulder to the
wheel of progress whenever there was necessity for
such exertion.
F. L Peddicord, M. D. A former superintendent of
the Central State Hospital, Doctor Peddicord is a
specialist and recognized authority in nervous diseases,
and is now engaged in private practice at Covington.
His varied experience and services have given him a
high place in the medical fraternity of Kentucky.
Doctor Peddicord was born in Bracken County, Ken-
tucky, November 22, 1871. The Peddicords lived in
Ireland until they came to the United States in Colonial
times and settled in Maryland. Doctor Peddicord's
grandfather Nelson Peddicord was a native of Mary-
land and married a girl of the same name and a dis-
tant relative. They came West and settled in Mason
County, Kentucky, where he followed farming the rest
of his life. The father of Doctor Peddicord was F.
90
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
M. Peddicord, who was born in Mason County in 1841.
He was reared and married in Bracken County, where
for a long period of years he conducted his operations
as a farmer on a large scale. He died in Bracken
County December 23, 1918. During the war between
the states he was in the Home Guards, and was once
captured and imprisoned at Lexington. He was a
democrat and very devout and regular in his worship
as a member of the Christian Church. His wife was
Susan Feagan who was born in Bracken County in 1S56
and died there in 1912. Doctor Peddicord is the oldest
of their children. H. O. Peddicord was a teacher and
died in Bracken County at the age of thirty. Pearl
Grace died unmarried at the age of twenty-eight.
Lillie the only surviving daughter is the wife of Taylor
Fraysur, a farmer in Bracken County.
Doctor Peddicord spent his useful years on a farm
in Bracken County, gained most of his education
through his own efforts, and at his own expense, and
was a successful teacher before he achieved his am-
bition of becoming a physician. He attended rural
schools, a graded school at Johnsville in Bracken
County, and for one year was a student in the Ken-
tucky State University at Lexington. He finished his
literary education in the Northern Indiana Normal
College of Valparaiso, where he spent seventy-two
weeks. He graduated in the commercial and pen art
courses and also completed the work of the scientific
and classical department. Leaving college in 1893
Doctor Peddicord returned to Bracken County and for
about ten years directed his talents to teaching. In
1903 he entered the University of Louisville Medical
School and received his M. D. degree in 1906. Fol-
lowing his graduation he practiced fourteen months in
Pendleton County, and for six years was a physician
in Boone County. He was called to the Central State
Hospital at Lakeland as first assistant physician, but
after il/2 years was delegated with the full responsi-
bilities of superintendent of this institution. He was
superintendent 6l/2 years, and after retiring he moved
to Covington in October, 1920, and has since confined
his attention to his specialty in Neuro-Psychiatry. His
offices and residence are at 1017 Madison Avenue.
Doctor Peddicord is a member of the American
Medical Psychological Association, and is also affiliated
with the Campbell-Kenton Counties Medical Society,
Kentucky State and American Medical Association and
the Southern Medical Association. So far as his
official duties permitted he lent all his personal in-
fluence and aid to the success of the various war drives
in Jefferson County. Doctor Peddicord is a democrat,
a member of the Christian Church, is affiliated with
Burlington Lodge Knights of Pythias at Burlington,
Kentucky, and was formerly a member of the Inde-
pendent Order of Odd Fellows, Modern Woodmen of
America and Improved Order of Red Men. In
Bracken County in 1898 he married Alice Moorhead.
Her parents J. A. and Biddy (Poe) Moorhead are resi-
dents of Brooksville, Kentucky, where her father is
a merchant.
Roy C. Snyder is one of the expert and practical
oil men in Eastern Kentucky, and for many years has
been connected with the Wood Oil Company in Wayne
County, and is now state superintendent for that com-
pany's interests in Kentucky, with headquarters at
Monticello.
Mr. Snyder acquired his training in the oil fields
of Pennsylvania and was born in Millerstown in that
state March 26, 1874. This is an old Pennsylvania
family. His father, Truman K. Snyder, was born in
Bradford in 1843, was reared and married in that city,
and entered the oil contracting business at an early
date in the history of petroleum. In 1872 he moved
to Millerstown, where he conducted a custom boot and
shoe business until the store was burned in 1874. He
then resumed oil contracting at Bradford, and in 1882
went to Astatula, Lake County, Florida, where for fiv»
years he was a carpenter contractor. Returning to
Bradford in 1887 he followed the vocation of a farmer
the rest of his life, and in 1896 removed to Limestone,
New York, living on a farm there until his death in
1898. He had to his credit an honorable record of six
years as a soldier — the first three years with the noted
Bucktail Regiment of Pennsylvania, and the last three
years in the United States Cavalry. At the close of
the Civil war his regiment was sent to the West and
he was in many campaigns against the Indians, being
finally mustered out in Idaho. He participated in
thirty-three major engagements during the Civil war
and on the frontier. He was a steadfast republican
in politics, was a member of the Presbyterian Church
and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Truman
K. Snyder married Agnes Tait, who was born at Mof-
fat, Scotland, in 1850 and died at Bradford, Pennsyl-
vania, in 1905. Her father, Thomas Tait, was born
in Scotland in 1807, brought his family to the United
States in 1856, and spent the rest of his life on a farm
near Bradford, Pennsylvania, where he died in 1890.
Roy C. Snyder is the oldest of three children. His
sister Elizabeth is the wife of W. B. Heck, connected
with the C. E. Daugherty & Company, oil contractors
at Monticello. His other sister, Mabel E., is the wife
of C. E. Daugherty, of the firm C. E. Daugherty &
Company at Monticello.
Roy C. Snyder acquired his early education in the
public schools of Bradford, Pennsylvania, and Asta-
tula, Florida. While in Florida one of his teachers
was Charles P. Summerall, now well known to fame
as one of the major generals of the American forces
during the World war, and one of the ablest soldiers
and leaders in the Regular Army. Mr. Snyder left
school at the age of seventeen and then followed an
extended experience as a worker in the oil fields of
Virginia and Ohio. In 1905 he located at Monticello,
Kentucky, and there he had charge of the Wood Oil
Company's property and has since been advanced to
the company's state superintendent. He is also senior
member of the firm C. E. Daugherty & Company, and
he and Mr. Daugherty have been engaged in business
as oil contractors siuce 1910. They have maintained
a complete organization for drilling oil wells, and
have brought in much oil production on their own
account in Wayne County. Mr. Snyder is also a
partner in the W. B. He.ck & Company, an oil pro-
ducing firm at Monticello, owning some production
in Wayne County.
Mr. Snyder is the present mayor of Monticello, hav-
ing been elected for an unexpired term in 1919, while
in 1920 he was commissioned mayor by Governor
Edwin P. Morrow and again commissioned in 1921.
He is a republican, a member of Monticello Lodge
No. 431, F. and A. M. : Monticello Chapter No. 152,
R. A. M. ; Somerset Commandery No. 31, K. T. ; Kosair
Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Louisville, is past
grand of Monticello Lodge No. 361, Independent Order
of Odd Fellows. During the World war he was chair-
man of the War Chest Fund campaign in Wayne
County and otherwise helpful on other committees.
In January, 1897, at Limestone, New York, Mr. Snyder
inarried Miss Margaret McKelleb, daughter of H. E.
and Eliza (Barber) McKelleb. His father was a farmer
and oil producer at Limestone, and Mrs. Snyder is a
graduate of the high school of that city. To their
marriage have been born three children: Emroy G. is
the wife of H. A. Tate, on the engineering force of
the Wood Oil Company and a resident of Monticello ;
Milton F. was a student in the Culver Military Acad-
emy at Culver, Indiana, now in business in New York
City; Marcia, the youngest, was in the Monticello High
School, now attending school in New York City.
R. D. Simpson. While statesmen play a prominent
part in the directing of the affairs of any community
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
91
or country, yet the men of paramount importance in
the history of their times are those who carry on the
everyday business, performing the duties resting upon
them to the best of their ability and seeking to make
their part of the world a little better for their having
passed through it. Murray is not different from other
municipalities, and is proud of the fact that it has in
its midst some of the most substantial and depend-
able men of Western Kentucky, among whom may be
mentioned R. D. Simpson, proprietor of the granite
and marble works he is conducting under his own
name. He was bo,rn in Ballard County, Kentucky,
October 28, 1862, a son of Judge S. P. Simpson, and
grandson of Erasmus Simpson, who was born in Shelby
County, Kentucky, in 1799. He died in Ballard
County, Kentucky, in December, 1886, although he was
reared, educated and married in Shelby County, Ken-
tucky, from whence he went to Christian County, Ken-
tucky, in 1846, and to Ballard County in 1855. All of
his mature years he was engaged in farming. Eras-
mus Simpson was married to Martha Taylor, who was
born at Louisville, Kentucky, and died in Ballard
County. She was a direct descendant of Zachary Tay-
lor. The Simpson family was founded in Kentucky
by the great-grandfather of R. D. Simpson, who moved
into Shelby County from Virginia. His wife was a
niece of Daniel Boone, and in this connection with the
great frontiersman and pioneer of Kentucky no doubt
influenced Mr. Simpson in making his advent into the
then wilderness of Kentucky.
S. P. Simpson was born in Shelby County, Ken-
tucky, October 20, 1835, and died at Murray, Kentucky,
August 20, 1918. Until 1855 he continued to live in
Shelby County, where he was reared, received his edu-
cational training, and was married, but in that year
moved to Ballard County, and was there engaged in
farming until October 18, 1892, when he moved into
Calloway County, and was elected city judge of Mur-
ray, which office he held for twenty years, and then
retired from active participation in business or pro-
fessional life. In politics he was a democrat. The
Baptist Church held his membership. He was married
to Fannie Washburn, who was born in Shelby County,
Kentucky, May 28, 1840. She survives her husband
and makes her home at Murray. They became the
parents of the following children : R. D., whose name
heads this review; Florence, who was born in 1865,
died at Murray in 1916, unmarried.
R. D. Simpson attended the public schools of Bland-
ville, Ballard County, at the time it was the county
seat of Ballard County, and there finished the high-
school course. Leaving school at the age of eighteen
years he began farming on his own account in Bal-
lard County, and was thus engaged until he went to
McCracken County, and continued his agricultural ac-
tivities there until 1892, in which year he located at
Murray. In 1894 he became manager of the Murray
Milling Company, and held that position until 1903,
when he bought the marble and granite business owned
by Rufe Downs, taking into partnership with him
Messrs. Boyce and Lassiter, he being the senior mem-
ber and general manager. This is the only granite
and marble concern in Calloway County, and is one
of the leading ones of its kind in Western Kentucky.
The firm owns another marble and granite yard at
Paris, Tennessee. The Murray plant and offices are
located on Maple Street. The work done by this firm
is exceptionally artistic, and orders come to it not
only from all over Calloway, but adjoining counties.
Mr. Simpson is a democrat, but has not entered actively
into politics, his time and attention having been ab-
sorbed by his business. He belongs to the Christian
Church and is a strong supporter of religious work.
Fraternally he is a member of Murray Camp No. 50,
W. O. W. He owns a modern residence, one of the
beautiful ones of the city, which is located on one of
the most desirable sites. The house is surrounded by
tastefully kept grounds, in which are some fine shade
trees.
Mr. Simpson was married at Paris, Tennessee, in
1905, to Miss Lula Morris, a daughter of W. L. and
Anna (Brown) Morris, residents of Henry County,
Tennessee, where Mr. Morris is engaged in farming.
Mr. and Mrs. Simpson became the parents of two
children, namely : Katherine, who was born May 2,
1910; and R. D., Jr., who was born May 9, 1912.
Henry Scott Robinson. In noting the representa-
tive members of the bar of Taylor County it is grat-
ifying to designate Mr. Robinson as one of the num-
ber, especially in view of the fact that he is a native
son of the county and a scion of one of the old and
honored families of this section of the Blue Grass State.
He is engaged in the successful practice of his profes-
sion at Campbellsville, the judicial center of his native
county, and has appeared in many important cases in the
various courts of this section of Kentucky, with a rec-
ord of many victories won in both the criminal and
civil departments of law.
Mr. Robinson was born at Campbellsville on the 6th
of June, 1861, and thus made his appearance shortly
after the Civil war was initiated. He is a son of
Capt. John R. Robinson, who was born in Taylor
County February 23, 1823, and whose death here oc-
curred on the nth of March, 1899. His father, Robert
Robinson, a native of Randolph County, Virginia, and
a member of a family founded in the Old Dominion
State in the early Colonial period of our national his-
tory, became one of the pioneer settlers of Taylor
County, Kentucky, whither he came as a young man.
He here developed a productive farm, which he re-
claimed from the virtual wilderness, and here he
passed the remainder of his life. His wife, whose
maiden name was Nancy Rice, was born and reared
in Taylor County and here remained until the close
of her life. The names of both the Robinson and Rice
families have been prominently concerned in the early
development of Taylor County.
Capt. John R. Robinson was reared under the con-
ditions and influences that marked the pioneer period
of Taylor County history, and his vigorous and alert
mentality enabled him to gain a liberal education and
to attain status as one of the most distinguished mem-
bers of the bar of his native county, at whose judicial
center he was actively engaged in the practice of his
profession many years, with specially high standing as
a land lawyer, in which field of practice he specialized.
In his earlier life he served as a justice of the peace
at Campbellsville, and he also filled the office of county
attorney one term. He was a stalwart democrat and
a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.
He was affiliated with the Masonic fraternity for many
years prior to his death. When the Civil war was pre-
cipitated he promptly raised a company for the Union
service, and became captain of Company E. Twenty-
seventh Kentucky Volunteer Infantry. He proceeded
with his command to the front, took part in numerous
engagements, including a number of major battles, and
continued in active service from 1861 until 1864, when
he resigned his commission as captain and returned
home on account of the impaired health of his wife,
whose death occurred in that year. Her maiden name
was Malvina Scott, and she was born at Greensburg,
Kentucky, in 1838. Of their children, Henry S.( of
this review, is the elder, and the other child, Malvina,
died in infancy. For his second wife Captain Robin-
son married Miss Lydia E. Barbee, who was born in
Ta3'lor County and who here remained until her death,
which occurred at Campbellsville. Of the children of
this union the eldest is Nannie, who is the wife of
W. L. Young, a successful lawyer engaged in practice
at Campbellsville; Miss Bettie is principal of the high
school at Lancaster, Kentucky ; P. S. is a successful
representative of the lumber business at La Grande,
92
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
Oregon; and Joseph E., who resides at Campbells-
ville, is in the United States internal revenue service
in his native county.
Henry S. Robinson is indebted to the public schools
of Campbellsville for his early education, and after
leaving school he read law under the effective and
punctilious preceptorship of his father, who saw to it
that he was firmly grounded in the involved science
of jurisprudence. He was admitted to the bar of his
native state in January, 1882, upon examination before
Judge R. S. Montague and Judge Drury Hudson. Dur-
ing the long intervening years Mr. Robinson has been
actively engaged in the practice of law in his native
city, and the broad scope and importance of his law
business attest alike his ability and his secure hold
upon popular confidence and esteem. He maintains
his offices in the building of the Taylor National Bank,
and is the owner of his modern residence property on
Depot Street.
While Mr. Robinson has never wavered in allegiance
to the democratic party and his given effective service
in behalf of its cause, he has had no desire for political
preferment, though in direct line with his profession
he gave 8H years of specially efficient service as county
attorney. He is an active member of the Baptist
Church of Campbellsville, and a member of its Board
of Trustees. During the World war he was active
and characteristically loyal in the furtherance of the
local activities in support of the nation's war work,
and by Governor Stanley he was appointed legal ad-
visor or counsel of the Taylor County Draft Board.
He gave valuable aid in the furtherance of the various
local drives in behalf of the Government loans, Red
Cross work, etc., bought his full quota of war bonds
and Savings Stamps, and was zealous in the promo-
tion of all such work in his native county.
The year 1883 recorded the marriage of Mr. Rob-
inson to Miss Hattie Taylor, daughter of the late
D. G. and Lou J. (Cowherd) Taylor, Mr. Taylor hav-
ing been one of the representative farmers of Taylor
County. Mrs. Robinson passed to the life eternal in
1889, and was not survived by children. In 1892 Mr.
Robinson wedded Miss Minnie Sharp, a daughter of
William and Sue (Pruett) Sharp, both now deceased,
Mr. Sharp having" been a successful farmer in Taylor
County. Mr. and Mrs. Robinson have one child, Mol-
lie, who remains at the parental home and is a popular
factor in the social activities of the younger genera-
tion at Campbellsville.
Joe Lancaster. The legal profession has always at-
tracted the young Southerner, and some of the most
talented sons of Dixie have devoted their energies and
talents to the practice of this most exacting calling.
Many of them have attained to national reputation,
and some have been known the world over because
of their knowledge of the law and their flaming elo-
quence. Joe Lancaster, county attorney of Calloway
County and a distinguished member of the bar at
Murray, is one of the young men of Kentucky who is
finding his life work in the practice of his profession
and reaping laurels as a result of his ability and skill.
Mr. Lancaster was born in Humphreys County, Ten-
nessee, January 9, 1881, a son of S. M. Lancaster, and
grandson of Paschall Lancaster, a native of North
Carolina, in which province the founder of the fam-
ily in the American Colonies located when he came
here from England. Paschall Lancaster was married
to a Miss Holbrook, also a native of North Caro-
lina, and with his wife journeyed into Tennessee,
where he became one of the very early settlers
and farmers of Hickman County, and there he died
before his grandson was born.
S. M. Lancaster was born in Hickman County,
Tennessee in 1843, and is now living at Murray.
He grew up in Hickman County, where he became
a farmer, but after his marriage moved to Hum-
phreys County, of that same state, and there all his
children were born. In 1895 he came to Murray,
Kentucky, where he is living in a well-earned retire-
ment. His political convictions have been such as to
make him cast his vote for the candidates of the dem-
ocratic party. A very religious man, he has long been
an earnest member of the Missionary Baptist Church
and generous in its support. He is a Mason. During
the war between the North and the South he served
in the Confederate army, under General Bragg, and
participated in the battles of Chickamauga, Lookout
Mountain, Missionary Ridge, Murfreesboro and other
important engagements, and was severely wounded at
the battle of Murfreesboro. S. M. Lancaster was mar-
ried to Nancy Sharp, who was born in Hickman
County, Tennessee, in 1847, and they became the par-
ents of the following children : Addie, who married
R. L. Scholes, a guard in the state prison, lives at
Eddyville, Kentucky; Joe, who was second in order
of birth.
Joe Lancaster was educated in the rural schools of
Calloway County, and later attended the Southern Nor-
mal University at Huntingdon, Tennessee, from which
he was graduated in 1907 with the degree of Bachelor
of Arts and the degree of Bachelor of Laws. That
same year he came to Murray and established
himself in a general practice. In the fall of 1907
he was elected clerk of the Circuit Court of Callo-
way County, taking office in January, 1908, and he
filled that office for six years. His practice is a gen-
eral civil and criminal one, and he is recognized
as one of the eminent members of his profession in
Calloway County. Having made such an enviable rec-
ord as circuit clerk, his admirers in the democratic
party, as well as those outside, recommended his ap-
pointment to the office of county attorney, and he has
been filling that office since August, 1919. His offices
are in the Court House.
Mr. Lancaster is a democrat. He belongs to Mur-
ray Lodge No. 105, A. F. and A. M. ; Murray Chapter
No. 92, R. A. M.; Paducah Commandery No. 11, K.
T. ; and Kosair Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S. of Louis-
ville, Kentucky. He owns a modern residence on West
Poplar Street, which is one of the finest ones in the
city. During the great war he took an active part
in all of the local war activities, serving as food ad-
ministrator of the county and assisting in putting all
of the Liberty Loan and other drives "over the top."
He was one of the "Four Minute Men" and one of
the most effective talkers of this region, for he is an
impressive speaker and commands attention through
his flaming sincerity.
In 1901 Mr. Lancaster was married in Graves County,
Kentucky, to Miss Clemmie Paschall. a daughter of
W. H. and Victoria (Cole) Paschall, the former of
whom is now a farmer of Calloway County, but the
latter is deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Lancaster have no
children. A man of personal charm, culture and wide
intellectual attainments. Mr. Lancaster has a brilliant
future before him. He has always had a broader
sense of responsibility with reference to civic matters,
and his connection with an important office is giving
him a knowledge of men and affairs which registers
the sharp, resonant impressions of the vibrating needle
of experience and will prove very useful to him in
the years before him.
James Monroe Johnson. In the business and legis-
lative history of the City of Benton and the County
of Marshall the name of James Monroe Johnson ap-
pears frequently in connection with reliable transac-
tions in commercial circles and valuable services ren-
dered in the line of public duty. The proprietor of a
prosperous coal and feed business, built up through his
own industry and ability, he is also an ex-representa-
tive, having served in two regular and one special ses-
sions of the State Legislature.
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
93
Mr. Johnson was born on a farm near Hamlet, Mar-
shall County, November 26, 1856, a son of William H.
and Hulda Jane (Hamilton) Johnson. His father,
born in 1831 in this county, passed his entire life here
as an industrious and prosperous agriculturist and
died in 1913. He was a democrat in his political alle-
giance and served at one time as road supervisor of
Marshall County, and was a strong churchman of the
Baptist faith. He married Miss Hulda Jane Hamil-
ton, who was born in 1840 in Marshall County and
died here in 1916. Their children were as follows:
B. F., who is engaged in farming in Marshall County ;
James Monroe; Eliza Jane, who died in 1918 as the
wife of Mort Reynolds, a farmer of Marshall County;
P. T., who is engaged in the granite and marble busi-
ness at Independence, Missouri; Callie, who is the wife
of D. A. Provine, a farmer near Gilbertsville, Mar-
shall Count}', and also engaged in the tobacco buying
business ; Bertie, who married J. J. Chambers, a farmer,
and after his death married Thomas Fezier, a farmer
of Graves County, this state ; Vira, the wife of Doc
Inman, the proprietor of a grain elevator at Paducah ;
and Henry, a mill operator and owner and proprietor
of a granite and marble plant in McCracken County,
this state.
James Monroe Johnson was educated in the rural
schools of Marshall County and was reared on his
father's farm, where he resided until reaching the
age of twenty-three years. At that time he embarked
upon farming operations on his own account, and for
ten years devoted himself industriously to the tilling
of the soil. When he gave up farming temporarily he
purchased a flouring mill at Wadesboro, Kentucky,
which he operated two years, and then, coming to
Benton, he secured a mill of like character. He had
a quarter of a century's experience as a successful
mill owner, but in 1919 disposed of this property and
since then, for the most part, has devoted his atten-
tion and abilities to the operation of his coal and feed
business, which has grown to such proportions as to
make him one of the leading business men of his
community. For a time he had important farming
interests also, but has recently disposed of his farm.
He is the owner of his modern residence on Bearden
Street, which is one of the comfortable and attractive
homes of Benton, with four acres of highly improved
land surrounding.
Politically a democrat, Mr. Johnson has long been
prominent in the ranks of his party and has been
uncompromisMig in his support of its candidates and
principles. He served as jailer of Marshall County
for eight years, and in 1913 was elected a member of
the Lower House of the Kentucky Legislature, a posi-
tion to which he was re-elected in 1915. He served
in the sessions of 1914 and 1916, as well as in the
special session of 1917, and his entire record in that
body is one that speaks of constructive and conscien-
tious work on behalf of his constituents, his district
and his state. He was chairman of the Warehouse
Committee during both sessions, and served also on
a number of other important committees. Mr. John-
son is a member of the Baptist Church, and as a fra-
ternalist is affiliated with Benton Lodge No. 701, A. F.
and A. M. ; Elm Camp No 717, Woodmen of the
World ; and the local lodge of the Independent Order
of Odd Fellows. He took an active part in all local
war activities, helped in the various drives, and bought
generously of Liberty bonds.
In 1880, in Marshall County, Kentucky, Mr. Johnson
was united in marriage with Miss Augusta Heath,
daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Mart Heath, both deceased,
Mr. Heath having been an attorney. Mrs. Johnsen
died in 1004, leaving six children : Cora, who married
Clarence McGregor, a merchant of Benton, and after
his death married Thomas Woods, a clerk in the Rudy
Department Store, Paducah; Gillard B., engaged in
the feed and grain business at Benton ; William, a
flour miller at Golo, Graves County, this state ; May,
the wife of Hayden Drafton, a farmer and rural free
delivery mail carrier of Marshall County ; Veleda, the
wife of William Ely, bookkeeper for the Ford Garage
at Benton ; and Bettie, who married Herbert Cole, of
Detroit, Michigan, connected with the Foreman Auto-
mobile Company. In 1912 Mr. Johnson married Mrs.
Bettie (Washum) Ivey, a native of Marshall County.
Milton DilTz Holton, district manager of the
Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company, is one of the
distinguished men of Calloway County, and one who
has taken a constructive part in the civic as well as
business life of Murray, which he has served with
dignified efficiency as mayor. Mr. Holton was born
at Mount Sterling, Montgomery County, Kentucky, Oc-
tober 27, 1869, a son of Henry E. Holton, grandson of
Thomas Holton, and a member of one of the aristo-
cratic families of Virginia, where his family was es-
tablished during the Colonial epoch of this country
by ancestors who came from England. One of his
ancestors served in the American Revolution, and all
of them were citizens of merit and high standing.
Thomas Holton, the paternal grandfather, was born
in Kentucky, whither the family had migrated in pio-
neer days, and he died at Covington, this state, at a
time antedating the birth of his grandson. A man of
strong personality, he took an active part in local af-
fairs wherever he was located, and at one time served
as sheriff of Pendleton County, Kentucky. During a
portion of his life he was a steamboat man, and he
also attained to a well-merited success as proprietor
of a popular hotel. During the early '50s he was a
resident of Memphis, Tennessee, from which city he
moved to Covington, Kentucky. Thomas Holton was
married to a Miss McCarty, who died at Paducah,
Kentucky, in May, 1891. Her father, a great-grand-
father of Milton D. Holton, was a veteran of the
War of 1812.
Henry E. Holton was born at Falmouth, Pendleton
County, Kentucky, in 1838, and died at Los Angeles,
California, in 1910. He was reared at Covington, Ken-
tucky, and educated at West Point Military Academy,
where he remained until the outbreak of- the war be-
tween the North and the South. Espousing the cause
of the South, he resigned and coming back home en-
listed in the Confederate army, as a member of Com-
pany D, Eighth Arkansas Regiment. He was wounded
and captured at the battle of Chickamauga, and spent
nineteen months in prison on Johnson's Island. Dur-
ing the war he served as a commiss'oned officer. His
cause lost, he bravely shouldered the responsibilities
of the reconstruction period, and for two years taught
school in Harrison County, Kentucky, and from there
went to Mount Sterling, Kentucky, where he owned
and conducted a private school until 1871. In that
year he moved to Ghent, Kentucky, and spent a year
as one of the professors in a school at that place. The
subsequent year he spent at Milton, Kentucky, and.
going to Moscow, Ohio, was superintendent of its
schools until he left that city for Germantown, Ken-
tucky, and for a year was superintendent of its schools
Coining to Murray, he served as principal of its school
for five years, and then went to Paducah. Kentucky,
and conducted a private school from 1886 to 1892,
and also owned a dairy and fruit farm in the vicinity
of that city. In 1892 he went on a farm near Rich-
mond, Virginia, and was there occupied with agri-
cultural pursuits until 1900, when he went to Saint
Louis, Missouri, and there conducted a flourishing real
estate business for six years. In 1906 he moved to
Portland, Oregon, and continued his operations as a
realtor until he retired and moved to Los Angeles,
California. He was a strong democrat. The Chris-
tian Church had in him an active member and gen-
94
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
erous supporter, and he was for many years a lay
preacher. Fraternally he was a Mason and Odd
Fellow.
Henry E. Holton was married to Harriet Broadwell
Diltz, a daughter of Milton L. and Nackie (Penn)
Diltz, the latter being a lineal descendant of John
Penn, a brother of William Penn. Her uncle, Louis
Broadwell, was a congressman from Ohio. Mrs. Hol-
ton was born in Bracken County, Kentucky, in 1842,
and died at Paducah, Kentucky, in 1891, having borne
her husband the following children : Sue, who married
Judge T. P. Cook, an attorney and formerly circuit
judge of the Third Judicial District of Kentucky, lives
at Hopkinsville, Kentucky; Milton D., who was sec-
ond in order of birth; Henry E., who is in the insur-
ance business at Murray, is serving that city as mayor ;
and Carrie, who is the widow of Rufus Ward, for-
merly actively engaged in an insurance business at
Hopkinsville, Kentucky, where he died, and where she
is still living.
Milton D. Holton attended the public schools of
Moscow, Ohio; Germantown and Murray, Kentucky,
and left school when he was sixteen years old and
was employed on his father's farm near Paducah,
Kentucky, until 1888. In the latter year he became
shipping clerk for a tobacco warehouse at Paducah,
Kentucky, and remained with that concern for two
years, leaving it to go with a dairy and creamery
house at Paducah, and then, in 1892, he went to Ara-
arillo, Texas, when it was a cow town with less than
1,000 population, and worked in a general store for a
year. Returning to Kentucky, he had charge of a
creamery for a year. In 1894 he came to Murray.
and was admitted to the bar, having been studying
law during his leisure moments for some time. For
a year he was engaged in the practice of his profes-
sion, but did not find in it any more than he had
in his former occupations, the proper outlet for
his talents, and finally, in 1905, he embarked in the
insurance business, which is essentially his forte. He
went to Fort Worth, Texas, and carried on a flourish-
ing business for several years. In the meanwhile he
became interested in a mining proposition at Sweet-
water, Nevada, and spent several years looking after
it, but in 1909 went to Chicago, Illinois, and from
December of that year until March, 1910, was repre-
sentative on the road out of Chicago for the Trav-
elers Insurance Company. Returning to Murray, he
resumed his insurance business here, and is now dis-
trict manager for the Mutual Benefit Life Insurance
Company, one of the sound and dependable organiza-
tions, his territory covering Calloway, Trigg and Mar-
shall counties. His offices are conveniently located in
the Ryan Building on Court Square. Mr. Holton is
very active as a democrat, and was the second mayor
of Murray, was city clerk for one term, and for six
years was master commissioner of Calloway County.
A Mason, he belongs to Murray Lodge No. 105, A. F.
and A. M.; Murray Chapter No. 92, R. A. M. ; Pa-
ducah Commandery No. 11, K. T. ; and Kosair Tem-
ple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of Louisville, Kentucky. He
is an ex-member of Paducah Lodge No. 217, B. P.
O. E., and an ex-member of the Knights of Pythias.
For ten years he served as secretary of the Calloway
County Fair Association and as secretary of the Mur-
ray Building & Loan Association. Mr. Holton owns
a modern residence on Olive Street, which is one of
the fine ones of Murray, and is surrounded by admir-
ably kept and extensive grounds, in which are some
magnificent shade trees.
On January 25, 1899, Mr. Holton was married at
Murray, Kentucky, to Miss Julia Kelly Hamlin, a
daughter of Judge R. F. and Laura (Boggs) Hamlin,
both of whom are now deceased. He was county judge
and county clerk of Calloway County, and early in
life was prominent as an educator at Murray. Dur-
ing the war between the North and the South he served
gallantly in the Confederate army. Mrs. Holton was
graduated from the National Normal University at
Lebanon, Ohio, and for a year prior to her marriage
was engaged in teaching school in Calloway County.
She is a lady of charming personality and fine edu-
cational talents. Mr. and Mrs. Holton became the
parents of four children, namely: Hattie Laura, who
was born December 2, 1899, was graduated from the
Murray High School, after which she attended Ham-
ilton College at Lexington, Kentucky; Robert, who
was born in November, 1903, graduated from the
Murray High School and is now at Transylvania Col-
lege, at Lexington, Kentucky; Annie Diltz, who was
bom December 18, 1905, is attending the Murray High
School ; and Juliet Milton, who was born November
26, 191 1.
Mr. Holton has been eminently successful in his in-
surance work, and is actuated by high motives in
carrying out his policies. His experience prior to his
entry on his present line of endeavor he feels to have
been of great value to him, as it taught him much
with regard to human nature and the motives which
govern men. His present connections not only give
him an agreeable and profitable occupation, but he
feels that in educating the public to the necessity of
providing protection for their families and their own
old age he is rendering his kind a service of great
value. Possessing as he does liberal views and a
public spirit, he has been able to give much to Murray
and has quickened into intense activity a local pride
that is having remarkable results.
Mrs. George Washington Martin, one of the highly
cultured ladies of Marshall County, Kentucky, is re-
siding at Birmingham, where her husband has ex-
tensive interests as a tobacconist and financier. George
Washington Martin was born in Muhlenberg County,
Kentucky, in 1854, a son of Felix J. Martin, and grand-
son of Hutson Martin, who died in Muhlenberg County
before the birth of his grandson.
Felix J. Klartin was born in Muhlenberg County,
Kentucky, in 1825, and died at Greenville, that county,
ing 1902, having been a farmer and tobacconist upon
an extensive scale. He was married to Caroline
Eaves, born in 1829, who died in Muhlenberg County
in August, 1919. She was a sister of Judge Charles
Eaves, a prominent lawyer of Greenville, Kentucky.
Felix J. Martin was a democrat, a Methodist and a
Mason, and was very conscientious in his discharge
of the obligations entailed by his beliefs. He and his
wife had the following children: John, who was a
farmer, died at Greenville, Kentucky, in 1920; George
Washington, who was the second in order of birth;
William S., who was a tobacconist, merchant and
prominent business man and farmer of McLean County,
Kentucky, where he died ; Rufus, who was a tobac-
conist, merchant and .successful business man of Green-
ville, died there in 1903; Jennie, who married E. J.
Puryear, a tobacconist and ex-merchant of Greenville ;
Joseph, who is a tobacconist and farmer of South
Carrollton, Kentucky; Annie, who married T. R.
Smith, a farmer and flour-mill owner of Elizabethtown,
Kentucky ; Betty, who married William Hanna, a
farmer of Hopkins County; Charles E., who is a
tobacconist, coal operator, banker and one of the most
prominent business men of Greenville; and Dovie, who
married W. H. Coffman, died at Itasca, Texas, and
he died in 1919, having been a banker for years.
George Washington Martin attended the public
schools of Muhlenberg County and the Cave Springs
College near Russellville, Kentucky, leaving school at
the age of twenty-three years. For the subsequent
ten years he was engaged in a timber business, and
continued to reside in Muhlenberg County, and then
began to handle tobacco, buying and exporting, main-
"to ?s
\y^n ■,>?? e-ri^t ^/>
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
95
taining his headquarters at Sacramento, McLean
County, Kentucky, until 1904. In that year he came
to Birmingham, where he had already established a
tobacco business, and for a time maintained branch
houses at Sacramento and Hartford, Kentucky, but
now confines his operations to Birmingham and Gil-
bertsville. He has a large warehouse of his own at
Birmingham, and rents another at Gilbertsville, and
is the most extensive tobacco dealer in Marshall
County. Mr. Martin has many other interests and is
a director of the Sacramento Deposit Bank, which he
served as president, and which he assisted in organ-
izing, but after the bank was firmly established and
he had been its chief executive for fifteen years, he
resigned. He is also a stockholder in the Itasca Na-
tional Bank of Itasca, Texas, owns a modern residence
on Washington Street, several other dwellings at Bir-
mingham, a second warehouse in the city, a farm of
fifty acres 3J4 miles north of Birmingham, a second
farm of thirty-five acres one-half mile east of Bir-
mingham, and a third one of thirty acres one-quarter
of a mile south of Birmingham, and is extensively
interested in valuable farm land in other parts of the
state. Mr. Martin is a democrat. He belongs to
T. L. Jefferson Lodge No. 622, A. F. and A. _M.
In 1890 occurred the marriage at Centerville, Mis-
sissippi, of George Washington Martin and Sue Ram-
sey, and they became the parents of the following
children : Evalie Fisher married Jacke E. Fisher, a
commonwealth attorney residing at Benton, Kentucky,
with offices at 814 City National Bank Building, Pa-
ducah, Kentucky, and a sketch of whom appears else-
where in this work; Joseph Ramsey, who was born
July 30, 1894, is now with his parents. He attended
the Tennessee National Institute Military College at
Sweetwater, Tennessee, and Bethel College of Russell-
ville, Kentucky, for two years. With the entry of this
country into the great war he felt it incumbent upon
him to offer his services to his Government, and en-
listed in August, 1917. He was commissioned a sec-
ond lieutenant and sent to the Officers Training Camp
at Fort Benjamin Harrison, and was advanced to the
rank of first lieutenant. He was mustered out of the
service at Greenville, South Carolina, in February,
1919. The third child, Charles E., died at the age
of 2^2 years ; and the fourth, John Hudson, who was
born September 28, 1901, is a junior in Georgetown
College, at Georgetown, Kentucky.
Mrs. Martin's grandfather, Willis Ramsey, was born
in Sumpter County, South Carolina, and died in that
county before the birth of his granddaughter. For
his times he was a very extensive planter and wealthy
man. Willis Ramsey was thrice married, and his sec-
ond wife, who was a Miss Odell before her marriage,
was the grandmother of Mrs. Martin. She, too, was
born, spent her life and died in Sumpter County,
South Carolina.
Mrs. Martin was born in Sumpter County, South
Carolina, a daughter of T. J. Ramsey, who was born
in Sumpter County, South Carolina, in 1840, and died
at Centerville, Mississippi, in 1890. He was reared in
his native county, where he lived for many years and
was there engaged in farming and teaching school.
Later he went to Texas, and for a year was engaged in
teaching there, and then, in 1885, located at Center-
ville, Mississippi, where he was editor and publisher
of a newspaper. A man of strong convictions, he gave
a valued support to the democratic party. The Bap-
tist Church held his membership and had his generous
and effective support. During the war between the two
sections of the country he served in the Confederate
army for four years and was a brave and gallant soldier,
under General Buell for a time and during the last year
of the war was under the command of General Morgan.
T. J. Ramsey was married in Richland County, South
Carolina, to Janie Scott, who was born in that county
in 1839. She survives her husband and makes her
Vol. V— 10
home at Birmingham. Mr. and Mrs. Ramsey had the
following children : William, who died in Sumpter
County in 1882 and was a farmer; Scott, who died
young; Frank, who died at the age of twelve years;
Mrs. Martin, who was fourth in order of birth ; Les-
lie, who is connected with a tobacco lactory and lives
at Birmingham, Kentucky; John, who is a clerk in a
store at El Centro, California; Albert, who is a mem-
ber of the fire department of Denver, Colorado;
Pauline, who married W. H. Wright, general fore-
man for the Illinois Central Railroad at Haleyville,
Alabama; and Miles W., who served as a member of
the United States Marines, and is now stationed at
Chelsea, Massachusetts, is a veteran of the Spanish-
American war and of the great war. He enlisted in
the United States army in 1898, and about twelve years
ago was transferred to the marine branch of the
service. He has served in Cuba and in the Philippines
twice, and is an experienced soldier.
Mrs. Martin is a lady who is held in the highest
esteem in her community. She and her husband de-
light to gather their friends about them at their beau-
tiful home, where they dispense a charming Southern
hospitality. A lady who has cultivated her natural
talents, Mrs. Martin is the center of many community
activities of an intellectual and cultural character, and
she exerts a strong influence in her circle of acquaint-
ances. Mr. Martin is one of the leading business men
of Marshall County, and his remarkable operations,
especially in tobacco, have made him a well-known
figure in this part of the state. It would be difficult
to find a family more representative of the best ele-
ments in Kentucky than this one bearing the name
of Martin.
James M. Morell. There are several reasons why
James M. Morell, proprietor and owner of the well-estab-
lished mercantile business at Prestonburg which bears
his name, has succeeded in life, and these may be stated
to be energy, system and practical knowledge. The
range of his activities is now large, as his establish-
ment is the largest of its kind in Floyd County; but
from the beginning of his career Mr. Morell has sought
to work steadily and well for substantial results and
has never been content to labor merely for the present.
Mr. Morell was born November 23, 1871, at Laynes-
ville (now Harrold), Floyd County, Kentucky, a son
of Frank H. and Belle Christina (Hatcher) Morell,
the former a native of Tennessee and the latter of
Kentucky. Frank H. Morell came to Kentucky when
about twenty-one years of age and subsequently en-
tered the mercantile business. In addition to being
prominent in business affairs, he took an active part in
public life, and in 1889 served as judge of Floyd County,
later being county superintendent of schools for two
terms and also serving for some time as county sur-
veyor.
James M. Morell attended the public schools at
Laynesville and spent one term at Prestonburg, follow-
ing which he adopted the vocation of teaching school
and for about four years was an instructor in the rural
districts of Floyd County. He then entered the lum-
ber business, logging timber at the head of the Big
Sandy River, a business in which he was engaged for
about eight years. Coming to Prestonburg, in 1903,
he established himself in the mercantile business,
handling heavy hardware, furniture, rugs and all kinds
of house furnishings, and has developed his business
from the initial small concern it was to the flourishing
enterprise that it is today. This house is now the largest
in its line in Floyd County, and its financial _ strength
is equal to the volume of its business, meeting fully
the demands of the developing country in which it is
situated. A man of unusual business capacity, Mr.
Morell's years of orderly and abundant work have
resulted in acquired prosperity and the sane enjoyment
of it, and he has at the same time maintained his inter-
96
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
est in securing and preserving the welfare of his com-
munity. He has given strict attention to his business,
conducting it with a thoughtful and intelligent manage-
ment which could not help but bring about satisfactory
results. A well-read man, he keeps himself thoroughly
posted on public events and matters of general interest,
and is highly esteemed as a forceful, substantial man
and excellent citizen. His religious connection is with
the Baptist Church, and fraternally he is affiliated with
the Masonic Blue Lodge and the Odd Fellows.
June 28, 1905, Mr. Morell was united in marriage
with Miss Mattie Lee Rice, daughter of Samuel Rice,
an agriculturist, and a member of families which have
long been residents of Kentucky. Mr. and Mrs. Morell
are the parents of two children : James Morton, who
was born in 1909; and William Franklin, born in 1917.
Charles H. Wilson. Tracing the lives of the prom-
inent men of Livingston County, it is easy to see that
progressive characters have never lacked for oppor-
tunity, and that opportunity has not signified so much
as the man himself. In this great country of ours,
where the valuable prizes of life are awarded for
merit, rather than because of the accident of birth or
fortune, the men of high character, courage, pluck
and ambition are the successful ones. The highest
places in the learned professions are filled with and
the greatest commercial enterprises are conducted by
just such men — men who at the outset of life placed
a just valuation upon honor, integrity and determina-
tion, for these are the qualities that insure the great-
est emoluments and, what are still better than any
mere accumulation of riches, the confidence and re-
spect of their fellows. With these qualities as his
capital, combined with great natural ability and a
carefully trained capacity, Charles H. Wilson has long
been engaged very successfully in the practice of the
law at Smithland, where he is recognized as one of
the leading men of Livingston County, as well as one
of its ablest attorneys.
Charles H. Wilson was born in Livingston County,
Kentucky, August II, 1872. His grandfather, Charles
Wilson, came to the United States from Sweden in
1826, locating at Smithland, where he died in 1864.
His wife, Martha Ann (Walker) Wilson, whom he
married in 1840, lived until 1903. They had a family
of eleven children, of whom four are now living,
namely: George Martin, who is the father of Charles
H. Wilson ; C. O., who is a farmer of Livingston
County, Kentucky ; Jane, who married J. F. Robertson,
now deceased, who was a farmer of Livingston County,
and after the demise of her husband she moved to
Akron, Ohio, where she is now residing : and Isaac
Walker, who is a mine operator living near Chicago,
Illinois.
Charles Wilson became a democrat after he secured
his papers of citizenship. By calling he was a farmer,
and he owned a large tract of land. He and his wife
identified themselves with the Baptist Church. The
maternal grandfather of Charles H. Wilson was Reu-
ben Coffer, who was born May 5, 1789, in Virginia,
from whence he came to Lyon County, Kentucky,
where he died June 20, 1853. On February 19. 1824,
he married Elizabeth Ann Brewer, a native of Christian
County, Kentucky. In politics Reuben Coffer was iden-
tified with the whig party. By occupation he was a
farmer, and was successful in his operations. Both he
and his wife were members of the Baptist Church.
They had seven children, all of whom are deceased.
George Martin Wilson was born in Livingston
County, Kentucky, October 17, 1841 and is now in his
eightieth year and resides at Smithland, Kentucky.
He was educated in the public schools of Livingston
County, one of his teachers having been Capt. J. W.
Bush. His life work was farming and stock-raising,
and he was remarkably successful in everything he
undertook, but he is now retired. At one time he
owned about 1,000 acres of land, but divided it among
his children. In politics he is a strong democrat, and
served as constable and coroner of Livingston County.
When war broke out between the North and the South
he espoused the Southern cause and enlisted in the
Confederate army, serving bravely as a soldier. George
Martin Wilson married Millie Frances Coffer, who was
born in Christian County, Kentucky, February 9, 1844,
arul died in Livingston County June 2, 1896. Their
children were as follows : Elizabeth, who married
L. H. Cothron, a farmer of Livingston County; Charles
H., whose name heads this review; George M., Jr.,
who is a farmer of Livingston County; Thomas H.,
who is also a farmer of Livingston County; Hattie
May, who married G. A. Rudd, a farmer and produce
commission merchant of Smithland ; Martha, who is
living with her brother, Charles H.; Harry Winfred,
who is in partnership with his brother-in-law, G. A.
Rudd, at Smithland; and four others who died young.
In November, 1806, George M. Wilson married Mrs.
Delia Fort, and they have one son, Floyd A., who is
in an insurance business and lives with his father.
Charles H. Wilson received his common school edu-
cation in the public schools of Livingston County, and
in 1894 was graduated from the Princeton Collegiate
Institute at Princeton, Kentucky, and his wife was
graduated from the same institution in the same class.
Beginning the study of law in the office of Col. J. C.
Hodge, of Smithland, Mr. Wilson completed it and
was admitted to the bar December 5, 1895. For two
years he served as city attorney of Smithland, and
then was elected attorney of Livingston County. In
1901 he was re-elected to the same office, and served
as such until 1905, or eight years in all. His record
as a public official marks him for a man of unusual
caliber and integrity, and stands to his credit for all
time. Mr. Wilson is carrying on a general civil and
criminal practice at Smithland, with offices on Court
Street, and is recognized as one of the ablest members
of his profession in the county. In politics he is a
democrat. The Baptist Church holds his membership.
He belongs to Smithland Lodge No. 138, A. F. and
A. M., and Smithland Tent No. 120, Knights of the
Maccabees, of which he is past commander. In addi-
tion to4iis professional interests he is president of the
Smithland Light and Power Company, and has served
as a director of the Smithland Bank. He owns a
modern residence on Wilson Avenue, which is one of
the finest at Smithland, and several farms, aggregating
in all some 46=; acres, located along the banks of the
Cumberland River.
On August 26, 1896, Mr. Wilson was married to
Miss Sadie Eliza Polk, who was born at Louisville,
Kentucky, April 21, 1873. She is the daughter of Dr.
Edward Theodore Polk and his second wife, Emma
Sophronia (Hooten) Polk, who was born at Louisville
October 19, 1853, and died August 19, 1875. By his
first wife, Elizabeth (Marshall) Polk. Doctor "Polk
had three children, namely: Elizaheth Marshall, who
married George Fulton, a bookkeeper of Louisville,
Kentucky, now deceased, was born January 4, 1843. at
Anchorage, Kentucky, and she d;ed August 30, 1899;
Betsey Marshall, who was born January 6, 1845, mar-
ried Capt. Alexander Lawson. in the Government em-
ploy, but now deceased, his widow living at Louisville,
Kentucky : and John R. M. Polk, who was born Sep-
tember 19, 1851, and died December 24, 1894, was an
attorney of Louisville, Kentucky, and a member of
the firm of Polk & Hulsewede.- He married Addie
Rice, who survived him and died in 1899. After the
death of his second wife Doctor Polk married her
sister, Mrs. Eliza Hooten. the widow of Captain Fris-
bee, and bv her marriage to him she has one daugh-
ter, Ella Frisbee Coleman, wife of Benjamin Tyler
Coleman, of Middletown, Kentucky, where he is em-
ployed by the Louisville & Nashville Railroad. Mrs.
Coleman was born May 9, 1872. Mr. and Mrs. Cole-
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
97
man have two sons : Frisbee and Charles Tyler, both
of whom are employes of the Louisville & Nashville
Railroad Company, and reside with their parents at
Middjetown, Kentucky.
Doctor Polk was born in Woodford County, Ken-
tucky, June 12, 1813, and died February 27, 1891, in
Jefferson County, Kentucky. His third wife was born
September 23, 1843, and died October 30, 1917, at Mid-
dletown, Kentucky.
Mr. and Mrs. Wilson became the parents of the fol-
lowing children : Ruby, who died in infancy ; Ella
Christine, who was born May 13, 1898, is secretary
of the Red Cross Chapter of Henderson, Kentucky,
was graduated from the Livingston County High
School, following which she took a year's course at
the Georgetown College, attended Hamilton College
at Lexington, Kentucky, and the Indiana State Uni-
versity at Bloomington, Indiana, where she specialized
in Red Cross work ; Mildred Kathleen, who was born
December 25, 1901, was graduated from the Livingston
High School, then took a course at Shorter College,
Rome, Georgia, for a year, and is now teaching school
in Livingston County ; Sarah Pauline, who was born
August 27, 190-I, was graduated from the Livingston
High School, is now a student at college ; Emma
Ayleen, who was born in Februry, 1906, is attending
the Livingston County High School ; Edward Polk and
Charles Polk, twins, who were born February II, 1909;
James Polk, who died in infancy; and Theodore Mar-
tin, who was born September 18, 1913.
During the great war Mr. Wilson served as legal
advisor for the Livingston County Draft Board, was
chairman of the Livingston County chapter of the
Red Cross, and was food administrator of the county
during 1917 and 1918. He was chairman of the United
War Work campaign in 1918, which was a drive for
funds for seven allied associations, namely : the Young
Men's Christian Association, the Young Women's
Christian Association, National Catholic War Council,
Jewish Welfare Board, American Library Association,
War Camp Community Service and the Salvation
Army. Mr. Wilson devoted his time and money to
helping put over all of these drives, and during all
of the period of activity was one of the speakers
throughout the county. The Council of Defense of
the county had in him one of its most watchful mem-
bers, and, in short, he was probably one of the most
active workers in behalf of the cause Livingston County
produced.
John Bunya'n Gardner. Agriculture today con-
tinues as essential to peace as it was to war, and con-
sequently now more than ever must the farmer receive
all possible encouragement and assistance. He must
be taught the structure, composition and physiology of
farm crops and their environment, that is, climate, fer-
tilizers, soil, etc., and made to realize that the vital
interest of the whole community is centered in the
success of his work as the great basic industry. In
order to bring about these results there have been
established various agencies for the promotion of ag-
riculture, and one of great use to the agriculturist is
the local one in each county. The Calloway County
Agricultural Agency is one of the best in Western
Kentucky, especially since its affairs have been under
the capable management of John Bunyan Gardner,
county agricultural agent.
John Bunyan Gardner was born at South Hill, But-
ler County, Kentucky. February 21, 1888, a son of
George W. Gardner, and grandson of Edward Gard-
ner, who was born near Huntsville, Kentucky, and died
at South Hill, Butler County, Kentucky, in 1900. His
parents were among the pioneers of South Hill, where
he was reared, and after he reached manhood he taught
school for a time, but later became a farmer. He
married Cary Arnold, who was born near Huntsville,
and died at Earlington, Kentucky, in 1916, while on a
visit. They had fourteen children, and Edward Gard-
ner was one in a family of sixteen children, all of
whom reached maturity. The Gardners came from
England to Virginia during the Colonial period of this
country; and the Arnolds arrived in Virginia during
the same epoch from the North of Ireland.
George W. Gardner was born at South Hill, Ken-
tucky, in i860, and died there in 1914. His entire life
was spent at South Hill, and there he developed val-
uable interests as a farmer. In politics he was a dem-
ocrat, but never took an aggressive part in public
affairs. In the Baptist Church he found his religious
home, and from youth was one of its strong supporters
and constituent members. Fraternally he belonged to
the Independent Order of Red Men. George W. Gard-
ner was married to Laura Jean Flewallen, who sur-
vives him and makes her home on the farm at South
Hill, Kentucky. She was his junior by three years,
as she was born at South Hill in 1863. Their children
were as follows : Bertha Lee, who married A. L. Crabb,
lives at Bowling Green, Kentucky, and he is a profes-
sor of psychology in the Western Kentucky State
Normal School ; John Bunyan, who was the second in
order of birth ; George Gratton, who lives in Chicago,
Illinois, is appointing salesman for the Marmon Auto-
mobile Company ; Harry Joe, who is a farmer of Mor-
gantown, Kentucky; Morgan Obie, who is living on
the homestead at South Hill; and Mona Belle, who
married Leland Hocker, lives at Morgantown, Ken-
tucky, where her husband is engaged in farming. Of
these children George Gratton entered the United
States service on the second call during the great war,
was sent overseas, and served until the close of the
war, being mustered out with the rank of" second lieu-
tenant. Harry Joe served as a regular in the United
States Army for four years before the war and two
years during that conflict. He was along the Mexican
border, serving in the commissionary department as a
non-commissioned officer, and was also in the mail
service for a time. Morgan Obie was the first man
called into the service from Butler County, was sent
overseas, and remained in France for about a year.
John Bunyan Gardner was educated in the public
schools of Butler County, the Morgantown High
School and the Western Kentucky State Normal
School at Bowling Green, Kentucky, from which latter
institution he was graduated in the spring of 1911. He
then went to Rosedale, Louisiana, as principal ot the
Rosedale Agricultural and High School, and remained
there for a year. Rosedale is located in Iberville Parish,
an important agricultural region. The subsequent year
Mr. Gardner was principal of the Lake High School
of Ascension Parish, and from there went to Bernice,
Clayborne Parish, Louisiana, where for one school year
he was principal of the Weldon High School. For the
subsequent three years he was principal of theMillerton
High School of the same parish, and then went to
Webster Parish, and for a year was principal of the
Shongaloo High School. For two years following, he
was county agent at Crowley, Acadia Parish, Louisi-
ana. On April 1, 1920, he came to Murray as county
agricultural agent, and is still holding that position,
with offices in the Court House. During the summer
months of 1916 and 1917 Mr. Gardner had supervision
of the construction of the dipping vats for the Louisi-
ana State Livestock Sanitary Board in Southwestern
Louisiana, and is a man fitted for his present position
through special training and wide and varied ex-
perience and is a recognized authority on all matters
pertaining to his work. Like his father, he is a demo-
crat and a Baptist. He belongs to Millerton Lodge
No. 245, A. F. and A. M.
On September 14, 1915, Mr. Gardner was united in
marriage at Bernice, Louisiana, to Miss Rubie Belle
Thompson, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Milton
Thompson, the former of whom is a retired farmer
living at Bernice, Louisiana, the latter being now de-
98
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
ceased. Mrs. Gardner was graduated from the Weldon
High School of Weldon, Louisiana, under the princi-
palship of Mr. Gardner. Mr. and Mrs. Gardner have
two children, namely: Adele, who was born July 15,
1916; and Doris Lee, who was born December 14,
1917-
Mr. Gardner is a firm believer in the value of proper
instruction in agricultural matters. He holds that the
main reasons for American preeminence in agriculture
are to be found in the fine quality of the soil and the
high class of men engaged in its cultivation and he be-
lieves in keeping up the standards of both. Among
the good influences accruing from a proper apprecia-
tion of the dignity and value of this important in-
dustry may be mentioned the opening up and redemp-
tion of large areas of new land and the employment
of inventive genius in the production of labor-saving
machinery ; the development of transportation by land
and water; the further establishment of government
and other institutions and agencies for the promulga-
tion of agricultural information and the co-operation
among the farmers, and the adoption of such im-
portant aids as irrigation, dry farming, selective plant
and animal breeding and the specialization in crops
and stock. Although he has many plans for future
work, Mr. Gardner is enthusiastic in the wonderful
transition which has taken place from the crude be-
ginnings to present methods and appliances, and as he
demonstrates them the contrasts are remarkable.
Judge Edward Pinckney Phillips has earned a dis-
tinguished place at the bar and on the bench of Callo-
way County. It is forcibly illustrative of his legal
solidity and versatility that he should have made a
high record as a private practitioner and a learned,
impartial jurist. The present county judge was born
in this county, November 13, 1862, a son of A. C. and
Belinda E. (Hood) Phillips.
The Phillips family is of Scotch-Irish origin and
came to Virginia at about the time of the arrival of
Capt. John Smith, the English adventurer, in that
colony. From Virginia the family removed to Tennes-
see, in which state was born Clayborn Phillips, the
grandfather of Judge Phillips. He was the pioneer of
the family into Kentucky, settling in Calloway County,
where he engaged in farming until his early death, at
the age of forty-five years. He married a Miss Stilley,
who was born in Tennessee and died in Calloway
County.
A. C. Phillips was born in 1830, in Calloway County,
and was still a child when his father died. As a youth
he engaged in teaching school, but later turned his
attention to agricultural pursuits and continued to
center his activities and abilities therein until his death
in 1875. He was a democrat in politics and a leader in
the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. Phillips married
Belinda F. Hood, who was born in 1832 in this county,
and died here in 1889. They became the parents of
six children: R. A., a prominent merchant, who died
in Calloway County in 1907 : James R.. a physician
and surgeon of this county; Edward P.; John R., post-
master and a merchant at Hardin. Marshall County;
Mary A., who died in 1008 as the wife of W. W.
Hood, of Calloway County, who is now engaged in
agricultural operations in Arkansas; and Joseph M., a
merchant and farmer of Calloway County, who died
in 1897.
In his boyhood the education of Edward P. Phillips
was confined to attendance at the local schools and his
rearing was along agricultural lines. His father died
when he was thirteen years of age, but he remained
on the home farm until he reached the age of twenty,
at which time he commenced teaching in the rural
schools, a vocation which he followed for nine years.
In the meantime Mr. Phillips had interested himself
in public matters, and in 1892 was elected clerk of the
Circuit Court, the duties of which office he assumed in
1893. Reelected to that office in 1897, he served there-
in eleven years in all, and established a splendid record
for efficient performance of duty. While still teaching
school he had commenced to read law, and after his
first election to the clerk's office he applied himself
more assiduously to his studies, with the result that
he was admitted to the bar in 1895. He began the
active practice of his calling at Murray in 1903, and
devoted himself diligently to his calling, with a con-
stantly increasing practice, until 1917, when he was
elected judge of the County Court of Calloway County.
On January I, 1918, he entered upon his four-year term
and maintains offices in the Court House. A brief
analysis of Judge Phillips' traits of character is ex-
planatory of his success. While keen and logical,
earnest and eloquent, he is also careful in the develop-
ment of his legal plans and has the faculty, strongly
natural and persistently trained, of piercing to the
foundation principles of any contention. Thus it is
that Judge Phillips, whether as private practitioner or
judge, always has his case firmly in hand and is never
to be diverted to side issues.
In his political allegiance Judge Phillips is a demo-
crat. A pillar of the Methodist Episcopal Church, he
has filled every lay office therein. In Masonry he be-
longs to Murray Lodge No. 105, A. F. and A. M.,
the first lodge organized west of the Tennessee River,
of which he is a past master and of which he was
worshipful master four years. He owns a comfort-
able home on North Fourth Street, modern in every
respect. He has several important business connec-
tions, and owns a one-third interest in the Murray Ice
Company.
In January, 1919, Judge Phillips was united in mar-
riage with Miss Beatrice Scarborough, daughter of
John W. and Velina (Waterfield) Scarborough, farm-
ing people who are both deceased. Mrs. Phillips, a
lady of numerous charms and accomplishments, is a
graduate of the Murray High School, and prior to
her marriage to the Judge was a teacher in the local
schools for several years.
M. W. Tucker. The bankers of the country have
carried a heavy load of responsibility for some years
past, and to their far-seeing sagacity and wise con-
servatism is due the stability of the credits of the
United States. At a time when the whole world is
gradually recovering from the effects of the greatest
war the human race has ever known ; after years of
paralyzing in action in industry in Europe as a result
of the conflict; with millions of workers dead or dis-
abled, the problems confronting those having the
finances of their home community in their charge have
seemed at times almost too great and complicated for
solution. Quietly and deliberately, without any pub-
licity, the hankers have gone about their constructive
work. By exercising a little care and much thought
they have been able to restrict the orgy of extravagance
which during a brief period threatened the country,
and have gradually brought things back to normalcy.
To be sure they have been met in their well-intentioned
and effective actions by unjust criticism on the part
of agitators and the uninformed, but the results today
justify them, and in the years to come proper credit
will be accorded them for their public spirit and wis-
dom. One of these sage and level-headed men of
finance of Taylor County is M. W. Tucker, cashier
of the Farmers Deposit Bank of Campbellsville, one
of the best-known men in this section.
M. W. Tucker was born in Taylor County, March
1, 1871, a son of G. W. Tucker, and grandson of Bar-
nett Tucker, a native of Virginia. Soon after reach-
ing his majority Barnett Tucker left the Old Dominion
to seek his fortune in Taylor County. Kentucky. After
his arrival he met and was married to a Miss Wooley,
a native of Taylor County, and both died in this county
after many years of happy wedded life. The Tucker
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
99
family is one of the old ones of Virginia, having been
established there during the Colonial epoch of the
country by representatives of it from England. From
then on until the exodus of Barnett Tucker those
bearing the name were connected with the fortunes of
Virginia.
G. W. Tucker was born in Taylor County in 1842,
and all of his life was spent within its confines. He
was reared on his father's farm, and, displaying a
liking for agriculture, adopted that calling for his life
work. In the course of time through hard work and
good management he became the owner of a large
acreage of farm and timberland, and was a man of
independent means. Although but a lad when the
republican party was born, he was so impressed with
the importance of the principles it supported that when
he came to voting age he cast his first ballot for the
republican candidates and continued to follow that
practice until his death in 1911. A practical Christian,
he set an excellent example, and long was a con-
sistent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Equally zealous as a Mason, he was active in the
local lodge of that fraternity. During the great con-
flict between the North and the South he espoused the
cause of the Union and fought in its defense all
through the war as a member of the Sixth Kentucky
Cavalry. He was in the battles of Chickamauga,
Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge and others of
importance. Having the misfortune to be taken
prisoner in Mississippi not long before the close of
the war, he was exchanged without suffering a long
confinement in the enemy's prisons. G. W. Tucker was
married to Miss Virginia Pruitt, who was born in
Taylor County in 1845, and died in this county in 1902.
The children born to them were as follows : W. T.,
who is a farmer of Bradfordsville, Kentucky; M. W.,
whose name heads this review ; D. A., who was a farmer
in the State of Oklahoma, is now United States mar-
shal and lives at Hydro, Caddo County, Oklahoma;
and Cassie, who married F. H. Durham. Mr. Durham
is in the wholesale grocery and produce business at
Columbia, Kentucky, and is also a member of the
firm of F. H. Grinstead & Company of Lebanon,
Kentucky.
M. W. Tucker attended the rural schools of Taylor
County and the high school of Mackville, Washing-
ton County, Kentucky, where he had the good fortune
to be under the able instruction of Prof. A. O. Stanley,
who later became governor of Kentucky, and is one
of the distinguished men of the state. Subsequently
Mr. Tucker was a student of a subscription school,
where he completed what was an equivalent of the
modern high-school course. At the age of twenty
years he began teaching school in Taylor County, but
after one experience decided that he preferred an-
other line of work, and so entered the commercial
field and for ten years was connected with the sales
force of one of the leading dry-goods stores of
Campbellsville. In the meanwhile he bought and
operated a farm, but the opportunity arising, he dis-
posed of it at an excellent price in 1915. In 1910 Mr.
Tucker entered the Farmers Deposit Bank of Camp-
bellsville as cashier, and still holds that responsible
position. This bank was established in 1902 as a state
institution. It has a capital of $15,000, surplus and
undivided profits of $20,000, and deposits of $250,000.
The bank occupies appropriate banking quarters on
Main Street. The present officials of the bank are:
J. R. Davis, president; R. L. Hill, vice president; and
M. W. Tucker, cashier.
Mr. Tucker is a republican. For a number of years
he has been a member of the Baptist Church, and is
now serving it as a deacon. Fraternally he belongs to
the Knights of Pythias and to Green River Tent No.
45, K. O. T. M., both of Campbellsville. He owns his
residence on Press Avenue, which is a comfortable
modern home. During the late war Mr. Tucker took
an effective part in the local activities, serving as a
member of the committees on the various Liberty
Loans and assisted in all of the drives. He bought
bonds and saving stamps and made liberal contribu-
tions, in fact did everything to the full extent of his
means to aid the administration to carry out its policies.
In 1901 Mr. Tucker was married at Campbellsville
to Miss Nannie Davis, a daughter of John P. and
Laura (Chandler) Davis, both of whom are deceased.
Mr. Davis was a merchant and prominent citizen of
Campbellsville for many years. Mr. and Mrs. Tucker
have no children. Mr. Tucker has always taken a
public-spirited interest in the affairs of his city and
county, and can be depended upon to give an earnest
support to all measures having for their object the
betterment of existing conditions or the furtherance of
proposed improvements, provided they are needed and
practical, for he recognizes the necessity of safeguard-
ing the taxpayers' money. ,
John Kenneth Matheny.. Jr. While practically a
newcomer in the business life of Murray, John
Kenneth Matheny, Jr., is no stranger to the interests
of this community, having been identified with a num-
ber of financial concerns here and also possessing some
experience in public affairs. Since December, 1919,
he has been the proprietor of a general insurance busi-
ness, a field of endeavor in which he has made rapid
strides, and the success which he has already gained
is the result of inherent ability, pushing enterprise, a
clean and honorable record and a wide acquaintance.
Mr. Matheny was born February 15, 1889, on the
banks of the Tennessee River in Calloway County,
Kentucky, a son of John Kenneth and Telitha C.
(Roberts) Matheny. The family is of Scotch-Irish
origin, and its earliest American ancestor settled in
Virginia during Colonial times. Abner Matheny, the
grandfather of John K. Matheny, Jr., was born in
1823 in Tennessee, and as a young man became a
pioneer farmer into Trigg County, Kentucky, where
he married Lydia Ross. They passed the rest of their
lives there, the grand father dying in 1900 arid his
widow surviving until 1919, when she passed away at
the remarkable age of ninety-six years.
John Kenneth Matheny, the elder, was born in Trigg
County, in 1859, and was there reared and educated.
He was still a young man when he migrated to Callo-
way County, and following his marriage here embarked
in the mercantile business at Highland. In 1891 he re-
moved to Shiloh, where he followed the same line of
effort for four years, and in 1895 came to Murray and
established a livery business. He continued this ven-
ture for a time and also was engaged in activities as
a carpenter and contractor until 1903, when he was
elected clerk of the Circuit Court, assuming the duties
of that office in January, 1904, and continuing their
discharge for six years, with excellent ability. At the
expiration of his term of office he went to Liverpool,
Texas, where he has since been engaged in business
as the proprietor of a leading mercantile establish-
ment. Mr. Matheny is a democrat, a member of the
Baptist Church and belongs to the Independent Order
of Odd Fellows. He married Miss Telitha C. Roberts,
who was born in Kentucky in 1870, and nine children
have been born to them : Lillie, the wife of E. E.
Callahan, a farmer in the vicinity of Liverpool, Texas ;
John Kenneth, Jr. ; Cleland, unmarried, an oil operator
at Burkburnett, Texas ; Luna, the wife of R. R.
Reamer, a farmer near Houston, that state ; Lola, un-
married, who is a teacher in the public schools of the
Lone Star State ; Sanford and Catherine, who reside
with their parents and are attending the Liverpool
High School ; and Abner and Headier, attending the
graded schools of that city.
John Kenneth Matheny, the younger, attended the
rural schools of Calloway County and then entered the
Murray High School, which he left at the age of
100
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
sixteen years to take up the duties of deputy clerk of
the Circuit Court under his father, a position which
he occupied during the time his father held the clerk-
ship. In 1910 he entered the Murray Post Office,
where lie worked as a clerk for several months, and
then went to Liverpool, Texas, where for eighteen
months he was associated in the mercantile business
with his father. Returning then to Murray, he again
was employed in the Post Office for a few months,
after which he accepted a position as bookkeeper in
the Citizens Bank of Murray. In 1915 he resigned his
position and became bookkeeper for Coleman & Wells,
attorneys, and in January, 1918, entered the Bank of
Murray, where he tilled the position of assistant cashier
for one year. In January. 1919, he left that institu-
tion to accept a like post with the First National Bank
of Murray, but in Decemeber of the same year re-
signed to embark in his present line. Mr. Matheny is
carrying on a general insurance agency business and is
a representative of a number of old, reliable and well-
known companies. He maintains offices in the First
National Bank Building, and since its inception his
business has shown a gratifying and healthful growth.
In politics Mr. Matheny is a democrat, and in the
fall of 1917 made the race for clerk of the County
Court, but was defeated in a close contest. He is a
member and assistant secretary of the Baptist Church,
and is fraternally affiliated with the Masons, holding
membership in Murray Lodge No. 105, A. F. and A. M.,
and Murray Chapter No. 92, R. A. M. He owns a
comfortable modern residence on Twelfth Street. Mr.
Matheny took an active part in local war work activi-
ties and served as chairman of the War Savings
Stamps Committee, in addition to which he assisted
materially in having his count}' make up its quota in
Liberty Bonds and Red Cross funds.
On December 25, 1912, Mr. Matheny married at
Murray Miss Jessie Irvan, a daughter of W. R. and
Matilda (Gilbert). Irvan, the former of whom, a
tobacconist, is deceased, while the mother makes her
home with Mr. and Mrs. Matheny. One child has
come to Mr. and Mrs. Matheny : John Kenneth III.,
who was born March 1, 1920.
John Robkrt Wells. Unless the modern lawyer is
a man of sound judgment, possessed of a liberal edu-
cation and stern training, combined with a keen in-
sight into human nature, there is not much chance of
his meeting with what the world terms success. The
reason for this lies in the spirit of the age, with all
of its complexities. Modern jurisprudence has be-
come more and more intricate because of new con-
ditions and laws, and the interpretation of them is
relegated to the bar and bench. Years of experience,
constant reading and natural inclination must be super-
induced upon a careful training for success at the bar,
and if these conditions are met, high honors often-
times come to the members of this learned profession.
An instance in question is afforded by the career of
the Brilliant young attorney. John Robert Wells, of
Smithland. county attorney of Livingston County.
John Robert Wells was born in Livingston County,
Kentucky, in the vicinity of Tiline, March 17, 1882, a
son of J. P. Wells, and grandson of Jesse Wells, a
native of South Carolina, in which state the first of
the family in the New World settled upon coming to
the American Colonies from England, where the family
originated. Jesse Wells brought the family into Ken-
tucky and established large agricultural interests in
Livingston Count}-, where he died at a time prior to
the birth of his grandson. He was a man of distinc-
tion and served as county judge for two terms. First
a whig, he later became a democrat. He married Polly
Caldwell, a native of North Carolina, who died in
Livingston County, Kentucky. One of their sons,
David Wells, served in the Confederate Army, and
died while a member of it.
J. P. Wells was born in Livingston County, in 1847,
and died in this same county in 1904, after a career of
usefulness as a farmer, in which line he attained to a
remarkable success. A man of strong convictions, he
found in the principles of the democratic party the
expression of his own political views and was a
stanch supporter of them during all of his mature
years. He was married to Josephine Cash, who was
born in Lyon County, Kentucky. She survives her
husband and makes her home at Tiline, Kentucky.
Their children were as follows : Fred, who died in
Livingston County when thirty-three years old, was
a farmer ; Henry, who is a machinist and farmer, lives
near Tiline; Lawrence, who died at tht age of twenty-
two years ; and John Robert, who was the youngest.
After attending the rural schools of his native county
and the Grand Rivers High School, at Grand Rivers,
Kentucky, Mr. Wells entered the Southern Normal
School at Bowling Green, Kentucky, leaving it at the
age of twenty years. When he was nineteen he had
begun teaching school, and for ten years he was in
the educational field, winning laurels as a teacher in
Livingston and Crittenden counties, and at the same
time he carried on considerable farming in Livingston
County, and still owns a valuable farm of 200 acres
near Tiline. While he was engaged in teaching, Mr.
Wells studied law under the Chicago Correspondence
School of Law. was admitted to the bar in May, 1914,
and since then has carried on a general civil and
criminal practice in Livingston. In December, 191 5, he
established his residence at Smithland, and his offices
are located in the Smith Building on Court Street.
Wry active in the democratic party, Mr. Wells was
elected on his party ticket as county attorney to fill an
unexpired vacancy in November, 191ft, and re-elected
for a full term of four years in November, 1917, and
his new term began in the following January. His
record is such as to win approval from his constitu-
ents and the profession, and without doubt further
honors await him in the future, if he cares to accept
them. It may be, however, that he will prefer to
devote all of his attention to his rapidly increasing
private practice, for his ability as an attorney is widely
recognized.
On July 18. 1904. Mr. Wells was united in marriage
at Metropolis, Illinois, to Miss Nina Bennett, a
daughter of H. B. and Rola J. (Brown) Bennett, both
of whom are deceased. Mr. Bennett was a farmer,
merchant and tobacconist, and a man of considerable
prominence. Mrs. Wells attended St. Vincent's
Academy of L'nion County, Kentucky, and is a finely
educated lady, of great charm and lefinement. Mr.
and Mrs. Wells have two children, namely : Payton,
who was born October 5, 1905 ; and Josie Kathleen,
who was born January 4. 1914. Mr. Wells belongs to
Dycusburg Lodge No. 232, A. F. and A. M., and has
served as secretary of the lodge, and he also belongs
to Smithland Camp, W. O. W. During the period
that this country was a participant in the World war
he was keenly interested in securing the success of
local activities, and gave generously of his time and
money to bring this about. He served as Government
appeal agent and organized the first Red Cross Chapter
in Livingston County. A young man of unusual
abilities, Mr. Wells has traveled far on the road which
leads to success, and his achievements are all the more
commendable in that he has risen through his own
efforts, and won popular approval because of his genu-
ine sincerity and willingness to work for the good of
his community. Such men uphold the standards raised
by the forefathers of this country, and set an example
the rising generation would do well to emulate.
Hox. Columbus Borders Wheeler. A member of the
East Kentucky bar thirty years, the many important
interests he has represented in local, higher state and
Federal courts, have brought Mr. Wheeler a well de-
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
101
served prominence among the lawyers over this part
of Kentucky. He practiced for a number of years at
the Ashland bar, but is now a resident of Prestonburg.
He knows the people of Eastern Kentucky as a birth-
right. He is a member of one of the oldest families in
this section of the state and was born on Hoods Fork
of Blaine in Johnson County, November 2, 1870, son
of Martin V. and Sarah (Justice) Wheeler. The
founder of his family in Eastern Kentucky was his
great-grandfather William Remy Wheeler, who was a
son of Stephen Wheeler who came to Kentucky from
Norfolk, Virginia. In the various generations the fam-
ily has produced many farmers, though also some
professional men. Before and during the war they
were active Union sympathizers. A son of Stephen
was William Remy Wheeler, who was born at the
mouth of Buffalo and was at one time county surveyor
of Johnson County. His son, John Borders Wheeler,
was born in Johnson County and for many years was
a prominent minister of the United Baptist Church.
He lived to the venerable age of eighty-three. Dur-
ing the Civil war he was called out near the end of
the struggle to serve as a home guard on the Union
side. His son, Martin V. Wheeler, was born on
Laurel Fork of Blaine in Johnson County, August 29,
1850. His wife, Sarah Justice, was born on Hood's
Fork of Blaine. They are still living in Johnson
County. Her father was Samuel Layne Justice, who
was born on Beaver in Floyd County and died in 191 1
at the age of ninety-three. His father was John Jus-
tice, and Samuel was a young man when the family
passed down the valley on their way to Indiana, Samuel
remaining in Johnson County. A number of the Jus-
tice family were also in the Union army.
Martin V. Wheeler and wife had eleven children, and
all are still living but one. Some of them were teach-
ers and through teaching paid the expenses of their
higher education. Their father assisted them so far
as possible with financial aid, but he also encouraged
their spirit of enterprise by securing them opportuni-
ties to work and earn their education. A brief record
of this notable family of eleven is as follows : Colum-
bus Borders ; C. C, a physician at Hazard ; John W., a
Paintsville attorney; Alice, who died at the age of
eighteen, wife of D. J. Wheeler of Paintsville; W. H.,
a practicing physician at Ashland; W. Franklin, a
farmer on the old place on Hoods Fork; J. Clinton,
a physician at West Liberty in Morgan County; Julia,
wife of Aid Dempsey of Wellston, Ohio ; Louisa, wife
of D. May of Solyersville; Martin O., an attorney at
Paintsville ; and Samuel Layne, a teacher now living
in Detroit, Michigan.
Columbus Borders Wheeler, as a boy attended rural
schools, later the Blaine High School, and at the age
of sixteen began teaching. After teaching for a time
he entered the Law School at Louisville, where he
graduated in 1891. For the first ten years he prac-
ticed at Paintsville and from 1901 to 1918 was a lead-
ing member of the Ashland bar and then removed to
Prestonsburg. He has practiced in all the courts of
the Big Sandy Valley including the Court of Appeals
and the Federal Court. While at Paintsville he was
associated for a time with W. H. Vaughan and for
five years was police judge of that town. In 1898 he
was a member of the Legislature representing the
Ninety-sixth District composed of Johnson and Martin
counties. While in the Legislature he was on the
Judiciary Committee, and the Committee on Kentucky
Statutes. Mr. Wheeler was elected county attorney in
1001. He was for three years editor of the Paintsville
Post, and has to his record some able work as an edi-
tor as well as a lawyer and public leader.
March 4, 1890, Mr. Wheeler married Elizabeth Wal-
ters, daughter of W. H. Walters. She was born at
what is now Offutt Station, and as a girl her family
mo^ed to Flat Gap. Mrs. Wheeler died in 1902, the
mother of three children. Elizabeth is now employed
in the Workman's Compensation office at the State
House in Frankfort. The son, W. H. Wheeler, volun-
teered at the age of eighteen, as a private, was assigned
to the hospital service, was in training at Fort Scrivens,
Georgia, and went to France with the rank of second
lieutenant and came home a first lieutenant. He is
now in Los Angeles, California. The youngest of the
family, Madaline, is the wife of Sterling Berger of
Catlettsburg. On December 11, 1918, Mr. Wheeler mar-
ried Mrs. Grace (Martin) Turner, daughter of Joel C.
Martin of Prestonsburg. Mr. Wheeler is a Royal Arch
Mason and republican and is a member of the United
Baptist Church, having received the rite of Baptism
from his grandfather.
H. R. Sanders. It is a recognized fact that no man
can come before the public as the candidate of his
party for an office of importance without his character
being thoroughly canvassed and his career subjected
to the utmost criticism. Therefore when such a gamut
has been run, and he is elected by a gratifying ma-
jority, the proof has been afforded that he is a man
worthy of the confidence and respect of his fellow
citizens. In addition to this, when he has served ca-
pably and conscientiously in such an office he is further
entitled to the support of his associates in both politics
and business. H. R. Sanders, owner of the high-class
confectionery store at Campbells ville and an ex-state
senator, illustrates the above, and is recognized as one
of the best types of Kentucky manhood the state
affords.
Mr. Sanders was born in Taylor County, October
23. 1855, a son of Durham Sanders, and grandson of
John Sanders, a native of Virginia, who came to Ken-
tucky in 1802 and settled in what is now Taylor
County. Here he became a heavy landowner,
possessed many slaves, and developed an important
connection as a road contractor. Among other con-
tracts held by him was the construction of the turn-
pike through Moldrough's Hill. He was married to
a Miss Durham, who was born in Virginia and died
in Taylor County.
Durham Sanders was born in Virginia in 1800, and
died in Taylor County, Kentucky, in 1874. At the
time his father came to this locality, in 1802, what is
now Taylor County was included with Green County.
Here Durham Sanders was reared, educated and
married, and here he became a farmer and merchant
of high standing in the community. A leading republi-
can of his district, he was elected to the office of sheriff
at the time Taylor County was organized, and after
his term of office expired, was elected a magistrate,
and continued to serve as such until his death. Con-
necting himself with the Baptist Church, he lived up
to its creed and teachings, and gave it a hearty support.
Durham Sanders married Lucy E. Smith, who was
born at Culpeper Courthouse, Virginia, in 1810, and
died in Taylor County in 1890. Their children were
as follows : Eliza Belle, who died at Louisville, Ken-
tucky, at the age of seventy-two years, married Dr.
Joseph Putnam, of Maine, a physician and surgeon
who died in Indiana ; Dr. J. M., who was a physician
and surgeon, died in Arkansas at the age of seventy-
five years ; J. H., who was a merchant, died in Taylor
County at the age of forty-seven years; Ann, who is
deceased, married Joseph Wade, a farmer, also de-
ceased; Elizabeth, who marreid E. L. Green, formerly
circuit court clerk of Taylor County, is deceased, and
so is her husband, both of them dying in Taylor
County; Virginia, who married a Doctor Williamson,
a physician and surgeon, is deceased, as is her husband,
both of them dying in Arkansas; Pattie, who married
Daniel Eastes, a physician and surgeon, is deceased,
as is her husband, both of them dying in Green County,
Kentucky ; Nannie M., who resides at Lebanon, Ken-
tucky, is the widow of John Walls, a carpenter; R. D.,
who is a fruitgrower of Missouri; C. C, who died
102
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
in Taylor County at the age of forty-four years, was
a farmer; G. A., who was a merchant, died in Arkan-
sas at the age of forty-two years ; and H. R., who is
the youngest of the family.
H. R. Sanders attended the rural schools of Taylor
County, and was reared to useful manhood on his
father's farm until he was sixteen years old, at which
time he received the appointment of deputy county
clerk of Taylor County, and held that office for four
years. In 1876 he was elected coroner of the county,
and held that office for one term of four years. He
then embarked in a mercantile business in Green
County, and conducted it for two years. Coming back
to Campbellsville, he was bookkeeper for Hoskins,
Bryant & Company for two years, and then moved on
the farm he had previously purchased and conducted it
for two years. Once more he returned to Campbells-
ville, and for four years served as deputy assessor of
the county. For a time he was engaged in different
ventures, still owning his farm, and then for four
years managed the millinery and fancy goods establish-
ment owned by his wife. This connection resulted in
his going on the road as a traveling salesman for a St.
Louis hat house, and he continued with it for six years,
or until 1913. In the meanwhile his health had be-
come somewhat impaired by his exertions, and he was
induced to retire for a time, but in 1915 was elected
to the Upper House of the State Assembly and served
during the sessions of 1916 and 1918. His record in
the Senate shows that he worked in the interests of
his constituents and endeavored to carry out their
wishes. Senator Sanders served as chairman of the
committee which prevented the sale of the old state-
capitol, and he also was on several other important
committees. He was appointed receiver of the Lake-
land Asylum, but resigned after serving for four
months. Coming back to Campbellsville, he and his
sons, S. B. and P. H., established the leading con-
fectionery and grocery business in Taylor County,
opening it in October, 1918. The confectionery parlors
are located in the Taylor National Bank Building.
Senator Sanders owns his desirable and comfortable
modern residence on Depot Street, and in partnership
with his sons, S. B. and P. H., owns the Alhambra
Theatre and Apartment Building on Main Street. He
is a republican, and one of the most active members
of his party in this part of Kentucky. Both by in-
heritance and conviction he is a Baptist, and is equally
zealous as a Mason. During the late war Senator
Sanders was one of the effective participants in all
of the local war work, assisting in all of the drives and
maintaining booths for the Red Cross drives in his
confectionery store. He also contributed to all of the
organizations to the full extent of his means.
In 1878 Senator Sanders was married at Campbells-
ville to Miss Maggie E. Chandler, a daughter of Dr.
S. T. and Eliza J. (Hotchkiss) Chandler, both of
whom are deceased. For many years Doctor Chandler
was a physician and druggist of Campbellsville, and
one of the best-known men of Taylor County. Mrs.
Sanders was graduated from Cedar Bluff College of
Warren County, Kentucky. The children of Senator
and Mrs. Sanders are as follows: J. H., who was born
in 1882, at Campbellsville, is president of the high
school of Bullitt County, Kentucky, and resides at
Shepherdsvitle ; S. B., who was born November 26,
1885, is in partnership, with his father in the confection-
ery business, and is also managing the Alhambra
Theatre Apartments ; Robert B., who was born in 1888,
resides at Louisville, Kentucky, where he is engaged
in an insurance business ; Ella, who resides at Camp-
bellsville, married George H. Wilson, a traveling sales-
man for the Vick Chemical Company of Greensboro,
North Carolina; and Paul H„ who was born luly II,
1895, is also in partnership with his father. Senator
Sanders has every reason to be satisfied with what
he has accomplished, for not only has he made a record
for himself as a business man and public official which
does him credit, but he and his wife have reared a fine
family, all of the children having been successful in
life, and are additions to the several communities in
which they are now residing. Such men as the Senator
form the great backbone of true Americanism. They
live according to the standards of this country and
bring up their children in pleasant, intellectual home
surroundings, give them proper advantages, so that
when the time comes for them to go out into the
world they are fully prepared to do their part ca-
pably and honorably. No family is held in greater re-
gard than the one bearing the name of Sanders, and
the connection of any member of it with an enterprise
is a guarantee of its good faith and probable success.
Edwin Lee Gowdy, M. D. From the earliest periods
of recorded history the physician has been recognized
as a man worthy of regard and a most necessary and
important factor in the life of his community. It is
a far cry, however, from the first faint beginnings of
a science as understood by the "medicine" men of the
savage or semi-savage tribes to the carefully trained
physician and surgeon of today, whose every action
is the result of absolutely accurate science, and who
devotes quite as much time, if not more, to the pre-
vention of disease as he does to curing the patient
from ailments already contracted. The majority of
these modern men of medicine have not only studied
their profession in one or another of the great uni-
versities of the country, but have perfected themselves
in it by a practical application of what they learned
in the wards of a hospital. Therefore, when the
physician and surgeon of today enters upon his prac-
tice he is far better fitted for his work both by train-
ing and experience than those of an older generation
were after years of visiting the sick. This rigorous
and thorough training has other results, for it so
develops the character and brings out the best in a
man that he becomes, as a matter of course, one of the
leading factors in the community in which he perma-
nently locates, and generally has a determining influence
upon the lives and affairs of his fellow citizens. Such
a vital force in his profession and the life of Camp-
bellsville is Dr. Edwin Lee Gowdy, physician and
surgeon and mayor of the city.
Doctor Gowdy was born at Campbellsville, January
2, 1884, a son of J. E. Gowdy, grandson of Alfred F.
Gowdy, and a member of one of the old families of
Virginia, where the Gowdys were established by an-
cestors from Scotland during the Colonial epoch.
Alfred F. Gowdy was born in Virginia, and died at
Louisville, Kentucky, in 1866, while on a visit to that
city. Coming to Campbellsville in young manhood, he
became one of the early merchants of the city, and a
man well known all over Taylor County. He married
Lois Hotchkiss, who died at Campbellsville in 1868.
J. E. Gowdy was born at Campbellsville in 1852,
and is still residing in the city, where his life has been
spent. All of his mature years he has been engaged
in manufacturing and handling lumber, and is one of
the leading lumbermen of this region. He is a demo-
crat and is active in his party, having served his city
as alderman for a number of terms. Well-known in
Masonry, he belongs to Pitman Lodge No. 124, F. and
A. M. ; Taylor Chapter No. 90, R. A. M., both of
Campbellsville ; Marion Commandery No. 24, K. T., of
Lebanon, Kentucky; and Kosair Temple, A. A. O. N.
M. S., of Louisville, Kentucky. J. E. Gowdy married
Anna B. England, who was born at Lebanon in 1856.
They have two children, Doctor Gowdy and his sister,
Mary Lois. The latter is married and lives at Camp-
bellsville. Her husband, L. M. Bailey, is connected
with her father's lumber yards.
Doctor Gowdy attended the graded and high schools
of Campbellsville, and was graduated from the latter
in 1901, following which he entered Center College at
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
103
Danville, Kentucky, and was graduated therefrom in
1907, with the degree of Bachelor of Science, and as
a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon Greek Letter
fraternity. He then entered the Hospital College of
Medicine of Louisville ,and was graduated with the
degree of Doctor of Medicine, and as a member of
the medical college fraternity Phi Mu. Doctor Gowdy
then entered upon the practice of his profession at
Campbellsville, and has since built up a very valuable
connection in a general medical and surgical practice,
and is associated in it with Dr. J. L. Atkinson, they
owning the fine office building on Main Street in which
their offices are located. Doctor Gowdy also owns a
comfortable modern residence on Jackson Street. Like
his father, he is a democrat, and is also very prominent
in party circles. From 1910 to 1918 he was a member
of the City Council, and in November, 1917, was
elected to the office of mayor, taking office in January
of the following year for a term of four years. Dur-
ing his occupancy of this office he has made many im-
provements, and among other things has secured the
erection and completion of the large new graded and
high-school building on Main Street. He has improved
the fire department, and it has been equipped with a
new electrical truck and hose operated by motor. In
every particular Doctor Gowdy has looked after the
best interests of Campbellsville and given it a sane
and businesslike administration. He is a member of
the Presbyterian Church. A Mason, he belongs to
Pitman Lodge No. 124, F. and A. M. ; Taylor Chapter
No. 90, R. A. M. ; Marion Commandery No. 24, K. T.,
of Lebanon, Kentucky; and Kosair Temple, A. A. O.
N. M. S., of Louisville, Kentucky. Professionally he
belongs to the Taylor County Medical Society, the
Kentucky State Medical Society and the American
Medical Association. Like so many of his profession,
Doctor Gowdy enlisted in the medical corps of the
United States Army, in September, 1918, after having
given a valuable service to the administration as a
member of the Local Draft Board and in buying bonds
and making heavy contributions to all causes. He was
sent to Camp Greenleaf, and was to sail for France
on November 14, 1918, but the signing of the armistice
made that unnecessary, and he was mustered out and
honorably discharged and returned home in January,
1919, with the rank of a first lieutenant, which com-
mission he had received in September, 1918.
On January 12, 1909, Doctor Gowdy was married
to Miss Flora Finucan, a daughter of Michael and
Susan (Abell) Finucan, both of whom are deceased.
Mr. Finucan was a merchant at Lebanon, Kentucky.
Doctor and Mrs. Gowdy have one daughter, Lena, who
was born December 4, 1909. In every walk of life
Doctor Gowdy has proven his worth as a man and
skill as a physician, and no man in the county stands
any higher in public esteem. When his country had
need of him he did not hesitate, although he held
an important public office and was the family physician
of many, but left a good practice and civic honors at
a great personal sacrifice and rendered an efficient
service that would have terminated on foreign soil if
a halt had not been made in the hostilities. Such men
as Doctor Gowdy are rare. When they are found their
soundness of heart, ready sympathy, broad vision and
sterling characteristics win them warm friendships
which are only terminated by death. In the very prime
of vigorous manhood and professional achievement, he
has a bright future ahead of him as well as a brilliant
and constructive past, and may be depended upon to
add further laurels to the ones he already possesses
and has so richly deserved.
James Pleasant Boling, superintendent of the city
schools of Campbellsville, is one of the most highly-
trained and thoroughly competent educators in Taylor
County, if not in this part of Kentucky. He is a man
who has devoted himself to the profession of teaching,
has a deep love for his work, as well as a natural apti-
tude for it, and under his wise and conscientious care
the children of this community are developing into
students that are a credit to their preceptor and their
state.
Professor Boling is a native son of Kentucky, for
he was born in Boyle County, February 10, 1877, a son
of Evan Boling, grandson of William Boling, and a
member of one of the old families of Virginia,
established in that colony by ancestors who came here
from Scotland long before the Revolution. William
Boling was born in Virginia in 1804, and died on his
homestead in Boyle County, Kentucky, in 1888. After
coming to Kentucky in an early day he spent some
time as a resident of Lincoln County, and then, in 1856,
moved to Boyle County, where he bought his home-
stead, located four miles southeast of Perryville, that
is now owned by Professor Boling. William Boling
married a Miss Duncan, who died in Boyle County.
Evan Boling was born in Lincoln County in 1836,
and died near Perryville, Boyle County, in 1918. Until
he was eighteen years old he lived in Lincoln County,
and then accompanied his parents to Boyle County,
and lived on the homestead his father there bought
until his marriage, after which he resided on the ad-
joining farm that he had purchased. For twenty-five
years he continued to reside on this farm, and made
a success of operating it, but then sold his farm and
moved on the homestead, a portion of which he had
inherited from his father's estate. The remainder he
bought from the other heirs so as to keep this farm
intact. It comprises 125 acres of valuable land, and
this is now being operated by Professor Boling, he
carrying on general farming and grazing. Evan Bol-
ing was a democrat, but although he sturdily supported
the candidates of his party by voting for them, he never
cared to enter public life. An earnest member of the
Christian Church, he sought to live up to its teachings
and carried his religion into his everyday life. He
married Miss Martha Frances Tucker, who was born
in 1838, near Stanford, Lincoln County, Kentucky, and
died on the home farm in the fall of 1903. Their chil-
dren were as follows : An infant daughter which died
unnamed ; Artiemacie, who died unmarried at the age
of twenty-six years ; Ben, who is a farmer, resides near
Parksville, Boyle County ; Professor Boling, who was
fourth in order of birth ; Mary, who married J. W.
Overstreet, deputy sheriff of Boyle County and a farm
owner, lives at Perryville, Kentucky ; and Sarah
Catherine, who lives at Perryville, married J. L. Pres-
ton, a merchant of Perryville, operating under the firm
name of Debaun, Preston Company.
Professor Boling attended the rural schools of Boyle
County, the Ewing Institute of Perryville, and Center
College Academy of Danville, Kentucky, receiving his
high-school instruction in the latter institution. He
then took a four-year course at Center College, from
which he was graduated in 1903, with the degree of
Bachelor of Science. In the meanwhile, however, he
had begun, at the age of twenty-one years, to teach
school in the rural districts of Boyle County, but after
five years in the country schools was appointed to the
Danville public schools, and taught in them for two
years. By this time he had so impressed his ability
upon his community that he was tendered the appoint-
ment to the position of principal of the school at Brad-
fordsville, Marion County, Kentucky, and, accepting,
entered upon two years of constructive work there,
leaving that school to become principal of the one at
Arlington, Carlisle County, Kentucky, and remained
there for one year. For the subsequent four years he
was principal of the school at Vanceburg, Lewis
County, Kentucky, and was then elected superintendent
of the city schools of Campbellsville, and has remained
here ever since. Professor Boling has under his super-
vision twelve teachers and 450 pupils. When he came
here in 1913 he found that what was most needed was
104
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
a new high and graded school building, and began at
once to agitate for it, and in 1919 and 1920 saw his
hopes realized in the erection of the handsome, modern
brick structure on Main Street, one of the best in this
part of the state. Imbibing his political and religious
views from his esteemed father, Professor Boling has
embraced them as his own and votes the democratic
ticket, and belongs to the Christian Church he is now
serving as a deacon. A Mason, he belongs to Pitman
Lodge No. 124, F. and A. M., of Campbellsville ; and
to Taylor Chapter No. 90, R. A. M. He is also a mem-
ber of Parksville Tent No. 45, K. O. T. M., and to the
Kentucky Educational Association. Professor Boling
owns his modern residence on Maple Avenue, where
he maintains a comfortable home, and, as before stated,
owns and operates the home farm of his family. Like
all loyal Americans he exerted himself in behalf of
the local activities during the late war, served on the
local draft board of Taylor County, and devoted a
great deal of his time to the questionnaires of the re-
cruited men. He was also one of the legal advisors
of the Draft Board, assisted in all of the drives, and
bought bonds and stamps and contributed very liberally
to all of the war organizations.
On November 6, 1905, Professor Boling was united
in marriage with Miss Elizabeth Cox, a daughter of
F. M. and Martha (Zachary) Cox, the latter of whom
is now a resident of Junction City, Boyle County, but
the former is deceased. During his lifetime he was a
contractor and builder in Boyle County. Mrs. Boling
was graduated from the Junction City High School,
and has the distinction of being the first pupil to be
graduated from that school. Professor and Mrs.
Boling became the parents of the following children :
Martha Frances, who was born September 5, 1906, is
a student of the Campbellsville High School; Louise
Porter, who was born May 1, 1910, is attending the
graded schools ; Sara Catherine, who was born August
11, 1914; and James Pleasant, who was born February
4, 1917. Professor Boling is a scholar, and also a
practical man of affairs. He keeps thoroughly abreast
of the modern trend of thought and the new methods
introduced into his calling, and also knows how to put
his knowledge to use in such a manner as to yield the
best results for him and those under his supervision.
Taking the pride that he does in his schools and
pupils, he is constantly striving to stimulate all con-
cerned, and his enthusiasm and whole-hearted efforts
are inspiring. As a citizen he is equally helpful.
Recognizing the need for an awakening on the part of
the average citizen to his civic responsibilities, Pro-
fessor Boling endeavors through precept and example
to bring home to the parents, through their children's
needs, the necessity for co-operation to bring about the
proper regulations in the community. Such men as he
are almost invaluable, and the people of Campbells-
ville are fortunate in being able to retain in their midst
a man of his attainments and character.
James Ernest Fox, M. D. is a physician and surgeon
of Smithland, who is so living that his memory de-
serves to be perpetuated by his contemporaries, and
his usefulness in his day and generation called to mind
as an inspiration to generations yet to come. He is
the ideal physician, irradiating the sickroom with the
light of his cheerful presence, his word and smile fre-
quently banishing the clouds which gather around dis-
couraged sufferers. He is enthusiastic in the follow-
ing of his profession, is an eager student, and possesses
the well-poised understanding that enables him to weigh
fairly and make a settled decision concerning new
scientific discoveries.
Doctor Fox was born in Hopkins County, Kentucky,
September 25, 1877, a son of Daniel F. Fox, and
grandson of Crittenden Fox, a native of Hopkins
County, Kentucky, who passed away in 1887, aged
seventy-five years, having been a farmer all of his
life. He married Ann Russell, who was born in Hop-
kins County, and there died. The Fox family came
from England to North Carolina in Colonial times,
and from there went on west into Kentucky at a very
early day.
Daniel F. Fox was born in Hopkins County in 1855,
and was there reared and embarked in farming on his
own account. For four years after his marriage, which
occurred in Caldwell County, he continued to reside in
his native county, and then bought his present farm
in Caldwell County, which is in the vicinity of Shade
Grove in Crittenden County, where he has since been
very successfully engaged in farming and stockraising.
He is a republican in his political faith. For many
years he has been an earnest member and generous
supporter of the Baptist Church. Daniel F. Fox was
married to Victoria Davis, who was born in Caldwell
County, Kentucky, in 1855, within one-half a mile of
their present farm, and they became the parents of
the following children : Lula, who married O. F.
Towery, an extensive farmer, lives at Shady Grove,
Kentucky ; Doctor Fox, who was the second in order
of birth ; Pennie, who married Dennie Hubbard, a
general merchant of Shady Grove; Lena, who married
Thomas Dodds, a carpenter and contractor of West
Frankfort, Illinois ; Roy, who died in infancy ; Bessie,
who married Clarence Sipes, lives at Washington, Dis-
trict of Columbia, where both of them are in the Gov-
ernment employ under civil service; and Ross W.,
lives at Hartsville, South Carolina.
Doctor Fox attended the public schools of Shady
Grove, Kentucky, and the high school at Princeton,
Kentucky, and completed the literary course and also
a normal school course there. In the meanwhile, when
only eighteen years of age, he had commenced teach-
ing school, and for five terms was thus engaged in
Caldwell County, and one term in Crittenden County.
While he was teaching school in the fall and winter
months he went to school in the summer. Having de-
cided to become a physician, he entered the Hospital
College of Medicine at Louisville, Kentucky, from
which he was graduated in 1904, with the degree of
Doctor of Medicine, and immediately thereafter
entered upon the practice of his profession at Levias,
Crittenden County, Kentucky, where he remained for
six years, leaving there for Marion, Kentucky, where
another six years were spent. In 1916 Doctor Fox
established himself at Smithland, where he has since
maintained a general medical and surgical practice,
and has firmly enshrined himself in the confidence of
his fellow citizens. His offices are on Court Street.
He owns a modern residence on the same street, and
here he has one of the most comfortable homes in the
city. Doctor Fox is a progressive republican, and for
two and one-half years served as health officer of Liv-
ingston County. For two years he was a member of
the Smithland City Council, and he was also in the
council of Marion for the same length of time. The
Baptist Church holds his membership, and he is one of
its trustees and its treasurer. Professionally he be-
longs to the County, State and National Medical As-
sociations. During the late war he took a keen interest
in all of the local war activities. He tried to enter the
service, but owing to the fact that he was serving as
the physician on the local Draft Board at Smithland
at that time, the war department would not accept him,
and so he doubled his efforts at home. For a time
was chairman of the local chapter of the Red Cross,
later was commissioned captain in the Medical Re-
serve Corps. In all of the drives in behalf of the
Liberty Loans and other issues he took a dominating
part, and stimulated others to follow his example in
no small degree.
Doctor Fox was united in marriage in 1907, at
Pinckneyville, Livingston County, to Miss Gratia Par-
sons, a daughter of James and Julia (Gibbs) Parsons.
Mr. Parsons is deceased, but Mrs. Parsons survives
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
105
and lives at Smithland, Kentucky. During his life-
time Mr. Parsons was a farmer and tobacconist of Liv-
ingston County, and one of its representative men.
Doctor and Mrs. Fox have no children. In every com-
munity in which he has lived Doctor Fox has been the
moving spirit for progress along all lines, and Smith-
land is to be congratulated in having in its midst a
man of Doctor Fox's intellect and courage.
William Herbert Mason, M. D. Those who have
resided at Murray for several decades will remember
vividly the year 1900 by reason of the visitation of a
virulent smallpox epidemic. In this crisis the State
Board of Health called upon the services of a young
physician practicing then at Hazel, and an appointment
was made placing the situation in charge of Dr. Wil-
liam Herbert Mason. Under his direction prompt,
energetic and effective measures were taken, and the
scourge was lifted from the little city. Doctor Mason
then settled down to practice at this place, and with
the passing of the years has become one of the most
distinguished members of his profession in Calloway
County and the surrounding territory, and in 1920
added a distinctive touch to his greatly appreciated
services to his fellow-men by the erection and equip-
ment of one of the finest institutions of its kind in
the state, a hospital and sanitarium, built of brick and
concrete, which will be found to compare favorably
with institutions in any of the large cities of the
country.
Doctor Mason comes of a line of skilled physicians
and was born September 29, 1875, at Hazel, Calloway
County, Kentucky, a son of Dr. William Mason and
Amanda E. (Perry') Mason. His great-grandfather,
Richard Mason, was born in England, whence in young
manhood he immigrated to America, settling at Balti-
more, Maryland, in which city he established a jewelry
business and became a wealthy and influential citizen.
He married Hannah Glenn, also a native of England,
and the only one of their children to be born in the
United States was William Morris Mason.
Dr. William Morris Mason was born at Baltimore,
Maryland, in 181Q, and was educated for the medical
profession, graduating from the University of Mary-
land with the degree of Doctor of Medicine and from
Washington University with the degree of Bachelor of
Arts. He commenced practice at Baltimore, where he
subsequently married Miss Mary Priscilla Hicks, a
daughter of John Y. Hicks, of Raleigh, North Caro-
lina, a niece of Hon. Nathaniel Macon, for thirty-six
years a member of the United States Senate and the
House of Representatives from North Carolina, and
an own cousin of Thomas H. Benton, former governor
of Missouri. Some time after his marriage Doctor
Mason went to North Carolina, where he practiced
for a time, subsequently followed his profession at
St. Louis, and finally settled in Henry County, Tennes-
see, where he carried on a large professional business
until his death, which occurred at Conyersville in 1884.
William Macon Mason, son of Dr. William Morris
Mason and father of Dr. William Herbert Mason, was
born in 1844, at Raleigh, North Carolina, and was
seven years of age when his parents located in Henry
County. Tennessee, where he was reared and educated
primarily. He later graduated from the University
of Louisville, as honor man of his ciass, receiving a
gold medal and the degree of Doctor of Medicine, and
in 1875 removed to the present site of Hazel, Kentucky,
where he became a pioneer physician and where he
continued in practice until his death, June 7,_ 1920.
Doctor Mason was one of the honored men of his pro-
fession and served for thirty years as president of the
County Board of Health. He was a member of the
Tallowav County Medical Society; the Tennessee State
Medical Society, of which he was president one term ;
the Kentucky State Medical Society, the Southwest
Kentucky Medical Society and the American Medical
Association. In politics he was a republican and his
religious faith was that of the Seventh Day Advent
Church. Doctor Mason married Miss Amanda E.
Perry, daughter of Col. William E. Perry, who com-
manded a regiment in the Confederate Army during
the war between the states. Mrs. Mason, who was
born in 1850, in Calloway County, survives her husband
and is a resident of Hazel. There were eight chil-
dren in the family: Bettie, the wife of E. D. Miller,
of Hazel, a traveling salesman and an ex-merchant ;
Dr. William Herbert; Dr. Edgar Perry, a graduate of
Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, degree
of Doctor of Medicine, who practiced his calling at
Hazel until his death in 1908; Ruby, the wife of R. R.
Hicks, of Hazel, a traveling salesman ; Ruby's twin,
Pearl, the wife of R. B. Chrisman, cashier of the bank
at Henry, Tennessee ; Bertha, residing with her mother,
and the widow of C. C. Maddox, a contractor of Hazel,
who died in 1916; Doctor Robert, who pursued his
literary work at Union College, Lincoln, Nebraska, and
is a graduate of Vanderbilt University, degree of
' Doctor of Medicine, who is now associated in practice
with his brother. Dr. William H. ; and Everard Morris,
a merchant at Hazel.
William Herbert Mason secured his primary educa-
tion in the rural schools of Calloway County, and at
the age of thirteen years entered the Murray Male and
Female Institute, where he spent one year. He then-
took a three-year course at Conyersville Academy,
Conyersville, Tennessee, this being followed by three
years of literary work at Union College, Lincoln, Ne-
braska. For one year after his graduation therefrom
he was principal of the school at Hazel, and then for
a like period taught Latin and history in the Murray
Male and Female College. Entering Vanderbilt . Uni-
versity, he had a brilliant college career, being honor
man in his junior and senior years and receiving gold
medals, and in 1899 was duly graduated with the de-
gree of Doctor of Medicine. Since his graduation he
has taken four post-graduate courses. At the Chicago
Polyclinic and the Chicago Post-Graduate School, Chi-
cago, Illinois ; Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore,
Maryland ; and Battle Creek Sanitarium, Battle Creek,
Michigan. Fifteen years ago he visited the famous
Mayo Brothers' Clinic at Rochester, Minnesota, and
has returned nearly every year since that time, special-
izing in surgery.
Doctor Mason began practice in association with his
father at Hazel in 1899, but one year after entering
upon his professional duties the call came for his ser-
vices during the smallpox epidemic. He responded
promptly thereto, as noted before, and after stamping
out the epidemic settled down to practice. He has
specialized in surgery, a field in which his reputation
has extended far beyond the bounds of his immediate
community. Doctor Mason belongs to the Calloway
County Medical Society, the Southwestern Kentucky
Medical Society, the West Tennessee Medical and Sur-
gical Society, the Kentucky State Medical Society and
the American Medical Association, belongs to the
Clinical Congress of Surgeons of North America, and
is a life member of the Surgeons Club, with head-
quarters at Rochester, Minnesota. He is medical
referee of Calloway County for the State Board of
Health, served as health officer of Calloway County
for ten years and as county physician for a like period,
and has been local surgeon for the Nashville, Chat-
tanooga & St. Louis Railroad Company since 1900.
During the war period he volunteered for service in
the LTnited States Army Medical Corps and was ac-
cepted, but the armistice was signed before he was
called to the colors.
In 1920 Doctor Mason realized the ambition of years
when he erected on Poplar Street his new brick and
concrete hospital and sanitarium, which accommodates
100 patients. It has so far realized the expectations of
its founder and gained its hold upon the public confi-
106
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
dence as to suggest its future recognition among the
leading institutions for healing in the state. Its facili-
ties for the care of the sick are modern and complete,
the equipment being such as is to be found in the
largest and finest hospitals in the metropolises ; its
rooms are sunny and well ventilated, and the most
scientific and experienced care is promised those who
entrust themselves to its benefits. The operating room
is a facsimile of Worrell Hospital, the new hospital
of the Mayo Brothers at Rochester.
Doctor Mason is a republican in his political allegi-
ance and has long been influential in the ranks of his
party. He was a delegate to the Republican National
Convention held at Chicago in 1916. In 1909 he was
chairman of the Republican County Central Committee,
which succeeded in electing a complete republican
county ticket. How much of an achievement this was
may be seen when it is considered that Calloway
County normally has 4,000 democratic voters to 800
republican supporters. As a fraternalist Doctor Mason
is affiliated with Murray Lodge No. 105, A. F. and A.
M., and the Knights of Pythias. With his family he
belongs to the Seventh Day Advent Church.
On June 18, 1017, Doctor Mason was united in
marriage at Washington, D. C, with Miss Ora Kress,
daughter of Dr. D. H. and Dr. Loretta (Edy) Kress,
the former of whom is superintendent of the Wash-
ington Sanitarium and the latter head physician of
the ladies department of that institution. Mrs. Mason
is a lady of numerous graces, talents and accomplish-
ments, and is a graduate of the Women's Medical
College, Philadelphia, degree of Doctor of Medicine;
the Royal College of Music, Sidney, Australia, and Sid-
ney University. To Doctor and Mrs. Mason there has
come one daughter, Patricia Grace, who was born at
Murray, Kentucky, January 9, 1919.
J. W. Kerr, one of the substantial citizens of Camp-
bellsville, is finding profitable and congenial employ-
ment for his faculties in handling real estate and
selling insurance, and is recognized as one of the
prominent men of his community. He was born on a
farm in Taylor County, ten miles north of Campbells-
ville, January 5, 1869, a son of R. L. Kerr and grand-
son of James Kerr. The great-grandfather, William
Kerr, died in Taylor County and is buried- on Robin-
son Creek. He was one of the pioneer farmers of
what is now Taylor County. James Kerr, his son,
was born on his father's farm in Taylor County, and
died in the county in 1880, having spent his entire life
in it. All of his life he was a farmer and he became
a man of independent means. He married Polly Hill,
who was born in Taylor County, and here died.
R. L. Kerr was born in Taylor County when it was
still a part of Green County. September 9, 1835, and
he spent his entire life in this county, dying at Camp-
bellsville. May 24. 1921, For many years he was very
successfully engaged in farming, but afterward lived
retired. Both as a democrat and Baptist he lived
up to the highest conceptions of politics and religion,
and was always a strong supporter "of "ihe church. Dur-
ing the war between the North and the South he served
in the Union Army for three years and six months,
as a member of the Twenty-seventh Kentucky Volun-
teer Infantry, and participated in the battles of Shiloh,
Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge
and the siege of Vicksburg. He was wounded in the
hand, but not so as to seriously incapacitate him.
R. L. Kerr was married to Malinda Mardis, who was born
in Taylor County in 1837, and died in this same county
in 1909. Their children were as follows: S. E., who is
in partnership with his brother in the real estate and
insurance business, lives at Campbellsville ; Mary F.,
who married John R. Stearman, a farmer of Hooker,
Oklahoma; Martha, who died in Taylor County in
1896, when she was twenty-seven years old, was the
wife of W. R. Caulk, a farmer who died in Taylor
County in 1906; J. W., who was fourth in order of
birth ; Robert M., who died in 1899, was a school
teacher in Taylor County; Barrett O., who died in
Taylor County in 1898, was a public school teacher ;
Virgie, who died in Taylor County in 1903, was the
wife of James E. McFarland, now a resident of Louis-
ville, Kentucky, and connected with a prominent lum-
ber firm of that city; and Howard, who was a farmer
of Taylor County, died at the age of twenty years.
J. W. Kerr attended the rural schools of his neigh-
borhood and then for two years was a student of the
Campbellsville High School, but left it when he at-
tained his majority. In the meanwhile, when only
nineteen years old, _ he had begun teaching school, and
remained in the educational field for six years, teach-
ing in the rural schools of Taylor County and in the
Taylor County public school at Campbellsville, of
which he was principal for two years. In 1897 be
embarked in his present business at Campbellsville, and
has continued to conduct it, this being by far the lead-
ing concern of its kind in the county. The business
grew to such an extent that Mr. Kerr found it ex-
pedient to take his brother, S. E. Kerr, into partner-
ship with him in 1917. The offices are located in the
New Merchants Hotel on Main Street. Mr. Kerr
owns a comfortable modern residence on Lebanon
Street, opposite the Christian Church, and he and his
brother own a business building on Main Street and
three cottages in the city. A democrat, Mr. Kerr
served as police judge of Campbellsville for two years.
He is a consistent member of the Baptist Church. A
Mason, he belongs to Pitman Lodge No. 124, F. and A.
M. ; Taylor Chapter No. go, R. A. M., of which he is
a past high priest, and is zealous in behalf of his
fraternity. During the late war he took an active
part in local war work, assisting in all of the drives,
buying bonds and stamps and making generous con-
tributions to all of the war organizations.
On May 24, 1894, Mr. Kerr was married to Miss
Ella Coffey, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. C. R. Coffey,
both of whom are deceased. Mr. Coffey was a harness
and saddlery dealer of Campbellsville. Mr. and Mrs.
Kerr have had two children, namely : Jane, who died
in infancy; and William, who died at the age of ten
months. Having been in the realty business for so
many years, Mr. Kerr is fully competent to handle
any kind of property and render a very efficient ser-
vice. He represents some of the best and most re-
liable insurance companies in the country, and writes
an immense amount of business annually.
Thk Turk Family of Bardwell has long been con-
nected with the financial history of this community,
and this supremacy was inaugurated by the late J. W.
Turk, father of John Wesley Turk. He was born near
Camphellsburg, Henry County, Kentucky, and died Feb-
ruary 11, 1916. He came to Carlisle (then Ballard)
County with his parents at an early age and was reared
upon a farm, gaining his education in the country
schools. In 1874 he and his brother, W. R. Turk,
formed a partnership, to establish a general store at
Bardwell. By honorable business methods and sagac-
ity they prospered. In 1879 J. W. Turk sold his inter-
est to his brother, and in a short time began a busi-
ness of his own. The story of his financial success
is told in a few words, from an humble beginning his
fortune grew steadily until, at the time of his death,
he >vas one of the wealthiest men in Western Kentucky.
He was president of the Bardwell Deposit Bank, which
he helped to organize ; president of the Bardwell Hard-
ware Company; president of the Turk-Wilson Whole-
sale Grocery Company of Paducah, Fulton, and Hick-
man, Kentucky, also interested in the McElroy Shoe
Company of St. Louis, Missouri. From youth he in-
vested his savings in lands until he was the largest
landowner in his community. Mr. Turk was a mem-
1
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
107
ber of the Christian Church, and was a member of
the Bardwell Lodge No. 449, A. F. & A. M., and had
attained to the thirty-second degree in that order.
Bardwell Lodge No. 179, I. O. O. F., also held his
membership. .
In 1876 Mr. Turk was married to Alice Bodkin of
Carlisle County. Mrs. Turk survives her husband and
still makes her home at Bardwell. Mr. and Mrs. Turk
became the parents of the following children: Nona,
who died in 1904; Mary, who died at the age of four;
Stella; Daniel, who died when two; Lucian; Maurice;
Ruth; Edith; and John Wesley.
The grandfather of the above children was Thomas
Robert Turk, who came to Ballard County as one of
its early pioneers, and there developed important farm-
ing interests. He died when his son, J. W. Turk, was
a small child.
The father of Mrs. Turk was Daniel Bodkin, who
came to this locality when about twenty years of age
from Virginia, and became an active dealer in real
estate and timber, and was also the most extensive to-
bacco dealer in Carlisle County.
William M. Wright is one of the men much to be
envied in the degree of prosperity that has attended his
efforts in the famous Blue Grass region of Bourbon
County. He is proprietor of the Lone Oak Farm,
situated on the Millersburg and Cynthiana Pike, four
miles northwest of Millersburg.
Mr. Wright, it is said on reliable authority, had only
$200 in capital when he came to Kentucky thirty-five
years ago and with the aid of his good wife has been
the builder and architect of his good fortune. He was
born in old Virginia, February 20, 1859 but grew up in
West Virginia. His parents were Joseph A. and
Martha J. (Peebles) Wright, the former a native of
Nelson County, Virginia and the latter of Greenbrier
County, West Virginia. Joseph Wright was a graduate
of the University of Virginia, an ordained Baptist min-
ister, and for many years practically until the close of
his life, he was engaged in his ministerial labors in
West Virginia. Of his eleven children five are still
living: D. S. Wright, of Tampa, Florida; F. A.
Wright, of Norfolk, Virginia ; William M. ; Sarah S.,
wife of Charles Hanger ; and Maggie, wife of Adam
Lutz, of Memphis, Tennessee.
William M. Wright grew up in West Virginia, had
a public school education, and when he came to Ken-
tucky in 1885 he found employment as a farm laborer
in Bourbon County. In September, 1888, he married
Miss Hettie M. Pollock, who was born in Bourbon
County in July, i860, and was prior to her marriage
a successful and popular teacher in the county, being
a graduate of the Millersburg Female College. Her
parents were William and Virginia C. (McConnell)
Pollock.
Mr. and Mrs. Wright after their marriage rented a
farm in Bourbon County and lived at several places
for a dozen years or more. In 1901 they were so
far advanced toward the goal of their ambition as
to purchase eighty acres, and with this as a nucleus
they have extended their holdings until the Lone Oak
Farm now comprises 368 acres. It is a general pur-
.pose farm, but has some first class livestock, and
Mr. Wright has had much success in breeding South-
down sheep. He is a deacon in the Baptist Church,
and Mrs. Wright is a Presbyterian. In politics he
is a democrat.
R. M. Jones, M. D. Through study and practice
Dr. R. M. Jones has gained a profound knowledge of
his profession and human nature, but back of all this
he had the qualities which bring to men success in
business, professional distinction or leadership of any
kind, perseverance being the most important of them
all. With his progress in his calling Doctor Jones has
gained a better understanding and greater tolerance
of human frailties, and gives of the best in himself
to bring about a better condition of things in his com-
munity. For many years he has been engaged in the
active practice of his profession at Calvert City, and
has the distinction of being the oldest living physician
of Marshall County now in practice. Doctor Jones
was born in Bath County, Kentucky, near Owingsville,
November 6, 1857.
The Jones family originated in Wales, from whence
its representatives came to the American Colonies and
established themselves in Pennsylvania. It was from
that state that the great-grandfather of Doctor Jones
moved into Kentucky, and his son, William Jones,
grandfather of Doctor Jones, was born in Bath County,
of the latter state in 1800, and he died in that county
thirty years later, having been engaged in farming for
some years. He married Elizabeth Chastaine, who
also died in Bath County, Kentucky, but who was a
native of Virginia. One of their children James Madi-
son Jones, father of Doctor Jones, was born in Bath
County, Kentucky, in 1830, and he died there in 1871.
His entire life was spent in Bath County, and he gave
his efforts to developing and operating a large farming
property. Politically he was a democrat, but he never
cared to enter the public arena. Outside of his home
the strongest influence in his life was his church, and
for many years he was an earnest member and sup-
porter of the Christian denomination. James Madi-
son Jones was married to Martha Estill, who was
born in Fleming County, Kentucky, in 1833, and died
in Bath County in 1873. Their children were as fol-
lows: William, who is a farmer of Bath County;
Nannie, who is the widow of W. W. Goodpastor, a
farmer, and resides in Bath County ; David, who re-
sides at Hillsboro, Texas, is one of the leading demo-
crats of his region, and is now a prominent office-
holder ; Doctor Jones, who was fourth in order of
birth ; Samuel, who is a minister of the Christian
Church of Sturgis, Union County, Kentucky ; John T.,
who is an extensive farmer, stockraiser and stock-
dealer of Boone County, Indiana; James, who holds
a state government position, resides at Marion, In-
diana; Silas, who is a minister of the Christian Church,
is professor of philosophy and psychology in Eureka
College, Eureka, Illinois ; and Lou, who died at the age
of forty-two years in Bath County, married C. Jones,
a distant relative, who survives her and is engaged in
farming in Bath County.
Doctor Jones attended the rural schools of Bath
County and the State Normal School at Ladoga, In-
diana, which he left at the age of twenty-two years.
When he was eighteen years old he had begun teach-
ing school, and he remained an educator until he was
twenty-eight, holding positions in Kentucky and In-
diana. He then matriculated in the medical depart-
ment of the University of Louisville, and was
graduated therefrom in June, 1889, with the degree of
Doctor of Medicine. Immediately following his
graduation Doctor Jones established himself in general
practice at Calvert City, where he has since remained.
He owns his office and residence building on Railroad
Street, and he also owns two dwellings in Calvert City
and one of its store buildings, also a farm which is
located two miles south of the corporate limits. He is
a democrat. In 1908 he assisted in organizing the Cal-
vert City Bank, and has served it as vice president
ever since. Well known in Masonry, he belongs to
Calvert City Lodge No. 543, A. F. and A. M., of which
he is a past master; and Paducah Chapter No. 30, R.
A. M. He is also a member of Oakwood Camp, W. O.
W., and the Marshall County Medical Society, the Ken-
tucky State Medical Society, the American Medical
Association and the Southwest Kentucky Medical Asso-
ciation. During the late war he assisted in every way
Vol. V— 11
108
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
in his power to promote the local activities, contributing
both time and money to the work, and buying bonds
and war stamps and certificates up to his limit.
In 1883 Doctor Jones was united in marriage with
Miss Lillie C. Jagoe, a daughter of William and
Miranda (Rush) Jagoe, both of whom are deceased.
Mr. Jagoe was a pioneer farmer of Muhlenberg County,
Kentucky. Mrs. Jones died at Calvert City in 1912,
having borne her husband the following children : Es-
telle Rush, who married S. V. Johnson, traveling agent
for the American Railway Express Company, resides
at Memphis, Tennessee ; James W., who is in the em-
ploy of the United States Government at Arlington,
Massachusetts, having just returned from the Philip-
pine Islands, where for six years he held a position
under the civil service of the Government, is a gradu-
ate of the Kentucky State University, agricultural de-
partment, Lexington, Kentucky ; Ruth, who is her
father's housekeeper.
During the many years Doctor Jones has responded
to the calls made upon his skill and experience in
Marshall County he has not only won the appreciation
of his patients, but he has raised a standard of service
which sets the pace for the younger generation of
physicians and stimulates them to do their best. His
interest in the welfare of this region is unflagging, and
no demand is ever made upon his time or purse with-
out his giving it due consideration. He has borne his
part in the expansion of Calvert City, wisely tendering
professional advice as to its sanitary arrangements, and
many of the improvements which have been made have
been carried out in response to his suggestions. Such
men as Doctor Jones sustain the high reputation his
honored calling has earned in the past, and it would
be difficult to find a man more widely known or deeply-
respected and liked than this pioneer physician of
Marshall County.
James Horace Churchill, one of the highly trained
funeral directors of Western Kentucky, is firmly es-
tablished in the confidence of the people of Murray,
where he is rendering a dependable service in times of
greatest bereavement. Those securing his ministrations
are certain of receiving a dignified and satisfactory
conduct of the last rites.
Mr. Churchill was born in Henry County, Tennessee,
January 9, i860, a son of John E. Churchill, and grand-
son of Samuel Churchill, who was born near Eliza-
bethtown, Kentucky, and died in Calloway County, Ken-
tucky, before the birth of his grandson. During the
boyhood of his son, John E. Churchill, he moved to
Calloway County, and became one of the pioneer farm-
ers of this region. He married Sarah Moore, who was
born near Louisville. Kentucky, a daughter of Arme-
stead Moore, who became a pioneer farmer in the
vicinity of Elizabethtown, Kentucky. The Churchills
came from England to the Masachusetts colony at a
very early day in the history of the country, from
whence they migrated to the Virginia colony.
John E. Churchill was born at Elizabethtown, Ken-
tucky, in 1833, and died at Murray in 1890. Having been
brought to Calloway County when still a lad, he was
reared within its confines, but went to Henry County.
Tennessee, for his bride. However, practically all of
his life was spent in Calloway County, and his talents
found employment as a carpenter and builder, in which
he was very successful. Later on in life he became a
funeral director. For fourteen years he served Callo-
way County as jailor, and he was very active in local
democratic politics. Mr. Churchill was an entered ap-
prentice Mason at the time of his demise, death inter-
vening before he had been raised in that order. He
was married to Fannie Olive, who was born in Calloway
County in 1837, died at Murray in 1881. Their chil-
dren were as follows : James Horace, who was the
eldest born ; E. E., who is an architect and contractor,
lives at Fort Worth, Texas ; William S., who is also a
resident of Fort Worth, Texas, is a contractor and
builder; A. M., who is a house carpenter, lives in Texas;
R. E., who is also a house carpenter, lives at Iowa Park,
Texas ; and John O., who died at Birmingham, Alabama.
After attending the public schools of Murray, James
Horace Churchill began working for himself, although
then only twenty years of age, and after teaching school
in his native county for one term he began learning
the cabinetmaking trade at Hickman, Kentucky, con-
tinuing his apprenticeship at St. Louis, Missouri. In
1886 he returned to Murray and established himself here
as a funeral director and embalmer, being the leading man
in his profession in Calloway County. He owns a new
brick business house and residence on Third and Maple
streets, which he erected in 1918, and he also owns three
warehouses, which he uses in connection with his busi-
ness. His equipment is of the most modern, and not
only does he understand embalming thoroughly, but he
also possesses that sense of the fitness of things and
that quiet, ready sympathy which enable him to render
such service as wins him the approval of the most
exacting. The principles of the democratic party are
in accord with his personal ideas, and he gives its can-
didates his hearty^ support. For the past ten years he
has served Calloway County as coroner. The Baptist
Church holds his membership, and he is clerk of the
local congregation. A Mason, he belongs to Murray-
Lodge No. 105, A. F. and A. M. ; Murray Chapter
No. 92, R. A. M. ; and Murray Council No. 31, R. and
S. M., and is secretary of all three. He is also a mem-
ber of Murray Camp No. 50, W. O. W., the Golden
Cross and the Columbia Woodmen.
On June 3, 1891, Mr. Churchill was married in Cal-
loway County, Kentucky, to Miss Maude Brandon, of
Hico, Kentucky, a daughter of N. C. and Elizabeth
( Gardner) Brandon, both of whom are now deceased.
Mr. Brandon was a merchant at Hico for many years.
Mrs. Churchill died at Murray in 1914, having borne
her husband the following children : Frances, who mar-
ried J. W. Shelton, superintendent of the ice plant of
Murray ; Ronald W., who is his father's assistant ;
Ralph Dees and Max, who are at home. Mr. Churchill
was married on August 25, 1918, in Calloway County,
to Miss Mattie Rogers, a daughter of James W. and
Miranda (Jones) Rogers. Mr. Rogers was a farmer,
but is now deceased. Mrs. Rogers survives her husband
and is living with Mr. and Mrs. Churchill.
Patrick Calhoun Irvan. Among the younger gen-
eration of business men whose large interests have caused
them to occupy prominent positions and to assume re-
sponsibilities which in former years were borne only by
men many years their seniors is Patrick Calhoun Irvan,
junior member of the Hughes & Irvan Lumber Com-
pany at Murray. He belongs to a family which has
been well and favorably known in this locality for three
generations, and his career has been passed in this
section, where he has won success by inherent talents,
backed by persistent industry.
Pat C. Irvan, as he is best known, was born at Wades-
boro, Kentucky, January 10, 1891, a son of John Thomas
and Rhoda Virginia (Brown) Irvan. His grandfather,
Hardin Davenport Irvan, was born in Virginia in 1809,
and was the pioneer of the family into Kentucky, where
he took up his residence at old Wadesboro. He was a
merchant and farm owner and a man held in high
esteem, and he died at Wadesboro in 1895, when he
had reached the advanced age of eighty-six years. He
married Amanda Ellison, who was born in Virginia in
1826, and who died at Murray, Kentucky, at the age
of ninety- four years.
John Thomas Irvan was born in 1847 at Wadesboro,
and was reared, educated and married in Calloway
County. As a young man he applied his energies and
abilities to merchandising at Wadesboro, and continued
to be engaged in the same line of endeavor until 1892,
at which time he transferred his interests to Hardin,
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
109
where he continued his business activities until his death
in 1897. In politics he was a democrat, and his religious
faith was that of the Baptist Church, whose faith he
lived and whose movements he conscientiously supported.
As a fraternalist he affiliated with the Masons. Mr.
Irvan married Rhoda Virginia Brown, who was born
in i860 at Wadesboro, and who survives him as a resi-
dent of Hardin. They became the parents of the fol-
lowing children : Oscar Brown, D. D. S., a dental prac-
titioner of Murray ; William Guy, who is engaged in
agricultural pursuits in the vicinity of Hardin ; Hardin
Davenport, M. D., a physician and surgeon of Tulsa,
Oklahoma ; Robert Ellison, D. D. S., a dental practi-
tioner of Detroit, Michigan; Katie, the wife of Dr. E.
D. Covington, a physician and surgeon of Hardin ; and
Patrick Calhoun, who is a twin to his sister, Katie.
Pat C. Irvan attended the public schools of Hardin,
following which he spent one year at Bethel College,
Russellville, Kentucky, and a like period at the academy
at Castle Heights, Lebanon, Tennessee. During this
time he had been engaged in supervising the work on
his mother's farm at Hardin. In September, 1913, he
came to Murray and engaged in the lumber business,
securing a position with the firm of Hood, Hughes &
Rowlett. Subsequently Mr. Irvan bought Mr. Rowlett's
interest in the business, which at that time became Hood,
Hughes & Irvan, and in 1915, when Mr. Irvan bought
Mr. Hood's interest, the style was changed to its pres-
ent form of Hughes & Irvan Lumber Company. This
is now one of the leading lumber concerns of West-
ern Kentucky, with offices and plant on Main Street.
Mr. Irvan is justly adjudged one of the progressive,
capable and enterprising young business men of Murray,
and has the full confidence of his associates in the
business world. He is the owner of a number of real
estate properties at Murray, including his pleasant mod-
ern home on Main Street. Politically he supports dem-
ocratic principles and candidates, while fraternally he
is prominent in Masonry, belonging to Hardin Lodge No.
781, A. F. and A. M. ; Murray Chapter No. 92, R. A.
M. ; Paducah Commandery No. 11, K. T. ; and Kosair
Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., Louisville, Kentucky.
Mr. Irvan was married in 1915, at Paducah, Kentucky,
to Miss Emma Rose, daughter of J. H. and Annie
(Darnall) Rose, who reside at Hardin, Mr. Rose being
the owner of a farm. To this union there have come
three children: Katie, born May 7, 1916; John Thomas,
born September 29, 1917 ; and Robert Ellison, born
June 12, 1920.
Herman T. Carter, M. D. During the late war
many of the members of the medical profession proved
their sincerity, as well as their patriotism, when, living
up to the letter of the oath of Hippocrates, they entered
the medical department of the United States service. It
made no difference to these devoted men that some of
them were beyond the limit set by the draft. They
knew that the soldiers would need their services more
than any other citizens of their county, and, therefore,
although many of them had to make heavy sacrifices to
do so, they cheerfully offered their services to their
Government and worked with unflagging energy both
in this and foreign countries to minister to the sick
and wounded, and also rendered an equally important
service in investigation work carried on at that time.
One of these veterans of the mightiest conflict the world
has ever known is Dr. Herman T. Carter, physician and
surgeon of Gilbertsville and one of the efficient mem-
bers of the Marshall County medical fraternity.
Doctor Carter was born at Spring Lick, Grayson
County, Kentucky, September 13, 1877, a son of John S.
Carter, and grandson of Alfred T. Carter. The birth
of Alfred T. Carter occurred August 6, 1813, in Ohio
County, Kentucky, and it was his father who brought
the family into Kentucky, and was one of the pioneer
farmers of Ohio County. Alfred T. Carter died in
his native county November 10, 1842, having devoted
all of his efforts to farming interests. He participated
in the development of his locality during his period,
and was recognized as a man of sterling worth and
reliability.
John S. Carter was born in Davis County, Kentucky,
July 2, 1836, and his death took place at Whitesville,
Kentucky, June 26, 1919. Like his father and grand-
father, he had the love of the soil in his blood, and
became one of the most successful and extensive farm-
ers of Davis County, where he continued to reside until
January 1, 1870, when he moved to Spring Lick, Gray-
son County, and there, too, he was very active in agri-
cultural matters, but in 1905 went back to Davis County,
and lived in retirement at Whitesville until claimed by
death. His final home was within three miles of the
place on which he was born and reared. A Jeffersonian
democrat, he was stanch in his support of party prin-
ciples, and served very ably as city judge of Whites-
ville, which office he was holding at the time of his
demise. For sixty-four years he was a member of the
Missionary Baptist Church, which he served as a deacon
for half a century, and lived up to his conception of
its creed. He was a man who took his Christianity into
his everyday life, and endeavored to act according to
his religion in whatever he undertook. He was a man
of unflinching honest'/, and while he asked much of
others he never demanded one-half as much from them
as he exacted from himself. For many years he main-
tained membership in the Odd Fellows, and was much
honored in the local lodge.
The first marriage of John S. Carter was solemnized
with Miss Millie B. Harrison, October 7, 1858. She
was born in Davis County, Kentucky, April 15, 1840,
and died in that county September 5, 1866. They had
four children, three who died in infancy, and Nancy E.,
who first married Robert R. Proctor, a farmer, who
died at Spring Lick, Kentucky, and she then married
John H. Heath, a blacksmith, who is also deceased. On
August I, 1867, John S. Carter was married to Miss
Delia D. Chapman, who was born in Ohio County, Ken-
tucky, April 23, 1845. She survives her husband and
is now living with Doctor Carter. They became the
parents of the following children : Jesse T., who was
born November 11, 1868, died July 21, 1870; Susan
G., who was born in Ohio County, Kentucky, No-
vember 11, 1868, died there February 16, 1869; James,
who was born September 4, 1870, in Ohio County,
resides at Whitesville, Kentucky, where he is a prac-
ticing physician and surgeon, being a graduate of the
Memphis Hospital Medical College at Memphis, Ten-
nessee, which conferred upon him his degree of Doctor
of Medicine ; Ira, who was born in Ohio County, De-
cember 27, 1873, died in that county September 25,
1874; Dr. Herman T., who was the fifth in order of
birth : Flora D., who was born in Grayson County, Ken-
tucky, October 1, 1879, married Claude C. Morrison, a
traveling salesman, and they reside at Elizabethtown,
Kentucky ; and Maggie J., who was born in Grayson
County October 16, 1883, married Ben J. McKinney, a
traveling salesman, and they reside at Eldorado, Illinois.
Doctor Carter was accorded the educational advan-
tages offered by the rural schools of Grayson County
and the Spring Lick High School, but after a term at
the latter he left and entered the Hospital College of
Medicine at Louisville, Kentucky, and was a student
of that institution for three years. He completed his
medical course at the Memphis Hospital Medical College
at Memphis, Tennessee, and after a year there was grad-
uated, April 29, 1903, with the degree of Doctor of
Medicine. On May 4 of that same year he entered
upon the practice of his profession at Gilbertsville, where
he has since maintained a general medical and surgical
practice, with the exception of six months when he
was at Mound Valley, Kansas, during 1909-10.
In his political faith Doctor Carter is a democrat,
having been brought up in the doctrines so heartily
espoused by his father, and he is also following that
110
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
excellent man's example to a further degree by being
a member of the Missionary Baptist Church of Gilberts-
ville. A Mason, Doctor Carter belongs to Gilbertsville
Lodge No. 835, A. F. and A. M., of which he was wor-
shipful master in 1917- He also belongs to Gilberts-
ville Lodge No. 345, I. O. O. F. ; Rosewood Camp No.
116, W. O. W. ; and Robinson Crusoe Camp No. 3516,
M. W. A., of Gilbertsville. Professionally he is a mem-
ber of the Marshall County Medical Society, the Ken-
tucky State Medical Society, the American Medical
Association and the Southwest Kentucky Medical As-
sociation. For several years he has been on the Gil-
bertsville Board of Education, and is now its treasurer.
He owns his office building and a modern residence on
Brien Street.
On November 4. 1903, Doctor Carter was married at
Gilbertsville to Miss Beulah E. Covington, a daughter
of Dan D. and Nancy E. (Ellis) Covington, both of
whom are now deceased. Mr. Covington was a pio-
neer merchant at Gilbertsville. By his first marriage
Doctor Carter had two children: Claudine, who was
born September 28, 1505; and Lionel C, who was born
November 23, 1908. On April 14, 1912, Doctor Car-
ter was married at Gilbertsville to Miss Eureka Beasley,
a daughter of J. B. and Lucy (Stringer) Beasley. Mr.
Beasley served in the Union army during the war be-
tween "the North and the South, and his health was
so injured by his four years of service that he received
a pension from the Government. He is now deceased,
but his widow survives and lives with Doctor and Mrs.
Carter. One child was born of this marriage, Delia
E., on March 13, 1914.
On January 22, 1918, Doctor Carter entered the med-
ical department of the United States service and was
commissioned a first lieutenant. He was sent to Fort
Riley, Kansas, and was honorably discharged March
18, 1919. Doctor Carter has a real capacity for his
calling, and is a man who enjoys his work. He and his
wife have many friends whom they like to have about
them, and are model host and hostess. Both as a
physician and a man Doctor Carter is accessible and
sympathetic to those who seek his help, and he is re-
ceiving an honorable reward for the services he has
rendered in both peace and war. He is a nobly gifted
man, sincere and unselfish, patriotic and courageous,
and is proud of the fact that he was given an oppor-
tunity to participate in the late war and of the won-
derful response made by his profession to the country's
call.
Hon. Leonos C. Starks. Among the leaders in busi-
ness and civil life at Hardin, few have been as actively
identified with the affairs of the city as Hon. Leonos
C. Starks. Mayor of Hardin for the past twelve years,
he is likewise owner of the telephone system and owner
and publisher of the Marshall County Enterprise, one
of the leading weekly newspapers of this part of the
state. His large competency, his valuable property in-
terests and his high and substantial standing as a citizen
and official have been acquired by individual force of
character, by industry, intelligence and personal effort,
founded upon the strictest honor.
Mr. Starks was born November 14, 1871, in Marshall
County, Kentucky, a son of Reuben W. Starks. The
founder of the family in Kentucky was the grandfather,
Spencer Starks, who was born in 1821 in Virginia and
was a young man when he migrated to Marshall County,
where he passed the remainder of his life as an agri-
culturist, dying near Hardin in 1903, at the advanced
age of eighty-two years. He was married in Mar-
shall County to Mary Skeggs, who was born in 1823
in Calloway County, Kentucky, and who survived her
husband some years, being ninety-six years of age at
the time of her death, which also occurred near Hardin
in 1919. They were people who were greatly esteemed
and respected in their community.
Reuben W. Starks was born on the home farm in
Marshall County in 1848, and died at Hardin in 1897.
He was reared, educated and married in his native
community, and in addition to carrying on agricultural
pursuits on an extensive scale was engaged in the mer-
cantile business, having been a pioneer merchant of Har-
din. A republican in politics, he was devoted to the
interests of his party, in which he also had some in-
fluence, and served as county magistrate of the First
and Fifth Magisterial Districts of Marshall County for
some years. A member of the. Christian Church, he
was active in its work, and for a number of years acted
in the capacity of deacon. He belonged to Jefferson
Lodge, A. F. and A. M., Birmingham, Kentucky, and
to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Mr. Starks
married Rebecca Hurt, who was born in 1853 in Mar-
shall County, and she still survives and is a resident
of Hardin. Three children were born to them : Leonos
C. ; Nina Pearl, who married Jesse Starks, a farmer of
Hardin; and Ola Petrinilla, the wife of W. G. Irwin,
a farm owner of Hardin.
Leonos C. Starks was educated in the rural schools
of Marshall County and was reared on the home farm,
where he began assisting his father in agricultural work
when he was a lad of but sixteen years. He continued
to be his father's helper until the latter died, at which
time Mr. Starks took over the mercantile business,
which he conducted with some success until 1901 and
then disposed of it advantageously. In the meanwhile
he had been postmaster at Hardin for eighteen years,
having been appointed under the administration of Presi-
dent McKinley and serving until 1912. When he dis-
posed of the mercantile business Mr. Starks embarked
in the grocery trade, but after two years disposed of this
business. He was subsequently the builder of the tele-
phone system, lines and exchange at Hardin, and is
still the owner of this system, which gives the people
of this community excellent service.
In 1913 Mr. Starks established the Marshall County
Enterprise, of which he has since been the sole pro-
prietor and editor. This is a weekly paper which main-
tains an independent political policy and circulates
largely through Marshall and the surrounding counties.
Among the papers of its kind in this region it is looked
upon as a leader, and is a clean, reliable and trustworthy
sheet, presenting the news, both national and local, with
common-sense editorials on timely subjects and a num-
ber of interesting features. Mr. Starks owns his own
printing plant and offices, and in addition to publishing
his newspaper does a large and profitable business in
first-class job press work, for the consummation of
which bis plant is admirably equipped.
Politically an independent republican, Mr. Starks was
first elected mayor twelve years ago, and has occupied
that office through successive re-elections to the pres-
ent time. He wields much influence in his party, being
an acknowledged leader in his part of the county, and
has the confidence of his associates as well as that of
the public. His administration of the affairs of his
city in the mayoralty has been one that has resulted
in much civic betterment and in placing Hardin upon a
sound foundation as to finances and improvements.
Fraternally the mayor is identified with Hardin Lodge
No. 781, A. F. and A. M. ; Hardin Lodge No. 73,
I. O. O. F., and is a charter member of the Hardin
Commercial Club. He has served as a director and is
a stockholder in the Hardin Bank, and is the owner
of a modern and comfortable residence on Main Street
and a valuable farm located one-half mile north of Har-
din consisting of 100 acres. During the great struggle
in Europe he took a leading part in all war activities,
and used his personal influence and that of his news-
paper to assist in the various drives.
Mr. Starks was married in 1892, at Benton, Kentucky,
to Miss Lillie Green, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. C. M.
Green, the latter of whom is deceased, while the former
is a farmer in the vicinity of Benton. Two children
have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Starks : Pansy, who
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
111
died at the age of 3^-2 years; and W. Loraine, born
January 30, 1898, a graduate of the Hardin High School
and his father's able assistant in the production of his
newspaper. W. L. Starks was in the last draft during
the World war, and had been examined and passed for
service when the signing of the armistice put a stop
to hostilities and made it unnecessary for him to be
called to the colors.
John W. Wade. The grocery and hardware inter-
ests of Murray are worthily and ably represented by
John W. Wade, whose abilities and energies have been
concentrated in building up this enterprise to one of the
leaders in its line in Calloway County. His career has
been one in which he has been interested in a variety
of pursuits, in all of which he has displayed capability,
business acumen and a high conception of ethics. Both
as business man and citizen he is held in sound confi-
dence by the people among whom he has made his home
since November, 1916.
Mr. Wade belongs to a family which _ originated in
England, whence the original progenitor immigrated to
America and settled in Virginia during Colonial times.
Robert Wade, the grandfather of John W., was born
in Virginia in 1814, and as a young man came to Trigg
County, Kentucky, where he became a pioneer farmer.
About 1848 he came to Calloway County, where the
remainder of his life was passed in agricultural pur-
suits, his death occurring in 1905. Mr. Wade was a
most consistent church member, and worked con-
structively in behalf of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
He was a Royal Arch Mason. His wife, who bore
the maiden name of Katherine Brandon, was born in
Trigg County in 1818, and died in Calloway County
in 1882. William Thomas Wade, the father of John
W. Wade, was born in 1841 in Trigg County, Kentucky,
and passed his entire life in Calloway County as an
extensive and successful farmer. While he lived to be
only forty-eight years of age, dying on his farm in 1889,
he accumulated a large and valuable property, and at
the same time won the respect and esteem of those
with whom he was associated. He was a democrat in
politics and a strong churchman of the Methodist Epis-
copal faith, while in Masonry he belonged to the Royal
Arch Chapter. Mr. Wade was a veteran of the war
between the states, having served in the army of the
Confederacy under the intrepid Forrest, and participated
in such hard-fought engagements as Shiloh, Lookout
Mountain, Missionary Ridge, siege of Vicksburg, Brice's
Crossroads, Corinth and Franklin, at which latter battle
he was wounded. Mr. Wade married Miss Margaret C.
Keys, born in 1848 in Calloway County, who survives
him and makes her home with her son, John W. There
were five children in the family: Nettie B., who died at
the age of twenty-three years as the wife of H. P.
Hicks, a merchant of Cherry, Kentucky ; John W. ;
Eunice, who died as a child ; and two children who died
in infancy.
John W. Wade acquired his education in the rural
schools of Calloway County and was reared on the home
farm, where he remained until reaching the age of
twenty years. At that time he went to Almo, Ken-
tucky, where he was engaged in the mercantile and
tobacco business for four years, following which he
returned to the home farm, and he remained there with
his mother until 1916. In November of that year he
sold the farm and came to Murray, where he founded
his present grocery and hardware business, which, as
before noted, has grown and developed under his able
management until it is now one of the prominent estab-
lishments in its field in Calloway County. The modern
store, with its well-kept, carefully selected and popularly
priced stock, is situated on Court Square. Public con-
fidence has been won by Mr. Wade through his straight-
forward manner of dealing, while a courteous and oblig-
ing manner has served to make him many warm friends
among his patrons. He has other interests and is a
director in the First National Bank of Murray. He
owns a modern residence at 714 Poplar Street, one of
the fine homes of the city, with well-kept grounds and
stately shade trees, and is likewise the owner of a farm
of 4214 acres of valuable land V/z miles southeast of
Murray.
Politically Mr. Wade is a democrat, and for nine years
served as peace officer of the district of Wadesboro.
He was one of the promoters of the movement and a
member of the building committee which erected the
fine new courthouse of Calloway County, one of the
very finest public edifices in the state. His name is in-
scribed on the corner-stone of this building as a member
of the building committee. Mr. Wade is a member of
the Methodist Episcopal Church, of the work of which
he is a generous supporter, and in which he has held all
the lay offices. He belongs to Temple Hill Lodge No.
276, A. F. and A. M., of which he is a past master,
having served as worshipful master thereof for seven
years, and to Murray Chapter No. 92, R. A. M.
Mr. Wade married in 1890, at Paris, Tennessee, Miss
Allie J. Gilbert, daughter of W. L. and Elizabeth
(Penny) Gilbert, both now deceased. Mr. Gilbert was
a farmer and tobacconist of Murray, Kentucky. Mrs.
Wade died on the farm in Calloway County, April 29,
1916, having been the mother of the following children:
John Grogan, who entered the United States Army serv-
ice April 27, 1918, after intensive training was sent over-
seas June 8, 1918, saw active fighting at the front while
with the Field Artillery in France, subsequently went
with the Army of Occupation into Germany, and then
returned to the United States and was honorably dis-
charged and mustered out in May, 1919, and at present
"is a resident of Allisona, Tennessee, where he is iden-
tified in an official capacity with the Louisville & Nash-
ville Railroad; Cobert G., who is a window trimmer for
the big firm of Brys, Block & Company at Memphis,
Tennessee ; Bernice, who is unmarried and resides with
her father ; John Mason and Nell, who are attending the
Murray High School ; and Mary G. and Will H., who
are attending the graded schools.
William Francis is giving a signally able adminis-
tration as county judge of Taylor County, an office to
which he was elected in 1918, and as one of the pro-
gressive and representative citizens and influential
officials of this county and its judicial center, Camp-
bellsville, he is properly accorded definite recognition
in this history.
Judge Francis was born in Russell County, Kentucky,
on the 7th of August, 1872, and is a son of James
and Julia (Lockhart) Francis, both natives of Fentress
County, Tennessee, which borders on Kentucky. Of
their children, the first born was Jane, who died in
Russell County, unmarried, when twenty-five years
of age ; Sarah Elizabeth is the wife of J. C. Hale, a
successful farmer in Russell County ; Lucinda is the
wife of William Pinder, who is engaged in farm enter-
prise in the state of Missouri; and Judge Francis, of
this review, is the youngest of the number.
The preliminary education of Judge Francis was ob-
tained in the rural schools of Russell and Adair coun-
ties, and was supplemented by a course in the high
school at Columbia, county seat of the latter county.
He worked his way through school doing odd jobs.
At the age of twenty-one years he began teaching in
rural schools of Adair County, and to his credit- stand
eleven years of effective service in the pedagogic pro-
fession. For four years he was teachers examiner of
Adair County. In 1904 he became storekeeper and
gauger in the United States internal revenue service,
with headquarters at Campbellsville, in the Fifth Rev-
enue District of Kentucky. He retained this position
eight years and after retiring from the same he was
successfully engaged in the insurance business at Camp-
bellsville until 1916. In November, 1917, he was elected
county judge of Taylor County, and the duties of this
112
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
office were assumed by him in January, 1918, for a
term of four years. He has given a most careful and
progressive administration and has done much to ad-
vance the civic and material welfare of his constituent
district. Taylor County was over $300,000 in debt at
the time Judge Francis was elected, and no county
taxes had been collected for three years. Since he
took office the debt has been cleared off and there is
money in the treasury. His prerogatives extend be-
yond mere judicial functions, as he is ex-officio mem-
ber of the board of county commissioners and thus
has definite influence in ordering and directing the
county government and its policies. He is a staunch
advocate and supporter of the cause of the republican
party. His wife and children are members of the
Baptist Church. The judge owns a well improved farm
of ninety acres, two miles east of the county seat, and
this place is equipped with a modern house and other
buildings of substantial type, the farm being de-
voted to diversified agriculture and the raising of good
grades of live stock. At the time of the World war
Judge Francis served as a member of the draft board
of Taylor County, and gave a large part of his time
to the work of this board and to the furtherance of
other phases of war activity, including the campaigns
in support of the various government-bond issues, war-
savings stamps, Red Cross work, etc. He loyally sub-
scribed his maximum quota to the purchase of the
bonds.
In 1898, at Cane Valley, Adair County, was solem-
nized the marriage of Judge Francis to Miss Laura
Flowers, whose parents are now deceased, her father,
James Flowers, having long been numbered among the
substantial farmers and representative citizens of
Adair County. Of the children of Judge and Mrs.
Francis, the first born, George, died in infancy; James,
who was born February 4, 1902, completed the work
of the sophomore year in Russell Creek Academy, at
Campbellsville, and is now employed in one of the
county offices of Taylor County, the while he remains
at the parental home ; Ernest, who was born March
29, 1903, is a student in the Russell Creek Academy,
as is also Paul, who was born April 14, 1905.
Judge Francis was but sixteen years of age when
his mother's death occurred. He received no financial
heritage and his advancement and success in life have
been won entirely through his own ability and efforts
while he has so ordered his course as to hold inviolable
vantage-ground in the confidence and good will of
those with whom he has come in contact in the varied
relations of life.
Robert Macon Mason, M. D. Aside from any con-
sideration which might arise from his association with
one of the honored and distinguished families of Cal-
loway County, Dr. Robert Macon Mason has erected
around him a solid wall of professional and general
confidence, and as a practicing physician and surgeon
of Murray in less than nine years has built up a pat-
ronage ofttimes not acquired in a score of years of close
application to professional duties. In addition to carry-
ing on a private practice he is associated with his
brother, Dr. William Herbert Mason, in the proprietor-
ship of the Murray Hospital and Sanitarium, one of the
leading institutions of healing in this part of the state.
Doctor Mason was born at Hazel, Calloway County,
Kentucky, July 26, 1887, a son of Dr. William Macon
and Amanda £. (Perry) Mason. The family originated
in England, whence the great-grandfather of Doctor
Mason, Richard Mason, immigrated in young manhood
to America, taking up his residence at Baltimore, Mary-
land. In that city he established himself in business
as the proprietor of a jewelry establishment, and rounded
out a long, useful and honorable career, becoming a
wealthy and influential citizen of his adopted community.
Hp married Miss Hannah Glenn, also a native of Eng-
land, and the only one of their children to be born in
the United States was the grandfather of Doctor Mason,
Dr. William Morris Mason.
Dr. William Morris Mason was born at Baltimore,
Maryland, in 1819, and was educated for the medical
profession, graduating from Washington (D. C.) Uni-
versity with the degree of Bachelor of Arts and from
the University of Maryland with the degree of Doctor
of Medicine. He commenced the practice of his calling
in the City of Baltimore, where he was subsequently
united in marriage with Miss Mary Priscilla Hicks,
who was a daughter of John Y. flicks, of Raleigh,
North Carolina, and a niece of Hon. Nathaniel Macon,
for thirty-six years a member of the United States Sen-
ate and the House of Representatives from the Old
North State. She was also an own cousin of Thomas
H. Benton, former governor of Missouri. Some time
following his marriage Doctor Mason went to North
Carolina, where he practiced for a time at Raleigh,
subsequently following his profession at St. Louis, Mis-
souri, and finally settling in Henry County, Tennessee.
There he carried on a large practice until his death,
which occurred at Conyersville in 1884.
William Macon Mason, son of Dr. William Morris
Mason and father of Dr. Robert Macon Mason, was
born at Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1844, and was seven
years of age when his parents located in Henry County,
Tennessee. In that community he was reared and
secured his primary education, and later graduated from
the University of Louisville. He was honor man of his
class and received a gold medal with his degree of
Doctor of Medicine. In 1875 he removed to the pres-
ent site of Hazel, in Calloway County, Kentucky, where
he became a pioneer physician and where he continued
in practice until his death, June 7, 1920. Doctor Mason
was one of the honored men of his profession and
served for thirty years as president of the County Board
of Health of Calloway County. He was a member of
the Calloway County Medical Society, the Tennessee
State Medical Society, of which he was president for
one term, the Kentucky State Medical Society, the South-
west Kentucky Medical Society and the American Med-
ical Association. In politics he was a republican, and
his religious faith, which he lived, was that of the
Seventh Day Advent Church. Doctor Mason married
Miss Amanda E. Perry, daughter of Col. William E.
Perry, who commanded a regiment in the Confederate
army during the war between the North and the South.
Mrs. Mason, who was born in 1850 in Calloway County,
survives her husband and resides in the old home at
Hazel. There were eight children in the family : Bettie,
the wife of E. D. Miller, of Hazel, a traveling sales-
man and former merchant ; Dr. William Herbert, who
pursued his literary college work at Union College, Lin-
coln, Nebraska, and was gold medal man during his
junior and senior years at Vanderbilt University, from
which he was graduated in medicine in 1899, since
which time he has been engaged in practice at Murray
and is one of the proprietors of the Murray Sanitarium
and Hospital ; Dr. Edgar Perry, a graduate of Vander-
bilt University, Doctor of Medicine, who practiced his
calling at Hazel until his death in 1908; Ruby, the
wife of R. R. Hicks, of Hazel, a traveling salesman;
Ruby's twin. Pearl, the wife of R. B. Chrisman, cashier
of the bank at Henr3r, Tennessee; Bertha, residing with
her mother, and the widow of C. C. Maddox, a con-
tractor of Hazel, who died in 1916; Dr. Robert Macon,
of this notice ; and Everard Morris, a merchant at Hazel.
Dr. Robert Macon Mason attended the public school
at Hazel, following which he pursued a course at the
Hazel Industrial School, from which he was graduated
in 1903. He next entered Union College, Lincoln, Ne-
braska, where he pursued a literary course of two years,
and then enrolled as a student at Vanderbilt Uni-
versity, from the medical department of which excel-
lent institution he was graduated with the class of
1912, receiving the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He
has never ceased to be a close student of his calling, and
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
113
in 1914 took a post-graduate course at the Chicago -
Policlinic, this being followed in 1919 by a post-grad-
uate course at the clinic of Mayo Brothers at Rochester,
Minnesota, where he specialized in surgery. Doctor
Mason began the practice of his calling at Hazel, but
after eight months transferred the scene of his profes-
sional activities to Murray, where he has since remained,
his offices being located in the Gatlin Building, on Main
Street. He has built up a large and gratifying gen-
eral medical and surgical practice, numbers among his
patrons many of the oldest and best families, and is ac-
counted one of the thorough, wide-awake and progres-
sive medical practitioners of Calloway County. He
belongs to the Calloway County Medical Society, the
Southwest Kentucky Medical Society, the Kentucky
Medical Society and the American Medical Association.
Doctor Mason is one of the owners of the Murray
Hospital and Sanitarium, a large, modern, brick and
concrete structure located on Poplar Street, which ac-
commodates 100 patients. The facilities of this insti-
tution for the care of the sick are modern and complete,
and the equipment follows closely that of the leading
hospitals of the largest cities of the country. During
its short period of existence (it was built in 1920) it has
largely realized the expectations of its founders, and
has gained such a hold upon the confidence of the public
that it will probably be recognized in the near future
as being among the leading institutions of healing in
the state. Its rooms are sunny and well ventilated, the
most scientific and experienced care is promised those
who entrust themselves to its benefits, and the operat-
ing room is a facsimile of the Worrell Hospital, the
new institution of the Mayo Brothers at Rochester.
Doctor Mason has a pleasing and confidence-inspiring
personality, and his professional and general equipment
has led him far toward a realization of a broad and
exceptionally useful life. He is a republican and takes
an interest in public affairs, without caring for the hon-
ors of public office. His chief interests are centered
at Murray, where he has his family established in a
pleasant modern home.
In December, 19 IS, Doctor Mason was united in mar-
riage at Murray with Miss Mary Conner, daughter of
C. T. and Ambie (Gilbert) Conner, residents of Mur-
ray, where Mr. Conner is a successful dealer in tobacco.
Mrs. Mason is a lady of numerous graces and talents,
and is a graduate of the Conservatory of Music, Cin-
cinnati, Ohio. She and the doctor are the parents of
one bright and interesting son, Robert Macon, Jr., who
was born October 12, 1917, at Murray.
John D. Houston. During a period of nearly eleven
years John D. Houston has been almost constantly before
the public of Calloway County in positions of public
trust, and at all times has evidenced an ability and
spirit of fidelity that have combined to gain him the
confidence and support of his fellow-citizens. At the
present time he is acting as sheriff of Calloway County,
having entered upon the duties of that office in January,
1918, for a four-year term.
Mr. Houston was born July 21, 1883, in Calloway
County, Kentucky, a son of John T. and Sallie F. (Out-
land) Houston. The family is of Irish origin, the
original American emigrant having come from Erin to
Virginia during Colonial days. From the Old Dominion
State one of the early ancestors went as a pioneer to
Tennessee, where, in 1815, in Montgomery County, was
born Henry Houston, the sheriff's grandfather. Henry
Houston was a farmer in the eastern part of Tennessee
until about 1870, at which time he came to Calloway
County, and here rounded out his career, dying in 1875.
He married Eliza Whitworth, who was born in 1821
in Tennessee, and she survived him until 1905, when
she passed away in Calloway County.
John T. Houston, the father of John D., was born
in 1858, near Dover, Stewart County, Tennessee, and
was about twelve years of age when brought to Ken-
tucky by his parents. His education was completed in
the district schools of Calloway County, where he was
reared to manhood and married, and here has been
engaged in extended farming ventures all his life. At
the present time he is living on his valuable and well-
cultivated property near Cherry, four miles southeast
of Murray, a community in which he is held in the
highest esteem because of his business integrity, per-
sonal probity and good citizenship. Mr. Houston is a
democrat and an influential man in his locality. He is
an active and generous supporter of the Baptist Church.
Mr. Houston was first married to Miss Sallie F. Out-
land, who was born in i860, near Potterstown, Calloway
County, and died in this county in 1886, having been
the mother of four children: Dr. E. B., formerly a physi-
cian of Hazel, but recently arrived at Murray, where
he is engaged in the practice of medicine and surgery
in association with Dr. B. B. Keys ; Lottie, who died
at the age of nineteen years, as the wife of Samuel
Downs, a progressive farmer of Calloway County;
John D., of this notice ; and Frankie, the wife of E. H.
Thompson, a farmer near Buchanan, Henry County,
Tennessee. John T. Houston took for his second wife
Miss Annie Hart, who was born in Calloway County,
Kentucky, in 1858, and died in this county in 1904.
They became the parents of three children : Lois, the
wife of J. Hardy Yarbrough, a merchant of Cherry,
Kentucky; Buford, who resides on a part of the old
home farm ; and Hillman, who married Eula Lassiter
and lives with his father. After the death of his sec-
ond wife Mr. Houston married Miss Iona Outland, who
was born near Pottertown, Calloway County, and they
have one child, Cecil, who is still a child.
John D. Houston was given the advantages of an
educational training in the public schools of the rural
districts, and was reared on his father's Calloway County
farm, on which he made his home until he reached
the age of twenty-one years. At that time he em-
barked upon an agricultural career of his own, but
after two years of tilling the soil disposed of his farming
interests and turned his attention to mercantile affairs.
For four years he was the proprietor of a general store
at Penny in this county, and in 1908 came to Murray,
where he secured employment in the department store
of Nat Ryan. During this time Mr. Houston had in-
terested himself to some extent in public affairs, and
after he had resigned his position at the close of 191 1
he was appointed deputy sheriff, a position in which he
served during 1912 and 1913. In 1914 and 1915 he
served as deputy assessor of Calloway County, and in
1916 was variously employed, as he was until November,
1917, when he was elected sheriff of Calloway County.
He took up the duties of that office in January, 1918,
for a term of four years, and has discharged his respon-
sibilities in a highly efficient and satisfactory manner.
He maintains offices in the courthouse. Sheriff Houston
is a man of courage and discretion, and has maintained
strict law and order in the county since taking over the
reins of office. Since casting his first vote he has
been a democrat, and has unreservedly supported
the candidates and principles of his party. He is
a member of the Baptist Church. Fraternally he is
affiliated with Murray Lodge No. 105, A. F. and A.
M. ; Murray Chapter No. 92, R. A. M. ; Paducah Com-
mandery No. II, K. T. ; Kosair Temple, A. A. O.
N. M. S., Louisville, Kentucky ; Murray Camp No. 50,
Woodmen of the World ; and Murray Camp, Modern
Woodmen of America. He owns a modern and com-
fortable residence on West Main Street. During the
World war period he assisted in the success of the
Liberty Loan, Red Cross and other drives, and at all
times has demonstrated his loyalty and public spirit.
Mr. Houston was married in 1904, in Calloway County,
to Miss Bonnie Fulton, daughter of C. B. and Mary
(Boyd) Fulton, who reside at Murray, where Mr.
Fulton is connected with the First National Bank. Two
children have come to Mr. and Mrs. Houston : Buell,
114
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
born in 1907, and Charles Boyd, born in 1912, both
attending the Murray schools.
Patrick Henry Thomson. Since the death of her
husband, the late James B. Stevenson, one of the prom-
inent farmers of Fayette County, Mrs. Nellie T. Ste-
venson has returned to the ancestral home, "Hurricane
Hall," endeared to her by the associations of her youth
and by family traditions reaching back to pioneer times
in Kentucky. Mrs. Stevenson is a daughter of Patrick
Henry Thomson and a great-granddaughter of Col.
Roger Quarles, a prominent Kentucky pioneer who
came from Virginia in 1801 and subsequently acquired
a tract of land of about 1,000 acres. Col. Roger Quarles
had no sons to bear his name and his only daughter was
Anna Eliza, who became the wife of William Z. Thom-
son, and their only daughter married Dr. Thomas War-
ren, while the only son was Patrick Henry Thomson.
Patrick Henry Thomson was born in Fayette County,
Kentucky, August 31, 1819, and lived much of his life
on the ancestral Quarles estate, where he owned the
original home, in which he dispensed a liberal and
typically Southern hospitality. He studied medicine in
his youth but never practiced, and devoted his energies
to the farm and spending his life in doing good to
others. He also owned a plantation in Mississippi.
He lived to be eighty-two years of age, passing away in
1901. Patrick Henry Thomson was an ardent friend
of Henry Clay and one of the last survivors of a gen-
eration of Kentuckians who knew that great statesman.
Mr. Thomson served for many years as clerk of the
Cane Run Baptist Church, of which church he was for
much of his life an ardent member and most liberal in
his contributions. The land for that church and also
for the Berea Christian Church was donated by Colonel
Quarles. Colonel Quarles, the first clerk of Cane Run
Church, was succeeded in that office by Mr. Thomson,
and the latter by his daughter, Amelia, and her successor
is her nephew-in-law, J. Morton Wood. Except for a
temporary interval the office has continued in this fam-
ily from the establishment of this historic old congre-
gation in 1828. Colonel Quarles also was one of the
promoters of the Lexington and Georgetown turnpike,
contributing $1,000 per mile for its construction of more
than twelve miles, and he and his grandson, Patrick
Henry Thomson filled the office of president contin-
uously. Patrick Henry Thomson for thirty-five years
maintained a private school on his estate, bringing teach-
ers from New England, and he opened the advantages
of this excellent school to the children of his neighbors,
especially those unable financially to obtain an education
elsewhere. His wife, Julia Maria Farnsworth, was
born July 6, 1821, at Bridgewater, Massachusetts, and
they were married May 9, 1839. Her father, Benjamin
Franklin Farnsworth, was founder of a college in Louis-
ville, also of one or more seats of learning in New Eng-
land and for a short time was president of Georgetown
College. This noble Christian wife survived her hon-
ored husband and passed away September 8, 1916, at
the age of ninety-four. They were married sixty-two
years. Of their children, nine reached maturity. Anna
Eliza became the wife of Squire Gaines and died at
the age of sixty; Rodes was a farmer near the old home
and died at the age of fifty-five; Franklin died while a
member of the graduating class of Georgetown College,
at the age of twenty-one ; William Z. is a retired farmer
living at Georgetown; Sarah, who died at the age of
sixty, was the wife of Dudley H. Bryant, and one of her
sons, Thomson Bryant, is a member of the faculty of the
State University; Roger Quarles is a traveling salesman
with home at Columbia, South Carolina; Mrs. Nellie
Stevenson is the next in age ; Miss Amelia, former
clerk of Cane Run Baptist Church, now lives at Orlando,
Florida; Patrick Henry is secretary of the Chamber of
Commerce in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Miss Nellie Thomson was born in the house where
she now resides and where she was married March 28,
1889, to James B. Stevenson. James B. Stevenson, who
died June 8, 1905, at the age of fifty, was the third in a
family of six children. His father was one of the
successful and well-to-do farmers of Fayette County,
the old Stevenson home being on Newtown Pike, five
miles northeast of Lexington, near Mount Horeb Pres-
byterian Church, with which the Stevensons were actively
identified as members. The father of James B. Steven-
son served as county judge for some years and achieved
prominence as a breeder of saddle horses. One of his
horses was the famous "Washington Denmark," sire of
some of the greatest saddle horses known and whose
wonderful qualities as a breeder made his subsequent
owner, William Vincent Cromwell, distinguished among
American horsemen. James B. Stevenson's brothers
and sisters were Vincent, who died unmarried at the
age of sixty-five; John, a retired resident of Lexington;
Richard, a physician in Fayette County ; Lizzie, Mrs.
William Craig, who was killed in an automobile accident
October 2, 1920, at the interurban crossing while leav-
ing the home of Mrs. Nellie T. Stevenson; and Charles,
a Lexington insurance man.
Mr. and Mrs. James B. Stevenson spent their mar-
ried life on their farm on Newtown Pike, eight miles
from Lexington. Mrs. Stevenson, after the death of her
husband and her mother, bought the old homestead,
formerly owned and occupied by her ancestor, Roger
Quarles. This is a place that may well inspire affection
and sentimental interest, and the house contains much of
the old furniture and many of the heirlooms of her
ancestors.
Mrs. Stevenson has two children : John Atkins and
Tulia Farnsworth Stevenson. John Atkins, an attendant
of State University for a short term, married Lucile
Brooks, daughter of Samuel Brooks, and has one son,
James Thomson Stevenson. They and his mother live
at the old home place. Julia Farnsworth is the wife of
James Morton Wood, and they occupy her father's
farm on the Newtown Pike. Mr. and Mrs. Wood have
a son, J. Morton, Jr.
Jolly Barnett Pharis. Lying nine miles east of
Winchester and some ten miles from Boonesboro, is
found the Village of Schollsville, a community con-
sisting of a number of residences, two stores, a feed
mill and a blacksmith shop, which was founded at an
early date in the history of Kentucky by members
of the Scholl family, friends of Daniel Boone. A
spring nearby is pointed out to visiters as marking
one of the camping-places of the great American
hunter, trapper, guide and frontiersman, and in addi-
tion to its historical importance the little hamlet pos-
sesses prestige as being a trading center for a large
contiguous farming community.
Located at Schollsville as one of its leading citizens
and business men is Jolly Barnett Pharis, a general
merchant, who was born in this county June 7, 1865,
a son of William Morgan and Hester Cummings (Par-
rish) Pharis, and a grandson of John and Rachael
(Brookshire) Pharis, natives of Clark County. Hes-
ter C. Parrish was a daughter of Barnett Jolly and
Tacy Parrish, Mr. Parrish being a stone mason by
trade. It is said that he and two of his sons, William
and Meredith Parrish. laid the foundations for the
present courthouse at Winchester about 1845, and for
the Court Street Christian Church on the site of the
present postoffice. Barnett Jolly Parrish was born in
1793, came to Kentucky about 1800 with his parents,
and died in 1857, while his wife, Tacy, died in 1880,
when past ninety years of age. Hester Cummings
Parrish was born in 1824, near Ruckerville, where her
father died, and was married in 1848 and died in
1913, on the home farm of William M. Pharis, near
Ruckerville. William Morgan Pharis was born within
one mile of Ruckerville, December 28, 1823, and died
at the age of sixty-four years, in 1887. During his
early life he worked as a carpenter, but subsequently
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
115
turned his attention to agricultural pursuits and
through industrious work and good management ac-
cumulated a valuable property, became prosperous and
highly respected and was considered one of the sub-
stantial and reliable men of his community. While
his land was rather hilly, it was kept in good con-
dition and made productive, and he also kept a good
grade of livestock, having good breeding stock, par-
ticularly in horses and jacks. While he was a man
who had no great educational advantages, he was well
posted upon important topics and could speak intelli-
gently regarding worth-while subjects. He and his
wife had six children who grew to maturity: Clinton
H., who spent twenty-five years in Missouri and Kan-
sas, but now makes his home at Winchester ; Celia
K., who married Robert Bush, with whom she went
to Missouri, but after his death in that state returned
to Kentucky and died at Winchester ; Meredith Allen,
who spent his active career as a farmer in Clark and
Fayette counties, but is now living in retirement at
Louisville; Sidney, who was first a merchant and later
a farmer in Clark County and died at the age of forty-
two years in 1900; Tacy, the widow of Elder William
S. Gamboe, of the Christian Church, now residing at
Lexington ; and Jolly Barnett, of this notice.
Jolly Barnett Pharis acquired his educational train-
ing in the public schools of Clark County, and when
still a youth entered the store in company with his
brother, Sidney, who was already the proprietor of
an establishment at Ruckerville. This partnership con-
tinued for two years, when their brother-in-law, Wil-
liam S. Gamboe, took over Sidney Pharis' interest, but
two or three years later this was purchased by Jolly
B. Pharis, who continued as sole proprietor until 1892.
In that year he removed to Winchester, where he
bought a grocery stock and continued in business until
1893, and then entered the office of the Chesapeake &
Ohio Railroad at Winchester, remaining in the service
o-f that road until 1901. At that time Dick Ware, an
old merchant at Schollsville, died, worth $500,000, and
Mr. Pharis, sensing an opportunity, purchased his.
old location and his large stock. Four years later he
bought the present store, including forty-five acres of
land, and enlarged store and stock, since which time
he has been successful in increasing his trade each
year. He has also secured an adjacent residence, where
he makes his home.
In 1908 Mr. Pharis became railroad agent at Hedges,
which is the name of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad
station and the post office for the old Village of Scholls-
ville, the station of the railroad being a quarter of a
mile distant from the store. He is also engaged
successfully in farming and has raised a nice bunch
of hogs annually for the past several years. While
at Ruckerville, Mr. Pharis served as postmaster, as
he has also at Hedges, the post office being located in
the railroad station, but he is entirely without aspira-
tion for public position and has merely accepted office
as a part of the duties of citizenship and not as a
means of attaining public or political prominence. In
his political views he inclines toward republicanism,
and for several years served as secretary of the Repub-
lican County Central Committee of Clark County.
At the age of twenty years Mr. Pharis was united
in marriage with Miss Florence Fox, who was reared
in the home of her grandmother, Mrs. Polly Bush, her
mother having died when she was five years of age,
and her father, Dillard Fox, being also deceased at
this time. The following children have been born to
Mr. and Mrs. Pharis : Alma, who is the wife of H. W.
Stevenson, an agriculturist in the community of Kidd-
ville, Clark County; William Dillard, a street railway
employe of Detroit, Michigan, who served in the 339th
Regiment and was nine months in Northern Russia
during the great World war ; Oscar Harding, in the
employ of a wholesale house at Detroit; Anna Car-
lisle, who resides with her parents and assists in the
conduct of the store as a stenographer; Loula, who is
a stenographer of Detroit, Michigan; Jolly Brown,
connected with a manufacturing concern at Detroit;
and Floyd Fox, who resides with his parents.
Mr. Pharis possesses in ample degree those qualities
that combine to make up the character of a successful
merchant, extending accommodation readily, being
ever ready to serve customers in a courteous way, and
carrying a modern stock that appeals to the demands
of his trade. The steady growth of his business evi-
dences its success and indicates in its development that
Mr. Pharis has chosen well in his life work.
Dr. Arthur Weir Johnstone. The Johnstone fam-
ily, as represented by the late Dr. Arthur Weir John-
stone and his sisters, Mary Johnstone and Alice
Johnstone, have for many years been identified with
the social and historical life of Danville and other
parts of the State of Kentucky, and before entering
on the more immediate features of the life and achieve-
ments of Dr. Arthur W. Johnstone, who died on Sep-
tember 28, 1905, a brief sketch of the family descent
will not be inappropriate.
Arthur Weir Johnstone was descended through Dr.
Thomas Walker, Lieutenant Willis Green, and Joshua
Fry, Jr., and was a son of Rev. Robert Alexander and
Anna (Peachy) Johnstone, and was born on July IS,
1853. A grandson of Judge John Green and Sarah
Adams Fry; great-grandson of Willis Green and Sarah
Reed and of Joshua Fry, Jr., and Peachy Walker ;
great-great-grandson of Thomas Walker and Mildred
Thornton Merriweather.
Thomas Walker was born in 1715 and died in 1793;
he was a member of the last House of Burgesses and
served on the Committee of Safety.
Joshua Fry, Jr., was born in 1760 and died in 1839.
He enlisted at the age of fifteen ; he was placed on
the pension roll of Garrard County, Kentucky, for
services in the Virginia Militia.
Willis Green was born in 1752 and died in 1813. He
served as ensign in Grayson's Continental Regiment ;
he was promoted to second lieutenant and resigned in
1788. Willis Green was born in Fauquier County, Vir-
ginia, and died in Lincoln County, Kentucky. He rep-
resented Jefferson County in the Virginia Assembly.
Dr. Arthur W. Johnstone, of this sketch, was, at the
age of nineteen years, a graduate of Center College,
Danville. He then took up the study of medicine and
was a student of Dr. John D. Jackson, of Danville,
for one year, and spent a similar period in New Or-
leans, later going to Philadelphia. Finally, he grad-
uated from the New York College of Physicians and
Surgeons, and following his graduation he moved to
Danville, where he practiced his profession for a time.
In the early part of 1886, Doctor Johnstone, desir-
ing to extend the scope of his medical research, made
a trip to Birmingham, England, and there for a period
of six months he studied with Dr. Lawson Tait, well
known as an eminent surgeon. During that time Doc-
tor Johnstone appeared before the British Gynaecolog-
ical Society in London, where he read a valuable arti-
cles on microscopical work, which was the outcome
of original research on his part. Because of his work
along the line indicated he was made a member of the
British Gynaecological Society and also was made a
member of the same society in America the same year,
being only thirty-three years old. These two honors
were extended to him for his efforts, to advance the
science of his profession.
Doctor Johnstone returned to America in July, 1886,
and in the following year he built a private hospital
in Danville, Kentucky. In 1890 he formed a partner-
ship with Dr. Thaddeus Raemy, of Cincinnati, Ohio,
and at the end of one year he established his own hos-
pital at Walnut Hills, Cincinnati, and he continued to
maintain and guide this establishment up to the time
of his death. Under Doctor Johnstone's management
116
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
the hospital became noted over a wide area, and here
he specializes in abdominal surgery with remarkable
success, the fame of his surgical operations extending
beyond the confines of the state of Ohio. With the
passing of Doctor Johnstone, surgical science suffered
a loss, leaving a gap to be filled by some other mem-
ber of the noble profession, to the advancement of
which he had given all the active years of his worthy
life.
On May 27, 1897, Doctor Johnstone was united in
marriage to Miss Ethel Ann Chamberlin, of Cincinnati,
Ohio, and to this union two children were born : Ethel
Ann, born on June 23, 1898, and Roberta Alexander
born on September 27, 1899.
Here it is fitting to introduce the name of John
James Hogsett. a native of Grant County, Kentucky,
where he was born on June 16, 1849. He was gradu-
ated from Center College in 1872 and was a member
of the Kappa Alpha fraternity, a member of the
Chamberlin Literary Society, attached to the college,
and was valedictorian of his class. After his gradua-
tion, Mr. Hogsett returned to his home and taught
school in Crittenden, Grant County, until 1879.
In June, 1879, Mr. Hogsett was married to Mary
Johnstone, of Danville, eldest sister of Dr. Arthur
Weir Johnstone, whose name introduces this biog-
raphical sketch. In 1882 Mr. Hogsett and his wife*
moved to Harrodsburg, where he took charge of the
academy at that place and there remained in the
scholastic training of youths for five years. At the
end of that period he opened a school at Danville,
known as the Hogsett School, and of which he con-
tinued as head until his death, which occurred on
January 31, 1891. The school, following Mr. Hogsett's
death, was continued as a military academy — continu-
ing to bear his name— until June, 1901, when it was
closed. Mr. Hogsett was an earnest member of the
Presbyterian church, of which he was an elder for
many years. Mr. and Mrs. Hogsett became the parents
of two children, Robert Alexander, born on July 29,
1882, and Mary Griffith, born on June 22, 1887. Robert
Alexander Hogsett graduated from Center College in
1901, following which he entered business at St. Louis,
Missouri, and is now in Cleveland, Ohio, where he
manages the liability department of the Travelers In-
surance Company of Hartford, Connecticut. He was
married in November, 1914, to Miss Mary Jane Reid,
of Danville. Mary Griffith Hogsett was educated
privately in Danville and at Washington, D. C. On
the death of her mother she returned to Danville,
where she lives with her aunt and where she fills a
clerical position with the Electric Light Company.
Mary Johnstone, who became the wife of John
James Hogsett and mother of the children just men-
tioned in the preceding paragraph, was educated in
Caldwell College (now Kentucky College for Women)
at Danville, Kentucky, and from that institution she
was graduated in 1867. In 1901 she moved to Wash-
ington, D. C, and there her last days were spent.
Miss Alice Johnstone, second child of Robert Alex-
ander and Anna (Peachy) Johnstone, was born on
August 13, 1851, and was educated at Caldwell College.
She is now living in the old ancestral home at Dan-
ville, regarded and esteemed as one of Danville's most
estimable citizens. Miss Johnstone is known to be a
veritable storehouse of historical memories in con-
nection with the growth and development of Kentucky
from its earliest days up to the present, and she readily
places at the disposal of all interested her valuable
and authentic knowledge of the people and the times
in which she has lived, having seen, as she did, Ken-
tucky grow from small proportions to a state of large
importance in the vast commonwealth comprised in
the United States.
Abram Renick. A man of splendid initiative, pro-
gressiveness and constructive genius was the late
Abram Renick, of Clark County, Kentucky, who marked
the fleeting years with large and worthy achievement
in the sphere of productive industry and loyal and lib-
eral citizenship. He became one of the foremost
figures in the breeding of short-horn cattle in America,
in which field he was a pioneer, the Renick herd of fine
short-horn cattle being still maintained on his fine old
landed estate in Clark County, and being, in point of
continuity, the oldest herd in the United States. In
his activities as a breeder of short-horn cattle Mr.
Renick achieved a financial success and a reputation
that have not been equalled by any other breeder in
this country. The same ability and sterling qualities
of character that enabled him to accomplish a great
work along this line marked his course in connection
with all other relations of life, and gave to him prom-
inence and influence in community affairs, as well as
inviolable place in popular confidence and esteem. The
fine estate which this honored citizen accumulated
passed as a heritage to four brothers, his great-nephews,
and the prestige of the Renick herd of short-horns
is being specially well maintained by his namesake,
Abram Renick, Jr., one of these four brothers, of whom
specific mention is made in the sketch following.
George Renick, father of the subject of this memoir,
was a scion of a sterling family that was founded in
Virginia in the early colonial period of our national
history, and there he was reared to manhood. In 1793
George Renick came from Greenbriar, Virginia, to
Kentucky, and girded himself for the pioneer activities
that had been previously the portion of his American
forebears. The original progenitors came from the
Rhine Province of Germany fully 400 years ago and
first settled in Pennsylvania, whence emigration was
soon afterward made to Virginia, the original German
orthograph of the family name having been Reinwick.
In coming to Kentucky, then on the frontier of civil-
ization, George Renick transported his little supply of
personal effects on pack horses, and he was accom-
panied by his wife, whose maiden name was Magda-
lene Reid, and by their two children, John and James.
George Renick thus became one of the very early set-
tlers in Clark County, and the land which he here
obtained has continued, to a large extent, in possession
of the Renick family to the present day. The substan-
tial old house which he erected on the farm now owned
by Abram Renick, Jr., six miles northwest of Win-
chester, is still in an excellent state of preservation
and is one of the interesting landmarks of this section
of the state. George Renick was in middle life at the
time of his death. Of his six children four were born
after the removal to Kentucky. The son, John, was
one of the pioneer gunsmiths in this section of Ken-
tucky, and it may readily be understood that there
was ample demand for his productions in this line, as
weapons of that sort were an essential equipment in
all pioneer homes, in which wild game supplied a large
part of the provender. John Renick found satisfaction
in the work of his shop and in hunting expeditions,
and seems to have manifested no special desire to
accumulate property. In possession of the family are
still found one or more specimens of handicraft, the
gun-stocks being inlaid with shells. John Renick reared
a large family of children, and two of his sons, George
and Felix, emigrated, in 1840, to Independence, Mis-
souri, in which section of the state are to be found
today many of their descendants. James, the second
son of George Renick, remained in Kentucky and be-
came an influential figure in political and general public
affairs. He was a man of strong intellectuality and
broad and accurate information. He familiarized him-
self with the record of every member of Congress,
and his counsel was frequently sought by Shankland,
who at the time represented this district of Kentucky
in the United States Congress. James Renick was an
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
117
effective public speaker and was at all times ready to
defend his well fortified convictions relative to economic
and governmental affairs, besides which he was a close
and appreciative student of the Bible. He was a man
of powerful physique and continued vigorous and active
until he was eighty-eight years of age, even then show-
ing his ability to cut his own wood. He volunteered
for service in the War of 1812, under Captain Isaac
Cunningham, of Clark County, and proceeded with his
command into Michigan, where he was assigned to the
guarding of the horses of the American troops on the
occasion of the battle of Perry's victory on Lake Erie.
In later years he recalled his experience in this con-
nection and related how fish were crowded out of the
water inlet of the lake by the heavy cannonading, and
out of a nearby and diminutive inlet of Lake Erie.
Mr. Renick endured the full tension and experience
of the pioneer days and continued his vital interest
in men and affairs until the close of his long and worthy
life. He married Miss Elizabeth Renick, a daughter
of Felix Renick, of Chillicothe, Ohio, a brother of
George Renick, the founder of the family in Clark
County, Kentucky. James Renick and his wife thus
were first cousins. James and Elizabeth Renick had
but one child, William H., of whom more specific men-
tion will be made in a later paragraph. William Renick,
third son of George, the Kentucky pioneer, resided for
a time in Southwestern Kentucky, but he eventually
returned to Clark County, where his death occurred.
Family traditions and records mark him chiefly as an
ardent devotee to the sport of hunting deer, foxes and
other wild game, with the aid of his well trained
hounds. Abram Renick, to whom this memoir is dedi-
cated, was the youngest of the sons of George Renick,
and was born about the year 1803, as indicated by the
fact that he was eighty years of age at the time of his
death, in August, 1883. Matilda, daughter of George
Renick, married Robert Hume and they established
their home in Bourbon County, Kentucky. Magdalene,
the other daughter, became the wife of Dillard Hazel-
rigg, of Montgomery County, and one of then- descend-
ants is Judge Albert Hazelrigg, of that county.
Abram Renick was reared under the conditions and
influences marking the pioneer period in this history of
Clark County, and here he became a remarkably suc-
cessful agriculturist and stockgrower, he having re-
mained a bachelor until his death. About the year
1836 he initiated his activities as a pioneer in the breed-
ing of short-horn cattle, and no other man in the
United States achieved so great and valuable a work
in this special field of enterprise. He gave deep study
to the records of the earlier English breeders, the
Booths, the Callings and the Bates, the last mentioned
of whom was still living at that time, and he spared
neither time nor expense in bringing his herd of short-
horns up to the highest standard. In 1846, he purchased
fine breeding stock at the sale of the Ohio Importing
Company, at Chillicothe, Ohio, his uncle, Felix Renick,
of that place, having been agent for this company.
Abram Renick did a splendid service in the furtherance
of the cattle industry in his native land, and many of
his records and letters, of surpassing interest, as touch-
ing his progressive operations as a stock breeder, are
retained as valued heirlooms by representatives of the
family at the present time. His famous short-horn
cow purchased at the sale above noted was "Tames," a
descendant of the imported "Rose of Sharon." This
animal became the founder of the Renick herd of the
Rose of Sharon family of short-horn cattle, a herd
known to cattle breeders throughout the entire world.
Mr. Renick was insistent in maintaining the purity and
integrity of his short-horn blood, and it was largely
due to this policy that he achieved such remarkable
success. In the '60s he began to win honors for his
exhibits at fairs and stock shows, and in the following
decade he began to appear as a competitor for world's
honors, by exhibiting at state fairs and fat-stock shows
in Missouri, Illinois, Ohio, Iowa, New York and other
commonwealths. On each exhibit he won high pre-
miums and added to the reputation of his herd and
incidentally of his home state. His exhibits usually
included a herd of several head, together with individual
exhibits, and through his well ordered efforts he lived
to see his stock exported to every country where the
best type of live stock is appreciated. He was one
American breeder whose stock was exported for the
purpose to improve foreign herds. His fine stock farm
was visited by leading breeders and other men of distinc-
tion, including members of the foreign nobility and
aristocracy, including Lord Dunmore and the Earl of
Bective. In 1876, his stock was exhibited at Smithfield,
England, where it won the world's first honors, over
Queen Victoria's champion cow.
Mr. Renick was an enthusiast in his chosen sphere
of endeavor, and while he won large financial success
he had no special desire for wealth, but was unassuming,
generous and considerate in his association with his
fellow men, loyal and liberal as a citizen, and ever ready
to do all in his power for his friends, to many of
whom he presented valuable breeding stock from his
celebrated herd. His fine stock farm, of 2,500 acres, in
Clark County, has been pronounced one of the finest
bodies of land in Kentucky, and he made upon the
same the best of improvements. He delighted to extend
to his host of friends the gracious hospitality of his
beautiful home, in which were found frequently on
Sundays dinner guests to the number of twenty or more.
He sold stock simply on representation, as his reputation
was such that stock-growers had implicit confidence
in him. Often his bull calves would be sold before
they were born, for $500. For one bull he refused a
price of $20,000, and at one time he sold six yearling
heifers for $40,000. Mr. Renick was a recognized au-
thority in stock-breeding, especially in his special line,
and he was secure and independent in his judgment, with
the self-confidence born of long and successful experi-
ence. He lived a sane, kindly and benignant life, and
his memory is revered by those who were drawn to
him in bonds of close and appreciative friendship. He
continued his active interest in his fine herd to the time
of his death, and had on exhibit representatives from
the herd at the very time when his life came to a
close.
William H. Renick, son of James and Elizabeth
Renick. mentioned in a preceding division of this review,
married Miss Martha A. Morris, of Scott County, and
she survives him, his death having occurred in 1914.
His four sons who inherited the fine estate of his
bachelor uncle, the late Abram Renick, were Morris W.,
who is president of the First National Bank at Middle-
town, Ohio, where he is engaged also in manufacturing;
James Scott Renick (deceased), to whom a personal
memoir is dedicated on other pages of this work ;
Abram, Jr., whose personal sketch immediately follows
this article ; and Brinkley Messick Renick owner of the
business conducted under the title of the Paris Milling
Company, at Paris, Kentucky.
Abram Renick, Jr. Of the four brothers, his grand-
nephews, upon whom the late Abram Renick, subject
of the foregoing memoir, bequeathed his large and
valuable estate, his namesake,' of this sketch, is the
one upon whom has devolved the continuance of the
great industrial enterprise in which Abram Renick, Sr.,
gained so great success, celebrity and distinction, as is
adequately shown in the preceding article. Abram
Renick, Jr., who was born in Bourbon County Kentucky,
November 10, 1863, is a son of William H. Renick, who
is mentioned in the preceding sketch. Abram, Jr., had
grown up in close association with his grand-uncle, in
whose honor he was named, and had learned under his
direction the latter's policies in the furtherance of the
short-horn cattle industry, so that there has been singular
118
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
consistency in the fact that both in his name and his
work he is perpetuating the fame of his honored kins-
man. At the death of Abram Renick, Sr., the subject
of this review assumed the practical management of the
estate, of which adequate description is given in the
preceding article, and after requisite sales had been
made and the property had been apportioned in accord-
ance with the wishes of the former owner, Mr. Renick
assumed control of his heritage, which included the fine
old homestead of his grand-uncle, together with 750
acres of the landed estate. Here he has continued
successfully and with appreciative energy and progres-
siveness the breeding of the finest type of short-horn
cattle from the original stock for which the estate has
become world-famed, and thus his herd of short-horn
cattle retains prestige as the oldest continuous herd of
the kind in the United States, even as it is one of the
most important. Mr. Renick has continued to make
exhibits at the leading fairs and stock shows, including
the great International Stock Show at Chicago, the
largest and most important in the world.
Mr. Renick was president of the American Shorthorn
Breeders Association in 1911 and prior to that had been
a member of the board of directors and the executive
committee for twenty years. He was instrumental in
organizing the Pedigreed Livestock Association of
America, was its first president and was unanimously
elected to succeed himself in that office for a second
term.
In addition to being one of the prominent figures in
the industrial life of his native state Mr. Renick has
been influential in political affairs, as a vigorous advocate
of the principles of the Democratic party. He rep-
resented Clark County in the Kentucky Legislature in
the sessions of 1900 and 1902, and there made a splendid
record, especially in the promotion of legislation tending
to advance agricultural and live-stock industry in the
state. It was primarily through his efforts that the
Legislature made" its first appropriation in support of
the Kentucky State Fair, and the result has been a
distinct impetus to the adoption of better and more
scientific methods and policies in connection with farm
enterprise in all parts of the state. Mr. Renick was
instrumental also in effecting the passing of several
bills for the further benefit of the farmers, and he was
specially vigorous in representing the interest of his
constituent district.
In February, 1889, was recorded the marriage of
Mr. Renick to Miss Julia Fry, of Clinton County, Mis-
souri, and her death occurred in 1904. Of this union
were born three children : Virginia remains at the
paternal home; Cornelia is the wife of Lindsay L.
Cockrell, of Winchester, judicial center of Clark
County; and Felix is secretary and treasurer of the
New York Petroleum Exchange. Felix Renick was but
eighteen years of age when he was graduated in old
Centre College, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts,
and in the following year he received the degree of
Master of Arts from Princeton University, New Jersey.
Thereafter he completed the curriculum of the law
school of the University of Kentucky, in which he was
graduated with highest honors and from which he re-
ceived the degree of Bachelor of Laws, with virtually
coincident admission to the bar of his native state. In
1905 was solemnized the marriage of Abram Renick, Jr.,
to Bessie McGee Fry of Clinton County, Missouri.
Samuel G. Robinson, one of the able attorneys of
Monroe County, who is engaged in a general criminal
and civil practice at Tompkinsville, has had a broad
and varied experience in many legal lines, involving the
trying of many causes, and is a fine example of the
self-made men of this region, having secured the
money for prosecuting his education by teaching school.
As a citizen he has displayed a broad-gauged appre-
ciation of the responsibilities resting upon the consci-
entious man and has given a constructive support to all
measures which have had for their object the better-
ment of the public service.
Mr. Robinson was born on a farm near Fountain
Run, Monroe County, Kentucky, September 9, 1886, a
son of James G. Robinson, and grandson of Theodore
Lewis, who was born in Tennessee in June, 1820, and
died near Fountain Run, Kentucky, March 11, 191 1.
He was one of the very early settlers of Fountain
Run to which he came in young manhood, and there
he was married to Eliza T. Newman, a native of the
vicinity, who died there in 1905. Their daughter,
Louisa T. Lewis became the wife of James G. Robin-
son, and the mother of Samuel G. Robinson. Mr.
Lewis was a very extensive farmer of Monroe County.
During the war between the states he served in the
Union army.
James G. Robinson was born in Tennessee in 1827,
and died near Fountain Run, Kentucky, in 189(5. He
was reared in his native state which he left after he
had attained his majority, and coming to Kentucky
found congenial surroundings and ample opportunities
near Fountain Run, and here he continued to reside,
being engaged in farming and working at the carpen-
ter trade. His vote was always cast tor candidates of
the republican party. Early uniting with the Baptist
Church he continued a member of that denomination
until his death, and was a very strong churchman.
Louisa T. Lewis was his second wife, and she was
born near Fountain Run in 1849, and died at Tompkins-
ville, April 19, 1920. Their children were as follows:
Lemuel, who lives at Scottsville, Kentucky, is a clergy-
man of the Baptist Church; Andrew Jackson, who is
a farmer, resides near Flippin, Monroe County, Ken-
tucky ; W. T., who is a farmer, resides near Tompkins-
ville; Alice, who married George Overstreet, a farmer,
lives four miles east of Tompkinsville; T. J., who is
a farmer, lives three miles east of Tompkinsville, and
he also officiates as a clergyman of the Baptist Church ;
and Samuel G., who is the youngest of the family.
Growing up in his native locality Samuel G. Robin-
son attended its rural schools, the Fountain Run High
School and the Tompkinsville High School, com-
pleting the latter when twenty-four years old. In
the meanwhile he began teaching school, having charge
of the one at New Design, Monroe County, and at the
same time read law in the office of Edwin Lawrence
at Tompkinsville. In 1915 he passed the state examina-
tions and was admitted to the bar. Immediately there-
after he began the practice of his profession, with
offices in Room 8, Deposit Bank Building.
In politics he is a republican, but confines his service
in this respect to supporting his party candidates. The
Baptist Church holds his membership. He belongs to
Tompkinsville Camp No. 13476, M. W. A. Mr. Robin-
son owns a modern residence on Cherry Street, where
he maintains a comfortable home. As a loyal citizen
of his country, when it was at war, he took an active
part in the local war work, specializing on assisting
the recruited men of Monroe County to fill out their
questionnaires, and was unremitting in his efforts. He
also helped to put over all of the drives, making
speeches in Monroe County in behalf of the Red Cross
and Liberty Bonds, his eloquence and sincerity result-
ing in very gratifying returns.
In 1914 Mr. Robinson was married at Tompkinsville,
to Miss Mary Woods, a daughter of Andy and Sallie
(Fisher) Woods, both of whom are deceased. Mr.
Woods was one of the prosperous farmers of Monroe
County. Mr. and Mrs. Robinson became the parents
of the following children : Mildred, who was born
June 16, 1914; Ammon J., who was born December 16,
1915; Oline, who was born December 13, 1916; Thelma,
who was born August 3, 1918; and Lawrence Carter,
who was born March 29, 1920. In his various cases
Mr. Robinson has proven that he is a lawyer of broad
and practical ability, thorough, determined, alert, ver-
satile and resourceful, and these qualities have given
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
119
him a substantial standing in the community where
he has passed all of the years of his professional
career.
Benjamin F. Denham is one of the able lawyers of
Tompkinsville, and also one of its versatile, broad and
strong citizens, who is recognized as one of the lead-
ing men of Monroe County. He was born in Clay
County, Tennessee, January 19, 1862. He was reared
in this county on a farm. His preliminary educational
training was received in the rural schools of Monroe
County, and he later attended the Summer Shade In-
stitute at Summer Shade, Metcalfe County, Kentucky.
Still later he was a student of the Monroe Normal
School at Flippin, Monroe County, Kentucky, leaving
it when he was twenty-six years old. In the mean-
while, when twenty-four years old he had begun teach-
ing school in Monroe County, and for twenty-five years
remained in the educational field, but the last twelve
years of this period he was employed as a teachers'
trainer, and went about the county visiting the various
schools in order to properly instruct the teachers. A
man of high ambitions while he was thus engaged, he
read law, and in 1909 was admitted to the bar, and
entered into another phase of his career. In 1910 he
established himself in a general civil and criminal
practice at Tompkinsville, and has built up very valu-
able connections. His offices are in Room 5, Deposit
Bank Building. He owns a modern residence just
west of the corporate limits of Tompkinsville, where
he maintains a comfortable home. He is a democrat.
The Christian Church affords him an expression for
his religious creed, and he is equally zealous as a
Mason, maintaining membership with Flippin Lodge
No. 647, F. & A. M. During the late war he was one
of the active workers in behalf of the local activities,
serving as chairman of the Speakers Bureau of Monroe
County, and rendered very valuable aid in all of the
drives. He bought bonds and contributed to all of
the war organizations to the full limit of his re-
sources.
In 1894 Mr. Denham was united in marriage with
Miss Margaret Denham, a distant relative, a daughter
of Thomas and Jennie (Dalton) Denham, both of
whom are now deceased. Mr. Denham was a farmer
of Barren County, Kentucky, but Mr. and Mrs. B. F.
Denham were married in Monroe County. Their chil-
dren are as follows : Homer, who was born in 1896,
served in the Forty-sixth Infantry, Headquarters Com-
pany during the World war, was stationed first at
Indianapolis, Indiana, was then transferred to Louis-
ville, Kentucky, then to Camp Gordon, Georgia, and
thence to Camp Dix, New Jersey, and was ready to
sail overseas when the Armistice was signed, and he
is now at Fort Travis, Texas, having remained in the
service, and Ethel, who is unmarried, lives at home.
During the years that he was engaged in teaching
Mr. Denham won the affection of his pupils and the
appreciation of their parents, and so successful were
his methods that they attracted the attention and met
the approval of the school authorities to such an extent
that tbey decided to have him impart them to other
teachers. In the latter capacity Mr. Denham rendered
such valuable service that all were loath to have him
resign, and so insistant were they that he continue, that
he remained in the work for a year after he was quali-
fied to enter upon the practice of the law. Since be-
coming an attorney, Mr. Denham has gained a well-
earned reputation for careful preparation of his cases
and an earnest attention to detail which have resulted
in his winning a number of his suits. He has never
lost his sense of responsibility to the younger genera-
tion which lives in the heart of every successful edu-
cator, and is always striving to work for the future
of those coming after him in his home community.
Personally he has many enthusiastic friends, who
appreciate his many excellent qualities and are proud
of the distinction he has gained.
Walter William Hillenmeyer is a member of the
firm H. F. Hillenmeyer & Sons, Nurserymen at Lex-
ington, a successful and widely patronized business
that has been conducted by members of the Hillen-
meyer family in Fayette County for eighty years. Mr.
Hillenmeyer is a son of H. F. Hillenmeyer, whose
career as an honored citizen of Fayette County is
sketched on other pages.
Walter W. Hillenmeyer was born on his father's
farm in Fayette County, August 27, i8yi. He was well
educated, attending private schools in Cincinnati, St.
Mary's College at Lebanon, Kentucky, and the Ken-
tucky University. He was nineteen when in 1910 he
and his brother Louis E. Hillenmeyer took over the
active management of the nursery business established
and for many years conducted by their father. Walter
Hillenmeyer is the office manager while his brother
Louis is outside superintendent, and together they have
worked steadily for the enlargement, the better quality
of stock, and the increasing prestige of this business.
Mr. Hillenmeyer is a Catholic and in politics in-
dependent. He is a member of the Lexington Kiwanis
Club. September 21, 1915, he married Marie C. Reil-
ing, who was born in Louisville, Kentucky, daughter
of William D. and Mary (Gerst) Reiling. Her mother
is still living. Her father was born in Louisville in
1865 and died July 6, 1897. He was founder of the
Louisville Girth & Blanket Mills at Louisville, estab-
lishing that industry when a young man and was also
secretary and treasurer of the Crystal Springs Dis-
tillery Company. He was a republican and a member
of the Lutheran Church. Mrs. Hillenmeyer is the
oldest of three children. Her brother is Henry B.
and her sister Adelia is the wife of James A. Means
of Louisville. Mr. and Mrs. Hillenmeyer have three
sons, Walter William Jr., Herbert Francis and Henry
Reiling H.
Thomas F. Cleaver, M. D., whose residence and
professional headquarters are maintained at Lebanon,
the judicial center of Marion County, is in every sense
one of the representative physicians and surgeons of
this section of his native state, and such is his ability
and reputation in his profession that he is frequently
called into counsel in connection with critical cases in
several other counties in Central Kentucky, including
Washington, Taylor, Green and Adair counties. His
professional prestige and high standing as a citizen
are specially pleasing to note, in view of the fact that
as a physician and surgeon he has effectively continued
the humane service that engaged the attention of his
honored father in this immediate section of the state
for a period of more than half a century. Like his
father, he has maintained a high sense of personal
and professional stewardship, has never failed to re-
spond to the call of suffering and distress, no matter
how inclement the weather, poor the condition of the
roads to be traversed, often in the night hours, _ or
how problematical his compensation for services
rendered. The poor and unfortunate have received
from him the same kindly and able ministrations, with-
out question of his reception of a fee, as have those
of wealth and influence. Under these conditions it
is needless to say that he has inviolable place in the
confidence and affectionate regard of the community
in which he has maintained his home from the time
of his birth to the present.
Doctor Cleaver was born at Lebanon, on the 25th of
November, 1865, and is a son of Dr. William W. and
Joana (Grundy) Cleaver, the former of whom like-
wise was a native of Marion County, and the latter
was born on her father's farm near Bardstown, Nelson
County. Her father was a brother of Felix B. Grundy,
Vol. V— 12
120
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
of Bowling Green, who gained repute as one of the
foremost criminal lawyers of Kentucky, his apprecia-
tion of professional ethics being such that he would
never consent to appear as counsel for the defense of
any accused person until he was convinced that that
person was innocent. His sole aim was to make the
law the conservator of justice.
Dr. William W. Cleaver was reared on his father's
farm and received the advantages of the common
schools of Marion County. At the age of nineteen
years he began reading medicine in the office and under
the preceptorship of the late Dr. John Mike Shuck, of
Lebanon, and later he entered the medical school of
the Louisville University, in which institution he was
graduated as a member of the class of 1854. He was
continuously engaged in practice at Lebanon for fifty-
seven years, save for the period of his service to the
Confederacy in the Civil war. He became a surgeon
in the command of General John Morgan, the cele-
brated raider, was captured by the enemy and was
thereafter held a prisoner at Fort Delaware until the
close of the war, when he was paroled. He was thus
a prisoner of war at the time of the birth of his son
Thomas F., subject of this review. After the war
he continued in the active and successful practice of
his profession at Lebanon until his death, July 4, 191 1,
at the venerable age of eighty-four years. No man in
this section of Kentucky held more secure vantage-
place in popular confidence and esteem, and his ability
in his profession led to his being called into counsel
at frequent intervals in several counties adjacent to
or near that in which he maintained his home. He
kept in close touch with the advances made in medical
and surgical science, was affiliated with leading pro-
fessional organizations, including the American Medi-
cal Association, and was influential in community af-
fairs. He represented Marion County in the State
Legislature during one term, in 1889, and served sev-
eral years as mayor of Lebanon. His wife was
seventy-nine years of age at the time of her death. He
was a staunch advocate of the principles of the demo-
cratic party, was affiliated with the Masonic fraternity
of Lebanon, Kentucky, and he and his wife held mem-
bership in the Presbyterian Church. Of the children
the first born was James F., who became a skilled
physician and surgeon and who was engaged in active
practice at Lebanon at the time of his death, about
thirty-five years ago. George H. died in the City of
New Orleans as a victim of the yellow fever epidemic
of 1890, he having been the owner of a plantation in
Louisiana. Esther, the eldest daughter, became the
wife of Dr. Archie Rose, who thereafter was engaged
in practice at Lebanon about five years, at the expira-
tion of which he established his home at Vernal, Utah,
where he continued in the work of his profession until
his death, in April, 1919, and where his widow still
resides. Willie, the second daughter, is the wife of
Rev. George A. Blair, a clergyman of the Presbyterian
Church, and they now reside at Santa Barbara, Cali-
fornia, where Rev. Blair holds a pastoral charge.
Lucy H., who died when thirty-six years of age was
the wife of George W. McElroy, a prominent farmer
and stock-grower of Marion County, who resides at
Lebanon. Mrs. McElroy showed exceptional literary
talent and was the author of several novels that have
had extended circulation, including 'Answered," and
"Juliette and Mary." Mr. and Mrs. McElroy became
the parents of four sons and two daughters. Dr.
Thomas F. Cleaver, of this review, was the next in
order of birth. David Irvine, the youngest of the
children, died at the age of six months.
After completing the curriculum of the public
schools of Lebanon and having received preliminary
instruction in the office of his father, Dr. Thomas F.
Cleaver entered the medical department of the Uni-
versity of Louisville, and from this institution, his
father's alma mater, he received his degree of Doctor
of Medicine in 1887. He was graduated with the hon-
ors of his class, and upon him was conferred the Yan-
dell medal. During his three years in the medical
school he never missed a lecture and was never late
in appearing in the lecture room. From the time of
his graduation to the present he has been actively en-
gaged in general practice at Lebanon, where he has
not only upheld the paternal prestige of the family
name in this exacting profession but has also added
materially to the honors of the name which he bears —
both as a skilled physician and surgeon and as a loyal,
liberal and progressive citizen. His practice extends
throughout the county, and in its scope and character
attests the high estimate placed upon him as a physician
and as a man. The Doctor has never deviated from
the line of strict allegiance to the cause of the republi-
can party, but has subordinated all else to the demands
of his profession and has had neither time nor inclina-
tion for public office. During the late World war he
did all in his power to uphold the Government in its
war activities, and was a member of the medical ad-
visory board for the counties of Marion, Washington,
Adair, Taylor and Green. Many of the meetings of
this important board were held in his offices and here
examinations were made of those called into the na-
tion's military or naval service from the counties
of the Presbyterian Church in their home city, and
he is affiliated with the American Medical Association,
the Kentucky State Medical Society and the Marion
County Medical Society.
The year 1898 recorded the marriage of Doctor
Cleaver to Miss Mamie A. Nutting, of Indianapolis,
Indiana, she being a representative of an old and in-
fluential family of the Hoosier State. Since her mar-
riage Mrs. Cleaver has invented the Cleaver Horse
Blanket, and of these remarkably superior blankets
the sales had reached an aggregate of $20,000 before
Mrs. Cleaver had obtained her patent on the invention.
She is also a chicken fancier and grower, and has
devised and placed on the market a valuable poultry
remedy, known as "Stopsit," the sale of which has
been large and is constantly expanding. The remedy
is now sold to poultry raisers in many different states
of the Union. She is the inventor, manufacturer and
sole sales agent for this remedy. During the nation's
participation in the World war, Mrs. Cleaver was tire-
less in her loyal service in support of the Government's
war activities. She was the executive head of the
Victor Loan Committee of Marion County, was zealous
in Red Cross work, and by Herbert Hoover, head of
food conservation service, she was made the chairman
of the committee in charge of this service in Marion
County. Under her vigorous direction the women of
Marion County gained for the third Government war
loan subscriptions considerably in advance of the as-
signed quota for the county. Mrs. Cleaver was also
chairman of the National Defense Committee for
Marion County. In church work she has been most
zealous and influential, and for some time held the
position of state secretary of the home-mission work
of the Presbyterian Church in Kentucky. She has
been a leader in movements for civic betterment and
also in the representative social life of her home com-
munity. She was chairman of the Woman's Republi-
can Club of Marion County in the campaign of 1920,
and in her home city she has organized two literary
clubs — the Thoreau Club, in 1895, and the Monday
Study Club, in 1915. Dr. and Mrs. Cleaver have no
children.
Hon. Andrew Comer Pinckley. When it is taken
into consideration that the great majority of people
never rise above the ordinary, but live out their lives
in obscurity and, dying, are forgotten, all the more
credit should be accorded those who have demon-
strated the worth of individual endeavor, discharged
the duties of high office with conscientious fidelity and
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
121
enriched the community in which they have lived. In
this connection, mention is made of the career of Hon.
Andrew Comer Pinckley, County Judge of Monroe
County, and an individual who, as agriculturist, citizen
and guardian of a public trust, has been true to his
own principles and to the faith reposed in him.
Judge Pinckley was born in Macon County, Tennes-
see, August IS, 1863, a son of John F. and Ann
(Crawford) Pinckley, and belongs to a family which
originated in England and was founded in this country
in North Carolina, prior to the Revolutionary war,
Judge Pinckley's great-grandfather being the immigrant.
Silas Pinckley, the grandfather of Judge Pinckley, was
born in Tennessee, where he followed farming and
served as County Clerk of Macon County for a number
of years, in later life going to Denton, Texas, where
he likewise was engaged in agricultural operations.
He died while on a visit to Carroll County, Tennessee,
in 1871. Silas Pinckley married a Miss Comer, who
passed her entire life in her native state of Tennessee.
John F. Pinckley was born in 181 8, in Macon
County, Tennessee, where he was reared, educated and
married. After being engaged in farming there, he
went to Texas and followed the pursuits of the soil,
but returned to Macon County, and in 1879 came to
Monroe County, Kentucky, where he rounded out his
industrious and honorable career as a farmer and died
in 1899. He was a republican in his political allegiance
and was a strong churchman of the Christian faith.
Mr. Pinckley married Ann Crawford, who was born
in 1822, near Gamaliel, Monroe County, and died in
Macon County, Tennessee, in 1868, and they became
the parents of the following children : Mary Jane, who
died at the age of forty-six years, as the wife of W. T.
J. Rhodes, now a farmer of Gamaliel ; Elizabeth Ann,
who died at Salt Lick, Tennessee, as the wife of Elias
McDonald, now deceased, who was a farmer of that
locality; Susan, who died aged forty years, as the wife
of William Harlin, a farmer of Macon County, Tennes-
see; Sarah, the wife of John C. Pedigo, a farmer of
Spivy, Macon County; Samuel, who died at the age
of twenty-three years ; Martha, who died as the wife
of the late James S. Jones, a farmer of Flippin, Mon-
roe County, Kentucky; Frances, who died at the age
of seventeen years ; Haskell, who died when twenty-
five years of age ; Tipton, who died aged forty-seven
years, as a farmer of the Flippin community; Annis,
residing on her farm near Cave City, Barren County,
Kentucky, the widow of the late J. B. Johnson, a
farmer of that community; Judge Andrew Comer, of
this record; and Thomas A., a farmer near Sellers-
burg, Indiana. John F. Pinckley married for his sec-
ond wife Miss Mary E. Jones, who was born at
Turkeyneck Bend, Monroe County, Kentucky, and
died in Macon County, Tennessee, and they had two
children : David J., who is engaged in farming in
California ; and Maggie, who died at Flippin, Ken-
tucky, aged thirty-five, as the wife of Robert Howard,
now a farmer at Fountain Run, Monroe County.
Andrew Comer Pinckley was educated in the rural
schools of Macon County, Tennessee, and Monroe
County, Kentucky, and the normal academy at Flippin,
and at the age of twenty years became a teacher in
the Monroe County rural schools. After seven years
of work as an educator he took up farming, in which
he was engaged uninterruptedly until January, ioiS,
when he assumed the duties of County Judge of Mon-
roe County, an office to which he had been elected the
preceding November. His term continues until Janu-
ary, 1922. Judge Pinckley has an excellent record on
the bench, and the manner in which he has discharged
the responsibilities of his mportant office has gained
him general confidence. His offices are in the Court
House at Tompkinsville. Judge Pinckley still owns
his valuable farm of 326 acres, situated at Flippin, but
resides in his own comfortable home on Third Street,
Tompkinsville. Politically he is a republican, but has
never allowed his political opinions to influence his
judicial decisions. He is a member of the Christian
Church, and while farming in the vicinity of Gamaliel
served as elder. Judge Pinckley was active in all war
movements during the recent great conflict, and was
secretary of the Monroe County Chapter of the Ameri-
can Red Cross, in addition to which he contributed
much of his time in assisting the recruited men of the
county to fill out their questionnaires. He likewise was
a generous contributor to all movements, and took a
personal part in assisting to put over the big drives.
Judge Pinckley was married in 1884, at Flippin, to
Miss Lettie Belle Denham, daughter of Isaac and
Amanda (Button) Denham, farming people of Monroe
County, both of whom are now deceased. To this
union there have been born the following children:
Jennie, unmarried, a teacher in the public schools of
Monroe County, who resides with her parents ; May,
who died at the age of thirteen months ; Bessie, the
wife of C. J. Hicks, a farmer of Austin, Barren
County; Dora, twin of Bessie, who died at the age of
six months ; Fred, who served in the United States
Navy from July, 1918, to February, 1919, and is now
engaged in assisting his father in the operation of the
home farm, married Hattie Ross of Monroe County,
Kentucky; W. Henry, who volunteered for limited
service during the World war, was stationed in the
state of Washington, taught school in Monroe County
before entering the war, but now assists in the opera-
tion of his father's farm, married Mae Bratton of
Monroe County, Kentucky; Annie, a student of the
Western Kentucky State Normal School at Bowling
Green, and a teacher in the rural schools of Monroe
County; and Guy, who was a student of the Kentucky
State University, at Lexington, is now attending the
Louisville Medical College.
Alexander B. Thompson. Strength of purpose, in-
telligently directed, results in almost every case in
material advancement. The man who fluctuates from
one line of endeavor to another seldom achieves last-
ing or worth while success. It is the individual who,
knowing well what he desires to accomplish, forges
ahead, undeterred by obstacles, undismayed by the
chances and changes of life, who reaches his ultimate
goal. The entire life of Alexander B. Thompson has
been devoted to the vocation of the educator, and in
his career he has made marked progress. While his
connection with his calling does not cover many years,
he has forged steadily onward, and at present is Super-
intendent of Schools of the City of Edmonton.
Mr. Thompson was born at Evansville, Indiana,
October 23, 1875, a son of Rev. Shadrach F. and Sallie
(Veech) Thompson. The Thompson family originated
in England, whence it came to America during colonial
times, the pioneers of this branch of the family locat-
ing in North Carolina. In that state at Mount Airy
was born Alexander B. Thompson's grandfather,
Isaac Thompson, who passed his entire career in the
locality of his birth and was a large planter and slave
owner. He married a Miss Cleveland, who was also
born and passed her life at Mount Airy, and they were
the parents of four sons and four daughters, all of
whom are now deceased.
Shadrach F. Thompson was born at Mount Airy,
North Carolina, in 1830, and was reared in his native
community, where he made his home until reaching the
age of twenty years. At that time he entered George-
town (Kentucky) College, from which he was duly
graduated in 1853, with the degree of Bachelor of
Arts, and in 1855 was granted the degree of Master
of Arts by the same institution. At that time he
became pastor of the Baptist Church at Shelbyville,
Kentucky, where he remained for ten years, and was
then made secretary of state missions of the Baptist
Church, with headquarters at Louisville, where he re-
sided until 1874. In that year he was transferred to
122
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
Evansville, Indiana, as pastor of the First Baptist
Church, and continued during that and the two follow-
ing years, his next charge being Anderson, Indiana,
where he remained two years. For one year there-
after he filled the pulpit at Ghent, Kentucky, and for
a like period was stationed at Warsaw, this state.
Going then to Louisville, he spent two years as a
student at the Baptist Seminary, and in 1883 went to
Elizabethtown, Kentucky, as pastor of the Baptist
Church, remaining until 1884. For two years there-
after lie was located at Nicholasville, Kentucky, as
pastor, and then went to Shelby County, where he re-
mained, preaching and operating his farm, until 1892.
Mr. Thompson then went to the state of Missouri,
where he preached for two years, after which he re-
turned to Louisville, and from that time until his death
in 1907, lived a practically retired life. He was a
democrat in his political views, but never sought office.
During the Mexican war he enlisted in the United
States Army, but the officers, considering him too
young, would not permit of his being sent to Mexico.
Shadrach F. Thompson married for his first wife Miss
Sallie Veech, who was born in Shelby County, and
died there in 1884. Her grandfather, George Veech,
was born at Cork, Ireland, and was the immigrant of
the family to the United States, becoming a pioneer
at Shelby County. Kentucky, where he established the
old Veech homestead near Finchville. There he
carried on agricultural operations during the remainder
of his life, and died on his farm. He married a Miss
Faulkner, also a native of Ireland, from which country
they came shortly after their union. Among their
children was A. B. Veech, the maternal grandfather of
Mr. Thompson, who was born in Shelby .County and
passed his entire life in the Finchville community. He
was an extensive operator, being the proprietor of
1,000 acres of land, and at his death, in 1884, was
accounted one of the wealthy men of his locality. He
married a Miss Stephens, who was born and passed her
whole life in Shelby County. To Shadrach F. and
Sallie (Veech) Thompson there were born the fol-
lowing children: Martha, who died at Louisville, aged
forty-five years, as the wife of M. T. Sherman, a
bookkeeper ; Mary, who died at the age of twenty
years; Inis, who died at Louisville, at the age of forty-
eight years, as the wife of L. E. Maurer, a stationary
engineer of Lexington, Kentucky ; Effie, the wife of
J. S. Harris, engaged in the insurance business at
Houston, Texas ; August and Emmett, both of whom
died young; Frances, who is a teacher in the public
schools of Louisville; and Olive, the wife of William
Locke, a banker of Houston, Texas. Shadrach F.
Thompson, after the death of his first wife, married
Miss Bettie Powers, who was born in Shelby County.
Kentucky, in 1855, and they became the parents of
three children : Walter, a veteran of the World war,
who is a member of the United States Regular Army,
and is stationed at Fort Snelling, Minnesota; Ruth,
who is unmarried and a teacher in the public schools
of Louisville; and Frankie, who died young.
Alexander B. Thompson received his early education
in the public schools of Kentucky, and in 1892 gradu-
ated from the McCune High School, Louisiana, Mis-
souri. In 1897 he entered Georgetown College, but
his career was interrupted by the Spanish-American
war, for service in which he enlisted in July, 1898, and
was sent to Porto Rico, where he was assigned to
the Quartermaster's Department. Upon his return,
he was mustered out of the service in December, 1898,
and again entered Georgetown College, from which he
was graduated with the class of 1902, receiving the de-
gree of Bachelor of Arts. Mr. Thompson next entered
the Southern Baptist Seminary, and was graduated
therefrom in 1907, receiving the degree of Bachelor of
Theology, and at that time was elected principal of the
Hazard Baptist Institute, a position which he retained
one year. He then became teacher of mathematics in
the Rhandal University School, Hernando, Mississippi,
and remained two years, and in 1910 came to Edmon-
ton as Superintendent of City Schools, a position which
he still retains. He has effected many changes in the
educational system here and has succeeded in elevat-
ing standards to a considerable extent. Under his
supervision are five teachers and 100 pupils, and Mr.
Thompson is popular with instructors and students
alike. He is a member of the Kentucky Educational
Association.
In politics Mr. Thompson is a democrat. His re-
ligious connection is with the Baptist Church, in which
he is serving as superintendent of the Sunday school.
He has always been a supporter of worthy movements,
and this was particularly evident during the World
war, when he was a helpful worker in all the drives
and a generous contributor thereto, in addition to
which he was chief registrar for the recruited men of
Metcalfe County during the first registration, and
chairman of the Victory (fifth) Loan drive, and spent
much time in making speeches throughout the county
in behalf of the various movements. Mr. Thompson
is not married.
James Tudor. While some men achieve success
along certain lines and in certain professions because
of sheer industry, intense application and concentra-
tion, and a long period of training, there are those who
are born to them, their natural leanings and marked
talents pointing unmistakably to the career in which
they subsequently attain distinction. With some, the
call of commerce cannot be denied, to others the
science of healing appeals, the political arena engages
many, while still others early see in their visions of
the future achievement in the law as the summit of
their ambition. To respond to this call, to bend every
energy in this direction, to broaden and deepen every
possibly highway of knowledge and to finally enter
upon this chosen career and find its reward worth
while, such has been the experience of James Tudor,
County Attorney of Metcalfe County, residing at Ed-
monton.
Mr. Tudor was born on a farm near Knob Lick,
Metcalfe County, Kentucky, January 23, 1882, a son
of P. P. and Alice (Terry) Tudor, and a member of
a family which originated in England and was founded
in America in colonial times, the early members of this
family locating in Virginia. In that state was born
the great-grandfather of James Tudor, Henry Tudor,
who became a pioneer planter and slaveholder of Met-
calfe County, to which community he came shortly
after his marriage, and died at Slimmer Shade. Among
his children was Joseph M. Tudor, the grandfather,
who was born in 1831, at Summer Shade, Kentucky,
and in 1870 removed to Knob Lick, where he engaged
in farming and became one of the substantial men of
his community- Late in life he retired from active
pursuits and went to Alvord, Texas, where his death
occurred in 1915. He married Eliza Huffman, who
was born in 1836 near Knob Lick, and died in the same
community in 1891.
P. P. Tudor, now a resident of Knob Lick, was born
March 16, 1855, at Summer Shade, and has been a life-
long agriculturist, having owned and operated his
present Knob Lick farm for more than thirty years.
He is a republican in his political allegiance, and is an
active supporter of the Cumberland Presbyterian
Church. Mr. Tudor married Alice Terry, who was
born October 6, 1856, near Edmonton, and to this union
there have been born twelve children : Dan, a carpenter
and builder of Louisville; James, of this record; Kate,
the wife of Ed Reynolds, a farmer and live stock
trader near Elizabethtown, Kentucky; Lou Ellen, the
wife of Hardin Rennick, a farmer and live stock
trader of Hardyville, Hart County ; Elzie, who is un-
married and resides with his parents; Leslie P., who is
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
123
engaged in farming near Milf ord, Illinois ; Willie,
who is engaged in farming at Sonora, Hardin County ;
Lucy, the wife of Willie Lee Ball, a hardware and
grocery merchant of Horse Cave, Kentucky; Lizzie,
the wife of J. L. Steele, a merchant of Knob Lick;
Mary Alma, the wife of Joe Lockett, a farmer of Park,
Metcalfe County; Irene, who is unmarried and re-
sides with her parents ; and Hazel Vern, who is also
unmarried and living at home.
James Tudor received his preliminary educational
training in the rural schools of Metcalfe County, fol-
lowing which he attended the normal school at Summer
Shade for one term. Later he spent two years at the
Western Kentucky State Normal School at Bowling
Green, which he left in igu. In the meantime, at
the age of twenty-four years, he had commenced teach-
ing in the rural schools of Metcalfe County, and for
ten years followed the work of an educator. In 1913
he began to apply himself to the study of law, and in
1915 was admitted to the bar. He began practice at
Edmonton while still engaged in teaching school, but
after a short time had built up a sufficiently remunera-
tive practice to allow him to give all of his attention
thereto, and this has now grown to large proportions.
He follows a general civil and criminal practice, and
is generally acknowledged as one of the reliable and
forceful members of the Metcalfe County bar, his
progress in his profession indicating that he has the
qualities necessary for the attainment of a worth while
success. A republican in politics, Mr. Tudor was ap-
pointed Deputy County Clerk in 1912 and occupied
that office until 1916. In November, 1917, he was the
candidate of his party for County Attorney, and, being
elected, took office in January, 1918, for a term of four
years. In Nov. 8, 1921 Mr. Tudor was re-elected
County Attorney. His offices are situated in the Court
House. Mr. Tudor has an excellent record for con-
scientious public service and has gained the confidence
of the people of his community. He is fraternally af-
filiated with Bragg Camp, Modern Woodmen of Amer-
ica, at Edmonton, in which he has numerous friends.
Reared in the faith of the Cumberland Presbyterian
Church, he has retained that belief all of his life. He is
the owner of a farm of sixty acres, in Metcalfe County,
but applies himself strictly to the duties of his office
and the responsibilities of his profession. During the
World war, Mr. Tudor subscribed liberally to all move-
ments and served in the Red Cross and Liberty Loan
drives in his county. He is unmarried.
Willis Staton, senior member of the law firm of
Staton & Stump of Pikeville, has been for some time
one of the leaders of the bar of Pike County, and is a
man learned in his profession, and well-informed on
general topics. Successful as have been his professional
labors, they have not absorbed his energies to the exclu-
sion of the general interests of the community. Being
a man of scholarly attainments and broad culture, he
has been especially interested in politics, and, although
not belonging to the party now in the majority in this
region, has received such a whole-hearted support in
his candidacy for several offices for which he has
come before the public, as to demonstrate his personal
popularity, and to prove his standing among his fellow
citizens.
Willis Staton was born on the same place as his father,
at Canada, Pike County, Kentucky, May 29, 1875. He
is a son of Joseph and Matilda (Scott) Staton, the
former of whom was born November 26, 1854. The
latter was born at Gulnare, Pike County, January 21,
1851. Joseph Staton was a son of Richard Staton, who
was born on Pond Creek, Pike County, a son of Charles
Staton. Charles Staton was born in Logan County,
Virginia, now Mingo County, West Virginia, and there
he was married. He came to Pike County and located
on Pond Creek, Pike County, and here his son, grand-
son and great-grandson were born, and here Joseph
Staton still resides. The Statons have long been farm-
ers as a general rule, although there have been some
exceptions. Joseph Staton was for many years one of
Pike County's popular educators, and his brother,
J. M. Staton was county surveyor, being elected to that
office just after he had attained his majority. Later
he was deputy county clerk of Pike County. The mem-
bers of the family have always been democrats, but
have usually confined their participation in politics to
giving the candidates and principles of their party an
earnest support. Joseph Staton and his wife became
the parents of ten children, namely : Willis, who is the
eldest; Willard, who resides on the homestead; Ballard,
who lives at Canada, Pike County ; Ora, who is the
wife of a Mr. Tolbert West of Canada, Pike County;
Ella, who is the wife of James A. Maynard, a farmer
of Canada, Kentucky ; James M., Junior, who is super-
intendent of the mine near Warfield, Martin County,
Kentucky ; Roland T., who is on the homestead ; Grover
and Cleveland, twins, the former of whom is on the
homestead, the latter having died at the age of nineteen
years ; and Malinda, who died in childhood.
Willis Staton attended the home schools, and later
those of Pikeville, in the former being under his father's
instruction, and in the latter had Professor Kendrick
for his preceptor. Completing his courses in the Pike-
ville schools in 1889, he taught school for two years in
Logan County, West Virginia, and in Pike County.
Having determined to fit himself for the legal profession
he saved every penny he could, and paid his own way
through a law school of Louisville, Kentucky, where
he spent three years, being graduated therefrom in 1894.
In spite of his university training Mr. Staton feels that
the best and most lasting instruction he received was
that acquired by attending a debating society which
met during a number of years each month, and which
became noted all over that part of the state for its
debates.
After his graduation Mr. Staton in order to gain a
knowledge first hand of men and affairs, traveled out
of Louisville as a salesman, but in 1896 formed a
partnership with A. E. Hyde, which lasted for only
a short period. Later he and George Pinson, Junior
went into partnership, and continued their connection for
seven years. Once more he practiced alone, and then
he and O. A. Stump formed their present partnership
of Staton & Stump. They are carrying on a general
practice, and are very successful. Mr. Staton's great
personal popularity was evidenced when he was the
candidate on the democratic ticket for the office of
county attorney, when he was only defeated by sixty-
four votes in a county which has a republican majority
of over 1,200. In 1917 he was the democratic candidate
for Congress in the Tenth Congressional District of
Kentucky, which is also overwhelmingly republican, and
he cut down the majority very considerably.
On November 10, 1910, Mr. Staton was married to
Josephine Newberry Crum, a daughter of Tivis New-
berry of Martin County. Mr. and Mrs. Staton are
members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
He is an Odd Fellow.
Elmer D. Stephenson, member of the strong law
firm of Stratton & Stephenson is at once a fine pro-
duct and worthy representative of the best forces that
have made Kentucky what it is. Born of one of the
old and honored families of the state, he grew to man-
hood's estate amid ideal home conditions and has a
strong hold upon the people of Pikeville. He is ad-
mired for his manly conduct, his ripened judgment,
mental vigor and intimate knowledge of the law and
its application to everyday life, especially in those
matters which pertain to civic cases. His ability as a
lawyer is unquestioned and his character as a man is
unblemished. Such a man reflects credit upon his pro-
fession and community, and sets an example others
will do well to follow.
Mr. Stephenson is a native son of Kentucky, born
124
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
in Greenup County, December 30, 1877, but he springs
from the Old Dominion, for his father, Robert J.
Stephenson was born in Tazewell County, Virginia,
from whence, in 1869, he moved to Greenup County,
Kentucky, and there met and married Mildred Thomp-
son, a native of the latter county. Here they have
since resided, his activities being directed toward farm-
ing, which calling has been followed by the majority
of his family. When war broke out between the North
and the South, his grandfather, John M. Stevenson, then
past the half -century milestone, and nine brothers volun-
teered and served in the Confederate army and par-
ticipated in many of the most important engagements of
the war. After the close of the war the survivors of the
Stephenson family returned home and resumed their
peaceful occupations. Robert J. Stephenson has been a
man of note in Greenup County, serving for many years
as a justice of the peace, and from 1892 to 1895 was
county commissioner. Both he and his wife are con-
sistent members of the Christian Church. Politically he
has always worked for and with the democratic party.
The Thompson family came to Greenup County, Ken-
tucky, from Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, settling
opposite to Portsmouth, Ohio, in 1781, but later re-
moved to land on the old State Road where Elmer D.
Stephenson was later born. There were six children
in the family of Robert J. Stephenson and his wife,
namely: Elmer D., who is the eldest; James C, who
recently retired from the navy as a gunner after six-
teen years in the service, the latter portion of that
period being in the World war on a submarine chaser
in the North Sea, around the Irish Coast, and in the
English Channel, and also in the transport service, and
he is now living at Los Angeles, California; Dr. J. \V.,
who is a practicing physician at Ashland, Kentucky,
was stationed at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, with the
rank of lieutenant-colonel, during the World war, where
he did his full duty as a member of the medical brancli
of the service until his honorable discharge in Decem-
ber, 1918; Emma and Ethel, who are at home; and
Pauline, who is the wife of Lorenzo Austin, lives at
South Portsmouth, Greenup County, Kentucky. The
two elder sons and the eldest daughter, have all taught
school.
Elmer D. Stephenson attended the district schools
of his home locality, and later those of Greenup. He
then, during 1898-9 attended the Kentucky State Uni-
versity at Lexington, Kentucky, and in 1900 became a
student of the University at Lebanon, Ohio. When
only eighteen years old he began teaching school and
was connected with five different schools during the
time he was acquiring his collegiate training. Return-
ing to Greenup, he read law and was admitted to the
bar at Greenup, in 1902, and in 1904 came to Pikeville,
where he was engaged in practice alone until 1910 when
he formed his present partnership with P. B. Stratton.
This is one of the strongest legal firms in this part of
Kentucky, and, while carrying on a general practice,
specialize in civil cases.
On December 12, 1915, Mr. Stephenson was united
in marriage with Emabel Bennett, a daughter of J. B.
Bennett of Greenup. They have two sons, namely :
James Bennett and Joseph Elmer. Mr. and Mrs.
Stephenson are members of the Christian Church. A
Mason, Mr. Stephenson belongs to the Commandery
and Mystic Shrine at Ashland, Kentucky. In politics
he follows in his father's footsteps, and is a democrat.
During the World war Mr. Stephenson took a very
active part in the local war work, and his firm was
also zealous in promoting the cause in every way
possible. Mr. Stephenson's is a genial personality.
Home, friends, the public weal, good government, the
larger interests of humanity, education, charity, mor-
ality, religion, all these find a generous welcome in his
heart and life.
Marvin Davidson Beard. The family bearing the
name of Beard has played a very important part in
the development of Breckinridge County, and one of
its present representatives at Hardinsburg, Marvin
Davidson Beard, is sustaining the high reputation
earned by his father, and operating extensively as a
merchant and banker. He was born at Hardinsburg,
September 25, 1876, a son of Benjamin Franklin and
Margaret James (Hensley) Beard, the former of
whom was born in Virginia, and when still a very
small boy was brought to Breckinridge County by his
parents. They died when he was about ten years old
and he was bound out to Morris Hensley, who in after
years became his father-in-law.
Growing up at Hardinsburg, Benjamin Franklin
Beard learned the tailoring trade with Mr. Hensley,
but when he reached his majority, because of, ill health,
decided to join in the westward rush to the coast after
the discovery of gold in California, and was one of the
original forty-niners. He drove with a couple of ox
teams from Kentucky to California, and was one of a
party that went from Breckinridge County on the long
and dangerous trip across country. After some twelve
or fourteen years in California, he decided to visit his
old home, and returned to Hardinsburg by way of the
Isthmus of Panama and Gulf of Mexico, purposing
to return to California, but marrying, he decided to
settle permanently at Hardinsburg. At first he was in
a drug business, but later expanded his business to
include the handling of a general line of merchandise,
and this store founded by him, is now operated by his
son, Marvin Davidson Beard. This large concern is
operated under the name of B. F. Beard & Company.
He was the organizer of the Bank of Hardinsburg,
now the Bank of Hardinsburg & Trust Company, the
name being changed when, a trust department was
added, and continued as its president until his death.
His son, Marvin Davidson Beard succeeded him in
the presidency of this bank. For some years another
son, Morris Hensley Beard, was cashier of the bank,
but he died in October, 1913. The father died March
19, 1915, being then eighty-seven years old. In early
life he was a democrat, but later on voted independent-
ly of party ties. He was a member of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South, and served for years as su-
perintendent of its Sunday school. Beginning his
struggle with the world, a poor man, he rose through
his own efforts to be one of the leading factors in the
business life of his community, and when he died he
left a large estate. He and his wife had the following
children : Margaret, Morris Hensley, Charles L., Percy
M., Gertrude, Daisy, Marvin D., and Bessie. The
mother died in the spring of 1880. She was of the
same church faith as her husband, and was an active
worker in her church.
Growing up in his native city, Marvin Davidson
Beard was given an excellent education, attending first
the public schools of Hardinsburg, later in the Van-
derbilt Training School at Elkton, Kentucky, and com-
pleted his studies at Vanderbilt University, Nashville,
Tennessee. His mercantile training was secured in
his father's store, and he and his brother, P. M. Beard,
succeeded to the business, but since 1905, he has been
the sole proprietor. In 1913 in a disasterous fire which
destroyed the entire block, the store of B. F. Beard &
Company was burned, but Mr. Beard immediately re-
built, erecting the present handsome brick structure
his business occupies. This is one of the largest mer-
cantile establishments in this part of Kentucky, and
none is more reliable.
Mr. Beard was married April 5, 1900, to Annie M.
De Jarnette, who died September 19, 1914, leaving two
children, namely: Marvin D., Junior, and Ralph M.
There were two other children who died before their
mother passed away. On June 23, 191 7, Mr. Beard was
married second to Miss Eleanor Robertson of Louis-
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
125
vilie, Kentucky. Mr. Beard is a member of the Metho-
dist Episcopal Church, South. In politics he is a demo-
crat, but he is not a partisan. His value to his com-
munity is appreciated and he ranks among the leading
men of Breckinridge County both from a business and
personal standpoint.
Nathaniel W. Miller, who maintains his residence
and business headquarters at Campbellsville, judicial
center of Taylor County, is one of the leading ex-
ponents of the real estate and insurance business in
this county and through his operations has done much
to advance civic and material progress in his home city
and county.
Mr. Miller was born at Brandenberg, Meade County,
Kentucky, on the loth of December, i860. His father,
W. K. Miller, was born near Strasburg, in the beauti-
ful Shenandoah valley of Virginia, in 1836, and died
at Lebanon, Kentucky, in 1909. The parents of W. K.
Miller removed from Virginia to Harrison County,
Indiana, about the year 1849, and he was reared to
maturity in the Hoosier state, where he became a pros-
perous farmer and where was solemnized his marriage
to Miss Rebecca Baltis, who was born in that state, in
1836, and whose death occurred at Boston, Kentucky,
in 1908. About the year 1857 W. K. Miller established
his residence on a farm near Brandenberg, Kentucky,
and there he continued as one of the representative
agriculturists and citizens of Meade County until I9°7,
when he established his home at Lebanon, where his
death occurred about two years later. He carried on
farm enterprise on a large scale and in connection
therewith achieved substantial success. His political
allegiance was given to the democratc party and both
he and his wife were zealous members of the Baptist
Church. Of their children the eldest was Melvina, who
became the wife of Bufford Watson, who was a farmer
near Mauckport, Harrison County, Indiana, and there
her death occurred when she was sixty years of age,
her husband likewise having died in that section of
Harrison County ; Edward is a blacksmith and general
mechanic at Brandenberg, Kentucky; Lizzie, who died
at the age of fifty years, at Mauckport, Indiana, was
the wife of Hugh Trotter, who there became a suc-
cessful buyer and shipper of potatoes and who sur-
vived his wife by several years; William is a prosper-
ous farmer in the state of Oklahoma; Sallie is a resi-
dent of Indianapolis, Indiana, and is the widow of
Oscar Enlow, who has been a successful farmer near
Jeffersonville, that state. Nathaniel W., of this re-
view, was the next in order of birth ; Emmett was in
the employ of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad
Company at the time of his death, at Springfield
Tennessee, when he was forty-five years of age ; Chris-
tina, who resides near Mauckport, Indiana, is the
widow of Lyman Fleshman, a druggist.
Eli Miller, grandfather of Nathaniel W. of this
sketch, was born and reared near Strasburg, Virginia,
and became a pioneer settler in both Kentucky and
Indiana, his death having occurred in the latter state,
near Mauckport. He was a cabinetmaker by trade and
followed this vocation after his removal to Indiana.
His wife, whose maiden name was Chandler, like-
wise was born near Strasburg, Virginia, and she died
near Mauckport, Indiana. It is a matter of family
record that the founder of the Miller family in
America came from England with the colony founded
by William Penn, and this indicates that earlier gen-
erations of the family were identified with the Society
of Friends, or Quakers.
The rural schools of his native county, afforded
Nathaniel W. Miller his early education, and there-
after he continued his studies one year in Georgetown
College, at Georgetown, Scott County, Kentucky. He
next entered the National Normal University, at Leb-
anon, Ohio, and in this institution he was graduated
as a member of the class of 1892. In the meanwhile,
at the age of eighteen years, he began teaching in the
district schools of his native county, and he thus con-
tinued his pedagogic activities five years. After his
graduation he became assistant principal of the M. &
F. High School at Columbia, Kentucky, and after thus
serving two years he was elected principal of this
school. He made an excellent record of service in
this position and after holding the place three years he
was elected principal of the public schools of Brad-
fordsville, Marion County. He retained this position
three years and for seven months thereafter he was
in charge of a private school at Madisonville, this state.
He then sold his interest in the school and engaged in
the insurance business at Madisonville, where he re-
mained until April 1, 1910, when he removed to
Campbellsville and purchased an old-established in-
surance business, to which he has since added a real-
estate department. He has here developed one of the
leading real-estate and insurance agencies of Taylor
County, with offices in a building at the corner of
Press and First North streets. His ability, progres-
siveness and personal popularity have conserved the
success of his business career at Campbellsville, and his
real-estate operations have been of appreciable scope
and importance, while as an insurance underwriter he
controls a substantial and representative business. He
has identified himself fully and loyally with his home
city, and owns his attractive residence property on
Depot Street. Mr. Miller is a democrat, and as such
was elected a member of the City Council of Camp-
bellsville. He retained this office three years, during
two of which he filled also the office of City Clerk. He
and his wife are zealous members of the Baptist
Church, in which he is serving as deacon. Characteris-
tic loyalty and vigor marked the course of Mr. Miller
during the period of the nation's participation in the
World war, and it was his to give specially effective
service as registrar of the Taylor County draft board,
in which connection he gave much time to the filling
out of questionnaires for the recruited soldiers from
the county. To the full limit of his financial re-
sources he subscribed for the various government
bonds issued in support of war activities, and his
support was earnestly given in connection with all
phases of war work in his home city and county.
At Columbia, Kentucky, was solemnized the mar-
riage of Mr. Miller to Miss Minnie E. Willis, daughter
of William and Catherine (Reynolds) Willis, the
former of whom is deceased, he having been a prosper-
ous farmer near Columbia, Adair County. The
widowed mother now resides in the home of Mr. and
Mrs. Miller, who have no children and who thus find
her gracious presence in the home doubly grateful.
George W. Bushong. M. D. Of the men devoted
to the science of healing at Tompkinsville, few bring
to bear upon their calling greater gifts of scholarship
and resource than Dr. George W. Bushong, president of
the Monroe County Medical Society. When he entered
upon the practice of his chosen profession it was with
a mature mind, trained by some years of work as an
educator, and with a full realization of the possibili-
ties and responsibilities which confronted him. Dur-
ing the quarter of a century that he has practiced at
Tompkinsville, he has added to a thorough profes-
sional equipment a kindly and sympathetic manner, a
genuine liking for his calling and a ready adaptation
to its multitudinous and exacting demands.
Doctor Bushong was born at Tompkinsville, July I,
1872, a son of Jacob and Mary (Headrick) Bushong.
His grandfather, George Bushong, was born in 1807,
in Virginia, and as a young man came to Kentucky and
located in Monroe County, founding the old home-
stead upon which Bushong postoffice now stands.
There he was engaged in agricultural pursuits and
blacksmithing until his death, which occurred in 1892,
at which time his community lost a man who was held
126
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
in high esteem and one who had proven himself a
worthy and useful citizen. He first married a Miss
Parker, the grandmother of Doctor Bushong, who
died when her son, Jacob, was a small child. He was
next married to a widow, Mrs. Maxey, and after her
death took his third wife, also a widow, Mrs. Thomp-
son.
Jacob Bushong was born in the state of Mississippi,
in 1838, but when a lad was taken by his father to
Monroe County, where he received his education and
was reared to manhood on his father's farm. In 1861,
when the War between the States came on, he enlisted
in the Fifth Regiment, Kentucky Volunteer Cavalry,
with which organization he served until the close of
the struggle. He participated in numerous hard-fought
engagements, including Shiloh, Chickamauga, Lookout
Mountain, Missionary Ridge and Stone River, and was
promoted from private to sergeant, which rank he held
during Sherman's March to the Sea. His military
record was a splendid one and at the close of his ser-
vice he returned to Monroe County and again engaged
in farming, and also turned his attention to flour mill-
ing, in both of which vocations he achieved a success.
His mill was located at the present site of Bushong,
which community was named in his honor. He died
there in 1905, respected and esteemed by all who knew
him. Mr. Bushong was a republican and a faithful
member and active supporter of the Christian Church.
He was married in Monroe County to Miss Mary
Headrick, who was born in 1849 at Tompkinsville and
still survives him as a resident of Monroe County.
They became the parents of the following children :
Ella, the wife of Jarrett Dickerson, a farmer of
Piano, Texas; Dr. George W., of this record; W. D.,
who owns and operates the old farm and mill at
Bushong, and who is a prominent republican of Mon-
roe County; and Nancy, who died at Tompkinsville, in
December, 1914, aged thirty-seven years, as the wife
of Dr. J. F. Marrs, a physician and surgeon of Tomp-
kinsville.
George W. Bushong acquired his early education in
the rural schools of Monroe County, and when only
seventeen years of age began to teach in the country
districts. For five years he was thus engaged, in the
meantime studying medicine during his leisure hours,
and July 1, 1897, was graduated from the Hospital
College of Medicine, Louisville, with the degree of
Doctor of Medicine. He did not cease being a student
at the time he left college, for he has always applied
himself assiduously to his medical library, and in 1903
took a post-graduate course at the University of Louis-
ville, in general medicine and surgery. Each year
since, he has visited some institution, and in 1915 took
a post-graduate course at the Cook County Hospital,
Chicago, specializing in surgery. In 1921 he spent two
months at post-graduate work in Illinois Post-Gradu-
ate Medical School of Chicago, taking special courses
in surgical diagnosis and operative surgery, and also
ear, nose and throat.
In 1897 Doctor Bushong began practice at Tompkins-
ville, where his skill in diagnosis and his successful
treatment of complicated cases of long standing soon
created a gratifying demand for his services and laid
the foundation of what has proved to be a career of
exceptional breadth and usefulness. His offices are
in the Baptist Hospital, on Main Street, Public Square.
Doctor Bushong has been health officer of Monroe
County for twenty years, and is a member of the
Monroe County Medical Society, of which he is presi-
dent, the Kentucky State Medical Society and the
American Medical Association. Aside from his prac-
tice, he has been prominent in republican politics, and
from 1898 to 1918 was chairman of the republican
County Executive Committee. For thirteen years, dur-
ing the administrations of President McKinley, Roose-
velt and Taft, he served capably as postmaster of
Tompkinsville. He was a member of the Monroe
County draft board during the World war, and did
much to assist the various drives inaugurated to assist
America's fighting forces during the great overseas
struggle. His fraternal connections are numerous, in-
cluding membership in Tompkinsville Lodge No. 753,
F. and A. M.; Glasgow Chapter No. 45, R. A. M. ;
Glasgow Commandery No. 36, K. T. ; Kosair Temple,
A. A. O. N. M. S., of Louisville; Tompkinsville Lodge
No. 400, I. O. O. F. ; and Tompkinsville Camp No.
13476, M. W. A. In a number of these orders he has
held office, and in all he is popular with his fellow-
members. Doctor Bushong's career has been attended
by financial success, due to his industry and to the re-
wards that his skill has brought him, and at this time
he is the owner of two farms in Monroe County, aggre-
gating 300 acres of valuable land ; and a modern resi-
dence on Jackson Street which is one of Tompkins-
ville's desirable homes. He is also a stockholder and
member of the board of directors of the Deposit Bank
of Monroe County.
In February, 1898, at Tompkinsville, Doctor Bushong
was united in marriage with Miss Pearl Eagle, a
daughter of Henry and Lucy (Maxey) Eagle, both of
whom are now deceased, Mr. Eagle having been a lead-
ing merchant and trader of the county seat. Mrs.
Bushong, who is a graduate of Bethel College, Hop-
kinsville, where she took a special course in music, is
a talented musician and skilled pianiste, as well as a
woman of other accomplishments and graces. Six chil-
dren have been born to Doctor and Mrs. Bushong :
Lucille, a graduate of the Louisville Conservatory of
Music, who inherits her mother's talent and is teacher
of music, having charge now of the musical depart-
ment of Lindsay Wilson Training School, Columbia,
Kentucky; George Eagle, a member of the class of
1922, University of Louisville, where he is pursuing
a medical course ; Joe Ed, a member of the class of
1921, Tompkinsville High School, and a teacher in
the graded school; Will Randall, born in 1906, Irvin,
born in 191 1, and Corinne, born in 1913, all attending
the graded school.
Hon. James M. Jackson. The monotony which
often ensues from the continuous following of a single
line of activity has never been a feature of the career
of Hon. James M. Jackson, ex-police judge and ex-
mayor of Tompkinsville. Gifted with versatile talents,
during his life he has been a school-teacher, a miner,
a miller and a druggist, and at this time is accounted
one of the leading members of the Monroe County bar.
In each of his numerous personal capacities, as well as
in public life, he has displayed the ability to make the
most out of his opportunities and to discharge his
responsibilities in a highly honorable manner that has
gained him public good will and confidence.
Judge Jackson was elected County Judge of Mon-
roe County, Nov. 8, 1921 and took his office Jan. 1, 1922.
Judge Jackson was born on a farm in Washington
County, Tennessee, November 11, 1852, a son of Joseph
and Elizabeth (Walker) Jackson. His grandfather,
James Jackson, who was a pioneer of Washington
County, passed his entire life there as a tiller of the
soil, and died in 1873, one of the greatly respected
men of his community. He did not enter public life,
hut was content with the labors of his farm and the
surroundings of his home, although he wielded some
influence in his locality and was known as a man of
public spirit and general worth.
Joseph Jackson, the father of Judge Jackson, was
born in 1836, in Washington County, Tennessee, and
was reared and educated in his native community,
where he was married. Shortly after his union lie
moved to Keokuk, Iowa, where he spent one year, and
in 1854 went to West Point, Kentucky, where he con-
tinued until 1856. In that year he located in Monroe
County, four miles west of Tompkinsville, where he
was engaged in operations at the time of the outbreak
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
127
of the War between the States. Mr. Jackson enlisted
in the Union Army, becoming a private in the Ninth
Regiment, Kentucky Volunteer Infantry, with which
he served until after the battle of Shiloh, when he was
stricken with a severe fever and was honorably dis-
charged because of disability. He was a brave and
faithful soldier and won the friendship of his com-
rades and the respect of his officers. At the close of
his service he returned to his Monroe County farm
and after his recuperation again engaged in agricul-
tural pursuits in which he continued until his death, in
1918. Mr. Jackson was a farmer primarily and did
not care for public life, although he discharged the
duties of citizenship faithfully and was a strong advo-
cate of the principles of the republican party. He was
a member of the Baptist Church, the movements of
which he supported liberally. Mr. Jackson married
Miss Elizabeth Walker, who was born in 1827, in
Washington County, Tennessee, and died in Monroe
County, Kentucky, September 20, 1898, and they be-
came the parents of the following children : Mary, a
resident of Monroe County, the widow of Sam Fox,
who was a farmer and mechanic in this county; Elijah
W., who is engaged in agricultural pursuits in Barren
County, this state; Jasper, who is engaged in farming
in Monroe County; Mahala Jane, the wife of Will
Rickert, also a farmer of this county ; and James M.
The eldest of his parents children, James M. Jackson
was reared on the home farm and attended the rural
schools of his home locality, off and on, until he
reached the age of twenty-three years. He was brought
up as a farmer's son, but agricultural work did not
appeal to him, and when he was twenty-three he
adopted the vocation of teaching school, an occupation
in which he was engaged for four years. He then
went to Southwestern Missouri, where for 2j/£
years he worked in the lead and zinc mines, then
returning to Monroe County, where he embarked
in business as the proprietor of a sawmill. Mr. Jack-
son continued in this line for eight years, with a
modest degree of success, and in 1895 established him-
self as a merchant at Flippin, where he conducted a
drug business for three years. In the meantime, with
the desire to carry on a professional career, he had
applied himself to the study of law, and in June, 1898,
was admitted to the Kentucky bar. Prior to this, from
1891 to 1898, he had served as a justice of the peace,
and had become widely known for his fair-mindedness
and judicial capacity in settling the disputes brought
before him.
In 1898 Judge Jackson commenced the practice of
his profession at Flippin, and in 1904 came to Tomp-
kinsville, where he has since carried on a general civil
and criminal practice, with offices situated at Room 5,
Deposit Bank Building. Two years after his arrival
he was elected police judge of Tompkinsville, an office
in which he served for four years, and for a like
period occupied the office of mayor, giving the people
of his community an excellent administration. Judge
Jackson has risen to a place among the leaders of his
profession in Monroe County, and his success in much
important litigation has caused him to have the con-
fidence of the community, while his observance of the
ethics of his profession has gained him the good will
and regard of his fellow-practitioners. He belongs to
the various organizations of his calling and is a deep
and careful student of the law. Politically, he advo-
cates the principles and supports the candidates of the
republican party, and his religious connection is with
the Christian faith, he being an elder in the church of
that denomination at Tompkinsville. He is the owner
of a modern residence at the corner of Second and
Spruce streets, one of the comfortable homes of his
adopted community. Judge Jackson has always been
known for his public spirit and loyalty, and these char-
acteristics were particularly noticeable during the
period of the World war, when he was a generous and
active supporter of all of the measures promulgated in
advancing the interests of American arms.
On August 18, 1876, in Monroe County, Judge Jack-
son was united in marriage with Miss Sinah C. Bran-
don, daughter of Arthur C. and Martha Ann (Lee)
Brandon, farming people of Monroe County who are
both deceased. Judge and Mrs. Jackson have one
daughter : Lucy May, who is the wife of W. A.
Cravens, a painter and decorator of Tompkinsville.
Dixie McKinley. The agriculturists of Harrison
County have won a name for themselves because of
the intelligence with which they have cultivated their
farms and developed the natural resources of this
region, and among them one who has been unusually
prosperous is Dixie McKinley, of Poindexter. He was
born in Colemansville, Kentucky, December 2, 1861,
a son of Calvin and Georgiana (King) McKinley, both
of whom were natives of Harrison County, he having
been born in 1817, and she in 1819. During the Civil
war Calvin McKinley served in the Confederate Army
and gave his life in defense of the cause. His widow
survived him many years, having spent her entire life
in Harrison County. She was the second wife, her
sister Sallie having been Mr. McKinley's first wife.
By the first marriage there were six children, two of
whom survive, William, a retired farmer of Louis /ille,
and James C, a farmer of Harrison County. By the
second marriage there were two children, Dixie, and
Sallie, who is the wife of Ira Blackburn, of Lawrence-
burg, Indiana.
Dixie McKinley was reared amid strictly rural sur-
roundings, and sent to the local schools. He remained
with his mother until marriage, when he rented a farm
for five years, buying the 132 acres on which he still
resides. He is specializing in breeding Short Horn
cattle in which he has met with a gratifying success.
Besides these interests Mr. McKinley owns a half in-
terest in a'geueral store at Poindexter.
On March 5, 1890, he was married to Eva Dunaway,
who was born in Harrison County, November 2, 1872,
daughter of T. J. and Amanda (Bagby) Dunaway,
natives of Kenton County. They were married in
that county, but moved to Harrison County, prior to
the birth of Mrs. McKinley, and here both died, being
widely known and respected. They became the parents
of the following children : Anna C, wife of John R.
Wigglesworth ; Virgie, wife of Henry Mullen ; Eva D.,
wife of Ross McKinley; Joy F. ; Mary, is the wife of
Felix E. King; Mack S. ; Helen and Frances. Mr.
McKinley is a democrat, and has served as constable.
Frank H. Bassett, M. D. From the earliest period
of statehood to the present the Bassett family has been
a prominent one in the western counties of Kentucky.
Several of the name have lived in Hopkinsville, which is
the home of Dr. Frank H. Bassett, formerly a merchant
of that city, in later years a practicing physician, and
now the vigorous and capable mayor of the city.
Doctor Bassett was born at Stephensport, Kentucky,
November 1, 1873. His paternal ancestors were Welsh
and Colonial Americans. His grandfather, Jeremiah
Vardeman Bassett, was born in 1797 at Cynthiana, Ken-
tucky, this date establishing the fact that the family's
settlement in Kentucky was some years before the close
of the eighteenth century. Grandfather Bassett was a
saddler by trade, spent most of his active life at
Cynthiana, but finally moved out to Northwest Missouri
and died at Plattsburg in 1887. His wife, Tryphenia
Wellesley Birch also died at Plattsburg, in 1889.
James H. Bassett, father of Doctor Bassett, was born
in Cynthiana in 1828. He spent his early life in his
native town, and after his marriage in Breckinridge
County lived on his farm there for a number of years.
He was a graduate of Transylvania College at Lexing-
ton, and on leaving college went to work in the Louis-
ville post office and some years later, in 1877, he returned
128
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
to Louisville and again resumed work in the post office.
That was his business connection until 1890, when he
was appointed postmaster of Parkland, now part of the
City of Louisville. He held that post of responsibility
four years, and then removed to a farm in Grayson
County, and was active in the agricultural affair-, of
that vicinity until his death, which occurred near Litch-
field in 1914. He was a stanch democrat of the old
school. James H. Bassett married Georgia Houston,
who was born in Washington, D. C, in 1832 and died
at Litchfield in Grayson County, Kentucky, in 1904. She
was closely related to the same family that produced
Sam Houston, a governor of Texas. Her mother, Mary
(Frank) Houston, was the State of Georgia's official
flower girl delegated to strew flowers in front of Gen-
eral Lafayette on his second visit to the United States
in 1825. Mary S. Bassett, oldest of the children of
James H. Bassett and wife, is a resident of Litchfield,
Kentucky, and is the widow of John H. Kenny, who
was a dentist practicing at Paducah for many years and
who died in 1896. Julia B. Bassett, the next in the
family, lives at Louisville and is the widow of Carroll
C. Chick, who was owner and operator of a flour mill
at Mt. Sterling, Kentucky. Georgia B. Bassett lives at
Birmingham, Alabama, widow of Samuel R. Dent, who
for many years was engaged in merchandising at Litch-
field, Kentucky. Robert J. Bassett is president of the
Grayson County State Bank at Litchfield. James H.
Bassett, Jr., who was born in 1863, had only one busi-
ness association in all his active life, spending thirty-
three years with the Hegan Mantle Company, and while
traveling representative of that house he was killed,
being hit by an automobile, and he died at Lynchburg,
Virginia, in 1913. Edmund Rufifin Bassett, who was a
retired banker when he died at Louisville in 1918, a
victim of the influenza, was named for Edmund Ruffin,
the Confederate soldier who fired the first shot at Fort
Sumter at the beginning of the Civil war. The seventh
of the Bassett children is Col. Erskine B. Bassett, the
oldest merchant of Hopkinsville in point of continuous
service, and who was an active member of the Kentucky
State Bar from 1884 until he was mustered into the
National Army at the beginning of the World war, and
was colonel of the One Hundred and Fiftieth Infantry
in France. Florence B. Bassett, who died at Louisville,
Kentucky, in 1903, was the wife of J. Y. Johnson, who
now lives in St. Louis, Missouri, being a civil engineer
with the St. Louis Street Railway Company.
Frank H. Bassett was the tenth and youngest of this
notable family. He spent most of his boyhood in Louis-
ville, attending the Sacred Heart parochial school and
graduating from St. Xavier's College in Louisville in
1887. For four years he was employed in the dry goods
department of Colonel Bassett's store, and from 1891
wae employed for two years by J. M. Robinson &
Company at Louisville. In 1893, returning to Hopkins-
ville, he resumed work in his brother's dry goods busi-
ness until 1898, and following that was an associate
member of the hardware firm of Thompson & Bassett
until 1905, when he sold out and used his means to
carry out a long cherished purpose of becoming a physi-
cian. He entered the medical department of the Uni-
versity of Nashville, and received his M. D. degree
in lino. For one year he practiced as an interne in
the Tennessee Hospital of Nashville, and then carried
on a general practice at Hopkinsville six years. Since
then his work has been largely as a specialist in anes-
thesia and as medical examiner for various insurance
companies. He is a member of the County, State and
American Medical associations.
Doctor Bassett has always been a stanch democrat,
but his political work has been entirely confined to the
government of his home city. When Hopkinsville was
given a new charter under the commission form of
government he was one of the first city commissioners
elected in 1915, beginning his duties in 1916. In that
year he announced his intention of becoming a candidate
for mayor in November, 1917, two years away, and when
his name was presented as candidate for that office there
was no opposition and he entered upon his career as
mayor in January, 1918, and during the past two years
has done much to dignify the office in the eyes of
citizens and has given an administration of municipal
affairs efficient and competent in every respect.
Doctor Bassett is a member of the Presbyterian
Church, and is a past exalted ruler of Hopkinsville
Lodge No. 545 of the Elks. He has been duly pros-
pered in his business and professional career, and is
owner of four business houses and several dwellings in
Hopkinsville, his own home at 145 Alumni Avenue
being one of the best residences in Western Kentucky.
On February 23, 1898, at Hopkinsville, Doctor Bassett
married Miss Mamie Elizabeth Thompson. Her father,
the late Charles A. Thompson, was one of the early
hardware merchants of Hopkinsville. Mrs. Bassett
finished her education in the Mary Sharp College of
Winchester, Tennessee. To their union were born three
children : Charles Thompson, who died at the age of
sixteen ; Florence Marshall, born November I, 1902,
now a student in an eastern college ; and Frank H., Jr.,
who was born August 15, 1906.
Timoleon Bradshaw Cravens. Steady application
to the development of an idea has brought about the
success of Timoleon Bradshaw Cravens, of Tomp-
kinsville, who conducts the largest insurance business
in Monroe County. On the paternal side he is des-
cended from Irish ancestry, and from forefathers who
tilled the soil under discouraging conditions inherits
an obliging nature and a keen sense of humor which
bring him in touch with the pleasures of life; while
on the maternal side he inherits from Scotch fore-
bears a rigid code of business integrity, as well as
acumen and canny foresight in matters of business
import. For the rest, his industry and a peculiar adapt-
ability for his chosen calling have sufficed to win him
success in material affairs and numerous friends and
wellwishers.
Mr. Cravens was born at Columbia, Adair County,
Kentucky, May 13, 1886, a son of Montgomery and
Man,' (Bradshaw) Cravens. The Cravens family
originated in Ireland, whence its members immigrated
to the colony of Virginia, prior to the Revolutionary
war. In the Old Dominion was born the grandfather
of Mr. Cravens, Timoleon Cravens, who was educated
for a legal career and on coming to Columbia became
one of the leading Kentucky attorneys of his day. He
was likewise prominent in public life and on one occa-
sion served as a presidential elector. Believing firmly
in state rights, he was a great Southern sympathizer
and during the War between the States endangered his
life by his outspoken propounding of' his views. He
died at Columbia about 1870. Air. Cravens married
Mary Waggoner, who was born in Adair County and
died at Middlesboro, this state, although buried at
the side of her husband at Columbia.
Montgomery Cravens was born in 1855, at Columbia,
where he has made his home throughout life. He
received a good education in his youth, in the public
schools, and on attaining his majority entered business
affairs, eventually becoming proprietor of a drug store.
This he conducted for many years, but in the evening
of life disposed of his interests therein and has since
lived in retirement. Mr. Cravens has long taken an
active interest and prominent part in public affairs. A
democrat in politics, he was the youngest man to ever
occupy the position of county clerk of Adair County,
an office which he held prior to his marriage. For seven
years prior to the beginning of the enforcement of
prohibition, he was a deputy stamp officer in the Inter-
nal Revenue Department, under President Wilson, and
for eighteen years, ever since the establishment of a
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
129
graded and high school system at Columbia, he has
been chairman of the board of education at that place.
Mr. Cravens is a stalwart member of the Presbyterian
Church, and as a fraternalist holds membership in the
Masons. Mr. Cravens married Miss Mary Bradshaw,
who was born in 1865, at Columbia, Kentucky, and to
this union there have been born two children: Timo-
leon Bradshaw; and Edwin, who is the proprietor of
a plumbing establishment at Columbia.
The Bradshaw family, which had its origin in Scot-
land, was introduced into America during colonial
times, when the first emigrant of this branch settled
in Virginia. The great-grandfather of Mr. Cravens
was born in Culpeper County, Virginia, and came as a
pioneer farmer to Russell County, Kentucky, where he
passed the remainder of his life. Timoleon Bradshaw,
the maternal grandfather of Mr. Cravens, was born in
1837, in Russell County, Kentucky, and as a young
man moved to Columbia, where he was married and
became a leading merchant, engaging in business for
many years prior to his death in 1907. He served as
sheriff of Adair County for one term, and was a man
well and favorably known throughout the community.
Mr. Bradshaw married Miss Sallie Wilson, who was
born in 1847, in Adair County, and died in November,
Kji7, at Columbia, and they became the parents of a
family of four children: Bettie, who died at the age
of twenty years; Mary, who became Mrs. Montgomery
Cravens; Effie, the wife of W. F. Hancock, chief
bookkeeper for the Kentucky Distillers and Warehouse
Company, at Louisville; and W. F., a conductor for
the Pullman Company, residing at Louisville.
Timoleon Bradshaw Cravens attended the public
schools of Columbia and the Presbyterian College of
that place, following which he pursued a course at the
Bowling Green Business University, from which he
was graduated in 1904. Thus equipped he secured a
position as court reporter of the Twenty-ninth Judicial
District, and for six years held this position at Colum-
bia, resigning therefrom to embark in the insurance
business. He remained in that line at Columbia until
1915, when he removed to Tompkinsville, and since his
advent in this city has built up the largest insurance
business in Monroe County. Mr. Cravens maintains
offices in the Deposit Bank Building and is the repre-
sentative of a number of leading companies. Pos-
sessing the peculiar abilities needed for success in this,
his chosen line of work, he has written some large
policies and has gained the business of some of the
principal men and leading concerns of Tompkinsville
and the surrounding country. He is popular among
the people of this community, who have found him
business-like, courteous and at all times honorable in
his dealings.
Mr. Cravens is the owner of an attractive, desirable
and modern home on Main Street. His religious con-
nection is with the Presbyterian Church. In politics
a democrat, he has been prominent in his party for
some years, and at present is chairman of the demo-
cratic executive committee of Monroe County for 1921,
having served as secretary of that committee for the
four previous years. He was appointed colonel on Gov-
ernor A. O. Stanley's staff in 1916. He is also serving
his fourth year as democratic election commissioner. He
was a member of the Monroe County draft board dur-
ing the World war period, assisted in all the drives
for all purposes and was a generous contributor per-
sonally to all movements and activities. Fraternally,
he helds membership in Tompkinsville Lodge No. 753,
F. & A. M. ; Glasgow Chapter No. 45, R. A. M. ; Glas-
gow Commandery No. 36, K. T. ; and Kosair Temple
A. A. O. N. M. S. of Louisville; Tompkinsville Camp
No. 13476, M. W. A.; the Independent Order of Odd
Fellows and the Brotherhood of American Yeomen.
Mr. Cravens was married in 1912, at Tompkinsville,
to Miss Tabitha Richardson, a daughter of W. K. and
Martha (Smith) Richardson. A review of the career
of Mr. Richardson will be found on another page of
this work. Mrs. Cravens is a graduate of the Ward-
Belmont College, Nashville, Tennessee. She and her
husband have had two children : William Montgomery,
who died in infancy; and Timoleon Richardson, born
July 17, 1920.
Otto Earle Johnson, M. D. The medical profes-
sion includes in its membership men ol marked ability,
thorough training and other qualifications, who, more-
over, possess a love of their calling and a definite
appreciation of its heavy responsibilities. In this class
is found Dr. Otto Earle Johnson of Denver, Johnson
County, whose able services to his community have
been supplemented by the service which he rendered
his country during the World war.
Doctor Johnson was born at Lebanon Junction, July
23, 1884, a son of the late Dr. John Elias and Drusilla
Ellen (Froman) Johnson. Hiram Johnson, the grand-
father of Dr. Otto E. Johnson, was born in Scotland
and as a young man immigrated to the United States
and located in Hardin County, Kentucky, where he
was engaged in farming during the remainder of his
life and also operated a tar kiln. He married Ellen
Napper, who was born in Pennsylvania, of Holland
ancestry and came to Kentucky with her parents when
a girl. John Elias Johnson was born near Pitts Point,
Hardin County, Kentucky, October 2, 1844, and was
reared on the home farm, in the meanwhile securing
his early education in the public schools. He had not
yet reached his seventeenth birthday when, in 1861, he
enlisted in Company D, Fifteenth Regiment, Kentucky
Volunteer Infantry, and served in the Union army
three years, eleven months and four days. He partici-
pated in a number of the leading engagements during
the War between the States, has a splendid record for
bravery and faithful performance of duty and at the
close of the war was honorably discharged with the
rank of corporal. Shortly after his return home, the
young soldier took up the study of medicine, which
he pursued at the University of Louisville and the
University of New York, at the latter institution being
a classmate of the late Dr. William O. Roberts, of
Louisville, with whom he ever afterward maintained a
close friendship. Doctor Johnson commenced his prac-
tice at Pitts Point, whence he went to Bowling Green
and in 1882 came to Lebanon Junction, where he fol-
lowed his profession until his death, June 12, 1912. In
addition to his private practice he acted for many years
as a railroad surgeon. He was not only prominent
and proficient in his regular calling, but was active in
other avenues of activity, being vice-president of the
Lebanon Junction Bank and for a number of years
engaging in commercial affairs as proprietor of a drug
and general merchandise store. He was a republican
in his political views, and as a churchman was a faith-
ful Baptist. He took an interest in Masonic affairs
and was a past master of his lodge. Doctor Johnson
married first a Miss Joyce, who bore him five children,
of whom one survives. After her death he' married
Drusilla Ellen Froman, who died in 1906. They became
the parents of five children, of whom one is Dr. Otto
Earle of this review, and one is deceased. The third
marriage of Doctor Johnson was to a Miss Wise, and
they had six children, of whom one is deceased.
Otto Earle Johnson attended the common schools
of Lebanon Junction, after graduation from which he
pursued a course at Gethsemane College and supple-
mented this by attendance at Lynnland College. He
prosecuted his medical studies at the University of
Louisville, from the medical department of which insti-
tution he was graduated with his degree March 25,
1004, and immediately engaged in practice at Lebanon
Junction. Here, in tiie community where he had been
known from boyhood, he soon impressed his abilities
upon his fellow-townsmen, and he acquired a good
practice, and also acted as a railroad surgeon. His
130
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
career, like those of so many other young men, was
interrupted by the entrance of the United States into
the great World war, and April 17, 1917, he gave up
his practice and his railroad connection to enlist in the
United States army, in which he secured a commission
as first lieutenant in the Medical Corps. He was sent
overseas in January, 1918, and served in England five
months and in France eleven months, returning home
in May, 1910, to receive his honorable discharge at
Camp Dix, New York, on the 20th of that month. He
still holds a commission as captain in the Medical
Reserve Corps of the United States Army.
Upon his return, Doctor Johnson resumed his inter-
rupted practice, which is now of a size and nature to
make him one of the leaders of his calling in his part
of Johnson County. He is a member of the Johnson
County Medical Society, the Kentucky State Medical
Society and the American Association of Military Sur-
geons, and belongs also to the American Legion. He
is a Past Chancellor of the Knights of Pythias, and
Past Sachem of the Improved Order of Red Men.
Doctor Johnson is a republican in his political alle-
giance, and has been a member of the Baptist church
since he was nine years of age.
Doctor Johnson's marriage was the result of a war-
time romance. While going overseas, in 1918, he met
Miss Annie Smith Eastland, a native of Lax, Alabama,
who was a Red Cross Nurse of the Vanderbilt Unit.
They were married upon their return to the United
States, in 1919. By a former marriage, Doctor John-
son is the father of three children : James Earle,
Gladys Juanita and Wallace Dillon.
John Emerson Leslte. It is not given to every man
to excel in more than one line of endeavor. Every
avenue of activity demands certain specific charac-
teristics and few there are who either have so many
differentiating ones or are able to adapt those they
possess so as to make them eminently fitting for diver-
gent highways of progress. An exception to this gen-
eral rule is found in John Emerson Leslie, a leading
attorney of the Monroe county bar, the successful pub-
lisher of the Tompkinsville News and a man prom-
inent in republican politics and public life generally.
In each of his several fields of activity his efforts have
been crowned with success of a kind that makes him
a natural leader in his community.
Mr. Leslie was born at Tompkinsville, March 7, 1867,
a son of Emerson and Jemima (Harlan) Leslie. His
grandfather, Veachel Leslie, was born in Kentucky,
and during the greater part of his life was engaged
in agricultural pursuits in Clinton County. In the eve-
ning of life he went to Missouri, where he was pre-
paring to make a new home when his death occurred.
He married Mary Hopkins, who died at Tompkins-
ville, and they reared a family of seven sons and two
daughters. Among their sons was Preston H. Leslie,
who was born in 1826, in Clinton County, where he
was reared, and as a young man came to Monroe
County and prepared for the law. Going to Barren
County, he engaged in the practice of his profession,
in which he made rapid strides, and became influential
in public life, being elected to the State Senate. Upon
the death of Governor Stephenson, he was appointed
to complete the unexpired term of three years, and
was then elected Governor for a term of four years,
defeating John M. Harlan for the Governorship by a
majority of 70 votes. His terms of office were charac-
terized by able service and numerous advancements.
Mr. Leslie was a democrat. He died at Helena, Mon-
tana, in 1007.
Emerson Leslie, the father of John Emerson Leslie,
was born in 1829, in Clinton County, where he was
educated" and reared, and as a young man came to
Tompkinsville and established himself in business as
a wagon maker. During the Civil War he was em-
ployed by the United States Government in wagon fac-
tories at Munfordville and Bowling Green, in making
wagons for the Army, and at the close of the war
resumed his business interests at Tompkinsville, where
he resided until his death in 1906. He was a republi-
can in his political views, and served one term as
jailer of Monroe County. His religious faith was of
the Methodist Episcopal Church, and he was a strong
churchman, and for a number of years he was a mem-
ber of the Masonic fraternity. Mr. Leslie married
Jemima Harlan, who was born in 1859, in Monroe
County, and died at Tompkinsville, in 1901, and nine
children were born to them, of whom three survive :
Mattie, of Humboldt, Tennessee, the widow of the late
M. S. Barr, who was a photographer of that place ;
John Emerson, of this record ; and Julia, the wife of
Jack Ford, a farmer of Roachdale, Indiana. The other
six children died when young, in the scarlet fever
scourge of 1866, when two of them died in one day.
John Emerson Leslie acquired his education in the
public schools of Tompkinsville, which he attended at
intervals until reaching the age of twenty-two years.
His first business experience was acquired as clerk in
a store at Tompkinsville, and this employment he fol-
lowed until resigning to attend to his duties as a mem-
ber of the State Legislature, having been elected to
that body as the representative of Monroe and Met-
calfe counties, in 1899. He served during the stormy
session of 1900, when the murder of Governor Goebel
was causing much excitement and stirring up much
political rancor. On his return to Tompkinsville, in
1901, he purchased the equipment of the old Tomp-
kinsville Enterprise, a newspaper which had been
founded many years before, but which had been dis-
continued for some years. His new paper he named
the Tompkinsville News, and he at once placed it upon
a paying basis. Durng the twenty years it has been
in existence it has attracted a large circulation through-
out Monroe and the surrounding counties, and also
has names on its lists from all over this country and
in foreign lands. Mr. Leslie is the sole proprietor and
publisher of this republican organ and owns the plant
on Mill Street, which is well equipped as both a news-
paper and job printing plant. This is a clean and
reliable newspaper, printing the world's news, local
matter, feature articles and stories and timely edi-
torials, and contains much of interest for its large
army of readers. After starting this paper, Mr. Leslie
began the study of law, and was admitted to the Ken-
tucky bar in 1905. He has built up a large and lucra-
tive practice and is now one of the acknowledged lead-
ers of the Monroe County bar.
A stanch republican in political sentiment, Mr. Leslie
has shown a marked interest in public affairs, and has
occupied several positions of public trust. In addition
to having served in the lower house of the State Legis-
lature, in 1914, he was elected the first mayor of Tomp-
kinsville and occupied that office for two years, during
which he was able to accomplish much for the good of
the city. During the World War period he was greatly
active in all war movements, making speeches all over
the county, acting as food administrator of Monroe
County, devoting much space in his newspaper for all
patriotic purposes, and helping materially in all the
drives. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, in which he is a deaoon, and his fraternal
affiliations are with Tompkinsville Camp No. 1347°,
Modem Woodmen of America, and the Royal Neigh-
bors. He owns one of the most desirable homes of
the city, a modern residence on Mills Street.
In 1903, at Bolen, Monroe County, Mr. Leslie was
united in marriage with Miss Pattie Taylor, a daugh-
ter of William J. and Jane (Billingsley) Taylor, the
latter of whom is a resident of Tompkinsville, where
the former, a retired agriculturist, died. Mr. and Mrs.
Leslie have an adopted son : Clifton, who was born in
March, 1913.
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
131
William Kirkpatrick Richardson, M. D. A man
devoted to the highest ideals of his humane profession,
of prominence and wealth, yet unspoiled by his posi-
tion and prosperity, whose life has been filled with
kindly thoughts and generous deeds, a man of sterling
integrity and probity, is Dr. William Kirkpatrick Rich-
ardson, of Tompkinsville. Reared on a farm, he early
adopted medicine as the field of his activities, and so
faithfully and assiduously has he labored in his chosen
noble calling that he has risen to the very forefront
of Monroe County's physicians, while as a citizen he
is no less honored and respected.
Doctor Richardson was born on a Cumberland river
farm, near Center Point, Monroe County, October 5,
1849, a son of R. H. and Margaret (Kirkpatrick)
Richardson. His grandfather, John Richardson, was
born in 1801, in the State of Virginia, and as a young
man migrated to Fentress County, Tennessee, where
he became a pioneer farmer. He was a man of good
business ability and much industry and acquired a
large and valuable property through legitimate busi-
ness channels, and as a citizen was held in high esteem,
being called by his fellow-citizens to occupy several
county positions of trust and responsibility. He died
in 1861, in Fentress County, where passed away also
his wife, who had been a Miss Hildreth.
R. H. Richardson was born in Fentress County,
Tennessee, in 1823, and was reared and educated in
his native community. As a young man he came to
Monroe County, settling on the banks of the Cumber-
land River, a community in which he was married.
Primarily a farmer, he was successful in his agricul-
tural operations, and subsequently extended the scope
of his activities, becoming a leading merchant, a live
stock dealer and an extensive trader in tobacco, a field
of activity in which he became widely and_ favorably
known. Having acquired a large property, in 1900 he
retired from active pursuits and moved to Tompkins-
ville, where his death occurred in 1904. Mr. Richard-
son was a man of the highest business integrity and
his standing in commercial and financial circles was
an excellent one. In politics he was a democrat, but
political matters only had for him the interest that
is shown by every good and public-spirited citizen,
for he was not a seeker after public preferment. He
was a strong churchman of the Christian faith, and for
many years was a member of the Masonic fraternity.
He married Miss Margaret Kirkpatrick, who was born
in 1829, in Monroe County, and died at Tompkinsville,
in 1913. They became the parents of the following
children : Henry M., who was engaged in farming in
Hardin County, Kentucky, until his death at the age
of seventy-one years; Dr. William Kirkpatrick, of this
record ; John H., a banker of Munf ordville, this state ;
Alonzo, who is engaged in farming in Barren County ;
Lucy, the wife of T. L. Humble, engaged in the timber
business at Glasgow ; Tabitha, a resident of Glasgow,
who married James H. Maxey, and after his death a
Mr. Grissom, who is also deceased; Serilda, the wife
of Perry Summers, a farmer of Hardin County ; Basil
Duke, a leading attorney of the Kentucky bar and a
former member of the State Senate, residing at Glas-
gow ; and Gertrude, the wife of J. H. Gillingwater, a
farmer of Barren County.
The early education of Dr. William Kirkpatrick
Richardson was secured in the rural schools of Mon-
roe County, and after his graduation from the Tomp-
kinsville high school, in 1868, he spent one year work-
ing on a farm. In 1869 he entered the Miami Medical
College, at Cincinnati, from which he was graduated in
!873, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine, and in
t877 Ipok a post-graduate course at Vanderbilt Uni-
versity, Nashville, Tennessee. Doctor Richardson be-
gan practice at Black's Ferry, Monroe County, on the
Cumberland River, and remained in that community
until 1904, when he came to Tompkinsville, where he
has since had a large general medical and surgical
practice, his office being located in his modern home
on Third Street. Doctor Richardson, in addition to
being a student of his calling, studies deeply upon the
great questions of the day, and finds entertainment in
books, travel and congenial companionship. His pro-
fessional service has ever been discharged with a keen
sense of conscientious obligation, and his work has
brought him ample recompense. He is the owner of
a business building on the Public Square, of a farm
of 365 acres located six miles south of Tompkinsville,
and of thirty-five acres of very valuable land adjoining
the city on the east. He is likewise vice-president, a
director and majority stockholder of the Deposit Bank
of Monroe County. Politically, he is a democrat, and
his religious connection is with the Christian Church.
He has been a supporter of all worthy civic enter-
prises, and during the World War was liberal in his
subscriptions and donations to the various wartime
movements and activities.
In 1890, in Monroe County, Doctor Richardson was
united in marriage with Miss Martha E. Smith, daugh-
ter of the late William S. Smith, a farmer of Monroe
County, and to this union there were born five chil-
dren ; Tabitha, the wife of T. B. Cravens, engaged in
the insurance business at Tompkinsville; Frank, who
assists in the operation of his father's farm ; Minnie,
the wife of M. K. Stephens, a farmer of Wellington,
Texas ; Lovey, the wife of C. W. McPherson. a travel-
ing salesman of St. Louis, Missouri ; and Mary, who
died at the age of eighteen years.
James Harlin Newman. It may be that inherent
genius forms the motive power of success, but many
who have studied the lives and principal traits of the
men of various communities who have taken leadership
believe that experience and sound judgment must be
combined with natural inclination to produce the best
results. In the majority of cases where a man has
risen above his fellows, it will be found that this rise
has come gradually through persistent effort. There
are many qualities which help to form the character,
such as self-reliance, conscientiousness, energy and
honesty, and all work together in bringing about the at-
tainment of the ambitious man's goal. The above may
be said to apply to James Harlin Newman, president
of the Deposit Bank of Monroe County, at Tompkins-
ville.
Mr. Newman was born near Gamaliel, Monroe
County, Kentucky, December 29, i860, a son of John
J. and Lucy A. (Harlin) Newman. The family was
founded in this state by Mr. Newman's great-grand-
father, a native of Virginia, who was a pioneer farmer
here and spent the greater part of his life in Monroe
County. In that county, in 1800, was born Josiah New-
man, the grandfather of James H. Newman. He was
reared and educated in his native county, where he
spent some years in farming, but in middle life
removed to Simpson County, this state, where he
rounded out a career of industry and usefulness and
died in 1891 on his farm. He married Edie Manion,
who was born in Allen County, and died on the Simp-
son County farm.
John J. Newman was born near Akersville, Monroe
County, Kentucky, in 1836, and was reared and
educated in that vicinity, where he early adopted the
vocation of farming. He was engaged in farming near
Gamaliel for forty years, and for five years was also
engaged in merchandising at that place, where his
death occurred in 1915. He was a man of industry and
integrity who well merited the esteem and confidence
in which he was held by his fellow-citizens. In politics
he was a Republican. Mr. Newman married Miss Lucy
A. Harlin, who was born in 1840, near Salt Lick, Ten-
nessee, and died near Gamaliel, in February, 1898, and
they became the parents of the following children :
Texie A., the wife of Dr. R. F. Crabtree, a physician
and surgeon of Gamaliel ; C. C, an attorney at law of
132
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
Helena, Montana; J. C, a traveling salesman with
headquarters at Bowling Green ; Joe, who followed
farming near Glasgow until his death at the age of
fifty-three- years; Mary E., the wife of W. H. Reeves,
a farmer near Bowling Green ; James Harlin, of this
review; John W., a farmer near Versailles, Kentucky;
William H., who has left this part of the state and
of whom nothing is known at this time; R. E., a real
estate agent of Texas ; and Dr. Herbert, a dental prac-
titioner of Versailles.
James Harlin Newman attended the rural schools of
Monroe County and the high school at Flippin, Ken-
tucky, which he left at the age of seventeen years.
Until he was nineteen years old he worked on the
home farm, then receiving his introduction to busi-
ness methods as a clerk in the store of his father at
Gamaliel. He remained there for a little more than
two years, leaving in March, 1888, when a little past his
majority, to take up the duties of deputy sheriff of
Monroe Count}', to which he had been appointed, and
an office in which he served three years. In August,
1890, he was elected County Court Clerk, taking office
the same month, and after serving four years and five
months, was reelected to the same office and served
three years more from January, 1895. In 1898 he was
appointed division deputy collector of 'internal revenue
for the Third Division of the Second District of Ken-
tucky, and acted in that capacity for three years, at
the end of which time he was promoted to be general
field deputy in the United States Revenue service.
After three years he served notice of his resignation,
and in 1903 was candidate for clerk of the Court of
Appeals of Kentucky, but met defeat with the rest
of the republican ticket.
In 1904 Mr. Newman entered the Deposit Bank of
Monroe County, at Tompkinsville, as cashier, and in
the following year was elected president, a position
which he has held to the preesnt time, his fellow
officials being: Dr. W. P. Richardson, vice president;
A. B. Strickler, cashier ; and S. C. Ray. assistant
cashier. This institution was founded in 1889, as a
state bank, and is now one of the strong and substan-
tial institutions of the county, with an excellent stand-
ing in banking circles, its capital being $50,000, surplus
and profits, $22,000, and deposits. $500,000. Mr. New-
man is known as a safe and conservative banker, able
in his handling of affairs and of ripened experience
and good judgment. He is a stanch republican in
politics and his religious connection is with the Chris-
tian Church, in which he is an elder. He is a partner
in the lumber firm of Holcomb, Clark & Company, of
Tompkinsville, and has several other business interests,
in addition to which he owns property at Tompkins-
ville, including his comfortable cottage home on Cot-
tage Street. Mr. Newman was selected as chairman
of the bankers' organization of Monroe County for the
Liberty Loan campaigns during the World war, and
in that capacity led the work that put all of these
over the top. Personally, he contributed liberally to
all movements.
On January 22, 1890, at Tompkinsville. Mr. Newman
was united in marriage with Miss Kirk Maxev, daugh-
ter of Dr. E. D. and Nancy J. (Kirkpatrick) Maxey,
both of whom are now deceased. Doctor Maxey was
for many years a leading physician and surgeon at
Tompkinsville and a citizen who was held in high
esteem. To Mr. and Mrs. Newman there have been
born two children : Ada N.. the wife of C. C. Smith, a
life insurance agent of Tompkinsville ; and Daisy, a
graduate of the high school at Tompkinsville, and a
graduate in elocution of the Western State Normal
School, of Bowling Green, Kentucky, a young lady of
unusual accomplishments, who makes her home "with
her parents. The family is widely known at Tomp-
kinsville and the surrounding localities, and its mem-
bers have numerous warm and appreciative friends.
Jesse Alexander Leach. That the pursuits of farm-
ing can be made one of the most congenial and satis-
fying occupations of human life, that industry, good
judgment and perseverance transform one's ambitions
into realities, and that integrity and straightforward
dealing are among the most useful of human assets,
are facts emphasized in the career of Jesse Alexander
Leach, whose life has long been identified with Bour-
bon County, and who is at present the owner of a
splendid farm nine miles northwest of Paris.
Mr. Leach was born at Lee's Lick, Harrison County,
Kentucky, March 24, 1852, a son of Ambrose Dudley
and Frances (Forsythe) Leach. His grandfather,
Hezekiah Leach, was a native of Virginia who came
in young manhood to Kentucky and engaged in farm-
ing in Harrison County, where he passed the rest of
his life and died October 20, 1827. He was married
February 16, 1890, to Millie Bentley, who died May
11, 1857. Ambrose Dudley Leach was born June 3,
1818, in Harrison County, where he grew to manhood
and began to make his own way early in life, due to
the death of his father when he was still a lad. He
was married June 15, 1846, to Frances Forsythe, who
was born September 7, 1826, in Harrison County, a
daughter of Augustus Forsythe, who was born also in
Harrison County and passed his life there as a farmer.
About 1870 Ambrose D. Leach came to Bourbon
County and first settled on the Clay and Keyser turn-
pike. His means were limited and at the start he
rented, but later purchased some land near Centreville
on the Bourbon and Scott County line, the farm being
mainly in Bourbon County. There Mr. Leach con-
tinued to be engaged in agricultural operations during
the remainder of his life, and his son, Ambrose D., is
now the owner of the land. Mr. Leach was a democrat
but took only a good citizen's part in politics and pub-
lic affairs and never sought public office. He died,
highly respected and esteemed, November 16, 1897, and
was followed to the grave by Mrs. Leach, February 20,
1900. These honest, God-fearing people were the
parents of ten children : Ann Eliza, who married
Joseph May of Bourbon County; Emily Frances, who
married William Sageser and lives near the old home
place; Jesse A.; James, who died at the age of twenty-
eight years, September 14, 1894; Augustus, who died
at the age of twenty-eight years, January 3, 1897;
Ambrose Dudley, on the old home farm at Centreville;
Joseph L., who farms five and one-half miles north-
west of Paris ; John, farming in the Centreville com-
munity; Mollie, who died soon after her marriage to
Sam Sageser ; and George Thomas, who farms near
his brother Joseph L.
Jesse A. Leach grew up in a home in which the
financial resources were modest during his boyhood
and youth, and was compelled to be content with a
common school education. He remained at home
assisting his father until he was twenty-three years of
age, at which time he embarked on a career of his
own as a renter. One year later he married Miss
Carrie Houston, daughter of John Kenney and Eliza-
beth (Schooler) Houston, of near Newtown, Scott
County, the latter of whom died when her daughter
was a child. For some years after her mother's death,
Mrs. Leach resided with her father and then went to
live with her sister, with whom she remained until
her marriage to Mr. Leach at the age of nineteen years.
After his marriage, Mr. Leach continued as a renter
for about thirty years, working industriously and care-
fully saving his earnings, and in March, 1907, secured
his present farm, the Joseph Hawkins property of
ninety-six acres, which he has since increased to 150
acres. General farming has been his business, for
while he raises a few acres of tobacco he a1k> has
large crops of corn, wheat and oats, and has met with
success as a raiser of live stock. In addition, Mr.
Leach operates considerable outside land, so that he
"to new vow
PUBLIC LIBRAE
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
133
may be called one of the larger farmers of his county.
He is a democrat, but like his father has preferred the
peaceful pursuits of the soil to the turmoil and doubt-
ful honors of the political arena.
Ten children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Leach :
Fred and Earl, who work with their father for a
share of the crops ; Frank, who is farming in Scott
County; Stephen, farming in Harrison County; Dud-
ley, operating a property near the home farm ; John
and Ora, who farm for a part of the home crops ; May,
who married Otis Washburn, but resides with her
parents and has three children, Gladys, Thomas and
Cecil ; Lulu, the wife of Oliver Sharon, of Newtown,
Scott County; and Ada Belle, the wife of O. T.
Sharon, operating a part of the Leach farm, who has
two children, — Selma and Dorsie.
Lloyd Elmore Foster. Though not one of the older
residents of Hopkinsville, Lloyd Elmore Foster is
widely known over that section of Kentucky, partly on
account of his business record but especially as an
educator. His name was on the state democratic ticket
in 1919 as candidate for state superintendent of public
instruction. For seven years he directed the destiny of
the school system of Christian County as county superin-
tendent, and was recently made secretary of the Cham-
ber of Commerce.
Mr. Foster was born at Swannanoa, North Carolina,
July 25, 1883, in the same locality where his father,
Ben F. Foster, spent his life. The Fosters were of
English ancestry and were Colonial settlers in North
Carolina. His grandfather, Frank Foster, was born in
that state in 1823, and for many years was a farmer
near Beaver Dam, where he died in 1893. Ben F. Foster,
father of the Kentucky educator, was born in 1844 and
died in 1909, having spent practically all the years of
his life at Swannanoa. He left that community when
a youth to serve the last year of the war in the Con-
federate Army. He was a farmer, a democrat and a
member of the Baptist Church. The maiden name of
his wife was Henrietta White, who was born in 1845
and died in 1888, and Swannanoa was her life-long resi-
dence. Their children were six in number : John, a
farmer at Greer, South Carolina ; Nora, unmarried,
living at Swannanoa ; Georgia, who died unmarried at
the age of twenty-two; Lloyd Elmore; Chalmers, a
farmer at Swannanoa ; and Jerome, a representative of
the Armour Packing Company at Jacksonville, Florida.
Lloyd Elmore Foster attended the rural schools of
Buncombe County, North Carolina, acquired his high
school training in the "Farm School" of that county,
and after a varied experience as farmer and otherwise
he entered Maryville College at Maryville, Tennessee,
and graduated with the A. B. degree in 1907. In 1910
the same institution conferred upon him the Master of
Arts degree. While in college he made some reputa-
tion as an athlete and during the summer of 1907 played
professional baseball with the team of Johnson City,
Tennessee, playing the left field position and doing some
of the heaviest hitting in that particular minor league
that season. For one year Mr. Foster was employed
by the S. A. Lynch & Company grocery house of Ashe-
ville, North Carolina, and then, in 1908, came to Hop-
kinsville as professor of history and Latin in McLean
College. He was one of the faculty of that institution
until 1913, in which year he was elected county super-
intendent of schools for Christian County, beginning his
term of office in January of the following year. Being
re-elected for a second four-year term, beginning in
January, 19 18, he completed seven years in office. His
responsibilities were very heavy, involving supervision
of 130 schools, a staff of 150 teachers, and an enroll-
ment of 7,000 scholars. His offices were in the Court
House at Hopkinsville. In August, 1920, he resigned
his position as superintendent of schools and accepted
the position of secretary of the Chamber of Commerce,
which position he now holds.
Mr. Foster is a democrat, is a member of the Board
of Stewards of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South,
is active in the Christian County and State Teachers'
Association, and is a member of the Travelers Pro-
tective Association, Evergreen Lodge No. 38, Knights
of Pythias, and among other business interests is vice
president of the Coward-Foster Motor Company of
Hopkinsville.
He owns a comfortable modern home on East Ninth
Street. Mr. Foster married at Maryville, Tennessee, in
1908, Miss Minnie McGinley, daughter of Joseph and
Fidelia (McConnell) McGinley, residents of Maryville,
her father being a retired farmer. Mrs. Foster took
her junior year in the Maryville College. To their mar-
riage were born two children, Fidelia Mary on Sep-
tember 28, 1915, and Lloyd E., Jr., September 20, 1917.
The Winchester Sun, a six- and eight-page, seven
column democratic daily newspaper, edited and pub-
lished by C. C. Robbins at Winchester, Kentucky, was,
in its infancy, called the Smooth Coon, assuming its
present title in 1878, when Anderson Quissenberry be-
came its owner. Shortly thereafter John E. Garner
became associated with Mr. Quissenberry, but in 1881
they sold out to Will Adams. The latter was succeeded
by John L. Bosley and Major Kinsey Hampton, and
upon the tatter's retirement it was owned by Mr. Bos-
ley. J- J- Adams and J. R. Broadhurst, the last-named
of whom is still connected with the paper.
Judge J. Dell Mitchell owned the paper for a short
time in the '90s, his successor being R. R. Perry, who
consolidated it with the Sentinel, as the Sun-Sentinel,
until 1908. At that time it was a Republican sheet.
In 1908 it was made a daily, the Sun, with W. A.
Beatty as president of the company and editor. In
April, 1912, it was purchased by Capt. Lucien Beckman
and C. C. Robbins and became independent, but in the
same year, November 12, Mr. Robbins purchased the
interest of Mr. Beckman. Mr. Robbins changed it to
a democratic paper, discontinuing the Sun-Sentinel
with its first issue, but carrying out the Sun-Sentinel's
subscription list on the daiiy. It has never failed to
stanchly support the principles of the democratic party,
in addition to advocating all movements helpful to the
community. The Sun was one of the first to espouse
the commission form of city government for Win-
chester and circulate the petition, its support thereof
being one of the main factors in its acceptance. Bet-
ter public improvements such as the Federal Roads
on the Mt. Sterling and Lexington Roads have also
come as a result of its persistent agitation, miles of
paved streets and more miles in course of construc-
tion testifying effectively to its power for good. The
main purpose of the Sun is that of a local newspaper
and one that can be, and is, read in almost every home
in the city, with a circulation of approximately 3,800.
The Sun is also a member of the Associated Press.
Its circulation has more than quadrupled under its
present management, and this result has been obtained
without the use of contests or other demoralizing in-
fluences.
C. C. Robbins was born at Little Rock, Bourbon
County, Kentucky, September 9, 1885, a son of a
farmer, Demillion L. Robbins, who died in 1911, at
the age of fifty-four years. His father, Laban Landon
Robbins, was born on the same farm and in the same
house (built in 1820), in 1829, being a son of John
Robbins, the pioneer settler of the family in Ken-
tucky. Laban L. Robbins spent his life on the farm
and died at the age of seventy-seven years, in 1906.
The early education of C. C. Robbins was secured
under the tutorship of Prof. E. M. Costello, a noted
educator. Later he took a classical and business course
134
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
at North Middletown, and this was supplemented by a
course in stenography. In 1909 he became stenog-
rapher for the general yardmaster of the Chesapeake
& Ohio Railroad at Ha'ndley, West Virginia, whence
he came in ioio to Winchester to the office of the
agent of the Chesapeake & Ohio and Louisville and
Nashville Railroads. The weather conditions of that
memorable winter were too much for him, his work
necessitating much tramping through deep snows, and
he soon gave up his position and accepted one in the
business department of the Sun. with no idea or expec-
tation of becoming a newspaper man. The life grasped
him. however, and journalism has since held him fast.
In it he has achieved a noteworthy success.
Mr. Robbins married Miss Mae Belle Bramblette of
Bourbon County, Kentucky. Fraternally he is a Pythian
and Mason, and belongs to the Knights Templar and
the Mystic Shrine.
Among the achievements of the Sun under die
present management was the securing of the adoption
of the Commission Form of Government for Winches-
ter, in which it took the initiative. The Commission
Form was ushered in on January 2, 1922, with George
E. Tomlinson as Mayor. Messrs. N. A. Powell, W. B.
Lindsey, J. T. Stokely and J. W. Crone, as Commis-
sioners, the candidates who were supported and named
as the Sun ticket during the election.
Roy Burgess Speck was born at Bowling Green,
Kentucky, on December 8, 1895, at which place he was
reared and educated, graduating from the public schools
in 1909, academic department of Ogden College in
191 2, and receiving his A. B. degree from that college in
K)i5. Immediately thereafter he became connected witli
the Times Journal Publishing Company as advertising
manager.
In June, 1916, he, as a private, went to the Mexican
border with the Third Kentucky Infantry and was
mustered out as a sergeant in March, 191 7. A few days
later, having been commissioned second lieutenant, he
was called back into the service and was in command
of a company of infantry doing railroad guard duty
when war with Germany was declared. Later he went
with the Kentucky troops to Camp Shelby, Mississippi,
and was assigned to the One Hundred and Forty-ninth
Infantry. In June, 1918. he conducted a Replacement
detachment overseas. There he saw service with the
American and French forces, his company in the One
Hundred and Sixty-first Division Francais being the
first of the Allied forces to reach the Rhine. He was
mustered out with rank of first lieutenant in March.
1919, his discharge recording participation in the battles
of Chateau Thierry, Saint Mihiel and the Vosges.
He was elected clerk of the Court of Appeals of
Kentucky in November. 1919, at twenty-three years of
age. being the youngest man ever elected to a state
office. He is a member of the Methodist Church, the
Pendennis Club, and is a republican politically.
His father, William Rue Speck, is a prominent at-
torney at Bowling Green, Kentucky, being master com-
missioner at present and having previously been a
publisher and postmaster at that place. He is the son
of Granville Elliot Speck and Martha (Norris) Speck.
Granville Elliot Speck, son of Michael Speck and
Mary (Francis) Speck in his early life engaged in the
lumber business and later was a farmer, merchant and
coal operator; at present he is living in retirement
upon one of his farms at Richardsville, Kentucky.
He is a Mason, having served as past master, a Baptist,
and a republican, but was elected magistrate in a
democratic district in 1871, re-elected in 1875, and again
in 1882. In 1877 he was elected to the House of
Representatives, being the only republican ever elected
from his district, and later became a member of the
State Board of Equalization. His father was a farmer
and stock dealer, and politically was an old line whig
and for many years was magistrate of his native county.
At the beginning of the Civil war in 1861, he abandoned
his business in Charleston, South Carolina, went North
and joined the Federal Army ; he was captured by the
Confederate forces and died a prisoner in Castle Thun-
der, at Richmond, Virginia, in 1863. Granville Speck's
brother, Isaac F., was a lieutenant in the Confederate
Army, serving until his capture in 1864; he died of
fever in a Federal prison in the same year. His
grandfather, Jacob Speck, Jr., was born in North Caro-
lina in 1775, and died in Clinton County, Kentucky, in
1862; he served in the War of 1812. His great-grand-
father, a native of Germany, served in the Continental
Army under General Gates and fell at the battle of
Camden.
Martha (Norris) Speck is the daughter of William
Norris and Mary (Jones) Norris ; both her paternal
and maternal grandfathers, Jerry Norris and Abram
Jones, were native Virginians and Revolutionary sol-
diers.
Mary Olive (Chandler) Speck, mother of Roy B.
Speck, is the daughter of Rev. James Sanderlin Chan-
dler and Ophelia Minerva (Hines) Chandler.
Rev. James Sanderlin Chandler, deceased, was a
Methodist minister, farmer and tobacco merchant, in
which business he lost his fortune. He was eight times
elected president of the Tennessee Conference and for
a number of years was grand prelate of the Masonic
lodge of Kentucky. He was the son of Rev. Jordon
Chandler of South Carolina and Tennessee, who was
a Methodist minister, and Elizabeth Llewellyn Avery,
the daughter of George Avery of Virginia and Ten-
nessee. George Avery was a Revolutionary soldier, a
close friend of George Washington, and one of the
Tennessee pioneers to whom a monument now standing
in the capitol grounds at Nashville, Tennessee was
erected; his wife was Elizabeth (Allen) Avery of
Virginia and Tennessee, whose grandfather first foun-
ded a settlement on Sugg's Creek in Wilson County,
Tennessee, and gave name to that stream. The paternal
grandparents of Rev. James S. Chandler were Josiah
Chandler, of English extraction, and Sarah (Eddings)
Chandler, who were among the first settlers of South
Carolina and later moved to Middle Tennessee. Two
brothers of James S. Chandler served in the Confeder-
ate Army during the Civil war : John William, de-
ceased, physician and Methodist minister, as a line
captain, and Marshall Marion, physician, who since
removing to Texas has served as president of the
State Board of Health, as a surgeon.
Ophelia Minerva (Hines) Chandler is a daughter
of Rix Hines and Mary (Tewmey) Hines. Her grand-
father. William Rixey Hines, was a soldier in the Revo-
lutionary war, a Minute Man under Capt. William
Richards and later under Capt. Hugh Megaree and
Gen. George Rogers Clark. He enlisted from King
and Queen's County, Virginia, and served until some-
time in 1870, being severely wounded in an engagement
with Indians.
James Taylor, M. D. Metcalfe County has taken
distinctive rank because of the skill, learning and high
character of the men who make up its roll of medical
practitioners and the profession numbers among its
members in this county those whose attainments are
far beyond the average. Undoubtedly in this class is
found Dr. James Taylor, of Edmonton, who had been
engaged in practice at this place only three years, but
who, during this time, has fully lived up to the repu-
tation that preceded him from his former field of prac-
tice, East Fork.
Doctor Taylor belongs to an old and honored family
of Kentucky, and was born at East Fork, Metcalfe
County, October 12, 1877, a son of Dr. Ben F. and
Mattie J. (Pendleton) Taylor. His great-grandfather,
the pioneer of the family into Kentucky, was the Rev.
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
135
George W. Taylor, a native of North Carolina and an
early minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church in
Kentucky, who preached in Adair County for more
than fifty years and who for a long period was pre-
siding elder of the Louisville Conference. The grand-
father of Doctor Taylor, George M. Taylor, was born
in Adair County, and as a young man adopted the
vocation of farming, which he followed throughout his
life in the vicinity of Glenville, that county. He was
a man of worth, stability and good business sense, and
when he died, in 1899, his community lost one of its
prosperious agriculturists and public-spirited citizens.
He married Mary McClain, who was born near Glenn-
ville, and who died in the same locality.
Dr. Benjamin Franklin Taylor, father of Dr. James
Taylor, was born in 1853, in Adair County, Kentucky,
where he was reared and received his early education
in the public schools. He was brought up as a farmer's
son, but early showed a predilection for the medical
profession and accordingly was allowed to prosecute
his studies at the University of Louisville, from which
institution he was duly graduated with the degree of
Doctor of Medicine. Doctor Taylor came to Metcalfe
County from Adair County in 187 1 and established
himself in East Fork, where, when only nineteen years
of age, he commenced the practice of his profession.
At first he experienced difficulty in gaining a foothold
in his profession because of his extreme youth, but
gradually he gained the confidence of the people by
reason of his demonstrated skill, and his practice grew
to such an extent that for many years he was the lead-
ing physician of Metcalfe County. In the evening of
life he removed to Columbia, Kentucky, where he died
August 26, 1916. He was sincerely mourned, as there
were many who held him in the warmest affection and
regard. Doctor Taylor was a republican in politics
and a strong and faithful member of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South. He married Mattie J. Pen-
dleton, who was born in 1854, at East Fork, and who
survives her husband and makes her home with her
son, James, at Edmonton, he being the only child of
the union.
James Taylor acquired his preliminary educational
training in the rural schools of Metcalfe County, and
even as a lad showed that he had inherited his father's
love for the medical profession. During his boyhood
and youth he received instruction from his father, and
with this preparation eventually matriculated at the
Hospital College of Medicine, at Louisville, in 1896.
He was duly graduated from that institution June 30,
1898, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine, after a
successful college course, and in that year established
himself at East Fork, where he became associated with
his father, and where, like the elder man, he was able
to win the esteem and confidence of the residents of
the locality. For twenty years he moved among the
people, ministering to their ills and acting not only as
physician, but also as counselor and friend, and main-
tained his home in that community until 1918, when he
came to Edmonton. Here he opened offices in the
Peoples Bank Building, and at this time has a large
and lucrative general medical and surgical practice
among the best people of the county seat. In his pro-
fessional labors he has shown himself familiar with
not only the old methods but with the new that are
constantly being discovered and tested. His profes-
sional service has ever been discharged with a con-
scientious sense of professional obligation, always re-
membering that he belongs to a body set apart, one
that more than any other is helpful to humanity.
Doctor Taylor is the owner of a pleasant and com-
fortable residence on College Hill, just outside of
Edmonton, in addition to which he had two dwellings
and a business building at East Fork and two farms
in Metcalfe County which aggregate 250 acres and on
which lie has modern improvements. These properties
are rented and operated by tenants. He is a director
and stockholder in the Peoples National Bank of
Edmonton and has several other connections. As a
man of enlightened understanding and civic pride, he
takes an interest in all worthy public movements, but
is no politician, satisfying himself in a political way
by casting his vote for the republican candidates and
upholding the principles of that party. During the
World war period, he took an active part in all war
activities, and assisted in all the drives for various
purposes, also buying bonds and war savings stamps
and contributing to the several organizations to the
limit of his means. His religious connection is with
the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Profes-
sionally, Doctor Taylor holds membership in the Met-
calfe County Medical Society, the Kentucky State
Medical Society and the American Medical Association,
and occupies a high position in the esteem and regard
of his fellow practictioners.
On December 27, 1899, at Gradyville, Adair County,
Kentucky, Doctor Tayior was united in marriage with
Miss Myrtle M. Keltner, who was born in Adair
County, a daughter of Evan T. and Sarah C. (Finn)
Keltner, both of whom are deceased, Mr. Keltner hav-
ing been an agriculturist and a Union veteran of the
War between the States. Doctor and Mrs. Taylor have
no children.
Hon. John Martin. Broad-minded and sober of
judgment, some men possess characters that create
respect and invite intercourse, so that in their passage
through life they win the confidence and esteem of
their associates and those with whom they come into
contact. When these characteristics are combined with
an appreciation of constructive community interests
and the power to develop their own capabilities to the
highest possible degree of efficiency, success along any
line is certain, and the locality in which they reside
proves the beneficiary. In the case of the Hon. John
Martin, Metcalfe County has been the community that
has advanced because of his abilities and labors. First
a school teacher and later a farmer, of more recent
years he has been the incumbent of public positions,
and as county judge of Metcalfe County, as in other
capacities, he had contributed to the locality's develop-
ment and advancement in several ways.
Judge Martin was born near Point Burnside, Pulaski
County, Kentucky, December 20, 1864, a son of Ben-
jamin and Sarah (Correll) Martin. The family was
founded in Kentucky by the great-grandfather of
Judge Martin, who brought his family from North
Carolina at an early day. Not being familiar with
land values, this pioneer passed by the rich bottom
lands near Point Burnside, and cut his way with axes
through the cane, settling on comparatively poor land
near the present site of Tatesville, Pulaski County,
where he passed the remainder of his life. His son,
John Martin, the grandfather of Judge Martin, was
born in North Carolina, and was but a youth when he
accompanied the family to Pulaski County, where he
passed the remaining years of his life as an agri-
culturist.
Benjamin Martin was born August 2, 1826, in Pulaski
County, Kentucky, where he was reared, educated and
married, and as a young man engaged in teaching
sohool, a vocation which he followed for some years.
Later he engaged in fanning at Point Burnside, and
served in the capacity of deputy sheriff of Pulaski
County, and when the War between the States came
on enlisted, in 1861, in the Union Army, becoming a
private in the Twelfth Regiment, Kentucky Volunteer
Infantry. Through bravery and faithful performance
of duty he rose to the rank of first lieutenant, but in
1863 was disabled for further service and received
his honorable disoharge. Returning to Pulaski County,
he was engaged in farming until 1866, in which year
he came to Metcalfe County and settled on a farm
three miles south of Edmonton, to which he subse-
136
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
quently added by the purchase of adjoining properties.
He was successful in his operations because of his
industry and good business ability, and when he died,
May 23, 1901, was one of the well-to-do men of his
community. Mr. Martin was a republican in politics
and served for twelve years as a constable in Metcalfe
County. He was an active churchman of the Baptist
faith, and for many years held membership in the
Masonic fraternity. Mr. Martin married Miss Sarah
Correll, a native of Kentucky, who died in 1865 near
Point Burnside, and they became the parents of the
following children : James and Moses, who are engaged
in farming near Edmonton ; Elizabeth, residing on her
farm three miles south of Edmonton, the widow of
Logan Mance, who was a Metcalfe County farmer ;
Benjamin, who died in infancy; and John.
John Martin attended the rural schools of Metcalfe-
County and the normal school at Edmonton and
farmed until reaching the age of twenty-five years, at
which time he commenced teaching school. During the
following ten years he divided his time between teach-
ing school and farming, and in November, 1901, was
elected magistrate of the Third Magisterial District of
Metcalfe County, an office in which he continued for
twelve years. In November, 1913, he was elected
county assessor of Metcalfe County, filling that office
until 1918. He was elected county judge of Metcalfe
County in November, 1917, and entered upon the
duties of that office in January, 1918, for a term of
four years, and in 1921 was a candidate for re-election.
His judicial record has been without reproach, and his
reputation in the county is that of a high-minded, right
principled man, who has never allowed personal incli-
nations or individual views influence him in his official
labors. Judge Martin had been engaged in farming
from the time he attained his majority until 1918, when
he moved to Edmonton and disposed of his property
in order to give his undivided attention to the work of
his position. His offices are situated in the Court
House.
In politics Judge Martin is a republican. He belongs
to the Baptist Church, in- the work of which he has
taken an active part. He resides in a pleasant home
on Burkesville Avenue, Edmonton, and owns real
estate near the county seat in the way of farms, as
well as some property within the town limits. Dur-
ing the World war he served on several committees
engaged in forwarding the Liberty Loan and Red
Cross drives, and was unselfish in his contributions to
all activities formulated to assure the success of
American arms.
On November 26, 1891, near Edmonton, Kentucky,
Judge Martin married Miss Rintha Howell, daughter
of Madison and Margaret (Vaught) Howell, the lat-
ter of whom resides near Goodluck, Metcalfe County,
where the former, an agriculturist, passed away after
a long and successful career. Judge and Mrs. Martin
have been the parents of the following children : :
Joseph, a veteran of the World war, who is chief clerk
in the State Auditor's office at Frankfort; Welbie,
engaged in farming near Edmonton, who married Vir-
gie Word and has two children, Dennis and Hortense ;
Vangie, who taught school for a number of years prior
to her marriage to Albert James, a farm owner, school
teaoher and oil operator living three miles north of
Edmonton: Eunice, a graduate of the Wilbur R. Smith
Business College, of Lexington, formerly a school
teacher and deputy county assessor, and now deputy
county court clerk of Metcalfe County; Dewey, who
is employed on a farm near Springfield, Illinois ; Madi-
son, who is also employed on a farm in that locality;
and Nell, a student at the Edmonton high school, who
makes her home with her parents. All of the chil-
dren have been given good educational advantages, fit-
ting them for the various positions in life whicli they
have been called upon to fill.
James Irving Harlan, president of the Harlan Lum-
ber Company of Barlow, is one of the leading young
business men of his city, and his company is the larg-
est concern of its kind in Ballard County. He pos-
sesses those sterling characteristics which led to his
selection as the executive head of his company, and
his management of its affairs prove the wisdom of the
choice of his associates. Mr. Harlan was born at
Scottsville, Allen County, Kentucky, December 25,
1890, a son of Rev. W. Harlan, and grandson of Rev.
Judge Gayland Harlan. The Harlan family is one of
the old-established ones of this country, and was
founded in Virginia by representatives from England,
who settled there during the Colonial period. From
Virginia members of the family went into Kentucky at
a very early day, and it was at Scottsville that Rev.
Judge Gayland Harlan was born in 1842, and he died
there in 1890, having spent his entire life in that com-
munity. A republican, he was elected on his party
ticket county judge of Allen county. He was also a
minister of the Baptist Church and preached all over
Allen County, and as an attorney, jurist and clergy-
man he was a well known figure of his day. During
the war between the North and the South he espoused
the cause of the North and served as captain of a
company of cavalry in the Union Army. After the
close of the war he was made a United States marshal,
and held that office for many years with dignified
capability. Judge Harlan was married to Sallie
Bridges, who was born at Scottsville, Kentucky, in
[844, and they became the parents of the following
children: Rev. W. Harlan, who was the eldest; Laura,
who married George Pitchford, a lumber dealer, lives
at Austin, Texas ; Dora, who married Patrick Huffines,
died at- Monterey, Tennessee, in 1910, but her husband
survives and is a railroad conductor at Monterey ;
Mary, who married Mills Hughes, a farmer, now de-
ceased, and she lives at Scottsville, Kentucky; Samuel,
who is foreman of a lumber yard, lives at Austin,
Texas; Maggie, who married Custer Dalton, a lumber
dealer, lives at Winchester, Tennessee ; Fletcher, who
is a painter and decorator, lives at Monterey, Tennes-
see; Fred, who is a painter and decorator, lives at
Scottsville, Kentucky.
Rev. W. Harlan was born at Scottsville, Kentucky,
in 1867, a"d died at Barlow, Kentucky, February 17,
1919, after a blameless and useful life. He was grad-
uated from the Scottsville High School, the Baptist
Seminary at Louisville, Kentucky, and the State Nor-
mal School of Bowling Green, Kentucky. His life was
spent in the ministry of the Baptist Church, and for
about ten years he preached in Allen County, and was
then stationed at different points in Warren and Bar-
ron counties, Kentucky. In 1910 he came to Ballard
County and for four years was pastor of the First
Baptist Church of Barlow and then went to Southern
Illinois. In 1917 he retired from the ministry and
returned to Barlow. A republican, he served as county
judge of Allen County for one term. He was a
Mason.
Rev. W. Harlan was married to Neely McReynolds,
who was born at Scottsville, Kentucky, in 1874. The
ceremony took place in 1888 at Scottsville, where all of
their children were born. Mrs. Harlan survives her
husband and continues to reside at Barlow. She and
her husband became the parents of the following chil-
dren : Hubert E., who was born June 3, 1889, is a
tobacconist of Barlow. He married Vera Rogers, and
they have one child, Hubert E., born in 1917. James
Irving was the second in order of birth. Roy E., who
was born December 25, 1892, attended the rural schools
of Allen County, the Bowling Green High School, and
is now a member of the Harlan Lumber Company of
Barlow. He married December 27, 1915, Miss Eulalt
Wells, a daughter of T. R. and Isa (Johnson) Wells,
farming people of Ballard County, and has one child,
%^^i fZt^^O^
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
137
Roy E., Jr., born October 13, 1916. Blonville E., who
was born May 10, 1895, attended the Allen County
rural schools and the Bowling Green High School, and
is now a resident of Barlow and foreman of the Har-
lan Lumber Company. During the great war he en-
listed in the Field Artillery branch of the United
States service, April 28, 1918, and was sent to Camp
Zachary Taylor, Kentucky, where he became a sergeant
prior to his being mustered out January II, 1919. He
is unmarried.
James Irving Harlan went to school in Allen County
and then took a commercial course in the Bowling
Green Business University at Bowling Green, Ken-
tucky, from which he was graduated in 1909. For the
subsequent year he was a bookkeeper for a lumber
company at Benoit, Mississippi, and then, in 1910, came
to Barlow and was bookkeeper for the T. W. Girard
Lumber Company for a year. Mr. Harlan then formed
a partnership with a Mr. Girard, and on June 27, 1916,
bought out the interest of his associates. This busi-
ness is now operated under the name of the Harlan
Lumber Company, the officers being as follows : James
I. Harlan ; Roy E. Harlan, vice president ; and B. E.
Harlan, secretary and treasurer. The yard and offices
are situated by the Illinois Central Railroad tracks, and
this concern is the largest lumber company in Ballard
County. In addition to his lumber interests Mr. Har-
lan owns a modern residence on Depot Street, which
is one of the finest in Barlow, and is interested in a
150-acre farm in Ballard County.
In 1914 Mr. Harlan was married at Barlow to Mrs.
Carrie (Lancaster) Evans, who was a native of Ten-
nessee, and she died in the fall of 1917, at Barlow,
leaving no issue. In 1919 Mr. Harlan was married
to Miss Minnie May Moore at Barlow. She is a
daughter of Judge J. S. and Maude (Nichols) Moore,
residents of Barlow, Mr. MoOre being a retired farmer.
Mr. Harlan is a republican. He is a member of the
First Baptist Church of Barlow, and is now serving
it as treasurer. A Mason, he belongs to Hazelwood
Lodge No. 489, A. F. and A. M., and Barlow Chapter,
0. E. S. He is also a member of Barlow Lodge,
1. O. O. F., and Barlow Camp, No. 11722, M. W. A.
Mr. Harlan is proud of his family and the fact that he
can trace his ancestry back through a long line of
honorable American citizens of the highest type. It
is gratifying to him to realize the good done by both
his father and grandfather, and it is his aim to so
govern his own life as to add prestige to the name
and be of use to his community.
John William Clark. In point of productiveness
one of the best farms in Fayette County is the old
Clark homestead, two miles south of Lexington. While
it is a splendid dairy, stock and general farm, it also
has many other associations to dignify it among the
notable properties in this famous Blue Grass region.
It has been the home of at least four men bearing the
name of John William Clark. It is one of the very
few properties in this section of Kentucky that have
continued without change of title in a single family.
Even in the settlement of the estate there has never
been the formality of sale.
The first John William Clark came from Ireland
direct to Kentucky and acquired land by Colonial
grant. He was one of the early settlers around Lex-
ington, developed his land and lived there until his
death, at the age of eighty. His son, John William
Clark II., always lived on the old farm and died at
the age of eighty-two. John William Clark II was
greatly esteemed for his probity and business judg-
ment, and was frequently called upon to settle or
appraise estates. He was a democrat and a Presby-
terian. John William Clark II erected the present fine
old home on the farm in 1853. About the time the
house was built he also caused to be set out some
thirty or forty fine trees around the buildings. Most
of these grew and are standing today, making a grove
of evergreens that give pleasing distinction to the
farm. John William Clark II married Louisa Norton,
of Lexington, and she died at the age of sixty-five.
John William Clark III was born August 31, 1843,
and in the same yard the old home was erected some
ten years later. His entire life was devoted to the
farm and he was a real leader in community affairs,
though he never consented to run for office. He was
reared a Presbyterian but for many years affiliated
with the Christian denomination. He was the only
son of his parents. He had seven sisters, five of
whom reached mature years : Anna Maria, who died
young; Henrietta, who died at the age of thirty-five;
Mary Hamilton, who became the wife of Colonel
Sanders D. Bruce, a distinguished authority on the
thoroughbred industry and who compiled the Ameri-
can Stud Book, and lived in New York; Kittie, who
died unmarried at the age of sixty-five; and Margaret,
who was married to William Rogers, of Pana, Illinois,
and died at the old homestead in Kentucky.
On October 3, 1878, John William Clark III married
Lillian Berry, of the well known Berry family of
Fayette County. She is a daughter of William and
Ellen E. (Smith) Berry. To their marriage were
born four children : John William Clark IV a hard-
ware merchant at Lexington, who married Madge
Reynolds, of Kirksville, Missouri, and their two chil-
dren are John William V. and Anne Reynolds. The
second of the children is Berry Clark. Mrs. Man,'
Bruce Ware is the third child and she lives on the
old homestead "Auvergne" with her mother, her
brother Berry Clark and her son John Clark Ware.
Lawrence Hamilton Clark who was an expert mechanic
for _ the International Harvester Company, lived at
Lexington, and died July 24, 1918, at the age of twenty-
nine. He married Ellen Kennedy, of Kansas, who sur-
vives him, the mother of one daughter, Lillian Berry
Clark. Although the Clark men are named John, they
have always been called Jack.
Berry Clark, representing the fourth generation of
the family in Fayette County, is unmarried and during
the life of his father took charge of the estate and
has given it much of its distinctive character as a
dairy and stock farm. The farm comprises 275 acres.
Barry Clark responded to the call of patriotism dur-
ing the World war and left nothing undone to in-
crease the productiveness of this farm as a source of
food supplies. The family are all members of the
Christian Church and Mr. Clark lives with his mother
and his only sister Mrs. Mary Bruce Ware.
Frank Rives began the pratcice of law at Hopkins-
ville just twenty-five years ago. He early established
his reputation and prestige as an able attorney, has
handled much of the prominent litigation in the courts
of his district, and has also been prominent in a political
way. He is best known over the state at large because
of his work as a state senator, an office he holds at
present, and this is the second term he has served in
the State Senate.
Mr. Rives was born in Montgomery County, Ten-
nessee, April 6, 1871. He comes of a distinguished
Virginia branch of the Rives family, one of whose
members was William Cabell Rives. His grandfather,
Robert Rives, was born in Warren County, North Caro-
lina, in 1800, and early in the nineteenth century came
west to Tennessee and lived out his life as a farmer in
Montgomery County, where he died in 1885. R. F.
Rives, father of the Hopkinsville lawyer, was born in
Montgomery County, Tennessee, in 1837, and lived there
as a farmer until 1874, when he removed to Christian
County, Kentucky. He still lives on his homestead
seven miles south of Hopkinsville, and in that section
of Christian County, conceded to be one of the richest
agricultural districts in the state, he has what is ac-
knowledged to be one of the largest and most valuable
138
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
farms. In his eightieth year, in 1917, he retired and
turned over the burdens of farming to younger shoul-
ders. R. F. Rives has always been a democrat, has
been prominent in the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South, and is one of the surviving Confederate veterans.
He was all through the war, served as a cavalryman
under Morgan and Forrest, was at the battles of
Chickamauga and Lookout Mountain, and afterward
with the armies under General Joe Johnston during the
retirement before General Sherman. R. F. Rives mar-
ried for his first wife Isabella Virginia Pollard, who
was born in Amelia County, Virginia, in 1846 and
died in Christian County, Kentucky, in 1875. She was
the mother of four children : R. H. Rives, a farmer
living six miles south of Hopkinsville; Frank; Florence
N., wife of Rev. W. B. Kendall, pastor of the First
Baptist Church at Paris, Texas ; and George P., a
farmer eight miles south of Hopkinsville. For his
second marriage R. F. Rives married Miss Sallie A.
Moore, who was born in Humphrey County, Tennessee,
in 1845. To this marriage were also born four children:
Mary Bell, died at San Antonio, Texas, in 1918, while
her husband, Dr. J. L. Barker, was in the Army
Medical Corps, his permanent home and place of prac-
tice being at Pembroke, Kentucky ; Jordan M. is a
farmer seven miles south of Hopkinsville ; Susan Cleve-
land is the wife of John Helms, a cotton broker at
Terrell, Texas; and John L. is a farmer seven miles
south of Hopkinsville.
It was in that home community south of Hopkinsville
that Frank Rives spent his boyhood and early youth.
He attended the rural schools there, also the South
Kentucky College at Hopkinsville, and completed his
literary and professional education in Cumberland Uni-
versity at Lebanon, Tennessee. He was a student of
the literary department for a year, and in February,
•895. graduated with the LL.B. degree. He was presi-
dent of his senior class in the University and a member
of the Kappa Sigma college fraternity. Mr. Rives be-
gan the practice of law at Hopkinsville in 1895, and a
few years were sufficient to establish his reputation as
a very capable and hard working lawyer who exercised
great care in the handling of all interests entrusted to
his charge. In addition to being a successful lawyer
he has become an extensive land owner, having 1,000
acres of farm lands in Christian County, also 660 acres
of farming land on the Texas Gulf coast in Jim Wells
and McMullen counties, and another tract of thirty
acres in Volusia County, Florida.
Mr. Rives for six years was master commissioner of
the Christian County Circuit Court. He was first
elected a member of the State Senate in the fall of
1905, representing Christian and Hopkins counties. He
served the regular term of four years, during the ses-
sions of 1906 and 1908, and was a member of the rules
committee in both sessions, chairman of the charitable
institutions committee in the session of 1908, and in
that session was also on the sub-committee for the
appointment of committees. In 1908 he led the fight on
the County Unit Prohibition Bill. While he was not
personally credited with the introduction of many bills,
he was instrumental in having passed more amendments
than any of his colleagues. In the fall of 1917 Mr.
Rives was again returned to the Senate for the ses-
sions of 1918 and 1920. He served on the rules, roads,
charitable institutions and other committees and was
paid the highly significant compliment by the leader of
the opposition of being the most valuable man on the
floor of the Senate. During his second term his record
has not been so much characterized by new legislation
as by the influence he has exercised in preventing un-
necessary bills, and that has been an invaluable service
to the entire state.
Senator Rives was for many years president of the
Library Board of Hopkinsville, and was responsible for
keeping the question of an appropriate library building
before the people and maintaining the progressive spirit
of the library as an institution. Ever since the years
of young manhood he has been a steward in the Metho-
dist Episcopal Church, South. He is a member of the
State Bar Association and the American Bar Associa-
tion, and is one of the prominent lawyers of Kentucky
today.
In December, 1898, at Lebanon, Tennessee, Mr. Rives
married Miss Emma Blanton, who was born in Ten-
nessee, a daughter of W. B. and Mrs. (Peebles) Blanton.
Her father was a merchant and stock raiser at Lebanon.
Mrs. Rives, who died at Hopkinsville in September,
1903, was liberally educated, attended a Young Ladies'
Seminary at Lebanon and was a teacher at Lebanon
for three years before her marriage. In May, 1908, at
Hopkinsville, Senator Rives married Mrs. Sarah (Mc-
Daniel) Richards. Her first husband was the late
J. Baily Richards, a merchant who died at Hopkinsville.
Her parents were Mr. and Mrs. Richard McDaniel, now
deceased.
Harrison Lee, the present County Tax Commis-
sioner of Franklin County, has lived most of his life
in and around Frankfort and has had a busy career
as a farmer, a business man and public official.
Mr. Lee was born near Greeneville in Eastern Ten-
nessee September 22, 1876. His paternal ancestors
were English and colonial settlers in Virginia. His
father, T. L. Lee, was born at Louisville. Kentucky, in
1852, but grew up and married near Greeneville, Ten-
nessee, was a farmer there and also served as deputy
sheriff. In 1882 he removed to Franklin County, Ken-
tucky, and for nearly forty years has been a farmer
in the vicinity of Peaks Mill in Franklin County. He
served four years as a constable of the county, was a
stanch democrat, and has always given of his time and
means in the support of the Christian Church. He is
affiliated with the Odd Fellows fraternity. T. L. Lee
married Ursula Susong, who was born near Greene-
ville, Tennessee, in i860. Harrison was the oldest of
their children ; Sophronia is the wife of Forest Carter,
a farmer at Simpsonville, Kentucky; Mellie, wife of
W. F. Rambo, a carpenter and builder at Thornhill,
Alice, wife of W. E. Geogary, a farmer at Peaks Mill;
Bessie, wife of H. H. Church, a farmer at Peaks Mill;
Tabitha, wife of Clarence Jordan, a larmer at Wood-
lake in Franklin County; Laura, wife of Wallace Gib-
son, a farmer at Monterey, Owen County ; Birt, a
farmer at Switzer in Franklin County; John, a farmer,
is living with his parents; Ernest, a farmer at Peaks
Mill ; Miss Matt and Herbert, both at home ; and
Anna, the youngest and thirteenth child, wife of John
Wise, a farmer at Peaks Mill.
Harrison Lee was six years of age when brought
to Franklin County, attended the rural schools in
this section of Kentucky, and lived on his father's
farm and shared its duties until about twenty-four.
After that he took up farming on his own account,
and has found many interests to vary his vocational
experience. Beginning in 1908 he served as county
assessor four years. He also had a general store
at Peaks Mill until 1912, following which he spent four
years with the Globe Clothing Company and for one
year covered Kentucky as a traveling salesman for a
Chicago shoe house. In November, 1917, Mr. Lee was
elected tax commissioner, beginning his term of four
years in January, 1918. His offices are in the Court
House at Frankfort. Mr. Lee and. family reside at
Thornhill, where he has a modern home. He has sold
much of his realty property, though he still has some
parcels of real estate in Frankfort. Mr. Lee is a
democrat, a member of the Christian Church, is active
in the Frankfort Chamber of Commerce and was an
investor and active supporter of all the patriotic and
war causes during the conflict with Germany. Fra-
ternally he is affiliated with Franklin Lodge No. 530 of
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
139
the Elks ; Frankfort Lodge No. 28, Independent Order
of Odd Fellows ; Frankfort Tribe of the Improved
Order of Red Men ; Junior Order United American
Mechanics ; Frankfort Camp Modern Woodmen of
America; and is a member of the Indiana Division
Travelers Protective Association.
At Peaks Mill in 1902 Mr. Lee married Miss Anna
Will Stafford, daughter of Suter and Bettie (Hamp-
ton) Stafford, well known farming people in that sec-
tion of Franklin County. Mr. and Mrs. Lee have one
daughter, Mary Saffell, born in 1903. Mr. Lee's grand-
father, Richard Lee who is a graduate of Business
Course at Smith College, was a native of Virginia
and in early life he moved to Spartanburg, South
Carolina. He married then Louise Dempsey. He was
a merchant at Spartanburg up to the time of the Civil
war, when he enlisted in the Confederate Army and
was killed at Vicksburg. Mississippi. He was in the
Battle of Bull Run and other battles.
William Lillard Turk was born at Bardwell, Sep-
tember 20, 1893, a son of W. R. Turk, who was born
in Henry County, Kentucky, in 1847. His death
occurred at Bardwell, December 25, 1916. He was
brought to that part of Ballard County which is now
Carlisle County in 1855, his parents settling here and
becoming valuable citizens of this region. W. R. Turk
was reared, educated and married in Ballard County,
and following the latter event established himself at
Bardwell, where he became the pioneer merchant of
the city. His business developed and he expanded his
operations to include several lines, so that at the time
of his death he was easily one of the most prominent
men of the county. W. R. Turk was united in mar-
riage with Olivia Emeline Mabry, who was born in
what is now Carlisle County, but was then included in
Ballard County, in 1866, and died July 21, 1914. Their
children were as follows : Addye Katherine, who
married Thomas Herbert Hobbs, a farm owner, and
lives at Bardwell ; Robbie La Vanche, who died No-
vember 21, 1909, unmarried ; William L., who was
third in order of birth; Emma Lucile, twin sister of
William Lillard, married Clarence A. Harper, a real
estate broker, and lives at Flint, Michigan, and Malcoln
K., who is a traveling salesman and lives at Wickliffe,
Kentucky.
William L. Turk attended the public schools of Bard-
well, and then took up preparatory work in the Mur-
freesboro School for Boys at Murfreesboro, Tennessee,
for a period of two years. Having in this way been
prepared for college he entered Union University at
Jackson, Tennessee, but after a year's study left school,
being then only nineteen years of age. He entered his
father's general mercantile business, and remained with
him until the latter's death in 1916. Mr. Turk then be-
gan operating Carlisle County farm lands, and is now
conducting 300 acres, carrying on a general farming
and stockraising business. He is vice president of the
Bardwell Deposit Bank, in which the other members of
the Turk family are also interested, and which his
father and J. W. Turk founded a number of years ago.
Mr. Turk is a director and stockholder of the Wilson-
Butts Wholesale Grocery Company of Paducah, Ken-
tucky.
On October 31, 1915, Mr. Turk was married at
Paducah, Kentucky, to Miss Mary Rebecca Rutherford,
a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. T. C. Rutherford, of Bard-
well, although Mr. Rutherford has extensive farming
interests in Carlisle County. Mr. and Mrs. Turk have
one daughter, Frances La Vanche Turk, who was born
November 27, 1916.
During the great war Mr. Turk entered service as a
yeoman in the United States Navy, and was sent to the
Great Lakes Training School at Chicago, Illinois. He
was mustered out of the service December 12, 1918, and
returned to Bardwell and resumed his ordinary occupa-
tions.
William A. Hill numbered among the alert young
business men of McCracken County who have forged
rapidly to the front, William A. Hill has found con-
genial employment for his talents and a recognition of
his ability as secretary and general manager of the
Even Lite Company of Paducah. He is a native son
of the county, for he was born within its confines on
August 11, 1890. The Hill family originated in Scot-
land, but members of it came to the American Colonies
long prior to the War for Independence, and took part,
through successive generations, in the great work of
developing a mighty nation from a few scattered settle-
ments along the Atlantic coast.
The grandfather of William A. Hill, also named
William Hill, was born in 1833, and became one of the
early settlers of Frankfort, Kentucky, where he died
in 1902. During the many years he resided there he
became very prominent and was connected with the
administrative office of the state, and never, as long as
he lived, failed to participate actively in the affairs of
the democratic party. He married a Miss McGruder.
The name was originally spelled McGregor, and she
was a direct descendant of Robert McGregor of Scot-
land.
William A. Hill is a son of Henry V. Hill, who was
born near Frankfort, Kentucky, in 1865, and there
reared and educated. He came to McCracken County
before his marriage, and has developed into one of the
prosperous agriculturists of this section. The demo-
cratic party has always received his support, and during
1914, 1915, 1916 and 1917, he served as deputy sheriff
of McCracken under a democratic sheriff. He is a
consistent and earnest member of the Christian Church.
In his fraternal relations he maintains membership
with the Odd Fellows. For five years he served in the
internal revenue department of the United States Gov-
ernment as a whisky gauger, and during that period
resided at Louisville, Kentucky, but at the expiration of
that time, returned to McCracken. His wife was
formerly Miss Kate Hughes, and she was born in
McCracken County in 1871. Their children are as
follows : William A., who is the eldest born ; Edgar
Hughes, who is on the home farm ; Lonnie Steward,
who is also on the home farm ; Sarah Louise, who
married a Mr. Worthington, a farmer of Ballard
County, Kentucky ; and James, who is also on the home
farm.
William A. Hill attended the schools of McCracken
County, and Jasper College of Jasper, Indiana, and was
graduated from the latter institution of learning in
1912. For the subsequent three years he was deputy
city clerk of Paducah, and for the next twelve months
was with the Billings Printing Company. Desiring to
have a business of his own, Mr. Hill then established
himself as a grocer at Woodville, McCracken County,
and remained there until he sold his store in 1917. At
that time he became associated with the Equi-Light
Company of Paducah as general manager, and when
this concern was incorporated in October, 1919, as the
Even Lite Company, he continued with it as secretary
and general manager, ihis associates being R. G. Fisher,
president; T. C. Allen, vice president, and Hunter
Martin, treasurer. The plant and offices are located
at 539 South Third Street. This company manu-
factures lighting devices for Ford automobiles, and
ships its product all over the United States. Employ-
ment is given to twenty persons at the plant. The
political views of his forefathers are his, and he never
fails to give his support to the democratic party. Mr.
Hill belongs to the Roman Catholic Church.
In 1915 Mr. Hill was married at Paducah to Miss
Virginia Gilbert, a daughter of Lee and Katie (Bonds)
Gilbert. Mr. Gilbert is now deceased, having been first
a school-teacher of McCracken County, and later a
farmer, but his widow survives him and still lives in
the county, on the Gilbert homestead. Mrs. Hill was
graduated from the Paducah High School, and is a lady
140
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
who presides over the family residence at 907 Clark
Street, with capable efficiency, and there both she and
Mr. Hill entertain their many friends with delightful
hospitality. Mr. and Mrs. Hill have three little chil-
dren, namely : Gilbert, who was born on February 22,
1916; Virgil Leander, who was born in October, 1017;
and Helen Kate, who was born in May, 1920. A man
who fully understands his business, Mr. Hill has been
able to develop his concern until it is one of the lead-
ing ones of its kind in the state, and the volume of
trade is showing a healthy and steady increase annually.
W. Logan Wood. During his administration at the
postorhce at Danville, the judicial center of Boyle
County. Mr Wood was eminently successful. He was
born on his father's farm in Boyle County, on the 4th
of < (ctober, 1879, and is a son of Thomas E. and Sarah
J. (Pope) Wood, the former of whom was born in
Lincoln County, Kentucky, in 1828, and the latter in
Boyle County, in 1842. Thomas E. Wood devoted his
active career to farm industry and to the buying and
shipping of live stock, in which latter field of enterprise
his dealings became of extensive order and incidentally
gained to him a wide acquaintanceship through Central
Kentucky. For many years he shipped live stock to
Cincinnati. Ohio, as well as to Lexington, Richmond
and other points in Kentucky. He passed the major
part of his mature life in Boyle County and here he and
his wife were residing at the time of their death. They
became the parents of six children: W. Logan, John
A., George T.. Nancy E., Eugene W. and Ora P.,
who are deceased.
W. Logan Wood gained his early education in the
public schools of Boyle and Lincoln counties. After
remaining six years in Lincoln County he returned to
Boyle County, Inn prior to this he had served two
years as deputy sheriff of the former county. In Boyle
County he forthwith established his home at Danville,
in January, 1900, and here he held for four years the
position of bookkeeper in the office of Fox & Loan,
engaged in the livery business. He was then elected
chief of police of the county seat, and in this office he
gave a most vigorous and effective administration dur-
ing bis ten years' incumbency. Within his regime he
practically eliminated the illicit dealing in liquors in the
city, and it required both courage and finances to bring
about the result, as there were many clandestine dealers
and not a few (if the number had influential support.
In the spring of 1914, largely through the influence
and medium of the late and honored Senator Ollie M.
James, Mr. Wood was appointed postmaster of Dan-
ville, and at the expiration of his four years' term he
was reappointed for a second term of equal duration.
As may readily be understood, the Danville postoffice
is the most important in Boyle County, the same being
an office of the second class, and its service including the
operation of about ten rural mail routes. Mr. Wood
resigned as postmaster, July 1, 1921, and became a
candidate for sheriff of Boyle County. He has been
a stalwart in the local ranks of the democratic party
and is known as a loyal and progressive citizen.
On the 21 st of October, 1903, was solemnized the
marriage of Mr. Wood to Miss Sara Wood Lynn, who
was born in Lincoln County, on the 28th of March,
1882, and who was graduated in the Millershurg Female
Institute, at Millershurg, Bourbon County. Mr. and
Mrs. Wood have one child, Mary Virginia, who was
born May 17, 1913.
Frank B. Craig has been a factor in banking at
Corinth, Kentucky, for twenty years, and at the same
time has given unmistakable evidence of his public
spirited attitude in every turn of public affairs and in
movements affecting the welfare and patriotic dignity
of the community.
Mr. Craig was born at Owenton. Kentucky, October
11, 1876. His great-grandfather was the founder of
the family in Kentucky in pioneer times, coming from
Virginia. The grandfather, Clement Craig, was born
in Warren County, Kentucky, 1800 and spent his life
as a farmer, chiefly in Scott and Gallatin counties and
died in Owen County in 1882. He married Miss Twi-
man, a native of Southern Kentucky, who died in Galla-
tin County. Reuben B. Craig, father of the Corinth
banker, was born in Warren County in April, 1837, grew
up on a farm in Gallatin County, and in 1855 moved to
Laconia, Arkansas, where for some years he was over-
seer on the plantation of Dr. Church Blackburn. In
1877 he located in Owen County, Kentucky, and for
many years was a leading merchant at Owenton. He
has lived retired at Corinth since 191 1 and is now at
the venerable age of eighty-five. He served as post-
master of Owenton during the second administration
of President Cleveland. He is a democrat, was a Con-
federate soldier all through the war, participating in the
battle of Shiloh and other campaigns, and has been a
lifelong and devoted member of the Baptist Church.
Reuben B. Craig married Eunice Trelkeld, who was
born at Owenton in 1840 and died at Corinth in 1916.
Frank B. Craig is the only child of his parents. He
lived at Owenton during his early life, attended school
to the age of eighteen, and for the last two years of
his school work he also performed the duties of assist-
ant postmaster. He continued in that office until the
end of his father's term in 1896. The following four
years he was employed in a flour mill at Owenton. and
acquired his first knowledge of banking in that town
as a clerk in the Farmers National Bank.
The Farmers Bank of Corinth was organized in 1903
and Mr. Craig has been its first and only cashier and
to a large degree has had the general executive man-
agement of this prosperous institution. The president
is William Jones and the vice president W. G. Dorman.
The assistant cashier is Mrs. Frank B. Craig.
Mr. Craig was secretary of all the Liberty Loan
drives and local chairman of the War Savings Stamp
drive and received honorable mention from the Fed-
eral Reserve Bank for the large volume of sales of
certificates of indebtedness and for the record of the
community in surpassing the quota in all Liberty Loan
sales. Mr. Craig has also served as a member of the
Corinth Town Board. He is a democrat, a Baptist, is
affiliated with Corinth Lodge No. 584 F. and A. M., is
Past Chancellor of Corinth Lodge No. 30, Knights of
Pythias, and a member of Hinton Council, junior Order
United American Mechanics, at Hinton, Kentucky. In
1901 at Owenton he married Miss 'Mary Holbrook,
daughter of John Wesley and Bettie (Roberts) Hol-
brook, the latter a resident of Owenton, where her
father, who was a farmer, died.
Charles Stewart Ison and his brother Frank have
been partners in enterprise for thirty years or more,
both starting as poor boys, with their capital entirely
in the skill of their hands and their industry. Their
achievements have been noteworthy as farmers, stock-
men, dealers in livestock and in a varied line of activi-
ties that make them men of distinction and esteem in
Mercer County.
Charles Stewart Ison was born in Mercer Countv on
the farm of his parents September 18, 1868, son of Z. T.
and Elizabeth (Jenkins) Ison. His father was born
in 1843 and his mother in 1848. They were married
in 1864 and celebrated their fifty-sixth wedding anni-
versary. The father died February 17, 1921. They
reared a large family of children, Charles S. being next
to the oldest. He had very few opportunities to get an
education, attended country school a few months each
year until he was about sixteen. He worked on the
farm with his father to the age of twenty, and on leav-
ing home went to the Shakers community and for three
years was employed there at wages of $10 a month
and board. During that time he saved on the average of
$1 every month.
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
141
He gave up working for others to join his brother
Frank in the partnership that has been continuous and
mutually profitable and agreeable for thirty years. At
first they rented land from the Shakers on the shares,
the owners furnishing tools and stock. Later the
brothers as they were able acquired their own equip-
ment and livestock, and remained on one farm for four-
teen years. In the meantime they bought a farm of
232 acres, two miles below Shakertown on the Lexington
Pike. All the money they had, $2,000, they paid on the
contract, and went in debt for the balance of $4,000 at
6 per cent. Good friends and well meaning advisers did
what they could to keep them out of this rash propo-
sition, but the brothers proved that their warnings were
not the part of wisdom and in four years had paid off
their debt. Through solid and substantial enterprise
they have engaged in transactions that would do credit
to many men who pose as financiers. Their second
purchase was 100 acres adjoining the city of Harrods-
burg on the Lexington Pike. The purchase price was
$8,000 and they went in debt for the entire amount,
but in a few years had the farm clear. They next
bought 227 acres, four miles from Harrodsburg on
the Lexington Pike, and when they sold it two years
later it was at an advance which gave them a profit
of $7,000 on the transaction. The home farm of the
Isons today is 102 acres, two miles from Harrodsburg,
also on the Lexington Pike. It is one of the valuable
farms of Mercer County and the brothers paid $15,300
for it. The home occupies a very picturesque site, and
the farm has a high reptuation for its crop production
and is exceptionally well improved in all other respects.
The beautiful location is enhanced by the conveniences
of the buildings themselves. These buildings are all
modern and the equipment includes electric light, tele-
phone and many of the advantages found only in the
best city homes.
December 14, 1910, Charles S. Ison married Miss
Ella McFatridge, daughter of Edgar and Fannie (Tal-
bot) McFatridge, natives of Kentucky. Mr. and Mrs.
Ison began housekeeping on the Lexington Pike farm,
nine miles from Harrodsburg. Two children were born
to their marriage : Louis Francis and his older brother
Charles Stewart Ison, Jr., who was born April 8, 1912,
and died September 30, 1913.
Charles S. Ison has been an intensive farmer and
busines man all his life, has accumulated a great deal
of valuable property and the brothers have been very
prominent as traders and dealers in horses, cattle, mules
and hogs, especially dealers in horses and mules. For-
merly ihey shipped horses and mules all over the South,
but more recently have sought a complete outlet for
their business in the home markets. They are conserva-
tive men and regard the home market as safer than
assuming the risks of long shipments. Both these
brothers had a very limited amount of formal schooling,
and their success has been due to sound sense, improve-
ment of their opportunities, and a constant industry
that has put them step by step toward the goal ot
prosperity.
Martin V. Dulin. The prosperity of any com-
munity is determined not by the wealth or activities of
any one man, but is measured by the standard raised
and maintained by the aggregate of its leading business
factors. All compilations are made according to per-
centages, and each man increases or decreases the ratio
according to his work in proportion to what is expected
of him. Therefore no accurate history of Hopkinsville
can be written without giving proper place to the lives
of those men who through their various commercial and
industrial connections afford opportunities for their
fellow citizens to raise the general average by increas-
ing their own percentage of accomplishment. One of
these men of moment is Martin V. Dulin, who is not
only connected as a stockholder and director to the
Bank of Hopkinsville, but is also interested with a
number of its other concerns of importance.
Mr. Dulin was born on a farm four miles east of
Crofton, Christian County, Kentucky, April 12, 1840, a
son of Rice Dulin, and grandson of Lod Dulin. The
Dulin family originated in Scotland and Ireland, and
immigration was made to North Carolina during the
Colonial epoch of this country. From North Carolina
some of the representatives of the family moved to
South Carolina, and there Lod Dulin was born, but he
left his native state in young manhood for Christian
County, Kentucky, and was married after coming to
this region. Here he became one of the prosperous
farmers of early days, and died on his farm on Pond
River in 1848.
Rice Dulin was born in the northern part of Christian
County, in 1809, and died on this same farm in 1898, his
entire life having been spent in Christian County. He
gave the democratic party his earnest support, and
served for some years as a magistrate. Fraternally he
was a Mason, and was zealous in behalf of his order.
Rice Dulin was married to Catherine Myers, who was
born in the northern part of Christian County in 1813,
and died on the homestead. Their children were as
follows : T. J., who died on the home farm in 1859,
when twenty-two years of age; W. H., who died on
the home farm ; Mary W., who is the widow of O. B.
Robinson, formerly a farmer of Christian County, lives
with her brother, Martin V. ; R. S., who was a coal-
mine operator, died at Springfield, Tennessee ; Martin
V., who was fifth in order of birth; J. M., who died
on his farm near Crofton, Kentucky; Ben, who died on
the home farm ; and Lou R., who was the widow of
W. M. West, formerly a merchant of Madisonville,
Kentucky, and sheriff of Christian County for two
terms, died at Hopkinsville.
Martin V. Dulin grew up on his father's farm and
attended the neighborhood schools until he was nineteen
years old, when he went to an advanced school held in
southern Christian County by Prof. A. J. Wyatt for
ten months. Returnig to the farm, he was engaged in
operating it until 1902, when he sold his farm, which
was located four miles east of Crofton, in Christian
County, and contained 300 acres. He had been success-
fully engaged in general farming and stockraising,
specializing on wheat and tobacco. When he disposed
of his farm he moved to Hopkinsville and resides at
115 East Sixteenth street. Mr. Dulin is a director of
the Bank of Hopkinsville, in which he is a stockholder ;
he is vice president of the Hopkinsville Milling Com-
pany, and is also on its directorate, and he is president
of the Hopkinsville Warehouse Company and has other
interests.
Mr. Dulin is not married. He belongs to Hopkins-
ville Lodge No. 545, Benevolent and Protective Order
of Elks. Politically he is a democrat. A man of earn-
est purpose, he has steadily forged ahead, wisely in-
vesting his money in enterprises which had a future.
He is held in high respect by his associates as a man
of good judgment, and his advice is often sought in
matters of importance.
William Hereford Smith, M. D. A physician and
surgeon of twenty years' experience, Doctor Smith,
whose address is 441 Main Street, Danville, is regarded
as one of the ablest surgeons in Boyle County and his
abilities in that field were made available during the
World war both in this country and in France.
He was born at Maysville, Kentucky, February 3,
1877. His father, William S. Smith, was born in
Louisiana in 1853 and spent his active life as a travel-
ing salesman. In 1873 William S. Smith married
Zilpha Taylor, a native of Winchester, Kentucky. They
were the parents of four children : Hugh Thompson
Smith, Ernest Thruston Smith, William Hereford
Smith and Zilpha Taylor Smith.
142
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
William H. Smith lived with his parents in George-
town, Kentucky, to the age of ten, when the family
moved to Harrodsburg. He attended the grade schools
of Harrodsburg, and at the age of sixteen came to
Danville, where for one year he was a student in the
Hogsett Military Academy. He graduated from Center
College with the Bachelor of Science degree in 1897,
and in the fall of that year entered Cornell Medical
College in New York City. He graduated in medicine
and then served as an interne in one of the largest
public hospitals of New York, Gouverneur Hospital,
where he was given intensive training for his actual
practice. For the first five years after returning to
Kentucky, Doctor Smith was located at Lexington and
since then has been in Danville, where more and more
of his time and abilities have been required as a sur-
geon. July 24, 1918, he entered the army to serve in one
of the Base Hospital centers, was soon sent overseas to
France, and helped care for the wounded at various
hospital centers near the fighting lines. Doctor Smith
returned to America in April, 1919, and after further
post-graduate work in New York City resumed practice
in July. He is intensely devoted to his profession, has
never had a vacation since he graduated in medicine, all
his leisure time being devoted to further study and re-
search.
July 24, 1918, Doctor Smith married Miss Pearl
Colter of Louisville, Kentucky. She is a graduate of
the City Hospital Training School of Louisville, and
is highly accomplished in her chosen profession.
Alvin Francis Duckworth. Among the venerable
citizens of Clark County whose long and honorable
careers have reflected credit upon themselves and their
community and who have won and held the well-merited
confidence of their fellow-men, few are held in higher
esteem than is Alvin Francis Duckworth, of Thomson
Postoffice, near Kiddville. Now retired in well-pre-
served old age, Mr. Duckworth can look back over a
varied, active and honorable career, in which he won
success through honest effort and without animosity on
the part of his competitors.
Alvin Francis Duckworth was born near Pilot View,
Clark County, Kentucky, May I, 1838, a son of Thomas
and Delilah (Bradley) Duckworth. His father was
born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, and as a
small boy, about 1810, came with his parents to Bath
County, Kentucky, where his father was a farmer and
died in old age about 1848 or 1850. He was a citizen
of worth, public-spirit and standing and had the respect
of the people of his community. Thomas Duckworth
was married in Bath County, when about thirty years
of age, to Mrs. Delilah (Bradley) Poindexter, widow
of Daniel Poindexter, and a daughter of Dennis Brad-
ley, who settled on a farm at Pilot View, Clark County,
and there died at the advanced age of ninety years, his
last years being passed in the home of his daughter. By
her first marriage, Mrs. Duckworth had one daughter,
Susan Poindexter, who was reared in the home of Mr.
and Mrs. Duckworth, and married James Ecton, re-
moving to Cass County, Missouri, where she died.
Thomas Duckworth added to his property, acquiring
other interests, until he had from 250 to 300 acres, and
remained in the same community for from thirty to
forty years. He was not a public man, and desired no
office, but was a good citizen. Reared a Presbyterian,
in his later years he belonged to the Baptist Church,
as did his wife, who had been reared in the faith "of
the Methodist Episcopal denomination. After they sold
the farm, they retired and moved to near Mount Olive,
where they joined the Baptist Church, and there Thomas
Duckworth died in 1871, at the age of sixty-nine years,
while his widow passed away in 1874, at about the same
age. Their family consisted of the following children :
Elizabeth, who married Eli Bruce, and lived and died
in Clark County, having two sons and two daughters.
of whom Sarah, the widow of Pleasant Allen, still re-
sides at Winchester ; John, who went to Missouri, but
returned to Kentucky and was presented by his brother
Alvin with a farm, upon which he died at the age of
sixty-nine years; James, who served in the Confederate
army, under General Morgan during the war between
the states, escaped capture, and later went to Missouri,
where he was county clerk of Cass County at the time of
his death at the age of sixty years; Alvin Francis of
this notice ; William, who as a lad went to Texas and
enlisted in the Confederate army from that state, rose
to the rank of captain, and after the war returned to
Clark county, and died at Winchester, in July, 1919, at
the age of eighty years; Alfred, Richard and Benjamin,
who died in childhood.
Alvin Francis Duckworth received a public school
education and remained on the farm in Clark County,
early adopting the vocations of farmer, trader and stock-
man. His operations have been centered in Clark
County, where he has made his home, and is still a
remarkably well-preserved man who keeps alive to all
public and other questions of importance and who is
well posted. He has had a varied and successful life,
during which he has learned to encourage and appre-
ciate the comradeship and fellowship of his fellow-men.
In the community in which he has made his home, he
has done much to promote good feeling and neighborly
connections. His tendency to keep himself in close
touch with modern thought and action is shown in his
recent purchase of an automobile for his own driving,
although prior to this he had never driven a car.
At the age of twenty-six years Mr. Duckworth was
united in marriage with Miss Anna Rash, daughter of
Warren and Polly (Ireland) Rash. Mr. Rash's father's
home was three miles out of Winchester on the Lex-
ington pike, his parents being Rev. William Rash, a
native of Virginia and a preacher of the Primitive Bap-
tist faith, and Elizabeth (Berry) Rash, whom he mar-
ried in Kentucky. The greater part of his life was
passed on that farm, and for many years he served
the old Friendship Church on the site of the present
cemetery at Winchester. While preaching in his own
pulpit he was suddenly stricken with paralysis and died
when past eighty years of age. William Rash went to
Montgomery County, Kentucky, to get his wife and soon
settled on the Andy McClure place near Schollsville,
on which farm Mrs. Duckworth was born November 2,
1847, and married November 15, 1864. Her parents both
died at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Duckworth, her father
at the age of eighty-eight years and her mother when
eighty-six years of age. Anna was the youngest of ten
children, of whom four are living in 1920. They are
Dr. R. D. Rash, a physician of St. Louis, Missouri;
Thomas W., a merchant, now retired, of Winchester;
John Allen, a furniture dealer of Winchester; and Mrs.
Duckworth. Her youngest brother, Clay, died in Ten-
nessee at the age of eighteen years, while serving in the
ranks of the Confederate army; and another brother,
James M., was an elder, preacher and noted evangelist
in the Christian Church and died at Lexington. Another
brother, Beall, a hotel man, died at Middleboro, Ken-
tucky, and her elder brother, William, passed away at
Winchester, after an affliction lasting over a period of
forty years. Mrs. Duckworth also had two sisters:
Elizabeth, who married William McKee, and died in
Indiana ; and Marietta, who, prior to the marriage of
her sister Anna to Alvin F. Duckworth, married the
latter's brother, John Duckworth, and subsequently died
at Sedalia, Missouri, leaving two sons, Thomas W., of
Nicholasville, Kentucky, and Prewitt, an operator in
Wall Street, New York.
Soon after his marriage, Alvin Francis Duckworth
purchased his wife's father's old farm of 211 acres, to
which he subsequently added the eighty acres adjoining.
There he grew and dealt in tobacco, maintaining a large
warehouse, and carried on connections with big con-
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
143
cerns at Louisville and Cincinnati. He competed suc-
cessfully with other large operators in this line and ac-
cumulated a handsome competence, following the same
course of business until within recent years when he
retired from active affairs. Mr. Duckworth sold his
farm some twenty years ago, but continued to reside in
the vicinity of Schollsville for a long time, but for sev-
eral years has made his home at Thomson, near Kidd-
ville.
Mr. and Mrs. Duckworth had two children : Maude
and Mary, the latter of whom died as a child. Maude
married Henry L. Quisenberry, a farmer near Scholls-
ville, where both died, she passing away May 19, 1909,
at the age of forty-four years, and he dying February
19, 1917, when past sixty years of age. They left two
sons : Fleming Duckworth, a farmer of Hardin County,
Kentucky, who married Daily Garrett, a daughter of
Green Garrett; and John Thomas, a graduate, like his
brother, of Kentucky Wesleyan College, and of Harvard
Law School, class of 1920, who has just entered upon
the practice of his profession.
While Mr. Duckworth has been ever alive to public
matters, he has had no desire for public office. He was
reared in the Presbyterian faith, but later joined the
Baptist Church with his parents and after his mar-
riage joined his wife in membership in the Bethlehem
Christian Church, located near his home.
James N. Grady. One of the constructive forces
in the business and industrial affairs of Owensboro for
many years was the late James N. Grady, who died in
1921.
He was born at Owensboro in 1854, and after his
early education and training he became identified with the
planing mill business, an industry that he followed the
rest of his life, though with accumulating interests in
other spheres. For many years he was proprietor of the
old Grady Planing Mill at the corner of Ninth and Crit-
tenden streets, and for many years was the active head of
the Owensboro Planing Mill, of which he was president
and the largest stockholder at the time of his death.
He also was identified with the organization of the
Kentucky Buggy Company, which built the plant later
occupied by Rogers-Siler Company. Mr. Grady was
successful in his business affairs and owned a large
amount of property in and around Owensboro.
His death came suddenly and was a distinctive loss
to the business and good citizenship of his home city.
He is survived by his widow and five children named
Narl J. Grady ; Mrs. W. P. Edmonson of Richmond,
Indiana; Mrs. J. A. Widau of Maze, Indiana; Miss
Nora Grady and Mrs. Lillian Garlinghouse of Indian-
apolis.
William Nelson Brown, Jr., is a business builder
whose achievements have done much to promote the
commercial advantage of the town of Harrodsburg.
Mr. Brown is the founder and active manager of the
Harrodsburg Ice and Cold Storage Plant, one of the
largest institutions of its kind in Kentucky. The busi-
ness has done much to make Harrodsburg an important
collecting and centralized market, and market quota-
tions at Harrodsburg are ruling figures all over the
Central Kentucky district.
Mr. Brown was born November 20, 1872, in Mercer
County, was well educated in grade schools and Hogsett
Academy at Harrodsburg. He finished his education,
and in 1893 entered the general merchandise business
and continued in that line with an increasing degree of
success for ten years. On leaving his store he spent
a year in practical farming and then re-entered business
as a produce dealer under his individual name. He
continued this enterprise for about five years, and in
I 1913 organized the Harrodsburg Ice and Produce Com-
> pany, a stock company of $30,000 capital. From the
! first he has been the mainspring, the energizer as well as
I the managing executive of a business which concen-
trates, ships and handles enormous quantities of live
and dressed poultry, butter, eggs, fruit and vegetables.
It is the largest and best equipped cold storage and
commodity handling plant in Central Kentucky, and
there is no other concern in this section of the state
and probably in all Kentucky which handles more live
poultry. Almost daily carload lots of live poultry are
shipped from Harrodsburg to distant markets. The
cold storage plant contains a twenty-ton ice equipment.
This concern now does a business aggregating in ex-
cess of $1,000,000 annually, and the original $30,000
capital by accrued earnings and reinvestment has
reached an approximate value of $90,000.
Mr. Brown is also manager of the Garrard and Lin-
coln Produce Company, operating two distinct plants at
Stanford and Lancaster, but both under the manage-
ment of Mr. Brown. These plants now do a business
in excess of half a million dollars annually.
Mr. Brown is not only a 'very capable business man
but is active in civic affairs and is a republican in a
normally democratic county. In 1907 he was a candi-
date for the State Legislature and overcame a standard
majority of 250 or 300, and went to the Legislature
in 1908, serving one term, with a high degree of credit
to his constituency.
In 1893 Mr. Brown married Miss Maggie Campbell,
of the prominent Mercer County family of that name.
They have one son, Cecil Campbell Brown, born October
30, 1895. He attended school at Harrodsburg, also the
Millsburg Military Academy, and was pursuing a tech-
nical course at Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana,
when, in May, 1917, he volunteered for service in the
World war. His services as a volunteer were rejected
but in May, 1918, he was placed in the selective draft,
passed the examination, and had strenuous training
in various cantonments. He was just ready for over-
seas duty when the armistice was signed. On being
released from the army he returned to Harrodsburg
and became associated with his father in the Harrods-
burg Ice and Produce Company.
While Mr. Brown has deservedly prospered in his
business affairs, his business itself has been a tre-
mendous asset to the city and surrounding district.
It has contributed much to the solution of the perplex-
ing market problems now confronting the aggregate
farmers and producers in many sections. Through the
Harrodsburg plant enormous quantities of food stuffs
and perishable goods find a profitable market, and thence
these commodities are turned into the ultimate markets
with a degree of profit to all concerned. It is not too
much to say that by reason of the Harrodsburg Ice and
Cold Storage Plant the farmers of that district are
moved many miles closer to the great centers of con-
sumption for poultry, farm produce and fruit.
Charles Strother. Admitted to the bar in 1875,
Charles Strother has found increasing duties and re-
sponsibilities as a lawyer and has sustained an exception-
ally high reputation in a number of the counties of
Northern Kentucky, where his professional work has
been done. For a number of years his home has been
at Walton.
Mr. Strother represents a family that was established
in Kentucky about the time the first state was carved
out of the wilderness of the West. The name Strother
is of Welsh ancestry. They were a family in Colonial
Virginia. The mother of General Zachary Taylor was
Sarah Strother.
Charles Strother's grandfather, George Strother, was
born in Culpeper County, Virginia, in 1776, and mar-
ried there Nancy Duncan, a native of the same county.
It was in 1796 that they came west to Kentucky and
settled in Bourbon County and two years later moved
to Trimble County. One of the oldest houses still
standing in Trimble County is the Strother homestead,
built in 1814 and located five miles south of Milton.
144
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
George Strother was a man of large affairs in Trimble
County, owned a great deal of land, and operated a
flouring mill and saw mill, this being the first mill
erected in the county. He served as a soldier in the
War of 1812 and with other duties was a Methodist
minister. He died in Trimble County in 1864.
French Strother, father of the Walton lawyer, was
born in Trimble County in 181 1 and spent all his life
there, earning his livelihood from a farm and also
giving much of his time to his work as a local Methodist
minister. He died in Trimble County in 1870. He was
a democrat in politics. French Strother married Lu-
anda Maddox, also a life-long resident of Trimble
County, where she was born in 1823 and died in 1883.
The oldest of their children is John C. Strother, now
seventy-five years of age, an attorney by profession, and
a resident of Louisville. James, the second son, was
busied with the work of a practical farmer until 1918,
though for seventeen years he also held a position in the
internal revenue service, and he is now county judge
of Trimble County. The third of the family is Charles
Strother. His twin sister, Alice C, is unmarried and
lives at Carrollton, Kentucky. George and Irvin, the
next two children, died in infancy. Emma is the wife
of W. F. Mosgrove, a prominent business man at Car-
rollton. Sallie is the wife of T. D. Meguire, a phy-
sician and surgeon at Cincinnati. French, the youngest
of the children, died at the age of twenty-two.
Charles Strother, who was born in Trimble County,
August 10, 1852, had the advantages of the common
schools there and studied law in his brother John's
office at Owenton, where he was admitted to the bar in
1875. He remained there in practice until 1882, and
gained his early reputation as a lawyer at Owenton.
During 1882-83 he had an experience as a lawrer and
pioneer in Dakota Territory, what is now North Dakota.
With this exception his professional career has all been
in Kentucky. On returning he resumed his practice
at Owenton and remained there until 191 1. Since the
latter year he has practiced at Walton, and besides an
extensive business as a corporation attorney he has
handled many civil and criminal cases in the courts of
Kenton, Grant, Owen and Boone counties.
Mr. Strother came to Walton primarily to act as
attorney for the Cincinnati, Louisville, Lexington and
Maysville Traction Company, a corporation planning
the building of interurban lines from Owenton to Cov-
ington, a project now temporarily in abeyance. Since
1913 Mr. Strother has been attorney for the Walton
Bank & Trust Company, and has his offices in the
company's building. He is also attorney for the Wal-
ton Lumber Company, the Farmers Tobacco Warehouse
Company, and is a stockholder in the latter and also in
the Commonwealth Life Insurance Company of Louis-
ville.
While at Owenton he served as judge of the Police
Court four years and from 1914 to 1920 was city at-
torney of Walton. He was chairman of the Walton
Committee for the Liberty Loan drive, acted as "Four
Minute" speaker, and was one of the earnest men of this
community who insured a patriotic record of which all
can be proud. Judge Strother is a democrat, and for
years has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South. On September 21, 1876, at Owenton,
he married Miss Sarah H. Hill, daughter of George
and Matilda (Smith) Hill, now deceased. Her father
was an early settler at East Eagle, Owen County, was a
farmer and merchant, and died there at the age of
eighty-eight years. Judge and Mrs. Strother were the
parents of four children. Birdie, who is a skilled
instrumentalist and vocalist, finishing her education in
the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, is the wife of
Charles H. Holman, a prosperous merchant at Harrods-
burg, Kentucky. George, the second child, died at the
age of four years, and Philip, the third, at the age of
four months. The entire community of Walton shared
in a general sorrow with Judge and Mrs. Strother at the
death of their younger daughter, Miss Myra G., at the
age of twenty-five. In church and social affairs she
had made herself greatly beloved by all who knew her.
Arthur Lee Lloyd, formerly superintendent of the
schools of Webster County, and now owner and operator
of the flourishing flourmill business at Providence, is
one of the men of sterling character in the state who
is the product of farm life. He was born on a farm
in Webster County, Kentucky, September 16, 1877, a son
of William M. and Helen (Jennings) Lloyd, both mem-
bers of old and highly respected families of the state.
The paternal grandfather, when his son William was
about two years of age, moved from North Carolina,
where both had been born, to Tennessee, where they
lived until William M. Lloyd was about eighteen years
old, then moved to what is now Webster County, Ken-
tucky. After a long and useful life spent in agricultural
pursuits, he is now living in comfortable retirement
at Providence, Kentucky. Both he and his wife were
members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and
they have reared their children in that faith, and one
of their sons, Willie Clem Lloyd, is a minister of this
denomination, now stationed at Lincoln, Illinois. They
had four sons and a daughter, but the latter died when
eighteen years of age, and the youngest son died before
reaching the age of fifteen.
Arthur Lee Lloyd was reared on his father's farm
and attended the rural schools, and the M. & F. Acad-
emy of Providence, also the Southern Normal School
of Bowling Green, Kentucky. When he was nineteen
years of age he began teaching school, and was con-
nected with educational work for twenty years, becom-
ing one of the best known men of his profession in
this part of the state. In addition to teaching in the
rural schools he had charge of the schools of Lisman,
Blackford and Providence at different times, and exerted
a wonderful influence for good over his pupils, many of
whom have become men and women of note. In 1909
Mr. Lloyd was elected superintendent of the schools
of Webster County, and filled this office very creditably
for eight years, during this period introducing innova-
tions of a very progressive character. During his in-
cumbency of this office he lived at Dixon, but after he
left the office he came to Providence, and for a brief
period, in the fall of 1918, was engaged in the coal busi-
ness, and then erected a "midget" flouring mill, which
he has since operated with a gratifying amount of suc-
cess.
On March 6, 1007, Mr. Lloyd was married to Miss
Mabel Young, and they have two sons, Arthur Young
and Maurice Edgar. In politics Mr. Lloyd is a demo-
crat. Well known in Masonry, he has been raised in
it until he is now a member of the Chapter. Having
been reared, as before stated, in the faith of the Cum-
berland Presbyterian Church, he early connected him-
self with it, and has continued one of its earnest mem-
bers. Mr. Lloyd is a man who does thoroughly what-
ever he undertakes, and has never rested until he has
attained to gratifying results. Such a man as he is a
valuable adjunct to any community, and Providence
gained an excellent citizen when he moved into its con-
fines.
Lucy Lee Mahan Spii.man, a noble Kentucky and
American woman whose life has been one continuous
consecration to Christian duty and giving service, was
born in the hill country of Eastern Kentucky, at London,
Laurel County, March 25, 1878, daughter of Lee and
Arabella (Chestnut) Mahan. She was next to the
youngest of a large family of nine children. Her father
was a carpenter and builder by trade.
Mrs. Spilman attended the public schools of London,
and also had the benefit of the advantages offered by
the Sue Bennett Memorial School, a school owned and
V
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
145
supported by the women of the Methodist Church, and
an institution that has steadily grown and prospered
until it now represents a financial investment of $100,000.
Beginning in 1897, at the age of nineteen, Mrs. Spilman
taught five years in local schools and subsequently in
the Sue Bennett school. From 1902 for seven years
she was widely known in Kentucky and elsewhere as
a Methodist evangelist, a work for which her versatile
talents well fitted her and in which she achieved a re-
markable success.
On March 3, 1909, she became the wife of James
Spilman, and since their marriage they have lived in
Mercer County, either at Harrodsburg or at Burgin.
Mr. Spilman is a very prominent farmer and man of
affairs, and is still operating his holdings in Kentucky
for the production of commodities entering into the
food supply of the world. Besides his Kentucky estate
he has large landed interests in Texas. Mr. and Mrs.
Spilman have one son, James Bennett Spilman, born
October 17, 1914.
In 1910 Mrs. Spilman was elected president of the
Women's Missionary Society of the Kentucky Con-
ference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. She
has been busy in the duties of that office for ten years,
and during the year 1919 the society, exclusive of all
incidental contributions from affiliated churches and
without any men contributing, raised $20,000 for home
and foreign missions. By virtue of her office Mrs.
Spilman is also a member of the Women's Missionary
Council of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, an
organization which in 1919 procured almost a million
dollars for missions. For one year Mrs. Spilman was
president of the Woman's Club of Harrodsburg, and as
president she gave the dedication address at the Price
Memorial Hospital of Harrodsburg. She declined the
honor of re-election when she removed to her country
home at Burgin. Mrs. Spilman during the war was
chairman of the Women's Council of Defense for the
Burgin School District, joint chairman during the
Liberty Loan and Savings Stamp Campaigns, also a
leader in the Armenian Relief and all other war and
patriotic movements. The climax of her efforts during
the war came on the 4th of July, 1918, when she par-
ticipated as representative of the local Canning Club in
a patriotic parade, and during the afternoon made two
patriotic addresses under the title of "Keep the Home
Fires Burning," one in the Court House and the other
in the Opera House at Stanford, while the same even-
ing at Harrodsburg, at the Court House Square, she
made another patriotic address as the principal feature
of a Red Cross membership drive. On October 17, 1919,
occurred a local celebration in honor of all the sons of
Mercer County who had returned from the war. After
a banquet at the Graham Springs Hotel and a parade
a great mass meeting was held in one of the large
tobacco houses, and Mrs. Spilman made the chief
address, following which the bronze medals were de-
livered to the soldier boys. Other speakers at this
meeting were Judge Gregory and Edward T. Hines.
Since the war Mrs. Spilman has confined her service and
efforts to church causes. During 1920 she was requested
by the women of the National Committee of the repub-
lican party to become a speaker, offering her the choice
of states for this work, but she had to decline on account
of illness in her home.
November 1, 1920, Mrs. Spilman left a beautiful
country home, Pinehurst, at Burgin to live at Aspen
Hall in Harrodsburg. Her plans as made for some
years to come contemplate an exclusive devotion to
church and public betterment work. Mrs. Spilman was
born in the rugged mountain country where only lim-
ited advantages were obtainable in the way of education.
By super-effort she has risen to be one of the foremost
of Kentucky women, distinguished in her church, a force
for civic righteousness, and one of the most loyal of
American women.
At the District Conference of the Donnill District
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, which met in Har-
rodsburg March 2-5, 1921, Mrs. Spilman was elected
on first ballot delegate to the annual conference, which
convened in Somerset, September 7-12, 1921. At this
session of the annual conference she was elected alter-
nate to the general conference of the Methodist Epis-
copal Church, South, which is to meet in Hot Springs,
Arkansas, in May, 1922. The general conference is the
supreme law making body of the Methodist Church and
this is the first time in the history of Methodism that
women have been admitted to the body. Dr. Belle H.
Bennett, of Richmond, Kentucky, was elected first lay
delegate to this conference.
Lyman D. Hollingsworth. A civil engineer of long
and competent experience, Lyman D. Hollingsworth
has handled with credit some important responsibili-
ties in the state program of good highway construction,
being division engineer of construction of roads with
headquarters at Paducah.
Mr. Hollingsworth, who was born at Evansville, In-
diana, December 5, 1861, belongs to the old Kentucky
stock and still earlier American ancestry. The Hollings-
worths came over at the time of Lord Baltimore, the
founder of the family being Valentine Hollingsworth,
who was a Quaker and a leader in the Quaker colony
of Maryland. He is buried in the Brandy wine burying
ground near Baltimore. The grandfather of Lyman D.
Hollingsworth was James Hollingsworth, who was born
in Virginia in 1789, and early in the nineteenth century
settled in Shelby County, Kentucky, where he followed
farming and planting. He died at Simpsonville in that
county in 1869. He married a Miss Russell, also a native
of Virginia.
William E. Hollingsworth, father of L. D. Hol-
lingsworth, was long prominent in the business and
civic life of Evansville, Indiana. He was born at
Simpsonville, Kentucky, in June, 1821, was reared and
educated in his native town, and then removed to
Evansville, where he engaged in the wholesale queens-
ware business. He developed an establishment widely
known and patronized by retail merchants all over
Southern Indiana, and in the "Jackson Purchase" of
nine western counties in Kentucky. He retired from
business in 1888 and died at Evansville in 1892. For
twenty years he servedas chief engineer of the Evans-
ville Fire Department, and was a life long member
and held practically all the lay offices in the Methodist
Episcopal Church. He was also a member of the
official board and was treasurer of the Orphans Home
at Evansville. Politically he was a republican, gradu-
ating into that party from the whigs. A thirty-second
degree Mason, he was frequently a delegate to the
Grand Lodge of Indiana. During the Civil war he
was colonel of the One Hundred and Thirty-sixth In-
diana Regiment of Home Guards, and after his death
his widow received a pension from the Government.
At Crab Orchard Springs, Kentucky, William E. Hol-
lingsworth married Eugenia Belle Davenport, who was
born at Danville in this state, March 4, 1833, and died
at Evansville in 1905. They became the parents of a
family of ten children : Leila, who died at Evansville
in 1900, at the age of fifty, unmarried, and for a
number of years had been secretary of the national
organization of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church ;
Edwin, a resident of California; John, whose where-
abouts in later years have been unknown to his family;
Henry, who died at the age of eight years; Lyman D.,
fifth of the family; Hallie B., who is a county nurse in
Indiana; Laura D., living at the old home in Evans-
ville; Belle, officially identified with the Oak Hill Cem-
etery Association at Evansville ; W. Nisbet, a resident
of Evansville ; Richard D., twin brother of Nisbet, who
was a railroad clerk and died at St. Louis in 1903.
Lyman D. Hollingsworth grew up in his native city,
146
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
attended the public schools and high school through the
sophomore year, and at the age of nineteen went to
work for Torian & Barbour, wholesale hatters, remain-
ing in their employ for four years. Then for eight
months he was in the United States mail service,
and in 1884 went to Louisville, Kentucky, and spent
two years with the Boomer-Lewis Wholesale Hat
Company. He left that firm to acquire his original
training and experience in civil engineering as a rod-
man with the engineer corps engaged in the first survey
of the Ohio Valley Railroad between Henderson and
Princeton, Kentucky. Following that he had a varied
experience in different branches of surveying in Ken-
tucky, Mississippi and Tennessee, and during 1889
was in charge of levels for the Government survey of
the Cumberland River under Major Locke. Following
that he was transit man in the Tennessee River survey
between Knoxville and Chattanooga under Lieutenant
John Biddle.
In 1891 Mr. Hollingsworth located at Louden, Ten-
nessee, where he was associated with the wholesale
grain firm of Home & Goans until 1900. He then re-
moved to Knoxville, and for a year was bookkeeper
for H. T. Hackney & Company, wholesale grocers, and
subsequently, until May, 1902, was with the J. Allen
Smith Milling Company at Knoxville. Again return-
ing to Louisville, he became deputy county surveyor
of Jefferson County in charge of roads and bridges,
and that was his official work until 1907. For a year
or so he practiced his profession as general engineer at
Louisville and in February, 1909, became associated
with Cecil Frazier, landscape gardener and park en-
gineer. In April, 1909, Mr. Frazier commissioned him
to take charge of the laying out of the State Capitol
grounds at Frankfort, Kentucky, and he was engaged in
those duties until the fall of 1910, accomplishing a work
of which he may be justly proud. Mr. Hollingsworth
then resumed general land surveying and landscape
gardening, with offices at Frankfort. Some examples
of his work in this line are to be seen on the estates
of Colonel E. H. Taylor, Jr., George Berry, and Sen-
ator Johnson Camden in Woodford County.
Leaving Frankfort in 1915, Mr. Hollingsworth took
up work with the State Road Department under R. C.
Terrell in different parts of the state, and was state
road inspector in Greenup County until November,
1916, when he was transferred by Rodman Wiley, staff
commissioner of roads, as division engineer of the
construction of roads with headquarters at Paducah,
where he relieved Mr. Walter F. Brooks, U. S. high-
way engineer. This has been the work in which he
has been engaged for the past four years. He has
the technical supervision of roadway construction over
twelve counties in Western Kentucky.
Mr. Hollingsworth is a stockholder in the Giant
Mineral Company of Crittenden County, Kentucky.
He is a democrat, is a member of the Christian Church
and was deacon of the church at Louden, Tennessee,
is affiliated with Preston Lodge No. 281, A. F. and A.
M., at Louisville, Frankfort Chapter, R. A. M., Frank-
fort Council, R. and S. M., Frankfort Commandery,
K. T., and Rizpah Temple of the Mystic Shrine at
Madisonville.
Mr. Hollingsworth resides at the Craig Hotel in
Paducah. He married at Lancaster, Garrard County,
Kentucky, March 27, 1889, Elizabeth May Huffman,
daughter of Dr. William and Catherine (Cook) Huff-
man, both deceased. Her father for many years was
a physician and surgeon at Lancaster. Mrs. Hollings-
worth is a graduate of the Conservatory of Music at
Cincinnati. To their marriage were born three chil-
dren, the first, Catherine, dying in infancy. Both sons
have made names for themselves and are ex-service
men. Lyman D., born September I, 1892, finished his
education in the Manual Training School at Louisville,
and in May, 1917, enlisted and was sent to Camp Shel-
by in August of that year. As a sergeant of the first
class, and electrical engineer, he was assigned to the
pumping plant at Camp Shelby and was on duty until
mustered out in July, 1919. He is now assistant chief
engineer of the pumping plant and electrical assistant
for the Central Aguirre Sugar Company in Porto Rico.
Robert Young Hollingsworth, the younger son, was
born September 6, 1894, graduated from the Frankfort
High School, and while on a visit home enlisted in
October, 1917, at Camp Shelby and became private
secretary in the major's headquarters with the rank
of sergeant of the first class. In September, 1918, he
was sent overseas, and was in the Service of Supplies
at Tours, France, until mustered out in August, 1919.
He is now with his brother in Porto Rico as private
secretary to the general manager of the Central
Aguirre Sugar Company.
Henry Lyons. This publication consistently enters
a tribute to the memory of Henry Lyons, whose no-
bility of character, whose prominence and influence as
a business man, whose exalted stewardship, shown in
generosity and helpfulness in all of the relations of
life, marked him as one of the foremost and most
loved and honored citizens of Danville, judicial center
of Boyle County, where virtually his entire adult life
was passed, and where his death occurred on the 9th
of December, 1912. Even the briefest review of his
career must bear its lesson of incentive and inspira-
tion, for he was a good man who thought good things
and did' good things — one ever mindful of the re-
sponsibilities which personal success involves.
Henry Lyons was born in the City of Cincinnati,
Ohio, in the year 1849, and was a son of Mr. and Mrs.
Isaac Lyons, both of whom passed the closing years
of their lives at Danville, Kentucky, where their sons
Henry and Samuel had cared for them with earnest
filial devotion in the gracious evening of their lives.
The remains of the parents and both of the sons rest
in the Jewish Cemetery at Cincinnati, Ohio. The sons
were closely associated in. business for many years
and both were numbered among the most honored and
influential citizens of Danville, to whose civic and
material advancement and prosperity they had con-
tributed in generous measure.
In his youth Henry Lyons profited fully by the
somewhat limited educational advantages that were
afforded him, and he early gained full fellowship with
honest toil and endeavor. In 1866 he came to Dan-
ville, Kentucky, and as a youth of seventeen years
here formed a partnership with Samuel Straus, his
cousin, and opened a clothing store. Within a short
time thereafter he assumed full ownership of the busi-
ness, which he continued individually and with marked
success until 1887, when he was succeeded by his
brother Samuel, who had long been associated with
him in the enterprise. He then went to California for
a period of rest and recuperation, as his health had
become much impaired, and upon his return to Dan-
ville, about four months later, in April, 1887, his
physical powers were up to good standard and he was
ready to enter once more the field of vigorous busi-
ness. He resumed his alliance with his brother, and
they soon enlarged the scope of their business by open-
ing a second store. They conducted these two mercan-
tile establishments with characteristic ability and
attending success until 1895, when they sold their cloth-
ing store to J. L. Frohman & Company, the members
of which firm came to Danville from the City of
Chicago, Illinois. The mercantile business had been
conducted by the brothers under the firm name of
Henry & Samuel Lyons.
On the 10th of June, 1895, a partnership was formed
by Henry and Samuel Lyons and John M. Nichols,
and they established the Danville Steam Laundry, with
Modern equipment and service. They developed this
enterprise into one of the most important and success-
ful of the kind in the state. On the 4th of October,
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
147
1902, the large and prosperous business was incorpo-
rated under the title of the Danville Steam Laundry,
and since June 19, 1909 the present corporate title has
obtained — the Danville Laundry and Dry Cleaning Com-
pany. Samuel Lyons became president of the company,
Henry Lyons, the secretary and treasurer, and John M.
Nichols, the general manager. Henry Lyons, as before
noted, died on the 9th of December, 1912, and his name-
sake, Henry Lyons Nichols, succeeded him as secretary
and treasurer of the company. The personnel of the
executive corps of this corporation thereafter continued
unchanged until the sudden death of Samuel Lyons, the
honored president, on the 25th of July, 1920, and with
the necessary reorganization then entailed the present
officers were chosen, as here noted : John M. Nichols,
president; W. Barrett Nichols, vice-president and assis-
tant secretary; R. Bush Nichols, manager; and Henry
Lyons Nichols, secretary and treasurer.
Henry Lyons became one of the substantial capital-
ists and loyal and influential citizens of this section
of Kentucky, and both he and his brother Samuel were
foremost in the field of worthy charity and philan-
thropy, as well as in that of civic liberality and pro-
gressiveness. Of their varied activities and benefac-
tions more specific mention will be found in the
memoir to Samuel Lyons, which immediately follows
this review. The brothers played a large part in the
business and social life of Danville and honored the
state of their adoption by their generous, kindly and
noble lives.
Samuel Lyons. The foregoing review of the career
of his older brother, the late Henry Lyons, should be
held as an adjunct of and complementary to this
memoir dedicated to Samuel Lyons, whose character
and achievement lent dignity and honor to the city
and county in which he maintained his home from
his youth to the the time of his death. With even
greater vigor did he maintain the fine personal steward-
ship for which his older brother set a high standard,
and his was inviolable vantage-ground in the con-
fidence and affectionate regard of the people of Boyle
County. The foregoing sketch offers a brief outline
of the business activities of the two brothers, and in
giving a proper relation of the services of Samuel
Lyons as a man and a citizen it is pleasing to be per-
mitted to reproduce the high estimate which appeared
in a Danville newspaper at the time of his death. As
minor eliminatoin and paraphrase are indulged in this
reproduction, formal marks of quotation are omitted.
The significance of the context is the greater by rea-
son of the fact that it represents the estimate placed
upon the man in the community which was long the
stage of his earnest and noble endeavors. His death
occurred July 25, 1920, and the press article noting his
passing is here given :
The community was profoundly shocked yesterday
afternoon when the news rapidly spread that one of
its foremost citizens, Samuel Lyons, had passed away.
He was on the street less than one hour before his
death. It had long been his custom to come up to
the postoffice for the mail on Sunday afternoon about
three o'clock, and it was while en route to the post-
office that he began to feel ill. He was taken to his
apartment by Dr. Herford Smith, and there his death
occurred within less than an hour later, as the direct
result of an attack of angina pectoris.
Mr. Lyons was born at Clarksville, Tennessee, on the
15th of February, 1855, and it was in the year 1868
that he came to Danville, Kentucky, where his brother
Henry had established himself in business in 1866.
Both he and his brother were highly successful. They
made both money and friends. The latter they held,
the former they distributed with a lavish hand. While
it is not known at this time how Samuel Lyons dis-
posed of his estate, it is believed by all that he has
left many bequests. He had always tithed himself,
but went far beyond this in later years. No worthy
cause found a denial from him; he gave in myriads
of channels, but was always unostentatious about it
and few knew of his admirable deeds. He was always
foremost in every progressive move in this section;
he had large and varied business experiences and was
the close advisor to a great many people in Danville
in connection with their business affairs. His advice
was always sound and ever freely given. He lived a
life to be emulated and he leaves a place that will not
be filled in our city. Here he was a life-long mem-
ber of the Jewish Synagogue.
In addition to his association with the mercantile
and laundry enterprises noted in the preceding sketch
Samuel Lyons had been one of the prime movers in
starting the Central Kentucky Building & Loan Asso-
ciation, and was its treasurer from its inception until
his demise. He held stock in all of the Danville banks
and was the largest stockholder in the Farmers
JNational He was one of the men who made it
possible for Danville to. have its present splendid hotel
and was a large stockholder until recently, when he
disposed of his stock. He took a prominent part in
every worthy movement and enterprise in his home
city He was a leader in the various Masonic bodies
with which he was affiliated, was a prominent Elk and
was one of the most genial members of the Black
^an#,, C3JJ\ whlch meets every Monday evening at
tne r-lks Llub.
^A.uP^lic ™emorial was held this afternoon at the
Methodist Church and was largely attended The
meeting was addressed by Dr. Horace Turner, Dr
J. Q. A. McDowell, Hon. John W. Yerkes, and Hon.
U U Bagby all of whom paid high tribute to the
memory of their deceased and distinguished fellow'
citizen— a man who was loved by his fellow men
from a later edition of the same newspaper are
taken the following statements:
The will of Samuel Lyons carries out the joint pur-
pose of his brother, the late Henry Lyons, and him-
u -n he,wI1"' m other words> is a re-affirmation of
the will of Henry Lyons and strikingly illustrates the
broad-minded and charitable impulses of these philan-
thropic gentlemen, who in life contributed generously
to every worthy cause, regardless of creed, and were
ever ready to give aid and comfort to the weak and
needy, at the same time taking the forefront in all
matters of public improvements and public welfare in
their community, the while never forgetting the kind-
ness of a friend. The total cash bequests of Samuel
Lyons aggregate nearly $60,000, divided almost equally
between personal friends and charitable institutions.
It is not possible within the compass of this brief
memoir to name in detail the various bequests to
which allusion is made above, but among the more
prominent institutions to which such bequests were
made may be mentioned the following named: Jewish
Hospital, Cincinnati; Masonic Widows and Orphans
Home, Louisville; Knights of Pythias Orphans Home
Lexington; Jewish Hospital for Aged and Infirm;
National Jewish Tubercular Hospital, Denver; United
Jewish Charities, Cincinnati; Jewish Orphans Home,
New Orleans; Turo Infirmary for Aged and Infirm,
New Orleans; Charity Hospital, New Orleans; Jewish
Orphan Asylum, Cleveland; Louisville Protestant
Altenheim ; St. James Colored Folks Old Home, Louis-
ville; Children's Free Hospital, and Home of Inno-
cents, Louisville; Ministerial fund, Danville Methodist
Church; Danville and Boyle County Hospital, $5,000,
as supplemental to a previous bequest of $7,000 ;
Jewish Hospital Association, Louisville ; Ophthalmic
Hospital, Cincinnati. Both Henry and Samuel Lyons
had contributed liberally to Center College and the
Kentucky College for Women. The personal bequests
of Samuel Lyons were many, and indicated his deep
appreciation of the bonds of friendship.
One familiar with the life of Samuel Lyons has
148
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
spoken of him in the following terms : "In early youth
he overcame a physical affliction that would have
broken the spirit of the average youth. By patience
and tremendous will power he triumphed over this
affliction, with the courage and determination that so
notably marked his entire course in life. Within the
period of this painful experience he became a news-
boy, and • applied himself diligently and faithfully.
With special distinctness is recalled his loyalty to and
affectionate care of his aged and infirm parents and to
a frail invalid brother. In his judgment of men he
made no distinctions of race or creed, and his con-
sideration and kindliness were dominating character-
istics of his useful and noble life."
William Andrew Byron has practiced law at
Brooksville, more than thirty years. He earned his
way through college by teaching, taught school for
several years after his admission to the bar, and the
professional and public honors that have come to
him have been the rewards of a very earnest and hard
working career.
He was born in Mason County, Kentucky, March 23,
i860. His grandfather, Cornelius Byron, spent his
life as a farmer in County Limerick, Ireland, as did
his wife, Jane O'Connell. The father of the Brooks-
ville attorney was Andrew Byron, who was born in
County Limerick in January, 1817, and came to the
United States in 1849. In Mason County he worked
at road building, later was a farmer there, and in 1863
removed to Bracken County, where he spent the rest
of his active days on a farm. He died May 13, 1887.
He was a democrat in politics, served as a school
trustee in Bracken County, and was a faithful mem-
ber of the Catholic Church. At Maysville, Kentucky,
he married Ellen Ryan, who was born on the banks
of the River Shannon in County Limerick, Ireland, in
1828 and died in Bracken County, Kentucky, in 1915.
They had a family of eight children : Catherine, who
died in Bracken County at the age of forty-eight, wife
of the late Peter Hannon, a farmer; Cornelius, who
died at Brooksville at the age of fifty, was a farmer
and merchant ; Patrick, who died in infancy ; John,
who died at Bellevue. Kentucky, in 1920; William A.;
Thomas, a farmer who died at Brookfield in 1893, at
the age of twenty-five ; Ellen, of Jacksonville, Bourbon
County, widow of Thomas Fitzgerald, who was a
farmer; and Miss Elizabeth, who lives at Bellevue.
William Andrew Byron has lived in Bracken County
since he was three years of age, and his early life
was spent on his father's farm. He attended country
schools, and after receiving a common school educa-
tion earned his way while attending Augusta College
three years and then in the Cincinnati Law School,
from which he graduated LL. B. in 1885. He began
teaching at the age of sixteen, having a term of six
months school in Bracken County. After completing
his law course he continued teaching until 1890, in
which year he opened his law offices. His time has
been taken up with a general civil and criminal prac-
tice and also with official duties and with active par-
ticipation in politics as a democrat. He served four
years as county attorney and in 1901 was elected a
member of the State Senate, serving throughout the
sessions of 1902 and 1904 and in the special session of
1903. He was a delegate from the Ninth Congression-
al District to the National Convention of 1904 at
St. Louis when Alton B. Parker was nominated as
candidate for President. During the war Mr. Byron
gave his time to the Government to the practical
neglect of his professional business. He was chair-
man of the Bracken County Council of Defense and
chairman of the school administration. He is a mem-
ber of the Catholic Church and is affiliated with Ara-
zuma Tribe No. 91, Improved Order of Red Men, at
Bladeston. His home is a modern residence on Wood-
ward Avenue, and he also owns considerable other
local real estate, including the hotel and a business
building on Miami Street.
In April, 1904, at Covington, Mr. Byron married
Miss Carrie Jane Staton. Her grandfather, James
Staton, was born in Mason County, Kentucky, in 1809,
of Virginia ancestry, was a blacksmith by trade and
spent his active life in Mason and Bracken counties.
He died at Brooksville in 1886. His wife was Jane
Calvert, a native of Maryland, who died in Bracken
County.
James W. Staton, father of Mrs. Byron, was one of
tile most prominent Masons of Kentucky and of the
Middle West. He was born at Dover in Mason
County, May 27, 1835, and lived at Brooksville from
early manhood. He served as deputy county clerk
of Bracken County, was master commissioner of the
Circuit Court and for thirty-two years treasurer of
the sinking fund of Bracken County. He died at
Brooksville, June 27, 1903. He was a democrat and a
Methodist and in Masonry he received his Chapter
degrees in Brooksville Lodge No. 154 in the summer
and fall of 1858 and received the Royal Arch degrees
between July, 1866, and January, 1867, was made a
Knight Templar, November 7, 1878, received the
thirty-second degree from the Grand Consistory of
Kentucky, November 24 1887, and was created a
Knight Commander of the Court of Honor, October
18, 1888, and on May 25, 1891, was coroneted an
honorary thirty-third degree Mason of the Supreme
Council. He was grand master of the Grand Lodge,
grand high priest of the Grand Chapter of Kentucky,
and for years chairman of the Foreign Correspondence
Committee of the Grand Lodge. Practically his whole
life was an exemplification of the beauty and nobility
of the Masonic ritual. He was one of the most
irreproachable of men, gentle, patient, tolerant, charit-
able, and had a host of admiring friends. Intellectu-
ally he was a giant and the soul of courtesy and a
most magnanimous gentleman. James W. Staton
married Miss Caroline West, who was born in Bracken
County, March 6, 1836 and died at Brooksville, Janu-
ary 8, 1898.
Jesse W. Overstreet, the eldest in a family of four
sorts and three daughters, was but ten years of age at
the time of his father's death, and thus exceptional re-
sponsibilities came to him while he was still a mere
boy. Through his sturdy labors he assisted in provid-
ing for his widowed mother and the younger children,
and the self-reliance begotten of this early experience
has proved a forceful power in his later career, which
has been marked by initiative, energy, determined pro-
gressiveness and substantial and worthy achievement.
He is now a director and assistant manager of the
People's Tobacco Warehouse Company at Danville,
judicial center of Boyle County, and is a director in
the Peoples Saving Bank & Trust Company at Perry-
ville, this county.
On his father's old home farm on Rolling Fork,
Boyle County, Jesse W. Overstreet was born Novem-
ber 5, 1878, and he is the eldest of the seven children
born to John C. B. and Matilda Frances (Minor)
Overstreet, both representatives of old and influential
Kentucky families. John C. B. Overstreet became a
substantial farmer in Boyle County, but was compara-
tively a young man at the time of his death, his widow
having survived him by many years, and both having
held membership in the Christian Church. Of their
children, as before noted, the subject of this review is
the eldest; John C. is a prosperous farmer in Boyle
County; Saluda is the wife of Howard Bower, of
Winchester, Kentucky, Mr. Bower being a telegraph
operator by vocation; Nannie is the wife of Walter
Bower, a telegraph operator at Parksville, this state;
William Henderson Overstreet likewise is an expert
telegrapher, and holds a position as operator in the rail-
way station at Lebanon, Kentucky ; Margaret is the
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
149
wife of Granville Durham, and they reside in the City
of Akron, Ohio, where Mr. Durham is connected with
one of the extensive rubber manufacturing industries;
and Addison B. Overstreet is chief train dispatcher
at Inderlin, North Dakota. The Maiden name of his
wife was Edna Jackson, and she was a resident of
London, Kentucky, at the time of their marriage.
Owing to. the death of his father, the early educa-
tional advantages of Jesse W. Overstreet were limited
to a somewhat irregular attendance in the public
schools, his studies having been pursued principally
during the winter terms when his services were not in
requisition in connection with farm work. His father's
old homestead farm comprised 200 acres. At the age
of eighteen years he found employment on the farm
of one of his cousins, and he was thus engaged about
three years, with compensation of ten dollars a month.
His earnings were largely applied to helping his
widowed mother, and by this time his next younger
brother, John C, had become old enough to assume a
goodly share of the management of the old home farm.
For five or six years Mr. Overstreet was engaged in
the timber business, in which his operations were at-
tended with success, two years of this interval having
been passed in Tennessee, where his two youngest
brothers were associated with him.
On the 18th of December, 1899, was solemnized
the marriage of Mr. Overstreet to Miss Mary F.
Bowling, of Parksville, Boyle County, she being a
daughter of the late Evan and Martha Frances
(Tucker) Bowling, both natives of Kentucky and both
members of the Christian Church. During the first
year after his marriage Mr. Overstreet conducted
operations on a rented farm in his native county, and
upon the death of his mother, in 1900, he was ap-
pointed executor of the estate and guardian of his
younger brothers and sisters. He at this time assumed
the active management of the old home farm, and as
the younger children attained to maturity he and his
brother John C. purchased their interests and assumed
full ownership of the farm. In 1907 Mr. Overstreet
rented a farm near Parksville, and there he continued
successful operations until 1915. He and his brother
sold the old home farm in the year 1910, and during
the interval between 1907 and 1910 the two brothers
were associated in the buying and selling of leaf
tobacco. In the latter year Mr. Overstreet formed a
connection with the People's Tobacco Warehouse Com-
pany at Danville, this company having been organized
for the establishing of a loose-leaf tobacco market and
warehouse at the judicial center of Boyle County. The
company was incorporated with a capital stock of
$15,000, and such has been the success of the interprise
that operations are at the present time based on a
capital stock of $125,000. Mr. Overstreet has been
closely and influentially identified with the development
and upbuilding of this important industrial enterprise,
and is now assistant manager as well as a director of
the company, which handled in 1919 more than 6,000,000
pounds of leaf tobacco. Lack of warehouse facilities
compelled the company in that season to refuse a busi-
ness greatly above these figures, and in 1920 the com-
pany doubled its warehouse capacity by the erection of
a new warehouse of the best modern facilities. Mr.
Overstreet is also an independent tobacco buyer and
broker, and in this individual way he successfully
handled more than 200,000 pounds of tobacco in the
season of 1919. He is one of the substantial stock-
holders and a director of the Peoples Savings Bank
& Trust Company at Perryville, this being one of the
important and well ordered financial institutions of
Boyle County.
Mr. Overstreet as a staunch democrat has given
effective service as deputy sheriff of Boyle County, and
while he has no ambition for political office he is a
loyal and vigorous supporter of the cause of the
democratic party. He assumed the office of deputy
sheriff in 1917, and continues the incumbent of this
position at the time of this writing, in the autumn of
1920. He is affiliated with McGuire Lodge No. 209,
Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, in his home city
of Perryville, and among other Masonic organizations
with which he is actively identified are Ryon Com-
mandery of Knights Templars at Danville, and Kosair
Temple of the Mystic Shrine in the City of Louisville.
He and his wife are active members of the Christian
Church at Perryville. Mr. Overstreet has been in the
most significant sense the architect of his own fortune
and is known as a reliable, progressive and successful
business man and a citizen of those sterling qualities
that ever beget objective confidence and esteem.
To Mr. and Mrs. Overstreet have been born six chil-
dren : Macie Lee, who was born February 27, 1902,
was graduated in the Perryville High School as a
member of the class of 1920, and she is a popular figure
in the social life of her home community; Tillie
Frances, who was born January 18, 1909, is a student
in the local high school. The names and respective
dates of birth of the younger children are here re-
corded: Sarah Margaret, February 17, 1911; Jesse W.,
Jr., March 23, 1913; Nancy Bowling, June 1, 1916; and
Mary Catherine, June 26, 1918.
George W. Crane. Depending entirely upon his own
powers and efforts in making his way to the goal
of independence and prosperity, Mr. Crane proved him-
self well fortified for this achievement, and he has
become not only one of the prominent and successful
representatives of farm industry in Boyle County but
has also attained to prominence in connection with
the buying and shipping of live stock and the handling
of tobacco leaf as a buyer and shipper. He maintains
his residence on his fine farm near Perryville, and
is one of the vigorous and influential business men
of Boyle County.
On his father's farm three miles west of Perry-
ville, this county, on the Springfield Turnpike, Mr.
Crane was born January 24, 1873. His boyhood was
marked by his assisting in farm work and by attend-
ing school during the winter terms. Upon attaining
to his legal majority he left the parental home, and
shortly afterward was solemnized his marriage to Miss
Myrtle Bottoms, of Boyle County. Thereafter he
farmed about five years on rented land in the western
part of this county, and he terminated his lease of this
farm after the death of his wife, in 1890. Of his two
children the elder is Miss Chloe, who remains at the
paternal home, and the younger, Alma, is the wife of
Egbert Coyle, a prosperous young farmer in Boyle
County. In the year 1890 Mr. Crane engaged in the
general merchandise business, and in this connection
his administrative and financial resources were severe-
ly tested. He extended credit to numerous tobacco
growers ; times were hard and collections slow ; but by
perseverance and careful management he overcame
obstacles and placed himself well on the road toward
financial independence. Fair and honorable in all
dealings, he has won high reputation as a vigorous and
resourceful business man. After the death of his wife
he purchased a farm in the western part of Boyle
County, and there he continued his activities as an
agriculturist and stock-grower until 1918, when he sold
the property and purchased his present well improved
farm of 152 acres, the same being situated on the
Mitchellsburg Turnpike and two miles south of Perry-
ville. Here he gives special attention to the raising of
tobacco in connection with other normal departments
of farm enterprise, and in the control of a large and
important business in the buying and shipping of live
stock he is senior member of the firm of Crane &
Harmon. The firm makes large shipments annually to
the markets in Louisville and Cincinnati, and in addi-
tion to his alliance with this enterprise Mr. Crane is
individually engaged in the buying of leaf tobacco.
150
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
Thus he is doing an admirable service in the moving
of farm products and is contributing much to the in-
dustrial prosperity of the county in which his activities
are centered. He is a member of the directorate of
the Peoples Savings Bank & Trust Company of
Perryville, is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and
is a staunch democrat in political allegiance. In 1895
Mr. Crane contracted a second marriage, when Miss
Mamie Carpenter became his wife. No children have
been born of this union.
The Crane family has pioneer distinction in Ken-
tucky, and George W. Crane, father of the subject of
this sketch, was born in Boyle County in the year 1837.
His wife was also born in this county.
James Gayle. Few men of Carroll County, Ken-
tucky, are better known in business circles than James
Gayle, president of the Carrollton & Worthville Rail-
road Company. To some men, of which class Mr.
Gayle is an example, the varied responsibilities attach-
ing to large business seem to present attractions early
and even persist as paramount interests throughout life.
Nature has so equipped them that they can call to their
aid unlimited resources in the way of business acumen,
sound judgment and commercial foresight. Entering
the business field from the schoolroom, when but
eighteen years old, Mr. Gayle advanced rapidly from
one important position to another, and for the past six-
teen years has been the able and resourceful president
of a very necessary transportation line operating from
Carrollton to Worthville to connect with that great
railroad artery, the Louisville & Nashville Railroad.
James Gayle was born May 5, 1871, at New Liberty
in Owen County, Kentucky. His parents were James
and Sarah (Green) Gayle, the latter of whom was born
at New Liberty in 1831, and spent her life there, her
death occurring February 21, 1921. James Gayle, Sr.,
was born in Owen County, Kentucky, in 1825, and died
at New Liberty in 1897: His father, John Gayle, was
born in Virginia and came to Owen County, Kentucky,
shortly after his marriage. He acquired a large landed
estate there, and his farm of 1,500 acres is still in the
possession of the family, having been divided among his
grandchildren. This large body of land was entirely
surrounded by a one-panel fence, John Gayle having
devoted an acre of land to this purpose. His son,
James Gayle, spent almost his entire life at New Liberty,
where he was active in the affairs of the democratic
party and for twenty-one years conducted the leading
hotel in the place. He was a charter member of the
Masonic Lodge at New Liberty and also of the lodge
of Odd Fellows, and was a man dependable in every
relation of life. To his marriage with Sarah Green
the following children were born: Lula, who died at
Gainesville, Georgia, in 1918, was the wife of Rev.
M. M. Riley, pastor of a Baptist Church at Gainesville;
Eva, who is the widow of B. E. Garvey, for many years
a prosperous tobacco dealer at New Liberty; D. H,
who is a retired banker now living at Covington, Ken-
tucky, is still a director in the Fifth-Third National
Bank of Cincinnati; R. H, who died at Owenton, Ken-
tucky, when aged forty-eight years, was cashier of the
Peoples Bank of Owenton; June W-, who is a resident
of Owenton, is a retired banker and capitalist ; Walter
S., who was president of the First National Bank of
Richmond, Indiana, at the time of his death ; Corinne,
who is the wife of Rev. P. E. Burroughs, a Baptist
clergyman and connected with the Southern Baptist
Publishing Company at Nashville, Tennessee ; A. D.,
who succeeded his brother Walter S., as president of
the First National Bank of Richmond, Indiana. The
banking business has been well represented in this
family.
James Gayle attended the public schools of New
Liberty, Kentucky, until eighteen years old, when he
entered the Citizens Bank of' New Liberty as a book-
keeper, in which capacity he continued for a year and
a half. During the following year he was bookkeeper
for the Main Jellico Mountain Coal Company, at Jel-
lico, Tennessee, and then became manager of the Queen
City Coal Compnay at Knoxville, in which position
of responsibility he remained for two years. In 1895
he located at Winchester, Kentucky, where for two
years he was engaged in a retail coal and lumber busi-
ness, but in 1897 was recalled to New Liberty and was
elected cashier of the Citizens Bank and served as such
until 1904, when he was elected cashier of the Third
National Bank of Louisville and continued there one
year. In the fall of 1905 Mr. Gayle came to Carroll-
ton as president of the Carrollton & Worthville Rail-
road, and has successfully operated it ever since, his
offices being situated on the corner of Fifth and Polk
streets.
At Carrollton in 1909 Mr. Gayle was married to Miss
Prudence Wilson, who is a daughter of the late R. J.
and Belle (Scott) Wilson, the latter of whom resides
with Mr. and Mrs. Gayle. Mr. Wilson was engaged
for many years in the marble and granite business in
this city and was an expert stonecutter. Mrs. Gayle
is a graduate of the high school of Lancaster, Ohio.
They have one child, Evelyn Garvey, who was born
January 24, 1912.
In political life Mr. Gayle is a democrat of the
sturdy old type. In 1909 he was elected mayor of
Carrollton and continued in office until 1917, giving the
city a vigorous business administration. During the
World war he took an active part in all local measures
of a patriotic nature and contributed generously to the
different organizations that gave such timely help to
the government. In addition to his other interests he
leases and operates a farm in Carroll County. He is
a member of the Masonic fraternity and belongs also to
New Liberty Lodge of Odd Fellows, of which he is
a past grand, to Carrollton Lodge of the Knights of
Pythias, and to the Elks. Mr. Gayle has been a mem-
ber of the Baptist Church since his youth, and is
Sunday School superintendent of the church at Carroll-
ton. Personally he is of pleasant but dignified demeanor,
his attitude instinctively arousing confidence and friend-
ship.
William Robert Heflin, M. D. A physician and
surgeon whose practice has been done in Newport for
over twenty years, Doctor Heflin is not only an earnest
and hard working member of his profession but a
public spirited citizen whose presence has been greatly
appreciated by this community.
Doctor Heflin was born at Maysville, Kentucky,
March 10, 1870. His grandfather was a native of
Scotland and an early settler of Springfield, Illinois.
James A. Heflin, father of Doctor Heflin, was born
at Springfield in 1846, and was reared in that city until
1862. Then, at the age of sixteen, he ran away from
home and joined the Union army, and throughout the
remainder of the war- was a member of the Eleventh
Kentucky Cavalry. He participated in the battle of
Stoneman's Gap in Eastern Tennessee, at Murfrees-
boro, and in many skirmishes and campaigns, remain-
ing at his post of duty until the end of the war. He
then elected to remain in Kentucky as a permanent
home, and settled at Maysville, where he served as
United States marshal during Garfield's administra-
tion and subsequently was chief of police of Maysville.
He was still in that office when he died in 1892. He
was a prominent republican in his section of the state,
a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was a
Knight Templar Mason, was affiliated with the Grand
Army of the Republic, and was a charter member of
Limestone Lodge, Knights of Pythias, at Maysville,
and served as a colonel in the Second Regiment of
the Uniformed Rank of the order. James A. Heflin
married Mary Crane, who resides at Maysville, where
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
151
she was born in 1847. Her father, Paul Crane, who
was born in Ireland in 1817, was an early farmer and
business man at Maysville and long prominent in that
locality, where he died in 1877. Doctor Heflin was
the second in a family of seven children, the others
being: Emma, wife of Christ Brown, a traveling sales-
man with home at Maysville; Ida, of Qeveland, Ohio,
widow of Arch Bateman, who was an electrician ;
Mollie, wife of Charles Buck, a mechanic living at In-
dianapolis ; James, an engineer with the Chesapeake &
Ohio Railroad, a resident of Covington ; Coleman, a
mechanic at Maysville ; and Catherine, wife of Dave
Bierley, who is in_ the income tax department of the
Government and lives at Louisville.
William Robert Heflin graduated from the Maysville
High School in 1890. For about a year he worked
and studied in a doctor's office, and in the fall of
1 89 1 entered the medical department of the University
of Cincinnati, from which he was graduated M. D. in
1894. Doctor Heflin returned to the University of
Cincinnati for a general post-graduate course in 1908.
His first two years of practice, beginning in 1894, was
at Owensboro. He was then appointed by Governor
W. O. Bradley as assistant physician at the Central
Kentucky Hospital for the Insane at Lakeland, and
was identified with that institution for five years.
Since the winter of 1900 he has had his office and home
at Newport, his offices being located in the Virginia
Building at Third Street and Washington Avenue.
Doctor Heflin is surgeon general of the Kentucky
Brigade, Uniformed Rank, Knights of Pythias, and is
very active in that order, being affiliated with Eureka
Lodge No. 7, Knights of Pythias at Newport, and
Fewless Division No. 3 of the Uniformed Rank. He
is a member of the Campbell-Kenton Medical Society,
the State Medical Association and the American Medi-
cal Association. During the World war he was the
medical examiner for the County Draft Board, a work
which took much of his time, and in addition he
contributed of his personal means to the various quotas
assigned to the county.
Doctor Heflin is a republican, is a member of Grace
Methodist Episcopal Church at Newport, is affiliated
with Maysville Lodge No. 52, F. and A. M., Olive
Branch Chapter No. 76, R. A. M., Newport Command-
ery No. 13, K. T., Syrian Temple of the Mystic Shrine
at Cincinnati, Newport Aerie No. 280, Fraternal Order
of Eagles, and Newport Lodge No. 510, Loyal Order
of Moose.
His home is a residence, with all the modern im-
provements, on Washington Avenue. In the spring of
1896, at Maysville he married Miss Anna G. Walsh,
daughter of John and Kate (Atherton) Walsh, resi-
dents of Maysville, where her father is in school work.
Eugene Harmon. A record of admirable achieve-
ment has been that of this well known and highly
esteemed young business man of Boyle County, and
this record bears evidence also of his filial and fra-
ternal loyalty and unselfishness. Mr. Harmon is now
giving much of his time and attention to the buying
and selling of farm, city and village property, and is
associated also in the buying and shipping of live stock,
his home and business headquarters being at Perry-
ville.
Mr. Harmon was born in Boyle County, September
14, 1882, and is a son of Silas J. and Martha (Crane)
Harmon, both of whom were born and reared in this
section of the Blue Grass State. Of the children
Eugene was the second in order of birth, the eldest be-
ing Virgil, who is now the wife of Marius Cocan-
ougher, a successful farmer in Boyle County, and the
date of whose birth was September 12, 1880. Herbert,
the third child, was born September 28, 1884, and he
is a civil engineer by vocation. He married Miss
Salida Horn, and they maintain their residence in the
City of Louisville. Myrtle, who was born November
13, 1887, is the wife of Robert Isham, a farmer in
Boyle County. Omar F., who was born July 19, 1891,
married Miss Mamie Mullens and is engaged in farm
enterprise in Boyle County. Newton, who was born
July 9, 1893, entered the nation's service in the late
World war, in which he sacrificed his life in battle in
the Argonne Forest conflict in France. He was a
member of Company G, Thirty-eighth Infantry, Third
Division of the American Expeditionary Forces in
France, and he died a patriot's death, on the nth of
October, 1918. Sadie, who was born July I, 1895, is
the wife of Joseph Wycoff, a prosperous farmer and
stock man of Boyle County. Pearl, who was born June
16, 1900, was graduated from the Perryville High
School, as a member of the class of 1918, and there-
after she continued her studies for three terms in the
Kentucky State Normal School at Perryville She is
a young woman of fine intellectual and musical at-
tainments, has marked ability also as an elocutionist,
and for two years was a successful and popular teacher
in the public schools. She is a most devoted member
of the Baptist Church at Perryville, being secretary of
its Sunday school and otherwise active in church work,
besides which she is a popular factor in the representa-
tive social activities of the community. She has ac-
corded earnest co-operation to her brother Eugene in
the maintaining of an attractive home, and she has the
high regard of all who have come within the sphere of
her gracious influence. William, the youngest of the
children, was born September 17, 1902, and in his
vacation period of the year 1919 he rented land and
raised tobacco, his crop being sold for $725. The loved
and devoted mother remains in the home established
and maintained by her son Eugene and daughter Pearl.
Her birth occurred April 15, 1863, and her marriage
to Silas J. Harmon was solemnized November 6, 1879.
She is an earnest member of the Baptist Church, in
the faith of which she carefully reared her children.
Eugene Harmon found the period of his boyhood
and early youth diversified by work on the farm and
attending school during three months of each year.
At the age of eighteen years he initiated his indepen-
dent career, and he has depended entirely upon his
resources in fighting the stern battle of life. At the
age just noted he went to Indianapolis, Indiana, where
he was employed one year in the Perry Carriage Fac-
tory. During the following year he was in the employ
of a contractor at Zion City, Illinois, and the ensuing
three years he was engaged in farm work in Mc-
Donough County, Illinois. He received $25 a month
during his nine months of active farm operations, and
during the intervening winter months received his
board only in compensation for his service in the feed-
ing of cattle. He carefully conserved his earnings and
upon his return to Kentucky became associated with
Marius Cocanougher, his brother-in-law, in the pur-
chase and conducting of a general store in the little
village of Enido, Boyle County. At the expiration of
two years the firm sold the store and business to J. A.
Holland, and in 1908 Mr. Harmon purchased a farm of
150 acres two miles north of Perryville. On this farm
he established his mother and the seven younger chil-
dren, all of whom at that time depended upon him for
their support. Farm products then commanded low
prices, and careful and economical management was
demanded on the part of the energetic and determined
young farmer in gaining sufficient returns to enable
him to give his younger brothers and sisters the educa-
tional advantages and other opportunities which he
himself had been denied. With the passing years his
brothers grew older and began to give effective aid in
the work and management of the farm. Gradually
success came to the faithful and progressive young
farm-owner, and he added to his resources by doing
contract work in the construction of turnpike roads.
In 1910 he formed a partnership with George W.
Crane, of whom mention is made on other pages, and
152
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
the firm of Crane & Harmon was engaged in road
building three years, at the expiration of which the
enterprise of the firm was diverted to the buying and
shipping of cattle and other livestock, in which field a
large and prosperous business was developed. In 1916
Mr. Harmon turned the management of the farm over
to his brother Newton, who two years later entered the
United States Army and he«sacrificed his life in the
World war, as already noted in a preceding para-
graph. When his brother thus entered the army Mr.
Harmon sold the farm and with his mother and other
members of the family moved to Perryville, where the
home has since been maintained. Here' Mr. Harmon
has had his headquarters during a period of forceful
and successful activity in the buying and selling of
farm and city property, live stock, tobacco and other
farm products. He has not waited for opportunity to
present itself, but has made his own opportunities. He
has become one of the progressive and influential real-
estate dealers of his native county, and is known and
honored as one of the straightforward, reliable and
enterprising young business men of this section of the
state, with a reputation that is in itself a most valuable
business asset. Mr. Harmon has bravely faced the
problems that have presented themselves in the course
of his signally active and successful career, and has
not hedged himself in with mere personal interests, but
has given his influence and aid in the furtherance of
measures and enterprises tending to advance the com-
munal welfare. His name is still enrolled on the list
of eligible young bachelors in Boyle County and it is
scarcely necessary to say that here his circle of friends
is limited only by those of his acquaintances. Mr.
Harmon has manifested a fine sense of personal
stewardship and looks upon his achievement as but in-
cidental to the general trend of events in his career.
He wants no praise, but it certainly "is coming to him."
Charley Rosel. The Austrian emigrant to the
United States always finds an asylum and an oppor-
tunity to develop his life and to acquire a competence
along legitimate lines ultimately reaching a state of
healthy prosperity not frequently afforded by con-
ditions in the old world. These remarks apply with
full force to Charley Rosel, a well-known citizen of
Junction City, Kentucky.
Charley Rosel was born in Vienna, Austria, January
'7. 1875, and in 1883, when he was about eight years
old, he accompanied his father to America. On arriv-
ing in this country the Rosel family came on to Ken-
tucky and settled in Boyle County, and in the public
schools of that county Charley Rosel received his early
education. When he had reached the age of eighteen
he started out to make his own way. and left home to
work in a dairy, receiving $2.50 per week, and remained
thus engaged for six months. Later he applied himself
to learn the trade of a millwright, which he followed
for eleven years at Silver Creek, having charge of the
mechanical department for the Bernheim Distillery
Company.
In June, 191 1, Mr. Rosel moved to Junction City and
engaged in running a restaurant, starting with a capital
of $300. From this modest beginning and by careful
management and economy he enlarged his capital, pur-
chased ground, and built the present Hotel Rosel in
IQM- The hotel is well equipped, enjoys a good busi-
m ss, and of the entire undertaking Mr. Rosel is sole
owner and operator. The hotel is now well established
and has a well-earned reputation for everything essen-
tial to a first class hostelry.
In 1906 Mr. Rosel was united in marriage to Bregetta
Nosko, a native of Bohemia, where she was born in
1880, the marriage being celebrated in Junction City.
They are the parents of one child, Joseph Rosel, born
in 1907, who now attends the public schools.
Alois Rosel, father of Charley Rosel, came to
America in 1883 and settled in Boyle County, taking
out his naturalization papers in 1888. He married
Antonia Sadere. The elder Rosel acted as emigration
agent for some years and colonized the settlement
known as "New Austria," which covers the district
styled the Knobs, southwest of Junction City. Here he
located about fifty European families, who settled and
improved these lands, built schools and churches, and
by exercise of industry and thrift have prospered.
Alois Rosel died in 1914, deservedly regretted by all
who knew him, but by none more so than those people
to whom he gave a start in life. Four sons survive
him : Charley, Joseph, Rudolph and John, the latter
residing with his mother on the old home farm near
Junction City, and which was purchased shortly after
the Rosels settled here. Joseph Rosel is a prosperous
farmer and owns a holding near the home place.
Rudolph lives in Danville, a traveling salesman, repre-
senting the Ideal Manufacturing Company of Louis-
ville, Kentucky.
Charley Rosel is an excellent example of the
foreigner who makes good through energy and in-
dustry. He is satisfied with America and is a warm
supporter of its ideals and institutions.
John Russell Yeagek. As one of the successful
farmers of Boyle County, John Russell Yeager is liv-
ing up to the traditions of one of the old families of
this section of Kentucky. He began his career young,
has been industrious and progressive, and he and his
good wife have always recognized that life is an oppor-
tunity for enjoying the good things of the world as
well as for doing work and accumulating wealth.
Mr. Yeager, whose home is one of the attractive
ones along Lancaster Pike and situated 2V2 miles
east of Danville, was born in Boyle County Jan-
uary 13, 1878. His family came out of Culpeper,
Virginia, in 1805, and in that year, more than a century
ago, settled on land in the same community where John
Russell Yeager now lives, and some of that land has
never been out of the family. His father, William
Wesley Yeager, was born in Boyle County January
2, 1836, and died July 29, 1915. On October 11, 1866,
he married Sarah Figg, who was born at Carrollton,
Kentucky, April 5, 1841, and is now living at Danville
The only child, of his parents, John Russell Yeager
grew up on the old homestead and finished his educa-
tion in the Hogsett Academy, a military school at Dan-
ville. On August 8, 1896, he married Miss Mary
Erwin, of Danville. She was born in Lincoln County
October 8, 1879, and completed her education in the
Kentucky College for Women at Danville and the
Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. Her people were
also pioneer Kentuckians. Her father, Samford
Erwin, was born in Cartersville, Georgia, July 8, 1830,
and died March 20, 1888. September 1, 1869, he mar-
ried Elizabeth Bright Lillard, who was born Septem-
ber 8, 1849. Mr. and Mrs. Erwin had five children,
one dying in infancy. Samford Erwin, Jr., who was born
August 24, 1 881, in Lincoln County, and is now a resi-
dent of Salt Lake City, enlisted in the Canadian
army before the United States declared war on Ger-
many and saw some of the heaviest fighting in Flan-
ders and France. Elizabeth Erwin, sister of Mrs.
Yeager, born May 22, 1883, is the wife of Hubert
S. Howard, a traveling salesman living at Meriden,
Mississippi. Mrs. Yeager's brother John was born
April 22, 1885, and died September 13, 1893.
Mr. Yeager was eighteen and his wife sixteen when
they were married, and they began at once the task of
building a home and achieving a definite place for
themselves. For eight years they lived at River-
side in Boyle County, and since 1907 have occupied
their present home on the Lancaster Pike, where Mr.
Yeager is handling a large farming proposition of 440
acres, devoted to general crops and live stock.
Mr. and Mrs. Yeager have an interesting family of
four children, whose education and training they have
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
153
carefully supervised. Elizabeth, the oldest, was born
March 5, 1897, and on October 8, 1010, became the
wife of V. P. Cannon, of Columbia, Missouri, but now
in the oil business at Wilson, Oklahoma. William, the
oldest son, was born January 30, 1808, completed his
education at Center College in Danville, and is already
in the ranks of the progressive young farmers in Ken-
tucky. Allen Carter, born March 19, 1900, was a stu-
dent in Center College and a member of the Students
Army Training Corps, and is associated with his
brother William in farming. Lewis Churchill, the
youngest of the family, was born May 26, 1902, and
has also had the advantages of Center College.
Marshall Crittendon Caddell. One of the most
interesting business enterprises in Central Kentucky is
that represented by the name Marshall Crittendon
Caddell, whose business associate and the former re-
sponsible manager of the business itself is E. W.
Reeves.
Mr. Caddell was born on a small _farm in Whitley
County, Kentucky, in i860. He had a common school
education and when about twenty-five years of age
entered the railway mail service at a salary of $800 a
year. He became a veteran in this service, continuing
for about thirty years, his chief run being between Cin-
cinnati and Chattanooga, though in later years between
Danville and Cincinnati. His salary never exceeded
$100 a month. But while one of the most efficient men
in that department of the postal service, he was utiliz-
ing his opportunities to study and observe, and for
many years kept in close touch with world markets.
He was also living on a strictly economical plan, and
invested his savings from time to time in some of the
stable stocks, especially those represented by enter-
prises dealing in commodities required for food and
living. He never invested in a questionable stock, made
only one investment in which he lost, and his rule was
to buy when the market was low and only in quantities
he could pay for.
■ About 1916 he began to close out his investments,
and with the advice and co-operation of his close friend,
E. W. Reeves, began turning his resources into the
Blue Grass lands near Burgin, Kentucky. By 1917 his
investments had accumulated about 800 acres, represent-
ing in value about $120,000. By the fall of 1917 plans
had advanced to the point of execution of a project
long considered between the two friends. With E. W.
Reeves as general manager there was started the
development of an extensive stock and grain producing
business. The war was an adverse factor, but the plans
have made steady advance and the business is already
productive. The primary and leading idea of the busi-
ness is the production of food commodities. They look
upon a farm not as an enterprise subject altogether to
natural hazards and fortunes, but as a factory and
system requiring all the efficiency displayed in a mod-
ern up-to-date . manufacturing establishment. The
farm is being developed for the production of dairy
and meat products, the livestock, all thoroughbreds,
consisting of Black Angus and Jersey cattle and Duroc
Jersey hogs. They have also raised about thirty acres
of tobacco annually, but this crop was discontinued
with the 1921 season. The plans for the 1921 crop
provided for 325 acres of wheat, 200 acres of corn, a
small acreage of tobacco and the remainder of the
land is pasture and meadow. Besides the large herd
of cattle, mules are an important side line.
Mr. Caddell finally resigned from the mail service
July I, 1917. During 1920 he was in -McCreary County
caring for his aged mother. He and E. W. Reeves
were companions in the mail service for ten years, and
Mr. Reeves resigned his post October I, 1917, to take
the entire responsibilities of managing the extensive
farm. He is himself a practical farmer, for a number
of years was a teacher, and entered the mail service
in 1902.
Mr. Reeves was born in Lincoln County, Missouri,
June 13, 1870, but was reared in Henry County, Ken-
tucky, the native home of his parents. He had a com-
mon and normal school education. He married Miss
Sarah Winkler, of Madison County, Kentucky, and
their daughter, Maude E., is Mrs. John W./Van Ars-
dale, of Burgin, where she is teaching in the city schools.
Mr. Reeves is a man of broad intellectual outlook,
and while in the mail service was a student of busi-
ness. His ambition was to share actively in the great
enterprise for increasing the world's supply of food
commodities, but early in 1921, after having carried
the burden of the business alone through the trying
war period, his health began to fail and he resigned
from active duty on the farms to re-enter the work of
his "first love," that of teaching. He expects to spend
the remainder of his life training children.
E. D. Green, a progressive farmer and citizen
of Burgin, has been closely associated with Mr. Reeves
since the early inception of the business, and on the
advice of the latter the former was selected as man-
ager, and now the work is progressing nicely under
the leadership of Mr. Green, Mr. Reeves having only
an advisory part in the work.
Mrs. Mary Linelle (Eubanks) Jones. Wholly de-.
voted to home and domestic duties, doing through all
the best years of her life the lowly but sacred work
that comes within her sphere, there is not much to
record concerning the life of the average woman. And
yet what station so dignified, what relation so loving
and endearing, what office so holy, tender and ennobl-
ing as those of home-making wifehood and mother-
hood. As man's equal in every qualification save the
physical, and his superior in the gentle, tender and
loving amenities of life, woman fully merits a mucli
larger notice than she ordinarily receives, and the
writer of these lines is optimistic enough to indulge
the belief that in a no distant future she will receive
due credit for the important part she acts in life's
great drama and be accorded her proper place in his-
tory and biography.
Mary Linelle (Eubanks) Jones was born June 29,
1898, the daughter of Mack B. and Mary (Hubble)
Eubanks. After completing the common school course
she entered Hamilton College, a Christian institution at
Lexington, Kentucky, where she was graduated. On
March 12, 1918, she became the wife of Guy M. Jones,
of Danville, and they are the parents of a son, Guy
McClellan, Jr., who was born February 20, 1919. They
are now engaged in farming the well-known Eubanks
farm on the Lancaster Pike, about one and a half
miles east of Danville, where they are meeting with
splendid success.
Mrs. Jones' paternal grandfather, Benjamin Eubanks.
was born at Pulaski, Kentucky, in 1830, and was a
farmer by vocation. When twenty-three years of age
he was married to Sarah Surber, who was born in
Pulaski on July 20, 1832. He is deceased, being sur-
vived by his widow, who is living near Stanford, Ken-
tucky, with her daughter, Mrs. Malissa Underwood.
Mack B. Eubanks was born in Stanford, Lincoln
County, Kentucky, on October 30, 1864, and died Sep-
tember 18, 1917. In 1892 he was married to Mary
Hubble, who was born July 23, 1866, and died July
23, 1921, the day she was fifty-five years old. After
their marriage they located on a farm on the Lan-
caster Pike, six miles from Danville, where they suc-
cessfully operated their land and gave special attention
to the breeding and raising of mules. Mr. Eubanks
was an intelligent and shrewd farmer and was ac-
knowledged one of the best farmers in his section of
the country. Subsequently, about fifteen years ago, he
moved to the present Eubanks farm, which was for-
merly the estate of William Crow and known in early
days as Crow's Station. This romantic old homestead
was erected over 150 years ago, and is a two-story
154
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
stone structure, being still in a splendid state of preser-
vation. In former days it was occupied as a tavern
and was a popular meeting place for the people of the
early days.
Mrs. Jones had one sister, Lucile Eubanks, who was
born September 10, 1884, and who graduated from
Hamilton College at Lexington. She was married in
1913, and her death occurred on January 2, 1914.
Andrew E. Cole, or Jack Cole, as he is known by his
business signature and his personal friends and acquaint-
ances, has lived at Paducah since early boyhood, learned
the trade of carpenter here, was associated with his
father in the contracting business, and for the past
eleven years has been engaged in that business on his
own account. He is one of Paducah's able business men
and esteemed citizens.
He was born in Dresden, Tennessee, May I, 1878.
His paternal ancestors came from Scotland and settled
in North Carolina in Colonial times. The founder of
the family in Tennessee was his great-grandfather, a
native of North Carolina, who did the pioneer work of
developing a farm in Weakley County, Tennessee, where
he died at the venerable age of ninety-six. The grand-
father John Cole, was born in Weakley County in 1825,
spent all his life in that county as a farmer and lay
' Baptist preacher, and died in 1888. He married a Miss
Speed, a native of Tennessee.
J. A. Cole, father of Jack Cole, was born near
Dresden, Weakley County, Tennessee, in 1847, ac-
quired his education in that rural community, and at
the age of seventeen enlisted in the Confederate Army,
serving the last two years of the war. After the war
he became a farmer, but in 1890 moved to Paducah,
where until he retired in 1908 he was a successful con-
tractor and builder and has to his credit many of the
substantial residences and business houses of the city.
He served several terms as a member of the Paducah
School Board, is a democrat, a Mason and a member
of the Baptist Church. He has been three times mar-
ried. His first wife was Miss Durham, who died in
Weakley County, Tennessee, mother of the following
children: R. L., a Baptist clergyman at Lufkin, Texas;
Vira, wife of J. A. McFall, an Oklahoma farmer; and
Kate, wife of Tom Tansel, a farmer in Gibson County,
Tennessee. J. A. Cole married for his second wife
Mrs. Mary (Travis) Case, who was born in Weakley
County in 1847 and died at Union City, Tennessee, in
1882. She was the mother of three children : J. T.,
a railway engineer living at Little Rock, Arkansas ;
Tack or Andrew E., and Willie, who died in infancy.
The third wife of J. A. Cole was Mrs. Annie (Free-
man) Brightwell, a native of Weakley County, Tennes-
see.
Jack Cole finished his education in the public schools
of Paducah, being twelve years of age when his father
moved there. At the age of thirteen he was working
to learn the trade of carpenter and builder, and since
1910 has been in business for himself in that line. He
has perfected his organization and equipment, and
handles many of the larger building contracts not only
in Western Kentucky but in Tennessee and Illinois.
He put up the first Baptist Church building at Paducah,
and the plant of the Wilson Stove and Manufacturing
Company at Metropolis, Illinois, besides numerous high
schools and churches. His offices are in the Guthrie
Building.
Mr. Cole is a deacon of the Baptist Church, a member
of the Paducah Board of Trade, and resides at 1049
Monroe Street. In 1000, at Metropolis, Illinois, he
married Miss Carrie Hutchison, daughter of Noah and
Mary (Logdon) Hutchison, now deceased. Her father
was a mechanic at Paducah. Mr. and Mrs. Cole had
four children: Walter, born in 1901, now assisting
his father in business; Mary, born in 1903, a student
in the Paducah High School; Jack, born in 1905, in
the Junior High School ; and Bessie, born in 1909, a
pupil in the grammar schools. The mother of these
children passed away at Paducah in 1910. Mr. Cole
subsequently married Miss Iva Morrison, a daughter of
Mr. and Mrs. Ed Morrison, substantial farming people
of Livingston County, Kentucky. To this union were
born three children : Frances, in 1913 ; Elizabeth, in
1915, and Clarence, in 1917.
Chris Hehr for many, years has been a prominent
figure in the community of Broadwell in Harrison
County, where he is former postmaster, was proprietor
of a blacksmith shop, and is still giving more or less
active supervision to his extensive farming interests.
His home is on the Cynthiana and Leesburg Pike, seven
miles south of Cynthiana.
Mr. Hehr was born at Tell City, Indiana, July 15,
1861, a son of George and Fannie (Flad) Hehr. His
parents were natives of Germany and came as young
people to the United States. They were married at
Cynthiana, Kentucky, later lived in Greene County,
Indiana, then at Crittenden, Kentucky, and for many
years had their home in Harrison County, where they
died. George Hehr was a blacksmith by trade and is
still living, now retired from his business. He is a
member of the Episcopal Church, while his wife was
a Catholic. Of their nine children seven grew to ma-
ture years and five are still living: Chris; John, a
Harrison County farmer; Will, a farmer in Bourbon
County; Fannie, wife of C. S. Thompson, of California;
and Barbara, who lives in California, widow of R. N.
Parker.
Chris Hehr has lived practically all his life in Ken-
tucky. He grew up in Harrison County, where he had
the advantages of the public schools at Cynthiana. From
his father he learned the blacksmith's trade, and he
worked at it in Cynthiana and for a number of years
conducted a shop of his own at Broadwell. He and
his brothers, George and John, from their work paid
the expenses of their sisters through school.
Mr. Hehr's first wife was Mollie Duckworth, of
Carlisle, Kentucky. She left three sons, Garnett, Owen
and Kenneth. Mr. Hehr then married Mary Florence,
and by this marriage has a son, Frazier. Mr. and Mrs.
Hehr are members of the Mount Pleasant Presbyterian
Church. He is a democrat and for twenty years was
postmaster at Broadwell. He lives in Broadwell Vil-
lage, where he has a comfortable residence and three
acres of ground, but his main farm comprises 223 acres
and is one of the valuable properties in that rural com-
munity.
Thomas Clelland Coleman, sheriff of Mercer Coun-
ty, and long one of the prominent business men of
Harrodsburg, is one of those rare individuals whose
capacities and talents seem to expand and improve
through adversity and misfortune. When he was about
four years of age he was thrown from a horse, and
the injury deprived him of the use of one arm. Men
with a complete equipment of physical faculties have
on the average a strenuous time in achieving success,
but in spite of his physical handicap and the lack of
financial resources in his early youth Mr. Coleman has
achieved what most people would regard as the high-
est degree of good fortune and prosperity, and also
those assets of honor and distinction represented in
community esteem.
Mr. Coleman was born on a farm in Mercer County,
May 13, 1868, and is member of an old and prom-
inent family of this section of Kentucky. He is de-
scended from Robert E. Coleman, an Irishman, who
was a Colonial settler in Virginia. A son of Robert
E. was James Coleman, who came out of Virginia and
was one of the earliest settlers in Kentucky. This
early Kentuckian was the great-grandfather of Sheriff
Coleman. The grandfather was also named James Cole-
'' ^y&ueJc jLtt.
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
155
man, who married Mary Penny. Thomas C. Coleman,
father of Sheriff Coleman, was born in Mercer County,
June 20, 1822. His wife, Anna Jane Coleman, was
born in Anderson County, September II, 1835. Mr.
Coleman's grandfather, James Coleman, had eight sons
and one daughter. All the sons at one time or an-
other were interested in the business of trading in
horses and mules, and Thomas Clelland Coleman's abil-
ity as a trader is to some degree an inherited family
trait.
Sheriff Coleman had a country school education, also
attended school at Harrodsburg, and in 1886 was a
student in Center College at Danville. On November
8, 1887, he married Lulie Walter, a daughter of David
and Antonette Walter. They started their modest
housekeeping on Maxville Pike, near Harrodsburg. Mr.
Coleman had practically no capital when he set up this
home, but he has always been gifted with a super-
abundant energy and was never at a loss to make a
living from his work as a trader and stock dealer.
For ten years he was connected with the stock mar-
kets of Cincinnati and Louisville.
One of the largest business enterprises in Harrods-
burg is Clell-Coleman & Sons, a partnership consisting
of Mr. Coleman and his three sons, David Walter,
Leejames and Jack. They own and operate the Roller
Flour Mills, the lumber and coal yards, and as deal-
ers in grain and feed handle 70,000 bushels annually,
shipping flour and feed and trading and shipping live-
stock, the aggregate business of this concern being
$1,000,000 annually. It is the largest enterprise of the
kind in Burgin, Kentucky. This business is located
at Burgin.
It was in 1918 that 'Mr. Coleman was elected sheriff
of Mercer County. That election was an interesting
occurrence in county politics, and was a remarkable
demonstration of the esteem and confidence entertained
by the majority of citizens in the ability and integrity
of Mr. Coleman. His opponent was George P. Chinn,
a very popular man and former sheriff, and son of
the well known Jack Chinn. In spite of the prestige
of his opponent Mr. Coleman carried every precinct
in the county. During his term in office he has given
universal satisfaction to all the best interests con-
cerned. He is a Knight Templar Mason and Shriner,
and four of his sons are Masons, and he is also a mem-
ber of the Maccabees and the Independent Order of
Odd Fellows, and he and his family are Presbyterians.
For the past ten years Mr. Coleman has been either
president or secretary of the Mercer County Fair. He
is a stockholder in the Burley Tobacco Company at
Harrodsburg and the Harrodsburg Ice and Coal Stor-
age Company. Mr. and Mrs. Coleman deserve much
credit for their splendid performance of the duties of
parenthood. They reared well and educated a large
family, and all the sons have been actively engaged in
practical business or professional lines since reaching
maturity.
A brief record of the children is as follows: Verna,
the oldest, is the wife of Charles Henderson, a mem-
ber of the wholesale grocery firm of N. L. Curry of
Harrodsburg; David Walter is a member of the firm
Clell-Coleman & Sons ; Dr. D. Hunter Coleman, who
graduated in medicine from Tulane University at New
Orleans and from the Cincinnati University, is suc-
cessfully practicing as a physician and surgeon at Har-
rodsburg, and has a splendid special equipment in his
offices of X-Ray apparatus and modern surgical in-
struments; Leejames Coleman is a member of the
firm Clell-Coleman & Sons; Thomas C, Jr., is chief
deputy sheriff of Mercer County; Annetta, wife of
'■ Carroll Smith, associated with the Harrodsburg Ice
& Produce Company ; Jack, member of the firm of Clell-
; Coleman & Sons ; Evelyn Price and Lewis Charles,
both attending school; and Reuben Preston, who died
at birth.
James Wilson Glover has been a resident of Dry
Ridge since 1901. For over forty years he has been
active in business as a leaf tobacco buyer, and is one
of the largest independent dealers in that Kentucky
staple at Dry Ridge. However, he is perhaps most
widely known over Kentucky and other states as pro-
prietor and owner of the Kentucky Carlsbad Springs
Hotel. His hotel is a great health resort, widely
known and esteemed for the facilities contributing to
the comforts and pleasure of its guests, and also for
the remarkable quality of the Kentucky Carlsbad
water.
Mr. Glover was born in Clark County, Kentucky,
August 4, 1870. His grandfather, James Glover, was
a native of Virginia and a pioneer farmer of Clark
County, Kentucky, where he lived out his life. Peter
Glover, father of James W., was born in Clark County
in 1834, and for many years followed his trade as a
blacksmith at Schoolsville in Clark County, but in 1883
moved to Winchester, where he continued his occupa-
tion until his death in 1901. He was a democrat in
politics. In Clark County he married Martha Ald-
ridge, who was born in Madison County, Kentucky,
in 1843, and is now living at Winchester. She was
the mother of four children : Fannie, wife of James
McEwing, a blacksmith at Winchester; James Wilson;
R. C, a blacksmith at Winchester; and Ann Elizabeth,
wife of Dr. G. W. Conner, a dentist at Owensville.
James Wilson Glover was reared on his father's
farm, attended school to the age of eighteen, and since
then has been continuously interested in some phase
of the tobacco business. He was employed in the to-
bacco warehouse at Schoolsville and then removed to
Louisville where he was a leaf tobacco dealer two
years. On coming to Dry Ridge in 190 1 he was to-
bacco buyer for the American Tobacco Company six
years and for five years representative of the R. J.
Reynolds Tobacco Company. Since leaving these com-
panies in the relation of a buyer he has done an ex-
tensive independent business as a dealer in leaf to-
bacco.
Mr. Glover bought the Kentucky Carlsbad Springs
Hotel in December, 1917, and his individual enterprise
and capital have been responsible for the wonderful
changes and improvements that have made it one of
the most popular resorts in the state. The increasing
patronage was such that in 1917-18 he made additions
that doubled the capacity. In 1921 he completely re-
modeled all the buildings, introducing such modern im-
provements as mineral baths, steam vapor baths, elec-
tric lights, running water system. Mr. Glover has
purchased twenty-five acres of land near the hotel.
On this land is a lake of two acres and forty feet
deep, fed by natural springs. He has set out 240
shade trees which make a veritable park of the land,
and his plans contemplate the building of a new hotel
as an annex and also a sanitarium. The hotel is situ-
ated on the Dixie Highway, and convenient to the
facilities of the Cincinnati Southern Railroad. One
of 'the most valuable assets of the institution is the
Kentucky Carlsbad well, 1103 feet deep, the water from
which has been pronounced a specific in many cases
of chronic disease, and some remarkable cures are
credited to the water. Its popularity is such that large
quantities of the water are now shipped to all parts
of the United States. A chemical analysis of the min-
eral element, representing grains per United States
Gallon, is as follows : Calcium carbonate 9.50, mag-
nesium carbonate 5.50, sodium sulphate, anhydrous
2831.25, sodium bicarbonate 3-92, sodium hydrosulphate
4.72, potassium sulphate 5-37, ferrous sulphide .67,
strontium carbonate .48, lithium carbonate .27, sodium
bromide .64, and sodium chloride 167.32.
Mr. Glover is a republican in politics. He was per-
sonally interested as a worker in all the patriotic drives
in this section of Grant County during the World war.
Vol. V— 15
156
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
September 9. 1903, at Dry Ridge, he married Miss
Rowena May Steers, daughter of W. H. and Elizabeth
(Conrad) Steers, now deceased. Her father was a
Grant County farmer. Mrs. Glover finished her edu-
cation in the Indiana Xormal School at Valparaiso, and
for three years before her marriage was assistant in
the Farmers Bank of Equity at Dry Ridge.
William Calvin Clark, vice president and general
manager of the Clark-Lack Grocer Company, Incorpo-
rated, wholesale, has long been one of the dependable
business men of Paducah. and has gained prestige as
an individual and as member of his company through-
out a wide territory. Mr. Clark was born at Union
City, Tennessee, on October 29, 1872, a son of T. R.
Clark, still a resident of Union City. He was born
in Hickman County, Kentucky, in 1848, and lived there
until after his marriage, when he took his family to
Union City. At that time he embarked in a transfer
business and is still conducting it, and is now one of
the best known men in his region. All his life he has
been a strong democrat. From the day he joined the
Christian Church he has been one of its most active
workers, and is valued for his example as well as his
more material contributions to its good works. T. R.
Clark was married to Sarah Wilson, born in Hickman
County, Kentucky, in 1855, and they had the following
children : William Calvin, who is the eldest ; W. J..
who is connected with the wholesale grocery house of
J. R. Smith & Son of Paducah ; Lura, who married
Delos Paddock, a mining engineer, lives at Alberquer-
que, New Mexico ; Flora, who married Mack Moore,
lives at Trenton, Tennessee, where Mr. Moore is in the
electrical supply business; Wylie. who is in the retail
grocery business at Union City, Tennessee ; Lena, who
married a Mr. Bernard, of the secret service of the
Illinois Central Railroad, lives at Little Rock, Arkansas ;
and George, who lives at Saint Louis, Missouri.
After he had completed his educational training in
the public schools of Union City, Tennessee, William
C. Clark in 1887, immediately following his graduation,
went into the retail grocery business in that city, and
remained in it until 1894, when he terminated his con-
nections there and in July of that year came to Pa-
ducah and embarked in the wholesale grocery trade,
being associated in the years intervening between that
date and 1912 with several very large houses. In the
latter year he organized his present company, with
headquarters at 301-303 Jefferson Street. The officers
of the company are as follows: F. E. Lack, president;
W. C. Clark, vice president and general manager ;
\V. B. Kennedy, second vice president; and F. \Y.
Earhart, secretary and treasurer. The company does
a general wholesale grocery business, and its territory
embraces Western Kentucky, Illinois, Tennessee and
Alabama. During the time this company has been in
the field its officials have built up for it an enviable
reputation for fair dealing and prompt delivery, and
its prestige is being sustained in spite of changing con-
ditions in the market and methods of transportation.
Mr. Clark is also interested in the Coleman-Clark
Realty Company, which he is serving as secretary and
treasurer. This company, together with the Clark-
Lack Grocer Company, own one-fourth of the business
block in which the offices, plant and warehouses of
the two concerns are located. Another enterprise with
which he is associated is the Irvin S. Cobb Cigar Com-
pany, of which he is secretary, and he owns his mod-
ern residence at 223 North Ninth Street, one of the
most substantial and beautiful of the city. In his po-
litical views Mr. Clark is a democrat, but he has never
shown any tendency to come before the public for
honors. The Broadway Methodist Episcopal Church
holds his membership, and he is serving it as one of
its stewards. Believing firmly as he does in the fu-
ture of Paducah, he has long been one of the active
members of the Rotarv Club of that city.
In 1895 Mr. Clark was married at Paducah to Miss
Ruth McXett, a daughter of Monroe and Kate (Orm)
McXett, both of whom are deceased. Prior to his
death Mr. McNett was in an electrical supply busi-
ness at Washington, District of Columbia. Mr. and
Mrs. Clark have one child, Edna, who was graduated
from Georgetown College and is now at home.
Doris G. Reasonover. For a number of years after
coming to Covington Mr. Reasonover was associated
with one of the city's leading industries, cordage man-
ufacture, but is now at the head of a prosperous real
estate and insurance business and has a group of other
commercial interests that make him well known here
and in other sections of Kentucky.
Mr. Reasonover was born in Smith County, Ten-
nessee, November 10, 1872. His grandfather, Earl J.
Reasonover, lived for many years in Smith County,
and was a planter and slave holder both in that state
and in Mississippi. His son, Earl J. Reasonover, Jr.,
was born in Smith County, Tennessee, in 1813, and
died there in 1886. He owned a large plantation, and
before the war worked it with slaves and was one of
the pioneers in the importation of fine stock from
abroad. He imported blooded horses and cattle from
Spain and other parts of Europe. He was a Confederate
soldier throughout the struggle between the North
and the South, and was a stanch democrat in politics,
a member of the Baptist Church and a Mason. By
his first wife, who died in Smith County, he had the
following children : Joseph and William, both de-
ceased; Sarah, wife of William Foutch, a farmer in
Smith County; Bettie. Martha, Lucy and Governor, all
deceased. The second wife of Earl J. Reasonover was
Nancy P. Woford, who was born in Smith County in
1833 and died at Nashville, Tennessee, May 30, 1896.
She became the mother of seven children : Christina,
who died at Lebanon, Tennessee, wife of Thomas Lewi^.
a musician, who died in Smith County ; J. M. Reason-
over, who was a merchant and lumber dealer at De-
mons, New Mexico, and died there in 1913 ; R. P.,
judge of the Civil Courts at Nashville; Bittie, who died
in Smith County, Tennessee, at the age of twenty-two,
wife of Morgan Webster, a farmer and cattleman of
that county ; Doris G. ; Catherine, wife of Lon Foutch,
a farmer, stock broker and general merchandise broker
in Putnam County' Tennessee ; and Hatton, a cement
contractor at Bartlesville, Oklahoma.
Doris G. Reasonover grew up on his father's plan-
tation in Smith County, attended the country schools,
and in 1891 graduated from Draughon's Business Col-
lege at Nashville. He then became assistant superin-
tendant of a cordage factory at Nashville. His knowl-
edge of this business led him to Covington in 1893,
and for thirteen years he was assistant superintendent
of the Argonaut Cordage Mills. During 1906-07 he
was assistant superintendent for the Joseph Joseph
Company, having charge of their wadding factory. On
leaving this business Mr. Reasonover served three years ,
as deputy sheriff of Kenton County, and then turned
his attention to the general real estate, insurance and
bonding business, and has developed one of the best
services of that kind in Covington. His offices are at
529 Madison Avenue.
Mr. Reasonover is also vice president of the Green
River Oil and Gas Company of Kentucky, is president
of the Alphea Leasing Syndicate, and is one of the
men closely associated with the wonderful industrial
development now going on in Eastern Kentucky. He
also owns real estate in Covington, and his home is at
the corner of Fifth and Scott streets. Mr. Reasonover is
unmarried.
He was a working member of the local organization
to carry out the patriotic program of Covington and
Kenton County, and in every drive for funds or other
purposes served as captain in Precinct B of the First
Ward. He is a democrat, and is affiliated with Myrtle
; YORK
JC LIBRARY
. LENOX AND
fOUNDATlONS]
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
157
Lodge No. 5, Knights of Pythias, and was chief tribune
of the State of Kentucky Knights of Pythias for three
years. He is also a member of Covington Aerie No.
329, Fraternal Order of Eagles.
Alfred S. Nichols, manager of the Paducah Trac-
tion Company and the Paducah Light & Power Com-
pany, is a man of long training and experience in the
management and technical operation of public utilities.
His service since 1908 has been with Stone & Web-
ster, Incorporated, of Boston, the greatest single con-
cern in the world in extent of capital and public utility
properties, and an organization of thousands of high
class technical experts and managers. As construction
engineers, owners and operators of all classes of pub-
lic utilities, though chiefly electric companies, the in-
terests of Stone & Webster are international.
The electric light, gas and traction interests of Pa-
ducah are managed by Stone & Webster. Mr. Nichols,
who has been a Resident of Paducah and in his pres-
ent office since 191 7, was born at Cheltenham, Glouces-
tershire, England, September 9, 1881. His ancestors
have lived in Cheltenham and that vicinity for many
generations. His father, Caleb Nichols, spent his life
at Cheltenham, where he was born in 1853 and died
in 1907. He owned and directed an extensive furni-
ture business. He was a conservative in politics and
a member of the Church of England. His wife was
Alice lane Sayce, who was born at St. Helen's, Lanca-
shire, England, in 1855, and died in 1891. All of their
children came to America, Alfred S. being the oldest.
Herbert died at Boston, Massachusetts, at the age of
twenty-three, while employed by R. T. Hewitson &
Company, a firm of manufacturing jewelers. Charles
J. is a mechanical engineer living at Boston, Frank is
a worker in bronze in New York City, and Alice Caro-
line is the wife of Fred Pendoley, who is manager of
Hood's Creamery Company's plant at Dorchester, Massa-
chusetts.
Alfred S. Nichols was educated in the British Na-
tional Schools at Cheltenham, and served a five years'
apprenticeship in the British Merchant Marine. While
in that service he traveled practically all over the
world. For three years he was in the government war
service on a British transport throughout the period
of the Boer war. From 1902 until September, 1903,
he was in the Mediterranean service of the White Star
Fleet.
Mr. Nichols came to the United States with the
Honorable Artillery Company of London, under the
command of the Earl of Denbigh, as special corre-
spondent for the Boston Herald, following which he
remained in Boston as a reporter on the Record for
six months. In 1904 he entered the office of the fourth
vice president of the Boston & 'Maine Railway Com-
pany, and was employed in railway work until 1908,
when he entered the Boston service of Stone & Web-
ster.
Soon afterward he was sent to the Middle West as
assistant treasurer of the Mississippi River Power Com-
pany, while the enormous dam at Keokuk, Iowa, was
in course of construction, thus developing the largest
hydro-electric plant in the world. He was on duty at
Keokuk and in that vicinity until 1913, when he was
appointed manager of the Fort Madison Electric Com-
pany of Fort Madison, Iowa, and the Dallas City Light
Company of Dallas City, Illinois, these also being Stone
& Webster utilities. In May, 1917, he came to his
present post at Paducah as manager of the Traction
Company and the Light & Power Company. As man-
ager he has charge of the street railway system of
Paducah, also the light, power, gas and steam heating
utilities of Paducah and vicinity. His offices are at
406 Broadway, and he has the supervision of a force
of 150 employes.
Mr. Nichols while at Fort Madison, Iowa, served as
president of its Board of Trade. He is a member of the
Paducah Board of Trade, Country Club, Masonic Fra-
ternity and Paducah Lodge No. 217 Benevolent and Pro-
tective Order of Elks. He is also a member of the
Rotary Club. 'Mr. Nichols in February, I92r, married
Bernice Lowe Edwards, of Murray, Kentucky.
Amos Goodwin Mc Campbell. In the death of Amos
Goodwin McCampbell, which occurred July 25, 1919,
the community of Harrodsburg lost a citizen whose
career had been interesting and at times spectacular,
and who was widely known because of his connection
with large business operations, important brokerage
transactions and horse racing activities, no less than
because of a strong and attractive personality that served
to gain and secure to him innumerable friendships in
the various communities in which he centered his oper-
ation.
Colonel McCampbell was born October 6, 1846, at
Charleston, Indiana, a son of William Logan and
Delilah (Goodwin) McCampbell, his father being a
merchant of Louisville. His early education was ac-
quired in the public schools of his native place, fol-
lowing which he pursued a course at Princeton Uni-
versity, where he was a college-mate and personal
acquaintance of William H. Taft, afterward President
of the United States. Later he became a personal
friend of Gen. U. S. Grant, and on numerous occasions
enjoyed a sociable game of cards with the former
president and great Civil war hero. Shortly after his
graduation from Princeton he was united in marriage
with Miss Sallie Bryant, a member of one of the most
prominent families of Louisville, who died in 1910.
There were six children born to this union: Roberta,
Bryant, Leavell, Georgia, Leilah and Amos. Of these,
Leavell and Bryant are very wealthy cotton manufac-
turers of the South, where they own and operate ex-
tensive mills.
Following his first marriage Colonel McCampbell
engaged in the stock and bond brokerage business with
his father-in-law, James M. Bryant, and subsequently
conducted a brokerage business of his own at Louis-
ville, where for many years he was rated among the
city's most wealthy men. This connection led him to
purchase a membership on the Chicago Board of Trade,
where for a time he was very successful, and his re-
sources were reputed to be in the neighborhood of
$500,000. He became vice president of the board and
filled this office with credit, but at the time of the famous
Harper wheat "corner" lost heavily and returned to
Louisville, although he maintained his membership for
several years. On his return to Louisville he formed
a partnership with Joe Burt, under the firm style of
Burt & Company, but this was dissolved at the time
that Colonel McCampbell located on his valuable Mercer
County farm, three and a half miles from Harrods-
burg, winch he had purchased about 1895, and on which
he passed the last ten years of his life.
At one time Colonel McCampbell was a prominent
figure in turf circles, owning a large stable of race
horses which won him many valuable stakes. _ His
trainer was Press West, one of the most famous in his
line at one time, under whose skill was developed the
great "Jim Gore," one of the fastest animals of its day.
In later years he gradually disposed of his racers and
his once famous and often-seen colors disappeared
from the tracks. During the more active years of his
life Colonel McCampbell was one of the most popular
members of the Pendennis Club, and his noted story-
telling abilities always made him the center of an inter-
ested circle. After settling on his farm, a fine Blue-
Grass estate, Colonel McCampbell gradually severed the
ties of his former active life and devoted himself
principally to tobacco raising, in which he was pro-
gressive and successful. For several years he had been
suffering from Bright's disease, and during the last few
weeks of his life had been in such a serious condition
158
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
that the news of his death came as no surprise to his
many friends. At the age of seventy-four years his
career had been a varied and exciting one, and after
having reached large figures in his financial rating
several times, lapsing and retrieving his fortunes, he at
last passed away a moderately wealthy man.
On December 14, 1912, Colonel McCampbell was
married at the home of the bride in Mercer County
to Mrs. Ida Belle Bunton. This was truly a union in
which affection played the principal part, and their com-
paratively short married life furnished an example of
domestic happiness and mutual devotion not often found.
By her former marriage Mrs. McCampbell had three
children: Jack Chinn Bunton, an official of the electric
light plant at Danville died very suddenly at that place
May 4, 1922 ; Raymond Curry Bunton, who operates the
McCampbell farm on the Lexington Pike; and Allie
Thompson, who resides with her mother and brother.
Frank M. Fisher. The career of Frank M. Fisher,
of Paducah, has been one of steadily growing success
and influence through a long period of years. Every
interest committed to his charge has been served faith-
fully and well. For a long time he was in the employ
of various business concerns, held various official re-
sponsibilities, but in recent yeaTS has become widely
known over Western Kentucky through the direction
and management of several financial and other organi-
zations, the two most notable being the Ohio Valley
Trust Company and the Ohio Valley Fire & Marine
Insurance Company.
Mr. Fisher was born at Paducah, July 27, 1862. His
father, J. G. Fisher, whose name was long one of
prominence in that city, was born in Wuertemberg,
Germany, in 1816, and was only twelve years of age
when he came to the United States. After a brief
sojourn at Philadelphia he came out to Western Ken-
tucky, lived for two years in Smithland, and in 1831
located in the pioneer village of Paducah. He was in
the bakery business, but soon afterward built a brewery
and was the pioneer Kentucky brewer, a business in
which he continued until 1871. At that time he was
elected mayor of Paducah on the democratic ticket,
being the third mayor of the city. For ten years he
was kept in office, and during that time was responsible
for much of the progress and municipal improvement
of the city. When he left the mayor's office he re-
sumed the bakery- business and after a long and suc-
cessful career retired in 1891. He died at Paducah in
1896. For two terms he was a member of the school
board, was tax collector, and long prominent both in
party politics and in civic affairs. He was affiliated
witli the Masonic fraternity. J. G. Fisher married Miss
Mary Greif, who was born in Alsace, Germany, in
1821 and died at Paducah in 1906. Her son, George A.,
born in 1841, served as city marshal four years, was
associated in business with his father and died at Pa-
ducah in 1876. J. William, ]x>rn in 1849, was a promi-
nent democrat and business man, a wholesale grocer,
neld the office of country clerk of McCracken County
eight years, was circuit clerk four years, and clerk of
the City Council two years. He died in 1900. Fred-
ericka, the third of the family, is the wife of W. F.
Paxton, of Paducah, president of the Citizens Savings
Bank. Lula is unmarried and lives at Paducah. J. T.,
who was born March 8, 1859, was for eight years as-
sistant postmaster of Paducah, where he died April 8,
1908.
Frank M. Fisher, the youngest of the family, secured
a practical education at Paducah and graduated from
high school in 1876. Following that for four years
he was assistant postmaster, and then was bookkeeper
and confidential man for a wholesale grocery house
five years, was with a wholesale hardware store eight
years, and in a similar capacity served Freedman,
Keiler & Company, distillers, four years.
.Mr. Fisher has long been one of the prominent leaders
of the republican party in Western Kentucky. He
served one term on the Republican State Central Com-
mittee, was chairman of the County Central Committee
one term, and was also a candidate for national com-
mitteeman from this state. He first took an active
part in national politics in 1896, when he organized,
during the memorable McKinley-Bryan campaign, the
Paducah Evening Sun, and became president of the
publishing company. Since then, and largely due to
the initial impulse given by him as president of the
company and as editor, the Evening Sun has become
the most influential independent paper in Western Ken-
tucky. Mr. Fisher sold his interest to his nephew,
E. J. Paxton, in 1914. The Evening Sun is published
in an up-to-date newspaper plant, one of the best in
Kentucky. In 1898 Mr. Fisher was appointed post-
master of Paducah by President McKinley, and the
duties of his office were performed by him consecutively
seventeen years and six months, probably the record
term in this post office. He was on duty from January,
1898, to June, 1915.
After retiring from the post office Mr. Fisher or-
ganized the Ohio Valley Fire & Marine Insurance Com-
pany, (if which he is president. While this business is
only seven years old, it has grown rapidly and on a
substantial basis, has capital and surplus of nearly
$350,000 and total assets of over $550,000.
In September, 1916, Mr. Fisher organized the Ohio
Valley Trust Company, and has served as its president
from the beginning. L. F. Kolb is vice president, Cecil
Reed, secretary and treasurer, and the other directors
comprise a number of prominent business and profes-
sional men of Western Kentucky. The Ohio Valley
Trust Company commenced business September 15,
1917. with a capital of $50,000, increased in September,
1920, to $80,000. It now has surplus of $27,500, and in
about three years its total resources climbed from a
little more than $100,000 to over $350,000. This young
giant among financial institutions of Paducah is lo-
cated at 227 Broadway. Mr. Fisher deserves and has
been given much credit for the wonderful success he
has made of the bank and insurance company. He is
also a director of the City Consumers Company, the
largest business of its kind in the state, is president
of the Nortonville Coal Company, and secretary of the
Mechanicsville Loan Association.
Mr. Fisher is a member of the Paducah Board of
Trade, is a member and treasurer of the Carnegie Li-
brary Board, belongs to the Catholic .Church, is a third
degree Knight of Columbus, being affiliated with Pa-
ducah Council No. 1055, and is a member of Lodge
No. 217 of the Elks. He owns a great deal of city-
real estate, including his own home, one of the best
and most modern residences in the western end of the
city, at 901 Jefferson Street.
December 8, 1886, at Paducah, Mr. Fisher married
Miss Mattie Venable, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W. P.
Venable. Her parents both died at Paducah, where her
father was for many years a contractor and builder.
Mr. and Mrs. Fisher have three sons, who have already
shown every qualification for success. Harold P., the
oldest, is a graduate of Notre Dame University at
Notre Dame, Indiana, with the degree of Civil En-
gineer, served as a lieutenant in Field Artillery, being
stationed at the School of Fire at Fort Sill, Okla-
homa, and the armistice was signed just after he had
been ordered to France. He is now practicing as a
consulting engineer at Chicago. Robert G. the second
son, is a graduate of the Paducah High School and is
manager and secretary of the Ohio Valley Fire &
Marine Insurance Company. William J., the youngest
son, is associated with the business of the City Con-
sumers Company. He was a second lieutenant in the
World war.
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
159
Benjamin J. Billings. A man of literary tastes
and excellent business ability, thoroughly conversant
with every detail connected with "the art preservative
of arts," Benjamin J. Billings, of Paducah, head of the
prosperous firm widely known as the Billings Printing
Company, is intimately identified with a trade that,
"as a noted historian has said, has secured the intel-
lectual achievements of the past and furnished a sure
guarantee of future progress. Born in Dycrsburg, Ten-
nessee, October I, 1874, he was left an orphan at the
early age of eight years.
Brought up in Paducah, he obtained his preliminary
education in the public schools, and later took a busi-
ness course in the commercial department of the State
University of Kentucky, at Lexington, leaving that
institution in 1895. Meanwhile, at the age of seventeen
years, Mr. Billings entered the employ of the Fowler-
Crumbaugh Company, steamboat owners, at Paducah,
with which he remained as clerk for six years. The
ensuing two and a half years he served as bookkeeper
for the Paducah Daily Register, obtaining while
there a practical insight into the newspaper business.
Becoming manager then of the Paducah Evening-
News, he retained the position two and a half years,
when that paper was consolidated with the Paducah
News-Democrat.
Embarking in the job printing business in 1903, Mr.
Billings fitted up a small room at 124 Broadway, be-
ginning operations on a very modest scale. Under his
able supervision and management the business grew
apace, and at the end of a year he sought more com-
modious quarters at 132 Broadway, moving his equip-
ment into a much larger room. Two years later, his
business having constantly increased, Mr. Billings as-
sumed possession of the entire building located at 130
Broadway, and at the end of another two years, there
being an imperative demand for still more room, he
made another change, removing to the buildings quite
near his establishment, fitting up the first and second
floors of the buildings located at 122-124-126 Broadway.
In 1914, his business having assumed large propor-
tions, Mr. Billings removed his plant and offices to 124-
126 North Third Street, where he occupies three floors.
His first establishment was but meagerly furnished, but
as his business grew new machinery and conveniences
were added, including all of the latest approved modern
equipments used in job printing, and he has now one of
the most up-to-date printing plants to be found in
Kentucky, and the most expensive and complete outfit
in Paducah.
Mr. Billings incorporated the firm as the Billings
Printing Company, with the following named officers :
Benjamin J. Billings, president; L. Billings, his daugh-
ter, vice president; and K. M. Billings, his wife, sec-
retary and treasurer. This enterprising firm does all
kinds of book and job printing, its trade extending
throughout Kentucky and into Illinois, Alabama, Okla-
homa and Arkansas, and doing an especially large busi-
ness in Memphis and other parts of Tennessee. Mr.
Billings has other interests, also, being a stockholder in
the Ohio Valley Fire & Marine Insurance Company ;
in the Ohio Valley Trust Company ; and in the Paducah
Pottery Company. He is a member of the Paducah
Board of Trade and of the Rotary Club, and owns and
occupies a pleasant and modernly constructed residence
at 1 106 Monroe Street. He is a democrat in politics,
and since twenty years of age has been a faithful mem-
ber of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, with
which he is officially connected.
Mr. Billings married, in 1897, Miss K. Maude Davis,
a daughter of B. T. and Lou (Baker) Davis, who reside
in Paducah, her father being a well known contractor
and builder. Mrs. Billings was graduated from the
Paducah High School, and afterward took a special
course in art and music at the Methodist Episcopal
College in Memphis, Tennessee. Mr. and Mrs. Bil-
lings have two children, Lougenia, who, after her
graduation from the Paducah High School, attended
the Ward Belmont College, Nashville, Tennessee, and
the State University of Kentucky, is now vice president
of the Billings Printing Company; and Mary Arneta,
living at home, was graduated from the Paducah High
School, and subsequently took a course of study at the
Ward Belmont College in Nashville, Tennessee, and at
the Woman's College in Jackson, Tennessee.
Lowell Kirk Hays is an engineer by training
and profession, was with the engineers and field artil-
lery in France, and soon after his return from abroad
came to Kentucky and has since been manager of the
Kentucky Utilities Company at Harlan.
Mr. Hays was born at Curwensville, Pennsylvania,
August 10, 1801. His ancestry is Irish, but the family
has been in Pennsylvania since Colonial times. His
grandfather, William Hays, was born in 1827 at Beech
Creek, and died in 1800 at Farrandsville, Pennsylvania,
the greater part of his life being spent in Clinton
County, where he owned and operated a grist mill.
He married Miss Mary Homan, a native of Pennsyl-
vania, who died at Mill Hall in that state. The father
of the Harlan business man is Crosby F. Hays, who
was born at Mill Hall in 1857, was reared there, but
for many years has owned and operated a feed mill
at Curwensville. He is a republican, a Mason, and a
liberal contributing; member of the Methodist Episcopal
Church. Crosby F. Havs married Sarah Kirk, who was
horn at Luthersburg, Pennsylvania, in 185Q. Lowell
Kirk is the oldest of their three children. The other
two, both of Curwensville, are Edwin M., a coal opera-
tor, and 'Mary, wife of Frank Whittaker, a farmer.
Lowell Kirk Hays grew up at Curwensville. grad-
uated from high school in 1910. and then entered Penn-
sylvania State College, where he^ pursued his scientific
and technical training, graduating with the degree
Bachelor of Science in Engineering in 1014. While
in University he was a member of the Pioneer Club.
The three years following his college career he spent
with the Pennsylvania Public Service Company at
Clearfield as an assistant engineer. September 7, 1917.
he enlisted in the Engineers Corps, was trained at Camp
Lee. Virginia, four months, and January 4, 1918, em-
barked for overseas, landing at Brest January 17th.
For two months he was at Bordeaux with the Five Hun-
dred and Sixth Engineers, and was then enrolled in
the Field Artillery School at Samur, where three and a
half months later he was commissioned a second lieu-
tenant, Field Artillery. Lieutenant Hays saw some of
the very intense fighting during the great campaign
in the summer and early fall of 1918. With the
Seventeenth Field Artillery he was sent to the
front in the sector just west of Chateau Thierry,
reaching there on the 1 8th of July. For two
weeks he was under constant fire. For another two
weeks he was at Pont-a-Muson, and was then removed
to the St. Mihiel sector, where again his command sus-
tained the enemy's fire for ten days. He was in the
Meuse-Argonne region until the latter part of Octo-
ber and for ten days was in the Argonne Forest. With
the signing of the armistice his regiment was sent with
the Army of Occupation into Germany, and he was
stationed at Bendorf, not far from the historic fortress
of Ehrenbreitstein. Mr. Hays was one of the Ameri-
can soldiers who embraced the opportunity to attend
school in France, and April 4, 1918, enrolled as a student
in the Sarbonne at Paris, where for four months he
was a student of electric generating plants and electric
distribution systems. He returned to this country as a
casual, landing at Hoboken July 18, 1918, and receiv-
ing his honorable discharge at Camp Dix, New Jersey,
August 4th.
Mr. Hays shortly afterward accepted appointment as
engineer for the Kentucky Utilities Company, and be-
160
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
gan his duties at Harlan October 2, 1919. He has been
manager of the company at Harlan since October
I, 1920.
Mr. Hays votes as a republican, is a member of the
Presbyterian Church and fraternally is affiliated with
Noble Lodge No. 420, F. and A. M., at Curwensville,
Clearfield Chapter No. 228, R. A. M., at Clearfield, and
Bethesda Lodge No. 821, Independent Order of Odd
Fellows, at Curwensville. At Mill Hall, Pennsylvania,
August 1, 1917, shortly before he entered the army, he
married Miss Pauline Bateman, daughter of Dr. A. G.
and Charlotte (Stone) Bateman, now residents of
Amanda, Ohio, where her father is a minister of the
Presbyterian Church. Mrs. Hays is a graduate of the
Lockhaven Normal School of Pennsylvania. They have
one daughter, Eleanor, born July 24, 1920.
Thomas Lewis Edelen has been a Kentucky
lawyer forty years, and in addition to his many prom-
inent interests in the profession has also accumulated
extensive business and banking interests at Frankfort.
He has been a resident of the capital city for the past
thirty years.
Mr. Edelen was born at Harrodsburg, Kentucky,
December 28, 1857. The Edelens were originally an
English family. They came to America and settled
in Carroll County, Maryland, about the time of Lord
Calvert. In later generations the Edelens came to Ken-
tucky, and many of the descendants of the pioneers
are still found in Washington, Nelson, Jefferson and
other counties of the state. '
Mr. Edelen's grandfather was Leonard Edelen, who
was born in Marion County, Kentucky, in 1800. He
spent most of his life in Lebanon and was a hat manu-
facturer. He died at Lebanon in 1865. He married
a Miss Bruce, a native of Kentucky.
James H. Edelen, father of the Frankfort lawyer,
was born in Lebanon in 1833, was reared and educated
there, but was married and for several years was en-
gaged in business at Harrodsburg. In the spring of
1858 he returned to Lebanon, and continued in busi-
ness there as a druggist until a few years before his
death, when he retired. He died at Lebanon in 1902.
He was a democrat and a very devout Presbyterian.
At Harrodsburg he married Mary Lewis, who was
born in that historic town in 1835. He died at Lebanon
in 1887. She was the mother of two children, Sarah,
the older, being the wife of James R. Gilkeson, a
Lebanon druggist.
Thomas Lewis Edelen was reared at Lebanon and at-
tended private schools there, receiving a college prepar-
atory education. In 1873 he entered Center College,
graduating with the A. B. degree in 1877. His alma
mater conferred upon him the Master of Arts degree
in 1880. He was a member of the Sigma Chi college
fraternity at Center. Mr. Edelen began the study of
law in 1877 in the office of William Burr Harrison at
Lebanon, and was admitted to the bar in January, 1879,
and for twelve years accumulated a large practice and
professional reputation at Lebanon, but in 1891 removed
to Frankfort, where he became a partner of the dis-
tinguished Kentuckian J. Proctor Knott. That partner-
ship was dissolved when Governor Knott removed to
Danville. Later Mr. Edelen was a partner of Senator
William Lindsay, this firm being dissolved on the death
of William Lindsay. Mr. Edelen has shared in much
of the important civil practice of the local and state
courts. His offices are on the seventh floor of the
McClure Building.
For two years he acted as state reporter of the Court
of Appeals. For six years he was a member of the
Board of Trustees of Kentucky State University at
Lexington. He is a republican, a member of the State
and American Bar Associations, and is an elder in the
First Presbyterian Church at Frankfort.
Mr. Edelen helped organize and was one of the
chief factors in the upbuilding of the Capital Trust
Company. He was its president until 1917, and is now
chairman of the Board of Directors and general coun-
sel for the company. He has other business interests
in Kentucky. His home is one of the best in the city,
at 305 Ewing Street, his residence being surrounded
by an acre and a half of well kept grounds.
In November, 1884, at St. Louis, Missouri, Mr. Edelen
married 'Miss Eliza H. Bull, daughter of John C. and
Eliza (Payne) Bull, now deceased. Her father was a
St. Louis business man, widely known in insurance cir-
cles. To Mr. and Mrs. Edelen were born four chil-
dren, the first. Ruth, dying at the age of four years.
Lida is the wife of Lawrence F. Wood, a commission
agent at St. Louis. James Leonard is one of the
engineering force of The Moon Motor Car Company
of St. Louis. The third living child is Mary Lewis,
residing with her parents at Frankfort.
John B. Webb. That business may be built and de-
veloped with advantage to the man of energy and in-
tegrity is amply demonstrated in the brief sketch of
the life of John B. Webb, now and for years one of
the most prominent and successful merchants of Perry-
ville, Kentucky.
John B. Webb was born in Boyle County, Kentucky,
July 29, 1881, a son of George L. and Laura Alice (Brad-
ley) Webb, also natives of Kentucky, where they carried
on farming during their active years. Mr. Webb" received
his early education in the public schools of Boyle
County, and later entered Elmwood Academy, Perry-
ville, from which he emerged equipped with the neces-
sary educational qualifications to ensure success along
life's highroad. At the close of his school course he
moved to Louisville, Kentucky, where he secured a posi-
tion as night clerk in a hotel. Determined, however, to
advance in life, he abandoned the hotel work and served
an apprenticeship to the trade of a carpenter. After
he had become proficient at this trade Mr. Webb was
advanced to the position of foreman carpenter and later
became superintendent of construction for the firm of
C. S. Hall & Company, a concrete construction com-
pany of Louisville, with wdiom Mr. Webb remained
until 1908. In the latter year he embarked in build-
ing construction for himself, and continued in thac line
for a year. By this time he had done well, and he
recalls that on starting for Louisville he had the
munificent sum of eighty-seven cents with which to
achieve success.
In 1910, Mr. Webb relinquished contract work on
his own account and purchased a farm, which he con-
tinued to operate with success for six years, at the end
of that period selling the place at a substantial profit.
In 1916 he secured a one-third interest in the firm of
Harmon & Preston, conducting a general merchandise
store at Perryville. Notwithstanding keen competition,
the business increased by $10,000 in the year following
Mr. Webb's connection with it. In 1918 he disposed of
his interest in the Harmon & Preston store and imme-
diately purchased the stock of H. C. Powell & Company,
also of Perryville, here, likewise, the business being of
a general mercantile character. Mr. Webb also acquired
the business block in which the store is located, and
of this establishment, one of the foremost of its kind
in this part of the state, he is sole owner and manager.
Under his guidance the trade has advanced, the stock
has doubled, and all the elements of commercial pros-
perity are evident.
On December 22, 1909, Mr. Webb was united in mar-
riage to Miss Mary Hiner Broyles, of Boyle County,
a daughter of William Harvey and Ann (Pope)
Broyles, old-time Kentuckians, who were raised in the
Boyle County neighborhood. Mr. and Mrs. Webb are
the parents of the following children: Louis Harvey
Webb, born January 21, 1911; Mildred Alice, January
11, 1913; Beatrice Marie, April 3, 1916; Lenora Bradley,
1 fi#*\
.
oC&&-
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
161
May 4, 1918, and John B., Jr., March 25, 1920. Mr.
and Mrs. Webb are earnest members of the Methodist
Church, in the good works of which they take a warm
interest.
Mr. Webb displays considerable activity in civic af-
fairs and is always alert to secure conditions that will
lead to civic betterment. He stands in high esteem with
the citizens and business people of Perryville, his com-
mercial sagacity, straight methods of dealing, and his
well known energy and industry being passports to the
favor and friendship of all. His business motto is :
"Serve well."
Ltndsay H. Fuqua. The period following the close
of the war between the North and the South was one
of the most prosperous this country has known, and
it is generally admited that the reason lying back of
this was the energy and efficiency displayed by the
veterans of that great conflict who took into private
life the effects of the discipline given them during the
time they were under military rule. Judging by this,
the United States is entering a wonderful era, for it
has had returned to its civilian ranks hundreds of thou-
sands of magnificent young men whose capabilities
were developed and their energies stimulated by in-
tensive training and active service during the World
war. These veterans of the greatest conflict the world
has ever known are already demonstrating their ability
to handle affairs of importance, and their careers will
be watched with great interest and admiration the
country over. One of these veterans is Lindsay H.
Fuqua, proprietor of the L. H. Fuqua Tire Company
of Frankfort.
Lindsay H. Fuqua was born at Canton, Trigg County,
Kentucky, January 2, 1896, a son of T. H. Fuqua, and
grandson of Will Joe Fuqua, a native of Virginia,
where the family settled upon coming to this country
from France during the Colonial epoch. He died at
Canton, Kentucky, in 1896. He was the pioneer of the
family into Trigg County, and became one of the pros-
perous merchants of Canton.
T. H. Fuqua was born in Trigg County, Kentucky,
in 187s, and was there reared and married. Until 1914
he resided at Canton, where he was the leading mer-
chant, but in that year moved to Cadiz, where he is
now conducting a furniture and undertaking business.
He is a democrat, but aside from voting for the candi-
dates of his party does not participate in public events.
Both as a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church
and the Masonic fraternity he lives up to the highest
ideals of Christian manhoo'd, and he is also a member
of the order of Elks. T. H. Fuqua was married to
Anna C. Wadlington, who was born in Trigg County
in 1877, ar>d their children are as follows: Lindsay H.,
who is the eldest ; Herman T., who is a surveyor on the
state road, lives at Cadiz ; Evelyn, who lives with her
parents and Jack, who died at the age of four years.
After attending the public schools of Canton, Ken-
tucky, Lindsay H. Fuqua became a student of the Van-
derbilt Training School at Elkton, Kentucky, from
which he was graduated after a four years course in
1914. He then took up an electrical and mechanical
engineering course at the Kentucky State University
during the school year of 1914-15. Following this he
went to Shelbyville, Kentucky, and worked for his
uncle, C. H. Wadlington, a furniture and hardware
merchant, and was his bookkeeper until the summer
of 1917.
In the meanwhile this country had entered the World
war, and Mr. Fuqua felt that it was his duty to enlist
and, doing so, was sent to the Officers Training Camp
at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indianapolis, Indiana,
where he received his commission as second lieutenant.
He was transferred to Camp Grant, Rockford, Illi-
nois, and thence to Camp Perry, near Toledo, Ohio.
From there he went to Fort Leavenworth, and was
mustered out at Camp Taylor, Louisville, Kentucky,
in August, 1919.
Mr. Fuqua then came to Frankfort and embarked
in his present business, with offices and tire shop 227
Saint Clair Street. He has the largest business of its
kind in Franklin County, and has built it up through
his own efforts and in a remarkably short time. His
residence is at 627 State Street. He is a democrat.
The Christian Church holds his membership.
On February 10, 1919, Mr. Fuqua was married at
Newcastle, Kentucky, to Mrs. Eloise (Maddox) Hard-
ing, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Maddox. Mr.
Maddox is a retired farmer of Shelbyville, seventy-
five years old, but his wife is deceased. Mrs. Fuqua
was graduated from Hamilton College, Lexington
County, and is a very accomplished and charming lady.
Leonard C. Price. One of the enterprises that gave
fame to Fayette County as a livestock breeding center
was the Penmoken Shetland Pony Farm, for many years
owned and conducted by the late Leonard C. Price. He
was an all around business man, and was also identified
with mercantile interests in Lexington for many years.
His birth occurred near the limits of Nicholasville
in Jessamine County, June 30, 1850. His parents were
James and Frances A. (Cassell) Price, and his mother
is still living, the widow of A. G. Karsner. James Price
died when his son Leonard was four years old.
The founder of the Price family in Kentucky was
Col. William Price, a Virginian and a Revolutionary
officer. He was a lieutenant in the storming of Stony
Point and was a captain at the battles of Brandywine,
Germantown, Monmouth and Princeton, while at the
surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown October 19, 1781,
he had attained the rank of major. He was born near
Fredericksburg, Virginia, in 1755, and on June 12, 1777,
married Mary Cunningham. Colonel Price moved with
his family to Jessamine County, Kentucky, in 1787.
He died at his home six miles west of Nicholasville on
October 10, 1808. It is said that he was the first man
to recognize and celebrate the 4th of July west of the
Alleghany Mountains. It was a later member of the
family, possibly his grandson, Kleber F. Price, who
built the house long identified as belonging to the Price
family, just outside the city of Nicholasville.
Col. William Price's son, Capt. James C. Price, com-
manded a company of infantry from Jessamine County
in the War of 1812, and was killed and scalped by the
Indians at the battle of River Raisin, January 18, 1813.
In 1881 Leonard C. Price married at Natchez, Missis-
sippi, Mary F. Mason, then a young girl. Mr. Price
was at Natchez engaged in the business of shipping
horses. From 1869 until 1898, nearly thirty years, he
was associated with the firm of Cassell & Price, dry
goods merchants at Lexington, and eventually became
sole owner of the business, which he continued under
his name for ten years. The location of their store was
on the present site of the Purcell store. About 1898
Leonard C. Price bought a farm two miles south of
Lexington, on the Nicholasville Pike. This was the
Penmoken Farm, where he developed his novel industry
of breeding Shetland ponies from imported stallions.
He had a 180 acres in his farm and at one time had
over two hundred head of ponies. The Penmoken ponies
were famous as the finest of their class, and were
exhibited with honors at many State Fairs. There
was one stallion never beaten in the show ring. Leonard
C. Price continued in this business until his death on
December 14, 1915. He was a democrat and a member
of the Broadway Christian Church. Mrs. Leonard C.
Price is still living.
Leonard C. Price, Jr., only son of his parents, was
born at Lexington, January 18, 1895. He was educated
in the public schools and has had an active part in the
management of the affairs of his father's estate. In
162
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
March, 1919, Penmoken Farm was sold and in July,
1919, he became a member of the firm Price and Nor
man, his associate being James D. Norman. This firm
does a large business in agricultural implements and
tractors. Leonard Price is also continuing his education
as a student of mechanical engineering in the Uni-
versity of Kentucky.
On June 10, 1921, Mr. Price married Miss Eva M.
Boterf, of Toronto, Kansas, daughter of Dr. Charles
A. Boterf and Minnie Yates Boterf.
Ronald S. Tuttle. The rapidly increasing settle-
ment of the United States and the threatened extinc-
tion, in consequence, of all kinds of wild game have
led to the establishment in each state of game and fish
commissions, which regulate the seasons for the hunt-
ers and anglers and the number of animals, birds
and fish that may be destroyed or taken under the law.
One of the most important positions in connection with
these commissions is that of executive agent, a post in
Kentucky which is held by Dr. Ronald S. Tuttle, a
legal resident of Bardstown now making his home at
Frankfort, where his official duties are centered. Doctor
Tuttle is both a medical and dental practitioner, and
until his appointment to his present position was en-
gaged in the practice of dentistry at Bardstown.
Ronald S. Tuttle was born at Evansville, Indiana,
November 4, 1877, a son of Lyman S. and Fannie
(Tileston) Tuttle. The family originated in England,
whence in 1632 came three brothers, William, Henry
and John Tuttle, who settled at New Haven, Con-
necticut, Doctor Tuttle's direct ancestor being William
Tuttle. From Connecticut the family made its way
by stage to Pennsylvania, where, in 1824, was born the
grandfather of Doctor Tuttle, William Wallace Tut-
tle. During the Civil war he enlisted in the Union
Army and was attached to the Quartermaster's Depart-
ment in Pennsylvania, and at the close of that struggle
went to New Albany, Indiana, where he became a
railroad director and made his home until his death
in 1889. He married a Miss Nagle, and among their
children was Lyman S. Tuttle, who was born at New
Albany, Indiana, in 1853. Lyman S. Tuttle was reared
at Louisville, Kentucky, where his parents resided dur-
ing his youth, and after acquiring a public school
education he engaged in general contracting, a busi-
ness with which he was identified until the time of his
retirement. He now makes his home with his son,
Doctor Tuttle. In politics he is republican, his frater-
nal affiliation is with the Knights of Pythias and his
religious faith is that of the Episcopal Church. Mr.
Tuttle married Miss Fannie Tileston. who was born
at Evansville, Indiana, in 1853. and died at Louisville
in 1902. There were four children in the family :
Ronald S. ; Nellie, who married Herbert Gramig. man-
ager of the Strutk Lumber Company of Louisville ;
Frank, who was engaged in the automobile business
at Louisville until his death at the age of twenty-four
years and Ruth, the wife of R. N. Kriger, who was as-
sistant adjutant general under Gov. Augustus E. Will-
son, and is now in the United States Government serv-
ice at Camp Eustis, Virginia.
Ronald S. Tuttle received his early education in the
public schools of Evansville, Indiana, and Paducah,
Kentucky, and after leaving the Paducah High School
pursued a course at the University of Tennessee, at
Knoxville, from which he was graduated in [891.
He next attended the Dental and Medical School of
Louisville, being graduated in 1902 with the degrees
of Doctor of Medicine and Doctor of Dental Surgery,
and while attending that institution joined the Psi
Omega dental Greek letter fraternity. In 1902 Doctor
Tuttle located at Bardstown, and he engaged in the
practice of dentistry until July 1, 1920, building up a
large, representative and lucrative practice, which he
gave up to come to Frankfort in the discharge of his
duties as executive agent of the State Game and Fish
Commission of Kentucky. He still maintains his legal
residence at Bardstown, however, and is the owner of
.1 farm adjoining the town on the west, a well-culti-
vated and valuable tract of eighty-seven acres. His
pr< sent residence at Frankfort is at 523 Ann Street.
In the discharge of his official duties Doctor Tuttle
has displayed marked industry and efficiency, and has
already evidenced the possession of distinctive execu-
tive capacity. He is a republican in political sentiment,
and as a fraternalist is affiliated with Duvall Lodge
No. 6, A. F. & A. M., while his professional connec-
tions are with the Kentucky State Dental Association
and the National Dental Association. During the
World war he was an active worker in the various
war drives instituted in Nelson County for the assist-
ance and relief of the American fighting forces, and
during times of peace has always been a stanch sup-
porter of worthy civic movements. Doctor Tuttle's
present appointment will cover a period of four years,
during which time he will have ample opportunity of
exercising his abilities in placing the affairs of his
office upon a sound basis.
On August 30, 1904, at the World's Fair held at St.
Louis, Missouri, Doctor Tuttle was united in marriage
with Miss Pearl Haviland, daughter of Mr. and
Mrs. James A. Haviland, the latter of whom is deceased.
Mr. Haviland, who now makes his home with his
daughter and son-in-law, was born in England, whence
he came as a young man to the United States and for
a number of years was engaged in business at Bards-
town, Kentucky, as a general merchant. Mrs. Tuttle, a
lady of marked musical talent, is a graduate of the
Conservatory of Music, Bardstown. When only twelve
years of age she won a beautiful and valuable piano
in a musical contest, and her parents gave her every
opportunitv to develop her talents. She is now pipe
organist at the Baptist Church, Bardstown, and has
been a great favorite in social circles because of her
musical and other gifts, and has likewise been heard
in concert work. Doctor Tuttle's talents, aside from
those of his profession, lie in the direction of literature.
He has been a frequent contributor to various maga-
zines of negro dialect poetry and prose, as well as
outdoor sketches and nature stories, and his work has
found a large and favorable public and has met with
much favorable comment.
Three children have been born to Doctor and Mrs.
Tuttle: William H., born in March, 1906, a student at
the Bardstown High School, where he has an excellent
record as a student and is also showing athletic prowess
as a member of the high school football team; Bess,
born in 1910, attending the graded schools and Jane,
born in 1912, also a graded school pupil.
Stanley Daniel Stembridge, city attorney of Hick-
man, and one of the forceful young attorneys of Ful-
ton County, has established himself in the confidence
,,f the public and the regard of the other members
,,1" bis profession. He is a man who thoroughly un-
derstands the law and is rigid with reference to its
enforcement, and has given special attention to those
branches referring to municipal problems.
Mr. Stembridge was born at Mechlenburg County,
Virginia, April 6, 1887, a son of Frank J. Stembridge,
who was born in the same county as his son, his birth
occurring in i860. He was reared, educated and mar-
ried in that county, where he developed large farm-
ing and mercantile interests, including the handling
of tobacco and is still one of the leading business men
of ("base City, Virginia. Both as a democrat and Bap-
11st he has lived up to his conceptions of citizenship
and religion, and is a man of unusual character and
standing. For a number of years he has been very
active in his church, and he never neglects to do his
dutv in municipal affairs.
Frank J. Stembridge was married to Miss Margaret
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
163
Morgan, who was born in Charlotte County, Virginia,
and they became the parents of the following children :
Stanley Daniel, whose name heads this review ; Morgan
Clark, who is a dental surgeon of Chase City, Virginia,
was graduated from the Richmond Medical College
with the degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery; Hilton
Dallas, who is also a dental surgeon and in partner-
ship with his brother, Morgan C, and he, too, is a
graduate of the Richmond Medical College with the
degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery; Gladys, who mar-
ried Ben S. Adams, a commonwealth attorney, lives
at Bardwell, Kentucky; and-Glcnnea, who lives with her
parents, is a graduate of the Baltimore Conservatory
of Music, is a talented musician, and specializes in vocal
music, although she is also a pleasing performer on
several musical instruments.
Stanley Daniel Stembridge was sent to the public
schools of his native county and Scotlsburg Normal
College, from which he was graduated in 1905, at which
time he received a life state teacher's certificate. In
1905 he accepted a position as chief clerk in- the Morgan
Hotel at Danville, Virginia, and later held the same
position in the Central Hotel at Charlotte, North Caro-
lina. Subsequently he went to Greensboro, North Caro-
lina, and was chief clerk in the Guilford Hotel, re-
maining there until 1915. In the meanwhile he was
reading law and acquiring an intimate knowledge of
human nature which is now of inestimable value to him.
In December, 1916, he was admitted to the bar, after
successfully passing his examinations before Circuit
Judge W. M. Reed and Attorney J. L. Price in the
Marshall County Circuit Courtrooms, and immediately
thereafter entered upon a general civil and criminal
law practice at Hickman, Kentucky, where he has since
remained. In 1917 Mr. Stembridge was elected city
attorney, and still holds that office. He is located on
East Clinton Street in the City Hall Building. Both
by inheritance and conviction Mr. Stembridge is a
democrat, and he is very active in the ranks of his
party. The Christian Church holds his membership,
and he is serving his congregation as a deacon. A
Mason, Mr. Stembridge belongs to Hickman Lodge No.
761, A. F. and A. M. ; Hickman Chapter No. 49, R. A.
M. ; Fulton Commandery No. 34, K. T., of Fulton, Ken-
tucky ; and Rizpah Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of Madi-
sonville, Kentucky. He is also an active member of
Hickman Lodge No. 1294, B. P. O. E. For some time
he. has been a director of the Hickman Building & Loan
Association, which organization is strengthened by his
co-operation with it. Mr. Stembridge owns a modern
residence on Moscow Avenue, where he has a com-
fortable home, and also owns ten other dwellings at
Hickman, his faith in the city inducing him to invest
heavily in its realty. During the great war he took
an active part in all of the activities of local moment,
being chairman of the United War Work campaign,
which included all of the drives for the Red Cross,
Salvation Army and Jewish War Relief Fund, and he
participated in all of the Liberty Loan drives and as-
sisted in putting them all over the top. As one of the
"Four 'Minute" speakers he stimulated interest and
elicited contributions, delivering his pungent speeches
all over the county. He was vice president of the Na-
tional Council of Defense, and served it as an attorney.
In short, he devoted his time, energies and money to
aid the administration in carrying out its policies.
In October, 1916, Mr. Stembridge was united in mar-
riage with Miss Josephine Nichols, a daughter of Judge
Jesse F. and Cora (Washburn) Nichols, now residents
of Bardwell, Kentucky, where Mr. Nichols is an attor-
ney and police judge. Mrs. Stembridge attended Saint
Mary's College of Paducah, Kentucky, and is a very
accomplished lady. There are no 'children. With
will, resourcefulness and trained ability, Mr. Stem-
bridge has handled the problems of his office. Not only
does he have these qualities, but he also possesses the
power to stimulate others to whole-hearted endeavor,
and is rendering his municipality a very valuable service
and saving it much litigation which might otherwise
arise were a man less capable in his office.
Thomas Bullitt McCoun. Ready adaptation to op-
portunity, a capacity for gauging the possibilities of
business prospects and the well-developed speculative
instinct which places the natural insurance man in a
class by himself are factors which have directed the
business energy of Thomas Bullitt McCoun, who in
something more than a year has developed a leading
insurance business at Frankfort. He is a veteran of the
World war, in which he saw much active overseas
service in the aviation corps of both the French and
American armies, and since returning to civilian life
has demonstrated the same qualities of initiative and
resource that won him a captaincy in the fighting forces
of the allies.
Captain McCoun was born December 24, 1894, at
Louisville, Kentucky, a son of Ernest and Nancy
(Burbridge) McCoun. The 'McCoun family, as the
name would suggest, originated in Scotland, whence the
family immigrated to Colonial Virginia, and later came
with the McAfee's to Mercer County, where McCoun's
Ferry is named in honor of these sturdy pioneers.
James T. McCoun, the grandfather of Thomas B.
McCoun, was born in Mercer County, in 1835, and for
the greater part of his life resided at Farmdale, where
he _ was engaged in agricultural pursuits, but is now
retired from active labor and a resident of Frankfort.
He married Emma Farmer, who was born at Farmdale
in 1853, and died there in 1915.
Ernest McCoun, the father of Thomas B. McCoun,
was born in 1871, in Franklin County, Kentucky, and
was given excellent educational advantages, attending
first the old Kentucky Military Institute in Franklin
County, from which he was graduated with the degree
of Bachelor of Arts, and then pursuing a course at the
Louisville Law School, where he received his degree
of Bachelor of Laws. Married in Montgomery County,
he subsequently located at Louisville, where he "embarked
in the practice of his profession and made rapid strides
therein. He was just beginning to make a name for
himself in his calling when his brilliant career was cut
short by his early de?th in 1899, when he was only
twenty-eight years of age. He was a democrat, al-
though he never held office, was a prominent and en-
thusiastic Mason, and belonged to the Baptist Church.
Mr. McCoun married Miss Nancy Burbridge, born in
September, 1874, in Bath County, Kentucky, who sur-
vives him and resides at Mount Sterling, this state,
and to this union there were born two children : Thomas
Bullitt; and Elizabeth, who is unmarried and resides
with her mother.
Thomas Bullitt McCoun was only about five years
of age at the time of his father's death, and he was
taken into the home of his grandfather, by whom
he was reared. He attended the public schools of
Frankfort, graduating from the Frankfort High School
in 191 1, and then was sent to Washington and Lee Uni-
versity, Lexington, Virginia. Next he entered the Uni-
versity of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, from which institu-
tion he was graduated in journalism in 1915, and while
attending that college became a member of the Alpha
Chi Rho Greek letter fraternity. In 1915 Mr. McCoun
became an employe of the General Electric Company of
Pittsburgh, in the publicity department, and in Decem-
ber, 1916, was transferred to the foreign department
and sent to France. After being in that country only
one month he enlisted as a private in the French
Aviation Corps of the French Army, and continued
as a member of the Foreign Legion until July, 1917.
He was then transferred to the Aviation Corps of the
American Army, with the rank of lieutenant, and
served with the American Mission of the French
Aviation Corps until July, 1918. At that time he was
placed in command of the One Hundred and Sixty-
164
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
Third Aero Squadron, having been promoted to the
rank of captain, and remained with this squadron until
March, 1919. He then returned to the United States,
and in May, 1919, received his honorable discharge and
was mustered out of the service. For six months there-
after Captain McCoun was identified with the United
States Government mail service, and then gave up
flying as a business and came to Frankfort, where he
organized the firm of McCoun & Company, general in-
surance, of which concern he has since been the man-
ager. The offices of this business are at 236 St. Clair
Street, in the Morris Building, and under the manager's
energetic and capable supervision the business has al-
ready grown to large and important proportions.
In politics Captain McCoun is a democrat, and his
religious faith is that of the Christian Church. As a
fraternalist he belongs to Hiram Lodge No. 4, A. F.
and A. M., Frankfort Chapter No. 3, R. A. M. ; Frank-
fort Commandery No. 4, K. T. ; and Oleika Temple,
A. A. O. N. M. S., Lexington. He is a member of the
Board of Directors of the Aero Club of America, a
member of the Aero Club of France and is on the
Board of Governors of the American Flying Club.
He is also a director in the Masonic Temple Associa-
tion, Incorporated, of Frankfort.
In November, 1919, at Lexington. Thomas B. Mc-
Coun was united in marriage with Miss Dazey Moore
Porter, a graduate of Transylvania University, Lexing-
ton, and a daughter of Joseph W. and Mary (Shrop-
shire) Porter. Mr. Porter has long been one of the
leading citizens of Lexington, well and widely known
in business and financial circles. For a number of
years he was vice president and cashier of the First
and City National Bank of Lexington, and at the present
time is treasurer of the R. W. Rounsvall Company,
merchandise brokers. The mother of Mrs. McCoun is
deceased. Captain and Mrs. McCoun have a pleasant
home at the Cromwell Apartments, Frankfort.
Carl Kagin. An example of sturdy enterprise, splen-
did business management and healthy growth founded
upon sound principles is found in the leading depart-
ment store of Franklin County, the business operated
at Frankfort under the style of C. Kagin & Brother.
The business was started in a modest way in 1896,
and in its development through the years that have
passed has evidenced the sterling abilities of its founder,
Carl Kagin, who is not only rated among the leading
merchants of Frankfort, but is known also as a man
who has contributed materiallv to the growth and
welfare of the city of his adoption.
Mr. Kagin was born in Germany, July 14, 1874, a son
of Urban and Elizabeth (Burgin) Kagin. Urban Kagin
was born in 1852, in Switzerland, where he was edu-
cated and reared to the age of twenty years, at which
time he went to Germany and engaged in the weaving
of linen cloth. He was married in that country, whence
he came with his wife and children to the United
States in 1880, settling at New Bedford, Massachusetts,
being there employed in manufacturing tools in a steel
mill. The conditions surrounding this work soon broke
down his health, and in 1884 he came with his family
to Franklin County, Kentucky, and located on a farm
two and one half miles out of Frankfort, on the Louis-
ville Pike, where he remained for one year. In 1885
he took over the proprietorship of about the first
restaurant at Frankfort, located on Ann Street, and
later founded, on Broadway, what became the leading
restaurant of the city. Mr. Kagin's health failed to
improve, and in 1886 he went to a hospital at Cin-
cinnati for treatment. Everything was done possible
for him, but his ailment defied the best medical care,
and he died in 1886. Mr. Kagin was a man of busi-
ness honor and high principles, and was highly thought
of in his community. He was a member of the Roman
Catholic Church. He married Elizabeth Burgin, who
was born near Schwartzwalder, Germany, and died
at Frankfort in 1907. She was a daughter of Jacob
Burgin, who was born in Germany in 1809, and came
to the United States in 1880. In his native land he
had been a manufacturer of wire for screenings, sieves,
etc., but after coming to this country lived in retire-
ment, making his home with his son-in-law and daugh-
ter until his death at Frankfort in 1884. Urban and
Elizabeth Kagin were the parents of four children:
Emma, deceased, who was the wife of the late Lambert
Suppinger, who was connected with the Frankfort
Ice Company as a partner; Carl; G. E., who is asso-
ciated in business with his brother Carl ; and Edwin,
a missionary of the Presbyterian denomination now
stationed in Corea.
Carl Kagin was educated at Frankfort, and at the
age of seventeen years left high school to become a clerk
in a dry goods store. After three years of experience,
during which time he applied himself assiduously to
learning every detail of the business, he embarked
in a venture with George J. Neff as partner, establish-
ing a mercantile establishment in Meade County, Ken-
tucky, which they conducted from 1894 to 1896, inclu-
sive. In November of the latter year Mr. Kagin came
to Frankfort, where, on St. Clair Street, he established
a modest dry goods store near the bridge, which he con-
ducted until 1918. In the meantime, in 1907, he opened
a branch store on Main Street. Both business ventures
prospered, and in 1918 Mr. Kagin consolidated the two,
taking more space on Main Street and adding two more
sales rooms, in addition to remodeling the entire build-
ing. This has been developed into the largest depart-
ment store in Franklin County, and is operated under
the firm style of C. Kagin & Brother, Mr. Kagin's
brother, G. E. Kagin, being his associate. The store is
situated at 235 to 239 West Main Street, and occupies
the whole of two buildings now remodeled into one
building of three floors, in which there are three sales-
rooms, the respective floor space of these rooms being
25 by 100 feet, 17 by 100 feet, and 16 by 100 feet. A
complete line of all kinds of goods carried in a modern
department store is kept on hand, and Mr. Kagin makes
a careful study of the needs and wishes of his patrons,
with the idea of giving them satisfying service. He
has built up an excellent system of efficiency in his es-
tablishment, which points to the presence of excellent
executive ability, and courtesy and obligingness are as
much a part of the business as are honesty and high
principles. As a good citizen he takes an active part
in all movements which promise to be of benefit to his
community, and his support is always given to worthy
enterprises of a civic, religious or educational character.
With his family he belongs to the Presbyterian Church.
Mr. Kagin was one of the organizers of the Frankfort
Chamber of Commerce and is a member thereof at this
time. He owns a comfortable modern home at 116
East Second Street.
In 1900, at Frankort, Mr. Kagin was united in mar-
riage with Miss Ernelia Kehr, daughter of Mr. and
Mrs. Adolph Kehr. Mrs. Kagin's parents were born in
Germany, and upon coming" to the United States settled
in Franklin County, where they rounded out their lives
in the pursuits of agriculture, both now being deceased.
Six children have come to Mr. and Mrs. Kagin : Carl,
Jr., born in August, 1901, who is a student at Centre
College, Danville, Kentucky ; Willie, born in November,
1902, a student at Frankfort High School, who not only
has an excellent record as a student, but is also known
for his athletic prowess, being a member of the high
school football team; Emily, born in September, 1904;
a student at the Frankfort High School; Edwin, born in
September, 1906, who is a student in the graded schools :
Elizabeth, born in February, 1913, who is also a student
in the graded schools ; and Louise, born in September.
1916. Mr. and Mrs. Kagin are wfell and widely known
at Frankfort, where they have the esteem and respect
of all, and a wide circle of warm and appreciative
friends.
OM^Ur^^
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
165
Louis Le Compte. In the business circles of Frank-
fort a concern which has an established reputation for
honorable dealing and an observance of elevated prin-
ciples is the Louis LeCompte Company, furniture dealers
and undertakers. Founded in 1913 in a modest way, this
business has been developed under able management into
one of the two leading enterprises of the kind in Frank-
lin County, and the principal factor in this work of de-
velopment has been Louis LeCompte, one of Frankfort's
most capable and progressive young business men.
Mr. LeCompte is a native son of Frankfort, and was
born January 25, 1888, his parents being Mitchell L. and
Lucy Jean (Lewis) LeCompte. As the name would
indicate, the LeCompte family originated in France,
whence it was brought to America during early Colonial
times. The great-great-grandfather of Louis LeCompte,
Major LeCompte, was born in the colony of Virginia
and was the pioneer into Kentucky. William LeCompte,
the grandfather of Louis LeCompte, was born in 1829,
in what is known as LeCompte Bottoms, Henry County,
Kentucky, and in early life was a millwright. Later he
turned his attention to agricultural pursuits, and for
many years farmed in Henry and Franklin counties,
also spending a few years in Grayson County. Now far
advanced in years, he is retired from active affairs and
makes his home with his son, J. S. LeCompte, in Frank-
lin County. He married a Miss Mays, of the family of
that name at Maysville, Kentucky. She was born in
1832 and died in Franklin County in 1908.
Mitchell L. LeCompte was born in 1859, in Grayson
County, Kentucky, but as a youth was brought to
Franklin County, and was reared and educated at Frank-
fort, where his marriage took place. As a youth he
learned the trade of cabinetmaker and this has con-
tinued to be his occupation throughout life, practically
his entire career having been passed at Frankfort. He
is a man of honest principles and sterling citizenship
and is held in the highest esteem by all who know him.
Mr. LeCompte is a democrat in politics and as a frater-
nalist affiliates with the Independent Order of Odd Fel-
lows. He belongs to the Christian Church. Mr. Le-
Compte married Miss Lucy Jean Lewis, who was born
in 1866 in Franklin County, Kentucky, and to this union
there were born two children : Ethel, who is unmarried
and resides with her parents and Louis.
Louis LeCompte received his education in the rural
schools of Franklin County and the public schools at
Frankfort, but at the age of fifteen years left high
school and became a clerk in a hardware store at
Frankfort. After two years he left this employment and
secured a position in a furniture store, where during
the nine years of his stay he familiarized himself
thoroughly with every detail of the furniture and un-
dertaking business. On September 1, 1913, he embarked
in business on his own account, establishing his present
furniture and undertaking establishment at 315 West
Main Street, and this has since grown under his super-
vision to be one of the two leading enterprises in its
line in Franklin County. A modern undertaking estab-
lishment is maintained, with every facility for the proper
and reverent care of the dead, and a large and modern
stock of furniture is offered to Frankfort's discriminat-
ing buyers. The comany is now incorporated as the
Louis LeCompte Company, the officers being: R. M.
Lewis, president ; Louis LeCompte, vice president and
treasurer; and Mrs. Blanche LeCompte, wife of Louis
LeCompte, secretary.
In political belief Mr. LeCompte is a democrat, in this
connection following both his own inclinations and the
traditions of his family. In 1913 he was elected coroner
of Franklin County, taking office January 1, 1914, and
after the expiration of his first term was again elected,
in 1917, taking office January 1, 1918, for a term of four
years. His administrations have been marked by con-
scientious fidelity to duty and capable discharge of his
responsibilities. With his family he belongs to the
Christian Church, in which he serves as deacon. As a
Vol. V— 16
fraternalist he belongs to Blackfoot Tribe No. 67, I. O.
R. M. ; Frankfort Lodge No. 28, I. O. O. F. ; and is
prominent in Masonry, holding membership in Hiram
Lodge No. 4, A. F. and A. M. ; Frankfort Chapter
No. 3, R. A. M. ; Frankfort Commandery No. 4, K. T. ;
and Oleika Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., Lexington. Dur-
ing the World war he was exceedingly active in com-
mittee work in assisting the various drives, and per-
sonally contributed and purchased liberally in the sup-
port of all worthy movements.
Mr. LeCompte was married in 1910. at Danville, Ken-
tucky, to Miss Blanche Emma Wash, a graduate of
the Frankfort High School and a woman of sound busi-
ness ability and social graces, daughter of J. W. and
Lucy Jane (Poulter) Wash, the latter of whom is
deceased. Mr. Wash has been for many years chief of
police at Lawrenceburg, Kentucky, and is discharging
the duties of that office at this time. Mr. and Mrs. Le-
Compte's only child, Alise, died at birth.
Powell Taylor, judge of the County Court of Ander-
son County, has several times been called to the duties
of public office, but his life on the whole has been quietly,
profitably and usefully spent as a practical farmer.
It was the good judgment he used in the management
of his own affairs that made him the choice of the
people for administering the fiscal business of Ander-
son County.
He was born on a farm June 25, 1870, son of George
H. and America (Cole) Taylor. His parents were na-
tives of Anderson County. His father was a son of
Grayson and Catherine Taylor, natives of Virginia, who
were pioneer settlers of Anderson County, where they
lived out their lives. Grayson Taylor at the time of his
death was reputed to be the wealthiest man in Ander-
son County, most of his possessions consisting of fertile
farm land.
The mother of Powell Taylor was a daughter of
James Cole, and she died a month after the birth
of Powell. Powell Taylor grew up in the family of
his uncle Salathiel Cole on a farm, had a country
school education, and since early manhood has found
his duties chiefly on the farm and still lives in the
country, though in 1917 he was called by election to
the duties of county judge. He had previously served
as justice of the peace four years. Judge Taylor is
a democrat, a Baptist, is a Knight Templar Mason and
Shriner, and served with the rank of colonel on the
staff of Governor James D. Black in 1919.
On September 18, 1001, he married Miss Lillie V.
Young. They have two children, S. Cole and Dorothy
Taylor.
Edward Wilson, M. D., has had the full measure of
popular confidence and esteem in his native county,
as is demonstrated alike by the representative character
of his substantial professional practice and also by his
being, in 1921, the efficient mayor of Pineville, the
thriving little city which is the judicial center and
metropolis of Bell County. The Doctor-Mayor was
born at Lock, this county, on the 14th of July, 1879,
and is a son of W. F. M. and Jane (Eager) Wilson,
the former of whom was born, presumably in the State
of Tennessee, in 1836, and the latter of whom was born
in Virginia and was reared at Harlan Court House,
now Harlan, county seat of the Kentucky county of
the same name, the year of her nativity having been
1839. Mrs. Wilson died at the family home at Lock.
Bell County, in 1886, and there the death of her husband
occurred in the following year. W. F. M. Wilson was
a young man when he established his residence at Lock,
and he there followed the blacksmith trade for a long
period, besides becoming one of the extensive and sub-
stantial farmers of that part of Bell County. He also
was one of the pioneer school teachers of Harlan and
Bell counties as a young man. He stood exponent of
loyal and useful citizenship, was a republican in his
166
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
political allegiance, and both he and his wife held mem-
bership in the Baptist Church. Miss Annie, eldest of
their children, resides in the home of her only surviving
brother, Doctor Wilson, of this sketch ; Columbus be-
came a prosperous farmer of Bell County, and here
his death occurred, at Pineville, in 1916; Doctor Wilson
was the next in order of birth ; and George died at
the age of four months.
Doctor Wilson was doubly orphaned when but eight
years of age, but proper provision was made for the
three orphaned children, and he gained his preliminary
education in the rural schools of his native county,
after which he pursued a higher course of study in
the Baptist Institute at Williamsburg, Whitley County.
In preparation for the exacting profession of his choice
he entered the Hospital College of Medicine in the City
of Louisville, and in this institution he was graduated
in 1903, with second honors of his class. By reason
of his high class record he received appointment to
the position of interne in the Gray Street Presbyterian
Hospital at Louisville, and he retained this position one
year after receiving his degree of Doctor of Medicine,
the clinical and general experience thus gained proving
of much value in further fortifying him for the inde-
pendent work of his profession. With insistent ap-
preciation Doctor Wilson has kept in close touch with
advances made in medical and surgical science, not only
through his alliance with professionat organizations and
his recourse to the best standard and periodical liter-
ature of his profession, but also by the medium of two
post-graduate courses in the Chicago Post-Graduate
Medical School, and three such courses in the New York
Post-Graduate School of Medicine. In these courses
he gave special attention to surgery, and in this depart-
ment of practice he has gained the high reputation that
invariably attends successful service.
In the autumn of 1904 Doctor Wilson engaged in ac-
tive general practice at Pineville, but a year later he
removed to Whitesburg, county seat of Letcher County,
where he continued in practice three years. He then
returned to Pineville, where he has since maintained
secure vantage ground as one of the leading physicians
and surgeons of Bell County, besides which his pro-
fessional enthusiasm and civic loyalty led to his estab-
lishing in 1916 the Wilson Hospital, on Virginia Ave-
nue. He has given to this institution the best modern
equipment and facilities, and that its advantages are
appreciated in shown in the patronage accorded, treat-
ment having here been given to patients not only from
Bell, Harlan, Laurel and Knox counties, Kentucky, but
also from Virginia and Tennessee. Under the able
administration of Doctor Wilson the hospital is main-
tained at a high standard and represents one of the
valuable institutions of this section of the state. His
office headquarters are at the hospital.
Doctor Wilson takes deep interest in all that concerns
the civic and material well-being of his home city and
county, and in 1921 he is serving his fourth consecutive
year as mayor of Pineville, his administration having
been marked by greater progress than any other similar
period in the history of the city. He had guided the
municipal government with marked discrimination and
progressiveness, and the citizens of Pineville accord
him due credit for the effective work he has accom-
plished as chief executive. He is a stalwart in the local
ranks of the republican party, the Pineville Baptist
Church claims him and his wife as zealous members,
and he is affiliated with Bell Lodge No. 691, Free and
Accepted Masons, at Pineville. The Doctor is an ac-
tive member of the Bell County Medical Society, the
Kentucky State Medical Society, the Southern Medical
Association and the American Medical Association. He
is a stockholder in the Bell National Bank, is the owner
of the attractive home in which he resides, on Pine
Street, the Wilson Hospital Building, a business block
on the Public Square and other local realty.
That Doctor Wilson should have been an influential
force in the furthering of local service in the World
war period was to be expected of a man of his general
characteristic and civic influence, and further evidence
of his patriotic spirit had previously been given in his
service as a soldier in the Spanish-American war. He
enlisted on the 4th of July, 1898, was sent to an army
camp in Alabama, and though his command was not
called to the stage of active conflict he remained in
active service until Cuba had been freed from Spanish
rule, his honorable discharge having been received in
February, 1899. At the time of American participation
in the World war Doctor Wilson was an alert and
vigorous worker in forwarding the various drives in
support of the Government war loans in Bell County,
and he aided also in the Red Cross and other subsi-
diary campaigns, besides making bis financial contribu-
tions to the various causes as liberal as his means per-
mitted.
At Whitesburg, Letcher County, in igo7, was solem-
nized the marriage of Doctor Wilson to Miss Ella Tyree,
daughter of Rev. S. C. and Martha J. (Adams)
Tyree, now residents of London, Laurel County, where
the father is engaged in the practice of law, after
having previously given many years of earnest and able
service as a clergyman of the Baptist Church, in the
work of which he is still active. Doctor and Mrs.
Wilson have six children, whose names and respective
years of birth are here recorded: Gypsy Vera, 1908;
Edward Senn, 1910; Tyree Francis, 1913; Marion,
1915; Florence Roe, 1918; and Ella Ray, 1920.
Thomas Eugene Bland, M. D. A good doctor is al-
ways a good citizen, and the service rendered by Doctor
Bland in Shelby County for thirty years has been that
of an accomplished physician and surgeon and a man
whose personal character has done much to supplement
the good performed in a professional sphere.
Doctor Bland was torn on a farm in Shelby County,
July 13, 1864 son of Thomas Pope and Levicy Jane
(Harris) Bland. His grandfather, Charles Bland, was
a native of Virginia, and was a pioneer in the State of
Missouri. When he died his son Thomas Pope Bland
was twelve years of age, and the latter soon came to
Kentucky and lived with an aunt in Shelby County. In
that county he married Levicy Jane Harris, who was
born here, daughter of Harvey Harris, who also came
from Virginia. Thomas Pope Bland and wife spent
their long and happy life on a farm, lived exemplary
Christian lives as members of the Baptist Church, and
many of their excellent characteristics are traced in the
career of their son Doctor Bland. The father died in
191 5, at the age of eighty-two, while the mother is still
living. Of their eight children they reared six to
mature years.
Doctor Bland grew up on the farm and supplemented
his advantages in the local schools with work in the
college at Georgetown. He graduated in medicine from
the University of Louisville in 1892, and at once returned
to Shelbyville, where he has done all his professional
work. In 1894 he took post-graduate courses in New
York, and is progressive in every line of his profession.
He is a member of the Shelby County and Kentucky
State Medical associations.
In former years Doctor Bland took quite an active
part in local politics. He was a member of the city
council of Shelbyville and for four years mayor of
the city. He is a democrat and a Baptist. In 1906 he
married Miss Matilda Nichols. They have two chil-
dren, Anna Pope and Levicy Jane Bland.
William C. Shinnick, publisher and editor of the
Shelby Record, learned the publishing business under his
father, the late owner of the Record, and except for
the service he gave the Government as a soldier and
officer in the American forces overseas his time and
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
167
talents have been devoted to this splendid institution of
Kentucky journalism since early life.
His father, Edward D. Shinnick, was born at Shel-
byville June I, 1854, son of William and Alice (Casey)
Shinnick. William Shinnick was born at Troy, New
York, of Irish ancestry, and his wife was a native of
County Cork, Ireland. This family came to Shelbyville
about 1840, and William Shinnick was in the carriage
building business for many years. Edward D. Shinnick
learned the trade of carriage making from his father,
becoming expert as a carriage painter. He also acquired
a liberal education in Professor Dodd's Academy at
Shelbyville, and the natural endowment of his mind well
fitted him for the tasks and responsibilities of practical
journalism. In 1886 he became connected with the
Shelbyville Sentinel, and gave twelve years to that paper.
From 1898 to 1902 he was on the road as a traveling
salesman, and in 1902 he and George L. Willis bought
the Shelby Record. Not long afterward Edward D.
Shinnick became sole proprietor, and published and
edited the Record until his death. He died at his
country home near Shelbyville February 19, 1920. He
was a democrat in politics, and performed considerable
public service in the influence he constantly exerted on
local affairs through the columns of his paper. He
was city councilman and city clerk, and in 1918 was
appointed secretary of the Kentucky Board of Control
of Charitable Institutions. He resigned this office Jan-
uary 1, 1920, on account of ill health. He was a
Catholic.
Edward D. Shinnick married Miss Mary Sullivan in
1891. Mrs. Shinnick and four sons survive: William
C, Frank B., Edward D., Jr., and Charles L. William
C. Shinnick and Frank B. Shinnick were with the mili-
tary forces during the World war, Frank being trained
and doing his service in aviation camps in this country.
William C. Shinnick went overseas in April, 1918, with
the Fourth Infantry, Third Division, and was soon after-
ward exposed to the fire of the enemy on the front
in several phases of the great allied campaign in 1918,
including the Aisne-Marne, the Marne, the Champaigne-
Marne, St. Mihiel and the Meuse-Argonne campaigns.
He went in as a second lieutenant and came out as
first lieutenant, was with the Army of Occupation eight
months, and received his honorary discharge at Camp
Zachary Taylor September 15, 1919. He is a member of
the American Legion.
Mr. Shinnick with much of achievement already to
his credit is really at the beginning of a most promising
career. He is a democrat, a member of the Catholic
Church and the Knights of Columbus. He graduated
from the Kentucky State University in 191 7.
Edgar D. Bourne has been a banker at Taylorsville
forty consecutive years. It is a record notable in length
of service among active bankers of the state, and he
has been the man chiefly responsible for building up and
maintaining one of the soundest financial institutions in
Spencer County.
Mr. Bourne was born in Montgomery County, Ken-
tucky, on a farm, July 7, 1846. He represents an old
and patriotic American family. His grandfather, James
Bourne, was a native of Virginia and served as a soldier
in the American Revolution. In 1802 he brought his
family west to Kentucky and settled in Montgomery
County. Walker Bourne, father of the Taylorsville
banker, was born in Culpeper County, Virginia, in 1790,
and had a record of service as a soldier in the War of
1812. His life was spent in connection with the farm,
and he reached the advanced age of eighty-three. Wal-
ker Bourne married Willie Jameson, who was born in
Montgomery County, Kentucky, daughter of Thomas
Jameson, also a native of this state, and of old Virginia
stock. The Jameson who captured Major Andre dur-
ing the Revolutionary war was of the same family.
Mrs. Walker Bourne died in her eightieth year. She
and her husband reared seven children. Two of the
sons were Confederate soldiers, James M., in the
Orphans Brigade, and Butler, who was under the com-
mand of John Morgan.
Edgar D. Bourne, like the other children, grew up
on the farm and acquired a very good education. In
early life he pursued the profession of civil engineering,
but about 1878 began his career as a banker with the
firm A. J. Lee & Son at Owingsville.
December 15, 1881, Mr. Bourne came to Taylorsville
and organized the Bank of Taylorsville, and has been
its cashier and active executive officer ever since. This
bank has a capital of $50,000, surplus of $30,000 and un-
divided profits of $10,000.
In 1893 Mr. Bourne married Miss Elizabeth Cheatham,
daughter of Dr. W. H. Cheatham, formerly of Taylors-
ville and later of Louisville. Her brother is Dr. William
Cheatham, who has gained distinction as an eye, ear, nose
and throat specialist. Mr. and Mrs. Bourne have three
children, William Cheatham, Elizabeth Jameson and
Judith Ball Bourne.
Benjamin Franklin Shields, M. D. Busied with a
growing practice as a physician and surgeon at Tay-
lorsville, Doctor Shields has also found time to devote
to politics, is one of the democratic leaders in Spencer
County, and has represented that county in the Legis-
lature.
Doctor Shields was born near Chaplin in Nelson
County, Kentucky, January 2, 1881, son of Benjamin and
Elizabeth Russell (Green) Shields. On both sides he
represents old and honored Kentucky families. His
father was a native of Spencer County and his mother
of Nelson County. His grandfather, Vincent Shields,
married a Miss Anderson. The name Shields is of
Scotch origin. The maternal grandparents of Doctor
Shields were Levan and Henrietta (Milton) Green.
Benjamin F. Shields, Sr., was a merchant at Alton, An-
derson County, when he died at the age of thirty-
two. He was the father of two sons and two daughters.
His widow, who died at the age of sixty, subsequently
married J. T. Williams, and by that union had a son
and three daughters.
Dr. Benjamin Franklin Shields grew up in Spencer
County in the home of his mother and stepfather. He
had a farm training, attended the common schools, and
completed his literary education in Transylvania Uni-
versity. He was graduated in medicine from the Hos-
pital College of Medicine at Louisville on July 3, 1905,
and for a time practiced in Anderson and also in Mercer
County, but his best professional work has been done
since he moved to Taylorsville. He is a member of the
Spencer County; Kentucky State and American Medical
associations.
Doctor Shields was chosen representative from Spen-
cer County and served in the session of 1920. He was a
delegate to the National Convention at San Fran-
cisco the same year. He is a member of the Christian
Church. In 1918 he married Miss Ardia May Milligan.
James M. Morris, M. D., an accomplished physician
and surgeon and an official of the United States Public
Health Service, with headquarters in the Federal Build-
ing at Hopkinsville, is a veteran of two wars, and repre-
sents a pioneer family of Jackson County, Kentucky,
where he was born March 24, 1873.
His paternal ancestors on coming from England set-
tled in the colony of Pennsylvania. His grandfather,
Henry Morris, was born in North Carolina in 1801.
Soon after his marriage he left North Carolina and
settled in Jackson County, Kentucky. He was a civil
engineer by profession and was a Union soldier during
the Civil war. He died at McKee in Jackson County in
1885. His wife was Caroline Hunt, who was born
in North Carolina in 1804 and died in Jackson County in
1890.
Their son, John G. Morris, still living on his farm in
Jackson County, was born in Owsley County in 1847, was
168
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
reared there, married in Laurel County, and since then
has been closely and successfully identified with the
agricultural interests of Jackson County, but is now
retired. He is a republican and a member of the Primi-
tive Baptist Church. John G. Morris married Syrena
McDowell, oldest daughter of Dr. Frank McDowell, a
Virginian who was a pioneer and greatly beloved physi-
cian of Laurel County, Kentucky, where his daughter
Syrena was born in 1847. By her marriage to John
G. Morris she is the mother of six children : James M. ;
Frank, a traveling salesman living in Jackson County ;
Thomas L., a locomotive engineer with home at Gallatin,
Illinois; William, a farmer in Jackson County; Isaac,
in the lumber and timber business in Jackson County ;
and Robert, a farmer in Jackson County.
James M. Morris grew up on his father's farm, and
his first advantages were supplied by some of the rural
schools of Jackson County. He finished his high school
work at Fountain City, Tennessee. On April 26, 1898, a
few days after the declaration of war against Spain,
he volunteered in Battery E of the Seventh United
States Heavy Artillery, and was in service until honor-
ably discharged March 4, 1899. He forthwith took up
his medical studies in the University of Tennessee at
Knoxville, and graduated M. D. in 1902. Doctor Mor-
ris in the twenty years of his professional experience has
been a constant student, and in 1906 he took a special
course in diseases of the chest at the Chicago Post
Graduate School and a course in general medicine at
the New York Post Graduate School in 1919. From
1902 to 1909 he practiced in his home county of Jackson,
and following that was a physician in Clay County
until 1917.
On September 4. 1917, he was commissioned a 'first
lieutenant in the Medical Corps, was in training two
months at Fort Oglethorpe, and was then assigned to
duty as surgeon in the Three Hundred and First Tank
Battalion at Camp Meade, Maryland. Two weeks later
he was transferred with troops to Camp Colt at Gettys-
burg, Pennsylvania, and remained on duty there until
September 24, 1918. In the meantime, on the 3d of May,
he was promoted to the rank of captain. After leaving
Gettysburg he was sent to the base hospital at Colum-
bus, Ohio, and on January 12, 1919, was transferred to
the base hospital at Camp Kendrick, Lake Hurst, New
Jersey, and received his honorable discharge March 15,
1919.
In October, 1919, Doctor Morris resumed his private
practice as a physician and surgeon at Berea, and at
the same time performed duties as acting assistant sur-
geon of the United States Public Health Service. On
July 16, 1921, he was transferred to_ Hopkinsville as
acting assistant surgeon in charge of sub district unit,
Bureau of War Risk Insurance.
Doctor Morris is a republican in politics, is a past
master in Masonry and a member of Robert Clark
Lodge No. 646, F. and A. M., at Sextons Creek, Ken-
tucky, is affiliated with Bloomsburg Consistory of the
Scottish Rite at Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, Almas
Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Washington, D. C, is
a past grand of Burning Springs Lodge No. 306, Inde-
pendent Order of Odd Fellows, in Kentucky, and a past
chancellor of Dixie Lodge No. 178, Knights of Pythias,
at Berea. He is a member of the County, State and
American Medical associations.
December 25, 1002, in Clay County, Doctor Morris
married Miss Sarah Chestnut, daughter of Lieutenant
Edward and Mary (Webb) Chestnut, now retired resi-
dents of Clay County. Her father was a lieutenant in
the Union Army during the Civil war, and until he
retired was identified with farming in Clay County.
Doctor and Mrs. Morris have a family of five children :
Virgil, born in 1904, and Mendel, born in 1906, both
students in Berea College; John E., born in 1912; Rob-
ert, born in 1915 ; and James, Jr., born in 1919.
George Breckenridge Shindler. While his private
law practice has continued in growing and gratifying
volume, George Breckenridge Shindler during thirty
or more years as a member of the Spencer County bar
has held some of the important public offices of the
county for a quarter of a century. He has not withheld
his talents from the public welfare, and has been ready
to do his part in any movement wherein the general
interests of the public were concerned.
Mr. Shindler was born at Maud in Washington
County, Kentucky, March 23, 1866, a son of George
and Virginia (Breckenridge) Shindler. His grand-
father, George Shindler, was of Pennsylvania Dutch an-
cestry and came from Pennsylvania to Kentucky. His
maternal grandfather, George Breckenridge, was at one
time grand master of the Masonic Lodge of Kentucky.
Fie lived for many years in Fayette County, but spent
his last days in Washington County. George Shindler,
father of the Taylorsville lawyer, was born in Shelby
County, Kentucky, and his wife was born in Fayette
County. They were married in Washington County,
and during the greater part of his life George Shindler
conducted a mill at Maud, but later moved to a farm
in Spencer County, where he died at the age of sixty-
nine. He was three times married. Virginia Brecken-
ridge was his second wife, and she died in 1871. She
was the mother of his six children, George Breckenridge
being the only survivor.
Mr. Shindler grew up in his native county until he
was fifteen, and after that lived in Spencer County.
His determination and industry were an important factor
in his gaining a liberal education. After the common
schools he spent one term in an institute at Bardstown,
and in 1889 graduated from the Louisville Law School
and began practice as a lawyer at Tavlorsville when he
was twenty-three years of age. His record of official
service was practically continuous for a quarter of a
century. From May, 1893, to January, 1898, he was
county attorney, and was judge of the County Court
from January 1, 1898, for twelve years, and from Jan-
uary, 1910, to January, 1918, filled the office of county
clerk.
Judge Shindler took an active part in organizing and
has since been vice president of the Peoples Bank at
Taylorsville. During the World war he was a member
of the local Draft Board. He is a democrat, a member
of the Methodist Church and a Roval Arch Mason.
In 1892 he married Miss Nora McKmley, of Spencer
County. They have one daughter, Nellie L., wife of
John B. Thomas, of Taylorsville, the present sheriff
of Spencer County.
Abijah B. Gilbert. At Pineville, the judicial center
and metropolis of Bell County, is a general insurance
agency that has a representative clientage and controls
a substantial and prosperous business, built up on fair
and honorable policies and careful consideration of the
requirements of its supporters. This flourishing enter-
prise was established by Mr. Gilbert in 1912, and by
his progressive methods and vigorous policies he has
developed the agency into one of the most important
of its kind in Eastern Kentucky, the annual business
here underwritten having now attained to an average
aggregate of fully $200,000. At Pineville Mr. Gilbert
maintains his well equipped offices at 114 Kentucky
Avenue, on the Public Square, and at Hazard, county
seat of Perry County, he maintains a branch office on
Main Street, opposite the Court House.
Mr. Gilbert is a native of Clay County, Kentucky,
at whose judicial center, Manchester, he was born on
the 10th of November, 1882, and he is a representative
of an old and honored family of that county. His
grandfather. Dr. Felix J. Gilbert, passed his entire life
in the district of Redbird Creek, Clay County, where
he died prior to the birth of Abijah B. of this sketch,
he having become one of the leading physicians and
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
169
..urgeons of that county and having been influential in
community affairs. His wife, whose family name was
Dorton, likewise died in that county. Doctor Gilbert
was a son of Rev. John Gilbert, who was born in
North Carolina, in 1757, a scion of a sterling Colonial
family of that commonwealth, and he came to Ken-
tucky about 1780, and settled near Hyden, in the present
county of Leslie. He acquired from the state patents
to large tracts of land, worth millions of dollars at the
present day, and though the most of these holdings
have since passed out of the possession of the family,
he developed a large and productive farm from the
wilderness and endured his full share of the labors
and responsibilities of a pioneer. This sturdy and
honored citizen lived to the remarkable age of 112
years and was recognized patriarch of the Redbird
Creek section of Clay County, at the time of his death,
in 1869. He had been an extensive land-owner not only
in Kentucky but also in Virginia. Besides associating
himself closely with civic and industrial progress in
the Blue Grass state he served many years as an able
and zealous clergyman of the Baptist Church. His name
merits high place on the enduring roll of the honored
pioneers of Kentucky.
Rev. Taylor J. Gilbert, father of him whose name
initiates this sketch, was born on the old homestead
on Redbird Creek, Clay County, in the year 1840 and
died at Prentice, Oklahoma. April 30, 1002. As a
clergyman of the Baptist Church he held pastoral
charges in Letcher, Perry, Clay and other counties in
this section of the state, and in his somewhat itinerant
service he preached in communities throughout much
of eastern and central Kentucky, his consecrated zeal
having been fortified by his strong intellectuality and
his earnest desire to aid and uplift his fellow men. He
removed to Prentice, Oklahoma, in January 1902 and
there his death occurred on the 30th of the following
April. He was a democrat in politics and served three
terms as assessor of Clay County, Kentucky, a republican
stronghold. He was long and actively affiliated with
the Masonic fraternity. His widow whose maiden name
was Polly Maggard was born at Hyden, Kentucky in
1851 and now resides at Mangum, Oklahoma. She is
a daughter of Samuel Maggard, who was born near
Hyden in what is now Leslie County, Kentucky and
who there passed his entire life. He was born in 1828
and died in 1915, his wife whose family name was Mc-
intosh having likewise passed her entire life in the
vicinity of Hyden. Rev. Taylor J. and Polly (Maggard)
Gilbert became the parents of nine children concerning
whom the following data are available : James M. is
a representative member of the bar of Bell County and
is engaged in the practice of his profession at Pine-
ville; Mittie became the wife of Emery Caudill now a
cattle grower in Texas and her death occurred in the
State of New Mexico in 191 1; John died at the age
of four years and Minter at the age of two years ;
Abijah B. of this review was the next in order of birth;
Lettie is the wife of George Stone who is engaged
in the insurance business at Mangum, Oklahoma and
in their home abides her widowed mother ; Harry has
charge of the Hazard insurance office of his brother
Abijah B. to whom he has proved an able assistant in
the development of the substantial business there
centered, Thomas J. resides at Knoxville, Tennessee,
and is Southern manager of the Kentucky Fuel Com-
pany; and Mary, the widow of Benjamin Parker, who
became a merchant at Wetherford, Texas, now resides
at Mangum, Oklahoma.
To the rural schools of Clay County, Abijah B.
Gilbert is indebted for the preliminary education that
prepared him for entrance into the Barbourville Bap-
tist Institute, at the judicial center of Knox County,
where he continued his studies during one term. Upon
the death of his father he assumed charge of the farm
which the latter had acquired in the vicinity of Prent-
ice, Oklahoma, where he continued his activities in this
capacity from 1902 until 1916. In the latter years he
entered the Spencerian Business College in the City of
Louisville, Kentucky, and in this institution he was
graduated in 1907, upon completing a thorough course
in stenography, bookkeeping and banking methods. For
two years thereafter he was retained as law clerk in
the office of Judge M. H. Rhorer, of Middleboro, Bell
County, and he then received the appointment of official
court stenographer for the Twenty-sixth Judicial
District, whereupon he established his residence at
Pineville, Bell County, in 1909, his service as court
stenographer having continued from that year until
1912, in which latter year he established his present
general insurance agency at Pineville, as noted in the
opening paragraph of this review.
In addition to his substantial insurance business Mr.
Gilbert holds an interest in 280 acres of coal land in
Leslie County, this land having three veins of coal,
one of which is seven feet in thickness. His fine house
at Pineville was destroyed by fire on the 17th of May,
1921, but this property loss was of pitiful insignificance
in view of the fact that his two youngest children, Taylor
J. and Mary Helen, lost their lives in this tragic con-
flagration. He owns other realty at Pineville, and at
the time of this writing is completing a new and modern
house to take the place of his former home and to
be located on Walnut Street, one block distant from the
Court House.
Mr. Gilbert is aligned in the ranks of the democratic
party, and both he and his wife are members of the
Baptist Church at Pineville, in which he is serving as
a trustee. He is affiliated with Bell Lodge No. 691,
Free and Accepted Masons; Pineville Chapter No. 158,
Royal Arch Masons ; Pineville Commandery No. 39,
Knights Templars, of which he served as treasurer
from 1916 to 1921 ; and Kosair Temple, Ancient Arabic
Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, in the City of
Louisville. He is treasurer of the Kiwanis Club of
Pineville and a strong supporter of its progressive
civic policies. He took active part in all local war serv-
ice during the period of American participation in the
World war, served as fuel administrator of Bell County,
aided in the local drives in support of Government
bond issues, and made his individual subscriptions to
the varied war causes as liberal as possible.
At Middlesboro, Bell County, November 2, 191 1, Mr.
Gilbert wedded Miss Lydia Pool, daughter of David
and Lydia (McComas) Pool. Mr. Pool, who was born
and reared in Scotland, was a young man when he came
to the United States, and eventually he became a suc-
cessful carriage manufacturer in the City of Cincin-
nati, Ohio. His widow now maintains her home at
Goldsboro, North Carolina. Mrs. Lydia Gilbert was
graduated in the high school at Cincinnati and also in
the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. She was sum-
moned to the life eternal in July, 1919. and of her
three children only the eldest is living, Lydia Pool, who
was born September 9, 1912. It has already been noted,
in a preceding paragraph, that the two younger children
were burned to death in the fire that destroyed the
family home on the 17th of May, 1921, the tragedy
casting gloom and sorrow over the entire community.
The two children who thus sacrificed their lives were
Mary Helen, born January 9, 1917; and Taylor Joseph,
born November 17, 1918.
The second marriage of Mr. Gilbert was solemnized
at Middlesboro, Bell County, in November, 1920, when
Miss Fannie Jones, daughter of the late Lewis Jones,
became his wife. Mr. Jones was for many years en-
gaged in the wholesale grocery business in the City of
Louisville.
Ambrose Henry Witherspoon, M. D., of Lawrence-
burg, represents one of the oldest and most highly re-
spected families of Anderson County. In the medical
170
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
profession, banking and other affairs the name has been
associated with conspicuous honors and achievements.
The Witherspoons of Anderson County are direct de-
scendants of John A. Witherspoon, a signer of the
Declaration of American Independence.
About the year 1800 Lawrenceburg became the home
of two brothers, Dr. Lewis and Dr. John A. Wither-
spoon, who removed to Lawrenceburg from Franklin
County, Kentucky. They remained there enjoying an
extensive practice of physicians the rest of their lives.
They also invested heavily in land, and through their
wealth as well as their profession were men of the
finest influence in the community. Each of them had a
son who continued the professional interest and each
also had two grandsons to become physicians. Dr.
John A. Witherspoon's three sons were Oran, Allie and
Lewis, his son Oran becoming the physician,' while
the two grandsons of John A. who adopted the profes-
sion were Ezra, son of Oran, and John T., son of Lewis.
Dr. Lewis Witherspoon's five sons were John A.,
James, William Horace, Lister and Newton Holly. John
A. was the physician, and his three sons were Clarence,
Ambrose H. and R. Holly. James Witherspoon had
a son, Horace, who took up the medical profession.
Dr. Lewis Witherspoon named his oldest son in honor
of his brother, and these two — uncle and nephew — were
the founders in 1866 of the first banking institution at
Lawrenceburg, conducted by the firm of J. and J. A.
Witherspoon. Out of this pioneer institution has de-
veloped the present Anderson Xational Bank of Law-
renceburg.
Dr. John A. Witherspoon was for many years promi-
nent as a banker and man of affairs as well as a
physician. His probity was a byword, and during a
long and active life he represented a complete integrity
of action and character. Many troubles between his
fellow citizens were settled by him, his sense of justice
effecting reconciliation when all other means failed.
He was born at Lawrenceburg and spent all his life
there, and was a graduate of Jefferson Medical Col-
lege of Philadelphia. He was a strong Southern sym-
pathizer and always supported the men and measures
of the democratic political party, while his church was
the Baptist. Dr. John A. Witherspoon died in 1899, at
the age of seventy. His wife was Mary McKee, of an
old and highly respected Kentucky family.
One of their three sons and three daughters is Dr.
Ambrose H. Witherspoon, who was born at Lawrence-
burg March 27, 1870. He was educated in the schools
of his native town, the Kentucky Military Institute,
Georgetown College of Kentucky, and in his father's
alma mater, Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia,
from which he received the M. D. degree in 1894.
For six years he practiced at Lexington, but soon after
the death of his father returned to Lawrenceburg, in
1900, and his professional work, carried on through a
period of twenty years, has given additional prestige to
the family name. He is a member of the Anderson
County, the Midland, the Kentucky State, the Southern
and the American Medical associations.
Doctor Witherspoon is a democrat and a member of
the Baptist Church, is a Knight Templar Mason and
Odd Fellow. He married in 1894 MissFrankie Lillard,
daughter of the late Christopher Lillard, a prominent
banker and citizen of Lawrenceburg. Doctor and Mrs.
Witherspoon have two children. Eugenia, at home, a
teacher in the Lawrenceburg High School, and Emma
Adelia, wife of John Dowling Stuart, son of Dr. John
Stuart, and proprietor of the Stuart Home, near Frank-
fort, Kentucky. In the immediate Witherspoon family
there have been eight doctors and eight bankers. Of
the doctors there are but three living.
John Whittington Gilbert, M. D. For nearly half
a century the name Gilbert has been one of most hon-
orable distinction in Anderson County associated with
the profession and practice of medicine. Dr. J. W. Gil-
bert took up the profession after the death of his hon-
ored father, who had achieved high rank as a practi-
tioner.
John Whittington Gilbert was born at Lawrenceburg
September 19, 1880, a son of Dr. John Webster and
Aileen (Kavanaugh) Gilbert. His grandfather, James
Gilbert, was a native of Kentucky, and of a Virginia
family represented at the time of the Revolution by
soldiers in the Continental Army. Dr. John Webster
Gilbert was born and reared in Spencer County, Ken-
tucky, graduated in medicine at the University of Louis-
ville, and began practice at Fox Creek in Anderson
County, but subsequently removed to Lawrenceburg,
where his skill in his chosen calling earned him fa-
vorable distinction. He died in 1893, at the early age
of forty-three. He devoted his entire time to his exten-
sive professional work and never sought public or
political honors. He voted as a democrat, was a Baptist
and a Master Mason. His widow still survives him.
She was born and reared in Anderson County, repre-
senting an old established family in that part of Ken-
tucky. Her four children are Emrin Claybourn, John
Whittington, George Hubbard and James Freeman
Gilbert.
Dr. John Whittington Gilbert attended the public
schools of Lawrenceburg, finished his literary and clas-
sical education in the University of Kentucky at Lexing-
ton, where he graduated in 1901, and in 1904 received
his medical degree from the University of Louisville.
After eight months of practice in Mississippi he re-
turned to his native town of Lawrenceburg. During the
World war Doctor Gilbert was chairman of the Ander-
son County Draft Board. Incidentally it may be men-
tioned that not a single slacker is credited to the
county records. He is a member of the Anderson
County, Midland, Kentucky State and American Medical
associations, is a democrat, and fraternally is a Royal
Arch Mason and Odd Fellow. In 1913 Doctor Gilbert
married Miss Agnes McKee, daughter of Mr. and Mrs.
John R. McKee of Woodford County, Kentucky.
Doctor and Mrs. Gilbert have five children.
Lafayette Webster Ross. The Spencer County bar
has one of its oldest and most valued members in La-
fayette Webster Ross, who has practiced law at Tay-
lorsville nearly thirty years. Mr. Ross has likewise been
a leader in community affairs, and is a banker as well
as a lawyer.
Nearly all his life has been spent in Kentucky, though
he was born in Monroe County, West Virginia, August
22, 1865. His parents, John P. and Rebecca (Johnson)
Ross, were natives of the same section of West Virginia.
His father was born June 16, 1818, and his mother in
April, 1823. They were married December 31, 1840, and
continued to live in Monroe County, West Virginia, until
1867, when they moved to a farm in Oldham County,
Kentucky. In the meantime, throughout the period of
the war between the states, John P. Ross and his two
oldest sons were doing duty as Confederate soldiers,
the oldest son being a captain in the army. John P.
Ross otherwise spent his life as a substantial farmer.
He voted as a democrat, and he and his wife were very
devout Methodists, and were of that older generation
who maintained family worship as long as they lived.
These good old people spent their last days at LaGrange,
where the mother died July 9, 1907, and the father
November 6, 1907. Their eight children were Cornelius
P., Newton B., James F., Elbert C, Festus S , Pember-
ton J., Lafayette W. and Emma, wife of Frank Leak.
a prominent Louisville attorney.
Lafayette Webster Ross was two years of age when
brought to the farm in Oldham County, where he grew
up and acquired his common school advantages. In
1891 he was graduated from the Kentucky Wesleyan
College, now located at Winchester, and two years
later, in 1893, received his diploma from the Louisville
Law School. He at once located at Taylorsville, and in
that community has practiced law ever since, and has
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
171
always occupied the same office. Mr. Ross served six-
teen years, by election, as county attorney. He finally
declined to hold the office any longer, though later he
was appointed to fill out an unexpired term and is the
present incumbent. Altogether his service in that one
county office aggregates twenty years.
Mr. Ross has for the past twelve years been president
of the Bank of Taylorsville. During the war he was
Government appeal agent for the local Board of Ex-
aminers. He is a democrat and a Master Mason. In
1896, at Louisville, he married Miss Matty Harwood.
They have one daughter, Louise, wife of Robert Mc-
Dowell, of Louisville.
Charles Garrard Daugherty, M. D., has practiced
medicine at Paris for twenty years. He was born in
that city, and is member of a family that has some in-
teresting historical associations with Kentucky.
His parents were Charles A. and Anna Maria (Gar-
rard) Daugherty. His mother was a daughter of
Charles Todd Garrard, a granddaughter of Gen. James
Garrard, and a great-granddaughter of Governor James
Garrard of Kentucky. Charles A. Daugherty was a son
of James and Margaret (Canon) Daugherty, of Stokes
Parish, County Roscommon, Ireland. He came from
Ireland direct to Kentucky with Dennis Mulligan and
other early settlers of Fayette County. James Daugh-
erty was a contractor in building the turnpike from Lex-
ington to Georgetown, and afterwards became proprietor
of an inn at Georgetown. He was killed while trying to
quiet several unruly patrons, being then only forty years
of age. His son Charles was six years of age when his
father died, and the other two children were Mary C,.
who became Mrs. Johnson, and Michael Canon, who was
a Confederate soldier and is now a broker in New
York City.
Charles A. Daugherty learned the painter's trade, and
as a young man worked with C. W. Forshee, ex-mayor
of Lexington. One of the jobs on which he was em-
ployed under Mr. Forshee was the interior decorating
of Ashland, the home of Henry Clay. In 1866 Charles
A. Daugherty moved to Paris, where he became a paint-
ing contractor, and the business is still continued by his
sons. He died at Paris in 1911, survived by his wife
until 1920. They were the parents of the following
children : Charles Garrard ; James, who continues the
painting business founded by his father; Edward, who
died while a law student; Frank, a mechanical engineer
and vice president of the Scofield Engineering Company
of Philadelphia ; Garrard, a graduate landscape gardener
of Cornell University, associated in business with his
brother James; Helen, wife of Prof. J. Hazelrigg, of
Shelbyville; and Miss Anna.
Charles Garrard Daugherty after attending the gram-
mar and high schools of Paris entered Transylvania
College, graduating A. B. in 1896, and in 1899 received
his medical degree from New York University. He
also had two years of training in Bellevue Hospital,
and in 1901 returned to Paris and has been busily en-
gaged in his general practice as a physician and surgeon.
He is a member of the Bourbon County, Kentucky State
and American Medical associations, and also has other
social, civic and business connections.
In 1917 Doctor Daugherty married Miss Bessie Buck-
ner Holladay, daughter of Maj. John B. and Sally (Mor-
gan) Holladay, of Paris.
Edgar Thomas McMahan, M. D. While a physician
by training and by an active service of eight years or
more, Doctor McMahan eventually abandoned his pro-
fessional work because of impaired health, and for the
past fifteen years has been an executive officer in the
Peoples Bank of Taylorsville, where he formerly prac-
ticed medicine.
Doctor McMahan was born in Jefferson County, Ken-
tucky, December 5, 187 1, son of Peter A. and Milcha
Ann (Jones) Mc'Mahan. His father was of Irish and
his mother of Welsh lineage. Doctor McMahan grew
up on a farm and attended country schools and the
Southern Indiana Normal at Mitchell. For three years
his work was that of a teacher in Jefferson County,
Kentucky. In 1898 he graduated from the Hospital
College of Medicine at Louisville, and at once moved to
Spencer County, where his work as a physician and
surgeon continued until 1906.
In that year he accepted the cashiership of the
Peoples Bank of Taylorsville, and his service to that
institution has commanded the utmost of his time and
abilities ever since. The People's Bank was organized
in 1903, opening its doors for business on the 2d of
February. The original capital was $25,000, increased
in 1920 to $35,ooo. The surplus and undivided profits
of the bank in 1921 were $30,000. The bank has had
remarkably few changes in the personnel of its officers.
The first president was Joseph Tucker and the second
president was F. G. Greenwell, who is still acting head
of the institution. There have been two vice presidents,
Z. A. Carithers and G. B. Shindler. J. W. Hill held the
post of cashier until he was succeeded by Doctor Mc-
Mahan in 1906. The assistant cashier is B. O. Wiggin-
ton.
Doctor McMahan married in 1900 Miss Mary Carith-
ers, daughter of the late Z. A. Carithers. They have
two children, Anna Elizabeth and Mary Matilda. Doctor
McMahan is a democrat and is one of the leading lay
members of the Baptist Church, having for several years
served as moderator of the Taylorsville Baptist
Association.
William W. Booles. Former member of the State
Senate, William W. Booles for over a quarter of a cen-
tury has been actively identified with merchandising at
Taylorsville, and the character he has exemplified in
business and in public affairs undoubtedly makes him
one of the strongest and best known citizens of Spencer
County.
He was born in Monroe Parish, Louisiana, June 26,
1867. His father, Dr. James J. Booles, was a physician
and surgeon of more than ordinary ability, and also a
merchant and banker. Born near Griffin, Georgia,
Doctor Booles married Sarah A. Edmonds, a native
of the same state. Just before the Civil war they re-
moved to Monroe Parish, Louisiana, where Doctor
Booles had his home the rest of his life. He soon
joined the Confederate Army as a surgeon, and with
the close of the struggle resumed the private practice
of his profession. In later years he was prominently
identified with business and banking. His force of
character, his keen intellect, pronounced integrity and
congenial spirit combined to make his career one of
prominence and success. He lived to the ripe old age
of seventy-nine. He was a democrat, an ardent Baptist,
and his widow, who survives him at the age of eighty,
is of the same church faith.
William W. Booles, one of the five children of his
parents, grew up in Louisiana and finished his educa-
tion in Howard College Military School. Through his
later service as captain of a Louisiana company of militia
he derived the title by which he is always known among
his associates and friends in Kentucky. As a youth he
acquired a thorough experience in his father's store and
banking house, and to commercial affairs he has given
the best years and zeal of his mature manhood.
Captain Booles in 1892 married Miss Nannie Hough,
daughter of Charles Hough, a veteran merchant of
Taylorsville, Kentucky. In 1894 Captain Booles promi-
nently identified himself with Taylorsville as a member
of the dry goods firm of Charles Hough & Company.
With that old house he has continued his services now
for over a quarter of a century.
Captain Booles is one of the leaders in the democratic
party in this section of the state. He was in the State
Senate two terms, and while there did much to impress
the soundness of his business judgment upon the work
172
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
of that body. In 1916 he was a delegate to the National
Democratic Convention at St. Louis, when Mr. Wilson
was re-nominated. He has been a thorough admirer of
both the administration and personal character of Mr.
Wilson. Captain Booles for many years has been a
faithful member of the Baptist Church, and is a Knight
Templar Mason.
W. W. Kington. In proportion to its population there
is probably more industry and business at Mortons Gap
than any other town in Hopkins County. The initiative
and responsibility for this situation is due to W. W.
Kington more than to any other man of enterprise.
Mr. Kington is a past master in the art of coal mining,
a business learned from every practical angle of ex-
perience. For many years he has been one of the
prominent coal operators of this section of Kentucky.
He has been interested in most of the large mining
developments in and around Mortons Gap, and has made
his personal success redound to the improvement and
prosperity of the community. He is president of the
leading bank of the town, and one of its largest prop-
erty owners and most public spirited citizens.
His grandfather was Barney M. Kington, who was
born in the Cumberland Mountains, near Chattanooga,
Tennessee, in 1815. He came to Hopkins County, Ken-
tucky, about 1846, and was a pioneer farmer here. He
died in 1865, at Evansvil'.e, Indiana, while on a
business trip. His death was due to cholera. George
W. Kington, father of the Mortons Gap banker, was
born in the Cumberland Mountains of Tennessee in
February, 1839, and was about seven years of age when
the family came to Hopkins County. He was reared
and married here, spent several years as a farmer and
later as a coal miner. In 1875 he moved west to
Arkansas, and his subsequent fortunes were unknown
to his family. He married Susan O'Bryan, who was
born in Hopkins County in 1843 and died near Lex-
ington, Kentucky, in 1888. W. W. Kington is the oldest
of their children. Katie, the second, is the wife of
C. H. Sisk, a coal mine owner and operator living at
Mortons Gap. J. M. Kington is an employe of the Hart
Coal Corporation, lives at Mortons Gap, and was con-
nected with the Kington Coal Company for fourteen
years, until this business was sold by his brother \Y. \\ '.
Kington.
W. W. Kington was born near Mortons Gap, July
14, 1861. The only advantages of school he received
were at Mortons Gap, and most of his education has
been acquired by subsequent reading and business ex-
perience. He was only twelve years of age when he
went to work in the coal mines. His first employment
was with the old South Diamond Coal Company, and
his first duties consisted in greasing cars. He also was
a driver of coal cars in the mines, and other ex-
periences taught him practically every phase of the work
of an underground miner. He has held practically
every position in connection with the operation of a
coal mine. For several years he was also in the saw
mill industry, but eventually concentrated all his capital
and abilities in mine operation. In 1901 he established
the Kington & Wolf Coal Company, and operated their
mines four years. On May 5, 1907, he formed the
Kington Coal Company, was its president, and energeti-
cally developed its properties until the mines had a
capacity of 1,500 tons per day. At the height of the
season's production 350 men were working in and about
the mines. Mr. Kington sold his interest in this pros-
perous mining organization on July I, 1920.
In August, 1920, he incorporated the Kington Coal
Mining Company, whose properties are at Morganfield,
Kentucky, with business offices at Mortons Gap. Mr.
Kington is president of this company. In one respect
he probably has a unique distinction as a coal mine
operator in Kentucky, that he has never employed a
colored man in or around his mines.
The profits of his business career as a coal mine
operator have been wisely diverted to other enter-
prises, chiefly in his home community of Mortons Gap.
He was one of the organizers in 1907 and is president
of the Planters Bank of Mortons Gap. This institution,
conducted under a state charter, has a capital of $15,000
and surplus and profits of $9,000. Besides Mr. Kington
as president, Ben T. Robinson and W. D. Hill are vice
presidents and the cashier is G. E. Henry. Mr. Kington
is also president of the Mortons Gap Ice & Light Com-
pany, built the local plant in 1914, but sold out his
interests in May, 1920. Much of his capital has gone
into the practical building program of Mortons Gap.
He erected a substantial brick business block on Main
and Cross streets in 1904, selling that property July
1, 1920. He is owner of a public garage on Main
Street, and other real estate interests. He formerly
owned twenty-three dwelling houses in the town, and
disposed of them all but four; he has a farm near
Mortons Gap, and his own home is one of the best
residences of the town, at Walnut and Railroad streets.
For twenty-three years he was a member of the City
Council, is a democrat in politics, has been one of the
most active supporters of the Baptist Church, helping
build the church edifice, and is a trustee of the society.
He was a leader in promoting the success of local
campaigns during the World war and one of the
principal investors in Government securities himself.
Mr. Kington is a former member of the Independent
Order of Odd Fellows.
In 1883, in Hopkins County, he married Miss Emma
Lovan, who was born in that county in 1866 and died
at her home in Mortons Gap, June 17, 1914. Her
parents, James and Angeline (flankins) Lovan, are
now deceased. Her father was a native of Hopkins
County and spent his life as a farmer. Mr. Kington
had eight children. Katie, the oldest, is the wife of
O. J. Oates, a coal mine owner and operator living
at Madisonville. Willie G. is the wife of W. E. Davis,
who is associated with O. J. Oates in the ownership
and operation of the Pearless Coal Company. O. M.
Kington is secretary and treasurer of the Kington Coal
Mine Company, and owns a farm near Mortons Gap.
Rena Mae died at Mortons Gap August 5, 1920. She
was the wife of E. W. Jones, an employe of the Hart
Coal Corporation at Mortons Gap. Goebel is the wife
of Ries Trathen, of Mortons Gap, formerly an employe
of the Kington Coal Company and since July I, 1920,
manager of the Trathen Garage. Hammond L., who
finished his education in Bethel College at Russellville,
is interested in the Bulah coal property. The seventh
child, Marie, died at the age of eleven years, and the
youngest is George M., a student in the public schools.
Lewis Witherspoon McKee for over forty years has
practiced law as a member of the Lawrenceburg bar.
With the duties of an able lawyer be has combined a
wholesome and public spirited devotion to the public
welfare and has served in several elective offices, being
now county attorney of Anderson County.
Mr. McKee was born December 26, 1854, at Law-
renceburg, son of Joseph H. D. and Martha (Wither-
spoon) McKee. He represents an old and distinguished
American family. The record runs back to John Mc-
Kee, who was of Scotch-Irish lineage and who removed
from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, to Rockbridge
County, Virginia, the homestead in Virginia being still
owned by a descendant. His son was Robert McKee,
a native of Rockbridge County. The next generation
is also represented by Robert McKee, great-grandfather
of Lewis Witherspoon McKee. This Robert McKee was
born in Rockbridge County and was a Revolutionary sol-
dier, participating in the battle of Mount Pleasant, said
by historians to be the opening conflict in the frontier
warfare that marked the revolution. He was the
founder of the family in Kentucky, locating in Wood-
IP UJ%^aCZT
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
173
ford County, where his homestead is still owned hy the
family. Robert McKee was the father of John McKee,
a native of Rockbridge County. John McKee married
Elizabeth Crockett, daughter of Col. Anthony Crockett,
a Revolutionary hero.
Joseph H. D. McKee was born in Franklin County,
Kentucky, December 17, 1820, and died at Lawrenceburg
July 8, 1880. He was one of the able lawyers of his
time and generation. He represented his county in the
State Legislature, and was a soldier in two wars. Dur-
ing the war with Mexico he served as first lieutenant
in Captain Milan's Company of the First Kentucky Cav-
■ airy. In the war between the states he rose to the rank
of major in the Confederate army. Joseph McKee mar-
ried Martha Witherspoon, who was born at Lawrence-
burg, daughter of Dr. Lewis Witherspoon, in whose
honor her son was named.
Lewis Witherspoon McKee has always had his home
in Lawrenceburg. He acquired his early education there,
later attended the Kentucky Military Institute, and is
a graduate of a college at LaGrange, Missouri. He
studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1878, and
since then continuously has had an active practice in his
native town.
Mr. McKee served for several years in the National
Guard, being chosen a captain in 1883 and later receiving
promotion to major and finally to colonel. He was
elected county judge in 1882, and resigned that office in
1885 to make the successful race for the State Senate.
He was chosen county attorney in .1919. Colonel McKee
is a stanch democrat and a Royal Arch Mason.
In 1886 he married 'Miss Eliza Irwin, who died in
1919. Of their six children two sons were represented
in the World war. Andrew Irwin was a lieutenant in
the navy and Logan MeKee was a midshipman.
John Richard Paxton, present postmaster of Law-
renceburg, is a member of one of the oldest families
of Anderson County, and his own career has been one
of most honorable activity and relationship with that
section of the state.
He was born on a farm in Anderson County January
8, 1863, son of James Edward and Mary Elizabeth
(Thompson) Paxton and grandson of Richard H. and
Mildred (Burrus) Paxton. His great-grandfather came
from Virginia and as a pioneer located in Anderson
County, establishing a family that has given a splendid
account of itself in all subsequent generations. Richard
H. Paxton was born in Anderson County, and James
Edward Paxton was born there August 30, 1834, and is
still living at the age of eighty-seven, his active life
having been devoted to the basic pursuit of agriculture.
He is a democrat and a member of the Primitive Baptist
Church.
John Richard Paxton is one of ten children, seven of
whom are still living. He grew up on a farm, attended
the public schools of Lawrenceburg and Georgetown
College, and for several years was a successful and
popular teacher. He taught school in the intervals of
farming, but for the past twenty years his time has
almost entirely been taken up with public duties. Dur-
ing 1902-05, inclusive, he was sheriff of Anderson
County. He was master commissioner from 1906 to
1918. For about four years he was also in the grocery
business at Lawrenceburg. In the fall of 191 1 he was
elected a member of the Legislature, serving one term.
From 1912 to 1918 he was receiver for the Hoffman
Distillery Company of Anderson County. Mr. Paxton
was appointed acting postmaster of Lawrenceburg in
April, 1918, and was regularly commissioned as the in-
cumbent of that office in October of the same year.
He is a democrat, a member of the Missionary Baptist
Church, and is a Royal Arch Mason and for nine
years held the office of high priest in his chapter. In
June, 1886, he married Miss Mattie Arnold, a native
of Anderson County, daughter of Stephen and Amanda
("Settle) Arnold, her father a native of Franklin County
and her mother of Anderson County. 'Mr. and Mrs.
Paxton are the parents of two sons and six daughters:
Mary Lee, Sue J., Philip Allen, Mildred F., Katherine,
Richard H., N. Arnold and Annetta Ruth. Mrs. Paxton
is a member of the Baptist Church.
Alexander Dunlap Blaine, 'M. D. The dean of the
medical profession at Dry Ridge is Dr. Alexander Dun-
lap Blaine, who has practiced medicine there continu-
ously for over thirty years. His professional work,
other interests and activities have given him a busy
program of usefulness, and he has discharged all his
relations with the community to his honor and credit.
Doctor Blaine was born in Lincoln County, Kentucky,
February 7, 1867. His grandfather was Robert Blaine,
a cousin of James G. Blaine. The Blaine family came
from Scotland and was established in Eastern Pennsyl-
vania in Colonial times. Robert Blaine was born near
Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1824, was a graduate of the
University of Tennessee, and for many years was a
prominent lawyer at Stanford, Kentucky, where he died
in 1891. He was a republican and was twice a member
of the State Senate and twice sat in the House of Rep-
resentatives. He was in the State Senate when he died
as representative of Lincoln, Boyle and Garrard coun-
ties. The grandmother of Doctor Blaine was Fannie
Thompson, a native of Lincoln County and representative
of a pioneer family of the county. She died at Stanford.
The second wife of Robert Blaine was Catherine
(Hockins) Bell, a native of Fayette County, Kentucky,
who died at Stanford.
Capt. R. C. Blaine, father of Doctor Blaine, was born
in Lincoln County in 1844, and as a youth joined the
Union Army and was captain of Company F of the
First Kentucky Cavalry, under Col. Frank Wolford.
He participated in the battles of Perryville, Chicka-
mauga, Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, a number
of the engagements around Atlanta, and his regiment
participated in the capture of John Morgan in Ohio.
Following the war he returned to Lincoln County, where
he became a farmer and trader, and in 1870 moved to
Grant County, and continued an extensive business as a
farmer until 191 1. He was one of the influential men
who did much to keep up the republican party organi-
zation in the county, held the office of magistrate many
years, was several times a candidate in the strong
democratic county, for the State Legislature, and several
times was chariman of the Republican Executive Com-
mittee. He was an elder for many years in the Presby-
terian Church and long held the post of master of the
Masonic Lodge at Stewartsville. He is also a member of
the Grand Army of the Republic. Captain Blaine mar-
ried in Grant County Miss Annie Dunlap, who was born
in that county in 1849 and died there in 1873. She was
the mother of ten children: Alexander Dunlap; Fan-
nie, wife of John Flege, a farmer in Grant County;
Robert, who was a soldier of the Spanish-American
war, has widely and extensively traveled, and is a land
owner in South Dakota ; Will, a farmer with home in
Dry Ridge ; John, who owns a large farm and also a
grain elevator at Gettysburg, South Dakota ; Bettie,
wife of O. M. Paynter, a millwright living at Salem,
Virginia; Annie, wife of Robert Chilters, claim attorney
for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company at Cum-
berland, Maryland; Jennie, wife of Ernest Hardin, a
representative in the State Legislature from Wood
County, Kentucky ; Logan, a farmer and rural mail car-
rier at Dry Ridge ; and James, also a farmer at Dry
Ridge.
Alexander Dunlap Blaine was about three years of
age when his parents moved to Grant County, and he
lived on his father's farm there while attending rural
schools and also the high school at Williamstown. On
leaving the farm he entered the Kentucky School of
Medicine at Louisville and graduated M. D. in 1890
and in the same year began his professional work at
Dry Ridge. His offices are in the Simpson Building on
174
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
Main Street, and in his practice he has the advantage of
over three years' experience, combined with constant
study in professional lines. He is a member of the
Grant County, Kentucky State and American Medical As-
sociations, was a volunteer in the Medical Reserve Corps
during the World war, served on the committee for the
local chapter of the American Red Cross, and other-
wise played an active part in forwarding the local suc-
cess of war drives. Doctor Blaine was postmaster of
Dry Ridge during McKinley's administration. He is a
republican, a Presbvterian, is affiliated with Dry Lodge
No. 849, F. and A. M., Grant Lodge No. 78, I. O. O. F.,
Williamstown Knights of Pythias, and Oswego Tribe
No. 37, Improved Order of Red Men.
In 1896, at Dry Ridge, he married Miss Annie Mary
O'Hara, daughter of Charles and Ann (Nichols)
O'Hara, now deceased. The father was a manufacturer
of plows at Dry Ridge. Mrs. Blaine is a graduate of the
Millersburg Female College. They are the parents of
three children: Robert, born October 5, 1900; a student
of the Kentucky Wesleyan College at Winchester and
during vacations a tobacco buyer for the Reynolds To-
bacco Company ; Charles A., born May 10, 1906, a high
school student at Dry Ridge ; and Moreland, born
August 10, 1913, attending grammar school.
James Madison Bell Birdwhistell, a prominent
banker and churchman of Lawrenceburg, was born and
reared in Anderson County, is a member of a family
that has been represented in the citizenship there for
more than a century, and in his own career he has con-
tributed to the honorable associations of the name with
this community.
He was born on a farm December 6, 18^5, son of
William N. and Mildred (Smith) Birdwhistell. The
Birdwhistell family is of Scotch lineage. His grand-
parents were Thomas and Sallie (Scearce) Birdwhistell,
the former a native of Maryland, born near Baltimore,
and coming to Kentucky in 1818 and locating in Ander-
son County. He bought the farm which is now owned
by J. M. B. Birdwhistell. William N. Birdwhistell was
born, reared and spent his active life in Anderson
County as a successful farmer. His wife, Mildred
Smith, was born in Mercer County. Kentucky, daughter
of James and Mahulda (Bell) Smith, who came to this
state from Orange County, Virginia.
James Madison Bell Birdwhistell was reared on the
farm and there learned the valuable lessons of industry
and self reliance which have been productive of his
chief success in his mature career. He attended the
common schools, also the town schools, and in 1880
graduated Master of Arts from Center College at Dan-
ville. For several years after leaving college he taught
school, and for twelve years edited the Anderson News.
Following that for a few years he was in the insurance
business. 'Mr. Birdwhistell in 1910 became cashier of
the Citizens Bank & Trust Company at Lawrenceburg
With the consolidation of that institution with the Law-
renceburg National Bank in 1920 he was chosen vice
president of the latter institution.
Mr. Birdwhistell has never been active in politics,
though a democratic voter. As a boy he united with the
Christian Church, and in 1882 was elected an elder of
the Lawrenceburg Church. For nearly forty \ears he
has filled that office with ability and fidelity, and in 1921
rendered valuable aid as a member of the Finance
Committee during the construction of the modern and
handsome new church edifice, to which he was one of
the generous individual contributors.
Mr. Birdwhistell in 1886 married Miss Mattie Bond.
They had a happy marriage and an unbroken companion-
ship of twenty- four years, until her death in 1910.
Lili.ard Harvey Carter. During a membership of
nearly thirty years in the Lawrenceburg bar Lillard
Harvey Carter has attended to unusually exacting and
important duties as a lawyer, and again and again has
been called from his private practice to serve the com-
munity in some important public position.
He was born during a temporary residence of his
parents in Owen County, Kentucky, August 11, 1867,
and grew up on a farm. His great-grandfather, John
Carter, was a native of Virginia, and a representative
of the distinguished King Carter family of that state.
John Carter was a soldier of the Revolutionary war.
After the war he removed from Norfolk, Virginia, to
Woodford County, Kentucky. The grandfather of the
Lawrenceburg lawyer was Josiah Carter, a native of
Woodford County. Benjamin Carter, father of Lillard
H., was born in Woodford County and married Elmira
Linn, a native of that county and daughter of Horatio
Linn, who was a native of Kentucky and of Irish
lineage. The wife of Horatio Linn was a daughter of
Commodore Richard Taylor, a distinguished naval officer
in the Revolutionary war and also a pioneer of Woodford
County, Kentucky.
Lillard Harvey Carter was six years of age when
his parents returned to Woodford County, where he
was reared and where he acquired his early education
in the common schools. He received his Bachelor of
Arts degree from Kentucky Wesleyan College in 1890,
and in 1893 graduated in law frqrn Vanderbilt Univer-
sity at Nashville, Tennessee. The same year he was ad-
mitted to the bar, and has practiced without a break
at Lawrenceburg for nearly thirty years. The first po-
litical office he held was that of police judge. In 1896 he
was democratic presidential elector for the Eighth Dis-
trict, and in 1897 was chosen to represent the Tenth
Senatorial District in the State Senate. He was presi-
dent pro tern of the Senate and acting lieutenant gover-
nor of Kentucky in 1900-02. Mr. Carter in 1904 was
presidential elector at large for Kentucky, and in 1909
again yielded to the request of friends and was chosen
for a term as representative in the Lower House of the
Kentucky Legislature.
Mr. Carter is a Master Mason and a member of the
Presbyterian Church. In 1896 he married Miss Ger-
trude King, of Nashville, Tennessee. They have one
son, Nolan Carter.
John W. Milam, of Frankfort, is active head of the
business originally established and developed by his
father, the late Benjamin C. Milam. This firm, B. C.
Milam & Son, are manufacturers of "The Milam," the
original "Frankfort Kentucky" fishing reel, a perfected
device probably known to every follower of the sport of
fishing in America. These reels have been manufactured
by the Milams for over eighty' years. They have been
awarded four international first prizes and medals :
World's Fair, Chicago, Illinois, Fisheries Exposition,
Bergen, Norway, World's Exposition, Paris, France, St.
Louis Exposition, St. Louis, Missouri. They have been
used by three presidents of the United States, Grover
Cleveland, William McKinley and Theodore Roose-
velt. Joseph Jefferson was also a great admirer of this
reel, having four. A number of years ago a competing
firm began manufacturing what they called the Frank-
fort Kentucky reel, and finally the Milam Company
asked the courts for protection for their rights. The
case was argued before Chancellor Shackelford Miller,
later Chief Justice of the Kentucky Court of Appeals,
who on November 2, 1901, rendered an opinion asking
for an injunction in favor of the Milam Company. The
evidence brought out during the trial and the decision
of Judge Miller constitute an interesting history of
this famous reel and of the business of B. C. Milam
& Son.
Before taking up the facts brought out in this trial
something should be said of the Milam family in gen-
eral. The Milams are of Welsh descent. Moses Milam,
grandfather of Benjamin C. Milam, came from Wales
to this country and married Pattie Boyd, and their son,
John Milam, was born in Virginia in 1780, and at an
early date settled in Franklin County, Kentucky, where
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
175
he owned and operated a large farm of 400 acres. He
died in Franklin County in 1843. John Milam married
a Miss Bradley, who died in Franklin County.
Benjamin C. Milam was born in Franklin County,
near the City of Frankfort July I, 1821. He was a
nephew of Col. R. Milam, of Alamo fame, he hav-
ing captured the fort and delivered it to Travis,
Crockett and others. Mr. Milam was also connected
by blood relation to Richard M. Johnson, once vice
president of the United States. When about sixteen
years of age Benjamin C. Milam went to Frankfort,
and from the evidence adduced at the time of the
trial mentioned he soon became an apprentice with
Jonathan Meek, a Frankfort jeweler. In 1839 Jona-
than and B. F. Meek formed a partnership known
as J. F. & B. F. Meek, with B. C. Milam associated
with them. It was a watchmaker, Theodore Noel,
who had made a fishing reel at Frankfort about 1830,
and the manufacture of reels was an incidental part
of the business of the firm of J. F. & B. F. Meek.
B. C. Milam, not liking watchwork, took up the reel
business and developed the multiplying reel to its
present state of perfection, and devoted practically
his entire life to that business. In 1848 B. C. Milam
was taken into the firm, which became J. F. Meek &
Company, Mr. Milam doing all the work of making
reels. These reels were stamped "J- F. & B. F. Meek."
In 1852 the firm failed and Jonathan Meek removed
to Louisville, while on January 1, 1853, B. F. Meek
and B. C. Milam formed a new firm as Meek & Milam,
continuing the business of jewelers and reel making
at the old stand on Main Street. Mr. Milam had en-
tire charge of and did all the reel work on the second
floor above the watchmaking and jewelry establish-
ment. Their partnership agreement was to the effect
that upon dissolution the reel making outfit was to
go to Milam. By mutual consent the partnership was
dissolved in 1855 and Mr. Milam continued at the head
of the independent business on the second floor of the
old quarters. During the partnership the reels were
stamped "Meek & Milam," and after the dissolution the
reels had the same stamp until 1880, a period of twenty-
seven years, though Meek had no interest in the busi-
ness. During that time the Meek & Milam reel be-
came famous not only throughout the United States
but was known to the anglers of Europe. In 1882 B. F.
Meek removed to Louisville and began making a reel,
and in 1898 sold his business there to others who formed
a corporation to continue the manufacturing of reels.
Meek then returned to Frankfort.
The following quotation from the opinion of Judge
Miller reveals the important points in the legal con-
troversy and something further concerning the history
of the business itself: "The plaintiffs, B. C. Milam &
Son, now complain that the defendant corporation
B. F. Meek & Son, with the design and purpose to get
plaintiff's trade and to deceive the public is now and
has since its purchase from Ben F. Meek in 1898, been
manufacturing reels in Louisville, which it puts on
the market advertised as the original 'Frankfort, Ken-
tucky Reel' by reason, whereof, it is claimed the pub-
lic are deceived into buying defendant's reels as the
reels of plaintiffs' make. No one of the Meeks are in-
terested in or employed by the defendant corporation
B. F. Meek & Sons.
"Prior to 1882 the Meek & Milam Reel made in
Frankfort by B. C. Milam, had become generally
known in Kentucky as the Frankfort Reel and outside
of the state as the Kentucky Reel or the Frankfort,
Kentucky Reel, and was so advertised by Milam in
1882 and was so stamped by him in 1896. The de-
scriptive term or phrase Frankfort, Kentucky Reel was
first used by Milam. Furthermore B. F. 'Meek was
never engaged in the manufacture of these reels at
Frankfort after 1855, while Milam had been continu-
ously in that business at the old stand, 318 Main Street,
from 1848 to the present time, a period of more than
fifty years.
"The plaintiffs' reels have become famous during a
period of nearly fifty years of exclusive manufacture
at Frankfort, Kentucky — in fact they became so popular
as to be generally known and subsequently advertised
as the 'Frankfort, Kentucky Reel.' To allow the
defendant corporation to reap the benefit of the plain-
tiffs' long and honorable course in business by in-
directly naming or calling its reel made in Louisville
and as the Frankfort Reel or the Frankfort, Kentucky
Reel — something that Ben F. Meek, its assignor, never
attempted or claimed — would be in violation of the
broad and equitable rule of fair trade laid down in the
many authorities above cited."
Benjamin C. Milam died at Frankfort in 1904, sev-
eral years after his controversy was decided. Besides
his place as a manufacturer he was also a well known
banker, having helped establish and for many years
was president of the Deposit Bank of Frankfort. He
was a veteran of the Mexican war, having served as
captain of cavalry under Colonel Humphrey Marshall.
He was a republican, was two terms a member of the
city council, president of the council and mayor pro
tem, and was affiliated with Hiram Lodge No. 4, A. F.
and A. M., Frankfort Chapter No. 3, R. A. M., and
Frankfort Commandery, K. T.
Benjamin C. Milam married Martha Shockley. She
was born in Frankfort in 1826 and died in 1885. Her
father, Thomas Shockley was born in Franklin County
in 1783, spent his life as a farmer and died in Frank-
lin County January 21, 1850. His parents were Benja-
min and Sarah Shockley, early pioneers of Kentucky.
Thomas Shockley married Ann Stephens, born) in
December, 1790, and died November 23, 1876. She
was a daughter of John and, Martha (Faulkner)
Stephens. John Stephens was one of the real pioneers
of Kentucky. Born January 30, 1763, he came to
Kentucky from Orange County, Virginia, and settled
in the County of Franklin. He served as a soldier in
the Revolutionary war, took part in a number of In-
dian campaigns, and his was the first house burned
by the savages in Kentucky during the period of early
settlement. He was one of the garrison that de-
fended Bryant's Station near Lexington when that
place was besieged by Indians.
Benjamin C. Milam had two children, Annie and
John W. The daughter, who died in October, 1900,
was the wife of Uberto Keenon, who died at Frank-
fort October 16, 1920. Mr. Keenon was for a number
of years an official in the Deposit Bank of Frankfort.
John W. Milam, who continues the industry founded
by his father, was born at Franklin July 12, 1859. He
was educated in public schools and was prepared for
college in the private school of J. W. Dodd, but at the
age of seventeen left school to enter his father's
manufacturing establishment, subsequently became a
member of the firm B. C. Milam & Son, and for the
past sixteen years has continued the business as his
father's successor. The home of the firm now is at
222 West Main Street. Mr. Milam is also a director
in the National Branch Bank of Kentucky at Frankfort
and is president of the Frankfort Cemetery Company.
He was a captain of several teams to prosecute war
work and one of the generous Frankfort business men
who responded to all calls upon purse and time for
patriotic need. Mr. Milam is owner of much valuable
city property, including five residences, is interested
in a five acre tract within the city limits, and his own
home is a modern place at 325 Shelby Street. Mr.
Milam is a republican, was for two terms a member
of the city council and one term city treasurer. He is
treasurer of the First Presbyterian Church at Frank-
fort, is a past exalted ruler of Frankfort Lodge No.
S30 of the Elks, and a member of the Knights of
Pythias.
176
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
On September 12, 1888, at Hamilton, Ohio, Mr. Milam
married Miss Mary Vander Veer, daughter of Henry
and Sallie (Millikin) Vander Veer, now deceased,
and a granddaughter of Thomas Millikin, one of the
most noted lawyers in the State of Ohio. Her father
was in the real estate business at Hamilton. Mr.
Milam was seven years in military service, first as a
private lieutenant, and was commissioned captain in
1883 of the State Militia.
Ova B. Livingston. By the extent of his business
as a livestock dealer Ova B. Livingston is known all
over Hopkins and surrounding counties. His trans-
actions aggregate an immense volume every year, and
he probably consigns more carloads of livestock for the
distant markets than any other dealer in his section of
the state. Mr. Livingston comes from a race of sturdy
farmers, and has been identified with agriculture and
livestock industries from early youth.
He was born near Hanson in Hopkins County, October
24, 1877. The Livingstons are an English family, but
were transplanted to Virginia in Colonial times. The
founder of the family in Hopkins County was his grand-
father, Wiltse Livingston, who was born in North Caro-
lina in 1830. He was one of the prominent men of his
day in Hopkins County, and one of the county's largest
land owners and most extensive farmers. He always
affiliated as a democrat in politics. His death occurred
in Hopkins County in 1914. He married a Miss Wash-
ington, a native of Kentucky, who died in Hopkins
County. H. N. Livingston, father of Ova B., was born
in Hopkins County in 1856, after his marriage took up
farming, later moved to the Village of Hanson, though
still operating a farm, and since 1917 has lived at
Madisonville. He carried on farming on a large scale,
and for many years has been a tobacco dealer, and still
buys tobacco as a means of occupation for his leisure.
He is owner of one farm ten miles east of Hanson, but
has sold the greater part of his farming lands. He is
a democrat, and a very active member of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South. H. N. Livingston married
Henrietta Wilson, who was born in Hopkins County in
1856. Ova B. is their only son. His sister is Clara, wife
of J. W. Powell, city attorney of Madisonville.
Ova B. Livingston attended rural schools and the
Hanson High School to the age of twenty, and has had
an active business career for nearly a quarter nf a
century. For five years he owned and operated a farm
in Hopkins County, but in 1902 moved his home and
business headquarters to Madisonville, from which point
he conducts his extensive operations in livestock. He
buys cattle, horses, mules, hogs and other livestock, and
both winter and summer carries on extensive feeding
operations, getting his stock ready for market. He is
interested in a farm a mile north of Madisonville. He
is also a stockholder in the Peoples Bank at Hanson.
November 8, 1920, at the death of R. S. Hunter, Mr.
Livingston was appointed sheriff by party support of
his (the republican) party, which position he now holds.
Mr. Livingston went all over Hopkins County advo-
cating the sale of War Savings Stamps, was an in-
dividual purchaser of bonds and savings stamps to the
limit of his ability, and devoted his energies, beart and
soul to every patriotic movement during the great war.
He owns probably the most attractive bungalow resi-
dence in Madisonville, a brick structure with all the
modern conveniences. It is on East Noel Avenue.
Politicallv Mr. Livingston is a republican, is a steward
in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and has al-
ways been ready to do his part in community enterprises.
In 1898, in Union County, Kentucky, he married Miss
Mattie B. Slayton, a daughter of James B. and Mollie
(Edmonson) Slayton, retired farmers living at Sturgis,
Kentucky. Mrs. Livingston is a graduate of the Sturgis
High School.
Scott Brown. While a resident of Frankfort and a
well known business man of that city, Scott Brown
has concentrated his energies chiefly since leaving col-
lege to practical farming. His farm is four miles south
of Frankfort, and is a property that has been in the
Brown family for three generations, considerably more
than a century.
The Browns are a Scotch-Irish family that settled
in Virginia in Colonial times. The grandfather of
Scott Brown was also named Scott Brown, was a native
of Virginia, but in an early day came to Kentucky
and settled in Franklin County, where he obtained
land as a grant from the State of Virginia. He
lived on the old farm four miles south of Frankfort
until his death. He married Miss Munday, a native
of Virginia, who died in Franklin County.
The father of Scott Brown of Frankfort was Judge
Reuben Brown, who was born on the old home-
stead in 1822. He lived there and farmed for sev-
eral years, then moved to Bridgeport, Kentucky, where
he married, and from that location conducted farming
on an extensive scale, also studied law and practiced
his profession, serving one term as county judge of
Franklin County. He was a loyal democrat and an
active member of the Presbyterian Church. His death
occurred in Bridgeport May 7, 1895. Judge Brown mar-
ried Edna Mahall, born in Bridgeport in 1855 and now
living in Frankfort. She is the mother of six chil-
dren: John M., a truck farmer at Clearwater, Florida;
Lucy Ann, wife of Dr. J. O. Robinson, a physician
living at Spokane, Washington ; Scott ; Ray, a farmer
and magistrate living at Frankfort ; Harry, also a
farmer whose home is in Frankfort; and Bessie, wife
of Rev. Robert Cowan, a minister of the Southern
Presbyterian Church and located at Lexington, Mis-
souri.
Scott Brown was born at Bridgeport March 7, 1880,
attended the rural schools of Franklin County, and in
1000 received his A. B. degree from Central Univer-
sity of Richmond. Immediately on leaving college he
began farming, and owns 260 acres of the fine old estate
originally acquired by his grandfather four miles south
of Frankfort. He raises the staple crops of Central
Kentucky and goes in for stock raising on a considerable
scale. His Frankfort home is at 122 Todd Street. Mr.
Brown is manager of the Burley Tobacco Warehouse
Company of Frankfort, the largest tobacco warehouse
in Franklin County, and is a director of the State
National Bank of Frankfort.
He is a democrat, a member of the First Pres-
byterian Church of Frankfort, is affiliated with Hiram
Lodge No. 4, A. F. and A. M., Frankfort Chapter
No. 3, R. A. M., Frankfort Commandery No. 4, K. T.,
Oleika Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Lexington and
Frankfort Lodge No. 530 of the Elks.
In 1907, at Louisville, he married Miss Lillian Thomp-
son, who died in February, 1008. Her parents were
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Thompson, her fatber a farmer
in Woodford County. Mr. Brown married Miss Eva
Moorman at Mentone, Alabama, June 4, 1916. Her
parents are Charles and Luella Moorman, of Mentone,
her father being identified with the Southern Mausoleum
Company there. Mrs. Brown finished her education in
a Young Ladies Seminary in Alabama. They have
one daughter, Luella, born December 23, 1919.
James Rowley. For almost three quarters of a cen-
tury James Rowley has been known all up and down
the Ohio River. The Rowleys for a long period of
years had their home at Vanceburg, Kentucky, though
Captain James, Sr„ and Captain James, Jr., spent a
large part of their time devoted to their duties as
pilots and captains of steamboats. Captain James, Jr.,
is still in the service, one of the veterans of the Ohio
River traffic, and is now a resident of Dayton, Kentucky.
His, grandfather, Charles Rowley, was born in
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
177
Connecticut in 1789, lived in Virginia for a short time,
and as a young married man came West and settled
at Vanceburg, Kentucky, where he followed farming
until his death in 1874. He was eighty-five when he
died, and several of his sons lived to be almost equally
old. He married Amelia Tuttle, who was born in Con-
necticut in 1790 and died at Vanceburg, Kentucky, in
1875. Of their six children the oldest was George,
who left Vanceburg early in life, for many years
was a steamboat owner and captain on the Ohio River
and died at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, at the age of
eighty-four. Hiram, the second son, was a merchant
at Vanceburg, where he died at the age of eighty-
five. Benjamin, the third of the family, was also a
merchant at Vanceburg, and died at the age of eighty-
four. The fourth was Captain James, Sr. Miss Char-
lotte died at Vanceburg, and Eliza, the youngest of
the family, became the wife of George Thompson,
a merchant and speculator, and both died at Chillicothe,
Ohio.
Captain James Rowley, Sr., was born in Virginia in
1828 and was a child when the family moved to Vance-
burg, Kentucky, where he grew up and married. He
early became identified with the river traffic, and for
many years was a skilled pilot and steamboat captain
on the Ohio and Mississippi, and was in that work
when these rivers were the principal arteries of trans-
portation in the Middle West. He died at Vance-
burg in June, 1904. He was a democrat in politics,
a member of the Presbyterian Church, and a Knight
Templar Mason. Capt. James Rowley, Sr., married
Austa Ingram, who was born in Pennsylvania in 1835
and died at Vanceburg in 1918. Of their four children
Frank and Mary died at Vanceburg when children.
Captain James, Jr., is the only surviving son. Jane,
living at Vanceburg, is the widow of James S. Gardner,
who was a flour mill owner and operator and also a
steamboat owner at Vanceburg.
James Rowley, Jr., was born at Vanceburg in Lewis
County, Kentucky, December 8, i860, and his early
education was gained from public schools, private
schools and an academy at Vanceburg. On leaving
school at the age of eighteen he readily followed his
father's footsteps into steamboating on the Ohio, and
was quite young when he was given his pilot's license
and later promoted to captain. For many years Captain
Rowley has commanded boats up and down the Ohio,
and still has a run between Pittsburg and Louisville.
His home was at Vanceburg until 1919, when he
moved to Dayton.
Captain Rowley is a member of Harbor No. 26
of the Association of Pilot Mates and Masters at
Point Pleasant, West Virginia. He is a democrat, is
affiliated with Polar Star Lodge No. 363, F. and A. M.,
at Vanceburg, Burns Chapter No. 74, R. A. M., at
Vanceburg, and Maysville Lodge No. 704, B. P. O.
E. He did the part of an American citizen, using his
time and means and influence to promote all war
causes, in the conflict with Germany. Captain Rowley
owns a modern brick home at 114 Sixth Avenue in
Dayton.
He married at Vanceburg in February, 1887, Miss
Annie Carter, daughter of Thomas H. and Cynthia
A. (Trenary) Carter, now deceased. Her father for
many years conducted hotels at Vanceburg and Con-
cord. Mrs. Rowley for many years has made the
Presbyterian Church and its related activities one of
her primary interests in life. During the war she gave
a large part of her time and labors to the program
of the Vanceburg Chapter of the Red Cross.
Frank R. McGrath. The largest planing mill and
lumber concern in Franklin County is the Frankfort
Lumber & Manufacturing Company, of which Frank
R. McGrath is president and general manager. Mr
McGrath has been a carpenter, contractor, lumber
dealer and manufacturer ever since early youth, and
his career has been a record of steady progress toward
success. He is one of the leading business men and
citizens of the capital.
He was born in Rix Mills, Ohio, May 3, 1883. His
grandfather, Horatio McGrath, was a native of the
State of Maine, but spent most of his life in Morgan
County, Ohio. He was a carriage builder by trade
and died in Morgan County in 1880. He married
Margaret Keller, a native and life-long resident of
Ohio.
George K. McGrath, father of the Frankfort manu-
facturer, was born in Morgan County, Ohio, April
13, 1846, was reared in his native county, was married
in Guernsey County, and subsequently for seventeen
years was a carriage manufacturer at Rix Mills. He
then removed to Zanesville, Ohio, where he had a
Government post, in charge of the local office of the
canal, and subsequently was employed in a carriage
shop for four years, until he lost his right hand. After
this accident he lived at the Soldiers' Home at San-
dusky, but has recently removed to Frankfort, Ken-
tucky. He was all through the Civil war, joining
Company E of the Second West Virginia Cavalry,
this company later being consolidated with Company D
of the same regiment. He was in the Shenandoah cam-
paign under Sheridan, helped capture Stonewall Jack-
son's Corps, was at Petersburg in the battle of Five
Forks, and continued in service until Lee's surrender.
He is a democrat in politics, is a Royal Arch Mason,
being affiliated with Gauge and Gavel Lodge No.
448, A. F. and A. 'M., at Chandlersville, Ohio. George
K. McGrath married Sarah A. Hinton, who was born
at Claysville in Guernsey County, Ohio.
Frank R. McGrath spent most of his youth at Zanes-
ville, Ohio, though he also attended the rural schools
of Muskingum County. He graduated from the
County High School in 1900, and then as an apprentice
learned the carpenter's trade. He worked at his trade
six months at Barnesville, Ohio, and for twelve years
was at Zanesville, his one employer throughout that
period being C. O. Vincel. For three years he was
in the planing mill of the Herdman Sash & Door Com-
pany at Zanesville, and on leaving there he came to
Kentucky in 1912 and for a year had charge of the
planing mill of the McCormick Lumber Company at
Winchester. In 1913 he removed to Frankfort and
was superintendent of construction for the Capital
Lumber Company, two years later became vice presi-
dent of the company, and had supervision of both the
planing mill and construction department of the
business.
He resigned in 1917 from the Capital Lumber Com-
pany to give his time to army construction work in
the capacity of division superintendent for the Mason
& Hanger Construction Company. He helped build
Camp Taylor at Louisville and subsequently was as-
sistant to the general superintendent in the construc-
tion of the Gerstner Aviation Field at Lake Charles,
Louisiana. On returning to Frankfort in February.
1918, Mr. McGrath engaged in contracting and build-
ing on his own account, but in April, 1919, bought out
the Capital Lumber & Manufacturing Company and
changed the name to the Frankfort Lumber & Manu-
facturing Company. He is president and general
manager of the corporation, Mrs. McGrath, his wife, is
secretary and treasurer, and the vice president is Lam-
bert U. Suppinger. The offices, planing mill and lum-
ber yard are at the foot of Capitol Avenue. All the
mill work for the governor's mansion at Frankfort
was manufactured by this plant, and it has facilities
to meet practically every requirement for mill work
and general lumber supplies.
Mr. McGrath is an active member and deacon of
the First Presbyterian Church at Frankfort. He is a
democrat and is affiliated with Hiram Lodge No. 4,
F. and A. M., and has attained the Royal Arch degree
178
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
in Masonry. His modern home is at 219 Third Street.
On March 3, 1904, at Zanesville, Ohio, he married
Miss Lura Frazier, daughter of W. S. and Sarah
(Neeland) Frazier. Her mother is still living at
Zanesville, where her father, now deceased, was a
general contractor. Mr. McGrath lost his wife at
Frankfort in 1913. She was the mother of his four
children: Elma, horn in July, 1908; Gladys, horn in
September, 191 1 ; Harold and Hester, twins, born in
February. 1913. Mr. McGrath married Miss Elizabeth
Suppinger, of Frankfort, in 1917. She is a native of
Frankfort and daughter of Lambert and Emma (Kagin)
Suppinger, now deceased. Her father was an ice
manufacturer in Frankfort. To this union one daugh-
ter was born, Elizabeth, on February I, 1921.
Winston Bowen Henry, a well known business man
of Frankfort, has a worthy career to his individual
credit, and the interest attaching to his name is the
greater because of his membership in a family that was
established in Kentucky immediately after the Revolu-
tionary war. He also belongs to the distinguished
Henry family of Old Virginia.
The account of the family in America begins with
his ancestor Rev. Robert Henry, who immigrated to
America from Scotland in 1740, locating in New York.
He was a licentiate of the Synod of New York and
was ordained by the Presbytery of that Province in
1753. The New York Presbytery subsequently sent
him as a missionary to Virginia, and he located in
Charlotte County. He married the widow of John Cald-
well, her maiden name being Jean Johnson. She was
born on the Atlantic Ocean while her parents were
on their way from Ireland to America.
The next generation was represented by their son
Gen. William Henry, who was born in Charlotte
County, Virginia, April 12, I76r. At the age of seven-
teen he enljsted with the American forces for service
in the Revolutionary war. He was under the command
of the gallant Col. Harry Lee of Virginia and after-
ward with General Greene at the battle of Guilford
Court House March 15, 1781. In the autumn of 1781,
aliout the time hostilities ceased between the Colonies
and Great Britain, he left Virginia and came across
the mountain to Kentucky, accompanying his older
brother, Samuel. His place of settlement was on Salt
River in Lincoln County, where he employed his
skill as a surveyor and also located extensive tracts of
land. He himself became the owner of a large body
of land, and subsequently he removed to the banks of
the Elkhorn in Scott County. In October, 1786, General
Henry married Elizabeth Julia Flournoy. After their
marriage they settled on a tract of land about ten miles
from Lexington, on the North Elkhorn, and in that
locality General Henry established what was long
known as Henry's Mills.
One of the sons of Gen. William Henry was Mat-
thews Winston Henry, who was born January II,
1790. He carried on extensive operations as a farmer,
was interested in other lines of business, and at one
time was United States mail contractor between Louis-
ville and Nashville. He was in the War of 1812,
and served under Colonel Campbell in the finest troop
of cavalry ever up to that time raised in Kentucky.
He took part in the northwestern campaign and fought
in the noted battle against the British and Indians on
the Missisinewa River in Northeastern Indiana, and
for his efficiency was several times commended by
his superior officers. He died July 31, 1838, of conges-
tive fever at old Washington Hall in Bowling Green,
Kentucky. March 17, 1813, he married Juliette Pitts,
who died February 3, 1845.
This account brings the family record to the grand-
father of Winston Bowen Henry. His name was also
Matthews Winston Henry and he was born in Bowling
Green in 1818. He was a pioneer steamboat man, own-
ing a fleet of steamships plying between Louisville and
New Orleans. He was captain and pilot of his own
boat, and he died on a boat on the Mississippi River
in December, 1849, a victim of cholera. His home was
at Bowling Green. In 1838 Captain Henry married
Sarah C. Macey, of Frankfort.
Their son, A. C. Henry, late of Louisville, was
born in Louisville in November, 1845, and died in
that city September 12, 1919. He spent his early youth
and was married in Franklin County, where he owned
and operated a farm. He lived his last years retired
in Louisville. At the age of fifteen he volunteered
his services to the LTnion Army and was employed as
a messenger or courier. He was a democrat and 3
member of the Christian Church. A. C. Henry married
on November 5, 1867, Miss Emma Carter. She was
born in Franklin County in 1847, and is now living at
Louisville. Winston Bowen is the oldest of their
children and was born on a farm in Franklin County
August 1, 1868. The second, John Richard, born June
9, 1873, died at Cincinnati, April 14, 1896, but bis home
was at Frankfort and he was clerk and bookkeeper in
the office of the Henry Oil Company of Sistersvillc,
West Virginia. The third and youngest child, Corinne.
born March 7, 1883, has never married, lives at Louis-
ville, and is connected with the wholesale coffee and
sugar house of C. D. Kenney Company.
Winston Bowen Henry lived until twenty years old
on his father's farm in Franklin County. He at-
tended the rural schools and also the public schools of
Frankfort. He began his business career employed in
a lumber yard, and for a number of years was in the
office of his uncle, R. L. Henry, one of the greatest
lumber merchants of Chicago. He then took charge of
one of his uncle's yards located at Hiawatha, Kansas,
where he remained until 1897, and then returned to
Frankfort and for nearly a quarter of a century has
been extensively engaged in farming, buying and ship-
ping livestock. He owns a farm of 165 acres in Henry
County, and for his operation has leased extensive
tracts of land. Mr. Henry is a stockholder in the
Bain Moore Tobacco Warehouse Company, and he
and his son Lewis are engaged in the transfer business.
He spent much of his time promoting war causes, and
was chairman of the follow-up committee on all the
drives, and handled that work with a high degree of
credit, insuring the practical and successful comple-
tion of the various campaign funds. Mr. Henry is a
democrat and a member of the Christian Church.
His home is a modern brick residence at 400
West Second Street. On August 8, 1893, at Hiawatha,
Kansas, he married Miss Lula Knickerbocker, daugh-
ter of Lewis and Imogene (Jenkins) Knickerbocker.
Her parents reside at Verdon, Nebraska, where in
1919, with all of their eight children present, they
celebrated their golden wedding anniversary. Lewis
Knickerbocker has been a merchant for many years.
and is still in partnership with his sons, though practi-
cally retired. Mr. and Mrs. Henry are the parents
of two children : Winston Amey, the older, is a partner
with his father in the transfer business, lives at Owen-
ton, Kentucky, and was enrolled in the draft though
not called for active service. Lewis Alexander Henry,
who was born February 26, 1897, born at Hiawatha.
Kansas, is engaged in the transfer business at Frank-
fort. He is a graduate of the Frankfort High School
and the Louisville Training School, and also the Spen-
cerian Commercial School of Louisville. On August
15, 1918, he enlisted and was sent to the I. C. of C.
at Indianapolis, and was mustered out December 20,
1918. On June II, 1919, at Madison, Indiana, he
married Miss Viola Scruggs, daughter of R. F. and
Lula (Poindexter) Scruggs, who live in Frankfort
County, Kentucky, where her father is a farmer.
Lewis A. Henry and wife have one child, Ann Win-
ston, born April 30, 1920.
-rK ,
H-Nt)
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
179
Sherman Goodpaster, secretary and treasurer of the
Kentucky Jockey Club, and ex-treasurer of the State
of Kentucky, is one of the best-known and most popular
men of the commonwealth, and a highly respected and
influential citizen of Frankfort. His efforts in behalf
of clean sport are resulting in a class of events which
are not only satisfactory to all lovers of horse flesh,
but to other elements in the community which, were
matters conducted in another manner, might offer
serious objections.
The birth of Sherman Goodpaster occurred at
Owingsville, Bath County, Kentucky, November 16,
1880, and he is a son of C. W. Goodpaster, a grandson
of Levi Goodpaster, and a member of one of the first
families of Virginia, where the Goodpaster family
located upon coming to the American Colonies from
England. Levi Goodpaster was born in Bath County,
Kentucky, to which region the family had migrated
in very early days, and he died at Owingsville, that
county, before the birth of his grandson. For many
years he was a banker and a very prominent citizen.
Levi Goodpaster married Jane Allen, who was born in
Bourbon County, Kentucky, and died at Owingsville,
Kentucky.
C. W. Goodpaster was born at Owingsville, Kentucky,
in 1856, and has spent his entire life here, being now
one of the prominent attorneys of the city. He was
graduated from Transylvania University at Lexington,
Kentucky. In politics a democrat, he was elected
on his party ticket judge of Bath County, and was re-
elected at the close of his first term, serving in all
eight years. He is a member of the Christian Church,
and an active supporter of the local congregation of
that denomination. Fraternally he belongs to the
Knights of Pythias. In 1879 C. W. Goodpaster was
married to Miss Clara McAlister, who was born in
Bath County, Kentucky, in 1861. Their only child is
Sherman Goodpaster.
Growing up at Owingsville, Sherman Goodpaster was
given a liberal education, first attending the schools
of his native place and then becoming a student of the
University of Kentucky, now the Transylvania Univer-
sity at Lexington, Kentucky. In 1900, at the close of his
sophomore year he left the university and read law
in his father's office, and was admitted to the bar in
1901, beginning the practice of his profession almost
immediately thereafter at Owingsville, and remaining
there until 1912, when he was appointed state inspector
and examiner by Gov. James B. McCreary, and filled
this office for four years, during which period he
lived at Frankfort. He purchased a modern residence
at 101 Third Street, corner of Capitol Avenue, but
maintains his legal home at Owingsville. In 1915
Mr. Goodpaster was elected state treasurer, and as-
sumed the duties of the office January 1, 1916, for a
term of four years. About the same time he was
made secretary and treasurer of the Kentucky Jockey
Club, with headquarters at Louisville, Kentucky. Mr.
Goodpaster is a member of the Presbyterian Church.
For some years he has been an active member of
Mount Sterling Lodge No. 723, B. P. O. E.
On June 8, 1909, Mr. Goodpaster was married at
Mount Sterling, Kentucky, to Miss Anne Johnson, a
daughter of CoL Thomas and Elizabeth (Peters)
Johnson. Colonel Johnson was an extensive farmer
and prominent business man, but is now deceased.
During the war between the North and the South
he commanded a regiment in the Confederate Army,
and also served in the Confederate Congress. Mrs.
Johnson survives her husband and still resides at
Mount Sterling. Mrs. Goodpaster received a collegiate
education. Mr. and Mrs. Goodpaster have two children,
Sherman, Jr., who was born October 18, 1913; and Clara,
who was born April 2, 1917. A man of high standing
in the state, Mr. Goodpaster has made his influence
felt in numerous ways, and can always be depended
upon to live up to high ideals and do what he believes
to be his full duty no matter what personal sacrifice
may be entailed in so acting.
Robert Rodes Settle, treasurer of the Capital Trust
Company of Frankfort, has been in the banking
business practically ever since he left college, and
came to his present position after four years as a state
bank examiner.
'Mr. Settle is a member of a very distinguished
Kentucky family, and is a son of Warner E. Settle, a
judge of the Kentucky State Court of Appeals. The
career of Judge Settle and the record of the family
are the subject of a special article on other pages of
this publication.
The home of Judge Settle for many years has been
at Bowling Green, and in that city Robert Rodes
Settle was born November 15, 1877. He attended pub-
lic schools in his native city and in 1897 received the
A. B. degree from Ogden College of Bowling Green.
He served a thorough apprenticeship at Banking by four
years, in Potter's Bank in Bowling Green, filling nearly
every detailed office in that institution. Following that
for three years he was assistant cashier of the Ken-
tucky Title Savings Bank at Louisville. The next three
years he was with the Government Indian Bureau on
duty in old Indian Territory, while the Government
was allotting the lands to the Indians of the civilized
tribes. On his return to Kentucky Mr. Settle was
connected with the Fidelity & Columbia Trust Com-
pany of Louisville from 191 1 to 1913, and his service
as state bank examiner was during the years 1913 to
191 7. He resigned this state office to become treasurer
of the Capital Trust Company of Frankfort.
Mr. Settle was one of the active citizens of Frank-
fort working to promote the success of every war cam-
paign, and served as treasurer of the French Orphan
Fund. He is a democrat, a Presbyterian, and affiliated
with Frankfort Lodge No. 530, B. P. O. E.
Mr. Settle and family reside at 510 Shelby Street.
He married at Greensburg, Kentucky, June 11, 1914,
Miss Elizabeth Vaughn, daughter of W. W. and Emma
(Buckner) Vaughn, now residents of Frankfort. Her
father was a farmer and merchant at Greensburg,
Green County, for a number of years, and Mrs. Settle
is a graduate of the Logan Seminary at Russellville.
The two children of Mr. and Mrs. Settle are Emily
Vaughn, born March 27, 1915, and Shelley Rodes, born
November 26, 191 7.
J. Basil Ramsey has the honor of being one of the
youngest bank presidents of the State of Kentucky. He
was not twenty-seven years of age when he became
president of the Hopkins County Bank of Madisonville.
His banking experience began when he was just out of
high school, and he has employed his talents and op-
portunities to remarkably effective ends.
Mr. Ramsey was born in Hopkins County, on a farm
two miles east of Slaughters, February 15, 1893. His
paternal ancestors came from Ireland and settled in
North Carolina in Colonial times. His father, W. W.
Ramsey, was born in Whitesville, Arkansas, in 1858,
and in 1863 the family came to Hopkins County, Ken-
tucky, where he was reared and married and where he
spent the rest of his life as a substantial farmer. He
died on his farm seven miles west of Madisonville in
1905. He was a 'democrat and a very sincere member
and active worker in the Baptist Church. His wife was
Miss Ella Gilmore, who was born at Ashbyburg, Ken-
tucky, in i860 and died on the home farm in 1897. Lacy,
the oldest of their children, is a Hopkins County farmer;
Thomas S. is a business man at Mishawaka, Indiana;
W. W. Ramsey is an attorney at law at Vicksburg,
Mississippi; Jennie is the wife of Jesse Cobb, a farmer
at Slaughters, Kentucky; Basil is the fifth in age;
Charles S. is a lawyer at Akron, Ohio; and E. H.
180
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
Ramsey is in the creamery business at Johnson City,
Tennessee.
J. Basil Ramsey attended the rural schools of Hop-
kins County, and was graduated from the Madisonville
High School in 1912. Then, at the age of nineteen, he
began learning banking with the Farmers National Bauk
of Madisonville. There was no salary attached to his
service the first month, but beginning in the second
month he received twenty dollars as his monthly wage.
He had an ambition to become a good banker, and used
every opportunity to acquire knowledge and in three
or four years was assistant cashier. In 1916 he left
Madisonville to become cashier of the Farmers and
Merchants Bank of Slaughters, and was connected with
that institution until 1917, after the beginning of the
World war. His father's first cousin was the late F. D.
Ramsey, who left a large estate, known as the Ramsey
estate. While some of the heirs of this estate were in
the army, J. Basil Ramsey was called to take charge of
the management of the property, and he therefore re-
signed from the bank and handled the business effect-
ively until January 1, 1920, the date he was chosen and
began his service as president of the Hopkins County
Bank.
This is one of the strong banks of Hopkins County,
with resources well upwards of $1,000,000. It has
capital of $50,000, surplus and profits of $25,000, and
aggregate deposits of $750,000. The bank was estab-
lished in 1890, with M. R. Cotton as the first president.
The executive officials at this time are: J. Basil Ram-
sey, president; Ernest Nisbet, vice president; O. W.
Waddill, cashier; and A. R. Cummings, assistant cashier.
Mr. Ramsey is also vice president of the Chickasaw
Coal Company, is owner of a farm of 220 acres two
miles west of Earlington, and has financial interests in
about 500 acres of coal lands. While he had many
exacting business cares during the war he gave all the
time possible to assisting in war work, promoting bond
sales and auxiliary war work campaigns, and the
records of Hopkins County during the war show that
his name was on the lists for all the quotas. He is a
democrat in politics, and is now representing the Fourth
Ward in the City Council of Madisonville. He is church
clerk of the Baptist Church, is affiliated with Madison-
ville Lodge No. 143, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons ;
Madisonville Chapter No. 123, Royal Arch Masons;
Madisonville Commandery No. 27, Knights Templar ;
Rizpah Temple of the Mystic Shrine, and Madisonville
Lodge No. 738 of the Elks. Mr. Ramsey and family
live in one of the most attractively located and best
homes of the city, at 516 North Main Street. He mar-
ried in 1916, at Louisville, Kentucky, Miss Julia Sisk.
Her parents, both now deceased, were F. B. and Mary
(Day) Sisk. Her father was an extensive farmer and
at one time manager of the farming properties of the
St. Bernard Mining Companies. Mrs. Ramsey finished
her education in Georgetown College and in the West
Kentucky Normal College at Bowling Green. They
have one daughter, Julia Gilmore, born November 24,
1918.
William Horace Posey, vice president and general
manager of the Capital Trust Company of Frankfort,
is a lawyer by profession and has been an honored
member of the bar in Franklin County for over thirty
years. He represents an old and prominent family of
Anderson County, where the name was established in
early pioneer times. The Poseys came from England
and settled in Virginia, but Mr. Posey's great-grand-
father, James Posey, came to Anderson County, Ken-
tucky, from Westmoreland County, Virginia, and was
a Kentucky planter and farmer. The grandfather of
the Frankfort banker and lawyer was Jeremiah Buckley
Posey, who was born in Anderson County, where he
spent his active life as a farmer. He died in Clay
County, Missouri, in 1835, but was brought back to
Kentucky and buried near Clifton in Anderson County.
He married Lucretia Walker, a native of Anderson
County, who also died in Clay County, Missouri.
The father of William H. Posey was Judge James
M. Posey, who was born in Anderson County in 1832
and died at Lawrenceburg in 1907. He lived practically
all of his life at Lawrenceburg and was a man of
great prominence both as a lawyer and public official.
He finished his education in the Ohio Wesleyan Uni-
versity at Delaware, and immediately after the Civil
war served for eiglit years as County Court clerk, was
for sixteen years, four terms, county judge of Ander-
son County, was for four years deputy collector of
internal revenue of the Eighth Internal Revenue Dis-
trict, and enjoyed many other distinctions and honors
in his home community. He was a lifelong Baptist and
a member of the Masonic fraternity. Judge Posey
married Miss Lorinda Montfort, who was born in An-
derson County in 1835 and died at Lawrenceburg in
1892. Judge and Mrs. Posey had a family of nine
children, their names being as follows : Mary W.,
who died at Fresno, California, in 1914, was the wife
of A. W. Reiss, of Fresno; William Horace, the
second; Owen Breckinridge, who died in infancy; Lu-
cretia, wife of Stephen Ross, of Fresno, California;
James Albert, a dentist at Frankfort; Eloise, wife of
F. H. Connelly, a real estate broker at Fresno ; Edward
M., in the stock and bond business at Chicago; Charles
Rowland, who has distinguished himself by his ex-
traordinary business energies, is manager at Baltimore,
Maryland, of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of
New York; and Thomas H. is a dentist at Lawrence-
burg.
William Horace Posey was born in Anderson County
June 17, 1858, was educated in the public schools of
Lawrenceburg and at Central University, Richmond,
Kentucky, and studied law at Frankfort under Gen.
D. W. Lindsey. He was admitted to the bar in June,
1881, and quickly found a place in the local bar in
proportion to his considerable talents and abilities and
had a widely extended general practice for a quarter of
a century. Besides his private practice he served as
master commissioner of the Franklin Circuit Court
from October, 1886, until January 1, 1907.
Mr. Posey was one of the organizers and incor-
porated the Capital Trust Company in 1905, and as
vice president and general manager has given most of
his time to this well known financial institution for the
past fifteen years. He was closely associated with the
group of Frankfort citizens who insured the success in
their locality of all the war drives and campaigns.
He is a democrat, a member and trustee of the First
Baptist Church of Frankfort, is affiliated with Frankfort
Lodge No. 530 of the Elks, and a member of Frank-
fort Chamber of Commerce. His home is at 124
West Todd Street.
Mr. Posey married at Versailles, Kentucky, June 21,
1883, Miss Annie Berryman, daughter of James T. and
Theresa (Willis) Berryman, now deceased. Her father
was a merchant at Clifton, Kentucky. Mr. and Mrs.
Posey have two daughters: Genevieve, wife of George
M. Gayle, a Frankfort druggist; and Edith, whose hus-
band, James W. Montgomery, is manager of Frank-
fort's leading industry, the Hoge-Montgomery Company.
Joseph F. Le Bus, a brother of Kentucky's great
apostle of advanced agriculture Lewis Le Bus, was also
successfully identified with farming though the greater
part of his life he devoted to educational affairs, and
was one of the constructive forces in Kentucky schools
for many years.
Joseph F. Le Bus, who died at his home in Harrison
County in 1916, was born October 26, 1838, six miles
west of Lisbon, Columbiana County, Ohio, a son of
Seraphin and Anna Maria (Hipscheerling) Le Bus.
The father was born in Alsace, France, in 1800, and
died in Columbiana County, Ohio, at the age of sixty-
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
181
eight years. The mother was born in Switzerland, at
the foot of Jura Mountains, in 1803, and she died in
1838. They were married in 1824 and came to the
United States in 1826, spent a short time in Buffalo,
New York, and Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and then lo-
cated in Columbiana County, Ohio, in 1828. Their four
sons were: Andrew, Anthony, 'Lewis and Joseph F.
The house in which Joseph Le Bus was born was
built by his father in the woods and consisted of logs
covered originally with clapboards and consisted of
four rooms, but before the son Joseph was born a
kitchen was added. The farm consisted of eighty acres,
every foot covered with forest trees at the time he
purchased it. Adjacent to the house his father built
a large barn of logs, which was covered with straw,
and about a hundred yards from the house flowed a
large spring of soft water. When Joseph F. Le Bus
was twelve years old his father sold the farm for
$2,000, after having cleared, fenced and cultivated sixty
of the eighty acres.
When young Joseph was six years old his father sent
him to the district school, where he obtained the rudi-
ments of a common school education. Though very
reluctant to go to school when he was first sent out
from home, the lady who taught the school was kind
and considerate to him and presented him a picture of
a bird which she had drawn on a piece of paper, and
after amusing him in various other ways the first
week he formed an attachment for his teacher, became
reconciled to the duties and confinement of the school-
room and ever after, during the six sessions that he
attended the school, he learned and recited his lessons
with pleasure. At the age of fourteen his father sent
him to St. Vincent's College, forty miles east of Pitts-
burg, Pennsylvania, near the Pennsylvania Railroad,
the Town of Latrobe, of some 500 people, being the
nearest station and postoffice. This was in 1852, and
Mr. Le Bus graduated five years later at the head of
a class of nine pupils. After leaving college, having
been informed by his brother Lewis Le Bus, then
engaged in teaching in Harrison County, Kentucky,
that there was an opening in Kentucky for teachers,
he went early in September, 1857, on a visit to his
brother, then at Oddville, and on the first of October of
that same year made application as a teacher in an
adjoining district and commenced his first school.
Mr. Le Bus taught two consecutive sessions in this
district, and when vacation came on he procured em-
ployment in a country store in Harrison County. In
the following September he went to Covington, Ken-
tucky, where he was called to teach in a private school
where the higher branches were being taught. This
school, however, proved unsuccessful on account, prin-
cipally, of the excitement and agitation which spread
throughout the land owing to the general apprehension
that the country was verging into an abyss of a civil
war. While teaching this school his brother Lewis in-
formed him that he intended to marry and go to
housekeeping, and invited him to make his home with
him until the excitement spreading throughout the
country should subside. A short time after going to
his brother's he was solicited by the patrons of the dis-
trict where he taught his first school to undertake a
private school for the benefit of the advanced pupils
in the district whose education had been neglected owing
to the general agitation which permeated society every-
where. After the close of the session, when the ex-
citement had somewhat abated, the patrons of the dis-
trict unanimously solicited him to continue school for
the benefit of all the children in the district, and so
prosperous had the school grown that Mr. Le Bus con-
tinued it until 1862. On the 17th of July of this year
General Morgan made his appearance in Cynthiana,
Kentucky, accompanied by several thousand troopers,
and the uproar and general chaos that ensued so de-
moralized the population that the schools of Harrison
County became disorganized and very little attention
was paid to educational matters until the close of the
war. Not finding employment in his chosen vocation,
he returned to the county of his birth in the autumn
of 1862, with a view to securing a situation in one of
the schools of the county. The bridges and great por-
tions of the Kentucky Central Railroad having been
demolished by the forces of General Kirby Smith of the
Confederate Army on his march to Cincinnati, Mr. Le
Bus was compelled to ride on horseback to Augusta,
Kentucky, from where he could take a boat to Cincin-
nati. On his way to Augusta, about three miles north of
Claysville, he encountered the army of General Mor-
gan, then under the command of Gen. Basil Duke, on
its way from Augusta to Cynthiana. General Duke in-
formed him that he had had a severe engagement with
the Federal troops stationed in and around Augusta,
had defeated them, and that the greater portion of
Augusta had been burned to the ground. General
Duke took along with him about 500 prisoners whom
he had captured during the battle, but on being in-
formed that a large Federal force was concentrating
in Cynthiana for the purpose of marching against
him, he told the prisoners to remain in Claysville, where
they were paroled.
Mr. Le Bus remained in Cynthiana about one month,
and started on his way to Columbiana County, Ohio,
to the home of a brother, and remained with him until
he secured a situation in one of the schools of the
county. After completing his session, about the 1st
of April, 1863, he visited his father, who was then liv-
ing in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, near the
college he had left five years before. He remained
with his father until August of that year, when, hav-
ing heard that Kentucky was no longer the battleground
of the contending armies, and having been invited to
resume his school in the district of his first work, he
returned to Kentucky once more and continued teach-
ing in the same district until 1864.
He was then called to take charge of a private school
at Newport, Kentucky, where he taught until July
I, and during vacation, from July 1 to September 1, he
was engaged as an agent and clerk for a wholesale book
store in Cincinnati, Ohio. On September 1 he returned
to Newport to resume school, but after one week was
taken with typhoid fever, which confined him in a
hospital for two months. In the meantime 'Mr. Le Bus
requested a friend of his, who was out of a situation,
to take the school which he was compelled to give
up. As soon as he was able to leave the hospital and
upon the invitation of his brother he went to Odd-
ville, and remained with him until he regained his
strength, when he was again called upon by the whole-
sale firm in Cincinnati for which he had worked dur-
ing the summer to canvass the cities of Cincinnati, Cov-
ington and Newport and Indianapolis, Indiana. Mr.
Le Bus remained in this business until April, 1865,
and returned to Cincinnati the morning before the
assassination of President Lincoln. Mr. Le Bus wit-
nessed during the war many strange scenes and passed
through many periods of excitement, but the state of
public feeling in Cincinnati when the news of President
Lincoln's assassination came to the city surpassed all
he ever witnessed before or after.
Having heard that the residence of Doctor Fries of
Cincinnati had been visited and demolished by a mob
because he was a southern sympathizer, during the
evening of the next day after his arrival he walked
around to call upon Doctor Fries, whom he had known
as a boy in his native state, but a policeman who was
on guard to protect the family would not permit him
to enter the building. After remaining a week in
Cincinnati Mr. Le Bus again went to his brother Lewis,
living on his farm near Oddville, and about the 1st of
May visited some friends in Nicholas County, and
while there was prevailed upon to open a private school,
which he did, teaching until the close of the autumn
session in 1865, and then returned to Oddville, where
182
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
lie was but a few days when he was prevailed upon
ti> teach the district school of that place, which had
just been reorganized. At the close of that session he
was called upon by the leading citizens of the neighbor-
hood about four miles east of Cynthiana, who had
erected a new school house, to take charge of the
school there.
Mr. Le Bus was engaged from year to year in the
duties of teaching at this place until the fall of 1869,
when he was requested to take charge of the general
school interests of Harrison County, and for this pur-
pose he was appointed by the county judge as super-
intendent. At the time when he took charge very few
of the schools had been reorganized, and he was com-
pelled to visit every part of the county for the purpose
of laying out districts, defining their boundaries and
seeking teachers to take charge of the various schools.
In this work he was re-elected superintendent four
terms, serving eight years in all.
While in this office, on September 14, 1871, Mr.
Le Bus was married at Lexington, Kentucky, to Miss
Nannie Kinbrough. Shortly after their marriage she
was engaged to teach in the district in which Oddvilte
was situated, and she was assisted by Mr. Le Bus, as it
was a large school with the older pupils. At the close
of this session Mr. Le Bus purchased a farm on
"Gray's Run," about two miles west of Cynthiana, and
gave his attention to farming, while at the same time
he superintended the schools of Harrison County. At
the close of his last term he concluded to give his
whole time to farming, and purchased from time to
time tracts of land, aggregating 300 acres.
Mr. Le Bus was one of the best educated men in
Harrison County. He was a deep reader and a student
all his life, a man of fine personality, and his wife
was a lady of the old school. She was born May 18,
1850, in Harrison County, on the Leesburg Pike, a
daughter of John M. and Susan (Jones) Kinbrough.
The father was born in Harrison County, and died on
January 21, i860, at the age of sixty-three years, and
the mother, born in Nicholas County, died in 1881,
aged seventy years. They were of old and prominent
families and became the parents of ten children. Mr.
and Mrs. Le Bus had thirteen children : Mary Law-
rence, born May 25, 1872, and died at the age of twelve
years ; Samuel Kinbrough, born August 13, 1873, mar-
ried and has one son, Joseph F. ; Joseph S., born
January 4, 1875; Lewis S., born May 5, 1876; Susan
Elizabeth, born November 18, 1877 ; John H., born
January 22, 1879, died January 22, 1910; Charles B.,
born September 8, 1880 ; Francis H., born in January,
1882; Anna P., born January 10, 1884; Gertrude, born
November 2, 1885, wife of T. S. Terry; Edward L.,
horn March 10, 1887: Lena \V., born April 3, 1888;
and Linus L., born in February, 1891.
Frank Le Bus, farmer and farm owner of Harrison
County, has through his personal abilities contributed
something of the great reputation long enjoyed by
the name Le Bus in Kentucky agriculture and affairs.
The life story of his honored father, the late Joseph
F. Le Bus, is given on preceding pages. He is a
cousin of Clarence Le Bus, of Lexington, under whose
name will be found other facts that establish the iden-
tity of the family as one of prominence in Kentucky
affairs.
Frank Le Bus was born in Harrison County January
22, 1882, and grew up on his father's old homestead
two miles west of Cynthiana. He was given every
encouragement to acquire a good education in country-
schools and also attended Professor Smith's High
School at Cynthiana. After leaving school he spent
a year as a farmer in the home locality, and then
became associated with his cousin, Clarence Le Bus,
of Lexington, as manager of his business, and for fif-
teen years was engaged in superintending the extensive
properties of Clarence Le Bus. In the meantime he
acquired land of his own, and owns good farming
properties both in Harrison and in Bourbon counties.
He is secretary-treasurer of the Cynthiana Tobacco
Warehouse Company and is a director of the Farmers
National Bank of Cynthiana.
In December, 1909, Mr. Le Bus married Bettie Belle
Goodwin, who was born in Fayette County and is a
graduate of Hamilton College at Lexington. Mr. and
Mrs. Le Bus have one son, William Frank, born Apr:
17. 1914. They are members of the Presbyteria:
Church, and he is a democrat and has served as a loca!
magistrate.
William H. Hoce is one of several men who have
given well earned distinction to that name in the busi-
ness affairs of Frankfort. Mr. Hoge has been a resi-
dent of Frankfort for upwards of forty years, was
formerly in the coal business, but for several years
past has been an extensive oil operator in the Eastern
Kentucky fields.
Mr. Hoge was born at Staunton, Virginia, November
8, 1863. He is of Scotch ancestry and his grandfather,
Peter Charles Hoge, was born in Albemarle County,
Virginia, in 1809, was a Baptist minister and spent
the greater part of his life in Scottsville, Virginia,
where he died July 17, 1876. He married Sarah Kerr
in 1829. She was born in Virginia, October 30, 1810,
and died September 10, 1872. The sixth among their
thirteen children was John B. Hoge, born at Scottsville
November 30, 1838. For many years he was a mer-
chant at Staunton, Virginia, a leading member of the
Baptist Church, and died while visiting in Frankfort,
Kentucky, April 17, 1919. He married Fannie Jor-
dan, who was born in Rockbridge County, Virginia, in
1844, and is now living at Frankfort. Of her ten chil-
dren William H. is the oldest, and the others are:
Charles K., assistant cashier of the National Valley
Bank at Staunton; Walter D., secretary to the super-
intendent of the Deaf, Dumb and Blind Institute of
Virginia at Staunton; Eugene E., president of the
State National Bank at Frankfort; John M., of Staun
ton; Emma Elizabeth, wife of Stewart Webb, of Balti
more; H. Jordan, secretary of the Hoge-Montgome
Company at Frankfort; George T., of Detroit, Michi
gan ; M. Guntber. of Staunton; and Ernest C, con-
nected with the Hoge-Montgomery Company at Frank-
fort-
William H. Hoge was educated in the pubile schools
of Staunton, Virginia, and finished his sophomore year
in Richmond College at Richmond, Virginia. Leaving
school in 1881, he came to Frankfort, Kentucky, and
for a time was associated with the C. R. Mason Com-
pany, the first lessees of the Kentucky Penitentiary.
He then became identified with the great contracting
firm of Mason-Hoge Company and helped construct
the old Kentuky Union Railroad, now the Louis-
ville & Nashville, between Clay City, Kentucky, and
Jackson in Breathitt County. While with this firm he
helped construct the big twin tunnel in Breathitt County.
After 1890 for two years Mr. Hoge had a large con
tract for improvement of streets in the City of Staun
ton. Returning to Kentucky, he operated a farm i:
Clark County, near Winchester, for three years, an
then engaged in the coal business at Frankfort as
partner with S. Black. After three years he bough
his partner's interest and continued under the nam
of the Hoge Coal and Feed Company for eighteei
years, finally selling out to the Frankfort Ice Compan;
in 191 7. Mr. Hoge was in the coal business fo:
twenty-one years.
Since 1917 he has directed his enterprise and capii
largely to oil operations, and is interested in extensiv
and valuable holdings in Allen and Warren counties.
He is president of the Hoge Oil and Gas Company of
Frankfort and is president of the McKinney Electric
Company of Frankfort.
Mr. Hoge was honored with election as the first presi-
le
!
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
183
dent of the Frankfort Chamber of Commerce. He is
a member of the present City Council, and for sixteen
years was a member of the city school board. Some
of his property interests include five residences in Frank-
fort, a business block on Bridge Street, a farm
\l/z miles west of Frankfort, besides his own modern
home, one of the most substantial in the city, at Main
and Wilkins streets. Mr. Hoge is a democrat, a dea-
con in the Baptist Church, and is affiliated with Hiram
Lodge No. 4, A. F. and A. M., Frankfort Chapter No. 3,
R. A. M., and Frankfort Lodge No. 530 of the Order
of Elks.
He married at Winchester, Kentucky, in 1890, Miss
Calloway Timberlake, daughter of William and Betty
(French) Timberlake, now deceased. He father owned a
large farm in Kenton County, but spent his last years in
retirement at Winchester. Mr. and Mrs. Hoge have two
children: Mary T., at home, finished her education
at Fairmount Seminary in Washington, D. C. James
F., the son, is a graduate of the Kavanaugh Higli School
at Laurenceburg, Kentucky, with the class of 1919, and
is associated with the McKinney Electric Company.
Edwin Claiborne Walton was about fifteen years
of age when his father died, and from that time to the
present, forty years, he has been almost continuously
in the printing and newspaper business. He has owned
and edited papers in other states, but his name is best
known in Kentucky journalism. He is proprietor and
editor of the Interior Journal at Stanford and is also
master commissioner for Lincoln County.
Mr. Walton was born in Hanover County, Virginia,
September 23, 1866. His father, Thomas R. Walton,
was born in Louisa County of the same state in 1823,
was reared and married there, and then moved to
Hanover County, where he spent the rest of his life
as a farmer. He was all through the war between
the states as a Confederate soldier, voted as a demo-
crat both before and after the war, and gave his loyal
support to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
He died in Hanover County in 1881. His wife was
Isabella Turner, who was born at New Orleans, Louis-
iana, in 1827, and died in Hanover County, Virginia,
in 1877. Of their children W. P. Walton also became
a well known newspaper man in Kentucky, was for
many years editor of the Interior Journal at Stan-
ford and for seven years was editor of the Lexington
Democrat and was connected with other Kentucky
papers. He died at Lexington February 20, 1920, at
the age of sixty-nine. Emma Lee, the second child,
lives at Ashland, Virginia, widow of I. N. Vaughan,
who was a tobacconist at Richmond. T. R. Walton
was in the grocery business at Atlanta, Georgia, and
died 'March 10, 1920.
Edwin Claiborne Walton was reared on his father's
farm in Hanover County. His early boyhood coin-
cided with the depressing economic period following the
Civil war, and as soon as old enough he had to work
in the fields and his opportunities to attend rural
schools aggregated only 1 1/2 years all told. After
his father's death in 1881 he came to Kentucky
and lived with his brother, W. P. Walton. He went to
work in the office of the Interior Journal and learned
typesetting and all the other duties of a country news-
paper. A newspaper office has been abundantly proved
a university in opportunity for acquiring an education,
and while he diligently made use of these advantages
he carried on other studies alone and for about six
months attended public school at Stanford. He be-
came a proficient journeyman printer, for several
years was business manager of the Interior Journal,
and in October, 1900, became proprietor of the pa-
per. Selling it in 1910, Mr. Walton was a merchant
at Atlanta, Georgia, for six months, and then bought
and for two years edited the Daily Reporter-Star at
Orlando, Florida. Mrs. Walton died while in Florida,
and he then sold his interests there and, returning to
Kentucky, bought the Somerset Times in February,
1912. Then followed a number of rapid changes in
his newspaper career. He sold the Times in August
of the same year, bought an interest in the Climax at
Richmond, Kentucky, edited it for a year, and then,
returning to Florida, bought a half interest in the
Reporter-Star at Orlando, remaining for eighteen
months, when he returned to Stanford in November,
1914. He then acquired a half interest in the In-
terior Journal, but a year later sold and bought the
Harrodsburg Leader. After getting out two editions
of the Leader he sold, acquired the Jessamine News
at Nicholasville, and after one issue was made under
his proprietorship he sold out and bought the Rich-
mond Register, which he published for the interval of
three issues. Following these rapid changes in his
career as an editor and publisher he returned to Stan-
ford in September, 1916, and after two months in the
grocery business bought the Interior Journal, and for
the past five years has been owner and editor of that
veteran journalistic institution. The Interior Journal has
a consecutive history of over fifty years. Dan Parker
established it as the Stanford Banner in 1869. It is a
democratic paper, with an extensive circulation through
Lincoln and surrounding counties, there being 2000
subscribers in Lincoln County alone, and the mail-
ing list goes to all parts of the United States and
to other countries. Under Mr. Walton the Interior
Journal has survived the competition of six other pa-
pers in the county, and it is one of the newspapers of
real influence in Central Kentucky. The plant and
offices at 109 Main Street are equipped with modern
facilities, and this was one of the first papers in Cen-
tral Kentucky to install a linotype.
During the World war Mr. Walton placed his news-
paper at the disposal of the Government and every
patriotic movement for such influence and service as
it could render, and he also personally worked with the
committees for the various drives. He is a director in
the Lincoln County National Bank, and much of his
time is also taken up with his official duties as> master
commissioner of Lincoln County. Mr. Walton is a
democrat, is a past chancellor of Diadem Lodge No.
81, Knights of Pythias, at Stanford, and a member of
Stanford Camp, Knights of the Maccabees. While he
owns a dwelling on Logan Avenue, his home is in the
Hotel Acey.
In 1891, at Hustonville, Lincoln County, Mr. Walton
married Miss Belle Cook, daughter of J. M. and Lucy
(Bailey) Cook, now deceased. Her father was a mer-
chant at Hustonville. Mrs. Walton died in 1911, after
they had been married twenty years. She is survived
by two children. Lucy Lee is the wife of Carl A. Car-
ter, a merchant at Stanford. Claiborne, now a stock
and bond salesman in Florida, had a notable military
career, having enlisted with the United States Ma-
rines in 1916. He served four years, and during the
World war crossed the Atlantic twenty-six times on
the battleship Wyoming, escorting transports.
James A. Sullivan, district manager for the Cum-
berland Telephone and Telegraph Company, has been
with that company continuously for over thirty years,
and in that time has by practical experience become
familiar with living in the new advance and improve-
ment in the modern science of telephonic communica-
tion, since the telephone was almost in its experimental
stages when he began his connection with this com-
pany. He has the special honor of a man long identified
with one essential service, with promotions based on
his efficiency and faithfulness.
O. P. Nuckols, M. D. Among the native sons of
Kentucky who have here achieved success and prestige
in the exacting profession of medicine and surgery
stands Doctor Nuckols, who has gained distinction not
only in the active practice of his profession but also in its
184
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
educational work, as he was for two years adjunct pro-
fessor of surgery in the Kentucky School of Medicine,
now the medical department of the University of Louis-
ville. Since 1910 he has been established in successful
general practice in the City of Pineville, judicial center
and metropolis of Bell County.
Doctor Nuckols was born near Glasgow, Barren
County, Kentucky, September 27, 1861, and is a scion
of one of the old and honored pioneer families of that
county, where his paternal great-grandfather, Andrew
Nuckols, settled in an early day, upon coming from his
native State of Virginia, in which the family was
founded in the Colonial period of American history.
Ponce Nuckols, grandfather of the doctor, was born in
Virginia in 1803, and was a boy at the time of the
family migration to Kentucky. Like his father, he be-
came a successful exponent of farm industry in Barren
County, and there he continued to reside until his death,
in 1877, his wife, whose family name was Saunders,
likewise having died in that county. Their son John
Andrew was born in Barren County in the year 1834,
and his death occurred on his fine old homestead farm
near Glasgow, that county, in 1916. This homestead had
formerly been owned by the father of his wife and is
one of the well improved and valuable estates of Barren
County its location being six miles north of Glasgow,
the county seat. John Andrew Nuckols was not only
one of the progressive and successful representatives
of farm industry in his native county, but was also an
honored and influential figure in community affairs.
His political allegiance was given to the democratic
party, and both he and his wife were earnest members
of the Primitive Baptist Church. Mrs. Nuckols, whose
maiden name was Louvina Baird, died on the old home
farm April 20, 1920, that place having, as previously
noted, been formerly owned by her father and her birth
having there occurred in the year 1834. Her father.
Obediah Baird, was born in Virginia, in 1805, was a
pioneer settler in Barren County, Kentucky, where he
reclaimed and developed the farm of which mention
has been made and where his death occurred in 1890.
John A. and Louvina (Baird) Nuckols became the
parents of five children who attained to years of ma-
turity : Cora is the wife of O. P. Owns, a prosperous
farmer near Glasgow, Barren County ; Mollie is the
wife of G. W. Ellis, who is engaged in the tobacco busi-
ness at Glasgow, where also he is interested in banking
enterprise ; Doctor Nuckols, of this review, was the next
in order of birth; James R. is associated with his
younger sister, Miss Lelia E., in the ownership of the
old home farm, upon which both reside and of which
he has the active management.
After making good use of the advantages afforded in
the rural schools of his native county Doctor Nuckols
there entered the Glasgow Normal College, in which
institution he was graduated as a member of the class
of 1885. He early formulated definite plans for his
future career, and in consonance therewith he finally
entered the medical department of the University of
Tennessee, at Nashville, in which he applied himself
with characteristic energy and receptiveness and in
which he was graduated in 1891. After thus receiving
his well earned degree of Doctor of Medicine he was
for seven years engaged in active general practice at
Canmer, Hart County, and for the ensuing eleven years
was engaged in practice in the City of Louisville, this
metropolitan experience being of much value to him,
as was also his effective service, during two years of
the period, as adjunct professor of surgery in the Ken-
tucky School of Medicine. As previously noted in this
context, he has been established in practice at Pineville
since 1910, as one of the leading physicians and sur-
geons of Bell County. His office is maintained in the
Foley Building on Virginia Avenue, and on the same
avenue he owns and occupies one of the attractive and
modern residences of the city. He has served as presi-
dent of the Bell County Medical Society, of which he
is secretary at the time of this writing, in 1921, and is
identified also with the Kentucky State Medical Society
and the American Medical Association. His civic loy-
alty and progressiveness are indicated by his helpful
alliance with the Pineville Chamber of Commerce; he
is a democrat in politics, is a steward in the local
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, of which his wife
likewise is a zealous member, and he is affiliated with
Bell Lodge No. 691, Free and Accepted Masons.
To the nation's military service in the great World
war Doctor Nuckols gave one of his sons, and he per-
sonally was most loyal and active in advancing the
various patriotic measures and undertakings in his home
county. He was a member, of the Medical Advisory
Board of the Fourteenth Congressional District, com-
prising six counties, aided in all of the local campaigns
in support of the Government war-bond issues, savings
stamps, etc., to which he made his personal contributions
most liberal, and his activities in connection with such
patriotic work in Bell County continued until the close
of the war.
At Canmer, Hart County, in 1887, was solemnized the
marriage of Doctor Nuckols to Miss Kathleen Matthis,
daughter of Professor C. W. and Jemima (Stuart)
Matthis, who now reside at Pineville, where the father
is living retired after many years of distinguished serv-
ice in connection with educational work in Kentucky.
Professor Matthis not only played an important part in
raising the standard of the public schools of Kentucky,
but also founded and was for a long time the executive
and scholastic head of Gilead Institute in Hart County.
His birth occurred at Cecilia, Hardin County, this state
in 1834. Doctor and Mrs. Nuckols have four children :
J. Leon is engaged in the drug business at Pineville
Lalla Rookh is the wife of C. Hays Foster, cashier of
the Lincoln National Bank at Stanford, Lincoln County.
Paul Eve is bookkeeper and traffic manager for an im
portant coal mining company at Pineville. He entered
the national military service in December, 1917, was
sent to Fort Thomas, near the City of Cincinnati, Ohio,
whence he was later transferred to Washington, D. C,
and in March, 1918, he sailed for France. He was
thereafter assigned to service with the Forester Divi-
sion on the Swiss border, with the rank of sergeant,
and his service on the stage of active military opera-
tions in the World war covered a period of fifteen
months. Upon his return to his native land he was
mustered out at Louisville, Kentucky, July 8, 1919, and
duly received his honorable discharge. James Norwood,
the youngest son, is assistant manager of the plant and
business of the great Chicago packing house of Armour
& Company at Middlesboro, Bell County, Kentucky.
Clarence T. Coleman, M. D. Choosing the pro-
fession of medicine early in life, Doctor Coleman has
worked steadily for the best proficiency and skill, and
by successive stages has reached a high place in his
profession in the capital city of Frankfort, where he
has been located for the last eight years.
Doctor Coleman represents the fourth generation of
his family in Kenton County, Kentucky, where he was
born 'May 23, 1882. It was his great-grandfather who
came from Virginia and settled as a pioneer in Kenton
County. His grandfather, Lucien B. Coleman, was born
in 1825 and died in 1911, spending all his life as a
farmer in Kenton County. He married Sarah McCol-
um, who was born in the same county in 1831, and died
there in 1915. Three of their children are still living:
Joseph B., a retired farmer at Latonia ; Mrs. Augusta
White ; and Samuel, a Kenton County farmer.
Charles E. Coleman, father of Dr. Coleman, is also
still living in Kenton County, where he was born in
1856 and where he has spent his years as a very
successful and up-to-date farmer. He is a democrat
and represented his county in the State Legislature
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
185
in 1888. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Independ-
ent Order of Odd Fellows. Charles E. Coleman mar-
ried Ada Hunt, who was born near Calhoun, Illinois,
in i860. They have three sons, Doctor Coleman being
the second. Harry R., the oldest, is an expert steam
engineer connected with the Illinois Steel Works at
Chicago. Clifford, the youngest, lives at home and
helps his father run the farm.
Dr. Coleman attended the rural schools of Kenton
County, the high school at Independence, and in 1903
entered the Medical Department of the University of
Louisville, from which he received his M. D. degree
in 1907. From that year he practiced at Delaplain
in Scott County for two years, for another two years
was at Woodlake in Franklin County, and then re-
moved to the City of Frankfort and has been busily
engaged in a general medical and surgical practice for
eight years. His offices are in the Hume Building
on West Broadway. Doctor Coleman is the present county
physician of Franklin County, an office he has held
for six years. He is_ medical examiner for the Pruden-
tial Insurance Company, the National Life and Acci-
dent Insurance Company, and the Commonwealth Life
Insurance Company of Kentucky. He is a member
of the County and State Medical Societies, acts in poli-
tics with the democratic party, and is affiliated with
Franklin Lodge No. 530 of the Elks, Frankfort Aerie
No. 923 of the Eagles, and the Loyal Order of Moose.
His home is at 418 Logan Street. In November,
1905, at Louisville, Doctor Coleman married Miss Mary
C. King, daughter of A. J. C. and Elizabeth (Chandler)
King, the latter now deceased. Her father is a farmer
in Fleming County, Kentucky. The two children of
Mr. and Mrs. Coleman are Elizabeth, born October 7,
1907, and Robert Mason, born December 25, 1916.
Ralph R. Wilson on leaving college took up the life
insurance business, which he followed for about ten
years, and since then his time and energies have been
largely devoted to the production of copper in the
great copper regions of Arizona, though his home and
business headquarters are still at Frankfort. Mr. Wil-
son is vice president of the Johnson Copper Develop-
ment Company.
He was born in Cynthiana, Kentucky, July 26, 1874.
The Wilsons came from England to Virginia in Co-
lonial times. His grandfather, James M. Wilson, was
born in Virginia in 1801, followed the profession of
medicine, and was one of the pioneer doctors of North-
ern Kentucky, frequently riding as far as twenty-five
miles from his home to attend patients. He died at
Falmouth in December, 1880. His wife, Zarelda, was
a native Kentuckian and died at Falmouth. Capt.
James M. Wilson, father of Ralph R., was born at
Falmouth in 1838, and was the oldest native of that
village when he died there November 22, 1918. He
grew up at Falmouth and in 1861 enlisted in the Union
Army as a private, subsequently through merit and
efficiency being promoted to captain. He participated
in the battles of Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain and
Missionary Ridge, and was with Sherman on the march
to the sea. After the war, in 1865, he returned to
Grant County, was a merchant there a few years, then
returned to Falmouth, and for a number of years was
in the revenue service and for twelve years a retail
merchant. He was honored with election as the first
mayor of Falmouth, and was postmaster of the village
seventeen years, finally resigning in the middle of a
term to retire from business. He was one of the most
widely known and influential citizens in this section
of the state, was a stanch republican, and an official
member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Captain
Wilson married Ella Rachel Kerr, who was born in
Fayette County, Kentucky, in 1843, daughter of John
Kerr, a native of Virginia, who died in Fayette County.
Tohn Kerr was owner of Cedar Grove Farm, located half-
way between Lexington and Paris, Kentucky. Mrs. Wil-
son is still living at Falmouth. She is the mother of five
children : Dr. J. E., a physician and surgeon at Fal-
mouth; J. T. Wilson, publisher of the Log Cabin at
Cynthiana ; Ralph R. ; 'Miss Ella K., a very capable
business woman who was assistant postmistress under
her father and has continued in the same post at Fal-
mouth during the democratic administration; and Miss
Mary C, who lives with her mother.
Ralph R. Wilson was educated in the public schools
of Falmouth, also attended a private school there for
his preparatory training, and completed the junior year
at Center College at Danville, where he was a member
of the Phi Delta Theta college fraternity. On leaving
college in 1894 he took up the life insurance business
at Falmouth, remaining there seven years, and in 1902
moved to Frankfort.
Mr. Wilson began the development of copper mines
in Arizona in 1906. The scene of his operations is
Cochise County, the greatest copper region in the world.
Mr. Wilson has spent much time in the Southwest,
though his business headquartes are in the McClure
Building at Frankfort.
He is a republican, a member of the Board of Stew-
ards of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Frankfort,
belongs to the Frankfort Chamber of Commerce and is
affiliated with Orion Lodge No. 222, A. F. and A. M.,
at Falmouth, and Houser Chapter No. 116, R. A. M.,
in the same town. His home is a modern residence
at 506 Shelby Street. 'Mr. Wilson was deeply interested
in every war cause, serving as captain in several of
the drives at Frankfort, and gave to the extent of his
ability as a buyer of Government securities.
On June 5, 1901, at Falmouth he married Miss Hallie
Belle Taliaferro, daughter of Rev. T. F. and Mary
(Summers) Taliaferro, the latter now deceased. Her
father, living with Mr. and Mrs. Wilson, is a retired
minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South,
though still preaching occasionally, and gave fifty years
of devoted work to the Kentucky Conference. Mrs.
Wilson attended Millersburg College through the junior
year. To their marriage were born three children:
Thomas T., on July 13, 1902; James Edwin, on June
6, 1906; and Hallie Miller, on 'March 25, 1913.
David Durham Smith has been a resident of Frank-
lin County over twenty years. He began his independ-
ent business career in the general insurance line, start-
ing on a modest scale, but has since built up one of the
largest general agencies in Franklin County. For his
business headquarters he now uses the entire half of
the second floor of the McClure Building.
Mr. Smith was born in Jeffersonville, Indiana, Sep-
tember 5, 1879. His father, John Franklin Smith, was
born in New York City in 1828, and the family was
early established in that city from England. John
Franklin Smith from the age of eighteen to twenty-
one served in the United States Navy. Soon after leav-
ing the navy, about 1849, he came West and settled
at Aurora, Indiana, and helped build the Ohio & Mis-
sissippi Railway, now a part of the Baltimore & Ohio
system, from Cincinnati to Seymour, Indiana. Subse-
quently he removed to Jeffersonville and had charge of
the terminals for the Ohio & Mississippi Railway, and
was still performing those duties at the time of his
death in 1892. He was a republican, a member of the
Masonic fraternity, and a Methodist. He was married
at Aurora, Indiana, to Almira Durham, who was born
at Wilmington, a suburb of that Indiana town, in 1829.
She died at Jeffersonville in 1913. Their three children
were: Louisa, who died at Jeffersonville, wife of I. F.
Whiteside, now deceased, 'Mr. Whiteside having been
proprietor of the Whiteside Bakery, manufacturers of
the well known brand of "Mother's Bread ;" Kather-
ine, wife of James N. Sanburn, secretary of the Cattle
Breeders Association of El Paso, Texas ; and David D.
David D. Smith attended the public schools of his na-
tive city, and after graduating in 1897 from Bryant &
iNIi
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
Stratton's Business College at Louisville was employed
for two years in the engineering department of the
Pennsylvania Railroad at Louisville, and in May, 1899,
came to Frankfort, where for two years he was ste-
nographer in the offices of the Kentucky Distilleries and
Warehouse Company, and for three years stenographer
for the Frankfort Chair Company. It was in 1904
that he began handling general insurance as a regular
business. It was exclusively a one-man organization
for a time, but he has kept the business growing and
now supplies an insurance service covering practically
all of Franklin County and requiring a large office
force to handle the technical details.
Mr. Smith is a member of the present City Council
of Frankfort. He is a democrat, a member of the Epis-
copal Church, and is affiliated with Hiram Lodge No.
4, A. F. and A. M., Frankfort Chapter No. 3, R. A. M.,
Frankfort Commandery No. 4, K. T., and Frankfort
Lodge No. 530 of the Elks.
Ids modern home is at Third Street and Capital Ave-
nue. He married at Frankfort in November, 1909, Miss
Coranelle Crutcher, daughter of Dallas C. and Bettie
Crutcher, now deceased. Her father was a member of
the firm of Crutcher & Starks, dealers in men's fur-
nishings goods, with stores both at Frankfort and
Louisville. Mr. and Mrs. Smith have three children :
Katherine, born August 16, 1910; 'Myra, born December
4, 1912; and Bettie, horn August 4, 1919-
Ellis Sanders Allen, M. D. A Louisville surgeon
whose abilities have brought him more than local repu-
tation in his chosen field. Doctor Allen was graduated in
medicine twenty years ago, and with a widening range
of experience his name has come to suggest some of
the finest skill of his great profession.
Doctor Allen was born at Newbern, Alabama, June 24,
1876, only child of Bryant Lee Allen, a cotton planter,
and Ella (Sanders) Allen, who died in 1883. His par-
ents were born at Scotts Station, Alabama. Ellis Sanders
Allen acquired a thorough literary education pre-
ceding his medical studies, graduating from the South-
ern University at Greensboro, Alabama, in 1896. He
received his M. D. degree from the University of
Louisville in 1901 and after a year as interne in the City
Hospital began practice, which from the first was
largely limited to surgery. In 1905 he did work at the
University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia and at Johns
Hopkins Hospital at Baltimore, Maryland.
He is a past president of the Jefferson County Medi-
cal Society, a member of the Kentucky State Medical
Association and the American Medical Association. Doc-
tor Allen is an elder in the Second Presbyterian Church
of Louisville and in politics is a democrat. He is a
member of Crescent Hill Lodge, F. & A. M., and a
member of the Consistory, thirty-second degree Scot-
tish Rite Mason. On June 6, 1907, he married Nancy
M. Armstead, who was born at Clarksville, Tennessee.
They have one son, Ellis Sanders, Jr.
Joseph Rupert has been a wholesale merchant at
Frankfort for twenty years, was mayor of the city four
years, and is widely known for his substantial business
qualifications and his ardent public spirit.
Mr. Rupert has spent most of his life in Kentucky,
but was born at Chillicothe, Ohio, September 13,
1867. His grandfather, Joseph Rupert, was born in .
Baden, Germany, in 1821, learned the trade of stationary
engineer, and soon after his marriage came to America
and settled near Chillicothe, Ohio. For a number of
years he was an engineer for an iron furnace, and
finally came to Kentucky and settled on a farm at
Grayson, where he lived until his death in 1894. His
son, John Rupert, was born in Ohio January I, 1844,
was reared and married in that state and at Chillicothe
followed the business of contractor in ore mining. In
1875 he moved to the vicinity of Grayson, Kentucky, and
was identified with farming in that vicinity the rest of
his life. He died December 17, 1917. He was a demo-
crat, and long identified with the 'Methodist Episcopal
Church in his community. He was also affiliated with
the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. When only a
boy in years he enlisted in the Union Army as a mem-
ber of the First Ohio Heavy Artillery, and served all
through the struggle, coming out with the rank of ser-
geant. John Rupert married Minnie Chester, who was
horn in Germany in 1847 and was brought to America
at the age of four years. Her father, Fred Chester, Sr.,
was a farmer, and died near Chillicothe, Ohio, where his
daughter Minnie grew up. She died at Grayson, Ken-
tucky, in 1881. She was the mother of two children,
Joseph and Emma, the latter the wife of James T.
Crawford, a farmer at Grayson, Kentucky. John Ru-
pert married for his second wife Miss Carrie Botts,
a life-long resident of Grayson. She became the mother
of six children : Bettie, wife of Owen Stewart, a
farmer at Grayson, Kentucky ; Ottie, who died in
1920, was the wife of John Hubbard, Jr., a farmer at
Grayson ; Luther and Chester, both farmers in the
Grayson community; Jennie, wife of Strother Womack,
a farmer at Grayson ; and Miss May, who lives near
Ashland, Kentucky.
Joseph Rupert was about eight years old when his
parents came to Kentucky. He finished the education
begun in the rural schools of Carter County in a semi-
nary at Ironton in Southern Ohio, but left his books
at the age of fifteen and after that for a period of
eighteen years learned business and made progress to-
ward an independent career as an employe of his father's
general store near Grayson. With this experience
and with such capital as he had been able to accumu-
late he came to Frankfort in 1900, and established what
is today the oldest wholesale grocery business in Frank-
lin County. In 1901 the Rupert Grocery Company was
incorporated, and the company maintains a large ware-
house and offices at 317-319 Main Street and does
business all over Central Kentucky. Mr. Rupert is
president of the company, H. C. Rupert is vice president
and the secretary and treasurer is W. J. Lang.
Mr. Rupert's service as mayor of Frankfort was
from 1913 to 1917. He is now treasurer of the City
Sinking Fund, and for four years was a member of
the City Council. He is a democrat, a member of the
Frankfort Chamber of Commerce, is active in the
Methodist Episcopal Church and fraternally is affiliated
with Temple Lodge No. 145, A. F. and A. M., was for
two terms master of his lodge at Grayson, is a member
of Greenup Chapter, R. A. M., in Greenup County, of
Ashland Commandery No. 28, K. T., at Ashland, and
Frankfort Lodge No. 530 of the Elks. He was asso-
ciated with Frankfort's patriotic citizens in molding
sentiment, raising funds and promoting the cause of
the Government during the World war. He owns one
of the very fine residences of the city, at Third and
Shelby streets, and owns other improved real estate as
well.
In June, 1903, at Frankfort, Mr. Rupert married Miss
Frederika Weisenburg, daughter of L. B. and Frederika
(Kaltenbrun) Weisenburg, residents of Frankfort, her
father being a retired business man.
B. R. Bacon. The record of successful business men
needs no introductory preface among the citizens of
their native community, and B. R. Bacon, manager of
the B. R. Bacon Hardware Company of Frankfort, is
undoubtedly a member of the class referred to. By his
strict personal integrity and honorable dealings, com-
bined with brilliant business qualifications, he has be-
come not only one of the leading merchants but also
one of the most highly respected members of his com-
munity.
Mr. Bacon was born at Frankfort, March 17, 1867,
a son of William Robinson and Judith A. (Bacon)
Bacon. The Bacon family, originating in England, came
to America during Colonial times and settled in Vir-
ar* .„
PUBLIC
HISTORY ( )F KENTUCKY
187
ginia, where was born Lydell Bacon, the grandfather of
B. R. • Lydell Bacon became a pioneer farmer into
Franklin County, Kentucky, where he passed the re-
mainder of his life, married a Miss Graham, devoted
himself assiduously to agricultural pursuits and died
many years before the birth of his grandson. William
Robinson Bacon was born in 1813, in Franklin County,
Kentucky, and was educated in the rural schools, re-
siding on his father's farm until reaching the age of
eighteen years. At that time he came into Frankfort,
where he became a carpenter and builder and where
he resided until his death in 1889. Mr. Bacon was one
of the real builders of Frankfort, and many of the
older residences and business structures of the city still
stand as monuments to his mechanical skill and sound
workmanship. Among other structures he built the old
city wooden bridge over the Kentucky River. A man
of sterling integrity and sound principles, he had the
respect and esteem of his associates and the general
confidence of the public. First a whig, he later became
an independent democrat, but never sought nor cared
for public office. During the Civil war he was a sym-
pathizer of the North and did much to aid its fighting-
forces. He was a strong churchman and a member of
the Baptist faith, and his fraternal affiliation was with
the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Mr. Bacon
married Judith A. Bacon, who was born in 1822, in
Hopkins County, Kentucky, and died at Frankfort in
10x14, and they became the parents of five children :
Carrie, of Frankfort, the widow of Joseph H. Cox, a
former saddler of this city; Sallie, who died at the age
of thirty-five years, the wife of John D. Griffin, super-
intendent of the Frankfort Water Company ; Belle, who
died unmarried at the age of twenty years; Harry C,
formerly a carpenter and builder of Frankfort, who
died at the age of fifty-five years; and B. R.
B. R. Bacon attended the schools of Frankfort for
six years and then took private instruction under Prof.
J. B. Tharp, thus receiving a high school education.
When he was fifteen years of age he put aside his liter-
ary studies and started to learn the carpenter trade,
which he followed until he was twenty-two years old,
then entering the hardware store of Frank G. Stagg.
After one year as a clerk he was admitted to partner-
ship, the firm at that time becoming Stagg & Bacon,
but after another year the business resumed the style
of Frank G. Stagg, and Mr. Bacon clerked in the store
until 1912. In that year, with Henry F. Lindsey and
William J. Pruett, Mr. Bacon embarked upon a venture
of his own, purchasing Mr. Stagg's business, which has
been conducted since as the B. R. Bacon Hardware Com-
pany. Under Mr. Bacon's supervision and management
this has grown to be one of the leading hardware estab-
lishments between Louisville and Lexington, and the
large, attractive and well-equipped store at 308 Ann
Street carries a complete line of modern shelf and
heavy hardware, stoves, paints, oils, etc., comparing
favorably with the establishments of any of the larger
cities. The business has a splendid patronage, and much
of its success is due to Mr. Bacon's energetic manage-
ment, modern ideas and unfailing courtesy.
Mr. Bacon is a democrat, but has never taken an active
part in public affairs, although he is a good citizen who
gives his aid to beneficial enterprises. During the
World war he exemplified his patriotism and public
spirit by his unqualified support of war movements.
With his family he belongs to the Baptist Church, and
his fraternal affiliations are with the Knights of Py-
thias, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and
the Masons.
Mr. Bacon married in 1909, at Lexington, Miss Mary
Frances Lillard, a graduate of the public schools of
Lawrenceburg, Kentucky, where her parents, Chris and
Sallie (Hawkins) Lillard, reside, and where her father
is identified with a mercantile enterprise. Mr. and Mrs.
Bacon are the parents of one child, Sarah Lillard, born
at Frankfort November 22, 1913. The Bacon home is
the one in which Mr. Bacon was born and which is now
owned by him, a comfortable residence built by his
father on Third Street.
Hon. Joel Edison Childers. A long and honorable
record in his profession, as well as in public service,
has made the name of Hon. Joel Edison Childers well
and favorably known to the people of Pike County,
where his life has been passed. The present mayor of
Pikeville and ex-judge of the Circuit Court has been
a leader in the life of his community practically since
attaining his majority, and his brilliant gifts and high-
minded principles have served to establish him thor-
oughly in public confidence and esteem.
Judge Childers was born May 10, 1877, at the mouth
of Elkhorn Creek, near the present site of Elkhorn City,
Pike County, a son of Lovel and Rebecca (Ratliff)
Childers, the former a native of North Carolina and
the latter of Virginia, and both were children when
brought by their parents to Kentucky. Lovel Childers
was reared and educated in Pike County, and when a
young man joined the Confederate Army, taking part
in the war between the states as a member of General
Walker's command and at one time being a war prisoner
at Camp Chase. At the close of the war he took up
farming in Pike County, and continued to be engaged
therein during the remainder of his life, his death
occurring in 1907, when he was seventy years of age.
He was a democrat in politics, and he and his wife were
faithful members of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South. Mrs. Childers died in 1900, at the age of fifty-
seven years. They were the parents of four sons and
four daughters, and of the seven children who now
survive two are residents of Pike County, Joel Edison ;
and William, foreman at the Kentucky solvay plant at
Hellier, this state.
Joel Edison Childers is practically self-educated. He
attended the country schools of Pike County and a sub-
scription school at Dorton, and prior to reaching his
eighteenth birthday began teaching school in the rural
districts of his native county. When he was twenty-
one years of age he was elected justice of the peace,
and at that time began the study of law, being ad-
mitted to the bar in 1907. A brilliant speaker and
possessed of inherent qualifications for his profession,
he rose rapidly in his calling, and in 1919 was appointed
judge of the Circuit Court to complete an unexpired
term. He remained in this office for one year, or until
the election of Judge Vanover, and in 1920 was elected
mayor of Pikeville, an office which he now holds. His
administration has been one of much benefit to the city,
and numerous civic improvements have come as a result
of his labors in behalf of the community. In Novem-
ber, 1921, he was elected circuit judge of Pike and
Lechter counties by about 4,600 majority in a strong
republican district that usually goes republican by 4,000
majority. Judge Childers, as before noted, is possessed
of marked oratorical powers, and these have been used
in every campaign since the first candidacy of William
Jennings Bryan in behalf of the democratic aspirants
for the presidency. As a fraternalist he holds member-
ship in the Masons and Odd Fellows.
In 1903 Judge Childers married Miss Kate M. Leslie,
daughter of William Leslie, of Pikeville, and to this
union there have been born the following children :
Elmo, Madaline, Edison, Leslie, Rebecca, Donald and
Houston. Mrs. Childers is a member of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South.
Robert L. Bradley. Understanding thoroughly the
fundamentals of commercial life, and finding in Hick-
man the inspiration for the development of important
interests which connect him to the mercantile and finan-
cial operations of Fulton County, Robert L. Bradley is
easily one of the leading men of his generation and
neighborhood. He has always had the good of the
188
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
community at heart and has been very generous to it
of his time, money and influence, and his life is an in-
spiration to others.
Robert L. Bradley was born in Fulton County, Ken-
tucky, on a farm five miles east of Hickman, October
6, 1862, a son of Mark Bradley and grandson of Theo-
dore Bradley. The latter was born on his father's farm,
and became, himself, a farmer, buying the homestead
in Fulton County that was inherited by his son, Mark
Bradley, and the one on which Robert L. Bradley was
born, and here he died before the birth of his grand-
son. This homestead was acquired from the Govern-
ment, and he developed it into a valuable property. He
was married to Martha Harrison, who died at the home-
stead in Fulton County at the age of ninety-nine years.
The birth of Mark Bradley took place on the home-
stead in Fulton County, Kentucky, in 1841, and he died
on this farm January 6, 1863. A man of quiet disposi-
tion, he never cared for a public life, confining his civic
duties to the casting of his vote for the candidates of
the democratic party. He was married to Susan A.
Duffey, born near Maysville, Kentucky, in 1843. She
died near State Line, Fulton County, Kentucky, on her
farm, in February, 1917. She and her husband had but
the one child. After the death of her first husband
Mrs. Bradley was married to Hardin Maddox, lxirn in
Owen County, Kentucky, and he died near State Line,
Fulton County, Kentucky, having been a farmer all of
his life. By her second marriage Mrs. Maddox had
the following children : Leonard, who is a farmer re-
siding near State Line, Kentucky ; Sallie, who married
Isaac Shuff, a farmer near State Line, Kentucky ; W.
H., who is also a farmer residing near State Line, Ken-
tucky; Effie, who married W. N. Brassfield, lives near
State Line, Kentucky, where he is engaged in farming;
Lida, who married Albert Jones, a farmer, died near
State Line, Kentucky ; and Bessie, who married L. H.
Bacon, a farmer, and both died near State Line, Ken-
tucky.
Growing up in his native county Robert L. Bradley
lived on his mother's farm until he was eighteen years
of age, and during that period attended the rural schools.
In 1880 he came to Hickman and became a clerk for
C. A. Holcombe, a druggist, holding the position for a
year. He then engaged in the dry goods business with
J. Amberg's Sons, and for twenty years carried on a
large and successful trade, but then severed those con-
nections and for the subsequent three years was engaged
with several mercantile firms. Then, on January 1,
1906, he established his present undertaking, which has
been developed into the leading shoe store of South-
western Kentucky. It is located on East Clinton Street.
Some years ago Mr. Bradley became a stockholder of
the Farmers & Merchants Bank of Hickman, and is
now on its Board of Directors. He owns a modern resi-
dence on Obion Street, which is a very comfortable and
attractive house, one of the finest of the bungalow type
in Hickman. Mr. Bradley also owns a farm eight miles
west of Hickman, along the Chicago, Memphis & Gulf
Railroad, at Bondurant, Kentucky, which contains 170
acres of very valuable land, and he also owns twenty-five
acres of land near State Line, Kentucky.
A democrat in his political convictions, Mr. Bradley
has served as a member of the City Council for sev-
eral years, and was on the school board for four years.
He belongs to the Knights of Pythias and the Hickman
Commercial Club.
In 1902 Mr. Bradley was married to Miss Catherine
M. Costello, born and reared in County Kerr, Ireland,
and they have one son, Mark C, who was born Decem-
ber 6, 1005. In every relation of life Mr. Bradley has
been willing to extend a strong and friendly hand, and
his uprightness, steadfast devotion to his duty as he
has seen it and the needs of his community have made
him one of the really worthwhile citizens of his part
of the state.
Fred A. Jones, M. D., one of the leading physicians
and surgeons of Paducah, has won his place in his pro-
fession through natural ability and skilled experience
He comes of an old and honored family of this country,
although his ancestors originated in Wales, from which
representatives immigrated to the American Colonies at
a date long before the war for independence. The
grandfather of Doctor Jones, John Jones, was born in
Virginia, but left the Old Dominion for Livingston
County, Kentucky, and he died at Grand Rivers, Ken-
tucky, after a long and distinguished life. For a num-
ber of years he owned and operated a large farming
property in Livingston County, but later on in life be-
came very active in the democratic party and held the
office of county judge of Livingston County for a long
period. During the war between the two sections of
the country he espoused the "Lost Cause," and as a
soldier in the Confederate Army fought for his ideals
until the close of that fraternal conflict.
Doctor Jones was born near Grand Rivers, Kentucky
on February 15, 1880, a son of G. A. Jones, who was also
born in the vicinity of Grand Rivers, the date of his
birth being 1845. He has lived in the house in which
he was born all of his life, and it was erected by his
father. G. A. Jones has been a farmer and stock-
raiser all of his life, and is still active in agricultural
matters. By inheritance and conviction he is a demo-
crat. The Baptist Church affords him a medium for
the expression of his religious life.
G. A. Jones was married to Emily Ross, born in Liv-
ingston County in 1854, and they became the parents
of the following children : Dr. Fred A. ; Charles M.,
who is superintendent of the city schools of Lakeland,
Florida, was graduated from the State Normal Univer-
sity at Bowling Green, Kentucky, with the degree of
Bachelor of Arts, and later, taking a post-graduate
course at the University of Chicago, was graduated
therefrom with the degree of Bachelor of Science ;
Laura, who married Frank Bennett, a farmer in the
vicinity of Grand Rivers, Kentucky, died there in 1912,
but her husband survives ; Bertha married Shanis Wat-
son, a very prosperous farmer in the vicinity of Grand
Rivers; Duley is a farmer residing near Grand Rivers;
Oliver is also a farmer of the Grand Rivers neighbor-
hood; and Willis is living with his parents and at-
tending the high school of Smithland, Kentucky.
Doctor Jones attended the public schools of Living-
ston County, and was graduated from the Smithland
High School in 1900. For the subsequent three years
he was engaged in teaching school in his native county,
and then for four years was a bookkeeper for a Mem-
phis, Tennessee, firm. Having decided upon a profes-
sional career, he entered Vanderbilt University at Nash-
ville, Tennessee, and took its four-year medical course,
from which he was graduated in 1914 with the degree
of Doctor of Medicine. For the year following his
graduation Doctor Jones served as interne at the Illi-
nois Central Hospital at Paducah, in that connection
gaining a very wide and valuable experience. Leaving
the hospital, he went to Rosiclare, Illinois, and was there
for three years, duirng which period he engaged in
the active practice of his profession. In 1018 he located
permanently at Paducah, and since then has carried on
a general medical and surgical practice, with offices
at Fourth and Broad streets. During 1917 and 1918
Doctor Jones took some post-gradute work in the Chi-
cago Polyclinic and Cook County hospitals, specializing
on surgery and general medicine. Like his father and
grandfather, he is a democrat, and while living at
Rosiclare was its health officer. During the late war
he served the Draft Board as examining physician
for Hardin County. He is a Mason and belongs to
Plain City Lodge No. 449, A. F. and A. M., and Pa-
ducah Chapter No. 30, R. A. M. Doctor Jones also
belongs to the Paducah Board of Trade, the Mc-
Cracken County Medical Society, the Kentucky State
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
189
Medical Society and the American Medical Associa-
tion, as well as to the Southwestern Medical Associa-
tion. He owns his office and residence, both of which
are located at Fourth and Broad streets.
In 1914 Doctor Jones was united in marriage at Grand
Rivers, Kentucky, with Miss Elva Sexton, a daughter of
Mr. and 'Mrs. S. E. Sexton, of Grand Rivers, where Mr.
Sexton is engaged in merchandising and farming". Mrs.
Jones was graduated from the Cumberland City Acad-
emy, of Cumberland, Tennessee, and from the Hunting-
don Seminary of Huntingdon, Tennessee, and is the
center of a congenial literary and social circle at Pa-
ducah. Doctor and Mrs. Jones have one child, Maxine,
who was born September 4, 1915. Doctor Jones is
a man who produces a favorable impression aside from
his professional skill, which is unquestioned, for there
is something in the grip and essence of the man which
is pleasing. While his practice is a large and growing
one, he is never too busy to give a good citizen's atten-
tion to public matters, especially in those branches of
municipal affairs relating to the health and sanitation
of the city, and he is recognized as one of the most
valuable additions to Paducah during the past few years.
Garland Singleton is now in the twenty-fourth con-
secutive year of his administration of the office of
county superintendent of schools for Lincoln County. It
is a record interesting for length and also for the splen-
did service he has rendered the general educational pro-
gram of the county, not only as superintendent but as
a teacher for many years prior to his present responsi-
bilities.
Mr. Singleton was born on a farm seventeen miles
south of Stanford in Lincoln County, May 4, 1864. His
grandfather, Christopher Singleton, was born in 1819
and died in 1874, having spent all his life as a farmer
in Pulaski County, Kentucky, where his father settled
in pioneer days. Nathan Singleton, father of Superin-
tendent Singleton, was born in Lincoln County in 1840,
and lived practically all his live on the farm seventeen
miles south of Stanford. He cleared away much of
the woods and brush with his own labor, and long en-
joyed a successful station as a farmer. He was a min-
ister of the Baptist Church and a democrat in politics.
He died at his home in the county in 191 1. His wife
was Julia Gooch, a native and life-long resident of Lin-
coln County. Of their children, Mack, the oldest, died
at the age of twenty-one; Martha is the wife of James
Gooch, farmer and timberman in Pulaski County ; Gar-
land Singleton is the third; Melissa died in Lincoln
County, wife of Thomas Cress, a trader who died in
Wayne County ; E. O. Singleton is in the railroad ser-
vice in Colorado ; A. C. Singleton is an electrician and
has for twenty-five years been in the Regular Army,
was for some months with the Expeditionary Forces
in France, and now has charge of the electric plant
at Fortress Monroe, Virginia; T. H. Singleton is a
practicing physician and surgeon at Bowling Green,
Kentucky; and L. G. Singleton is a dentist at Bowling
Green. The second wife of Nathan Singleton was Mary
Eoff, a native of Lincoln County, who owns a home in
Pulaski County but at present resides in Ohio. She is
the mother of two children : Alice, at home, and Clay,
a machinist in Ohio, who was for ten months with the
American armies in France.
Garland Singleton acquired his early education in the
rural schools of Lincoln County, and through all the
years of his teaching he has been a student, pursuing
courses through his own initiative and also in other
schools. He began teaching at the age of twenty-four,
and has eight years of commendable work to his credit
in the country district. He was first elected county
superintendent in November, 1897, beginning his official
duties at the Court House in Frankfort in January
of the following year. He was re-elected in 1901, 1905,
1909, 1913 and 1917, and is now rounding out his sixth
consecutive term. Fifty white and fourteen rural schools
are under the supervision of his office, and these are
staffed by a hundred teachers, the total enrollment of
scholars being five thousand and ninety-six.
'Mr. Singleton is also treasurer of the County Board
of Education and is custodian of the school fund,
amounting to approximately fifty thousand dollars a
year. He is a member of the Kentucky Educational
Association. He is also an ordained minister of the
Baptist Church, still preaches occasionally, and filled
pulpits somewhat regularly before his election as
county superintendent. He has served as a deacon and
clerk of the Baptist Church of Stanford. He is a demo-
crat, and is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, Inde-
pendent Order of Odd Fellows and Knights of the Mac-
cabees. During the World war he made many speeches
over Lincoln County, and was otherwise helpful in all
patriotic movements.
In 1889, in Lincoln County, Mr. Singleton married
Miss Triphenea Hubble, daughter of J. M. and Mary
Hubble, the latter still living in Lincoln County and
her father, now deceased, was a farmer in that county.
Mr. and Mrs. Singleton have four children : Walter is
a railway mail clerk living at Stanford; Wallace, a
farmer at Crowley, Florida, was a sergeant in the Na-
tional Army and had eight months of service in France ;
Miss 'Mamie lives at home; and Clarence, who is prin-
cipal of the graded schools at Crab Orchard, Kentucky,
was in the Student Army Training Corps at Center
College, Danville, during the war.
Daniel Boone Southard, M. D., has been identified
with the practice of medicine and surgery in Ken-
tucky for twenty-three years. He prepared himself
thoroughly for his professional duties, acquiring a good
literary education, and has been a constant student of
advanced and improved methods in his work. For
the past nine years his home has been at Stanford,
and his professional reputation extends all over Lin-
coln County.
His grandfather, John Southard, came to Kentucky
from North Carolina when a young man and spent the
rest of his life as a farmer in Rockcastle County, where
he died when past eighty years of age. He was also
a blacksmith by trade, and for many years operated
a shop on his farm. He married a Miss McClure, also
a native of North Carolina. Their son, Richard South-
ard, was born in Rockcastle County in 1833, and died
near Mount Vernon in 1902. All his active years were
devoted to the interests of his farm and the welfare
of his community. He voted as a republican and was
a very attentive member of the Baptist Church. Richard
Southard married Mary Pitman, who was born near
Mount Vernon in May, 1841, and is now living, at
the age of eighty, at the old homestead in Rockcastle
County.
Daniel Boone Southard is the only child of his
parents. He was born on the farm near Mount Ver
non November 17, 1874, and lived in that rural com-
munity until he was eighteen years of age. In the
meantime he attended country schools, spent two years
in the Williamsburg Academy, and subsequently en-
tered the Hospital College of Medicine at Louisville,
from which he received his M. D. degree in June,
1898. Doctor Southard has kept in close touch with
his professional organizations, including the County,
State and American Medical associations, and during
191 1 he took post graduate courses in general medicine
and diagnosis at Philadelphia. From the time of his
graduation until 1906 he practiced at Beelick in Pulaski
County, for another six years was at Mount Vernon,
and since 1912 has attended a general practice at
Stanford, being associated with Dr. E. J. Brown.
Their offices are on Main Street, opposite the Court
House.
Doctor Southard is a republican, a member of the
Christian Church, and of Ashland Lodge No. 640, F.
and A. M., at Mount Vernon, Mount Vernon Chapter
190
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
No. 140, R. A. 'M., and Marion Commandery No. 24,
K. T., at Lebanon. He was associated with the patriotic
organizations of Stanford in all the war drives.
Doctor Southard and family live in a modern home
on Main Street. He married in 1900, at Louisville,
Mrs. Delia (Barnes) Perkins, a native of Crab Orchard,
Kentucky, but reared and educated at Beelick. To
their marriage were born three children : Gladys, No-
vember 22, 1003, now in the junior year of the Stan-
ford High School; Richard, born March 30, 1908;
and Edward, born September 9, 191 2.
Robert Bruce Waddle, county attorney of Pulaski
County, and one of the leading members of the Som-
erset bar, comes of a family of lawyers and business
and professional men widely known over Eastern Ken-
tucky. In that section of the state the name has been
prominent for considerably more than a century. Mr.
Waddle's great-grandfather, William Waddle, was a
native of Virginia and as a young man removed to
Pulaski County and spent the rest of his life as a
farmer there. In 1813 he married Sallie Waddle, of
another family of the same name. She was born in
Garrard County and died in Pulaski County. The
grandfather of Robert Bruce Waddle was also named
William. He was born in Pulaski County in 1823,
and spent his life there, his homestead farm being
two and a half miles southeast of Somerset. For
many years he held the office of magistrate of the
Somerset District. His death occurred in 1893. Wil-
liam Waddle married Maria Ham, who was born
in Pulaski County in 1839, and was fourteen years
of age when she married. She died in 191 5.
Her oldest child was the late O. H. Waddle, who
was torn in Pulaski County in 1851. He grew up on
his father's farm, acquired a good education and was
a school teacher for a time. At Somerset he read law
under Judge Thomas Z. Morrow, father of the present
Gov. Edwin P. Morrow, whose wife is a sister of
Robert Bruce Waddle. After his admission to the bar
O. H. Waddle continued at Somerset and rose to high
rank in his profession. He was a participant in many
political battles, though only once was he a candidate
for an important office, making the race on the demo-
cratic ticket for commonwealth attorney. He gave
much strength to that party for years, but after 1896 was
affiliated as a republican. He was a Mason and Odd
Fellow. O. H. Waddle died in a hospital at Cincin-
nati in December, 1918. He married Miss Mary A.
Hail, who was born in Pulaski County in 1851 and is
now living at Somerset. They were the parents of a
family of nine children : Edwin Morrow, assistant
cashior of the First National Bank of Somerset ;
Robert Bruce: Katherine, wife of Gov. Edwin P.
Morrow: Lucille, who died at Somerset in 1902, wife
of John D. Storms, now connected with a bank at
Cincinnati ; Grace, wife of Claude Weddle, traveling
salesman for the Bryan Hunt Company, wholesale
grocers of Lexington and a resident of Somerset ;
William, an attorney at Somerset, division counsel for
the Southern Railway Company and general counsel
for the Stearns Coal & Lumber Company ; Andrew
B., a dentist at Somerset, who served with the rank
of first lieutenant in the army during the World war;
Benjamin L., associated with his brother William in
law practice, also an ex-service man, second lieutenant
in rank, was in France six months ; and Stanley A.,
representative at Somerset for the Delco Lighting Com-
pany, was a first lieutenant and had a six months
service record in France.
Robert Bruce Waddle, who was born at Somerset
March 30, 1877, attended the public schools there, spent
three years in Center College at Danville, and in 1899
graduated LL. B. from the Louisville Law School. Dur-
ing 1900 he took the summer law course at the Uni-
versity of Virginia. For over twenty years he has
had an extensive law practice, and for the first two
years was a partner with his father at Somerset.
He then opened his office at Monticello, and for two
years practiced and also looked after interests in oil
development. After resuming his connection with the
Somerset bar he was for three years claim agent for
the Cincinnati, New Orleans & Texas Pacific Railroad
Company. He was elected county attorney of Pulaski
County in 1909, serving four years. He then resumed
private practice for four years, and in 1917 was again
elected county attorney, beginning his four year term
in January, 1918.
Mr. Waddle has some important business interests,
being secretary of the Pu John Oil Company, and is
interested in his father's estate which comprises 20,000
acres of coal land in Eastern Kentucky and a business
block on Main Street. He is a republican in politics,
a member of the Presbyterian Church, is affiliated with
Somerset Lodge No. 238, Independent Order of Odd
Fellows, is past exalted ruler and a charter member
of Somerset Lodge No. 1021, B. P. O. E. ; belongs to
Crescent Lodge No. 60, Knights of Pythias, Somerset
Aerie No. 1996, Fraternal Order of Eagles and is a
member of the Somerset Bar Association. During the
World war he was active to the limit of his means
in patriotic causes, and was chairman of the Pulaski
County Chapter of the Red Cross. Mr. Waddle owns
a modern home on Oak Street in Somerset. He mar-
ried at Monticello June 7, 1005, Miss Edna Ramsey,
daughter of Mr. and Mrs. I. C. Ramsey, the latter now
deceased. Her father is in the hotel business at Mon-
ticello. The two children of Mr. and Mrs. Waddle are
Mary Austin, born September 5, 1907, and Robert
Bruce, Jr., born September 27, 1908.
Woodson May, for many years identified with Ken-
tucky journalism and a life member of the Kentucky
State Press Association, has developed an extensive
business in real estate at Somerset and is proprietor
of an organization national in scope, known as the
May Collection Agency.
Mr. May was born at Perryville in Boyle County
December 28, 1873. His great-grandfather, John May,
was a native of Ireland and spent the greater part of
his life at Harrodsburg, Kentucky, where he was a
pioneer in the raising and training of racehorses. His
son, the grandfather of Woodson May, was Rev. Wil-
liam May, who was born in Mercer County, Ken-
tucky, in 181 1, but during the '40s moved to Boyle
County, where he owned a farm. As a minister of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, his duties called
him all over Central Kentucky, and he was a well
known and distinguished figure in Mercer, Boyle and
Marion counties. He had a notable record of having
performed over 3,000 marriage services and about
5,000 baptisms. Rev. William May, who died at Perry-
ville in 1904, married a Miss Stuart for his first wife,
and she was the grandmother of Woodson May. Vir-
ginia was her native state, and she died in Boyle
County. Her son, William M. May, was born in
Mercer County in 1839 and was a small child when the
family moved to Boyle County. He grew up on a farm
there, and from his early training in agriculture he
found the interests and the vocation that he followed
all his active days. In 1903 he retired to Danville,
and his death occurred in that city in August, 1919. He
was a stanch democrat in politics, and a member of
the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. William M.
May married Miss Sarah Jane Hamilton, who was
born at Bradfordsville, Marion County, in 1846, and
died at Danville in 1920. They became the parents of
six children : W. C. May, in the sporting goods business
at Danville ; Woodson ; Miss Annie and Miss Hattie,
dressmakers at Danville ; S. P. May, in the insurance
business at Paris, Tennessee; and Grover C, a farmer
in Mercer County.
Woodson May grew up on his father's farm in Boyle
County, but besides the advantages of the rural schools
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
191
he attended Elmwood Academy at Perryville, graduating
in 1893. He at once began his business and profes-
sional career as a newspaper man, establishing and
editing for one year the Perryville People. He then
consolidated the People with the Marion Falcon at
Lebanon, and was editor of that journal at Lebanon
for eighteen months. For a year he was managing
editor of the Harrodsburg Sayings, and after that
until 1903 was managing editor of the Harrodsburg
Democrat.
While in the newspaper business Mr. May took an
influential part in the affairs of the Kentucky Press
Association, has held every important executive posi-
tion, including president and vice president and mem-
ber of the executive committee, and is one of the
three men whom the association has honored during
the thirty-three years of its existence with a life
membership.
When in March, 1903, Mr. May removed to Somerset
he engaged in the real estate and insurance business,
but retired from the latter field in 1919. His real
estate connections are widely and substantially estab-
lished and he has the oldest business from point of
continuous service in Pulaski County. He is manager
of the May Realty Company, his business offices being
in the Masonic Building at Somerset. In 1903 he also
entered the collection field, and the May Collection
Agency is regarded as an indispensable mercantile ser-
vice and has made an enviable record of efficiency,
promptness and reliability, and as such is known in
commercial circles all over the country.
Mr. May, whose home is on Maple Street in Somer-
set, owns a farm in Desota County, Florida. For
many years he was prominent in democratic state poli-
tics, serving eight years, from 1907 to 1915, °n the
State Central Committee, representing the Eleventh
Congressional District, which during the first years of
his service was the largest congressional district in
the United States. For three years he was assistant
state fire marshal, under C. C. Bosworth, and for two
years district forester under the State Forest Depart-
ment. He was appointed by Governor A. O. Stanley
as a member of the Kentucky Illiteracy Commission,
and served as secretary-treasurer of that commission.
He was one of the first men to be appointed by Gov.
James B. McCreary as Aide de Camp, with title of
colonel, on his personal staff.
Mr. May was actively associated with the various
local committees in raising war funds and in other
patriotic purposes. He is a member of the First Meth-
odist Episcopal Church of Somerset and fraternally is
affiliated with the Elks.
At London, Kentucky, November 15, 1906, he mar-
ried Miss Lucy McKee, daughter of Mr. and Mrs.
John C. McKee, her mother now deceased. Her father
is proprietor of the London Manufacturing Company, a
plant manufacturing a complete and varied line of
building materials. Mrs. May is a graduate of the
Sue Bennett Memorial College of London. To their
marriage was born Robert Clifton May on October 13,
1907.
William Fred Grigsby began the practice of law
twenty years ago, and his work in his profession and
in public affairs has all been done in his home county
of Washington and the county seat of Springfield.
He was born on a farm in Washington County No-
vember 21, 1876, son of William and Margaret
(Weathers) Grigsby, also natives of Washington
County. His father who was born September 9, 1849,
is a son of William and Annie (Williams) Grigsby.
William Grigsby was born in Westmoreland County,
Virginia, and was twelve years of age when his parents
moved to Kentucky in 1804 and settled in Washington
County. Since that time his family name has been
identified with the county, a period of more than a
century. Margaret (Weathers) Grigsby was born De-
cember 22, 1845, daughter of James and Mary (Moore)
Weathers, and died in 1881. Four of her sons died in
early life and the three to survive her were Charles E.,
Albert Marshall, now deceased, and William Fred.
William Grigsby married for his second wife Annie H.
Smothers, now deceased. She was the mother of seven
daughters and the five to reach mature years were
Elizabeth, Bertha deceased, May, Edna and Dellar.
William Grigsby has given his entire active life to
agricultural pursuits. He made his home in Wash-
ington County until ten years ago when he moved to
Nelson County. He is a republican and a member of
the Methodist Church.
William Fred Grigsby had the farm as his early
environment and his opportunities were those of the
rural schools. Later he graduated from the Central
Normal College at Waddy, Kentucky, and for three
years was a country teacher. While teaching he studied
law and on June 1, 1900, was admitted to the bar, and
began his career as a lawyer at Springfield, January I,
1901. Since 1906 Mr. Grigsby has been city attorney
and is one of the able professional men and influential
leaders in the public life of his home community. He
is a republican, a member of the Methodist Church and
a Master Mason. September 10, 1902, he married Miss
Lulie Cockendolpher of Nelson County. They have
two children : Henry Marshall and Margaret Eva
Grigsby.
Tyler Barnett. For upwards of seventy years the
name Barnett has enjoyed enviable success in the legal
profession of Kentucky. Throughout that time the
late Judge Andrew Barnett and his son Tyler Barnett
have brought learning, industry and abilities of a high
order to the profession. Throughout the greater part
of this period Louisville has been the home of these
lawyers, and Tyler Barnett is still in active practice,
maintaining offices in the Louisville Trust Building.
The late Andrew Barnett was born in Green County,
Kentucky, March 4, 1828, and died in February, 1910.
His grandfather, William Barnett, was a native of Ire-
land and a Colonial settler of North Carolina. He
was a civil engineer by profession and came to Ken-
tucky to represent and manage land holdings of An-
drew Jackson in this state. The father of Judge Bar-
nett was William Barnett of Greensburg, a farmer and
trader.
Andrew Barnett was liberally educated, attending
Georgetown College in Kentucky, Harvard University,
and graduated from the Louisville Law School with the
class of 1848. Among his school associates were John
Logan and former Governor Oglesby of Illinois. He
then practiced at Greensburg, later at Lebanon, was
elected commonwealth attorney and subsequently re-
moved to Louisville, where he engaged in a successful
and extensive practice up to the time of his death.
He was a loyal Fifty-five democrat in politics. He was
at one time a witness in a celebrated "will case,"
the Mary Howard Preston will, a litigation involving
a dispute between the Catholic and Protestant Churches.
As a witness inquiry was made of him if he were a
church member. He said no, that he had read the
Bible many times, but when it came to denominations
and creeds he had no special allegiance, and in all his
confusion in the various beliefs he took to the Big
Woods.
Andrew Barnett married Kate Frances Tyler, who
was born in Jefferson County, Kentucky, March 4, 1833,
and died June 12, 1912. Her parents were Presley and
Jane (Marmaduke) Tyler, and her grandfather was
Moses Tyler, descended from Edward Tyler, who came
from Wales. The children of Andrew Barnett and wife
were two in number, Tyler, and Fannie, who died in
1906, the wife of R. M. Cunningham.
Tyler Barnett was born near Jeffersontown in Jeffer-
son County, Kentucky, September 23, 1857, and was edu-
cated in the public schools of Louisville and the Louis-
192
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
ville Law School with the class of 1879. He learned
the routine of his profession in his father's office, and
was actively associated with the elder Barnett until the
latter's death. Another member of the firm for ten
years was Judge Shackelford Miller. Mr. Barnett was
selected by the bar to discharge the duties of the First
Chancery District Court during the illness of Judge
Miller. Judge Barnett is a democrat in politics. Dur-
ing the World war he was chairman of the Louisville
Draft Board.
On October 10, 1883, he married Miss Anna L.
Schwartz, who died Januarv 16, 1909. Of their three
children Captain T. T. of the United States Regular
Army, an electrical engineer by profession joined the
Quartermaster's Corps and was in service at Bordeaux,
France, was promoted to lieutenant and captain and
served abroad until the close of the war. The second
son, Andrew, is a business man. Catherine is the wife
of Dr. Lee D. Parsons, who was with the American
Forces on the Mexican border, later a major in the
Medical Corps overseas. Dr. and Mrs. Parsons have
one son, Albro F. III.
Eugene F. Beard, M. D. A physician and surgeon
whose talents and abilities are particularly well known
in the field of surgery, Dr. Beard has an extensive
private practice and is also proprietor of an infirmary at
Somerset. His father is still engaged in the private
practice of medicine at Bradfordsville, and his grand-
father was an early day physician of Adair County, so
that the name has been familiarly associated with the
profession of medicine in Eastern Kentucky for a
great many years.
Dr. Beard's great-grandfather was the founder of
the family in Adair County, coming from Virginia.
His grandfather, Dr. John Beard, was born in Ken-
tucky and spent the greater part of his active life as a
practitioner in Adair County. He died at Columbia
in 1888. Dr. John Beard married Mary McWhorter,
who was born in Kentucky in 1828 and died in Marion
County in 1918.
Dr. J. C. Beard, of Bradfordsville, was born in that
town in 1859,- and his entire life has been passed in
that community, in a service productive of good and
of professional honor. He attended the State College
Military School at Lexington, and has been in practice
since he graduated from the Kentucky School of Medi-
cine at Louisville. He has always been very attentive
to his duties as a member of the Christian Church, is
a democrat, and is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity.
Dr. J. C. Beard married Miss Lou Gay, who was born
in Bradfordsville in 1866.
Their only son and child is Dr. Eugene F. Beard,
who was born in Marion County, Kentucky, December
31, 1881. He attended public school there, spent two
years in the University of Kentucky at Lexington, and
in 1912 graduated M. D. from the University of Louis-
ville. After one year as an interne in Columbus Hos-
pital of Chicago he located at Somerset, and from a
general practice his abilities have been more and more
concentrated on surgery. In the fall of 1917 he en-
listed for service in the Medical Corps, was commis-
sioned a first lieutenant, for six months was on duty
at Fort Riley, Kansas, and thereafter was at the Can-
tonment at Battle Creek, Michigan, until the signing of
the armistice.
Dr. Beard in January, 1921, established his infirmary,
located in a fine brick structure on College Street. Its
present accommodations are for twenty-three patients,
and plans have been made for an additional ten rooms.
It is a high class modern establishment, and has accom-
modated patients from all over Kentucky and also from
Tennessee. Dr. Beard is a member of the County,
State and American Medical Associations. He is a
democrat, a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South, and is affiliated with Marion Lodge No. 106,
F. and A. M., at Bradfordsville, Detroit Consistory of
the Scottish Rite at Detroit, Michigan, and Queen City
Camp No. 1 1494, Modern Woodmen of America.
In May, 1920, at Somerset, Dr. Beard married Miss
Velera Smith, daughter of Beecher and Mary (Elliott)
Smith, residents of Somerset, where her father is a
well known wholesale grocer. Mrs. Beard is a graduate
(if the Somerset High School.
Dudley E. Denton, president of the Citizens Na-
tional Bank of Somerset, has been in the real estate
and insurance business and has been a practical farmer
in that community all his adult life. He represents one
of the very prominent families of this section of Ken-
lucky, a family that has stood high in professional and
official affairs for several generations.
His grandfather was Dudley H. Denton, who was
born in Garrard County, Kentucky, in 1814. He studied
law, practiced for many years and earned enviable dis-
tinction throughout his district. In 1850 he moved from
Garrard to Pulaski County, and was engaged in practice
until within a few years of his death. He died on his
farm three miles north of Somerset in 1901. He was
a whig and later a republican in politics, and filled the
offices of county attorney, county judge and was a cap-
tain in the Federal Army during the early months of
the Civil war, resigning because of physical disability
due to his advanced age. He was a member of the
Presbyterian Church and master in his Masonic Lodge.
Dudley H. Denton married Nancy W. McKee, who
was born in Garrard County in 1824 and died at Som-
erset in 1912. Dudley H. Denton was a son of Harri-
son Denton. The children of Dudley H. Denton and
wife were : Alexander, a farmer who died at Science
Hill at the age of seventy-one; Henry, father of Dud-
ley Denton, the Somerset banker ; Robert, a farmer
living at Science Hill ; Gertrude, who died in Indiana
at the age of forty ; Judge James Dentun ; and Lin-
coln, a lumber dealer at Somerset.
Judge James Denton, who is an uncle of Dudley E.
Denton, has been a practicing lawyer forty years. He
was born at Somerset July 9, i860, was educated in
public schools, in the Masonic College at Somerset, and,
beginning at the age of eighteen, taught for three years
in Pulaski County. He read law in his father's office,
was admitted to the bar in 1881, and since that year has
practiced steadily with offices at Somerset, though his
clientage extends all over Pulaski and adjoining coun-
ties. He was county judge from 1888 to 1895, for five
years was referee in bankruptcy, and from February,
1901, to July, 1905, was collector of internal revenue
for the Eighth District of Kentucky, with headquarters
at Danville. He is a republican, a member of the Pres-
byterian Church, is affiliated with Somerset Lodge No.
in, F. and A. M., is a past grand of Pulaski Lodge
No. 75, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and is
president of the Odd Fellows Orphans Home at Lex-
ington. He is a stockholder and attorney for the Citi-
zens National Bank of Somerset, and is president of the
Somerset Board of Education. He was chairman of
the Legal Advisory Board of Pulaski County and made
speeches throughout the county in behalf of patriotic
measures during the World war. In 1884 Judge James
Denton married Miss Anna F. Goggin, daughter of
William F. and Catherine (Higgins) Goggin, now de-
ceased. Her father was a farmer and at one time clerk
of the County Court of Pulaski County. Judge James
Denton has three children : Anne, teacher in a pri-
vate school in North Carolina; Esther, wife of F. V.
McChesney, superintendent of schools at Midway, Ken-
tucky ; and James, Jr., an electrician.
Henry Denton, another son of Dudley H. Denton,
was born in Garrard County in 1849, but from early in-
fancy has lived in Pulaski County. His life has been
devoted to farming and stock raising. He lives on a
large farm a mile north of Somerset. He served for a
brief time in the Civil war, and is a republican and
Methodist. Henry Denton married Miss Sallie Elliott,
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
193
who was born near Somerset in 1859. Of their five
children Dudley E. is the oldest. Joseph, the second
in age, died at the age of twenty-one. Alexander T.
is a railway mail clerk living at Caldwell, Kansas. Jes-
sie is the wife of D. P. Rankin, a farmer and stock
dealer near Danville, and Ed is a mechanic.
Dudley E. Denton was born on his father's farm
near Somerset July 19, 1877, and, like most of the Den-
tons, is a man of liberal education. He attended the
rural schools, Georgetown College at Georgetown, Ken-
tucky, and graduated in a business course from Ken-
tucky University at Lexington. Beginning at the age
of twenty-one, he taught for three years in Pulaski
and Lincoln counties. For two years he was deputy
sheriff, clerked for a year in a store at Somerset, and
since then his chief activities have been directed to the
real estate and insurance business. His home is a mile
north of Somerset, on a valuable farm of 185 acres
which he owns, and which he supervises in addition
to his other responsibilities.
Mr. Denton was one of the founders of the Citizens
National Bank of Somerset, which was opened for
business in February, 1920, and he has been president
from the beginning. It is a highly prosperous and sub-
stantial institution, with capital of $100,000, surplus and
profits of $15,000 and deposits of $300,000. The officers
besides Mr. Denton are C. D. Stigall, vice president;
A. A. Basham, cashier; and J. Ernest Sears, assistant
cashier. Mr. Denton is a republican, has been treaurer
of the First Baptist Church of Somerset for the past
fifteen years, is a past grand of Pulaski Lodge No. 75,
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and has sat in
the Grand Lodge several times, and is a member of
Queen City Camp No. 11494, Modern Woodmen of
America, Somerset Council No. 193, Juinor Order
United American Mechanics. His time and means
were completely at the disposal of the Government
during the World war, and he did much to contribute
to the gratifying results of the various campaigns in
Pulaski County.
On November 30, 1905, at Somerset, Mr. Denton
married Miss Lena Smith, daughter of H. H. and
Parralee (Board) Smith, residents of Pulaski County.
Her father is former county superintendent of schools
and is still engaged in educational work. Mrs. Den-
ton acquired a thorough education. They are the
parents of five children : H. William, born Decem-
ber 30, 1906, who has completed his first year in high
school; Frank Elliott, born March 30, 1908; Edna
May, born May 20, 1909; Edith Josephine, born Sep-
tember 27, 1910, and Ethel, born November 19, 1912,
all students in the public schools of Somerset.
R. M. Feese is a widely known newspaper man in
Eastern Kentucky, now proprietor and publisher of
The Commonwealth at Somerset. He acquired his
early knowledge of the newspaper business as an ap-
prentice printer, and has demonstrated the unusual
ability to handle the commercial and technical side
of the publishing business.
Mr. Feese was born at Columbia, Adair County,
Kentucky, July 14, 1885. His grandfather, Sam Feese,
was a native of Ireland and as a young man settled
in Adair County, where for many years he was one
of the popular citizens. He built Feese's water mill
near Columbia on Russell's Creek. H. C. Feese,
father of the Somerset publisher, was born in Adair
County in 1854, and has lived at Columbia all his
life. For many years he has been a carpenter and
contractor there. He is a republican, a member of the
Christian Church, and is affiliated with the Knights of
the Maccabees. H. C. Feese married Kate W. Mont-
gomery, who was born near Columbia in 1858. A brief
record of their family is as follows: Nona E., wife
of Mark Wilson, a blacksmith at Cane Valley, Adair
County ; Elzie R., a carpenter and contractor at Louis-
ville; R. M. Feese; Elizabeth, wife of Will Wilson,
owner and operator of the Campbellsville Cigar Com-
pany in Taylor County; Mary B., wife of Arthur
Bishop, a real estate man at Louisville; William S.,
a printer at Dayton, Ohio ; Callie, wife of William
Hansford, a printer at Wilmington, Ohio; Cary L.,
wife of Stanley Epperson, in the automobile business
at Columbia.
R. M. Feese attended the public schools of Co-
lumbia, spending two years in high school. From the
age of fifteen he was self supporting, worked on a
farm two years, spent two years learning the car-
penter's trade, and in 1904 apprenticed himself to
learn the printing trade and was employed in the
offices of the Spectator and the News at Columbia until
1909. He acquired a thorough knowledge of the
printing business in all its technical aspects. For
a short time in 1909 he was with the Kentucky Advocate
at Danville, and in the spring of 1910 removed to
Somerset and served as foreman in the office of the
Somerset Times until 1913, then in a similar capacity
for the Somerset Herald until 1915, after which he
bought the Somerset Leader. Selling the paper after
nine months, he remained for a short time with the
semi-weekly News of Somerset, then was business
manager of the Somerset Journal until 1917, when
he leased the plant and continued in full charge of
the business until 1918. In that year he bought the
Semi-Weekly News, consolidating it with the Som-
erset Journal, and the Journal was conducted by his
partnership with Cecil Williams until August, 1920.
Mr. Feese then bought The Commonwealth, and has
since been its editor and proprietor. The Common-
wealth was established in 1916, is a republican paper,
with a circulation that is practically state wide, though
the main strength of its support is in the Twenty-
Eighth Judicial District, comprising Pulaski, Rockcastle,
Wayne and Clinton counties. It is the chief republi-
can paper in this district. Mr. Feese has all the
mechanical facilities for a complete and modern print-
ing plant, including linotype and power presses.
Both as an individual and as a newspaper editor
and publisher Mr. Feese was loyally behind every
movement to support the government during the
World war. He is a republican, an elder in the
Christian Church, is affiliated with Somerset Lodge
No. in, F. and A. M., Somerset Chapter No. 25,
R. A. M., is a past grand of Pulaski Lodge No. 75,
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, a member of Cres-
cent Lodge No. 60, Knights of Pythias, and a past
consul of Queen City Camp No. 1 1494, Modern Wood-
men of America.
Mr. Feese, who has one of the modern homes of
Somerset, married at Columbia, Kentucky, in 1906, Miss
Ella M. Flowers, daughter of J. D. and Elizabeth
(Hindman) Flowers, now deceased. Her father was
an Adair County farmer. Mr. and Mrs. Feese have
two children : Katherine, born October 16, 1907, attend-
ing the Somerset High School ; and Rollin M., born
September 6, 1913, also attending the Somerset school.
Milton E. Wheeldon has found a diversity of in-
terests to command his time and energies from the
time he was a boy. He was entrusted with the re-
sponsibility of teaching a country school when only
fourteen years of age. For many years he was one
of the leading educators of Pulaski and Lincoln coun-
ties. He also followed farming, and for. a number
of years past has been the responsible executive officer
and cashier of the Waynesburg Deposit Bank.
Mr. Wheeldon was born in Pulaski County November
9, 1872. The family was established in that county
in pioneer days by his great-grandfather, who came
from Virginia. His grandfather, Cornelius Wheeldon,
was a life-long resident of Pulaski County and was
one of the highly respected farmer citizens of that
locality. He married a Miss Singleton, who was born
in Lincoln County and died in Pulaski County. George
194
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
H. Wheeldon, father of the Waynesburg banker, like-
wise was a life-long resident of Pulaski County, born
in 1847 and died in April, 1914. His energies were
expended on his farm and on the institutions in his
home community. He was a member of the Church
of Christ and voted as a democrat. His wife was
Sarah Frances Barron, who was born in Indiana in
1850 and died in Pulaski County in 1910. Mary
Elizabeth, the oldest of their children, died in Pulaski
County at the age of forty years, wife of James P.
Gooch, a farmer in that county; A. T. Wheeldon is
a prosperous farmer of Pulaski County ; Milton E. is
third in age; W. F. Wheeldon owns a large farm in
Pulaski County ; and Arthur E. for the past fifteen
years has been foreman in the construction department
for the Stearns Coal & Lumber Company at Stearns
in McCreary County.
Milton E. Wheeldon attended rural schools and also
a select school for teachers training at Somerset, and
while teaching in country districts in Pulaski County he
also pursued his higher education, attending the Ken-
tucky University, now Transylvania University, at
Lexington, and Smith's Business College, then affiliated
with Kentucky University. He also took special work
in the Eastern Kentucky State Normal School at Rich-
mond, specializing in educational administration. Mr.
Wheeldon began his work as a teacher in 1886, and
that profession demanded most of his time until 1913.
He taught largely in rural districts, and also conducted
many special departments for the training of teachers.
For one term he was prinicpal of the Eubank graded
school. While teaching he lived on and conducted
a farm in Pulaski County, and remained there until
1916, when he accepted the post of cashier of the
Waynesburg Deposit Bank. He had previously been a
director and vice president of the bank. The Waynes-
burg Deposit Bank was opened for business in May,
1907, Mr. Wheeldon having helped organize it. It
is a very prosperous institution, with a capital of $15,000,
surplus and profits of $10,250, and deposits of $120,000.
L. G. Gooch is president, R. Curtis, vice president,
while Mr. Wheedon is the executive officer as cashier
and his daughter, Carol Wheeldon, was assistant cashier
till June, 1921. She is now the wife of Ivan Reynolds,
of Fowler, Kansas. Mr. Wheeldon has a commission
as a notary public. He is a democrat and an elder
in the Church of Christ. Until recently he owned
four farms, and still has extensive real estate interests
at Waynesburg, including his modern residence on
Straight Street. During the World war he used
his influence as a banker and his popular position in
the community as a means of promoting all the drives
for funds, particularly the sale of Liberty Bonds, and
received special commendation from the Secretary of the
Treasury for his work in this direction.
In 1897, in Pulaski County, Mr. Wheeldon married
Miss Matilda Smith, a native of that county. They
have four children : Carol, formerly assistant cashier
of the Waynesburg Deposit Bank; C. G. Wheeldon, at-
tending the Fugazzi Business College of Lexington;
Annie Elizabeth and Edith, both pupils in the graded
schools at Waynesburg.
Moses Goldberg is a clothing merchant of Cynthiana,
a business man whose record reflects credit upon his
enterprise and ability, and as a citizen whom the people
of Cynthiana has long learned to esteem and value.
Mr. Goldberg was born in Poland in July, 1870,
son of Jacob and Mary Goldberg, both of whom spent
all their lives in Poland, where his father was a
clothing merchant. Of their children two of the sons
are merchants of Cynthiana, A. Goldberg and Moses.
K. S. Goldberg is a resident of Boston, while the
two daughters are Goldie and Esther.
Moses Goldberg grew up in Poland, attended the
Jewish schools, and from boyhood was actively asso-
ciated with his father's store and after his father's
death looked after the business until he came to the
United States in 1900. His family followed him later.
At Cynthiana he began as a tailor and peddler, gradu-
ally developed a tailoring business, and from that
came his present large and handsomely equipped and
stocked clothing store.
Mr. Goldberg has five children : Ben ; Abe, who at-
tended the Cynthiana High School and is with his
father in business ; Haskell, attending a private school
at Cynthiana; Nellie, wife of Jack Brand, of Cincin-
nati ; and Miss Mary. The family are members of the
Avondale Synagogue in Cynthiana. Mr. Goldberg is
affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows
and his sons Ben and Abe are Elks.
Francis Marion Baker. There were many funda-
mental causes for the high esteem paid Francis Marion
Baker during his life in Webster County, where he was
preeminent as a lawyer, carried many responsibilities in.
business and constantly exercised that influence due to
a man of the highest personal character and integrity.
Mr. Baker was born at Lisman in Webster County,
December 15, 1853, and died at his home in Dixon,
August 3, 1917. He was reared on the farm of his
father, James Miles Baker, and he enjoyed a whole-
some boyhood, acquiring respect for the worthiness of
labor by his duties in the fields, though that work did
not interfere with his rapid and continuous progress in
school. After acquiring such education as was offered
in the local schools he went to school at Princeton, Ken-
tucky, and later attended the University of Kentucky
at Lexington. His special talents enabled him to com-
plete his law studies by the time he was nineteen, and
by a special act of the Legislature he was admitted to
the bar. He began his professional career in Dixon,
where he practiced forty-five years, and at the time of
his death was the oldest member in the continuous serv-
ice of the Webster County bar. He had just passed his
twenty-first birthday when he began his official duties
as county attorney, having been elected before reaching
his majority, and he held the office nearly three terms.
He resigned to give his time to his accumulating law
business and never afterward was a candidate for
political office. He handled a large and varied practice,
and either as attorney or in some other important re-
lationship was identified with various lines of business
in his home county. He was one of the influential
spirits and furnished much of the capital required for
the primary development of the coal industry in Web-
ster County. He was also one of the organizers and
stockholders and at the time of his death was president
of the Dixon Bank & Trust Company, and his large
fortune also comprised several valuable and well im-
proved farms At every point at which he touched the
affairs of the county and its people he was essentially
public spirited and generous, and thoroughly deserved
the strong friendships he formed. He was an active
member of the Christian Church, and in politics was
affiliated with the democratic party.
In 1876 Mr. Baker married Annie Jones, who sur-
vives her husband and is still living at Dixon. Her
father was Elijah W. Jones, a farmer of Webster
County. To the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Baker were
born five children : Roy Milton, the oldest, born at
Dixon, July 7, 1877, was educated at Centre College in
Danville, studied law under his father, and they became
associated in practice. His abilities gave promise of a
career of at least equal distinction as that of his
honored father. He died of the influenza at Chicago,
December 2, 1918. He was affiliated with the Masonic
Order, Odd Fellows and Knights of Pythias, and was
a member of the Methodist Church. Roy Milton Baker
married Mary Smith in 1903, and she and three children
survive him. The second child of Mr. Baker is Mrs.
Blanch Maxine Frazee. Ora Viola, now deceased, was
the wife of M. L. Blackwell. James Marion Baker,
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
195
living with his mother at Dixon, married Ruth Smith,
of that city. Emma Lou, the youngest, is the wife of
Roy Henson Brooks and lives at Dixon.
Columbus Marion Thompson, M. D. For thirty
years Columbus Marion Thompson has practiced medi-
cine at Kings Mountain. The community has been
fortunate in having the services of such a highly
competent physician and surgeon available, and his
own life has been fortunate in the wide scope of its
activities, its usefulness, and the accumulations of prop-
erty and esteem.
Doctor Thompson was born on a farm nine miles
east of Eubank in Pulaski County, Kentucky, February
19, 1865. Four generations of the family have been
in Kentucky. His great-grandfather, Joseph Thomp-
son was a native of England, settled in Virginia, later
lived for some years in Rockcastle County, Kentucky,
and then returned to Virginia, where he died. James
Thompson, grandfather of Doctor Thompson, was born
in Rockcastle County, Kentucky, in 18 17, and nearly
all his life was spent there and in Pulaski County,
engaged in the vocation of farming. He died in
Pulaski County in 1892. His wife was a Miss Wilson,
a native of Lincoln County, Kentucky, who died in
Pulaski. Their son, Jasper N. Thompson, was born in
Pulaski County in November, 1848, and for over seventy
years he has lived in that section and is still a resi-
dent on his farm near Eubank. He is a democrat,
has filled the offices of magistrate and constable, and
always took a keen interest and public spirited part in
local politics. He is a Baptist and his life has been
one of exemplary habits and remarkable freedom from
vices, one characteristic being that he has never played
a game of cards in his life. Jasper N. Thompson
married Elizabeth Reynolds, who was born in Pulaski
County in 1843. Of their family Columbus Marion
is the oldest; Charles F. is a farmer at Moscow, Ohio;
Mary C. is the wife of W. G. Lee, a farmer at Honey
Grove, Texas ; James W. is a merchant at Kings
Mountain ; George W. is a farmer at Kellogg, Iowa ;
and Amanda E. is unmarried and her father's house-
keeper.
Columbus Marion Thompson grew up on his father's
farm in Pulaski County and supplemented his educa-
tion in the rural schools there by attending the Na-
tional Normal University at Lebanon, Ohio, for two
vears. In June, 1891, he was graduated M. D. from
the Eclectic Medical College of Cincinnati, and in
191 7 he returned to his alma mater for post graduate
studies. The first year after graduating he practiced
in Pulaski County, but in 1892 moved to Kings Moun-
tain, where his work has brought him steadily increas-
ing honors and responsibiliies in a professional way.
Since 1894 he has been local surgeon for the Cincin-
nati, New Orleans & Texas Pacific Railroad. In point
of continuous service he is now the pioneer physician
of Kings Mountain. Many other interests may be
noted as indicating his prosperous and substantial po-
sition in the community. He owns the building and the
general store and drug establishment which is one of
the chief commercial assets of Kings Mountain. His
home on Church Street is the most attractive residence
in the town. He has a farm of 200 acres in Lincoln
County, and owns a half interest in 132 acres of val-
uable land in Clermont County, Ohio.
Doctor Thompson gave aid and encouragement in
every possible way to patriotic movements during the
World war. He is a member of the Southern Railway
Surgeons Association, the Lincoln County Medical So-
ciety, is a past commander of Kings Mountain Tent
No. in, Knights of the Maccabees, a member of Wood-
stock Lodge No. 639, F. and A. M., and is a democrat
and Baptist.
In November, 1891, at Woodstock in Pulaski County,
he married Miss Emma Thompson, a distant relative,
daughter of Squire and Amanda (Aker) Thompson,
now deceased. Her father was a Pulaski County
farmer. Doctor and Mrs. Thompson have three chil-
dren : Bertha, wife of T. F. Dunaway, train dispatcher
for the Cincinnati, New Orleans & Texas Pacific
Railroad at Kings Mountain ; Grace, wife of Emery
D. Hill, a resident of Germantown, Kentucky ; and
Jasper Russell, who is a farmer and school teacher
at Kings Mountain.
George C. Martin. For one of the oldest families
of the Cynthiana locality and one of the most ancient
landmarks of Harrison County, the residents of this
region point to the family now represented by George
C. Martin and the house in which he resides, located
four and a half miles northwest of Cynthiana. Mr.
Martin, a progressive and highly respected agriculturist,
was born at the old homestead in which he lives Feb-
ruary 27, 1874, a son of Hon. C. B. and Sarah J.
(Stump) Martin and a grandson of James Harvey
Martin.
His father, the late Hon. C. B. Martin, was also a
native of Harrison County, born in October, 1837.
His birthplace was two and a half miles west of Cynthi-
ana. He grew up there, acquired his early education
in the public schools, and later attended a private
school. He was reared to agricultural pursuits, to
which he devoted his activities throughout life, and how
industriously and capably he labored may be seen in
the fact that at the time of his death he was the owner
of 400 acres of valuable and well improved property.
He was not less strong and influential in community
affairs, a leader in the democratic party, was chosen
a magistrate and later sheriff of Harrison County, and
subsequently was sent to represent the county in the
Lower House of the Kentucky Legislature. When his
term was completed in that body he was elected to the
Kentucky Senate, in which he represented the districts
of Harrison, Nicholas and Robertson counties. His
public record was an excellent one, and at all times
had the full respect and confidence of his associates
and constituents. Fraternally he held membership in
St. Andrew Lodge No. 18, F. and A. 'M., Cynthiana
Chapter No. 17, R. A. M., Cynthiana Commandery No.
16, K. T., and was also a member of the Benevolent
and Protective Order of Elks. He was active and
prominent in the work of the Christian Church, of
which he was a life-long member and in the faith
in which he died June 8, 1912. A woman of many
excellent qualities of mind and heart and a faithful
helpmate and mother was his good wife, who was born
at Oddville, north of Cynthiana, in 1854, and died in
1911. They were the parents of four children: Sidney
J., a farmer three miles west of Cynthiana ; Leslie,
living across the road from the old homestead ; George
C. ; and Daisy, wife of Ward W. Huffman, of Berry
Station.
George C. Martin acquired his education in the
public schools of Harrison County and was reared to
agricultural pursuits, to which he has always applied
himself. For many years he was associated with his
father in his farming operations, and at his death
began activities on his own account. On his present
farm he carries on general operations as a farmer and
stock grower, and has 103 acres of well improved land,
with modern improvements and conveniences. The old
home in which he lives was built in 1807, but numer-
ous improvements have been made thereto which have
transformed it into a modern structure. Mr. Martin
is accounted an able agriculturist, and as a citizen has
been a helpful supporter of worthy movements of a
civic, educational and religious character. In his political
allegiance he inclines to the principles of the democratic
party, being its precinct committeeman. In 1912 Mr.
Martin was united in marriage with Miss Flossie Rob-
erts, who was born in Harrison County and educated
196
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
in the public schools, and to this union there have come
two children : Stanley and Sarah Belle. Mrs. Martin
is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Cleo Thomas is a banker at McKinney. While he
has given his chief time for the past half dozen years
to banking, his business experience has been a widely
varied one, and in his relations as a banker he is
able to bring to his aid a knowledge and experience
as a farmer, merchant and manufacturer.
Mr. Thomas was born in Russell County, Kentucky,
October 17, 1879. His grandfather was an early settler
in Casey County, coming from Virginia. His father,
Isaiah Thomas, was born in Casey County in 1848, and
spent nearly all his life in that section of the state.
Shortly after his marriage he clerked in the Irvin store
in Russell County, but in 1881 removed to Dunnville,
and after 1884 lived at Phil, where he conducted a
prosperous business as a merchant and as a farmer until
his death in 1902. He was one of the principal members
of the Christian Church in his community, was also
affiliated with the Masonic Order and was a democrat.
Isaiah Thomas married Susan L. Toms, who resides
at Phil, where she was born in 1855. Their children
were five in number : Miss Mollie, who died at the age
of twenty-three; Cleo; Lula, wife of Chester Russell,
a merchant at Phil; Alma, wife of Leslie Bottom, who
is in the grocery and poultry business at Mackville in
Washington County, Kentucky; and Miss Stella, who
died at the age of twenty.
Cleo Thomas was five years of age when his father
took up his residence at Phil, and he attended the
public schools there. His life was spent on his father's
farm until he was twenty-two. Following that for
three years he was employed in a store at Phil, and
then operated a farm in Casey County until 1906. The
first year he spent at McKinney he was connected with
one of the local mercantile firms. He also clerked for
a time at Fonthill in Russell County, and then for two
years was with the Fonthill plant of the Columbia
Singletree Company as a spoke manufacturer. He re-
turned to McKinney in 1909 as manager for the branch
plant of the same company, and remained with that
manufacturing concern until 1916, when he was elected
cashier of the McKinney Deposit Bank. This bank
was chartered by the state in 1905, and is one of the
sound and well managed country banks of Lincoln
County. It has a capital of $15,000, surplus and profits
of $5,000, and deposits averaging $100,000. E. J. Tan-
ner is president, F. M. Ware, vice president and Cleo
Thomas, cashier.
Mr. Thomas was interested in all war causes in his
part of the state, and gave much of his time to handling
and promoting the Liberty Bond sales. He is owner
of a modern residence on Stanford Street in McKinney,
and has a farm in Lincoln County. Mr. Thomas votes
as a democrat, is a member of the Christian Church,
and is a past master of McKinney Lodge No. 631, F.
and A. M., -a member of Franklin Chapter No. 22,
R. A. M., at Danville, Ryan Commandery No. 17, K. T.,
at Danville; McKinney Camp No. 11649, Modern Wood-
men of America ; and Lee Tent No. 16, Knights of the
Maccabees.
In the City of Lexington in 191 1 Mr. Thomas married
Miss Minnie McWhorter, daughter of Robert and
Martha (Gadberry) McWhorter. Her mother resides
at Yosemite in Casey County. Her father, now de-
ceased, was a farmer. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas have one
daughter, Martha Elizabeth, born in June, 1918.
Richard B. Young. The Farmers Deposit Bank of
Middleburg was not two years old when Richard B.
Young became its cashier. His service has been con-
tinuous for fifteen years, and his knowledge of banking
and the spirit of personal service he exemplifies have
been important factors in making this one of the stronger
banks of Casey County. The Farmers Deposit Bank
was opened for business January 1, 1905. Ephraim
Godby was its first president and D. A. Thomas, its
first cashier. James K. Coffey is now president, W. H.
McClure, vice president, R. B. Young, cashier, and the
latter's brother, L. F. Young, assistant cashier. The
capital of $15,000 has been retained from the beginning,
but it has a large earned surplus, and deposits now
range around the $300,000 mark.
Richard B. Young was born on a farm eight miles
north of Liberty in Casey County September 14, 1872,
a grandson of Richard and Janie Young, natives of
Virginia. His grandfather was a tanner by trade and
died in Lincoln County in 1872. William T. Young,
father of the Middleburg banker, was born at Lexing-
ton in 1841 and died at Liberty, Kentucky, in 1877,
filling the office of Circuit Court clerk. He was a
farmer in Lincoln and Casey counties and served from
1861 until the close of the war as a Union soldier. He
was a democrat and a member of the Baptist Church.
His wife was Anna Prewitt, who was born in Casey
County in 1849 and now lives at Middleburg. All her
three sons, Ambrose P., Richard B. and Lucien F., are
bankers, Ambrose being cashier of the Commercial Bank
of Liberty.
Richard B. Young grew up on his father's farm, liv-
ing in the country until he was twenty-two years of age,
and he acquired a rural school education. Among other
early experiences he was with the Government Con-
cessions Department at the St. Louis World's Fair in
1904. During 1905-06 he was in the drug business at
Liberty, and in the fall of 1906 was elected cashier
of the Farmers Deposit Bank of Middleburg.
Mr. Young was chairman of all local committees for
the sale of Liberty Bonds, raising of funds for the Red
Cross, Y. 'M. C. A. and other purposes during the
World war. He was in Class A of the draft and was
ready for the call to the colors when the armistice was
signed. He is a democrat,' a member of the Baptist
Church and affiliated with Middleburg Lodge No. 594,
F. and A. M. He and his family live in a bungalow
home in Middleburg. In October, 1908, he married in
his home town Miss Lynn Hansford, daughter of
William and Sallie Hansford, now deceased. Her
father was a farmer near Liberty.
James B. Smith, M. D. A member of an old Georgia
family, where he grew up, where he did a service as an
educator for a number of years and where he also prac-
ticed medicine. Doctor Smith for some years past has
been a busy country doctor at McKinney, and has prac-
ticed in that section of Lincoln County steadily except
for the time he spent as an officer of the Medical Corps
during the World war.
Doctor Smith was born at Fairburn, Georgia, July 20,
1867. He is of English ancestry. His grandfather,
Lewis Smith, spent all his life in Fayette County,
Georgia, where be was torn in 1800 and died in 1874.
He owned a large plantation, worked it with many
slaves before the war, and was a man of substance
and influence in that community. He married a Miss
Post, also a native and life-long resident of Fayette
County. Their son, James M. Smith, has lived all his
life in the vicinity of Fairburn, Fayette County, where
he was born in 1846. His mature activities have been
given to farming and merchandising, and he is still a
merchant at Fairburn. As a youth he enlisted and
served with the Fayette County Blues in the Confed-
erate Army and participated in some of the great battles
of the war, continuing until the close of the struggle.
He is a democrat and a member of the Baptist Church.
James M. Smith married Martha West, who was born
in Fayette County in 1848, and died there March 14,
njjii. Doctor Smith is the oldest of their children:
Mattie E. lives at Atlanta. Georgia, widow of Rev. W.
H. Cox, a Baptist clergyman ; John W. is an automo-
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
197
bile mechanic at Atlanta; 'Mary F. is the wife of
Charles Eason, a carpenter at Atlanta; Mrs. Eliza E.
Ewing died at Atlanta when twenty years of age ; Mrs.
Sallie A. Upchurch is the wife of a farmer in Clayton
County, Georgia; William E. and Edward L. are both
identified with farming in Fayette County, Georgia.
James B. Smith spent his early life on his father's
Georgia farm, attended rural schools, graduated from
the high school at Jonesboro in 1885 and in 1889 re-
ceived his A. B. degree from Harvard University, also
at Jonesboro, Georgia. Doctor Smith followed the pro-
fession of an educator for twelve years. In 1902 he
began his first year in medical studies at Georgetown
University in Washington, District of Columbia, then
for two years attended the National Medical School
of Washington, and in 1906 received his M. D. degree
from the Medical Department of Howard University
at Washington. During his senior year he was an in-
terne in the University Hospital, and after graduating
remained a year at the capital to engage in private
practice. For one year he practiced at his native town
of Fairburn, and for five years was in Morrow, Georgia.
Coming to Kentucky, Doctor Smith was in practice at
Kings Mountain in Lincoln County from 1913 to April
I, 1915, and since the latter date his home and profes-
sional work have been at McKinney. He has the entire
field, being the only physician and surgeon in the town,
and owns a modern residence and offices at the corner
of Main and Stanford streets. He is a member of the
Lincoln County, Kentucky State American and the
South Medical associations.
May 12, 1918, Doctor Smith began his duties with
the Medical Corps, being trained at Camp Greenleaf,
Chickamauga Park, Georgia, was commissioned a cap-
tain, and on July 10, 1918, was sent to Camp Gordon at
Atlanta, where he was battalion surgeon of the First
Training Battalion. September 8, 1918, he was ordered
to Camp McClellan, Aniston, Alabama, where he con-
tinued his duties as a battalion surgeon to the Third
Receiving Battalion until mustered out December 6,
1918.
Doctor Smith votes as a democrat, is a member of
the Baptist Church, and is affiliated with McKinney
Lodge No. 631, F. and A. M., with Franklin Chapter
No. 22, R. A. M., and Ryan Commandery No. 17, K. T.,
at Danville, Kentucky.
Doctor Smith married at Stanford, Kentucky, October
15, 1908, 'Miss Gertrude Gooch, daughter of Tom W.
and Docia Belle (Horton) Gooch, who live on a farm
near Hustonville. Doctor and Mrs. Smith have one
daughter, Alice Marie, born February 27, 1910.
Charles Francis Montgomery has been an active
member of the bar at Liberty for twenty years, is a
former state senator, has put his time and means at
the disposal of numerous patriotic and civic movements,
has been very successful in his business career, and is
now president of the Commercial Bank of Liberty.
Mr. Montgomery was born in Lincoln County July
II, 1877. He represents a pioneer Kentucky family-
Its founder was his great-great-grandfather, a native of
Albemarle County, Virginia,' who moved to Adair
County, Kentucky, at the beginning of the nineteenth
century. For several generations the family had ex-
tensive interests as farmers and slave holding planters
in Adair County. A son of the pioneer was Joel Smith
Montgomery, a life-long resident of Adair County and
a farmer and slave holder there. Zachariah Francis
Montgomery, grandfather of the Liberty banker, was
born in Adair County in 1818, and likewise spent his
life there, with accumulating responsibilities as a
farmer and had slaves until they were freed by the
war. He was a soldier in the Mexican war, going
through that struggle with the troops under Gen. Joel
Quitman, and he named one of his sons for his favorite
commander. He died in Adair County in 1887. His
wife was Miss Rachel Powell who was born in Adair
County in 1836 and died at Liberty, Kentucky, in 1916.
Their son, Joel Q. Montgomery, is now living at
Liberty. He was born July 30, 1852, in Adair County,
where he was reared and married, and for many years
has been a prominent minister of the Christian Church.
From Adair County he removed to Lincoln County,
and about 1893 went to Middleburg in Casey County,
and since 1894 his home has been at Liberty, where he
is pastor of the Christian Church. He also owns a
farm in Lincoln County. Joel Q. Montgomery is a
Knight Templar Mason and a democrat in politics.
He married Nannie McFerran Epperson, who was born
in Adair County in 1855 and died at Liberty in 1895.
Charles Francis is the oldest of their children. Claude,
the second in age, died when fourteen years of age.
George Carter has also achieved success in business
affairs, is a mechanical engineer, and is now Chicago
representative of the Long-Bell Lumber Company of
Kansas City. The fourth child, Pearl, died when
twenty years of age. Miss Ruby is a teacher in the
public schools at New Liberty, Owen County, Kentucky,
while Miss Bessie, the youngest, remains at home with
her father.
Charles Francis Montgomery spent his boyhood
largely in rural districts of Lincoln and Casey counties
and attended the common schools there. In 1898 he
graduated A. B. from Transylvania University at Lex-
ington and in 1900 received the Master of Arts degree
from his alma mater. For one year he was a student
of law in Washington and Lee University at Lexington,
Virginia, and was admitted to the bar in August, 1901.
His admission to the bar was followed immediately by
the opening of his office at Liberty, and since then a
general clientage in both the civil and criminal branches
of the law has rewarded his talents and efforts.
Mr. Montgomery was elected and served as count*
attorney from 1906 to 1910. In November, 1913, hf
was elected to the State Senate from the Eighteenth
Senatorial District, comprising Boyle, Lincoln, Garrard
and Casey counties. In the 1914 session he was chair-
man of the committee on courts and legal procedure,
in the session of 1916 was chairman of the committee
on penal and reformatory institutions, serving on other
important committees as well. He was also a member
of the special session of 1917.
Mr. Montgomery has been president of the Commer-
cial Bank of Liberty since September, 1920. This is one
of the older banks of Casey County, having been estab-
lished in 1895, and its cashier, A. P. Young, has been
identified with the bank from the beginning. Its capital
is $30,000, surplus and profits, $35,000, and deposits,
$300,000. Mr. Montgomery is also a director of the
Peoples Bank of Hustonville, and is secretary and
treasurer of the Black Lake Lumber Company of
Louisiana, the company's headquarters being in Mr.
Montgomery's office at Liberty. He is also a partner
in the firm of Walden & Mongtomery, stave manufac-
turers.
During the World war he was chairman of all the
Liberty Loan campaigns of Casey County, was a county
fuel administrator and a member of the Legal Advisory
Board of the county. For months the duties of these
positions required his time to the practical exclusion
of his business and profession.
Mr. Montgomery owns his office building on the
Court House Square, a modern home on Middleburg
Street and two farms in Casey County. He is a demo-
crat, a deacon of the Christian Church and superin-
tendent of its Sunday School, and is affiliated with
Craftsman Lodge No. 722, F. and A. M., at Liberty,
Liberty Chapter No. 84, R. A. M., and Liberty Tent
No. 51, Knights of the Maccabees.
On September 28, 1904, at Hustonville, he married
Miss Mary Allene Carpenter, daughter of T. L. and
Abbie (Riffe) Carpenter, the latter now deceased. Her
198
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
father for many years was a farmer in the Huston-
ville community and is now living retired at Newcastle,
Indiana. Mr. and Mrs. Montgomery have two children :
Morris Carpenter, born April I, 1907, and Abbie Rifle,
born May 18, 191 1.
Hon. Thomas J. Asher. Kentucky is an old state
and a great state. Millions have contributed to its life
and affairs during the past 150 years. But among many
individuals whose lives have had something more than
ordinary significance and distinction, one is Hon.
Thomas J. Asher of Bell County, whose life has been
extended to nearly fourscore years and whose activities
have constituted an undoubted asset of great value to
all of Eastern Kentucky and in fact to the state in
general. He was one of the pioneer lumbermen, has
been a potent influence in developing the natural re-
sources of Eastern Kentucky and aside from the im-
portance of his material achievements there is a great
gratitude felt for him by innumerable citizens who have
learned to appreciate the kindliness of his personal
character.
Thomas J. Asher was born at the old homestead of
his father at the head of Redbird Creek in Clay County,
Kentucky, May 21, 1S48. His grandfather was born in
North Carolina, October 5, 1777, and moved to Clay
County, Kentucky, when a young man, about 1795, when
every part of this great nation west of the Alleghenies
was included in the unsubdued wilderness. He had all
the qualities of the pioneer, being a good woodsman, a
great hunter, and had many experiences with the In-
dians, frequently exposed to danger. He died in Clay
County, May 8, 1844.
Andrew Jackson Asher, father of Thomas J. Asher,
was born in Clay County, July 11, 1817, and he was
likewise a skilled hunter, though his chief vocation
during his life was farming. He developed a good farm
on Redbird Creek in Clay County, but spent his last
years in Bell County, where he died August I, 1888, at
the age of seventy-one. He married Margaret Hen-
drickson, who was born in 1821 in Knox County, Ken-
tucky, where her parents were early settlers. She sur-
vived her husband a number of years, passing away
in Bell County in 1904. She was a devout Baptist.
Thomas J. Asher was reared and educated in Clay
County. He has always been known among his asso-
ciates as a man of sound intelligence and learning, with
a broad vision, but he probably owes little of this to
his early contact with schools which in Clay County
sixty years ago offered very meager advantages. As a
young man he removed to Callaway, Bell County, did
farming but also took up the logging business, the in-
dustry in which his enterprise has chiefly centered ever
since. The first logs he got out he sold to the Southern
Pump Company at Burnside, in Pulaski County. He
was a resident of Calloway from 1870 to 1881 and then
removed to Wasioto in the same county. After that
he continued his timber operations on a larger scale
and in 1889 established a sawmill in which was utilized
the first circular saw ever employed in the lumber
milling industry of that section. About 1895 he gave
another decided advance to the efficiency of his mill by
introducing a band saw and steel frame mill, capable
of producing from fifty to seventy-five thousand feet
of lumber daily. Judge Asher continued the successful
operation of this mill until 1910.
I Hiring the past twenty years much of his enterprise
and capital have gone into the coal mining operations
of Bell and Harlan counties. Auxiliary to his coal mine
interests he was instrumental in building a railroad
twelve miles in those counties with a two-mile branch
up Todd Creek. Judge Asher is president of the Asher
Coal Mining Company, operating mines at Colmar,
Varilla, and Tejay in Bell County arid at Coxton Wood
and Chevrolet in Harlan County. These mines have an
aggregate output capacity of 4,000 tons daily. The
name of the village Tejay is made up of the initials of
Judge Asher's name. Judge Asher is president of the
Bailey Construction Company, a firm of extensive road
contractors with headquarters at Pineville.
March 3, 1870, Judge Asher married Varilla Howard,
who was born at Callaway, Bell County, May 7, 1848.
The Village of Varilla in Bell County was named in
her honor.
A brief record of the children of Judge and Mrs.
Asher is as follows : Hugh, whose sketch follows ; Rob-
ert, associated with a large retail furniture business at
Cincinnati ; George M., whose sketch also follows ; An-
drew J., a farmer near Pineville; Verdie Ray, wife of
Dr. M. Brandenburg, who since giving up the medical
profession has been in the hardware and coal business
at Pineville and owns extensive farm interests in Okla-
homa.
Judge Asher is now in his seventy-third year, but
still hale and hearty and attends the business of his
office every day. Aside from the conspicuous part he
has played in the industrial development and progress
of his section of the state, he served four years from
1914 to 1918 as County Judge of Bell County. He is
a republican and he and Mrs. Asher are members of
the Baptist Church of Wasioto.
Tom Wallace in the Courier Journal in 1916 gave a
vivid picture of Judge Asher in the role of a road
builder. A few paragraphs from that article have been
inserted at the request of some of his admiring fellow
citizens:
"The most prominent figure in Pineville, and one of
the most interesting in the Kentucky mountains, is
County Judge T. J. Asher, who is building the Dixie
Highway in Bell County. He was born on Redbird
Creek in Clay County, under the usual handicaps of
the section. He educated himself after he was a grown
man. He is now reputed to be more than once a mil-
lionaire. He lives in a cottage by the roadside at
Wasioto, a station a mile or so outside of Pineville,
where he had a lumber camp when he was interested
chiefly in lumber. His residence and surroundings are
such as might content a $2,500 a year man in Louisville
or one of the Bluegrass towns. There is an automobile
in the family, but the juniors use it more than Judge
Asher. It is a modest one although not the 'make' you
have in mind.
"Judge Asher is not conspicuous — in Pineville — as a
well-dressed or an ill-dressed man. He is utterly un-
pretentious without betraying any evidence of parsi-
moniousness. The typical mountaineer — in fiction es-
pecially, but the type is common in real life — is a tall,
slender man who looks like the trees which grow up-
ward in the gorges seeking sunlight. Judge Asher
-.trikes you as a rather broad man and not very tall.
He is a son of his soil in his manner of speaking rather
than in any other particular. I do not mean that he
speaks the dialect which you read in novels by John
Fox or Charles Neville Buck. It is his habit of speak-
ing in a low voice that is characteristic. If you fail to
catch what he says and ask him to repeat he repeats in
exactly the same key. You prick up your ears or you
miss again.
"Judge Asher is of a nervous temperament. He
knows everyone and talks to everyone, but he rarely
stands still for five minutes at a time. If he is in-
terested he paces about in the vicinity of the person
who is talking to him. If the conversation lags or proves
dull to him he sees somebody across the street with
whom he has urgent business and with surprising
alacrity, but perfect courtesy, he gets away from the
point of boredom and falls into conversation with a
friend or acquaintance only to pass on to someone else
after a few moments. Possibly that peculiarity is a
reflection of the restlessness which removed him from
Redbird and made him a millionaire.
"Judge Asher is no longer young. His fortune is
made. It may grow greater — may be growing greater —
c7
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
199
with the development of mineral lands in his possession,
but he has reached the age and the financial situation,
at which he feels able to take life more easily than he
did when he was young. He has time for public service.
"Judge Asher has a vision of the day when Bell
County will have a comprehensive system of first-class
roads. His idea of a first-class road is one built on a
subgrade which would hold a railroad track and trains
and satisfy both a civil engineer and a locomotive en-
gineer. Judge Asher is a Roman general in his belief
that good roads are a necessity; the sine qua non of
conquest.
"If they come high they should nevertheless, come
and come to stay. They should be so graded that they
will last and so metaled that the log wagon and the
automobile alike can roll over them at the minimum
expenditure of power. It is the profound conviction
of the county judge — a business man, not a lawyer —
that Bell County can afford roads of that kind. With
from $10,000,000 to $16,000,000 of taxable wealth, upon
a conservative basis of valuation, Bell can afford, thinks
Judge Asher, to 'dig out' in every direction, no matter
whether it is over a river or so here and there, or over
such an obstruction as Pine Mountain which casts its
shadow over the county seat. That is why Bell County
spent the proceeds of the first bond issue before com-
pleting the roads already planned and had to submit to
the voters the question of a second bond issue. The
county was with Judge Asher. Disappointment was
widespread when the work was halted by the county's
inability to get the money for which the voters were
willing to assume bonded indebtedness.
"Of the $250,000 that was voted for roads — the
proceeds of the first bond issue — 20 per cent went for
the purchase of road machinery. Motor trucks and two
steam shovels were part of the purchase. Steam
shovels are not commonly bought by counties for road
building. Unless I am mistaken Bell County is the only
county in Kentucky which has used them. The purchase
of motor trucks is uncommon save in the counties which
have the taxable wealth of cities to draw upon. But
not every county has in hand such undertakings as
cutting grades along the shoulder of mountains. It
seems altogether reasonable to believe that where such
work is to be done a steam shovel will save enough
man and team labor to pay for itself. That is what
Judge Asher says the steam shovels have done already
in Bell County.
"Bell County did not give the contractors the work
of building her roads. Judge Asher and Engineer
Bryan say that the grade between Pineville and Middles-
boro cost about $2,400 a mile. That looks like the most
economical road-making upon record in Kentucky. The
new road goes over the mountain. The grade is 3 per
cent. It barely is perceptible in an automobile. You
realize that you are climbing Pine Mountain when you
look down in the valley and see the tree tops. . The
mountain side is heavily forested. The right of way
was cleared and the steam shovel was set to biting into
the mountain deeply enough to put the road on solid
ground.
"There are two ways of making a subgrade on a
mountainside. The wrong way — is to throw out the
loose dirt in the form of a fill and build the road partly
on the made ground. The other way is to cut back far
enough into the earth to put the road on a shelf of
solid ground which will not shift with freezes and thaws.
Judge Asher built the Dixie Highway the right way, and
left plenty of room for a ditch on the inside of the
road — next the mountain — to carry off storm water. I
went over the road after heavy rains. It showed no
signs of damage. The metaled surface, which then ran
about half way to Middlesboro was as smooth as a road
built by French military engineers. The ditches had
cleaned themselves under the rush of waters, in ac-
cordance with expectations where right principles of
engineering are followed. The concrete or stone cul-
verts at the 'swag' had carried off the accumulations
of water.
"The bridge building problem is a large one in Bell
County, where every stream is a mountain torrent sub-
ject to freshets. Judge Asher bought a large number
of second-hand railroad bridges rather than put in new
bridges of lighter build. He and his friends say that
the bridges were bought at figures which made them
cheaper than the type of iron bridges commonly used
on carriage roads, and cheaper than concrete bridges.
They are in keeping* with the 'railroad grades.' When
the roads are finished the bridges will be strong enough
to hold anything that will pass over them. They were
designed to bear freight trains."
Hugh H. Asher. President of the Bell National Bank
of Pineville, is a son of Judge Thomas J. Asher, and
while he has been actively associated with many of
the extensive industrial and business interests of his
father, is also recognized as a man of achievement on
his own account.
Hugh Howard Asher was born at Calloway, Bell
County, August 7, 1871. He was educated in the public
schools, was a student during 1887-89 in the University
of Kentucky, and since leaving college he has had
thirty years in which to work out his individual destiny
as a business man. He was associated with his father
in the lumber industry until 1898, and then for ten
years lived at Chicago, Illinois, and was in the mercan-
tile business. Returning in 1908 to his old home in
Wasioto in Bell County, Mr. Asher became super-
intendent of construction for the building of the Wasioto
& Black Mountain Railroad, extending from Wasioto to
Tejay. This work employed him three years, and for
two years he had charge of construction work on the
coal mining plant at Tejay. Then for three years he
had general executive supervision of the various coal
mining properties comprising the Asher Coal Company.
. Mr. Asher is secretary of the Asher Coal Mining Com-
pany, of which his father is president, and is president
of the Asher-Creech Lumber Company of Pineville.
For the past three years Mr. Asher has devoted much
of his time to his responsibilities as president of the
Bell National Bank of Pineville. He was elected presi-
dent in 1918. This bank was established in April, 1904.
It has capital of a $100,000, surplus and undivided
profits of $70,000, and the deposits aggregate fully
$1,000,000. The other executive officers are : N. R.
Patterson and John L. Phillips, vice presidents; and
Grover C. May, cashier.
The Asher Coal Company controls 23,000 acres of
coal lands in Bell and adjoining counties. Besides the
mine operated by the Company directly, a large part of
these holdings is leased to other operating companies.
In matters of politics Mr. Asher is a stanch republican.
He is prominent in fraternal circles, being affiliated with
Bell Lodge No. 691 F. and A. M., at Pineville; Pine-
ville Chapter No. 158, R. A. M. ; Pineville Commandery
No. 38, Knights Templars; Kosair Temple of the
Mystic Shrine at Louisville; Pineville Lodge No. 127,
Knights of Pythias; B. P. O. E. ; Fraternal Order of
Owls ; the Lumberman's fraternity, the Hoo-Hoos, and
the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
Mr. Asher has proved himself one of the most ag-
gressive advocates of good road building in his native
state. He is serving as one of the four State Road
Commisioners of Kentucky. During the World war he
was chairman of the Bell County Chapter of the Red
Cross and under his direction the county raised more
than its quota in support of the Red Cross service. He
was a working member in the various other drives
for the sale of bonds and the raising of funds. As a
citizen, whether in times of peace or war he is the type
that represents progressiveness and sound public spirit.
At Chicago January 21, 1901, Mr. Asher married Miss
200
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
Ada May Thompson. Her father, the late John Thomp-
son, was for many years in the railroad service. Both
her parents are now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Asher
have two children : Robert, born January 5, 1904, now
a student in the Staunton Military Academy at Staun-
ton, Virginia, and Thomas Edward, born December 8,
1908, attending public school at Wasioto.
George M. Asher, is contributing materially to the
industrial and commercial prestige of his native countv
through his successful activities as a leading dairyman
and coal operator in Bell County, where he maintains
his home and business headquarters in the thriving city
of Pineville, the county seat. In the personal sketoh of
his father Hon. Thomas J., on other pages of this
volume, are given adequate data concerning the parents
and the family history.
George M. Asher was born at Callaway, Bell County.
August 11, 1875, and as a boy and youth was afforded
the advantages of public schools of Pineville. From
[891 to 1895 he was a student in the Kentucky State
( ollege, at Lexington, an institution which is now the
University of Kentucky. From 1898 until 1908 he had
active supervision of his father's saw mill and lumber
yard, and since that time he has given vigorous ex-
ecutive service in connection with the important affairs
of the Asher Coal Company, of which his father is
president and of which he himself is secretary, this
company controling a large area of valuable coal land
in this section <>f the state. Mr. Asher has maintained
his home at Pineville since 1909, and his handsome and
modern residence, a brick structure of three stories, is
one of the finest in the city, this attractive home being
situated on Kentucky Avenue. Mr. Asher has since 1014
owned and conducted the Beechwood Dairy, at Wasioto,
and this is conceded ti> represent the leading enter-
prise of its kind in Bell County, its modern facilities
giving effective service of milk and cream to the city
of Pineville. Mr. Asher took loyal part in the various
local war activities at the time of American participa-
tion in the World war, and made his financial con-
tributions to the* cause of most liberal order. He is a
republican in politics, is loyal and progressive as a
citizen, but is essentially a business man and has had
net her time nor inclination for public office.
In 1897, at Barbourville, Knox County, was solem-
nized the marriage of Mr. Asher to Miss Barbara Amis,
daughter of the late Wilkerson and Mary Jane
(Hopper) Amis, tile father having been a representative
fanner in the Flat Lick district of Knox County. Mrs.
Asher received excellent educational advantages, includ-
ing those nf Loretto Seminary. In conclusion is given
brief record concerning the children of Mr. and Mrs.
Asher. Miss Mary remains at the parental home and
is a popular factor in the social activities of Pineville.
T. J., Jr., named in honor of his paternal grandfather,
was graduated in the University of Kentucky as a mem-
ber of the class of 1921, and received the degree of
Mining Engineer. He is now actively associated with
the Asher Coal Mining Company. He entered the
students army training corps of the University of Ken-
tucky in September, 1918, and continued his service at
the barracks in Lexington until after the signing of the
historic armistice had brought the World war to a
virtual termination. Agnes is, in 1921, a student in
Georgetown College, at Georgetown, Kentucky ; Verda
was graduated in the Pineville high school as a mem-
ber of the class of 1921. Virginia, who was born in
1905, died in 1914. George M., Jr., who was born
November 26, 1906, is a student in the Pineville high
school. Louise, born December 4, 1908; Wilkerson
Amis, born August 29, 191 1; and Charles Henry, born
July 6, 1913, are attending the public schools of Pine-
ville. Barbara was horn December 27, 1915, and Jean,
January 29, 1918, and theirs is undisputed juvenile
reign in the beautiful family home, which is a center
of much of the representative social life of the com-
munity.
Ambrose P. Young is a veteran banker, with more
than a quarter of a century's service and experience
to his credit with the Commercial Bank of Liberty, of
which he is cashier. Mr. Young was also active in
the politics of Casey County for some years before
settling down into the routine of banking.
His grandparents were Richard and Janie Young,
natives of Virginia. His grandfather was a tanner by
trade, and for many years lived in Lincoln County,
where he died in 1872. His son, William T. Young,
was born at Lexington, Kentucky, in 1841, was reared
in that city and in 1861 enlisted and as a soldier did
his part as a staunch defender of the Union through-
out the Civil war. After the war he became a farmer
in Lincoln and Casey counties, and died at Liberty in
1X77. At that time he was Circuit Court clerk. He
was a democrat, a member of the Baptist Church, and
though he died at the age of thirty-six his life was
one of unusual worth and prominence. He married
Anna Prewitt, who now lives at Middleburg in Casey
County, and was born in that county in 1849. The
three sons are Ambrose P., Richard B. and Lucien F.,
the two younger sons being in the banking business at
M iddleburg.
Ambrose P. Young was born in Lincoln County April
1, 1870, but has spent practically all his life in Casey
County. He grew up on his father's farm there until
he was nineteen years of age, being about seven years
old when his father died. He had a rural school
education and in 1889 became deputy County Court
clerk and deputy Circuit Court clerk, filling those posi-
tions for three years. For another two years he was
deputy sheriff.
In August, 1895, the Commercial Bank of Liberty
was opened for business, and at that time Mr. Young
became associated with the institution as assistant
cashier. He has helped make the splendid record of
this bank during subsequent years. The bank has a
capital of $30,000, surplus and profits of $35,000 and
deposits averaging $300,000. The officers are: Charles
F. Montgomery, president; James R. Carson, vice presi-
dent; A. P. Young, who has been cashier since 1918;
and M. J. Humphrey, assistant cashier. To his duties
as a banker Mr. Young has given his time and energies
with utmost faithfulness. He was interested in the
success of all the patriotic drives in Liberty and Casey
counties during the World war, and was chairman of
several of the campaigns. He is a democrat, a deacon
in the Christian Church, past master of Craftsman
Lodge No. 722, F. and A. M., a member of Liberty
Chapter No. 84, R. A. M., and of Liberty Camp.
Modern Woodmen of America. He and his family
have one of the very desirable homes of Liberty, located
on Middleburg Street. He is also interested in a farm
and ranch of 780 acres in Casey County. On March
17, 1904, at Lexington, Kentucky. Mr Young married
Miss Lillian Phillips Her father, the late Henry
1.. Phillips, was a merchant at Monticello, Kentucky,
where her mother, Alice (Christman) Phillips, is still
living. Mrs. Young is a graduate of the Monticello
High School. They have three children : George, born
in 1906, and Alice, born in 1909, both attending the
Liberty High School; and Henry, born in 1913, who has
begun his studies ki the grade schools.
Thomas B. Prather , representing the third or fourth
generation of the family that has been identified with
Pulaski County since pioneer times, has for a number
of years enjoyed an enviable station in the business and
civic affairs of Somerset, where he is employed as active
vice president of the Farmers National Bank, and secre-
tary of the Farmers Trust Co. He has also been
engaged in the real estate and insurance business for
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
201
the past twelve years, in addition to the banking busi-
ness.
Mr. Prather was born on a farm five miles southwest
of Somerset 'May 21, 1887. The Prather family is of
Irish origin, but has been in America since Colonial
days. His grandfather Frederick Prather was a life-
long resident of Pulaski County, a farmer there, and
died in 1901. G. C. Prather, father of Thomas B., was
born in the same county in 1853 and for thirty-five
years has been engaged in the general mercantile busi-
ness at Somerset, though he did not move his home
from his farm into town until 1896. He is still active
as a general merchant. He votes as a democrat and
is one of the leading supporters of the Methodist Church
at Somerset. His wife was Victoria Gossett, who was
born in Pulaski County in 1855. They are the parents
of seven children : J. F. Prather, a merchant at Somer-
set ; Samuel, who died at the age of eleven years ;
Thomas B. ; Hattie who died in Pulaski County, her
husband Dr. R. F. Jasper being a physician at Harlan ;
Annie is a teacher at Parker School in Somerset;
Virginia and Harry are at home, the latter assisting
his father in the store.
Thomas B. Prather has lived in Somerset since he
was nine years of age, and completed his education in
the public schools in that city. Leaving school at the
age of seventeen, he spent five years with his father
and since then has been in the banking, real estate and
insurance business. He has other important interests,
and for two years was vice president of the Somerset
Fair Association and was secretary of Local Building
& Loan Association. He owns much local real estate,
and besides his modern home has other real estate in
this city and Pulaski County. Mr. Prather served as
a member of the Somerset School Board five years
and was president of the board in 1918, is a democrat,
a Baptist, and is affiliated with Somerset Lodge No. Ill,
A. F. and A. M., Somerset Chapter No. 25, R. A. M.,
Somerset Commandery No. 31, K. T., and Oleika
Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Lexington and the
Louisville Consistory of the Scottish Rite. He is a
Past Grand of Somerset Lodge No. 238, Independent
Order of Odd Fellows and Past Exalted Ruler of
Somerset Lodge -No. 1021 Benevolent and Protective
Order of Elks. He did much committee work during
the World war in behalf of Red Cross and Liberty Loan
drives.
In 1908 at Somerset Mr. Prather married Miss Myrtie
Freeman, daughter of J. W. and Pamelia (Farris)
Freeman, residents of Somerset. Her father is foreman
of the Car Department of the Southern Railway Com-
pany at Ferguson near Somerset. The two children of
Mr. and Mrs. Prather are Thomas Alton, born in 1912,
and Virginia Maxine, born in 1914.
Isaiah Stewart Wesley, M. D. No name stands
higher in the medical profession of Casey County than
Wesley. The late Dr. Joshua T. Wesley was for many
years the county's foremost physician and surgeon, and
a man whose abilities put him high in the profession
throughout the state. His son, Dr. Isaiah S. Wesley,
has likewise practiced medicine for many years at
Liberty, is an able physician and surgeon, and has made
his career one broad opportunity for doing good.
This family has been in Pulaski and Casey counties
practically from the time that region of Kentucky was
settled by white men. Doctor Wesley's great-grand-
father, Jack J. Wesley, was of English descent and
old Virginia Colonial stock, and was born in Virginia
i" J773, two years before the outbreak of the Revolution.
As a young man he removed to Kentucky, and he spent
the greater part of his active life as a farmer in Casey
County, where he died in 1872, at the age of ninety-nine.
His son, John J. Wesley, was born in Pulaski County
in 1810, lived in that and in Casey County and followed
farming as his occupation. He died at Middleburg in
Casey County in 1887. His wife was Bettie Taylor,
who was born in Casey County in 1812 and died at
Middleburg in 1897.
The late Dr. Joshua T. Wesley was born in Pulaski
County in March, 1839, but spent the greater part of
his early as well as his later life in Casey County. He
was a graduate in medicine from the University of
Louisville, and until 1876 practiced at Mintonville
in Casey County. For one year he was vice president
of the Kentucky State Medical Society and for a number
of years a councillor of the society. He also was county
health officer for a long period of time. In politics
he was a republican, was an active member of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, and for a number of years
was honored with the office of master of the Masonic
Lodge at Middleburg. Dr. Joshua Wesley, who died
at Middleburg March 24, 1909, married Delila Wesley,
who was born in Casey County in 1839 and died at
Liberty in 1914. Her father was John Wesley, who
was born in Pulaski County, Kentucky, and died in
Casey County in 1911, having lived most of his life in
Casey County, where he was a farmer. He married
a Miss Dick, a native of Pulaski County, of Irish stock.
The children of Dr. Joshua Wesley were: Mary Eliza
and Selecta, both of whom died in infancy ; Emma, who
died at Middleburg at the age of forty-five, wife of
George W. Drye, a farmer living near Middleburg ;
Isaiah Stewart; Theophilus, a druggist who died at
Stanford in Lincoln County at the age of thirty ; Jason
J., of Danville, Kentucky, bookkeeper and general man-
ager for the extensive business interests of Mitchell
Taylor; and Florence, wife of Joseph Williams, in the
farm implement business at Rockwood, Tennessee.
Isaiah .Stewart Wesley was born at 'Mintonville in
Casey County November 7, 1867, and during his youth
attended school at Mintonville and Middleburg, gradu-
ating from the high school at Middleburg in 1883. In
1887 he received the Bachelor of Science degree from
Augusta College while that school was under the presi-
dency of Doctor Stephenson. In 1889 he graduated in
medicine from the University of Louisville, and has
now been in the active practice of his profession over
thirty years. During 1895 Doctor Wesley attended the
Philadelphia Polyclinic and also the Medico-Chirurgical
College of Philadelphia, specializing in general surgery.
He was a member of the Board of Censors of the latter
college for a number of years. Doctor Wesley practiced
at Middleburg from 1889 until 1897, was then at Lan-
caster five years, and since 1902 has had _ an extensive
general medical and surgical practice at Liberty. Since
1903 he has been county health officer, and it is a unique
distinction that he and his father have been the only
county health officers Casey County has ever had. He
is a member of the County, State and American Medical
associations, and during the World war performed
heavy and exacting duties as examining physician for
the County Draft Board. Doctor Wesley has his offices
in the Allen Building. He is a republican in politics, a
member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and is
affiliated with Lancaster Lodge F. & A. M., the Knights
of the Maccabees, the Improved Order of Red 'Men,
and the Modern Woodmen of America.
On September 20, 1890, in Tennessee, he married Miss
Annie Clyde Durham, daughter of Matt and Mollie
(Jeter) Durham. Her father was a merchant at Mid-
dleburg, Kentucky, where he died, and her mother now
lives at Mount Vernon, Kentucky. Mrs. Wesley is a
graduate of the high school at Campbellsville, Kentucky.
Four children were born to Doctor and Mrs. Wesley.
Cora, the oldest, is the wife of Jesse Bell, a mechanic,
and they live with Doctor and Mrs. Wesley, Rodaphil,
better known as Rod, an electrical engineer at Muncie,
Indiana, volunteered his services at the beginning of the
World war, spent eleven months in France, and at first
was with a machine gun battalion, later transferred to
service in a field hospital and was on front line duty
202
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
four months. Ada, who died at the age of twenty-one,
was the wife of Russell Brown, now owner and operator
of the electric light plant at Bryantsville, Kentucky.
The youngest child, Matt, died in infancy. Doctor
Wesley also adopted and reared John Maynard from
the age of eight years. This adopted son, a mechanic
now living at Cincinnati, was in the Aviation Corps and
spent a year in France.
Eli G. Wesley, county attorney of Casey County, is
a man of versatile gifts and attainments, and has ex-
pressed them in varied service and forms of useful-
ness. For a number of years he was an active minister
of the Gospel, but for the past six years has enjoyed
a high place at the Casey County bar.
He was born in Casey County, at Bethel Ridge, April
II, 1875. The family has been in this section of Ken-
tucky for a long period of years. His father, Lee
Wesley, was born in Casey County in 1854, and his
active career was one of successful devotion to farming.
Since 1015 he has lived retired at Liberty. He is an
active republican, has served as magistrate of the Jen-
kins District of Casey County, and is a loyal member of
the Methodist Episcopal Church. Lee Wesley married
Ibby Godbey, who was born in Pulaski County in 1 S 5 4 .
Of their large family of children Eli G. is the oldest, and
the others are: Mary Frances, wife of James H. Mc-
Aninch, a Casey County farmer ; Adolphus, a farmer
and teacher in Casey County ; Noble, formerly a mer-
chant and now a teacher and farmer at Yosemite in
Casey County ; Richard, a farmer ; P. P. Wesley, also
a farmer; Jennie, who died at Dunnville, Casey County,
at the age of twenty-eight, wife of George Cundiff, Jr.,
a farmer in that vicinity; Bettie, who died at the age of
twenty-one, wife of Ad Coffey, a Casey County farmer;
Thomas, who died in infancy; Joshua, a teacher and
farmer; Charles, a farmer in Union County; Ruth,
wife of Nace Grider, a farmer in Casey County; and
Miss Bula, who graduated from the Liberty High
School in 1921.
Eli G. Wesley grew up on a farm, attended rural
schools, spent three years in Union College at Barbour-
ville, and for one year pursued the medical course and
another year was a student of theology in Grant Uni-
versity at Chattanooga, Tennessee. He left university
in 1009.
In 1000, at Somerset. Kentucky, when twenty-five
years of age Mr. Wesley was enrolled as a minister
of the Methodist Episcopal Church. For a year he
preached at Gradyville in Adair County, for two years
was at West Bend, Powell County, another two years
at Foster, Kentucky, and during igo7 filled the pulpit at
the Spivy Memorial Church near Chattanooga. He was
pastor at Bethel Ridge two years, spent two years at
Onton in Webster County and four years at Hartford
in Ohio County.
Mr. Wesley was admitted to the Kentucky bar in
1914, and since September, 1915, has been making his
name and abilities known and respected as a lawyer
engaged in a general civil practice at Liberty. He is
now serving his fourth year as county attorney and is
candidate for re-election in 1921. Mr. Wesley is a
republican, a member of Craftsman Lodge No. ~n. F.
and A. M., Liberty Tent No. 51. Knights of the Macca-
bees. He owns considerable real estate in Liberty,
including his own home on Hustonville Street.
In 1896, in Casey County, he married Miss Flora
McAninch, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George W. Mr
Aninch now deceased. Her father was a Union soldier
in the Civil war. Eleven children have been born to
Mr. and Mrs. Wesley: Mary F., who died at the age
of six months ; Osa D. and Lula, both students in the
high school at Liberty ; Malcolm, in the eighth grade
of the grammar school ; Emmer Gene, a high school
girl; Rathmall, Georgia Lee, Cranston, Ibby Faith, who
are pupils in the grade school ; and Paulmer and Carl.
James David Taylor laid the foundation of his sub-
stantial business success as a practical farmer in Casey
County. His public spirit broadened his interests from
his immediate work and farm and for a number of years
he has been prominent in the official affairs of the
county and is now county judge. He is also a banker
at Liberty.
Judge Taylor was born in Casey County, April 13,
1875. He is of Scotch ancestry. For several generations
the family lived in Colonial Virginia, where his grand-
father, Joshua Taylor, was born. Joshua Taylor married
a Miss Kelsey, also a native of Virginia. They were
early settlers in Casey County, Kentucky, where they
lived out their lives. James Taylor, father of Judge
Taylor, was born in Fentress County, Tennessee, in
1839, was reared and married in his native county, and
as a young man moved to Casey County, Kentucky.
He enlisted in the Confederate Army, and was all
through the war as a member of the Thirteenth Ken-
tucky Cavalry. Following the war he gave his un-
divided attention to his extensive interests as a fanner
in Casey County, where he died in 1911. Though he
fought as a Confederate soldier he became a republican
in politics, and one of his deep interests outside his
home was his membership in the Christian Church.
James Taylor married Jane Reed, who was also born in
Fentress County, Tennessee, in 1836, and died in Casey
County, Kentucky, in 1909. She became the mother of
nine children : Elizabeth, who died at McLean, Illinois,
at the age of fifty-six, wife of G. W. Skeenes; G. T.
Taylor, a contractor at Decatur, Illinois ; Margaret, wife
of B. F. Tapscott, a farmer in Casey County; Delila,
wife of Leslie Edwards, a Casey County farmer ; Mary
E. of Moreland, Kentucky, widow of Lorenzo E. King,
a farmer ; Parthena, who died at the age of thirty in
Texas, where her husband, Hardin Martin, is a farmer;
Cordie, a farmer and merchant in Casey County ; James
David ; and Charles Wesley, a farmer in Casey County.
James David Taylor acquired a public school educa-
tion in the rural districts of Casey County. His life
was spent on his father's farm until he was nineteen,
and he then took up with characteristic energy an inde-
pendent career as a farmer, and was one of the leaders
in the rural community until 1914. After he entered
upon his duties as county sheriff he sold his farming
interests.
Judge Taylor in November, 1913, was elected sheriff,
an office he filled from 1914 to 1918. He was elected
county judge in November, 1917, and has been at the
Court House discharging the duties of his four year
term since January, 1918.
Judge Taylor became first vice president of the
Citizens State Bank of Liberty upon its organization in
1 921. He owns perhaps the most attractive home in
Liberty, located on the Brush Creek Road, the house
1 eing surrounded with six acres of well kept ground.
During the World war Judge Taylor was chairman of
the County Exemption Board, and in every possible way
he endeavored to perform his duties at home while one
of his sons was fighting in France. Judge Taylor is a
republican and is an entered apprentice Mason.
\t Columbia, Kentucky, he married Miss Minta
Woodrum, daughter of Sam and Minerva (Fades)
Woodrum, now deceased. Her father spent his life as
a farmer in Casey and Adair counties. The oldest child
of ludge Taylor is Robert E., a veterinary surgeon at
Lebanon, Kentucky. D. A. Taylor, the second son. was
with Hospital Unit D in the Expeditionary Forces,
spent eighteen months in France, and for four months
was on front line duty. He completed his law course
in May, 1921, at Washington and Lee University at
Lexington, Virginia. The third son, Clarence, is in-
structor in the high school at Eubank, Pulaski County.
Bermon and Omer are both students in the public
schools at Liberty, and there were two other children
who died in infancy.
\
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
203
Silas Ashley had a progressive career of changing
and improving circumstances leading up to his present
responsible duties as sheriff of Casey County. He has
lived in the county all his life, and is well known for
the prompt and energetic manner in which he has
discharged every duty in every position.
Sheriff Ashley was born on a farm twelve miles east
I of Liberty December 7, 1885. His grandfather was
Robert Ashley, a native of Virginia and one of the
I early day farmers of Casey County, where he died in
( 1890. His wife was Delila Wesley, who also died in
Casey County. The father of Sheriff Ashley is S. N.
Ashley, who was born in Casey County in i860, was
reared and married here, for a number of years was
engaged in the timber business as well as a farmer,
and since 1913 has lived on a farm at Eubanks in Pulaski
County. He is a republican and a member of the
Methodist Episcopal Church. S. N. Ashley married
Sarah Wall, who was born in Casey County. They
became the parents of eleven children : Rhoda, wife
of William Wesley, a farmer in Pulaski County ; Silas ;
J. H., a merchant at Eubank ; Ambrose ; Ezra P., who
died at the age of seventeen ; Colletie, wife of H. C.
Barber, a farmer in Pulaski County ; Ruth, wife of
J. F. Barber, a Pulaski County farmer; Mont, Millie,
Gladys and Ezra.
Silas Ashley attended some of the rural schools of
Casey County and the Normal School at Barbourville,
Kentucky. His life to the age of nineteen was spent
on his father's farm, following which he had a variety
of experiences as a practical farmer, clerked in stores,
was in the timber business and in other occupations.
Mr. Ashley has had a practical knowledge of the routine
duties of the sheriff's office of Casey County since 1913.
From 1913 to 1917 he was deputy sheriff and in Novem-
ber of the latter year was elected sheriff and began his
four year term in January, 1918. His home has been
at Liberty for a number of years, and he owns one of
the choice residences of the city, on Middlelmrg Street.
Both officially and as a private citizen he was a leader
in patriotic movements in the county during the World
war. Mr. Ashley is a republican, a member of Crafts-
man Lodge No. 722, F. & A. M., Louisville Consistory
of the Scottish Rite, Kosair Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S.,
Bethel Ridge Camp No. 14916, Modern Woodmen of
America, and Liberty Tent No. 51, Knights of the
Maccabees.
At Huntsville, Tennessee, in 1905, Mr. Ashley mar-
ried Miss Grace Wesley, daughter of J. B. and Mary
(Lyn) Wesley, the latter now deceased. Her father is
a farmer and surveyor living at Bethel Ridge in Casey
County, and is a former county surveyor. Mr. and
Mrs. Ashley have four children, Ina, born in 1909 ;
Mildred, born in 1912; Irona, born in 1914; and Orena,
born in 1917.
Otis Allen Benton. The present efficient sheriff
of Henderson County, Otis Allen Benton, was formerly
the clerk of the county, having been given that office in
1913, and during the period of his incumbency rendered
the people of his section of the state the kind of serv-
ice that brings forth commendatory remarks and serves
to renew public confidence. Prior to entering upon his
official career he had been engaged in several lines of
activity in which he had made numerous friends and
I established himself firmly in the esteem of the general
public, and the faith which the voters placed in his
integrity and ability has been vindicated by the manner
in which he has discharged the responsibilities cf his
important offices.
Mr. Benton was born March 10, 1882, in Henderson
County, Kentucky, the eldest in a family of seven chil-
dren born to William Tell and Lura (Walden) Benton.
His father was born at Sullivan, Indiana, a son of Wil-
liam and Minerva (Walls) Benton, the former of whom
was born in North Carolina, of English and Welsh
lineage, while the latter on the paternal side came of
Scotch ancestry and on the maternal side was of one-
quarter Indian blood. William Tell Benton came to
Henderson County during the Civil war, when about
ten years of age, and here met and married Lura
Walden, a native of Henderson County and a daughter
of Nathan and Sallie (Smith) Walden. For a num-
ber of years he was engaged in farming, with a grati-
fying measure of success, but is now retired from ac-
tive pursuits and makes his residence at Henderson,
where he has a comfortable home.
Otis Allen Benton passed his boyhood on the home
farm and received his early education in the country
schools, following which he pursued a course at the
Agricultural and Mechanical College, Lexington, Ken-
tucky, and further prepared himself by a business course
at Evansville, Tndiana. He began his career as a travel-
ing representative for a wholesale house, and after
pursuing this vocation for six years settled at Hender-
son and for four years was engaged in the livery and
live stock business. In these connections, as before
noted, he became well and favorably known to the
people as a young man of energy, enterprise, intelligence
and integrity, qualities which made him peculiarly fitted
for the office of county clerk, to which he was first
elected in 1913. During the first four years of his
occupancy of that post he discharged his duties in such
a capable manner that he again became the nominee in
1917 and was duly elected by a handsome majority. Mr.
Benton was nominated for county sheriff of Henderson
County, at the Democratic Primary August 6, 1921, and
won the election by a large majority. He has always
been a stanch democrat. He is widely! known in
fraternal circles, being a Royal Arch and Knight
Templar Mason and a Noble of the Mystic Shrine,
also a member of the Eastern Star, Knights of Pythias,
Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Loyal Order
of Moose, Woodmen of the World and Modern Wood-
men of America. His religious faith is that of the
Baptist Church.
On April 30, 1907, Mr. Benton was united in marriage
with Miss Nancy America Robertson, daughter of
Leonard A .Robertson, of Henderson County, and two
children have been born to them : Otis Allen, Jr., and
Lura May.
Harry Hicks is a prosperous and enterprising young
farmer of Harrison County, and is giving a capable
management to his place of large acreage and complete
equipment six miles south of Cynthiana.
The house in which he lives today is close to his
birthplace, where he was born May 5, 1884, a son of
James J. and Susan (Patton) Hicks. His parents were
also born in Harrison County, his father in 1850 and
his mother in January, 1852. They were reared and
educated here, and after their marriage settled on the
old homestead, where the mother is still living. The
father died in 1891, at the age of forty-one. There
were nine children: Arthur, of Cynthiana; Miss Ida;
Edwin L., of Cynthiana; Calvin, whose home is in
California ; Anna, deceased ; Preston, a Harrison County
farmer; Harry; Bessie, who lives with her brother
Harry ; and Florence, wife of Augustus Price of Lex-
ington.
Harry Hicks while growing up on the old farm
attended the common schools, and since school days
his work has been entirely identified with the Hicks
farm of 296 acres. He and his sister Ida also own
another farm of sixty-seven acres. Mr. Hicks is a
member of the Presbyterian Church at Mount Pleasant
and is a democrat.
J. Boyle Stone. Attorneys who have been engaged
in the steady practice of law for half a century are not
numerous in Kentucky. One of them is J. Boyle Stone
of Liberty, who has been a member of the bar of Casey
204
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
County for just fifty years, and in length of practice
is the oldest attorney in the county. Mr. Stone has
found in his profession the means of satisfying his
ambitions for achievement, but has also had other
interests, and is president of the Citizens State Bank
of Liberty.
Mr. Stone was born at Jamestown in Russell County,
Kentucky, and both li is father and grandfather were
men of distinction in the state. His grandfather, James
Stone, was a native of Virginia, moved to Monticello,
Wayne County, Kentucky, when a young man, was
married there, in business was a farmer and merchant,
and was also sheriff of Wayne County and a member
of the State Senate. He died at Monticello. His wife
was a daughter of Joshua Jones, who also came from
Virginia, and was a pioneer farmer of Wayne County.
Napoleon B. Stone, father of J. Boyle Stone, was
born at Monticello, Kentucky, in 1830 and as a young
man removed to Jamestown, Russell County. He earned
a high place as a lawyer, and during the '40s represented
Casey and Russell counties in the Legislature. In
1861 he joined the Confederate Army, and for a time
was captain of General Breckenridge's body guard.
After a brief service he was obliged to resign on account
of illness. He was a democrat, a member of the
Christian Church and the Masonic fraternity. Napoleon
B. Stone, who died at Jamestown in 1899, married
Amanda Owsley in Russell County. Her father was
the widely known Bryan Y. Owsley, who achieved high
rank as a lawyer, was a Congressman from Kentucky,
and subsequently registrar of the State Land Office.
Amanda Owsley was born in Lincoln County in 1822
and died at Jamestown in 1848. All of her four sons
gained creditable rank as lawyers : W. S. Stone, who
died at Jamestown at the age of sixty-eight ; James,
who died at Lexington; J. Boyle; and George, an
attorney at Danville, Kentucky.
J. Boyle Stone grew up at Jamestown, acquired a
liberal education, attending the old Presbyterian College
at Columbia, Kentucky, and also a Presbyterian College
at- Burksville. He studied law with judge Michael
Owsley at Lancaster, Kentucky, and was admitted to
the bar in i860. For a year he practiced at Cedartown,
Georgia, but in 1871 located at Liberty, where he has
had an active share in the practice of all local courts.
He served as county attorney of Casey County in
i&72~73, as county judge from 1874 to 1878, and in
November, 1884, was elected to the Legislature by
Casey and Russell counties, serving during the sessions
of 1885-86. He is a democrat and a member of the
Christian Church. He was on the Legal Advisory
Committee for Casey County during the World war,
and otherwise took a helpful part in patriotic movements.
The Citizens State Bank of Liberty was organized
and opened for business in February, 1921, with Mr.
Stone as its president. Judge J. D. Taylor is the first
vice president, W. C. Cundiff is second vice president,
and L. W. Cundiff, cashier.
In 1878, at Liberty, Mr. Stone married Miss Laura
Belle Napier, daughter of Patrick and Dolly (Fitz-
patrick) Napier, now deceased. Her father was a
former sheriff of Casey County and a hotel proprietor.
Mrs. Stone, who died at Liberty in 1905, is survived by
one daughter, Amanda Owsley, now the wife of George
P. Crow, of Danville, Kentucky, where Mr. Crow is
bookkeeper for the Danville Light and Power Company.
John Emmons McClure is one of the younger men
who have the responsibilities of a cashier's office in a
bank in the State of Kentucky. For three years past
he has been cashier of the Bank of Moreland. This
bank of Lincoln County was organized and established
June 2, 1909, under a state charter, and operates on
a capital of $15,000, with surplus and profits of $4,200
and deposits of $100,000. The president is B. B. King
and the vice president R. F. Steele.
Mr. McClure is a native of Lincoln County, born on
a farm four miles west of Moreland June 14, 1894. He
represents the fourth generation of the family in Ken-
tucky. His great-grandfather lived for many years
on a farm in Casey County, where he died. The grand-
father, Matt McClure, was born in 1830 and also fol-
lowed farming, and died in Casey County in 1920.
Carroll Kendrick McClure, father of the Moreland
banker, was born in Casey County in 1867, grew up
there on a farm, taught school in early life and in
the early '90s moved to a farm where his son was born
four miles west of Moreland, and later to a farm near
Hustonville. He moved his borne to Moreland in 1907
and from 1901 to 1917, a period of sixteen years, he
did daily duty as a rural mail carrier. Since 1917 his
home has been at Somerset, where he is teacher of a
rural school. Politically he is a republican and is an
active member of the Christian Church. He is a
charter member of Moreland Camp No. 1 1663, Modern
Woodmen of America. Carroll K. McClure married
Martha Hale, w:ho was born in Pulaski County in 1877.
They have four children: Mabel, wife of John Back,
a farmer at Danville, Kentucky ; John E. ; Catherine, in
the offices of the Western Union Telegraph Company
at Cincinnati; and Miss Martha, at home.
John Emmons McClure attended the rural schools of
Lincoln County and as a pupil entered the senior year
of the Hustonville High School. Leaving school in
1910, he was for several years a telegraph operator and
railroad agent for the Cincinnati, New Orleans & Texas
Pacific Railroad Company. He also did some farming
on his own account. In March, 1918, he became con-
nected with the Bank of Moreland as a clerk, and
rapidly mastered additional responsibilities and acquired
a knowledge of banking, so that he was chosen cashier
in June, 1918. He was active through the bank and
as a private citizen in behalf of the financial drives for
patriotic purposes in the World war. He is one of the
public spirited citizens of Moreland. Politically he votes
as a republican, js a member of the Christian Church,
and is clerk of Moreland Camp No. 11663, Modern
Woodmen of America. Mr. McClure owns a modern
home on Main Street. He married in January, 1916,
at Oneida, Tennessee, Miss Fannie Myers, daughter of
Z. L. and Flora Myers, residents for a number of years
at Georgetown, Kentucky, where her father is local
agent for the Southern Railroad Company and police
judge. Mrs. McClure completed her education in the
high school at Georgetown. They have one daughter,
Evelyn, born December 6, 1916.
William Thomas Murphy, M. D. A physician and
banker at Hustonville, Doctor Murphy has had a busy
professional career in that section of Kentucky for
almost thirty years. His people have lived in Casey
County for considerably more than a century, and it
was in that county that Doctor Murphy grew up and
handled an extensive country practice before moving to
Hustonville.
He was born on a farm ten miles west of Hustonville,
in Casey County, January 16, 1866. The founder of the
family in Casey County was his great-grandfather, a
native of Virginia. His grandfather, Elkins Murphy,
was born in Casey County in 1805. He lived there and
developed some extensive interests as a farmer. He
was a strong Union sympathizer, and about the close
of the Civil war a band of southern guerillas captured
him on his farm and, taking him to Cumberland Gap,
hanged him. Elkins Murphy married Fannie Spragens,
a life-long resident of Casey County, where she was
born in 1810 and died in 1881.
The father of Doctor Murphy was the late H. T.
Murphy, a well remembered citizen of Casey County,
where he spent many years diligently occupied with
his farm and community interests. He served in the
Home Guards during the Civil war, always voted as a
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
205
republican, and was one of the leading members of
the Baptist Church. He was born in 1835 and died in
1906. His wife was Sarah Henderson, who was born
In Marion County in 1845 and died in Casey County in
1910. They had two sons, William T. and George
Fletcher. Both became physicians, the younger grad-
uating from the Louisville Medical School and died in
Casey County six months after receiving his diploma,
when only twenty-two years of age.
William Thomas Murphy acquired a good public
school education in Casey County, attending the grade
school at Rocky Ford. Up to the age of twenty-five
he busied himself with farming in his native county,
and then entered the University of Louisville, from
which he received his M. D. degree March 14, 1892.
He has kept in close touch with progress in medicine
and surgery, has attended many conventions of the
State, County and American Medical associations, of
which he is a member, and during 1920 took special
work under Dr. L. D. Rogers at Chicago. From 1892
until December, 1918, he looked after an extensive
country practice in Casey County, and since then his
offices have been in Hustonville. Doctor Murphy has
for several years been a director and is vice president
of the Peoples Bank of Hustonville. He was associated
with all the local war work, and has received much ma-
terial prosperity, represented by his ownership of one
of the modern homes of Hustonville, two store build-
ings on Main Street, and other interests. He is a re-
publican, a member of the Baptist Church, and is
affiliated with Rocky Ford Tent No. 117, Knights of the
Maccabees, in Casey County, and Hustonville Lodge
No. 184 F. and A. M.
In Casey County in 1884 Doctor Murphy married Miss
Fannie Ellis. Her father, George D. Ellis, was a farmer,
and her mother, Helen (Cunningham) Ellis, is still liv-
ing. Doctor Murphy lost his wife in 1900. Three chil-
dren survive her : Georgia, wife of Melvin Campbell,
an insurance man at Hustonville; Clyde, wife of Cleaver
Brown, a Casey County farmer; and Ira, who owns and
operates a public garage at Hustonville. In 1902, at
Wilmore, Kentucky, Doctor Murphy married Mrs. Lillie
(Sams) Flanagan, who died November 7, 1920. Her
parents, J. M. and Elizabeth (Dobbins) Sams, reside
at Danville, Kentucky. By his second marriage Doctor
Murphy has three children, all in school at Hustonville,
the oldest in high school ; Lyda, born in 1904, Margie,
born in 1908, and Lucille, born in 191 1. On October 6,
1921, Doctor Murphy married Mary Eleanor Peavy-
house, who was a teacher in the public schools of Hus-
tonville.
B. B. Kino With a life record of more than four-
score years to his credit, B. B. King has played many
parts and has played them all well, from service to the
Union during the Civil war, through growing business
interests in different sections of Kentucky, and for
many years as a factor in agriculture and livestock and
other affairs in Lincoln County. Mr. King is president
of the Bank of Moreland, where he resides.
He was born in Madison County, Kentucky, January
29, 1839. His grandfather, John Louis King, came from
Ireland and spent the rest of his life as a Virginia
planter. He married Nancy Jane Pence, a native of
Holland. Their son, William King, was born in Vir-
ginia in 1783, soon after the close of the Revolutionary
war. He lived in his native state until he was twenty-
six, and in 1809 identified himself with the pioneer
district of Kentucky in Madison County, where he mar-
ried and where he followed his trade as a cooper and
also farmed. For four years he had his home and work
at Indianapolis, Indiana, then returned to Madison
County, also lived in Garrard County, and from 1847
until his death in 1863 lived on and operated a farm
in Lincoln County. He was an old-line whig in politics.
William King married Annie Baker, who was born in
Madison County, Kentucky, in 1790, and died at Stan-
ford in Lincoln County. They became the parents of
seven children : Nancy Jane was the wife of Arnold
Hilton, a farmer, and both died in Lincoln County ;
Rhoda Ellen had two husbands, Richard Whittaker and
John Gray, the first a shoemaker and the latter a farmer,
and all are now deceased; Charles Alfred was a Lin-
coln County farmer; Mary, living at Stanford, is the
widow of Peter Straub, a coppersmith ; B. B. King is
the fifth in the family; George Washington died while
a Union soldier in the Civil war; and William Riley
is a retired tinner and coppersmith, and living at More-
land.
B. B. King was about eight years of age when his
father moved to a farm in Lincoln County, and most
of his education was acquired in common schools there.
From the age of eighteen until the beginning of the
Civil war he engaged in the freighting business. Dur-
ing the war he was in the quartermaster's department
and had charge of Government wagon trains. For
thirty-five years he had his principal business head-
quarters at Parksville in Boyle County, where he
operated a small country store and was a timber dealer
on an extensive scale. During the early '80s he ac-
quired a .farm and other interests in Lincoln County
and built up a large business as a dealer in livestock,
specializing in the handling of jacks and mules. He
sold his farm in 1910, but still keeps in touch with rural
affairs, since his home is at the edge of Moreland,
where he owns a modern town home with sixteen acres
of land adjoining.
The Bank of Moreland was established and opened
for business June 2, 1909, under a state charter. Mr.
King, the late Charles Wilhoit and other local citizens
were primarily interested in starting the institution,
which has performed many creditable services as a
financial bulwark of the community. Mr. King has
been president from the beginning, while R. F. Steele
is vice president and J. C. McClure, cashier. The bank
has a capital of $15,000, surplus and profits of $4,200,
and deposits of about $100,000.
Mr. King served as marshal of the Town of Parks-
ville for several years. In November, 1893, he was
elected to the Legislature from Lincoln County, and
during the session of 1894 and the special session of
1895 carefully looked after the interests of his con-
stituency. He is a republican, is an elder in the Chris-
tian Church, and a member of Hustonville Lodge No.
184, F. and A. M. As a banker and private citizen he
exerted himself to the limit in all the financial war
drives in his section of Lincoln County, and he has a
medal of honor granted him by the Government as a
token of this service.
On September 1, 1864, at Stanford, Kentucky, Mr.
King married Miss Lizzie Berry, daughter of Mr. and
Mrs. W. B. Berry. Her father was an old time cabinet
maker and undertaker. Of the nine children born to
Mr. and Mrs. King the oldest was W. B. King, who
died at Pineville, Kentucky, at the age of forty-five.
He was postmaster, coal operator, timber dealer and
a man of extensive affairs in his section of the state.
The second of the family, Addie, living at Paris, Ken-
tucky, is the widow of Elliott Fishback, who was a rail-
road man. Mary Jane is the wife of George Pruitt,
an undertaker, furniture dealer and farmer at Moreland.
Rhoda Ellen is the wife of J. O. McAllister, a well
known horseman at Lexington. Laura Belle was mar-
ried to Zach Alkin, who is in the electrical supply busi-
ness at Mobile, Alabama. Dora Pearl is the wife of
Joseph Cox, a coal operator at Bowling Green. Mar-
garet, living with her father, is the widow of the late
Charles W. Wilhoit, one of the founders of the Bank
of Moreland. Ida is the wife of G. W. Montgomery,
pastor of the Christian Church at Somerset, Kentucky.
The youngest child of Mr. King was John Edward
King, a dentist by profession. He joined the Dental
206
HISTORY ( >!•" KENTUCKY
Corps ami went to France with the Expeditionary
Forces. While performing his duties in a hospital near
the front line a shell struck the building and he was
hilled October 30, 1918.
C. W. Ransler is one of the active business leaders
at Walton, is secretary of the Walton Bank & Trust
Company, for several years has been an executive officer
in local tobacco warehouse companies, and has much
civic work to his credit, his chief interest being in
the public schools.
Mr. Ransler was born at Walton April 21, 1885. His
grandfather, George Ransler, born in Germany in 1830,
spent his active life as an American, and after some
years of farming in Hamilton County, Ohio, moved to
Walton in i860, and remained identified with the agri-
cultural business of that community until his death in
[902. His son, William Ransler, was born in Cincinnati
October 15, 1853. and since i860 has lived at Walton.
For many years he was prominent in the tobacco busi-
ness and also as a general contractor, but since 1919
has lived retired. He is a former member of the Walton
School Board, is an elder in the Christian Church, and
a democrat in politics. He married Mary Kraus, who
was born at Covington in 1858.
C. W. Ransler, only child of his parents, was reared
and educated at Walton, graduating from high school
in 1904, and since then has been identified with an in-
creasing scope of business responsibilities and interests.
For two years after leaving high school he was assistant
cashier of the Walton Bank & Trust Company. For
about two years he traveled, selling stock for a trac-
tion company. He then entered the tobacco business,
assisting in organizing the Farmers Loose Leaf To-
bacco Warehouse of Walton and served as its cashier
and assistant manager until January. 1921, since which
date he has been cashier of the Walton Loose Leaf
Tobacco Warehouse Company. He owns one of the
tobacco warehouses of Walton. Besides his interest in
the tobacco business he gives much of his time to his
duties as a director and secretary of the Walton Bank
& Trust Company. Mr. Ransler was chairman of all
Walton committees for the sale of bonds, stamps and
the raising of funds for other patriotic purposes during
the war. He is a democrat in politics, fie has been
a member of the Walton Board of Education for ten
years and for the past two years has been chairman
of the board and has sought in every possible way to
improve the school facilities of the locality. In April,
1921, he engaged in the real estate business in Cin-
cinnati, Ohio, but still resides at Walton.
December 16, 1909, at Covington, he married Miss
Katherine Bentz, daughter of Frank and Kate (Baker)
Bentz. residents of Walton. Her father was for many
years connected with the J. D. Mayhugh Manufacturing
Company, but is now retired. Mrs. Rensler is a grad-
uate of the Walton High School with the class of 1905.
Benjamin F. Kelly. In considering as one of the
interesting facts of local history the steady progress
that Harlan County has made in the past hundred years
in every worth-while path, the conclusion arrived at is
that she owes a great debt to the admirable, yes, noble
qualities, of the maximum of her pioneers. In large
measure they came here in youth and brought with them
sturdy habits and high ideals, taking root here and
passing on in turn to the next generation the same
impulses. It is true that in some sections of the country
these old-fashioned ideals that called for industry anil
honesty in business, fidelity in family life and simple-
hearted and trustworthy friendliness in neighborhood
affairs seem to have been obscured by false notions of
irresponsible individuals, but in Harlan County, may
yet be found truly worthy representatives of the best
old-time pioneer stock. A well known illustration of
this class is the Kelly family, to which belongs Benjamin
F. Kelly, one of the foremost business men of EvartSj
whose grandfather, Judge Jonathan Kelly, founded the
family in this section of Kentucky. Judge Kelly was
of far back Irish ancestry and was born in Virginia. He
came early to Harlan County and became an extensive
farmer and very prominent in public life, serving in
many offices, including those of sheriff and county
judge. He married Nancy Bailey, a native of this
county, and both died near Clover Fork, Cumberland
River, in Harlan County, leaving descendants.
Benjamin F. Kelly was born in Harlan County, Ken-
tucky, September 26, 1863, and is a son of Wright and
Hannah (Lewis) Kelly, the fifth born in their family
of ten children. Wright Kelly has been a distinguished
citizen of the State of Kentucky for many years. He
was born in Harlan County March 13. 1837, and prior
to 1893 was engaged in agricultural pursuits near
Shields in this county. He was a great bear hunter
as a young man. In the above year he removed to
Garrard County, where he was interested in stock
trading until 1901, when he retired from business and
moved to Madison County, lint in 1918 returned to
Harlan County and now resides with his son at Evarts.
For many years he was very active in republican
political circles, and served as a member of the State
Legislature during the sessions of 1885 and 1886, repre-
senting the Ninety-eighth Legislative District of Ken-
tucky, which comprises Harlan, Bell, Perry and Leslie
counties. So ably did he acquit himself that in 1894
he was again elected to the Legislature, returning as
representative of Garrard County, and again made his
influence felt in much important legislation. In 1921
he received the nomination on the republican ticket to
represent Harlan and Leslie counties in the Legislature,
without opposition, which is so equivalent to his election
last November. He is now past eighty-three years of
age bright and active as most men at sixty years. He
has always lead a temperate life, never having used
liquor or tobacco. From youth he has been a member
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and since then has
built several churches and been the generous supporter
of others. During the war between the states he served
as a member of the State Militia.
Wright Kelly was married in Harlan County to
Hannah Lewis, who was born at Poor Fork. Harlan
County, in 1833, and died in 1909, at Berea, Kentucky.
In addition to B. F., they had the following children:
John W., who died at Manden, Kansas June 29, 1918.
was a farmer and cattle trader and owned and operated
a grain elevator; Mary E., who is the wife of David
Creech, of Evarts, a farmer and owner of large tracts
of coal land; Nancy, who died in 1880, in Harlan
County, Kentucky, was the wife of Isaiah Metcalfe, a
farmer in Garrard County; Martha, who died in Harlan
(duuty in 1893, was the wife of Lemuel Ball, a car-
penter at Ages; A. Z., who died from an attack of
influenza at Shields, Harlan County. October 26, 1918,
was a widely known cattle trader and farmer ; J. S.,
who was interested in gold and silver mining in Utah
some thirty years ago; B. M., who is a farmer near
Logan, Oklahoma; Araminta, wdio is the wife of Wil-
liam West, a farmer in Garrard County; and Laura,
who is the wife of Rev. C. A. Van Winkle, pastor
of a Christian Church in Garrard County.
B. F. Kelly attended the country schools in boyhood,
later Williamsburg Academy and still later the Kentucky
State University, where he took a commercial course and
was graduated in 1890. Long before that, however, he
had taught school in Harlan County, spending five years
in all in the schoolroom, but after leaving the university
he spent two years in the lumber business near Evarts.
In 1891 he first embarked in the mercantile business,
and still owns the leading general store at Evarts and
owns also the principal department store at Black Moun-
tain. Kentucky, which he established in 1919. From the
beginning of his business career he has been a success-
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
207
ful trader in coal and timber lands, and is vice presi-
dent, a director and heavy stockholder in the Myers-
Sergent Lumber & Supply Company of Evarts. Mr.
Kelly is the owner of a large amount of valuable
real estate. In addition to his 800 acres of coal and
timber lands in Harlan County, and a farm in Beaver
County, Oklahoma, he owns both of his store buildings,
a dwelling at Black Mountain and other realty there,
and his bandsome modern private residence situated
one half mile east of Evarts. His ability as a business
man has long been recognized, and his judgment is
often consulted by his fellow citizens in matters con-
cerning their own investments and in regard to measures
of civic importance.
In 1891, near Evarts, Kentucky, Mr. Kelly married
. Miss Bettie Farley, a daughter of lohn G. and lane
(Sergent) Farley, the former of whom died on his
farm near Black Mountain, where Mrs. Farley still
• resides. Mrs. Kelly died at Evarts, February 18, 1919,
leaving five children and also a wide circle of friends
i to mourn her loss. She was an estimable lady, widely
1 known in social and church circles and universally be-
t loved. The children are as follows: Ollie, who lives
, with her father ; Cora E., who is the wife of Dr.
Millard Myers, a veterinary surgeon and president of
I the Myers-Sergent Lumber & Supply Company; Lillie
I M., who is the wife of lohn E. Atkins, an attorney
and the manager of a chain of stores, residing at Knox-
ville, Tennessee; Roy M., born September II, 1899, who
I was graduated from the Maryville Preparatory School,
volunteered for service in the World war and was as-
signed to the S. A. T. C. at Evarts, is a member of
the senior class in Emory and Henry College at Emory.
Virginia ; and Ray, who was born January 27, 1906,
■ is a student in the Barbourville High School.
In politics Mr. Kelly is a decided republican and a
hearty supporter of its basic principles and true-hearted
officials. During the World war he did his full duty
I in assisting all patriotic movements and locally was ac-
I tive in supporting the different organizations and loyal
■ measures. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal
Church at Evarts, in which he is a steward and also
t! is superintendent of the large Sunday School. In his
ljI youth Mr. Kelly chose a business rather than public
'' career, as had his father and grandfather, and has
been eminently successful. He has always been a hard
worker and in building up his own ample fortune has
1 been the means of greatly helping many others and
adding to the prosperity of his native section.
J. W. Hoskins has been cashier of the Peonies
Bank of Hustonville since it was founded, and has taken
J a verv influential part in other business and civic activi-
I ties of that community. Mr. Hoskins for manv year»
1 was a leader in the educational affairs of Casey County.
j and has also been a farmer. His has been a husv
I life record and represents a usefulness and service in
t every capacity.
He was born on a farm in Casey County, ten miles
t west of Hustonville. November 21. 1850. His erand-
father, John Hoskins, spent nearly all his life in
Marion County, was active in democratic politics and
' for several vears was countv jailor. He died at Lebanon
1 His wife was a Miss Green, a life-lone- resident of
Marion County. Robert Able Hoskins, father of the
I Hustonville banker, was born in Marion County in 1810.
I was a blacksmith bv trade, and was working at his
trade for a year, beginnine: in the winter of i8<;8. in
; Tasev County, and it was while there that his son J. W.
Hoskins was born. Soon afterward he returned to
Bradfordsville in Marion County and joined the Union
armv. and was a soldier in the cause until the end of
hostilities. Shortlv after his army service in 786^ he
I was accidentally shot by his friend who was handling
' a loaded pistol, and dier! at Bradfordsville. He was a
democrat in politics. Robert Able Hoskins married
Vol. V— 20
Mary Gerhart, who was born near Bradfordsville in
1839 a"d is now living, at the age of eighty-two, in
Hustonville. She became the mother of two chil-
dren, J. W. Hoskins and Robert, but the latter died
in infancy.
J. W. Hoskins grew up at Bradfordsville, where he
had a grammar and high school education. He began
teaching when only seventeen, and for eighteen years
that constituted his chief profession and vocation. His
work was in the rural schools of Casey County. He
remained in that county operating a farm until 1906,
in which year he helped establish the Peoples Bank of
Hustonville, and has since been at his post of duty
as its cashier. This bank, housed in a modern brick
structure on Main Street, is a highly prosperous institu-
tion with a capital of $25,000, surplus and profits of
$9,000, and deposits averaging $150,000. The other of-
ficers of the bank are W. O. Speed, president, and Dr.
W. T. Murphy, vice president.
'Mr. Hoskins closed his career as an educator in the
office of superintendent of schools of Casey County,
holding that position from 1890 to 1894. He is president
of the Hustonville Light and Power Company, is a
deacon and treasurer of the Baptist Church, votes as a
democrat, is a member of Hustonville Lodge No. 184,
F. and A. M., Danville Chapter, R. A. M;, and Danville
Commandery, K. T. During the World 'war he helped
canvass the entire county for the sale of Liberty Bonds
and assisted in other patriotic drives. His is one of the
very attractive homes of Hustonville. On April 6,
1881, in Casey County, he married Miss Bettie Prewitt,
daughter of Prior and Nancy (Cunningham) Prewitt.
Her parents were farming people. Mr. and Mrs.
Hoskins have an adopted daughter, Mattie, now attend-
ing the grade schools of Hustonville.
Edward Alcorn, M. D. Fifty-four years of con-
tinuous and faithful service in the profession of medi-
cine and surgery at Hustonville give Doctor Alcorn the
distinction of being the oldest active member of the
medical fraternity in Lincoln County. While his pro-
fession has been the main work of his life, Doctor
Alcorn has found manv other interests, particularly as
a banker, and for thirty-five years has been president
of the National Bank of Hustonville.
The Alcoms have been in Lincoln County for con-
siderably more than a century. ' As a family they were
Scotch-Irish people, coming from the North of Ireland
to Virginia in Colonial times. Doctor Alcorn's grand-
father, James Lusk Alcorn, moved from Virginia to
Lincoln County, Kentucky, when a young man, was
married there to Amelia Johnson, a native of the
county, and lived out his life in that section of
Eastern Kentucky as a planter, farmer and slave holder.
For more than eighty vears Lincoln County has been
represented in the medical profession by the Alcorn
family. Doctor Alcorn's father was Dr. David J-
Alcorn, who was born in Lincoln County in 1815 and
graduated in 1838 from the Medical School of the Uni-
versity of Kentucky. Practically his entire life was
spent on the farm and homestead east of Hustonville,
where his son Edward Alcorn was born. He owned 500
acres there, and while he practiced medicine for thirty
vears or more he also sunervised his country estate
and prior to the war used slave labor in the fields.
Nevertheless he believed in the integrity of the Union,
and was a Union sympathizer during the Civil war.
In politics he was a follower of George D. Prentice,
was an old-line whig and later a democrat. Dr. David
Alcorn died at the old homestead in 1866. He was a
member of the 'Masonic fraternity. His wife was Lucy
Jane Masterson, who was born in Lincoln County, within
a mile of the home where she spent her married life.
She was the mother of five children, all now deceased
except Dr. Edward Alcorn and his sister Chloe. Mary,
the oldest, became the wife of J. W. Givens, a Lincoln
208
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
County farmer. Edward was the second in age. Rachel
Belle married George M. Givens, also a farmer in
Lincoln County. David spent most of his years on a
farm in the county but later removed to Louisville,
where he died at the age of fifty. Chloe is the wife
of Anthony Hunn, a cattle and sheep trader living at
Columbia, Kentucky.
Dr. Edward Alcorn was born on the old homestead
farm three miles east of Hustonville August 10, 1843.
After completing the work of the rural schools he en-
tered Center College at Danville, completing the course
leading up to the A. B. degree in June, 1862, and sub-
sequently was granted the Master of Arts degree by
his alma mater. For a year he studied medicine in the
Kentucky School of Medicine. That school was then
consolidated with the University of Louisville, and he
completed his course there, remaining three years and
receiving his medical diploma in March, 1867. During
portions of three following winters he attended lectures
and clinics in New York City. Doctor Alcorn began his
work as a private practitioner at Hustonville in 1867,
and all of his early contemporaries in medicine have
long since retired or been removed by death. His
professional service has had a wider scope than that of
his immediate clientele. He was county health officer
and a member of the County Board of Health many
years, and is now the oldest practicing surgeon in the
service of the Southern Railway System, having been
local surgeon for that line thirty years, ever since the
road was built through this section of Kentucky. He is
a member of the Southern Railway Surgeons Associa-
tion, the Lincoln County, State, American and Southern
American Medical associations.
Doctor Alcorn helped organize the National Bank of
Hustonville, which was opened for business May I,
1883, and since 1886 he has directed its affairs as presi-
dent. The other officers are J. W. Powell, vice presi-
dent, and J. H. Hocker, cashier. This bank operates
with a capital of $50,000, surplus of $40,000, and has
average deposits of $225,000. He is widely interested in
banking, being a stockholder in the Phoenix National
Bank of Lexington, in the Central National Bank of
Albany, Alabama, in the Fourth National Bank of
Columbus, Georgia, in the Farmers National Bank of
Danville, Kentucky, the Citizens Bank of Wartburg,
Tennessee, and the Citizens Bank of Liberty, Kentucky.
Doctor Alcorn is one of the large real estate owners
at Hustonville, his properties including his modern home
and offices on Main Street, the brick building which is
the home of the National Bank, with the Opera House
on the second floor, and another residence at McKinney,
Kentucky.
Doctor Alcorn is a democrat. He has served as town
trustee. He is one of the leading members of the
Presbyterian Church, and is affiliated with Hustonville
Lodge No. 184, F. and A. M. He interested himself
particularly during the World war in the Liberty Bond
sales, and endeavored to do a helpful part in other
directions as well.
On April 13, 1871, in Lincoln County, Doctor Alcorn
married Miss Anna Kate Givens, daughter of R. H.
and Amanda (Walker) Givens, now deceased. Her
father was one of the notable citizens of Lincoln County
in the past generation. He conducted a large farm
and plantation, had all the qualities of the old Kentucky
gentleman, and was one of the early magistrates of the
county. Doctor Alcorn lost his wife in 1890. She was
survived by five children, the oldest being Miss Lucy
Masterson, at home with her father. Mattie Walker,
the second in age, is the wife of John Moncreiff, now
representative of the New York Life Insurance Com-
pany at London, England, where they reside. Ann
Catherine, now at home with her father, is the widow
of Hill Spalding, who was Lexington representative
of the New Yurk Life Insurance Company and died
in that city during the influenza epidemic of 1918. Ada
is the wife of Alex Hubbell, an official of the Ford
Motor Company living at Bay City, Michigan. The
only son is John G. Carlisle Alcorn, who was in training
in the National Army for a year, being in camp at
Houston, Texas, and later at Camp Taylor, Louisville.
He was a non-commissioned officer. He is now a resi- I
dent of Lexington, Missouri, being superintendent for
the American Creosoting Company.
William Jefferson Childress, M. D. The work of
Doctor Childress as a physician and surgeon has been 1
carried on for over twenty years, half of that time at "
Hustonville in Lincoln County. He is one of the able
representatives of the profession in Eastern Kentucky
and belongs to one of the old and solid families of that
section of the state.
He was born in Rockcastle County, February 26, ;
1874. His paternal ancestors were Scotch-Irish people ,
who settled in Virginia in Colonial times. His grand '
father was a native of North Carolina and subsequently »
took his family to Scott County in Western Virginia,
where he lived on a plantation until his death. His wife I
was a Miss Campbell, a native of North Carolina, who 1
also died in Scott County. John C. Childress, father of
Doctor Childress, was born in North Carolina in 1838, i
but grew up in Scott County, Virginia, where he married I
and where he farmed until 1870, when he moved to I
Rockcastle County, Kentucky. He had a farm under
cultivation and a modern home in Rockcastle County
the rest of his life, where he died in January, 1908. 1
During the war between the states he was in the Con- 3
federate Army, was captured during the campaign in
Tennessee, and for eighteen months was in the Federal
prison at Rock Island, Illinois, being released after the
surrender of Lee. One of the strongest ties of his life
was his membership in the Baptist Church. He voted
as a democrat and was a member of the Masonic fra-
ternity. John C. Childress married Sarah Lovell, who
was born in Lee County, Virginia, in 1847, was reared
and married in Scott County and died in Rockcastle
County, Kentucky, in 1904. They had a large family
of children, a brief record being as follows : Charles
P., a farmer near Meeker, Oklahoma; Dona, wife of
J. S. Langford, high sheriff of Rockcastle County, living
at Mount Vernon ; Cordelia, who died at the age of f
thirteen ; Lucretia, who died in Rockcastle County in
1905, wife of James McHargue, a farmer in that
county; William Jefferson, fifth in age; Miss Ida, who
died in 1903; Minnie, of Mount Vernon, widow oi
Bud Chestnut, a Rockcastle County farmer; Rufus was
a bridge carpenter and was accidentally killed while
building a bridge in 1906 in Rockcastle County ; Rosa is
the wife of Joseph Woods, an Oklahoma farmer;
George W. has been with the American Canning factory
for fourteen years, is head of its clerical department,
and lives at Hamilton, Ohio ; Joseph is train dis-
patcher for the Louisville & Nashville Railroad at
Louisville ; Robert is a locomotive fireman with home
at Ravenna, Kentucky ; and Margie, the thirteeenth and
youngest of the family, is unmarried and lives with her
brother Charles.
William Jefferson Childress spent his boyhood on his
father's farm in Rockcastle County. He attended
country schools there, spent two years in the Collegiate
Institute at Mount Vernon, and in 1900 received bio-
medical diploma from the Hospital College of Medicine
at Louisville. Doctor Childress is engaged in a general
practice, and during 1908 he pursued post-graduate
work in operative surgery in the Chicago Polyclinic.
For the first ten years after his graduation he prac-
ticed at Livingston in Rockcastle County, and since 1910
has had a general practice in medicine and surgery at
Hustonville. He is a member of the County, State
and American Medical associations. He did his bit
with the various local organizations during the World
war. Other noteworthy interests of his life include his
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
209
membership in the City Council of Hustonville, his
affiliation as a democrat in politics, with the Baptist
Church, with Hustonville Lodge No. 184, F. and A. M.,
Danville Chapter, R. A. M., Danville Commandery,
K. T. His modern home and offices are on Danville
Avenue.
In March, 1901, in his native county, he married
Miss Fannie McFerron. Her parents, A. H. and Susan
(Thompson) McFerron, are retired farmers now living
at Fort Myer, Florida. Mrs. Childress attended school
at Williamsburg and Mount Vernon. To their mar-
riage have been born four children : Vernon B., born
January 24, 1902 ; Norine, born October 28, 1903, and
Harold, born August 12, 1905, both students in the
Hustonville High School; and Rosalind, born March
31, 1909, attending the grammar school.
Matt Herold. Judging from the important business
interests that claim his services Matt Herold is one of
the foremost corporation lawyers of the Newport bar,
widely known as an attorney, is also a banker, and a
business man whose activities have contributed to the
constructive welfare of his section of the state.
Mr. Herold was born at Cincinnati March 3, 1859.
His father, Andrew Herold, who was born in Bavaria,
Germany, in 1819, was brought as a child to the United
States, was reared and educated at Cincinnati, and be-
came an expert organ builder. He died at Cincinnati
in i860, when his son 'Matt was a year old. He was a
democrat and a member of the Catholic Church. His
wife, Susan Barwig, was born in Alsace, France, in
1819, and died at Cincinnati in 1904. She reared four
children. Catherine became the wife of Peter Lehner,
a brick contractor, and died at Cincinnati at the age of
forty-five. George is in the furniture business at Day-
ton, Ohio. The third in age is Matt Herold. Mary
was married to Nicholas Faeth, and both died in Cin-
cinnati.
Matt Herold's early education in the parochial schools
at Cincinnati was limited to the advantages he could
obtain up to the age of fourteen. After that he went
to work, and until he was twenty-two was employed
in coffin factories at Cincinnati and St. Louis. There-
after until 1888 he was a grocery merchant at Bellevue.
Mr. Herold abandoned a commercial career long
enough to complete the course of the Cincinnati Law
School, from which he was graduated LL.B. in 1892.
He has been a practicing lawyer at Newport now for
thirty years, his offices being in the American National
Bank Building. He is attorney for the American
National Bank, for the South Covington and Cincinnati
Street Railway Company at Covington, for the Union
Light, Heat & Power Company of Covington, for the
Columbia Gas & Electric Company, for the Home Loan
& Savings Association of Bellevue, the Fletcher Manu-
facturing Company of Newport, and other corporations.
Mr. Herold is also a director of the American
National Bank of Newport, is vice president of the
Home Savings & Loan Association of Bellevue, a di-
rector of the Union Building Association of Bellevue,
director of the Fletcher Manufacturing Company of
Newport, is president of the Campbell County Bankers
Association and is president of the Bellevue Commercial
and Savings Bank. The Bellevue Commercial and Sav-
ings Bank was organized May 10, 1919. It has a capital
of $25,000, surplus and undivided profits of $7,500, and
deposits of $500,000. The other officers are Charles
Patzold, vice president, and George W. Meyer, cashier.
Mr. Herold takes appropriate pride in the fact the bank
is housed in one of the most artistic bank buildings in
the state. He had complete supervision of the work
of remodeling to accomplish this purpose, the work
being finished in Jiily, 1920.
Mr. Herold was a member of the Council at Bellevue
for two years and for ten years city attorney. He is a
democrat, a Catholic, is a past grand knight of Newport
Council No. 1301, Knights of Columbus, is a past ex-
alted ruler of Bellevue Lodge of Elks and now a member
of Newport Lodge No. 273. He also belongs to the
Campbell County and Kentucky State Bar associations.
Besides doing his bit as a contributor to the various
quotas assigned to Campbell County during the war he
gave much time to assisting the questionnaire board.
In 1880, at Cincinnati, he married Miss Caroline
Huber, a native of that city. She died at Bellevue in
November, 1919, thirty-nine years after their marriage.
She is survived by three sons. Matt J., the oldest,
is a resident of Chicago. George J. is a graduate of the
Cincinnati Law School and is now practicing in the
same offices with his father in the American National
Bank Building. Vincent William, the youngest, enlisted
in April, 1918, was trained for a brief time at Cin-
cinnati, then at Camp Sheridan, and next in the flying
school of the University of Texas at Austin, where he
was commissioned a lieutenant in the Aerial Service,
as a pursuit plane pilot, and is now a reserve officer
in the same branch.
L. Irvin Farmer, M. D., has practiced medicine at
Somerset over ten years, and his activities have brought
him professional distinction in the county where he was
born and where practically all his life has been passed.
The Farmer family came out of Ireland and settled
in North Carolina about the time of the Revolutionary
war. In that state was born his grandfather, John
Farmer, in 1809. On moving to Kentucky he settled in
Pulaski County, and lived there on a farm until his
death in 1862. His son, William Farmer, was born in
Pulaski County in 1843. and though now nearly four-
score years of age is still concerned with his interests
as a farmer. He is a veteran Union soldier, having
been in the Forty-ninth Kentucky Infantry during the
last eighteen months of the war. He has steadily voted
as a republican from the time of the rebellion, and
is a member of the Christian Church. William Farmer
married Martha C. Haynes, who was born in Pulaski
County in 1853. They are the parents of a large family
of twelve children : Neal, a timber dealer and farmer
in Arkansas ; Thomas, a merchant at Somerset, Ken-
tucky; Dr. L. Irvin; Lee B., a merchant at Somerset;
Mannie, wife of Sam Stewart, a Pulaski County farmer;
Lizzie and Lula, both at home ; Andrew, a farmer in
Pulaski County; Mary, wife of George Sam Barnes
of Pulaski County; William C, Charles and Sherman,
the two latter twin brothers, and all farmers in Pulaski
County.
L. Irvin Farmer was born in Pulaski County De-
cember 14, 1875. He acquired a rural school education
and lived on his father's farm until he was twenty-one,
and then for about a year was associated with some
of the lumber manufacturing interests in Pulaski and
adjoining counties. From his connection with this busi-
ness he paid his way through college and university.
In September, 1904, he began his studies in the South-
western Homeopathic College at Louisville, graduated
in 1908, and in 1908-09 was an interne in the City
Hospital of Louisville. He pursued a post graduate
course at Herring Medical College in Chicago during
1911-12. All of his active work and practice as a
physician has been done at Somerset, and his offices are
in the Farmers National Bank Building. Doctor
Farmer is a member of the County, State and American
Medical associations, is a director of the Farmers
National Bank and has his offices in the Bank Building.
He has been prospered in all his affairs and owns con-
siderable local real estate, including a modern home
on Jasper Street and other property at Ferguson. Doctor
Farmer is a republican, is 'affiliated with Somerset
Lodge No. in, F. and A. M., Somerset Lodge No.
238, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Crescent Lodge
No. 60, Knights of Pythias, Somerset Council No.
193, Junior Order United American Mechanics.
210
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
On March 16, 191 1, at Somerset, Doctor Farmer mar-
ried Miss Lizzie Barnes, daughter of James and Pollie
(Baker) Barnes, the latter now deceased. Her father
is a Pulaski County farmer.
Charles Luther Gragc represents a family that has
been in Pulaski County for several generations, and his
own career has made him widely and favorably known.
He was formerly a teacher, has for many years been a
practical farmer, and in Somerset he has one of the
leading offices and organizations devoted to real estate
and insurance.
Mr. Gragg was born near Somerset, December 27,
1885. The family was established in South Central
Kentucky by his great-grandfather, who came from Vir-
ginia. His grandfather, George Gragg, was born in this
state and spent most of his life as a farmer in Pulaski
County. He also served as high sheriff, was a re-
publican in politics and died at his home near Somerset
when thirty-five years of age. Henry P. Gragg, father
of Charles L., was born near Somerset in Pulaski County
in 1854, and lived in that locality all his life. He
carried on a prosperous and extensive business as a
farmer. He was a stanch republican in politics, and
a member of the 'Methodist Episcopal Church. Henry
P. Gragg, who died at his home near Somerset in 191 5,
married Ida K. Gragg, of another family of the same
name. She is living at Somerset and was born near
the county seat of Pulaski County in 1862. Of her
three children Ruth, the oldest, died in infancy, and
the other two are Charles L. and Arthur, the latter a
merchant at Ruth in Pulaski County.
Charles L. Gragg was educated in the rural schools
of his native county, attended Berea College at Berea
for one year and for two years was a student in the
Eastern State Normal School at Richmond. While still
acquiring his higher education in college he began teach-
ing in the country districts of Pulaski County, and
continued that work altogether for eight years. Dur-
ing four years of that time he also conducted a profitable
enterprise on his farm in ginseng culture. Since 1915
his chief time and energies have been devoted to real
estate and insurance, with offices in the Citizens National
Bank Building at Somerset. He also owns a farm
of 156 acres three miles east of Somerset, and lives
there and gives active supervision to crops and live-
stock. The entire farm is modernly equipped, and
there are two tenant houses.
Mr. Gragg was one of the leaders in Pulaski County
in carrying on patriotic work during the war. He was
secretary and treasurer nf the County Council of De-
fense, one of the "Four Minute" speakers, and worked
and contributed to the success of every campaign. He
is a republican, a member of the Methodist Episcopal
Church and superintendent of the Sunday School. In
1917, at Somerset, he married Miss Nora Nunnelley,
daughter of W. G. and Pelina (Gragg) Nunnelley. Her
mother died at Somerset in September, 1920, and her
father is owner of one of the large farms near that
city, a farm widely known for its herd of thoroughbred
cattle. Mrs. Gragg is a graduate of the Somerset
High School.
Joseph G. Hermann, present mayor of the City of
Newport, is a civil engineer by profession, was for
two terms commissioner of public works at Newport,
and the dominating emphasis in his administration as
mayor has been laid upon constructive improvements,
with results of which the entire community are justly
proud.
Joseph Hermann, his father, was born in Germany
in 1840, and in 1858, as a youth of eighteen, came to the
United States. For several years he lived in New
York City and was connected with the leather manu-
facturing business. At the beginning of the Civil war
he joined the Union Army in a New York regiment of
infantry, and not only fought all through that struggle
between the states, but served an additional year with
the regular army in the West, fighting Indians. Joseph
Hermann in 1867 located at Newport, Kentucky, and for
many years was successfully engaged in the hotel
business in that city. He was republican and a mem-
ber of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Joseph
Hermann, who died at Newport in 1910, married in
that city Caroline Blesch, who was born at Newport in
1846 and died in 1910. They were the parents of seven
children : Dr. George Joseph, a Newport physician ;
Caroline, wife of Sam Wright, a carpenter contractor
living at Newport ; Dr. Edward, also a Newport physi-
cian; B. F. Hermann, a druggist at Newport; Ida,
wife of John Barr, a commission merchant at Cincin-
nati but a resident of Newport ; Joseph G., Newport's
mayor ; and Mrs. Lillian Kruse, who lives at Philadel-
phia, Pennsylvania, where her husband is connected
with an addressograph firm.
Joseph G. Hermann was born at Newport April 13,
1886, and began his business and professional career
after a thorough and liberal education. He graduated
from the Newport High School in 1003, and pursued
his civil engineering course at the University of Ken-
tucky at Lexington, where he graduated in 1907. From
that year until 1910 he was employed as an engineer
by the U. S. Steel Corporation and the Chicago and
Northwestern Railroad Company. For two years, until
1912, he was superintendent of the water works depart-
ment of Newport. In 191 1 he received the Master of
Civil Engineers degree from the Kentucky State Uni-
versity. From 1912 to 1915, with headquarters at New-
port he was extensively engaged in road contracting
and road building.
Mr. Hermann in November, 1915, was elected commis-
sioner of public works of Newport and was re-elected
in November, 1917. He served four years, from January
I, 1916, and in November, 1919, was elected mayor,
beginning his four year term in January, 1920. He
has devoted his time and energies whole heartedly and
with a disinterested public purpose to his duties, and
has the satisfaction of seeing Newport the best paved
city in Kentucky. Both as a public official and as a
private citizen he was active in all war causes in Camp-
hell County, doing committee work for all the various
drives. He also trained with the Engineers Reserve
and was in readiness for duty but was not called to
active service.
Mr. Hermann is a democrat, is a member of Newport
Lodge No. 273, Benevolent Protective Order of Elks,
William Tell Lodge No. 146, Independent Order of Odd
Fellows, Newport Council No. 21, Junior Order United
American Mechanics, Monitor Lodge No. 179, Knights
nf Pythias, Newport Lodge No. 510, Loyal Order of
Moose, and Newport Aerie No. 280, Fraternal Order
of Eagles.
Mr. Hermann and family live in a modern home at
642 Nelson Street. He married at Bellevue, Kentucky,
in 191;, Miss Beatrice Beyland, daughter of Ferdinand
and Clara (Smith) Beyland. Her father was a real
estate broker at Bellevue and is now deceased, and her
mother resides at Apopka. Florida. Her father was
L'nion soldier during the Civil war and was afterward
prominent in G. A. R. circles in Kentucky, being honored
with the office of commander of the state G. A. R.
and also was an officer in the national organization.
Mrs. Hermann is a graduate of the Bellevue High
School and finished her education in a college at Mary-
ville, Tennessee. Mr. and Mrs. Hermann have two
children : Bettie Joe, born January 23, 1917, and Edward
Roberts, born October 17, 1920.
Edward Hermann. M. D. One of Newport's prom-
inent physicians. Dr. Edward Herfhann is a brother of
Mayor Hermann of Newport and was born in that
city June 10, 1879. He graduated from the Newport
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
211
High School in 1897 and from the Miami Medical Col-
lege, now the Ohio Medical College of Cincinnati, in
1903. Since that year he has been engaged in a gen-
eral medical and surgical practice at Newport, his home
and offices being at 17 East Sixth Street. Doctor
Hermann devoted much of his time to his duties as a
member of the Medical Advisory Board of the Sixth
District, comprising six counties, during the World war.
He is now in the eighth year and the third term of
his service as a member of the Newport School Board.
Doctor Hermann is a republican, a member of Robert
Burns Lodge No. 163, F. and A. M., Newport Camp
No. 1 1435, Modern Woodmen of America, and Newport
Lodge No. 273, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
In 1905 he married Miss Ottilia Schaefer, daughter of
Joseph and Eva (Schilling) Schaefer, both deceased.
Charles B. Candler completed his education between
the age of eighteen and nineteen, and almost imme-
diately started in a modest way as a merchant at Somer- .
set. His career is interesting and his success is
noteworthy because he has permitted no important de-
viation from his original plan and object, and for a
quarter of a century he has continued in business at
Somerset with greatly growing facilities and enlarging
scope.
He was born at Greenwood in Pulaski County Feb-
ruary 8, 1878. His grandfather, Zachariah T. Candler,
was born in Virginia in 1813, but spent practically all
his life at Sandy Bottom, North Carolina, where he cul-
tivated his farm and where he died at the remarkable
age of ninety-eight, in 191 1. He married a Miss Boone,
of the Daniel Boone family. She was born in Virginia
in 1821 and died at Sandy Bottom in 1917. Of their
eight children four are still living : Charles B., for
whom his nephew, the Somerset merchant, was named,
is an extensive rancher at Lewiston, Idaho ; Zachariah
T., Jr., a retired business man at Corbin, Kentucky;
and the two living daughters are Martha and Sarah,
both married and both living in North Carolina.
Thomas Jefferson Candler, father of the merchant
at Somerset, was born at Sandy Bottom, North Caro-
lina, in 1850, and came to Wayne County, Kentucky,
in 1866, when a youth of sixteen. He had already
spent two years in the Union Army with the Fourth
Kentucky Infantry. He participated in the siege of
Knoxville, where he was wounded. Immediately after
his marriage he moved to Somerset and helped build
the Cincinnati, New Orleans & Texas Pacific Railroad,
and subsequently was proprietor of a hotel there until
his death in 1906. He cast his vote as a republican,
was very active in the Methodist Church and a member
of Crescent Lodge No. 60, Knights of Pythias. Thomas
J. Candler married Margaret Craig, who was born in
Wayne County, Kentucky, in 1858, and was only thirteen
years of age when she married. She now lives at
Versailles, Kentucky. Her father, Marion Craig, was
a native of Wayne County, a farmer there, and was
ambushed by an unknown party and killed in 1876 at
Greenwood. Her mother was Celia Edwards, a native
of Wayne County, who died in New York City and is
buried at Somerset. The children of Thomas J.
Candler and wife are : Mollie, of Knoxville, Ten-
nessee, widow of Talbert Martin, a liveryman at Somer-
set; Charles B. ; and Magnolia, wife of George Forth,
a prominent lawyer and jurist at Huntington, West
Virginia.
Charles B. Candler acquired his early education in
the grammar and high schools of Somerset, and during
1806-7 took a business course in the Kentucky Wesleyan
College at Winchester. After this education he em-
barked a very modest capital and practically no ex-
perience in a general stock of goods at Somerset, and
from year to year has been able to expand and increase
the business until it is now the largest wholesale and
retail grocery, meat and commission house between
Danville, Kentucky, and Knoxville, Tennessee. Mr.
Candler besides handling a great volume of trade
owns practically all the facilities involved in his business,
including a large store building on Mount Vernon
Street, a produce and commission house at 35 Walnut
Street in Cincinnati, and a fruit and vegetable house at
233 East Pearl Street in Cincinnati. He has invested
in much real estate at Somerset, including the modern
hotel on Main Street and four two-story dwellings on
West Mount Vernon.
Mr. Candler in every way has measured up to the
duties of a public spirited and generous citizen, and was
particularly helpful in advancing every cause demanding
his personal participation and funds in the World war.
He is a republican, is a leading supporter of the Metho-
dist Episcopal Church and a teacher in its Sunday
School. He is affiliated with the 'Modern Woodmen of
America. In 1908, at Somerset, he married Miss Martha
Farmer, daughter of M. L. and Eliza (Jenkins)
Farmer. Her parents live on a large plantation and
country home twelve miles east of Somerset. The two
children of Mr. and Mrs. Candler are Margaret Edna,
born December 25, 1908, and Celia Jefferson, born
August 27, 1913.
Eugene English Hoge is one of those fortunate men
who find the sphere for which they are best fitted very
early in life, and all his substantial talents and capa-
bilities have been directed in one line, banking. He
came to Frankfort a little more than thirty years ago,
and at that time began his service in a minor capacity
with the State National Bank of Frankfort, when that
institution was organized, and is now its president.
Mr. Hoge is of Scotch ancestry. In Scotland the
family name was spelled Hogg, and one of the kinsmen
was James Hogg, who was born in 1770 and was the
distinguished Scotch poet known as the "Ettrick Shep-
herd." The Frankfort banker's great-grandfather was
named James Hoge, and he lived in Virginia. He
married Emma Grove. The grandfather, Peter Charles
Hoge, was born in Albemarle County, Virginia, in 1809,
but spent the greater part of his life at Scottsville,
Virginia, where he died July 17, 1876. He was a Baptist
minister. On March 5, 1829, Rev. Peter C. Hoge mar-
ried Sarah Kerr, who was born in Virginia October
30, 1810, and died at Scottsville September 10, 1872.
They had a large family of thirteen children, whose
names and dates of birth are as follows: James Wil-
liam, April 9, 1830; Thomas Preston, July 23, 1831 ;
Sarah Ann, August 24, 1832; Peter Byron, November
14, 1835; 'Maria Antoinette, June 28, 1837; John Blair,
November 13, 1838; Algernon Sidney, August 15, 1840;
Mary Jane, June 12, 1843; Charles Eugene, May 5,
1845; Arista, April 5, 1847; Gregory Taylor, August
5, 1849; Ida Irwin, July 23, 1853; and Howard Dodd-
ridge, May 8, 1856.
The sixth in this large family was John B. Hoge,
who was born in Scottsville, Albemarle County, Novem-
ber 13, 1838, was reared and married at Staunton,
Virginia, and for many years was a well-to-do and pros-
perous grocery merchant at that city. He died during
a visit to Frankfort, Kentucky, April 17, 1919. For
over thirty years he served as a deacon in the Baptist
Church, and was a stanch democrat in politics. John
B. Hoge married Fannie Jordan on January 8, 1863.
She was born in Rockbridge County, Virginia, in 1844,
and is now living with her son Eugene at Frankfort.
She is the mother of ten children, all living, and all
well established in life, as follows : William H., an
oil operator living at Frankfort; Charles K, assistant
cashier of the National Valley Bank at Staunton, Vir-
ginia ; Walter D., secretary to the superintendent of the
Deaf, Dumb and Blind Institute of Virginia, at Staun-
ton; John Manley, an electrician at Staunton; Emma
Elizabeth, wife of Stuart Webb, who is in the advertis-
ing business at Baltimore, Maryland; H. Jordan, secre-
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
211
High School in 1897 and from the Miami Medical Col-
lege, now the Ohio Medical College of Cincinnati, in
1903. Since that year he has been engaged in a gen-
eral medical and surgical practice at Newport, his home
and offices being at 17 East Sixth Street. Doctor
Hermann devoted much of his time to his duties as a
member of the Medical Advisory Board of the Sixth
District, comprising six counties, during the World war.
He is now in the eighth year and the third term of
his service as a member of the Newport School Board.
Doctor Hermann is a republican, a member of Robert
Burns Lodge No. 163, F. and A. M., Newport Camp
No. 1143S, Modern Woodmen of America, and Newport
Lodge No. 273, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
In 1905 he married Miss Ottilia Schaefer, daughter of
Joseph and Eva (Schilling) Schaefer, both deceased.
Charles B. Candler completed his education between
the age of eighteen and nineteen, and almost imme-
diately started in a modest way as a merchant at Somer- .
set. His career is interesting and his success is
noteworthy because he has permitted no important de- .
viation from his original plan and object, and for a
quarter of a century he has continued in business^ at
Somerset with greatly growing facilities and enlarging
scope.
He was born at Greenwood in Pulaski County Feb-
ruary 8, 1878. His grandfather, Zachariah T. Candler,
was born in Virginia in 1813, but spent practically all
his life at Sandy Bottom, North Carolina, where he cul-
tivated his farm and where he died at the remarkable
age of ninety-eight, in 191 1. He married a Miss Boone,
of the Daniel Boone family. She was born in Virginia
in 1821 and died at Sandy Bottom in 1917. Of their
eight children four are still living: Charles B., for
whom his nephew, the Somerset merchant, was named,
is an extensive rancher at Lewiston, Idaho ; Zachariah
T., Jr., a retired business man at Corbin, Kentucky;
and the two living daughters are Martha and Sarah,
both married and both living in North Carolina.
Thomas Jefferson Candler, father of the merchant
at Somerset, was born at Sandy Bottom, North Caro-
lina, in 1850, and came to Wayne County, Kentucky,
in 1866, when a youth of sixteen. He had already
spent two years in the Union Army with the Fourth
Kentucky Infantry. He participated in the siege of
Knoxville, where he was wounded. Immediately after
his marriage he moved to Somerset and helped build
the Cincinnati, New Orleans & Texas Pacific Railroad,
and subsequently was proprietor of a hotel there until
his death in 1906. He cast his vote as a republican,
was very active in the Methodist Church and a member
of Crescent Lodge No. 60, Knights of Pythias. Thomas
J. Candler married Margaret Craig, who was born in
Wayne County, Kentucky, in 1858, and was only thirteen
years of age when she married. She now lives at
Versailles, Kentucky. Her father, Marion Craig, was
a native of Wayne County, a farmer there, and was
ambushed by an unknown party and killed in 1876 at
Greenwood. Her mother was Celia Edwards, a native
of Wayne County, who died in New York City and is
buried at Somerset. The children of Thomas J.
Candler and wife are : Mollie, of Knoxville, Ten-
nessee, widow of Talbert Martin, a liveryman at Somer-
set; Charles B. ; and Magnolia, wife of George Forth,
a prominent lawyer and jurist at Huntington, West
Virginia.
Charles B. Candler acquired his early education in
the grammar and high schools of Somerset, and during
1896-7 took a business course in the Kentucky Wesleyau
College at Winchester. After this education he em-
barked a very modest capital and practically no ex-
perience in a general stock of goods at Somerset, and
from year to year has been able to expand and increase
the business until it is now the largest wholesale and
retail grocery, meat and commission house between
Danville, Kentucky, and Knoxville, Tennessee. Mr.
Candler besides handling a great volume of trade
owns practically all the facilities involved in his business,
including a large store building on Mount Vernon
Street, a produce and commission house at 35 Walnut
Street in Cincinnati, and a fruit and vegetable house at
233 East Pearl Street in Cincinnati. He has invested
in much real estate at Somerset, including the modern
hotel on Main Street and four two-story dwellings on
West Mount Vernon.
Mr. Candler in every way has measured up to the
duties of a public spirited and generous citizen, and was
particularly helpful in advancing every cause demanding
his personal participation and funds in the World war.
He is a republican, is a leading supporter of the Metho-
dist Episcopal Church and a teacher in its Sunday
School. He is affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of
America. In 1908, at Somerset, he married Miss Martha
Farmer, daughter of M. L. and Eliza (Jenkins)
Farmer. Her parents live on a large plantation and
country home twelve miles east of Somerset. The two
children of Mr. and Mrs. Candler are Margaret Edna,
born December 25, 1908, and Celia Jefferson, born
August 27, 1913.
Eugene English Hoge is one of those fortunate men
who find the sphere for which they are best fitted very
early in life, and all his substantial talents and capa-
bilities have been directed in one line, banking. He
came to Frankfort a little more than thirty years ago,
and at that time began his service in a minor capacity
with the State National Bank of Frankfort, when that
institution was organized, and is now its president.
Mr. Hoge is of Scotch ancestry. In Scotland the
family name was spelled Hogg, and one of the kinsmen
was James Hogg, who was born in 1770 and was the
distinguished Scotch poet known as the "Ettrick Shep-
herd." The Frankfort banker's great-grandfather was
named James Hoge, and he lived in Virginia. He
married Emma Grove. The grandfather, Peter Charles
Hoge, was born in Albemarle County, Virginia, in 1809,
but spent the greater part of his life at Scottsville,
Virginia, where he died July 17, 1876. He was a Baptist
minister. On March 5, 1829, Rev. Peter C. Hoge mar-
ried Sarah Kerr, who was born in Virginia October
30, 1810, and died at Scottsville September 10, 1872.
They had a large family of thirteen children, whose
names and dates of birth are as follows: James Wil-
liam, April 9, 1830; Thomas Preston, July 23, 1831;
Sarah Ann, August 24, 1832; Peter Byron, November
14, 1835; Maria Antoinette, June 28, 1837; John Blair,
November 13, 1838; Algernon Sidney, August 15, 1840;
Mary Jane, June 12, 1843; Charles Eugene, May 5,
1845; Arista, April 5, 1847; Gregory Taylor, August
5, 1849; Ida Irwin, July 23, 1853; and Howard Dodd-
ridge, May 8, 1856.
The sixth in this large family was John B. Hoge,
who was born in Scottsville, Albemarle County, Novem-
ber 13, 1838, was reared and married at Staunton,
Virginia, and for many years was a well-to-do and pros-
perous grocery merchant at that city. He died during
a visit to Frankfort, Kentucky, April 17, 1919. For
over thirty years he served as a deacon in the Baptist
Church, and was a stanch democrat in politics. John
B. Hoge married Fannie Jordan on January 8, 1863.
She was born in Rockbridge County, Virginia, in 1844,
and is now living with her son Eugene at Frankfort.
She is the mother of ten children, all living, and all
well established in life, as follows : William H., an
oil operator living at Frankfort; Charles K, assistant
cashier of the National Valley Bank at Staunton, Vir-
ginia ; Walter D., secretary to the superintendent of the
Deaf, Dumb and Blind Institute of Virginia, at Staun-
ton; John Manley, an electrician at Staunton; Emma
Elizabeth, wife of Stuart Webb, who is in the advertis-
ing business at Baltimore, Maryland; H. Jordan, secre-
212
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
tary of the shoe manufacturing firm of Hoge-Mont-
gomery -Company at Frankfort ; George Taylor, in the
photo engraving business at Detroit, Michigan ; M.
Gunther, a traveling salesman living at Staunton; and
Ernst C, bookkeeper for the Hoge-Montgomery Com-
pany at Frankfort.
Eugene E. Hoge was born at Staunton, Virginia,
January .24. 1870, was educated in the public schools
there, graduated from the Staunton Military Academy
in 1889, and almost immediately following graduation
came to Frankfort. In 1889 the State National Bank
of Frankfort was organized under a national charter,
and Mr. Hoge joined the institution as an extra clerk.
He has performed practically every duty connected with
the practical details and administration of a large bank,
and in April, 1919, succeeded to the presidency. A
short time before he became president the bank took
possession of its new modern home, a building of white
terra cotta, one of the handsomest bank structures in the'
state. It is at the corner of Main and Ann streets.
This bank has a capital of $150,000, surplus and profits
of $75,000, and deposits averaging $1,250,000. The other
executive officers besides Mr. Hoge are : William F.
Dandridge and Sam A. Mason, vice presidents ; L. D.
Jones, cashier ; and R. K. McClure, Jr., assistant cashier.
Mr. Hoge is a member of the American Bankers Asso-
ciation and on its executive council. He is a republican,
a Presbyterian, and his citizenship both as a banker and
in private relationships has been of the sturdiest char-
acter.
During the World war Mr. Hoge served as chairman
of the Liberty Loan drives, chairman of the War Sav-
ings campaign and chairman of the Four-Minute Men in
Frankfort. An editorial published in a local paper at
the time is a well earned tribute to the man and
the unselfish part he has always played in Frankfort,
and accordingly deserves quotation : "A man's fitness
for a place can best be measured by results. In the
light of results in three Liberty Loan campaigns and
the recent extraordinary campaign for pledges for War
Savings Stamps in Franklin County the selection of
Eugene E. Hoge for county chairman was a master
stroke on the part of someone who recognized the
qualities the test has proven. Generalship is a rare
quality. Mr. Hoge might have conducted one campaign
successfully, or even two without meriting the descrip-
tion; but four successful campaigns, each excelling the
preceding one, cannot be ascribed to luck. Mr. Hoge,
undoubtedly, would give the credit to the splendid citi-
zens who composed the organizations, and to them the
credit is due; but therein lie proves his possession
of the quality of generalship. He picked his organiza-
tions with discriminating judgment. In every depart-
ment he had a man who would work witli mind and
heart, and while seeing to it that co-ordinated effort
was constantly directed toward the common goal, he
depended upon their judgment and initiative within
their own provinces. It is a rare faculty in leadership,
that of not confusing things by unwarranted interfer-
ence, as rare as the gift of selection and executive
ability. Mr. Hoge possesses these qualities in a high
degree, and after four war loans campaigns he had the
organization in better shape than when the 'Official
Go-getters' undertook the first one with some mis-
givings."
'Mr. Hoge is also a member of the Frankfort Chamber
of Commerce. He and his family reside in a modern
home at 510 Wapping Street. He married at Covington,
Kentucky, June, 18, 1898, Miss Mary T. Morris, daugh-
ter of Richard and Alice T. (Gray) Morris. Her
father is still living, one of the extensive farmers in
Franklin County. Mrs. Hoge finished her education
in the Hollins Institute at Roanoke, Virginia. To their
marriage were born two children : Mary Morris, now
the wife of R. H. Clemmer, manager of the Loth
Stove Works at Waynesboro, Virginia ; and Eugene
Morris, a student at Washington and Lee University,
Lexington, Virginia.
John Edwin Wilson, M. D. For a third of a cen-
tury the name of John Edwin Wilson has ranked as one
of the highest in the medical profession of Falmouth.
Doctor Wilson began his practice there a short time
after the death of his grandfather, one of the honored
pioneer physicians, and there has not been a time in the
past seventy years when this name has not stood for the
best attainments in the field of medicine.
The Wilsons have been in Falmouth for more than
one and a quarter centuries. They are among the
first families not only in point of time but in promi-
nence and usefulness as citizens.
The founder of the family was the great-grandfather
of Doctor Wilson, James Wilson, a native of Cul-
peper County, Virginia, who came down the Licking
River in 1792 and established his home at Falmouth.
He acquired some extensive tracts of new land in that
vicinity, and remained there the rest of his life, en-
gaged in agricultural pursuits. A son, also named James
Wilson, was born at Falmouth in 1812 and early
turned his attention to a medical career. He began his
practice at Falmouth in 1839, and kept up his duties
and made the regular rounds of his practice until
advancing age and infirmities prevented. He died at
Falmouth in 1879. James Wilson married Xerelda
Thomas, a native of Virginia, who died at Falmouth.
The father of John Edwin Wilson was the late Capt.
James M. Wilson, and to his name are attached many
worthy distinctions. He was born at Falmouth in
1838, and died there in October, 1917. He enlisted at
the first call for troops to put down the rebellion,
was with the Eighteenth Kentucky Infantry, served
with the rank of captain and brevet major, was in the
battles of Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain, Missionary
Ridge and many others in the Atlanta campaign and
on the March to the Sea, and was with the first com-
pany of troops that entered Savannah. After the war
Captain Wilson was for many years a grocery merchant
at Falmouth, was for seventeen years postmaster during
the administrations of McKinley, Roosevelt and Taft,
and was also mayor of Falmouth eight years. He stood
high in the republican party in his section of the state,
and was also a deeply interested member and worker
in the Methodist Episcopal Church. Capt. James M.
Wilson married Ella Rachel Kerr, who was born in
Fayette County in 1843, and is still living at Falmouth.
Their oldest child is John Edwin. The second, James
Thomas, is editor of the Log Cabin at Cynthiana, Ken-
tucky. Ralph R., who is in the life insurance business
at Frankfort, has some important copper mining in-
terests in Arizona. Miss Ella and Miss Mary reside
with their mother at Falmouth.
John Edwin Wilson was born at Williamstown Feb-
ruary 11, 1867, graduated from the Pendleton Academy
at Falmouth in 1885, began the study of medicine
under Dr. J. H. Barbour of Falmouth, and in 1888
received his M. D. degree from the Medical College
of Ohio at Cincinnati. He has since attended that col-
lege several times for post-graduate work, and has
been in many clinics at Cincinnati hospitals. His pro-
fessional duties have had first call upon his time and
energies. He began practice at Falmouth in 1888.
Ranking the local physicians in length of service he
stands next to Dr. H. C. Clark as the oldest physic:an
and surgeon at Falmouth. Doctor Wilson owns his of-
fices and residence on South Main Street, has served
as county health officer twelve years, was organizer and
first chairman of the Pendleton Chapter of the Ameri-
can Red Cross during the World war, and was one
of the very prominent and influential leaders in the pro-
hibition movement in Pendleton County. He and bis
colleagues took up that cause when prohibition even as
a state issue seemed far distant, and much of the
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
213
credit for the education and change of public sentiment
in the county is due him.
Doctor Wilson is a republican and has served as
chairman of the Republican County Central Committee
for twelve years. Altogether he has been a member
of the City Council for sixteen years, and is still in
that body and for two years was acting mayor. He is
an elder in the Presbyterian Church, a member of the
Knights of Pythias and of the Falmouth Industrial
Club.
January 12, 1898, at Falmouth, he married Miss
Fannie S. Lee, daughter of Judge C. H. and Julia
(Ball) Lee, now deceased. Her father was a well
known attorney and at one time county judge of
Pendleton County. Mrs. Wilson is a graduate of Mount
Holyoke Seminary at Mount Holyoke, Massachusetts.
Charles Hobart Lee was a youthful Confederate
soldier under Morgan, and almost all the years since
the war have been spent in a round of successive busi-
ness duties and responsibilities at Falmouth. He has
been a banker for over thirty years and is president
of the Pendleton Bank of Falmouth.
Mr. Lee was born at Minerva, 'Mason County, Ken-
tucky, August 2, 1847. His grandfather, Charles Lee,
was born in New England in 1792, and spent nearly
all his life on a farm at Chester, Vermont. He died
in 1877. His wife was a Miss Hobart. Their son
was the late Charles Henry Lee, who was born in
Massachusetts in 1818, but was reared on a Vermont
farm and in the early '40s came to Kentucky and settled
in Mason County. He was well educated and for a
number of years taught school. In 1849 he took up
his residence at Brooksville in Bracken County, and en-
tered the profession of law. He was also a surveyor
and civil engineer. While in Bracken County he served
as county judge. In the fall of 1865 he moved to
Falmouth, and for many years was one of the leading
members of the Pendleton County bar. Judge Lee died
at Falmouth in the fall of 1891. He was a democrat
and an active member of the Presbyterian Church.
He went back to Vermont to marry Caroline Dudley,
who was born in that state in 1823 and died at Brook-
field, Kentucky, in 1849. She left two children : Aurora
M., now of Santa Barbara, California, widow of W. W.
Quinn, who was a merchant in Ohio and later in
Denver, Colorado; and Charles H. The second wife
of Judge Lee was Miss Martha Thomas, a native of
Augusta, Kentucky, who died at Brooksville with no
issue. His third wife was Julia Ball, a native of
Massachusetts, who died at Falmouth. She was the
mother of two children : George D., in the United
States revenue service at Covington ; and Fannie L.,
wife of Dr. J. E. Wilson, of Falmouth.
Charles Hobart Lee spent his boyhood at Brookville,
was educated in private schools until fifteen and then
for a brief term clerked in a store at Augusta. He was
in his seventeenth year when in 1864 he joined the
Confederate Army in Company A of B. W. Jenkins
battalion of cavalry. He was with General Morgan's
command and was in service eleven months, until the
close of the war. He was present at the skirmish near
Greenville, Tennessee, when General Morgan was killed,
and later participated in the engagements at Saltville
and Marion, Virginia.
The war over, he was for several years clerk in a
store at Falmouth and for two years had the adven-
ture and excitement of the great West as a cowboy
and cattle driver over the plains. He then returned to
Falmouth and was connected with mercantile concerns
of that city for a number of years. For two years
he was deputy Circuit Court clerk, and for six years
was deputy sheriff, up to 1890. Later as a banker he
served six years as county treasurer. Mr. Lee was
appointed cashier of the Farmers and Merchants Bank
at Falmouth in 1890. In 1896 occurred the consolida-
tion of the Farmers and Merchants Bank and the
Falmouth Deposit Bank under the new name of the
Pendleton Bank. Mr. Lee became cashier of the
consolidated institution, served in that position twenty-
three years and since the fall of 1919 has been its
president.
The old Falmouth Deposit Bank was established in
1876. The Farmers and Merchants Bank began busi-
ness May 12, 1890, Mr. Lee being one of its first
officers. The Pendleton Bank, resulting from the con-
solidation, was established April 1, 1896. It is one of
the very solid financial institutions of Pendleton County,
has a capital of $50,500, surplus of equal amount, un-
divided profits of $25,000, and deposits of approximately
$800,000. The present officers are : C. H. Lee, presi-
dent ; Charles W. Thompson, cashier ; Henry W. Bishop,
assistant cashier ; and Leslie T. Applegate, attorney.
During the World war Mr. Lee did a notable part in
seeing Falmouth and Pendleton County go over the top
in a number of the drives. He was chairman of the
first, second and third Liberty Loan campaigns and also
chairman of the War Savings Stamps drive. He is a
democrat, an elder in the Presbyterian Church, is a
past master of Orion Lodge No. 222, F. and A. M.,
at Falmouth, a member of Hauser Chapter No. 116,
R. A. M., at Falmouth ; of Covington Council, R. and
S. M., and is a past commander of Cynthiana Com-
mandery No. 16, K. T. He is a member of the Fal-
mouth Industrial Club.
'Mr. Lee resides on Maple Avenue in Falmouth.
On June 14, 1877, in that city, he married Miss Louise
M. McCune. Their marriage companionship continued
a little more than thirty year's, until her death December
24, 1907. Her parents were Mr. and Mrs. James Mc-
Cune, now deceased, the former a Falmouth under-
taker.
William R. Hammond. As an example of well-won
and worthy success the career of William R. Hammond,
of Hopkinsville, is entitled to more than passing men-
tion. With only an ordinary public school education
and no unusual advantages of any other character he
started upon his business life when only seventeen years
of age, and from that time has worked his way to the
part proprietorship of the leading garage business of his
city, being a member of the well-known firm of Ham-
mond & McDonald.
Mr. Hammond was born at Caledonia, Trigg County,
Kentucky, June 26, 1873, a son of Thomas J. and
Josephine (Cunningham) Hammond. He belongs to
a family of Scotch origin, whose first American ancestor
settled in the colony of Virginia long before the out-
break of the Revolutionary war, and his grandfather
was Thomas Hammond, who died before William R.
Hammond was born. Thomas Hammond, the pioneer
of the family into Trigg County, was a farmer and
planter and gradually rose to be the leading citizen
of his county, which he represented in both houses of
the State Legislature. He was a man of great executive
ability and of fine presence, and stood high in the
esteem and confidence of his colleagues and his fellow-
citizens.
Thomas J. Hammond, father of William R., was born
in 1835, near Cerulean Springs, Trigg County, Kentucky,
where he was reared and educated. Following his
marriage he settled at Caledonia, where he became a
prominent business man, as a general merchant and
tobacconist, and also had large agricultural interests
in that locality. In 1900, after a long, honorable and
highly successful career, he retired from active affairs
and moved to Gracey, where his death occurred April
3, 1913. Mr. Hammond was not only one of the most
prominent business men of Trigg County, but a man
who held various offices of trust and responsibility.
A democrat in politics, he served as postmaster of
Caledonia for thirty years, and, likewise, occupied the
2U
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
post of magistrate for a long period. He was a con-
sistent and active member of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, to which his benefactions were liberal. His
only fraternal affiliation was with the Independent
Order of Odd Fellows. Mr. Hammond married
Josephine Cunningham, who was born in 1849, a*
Canton, Trigg County, Kentucky.
William Cunningham, the great-grandfather of Wil-
liam R. Hammond on the maternal side, was born in
Ireland and when a youth became a bound boy and as
sucn was sent to Virginia. There he succeeded in
working out his obligation, and subsequently became a
pioneer in the vicinity of Canton, Kentucky, where he
engaged in farming and attained some success. His son,
Andrew Cunningham, the grandfather of William R.
Hammond, was born at Canton and passed his entire
life in that locality, becoming a successful and extensive
farmer and dying before his grandson was born. He
married Nancy Pool, who was born and died near
Canton.
The children born to Thomas J. and Josephine (Cun-
ningham) Hammond were as follows : William R. ;
Walter H., a loose leaf tobacco dealer of Hopkinsville,
Kentucky ; and Hugh, who is employed as a clerk in a
store at this place.
William R. Hammond was sent to the public schools
of Caledonia, which he attended until he was seventeen,
then beginning his business experience as clerk in a
store at that place. He was in his father's employ until
1902, when he embarked in a business venture of his
own, and until 1916 conducted buffets and cafes at
1 lupkinsville and Gracey. In the year mentioned he
turned his attention to the automobile industry, as related
to the garage business, and formed a partnership with
A. B. McDonald, under the firm style of Hammond &
McDonald. This garage, located at Twelfth and
Virginia streets, has become the leading enterprise
of its kind at Hopkinsville. A completely equipped
repair department is maintained, and in addition the
firm acts as sales agents for standard automobiles, all
leading brands of tires and a full line of accessories.
The garage and offices are included in a modern brick
structure in the business district and attract a large and
representative patronage.
In political matters Mr. Hammond is a republican.
During his residence at Gracey he was appointed post-
master by President McKinley, but after serving in that
position for eighteen months resigned. He belongs to
Hopkinsville Lodge No. 545, B. P. O. E., and was
formerly a member of the Woodmen of the World.
He is the owner of a modern suburban hoome on South
Main Street, just outside of the city limits, a little
estate of nine acres, with well-kept lawn and numerous
shade trees. This residence, which Mr. Hammond
bought July 30, 1920, is one of the best in Christian
County, while the property is considered the prettiest
at Hopkinsville. Mr. Hammond took an active part in
all local war activities, assisting in the various drives
and spending time and money in assisting all the
worthy movements which contributed to the success of
American arms.
In 1898, at Caledonia, Mr. Hammond was united in
marriage with Miss Nannie Alexander, daughter of
Zenas and Elizabeth (Jones) Alexander, the latter of
whom is deceased, while the former is a well-known
agriculturist of the vicinity of Caledonia, where he was
a pioneer. Four children have been born to Mr. and
Mrs. Hammond : Jefferson, residing at home, a graduate
of the Hopkinsville High School, and stockkeeper and
manager of the parts department of the Hammond
& McDonald Garage; Huel, a graduate of Hopkinsville
High School, who married Garham Cowherd, a farmer
one mile east of Hopkinsville; Derward, who resides
at home and is attending public school; and Elizabeth,
also at home and a public school pupil.
William Arrelious Page, M. D. When the history
of this century is written by generations yet unborn
due credit will then be accorded to the efforts of the
physician of the period who labored long and faith-
fully not only to cure the ailments of mankind, but to
bring about a decrease in mortality and to gain definite
control of diseases formerly believed incurable. Among
the men of Ballard County who belongs to this honored
profession, Dr. William Arrelious* Page ranks in the
foremost phalanx of those who have accomplished much.
His career is one of useful and helpful endeavor, and
his name is held in high regard by all who are ac-
quainted with him and his work.
Doctor Page was born at Woodland Mills, Tennessee,
August 25, 1875, a son of William A. Page, and grand-
son of Thomas Page, Esquire, who was born in Middle
Tennessee in 1815, and died at Woodland Mills, Ten-
nessee in 1880, having been the pioneer of his family
into Obion County, Tennessee, where he was engaged
in farming for many years.
William A. Page was born in Middle Tennessee in
1838, and his death occurred near Bandana, Ballard
County, Kentucky. He grew up in Obion County,
Tennessee, and was there married. For some years
following his marriage he continued to reside in Obion
County, being extensively interested in flour milling,
dealing in grain and farming, but in 1893 came to
Kentucky and settled in the vicinity of Bandana, on a
farm he purchased, and continued to live on this prop-
erty until his death. A stalwart democrat, he was
very active in the political affairs of Obion County, and
at one time served as deputy sheriff. For many years
he was one of the strong supporters of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South, which he early joined, and he
never lost his interest in it nor ceased to be included
in the councils of his local congregation. During the
war between the North and the South Mr. Page
espoused the cause of the latter section and entered the
Confederate Army. He had charge of an ammunition
train at Lookout Mountain, and was driving it to the
front when, the brakes giving way, it ran down the
mountain, but did not jump the track, and he was
fortunately uninjured. Mr. Page also was at the cam-
paign of Island Number Ten and in other important
engagements of the war. With the close of hostilities
he returned home and manfully shouldered his share
of the burdens of the reconstruction period and was
spared long enough to realize a fair measure of prosper-
ity. William A. Page was married to Ellen Isbell, who
was born in Obion County, Tennessee, in 1843, and died
in the same county in September, 1875. Their children
were as follows: Jennie, who died of typhoid fever
when young; Bascum, who died of the same disease
and only a few days after his sisters; Annie, who mar-
ried John Wright, died at Barlow, Kentucky, in 1910,
but her husband survives and lives near Bandana, where
he is engaged in farming; Paul, who is conducting a
grain business at Barlow, is also an extensive farmer
and livestock dealer, and president of the Barlow Bank;
James M., who is living on the homestead near Kevil,
Kentucky, is treasurer of Ballard County ; and Doctor
Page, who was the youngest born.
After he had attended the local schools of Obion
County, Tennessee, and Ballard County, Kentucky,
Doctor Page became a student of the National Normal
University at Lebanon, Ohio, and took a two-year
course in its medical department, leaving this institution
in 1901 and entering the Saint Louis College of Physi-
cians and Surgeons at Saint Louis, Missouri, from which
he was graduated in April, 1903, with the degree of
Doctor of Medicine. That same year Doctor Page
came to Barlow and established himself in a general
medical and surgical practice, which he has since con-
tinued with very gratifying results. He owns his
office building, a modern brick structure on Main Street,
\
fa.gffy&c^UC..
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
215
and a modern residence on the same street, where he
maintains a comfortable home. Doctor Page also
owns a farm on Humphrey's Creek, Ballard County,
Kentucky.
Both by inheritance and conviction Doctor Page is
a democrat, and has served as county farm physician.
He belongs to the Ballard County Medical Society, the
Kentucky State Medical Society, the American 'Medical
Association and the Southwestern Kentucky Medical
Association. A Mason, he is a member of Hazelwood
Lodge No. 489, A. F. and A. M. He also belongs to
Barlow Camp No. 11722, M. W. A. The Methodist
Episcopal Church, South, holds his membership, and
he is one of the stewards of the local congregation.
For several years he has been local surgeon for the
Illinois Central Railroad. During the period this county
was in the great war Doctor Page was an active partici-
pant in all of the local war work, assisting in every way
and contributing generously of his time and money so
as to enable the administration to carry out its policies.
Doctor Page was united in marriage in 1906, at
Barlow, Kentucky, to Miss Myrtle Wilford, a daughter
of Harvey and Elizabeth (Morgan) Wilford, both of
whom are now deceased. Mr. Wilford was a livestock
and timber dealer and farmer. Mrs. Page was grad-
uated from the Paducah Business College. Doctor
and Mrs. Page became the parents of three children,
namely : Waldo, who was born February 16, 1907 ;
William Arrelious, who was born in November, 1908 ;
and Myrtle, who was born July 29, 1910.
Enoch Robinson Bush, M. D. The modern physi-
cian shares in the progress of the age, for medical
science has reached a degree bordering upon perfection
in matters pertaining to the profession. In spite of
twentieth century humanity's complicated activities and
unnatural mode of living, the physicians are achieving
results that seem beyond the comprehension of the lay-
man, however much he may benefit from their applica-
tion to his individual case. One of the men who has
attained to a high position among his contemporaries
in the medical profession in Clark County is Enoch
Robinson Bush, M. D., of Winchester.
Doctor Bush was born at Ruckerville, Clark County,
Kentucky, January II, 1881, a son of Jonas R. and
Sally (Webber) Bush. His father, who was born in
the same vicinity December 7, 1849, and died June 26,
1910, was a son of Allen N. and Polly (Robinson) Bush,
the grandfather having also been born in the same
locality, where he died at the age of fifty-four years.
The father of Allen N. Bush was Nelson Bush, of
Orange, Culpeper County, Virginia, who was brought
at the age of five years to Clark County, Kentucky, by
his parents, the family settling near the old fort at
Boonesboro, although on the north side of the river,
the fort being on the south side of the stream, in Madi-
son County. Allen N. Bush served as sheriff of Clark
County in early life, and later became a noted auctioneer
of his day and locality. He was large in physique and
personality, weighing some 300 pounds and being
possessed of a great voice, which would attract and
hold audiences from long distances. His son, Jonas
R. Bush, also became an auctioneer, having inherited
his father's great voice, and in 1901 came to Winchester,
being at that time well known both as an auctioneer
and a farmer. He was later elected clerk of the Circuit
Court of Clark County, but died six months later. He
was the father of five children William Allen, M. D.,
of Winchester, a practicing physician, whose biography
appears elsewhere in this work ; Nora, who died at the
age of twenty-eight years, as the wife of J. B. Conk-
wright, leaving one daughter, Bessie, who is society-
editor of the Lexington Leader ; Elton, who died at the
age of nineteen years; Wheeler, who died in childhood;
and Enoch R.
Enoch R. Bush, Sr., is the owner of a part of the
old farm near Ruckerville which was located by Nelson
Bush, and lived on successively by him, his son, Allen N.,
his grandson, Jonas R., and his great-grandson, Enoch
R. It was on this property that the last-named spent
his boyhood and youth, acquiring his primary education
in the rural schools, following which he took a course
in the Kentucky Wesleyan College at Winchester. For
four years thereafter he taught in the country schools
of Clark County, then entering upon his medical studies
in the medical department of the Kentucky State Uni-
versity, from which he was graduated with the class of
1906, receiving the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He
entered upon the practice of his calling at Winchester,
where for five years he was in partnership with his
brother, and since that time has been engaged in a
general practice. He holds membership in the various
organizations of his profession and is active in the
ranks of the Clark County Medical Society. While his
time is largely occupied by his profession, Doctor Bush
is interested in those measures which tend toward a
better education of the masses and an awakening of the
people to the necessity for more sanitary regulations
and hygienic conditions. He is not bound by his profes-
sional knowledge, but is able to take a broad, humani-
tarian view of life and join with others in working
towards effecting improvements that will raise the
average man and woman and develop the best quality
of citizenship.
On April 27, 1917, Doctor Bush enlisted in the United
States Army Medical Corps, was made battalion sur-
geon, and went overseas with the Eighty-fourth Divi-
sion, subsequently seeing service in France and Ger-
many. On reaching France he was sent to the Toul
sector at the front and placed in charge of a first aid
station, following which he went to Vauclaire, France,
and was connected with the Mount Sinai Unit Base
Hospital No. 3 at Monpont. Later still he was identi-
fied with Evacuation Hospital No. 9 at Coblenz, Ger-
many, and was finally sent back to the United States,
receiving his honorable discharge from the service July
7, 1919. His army experience was a wonderfully help-
ful one, and one which is assisting him materially in his
civilian practice.
Doctor Bush was married December 21, 1898, to Miss
Callie Berryman, of Clark County, daughter of Dillard
and Sally B. Berryman, formerly of Ruckerville, but
now residents of Indiana. They are the parents of one
son, Enoch Robinson, Jr., who was born in 1917.
John E. Drake for more than forty years has been
an active figure in the educational affairs and the busi-
ness of Pendleton County. He is most widely known
as an educator and is the present county superintendent
of schools.
Mr. Drake, whose home is at Butler, was born on a
farm six miles east of that town, in Pendleton County,
October 21, 1858. His father, Richard Drake, was
born at Felicity, Ohio, in 1820, was reared there, but
when a young man moved to Pendleton County, Ken-
tucky. He was a wagon maker, a maker of grain
cradles, and combined his mechanical pursuits with the
operation of a large farm. He held the office of
magistrate for sixteen years, was a republican, a Mason,
and one of the leading members of the Twelve Mile
Baptist Church in his community. He died at Peach
Grove in Pendleton County, in 1894. Richard Drake
married in this county Nancy Dicken, who was born
in Campbell County in 1821 and died in Pendleton
County in May, 1881. They were the parents of nine
children, two of whom died in infancy, a brief record
of the others being: Laura, who died in Pendleton
County at the age of twenty-five, wife of William
Norris, a carpenter now living at Newport ; Mary,
who died at the age of thirty ; Charles R. a teacher
and later a farmer who died in Campbell County aged
forty-five ; Millard F., a merchant, who died in Pendle-
216
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
ton County when twenty-three years of age; John E. ;
Elizabeth, who died at Covington in 1918, wife of John
Garvey. a carpenter at Covington ; Maggie, who died at
Peach Grove aged twenty-two, wife of William Rusk,
now a farmer and dairyman in Kenton County.
John E. Drake lived with his parents on the home
farm until he was twenty-eight years of age. He
attended rural schools, graduated from the Peach Grove
Academy in 1875, and taught his first term of school at
the age of twenty. For two years he was connected
with the rural schools and in 1886 engaged in the
mercantile business in partnership with his brother-in-
law, William Rusk. This firm continued for eight
years, and in 1894 Mr. Drake resumed teaching and
for twenty-four years had charge of a number of schools
in Pendleton and Campbell counties. In November,
1917, he was elected county superintendent of Pendleton
County, and began his four year term in January, IQ18.
His offices are in the Court House at Falmouth. The
supervision of his office extends to fifty-seven white
and one colored rural schools and five graded schools
in Pendleton County. The staff of teachers numbers
eighty-six and the scholarship enrollment is 2,765.
Mr. Drake is a member of the Kentucky Educational
Association. He is a republican, a clerk of the Baptist
Church at Butler, and a past master of Aspen Grove
Lodge No. 397, F. and A. M., at Peach Grove. During
the World war he gave much of his time to his com-
mittee work in behalf of the Liberty Loan and Red
Cross drives.
In November, 1886, he married Miss Sallie Tarvin,
who was born near Peach Grove in Pendleton County,
and was educated in the rural schools there and the
public schools at Butler. She is an active member of
the Baptist Church and the Daughters of America.
Her father, William C. Tarvin, is now living with Mr.
and Mrs. Drake at Butler. He was born in Campbell
County in 1841, spent his early life as a farmer, and in
1878 moved to Butler, where he conducted a meat mar-
ket until he retired in 191 1. William Tarvin married in
Pendleton County Melinda Yelton, who was born in
that county in 1842 and died at Butler in August,
1912.
Five children were horn to Mr. and Mrs. Drake:
Miss Jessie, who died at Peach Grove at the age of
Twenty-four: Ethel, who died at the age of four years:
Charles Yerner. now living in Western Texas; Florence,
who died at the age of two years; and Elizabeth, born
September 1=. i<ji>5. a sophomore in high school.
Ben Lomond Trevathan, cashier of the Bank of
Marshall County, is one of the sound and reliable
business men and financiers of Benton, and one who
holds the full confidence of his fellow citizens. He
was horn at Almo, Calloway County, Kentucky, October
8. 1894. a son of L. E. Trevathan, and grandson of
John Rob Trevathan. The Trevathans came from
England to the American colonies and settled in Vir-
ginia, from whence members of the family went into
Kentucky. John Rob Trevathan was born in Calloway
County. Kentucky, and died in that county prior to the
birth of his grandson, having spent his entire life there
and given his attention to fanning. He married Rosa
lane Martin, a native of Calloway County, Kentucky,
and who lives in Nashville. Tennessee.
1.. E. Trevathan was horn at Almo, Kentucky, in 1863,
and was reared on the farm that was his birthplace.
There lie continued to live until 1905, when he moved
to Hardin, Kentucky, his present place of residence.
He learned the carpenter trade, became a builder and
is now interested in a saw and flour mill. A man of
strong convictions, he is not afraid to stand up for them
and casts his vote independent of party affiliations,
although he prefers the principles of the democratic plat-
form. The Christian Church has in him one of its most
earnest and generous supporters and members. Fra-
ternally he belongs to Hardin Camp No. 11880, M. W. A.
L E. Trevathan was married to Ida May Manning,
who was born near Almo, Kentucky, in 1866, a daughter
of J. M. J. Manning, who was born in Stewart County,
Tennessee, in 1837, and died at Hardin, Kentucky, in
1912. The greater part of his life was spent in Callo-
way County, Kentucky, where for fifty years he was in
active practice as a physician. Upon his retirement from
practice he moved to Hardin. During the war between
the North and the South he commanded a company of
General Forrest's cavalry in the Confederate service,
and served all through the war, participating in the
battles of Shiloh, Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain,
Corinth and other important engagements. He married
Kate Penny, who was born in Montgomery County,
Tennessee, in 1842, and died at Hardin, Kentucky, in
1912. The Mannings came to the American Colonies
from England and settled in Virginia. The children
horn to L E. Trevathan and his wife were as follows :
Jessie, who married Walter Cleaver, owner and operator
of the Mayfield Transfer Company of Mayfield, Ken-
tucky ; Lois, who married G. F. Gardner, a carpenter
and builder of Mayfield. Kentucky ; Ben Lomond, who
was third in order of birth; and Norman E., who is
employed in Stovall's department store of Mayfield.
Ben Lomond Trevathan attended the public schools
of Hardin, Kentucky, including two years in its high
school, which he left in 1912. In the meanwhile, be-
tween 1905 and 1912, he had worked in the general
store of Ryan-Miller Company of Hardin, and thus
learned the value of making his time yield him an in-
come. In 1913 he entered the Hardin Bank as assistant
cashier, and held that position until December, 191 7,
when he went to Dawson Springs, Kentucky, as as-
sistant cashier of the Commercial Bank of that place,
and remained there as such until February, 1920, when
he came to Benton to be cashier of the Bank of Marshall
County. This bank was established in 1903 and is lo-
cated in a two-story brick building on the Court Square,
and has all modern facilities and equipment necessary
for the conduct of a modern banking business, and com-
pares favorably to any similar institution in the country.
It has a capital of $20,000; surplus and profits of
$12,500; and deposits of $275,000. The officials of the
bank are as follows: Judge Joe L. Price, circuit judge
of the Second Judicial District of Kentucky, president ;
Tullus Black, vice president; B. L Trevathan, cashier;
and E. W. Pace, assistant cashier. Mr. Trevathan is
a democrat, and served as city clerk of Dawson Springs,
Kentuckv, for two vears. He belongs to Hardin Lodge
No. 781'. F. and A. M. : Benton Chapter No. 167.
R. A. M.; Queen Ann Chapter No. 133, O. E. S. ;
Hardin Lodge No. 73, I. O. O. F. ; and Hardin Lodge
No. 1 1880. M. W. A. Mr. Trevathan owns a modern
residence in Benton, w-here he has a comfortable home,
and he is a stockholder and director in the Bank of
Marshal! County. During the great war he took an
active part in the local work, and contributed literally
of his time and money for each of the drives. He is
a memher of the Christian Church, and served as treas-
urer of these denominations at Dawson Springs and
Hardin. Kentucky, and was superintendent of the Sun-
day School at Hardin.
In 1916 Mr. Trevathan was married at Hardin. Ken-
tucky, to Miss Vally Irene Combs, a daughter of G. A.
and Alice (Kennedy) Combs, residents of Hardin. Mr
Combs is an extensive farmer and prosperous business
man. Mrs. Trevathan's grandfather Combs founded the
family in this country, coming here from England.
Mrs. Trevathan attended the Hardin High School into
the senior year. Mr. and Mrs. Trevathan have two
daughters, Margaret Revelle, who was born September
21, 1917, and Ardath Genella, born October 10, 1921.
Although he has been at Benton but a short time. Mr.
Trevathan has already firmly established himself in the
confidence of the people, and they recognize his ability as
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
217
a banker and worth as a man and are glad to accord
to him the full meed of their praise.
'Milo Smith Mills. A native of Pendleton County
and now county judge and resident of Falmouth, Milo
Smith Mills has lived a busy and useful career, pri-
marily identified with farming, but he also has a record
of public spirited service in various capacities.
Mr. Mills was born in the northeastern corner of
Pendleton County April 24, 1862. His grandfather,
James Mills, was a native of County Tipperary, Ire-
land, where he married at the age of eighteen, and he
and his young wife worked their way over in the
steerage and for several years lived in Western Penn-
sylvania, and then moved to Lordstown, Trumbull
County, Ohio, where he reared his family on a farm.
Late in life he retired and spent his last days at the
home of his son, John W. Mills, in Pendleton County,
Kentucky, where he died in 1867. John W. Mills was
born in Erie County, Pennsylvania, in 1824, but grew
up at Lordstown in Trumbull County, Ohio, and as a
young man came to Kentucky, where he helped build
the Old Kentucky Central Railroad. He married at
Independence in Kenton County and after his marriage
became a farmer in that county, and about 1852 moved
to Pendleton County and bought what is now known as
the old Mills homestead near Gardnersville. He was
one of the highly respected residents of that community
until his death in 1894. He always voted as a re-
publican, was a deacon in the Baptist Church, and during
the Civil war served as a member of the Home Guard.
John W. 'Mills married Satira Stephens, who was born
near Independence, Kentucky, in 1825, and died in Pen-
dleton County in 1804, the same year as her husband.
They had a family of eight children : Mary Ann, who
died in Grant County at the age of forty, wife of D. L.
Simpson, who still lives on his farm in Grant County ;
Joseph P., owner of the old Mills home farm ; Amos
F., a wagon maker and woodworker who died in
Pendleton County at the age of fifty-four; Hattie, who
married John W. Cram, a farmer and trader, and both
died in Pendleton County, she at the age of thirty-six ;
Milo Smith, the fifth among the children ; John, a
farmer who died in Pendleton County at the age of
thirty, while his twin brother, Will, died at the age of
twenty-nine; Fannie, of Gardnersville, widow of J. R.
Ervin, who was a merchant there.
Milo Smith Mills, while a boy on the farm, attended
rural schools, received a normal education in Valparaiso
University in Indiana for two terms, and at the age of
nineteen began teaching. He taught five terms of five
months each in the rural schools of Pendleton County.
From 1886 until 1919, a period of a third of a century,
Judge Mills devoted all his energies and judgment to
the operation of his farm, finally selling his well im-
proved place of 220 acres.
In November, 1917, he was elected county judge, and
began his official term of four years on January I,
1918. His home is on Liberty Street in Falmouth.
Among other essentially public services rendered by
Judge Mills should be mentioned his membership of
five years on the Pendleton County School Board, a
term of six years on the Farmers Fire Insurance Board
of the county, the splendid work he did as a member of
the Pendleton County Draft Board and his effective
leadership in every patriotic movement for the World
war.
Judge Mills is a republican, a member of the Christian
Church, is affiliated with DeMoss Lodge No. 220, F. and
A. M., at DeMossville, and is a past noble grand of
Gardnersville Lodge No. 172, Independent Order of
Odd Fellows.
In 1896, at Gardnersville, he married Miss Elizabeth
Daugherty, daughter of James and Nancy (Daugherty)
Daugherty, now deceased. Her father was a farmer.
Judge Mills had the misfortune to lose his wife in 191 1.
Two children survive her. The younger is Alma O.,
now her father's housekeeper. The son, James Wesley,
has had a life of unusual action and experience. He is a
mechanical and electrical engineer, a wireless operator,
and enlisted in January, 1918, in the navy and was
stationed at Boston Bay, Hampton Roads, Key West
and Pensacola. He was an able aviator, rated as a
gunner and pilot, and was mustered out of service in
March, 1921. He is able to speak six languages.
L. H. Randolph, president of the Peoples Bank of
Bandana and owner of the dependable hardware and
implement business he is conducting under his own
name, is one of the substantial men and public-spirited
citizens of Bandana, and one who is well known all
over Ballard County. He was born in Hocking County,
Ohio, June n, 1863, a son of David Owen Randolph.
The Randolph family was established in the American
Colonies by Paton Randolph, a sea captain of English
nativity, who bceame a property owner in that portion
of Virginia which later became West Virginia. John
Randolph, the great-grandfather of L. H. Randolph,
was surveyor for the Ohio Company which purchased
the Northwest Territory, and he died in Hocking
County, Ohio, in 1809. His son, James Randolph, was
born in 1800 in Hampshire County, in what is now West
Virginia, the same county which gave his father birth,
and he died in Hocking County, Ohio, in 1874. He
was a farmer and school-teacher. James Randolph
was married to Jane Pugsley, who died in Hocking
County, Ohio. L. H. Randolph also traces his an-
cestry back to the prominent Colonial family of Owens
of Virginia.
David Owen Randolph was born in Ohio in 1824,
and died in Hocking County, Ohio, in 1881. Marrying
in Morgan County, Ohio, he settled in Hocking County,
Ohio, and divided his time between farming, school-
teaching and working for the municipality. In politics
he was a republican, but did not hold office. The Church
of Christ had in him an earnest member and generous
supporter. During the war between the North and
the South he served in one of the 100 day regiments
from Ohio, and for five years was a member of the
Ohio Home Guards. David Owen Randolph was mar-
ried to Susannah Morris, who was born in Morgan
County, Ohio, in 1826, and died in Hocking County,
Ohio, January 22, 1880. Their children were as fol-
lows: Alpha May, who married Rolando R. Russell,
a general workman of Columbus, Ohio; L. H., whose
name heads this review; Harrison Tell, who is a farm
owner and electrician for mining companies, lives near
Monongahela, Pennsylvania ; and Dorsey Scott, who is
also a farm owner and electrician for mining com-
panies, lives in the vicinity of Monongahela, Pennsyl-
vania.
L. H. Randolph was reared in Hocking County, Ohio,
where he attended the rural schools, and then took a
teachers training course and one in bookkeeping at the
Ohio Central Normal College at Pleasantville, Ohio.
During 1892 and 1893 ne was a student of the Kentucky
Transylvanian University at Lexington, Kentucky. For
the subsequent year Mr. Randolph was engaged in
selling school supplies, and then, beginning in the fall
of 1894, was engaged in teaching in the rural schools
of Ballard County, Kentucky, for four years. In the
meanwhile he taught a session public school in Sumner
County, Tennessee, and did some farming. On Septem-
ber 30, 1899, he opened a hardware and implement
store at Bandana, Kentucky, beginning his business
career in a very modest way, but as in it he found
his life work he steadily advanced, enlarging his stock-
to meet the demands of the trade he was able to build
up and today has the largest establishment of its kind
in Ballard County. In addition to his store he has
many other interests, and owns his large store building
on the corner of Ohio and 'Mississippi streets, the ffdur
218
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
mills on Mississippi Street, which have a capacity of
twenty-five barrels per day and which in 1919 ground
15,000 bushels of. wheat, a modern residence on Missis-
sippi Street, which is equipped with electric light plant
and water works, as are his store and mills, the Delco
system of lighting having been installed. He is presi-
dent of the Peoples Bank of Bandana, which was or-
ganized June 2T, 1918, he being one of the men who
established it. The officers of the bank are : L. H.
Randolph, president; John Holt, vice president; W. L.
Roland, cashier; and J. M. Thomas, assistant cashier.
The bank has a capital of $15,000; surplus and un-
divided profits of $12,000, and deposits of $75,000.
In February, 1896, Mr. Randolph was united in mar-
riage with Miss Mary Elizabeth Dorris in Sumner
County, Tennessee. Her parents, Ira and Martha ( Pur-
cell) Dorris, are both deceased, but during his lifetime
Mr. Dorris was a prominent farmer of Sumner County,
Tennessee. Mr. and Mrs. Randolph became the parents
of the following children : Harrison Calhoun, who was
born in February, 1897, is assisting his father and has
been so employed since boyhood, was educated in the
Bandana public schools, and was in the draft during
the great war, but the armistice was signed before
he was called into the service ; Paul Dorris, who was
born in November, 1899, is operating his father's ffbur
mills and lives at home ; Alma May, who was born in
March, 1902, is in the last year of the Bandana High
School; Lewis Homer, who died at the age of twenty-
two months; and Lawson Homer, who was born June
6, 1908. Mr. Randolph has served as a school trustee.
He belongs to the Church of Christ, and is now an
elder of it. A man of unusual capabilities, he has
conserved his talents and turned them to good account.
Under his wise and conservative management his bank
has taken a leading place among similar financial in-
stitutions of the county, and his connection with it gives
it added solidity, for his business acumen is unques-
tioned. His pride in Bandana is deep and sincere and
he is anxious to see it advance, but he is too level-headed
to countenance any movements which in his opinion
will not work out for a sane and economic expenditure
of the taxpayers' money.
Walter L. Ror.Axn. Until he has occasion to ask
assistance of a bank the average citizen does not appre-
ciate the value to him and his community of a sound,
reliable and dependable financial institution, officered
by experienced men and hacked by men of ample means.
Without such institutions industry would be at a stand-
still; no building could be carried on; crops could not
lie moved, and even the Government, both state and
national, would feel the effects rapidly and in a dis-
astrous manner. All business today is practically de-
pendent upon the banks, and no large transaction is
carried on without some assistance from a bank. Be-
cause of the great importance of these institutions much
care is exercised in the selection of the men for the
responsible positions, for no hank can be stronger than
its officials, and the Peoples Bank of Bandana is no
exception to the rule Tu Walter L. Roland, cashier,
and his associates in the hank the community is favored,
for these gentlemen stand very high in financial circles
in Southwestern Kentucky and with their fellow citi-
zens as men of the highest probity and uprightness, as
well as of unusual capability for their several offices.
Walter L. Roland was born in Robertson County.
Tennessee, July 23, 1870. a son of William A. Roland,
and grandson of John Roland, a native of Tennessee.
The Rolands are of North Carolina descent, and when
W. L. Roland was still a boy his father took his family
to Ashley, Illinois, being one of the pioneer farmers
of that locality. John Roland also became a farmer,
and he died at Ashley, Illinois, in 1885. He married
a Miss Williams, also a native of Tennessee. The family
is of Scotch-Irish stock, but has been established in
America since Colonial times.
William A. Roland was born in Davidson County,
Tennessee, in 1840, and was reared in Davidson, Mont-
gomery and Robertson counties, Tennessee, but went
to Ashley, Washington County, Illinois, in 1883, at that
time being a married man and a farmer of some ex-
perience. He continued his farming operations there
and at Slater, Ballard County, Kentucky, where he lo-
cated in 1887. In 1915 he retired, and is now living
with his son, Walter L. Roland. In politics he is a
democrat, but has never been very active. Early uniting
with the Methodist Episcopal Church, he has given that
denomination an earnest and heartfelt service, and is one
of its active supporters today. He is a Mason. During
the war between the North and the South he was one
of the first to enlist in Company F, Eleventh Tennessee
Infantry, C. S. A., and served until he was severely
wounded in the campaign against Atlanta, Georgia, and
because of it was incapacitated from further service.
During his period of service he saw some hard fighting
and was in the battles of Gettysburg, Franklin, Mis-
sionary Ridge, Lookout Mountain, and those in the
vicinity of Savannah and Atlanta, Georgia, being under
the command of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston. With his
recovery from his injury came the realization that the
cause for which he had suffered was lost, hut he did not
permit himself to despair, but bravely went to work
to make the best of what was left and has succeeded
admirably. He married Patia Ann Barnes, who was
born in Robertson County, Tennessee, in 1851, and died
in Ballard County, Kentucky, in 1910. Their children
were as follows : Lee, who married Charles Brame, a
farmer now deceased, lives at Duluth, Minnesota; Wil-
liam H., who is a justice of the peace and a farmer,
lives at Barlow, Kentucky ; and Walter L., who is the
youngest.
Walter L. Roland attended the rural schools of Ballard
Countv, and remained on his father's farm until he
was eighteen years old, when he began teaching school,
and continued in that line of endeavor for three years.
For the subsequent ten years he was occupied with con-
ducting a prosperous mercantile business at Barlow,
Kentucky, and then, selling, he went on the road for
a year. In 191 1 he was appointed rural mail carrier
out of Barlow, and held that position until 1918. He
then entered the Bank of Barlow as assistant cashier,
and familiarized himself with the banking business, and
then, on March 10, 191Q, came to Bandana as cashier of
the Peoples Bank of Bandana. This hank was estab-
lished June 21, 1918, as a state bank, and its officers
are as follows : L. H. Randolph, president ; John Holt,
vice president ; W. L. Roland, cashier ; and O. E. Mor-
row, assistant cashier. The bank has a capital of
$15,000; surplus and undivided profits of $12,000; and
deposits of $75,000. Like his honored father, Mr. Ro-
land is a democrat. He belongs to the Christian
Church. A Mason, he belongs to Hazelwood Lodge
No. 489, A. F. and A. M , of Barlow, Kentucky. He
is also a member of Barlow Lodge No. 185, I. 0. O. F.,
and the State Bankers Association. He owns a com-
fortable residence at Bandana, and a substantial dwell-
ing at Barlow.
During the late war Mr. Roland took an active part
in all of the local war work, giving generously of his
time and money to raise the quotas for the various
drives and assist the administration to carry out its
policies.
In 1908 Mr. Roland was married at Metropolis. Illi-
nois, to Miss Ora Owlslev, born near Barlow, Ballard
Countv. Kentucky, hers being one of the pioneer fami-
lies of this vicinity. Mr. and Mrs. Roland became the
parents of two children, namely : Owsley, who was born
June ti, iqio; and Dorothy, who was born September
1, I9I3-
asLAstd
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
219
Hon. W. W. Williams entered upon his duties as
Judge of the Thirty-first Judicial District including
Floyd and Knott counties in February, 1922. Seldom
does a judge or any other public officer carry with him
into his office such unbounded confidence and admiration
of a constituency as Judge Williams. This is based
not only on his undoubted qualifications as a lawyer and
public leader, but to a singular degree upon the strength
of character that enabled him to rise above illiteracy
and achieve rank and position among the ablest men
of his day.
Judge Williams was born on Beaver Creek, Floyd
County, Kentucky, November 17, 1877, son of Dr. John
G. and Rebecca (Conley) Williams, the former a native
of North Carolina and "the latter of Kentucky. Dr.
John G. Williams for a number of years has practiced
medicine at Mound City, Illinois.
W. W. Williams was two years of age when his par-
ents removed to Old Virginia. When he was seven
his father and mother separated, and Mrs. Williams
then returned to Floyd County on Beaver Creek with
her two children, W. W. and Fred. Providing for these
children she was handicapped by financial poverty and
a frail constitution. Practically from that time W. W.
Williams had to be the bread winner for his mother
and younger brother. When Judge Williams was about
fourteen his mother married again. W. W. Williams
worked on farms and accepted any employment that
would earn him an honest dollar. Under such circum-
stances it is hardly to be remarked that at the age of
seventeen he had no acquaintance with the alphabet.
While he had made no progress in a literary education
he had gained the discipline of physical labor, had
educated his will, and had established the reliability
of his promised word. About that time a district
school teacher took an interest in this sturdy youth
and taught him his letters. With this beginning he
studied nights and at odd times, kept his mental proc-
esses going in intervals of other labor, and also attended
a district school. In 1901 at the age of twenty-four
he had qualified himself to teach, and for five winter
terms he taught in district schools and worked during
the summer to supplement his own education. After
his public school training he took a business course in
Tones Commercial College at Lexington during 1002
later entering the Southern Normal College at Bowling
Green, where he completed his course in law and gradu-
ated in 1008 with the degree L.L. B. In that year he
was admitted to the bar, and for the next two years
was associated in practice with Tudge Goble at Preston-
burg until the death of Judge Goble. To every client
he has taken an industry and thorough knowledge
qualifying him for expert handling of the case, and he
is recognized as one of the able lawyers of the state.
He has always been a leader in community affairs, and
is a prominent democrat. He was his party's candidate
for county attorney in 1917, and in 1921 became candi-
date for circuit judge of the Second District. Since
1918 he has been associated in law practice with B. M.
James, his brother-in-law, and the firm of Williams
& James is one of the strongest in the Prestonburg bar.
Mr. Williams is affiliated with the Independent Order
of Odd Fellows.
Judge Williams is called justly by his friends as
one man in a thousand. He has never married. As a
lawyer he has made money, but has spent it all for the
benefit of deserving young boys, assisting them to get
an education. Fifteen individuals have received their
education through his help, and are now justifying his
confidence in their work as educators, lawyers and in
other fields. These young men constituted the nucleus
of his unique campaign committee and in no small
measure accounted for the remarkable majority of
4,200 votes which elected him Judge of the Thirty-first
District. Judge Williams himself is not the kind of
man to speak about his practical helpfulness, but his
friends have not permitted that part of his character to
go unnoted. A poor boy with an ambition to get an
education is certain to attract his interest and attention,
and there have been cases where Judge Williams was
willing to spend his own last dollar and even borrow
money for that purpose. From such a ministry in be-
half of worthy and aspiring youth Judge Williams has
doubtless derived a satisfaction greater than any de-
rived from the most important law case he has handled.
B. M. James, junior member of the law firm of
W. W. Williams & B. M. James at Prestonburg, is a
prominent young lawyer, just past thirty, but has been
active in his profession for over a year.
He was born on his father's farm near Thomas Post
Office, Floyd County, February 22, 1890, son of Thomas
J. and Nancy (Jackson) James. His parents were na-
tives of Kentucky, his father a farmer and logger. He
was a republican, quite influential in local political
circles, and for two terms was justice of the peace.
B. M. James attended public school near his home,
also the high school at Prestonburg, and for two years
was a teacher. He then took a commercial course and
for two years was in business at Prestonburg, and at
the same time was quietly gaining a knowledge of law
through private reading. In 1912 he entered the Ken-
tucky State University at Lexington, and on account
of his thorough previous preparation completed his law
course in nine months. On his admission to the bar
Mr. James began practice at Prestonburg and was alone
in his profession until 1918 when he formed his part-
nership with his brother-in-law, Judge W. W. Wil-
liams, who recently went on the bench as Judge of the
Thirty-first Judicial Circuit.
At Mound City, Illinois, in 1913 Mr. James married
Miss Ginevra Williams, a daughter of Dr. John G. and
Abigail (Clawson) Williams, the former a native of
North Carolina and the latter of Pennsylvania.
Mr. James has been actively engaged in politics for
eight years. He is the present democratic chairman of
the executive committee of Floyd County. He is affili-
ated with the Masonic and Odd Fellows orders, be-
lieving that in living up to the obligations of these old
fraternities the worthy things of life assume greater
value. In church matters he is of the Baptist faith,
while Mrs. James is a member of the Methodist Epis-
copal Church, and very closely associated with church
work at Prestonburg.
Noah B. Chipman, M. D. Falmouth has been the
home and center of Doctor Chipman's professional
activities for over forty-five years. He graduated in
medicine at Cincinnati in the Centennial year, and his
entire career as a physician and surgeon has been spent
in Pendleton County.
He was born in Grant County July 22, 1852, and
the Chipmans were one of the pioneer families in that
section of Kentucky. His grandfather, James Chipman,
was a descendant of Scotch ancestors who settled in
Colonial times in Virginia, where he was born. After
his marriage he moved to Kentucky and settled in Grant
County, and lived there the rest of his life on a farm.
He reared three children : James, a farmer who died
in Grant County at the age of eighty-four; Nancy, who
became the wife of John Faulkner, a Grant County
farmer and who died at the age of eighty-six.
The third child was William Chipman, who was
born in Grant County in 1818 and died there in 1875,
having spent all his years in close association with the
farm and interests of the country. He was a democrat
and one of the leading members of the Methodist Epis-
copal Church in his community. William Chipman
married Reley Ann Juett, also a life long resident of
Grant County, born in 1821 and died in 1888. Their
family consisted of the following children : Joseph, a
farmer who died at Hazelwood, Ohio, at the age of
220
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
seventy-five; John W., a retired farmer living at Wil-
liamstown, Kentucky ; Mellie, of Grant County, widow
of James Berguess, a farmer; William, who followed
fanning until his death in Iowa, at the age of thirty-
six ; Dr. Noah B. ; A. J., a retired farmer at Williams-
town ; Jesse, a Grant County farmer who was acci-
dentally killed in a runaway when fifty-four years of
age ; Dr. J. C, who has achieved success and promi-
nence as a physician and surgeon at Sterling, Colorado,
is a member of the State Board of Medical Examiner?
and the State Board of Health and local surgeon for
three railroads; and Louis M., a mechanic living at Cin-
cinnati.
Noah B. Chipman was reared on his father's farm
in Grant County but early looked beyond the horizon
of a farm to the achievements of a professional career.
He attended rural schools, high schools at Lebanon,
Ohio, graduated from the high school of Harrodsburg.
Kentucky, in 1873, and for several years taught school
and read medicine in Grant County. In 1876 he re-
ceived his M. D. degree from the Cincinnati College
of Medicine and Surgery, and in the same year began
his practice in Pendleton County. He lived in the
country, and his practice was altogether a country
practice for fourteen years. Since 1890 his home and
offices have been in Falmouth, the county seat, his
headquarters being in the Masonic Building. Doctor
Chipman is a member of the Pendleton County and the
Kentucky State Medical societies, and has participated
in many local affairs and organizations besides doing
the heavy work of his profession. He is a director in
the Citizens Bank of Falmouth, and for many years
was president of the Tub Fowler Distillery Company
of Falmouth and still owns the distillery buildings on
Water Street. He has one of the very best homes in
the city, at 901 West Shelby Avenue.
He has been a leader in democratic politics, was
elected to represent Pendleton County in the Lower
House in 1906 and from 1910 to 1912 was senator from
Pendleton, Grant and Bracken counties. While in the
Senate he was father of the Bee Bill, putting the au-
thority of the state behind the movement designed to
destroy diseased colonies of bees, a measure that has
proved of great practical benefit to the honey interests
of the state. He also served on the committee on edu-
cational bills, the committee on medical affairs, and other
Senate committees.
Doctor Chipman is affiliated with Orion Lodge No.
222, F. and A. M., at Falmouth, and was formerly
identified with the Independent Order of Red Men.
He is a member of the Industrial Club of Falmouth and
his purse and influence were at the disposal of all local
organizations promoting war purposes. In 1883, at
Cincinnati, Doctor Chipman married Nannie E. Wads-
worth, daughter of J. S. and Elizabeth (Thompson)
Wadsworth, now deceased. Her father was a Pendle-
ton County farmer. Doctor and Mrs. Chipman are the
parents of five children. The oldest is Cline N., who
graduated in medicine from the George Washington
University at Washington. District of Columbia, and is
now practicing at Washington. Guy Woodman, the
second son, is a graduate of West Point Military
Academy, a major in the Regular Army, now stationed
at Fort Riley, Kansas, and during the World war was
employed in training recruits at Fort Sill, Oklahoma,
for eleven months and then in training machine gun
crews at Columbus, Georgia, until the close of the war.
The third child is Ferd Taylor, now an operator of a
public garage at Falmouth. J. Franklin is a veterinary
surgeon at Falmouth. Nellie Wadsworth, the only
daughter, is a student in the Falmouth High School.
Howard E. Ducker. An active business man of
Pendleton County for many years, Howard E. Ducker
has a number of interests that require his active super-
vision at Butler, chief among them being his partner-
ship in the leading lumber, coal and feed establishment
of the city.
Mr. Ducker was born at Butler September 22, 1877.
His grandfather, Jackson Ducker, was a life-long resi-
dent of Pendleton County, a farmer and distiller, born
at Boston Station in 1827, and died at Butler in 1911.
He married Sallie Ellis, who was born in 1830 and
died in 1891, also a life-long resident of Butler." They
had three children : Perry, the oldest, a farmer still
living at Butler; William; and Nora, who died as a
young woman.
William Ducker was born near Butler in 1854, and
practically his entire life has been spent in that vicinity.
His interests and vocation have been those of a farmer,
and in 1893-4 he was county sheriff. He is a stanch
democrat. William Ducker married Mary J. Caldwell,
who was born at Butler in 1855. Howard E. is the
oldest of their four children ; Thomas and Clara both
died when young ; and Charles W. is a farmer at
Butler.
Howard E. Ducker lived on his father's farm until
he was twenty-three years of age. In the meantime
he attended rural schools and also the public schools
at Falmouth. From 1906 until 1916 he was in the dis-
tillery business at Butler, and since then has been a
member of the firm Owen & Ducker in the lumber,
coal and feed business. His partner is H. M. Owen.
Their yards and offices are on Mill Street, and they
own all the grounds and buildings and have a very
prosperous trade. Mr. Ducker since 1916 has been sec-
retary and treasurer of the Butler Creamery Company,
an organization dating from 1908, and conducting a
creamery half a mile east of Butler. Mr. Ducker is a
director in the Butler Deposit Bank. His home is in
the country, two miles east of Butler, where he has
a thoroughly equipped and valuable farm of 250 acres.
He gave loyal aid in all the war campaigns in the
Butler community. He is a democrat, a member of the
Christian Church, and is affiliated with Osage Tribe
of Improved Order of Red Men at Lenoxburg.
In 1903, at Portsmouth, Ohio, he married Miss
Florence Ryder, daughter of F. M. and Elizabeth (Man-
ning) Ryder, now residents of Butler. Her father is
a painter and decorator. Mr. and Mrs. Ducker have
three children: Aril, born February 26, 1904; Clifford,
born October 5, 1906, and Mary, born August 19, 1910.
The oldest is in the Butler High School and the other
two are attending grammar school.
John Elmer Wilson, M. D. The honor of the
longest service as a physician and surgeon in the Butler
community of Pendleton County belongs to Dr. John
Elmer Wilson, who has practiced there almost a quarter
of a century. He is one of the highly esteemed citi-
zens, though his complete energies and talents have been
absorbed in his profession, and through that work alone
he has satisfied the normal ambitions for usefulness
to his fellow men.
Doctor Wilson represents an old family of Scotch
origin in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania. He was
born there at Warriors Mark August 17, 1865. His
grandfather. Thomas Wilson, was born in the same
county in 1812, and died at Warriors Mark in 1882.
He was prominent in the coal industry and was a
master collier. He married a Miss Hoover, also a
native and life-long resident of Huntingdon County.
Their son, Christopher Wilson, was born in 1836 and
died in 191 1, spending all his life near Warriors Mark
as a farmer. He was a democrat, an active member
of the Lutheran Church, and during the Civil war
served in the Home Guards. Christopher Wilson mar-
ried Miss Mary Martha Wheeling, who is still living
at Warriors Mark, where she was born in 1846. Of her
five children all three sons have earned creditable dis-
tinction in the medical profession. The oldest, Thomas
L., is a graduate of the Baltimore Medical College and
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
221
is practicing at Bellwood, Pennsylvania. The second
son is Dr. John E., of Butler, Kentucky. The third
child, Elizabeth, is the wife of William Wolf, a resident
of Altoona, Pennsylvania, and for many years assistant
health officer there. The fourth is Luella, wife of
Edward Rumberger, a farmer near Warriors Mark.
The third son, Harry, is a graduate of the Baltimore
Medical College and is a physician and surgeon at
Warriors Mark.
John Elmer Wilson spent his life to the age of nine-
teen on his father's farm, and acquired a rural school
education in Huntingdon County. To pay his way
through college he was employed on public work, and
for two years, 1887-8, was a student in Juniata College
in Pennsylvania and completed a course in the Central
State Normal at Lockhaven, receiving the degree Master
of English in 1890. During two years of this student
period he taught in Huntingdon County and for six
years was identified with school work in Clinton County,
Pennsylvania. He taught there while attending the Med-
ical Department of the National Normal University at
Lebanon, Ohio, from which he received his M. D. degree
in 1896. In 1897 he graduated in medicine from the
Cincinnati College of Medicine and Surgery, and in the
same year began his practice at Butler. He is a member
of the Pendleton County Medical Society, and is a
member in good standing of the Kentucky State and
American 'Medical Association. For a number of years
Doctor Wilson performed the duties of city health of-
ficer, served a number of terms on the School Board
and for fifteen years was president of the City Council.
He is independent in politics. During the World war
he received a lieutenant's commission in the Medical
Reserve Corps, but was unable to enter active service.
He owns a modern and comfortable home on Peoples
Avenue.
In 1895, near Butler, he married Miss Laura Brad-
ford, daughter of Henry and Hannah (Brown) Brad-
ford, both deceased. Her father was a farmer of
Pendleton County. Doctor and Mrs. Wilson have one
son, Henry Christopher, born January 4, 1903, who grad-
uated from the Butler High School in 1920 and from
Nelson's Business College of Cincinnati in 1921, and
is now a teacher in the public schools.
Louis P. Fryer, of Butler, is rounding out eighteen
years of consecutive service as judge of the Eighteenth
Judicial District. He has practiced law in Pendleton
County thirty-six years, and his abilities as a lawyer
and his worth as a citizen have brought him repeated
honors in public affairs, so that his official service
has been almost continuous with his law practice.
Judge Fryer was born near Butler January 10, 1864,
and four generations of the family have lived in that
community. His great-grandfather was a native of
Scotland and was the founder of the family in Pendle-
ton County, where he lived the life of a farmer. Wil-
liam Fryer, grandfather of Judge Fryer, spent all his
life in the vicinity of Butler, and was likewise identi-
fied with agricultural pursuits. John H. Fryer, father
of Judge Fryer, was born near Butler in 1832, and
after his marriage for twenty years lived at Falmouth,
where he earned a high reputation as a lawyer. He
was a graduate of the law department of the University
of Michigan. From Falmouth he returned to Butler,
and lived on his farm there until his death in 1904.
Originally he was a democrat, but in later years affili-
ated with the republican party. He was a very active
member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. John H.
Fryer married Frances Norris, who lived all her life
in Pendleton County and was born and died near
Butler. Of their children Calvin, the oldest, is a farmer
near Butler ; Laura, living on her farm near Butler,
is the widow of Lafayette McCIung, a printer for many
vears and later a farmer; Louis P. was the third among
the children; Alvin died at the age of fifteen, and two
others died in infancy.
Louis P. Fryer attended the public schools of Fal-
mouth and Butler, graduated from the Falmouth
Academy in 1883, and pursued his law studies in his
father's office until his admission to the bar in 1885.
Judge Fryer kept his offices as an attorney at Falmouth
from his admission to the bar until January, 1904. He
was admitted to the bar when twenty-one years of age,
and about that time was chosen police judge of Fal-
mouth, serving three terms. He was county attorney
one term and commonwealth attorney from 1897 -to
1903. The valuable services he rendered in these of-
fices was an important factor in his elevation to the
bench. Judge Fryer began his first six year term as
judge of the Eighteenth Judicial District in January,
1904. He was re-elected in 1909 and again in 1915.
This judicial district comprises the counties of Pendle-
ton, Harrison, Nicholas and Robertson. Judge Fryer
has his offices and home in a very beautiful residence
just out of the corporate limits of Butler. The house
stands on an elevation and is surrounded by large and
well kept grounds.
Judge Fryer is a democrat in politics, a member of
the Christian Church, and is affiliated with the Odd
Fellows, Knights of Pythias, and a member of the
Kentucky State Bar Association. He gave an active
and helpful influence to the promotion of the success of
all war drives in Pendleton County. In July, 1918, at
Lexington, Judge Fryer married Miss Eva Bradford,
a native of Cincinnati.
Bob C. Overbey, M. D. Distinguished as a physician
and surgeon, Dr. Bob C. Overbey occupies a pre-eminent
place among the professional men of Ballard County,
where for a number of years he has devoted his high
attainments to accomplishing what has brought him
recognitions and honors of an enviable nature. _ Doctor
Overbey 's achievements are based upon an intimate
knowledge of the intricate subjects of human anatomy
and scientific therapeutics. Like many another capable
and successful man, he did not set out in life with
the intention of accomplishing something phenomenal,
but at the outset of his career he placed a just valua-
tion on honor, integrity and determination, and with
those qualities as capital has won for himself a well
deserved place in the Kentucky field of medicine and
surgery. His practice is in and about La Center, but
during the close of the great war many of the soldiers
in camp received the benefit of his skill and experience,
for Doctor Overbey belongs to that noble band of
physicians and surgeons who, placing their personal
interests second to their love for their kind, went into
the serivce of their country to minister to its sick
and wounded soldiers during the time of war.
Doctor Overbey was born in Graves County, Kentucky,
October 5, 1877, a son of Frank H. Overbey, and grand-
son of Peter William Overbey, a native of Virginia.
The Overbeys came originally from England, but from
Colonial times have been established in this country,
settlement being first made by them in Virginia. Peter
William Overbey was one of the pioneers of Graves
County, Kentucky, where he practiced medicine and
was engaged in farming. His death occurred in Graves
County before the birth of his grandson, Doctor Over-
bey. He was married to Elizabeth Overbey, a distant
relative, who was also born in Virginia, and died in
Graves County.
Frank H. Overbey was born in Graves County, Ken-
tucky, in 1850, and he now lives at Lone Oak, 'Mc-
Cracken County, Kentucky. Reared in his native
county, he developed into one of its agriculturalists,
and lived there until 1884, when he moved to Marshall
County and for two years was engaged in operating
a saw-mill. Returning to Graves County in 1886, he
222
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
resumed his farming, and lived there until 1894, when
he went to Murray, Kentucky, and for some years was
profitably engaged in merchandising. In 1904 he went
back to Marshall County and was there engaged in
farming until 191 7, when he retired and, selecting Lone
Oak, is now living there and is occupied with civil
engineering. In politics he is a democrat. A man of
intensely religious views, he finds in the faith of the
Methodist Episcopal Church the expression of his belief
and an outlet for his desire to raise the standards of
morality and Christian living. He married Mary E.
Hargrove, who was born in Stuart County, Tennessee,
in 1853, an(l they became the parents of the following
children: Doctor Overbey, who was the eldest; Ruby,
who died at the age of eighteen years ; Guy, who died
at the age of seventeen years; Laura, who is living with
her parents ; Clyde, who is an educator connected with
a school at Richmond, Virginia ; Kelley, a commercial
instructor who lives at Bowling Green, Kentucky; Ros-
coe, who is in an insurance and real-estate business at
Paducah, Kentucky ; Harry, who is an automobile tire
salesman of Paducah, Kentucky; and two who died in
infancy.
Doctor Overbey first attended the rural schools of
Graves County, and then the high school of Murray,
Kentucky, from which he was graduted in 1899. He
then entered the Hospital College of Medicine of Louis-
ville, Kentucky, and was graduated therefrom in 1903,
with the degree of Doctor of Medicine, and later took
a post-graduate course at the Chicago Polyclinic at
Chicago, Illinois. In 1903 he began the practice of his
profession at Murray, Kentucky, but a year later moved
to Birmingham, Kentucky, and was there for four
years. In November, 1908, he came to La Center, Ken-
tucky, and here he has found congenial surroundings
and has carried on a general medical and surgical prac-
tice. His offices are located on Third Street. He
owns a modern residence on Third and Olive streets,
one of the fine ones of the place, which is surrounded
with beautifully kept grounds containing stately shade
and valuable fruit trees. In politics Doctor Overbey
is a democrat, and for four years has been health officer
of Ballard County He is a consistent member of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, in whose faith he was
reared. A Mason, he belongs to La Center Lodge No.
782, A. F. and A. M., of which he is a past master;
Antioch Chapter No. 74, R. A. M. ; Paducah Com-
mandery No. 11, K. T. ; and Kosair Temple, A. A. O.
N. M. S., of Louisville, Kentucky. Doctor Overbey
is a member of the Ballard County Medical Society,
the Kentucky State Medical Society, the American
Medical Association and the Southwest Kentucky Med-
ical Association. In November, 1918, he entered the
Medical Corps of the United States Army, with the
rank of first lieutenant, and was sent to Camp Sevier,
South Carolina, but the armistice was signed before
he was sent abroad, and he was mustered out and
honorably discharged February 26, 1919.
On April 20, 1910, Doctor Overbey was united in
marriage at Hinkleville, Kentucky, to Miss Marie E.
Rollings, a daughter of Dr. J. D. and Mattie L.
(Skinner) Rollings. Doctor Rollings, a sketch of
whom appears elsewhere in this work, is one of the
leading men of Ballard County, and is distinguished in
several ways. He ranks among the foremost men in his
profession, and is also a celebrity on account of his
magnificent Hereford herd of cattle, and because of the
part he has taken in developing the financial and busi-
ness interests of La Center and Hinkleville. Mrs.
Rollings is a lady of great intellectual culture, and
was one of the most active workers in the Red Cross
during the great war. Mrs. Overbey was educated at
Forest Park University, Saint Louis, Missouri, and also
attended the Conservatory of Music at Cincinnati, Ohio.
She is a fine musician, and her great talents enable
her to afford much pleasure to her family and wide
circle of friends. Doctor and Mrs. Overbey have one
daughter, Emmalee, who was born April 1, 1916.
Doctor Overbey is a man noted for his clearness of
insight and breadth of view, and his advice is sought
and followed in civic affairs. At the beginning of
his career he learned to work for knowledge and to
retain what he learned, and is recognized as one of the
most skilled and experienced men of his profession in
the county.
A. G. De Jarnette, president of the Bank of Wil-
liamstown, has been a practicing lawyer of that city
for over fifty years, and is one of the oldest members
of the bar in Grant County still in active service.
Mr. De Jarnette was born in Owen County, Kentucky,
September 22, 1841. His family has been identified with
Kentucky affairs since the closing years of the eighteenth
century. The De Jarnettes came originally from France
and were Colonial settlers in Virginia. The great-
grandfather of the Williamstown attorney was Daniel
De Jarnette, a native of Virginia, who founded the
family in Madison County, Kentucky, where he ac-
quired extensive tracts of land and developed much of
it to farm purposes. He lived out his life in Madison
County. One of his sons, James De Jarnette, was a
major in Colonel Dudley's Regiment during the War of
181 2, and for many years was prominent in county and
state affairs while a resident of Madison County. An-
other son, John De Jarnette died while with the army
in the War of 1812, being in charge of a transporta-
tion train. Still another son of Daniel De Jarnette
was Abijah De Jarnette, grandfather of the Williams-
town banker. He was born in Madison County, Ken-
tucky, in 1788, and for many years was identified with
farming in Madison County, but in 1846 moved to a
frontier district, Andrew County, in Northwest Mis-
souri, where he died in 1861. He married Sarah Swin-
ford, a native of Harrison County, who died in Grant
County. Their son, J. W. De Jarnette, was born in
Harrison County in 1820, was reared there and in
1841 removed to Grant County, where he married and
where he had extensive interests as a farmer. He
served as sheriff of Grant County, was an active demo-
crat, a member of the Christian Church, and spent his
last years retired at Crittenden, where he died in Feb-
ruary, 1920. His wife was Margaret Ann Williams, a
life-long resident of Grant County, where she was born
in 1820 and died in 1888. A. G. De Jarnette is the
oldest of her children. Sarah Elizabeth became the
wife of G. W. Osborne, a farmer, and both died in
Grant County. John M. was a farmer and died in
Ohio. Monira, of Labelle, Missouri, is the widow of
Dr. A. M. Thompson. Miss Romania died in Grant
County at the age of thirty-two. Charles A. was a
farmer and died in Grant County aged twenty-six.
A. G. De Jarnette has been practically a life-long
resident of Grant County. He attended rural schools,
spent two years in the literary department of the State
University at Lexington, and another two years as a
student of law at the University, graduating LL.B. in
February, 1869. In the same year he began his prac-
tice at Williamstown, and his devotion to the interests
of his profession has been one of marked regularity and
attended with exceptional success. He still keeps his
law offices in the Odd Fellows Building. For the past
six years he has been president of the Bank of Wil-
liamstown and has been a director for twenty years.
He owns considerable real estate in Williamstown, in-
cluding a modern home on Cynthiana Street.
Mr. De Jarnette was for six years commonwealth at-
torney and since 1885 he has been local council for
the C. N. O. & T. P. and the L. & N. Railroad com-
panies. He has served on the City Council and on the
School Board, is an active democrat and a member
of the Baptist Church.
In December, 1869, in Grant County, he married Miss
«m?
Art*.1
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
223
Alice Elliston, who died nearly forty-seven years later,
in June, 1916. Her parents were J. T. and Maria
(Merrell) Elliston, her father a farmer. Mr. De
Jarnette has four children: Robert E., a druggist at
Dry Ridge, Grant County ; J. B., unmarried, for many
years associated with tobacco firms and now oil in-
spector and trustee of the Jury Fund of Grant County ;
Alice, living with her father, wife of W. E. Sullivan ;
and Marie, wife of Dr. J. J. Marshall, a physician and
surgeon at Crittenden, Kentucky.
James William Webb, cashier and active manager
of the Bank of Williamstown, has been identified with
that institution for twenty years and prior to that was
a merchant and otherwise active in the business affairs
of Williamstown.
The Bank of Williamstown was established with a
state charter in 1884, and has a capital of $50,000, sur-
plus and profits of $50,000, and deposits aggregating
$500,000. The bank home is a modern brick structure
on Main Street. Its officers are A. G. De Jarnette,
president; J. T. Scott, vice president; and J. W. Webb,
cashier.
James William Webb was born in Grant County Feb-
ruary 24, 1859. He is of Welsh ancestry, though the
Webbs have been in America since Colonial times. They
first settled in North Carolina where Mr. Webb's grand-
father, William Webb, was born in Stokes County in
1790. He followed farming and planting in his native
state, and in 1844 settled in Grant County, Kentucky,
and was living at Cordova when he died in 1863. He
was a stanch democrat in politics. His wife was Eliza-
beth Gray, who was born in Stokes County, North
Carolina, in 1793, and died in Grant County, Kentucky,
in 1864. Of their eight children two are still living:
Joseph, a farmer at Corinth in Grant County ; and
James P., a retired farmer at Williamstown.
William Floyd Webb, father of James W. Webb, was
born in Stokes County, North Carolina, in 1829, and
was about fifteen years of age when the family came to
Grant County, Kentucky. Here his active career was
spent in agricultural pursuits, and he was one of the
leading farmers and highly esteemed citizens of the
county. He died at Williamstown in 1907. He was a
democrat and an active member of the Methodist Epis-
copal Church, South. In Harirson County, Kentucky,
he married Elizabeth B. Redd, who was born there and
died at Williamstown in 1903. Their family consisted
of nine children : John A., who for many years was
a miner, died in New York City at the age of sixty ; Miss
Elizabeth, who died at Williamstown at the age of fifty-
eight; James William; Mary, wife of H. C. Conrad,
a farmer at Hamilton, Missouri ; Joseph F., a farmer
who died at Houston, Texas, at the age of fifty-seven ;
G. S. Webb, a stock dealer and tobacconist at Wil-
liamstown ; S. R. Webb, who is a well known and lead-
ing dry goods merchant of Williamstown; Charles T.,
who for many years has been a Pullman conductor and
lives at Houston, Texas; and Holly, a farmer at
Williamstown.
James William Webb attended the public schools of
Williamstown, graduating from high school in 1877,
and since then, for a period of forty-five years, has
been giving his vigor and energies to business affairs
at Williamstown. He entered the dry goods business
and built up a flourishing trade and was active in its
management until 1901, when he became identified with
the Bank of Williamstown as cashier and is also a
director.
During the World war Mr. Webb had the satisfaction
of seeing several of his sons enrolled in the Govern-
ment's service. At home he was chairman of the
Liberty Loan drives for the county and accepted every
opportunity to be useful in some capacity to the cause.
Mr. Webb is a democrat in politics. He owns a modern
home on North Main Street.
In 1888, at Williamstown, he married Miss Minnie
Barbour, daughter of John Q. and Maggie (Ricketts)
Barbour, the latter a resident of Covington. Her father
was a photographer by profession and died at Wil-
liamstown. Mrs. Webb is a graduate of the Williams-
town High School. They are the parents of five
children : Edward D., the oldest, trained as a soldier
at Camp Lewis, Washington, and is now a merchant at
Snohomish, Washington ; Viola, living at home, is the
wife of Otto Halla, now engaged in mining in Cali-
fornia. Floyd G., also a merchant at Snohomish, Wash-
ington, was in the arsenal branch of the army service
during the World war and was stationed at a number
of camps, being mustered out as a top sergeant at
Indianapolis. John Hal, now in business as a merchant
at Lexington, was commissioned a second lieutenant in
the Officers Training Camp at Louisville, and was mus-
tered out at Louisville. Marguerite, the youngest of
the children, is the wife of F. A. Harrison, a Williams-
town attorney.
Lewis Manning. Among the great industries
that provide for the most urgent needs of humanity
the mining of coal must be given a leading place,
for this mineral, despite the discoveries of scientists
along the line of substitutes, still continues in the
twentieth century a vital necessity for domestic com-
fort and commercial expansion. The wide distribu-
tion of coal in the United States has brought a large
measure of prosperity to many sections here, where
men of experience and foresight have not hesitated
to invest vast capital for the development of the
coal fields. The State of Kentucky is rich in large
areas of workable coal land, and mining in Harlan
County, has proved one of the most profitable industries
of this part of the state. One of the leading coal men
of the county is Lewis Manning of Evarts, who is
vice president, general manager and a large stockholder
of the Harlan-Liberty Coal Company, which has ex-
tensive coal interests here. Mr. Manning is a practical
miner and has been continuously identified with his
industry since his boyhood.
Lewis Manning was born August 3, 1886, in Claiborne
County, Tennessee, and is a son of Andrew and Martha
(Cook) Manning, the former of .whom still resides in
Claiborne County, where he was born in 1851. His
father was John Manning, who was born in Ohio in
1834. In early manhood he settled in Claiborne County,
Tennessee, and died there in 1916, a farmer all his life.
Andrew Manning spent a few years in Texas, but
otherwise has always lived on his farm in his native
county. He married Martha Cook, who was born in
1867 in Rockcastle County, Kentucky, and died in 1905
in Claiborne County, Tennessee. They had the follow-
ing children : Lewis ; John, who is a mine operator at
Artemus, Knox County, Kentucky ; George, who is a
miner, lives at Artemus ; Cora, who resides in Tennessee
with her father ; Rethea, who is the wife of Albert
Llewellyn, a coal miner at Artemus ; Tennessee, who
resides in the old home with her father ; Stella, who
died when sixteen years old ; and Ella, who is the wife
of John Helton, a farmer in Claiborne County, Tennes-
see .
Lewis Manning remained on the home farm assisting
his father until sixteen years old, in the meanwhile
attending the country schools, and then decided to try
mining for awhile. He worked five years at La Follette
in Campbell County and two years on Clear Fork in
Claiborne County. In 1909 he came to Knox County,
Kentucky, where he continued with the Carter Coal
Company and the R. C. Tway Coal Company until he
began coal operating for himself in 1916, and three
years later came to Evarts. Here he opened a coal
mine for the Harlan-Liberty Coal Company, which he
still operates. It is situated on Bailey's Creek, and is
a profitable property, producing 200 tons of coal daily.
224
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
In November, 1920, Ihe Harlan-Liberty Coal Company
bought a mine from the Rye Hollow Coal Company,
which is located near the other mine, and a still better
proposition, as its capacity it 500 tons daily. In addition
to his large coal interests he is concerned in other sub-
stantial enterprises and is a stockholder in the Black
Mountain Bank at Evarts.
At Barbourville, Kentucky, in 1909, Mr. Manning
married Miss Lillie Maiden, a daughter of Shult and
Clementine (Hatfield) Maiden, farming people near
Jellico, Tennessee. Mr. and Mrs. Manning have five
children, namely: Edker, born in 191 1; Stella, born
in 1913; James, born in 1915; Porter, born in 1917 ;
and Clearie, born in 1919.
Mr. Manning is a member of Yocum Creek Lodge
No. 897, F. and A. M. In his political views he is a
republican, differing from his father, who has always
been a democrat, but despite this difference both have
been notably good citizens. During the World war Mr.
Manning was identified with all the local war activities
as a patriotic citizen, and was generous with his time
and means in adding to the efficiency of the various
organizations. Personally he impresses one as an able
and efficient business man, and his honorable business
methods have gained him the respect and confidence of
the good people of the city in which he has chosen to
make his home.
Edward W. Wear. In no avenue of business do
men become so widely known as journalism, not al-
ways as personalities, but as influences, their printed
thoughts reaching thousands where their spoken ones
would be heard by perhaps a score. Hence the re-
sponsibility of a journalist is of exceeding weight, and
there have been times when a newspaper has forced
reformatory legislation and been instrumental in chang-
ing public policies. An honest and undismayed press
has brought about, upon many occasions, unbelievable
improvements, and to the credit of the men who direct
the destinies of the journals of the country be it said
that the majority of them are guided by high ideals,
and support freedom, courage and justice. Edward
W. Wear, editor and manager of the "La Center Ad-
vance," is one of the newspaper men of Ballard County
who are earnestly endeavoring to abolish the sensa-
tional and uphold the safe and sane in their work.
Edward W. Wear was born at Murray, Kentucky,
December 5, 1871, a son of A. H. Wear, and comes of
an old and honored American family, of Scotch-Irish
stock, representatives of which have been in this coun-
try since its Colonial epoch, when settlement was made
in Virginia, from whence men of ability have gone
into other parts of the county.
A. H. Wear was born in Alabama in 1818, and his
death occurred at Murray, Kentucky, in 1905. He
was brought to Kentucky by his parents when a boy,
and they settled in Calloway County, where he was
reared, educated and married. For many years he was
a druggist of Murray, being the first to engage in that
line of business at that point. Both as a democrat and
member of the Christian Church he took an active part
in local affairs, and was held in the highest esteem.
For nearly forty years he served the Masonic lodge
as its honored treasurer. A. H. Wear was married
to Sallie Meloan, who was born at Murray, Kentucky,
in 1826, and died there in 1910. Their children were
as follows : W. O.. who is the editor and proprietor
of the "Calloway Times," lives at Murray, Kentucky;
Emily, who died at Murray, Kentucky, aged sixty-
nine years, was the widow of Edward Starks, a farm
owner and a resident of Murray; A. M., who is a
harnessmaker and saddler of Jackson, Tennessee ; J. M.,
who was a carpenter and builder, died at Los
Angeles, California; D. M., who was a farmer in the
vicinity of Murray, is deceased; Lucy, who married
Daniel Jones, a phosphate mine operator, died in Flor-
ida, as did her husbasd ; H. P., who succeeded to his
father's drug business at Murray; Mattie E., who is
unmarried, resides at Murray; J. V., who was editor
and proprietor of the "La Center Advance for twelve
years," died April 30. 1920; B. B., who lives at Mur-
ray, is assisting his brother, H. P.; and Edward \\\,
who was the youngest.
After attending the public schools of Murray Mr.
Wear took a course at the Murray Institute, from which
he was( graduated in 1891. He then began learning the
printer's trade with the "Murray News," remaining
there for two years, and later worked as a journeyman
printer at Benton and Paducah, Kentucky, and Erin
and Dyersburg, Tennessee. He owned and edited the
"Ballard Yoeman" at Wickliffe, from November 17,
I'd 1, until November, 1917. at that time going to Eddy-
ville, Kentucky, where he was employed on the "Lyon
County Herald." His connection with that journal
continued until July 1, 19.-0, when he came to La
Center to become editor and manager of his present
newspaper. It was established in 1905 and is a strong
democratic organ and the official paper of Ballard
County. Its circulation is in Ballard and surrounding
counties, and it is the leading journal of its size in
Western Kentucky. The plant and offices are located
on Broadway, La Center. Mr. Wear has long been
active as a democrat and served in the City Council
of Wickliffe for two years, and on the school board
of the same city for three years. Brought up in the
faith of the Christian Church, he early connected him-
self with that denomination and has continued one of
its members. He is a member of the Printers' Union.
In 1894 Mr. Wear was united in marriage with Miss
Lena Aaron, at Benton, Kentucky. She is a daughter
of John and Sarah (Little) Aaron, both of wdiom are
deceased. He was a railroad engineer out of Paducah,
Kentucky. Mr. and Mrs. Wear became the parents of
the following children : Joe L., who is a traveling
salesman for the Miles Medical Company out of Elk-
hart, Indiana, and a veteran of the great war : Archi-
bald H., who is a drug clerk residing at Cairo, Illinois;
Meattilean, who assists her father, is in her last year
at the La Center High School and a young lady of
great promise; and lone, who is also attending" the
La Center High School.
Joe L. Wear entered the United States service in
September, 1917, and was sent to Camp Taylor and then
to the Officers' Training Camp School at Petersburg,
Virginia, where he received his commission as second
lieutenant. The armistice was signed before he was
sent abroad, and he was honorably discharged at Camp
Devens, Massachusetts, in November, 1918.
Mr. Wear has brought with him to La Center a wide
newspaper experience and conspicuous native ability,
and is giving to his present paper a high moral and
editorial tone, and at the same time is producing an
organ which gives to his readers the local news and
happenings, as well as that of the world in general.
Nicholas Henry Ellis, M. D. During the past
seventeen years Doctor Ellis has had a busy life as a
physician and surgeon in several counties of Northern
Kentucky, is now located at Williamstown, and is one
of the highly esteemed citizens of Grant County both
for his professional work and his public spirit.
Doctor Ellis, wdio was thoroughly well educated for
his chosen career, was born near Butler in Pendleton
County October 25, 1867. His grandfather, John Ellis,
was a native of Virginia and when a young man moved
to Pendleton County, where he married and where
he lived out his life as a farmer in the vicinity of
Butler. L. H. Ellis, father of Doctor Ellis, spent all
his life near Butler, where he was born in 1830 and
died in 1893. During his active life he conducted a
large farm. He was a democrat and was a pillar in
the Baptist Church of his community. His wife was
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
225
Missouri M. Dicken, who was born in 1828, near But-
ler, and died in 1900. They were the parents of ten
children, but three of the older ones died in childhood.
The other seven were : James J., for many years a
railroad man with the Louisville & Nashville, who died
at Butler at the age of sixty-eight ; Melcena, wife of
W. N. Carnes, a farmer near Butler ; Rev. C. S. Ellis,
pastor of the Baptist Church at Dry Ridge in Grant
County; E. O. Ellis, a farmer at Montpelier, Indiana;
Rev. A. H. Ellis, pastor of the South Side Baptist
Church at Covington; Nicholas Henry; and Nora,
wife of C. E. Rouse, a farmer near Butler.
Nicholas Henry Ellis acquired a high school educa-
tion in Pendleton County, spent one term in the Na-
tional Normal University at Lebanon, Ohio, and after
the four-year academic course graduated Bachelor of
Science from Kentucky State College at Lexington in
1901. He soon afterward entered the Louisville Medi-
cal College, graduating M. D. in 1904. For three years
he practiced at Piner in Kenton County, and then
looked after the interests of a large country practice,
with home at Goforth in Pendleton County, for ten
years. Since 1917 Doctor Ellis has had his home at
Williamstown, with offices over Theobald's drug store
on Main Street, and he lives in one of the thoroughly
modern and comfortable residences of the city, on
North Main Street.
Doctor Ellis is the type of physician who finds time
for many responsibilities and interests. During the
World war he twice applied for admission to the army,
but was rejected on account of overweight. Failing in
that ambition, he did all he could at home, especially
through his work as examining physician for the Grant
County Draft Board and by use of his financial means.
During the past three years he has been county health
officer of Grant County and is also designated examiner
for war risk insurance in the county. Doctor Ellis
has a farm of 135 acres seven miles east of Williams-
town, and is specializing in the production of pure
milk, operating a dairy of sixteen cows.
He is a democrat in politics. For eleven years he
has been moderator of the Crittenden Baptist Asso-
ciation and was again elected to that office in the
past year. In 1907, at Covington, Doctor Ellis married
Miss Mary B. Rich, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. S.
Rich, who live near Independence in Kenton County.
Her father is a farmer and rural mail carrier. Doctor
and Mrs. Ellis have one daughter, Virginia, born March
6, 1910.
George Thomas Fuller, M. D. For nearly forty
years Doctor Fuller has performed every service in
the scope of an able physician and surgeon in Graves
County, and for the greater part of that time has
been an honored physician and surgeon of Mayfield.
He is now a member of the Kentucky Board of Health.
Doctor Fuller descends from New England ances-
tors who came from England at the time of the May-
flower. His grandfather, William Fuller, was born at
Charlestown, Massachusetts, went south to Charleston,
South Carolina, and in 1830 established his family in
Ballard County, Kentucky. He was a hatter by trade,
and died in Ballard County many years before the Civil
war. His wife was Mary Fosdick, who was born at
Charlestown, Massachusetts, in 1780 and died in Bal-
lard County, Kentucky, in i860. Charles Henry Fuller,
father of Doctor Fuller, was born on Kings Street in
Charleston, South Carolina, in 1813, and lived in his
native city to the age of sixteen. Then, after a year
of residence in Greenville, South Carolina, his parents
came West, in 1830, to Hickman County, Kentucky.
Hickman was then a large county from which sub-
sequently both Ballard and Carlisle counties were sep-
arated. Charles Henry Fuller was married in Ballard
County and spent his life there as a successful farmer.
He died in 1883. He was a democrat, a very active
member of the Christian Church, and was affiliated
with the Masonic fraternity. His wife was Jane Ber-
nice Lamm, who was born on a North Carolina plan-
tation in 1815 and died in Ballard County January 20,
1866. She was the mother of eight children : William
David, a farmer who died in Ballard County in i860;
James Henry, likewise a farmer, who died in Texas
in i860; John Andrew, who while serving as a cap-
tain in the Confederate Army was killed at Harris-
burg, Mississippi, July 14, 1864; Robert and Charles
W., both of whom died in infancy; Mary A., who died
in Carlisle County, Kentucky, in 1865 ; George Thomas ;
and Furman, who died at the age of four years. The
father of these children married for his second wife
Mrs. Susan (Hite) Farmer, who died in Ballard Coun-
ty in 1891, the mother of two children: Mada, wife
of Albert Bellew, a Hickman County planter ; and
Ethan Allen, a farmer in Carlisle County.
George Thomas Fuller was born in Ballard County
April 9, 1854, and spent his early youth in a country
district which did not altogether escape the destructive
influences of the Civil war. He attended the rural
schools, and in 1871 graduated from Milburn Academy
in Carlisle County. After teaching in Ballard and
Carlisle counties during J874-5 he attended the Eclectic
Medical College of Cincinnati, from which he received
his M. B. degree in 1877. Doctor Fuller began prac-
tice in Ballard County, but in 1881 removed to Lowes,
Graves County, and performed all the duties of a busy
country practitioner there until 1898, since which year
he has been a resident of Mayfield, with a continuing
prestige as a physician and surgeon. His offices are
at the corner of Eighth Street and Broadway. In
1889 Doctor Fuller took special work in eye, ear, nose
and throat diseases at the Cincinnati Eclectic Medical
College. He is a member of the County and State
Medical Societies, the National Eclectic Medical Asso-
ciation, and is one of the valued members of the State
Board of Health. Politically he is a democrat, and is
a member of the Christian Church.
Doctor Fuller owns a comfortable home at 107
North Seventh Street in Mayfield. He married in
Graves County in 1887, at Lowes, Miss Lizzie L. Lowe,
daughter of Rev. W. F. and Mrs. (Samuels) Lowe,
both now deceased. Her father for many years was
an esteemed Baptist clergyman of Graves County. To
Doctor and Mrs. Fuller were born seven children :
Terrell Lowe, the oldest, was a graduate of the Eclectic
Medical College of Cincinnati, served one year as interne
in the Bethesda Hospital at Cincinnati and a similar
time in Flower Hospital at New York City, and
died in South America at the age of twenty-seven
while serving as surgeon of a railroad company in
Peru. Bernice, the second child, died when one year
old. George T., also a graduate of the Eclectic Medi-
cal College of Cincinnati, was enlisted and on duty
as a member of the Medical Reserve Corps at Cin-
cinnati during the war and is now practicing medicine
at Benson, Arizona. The fourth child, Eva Rubel,
was a graduate of Georgetown College in Kentucky
and died at the age of eighteen. William Howe, who
was also with a Medical Unit in the army at Cincin-
nati during the war, is still a student in the Medical
School of the University of Cincinnati. Mary Duskin
Fuller died at the age of thirteen years. James Walker
Tuffs Fuller, the youngest of the family, is a student
in the University of Virginia, taking a course prepara-
tory to entering medical school.
George H. Shaber, superintendent of the city schools
of Williamstown, has been teaching and attending
school since he was twenty years of age, except for
nearly two years, while enrolled as a soldier and officer
of the National Army during the World war.
Captain Shaber, who came out of the army with that
rank, was born at Alexandria, Campbell County, De-
cember 25, 1892. His grandfather was a native of
Germany, settled at Alexandria when a young man and
226
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
spent the rest of his life there as a farmer. He mar-
ried in Campbell County. Fred Shaber, father of
Captain Shaber, has spent all his life at Alexandria,
where he was born in 1851, and at the age of seventy is
still active cultivating a large farm and growing fruit
on a large scale. He is a republican and a member
of the Evangelical Church. He married Anna Yost.
who was born at Alexandria in 1864. Their family of
children consists of the following: Harry, a farmer
at Boone Grove, Indiana ; John, an electrical engineer
at Cincinnati ; George H. ; Oscar, an accountant with
Proctor & Gamble Company at Cincinnati ; Paul, as-
sisting his father on the farm; and Edward, a high
school student at Alexandria.
George H. Shaber graduated from the Alexandria
High School in 1912 and the following two years
taught in Campbell County. In 1917 he graduated A.
B. from the Kentucky State University at Lexington,
and in April of that year, at the very beginning of
the war with Germany, entered the First Officers'
Training Camp at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana,
and after four months was commissioned a second
lieutenant. He was on duty at Camp Taylor, Louis-
ville, until August, 1918, then spent two months at
Camp Jackson. South Carolina, and was at the School
of Fire at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, until mustered out
December 13, 1918. He was commissioned a first
lieutenant at Camp Jackson and at Fort Sill was pro-
moted to the rank of captain in the Field Artillery.
After his war service Captain Shaber was for one
year principal of the high school at Morganfield, Ken-
tucky, and in September, 1920, entered upon his dutie.0
as superintendent of the city schools at Williamstown.
Besides the superintendent there are six teachers and
the scholarship enrollment is 260. Captain Shaber is
Commander of Robert P. McLachlan Post No. 137,
American Legion, in Grant County. He is a member
of the Kentucky Educational Association, is a repub-
lican, affiliated with the Evangelical Church, and is
a member of Morganfield Lodge No. 66, F. and A. M.
At Alexandria in December, 1919, he married Miss
Irene Houston, daughter of Dr. J. F. and Nettie
(Wheeler) Houston, her father a well known physi-
cian of Alexandria. Mrs. Shaber is a graduate of the
Alexandria High School and of Oxford College for
Women at Wooster, Ohio, where she received the A.
B. degree. Captain and Mrs. Shaber have one son,
John Frederick, born March 20, 1921.
Fred Ambrose Harrisox. A busy young lawyer at
Williamstown, Fred Ambrose Harrison grew up in
Grant County, where his people have lived for three
generations, and since entering practice he has proved
not only an able lawyer but a progressive leader in
all community affairs.
His great-grandfather was William Harr'son, a na-
tive of Virginia, who settled in pioneer days at Mason
in Grant Count}', where he lived out his life as a
farmer. The grandfather of the Williamstown at-
torney was R. E. Harrison, a life-long resdent in
the Mason community and a farmer. He married
Mary Hill, a native of Pennsylvania, who died al
Mason. J. M. Harrison was born at Mason March
21, 1862, and for a number of years was successfully
identified with the management of a large farm in
that community. He still owns his farm hut his home
since 1912 has been in the City of Lexington. He was
a member of the Fiscal Court of Grant County from
1897 to 1901, and is a democrat in politics. J. M.
Harrison married Katie Ruholl. who was born at
Mason in April, 1865. Fred A. is the oldest of their
four children; J. A. is a merchant at Williamstown;
Paul is a farmer and stock dealer at Mason ; and Mary
Catherine, born in 1910, is a student in the Lexington
public schools.
Fred Ambrose Harrison was born at Mason on his
father's farm July 17, 1893, and as a boy attended rural
schools there and in 191 1 graduated from the Williams-
town High School. He taught school a year before
entering the University of Kentucky at Lexington,
where he was graduated LL. B. in 1916. He is a
member of the honorary oratorical fraternity Tau
Kappa Alpha. Mr. Harrison began practice at Wil-
liamstown in 1916, and has since been associated with
A. G. De Jarnette, a Williamstown lawyer, for half a
century. The firm's offices are in the Odd Fellows
Building. Mr. Harrison is a member of the Grant
County and Kentucky State Bar Associations, and
during 1917-19 was city attorney of Williamstown.
In the early stages of the World war he was secre-
tary of the Grant County Chapter of the Red Cross,
chairman of the Speakers' Bureau of the county, and
local chairman of Liberty Loan drives. He also served
as chief of the American Protective League in the
county. In June, 1918, he enlisted and spent six months
at Camp Taylor, Louisville, where he received a com-
mission as second lieutenant in the Field Artillery.
He was honorably discharged December 23, 1918.
December 26, 1916, at Lexington, Mr. Harrison mar-
ried Miss Marguerite Webb. She is a daughter of
James W. and Minnie (Barbour) Webb, a prominent
family at Williamstown, where her father for many
years has been cashier and active head of the Bank of
Williamstown. Mrs. Harrison is a graduate of the
Williamstown High School.
Robert Lee Webb, county judge of Grant County,
has practiced law at Williamstown more than thirty-
five years and represents a family that has been in
Grant County since the early fifties.
The father of Judge Webb was the late John H.
Webb, whose career was distinguished by extraor-
dinary achievements in business affairs and prominence
as a citizen. He was born in North Carolina in 1827.
He was reared and educated in his native state, and
in 1847, at the age of twenty, came to Kentucky with
his parents, William and Elizabeth (Gray) Webb, who
first located at Colemansville in Harrison County and
in 1851 moved to Cordova, Grant County. William
Webb was a native of North Carolina and was a farmer
by occupation, living in Grant County from 1851 until
his death in 1866. His wife was a native of Virginia.
Their children were : John H. ; Mary Clark, who died
at Williamstown at the age of ninety-three; W. F.
Webb, a stock trader who died at Williamstown aged
seventy-six ; Joseph, a retired farmer living near Cor-
inth in Grant County; G. N. Webb, a merchant who
died at Williamstown when eighty-four years of age ;
James P. Webb, a farmer near Williamstown; and
Martha, who became the wife of Dr. J. W. Johnson,
and both died at Winchester, Kentucky.
John H. Webb entered merchandising at Cordova,
but in 1854 moved to Williamstown. He served four
years as deputy under Sheriff John W. De Jarnette,
and was then elected high sheriff. After four years
in that office he resumed farming for three years and
then established a drygoods store at Williamstown.
He built up a good business, one of the largest in
Grant County, and 'his name and character were iden-
tified with that enterprise for more than half a century.
He was the leading factor in establishing the Bank of
Williamstown, and was the principal stockholder and
president for over thirty years. His energies went
into a number of enterprises directly associated with
the welfare and upbuilding of the community. He was
a democrat, a member of the Presbyterian Church and
of the Masonic fraternity. John H. Webb died at
Williamstown February 13, 1013, when eighty-six years
of age. He married Cornelia A. Stroud, who was
born at Williamstown in 1833 and died there in 1905.
Of their family the oldest is Dr. A. D. Webb, a grad-
uate of the Ohio Medical College of Cincinnati and a
practicing physician at Williamstown; Robert Lee is
the second in age; Mary E. is the wife of Clay Con-
u/x 0. ^Vin^utt~
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
227
rad, a farmer in Williamstown ; Henrietta S., of Wil-
liamstown, widow of R. T. Dickerson, who was a leaf
tobacco dealer and died at Williamstown December 30,
1920; Laura, wife of James W. Chipman, a farmer
and leaf tobacco dealer at Williamstown; Frank, a
traveling salesman living at Cincinnati.
Robert Lee Webb, who was born at Williamstown
April 13, 1864, had a thorough preparation for Irs
chosen career as a lawyer. He attended the grammar
and high schools of Williamstown, completed the sopho-
more year in the University of Virginia at Charlottes-
ville, and after a two years' course graduated in 1885
w'th the LL. B. degree from the Cincinnati Law
School. Since 1885 he has sustained a high reputation
as an able lawyer with a general civil and criminal
practice in Grant County. He began to take an active
share in politics only after his success in private prac-
tice was assured. He served as county treasurer from
1900 to 1917, and in November, 1917, was elected
county judge, and has been engaged in the duties of
his four-yearterm since the first Monday of January,
iyi8. His offices are in the court house annex.
Judge Webb is a stockholder and director in the
Bank of Williamstown. He was chairman of the War
Savings Stamp drive and otherwise participated in
every patriotic movement. He is a democrat and is a
member of Williamstown Council, Junior Order United
American Mechanics.
December 5, 1916, at Lexington, Judge Webb mar-
ried Mrs. Katherine (Walden) Harrison, daughter of
J. A. and Mary (Davis) Walden, residents on a farm
at Crestwood, Oldham County, Kentucky.
Arthur Blankenship Cornett. One of the greatest
factors contributing to the prosperity of any section
of the country is the well balanced, energetic business
man of sound judgment and sterling integrity who
brings with him into commercial life high ideals of
both business .and civic responsibility. His influence is
to give solidity to the enterprises in which he engages,
and true prosperity must rest on such a foundation.
Harlan County has not had to go far afield in search for
such citizens, for she has produced them, and of these
perhaps few are better known than Judge A. B. Cornett,
who is vice president of the First State Bank of Harlan
and for many years identified with leading financial
and industrial interests in this section of Kentucky.
Judge Cornett was born on his father's farm in Har-
lan County, Kentucky, November 11, 1853. His parents
were John L. and Precious A. (Ely) Cornett, both life
long residents of Harlan County. The Cornett ancestry
leads back to France, where the great-grandfather,
Roger Cornett, was born. He was a young man when
be came to America and found a home in Scott County,
Virginia, where he became a planter and slaveholder.
Next in line or descent was William Cornett, who was
born in Scott County, Virginia, in 1798. He came early
to Harlan County, Kentucky, establishing himself on
the bank of the Cumberland River as a farmer and
blacksmith. He married Nancy Lewis, who was born
in Harlan County in 1801, and died on the Cumberland
River plantation in 1883. She was a daughter of Judge
John Lewis, who was one of the first judges of Harlan
County. William Cornett died on his Cumberland River
estate in 1868.
John L. Cornett was born in Harlan County, Ken-
tucky, in 1828, and died in 1910, having spent his entire
life along the Cumberland River. He was an extensive
and successful farmer, and owned thousands of acres
of valuable coal and timber land. In his political views
he was a republican, and from youth had been a mem-
ber of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He married
Precious A. Ely, born in 1827, in Lee County, Virginia,
who died in Harlan County in 1908. They had the fol-
lowing children : William W., who is a merchant and
farmer, lives on the Poor Fork of the Cumberland
River in Harlan County ; Arthur B. ; Jonathan, who is
a farmer on the Cumberland River ; George, who died
when seven years of age ; Nancy Jane, who married
Israel Blair and resides near Barbourville, Kentucky ;
Robert N., who is a coal operator at Barbourville ; and
Bethel, who is a farmer near Paint Lick, Garrard
County, Kentucky.
Arthur B. Cornett grew up on his father's farm and
obtained his education in the country schools. When
twenty-five years old he embarked in the mercantile
business at Poor Fork, where he continued for four
years. In November, 1883, he was elected county super-
intendent of schools to fill out an unexpired term, and
after serving one year re-entered the mercantile busi-
ness and continued in the same at Harlan until 1890,
when he retired in order to assume the duties of clerk
of the County Court to which office he had been elected
in August, 1889. In November, 1893, he was re-elected
for another term of four years, and in November, 1897,
was elected county judge, the responsibilities of which
position he assumed in January, 1898, and served for
four years. Judge Cornett is a republican in politics,
but since retiring from the bench has never accepted
any political office and has devoted all his time to his
many business interests, which are largely connected
with coal and lumber. He owns 4,000 acres of coal
lands in Harlan, Letcher, Perry and Leslie counties,
Kentucky ; is a director in the Cornett-Lewis Coal Com-
pany, the mines of which are situated on Clover Fork
of the Cumberland River at Fugate Creek ; formerly
was president of the Harlan Gas Company, of which he
is still a stockholder; until 1915, when he sold his
interests, he was president of the Harlan Home Coal
Company ; and since its organization he has been vice
president of the First State Bank of Harlan, Kentucky,
and one of its founders.
The First State Bank of Harlan was organized
October I, 1902, and the operating officers are : A. B.
Cornett, vice president; W. W. Lewis, cashier; Fred C.
Lewis, assistant cashier; O. M. Hoskins, assistant
cashier; E. T. Boggess, assistant cashier, with capital
and surplus: $105,000; undivided profits, $42,500; de-
posits, $2,000,000.
At Harlan, Kentucky, in 1880, Mr. Cornett married
Miss Amanda E. Hurst, who died in March, 1900. She
was a daughter of C. E. and Mary (Rice) Hurst,
both deceased. Mr. Hurst was a soldier in the Union
Army during the war between the states, and at the
time of his death was clerk of the court of Harlan
County. To Mr. and Mrs. Cornett the following chil-
dren were born: Ollie, who is the wife of W. W.
Lewis, cashier of the First State Bank of Harlan:
Denver B., who is a coal operator and president of the
Cornett-Lewis Coal Company, resides at Louisville,
Kentucky; Carrie E., who died at Harlan in 1915, was
the wife of Dr. William Martin, of this place, who
married for his second wife a Miss Hull, and together
they operate the Shady Lawn Hospital at Harlan; Ora,
who is the wife of C. B. Cawood, a coal operator at
Harlan, who is interested in the Cornett-Lewis Coal
Company and also owns a one-half interest in the
Harlan Hardware Company ; Claude C, who died at the
age of eighteen years ; Herbert, who died when six
years old ; John Frederick, who died when one year old ;
Mary, who is the wife of Robert Scott, a stockholder
and bookkeeper for the Wilson-Burger Coal Company ;
and Ella, who is the wife of Homer Highbaugh, who
is in the insurance business at Harlan. In 1917, at
Cincinnati, Ohio, Mr. Cornett married Miss Dollie E.
Brown, who is a native of Kansas. She graduated from
Baker University at Baldwin, Kansas, and is active in
church work and especially in the home mission work
of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. Cornett's
private residence, at 128 Main Street, is one of the most
pretentious in the city, and he also has an interest in
the Shady Lawn Hospital buildings.
228
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
During the World war Mr. Cornett showed his inter-
est in many practical ways, taking an active part in all
local movements and liberally contributing to all the
organizations of a patriotic nature, in this but enlarging
his customary generous bequests to benevolent purposes,
-lie is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church
at Harlan, named the Ella Cornett Methodist Episcopal
Church in memory of his first wife. Mr. Cornett is
its largest donator and one of its Board of Directors,
and is superintendent of the Sunday School. He is a
member of Harlan Lodge No. 879, F. and 'A. M., but
otherwise has no fraternal connections, although be-
cause of his importance in his community he is con-
stantly brought into close and friendly relationships with
his fellow citizens, who in public matters rely on his
judgment and highly esteem him personally.
James Walton Bennett is one of the progressive
young business men of Williamstown, a lumber and
hardware dealer, having established himself in business
a few years before the war and left it for nearly a year
to serve the Government.
Mr. Bennett was born at Pelahatchee, Mississippi,
December 18, 1889. His paternal ancestors came from
Wales. His grandfather, Lewis Bennett, was a native
of Alabama and in 1850 moved to a farm and plantation
in Scott County, Mississippi, where he lived out his life.
His son, John William Bennett, was born in Alabama
in 1842, but was reared and married in Scott County,
Mississippi, and in early life was a dentist. In 1880 he
moved to Pelahatchee, Rankin County, and for a num-
ber of years engaged in the cotton ginning industry.
He is now living retired at Yazoo City. He is a demo-
crat and for four years wore the uniform of a Con-
federate soldier. He was captured and part of the time
was a prisoner of war at Camp Douglas, Chicago. He
is a very loyal member of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South. John W. Bennett married Martha E.
Patterson, who was born in Scott County in 1855.
A brief record of their children is as follows: John P.,
cashier of a bank at Yazoo City; Ola, wife of Carl
Stingly, an attorney at Sumner, Mississippi ; Katherine,
wife of T. B. Thames, a wholesale lumber merchant
living at Fort Mitchell, Kentucky; Donna, wife of
Henry Clark, who is Sunday school field secretary of
the Mississippi Conference; C. S. Bennett, a resident
of Yazoo City and traveling salesman for the American
Steel and Wire Company: Lewis, also of Yazoo City,
a traveling representative for the Wade Hardware Com-
pany of Greenwood, that state ; James W. ; F. G. Ben-
nett, manager of the branch house of the Wade Hard-
ware Company at Clarkesdale, Mississippi; Miss Ellie,
at home; and Ethel, wife of P. L. Clements, connected
with the Yazoo Grocery Company, wholesale.
James Walton Bennett acquired a public school educa-
tion in Rankin County and Yazoo City, Mississippi,
and attended through the sophomore year the University
of Mississippi at Oxford. Leaving college in 1911, he
was for three years assistant postmaster of Yazoo City,
and in 1915 came to Williamstown, Kentucky, and with
R. C. McNay of Crittenden acquired the present hard-
ware and lumber business. They own a large modern
store and yards on South Main Street and have one
of the leading concerns of the kind in Grant County.
During the early months of America's participation in
the World war Mr. Bennett was actively associated
with all the local committees in raising funds and pros-
ecuting patriotic movements. February 24, 1918, he
enlisted for the Signal Corps, was sent to Vancouver
Barracks, Washington, and transferred to the Spruce
Production Division, serving in that capacity until mus-
tered out December 14, 1918, as a corporal. He is a
democrat in politics, is a member and superintendent
of the Sunday School of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South, and is the present worshipful master
of Grant Lodge No. 85, F. and A. M.
On January 29, 1919, at Williamstown, he married
Miss Cornelia Webb Conrad, daughter of Clay and
Mary (Webb) Conrad, retired residents of Williams-
town. Her father has held at different times the offices
of county judge, sheriff and county court clerk. Mr.
and Mrs. Bennett have one daughter, Ruth, born De-
cember 8, 1919.
William J. Schneider. Fortunately for the con-
tinued welfare of the country there are sensible and
public-spirited men in its various sections who, while
often bearing other business responsibilities of im-
portance, still feel inclined to personally look carefully
after their farming interests, and believe that aside
from individual preference such a course contributes to
established social order and good government. The
world today is profiting from America's agricultural
abundance, and the ships that are carrying across the
seas the products of American farms not only will give
succor to the starving but go far to disprove the des-
perate claims of war and anarchy. One of the promi-
nent men of Grant County, Kentucky, who from choice
and public spirit as well has devoted many years to
agricultural pursuits is William J. Schneider, bank di-
rector and postmaster at Crittenden.
William J. Schneider was born at Crittenden, Grant
County, Kentucky, June 23, 1881. He is a son of John
and Mary K. (Brittenhelm) Schneider, the former of
whom died May 25, 1921, and from 1915 he lived re-
tired at Crittenden. He was born at Cincinnati, Ohio,
in 1840, obtained his schooling there, and then went
on a farm in Boone County, Kentucky, in the vicinity
of Florence. While there he carried on farming until
his marriage, then removed to Cynthiana, Kentucky,
where he embarked in the hotel business and remained
until 1871, when he came to Crittenden, where he con-
tinued in the hotel business and also engaged in farm-
ing for many years afterward. He was a democrat
and was widely known in political circles, and for a
long period was identified with the order of Odd
Fellows.
John Schneider was married in Boone County to
Mary K. Brittenhelm, who was born in Covington,
Kentucky, in 1852, and died in 1912, while on a visit
at Walton, Kentucky. They were the parents of the
following children : Gertrude, who resided with her
venerable father until his death : Lula, who is the wife
of A. G. Reed, residing near Crittenden, a successful
Grant County farmer; John C, who is a farmer near
Crittenden; William J.; Henry. George and Benja-
min, all of whom reside at the old home, the two older
assisting in the operation of the home farm and the
last named being a rural mail carrier; and Therese,
who also lived with her father until his death.
William J. Schneider with his brothers and sisters
attended the public schools in the home neighborhood.
He left school when nineteen years old, and since then
has assisted in the operation of the homestead. It is a
fine property situated just north of Crittenden, and Mr.
Schneider has always maintained his home here. From
early manhood active in the democratic party, he has
many loyal friends in this section, and his appointment
as postmaster of Crittenden, in which office he has
served since April 22, 1914, met with universal ap-
proval. He is one of the solid, substantial men of the
county and is a member of the Board of Directors of
the Tobacco Growers Deposit Bank of Crittenden.
During the World war he was exceedingly active in all
patriotic activities, assisted in the various drives, served
on local committees, and by example and precept ex-
erted influence and gave encouragement to movements
and organizations to the full extent of his means. He
is a member and a past grand of Crittenden Lodge
No. 169, Odd Fellows. Mr. Schneider is unmarried.
Harry F. Mann. M. D. One of the solid, reliable
citizens of Crittenden, Kentucky, is found in Dr. Harry
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
229
F Mann, physician and surgeon, whose high personal
character and professional ability are universally rec-
ognized. He came to Crittenden after months of mili-
tary service in the great war, during which period his
professional experiences exceeded far those which come
within the field of ordinary practice. He has been a
close student all his life, and has had some exceptional
opportunities to perfect his knowledge of medical sci-
Harry Fiske Mann comes of old Virginia stock, his
great-grandfather, Milton Mann, a native of Virginia,
being the pioneer of the family in Kenton County, Ken-
tucky. He was accompanied by his family, including
his son William, who became a substantial farmer in
Kenton County and in later years conducted a hotel
at Birmingham, Alabama, where his death occurred
in 1894. Dr. Mann was born in Kenton County, Ken-
tucky, April 4, 1890. He is a son of Eugene L and
Cornelia (Rouse) Mann, the former of whom still re-
sides in Kenton County, where he was born in 1858, a
son of William and a grandson of Milton Mann. Eu-
gene L. Mann is widely known in Kenton County,
where he is extensively engaged in agriculture and for
many years has been active in republican politics. He
owns '288 acres of some of the most valuable farm
land in the southern part of the county, and has been
interested in agricultural pursuits all his life. On many
occasions he has been elected to positions of responsi-
bility in his township and precinct, serving for many
year's as chairman of the Republican Precinct Commit-
tee, four years as road commissioner of his township,
and for twelve years has been a magistrate. He is a
member and liberal supporter of the Christian Church
and an ardent advocate of law and order in every direc-
tion. For many years he has been a member of the
order of Odd Fellows and belongs also to the Junior
Order of United American Mechanics.
Eugene L. Mann married first Cornelia Rouse, who
was born January 1, 1862, near Independence, Kenton
County, and died on the home farm in Kenton County
December 4, 1903. The following children were born
to Mr. and Mrs. Mann : Nettie, who died at the age
of eight years; Flora, who married James Allen, lives
at Walton, Kentucky; Foster W., who has been in the
flour milling business at Kansas City, Missouri, for the
past fifteen years ; Eugene, who died when five years
old; Harry Fiske; Clara Minnie, twin sister of Dr.
Mann, born April 4, 1890, is the wife of Frank D. Cook,
a farmer in Kenton County; Edna Jane is the wife of
Shirley F. Rich, who is in the grocery business at Cov-
ington ; John Edward, twin brother of Edna Jane,_ is
connected with a garage at Covington; Robert E. died
in 1913 at the age of seventeen years ; and Ruth is
the wife of Harrv Powers, a traveling salesman with
home at Walton, Kentucky. Eugene L. Mann married
for his second wife Mrs. Louise (Mileham) Stephen-
son, who was born in October, 1874, in Pendleton
County, Kentucky.
Harry F. Mann attended the local schools in boyhood,
after which through his sophomore year he was a stu-
dent in the high school at Piney, Kentucky, after which
tor two years he attended the Kentucky State Normal
school at Richmond, Kentucky. At intervals during
this time he taught five winter terms of school in his
native county. In 191 3 he entered the medical depart-
ment of the University of Louisville, from which he
has graduated with his degree June 7, 1917, and from
July 1, 1917, until July 5. 191 8, he served as an interne
in Christ Hospital, Cincinnati, Ohio. In the meanwhile
the need arose and the call came for medical men for
military service, and on August 8, 1918, Dr. Mann re-
sponded by enlisting, was commissioned a first lieuten-
ant, and was sent to the training camp at Chickamauga
Park, Georgia, where he rendered professional service
until honorably discharged and was mustered out De-
• cember IS, I9l8- He practiced three months in the
coal mining sections of Harlan County, Kentucky, and
Vol. V— 22
in March, 1919, responded to a call from Ludlow, where
the influenza was epidemic, and rendered valuable and
unselfish service during a month of great distress. He
then came to Crittenden, and on April 14, 1919,. estab-
lished his home and office on Main Street in this city.
Dr. Mann was married at Covington, Kentucky, Sep-
tember 12, 1917, to Miss Frederica Vallandingham,
daughter of George and Louise (Mileham) Vallanding-
ham, the latter of whom resides in Kenton County. The
father of Mrs. Mann died in March, 1897, within two
months of his graduation from the medical department
of the University of Cincinnati. Mrs. Mann was edu-
cated in the Eastern Kentucky State Normal School.
Believing it a citizen's duty to be watchful and inter-
ested in public matters, Dr. Mann has identified himself
with political life at Crittenden to some extent and is
serving as chairman of the Republican Precinct Com-
mittee. He belongs to Wilmington Lodge No. 362,
F and A. M., to Adams Lodge No. 188, Odd Fellows
and to Fiskburg Council No. 125, Junior Order United
American Mechanics, all of Kenton County. He is well
known in professional bodies also, being a member of
the Grant County and the Kentucky State Medical So-
cieties, and the American Medical Association. He
was reared in the Christian Church and belongs to that
religious organization at Crittenden.
Ottis Conyers is the popular and efficient postmas-
ter at Dry Ridge. He is one of the energetic young
citizens of that community, where he has spent his
life, and where his people have been identified in many
honorable capacities through several generations.
He is a descendant of Sir Christopher Conyers, who
built the castle Horden Hall in County Durham, Eng-
land. This castle was the seat and home of the Con-
yers family for two hundred and twenty-five years.
During the past century several large wings have been
removed from the castle, the stone being used to build
tenant houses and barns. It was a truly mediaeval
fortress. Evidences of a moat are plainly seen. An
underground passage connected the castle with the par-
ish house to the west, while another led to the North
Sea, half a nr'le on the east, these offering a way of
escape in troublous times.
The first American ancestor of Mr. Conyers was
Mai. Dennis Conyers, his great-great-grandfather. A
native of County Durham, born near the village of
Easington, he came to America and lived and died m
Bath Countv, Kentucky. His son, James Conyers, was
born in Bath County and was the founder of the fam-
ily in the Dry Ridge community, where he spent most
of his life as a farmer. William Dennis Conyers,
grandfather of Ottis Conyers, was born near Dry
Ridge in 1818, was a farmer there all his life and died
at his home near the town in 1893. His wife was a
Miss Simpson, also a life-long resident of that com-
munity.
J. W. Convers, father of Ottis Conyers, was born
near Dry Ridge August 16, 1855, and has lived all his
life in that vicinity. He is now a retired farmer and
a democrat in politics.
The mother of Ottis Conyers was Belle Vance, who
was born in Grant County January 25, 1858. Mr. Con-
yers has in his possession some teaspoons that were
brought over about 1620 by the original ancestor of
the Vance lineage in America. His great-great-grand-
father, Robert Vance, was the founder of the family
in Central Kentucky. The great-grandfather, Robert
Vance, was born in Fayette County, was a pioneer
farmer near Dry Ridge, and was murdered and robbed
on the Lexington. Pike, near his home, in 1830. His
son, Robert Vance, third in succession to bear the name,
was born in Fayette County in 1828, and spent most of
his life on a farm at Dry Ridge, where he died in
February, 1909. He married America Gaugh, who was
born near Williamstown, Kentucky, and died near Dry
Ridge. They were the parents of Belle (Vance) Con-
230
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
yers. J. W. Conyers and wife are the parents of eight
children : Dennis Vance, a merchant at Dry Ridge ; .
James Perry, at home ; Miss Jane, at home ; Una, wife
of J. W. Porter, an employe of the Cincinnati Post
Office, living at Covington; Elzie; Grace, wife of Car-
ter Mitts, a resident of Covington and an employe of
the Adams Express Company; Ottis ; and Lena May,
assistant postmistress under her brother.
Ottis Conyers was born in a toll-gate house near Dry
Ridge January 15, 1893. Up to the age of seventeen
he iived on his father's farm and attended the gram-
mar and high schools at Dry Ridge, and then for three
years was clerk in the store of W. P. McLachlan at
Dry Ridge. In April, 1914, he was made postmaster,
and the dut'es of that office have received his first care
and attention for over seven years.
Mr. Conyers is a democrat, has been a steward in
the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, is affiliated
with Dry Ridge Lodge No. 849, F. and A. M., and is
a past noble grand of Grant Lodge No. 78, Independent
Order of Odd Fellows. He is unmarried and lives on
Elm Street and is real estate owner. During the World
war he was practically a leader in all the program of
local activities, serving as chairman for the East and
West Dry Ridge precincts for the Liberty Loan, Red
Cross and other campaigns. Mr. Conyers is the official
county historian of the World war for Grant County.
John William McCoy, cashier of the Farmers
Equity Bank of Dry Ridge, has been identified with
the business interests of his native community for
twenty years, and his name is mentioned as one of the
most influential citizens in that section of Grant County.
The history of the Farmers Equity Bank runs back
nearly three decades. The Dry Ridge Deposit Bank
was established in 1892. About the beginning of 1907
the Dry Ridge Deposit Bank and the Peoples Bank
were consolidated as the Farmers Equity Bank. This
bank, with a modern brick home on the Dixie High-
way, has a capital of forty-five thousand dollars, sur-
plus and profits of twenty thousand dollars and deposits
of four hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The offi-
cers are R. L. Conrad, president ; A. C. Webb, vice
president; John W. McCoy, cashier; and Clara B. Mc-
Coy and R. D. Hogan, assistant cashiers.
John William McCoy was born at Dry Ridge Febru-
ary 20. 1881. The McCoys came from Ireland to Vir-
g:nia in Colonial times. Mr. McCoy's great-grandfather
was a native of Virginia and established his family in
Eastern Kentucky in pioneer times. The grandfather,
William McCoy, was a native of Eastern Kentucky,
and lived out his active life as a farmer in the Dry
Ridge commun'ty. He married a Miss Lowe, a native
of Williamstown, Grant County, who died at Dry Ridge.
William McCoy, father of the Dry Ridge banker and
a resident of that community, was born there in 1849.
and is now practically retired after a long and success-
ful identification with farming. He is a democrat and
an act:ve member of the Missionary Baptist Church.
William McCoy married Julia Ann Conrad, who lived
all her life in Dry Ridge. John William is the oldest
of their four children; Clara Belle is assistant cashier
of the Farmers Equity Bank ; Stanley Lowe is a farmer
at Dry Ridge ; and Leah May since the death of her
mother has been her father's housekeeper.
John W. McCoy attended school at Dry R'dge, ac-
quired a high school education in a private academy at
Verona, Kentucky, and when he left school at the age
of eighteen he took up the work to which his serious
attention has been given ever since. He began as a
clerk in the Peoples Bank of Dry Ridge, and in 1903
was elected cashier. He served in that capacity until
the consolidation of the two banks, about four years
later, amid then for seven years was assistant cashier
of the First National Bank of Dry Ridge. Since Jan-
uary, iqi6, he has been cashier of the Farmers Equity
Bank.
Mr. McCoy is also master commissioner of the Cir-
cuit Court of the Sixth Judicial District. He is a demo-
crat, a member of the Missionary Baptist Church, of
Dry Ridge Lodge No. 849, F. and A. M., Grant Lodge
No. 78, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Oswego
Tribe No. 37, Improved Order of Red Men, and Dry
Ridge Council No. 79, Junior Order United American
Mechanics. As a banker he was one of the leading
spirits in the patriotic drives during the World war.
Mr. McCoy and family live in a modern home on the
Dixie Highway. He married at Covington in 1908 Miss
Lydia Hedger, daughter of William and Elizabeth
(Ashcraft) Hedger, now deceased. Her father was a
farmer in Pendleton County. Mr. and Mrs. McCoy
have two children : Edna Byrel, born February 24,
1909; and John William, Jr., born in September, 1916.
John M. Poynter is actively and prominently identi-
fied with civic and business interests in the thriving
little city of Williamsburg, Whitley County, where he
conducts a finely equipped and appointed drug store
in, the Moss Building on Main Street, and where he is
a heavy stockholder and a director of the First National
Bank. In the ownership of the drug store and business
he is associated with his brother William H., who re-
sides at London, Laurel County, and of whom indi-
vidual mention is made on other pages of this work.
John Monroe Poynter was born on a farm twenty-
two miles west of London, county seat of Laurel
County, Kentucky, on the 7th of June, 1876, and is a
son of Bowling and Matilda (Storm) Poynter, the
former of whom was born in Sinking Valley, Pulaski
County, this state, in 1839, and the latter was born
at Keavy, Laurel County, in 1846. Bowling Poynter
passed the closing period of his life in the home of
his son William H. at London, Laurel County, where
he died on the 28th of May, 1914, and where his widow
still resides. Bowling Poynter was reared on the an-
cestral homestead farm at Rockcastle Springs, Laurel
County, and in that locality he ultimately became suc-
cessfully identified with farm enterprise of independent
order. There he continued 'his activities until 1892,
when he became a farmer near Flat Lake, Pulaski
County. There he remained until 191 1, when he retired
from the active labors and responsibilities that had
long been his portion and passed the closing years of
his life in the home of his eldest son, as noted above.
He was a loyal democrat, a consistent member of the
Christian Church, as is also his widow, and honor shall
ever attach to his name and memory by reason of the
gallant service which he gave as a soldier of the Union
during three and one-half years of the Civil war. He
enlisted in a regiment of Kentucky Volunteer Infantry,
and with his command participated in many engage-
ments, including the battles of Mills Springs, Perry-
ville and Stone River. Of William H., eldest of the
children, specific mention is made elsewhere in this vol-
ume; Christine first became the wife of Richard Staple-
ton, and after his death she married William Jasper, who
became a successful farmer near Bozeman, Montana,
where his death occurred, his widow being now a resi-
dent of Dunedin, Florida; G. Edward was engaged in
the drug business at London, Laurel County at the time
of his death, in 1915, when forty-five years of age;
John M., of this sketch, was the next in order of birth;
Katherine is the wife of Chester VanNetler, a farmer
near Omena, Lelanau County, Mich'gan ; Columbus
C. is a merchant at London, Laurel County; and Lillie
May is the wife of R. M. Smith. M. D., who is official
physician and surgeon with the Stearns Lumber Com-
pany at Starns, McCreary County.
James Poynter, grandfather of him whose name in-
troduces this review, was born at Crab Orchard, Lin-
coln County, Kentucky, in 1810, and died at Rockcastle
Springs, Laurel County, in 1873, he having there de-
veloped and improved a fine farm property. He was a
son of John Poynter. a native of England, who came
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
231
to America about the same time as did John Wesley.
He became a pioneer in Lincoln County, Kentucky,
where he reclaimed a farm from the wilderness and
where he passed the remainder of his life. The family
name of the wife of James Poynter was Meece. She
was born at Dutton Hill, Pulaski County, in 1810, and
her death occurred at the old home near Rockcastle
Springs, Laurel County, in 1875.
John M. Poynter is indebted to the rural schools of
Laurel and Pulaski counties for his earlier educational
training, which was supplemented by his attending the
University of Kentucky, at Lexington, until he had
partly finished the work of his junior year. He left
the university in 1897, but in the meanwhile he had
established a high reputation as a successful teacher
in the rural or district schools of Pulaski County,
his pedagogic service having been initiated when he was
nineteen years of age and having continued for three
years. After leaving the university he passed two years
on the old home farm, and in 1900 went to Nevada City,
California, and became manager of an important stage
line operating between Nevada City and Sierra City,
a distance of seventy-five miles. After having been
thus engaged during a period of two years he returned
to Kentucky and served four years as clerk in the
drug store conducted by his eldest brother at London,
Laurel County. To fortify himself further for his
chosen vocation he attended the Louisville College of
Pharmacy, and upon leaving this institution in 1908 he
established his present drug business at Williamsburg,
the leading enterprise of the kind in Whitley County.
It has already been noted that he is a heavy stockholder
and director of the First National Bank of Williams-
burg, and besides this he is a stockholder also in
Farmers State Bank at London and the Security State
Bank at Corbin. He is aligned loyally in the ranks of
the democratic party, and is a member of the Chris-
tian Church. World-war activities in Whitley County
found Mr. Poynter a vigorous supporter, both in active
service and in contributions of financial order. He is
one of the progressive business men and public-spirited
citizens of his community and holds secure place in
popular esteem. His name is still emblazoned on the
roster of eligible bachelors in Whitley County.
_ James M. Gilbert has shown in his successful activ-
ities in his profession that he made an excellent choice
of vocation, and he has won secure place as a repre-
sentative member of the bar of Bell County, whose
judicial center the City of Pineville, is the central
stage of his substantial and important law business.
Mr. Gilbert was born in Clay County, Kentucky,
December 4, 1872, and is a son of Rev. Taylor J. Gilbert,
whose father was Dr. Felix Gilbert, the latter having
been a son of Rev. John Gilbert, who was born in North
Carolina in 1757, a member of a prominent old Colonial
family of that commonwealth. Rev. John Gilbert be-
came the founder of the Kentucky branch of the family,
he having come to this state about 1780 and settled
near Hyden, in the present county of Leslie. He became
the owner of extensive tracts of land in this part of
Kentucky, and acquired also valuable land in Virginia.
He labored earnestly and with much of intellectual
ability in the ministry of the Baptist Church, of which
he was one of the pioneer clergymen of Southeastern
Kentucky, and he did much also to advance the general
industrial and civic progress of this part of the state.
This sturdy and noble pioneer attained to the remark-
able age of 112 years and was the recognized patriarch
of the Red Bird Creek district of Clay County at the
time of his death, in 1869. He served in the Revolution-
ary war. In that section of Clay County, Dr. Felix
Gilbert passed his entire life, and his ability and service
marked him as one of the leading physicians and sur-
geons of his native county. His wife, whose family
name was Dorton, likewise died in Clay County.
Rev. Taylor J. Gilbert was born on the old home-
stead of Red Bird Creek, Clay County, in the year
1840, and died near Elk City, Oklahoma, in 1902. As
a clergyman of the Baptist Church he gave many years
of able and consecrated service in Eastern and Central
Kentucky and he impressed his strong and noble per-
sonality definitely upon the communities in which he
thus lived and wrought for the uplifting of his fellow
men. He removed to Oklahoma in January, 1902 and
there his death occurred on the 30th of the following
April. The democratic party received his loyal support,
and he served three terms as assessor of Clay County'
though that county has long given large republican
majorities. His widow, whose maiden name was Polly
Maggard, was born at Hyden, Kentucky, in 1851 and
now resides at Mangum, Oklahoma. She is a daughter
of the late Samuel Maggard, who passed his entire life
in what is now Leslie County, Kentucky, where he was
born in 1828 and where his death occurred in 191s, his
wife, whose family name was Mcintosh, having likewise
been a native of that county, where she maintained her
home to the close of her life. Rev. Taylor J. and
Polly (Maggard) Gilbert became the parents of nine
children: James M., to whom this review is dedicated,
is the eldest of the number; Mittie, who died in New
Mexico in 1911, was the wife of Emery Caudill, who
is now identified with the cartle industry in Texas;
John died at the age of four and Minter, at the age
of two years; Abijah B. is individually represented on
other pages of this work; Lettie is the wife of George
Stone, who is engaged in the insurance business at
Mangum, Oklahoma; Harry is associated with the in-
surance business conducted by his brother Abijah B.
and has charge of the agency at Hazard, Perry County ;
Thomas J. resides at Manchester, Clay County, and is
general manager of the Furnace Gap Coal Company;
and Mary, who now resides at Mangum, Oklahoma, is
the widow of Benjamin Parker, who was a merchant at
Weatherford, Texas, at the time of his death.
After having profited by the advantages offered in
the rural schools of his native county James M. Gilbert
continued his studies one year in the Kentucky State
College, now the University of Kentucky, at Lexington,
and in preparation for his chosen profession he was
then_ matriculated in the law department of the Uni-
versity of Louisville, in which he was graduated as a
member of the class of 1904 and with the degree of
Bachelor of Laws, his reception of which was forth-
with attended by his admission to the bar of his native
state. As a youth of sixteen years he had made suc-
cessful appearances as a teacher in the public schools of
Clay County, and he continued teaching at intervals for
a period of seven years. Upon his graduation in the
law school he engaged in the practice of his profession
at Barbourville, the county seat of Knox County, where
he remained from 1904 until 1912, when he removed to
Pineville, judicial center of Bell County, in which city
he has since built up and controlled a large and repre-
sentative law business, which has involved his appear-
ance in connection with many important cases, both
criminal and civil, in the courts of this section of the
state. His offices are established in the Euster Build-
ing on Kentucky Avenue. While" a resident of Bar-
bourville he served two years as municipal judge, but
he has had no desire for public office. He is a staunch
advocate of the principles of the democratic party, he
and his wife are leading members of the Presbyterian
Church in their home city, in which he is serving as
an elder, and he is affiliated with Bell Lodge No. 691
Free and Accepted Masons; Pineville Chapter No. 158,
Royal Arch Masons ; Bell Lodge No. 300, Independent
Order of Odd Fellows ; and Pineville Lodge No. 127,
Knights of Pythias. Mr. Gilbert is an active member of
the Kentucky State Bar Association, is a stockholder
of the Bell National Bank, is president of the Furnace
Gap Coal Company, which has its headquarters at Pine-
ville, and he is the owner of 225 acres of valuable coal
232
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
land in Bell County. In addition to his attractive home
property on Kentucky Avenue he is the owner of three
other residence properties at Pineville. In the climac-
teric period of the World war all supporting activities
and service in his home county and state received the
earnest and loyal co-operation of Mr. Gilbert, who served
on committees in charge of the Government loan drives,
sale of War Saving Stamps, advancing of Red Cross
service, etc. the while he made his financial contribution
to the cause as liberal as his resources justified.
In Knox County, the year 1899, recorded the marriage
of Mr. Gilbert to Miss Laura Jones, daughter of Thomas
F. and Mary (Black) Jones, the latter of whom is de-
ceased, Mr. Jones being a substantial farmer in Knox
County. Mrs. Gilbert passed to the life eternal in 1903,
a devout member of the Baptist Church, and she
is survived by two daughters ; Mary, who was born in
November, 1900, is a graduate of the Pineville High
School and now holds the position of bookkeeper in the
Bell National Bank of this city; Sarah, who was born
in July, 1902, was graduated from the Pineville Higli
School and is, in 1921, a student in Cumberland College
at Williamsburg, Kentucky.
In 1905, at Pineville, was solemnized the marriage of
Mr. Gilbert to Miss Amanda Davis, daughter of Murphy
and Sarah (Peavler) Davis, the father having been a
prosperous farmer near Pineville at the time of his
death, and the widowed mother being now a loved mem-
ber of the family circle of Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert, who
have two children: Sophia, born June 10, 1908; and
James M., Jr., born in August, 1910.
John D. Davis for many years has been one of the
leading business men and citizens of Corinth, and is
now sole proprietor of a highly efficient undertaking
service in that section of Grant County.
Mr. Davis was born in Owen County, Kentucky,
March 20, 1867. His grandfather, John Davis, was a
native of Maryland and when a young man moved to
Owen County, Kentucky, where he married and where
he spent his active life as a farmer. He died during
the fifties. His wife was Drusilla True, a native of
Kentucky, who died in Owen County. They reared
ten children, all now deceased. One of them was Fred-
erick W. Davis, who was born in Owen County in
1841, was reared and married there and spent his active
life as a farmer. December 25, 1881, he removed to
Scott County, where he lived on a farm until his death
in 1898. He was reared a democrat, but in 1896 be-
came a convert to the republican sound money doc-
trine. He was an active member of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South. His first wife was Susan
E. True, who was born in Henry County in 1841 and
died in Owen County in June, 1872. Her only child
was John D. Davis. The second wife of Frederick W.
Davis was Mrs. Lucinda (Robinson) Cavender, born in
Scott County in 1851, and still living in that locality.
She became the mother of five children : Justin, a
rural mail carrier at Corinth ; Ernest, a farmer and
stock dealer at Sadieville, Kentucky ; Lura, who mar-
ried Matthew Lynn and lives with her mother ; Pearl,
wife of Dr. W. P. Foreman, a physician and surgeon
in Henry County; and Bessie, wife of C. M. Lee, a
farmer at Georgetown, Kentucky.
John D. Davis acquired a country school education
in Owen and Scott Counties, being about fourteen
years of age when his father moved to the latter county.
His life to the age of twenty-four was lived on his
father's farm, after which for a year he farmed inde-
pendently in Scott County and then bought a farm in
Harrison County, and was identified with its manage-
ment until 1902. In August of that year he acquired
an interest in an undertaking business at Corinth, with
B. W. Redding as partner until 1905, when he acquired
Mr. Redding's interest and sold it to Y. B. Wright.
Since Tanuarv 14. ion. Mr. Davis has been sole pro-
prietor, and has the only undertaking service south of
Williamstown in Grant County.
Mr. Davis is also a director and stockholder in the
Farmers Bank of Corinth. For six years he was a
member of the Town Council, and in every community
relationship has sought to do his share. During the
World war he was on committees in carrying out the
program of every drive for every purpose. He is a
republican, is a steward and treasurer of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South, is a past chancellor of Cor-
inth Lodge No. 30, Knights of Pythias, a member of
Corinth Lodge No. 584, F. and A. M., and Hinton
Council, Junior Order United American Mechanics. On
November 12, 1890, in Harrison County, he married
Miss Fannie E. Wright, daughter of James K. and
Nannie (Whitson) Wright, residents of Corinth, her
father being a retired farmer.
John Gano Renaker, M. D. A popular and accom-
plished physician and surgeon at Dry Ridge, Doctor
Renaker has been engaged in practice there over twenty
years and has taken a commendable part in the civic
and social life of the community as well.
Doctor Renaker was born in Grant County, Kentucky,
November 19, 1877. His family has been in Kentucky
for about a century. His great-great-grandfather, with
four brothers, emigrated from Germany and he made
his pioneer home in Maryland. The great-grandfather
was a native of Maryland, and was the pioneer who es-
tablished the family in Harrison County, Kentucky.
The grandfather of Doctor Renaker, Noah Renaker,
spent all his life in Harrison County and was a well
to do farmer there. George Parker Renaker, his son,
was born in Harrison County in 1833, was reared and
married in that county and about i860 moved to Grant
County, where he conducted his operations as a farmer
on an extensive scale. He died in Grant County in 1891,
at the age of fifty-eight years. He was a democrat and
a deeply interested member of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South. His wife was Nancy Jane Levesque,
who was born in Harrison County in 1836 and died
in Grant County in August, 1882. They had a large
family of children, namely: Ida, wife of Ben Lemon,
a carpenter and contractor living at Cincinnati; R. L.
and E. B. Renaker, farmers at Dry Ridge; K. S.
Renaker, a carpenter at Dry Ridge; Ollie, who died at
the age of twenty-eight, wife of W. H. Northcutt, for
several years a stock trader and farmer in Grant
County, later in the insurance business at Covington,
where he died; Minnie P., of Williamstown, widow of
Ben Thomas, a farmer who died in Grant County in
1903; John Gano; and R. S. Renaker, a farmer at Dry
Ridge.
John Gano Renaker spent his early life on his father's
farm, attended country schools, also a high school at
Covington, and on March 25, 1898; received his M. D.
degree from the Louisville Medical College. His entire
active career in his profession has been spent at Dry
Ridge, where he has long enjoyed a successful general
practice. He is a member of the Grant County Health
Board, for the past eight years has been United States
pension examiner for Grant County, is a member of
the County, State and American Medical Associations,
and during the World war was the medical examiner
of the Grant County Draft Board, having been ap-
pointed by President Wilson, and a great deal of his
professional time was spent in these duties. He also
rendered a valuable essential and patriotic service dur-
ing the influenza epidemic.
Doctor Renaker owns a modern home on the Dixie
Highway and has an acre of valuable land within the
city limits. He is a democrat, a member of the Bap-
tist Church, is a past master of Dry Ridge Lodge No.
849, F. and A. M., a past noble grand of Grant Lodge
No. 78, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, past sachem
of Oswego Tribe No. 37, Improved Order of Red Men,
and was formerly a member of the Junior Order United
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
233
American Mechanics and the Modern Woodmen of
America.
In 1902, in Grant County, he married Miss Zadah A.
Littell, daughter of James A. and Barbara (Gouge)
Littell. Her father is a retired distiller, formerly of
Williamstown but now living at Dry Ridge, where her
mother died in 1905. Mrs. Renaker completed her high
school education at Williamstown. Mr. and Mrs.
Renaker have one daughter, Ada Barbara, born Octo-
ber 25, 1906, and now a student in the Dry Ridge High
School.
C. A. Eckler. M. D. A physician and surgeon at
Dry Ridge, where he has practiced almost twenty_ years,
Doctor Eckler enjoys an esteem in that community not
confined to his professional following alone. He is a
high-minded and scholarly gentleman and has shown
a deep and sincere interest in every matter affecting
the welfare of the community.
Dr. Eckler represents an old Kentucky family and
was born in Grant County June 26, 1877. The founder
of the family was his great-grandfather, who came
from Pennsylvania and settled in Grant County when
all that section was a wilderness. The grandfather of
Dr. Eckler was Jacob Eckler, a native Kentuckian who
cleared a farm from the woods in Grant County, and
on this farm, east of Dry Ridge, he spent his life.
John E. Eckler, his son, a boy when his father died,
was born in Grant County October 7, 1845, and is still
living at the old homestead where he was born, three
and a half miles east of Dry Ridge. His life has been
that of a prosperous farmer, and he is still active at
the age of seventy-six. He is a republican in politics,
was a member of the Kentucky Home Guards during
the Civil war, and is a member of the Baptist Church.
John E. Eckler married Eunice F. Oder, who was born
in Covington, Kentucky, in 1856, and died on the old
farm in 1901. Her two children are C. A. and Nellie
E., the latter forelady at Fernau's wholesale millinery
establishment at Cincinnati.
Dr. C. A. Eckler spent his early life on his father's
farm, and from there attended rural schools. He
graduated from the Covington High School in 1896,
and for three years was a teacher in his home county.
He then entered the Miami Med'cal College of Cin-
cinnati, graduating M. D. in 1902, and in the same year
began his work as a physician and surgeon at Dry
Ridge. His offices are in the Simpson Building on
Main Street, and his modern home is on Broadway.
Doctor Eckler also owns a farm of a hundred eighty-
five acres three and a half miles east of town. He has
served as United States pension examiner for Grant
County, is president of the Grant County Medical So-
ciety and a member of the Kentucky State Medical
Association, and during the World war was a volun-
teer in the Medical Reserve Corps, but not called for
active duty. He is a trustee of the Baptist Church, is
a member of Dry Ridge Lodge No. 849. F. and A. M.,
and was formerly identified with the Odd Fellows, Red
Men, Junior Order United American Mechanics and
Modern Brotherhood. He is a republican in politics.
May 14, 1903, at Milford in Bracken County, Doctor
Eckler married Miss Addie Gruelle, daughter of the
late John Gruelle, a Bracken County farmer, and Mrs.
Effie (Wiggins) Gruelle, who is still living at Milford.
Doctor and Mrs. Eckler have three children : Ralph
Clifton, born September 22, 1908 ; Gerald Philip, born
February 17, 1913; and Donald, born February 14, 1916.
An interesting and distinctive honor was achieved by
his son Ralph Clifton in the Northern Kentucky tourna-
ment in 1920 when he was awarded the medal in a
competitive examination on Kentucky history.
Carter P. Moore. The volume here presented reveals
within its pages records concerning many of the na-
tive sons of Kentucky who are upholding the high pres-
tige which the legal profession of the state has ever
maintained, and in this connection it is gratifying to
note that Mr. Moore, who is established in the success-
ful practice of law at McKee, Jackson County, is es-
sentially one of the able members of the bar of his na-
tive county. He was born in Jackson County, on the
nth of September, 1871, a son of Harvey Moore and
a grandson of Cornelius Moore, whose birth occurred
in Owsley County, Kentucky, in 1812, and who con-
tinued his residence in that county until about 1850,
when he removed to Jackson County, where he became
a substantial farmer and where also he gave many
years of earnest service as a clergyman of the Baptist
Church, the while his fine personality and marked abil-
ity gave him much of leadership in community senti-
ment and action. He continued to reside in Jackson
County until his death, and here also occurred the
death of his wife, whose family name was Evans and
who was born and reared in Owsley County. Rev. Cor-
nelius Moore was a son of William Moore, who was
born and reared in Virginia and who came as a young
man to Kentucky and became a pioneer farmer in
Owsley County. There he passed the remainder of his
life, his marriage having been solemnized after he came
to Owsley County.
Harvey Moore was born in Owsley County in the
year 1847, was a child of about three years at the
time of his parents' removal to Jackson County, where
he was reared to manhood and where he has been con-
t'nnously identified with farm industry from the time
of his youth. As a young man he established his resi-
dence on his present farm near Welchburg, where dur-
ing the long intervening years he has made his in-
fluence felt not only in productive agriculture but also
as a loyal and public-spirited citizen. Prosperity has
attended his well directed activities and he is one of
the highly respected citizens of the county in which he
may consistently claim a mede of pioneer honors. He"
is a stanch republican, and has long been an active
member of the Reformed Church, of which his wife
likewise was a devoted adherent. Mrs. Moore, whose
maiden name was Jane Powell, was born in Harlan
County, Kentucky, in 1850, and her death occurred on
the old home farm near Welchburg in 1914, she having
been a child at the time of the family removal to Jack-
son County. Of the children of Harvey and Jane
(Powell) Moore the- eldest is Martha, who is the wife
of L. L. Minter, a farmer near Lawson, Missouri;
Carter P., of this sketch, was the second in order of
birth ; Henry is a representative business man at Lan-
caster, Garrard County, Kentucky, where he owns and
operates a modern flour mill under the title of the
Garrard Milling Company ; Frances, who resides at
Welchburg, is the widow of S. C. Goodman, who was
a prosperous Jackson County farmer at the time of
his death ; Nancy is the wife of Wilson Settle, a farmer
at Big Hill, Madison County; George C. is a lawyer
and real-estate broker in the City of Cincinnati, Ohio ;
Rosa became the wife of T. S. Brannaman, who is a
farmer near Wildie, Rockcastle County, and there her
death occurred when she was thirty-six years of age;
Dora is the wife of G. W. Davidson, a farmer near
Welchburg, Jackson County ; Charles is manager of
the telephone exchange at Lancaster, Garrard County ;
and Bertha remains with her father on the old home-
stead, where she has had charge of the domestic econo-
mies of the paternal home since the death of her mother.
From the foregoing brief record it will be seen that
Carter P. Moore is in the most significant degree a
scion of sterling pioneer stock in Kentucky. He gained
his earlier education in the rural schools of Jackson
County, also attended the high school at Stanford, Lin-
coln County, and he continued to attend school at in-
tervals until he was twenty-one years old. In the mean-
while, at the age of eighteen years, he initiated his ca-
reer as a teacher in the rural schools of his native
county, and there stands to his credit twenty years of
effective service as a teacher in the public schools.
234
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
While thus engaged in the work of the pedagogic pro-
fession he busied himself also in preparing himself
for the legal profession, and the year 1900 recorded
his admission to the bar of his native state. In that
year he began the practice of law at McKee, judicial
center of Jackson County, where within the intervening
period of somewhat more than twenty years he had
built up a substantial and representative law business,
involving his appearance in connection with much im-
portant litigation, both civil and criminal, in the courts
of this section of the state. He owns his modern office
building- on Water Street, and also his attractive home
property on the same street. His real-estate holdings
include also an excellent farm of seventy-five acres
eight miles southeast of McKee.
Air. Moore is one of Jackson County's loyal ad-
herents of and workers in the republican party, and
while he has had no desire for purely political office
he served effectively as county attorney from 1909 to
1913, the work of this office being in direct line with
his regular profession. He and his wife are active
members of the Reformed Church in their home vil-
lage. At Welchburg he is affiliated with Royal Lodge
No. 159, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of which
he is a past grand ; and he has been from the time of
its organization, in 1916, the recording secretary of
McKee Council No. 165, Junior Order United Ameri-
can Mechanics. Mr. Moore was a vigorous and loyal
supporter of the various local war activities during
the nation's participation in the World war. He served
and still holds the position of chairman of the Jackson
County Chapter of the Red Cross, was legal adviser
of the County Draft Board, aided in all of the local
drives in support of the Government war bond issues
and Savings Stamps, and made his personal subscrip-
tions as liberal as his resources justified. He received
•the nomination for county judge of Jackson County
at the primary election August 6, 1921.
In January, 1900, Mr. Moore was united in marriage
to Miss Mollie Jones, daughter of G. A. and Margaret
(Anderson) Jones, the father having been a successful
farmer near Tyner, Jackson County, at the time of his
death, and his widow being now a resident of Rich-
mond, Madison County. Mr. and Mrs. Moore have one
son, Lloyd H., who was born October 28, 1900, and who
was graduated from the Kentucky. State Normal School
at Richmond as a member of the class of 1920.
Rf.v. George C. Bealer, who was ordained a Catholic
pr'est in the Cathedral at Covington in 1888, has given a
t'-urd of a century in fruitful labors to his ministry and
i i widely known over Eastern and Northern Kentucky.
For the past five years he has been pastor of St. Henry's
Crt'o'ic Church at Erlanger.
This church originated as a mission and was instituted
as such in 1890 by Rev. William Gorry, who held serv-
ices here in addition to his other duties as pastor of the
churches at Florence, Independence and Walton. He
was succeeded in 1891 by Rev. B. J. Kolb, whose name
remains an inspiration to the people of this vicinity
on account of his long association with churches at
Erlanger and throughout Kenton County. In 1893 a
schoolhouse was built on Shaw Avenue, and since 1899
the school has been under the direction of the Benedic-
tine Sisters. The school is now on Garvey Avenue
and Lexington Pike. The old church on Shaw Avenue
was burned August 27, 1899, nothing being saved. Soon
afterward three lots were procured on Garvey Avenue,
and a handsome modern brick church was erected,
being dedicated May 20, 1900. In 1904 St. Henry's was
constituted a separate parish and Rev. B. J. Kolb became
its first resident pastor. Rev. George C. Bealer suc-
ceeded to the pastoral duties in 1916.
Father Bealer was horn in Cincinnati January 21,
1857, and was given his preliminary education in a
public school on Third Street in his native city. For
eight years he applied himself to his classical and
philosophical studies in St. Xavier's College at Cin-
cinnati, and did his theological work in St. Mary's
University at Baltimore and St. Meinrad's Theological
Seminary in Spencer County, Indiana. He was ordained
at St. Mary's Cathedral at Covington by the late Bishop
C. P. Maes, June 25, 1888. The following five years
he was assistant pastor of St. Patrick's Church at Mays-
ville, Kentucky. Some of Father Bealer's most inter-
esting and fruitful labors resulted from his long service,
beginning in 1893, as pastor of St. Luke's Church at
Nicholasville, Kentucky, from which he attended and
looked after the welfare and maintenance of numerous
missions of the church throughout the mountainous
districts of eight counties in Eastern Kentucky. Leaving
this field in 1906, he was pastor of St. Edward's Church
at Cynthiana until he came to Erlanger in 1916.
Father Bealer is a son of Cornelius Bealer, who was
born in Mercer County, Pennsylvania, in 1816, was
reared there until young manhood and then moved to
Cincinnati. For many years he was in the wholesale
liquor business and also owned a fleet of river steam-
boats and had many prominent relations with the busi-
ness affairs of the Ohio Valley. He died at Cincinnati
May 10, 1870. He was a member of the • Lutheran
Church. In Cincinnati he married Miss Mary Lowen,
who was born in France in 1830 and died at the home
of her son, Father Bealer, at Nicholasville in 1902.
Rev. George C. Bealer is the youngest and only surviving
son of five children. The oldest child, Charles, enlisted
as a Union soldier and was killed during the Civil
war. Mrs. Ada Milliken, a resident of New Orleans,
was the wife of a traveling salesman for the Caldwell
lace house. The daughter Carrie, who died at New
Orleans at the age of seventy-two, was the wife of the
late T. D. Jones, a noted sculptor of Ohio. The young-
est daughter, Rosa, was burned to death in 1863, while
her parents were living at their summer home at Camp
Harris, a place subsequently taken over by the United
States Government and used for a military camp.
Thomas W. Balsly. banker and mayor of Ludlow,
after attaining his majority followed teaching for several
years, later was in the railway mail service, but for
fifteen years has been actively identified with the busi-
ness and civic affairs of Ludlow.
Mr. Balsly is a native of Boone County, Kentucky,
born at Bulfittsville March 12, 1873. The family is one
of the oldest in Boone County. His grandfather, George
L. Balsly, who was descended from early Colonial Ger-
man settlers in Pennsylvania, was born near Pittsburgh
in 1779. About the year 1800 he came down the Ohio
River and settled in Boone County, opened a farm, and
his influential part in local affairs extended into public
life, serving as a member of the State Legislature in
early days. He died at Bullittsville in 1849. His wife
was Clarissa Eve, who was born in Pennsylvania in
1792 and died at Bullittsville in 1885. Their son, Junius
Balsly, was born at Bullittsville in 1824, and spent all
his life in that section of Boone County, where he had
a large farm, raised the staple crops of Kentucky on
a large scale and for a number of years owned and
operated a fleet of flatboats on the river between Ken-
tucky points and New Orleans. He was a democrat and
a Baptist, and during the war between the states was
commissioned a colonel, but never entered active service.
He died at Bullittsville in 1893. His first wife was
Minerva Riley, who was born at Burlington in Boone
County and died at Bullittsville, leaving three children:
Irwin, a farmer at Cleves, Ohio; Charles, a farmer and
merchant who died at Bullittsville at the age of fifty-
five ; and William Montgomery, a farmer at Bullittsville.
Junius Balsly after the death of his first wife married
her sister, Julia Riley, who was born at Burlington in
1839 and died at Bullittsville in 1904. Of her children
Eugene died in infancy and George at the age of eight
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
235
years; Lou is the wife of John Early, a retired farmer
living at Aurora, Indiana ; Ralph is a contractor with
home at Riverside, Cincinnati; and Thomas W., is the
youngest.
Thomas W. Balsly studied his first lessons in what
was known as the Balsly School in Boone County. In
1893 he graduated in a business course from the National
Normal University at Lebanon, Ohio, after which he
taught five terms in school in Boone County and was also
for a time engaged in educational work in Hamilton
County, Ohio. From 1898 until June, 1906, was the
period in which Mr. Balsly engaged in the railway mail
service.
He assisted in organizing the Farmers and Mechanics
Bank of Ludlow in .1906, and has been at his post of
duty as cashier of the institution ever since. The bank
has the largest capital of any at Ludlow, $30,000, besides
surplus and profits of 7,000 and deposits aggregating
$230,000. Amos Teed is president of the bank.
Mr. Balsly is also treasurer of the Kenton Building
Association, secretary and treasurer of the Ludlow Coal
Company, and among other property owns the old home
farm in Boone County, an apartment house in Cincinnati,
and a modern home at 143 Elm Street, Ludlow. He
placed his means, his energies and his influence at the
disposal of the Government during the World war,
was chairman of nearly all the Ludlow committees for
the raising of funds for Red Cross, Liberty Bonds
and other purposes, and a large part of his time for
nearly two years was bestowed upon patriotic effort.
Mr. Balsly was elected mayor of Ludlow in November,
1917, and has filled that office since January, 1918. He
is a democrat, is a member of the Ludlow Lodge No.
759, A. F. and A. M., Indra Consistory No. 2, of the
Scottish Rite at Covington, and Syrian Temple of the
Mystic Shrine at Cincinnati.
In 1899, at Cleves, Ohio, he married Miss Emma
Wamsley. Her mother is deceased. Her father is
Morgan Wamsley, whose home is at Sailor Park,
Cincinnati, and who is president of the Hamilton Na-
tional Bank of Cleves and conducts a leading real estate
business in Cincinnati. Mrs. Balsly is a graduate of
the Cincinnati High School.
Thomas Raphael Jones. In public affairs of Cal-
loway County, and particularly of the community of
Murray, a name that has been long and favorably known,
although its bearer is still a young man, is that of
Thomas Raphael Jones. Formerly a member of the
State Legislature, Mr. Jones now occupies the position
at Murray of assistant to the state tax commissioner, a
capacity in which he is ably discharging the duties in-
cumbent upon him.
Mr. Jones was born in Obion County, Tennessee,
August 2, 1887, a son of Hilliard Monroe and Theora
(Gant) Jones. The Jones family is of Irish origin
and was founded in America during Colonial days, when
the original emigrant settled in North Carolina. In that
state was born James Jones, the great-grandfather of
Thomas R. and the pioneer of the family into Kentucky.
He married a Miss Jackson, who was born in North
Carolina, and they migrated to Kentucky at an early date,
settling in Calloway County, where they passed the rest
of their lives in agricultural pursuits. Robert Jones,
the grandfather of Thomas R., was born in North Caro-
lina and was a child when taken by his parents to Cal-
loway County. There he was engaged in farming until
the war between the states, when he enlisted in the Con-
federate Army and died of wounds received in battle.
He married Miss Martha Smith, who was born in North
Carolina, and who survived him some years, passing away
at Marble Hill, Missouri.
Hilliard Monroe Jones was born in 1855 in Calloway
County, where he was reared, educated and married, and
where he carried on agricultural pursuits until 1883, in
which year he went to Obion County, Tennessee, there
spending sixteen years on a farm. Returning to Cal-
loway County in 1899, he purchased his present home
place, a well-cultivated and valuable tract lying in the
eastern part of the county, in the operation of which
he has shown intelligence, progressiveness and industry.
He is a democrat and a member of the Christian Church.
He married Miss Theora Gant, who was born in 1865
in Calloway County, and seven children have been born
to them: Thomas Raphael; Alvin, who resides in the
eastern part of Calloway County and is engaged in farm-
ing; Henry Lee, who is an agriculturist of Calloway
County; Eva May, the wife of Euna McDaniel, a farmer
of that county; Elsa, who is unmarried and resides with
her parents; Holman, who attends the high school at
Murray; and Lowell, attending the public schools.
The primary education of Thomas Raphael Jones was
acquired in the rural community in which he was reared,
and subsequently he was sent to Fairview Academy,
Centerville, Tennessee, for two years, this being supple-
mented by two years at the Western Kentucky State
Normal School, Bowling Green, Kentucky. Leaving the
latter school in 1914, he resumed teaching, in which he
had been engaged for some years. Mr. Jones had com-
menced his educational labors in 1907 in Calloway Coun-
ty, and for ten years was an instructor of the youth of
the locality, eight years in Calloway County and two
years in Fulton County, for two years being principal of
the high school at Hazel. When still a young man he
had become interested in democratic politics, and from
1908 to 191 1 was a member of the Democratic County
Central Committee. In the fall of 1913 he was elected
the representative of Calloway County to the State
Legislature, and served in the session of 1914, and in
1915 was re-elected, serving in the regular session of
1916 and the special session, of 1917. During 1916 and
1917 he was a member of the important committee on
revenue and taxation, and also served on other commit-
tees, working constantly and effectively in behalf of the
interests of his constituents. On June I, 1917, he was
appointed assistant to the state tax commissioner by
Governor Stanley, and is the incumbent of this office at
the present time.
Mr. Jones is a member of the Christian Church. Fra-
ternally he is affiliated with Murray Lodge No. 105,
A. F. and A. M. ; Murray Chapter No. 92, R. A. M., and
the Woodmen of the World. He owns a modern resi-
dence on Main Street, one of the handsome homes of the
city, and formerly had two farms, of which he has re-
cently disposed. He took an active part in all war move-
ments, making speeches throughout the county and as-
sisting in every way to put the Liberty Loan, .Red Cross
and other drives "over the top."
In 1915 Mr. Jones was united in marriage with Miss
Bertha May Denham, a daughter of J. Wheeler and
Julia (Todd) Denham, the latter of whom died in the
winter of 1919. Mr. Denham is a well-known and highly
esteemed merchant at Hazel, Kentucky. Mrs. Jones is
a graduate of the Calloway County High School and a
lady of many graces and accomplishments. She and her
husband have two children : Ethel Rowena, born De-
cember 28, 1916 ; and Thomas Raphael, Jr., born Decem-
ber 8, 1918.
Paul E. Kerkow, M. D. After completing his pro-
fessional education at Cincinnati Doctor Kerkow estab-
lished himself in practice at Covington, and for a dozen
years or more has been a physician and surgeon whose
talents and abilities command respect and a large and
extensive practice in that city.
Doctor Kerkow was about one year of age when
brought to America from Hamburg, Germany, where
he was born September 5, 1884. His father, L. O.
Kerkow, was born in Koenigsberg, Germany, in 1858,
was reared and married in that country, and by pro-
fession was a marine engineer. This occupation ex-
236
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
empted him from military duty in the German Army.
In June, 1885, he brought his family to the United
States and located at Cincinnati, and in 1888 moved to
Covington, where he had his home the rest of his life.
He followed his trade and that of a stationary engineer,
and lost his life in 1906 while visiting at Newport
News, Virginia, being drowned in the James River.
L. O. Kerkow married Frederika Jerguson, who was
born in Denmark in 1859, ar>d died at Covington June
16, 1920. They were the parents of three children :
Dorothy, who died at the age of one year ; Paul E. ;
and L. O. Kerkow, Jr., who is a traveling salesman with
home at Cleveland, Ohio.
Doctor Kerkow was four years of age when brought
to Covington, and attended the public schools of that
city, graduating from high school in 1903. He then
entered the Pulte Medical College of Cincinnati, and
was graduated in 1907. He is a member of the Epsilon
Chapter of the Alpha Sigma college fraternity. The
year following his graduation he was interne in charge
of clinics at the Cincinnati Union Bethel Settlement
House. In July, 1908, he began his private practice
at Covington, his offices being in the Coppin Building.
He is a member of the Campbell-Kenton Medical So-
ciety, Kentucky State Medical Association, Cincinnati
Homeopathic Lyceum, Kentucky Homeopathic Society,
and American Institute of Homeopathy. Doctor Kerkow
sought every opportunity to make use of his talents
and means to further the cause of the Government in
the World war. He was the medical member of the
Local Draft Board No. 2, and he also applied for a
commission in the Medical Corps but was not examined
until September, 1918, and the armistice was signed
before he was called to duty.
Doctor Kerkow is independent in politics and fra-
ternally is affiliated with Colonel Clay Lodge No. 159,
F. and A. M., Covington Chapter No. 35, R. A. M.,
Covington Commandery No. 7, K. T., Indra Consistory
No. 2, of the Scottish Rite at Covington, Oleika Temple
of the Mystic Shrine at Lexington, and is a member
of Morning Star Lodge No. 22, Knights of Pythias, at
West Covington.
In November, 1910, at Kansas City, Missouri, Doctor
Kerkow married Miss Ruby C. Spence. Her parents
R. T. and Ida (Brambeau) Spence, live in Kansas City,
her father being a contractor for road and sewer con-
struction. Mrs. Kerkow is a graduate of the high school
of Kansas City, Missouri. They have one child, Spence,
born May 14, 1917.
Albert K. Andrews. The largest group of industries
in Newport and among the largest steel and iron
manufacturing concerns south of the Ohio River are
those in which members of the Andrews family exer-
cise a controlling interest and direction. These are
the Newport Rolling Mill Company, the Andrews Steel
Company and the Globe Iron Roofing Company. The
president of the Newport Rolling Mill Company is
Albert K. Andrews, and he is vice president of the
Andrews Steel Company.
Much of the credit for the building up of these in-
dustries belong to Mr. A. L. Andrews, now living re-
tired at Newport. He was born at Cincinnati in 1842,
son of Joseph Addison Andrews, a native of Connecti-
cut and an early settler at Cincinnati, where he did
a trading business for many years. A. L. Andrews was
reared and married in Cincinnati, and as a young man
was a traveling salesman and also studied law. During
the Civil war he was in the Quartermasters' Depart-
ment of the Union Army under Col. C. W. Moulton,
and served all through the struggle. Following the
war he conducted a pension claim agency for a few
years. He and his brother, the late Joseph A. Andrews,
then became associated in the tobacco business, and for
a number of years they conducted one of the leading
firms of the kind in Cincinnati as tobacco dealers and
manufacturers.
In 1885 these brothers began the manufacture of
iron roofing at Cincinnati. Shortly afterward they
bought in Newport the small plant of the Swift Iron
& Steel Company at Ninth and Lowell streets. Under
their energetic supervision this business grew and
flourished and became the original of the several notable
industries now directed by the Andrews family. A. L.
Andrews and his brother built in 1906 the large plant
of the Andrews Steel Company at Andrews, Kentucky.
This business is in operation and furnishes employ-
ment in normal times to twelve hundred hands.
The immediate successor of the old Swift Iron &
Steel Company's plant is the Newport Rolling Mills
at Ninth and Lowell streets. The plant was practically
rebuilt in 1910. It furnishes employment to two thou-
sand hands. The manufactured output consists of black
and galvanized sheet steel, and the product is shipped
all over the United States and to foreign countries.
The fourth industry established by this family is the
Newport Culvert Company, which has been in existence
since 1912. The executive officers are at the Newport
Rolling Mill and the plant is at Tenth and Lowell
streets in Newport. This company manufactures metal
road culverts, employs fifty hands, and manv cars
loaded with these culverts go from the plant "to all
parts of the United States.
The executive officers of the Newport Rolling Mill
Company are: A. K. Andrews, president; Joseph B.
Andrews, vice president; and Joseph Gaff Andrews,
secretary and treasurer. The officers of the Andrews
Steel Company are J. B. Andrews, president, A. K.
Andrews, vice- president, W. N. Andrews, secretary, and
Joseph Gaff Andrews, treasurer. Of the Newport Cul-
vert Company Joseph B. Andrews is president, Joseph
Gaff Andrews, vice president, Frank A. Moeschl, sec-
retary, and W. H. D. Wheat, treasurer.
A. L. Andrews and his brother Joseph continued to
be actively identified with these industries until the
death of Joseph Andrews in 1908. A. L. Andrews in
1915 turned over his interests to his sons, having then
passed the age of three score and ten and having seen
the work of his hands and brain greatly prospered.
He is still living at Newport, is a very active member
of the Presbyterian Church, is a republican, a charter
member of Lafayette Lodge No. 81, F. and A. M., and a
member of Cincinnati Chapter No. 2, R. A. M., and Cin-
cinnati Commandery No. 3, K. T.
A. L. Andrews married Agnes L. Gaff. She was
born in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, in 1850 and died at
Newport November 13, 1918. They became the parents
of five children, the two oldest being Joseph Gaff and
Albert K. Andrews. The third child, Margaret Lan-
drum, is the wife of Rudolph Tietig, an architect, with
home on Observatory Road in Cincinnati. The fourth
child, Grace Virginia, is the wife of T. Oliver Dunlap,
a stock and bond broker at Cincinnati, with home at
Vista Place, East Walnut Hills. The fifth and young-
est of the family is Frank M., a resident of Fort
Thomas, Kentucky.
Joseph Gaff Andrews was born at Cumnv'nsville, Cin-
cinnati, November 26, 1876, was educated in the public
schools of Cincinnati, attended Kenyon Military Acad-
emy at Gambier, Ohio, and the Cincinnati Technical
School, and in 1894 graduated from Nelson's Business
College in Cincinnati. Since leaving college for a pe-
riod of nearly thirty .years he has been actively asso-
ciated with the business founded and built up by his>
father, and for a number of years has had an important
share of the executive responsibilities in the three
companies briefly described above. Mr. Andrews is a
republican, junior warden of the Episcopal Church at
Fort Thomas, was affiliated with Fort Thomas Lodge
No. 808, F. and A. M., Cincinnati Chapter No. 2, R. A.
M., Cincinnati Commandery No. 3, K. T., Indra Con-
sistory No. 2 of the Scottish Rite at Covington, El
Hasa Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Ashland, Ken-
tucky, is a member of the Highland Country Club at
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
237
Fort Thomas and the Cincinnati Chamber of Com-
merce.
In 1905, at Cincinnati, Joseph G. Andrews married
Miss Stella Knaul, daughter of Michael and Carrie
Knaul, the latter deceased. Her father, a resident of
Toledo, was for twenty-five years flour inspector of
Cincinnati. Mr. and Mrs. Joseph G. Andrews have
one daughter, Cora Louise, born January 2, 1907.
Albert K. Andrews was born at Cincinnati February
2, 1879, and was also liberally educated, attending the
public schools and a private school in his native city,
and the Cincinnati Technical School. At the age of
twenty-one he entered his father's mills, and has been
identified with these industries ever since. He is a
republican, a Presbyterian, a member of Lafayette
Lodge No. 8r, F. and A. M., Cincinnati Chapter No. 2,
R. A. M., Cincinnati Commandery No. 3, K. T., is a
life member of the Ohio Consistory, Scottish Rite, at
Cincinnati, and a member of Syrian Temple of the
Mystic Shrine. He is also a member of the Cincinnati
Chamber of Commerce, the Hamilton County Country
Club, the Cincinnati Riding Club, and has one of the
fine homes of Cincinnati, on Grandin Road.
In 1903, at Cincinnati, he married Miss Carrie May
Sullivan, daughter of J. J. and Sophia Sullivan, the
latter living on Bedford Avenue in Cincinnati. Her
father, who died at Cincinnati, was owner and operator
of the Sullivan Printing Company. Three children have
been born to Mr. and Mrs. A. K. Andrews : John Al-
bert, on November 2, 1905 ; Mary Margaret, on April
30, 1907; and Jane, on May 1, 1914.
Frank M. Andrews was born June 14, 1885, was
educated in the public schools and graduated in 1906
from Pennsylvania College in a meteorologist course.
He spent two years in the steel mills in the Pittsburgh
district, Pennsylvania, and then took a position with
the Andrews Steel Mill in the open hearth department.
He married in June, 1913, Jean Meader, daughter of
Henry C. and Jennie Meader, and who was a resident
of Cincinnati, Ohio. They have children as follows :
Frank, Jr., Nancy Norld and Richard Avery. Frank
M. Andrews is a member of several social clubs, is a
Presbyterian, a Mason and a republican. He resides
at Fort Thomas, where he has a beautiful home, it
being one of the show places there.
Theodore B. Forbes. For many years the name of
Forbes has been associated with banking and with ex-
tensive agricultural interests in Carroll County, Ken-
tucky, and in these and other directions few citizens of
Carrollton are better known than Theodore B. Forbes,
cashier of the First National Bank of Carrollton. He
was born in this city October 13, 1877, the only surviv-
ing child of John I. and Hala (Bates) Forbes.
John I. Forbes was born in 1836, in Greene County,
Ohio. His parents were Alexander and Mary (Irelan)
Forbes, natives of Virginia, in which state the Forbes
family was founded back in Colonial days by colonists
from Scotland. Alexander was a slaveholder and large
planter. John I. Forbes came to Kentucky in 1867,
and for many years was an extensive farmer in Car-
roll County and a very active and progressive citizen
of Carrollton. He helped to organize the First National
Bank of Carrollton, and served as its first vice presi-
dent. In politics a strong democrat all his life, he
took much interest in civic matters, although no as-
pirant for political honors. For many years he was
an elder in the Presbyterian Church. He was twice
married, first to Miss Mary Driscoll, who was born
and died at Springfield, Ohio. They had two children,
both of whom died in infancy. Mr. Forbes' second
marriage was to Miss Hala Bates, who was born in
1845, near Worthville, Carroll County, Kentucky, and
died at Carrollton in 1900. They had two sons and
one daughter: Alexander, who died when ten years
old; Theodore B. ; and Mary Irelan, who died in in-
fanrv Tnhn I. Forbes survived manv of his contempora-
ries, living to the age of seventy-nine years and dying
at Carrollton in 1915.
Theodore B. Forbes had excellent educational ad-
vantages afforded him, attending through the high
school course at Carrollton, then entering Hanover
College at Hanover, Indiana, where he continued until
1897. Upon his return home he entered First National
Bank as bookkeeper, then became assistant cashier and
since 191 1 has been cashier, in which relation to the
bank and to the public he is held in the highest possible
esteem.
The First National Bank of Carrollton, Kentucky,
was established as a national bank in 1881. Its officers
are: J. A. Donaldson, president; F. H. Suetholz, vice
president; Theodore B. Forbes, cashier. This bank is
capitalized at $100,000; surplus and profits, $60,000;
deposits, $1,000,000. An immense amount of business
is handled by this bank. Its facilities and safeguards
are unequaled in the county, and the handsome modern
brick bank building on Main Street is a credit to the
city.
At Lexington, Kentucky, in 1918, Mr. Forbes was
married to Miss Wink Stringfellow, a daughter of the
late J. T. and Margaret Stringfellow, formerly farming
people in this county. Mr. and Mrs. Forbes have one
son, Theodore B., Jr., who was born October 26, 1919.
They are members of the Presbyterian Church. In
addition to his comfortable residence at Carrollton, one
of the beautiful homes on Seminary Street, Mr. Forbes
owns three valuable farms in Carroll County, together
with a fourth farm in Owen County, the aggregate
being 1,200 acres of productive Kentucky land.
A life-long democrat in his political views, Mr. Forbes
has been an important factor in county and city affairs.
He has served with great usefulness on the City Coun-
cil, where his practical business ideas proved very help-
ful, and for the past ten years has been treasurer of
Carroll County. During the World war men of his
business ability and trustworthy character were abso-
lutely necessary to make effective the patriotic move-
ments that supported the Government, and in every
way possible he proved worthy of the trusts and re-
sponsibilities he was called on to share. He is a Knight
Templar Mason and Shriner, a member of Carrollton
Lodge No. 134, F. and A. M., of which he is a past
master; Carroll Chapter No. 55, R. A. M., of which he
is a past high priest; De Molay Commandery No. 12,
K. T., Louisville; and Kosair Temple, Mystic Shrine,
Louisville.
Rev. Borgias Lehr, is pastor of St. John's Catholic
Church at Carrollton. St. John's is a church commu-
nity with a recorded history of nearly seventy years.
Carrollton is one of the oldest towns of Kentucky, and
for half a century its population was almost entirely
Protestant. Several German Catholics settled there
from Cincinnati at the beginning of the decade of the
fifties, and these were the nucleus of the little Catholic
congregation who secured the ground and set about the
establishment of a church. The cornerstone was laid
with great ceremony July 31, 1853, Bishop Spaulding
of Louisville officiating. The first resident priest was
Rev. Charles Schafroth, who also provided a little brick
schoolhouse. Among successive priests especially hon-
ored for their service to the parish were Rev. Father
Stephany, who was pastor from 1865 to 1870, his suc-
cessor, Rev. Father Schiff, Rev. Paul Kollopp, who
came in 1886, and the learned Father Richartz, who was
succeeded in 1894 by Rev. Ignatius M. Ahmann. It
was during the pastorate of Father Ahmann that plans
were made for the new and modern church of St.
John's, the cornerstone of which was laid October 5,
1902.
Rev. Borgias Lehr, the present pastor, was born in
the Austrian Tyrol September 14, 1884. His father,
Joseph Lehr, was born there in 1834 and came to the
United States in 1859. He was a blacksmith by trade,
and followed that occupation in Cincinnati until 1880.
238
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
During the American Civil war he was a blacksmith
in the employ of the Union Government. He returned
to Austria in 1880 to claim the estate of his father and
prevent it reverting to the state. He has since re-
mained in Tyrol, and is now retired. While an Ameri-
can citizen he voted as a republican. Joseph Lehr mar-
ried Josephine Polingiera, who was born in the Prov-
ince of Padua, Italy, in 1854. Of their seven children
three are still living: Mary, with her parents; Father
Borgias; and Joseph, a resident of Cincinnati.
Father Borgias Lehr attended the common schools
of Tyrol, pursued his classical studies in the Jesuit
College at Innsbruck, Austria, and in 1902 came to
America. He received his citizenship papers in 1908.
For five years he was a student of philosophy and
theology in Mount St. Mary's Seminary, and was or-
dained June 29, 1008, by Bishop Maes at Covington.
His first duties were as assistant pastor of the Sacred
Heart Church at Bellevue until 1915, when he entered
upon the arduous though interesting duties of the
mountain missionary in the Eastern Kentucky counties
of Nicholas, Lewis, Fleming, Robertson, Carter, Rowan
and Bath, with headquarters at Carlisle. After three
years he was pastor of St. James' Church at Brooks-
ville one year, and in June. 1919, entered upon his
present duties as pastor of St. John's Church at Car-
rollton.
William F. O'Donnell. A prominent and experi-
enced educator has declared his opinion in regard to
the public school system in these words : "It is the
superintendent and his work and standard that deter-
mine most the worth of the schools and the system under
him." Citizens of Carrollton, Kentucky, undoubtedly
would agree with him, as they consider how much
substantial progress has been made since 1913, when
William F. O'Donnell became city superintendent of
the Carrollton schools. Mr. O'Donnell is a young man.
with the flavor of college training yet about him. He
is thoroughly imbued with the importance of his work,
to which he has dedicated his life, and in every wax-
is exceptionally qualified for it.
William F. O'Donnell was born May 1. 1890, in Burnet
County, Texas. His parents were W. F. and Angeline
(Beasley) O'Donnell, the later of whom still survives
and lives on the old home ranch in Texas. W F.
O'Donnell was born in 1829. in County Cork, Ireland,
and died in Burnet County, Texas, in 1916. He was
about twenty years old when he came to the United
States, and soon afterward found a home in Burnet
County, Texas, to which section he was loyally devoted
during his subsequent life. In the course of time he
became a man of large means, owning an extensive ranch
and raising sheep and cattle. During the Civil war
he served with the Texas Rangers. He was a man of
strong character, kind and hospitable and had many
friends. He was faithful to his family, friends and
church obligations, a strict Roman Catholic, and in
political life was a republican. He married Miss Ange-
line Beaslev, and in their family of seven children
William F. "was the third in order of birth, the others
being as follows : James, who is an oil operator, lives
at Fort Worth, Texas; John, who is a ranchman in
Burnet County, Texas; Tom. who is also engaged in
ranching in Burnet County; Marie, who is the wife of
Edison Fowler, a ranchman in Burnet County ; Jane,
who is the wife of Virgil Dorbandt, a ranchman in
Blanco County, Texas; and Anna, who lives with her
mother.
William F. O'Donnell attended the country schools
in boyhood, completed the high school course at Burnet
in the class of 1008, after which he became a student
in Transylvania University, Lexington, Kentucky, from
which institution he was graduated in 1912 with honors
and the degree of A. B. To college men the fact
that b- belonged to the fraternities of Book & Bones
and the Lampas Club is significant of high personal
character, scholarship and agreeable social gifts. In
the fall of 1912 he came to Carrollton as principal of
the high school, and made so favorable an impression
that he was elected superintendent of the city schools
in 1913 and so continues. He has fourteen teachers and
500 pupils under his jurisdiction.
At Austin. Texas, in 1909, Mr. O'Donnell was married
to Mi>s Medeline Riley, who was born in Burnet
County and is a graduate of the high school at Ber-
tram, Texas. They have three children : Loraine, born
in 1010; Margaret, born in 1916; and William F. Jr.,
born in 1918. Mr. and Mrs. O'Donnell are members of
the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, at Carrollton,
and he is chairman of its Board of Stewards.
Like many other thoughtful young men of the day,
Mr. O'Donnell has definite political convictions and is
identified with the democratic party. During the World
war lie was usefully active in all patriotic matters, giving
time and effort and investing in bonds to the extent
of his means and using his influence for the cause wher-
ever he believed it was needed. He is a Knight Templar
Mason and belongs to Carrollton Lodge No. 134, F.
and A. M., of which he is a past master ; Carroll
Chapter Xo. 55, R. A. M., of which he is a past high
priest; and De Molay Commandery, K. T., Louisville.
He is well known over the state in professional bodies,
and is a member of such representative organizations
as the Kentucky Educational Association and the Na-
tional Educational Association.
John Junior Howe. For over sixty years the name
Howe has been one of the most conspicuous in the
commercial life of Carrollton. The Howes are a family
of business men, merchants and bankers, and John
Junior Howe, representing the third generation, is one
lit" the leading lawyers and is the present commonwealth
attorney for his judicial district.
The family was founded at Carrollton by John Howe,
a native of County Fermanagh, Ireland. He learned the
trade of merchant tailor, and in the late '40s brought
his family to the United States. After a few years
in Fleming County, Kentucky, he spent two years in
pioneer farming on the Illinois prairies, returning then
to Kentucky and locating in Carrollton in 1859. He
was a merchant tailor the rest of his life, and also estab-
lished and built up the prosperous dry goods and cloth-
ing store now conducted by Howe Brothers, Incorpo-
rated. He was a stanch "democrat in politics. John
Howe died at Carrollton in 1890.
His son, the late William F. Howe, was horn at Five
Mile Town in County Tyrone in 1846, and was a small
boj when brought to America and about thirteen years
of age when his life became identified with the com-
munity of Carrollton. He attended school in Fleming
Countv, Kentucky, and also in Illinois one year, was
married at Carrollton, and for a number of years was
a banker, associated with John and W. F. Howe and
Sons, bankers. He also operated the Carrollton Woolen
Mills, and later was associated with the firm of Howe
Brothers, clothing and dry goods. He was at one
time county treasurer of Carroll County, and for a
number of years was a member of the Carrollton City
Council. William F. Howe was a democrat, an active
member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South,
and was a Royal Arch and Knight Templar Mason. He
died at Carrollton in 1916. His wife was Lou \\ inslow,
member of the prominent Winslow family of Carrollton,
one of whom is George B. Winslow. president of the
Carrollton National Bank. William F. Howe and wife
have five children living. Miss Lille, who is instructor
in Spanish in the Western College for Women at
Oxford, Ohio, lives at Carrollton, where she organized
the Woman's Club and is a prominent worker in the
Federated Women's Club. John Junior Howe is the
second in age. Miss Jennie W., of Carrollton, is inter-
ested in the Federated Women's Club work and has
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
239
been president of the local Woman's Club. Beverly
W. is an attorney at Chicago, and the youngest of the
family is Ruth Louise, wife of Henry "B. Schuerman,
secretary of the Carrollton Furniture Manufacturing
Company.
John Junior Howe was born at Carrollton November
5, 1879, graduated from the Carrollton High School in
1896, and in 1900 received the A. B. degree from the
Kentucky Wesleyan College of Winchester. From his
alma mater he received the Master of Arts degree in
1503. In the meantime he read law in the offices of
Winslow & Winslow, was admitted to the bar in 1902,
and for twenty years he has sustained a prominent part
at the bar of Carroll County. He is a junior member of
the firm Winslow & Howe, attorneys. After beginning
practice he entered the law department of the University
of Michigan, and was graduated LL. B. in 1909. He is
a member of the Kappa Sigma college fraternity.
Mr. Howe, who is unmarried, has found many live
interests both in and out of his profession to satisfy
his ambition for service. He was for two years, 1909-11,
cashier of the City of- Carrollton, was judge of the
Police Court from 191 1 to 1913, and since December.
1913, has been commonwealth's attorney for the district
including Boone, Carroll, Gallatin, Grant and Owen
counties. In 1916-17 he was president of the Common-
wealth's Attorneys Association of Kentucky. He is a
director of the Carrollton National Bank and secretary
of Howe Brothers, Incorporated. Fraternally he is a
past master of Carrollton Lodge No. 134, F. and 'A.
M., is a, past high priest of Carroll Giapter No. 55.
R. A. M., is a member of DeMolay Commanderv No.
12, K. T., at Louisville, Of Olive Lodge No. 24, Knights
of Pythias, is a past grand chancellor of the Grand
Lodge of Kentucky, Knights of Pythias, and a member
of the Dramatic Order of the Knights of Khorassan.
He is a steward in the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South.
During the World war his profession was largely
neglected in order to attend to duties for the Govern-
ment. He went to Washington and tendered his services
to the Judge Advocate General for any duties he might
perform, but was not called. As a member of the
Carroll County. Draft Board he filled out more ques-
tionnaires for recruits than any other person. He had
charge of the Speakers Bureau, and in every campaign
covered Carroll County and many of the adjoining
counties of the Fifteenth Judicial District as a speaker.
After the close of the war be was chairman of the
American Legion drive of the Sixth Congressional
District.
Jacob Schui.tz. M. D., one of the able and highly
trained physicians and surgeons of Bell County, is en-
gaged in a general medical and surgical practice at
Middlesboro. He was born at Tazewell, Tennessee,
July 23, 1879, a son of Benjamin F. Schultz, and grand-
son of Jacob Schultz, a native of Virginia, who died
in Texas during the war between the North and the
South. He was the pioneer of bis family into Claiborne
County, Tennessee, where he became the owner of 10,000
acres of land located between Springdale and Clinch
River, along the road from Morristown to Cumberland
Gap, which road he contracted for and built. This
road also passes through Tazewell, Tennessee. He mar-
ried Susanna Cloud, who was born in Claiborne County,
Tennessee, and died at Springfield, Missouri, before the
birth of Doctor Schultz. The Schultz family was
established in Virginia by ancestors who came from
Germany during the Colonial epoch of the country.
Benjamin Shultz was born at Springdale, Tennessee,
in 1844, and died at Tazewell, Tennessee, in 1915. He
was reared, educated and married in Claiborne County,
Tennessee, but in 1858 moved to Springfield, Missouri,
where he was engaged in merchandising and farming.
Tn 1868 he returned to Claiborne County, and in 1870
was married. His return to Tennessee was for the
purpose of settling his father's estate, and he continued
to reside at Tazewell, going into the mercantile busi-
ness with Dr. J. W. Divine. They carried a large
stock of general merchandise and drugs, and had the
leading business of its kind in that region. Mr. Schultz
retired in 1911. By profession he was a civil engineer.
A democrat, he became a leader in his party, and
served as county judge of Claiborne County, and for
many years was a justice of the peace, in fact was
holding that office at the time of his death. The Pres-
byterian Church held his membership, and he was a
strong supporter of the church, and equally sincere in
discharging his obligations as a Mason. During the
war between the North and the South he served as
a Confederate soldier under General Price, and par-
ticipated in the battles of Southwestern Missouri and
Arkansas, including that of Little Rock, and he rose to
be quartermaster of his company. Mr. Schultz was
married in 1870, to Eliza J. Johnson, who was born in
Tazewell, Tennessee, in 1850, and died at Tazewell in
1901. Their children were as follows: Lula, who died
of scarlet fever at the age of six years ; Wade Graham,
who was a traveling salesman, died at Middlesboro when
thirty-eight years old; Doctor Schultz, who was the
third in order of birth; Thomas J., who was a physician
and surgeon, died at Middlesboro at the age of thirty-
one years; Elizabeth, who married S. R. Robinson, a
merchant of Tazewell, Tennessee ; William B., who is
a pharmacist, owns and operates the leading drug store
-of Middlesboro; and' Josie, who lives at Middlesboro,
is married and her husband is a pharmacist.
Doctor Schultz attended the local schools of Tazewell,
Tazewell Academy, and began to teach school in Clai-
borne County at the age of twenty years, and was so
engaged for two years. He then entered the Tennessee
Medical College at Knoxville, Tennessee, and spent two
years in that institution; leaving it to become a student in
the Hospital College of Medicine at Louisville, Ken-
tucky, and after two years there was graduated June
30, 1906, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He
took post-graduate courses at the New York Polyclinic
in 1913 and 1916, and also at the New York Post-
Graduate School in 1918, specializing in surgery. In
1906 he began the practice of his profession at Logmont,
Bell County, Kentucky, and remained there until 1920,
when he came to Middlesboro, and has remained here
ever since, but still retains his mining practice at Log-
mont. His offices are in the Schultz Building, on the
north side of Cumberland Avenue, which is owned by
him. He also owns a comfortable and desirable resi-
dence on West Cumberland Avenue, and a business
building on the south side of Cumberland Avenue ; three
brick business houses on Lothberry Avenue; a three-fifth
interest in the building occupied by W. B. Schultz &
Company, druggists, which is on Lothberry Avenue at
Nineteenth Street; and three dwellings at Middlesboro.
Doctor Schultz is a republican and is a justice of
the peace for the Fourth Magisterial District of Bell
County, which office he has held for the past eight
years. He belongs to the Presbyterian Church. Well
known in Masonry, he is a member of Pinnacle Lodge
No. 661, F. and A. M. ; Middlesboro Chapter No. 45,
R. A. M. ; Pineville Commandery No. 29, K. T. ; and
Kosair Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of Louisville, Ken-
tucky. He also belongs to Middlesboro Lodge, I. O. O.
F. ; Shenandoah Tribe, I. O. O. F., of Shamrock, Ken-
tucky; the Kiwanis Club; the Bell County Medical
Society; the Kentucky State Medical Society; the Amer-
ican Medical Association and the Southern Medical
Association. Doctor Schultz is a man of many interests
and is now serving as president of the Cumberland
Hotel Corporation that is erecting a new hotel at
Middlesboro; is president of the W. B. Schultz Drug
Company, recently organized the Dixie Hardware Com-
240
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
pany, which will conduct a retail and wholesale busi-
ness and is always ready to give encouragement to
local enterprises.
During the late war Doctor Schultz was one of the
effective workers and belonged to the Coal Mining
Production Committee, appointed by the Government
through the United States Fuel Administrator. He
also was a member of the Medical Reserve Corps and
tendered the Government his services, and was expect-
ing to be called when the armistice was signed. As a
member of the various committees having charge of
the different drives Doctor Schultz rendered a service
which was valuable and appreciated, and he made
speeches all over Bell County in behalf of patriotic
movements. He bought bonds and War Savings Stamps
and contributed to all of the organizations to the full
extent of his means.
In 1905 Doctor Schultz was married at Rogersville,
Tennessee, to Miss Sue McKinney Nice, a daughter of
W. G. and Sue (McKinney) Nice, residents of Rogers-
ville. Mr. Nice is a retired farmer and merchant, and
a man of prominence in his community. Mrs. Schultz
was graduated from the Rogersville Synodical College.
Doctor and Mrs. Schultz have no children.
Wherever he has lived Doctor Schultz has been a
dominating force, and people look to him for action and
advice. A man of great energy, he has known how
to make his efforts effective, and has never failed to
appreciate the fact that he owed his community a duty,
nor to discharge such obligations. As a physician and
surgeon he has few equals, and his skill, patience and
ability are recognized by all. His public service during
the war was a distinguished one, and he never spared
himself, but worked almost without ceasing. His pro-
fessional duties were of course increased by reason of
the departure of so many of the medical men for the
front, and yet he attended to everything, and to his
public work in a manner so effective and thorough as
to win the approval of the Government, and the ad-
miration of his fellow citizens.
George B. Winslow. In the general prosperity of a
community may be seen reflected the quality of its
citizenship, and when its business, civic and social con-
ditions are sound and satisfactory it may generally be
assumed that its foremost men of affairs have brought
this about. The City of Carrollton, Kentucky, peaceful,
progressive and prosperous, numbers among its citizens
men of professional ability, business sagacity and public
spirit. Well known among these and throughout Carroll
County is George B. Winslow, an able member of the
Carrollton bar and president of the Carrollton National
Bank.
Mr. Winslow was horn at Carrollton, Tune 6, 1868,
and is a son of William Beverlv and Martha Jane
(Woolfolk) Winslow, the latter of whom was born in
Henry County, Kentucky, January 26, 1826, and died
at Carrollton December 3, 1905. The father of Mr.
Winslow was horn June 10, 1814, at Carrollton, fourteen
vears after his father, William Winslow a native of
Virginia, had settled in the Village of Carrollton, where
he died before the birth of his grandson, George B.
Winslow. Thus for over a hundred years the Winslow
familv has been identified with the development and
best interests of this city. William Beverly Winslow
spent his entire life here, his death occurring March
16, 1883, after a long and successful career in the law.
Although a democrat in political sentiment, he served
his party only as a private citizen, but he filled many
offices in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and
was a sincere Christian. To bis marriage with Miss
Martha Jane Wool folk the following children were
born: Henry M.. who lives at Harriman, Tennessee, is
a capitalist and a lawyer by profession ; Lou, who resides
at Carrollton, is the widow of William F. Howe, form-
erly a merchant and manufacturer at Carrollton ; James
T., who spent his life at Carrollton, died at the age of
sixty years ; Mariam, who died at Concord, North
Carolina, aged fifty-nine years, is survived by her hus-
band, Daniel B. Coltrame, a banker and manufacturer
at Concord; Jennie W., who married W. W. Martin;
William Beverly, who is an attorney at law in the City
of New York, maintains offices in the Liberty Tower
Building; Ruth, who died at Carrollton July 1, 1899,
was the wife of Henry Schuerman, who is president and
general manager of the Carrollton Furniture Manufac-
turing Company; George B. and Pierce G.
George B. Winslow attended the public schools of
his native city and also Dodd's Classical High School, a
famous private institution of Cincinnati, Ohio, sub-
sequently becoming a student in the Louisville Law
School, now the University of Louisville, from which
he was graduated with the class of 1893, with his well
earned degree of LL. B. In the same year he entered
into practice at Carrollton, and is the senior member of
the law firm of Winslow & Howe, general law prac-
titioners, with offices in the Carrollton National Bank
Building.
Mr. Winslow has important interests in addition to his
law business, being widely known in financial circles
as president of the Carrollton National Bank, which
was established in 1883 and has had a continuously
prosperous career. According to the last bank state-
ment it is capitalized at $60,000; surplus, $40,000; de-
posits, $750,000. Its officers are: George B. Winslow,
president; O. W. Geier, vice president; J. G Goslee,
cashier. All are men of sterling character and ample
fortune. The bank building is situated on the corner
of Fifth and Main streets and is a handsome structure
adequately fitted with every appliance and convenience
for the safe and expeditious transactions of a modern
bank's business. Mr. Winslow is also a director in the
Carrollton Furniture Manufacturing Company, a concern
that has a nafonal reputation, and is a director in the
Central Home Telephone & Telegraph Company of
Toledo, Ohio, and additionally is a director in another
of Carrollton's business enterprises, the Adkinson
Brothers Company of this city. He is local attorney for
the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company, and for
the past twenty years has filled the same office with
the Carrollton & Worthville Railroad Company.
At Carrollton, Kentucky, October 3, 1894, Mr. Win-
slow was married to Miss Lucy Hafford, a daughter of
E. and Elizabeth Hafford, the latter of whom survives
and lives at Carrollton. The father of Mrs. Winslow
was a lumber dealer and manufacturer at Carrollton,
where his death occurred in 1892. Mrs. Winslow's
sister, Miss Lida Hafford, is a woman of national
prominence, being national director of the Federation
of Women's Clubs, with headquarters at Washington,
D. C. Mr. and Mrs. Winslow enjoy a beautiful home
at Carrollton, their spacious modern residence standing
on High Street. They are members of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South, and very deeply interested
in its work. In April, 1918, Mr. Winslow attended the
General Conference held at Atlanta, Georgia, as repre-
sentative of the Kentucky Conference.
In political affiliation Mr. Winslow is a republican.
He has served as city attorney and also as referee in
bankruptcy, but otherwise has not been unduly active
personally in the political field. During the World war
his patriotism and deep sense of responsibility were
manifested in every possible way. He served as chair-
man of three Liberty Loan drives and was county
food administrator, cheerfully and generously giving
time, effort and means to the great cause. For years
he has been prominent in Masonry and is a Shnner.
He belongs to Carrollton Lodge No. 134, F. and A. M.,
of which he is a past master; Carroll Chapter No. 55, of
which he is a past high priest ; De Molay Commandery
No. 12, Louisville, and Louisville Consistory, thirty-
second degree. He belongs to Kosair Temple, A. A.
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
241
O. N. M. S., at Louisville. In 1914 and 1915 he was
grand master of the Grand Lodge of Kentucky, F. and
A. M., and in 1916 and 1917; was grand high priest of
the Grand Chapter of Kentucky, R. A. M. He is a
director in the Masonic Widows and Orphans Home
at Louisville, Kentucky.
Ralph Malcolm Barker. In tobacco circles over
Kentucky and along the Ohio River there has perhaps
been on better known name during the past half century
than that of Barker. For years the largest dealer in to-
bacco at Cincinnati was the late M. I. Barker. He was also
in business at Carrollton, where his son Ralph Malcolm
Barker is head of the chief organization for the buying,
handling and storage of leaf tobacco.
The late M. I. Barker was born at Penn Yan, New
York, in 1841, but was reared in Missouri, was married
in St. Louis, and lived in that city for a few years.
He was in the tobacco business all his life. After
leaving St. Louis he was for six months at Indianapo-
lis, and about 1865 moved to Covington, Kentucky,
where he had his home until 1876. In the meantime,
however, his business headquarters were in Cincinnati,
where for several years he handled and dealt in more
leaf tobacco than all the other dealers put together. In
1876 he moved to Avondale, Cincinnati, and in 1902
to Carrollton, Kentucky, which was his home the
rest of his life. He died while visiting in the East,
at Booth Bay Harbor, Maine, in 1910. In 1879 M. I.
Barker established the first tobacco stemmery or to-
bacco rehandling plant at Carrollton. His interests as
a tobaccon:st extended all over Northern Kentucky.
M. I. Barker gave regular attention to his duties as a
member of the Episcopal Church, was affiliated with
the Masonic fraternity, and was a democrat. He mar-
ried Miss Virginia Clark, who was born at Philadelphia
in 1840 and is now living at Cincinnati. They had a
family of five children. Ada is the wife of William E.
Fisher, of Carrollton, who for many years was a lead-
ing clothing merchant at Cincinnati and is now retired.
Bertha, who makes her home at Cincinnati with her
mother, is the widow of J. D. Matthews, who for a
number of years was private secretary to Howard
Gould and later a farmer at Chula, Virginia, where he
died in 1921. Clifford I. Barker was drowned at the
Ross Basin, Cincinnati, at the age of fifteen. Ralph
M. is the fourth of the family. Charles A. owns and
operates a public garage at El Paso, Texas.
Ralph Malcolm Barker was born at Covington No-
vember 22, 1875, was educated in the public schools
of Avondale, Cincinnati, and two years in the Wood-
ward High School of Cincinnati. During 1891 he at-
tended Nelson's Business College of that city, and on
October 25, 1891, came to Carrollton, where for thirty
years he has been active in the tobacco industry. He
looked after his father's interests at Carrollton until
their business was sold to the Continental Tobacco
Company in 1909. After being retired from the busi-
ness for several years he established the R. M. Barker
Tobacco Company. This organization is said to be the
largest firm of dealers of tobacco in Carroll County,
and its redrying plant at Eleventh and Polk streets
is the largest concern of its kind in the state. The
company also does a general brokerage and commis-
sion business in leaf tobacco. R. M. Barker is presi-
dent, and the secretary and treasurer of the company
is B. F. Salt.
Mr. Barker has a number of interests in a business
way and is an owner of real estate in Carrollton and
elsewhere. He is a director in the Wood Tobacco
Warehouse Company of Carrollton, a director in the
new Burley Tobacco Warehouse Company of Carroll-
ton, is owner of a warehouse building on Polk Street
now occupied by the American Tobacco Company and
the R. J. Reynolds Company, owns the building occu-
pied by the Vogel Bakery Shop and owns the property
originally known as the Darling Distillery. His home
is on a fine farm on the Ghent Pike, a mile and a
half east of Carrollton, where he has two hundred and
fifty-nine acres. He is much interested in agricultural
affairs, a member of the Farmers Union and the Car-
roll County Farm Bureau.
Mr. Barker built and installed the first telephone
system at Carrollton, a system that was gradually ex-
tended over the adjoining rural district. He is an active
member and was the originator of the Commercial
Club of Carrollton. He served two years on the local
school board, was mayor of Carrollton four years, is
independent in politics and a member of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South. During the World war Mr.
Barker besides doing his part in the home drives vis-
ited every camp in the United States where there was
a recruit from Carroll County and bountifully supplied
them with tobacco and cigarettes. He is treasurer of
the organization which is planning to build a hospital,
largely from funds supplied by the tobacco men of
Carrollton.
Mr. Barker married Miss Margaret Evans, daughter
of T. D. and Ida (Gullion) Evans, residents of Car-
rollton, her father being general manager of the Wood
Tobacco Warehouse Company. Mr. Barker has one
son, Myron Irving, now a student in Cornell Univer-
sity at Ithaca, New York.
E. Morris Mansfield. The sterling business quali-
ties that serve to make a man successful in one impor-
tant line of effort may be depended upon to be helpful
in others. One of the clear-headed business men of
Carrollton, Kentucky, is E. Morris Mansfield, editor
and manager of the Carrollton Democrat. He is a man
of versatile gifts, and for years before coming to this
city had been identified with large enterprises else-
where. He is one of the forward-looking, capable
men who are never satisfied to travel in narrow chan-
nels,_ who have the courage to assume business respon-
sibilities in different directions, and possess the men-
tality and determination to bear them with credit.
E. Morris Mansfield was born January 19, 1881, in
Monroe County, Kentucky. His parents were James
Thomas and Ida (Williams) Mansfield, the latter of
whom was born in 1855, in Barren County, Kentucky,
and now resides at Fresno, California. Their two other
sons, Milton and Joseph, both reside at Fresno, the
former owning a public garage and the latter being a
clothing merchant.
James Thomas Mansfield was born in Virginia in
1827, obtained his education there and was in early
manhood when he started out in life for himself and
came to Kentucky. He remained in Barren County
until 1880, was married there and acquired a large
acreage of timber land and for some years operated
a sawmill. Afterward for more than a decade he was
in the drug business, conducting the leading drug store
at Fountain Run, at which place his death occurred
in 1894. Although always a business man rather than
a politician, he was interested in public affairs and
gave his support to the candidates of the democratic
party as a matter of principle. He was one of the
leading Masons of Monroe County, and was a faithful
and liberal member of the Baptist Church at Fountain
Run.
E. Morris Mansfield attended the local schools
through boyhood and then entered the high school at
Glasgow, Kentucky, from which he was graduated in
the class of 1898. The succeeding four years he spent
in Texas as an employe of the F. W. & D. C. Railroad
Company, at the expiration of that time returning to
Glasgow, Kentucky, where he was engaged in the drug
business for six years, and afterward for three years
conducted a drug business in the City of Louisville.
In 1915 Mr. Mansfield came to Carroll County and
followed farming for four years, scientific agriculture
always having much interest for him, and at the pres-
ent time he is secretary of the Carroll County Farm
Bureau.
242
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
In 1919 Mr. Mansfield accepted the position of man-
ager and editor of the Carrollton Democrat, one of
the older and leading newspapers of Northern Ken-
tucky. The paper was established in 1867, and plant
and offices are situated on Court Street, Carrollton.
It is owned by a stock company and its officials are
all men of substantial standing. The president of the
company is C. M. Dean; vice president, F. .Vories ;
secretary, M. Walton; treasurer, L. O. Harris; editor
and genera! manager, E. M. Mansfield. It is liberally
supported and has a wide circulation in Carroll and
adjoining counties. Its political policy is independent,
but Mr. Mansfield individually is a democrat. He is,
however, a vigorous writer on general as well as po-
litical questions, and maintains a high literary standard
for his journal. He has additional important business
interests, being senior partner of the firm of Mansfield
& Collins, liverymen at Carrollton, who own and conduct
the largest and best equipped livery barns, with all
modern accessories, in Carroll County. He has long
been identified with the tobacco growing industry and
is secretary of the National Tobacco Growers Asso-
ciation of the states of Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio and
Indiana. His numerous business responsibilities are
handled with business acumen and efficiency, and his
name is well known in both commercial and newspaper
circles.
At Louisville, Kentucky, in 1908, Mr. Mansfield was
married to Miss May Bond, who was born and reared
in Carrollton and was graduated from the high school
there. She is a daughter of Frank and Fannie (Bar-
rett) Bond, the latter of whom survives and lives at
Carrollton. Her father was widely known over the
state as a raiser of fine horses on his farm in Carroll
County, a noted animal being the famous Hamlet,
which broke many former records for speed.
Mr. and Mrs. Mansfield have four children, three
sons and one daughter: Lloyd, born in 1 910; Anna
Laura, born in 1912; Robert Barrett, born in 1915; and
John Morris, born in 1918. Mr. Mansfield and wife
were members of the Baptist Church and take an
active part in its various charitable and welfare agen-
cies. During the World war he steadily pursued the
path of duty, assisting in every possible way in the
furtherance of the various patriotic undertakings in
the county and investing liberally, to the extent of his
means, in stamps and bonds.
George Montgomery. The active and successful pur-
suit <>f business affairs for nearly a half century brings
to most men a wealth of useful experience and a sound-
ness of judgment that contribute materially to their
worth to their fellow men. in recognition of which they
are frequently and wisely selected for public offices of
responsibility. In this connection may be mentioned
one of the substantial and representative men of Car-
roll County. George Montgomery, who has been post-
master at Ghent, and is at the head of the extensive
hardware business conducted here under the style of
George Montgomery & Son.
George Montgomery was born in Gallatin County,
Kentucky. February 25, t8?.8, the youngest in a family
of seven children born to William and Elizabeth (Hog-
Montgomery. William Montgomery was born in
1820, in Gallatin County, on a farm adjoining the one
on which he died in 1885. His parents were John and
Mary (Bohannon) Montgomery, the former of whom
was born in Virginia, in 1789, came to Gallatin County
very early, served in the Mexican war and died on his
farm in the above county in 1874. William Mont-
gomery lived on his farm in Gallatin County, situated
four miles from Ghent, from the time of his marriage
until his death. He was an extensive and prosperous
farmer, a most worthy citizen and was held in high
regard by all who knew him. He was one of the early
members of the Masonic fraternity in this section, and
was a member and liberal supporter of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South. He married Elizabeth Hog-
gins, who was born in Gallatin County in 1823, and
at the time of her death, in April, 1912, was a member
of her son George's family. The latter's brothers and
sisters were : Ella, who resides at Louisville, Kentucky,
is the widow of Bennett Sanders; Mary Jane, who re-
sides near Brookville, Indiana, is the widow of W. H.
Bohannon, formerly a farmer in Gallatin County;
Amanda, who married Hiram Bohannon, died, as did
her husband, on their farm near Bagdad, Shelby County,
Kentucky ; Letha, who was the wife of George N.
Forsee, died on the home farm in Gallatin County, and
he died in Iowa ; John J., who died on the home farm
at the age of twenty-two years ; and William, who was
a farmer in Carroll County, two miles west of Ghent,
was accidentally drowned in the Ohio River at the age
of forty-four years.
George Montgomery attended the country schools and
also a seminary in Gallatin County, remaining with his
father on the home farm until he was twenty-three
years old. In 1882 he came to Ghent, and was en-
gaged in a general mercantile business here for three
years, then returned to the farm, which, off and on, he
conducted for thirty years, and subsequently inherited
a part of this property. This he sold in October, 1900,
when he returned to Ghent and became a factor in
the city's business life as a grocery merchant and
broker in life and fire insurance. After five years he
removed to Huntington, West Virginia, where for one
year he was bookkeeper and timekeeper for Harrison
& Dean, street paving contractors, and for the follow-
ing three years was cashier for the Natural Gas Com-
pany, now known as the United Fuel & Gas Company,
of that city.
In 191 1 Mr. Montgomery returned to Ghent and fol-
lowed farming until 1914, in which year he was ap-
pointed postmaster and purchased his hardware store
of Scott Brothers. He has built up an extensive busi-
ness connection in the hardware line and does the
largest business in Carroll County. Since 1920 his son,
R. O. Montgomery, has been his equal partner, and the
firm name of George Montgomery & Son has high
standing in commercial circles.
At Ghent, Kentucky, May 5, 1880, Mr. Montgomery
was married to Miss Mamie Orr, a daughter of Richard
and Lucy (Ellis) Orr, both deceased. Mr. Orr having
been a tobacco dealer. Mr. and Mrs. Montgomery have
had two children: R. O., who was born February 14,
[885, is his father's business partner; and Bessie, who
died when aged eighteen years.
In 1900 Mr. Montgomery bought the substantial hotel
building which stands on the corner of Main-Cross
and Liberty streets, which has been under Mr-. Mont-
gomery's able management practically ever since and
is acknowledged to be the best conducted hotel in
Northern Kentucky. Mr. Montgomery has been a life-
long democrat and a Mason since 1879. During the
World war he was active in every patriotic movement
and did his full duty.
Brntamin F. Egelstox. Like many other represen-
tative families of Kentucky, that of Egelston was
founded here by pioneers from Virginia, and for gen-
erations members of it have been prominent and useful
in various vocations, particularly in Kenton and Gal-
latin counties. A widely known representative of this
family is Hon. Benjamin F. Egelston, postmaster at
Glencoe and an ex-member of the Kentucky State
Legislature, in which he served with notable efficiency,
faithfully conserving the interests of his constituents.
Benjamin F. Egelston was born March 18, i860, at
Brashear, Gallatin County, Kentucky, second son of
James A. and Agnes (Shires) Egelston. His father
was born in 1826, at Covington. Kentucky, a son of
Benjamin Egelston, who was born in 1792, in Kenton
County, and died at Covington in 1867, in which city
he spent almost all his life, although extensively in-
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
243
terested in agricultural pursuits in his native county.
His father was a native of Virginia and had come to
Kenton County in early manhood. James A. Egelston
made his home in the City of Covington until 1858,
when he removed to Gallatin County, in 1861 returning
to Covington, where his death followed in 1868. Dur-
ing all his active business life he held a reliable posi-
tion as salesman for a wholesale hardware bouse of
Cincinnati, Ohio. He was a life-long democrat, and
during the war between the states was a supporter of
the Confederacy, and for a long period was a member
of the Masonic fraternity, being a Knight Templar.
He married Miss Agnes Shires, who was born Feb-
ruary 28, 1821, in the old City of Strassburg, Germany,
and was brought to the United States by her parents
in 1826. They settled in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she
was reared and educated. Six children were born to
James A. Egelston and his wife, namely: Minnie, who
died at Louisville, Kentucky, at the age of thirty-two
years, was the wife of John Harp ; James, who is a
resident of Frankfort, Kentucky, is cashier for the
Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company; Benjamin
F. ; Susie, who died when twelve years old ; Clara, who
resides at Covington, is the w'dow of Alva M. Slaugh-
ter, formerly a farmer and a director of the Tobacco
Equity Society of Kentucky: and Nellie, who is the
wife of W. L. Stautner, cashier of a bank at Lynch-
burg, Ohio. After the death of her husband, Mrs.
Egelston returned to Gallatin County and later was
married to the late G. W. Noel, a merchant at Glencoe,
where he died. They had one child, Mary, who sur-
vived but one year. Mrs. Noel still resides at Glencoe.
Benjamin F. Egelston attended school at Glencoe
until sixteen years old, and after that had practical
business training as a clerk in his stepfather's store
for three years. From 1881 to 1886 he was engaged
with a Cincinnati clothing house as a traveling sales-
man, afterward being interested along oiher lines until
1893, when he was appointed postmaster at Glencoe by
President Cleveland and served four years in this
office. In 1897 Mr. Egelston embarked in a general
mercantile business at Glencoe, which he continued
until 1012. when he sold out, in the fall of 191 1 having
been elected representative from Gallatin and Carr ill
counties to the State Legislature. As chairman of the
committee on public warehouses and granaries and as
a member of the public education and other important
committees he honestly did his part to bring about
legislation in the public interest. In 1914 he started
in the hardware business at Glencoe, which he con-
tinued to oversee until 1918, when he turned it over
to his son, J. C, in order to give all his attention to
public duties, as «n 1014 he had been appointed post-
master by President Wilson, an office he has filled
ever since.
Mr. Egelston was married in 1886. at Owenton, Ken-
tucky, to Miss Kittie Kenney, daughter of James and
Mary (Brown) Kenney, both now deceased, Mr. Ken-
ney formerly being a farmer in Owen County. Mr.
and Mrs. Egelston have two sons : C. Y., who is a
merchant at Glencoe ; and J. C, who is a city sales-
man for the Caloric Furnace Companv of Cincinnati.
J. C. Egelston enlisted in the United States Navy for
service in the World war. in June, 1918, was a yoeman
at Great Lakes, Chicago, and was mustered out in
December, 1010.
All his political life a loyal democrat, Mr. Egelston
has served his party and country to the best of his
ability. He was exceedingly active during the con-
tinuance of the World war in patriotic effort, and no
other citizen according to his means more conscien-
tiously or energetically supported the various move-
ments. Although interested in many movements out-
side of Glencoe, the everyday needs of his city are
given first attention, and as a member of the Board
of School Trustees he has worked faithfully in the
cause of education, and as a member of the town board
Vol. V— 23
the general welfare has been carefully looked after.
Mr. Egelston is prominent in fraternal organizations.
He is a thirty-second degree Mason, and belongs to
Indra Consistory No. 2, Covington, and to Glencoe
Lodge No. 498, F. and A. M., of which he is a past
master. He is a past grand of Eagle Valley Lodge of
Odd Fellows at Glencoe.
Although farming has never been his main occupa-
tion, Mr. Egelston has maintained a wholesome inter-
est in agricultural pursuits, and his farm of fifty acres,
situated northeast of Glencoe, is valuable property
and a profitable investment. He has other real estate,
including a modern residence on Railroad Street, and
another dwelling and two store buildings at Glencoe.
Mr. Egelston and family belong to the Baptist Church.
Robert Pierce Thomas, M. D. If there is one man
more worthy of sincere respect and profound esteem
than another in the field of life's activities it is the
faithful and conscientious physician who, turning aside
from many other more profitable vocations, has de-
voted himself for years to the amelioration of the
physical ills of mankind. He occup:es the unique
position in a community of being its most important
citizen, whatever may be his financial or social stand-
ing, for power, prestige, wealth and high estate are
as nothing when weighed by the sick or injured against
his professional knowledge and skill. To have ade-
quately and modestly filled this position for almost a
half century is the record of achievement that belongs
to Dr. Robert Pierce Thomas, who has spent over
twenty-two years of his active professional life at
Glencoe, Kentucky.
Doctor Thomas was born February 7, 1852, on a
farm thre£-quarters of a mile west of Glencoe, in
Gallatin County, Kentucky. His parents were J. C.
and Frances Ann (Lewis) Thomas, and his paternal
grandfather was Capt. John Thomas, a descendant of
an English Thomas who settled in Maryland in Colon-
ial times. Captain Thomas was born m Maryland in
1801, and from there accompanied his parents to Boone
County, Kentucky, in 1830 removed to Owen County
and prior to his death, in 1867, to Shelby County. In
Boone County he was married to Elizabeth Castleman,
a daughter of John Castleman, a tanner and farmer
in Boone County, her death occurring in Owen County.
J. C. Thomas was born August 17, 1827, on his
father's farm situated three miles north of Burlington,
Boone County, and he died in October, 1906, in Gal-
latin County, Kentucky. In childhood he accompanied
his parents to Owen County, where he lived until
1849, during some years being a merchant at Poplar
Grove, but in the main spending his life as a farmer.
In 1849 he came to a farm situated three-quarters of
a mile west of Glencoe in Gallatin County, on which
he resided until 1855, when he removed to Knox Coun-
ty, Missouri, where he engaged in farming for ten
years. In 1865 he returned to Gallatin County, locating
on his former farm, and continued there until the
close of his life. He was a man of sterling character
and marked intelligence, and for many years was an
important factor in local democratic circles, serving
as a magistrate in Gallatin County for eight years and
in the same capacity in Knox County, Missouri. At
the age of twenty-two he united with the Baptist
Church, and was a faithful member all the rest of his
life, and for fifty years he belonged to the Masonic
fraternity.
J. C. Thomas was married in Owen County to Fran-
ces Ann Lewis, who was born in Woodford County,
Kentucky, April 22, 1832, and died at Glencoe, Ken-
tucky, April 16, 1918. They had a family of eleven
children, as follows : J. E., who is a farmer in Owen
County, lives at New Liberty ; Robert Pierce ; Annie
Eliza, who died unmarried on the home farm when
aged fifty-one years; L. E., who is a retired farmer
living at Glencoe ; William G., who now follows car-
244
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
pentering at Louisville, Kentucky, was formerly a
farmer and later a railroad man ; Alfred M., who was
a carpenter by trade, was accidentally killed in the
Roth Packing Company's plant, Cincinnati, Ohio; Vir-
gil, who is a resident of Louisville, was a hardware
merchant at Versailles, Kentucky, until ioio; Gertrude,
who is the wife of Luther Wilson, of Indianapolis,
Indiana, mill owner and manufacturer of tin and sheet
metal products; John, who died of typhoid fever on
the home farm, was twenty-eight years old ; Mrs. Stella
Frye, who lives at Louisville ; and Nellie, who is the
wife of Norton Grubbs, a banker and successful busi-
ness man of Argvle, Wisconsin.
Robert Pierce Thomas attended the Gallatin County
schools and was graduated from the high school at
Glencoe in 1873. He then entered the medical depart-
ment of the University of Louisville, and was gradu-
ated in the class of 1875, in the same year taking his
addendum degree in the medical department of Tran-
svlvania University at Lexington. Kentucky. Immedi-
ately afterward lie entered into medical practice in
Owen County, two years later removing to Grant
County where he remained for twenty-two years, and
then settled at Glencoe, where he is the dean of his
profession. He is a. member of the Gallatin County
and the Kentucky State Medical Societies, and of the
American Medical Association.
Doctor Thomas married April II, 1878, in Grant
County, Kentucky, Miss Aggie Collins, who died in
1897. She was a daughter of John A. and Julia (Clark)
Collins, the former of whom was a farmer and a large
distiller, and was instrumental in the building of a part
of the Covington and Lexington Turnpike road. Doctor
Thomas married at Covington, Kentucky, October 12,
1 So*. Miss Marguerite Maude Price, a daughter of
Nicholas and Elizabeth (Jones) Price, natives of Wales
and both deceased. Mr. Price passed his life as a roll-
ing mill man. Doctor and Mrs. Thomas have one
son, Robert T., who was born August 12,1900. He is
now a resident of Covington, where he is a superin-
tendent of a cigar factory. During the World war,
because of his knowledge of chemistry, he was em-
ployed in a nitro-glycerine plant in Virginia.
In politics Doctor Thomas has been a life-long demo-
crat. He has never desired a public office, and the
duties of his profession have mainly absorbed his
time. During the World war, however, he gave liber-
ally of his time and resources to speed the cause,
setting an example of loyal citizenship that was most
commendable. He is a thirty-second degree Mason,
and a member of Glencoe Lodge No. 498, P. and A. M.
and of the Chapter, Commandery and Consistory at
Covington. He belongs also to El Hasa Temple, Mys-
tic Shrine, at Ashland, Kentucky. Additionally he be-
longs to Glencoe Chapter, O. E. S. ; to Williamstown
Lodge No. 74, Knights of Pythias, of which he is a
past chancellor commander; ar\d to Glencoe Council.
J. O. U. A. M. He is a member of the Christian
Church, in which he has served as elder for a number
of years. In addition to a modern residence and office
on South Main Street, Glencoe, Doctor Thomas owns
a valuable farm of eighty acres situated just south of
the corporate limits of Glencoe, on which he raises
tobacco, cattle and horses. During his long and benefi-
cent professional life Doctor Thomas has had occa-
sion to rejoice over marvelous advances made in his
beloved science, and has guardedly kept abreast with
new methods and modern theories.
Jesse Benjamin Manor. M. D. There is nothing
remarkable in the fact that usually the physicians of
any community are numbered among its leading citi-
zens, for the rigid training necessary in order that a
man enter the most exacting calling of medicine, so
develops his mentality that he is fitted to assume other
responsibilities in a capable manner, and his associates
soon recognize this and ask his assistance in their enter-
prises. Placing a true value upon civic development,
the conscientious physician is naturally anxious to secure
for his home town the advantages coming from a
proper sanitary protection, and so exerts himself in
public affairs. Dr. Jesse Benjamin Manor of La
Center, belongs to this class of enterprising men, and
in addition to carrying on his practice is president of
the Bank of La Center, and is extensively engaged in
farming and stockraising on his valuable farm one mile
west of La Center.
Doctor Manor was born in Todd County, Kentucky,
March 22, 1855, a son of William Clark Manor, and
grandson of David Manor. The Manors came from
England to Virginia during the Colonial period of this
country's history. David Manor was born in the
Shenandoah Valley in 1776, and died there in 1862.
He was a planter, and large landowner. His maternal
grandfather, a Mr. Clark, was killed in the American
Revolution. The Clarks were originally from Scot-
land. David Manor married a Miss Clark.
William Clark Manor was born in the Shenadoah
Valley, Virginia, May 22. 1816, on the large plantation
owned by his father, and died near La Center, Ken-
tucky, April 24. 1908. He was reared in Virginia, and
married at Baltimore, Maryland, following which, in
1847, he moved to Todd County, Kentucky, and was
one of the early farmers of that region. In 1859 he
made another change, this time coming to Ballard
County, and settling on a farm midway between Barlow
and La Center, where he was successfully engaged in
farming for many years. Subsequently he bought a
second farm near his original one, and owned at the
time of his death 197 acres of land. He was a demo-
crat, and served as a magistrate for many years. The
Christian Church had in him one of its most earnest
members and effective workers, and he was always very
generous in his donations to it. Fraternally he main-
tained membership with the Masons. William_ Clark
Manor was married to Mary E. Ferguson, born in Vir-
ginia in 1821, and she died on the home farm in
January, 1881. Their children were as follows: Robert
Ferguson, who was a merchant, died at Dallas, Texas,
in 1912, when about sixty-five years old, as he was born
in 1847; John William, who was born in 1849, lives at
Barlow, Kentucky, having retired from farming and
merchandising ; Hannah Jane, who married G. A.
N'orthington. died at Hazelwood, Ballard County, Ken-
tucky, as did her husband, he having been a merchant
and tobacconist and operator of 1,500 acres of land, the
main portion of it being in the vicinity of La Center;
lesse Benjamin, whose name heads this review; Mary
Elizabeth, who married Rev. J. B. Cook, now on the
superannuated list of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
lives at Warsaw, Indiana; and Albert Branham, a real
estate broker, who lives in Arkansas.
Doctor Manor attended the rural schools of Ballard
County, and for several years was engaged in teaching
school. He then entered Washington University at
St. Louis, Missouri, and was graduated from its med-
ical department in 1882 with the degree of Doctor of
Medicine. Immediately after receiving his degree
Doctor Manor began practicing at Hazlewood, and re-
mained there until 1887, when he moved to his present
home, one mile west of La Center. He owns his modern
residence, which is located on a farm of 450 acres, and
he also owns 200 acres addition in the river bottom.
He carries on a general farming and stockraising busi-
ness, specializing on a standard breed of horses, and
pure Ohio Improved Chester hogs. While he is deeply
interested in his agricultural activities, he carries on a
large practice, and is recognized as one of the leading
members of the medical fraternity in Ballard County.
Professionally he maintains membership in the Ballard
County Medical Society, the Kentucky State Medical
Society, the American Medical Association and the
/
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
245
Southwest Medical Association. Doctor Manor is presi-
dent of the Bank of La Center which he helped to
organize, succeeding the first president, J. M. Skinner,
who held the office during the first two years of the
bank's history. This bank was established in Novem-
ber, 1903, as a state bank, and its officers, in addition
to Doctor Manor, are : J. D. Rollings, vice president,
and F. C. Lovelace, cashier. This bank has a capital
of $15,000; surplus and undivided profits of $30,000;
and deposits of $225,000. In politics Doctor Manor is
a democrat.
On July 26, 1903, Doctor Manor was united in mar-
riage with Miss Minnie Tanner at Barlow, Kentucky.
She was a daughter of James M. and Sarah (Viets)
Tanner. Mr. Tanner was one of the early farmers of
the Barlow region, but is now deceased. His widow
survives him and makes her home at Barlow. Mrs.
Manor died January 2, 1912. Doctor and Mrs. Manor
became the parents of the following children : Ben-
jamin Franklin, who died when he lacked but two days
of being three months old; Robert Ferguson, who was
born January 22, 1906; William G., who was born
April 3, 1907; Mary Frances, who died at the age of
two and one-half months; and Jessie Eleanor, who died
at the age of three months:
Joe K. Nesbit. To attain success in life through
individual effort is something to be proud of, and in
America it is a badge of honor to be called a self-made
man. Such a term may be justly applied to Joe K.
Nesbit, County and Circuit Court clerk of Gallatin
County, Kentucky, and owner and proprietor of a large
and important business enterprise at Warsaw. Mr.
Nesbit was born at Tuscola, Douglas County, Illinois,
January 24, 1865. His parents were F. F. and Kate
(Kirby) Nesbit.
F. F. Nesbit was born in Harrison County, Kentucky,
in 1820, a son of Samuel Nesbit, who settled in Harrison
County at a very early day and died there when F. F.
Nesbit was a boy. The latter moved to Grant County,
Kentucky, in early manhood and engaged in merchan-
dising until 1864, in that year locating at Tuscola,
Illinois, where for four years, in partnership with a
Mr. Chambers, he owned and operated a general store.
In 1868 he came to Warsaw, and was the leading mer-
chant here until his retirement in 1889, his death follow-
ing in 1904. In his early political life he was a democrat
but in later years became affiliated with the republican
party. He served four years as constable of the Warsaw
district. He was a man of true Christian principles,
a faithful member of the Methodist Episcopal Church
and for twenty years was secretary of the Sunday
School at Warsaw. He belonged to Tadmore Lodge
No. 108, F. and A. 'M., of which he was a past master,
and to Kentucky Lodge No. 39, Odd Fellows, of which
he was a past grand.
F. F. Nesbit was married first in Grant County,
Kentucky, to a Miss Byers, who died in that county, the
mother of two children: Clarence C, who died at the
age of fifty years in St. Louis, Missouri, where he was
in business as a real estate broker; and Lizzie, who was
the wife of a Mr. Roberts and died in Florida. Mr.
Nesbit married for his second wife Kate Kirby, who
was born in 1822, in Bourbon County, Kentucky, and
died at Warsaw in 1900. There were four children
born to this marriage : A daughter who died in infancy ;
Joe K. ; Walter F., who is a contractor and decorator
residing at San Diego, California; and Sallie R., who
resides with her brother Joe K. and looks after his
home comforts, neither having married.
Joe K. Nesbit was three years old when the family
came to Warsaw, which place, like others, was in a
process of adjustment after the close of the Civil war.
When twelve years old he began to be self-supporting,
finding work on the farm of J. H. McDaniel, near War-
saw, where he remained for six years and going then
to the farm of S. D. Godman in the southern part of
Gallatin County, where he remained three years. In
the meanwhile, determined to obtain a good education,
he applied himself to study and reading under the super-
intendence for a time of Reverend Speers, and while
many youths of his age were spending their evenings
in pursuit of pleasure he was busy with his books.
Mr. Nesbit was about twenty-one years old when he
went to work for David Carr, tobacconist, at Warsaw,
with whom he remained for ten years, going then to
the firm of William Taaffe & Son, undertakers, and
when Mr. Taaffe died in 1897 he bought the business
from Mrs. Taaffe and has conducted it ever since.
He has modernized the business, has introduced special
features of service, owns a fine undertaking parlor on
Main Street, and practically has no competitor in funeral
directing in the county. He is a licensed embalmer and
was appointed by Governor 'McCredry to fill out the
unexpired term of Stanley Milward on the State Board
of Embalmers, serving one year.
In political life Mr. Nesbit has always been a democrat.
Under appointment he served as deputy County Court
Clerk and deputy Circuit Court Clerk of Gallatin County
from January, 1906, until January, 1910. In November,
1909, he was elected County and Circuit Court Clerk,
and assumed the duties of his office in January, 1910,
and his efficiency may be judged by the fact that he
was re-elected in 1913 and 1917, the terms covering
four years. Mr. Nesbit's offices are in the court house
at Warsaw, where his fellow citizens always meet with
intelligent attention and courteous treatment.
Mr. Nesbit is a member of Tadmore Lodge No. 108,
F. and A. M.( Warsaw, of which he is a past master ;
Warsaw Chapter No. 97, R. A. M., of which he is a
past high priest ; Covington Commandery No. 7, K. T. ;
and El Hassa Temple, Mystic Shrine, Ashland, Ken-
tucky. He belongs also to Gallatin Lodge No. 95, Odd
Fellows, Napoleon, Kentucky, of which is a past grand ;
and Warsaw Council No. 147, J. O. U. A. M. Mr. Nes-
bit is the owner of several valuable properties, these
including his place of business, his comfortable modern
residence on Pearl Street, and one-third of the Odd
Fellows Cemetery plot at Warsaw. During the World
war he was active and prominent in the patriotic move-
ments that had so much to do with its fortunate termina-
tion, being one of the willing and unselfish workers for
the great cause. He served as chairman of the Gallatin
County Draft Board and also was chairman of the Gal-
latin County Council of Defense. Mr. Nesbit attends
the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Will Barton, secretary and manager of the Pure
Ice & Coal Company of Russellville, is one of the
sound business men of Logan County, and one whose
career is connected with some of the most constructive
development of this region. He was born in Kentucky,
August 12, 1870, while his father was assisting in con-
structing the Louisville & Nashville Railroad between
New Orleans, Louisiana, and Russellville, Kentucky. He
is a son of James Barton, and a grandson of Robin
Wallace who was born in England, and died near
Kilashandra, County Cavan, Ireland, where he was en-
gaged in farming. He married Jane Ann Graham, who
was of English descent, and died in County Cavan,
Ireland. The paternal grandmother, Mrs. Susan Ann
Barton, also died in County Cavan, Ireland, where she
was a practicing physician.
James Barton was born in Scotland in 1827, and died
near Russellville, Kentucky, in 1872. He was reared in
Scotland and Ireland, and was married at Liverpool,
England, when only nineteen years of age, and imme-
diately thereafter came to the United States. Entering
into business with the Louisville & Nashville Railroad
as a railroad contractor, he continued with this corpora-
tion the remainder of his life. In all of his dealings
he was rigorously honest, and throughout his life showed
246
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
the effects of the excellent training he had received in
a military school in Scotland. After being naturalized
he espoused the principles of the democratic party, and
thereafter supported them. A Church of England man,
he transferred his membership to the Episcopal Church
after his arrival in the United States. He was married
to Isabella Wallace, who was born in County Cavan,
Ireland, in 1829, and died at Russellville, in 1905. She
was always a strong supporter of the Methodist Epis-
copal Church. Their children were as follows: Mar-
garet, who is unmarried, keeps house for her brother.
Will; John, who owns a job-printing business at Macon,
Georgia ; Mary Ann, who died unmarried at Russell-
ville; Robert, who was a harness cutter, died at Louis-
ville, Kentucky, aged forty-two years; Will, who was
the fifth in order of birth; James, who was a printer,
died at New Orleans, Louisiana ; and four others who
died when very young.
Beginning his educational training in a private school,
Mr. Barton completed it in the public schools of Rus-
sellville, but left school when only fourteen years old,
and entered the printing office of the village. Not liking
the trade, he only remained there a short time, and then
tried other occupations until he entered the telephone
business in 1898, and assisted in putting in the first tele-
phone system in Russellville. He owned it in partner-
ship with Judge W. Clark and others. In 1000 he sold
his interests and for fifteen months conducted a livery
business, under the firm name of Hutchings & Barton.
Mr. Barton then entered the service of the Pure Ice &
Coal Company, representing the Sinclair interests, as
secretary and treasurer. Two years later he bought
the half interest in the plant owned by G. Cooksey, who,
with his wife and Edward Sinclair, established the plant
in 1901. At present Mr. Barton is half owner, secretary
and manager of this company, which is incorporated,
with R. F. 'McCuddy as president, Dr. Walter Byrne,
Senior, as treasurer, and Mr. Barton in full control of
the business. The plant and offices are on West Second
Street. Russellville, and it has a capacity of fifteen tons
every twenty-four hours. In addition to marketing the
output of the plant, the company handles coal at retail,
and the business in both lines has been developed to
large proportions. Mr. Barton is a democrat, and was
ill cicd on his party ticket to the city council in 1919,
but immediately resigned. He affiliates with the Metho-
dist Episcopal Church, and is an active supporter of it.
Fraternally he belongs to Russellville Lodge No. 17,
A. F. & A. M. ; Russellville Chapter No. 8, R. A. M. ;
Owensboro Commandery No. 15, K. T. : Kosair Temple.
A. A. O. N. M. S. ; Louisville Consistory, in which
he has been raised to the thirty-second degree ; Amelia
Lodge No. 56, K. of P., of which he is past chancellor,
and he is a Pythian veteran, having been a member in
good standing for over twenty-five years; and- Bowling
Green Lodge No. 320, B. P. O. E. He owns a modern
residence on East Second Street, where he and his sister
maintain a comfortable home. During the late war he
took an active part in the Logan County war work,
buying bonds and war savings stamps and contributing
to all of the organizations to the limit of his means.
For three years he served as a member of the Kentucky
State Guards, and while serving in this regiment, he was
at the inauguration of Governor Beckham. Mr. Barton
is not married.
H. M. Blackburn. Known all over Warren County
as a general merchant and as vice president of the
Peoples State Bank of Woodburn, H. M. Blackburn
is entitled to the position he holds in his community
of being one of its most successful citizens. His capa-
bilities are such that he has not found sufficient outlet
for his talents in private life, and has been able to
discharge in an eminently acceptable manner the duties
pertaining to several public offices.
H. 'M. Blackburn was born in Allen County, Ken-
tucky, January 5, 1846, a son of William Blackburn am]
grandson of Robert Blackburn, who was born in North
Carolina, and died in Allen County prior to the birth oi
his grandson, having been a very early farmer of that
region. The Blackburn family originated in Scotland,
from which country they emigrated to the American
Colonies at an early day and located in North Carolina.
William Blackburn was born in Allen County, Decem-
ber 4, 1808, and died in Allen County, January 3, 1870,
having spent his life in that county, where he was ex-
tensively engaged in farming. First a whig, he later
became a democrat. During the war between the two
sections of the country he was a Union sympathizer,
and served as magistrate of his district. He married
first Cynthia Cockrell, who was born and died in Allen
county, having borne her husband children as follows:
Emily, who died in Kansas; Lemuel, who died in Texas;
and Robert Bruce, who lives at Mayfield, Kentucky,
where he is working as a carpenter. William Blackburn
married for his second wife Mrs. Jane (Billingsley )
Goodnight, widow of Henry Goodnight, a farmer of
Allen County. She was born in Tennessee, January 23,
181 2, and died in Allen County, in 1867. By his second
marriage William Blackburn had the following children:
John, who died at Woodburn, in February, 1912, was
manager of the Nave-Spillers Company, wholesale pro-
duce dealers ; Cynthia, who married Ira Wrenn, a
farmer, died in Warren County, as did her husband :
an unnamed infant son; H. M., who was fourth in order
of birth; William Loving, who was a school-teacher,
died at Woodburn in 1885 ; and Finis, who died in child-
hood. By her first marriage Mrs. Blackburn had two
children, namely: James Paris Goodnight, who died in
Texas, was a farmer; and Mary Elizabeth Goodnight,
who married John H. Collins, a farmer, constable ami
county court clerk of Allen County at different periods
before he retired to Bowling Green, Kentucky, where
both he and his wife died.
H. M. Blackburn attended the rural schools of Allen,
Warren and Simpson counties and a private school at
Bowling Green, and at the age of nineteen years, began
acquiring a practical knowledge of the world as a clerk
in a general store at Woodburn, where he remained
for six months. For four months he was in Simpson
County, and then entered the general store owned by
his brother, John B., and continued with him until
1869. For the subsequent year he was engaged in farm-
ing, but returned to the Woodburn store for two years.
Once more he engaged in farming, and was thus occu-
pied in Warren County for a period of five years. Then,
March 30, 1878, he embarked in a mercantile business
with J. M. Wilkerson of Woodburn, which association
continued for nearly five years. On March 8, 1883,
Mr. Blackburn formed a partnership with E. B. Stuart
in the same line of business, but in September, 1896,
Mr. Blackburn acquired his partner's interest by pur-
chase, and since then has been sole proprietor of the
store, which he has built up into being the leading one
of its kind in Warren County. He owns his large
store building on the southwest corner of the Public
Square. In addition to his mercantile pursuits, Mr.
Blackburn has other interests and is vice president and
a director of the Peoples State Bank of Woodburn, and
is a stockholder of the American National Bank of
Bowling Green. He owns his comfortable modern resi-
dence at Woodburn. Prominent as a democrat he served
as town trustee of Woodburn, and as postmaster during
the second administration of President Cleveland. For
many years he has been a member of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South, and is treasurer of the con-
gregation at Woodburn. A Mason he belongs to Harney
Lodge No. 343, A. F. and A. M., and he is also a mem-
ber of Woodburn Chapter No. 42, O. E. S., of which
lie is past worthy patron; and Warren Lodge No. 31,
Knights of Pythias, of which he is past chancellor.
During the late war he was one of the zealous workers
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
247
in behalf of the Warren County war activities, and as-
sisted in raising funds in all of the drives. He bought
bonds and war savings stamps, and contributed to the
various organizations to the full extent of his means.
Mr. Blackburn was married first in 1869, in Warren
County, to Miss Amanda Deupree, a daughter of James
R. and Lucinda (Edmondson) Deupree, both of whom
are now deceased. Mr. Deupree was a merchant and
postmaster of Woodbury at one time. The first Mrs.
Blackburn died June 19, 1884, having borne her hus-
band two children, namely: James W., who is a dentist
of Bowling Green ; and John Henry, a physician and
surgeon of Bowling Green. He is a veteran of the
great war, having served overseas in France for five
months, and was mustered out with the rank of major.
On October 20, 1891, Mr. Blackburn was married, at
Woodburn, to Miss Mollie Robinson, a daughter of C.
M. and Elizabeth (Whitesides) Robinson, both of whom
are deceased. During his lifetime Mr. Robinson was a
farmer, but he was retired at the time of his death.
There are no children of the second marriage.
Mr. Blackburn is a man who has always been able
to wage a spirited competition in business, although
actuated at all times by common fairness and con-
ducting his operations with common sense. Possessing
the mental capacity to swing important deals, he has
always been a forceful factor in his community. No
matter how long he has had to wait to see the fruition
of his projects, he has had the perseverance to con-
tinue, and not only has attained a material prosperity,
but that which is infinitely of more importance than the
mere accumulation of money, the esteem and confidence
of those with whom he has been associated in both
business and politics. His various undertakings have
given him a better understanding and greater tolerance
and these have but added to his prestige and enabled
him to secure the co-operation for definite and well-
ordered purposes from the best men in this part of
the state.
F. M. Ashby. Not every man is fitted to discharge
the onerous duties pertaining to the office of sheriff
for the responsibilities are heavy and call for many
qualities not possessed by the common run. Daring
courage, unflinching integrity, utter fearlessness and a
profound respect for the laws and an unalterable de-
termination to enforce them and bring to justice those
who infringe against them, are some of the character-
istics an efficient and dependable sheriff must possess
if he live up to the obligations of his oath of office.
F. M. Ashby, sheriff of Ballard County is a man who
measures up to the above standards in a marked degree
and is handling the affairs of his office in such a manner
as to win the approval of his fellow citizens, and to
reflect great credit upon his administration.
Sheriff Ashby was born in Hopkins County, Kentucky,
November 6, 1863, a son of T. E. Ashby, a grandson of
Willoughby Ashby, and great-grandson of the founder
of the family in Hopkins County, and the man. for
whom Ashbyburg was named. The Ashbys came origi-
nally from England to the American Colonies, and
settled in Virginia. Willoughby Ashby was born in
Hopkins County, Kentucky, and died in that county
at a date prior to his grandson's birth. He was one
of the early farmers of his neighborhood, and was there
married to Miss Priscilla Morton, who was born and
died in Hopkins County, Kentucky. One of Sheriff
Ashby's great uncles, Ennis Ashby, was the first white
child born in Hopkins County. He died in 1873, and
the sheriff re.members him very well.
T. E. Ashby was born in Hopkins County, Kentucky,
in 1832, and died in the same county in 1870, and he
was there reared, married and spent all of his life,
being engaged in farming. In politics he was a demo-
crat. During the war between the North and the South,
he espoused the cause of the former section and fought
as a soldier in the Union army for six months.
T. E. Ashby was married to Mary I. Crabtree, who
was born in Hopkins County, in 1835, and she died in
that county in 1917 having survived her husband many
years. Their children were as follows : J. W., who
lives at Evansville, Indiana, where he is foreman of an
implement company ; W. E., ex-sheriff of Hopkins
County, who is now chief of police of Madisonville,
Kentucky ; L. L., who is a contractor and builder of
Madisonville, Kentucky; Sheriff Ashby, who was fourth
in order of birth ; H. M, who is a carpenter and builder
of Missouri ; T. E., who is also a carpenter and
builder of Missouri ; and Cora, who died at the age
of seven years.
Sheriff Ashby was reared in his native county and
attended its schools, living on his mother's farm until
he reached his majority, when he began farming on his
own account, and carried on extensive operations in
Hopkins and Webster counties until 1894 when he came
to Ballard County, and from February of that year has
been connected with the agricultural activities of this
region ever since. He now owns a valuable farm near
Barlow, which contains eighty-three acres of land. In
addition to his farm Sheriff Ashby owns his modern
residence at Wickliffe, which is surrounded by two acres
of land. He is a democrat and was elected on his
party ticket sheriff of Ballard County in November,
1917, and took office in January, 1918, for a term of
four years. His offices are in the courthouse.
The Methodist Episcopal Church holds Sheriff
Ashby's membership and receives his loyal support.
During the period of the great war, he took an active
part in all of the local war work, helping very effec-
tively to put all of the Liberty Loan and other drives
over the top. His interest has long been centered in
Ballard County, and he can always be depended upon
to render any assistance necessary to carry out those
projects for the advancement of the neighborhood,
which he believes are of a practical character, although
he is- decidedly opposed to a reckless expenditure of
the taxpayers' money without any adequate return to
them on the investment.
In September, 1891, Sheriff Ashby was united in
marriage with Miss Lula M. Dunville, at Evansville,
Indiana. They have three children, namely : Jack L.,
who is a deputy sheriff under his father, resides at
Wickliffe: Helen Morton, who is a graduate of the
Ballard County High School, is at home; and Elizabeth,
who was born March 4, 1914. Jack L. Ashby is one
of the veterans of the great war, having entered the
service in April, 1918, and was first sent to Indianapolis,
Indiana, and from there to Dayton, Ohio, and finally to
Selfridge Field, Michigan. He was in the aerial branch
of the service, and received his honorable discharge in
April, 1919, following which he returned home, and is
now doing effective work as his father's deputy.
Mrs. Ashby's father, Richard Dunville, was born
in Hopkins County, Kentucky, in 1804, in that portion
of the county which was later made Webster County,
and he died there in 1871. All of his life was spent
in that region, and he developed extensive agricultural
interests, and in antebellum days was a large slave-
holder. At one time he was the largest landowner and
slaveowner of Webster County, and paid into the county
coffers the largest amount of taxes. He married Miss
Sallie Morris, born at Frankfort, Kentucky, who sur-
vives her husband, and makes her home near Slaughters-
ville, Webster County, Kentucky.
Thomas Minor Ellis. Thirty years of the active
life of Thomas Minor Ellis have been devoted to the
flour milling industry. He is one of the owners of the
leading mills of Logan County at Russellville, has been
a miller of that city for seventeen years, and in later
years has taken an active part financially and in the
management of several other business organizations.
248
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
He is a citizen of the highest standing and widely known
over this part of Southern Kentucky.
Mr. Ellis was born near New Roe, Allen County,
Kentucky, September 26, 1857. His family has been
in Kentucky and Tennessee nearly a century. His pa-
ternal ancestors were Scotch-Irish, and settled in Cul-
peper County, Virginia, where his grandfather Samuel
Ellis was born in 1790. Samuel Ellis served as a soldier
in the War of 1812. Coming west he lived in Sumner
County, Tennessee, for a number of years, and after-
wards located in Simpson County, Kentucky, where he
followed farming until his death near Temperance in
1882. He married a Miss Gaines, a native of Allen
County, Kentucky, who died in Simpson County. F. E.
Ellis, father of the Russellville miller, was born in
Sumner County, Tennessee, in 1835 and had a long and
honorable career. He grew up and married in Allen
County, followed farming, but in 1864 moved to the
vicinity of Temperance in Simpson County where he
devoted many years to the management and cultivation
of his farm. He died in that locality in 1918. He was
a democrat, one of the active supporting members of
the Methodist Episcopal Church South in his section,
and was a member of the Masonic fraternity. He mar-
ried Martha Anthony, who was born near New Roe
in Allen County in 1841 and died near Temperance in
October, 1920. Thomas Minor is the oldest of their
nine children. Aro is the wife of James M. Wright, a
merchant at Franklin, Kentucky. Robert L. lives on the
old homestead at Temperance. John is a farmer in
that community. Herbert is a farmer near Gold Citv.
Simpson County. Mittie is the wife of E. M. Hollo-
way, a general merchant at Temperance. Deborah lives
at Albuquerque, New Mexico, widow of J. M. Dodson
who was a farmer. Carrie is the wife of Rev. H. L.
Gillette, a Methodist minister living at Hawesville.
Kentucky. Miss Pearl, the youngest, lives on the home
farm and is housekeeper for her brother Robert.
Thomas Minor Ellis lived until his majority on his
father's farm and acquired his education in the rural
schools of Simpson County. On leaving home he spent
four years as clerk for J. J. Chapman & Bro;. at Mid-
dleton in Simpson County, for another two years
worked in the wholesale drygoods and notions house
of J. M. Robinson, Norton & Company at Louisville,
this being followed by four years in a dry goods
store at Bowling Green, and in 18SS he entered busi-
ness for himself as a merchant at Middleton. He was
there three years until he sold out and since then his
energies have been chiefly devoted to flour milling.
He entered that industry with his father-in-law R. W.
Neely at Franklin. Kentucky, and in 1903 removed to
Russellville and bought the Knob City Flour Mills.
This is the leading flour mill on the Memphis Division
of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad between Bowling
Green and Hopkinsville, has a capacity of 120 barrels
per day and the product is of a quality that commands
for it a large demand and distribution all over this
section of the state. The business is conducted under
the firm name of T. M. Ellis & Company, Mr. Ellis'
partner in the ownership of the mills being E. L.
Katterjohn.
Mr. Ellis was the promoter of the Farmers Loose
Leaf Tobacco Warehouse Company of Russellville, is
a stockholder in the company, this being one of the two
leading tobacco companies in Logan County. He and
Mr. Katterjohn are also leaders in promoting the oil
industry in Logan County. Mr. Ellis has prospered
in his business affairs and is owner of considerable im-
proved real estate in Russellville, including his own
home, one of the desirable residences of the city located
on Main Street.
He has served as a member of the city council, is
a democrat, and on the official board of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South. The record of war activities
in Logan County shows that he was constant in purpose
and influence and the use of his means to promote every
patriotic object.
Mr. Ellis married at Franklin, Kentucky, in 1879,
Miss Lillie Xeely, daughter of R. W. and Susie (Jones)
Xeely, now deceased. Her father was a farmer, miller,
real estate operator and one of Simpson County's most
prominent business men. Mrs. Ellis is a graduate of the
Simpson Female College. The only child of Mr. and
Mrs. Ellis is Sue, wife of Dr. William A. Duncan.
Doctor and Mrs. Duncan reside with her parents at Rus-
sellville. Doctor Duncan is a physician and surgeon and
for fifteen years was surgeon in the United States
Army, continuing until the close of the World war.
During that war he was a surgeon in the Walter Reed
Hospital at Washington and was mustered out on ac-
count of ill health.
Kinky Neal Be.mthamp. County Superintendent
.it Schools of Logan County, is one of the vital factors
in the progressiveness of this county, and under his
fostering care the schools of this region are advancing
in excellence and the pupils are taking front place in
matters of scholarship. He is also extensively inter-
I in farming, and has been as successful in that
1 1 n 1 u - 1 r _\ as he has been in the educational field. Mr.
Beauchamp was born in Logan County, January 8, 1870,
a son of Dr. Richard Xeal Beauchamp, and a member
of one of the old and aristocratic families of Virginia
where the Beauchamps settled upon coming to the
American Colonies. They originated in France, from
whence they went to England, before emigrating to this
country. Mr. Beauchamp's great-grandfather came from
Virginia to Kentucky and was a pioneer of Warren
County, and there the grandfather of Mr. Beauchamp
was born. His death occurred at Bowling Green, Ken-
tucky, before the birth of his grandson.
Dr. Richard Neal Beauchamp was born in Warren
County, July 24, 1824, and he died in Logan County,
October 10, 1910. In about 1838 his parents moved
from Warren to Logan County, and he was reared and
educated in the latter during his youth, but went
elsewhere for his medical training. For many years
he was one of the most distinguished physicians and
surgeons of Logan County, and is held in the greatest
reverence by those who knew him. For many years
he practiced under difficulties as did all of the old-time
countrj physicians when roads were almost impassable
during certain seasons of the year, patients lived far
apart, and many could not or did not properly recom-
pense him for his services. However the medical men
of those times appear to have been actuated by a high
of the responsibility of their calling and endured
the hardships of their lot as part of the day's work.
Certain it is that they won and held the warm affec-
tion of their patients and took high positions in their
communities. Doctor Beauchamp also owned and oper-
ated his farm which was located eight miles east of
Russellville on the Franklin Road. A democrat, he
was sent to the State Assembly as a representative
from Logan County in 1890. The Methodist Episcopal
Church, South, held his membership, and he was a
strong churchman. Fraternally he belonged to the Odd
Fellows. Doctor Beauchamp married Mary Herndon,
who was born in Logan County in 1834, and died in
Logan County in 1876. Their children were as fol-
Joe, who died in Logan County, at the age of
sixty years, having been a farmer all his life; W. P.,
who was a druggist of Bowding Green, where he died
at the age of forty-two years; Isaac, who is a farmer
of Logan County; Bettie K., who married J. V. Pot-
tinger, a real-estate broker of Amarillo, Texas; Belle
who married John A. Neely, a farmer of Simpson
County ; R. N., whose name heads this review, and
Hester, who died in Logan County, aged eighteen
years.
Runey Neal Beauchamp attended the rural schools
IfZCc*^ <L.J<&~r-6U^
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
249
of Logan County during his boyhood and youth, and
graduated at Ogden College of Bowling Green at the
age of twenty years. Then attended State Agricultural
and Mechanical College at Lexington, Kentucky, taking
a general educational course, entered the school at
Highland Falls, New York, and was admitted to West
Point Military Academy. Owing to physical disability
he retired from that institution and entered the edu-
cational field and has since then taught, having vari-
ous principals-hips until he was made County Pr'n-
cipal of Schools. He settled on the home farm where
he has been engaged in farming for many years, and
now owns 200 acres of very valuable land. Active as
a democrat he was elected county superintendent of
schools in November, 1917, and took office in January,
1918, for' a term of four years. His offices are in the
courthouse. Mr. Beauchamp has had a practical ex-
perience as an educator, having taught for twelve
winter terms in the Oak Tree district, Logan County.
He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South, and is a steward of the local congregation.
Fraternally he belongs to Ragsdale Lodge No. 870,
A."F. and A. M., of which he is past master; Russell-
ville Chapter No. 8, R. A. M., and he is a member
of the Knights of Pythias. Professionally he belongs
to the Kentucky Educational Association. His resi-
dence is on his farm. During the late war Mr. Beau-
champ took an active part in the local war work,
assisting in all of the drives, and bought bonds, war
savings stamps, and contributed to all of the funds to
the full extent of his means.
On July 15, 1896, Mr. Beauchamp was married at
Owensboro, Kentucky, to Miss Tina Stowers, a daugh-
ter of James and Mary (Proctor) Stowers, both of
whom are deceased. Mr. Stowers was a druggist of
Middleton, Simpson County, Kentucky. Mrs. Beau-
champ attended Logan College at Russellville into the
junior year, and is a cultured lady. Mr. and Mrs.
Beauchamp became the parents of the following chil-
dren : Katherine, who married E. G. Ryan, a farmer
of Waynesboro, Mississippi; Isabelle, who married
Frank Daniel, proprietor of the Liberty Cafe, resides
at Russellville, and Coston S., who graduated from
high school at Middleton at the age of seventeen, and
is living with his parents.
Mr. Beauchamp is a man who has broadened his
vision with reading and association with men of parts.
He recognizes the fact that a sound education is the
best foundation for future greatness, and is striving
to give each child in Logan County the finest oppor-
tunities for acquiring one that can be had. Discharg-
ing the duties of his office with an enthusiasm that
inspires others, Mr. Beauchamp has alread3' effected
a number of important changes, and is proving his
worth to his community.
Jupge Wxliam E. Arthur, who was admitted to
the Kentucky bar in 1850 and became one of the fore-
most members of his profession at Covington, was
born at Cincinnati, March 3, 1825. He was nine years
old when his father died and he "was educated by
private tutors and in private schools at Covington, at
the old Woodward College in Cincinnati and at his
mother's former home in Hartford County, Maryland.
He studied law under John W. Stevenson and James
T. Morehead, eminent Kentucky lawyers. John W.
Stevenson was at one time Governor of Kentucky and
United States senator.
Admitted to the bar in 1850 William E. Arthur for
nearly half a century continued the duties of practice,
along with the responsibilities of public position. He
was forceful as an advocate, a thorough student of the
laWj widely read, possessing knowledge of men and
affairs, and while his heart was in the practice of law
he ably filled several public offices.
He was elected Commonwealth's Attorney for the
Ninth Judicial District in 1856 and filled that office six
years. He was an elector on the Breckinridge and
Lane ticket in i860. In 1866, after the war, he was
chosen Judge of the Ninth Judicial Circuit, but re-
signed after two years in office to become a candidate
for Congress. He was elected in 1870 to represent the
Sixth Kentucky District, and was re-elected in 1872.
He was one of the ablest members of the Kentucky
delegation in Congress during the early seventies and
made a favorable impression by his ability as a debater
and by the work he performed in committees.
After returning from Washington, Judge Arthur
busied himself with his private practice until 1886,
when he was chosen Judge of the Twelfth Judicial
District, and for six years he presided on the Circuit
Bench, finally retiring January 1, 1893. He then re-
sumed his private practice to some extent, but his death
occurred at Covington four years later on May 18, 1897.
He was one of the ablest of his contemporaries in the
Kentucky bar and is also entitled to lasting memory
for the dignity and high character he exemplified as a
judge.
In 1855 Judge Arthur married Miss Ada Southgate,
daughter of Hon. William W. Southgate of Covington.
She died in 1858, leaving no children. December, i860,
Judge Arthur married the youngest sister of his first
wife, Miss Etha Southgate. They had been married
thirty-seven years before his death and she survived
until April 27, 1906. She was the mother of three chil-
dren. The daughter, Ada, died at the age of nine
years. The other daughter, May, who was liberally
educated in the Bartholomew English and Classical
School at Cincinnati, Madame Frein's French and Eng-
lish School at Eden Park, is now the wife of George
Littleford, a wholesale lumber merchant, their home
I icing at Fort Thomas, Kentucky.
The only son of the late Judge Arthur and continu-
ing the prestige of the name in the bar of Northern
Kentucky is Sidney Arthur, who began practice thirty
years ago while his distinguished father was on the
Circuit Bench.
Sidney Arthur was born at Covington, August 26,
1862. He was educated in the public schools of his
native city, in the preparatory school of the Chicker-
ing Institute at Cincinnati, spent one year in Kenyon
College at Gambier, Ohio, after which he went east to
Dartmouth College, from which he received his A. B.
degree in 1887. He is a member of the Delta Kappa
Epsilon college fraternity. Mr. Arthur is one of the
best educated lawyers at Covington, and is a man who
has kept up a variety of intellectual interests. He has
the love of books and literature that is almost a tradi-
tional trait of the Arthur family. His is one of the
finest private libraries in the city. Mr. Arthur took
his law course in the Cincinnati Law School, from
which he was graduated with the LL.B. degree in 1890.
The same year he began practice at Covington.
In 1904 Mr. Arthur built the Marzella Apartments
on Greenup Street in Covington. This building, contain-
ing thirty-six apartments, is one of the largest and
finest apartment houses in the city, and he has his own
residence there. Mr. Arthur is a democrat, a member
of the Presbyterian Church, and is affiliated with Gol-
den Rule Lodge No. 345 F. & A. M., Covington Chapter
No. 35 R. A. M., and Kenton Council No. 13 R. & S. M.
June 16, 1920, at Covington, Mr. Arthur married
Mrs. Mary E. (O'Hara) Morrallee. Mrs Arthur is a
native of Leeds, England, and was reared and educated
in England. ,
The Arthur family has been prominently identihed
with the City of Covington for nearly ninety years, and ■
for seventy years the name has been an eminent one
in the bench and bar of the state. Four generations of
the family have lived in this country, and they have
been primarily devoted to the scholarly professions,
250
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
though not without achievements in practical business.
The founder of the family was Rev. William Arthur,
a native of Scotland, a graduate of the University of
Glasgow, and whose career was that of a Presbyterian
minister. He married in Scotland, Agnes Gammel,
and in 1793 came to America. He was one of the
pioneer Presbyterian Missionaries and ministers in the
states of Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York and Ohio.
His last years were spent at Zanesville, Ohio.
His son, William Arthur, was born in Lancaster
County, Pennsylvania, in 1798, and while he grew up
in some of the sparsely settled localities where duty
called his father he had the advantage of his cultured
parents to guide him through the stages of his early-
education. He finally took up the study of law and
prepared for the bar, but most of his life was spent as
a successful merchant. He moved to Covington in 1832
and died there three years later. He married Eliza
Parsons a native of Maryland, daughter of William and
Sarah Parsons.
Thomas Dudley Evans became president of the
Citizens National Bank of Russellville on its organiza-
tion, and has been instrumental in making that one of
the strongest financial institutions of Southern Ken-
lucky. While best known as a banker he was in for-
mer years a merchant, and his character and influence
have been intimately identified with the progress and
development of Logan County for many years.
Mr. Evans is of Welsh ancestry. The family lived
in Yirgin:a for a generation or two. Mr. Evans'
grandfather, John G. Evans, was a native of Virginia
and a century or more ago came west to Kentucky
and opened up a pioneer farm in Monroe County. He
died near Tompkinsville. Thomas Evans, father of
the Russellville banker, was born on a farm near
Tompkinsville, Kentucky, in 1826. He lived there until
after his marriage, began merchandising in Tompkins-
ville, and in the spring of 1864 moved to Russellville
and before his death, which occurred in 1884, built
up the largest dry goods and general store in Logan
County-. He was a very able business man and gave
his life to merchandising. He was a deacon for many-
years in the Baptist Church and a democrat in politics.
Thomas Evans married Miss Sallie Wooten. She was
born in Barren County, Kentucky, between Glasgow
and Tompkinsville in 1834 and died at Russellville in
1896. Her father, Joseph G. Wooten, was a pioneer
planter of Barren County. A brief record of the chil-
dren of Thomas Evans and wife is as follows : Bettie
of Russellville, widow of Vernon Price, who was a
traveling salesman ; John W., who became a merchant
and died at Russellville in 1894; Thomas Dudley; Wil-
liam G., now in the offices of the Louisville & Nash-
ville Railroad at Russellville : Mary who died at Rus-
sellville. wife of W. P. Sandidge, an attorney at Owens-
boro; Leslie S., cashier of the First National Bank
of Adalrville in Logan County.
Thomas Dudley Evans was born at Tompkinsville in
Monroe County. Kentucky, August 20, 1864. but has
spent practically all his life in Russellville. He at-
tended private schools here, graduated from Bethel
College in June, 1884, and has had an active business
career covering a period of thirty-five years. He was
at first identified with the business his father had
established and built up, but in 1885 he and his brother
John W. bought the business after the death of their
father in Russellville. At the death of John Evans
in 1894 his interests were acquired by his brother, W.
G. and the two brothers continued the business until
. 1902.
The Citizens National Bank of Russellville was or-
ganized in 1902, Mr. Evans being the leading spirit in
the enterprise and has been continuously president
since that date. W. C. Nourse is vice president and
H. L. Trimble cashier. This bank has a capital of
$25,000, surplus and profits of $45,000, and its deposits
in 1920 average $475,000. In September, 1920, the bank
entered its splendid new home, one of the finest bank
houses in the state, built of stone and brick, with in-
terior finish of marble and mahogany, and with every
equipment and arrangement for protection and utmost
efficiency of banking service.
Both as a banker and private citizen Mr. Evans was
completely devoted to the successful prosecution of
the World war. Three of his sons were in the army
or navy. He has been treasurer and member of the
executive board of Logan County Chapter of the Red
Cross from its organization in 1918, and he was chair-
man of two Liberty Loan campaigns. Mr. Evans is a
democrat and a member of the Baptist Church. He
owns one of the principal homes of the city at 234
Nashville Street.
In 1889 at Russellville Mr. Evans married Miss
Annie Briggs, daughter of Joseph B. and Annie L.
(Long) Briggs. Her father served as a captain in
the Confederate Army and subsequently- was an influ-
ential factor in the financial affairs of Russellville
until his death. Her mother is still living at Russell-
ville and is a daughter of Nimrod Long, one of the
conspicuous figures in Southern Kentucky for many
years who died at Russellville. Nimrod Long was a
banker, owned and founded the old Bank of Ken-
tucky at Russellville, and his constructive business in-
terests extended into several counties in this section
of the state. Mrs. Evans who is a graduate of the
Logan Female College of Russellville is the mother of
nine children. Bertie May, the oldest, now lives at
Los Angeles, California. Annie B. is the wife of J.
A. Lyne, Jr., manager of the Community Grocery
Store at Russellville. The third, Bettie, is at home.
The oldest son, Thomas Dudley, Jr., Russellville rep-
resentative of the Ford Motor Company, married Miss
Virginia Farrar. He was one of the three Evans sons
who volunteered without waiting for the draft and he
was commissioned a captain of infantry and spent six
months in France. William L., the second son, now
connected with a steel company at Birmingham, Ala-
bama, married Miss Myrtle Scoggins. He was a chief
gunner of a machine gun corps in the United States
Marines and was in France three months. The third
son Richard Briggs Evans, joined the navy and since
the war has received an appointment to the United
States Military Academy at West Point, where he is
continuing his studies. The seventh child is James A.
Evans, employed by a pneumatic tool company at Birm-
ingham, Alabama. The eighth child is Gordon, a
student of Bethel College at Russellville, while the
youngest, Wesley H., is still in public school.
H. Lee Kelley, County Court Clerk of Warren
County and one of the most representative of the
sterling men and dependable citizens of Bowling Green,
has won popular approval by the exercise of native
talents and acquired knowledge and is one of the best
officials his office has possessed. He was born in War-
ren County, September 20, 1878, a son of George T.
Kelley, and grandson of Henry Kelley, who was born
in 1796, in Virginia, where the Kelleys had settled
upon coming to the American Colonies from Ireland.
He w-as the pioneer of his family into Kentucky, and
locating in Warren County, was engaged here in farm-
ing for many years. His death occurred at Piano,
Kentucky, in 1890. His wife who bore the maiden
name of Elizabeth Stephens, w-as also born in Virginia,
and died in Warren County.
George T. Kelley was born on a farm near Piano,
Warren County, Kentucky, in 1854, and he is now re-
siding at Woodburn, Warren County. He was reared
and married in his native county, and during his active
years was a successful and extensive farmer, but is
now living in comfortable retirement. Always a demo-
crat, he still adheres to his convictions with reference
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
251
to public matters. Many years ago he united with the
Baptist Church and during all of the intervening years
he has been a strong churchman. George T. Kelley
married Belle Parker, who was born in Warren County,
Kentucky, in 1860, and died near Piano, in 1891. Their
children were as follows : Lora, who married Dr. G.
H. Freeman, a physician and surgeon of Piano; Leslie
L., who is a member of the police force of Bowling
Green ; Lottie, who married Jess Kirby, a merchant of
Massey's Mill, Warren County; and fi. Lee, who was
the eldest.
H. Lee Kelley attended the rural schools of his native
county, and Bethel College of Russellville during 1896
and 1897, returning home during the latter year. For
two years he was occupied on the homestead, and then
bought a farm of his own and operated it until in
November, 1917, he was elected Court Clerk of Warren
County, and took office in January, 1918, for a term of
four years. In November, 1921, he was elected again
for a four-year term without opposition from either
party. His offices are in the courthouse. He owns
a modern residence at No. 627 Eleventh Street, where
he maintains a comfortable home, and a dwelling at
the corner of Fourteenth and Indianola streets. He
is a democrat, and was elected on his party ticket
road and bridge supervisor of Warren County, and
has also served for three terms as a member of the
Board of Equalization of his county. The Baptist
Church holds his membership. Fraternally he belongs
to Bowling Green Lodge No. 51, I. O. O. F. and Bowl-
ing Green Lodge No. 320, B. P. O. E. During the
late war he took a zealous part in all of the local ac-
tivities, and for two years devoted a great deal of his
time to filling out questionnaires, and rendered valuable
assistance in all of the drives. He bought bonds and
savings stamps to the full extent of his means, and
in every way possible assisted the Government in carry-
ing out its policies.
On December 6, 1899, Mr. Kelley was united in mar-
riage with Miss Sallie Potter at Piano, Kentucky.
She is a daughter of the late M. C. Potter, formerly
a farmer who died at Piano, and his widow Mrs. Mag-
gie (Skiles) Potter, died in 1021 at Piano. Mr. and
Mrs. Kelley have one living child, Roy Skiles, who was
born on October 23, 1915. Their elder child, Meldin,
died at the age of five years.
Mr. Kelley is a very competent and painstaking man,
and under his capable management the affairs of his
office are in first class order. Having had experience
in public office, he has known how to enter upon his
duties expeditiously and to so arrange his work as to
render a service not always given by those holding
a similar position. He takes the deepest and most sin-
cere interest in his county, is proud of its past, and
anxious to have it keep abreast of all modern ideas
in the present and future.
Coleman Taylor. A lawyer splendidly equipped for
his work, Coleman Taylor gained prestige throughout
Logan County by reason of his natural talent and ac-
quired ability in his profession. He is present county
attorney and in a few years has won the appreciation
of older members of the bar and a satisfying private
practice.
Mr. Tavlor was born at Greenville in Muhlenberg
County, Kentucky, January 13, 1892. This branch of
the Taylor family were Colonial settlers in Virginia
from Scotland. His grandfather, John Taylor, was
born in Culpeper County, Virginia, in 181 1, and at an
early date settled in Western Kentucky in Daviess
County, where at one time he owned twenty-five hun-
dred acres of land, cultivated by numerous slaves. He
died in Daviess County in 1897.
E. W. Taylor, father of Coleman Taylor, was born
in Owensboro, Kentucky, in 18.S.S, was reared in that
city, married at Hartford in Ohio County, lived there
for a year as a stock dealer, after which he returned
to Owensboro. For two years his home was at Green-
ville in Muhlenberg County, and while there he did
an extensive business as a stock dealer, buying and
selling horses for the East St. Louis market. For many
years until 1917 he was connected with the wholesale
business of P. R. Lancaster at Owensboro, and then
retired to his farm two miles south of Russellville,
where he lives today. Besides operating his own place
of a hundred fifty acres he manages the three hundred-
acre farm of his son Coleman. He has had a success-
ful business career and is still practically in his prime.
E. W. Taylor is a democrat. He married Sallie M.
Daniel, who was born at Carrollton, Kentucky, in 1861.
Her father was the late Rev. James S. Daniel who for
fifty-two years was an active minister of the Methodist
Episcopal Conference of the Louisville District. Cole-
man Taylor is the oldest of three children. His sister
Eva lives with her parents. Samuel died in Logan
County in 1917 while a student of law in his brother's
office.
Coleman Taylor was educated in the public schools
of Russellville and attended Bethel College until 1910
He entered the profession only after a period of self-
supporting work and experience that in itself consti-
tuted a splendid education. For a year after leaving
college he drove an express wagon in Russellville. He
then became a railway express messenger for eight
months with a run from Russellville to Owensboro and
from Bowling Green to Memphis. Another year he
spent in the Russellville office of the Louisville and
Nashville Railroad. He then became stenographer and
law student in the office of S. R. Crewdson, was ad-
mitted to the bar in 1915, and since that date has been
steadily gaining favor for his abilities in civil and
criminal practice. His offices are in the Edwards Build-
ing on Main Street.. Mr. Taylor served as official
court reporter for the Seventh Judicial District com-
prising Logan, Todd, Muhlenberg and Simpson coun-
ties in 1915 and 1916. In 1917 he was elected county
attorney and began his official term of four years in
January, 1918. He is a member of the Kentucky State
Bar Association, an attorney for the Southern Deposit
Bank at Russellville and the Lewisburg Banking Com-
pany at Lewisburg, Kentucky. During the World war
he was government appeal agent for the local draft
board, and to this and other war work he gave freely
of his time and means.
Mr. Taylor is a democrat, is treasurer of the Rus-
sellville Baptist Church, senior warden of Russellville
Lodge No. 17, A. F. and A. M., member of Russellville
Chapter No. 8, R. A. M., Owensboro Commandery No.
IS, K. T., Louisville Consistory of the Scottish Rite,
and Rizpah Temple of the Mystic Shrine a Madison-
ville. He is also Past Chancellor Commander of
Amelia Lodge No. 56, Knights of Pythias. Reference
has already been made to the fact that he is a farm
owner, his place of three hundred acres being four
rmles south of Russellville. He also has one of the
most desirable and attractive modern homes in the
county seat.
February 24, 1916, at Clarksville, Tennessee, Mr. Tay-
lor married Miss Clara B. Manning, daughter of W. J.
and Agnes (Dugan) Manning, residents of Clarksville,
where her father is a retired road building contractor.
Mrs. Taylor is a graduate of a seminary in Georgia and
also of the noted finishing school, the Ward-Belmont
College of Nashville. Mr. and Mrs. Taylor have one
son, Manning, born September 6, 1920.
Frank Alexander Morton. The banking interests
of a community are necessarily among the most im-
portant ones, for financial stability must be the foun-
dation stone upon which all great enterprises are
erected. The men who control and conserve the money
of corporations or country must possess many qualities
not necessary in the ordinary work of the average citi-
zen, and among these may be mentioned high commer-
252
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
cial standing, exceptional financial ability, poise, judg-
ment and foresight. Public confidence must be with
these men so that in case of panic their coolness and
conservatism can be depended upon, as it is in ordinary
transactions. One of the men who measures up to the
highest standards of banking requirements is Frank
Alexander Morton, cashier of the Bank of Russellville.
Frank Alexander Morton was born in Logan County,
Marcli 14. 1875, a son of M. B. Morton, and grandson
nf William I. Morton, who was born in Culpepper
County, Virginia, and died at Russellville before his
grandson was born. He was the pioneer of his family
at Russellville where he was first engaged in the prac-
tice of law, but later became a minister of the Baptist
Church.
M. B. Morton was born in Logan County, in August.
1839, and died at Russellville, February 20, 1914. Reared
and married in Logan County, he became a traveling
salesman out of Auburn, Kentucky, and remained on
the road for twenty years, but settled permanently at
Russellville in 1895 and for three terms served as
County Court Clerk of Logan County, to which office
he was elected on the democratic ticket. In him the
Baptist Church has one of its earnest members, and he
was a generous supporter of the local congregation un-
til his death. M. B. Morton married Virginia Morton,
a cousin, who was born April 13, 1844, near Auburn,
Kentucky. She survives her husband and is living at
Russellville. Their children were as follows: H. P.,
who is a clerk in a clothing store at Owensboro, Ken-
tucky; Overton, who died young; J. H., who died at
Weatherford, Texas, at the age of twenty years : Frank
Alexander, who was fourth in order of birth; William
I., who resides at Louisville, Kentucky, is traveling for
a leading cartridge manufacturing company of the
United States; Virginia, who married O. R. McLean,
a jeweler of Russellville; and James, who died at Rus-
sellville, at the age of twenty-two years.
Frank Alexander Morton was educated in the public
schools of Auburn, which he attended until he was
twenty years old, at which time he weiTt on his father's
farm and spent two years. For two years more he
served as Deputy County Court Clerk under his father,
and then, in April, 1887, he entered the Bank of Russell-
ville, beginning his career in the banking business as a
bookkeeper. In 1910 his faithful service was rewarded
by his promotion to the position of assistant cashier, and
in 1913 he was further honored by being made cashier,
which important position he still holds.
A strong democrat he served in the City Council for
two terms, and has always been active in party mat-
ters. He belongs to the Cumberland Presbyterian
Church. Mr. Morton owns a modern residence on Sec-
ond street. During the late war Mr. Morton was an
active participant in the local war work, assisting in
all of the drives, and he bought bonds and war savings
stamps and contributed to all of the organizations, to
the full extent of his means. Mr. Morton is unmar-
ried. Sound and dependable, he has steadily risen, not
only in his bank but also in the esteem of the people of
Russellville and Logan County, and rightly deserves the
confidence he always inspires.
Rev. Carl Jamf.s Merkle. pastor of St. Francis de
Sales Catholic Church at Newport, has given all his
time and service to the Catholic Church, especially in
Kentucky, since his ordination as a priest.
He was born at Dayton, Ohio, June 16. 1891, and ac-
quired his elementary education in the Emmanuel pa-
rochial school. He spent six years in his classical
studies of Assumption College, Sandwich, Ontario, and
five years as a student of philosophy and theology in
St. Mary Seminary, at Baltimore, Maryland. He was
ordained in the Catholic University at Washington,
D. C, by the Apostolic Delegate, Archbishop Bonzano,
June 23, 191 5-
Father Merkle was for five months assistant pastor
of the Sacred Heart Church at Bellevue, Kentucky;
for two and a half years assistant pastor of the Im-
maculate Conception Church in Newport; then for two
and a half years pastor of St. John Church at Carlisle;
and in November of 1920, returned to the scene of his
earlier labors at Newport, as pastor of St. Francis de
Sales Church.
This parish was established in 191 1 by Rev. Stephan
Schmid; the new brick church and school was dedi-
cated in October of the following year with Rev. Ed.
G. Klosterman as pastor. He erected the handsome
brick rectory in 1916, at 10 Chesapeake Avenue, in In-
galls Park, and later purchased a residence for the
teachers. In 1921 a necessary addition was made to
the school and to the Sisters' house.
Father Merkle is the third son and fourth child of
Michael Merkle, who was born in Bavaria, Germany,
in 1851, of Nicholas Dauben-Merkle and Magdalene
Zeitler. In 1863 he accompanied his widowed mother
to America, locating at Erie, Pennsylvania, where he
learned the shoemaker's trade. As a young man he
went to Dayton, Ohio, and was a retail shoe merchant
there until 1901, after which he developed an industry
for the manufacture of overalls, barbers' and waiters'
coats and similar garments, continuing active in busi-
ness almost until his death in 1909. He was a very
sincere Catholic and loyal citizen. His first wife, whom
he married at Dayton, was Caroline Worman, a native
of that city. She died with her third child, leaving two
others : George, a traveling salesman, who died at
Charleston, Wrest Virginia, at the age of twenty-five;
and Leona (Sister Providential, a member of the con-
gregation of the Sisters of Divine Providence, now
Directress of Mount Saint Martin Young Women's In-
stitute at Newport, Kentucky.
The second wife of Michael Merkle was Catherine B.
Loges, who was born of Joseph Loges and Philomena
Hortsman at Dayton in 1862, and is still living in that
city. She is the mother of nine children: Robert, a
plumber at Dayton ; Rev. Carl James ; Olivia, now Mrs.
Wagner ; Raymond and Victor, draftsmen ; Irene and
Florence, stenographers — all living in Dayton ; Joseph
and a younger brother died in infancy.
Jesse W. Bibb. Few business men of Logan County
have devoted more years and more of their energies
along one line of mercantile service than Jesse W. Bibb.
Mr. Bibb has been a successful merchant, a citizen who
has taken a quiet and effective part in community af-
fairs, and he might properly count the esteem in which
he is held by his fellow citizens as one of the best re-
wards of his career.
Mr. Bibb was born at Elkton in Todd County, Ken-
tucky, October 27, 1857. His family have been in Ken-
tucky for more than a century. His grandfather,
Henry Bibb, was born in Albemarle County, Virginia,
in 1791, and on coming to Kentucky first settled in Lo-
gan Count}', later moved to Elkton, though most of his
career was spent in Russellville. However, he was
pioneer saddler. He died at Elkton in 1866. Henry
G. Bibb, father of the Russellville merchant, was born
in that city in 1820 and died at Elkton in 1870. He
achieved prominence as one of the ablest members of
the Elkton bar. He was in the Lower House of the
Legislature from Todd County two terms, and for two
terms represented the Ninth Senatorial District in the
Senate. During the sessions of 1853-54 he was elected
by a joint ballot of both houses to fill the unexpired
term of Lieutenant Governor and was therefore the
presiding officer of the Senate during 1853-54. He was
a democrat in politics. Senator Bibb was married at
Elkton, Kentucky, to Miss Emily Wells, a native of
Mayfield. Kentucky, who died at Elkton.
Jesse W. Bibb, only child of his parents, was edu-
cated in the public schools of Elkton to the age of
eighteen and since then his life has been spent at Rus-
sellville. For seven years he clerked in a shoe store
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
253
and not only paid his way but used his opportunities
to acquire a fundamental knowledge of merchandising.
In the fall of 1884 he bought his present business,
starting with a modest capital, and has made his enter-
prise one of the most important men's furnishing goods
stores between Bowling Green and Hopkinsville. Mr.
Bibb has devoted himself to this line of merchandising
now for over thirty-five years. He is also a director
of the Bank of Russellville and while the World war
was in progress he gave heartily of his means and
personal influence to support every drive for funds and
other purposes in Logan County. He owns one of the
comfortable homes of the city at 317 South Main Street.
Mr. Bibb is a democrat and a member of the Metho-
dist Episcopal Church, South.
In 1886 at Russellville he married Miss Attala Rizer,
daughter of E. R. and Mary B. (Harrison) Rizer, now
deceased. Her father was for many years a shoe dealer
at Russellville. Mrs. Bibb is a graduate of Logan Col-
lege.
John Breckenriege Hiles, a banker at Foster in
Bracken County, has forty years of business activity to
his credit, and through several sessions was one of the
most prominent and constructive leaders in the State
Legislature.
He represents one of Kentucky's oldest families. The
founder of the name in America was John Jacob Hiles,
who came from Germany in the early part of the
eighteenth century and lived out his life in Eastern
New Jersey. One of his three sons was Christofel Hiles
who was born in New Jersey and was one of the
earliest settlers near Dover, Mason County, Kentucky.
One of his brothers settled in Scott County, Kentucky.
Christofel Hiles married a Mrs. Hoffman, whose
maiden name was Mills. This was the family from
which the late Senator Roger Q. Mills was descended.
One of the children of Christofel Hiles was Christian
Hiles who was born near Dover, Kentucky, in 1794.
He was a soldier in the War of 1812, participating in
the Ohio campaign. He was a tailor by trade, but
operated a large farm on the present site of Wellsburg
and finally retired to Johnsville, Kentucky, where he
died April 17, 1876. Christian Hiles married Judith
Sullivan, whose father came from Ireland and was a
flat boat builder on the western rivers. Two sisters of
Christian Hiles married Austin and Randolph Sullivan,
brothers of Judith.
Asa Anderson Hiles, a son of Christian Hiles, was
born at Dover, Kentucky, May 10, 1833, was reared
there and educated in the public schools, and in 1855
moved to Rock Spring, Bracken County, in 1863 to a
farm at Bradford and in 1866 to Johnsville, where he
became probably the most prominent business man in
western Bracken County, operating extensive farms, do-
ing a large business as a tobacco dealer, and also as a
merchant. He was not less prominent in civic affairs,
was an influential Democrat, a loyal member of the
Methodist Episcopal Church South and was affiliated
with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Asa A.
Hiles died at Johnsville, June 2, 1917.
His wife was Elizabeth McCormick Wooster, who
was born near Augusta in Bracken County, Kentucky,
July 7, 1840, and is now living at the old homestead at
Johnsville. Her father, William Jefferson Wooster,
was a son of Daniel Wooster, one of the pioneers of
Kentucky. William J. Wooster, who died in March,
1903, in his eighty-fifth year, married Mary J. Woods,
who was born April 16, 1818, and died October 3, 1848.
John Breckenridge Hiles is the oldest of a family of
ten children. William A. the second in age is an
Indiana farmer and an employe of the Indiana State
Fair Company with home at Indianapolis. Robert H.
has for many years been identified with Crane & Com-
pany, hardware and machinery manufacturers at
Indianapolis. Harry C. died June 14, 1920, in Lexing-
Vol. V— 24
ton at the age of 56, having spent his active life as a
farmer. Samuel McCormick was a farmer, stock dealer
and breeder of fine horses and died at the homestead
farm in 1905. Miss Alberta C. lives with her mother.
Trinna B. is the wife of Edward K. Miller, traveling
salesman, and resides at Ambridge, Pennsylvania. Asa
A., Jr., is a farmer, and leader in the democratic party
living near Johnsville. Julia May is the wife of Wil-
liam H. Stevenson, cashier of the Farmers Equity Bank
of Brooksville. Marguerite B. is the wife of Herman
K. Stairs, a prominent civil engineer with home at
Beckley, West Virginia.
John Breckenridge Hiles was born while his parents
lived at Rock Spring in Bracken County, January 15,
1859. He was reared on his father's farm attended
rural schools, was a student in the National Normal
University at Lebanon, Ohio, in 1879, and the following
year attended high school at Ripley, Ohio, where he
acquired a fluent command of the German language.
In 1890 he returned to the University at Lebanon for
a review course. After completing his education he
was associated with his father in the mercantile and
tobacco business, and subsequently became his partner
in the tobacco house of A. A. Hiles & Son. When his
father retired in 1893 he continued the business until
about 1906, when he abandoned this at the time of a
general disorganization in the tobacco industry of
Kentucky.
Mr. Hiles has been prominent as a banker at Foster
for the past ten years. The bank was established at
Foster in 1905. After the deposits had reached a total
of about $43,000, the institution was wrecked by its
cashier. The memory of this was still fresh in the
minds of the community when Mr. Hiles undertook the
organization of the Foster Banking Company, which
was opened for business September 10, 1910. With his
personal integrity behind the institution and with the
confidence inspired by his business ability and judg-
ment, he has as cashier and leading stockholder made
the bank one of the firmly established financial institu-
tions of Bracken County. Its deposits have reached the
gratifying total of $200,000, and it is operating on a
capital of $15,000, with surplus and profits of $12,500.
The officers of the bank are : John D. Meyer, presi-
dent ; John Jarman, vice president ; John B. Hiles,
cashier; and Orris Utter, assistant cashier.
The record of Mr. Hiles' public service has come at
various intervals in his business career. In 1885 he
was elected County Assessor of Bracken County, filling
that office from January until October, 1886. He was
then appointed by United States Senator Beck to the
railway mail service, and was transferred from the
road to the division office at Cincinnati, and assigned
one of the three important desks in the office of the
superintendent, that with jurisdiction over trip reports
and grievances made of failures on the part of clerks
and railroads. He handled the reports covering the
four states of Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and Tennessee,
and remained in discharge of these duties until 1889.
In November, 1893, Mr. Hiles was a member of the
Legislature and reelected in 1895, serving through the
sessions of 1894 and 1896. Perhaps the primary object
of his legislative efforts and the field in which his work
bore greatest fruit was in behalf of improved educa-
tional facilities. He was author of Kentucky's first
Compulsory School Law, also of important amendments
to the graded school laws. He originated and directed
the movement in the Legislature resulting in the meas-
ure of March 13, 1894, providing for free turnpikes in
the state. He also made a determined effort to repeal
the Hewitt Banking Act, which later was declared un-
constitutional by the United States Supreme Court.
Mr. Hiles was a candidate for Congress in 1896, and
in the Ninth District Convention at Maysyille controlled
the convention for two days, finally withdrawing his
name on the 85th ballot. In November, 1913, Mr. Hiles
254
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
was elected to represent the 26th Senatorial District of
Bracken, Pendleton and Grant counties in the State
Senate, serving from 1914 to 1918 in the regular ses-
sions of 1914 and 1916, and the high court of impeach-
ment session of 1916, and a special revenue session of
1917. While in the Senate he was author of the State
Warrants Act, afterwards declared unconstitutional by
the Court of Appeals. His chief work in the Senate
was his work in safeguarding the interests of his con-
stituents and for his vigilance he was called the "watch-
dog of the treasury." It was his suggestion at a meet-
ing of bankers held at the governor's mansion in 1916,
that led the Legislature to enact the law raising the ap-
praised value of property permitting of sufficient revenue
to pay the state debt. Senator Hiles warning the demo-
cratic caucus that failure to do this would result in the
republicans securing credit for this much needed
achievement. While in the Senate Mr. Hiles was
second in rank on the committee on education and
spent two entire days in drafting a substitute for the
Consolidated School Bill, which was approved and passed
both houses, though Senator Hiles was essentially the
author of the law now on the statute books providing
for the consolidation of schools he graciously permitted
a senator who had been author of the original bill to
have the credit for its passage. He was also chairman
of the committee on banking in the session of 1916.
Senator Hiles who has never married is a member of
the Methodist Church South, is affiliated with Foster
Lodge No. 274 F. & A. M., and was the first member
initiated in 1881 in Fairview Lodge No. 276 Independent
Order of Odd Fellows. He was the active leader in
all but two of the campaigns for funds in the Foster
vicinity of Bracken County during the World war and
when two of these drives failed to net sufficient funds
to go over the top the bank made up the deficiency.
George T. Clark. The man who has the ability, en-
ergy and industry to build up sound business connec-
tions through his own initiative, is deserving of as
much credit as one who commands in battle, or leads
his forces to victory in the halls of legislative bodies.
The commercial development of any locality is largely
dependent upon the character and energy of its suc-
cessful business men, and Russellville is no exception
to this rule. One of the enterprising and progressive
men of the county seat of Logan County is George T.
Clark, a retail dealer in coal and interested in a number
of the local concerns.
Mr. Clark was born at Russellville, March 27, 1865,
a son of Thomas Clark, and a member of one of the
old families of Virginia where the Clarks settled upon
coming to the American Colonies from Scotland.
Thomas Clark was born in Culpepper County. Virgin 'a,
in 1826, and died at Russellville in 1004. His parents
moved to Logan County in 1832, settling near Auburn,
and there he was reared and married, but in 1848 he
came to Russellville and established what became the
leading industry here, the manufacturing of farmers'
implements, and it was operated under the name of
Clark Brothers. Later the firm engaged in handPng
these implements at retail, and Thomas Clark was so
engaged until 1904. He was a democrat, but aside from
exercising his right of suffrage did not participate in
public affairs. A strong churchman, he was an active
member of the Baptist Church, and held the office of
deacon in the local congregation. Thomas Clark mar-
ried Miss Debbie McCarty, a daughter of George Mc-
Carty, who was born in Virginia in 1786, and died at
Russellville in 1869, having been one of the early farm-
ers of Logan County. Mrs. Clark survives her husband
and makes her home at Russellville. She was born in
Logan County in 1844. The children born to Thomas
Clark and his wife were as follows : James W., who
was a lawyer, died at Muskogee. Oklahoma, aged fifty-
seven years: Roland, who died at Russellville, aged
sixty-one years, was a retail grocer; Hattie, who died
in infancy; and George T., who was the youngest in
the family.
After completing his courses in the public schools of
Russellville, George T. Clark became a student of
Bethel College, Russellville, and left it when twenty-
three years old. For five years he acquired a practical
experience as a clerk in a dry goods store at Russell-
ville. and then began handling books and stationery,
and remained in that line of business until 1913. In
that year he opened his retail coal business, which is
the leading one in Logan County, with offices in a
building he owns on the Public Square. His coal yards
are near the freight depot along the Louisville & Nash-
ville Railroad tracks. In addition to his coal business
Mr. Clark has other interests and is secretary and treas-
urer of the Central City, Kentucky, Ice & Cold Storage
Company. He owns his comfortable modern residence
on High Street. Like his father he is a democrat and
Baptist, and he, too, is a deacon. When there was need
for him to exert himself in behalf of his country, Mr.
Clark was found in the foremost line of local war
workers in every drive for all purposes, and was very
generous in buying bonds, war savings stamps and
contributing to the various organizations.
In 1890 Sir. Clark was married at Bowling Green to
Miss Lydia McElroy, who was born at Bowling Green.
Mrs. Clark was educated in Potter College, Bowling
Green, from which she was graduated at the comple-
tion of her course. Mr. and Mrs. Clark have three
children, namely: George T., who is a teacher in the
public schools of Franklin. Kentucky: William Frank-
lin, who is a student in Bethel College, Russellville;
and Sarah, who is attending the public schools of Rus-
sellville. While he has never cared to enter the arena
of politics to contest for honors of office, Mr. Clark-
has always taken an intelligent interest in civic matters
and supported the men he believed would best serve the
majority of the people. His standing commercially is
unquestioned, while socially he and his wife occupy a
very enviable position in the community in which they
have many congenial friends.
Albert G Rhea, president of the Bank of Russell-
ville, has devoted his serious purposes and energies to
that institution since the early years of its existence,
beginning when his father was president of. the bank.
There is no more honored name in Southern Kentucky
than that of Rhea, which has been held by editors,
judges, congressmen and bankers for considerably more
than a century.
The Rheas came from the north of Ireland to Vir-
ginia, moved to North Carolina, and thence over the
Cumberland Mountains to Tennessee. Charles Rhea,
grandfather of the Russellville banker, was born at
Knoxville, Tennessee, in T790. Early in life he moved
to Russellville, Kentucky, and became a pioneer editor
and newspaper publisher. The constitution of the Cum-
berland Presbyterian Church, adopted and ratified by
the Synod of Cumberland held at Sugg's Creek, Ten-
nessee, April 5, 1814, was printed and published at his
printing house in a book form of a hundred and thirty-
seven pages in 1821. Charles Rhea died at Russellville
in 1835. He married Clarissa Roberts, who was born
at Frankfort, Kentucky, in April, 1800, and died at
Russellville in 1863.
Their son, Judge Albert G Rhea, was born at Rus-
sellville in February, 1822. He early rose to prominence
as a lawyer and his later career made him one of the
distinguished citizens of Kentucky. Following the close
of the Civil war he was Circuit Judge of the Seventh
Judicial District. For three terms he was a member
of the State Senate and he was associated with the
founding of the bank in Russellville and served it as
president for many years. For a quarter of a century
he was local attorney for the Louisville & Nashville
Railroad. Judge Rhea was a democrat and a member
of the Episcopal Church and was affiliated with Rus-
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
255
sellville Lodge No. 17, A. F. and A. M., and Russell-
ville Chapter No. 8, R. A. M. The death of this hon-
ored citizen occurred at Russellville in November, 1884.
Tudge Rhea married Miss Jane Stockdale, who was
born at Russellville in May, 1828, and died there in
May, 1899. They became the parents of eight children :
Elizabeth, who died at Russellville at the age of thirty-
eight, was the wife of the late A. C. Brizendine, who
was a traveling salesman; Martha J. died in infancy;
John S. Rhea took up the profession of his father,
served as county attorney of Logan County eight years,
was for eight years Representative of the Third Con-
gressional District of Kentucky, and for the past seven
years has been judge of the Seventh Judicial District.
The fourth child, Jennie, died at the age of forty-six
in Russellville. Albert G. Rhea is the fifth in age in
this prominent family. His brother Charles became a
lawyer and died at Russellville at the age of forty-
eight. Merrie is unmarried and lives at Russellville.
Thomas S., the youngest, is president of the Southern
Deposit Bank at Russellville, is also a farmer, and at
one time was sheriff of the county and state treasurer
of Kentucky.
Albert G. Rhea, who was born at Russellville Feb-
ruary 9, 1861, was educated in the public schools and
attended Bethel College to the age of seventeen. On
leaving college he entered the Bank of Russellville as
an errand boy. The Bank of Russellville was estab-
lished in 1873 under a state charter, and has had a pros-
perous existence of almost half a century. Its capital
is $25,000, surplus and profits $30,000, and deposits
average $350,000. The executive officers are A. G.
Rhea, president, Thomas S. Rhea, vice president, and
F. A. Morton, cashier. Mr. A. G. Rhea has served the
bank with exceptional fidelity for forty years, has filled
all the executive offices and since 1919 has been presi-
dent.
For many years Mr. Rhea has been a prominent
leader of the democratic party and has served consecu-
tively for thirty-five years on the Democratic County
Committee. He was for several years city clerk and
for four years from 1909 to 1913 was sheriff of Logan
County. Since its organization in 1918 he has been
chairman of the Red Cross Chapter of Logan County,
and he was actively associated with every drive for
raising funds and prosecuting other objects included in
the World war program. Mr. Rhea is a member of
the Episcopal Church and is affiliated with the Masonic
fraternity and Knights of Pythias. He is unmarried.
Hon. Whitsitt Hall. The modern agriculturist is
an individual who comprehends the purpose of existing
agitation for the betterment of the condition of
the farmer, and is anxious to promote proper legislation
looking toward an amelioration of present abuses. Many
of the most progressive men of the country are those
who own and operate farming lands, and a number of
them have been called upon to bring their practical ideas
into public affairs. This has resulted in the securing
for numerous offices of clean, businesslike administra-
tions, and the consequent banishment of any dishonesty
that might have existed in the past. One of the men
whom his fellow-citizens delight to claim as a farmer,
but who has proven himself a man capable in the
handling of public affairs as well, is Hon. Whitsitt
Hall, of Auburn, state senator from the Ninth District
of Kentucky, comprising Logan, Simpson and Todd
counties.
Senator Hall was born on a farm near Auburn, Logan
County, Kentucky, December 5, 1867, a son of James
Monroe and Mary Ellen (Blakey) Hall, a descendant of
Revolutionary ancestors on both sides of the family.
His paternal great-grandfather, John Hall, was born
near Petersburg, Virginia, and was a pioneer to Wash-
ington County, Kentucky, where he farmed for many
years, in his old age coming to Logan County, where
his death occurred at Auburn. He married a Miss
Hayes. Winkfield Hall, the grandfather of Senator
Hall, was born in 1807, in Washington County, Kentucky,
but for the greater part of his life lived in Logan
County, where he was engaged in extensive agricultural
operations until his death near Auburn, in 1898. He
married Betsy Weathers, who was born, spent her life
and died near Auburn. Senator Hall's great-grand-
father Whitsitt came from Virginia to Logan County
and passed his life as a tiller of the soil.
James Monroe Hall was born in 1836, near Auburn,
Kentucky, and has passed his entire life in this com-
munity, where he still makes his home in hale old age.
After many years passed in extensive operation as a
fanner and grower of live stock he is now living in
comfortable retirement, and his career has been charac-
terized by honorable dealing and straightforward citizen-
ship, so that he possesses in the fullest degree the
esteem and respect of those among whom his life has
been passed. He is a democrat in politics, and was a
member of the Board of Sinking Fund Commissioners
for a number of years and chairman of that body on
several occasions. A strong churchman of the Baptist
faith, he acted as deacon for many years. Mr. Hall
married Mary Ellen Blakey, who was born near Auburn,
in 1842, and died on the farm in 1913. Her grandfather,
George Blakey, was a recruiting officer during the War
of the Revolution, and was with General Washington
when he crossed the Delaware. A native of Virginia,
some time after the winning of American independence
he came to Logan County, where he spent the rest of
his life as a farmer. He married Marquerette Whitsitt,
also a native of Virginia, who died in Logan County.
Dr. T. W. Blakey, the maternal grandfather of Senator
Hall, was born near Russellville, Kentucky, and became
a well-known and distinguished physician of the early
days, likewise engaging in agricultural pursuits. He
was likewise prominent in public affairs, serving as
magistrate for many years and as high sheriff of Logan
County. In politics he was a democrat. He married
Ann Whitsitt, a native of Logan County, who died near
Auburn, as did Doctor Blakey. Three children were
born to James M. and Mary Ellen (Blakey) Hall:
Whitsitt; W. S., Jr., who resides near Auburn and is
engaged in farming; and C. B., one of the most success-
ful traveling salesmen on the staff of the Brown Shoe
Company, of St. Louis, who died at Winne, Arkansas,
at the age of forty-four years.
Whitsitt Hall secured his early education in the rural
schools of Logan County, following which he pursued
a course in the then celebrated Auburn High School,
from which he was graduated in 1884. He then began
working on the home farm, where he remained until
1887, and in that year entered the University of Vir-
ginia, at Charlottesville, where he spent three years.
In 1890 he returned to Logan County, and engaged in
farming on his own account, and at this time is the
owner of a tract of 900 acres of valuable land, three-
quarters of a mile east of Auburn. He carries on
extensive operations as a general farmer and also has
met with much success in raising thoroughbred cattle
and hogs. Mr. Hall has various other interests and is
a stockholder in the Bank of Auburn, of which he was
one of the founders and for several years a member
of the board of directors.
A democrat in politics, for a number of years Senator
Hall has been one of the influential men of his party
in this part of the state and has been called upon to
fill several important offices. He served four years as
magistrate of the Auburn Magisterial District, and in
November, 1919, was elected to the Kentucky State
Senate from the Ninth Senatorial District, composed
of Logan, Simpson and Todd counties. During the
session of 1920 he was chairman of the committees on
Public Ways and Internal Improvements, and Common
Carriers and Commerce, and a member of the Military
Affairs and Kentucky University and Normal Schools
committees. He has worked faithfully in behalf of the
256
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
interests of his constituents and is considered one of
the constructive and progressive members of the Senate.
Mr. Hall is a member of the Baptist Church at Auburn,
and assistant superintendent of the Sunday school.
His fraternal affiliation is with the Knights of Pythias
and the Chi Phi Greek letter fraternity. During the
World war period he worked effectively in behalf of
the various activities in Logan County, being a "Four-
Minute Man" and chairman in his district of all the
Liberty Loan drives, and also assisted in Red Cross and
Y. M. C. A. activities.
On November 23, 1892, Mr. Hall was married in
Simpson County, Kentucky, to Miss Ella Motherel Sloss,
daughter of A. M. and Jennie (Motherel) Sloss, farm-
ing people of Simpson County, who are now deceased.
Mrs. Hall attended Cedar Bluff College, in Warren
County, Kentucky, and Auburn College and Seminary,
at Bowling Green. Three children have been born to
Senator and Mrs. Hall : Jenniemay, a graduate of
Auburn College, who attended college at Jackson,
Tennessee, and studied music at Gallatin, Tennessee,
a talented and trained vocal and instrumental musician,
now the wife of O. E. Freeman, a salesman for the
Burroughs Adding Machine Company, of Bristol, Vir-
ginia; Joseph Monroe, a graduate of Auburn High
School, who attended Bethel College, Russellville, and
is now a student at the Kentucky State University ;
and Currie C, who attended Bethel College, Russellville,
enlisted in April, 1917, in the United States Army was
sent to Lexington, Kentucky, and transferred to the
Engineers at Hattiesburg, Mississippi, was sent overseas
in September, 1918, and was with the Army of Occupa-
tion until June, 1919, when he returned to the United
States, being honorably discharged with the rank of
sergeant, at Camp Zachary Taylor, in July, 1919, since
which time he has assisted his father on the home
farm.
Frank Y. Patterson, Jr., Division Deputy Collector
for twelve counties of Kentucky, and one of the
prominent oil men and stock buyers of his part of the
state, has led a career that has been characterized by
success in private affairs and capable service in various
public capacities. In each of his enterprises, whether
of a personal nature or for the good of the community,
he has displayed energy, judgment and resource that
have brought about the attainment of the goal which he
has sought, and few men of Bowling Green are more
greatly esteemed for what they have accomplished and
what they represent.
Mr. Patterson was born near Rockfield, Warren
County, Kentucky, January 28, 1866, a son of Frank
Y. and Margaret (Shaw) Patterson, a grandson of
Loss Patterson, and a great-grandson of an emigrant
from Ireland who settled in colonial Virginia. Frank
Y. Patterson, Sr., was born in 1830, at Gallatin, Sumner
County, Tennessee, and was reared in his native com-
munity, whence as a young man he went to California
as a "forty-niner" and spent nearly five years in the
gold fields of that state. About 1854 he returned to
this region and settled in Warren County, Kentucky,
where he married and applied himself to farming and
stockraising, a field of endeavor in which he won
marked success, becoming one of the substantial and
reliable men of his community. He died in December,
1908, at Rockfield, in the esteem and respect of all who
knew him. Mr. Patterson was a strong democrat and a
faithful member of the Baptist Church. He was a
charter member of Bowling Green Lodge No. 51, I. O.
O. F.. of which he was past grand, and was a zealous
Odd Fellow who took much interest in the work of
the order. Mr. Patterson married Miss Margaret Shaw,
who was born in 1840, near Rockfield, Kentucky, and
died at Bowling Green, in February, T912, and they
became the parents of the following children : Addie,
who is the wife of C. C. Moore, who has charge of a
factory at Indianapolis, Indiana ; John S., who is en-
gaged in farming near Rockfield ; Frank Y., Jr. ; J. R.,
a farm owner and broker of Bowling Green, formerly
a stock salesman and for a time, under Governor
Stanley, deputy state fire marshal ; Emma, who is the
wife of J. C. Ray, of Oakland, Warren County, Ken-
tucky, a farmer and ex-sheriff of the county ; and Anna,
the wife of W. F. Taylor, a contractor of Bowling
Green.
Frank Y. Patterson, Jr. was educated in the rural
schools of Warren County, primarily, after which he
attended Gallatin Academy, at Gallatin, Tennessee.
Leaving that institution in 1888, he farmed in Warren
County until 1893, at which time he came to Bowling
Green and began selling live stock, being likewise inter-
ested in the livery business until 1904. In that year
he was appointed deputy under Sheriff Robert Rodes,
a position which he held for four years and next was
elected sheriff of Warren County and served as such
for four years, or from 1908 until 1912, giving the
people an excellent administration. Mr. Patterson was
next elected city engineer of the city of Bowling Green
and acted in that capacity satisfactorily for two years,
then returning to the business of trading live stock,
including horses and mules, under the firm style of
Lazarus & Patterson. At the time of the inauguration
of Governor Stanley, January 17, 1914, Mr. Patterson
was appointed deputy state fire marshal, a position
which he held until December, 1917, when he was made
Division Deputy Collector for his district, comprising
twelve counties, with headquarters in the Federal Build-
ing. Bowling Green, a position which he holds today
and in which he is discharging the duties in a highly
efficient manner.
Since December, 1919, Mr. Patterson has come to the
front rapidly as a dealer in oil securities and a producer
of this product. He is a stockholder, treasurer and a
director in the Patterson Oil and Gas Syndicate and the
G. E. Townsend Oil and Gas Syndicate and secretary
and treasurer in the firm of Garrison & Company, oil
contractors. He is likewise a director and stockholder
in the Liberty National Bank, and is the owner of a
farm of 210 acres, twelve miles west of Bowling Green
and another farm of ninety acres in the same neighbor-
hood. On these properties he does general farming and
stock raising, and is engaged extensively in buying and
selling all kinds of high grade live stock. Politically,
Mr. Patterson is a stanch democrat and his religious
faith is that of the Baptist Church. He belongs to the
Bowling Green Chamber of Commerce and to various
other civic and social bodies and can always be counted
upon to give his support to worthy movements. This
was found to be true during the World war period,
when he was a generous contributor to all causes and
a willing participant in such enterprises as would benefit
through his cooperation.
On January 27, 1888, Mr. Patterson was married near
Rockfield, Kentucky, to Miss Mamie Lively, a graduate
of the public schools of Bowling Green, and a daughter
of James M. and Drew (Coleman) Lively, the latter of
whom is deceased, while the former, a retired farmer,
makes his home at Bowling Green. Three children
have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Patterson : Maggie
D., a graduate of Potter College, Bowling Green, who
is an assistant sacretary in the United States Department
of Agriculture, at Washington, D. C. ; Lottie May, a
graduate of Hamilton College, Lexington, Kentucky,
who resides with her parents ; and J. V., now engaged
in the oil business with his father at Bowling Green,
who volunteered for service when the United States
entered the World war, was accepted and trained at
Lexington, went overseas to France, where he spent
a year, and was at the front when the armistice was
signed, following which he returned to this country
and received his honorable discharge with the rank
of corporal.
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
257
Ernest J. Felts. In the thirteen years since he began
the- practice of law at Russellville Ernest J. Felts has
made a name for himself as a lawyer, public official,
army officer during the World war, and in every way
has shown himself a man of action and is one of the
real public leaders in his section of the state.
Mr. Felts was born in Logan County, Kentucky,
November 2, 1883. In the paternal line his ancestry
goes back to the Von Felts of Holland. The family
came to Virginia in colonial times and Mr. Felt's grand-
father Joshua Felts was born in that commonwealth in
1816. He came at an early day to Kentucky and was
a farm owner and slave holder in Logan County until
his death in 1891. He married a Miss Rankin in Vir-
ginia and she also died in Logan County. J. H. Felts,
father of the Russellville attorney, spent all his life in
Logan County where he was born January 5, 1856, and
died January 10, 1917. His chief business interest and
occupation was as a traveling salesman for a wholesale
lumber company. He was a democrat and an official
member of the Baptist Church. His wife was Emma
Vick who was born October 16, 1861, and is still living
at Russellville. She was the mother of three children :
Ernest J. being the second. Ella Gray died at the age
of five years. The other survivor is H. Carr, a cotton
planter at Courtland, Mississippi.
Ernest J. Felts spent his boyhood in a country district
of Logan County, attended the rural schools, and com-
pleted his literary training in Bethel College at Russell-
ville. He left college during his senior year in 1905
to enter the law office of S. R. Crewdson. He also read
law under W. F. and J. C. Browder. On being ad-
mitted to the bar in November, 1907, he began building
up a general civil and criminal practice, and has since
been one of the busy members of the Russellville bar.
In 1909 he was elected county attorney of Logan County,
and handled all the business of the office with admirable
efficiency for a period of eight years. He was elected
for a third term but resigned in 1917 and was instru-
mental in securing the appointment of his successor,
E. C. Taylor.
Mr. Felts enlisted in the National Guard organization
as a private in 1916 to go to the Mexican border. He
was subsequently advanced to the rank of lieutenant
and later to captain, and as such served in the National
Army in the infantry until July, 1917. He was then
made assistant senior United States mustering officer.
He resigned in 1918 and at that time was working to
invent a mechanical pilot for aeroplanes for war purposes
only. The government now has possession of his plans
and specifications, the details of which obviously are
not for publication. Captain Felts returned to Russell-
ville in April, 1918, and resumed his law practice. His
offices are in the Bank of Russellville Building. He is
a democrat in politics and a deacon of the Disciples
Church, and a teacher in its Bible class. He is affiliated
with Bowling Green Lodge No. 320, of the Elks, is past
chancellor commander of Amelia Lodge No. 56, Knights
of Pythias, and a member of Russellville Lodge of
Odd Fellows. His home is on West Sixth Street in
Russellville.
In December, 1917, at Russellville Captain Felts mar-
ried Miss Louise Bass, daughter of Judge S. A. and
Annetta (Carter) Bass, residents of Russellville. Her
father is a well known lawyer but has been retired from
practice since 1895. Mrs. Felts' mother is a daughter
of John R. Carter, long prominent as a dry goods mer-
chant at Louisville. Mrs. Felts is a graduate of Logan
College in Russellville.
William C. Morris is one of the best-known men of
Bowling Green for he is the postmaster of this city,
and is connected in an official position with one of its
leading financial institutions. He is a man well worthy
the confidence which has been reposed in him, and his
irosperity is but the just reward for his life of endeavor.
Mr. Morris was born in Simpson County, Kentucky,
April 21, 1869, a son of John E. Morris, and a grandson
of Clayborne Morris, who was born in North Carolina
in 1792, and died in Warren County, Kentucky, in 1885.
He was the pioneer of his family into Warren County,
to which he came in 1846, and where he became a
prosperous farmer. During the War of 1812 he served
his country as a soldier. He married as his second wife
a young lady whose first name was Ruth, born in
Warren County, where she later died, and she became
the grandmother of William C. Morris.
John E. Morris was born in Sumner County, Ten-
nessee, in 1844, and is now a resident of Bristow, War-
ren County, Kentucky. Only "two years old at the
time his parents came to Warren County, he has spent
the remainder of his life here, and during all of his
active life he was a farmer, but is now retired. In poli-
tics he is a democrat. The Baptist Church affords him
an expression of his religious belief, and he is a strong
churchman. He is equally zealous as a Mason, and
is a man of the highest character. John E. Morris was
married to Joann Barnett, who was born in Warren
County in 1853, and died at Bowling Green, in 1904.
Their children were as follows : William C, who was
the eldest born ; Clarence E., who is a merchant of
Plant City, Florida ; John Virgil, who is also a merchant
of Plant City; J. Henry, who is with the Louisville &
Nashville Railroad, lives at Louisville, Kentucky ; Ruth,
who married E. F. Harrington, a farmer of Bristow,
Kentucky ; Lassie Ann, who married Will Link, a
farmer of Simpson County ; E. Hugh, who resides at
Louisville, Kentucky, travels for the Peter Neat
Richardson Drug Company.
After completing his courses in the rural schools of
Warren County, William C. Morris spent two years at
the Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, and
was graduated therefrom in 1896 with the degree of
Graduated Pharmacist. Returning to Bowling Green,
he engaged in a drug business, in which he continued
from 1898 until 1914, being during that period one of
the leading druggists of the city. In the latter year he
received his appointment as postmaster of Bowling
Green, and took charge of the office March 16, 1914
He was re-appointed to the same office in October, 1918.
He is a prominent democrat, and served in the city
council for two years, and on the board of education.
Interested at all times in the growth and development
of Bowling Green, he has long been a member of its
Chamber of Commerce. He is a director of and stock-
holder in the Citizens National Bank of Bowling Green.
Not only does he own his modern residence at 1 109
State Street, which is a fine, comfortable home, but he
also has his private garage.
During the late war Mr. Morris was one of the effec-
tive workers of Warren County, and took a particularly
active part in all of the drives to secure funds for the
various organizations and for the sale of bonds. Per-
sonally he bought bonds and savings stamps to his
limit, and subscribed in response to every appeal made
for the cause during the progress of the war. In his
religious faith, Mr. Morris is a Methodist, and he gives
to the local congregation of that denomination an earnest
and sincere support.
On September 26, 1899, Mr. Morris was united in
marriage with Miss Eunice L. McGinnis of Warren
County, a daughter of John W. and Norris (Tarrants)
McGinnis. Mr. McGinnis, who was a farmer, died in
Warren County, but Mrs. McGinnis survives him and
lives with her son-in-law, Mr. Morris. Mr. and Mrs.
Morris have two children, namely : Lucille, who was
born September 14, 1901, is a student in Wesleyan Col-
lege, Mason, Georgia, and William C, Junior, who was
born January 10, 1915. During the time he has been
postmaster Mr. Morris has given the people of Bowling
Green a very effective service, and the business of his
office has been expanded considerably. He is a man
258
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
who believes in progress and is able and willing to
aid in advancing the interests of the city in every way
possible.
Gabriel H. Hughes, D.D.S., was born and reared in
Pike County and for a number of years has been a
leading dental surgeon at Pikeville.
He was born on Shelby Creek, May 24, 1890, son of
James and Frankie (Tackett) Hughes. His father was
born in Letcher County in 1865 and his mother on
Long Fork of Shelby Creek in 1870. James Hughes
has spent his active life as a farmer, and also for a
number of years was in the timber business, running
rafts of logs down the Big Sandy and also operated
saw mills on Shelby Creek. He owns a fine farm on
that Creek just below Yeager. In past years he has
been active in the Republican party in behalf of those
qualified for office. He and his wife are members of
the Regular Baptist Church at Little Creek and have
been liberal in their donations to church causes.
Gabriel H. Hughes is the second among ten living
children. He finished his early education- at Pikeville
College and for three years was a teacher. Combining
the savings from this work with some borrowed capital
he entered the Central University Dental School at
Louisville, and graduated D.D.S. May 1, 1913. He re-
turned to Pikeville and be has practiced in the same
office in that city for eight years'. During the World
war he was examining dentist for the local draft board
while two of his brothers were in active service in the
navy, Wilburn P. and Abel M. Wilburn, who is now
practicing law at Pikeville, was commissioned a first
lieutenant in the proposed division that the late Theo-
dore Roosevelt was to take to France, and when that
project failed to materialize he joined the navy, became
an ensign, and during his transport service crossed the
ocean many times.
Doctor Hughes in 1912 married Ora Canterbury,
daughter of Asa Canterbury of Boone County, West
Virginia. They are members of the First Baptist
Church at Pikeville and takes an active interest in
Sunday School work. Doctor Hughes is a member of
the Masonic Lodge and Chapter at Pikeville and the
Knight Templar Commandery and Shrine at Ashland.
Politically he is a republican.
Thomas Oliver Helm, Senior. The most important
man in any community is naturally he who holds in his
capable hands the health and lives of his fellow citi-
zens, and very often because of the rigid training he
has received and the knowledge he has acquired through
his years of contact with the world, he is called upon
to hold offices of responsibility, either in the municipal
government, or some financial institution of high stand-
ing. Dr. Thomas Oliver Helms, Senior, one of the
leading medical men of Bowling Green, is no exception
to this rule for he is accepted as one of the experienced
and astute financiers of Warren County, and is widely
known all over this part of Kentucky.
Doctor Helm was born in Butler County, Kentucky,
May 5, 1859, a son of John B. Helm, and grandson
of Moses Helm, who was born near Peaks of Otter,
Virginia, and died in Butler County, Kentucky, at a
date antedating the birth of Doctor Helm. He was one
of the pioneer farmers of Butler County, and became
one of its prominent men. Moses Helm married a
Miss Owens, who was born in Hart County, Kentucky,
but her family was of Virginian origin. She, too, died
in Butler County. The Helms emigrated from London,
England, to Virginia during the Colonial epoch in this
country's history.
John B. Helm was born in Butler County, Kentucky,
in 1815, and died at Sugar Grove, Butler County, in
1896, having spent his entire life in that county. He
developed into one of the most extensive farmers of
that region, at one time owning 3,000 acres of land.
The democratic party held his allegiance. Both as a
member of and elder in the Presbyterian Church Mr.
Helm for many years lived up to the highest conceptions
of Christian manhood, and he was equally zealous as a
Mason. He married Nancy Carson, who was born in
Butler County, Kentucky, in 1825, and died in Butler
County, in 1861. Their children were as follows:
Bettie, who died in 1882 ; James W., who was a farmer,
died at Auburn, Logan County, Kentucky, when sixty-
three years old; John C, who is a retired farmer of
Bowling Green ; and Doctor Helm, who was the
youngest born.
After attending the country schools of Butler County,
Doctor Helm entered Lincoln University at Lincoln,
Illinois, and was graduated therefrom in 1883 with the
degree of Bachelor of Philosophy. He then attended
the medical department of the University of Louisville,
and was graduated in 1885 with the degree of Doctor
of Medicine. Since then he has taken up post-graduate
work in the New York Polyclinic in 1891, specializing
on diseases of women and children ; and a special course
in Chicago in 1904, specializing in electrical therapeutical
treatment, following which he purchased an X-ray out-
fit for use in his practice.
In 1885 Doctor Helm established himself at Auburn,
Logan County, Kentucky, and was there for twenty-
five years, or until 1910, but in that year came to
Bowling Green, and established a hospital on Twelfth
Street, which he superintended for a number of years,
and at the same time carried on his general practice.
He is still one of the leading physicians of the county.
His offices are in the Morehead Hotel Building, which
he owns. The Morehead Hotel is one of the best in
Warren County, and is located at the corner of Main
and State streets, and Doctor Helm's modern brick
residence, one of the best in Bowling Green, is next
door. While Doctor Helm owns the hotel, he does not
operate it, but leases it to another party. He also owns
the Proctor Flats on State Street, adjoining the More-
head Hotel on the other side from his residence ; the
building on Twelfth Street formerly known as St.
Joseph's Hospital, and sixty acres of land, four miles
south of Bowling Green.
Like his honored father, Doctor Helm is a democrat
and served as pension examiner for the United States
Government for four years. For one term he was a
member of the city council of Bowling Green. Doctor
Helm was one of the organizers of the Bank of Auburn,
and was elected its first president in 1905, and held that
office for six years and for two years was president
of the Warren National Bank of Bowling Green, holding
that office until his bank was consolidated^ with the
American National Bank of Bowling Green, since which
time he has been on the board of directors of the
Citizens National Bank.
At the time this country entered the World war,
Doctor Helm was serving as local surgeon of the
Louisville & Nashville Railroad, but resigned in order
to enter the United States Medical Corps, in October,
1917. He was sent to Fort Benjamin Harrison at
Indianapolis, where he was commissioned a first lieu-
tenant. At the time of the signing of the armistice,
he was daily expecting orders to go to Panama. Fol-
lowing his honorable discharge he returned to Bowling
Green and resumed his practice.
Doctor Helm belongs. to the Westminster Presbyterian
Church of Bowling Green, in which he is an elder.
The Bowling Green Chamber of Commerce benefits by
his sage counsel as one of its members, and he also
belongs to the Warren County Medical Society, the Ken-
tucky State Medical Society and the American Medical
Association.
On December 4, 1888, Doctor Helm was married at
Auburn, Kentucky, to Miss Nellie Blakey, a daughter
of C. H. and Mary (Becker) Blakey, both of whom
are deceased. Mr. Blakey was one of the leading
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
259
farmers of Logan County, and for two terms served
in the lower house of the State Assembly as a repre-
sentative from Logan County. Mrs. Helm was grad-
uated from a young ladies seminary at Hopkinsville,
Kentucky. She died October 9, 1920. Their children
were as follows : John B., who is an attorney of Louis-
ville, Kentucky, was graduated from Princeton Uni-
versity, Princeton, New Jersey, with the degree of
Bachelor of Arts, and from the University of Michigan,
Ann Arbor Michigan, from which he was graduated
with the degree of Bachelor of Laws, and is one of the
veterans of the Great war, having volunteered, been
commissioned a first lieutenant and served overseas in
France for one year ; Margie, who is at home, was
graduated from the Randolph-Macon Woman's College
at Lynchburg, Virginia ; Thomas Oliver, Junior, who is
with the Wire-Bound Box Manufacturing Company of
Morristown, New Jersey, was graduated from Prince-
ton University, with the degree of Civil Engineer, served
in the United States Navy for two years during the
late war, was an ensign and received still further pro-
motion, and crossed the ocean fourteen times in the
U. S. S. Powhattan convoying troops, which ship was
formerly a German one and the flag ship of the Kai-
ser; Harold Holmes, who is with the Chemical
National Bank as one of the force of the credit de-
partment, in New York City, New York, was grad-
uated from Princeton University, with the degree of
Bachelor of Arts. He also enlisted for service during
the late war and was assigned to the S. A. T. C. at
Princeton University, and the armistice was signed
before he saw actual service. The record of the Helm
family is a very remarkable one, the father and his
three sons all being volunteers, and all in the service
of their country during the time it was at war. All
of these gentlemen made heavy personal sacrifices in
leaving their affairs, they did not hesitate, but
proffered themselves and were accepted without ques-
tion. All of them are men of the highest character,
and since returning to civil life, have rendered valuable
service in the several callings in which they are en-
gaged. Reviewing their efforts, and realizing that there
were many more of like caliber the country, it is not
difficult to understand why "America Won the War," or
why this country is today the leading one in the world.
Redford Ellis Stanley, who serves in an official
position in the Bank of Arlington, one of the sound
banking institutions of Carlisle County, like his asso-
ciates, is also interested upon an extensive scale in
farming, and is the owner of a large amount of valu-
able land. He was born at New Madrid, Missouri,
December 15, 1855, a son of T. L. Stanley, and a mem-
ber of one of the old-established families of this coun-
try, the Stanleys coming here from England and set-
tling in Virginia during the Colonial period.
T. L. Stanley was born in Virginia in 1829 and died
at Milburn, Kentucky, in 1905. When he was a boy
his parents moved to the vicinity of Charleston, Mis-
souri, and there he was reared and received a common
school education. After his marriage he moved to
Wolf Island, Missouri, where he carried on farming for
a number of years, and then came to Kentucky and
lived in retirement at Milburn for the remainder of
his life, although he retained his extensive farm hold-
ings on Wolf Island. As a Mason and a Baptist he
lived up to high ideals of Christian manhood and was
a very active supporter of both organizations. In poli-
tics he was a democrat. T. L. Stanley was married
to Sarah Dyson, who was born in Kentucky in 1841,
died at Milburn, Kentucky, in' 1881. Their children
were as follows: Lucy, who married Willie Mahan,
lives at Clinton, Kentucky; T. A., who was a farmer
and merchant, died at Arlington, aged sixty-three years,
as a result of a boiler explosion; Redford Ellis, who
was third in order of birth ; Joseph, who died when
young; Amanda, who married Ed Peebles, a farmer,
lives at Milburn ; Albany, who married Otis Peebles,
a merchant now living at Columbus, Kentucky, was
killed in an automobile accident in the fall of 1919;
Robert, who is a merchant of Paducah, Kentucky ;
Kate, who married Robert Wright, a contractor and
builder of Mayfield, Kentucky; and Ora, who married
Hardy Sanford, now deceased, formerly a merchant
of Milburn, Kentucky, lives at St. Louis, Missouri.
By a former marriage with a Miss James, T. L. Stanley
had a son, Henry, who is a farmer of Oklahoma. He
married for his third wife Sallie Thomas, and they
had two children, namely: William, who was a farmer
of Milburn, where he died at the age of twenty-eight
years; and Ed, who is a clerk in a store at Portageville,
Missouri.
Redford Ellis Stanley went to school until he reached
his majority and received the equivalent of a high
school education. He grew up under his father's
watchful supervision and remained at home until he
was twenty-six years old, when he engaged in a mer-
chandising business at Forest City, Arkansas. Return-
ing to the farm after a brief period, he was engaged in
farming for five years, and then, in August, 1890, came
to Arlington, Kentucky, and established himself in an-
other mercantile business which he conducted very suc-
cessfully for fifteen years, and during that time was
also engaged in farming, but since he sold his business
he has devoted himself to his farm interests. His pres-
ent farm of 300 acres is located three-quarters of a
mile north of Berkeley, Kentucky, and he formerly
owned another farm of 120 acres which is in the neigh-
borhood, but sold it. His residence, which he owns,
is located at Milburn, and is a comfortable house sur-
rounded with well-kept grounds. Assisting in the or-
ganization of the Bank of Arlington, Mr. Stanley has
continued one of its directors, and is now its vice presi-
dent. A democrat, he is a member of the City Council,
and is acting as its chairman or mayor. The Methodist
Episcopal Church has in him an earnest worker, mem-
ber and steward. In his fraternal affiliations he main-
tains membership with Sycamore Camp, W. O. W., of
Arlington.
On December 25, 1894, Mr. Stanley was united in
marriage with Miss Minnie Mosby, at Arlington. She
is a daughter of W. W. and Matilda (Berry) Mosby.
Mr. Mosby, who was a farmer is deceased, but Mrs.
Mosby survives and lives with Mr. and Mrs. Stanley.
Mrs. Stanley was graduated from the Clinton High
School and is a refined and cultured lady. The children
born to Mr. and Mrs. Stanley are as follows : Edwin,
who resides on his father's farm near Berkley, Ken-
lucky; Fannie Bess, who married Avery Ganong, a
farmer of Arlington ; and Mosby, who was graduated
from the Arlington High School in 1919, is assisting
with the farm work. In every line of endeavor which
he has entered Mr. Stanley has achieved success be-
cause he possesses those qualities which enable him to
intelligently carry out his ideas and inspire others to
whole-hearted endeavor. As a citizen he is rendering
his community valuable service, and is in every way a
fine and representative man of the highest type.
Jack Stubblefield Johnson is a Kentucky educator,
with a record of a quarter of a century of work in
school and educational affairs. He was selected re-
cently to become superintendent of the city school sys-
tem of the important coal mining town and center of
Lynch in Harlan County, where under his supervision
one of the most complete and adequate school build-
ings in the State has been provided.
Mr. Johnson was born at Winchester, Kentucky, July
I, 1878. Winchester is the old home of his mother.
The Johnsons are a pioneer family of Fayette County,
where his great-grandfather and his grandfather, na-
tives of Virginia, established a home when the grand-
father was twelve years of age. They lived out their
lives as farmers, and William Sidney Johnson, father
2G0
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
of the Lynch school superintendent, is still living on
his farm near Lexington, but now retired from long
continued and successful operations as a farmer. He
was born in Fayette County in 1853. He is a democrat
and a Baptist. William S. Johnson married Clara Wis-
dom, who was born at Winchester in 1856. Jack Stub-
blefield is the oldest of their six children. Frank is
. a farmer and rural mail carrier in Fayette County;
Lena is a teacher in the Lexington public schools ;
Betsy is the wife of Ben Hisle, a business man in
Fayette County; Mary and Sarah are still at home.
Jack Stubblefield Johnson was reared on his father's
farm, attended rural schools in Fayette County, and
completed his classical education when he graduated
A. B. in 1898 from the Kentucky State University at
Lexington. During four years he was a teacher in
the rural schools of his home county. He was elected
and served eleven years as principal of the high school
at Paris, Kentucky. He then gave up teaching and
school administration to enter the service of the well
known school book publishers Lyons & Carnahan, and
represented that firm for seven years over the central
states.
Mr. Johnson was elected superintendent of the
schools of Lynch in the fall of 1920. This mining com-
munity depends upon the activities of the United States
Coal and Coke Company, a subsidiary of the United
States Steel Corporation. The company provided all
the funds for the magnificent graded and high school
building, completed in the fall of 1921 at a cost without
equipment of $125,000. Superintendent Johnson has
under supervision a staff of twenty-five teachers and
a scholarship enrollment of approximately a thousand.
Mr. Johnson is a member of the Kentucky Educational
Association. He had the honorable distinction of being
superintendent of the Sunday School of the Bryant
Station Church during 1896-1900. This is perhaps the
most historic church in Kentucky. He is an active
member of the Baptist Church and is an independent
in politics.
At Lexington in 1903 he married Miss Annie Hisle,
daughter of James and Elizabeth (McClure) Hisle,
now deceased. Her father was a farmer near Lex-
ington, and Mrs. Johnson is a graduate of the Lexing-
ton Business College. They have a family of five
children : Elizabeth, born March 18, 1904, who grad-
uated from the Lexington High School in 1921 and is
now a student in the Kentucky State University ; Jack,
born November 15, 1907; James, born in December,
1913; William, born July 2, 1915; and Emily, born May
28, 1917.
Green Henry Champlin. Probably every resident
of Kentucky's rich and populous county of Crittenden
knows Green Henry Champlin in his official capacity
as county judge. He has been one of the able business
men of Hopkinsville for many years and some of the
older residents of the county recall with special affec-
tion and gratitude the services of his father, who has
deservedly been regarded as the founder of the public
school system of Crittenden County.
This branch of the Champlin family is directly de-
scended from that distinguished French family of
Champlain, which furnished to the era of exploration
in America one of its most distinguished leaders, Sam-
uel de Champlain, in whose'honor Lake Champlain was
named. For several generations members of the Cham-
plin family lived in New York State.
Judge Champlin's grandfather, Silas N. Champlin,
was born in Chautauqua County, New York, and a
few years later in 1841 took his family west to North-
ern Indiana, locating at Plymouth in Marshall County,
where he spent the rest of his days as a farmer. He
died there in 1873. His wife was Amy Palmer, also
a native of New York, and she died at Plymouth.
George A. Champlin, father of Judge Champlin, was
born in Chautauqua County, New York, September 9,
1832, and from the age of nine years was reared in
Marshall County, Indiana. He was well educated, and
by study qualified himself for the profession of law.
In 1857 at the age of twenty-five he came to Kentucky
and began the practice of law at Hopkinsville. Not
long afterward he was appointed the first superin-
tendent of schools for Crittenden County, and by his
wisdom carefully laid the foundation of a school sys-
tem that has been maintained ever since. He was also
chairman of the Board of Trustees of the first public
schools of Hopkinsville, and throughout the rest of
His life maintained a deep interest in the cause of public
education. He also served as County Attorney of
Crittenden County, was an active democrat and a dea-
con in the Presbyterian Church. He was affiliated with
Hopkinsville Lodge No. 37, A. F. and A. M., and was
a member of the Royal Arcanum. He died at Hop-
kinsville, highly honored as one of i^s most useful
citizens, on October 31, 1887. In Crittenden County,
1859, he married Miss Mary G. Henry, who was born
in that county in September, 1832, and died at Hop-
kinsville April 22, 1902. Of her three children the
only survivor is Judge Champlin, who is the second
in age. His oldest sister, Katie M., died in infancy,
while the youngest, Carrie, died July 22, 1883.
Green Henry Champlin, who was born at Hopkins-
ville July 20, 1863, was carefully educated and spent
four years in the old Major Ferrell's Military School
of Hopkinsville. He left school at the age of nineteen,
and was then employed as shipping clerk and book-
keeper with a tobacco firm, and gave his time and
energies to the tobacco business at Hopkinsville, until
he resigned to take up his official duties. He was
elected County Judge in November, 1917, and began
his four-year term in January, 1918. Judge Champlin
was actively associated with all local committees and
movements to further the war and raise funds for that
purpose. Politically he is a republican, is a member of
the Westminster Presbyterian Church and very active
in that organization, is affiliated with the Masonic
fraternity, is Past Exalted Ruler of Hopkinsville Lodge
No. 545 of the Elks, is Past Chancellor Commander
of Evergreen Lodge No. 38 Knights of Pythias, is
Tast Grand of Green River Lodge No. 54 Independent
Order of Odd Fellows, and a member of Pearl City
Camp No. 5 Woodmen of the World.
Judge Champlin and family reside in a comfortable
hi ime at 315 South Clay Street. At Hopkinsville April
26, 1899, he married Miss Katie Rutherford, daughter
of Robert and Kate (Landes) Rutherford. Her mother
lives at St. Charles Court in Hopkinsville, and her
father, long identified with the mercantile interests of
the city, died here in 1886. Mrs. Champlin finished her
education in South Kentucky College at Hopkinsville.
She died September 9, 1901, a few days after the birth
of her only child, George A., who was born August
24, 1901. This son has completed his education and
for a youth of his years is showing much proficiency
and has some important responsibilities as an employe
of the Mogul Wagon Works of Hopkinsville.
Ed Gardner. President of the First National Bank
of Mayfield, is a brother of Judge Bunk Gardner,
Judge of the First Judicial Circuit of Kentucky. Ed
Gardner was born at Mayfield September 29, 1870, the
oldest of four children, and acquired a public school
education. At the age of twenty he entered the paint-
ing and paper hanging business, and actively prose-
cuted his interests in that line until 1912, when he sold
nut. For the past eight years he has been a leading
banker of Western Kentucky. He was president of
the Farmers National Bank of Mayfield, until it was
merged with the First National Bank in April, 1919,
and he then became president of the larger and older
institution.
The First National Bank of Mayfield was estab-
lished in 1875 and Maj. Henry S. Hale was its presi-
fS8& \
J&K^JvLfi^!>~+^
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
261
dent until he retired in 1919. Major Hale's son, N.A.
Hale, is now vice president, C. C. Wyatt is cashier,
and as the oldest and largest bank in Western Ken-
tucky outside of Paducah the institution has total re-
sources of more than $2,000,000 with capital stock and
surplus of $300,000. The fine bank building was re-
modeled in 1919.
Mr. Gardner is also a director in the Mayfield Woolen
Mills and the Bank of Fancy Farm, and is a director
in the Kentucky Construction & Improvement Com-
pany of Mayfield. He has never been interested in
public office for himself, but has voted the democratic
ticket. He is a member of the State and American
Bankers Association, the Mayfield Den of the Lions
Club, and Mayfield Lodge of Elks. He is one of the
large real estate owners in Mayfield and has several
farms in Graves County.
In 1896 at Fancy Farm, Kentucky, he married Miss
Annie Cash, daughter of Bennett and Julia (Kirch-
singer) Cash, now deceased. Mrs. Gardner is a grad-
uate of the Morganfield High School.
Judge Bunk Gardner. For a period of twenty con-
secutive years Judge Gardner has been engaged in the
performance of judicial duties, and for the past five
years has rendered a conspicuous service as Circuit
Judge of the First Kentucky District.
Judge Gardner was born at Mayfield November 24,
1875, and has lived practically all his life in Graves
County. His paternal ancestors were Irish but settled
in Virginia in Colonial times. His grandfather, Louis
Gardner, was a native of Virginia and a pioneer farmer
of Graves County, Kentucky. Judge Gardner is a son
of Bunk Gardner, who was born at Mayfield in 1840
and died there in 1875, the same year his son was born.
He was an active merchant at Mavfield for a number
of years, and a leading citizen. He was a democrat,
a Mason and Presbyterian. Bunk Gardner married
Miss Mollie Luck who was born in Christian County,
Kentucky, in 1848 and died at Mayfield in 1888. They
had four children : Ed Gardner, President of the First
National Bank of Mayfield ; Alexander, a hardware
merchant who died at Mayfield in 1920 at the age of
forty-six ; George, an extensive farmer and stock
raiser near Mayfield ; and Bunk.
Judge Gardner attended the public schools of Graves
County only to the age of fifteen and he acquired his
legal education, a very thorough and comprehensive
one, while working for his own support. For ten
years he clerked in a Mayfield clothing store, and at
the same time was using all his spare time to read
law in the office of W. J. Webb. He was admitted to
the bar in 1900 and in the same year was elected to
the office of Police Judge and performed the duties of
that office in connection with a growing practice until
1915 when on account of his personal character and
his well known abilities he was chosen Circuit Judge
of the First Judicial District, comprising the counties
of Ballard, Carlisle, Hickman, Fulton and Graves. He
entered upon his six-year term in January, 1916. Out-
side of his work on the bench Judge Gardner regards
his most serious responsib'lities his position as a trustee
of the Children's Home Society. He is a member of
the official board of the Presbyterian Church, has
served as superintendent of its Sunday School and is
now teacher of the Men's Bible Class. He is a member
of the State Bar Association, is a democrat, and is
affiliated with Mayfield Lodge No. 151 Independent
Order of Odd Fellows, Hickory Camp No. 115 Wood-
men of the World, Mayfield Lodge No. 565 of the
Elks, and also belongs to the Knights of Pythias.
August 12, 19151, at Mayfield, Judge Gardner married
Miss Winifred Winn, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A.
M. Winn, both deceased. Her father was a carpenter
and builder. Judge and Mrs. Gardner have one child,
Bunk, Jr., born November 27, 1918.
Ernest D. Ireson, a capable young banker of Pike
County, has had for a man of his years a very wide
experience in the essential industries and business
affairs of Eastern Kentucky.
He was born at Pound, Virginia, April 10, 1895, and
grew up in the valley where his business activities are
today. His parents are Henry and Sarah Virginia
(Alley) Ireson. His father is a farmer at Pound in
Wise County, Virginia, is active in . the Methodist
Church, being an official and superintendent of the
Sunday School. There are three children in the family :
Eugene, with the Consolidation Coal Company at Jen-
kins, Kentucky; Miss Thelma, a student, and Ernest D.
Ernest D. Ireson made good use of his educational
advantages, which ended when he was about fourteen
years of age. He attended common schools in Wise
County, Virginia, and this was followed by a course of
instruction in the Clinch Valley Institute at Wittens
Mill, Tazewell County, Virginia. On leaving school
Mr. Ireson was for three years clerk in the company
store of the Consolidation Coal Company at Jenkins
and then went out to the Northwest and had an in-
teresting and arduous experience of three years as a
logger in the logging camp at Raymond, Washington.
Returning to Kentucky he spent another year in the
store department of the Consolidation Coal Company
at McRoberts, and for two years was assistant cashier
of the First National Bank of Jenkins. Mr. Ireson
helped organize the Bank of Hellier in Pike County,
Kentucky, and is its active cashier and executive officer.
February 10, 1918, he married Miss Jim Erwin John-
son, daughter of Levi Johnson of Paintsville, Kentucky.
Mrs. Ireson capahly assists him in the bank. Mr. Ire-
son, while living at Jenkins was secretary of the Baptist
Church, and is a member of the Masonic Lodge, Royal
Arch Chapter, Eastern Star at Jenkins, the Ashland
Commandery, Knights Templar, and E. L. Hasa Temple
A. A. O. N. M. S. of Ashland. He is a republican in
politics and Mrs. Ireson is a member of the Methodist
Church.
Joe Browder. A man of undoubted energy who has
prosecuted his private interests successfully and has
achieved a definite place of influence and prominence
in his community, Joe Browder is one of the proprie-
tors of the Browder Milling Company of Fulton, is
an extensive property owner in the city and county,
and at the present time is ably directing the affairs of
the municipality as Mayor.
Mr. Browder was born in Fulton County December
17, 1864, and his family have been identified with this
section of the state for upwards of a century. His
grandfather, Austin Browder, was born in Hopkins
County, Kentucky, in 1805, and at an early day moved
to Fulton County, where he developed a valuable farm
and where he spent the rest of his life. He died in
1884. He married Arena Jackson of Hopkins County
where she was born, and she also died in Fulton
County.
John Browder, father of Joe, was born in Fulton
County in 1837 and spent many years as a successful
farmer here, but in 1880 removed to Obion County,
Tennessee, where he continued his career as a farmer
until his death in 1895. During the war he was in the
Confederate Army in 1864-65, participated in several
campaigns and battles and was once slightly wounded.
He was a democrat, gave an active membership to the
Methodist Episcopal Church, and was a member of
the Masonic fraternity. John Browder married Matilda
Baker, who was born at Gardner Station in Weakly
County, Tennessee, in 1842, and is now living at Ful-
ton. Her oldest child, William, a carpenter and builder,
died at Fulton in 1894 ; the second son d'ed in child-
hood ; the third is Joe ; Enoch is a partner in the
Browder Milling Company; Mattie who lives on her
farm near Fulton is the widow of Will Thompson ;
262
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
Sallic, twin sister of Mattie, married for her first
husband W. A. House, a farmer, and is now the widow
of T. N. Smith, an attorney, and is living at Fulton;
L. C. Browder is a farmer at Fulton, Tennessee ; Alice
died unmarried: and May died at Jackson, Tennessee,
where her husband, Rev. C. Brooks, is a Methodist
minister; Ruby is the wife of Maurice Dillon, a trav-
eling salesman with home at Newbern, Tennessee : and
Lirline is the wife of L. J. Clements who is book-
keeper for the Browder Milling Company of Fulton.
Joe Browder lived until he was twenty-five years
of age on his father's farm in Fulton County and
during his youth acquired a rural school education.
For several years until 1007 he was engaged in the
business of buying and selling tobacco at Fulton. In
1907 he bought the local flouring mills and established
the firm of Browder Milling Company, being senior
partner with his brother Enoch in that industry. These
mills handle a large business for local producers, have
a capacity of 150 barrels of flour per day, and also
operate as an adjunct a corn shelling plant and a corn
elevator. They handle grain and ship milled products
as far south as Hammond, Louisiana. The industry is
one thai employs twelve hands.
Mr. Browder is also a director in the City National
Bank of Fulton, and is owner of a highly productive
farm of 140 acres just northwest of the city limits of
Fulton, and has another farm of 322 acres in Northern
Louisiana. He is the owner of considerable real estate
in Fulton, including his modern home on Carr Street
extension.
Mr. Browder was elected Mayor of Fulton in 1917
and began his four-year term of office in Januarj of
the following year. He is a democrat, a steward and
trustee of the Methodist Episcopal Church, is affiliated
with Roberts Lodge No. 172 A. F. and A. M., Jerry
Moss Chapter R. A. M., Fulton Commandery of the
Knights Templar, Rizpah Temple of the Mystic Shrine
at Madisonville, Frank Carr Lodge of Odd Fellows
at Fulton and the Woodmen of the World.
In 1890 in Fulton County he married Miss Sallie
Thompson, daughter of A. T. and America (Baucum)
Thompson now deceased. Her father was for many
years a farmer in Fulton County.
Annie Snell, of Raleigh, North Carolina, great-
grandmother of A. T. Thompson, came to Bedford
County, Tennessee, where she lived up to the time of
her death, which occurred in the year 1854 at the age
of 114 years 9 months and 14 days. She is buried at
Thompsons Graveyard on the bank of the Duck River,
eleven miles from Shelbyville, Tennessee. Ben Carr,
her son-in-law, came from Raleigh, North Carolina,
and settled in Rutherford County, Tennessee, on head-
waters of Overall Creek, near Duck River, and moved
from there to Kentucky in the. year 182S and settled
where Fulton now is. He entered the quarter section
where Fulton is situated and later bought two quarter
seel ions joining to the northwest corner and in a few
years bought more land lying still west for four or
five hundred dollars. He died in the year 1844. Col.
John Thompson, A. T. Thompson's grandfather, came
from North Carolina and settled in Bedford County on
the headwaters of Duck River about eleven miles west
of Shelbyville in an early day. He was a colonel in
the Revolutionary war. His son, Jesse Thompson,
father of A. T. Thompson and grandfather of Mrs.
J. Browder, came west in the year 1828 and he died
on the farm near Fulton now owned by his grand-
children.
The two children of Mr. and Mrs. Browder are
Ruth and Helen. The latter is at home and a graduate
of Hamilton College at Lexington, Kentucky. Ruth
who completed her education in Belmont College at
Nashville, Tennessee, is the wife of Clyde Williams,
cashier of the City National Bank of Fulton.
Dr. William Frederick Pennebakkr. though now
retired from practice, has been a physician and friend
of exceptional service to a large community of Mercer
County, and for many years was a valued adviser to
that historic community known as Shakertown, where
he still resides.
Doctor Pennebaker was born on a farm near Shep-
ardsville in Bullitt County, Kentucky, August 2, 1841.
When five years of age he was brought by John Shain
to the Shaker settlement in Mercer County. Outside
of Mercer County this unique settlement is seldom
heard of by Kentuckians, though at one time it was
a thriving and prosperous community. Fifty years ago
a Kentucky historian described it as follows:
"Pleasant Hill is a small village of rare beauty and
neatness situated on a commanding eminence about
one mile from the Kentucky River, on the turnpike
road from Lexington to Harrodsburg and seven miles
from the latter place. It belongs exclusively to that
orderly and industrious society called 'Shakers' and
contained in 1870 a population of 362, divided into
families from sixty to eighty each. Their main edi-
fice is a large, handsome and costly structure built of
Kentucky marble, the others, generally, are built of
brick and all admirably arranged for comfort and con-
venience. The external and internal arrangement and
neatness of their dwellings, the beauty and luxuriance
of their gardens and fields, the method and economy
displayed in their manufacturing and mechanical estab-
lishments, their orderly and flourishing schools, their
sleek and well fed stock are all characteristic of this
singular people and evidence a high degree of comfort
and prosperity."
The first house was built in this settlement in 1805.
The community supported its own flour, flax and saw
mills, and was practically independent of the outside
world. It was a community undertaking, and all the
lands were owned and operated in common, and the
products from the mills and looms were of a lint
quality of wool, linen and cotton cloth. Today only
a few of the old sect remain, the mills and shops having
long gone to decay, though the houses of the village
were built so substantially that they stand as firm as
100 years ago.
Doctor Pennebaker even as a boy evinced remark-
able intellectual powers and at the age of twelve was
employed to keep all the books and accounts of the
Shaker community. He also studied medicine and
for many years took time to study in distant cities
to perfect his knowledge, attending Louisville College
of Medicine, colleges in Brooklyn and Cincinnati, and
as late as April 16, 1897, graduated from the National
College of Electro-Therapeutics of Indianapolis. He
was attending physician for members of the Society
and also had a general practice outside for miles
around. He introduced many of the distinctive fea-
tures of electro-therapy, and some of the appliances
and devices widely used by this school are of his de-
sign and manufacture.
Doctor Pennebaker's home is capably looked after by
his cousin, Miss Letcher Mathews, who handles also
many of his outside business interests, including the
farm.
At the time of the battle of Perryville in 1862 Doctor
Pennebaker. then a young man, attended and rendered
surgical aid to the wounded, and also at the Soldiers
Home at Graham's Springs. The road to the ferry
was built by the Shakers, and is a wonderful scenic
highway. The cost of its construction in cash was
only $14,000, since the men donated the labor. For
many years Doctor Pennebaker was manager for the
Shaker Society, and had the supervision of its program
of road-building, manufacturing and farming. He was
instrumental in placing the first telephone in service in
Mercer County, making connections with the line from
High Bridge to Cincinnati. While a very practical
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
263
man, with a wide knowledge of technical arts, he has
also been a student of literature. He was a friend and
admirer of the late President Roosevelt, and several
times was a guest of that distinguished American at
Washington. Doctor Pennebaker's home is quaintly
furnished, and has many beautiful examples of the
hand-woven rugs and hand-made walnut and mahogany
furniture in which the Shakers excelled.
Jeptha J. Haggard, who for several years past has
had his home and business activities on a fine farm
SlA miles south of Paris in Bourbon County, repre-
sents the old and prominent Haggard family of Clark
County, where Mr. Haggard himself lived many years
and where a number of his relatives have been people
of distinction.
Mr. Haggard was born at Pinchem in Clark County
August 15, 1855, and is a son of James and Mary E.
(Hunt) Haggard. About i860 the family moved to the
farm five miles from Winchester where Clay Haggard,
son of James, is still living. Jeptha J. Haggard was
reared and educated in Clark County, and was a resi-
dent of Winchester until three years ago, when he
bought his present farm, the old Joseph Penn place of
195 acres in Bourbon County.
At the age of twenty-five Mr. Haggard married Mary
Gay, of North Middletown. daughter of Watt and Nancy
(Owen) Gay. She was the mother of four children:
Nannie May, who died when twelve years old ; Harvey
Gay, who died at the age of twenty-one ; W. S. Hag-
gard, who lives at Paris, married Maime Davis and
has a son, John Davis Haggard; and Nona, wife of
D. C. Denningan, of Winchester, mother of three chil-
dren, Mary, Esther. Ray and Nancy Gay.
In February, 1909, Mr. Haggard married Ida Bird
(Deatherage) Norris, widow of Grant Norris. By her
first husband, William Allen Powell, she has a daughter,
Elizabeth, now Mrs. Harry Collins, of Paris. Ida Bird
Deatherage was born near Richmond, Kentucky, daugh-
ter of Achilles and Elizabeth (Willoughby) Deatherage.
Her grandfather, Amos Deatherage, married Susan
Lipscomb, of Clark County. Amos was a son of Bird
and Sally (Phipps) Deatherage, who lived on the old
homestead near Richmond still retained in the Deather-
age family, its present owner being N. Bird Deatherage,
a brother of Achilles, though his home is in Richmond.
Achilles Deatherage died at the age of fifty-six and his
wife, Elizabeth, at forty-five. Mrs. Haggard has two
brothers, Elmer and James, and a sister, Mrs. C. E.
Douglass, all of Madison Courity. William Allen
Powell, first husband of Mrs. Haggard, was in the
clothing business at Richmond, in partnership with
Doctor Evans, was a member of the city council, re-
signing that office to become postmaster of Richmond
under the Harrison administration, and he died soon
after leaving office, at the age of fifty. Mrs. Haggard's
second husband, Grant Norris, was a farmer and stock-
man of Madison County and died two years after h'S
marriage. Mrs. Haggard has been prominent in church
and women's organizations and is a woman of excep-
tional capabilities and talents.
William Nf.lson Du Vall. M. D. Reared and edu-
cated in the Illinios corn belt, Doctor Du Vall grad-
uated from medical college twenty years ago, and his
active career as a physician and surgeon has been spent
in Kentucky. He is one of the leading men of his
profession in Webster County, and for many years has
carried on an extensive practice at Sebree.
Doctor Du Vall was born at Monticello in Piatt
County, Illinois, August 3, 1873, a son of Jeremiah E.
and Rosaltha Hepzibah (Johnson) Du Vall, the latter
of Irish ancestry, while his father was of French stock.
The great-grandfather of Doctor Du Vall came to this
country from France. Both parents were natives of
Ohio. Jeremiah Du Vall of Piqua County, but they were
married in Illinois, and were substantial farming people
of Piatt County. Jeremiah Du Vall died February 18,
1920, at the age of eighty years, eight months and nine
days, and the widowed mother is now living with her
son Dr. Du Vall at the age of seventy-five.
William N. Du Vall is the youngest of four sons,
and there were also four daughters in the family. He
spent his life to the age of twenty-three on his father's
Illinois farm, was educated in the local schools, and
prepared for his profession with a three years' course
in the Georgia Medical College at Atlanta, graduating
April 4, 1900. Six days later he located at Beech Grove,
Kentucky, but after gaining some recognition as a
promising young physician he left in the fall of that
year and going to Chicago took a polyclinic course in the
Bennett Medical College and pursued post-graduate
studies in Rush Medical College. With this additional
technical equipment Doctor Du Vall returned to Ken-
tucky and resumed his practice at Beech Grove until
June 22, 1907. Then, on October 26, 1907, he located
at Sebree, and in that community has found many op-
portunities for professional service, and is a man of
the highest standing not only as a physician but as a
citizen. He is a member of the Webster County and
Kentucky State Medical Associations, and is active in
both organizations.
Doctor Du Vall is a Knight Templar Mason and
Shriner, an Odd Fellow, a republican voter and a mem-
ber of the Christian Church. On June 15, 1905, he
married Daley Tilford. Her father was Dr. F. P.
Tilford of Nebo, Kentucky. Doctor Du Vall lost his
wife on May 27, 1919. She was the mother of two
children, a daughter, Ora, and a son, William Maurice
Du Vall.
H. D. Fitch, vice president of the Kentucky Public
Service Company, vice president of the Hopkinsville
Water Company, and an extensive property owner, is
one of the leading business men of Bowling Green, and
one whose influence in his community has always been
of a constructive character. He was born at Louisville,
Kentucky, October 28, 1874, a son of H. D. Fitch, and
grandson of H. D. Fitch, who was born in France, of
English-French stock. When still a young man he emi-
grated to the United States and located in Daviess
County, Kentucky, where he died not long thereafter.
H. D. Fitch, father of the gentleman whose name
heads this review, was born at Owensboro, Kentucky,
in 1852, and died at Louisville, Kentucky, in 1900.
Through his boyhood he lived at Owensboro, but then
moved to Louisville, where he was married. There he
was engaged in the conduct of a celebrated art store
under the name of Fitch, Lindsey & Company, and in
the manufacture of showcases. This firm handled paint-
ings and all art goods, and built up a valuable connec-
tion. Later on in life he was general manager of the
Chess-Carley Company, which was to the South what
the Standard Oil Company was to the North. This
company was afterwards consolidated with the Standard
Oil Company. In every way the elder Mr. Fitch was
a distinguished citizen and fine man, and lived up to the
highest ideals of the Episcopal Church and the Masonic
fraternity, in both of which he was a zealous member,
and by the latter was raised to the thirty-second degree.
In politics he was a democrat, and was equally con-
sistent in his support of the principles of the democratic
partv. He married Mary Belle Lindsey, who was born
at Frankfort, Kentucky, in 1847. She survives her hus-
band and resides at Jacksonville, Florida. Their chil-
dren were as follows : T. Lindsey, who resides at
Jacksonville is connected with an engine manufacturing
company which produces power engines for ships ; H.
D., who was the second in order of birth ; Katherine,
who married Edward Allan of Jacksonville, Florida, who
is in the same company as his brother-in-law, T. Lindsey
Fitch.
The younger H. D. Fitch was educated in the public
schools of Louisville, and was graduated from the high-
264
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
school course in 1892, following which he entered Trinity
College, near Louisville, a celebrated college of that
day, and there completed the junior year. Leaving col-
lege in 1895, he was associated with his father in the
Electric & Gas Utility Company, his father owning
several public utility properties in Kentucky and Texas.
During the fifteen years Mr. Fitch was associated with
his father, he learned the business thoroughly, and then
became connected with the J. G. White Company of
New York City, very large operators of public utilities
in the United States. In this connection Mr. Fitch
assisted in organizing the Kentucky Public Service
Company, a Kentucky corporation, which owns and
operates a number of public utilities in Kentucky and
Tennessee, and he has risen to be its vice president,
and has charge of the company's properties in both
states, including those at Bowling Green, Hopkinsville,
Frankfort, and Owensboro, Kentucky, and Clarksville,
Tennessee, and has under his supervision 400 employes.
The Kentucky Public Service Company has its general
offices at Bowling Green, 333 Main Street. This cor-
poration supplies Bowling Green with gas, electric lights
and ice. As before stated Mr. Fitch is connected with
the Hopkinsville Water Company as its vice president,
and he owns a fine modern residence at 1410 College
Street, Bowling Green, one of the most desirable in
the city, .the Bowling Green Opera House Building on
Main at College Street, which is the second largest
office building in the city ; other desirable realty, and a
farm of 113 acres in Warren County.
Brought up in the faith of the Episcopal Church, he
is a communicant of it. and active in the local parish.
Like his father he is a democrat. Mr. Fitch belongs to
Bowling Green Lodge No. 320, B. P. O. E. He is a
member of the Bowling Green Chamber of Commerce
and the Bowling Green Business Men's Association,
and of the various commercial organizations in the sev-
eral cities in which his corporation owns properties.
Like all loyal Americans, during the late war Mr. Fitch
took a zealous part in supporting the Government, and
not only bought heavily of all the bond issues and
stamps, and contributed generously to all of the or-
ganizations, but he participated in all of the Warren
County drives.
In 1895 Mr. Fitch was married at Nashville, Ten-
nessee, to Miss Stella Riggs. a daughter of B. F. and
Anna (Boyd) Riggs. both of whom are now deceased.
Mr. Riggs was an insurance operator in Texas for
some years. Mrs. Fitch was graduated from Potter
College of Bowling Green, and is a cultured and accom-
plished lady. Mr. and Mrs. Fitch became the parents
of the following children: Elizabeth, who was born
in January, 1902. in attending Randolph-Macon College,
at Lynchburg, Virginia ; Henrietta, who was born De-
cember 15, 1908, is attending the Bowling Green public
schools; T. Lindsey. who was born in June, 1910;
and Stella, who was born in June, 1913.
It is almost impossible to give an adequate idea of
the importance to any community of a man like Mr.
Fitch. His long experience, thorough knowledge and
broad outlook are all centered on his business, and lie is
able to discharge his responsibilities capably and up-
rightly, and not only earn for his corporation a fair
amount of profit, but give to the communities which it
serves, commodities in the way of heat, light and re-
frigeration at prices no private concern could hope
to equal. Through the various commercial organiza-
tions with which lie is associated Mr. Fitch exerts a
strong influence in behalf of a wise and sane amount
of public improvements, a proper maintenance of those
already existing, and a conservative stimulation of
trade. His means and his experience are drawn upon
in every emergency, and his fellow citizens realize that
in him Bowling Green has one of its most dependable
assets.
David Henry Hatter is one of the conspicuous citi-
zens of Franklin County, known for his extensive busi-
ness and public interests. He is present county judge,
is president of the Simpson County Bank, owns and
operates several large farms in the county, and while
these facts stand as evidence of his unusual success
some of his older friends know that he began life
as a farm hand, dependent entirely upon what he could
earn by his individual exertions.
Judge Hatter was born in Madison County, Kentucky,
November 1, 1859. He is descended from Scotch an-
cestors who settled at an early day in North Carolina.
His father John Hatter was born near Irvine, Kentucky,
in 1830, grew up there, was married in Madison County
where he became a merchant, spent two years farming
in Missouri, then resumed merchandising in Madison
County, and in 1865 moved to a farm in Simpson
County where he lived until his death in 1905. He was
an independent democrat in politics, and served in the
Civil war from 1861 to 1863. His wife was Minerva
Biggerstaffe, who was born in Madison County in 1830
and died in Simpson County in 1898. They were the
parents of seven children: Samuel is a farmer in Madi-
son County ; William O., also a farmer died in Simpson
County at the age of sixty-seven ; Ann, living at Pa-
ducah, Kentucky, is the widow of James Thompson, a
farmer ; David Henry is the fourth in age ; John W.,
a farmer, died in Franklin at the age of fifty-six;
Dudley is a Simpson County farmer; and Jennie is the
wife of Thomas Forgy, living on a farm in Simpson
County.
Judge Hatter had the advantages of the rural schools
as a boy, at the age of fifteen began working out as a
farm hand, and in that way provided for himself and
managed to save a few dollars capital until he was
twenty-one. He then went to farming on his own
account and for twenty years'until 1900 gave his ener-
gies with almost complete concentration to his farming
interests. He still owns and supervises several farms
that produce large quantities of tobacco, general crops,
hogs and other stock. One of his farms contains 150
acres and is seven miles west of Franklin, another in
the same vicinity comprises 215 acres, and a third of
180 acres is nine miles west of Franklin.
From 1900 to 1912 Judge Hatter was a Franklin
merchant. A number of years ago he became interested
as a stockholder in the Simpson County Bank, which
was established by a number of substantial citizens and
business men of Franklin and the surrounding district
in February, 1890. It has always been operated under a
state charter and in thirty years it has acquired a
strong financial position in Southern Kentucky. It has
capital of $50,000, surplus of $33,000, and its average
deposits in 1920 were $600,000. The officers of the
bank are : D. H. Hatter, president ; R. G. Moore, vice
president ; and T. L. Neely, cashier. Judge Hatter is
also interested in the Farmers' Loose Leaf Warehouse
Company and the Simpson County Loose Leaf Ware-
house Company. He owns one of the modern homes at
the county seat on Liberty Street. For four years from
1909 to 1913 he was mayor of Franklin. In the fall
of 1913 he was elected county judge, was re-elected in
1917, and has presided over the sessions of the County
Court since January, 1914. Judge Hatter is a democrat,
a deacon in the Baptist Church, and is affiliated with
Comet Lodge No. 42 Knights of Pythias. From his
official position as well as under the impetus of strong
patriotism he wielded much influence in promoting
Simpson County's quota in the various phases of the
World war. Two of his sons were represented in the
army.
Judge Hatter married Miss Ella Nora Cushinberry in
Sumner County, Tennessee, in 1882. Her parents were
Mr. and Mrs. T. J. Cushinberry now deceased, her
father for many years having been a farmer in Simpson
County, Kentucky. Judge and Mrs. Hatter have four
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
265
children: Ewing lives in New Orleans and is a travel-
ing salesman ; William Lawrence, now employed in the
Simpson County Bank at Franklin, enlisted in July,
1918, was trained at Camp Taylor and later at Camp
McClellan at Anniston, Alabama, and was mustered out
as a corporal in December, 1918. The only daughter,
Mary, is the wife of Jesse Mallory, a jeweler at Frank-
lin. Emmett P., the youngest son, is now finishing
his education in the University of Kentucky at Lex-
ington, preparing for the law. He enlisted in April,
1918, spent three months in training at Fort Benjamin
Harrison at Indianapolis, then at Camp Taylor and
again at a camp in Ohio, from which he was sent
overseas and spent a year in France. He was promoted
to first lieutenant, and was in the army until mustered
out in April, 1919.
Tobias J. Kendrick. No class of men contributes
more to the constructive force of the community than
that of the educators, for to them is due the credit for
forming the plastic minds of the rising generation and
shaping the trend of mental progress of their own
associates. Acknowledged to be better informed than
the majority, their advice is sought and followed with
reference to matters, not only of local interest, but
upon the broader ones of humanitarianism and national
import. One of these really important men of his day
and locality, deserving of special mention in this connec-
tion is Tobias J. Kendrick, superintendent of the Pike-
ville schools, and a man of scholarly attainments and
fine executive and administrative abilities.
Tobias J. Kendrick was born in Russell County, Vir-
ginia, September 5, 1863, a son of Evan A. and Cather-
ine Eliza (Lockhart) Kendrick. The Kendrick family
is of Welsh origin, while the Lockharts came from
Scotland. Evan A. Kendrick was born in Russell
County, Virginia, and died December 31, 1877, aged
forty-nine years. His wife, also a native of Russell
County, passed away April 13, 1919, when she was
seventy-six years old. He was a farmer and manu-
facturer, on a small scale, of carding machinery, with
a plant at Hanaker. Both he and his wife were devout
members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South,
taking an active part in religious work, and being the
center of the intellectual circle of their community.
Seven children were born to them, Tobias J. and his
twin brother, John T., now a lumber dealer, being the
eldest.
The mother of this family was a finely educated lady,
and took pride and pleasure in directing the primary
studies of her children. Later Tobias J. Kendrick at-
tended the public schools of his neighborhood, and a
private school in Russell County, Virginia. His aca-
demic training was obtained at the New Garden Academy,
from which he was graduated in 1883. Since then he
has taken up special work in West Virginia, and Chau-
tauqua courses at Reading, Pennsylvania, and James-
town, New York, during 1885, 1886 and 1887.
In 1886 Mr. Kendrick came to Pikeville, although
with no intention at that time of entering the educa-
tional field. However finding a favorable opening, he
took the examinations, secured a first-grade certificate,
and took charge of the Pikeville School, at that time
housed in a two-room building. Here he remained
until 1898 when he went to Richlands, Virginia, as a
teacher of his Alma Mater, and for some time main-
tained this connection. Desiring a change, he went into
a real estate business for a time, but his old friends
and admirers at Pikeville, having never forgotten his
work among them, succeeded in inducing him to return
to them in 1910, and once more take charge of the
educational affairs. He found things somewhat de-
moralized, the pupils being scattered all over the city.
For the subsequent five years he bent every energy to
co-ordinate and concentrate, and in 1915 had the satis-
faction of seeing the erection of the present fine new
school building, which is a credit to the community and
its people, and is a better one than is usually to be found
in places of much larger population. In 1912 he or-
ganized the Pikeville High School, and from then on
has developed this branch of the public school system.
During the time he has been in charge of Pikeville's
schools he has prepared many of the Pike County
teachers for their work, and a number of the leading
business men of Pikeville are numbered among his
former pupils, and all of them hold him in affectionate
respect.
In 1886 Mr. Kendrick was united in marriage with
Minnehaha Adams, a daughter of Capt. A. E. Adams,
and granddaughter of Col. John Dike of Pikeville.
Mrs. Kendrick died July 7, 1896, when twenty-nine years
old. They had two sons, namely : Erwin A., who is
now in college, served for one year in the accounting
department at Baltimore, Maryland, during the Great
war; and John D., who was working in the Bethlehem
Steel Plant during the war, and there died when twenty-
nine years old. In 1898 Mr. Kendrick was married to
Miss English Hammet, a daughter of Rev. James H.
Hammet, a Presbyterian minister who was in charge
of the Pikeville Academy. Mrs. Kendrick is a Presby-
terian, but Mr. Kendrick is a Methodist, and for many
years has been a teacher of the Bible class in the Sun-
day school. Well known in Masonry he is now high
priest of Pikeville Chapter, R. A. M., and he also be-
longs to the Commandery and Mystic Shrine of Ash-
land, Kentucky. In politics he is a democrat.
Jesse B. Downey, one of the most energetic young
merchants of Woodburn, is utilizing his commercial
talents in the hardware field, and has made his store
one of the leading ones in this region. He brings to his
work the enthusiasm of youth, and is equally vital in
the performance of his civic responsibilities. Mr.
Downey is a product of Woodburn, having been born
here, November 21, 1893. Mr. Downey comes of one of
the old families of Warren County, his grandfather,
Carter Downey, who was born in Kentucky, in 1830,
having been one of the early farmers of the county,
owning and operating a farm in the vicinity of Wood-
burn, and he died at Woodburn in 1905. His wife, who
was Miss Mary Jane Mason before her marriage to him,
was born in Warren County, in 1836, and died at Wood-
burn, in 1914. The greatgrandfather was the pioneer of
the Downey family into Warren County.
J. M. Downey, son of Carter Downey, and father of
Jesse B. Downey, is one of the highly respected men
of Woodburn. He was born in Warren County, in
1855, and until his retirement, was engaged in farming
in his native county, upon an extensive scale. He is a
democrat. Early uniting with the Baptist Church, he is
one of its strong supporters. His fraternal connections
are those which he maintains as a member of Magnolia
Camp No. 66, W. O. W., of Franklin, Kentucky. J. M.
Downey married Levanda Young, who was born in
Warren County in i860, and died at Woodburn, July
10, 1919. They became the parents of the following
children : James Lee, who is a partner of his brother
J. B., in the hardware business, lives at Woodburn ;
Ben, who is engaged in farming in the vicinity of Wood-
burn ; Velma, who is unmarried, lives with her father ;
Jesse B., who is the fourth in order of birth; Kashie,
who is residing with her father ; and Laura, who mar-
ried W. E. Lewis, a clerk in the store of Downey
Brothers.
After attending the rural schools of Warren County,
and the Business University of Bowling Green, in 191 1,
Jesse B. Downey worked for a year in West Virginia
for the United States Coal Company, and then he and
his brother bought their present hardware business
which they operate under the name of The Woodburn
Hardware Company, it being the leading hardware
store outside of Bowling Green. Mr. Downey is a
266
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
democrat, and active in his party, at present serving
as town treasurer. He belongs to Warren Lodge No.
31, K. of P. He owns a comfortable modern residence
at YYoodburn.
In 1915 Mr. Downey was married at Mitchellville,
Tennessee, to Miss Ila Wilson, a daughter of Ben Meade
and Fletcher (Harris) Wilson who are residing on
their farm near Woodburn. Mr. and Mrs. Downey
have one son, Jesse Wilson, who was born November
12, 1917. Through his definite and decided stand with
reference to public improvements and the raising of
the standards of living, Mr. Downey draws the atten-
tion of his friends and earns the gratitude of the com-
munity. He takes pleasure in contributing to good
causes, in being in the forefront of civic and moral
movements, and young as he is, his advice is sought
and acted upon by others less progressive than he. Be-
cause of his undoubted abilities he stands high among
his fellow citizens as one of the responsible men of the
county, and one who will go far on the road which leads
to honorable success. As a public official he is winning
laurels because of his wise administration of the affairs
of his office, and his future looms large with political
possibilities.
Jacob H. Keeney. The coal interests of Bell Coun-
ty are of such importance as to command the attention
and engage the energies of some of the leading men
of the state who find in this line of business profitable
investments. Jacob H. Keeney of Middlesboro is one
of the men who have been connected with the develop-
ment of the natural resources of this region. He is
a man of unusual business acumen, and his name and
influence have been sought by other organizations, and
be is vice president of the National Bank of Middles-
boro.
Jacob H. Keeney was born in Switzerland County,
Indiana, October 5, 1863, a son of Hiram B. Keeney,
and grandson of John Keeney, who was born in New
York State. He was drowned in the Ohio River in
Switzerland County, Indiana, when he was in middle
life. By trade he was a millwright, and he spent the
greater part of his life in Xew York State, coming
to Switzerland County at the same time as his son,
Hiram B. Keeney. He was married to a Miss Harris,
a native of New York State, who died in Switzerland
County.
The birth of Hiram B. Keeney occurred in New
York State in 1821, and his death, in Switzerland
County, Indiana, in ] 866. When a young man he came
to Switzerland County, Indiana, was there married,
and there he became a prominent farmer and civil
engineer. He married Delilah Humphrey, who was
horn in Switzerland County, Indiana, in 1829, and
died in that county in 1884. Their children were as
follows : Laura K., who married P. W. North, a
farmer of Rising Sun, Indiana; George H., who was
a civil engineer, died at Rising Sun. Indiana, in March,
1920; Hosier, who was a retired wholesale druggist,
died at Seattle, Washington, in 1919; and Jacob H.,
who was the youngest in the family.
Jacob H. Keeney was reared on his father's farm
and attended the schools of his native county, remain-
ing at home until he was twenty-two years of age.
From 1887 to 1888 he was engaged in railroad con-
struction work in Missouri on the Santa Fe Radroad,
and then in December, 1889, he came to Middlesboro.
His first employment after coming to this city was
secured witli the fire department, and he remained in
it for three years, leaving it to enter upon his present
line of endeavor. At present he is general manager
and a stockholder of the Bryson Mountain Coal &
Coke Company, whose mines are located in Bryson,
Tennessee, and have a capacity' of 200,000 tons of
bituminous coal annually. Mr. Keeney is also vice
president of the National Bank of Middlesboro, and
is also interested in 15,000 acres of coal and timber land
near Stearns, Kentucky. He is a republican. In re-
ligious belief he is a Christian Scientist. A Mason,
he belongs to Pinnacle Lodge No. 661, F. and A. M. ;
and Middlesboro Chapter, R. A. M. Mr. Keeney owns
a modern residence on Arthur Heights which is one
of the very finest and most desirable homes in the
city. During the late war he took an active part in
all local work, was chairman of the committees of all
the drives for the Liberty Bonds in Bell County, and
was particularly zealous in behalf of the Red Cross.
He bought bonds and war savings stamps, and con-
tributed to all of the war organizations to the full
extent of his means.
In 1884 Mr. Keeney was married in Switzerland
County, Indiana, to Miss Mary E. Moore, who was
born at Cincinnati, Ohio, and educated in the public
schools of that city. She is a very active worker in
the Christian Science Church, and she also belongs to
the Middlesboro Music Study Club. Mrs. Keeney is
a daughter of William Moore, who was born at Cin-
cinnati, Ohio, in 1831, and died in that city in 1867,
having passed his entire life there. For many years
he was a member of the city fire department, and was
also a City Commissioner. In politics he was a re-
publican, while in fraternal matters he was a Mason.
William Moore married Mary Belknap, who was born
in New York State, in 1832, and died at Cincinnati,
Ohio, in 1868. Mr. and Mrs. Keeney have had the
following children born to them : Arden Belknap, who
resides at Bryson, Tennessee, is superintendent of the
Bryson Mountain Coal & Coke Company; Helen, who
married C. B. Finley, a coal operator, lives with her
parents; Philip H., who is a mechanical engineer and
prospector living at Middlesboro, enlisted in the chem-
ical warfare service during the late war, was a cor-
poral, and served overseas for seven months ; William
J., who is a student of the College of Music of Cin-
cinnati, Ohio, where he is developing his remarkable
talent as a violinist; and Delilah, who lives at Phila-
delphia, Pennsylvania, married Oliver P. Hoyt, an
employe of the Central Leather Company of Philadel-
phia. Mr. Keeney has been connected with some of
the most constructive development of Middlesboro, and
is recognized as one of the leading men of the city
and county.
Otis W. Jackson, postmaster of Clinton, is one of
the enterprising men of Hickman County, and comes
of one of the most influential families in this part of
the state. He was born in Hickman County, Kentucky,
March 2, 1882, a son of W. J. Jackson, grandson of
William Jackson and great-grandson of Ephraim Jack-
son.
Ephraim Jackson was born in Halifax County, North
Carolina, where his ancestors had settled when they
came to that colony from Ireland, long before the
American Revolution. He died in this same county
at a date prior to the birth of his grandson, W. J.
Jackson, in 1848, and it is claimed that he had reached
the remarkable age of 100 years. All of his life a
blacksmith, he was working as such during the Revo-
lutionary war, and shod many horses for the soldiers.
His wife, who was Rachel Poe before her marriage,
was also born in North Carolina.
William Jackson was born during May, 1789, in
North Carolina, and died in Graves County, Kentucky,
in July, 1874. He was reared on the banks of the New
River in Halifax County, North Carolina, but went
to South Carolina and was there married, and for the
subsequent four years was one of the farmers of that
state. He then came to Kentucky and after a time
spent in Simpson County, located in Hickman County
in October, 1822. In 1849 he moved to Graves County,
Kentucky, where he spent the remainder of his life.
In politics he was a Jacksonian democrat. The Metho-
dist Episcopal Church held his membership, and he
gave a great deal of thought and time to the church.
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
267
During the War of 1812 he served as a soldier under
the command of Gen. Andrew Jackson.
William Jackson was married to Jennie Bratcher,
who was born in South Carolina in 1798. She died
in Graves County, Kentucky, April 2, 1858, having
borne her husband the following children: Ephraim,
who was born in 1818, was a farmer and died in Car-
lisle County, Kentucky, when he was fifty-nine years
old ; Samuel, who was born in 1820, died when sixty
years old near Irontown, Missouri, having been a
farmer all of his life; John S., who was born January
12, 1821, was a farmer and died in Carlisle County,
Kentucky, when seventy-one years old ; Holcomb, who
was born April 12, 1825, died in Hickman, Kentucky,
July 5, 1901, having been a farmer by occupat:on ;
Nancy Jane, who was born in 1828, died in Graves
County, Kentucky, as the wife of the late Holcomb
Jackson, a farmer; Martha J., who was born in 1831,
died at Columbus, Kentucky, aged sixty-eight years,
having married J. W. Buckley, a general workman,
now deceased; Lucy, who was born in October, 1836,
died in Hickman County, Kentucky, in November, 1916,
aged eighty years, having married first T. L. Thomp-
son, a farmer, and after his death, was married second
to W. T. Waggoner, a farmer, now deceased ; William
Eldren, who died in infancy; Mary Jane, who was
born in 1840, died in Hickman County in 1875, married
Jesse Burgess, a farmer, killed in 1918 by a cyclone ;
and W. J., who was the youngest born.
W. J. Jackson, father of Otis W. Jackson, was born
eight miles east of Clinton, in Hickman County, Ken-
tucky, April 10, 1844. He was reared on his father's
farm, and attended the rural schools, remaining at
home until he had just past his seventeenth birthday,
when he enlisted in 1861. in the Confederate Army
under General Forrest, for service during the war be-
tween the North and the South. His was a cavalry
regiment and he participated in the movements of his
organization at Shiloh, Guntown and during the cam-
paign in and about Vicksburg. On February 22, 1864,
he was wounded at Starksville, 'Mississippi, and lost
his left eye, which incapacitated him for further serv-
ice. After the close of the war, he located at Tipton-
ville, Tennessee, and was there occupied with agricul-
tural activities from 1865 to 1870, when he returned to
Hickman County, and since then has been interested
in farming operations, up to the present, although on
October 19, 1892, he moved to Clinton, Kentucky,
where he owns his modern residence at No. 327 West
Clay Street. He still owns his fine farm of 160 acres
six miles west of Clinton, and until 1912 owned 200
acres two miles east of Clinton, which had been in his
possession for twenty years, but in that year he sold it.
A democrat, he served as a member of the Clinton
City Council for two terms or a period of four years.
A leader in his party, he was chosen as its cand:date
for the State Assembly in 1906 and was elected by a
gratifying majority, was re-elected in 1908 and 1912,
serving for three terms in all. During the six years
he was a member of the lower House, he served as
chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, as chair-
man of the Charitable Institutions Committee and was
. on a number of other important committees, so that
he was connected with the securing of some very con-
structive legislation for the state. At one time he
served as deputy sheriff of Hickman County. In re-
ligious faith he is a Methodist. A Mason, he belongs
to Hickman Lodge No. 131, A. F. and A. M. ; and
Morris Chapter No. 176, R. A. M. At one time he
also belonged to the Knights of Honor. Mr. Jackson
is a member of the Confederate Veterans, and has at-
tended many reunions of his old comrades, and served
on the staff of Col. Bennett Young, with the rank of
colonel.
On July 11, 1865, W. J. Jackson was married to
Miss Louisa Reaves at Tiptonville, Tennessee. She
was born in Lake County, Tennessee, in 1849, and
died, in Hickman County, Kentucky, May 8, 1874,
having borne her husband the following children : Lou
Rivers, who died at the age of eight years; Laura
Belle, who died at the age of six years ; Jennie Bett,
who died at the age of two and one-half years; and
Mollie M., who died at the age of six months. Mr.
Jackson was married December 30, 1875, at Clinton,
Kentucky, to Miss Mary M. Stone, who was born at
Clinton, Kentucky, in 1854. She died at Clinton, Jan-
uary 8, 1901, and she bore her husband five children,
namely : Fred, who died at the age of one month ;
Edward W., who is in the employ of the Goodyear
Rubber Company, lives at Akron, Ohio ; James W.,
who is a farmer of Hickman County, Kentucky; Otis
W., whose name heads this review ; and Carrie, mar-
ried to George W. Turney, accidentally drowned at
Newbern, Tennessee, who was a son of a physician
and surgeon. Mrs. Turney now lives with her father.
Otis W. Jackson attended the local schools and then
completed his educational training at Marvin College,
Clinton, Kentucky. Leaving college when he was
twenty years of age, Mr. Jackson was connected with
the sales forces of several mercantile establishments,
and was so engaged when he was appointed postmaster
of Clinton in October, 1914, and he was reappointed
in August, 1919, for a term of four years more. The
post office is located on East Clay Street. Mr. Jackson's
residence is located at No. 327 West Clay Street. He
is unmarried. He has followed in his father's foot-
steps in his choice of a church and lodge, for he is a
member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and Hick-
man Lodge No. 131, A. F. and A. M. His political
convictions are also his by inheritance, and he is recog-
nized as being among the leaders in local affairs.
Under his capable administration the affairs of the post
office are in prime condition, and he is rendering the
people of the city and vicinity a service which is
eminently satisfactory.
John G. Puryear, M. D. A practicing physician
and surgeon at Mayfield since 1903, Doctor Puryear
was a surgeon with the 84th and 91st Divisions in
France and was in the army for eighteen months of
the war.
Doctor Puryear was born at Mayfield April 17, 1878.
His great-grandfather Puryear came to North Caro-
lina from France. The grandfather, Harmon Puryear,
was born in North Carolina in 181 1 and in 1838 came
to Kentucky and for many years lived on a farm near
Mayfield, where he died in 1907 at the advanced age
of ninety-six. He married Betty Ford who was born
in Christian County, Kentucky, in 1814, and died near
Mayfield in 1870.
Doctor Puryear's father, Gabriel J. Puryear, was
born in North Carolina in 1837, was a year old when
his parents came to Christian County, Kentucky, and
since 1846 has lived in Graves County. He developed
one of the largest and most successful tobacco plan-
tations in that county and while now practically re-
tired is still living on his 400-acre farm four miles
south of Mayfield. He is a Confederate veteran, hav-
ing served under General Forrest, and participated in
the battles of Harrisburg, Guntown, Brice's Crossroads
and other important engagements. He has been an
ardent democrat through all his voting years and is a
member of the Masonic fraternity. He married Fannie
Pryor, who was born in 1842 at Pryorsburg, a village
in Graves County founded by her father Jeremiah
Pryor, who spent alt his life in Graves County. Jere-
miah Pryor was a Confederate soldier killed in the
first year of the war. Gabriel J. Puryear and w'fe
had nine children : James H., for many years a lead-
ing dairyman and farmer at Mayfield, now practically
retired ; Lennie B., wife of James B. Martin, a farmer
south of Mayfield ; Cora, wife of John Covington, a
retired farmer of Mayfield; Imogene, wife of W. A.
Martin, a farmer living south of Mayfield ; Magdalene-
268
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
who was married to James Johnson, a truck farmer
at Pascagoula, Mississippi ; R. E., a farmer south of
Mayfield ; Doctor Puryear ; Samuel A., a farmer at
Poolville, Texas; and Hattie, wife of J. H. Anderson,
agent of the Southern Railroad Company at Green-
ville, Mississippi.
Doctor Puryear spent his youthful years in the whole-
some environment of his father's farm, attended rural
schools, graduated from West Kentucky College at
Mayfield in 1900, and in the same year entered the
Kentucky School of Medicine at Louisville, where he
was graduated in 1903. In 1908 he took a special
course in surgery at the Chicago Polyclinic. Other-
wise and with the exception of his army experience
he has been busied with a general medical and surgical
practice at Mayfield since 1903, his office being on the
south side of Court Square in the Stovall Building.
He is a member of the County, State and American
Medical associations.
Doctor Puryear joined the Medical Reserve Corps
in September, 1917. He was given his early training
at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indianapolis, but in No-
vember, 1917, was assigned to duty as a lieutenant at
Camy Taylor, Kentucky. In August, 1918, he went
overseas to France with the 84th Division and was
abroad seven months. For a time he was at the Base
Hospital Ochner, Nantes, and for thirty-seven days
was with the 91st Division in the Argonne Forest.
Doctor Puryear was mustered out March IS, 1919, and
at once resumed his duties at home.
He is a democrat, a member of the Methodist Epis-
copal Church and is affiliated with Landrum Lodge
(if Masons at Wingo, Kentucky. His home is on South
Ninth Street. Mayfield. At Wingo in 1904 he married
Miss Lela Waggoner, daughter of William and Jane
Waggoner, the former now deceased, having been a
farmer, and the mother is still living at Wingo. Doctor
and Mrs. Puryear have two children : Fern, born
June 20, 1905 ; and Linda, born May 3, 1908.
Walter F. Stivers is the owner of a fine farm estate
of 400 acres near Athens, Fayette County, but in their
attractive and well appointed house on this place he
and his wife maintain but intermittent residence, as
they pass a goodly portion of each year in the city of
Lexington and also are frequently to 'be found for
more or less prolonged periods in the home of Mrs.
Stivers' parents, Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Barker, of whom
specific record is given elsewhere in this publication.
Mr. Stivers was born in Fayette County, on the 19th
of February, 1893, and is the only child of Luther and
Lula (Flannagan) Stivers, a personal sketch of the
father being incorporated elsewhere in this work, so
that further review of the family history is not here
demanded. The early education of Walter Forrest
Stivers was acquired in the public schools and was
supplemented by a course in the Smith Business College
at Lexington. After leaving school he took the posi-
tion of calculator in a large tobacco warehouse in the
City of Lexington, where he is now serving as calculator
of sales, the while he holds also the position of deputy
sheriff of Fayette County. During the winter seasons
Mr. Stivers gives the major part of his time and atten-
tion to his official duties at the tobacco warehouse, and
he gives a general supervision to his fine landed estate
near the Village of Athens, this being the old John
Burroughs farm, on the Cleveland Turnpike. The farm
is operated by desirable tenants and is given over largely
to the raising of tobacco, wheat and corn.
Mr. Stivers is an enthusiast in outdoor sports, in-
cluding hunting, and he is endowed with marked "fan''
proclivities in connection with football, many games of
which he has witnessed, including that between Harvard
and Danville in the City of Boston. As a loyal Ken-
tuckian he also has a due appreciation of and interest
in horse racing, and follows closely the record of turf
events. In a fraternal way he is affiliated with the
Lexington Lodge of the Benevolent and Protective
Order of Elks, and he is one of the well known and
distinctively popular young men of Fayette County,
where he and his wife are associated with representative
social activities.
On the 20th of June, 1913, was solemnized the mar-
riage of Mr. Stivers to Miss Edith K Barker, and they
have two children — Forrest and Luminta.
Marion Edgar Johnson has lived in Simpson County
practically all his life, was for several years officially
identified with the old woolen mills at Franklin, but
is best known as the district manager of the chief public
utility at Franklin, The Kentucky Utilities Company,
which supplies light and power to the city.
Mr. Johnson, who is an able business man and one
of the public spirited citizens of Franklin, was born
in Simpson County January II, 1879. His ancestors
came from England and settled in North Carolina in
Colonial times. His grandfather Berry Johnson was
born in North Carolina in 1807 and long before the
building of railroads he crossed the mountains with
his family in an ox cart to Tennessee and became a
pioneer farmer in Wilson County that state, where he
died in 1900 at the venerable age of ninety-three. His
son William Burrel Johnson was born near Lebanon
in Wilson County in 1845, grew up there with a farmer's
training and when he first married moved to Simpson
County, Kentucky. Here for many years he has en-
joyed success on a liberal scale as a farmer and stock
man, and has one of the model farms of the county
located five miles northeast of Franklin. He is a demo-
crat and a member of the Missionary Baptist Church.
His first wife died without children. Later he mar-
ried Miss Martha Roark, who was born in Simpson
County in 1855. Five children were born to her:
Henry Floyd, a civil engineer in the United States
Army, a veteran of the World war and now on duty
in the Philippines ; Marion Edgar, second in age ; Annie,
wife of Sanford Reeder, a farmer a mile east of
Franklin ; Nellie, whose husband Herschel Sloan has a
farm four miles east of Franklin ; and Zenobia, wife
of Sam Granger, a farmer four miles west of Franklin.
Marion Edgar Johnson acquired a good education in
preparation for his business career. He first attended
the rural schools, later the Franklin High School, also
the Western State Normal College at Bowling Green,
and completed his course in the Bowling Green Busi-
ness University. Leaving school in 1900 he began office
work for the Franklin Woolen Mills, and was in the
service of that local industry for twelve years, eventu-
ally becoming vice president of the company. With
the destruction of the mills by fire in 1912 he was asso-
ciated with the Franklin Hardware Company, and an-
other year he spent at Glasgow, Kentucky, as accountant
for the Farmers Loose Leaf Tobacco Company. With
his return to Franklin he became in 1914 district man-
ager of the Franklin Electric and Ice Company. Shortly
afterwards this became a part of the Kentucky Utili-
ties Company, an organization whose headquarters are
in Louisville, the chief executive officers being Harry
Reid, president, L. B. Harrington, vice president, and
A. A. Tuttle, secretary and treasurer, all Louisville men.
This company manufactures all the electric power for
domestic and public purposes in Franklin and vicinity,
and also manufactures ice. The plant and offices are
at the corner of Depot and Water streets.
Mr. Johnson was associated earnestly with local war
work in Simpson County, being a volunteer to help in
the registration under the draft law, and assisted both
by his personal means and his influence in raising the
county's quota in the various financial campaigns. He
is a democrat, a member of the Baptist Church and
is affiliated with Simpson Benevolent Lodge No. 177,
A. F. and A. M.
Mr. Johnson married Miss Lula Carr, of Macon
County, Tennessee, December 24, 1902. Her parents
UN DAT IONS
rier i
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
269
were Houston and Angeline (White) Carr, now de-
ceased. Her father was a Confederate soldier in the
Civil war and for many years a farmer in Macon
County. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson have one son, Charles
Edgar, born December II, 1909.
Carl Norfleet, M. D. After graduating in medicine
in 1905 Doctor Norfleet spent several years gaining
valuable experience as a physician and surgeon in one
of the coal mining towns of Eastern Kentucky, and
since then has enjoyed a successful general practice at
Somerset in his native county.
Doctor Norfleet was born at Faubush in Pulaski
County April 13, 1881. His grandfather, Jesse Norfleet,
was born in Kentucky in 1803, son of a pioneer settler
in Wayne County who came from Virginia, and during
a long and active life he was identified with extensive
very earnest Christian gentleman, an active supporter
farming interests in Wayne County, where he died in
1889. Jesse Norfleet, Jr., father of Doctor Norfleet,
was born in Wayne County in 1847, a»d shortly after
his marriage moved to Pulaski County and for a num-
ber of years was engaged in business as a merchant at
Faubush, where he died in March, 1892. He was a
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, a democrat
and a Mason. His wife was Lean Van Hoozer, who
was born at Mill Springs in Wayne County in February,
1848, and is still living at Somerset. Doctor Carl is the
oldest of four children. The next two younger were
Mollie and Hugh Frank, who died in early childhood.
Wynona is the wife of Roy McDaniels, manager of the
branch house at Somerset of the Cumberland Grocery
Company.
Carl Norfleet was about eleven years of age when his
father died, and most of his subsequent opportunities
were the result of his own striving and determined
effort. He was educated in rural schools, attended the
Burnside Academy, and during 1901 was a student in
the Kentucky State College at Lexington. Beginning
at the age of eighteen, he taught four terms of school
in Pulaski County. In 1902 he entered the Hospital
College of Medicine, now the University of Louisville,
and received his degree on July 3, 1905. Doctor Nor-
fleet took a general review course in the Chicago Poly-
clinic in 1919. For two years after his graduation he
was mine physician at Silerville, Kentucky, and in 1908
opened his offices at Somerset, where his abilities have
gained him favorable recognition both as a physician
and surgeon. His offices are at 101 Columbia Street.
Doctor Norfleet has prospered, owns a modern home
on Maple Street considerable other real estate and a
farm a mile west of the county seat. He is the present
county health officer and has served as city health
officer, is secretary and a past president of the Pulaski
County Medical Society and a member of the State and
American Medical Associations. Doctor Norfleet is a
stockholder in the Farmers National Bank of Somerset.
An important chapter in his individual career was
his service to the Government during the World war.
He was accepted for duty in the Medical Corps August
5, 1917, was commissioned captain and after eleven weeks
in the Medical Officers Training Camp at Camp Green-
leaf Georgia was transferred to Embarkation Camp,
Camp Stuart, at Newport News, Virginia. He was
there 4l/2 months, and was then sent to Nansemond
Ordnance Depot, where he organized the camp hos-
pital and was on duty zl/2 months as camp surgeon.
For seven months he had command of the camp hos-
pital at Camp Hill, Virginia, and then was at an in-
firmary near Newport News until honorably discharged
March 24, 1919. Thus for a long period he was absent
from his regular practice at Somerset. Doctor Norfleet
is a democrat, is a steward in the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South, and is affiliated with Somerset Lodge
No. in, F. and A. M. ; Somerset Chapter No. 25,
R. A. M. ; Somerset Commandery No. 31, K. T. ;
Somerset Lodge No. 1021, B. P. O. E.
In 1908, at Somerset, he married Miss Lena V. Gird-
ler, daughter of Everett and Sophia (Gilmore) Girdler,
residents of Somerset, where her father is a funeral
director. Mrs. Norfleet finished her education in the
Somerset High School and the Shelbyville Academy.
Doctor and Mrs. Norfleet have two children : E. Gird-
ler, born December 22, 1908, and Mildred Elizabeth,
born April 2, 1914.
Hon. Alben W. Barkley. Among the moulders of
thought and leaders in action in Western Kentucky,
Hon. Alben W. Barkley easily takes a prominent posi-
tion, and is ably representing his district in the Lower
House of Congress. His family is one of the old and
distinguished ones of America, in which it was founded
during the Colonial epoch of the country's history, by
sturdy and determined men and women, who, coming
here from Ireland, first located in Pennsylvania, and
from thence went on south into North Carolina.
It was in the latter state that A. G. Barkley, the
grandfather of Congressman Barkley was born in 1819,
but he died in Graves County, Kentucky, in 1884, being
the pioneer of the name to migrate from North Caro-
lina to Kentucky, although he spent a brief period in
Henry County, Tennessee. His arrival in Graves
County, Kentucky, occurred in 1866, and he continued
his calling as a farmer, that line of industry having
been his life work. He was married to Amanda
Girand of Christian County, Kentucky, who was a first
cousin of James A. MacKinzie, former member of
Congress from the Second Congregational District of
Kentucky, and also a cousin of Ex-vice President Adlai
E. Stevenson. The latter was also a native of Christian
County, Kentucky. Mrs. Barkley also died in Graves
County, Kentucky.
Congressman Barkley was born at Lowes, Graves
County, Kentucky, on November 24, 1877, a son of
John W. Barkley, who is now a resident of Paducah.
He was born in Henry County, Tennessee, in 1854,
and he was brought to Graves County, Kentucky, by his
parents in 1866, and was there reared, educated and
married, developing into a very successful farmer and
prominent citizen. In 1891 he moved to Hickman
County, Kentucky, leaving that locality in 1899, for
Paducah, where for some years he was engaged in the
insurance business, but has returned to his former call-
ing, and is now engaged in farming. In politics he is a
democrat. For many years he has been a member of
the Presbyterian Church, and is earnest and generous
in his support of the local body of that denomination.
John W. Barkley was married to Miss Eliza Electra
Smith, born at Bowling Green, Kentucky, in 1859,
and they became the parents of the following children:
Congressman Barkley, who is the eldest ; Clarence, who
died in 1900, when he was twenty years old ; George
F., who is a conductor on the Illinois Central Railroad,
lives at Memphis, Tennessee; Harry S., who was killed
in an accident in 1910 when he was twenty-three years
old, was a clerk in a mercantile establishment at Pa-
ducah ; Ima, who married Oscar Denker, of Paducah,
where he has large mercantile interests ; Ada, who
died when twenty-five years of age, married John
Allen, now manager for the American Express Com-
pany at Ashland, Kentucky ; John, who is a traveling
salesman, resides at Paducah ; and Bernice, who married
William Theilgman, a clerk in a hardware store at
Paducah.
Growing up in Graves County, Congressman Barkley
attended its schools, and later Marvin College at Clinton,
Kentucky, from which he was graduated in 1897 with
the degree of Bachelor of Arts. During 1897 and
1898 he was a student of Emory College at Oxford,
Georgia, and during that time Bishop Warren A.
270
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
Cambler was its president. Both of these institutions
are Methodist Episcopal colleges. Mr. Barkley se-
cured his legal training at the University of Virginia
at Charlottesville, Virginia, which he left in 1002. While
at Emory College he became a member of Delta Tau
Delta, a Greek Letter fraternity.
In 1 901 Mr. Barkley had been admitted to the bar
of the State of Kentucky, having read law under Hon.
Charles K. Wheeler, ex-Congressman, and Judge W. S.
Bishop, Circuit Judge of McCracken County for many
years, and ex-Congressman John K. Hendrick, and be-
gan his practice of his profession in 1901. That same
year he was appointed official reporter of the Circuit
Court of McCracken County, and while holding that
position attended the University of Virginia. He held
this position for four years and resigned it to become
candidate for the office of prosecuting attorney of Mc-
Cracken County, to which he was elected in the fall
of 1905, by a large majority, and took office in January,
1906, for a term of four years. The record he made
in this office for fearlessness and unflinching upright-
ness, gained him the nomination, without opposition,
in the fall of 1909, for the office of County Judge,
to which he was elected, and he entered upon its duties
in January, 1910, for a term of four years. After
serving with dignified capability until February, 1913,
he resigned as he had been elected as representative
from the First Congressional District of Kentucky.
Elected to the office in November, he assumed the re-
sponsibilities, and discharged them so satisfactorily, that
he has since been returned to Congress, by increased
majorities. It has been the privilege of Congressman
Barkley to serve his country during all of the war
period, and he has continued a stanch supporter of all
the measures recommended by President Wilson during
his administrations, including the Federal Reserve Act,
the Farm Loan Act, Anti-Trust laws, and the laws
proposed or enacted generally for the benefit of later
and agriculture, as well as those for the encouragement
of commercial interests of the country. He is a con-
sistent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
following in his religion, as he does in his politics, the
example set him by his father, of earnestness in both.
Congressman Barkley is a well known figure in many
of the fraternal, social and commercial organizations
of Paducah, and belongs to Mangum Lodge No. 21,
I. O. O. F. ; Jersey Camp No. 10; W. O. W. of which
he is past head consul of the State of Kentucky ; Pa-
ducah Lodge No. 217, B. P. O. E. ; the Paducah Board
of Trade ; is an honorary member of the Paducah Ro-
tary Club and the Paducah Den of the Lions Club.
Professionally he belongs to the County and State Bar
associations.
On June 23, 1903, Congressman Barkley was united
in marriage at Tiptonville, Tennessee, to Miss Dorothy
Brower, a daughter of Charles and Laura (Thomas)
Brower, residents of Paducah. Mr. Brower is a travel-
ing salesman. Mrs. Barkley was graduated from the
Paducah High School, and is a charming lady of great
refinement and culture, who has been a valued adjunct
to Washington society. The children of Congressman
and Mrs. Barkley are as follows : David Murrell, who
was born on February 11, 1906; Marian Frances, who
was born on September 14, 1909; and Laura Louise,
who was born on October 28, 191 1.
Congressman Barkley entered the halls of Congress
from a judicial atmosphere, and, although his duties
were of an entirely different character, he found that
the very' qualities which had gained him such distinc-
tion on the bench, enabled him to weigh carefully each
measure and to serve well and acceptably his consti-
tuents. In fact ever since he was first honored with
public office it has been the paramount purpose, the
highest ambition of this distinguished son of Kentucky
to be a real representative of the people who sent him
to Washington, and not the advocate of a few. His
ability, natural and acquired, sound judgment and force-
fulness, his originality of thought, his independence of
action, and his fearlessness in defending his position and
advocating the principles for which he stood, have won
alike the confidence, the admiration, and the respect
of both his political friends and foes.
Benjamin Franklin Briggs is a veteran printer, has
spent many years "at the case" as proprietor of an
establishment of his own, as publisher of newspapers,
and after half a century of service is still active as
proprietor of a commercial printing establishment at
Mayfield.
Mr. Briggs, who is of Scotch-Irish descent, and of
a colonial family in Virginia, was born at Gallatin,
Sumner County, Tennessee, August 27, 1848. His father
William M. Briggs was born at Bardstown, Kentucky,
in 1814, and as a youth moved to Gallatin, Tennessee,
where he was married. He spent some years as a
farmer in Sumner County, was a dry goods merchant
at Nashville, Tennessee, but on January 1, 1861, removed
to Anna, Illinois, where he continued his career as a
merchant until his death in 1876. He cast his first
vote as a whig and later was a democrat. William M.
Briggs married Mrs. Julia (Watwood) Jackson who was
born in Tennessee in 1819 and died at Gallatin in 1854.
By her first marriage she had two sons, Charles and
James, both now deceased. By her second marriage
she was the mother of seven children: William F.,
a photographer who died in Illinois ; George W. who
enlisted in the Confederate Army and was killed at
Marietta, Georgia ; Margaret and Martha, neither of
whom married, the former dying at the age of thirty
and the latter at twenty-five ; Sarah who never married
and died at the age of seventy ; Anna who died when
twenty-three years of age; and Benjamin Franklin, the
youngest, who prophetically was given the name of
America's famous printer-statesman. William M.
Briggs married for his second wife Sarah S. Reeves,
who was born in Todd County, Kentucky, in 1825 and
died at Dongola, Illinois, in 1895. She became the
mother of two children, Herbert and Susie. Susie
died at Dongola, in 1900, the wife of W. S. Meisen-
heimer, who was a miller by trade.
Benjamin Franklin Briggs acquired his early educa-
tion in the public schools of Nashville, but from the
age of fifteen has made his own way in the world.
He worked as a clerk in a store at Jonesboro, Illinois,
until 1869, '" which year he came to Mayfield. In 1873
he established the Banner of Temperance and in 1875
merged that paper and its plant with the Mayfield
Monitor and continued the publication of the paper
and the management of the general job office until 1904.
Since that year he has given all his time to printing
exclusively and has an office with all the modern
facilities and with equipment that makes it a perfect
medium of printing service. He does a large amount
of business not only for Graves County but all the
surrounding counties. His business is at 713 West
Broadway.
Mr. Briggs served several years as secretary of the
Democratic County Central Committee, was city clerk
of Mayfield, and has readily joined in every public
spirited movement in that community during the past
half century. He is an active member, secretary of
the Methodist Episcopal Church and secretary of the
Sunday School and is affiliated with the Knights of
Pythias and the Knights of Honor.
He and his family reside on West Water Street.
He married at Mayfield in 1883 Miss Mary Rives,
daughter of John W. and Elizabeth (Coats) Rives, now
deceased. Her father was a tobacco dealer. Mr.
Briggs has one daughter, Nell, wife of Walter F.
Wright, a tobacco merchant of Mayfield.
George Alfred Jett. A career in which have been
included the working out of well-merited success and
the expression of sound and constructive citizenship is
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
271
that of George Alfred Jett, who has resided on his
present farm at Newman, Daviess County, for more
than a quarter of a century. Mr. Jett was born in
Daviess County May 14, 1866, a son of Richard L.
and Margaret (Carter) Jett.
Willa Jett, the great-grandfather of George Alfred
Jett, was born in Virginia, and was a soldier of the
Revolutionary war, participating, among others, in the
battle of Yorktown. He married Rachael Cole, and
their two sons Richard Cole and Thomas Jett, came
to Kentucky, the latter locating at Frankfort. Richard
Cole Jett was born in Virginia, September 7, 1785, and
on coming to Kentucky located in Daviess County,
where at one time he was sheriff, and where his death
occurred March 9, 1862. He married Susan A. Miller,
and among their children was Richard L. Jett, who
was born in Kentucky, November 17, 1826, and died
January 25, 1907. For some years Richard L. Jett
followed merchandising at Owensboro, but in later
years turned his attention to farming, on a property
nine miles east of Owensboro, where his industry and
good management gained him substantial and well-
merited success. He and his wife, Margaret (Carter)
Jett, were the parents of three children : Nina, who is
deceased; George Alfred, better known as "Babe," and
Annie, all born at Owensboro.
George A. Jett was a child when taken by his
parents to the farm nine miles east of Owensboro, and
while being reared in that community secured his early
education in the rural schools. Later he pursued a
course at the West Kentucky College, South Carrollton,
and on leaving that institution embarked in farming
on his own account. This vocation he has always fol-
lowed, and since 1894 has resided on his present prop-
erty at Newman, a highly developed tract of land on
which he has modern buildings, including a comfortable
and attractive residence and substantial buildings for
the housing of his stock, grain and implements. Fra-
ternally Mr. Jett is a Master Mason and a member
of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. His
political tendencies make him a democrat. His career
has been one in which he has dealt fairly with all who
have had transactions with him, and in which he has
fully discharged the duties of good citizenship, and
as a result he is held in high esteem in his community.
On August 18, 1886, Mr. Jett married Artie Schenck,
a daughter of John W. and Mary (Williams) Schenck,
her father having been a prominent farmer of Daviess
County where Mrs. Jett was born. Her mother came
of an old and prominent family of Jefferson County,
Kentucky, and was a daughter of Abram R. and Huldah
(Jean) Williams, her father being a veteran of the
Mexican war from Jefferson County. Four children
were born to Mr. and Mrs. Jett : Tanner Winston,
a lawyer by profession, at present city prosecutor at
Owensboro ; Margaret ; Catherine, who died at the age
of nineteen years ; and Nina John. The daughters
Margaret and Nina John went to Washington, District
of Columbia, during the World war period, the latter
securing a position in the treasury department and the
- former in the civil service. These positions they held
until July, 1920, when they resigned and returned to
the home farm. John W. Schenck, the father of
Mrs. Jett, was born in Kentucky, a son of Richard
and Elizabeth (Swindler) Schenck, both of whom
were natives of Culpeper County, Virginia, of German
lineage. Mr. and Mrs. Jett are Baptists, and their
children were reared in that faith.
Donald L. Coulter. Among the representative coal
operators in Kentucky as elsewhere, with large interests
at stake and immense capital invested, there is con-
stant rivalry to secure the services of reliable, experi-
enced coal men, great preference being shown for those
who have grown up in the business. On every side,
perhaps, are those who have worked in coal all their
lives, but these do not always measure up to the excel-
lence demanded by such big business enterprises as the
Elkhorn Coal Corporation, whose able superintendent
at Wheelwright, Kentucky, is Donald L. Coulter, a prac-
tical miner, who has been identifier with the coal
industry ever since leaving college.
Donald L. Coulter was born in the City of Baltimore,
Maryland, December 10, 1882, and is a son of James
Mifflin and Johanna (Douglas) Coulter, natives of
Georgia, the latter being a daughter of Judge John
Douglas of the Supreme Court of Georgia. The father
of Mr. Coulter was connected with the Cumberland
Coal Company, with offices at Baltimore, for a pro-
tracted period.
James Mifflin Coulter was a direct descendant of
John Mifflin who held a high commission during the
Revolutionary war and whose picture hangs with many
others in the capitol at Annapolis, Maryland. Two
nephews of James M. Coulter were Col. Stewart Sym-
ing of Baltimore, prominent in circles of business and
wealth, and Maj. John Mifflin Hood for many years
president of the Western Maryland Railroad and one
of its heaviest stockholders. On the maternal side the
grandmother of Donald L. Coulter is a direct descend-
ant of John C. Calhoun and his grandfather John
Douglas is a direct descendant of the Douglas Clan
(Scotch) of the Isle of Man. Douglas Castle was at
one time one of the principal estates on this island.
Mrs. W. B. Lowe of Atlanta, Georgia, sister of Donald
L. Coulter's mother was for several years president of
the Daughters of the American Confederacy and her
brother, Capt. Robert (Bob) Douglas, also of Atlanta,
was a veteran of the Civil war.
Mr. Coulter's educational training was received in the
public schools of Baltimore, and after completing the
high school course, he became a student in the Baltimore
City College, where he continued his studies for two
years. Mr. Coulter then took the important step be-
tween boyhood and manhood, leaving home to make his
own way in the world and carve out a career for him-
self. As an employe of the Cumberland Coal Company,
he went to Douglas, West Virginia, where he filled
the position of shipping clerk for two years, then was
promoted to the engineering department of the same
company, and by the time he had spent two more
years there, he had become so interested that he de-
termined to begin at the bottom and learn the entire
mining business thoroughly, both practically and tech-
nically. After five years of experience, he was made
assistant mine foreman and served as such for two
years, for five years following being mine foreman,
during all this time being with the Cumberland Coal
Company.
In the meanwhile Mr. Coulter's reputation has spread
through the different coal fields and many offers of
substantial positions were tendered him. He finally ac-
cepted the offer of the Berwin-White Coal Company,
at Berwin, West Virginia, and remained with that
company for three years as assistant superintendent,
and for four years as superintendent, when he became
general mine inspector for the Elkhorn Coal Corpora-
tion of all their properties at Fleming, Wayland and
Wheelwright, Kentucky. Six months later he accepted
his present position as superintendent of the Elkhorn
mines at Wheelwright. In his special line of work he
has established a reputation of practical knowledge and
trustworthiness that is something to be proud of. He
has a wide acquaintance both among miners and mag-
nates and his judgment is often consulted in reference
to matters pertaining to the great coal industry.
At Parsons, Tucker County, West Virginia, June 6,
1904, Mr. Coulter was married to Miss Blanch May
Jenkins, who is a daughter of George and Sarah Jenkins,
natives of England. Mr. Jenkins was a coal man all
his life, first in England and after coming to the United
States, he was with the Davis Coal & Coke Company,
in West Virginia. Mr. and Mrs. Coulter have two sons :
James Jenkins and John Park, aged respectively, thir-
272
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
teen and eleven years. 'Mrs. Coulter is a member of
the Episcopal Church, but Mr. Coulter was reared in
the Presbyterian faith. He has always been interested
in wholesome athletic sports such as baseball and foot-
ball, and while in college gained some local notoriety
playing first base on the Baltimore City College team.
He has never been unduly active in politics and has
never accepted any political office, but he has always
been a faithful citizen, wherever he has lived, and has
lent his influence to the support of law and order.
During the World's war, his work in seeing that the
country's coal output in his section, was just as im-
portant as if he had been fighting in a foreign trench,
and additionally he devoted time, effort and means to
further every local patriotic movement. Mr. Coulter
is a member of the Masonic fraternity.
Hon. John W. Swopk, representative from the
Seventy-fourth District, Clark County, in the Kentucky
State Legislature, and one of the leading and influen-
tial stock raisers and farmers of the Winchester com-
munity, has been identified long with the agricultural
interests of his section, and more recently has been
connected with public affairs, in which he has exer-
cised a wholesome and constructive influence. Mr.
Swope is a native of this region, born in the eastern
part of Clark County, at Abbott's old mill, July 24,
1859, his parents being Marcus D. and Nancy (Ab-
bott) Swope.
Marcus D. Swope was born in Estill (now Powell)
Cmnty, Kentucky, in 1828, a son of William and Nancy
(Lee) Swope and a grandson of Joseph Swope of
Virginia. On coming to this state Joseph Swope set-
tled in Montgomery County, but in later life went to
Indiana, where he died at the home of a daughter, at
the remarkable age of 104 years. He had three sons:
William, who settled in Estill County and died at the
age of eighty-eight years within the memory of his
grandson, John W. ; Henry, wdio settled at Stanton;
and Rome, who located in Powell County. Col.
Thomas' Swope, the wealthy Kansas Citian, whose
poisoning by Dr. B. Clark Hyde was a recent remark-
able criminal incident, belonged to the same family.
Marcus D. Swope spent his life in Clark County,
where he operated the old Abbott mill for many years
and died at the age of eighty-five, being laid to rest
in the old burying place of the Garrett, Pace and
Swope families. He married for his first wife Nancy
Abbott, who died at the age of forty-two years. She
was a daughter of Boswell D. and Eveline (Rankin)
■Abbott, the latter being a daughter of John Rankin, a
pioneer of the eastern part of Clark County, whose
large family were typical mountaineer people of that
locality. Boswell D. Abbott was born in Woodford
County, but was a pioneer into Clark County, where
he built Abbott's mill, one of the primitive wooden
cog-wheel mills of the early days. The flour buhrs
were imported, but the corn buhrs were worked out
by Mr. Abbott on his property, and this mill was oper-
ated up to within the last twenty years. He also had
a large still house, dating previous to 1840 and prob-
ably built about the time of the birth of his daughter
Nancy, and this was operated up to about 1870, and
in it were used the products of Mr. Abbott's large
farm, upon which he raised principally flax and corn.
He died at the age of forty-seven years, but the busi-
ness was continued by the family and a brother of
John W. Swope, Charles Swope, still owns the home-
stead. Marcus D. and Nancy (Abbott) Swope were
the parents of seven children : John W. ; Joseph, who
attended the State University, Lebanon, then attended
school, took a law course, was admitted to practice at
Winchester, and died three months later of typhoid
fever; Thomas, who is engaged in farming at Pueblo,
Colorado; Robert B., a horseman of Winchester; James,
a mechanic, who died at the age of twenty-eight years;
Charley, who owns the old home but is living in re-
tirement at Winchester; and Mary, who married W.
F. Barnett, a mechanic, and died at Winchester. For
his second wife, Marcus D. Swope married a widow,
Mrs. Sally Vivian Stewart, who died before his de-
mise, at an advanced age.
John W. Swope lived just across the Powell County
line, the old home being located practically on that
line, and received his education in the public school
after leaving which he took up farming. He was
married at the age of twenty-four years to Mollie B.
Tuttle, of the same precinct, Good, and died twenty
years later. Following his marriage, Mr. Swope re-
sided on his farm in the eastern part of the county,
being extensively engaged in operations as a farmer
and live stock grower. After the death of his wife,
he married her younger sister, Talitha M. Tuttle, and
they continued to reside on the farm until recently
when they moved to Winchester, although Mr. Swope
still owns his farm.
Mr. Swope had served as a member of the Fiscal
Court, made up of seven members representing seven-
teen precincts, to equalize assessments, and in 1917
was elected as a dry democrat to the Kentucky State
Legislature, taking his seat in that body in January,
1918. As chairman of the Soldiers' Home Committee,
he was instrumental in securing the passage of a bill
increasing the allowances of all old veterans from $10
to $15, it being set at $12 by the Senate and thus
passed. During that session statewide prohibition be-
came effective. Thirty-five years before, Mr. Swope's
first vote had been cast in favor of prohibiting whisky
from his precinct. His first term in the Legislature
was one which gave much satisfaction to his constitu-
ents, and he was elected again to office for the session
of iqicj. His party was in the minority and he re-
ceived no chairmanships, but served efficiently in the
capacity of member of a number of committees and
was active in good roads legislation. Disgusted at see-
ing the ignorant colored men allowed the vote when
intelligent and educated women were denied the right
of franchise, he became a warm supporter of women's
suffrage. He secured the passage of three of his five
bills in the House, but all were held up in the Senate.
One of these was to extend the time to pay taxes
from the 1st to the 31st, to accommodate the common
class, especially the tobacco tenants. Another was to
regulate transportation of high explosives on public
highways ; and a third was that indigent pupils be
supplied with text-books free in the public schools,
the teachers and trustees to determine who was worthy
of such help.
Mr. Swope is the father of six children: Zora C,
the wife of K. P. Hadden, on the old home farm near
Indian Fields; James C, residing near the old home
place; Thomas Mark, proprietor of an automobile ga-
rage at Winchester; John Clark, twin of the foregoing,
proprietor of a garage at Mount Sterling, this state;
Nancy, a traveling saleswoman with headquarters at
Pueblo, Colorado ; and Roger H., interested in the
garage business at Winchester.
Representative Swope was a delegate to the Peace
Conference at Philadelphia appointed by Governor Mo-
Creary and became enthusiastic thereover, being a great
admirer of the Peace League and of former President
Taft. He was reared in the old Baptist faith and be-
longs to the Missionary Baptist Church, in -which he
has been a deacon for thirty years. Fraternally he is
affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows,
being a charter member of the lodge at Sholdesville.
For a period of twelve years Mr. Swope was superin-
tendent of the Baptist Sunday School. He is the owner
of the block known as the Swope Garage, a brick
structure which he built at Winchester.
Jesse Robson Johnson. No class of men are more
independent than the agriculturalists, especially in these
days when telephones and automobiles connect with
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
273
centers of industry and culture, farms of outlying dis-
tricts and afford opportunities for development and
social intercourse as well as methods of speedily trans-
acting business. One of the men of Daviess County
who has won his place among the successful farmers
of Kentucky, is Jesse Robson Johnson.
He was born in Ohio County, Kentucky, March 7
1862, a son of Thomas L. and 'Margaret (Murray)
Johnson. Thomas L. Johnson was born in Ohio County,
Kentucky, July 25, 1834, a son of James and Lucinda
(Taylor) Johnson, who were also natives of Ohio
County. On January 19, 1858, Thomas L. Johnson and
Margaret Murray were married. She was born near
Bloomfield, Nelson County, Kentucky, September 30,
1836, and died at Owensboro, April II, 191 1. Mrs.
Johnson was a daughter of James Murray, who lived
and died in Nelson County, Kentucky. Both Mr. and
Mrs. Johnson were earnest members of the Baptist
Church. They had the following children born to them :
Alverta, Lizzie, Jesse Robson, James Murray, Allen,
Blanche Lou, and Clarence B., the last three deceased,
and Nina.
After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Johnson settled
on a farm in Ohio County, Kentucky, near the Daviess
County line. Here Mr. Johnson was engaged in farm-
ing, and prospered. Later he became a tobacconist at
Whitesvilie. In time he moved his business to Owens-
boro, but subsequently went back to Ohio County.
Once more he became a resident of Owensboro, and
there he died March 9, 1903.
Jesse Robson Johnson was reared on his father's
farm and with the exception of fifteen years when he
was in business at Owensboro, he has been entirely
occupied with agricultural matters. About 1905 he
bought his present valuable farm, near Owensboro, and
here he lives, his eldest sister being with him, neither
of them having married. He has a beautiful residence
and grounds, and his premises show that the owner
takes a pride in having everything in fine order. Since
buying this farm he has made many improvements upon
it, and it would be difficult to find one in a more highly
developed state. Both Mr. and Miss Johnson are held
in high esteem in the neighborhood where they have
lived for so many years. Their interests are all cen-
tered here, and they take pleasure in supporting local
movements, and enterprises, and are rightly numbered
among the leading people of their township.
Perry Parrigin, M. D. A few months after his
return from abroad as an army surgeon Doctor Parrigin
located for practice at Monticello, Kentucky, and his
early work here has been attended with results that
might be expected of a highly trained physician and
surgeon, who spent two years in the great post-graduate
university of the Army Medical Corps both at home
and abroad.
Doctor Parrigin is a native of this section of Ken-
tucky, grandson of Joseph Parrigin and son of A. B.
Parrigin, who lives at Mill Springs in Wayne County.
A. B. Parrigin was born in Wallace, Virginia, February
8, 1852, and was eleven years of. age when his parents
moved to Clinton County. Kentucky, where he was
reared and married. In early life he taught school, was
a farmer, for a number of years was a leading mer-
chant at Albany, Kentucky, and since 1904 has lived at
Mill Springs, where he was a farmer, merchant, and
also held the office of postmaster until he retired in
1919. For two terms he was sheriff of Clinton County.
He is a republican and a member of the Christian
Church and the Masonic fraternity. The mother of
Doctor Parrigin was Vie Isabelle Snow, who was born
at Albany, Kentucky, September 3, 1864. They became
the parents of eight children : Laura B., who died at
Asheville, North Carolina, at the age of thirty-five,
wife of John Gibbons, now a building contractor at
7ort Lauderdale, Florida ; Lyman J., an oil contractor
and oil producer at Paintsville, Kentucky ; Frank S., a
civil engineer at Lexington, Kentucky; Ethel Glee, wife
of Dr. F. W. Huddleston, a physician and surgeon at
Liberal, Kansas ; Lennie Ann, wife of Oliver Jenkins,
an oil contractor and producer at Paintsville; Perry;
Homer Parks, who is a mechanical engineer connected
with the great oil company known as the Texas Com-
pany, with home at Port Arthur, Texas, and Anita B.,
wife of Oliver O. Roberts, a worker in the oil fields at
Paintsville, Kentucky.
Dr. Perry Parrigin was born at Albany in Clinton
County, Kentucky, January 3, 1890, and attended public
schools there until he was fourteen. He spent three
years in public school at Mill Springs, and completed
the eighth and ninth grades at Monticello. He had a
thorough literary education preparatory to his medical
course, spending four years in Georgetown College,
from which he graduated in 1912 with the degree Asso-
ciates in Arts. This was followed by a four years'
course in medicine at the University of Louisville, where
he graduated M. D. in 1916. He is a member of the
Phi Chi college fraternity. For fourteen months he
was an interne in the Good Samaritan Hospital at Lex-
ington, and then took the examination for the Medical
Corps and on August 2, 1917, was commissioned first
lieutenant. His first assignment of duty was at Fort
Oglethorpe, Georgia, where he remained five months,
then 2^2 months at Camp Taylor, Louisville, and on
July 5, 1918, embarked for overseas, landing at Glas-
gow, Scotland. From July, 1918, until February, 1919,
his work was with Base Hospital No. 40 at Salisbury
Court, Hants, England. During August and September
he was assigned to the British in London, England, and
while there assisted the king's surgeon with three
operations. Early in 1919 he was sent to France, spend-
ing three weeks at Savenay, two weeks at Meves, and
then had the interesting good fortune of being assigned
as one of the Medical Corps to the inter-allied commis-
sion at Berlin, but remained in the capital city of Ger-
many only three days and three nights. For 3V2 months
following he was on duty at a Russian prison camp
at Ulm, Germany, and was then ordered to report to
Brest for return. He was discharged at Camp Taylor,
August 22, 1919, having been commissioned a captain
while in France.
Doctor Parrigin opened his offices at Monticello in
December, 1919, and has since been busily working in
a general medical and surgical practice. He owns his
modern residence and offices on Michigan Avenue, and
is a member in good standing of the County, State,
Southern and American Medical Associations. He is a
republican and belongs to the Christian Church. April
7, 1920. at Sonora, Kentucky, Doctor Parrigin married
Miss Mary Henrietta Akers, daughter of Robert Lee
and Nannie (Stamp) Akers, residents of Sonora, where
her father is a farmer. Mrs. Parrigin is a graduate of
the arts and expression course at Georgetown College
in Kentucky.
John R. Pryor, M. D. One of the ablest members
of the medical fraternity of Mayfield Doctor Pryor was
in the army service over a year, part of the time in
France, and his growing experience and abilities are
rapidly distinguishing him as a fine surgeon.
Doctor Pryor was born in Graves County November
16, 1889. He represents the old and prominent family
of that name in Western Kentucky and is of English
descent, his paternal ancestors having settled in Vir-
ginia in colonial times. His great-grandfather James
Pryor was a native of Virginia but came to Western
Kentucky as a pioneer and acquired several sections
of land in Graves County. The Town of Pryorsburg in
Graves County was named for his brother Jonathan.
Tames Pryor died here during the '40s. The grand-
father of Doctor Pryor was Richard Pryor, born in
Graves County in 1822, and died here in 1915. He
274
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
was one of the leading farmers of the county for many
years and politically a stanch democrat. He married
Elizabeth Watts, who was born in 1828 and died in
1898, being a lifelong resident of Graves County.
A. J. Pryor, father of Doctor Pryor, was born in
Graves County in 1852. and also spent his life in prac-
tically one community, his chief business being farming
and stock raising. In 1910 he retired to Mayfield where
he died in 1916. He was a democrat, and for many
years identified with the Methodist Episcopal Church.
His wife was Mattie Drake, who was born in Graves
County in 1859 and is still living at 'Mayfield. She was
the mother of two sons, Frank and John R., the former
a tobacco rehandler with the firm of J. L. Sherrell &
Company of Mayfield.
Doctor Pryor grew up on a farm, attended rural
schools, graduated from the West Kentucky College
at Mayfield in 1908, and took his medical work in the
University of Louisville, where he was graduated M. D.
in 1912. He did not begin active practice until he had
qualified himself by an unusual range of experience in
this country and abroad. For two years he was an
interne in the New York City Polyclinic Hospital, and
then went to Europe and attended clinics in Paris,
London, Brussels and Amsterdam, this period of his
preparation being interrupted by the outbreak of the
World war which forced him to return to the United
States. In September, 1914, he began practice at May-
field, and was thus engaged until December, 1917,
when he entered the Medical Reserve Corps, being
first sent to Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, and later trans-
ferred on duty to various camps in the United States.
July 6, 1918, he embarked for overseas, and for seven
months was on duty at Base Hospital No. 22 near
Bordeaux. He held the rank of lieutenant in the
Medical Corps, and was honorably discharged March 8,
1919. He then resumed his work at Mayfield, and is
giving more and more attention to surgery. Doctor
Pryor is a member of the County, State, Northwest
Kentucky and American Medical associations. Fra-
ternally he is affiliated with Mayfield Lodge No. 79,
A. F. and A. M., Mayfield Chapter No. 69, R. A. M.,
Paducah Commandery No. 11, K. T., and Rizpah Temple
of the Mystic Shrine at Madisonville. He is a demo-
crat and a Methodist, and is unmarried, his home being
at 606 South Sixth Street.
James T. S. Df-Boro. While his ancestors for several
generations lived in Kentucky James T. S. DeBord was
born and spent many years in Missouri, where he
entered his profession as a lawyer, but for the past
seven years has been a resident of Mayfield. where he
has developed the leading abstract of title business in
Western Kentucky and also continues the profession
of law.
Mr. DeBnrd was born at Gentryville, Missouri, July
20, 1875. He is of French ancestry, the family having
come from France to North Carolina in colonial times.
His great-grandfather was Gideon DeBord and his
grandfather Simpson DeBord was born at West Liberty,
Kentucky, and spent all his life in that community as
a farmer. Simpson DeBord married a sister of John
P. Salyers, a noted Kentucky lawyer and democrat, who
served as a delegate to the National Convention of the
party when Grover Cleveland was first nominated for
the presidency. Mrs. Simpson DeBord's father was
killed by Federal raiders during the Civil war. The
Federals had made two raids on his farm in Morgan
County and the third time he determined to withstand
them, and killed as many as possible before he fell a
victim himself.
Stephen DeBord, father of the Mayfield lawyer, was
born at West Liberty in Morgan County in 1848 and in
1 86.} at the age of fifteen enlisted as a Confederate
soldier in a regiment of Kentucky infantry under Gen.
Humphrey Marshall. He and others of the regiment
were captured and imprisoned at Rock Island, Illinois.
There they were offered freedom if they would serve
on the Federal side, but to a man they refused. Then
on being offered freedom if they would enlist to fight
the Indians on the western frontier they did so, and
after the close of the Indian campaign Stephen DeBord
returned to West Liberty and was married. Soon
afterward he removed to Gentryville, Missouri, and
became a farmer and stock raiser in that noted livestock
district. Since 1893 he has lived at Albany, Missouri,
engaged in the general insurance business. He held
township offices in Gentry County and for thirty years
was deputy sheriff. He is a very active member of
the Missionary Baptist Church and is affiliated with the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Stephen DeBord
married Rebecca Fugett, who was born at West Liberty,
Kentucky, in 1846. They had four children : W. R., in
the Government mail service at St. Joseph, Missouri ;
James T. S. ; Stephen, Jr., who was an electrician and
was killed by electric current at Rock Island, Illinois,
at the age of thirty-four ; and Francis M., who died
in infancy.
James T. S. DeBord spent his early life on his
father's farm in Gentry County, Missouri, attended
country schools, is a graduate of the Albany High
School with the class of 1895, and for two and a half
years was a student in the Northwest Missouri College,
now Palmer College of Albany. Among his early ex-
periences he was a teacher in the rural schools for
three years and at the same time was diligently pursuing
a course in law. Mr. DeBord was admitted to the bar
in 1899, and was soon enjoying a good practice. He
was nominated for the office of probate judge of
Gentry County on the democratic ticket and at election
he received the largest vote any candidate for a county
office had ever received up to that time. He gave a
highly efficient service as probate judge for four years,
his term expiring January 1, 1906. In 1907 Judge
DeBord removed to Webb City, in Southwestern Mis-
souri, and was engaged in practice until the panic of
that year. He then went on South to Beaumont, Texas,
when that city was the center of the Texas oil industry,
and he himself was interested in oil at Beaumont and
at Shrevepcrt, Louisiana, until 1913.
In June, 1913, he came to Mayfield and opened a set
of abstract of title books. With the exception of the
year 1914-15 which he spent in Missouri and Oklahoma,
he has been at Mayfield ever since, and has an extensive
business as a general lawyer and as an examiner of
abstracts of titles. His offices are on South Seventh
Street on the west side of the public square. Mr.
DeBord owns considerable real estate in Mayfield in-
cluding a modern home on East Broadway.
He continues his stanch allegiance with the demo-
cratic party and is affiliated with Albany Lodge No. 175,
of the Odd Fellows in his former Missouri home town.
He also belongs to Albany Camp of the Modern Wood-
men of America. In 1905 at Bedford, Iowa, he married
Miss Myrtle E. Van Reenen, daughter of Robert and
Ellen (Burnside) Van Reenen, resident of Bedford,
where her father is a retired farmer and coal merchant.
Charlton A. Clay. Probably the finest equipped
and most beautiful country place between Paris and
Winchester is the Marchmont Stock Farm, whose pro-
prietor is Charlton A. Clay. Marchmont was for many
years the home of his father the late James E. Clay.
James E. Clay was a son of Samuel and Nancy T.
(Wornall) Clay and this brief statement is perhaps all
that is necessary to indicate the connection of this
branch with the great Clay family of Kentucky.
James E. Clay was born in Bourbon County September
25, 1850, and died July 15, 1910. He was a splendid
type of the Kentucky gentleman, a thorough business
executive who devoted his time and energies to handling
an extensive landed property, at one time comprising
about six thousand acres. For forty years he lived at
Marchmont, two miles southeast of Paris, and from his
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
275
stables on that farm sent many standard bred horses
to the race courses and to the markets for thorough-
breds. He was for several years a vice president of
the Kentucky Trotting Horse Association. His life
was a continuous expression of a thorough public spirit
that caused him to lend aid to every worthy movement
in his county and state. He was active as a democrat,
though never holder of a public office.
November 15, 1871, he married Miss Elizabeth Alex-
ander, who was born at Paris December 25, 1849,
daughter of Charlton and Catherine Alexander. Their
married life continued nearly forty years, and in death
they were hardly divided, since she passed away four
days after her husband on July 19, 1910. Their children
were : Belle Brent, wife of J. Miller Ward of Bourbon
County; Samuel who was born February 15, 1875, lives
at Cane Ridge and is a present county commissioner ;
Nancy, wife of Arthur B. Hancock and Charlton
Alexander.
Charlton A. Clay was born November 15, 1890, and
has always lived at the old home and exhibits all the
talents of his family for agriculture and stock raising.
The Marchmont Stock Farm comprises about a thousand
acres, and under Mr. Clay's management it continues
to be a breeding center for thoroughbred horses, and
he has also been a very successful stock feeder. About
sixty acres annually are devoted to the tobacco crop.
The fine old home at Marchmont was completed in 1865
by Samuel Clay, grandfather of the present proprietor.
Charlton A. Clay, who has never married, was educated
in the Paris Academy, the Millersburg Military Institute,
and the Philips-Exeter Academy of New Hampshire.
Joseph L. Brown. Because of the extent and quality
I of his usefulness, his commercial soundness and acumen,
his public spirit, integrity and nearness to the funda-
mental principles of citizenship, Joseph L. Brown affords
an encouraging example of success gained through
honorable methods. During a long, diversified and
always successful career, he has followed farming and
banking, and is still the owner of a large and profitable
property in Clark County, while discharging capably
the duties of president of the Peoples State Bank and
Trust Company, at Winchester.
Mr. Brown was born four miles southwest of Win-
chester, Clark County, Kentucky, October 12, 1843, a
son of Francis G. and Frances J. (Goodwin) Brown.
His father was born near Culpeper Court House, Vir-
ginia, in 1804, and when a young man had started with
his father's family from Virginia, with Missouri as
the party's destination. While the family was passing
through Kentucky the father suddenly sickened and died
and was laid to rest in Fayette County. The family
continued on to Missouri with the exception of Francis
G., who remained in Kentucky, and the other sons later
went to California, after which naught was heard from
them. While in this state, Francis G. Brown met and
married Frances J. Goodwin, at Charlesburg, Fayette
County, a daughter of Lloyd K. and Mary Jane
(Graves) Goodwin, she being about eighteen years of
age at the time of their marriage. Lloyd K. Goodwin
owned 2,400 acres, of which 800 acres were in the home
farm, and at his death left his widow $75,000, after
having assisted each of ten children to the acquirement
of a nice property. But one of his children, Mrs.
Lucinda Victoria Hildreth, is living, she being the
widow of Thompson Hildreth and a resident of Comb's
Ferry Road. Mr. Goodwin died when eighty-six years
of age and his wife at about the same age although
ten years later. Mrs. Brown inherited from her father
a part of the old Goodwin estate, which later passed
to her children. Soon after their marriage, Mr. and
Mrs. Brown settled in Clark County on the property
on which their son Joseph L. was born and there
passed the remaining years of their lives, the father
dying at the age of fifty-four years, in 1858, and the
mother some twenty years later. Francis G. Brown had
Vol. V— 26
owned about 600 acres, from which his widow later
paid off the indebtedness, and had added to his original
home, which was a log-boarded structure. The farm
is still in the family, being owned by the widow of
Mr. Brown's son Russell. There were seven children
in the family : Amanda Elizabeth, the widow of Ben
Holliday, residing in advanced age near Germantown,
Clark County ; Joseph L. ; Mary Hardena, the widow
of Lewis Holliday, still residing at her home near the
old Brown place; James Thomas, a farmer of near
Charlesburg, who died in 1918, leaving a widow who is
now residing with a daughter, Mrs. Frances Proctor,
of Clark County; Benjamin, who is engaged in agricul-
tural pursuits in Madison County ; Russell, who was
a partner with Joseph L. Brown in the ownership of
the old home place for fifteen years, engaged In general
farming, and with his brother owned some 400 acres,
which was finally divided, Russell taking the old home-
stead, upon which he died, and which is now owned by
his widow, a resident of Winchester; and Nancy
Frances, who married Lloyd Thompson and at this time
is a resident of Saline County, Missouri.
Joseph L. Brown was educated in the public schools
of Gark County and secured his present farm on the
Lexington pike, four miles north of Winchester, along
with his wife's other property. He was united in mar-
riage in 1886 with Mary B. Proctor, a daughter of
George Washington Proctor, who at that time was
living two miles from Winchester on the Lexington
pike, the old home being at Thompson Station, Clark
County, the Asa Barrer home. This was formerly the
old Abe Van 'Meter farm, and originally the old
Weathers tract, bought by Colby Quisenberry, who had
started the erection of the present residence in 1859
and had burned the brick for the dwelling on the farm.
He had inherited 600 acres and the house was erected
in a way suitable to an estate of that size, but the
expense of building during the midst of war conditions
incurred such an expenditure and consequent indebted-
ness that Quisenberry lost the entire property. The
residence stands on a delightful location and is a
notable example of Kentucky Blue Grass country homes.
When Joseph L. Brown acquired this farm it consisted
of 680 acres, to which he subsequently added 150 acres
on the opposite side of the Lexington pike, making 830
acres there. He also has 470 acres near the old Brown
home. The present farm was all bought by his wife's
interest in the estate. A general farmer, Mr. Brown
was also a thoroughbred horse breeder. During his
career he has bred trotting horses, has had them trained,
and has followed the race courses for forty years. One
of his animals sold for $6,500, which, with his year's
earnings, brought in over $10,000. Mr. Brown has
appreciated horses all of his life and has produced sev-
eral noted animals. When he was only fourteen years
of age he purchased for his mother a well-bred mare,
which he accepted on a debt, and, breeding it to a
celebrated trotting stallion, produced a colt which as a
one-year-old won a stake for colts and was sold for
$1,000. Later this animal became the property of Gen-
eral Custer and won the $20,000 stakes, standing in the
same class as the noted "Dexter" and "Goldsmith Maid."
At the time of its organization, Mr. Brown was made
president of the Peoples State Bank and Trust Company
of Winchester, a position which he has retained to the
present time and in which capacity he has directed the
policy of this institution with judgment and ability.
In company with his brother-in-law, G M. Proctor,
he built in 1904 the Brown-Proctoria Hotel at Win-
chester, which they still own, but in the conduct of
which they have always depended upon the services of
a manager. Mr. Brown was a stanch democrat up to
the time of the candidacv of William Jennings Bryan.
He has always favored the democratic party in his
support, but is not himself an office seeker.
Mr. and Mrs. Brown are the parents of two children:
Alice, the wife of J. O. Crutcher, who is an agriculturist
276
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
in Clark County; and Margaret, the wife of Bronson
McCord, of Winchester, manager of the home farm,
who has two children, Joseph Brown and Mary Alice.
Louis I. Igleheart. To his chosen profession as a
lawyer, Mr. Igleheart has devoted his time and abilities
to the exclusion of those many other interests that natur-
ally intrude upon a legal career and has realized to a
gratifying degree his ambition to be known as a success-
ful and able lawyer.
Mr. Igleheart, who has been identified with the
Owensboro bar since he began practice, is a native of
Kentucky, and was born June 8, 1879, on the same
farm where his father was born in Daviess County.
He is a son of John L. and Amanda (Burns) Igleheart,
both natives of Daviess County. The Burns family is an
old and prominent one in Daviess County. William D.
Igleheart. grandfather of the Owensboro lawyer, was
born and reared in Maryland, of Holland Dutch descent,
his first ancestor coming from Holland and settling at
Baltimore. William D. Igleheart was one of four
brothers who crossed the Allcghenies, two settling in
Kentucky and two in Indiana. William D. Igleheart
acquired land in Daviess County, Kentucky, in 1800, and
spent the rest of his life on that farm, which descended
to his son John L., who cultivated its acres and reared
his children in this environment.
Louis I. Igleheart has always been grateful for the
fact that his early environment was in the country.
On the home farm he learned the lessons of earnest
endeavor that have characterized his mature career.
He attended common schools was also a teacher in
country districts, and in 1902 graduated from Central
University at Danville with the Bachelor of Science
degree and in the same year completed his law studies
and graduated. He at once located at Owensboro and
began practice, though for the first four years he was
also teacher of Latin and Greek in the Owensboro
Female College. Since then he has given all his time
and energies to his profession and has formed no per-
manent alliance with business or politics.
He is a democratic voter, interested in public ques-
tions and issues. He is a Royal Arch Mason, a Knight
of Pythias and an Elk. In 1907 he married Miss Susan
Barnhill of Daviess Countv, daughter of Dr. J. W.
Barnhill.
Cassius M. Clay, who died November 27, 1913.
was distinguished both in politics and the agricultural
affairs of Bourbon County and of the state, and was
a son of Brutus J. Clay of Bourbon County and a
grandson of Gen. Green Clav of Madison County,
Kentucky, who married Sallie Lewis.
Gen. Green Clay figured extensively in both military
and nolitical affairs '11 Kentucky in his day. Kentucky,
which had not then become a state, chose him a dele-
gate to the Virginia convention which ratified the
Federal Constitution. He took an active part in the
War of 1812 and commanded '.000 Kentucky troops
sent to raise the sieee of Fort Meigs. He was father
of three sons and four daughters, and these children
hv their character and ab'lity lent additional distinc-
tion to the reputation of on» of the oldest and most
prominent families of Kentucky.
Concerning Brutus J. Clay much is said elsewhere.
He achieved a national reputation as a farmer, a
breeder of blooded short-horn cattle and other stock, was
for many years president of the Agricultural Fair of
Bourbon Co'mty, and reoresented his home distr'ct in
Congress. 'He commanded the unbounded confidence
of all by his integrity, high sense of honor and prac-
tical sense. The first wife of Brutus J. Clay was
Amelia Field and after her depth he married her sister
M;ss Ann M. Field, both of Madison County. As a
means of reference it will be appropriate to give the
names and dates of birth of the children of Brutus
J. Clay by his first marriage. They were : Martha,
born February 1, 1832; Christopher F., born November
20, 1835; Green, born February 11, 1839; Ezekiel F.,
born December 1, 1840. The only child of the second
marriage of Brutus J. Clay was Cassius M.
Cassius M. Clay spent most of his life on his
father's old homestead three ■ miles south of Paris.
His management kept it one of the finest farms in the
state, a traditional reputation long associated with it.
Cassius M. Clay was born there March 26, 1846, and
was well reared and liberally educated. He attended
Sayers Classical School at Frankfort, and in 1866
graduated from Yale University, ranking fifth in his
class in scholarship. He at once returned to his nat'.ve
county and employed his resources and his personal
abilities in productive farming and stock raising, and
in using his influence in raising the standards of
Kentucky agriculture. Aside from his practical achieve-
ments in this domain, he was a leader both in thought
and action in varied fields. He was a man of scholarly
tastes and interested in economic and political subjects.
With high standards of public conduct and of the
duties of citizenship, he represented the highest type
of Kentuckian interested in public affairs. In 1871
he was elected to the Legislature, was re-elected in
1873, in 188=; was chosen by his distr'ct for a term in
the State Senate, and in 1889 was a delegate from
Bourbon County to the Constitutional Convention and
had the honor of being chosen to preside over that
body. In 1891 and 1895 he was a candidate for the
democratic nomination for governor, but was defeated
in the State Convention. This was his last appearance
for political office. He was for eleven years a trustee
of Kentucky State University, and at different times
was actively interested in business enterprises of Paris
and Bourbon county.
January 27, 1869, in Bourbon County Mr. Clay mar-
ried Miss Sue E. Clay, daughter of Samuel and Nancy
T. Clay. They were the parents of four children :
Junius B., who died at thirty-three, Samuel H., who
d'ed at twenty-two ; Ann L., who became the wife
of William R. Shackleford of Richmond, Kentucky ;
and Sue E.. wife of Dr. Cyril Goodman The mother
of these children died June 6, 1880. He married his
second wife in October. 1882. Miss Pattie F. Lyman,
daughter of Dr. A. B. Lyman becoming his bride. She
died a year later with her only child. December 6,
1888, Mr. Clay married Miss Mary Blythe Harris,
who was born and reared in Madison County, Ken-
tucky, daughter of Maj. John D. and Nancy (White)
Harris, her father having been one of the influential
citizens of Madison County, representing his district
in the State Senate from 188; to 1889 Mrs. Clay
still lives at the beautiful old homestead south of
Paris. She is the mother of two children, Cassius
M., Jr., born March 2, 1895; and John H., born March
27. 1897.
Thfopore L. Gamblin, M. D. When he graduated
in medicine Doctor Gamblin chose Burnside as the scene
of his professional activities. He has been with that
community ever since, has exerted himself in a praise-
worthy manner not only as a physician and surgeon
but in varied lines of civic effort calculated to advance
the welfare of the community. Doctor Gamblin is a
physician of very high standing, and after many years
of work his practice is now largely as a consulting
phvsician and surgeon.
Doctor Gamblin was born in Cumberland County,
Kentucky, May 7, 1871. He is of Scotch ancestry. His
grandparents were Lorenzo and Polly (Smith) Gamblin,
both natives of Scotland. His grandfather was born in
1800 and his grandmother in 1809. On coming to
America they first settled in New York State and later
moved to Ohio, where the grandfather died in i860.
The grandmother died at the home of her son, Joshua
P., in Clinton County, Kentucky, in 1889. Lorenzo
Gamblin was a shoemaker by trade. Joshua Perry
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
277
Gamblin was born in New York State in 1841, but grew
up in Ohio, and from that state enlisted in the Union
Army. He was all through the war from 1861 to 1865,
and from his Ohio regiment was transferred to the
Fiftli Kentucky Cavalry. He participated in the battles
of Shiloh, Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain, Missionary
Ridge and Murfreesboro, where he was shot through
the hip, and later was shot through the breast, both
bullets passing clear through his body. He has suffered
all his life from the wounds received at Murfreesboro.
He was with Sherman on the March to the Sea. Fol-
lowing the war this veteran soldier located in Cumber-
land County, Kentucky, where he married and where
he was in business as a tanner and as a lumberman.
In 1891 he bought a farm near Albany in Clinton
County, and is living there in comfortable retirement
at the age of eighty. He is a republican and a Pres-
byterian. Joshua P. Gamblin married Rachel Grider,
who was born in Clinton County, Kentucky, in 1847.
A large family of children were born to their mar-
riage : Dr. T. H., a physician and surgeon at Monti-
cello, Kentucky; Dr. Theodore L. ; Docia, wife of Cor-
nelius Scott, a machinist at Somerset; Maggie, who
died at Canton, Ohio, aged forty-four, wife of Nathaniel
Ballenger, a contractor and builder now living in Flor-
ida; Addie, wife of Doc Stinson, a farmer at Cameron,
Missouri; Alice, wife of William McWhorter, an oil
operator in Oklahoma ; Miss Mary, at home ; Maude,
also at home, widow of Greenbury Coger, a farmer who
died in 1920; Lula, wife of Charles Cannon, a flour
miller near Albany, Kentucky; Ellen, whose husband,
George Ferguson, is a farmer near Albany ; and Way-
land, the eleventh and youngest child, was in the Med-
ical Corps, attached to a base hospital during the World
war, spent seventeen months in France and is now a
partner with his brother, Dr. Theodore, in the manage-
ment of a public garage at Burnside.
Dr. Theodore L. Gamblin acquired a liberal educa-
tion. During his early boyhood he attended school in
his rural district at Burksville in Cumberland County,
graduating from the high school at Albany, spent two
years in the Southern Normal School at Bowling Green,
and in 1898 graduated M. D. from the Kentucky School
of Medicine at Louisville. Two years later he pursued
post graduate work at the University of Louisville.
Doctor Gamblin began practice at Burnside in 1898, and
while for a number of years he performed the arduous
duties of a country physician over a wide scope of ter-
ritory, his professional work is now entirely in his office
and in consultation. He has a modern home, offices and
a well-equipped sanitarium. Doctor Gamblin has served
as both county and city health officer for a number of
years, and is a member of the County, State and Amer-
ican Medical associations.
He was the first man to receive an appointment from
Edward M. Hurley when the latter was made chairman
of the shipbuilding corporation during the World war.
He was commissioned a captain, but on account of the
influenza epidemic his services were considered more
valuable at home. He not only did his share in com-
batting that plague, but was active in all other war
movements, and visited every part of Pulaski County
in promoting the various drives.
Doctor Gamblin is the present mayor of Burnside.
He owns considerable property in the town and country,
including the public garage of which his brother Way-
land is manager, and also owns an interest in a farm.
He is a republican, a member of the Baptist Church,
and is affiliated with Somerset Lodge No. 1021, B. P.
O. E. ; Albany Lodge of Masons, and Somerset Chapter
No. 25, R. A. M. In 1910, at Burnside, he married Miss
Lucy Gover, daughter of James B. and Nancy (Rankin)
Gover. Her mother died in 1920, at Burnside, while her
father is a farmer. Mrs. Gamblin spent six years in
her studies at Georgetown College, Kentucky.
Marvin Bertrie Holifield. Member of the Mayfield
bar for a quarter of a century, Mr. Holifield is a
former county attorney of Graves County, is senior
member of the law firm of Holifield & McDonald,
and has long been regarded as one of the leaders of
the West Kentucky bar.
His ancestors were among the first settlers of West-
ern Kentucky. His great-great-grandfather Oliver
Holifield spent his life as a planter in Chatham County,
North Carolina. The great-grandfather of the May-
field lawyer was William Holifield, who came from
Chatham County, North Carolina, to Graves County,
Kentucky, about the beginning of the nineteenth century.
He was the first Methodist preacher in Graves and
Hickman counties. During the War of 1812 he was
with General Jackson at the battle of New Orleans
in 1815. Politically he was a stanch supporter of some
of the first candidates of the democratic party. He
married Elizabeth Copeland, who died in Graves Coun-
ty, the mother of nineteen children, five of whom
became ministers of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Her father Abel Copeland also came to Western Ken-
tucky from Chatham County, North Carolina, was a
farmer and served as a member of the first grand
jury in Graves County.
George Washington Holifield, grandfather of Marvin
B. Holifield, was born in Henderson County, Kentucky,
and at the age of five removed to Graves County
where he spent his life and died at the age of eighty-
two. Among the pioneers he was distinguished as a
real frontiersman, a valiant hunter, and a skillful rifle
shot. Once in a contest with an Indian chief held
at Iron Banks, where the City of Columbus, Kentucky,
now stands, he won the purse of $40 put up as the
prize for marksmanship. At a later date he helped
remove the Indians from Graves County. For many
years he was active as a farmer and tobacco dealer.
His first wife and the grandmother of the Mayfield
lawyer was Dorcas Roden, who was born in Alabama
and in early life removed to Graves County, and died
during the Civil war while her house was surrounded
by Federal troops. Her last words were: "Hurrah
for Jeff Davis and the Southern Confederacy." At
that time three of her sons were fighting in the
Confederate ranks, Dr. John R., William and Newton
Jasper.
Dr. John R. Holifield was born in Graves County
in 1841, and at the age of twenty-one in 1862 enlisted
in the Confederate Cavalry under General Forrest.
He was in the service the rest of the war being at
Shiloh, Brice's Cross Roads, Corinth, in a skirmish
just before the battle of Harrisburg had a bone shot
out of his right arm, though he did not lose the use
of that member. He was in a hospital until the close
of the war. It was not until after he came out
of the army that he learned his A. B. C's and though
he began his education thus late he made remarkable
progress and not only acquired a substantial literary
education but graduated from the University of Lous-
ville with the well earned M. D. degree in 1870 and
during the rest of his life was a highly competent
physician and surgeon at Pryorsburg, Kentucky, where
he died December 12, 1910. He was a fine type of the
country physician, a man of high character, and did a
great deal of good for which there was no remunera-
tion. He was a democrat, a Royal Arch Mason and
very active in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
Doctor Holifield married Julian Ann Dodson, who
was born in Graves County in 1837 and is now living
on South 8th Street in Mayfield at the age of seventy-
three. Marvin Bertrie is the oldest of her children ;
Crawford Gertrie is a real estate broker at New
Orleans ; Thomas Jewell and George Washington, twins,
the former dying in infancy and the latter a farmer
three miles south of Mayfield ; Noah Ezra died at the
age of three years; Ersie V. is a merchant tailor at
278
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
Springdale, Arkansas; and Uva Boyd is in the shoe
manufacturing business at East St. Louis, Illinois.
Marvin Bertrie Holifield was born at Pryorsburg
in Graves County February 7, 1872, acquired an early
education in the schools of his native village, and
attended West Kentucky College at Mayfield into the
senior year. For one term he was a student in Bethel
College at McKinzie, Tennessee, and took his law
course in Cumberland University at Lebanon, Tennes-
see, where he graduated in 1896. The following year
he began practice at Mayfield, and has pursued his
legal career with few interruptions from political or
other responsibilities. He served one term of four
years as city attorney of Mayfield and for four years
was county attorney of Graves County. The offices
of the firm of Holifield & McDonald are in the First
National Bank Building. He is attorney for the First
National Bank and attorney for the Merritt Manufac-
turing Company.
Mr. Holifield is a democrat and outside of his
profession has probably given as much time to the
Missionary Baptist Church at Mayfield as any other
one institution or cause. He is chairman of its Board
of Deacons, teacher of the Men's Bible Class, and
otherwise active in church work. He is a member of
the State Bar Association, and Mayfield Lodge No.
679, A. F. anad A. M., Mayfield Chapter No. 69, R. A.
M., Mayfield Lodge No. 151, Independent Order of
Odd Fellows, and Wilson Lodge Knights of Pythias
at Mayfield.
The residence of the Holifield family is on East
Broadway. In October. 1906, at Mayfield Mr. Holifield
married Miss Lennie Drake, daughter of Berry and
Susie (Watts) Drake, the latter still living in Mayfield.
Her father was a tobacco dealer for many years.
William S. Foy. For more than two decades
William S. Foy has appeared regularly as an attorney
on one side or the other in many of the important
cases of litigation before the courts of the First Ken-
tucky District. He has been a successful lawyer and
has interested himself in many business, social and
civic enterprises of Graves County.
Mr. Foy was born in the south part of Graves
County January 14, 1870, and his people have been
identified with this section of Kentucky for fully a
century. His great-grandfather was John Simon Foy,
who was born in France. His brother General Foy
was one of the trusted officers of the great Napoleon
and when Napoleon was finally defeated at Waterloo
he accepted banishment along with many others of
the imperial regime. At the same time John Simon
Foy left France, and first settled near Mobile, Alabama,
but in 1820 moved to what was then known as Jackson's
Purchase in Western Kentucky, becoming a farmer
in what is now Graves County. He died in Graves
County in 1823. The grandfather of the Mayfield
lawyer was William Foy, who was born in Graves
County in 1821, and spent his life as a farmer and
planter and died near Fulton in 1902. He married
Nancy Murrell, who was a lifelong resident of Graves
County. Richard S. Foy, father of William S., was
born in the south part of Graves County in 1839,
and lived all his life on the old homestead there. He
died March 21, 1880. In 1861 he joined Captain
Pirtle's Company of the Seventh Kentucky Regiment,
and performed all the duties as a faithful soldier
of the Confederacv until the end of the war. He was
in the battles of Shiloh, Lookout Mountain and Mis-
sionary Ridge, and was captured at Baker's Creek
and for the last eighteen months until Lee's surrender
was in Northern prisons, first at Camp Chase. Ohio,
and then at Point Lookout, Maryland. He and forty
of his companions refusing to take the oath of alle-
giance, were not given the privilege of transportation
home and walked all the way from Maryland to
Kentuckv. He was a faithful democrat and very active
in the Christian Church. He married Sinie E. Payne,
who is still living on the old homestead and was born
within a mile of her present residence in March, 1852.
William S. Foy is the oldest of five children; Lillie
is the wife of J. E. Brady, a merchant and jeweler
at Cottage Grove, Tennessee ; James Lewis is a farmer
near Fulton, Kentucky ; John Leonard was killed when
thrown from a mule at the age of eighteen ; and
Charles C. is a merchant in Graves County at the
Tennessee line.
William S. Foy spent his early life on his father's
farm and was only ten years of age when his father
died. He acquired a rural school education and for
four years was a student at Sedalia College at Sedalia,
Missouri. After completing his liberal education he
engaged in school work for ten years. He taught four
terms at Clinton in Hickman County and was one of
the leading educators of Mayfield and vicinity for six
years, the last four years being principal of the West
Ward School. While teaching he was -also making
preparation for a legal career, and took the law course
at Lebanon University, Lebanon, Tennessee, where he
graduated with the LL. B. degree in 1898. He was
admitted to the bar November 27, 1898, and at once
entered upon his practice at Mayfield, where for twenty-
two years he has been one of the leading members of
the bar. His offices are in the Murphey Building
at the corner of Broadway and 6th Street. He is a
member of the County, State and American Bar Asso-
ciation and is a former director of the Water Valley
Bank.
Mr. Foy is a democrat and is one of the leading
members of the Christian Church at Mayfield, and all
his family are members of the same church. For a
number of years he has been one of the teachers of
the Sunday School. Mr. Foy served four years as
secretary of the Ancient Order of United Workmen
at Mayfield and is affiliated with Mayfield Lodge No.
679, A. F. and A. M., Mayfield Chapter No. 69, R.
A. M., Mayfield Camp No. 11651, Modern Woodmen
of America; Hickory Camp No. 115 Woodmen of the
World and the Knights and Ladies of Security.
Mr. Foy still owns an interest in the old homestead
in the Southern part of Graves County, and has a
modern home at 931 North 7th Street in Mayfield.
At Columbus, Kentucky, September 18, 1892, he married
Miss Emma Brady, daughter of Dr. T. A. and Annie
Loafman (Howard) Brady. Her father for over half
a century has carried the burdens of a large country
practice as a physician at Dukedom in Graves County,
and still looks after some of his older patients. He
also owns a large amount of farm lands. Mrs. Foy's
mother died in 1896. Mrs. Foy is a graduate of
Columbus College of Columbus, Kentucky. To Mr.
and Mrs. Foy were born five children: Curtis T., the
oldest, is a jeweler, optician and engraver, being a
partner in the W. N. Warren & Company at Paducah ;
Fred C, the second son, a vulcanizer by trade, entered
the army September 17, 1917, was trained at Camp
Taylor and from Camp Shelby went overseas July
20, 1918. He completed his intensive training in France,
but the armistice was signed before he got into action.
He was mustered out November 26, 1918, with the
rank of supply sergeant, having gone into the army
as a private and receiving successive promotions to
corporal, sergeant and supply sergeant. The third of
the family is Eunice Virginia, wife of Fred C. Watts,
a restaurant proprietor at Mayfield. Tommie R., who
was born April 20, 1900, graduated from the Mayfield
High School and from the Mayfield Business College
in telegraphy, shorthand and bookkeeping, and on De-
cember 20, 1919, before he was twenty years of age
was appointed to the responsible duties of general
manager of the Western Union Telegraph Company
at Dixon. Tennessee. The youngest of the family is
William Noble, still pursuing his studies in the May-
field High School.
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
279
Catholic Parish At Henderson. The Catholic
residents of Henderson and vicinity have been gathered
together in a community of worship since about the
middle of the last century. The first church was built
on the corner of what is now known as Third and
Ingram streets. This parish is in the diocese of Louis-
ville and the present church edifice is said to be one
of the most beautiful in that diocese. It was. erected
by Rev. Thomas A. Tierney in 1886. The present
school, parsonage and convent were built during the
pastorage of Rev. Edward J. Lynch, who died during
the influenza epidemic in 1920.
For upwards of half a century this has been one of
the strong and prosperous parishes of the Catholic
Church in the state. The congregation today numbers
about 400 families and boasts one of the best school
organization in the state. The present pastor is Rev.
B. J. Boland, who was appointed permanent rector
August I, 1920. Father Boland has been a pastor and
missionary .worker in Kentucky for twenty years.
Former pastors of this parish were: Rev. William
J. Dunn, Rev. Thomas J. Jenkins, Rev. Dominic C.
Crane, Rev. Thomas A. Tierney, and Rev. Edward
J. Lynch.
J. M. Culver started his independent career when a
boy in years and has turned working circumstances
into real opportunities. During the few years he has
lived at Fulton, Kentucky, he has developed a manu-
facturing and wholesale ice cream industry that is one
of the largest of its kind in the state.
Mr. Culver was born at Sheffield, Alabama, August
20, 1889. He is of Scotch and English ancestry and
is descended from one of three Culver brothers who
came from England and settled in Virginia. His
father, J. W. Culver, was born in Alabama in 1862,
and after his marriage moved to Clarksdale, Mississippi.
He became a railway man, serving the Yazoo & Mis-
sissippi Valley Railroad until 1901, when he joined
another railroad company in Texas. He is now living
at Stuttgart, Arkansas. In politics he votes as a
democrat. J. W. Culver married Euphemia Moore, of
Scotch ancestry. She was born in Alabama in 1870.
There were three children : Frank M., a railroad
man at Fullerton, Louisiana; J. M. Culver; and Katie,
who died at the age of two and a half years.
J. M. Culver acquired his early education in the
public schools of Clarksdale, Mississippi, but left
school at the age of fourteen to go to work in a dry
goods store. Later he was in an electrical and plumb-
ing industry at Clarksdale, and on coming to Fulton,
Kentucky, in November, 1910, became bookkeeper for
the Fulton Light & Power Company. He remained
with that business two years and on May 1, 1913, used
his capital to establish his present ice cream industry.
He has seen this rapidly expand and his facilities
increase both in the manufacturing and distributing
lines until his product is now shipped over a wide
extent of country for 125 miles around Fulton. Be-
sides his complete plant at 406 Main Street in Fulton,
where he has every manufacturing facility, including a
refrigerating system and1 dry hardening rooms, he
maintains a branch plant at Dyersburg, Tennessee.
Mr. Culver is also half owner of the Depot Restaurant
at Fourth and Depot streets, has other business in-
terests, being a stockholder in the Fulton Building and
Loan Association. He was elected to the Fulton City
Council in November, 1921. He is an active member
of the Fulton Commercial Club, the Travelers Protec-
tive Association, president of the Fulton Gun Club
and is affiliated with Fulton Lodge No. 1142, of the
Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and with
lodges at Reelfoot Lake, Tennessee. He is a Baptist and
in politics a democrat.
The Culver family resides at 215 Third Street.
On November 15, 191 1, at Union City, Tennessee, he
married Miss Katy Mayes Chowning, daughter of
R. M. and Emma (Mayes) Chowning, now deceased.
Her father was for many years a prominent resident
of Fulton, Kentucky, being president of the First
National Bank, mayor of the city for several terms,
and otherwise active in business and civic affairs.
Mrs. Culver is prominent in social affairs at Fulton,
and has all the advantages of a liberal education. She
attended the Ward-Belmont College for Women at
Nashville, Tennessee, and later the William Woods
College at Fulton, Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. Culver
have two children : Robert Morris, born September
2, 1913; and George Macomber, born. May 23, 1915.
John Howard Payne has been engaged in educa-
tional work since he was nineteen years of age. His
experience ranges from a rural school district to the
principalship and superintendency of some of the larger
city schools, and he is now active head of the city "
school system of Richmond.
Mr. Payne is a native Kentuckian, and member of
an old and prominent American family. His first
American ancestor of whom there is record was Hugh
Payne, who came to Virginia in the middle of the
seventeenth century and established a plantation in the
old commonwealth. The great-great-grandfather of
Professor Payne was Colonel William Payne, who held
the rank of colonel in the Revolutionary Army. His
life was spent as a planter. His son, DeVall Payne,
was born in Virginia and moved over the mountains
to Bourbon County, Kentucky, where he spent the rest
of his life as a farmer. His son, also named DeVall,
was born in Bourbon County, where he spent his active
life as a farmer but finally took his family to Western
Missouri and died near Independence in that state.
He and his wife were members of the old Cane Ridge
meeting house, the first church of the Christian or
Disciples denomination in Kentucky. His wife was
Mary Jane Wilson, the daughter of HamMton Wilson
and a native o.f Bourbon County, who died in Camp-
bell County, Kentucky. They were the grandparents
of John Howard Payne. The father, E. D. Payne, was
born near Independence, Missouri, February 2, 1847, and
spent part of his early boyhood in that frontier com-
munity, not far from the present Kansas City. About
1859 his mother returned to Bourbon County, where
he was reared and completed his education, and as a
young man he moved to Campbell County, where he
married. He was in the coal business in Dayton in
Campbell County, and in 1895 bought an extensive
tract of timber land, 800 acres, in Casey County, and
for several years was engaged in logging and lumbering
this tract. In 1898 he removed to Lincoln County,
where he was a merchant two years, and in 1900 re-
turned to Campbell County and lived on and operated
his farm at Cold Spring until his death, May 19, 1921.
He was always a democrat in politics and was almost
a life long member of the Christian Church. H;s only
fraternity was the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
His first wife, Matilda Singleton, a native of Kentucky,
died at Newport in 1876, her only child dying in
infancy. The second wife of E. D. Payne was Agnes
M. Miles, who is still living at Cold Spring, where
she was born in 1858. She became the mother of four
children : Elmer, who died at the age of nineteen
months ; John Howard ; E. D., who died at the age of
ten months ; and Henry Clay, who is a chemist with
the Procter & Gamble Company at Cincinnati.
John Howard Payne was born while his parents
lived at Dayton in Campbell County, April 27, 1889.
H:s early education was acquired largely in the rural
schools of Casey and Lincoln counties. He was gradu-
ated from the University of Kentucky in 1914 with
the A. B. degree. The first school he taught at the
age of nineteen was in a rural district of Campbell
County. His subsequent experience as a teacher and
school administrator has been marked by two years
as principal of the Butler County High School at
280
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
Morgantown, two years as principal of the Trimble
County High School at Bedford, three years as super-
intendent of City Schools at Midway in Woodford
Count}-, and in 1919 he was elected superintendent
of the city school system of Richmond. Richmond
has some of the best schools in the state. There are
three school organizations, a staff of thirty teachers,
and the school enrollment approximates about 1,000.
Mr. Payne is a member of the Kentucky Educational
Association. He did much committee work for the
Liberty Loan and other drives during the war and
was one of the "four minute" speakers of his com-
munity. He is a* democrat, a member of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South, and is affiliated with Lodge
No. 158 of Masons at Bedford. He is a member of
the Tau Kappa Alpha fraternity.
In 1913. at Lincoln, Nebraska, he married Miss
Hazel June Grinstead, a daughter of Pool and Cora
(Cottrell) Grinstead, now deceased. Her father was
a newspaper publisher. Mrs. Payne finished her edu-
cation in Bethany College at Lincoln, Nebraska. To
their marriage were born two children : Agnes, on
November 4, 1916, and Philip DeVall, born April 10,
1 921.
E. J. Tanner. For more than forty years the name
Tanner lias been conspicuous in the business life of
the town of McKinney. E. J. Tanner grew up at
McKinney, as a youth shared in the business affairs
of his father, and for a number of years past has
been a leading merchant, banker and property owner.
Mr. Tanner was born at Liberty in Casey County
August 24. 1865. His father was the late K. L. Tanner,
who died at McKinney August 8, 1912. He was born
iuar Franklin, Williamson County, Tennessee, in 1828,
and livid there until he was about sixteen years of age.
He and his brother Sam then started out in the world
to make their fortunes. Sam eventually went out to
California. K. L. Tanner sought his opportunities
nearer home and for three years worked in a tobacco
factory at Creelsboro, Kentucky. He then bought a
store there, and continued as a merchant and tobacco
buyer in that vicinity until shortly after his marriage,
when he moved to Liberty and was identified with that
town as a merchant and hotel proprietor until 1865.
Having acquired a farm near Liberty, he operated it
and also a country store until 1879, in which year he
established the family home at McKinney. He con-
tinued to own his farming interests near Liberty, had
a farm at McKinney, and owned several other farms
in Lincoln County, being one of the producers of the
rtaple agricultural crops of this section, particularly
tobacco. At McKinney. on Railroad Street, he built
a store and a flouring mill, and operated the mills
fifteen years before he sold them. He retired from
the mercantile business in 1902. He was a democrat
in politics, very liberal as a member of the Christian
Church, and for twenty years was treasurer of Mc-
Kinney Lodge No. 631, F. and A. M., holding that
post at the time' of his death. K. L. Tanner married
Elizabeth Vandiveer, who was born near Liberty in
1837 and is still living at McKinney. She became
the mother of ten children: Sallie, who died at the
age of twenty-three, wife of the late Alexander
Stephenson, a Casey County farmer ; John L., a farmer
at Albany, Georgia ; Louis, who was accidentally killed
by a falling log at the age of three years ; William,
who died at McKinney at the age of twenty-one;
E. J. Tanner ; V. M. Tanner, a farmer and stock trader
at McKinney; K. L. Tanner, Jr., a farmer at Spokane,
Washington; Lillian, wife of W. K. Shugars. a farmer
at Liberty; Florence, whose husband is Dr. H. C.
Nunnelly, a physician and farmer at Albany, Georgia ;
and M. C. Tanner, department foreman in the large
lace factory operated by Marshall Field & Company of
Chicago at Zion City, Illinois.
E. J. Tanner was about fourteen years of age when
his father moved to McKinney. His early life was
spent largely on farms and his education came from
rural schools of Lincoln County. He became self-
supporting at the age of sixteen, and for two years
was assistant agent for the Queen & Crescent Railroad
Company at McKinney, then farmed three years, and
entering his father's flour mill, managed the industry
for ten years. In 1890 he and his brother V. M.
Tanner took over their father's mercantile business,
continued the partnership three years, and since then
E. J. Tanner has been individual manager and pro-
prietor and conducts one of the largest drug and
general mercantile stores in the county. His store
is on Railroad Street. Mr. Tanner was also' engaged
in the tanning business for twenty years, and for
six years owned and operated a woolen mill. He had
been president of the McKinney Deposit Bank since
it was established in 1895, a period of more than a
quarter of a century of banking service. Mr. Tanner
has much valuable property, including his store build-
ing, eight dwelling houses in McKinney, his own
modern home on Railroad Street, and a farm of 365
acres sixteen miles southwest of McKinney. He was
one of the generous men in his community to give
financial and moral support to every patriotic movement
during the World war. Mr. Tanner is a democrat,
is secretary of the McKinney Christian Church, has ten
years of service to his credit as master of McKinney
Lodge Xo. 631, F. and A. M., is affiliated with Franklin
Chapter No. 22, R. A. M., and Ryan Commandery
No. 17, K. T., at Danville, is a member of Kosair
Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Louisville, of Lee
Tent No. 16, Knights of the Maccabees, and is state
record keeper of the Maccabees and is also a member
of McKinney Camp No. 11649, Modern Woodmen of
America. Mr. Tanner is a member of the Kentucky
Pharmaceutical Association.
At Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 1889, he married Miss
Laura Owens, daughter of M. V. and Mary E. (Patter-
son) Owens, the latter a resident of Junction City,
Kentucky, where her father died. He was for many-
years in the timber business and a merchant. Mr.
and Mrs. Tanner have four children. Ruth, the
oldest, has charge of the music department in the
high school at Liberty, Kentucky. Ray C, the second
in age, now in the auditor's office of the Tennessee
Coal, Iron & Railroad Company at Birmingham, Ala-
bama, is an ex-service man, having volunteered in 1917.
He spent fourteen months overseas in France as supply
sergeant with the Thirty-seventh Engineers, Electrical
Division. He was at the front during the Argonne
Forest drive, and when the armistice was signed was
sent in advance of the American Army of Occupation
to Coblenz to inspect railroads in Germany. The two
younger children of Mr. and Mrs. Tanner are Edward
and J. Patterson, both students in Center College at
Danville.
Dee Louis McNeill. Along with those qualities in-
dispensable to the lawyer, a keen, logical, rapid mind,
plus the business sense, and a ready capacity for hard
work, the man who succeeds in this most exacting of
professions must bring to it gifts of eloquence of
language, strong personality, excellent presence, an
earnest, dignified manner, a thorough grasp of the law
and the ability accurately to apply its principles. Ken-
tucky has many men who can qualify under the above,
especially in Fulton County, and one who is a notable
example is Dee Louis McNeill, of Hickman, who is at
present ably discharging the duties of county attorney.
Mr. McNeill is a native son of the county, in which
he was born April 10, 1891, a son of T. H. McNeill and
a member of one of the old American families estab-
lished in this country during its Colonial epoch. Repre-
sentatives of the family went from Scotland to Ireland
&*j«rt(j(*M
^ssssss-
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
281
and thence to Virginia, from whence those bearing the
name migrated to different parts in the succeeding
years.
T. H. McNeill was born in Kentucky in 1853 and
died at Hickman, Kentucky, January 2, 1892, where he
had been engaged in handling stock for some years,
and he was also interested in farming in Fulton County.
In politics he was a democrat. His wife was Miss
Mary E. Creed prior to her marriage, and she was born
in Fulton County, Kentucky, in i860. She survives her
husband and still lives in Fulton County. After the
death of Mr. McNeill she was married to B. C. Stubbs,
and their farm is three miles east of Hickman. The
children born to T. H. McNeill and his wife were as
follows : Jesse, who is a farmer of Fulton County ;
Minnie, deceased wife of L. F. Adams, now engaged in
farming at Paris, Tennessee ; Roy, who was sunstruck
on his ranch near Hickman and died September 17,
1921 ; Charles, a farmer living a mile and a half south
of Hickman, and also engaged in dealing in timber;
James H., who is a farmer of Clinton, Kentucky ; Dee
Louis, whose name heads this review ; and Dora Eliza-
beth, who is now stenographer for an automobile acces-
sories concern of Memphis, Tennessee, was in the serv-
ice of the United States Government during the great
war.
Dee Louis McNeill was less than two years old when
his father died. He feels a lasting gratitude to his
brother, the late Roy McNeill, by whom he was reared
and assisted in all his efforts to secure an adequate
education and fit himself for a professional career.
After attending the graded and high schools of Hick-
man he left the latter in his senior year and entered the
preparatory department of the University of Kentucky
at Lexington and was a student there a year. He then
entered the university and took the regular legal course,
being graduated in 1916 with the degree LL.B. He is
a member of the Greek Letter fraternity Tau Kappa
Alpha. In order to be eligible to this society a candidate
has to represent the university in a debating or ora-
torical contest, and Mr. McNeill fulfilled this part of
the requirements by appearing in behalf of the Univer-
sity of Kentucky against the University of Cincinnati
in a debate, and won the contest.
Of his university career let A. S. MacKenzie, former
professor and dean of the graduate school of the uni-
versity, speak: "Mr. McNeill, familiarly known as Dee
to his friends, is one of the finest young men that ever
attended the University of Kentucky. He is a natural
leader of men, resourceful, tactful, conscientious, and
a fine student of human nature. Dee possesses the old
fashioned idea that honor is the greatest thing in the
world, and in my private relations with him I have
learned not only to admire but to love him as a Ken-
tuckian who would 'do honor to any state in the Union.
He was a member of my Bible class in this city, and
he gave his generous support to everything that would
tend toward the improvement of the university and
this community. Let Hickman cherish him while she
may, for my prediction is that it will not be many
years before Dee occupies a position of the highest
public prominence."
Prior to his graduation, in May, 1915, he passed the
necessary examinations and was admitted to the bar
of his native state. Immediately thereafter he entered
upon the practice of his profession at Lexington, Ken-
tucky. In June, 1916, he came to Hickman, where he
has since carried on a general civil and criminal prac-
tice, with offices in the Court House. Like his father
he is a democrat, and was elected on his party ticket
to the office of county attorney in November, 1917, and
assumed its duties in January, 1918, for a term of four
years.
Since then the anticipations entertained for him by
his friends and his party have been amply fulfilled by
his official conduct. At the time of his nomination his
home paper, The Hickman Courier, gave a concise esti-
mate of the qualities that arouse so much confidence in
his abilities, and from an article published at that time
the following paragraph is taken :
"Mr. McNeill is a home boy — and by this we mean
he was born, reared and received his common and high
school education in Fulton County. With an ambition
to prepare himself for the profession of an attorney
at law he attended the University of Kentucky at
Lexington, where he graduated with high honors, re-
ceiving the degree of Bachelor of Law, and was honored
with the presidency of the Henry Clay Law Society
and won many honors in oratorical contests. He is in
the strictest sense a self-made man. Without funds,
and being unable to borrow, he determined to make
his own way — and did. His success and perseverance is
another proof of the old maxim, 'where there's a will
there's a way.' He courageously stands for civic right-
eousness, honesty in public affairs, progress and uplift
of mankind — -for the spirit of true helpfulness that
tends to increase all the Christian virtues that make
good American citizenship."
The Christian Church holds his membership. A
Mason, Mr. McNeill belongs to Hickman Lodge No.
761, A. F. and A. M. ; Hickman Chapter No. 49; Fulton
Commandery No. 34, K. T. ; and Kosair Temple of the
Mystic Shrine at Louisville, Kentucky. He is also a
member of Elm Camp No. 3, W. O. W., and Hickman
Lodge No. 1294, B. P. O. E. He owns some valuable
realty at Hickman.
Mr. McNeill is one of the veterans of the great war,
and was mustered into the service August 2, 1918, after
he volunteered. He was sent to Louisville, Kentucky,
and shortly thereafter was transferred to the Great
Lakes Naval Training Station at Chicago, Illinois.
When he volunteered he received from Washington a
rating as a third class yeoman, and was advanced to be
chief yeoman and stationed in the commandant's office,
having charge of investigations of the records of en-
listed men, and also of recommending allotments, which
department made it compulsory to give these allotments
to soldiers who had dependents. In addition to these
duties Mr. McNeill had a number of others, and ren-
dered a valuable and efficient service. He was honor-
ably discharged and returned home December 8, 1918.
On April 7, 1919, Mr. McNeill was united in mar-
riage with Miss Helen Gould Rice, a daughter of E. C.
and Ada (Clark) Rice, residents of Hickman, where
Mr. Rice is one of the leading merchants.
Enthusiastic and well versed in the law Mr. McNeill
has brought back from his experience in the service
an appreciation of the responsibilities of good citizen-
ship, and is giving to the duties of his office a pains-
taking attention which is the outgrowth of his period
of personal sacrifice. The coming years are going to
prove the value to the country of the lessons learned by
its gallant young men who laid their ambitions on the
altar of their patriotism, and willingly offered their
lives to preserve the integrity and supremacy of their
native land.
Hylan Hale Woodson, M. D. A physician and
surgeon who has been in active practice for the past
ten years, Doctor Woodson since his return from
France and Germany, where he was with the Expedi-
tionary Forces and Army of Occupation about nine
months, has enjoyed a growing practice and reputation
in his professional field at Eddyville.
Doctor Woodson was born at Slaughters in Webster
County, Kentucky, September ' II, 1889. His paternal
ancestors were Virginia colonists from England. His
grandfather William Woodson was born in Virginia
in 1834, and as a young man came west and settled
in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, and for many years
lived at Greenville where he died in advanced age in
1917. He was a Baptist minister and as such became
282
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
widely known over his section of Kentucky. His wife
was Miss Ramsay, a native of Webster County, Ken-
tucky, who died at Greenville. The father of Doctor
Woodson is also a prominent Baptist minister, Rev.
J. D. Woodson, now living at Kuttawa, Kentucky.
He was born in Webster County in 1861, was reared
and married there, and for upwards of forty years has
been one of the hard working Baptist clergymen of the
state. His first work as a minister was done in
Webster County, and for eighteen years he was well
known in Eddyville where he was chaplain of the
Kentucky Penitentiary. On leaving that post of dutv
he became pastor of the First Baptist Church of
Kuttawa, where he is still officiating. A number of
years ago he also served a term as a representative
of the State Legislature. Rev. Mr. Woodson, is a
democrat, and is a Knight Templar Mason, being
affiliated with Rizpah Temple of the Mystic Shrine at
Madisonville, and is now worshipful master of his
Lodge at Kuttawa. The mother of Doctor Woodson
was Paralee Crowlee, who was born in Webster County
in 1862 and died at Slaughters in 1894. Her children
were: William, a farmer at Central City, Kentucky;
Tinnie, wife of Will Martin, foreman of the Louis-
ville Broom Company living at Eddyville ; Robert, a
mining and civil engineer living at Greenville, Ken-
tucky ; Hylan Hale ; James, a coal mine superintendent
at Frostburg, Maryland. Rev. J. D. Woodson married
for his second wife Leona McGrew, who was born in
Calhoun County. They have one daughter, Lucille.
Hylan Hale Woodson first attended school in his.
native town of Slaughters, graduated from the Eddy-
ville High School in IQ07, and immediately began
preparation for the medical profession, attending the
medical school of the University of Louisville. He
received his degree Doctor of Medicine in 191 1, and
the first year was in practice in Lyon County, follow-
ing which for four years he was in Todd County.
In December, 1917, with a commission as First Lieu-
tenant in the Medical Reserve Corps, Doctor Woodson
was ordered to the Medical Officers Training Camp
at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, spending two months
there, for eight months was a regimental surgeon at
Camp Wadsworth, South Carolina, and was then
ordered to Camp Merritt, New Jersey, and on August
1, 1918, sailed overseas. He reached France in time to
be detailed for active duty during the St. Mihiel
campaign, and when the armistice was signed he was
appointed to duty with the First Division in the Army
of Occupation, and so served from November 16,
1918, until May 8, 1919. Doctor Woodson returning
reached the United States June 8, 1918, and at that
date was mustered out with the rank of first lieutenant.
He immediately located at Eddyville, and has been
engaged in a general medical and surgical practice,
with offices on Water Street.
Doctor Woodson is a member of the County and
State Medical Associations, is a democrat, a Baptist,
and is affiliated with Kirkmansville Lodge No. 615,
A. F. and A. M., Lyon Chapter No. 6i, R. A. M. at
Eddyville.
Doctor Woodson left a family at home when he
went overseas with the army. He married at Paducah,
Kentucky, in 1912, Miss Nannie Glenn, daughter of
Mr. and Mrs. C. C. Glenn, the latter now deceased.
Her father is with a coal company at Depoy, Kentucky.
Mrs. Woodson is a graduate of the Eddyville High
School, and finished her education with two years in
the Kentucky State University at Lexington. Doctor
and Mrs. Woodson lost three of their children in
infancy, and the youngest is Hylan Hale, Jr., born
June 12, 1920.
Charles Keene Lillard. It is a long distance,
perhaps 125 years, to look back over to find the pioneer
of the Lillard family in Gallatin County, and his
name has been lost to history. His birthplace was
Virginia, and, being a farmer, it is reasonable to assume
that the rich soil and pleasant aspect of this section
attracted him and here he founded a family that has
been prominent in many ways in the development of
this part of the state. A widely known representative
of this old family is found in Charles Keene Lillard,
sheriff of Gallatin County and a substantial farmer near
Warsaw. •
Charles Keene Lillard was born on his father's farm
situated five miles southwest of Warsaw, Kentucky,
January 10, 1862, the only child of Joseph S. and
Margaret S. (Keene) Lillard. Joseph S. Lillard was
born near Napoleon, Gallatin County, Kentucky, in
1804. His parents were Rev. David and Mary (Spen-
cer) Lillard, both natives of Gallatin County. Rev.
David Lillard followed the vocation of farming, but
as a labor of love and piety, he gave his services to
the Ten Mile Baptist Church, which he served as
pastor for forty-six years. Joseph S. Lillard spent
his life in Gallatin County, where he was an extensive
farmer and a leading merchant of Napoleon, in which
city his death occurred in 1861. He was active in the
democratic party and during the Mexican war served
his country with distinction, being commissioned a
captain. While in Mexico he almost lost his life from
an attack of malarial fever. He belonged to the
Masonic fraternity and was a faithful member of the
Baptist Church.
Joseph S. Lillard was thrice married, his first wife
being a member of the Campbell family well known in
Indiana. To this marriage the following children were
born : Will Campbell, who was a farmer, was accident-
ally drowned in the Ohio River ; America, who is
deceased, married Judge Thomas, also deceased ; Per-
melius, who is deceased, was a farmer in Gallatin
County; John, who died a veteran Confederate soldier;
Jerry, who at time of death was an attorney at law
at Owenton, Kentucky ; Josephus, who served in the
Confederate Army during the war between the states;
and Tom Marshall, who was also a Confederate soldier.
Joseph S. Lillard's second marriage was to Miss
Georgia Ann Hughes, who was born in Boone County,
Kentucky, and died on the farm near Napoleon. Three
children were born to this marriage : George Hughes,
who died on his farm in Gallatin County; David I.,
who is a resident of Chicago, Illinois, where he is
an insurance adjuster; and Mike H., who died in
Texas but was buried in Gallatin County. He had
been a farmer and tobacco buyer. The third wife of
Joseph S. Lillard was Margaret S. Keene, who was
born in 1818, in Gallatin County and died in her
native county in 1899. Their only child, Charles Keene
Lillard, was a posthumus child, born after his father's
death.
Charles K. Lillard attended school in Southern Galla-
tin County, near his mother's farm, until nine years
old and then spent the next eight years at Warsaw.
Inheriting the home farm, he then returned to it and
has continued to operate it ever since. It comprises
145 acres of valuable land and Sheriff Lillard has
proved an excellent farmer, devoting himself profitably
to general farming and stockraising.
In 1881 Sheriff Lillard was married to Miss Delia
Gardner, daughter of Shelton and Mary (Gilbert)
Gardner, both now deceased. Mr. Gardner was form-
erly a prominent farmer in Gallatin County. Sheriff
and Mrs. Lillard have had six children : Margaret
Keene, who is the widow of Edward Craig, resides
on her farm in Gallatin County; Spencer Hartwig,
who was a young farmer of twenty-six years in Gallatin
County met death from a stroke of lightning in 1913;
Mary Gardner, who is the wife of Scottie Smith, a
farmer in Carroll County, Kentucky; Emma Jane, who
is the wife of Howard Lucas, a farmer in Gallatin
County; Charles Keene, Jr., who is now at home with
his parents, is an overseas wounded soldier of the
World war, going to France in September, 1917, and
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
283
being one of the heroic Americans who turned the
tide in Argonne Forest almost at the cost of his life, in
October, 1918; and Helen Virginia, who lives with her
parents.
A life long democrat and active in party councils
for many years, Mr. Lillard is well known in every
part of the county. From 1914 to 1918 he served in
the office o' county assessor, and in November, 1917,
was elected sheriff for a term of four years. He.
assumed the duties of his office in January, 1918, his
offices being in the Courthouse at Warsaw. During
the anxious times of the World war it was largely
through the united efforts of such solid, dependable
men as Sheriff Lillard that the country was properly
aroused and organized, that patriotic movements went
so rapidly forward and that such wonderful results
obtained. He devoted time and money to the cause and
freely served as a member of the Draft Board of
Gallatin County, and in other positions where he believed
he could be useful and influential.
Francis M. Addis. When the world calls men suc-
cessful in life, the meaning of the phrase may be inter-
preted in different ways. To those who, by birth and
comfortable early environment have educational and
social advantages, have ready opportunity and influential
friends, the path to worldly success may be one of easy
rise, and that they achieve certain prominence, in many
cases may be almost entirely a matter of good fortune.
They, however, are not the only individuals who can
be deemed successful, and the history of America de-
votes many interesting pages to tell the story of the
upward struggles of her handicapped youths who have
afterward become a nation's pride and bulwark, self-
made men. To this later class belongs Francis M.
Addis, who is superintendent of the Elkhorn Piney
Coal Company's mines at Weeksburg, Kentucky. Mr.
Addis was born in Lawrence County, Ohio, June 2,
1873. . His parents were Nathaniel and Margaret
(Davis) Addis.
Francis M. Addis was only twelve years old when
his father died. The latter was a native of Ohio and
spent his life in that state, an honest, hard-working
man, whose early death prevented his providing very
well for his surviving family. He was a maker of
charcoal, for which there were many uses in his day
and more at present, and was an expert in the busi-
ness, one of the very few who understood the science
of charcoal burning in pits or kilns. He burned the
charcoal for all the charcoal blast furnaces in his sec-
tion of Ohio. The loss of a good father in childhood is
a great misfortune to a boy, but fortunately for little
Francis, he had a careful mother who, with all the
family responsibilities resting on her, did not neglect
her son's schooling, and thus he had several years in
the country schools in the mining district where his
home was situated.
At the age of twelve years, Mr. Addis began work
in the mines, his first position being that of tramboy,
his duties being the driving of the mules that hauled
the iron ore in tram cars, keeping the tracks clear
and otherwise making himself useful. For five years
he worked in one capacity or another for the Olive
Furnace Company, patiently and thoroughly learning
the basic details of coal mining that in later years
proved of great importance to him. When seventeen
years old, he went to work in the clay and limestone
mines, where he continued for three years, after that,
until 1907, working at coal mining in the Superior and
Fluhart mines in Jackson County, Ohio. In the above
year he accepted the position of foreman with the
Gallia Mining Company, in Vinton County, and con-
tinued as such through 1907, 1908 and 1909.
With a desire to gain knowledge of other mining
districts, Mr. Addis then came to Kentucky and was
connected with the North East Coal Company at Paints-
ville, Kentucky, as mine foreman during 1910, 191 1
and 1912, in the latter year going to the Wasson
Coal Company, in Southern Illinois, remaining there
until the latter part of 1913, when he returned to Ken-
tucky. During all these years of hard and continuous
work at a dangerous occupation, Mr. Addis had met
with only minor injuries, but in the above year he
was the victim of an accident so serious that he was
"laid up" for almost two years, but in the meantime
he had made many friends and had become known to the
managers of many large companies as a thoroughly
informed, competent miner and trustworthy man.
Therefor, when he had sufficiently recovered from his
accident, he found a position awaiting him with the
Consolidation Coal Company, at Van Lear, where he
remained from 1915 until 1918, when he was trans-
ferred to the company's mines at Jenkins, and seven
months later, on March 1, 1919, came to Weeksburg
as superintendent of the coal properties of the Elkhorn
Piney Coal Company, a large and important factor in
the coal industry in this section of Kentucky. With his
other qualities, Mr. Addis has great executive ability
and sense of fairness, and possessing the confidence of
the company and of the great army of employes, har-
mony reigns here to a greater extent than in almost
any other coal section. He regrets sometimes that his
early opportunities were limited, but few have profited
more through observation and practical experience, and
so kindly is his nature that he willingly instructs those
in the business younger than himself and gladly helps
them on the way, feeling well compensated when such
men as managers Howes and Wolfe, in the Big Sandy
Valley, declare they owe everything to his advice and
instruction.
Mr. Addis was married December 14, 1894, in
Lawrence County, Ohio, to Miss Elizabeth Justice, who
is a daughter of George Justice, who was in the mining
business in Lawrence County. They have five children :
Carl, Myrtle, Elbert Mitchell, Castle R. and Bonnie
Francis. Mr. Addis and his family are members of
the United Brethren Church. In political life he has
always been a republican, and fraternally is a Mason
and Knight of Pythias. Mr. Addis is domestic in his
tastes, and his own fireside is dear to him, and perhaps
because of this, he often, in his friendly talks with his
men, calls to their attention their duty which should be a
pleasure, to strive to make their homes comfortable
and their families proud of them. Who can question the
success in life of a man who can exert such an in-
fluence as this?
W. C. Shearer. An example of twentieth century
business enterprise is found in the National Sheet Metal
Works, of Paducah, which has been developed from
small beginnings into large proportions' through the
progressive industry and splendid business management
of its founder and proprietor, W. C. Shearer. Mr.
Shearer, who is entitled to the title of self-made man,
was born in Owen County, Kentucky, September 13,
1873, a son of W. M. O. and Elizabeth (Callaghan)
Shearer.
Daniel Shearer, the paternal grandfather of W. C.
Shearer, was born in 1796, in Ireland, and was the
emigrant ancestor of the family to the United States
and a pioneer in Henry County, Kentucky, where he
passed the remainder of his active life as an educator,
then moving to Owen County, Kentucky, where his
death occurred, although burial was made in Henry
County. He married a Miss Myrh. The maternal
grandfather of W. C. Shearer, Michael Callaghan, was
born in Ireland in 1818 and as a young man emigrated
to America and settled in Owen County, Kentucky,
where he first worked on railroad construction and
later became a railroad contractor. He died in that
county in 1900. Mr. Callaghan married Ellen O'Sullivan,
a native of Ireland, who died in Owen County.
W. M. O. Shearer was born in Henry County, Ken-
tucky, in 1844, and was reared there and in Owen
284
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
County, and educated in the public schools. After his
marriage at Frankfort, Kentucky, to Miss Elizabeth
Callaghan, who was born in 1839, in Franklin County,
this state, he engaged in farming in Owen County, and
was thus engaged at the outbreak of the war between
the states. In 1862 he enlisted in the Ninth Kentucky
Cavalry, and was first under the leadership of the
intrepid Morgan, being later connected with the. forces
of Gen. William Breckenridge. He surrendered with
his command at Atlanta, Georgia, in 1865, and returned
to his farming operations. Subsequently, he took up
his trade as a stone mason and developed a good
business in contracting on public works along the Ken-
tucky River, and in 1908 retired from active affairs.
He died in February, 1918, in Owen County, and was
buried in Carroll County. Mr. Shearer was a demo-
crat and served as a magistrate in Henry County. He
was a member of the Roman Catholic Church, to which
also belonged his worthy wife, who died in Carroll
County in 191 1 and was laid to rest there. Five children
were born to them : James, who is engaged in farming
at Carrollton, Kentucky; W. C. ; George, a farmer of
Henry County ; Joseph, who farms with his brother
James at Carrollton; and Mary, the wife of M. J.
Havden, a farmer of Owen County.
W. C. Shearer was educated in the rural schools. of
Henry, Owen and Franklin counties, which he attended
until he was twenty years of age, at which time he
began farming, in which he was engaged for two years
in Franklin and Woodford counties. At that time
he embarked in the industrial insurance business, with
headquarters at Bourbon and Paris, and in April, 1896,
came to Paducah to follow the same line of work. This
he continued, however, for less than one year, then
forming a connection with the City Gas Company which
continued for nine months. In May, 1898, Mr. Shearer
enlisted for service in the Spanish-American war and
was sent to Cuba with the Third Kentucky Volunteer
Infantry, returning to Savannah, Georgia, and being
mustered out of the service in June, 1809.
Coming back to Paducah, Mr. Shearer then went
to Henry County for a three months' visit to his
parents, and when he returned to this city kept books
for a hotel for nine months. Next he entered the em-
ploy of the Jackson Foundry and Machine Company,
where he kept books for eight months, and at the end
of that time was promoted to the superintendency of
the store room, a position which he held for two years.
From this post he was advanced to the position of
general manager of the company, remaining as such two
years and, having thoroughly learned the machine busi-
ness, June 9, 1906, he founded his present enterprise,
the National Sheet Metal Works. Mr. Shearer's capital
was small and he necessarily started in a modest way,
but the business has grown under the urge of his
capable management to be one of the leading general
sheet metal concerns of Western Kentucky. In the
plant at 110-112-114 Kentucky Avenue anything in the
world in the line of sheet metal, brass, copper and
aluminum is manufactured, twenty hands being em-
ployed in the manufacture of products which are shipped
in all directions within a radius of fifty miles of
Paducah.
Mr. Shearer has various other connections, being a
director in the Ohio Valley Fire and Marine Insurance
Company, the Ohio Valley Trust Company and the
Even Light Manufacturing Company, of Paducah; and
the Kankakee Automobile Company of Kankakee, Illi-
nois. He is a democrat in politics, a member of the
Roman Catholic Church, and fraternizes with Paducah
Lodge No. 217, B. P. O. E.
'Mr. Shearer was married, May 25, 1919, at Paducah,
to Mrs. Lillian (Smith) Martin a daughter of Mr. and
Mrs. Lemon Smith, the latter deceased and the former
a resident of Lyon County, Kentucky. Mr. and Mrs.
Shearer reside in a pleasant home at No. 1043 Trimble
Street.
Willard Cox Bland, secretary and treasurer of the
Wabash Elevator Company in Uniontown, has been a
factor in the business affairs of that city over a quarter
of a century, and his success in business and promi-
nence as a citizen has made him widely known over
the western end of the state.
Mr. Bland was born at West Point, Virginia, June
2, 1876, son of John William and Millard Elizabeth
(Goalder) Bland. His parents represent some old and
prominent Virginia families. The Bland family came
to Kentucky in 1889 and settled at Hickman, where
John W. Bland was in the lumber business as buyer
for a St. Louis corporation. He died at the age of
seventy-six and his wife at seventy-four, and of their
four children Willard C. is the only survivor.
Mr. Bland acquired his early education in his native
Virginia town, also attended school at Hickman, Ken-
tucky, and took a business course at Louisville. For
fourteen months he was bookkeeper and stenographer
for a firm at Seymour, Indiana, and in 1893 came to
Uniontown to enter the employ of the Mutual Dis-
tilling Company. He was manager of that business
for ten years, but in the meantime entered the dry-
goods business as a member of the firm Newton &
Bland, and was actively connected with this leading
mercantile firm for twenty years. Since 1917 he has
given most of his time to his duties as secretary and
treasurer of the Wabash Elevator Company.
Mr. Bland has also acquired some farming interests
in Western Kentucky. He is a democrat, and during
the administration of Governor Stanley served on the
Governor's staff with the rank of colonel. He is a
Master Mason. In 1898 he married" Miss Martha Orme
of Uniontown.
Robf.rt Thomas Rudd, M. D. Prominently identi-
fied among the skilled and dependable physicians and
surgeons of Fulton County, Dr. Robert Thomas Rudd
of the City of Fulton, has won distinction through his
own ability and efforts. He comes of an old and
honored southern family which was established in Vir-
ginia prior to the American Revolution by his ancestors
who came here from England. The grandfather,
Thomas Rudd, was born in Virginia in 1802, and he
died in Carlisle County, Kentucky, in 1875. When still
a young man Thomas Rudd went from Virginia to
North Carolina where he was married to a Miss Martha
Wingo, who was born in North Carolina in 1814, and
died in Carlisle County, Kentucky, in 1884. Soon after
his marriage Thomas Rudd came to Kentucky, was
one of the pioneers of Carlisle County, and developed
into a very wealthy man, owning a large amount of
land and many slaves.
The son of Thomas Rudd, William C. Rudd, who
was the father of Doctor Rudd, was born in Carlisle
County, Kentucky, in 1843, and died at Fulton, Ken-
tucky. January 22, 1920. Reared, educated and mar-
ried in Carlisle County, he became one of the leading
men of his locality, and Rudd Village and post office
were named in his honor. There he carried on mer-
chandising for twenty years and was the postmaster
for the same length of time, and he also had heavy
land interests in the neighborhood. In politics he was
a democrat. A very strong churchman, he worked
in behalf of the Baptist Church, of which he was a
consistent member and deacon. As was but natural,
his sympathies were with the South during the war
between that section and the North, and he enlisted
in the Confederate Army in 1861, and served until he
was severely wounded at the battle of Shiloh, the
same engagement in which his commanding officer,
Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston, was killed. After he
received his honorable discharge. Mr. Rudd returned
to Carlisle County, Kentucky, and took up the burdens
of reconstruction. In 1907 he came to Fulton, Ken-
tucky, and remained until 1914, during that period
living retired with the exception of doing a little
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
285
gardening in order to occupy his time. In 1914 he
returned to Carlisle County, and there engaged in
farming until 1919, in the latter year purchasing a
home at Fulton, where he lived until his death the
following year.
William Z. Rudd was united in marriage with Mrs.
Martha Ann (Pease) Fuller, born in Carlisle County,
Kentucky, in 1841. She died at Rudd, Kentucky, Oc-
tober 29, 1898. Their children were as follows: Ace-
nath Fannie, who married J. B. Wiley, a farmer and
merchant of California, now deceased, and she resides
at Fulton, Kentucky ; Doctor Rudd, who was second
in order of birth; W. A., who is a mechanic residing
at Cairo, Illinois; Anna May, who married L. B. Jones,
now a clothing merchant of Bardwell, Kentucky, died
at Bardwell, Kentucky, in 1913; Vester Pease, who is
a prescription druggist of Jonesboro, Arkansas ; and
Sallie, who died in infancy.
Doctor Rudd was educated in the rural schools of
Carlisle County, where he was born November 25,
1869, and at Clinton College, of Clinton, Kentucky.
Still later he attended the Normal School for Teachers
at Paducah, Kentucky, and attended his college courses
at Bethel College, Russellville, Kentucky. Doctor Rudd
then matriculated at the Electric Medical Institute of
Cincinnati, Ohio, from which he was graduated in
1896, and immediately thereafter established himself
in practice at Fulton, Kentucky, where he has since
carried on a general medical and surgical practice.
While at Bethel College he was a member of the
Philomathean Society, and during the period he was at
Cincinnati, he took an active interest in the Young
Men's Christian Association. In 1907 Doctor Rudd
established his hospital at Fulton, Kentucky, and oper-
ated it himself for three years. This hospital has
rooms for twenty-one patients. For some years Doctor
Rudd has specialized with electricity, using the X-ray
in vibratory, galvanic and faradic work, and also uses
the electric baths, and does all ordinary surgical work.
His offices and modern residence are at No. 222 Com-
mercial Avenue. Patients come to him from Western
Kentucky, Western Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri, and
different points all over the country. He is the ex-
aminer for fourteen b'fe insurance companies, and re-
ceived in 1920, a medal from the Metropolitan Life
Insurance Company for faithful service for a period
of twenty years. He is a democrat, and served on the
city Board of Health, of which he was president for
two years, and for two years he was a member of the
City Council. The First Baptist Church holds his
membership, and he has been one of its trustees for
s-xteen years, and a deacon for twenty years, and for
the past ten years has been chairman of the board of
deacons. When the present church edifice was erected
he was chairman of the building committee, and is on
the committee which has in charge the building of the
nroposed new church edifice which is to cost $76,000.
Doctor Rudd belongs to Frank Carr Lodge No. 206,
I. O. O. F. ; to Fulton Encampment of the same order ;
to Kentucky Home Camp No. 11351, M. W. A., and
has been venerable consul of the last named fraternity
for three years ; to Harmony Camp No. 204, W. O. W.,
and to the two auxiliary branches of the Woodmen ;
to the Knights and Lad:es of Security, and to the
Loyal Order of Moose. Professionally he belongs to
Fultnn County Medical Society, Kentucky State Medi-
cal Society, the American Medical Association, and the
District Electric Medical Society and the State Electric
Medical Society, and has served as president of the
latter.
On December 22, 1897, Doctor Rudd was united in
marriage at Fulton, Kentucky, to Ina E. Vincent, a
daughter of Harve and Ellen (Love) Vincent. Mr.
Vincent died at Union City, Tennessee, having been a
farmer all his active life. Mrs. Vincent survives him
and makes her home at Aberdeen, Mississippi.
Doctor and Mrs. Rudd have one child : Russell R.,
who was born December 2, 1899, and was graduated
from the grammar schools, following which for two
years he attended the Fulton High School, and for
one year was at the Columbia Military Academy as
a cadet, and will be graduated from this institution in
1921. He will then begin the study of medicine and
has five years of college and university work ahead of
him. It is a great satisfaction to Doctor Rudd to have
his son's tastes and talents run in the same channel
as his own, and he looks forward to the day when he
can take the younger man into partnership with him.
Gaston M. Alves, of Henderson, who has been one
of the Advisory Board in the preparation of this history
of Kentucky, and whose services as such are gratefully
acknowledged by the publishers, has been closely identi-
fied for a period of fifty years with the progress of
development in that section of Kentucky, and is himself
an interesting link connecting the present with the be-
ginning of development here, since he is a great-grand-
son of Walter Alves, one of the original shareholders
of the Henderson Grant.
Mr. Alves was born at Henderson, June 21, 1847.
His father, Thomas D. Alves, was a great-grandson of
James Hogg, who with his wife and children immi-
grated from Scotland to North Carolina some years
prior to the Revolution. The name Hogg was at that
time a common one in his native country, but his branch
was the same as Hogg the "Etric Shepherd," and he
was also a cousin of Walter Scott. James Hogg seems
to have had little sympathy for the Revolutionary move-
ment. In one of his letters he spoke of Jefferson much
as we did of Herr Most, and yet one of his sons-
in-law, Hooper, was a signer of the Declaration of
Independence.
Some years after independence was declared, James
Hogg caused the Legislature of his state to change
the names of his two sons to Alves, the maiden name
of his wife, who was of a Spanish family that settled
in Scotland in the time of the Stewarts.
His son, Walter Hogg, by enactment Walter Alves,
together with his wife, Amelia Johnston, was a large
owner in the Richard Henderson grant, and they moved
to Henderson County in the latter part of the eighteenth
century.
Gaston M. Alves was educated at the Kentucky Mili-
tary Institute near Frankfort. In early manhood he
was identified with mercantile interests both in St. Louis
and in his native town. While at the Institute he
showed decided talent for mathematics and physics, and
soon gave up merchandising for more congenial work.
For his home town he made the instrumental examina-
tions for a system of waterworks, and against con-
siderable opposition helped induce the citizens to vote
the necessary bonds for their construction, and per-
sonally superintended the building of the waterworks.
Mr. Alves was one of the early advocates of improved
highways. He helped organize several companies, and
as engineer constructed roads and turnpikes under the
control of private corporations. Afterward, when the
demand was made for free public roads, he furnished
the figures at which the county was to take them over.
Henderson was for a number of years without a local
coal supply, and Mr. Alves and his brothers sank a coal
shaft, and though thereby they furnished coal at greatly
reduced prices they made good profits out of the
business.
With others Mr. Alves was associated with a large
land company that laid out the tract into lots, and he
superintended the sales, thus greatly extending the size
of Henderson. He organized and operated a very suc-
cessful building and loan association, putting the rates
very low to the borrowers, and thus brought about the
erection of more houses in the city than is due to any
other one cause.
Mr. Alves during his early years and middle age was
286
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
much imbued with the spirit of public enterprise. How-
ever, in his later and retired years he has been dis-
posed to feel that with us all the spirit of initiative
has been pushed too far, and that what is now needed
by the public is subsidence and a return to homely and
commonplace things. It is perhaps in line with this
philosophic attitude that he is now mostly occupied with
his books and studies.
Robert B. Brown. Although love of country may
be instinctive, it is undoubtedly true that with some
men public honors and popular approval seem to more
or less wean them from old interests and familiar
surroundings, in some cases arousing a desire for other
and foreign conditions of living which, perhaps, bring
forgetfulness of old friends and obligations. Such a
charge can never be brought against Hon. Robert B.
Brown, who is a distinguished and esteemed native
son of Gallatin County and who has maintained his
home at Warsaw, his birthplace, throughout his long
life of busy effort and notable achievements. Mr.
Brown is not only- one of the foremost citizens of
this section of Kentucky in a public and professional
way, but also is one of the most substantial, being
extensively interested in agricultural production and
owning valuable realty at Warsaw and throughout
Gallatin County.
Robert B. Brown was born June 10. 1854. His
parents were Walter and Malinda (Bowling) Brown,
natives of Kentucky, who spent their lives in this state.
Walter Brown was born in 1808, in Owen County, a
son of Thomas and Mary (Adams) Brown. Thomas
Brown was of Irish parentage and came early to Owen
County, Kentucky, followed farming, and died there
in 1861. Walter Brown followed an agricultural life
in Owen County until 1848, in which year he came to
Warsaw and went into the hotel business, in which
he continued until retiring from active life in 1883,
his death following in 1895. He was a democrat in
his political views but never was willing to accept a
public office. He married Malinda Bowling, who was
born in Mason. County in 1813 and died at Warsaw in
1891. They became the parents of the following chil-
dren: Samuel, who was a farmer, died at Adairville,
Logan County, Kentucky, when aged sixty-two years ;
Helen B., who was the wife of the late J. D. Pull am.
a merchant and hotel proprietor at Warsaw, died when
sixty years old; Mary, who was the wife of the late
J. R. Brown, of Warsaw, died aged sixty-two years ;
Bird, who was the wife of J. A. Howard, a sawmill
owner and operator, died at Warsaw aged fifty years;
James S.. who is a retired physician and surgeon of
Warsaw; Walter, who lives at Warsaw retired, for-
merly was a liveryman and trader; Jennie, who died
at the age of fifty-eight years, was the wife of the
late J. D. Darneille, a merchant at Warsaw; and Rob-
ert B.
Robert B. Brown spent his boyhood and youth in his
native city, attending private schools and variously cm-
ployed until be took up the study of law with a local
attorney, after which he completed his studies in the
law department of the University of Michigan at Ann
Arbor, and was admitted to the bar in March, 1877.
He entered into practice at Warsaw and is the dean
of the profession here in point of years of practice.
and occupies a position of eminence both in civil and
criminal practice. For twelve years he served as coun-
ty attorney of Gallatin County, and has been identified
with many notable cases in the courts.
In political life Mr. Brown has always bee«i un-
swerving in his devotion to the principles of the demo-
cratic party. On many occasions his fellow citizens
have testified their esteem and confidence by calling
him to positions of trust and responsibility, and his
record of public service covering many years, stands
unblemished. During his tenure of the office of county
attorney, he served Warsaw two years as school com-
missioner and has never ceased to be interested in
educational matters. In 1895 he was first elected a
member of the Kentucky State Senate, representing
the Twenty-third Senatorial District, comprising at
that time Boone, Gallatin and Owen counties. He
served through the sessions of 1896, 1898 and the spe-
cial session of 1897, when a great deal of important
legislation was considered, and in November, 1907, he
was re-elected a senator and served in the sessions of
1908, 1909 and 1910. He took an active part in all
legislative deliberations and successfully advocated the
passage of many exceedingly necessary measures. After
retiring from public office Mr. Brown resumed the
practice of his profession, which has absorbed him
ever since. He found time, however, when the great
war came along to demonstrate the quality of his
patriotism, accepting the duties of chairman of several
organizations and by example setting a pace in support
of all the patriotic movements.
In 1885. at Warsaw, Mr. Brown was marred to Miss
Belle Summons, a graduate of Hocker College, Lex-
ington, Kentucky. Her parents were William B. and
Nannie (Bell) Summons, both deceased. Her father
was a retired farmer residing at Warsaw. Two chil-
dren were born to Mr. and Mrs. Brown. Nannie and
R. H. Nannie Brown was reared at Warsaw and
educated at Hopkinsville, Kentucky, being a graduate
of the Ladies' Seminary. She is the wife of Frank
S. Connely, the latter being a student of law with Mr.
Brown. R. H. Brown was born at Warsaw in 1887,
and died in this city in October, 1918. He was a young
man of brilliant parts, an attorney at law, and was
serving in the office of county attorney at time of
death.
Mr. Brown has been identified with the development
of many interests, and in business as well as in other
directions is well known over the country. He is a
director in the Warsaw Deposit Bank; a director in
the Sparta Deposit Bank; a director in the Equitable
Bank and Trust Company of Walton, Kentucky; and
is president of the Warsaw Furniture Company. He
is a member of the Christian Church and has always
been liberal in contributing to its various benevolent
projects. Fraternal organizations have never appealed
to him, but he needs no brotherhood tie to bind him
to the tried and true friends who have known him
from childhood.
Rash Family. A notable name in and around Win-
chester for a century has been that of the Rash family.
The old Rash home is four miles north of Winchester.
One of its owners and occupants for many years was
Rev. William Samuel Rash, who lived there while he
preached at Friendship Church, the building of which
stood in the present cemetery at Winchester. Rev.
William S. Rash was born in Clark County February
13. 1783. and died June 9. 1859. He was a pioneer
"Hardshell" Bantist preacher. He also served as a
soldier in the War of 1S12 and was captured at the
battle of River Raisin by the Indians, but made 1 i 1 —
escape by night. One of his Kentucky comrades,
Leonard Beall, was not so fortunate, and was made
to "run the gauntlet" and was a cripple from the ex-
perience the rest of his life. Rev. William S. Rash
married Elizabeth Berry, who lived to a great age.
His son. Rev. A. D. Rash, was horn June 22, 1823,
and died March 18, 1901. William S. Rash owned
about 500 acres, much of it subsequently owned by his
son. Lewis Rash, but eventually sold.
Thomas Rash, a grandson of Rev. William S. Rash,
was born at the old homestead January 27. 1836, and
for a quarter of a century was a merchant at Win-
chester, being a partner with his brother W. D. four
or five years. At a still later period he re-engaged in
merchandising and continued that occupation for twenty
years until 1904 when he retired to his farm on Boones-
boro Pike, four miles from Winchester. More recently
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
'287
he returned to Winchester, and has erected a pleasant
home on Crescent Creek.
At the age of forty Thomas Rash married Mary
Ogden, whose maiden name was Baldwin. She was
born in Lexington, a daughter of William and Eliza
Baldwin, who came from England to Pennsylvania
and settled in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1835. William
Baldwin and three of his sons were soldiers during
the War between the States in the Confederate army
with Morgan. He was reported missing and is sup-
posed to have been killed in battle. The son William
was killed at Green River Bridge, while Samuel and
John served all through the war. The families of
William and John are still represented at Winchester.
Mary Baldwin's first husband was James Ogden, a
stock trader at Winchester, who died at the age of
thirty-five. Mrs. Thomas Rash took active steps in
establishing the first Baptist Church at Winchester, and
has lived to see three successive churches dedicated
and is the only survivor of the original members. Mrs.
Rash's only child by her first marriage was Cora Og-
den, the wife of Ben Crutcher, a prominent lawyer
and for many years Commonwealth District Attorney
at Winchester. Mrs. Cora Crutcher died at the age
of thirty-two, leaving three children : J. O. Crutcher,
a dentist at Winchester; Alan, Mrs. William Garner
of Winchester; and Miss Mary Crutcher, who lives
with her grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Rash.
Mary Crutcher was five years old when her mother
died, and she and her brother and sister were reared
by her grandparents. Miss Mary Crutcher is a member
of the Daughters of the American Revolution through
her Crutcher ancestry. She is president of the Women's
Club of Winchester and has long been prominent in
social and civic affairs.
Mr. and Mrs. Rash have always kept their hearts
and home open to the needy, and through their assist-
ance not less than eighteen children have been reared
and educated to self supporting and honorable man-
hood and womanhood, and have found comfort and
sympathy and education. The native affection of Mrs.
Rash has always responded to calls of need or distress
even at the expense of her own health, and no scourge
could deter her from giving personal aid during dis-
tress and sickness.
William Dudley Judy, one of the representative
men of Clark County, now living at Schoolsville. be-
longs to one of the old-established families of Ken-
tucky, and his name is a well known one in this part
of the state. He was born in Harrison County, Ken-
tucky, on April 20, 1861, a son of Thomas and Mary
(Botts) Judy. Thomas Judy, born at Stanton, Ken-
tucky in 1815. died at Rushville, Indiana, in 1861. _ His
father was Thomas Judy, who came from Virginia to
Stanton, and was county clerk for a number of years,
and there he died, his widow surviving him for seven
or eight years. She was Nancy Myers, a daughter of
Solomon Myers. Thomas Judy, the younger, was a
carpenter by trade, and at his death left six children,
namely: Joseph, who is a resident of Latonia, Ken-
tucky; Robert, who died at the age of sixteen^ years ;
Frank, who is on the home farm ; Amy, who is Mrs.
William Gardner of Pendleton County, Kentucky ; Wil-
liam Dudley, whose name heads this review; and Mollie,
who is unmarried, lives at Cvnthiana. Kentucky. Left
a widow with six children, Mrs. Thomas Judy had a
difficult task during the first few years until her sons
were old enough to help her. She was a tailoress- by
trade, and working day and night, became very expert,
and through her endeavors was able to keep her little
family together. Subsequently she was married to
John McLean and went to live on a farm in Harrison
County. Still later she and her husband returned to
Cynthiana where both died.
William D. Judy remained on his mother's farm until
he was thirteen years old, and then left it for the
Vol. V— 27
Garnett farm in Harrison County, where he not only
attended school in the winter months, but received a
thorough training in farming from Mr. Garnett, one
of the most noted agriculturists of that region. When
he was eighteen years old William D. Judy went to
Cynthiana, where he remained for a time. Later he
went back to the Garnett farm, and continued on it
until 1881, when he came to Clark County. During the
many years he lived there Mr. Judy always enter-
tained a warm friendship for the family, and kept in
close touch with Mr. Garnett until his death.
After coming to Clark County Mr. Judy married
Lizzie Nelson, a daughter of Harvey Nelson, and
granddaughter of Hon. William Nelson, ex-representa-
tive in the Kentucky Legislature. Harvey Nelson
served in the war between the states, and when he
died he left his daughter his farm. His widow only
survived him until 1882, and one year afterwards Mrs.
Judy passed away, leaving one daughter, Mamie Eliza-
beth, who married Joseph Clinton Fox, who lives at
Winchester.
Upon coming to Clark County Mr. Judy took charge
of his wife's farm and lived on it until 1904 when he
moved to Winchester and began buying buggies and
harness, continuing the business for two years under
the name of Judy & Wood. In the meanwhile he had
purchased a farm, on which he built his present resi-
dence. This property is a portion of the Walter Huls
farm. Mr. Judy still owns his old farm and conducts
it, raising a general line of crops. For years he has
kept track horses, and has a track on his farm. He
buys and sells track horses, running them on his own
track and traveling with them to other tracks, and for
the past thirty years has been a well known man around
various tracks. For many years he was a trainer and
produced several horses which gained celebrity, and
also handled many show horses in various lines so
that at one time he was one of the authorities with
reference to track matters. While he has never sought
office, he was always wiling to do his duty to his party
and served often as delegate to conventions.
William D. Judy was married on February 24, i8qi,
to Lizzie D. Huls, born on November 14, 1865. She
died on May 14, 1917. She was a daughter of Walter
and Jane (Scobee) Huls, who owned the second farm
of Mr. Judy, and on it he passed his life, dying about
twenty-three years ago when he was sixty years of
age. The second Mrs. Judy was born on this farm.
She bore her husband two sons, namely: Walter
Davenport, who was born on May 24, 1898. is now a
druggist, but was in the training camp at Danville at
the time of the signing of the Armistice, as a member
of the aviation branch of the service ; and Frank Mc-
Cord, who was born on Anril 21. 1901, who was edu-
cated in the Winchester High School, is now living
at home.
On February '23, 1918, Mr. Judy was married to Mrs.
Hattie Huls, daughter of John Ambrose and Fannie
(Kidd) Eubank, who was born at Kiddville, Clark
County, Kentucky, on December 12, 1867. She was
married when twenty-three years old to William Huls,
a son of Walter Huls, and they had four children,
namely: Mary, who is private secretary to the dean
of the State University at Lexington, Kentucky; Flor-
ine. who is Mrs. Forrest F. Suter of Louisville, Ken-
tucky; Lucille, who is Mrs. Byron E. Reed, lives in
Kentucky, and her husband has oil interests in this
state and Texas ; and William Porter Huls, who lives
at Mount Sterling, Kentucky.
John A. Eubank, the father of Mrs. Judy, was a
farmer and stockman. Her mother, Fannie Kidd, was
a daughter of Robert and Betsy (Collins) Kidd of
Kiddville, named in honor of the Kidd family, who
developed a village out of the wilderness they found
upon coming to Kentucky. The Kidd homestead was
the first to be erected at that point.
Mr. Judy is a director of the Peoples State Bank
288
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
of Winchester, and at one time was a dealer in loose
leaf tobacco at Winchester, being one of the first
three men to grow tobacco in Clark County. In 1881
he Harrv Thompson and Riley Gordon put in three
or four acres each. From this small beginning the
great tobacco industry of Clark County has grown
until it is the leading one of this section. Mr. Judy
belongs to the Bethlehem Christian Church of Clark
County, of which Elder J. W. McGarrey was pastor,
this being the oldest church of this denomination in
this section. After seventeen years of faithful service
Mr. McGarrey resigned on account of his advanced
years. In his fraternal relations Mr. Judy maintains
membership with the Masons and Elks.
Big of heart, genial and hearty in manner, Mr. Judy
has the warmest of personal friends all over the state,
and has never failed to live up to the expectations of
them or of his fellow citizens.
Richard N. Ratliff. Among the commodities of
importance in the commercial and agricultural life of
Kentucky, those which furnish the greatest reason for
activity in the markets are live stock, wool and tobacco.
Prominent among the men who have dealt in these
products and whose substantiality and conservatism' have
aided in strengthening and stabilizing business condi-
tions, is Richard N. Ratliff, of Winchester.
'Mr. Ratliff was born at Sharpsburg, Rath County,
Kentucky, October 14, 1857, a son of Richard S. and
Mary F. (Thompson) Ratliff, natives of the same
county, and a grandson of Caleb Ratliff, who was born
in Virginia and came to Kentucky with his father. The
last-named, who had formerly driven cattle and mules
to the markets in South Carolina, became one of the
extensive farmers in the vicinity of Ratliff, where his
death occurred when he was seventy-one years of age.
Richard N. Ratliff spent his boyhood on the home farm
near Sharpsburg, acquiring his educational training in
the meanwhile in the rural schools, and when still a
young man became a landowner and gradually in-
creased his holdings until he had two farms, compris-
ing about 300 acres. He dealt largely in various kinds
of live stock, shipping from 600 to 700 head of mules
annually, and also supplied a market for the sugar-
growers of his section. In 1909 Mr. Ratliff, while
retaining his farm in Bath County, worth more than
$300 per acre, came to Winchester and identified himself
prominently with the tobacco-growing industry. For
three years he acted as local manager for a large asso-
ciation, and at this time is identified with the firm
of Stone & Buckley, of Lexington, in addition to which
he is manager of a company at Winchester, which
handles from 30,000 to 35,000 pounds of wool in season.
Mr. Ratliff grows tobacco on his farm and has handled
as high as 2,500,000 lbs. of loose leaf tobacco annually.
As he deals also in stock, he is kept busy the year
round, the stock, wool and tobacco seasons following
each other in rotation. Mr. Ratliff is also a director of
the Winchester Bank of Winchester. He possesses a
genial, pleasing personality that has contributed greatly
to his success and that has drawn to him numerous
friends in Clark and Bath counties, where his standing
in business circles is of the highest. During his career
he has been jealous of his reputation for fair and
honorable dealing, and this has applied likewise to his
citizenship, in performing the duties of which he has
been conscientiously strict.
At the age of twenty-five years, Mr. Ratliff was
united in marriage with Miss Katie L. Whitsitt, who
was born near Mount Sterling, Montgomery County,
Kentucky, and to this union there have been born two
children: Jennie J., who is the wife of James H.
" ench, who is engaged in the insurance business at
I1"' -Chester; and R. Whitsitt, a capable agriculturist,
recor;s carrying on operations on the old home farm
unbleit.,jcjnjfy 0f Sharnsburg, Bath County,
attorney.
Horace Luten, M. D. For three successive genera-
tions the Luten family has contributed able physicians
and surgeons to the medical profession of the State
of Kentucky. Dr. Horace Luten has for more than
twenty years been one of the busy men in the profes-
sional ranks at Fulton, where taking his father's service
into consideration the name Luten has been synonymous
with medicine and surgery for nearly half a century.
Doctor Luten, who gained the rank of major in the
medical corps during the World war, was born in Hick-
man County, Kentucky, October 6, 1873. His grand-
father William Luten was also a physician, was horn
in Ashland, North Carolina, and was one of the
pioneer members of his profession in Hickman County,
Kentucky, where he practiced until his death. He mar-
ried a 'Miss Ashburn, a native of North Carolina, who
also died in Hickman County. Dr. Joseph R. Luten,
the father, was born in Hickman County in 1843, grew
up there, was married in Fulton County, graduated in
medicine from Tulane University at New Orleans, and
after practicing for some years in Hickman County
removed to Fulton County in 1875 and was busy with
the cares of his profession until he retired in 1910.
He died September II, 1921, at Fulton, aged seventy-
eight. During the war between the states he served
in the Confedrate Army during 1864-65. He also repre-
sented Fulton County in the Legislature one term. Dr.
Joseph R. Luten was a democrat, and an active member
of the Methodist Oiurch and the Masonic fraternity.
He married Miss Kate Browder who was born in
Fulton County in 1848 and died in 1004. She was
the mother of four children, the youngest being Horace.
S. D. Luten, the oldest, is a farmer in Arkansas ;
Mary was married in 1898 at Union City, Tennessee,
to I. N. Eson who is now operating a coal yard at
Little Rock, Arkansas; and W. R. Luten, a railroad
man, foreman in the railroad shops at Plymouth,
Michigan.
Dr. Horace Luten was two years of age when his
father moved to Fulton and as a boy he attended the
rural schools of the county, was also a student in
the noted preparatory school known as the Webb School
at Bell Buckle, Tennessee, and took his medical course
m the University of Louisville where he graduated with
the M. D. degree in 1898. During 1900 he also did
post-graduate work in the University of Chicago. Doctor
Luten began practice at Fulton in 1898, and except for
the period of the World war has given practically all
his time and energies to his extensive medical and
surgical work. He owns the Luten Building at 210
Lake Street in which he has his offices and has a fine
modern home at 301 Carr Street. He is a member of
the Fulton County, State and American Medical asso-
ciations, is a democrat, a Methodist, is affiliated with
Roberts Lodge No. 172 A. F. and A. M. at Fulton,
belongs to the Scottish Rite Consistory at Blooming-
burg, Pennsylvania, and is a member of Almas Temple
of the Mystic Shrine at Washington, District of
Columbia.
October 1. 19 17, he was commissioned a captain in
the Medical Reserve Corps, was first sent to Fnrt
Oglethorpe, Georgia, was later at Columbia, South Caro-
lina, Atlanta, Georgia, at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and
his final assignment of duties was at Harrisburg, Penn-
sylvania. While in the service he was promoted to the
rank of major and received his honorable discharge
February 8, 1919, after nearly eighteen months of
service.
In 1899 at Hickman, Kentucky, Doctor Luten married
Miss Kate Randle. Her father was the late Clint
Randle, a prominent lawyer of Hickman. Her mother
Mrs. Maggie (Mitchell) Randle lived at Fulton. Mrs.
Luten is a graduate of Hickman College. They have
two children : J. R., Jr., born August 21, 1900, and
Margaret born February I, 1907. The son graduated
with the A. B. degree from the University of Chat-
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
289
tanooga, Tennessee and is now a student of dentistry
in Louisville University.
William K. Hall. Forty years have come and gone
since William K. Hall essayed his first venture in
business at Fulton. During that time he has made
mistakes, has been confronted with adversity, has over-
come obstacles, but those who know him today as pro-
prietor of the W. K. Hall Lumber Company and in-
terested in other going institutions associate his name
only with substantial success, all of which has been
thoroughly deserved.
Mr. Hall was born at Columbus, Kentucky, April 28,
1857. His grandfather Jonathan Hall was a native of
Rutherford County, Tennessee, and spent his active life
as a farmer. William K. Hall, St., was born in Trenton,
Tennessee, in 1827, was reared and educated in his
native town and in 1853 moved to Columbus Kentucky.
Subsequently he lived again in Tennessee but Columbus
was his home the greater part of his active career.
For ten years he held the office of postmaster being
first appointed by President Grant. He died at Colum-
bus in 1877. He was also a member of the State
Senate, a stanch republican and member of the Masonic
fraternity. William K. Hall, Sr., married Mrs. Martha
A. (Winn) McConnell. Her first husband James Mc-
Connell died of smallpox on the Ohio River near
Louisville, Kentucky. He was one of the pioneer mer-
chants of Columbus. By her first marriage she had
two children : J. H. McConnell, a farmer at Columbus ;
and Sarah, living at Hickman, Kentucky, widow of Dr.
C. H. Hubbard, who was a physician and surgeon at
Hickman. Martha A. Winn was born at Columbus
in 1822 and died at Nashville, Tennessee, 1910. By her
second marriage she was the mother of three children
William K. Hall, Jr. ; J. F. Hall, a druggist at Louis-
ville; and Annie, who died at the age of twelve years.
William K. Hall acquired his early education in the
public schools of Columbus and afterwards attended
high school at St. Louis, Missouri. When he was about
ten years of age and while his father was postmaster
he began assisting in the postoffice at Columbus. He
did that work outside of school hours and at that time
was just learning to read writing. Mr. Hall left school
in 1871, and became a substitute mail clerk on the
M. & O. Railway, making his first trip in February,
1871. In 1874 after three years as a substitute he was
given a regular appointment in the railway mail service
and that was his work until Julv, 1880. He had a run
from Columbus, Kentucky, to West Point, Mississippi,
on the M. & O. Railway and later on the Illinois Central
from Paducah to Trimble, Tennessee.
In July, 1880, having resigned from the mail service
he employed his modest capital to establish a family
grocery business at Fulton. In the same year he mar-
ried. He soon realized that his venture as a merchant
was faring badly and he sold his stock to J. F. Fall
and moved to Brooksville, Florida, where in 1882 he
established an orange grove. Four years of hard work
and anticipation came to naught when a frost killed the
grove in 1886. That disaster left him penniless, and
he had to borrow $500 from his mother to enable him
to return to Fulton, where he became bookkeeper in
the retail lumber yard of Reid & Wade Brothers, be-
ginning that service July 15, 1887, at $35 a month. He
was with that firm and with its successor Jacob Weis
& Company until April 15, 1896. During this time he
was doing all he could to master every detail of the
lumber business and was also thriftily using his very-
modest salary to lay a capital foundation for his next
enterprise. In 1896 he formed a partnership with G. W.
Dent and J. W. Etheridge, and bought the business of
his employers, reorganizing under the firm name of The
Fulton Lumber & 'Manufacturing Company. Mr. Hall
became manager and also owns $2,000 worth of the
stock, while his partners' share in the enterprise was
$6,000. For his personal services he was to draw $100
a month salary. The capital he put into this business
he had accumulated by investing his surplus means in
a house and lot and in the Fulton Building and Loan
Association. He sold this property to engage in busi-
ness. In 1898 he sold out to his partners for $3,000,
and then acquired a half interest in Clint Foster's Fire
Insurance Agency for $1,000 and owned the house and
lot in which he was living. Very soon afterward he sold
his interest in the fire insurance agency to Will Woods,
and formed a partnership with A. T. Kirk in the dry
goods business, investing $2,000 in that enterprise. That
again he sold on September 29, 1898, and after nearly
twenty years of consecutive and varied business effor'
his "worth" could be estimated at less than $5,000.
In 1899 Mr. Hall re-entered the lumber business, i
a very small way, and since then his management ot
the W. K. Hall Lumber Company has made it one of
the largest institutions of its kind in Southwestern
Kentucky. He is sole owner, with an extensive plant at
228-32 Fourth Street and does business all over Fulton
County and to outlying points.
In the meantime he has acquired interests in other
lines. He was instrumental in securing the establish-
ment and served as president of the Fulton Building
and Loan Association and is owner of much real estate
in Fulton, including his fine modern home at 205 Edding
Street. He owns a dwelling in Nashville, Tennessee,
and a farm in Florida. A prominent lumberman he
served in 1908 as president of the Kentucky Retail
Lumber Dealers Association, has been president of the
Southern Retail Lumber Dealers Association, and is
still a director in both these organizations and is a
director in the National Retail Lumber Dealers Asso-
ciation. He is a director of the Fulton Commercial
Club, served two years on the city council, and in
politics is a democrat. Mr. Hall has been chairman of
the Board of Elders of the Christian Church and
fraternally is affiliated with Frank Carr Lodge of Inde-
pendent Order of Odd Fellows at Fulton, Fulton Lodge
No. 1 142 of the Elks, and Evergreen Camp No. 4 of the
Woodmen of the World.
On September 15, 1880, at Fulton Mr. Hall married
Miss Anna McCall, a native of Clarksville, Tennessee.
Wallace Brown. A scholar, a Kentucky gentle-
man, a well trained lawyer, Wallace Brown has enjoyed
a place of peculiar esteem and prominence in Nelson
County for a quarter of a century.
He was born in that county on a farm October II,
1874, son of George W. and Margaret (Greer) Brown.
His paternal grandparents were Jonathan and Elizabeth
(Beauchamp) Brown, the former of whom died at the
age of eighty-three and the latter at eighty-seven. They
represented old and prominent names in Kentucky his-
tory. George W. Brown was born in Woodford County
in 1844, and was one of the youthful volunteers for
service in the Confederate Army at the beginning of
the war. He was trained at Camp Nelson and finally
became a scout under General John Morgan. During
the Morgan raid in Ohio he was captured and sent to
prison at Chicago. While there he and a fellow
prisoner tunnelled out and with them a hundred others
escaped. He found his way to relatives in Missouri
and afterward started to rejoin the Confederate Army,
but the war closed before he reached his command.
Returning to Kentucky, he became a local Methodist
minister and for many years divided his time between
farming in Nelson County and performing the service
of a minister to various local churches. He was a life
long and stanch democrat in politics. He died on his
farm near Bloomfield in Nelson County in 1904. His
wife, Margaret Greer, was a native of Nelson County
and died in 1912, at the age of sixty-one. Her parents,
Milton and Addie (Foster) Greer, represented two of
the oldest and most highly respected families in Nelson
290
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
County. George W. Brown and wife had five sons and
four daughters, the survivors being Wallace Brown,
his two sisters and three brothers.
Wallace Brown grew up on his father's farm and
was educated in country schools. At the age of sixteen
lie entered the Kentucky Wesleyan College, remaining
at his studies there for two years. During 1894-95 he
had a private instructor in the study of Latin, Greek
and French. In the fall he entered the senior class of
Center College at Danville, and in June, 1896, was
awarded his A. B. degree and was also winner of the
Beatty prize.
The honors and responsibilities of office awaited him
soon after he returned from college. In 1897 he was
elected Circuit Court clerk, and was reelected in 1903,
serving two full terms. For two years following his
retirement from this office he was in the insurance
business. In 191 1 the democratic nominee for repre-
sentative was killed in an automobile accident, and Mr.
Brown's name was placed on the ticket. He was
elected, and during his term in the Legislature enjoyed
some distinctive honors and gave some splendid service.
He was barely defeated for speaker of the House, and
the strength he developed as a candidate for that honor
made him ranking member of the committee on rules,
by virtue of which he was second in responsibility to
the speaker.
Judge Brown in the meantime had studied law, and
in April, 1912, was admitted to the bar. He gave his
time to private practice for one year, and in 1913 was
elected county judge. He was re-elected in 1917, and is
now in his second term in that office. For several
years Judge Brown has been interested in newspaper
work, and is editor of the Kentucky Standard. He had
the equipment installed for that weekly newspaper at
Bardstown. Judge Brown is a member of the Methodist
( hurch and is affiliated with the Independent Order of
Odd Fellows. April 28, 1904, he married Nancy Jack-
son, daughter of Dr. Thomas D. and Annie M.
(Burdette) Williams. Doctor Williams was for more
than a quarter of a century one of the leading physi-
cians of Nelson County. The two sons of Judge and
Mrs. Brown are David Rodman and William Kavanaugh
Brown.
Hox. Lon Adams. A prominent young lawyer of
the Fulton bar, Lon Adams has received public honors
early in his career and is now representing his county
in the Legislature.
Mr. Adams was born in Fulton County November
11, 1884. His great-grandfather, Gillum H. Adams,
was a native of North Carolina, and early in the nine-
teenth century moved to Tennessee and wrought as a
pioneer in Gibson County, where he developed one of
the first farms in that section of Tennessee. He died
in Gibson County. The grandfather of the Fulton
lawyer was Siah Adams, who was born in Henry
1 ounty, Tennessee, in 1825, was reared and married
111 Ins native county, moved in 1858 to Benton County,
Tennessee, .and in 1869 to Gibson County and finally
in 1874 became a resident of Fulton County, Ken-
tucky. He devoted all his years to farming, and died
while temporarily a resident of Hickman County in
1903, when nearly eighty years of age. He voted" and
believed in the democratic party and wa's a faithful
member for many years of the Baptist Church. His
wife was Alta Counsel, who was born in Benton Coun-
ty, Tennessee, and died in Fulton County, Kentucky.
G. H. Adams, father of Lon Adams, was born' in
Henry County, Tennessee, in 1853, was five years of
age when his parents moved to Benton County, six-
teen when they went to Gibson County, and acquired
his early education in those two Tennessee counties.
In 1873 in Gibson County he was married, and the
following year moved to Fulton County, Kentucky.
The active years of his life had been devoted to farm-
ing and he is now retired at Fulton. He is a demo-
cratic voter and a member of the Baptist Church. G.
H. Adams married Mary Virginia Witt who was born
in Gibson County, Tennessee, in 1859. They are the
parents of seven children: Mattie, wife of Lee Work-
man, in the employ of the Illinois Central Railway at
Fulton ; Virgil H. and Arthur who are also Illinois
Central employes at Fulton; Lon; Hassie, wife of S.
H. Carver, a salesman living at Fulton; Yetta, wife
of E. B. Carver, a Hickman County farmer ; and Mary,
wife of Luther Pewitt, who is in the automobile busi-
ness at Fulton.
Lon Adams spent his early life on his father's farm,
attended rural schools, completed the sophomore year
in the Fulton school, and from the age of nineteen
until twenty-six gave practically his first time to the
operations of his father's farm. He read law in the
office of Ed Thomas, and in 1916 was admitted to the
bar and as a man of exceptional qualifications rapidly
acquired a substantial practice in both the civil and
criminal branches of the law. His offices are in the
City National Bank Building on Lake Street.
Mr. Adams was elected on the democratic ticket to
represent Fulton and Hickman counties in the Legis-
lature in November, 1919. During the session of 1920
he was a member of the committees on county and city
courts, on Kentucky statutes, on corporate institutions
and otherwise faithfully looked after the interests of
his constituents. Mr. Adams, who is unmarried, is
affiliated with Crutchfield Camp No. 49, Woodmen oi
the World, at Crutchfield, Kentucky.
W. T. Conglf.ton is the founder and active head of
W. T. Congleton & Company, an important Lexington
enterprise doing an extensive business as general con-
tractors and dealers in building and construction ma-
terials. The Lexington headquarters of the business
are at Walton and Third streets. The business repre-
sents a large capital investment in machinery and
equipment and is an organization employing on the
average about 100 skilled and unskilled workers. They
make a specialty of building modern highways, street
grading, sewer excavation, and excavation work for
buildings. The firm has handled many of the important
contracts in this line at Lexington and in surrounding
counties since it was established in 1915. Every year
the business has grown and the volume of work for
1920 doubled that of any previous year.
The Congletons are an old and prominent family of
Eastern Kentucky. They are of English origin, and one
branch of the family is still in England. During the
World war one of the family, a Lord Congleton, was
killed. W. T. Congleton is a grandson of Dr. William
Congleton, whose life was one long devotion and serv-
ice as a medical practitioner in the mountain districts
of Eastern Kentucky. He was largely self-educated,
but availed himself of every opportunity to broaden
his knowledge and equipment. He was thoroughly
versed in sound professional learning, and not only
carried the benefit of his skill but the comfort of his
kindly character to hundreds of homes in the isolated
regions of this part of the state. He lived for a num-
ber of years in Lee County and later in Wolfe County.
He served as the first County Judge of Wolfe County,
but being a Confederate he was ousted from office
when the Federals took control of that region. One
of his brothers was grandfather of Lee Congleton, the
well known Lexington citizen. Doctor Congleton spent
his last years at Stanton and finally at Blade in Powell
County. He was born in 1801.
His son, W. B. Congleton, who died June 30, 1919,
was a successful farmer of Powell County, owning
about 500 acres and growing stock on a large scale.
He married Rowena Howe of Wolfe County, who is
still living at Stanton. Eight of their children are
still living. The two at Lexington are W. T. rough--
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
291
ton and his sister Ella, who is associated with him in
W. T. Congleton & Company, and has charge of the
office.
W. T. Congleton was born in Powell County June
3, 1880, completed his education in the Normal School
at Campton, Kentucky. In early years he was a teacher
as was his sister Ella, who qualified for that work at
the Normal school at Lebanon, Ohio. Their sister
Lula was also a teacher. W. T. Congleton learned
telegraphy and for four years was an operator and
station agent at Stanton. Later he was agent and
train dispatcher and assistant superintendent at Cannel
City in Morgan County, having the responsibility of
looking after the extensive coal shipments out of that
field. He remained there five years, and in 1907 came
to Lexington and for eight years was associated with
the Congleton Lumber Company, owned by three of
his cousins. On leaving the lumber business Mr. Con-
gleton established himself as a general contractor.
He is a member of the Kiwanis Club, is active in
the Central Christian Church and is affiliated with the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows. At the age of
thirty in 1910 he married Miss Effie Kilgore of Mor-
gan County. Their three children are William Edwin,
Lucien Howe and Helen.
A. Huddleston, president of the Farmers Bank of
Fulton, Kentucky, is one of the able men of Fulton
County who have given their attention to financial
matters and become recognized as safe and sound men
of affairs. He was born at Fulton, January 7, 1868, a
son of Milton Huddleston. The Huddlestons were
pioneers of middle Tennessee, and there, in the vicinity
of Nashville, Milton Huddleston was born in 1840.
He died near Fulton, Kentucky, in 1875.
Until he reached man's estate, Milton Huddleston
continued to reside in his native county, where he re-
ceived a public school education, and learned to be a
practical farmer. Leaving Tennessee he came to Ful-
ton County, Kentucky, and bought a farm not far
from Fulton, on which he lived until his death. His
political convictions were in accord with those prin-
ciples enunciated by the democratic party, and he
supported its ticket. He was equally strong in his
support of the Christian Church, and was very active
in its good work. For many years he was a member
of the Masonic fraternity. Milton Huddleston was
married to Bettie Corum, who was born in Union City,
Tennessee, in 1848, and she died November 14, 1920,
at Union City. Their children were as follows : Clara,
who married C. S. Talley, now a farmer of Union
City, Tennessee, was formerly county clerk for several
terms; A. Huddleston, whose name heads this review;
and Charles, who is a coal merchant of Fulton.
A. Huddleston attended the rural schools of Fulton
County, Kentucky, and was reared on his father's farm
until he was sixteen years of age, and then, at that
time, he began to work in the hardware store of R.
M. Bolinger & Company, with which he remained for
four years. Later he was with several concerns in the
same line until he had learned the business thoroughly.
In 1893 he established himself in a hardware business
at Fulton in a very modest way, having as his asso-
ciate in it George Beadles. With marked abil'ty and
real business acumen Mr. Huddleston expanded his
store, gradually at first, but more rapidly as his re-
turns justified, until he now has one of the largest
concerns of its kind in Southwestern Kentucky. The
store and offices are located on Main Street, and the
business was conducted under the name of A. Hud-
dleston & Company, of which Mr. Huddleston was the
senior partner, and G. F. Beadles the junior one, unt'l
in 1920, when Mr. Huddleston bought Mr. Beadles
interest and is now the sole proprietor. He handles
all kinds of hardware, farm implements, stoves and
similar articles. A democrat, Mr. Huddleston has
served in the City Council for the past three years.
Since 1914 he has been president of the Farmers Bank
of Fulton, which is the leading financial institution in
Southwestern Kentucky. The cashier of this bank is
A. M. Nugent. The capital stock is $50,000; the sur-
plus and profits, $35,000, and its deposits are $460,000.
Mr. Huddleston owns a modern residence on Eddings
Street and other real estate. He belongs to Frank
Carr Lodge No. 206, I. O. O. F. ; Fulton Lodge No.
1 142, B. P. O. E., and to the Christian Church.
In 1895 Mr. Huddleston was married to Mildred
Eddings, a daughter of L. S. and Margaret (McFall)
Eddings, both of whom are deceased. Mr. Eddings
was a prominent business man and farmer of Fulton,
Kentucky, during his lifetime. Mr. and Mrs. Hud-
dleston have two children, namely: Marion, who is
at home, was graduated from the Fulton High School,
and then took a course at the Vanderbilt University
at Nashville, Tennessee; and Arch, who is attending
the public schools.
Tilman Ramsey, M. D. The vital little City bf
Pineville, judicial center of Bell County, claims Doctor
Ramsey as one of its representative physicians and
surgeons, and he is a scion of sterling southern stock,
his paternal ancestors, of English and Scotch lineage,
having settled in North Carolina in the colonial period
of our nation's history. In that state Riley Ramsey,
grandfather of the Doctor, passed his entire life, the
active period of which was marked by his close and
successful association with agricultural industry, his
wife, whose family name was Bennett, having like-
wise been a native of North Carolina and a representa-
tive of an old and well known family of that com-
monwealth, within whose borders she continued to
reside until the close of her life.
William Ramsey, father of Dr. Tilman Ramsey, was
born in North Carolina in the year 1842, and in i860
he made his way to Eastern Tennessee and became
associated with farm activities in Claiborne County.
In the following year he and his older brother, Mc-
Pherson, came to Kentucky, with the avowed purpose
of tendering their aid in defense of the Union, just
after war had been declared between the states of
the North and the South. At Flat Lick, Knox County,
he enlisted in a company that was assigned to the
Th:rd Tennessee Volunteer Infantry, and with this
command he served during the entire period of the war,
the history of his regiment virtually constituting the
record of his gallant career as a soldier of the Union.
Among the more important engagements in which he
participated may be noted the battles of Shiloh, Chicka-
mauga, Stone's River, Perryville, Frauklinville, Nash-
ville, Resaca, Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge.
He took part also in the siege of Vicksburg, and in-
cidental to the historic Atlanta campaign he was with
General Sherman's forces on the memorable march
from Atlanta to the sea. He was twice captured by
the enemy, but contrived to make his escape on each
occasion. He was severely wounded while taking part
in the battle of Resaca, Georgia, but was able to rejoin
his command somewhat later and to continue in service
until the close of the war.
After the war Mr. Ramsey came to what is now
Bell County, Kentucky, and turned his attention to
farm industry, of which he became one of the extensive
and successful representatives in this county. In 1890
he retired from the farm and has since maintained his
home in Pineville, where he served many years as a
valued member of the City Council. He is a stanch
republican, and he and his wife are zealous members
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He is
affiliated with the Grand Army of the Republic, through
the medium of which he vitalizes the more gracious
memories and associations of his youthful military
career. Mrs. Ramsey, whose maiden name was Millie
N. Parton, was born in Bell County, in 1848, and the
gracious marital companionship has covered a period
292
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
of more than half a century. Of their children the
first born is Alice, who is the wife of J. A. Knox, of
Pineville, Mr.. Knox being a successful coal-mine oper-
ator of this section of the state ; Doctor Ramsey, of
this sketch, was the next in order of birth; Mollie,
now a resident of Key West, Florida, is the wife of
George W. .Caudell, who has been for the past fifteen
years in active service in the United States Army and
who served in the World war, is now an attache of
the ordnance department of the army ; Jennie, who re-
sides at Pineville, is the widow of Fred Hozworth,
who was manager of the commissary of the Colmar-
Bell Coal Company at the time when the nation became
involved in the World war. Physical disability having
made it impossible for him to enlist for military service,
his loyal desire to find some other method of showing
his patriotism led him to become identified with rail-
road service, under government control, and in this
service he continued until he encountered an accident
that caused his death, on the 2d of June, 1921.
Doctor Ramsey passed the period of his childhood
and early youth on the home farm and in the mean-
while availed himself of the advantages of the rural
schools of Bell County. In preparation for his chosen
profession he was a student in the medical department
of the University of Louisville in 1896-7, and he then
transferred himself to the medical department of the
University of Tennessee, at Nashville, in which institu-
tion he was graduated as a member of the class of
1809 and with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He
had the distinction of winning first honors of his class,
and this involved his appointment to the position of
interne in the Nashville City Hospital, where he served
in this capacity in 1899-1900 and gained most valuable
clinical experience of preliminary order. For one year
thereafter he further fortified himself through his con-
nection with the excellent infirmary conducted at Nash-
ville by Dr. W. D. Hazzard, and in this institution he
was able to give special attention to surgery. In 1902
Doctor Ramsey engaged in the general practice of his
profession at Pineville, Bell County. Kentucky, in which
county he had been reared, though his birth occurred
in Claiborne County, Tennessee, on the 28;h of March,
1875. The scope and representative character of his
practice bear evidence alike of his professional ability
and his unqualified personal popularity in his home
county. He maintains well appointed offices in the
Asher Build'ng at Pineville. The Doctor is an ac'.ive
member of the Bell County Medical Society, the Ken-
tucky State Medical Society and the American Medical
Association. In his home city he is president of the
Sun Publishing Company, which publishes one of the.
leading newspapers of this part of the state. He is
the owner of valuable real estate at Pineville, including
his attractive home property on Kentucky Avenue,
and he is the owner also of one of the well improved
farms of Bell County. Within the period of the World
war Doctor Ramsey was found a loyal worker in be-
half of the local agencies for advancing the Govern-
ment war policies, as he aided in the drives for and
made liberal personal contributions to the Liberty and
Victory loans, savings stamps. Red Cross services, etc.
At Pineville, in the year 1903, was solemnized the
marriage of Doctor Ramsey to Miss Nan Gouger, who
was born at Statesville. North Carolina, and the two
children of this union are Jane and William, the former
of whom was born May 2, 1908, and the latter on the
29th of December, 1909. Doctor and Mrs. Ramsey are
members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South,
and he is serving as a steward of the church at Pine-
ville. He has had no desire to enter the arena of
practical politics but is a stanch supporter of the prin-
ciples of the republican party.
Louis Marshall. It is not given to every man to
make a success in banking for this very important line
of endeavor calls for the possession and exercise of
unusual characteristics. As the banker of necessity, has
to be back of every industrial and commercial under-
taking in his home community, he must be able to
judge men and comprehend their motives in order to
place his loans properly and safely, and at the same
time not retard a legitimate development because of
over-caution. While safe-guarding the interests of his
depositors, he must at the same time be astute enough
to loan out the funds of his institution so as to earn
for it a reasonable profit. Encouragement must be given
by him to outside investors, but due care must be exer-
cised to see that wild-cat propositions do not gain a
foothold in his vicinity and lead his fellow citizens
to make unwise investments. Because his advice is so
often sought and usually taken, he must be a man of
wide information and sound values, and one not easily
swayed from what he believes to be the right course.
One of the men who during a long and honorable career
as a banker, has displayed the above qualities, and
many others equally desirable, is Louis Marshall, presi-
dent and cashier of the Woodford Bank & Trust Com-
pany of Versailles.
Mr. Marshall was born July 12, 1856, a son of Edward
Colston and Josephine (Chalfont) Marshall. Growing
up at Versailles Mr. Marshall attended the public
schools of this city, and has been engaged in the bank-
ing business all his life. For fifteen years he has been
connected with the Woodford Bank & Trust Company
as vice president and cashier.
On September 25, 1882, Mr. Marshall was married
at San Francisco, California, to Miss Susan Thorne,
a daughter of Isaac and Susan Thorne, and they have
two daughters, namely: Edith, and Josephine C, the
latter being the wife of Lawrence Railey. Mr. Mar-
shall is an independent democrat. He is a communicant
of the Episcopal Church. The institution with which
Mr. Marshall has been connected for so many years is
rightly numbered among the most solid and dependable
not only in Woodford County, but in all of this part of
Kentucky, and this prestige is largely due to his intelli-
gent foresight and untiring efforts.
Harry Feather. The position held by this well
known and popular citizen of Corbin, Whitley County,
attests his ability and his effective application of the
same in his chosen sphere of activity. He is master
mechanic in the service of the Louisville & Nashville
Railroad, in which he is a stockholder; he is a director
of the Whitley National Bank at Corbin ; and in his
home city he is a stockholder in the Whitley Grocery
Company, which conducts a prosperous wholesale busi-
ness.
Mr. Feather claims the old Keystone State of the
Union as the place of his nativity. His paternal grand-
father, John Feather, born at Baltimore in 1812, a na-
tive of Maryland, passed the closing period of his life
at York, Pennsylvania, where he had served as a car
inspector for the Northern Central Railroad Company.
Prior to his removal to Pennsylvania he had resided
in the City of Baltimore, Maryland, and operated a line
of stage coaches out from that city. The family name
of his wife was Davis, she having been born at Balti-
more, Maryland, in 1817, and her death occurred at
York, Pennsylvania.
Harry Feather was born at Harrisburg, the capital
city of Pennsylvania, on the 4th of November, 1869, and
is a son of John H. and Mary C. (Greiman) Feather,
lioth natives of York, Pennsylvania, where the former
was born on February 1, 1841, and the latter December
1st of the same year. The mother died in her
native city, on October 13, 1872, and the father was
a resident of Louisville. Kentucky, at the time of his
death, July 13, 1913. Harry Feather of this sketch is
the youngest of their four children, and the eldest was
John, who was killed in an accident while serving as a
locomotive fireman on the Louisville & Nashville Rail-
road, he having been but twenty years of age at the
fyL^ $lJ£y
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
293
time of his death, November 16, 1883; Lillie, the only
daughter, died in infancy; and Owen died December
7, 1877, at the age of nine years, in Harrisburg, Pennsyl-
vania. For his second wife John H. Feather married
a widow, whose family name was Martin and who
was born at Cornwall, Pennsylvania. She died in the
City of Louisville, Kentucky. Of the two children of
this union the elder is Nellie, who is the wife of James
Speed, a stationary engineer, their home being at Corbin,
Kentucky ; Robert, who is an electrician by trade and
vocation and who has indulged his roving proclivities
and lived in various parts of the Union, was a gallant
young soldier in the World war, in which he was in
service with the American Expeditionary Forces in
France for one year.
John H. beatner was reared and educated in his
native Pennsylvania city, where he served an apprentice-
ship at the trade of machinist, and where he initiated
his connection with railroad work. After serving for
a time as locomotive fireman he won advancement to
the position of locomotive engineer on the old Northern
Central Railroad, now a part of the Pennsylvania Lines.
Upon leaving Pennsylvania he went to Chicago, Illinois,
and became an engineer on the line of the Fort Wayne
& Chicago Railroad. Upon his return to Pennsylvania,
he established his home at Harrisburg, and he there-
after continued as a locomotive engineer in the service
of the Reading & Philadelphia Railroad until 1877,
when he came to Louisville, Kentucky, and became an
engineer in the employ of the Louisville & Nashville
Railroad, with which he continued his connection many
years. He was originally a democrat in politics but did
not approve of the party's free-silver plank in the elec-
tion of 1896, and thus transferred his allegiance to the
republican party. He was an earnest and consistent
member of the 'Methodist Episcopal Church, as were
also his first and second wives.
Harry Feather attended the public schools of Louis-
ville until he had attained to the age of fifteen years,
and, with perhaps an inherent predilection for railroad
work, he entered upon an apprenticeship as a machinist,
in the shops of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad.
He completed an apprenticeship of four years, and for
two years thereafter he was employed as a skilled
journeyman machinist, at Louisville, in the service of the
same railroad. He then was sent by the Louisville &
Nashville Railroad Company to Rowland, Kentucky,
where he continued his service as a machinist two years,
the following year having been passed in similar service
at Lebanon Junction, this state. In 1893 he was made
foreman of the roundhouse of the Louisville & Nashville
Railroad at Corbin, where he remained until 1903, when
be was transferred to a similar position at Lebanon
Junction. Eight months later he resumed his former
position at Corbin, and in 1904 he was made general
foreman of the company's shops in the City of Knox-
vi'.le, Tennessee. Five months later the position of
general foreman of Corbin shops was created and Mr.
Feather was advanced to this position, of which he con-
tinued the incumbent until 1913, when he was pro-
moted to his present position, that of master mechanic,
in which he has supervision of the work of 2,500 em-
ployes of the Louisville & Nashville system. His
office headquarters at Corbin are maintained in the
storehouse and office building, three-fourths of a mile
distant from the local passenger station of the road.
Mr. Feather is well fortified in his political convic-
tions and is a stalwart supporter of the cause of the
republican party. He served five years as a trustee of
the Corbin board of education, and he and his wife are
zealous members of the Christian Church at Corbin.
in which he is serving as a deacon. He is affiliated
with Corbin Lodge, No. 52, Independent Order of Odd
Fellows; Rock Island Camp of the Modern Woodmen of
America; and- Middleboro Lodge, No. 119, Benevolent
and Protective Order of Elks, at Middleboro, Bell
County. He owns his attractive residence property, at
the corner of Gordon Avenue and Poplar Street, and
also a well improved farm, of 150 acres, one mile
west of Corbin. The intrinsic loyalty and patriotism
of Mr. Feather were shown in the active aid which
he gave, in promotion of all local war service during
the nation's participation in the World war, and by his
liberal subscriptions to the government war bonds,
savings stamps, as well as to Red Cross and other me-
diums of service.
At Barbourville, Knox County, in 1895, was
solemnized the marriage of Mr. Feather to Miss
Mary C. Dishman, who was born and reared in that
county, where her parents continued to reside until
their death, her father, David Dishman, having long
been a successful carpenter and builder at Barbourville.
Mr. and Mrs. Feather have five children : John re-
sides at Corbin, where he is fireman on a switch engine
of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, besides which
he is associated with farm industry in Whitley County ;
Harry, Jr., remains at the parental home and is round-
house foreman for the Louisville & Nashville Railroad ;
Miss Lena is at the parental home as is also Edward,
who is a machinist in the service of the Louisville &
Nashville Railroad; and Joseph is, in 1921, a student in
Berea College.
John Samuel Kelley has been continuously and un-
interruptedly engaged in the practice of law at Bards-
town in Nelson County since 1877. His career has not
been a political one, but one of complete devotion to
the profession. He is a learned and eminent lawyer, and
has that reputation among the members of the Ken-
tucky bar, who some years ago honored him with election
as president of the Kentucky Bar Association.
Mr. Kelley was born on a farm in Jefferson County,
Kentucky, January 1, 1853, son of Daily and Sabina
(Woodsmall) Kelley, also natives of Jefferson County.
His grandfather was Samuel Kelley and his great-
grandfather, John Kelley. Samuel Kelley was one of
the Kentucky volunteers who served under General
Harrison in the Indian campaign at the beginning of
the War of 1812 and held a major's commission. He
participated in the battle of Tippecanoe. The maternal
grandfather of John S. Kelley, John Woodsmall, was
also a soldier in the War of 1812.
In the spring of 1855 Daily Kelley took his family
to Platte County in Northwest Missouri, then practically
a frontier region. His wife died there in December,
1855, and soon afterward Daily Kelley, with his three
motherless children, returned to Kentucky. The
youngest child died in the spring of 1856, and the son
and daughter were reared in the homes of relatives.
The daughter, Annie, is the wife of C. Broadersen and
is now living at Pine Bluff, Arkansas.
John Samuel Kelley was two years of age when taken
to Missouri, and was not quite three when his mother
died. On being brought back to Kentucky he lived with
John Woodsmall in Jefferson County until the death
of his maternal grandfather. From the age of thirteen
for three years, until 1868, he lived with his uncle
Charles W. Moore in Jefferson County and for another
year made his home with Samuel K. Baird, in Spencer
County. In the meantime his school advantages were
only such as could be supplied by rural schools. At the
age of sixteen he entered the old Agricultural and
Mechanical College, now the Kentucky State University,
and pursued his studies there from 1869 to 1871. At
the age of eighteen Mr. Kelley began teaching at High
Grove in Nelson County, and taught at intervals until
he graduated from Forest Academy in June, 1874. For
about two years he taught steadily, and in 1876 began
the study of law under G. G. Gilbert of Taylorsville.
Before the close of that year he entered the law school
of the University of Louisville and graduated in 1877.
Mr. Kelley began his practice as a lawyer at Bairds-
town in May, 1877, and for eleven years was associated
294
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
with William Johnson, one of the prominent members
of the bar of the county, their association continuing
until the death of Mr. Johnson. The only important
public office Mr. Kelley has ever held was as school
commissioner of Nelson County. He has found com-
plete satisfaction for all his ambitions within the strict
limits of his law practice, which has always had a
large and important volume. He was elected president
of the Kentucky State Bar Association in 1904. His chief
avocation from the routine of law practice has been
farming and the breeding and raising of a high grade
of livestock, and he has for a number of years been
president of the Peoples Bank of Bardstown.
On September 21, 1881, he married Miss Mattie L.
Ball, of Bardstown. She died fourteen years later, in
1895. She was the mother of six children: John J.,
Horace S., and Mattie L., all deceased; Annie Belle,
deceased wife of R. M. Edelen; Victor Louis and John
S., Jr. On March 1, 1909, Mr. Kelley married for his
present wife Mrs. Mary M. (Troutman) McKay. They
have two children, Sabina Woodsmall and Bethel
Bowles Kelley.
Both of Mr. Kelley 's older sons were in the service
during the World war. Victor Louis Kelley, born at
Bardstown February 1 1, 1889, and John S. Kelley, Jr.,
born at Bardstown January 29, 1892, are graduates of
St. Mary's College of St. Mary, Kansas, with the class
of 191 1, and both took their degrees in law from the
University of Michigan in 1914. Victor Kelley is now
practicing law in association with his father, while the
younger brother is in the automobile business at Louis-
ville. Victor Kelley volunteered in July, 1918, and had
five months of training and service in the Great Lakes
Naval Training Station, receiving his honorable dis-
charge after the signing of the armistice. The younger
son volunteered for army duty, was trained at Fort
Benjamin Harrison, commissioned a second lieutenant in
August, 19 1 7, was on duty at Camp Zachary Taylor,
was commissioned first lieutenant in April, 1918, and is
now a captain in the Reserve Corps. Both brothers
were married in 1917, the wife of Victor Kelley being
Martina Shircliff, while John married Mary Connor.
At the age of fifty years Judge Kelley's eyes began
to fail and he soon became totally blind. Notwithstand-
ing this great handicap he has maintained, without
diminution, his interest in his vocation, his business
affairs, and in all the conditions affecting the life of his
community.
E. S. Lee. The First National Bank of Kentucky,
established and chartered in 1865, is at once the oldest
and the largest national bank in Northern Kentucky.
It seems that its president E. S. Lee should be a veteran
of the banking business in Covington, where for over
thirty-five years he has had increasing responsibilities
in the financial affairs of the community. The First
National Bank has a history of fifty-five years and in
that time it has declared 112 annual dividends to its
stockholders. The bank has a capital stock of $600,000,
surplus and undivided profits of nearly $200,000, and
its total resources at the close of 1920 were over
$5.738,ooo. Its principal executive officers are : E. S.
Lee, president; R. C. Stewart, vice president; Ben A.
Adams, vice president; and B. Bramlage, cashier.
Mr. Lee was born at Danville in Boyle County May
23, 1862. He represents an old and prominent Kentucky
family and more remotely a Virginia ancestry. His
great-great-grandfather Ambrose Lee was a lifelong
resident of Virginia, a planter, and died in Albemarle
County. He married Frances Penn, also a native of
Virginia. The great-grandfather was George Lee, who
was born in Amherst County, Virginia, and while Ken-
tucky was still a part of the unbroken western wilder-
ness he came across the mountains and established.
a home in Lincoln County, where in the course of
time he cultivated a large tract of land with the aid
of his slaves. He died in Lincoln County. His son
also named George Lee was born in Scott County,
Kentucky, in 1793, a date which indicates the estab-
lishment of the family here before Kentucky was sep-
arated from the mother State of Virginia. George Lee
lived for many years on a plantation in Boyle County
and died at Danville in 1878 when he was eighty-five.
He married Mary Shelton, a native of Kentucky, who
died in Lincoln County.
J. E. Lee, father of the Covington banker and son
of the Boyle County planter just named, was born in
Lincoln County March 31, 1825, was reared and married
there, and afterwards removed to Boyle County where
he owned extensive farm lands and carried on operations
in keeping with the style of the old time southern
planter. He died at Danville in 1909. In politics he
was a democrat and for many years an elder in the
First Presbyterian Church, being an active supporter
of the church at Danville. J. E. Lee married Elizabeth
Miller, who was born in Lincoln County, Kentucky, in
1827, and died at Danville in 1867. Their oldest child
Lucy still living at Danville is the widow of Thomas
H. Bell, who was a well known member of the Dan-
ville bar. G. 'Miller, the second in age, is a farmer
living at Danville. James A. Lee also followed farming
pursuits and died at Danville at the age of forty.
J. N. Lee is a farmer by occupation but lives at Coving-
ton. E. S. Lee is the fifth and youngest of the family.
His early education was acquired in private schools in
Boyle county and he attended school at Danville, but at
the age of seventeen turned his attention from books
and school to the practical matters of life, since when
his chief interests have been centered in banking.
He began as one of the minor employes or clerks of
the Farmers National Bank of Danville, and remained
with that institution acquiring experience and several
promotions for five years. Mr. Lee came to Covington
in 1884 and at first was general bookkeeper in the
Northern Bank of Kentucky in the Covington branch.
He was promoted to teller, in 1888 to cashier, and filled
that office until 1897, when he had the task of winding
up the affairs of the Covington branch of the Northern
Bank of Kentucky, at the time the institution went into
voluntary liquidation. This service completed Mr. Lee
joined the First National Bank as cashier, and since
1905 has been its president.
Some other business interests that might be mentioned
are his connection as treasurer of the U. S. Motor
Truck Company of Covington, director of the Broadway
& Newport Bridge Company of Cincinnati, and a di-
rector of the Columbia Life Insurance Company of
Cincinnati. Mr. Lee is a democrat in casting his vote
and an elder in the Presbyterian Church. His home is
a beautiful suburban country place, located on the Cov-
ington and Amsterdam Pike, five miles west of Cov-
ington. He has forty acres of land there overlooking
the Ohio River and altogether it is one of the most
attractive country homes around Covington. During
the World war period Mr. Lee was chairman of Liberty
Loan campaigns in Covington, and he derived a great
deal of satisfaction in seeing the several 'campaigns
go over the top.
In 1886 at Covington Mr. Lee married Miss Stella
Collins, daughter of DeWitt C. and Rachel (Cleveland)
Collins, both now deceased. Her father was also a
banker, being at one time cashier of the Northern
Bank of Kentucky at Covington. Mrs. Lee finished
her education in the Young Ladies Seminary at Anchor-
age, Kentucky. The children of their marriage are eight
in number. E. S., Jr., had a first lieutenant's commis-
sion in the National Army, was with the Motor Trans-
port Division and spent il/i years overseas in France,
and is now a resident of Wilmington, Ohio, connected
with the Auto Compressor Company. He married Miss
Rachel Hoover of Nicholasville, Kentucky. D. Collins
Lee, the second son, who is engaged in a successful law
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
295
practice at Covington, married Miss Grace Dyer of
Princeton, Kentucky. Lucy is the wife of John S.
McElroy, a member of the Louisville bar. J. E. is in
the lumber business at Cincinnati and married to Miss
Edna Dyer of Princeton, Kentucky. Stella, at home, is
a clerk in the First National Bank at Covington.
Rachel is the wife of F. O. Townes, a farmer living
at Madisonville, Kentucky ; Louise is a student in the
College of 'Music at Cincinnati. The youngest child,
Virginia, is a student in the Kentucky College for
women at Danville.
Thomas H. Coleman. While during the last year
or so Mr. Coleman has spent much of his time at his
beautiful home 2.l/2 miles west of Harrodsburg on the
Lexington Pike, his business affairs as a contractor
presented a strenuous program that kept him for years
traveling and supervising extensive projects in many
states of the Union.
Mr. Coleman is a member of an old and prominent
Kentucky family and was born in Mercer County on
a farm March 15, 1862, son of Robert E. and Margaret
(Hughes) Coleman. His parents were also natives of
Kentucky. The family was established in America by
Robert E. Coleman who came from Ireland and settled
in Virginia in colonial times. A son of this immi-
grant was James Coleman, who moved from Virginia
to Kentucky. The next generation was also represented
by James Henry Coleman, father of Robert E. Coleman
and grandfather of Thomas Henry Coleman.
Thomas Henry Coleman attended school at Harrods-
burg, and from the age of sixteen launched himself into
a career of business activity. He lived at home with
his father until eighteen, was then in the livery busi-
ness at Harrodsburg to the age of twenty-five, at which
time he formed a partnership with his brother-in-law
Edward Rosser as general contractors in railroad and
other heavy construction. The partnership continued
until the death of Edward Rosser and after that Mr.
Coleman continued the business alone. Mr. Coleman has
directly supervised and handled construction contracts,
chiefly railroad building, in the states of Illinois, Ohio,
Indiana, Kentucky, New York, West Virgin:a, Virginia,
Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Alabama and Louisiana. One
of the early important contracts was in the construction
of the Chicago Drainage Canal, which began in 1893.
The firm of Rosser-Coleman-Hoge was awarded the
contract for removing the material from a cut 160 feet
wide, 35 feet deep and 4,000 feet long, through the solid
limestone rock formation characteristic of a considpr-
ab'ie portion of the canal. Mr. Coleman had active
charge of this excavation, and while the work involved
enormous difficulties yet the contract was fulfilled at the
time agreed upon in 1896, two years before the canal
was formally completed. In 1910 Mr. Coleman was
associated in partnership with the Rhinehart-Dennis
Corporation in constructing two miles of tunnel of the
Catskill Aqueduct for the water supply of the City of
New York.
Some of Mr. Coleman's most strenuous work was done
during the period of the World war. In 1917 he became
associated with the general contracting corporation at
Richmond, Kentucky, of Mason-Hanger & Company.
The Government selected this firm to build Camp
Taylor at Louisville. Mr. Coleman had active charge of
construction, and the cantonment was the first com-
pleted of the original sixteen embraced in the plan of
the Government. The Government also selected the
firm to construct the aviation field at Lake Charles,
Louisiana, and Mr. H. C. Hanger, president of the
company placed Mr. Coleman in entire charge as
general manager. Here again the work was completed
on time and in such manner as to satisfy the most ex-
acting inspection of the Government officials. In Feb-
ruary, 1918, the Government started the building at
Nashville, Tennessee, of a great powder plant known
as the Old Hickory powder plant. The Mason-Hanger
Company had the contract for the construction of all
the housing for workers, the water and filtering plants,
the railroads, and highways. 'Mr. Coleman was in charge
as general manager, and the entire work was prac-
tically completed when the armistice was signed. That
plant cost about $20,000,000, the maximum number of
men employed during the construction being 15,000, all
civilians, and working ten hours a day. Mr. Coleman
was one of the busiest men in the civilian service during
the World war and since then has enjoyed a degree
of well earned leisure at his farm near Harrodsburg.
In 1905 he bought the farm formerly owned by his
great-grandfather James Coleman, the Kentucky pioneer.
This farm he improved in 1919 with one of the most
beautiful modern homes in Mercer County. The house
stands on an eminence overlooking some broad and
beautiful vistas of Kentucky landscape, and the house
is surrounded with a natural park of native shade
trees. Mr. Coleman also owns 200 acres about zVz miles
from Harrodsburg on the Lexington Pike. This farm
which he bought in 1894 was the original home of Gov-
ernor Slaughter of Kentucky. The body of Governor
Slaughter rests in the old family graveyard on the
farm. Mr. Coleman is vice president of the Farmers
Trust Company of Harrodsburg and a director of the
Mercer National Bank of Harrodsburg.
May 15, 1884, he married Miss Dixie Cohen, whose
parents were farming people near Danville. Mr. and
Mrs. Coleman have one son, Charles H. Coleman, who
was educated in Harrodsburg, in Culver Military Acad-
emy at Culver, Indiana, in Transylvania University
at Lexington, and for several years has been actively
associated with his father in the various business of
farming and contracting. Charles H. Coleman married
Miss Annita Moore, daughter of the late Daniel L.
Moore of Harrodsburg. They have a young daughter,
Joanne Ball Coleman, born April 21, 1919.
Thomas R. Stults. The insurance business is one
which has made mighty strides forward during the past
decade or two, and is gaining strength because of the
campaigns launched and maintained by the large com-
panies and their representatives for the purpose of edu-
cating the people with reference to the paramount
importance of protecting themselves against probable
loss. Because of the stability of this great factor in
the commercial life of the country there has been
attracted to it some of the most masterful men of
their times, who find in it congenial and profitable
work, and through their conscientious methods and
earnestness of purpose, gain the confidence and respect
of their fellow citizens. One of the men of Adair
County who is a splendid type of the modern insur-
ance man, is Thomas R Stults of Columbia, now serving
in the Kentucky State Assembly.
Thomas R. Stults belongs to an old-established family
which was founded in the American Colonies by an
ancestor who came here from Germany. Mr. Stults
was born at Portland, Adair County, Kentucky, August
23, 1856, a son of M. C. Stults, and grandson of William
Stults, who was born in Adair County, and died in this
county before the birth of his grandson. All of his
life was spent in Adair County, and his efforts were
directed toward farming. He married Rhoda Coulter,
who was born in Lincoln County, Kentucky, and died
in Adair County. The father of William Stults was a
native of Virginia, who came to Adair County during
its. pioneer period, and here was engaged in farming
until claimed by death.
M. C. Stults was born in Adair County, Kentucky, in
1817 and died in Adair County in 1903, having spent
his whole life within the confines of his native county,
where he was engaged in farming and working at
his trade of a mechanic. In politics he was a demo-
crat, but he never went into public life. Early joining
296
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, he continued
an active supporter of it as long as he lived. He mar-
ried Emma Smith, who was born in Barren County,
Kentucky, in 1827, and died in Adair County in 191 1.
Their children were as follows : John S., who is a
retired lumber dealer of Campbellsville : Ann Eliza-
beth, who resides in Green County, Kentucky, is the
widow of W. C. Orr ; Thomas R. Stults, whose name
heads this review ; George F., who is a stave dealer
of Columbia ; and Charles, who is a blacksmith and
mechanic of Columbia.
Thomas R. Stults attended the rural schools of Adair
County, and remained on his father's farm until he was
fifteen years old, at which time he left home and lie-
came a clerk in a store at Camp Knox, Green County,
Kentucky, where he remained for three years. He then
returned to the farm and helped his father operate it
until 1886. Once more he left the farm and established
himself in a mercantile business at Knifley, Adair
County, which he continued to operate for ten years.
In November, 1894, he was elected county court clerk of
Adair County, and took office in January, 1895. So com-
petent and accommodating did he prove that he was
re-elected to this office in 1897, again in 1901 and for
the third time in 1905, his last term of office expiring
in 1910. For the two subsequent years he was secre-
tary of the State Board of Equalization at Frankfort,
Kentucky. In 1895, when he first took office he moved
to Columbia, which has continued to be his home town
ever since, and he owns his residence on Burkesville
Street, one of the most comfortable and desirable ones
in the city. When he retired from the secretaryship of
the Board of Equalization, Mr. Stults went into the
fire insurance business at Columbia and has built it
up to very gratifying proportions, representing a num-
ber of the standard companies. Being one of the leading
republicans of his district, he was elected to the State
Assembly in 1919, served in the session of 1920, and is
still representing the Thirty-sixth Legislative District,
comprising Adair and Taylor counties. He was chair-
man of the Appropriation Committee, and served on the
Agricultural Committee, and a number of others, and in
all of his work has always represented the wishes of his
constituents to the full extent of his power. He has
done some very effective work in behalf of the Good
Roads movement, and gave his unqualified support to
the Nineteenth Amendment. During the late war he
was one of the energetic workers in behalf of the local
activities, and bought bonds and stamps and contributed
to the limit of his means. Well known in Masonry he
belongs to Columbia Lodge No. 96, F. & A. M.. of which
he is past master; Columbia Chapter No. 7, R. A. M..
of which he is past high priest; and Marion Com-
mandery No. 24, K. T., of Lebanon, Kentucky.
In 1879 Mr. Stults was married in Adair County to
Miss Mary E. Pickett, a daughter of Mr. and Airs.
John Pickett, both of whom are now deceased. Mr.
Pickett was for many years one of the prosperous
farmers and prominent citizens of Adair County. The
following children have been born to Mr. and Mrs.
Stults : Lillie C, who is the wife of M. C. Winfrey,
1 ircuit Court Clerk of Adair County, a sketch of whom
appears elsewhere in this work ; Annie, who is a resi-
dent of Columbia, married L. M. Young, a livestock
dealer; Ewing, who is a resident of Louisville, Ken-
tucky, is state agent for the Scottish Union Fire Insur-
ance Company; and Count T., who is also a resident of
Louisville, is special agent for the Union Central Life
Insurance Company.
Mr. Stults has every reason to be proud of what he
has accomplished for he has worked up from small
beginnings to a place of prominence and affluence. A
close student of men and the motives which govern
them, he early became a leader in politics, and honored
by his party by successive elections to public office,
he has never failed to live up to the highest conception
of his duties, and has made a record in the several
offices he has occupied. In his present business he is
scoring heavily, writing a large amount of business for
his company, and at the same time affording proper
protection to many of his friends and acquaintances.
His knowledge of the fire insurance business is thorough,
and his advice is sought by those who desire to obtain
the best policy on the market. Ever since he located at
Columbia he has had the welfare of the city at heart,
just as he has always had that of the county, and has
never deemed any effort too difficult to aid in procur-
ing for it every improvement consistent with the tax
levy. The people of his city, county and district owe
him a heavy debt, and that they appreciate it, his con-
tinued re-election to office seems to prove beyond any
doubt.
Fred Stone is one of the men in Eastern Kentucky
who represent the typical industrial life of that section
of the state. He has lived there from birth, and has
wrought out his career through strenuous action and
work. He is now superintendent of the Steele Mining
Company's plant at Mossy Bottom in Pike County.
Mr. Stone was born at Coal Run, October 6. 1885.
son of Thomas and Minta (Ratliff) Stone. His mother
is now living at Washington. D. C. Thomas Stone
was a farmer and died when his son Fred was a child.
Fred Stone had little opportunity to attend school
and at the age of twelve years he was a water boy
for the construction gangs working on the building of
the railroad up the Big Sandy. He continued in the
service of that road for thirteen years, eventually be-
coming a foreman of construction. Since then his
career has been identified with mining and he knows
the industry in every phase. He was for several years
a machine operator in the coal mines at Williamson,
West Virginia, but since 1910 has been identified with
the Steele Mining Company. He was a machine oper-
ator in the mines until 1918, was then given work in
the Company store for two years, and became assistant
superintendent and is now superintendent of the plant
at Mossy Bottom.
Mr. Stone is affiliated with the Improved Order of
Red Men, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Elks.
Moose and Masons. February 16, 1921, he married
Josephine Fugate, daughter of John E. Fugate of
Lawrence County.
William Rogers Clay, now Judge of the Court of
Appeals of Kentucky, and formerly Commissioner of
that court for about fourteen years, makes his home at
Frankfort. He represents one branch of the prominent
Clav family of Fayette and Bourbon counties.
His great-great-grandfather was Henry Clay. M. D.,
who was born in Cumberland County, Virginia, in
1736, and died in Bourbon County, Kentucky, January
17. 1820. His great-grandfather was Samuel Clay, who
was born in Virginia, May 10, 1761, served in the
Revolutionary Army, and settled in Bourbon County
at the close of the Revolutionary war. He spent the
rest of his life as a land owner and planter in that
section. The grandfather of William Rogers Clay was
I ""I L. B. Clay, who was born in Bourbon County
and followed the ancestral vocation of planting and
farming. He also lived in Missouri for a while and
finally retired to Lexington. Kentucky, where he died
in 1879. Though over sixty years of age at the be-
ginning of the Civil war, he volunteered as a private in
the Confederate Army. He soon rose to the rank of
colonel, and became a member of General Raines'
staff, General Price's Division, Trans-Mississippi De-
partment. His son, Samuel Clay, Jr., father of William
Rogers Clay, was born at Lexington in 1825, and died
in that city in 1915. He was reared in Bourbon County
and engaged in farming there. In 1865 he moved to
Fayette County, where he also engaged in farming for
about four years, and then moved to Lexington. There-
after he became deeply interested in the development
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
297
of Eastern Kentucky lands and other resources, and
for many years was a dealer in mountain land in that
section of the state. He was a democrat, a Mason and
a member of the Christian Church. On May 23, i860,
Samuel Clay, Jr., married Mary Katharine Rogers,
daughter of Capt. William S. Rogers and his wife,
Henrietta Roseberry, and great-granddaughter of Na-
thaniel Rogers, member of the Constitutional Con-
vention of Kentucky in 1799. Mrs. Clay, who is a
distinguished genealogist and wrote "The Genealogy
of the Clays," now lives at Lexington. She was the
mother of four children : Belle, of Louisville, widow
of W. L. Lyons, who was a banker and broker and a
member of the firm of W. L. Lyons & Company;
William Rogers, second in age; Bishop, a real estate
broker, who died at Lexington in igi6; and Samuel
Blair, who, at this writing, is still with the United
States Army of Occupation in Germany.
William Rogers Clay was born in Fayette County,
November 9, 1S64. and in cultivated intelligence and
education, measures up to the fine standards and tra-
ditions of the Clays of Kentucky. He was educated in
the public and private schools of Lexington and at
Transylvania University, where he received his A. B.
degree in 1885. He was a member of the Phi Delta
Theta college fraternity. On leaving the university he
spent two years in the railroad business at Moberly,
Missouri. In 1887 he went to Washington, D. C, as
private secretary to United States Senator James B.
Beck. While there he attended the law school of
Georgetown University, where he received the degree
of LL. B. in 1889, and the degree of LL. M. in 1890.
On returning to Lexington in 1890, Judge Clay was
elected and served as superintendent of public schools
of that city for several years. In 1903 he was elected
city solicitor of Lexington, and served in that capacity
for 3/4 years. In 1907 he was elected commissioner
of the Court of Appeals, and held that office until
January, 1921, when he took his seat as judge of that
court. His offices are in the new Capitol Building.
Judge Clay is a member of the Kentucky State Bar
Association and of the American Bar Association. He
is Curator of Transylvania University, a democrat and
a member of the Christian Church. He is affiliated
with Merrick Lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fel-
lows at Lexington, and is past Exalted Ruler of Lex-
ington Lodge No. 89, Benevolent and Protective Order
of Elks. During the war with Germany he was one
of the active speakers at patriotic gatherings through-
out Central Kentucky.
Judge Clay's Frankfort home is at 312 Ewing Street.
June 14, 1900, at Lexington, he married Miss Anne
Field Clay, daughter of Sidney and Sallie (Warfield)
Clay, and great-granddaughter of Gen. Green Clay of
Madison County, who was a delegate to the Virginia
Convention which ratified the Constitution of the United
States, a jnember of the First Constitutional Conven-
tion of Kentucky and an officer in the Revolutionary
war and the War of 1812. Mrs. Clay's father, now
deceased, was for many years engaged in farming on
an extensive scale in Bourbon County. Her mother
resides at Lexington. Mrs. Clay was educated in
private schools at Paris and Lexington and also at the
University of Kentucky. Judge and Mrs. Clay have
two children : William Rogers, Jr., born March 3,
1902, and Sidney Warfield, born January 24, 1910.
Melvin V. Wicker, M. D. Others of the learned
professions minister to the needs of the people, but
none holds the importance of that of medicine. Man
can adjust his differences with his fellows without
recourse to the bench or bar, he can educate himself
and can work out his own spiritual salvation ; but life
itself depends upon the skill and learning of the physi-
cian and surgeon. Thus it is that the medical practi-
tioner is not only one of the most useful and necessary
members of society, but that there is likewise no class
of men so generally respected and esteemed. Floyd
County is the home of numerous capable members of
this profession, and one among them who holds a high
place in public confidence is Dr. Melvin V. Wicker,
Secretary of the Floyd County Medical Society, and
physician in charge of the Elkhorn Coal Corporation
Hospital at Wayland and of the Wheelwright division
of the same corporation. He likewise takes an active
part in civic affairs, and at the present time is serving
in the capacity of mayor of Wayland.
Doctor Wicker was born near Lackey, on the Beaver,
April 25, 1885, a son of William and Mildred (Davis)
Wicker, and a grandson of Jess Wicker, who came
from Greene County, Tennessee. He belongs to a
family whose members have been prominent in public
affairs, his cousin, John (Bud) Wicker, of Jones Fork
of the Beaver, having been formerly a member of the
Kentucky Legislature, while a maternal uncle, Hon.
H. F. Davis, is police judge at Jackson, Breathitt
County. William Wicker, father of Doctor Wicker,
was born May 11, 1865, in the same house on Beaver
Creek in which was born his son. He has been a
resident of the same community all his life, and now
has extensive agricultural interests and is also engaged
in merchandising at Lackey, having made a success of
both occupations and being held in the highest esteem
by the people of his community. Mrs. Wicker was
born in December, 1865, in the community where Lackey
is now situated, and is a. daughter of Asa Davis, a
Virginian from Scott County. Doctor Wicker is the
second in a family of eleven children, all of whom
reside on Beaver Creek with the exception of one,
who is a resident of Grayson, Carter County, Ken-
tucky.
Tbe early education of Melvin V. Wicker was se-
cured in the district school near his father's farm,
following which he furthered his education by attend-
ance at the public school at Prestonburg. As is the
case with many young men of the country who aspire
to professional careers, he spent some time in his
youth as an instructor in the country districts, teach-
ing five schools before he enrolled as a student at the
University of Louisville. There he took special work
in pharmacy, after which he entered the medical de-
partment of the same institution and was graduated
therefrom with the degree of Doctor of Medicine in
191 1, and was secretary of the graduating class. Doctor
Wicker is beholden to no one for his education, as he
paid his own expenses through the University with
funds that he had earned himself. He commenced
medical practice in the valley in which he was born,
and from 1915 to 1918 was assistant to Doctor Mag-
gard, who was then holding the position now occupied
by Doctor Wicker. He took charge of this position
in December, 1918, and has evolved an excellent sys-
tem, by which his corps of physicians are able to render
expeditious and efficacious service. A man of broad
information along many kindred lines, Doctor Wicker
has kept in close touch with the advancements being
made in his calling, and is one of the best-informed
physicians of Floyd County, a fact recognized in his
election to the office of secretary of the county medical
society. He belongs also to the Kentucky State Medical
Society, and as a fraternalist belongs to Wayland
Masonic lodge, of which he is past master of the
Chapter of that order, and Catlettsburg lodge of Elks.
A democrat in politics, he is active in civic affairs, and
is giving Wayland an excellent administration in the
office of mayor. Essentially a self-made man, he has
not allowed himself to be hampered by the fact that
he has had to win through hard work every step for-
ward, but rather has so shaped circumstances as to
make what to another might seem adversity serve but
as a stimulus to his ambition.
On September 22, 1910, Doctor Wicker was united
in marriage with Miss Pearlie Webb, who was born
on Beaver Creek, a daughter of S. B. Webb, and to
298
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
this union there have been born four children : Irma,
Shirley, Amelia and Christine. Mrs. Wicker is a faith-
ful member of and active worker in the Christian
Church, and like her husband, is very popular in the
community.
Don Calvin Edwards, former congressman from the
Eleventh Kentucky District, has been a resident of
Laurel County thirty years, and throughout that time
has been prominently connected with lumber manufac-
turing, banking and with most of the big impulses in
commercial and civic affairs.
Though a native of Iowa, Mr. Edwards represents
family names that have been in Laurel County since
the pioneer era. His great-grandfather Edwards moved
from North Carolina to Laurel County, Kentucky,
about 1804. His grandfather Edwards was born in
Laurel County in 181 1, moved out to Iowa in early
times, and died in Appanoose County, that state, in 1887.
The father of Don Edwards was Lewis Edwards who
was born in Laurel County in 1838, son of William
and Marilla (Elliott) Edwards. Lewis Edwards was
twelve years of age when his parents moved to Iowa.
He married Jane Saylor, who was born in Harlan
County, Kentucky, in 1838, and died in Kansas in 1875.
Her father was also a native of Harlan County, Ken-
tucky, and died in Kansas in 1869. The Edwards
family on leaving Iowa moved to Kansas, where Lewis
Edwards died at Erie in 1918.
Don Calvin Edwards was born in Appanoose County,
Iowa, July 13, 1861, and spent his early life on farms
in Iowa and Kansas, attending the common schools of
those states and finished his education in the Campbell
University at Hoiton, Kansas. After some varied busi-
ness experience he located in Laurel County, Kentucky,
in November, 1892, and became a manufacturer and
wholesale dealer in lumber and timber products, an
industry with which he lias ever since been identified.
In 1900 he also broadened the scope of his enterprise
by engaging in general merchandising, and in 191 1 estab-
lished a wholesale grocery business at London, but sold
his interests in 1913 to the London Grocery Company.
In 1903 he organized the Citizens Bank of London
under a state charter, but it reorganized under a
National charter in iyoS, the institution now being known
at the National Bank of London. Mr. Edwards has
been its president and a director in this bank since
its organization. In addition he is president and a
director of the E. M. T. Coal Company at Island
in McLean County ; president and director of the Laurel
County Fair Association ; and is president of the London
Commercial Club, a flourishing organization with over
a hundred members.
For many years Mr. Edwards has been one of the
ablest leaders of the republican party in Kentucky.
From 1898 to 1904 he was clerk and master commis-
sioner of the Laurel Circuit Court. In 1908 he was
chairman of the Kentucky State Republican Conven-
tion, and during the presidential campaign of that
year was a member of the State Campaign Committee
and director of the Speakers Bureau. In 1904 Mr.
Edwards was elected to represent the Eleventh Kentucky
District, comprising nineteen counties in the eastern
part of the state, and for three successive terms faith-
fully and ably looked after the interests of his large
constituency and was one of the influential members of
the Kentucky delegation in Congress. His service was
in the Fifty-ninth to the Sixty-first Congress, his last
term expiring in 191 1. He was tendered the nomination
for Lieutenant Governor at the Republican State Con-
vention in 191 1 but declined. In 1912 he was a delegate
to the National Convention at Chicago, and was a
supporter of Roosevelt for the nomination.
During the war Mr. Edwards proved a powerful
stimulus to patriotic work in his section of the state.
He was a member of the State Council of Defense,
was chairman of all the loan campaigns in his county
and also county fuel administrator. He is a member
of the Baptist Church at London and belongs to its
building committee.
On February 11, 1904, at London, he married Miss
Lida Hodge, daughter of S. W. Hodge. Her mother
was a McHargue and the McHargues and Hodges have
been in Laurel County from pioneer time. Mr. and
Mrs. Edwards have two children : Don C, Jr., born in
1908, and Dorothy, born in 1914.
Thomas DeVenny is general superintendent of the
Edgewater Coal Company, owned by the Kentucky
Solvay Company, has charge of the operations of this
corporation at Henry Clay, Big Branch, Lookout and
Coaldale, his home being at Lookout. Mr. DeVenny
is a thoroughly trained, competent and widely experi-
enced mining engineer, comes of a family of miners
and nr'ne operators, and the name has been well known
in the mining sections of the Alleghany Mountains for
many years.
Mr. DeVenny was born at Maybeury, McDowell
County, West Virginia, July 10, 1887, sou of James
and Roxie (Hamilton) DeVenny, both natives of Vir-
ginia. His grandfather Thomas James DeVenny, had
charge of the operation of the Merimac mines for the
Confederate Government during the Civil war. James
DeVenny grew up with a practical education and a
knowledge of mining and during the last ten years of
his life was superintendent of the Cooper interests in
McDowell County, West Virginia. He died November
72, 1906, at the age of fifty-eight. He was a democrat
in a republican county, but his son Thomas became a
republican. The latter's mother is still living in Mc-
Dowell, West Virginia. Of her ten children, five sons,
Thomas the oldest, have been identified with the min-
ing industry. John DeVenny, who received his tech-
nical training at West Virginia University, is a foreman
with the Cooper interests in McDowell. Clifford, who
was educated as an electrician in New York City, is
electrician for the Cooper mines. James, who attended
the Virginia Military Institute, is with the Pocahontas
Consolidation at Switchback. Harry has also had min-
ing experience but is now attending the Virginia Mili-
tary Institute.
Thomas DeVenny graduated from West Virginia
LTniversity in 1007, but practically grew up in mines
and his knowledge of that industry includes every
practical detail underground and above ground. He
took a post-graduate course in the Butte School of
Mines in Montana, and his experience has covered
such widely diversified fields as those of West Virginia
and Alaska. For a time he was connected with the
Northwest Improvement Company in Montana, the coal
department of the Northern Pacific Railroad, begin-
ning as mucker and later as superintendent.
When he returned to West Virginia he was for two
vears chief engineer for the Turkey Gap Coal & Coke
Company, and then became superintendent of the Free-
burn plant at mouth of Peter Creek in Pike County.
This plant was later acquired by the Portsmouth Solvay
Coke Company. After four years at Freeburn he was
transferred to his present responsibilities.
May 20, 1916, Mr. DeVenny married Miss Teannette
Frown, daughter of James A. Brown of Scranton,
Pennsylvania. Thev are members of the Presbyterian
Church and Mr. DeVenny is affiliated with North Fork
Lodee of Masons in West Virginia, is a member of
the Knight Templar Commandery at Bluefield and the
Mystx Shrine at Charleston, West Virginia. He is a
member of the West Virginia Coal Mining Institute
and the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical
Engineers.
Two of his brothers were in the service during the
World war, one as a sergeant on the battle lines in
France, while John was a first lieutenant, being trained
in the officers' school at Camp Taylor. Their sister
/Q£h ^jAiAycuL^
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
299
was a nurse and spent eighteen months on duty in the
army hospitals at Brest, France. His brother-in-law.
Doctor Saunders, was in the Medical Corps, stationed
with the English army at Lens, Belgium, and was killed.
Another brother-in-law was with the . artillery branch
of the service in France.
Augustus John Wahle, M. D. In the ten years
he has practiced at Somerset, Doctor Wahle has
achieved a high reputation as a capable physician and
surgeon, and has looked after an accumulating volume
of interests both financial and civic in that community,
where he is one of the best known citizens.
Doctor Wahle was born at Louisville, Kentucky, May
18, 1881. His grandfather, John Wahle, was born at
Berlin, Germany, in 1825. He came of a wealthy
family, was an officer in the German army, and shortly
after his marriage when he came to America he brought
a large fortune with him. His faculties were those of
an extensive business man, though his financial judg-
ment did not keep pace with his practical activities.
He became well known at Louisville, where he was a
coal operator and coal dealer, also had a meat market
and engaged in other enterprises. He was exceedingly
liberal, and friends frequently took advantage of him.
When he died at Louisville in 1890 his loss was deeply
and w-dely mourned, but he left an estate of only a
few thousand dollars. He married a Miss Nieman who
died at Louisville in 1866.
M. P. Wahle, father of Doctor Wahle, was born
at Louisville in 1854 and died in that city in 1907.
During his active business career he was in the transfer
line. He was a democrat and a devout Catholic. His
wife was Mary Antoinette Hoseley, who was born at
Louisville in 1856 and is still living in that city where
most of her children also reside. A record of the
children is as follows : G. P. Wahle, connected with
the Alabama Trust Company as an official and a resi-
dent of Louisville; Emiline, wife of John Acy, a skilled
iron worker at Louisville ; Augustus John ; F. A., a
resident of Louisville: Rose, wife of John Lemke. a
cabinet maker and piano case maker at Louisville ;
Lillian, wife of Walter Bourn, a printer at Louisville;
Madaline. who died at the age of twenty-six, wife of
Captain Medley, who was a hotel proprietor at Louis-
ville and a man of varied militarv experience, having
served in Porto Rico and the Philippine Islands during
the Spanish-American war and was also in serv'ce
during the World war. Elizabeth, who is married and
lives at Detroit, Michigan ; and Jennie Mav of Louis-
ville, whose husband is a clerk for the Louisville &
Nashville Railroad.
Augustus John Wahle attended the paroch'al and
public schools of his native city, is a graduate of the
Louisville High School, and in 1908 received his medical
diploma from the University of Louisville. During
1908-00 he was an interne in St. Anthony's Hosn:tal at
Louisville, also practiced for several months in that
city, and for one year lived in Rich County. Utah.
Since ion his home and professional interests have
been at Somerset, where his offices are at 102 North
Main Street. Doctor Wahle is a member of the Pulaski
County, Kentucky State and American Medical Asso-
ciations. He is a member of the Medical Reserve
Corps and during the World war performed the heavy
and arduous responsibilities of chairman and examin-
ing physician for the Pulaski County Draft Board.
He owns a large amount of town and country real
estate, owning a farm of joo acres on the Cumberland
River and a beautiful residence at the corner of Central
and Cotter avenues Doctor Wahle is a stockholder and
former director of the Cit'zens National Bank of
Somerset. He is an independent democrat, a member
of the Baptist Church, and is affiliated with Kehoe
Council, Knights of Columbus at Ludlow, Kentucky.
In November, 1911, at Louisville he married Miss
Mary Agnes Livingston, daughter of Mr. and Mrs.
John Livingston. Her mother resides at Louisville.
Her father was in the grocery business and died at
New Albany, Indiana. Mrs. Wahle is a graduate of
the Louisville High School. They have four children:
Livingston, born July 21, 1913; Mary William, born
in February, 1916; Joan Rose, born in April, 1918;
and Aneta Angela, born in October, 1920.
Jesse B. Paschall, M. D. A busy physician and
surgeon Doctor Pascall's work has ranged over a large
community on both sides of the State line at Fulton,
and he is as well known in Obion County, Tennessee,
as in Fulton County, Kentucky. His father before
him was an honored physician for many years in the
same counties.
This branch of the Paschall family were originally
French Huguenots and were driven from their native
land by religious persecution. Three brothers came to
America, one locating in New York City, another
at Philadelphia, while the ancestor of Doctor Paschall
established a home in North Carolina. The grand-
father of Doctor Paschall was Jesse Morgan Paschall,
a native of North Carolina. The spirit of adventure
led him early into the southwest, he was a companion
of Davy Crockett in removing the Cherokee Indians
from Tennessee. Alexander Paschall, father of Jesse
Morgan Paschall was the son of William Paschall,
a Revolutionary soldier from North Carolina. He
spent most of his years as a pioneer farmer in Weakley
County, Tennessee, where he died.
The late Dr. N. J. Paschall was born in Weakley
County in 1840 and was a graduate in medicine of the
Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia. Soon
afterward the war broke out and in 1861 he enlisted
in the Confederate Army from Weakley County. He
served as a captain in the cavalry under General
Forrest and served throughout the war, from his first
great battle at Shiloh until the final surrender. When
the war was over he returned to Obion County, and
subsequently took another diploma in medicine from
Washington University at St. Louis, Missouri. He
also practiced in Texas three years, and for many
years had his home in Fulton, Kentucky, and in Obion
County, Tennessee, moving across the line into the
latter county in 1878. However, he died at Fulton,
Kentucky, in 1900. He was a stanch democrat, a
member of the Masonic fraternity, and a man of the
highest standing in professional and civic circles. He
married Sarah Jane Wilson, who was born at Milburn,
Kentucky, and is now living in Obion County. She
was the mother of eight children: Mary Elizabeth,
whose husband, Andrew L. Foster, is connected with
the Patterson Transfer Company at Memphis where
they reside; Sarah Agnes is the wife of Herschel T.
Smith, a well known Fulton attorney ; May was mar-
ried to Joe Bennett, a druggist at Fulton, Kentucky;
Augusta is the wife of Thomas N. Fields of Obion
County; Newton Jr. is in the drug business at Fulton,
Kentucky, but has his home in Obion County ; Ed C.
is a fire insurance broker at Fulton, with home in
Obion County; Dr. Jesse B. is the seventh of the
family; and Dixie, the youngest, is the wife of Thomas
M. Pittman, a civil engineer at McComb, Mississippi.
Jesse B. Paschall was born in Obion County Sep-
tember 7, 1881, attended the public schools at Fulton,
Kentucky, high school at Memphis, Tennessee, took
his preparatory college work in the Mooney School of
Franklin, Tennessee, and in 1909 received It's M. D.
degree from Washington University at St. Louis,
Missouri. He is a member of the college fraternity
Phi Delta Phi. Doctor Paschall entered active practice
at Fulton in 1909, and has achieved all the recognition
due a man of adequate equipment and skill in his chosen
line. He is a member of the County, State and American
Medical Associations, has held the position of Health
Officer of Fulton, Kentucky, and is present Health
Officer of Fulton, Tennessee, where he has his home,
yoo
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
one of the modern residences in the vicinity of Fulton.
His office is at 218 Lake Street in Fulton, Kentucky.
Doctor Paschall is a democrat, a member oi the Bap-
tist Church and is affiliated with Frank Carr Lodge
of Odd Fellows, Fulton Lodge No. 1142 of the Elks,
Evergreen Camp No. 4, Woodmen of the World.
April 9, 191 5, in Fulton County, Kentucky, he mar-
ried Miss Addie Browder, daughter of John C. and
Luella (Milner) Browder, a well known family of
farmers of Fulton County. Mrs. Paschall is a grad-
uate of the Memphis Conference Institute of Jackson,
Tennessee. Their only children, twins, Sarah Jane
and Luella Julia, both died young, Sarah Jane at the
age of three years.
Lewis W. Cundiff has been a resident of Casey
County about thirty-five years, grew to manhood here,
and in his mature career has been favorably known for
his work and achievement as a teacher, merchant, miller,
and more recently as a banker. He is now cashier
of the Citizens State Bank of Liberty and also county
treasurer.
Mr. Cundiff was born in Adair County, January 14,
1879. His grandfather, Wash Cundiff, was a well
known farmer of Adair County, where he lived out
his life. He married a member of the Damron family.
G. A. Cundiff, father of the banker at Liberty, was
born in Adair County in 1844, was married there, and
in 1885 moved to Casey County, and since 1892 his
home has been at Dunnville. The chief efforts of his
life have been directed to farming, and in that voca-
tion he has won a competence. He was a youthful
volunteer for service in the Union army during the
last two years of the Civil war. He has always sup-
ported the republican party since he attained his
majority, and for four years he was county assessor
of Casey County, and for two terms or eight years
was deputy county assessor. He is a member of the
Christian Church in his community and is affiliated
with the Masonic Order. G. A. Cundiff married Mary
L. Harmon, who was born in Adair County in 1846.
This good old couple now respectively seventy-seven
and seventy-five years of age, reared a large and in-
teresting family, eleven children having been born to
their union : Mattie of Dunnville, widow of L. M.
Combest, who was a farmer ; W. C. Cundiff, present
county court clerk of Casey County; Ida, wife of J.
R. Carson, a farmer at Phil in Casey County ; Lona,
wife of G. W. Rubarts, a merchant at Campbellsville,
Taylor County; Ada, wife of C. C. Combest, a farmer
living near Liberty; George W. ; Maud, wife of R. B.
Rich, owner of a public garage at Liberty; John H.,
a farmer at Phil ; Ann, wife of Ramzy Russell, owner
of the woolen mill at Phil ; A. R., a farmer in the
Dunnville community; and George A., Jr., who also
followed farming at Dunville.
Louis W. Cundiff grew up on his father's farm in
Casey County from the age of six years. He attended
the rural schools, and attended for four terms up to
1903 the Kentucky State University at Lexington, tak-
ing Normal work. He began teaching at the age of
twenty and for six years was in educational work,
chiefly in the rural schools of Casey County, though
for one year he taught a school at Dexter in Cooke
County, Northern Texas. For nine months up to
September, 1906, he was deputy county clerk of Casey
County, and then for several years was a merchant
at Dunnville. From 1909 to January I, 1920, Mr. Cun-
diff's business relations were as general manager
of the roller flour mills at Liberty.
He was one of the local citizens who organized the
Citizens State Bank of Liberty and has been cashier
since the bank opened for business on February 7,
1921. It has a capital of $30,000, and within two or
three months after it was opened its deposits aggre-
gated over $25,000. J. Boyle Stone is president of
the bank, and the vice presidents are Judge J. D.
Taylor and W. C. Cundiff.
Mr. Cundiff has been county treasurer of Casey
County since April, 1921. He is a republican, a deacon
in the Christian Church, has been honored three times
with the office of Master of Craftsman Lodge No. 722,
F. and A. M., is present High Priest of Liberty Chap-
ter No. 84, R. A. M., and is also a member of Liberty
Tent No. 51, Knights of the Maccabees and the Modern
Brotherhood. Throughout the period of the World
war Mr. Cundiff was associated with all the local or-
ganizations responsible for the raising of war funds
and the contributions to other patriotic purposes.
Mr. Cundiff married in Adair County in 1906 Miss
Matra Damron. Her parents, Samuel and Nancy
(Robinson) Damron, live on their farm at Mount
Salem in Lincoln County. The four children of Mr.
and Mrs. Cundiff are Christine, born in 1908, Catherine,
born in 1910, Mary Damron, born in 1915, and Vir-
ginia, born in 1918.
Hon. James C. Carter. With the coming of Joseph
A. Carter to Monroe County, at an early period in this
section's history, an element of strength and purpose
was added to the upbuilding forces of a promising
and prosperous community. That the ideals of work
and citizenship cherished by this pioneer have been
transposed to those succeeding him in the race is not
questioned by those familiar with the history of the
family for the last three quarters of a century. Its
members have occupied positions high in the regard of
their fellow-citizens, and a number have risen to
places of distinction, notably a grandson of the pioneer,
Hon. James C. Carter of Tompkinsville, judge of the
Circuit Court of Monroe County.
Judge Carter was born on a farm six miles north
of Tompkinsville, in Monroe County, October 5, 1863,
a son of William Carter. His grandfather, Joseph A.
Carter, was born in 1803, in Virginia, and was a young
man when he migrated to Kentucky and took up his
home in the then sparsely settled locality of Monroe
County, where he passed the remainder of his life as
an agriculturist. He was a man of substantial capacity,
personal probity and integrity, and when he died, in
1873, near Rockridge, his community lost one of its
honorable and honored citizens. Joseph A. Carter
married a Miss Carter, who was born in Virginia
and died in Monroe County.
William Carter was born on his father's farm in
Monroe County, six miles north of Tompkinsville, in
1830, and there passed his entire life in the pursuits
of the soil, dying in 1898. Like his father, he was
an industrious and capable man, and his operations
won him material success, while the fair dealing and
straightforwardness which he always displayed won him
the esteem of his associates. He voted the repub-
lican ticket, and was an active supporter and faithful
member of the Baptist Church. William Carter mar-
ried Miss Elizabeth Kelly, who was born in 1835, near
Sulphur Lick, Monroe County, and died on the home
farm in 1890, and they became the parents of the fol-
lowing children : Mary, who resides on her farm near
Tompkinsville, the widow of W. H. Harlin, a Union
veteran of the Civil war and for a number of years a
farmer near Tompkinsville ; Mary's twin, Martha,
who died at Tompkinsville, aged fifty-five years, as
the wife of William T. Miller, a farmer of Tompkins-
ville and a clergyman of the Baptist faith ; James C ,
of this notice; Sarah B., the wife of Fleming C. Boles,
who is carrying on operations on a part of the old
Carter homestead near Rockridge, Monroe County;
Samuel H., who is engaged in merchandising at Sul-
phur Lick. Kentucky ; William W., an attorney, who
owns and operates the old home place; Ella, county
superintendent of schools of Monroe County, who
first married Henry L. Harlin, an attorney, and after
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
301
his death married Dallas H. Braswell, a saddler of
Tompkinsville; and Brockie, who married Hillard
Hayes and resides near Sulphur Lick, where Mr. Hayes
is engaged in agricultural pursuits.
James C. Carter attended the rural schools and sub-
scription schools of Monroe County, acquiring a high
school education and supplemented this by attendance
at the normal school at Flippin, Kentucky, which he
left at the age of twenty-two years. In the meantime,
at the age of sixteen years, he had commenced teach-
ing in the rural schools of Monroe County, and con-
tinued to be thus engaged until the year 1893. In
the fall of that year he was elected county superin-
tendent of schools of Monroe County, a position to
which he was re-elected in 1897, without opposition.
Thus, he served in this office for eight years, from
1894 to 1902. During the time that he had been the
incumbent of this office, Judge Carter applied his
leisure hours to the study of law, and in 1896 was
admitted to the bar. In that year he was made master
commissioner of the Circuit Court of Monroe Circuit
Court, an office in which he served continuously until
1910. In November, 1901, he was elected county at-
torney of Monroe County, taking office in January,
1902, and served capably for a period of four years.
From 1906 until 1910 he was United States commis-
sioner, under Judge Walter Evans of the United States
District Court. In November, 1909, the people evi-
denced their opinion that he was made of judicial
timber by electing him circuit judge of the Twenty-
ninth Judicial District, without opposition, comprising
Monroe, Metcalfe, Cumberland, Russell, Casey and
Adair counties. Since then, Metcalfe County has been
taken from the Twenty-ninth District and assigned to
the Tenth District. Judge Carter has discharged the
duties of his high and important office in a dignified,
capable and expeditious manner, and has won the full
confidence and esteem of the bench and bar as well as
of the general public, and was re-elected to the third
term of said office November 8, 1920.
The judge owns his own home on Columbia Avenue,
Tompkinsville, a large, modern structure, with com-
modious grounds, as well as a dwelling in the new
addition to Tompkinsville, and a farm of no acres,
iY2 miles east of the city. In politics he is a stanch
republican, and his religious faith is that of the
Baptist Church, in the work of which he takes an
active and helpful part. Fraternally, he belongs to
Tompkinsville Lodge No. 753, F. & A. M., and the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He is a director
in the Deposit Bank of Monroe County, at Tompkins-
ville. During the World war, Judge Carter took an
active part in all local war activities and assisted in
all the drives, making numerous speeches in Monroe,
Adair and Casey counties in behalf of the Bond is-
sues, Red Cross drives and for other patriotic pur-
poses. He purchased bonds heavily and contributed
to all movements to the limit of his means.
Judge Carter was married in July, 1892, near Eason,
Tennessee, to Miss Ida Tucker, daughter of Granville
and Ann (Harwood) Tucker, former farming people
near Eason, both of whom are now deceased. Eight
children have been born to Judge and Mrs. Carter :
Lizzie Annie, who died May 18, 1921, as the wife of
Barlow Bryant, of Tompkinsville, chief deputy sheriff
of Monroe County; Pearl E., the wife of Stanley
Pace, an extensive farmer and live stock trader of
Cumberland County; May, residing with her parents,
the widow of Virgil Jernigan, a traveling salesman of
Tompkinsville, who died March 27, 1921 ; Jessie, the
wife of Wick Harlan, a medical student of Louisville,
Kentucky, a veteran of the World war, and still a
member of the United States army; James C, residing
with his parents, a student in the high school at Tomp-
kinsville ; and Abe Parker, Tim Lee and Vivian, who
are attending the graded schools.
Patrick W. Whipp. For over seventy years the
name Whipp has been especially honored in Liberty
and throughout Casey County, significant of loyal cit-
izenship in time of war and peace, of sterling business
integrity, and all those influences that proceed from
good citizenship. One of the younger members of the
family is Patrick W. Whipp, a merchant, former post-
master of Liberty, and who has neglected none of
those interests that concern the good citizen.
His father was the late esteemed John W. Whipp,
who died at his home in Liberty December 10, 1907, at
the advanced age of seventy-nine years, ten months,
twenty-one days. He was born in Jessamine County,
Kentucky, January 19, 1828, but when a child his par-
ents moved to Lawrenceburg, Anderson County, where
he was reared. He gave his service to the country in
the war with Mexico, enlisting in 1845 m the Salt
River Tigers of Anderson County under Capt. John
H. McBreyer. Soon after returning from that service
he was aroused by the reports of the discovery of
gold in California and in 1850 he and two companions
left Liberty and journeyed with an ox-cart to the
Pacific Coast. They were eight months on the way
and their first location was at Hangtown, later known
as Placerville. John W. Whipp remained in California
as a gold seeker for five years and then returned to
Liberty and was satisfied with the quiet routine of this
city the rest of his life. For many years he was a
merchant and also acquired and supervised extensive
farming interests. He had for nearly half a century
bten a member of old Jonathan Lodge No. 78 F. and
A. M. at Liberty, and from early manhood was a faith-
ful member of the Christian Church. In 1856, he
married Miss Isabella Coffey, of Liberty, who died
in 1866, the mother of two children : Fielding C, who
was a merchant at Liberty and died at Louisville No-
vember 19, 1884, and Bettie, born March 12, i860,
wife of Dr. James W. Ellis of Owensboro, Kentucky.
In August, 1868, John W. Whipp married Mary F.
Napier, who is still living in Liberty, where she was
born in 1845. Her father Patrick Napier was born in
Virginia July 4, 1800, and was an early settler of Casey
County, Kentucky, and served several terms as sheriff
of the county. He died June 18, 1869. Patrick Napier
married Dollie B. Fitzpatrick, who was born Decem-
ber 20, 1818, and died May 7, 1898. Mrs. Mary Whipp
is one of the oldest members of the Eastern Star in
Kentucky. Mary F. Whipp Chapter No. 251 at Liberty
is named in her honor. She was the mother of four
children: Cora who died at Liberty November II,
1899, at the age of thirty-five, wife of Charles Pres-
cott, now living at Louisville; Patrick W. ; John, a
druggist and farmer at Liberty; and Dollie, wife of
Wilson Coots, a farmer at Guthrie, Kentucky.
Patrick W. Whipp was born at Liberty June 19,
1870, and has spent practically all his life in his native
town. He was educated in the public schools there,
spent two years in the Boys High School at Louisville,
for one year attended the business college at Bowling
Green, and attended Louisville College of Pharmacy
one year. He has been a licensed pharmacist since
1895 and five years was connected with drug stores at
Stanford and spent another year at Scottsville, Ken-
tucky. He established his present business at Liberty
in 1901, and is owner of one of the largest and best
stocked stores of that kind in Casey County. It is
on the courthouse square. Mr. Whipp also owns a
farm of 165 acres adjoining Liberty on the south.
His service as postmaster during the Wilson admin-
istration extended from February 17, 1914, until he
resigned March 31, 19^0. He is a director in the Cit-
izens State Bank at Liberty and a stockholder in the
Commercial Bank. During the World war he was
chairman of the County Chapter of the Red Cross and
interested in other patriotic movements. Mr. Whipp
is a democrat, is a deacon in the Christian Church,
302
HISTORY OF KRNTUCKY
and is affiliated with Craftsman Lodge No. 722 F.
and A. M., Liberty Chapter No. 84 R. A. M., Marion
Commandery No. 24 K. T., at Lebanon, is also affi-
liated with the Chapter of the Eastern Star bearing
his mother's name, and is a member of Stanford Lodge
Knights of Pythias and Liberty Tent No. 51 Knights
of the Maccabees.
In 1908 at Cincinnati Mr. Whipp married Miss
Mayme Tilford. who was born September 2, 1886.
daughter of Judge J. M. and Sallie (Hatter) Tilford,
the latter now deceased. Her father is a Casey County
farmer living at Liberty, and for a number of terms
held the office of County Judge. Mrs. Whipp finished
her education in Berea College at Berea, Kentucky.
To their marriage were born three children: John
Woodson, Jr., born December 31, 1909; Elizabeth
Sallee, burn March 26, 1913; and Patrick Fielding,
born December 9, 1915, who died at the age of two
years.
B. C. Shay. While most professional men must satisfy
themselves with a range of achievement and success
that give them a reputation largely in their home local-
ity, the unusual talents and special powers as a trial
lawyer in criminal cases have brought to B. C. Seay,
of Mayfield, a reputation all over his home state and
over a number of surrounding states. In the handling
of criminal cases he is almost unexcelled. He is a
relentless investigator, and has a genius for assembling
facts, and tracing out remote clews, and in massing
his evidence and arguments so that very few cases in
which he has been engaged as principal attorney have
come through the courts and juries with maximum
possible penalties.
Widely known over Western Kentucky as "Pete" Seay,
he was born in Graves County, near Lowes, February
13, 1872. His great-grandfather was a native of Ireland,
and on coming to this country lived for a time in
Virginia and later became a pioneer of Washington
County, Kentucky, where he pursued his vocation as
a farmer and gunsmith. The grandfather of the May-
field lawyer was Bernard Seay. a native of Washington
County and a pioneer of Graves County, where he was
widely known as "Uncle Barney" Seay. He died on
his homestead near Lowes at the age of ninety years.
He was very stanch in his affiliation with the democratic
party. His wife was Harriet Virgin, who was born in
Graves County and died on the old homestead farm.
Ed Seay, father of B. C. Seay, was born near Lowes
in 1843, and is still living at Mayfield, now retired. He
spent his active years as a successful farmer, and in
1861, as a youth, entered the Confederate Army and was
all through the war, a follower of the great cavalry-
man General Forrest. He participated in Brice's Cross
Roads and in other engagements, and was once shot
through the ankle. He has been a democrat all his
life and a very devout member of the Presbyterian
Church. He has served both as deacon and elder in
that church. Ed Seay married Ellen S. Means, who
was born in Marion County, Kentucky, and died on the
old homestead in Graves County. B. C. Seay is the
older of three children, his brother Merritt C. being
a farmer near the old homestead, and his brother,
Jewell S., is superintendent of the Smith-Scott Tobacco
Company at Paducah.
Until after reaching manhood B. C. Seay quietly-
developed his powers and resources largely through the
environment of a country district. He attended rural
schools in Graves County, the West Kentucky College
of Mayfield, and for two years while studying law was
a teacher in Carlisle County. He finished his legal
education in St. Louis and was admitted to the bar
in 1895. Since then for a quarter of a century he has
made his home at Mayfield. While engaged in general
practice his w:ork has more and more led him into
criminal cases, and he has been called as an attorney
to act for the defense in many sensational trials in Ken-
tucky, Missouri, Arkansas and Mississippi. His pro-
fession is the one great interest of his life, and unlike
many lawyers he has never sought the diversion of
politics, being satisfied to do his duty as a democratic
voter. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church,
is affiliated with Hickory Camp No. 115, Woodmen of
the World, at Mayfield, Mayfield Lodge No. 565 of the
Elks, but after his home and family acknowledges no
greater devotion than that he gives to his law practice.
In 1897. at Mayfield, Mr. Seay married Miss Annie
Smith, daughter of Colonel B. A. and Mattie (Baker)
Smith, now deceased. Her father was a prominent
citizen of Mayfield, handling contracts for public works.
Mrs. Seay graduated from the West Kentucky Col-
lege. Their oldest child, Agnes, died at the age of five
years. The second in age, Watt C. Seay, now at home,
graduated from the Mayfield High School with the class
of 1920 and distinguished himself in football and other
lines of athletics. He was in the draft but never called
to active duty the World war. The next three chil-
dren are all in high school, Robert, a senior, Allen,
a junior, and Elizabeth, a freshman. The two youngest
of this interesting family are William Reed and Gardner
Seay.
Robert L. Reeves, president of the First National
Bank of Paducah, is one of the dependable c tizens
and prominent men of this part of Kentucky, and a
man whose influence is widespread. He was born
in Ballard County, Kentucky, September 3. 1865, a son
of William Harrison Reeves, and grandson of C.eorge
Reeves, a farmer, who died in Warren County, Ken-
tucky, before the birth of his grandson.
William Harrison Reeves was born in Warren
County, Kentuckv, in 1815, and he died in McCracken
County, Kentucky, in 1888. He was reared in Warren
County and there received his education. His mar-
riage took place in Ballard. County, and he located
there and developed into the most extensive farmer of
that region, remaining there until 1881 when he moved
to Paducah, and embarked in the tobacco warehouse
business, in which he was engaged until his retirement
a short time prior to his demise. A democrat, he
took an active part in local affairs, and was elected
sheriff of Ballard County. Fraternally lie was a
Mason. He was married to Penelope White, who was
born in Ballard County, Kentucky, in 1826, and died
in the same county in 1878. The'r children to reach
maturity were as follows : Ann Elizabeth, who is now-
deceased ; George W., was an attorney, served in the
Kentuckv Senate as a member from the First District,
moved to Montana where he became judge of the
District Court at Missoula, and was a candidate for
governor of Montana, and is now deceased, having
passed awav in Montana; Josephine, who is the widow
of William J. Puckett, who was connected in an offi-
cial capacity with the United States Government at
Denver, Colorado, where she is now residing; Martha
Harriet, who is deceased; William T., who was a
prominent attorney of Ballard County, died at Black-
foot, Idaho; Emma, who is deceased; Fannie, who
married Thomas H. Miller, a merchant of Denver.
Colorado ; and Robert L., whose name heads this re-
view.
Robert L. Reeves attended the public schools of
Ballard County and Paducah. and then became a -in-
dent of Clinton College of Clinton. Kentucky, leaving
that institution for Old Transylvania University at
Lexington, Kentuckv. Coming to McCracken County,
he read law, was admitted to the bar in 1878, and for
eight years was engaged in a professional practice at
Paducah. In 1895 he was made president of the First
National Bank of Paducah, and still holds that im-
portant office. This bank was established in 1865, and
is one of the oldest financial institutions in this part I
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
303
of the state. Mr. Reeves is a democrat. He resides
near Twenty-eighth Street and Broadway, and owns
suburban property and other realty.
In 1888, Mr. Reeves was first married at Paducah
to Miss Annie Weil, a daughter of Jacob and Asilee
Weil, both of whom are now deceased. Mr. We.l was
a retired merchant of Paducah at the time of his
death. Mrs. Reeves died in 1910, having borne her hus-
band one daughter, Asilee, who died at the age of
eighteen years. In 191 3, Mr. Reeves was married to
Miss Belle Van Liere at Kenosha, Wisconsin. She is
a daughter of. Martin and Wilhelmina (Pieper) Van
Liere, residents of a farm in the vicinity of Kenosha,
Wisconsin. Mr. and Mrs. Reeves have three children :
Robert L., Jr., who was born in 1914; George W., who
was born in 1917; and Lucia, who was born in 1920.
Harry Gambill Stambaugh, M. D. Born and
reared in Eastern Kentucky Doctor Stambaugh worked
hard for his education and his career as a physician
and surgeon has been attended by the success which
his earnest efforts deserved.
Doctor Stambaugh who is now physician for the
McKinney Steel Company to the plants and mines at
Wolfpit and Greasy Creek, with home at Wolfpit in
Pike County, was born at Paintsville, Johnson County,
Kentucky, May 21, 1890, son of Troy and Mary Ellen
(Witten) Stambaugh, the former now fifty-eight and
the latter sixty years of age. His grandfather was
John Stambaugh. The parents of Doctor Stambaugh
live in the Village of Stambaugh six miles north of
Paintsville, his father being a farmer and carpenter.
Both are very active members of the Christian Church
and Troy Stambaugh has for a number of years been
Sunday school superintendent. They have ten living
children : C. H. Stambaugh, a salesman at Lexington ;
G. H., a farmer and traveling salesman at Ironton,
Ohio; Rev. F. M., a minister of the Christian Church,
who has been accorded many important responsibilities
by his denomination and is now located at Vance-
burg, Kentucky ; Harry Gambill ; J. C, who recently
was discharged from the United States navy and is at-
tending school at Paintsville ; Malta, wife of Powell
Williams connected with the North East Coal Com-
pany at Auxier, Kentucky; Anna wife of George
Burchell, a farmer and rural mail carrier at Stam-
baugh; Lula, wife of Thomas B. Akers, a farmer and
stockman at Stambaugh ; Minnie, wife of Herman
Burchell at Stambaugh and Morgan Stambaugh liv-
ing at Van Lear, Kentucky, employed in the store of
the Consolidation Coal Company.
Harry Gambill Stambaugh after the common schools
attended the Morehead Normal and the Kentucky
State Normal at Louisa and earned most of the money
to acquire his education through teaching for three
years, and he was also county examiner of schools for
three years. He attended the Medical Department of
the University of Tennessee at Memphis, graduating as
an honor student June 6, 1917. He has since taken
special work in surgery and diseases .of the eye in
Chicago, and is a very enthusiastic and devoted
worker in his profession. He has made a special
study of pellegra and published an interesting paper
on this disease. For two years after graduating in
medicine he was company physician for the Consoli-
dation Coal Company at Jenkins, Kentucky, and since
then has been with the McKinney Steel Company at
Wolfpit. He has an assistant to help him with his
duties at Greasy Creek.
Doctor Stambaugh is a member of the Christian
Church, the various medical societies, is a master and
Royal Arch Mason at Pikesville, member of the Shrine,
El Hasa Temple, and Knights Templar at Ashland
and the Elks at Catlettsburg. Politically he is a repub-
lican. Doctor Stambaugh will soon specialize in general
surgery and make his future home in Ashland, Ken-
tucky.
William Zacock Eubank. Among the old, dis-
tinguished and interesting families of Clark County,
one whose members have been variously connected
with the history of Kentucky since early days, and
who have taken part in its affairs as business men,
professional practitioners, agriculturists, soldiers, states-
men and citizens, is that which bears the name of
Eubank. A worthy representative of this family is
found in the person of William Zadock Eubank, who
was connected for years with the lumber industry,
but who for the past quarter of a century has been
devoting his energies to looking after his property at
Kiddville.
Mr. Eubank was born at Trapp, Clark County, Ken-
tucky, December 1, 1850, a son of Achilles S. and
Mary (Kidd) Eubank. His great-great-grandfather,
Richard Eubank, rode from his home at Bedford,
Virginia, on horse-back, accompanied by his wife,
when eighty years or more of age, to visit his son,
Achilles Eubank, who then lived in Kentucky, in a
brick house that is still in good condition and which
is in the possession of a member of the family, James
B. Eubank, and is located near Elkins Station in Clark
County. After his arrival he would visit the home of
his grandson, Col. Ambrose Eubank, and would run
his old racing mare, which he had ridden from Vir-
ginia, around the race track, bringing back to him his
younger years, when he had run and won many run-
ning matches.
Achilles, the son of Richard Eubank and great-
grandfather of William Z. Eubank, was the pioneer of
the family in Kentucky, from Bedford County, Vir-
ginia, whence he came with Daniel Boone. When still
little more than a youth he had fought as a soldier
of the Revolutionary war. He married Polly Bush,
who came with him to Kentucky in 1777. After her
death he married Nancy Ware, and then removed to
Boone County, Missouri, along with Daniel Boone,
where he died. Two of his sons were living as late as
1917, one at Abilene, Texas, at the age of ninety years,
and still an office holder, and the other in California.
Some correspondence developed the fact that Achilles
had really been a Revolutionary soldier, but that the
son in Texas had died in 1920, at the age of ninety-
three years. It is thought that at that time he and
his brother in California were the only living sons of a
Revolutionary soldier. Of the other sons of Achilles
Eubank, Stephen and Ambrose remained in Kentucky,
where the former inherited the old home, which later
went to Stephen's son, Ben B. Eubank, and in -time
the ownership was assumed by the latter's son, James
B. Eubank, the present occupant.
Col. Ambrose Eubank, son of Achilles and grand-
father of William Z. Eubank, was born in Bedford
County, Virginia, and gained his title through mili-
tary service. He was a large tobacco planter, with a
farm bordering on the Kentucky River, at the mouth
of Four-Mile Creek in Clark County, and at the time
of the high water, in 1832 or 1833, the rising waters in-
undated his broad fields and carried away his tobacco
warehouse, costing him a fortune and nearly bankrupt-
ing him, although he saved his land. He died at the
age of sixty-seven years, of cancer. About the year 1805
he married Elizabeth Claiborne, of Virginia, daughter
of Barber Claiborne, and who met Mr. Eubank while
on a visit to a sister, Mrs. Harris Adams, of Clark
County. They became the parents of the following
children : Claiborne, who died near Kiddville at an
advanced age ; Stephen Barber, who removed to Boone
County, Missouri, where he died when well along in
years ; Achilles ; Catherine, who married John Lamp-
ton and died in Missouri at the age of eighty-nine
years ; Elizabeth, who married Wesley Hieronimous
and went to Missouri, where she died in advanced
years ; Susan, who married a Mr. Wallace, of Speed-
well, Madison County, Kentucky, and reached the age
of ninety years ; Fredericka, who married Jesse Massey,
:i04
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
went to Henry County, Kentucky, and died when still
a young woman ; and Polly Bush, who married Peyton
Adams and died in old age in Clark County.
Achilles Eubank, son of Col. Ambrose Eubank and
father of William Z. Eubank, married Mary Kidd,
daughter of Zadock and Jane (Davis) Kidd, the latter
a daughter of Capt. Septimus Davis, who deserted
frum the British army to become a captain in the ranks
of the Patriot Army during the Revolutionary war.
At an early day the captain came to Kentucky and set-
tled near Schollsville, where his death occurred many
years ago. The father of Zadock Kidd had died after
serving in the War of 1812, and the widow brought
her three sons and two daughters from Virginia to
Kentucky, first settling in Bath County and then coming
to what is known as Kiddville, in Clark County. Here
the sons erected a carding factory and later made cloth
in the same plant. The first motive energy was sup-
plied by endless-chain horse power, but this was
later supplanted by more modern methods. The widow
died at Kiddville in advanced age, after which Zadock
bought the interests of his brothers, Oswald G. and
Robert B., the first of whom removed to Georgetown,
Missouri, where he had a woolen mill, while the other
continued as a farmer and attained old age. Zadock
Kidd died when eighty-four years of age. He was
the owner of 600 acres of land in Powell County and
was likewise largely interested in live stock. It was
his custom to drive hogs and mules to South Carolina,
and on one occasion he was bankrupted by not being
able to find a market for his hogs. He returned ready
to accept his condition of bankruptcy, but gained the
support of his largest creditor, Mrs. Nancy GofF, after
which he paid off the other creditors, remained in busi-
ness, and in the following year not only cleared off
his indebtedness with Mrs. GofF, but also made a hand-
some profit. Mr. Kidd later kept a hotel and general
store at West Bend. He was also a stock trader, and
his establishment was the headquarters for freight
traffic to the farmers in the mountains. He was one
of the most hospitable of men, but his free and open-
handed way of giving the liquor on his side-board to
all, young and old alike, would be frowned upon today.
His daughter Mary was but fifteen years of age at the
time of her marriage to Achilles Eubank.
Achilles Eubank died at the age of forty-seven
years at the old Eubank farm where he had been born,
although he had also devoted some of his attention
during his career to selling goods at Kiddville. Of
his children, all were reared to abhor whiskey. Al-
though Mrs. Eubank's father had been liberal in his
views and had always given liquor to his children, she
became as ardent as was her husband in opposition to
intoxicants. After she had been a widow nine years
Mrs. Eubank married a suitor of her early life, W. D.
F. Whittsett, a widower with a family at Pleasant Hill,
Missouri. Her death occurred in that state when she
was seventy-one years of age. The children of Mr.
and Mrs. Eubank to grow to maturity were: Virginia,
who married W. H. Bush, who died at Mount Sterling,
the widow passing away at Kansas City, Missouri ;
William Zadock, of this notice; Mary J., who married
first John W. Moore, after his death James McCormick,
and after his demise William H. Moore, a brother of
her first husband, and now j-esides at Independence.
Missouri; Ambrose Claiborne, who died at Denver,
Colorado, in 1918, aged sixty-two years; Rev. Peyton
A., for nine years a missionary of the Baptist Church
at Lagos, Upper Guinea, Africa, who died in 1916,
while serving as pastor of the church of his faith at
Eureka, Arkansas ; Rev. Marion D., a physician and
missionary to China, who is now secretary of the
American Baptist Association ; Cora, who married T. C.
Carr and died in Kansas City, Missouri; J. Davis, ex-
county judge of Jackson County, Missouri, and now a
resident of Kansas City; and Florence, who married
William Briskey, of LeMar, California.
William Zadock Eubank lias spent his entire life in
Clark County. For twenty-five years he was super-
intendent of river work for the Asher Brothers Lum-
ber Company and their successors, it being his duty to
supervise the sending of logs down the river to the
mill and look after the starting of the logs from
the river and the standing timber. He was known as
the "log detective" of the river, and through his alert-
ness in looking after the interests of his employers a
number of log thieves were sent to the penitentiary,
while much property was saved. He also attended the
courts in seven different counties. In 1895, Mr. Eubank
retired from that position and took up his residence
at Kiddville. He is the owner of the oil springs prop-
erty, which has been in the family since the first set-
tlement. This is located two miles from Kiddville and
there a popular resort has been conducted for years,
from before Civil war times, there being at present a
hotel located there much frequented by the traveling
public. The patent for this property was issued by
Governor Patrick Henry to Marquis Calmes, who set-
tled three of his children on this property and willed
500 acres of the oil spring land to his daughter Miriam,
through whom it came into the hands of the Eubank
family. The original patent is now held by D. P.
Eubank, of Shreveport, Louisiana.
Mr. Eubank married first Miriam Weaver, born at
Oil Spring, Clark County, a daughter of John and
Priscilla (Hall) Weaver, and to their union there were
born three sons during their four years of married
life: Achilles S., D. D. S., a practicing dentist of
Kansas City. Missouri; Dillard P., who is engaged in
the real estate and insurance business at Shreveport,
Louisiana; and Ambrose Eaton, M. D., a practicing
physician and surgeon of Kansas City, Missouri. Mr.
Eubank married for his second wife Alice Lyddane,
of Wheelersburg, Scioto County, Ohio, who was born
in Clark County, Kentucky, a daughter of James P.
Lyddane, of Maryland, whose father was a learned
Irish professional man. James P. Lyddane operated a
woolen mill on Lower Howard Creek, seven miles from
Winchester, for a number of years. Mr. and Mrs.
Eubank became the parents of one child, Audley W.,
who died at the age of eleven years. Mrs. Eubank's
father died when she was eight years of age, at which
time she was taken to Ohio, and there from her ninth
year until she reached womanhood she was reared in
the home of her father's former partner, George O.
Wiggard. During the last fifteen years of his life Mr.
Wiggard was supported in the home of Mr. and Mrs.
Eubank, with whom he passed away at the advanced
age of ninety-six years. Mr. Eubank belongs to the
Missionary Baptist Church, while Mrs. Eubank is a
Methodist.
Thomas Aleck Miller. A man of wealth and in-
fluence, Thomas Aleck Miller, head of the T. A.
Miller Land Company, of Paducah, is conspicuously
identified with the upbuilding of city and county, as a
real estate dealer handling upwards of half a million
dollars worth of property annually. Coming of sub-
stantial English ancestry, the founder of the branch
of the Miller family from which he is descended emi-
grated from England to Virginia in Colonial days. He
was born, October 12, 1872, in Murray, Calloway
County, Kentucky, which was likewise the birthplace
of his father, Irvine Miller.
Joseph Miller, his paternal grandfather, was born in
Virginia in 1804, and as a young man migrated to Ken-
tucky, becoming a pioneer farmer of Calloway County,
where he followed his free and independent occupation
until his death, in 1877.
A life-long resident of Calloway County, Kentucky,
Irvine Miller was admitted to the Kentucky bar, and
began the practice of law in Murray, his native city,
where he met with unquestioned success. He served
for ten years as county attorney, at the time of his
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
30!:
death, December 24, 1876, while yet in manhood's
prime, having two more years to serve before the ex-
piration of the term for which he was elected. He
was a democrat in politics ; a member of the Ancient
Free and Accepted Masons ; and belonged to the
Christian Church. His wife, whose name before mar-
riage was Mollie Jones, was born in 1848 in Concord,
Calloway Comity, Kentucky, and died October 27,
1919, in Paris, Tennessee. She was a daughter of
Judge Thomas Jones, a pioneer settler of Calloway
County, which he subsequently served as county judge
for sixteen years and as the first representative of
Calloway County in the Kentucky State Legislature.
Four children were born of their union, as follows :
Christian C, traveling salesman, Paris, Tennessee; Lila,
wife of Samuel Brame, a well known farmer of
Lafayette, Christian County; Thomas Aleck, with
whom this sketch is chiefly concerned; and Nellie _
Nina, wife of G. C. McClaren, a traveling salesman,"
residing in Paris, Tennessee.
Educated in Murray, Kentucky, Thomas Aleck
Miller left school when but fourteen years old, and the
following seven years was employed as a clerk by
Nat Ryan, at Murray, and being observing, intelligent
and enterprising gained a practical knowledge of mer-
cantile pursuits. Subsequently forming a partnership
with Nat Ryan, he opened a store at Hardin, Marshall
County, Kentucky, and for sixteen years carried on a
thriving business as junior member of the firm of
Ryan & Miller. In 191 1, he disposed of his interests in
the firm, and two years later, on March 1, 1913, located
in Paducah, where he was engaged in the real estate
business until May, 191 5. Embarking then in the
automobile business, Mr. Miller built up an extensive
business, one of the largest of the kind in Western
Kentucky, and managed it successfully until September,
1917, when he sold out at an advantage. Resuming
his real estate operations, he has since dealt extensively
in city and farming property, loans and mortgages,
the T. A. Miller Land Company, of which he is the
head, having built up the largest business of the kind
in this section of the state, its offices being located at
307-8 City National Bank Building.
Possessing undoubted financial and business ability
and judgment, Mr. Miller has accumulated valuable
property, having title to lands in McCracken, Marshall,
Caldwell and Calloway counties aggregating 2,000
acres, and owning in Paducah forty residences. His
own residence, located at 208 Fountain Avenue, a
modernly built structure, is one of the six best and
most attractive residences in the city, it being often
shown on post cards.
Politically Mr. Miller is a democrat. He belongs to
the Travelers' Protective Association; to the Ohio
Valley Trust Company, in which he is a director ; and
is an ex-member of the Paducah Board of Trade..
Fraternally he is a member of Magnum Lodge No. 21,
Independent Order of Odd Fellows; of Olive Camp
No. 2, Woodmen of the World ; of Paducah Camp
No. 11313, Modern Woodmen of the World; of the
Paducah Homestead No. 4453, Brotherhood of Amer-
ican Yeomen ; of Plain City Lodge No. 449, Ancient
Free and Accepted Masons ; and of Paducah Chapter
No. 30, Royal Arch Masons. A prominent member
of the First Baptist Church, Mr. Miller is very active
in the Sunday School, being president of the Young
Business Men's Bible Class, which through his stren-
uous efforts in securing members and his ability in
keeping the members together is the largest class of
young men in the state, its membership being over 500.
Mr. Miller married, December IS, 1896, in Callo-
way County, Kentucky, Miss Lena Lassiter, a graduate
of the Murray High School and a daughter of W. R.
and M. J. (Brigham) Lassiter, who reside with Mr.
and Mrs. Miller. Mr. Lassiter, a retired farmer of
eighty-eight years, was one of the early pioneers of
Calloway County, and is a veteran of the Confederacy.
The union of Mr. and Mrs. Miller has been blessed by
the birth of four children. The two surviving are
Thomas Aleck Lewin, Jr., born in 1903, was graduated
from the Paducah High School with the class of 1920;
and William Irvin, born in 1908, is a freshman in the
Paducah High School. In the oratorical contest held in
Henderson, Kentucky, in 1920, he won second place,
the first place having been secured by a youth twenty
years of age. William Irvin has participated in thirteen
debates or oratorical contests, and in every previous
contest has won the first place, an honor of which
he, his parents, and instructors may well be proud.
Chester M. Vance. The man who can trace back
to distinguished Revolutionary ancestors, and from
them on down through a line of men and women of
honorable lives, has every reason to be proud of his
Americanism, and such men are never to be found in
radical movements nor giving support to movements
which have for their object the destruction of existing
forms of government. Chester M. Vance, of Paducah,
has achieved to enviable prosperity as a farmer, mer-
chant and realtor, but he is more proud of the fact
that he belongs to the above mentioned class than he
is of any personal success. His family is an old one
in this country, representatives of it having come to the
American Colonies from England prior to the Amer-
ican Revolution, and, settling in North Carolina, took
part in the development of that region. When war
was declared between the Colonies and England the
Vances played well their part as patriots, and when
the war was over returned to their peaceful occupa-
tions.
The grandfather, Milton Vance, was born in North
Carolina in 1804, but he left the old home of his ances-
tors following the close of the struggle between the
two sections of the country and became a pioneer
farmer of Ballard County, Kentucky, where he con-
tinued to live until his death in 1898. He was a second
cousin of the late Governor Vance of North Carolina.
Another second cousin of his, Martha Vance, became
his bride, and she, too, was a native of North Carolina,
and died in Ballard County, Kentucky. Prior to the
war they were extensive landowners and had a num-
ber of slaves, but lost heavily during that conflict.
Chester M. Vance was born in Ballard County, Ken-
tucky, on July 11, 1882, a son of Newton F. Vance,
who was born in North Carolina in 1842, and died at
McCracken, Kentucky, on February 9, 1902. Reared
in Ballard County in part, he developed into a pros-
perous farmer and landowner, and continued his agri-
cultural operations when he moved to McCracken
County. Like his relatives, he was a strong democrat.
From his youth he was a member of the Baptist Church
and was a strong supporter of it. His wife bore the
maiden name of Lizzie Fitzgerald, and she was born
in Trigg County, Kentucky, in 1841, and died in Mc-
Cracken County in 1918, on September 22. Their
children were as follows : Charles W., who lives on
the homestead in McCracken County; Buford, who
was a farmer, and died in McCracken County at the
age of thirty-eight years ; Chester M., who was the
third in order of birth ; Bessie Lee, who married L.
B. Holt, Jr., of the Rock Shoe Company of Paducah;
Susie, who married S. R. Greenwell, a farmer of
Maxon, Kentucky; and Roy N., who is a merchant in
partnership with his brother Chester M., and lives at
Maxon, Kentucky.
Chester M. Vance was educated in the public schools
of Ballard and McCracken counties and in the Smith
Business College of Paducah, in which he took a com-
mercial course. Until he reached his majority he re-
mained on the farm, and during that period learned
the fundamentals of farming from his father. Leaving
the farm, he established his present mercantile busi-
ness at Maxon, Kentucky, under the name of Vance
Brothers, which is one of the two leading stores in
306
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
McCracken County outside of Paducah. These broth-
ers also own 400 acres of land in the county, and do
an extensive general farming and stockraising busi-
ness. In September, 1919, Mr. Vance went into part-
nership with W. E. Ezzell in the real estate business,
with offices at 418-19-20 City National Bank Building.
He is also a stockholder in the Rhodes-Buford Furni-
ture Company, and is extensively interested in oil lands.
He resides at Maxon, and takes an interest in civic
affairs of that place and also of Paducah as a demo-
crat. The Methodist Episcopal Church holds his mem-
bership and affords him a medium for the expression
of his religious life. He belongs to Plain City Lodge
No. 449, A. F. and A. M.; and Massac Lodge, I. O. O.
F., of Lamont, Kentucky.
In 1910 Mr. Vance was married at Paducah to Miss
Minnie Payne, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Stokley
T. Payne. Mr. Payne is a resident of Paducah, but
formerly was an extensive land operator and founded
and platted the town of LaCenter, Ballard County,
Kentucky. His wife is now deceased. No children
have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Vance.
Roy N. Vance, a brother of Chester M. Vance, en-
listed for service in the World war in July, 1918, and
was sent to Camp Taylor and thence to Birmingham,
Alabama. He was mustered out of the service in
March, 1919, with the rank of sergeant. The interests
of Chester M. Vance are many and varied, and he is
discharging the heavy responsibilities resting upon him
with efficient capability and is rapidly becoming one of
the leading young business men of McCracken County.
Otho Bell Powell, D. M. D. In no other profes-
sion have such rapid strides been made as in that of
dentistry, and the modern doctor of dentistry is as
carefully trained as his brother practitioner, the doctor
of medicine. The decision on the part of men of
science that many of the ills to which humanity is
prone are caused by faulty or defective teeth has
brought home to the general public the absolute neces-
sity for skilled attention from one who knows his
calling. There was a time when a man bragged of
the fact that he had never paid a dentist a visit in his
life. Today, if such is true, it is better to keep the
unwholesome news quiet, for it is no credit, but a
disgrace, to have neglected so important a part of the
bodv.
The dentists of McCracken County are a fine body
of men, skilled and competent, and they compare favor-
ably witli any in the country. Naturally of them Pa-
ducah has its full share, and among them one having
an excellent reputation for the superiority of his work
and the care he gives his patients is Dr. Otho Bell
Powell.
The birth of Doctor Powell occurred at Princeton,
Kentucky, September 16, 1878. He is a son of Thomas
Marshall Powell, and grandson of Thomas Powell,
the latter of whom was born in Virginia in 1808 and
died at Corydon. Kentucky, in 1883. He was the pio-
neer of the family into the state, locating at Corydon,
Henderson County, where he was engaged very profit-
ably as a farmer. The Powell family immigrated from
England to Virginia long before the American Revo-
lution.
Thomas Marshall Powell was born in Henderson
County, Kentucky, in 1848, and was reared there, but
was married at Princeton, Kentucky, and for the subse-
quent forty years was the leading dry goods merchant
of the place. When he retired he moved to Gaines-
ville, Texas, where he is now residing. In politics he
is a democrat. Always very active in church work,
he has long been a consistent member of the Christian
Church. Thomas Marshall Powell married Mollie Far-
row, born at Mount Sterling, Kentucky, in 1857, and
they became the parents of the following children:
Doctor Powell, who is the eldest; Elizabeth, who mar-
ried Dr. J. L. Griffin, a dentist of Gainesville, Texas;
Strother B., who has an automobile agency and garage,
lives at Dallas, Texas ; and Edwin M., who resides at
Dallas, Texas, is manager of the Dallas Telephone
Company.
Doctor Powell attended the public schools of Prince-
ton, Kentucky, and was graduated from its high school
in 1896. He then became a student of the South Ken-
tucky College at Hopkinsville, Kentucky, from which
he was graduated in 1898 with the degree of Bachelor
of Arts. He then took his professional training in the
dental department of the Washington University at
Saint Louis, Missouri, from which he was graduated
in 1901 with the degree of D. M. D. That same year
he established himself in a general practice at Prince-
ton, Kentucky, but only remained there for a year, and
then for another year was at Evansville. In 1904
Doctor Powell came to Paducah, and has built up the
largest practice of any man in his profession in West-
ern Kentucky. His offices are located at 421 J4 Broad-
way. He follows in his father's footsteps in that he
is both a democrat and a member of the Christian
Church, and is serving the latter as a deacon. Well
known in Masonry, he belongs to Plain City Lodge No.
449, A. F. and A. M.; Paducah Chapter No. 30, R. A.
M., of which he is a past high priest; Paducah Com-
mandery No. 11, K. T., of which he is a past com-
mander; and Rizpah Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of
Madisonville, Kentucky. He is also a member of
Paducah Lodge No. 217, B. P. O. E., of which he is
a past exalted ruler, and is past district deputy of the
Grand Lodge of the last named fraternity. As a mem-
ber of the Rotary Club, he takes an intelligent and
effective part in different movements for the city's
progress and is a great booster for Paducah.
In 1905 Doctor Powell was married at Paducah to
Miss Irene Strassman, a daughter of Emil and Ellen
(Hanley) Strassman. Mr. Strassman was superin-
tendent at the Edward Hurley Machine Plants _ at
Chicago, Illinois, manufacturers of the Thor washing
machines and vacuum cleaners, but he is now deceased.
His widow survives him and makes her home at Chi-
cago. Mrs. Powell was graduated from the Young
Ladies' Seminary at Chicago. Doctor and Mrs. Powell
have no children. Their beautiful residence, which
they own, is at Avondale Heights, just west of the
city limits, and the comfortable and modern house is
surrounded by large grounds.
Amplias Warrick Davis, M. D. A native of Hopkins
County and a member of one of the old families in
this section of Kentucky, Doctor Davis began his
career as a physician and surgeon more than twenty
years ago, practiced in the country towns of the county
for many years, went into the army as a medical officer,
was on duty in France for several months, and recently
resumed his practice, with offices at Madisonville.
Doctor Davis is a very skillful and advanced physician
and surgeon, and also has many property and other
interests in Hopkins County.
He was born at Mortons Gap November 4, 1874.
His paternal ancestors were Scotch-Irish and Colonial
settlers in Virginia. His great-grandfather was one of
the very early settlers in the agricultural district of
Hopkins County. His grandfather, Israel Davis, was
horn in 1815, and was an early settler in Hopkins
County. As a Hopkins County farmer he carried on
operations on an extensive scale, and was also a general
trader and for a number of years owned an equipment
of teams and wagons with which he transported mer-
chandise between Henderson and Madisonville. He died
on his farm near Madisonville in 1880. His wife was
Dicy Woodruff, who was born in 1823 and died at
Madisonville in 191 5.
George M. Davis, father of Mr. Davis, was born at
Princeton in Caldwell County in 1847 was reared on
the home farm near Madisonville, and after his mar-
HISTORY. OF KENTUCKY
307
riage continued farming on his own account until 1876,
when he entered the mercantile business at Mortons
Gap. For many years, until 1905, he was one of the
leading tobacco exporters out of this section of Ken-
tucky. He assisted in organizing in 1905 the Planters
Bank of Mortons Gap, and continued to act as its
president until his death in Madisonville in January,
1910. He was a democrat in politics. George M. Davis
married Mary J. Davis, of the same family name but
not related. She was born at Henderson, Kentucky, in
August, 1847, and is now living at Madisonville. She
is the mother of two children, Minnie D. and Amplias
Warrick. The daughtet lives in Madisonville, widow
of Michael Cain, who was a merchant and died at Louis-
ville.
Doctor Davis was educated in the rural schools of
Hopkins County, attended the Madisonville High School,
finished the sophomore year in 1889 at Transylvania
University in Lexington, and the following year grad-
uated from Smith's Commercial School at Lexington.
He had a varied business career before he took up
medicine. Foi seven months he was railroad agent
and telegraph operator for the Louisville and Nashville
Railway Company. He was then asociated with his
father as partner under the firm name of George M.
Davis & Son, proprietors of a mercantile business at
Mortons Gap until 1893. Doctor Davis graduated in
medicine from the Louisville Medical College in 1898,
but has never ceased to improve his personal abilities
by renewed contact with institutions of learning and
clinics. He has attended clinics in England, France,
Ireland and Scotland, did general post-graduate work
in the New York Post-Graduate School in 1902 and
1906, and in the Chicago Policlinic in 1910, attended
the Mayo Clinic at Rochester, Minnesota, in 1918, and
specialized in general surgery in Tulane University of
New Orleans in 1920. Doctor Davis is a member of
the Pi Mu medical fraternity.
Beginning practice in 1898, he made his home at
Earlington and Mortons Gap until February 24, 1918.
At that date he was commissioned a captain in the
Medical Reserve Corps, spent five weeks in the Medical
Officers Training Camp at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia,
was transferred for ten days to Camp Bowie, Fort
Worth, Texas, was at Camp Shelby, Mississippi, from
April 16, to August 24, 1918, spent one week at Camp
Stuart, Virginia, and then went overseas with the sur-
gical section of Base Hospital Unit No. 59 under Col.
Irvin Abell. For ten days he was camp inspector at
Brest, but his longest duty abroad was with the base
hospital center at Rimaucourt, France, where he re-
mained until January 1, 1919. Following that for three
days he was property officer of Field Hospital No. 20,
was then at Field Hospital No. 38, and finally battalion
surgeon of the Fifty-third Infantry, Sixth Division.
He was ordered back to the United* States March 28,
1919, and received his honorable discharge at Camp
Dix, New Jersey, May 2, 1919. It was on account of
his wife's illness that his return from abroad was
hastened. Doctor Davis did not resume active practice
until he located at Madisonville on April 16, 1920. His
offices are in the Madisonville Hospital Building.
Doctor Davis owns a business block on West Center
Street, and has a general purpose farm of 210 acres
a mile west of Madisonville. He is a director in the
Hopkins County Bank and a member of the executive
committee of the Business Men's Association of Madi-
sonville. In line with his profession he is a member
of the County Medical Society, is a former vice presi-
dent of the State Medical Society, and a member of
the American Medical Association and the Southwest
Kentucky, Ohio Valley and Southern Medical Societies.
Doctor Davis is a democrat, and is a past master of
Morton's Gap Lodge No. 765, A. F. and A. M.; a
member of Madisonville Chapter No. 123, R. A. M. ;
Madisonville Commandery No. 27, K. T. ; Rizpah
Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Madisonville, Louis-
ville Consistory of the Scottish Rite ; is a past grand
of Mortons Gap Lodge No. 143, Independent Order of
Odd Fellows, and a member of Madisonville Lodge No.
738, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
Doctor Davis resides with his mother at the corner
of Broadway and Main Street. He married at Evans-
ville, Indiana, April 10, 1906, Miss Ada Lunsford,
daughter of J. Hub and Ann Lunsford, both now de-
ceased. Her father was for many years a prominent
citizen of Hopkins County, was a flour miller at Madi-
sonville, and served as sheriff, and representative in
the Legislature from the county. Mrs. Davis died at
her home at Mortons Gap, November 20, 1919.
William Manon Cornett, deputy insurance com-
missioner of the State of Kentucky, has long given
evidence of his ability and fitness for positions of re-
sponsibility, and in his present office is giving universal
satisfaction. He was born at Cornettsville, Kentucky,
September 9, 1882, a son of Eli H. Cornett, and a mem-
ber of one of the old families of North Carolina,
where his ancestors settled upon coming to the Amer-
ican Colonies from England. There his great-grand-
father was born, and from that state he brought the
family into Kentucky, locating in Perry County, his
plantation being the site of Cornettsville, which is
named in honor of Eli H. Cornett. There his son,
Anderson Cornett, was born in 1S10, and he died
there in 1887, having spent his life in that region and
his energies in farming. Anderson Cornett was mar-
ried to a Miss Alcomb, a native of Cornettsville.
Eli H. Cornett was born at Cornettsville, Kentucky,
in 1855, and he now resides at Hominy, Oklahoma.
Growing up in his native place, he became one of the
most influential men of the county, carrying on for
years a prosperous mercantile business and serving as
sheriff for one term. In 1904 he retired from active
participation in business life and moved to Hominy,
Oklahoma. He is a strong republican. Early joining
the Baptist Church, he has since been an active sup-
porter of the local congregation, and very liberal in
his donations to it. Eli H. Cornett was married to
Jane Combs, who was born at Hazard, Kentucky, in
1857. Their children have been as follows: William
Manon, who was the eldest ; Joseph, who was a farmer,
died at Hominy, Oklahoma, when twenty-five years old ;
Carrie, who died at the age of six years; Roy, who is
a bank president, resides at Pershing, Oklahoma ; John
B., who is a druggist of Beggs, Oklahoma; Roily, who
died in infancy ; Vincent, who is in partnership with
his brother John B. in the drug business at Beggs ;
Herman, who is also a partner in the drug business
at Beggs with his two brothers; Corbett, who is county
attorney, and was elected in 1920 to the Legislature
of Oklahoma, lives at Pawhuska ; Callie, who is a
school teacher at Big Heart, Oklahoma ; Worthy, who
is a school teacher at Big Heart; Dove, who is also
teaching at Big Heart; and Eddie, who is a student of
the law department of the State University at Norman,
Oklahoma.
William Manon Cornett attended the rural schools
of Prairie County, Kentucky, and the high school of
Hazard, and was graduated from the latter in 1901,
following which he attended the Kentucky State Uni-
versity at Lexington, Kentucky, for one year. He
was then appointed deputy county clerk of Prairie
County, and after serving as such for one year was
appointed deputy sheriff, and served as such under his
father for four years. Once more he was appointed
deputy county clerk, and faithfully discharged the duties
pertaining thereto until 191 2, in that year becoming
private secretary to Congressman J. W. Langley, and
was at Washington until the fall of 1915. Returning
to Hazard, he embarked in a real estate business and
conducted it until January, 1920, when he was ap-
308
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
pointed deputy insurance commissioner of Kentucky
by John J. Craig, state auditor, and took office January
6th of that year for a term of four years. His offices
are in the new Capitol Building, and he lives at mi
Steel Street, Frankfort, although he maintained his
legal residence at Hazard, where he owns a modern
residence on H;gh Street, which is one of the finest
in that city. He also owns coal lands in Prairie Coun-
ty, and is a man of ample means. In politics he is a
republican, and served as police judge at Hazard for
a year and as city clerk for two years. He is a mem-
ber of the Methodist Episcopal Church. A Mason, he
belongs to Hazard Lodge No. 676, A. F. and A. M.
He is also a member of Hazard Lodge No. 145, I. O.
O. F., which he served as noble grand for four terms;
the Junior Order United American Mechanics; Wil-
lard Lodge, K. of P., of Yerkes, Kentucky; Hazard
Tribe, I. O. R. M. ; and Elizabeth Chapter," O. E. S.,
of Hazard. In addition to his other interests he is a
stockholder in the Blue Grass Coal Corporation. Dur-
ing the late war he took a very active part in the local
war work, helping in all of the drives as one of the
e'oouent and popular speakers. He bought bonds to the
limit of his means.
In [903 Mr. Cornett was married at Hazard to Miss
Clara Eversole, a daughter of Joseph and Susan
(Combs) Eversole. Mr. Eversole, who was a very
prominent attorney, was assassinated in the French-
Eversole feud at Hazard, where his widow is still
residing. Mrs. Cornett was graduated from the Hazard
High School. Mr. and Mrs. Cornett have three chil-
dren, namely : Juanita, who was born December 25,
[904; Joseph, who was born May 15, 1907; and Clara,
who w^s born in October, 1009 A man of dependa-
bility, Mr. Cornett has always given the best of him-
self in whatever occupat:on he has followed, and is
recognized as a man eminently fitted for the responsible
office he is now occupying. His Americanism has
been proven in every way, and he is proud of the fact
that he can trace his ancestry back through so many
generations in this country.
Charles Joseph Pellen Carver. There were many
veterans of the World war who returned from their
military serv'ce men in thoughts and actions who had
gone into it boys in years and enthusiasm. The stern
training given each one who participated in that mighty
conflict developed all that was best in him, the dross
being refined and the pure gold of his character being
separated from the baser metals of natural inclina-
tions. Thousands who might otherwise have been
merely mediocre were developed into men who have
already shown that they will make names that are
synonymous with ability and the strictest integrity.
Of the men of Metcalfe County who enlisted in the
great struggle and returned to civil life to take up
responsible duties, one who has shown himself worthy
of consideration and esteem is Charles Joseph Pellen
Carver, cashier of tlie Citizens National Bank, Somer-
set, Kentucky.
Mr. Carver was born at Edmonton, February 12,
18S8. a son of Charles Meriwether and Fannie (Comp-
ton) (Evans) Carver. He belongs to a family wlrch
was founded in Barren County, Kentucky, in the pio-
neer days of the state, his great-grandfather, a nat've
of the East, being an original settler of the name in
this region. Mr. Carver's grandfather, Thomas W.
Carver, was born in 1832, in Barren County, and was
engaged successfully in farming there until 1907, in
which year he retired from active pursuits and re-
moved to Canadian, Texas, where lis death occurred
in 191 5.
Charles Meriwether Carver was born October 26,
1857, in Barren County, where he was reared and
educated, and where he spent a number of years in
successful farming operations. Coming to Edmonton
in 1880, he was married here and for a time clerked
in a store, but later, in 1900 and 1901, followed farm-
ing in Oklahoma and Texas. His next place of resi- 1
dence was Indianapolis, Indiana, where he was em-
ployed by the American Hominy Company for five
years, following which he established himself in busi-
ness as a merchant and continued in that city two
years. Mr. Carver then went to California, and in the
vicinity of Los Angeles was interested in the oil busi-
ness far two years, next going to Portland, Oregon,
where he was employed by the Portland Water Com-
pany. In 1914 he returned to Barren County, Ken-
tucky, where he has since been engaged in agricultural
operations. Mr. Carver was formerly a democrat in
politics, and during Presidenf Cleveland's last admin-
istration served as postmaster of Edmonton for four
years. In 1896 he transferred his allegiance to the
republ'can party, to which he has since given his sup-
port. He belongs to Renick Lodge No. 549, F. and A.
M., at Wisdom. Kentucky, to the Improved Order of
Red Men and the Modern Woodmen of America.
At Edmonton Mr. Carver was united in marriasre
with Mrs. Fannie (Compton) Evans, the widow of
Robert H. Evans, a former merchant of Edmonton,
who had one son by her farmer marriage, Henry
Edward Evans, an attorney at law, who died at Bowling
Green, Kentucky, August 7, 1897. Mrs. Carver was
born July 12, 1849, at Edmonton, where she d'ed March
7, 1894. She and Mr. Carver were the parents of the
following children: Walter Sherman, a merchant at
Horse Cave, Kentucky; Charles Joseph Pellen, of this
review ; Mary Frances, who married first Harry Ander-
son, a farmer near Edmonton, and after his death
married Ross R. Lambirth. a merchant at Sulphur Well,
Metcalfe County; John Thomas Goree, a tire finisher
in the employ of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Com-
panv of Akron, Ohio.
Charles J. P. Carver was educated in the public
schools of Edmonton and Louisville, and after gradu-
ating from the e:ghth grade entered the Edmonton
Normal School, but left this at the age of fifteen vears
to accept a clerkship in the hotel at Sulphur Well,
where he remained three years. From that position
he went to the Peoples Bank of Metcalfe County,
located at Edmonton, and was assistant cashier of
that institution until the United States entered the
World war. On September 18, 191 7, he enlisted in the
United States service and was sent to Camp Zachary
Taylor, Kentucky. While in training there he was
promoted from private to corporal, and remained in
the camp until June 8, 1918. He was then transferred
to Camp Sherman, Ohio, where he was promoted to
battalion sergeant major of the Three Hundred Thiriy-
sixth United States Infantry. On August 23, 1918, he
was sent to Camp Mills, New York, and September 9,
1918, embarked for France. He landed first at Glas-
gow, Scotland, and arrived at LeHavre, France, Sep-
tember 25. 1918. On January 3, 1919, he was promoted
to the rank of regimental sergeant-major of the Second
Provisional Regiment. He was later made a casual,
and sailed from France April 5, 1919, being mustered
out at Camp Zachary Taylor April 28, 1919.
Upon his return Mr. Carver again took un his duties
at the Peoples Bank of Metcalfe County at Edmonton,
Kentucky and occupied the position of assistant cashier
until August 25. 1919, when he was advanced to cashier.
He resigned this position December 17, 1021. to assume
the position of cashier of the Citizens National Bank
at Somerset to which position he had been elected in
November. He is well versed in banking affairs, and
has become very popular with depositors, who have
found him accurate, obl'ging and courteous, and who
feel that they can place a full amount of confidence in
him. He is a republican in his political allegiance,
and has shown some interest in party affairs, having
also served in several public offices, as deputy Circuit
Court clerk in 1903, and as deputy county clerk of
Metcalfe County in 1905. He belongs to the Presby-
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
309
terian Church, in which he is an active worker, a
member of the Board of Trustees and a deacon. Fra-
ternally he is affiliated with Renick Lodge No._ 549,
A. F. and A. M. Mr. Carver owns and occupies a
pleasant and comfortable home on East Street, where
the many friends of himself and wife are always sure
of a hearty welcome.
On June n, ioia, Mr. Carver was united in mar-
riage at Edmonton to Miss Perrie M. Bushong, daugh-
ter of Dr. Perry W. and Delia (Morrison) Bushong,
who reside at Edmonton, where Doctor Bushong is a
leading citizen and a physician and dental practitioner.
He is also a veteran of the World war, in which he
saw service as a captain in the Medical Corps. Mrs.
Carver attended the Western Kentucky State Normal
School at Bowling Green, Kentucky, and is a graduate
in stenography of the Bryant & Stratton Business Col-
lege, Louisville.
John William Gaines. Circumstances rather than
definite choice made John William Gaines a banker,
though his early ambition was to become a lawyer.
For over thirty years he has been identified with the
official management of one of Anderson County's oldest
and soundest banking institutions. In later years he
found it possible to complete his preparations for the
legal profession, and has earned an almost equally
high place in the county as a lawyer.
He was born at Alton in Anderson County May 22,
1869, a son of Gabriel Hansford and Ann (McCor-
mick) Gaines, also natives of Anderson County. The
paternal grandparents were Richard and Malinda
(Sanders) Gaines, the former coming to Kentucky
from Culpeper County, Virginia, in 1818 and settling
in Anderson County. The maternal grandparents were
William P. and Paulina (Baker) McCormick, also
Virginians and pioneers of Anderson County. Gabriel
H. Gaines for over fifty years was in business as a
merchant at Alton. He was born November II, 1823,
and died May 23, 1907. His first wife was a Miss
Wilson, who was the mother of two children. By
his marriage to Ann McCormick, who was born Feb-
ruary 9, 1840, and died December 3, 1918, he had four
children. Gabriel Gaines was an able business man, a
progressive and public spirited citizen, and lived a
consistent life as a member of the Christian Church.
His second wife was a devout Presbyterian.
John William Gaines grew up at Alton, attended
common schools there, and in 1887 graduated from the
Kentucky Military Institute, then under the able super-
vision of Col. R. D. Allen. For a year after leaving
college he worked on the farm, and in September,
1888, became teacher of mathematics in the Normal
School at Lawrenceburg. In March, 1890, he became
a clerk in the old Anderson County Deposit Bank, and
with growing experience his relations have proved
practical and invaluable to that bank and its successors
through more than thirty years.
The Anderson County Deposit Bank was the suc-
cessor in 1878 of the Anderson County .National Bank,
which was organized in 1870 as the outgrowth of the
old private bank of J. and J. A. Witherspoon, which
was established in 1866. Dr. J. A. Witherspoon was
president of the bank through successive changes until
1892, when he was succeeded by L. J. Witherspoon.
Mr. J. A. McBrayer was the first cashier, and con-
tinued active in the affairs of the bank until he re-
signed in 1901. The Anderson County Deposit Bank
in 1907 was reorganized and has since been the Ander-
son National Bank. Mr. Gaines after being with the
Deposit Bank six years was made vice president and
manager in 189S, and in 1907, on the reorganization,
became its president, with Mr. L. B. McBrayer as
cashier. The Anderson National Bank has had an
enviable record throughout more than half a century's
existence. It has a capital stock of $100,000 and the
surplus and undivided profits in 1921 aggregated
$130,000.
The success he achieved as a banker did not turn
Mr. Gaines altogether from his early plans as to a
profession. By private study and through correspond-
ence courses he was able to pass a successful examina-
tion and was admitted to the bar in 1909, and has
since built up a remunerative private practice. He is
a democrat in politics. He has been active in civic
affairs having served in the Council for eight years,
and was recently elected mayor of Lawrenceburg, hav-
ing been sworn in on January 2, 1921. Mr. Gaines is
a past master of his Masonic lodge and a Knight
Templar, and for many years has been a prominent
member of the Christian Church. He teaches a class
of boys in Sunday school, and every member of his
present class is a member of the church. In 1896 he
married Miss Frances Marion Cannon, daughter of
Dr. and Mrs. Frank M. Cannon, of Georgetown, Ken-
tucky.
William Scholl was a Kentucky pioneer who came
West at the time of the Boones and while in the cen-
tury and a quarter since his death his descendants
have been scattered through many states some of them
are still found in Kentucky.
William Scholl was born in Virginia, son and pos-
sibly the only child of Jacob Scholl, a native of Ger-
many. William Scholl was living in the Shenandoah
Valley, probably in Augusta County, just before he
moved to Kentucky with the Bowmans and Boones,
being related to both families. He and his family were
in the Boonesboro Fort when it was besieged by the
Indians, and he and his boys aided in its defense.
After danger from Indians had passed away he built
his home on Marble Creek, Fayette County, near
Boone's Station, and there lived and died, passing away
sometime in 1803.
William Scholl may have been married twice, his
first wife being a Van Meter. His grandson, Joseph,
was authority for the assertion that the mother of
Peter and Joseph Scholl was a Van Meter. His second
wife was Leah Morgan, a relative of Gen. Daniel
Morgan and also of Daniel Boone's mother.
William Scholl had joined the Boones at Powell's
Valley in the fall of 1773. His son, Abraham, though
only a lad of eleven, accompanied Boone in 1775 when
he blazed the trail to Boonesboro, and his older brothers
were also most probably along. Three of William
Scholl's sons were in the battle of Blue Licks, Peter,
Joseph and Abraham. Peter was also in the battle of
Point Pleasant and Kings Mountain. Joseph Scholl
married Lavinia Boone, a daughter of Daniel Boone,
while Peter Scholl married Mary Boone, daughter of
Daniel's brother Edward. In 1792 Joseph, Peter and
Abraham moved to the eastern part of Clark County,
near what is now the village of Schoolsville, where
they established homes, the two former dying there,
though Abraham moved to Griggsville, Illinois, in 1826
and lived there until death claimed him December 24,
1852. He was a Dunkard and refused to own slaves.
William Scholl's son William was killed at Braddock's
defeat at the beginning of the French and Indian war,
and a son John died of smallpox while fighting in the
Revolution.
Besides these facts and statements the following
data serve to make up another record of the children
and grandchildren of William Scholl.
The son, Joseph, born in 1753 and died in the fall
of 1829, married about 1785 Lavinia, daughter of Daniel
Boone, and settled in the eastern part of Clark County,
Kentucky. His children were: Jesse, who married
Elizabeth Miller, daughter of Joseph Miller, on Sep-
tember 7, 1824 ; Septimus, who married Sallie Miller,
daughter of Joseph Miller, December II, 1813 ; Marcus;
Joseph, Jr.; Celia, who married an Evans; Marcia,
Vol. V— 29
310
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
who married James Holloday, March 31, 1808; and
Leah.
Peter Scholl, born September IS, 1755. arid died
September II, 1821, about 1782 married Mary, daughter
of Edward and Martha Bryan Boone, Edward being
a brother of Daniel Boone. Peter's children were:
Martha, born in 1783, married Horton Wells, and she
died October 10, 1840; John, born in 1787, married
Cenia Jones on January 5, 1814; Lydia, born in 1789,
married Boone Hays January 3, 1807; Joseph, born in
1791, married Malinda Muir and died in 1856; Dudley,
the first of the name, born in 1793, died in infancy;
Malinda, born in 1795, married Edward Elledge, and
she died in 1831 ; Jesse Bryan, born in 1797, married
Charity Elledge, and he died in February, 1859; Peter
Morgan, born in 1799, married March 17, 1823, Eliza-
beth Huls, and he died in 1829, a few days after arriv-
ing in Missouri; Edward Boone, born October II, 1801,
married Susanna Bently July 13, 1826, and moved to
Griggsville, Illinois : Dudley, second of the name, born
in 1803, married Catherine Norris ; Mary, born in 1805,
married At Hays; Louisa, born in 1807; Charity, born
in 1809; and Polly.
Abraham Scholl, born in 1764, first married Nellie
Humble, and the six children of that union were :
Morgan ; Killice ; Uriah, who married Arsley Hardesty
February 28, 1816; Annie, who married Nicleberry
Daniel; Celia, who probably married Jilson Martin
September 29, 1817; and Rachel, who on June 9, 1810.
became the wife of Hinchea G. Barrow. The second
wife of Abraham Scholl was Tab'tha Noe, whom he
married December 15, 1803. Her children were: Sally,
who married October 3, 1820, Marshall Key, a relative
of Francis Scott Key; Leah, who married a Ratten;
Sirilda, who married a Miller; Adeline, who married
a Bushnell ; William, who married a Miss Dale; Ma-
tilda, who became the wife of William Wilson ; Peter ;
Abraham ; Eliza, who married a Steele ; Elizabeth, who
married Charles Gibbs ; Joseph, who died in infancy ;
and Wesley.
Isaac Scholl moved to Duck River, Tennessee, and
by his marriage to Jane Morgan had a large family.
John Scholl, previously mentioned as the son who
died of smallpox during the Revolutionary war. must
have been one of the older sons; he married Miss
Morris and had two children, John and Leah.
William Scholl's son Jacob died in infancy. The
son William mentioned as having been killed at Brad-
dock's defeat, which occurred at the beginning of the
French and Indian war, was, if that statement is true,
born a number of years before any of the other ch I-
dren mentioned here.
Sally Scholl, a daughter of William Scholl. became
the wife of Samuel Shortridge and both died in Tippe-
canoe County, Indiana. Their children were : Kesiah,
who married Samuel Black; Leah, who married Samuel
Stark; Celia, who married Arnold Drewery ; Elizabeth,
who married Griffin Treadaway ; James, Morgan, Sam-
uel and Tohn.
Rachel became the wife of David Denton and settled
in Barron County, Kentucky.
Elizabeth Scholl became the wife of Arrett Custer,
a relative of General Custer, and both died near Madi-
son, Indiana.
David Barrow. In addition to being one nf the
pioneer ministers of the Baptist Church in Kentucky
David Barrow was distinguished as one of the first
preachers and leaders in the abolitionist movement west
of the Alleghanies. On more than one occasion he
was almost a martyr to his faith and the principles he
believed to be right, and history does well in recording
all the available facts regarding such a man.
He was born in Brunswick County. Virginia. October
3°. 1753, and his father, William Barrow, was a re-
spected farmer of Brunswick County, Virginia, who
late in life moved to North Carolina, where he died
in his ninety-first year. William Barrow was a grand-
son of Thomas Barrow, a native of Lancashire, Eng-
land, who with his brother was kidnapped and brought
to the northern neck of Virginia in 1680 and sold to '
pay his transportation across the ocean. After securing
his freedom Thomas moved to Southampton County,
Virginia, on the waters of Nottoway River, where be
died when over ninety years old.
Of David Barrow it is said "he professed conversion
at about the age of sixteen years and was baptized by
Zachariah Thompson into Fountain Creek Church."
Soon he began to exhort others to seek the Savior, and
was ordained to the full work of the ministry in his
nineteenth year. In the same year he married Sarah,
daughter of Hinchea Gilliam, a farmer of Sussex
County and a native of Scotland. For three years
after his ordination he traveled and preached extensively
in Virginia and North Carolina. In 1774 he became
pastor of Isle of Wight Church. There were several
churches in this vicinity and the contiguous parts of
North Carolina that had been gathered by a denomina-
tion called General Baptists. Mr. Barrow joined with
John Tanner "in renovating" the churches, and in a
few years they had a respectable association of churches
"formed on the orthodox plan." By this means
Kehukee Association was formed.
In 1776 Mr. Barrow entered the Revolutionary Army
in the defense of his country, and it is said by a con-
temporary historian "David Barrow did good service
for his country, winning great honor for himself."
When his term of service expired he again took up
his work as minister of the gospel, and while so en-
gaged was subjected to severe persecution. At one of
his appointments he was seized by a gang of ruffians
and dragged to a pond of muddy water and told "as
you are so fond of dipping you shall have enough of
it." His persecutors plunged him under the muddy
water and held him until he was almost drowned. He
was then raised and derisively asked if he believed?
This was continued until the third time, when he an-
swered, "I believe you are going to drown me." He
was dragged from the house and driven away without
changing his clothes. The promise, "vengeance is mine.
I will repay," was speedily fulfilled in this case. Within
a few weeks several of his persecutors met death in
a very distracted manner and another was heard to
say that he wished he had been in hell before he joined
this company.
While fighting to preserve his own and his country's
liberty he came to the conclusion that liberty was the
natural right of the black man as well as the white and
that the enslavement of either was a sin against God's
law. He therefore emancipated all his slaves, of which
he owned a considerable number, and began to preach
this doctrine from the pulpit. He published and cir-
culated an English translation of Clarkson's Essay on
"Slavery and Commerce of Human Species." He also
wrote a pamphlet of sixty-four pages against this in-
stitution, which he circulated. This is said to have
been well written "in a calm, dignified style." He sent
a copy to Thomas Jefferson, and from him received
a letter under date May 15, 181 5, acknowledging the
receipt of same and expressing Jefferson's views on that
subject.
David Barrow moved with his family to Montgomery
County, Kentucky, in 1798, arriving June 24th. There
he lived the remainder of his life. Soon after his
arrival at his new home he united with the Mount
Sterling Church and became its pastor. He also ac-
cepted similar work with the Goshen and Lullebegrud
churches. A descendant of this pioneer minister is Mr.
A. C. Barrow, still living in the rural district at Mount
Sterling.
David Barrow's piety and conspicuous ability soon
attracted the attention of his brethren throughout the
state. He was one of the committee appointed by the
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
311
Elkhorn Association to deal with Governor Garrard
and Augustine Eastin, who had embraced Unitarianism,
to convince them of their error, a commission that
also involved Cowper's Run Church and other churches
in the care of Eastin. In 1803 Mr. Barrow published
a pamphlet on "The Trinity," which exhibited marked
ability and doubtless did a great deal towards arrest-
ing in that community the spread of the Unitarian
doctrine. He was also successfully employed in nego-
tiating conditions of union between the Regular and
Separate Baptists.
Barrow's advocacy of emancipation in Kentucky
aroused most intense opposition on the part of many
of his brethren, and soon again he felt the sting of
religious persecution. In 1805 North District Associa-
tion received five charges against David Barrow, pre-
sented by messengers from Bracken Association and
growing out of his advocacy of emancipation. After
hearing him in his own defense the association decided
that "his explanations and apologies were sufficient."
The next year the charges were renewed before North
District Association, and he was expelled from his seat
in that body and a committe appointed to deal with
him in the church at Mount Sterling. However, this
action was rescinded the next year.
Immediately after his expulsion from North District
Association Mr. Barrow began to organize an emancipa-
tion association of Baptist churches. A meeting was
called to convene at New Hope in Woodford County
August 29, 1807, where preliminary steps were taken
for the organization, which was perfected in the fol-
lowing September under the name Baptised Licking-
Locust Association, Friends to Humanity. At their next
meeting they resolved "that the present mode of asso-
ciation or confederation of churches was unscriptural
and they then proceeded to form themselves into an
abolition society." This, doubtless, was the first or-
ganization in America established for the purpose of
emancipation of slaves, and to David Barrow belongs
the credit of being its organizer and leader. Spencer,
in his History of Kentucky Baptists, says : "David Bar-
row was much the most distinguished preacher among
the emancipationists in Kentucky" and gives him credit
for organizing this association. Dr. James Taylor,
D. D., pastor of the Second Baptist Church of Rich-
mond, Virginia, in his Lives of Virginia Ministers,
written in 1838, says Elder Barrow possessed a dis-
criminating mind, his talents were of a high order.
"It is much to be questioned whether as a speaker he
has ever been excelled by a Baptist minister of Vir-
ginia or Kentucky."
The organization noted continued to exist until 1820,
a year after the death of David Barrow, when it yielded
to the pressure of commercialism and dissolved.
When the end of all things that pertain to this
world drew near to David Barrow he met it with the
peace that passeth all understanding, with the exultant
joy of one who was counted worthy to suffer dishonor
for the name, as one conscious that he had fought a
good fight, had finished the course, had kept the faith,
and on Sunday morning, November 14, 1819, shortly
after repeating in unfaltering faith these words: "The
Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want, yea, though I
walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will
fear no evil, for Thou art with me," he passed tri-
umphantly from the fiery trials and persecuting storms
of this world, to a land that is fairer than day, and
where the truth has made all men free.
J. Sam Brown, M. D. The medical profession at
Ghent, Kentucky, is ably represented by men of scien-
tific knowledge and long experience, and among these
no physician and surgeon stands higher in public esteem
or more fully enjoys the confidence of his fellow citizens
than Dr. J. Sam Brown, who has been established in
medical practice here for more than a quarter of a cen-
tury.
Doctor Brown was born December 3, 1870, at Wythe-
ville, Virginia, which was also the birthplace of his
father and his grandfather, the former in 1841 and
the latter in 1804. In tracing the family still farther
backward the record shows that early in the history
of Pennsylvania a body of German colonists settled
there, a quiet, thrifty, industrious people, and one
family in the colony bore the name of Brown, or Braun,
according to the German orthography. In the course of
years some of the more venturesome members of this
family made their way to Virginia, and the name is
still borne by substantial people in Wythe and Wash-
ington counties.
Dr. N. C. Brown, father of J. Sam Brown, was reared
at Wytheville, where his early education was looked
after. He later became a student in Roanoke College,
Roanoke, Virginia, from which institution he was grad-
uated with the degree of A. B., and then entered the
College of Physicians and Surgeons at Baltimore, Mary-
land, from which he was graduated with his medical
degree. He began practice at Wytheville, afterward
practiced for a few years at Sanders, Carroll County,
Kentucky, and then came to Ghent, where he was a
leading physician and surgeon for forty years. Po-
litically a strong democrat, he was always more or less
prominent in party councils, and when the war between
the states came on he felt it his duty to enter military
service and enlisted in the Forty-fifth Virginia Volun-
teer Infantry Confederate Army participated in and
survived the long campaigns and the battles of Gettys-
burg and Vicksburg, only to be made a war prisoner in
1865, just before the end of the conflict. He had been
captured near the City of Washington and shortly after-
ward was paroled. He belonged to the Masonic fra-
ternity and was active for years in the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South.
Dr. N. C. Brown was three times married, first to
Miss Sarah Gaines, who was born in East Tennessee
in 1845, and died at Sanders, Kentucky, in 1873. Three
children were born to this marriage : Lulu, who is the
wife of Albert Shirmer, a farmer in Carroll County;
Dr. J. Sam Brown; and Josie, who is the wife of
Theodore North, a farmer in Carroll County. Doctor
Brown married for his second wife Mrs. Kate (Lind-
say) McClure, who was born in 1850 in Carroll County,
and died at Ghent in 1886. Her father, Gen. John C.
Lindsay, was prominent in Kentucky and an extensive
farmer in Carroll County. To this marriage one son
was born, Hubert Brown, who is a farmer near Ghent.
His third marriage was to Miss Anna Sanders, niece of
George Sanders and daughter of Joseph and Mary
Sanders. Dr. N. C. Brown survived until 1919, pass-
ing away at Ghent. He was one of a family of eleven
children born to J. A. and Sarah (Repass) Brown,
the latter born also at Wytheville, and four of this
vigorous old family are still living : Ida, who resides
at Norristown, Tennessee, is the widow of John Gamble ;
Laura, who is the wife of Dr. William Gaines, physician
and surgeon at Spokane, Washington ; Lou, who is the
wife of Fayette Vaughn, a real estate broker at Dallas,
Texas ; and Stephen, who is a minister of the Methodist
Episcopal Church in Arkansas.
J. Sam Brown attended the excellent public schools
of Ghent, in which, as a watchful citizen, he has always
been interested, and in 1887 was graduated from the
high school. For three years after this he worked in
a drug store, an excellent preparatory school for
.medical college, then entered the University of Louis-
ville, from which he was graduated in 1892 with his
degree. He entered into practice in his home city,
and has remained here, enjoying the consideration, re-
spect and confidence that is justly awarded a con-
scientious and skillful physician and surgeon. He is in
312
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
partnership with Dr. P. V. Ellis, and together they own
and conduct the leading drug store in this part of
Carroll County, their patronage coming from over a
wide area. They carry all standard drugs, write their
own prescriptions, and offer in an attractive way all the
commodities that are now featured in the first class
modern drug store everywhere.
At Louisville, Kentucky, in 1909, Doctor Brown was
married to Miss Lura Bond, a daugher of James and
Helen (Whittaker) Bond, the latter of whom lives in
Carroll County. The father of Mrs. Brown was a
farmer in Carroll County and is deceased. Doctor and
Mrs. Brown are members of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South, at Ghent, and he is a member of its
board of trustees. He has never been particularly in-
terested in fraternal organizations, but is well known in
such representative professional bodies as the Carroll
County and the Kentucky State Medical societies and
the American Medical Association. He has always
given his political support to the democratic party. Dur-
ing the World war he took an active part in all local war
activities, helped in all the patriotic drives and was head
and front of all the Red Cross work at Ghent. Doctor
Brown owns some valuable real estate here, which in-
cludes his comfortable modern residence situated on
Main Street.
R. M. Pool is a banker of twenty-five years or more
experience. The First National Bank of Princeton, of
which he is president, is one of the strongest financial
institutions in Western Kentucky, and through the
greater part of its history Mr. Pool has been connected
with its affairs either as cashier or president.
He was born in Caldwell County, Kentucky, Janu-
ary 11, 1872. He is a grandson of a distinguished
pioneer physician, Dr. T. Brown Pool, who for many
years in the middle period of the nineteenth century
practiced over Christian and Caldwell counties, and
performed his work in all kinds of weather and with
a remarkable devotion to duty undeterred by hardship.
It is said that he had patients a hundred miles distant
from his home in all directions, and wherever possible
he never failed to respond to their calls. He died in
Princeton in 1886. He was a native of Xorth Carolina,
born in 1799, and came at an early day to Christian
County, Kentucky. James Monroe Pool, father of the
Princeton banker, was born in Christian County in 1825,
spent his early life in Christian and Caldwell counties,
married in the latter, and after his marriage lived at
Princeton. For a quarter of a century he was county
jailer. He was a Confederate veteran, having enlisted
early in 1861, and gave his services to the Southern
cause until the surrender of Lee in 1865. He was at
Fort Donelson. Shiloh, Chickamauga, Lookout Moun-
tain, Missionary Ridge and other important engage-
ments, a large part of the time as a follower of General
Forrest, and was taken prisoner at Fort Donelson, but
soon afterward exchanged. He died at Princeton in
1902. He was a very sincere and active member of the
Universalist Church and a democrat in politics. His
second wife was Mary Frances Stephens, who was born
in Caldwell County in 1836 and died at Princeton in
1916. Of their four children R. M. Pool is the young-
est. Addie, the oldest, is the wife of W. S. Allison.
a farmer living at Los Angeles, California; John S. is
a farmer at Lockhart, Texas; and Luella. living at Ard-
more, Oklahoma, is the widow of W. C. Robinson, who
was a railroad engineer.
R. M. Pool, who was born in Caldwell County, Janu-
ary 11, 1872, attended the public schools of Princeton,
graduated from high school in 1889, and for five years
served as deputy Circuit Court clerk and also as deputy
county clerk. This experience proved valuable to him
when he took up banking, though he entered the First
National Bank of Princeton in a comparatively humble
role as clerk. He has won his successive promotions
and at different times has had charge of practically
every department of the bank's administration and
routine. For fourteen years he was cashier, and since
1918 has been president. The First National was estab-
lished in 1883 under a national charter and with a
capital of $50,000, and some of the items which indicate
its strength today comprise a capital of $150,000, sur-
plus and profits of $300,000, with approximate deposits
of $1,500,000. Besides Mr. Pool as president the two
vice presidents are H. M. Jones and R. E. Butler, and
L. G. Cox is cashier. This bank, under the presidency
of Mr. Pool, did much to sustain the patriotic record
of Caldwell County during the war. The bank bought
outright the entire quotas of the three bond issues for
Caldwell County.
Those familiar with the educational situation in
Princeton ascribe the maximum degree of credit to
Mr. Pool for the enviable condition the public schools
today. For fourteen years he was a member of the
school board, and his membership was a responsibility
which he never held lightly. He is a staunch demo-
crat, a deacon of the Christian Church, and for the past
twenty years has been treasurer of Clinton Lodge No.
82, A. F. and A. M., and is also a member of Clay
Chapter No. 28, R. A. M. ; Princeton Commandery
No. 35, K. T. ; Rizpah Temple of the Mystic Shrine at
Madisonville, and Princeton Lodge No. 1 115 of the
Elks. He owns a large amount of valuable real estate
in Princeton, including his very desirable home on
Washington Street.
In 1898, at Henderson, Kentucky, Mr. Pool married
Miss Jessie Grubbs, daughter of Frank L. and Birdie
(Jennings) Grubbs, the latter now deceased. Her
father is in the hotel business at Denison, Texas. Mrs.
Pool received the highest honors of her class when she
graduated from the Princeton Collegiate Institute. The
two children of Mr. and Mrs. Pool are James Monroe
and Mildred, the former born April 3, 1900, and the
latter August 3, 1905. James is a first class man in
the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, while
the daughter is in the sophomore year of the Princeton
High School. Mr. Pool has been recently appointed by
Governor Morrow as a member of the board of di-
rectors of the Confederate Home at Pew Wee Valley,
being the first son of a Confederate veteran to occupy
a position on this board.
A. T. Knox, M. D. A long and eminently successful
career as a physician in Clark County by no means
covers the activities and accomplishments of Dr. A. T.
Knox, of the Thomson community, for he has long been
a contributor to the public welfare as the incumhent
of public positions of trust and responsibility, and has
been an encouraging factor in the development of the
stock raising industry in his section.
Doctor Knox was born in Powell County, Kentucky,
December 11, 1863, a son of John T. Knox, a native of
Montgomery County and an agriculturist by vocation.
His grandfather, Thomas Knox, was a son of one of
three Scotch brothers, one of whom settled at Knoxville,
Tennessee, one in Michigan and one in Massachusetts.
Among the descendants of this ancestor was the mother
of former President James K. Polk, and Philander C.
Knox of Pennsylvania is also of the same line, while the
City of Knoxville is named in honor of the family.
The direct ancestor of Doctor Knox, Thomas Knox,
eventually came to Indian Fields, Clark County, as a
hunter, but owing to the scarcity of game removed to
the mountains and there spent the rest of his life
as a hunter in the rougher parts of the state. His
son, George Knox, followed agriculture for his liveli-
hood and was also a county officer in Powell County,
where he died at an advanced age. John T. Knox, the
son of George, spent his life in Powell County, where
he still lives at the age of eighty-three years, his
father having been eighty-eight years of age at the
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
313
time of his demise. John T. Knox married Arminda
Hanks, a relation of Nancy Hanks, the mother of Abra-
ham Lincoln, who was born and reared in Powell
County and died in 1875, when in middle life. A. T.
Knox was one of six children born to his parents, and
he also had four half-brothers, born to his father and
stepmother. Nine of these sons reached maturity and
six survive. There was a distinct inclination in the
family for the boys to join the medical profession.
Two brothers of Doctor Knox, now deceased, were
physicians, Calvin C, who practiced at Bowen, Kentucky,
and William O., who followed his calling at Jefferson-
ville, this state. A third brother, Melvin L. Knox,
M. D., still practices medicine and surgery at Torrent,
Kentucky.
A. T. Knox was compelled to make his own way in
a large degree in his youth, and after completing his
primary education began to teach school in Powell
and Estill counties, a vocation which he followed in
the rural districts for nine years. He then began to
sell goods in the latter county, and followed that occu-
pation for four or five years, or until after the death
of his first w'ife, Alice Baker, with whom he had been
united at the age of twenty-two years. They were the
parents of three children: Armina, now the wife of
Rev. Ray Shear, a Presbyterian minister at Dalton,
Ohio, with two sons, John Knox and James Algin ;
John F., M. D., a practicing physician at Mount Sterling,
Kentucky ; and Lillie U., the wife of John S. Lyle, a
merchant at Furnace, Estill County.
After the death of his wife A. T. Knox attended
the Kentucky School of Medicine at Louisville, from
which he was graduated in the class of 1894, and for
the following twenty years was engaged successfully
in the practice of his calling in Powell County. During
this period he belonged to the Powell County 'Medical
Society, the Kentucky State Medical Society and the
American Medical Association, and still holds member-
ship in the two latter and in the Clark Medical Society.
There is still a great demand for his services as a
physician, and in the community of his home, near
Thomson, he is held in the highest esteem and con-
fidence.
For many years Doctor Knox had recognized and
appreciated the urgent need for a better grade of stock
on the farms of this part of Kentucky, and had been
an energetic advocate of inaugurating movements that
would bring in a better breed. The farmers, however,
were slow to accept what they considered a radical
movement, many believing that what was good enough
for their fathers was good enough for them. Eventu-
ally, the doctor decided that a good illustration upon
his part would be more effective than all the talking
he could do and all the advice he could give, and ac-
cordingly embarked in the stock raising business on his
own account, with the result that he is now one of
the leading men in this line in his section of the state.
He became a resident of his farm March 1, 1918, the
present house on which was built in 1912 by Shields
Cunningham. Since his arrival Doctor Knox has erected
two tenant houses and installed other improvements
as they have been found necessary.
Hereford Stock Farm, as this property is known, was
started by Doctor Knox while he was still a resident
of Powell County, the herd being formed originally
of a Hereford thoroughbred bull, which was bred to
common stock. Soon the doctor owned a herd of
high grades, after which he cut out the grades and
kept on raising only registered stock. At present he
has a splendid thoroughbred herd, which has attracted
the interest of the community and has been the means
of many other farmers adopting his methods and
thereby materially elevating the stock-raising standards
of this section. Doctor Knox is interested in the Here-
ford Journal. From his herd of fifty-five breeding
animals he has exhibited successfully at fairs and
imong his prize-winners have been the strain of "The
Acrobat," "Beau Brummel'' and "Very Best." The farm
consists of 322J/2 acres of well-cultivated and highly-
improved land eight miles from Winchester and six
miles from Mount Sterling, being located at Thomson,
on the C. & O. Railroad.
Doctor Knox has been identified prominently with
public affairs for a number of years. In 1008 he was
elected a representative from Powell and Estill coun-
ties in the State Legislature as a republican, and as-
sisted in the election of Hon. William O. Bradley to
the United States Senate. He was chairman of the
committee on public health and others relative to the
public health and safety, and took an active and con-
structive part in all discussions brought to the con-
sideration of that body. He was likewise made a
member of the committee appointed to visit Indianapolis
to investigate the State Fair Grounds, with the idea
of installing similar grounds in Kentucky, but this
committee reported adversely. In 19 14 Doctor Knox
was elected county judge of Powell County, and served
in that capacity for four years. During this period
he voted for the county bond issue for the improvement
of the roads in Powell County, the beginning of the
goods roads movement here. This first met with the
hardest kind of opposition from the reactionaries, who,
as usual, could see nothing good in something that
had not been done before. Through good work on
the part of Judge Knox and his associates among the
intelligent and progressive men of the community _ suc-
cess was won for the movement, which is now exceed-
ingly popular.
Doctor Knox's second marriage was to Mrs. Mary
Maxwell, nee Martin, widow of George A. Maxwell,
a farmer of Powell County and a cousin of Doctor
Knox. By her first marriage Mrs. Knox has one
daughter, Miss Grace Maxwell, a graduate of the State
University, Lexington, class of 1920, who resides at
the Knox home. Mrs. Knox is still the owner of a
fine farm in Powell County, which is now operated by a
tenant.
Both Doctor and Mrs. Knox are active in the work
of the Bethlehem Christian Church, where he has a
splendid Bible class. Formerly, while a resident of
Powell County, he taught for some years in the Metho-
dist Episcopal Sunday School.
Cecil Reed. Though he was educated for the bar
and enjoyed a promising practice for several years,
Cecil Reed has given his chief attention to the responsi-
bilities of public office and financial management, and
for several years past has been secretary and treasurer
of the Ohio Valley Trust Company of Paducah.
A son of William M. Reed, whose career as a Ken-
tucky lawyer has been reviewed on other pages, Cecil
Reed was born at Benton in Marshall County June 28,
1877. He acquired his early education in the public
schools of his native village, attended the State Uni-
versity at Lexington three years, leaving at the end
of his junior year, and in 1901 graduated with the
LL. B. degree from the law department of Center Col-
lege at Danville. After graduating he was engaged in
practice at Benton until 1904, and in that year came to
Paducah and was appointed master commissioner of
the McCracken Circuit Court. He filled this office with
a singular degree of efficiency for twelve years, and
since 1916 has been secretary and treasurer of the
Ohio Valley Trust Company.
Mr. Reed is a democrat, a member of Paducah Lodge
No. 217, B. P. O. E., and is a well known figure in
social and civic circles.
His home is at 927 Broadway. At Paris, Tennessee,
in 1002, he married Miss Selina Smith, a daughter of
D. W. and Mollie (Shobe) Smith. Her father for
many years was a tobacco dealer in Louisville, Kentucky.
Her mother is still living and makes her home with
Mr. and Mrs. Reed. The latter is a graduate of Potter
College at Bowling Green, Kentucky. The three chil-
314
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
dren of Mr. and Mrs. Reed are Lucile, born in 1906;
Rosemary, born in 1909 ; and Margaret Cecil, born
in 1919.
Joseph E. Mattison. The operation of a large busi-
ness requires special qualifications if it is to function
properly. A knowledge of the problems which must
be met, the strength of will and caliber of brain to
solve them, good judgment with reference to men, and
a willingness to put a conscientious amount of work
into each day are some of the characteristics employers
of men for big positions demand. Joseph E. Mattison
is displaying just these qualities in his management of
the branch yard and offices of the Saint Bernard Min-
ing Company at Paducah, and as a result this com-
pany's annual showing is very satisfactory.
The birth of Mr. Mattison occurred on July 23, 1886,
and he is a son of Joseph Mattison and grandson of
Andrew Mattison. Andrew Mattison was born in Eng-
land in 1804 and was killed in a steamboat explosion
in 1864, while a passenger on the "Pat Claybourne."
He was the founder of his family in the New World,
and after coming to the United States located at Hop-
kinsville, Kentucky, where he carried on a large nursery.
Later he moved to Paducah and became the pioneer
nurseryman of this city, as he had been of Hopkins-
ville. He was also engaged in raising vegetables and
fruits. During the war between the states he enlisted
and served in the Union Army. Andrew Mattison
married Clara Thompson, also a native of England,
who died at Paducah.
Joseph Mattison was born at Paducah in 1855, and
was only a small boy when his father was killed, so
he had to rely upon his own efforts from an early age.
During the greater part of his life he has been in the
florist business, and is still one of the leading men in
his line at Paducah. For a number of years he was
on the Paducah School Board, and he is a man who is
held in the highest esteem, so he could doubtless have
further honors did he desire them. The Episcopal
Church holds his membership and he is a very earnest
worker in the church. Joseph Mattison married Jennie
Derrington, born in Kentucky in 1858. Their only
child to reach maturity was Joseph E. Mattison.
Mr. Mattison never attended school after he was
fifteen, and when he was eighteen began to be self-
supporting as a driver for the Adams Express Com-
pany. He held this- position a year, and then went
with M. Livingston & Company, wholesale grocers,
for another year. His next business experience was
gained with the Illinois Central Railroad and continued
for a year. After an intermission of three years he
became connected with his present company, in its
Paducah branch, in 1910, his first position being that
of clerk and scaleman. From that, at the bottom, he
has steadily risen through the various grades until in
May, 1915, he was made manager of this branch, and
continues to hold this very responsible situation. The
home offices are at Earlington, Kentucky, and this
company has branches at Paducah and Louisville, Ken-
tucky, Evansville, Indiana, and Nashville, Tennessee.
The Saint Bernard Mining Company handles coal. Mr.
Mattison has had charge of the retail business for
Paducah and its vicinity in all three years. The main
yard and office are at No. 1013 Jefferson Street, an-
other yard is at No. 123 South First Street, and the
third yard is on Meyer Street in Mechanicsburg. Mr.
Mattison is a republican. He belongs to Plain City
Lodge No. 449, A. F. and A. M. ; Paducah Chapter
No. 30, R. A. M. ; Paducah Commandery No. 11, K.
T. ; and Kosair Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of Louis-
ville, Kentucky. He is also a member of Paducah
Lodge, K. O. T. M., and the Paducah Board of Trade,
and is one of the most popular men in both business
and social circles.
In April, 1907, Mr. Mattison was married at Pa-
ducah to Miss Bertie Clark, born in Graves County,
Kentucky, and they have one daughter, Clara, who was
born August 20, 1908. Mr. and Mrs. Mattison own
their residence at 1218 South Sixth Street.
Henry C. Butler. The mercantile interests of an
enterprising little community and a large contiguous
farming locality are represented at I. & F. Junction,
Dodge Post Office, Clark County, by Henry C. Butler,
the proprietor of an up-to-date general merchandise
store. Mr. Butler is a native Kentuckian, born at
College Hill, Madison County, October 4, 1866, a son
of Dr. C. F. and Frances (Quisenberry) Butler, and
a maternal grandson of William Quisenberry, who re-
sided seven miles south of Winchester, but who soon
after the marriage of his daughter became a hotel
proprietor at Sharpsburg, Bath County. There he was
married a second time and removed to Mount Sterling,
where his death occurred when he was advanced in
years.
Dr. C. F. Butler was a son of Henry P. Butler, of
Louisa County, Virginia, and a descendant of one of
two brothers who immigrated to the United States from
Europe and located first in Virginia, whence one went
to an island in one of the Great Lakes, where he died.
Henry P. Butler settled at Clintonville, Bourbon Coun-
ty, as a young man with his bride, and there died dur-
ing an epidemic of cholera in 1854. His son, C. F.,
was then nineteen years of age and, it is thought, was
reading medicine at Transylvania College. His medi-
cal course was completed at Cincinnati, following which
he practiced at Boonesboro and the vicinity in Clark
County until the Civil war. During that conflict he
served in Morgan's command, and after the close of
the struggle removed to College Hill, Madison County,
in 1866, taking with him his young bride, to whom he
had been married in the fall of 1865. He continued to
be engaged in the practice of his profession during
the remainder of his life, and died in September, 1878,
at the age of forty-three years. Doctor Butler was
ever ready to answer any call, feeling that he owed a
service to humanity, and this disregard of self led
to his early death, he having contracted tuberculosis
while engaged in the duties of his profession. By his
first wife, who died six years after their marriage, he
had two children: Henry C, and Kate M., who died
in her twenty-first year, unmarried. She had been
reared in the home of her aunt, Mrs. J. H. Lisle, of
Winchester. For his second wife Doctor Butler married
Alice Johnson of College Hill, daughter of Rev. J. J.
Johnson, a Methodist minister who was also principal of
the academy at College Hill, where Mrs. Butler had
been a teacher. She survived the Doctor but two
years, and at her death left two children : Loula, who
married R. B. Blakemore and lives at Shelbyville, this
state; and Charles T., who died in early manhood.
During his boyhood Henry C. Butler attended the
public school and spent one year in the home of an
uncle, subsequently attending the academy at College
Hill for two years as well as that at Vanceburg. For
one term he taught school at the Brock School in
Clark County, and in 1884 went to Kansas, especially
to make a set of abstracts at Howard, Elk County.
Later he journeyed to Fayetteville, Arkansas, where he
learned the trade of printer, and from 1888 to 1893
worked at the case as a journeyman, visiting various
places in several states of the Union. His last work
as a printer was at Lexington, where he spent about
one year setting type, and then turned his attention to
the furniture business, at which he worked two years.
In 1896 he opened a store at Vaughn's Mill, Powell
County, and since that time has been a merchant. He
came to Clark County again in 1897 and located at
Bloomingdale, and in November, 1899, came to the I.
and E. Junction, six miles east of Winchester, where
he purchased an established trade. He carries a gen-
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
315
eral stock of up-to-date goods of all kinds and deals
in produce, and his business has shown a gratifying
increase each year.
Mr. Butler as a merchant has been successful be-
cause of his enterprise, practicability and business in-
telligence, as well as because of his courtesy and evident
desire to thoroughly meet all the demands of his pa-
trons. During the greater part of the time that he
has been engaged in business here he has served also
as postmaster and for a time as railroad agent. He
is a York Rite Mason, belonging to Lodge, Chapter
and Commandery, and is a member of the Mystic
Shrine. On June 12, 1913, Mr. Butler married at Win-
chester Miss Minnie Ford, of Richmond, Madison
County, a daughter of Benjamin Rhodes Ford, a trader
of Richmond. Mr. and Mrs. Butler have no children.
Eli Bean Dooley. Both the Bean and the Dooley
families have their roots deep in the past of the Blue
Grass section of Kentucky, particularly in Clark Coun-
ty, where Eli Bean Dooley represents one branch of
both families. Mr. Dooley is one of Kentucky's ablest
and most extensive farmers, and for many years has
directed the operations on hundreds of acres and has
been one of the leading cattle feeders. His home is
nine miles east of Winchester, near Wade's Mill.
In the house where he and his widowed mother re-
side he was born September 29, 1864, a son of Obediah
and Mary (Bean) Dooley. On the same farm his
father, Obediah, was born April 23, 1816. The grand-
parents were Obediah and Ann Dooley. " There is in
the family an old bible of 1813, and among its records
are found dates pertaining to Obediah and his wife,
Ann. Obediah was born July 10, 1769, and died Oc-
tober 22, 1845, while Ann was born January 17, 1773,
and died October 8, 1850. They were from Virginia.
Obediah, Jr., who died September 29, 1884, was mar-
ried June 10, 1858, to Mary Bean. However, she was
his second wife. His first wife was Belle Scott, who
died leaving no children. The present residence in
which Eli B. Dooley lives was built by his grandfather
in order to keep the son Obediah on the farm.
Mary Bean, who is still living under the same roof
where all her married life was spent, was born Jan-
uary 15, 1833, at the old Bean farm on Paris Pike, six
miles north of Winchester, a daughter of Eli and
Sarah (Hall) Bean. Eli and Sarah Bean were mar-
ried November 26, 1822. Eli was born at the old Bean
homestead November 17, 1794, while his wife, Sarah,
was born November 21, 1801, in Frederick County,
Virginia. Eli Bean was a son of John and Eve (Sen-
senney) Bean. John Bean and wife settled on the
Kentucky property when they came West. They had
eloped from Virg'nia and accomplished part of their
journey to the western wilderness by flatboat. For
several years they lived in a district where the Indians
comprised a large part of the population. John Bean
eventually acquired a large tract of fine land. He was
the father of nine children. Eli Bean spent his active
life on the old homestead, and was a man of much
influence in the locality, serving as justice of the peace
and as "sheriff. Mrs. Mary Dooley has three living
sisters: Mrs. Susan Bush, of Winchester; Mrs. Eliza
Evans, who lives on the Prettyrun Pike in Clark Coun-
ty; and Mrs. Sarah A. Duncan, of Louisville. Her
five brothers, all deceased, were : John W., a farmer
and for twenty-five or thirty years before his death
president of the Clark County National Bank; James
H, who spent his life on a part of the Bean estate on
Paris Pike; Edwin P., who owned the old Bean home-
stead but retired to Winchester, where he died at the
age of seventy-five; Dr. Bennett H., who died at the
age of seventy, at North Middletown, Kentucky; and
Asa-L., who was a merchant at North Middletown.
Obediah and Mary Dooley had four children: Sally
M. and Anna B., both of whom died in early child-
hood; Eli B. and Asa, both of whom have always been
associated in some of their farming and business enter-
prises.
Obediah Dooley owned about 1,000 acres, and all
that land is still kept in the family. His two sons
use this property for their joint stock and grain raising
enterprises. Eli Dooley has increased the family pos-
sessions to about 2,200 acres, and he is personally
owner of 1,800 acres. About seventy-five acres of this
great family holding is devoted to tobacco. Eli Dooley
has never gone in for the breeding of cattle, but has
confined his operations chiefly to feeding cattle for
export. He makes a practice of buying stock at 900
pounds, finishing them off on the blue grass and selling
in the fall at an average of 1,450 pounds. He feeds
about 100 head every year and also keeps other live-
stock.
His landed possessions include the noted Alpheus
Lewis farm. Alpheus Lewis was a prominent distiller
whose whisky gained a far-famed reputation. The old
distillery is about a mile from the Dooley home. The
Lewis farm comprised about 1,000 acres and is im-
proved with one of the finest homes in the county,
finished in cut stone. In spite of the manifest at-
tractions of this home Mr. Dooley and his mother
prefer the less pretentious attractions and environment
of the old Dooley house. Mr. Dooley is a director of
the People's State Bank at Winchester and for twenty
years held the office of local magistrate. While he
has devoted his life to his extensive business inter-
ests, he is widely known and a popular citizen, always
manifesting a commendable degree of public spirit in
community affairs.
Valentine White Bush. One of the men who is
proving himself an able exponent of the legal profes-
sion at Winchester is Valentine White Bush, whose
success is due to his knowledge of the law, his power
to so prepare his cases as to bring forcibly before the
jury the facts and the law pertaining to them, and his
reputation for probity and fair dealing. He comes
of one of the old and honored families of the country,
tracing back to Ambrose and Lucy Bush, the former
of whom was born in 1748 and died in 1815. The
latter accompanied her husband in 1780 from Orange
County, Virginia, to Boone's Fort in Clark County,
Kentucky, and there, in 1789, was born Jeremiah Bush,
grandfather of Valentine White Bush. In 181 1 Jere-
miah Bush was married to Nancy Gentry, a daughter
of Richard Gentry and his first wife, Jane Harris
Gentry. Two years after his marriage Jeremiah Bush
secured 300 acres of land in Madison County, three
miles east of Richmond, Kentucky, and the house he
erected on it in 1804 is still standing and is in a good
state of preservation. The children of Jeremiah and
Nancy Bush were as follows: Richard Gentry, who
was born in 1812, married Anna Mitchell; Felix G..
who married as his first wife Almira Deaborne, and
as his second, Sarah Todd ; G. W., who married Reuben
Elkin, of Clark County, Kentucky; James Harris, who
was born in 1818, died in 1866, married Julia Franklin,
served six years as county judge and eight years as a
member of the State Assembly ; Ambrose Golden, who
married first Kittie Hampton ; second, Martha Hamp-
ton, and third, Fannie A. Shields; Oliver E, whose
first wife was Dorinda Crimme, and his second, Har-
riet Hadgecoat; Maj. William Martin, who was born
in 1827, died at Greenville, Texas, in 1900, and his
first wife was Lucy G. Elkin, and in 1855 he moved to
Collin County, Texas, after a service in the Mexican
war in the company commanded by John S. Williams,
and then in 1861 he entered the Confederate Army as
a lieutenant, was promoted to the rank of major and
lieutenant-colonel and saw service mainly in Western
Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana; Valentine White,
Sr., who is mentioned below ; Jeremiah Porter, who
was born in 1836, died in 1906, married Anna E. Gentry,
his cousin, of Palmyra, Missouri, and lived on a farm
316
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
near Monroe City, Missouri; and Jane Frances, who
married Jerry Robinson, who lives at Belton, Missouri.
Valentine White Bush, of Winchester, was born May
19, 1879, a son of Valentine White Bush, Sr., who was
born in 1831 and died in 1900. He first married Pru-
dence Grant, and their children were Henry G and
Leila. After the death of his first wife the elder
Valentine Bush married Fannie Nichols, but they had
no issue. As his third wife he married Kate Hampton,
and she bore him two children, Lewis Hampton, who
was born September 25, 1871, and Valentine White,
Jr.. whose name heads this review.
The younger Valentine White Bush was graduated
from the Kentucky Wesleyan College in 1897, and from
Princeton in 1899. with the degree of Master of Arts.
At that time President Wilson was dean of Princeton.
Mr. Bush took his law course at the University of
Cincinnati, from which he was graduated in 1901.
In the intervals between his collegiate courses he taught
school in Clark County, Kentucky, in order to earn
the money to carry him through. With his admission
to the bar he established himself in a general practice
at Winchester, and has since made it the field of his
operations. For some time he has been associated
with a partner, the firm being Pendleton & Bush, tin-
combination being recognized as a strong one in this
part of the state.
Robkrt Adair. A Bourbon County home that has
long been a center of cultured social life as well as
the typical industry of the Blue Grass section of Ken-
tucky, is located two miles west of Paris, where the
late Robert Adair spent many years of his useful career
and where Mrs. Belle Dodson Adair spent the closing
years of her life, with most of her children around her.
The Adair family was established in Kentucky by
John Adair, who came from Maryland. His son.
Richard, married Mary Tarr, sister to William Tarr,
the noted distiller. Richard Adair had a farm in
Nicholas County, and died there in advanced years.
The only survivor of his children is Mrs. May Pitt,
widow of Doctor Pitt of Salina, Kansas. A son, Dr.
Richard Adair, was for many years engaged in the
practice of his profession at Paris and later at Mount
Sterling, where he died and where his daughter, Mrs.
William Apperson, still lives. Dr. John J. Adair prac-
ticed dentistry at Louisville for many years. He mar-
ried Sallie Ewalt, of Bourbon County, and died on a
farm in the latter county.
The late Robert Adair was born in Nicholas County
September 4. 1839, and in early life was in the jewelry
business at Maysville. In 18*61 he came to Bourbon
County and about 1892 bought the farm west of Paris
where he lived until his death on May 7, 1907. At one
time a large distillery had been operated on this farm.
Robert Adair devoted his time to farming and stock
raising. He was a stanch democrat and at one time
took much pride in the fact that two of his children
and five sons-in-law went to the polls and cast demo-
cratic votes.
Bell Dodson, who became the wife of Robert Adair,
was only fifteen when she married. She was a beauti-
ful girl, well calculated by her character and beauty
to attract the attention of the eligible young men of
her community. Her father strenuously objected to her
engagement to young Adair, and in order to consum-
mate their romance they eloped. Her parents were
George and Permela Ellen (Curtis) Dodson. Her father
never forgave his daughter for her marriage. George
Dodson was in the wholesale grocery business at Mays-
ville. and the business was continued by his son, Omar,
until the latter's death on February 2, 1919. George
Dodson was a native of Maryland and came as a boy
to Kentucky with his parents, John and Rebecca (Dar-
nell) Dodson.
The late Mr. Adair was a member of the Presby-
terian Church, while Mrs. Adair was reared as an I
Episcopalian, the faith of her parents. She died No- I
vember 8, 1920.
Of the Adair children six are still living. Ella, the I
oldest, became the wife of William P. Ardery. and she
died on January 17, 1917; Nettie, widow of Joseph B.
Dejarnett, lives at the old home and has two sons ;
Birdie is the wife of Lawrence Horton, of Bourbon
County, and has three children, one daughter and two
sons; Sallie is the wife of John Toles, lives near her
old home and has one daughter ; Florence, Mrs. O. C.
Hedges, lives in her parents' home and has one daugh-
ter, Florence Adair Hedges ; Robert D. Adair is a
bachelor and has an active part in the management of
the Adair farm. The youngest is James Curtis Adair,
of Maysville. He is married and has two daughters
and one son.
Leander Crawford Rose. Attractively and conveni-
ently situated three miles east of Winchester is the
handsome estate of Leander Crawford Rose, a prop-
erty that has been brought to a high state of pro-
ductiveness under the care of its present proprietor.
Mr. Rose is one of Clark County's agriculturists who
has made the most of his opportunities and has ad-
vanced himself through individual merit, at the same
time preserving a keen interest in the welfare of his
community.
Mr. Rose was born on a farm in Owsley County.
Kentucky. August I, 1849, a son of Robert and Frances
( McQuin) Rose, and a grandson of Robert Rose of
Virginia, the pioneer of the family into Kentucky.
Robert Rose, the younger, passed his entire life in
Owsley County, where he accumulated large holdings
through his industry and good management, and where
he devoted himself without interruption to the voca-
tions of farming and raising stock. He died on his
farm at the age of sixty-five years, greatly esteemed
by those who bad known him because of his integrity
in business affairs and his unfailing good citizenship.
Mr. Rose married Miss Frances McQuin, who was
born in Morgan County, and they became the parents
of two children: Leander Crawford, and Greenburv,
who carried on merchandising at a store on his father's
farm, and was also an extensive agriculturist and stock
dealer, and died in February, 1920.
Leander Crawford Rose grew up on the home farm
and secured his education in the public schools of
Owsley County. At the time he reached the age of
twenty-one years his father set him up in farming on a
property in the near vicinity of the home place, and there
he doubled the land which was given him by his parent,
having at one time in the neighborhood of 3500 acres.
In 1007 Mr. Rose came to Clark County, where he
continued his operations as a general farmer, stockman
and stock trader. As early as 1900, with an eye to the
future, he had started to invest in Clark County land,
believing in its advance in value, and at one time was
the owner of 1200 acres here, although he has since
given much of his land to his children, and now owns
only 500 acres, of which 204 acres are included in his
home tract, the old Senator Ecton farm. His Owsley
County land has been presented to his children. Of
recent years Mr. Rose has inclined more and more to
raising Hereford cattle, and at the present time has a
splendid herd of seventy head. He is accounted an
excellent judge of cattle, and in business circles is
known as a man of sound integrity and high principles
He has not been an office seeker, but has been satisfied
with the rewards which have come to him as a follower
of the vocations of the soil.
At the age of twenty-one years Mr. Rose was united
in marriage with Miss Emma Caywood, and to this
union there have been born children as follows : Robert
Green, who died at the age of twenty-six years; Alice,
who is the wife of Samuel Harrenden, an agriculturist
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
317
of Owsley County; Charles, who is engaged in farming
in that county ; John M., farming in Owsley County ;
Alexander Campbell, a member of the ministry of the
Church of God, now filling a charge at Winchester;
Nannie, the wife of John M. Campbell, a retired mer-
chant of Winchester, she being the owner of the iooo-
acre farm in Owsley County formerly owned by her
father; Joseph, who is carrying on agricultural opera-
tions near his father in Clark County; Edgar, farming
with his father, who married Addie Combs and has
one son, Leander Crawford, Jr.; and Lena, the wife
of Ray Roland, farming on the property adjoining that
of her father.
James Wilson Gleaves. For many years the name
of Gleaves has been associated with the furniture in-
dustry of Western Kentucky, and today the dependable
house of James W. Gleaves & Sons is the leading one
of its kind in this part of the state, and is ably man-
aged by the two sons of the founder, James Wilson
Gleaves and Harry Winston Gleaves, enterprising young
business men of Paducah, native sons of the city, and
worthy representatives of their family.
James Wilson Gleaves, the elder son, was born at Paris,
Tennessee, August I, 1897, a son of Harry Winston
Gleaves, who was born at Nashville, Tennessee, in
1868, and died at Paducah on January 23, 1920. Until
1886 he remained at Nashville, but in that year came
to Paducah, and with his father, James W. Gleaves,
established a small furniture business. Both were ex-
cellent business men, and their fair treatment of the
public and ability to offer good values and service
resulted in the expansion of their initial attempt into
the large establishment of today. The store and offices
are located at 416 Broadway. With the death of
Harry W. Gleaves, his widow succeeded to the owner-
ship of the business, and she is fortunate in having
! such capable sons to manage it for her.
All of his life Harry W. Gleaves was a democrat,
but he never displayed any taste for public office. His
interest outside of his business and family was cen-
tered in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and from
young manhood he was one of its stewards, _ and he
was serving as such at the -time of his demise. He
married on June 13, 1895, at Boliver, Tennessee, Annie
■r Lee Wilson. The Wilson family originated in Ireland
and the Gleaves came from England. Mrs. Gleaves'
grandfather, Stuart Wilson, died at Boliver, Tennessee,
before the birth of his granddaughter, where he had
been an early settler and a successful farmer. His
wife's first name was Mary.
The father of Mrs. Gleaves, J. A. Wilson, was born
at Boliver, Tennessee, in 1833, and died at Whi'eville.
Tennessee, in 1908. For many years he was engaged
' in a mercantile business at Boliver, but late in life
moved to Whiteville, where his last years were spent.
During the war between the states he espoused the
"Lost Cause," and served as a brave and gallant soldier
« in the Confederate Army through the entire conflict,
participating in the battle of Shiloh and in other en-
gagements. His political convictions made him a stanch
democrat. For many years he served the Cumberland
Presbvterian Church as an elder, and belonged to it
from his youth. He was a Mason, and one of the
lead-'ng men of his community.
In 1857 J- A- Wilson was married at Early Grove,
Mississippi, to Miss Anna Franklin, who survives him
and makes her home at Martin, Tennessee. They
became the parents of the following children: Macon,
who is the widow of Rev. G. W. Wilson, a Methodist
Episcopal clergyman, lives at Martin, Tennessee; Har-
din Franklin, who was a railroad employe, died at
Boliver, Tennessee, when he was forty years_ of age ;
Stuart, who was a salesman for the Louisville Shoe
Company, died at Tullahoma, Tennessee; James A.,
Jr., who was a banker, died at Boliver, Tennessee.
when he was forty-three years old; and Mrs. Gleaves,
who was the youngest born of her parents' family.
She was educated at the Huntsville Female College
at Huntsville, Alabama, from which she was gradu-
ated in 1891, with the degree of M. E. L. The Metho-
dist Episcopal Church, in which she was reared, has in
her a very valuable member, and she is exceedingly
generous in her contributions to it of time and money.
The children born to Harry Winston and Annie Lee
(Wilson) Gleaves were as follows: James Wilson,
whose name heads this review ; Harry Winston, who
is mentioned at length below ; Macon, who was born
on August 5, 1903, is attending the Paducah High
School ; and Daisy, who was born January 1, 1905, is
also attending the Paducah High School. Emma
Gleaves, a niece of Mrs. Gleaves, has been reared as a
member of the family, and is a charming young lady.
She was born October 15, 1900, and after graduating
from the Paducah High School she took a position
as stenographer at the clothing store of Wallerstine &
Brothers.
The paternal grandfather, James W. Gleaves, was
born at Nashville, Tennessee, in 1840, and was engaged
there as a merchant until 1886, when he came to Pa-
ducah, and he and his son, Harry W. Gleaves, founded
the house which bears his name, and continued to be
active in it until his demise, which occurred at Paducah
in 1910. He was a democrat in politics, but not active.
After coming to Paducah he belonged to Plain City
Lodge No. 449, A. F. and A. M., and was its treasurer '
for many years. The Methodist Episcopal Church held
his membership and received his strong and generous
support. James W. Gleaves was married to Miss Emma
Stroud, who was born at Nashville, Tennessee, in
1841, and died at Paducah. Kentucky, in 1004.
James Wilson Gleaves attended the public schools of
Paducah, and was graduated from its high school
course in 1916, following which for two and one-half
years he worked in the Illinois Ceneral Railroad shops
as an apprenticed machinist, and then became a ma-
chinist for the Government at Musselshoal. Alabama,
during the period of the war. He enlisted in the
service in September, 1918, and was sent to the train-
ing school at Cincinnati, Ohio, and was taking the
autompbile course when the signing of the armistice
prevented his being sent overseas, and he was mustered
out December 20, 1918. Following the traditions of his
family, he gives a hearty support to the democratic
party, and he is also a member of the Methodist Epis-
copal Church. Mr. Gleaves belongs to the Interna-
tional Association of Machinists. He is unmarried.
Harry Winston Gleaves was born at Paducah De-
cember 3, 1800. Like his brother, James W., he at-
tended the public schools of Paducah, but he left school
when he was eighteen years old and began working
for the Interstate Commerce Commission, maintaining
this association for a year, and then entering the firm
of James W. Gleaves & Sons, where he learned the
furniture business and is now thoroughly comoetent
to have charge of the practical features of the house.
He. too, is a democrat and a Methodist, and young
as he is has been made a steward of the church. Mr.
Gleaves is a member of the Paducah Board of Trade,
and very enthusiastic about the future of Paducah.
The familv residence is at 1000 Jefferson Street, where
he lives with his mother and the rest of the children,
as he is unmarried.
A record like the above is interesting, for it proves
that home influences play an important part in the
shaping of character and the determining of careers.
On both sides of the house these two young men,
typical of the best element of American young man-
hood, trace back to honorable, unr'ght ancestors, men
of stability, active churchmen, and conscientious in the
performance of their duties as citizens. Small wonder
then that they have grown up to be a credit to their
318
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
name and birthplace, or that they should be accorded
a leading position among the merchants of Western
Kentucky.
Carl A. Wells is a business man of Paducah, iden-
tified with the affairs of that city for the past fifteen
years, and has built upa n extensive business as a mer-
chant tailor.
Mr. Wells was born at Xew Albany, Indiana, Sep-
tember 5, 1881, though his father was practically a
life-long" resident of Daviess County, Kentucky. He is
a son of the late Joseph W. Wells, of Owensboro.
Born in Daviess County in i860 he was for the past
twenty years of his life manager of the Gallaher, Ltd..
Tobacco Companv. He was a democrat. Joseph \\ .
Wells married Nellie Sheridan, who was- born at
Washington. Indiana, in 1859. Carl A. is the oldest of
their children. Earl is a traveling salesman for Armour
& Companv, living at Charleston, West Virginia. Lil-
lian is unmarried and living at home, J. E. is also with
Armour & Company at Charleston, West Virginia. Roy
is engaged in the loose leaf tobacco business at Owens-
boro, while Mallory, the youngest, is employed by the
L. H. & St. L. Railroad Company at Owensboro.
Carl A. Wells attended the public schools of Owens-
boro, graduated from high school in 1903, and at once
entered the tailoring business. In February, 1905, he
sold his interests in Owensboro and came to Paducah.
where he entered business on a small scale and with
a limited capital as a merchant tailor and cleaner.
In the past fifteen years he has developed one of the
chief concerns of its kind in Western Kentucky, an
extensive merchant tailoring establishment and with a
complete cleaning equipment, all located at 126-128 North
Fifth Street. He steadily employs fourteen clerk- in
the business.
Mr. Wells represents his line of business in the
Paducah Rotarv Club. Until 1920 he was a member
of the McCracken County Board of Health. He is a
prominent Elk, being a past exalted ruler of Paducah
Lodge No. 217 and a past president of the State Elks
Association. He is a third degree Knight of Columbus
and Past Grand Knight of Paducah Council No. 1055.
He is also a past president of the Paducah Rotary
Club. Mr. Wells is a democrat and a Catholic.
His modern home is at 409 North Fifth Street. He
married at Owensboro Miss Adele Payne, daughter of
the late P. E. and Mary (O'Bryan) Payne. Her father
was associated with the M. V. Monarch Distilling Com-
panv and her mother is still living at Owensboro. Mrs.
Wells finished her education in St. Francis Academy
at Owensboro. To their marriage have been born five
children : Hugh, born June 22, 1905 ; Edwin, born in
1906; Elizabeth, born in 1907; Sheridan, born in
1908; and Hearne, born February 2. 1920.
W. H. Lackey was born at Paducah December 25,
1893, a son of Ernest Lackey, who was also born at
Paducah, his birth occurring in 1868. The paternal
grandfather also survives and makes his home at Pem-
broke, Kentucky, where he is engaged in an active
practice as a physician and surgeon. Formerly he was
a resident of Paducah, but moved to Christian County,
Kentucky, many years ago.
Ernest Lackey was reared and educated in his native
city, and following his marriage he went on the road
for the wholesale clothing house of Hecht & Company
of Paducah, and represented them during a period of
twenty-five years and acquired a knowledge of men
and affairs which is proving of great benefit to him
in his present undertaking. Since 1913, when he left
the road, he has been conducting an insurance and
real estate business, in which he has achieved a gratify-
ing success. He also found that his acquaintance with
human nature gave him prestige in politics, and he was
elected on the democratic ticket to the city council of
Paducah, of which he was a member for seven years.
In 1916 his fellow citizens proved their confidence in
him by electing him mayor of Paducah, and he served!
in that office with efficient capability. He still main-
tains his close connection with the affairs of the city
through his membership in the board of trade, and in
addition to his large business above referred to he is
a director of the Paducah Chero-Cola Company. Mr.
Lackey is a charter member of Paducah Lodge No.
217, B. P. O. E., and he also belongs to Otego Tribe
No. 60, I. O. R. M.
Ernest Lackey was married to Carrie Kreutzer, born
at Aurora, Indiana, in 1875, but the marriage was
celebrated at Metropolis, Illinois. Mr. and Mrs. Lackey
maintain their home at 517 South Fourth Street, Pa-
ducah. They became the parents of the following chil-
dren: Brian, who is mentioned below; W. H.. who
was second in order of birth ; Ezelle, who is a resident
of Paducah, is associated in business with his father;
Pierce, who is also living at Paducah, is connected with
the King Mill & Lumber Company ; Hecht, who is also:
in business with his father, lives at Paducah ; and
Prewitt and Ernest. Jr., both of whom are students in
the Paducah High School.
Two of the sons of Ernest Lackey are veterans of
the great war who were spared to their family and
country. Brian Lackey enlisted in the Heavy Tank
Corps, was sent overseas and remained abroad for eight
months, a portion of that time being with the Third
Army of Occupation in Germany. Upon his return
home he went into the retail grocery trade. Pierce
Lackey enlisted in the aviation branch of the United
States Navy, was in the service for fifteen months,
and was stationed at Montauk Point, Long Island.
W. H. Lackey received private tuition at the Dorians
Private School, as he left the public schools when only
twelve years of age in order to enter the employ of
Hecht & Company, wholesale clothiers, the same house
with which his father had been connected for so many
years. His connection with this house covered a period
of five years, and he then secured a position as news
reporter on the "News-Democrat"' and held it for 3l/z
years. Leaving that journal, Mr. Lackey went with the
"Evening Sun" for three years. During 1916 he was
chief deputy in the county clerk's office. With the
termination of his duties in that connection Mr. Lackey
was in the loan and discount department of the First
National Bank until May. 1918, when he became a
Young Men's Christian Association secretary at Camp
Taylor, Kentucky, and remained there as such until
in January, 1919. He then accepted his present position,
his wide and varied experience fitting him admirably
for this class of work. His offices are at 809-10-n City
National Bank Building. Mr. Lackey has seven western
counties of Kentucky, known as "Jackson's Purchase,"
as his territory. A young man of a religious turn of
mind, he has long been a member of the Christian
Church, of which he is an elder, and he is superin-
tendent of its Sunday School. Fraternally he belongs
to Paducah Lodge No. 127, A. F. and A. M. He also
belongs to the Rotary Club, the T. P. A., and the Pa-
ducah Press Club.
On April 10, 1910, Mr. Lackey was married to Miss
Ethel Snider at Metropolis, Illinois, a daughter of T.
B. and Nora (Turk) Snider, residents of Paducah. Mr.
and Mrs. Lackey maintain their residence at 324 North
Fifth Street, Paducah. They have two children, Frances,
who was born January 21, 1911; and Ethel, who was
born March 28, 1913.
Mr. Lackey early came to a man's responsibilities,
and has proved worthy of every trust reposed in him.
There is something in the grip and essence of this
man which makes him a natural leader, and his upright
life and high principles have been a guiding star to
many another. In his business affairs he shows the
same high-mindedness which characterizes him else-
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
319
where, and is proving that Christianity is practical and
can be made a part of everyday life.
John Louis Wanner. Among the reliable and hon-
orable business men of Paducah perhaps none are more
worthy of a place in a work of this high class than
John Louis Wanner, well-known as a dependable
jeweler and public-spirited citizen, ready to sacrifice his
personal interests for his city's good. He was born
in Ripley County, Indiana, February 12, 1874, a son
of 'Michael Wanner. The latter was born in Germany
in 1853, and died at Aurora, Indiana, in 1916.
Growing up in Germany, Michael Wanner learned
the trade of a shoemaker, and after he came to the
United States in 1870 and settled in Ripley County,
Indiana, he followed it. He also worked as a shoe-
maker at Aurora, Dearborn County, Indiana, to which
he moved in 1877. After securing his papers of
citizenship he became a republican, and never swerved
from his allegiance to the party's principles. A man of
religious tendency, he was a very active worker in the
Lutheran Church, of which he was a member for many
years. Michael Wanner was married to Ernestina
Geisler, born in Germany in 1859, who survives him
and makes her home at Aurora, Indiana. Their chil-
dren were as follows : Lena, who died at the age of
twenty-eight years at Aurora, Indiana, was the wife
of Julius Vogel, a farmer now living at Condor, Mis-
souri ; John Louis, whose name heads this review ;
Charles, who lives at Paducah, is a general workman ;
Emma, who married John Schiller, an employe of the
foundry at Aurora ; and Ida, who married Christ Thie-
man, a bookkeeper, resides at Aurora, Indiana.
John Louis Wanner attended the Congregational
parochial schools of Aurora, Indiana, and later com-
pleted his educational training by going to night school.
When only fourteen years old he began working in
a cigar factory, in which he remained for eighteen
months, following which he helped his father in his
shoe shop for a year. He then became an apprentice
in a jewelry store at Aurora, Indiana, and learned his
trade during the following four years, becoming a
journeyman jeweler and working as such for five years.
Mr. Wanner was then able to buy a small jewelry
store at Aurora, and after conducting it there for
five years moved it to Paducah, establishing his present
store in 1906. At the beginning of his independent
career he had only a small capital, but he understood
his business and how to buy his stock, and gradually
and steadily he has expanded until he now has the
largest jewelry concern in Western Kentucky. His
stock is a very large and varied one in all lines of
jewelry and his store display cases are tastefully and
pleasingly arranged. The store is conveniently located
at 425 Broadway.
Like his estimable father, Mr. Wanner is a republican,
and he is now serving his second term as a member
of the Paducah Board of Education. He belongs to the
Kentucky State Jewelers Association, of which for
the past two years he has been president. Mr. Wanner
has attended a number of the national conventions of
the American National Retail Jewelers Association as a
delegate from the Kentucky State Jewelers Association.
He also belongs to the Paducah Board of Trade, the
Retail Merchants Association and the Kentucky Optical
Association. Both by inheritance and conviction he is
a Lutheran, and belongs to the local church of that
denomination. In addition to his store he has other
interests and is a stockholder in the Ohio Valley Trust
Company and the Ohio Valley Fire and Marine Insur-
ance Company, and owns a modern residence at Fourth
and Ohio streets.
In 1902 Mr. Wanner was married at Paducah to Miss
Emma Kirchhoff, a daughter of Frank and Johanna
(Baumer) Kirchhoff, residents of Paducah, where for
many years Mr. Kirchhoff was a baker, and one of the
earliest to engage in that line of business in the city,
but is now retired. Mr. and Mrs. Wanner have two
children, Esther, who was born November 11, 1903;
and Ruby, who was born October 21, 1906, both of
whom are attending the Paducah High School.
Howard S. Gilbert. While he is widely known over
Clark County through his administration of the office
of sheriff and county tax collector, Mr. Gilbert with
the exception of his four year term has devoted his
best energies to the management of a fine Blue Grass
stock farm seven miles south of Winchester.
On this farm he was born August 4, 1883, son of
Dr. John D. and Mollie C. (Hampton) Gilbert, and a
grandson of John and Lucinda (Yates) Gilbert. His
grandparents both died in Madison County, Kentucky,
where Dr. John D. Gilbert was born near Waco. Doctor
Gilbert, who died July 26, 1891, at the early age of
thirty-eight, being a victim of typhoid, was liberally
educated and first entered practice at College Hill,
and when about twenty-five years of age, after his
marriage, moved to Clark County and was associated
with Dr. Dillard Price. In the spring of 1884 he moved
to the farm where his son now lives, and owned 200
acres there. He was survived by two children, Samuel
H. and Howard S., both of whom are partners in the
old homestead and have greatly increased its acreage,
now owning over 600 acres. They do an extensive busi-
ness, raising mules, cattle and sheep.
Howard S. Gilbert was elected to the office of sheriff
and county tax collector in 1912, and gave his personal
attention to that office for four years. He filed a per-
sonal bond of $100,000 upon entering the office. Since
retiring from office he has given all his time to the
farm, though he continues to exercise the influence of
leadership in local politics.
February 12, 1917, Mr. Gilbert married Elizabeth
Long, of Shelby County, Kentucky. They have one son,
Howard, Jr. Mrs. Gilbert is a member of the Christian
Church while he is identified with the Mount Olive
Baptist Church, a noted institution of Clark County
which stands near the Gilbert home.
Millard Burk. Few men at the age of thirty-three
can look back upon more substantial achievements
and forward to greater promise of influence and pros-
perity than Millard Burk, the well known merchant,
timber dealer and coal operator of Pike County, whose
home is at Shelby Gap.
Mr. Burk is a son of Alamander and Melvira (Mul-
lins) Burk and one of the old and substantial families
of this section of Eastern Kentucky. A brief account
of his father and other members of the family is
given on other pages of this publication. Millard
Burk was born on Shelby Creek below the mouth
of Beef Hide March 23, 1888. His early youth was
spent there, and after finishing his education at the
age of eighteen he went to work for his father as
a logger. . He has become acquainted with every prac-
tical phase of the timber business, and he also assisted
his father in mercantile lines.
In 1907 at the age of nineteen Mr. Burk was sell-
ing goods on his own account at the mouth of Beef
Hide Creek. Two years later he moved to Shelby
Gap, where he has conducted a profitable mercantile
business ever since. As a merchant his interests have
covered wide scope. He had two stores at Jenkins,
another four miles below Shelby Gap on Elkhorn
Creek, and also one at Virgie. He has also operated
a number of saw mills, and is prominently connected
with coal operations, being a member of the Middle
Ridge Coal Company at Elkhorn City, the Burk Coal
Company at Shelby Gap and the Shelby Gap Coal
Company. Great energy, the faculty of hard work
and constructive management, have made him one of
the prosperous men of Eastern Kentucky.
In 1907 Mr. Burk married Miss Martha Sanders,
daughter of I. B. Sanders of Dorton. They have
320
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
five children, Lily, Lester, Eunice, Flo and Gladys.
Mr. Burk is a republican and is affiliated with the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Red Men.
William T. Buckner, whose home is nine miles
south of Paris, is one of Bourbon County's most sub-
stantial and successful citizens, and has given his best
years to the care and management of a very large
stock and general farm. It is the farm on which he
grew up and a large part of which was acquired and
developed by his father, William Buckner, one of the
most efficient farmers in Bourbon County in his day.
The house in which William T. Buckner now lives
is the one in which he was born March 20, 1848. He
is a son of William and Lucy (Woodford) Buckner.
The grandfather, William Buckner, lived for many
years at what is now the Xalapa Farm of Ed Simms
on the North Middletown Pike, eight miles north of
Paris. He died there at the age of seventy years,
when William T. Buckner was an infant. William
Buckner, Sr., married a Miss Buckner. He was a
native of Virginia and his brothers were Walker,
Samuel, Aylette and Benjamin. Benjamin and Samuel
subsequently removed to Missouri, where their descend-
ants are still living, while Aylette went to Mississippi.
William and Walker remained as founders of the
Buckner family in this section of Kentucky. Walker
settled on Cane Ridge. William Buckner by his first
wife had one son, William. His second wife was
Sally Clay, sister to Samuel, Frank and Henry Clay.
By that union he had two sons and one daughter, Henry,
Benjamin and Elizabeth. Elizabeth became the wife
of John T. Woodford, and was the mother of the
late Buckner Woodford. Henry and Benjamin inherited
their father's old property, and Henry lived on it until
his death, while Benjamin died during the Civil war.
William Buckner, Jr., grew to manhood in Bourbon
County, and his wife, Lucy Woodford, was the sister
of John T. Woodford, just mentioned as the husband
of Elizabeth Buckner. William Buckner, Jr., was given
a tract of land by his father, but he sold that and soon
bought a portion of the farm now owned by his son
William T. Buckner. This original purchase consisted
of 200 acres. Only two rooms of the present house
were standing at the time. It was built of brick, and
was an example of the pioneer brick construction in
the county. William Buckner, Jr., added to the house,
and it has been still further extended in the time of
William T. Buckner, and these additions at intervals
give it a somewhat rambling character of architecture,
though it is a place commodious and comfortable. Wil-
liam, Jr., kept buying additional land until he had about
1,600 acres in a body, and probably never paid over
$100 an acre for any of it, while much was acquired
as low as $50 an acre. On this extensive area he
grazed many head of stock, raised large crops, and in
everything he did applied a vigor, method and system
that brought returns and were also shown in the high
class condition of his farmstead, where the fences were
always in good repair, the roads graded, and altogether
he set an example of thrift and good management which
his son William T. Buckner feels that he has never quite
equalled. Before the war of course much of the labor
on the farm was performed by slaves. William Buck-
ner, Jr., died at the age of seventy-six and his wife
when nearly eighty. At one time William Buckner
was a partner in a distillery at Paris.
William T. Buckner was the only child of his parents.
He grew up on the old homestead, and acquired most
of his education in the select school of Thomas J.
Dodd. He worked under the direction of his father,
who continued the active management of the estate
as long as he lived. He has continued his stock growing
interests, and has also increased the estate until it now
consists of about 1,900 acres, the highest price he ever
paid being $108 an acre. Of this large area he seldom
grows more than twenty acres of tobacco.
At the age of twenty-six Mr. Buckner married Miss
Anna Clay Wornall, daughter of James R. Wornall,
of Clark County. They lived happily together for forty
years, and three children, with Mr. Buckner, share the
sorrow of her loss. The oldest is Thomas Moore, who
helps operate the extensive farm and is married to
Martha Davenport Clay; James Monroe, a bachelor, at
home; and Lucy Woodford, wife of Clarence Kenney,
who lives on part of the Buckner estate. Mr. Buckner
is a democrat in politics. He has always been fond of
hunting and outdoor life, in earlier years kept a pack
of fox hounds, and he takes a great deal of pleasure
in an occasional trip with a party of select friends
into the hunting grounds of the Kentucky Mountains.
Milton L. Caneer for the past ten years has em-
ployed his talents as an educator in Kentucky, and prior
to that for a number of years was identified with schools
in his native state of Tennessee. Mr. Caneer is principal
of the Stanford High School.
He was born in Marshall County, Tennessee, January
26, 1868. His father, J. D. Caneer, was born in North
Carolina in 1827, but when a young man moved to
Marshall County, Tennessee, where he married and
where throughout his active life he followed farming.
He was a Confederate soldier during the war between
the states, voted as a democrat, and was a sustaining
member of the Christian Church. J. D. Caneer, who
died in Marshall County in 1913, married Lucinda
London, who was born in the same county in 1833 and
died there in 1893. They had a family of six children :
W. R. Caneer, a farmer who died in Marshall County
at the age of fifty-one; Henry, a 'Marshall County
farmer now deceased; A. L. Caneer, a farmer who died
in Marshall County at the age of fifty-eight; Clemmie,
who died at the age of forty-five, wife of W. T. Gordon,
a farmer in Marshall County; Milton L., who was the
fifth in age; and J. T. Caneer, a farmer in Giles County,
Tennessee.
Milton L. Caneer early showed a bent and inclination
for studious pursuits, his early opportunities being those
supplied by the rural schools of Tennessee. In 1894
he completed a high school education in the Haynes
McLean Training School of Lewisburg, Tennessee. For
six years he taught in Giles County, and then attended
the Peabody College for Teachers at Nashville, graduat-
ing in 1903 with the degree Licentiate of Instruction.
The eight years following he spent as principal of
schools at Carthage, Tennessee, and in 191 1 came to
Kentucky. He was principal of the high school at
Richmond until 1914, for three years was high school
principal at Lancaster, and since 1917 has been principal
of the high school at Stanford. His work at Stanford
has been successful in every way, and he has kept
the school work on a high plane in spite of the difficulties
and unusual handicaps imposed upon educational work
everywhere on account of the war. Under his super-
vision as principal are fourteen teachers, while the
scholarship enrollment is 400. Mr. Caneer gave all the
aid he could in behalf of patriotic movements during the
World war. He is a member of the Kentucky Educa-
tional Association, is a democrat, is an active member
and in several communities has served as a member
of the Christian Church, and is a member of John C.
Brown Lodge No. 151, Knights of Pythias, at Lynnville,
Tennessee.
In 1898, in Giles County, Tennessee, he married Miss
Effie Ridgeway, daughter of Capt. D. T. and Harriet
(Hunter) Ridgeway, now deceased. Her father was a
merchant and farmer. Mr. and Mrs. Caneer have two
children : Robert, born July 10, 1906, in the freshman
year of the Stanford High School, and Eflfie Ridgeway,
born July 15, 1910, a pupil in the grammar school.
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
321
Henry Colclazier Rhodes. In a study of the careers
and characters of men who have attained success in
business affairs it is found that success is not a matter
of genius but rather the results of experience, industry
and sound judgment. The lives of those who have
acquired prosperity prove in the majority of cases that
they have been those who have devoted their careers to
close application to business principles and have risen
gradually, winning over obstacles by reason of self-
reliance, concentration and honorable dealing. To these
may be attributed the success that has crowned the
efforts of Henry Colclazier Rhodes, president of the
Rhodes-Burford Company, Inc., of Paducah, Kentucky,
the leading furniture business of the western part of
the state.
Mr. Rhodes was born at Lagro, Wabash County,
Indiana, February 23, 1858, a son of Phillip Charles and
Louisa (Rifenberick) Rhodes. His grandfather, Henry
Rhodes, was born in England, in 1801, and as a young
man came to the United States, spending some years
at Baltimore, Maryland, and then becoming a pioneer
into Indiana, where he engaged in farming and the
manufacture of pottery. He died at Attica, Indiana,
in February, 1866. Phillip Charles Rhodes was born in
1840, at Baltimore, Maryland, and was reared and
educated at Attica, Indiana, and shortly after his mar-
riage moved to Lagro, where he established himself in
business as flour miller. Later he followed the same
line of industry at Lafayette and Indianapolis, and in
1883 removed to Evansville, where his death occurred in
1913. He was a republican in political matters, fra-
ternized with the Masons and Odd Fellows and was a
member and strong supporter of the Methodist Episcopal
Church. Mr. Rhodes married Louisa Rifenberick, who
was born in 1835, at Monticello, Indiana, and died at
Lafayette, Indiana, in 1868, and they became the parents
of three children : Henry Colclazier ; May, who died
at the age of forty- two years at Louisville, as the wife
of David Guess, also deceased, formerly a railroad man
and later a merchant at Louisville; and Frank, who died
at the age of eleven years.
After attending the public schools of Lafayette and
Attica, Indiana, Henry C. Rhodes took a two-year
course at Asbury (now DePauw) University, Green-
castle, Indiana, and in 1877 went to Texas, where he
spent seven years on ranches, riding the range as a
cowboy. Returning to Indiana in 1884, he later went
to Cairo, Illinois, where he first became identified with
the furniture business as a clerk, gaining much experi-
ence in this line between the years of 1888 and 1890.
In the latter year he came to Louisville, Kentucky,
where he worked in a furniture store until 1901, this
being the year which marked his advent at Paducah.
Upon his arrival he founded the present furntiure busi-
ness known as the Rhodes-Burford Company, Inc.,
which under his supervision has become the leading
business of its kind in Western Kentucky, carrying the
largest and most complete lines of stock to be found in
this section of the state. The main store is located at
1 18-120 North Fourth Street, Paducah, while branch
stores are maintained at the corner of Fourth and
Jefferson streets, Paducah, at Paris, Tennessee, and
Metropolis, Illinois. The trade covers Western Ken-
tucky, Western Tennessee and Southern Illinois, and the
product of the company is widely known for its excel-
lence and quality. The present officers of the company
are: H. C. Rhodes, president; F. E. Lack, vice president;
and R. M. Prather, secretary and treasurer.
Mr. Rhodes is a democrat in his political allegiance.
He has shown an active and constructive interest in
the welfare and betterment of his adopted city, and is a
member of the Board of Park Commissioners, a position
which he has capably filled for the past fourteen years.
He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church
and chairma.*? of the Board of Stewards thereof. He is
Drominently km?wn in Masonry, belonging to Plain City
1 Vol. V— 30
Lodge No. 449, A. F. and A. M. ; Paducah Chapter
No. 30, R. A. M. ; Paducah Council No. 32, R. and S.
M. ; Paducah Commandery No. II, K. T. ; Mizpah
Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., Madisonville, Kentucky ;
and Louisville Consistory, thirty-second degree. Other
fraternal connections are with Paducah Lodge No. 217,
B. P. O. E., and Otego Tribe No. 6, I. O. R. M. He
likewise holds membership in the Paducah Board of
Trade, the Paducah Rotary Club and the Paducah
Country Club. Mr. Rhodes' home, the old Thornburg
residence at 317 North Seventh Street, is one of the
finest in the city.
On February 15, 1888, Mr. Rhodes was married at
Mount Vernon, Indiana, to Miss Elizabeth Decker,
daughter of the late John Decker, who was engaged
for years in the mercantile business at New Haven,
Indiana. To Mr. and Mrs. Rhodes there have been born
nine children : Amos Giles, Hazel Louise, Clarence
Henry, Charles Dover, Eugene Burford, Walter Dewey,
Elizabeth, John Phillip and Frank Hurt. Amos Giles
Rhodes is a graduate of the Paducah High School, and
at present is manager of the Rhodes-Burford Company's
store at Paris, Tennessee. Hazel Louise Rhodes, who
attended Paducah High School and took a two-year
course at DePauw University, Greencastle, Indiana, is
the wife of Roy M. Prather, secretary and treasurer of
the Rhodes-Burford Company. Clarence Henry Rhodes,
a resident of Paducah, is bookkeeper and auditor for
the Rhodes-Burford Company. Charles Dover Rhodes,
a graduate of Paducah High School, took a course at the
University of Wisconsin, at Madison, and is now
manager of the Rhodes-Burford Company's branch store
at Metropolis, Illinois. Eugene Burford Rhodes at-
tended Paducah High School, and in 1917 entered the
aviation corps of the United States Army. He was
sent to England with the Royal Flying Squadron and
saw active service, being honorably discharged and
mustered out in December, 1919. At this time he is a
resident of Paducah and a traveling representative for
G. I. Sellers & Company, manufacturers of kitchen
cabinets. Walter Dewey Rhodes, a graduate of Paducah
High School, took a course at the International Y. M.
C. A. College at Springfield, Massachusetts, and in July,
1917, enlisted in the United States Navy, being assigned
to the hospital corps in the transport service at San
Francisco. He was honorably discharged as a second
class pharmacist mate in September, 1919, and is now
shipping clerk for the Rhodes-Burford Company at
Paducah. Miss Elizabeth Rhodes, a graduate of Pa-
ducah High School and Bethel College, Hopkinsville,
Kentucky, resides with her parents. John Phillip
Rhodes, clerk for the Rhodes-Burford Company, at-
tended the Paducah High School, and in May, 1918,
enlisted in the United States Navy and made several
trips overseas conveying soldiers. He was mustered out
of the service in October, 1919, as a first class seaman.
Frank Hurt Rhodes, the youngest child, attended the
Paducah High School, and is now assistant bookkeeper
for Rhodes-Burford Company at Paducah, Kentucky.
Roy Marshall Prather, secretary and treasurer of
the Rhodes-Burford Company of Paducah, is one of the
energetic and thoroughly capable business men of his
city, and one who has attained his present position solely
through the medium of his own efforts. He was born at
Slaughters, Kentucky, January 23, 1887, a son of Theo-
dore Miller and Louise (Korb) Prather.
The grandfather of Mr. Prather was a resident of
near Henderson, Kentucky, where he conducted a mod-
est mercantile establishment, and when the Civil war
came on he joined the Confederate Army. He met a
soldier's death on the field of battle, as did two of his
sons. Theodore Miller Prather was born in 1844, near
Madisonville, Kentucky, where for some years he was
a general merchant. Later he followed the same line
of business at Sebree, Kentucky, and in 1885 went
322
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
to Slaughters, where he established himself in business
as the proprietor of a general store, which he conducted
until his retirement. He still resides at Slaughters,
where he has been town treasurer for a period of thirty
years, and does a modest business in the way of writing
fire insurance. In politics he is a democrat. A strong
churchman, he has been a member of the Board of
Stewards of the Methodist Episcopal Church for many
years, teaches the men's Bible Class, and for thirty
years has been superintendent of the Sunday School.
He married at Evansville, Indiana, Miss Louise Korb,
who was born in 1858, at Cincinnati, Ohio.
Roy Marshall Prather attended the public school and
Van Horn Institute until he was fifteen years of age,
at which time he gave up his studies and entered the
employ of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company
as ticket agent and telegraph operator at Madisonville.
After spending one year at this point he followed the
same vocation at a number of stations along the Louis-
ville & Nashville line, Henderson Division, and in 1904
came to Paducah as night ticket agent in the Union
Depot, a position which he retained one and one-half
years. He then became Union Depot ticket agent for
four years, and was subsequently advanced to city ticket
agent, a position which he held until January 1, 1917,
when he entered the Rhodes-Burford Company, Inc.,
as secretary and treasurer, a position which he has since
retained. This is the largest furniture business in
Western Kentucky, and a more complete account of its
activities will be found in the review of the career of
Henry C. Rhodes, elsewhere in this work. Mr. Prather
is a democrat. He belongs to the Methodist Episcopal
Church, where he is a member of the Board of
Stewards, and is fraternally affiliated with Plain City
Lodge No. 449, A. F. & A. M., Paducah Lodge No. 217,
B. P. O. E., and is a past exalted ruler of Paducah
lodge of Elks. His pleasant home is situated at 317
North Seventh Street.
On June 16, 1914, Mr. Prather married Miss Hazel
Rhodes, daughter of Henry C. Rhodes, president of
the Rhodes-Burford Company. They have no children.
James A. Murray. The building trades have al-
ways played an important part in the life of any com-
munity, but of recent years, with the shortage of ma-
terials producing a demand far exceeding the supply
in every line, it is little wonder that special attention
is turned to the men who are engaged in producing
the wherewithal to enable the absolutely necessary
building operations to continue. One of the men who
in the past earned a name for the quality of his goods
and his faithfulness in carrying out his promises, and
is now, in spite of difficulties unknown in the pre-war
period, still conducting his business upon the same
honorable lines, is James A. Murray, manufacturer of
brick, and one of the solid men of Paducah.
James A. Murray was born at Huntsville, Missouri,
on May 8, 1880, a son of John Murray. Born in Scot-
land in 1843, John Murray lived in his native land
until he had attained to man's estate, and then came
to the United States and located at Huntsville, Mis-
souri, developing into a mason contractor of some
moment. Later he went on a farm in McDonald
County, Missouri, and from 1883 to 1886 was occupied
with agricultural matters. He then went to Moberly.
Missouri, where he engaged in the manufacture of
brick in partnership with his brother-in-law, James
Sanderson, this association continuing until 1896, when
Mr. Murray came to Paducah and bought an interest
in the brick yard then conducted by C. H. Chamblin
and located at 1439 South Murrell Boulevard. He
continued to be engaged in this business until his death,
which occurred at Paducah in 1907. After securing
his papers of citizenship he became a republican and
never swerved in his allegiance to its principles.
Brought up in the Presbyterian faith, he was one of
the devout members 'of the church of that denomina-
tion in each community in which he resided, and no
appeal was ever made to him in vain for contribu-
tions for the church. In his fraternal connections he
maintained membership with the Odd Fellows. His
widow, who was Miss Mary Sanderson prior to her
marriage, survives him and lives at 1302 South Seventh
Street, Paducah. She is also a native of Scotland,
where she was born in 1855. The children born to
John Murray and his wife were as follows: Arthur,
who lives at 1504 South Seventh Street. Paducah, is
a brick contractor and president of the Paducah Brick
& Tile Company; John, who resides at 1302 South
Seventh Street, Paducah, is vice president of the Pa-
ducah Brick & Tile Company; James A., whose name
heads this review ; Robert, who lives at 1302 South
Seventh Street, is a brick mason; and Efifie, who mar-
ried W. W. Rogers, lives at 315 North E'ghth Street.
Her husband is cashier of the Covington Wholesale
Grocery Company.
James A. Murray attended the public schools of
McDonald County, Missouri, and Moberly, Missouri,
until he was sixteen years old. At that time he came
with his parents to Paducah and learned the bricklayer
trade, which he followed until March, 1912, when he
became secretary and treasurer of the Paducah Brick
& Tile Company, of which he is also the general man-
ager. This company manufactures sand mould building
brick, farm drain tile and hollow building blocks, the
output of the bricks being 4,000,000 per annum. Ship-
ments are made as far south as Memphis, Tennessee,
and throughout Kentucky and into Illinois. Like his
father, Mr. Murray is a republican and a Presbyterian,
and is active in the work of his church. For some
years he has been one of the forceful members of the
Paducah Board of Trade and Rotary Club, and in ad-
dition to his brick interests he is director and secretary
of the McCracken County Real Estate & Mortgage
Company, another reliable concern of Paducah. The
Murray residence is at 1439 Murrell Boulevard. It is
a somewhat remarkable fact that so many of the name
of Murray are connected with the brick industry in
this region, either as manufacturers or contractors,
but the fact is explained in the careful training given
his children by their father, who insisted upon their
preparing themselves for a useful career, and in his
own business affording them an opportunity of learn-
ing a trade which would give them plenty of employ-
ment.
On September 28, 1907,- James A. Murray was united
in marriage with Miss Christine Petersen at Milwau-
kee, Wisconsin, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. F. M.
Petersen. Mrs. Petersen survives and makes her home
at Windon, Nebraska, but her husband is deceased.
During the later years of his life he was actively
interested in agricultural matters in Nebraska. Mrs.
Murray was graduated from the Gem City Business
College of Quincy, Illinois, and is a most charming
and accomplished lady. Mr. and Mrs. Murray have no
children.
James Albert Dossett, proprietor of the Dossett
Lumber Yard, has made an enviable record as a
business man and citizen at Paducah, and is properly
numbered among the worth-while men of the county.
Like a number of other representative men of Mc-
Cracken County, Mr. Dossett traces his ancestry back
through settlement in North Carolina to fine old Eng-
lish stock. His grandfather, Anderson Dossett, be-
came one of the pioneer farmers of McCracken
County, coming to the vicinity of Colliersville from
North Carolina, and there his death occurred.
The birth of James Albert Dossett occurred in Mc-
Cracken County on August 16, 1864. He is a son
of T. J. Dossett, born in McCracken County in 1842,
and died at Dallas, Texas, in 1915. He was reared ^
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
323
and married in McCracken County, and early in life
became a merchant of Paducah, expanding his opera-
tions to include the handling of tobacco upon an ex-
tensive scale. After his retirement from active busi-
ness life in 1907 he went to Dallas, Texas. In his
political faith he was a democrat. The Primitive
Baptists expressed his religious creed, he worshiped
with them, and was a very strong churchman. During
the last two years of the war he served in the Con-
federate Army, and was a brave soldier, and was
honorably discharged in 1863, and his widow now
draws a pension from the United States Government.
She bore the maiden name of Elizabeth Sullivan, was
born in Graves County, Kentucky, and she survives
him, making her home at Paducah. Their children
were as follows : James Albert, who was the eldest
born; Thomas J., who is a carpenter and builder of
Dallas, Texas; R. A., who owns and operates the lead-
ing hotel of Shreveport, Louisiana; Walter, who is. a
carpenter and builder of Wichita Falls, Texas ; Maggie,
who resides at Paducah; Lucile, who married Oscar
Johnson, a mill mechanic of Fort Worth, Texas; and
Lloyd, who is identified with the American Express
Company of Paducah, Kentucky.
James Albert Dossett pursued the regular courses in
the rural schools of McCracken County, and following
his graduation he learned the carpenter trade and
developed into a carpenter and builder, which business
absorbed his time until 1908. In that year he estab-
lished, .his present lumber yard, which, with his office,
are located at Twenty-fourth Street and Broadway.
He also owns a modern residence at the corner of these
two streets, which is the most modern and nicest
bungalow in the city, and he did all of the work on it
himself. Like his father, he is a democrat. The
Missionary Baptist Church holds his membership, and
he is now serving it as a deacon. For some time he
has been an active member of the Paducah Board of
Trade.
In December, 1888, Mr. Dossett was married at
Lone Oak, Kentucky, to Miss Pharaby Rouse, a daugh-
ter of John B. and Polly Ann Rouse, both of whom are
now deceased, but during their lives were prosperous
farmers of McCracken County. Mr. and Mrs. Dossett
became the parents of the following children: Ola,
who married Marshall Bennett, a railroad mechanic,
lives -at Denver, Colorado ; Ruth, who is at home ; and
Harold, who is also at home, attending the public
schools of Paducah. The elder daughter was grad-
uated from the Paducah High School.
Mr. Dossett is one of the sound business men and
good citizens of Paducah. He has made a record for
himself because of his upright manner of transact-
ing his affairs, which have given him a well deserved
name for reliability. A number of the substantial
buildings of the city and county stand as a memorial
to his skill and integrity, and in handling lumber he is
still connected with the building trade in one of its
essential branches.
Robert Lee Black. In making a study of the forces
which have combined for the advancement of men of
business, professional and public prominence, it is dis-
covered that a large proportion of those who are de-
pended upon for counsel, advice and leadership are
men who have won their way to the forefront through
the force of their own industry and application, rising
gradually and fighting their way in the face of stern
opposition. The traits of character upon which de-
pendence may be placed for the greatest rewards are
industry, integrity, self-reliance and perseverance, and
to these may be attributed the success that has crowned
'■ the efforts of Robert Lee Black, county attorney of
Mercer County. Mr. Black has been the architect of
his own fortunes and occupies an enviable position in
his profession and in public life, not alone on account
of the success that he has achieved, but because of the
honorable, straightforward methods he has used in
gaining his various objectives.
Mr. Black was born April 6, 1869, on a Mercer County
farm, the sixth in a family of nine sons and eight
daughters born to James T. and Catherine (McMullins)
Black, natives of Kentucky. The parents, honest, in-
dustrious people, were in modest circumstances, and
with their large family were unable to give their elder
children anything more than the rudiments of an educa-
tion. For the first three years that Robert L. Black
attended school he went five months in the year, and
by that time he was big enough to do his share in the
fields and until he was seventeen years old was allowed
only three weeks of attendance each term. At this time,
having worked faithfully summers and winters to help
support the family, he yielded to his ambition for fur-
ther education and began working out. He had no
wealthy relatives to whom he could turn, and the only
way in which he could secure means to attend school
was through his own efforts. By applied economy and
constant industry he was able to save sufficient money
to go to school, and eventually secured a teacher's cer-
tificate. During the next twenty-five years he taught
in various communities, conducted a small mercantile
establishment and transacted many "trades" on the side,
at various times speculating in live stock and tobacco.
Thus he not only bettered his financial condition, but
became one of the esteemed citizens of his community
and was eventually elected magistrate. At various
times he had also applied himself to the study of law,
and finally was admitted to practice. His early pro-
fessional connection was of a modest character, but
with the passing of the years it has grown and developed
to a point where Mr. Black is accounted one of the
leading lawyers of Harrodsburg and Mercer County,
his clientele being equal in size and importance to that
of any legist in the county. He has successfully han-
dled many difficult cases, both civil and criminal, and
his business has carried him into the various courts in
and about Central Kentucky as well as into the Federal
courts, where his record cases have received wide
attention because of precedents established. So success-
ful has been his pleading that he has gained public
confidence to an extent where it is a local saying among
the citizens of the county: "If Lawyer Black says it's
so, you can bank it's a fact." Mr. Black has filled the
office of county attorney of Mercer County for several
years, and his administration of the duties of that posi-
tion has been efficient, expeditious and universally satis-
factory. His political life has been clean and his high
standing in the community is the result of years of
integrity, which have built a bulwark that his political
opponents have failed to disturb. His career is one
which exemplifies what is possible for a determined
man to accomplish, no matter how discouraging his
start in life, and furnishes an example well worthy of
emulation by the youth of the community.
When twenty-one years of age, July 17, 1890, Mr.
Black was united in marriage with Miss Maggie Bot-
toms, of Mercer County, and to this union there were
born seven children : Grover Cleveland, born April 19,
1891, a high school graduate, who taught school and
was a bank employe for several years, until suffering a
nervous breakdown, from which he is now recuperat-
ing ; Cora P., born December 16, 1893, a high school
graduate, now teaching in the schools of Harrodsburg ;
Robert Roy, born July n, 1896, a high school graduate,
who taught school until the World war, when he en-
listed in the United States Army as a private, saw
service overseas, returned to this country after the
signing of the armistice, with the rank of lieutenant, and
is now a traveling salesman for the Harrodsburg Floral
Company ; James Gilbert, born August 4, 1898, who
enlisted in the United States Navy during the World
war, was mustered out after the armistice was signed,
324
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
and is now a student at the State University, as is also
his wife, formerly Miss Ollie Foster, of Mercer County.
a high school graduate, to whom he was married in
1919; William Harvey, born July 30, 1900, a high school
graduate, who enlisted in the infantry of the United
States Army for service in the World war ; Maggie,
born March 16, 1902, a graduate of the Harrodsburg
High School, who is now attending the State Univer-
sity; and Jerome Everett, born July 31, 1908, who is
attending school at Harrodsburg.
Orville James Wigcins was a successful Kentucky
business man, well known in Bourbon County, where his
family are still living. He was born at Covington,
Kentucky, and until his death was engaged in the fire
insurance business.
He married at Paris Miss Laura Alexander, daughter
of Charlton Alexander, the story of whose life is told
on other pages. Mrs. Wiggins inherited from her
father the 330-acre farm where she lives. He built
the first home, and the farm is now devoted to the
raising of thoroughbred horses, and is under the
active management of her son, John S. Wiggins.
Mrs. Wiggins has two children, John S. and Rachel,
the latter the wife of W. O. Harber, a wholesale
grocer of Richmond, Kentucky.
Otie Overstreet is a Paducah merchant of long
and successful standing, for a quarter of a century-
was a factor in the grocery trade, but is now in the
wholesale paper business in Western Kentucky.
Mr. Overstreet, who was christened Robert Over-
street, though his friends and associates always know
him as Otie, was born in McCracken County, Ken-
tucky, September 22, 1874. His grandfather, James
P. Overstreet, was born in Spencer County, Kentucky,
in 1825, and this family is one that can justly claim at
least a century of residence in the Blue Grass State.
James P. Overstreet grew up and married in Spencer
County, and spent his active life as a farmer. In 1866,
he removed to McCracken County, and late in life
retired from his farm and lived at Paducah until his
death in 1899. John W. Overstreet, father of Otie,
was born at Spencer in 1846, and had just about at-
tained his majority when he came to McCracken
County. For several years he was identified with
farming pursuits, but in 1880 moved his home into
Paducah. For a number of years he followed his trade
as a ship carpenter, and afterward was associated with
his son Otie in the mercantile business. He died at
Paducah in October, 1919. He was a democrat, an
active member of the Baptist Church, and a man whose
good citizenship and public spirit could be always
counted upon in public affairs. In McCracken County
he married Elizabeth Caldwell, who was born in this
county in 1853 and is still living at Paducah. She is
the mother of two sons, William P. and Otie. The
former lives at Paducah and is pilot of the steam-
boat Paducah.
Otie Overstreet acquired his education in the public
schools of Paducah, but at the age of fourteen began
the problem of working out his own destiny. For a
time he was employed by the local street railway
company, learned merchandising while clerking in
stores, and in 1894 entered business for himself as a
grocer and general merchant. He developed a large
and prosperous business at Twelfth and Jefferson
streets, and continued for a quarter of a century,
until he sold out in September, 1919.
In October, 1919, Mr. Overstreet became one of the
men prominent in the organization of the Paducah
Paper Company, Inc., the only wholesale paper busi-
ness in McCracken County and the largest in the west-
ern counties of the state. They ship goods over all
the territory for eighty miles around Paducah. The
offices and plant are at 123 North Second Street. C.
E. Miller is president of the company, H. D. Peter,
of Henderson, Kentucky, is vice president, while the
secretary and treasurer is Otie Overstreet. Mr. Over-
street is also interested in a farm of 500 acres in Bal-
lard County, Kentucky, where a flourishing business of
general farming and stock raising is carried on. He
is owner of considerable real estate in Paducah, in-
cluding one of the attractive modern residences, seven
rooms and a two-story brick house at 1160 Jefferson
Street, where he and his family reside. Mr. Over-
street is a democrat, a member of the Presbyterian
Church, and is a past grand of Ingleside Lodge No.
195, Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He is also
a member of the Paducah Rotary Club.
In 1897, at Paducah, he married Miss Blanche Bos-
well, whose people were pioneers of Mayfield, Ken-
tucky. She is a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ed. Bos-
well, her mother now deceased. Her father is a re-
tired carpenter and builder at Paducah. Mr. and
Mrs. Overstreet had three children : Robert, who was
a member of the Officers Training Camp at the Uni-
versity of Virginia when the armistice was signed, is
now a traveling salesman for the Paducah Paper Com-
pany. Mary Elizabeth, the only living daughter, is
the wife of Weldon G. Kibler, who for several years
past has been connected with the Home Telephone
Company at Paducah. The youngest child, Frances
Mildred, died at the age of three years.
EnwiN Thomas Proctor. In life insurance circles
of Paducah a name that is becoming increasingly well
known is • that of Edwin Thomas Proctor. His con-
nection with this field of endeavor dates back only
to 191 8, but since that time his achievements have been
of such a character as to demonstrate his capability
in his chosen line of work, and prest'ge therein is
given him by his occupancy of the position of district
agent for nine counties of the Northwestern Mutual
Life Insurance Company.
Mr. Proctor was born at Leitchfield, Grayson County,
Kentucky, March II, 1891, a son of W. S. and Mary
Catherine (Butler) Proctor. He belongs to a family
which originated in England and came to America
during Colonial days, settling first in Virginia and later
migrating to Kentucky. William Proctor, his grand-
father, was born in 1814 in Rockcastle County, Ken-
tucky, and was a pioneer into Breckenridge County.
There he carried on agricultural pursuits until his re-
tirement, at which time he went to Grayson County,
where his death occurred in 1895. He married a Miss
Scott, and among their children was W. S. Proctor,
who was born June 3, 1847, in Breckenridge County,
Kentucky. He was reared and educated in Grayson
County, and shortly after his marriage located at
Leitchfield, where he has since been successfully en-
gaged in the practice of law. He is a republican and
a member of the Christian Church. Mr. Proctor mar-
ried Miss Mary Catherine Butler, who was born
June 22, 1852, in Grayson County, and four children
were born to them : Henry Holmes, agent for the Illi-
nois Central Railroad Company at Barlow, Ballard
County, Kentucky; Mayme, the wife of Proctor Terry,
identified with the Illinois Central Railway at Whaley,
Mississippi; Edwin Thomas; and Lone T., an employe
of the Goodyear Rubber Company of Akron, Ohio.
Edwin Thomas Proctor attended the public schools
of Leitchfield, where he was graduated from high
school with ti.e class of 1909, following which he
worked as deputy county clerk of Grayson County for j
one year. He then entered the University of Ken-
tucky, at Lexington, where he had a splendid record |
and was chosen as the representative of the university
for competition for the Cecil Rhodes scholarship at . 1
Oxford University, England. He was one of the ,
honor graduates of the class of 1914, receiving the
degree of Bachelor of Arts, and during his college j
career was a member of the Delta Chi Greek letter col-
lege fraternity. Following his graduation he was ap-
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
325
pointed principal of the high school at Paris, Kentucky,
a position which he filled from 1914 to 1918, and in
January of the latter year went to Louisville as super-
visor of agents of the Northwestern Mutual Life In-
surance Company. In May, 1919, he was transferred
to Paducah as district agent of the same company, his
district comprising the nine counties included in the
First Congressional District of Kentucky. His offices
are at 811 City National Bank Building, and during the
short period of his incumbency of the position he has
made an excellent record in increasing the company's
business. Mr. Proctor's home is at 1440 Broadway.
Politically he is identified with the republican party
as a voter, but aside from the year spent as deputy
county clerk he has not engaged actively in public
[life. He is a deacon in the First Christian Church.
Fraternally he is affiliated with Plain City Lodge
No. 449, A. F. and A. M. ; Paducah Chapter No. 30,
R. A. M. ; Paducah Commandery No. II, K. T. ; and
Kosair Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of Louisville, Ken-
tucky. He likewise holds membership in the Paducah
Board of Trade, the Paducah Country Club and the
Paducah Lions Club.
On July 26, 1916, Mr. Proctor was married at Louis-
ville, Kentucky, to Miss Marie Louise Michot, daugh-
ter of Spalding E. and Adele (Ozanne) Michot, resi-
dents of Louisville, where Mr. Michot is state manager
for the Tribe of Ben Hur, fraternal insurance. Mrs.
Proctor, a young woman of unusual accomplishments
and many graces, graduated from the Louisville Girls
High School in 1912 and from the University of Ken-
tucky in 1916, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts.
She was president of the Philosophian Literary Society
while at the University, and since coming to Paducah
has become prominent and popular in club life and
literary circles.
Jacob Nathaniel Bailey, M. D. A physician and
surgeon of ripe powers and experience. Doctor Bailey
practiced for a number of years in Fredonia, Kentucky,
but soon after being released from his duties in the
Medical Corps of the army located at Paducah, where
he enjoys a special reputation as a competent surgeon.
Doctor Bailey is of an old Kentucky family, but was
born at Elk Creek, Missouri, March 13, 1883. His
paternal ancestors came originally from Scotland and
were Colonial settlers in Virginia. His father, Joseph
S. Bailey, was born at Tompkinsville, Kentucky, in 1852,
i and grew up in that Kentucky community, where he
married. Later he moved to Elk Creek, Missouri,
I where he followed farming and also was ordained a
1 minister of the Christian Church. He preached all over
I South Central Missouri, and about six months before
his death moved to Kansas and died in that state in
1916. He was a republican in political affiliations. His
wife was Helen Thompson, who was born near Tomp-
kinsville, Kentucky, in 1853, and died at Elk Creek,
Missouri, in 1889. Of their children the oldest is
Henry T., who graduated from the Hospital College
of Medicine at Louisville with the class of 1902, sub-
sequently took two post-graduate courses in the Chi-
cago Polyclinic and one in the New York Post-Grad-
uate School of Medicine, paying special attention to
diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat, and for a
number of years past has been a prominent physician
at Phoenix, Arizona. The next two members of the
family, William A. and Isaac, are farmers at Topeka,
Kansas. Samuel W. is an electrician, being superin-
tendent of the electric plant at Miami, Florida. Jacob
Nathaniel is the fifth in age, and Thomas W. is a
farmer and fruit grower at Ordway, California.
Jacob N. Bailey acquired his early education in the
public schools of Elk Creek, Missouri, graduated from
high school at Houcton, Texas County, Missouri, and
then took up the profession of photography. For
four years he conducted a studio at Louisville, Ken-
tucky. He pursued a literary course for one term in
Valparaiso University, Indiana, and in the fall of 1902
began his studies in the Hospital College of Medicine
at Louisville, receiving his degree Doctor of Medicine
with the class of 1907. Doctor Bailey began his profes-
sional career at Fredonia, Caldwell County, and earned
a distinctive success during the eleven years he prac-
ticed there. He still owns a farm and some valuable
town property at Fredonia. In August, 1918, he en-
tered the United States service as a first lieutenant in
the Medical Corps, and was given his intensive train-
ing and a regular assignment of duty at Fort Riley,
Kansas. He was mustered out November 29, 1918,
and in the following January located at Paducah,
where he handles a general practice, though paying
special attention to surgery. He took post-graduate
work in the Chicago Polyclinic in 1908, in 1912 at-
tended the New York Post-Graduate School, and in
1921 attended Mayo Clinics, at Rochester, Minnesota.
Doctor Bailey's offices are in the City National Bank
Building. He is a member of the McCracken County
Medical Society being its present secretary, and also
belongs to the State and American Medical Associa-
tions, the Southwestern Medical Association and Ohio
Valley Medical Association. During his residence
at Fredonia he served as chairman of the Board of
Town Trustees and as chairman of the Board of
Education. He is a republican, and is affiliated with
Fredonia Lodge No. 247, A. F. and A. M., Paducah
Chapter No. 30, R. A. M., Paducah Commandery No.
11, K. T., and Rizpah Temple of the Mystic Shrine.
He is also a member of Paducah Camp No. 11313,
Modern Woodmen of America.
Doctor Bailey and family reside at 103 Fountain Ave-
nue. He married at Nashville, Tennessee, November II,
1908, Miss Pattie Talley, daughter of George W. and
Katie (Dobson) Talley. Her parents are farmers
near Fredonia, Kentucky. Mrs. Bailey was educated
at Bethel College in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. To their
marriage were born two children : Helen Catherine,
who died January 16, 1920, at the age of nine years ;
and Joseph Henry, born October 10, 1911.
Allen Shuttleworth Edelen. Burgin is a small
Kentucky town, but has a productive enterprise that
makes the name widely known throughout the United
States. One of the most notable of these productive
enterprises is the breeding and sales farm owned by
Allen Shuttleworth Edelen. He started business as a
renter, specialized from the first in high grade and
pure blooded stock, and has built up a business by
judicious advertising that is now national and even
international in scope.
Mr. Edelen was born in Casey County, Kentucky,
February 15, 1875, son of Leonard Graves and Mary
(Tarkington) Edelen. His father was both a farmer
and tanner. Allen was educated in Boyle County,
but left Center College at Danville in his junior year
and in 1895 rented the farm he now owns at Burgin.
For several years he used all his capital for operating
expenses, the purchase of pure blooded stick and onlv
as his surplus means increased did he buy land until
he now owns the original farm he rented and much
adjacent land besides. Mr. Edelen as a pure blood
stock raiser and dealer understood from the first that
the local markets could not be depended upon to
remunerate him for his enterprise. A number of years
ago, therefore, he resorted to advertising in leading
stock, farm and other magazines and journals, and
through this has developed practically a world market.
His business has been re-enforced by an integrity
that has kept some of his first customers still on his
active list, and a large volume of his business is prac-
tically on a mail order basis. He sends out shipments
of individual and carloads lots of live stock through-
out the United States and Canada and even to foreign
countries. Recently he filled a contract for a ship-
ment to South Africa. The business several years ago
326
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
surpassed the productive facilities on his own farm,
and he has since been continuously on the search for
suitable stock of the very highest class to supply the
exacting demands of his customers. His business
motto is "Live and help live," and it is observed in the
most minute detail.
His stock farm exhibits nothing but the best blooded
registered stock. His saddle horses have won honors in
nearly every state in the Union at leading shows and
fairs, including the Madison Square Garden show in New
York and even at Paris and London. The most
coveted trophy of the Kentucky State Fair was secured
three years in succession by Belle o' the Ball, Fairy
Queen and Queen Quality, all chestnut mares, bred,
trained and exhibited by Mr. Edelen. The raising
of these three cup winners constitute a world's record
of which Mr. Edelen is very proud. At the head of
the saddle stock of Glenworth is Bohemian King,
champion among saddle stallions and his get has ag-
gregated in value almost a quarter of a million dollars.
Equal in quality to the saddle horses are the registered
Jersey cattle and Mammoth Duroc hogs at Glen-
worth, and every animal consigned for sale by Mr.
Edelen is eagerly sought by buyers over the country.
October 20, 1902, Mr. Edelen married Miss Elizabeth
Beard, of Hardinsburg, Breckenridge County, Ken-
tucky. They have five children, Franklin Shuttle-
worth, Larue Maxwell. Leonard Graves, Mary Tark-
ington and Margaret Beard Edelen.
The practical and commercial side of Mr. Edelen's
enterprise has been briefly outlined. However, his
home has historic and social associations that make it
one of the most interesting landmarks in Kentucky.
He bought this beautiful estate in 1903, after having
lived on it as a renter for many years. It was the
original home of Robert Moseby, who obtained the
tract by grant from the governor of Virginia. It sub-
sequently passed to his nephew, Colonel Robert Davis,
father of Crittenden Davis, one of Kentucky's great
horsemen, owner of Red Wilkes, founder of the
famous family of horses of that name. The stable in
which Red Wilkes lived is preserved and is now the
home of Bohemian King. The Edelen home stands
on historic ground. The old Wilderness Trail passes
the door, and nearby was the site of the log cabin in
which Andrew Jackson courted his bride and subse-
quently eloped with her to Tennessee. Mr. Edelen's
residence, a large Colonial brick of stately proportions,
is an interesting study in its furnishings of carefully
selected and valuable antiques, and the doors of the
home swing open today with the same hospitality as in
former years. One who has the good fortune to visit
this home might easily become lost in reminiscences of
the historic past until suddenly shaken from his dreams
by a vision through the windows of the very latest
and most modern conveniences of a picture farm with
modern barns and yards, running water and blooded
stock.
Otis E. Senour, M. D. Besides the duties increas-
ing from year to year as a general practitioner of
medicine and surgery, Dr. Senour has done much
work directly affecting the vital welfare of the Union
and Boone County, is the present county health officer
and has employed his influence and professional knowl-
edge in many ways to raise the standards of public
health and sanitation in his section of the state.
Dr. Senour was born at Independence, Kenton
County, Kentucky, December 15, 1880. His family has
lived in Kenton County for considerably more than
a century. His grandfather, Wilford Senour, was born
in Kenton County in 1798, son of one of the earliest set-
tlers there. His life was spent as a farmer in that
county, and he died near Independence in 1864. His wife
was Sarah Wayman, who was born near Independence
in 1815, and died at the old homestead there in 1904.
They were the parents of three children : Timothy, a
farmer who died at Independence at the age of seventy-
six ; A. J. Senour ; and Frances, who died young.
A. J. Senour was born at Independence October 10,
1838, and all his active years were spent on his farm
two and a half miles east of the county seat. He had
a large amount of land under cultivation and was also
in business as a tobacco dealer. He voted as a repub-
lican and was a member of the Independent Order of
Odd Fellows. A. J. Senour, who died at Independence
March 17, 1910, married Mary Margaret Marshall,
who also spent her life at Independence. She was
born in 1842 and died May 25, 1908. Their children
were seven in number : Ida, wife of G. W. Culbertson,
a farmer near Latonia ; Henry, a traveling salesman,
who died near Kansas City, Missouri, in 1915 ; Prudie,
wife of Homer Oliver, a farmer at Fiskburg, Ken-
tucky ; Rowena, wife of Arthur Stephens, they owning
and operating the old homestead farm at Inde-
pendence; Orville, a resident of Wichita, Kansas, and
state supervisor for the Singer Sewing Machine Com-
pany ; Otis E., and Lida, wife of Dr. H. C. Keeney, a
dentist at Erlanger, Kentucky.
Dr. Otis E. Senour graduated from the high school
at Independence in 1899, and in 1901 entered the Hos-
pital College of Medicine at Louisville, from which
he received his M. D. degree July 1, 1904. After
graduating he practiced eleven months at Florence
and since then his home has been at Union, where his
work has been a general medical and surgical prac-
tice. He owns his residence and offices on Main
Street, and has a farm of a 165 acres, 2j4 miles west
of Union, a tenant operating it in general crops and
for dairying purposes.
Besides being county health officer of Boone County
Dr. Senour is chairman of the Boone County Board of
Health. For a number of years he has served as a
school trustee at Union, is a member of the Boone
County and Kentucky State Medical Societies and dur-
ing the World war was medical member of the Boone
County Draft Board and personally examined every
recruit from the county, a work that constituted a
thoroughly patriotic service and received his first at-
tention to the neglect of all other interests.
Dr. Senour is a republican, is affiliated with Boone
Union Lodge No. 304, F. and A. M., is a past grand
of Fowler Lodge No. 201, Independent Order of Odd
Fellows, and is a member of the Modern Woodmen
of America.
In the First Christian Church at Louisville June 30,
1915, Dr. Senour married Gladys E. Rouse, daughter
of George E. and Alice (Brown) Rouse, residents of
Union, where her father is owner and operator of a
threshing machine and saw mill outfit.
Thomas Overtox Meredith, M. D. Although the
past seven or eight years with their momentous events
of war and economic crises have done much to obliter-
ate memories, professional men and citizens generally
of Harrodsburg and Burgin recall with great affection
the life, personality and career of the late Dr. Thomas
Overton Meredith, for many years a successful physi-
cian and surgeon in these communities and particularly
gifted as a kindly and skillful surgeon.
Doctor Meredith was born in Goochland County, Vir-
ginia, August 3, 1863, son of Dr. Joseph Shelton and
Mary Ella Meredith. The son of a Virginia physician,
he was reared and acquired his first educational ad-
vantages in the country schools of Louisa County, Vir-
ginia. He also attended private schools and studied
medicine at Baltimore Medical College, where he com-
pleted the regular four years' work in two years and
graduated with the honors of his class in 1887. He
subsequently took post-graduate work with Mayo
Brothers at Rochester, Minnesota, and his death oc-
curred at Rochester in the Mayo Hospital, January 30,
1913, in his fiftieth year.
Doctor Meredith practiced for many years at Burgin
^r^w^fa^/'
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
327
and later at Harrodsburg. He was railway surgeon at
Burgin, and in the absence of hospital facilities per-
formed a host of minor operations in his office and
residence. Though his facilities and appliances were
limited, his skill was such that the Lexington Hospital
surgeons and attendants who cared for his patients on
their removal stated that in no case of Doctor Mere-
dith's work did his patient develop any complications
or serious after-results that could be traced to lack of
care or skill in the first instance. He was, in fact, a
surgeon of rare skill and performed a number of suc-
cessful trepanning operations, but in spite of his gen-
erous abilities he was so modest that only a few pro-
fessional friends knew the real extent of his talents.
Concerning his standing in the medical profession
the following has been said : "Doctor Meredith had a
wide and extensive practice during his professional
career of over twenty-seven years, a large share of the
most important cases coming under his care. His knowl-
edge was well grounded in principles, his perception
quick and his action prompt. His interest in the affairs
of his profession was very keen. He was one of the
early members of the Central Kentucky Medical So-
ciety, and presented numerous reports of cases and
pathological specimens occurring in his practice and a
number of papers on medical and surgical subjects
came from his hands, expressing his ideas with great
accuracy in plain English. His ambition was to gratify
those he served, and in the performance of his duties
his sound sense and conservative views on all questions
won for him the respect and esteem of his colleagues."
Doctor Meredith was railroad surgeon for the C. N.
O. & T. P. and Southern Railroads, while he lived in
Burgin, and also in Harrodsburg, and read many papers
before the conventions of Railroad Surgeons. He was
president of the St. Louis and Louisville Division of
Southern Railroad ■ Surgeons, was a member of the
Kentucky Railroad Surgeons' Association, the Mercer
County Medical Society, Central Kentucky Medical As-
sociation and its president, and a member of the Ken-
tucky State Medical Association.
Doctor Meredith was also prominent in business,
helping organize the Citizens Bank of Burgin, first
known as the Farmers Bank, and was its president about
thirteen years, until he resigned upon his removal to
Harrodsburg. He was elected mayor of Burgin a
number of times, and was deeply and sincerely in-
terested in educational progress in his home town, par-
ticularly in the provision for good buildings and school
facilities. He helped provide the town with a good
water supply and was a factor in the promotion of
public health movements. Doctor Meredith was a
Knight Templar Mason, Knight of Pythias, member of
the Maccabees and Woodmen of the World, and was
an elder in the Presbyterian Church.
His first wife was Miss Mary Ella Rinehart, of
Covington, Virginia. The four children of their mar-
riage were Mary Ella, Lucille Virginia, Alide Elizabeth
and William Rinehart. On March 12, 1900, Doctor
Meredith married Mrs. Mary A. (Cook) Rice, daugh-
ter of G. W. and Catherine Cook, of Mercer County,
and granddaughter of Rev. Strother Cook, a very prom-
inent Baptist minister in the early days of the state.
Mrs. Meredith survives her honored husband and lives
on Lexington Street in Harrodsburg. She is the mother
of three children : Thomas Overton, born in Burgin
June 3, 1901, a graduate of the local high school in
1920, now attending Westminster College at Fulton,
Missouri; Joseph Shelton, born March 30, 1903, a mem-
ber of the class of 1921 of the Harrodsburg High
School ; and Ann Overton, born September 10, 1904,
also a member of the class of 1921 in the local high
school.
E. O. Davis, secretary and general manager of the
Paducah Hosiery Mills, is one of the men who occupies
a very prominent place in the industrial life of the city,
and with reference to his attitude on the labor question
is looked up to as an authority in the solution of many
and intricate problems which are constantly occurring in
the conduct of large organizations. He comes of one
of the old-established families of this country, rep-
resentatives of the name having located in the colony
of Virginia as English settlers long before the American
Revolution.
E. O. Davis was born near Knoxville in Blount
County, Tennessee, on February 10, 1882, a son of James
A. Davis, who is now residing near Sweetwater, Ten-
nessee. He was born in Severe County, Tennessee, in
1837, and there he was reared, educated and married.
For some years he was engaged in farming in his native
county, but moved from there in 1879 to McMinn
County, Tennessee, and there continued his agricultural
interests until his retirement, all of his undertakings
turning out successfully, so that he is today a man of
considerable means. He is a republican and a Baptist,
and is equally earnest and conscientious in his support
of both party and church. During the war balween
the two sections of the country he served for four
years as a member of the Union Army, and was in the
battles of Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain, 'Missionary
Ridge and Murfreesboro, and was wounded and captured
in Alabama and sent to the Confederate prison at
Cohoba, Alabama, but after five months was exchanged,
and he completed his period of service. He married
Mary Farmer, born in Blount County, Tennessee, in
1842, and she died at Sweetwater, Tennessee, in 1908.
Their children were as follows : Hughey, who died at
the age of nine months ; John, who was killed by a
falling tree when he was eighteen months old ; Houston,
who is a farmer, resides on the Tennessee River in
Hamilton County, Tennessee ; George, who is an in-
structor in the State Normal School at Murfreesboro,
Tennessee; Elizabeth, who lives in Texas; Harriet
Ellen, who married Abe Williams, a farmer of Clinton,
Tennessee ; Otha, who is operating the homestead in
McMinn County, Tennessee ; Adra, who married John
Mitchell, a planter residing in the vicinity of Asheville,
North Carolina; and E. O. who was the youngest in
the family.
E. O. Davis attended the rural schools of McMinn
County, and was graduated from the county high
school in 1900. Following that he became a student
of the U. S. Grant University at Athens, Tennessee,
for a year, leaving it to enter the hosiery business in
the Richmond Hosiery Mills at Chattanooga, Tennessee,
where he partially learned its details during the fifteen
months he was connected with that plant, and com-
pleted this practical education in the plant of the Alden
Knitting Mills, which he entered in the fall of 1902,
at which time he came to Paducah. In the beginning
he was a third class machinist, but was promoted through
all of the grades to superintendent, and remained there
until 1908. In the meanwhile he perfected the Wright
Looping Machine, used in the manufacture of hosiery,
and it is still being manufactured at Paducah today,
although Mr. Davis sold his interest in it in 1913, having
been engaged in producing it from 1908 until 1913. In
the spring of 1914 he established the Paducah Hosiery
Mills in a loft over a grocery store, and under his
supervising care this plant has expanded until the com-
pany now occupies its own building at Eighth and Jones
streets, which is a thoroughly modern brick factory
where employment is given to 200 hands. The company
ships as far as New York City, Baltimore and other
eastern cities, and the business shows a healthy and
steady annual growth.
Mr. Davis is a republican. A Christian Scientist,
he at one time was one of the directors of the church,
but has retired from that office. For some time he has
been a member of the Paducah Board of Trade, is
secretary and treasurer of the West Kentucky Auto-
328
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
mobile Club, and belongs to the Paducah Rotary Club.
His residence is at 420 South Sixth Street.
In 1905 Mr. Davis was married at Paducah to Miss
Effie Allen, a daughter of R. P. and Mary Allen, of
Paducah, where Mr. Allen is engaged in business as
agent for the 'Metropolitan Insurance Company. Mrs.
Davis was graduated from the Paducah High School
in 1905, just prior to her marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Davis
have two children, Edna Allen, who was born November
4, 1907; and Edwin Oscar, Jr., who was born April 1,
1913. A man of will, resourcefulness, technical experi-
ence and business ability, Mr. Davis possesses the power
to stimulate men to whole-hearted endeavor, and natur-
ally is a leader in political and labor circles.
Nannie Hancock is the present county superintendent
of schools of Athens County. She has completely
devoted her talents, training and character to educational
work, and has handled her responsibilities in a way to
command and attract for her wide recognition among
leading Kentucky educators.
She was born near Chatham in Bracken County, grew
up on her father's farm there, attended rural schools,
and graduated from the high school at Augusta in 1908.
She spent one year in the Kentucky State University
at Lexington and for a year was a student of water color
painting at Cincinnati. Her life work as a teacher began
in 1912, and for six years was connected with the
Augusta graded schools. In the meantime she spent
her summers in advanced work at the Normal School
at Richmond. In November, 1917, she was elected
county superintendent, and began her term of four years
in January, 1918. Her offices are in the Courthouse
at Brooksville. Her official supervision extends to forty-
three white and two colored rural schools and four
independent graded districts, and the staff of teachers
number sixty-six and the scholarship enrollment, 2,400.
Miss Hancock is a democrat, a member of the State
and National Education Association and the Presby-
terian Church. During the World war she was chair-
man of the committee on War Savings Stamps and
secretary of the Civilian Relief of the Bracken County
Chapter of the Red Cross, giving all the time she could
spare from her educational duties to patriotic purposes.
Her grandfather, John Hancock, was born in 1818
and when a young man moved to Bracken County.
Kentucky, where he followed farming the rest of his
life. He died at Chatham in 1893. John Hancock mar-
ried Margaret Power, who died at Chatham. The
Hancocks were an English family that settled in Vir-
ginia in Colonial times.
Joseph Doniphan Hancock, father of the county super-
intendent, was born at Chatham in 1852 and is still
living there a retired farmer. He has also been a tobacco
merchant and he still owns his farm near Chatham. A
number of years ago he served as county assessor, is a
stanch democrat, and a deacon in the Presbyterian
Church. Joseph D. Hancock married Mary Tolman,
who was born near Chatham in 1856. Her grandfather
Tolman was a native of Virginia, son of an English
settler, and was one of the first white men to move
into Bracken County, Kentucky, trading some hogs for
the land which he developed as a farm. William H.
Tolman, maternal grandfather of Miss Hancock, was
born in Bracken County and lived all his life there as
a farmer. He married Nancy Dora, of a well known
Virginia family, and she likewise spent all her life in
Bracken County.
Miss Nannie Hancock is the oldest of four children.
Her sister Kathleen lives at home at Chatham. Her
brother, John William, was born in August, 1894, and
died April 11, 1914, while a junior in the State Univer-
sity at Lexington, having attended Center College at
Danville for two years. He was a member of the Beta
Theta Pi college fraternity. The youngest of the family
is Lilliam Bryan, connected with the bonding department
of the Fifth-Third National Bank of Cincinnati.
Kin.; in Kan kin Kirkland. Among the men of the
country those who are moulders of thoughtful action
and controllers of the finances are those who are con-
nected in responsible positions with the great banking
institutions, for through them come the power to conduct
large enterprises in both the commercial and industrial
world. One of these men of moment of Paducah is
Robert Rankin Kirkland, cashier of the City National
Bank and a native son of the city, where he was born
July 19, 1882.
The Kirkland family was founded in America by
Alexander Kirkland, the great-grandfather of Robert
Rankin Kirkland. He was born at Dungannon, County
Tyrone, Ireland, in 1785, and died at Baltimore, Mary-
land, in 1854. He came to Baltimore, Maryland, to
establish an importing house in the coffee and sugar
trade, to which business his son, Robert Rankin Kirk-
land, succeeded. This house owned the controlling
interest in twenty-seven sailing vessels. He was a man
of parts, and aside from building up a very valuable
business connection took an active part in constructive
movements of his day, and among other things was
connected with the establishment of Dickinson College
at Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He married Agnes Quail, a
native of Baltimore, Maryland, who died in that city.
The grandfather, Robert Rankin Kirkland, son of
Alexander Kirkland, was born in Baltimore, Maryland,
in 1820, and died in that city in 1909, having spent his
entire life there. Having succeeded to his father's
business, he further expanded it, and did a big trade
with the West Indies and South America. The business
in his day was conducted under the name of Kirkland,
Chase & Company, and it paid one fortieth of all the
duty collected by the United States Government on
coffees and sugar in 1872, the year in which his retire-
ment took place. A man deeply interested in politics,
he strongly espoused the principles of the democratic
party. At one time he was the presiding officer of the
Baltimore Chamber of Commerce, and was also on the
Harbor Board Commissioners. From his youth he was
a communicant of the Episcopal Church, and gave to
that body an active and intelligent support. His wife
bore the maiden name of 'Martha A. Keys, and she was
born at Baltimore, Maryland, in 1824, and died in that
city in May, 1854. The children born to Robert Rankin
Kirkland and his wife were as follows: Agnes, who
married Randolph Barton, a corporation lawyer of Balti-
more ; Bailey, who was a civil engineer in the city
engineering department of Baltimore, died in that city
in 1905; Mary, who died in her youth; and Alexander,
who was the father of the Mr. Kirkland whose name
heads this review.
Alexander Kirkland was born at Baltimore, Maryland,
on April 15, 1854. He was educated in a private school
and the naval academy at Annapolis, Maryland, to
which he received his appointment through Congressman
Charles A. Phelps as a midshipman from the Third
Congressional District of Maryland. He was at the
academy for fifteen months, under the tuition of
Admiral Dewey, on board the old "Constitution," where
he was quartered during his entire connection with the
naval academy. After leaving the academy he spent
two years at the Virginia Military Institute at Lexing-
ton, Virginia, and while there was detailed as a guard
of honor for the body of Gen. Robert E. Lee.
Returning to Baltimore after the conclusion of his
studies he entered his father's business house and was
connected with it until 1872, when he removed to
Burlington, Iowa, to take a position with the Baltimore
& Ohio Railroad Company. After two years in that
city he was transferred to Springfield, Illinois, and for
two years represented the freight lines of the Wabash
and Erie Railroad. He then spent six months in New
York City, when he returned to Iowa and became local
agent for the Illinois Central Railroad at Dodge, Iowa,
but severed those connections within a year and came
to Paducah, Kentucky, settling permanently in this city
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
329
in July, 1877, as general manager of the Paducah &
Memphis Railroad, remaining with this road through
five of its re-organizations. In 1885 he went to Memphis,
Tennessee, as general agent for the same road, and
remained there until December, 1886, when he was sent
to Akron, Ohio, to take charge of the office of president
and general manager of the Cleveland, Akron & Colum-
bus Railroad, now a part of the Pennsylvania System,
and discharged the onerous duties pertaining to that
office until January, 1888, when once more he located
at Paducah and organized the Paducah Transfer Com-
pany, but after fourteen months sold his interest in it
to Robert H. Noble and established himself in a mer-
chandise brokerage business, in which he was engaged
for six years, during that period representing Armour
& Company and other large corporations. A man of
such ability could not hope to escape civic respon-
sibilities, and in 1898 he was elected city auditor of
Paducah, and filled the office for fourteen years. In
1913 he organized his sales agency and is now handling
office supplies and a high grade of specialties, with
offices at 1017 City National Bank Building. Strongly
democratic in his political proclivities, he received recog-
nition in his appointment as a member of the Paducah
Board of Drainage Commissioners by Judge James
M. Lang in March, 1919, and is still on the board.
For the past thirty years he has been secretary of the
West End Improvement Company. In 1890 he built
a comfortable modern residence at 161 1 Broadway,
where he still lives. An Episcopalian, he has done much
for his parish and has been vestryman for many years.
Alexander Kirkland is one of the forceful members
of the Paducah Rotary Club, and is now secretary of
the Drainage Board. During the late war he took a very
active part in the Liberty Bond and War Savings cam-
paigns, and it is safe to say that there have been few
movements for the betterment of the city, county, state
or nation in which he has not borne his part.
In 1881 Alexander Kirkland married Miss Sophie
Rankin, who died in 1885, at Paducah, Kentucky, leaving
three children, namely : Eleanor Rankin, who married
Dr. Clarence Milam, a dental surgeon of Paducah ;
Robert Rankin, who was second in order of birth ; and
Sophie, who lives at home. In 1889 Mr. Kirkland
married Miss Nannie Rabb, of Paducah, a daughter of
G. F. and Mary E. (Catlett) Rabb, both of whom are
deceased. For some years Mr. Rabb was connected
with the wholesale grocery house of Noble Overbey &
Company. The second Mrs. Kirkland was fatally burned
on February 28, 1919, and died on October 1 of that
year. By his second marriage Mr. Kirkland had two
children : Elizabeth Rabb, who is at home ; and Rabb
Noble, who is local treasurer and manager of the office
of the Stone-Webster Company at Lowell, Massa-
chusetts, and is also connected with the Lowell Light
& Power Company. He has one child, Alexander
Kirkland V, who was born at Paducah in March, 1914.
The maternal grandfather of Robert Rankin Kirkland,
Bayley Keys, established the first wholesale grocery
business in Cincinnati, and owned the first brick house
in that city. He was born at Baltimore, Maryland,
and he and his bride made their wedding trip on horse-
back from Baltimore to Cincinnati, she having been
before her marriage Priscilla Taylor of Baltimore.
After a residence of twenty years at Cincinnati they
returned to Baltimore, and he continued in business
in the latter city as a wholesale grocer for some years
more, both he and his wife passing away in that city.
The records of these ancestors of Robert R. Kirkland
show that he has back of him men of the utmost
probity, unusual capability and efficiency, so that it is no
small wonder he has been able to measure up well
according to high standards in his own life.
Growing up in his native city, in a home of refinement
and culture, Robert R. Kirkland attended its schools,
and at one time thought of a college course, but business
life had the stronger appeal for him and so he sought
and found congenial employment, entering the Amer-
ican-German National Bank as a messenger when he
was sixteen years old. Reliable and faithful, he was
promoted through successive positions to his present
very responsible one of cashier. In 1910 the American-
German National Bank was consolidated with the City
National Bank, in which Mr. Kirkland was a book-
keeper. Later he was made assistant cashier, and in
1917, became its cashier. Like his honored father, he
is a strong democrat, and he, too, is a member of the
Grace Episcopal Church, in which his father is so
active. For the past ten years he has been treasurer
of Paducah Lodge No. 217, B. P. O. E. He has other
interests in the city, owning stock in the Kozy Theatre
Company, of which he is vice president, and in other
interests. Mr. Kirkland resides at 161 1 Broadway.
He is unmarried. He has steadfastly adhered to one
line of business, learning its every detail. Never satis-
fied with performing the duties of the position he
happened to be occupying, he made it a practice to
learn those of the one ahead of him, and when an
opening occurred he was ready for it. He has a clear
and comprehensive knowledge of the banking business
in all of its ramifications, his judgment of men and
their motives is sound, and his acquaintance is a wide
one, so that in every respect he is eminently fitted for
his work, and gives to it the special interest which can
only arise from practical experience and natural ability.
Franklin Pierce Toof. A prominent and prosperous
business man of Paducah, Franklin Pierce Toof, secre-
tary and agent of the Cohankus Manufacturing Com-
pany, is officially identified with one of the foremost
industries of McCracken County, and in the fulfillment
of the duties devolving upon him never allows anything
that might advance the interests of the firm to escape
his attention. A son of Hermon Toof, he was born
April 2, 1857, in Salisbury, Litchfield County, Con-
necticut, being a direct descendant of one of two
brothers who immigrated from Holland to America in
Colonial times, locating in New York State.
A native of New York, Hermon Toof was born in
Rensselaer County, near Troy, in 1828, and there spent
the earlier years of his life. Learning the trade of
a scythe manufacturer, he followed it first in Salisbury,
Connecticut, and later in Forestdale, Rhode Island,
where he remained from 1867 until 1876, when, there
being but small demand for scythes in that locality,
he transferred his business and residence to Saint
Catherines, Province of Ontario, Canada, where he
remained eleven years. Coming from there to the
States in 1887, he settled in Rockford, Tennessee, near
his son Franklin, of whom we write, and there lived
retired until his death in 1906. He was a democrat in
politics, but not an office seeker.
Hermon Toof married in Salisbury, Connecticut, Eliza-
beth Ann Benjamin, who was born August 15, 1834, in
Dutchess County, New York, and died at Catskill, New
York, February 17, 1919. They were the parents of five
children, as follows: Charles, who died in Providence,
Rhode Island, at the early age of twenty-seven years,
was there overseer in a cotton mill ; Franklin Pierce,
the special subject of this brief sketch; Frederick D.,
twin brother of Franklin P., is a resident of Paducah,
and is superintendent of the Cohankus Manufacturing
Company ; Hermon died at Saint Catherines, Ontario,
when but twenty- four years old ; and Cora, whose death
occurred in Forestdale, Rhode Island, at the age of
thirteen years.
Receiving his early education in Salisbury, Con-
necticut, Franklin Pierce Toof left school when but
fourteen years old to begin work in the cotton mills
at Forestdale, Rhode Island, remaining there until 1874,
and the following year being similarly employed at
Woonsocket, Rhode Island. Removing in 1875 to Nash-
330
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
ville, Tennessee, he secured a position in a cotton
factory as assistant overseer in the weaving department,
and held it until 1880. Going then to New Orleans,
Louisiana, he helped establish a cotton mill in that city,
and served as its assistant superintendent for five years.
Returning to Tennessee in 1885, Mr. Toof spent a few
months in Nashville, and then bought property at Rock-
ford, that state, and operated a cotton mill until 1892.
Locating in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1893, he served as
general manager of a cotton mil! for two years, and
from 1895 until 1897 resided at Hohokus, New Jersey,
where he had full charge of the Cincinnati, Ohio and
Pawtucket, Rhode Island, interests of the Cohankus
Manufacturing Company. Continuing his association
with that company, Mr. Toof came to Paducah in
November, 1897, and having erected his present cotton
mills at the corner of Boyd and Ninth streets, removed
all the machinery from Hohokus to these mills, which
are substantially constructed of brick, and since that
time has served most ably as secretary and agent of this
enterprising firm, of which he is a director and one of
the stockholders.
Mr. Toof has under his supervision 180 employes
busily engaged in the manufacture of cotton cordage,
it being the largest mill of the kind in the United States
making this particular line of goods, and its products
are shipped for the jobbing trade into forty-four states
of our Union and also into Canada. The company like-
wise has a departmental mill at the corner of Eighth
and Findley streets, and in that plant manufactures
mops and braided sash cords. A man of good financial
ability, he has acquired considerable property, including
among other things his modernlv built residence at
1721 North Twelfth Street.
Mr. Toof is a democrat in politics, and a valued
member of the First Presbyterian Church. He is a
member of the Paducah Board of Trade, of which he
was president for eighteen months, and of the Rotary
Club, which he served as president for a year. He is
also on the council for the Boy Scouts, an organization
in which he takes great interest. During the World
war he took a prominent part in all the McCracken
County drives, and served as a member of the Kentucky
State Council of Defense for his district. For the
past two years he has been president of the McCracken
County Chapter of the American Red Cross, and during
the war was one of the "Four-Minute" speakers. He
helped in all of the Liberty Loan drives in an official
capacity, giving generously of his time and monev
toward all war activities.
Mr. Toof married in 1880, in Nashville, Tennessee,
Mary Isabelle White, who was born in Cincinnati, Ohio,
and into their household four children have been born]
namely: Edward L., of Paducah. is sales agent for
the Cohankus Manufacturing Company; Catherine E.,
who married Meredith N. Stiles, of New York City,
now resides in Buenos Ayres, Argentine, where her
husband, South American representative of the Asso-
ciated Press, has his headquarters; Hermon Andrews,
of Paducah ; and Frederick O.. of Tulsa, Oklahoma, is
there engaged in oil developments.
Hermon Andrews Toof was born in Memphis, Ten-
nessee, October 15, 1891, and was educated in Paducah,
attending public and private schools. Beginning his
active career at the age of eighteen years, he spent a
year as bookkeeper for the Southern Medicine Company,
and filled a similar position with the Foreman Electric
Company the ensuing year, and during the next two
years kept books for the Daniel Boone Coal Company
at Daniel Boone, Kentucky. Going then to Chicago,
Illinois, he was chief clerk in the mechanical engineering
department of the Pullman Company for a year. Re-
turning to Paducah in 1913, he has since served as
bookkeeper for the Cohankus Manufacturing Company,
and is likewise engaged in the brokerage business in
partnership with his brother Edward L. Toof, under
the firm name of Toof & Toof. These enterprising
brothers have established an extensive and profitable
brokerage business, with offices at 101-104 Guthrie
Building, and are members of the Chicago Board of
Trade, with which they are connected by a private
wire, being the only brokers in McCracken County with
such a wire.
Hermon A. Toof married, in 1916, in Paducah, Miss
Frances Soule, a graduate of the Paducah High School,
and they have two children, Mary Elizabeth, born in
1917; and Betty, born in 1919. Mr. Toof like his father,
is a stanch supporter of the principles of the democratic
party. Fraternally he belongs to Paducah Lodge No.
217, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He
resides at 809 Jefferson Street, and there he and his
wife take pleasure in entertaining their many friends.
Judge Frank Allan, of Allanville, was a widely
known and prominent citizen of Clark County, and for
eight years, until his death, performed the duties of
the office of county judge with singular fidelity and
efficiency.
Judge Allan, who died in 1882, at the age of sixty-two,
was a son of Lewis and Sophia Allan. He married
Elizabeth Haggard, a daughter of Pleasant Haggard.
Frank Allan located at Allanville, which then contained
a grist and saw mill, a carding factory, store, blacksmith
shop and postoffice, and became an extensive farmer
in that locality. He remained there until elected to
the office of county judge, when he removed to Win-
chester, and had filled that office for eight years before
his death. His widow then returned to the old farm
at Allanville, and remained at the old home until her
death three years later.
There were seven children in the family of Judge
Frank Allan and wife: James, a merchant at Allan-
ville, who died at the age of fifty years ; Pleasant, who
was a farmer and died at the age of seventy; Sophia,
who died in Allanville at the age of twenty-three, the
wife of Sam Dethridge; Mollie, who became the wife
of Woody Ecton and was the mother of Mrs. Audley
Haggard; John, a resident of Winchester; Bettie, who
died young, after her marriage to Allen Hampton ; and
Sidney, who practiced medicine at the old home at
Allanville and died in middle life.
Mollie Allan, who was married at the age of twenty-
one, secured a portion of the old Allan farm where
Woody Ecton spent his active life. Woody Ectou died
at Winchester June 22, 1003. They had three children :
Frank Allan Ecton, living near Allanville ; Effie Ward,
who died in childhood; and Sudie, Mrs. Audley
Haggard.
Audley Haggard. In Clark County members of the
Haggard family have been prominent in agriculture and
other affairs for several generations. The home of
Audley Haggard seven miles south of Winchester,
stands on the highest elevation in the county, with a
wide range of view, the lights of the City of Richmond,
county seat of Madison County, being within vision at
night. This farm was once owned by David Haggard,
grandfather of Frank Haggard, the attorney.
Henry Rider Haggard, the distinguished English
novelist (who "claims kin" with the Haggards of Clark
County) is authority for the statement that the Haggard
family are descended from Andrew Ogard of Denmark,
who settled in County Norfolk, England, in the year
1433. was naturalized there, and was knighted by King
Henry VII. Though they have made no effort to trace
the connection the Haggards of Clark County are
certainly descended from this Sir Andrew Ogard, whose
name was anglicized into Haggard.
So far as is known the first Haggard to come to
America was James Haggard, who had been educated
for the Episcopal ministry in England, and came to
Norfolk, Virginia, in 1698, being then not yet twenty-one
AST
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
331
years old. He taught school in Norfolk for years
and eventually married one of his pupils, whose name
has not descended. They had four sons, Nathaniel,
Edmund, Zachary and Gray. It is only with Nathaniel
that this sketch has to do.
Nathaniel Haggard was born November 21, 1723, and
married Elizabeth Gentry. They settled in Albemarle
County, Virginia, and in 1788 they went to Kentucky,
settling three miles south of where Winchester now
stands and where George W. Haggard now lives, in
the same house, which is undoubtedly the oldest building
of any kind in the county. Nathaniel Haggard died
August 21, 1820, at the ripe age of ninety-seven years.
He raised a family of seven sons and three daughters.
All of his children were born in Virginia, and some
of them never settled in Clark County. Those of them
who did were: (1) John Haggard, horn in 1754.
married Mary Shepherd. They settled about eight
miles south of Winchester, and raised four sons and
four daughters — Pleasant, who married a Miss Watts;
Martin, who married Sallie Hampton ; John, who mar-
ried Rhoda Quisenberry, daughter of Rev. James Quis-
enberry ; David T., who married Patsey Adams ; Polly,
who married 'Minor Winn ; Elizabeth, who married Joel
Quisenberry, son of Rev. James Quisenberry ; Sallie.
who married Jessie Hampton ; and Nancy, who married
David Reed. David T. Haggard was the father of
Judge Augustine L. Haggard and grandfather of Judge
Rodney Haggard. (2) Rev. James Haggard (Baptist
minister) born 1759, married Betsey Gentry, in 1790
settled in Clark County, but in 1816 removed to Christian
County, Kentucky. (3) Bartlett Haggard, born in 1763,
married Martha Dawson, and in 1788 they settled in
Clark County, Kentucky. They had two sons, Martin,
who married Elizabeth Dane, and Allen Dawson, who
married Frances Haggard, daughter of Pleasant Hag-
gard. (4) David Haggard, born in 1763, married Nancy
Dawson, and in 1792 they settled in Clark County,
Kentucky, but in 1823 they removed to Trigg County,
Kentucky, and in 1836 to Bloomington, Illinois. Their
daughter, Martha Haggard, was born in Clark County
in 1795, and married John Routt, of the same county,
and they went to Illinois. Their son, John L. Routt,
was several times governor of Colorado. Bartlett and
David Haggard were twins and married sisters. (5)
Nathan Haggard great-grandfather of Audley Haggard,
born in 1765, married Elizabeth Hayes, and they settled
in Clark County in 1788. They had four sons and
three daughters, as follows : Martin, William, John,
David, Polly (who married Spencer Hollo way), Nancy
(who married James Hanson) and Eliza (who married
Dennis Doyle).
This family were all Baptists and most of them were
members of Providence Church at "the old stone
meeting house."
At one time there were three David Haggards in
Clark County, all first cousins. One of them was David,
the grandfather of Audley Haggard. He was born
July 28, 1812, and died December 14, 1880. His home
was three miles southwest of Winchester, at the present
Jeff Tevis farm, and he spent his last days there and
was buried at Smithfield. His wife was Temperance
Hodgkin, born December 28, 181 1, and died April 28,
1883. Of David and Temperance Haggard the children
were: James P., who died in Shelby County; Samuel,
of Arkansas; Charles P., of Winchester; Mildred, a twin
sister of Charles P., who married Doctor Morris and
lived at Sulphur, Kentucky ; Betty, who died in Henry
County, the wife of Paschal Maddox ; and Barbara, who
married John Austin and is deceased.
Charles P. Haggard, father of Audley Haggard, mar-
ried for his first wife Edith Elkin, daughter of Enoch
and Ann Polly (Quisenberry) Elkin. Her mother was
a daughter of Roger Quisenberry, who was born
November 23, 1792, and died March 29, 1877, while
his wife, Polly, was born October 10, 1795, and died
Vol. V— 31
January 10, 1866. The old home of Enoch Elkin is now
owned by Joe Carroll of the Boonesboro Pike. A
brother of Edith Elkin was Doctor Elkin, who died
at Louisville. None of the Elkins remain in Clark
County. Enoch Elkin, born January 30, 1803, died at
the age of sixty-one, on July 12, 1864. His first wife
Ann P. Quisenberry, was born April 24, 1814, and died
January 8, 1878. They were married February 17,
183 1. The Elkins were one of the very wealthy families
of the county, and Enoch Elkin was a prominent dealer
in mules for many years. Edith Elkin died four years
after her marriage, leaving two sons, Audley and
Morris. The latter is a farmer and merchant at Somer-
set, Kentucky. Both these sons were reared by their
stepmother, who was one of the very best of women
and a real mother to them.
Charles P. Haggard soon after his marriage moved
to Monroe County, Missouri, where his wife died. He
then returned and became a partner of Sam P. Hodgkin.
About 1902 he bought the farm now owned by his son
Audley. This farm had been given by another David
Haggard to his daughter Frankie, who married Nathan
Lipscomb. Mrs. Lipscomb's daughter, Nannie May Lips-
comb, became the second wife of Charles P. Haggard.
At the death of Mrs. Lipscomb the farm was sold to
Charles P. Haggard, his wife having an interest in it.
After three years of residence on the farm Charles P.
Haggard moved to Winchester, where his wife died
the same year. At that time Charles bought out the
grocery business of his son Morris at Winchester, and
is still one of the active merchants of that city.
Audley Haggard's chief farm comprises a splendid
property in the Blue Grass section, and he also owns
a half interest in the adjoining farm.
On November 14, 1906, Audley Haggard married
Sudie Ecton, a daughter of Woody and Mollie (Allan)
Ecton. The children of Audley Haggard and wife are
Morris Allan, Marion Elkin and Audley, Jr. Mr.
Haggard is an active member and a deacon of the Mount
Olive Baptist Church.
Daniel Lawson Moore was one of the eminent Ken-
ttickians of the past generation, a man of vast property
interests, an able business executive, a generous and
public spirited citizen and one whose many interests
brought diversity and pleasure to himself and contrib-
uted to the welfare and progress of his native state and
of many more distant communities.
Mr. Moore, who died at his beautiful home in Har-
tolsburg, October 20, 1916, was born in Mercer County,
January 31, 1847. His parents were Dr. James Harri-
son and Mary (Messenger) Moore, his mother being a
native of Massachusetts. Doctor Moore, who was born
near Danville, Kentucky, October 13, 1819, traced his
ancestry through his mother to John J. Lawson, Lord
of Fowlisgrave in the first year of the reign of King
Henry III of England. One of his descendants, Roland
Lawson, settled in Virginia in 1637. Sarah, grand-
daughter of Roland, was married to William Moore, son
of Thomas Moore, gentleman, a native of England.
The Moore family is descended from Sir Thomas
Moore, who was high chancellor for King Henry VIII.
The grandson of William Moore and Sarah Lawson
was Lawson M., who married Elizabeth Rochester,
daughter of John Rochester of Westmoreland County,
Virginia.
James Harrison Moore was educated in Center Col-
lege at Danville, graduated in 1841 from the medical
department of Transylvania University, and practiced
for five years in Mississippi, where he married Mrs.
Mary Sabrina (Messenger) Foster. Her parents,
Daniel and Mary (Bacon) Messenger, had moved to
Mississippi from Berkshire County, Massachusetts.
After returning to Kentucky from Mississippi, Doctor
Moore practiced at Harrodsburg, but soon became asso-
ciated with his brother in business, and in 1851 bought
332
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
the Major Hoard farm near Harrodsburg and became
widely known for his success in the breeding and rais-
ing of thoroughbred horses and Durham cattle. He was
the first to import Morgan and Messenger horses into
Kentucky. For many years he was president of the
Mercer County Agricultural Society, and was a large
producer of cotton on his plantation in Mississippi. He
helped organize the Mercer National Bank and was it?
president. He was first a whig and later a democrat,
and he and his wife were members of the Southern
Presbyterian Church. They had two sons, Daniel L.
and Bacon Rochester Moore.
Daniel Lawson Moore was educated under private
tutors, in Center College at Danville, and studied law
under Col. Philip B. Thompson. While admitted to
the bar, he used his legal knowledge altogether in han-
dling his extensive business affairs.
For many years Mr. Moore was engaged in the dis-
tilling business, having founded the D. L. Moore Dis-
tillery near Burgin in 1873. Later, upon the death of
his father-in-law, Judge William H. McBrayer, he was
appointed administrator of the McBrayer estate and as
lessee operated the famous Cedar Brook distillery in
Anderson County, continuing active in the management
until the general consolidation of leading Kentucky dis-
tilleries. Mr. Moore was the largest individual stock-
holder, and from 1892 until 1908 served as president of
the Mercer National Bank. While he was a business
man rather than a practical farmer, he handled his
agricultural interests with a high degree of skill and
profit. He owned several thousand acres of valuable
cotton plantations in Mississippi, three of them being
named Eggremont, Baconia and The Mounds. At The
Mounds he had a splendid winter home. He also was
owner of several thousand acres of timber lands in
Mississippi and supplied much of the capital and enter-
prise for the lumber operattens. He bought in 1881 a
great ranch of 6,000 acres in North Park, Colorado,
and introduced some of the finest cattle and horses,
making it a center of improved livestock in the far
West and doing much to raise the standards of the
livestock business. "
The late Mr. Moore was a man of cultivated intellect
and likewise a man of action. He was a true nature
lover, enjoyed hunting, made many excursions to the
wild game regions of the Rocky Mountains, and his
home still contains trophies of his skill. But it was
not altogether the big game that attracted him to the
wilds. He enjoyed and appreciated the spiritual up-
lift of the mountain solitudes, from which he carried
away a vision of goodness and greatness associated with
the eternal works of nature. He was regular in his
worship as member of the Harrodsburg Presbyterian
Church, and he and his father gave to that church a
fine pipe organ as a memorial to his mother.
Mr. Moore was a stanch democrat and in 1881 was
elected from the Twentieth District to the State Senate.
His public spirit found evidence in the fact that though
a distiller, he introduced and championed the bill levy-
ing a special tax on Kentucky whiskey for school pur-
poses, and this bill was enacted largely through his
personal efforts in its behalf.
' On November 15, 1870, Mr. Moore married Miss
Henrietta McBrayer, only daughter of Judge William
H. McBrayer, founder of the famous Cedar Brook
distillery. Mrs. Moore died in 1882, the mother of three
children: Mary Messinger, wife of Percy Whilden, now
living at Greenville, North Carolina; Wallace, wife of
Morris Bartlett, of Lexington ; and McBrayer Moore,
who married Margaret Rodes, of Danville.
June 30, 1891, Mr. Moore married Miss Minnie Ball
at her home at Versailles, Kentucky, the marriage cere-
mony being pronounced by Rev. Wallace Tharp. Mrs.
Moore is the daughter of Dudley Mitchum and Joanna
(Chrissman) Ball, and is descended from the same
family as the mother of George Washington. Her
father was a native of Kentucky and her grandfather
came from Virginia and settled in Woodford County
in pioneer days, acquiring a land grant of many thou-
sands of acres. It was after his marriage to Miss
Ball that Mr. Moore moved to the home on Lexington
Pike, near Harrodsburg, where three years later he
erected the beautiful home at a cost of $50,000, regarded
as one of the finest residences in the state. Mrs. Moore
and her children still retain extensive interests in Ken-
tucky, the Colorado ranch and Mississippi holdings.
Mrs. Moore since the death of her husband has given
convincing evidence of the possession of unusual busi-
ness talents, and has handled her extensive affairs with
admirable judgment and efficiency. Much of her time
is taken up with the exacting duties imposed by the
ownership and operation of the Mississippi cotton planta-
tions, the timber lands, the stock ranch in Colorado,
and her fine Kentucky farm, where she grows Burley
tobacco and fine livestock. In her beautiful home she
has maintained the highest standards of old Kentucky
hospitality. Mrs. Moore has two daughters : Anita
Mitchum Moore, born March 10, 1893, who was edu-
cated in the Semple Collegiate Institute at Louisville
and is the wife of Thomas Henry Coleman, the third,
of the well known Coleman family of Kentucky. Mr.
Coleman is a farmer and stock man on the Lexington
Pike in Mercer County. Mr. and Mrs. Coleman have
one daughter, Joanna Ball Coleman, born April 21, 1919,
and named for her grandmother. The second daughter
of Mrs. Moore is Minnie Ball Moore, born October 21,
1897. She was educated in the Semple Collegiate In-
stitute at Louisville, the Mary Baldwin School in Vir-
ginia, is a graduate of the Colonial School at Washing-
ton, and is an accomplished pianist and artist and in
every way splendidly equipped for the social sphere in
which she moves. She was married June 30, 1921, to
Doctor Goddard, a practicing physician at Harrodsburg,
Kentucky.
Lewis D. Massey, superintendent and manager for
Western Kentucky of the Inter-Southern Life Insur-
ance Company, is one of the very successful operators
in insurance fields today, and a man who is recognized
as one of the leading citizens of Paducah. He was born
at Atchison, Kansas, May 1, 1880, a son of Alexander
Massey. The Massey family originated in England and
was founded in the United States by the paternal grand-
father, who became a farmer of Kansas and died in that
state.
Alexander Massey was born at Oscaloosa, Kansas, in
1846, and died there in 1885. For some years he was a
railroad man and made his home at Atchison. All of his
mature years he was a democrat. His wife was before
her marriage Miss Elizabeth Letner. She was born in
Tennessee in 1856, and survives him, making her home
at Cookeville, Tennessee. Their children were as fol-
lows: Lewis D., who was the first born; Amanda, who
resides in Tennessee; Eliza, who married Morris Robin-
son and lives at Cookeville, Tennessee, where he is
engaged in business as a merchant ; Mina, who married
a farmer, lives at Cookeville, Tennessee; and Charles,
who died at the age of seventeen years.
After attending the graded and high schools of Cooke-
ville, Tennessee, Lewis D. Massey was graduated from
the latter in 1899, and then for the subsequent three
years was a clerk in a grocery store at Monterey, Ten-
nessee. From then on until 1905 he was employed
in a barrel factory at Monterey, in that year going to
Mound City, Illinois, as foreman for the Carl Meyers
Stave Company. Leaving that concern in 1007, he began
working for the Illinois Central Railroad Company as
a car repairer, and was promoted to be a carpenter.
It was in 1909 that he formed connections which has
given him a congenial occupation and permitted him to
expand and develop his natural abilities, for it was then
that he became an agent of the Metropolitan Life
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
333
Insurance Company at Cairo, Illinois, and began his
prosperous career in the insurance field. So successful
was he that he was promoted to assistant superintendent
of the Cairo office, and in 1912 was sent to Mayfield,
Kentucky, as manager of the office of the Metropolitan
Company at that point. After several years there Mr.
Massey was transferred, in March, 1915, to Paducah,
Kentucky, as deputy superintendent of the Metropolitan
Company. The record he had made with that company
was so remarkable that it attracted the attention of other
insurance companies, and several very flattering offers
were made to him, and in July, 1915, he accepted that
of the Inter-Southern Life Insurance Company as its
agent at Paducah. In January, 1916, bis zeal was re-
warded by his promotion to assistant superintendent, and
he was made superintendent in January, 1918, to which
were later added the duties of manager for Western
Kentucky, and he is discharging the duties pertaining
to these positions at present. His offices are located
at 801-802 City National Bank Building.
In 1905 Mr. Massey married at Monterey, Tennessee,
Miss Hattie C. Wilson, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs.
Henry Wilson, both of whom are now deceased. During
the time he resided at Monterey Mr. Wilson was a
carpenter. Mr. and Mrs. Massey became the parents
of the following children : Lillian, who was born in
1907; Mildred, who was born in 1909; and Ruby, who
was born in 191 1.
In his politics Mr. Massey is a democrat, but he has
never asked for any favors from his party or the public.
Quite active in church work, he belongs on the member-
ship rolls of the Methodist Episcopal Church and is
secretary of the Sunday School' connected with it. Plain
City Lodge No. 449, A. F. and A. M., holds his member-
ship, and he also belongs to Paducah Lodge No. 217,
B. P. O. E. ; Mangum Lodge No. 21, I. O. O. F., of
which he is a past grand, and to the Islic Club. He
owns a modern residence at 526 Harahan Boulevard.
In his business 'Mr. Massey is animated by high motives,
and his efforts to educate the public with reference to
the duty of each individual to buy a sufficient amount
of insurance are producing tangible and practical results.
He is a man with liberal views on public matters, and
believes it the duty of each citizen to exert himself to
further movements which have for their object the
advancement of humanity and the raising of civic
standards.
John King Ferguson. Handling the affairs of large
corporations with deft and efficient capability, there are
a number of men at Paducah who are just as much
the makers of history as anybody sitting in legislative
assemblies or commanding armies of fighting men.
The prosperity, even the very life of a country, depend
upon the successful and equitable conduct of its large
enterprises. Without production there can be no
progress ; without a proper medium through which the
manufactured goods can reach the public it is difficult
to secure a fair distribution of necessary articles, and,
therefore, both the manufacturer and merchant are de-
pendent, the one on the other, just as both are on the
producer of the raw materials, the skilled workmen,
and all on the purchasing public. The theory that
every man can live to himself alone belongs to the age
of the cave dweller. No one can afford to disregard
his dependence upon others any more than he has the
right to forget their need of him and his services.
These facts are the fundamentals of all industry and
commerce.
One of these highly efficient men who is taking an
active part in adding to the city's prestige as a business
center of this part of the state is John King Ferguson,
president of the Ferguson Hardwood Company, who
was born in -Allen County, Indiana, April 4, 1870.
His grandfather, John Ferguson, was born in Scot-
land and died in the province of Quebec, Canada,
when his grandson was still a child, and he, himself,
had reached the age of eighty-eight years. While a
lad he had become a sailor, and it was while on one
of his voyages that he touched at Canada, and being
attracted by the opportunity he saw there of acquiring
land at a low figure, left the sea, bought land and spent
.the remainder of his life, far into old age, as a farmer.
After locating in Quebec he was married, and one of
his sons, John Ferguson, became the father of John
King Ferguson.
John Ferguson was born in the province of Quebec,
Canada, in 1834, and died at Fort Wayne, Indiana, in
1917. His father was a practical man and taught him
to be useful from boyhood, so that when he came to
the United States and located in Allen County, In-
diana, in young manhood he had little difficulty in get-
ting established, and soon was profitably engaged in
a lumber business. In 1887 he moved to Fort Wayne,
Indiana, which continued to be his home until he was
claimed by death. A man of strong convictions, he
identified himself with the republican party, and always
had the courage to stand by his principles. He was
equally fervent in his religious life, and for years was
one of the leading members of the First Baptist Church
of Fort Wayne. Both the Masons and Odd Fellows
had in him an enthusiastic member. John Ferguson
was married to Eliza King, born in the province of
Quebec in 1837, and her useful life terminated at Fort
Wayne, Indiana, in 1917. They had the following
children born to them: Cora M., who married J. R.
Pattison, a realtor of Olympia, Washington, died in
that city in 1893, but her husband survives her ; Mary
Frances, who married Earl Palmer, a lumber dealer
of Memphis, Tennessee ; Lida K., who lives at Fort
Wayne, Indiana ; John King, whose name heads this
review ; and Minnie E., who married R. S. Robertson,
a lumber dealer of Paducah.
After completing the courses in the Fort Wayne
public schools including that of the high school, from
which he was graduated in 1889, John King Ferguson
began to be self-supporting, and for six months was in
the employ of the Natural Gas Company at Fort Wayne,
and then went into the lumber business with his father
and brother-in-law. Earl Palmer, and maintained this
connection until 1898. In October of that year he
brought his family to Paducah, and he and Earl Palmer
and R. S. Robertson embarked in the manufacture of
hardwood lumber. They built their present plant on
Third and Elizabeth streets, and in 1916 the business
was incorporated as the Ferguson Hardwood Company,
with J. K. Ferguson as president, J. D. Mocquot as
secretary, and S. Mall as treasurer. The plant was re-
built and enlarged, and is now the biggest of its kind
in Western Kentucky. The company manufactures
hardwood, specializing in long timber for ship and boat
building, and ships its products all over the United
States and into foreign countries. Employment is
given in the plant to fiftv persons, and the same num-
ber are employed in the logging regions.
Mr. Ferguson is a man of independent views and pre-
fers to pick his own candidates and not follow blindly
any party leaders. He belongs to the First Presbyterian
Church of Paducah, in which he is an elder. Well
known in Masonry he is a member of Plain City
Lodge No. 440, A. F. and A. M. : Paducah Chapter
No. 30. R. A. M. ; Paducah Commandery No. II, K. T. :
Louisville Consistory, in which he is a thirty-second
degree Mason ; and Rizpah Temple. A. A. O. N. M. S..
of Mad;sonville. Kentucky. The Board of Trade and
the Country Club hold his membership and_ afford hjm
opportunities for business and social associations with
congenial companions. He owns a modern residence
at 230 Fountain Avenue, where the surroundings and
furnishings create a comf6rtable home atmosphere.
In 1894, Mr. Ferguson wis married at Fort Wavne,
Ind'ana. to Miss Lorena Stahl, a daughter of John
and Sarah (Hilegass) Stahl, the former of .whom,
now deceased, was at one time one of the leading
334
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
attorneys of Fort Wayne. His widow, who survives
him, makes her home at Denver, Colorado. Mrs. Fer-
guson was graduated from the Fort Wayne High
School, and is a charming lady. Mr. and Mrs. Fergu-
son have five children. The eldest. John S., is a vet-
eran of the great war, having served in the United
States Navy with the rank of ensign, and was on a
destroyer a portion of the period of his service. When
he was sent overseas he was first at Brest. France,
from whence he went to Budapest and Vienna, oper-
ating in conjunction with the Intelligence Department
of the Peace Conference. After his honorable dis-
charge from the navy, he returned home and is now
attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
at Boston, Massachusetts, in which he is specializing
in chemical engineering. The second child in the fam-
ily is Bertha E., and after she was graduated from
Rosemarv Hall, Greenwich, Connecticut, she became
a student of Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, Penn-
sylvania. She is now the wife of James G. Wheeler,
an attorney of Paducah, Kentucky, to whom she was
married on April 8, 1920. The other three children
of Mr. and Mrs. Ferguson are : Earl P.. who is at-
tending a military academy at Denver, Colorado ;
Robert R.. who is attending Phillips Academy at
Andover, Massachusetts; and Oliver Drayton, who is
also at Phillips Academy.
Both as a manufacturer and citizen Mr. Ferguson
stands very high in public, esteem. The impetus given
the shipping industry through the loss of tonnage dur-
ing the late war has of course increased the demand
for his product, but he and his company have been
equal to all emergencies, and are keeping the plant
working at full capacity. While he has never cared
to come before the public for political preferment,
doubtless if he desired to do so the outcome would be
gratifying, for he has a wide acquaintance and is per-
sonally very popular. Mrs. Ferguson and the ch ldren
also have many friends in the city and county, and
in the several communities to which their studies have
taken them. Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler are numbered
among the popular young married people of Paducah.
The prosperity which has come to Mr. Ferguson -has
not been attained through any spectacular operations,
but is simply the logical outcome of shrewd, careful
and sound business methods, all of which have com-
mended him to the best element, and he and his com-
pany are recognized as valuable adjuncts to Paducah
and the surrounding country.
Robert Lee Tate. A well known and highly re-
spected citizen of Paducah, Robert Lee Tate, a manu-
facturer of brooms, is identified with one of the im-
portant industries of McCracken County, where he has
built up a substantial and constantly increasing busi-
ness, the products of his factory having an extended
and highly favorable reputation for usefulness and
durability. A son of the late J. M. Tate, he was born
December 3, 1862, in Union County, Kentucky, of
Scotch lineage, the immigrant ancestor of the Tate
family having come from Scotland to America, settling
in Colonial days in Virginia.
A native of Kentucky, J. M. Tate was born in 1823 in
Oldham County and died in Caseyville. Union County,
in 1893. Reared and educated in Oldham County, he
removed to Union County in early manhood, and hav-
ing established there the pioneer saddlery and harness
shop continued in business until his death. He was
a democrat in politics, and served one or more terms
as police judge. A valued member of the Christian
Church, he was a deacon and one of its most active
supporters. Fraternally he belonged to the Ancient
Free and Accepted Masons and to the Independent
Order of Odd Fellows.
J. M. Tate married for his first wife Anna Bohan-
11011, who spent her entire life in Kentucky, dying in
Caseyville and leaving two children, Catherine, who
died, unmarried, in .Madisonville, Kentucky, aged sev-
enty years ; and C. B., a retired traveling man, now
living in Madisonville. He married for his second wife
Martha Anderson, who was born in Oldham County,
Kentucky, and died in Union County, this state, in
1908. She was a daughter of George and Matilda
(Hall) Anderson, both of whom were born in Oldham
County. Kentucky, and died in Union County. The
birth of her father, a farmer by occupation, occurred
in 1810 and his death in 1870. Five children were born
of their union, as follows: Benjamin, who died in
Caseyville, Kentuckj-, at the early age of twenty-one
years ; Robert Lee, of whom we write ; Georgia, wife
of Ruby Holt, a former undertaker at Sturgis, Union
County, this state, where he is now engaged in farming ;
Emma, who died in Paducah at the age of thirty-five
years, was wife of the late Augustus Bailey, a dry
goods clerk, whose death also occurred in Paducah ;
and Charles, a broom manufacturer, engaged in busi-
ness with his brother, Robert, in Paducah.
Receiving his early knowledge of books in the rural
schools of Union County, Robert Lee Tate began work
in a broom factory- at Caseyville when fifteen years old.
and learned the secret of broom making in all of its
details. Coming to Paducah in 1885, he worked in a
broom factory three years, and then returned to Casey-
ville. where he operated a factory of his own for five
years. Preferring the business outlook in Paducah,
Mr. Tate came back to this city in 1890, and having
established his present factory at the corner of Four-
teenth and Madison streets has since built up a large
and thriving business. He manufactures brooms of
all kinds, and ships the products of his plant to the
jobbers throughout Western Kentucky. Successful in
his work, he has acquired property of value, owning
not only his residence, at 1419 Jefferson Street, and his
factory buildings, but considerable real estate within the
city limits.
Mr. Tate married in Paducah. in 1895, Miss Lucille
Tindall, a daughter of Charles and Elizabeth Tindall.
neither of whom are now living. Her father, an at-
torney-at-law, practised successfully for many years
in Trenton. Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. Tate have one
child, Robert, born February 15, 1896. He graduated
from the High School in Paducah, and later contin-
ued his studies at the Vanderbilt University in Nash-
ville. Tennessee. In 1918. he enlisted and was in serv-
ice for a year at Augusta. Georgia, having been a
lieutenant in the Machine Gun Corps. After receiv-
ing his discharge from the army he located in Detroit.
Michigan, where he is an advertising writer. Polit-
ically Mr. Tate is a democrat, and fraternally he be-
longs to the Order of the Golden Fleece.
Albert Morgan Rouse. Richly endowed for the
educational work with which he is so prominently
identified, being a man of far-reaching thought, vigor-
ous will and splendid ability. Albert Morgan Rouse
has gained a fine reputation throughout Western Ken-
tucky as manager of the Draughon Business College of
Paducah, which is one of a chain of about forty
Draughon business institutions scattered throughout the
South and Middle West. He was born June 16, 1865,
in McCracken County, Kentucky, of English ancestry,
the founder of that branch of the Rouse family to
which he belongs having emigrated from England to
America, settling in North Carolina.
His father, John B. Rouse, was born in North
Carolina in 1810, and there served an apprenticeship
at the ship carpenter's trade. Coming to Kentucky
about 1840, in pioneer days, he bought land, and was
thereafter successfully engaged in general farming in
McCracken County until his death in 1880. He was
a democrat in politics, and belonged to the Ancient
Free and Accepted Masons. He was twice married.
He married first, Elizabeth Scott, who was born in
North Carolina and died on the home farm in Mc-
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
335
Cracken County, Kentucky, leaving six children, as
follows : John, engaged in farming in New Mexico ; Re-
becca, deceased ; Robert, deceased : Martha, living in
Oklahoma, is the widow of Jack Griffin, a farmer ;
Margaret, deceased ; and William, engaged in agri-
cultural pursuits in Texas. John B. Rouse married for
his second wife Mary Dossett, who was a life-long
resident of McCracken County, her birth occurring in
1829 and her death in 1894. Eight children were born
of their union, namely: T. B., a Baptist clergyman,
has charge of a church at Rector, Arkansas ; George
E., of Paducah, is serving as deputy sheriff; Julia mar-
ried James Ross, a farmer of McCracken County, and
both have passed to the life beyond; Y. D., an agricul-
turist, resides in McCracken County ; Albert M., with
whom this sketch is chiefly concerned ; Pharaby, wife
of J. A. Dossett, who is engaged in the lumber business
at Paducah ; J. M., of Paducah, is a road contractor ;
and Linn, a farmer by occupation, died in McCracken
County at the early age of thirty-six years.
After leaving the rural schools of McCracken County,
Albert M. Rouse attended the State University of Ken-
tucky, at Lexington, two years, and was subsequently
engaged in teaching in McCracken and Graves counties
until 1894. Being then elected superintendent of the
county schools of McCracken County, he served in
that capacity until 1898, being very successful. From
1900 until 1905 he was principal of the ward school of
Paducah, and since that time has held his present re-
sponsible position as manager of the Draughon Busi-
ness College of Paducah, which was established in
1904. Under the able supervision of Mr. Rouse this
institution has developed into one of the leading busi-
ness colleges in Western Kentucky, its students com'ng
from all parts of Kentucky and from Western Ten-
nessee, Illinois, Southeastern Missouri, and from other
near-by states. The school, which is in a flourishing
condition, occupies the entire second flour of the
Oehlschlaeger Building, at the corner of Sixth Street
and Broadway, an especially convenient location.
Mr. Rouse married in Mercer County, Kentucky, in
December, 1894, Miss Ada Bonta, who was graduated
from the Bell Seminary at Danville, Kentucky. Her
parents, William and Elizabeth (Sallee) Bonta who
resided on a farm in Mercer County, are both de-
ceased. The only child of Mr. and Mrs. Rouse, John
Bonta Rouse, born in December, 1895, was graduated
from the Paducah High School, and is now living at
home, being employed as a traveling salesman. Polit-
ically Mr. Rouse is a sound democrat, and religiously
is a member of the Baptist Church, in which he is
serving as a deacon. He belongs to the Paducah
Board of Trade, and is a member of Paducah Camp
No. 11313, Modern Woodmen of America. Ever inter-
ested in educational matters, he served for two years
on the Paducah Board of Education. He resides at
1218 Trimble Street, and there his . friends and ac-
quaintances find the latch string ever out.
Edgar T. Washburn. Well qualified for his chosen
profession not only by his high mental attainments
but by his native talent and temperament, Edgar T.
Washburn, of Paducah, holds a place of prominence
among the more able, skillful and successful members
of the Kentucky bar, having an extensive and con-
stantly increasing patronage. He was born June 17,
1886, at Whitewater, Wisconsin, where the birth of his
father, the late Edgar T. Washburn, Sr., occurred in
1858. His paternal grandfather, William Washburn,
whose emigrant ancestor settled in New York State
on coming to this country from England, was born
and reared in Manlius, New York. After his marriage
he moved to Whitewater, Wisconsin, where he spent
his remaining years. He was an architect of consid-
erable note, much of his business being done in Chi-
cago. His wife, whose maiden name was Lucy Sweet,
was born in Manlius, New York, and died in White-
water, Wisconsin.
Brought up and married in Whitewater, Wisconsin,
Edgar T. Washburn, Sr., was for several years super-
intendent of the Esterly Harvesting Company. Re-
moving to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1892, he served
for four years as president of the Washburn Lumber
Company, which he founded. Coming from there to
Kentucky in 1896, he became manager of the Wiscon-
sin Chair Company at Wickliffe, Ballard County,
where he remained until 1902, when he established the
Washburn Mill and Shingle Company at Newport,
Arkansas, where his death occurred the following
year, in 1903. Politically he was a republican in na-
tional affairs, but in local and state matters cast his
vote with the democrats. He was a member of a Prot-
estant church, and belonged to the Anc:ent Free and
Accepted Masons.
The maiden name of the wife of Edgar T. Wash-
burn, Sr., was Eva Jane Campbell. She was born
in 1855 in Whitewater, Wisconsin, and now resides at
1925 Madison Street, Paducah. Five children were
born of their marriage, as follows : Burton A., a well
known physician and surgeon of Paducah, served in
the World war as first lieutenant in a med'cal corps ;
William R., twin brother of Burton A., of Fort Douglas,
Utah, served in the Medical Corps throughout the
World war, and is now a major in the Regular United
States Army; Cora E., wife of J. F. Nichols, a prom-
inent attorney of Bardwell, Kentucky ; Edgar T., the
special subject of this brief sketch; and Etta Carl,
wife of S. E. Mitchell, of Paducah, owner of the
Mitchell Machine & Electric Company.
Having received the equivalent of a high school
education in the public and Barrett private schools at
Wickliffe, Kentucky, Edgar T. Washburn attended the
Baptist College at Blandville, Kentucky, two years
after which he completed a business course in the
Central Business College at Paducah, specializing in
bookkeeping and expert accounting. The year follow-
ing he took a preparatory course under private tutor-
ship, and spent the ensuing two years in the law office
of Honorable John M. Nichols at Bardwell, Kentucky.
Being admitted to the bar in February, 1909, Mr.
Washburn has since been successfully engaged in the
practice of his profession in Paducah, his offices being
at 123^ South Fourth Street. Possessing a compre-
hensive knowledge of law, his success in the handling
of civil and criminal cases has been the inevitable re-
sult of his wise application of the natural and ac-
quired forces with which he is so abundantly blessed
to the legal work in which he is so thoroughly inter-
ested.
In September, 1917, Mr. Washburn entered the
United States service, and as a member of the infantry
received his training at Fort Benjamin Harrison, In-
diana, where he remained until October, 1917, when he
was honorably discharged. In June, 1918, he re-enlisted
and was sent to Camp Taylor, Kentucky, as a member
of the Brigade Personnel. Being subsequently assigned
to the Camp Officers' Training School at Camp Gordon,
Georgia, he was there bayonet instructor until mustered
out of service December 23, 1918, when he returned to
Paducah and resumed his legal work. Mr. Wash-
burn is an active member of the McCracken County
Bar Association and of the State Bar Association.
Politically he is affiliated with the democratic party,
and fraternally he belongs to Mangum Lodge No. 21.
He is not married.
William Arthur Middleton, former county attor-
ney of McCracken County, has achieved success in his
profession as a lawyer, though he had to pay for his
own education, and both before and after his admis-
sion to the bar was engaged in school work.
Mr. Middleton was born in Ballard County, Ken-
336
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
tucky, July 23, 1873. His paternal ancestors came from
England and settled in North Carolina in Colonial
days. His grandfather, Richard Middleton, was born
in Central Kentucky in 1812, the Middletons being
pioneers in that section of the state. For a time he was
a farmer. He married in Perry County, Tennessee, in
1854, took his family to Paducah, and the following
year established his home in Ballard County. He
lived on one farm in that part of the state until his
death in 1903, though as a result of the division of the
original Ballard County he was a resident of Carlisle
County at the time of his death.
Henry R. Middleton, father of the Paducah lawyer,
was born in Perry County, Tennessee, in 1842, was
twelve years of age when his parents moved to Pa-
ducah, and he grew up on the old farm in Ballard
County. In 1880, he moved to another farm in Graves
County, Kentucky, and about 1907 established the
mercantile business which he built up to satisfactory
proportions before his death, which occurred in 1917.
He was first a member of the Baptist and later of the
Methodist Church, and gave much of his time to
church causes and work. Politically he was a repub-
lican. Henry R. Middleton married Mary Womble,
who was born in Weakly County, Tennessee, in 1839,
and died in Graves County, Kentucky, in 1908. She was
the mother of four children ; R. B., who succeeded his
father and has continued the mercantile business in
Graves County; Oliver, who died in infancy; William
A.; and Samuel A., who died at the age of four
years.
William Arthur Middleton spent his boyhood and
youth on his father's farm in Graves County. As a farm
hand and school teacher he acquired the means to sup-
plement his early advantages and gained a liberal educa-
tion in the West Kentucky College at Mayfield and
in the Southern Normal University at Huntington,
Tennessee, where he was graduated in the literary
course in 1902. He also took a partial law course
there. Returning to Graves County in 1903, he con-
tinued teaching, and in 1904 removed to McCracken
County, where for four years he was principal of the
Lone Oak village schools and for two terms prin-
cipal of the Arcadia graded schools near Paducah.
Mr. Middleton began practice as a lawyer at Paducah
in 1009, and after 191 1 devoted all his time to his
profession. By appointment from Judge R. T. Light-
foot he served as county superintendent of schools in
1910. He was county attorney of McCracken County
from 1914 to 1918. He is now a partner in the well
known firm of Alexander & Middleton, with offices in
the City National Bank Building. Mr. Middleton is a
democrat, a steward in the Broadway Methodist Epis-
copal Church and teacher of its Business Men's Bible
Class. He is affiliated with Plain City Lodge No. 449,
A. F. and A. M., Paducah Lodge No 217 of the Elks,
Ingleside Lodge No. 195, Independent Order of Odd
Fellows, and is a member of the County and State
Bar Associations.
The Middleton home, a modern residence, is at 421
Fountain Avenue. Mr. Middleton married at Paducah
in 1901 Miss Nora Hunt, daughter of the late Warren
and Mary (Holt) Hunt. Her father was a McCracken
county farmer. Mr. and Mrs. Middleton have one son,
Henry Warren, born April 15, 1902, a graduate of the
Paducah High School and now employed as a book-
keeper in the Citizens Savings Bank.
Judge James Goble, for forty years ranked as one
of the leading lawyers of Eastern Kentucky, though
the memory of his kindly and generous character will
outlast his fame as a lawyer.
He was born on Big Sandy, six miles above Prestons-
burg, in Floyd County, April 22, 1846, and died April 15,
1915, shortly before his sixty-ninth birthday. His
parents were William and Martha (Harris) Goble. His
maternal grandmother was a member of the Kentucky
Clay family. William Goble was a boy when the family
moved from Washington County, Virginia, to Kentucky
in 1825. His father, Jacob Goble, was of German an-
cestry. William Goble was a Confederate soldier for
a year in the Fifth Kentucky Regiment, under Col.
J. S. Williams. He died in 1883, at the age of sixty-two.
James Goble was one of a family of six sons and
five daughters. His parents were in modest circum-
stances, and as one of a large family he had to create
his own opportunities for an education. He was only
fifteen when the war broke out, and on September 18,
1862, he enlisted in the Sixth Kentucky Confederate
Infantry. After the disbanding of that regiment he
joined the Tenth Kentucky, and was with that com-
mand until the final surrender. He was in the battle
of Cynthiana, was with General Morgan when that
great cavalryman was killed, and remained in service
until 1865. In order to get his higher education he
worked in the timber and at other occupations, spending
a portion of his earnings for his books and borrowing
others. He studied at night by the light of a fireplace,
taught school, read law, was admitted to the bar in
1874, and in a few years had so well established his
reputation as a lawyer that he was interested in a prac-
tice that took him before all the courts of the Valley,
including the Federal courts and the Court of Appeals.
He was known as the poor man's friend, handling many
cases without fee, and again and again he paid security
debts, so that he never amassed wealth. He was a
democrat in politics, having little concern for public
office, was a member of the Masonic Order, and with
his wife was a devoted member of the Methodist Epis
copal Church, South.
In 1879 he married Lizzie C. Clay, daughter of Mat-
thew Clay, of Johnson County. Mrs. Goble lives at
Prestonsburg. She became the mother of seven chil-
dren ; William C. of Prestonsburg; Lucy, wife of W. H.
Jones, of Prestonsburg; Belva L., wife of J. D. Quisen-
berry, connected with the coal interests of the Murphy
firm at Richmond, Virginia ; James A., a banker at
Williamson, West Virginia; Ernest C, who died at the
age of twenty- four in January, 1917; George C, living
in Prestonsburg, who served in France during World
war; and Elizabeth, wife of L. S. Moles, agent at Pres-
tonsburg for the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad Company.
Sidney Johnston Snook. Occupying a place of note
among the foremost citizens of Paducah. Sidney
Johnston Snook began his business career while yet
in his "teens," and his success has been constant and
assured, for it has come as the result of untiring energy,
diligent labor, excellent ability and sound judgment
A son of the late V. B. Snook, he was born March 8,
1870, in Franklin County, Kentucky, where his grand-
father Snook, a native of Harpers Ferry, Virginia,
settled as a farmer in pioneer days. His immigrant
ancestor on the paternal side was born in England,
where the family name was "Sevenoke," and they came
to this country in Colonial days, locating in Virginia,
where many of his descendants are still to be found.
Born in 1840, on the home farm in Franklin County,
Kentucky, V. B. Snook was there brought up and
educated. Soon after his marriage he moved to Shelby
County, this state, and having bought a tract of land
near Eminence was there actively engaged in agricul-
tural pursuits until his death in 1894. He was an un-
compromising democrat in politics, and a valued mem-
ber of the Baptist Church, in which he was a deacon.
His wife, whose maiden name was Sarah J. Duncan,
was born in Franklin County, Kentucky, in 1842, and
died on the home farm in 1898. Seven children were
born of their union, as follows: Florence, who lived
but seven years ; Walker B., a farmer, died at La-
Grange, Kentucky, in 1918; Winford B., a Shelby
County farmer, married in 1804; Fannie B. Herr,
and died at the Burnett House, Cincinnati, of ptomaine
^P *F
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
337
poisoning while celebrating his nuptials at a wedding
feast, eight of the seventy guests present dying from the
same cause; Sidney Johnston, the special subject of
this brief sketch ; Jennie, wife of W. H. Roland, a
real estate broker, residing at Crescent Hill, Louis-
ville, Kentucky; F. M., engaged in farming at La-
Grange, Kentucky ; and Duncan, engaged in farming in
Arkansas.
Acquiring his preliminary education in the rural
schools of Shelby County, Sidney Johnston Snook at-
tended a private school at Eminence and the State
University of Kentucky, at Lexington. Leaving the
latter institution at the age of nineteen years, he wai
employed in the bank at Eminence for a time, while
there becoming familiar with banking methods. Going
then to Port Royal, Kentucky, Mr. Snook organized
the Citizens Bank, of which he was cashier for three
years. Disposing of his interests in that bank, he re-
moved to Kuttawa, Lyon County, this state, and hav-
ing there organized the Citizens Bank served as its
cashier from 1894 until 1901.
Entering the service of the Government in January,
1901, Mr. Snook was chief deputy surveyor of cus-
toms of the Port of Louisville for four years. Going
South in 1905, he was for two years engaged in the
banking business at Jackson, Mississippi, and was also
in the insurance business there for a year. Returning
to Kentucky in September, 1908, he located in Pa-
ducah, and, with offices at 907-8 City National Bank
Building, has since built up an extensive and substan-
tial business as a representative of the Penn Mutual
Life Insurance Company of Philadelphia, his territory
covering the whole of Western Kentucky and Southern
Illinois.
A stalwart adherent of the republican party, Mr.
Snook' has been active in county and state conventions,
and is now republican election commissioner for Mc-
Cracken County, and is also serving on the staff of
Governor Edwin P. Morrow, with the rank of colonel
He belongs to both the Paducah Country Club and to
the Paducah Board of Trade. Religiously he is a
worthy member of the First Baptist Church, and a
liberal contributor towards its support. On Colonial
Heights, just outside the city limits, Mr. Snook has a
most attractive home, his residence being modernly
constructed and surrounded by large and well-kept
grounds, the general appearance of the place being
indicative of the enterprise, thrift and hospitality of its
occupants. "
On March 20, 189S, at Louisville, Kentucky, Mr.
Snook was united in marriage with Miss Sudie Stone,
daughter of Captain W. J. and Cornelia (Woodyard)
Stone. Captain Stone, who served as captain of a com-
pany in the Confederate" Army, was for ten years a
congressman from the First Congressional District,
and is now commissioner of Confederate pensions.
He resides in Frankfort, although he formerly lived in
Lyon County, where the birth of Mrs. Snook occurred.
Mrs. Snook received excellent educational advantages,
having graduated from Bethel College, Hopkinsville,
Kentucky, and from the Mary Sharp College, a school
for girls at Winchester, Tennessee. Four children
have blessed the union of Mr. and Mrs. Snook, namely:
Sidney, the oldest daughter, a graduate of the Padu-
cah High School and of the University of Louisville,
is on the reportorial staff of the "Paducah Evening
Sun" and has acquired far more than a local reputa-
tion as a writer of short stories; Sara, also living with
her parents, was graduated from the Paducah High
School, and is now assistant librarian of the Carnegie
Public Library at Paducah; Suzanne, a junior in the
Paducah High School; and William S., a school boy.
James C. Utterback. For thirty-two years James C.
Utterback has had one central thought and purpose
and one object of his best efforts and enthusiasm —
The City National Bank of Paducah. This bank was
incorporated a year after his birth, and he entered its
service as a messenger and is now its president. The
City National Bank of Paducah now ranks as the
largest financial institution in Kentucky west of Louis-
ville, having capital and surplus of $450,000, and its
total resources in May, 1920, approximated nearly
$4,650,000. It has deposits of over $3,000,000. The
principal officers are: James C. Utterback, president;
H. C. Overbey, vice president ; C. E. Richardson, vice
president ; Henry A. Petter, vice president ; and R. R.
Kirkland, cashier.
James C. Utterback was born near Paducah in Mc-
Cracken County, November 7, 1872. During Colonial
times three Utterback brothers imm'grated from Ger-
many and settled in Pennsylvania. The Utterback
family is credited with having been the first to manu-
facture pig iron in the colonies. Robert C. Utterback.
father of the Paducah banker, was born at Murray,
Calloway County, Kentucky, in 1839, and about the
time he reached his majority moved to Paducah, where
for several years he owned and operated a steamboat
on the Tennessee and Ohio rivers. Subsequently he
developed a large and profitable mercantile business
at Paducah, where he lived as an honored business man
until his death in 1906. He was long a prominent figure
in the democratic party, served as county assessor
several terms and was deputy sheriff in charge of the
finances of the sheriff's office. He was a life-long
member and an active official of the. First Chr'stian
Church at Paducah. His first wife was Miss McKnight,
of Illinois, who left two children: W. H. Utterback,
in the advertising business at Paducah ; and Laura,
wife of Richard Bell, a McCracken County farmer.
Robert C. Utterback married for his second wife Miss
Mollie Gibson, of McCracken County. Her only child.
Rose, is the wife of E. E. Taenzer, a lumberman for-
merly of Memphis, Tennessee, now of Los Angeles,
California. The third wife of Robert Utterback was
Miss Mary Eden, who was born at Mayfield, Graves
County, Kentucky, in 1846 and died at Paducah in
1893. Her only child was James C.
James C. Utterback acquired a high school educa-
tion and finished his training in a high class private
school conducted for a number of years by Mrs. Ella
Pell. In July, 1888, before he was sixteen years of
age, he went on the payroll of the City National Bank
as messenger boy and clerk. There has been no im-
portant part of the bank's business during the past
thirty years with which he has not been identified, and
his work and ability gained him the successive pro-
motions until he became president in January, 1917.
The City National Bank, established in 1873, is the
second oldest bank of McCracken County. Mr. Utter-
back was honored with the office of president of the
Kentucky State Bankers Association in 1909, and is
also a member of the American Bankers Association
and is a Class A director representing Group 2 of the
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
As a banker he has also been a man of 1 beral in-
fluence and enterprise. For many years he had an
active part in Paducah's public utilities, serving as
president of the Paducah Gas Company, as secretary
and manager of the Paducah Heating Company, and
as secretary and treasurer of the Paducah Railway
Company. He occupied these offices when these utili-
ties were sold in 1906 to the Stone & Webster syndi-
cate and reorganized as the Paducah Light & Power
Company, in which he continued as director until Jan-
uary I, 1920. He is secretary and treasurer of the
Palmer Hotel Company, owning the Palmer Hotel and
also the Kentucky Theater at Paducah. He has been
a director and interested in several organizations that
have developed real estate in and around Paducah.
Individually he owns much real estate property in the
city and suburbs.
For the past twenty years Mr. Utterback has served
as treasurer of McCracken County, and has also been
338
HISTORY < )F KENTUCKY
a member of the City School Board. He is prominent
in the affairs of the democratic party, having served
on many committees and as delegate to several state
and county conventions. During the World war he
was chairman of the First Kentucky District and the
first and second Liberty Loan campaigns, and a mem-
ber of other war committees, being treasurer and on
the executive committee of the Red Cross. He also
acted as chief for the American Protective League, a
volunteer organization cooperating with the Federal
Department of Justice. He is a member and deacon of
the First Christian Church of Paducah. Mr. Utter-
back for many years has been active in the Board of
Trade and is still a director, and served as president
in 1910-11. He is a director of the Paducah Rotary
Club and a member of the Country Club. An im-
portant share of the credit for locating the bridge at
Metropolis, Illinois, belongs to Mr. Utterback. This,
known as the Burlington Bridge, is the largest bridge
over the Ohio River and was completed in 1917.
The Utterback family home is a beautiful one, situ-
ated on attractive grounds of fifteen acres just west
of the city limits. Mr. Utterback married at Hopkins-
ville, Kentucky, November 7, 1894, Miss Lena Yancey,
daughter of j. W. and Amanda (Renshaw) Yancey,
who still live at Hopkinsville. Her father is a retired
merchant and hotel proprietor. To Mr. and Mrs.
Utterback were born five children: Mary Ruth, who
died at the age, of four years; J. Palmer, a teller in
the City National Bank of Paducah, married Miss
Cletus Schuh, of Cairo, Illinois, and has a son, Jim
Palmer. Jr., born October 3, 1919; James Caldwell,
who died at the age of four years ; Lena Violette,
born March 18, 1902, is a student in Monticello Semi-
nary, one of the finest girls' finishing schools in the
Middle West, at Godfrey, Illinois; and James Wells,
who was born April 20, 1912.
Joe S. Bondurant. A prominent and prosperous
citizen of Paducah, Joe S. Bondurant, a wholesale
dealer in flour, is conspicuously identified with the
advancement of the mercantile interests of this section
of Marshall County, his special line of business being
the only one of the kind in the city. He was born
April 14, 1865, in Paducah, a son of J. K. Bondurant,
a highly respected and esteemed business man who
bears with ease and dignity his burden of four score
years. He is of Huguenot ancestry, being a lineal
descendant of one of three brothers who emigrated
from France to this country, settling in Virginia. His
grandfather Bondurant, a native of Virg'nia, was a
pioneer settler of Marshall County, Kentucky, and died
in Paducah many years ago.
Born and reared in Marshall County, J. K. Bon-
durant, whose birth occurred in 1840, enlisted in the
Union Army soon after the outbreak of the Civil war,
and being captured by the enemy in 1862 was confined
at Belle Isle for many weary months before being re-
leased from prison. He was engaged in farming dur-
ing his earlier years, but in 1865 secured a position as
clerk in a clothing store at Paducah. Moving to De-
caturville, this state, in 1868, he was engaged in mer-
cantile pursuits until 1871, when he returned to Mc-
Cracken County, and having bought land lying seven
miles east of Paducah carried on general farming for
five years. Coming to Paducah again in 1876, in part-
nership with J. R. Smith, he embarked in the wholesale
grocery business on South Second Street, and managed
it for a number of years with his partner and later
alone, until 1905, when he sold out, his trade at that
time being one of the largest of the kind in Paducah.
Hale and hearty, with physical and mental vigor un-
impaired, he is still actively interested in mercantile
affairs as a broker. He is a republican in politics, a
member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and
belongs to the Tenth Street Christian Church, of which
he is an elder and a strong supporter.
J. K. Bondurant married Mary Jane Brewer, who
was born in Marshall County, Kentucky, in 1844, and
to them two children have been born, as follows :
Joe S., with whom this sketch is chiefly concerned;
and Ida May, wife of C. E. Jennings, one of the lead-
ing real estate brokers of Paducah.
Acquiring a practical education in the public schools
of Paducah, Joe S. Bondurant was engaged in the
wholesale grocery business as one of his father's em-
ployes until 1905, when he was admitted to partnership.
Of recent years he has dealt exclusively in flour, sell-
ing at wholesale, and has built up an exceedingly ex-
tensive and profitable business, his plant and offices
being advantageously located at 206 South Second
Street. He resides in the Jefferson Apartments on
Jefferson Street, his home being pleasant and attrac-
tive. Mr. Bondurant is a republican in politics and a
member of the First Christian Church. Fraternally
lie belongs to Plain City Lodge No. 449, Ancient Free
and Accepted Masons ; to Paducah Chapter No. 30,
Royal Arch Masons ; and to Ingleside Lodge No. 195,
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of which he is a
past grand.
Mr. Bondurant married in 1887, at Paducah, Nannie
Clark, a daughter of Capt. W. C. and Viola (Jones)
Clark. Captain Clark served as an officer in the Con-
federate Army during the Civil war. He was post-
master two terms at Paducah, serving under Presidenl
Cleveland, and represented his district in the State
Legislature. He has passed to the life beyond, and his
widow resides in Paducah. Mrs. Bondurant was edu-
cated in Paducah, having completed the course of
study in the graded schools and the high school. Three
children have blessed the marriage of Mr. and Mrs.
Bondurant, namely: Mary, a graduate of the Paducah
High School, is the wife of W. D. Whaley, who is
engaged in the tobacco business at Paducah, Clark A.
and Robert T. Clark A. Bondurant, the older son,
now a newspaper reporter and writer in Jacksonville,
Florida, entered the United States service in 1917 and
after being trained at Camp West Point, Kentucky,
was transferred to Camp Merritt. Just as he was
ready to go overseas with his command he was taken
ill and sent to Hoffman Island Hospital, where he
remained until mustered out of service in February,
1919- Robert T. Bondurant, a graduate of the Paducah
H'gh School, volunteered his services in the World
war, and after training at camps Taylor and West
Point. Kentucky, was sent overseas with the Three
Hundred and Twenty-seventh Field Artillery Band in
August, 1918, and was stationed at Bordeaux, France,
until mustered out in March, 1919. A young man of
sterling ability and worth, he is now successfully en-
gaged in business with his father.
Gus E. Hank. The business partnership of Hank
Brothers, hardware merchants, has been in existence at
Paducah for about a quarter of a century, and their
trade connections, both wholesale and retail, now reacli
out all over Western Kentucky and to the adjoining
states of Illinois, and Tennessee. Both partners are
prominent business men of Paducah and also well
known in civic and social circles.
Gus E. Hank was born at Cincinnati, Ohio, April
30, 1864. However, the family residence at that time
was in Paducah. On account of Paducah being in the
border war zone the mother of Mr. Hank lived tem-
porarily at Cincinnati at the time her son was born. The
father Peter Hank was born in Germany in 1834, and
came to the United States and located at Paducah at
the age of eighteen. He had learned the trade of shoe-
maker, and he followed his trade at Paducah for a long
period of years. He died an honored and respected
citizen in 1917. He was a republican in politics. His
wife bore the maiden name of Pauline Hafner. She was
born in Paducah in 1845 and died in that city in 1890.
Gus E. was the oldest of her children. The second
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
339
is Harry R., the junior member of Hank Brothers. His
individual career is reviewed elsewhere. The third of
the family was Alice A., who died in Paducah at the
age of thirty, wife of Dr. J. D. Bacon, a druggist at
Seventh and Jackson streets in Paducah. William A.,
who was a druggist at Seventh and Clay streets in
Paducah, died at Phoenix, Arizona, at the age of
twenty-eight. May E., is unmarried and keeps house for
her brother Harry. Oscar is manager for the Kentucky
Leaf Transit Company at Paducah. Walter, the young-
est of the family, is manager of the Depot News Agency
at Hamilton, Ohio.
Gus E. Hank was educated in the public schools and
business college of Paducah and at the age of sixteen
entered the store of George O. Hart & Son, hardware
merchants. In that business he served what amounted
to a practical apprenticeship and acquired a detailed
knowledge of the hardware trade. He was with the
firm until 1808, when with his brother Harry and
with T. T. Jones the present business was established
as Hank Brothers & Jones. With the death of Mr.
Jones in September, 1901, his interest was absorbed
by the other partners, and since then the firm has been
Hank Brothers. They are retailers and wholesalers and
jobbers for an extensive line of staple hardware and
specialties, and have built up one of the leading concerns
of its kind in Western Kentucky. Their store is at
2 \2 Broadway, where the partners own the modern
building and also have a large warehouse at 120 South
Third Street.
Gus Hank is also president of the Mechanics Build-
ing and Loan Association and a director in the
Ohio Valley Trust Company. He is an elder and
active member of the Presbyterian Church and a re-
publican in politics. His modern home is at Sixteenth
and Trimble streets. In October, 1890, at Paducah, he
married Miss Maggie Porteous, daughter of John and
Mary (Hodge) Porteous. Her father, now deceased,
was for many years superintendent of the Oak Grove
Seminary at Paducah. Her mother is living at Paducah
at the age of eighty-six. Mrs. Hank is a graduate of
St. Mary's Academy at Paducah. Gus E., Jr., the older
son of Mr. and Mrs. Hank and now associated with
his father in business, enlisted May 12, 1916, and for
2l/-2 years was in the service of the Government until
mustered out in September, 1919. He was overseas in
France with the Quartermaster's Department at Nantes.
He entered the army as a private and was promoted to
captain. In May, 1920, he married Miss Katherine
Kolb. Captain Hank is affiliated with Plain City Lodge
No. 449, A. F. and A. M., Paducah Chapter No. 127,
R. A. M., Paducah Commandery No. 21, K. T., and
Kosair Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Louisville.
The second child of Mr. and Mrs. Hank is Pauline,
who graduated from the Kentucky State University at
Lexington with the A. B. degree and is the wife of
Thomas Robinson, a coal mining engineer and manager
of the Benedict Coal Corporation, with home at St.
Charles, Virginia. The third of the children is Bar-
bara Nell, in her first year at the Kentucky State Uni-
versity at Lexington. Harry C, the youngest of the
family, is a sophomore in the Paducah High School.
Harry R. Hank, junior member of Hank Brothers,
was born at Paducah, was educated in his native city,
attending a local business college, and also learned the
hardware business in the store of George O. Hart &
Son. He spent sixteen years with that firm and then
resigned to become associated with his brother in a
business of their own. For two terms, four years, he
served as an alderman of Paducah. He is a director
of the Paducah Board of Trade, of the Mechanics Trust
& Savings Bank, and a director in the Retail Merchants
Association. He is a republican, a past noble grand
of 'Magnum Lodge No. 21, Independent Order of Odd
Fellows, a member of Paducah Lodge No. 217 of the
Elks, and in Masonry is affiliated with Plain City Lodge
No. 449, A. F. and A. M., is a past high priest of
Paducah Chapter No. 127, R. A. M., is a past com-
mander of Paducah Commandery No. 21, K. T., and
is affiliated with the Scottish Rite Consistory at Louis-
ville and also with Kosair Temple of the Mystic Shrine
in the same city.
Judge James M. Lang, county judge of McCracken
County, has been a factor in the business life of Pa-
ducah for upwards of forty years, but is most widely
known through the influential position he has long
occupied in the democratic party in Western Kentucky.
Long before he was individually a candidate for any
important office he contributed to the success of his
party in different campaigns. From 1896 to 1918, in-
clusive, he served as chairman of the Democratic County
Campaign Committee in every successive election.
His grandfather Lang was a native of Scotland and
on coming to America settled in Virginia. W. C. Lang,
father of Judge Lang, was born at Manchester, Virginia,
came to Paducah in 1856, and was for many years
a tobacco manufacturer. He died at Paducah. He was
a loyal democrat and a member of the Methodist Church.
W. C Lang married Martha Muse, who was born in
Virginia. Her father, Meredith Muse, was a native of
France, and after coming to this country developed
a large plantation and became a wealthy resident in
the James River country of Virginia.
James M. Lang was born at Paducah July is, 1857,
was educated in private schools, and at the age of six-
teen began an apprenticeship at the drug trade. He
was a registered druggist at the age of twenty-one,
and from that time has followed his profession. He
is a half owner in the drug store of Lang Brothers
at Paducah, being senior member of the firm. He also
owns a 160-acre farm on the Cairo Road four miles
northwest of Paducah. This farm is a source of profit
as well as recreation. It is widely known For its fine
hjorses and cattle and Duroc hogs. Judge Lang special-
izes in saddle horses and has trained many fine animals.
His strawberry plantation has also gained more than
a local reputation for the fine flavor of the berries.
Judge Lang was for ten years a member of the
Paducah Board of Education, serving as president three
years. He resigned that office to become mayor, an
office he filled from 1897 to 1001. In 1913 Governor
McCreary appointed him county judge to fill out the
unexpired term of Congressman Barkley. Soon after-
ward he was regularly elected to that office for the
four year term, and was re-elected in 1917. For over
seven years he has presided with impartial dignity and
efficiency over the County Court of McCracken County.
Judge Lang is a member of the Board of Stewards of
the Broadway Methodist Episcopal Church, is a past
grand of Ingleside Lodge No. 195, Independent Order
of Odd Fellows, a member of Union Encampment No.
70 and Canton Adkins of Odd Fellowship, is affiliated
with Otsego Tribe No. 6 of the Improved Order of
Red Men, and has held all the offices of the fra-
ternal society of the Golden Cross.
Judge Lang and family occupy a modern home at
1008 Clay Street. He married at Paducah in 1882
'Miss Georgia McKee, daughter of Mr. and Mrs.
George McKee, now deceased. Her father was a well
known citizen of Paducah, a ship carpenter by trade.
Judge and Mrs. Lang have one daughter, Inda, who
lives at home with her parents. She is a graduate of the
Paducah High School and is the wife of T. M. Watkins,
a traveling salesman.
Maurice E. Gilbert. A representative citizen of
McCracken County, Maurice E. Gilbert, of Paducah.
has obtained distinction not only as an able and skilful
attorney-at-law, but for the prominent part he has
taken in promoting the agricultural prosperity of this
section of the state, being owner and manager of a
340
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
finely improved and well stocked dairy farm lying two
miles south of the Paducah City limits, on the Jeffer-
son Davis Highway. A son of the late W. L. Gilbert,
he was born October 25, 1877, in Calloway County,
Kentucky, coming from Revolutionary stock and of Eng-
lish ancestry, the founder of that branch of the Gil-
bert family from which he is descended having emi-
grated from England to North Carolina prior to the
Revolutionary war.
Hugh Gilbert, his grandfather, born in North Caro-
lina in 1819, was a pioneer settler of Marshall County.
Kentucky, where he carried on business as a merchant,
distiller and farmer, remaining there until his death
in 1887. He married a Miss Walters, who was born
in Virginia, but spent the greater part of her life
on Marshall County, this state.
W. L. Gilbert was born in Marshall County, Kentucky,
in 1841. Soon after the outbreak of the Civil war he
enlisted in the Confederate Army, and took an active
part in many important engagements, in one battle hav-
ing been shot through the hand. During the battle of
Shiloh he helped take Gen. Albert Sidney Johnson
from his horse after he received a fatal shot, and later
gallantly performed his duty as a soldier in the engage-
ments at Corinth and Iuka, Mississippi, and at Lookout
Mountain and Missionary Ridge. Subsequently buying
land in Calloway County, he carried on a thriving busi-
ness as a general farmer and tobacco dealer until his
death in 1917. He was a democrat in politics ; a member
of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons ; and be-
longed to the Primitive Baptist Church. His wife,
whose maiden name was Ida B. Moses, was born in
1855 in Paducah, Kentucky, and is now a resident of
Calloway County. Four children blessed their union,
as follows : Maurice E., with whom this sketch is
principally concerned; Mamie, who died at the age of
twenty-two years; Virginia, wife of C. L. Collis, a
banker in Luray, Tennessee ; and Walter, engaged in
farming in Calloway County, Kentucky.
Having laid a substantial foundation for his future
education in the rural schools of his native county,
Maurice E. Gilbert entered the Southern Normal Uni-
versity at Huntington, Tennessee, where he was grad-
uated with the class of 1899. Immediately entering the
law department of the University of Louisville, he was
there graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Laws
in 1901. Locating in Murray, Calloway County, he was
successfully engaged in the practice of his chosen pro-
fession for four years, gaining in the meantime valuable
knowledge and experience. Coming to Paducah in
1905, he has since built up a lucrative general law
practice, his offices being at 123^ South Fourth Street.
Mr. Gilbert has a conveniently arranged residence on
his farm of 191 acres, and in addition to his legal work,
which is extensive, carries on general farming most
successfully, making a specialty of dairying, his herd
of cows being full-blooded Jerseys.
An active and influential member of the democratic
party, Mr. Gilbert represented McCracken County in
the State Legislature during the session of 1918, and
there rendered valuable service as chairman of the
Court of Appeals Committee, and as a member of
various other committees, including that on compensa-
tion for industrial injuries, city and county courts,
codes of practice, criminal law, sinking fund, and on the
municipalities committee. He was likewise the author
of the resolution that ratified the Federal Amendment
making Kentucky a dry state. Mr. Gilbert is identified
with several legal organizations, belonging to the County
Bar, the State Bar, and the National Bar associations.
He is a member of the Paducah Board of Trade, and
is a stockholder in the First National Bank of Paducah,
the Ohio Valley Trust Company, the Bank of Gil-
bertsville, the First National Bank of Murray, the
Industrial Savings and Loan Company of Louisville,
Kentucky, and likewise in the Bank of Hardin, Ken-
tucky. Fraternally he is a member of the Ancient
Free and Accepted Masons and of the Independent
Order of Odd Fellows. Religiously he belongs to the
Missionary Baptist Church.
Mr. Gilbert married in 1905, at Irvington, Breckin-
ridge County, Kentucky, Miss Eula Payne, a daughter
of Samuel R. and Bettie (Bridewell) Payne, the latter
of whom has passed to the life beyond, while Mr. Payne,
a retired merchant and banker of Irvington, resides in
Paducah, making his home with 'Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert.
A graduate of the Bush Conservatory of Music in
Chicago. Mrs. Gilbert is a gifted musician, and is very
frequently called upon to play at leading public enter-
tainments. Worden Hagerman. born December 10, 1905,
is the only child of Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert.
John Ellison Ratliff, president of the Kentucky
Wholesale Grocery Company, vice president and di-
rector of the Pikeville National Bank, and a commis-
sioner of the Pike County Circuit Court, is one of the
most enterprising and substantial citizens of this local-
ity, and one whose extensive operations form an im-
portant part of the commercial transactions of Pikeville.
He is a man to whom successful handling of large
affairs is second nature, and his associates recognize his
capabilities and rely on his judgment and foresight. The
several concerns with which he has been connected dur-
ing his business career have prospered under his direc-
tion and stand as a lasting monument to his sagacity
and knowledge of men and the motives which govern
them.
A native son of Pike County, he was born on Marrow
Bone Creek November 21, 1861, a son of Joel and
Mintie Elizabeth (Coleman) Ratliff. During the war
between the states Joel Ratliff was a soldier for three
years, and was mustered into the service September 15,
1862, as a member of the Thirty-ninth Kentucky
Mounted Infantry. Upon his return he resumed his
agricultural activities. An excellent farmer, hard-
working and thrifty, he became a man of independent
means. Both he and his wife were members of the
Regular Baptist Church. His death occurred November
4, 1920, when he was seventy-nine years old. Although
he had passed the ordinary three score years and ten
by some years he was very well preserved and in ex-
cellent health until his final illness. He, too, was born
on Marrow Bone Creek. In politics he was a republican.
His wife, who was a daughter of John Coleman, was
also born on Marrow Bone Creek, and she died in 1908,
aged sixty-eight years. After her demise he married
Genevieve Compton Thacker. By his first marriage he
has six children, namely : John Ellison, who is the
eldest ; Emma, who is the wife of Elliott Johnson and
lives near the old Ratliff home, James H. lives on the
farm near the homestead ; Mella, who was the wife of
J. M. Venters, died in 1913; Silas W., who lives on the
old home place ; and Caledonia, who died when a child.
John Ellison Ratliff attended the school at Marrow
Bone, receiving a limited educational training, and at
an early age bought the remnants of a stock of goods
on credit, and began a business career which has been
marked with unusual achievements. From this small
beginning, at Regina, he developed a very large business
and continued it for twenty-eight years, and for twenty-
two years of that time was postmaster of Regina. When
he opened his little store for business all of his goods
had to be brought by boat up the Big Sandy to a point
four miles distant from his store, and from there were
transferred to him, as this was before the building of
the railroad. He is one of the most active men of
Pike County politically, and was elected to the State
Assembly in 1896 and in 1912 was elected county clerk,
re-elected in 1914 to the same office and served for six
years altogether. He is now serving a full term as
commissioner of the Circuit Court of Pike County.
A man of many interests, he found it expedient to
branch out, and for some years has been president of
;
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
341
the Kentucky Wholesale Grocery Company and vice
president and a director of the Pikeville National Bank.
The Kentucky Wholesale Grocery Company is doing a
very large business, which extends all over Eastern
Kentucky.
In 1887 Mr. Ratliff was married to Emma Venters,
a daughter of James Venters. She was born in Vir-
ginia and died in 1004, leaving her husband with three
children, namely : Fred F., who for six years was
cashier of the Pikeville National Bank, is now a farmer
of Boone County, Kentucky ; Lonnie, who died at the
age of sixteen years ; and Alphonso B., who is with the
Pikeville National Bank. During the World war he
was at Camp Taylor for seventeen months. In 1906
Mr. Ratliff married Emma Louise Coleman, a daughter
of J. B. Coleman, of Marrow Bone, and they have seven
children, namely : May, Merle, Marie, J. Marvin, Margie,
Foster B. and Mildred. Mr. Ratliff is a Royal Arch
Mason. Like his father he is a republican. His beauti-
ful home is across the Big Sandy from Pikeville, and
it is one of the show places of this region. While Mr.
Ratliff has attained to an unusual degree of material
prosperity, he has carried others with him on the road
to success, and at the same time has developed the
commercial interests of the several localities with which
he has been connected, so that he has every reason to
be proud of what he has accomplished, and his worth
to his community is fully recognized by his fellow men.
Charles Arthur Wickliffe. Bringing to the prac-
tice of his chosen profession a well-trained mind, much
zeal and the habits of industry that invariably command
success, Charles Arthur Wickliffe, of Paducah, occupies
a place of note in the legal circles of McCracken
County, which he is now ably serving as county attorney.
A son of Charles A. Wickliffe, Jr., he was born in
Ballard County, Kentucky, January 16, 1886, of hon-
ored ancestry. He is a direct descendant of John
Wycliffe, one of the most noted of English religious
reformers, whose translation of the Bible was contrary
to the religious belief of the Church of England, and
on being expelled from his native country he came to
America, here founding the American family of Wick-
liffes.
Charles A. Wickliffe, Sr., the paternal grandfather
of Charles Arthur, was a pioneer farmer of Ballard
County, and one of the leading attorneys of his home
town. He was a native born son of Kentucky, and
during the Civil war served as colonel of the Seventh
Regiment, Confederate Army. He took part in many
engagements, and at the battle of Shiloh was killed.
He was a man of prominence in Ballard County, and
the Town of Wickliffe, in which his widow resides,
was named in his honor.
Charles A. Wickliffe, Jr., was born in 1863 in Bal-
lard County, this state, and has there remained during
his entire life. He received his early education in the
public schools, and later attended the West Point Mili-
tary Academy. Selecting the occupation upon which the
prosperity and wealth of our nation is largely depend-
ent, he has been actively engaged in agricultural pur-
suits for many years. He is a gold democrat in his
political relations, and affiliates with the Baptist Church.
He married Martha Ann Stoball, a native of Ballard
County, and Charles Arthur, the only child born of
their marriage, is the special subject of this sketch.
After graduating from the high school at Wickliffe,
Ballard County, with the class of 1906, Charles Arthur
Wickliffe took a business course at the Draughon
Business College in Paducah, and afterward followed
stenographic work in the law office of W. Mike Oliver
of Paducah, at the same time making an earnest study
of law. On June 4, 1908, he was admitted to the Ken-
tucky bar, and has since built up an extensive and
valuable patronage as a civil and criminal lawyer, his
offices being at the present time in the court house.
In January, 1920, Mr. Wickliffe was appointed county
attorney to fill out an unexpired term, and at the coming
election, in the latter part of 1920, will probably meet
with no opposition whatever.
Mr. Wickliffe married, December 5, 1908, at Me-
tropolis, Illinois, Miss Lola Kizer, a daughter of J. M.
and Sarah Kizer, of Ballard County, Kentucky, and into
their home three children have been born, namely :
Catherine Annis, born December 26, 1909; Charles A.
K., born February 13, 1911 ; and John Beckham, who
was born September 17, 1913, and died October 19,
1919. Mr. and Mrs. Wickliffe reside just outside the
city limits, toward the south, where they have ten acres
of land and a modernly built home. Mr. Wickliffe is
a member of the McCracken County Bar Association,
and belongs to Mangum Lodge No. 21, Independent
Order of Odd Fellows; to Paducah Camp No. 11313,
Modern Woodmen of America ; and to Paducah Camp
No. 517, Woodmen of the World.
1
John J. Berry, postmaster of Paducah and for many
years an active newspaper publisher in Western Ken-
tucky, is a member of that branch of the prominent
Berry family which for several generations has lived
in Union County, Kentucky. While seldom found in
other states, the name Berry has long been one of
prominence in Kentucky. The great-grandfather of
the Paducah postmaster was Joseph Berry, who was
born in Virginia and spent much of his life in that
state. His brother served as an officer in the Revolu-
tionary war, and subsequently moved to Kentucky.
Martin 'M. Berry, grandfather of John J. Berry, was
born in Union County, Kentucky, in 1809, and spent
all his life there. He achieved prominence and suc-
cess as a lawyer and died at Uniontown in 1892. He
married Rachel Anderson, also a native of Union
County, who died at the age of seventy-seven.
William Franklin Berry, of the next generation, was
born in Union County May 24, 1828, and died at Union-
town February 14, 1893. He followed the profession
of his father and was one of the leading members of
the Union County bar. He also represented Union and
Henderson counties in the Legislature several terms,
and was a member of the State Senate. His affilia-
tion with the democratic party was one of the strongest
influences of his life. He was also a devout Presby-
terian and for many years served as superintendent of
its Sunday School. He married Anne L. Berry, who
was born at Uniontown August 17, 1837, and is still
living there at the advanced age of^ eighty-three. She
was the mother of four sons, W. A., Philander, John J.
and Noel A. The oldest of these, W. A. Berry, is a
member of the law firm of Mocquot & Berry at Pa-
ducah, having been admitted to the bar in 1890 and has
been a resident of Paducah since 1898. Philander
is the only furniture dealer and undertaker at Union-
town. Noel A. is business manager of the News-Demo-
crat of Paducah.
John J. Berry, who was born at Uniontown, January
31. 1875, acquired his early education in the private
schools of his native town, graduated from high school
in 1891, and spent one year in Evansville College.
For upwards of thirty years he has been in the news-
paper business. He first bought the Weekly Telegram
at Uniontown, and edited that democratic paper for ten
years. In 1906 he removed to Paducah and became
general manager of the News-Democrat. Five years
later, in 1912, he and his brothers Noel A. and W. A.
acquired the controlling interest in this newspaper
property, incorporating the Democrat Publishing Com-
pany, of which J. J. Berry is president, W. A. Berry,
vice president, and Noel A. Berry, secretary and treas-
urer. The News-Democrat for a number of years past
has had a recognized power and influence over the
western end of Kentucky. It is the only daily demo-
cratic paper in the district and is the official paper of
342
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
McCracken County. Its circulation is widely extended
over the First Kentucky District, comprising thirteen
counties. The paper is published in a well equipped
office and plant at 124 North Fourth Street.
Briefly the history of this Paducah paper began with
the establishment of the News in 1871. In 1883 an-
other local paper, known as the Visitor, was founded,
and in 1891 the Democrat came into existence. In
September, 1891, the News-Democrat was born as the
. result of a consolidation, and at the same time acquired
the plant of the Visitor.
Mr. Berry was appointed postmaster of Paducah by
President Wilson in June, 1914, and was reappointed
for his second term of four years in 1918. He is a
member of the Board of Stewards of the Broadway
Methodist Episcopal Church and is a member of the
First District Press Association, the Board of Trade,
Country Club, Lions Club and is affiliated with the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias
and Woodmen of the World.
Mr. Berry and family reside at 1568 Jefferson Street.
He married at Uniontown October 27, 1897, Miss
Sigourney Furnish. Her father, J. W. Furnish, was
for many years active in educational circles in Ken-
tucky, particularly at Eddyville, but is now living re-
tired at Los Angeles. Mr. and Mrs. Berry have three
daughters. Marie, the oldest, is a graduate of the
Paducah High School and of the Gardner School for
Young Ladies at New York City, and is the wife of
Linn Boyd, living at Seventeenth Street and Kentucky
Avenue, in Paducah. Mr. Boyd is a member of the
Paducah Ice Company. The two younger daughters
are Aline and Marjorie, the former in high school
and the latter in grammar school.
Mrs. Edmund M. Post. A woman of brilliant intel-
lect, forceful individuality and superior executive ability,
Josephine (Fowler) Post, of Paducah, widow of Ed-
mund M. Post, holds a place of distinction in the
annals of McCracken County, no fairer or more hon-
ored name being enrolled upon the list of its repre-
sentative women and men. A daughter of the late
Capt. Joe Fowler, she was born in Paducah, McCracken
County, Kentucky, of English ancestry, being a lineal
descendant of one Godfrey Fowler, who, with his
brother, William Anderson Fowler, were officers in the
Colonial and Revolutionary wars, going into the army
from Wake County, North Carolina. Their ancestors,
on coming from England settled in Virginia, going
thence to North Carolina.
Judge Wiley Paul Fowler, Mrs. Post's grandfather,
was born in 1779, and died in Paducah, Kentucky, in
1882. A distinguished jurist he was a pioneer settler
of McCracken County, Kentucky, and later served as
circuit judge of thirty-five Western Kentucky counties.
He was a man of prominence and influence, and records
of his life may be found in previously written histories
of the state. He married Esther Arminta Given, a
native of North Carolina. Judge Fowler's brother,
Littleton Fowler, one of the missionaries of the Metho-
dist Episcopal Church, went to Texas at an early day,
and the good deeds that he performed are still men-
tioned in all Texas histories.
Capt. Joe Fowler was born in 1833 in Salem, Liv-
ingston County, Kentucky, and died in Paducah, this
state, in 1904. After leaving the public schools he
attended a military academy in Caldwell County, there
having among his classmates Roger Q. Mills and Henry
Watterson. Beginning his active career, he was for
a time with the firm of Watts, Given & Company, cot-
ton brokers in Smithland, Kentucky, with branch offices
not only in Paducah, Kentucky, and New York City,
but in Liverpool, England.
Coming as a pioneer to Paducah during the Civil
war. Captain Fowler was first superintendent and later
president of the Evansville, Paducah & Cairo Packet
Line of Steamboats, and with his brothers owned the
wharf boats and the ship chandlery store, the firm name
at first having been Fowler Brothers, and later was
changed to Fowler, Crumbaugh & Company. The
captain was one of the best known and most popular
river men between Pittsburgh and New Orleans, and
had an extended reputation for his wit at repartee
as well as for his strict integrity, his word having
always been as good as his bond. Prominent in demo-
cratic ranks, Captain Fowler was chairman of finance
under three mayors of Paducah, and served as member
of the city school board a number of terms. A mem-
ber of the city council for several years, he was actively
interested in sustaining the welfare and progress of
Paducah, being ever ready to lend his aid and influence
toward the establishment of beneficial projects. He
was an active member of the Methodist Episcopal
Church and belonged to the Woodmen of the World.
Three of his brothers served in the Confederate Army,
and he was a Confederate sympathizer and rendered
material aid to the Confederacy with his river boats.
Captain Fowler married, in Smithland, Kentucky,
Martha Leech, who was born in Smithland, a daughter
of James Leech, who removed from Virginia to Smith-
land, Kentucky, at the age of seventeen years and
afterwards became prominent in public affairs. Mrs.
Fowler was born February 23, 1836, and is now living
in Paducah, a lovely and much beloved woman, who
bears her burden of four score and four years with
ease and dignity. Six children were born of the mar-
riage of Captain and Mrs. Fowler, as follows : Given,
of Paducah; Mildred, residing in Paducah, widow of
the late Dr. F. T. Davis, a former physician of this
city; Minta, wife of Cook Husbands, supervisor of
the Cincinnati offices of the Dalton Adding Machine
Company ; Mattie, unmarried, resides with her widowed
mother; Josephine, the special subject of this brief
sketch ; and Rosebud, who died, unmarried, in 1909.
Educated in Paducah, Josephine Fowler attended first
the public schools and later was graduated from the
celebrated private school established by Miss Florence
Hines. She subsequently married Edmund M. Post,
head credit man of the H. B. Claflin Company of New
York City, where his death occurred in 1900. Return-
ing to Paducah soon after that sad event, Mrs. Post
resumed her former position in the parental household,
and still resides with her widowed mother at 619
Kentucky Avenue. Joseph Fowler Post, the only
child born of the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Post,
died at the age of sixteen years, having been drowned
in a steamboat accident.
A strong Wilson democrat, influential in party ranks
and intensely interested in everything pertaining to
public matters, Mrs. Post was elected in 1908 third
vice president of the Kentucky Federation of Women's
clubs, an organization that has exerted much influence
in connection with legislative movements, and in the
same year was made a member of the executive board
of the Kentucky Child Labor Association. In 191 1
she was chosen president of the McCracken County
Equal Rights Association, and in 1916 was made con-
gressional chairman of the Kentucky Equal Rights
Association.
In 1917 Mrs. Post was appointed 'by Mrs. Carrie
Chapman Catt a member of the congressional committee
of the National American Woman's Suffrage Associa-
tion, which was to convene in Washington, District
of Columbia, there to appear before the legislators and
work for the passage of the Susan B. Anthony Amend-
ment, and she remained in that city during two sessions
of Congress, the Sixty-fifth and Sixty-sixth. Mrs.
Post was made the state member of the National Execu-
tive Council of the National American Woman's Suf-
frage Assocaition in 1918, and in that capacity
appeared, September 4, 1919, before the Democratic
State Convention to secure a suffrage plank endorsing,
by the Kentucky democrats, the Susan B. Anthony
Amendment.
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
343
Mrs. Post was a member of the committee which
worked for the ratification of the above amendment
by the Kentucky Legislature, and accomplished the de-
sired work in December, 1919, on the very first day
the Legislature met, a speedy achievement almost with-
out precedent. On March 30, 1920, she was appointed
a member of the Democratic State Administrative Com-
mittee, a position she still holds, and on May 4, 1920,
had the distinction of being elected an alternate from
the First Congressional District as a delegate to the
Democratic National Convention to be held in San
Francisco, California, in June, 1920.
In February, 1920, Mrs. Post was appointed by the
National League of women voters a member of the
special committee from the League of Women Voters
to appear before the Resolutions Committee at the Dem-
ocratic National Convention to work for the plank that
said league intends to support. On May 3, 1920, the
Kentucky Equal Rights Association resolved itself into
the Kentucky League of Women Voters, and 'Mrs.
Post was one of the six women of the state selected
to organize local leagues of women voters. On May
28, 1920, at the annual meeting of the Kentucky Fed-
eration of Women's Clubs, she was elected chairman
of the political science department for the ensuing
year.
Very active and influential in all the activities con-
nected with the World war, Mrs. Post was one of the
organizers of the McCracken County Chapter of the
American Red Cross, and served as a member of the
executive committee and as chairman of the nominating
committee, for her work receiving a certificate of merit
signed by President Wilson. She was local chairman
of the American Defence Society, and received a cer-
tificate of honor for her services, while for her active
services during the Liberty Loan drives she was
awarded a medal by the United States Government.
She also received the yellow ribbon, the honor roll
badge, for services of the National Suffrage Asso-
ciation, the badges having been distributed at the last
meeting, which was held in Chicago in 1919.
Mrs. Post is a member and past vice regent of the
Daughters of the American Revolution, and likewise
of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. She is
local president of the Delphic Club, the oldest study
club in Southwestern Kentucky. She is one of the two
women members of the Carnegie Public Library Board
of Paducah, and is chairman of the book committee,
a position for which she is well fitted. Mrs. Post is in
the 1918 and 1921 edition of "Who's Who." She was
appointed state representative of Kentucky women for
the Woodrow Wilson Foundation and also a member
of the National Women's Committee, August 24,
1921.
C E. Jennings. A veteran business man and equally
public spirited citizen of Paducah for over thirty years,
C. E. Jennings has made every contact with the com-
munity a source of benefit to others besides h'mself.
Mr. Jennings was born at Cataract, Indiana, Febru-
ary 18, 1858. His ancestors were from England,
Colonial settlers in Virginia, and different branches of
the family have figured in realms of achievement in
several western states, including Tennessee, Kentuckv
and Ind'ana. Theodore C. Jennings, father of C. E.
Jennings, was born in Eastern Tennessee in 1804, was
married at Owensboro, Kentucky, and for several year.;
was a paper manufacturer at Louisville. In 1840 he
moved to Indiana and built a large water-power mill
on Eel River, residing in the meantime at Cataract.
Later he was a farmer near Spencer, Indiana, and in
order to give his children better educational facilities
moved to Bloomington, the seat of Indiana University.
His last years he spent at Greencastle, Indiana, where
he died in 1002. He was a democrat without political
aspirations, and was a thirty-second degree Scottish
Vol. V— 32
Rite Mason. Theodore C. Jennings married Emily
Yeager, who was born near Owensboro, Kentucky, in
1819, and died at Greencastle, Indiana, in 1884. The
oldest of their children, Mary, who died at Louisville,
Kentucky, was the wife of Jeff William, who for many
years was a farmer and liveryman at and near Louis-
ville, but died at Brazil, Indiana. Julia, now living at
Indianapolis, is the widow of Rev. T. M. Wiles, a
minister of the Christian Church. Parthenia, who died
at Indianapolis, was the wife of Dr. W. V. Wiles, a
physician and druggist who died at Spencer, Indiana.
Myra, of Greencastle, Indiana, is the widow of J. B.
Curtis, who was a miller and died at Spencer, Indiana.
T. S. Jennings is a physician and surgeon at Louis-
ville. Emma, living at Bloomington, Indiana, is the
widow of Rev. T. J. Clark, a minister of the Christian
Church. Candace, who died at Mount Carmel, Illinois,
was the wife of Frank Baird, still living, a retired
druggist.
C. E. Jennings, the youngest of the family, acquired
his education in the public schools of Bloomington,
Ind'ana, attending the high school there through the
sophomore year until he was nineteen years of age.
For one year he taught school near Jeffersonville, In-
diana, and after that spent three, years in a practical
apprenticeship learning the dry goods business with a
house at St. Louis. Returning to Greencastle, Indiana,
he became manager of a large dry goods store, and
remained there until 1887, when he identified himself
with Paducah. For over thirty years he has been in
the real estate business, at first with Judge J. C. Tully.
They started as brokers with limited personal capital.
The partnership continued five years, when Mr. Jen-
nings bought out his partner and for another two
years was associated with E. G. Boone. Since then
he has conducted the business himself, and now has
one of the most complete organizations of the kind
in Western Kentucky. He handles city property and is
himself a large individual real estate holder. His
offices are in the City National Bank Building. His
home is a modern residence surrounded by eighteen
acres of well-kept grounds at Arcadia, two miles west
of Paducah. He is president of the Colonial Clay
Company, which produces and ships clay from Hickory
and Graves counties.
Like his father, Mr. Jennings is a democrat without
interest in practical politics. He is a deacon and active
member of the Christian Church, is a past grand of
Ingleside Lodge No. 195 of the Independent Order of
Odd Fellows, and is a member of the Rotary Club,
Board of Trade and Country Club of Paducah.
In 1889, at Paducah, he married Miss Ida M. Bon-
durant, daughter of J. K. and Mary (Brewer) Bon-
durant, residents of Paducah. Her father, a nat've
Kentuckian, is still active in his business as a merchan-
dise broker at the age of eighty years, and formerly
was in the wholesale grocery business at Paducah. Mr.
and Mrs. Jennings have two children. The older,
Mary B., graduated from the Belmont, now the Ward-
Belmont, Seminary at Nashville, attended school at
Washington, D. C, also attended the Curry School at
Boston and at Chicago, specializing in reading and
expression. She is the wife of Bruce M. Barnard, a
merchant at the Navajo Reservation at Shiprock, New
Mexico. The son, Charles Jennings, is a student in the
Western Military Academy at Alton, Illinois.
William Lydon. A man of artistic tastes and ta'ent,
skilled in the art of marble carving and cutting, Wil-
liam Lydon, of Paducah, has created many remarkable
life-size statues, not only of persons but of horses and
other animals, and among the beautiful specimens of '
sculpture to be seen in the Mayfield Cemetery many of
the noted ones are of his handiwork. A native of
Tennessee, he was born in Benton County January 23,
1861, of Irish parentage.
344
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
Mark Lydon, his father, born in County Mayo, Ire-
land, in 1827, died in Paducah, Kentucky, in October,
1917, at the venerable age of ninety years. Brought
up and married in his native county, he was engaged
in tilling the soil until 1857, when he came with his
family to the United States, settling first in Nashville,
Tennessee. Subsequently taking a contract to build
forty miles of the Nashville, Chattanooga & North-
western Railroad, he continued busily employed until
the outbreak of the Civil war. Coming to Paducah,
Kentucky, in 1862, he assisted in building the Paducah
Gulf Railroad, the first railway to enter the place,
and was afterwards successfully engaged in the team-
ing and transfer business until his retirement from
active pursuits in 1897. He was a democrat in politics
and a faithful member of the Roman Catholic Church.
Mark Lydon married first Margaret Curran, who
was born in County Mayo, Ireland, in 1835, and died
in Paducah, Kentucky, in 1870. Five children were
born of their marriage, as follows : Mark, a railroad
conductor, died in Paducah, Kentucky, in 1890, aged
forty-six years ; Mary, wife of William Hoffman, a
real estate dealer in Paducah ; William, the special
subject of this brief personal record; Thomas E., of
Paducah, a retired, shoe merchant ; and Margaret,
widow of Leo Peters, a shoemaker, who died in Chi-
cago, Illinois, where she now resides.
For his second wife Mark Lydon married Mary
Grady, a native of County Mayo. Ireland, and they
became the parents of seven children, as follows :
John, who was employed as clerk in a retail store in
Paducah, died at the age of twenty-seven years, in
1906; Katy, wife of Joseph Mullen, a farmer and brick-
layer residing in McCracken County ; Agnes, who
joined the Sisters of Mercy, died in New Orleans,
Louisiana, in 1908; Edward, a bricklayer by trade,
died in Paducah in 1913, at the early age of thirty-two
years; Patrick, of Paducah, is clerk in a grocery store;
Maurice, unmarried, is a general workman and lives
with his widowed mother; and Annie, wife of Frank
Niehoff, a Paducah blacksmith, died in 1918, aged
twenty-eight years.
Acquiring a practical knowledge of books in the
parochial schools of Paducah, William Lydon began
learning the marble cutter's trade at the age of seven-
teen years, serving an apprenticeship of three years
with Williamson & Leonard, whose plant was located
at the corner of Fifth Street and Broadway, on the
present site of the Palmer House. Becoming familiar
with all branches of the marble and granite business,
he subsequently remained with that firm as a journey-
man marble cutter until 1902, when he was appointed
deputy sheriff, an office that he filled for four years.
In the meantime the junior member of the firm for
which he had formerly worked had sold out to the
senior member, and Mr. Lydori purchased a third in-
terest in the new firm, which then became J. E. Wil-
liamson & Company. At the end of a year and nine
months Mr. Lydon sold his interest in the concern to
his partner and established his present plant at 1610-
1614 Trimble Street, where he has built up an ex-
tensive and highly profitable business, it being the
leading one of the kind in Western Kentucky.
Possessing excellent business ability and discretion,
Mr. Lydon has made wise investments, owning his fine
residence at 422 Murrell Boulevard ; his valuable plants :
and other pieces of real estate in Paducah, and is a
stockholder in both the Ohio Valley Fire and Marine
Insurance Company and the Ohio Valley Trust Com-
pany. He is a devout member of the Roman Catholic
Church, being true to the religious faith in which he
was reared. He belongs to the Paducah Rotary Club,
and is a member and a past grand knight of Paducah
Council No. 1055, Knights of Columbus ; a member
and a past exalted ruler of Paducah Lodge No. 217,
Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks ; and a mem-
ber of Olive Camp No. 2, Woodmen of the World.
Mr. Lydon married in 1882, in Paducah, Miss Cath-
erine Glynn, a daughter of John and Margaret (Brod-
erick) Glynn, neither of whom are now living. Her
father was an officer in the United States Army, serv-
ing as sergeant oi his company. Mrs. Lydon received
good educational advantages, having been graduated
from the Paducah parochial schools. Three children
have been born into the home of Mr. and Mrs. Lydon,
namely: William V., of Paducah, who died January
2, 1921, was interested in business with his father, and
was also a florist, his greenhouses being situated at
617 Fountain Avenue; Margaret, wife of George W.
Moller, of Paducah, who is a stockholder in the firm
of Kolb Brothers, wholesale druggists, and travels for
the company; and Mark, who died in 1906, at the age
of fourteen years.
Ralph Yakel. A man of high mental attainments,
broad and progressive in his views, Ralph Yakel, super-
intendent of the city schools of Paducah, is rendering
efficient and highly appreciated service in the position
he is so ably filling, having been instrumental in ad-
vancing the educational standards of the various schools
under his supervision and in arousing in teachers and
pupils alike a strong desire to win for the Paducah
schools an honored place among the best in county
and state. A son of Charles W. Yakel, he was born
October 1, 1889, in Rantoul, Illinois, of German an-
cestrv.
William Yakel, grandfather of Ralph Yakel, was
born in Germany in 1831. Soon after attaining his
majority he immigrated to the United States, and
having, bought land near Rantoul. Illinois, was there
engaged in general farming until his death in 1916.
His wife, whose maiden name was Henrietta Kresin,
was born in 1840, in Germany, and is now residing in
Rantoul, Illinois, a bright and active woman of four
score years.
Born in 1864, near Bloomington, Illinois, Charles W.
Yakel was brought up and educated in Rantoul, as a
youth being well trained in the various branches of
agriculture. Choosing the independent occupation to
which he was reared, he was successfully engaged in
tilling the soil until 1910. Having acquired a com-
petency, he retired from active pursuits in that year,
and has since resided in Champaign. Illinois. A stanch
republican in politics, he has served as drainage com-
missioner. Religiously he is a member of the Lutheran
Church and fraternally he belongs to the Independent
Order of Odd Fellows. He married Viola C. Blake.
who was born in Illinois in 1863, and into their house-
hold two children have been born, as follows: Ralph,
the special subject of this brief personal record; and
Harley B., a real estate broker in Champaign, Illino:s.
Acquiring his preliminary education in Rantoul, Illi-
nois, Ralph Yakel was there graduated from the high
school with the class of 1007. He subsequently con-
tinued his studies at the Northwestern University in
Evanston, Illinois, for a vear, and then attended the
University of Illinois, at Champaign, for a year. Sub-
sequently entering the Illinois Wesleyan University at
Bloomington. he completed the course of four years,
being there graduated in 1912 with the degrees of
Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws.
Verv soon after his graduation Mr. Yakel was ad-
mitted to the Illinois bar, and immediately located in
Portland, Oregon, where he was engaged in the prac-
tice of law a short time. He subsequently taught in
the high schools at Salem, Oregon, after which he
accepted a position as instructor at the Pacific Uni-
versity, Forest Grove, Oregon, where he remained until
the summer of 1916. Coming then to Paducah, Mr.
Yakel became head of the history department of the
Paducah University, and retained the position until
February, 1917. when he was elected superintendent of
the city schools, an office of responsibility which he
has since filled with credit to himself and to the honor
LP**
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
345
of the city. He has under his supervision ten schools,
in teachers and 4,500 pupils, a goodly number of
boys and girls, who are receiving excellent educational
advantages, their studies being pursued under efficient
teachers and after the most approved modern methods.
Mr. Yakel married, May 15, 1913, at Lafayette, In-
diana, Miss Myra M. Jones, a daughter of W. H. and
Mamie (McLaughlin) Jones. Her father, who was
supervisor of railroad repairs for the Pullman Com-
pany, died in April, 1920, and her mother is residing
at 6359 Greenwood Avenue, Chicago, Illinois. Brought
up in Chicago, Mrs. Yakel was graduated from the
Hyde Park High School, and later attended the Uni-
versity of Chicago one semester, and the Illinois Wes-
leyan University three years. Mr. and Mrs. Yakel
have two children, Ralph, Jr., born March 26, 1914,
and Ruth, August 12, 1920. Mr. Yakel belongs to two
college fraternities, the Phi Gamma Delta and the Phi
Delta Phi, and is a member of the Paducah Rotary
Club. Poltically he is a straightforward democrat, and
religiously is a member of the Christian Church.
M. C. Justice, president of the Peoples Bank of
Pikeville and president of the Big Elkhorn Coal Com-
pany of Betsy Layne, Kentucky, is one of the leading
business men and financiers of Pikeville and a man of
unusual capabilities. He has acquired through legiti-
mate channels a comfortable fortune within the past
few years, and has set an example of determined per-
sistence and good management that all would do well
to follow who are ambitious to gain a well-merited
prosperity. He was born at Grange Store, Pike County,
Kentucky, July 6, 1873, a son of William T. and Causbe
(Haven) Justice, the former of whom was born at
Grange Store in 1849, and is now a resident of Ashland,
Kentucky. The latter was born in Tazewell County,
Virginia, in 1847, and died in 1895. The Justice family
was one of the pioneer ones of Eastern Kentucky, and
all of its members were identified prominently with the
Baptist Church. An older brother of William T. Jus-
tice served in the Federal Army during the war between
the two sections of the country, and he is now engaged
in farming on his fine farm that is located a short
distance south of Ashland, but formerly he was engaged
in farming at Grange Store. There were eight children
born to William T. Justice and his wife, namely :
M. C, who was the eldest;- Ellen, deceased; Rachel,
who is the wife of James Anderson, of Fishtrap, Pike
County ; J. T., who lives on a farm in Pike County,
Ohio; William M., who lives at Russell, Kentucky, is
a merchant ; A. H., who is a merchant of Ashland, Ken-
tucky; Addie, who is the wife of William Anderson;
and Nelson, of Fishtrap.
McClelland Justice, generally known as M. C. Justice,
attended Pikeville College and was under the preceptor-
ship of Professor Kendrick and Professor Reminds and
J. I. Riddle. In order to secure the necessary funds to
acquire his collegiate training he taught in the country
schools, and continued to be an educator for ten years.
He then embarked in a lumber and mercantile business
at Lookout, Pike County, and continued to conduct it
until 1915. In that year he organized the Mossy Bottom
and Big Elkhorn coal mining companies, and is presi-
dent of the Big Elkhorn Coal Company and is one of
the largest coal operators of this region. On June 15,
1919, Mr. Justice organized the Peoples Bank at Pike-
ville, of which he has since been president. His busi-
ness ventures have all prospered, but he has advanced
not by any spectacular operations, but because of his
careful, conservative and capable management of his
affairs and his astuteness in gauging the right time for
the launching of an undertaking and his sagacity in
taking advantage of the opportune moment. During
his earlier days he acquired considerable knowledge of
conditions in Pike County through his work over it as
a surveyor.
When he was twenty-four years of age he married
Laura A. Adkins, a daughter of Winright Adkins, of
Millard, Pike County, who died in 1910, when she was
thirty-five years old, leaving six children, namely :
G. H., who served in the United States Navy during the
World war for two years in the transport service, is
now at Betsy Layne, where he is associated with his
father in business ; and Rex C, Garland, Octavia, Zettie
and McClelland, Jr., all of whom are at home. On
March 15, 1914, Mr. Justice married Virgie Coleman,
a daughter of J. E. Coleman, of Regina, Kentucky. Mr.
Justice is a republican.
Wayne C. Seaton. Holding a place of prominence
among the county officials of McCracken County,
Wayne C. Seaton, of Paducah, has served ably and
faithfully as circuit clerk of the court of McCracken
County during the past four years, and in the per-
formance of the duties devolving upon him in that
capacity has won the approval of the bench, bar and
general public. A son of the late James B. Seaton, he
was born near Woodville, McCracken County, Ken-
tucky, December 29, 1875, of English and Scotch-
Irish descent, on the paternal side being descended
from the ancestral line claimed by Queen Elizabeth of
England. His grandfather, George Seaton, was born
in 1808 in Tennessee, where he spent his entire life,
his death having occurred in 1883 in Henry County,
near Paris.
Born in Lincoln County, Tennessee, in 1833, James
B. Seaton spent the earlier years of his life in his
native state. At the outbreak of the Civil war he en-
listed in the Confederate Army, and during the four
years that he served as a soldier took part in various
engagements, including those at Lookout Mountain,
Shiloh and Missionary Ridge, in one battle being
wounded in the right leg by a bullet. Surrendering at
Greensboro, North Carolina, he returned to his home
in Tennessee and the following year, in 1866, came to
McCracken County, Kentucky, bought a tract of land,
and was subsequently actively engaged in general farm-
ing until his death in 1899. He was a democrat in his
political relations ; a member of the Ancient Free and
Accepted Masons ; and was a devout and consistent
member of the Baptist Church, which he served as
deacon for many years.
After coming to McCracken County James B. Seaton
married Fannie Stone, who was born in 1837 in Vir-
ginia, and is now residing in Paducah, Kentucky. Six
children were born of their union, as follows : Willie,
died on the home farm when but nine years of age ;
Elizabeth, who became the wife of James Johnston,
of Barlow, Ballard County, Kentucky, died at the age
of twenty-seven years; Minnie, widow of A. Simmons,
a McCracken County farmer, lives with her mother in
Paducah ; Eli, engaged in farming, resides in Mc-
Cracken County, near Kevil; Wayne C, the subject of
this brief personal record ; and Mamie, who lived but
four short years.
Obtaining the rudiments of his education in the rural
schools, Wayne C. Seaton subsequently received a high
school education, or its equivalent, and a commercial
education in Paducah, fully qualifying himself for a
business career. Beginning the battle of life on his
own account at the age of eighteen years, he has since
made his own way in the world. Starting life as a
farmer, he continued his agricultural labors until 1907,
and the following three years sold insurance in Mc-
Cracken County. Resuming his former occupation in
1910, Mr. Seaton was a tiller of the soil three years,
when, in 1913, he made a race on the democratic ticket
for the office of county assessor. On the face of the
returns he was elected by two votes, but on the official
recount it was found that he had lost by three votes.
He returned then to the farm, but owing to the un-
precedented drouth of the 1914 season he lost all of
his crops. In 1915 Mr. Seaton was a candidate for
346
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
the office of circuit clerk of McCracken County, being
one of six candidates in the field, and had the honor
of being elected by a large majority of the votes cast,
for a term of six years. Courteous, efficient and pains-
taking, he is one of the best circuit clerks the court
ever had, and its clerks have always been capable and
efficient.
Mr. Seaton is a straightforward democrat in politics,
and an active member of the Missionary Baptist
Church. Fraternally he is a member of Paducah
Lodge No. 127, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons ;
of Mangum Lodge No. 21, Independent Order of Odd
Fellows ; of Union Encampment No. 70 ; of Paducah
Lodge No. 217, Benevolent and Protective Order of
Elks; and of Paducah Camp No. 11313, Modern Wood-
men of America. He likewise belongs to the Paducah
Board of Trade. He has acquired considerable prop-
erty, owning a modern residence at 1622 Broadway, a
farm of seventy-five acres near Kevil, McCracken
County, and real estate of value in Paducah.
On August 23, 1906, Mr. Seaton was united in mar-
riage, at Lovelaceville, Ballard County, Kentucky, with
Miss Nannie Culver, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. S.
R. Culver, the former of whom, a retired farmer, re-
sides in Magazine, Arkansas, while the latter is de-
ceased. Mrs. Seaton passed to the higher life October
17, 1909, on the home farm in McCracken County,
leaving one child, Graydon, born April 26, 1907. Mr.
Seaton married for his second wife, April 12, 1917,
Mrs. Bennie (Sullivan) Thomas, a daughter of James
and Sudie (Hines) Sullivan, who reside in Clarks-
ville, Tennessee, Mr. Sullivan being a traveling sales-
man. Mrs. Seaton had one child by her first marriage,
Louise Thomas, born in 1909, who is now known as
Louise Thomas Seaton.
W. M. Baker has not only gained standing as one
of the representative farmers of the younger genera-
tion in his native county, but has also shown himself
possessed of the characteristics that beget popular con-
fidence and esteem, for he has been chosen the sheriff
of Jackson County, an office to which he was elected
in November, 1917, for the prescribed term of four
years, and in which he has given a most effective and
satisfactory administration.
Mr. Baker was born on a farm three miles north of
Annville, Jackson County, March 11, 1887, and is a son
of Morris Baker, who was born in Clay County, this
state, June 19, 1831, and who died at McKee, Jackson
County, June 29, 1904. Morris Baker was a son of
Adoniram Baker, who was born in North Carolina
and who became a pioneer farmer in Clay County,
Kentucky, where he established his residence when he
was a young man and where his marriage was sol-
emnized, both he and his wife passing the remainder
of their lives in that county. He was a Union soldier
during practically the entire period of the Civil war,
took part in numerous engagements, including a num-
ber of important battles, and from wounds which he
received in battle his death resulted shortly after the
close of the war. His wife, whose maiden name was
Nancy Sandlin, was born in Clay County, and there
passed her entire life, she having survived him by a
number of years.
Reared to manhood in Clay County, Morris Baker
there married Miss Eliza Ferguson, who was born in
Washington County, Virginia, in 1836, and who sur-
vived him by about five years, her death having oc-
curred at Indianapolis, Indiana, in June, 1909. The
first three children of this union were born in Clay
County, and there Mr. Baker continued his activities
as a farmer until he entered the Union service in the
Civil war, as will be noted more fully at a later point
in this context. In 1866 he removed with his family
to a farm which he purchased three miles north of
Annville, Jackson County, and on this place he gave
his constructive labors as an agriculturist and stock-
grower until 1897, when he removed to the northern
part of the county, near Sand Gap, where he con-
tinued his farm enterprise five years until his retire-
ment to McKee, the county seat, where he passed the
remainder of his life. He was a republican of un-
qualified loyalty, and he served one term as magis-
trate in Jackson County. Both he and his wife were
most zealous members of the Baptist Church, with
which he united in his youth, and he became a teacher
in its Sunday School even before his marriage . When
the Civil war was precipitated Mr. Baker subordinated
all other interests to go forth in defense of the Union,
and as a member of Company I, Fourteenth Kentucky
Cavalry, he served from the beginning until the close
of the war, with a record that shall ever reflect honor
upon his name. Morris and Eliza (Ferguson) Baker
became the parents of ten children : Miss Susan, eldest
of the number, died at the age of twenty-six years;
Mary, who died in the northern part of Jackson Coun-
ty, was the wife of General Combs, the latter having
been a farmer in Tennessee at the time of his death ;
Adoniram was accidentally shot and killed near Little
Rock. Arkansas, when twenty-four years of age; Nan-
nie is the wife of Thomas Gabbard, a farmer in the
western part of Jackson County; Sarah died in Madi-
son County, where her husband, Alfred Hurley, is a
farmer near Bear Willow; Maggie is the wife of Cass
Johnson, who is employed in a manufactory in the
City of Indianapolis, Indiana, and who is a citizen of
substantial financial status ; David, a railroad employe,
resides at Ravenna, Estil County, Kentucky; J. K. is
a farmer in the State of Mississippi ; Fannie, who died
at the age of thirty-three years, is survived by her
husband, William Turner, a farmer in the western part
of Jackson County; and W. M. Baker, the sheriff of
Jackson County, is the youngest of the children.
The rural schools of Jackson County afforded Sheriff
Baker his early education, and he continued his asso-
ciat'on with the work of his father's farm until he had
attained to the age of nineteen years, when he began
his independent operations as a farmer. He made a
success of the enterprise and applied himself vigor-
ously to the management of his farm until 191 1, when
he sold the property. He has since purchased and
now owns an excellent farm of eighty-four acres in
immediate proximity to the Village of Annville, and
he resides on this farm, which is on the main Annville
road. In 191 1 he engaged in timber operations in this
section of the state, and he continued his activities in
lumber production until 1918, in January of which
year he assumed his official duties as sheriff, his elec-
tion having occurred the preceding November, As pre-
viously stated. While he resides on his farm near
Annville, he maintains his official headquarters, as a
matter of course, at McKee, the county seat. The
Sheriff is a thoroughgoing republican and has given
effective aid in promoting the party cause in his home
county. After his retirement from the timber business
he served one year as village marshal at Berea, Madi-
son County. He and his wife hold membership in the
Baptist Church, and he is affiliated with William Mc-
Kinley Lodge No. 793, Free and Accepted Masons, at
McKee; Bond Lodge No. 105, Knights of Pythias, in
the Village of Bond ; and Bond Council No. 165, Junior
Order United American Mechanics. He made liberal
subscriptions to war bonds and Savings Stamps during
the nation's connection with the World war, and also
gave effective aid in the various Jackson County com-
paigns for these objects.
Mr. Baker married Miss Dollie Gabbard, daughter
of Edward and Sarah (McCullom) Gabbard, who re-
side on their farm near McKee. Mr. and Mrs. Baker
have seven children : Susie is the wife of Walter
Christian, a druggist by vocation, and they reside in
the City of Detroit, Michigan; Sarah A., the widow of
Vester Evans, who was a farmer near Berea, Madison
County, resides at Charleston, West Virginia, where
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
34?
she holds a position as stenographer in one of the
state offices ; Mattie is the wife of W. P. Johnson,
cashier of a bank at London, Laurel County, Kentucky ;
and James is, in 1921, a student in Annville Institute,
at Annville, as are also Grace, Morris and Nora, these
younger children having the privileges of an excellent
school while maintaining a place in the parental home
circle.
Emmett Wooten Bagby. A prominent and highly
esteemed citizen of Paducah, Emmett Wooten Bagby,
distinguished as one of the two pioneer lawyers of the
city has been here successfully engaged in the practice
of his chosen profession for upwards of half a cen-
tury, and has served ably and satisfactorily as a referee
in bankruptcy since the creation of that office in 1898.
A son of the late Albert K. Bagby, he was born June
7, 1845, in Glasgow, Kentucky, and is of honored Scotch
descent, his immigrant ancestor, James Bagby, having
come from Scotland to America in Colonial days,
settling in Virginia. Interested in scientific experi-
ments, while trying to discover perpetual motion, he
was accidentally killed by his own appliances.
Mr. Bagby's grandfather, Rev. Sylvanus Bagby, a
native of Virginia, was one of the early 3aptist ministers
of Kentucky, and about 1840 was associated with that
noted clergyman, Alexander Campbell, founder of the
religious sect known either as Disciples of Christ,
Christians or Campbellites. He subsequently moved
to Rushville, Illinois, where his death occurred in
the early '50s. His wife, whose maiden name was
Zarilda Courts, was born and bred in Virginia. The
grandfather inherited to a marked degree the me-
chanical and inventive talent of his immigrant ancestor,
and was a close friend and admirer of Cyrus W.
Field, the originator of the submarine cable.
Born in 1823 in Virginia, Albert K. Bagby was there
brought up and educated. Coming to Kentucky as a
young man, he settled as a pioneer in Glasgow, where
he followed his trade of a cabinet maker until his death,
which, however, occurred in Louisville, Kentucky, in
1906. He was a republican in politics, and was one of
the organizers, under Alexander Campbell, of the Chris-
tian Church in Glasgow, Kentucky, of which he was
an active and prominent member. He married Martha
Wooten, who was born in Barren County, Kentucky, in
1824, and died in Glasgow, Kentucky, in 1906. Six
children were born of their union, as follows : Eugene
A., who was a druggist in his earlier days, and after-
ward a member of the firm of McFerran, Shallcross
& Company of Louisville, died in 1912, at Bowling
Green, Kentucky, and was buried in Louisville ; Alice,
residing in Owensboro, Kentucky, is the widow of E.
K. Owsley, a former business man of Ballard County,
this state ; Emmett Wooten, the special subject of this
sketch ; Phineta married Hardy Burton, a real estate
agent of Louisville, and neither of them are now living;
John, a graduate of the Bellevue Medical College in
New York City, was a prominent physician and surgeon
of Glasgow, Kentucky, where his death occurred in
1905 ; and Annie, residing in Louisville, is the widow
of Charles Hamlet, a veteran of the Confederate Army,
who died at the Soldiers' Home in Anchorage, Ken-
tucky.
After his graduation from Urania College in Glas-
gow, this state, Emmett Wooten Bagby taught school
in the district lying three miles from Glasgow for a
year, and in August, 1866, was elected principal of the
newly organized public school in the second ward of
Paducah. Succeeding well in his profession, he was
afterward made assistant principal of the Male Uni-
versity of Paducah, and for two years was associated
with John Wheeler McGee, of Louisville, in that insti-
tution. Being admitted to the Kentucky bar in 1869,
.Mr. Bagby opened a law office in Paducah, and for a
year was in partnership with the same Mr. McGee.
From 1870 until 1908 Mr. Bagby was engaged in the
practice of his profession alone, but from that time
until May, 1920, was associated with Arthur Y. Mar-
tin, with whom he built up an extensive and lucrative
patronage. Since the dissolution of the partnership Mr.
Bagby has continued his practice alone, his offices being
in the Masonic Building.
He was city attorney of Paducah for ten years,
and has been officially connected with the Carnegie
Public Library of Paducah since its organization in
1900, and was the first president of the library board,
a position that he is ably filling at this writing, in
1920. He is a member of the Paducah Bar Association,
and is serving as its vice president. A prominent mem-
ber of the republican party, Mr. Bagby was the re-
publican elector in 1876 of the First Congressional Dis-
trict, and was joint debater with Capt. C. T. Allen, of
Princeton, Kentucky, the democratic elector from that
district, for thirty days giving two debates daily and
speaking throughout the entire district. In 1878 Mr.
Bagby made the race for Congress, but was defeated
at the polls. In 1920 he made the race for city com-
missioner, but was defeated. Fraternally he is a mem-
ber of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and
religiously he belongs to the Christian Church, in which
he served as elder many years.
Mr. Bagby married in 1872, in Paducah, Miss Ellen
Saunders, a daughter of the late Dr. Reuben Saunders,
a pioneer physician of this city. Mrs. Bagby died in
1895, leaving six children, namely : Emmett, who was
assistant cashier of the City National Bank of Paducah,
died at the age of thirty-five years, while yet in man-
hood's prime ; Aline, wife of H. A. Ray, who has charge
of a garage in Los Angeles, California; Douglas, of
Prestonsburg, Kentucky, is a druggist ; Elsie, wife of
Henry B. Grace, a railway conductor living in Cali-
fornia ; Marjorie, wife of Cade Davis, of Paducah, a
well known insurance agent; and Reuben Saunders,
who resides in Long Beach, California.
W. A. Berry. While long recognized as one of the
successful lawyers of Paducah, Kentucky, W. A. Berry
has also performed the duties of a public spirited citizen
and an able and efficient business man. For a number
of years he has been interested in the News-Democrat
of Paducah, being vice president of the Democrat
Publishing Company.
Mr. Berry was born at Uniontown, Union County,
Kentucky, January 17, 1870. His first Berry ancestor
came from England to Virginia with Lord Fairfax.
The family has been in Kentucky since soon after th"
Revolutionary period. The grandfather of W. A. Berry
was Martin M. Berry, who was born in Union County
in 1804 and spent all his life there, where he died in
1891. He was an extensive farmer and planter and
for twenty-four years before his death held the office
of justice of the peace. He married Rachel Anderson,
a native of Union County.
The father of the Paducah lawyer was the late
W. F. Berry, who attained success as a lawyer. He was
born in Union County May 24, 1828, and spent all
his life in that section of the state. He died in Union-
town February 14, 1893. He was a representative in
the Legislature in 1882, and for four years represented
Henderson and Union counties in the Senate. He was
active in the Presbyterian Church and Sunday School.
He married Miss Anne Berry, who was born August
IS, 1837, and is still living at Uniontown. The oldest
of their children, Earl, was a merchant at Uniontown,
where he died in 1907, at the age of forty. The second
is W. A. Berry. P. L. Berry is a merchant at Union-
town. John J. has long been a resident of Paducah,
for a number of years a publisher of the News-Demo-
crat and now postmaster. N. A. is business manager of
the News-Democrat.
W. A. Berry attended private and public schools in
his native county, studied law in his father's offices, and
was admitted to the bar August 24, 1890, five months
348
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
before attaining his majority. He was in practice with
his father until the latter's death, three years later,
and continued his professional career there until Sep-
tember, 1898, when he removed to Paducah. Mr.
Berry has shared in much of the important practice
of the courts and law offices of Paducah for twenty
years, and is a member of the firm of Mocquot. Bere-
ft Reed, in the City National Bank Building. He is a
member of the County, State and American Bar asso-
ciations, is a director in the Ohio Valley Trust Com-
pany, and in the Ohio Valley Fire and Marine Insur-
ance Company, and has long been a leader in state
democratic politics. For twelve years, from 1908 to
1920, he served as state central committeeman of the
First Congressional District, comprising thirteen coun-
ties. For seventeen years Mr. Berry has been a deacon
of the Christian Church, is a member of Paducah Lodge
No. 217 of the Elks, Paducah Country Club, Lions
Club of Paducah and the Board of Trade.
His home at Seventeenth Street and Fountain Avenue
is one of the most perfectly appointed and attractive
residences of the city. He married, April 22, 1806, at
Paducah, Miss Pearl Baker, a daughter of John W.
and Mary Bradford (Ross) Baker. Her mother is still
living at Paducah. Her father for a number of years
was a representative of the Imperial Tobacco Company
of England. Mr. and Mrs. Berry have five children:
A. B., the oldest, born July 25, 1898, now connected
with the News-Democrat at Paducah, graduated from
Branham & Hughes School at Franklin, Tennessee, and
on April 5, 1917, the day America declared war against
Germany, he volunteered and was in service until Sep-
tember, 1918. He spent thirteen months in France and
was mustered out with the rank of sergeant. Elwyii,
twin sister of A. B., is a graduate of the Paducah
High School and the wife of Ross H. Jones, living at
Paducah, a traveling salesman. Mahlon B., born March
6, 1901, and now connected with the accounting depart-
ment of the Ohio Valley Fire & Marine Insurance Com-
pany at Paducah, graduated from the local high school,
and was in the army from April 1, 1918, until Sep-
tember, 1919. He was given. a score of 100 per cent
efficiency as a coach on the rifle range at Rumford.
New Jersey, and made four trips overseas on army
transports. Mildred, twin sister of Mahlon, graduated
from the Dorian private school at Paducah and the
Colonial School for Girls at Washington, District of
Columbia. The youngest of the family. Pearl, born Feb-
ruary 6, 1908, is a student in the Paducah grammar
school.
Robert R. Guthrie. About the time he graduated
from college Mr. Guthrie's father died, and he at once
turned his college education to good use as manager
of the Paducah Department Store of the E. Guthrie
Company, which, already securely established by his
father, has received decided increment and new growth
under the vigorous administration of the son.
The founder of this business, widely known and ap-
preciated all over Western Kentucky, was the late
Elbridge Guthrie, who was born in Buckingham County,
Virginia, in 1849, son of William Guthrie, a native of
Scotland. William Guthrie after coming to America
acquired extensive interests as a planter and slave owner
in Buckingham County, Virginia, served as a Con-
federate soldier during the war, and died in Bucking-
ham County in 1890, when about ninety years of age.
Elbridge Guthrie came to Paducah in 1872, and soon
afterward engaged in the general dry goods business
as E. Guthrie & Company. He kept this business grow-
ing, until the store at 315 Broadway had a patronage
all over McCracken County and some adjoining coun-
ties. He was a democratic voter ar>d was verv active in
the affairs of the First Presbvterian Church." Elbridge
Guthrie married Miss Mollie McElrov. of Lebanon,
Kentucky, where she was born in 1858. She is now
living in Los Angeles.
Robert R. Guthrie, only son of his parents, was born
in Paducah January 22, 1890, prepared for college in
the Paducah High School and then entered Centre
College at Danville, Kentucky, from which he received
his Bachelor of Science degree in 191 1. He was a mem-
ber of the Delta Kappa Epsilon College fraternity.
For the past nine years he has given his undivided
time and attention to the management of his father's
business, which has recorded very extensive growth and
prosperity. The E. Guthrie Company store is today
probably the leading department store of Western Ken-
tucky. Under his management the business head-
quarters have been moved to 322-326 Broadway, and the
company also owns a modern four-story brick structure
at 519-523 Broadway.
Mr. Guthrie was president in 1919-20, a year and a
half, of the Paducah Rotary Club, that being the longest
term of any president of that organization. He was vice
president two years and has been a director five years
of the Paducah Board of Trade. He is a democrat,
a member of the Christian Science Church, is affiliated
with Plain City Lodge No. 449, A. F. and A. M.,
Paducah Chapter No. 30, R. A. M., Paducah Com-
mandery No. 11, K. T., Kosair Temple of the Mystic
Shrine at Louisville and was the first president of the
Paducah Shrine Club. He is also a member of Pa-
ducah Lodge No. 217, of the Elks and of the Paducah
Country Club.
In Chicago in 1915 he married Miss Demia Krings,
daughter of John F. and Emma (Grayson) Krings. Her
father is a wholesale milliner in Chicago. Mrs. Guthrie
acquired a high school education in Chicago and also
specialized in vocal music. They have one daughter,
Demia, born March 12, 1918.
Claude C. Pace. Identified with the business in-
terests of Paducah as an active member of the T. A.
Miller Land Company, Claude C. Pace has operated
successfully in real estate in McCracken and other
counties, handling property of much value, his annual
sales being large and constantly increasing. A son of
Thomas Alva Pace, he was born November 25, 1876,
in Stewart County, Tennessee, of Scotch-Irish lineage,
his immigrant ancestor having located in Virginia prior
to the Revolutionary war. His grandfather, Hardy
Pace, was born in 1823 in Tennessee, as was his wife,
whose maiden name was Elizabeth Huskey. Soon after
their marriage they became pioneers of Calloway
County, Kentucky, and on the farm which they re-
deemed from its primeval wildness spent their remain-
ing years, his death occurring in 1885 and hers in 1888.
Born in 1850, in Cheatham County. Tennessee,
Thomas Alva Pace was brought up in that county
and in Robertson County, that state, being reared to
agricultural pursuits. Removing to Stewart County.
Tennessee, in early manhood, he farmed there for
a while, and in 1889 came to Kentucky, settling in
Murray, Calloway County, where he continued as a
tiller of the soil for two years and was engaged in the
tobacco and grocery business for about nine years.
Moving to Hot Springs, Arkansas, in 1900, he managed
a hotel until 1918, when he retired from active pur-
suits, and is now enjoying in that city a well-earned
leisure. He is a democrat in politics, and a member of
the Methodist Episcopal Church. His wife, whose name
before marriage was Bettie Lee, was born in Stewart
County, Tennessee, in 1853, being a descendant of
Robert E. Lee, and she died in 1887 in Murray, Calloway
County, Kentucky. Five children were born of their
union, as follows: Joseph, who was graduate! from
a medical college at Little Rock, Arkansas, with the
degree of Doctor of Medicine, was a successful physi-
cian and surgeon at Hot Springs, Arkansas, where his
death occurred in 1917, at the age of forty-three years;
Claude C. the subject of this brief sketch; Charles
W., who died at Hot Springs, Arkansas, in 1917, aged
thirty-four years, was a physician and surgeon, having
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
349
received the degree of Doctor of Medicine at a medical
college in Chicago, Illinois; B. F., an oil operator in
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; and Eunice, wife of M. T.
Adams, a farmer living four miles west of Paducah.
Acquiring his first knowledge of hooks in the rural
schools of Calloway County, Kentucky, Claude C. Pace
later attended the public schools of Dover, Tennessee,
and the Murray, Kentucky, High School. Beginning
life for himself at the age of nineteen years, he was
engaged in farming in Ballard County, Kentucky, until
iqoo, when he bought land in McCracken County, near
Massac, and continued his agricultural labors. Remov-
ing from there to a farm located on the Hinkleville
Road, seven miles west of Paducah, Mr. Pace carried
on general farming there until 1912. Going in that
year to Mayfield, Kentucky, he was engaged in the
real estate business a year, gaining in the meantime a
practical insight in that industry.
In 1913 Mr. Pace located in Paducah, and for five
years was actively engaged in the fire and life insur-
ance business, winning an excellent patronage. Becom-
ing a member of the T. A. Miller Land Company in
1918, he has since been identified with one of the most
extensive and profitable enterprises of the kind in
Western Kentucky, the annual sales of the firm having
been during the past two years record breakers. Mr.
Pace owns and occupies a fine residence at 433 North
Fifth Street, and in addition owns thirty-two dwelling
houses in Paducah, and has a half interest in several
McCracken County farms. He is a stanch democrat in
his political affiliations; a valued member of the First
Baptist Church; and belongs to Mangum Lodge No.
2T, Independent Order of Odd Fellows; and to Paducah
Camp No. 11313, Modern Woodmen of America.
Mr. Pace married, in 1899, m McCracken County,
Kentucky, Miss Mary Overstreet, a daughter of
James D. and Ella (Caldwell) Overstreet, neither of
whom are now living. Her father, a farmer by occu-
pation, retired from active pursuits a few years before
his death. Mr. and Mrs. Pace have no children.
John M. Johnson. The men now occupying the
offices of Pike County are particularly well fitted for
their special duties and are making a record which is
attracting wide-spread attention. Without exception
they are men of the highest character and ability, and
are working to render a service that ranks among the
best in the state. One of them deserving of special
mention is John M. Johnson, a county official, and one
of the most dependable citizens of Pikeville. He was
born at Regina, Pike County, November 20, 1879, a
son of George W. and Nettie (Coleman) Johnson, now
residents of Regina. The Johnson family came to Pike
County when it was first opened for settlement, some
of its members being natives of North Carolina and
others of Virginia. George W. Johnson and his wife
are members of the regular Baptist Church. In politics
he is a republican. All of the six children born to him
and his wife still survive, except one, and of them
John M. Johnson is the second in order of birth.
Growing up in his native county, John M. Johnson
attended first the local schools and later Pikeville Col-
lege, and then for several years was numbered among
the capable educators of this region. Entering the com-
mercial field, he became a traveling salesman for
Ketchem White & Company of Ashland, Kentucky, and
later represented the Kentucky Grocery Company of
Pikeville, remaining on the road in all eleven years.
He is thoroughly acquainted with all of Pike County,
and knows personally many of its people, with whom
he maintains the friendliest relations, calling them by
their first names, as they do him by his. When he came
before the public for election as the candidate of the
republican party he received an overwhelming support
from members of both parties, and was elected the
-ounty clerk by a large majority. In 1921 he was elected
sheriff on the republican ticket without opposition, re-
ceived the largest number of votes in the primary ever
received in the county, 5,834. He has proven himself a
very capable as well as popular official, and no trouble
is too great for him to take to accommodate his con-
stituents.
In August, 1907, Mr. Johnson was united in marriage
with Miss Cora Roberts, a daughter of Rice Roberts, a
coal operator and farmer of Elkhorn. Mr. and Mrs.
Johnson have six sons, namely : Russell, Buford,
Robert, Jack, Walter and Ralph. Very prominent as a
Mason, Mr. Johnson belongs to the Blue Lodge of
Pikeville and the Mystic Shrine at Ashland. He is also
a member of the Elks of Catlettsburg.
Nathaniel L. Curry. The career of Nathaniel L.
Curry, directing head of the N. L. Curry Grocery
Company of Harrodsburg, is an expression of practical
and diversified activity and in its range has invaded
the realms of merchandising, education, finance and re-
ligion, all of which have profited by the breadth and
conscientiousness which are distinctive features of his
work and character. He was born at Harrodsburg,
December 10, 1859, the only son of Daniel Jackson and
Mary Jane (Forsythe) Curry.
The Curry family from the time of its entrance into
Kentucky at an early day has loyally supported the
best interests of the state, and its members have been
prominent in fighting for justice, temperance and good
citizenship. The great-grandfather of Nathaniel L.
Curry was born in Virginia and on migrating to Ken-
tucky in 1792 settled on the banks of Chapman River,
where he owned property. He was a sturdy pioneer
farmer and an elder of the first Presbyterian Church
to be established in the state. His son, the grandfather
of Nathaniel L. Curry, was a carpenter by trade and
a man noted for his conscientious workmanship and
skill. He was a deacon in the Presbyterian Church.
Daniel Jackson Curry was born July 20, 1826, and
worked his way from a penniless young manhood to
a position among the wealthiest men in Mercer County.
He was the organizer of the First National Bank of
Harrodsburg and a leading merchant at that place,
and later in life purchased the William Thompson
farm of 100 acres on the Lexington Pike. His strength
was largely in his truth and honor, and his righteous-
ness was universally recognized among his associates.
While Mercer County was normally democratic by 600
votes, and he espoused the principles of republicanism,
Mr. Curry was elected to the State Legislature by a
large majority. His opponent, Phil B. Thompson, was
led to exclaim : "I thought I was running against
Dave Curry ; I found I was opposed by all women and
God almighty!" Mr. Curry first married Mary Jane
Forsythe, September 21, 1852. She was born November
28, 1834, and died April 12, 1862, Nathaniel L. being
their only child. On December 21, 1869, Mr. Curry
married Emma S. Rue, a most estimable woman of
Kentucky birth, and they became the parents of seven
children: Edwin, a resident of Kansas City, Missouri;
James Reed, of Tampa, Florida; Frank D., of Har-
rodsburg; Lucian R., of Richmond, Virginia; Daniel
J., of Harrodsburg; Emma, the wife of Rev. H. P.
Atkins, secretary of the Federated Church Movement
of Hamilton County, Ohio, and a resident of Cincin-
nati; and Nellie R., who died aged four years in 1886.
Nathaniel L. Curry was given good educational ad-
vantages and made the most of his opportunities. After
attending the graded and high schools of Harrods-
burg he entered Center College, Danville, and was
graduated with the highest class rating, as valedictorian
of the class of 1880, receiving the degree of Master of
Arts. During the year 1880 he taught school, and in
1881 entered the First National Bank of Harrodsburg,
which he left in 1882 to become a partner in the retail
grocery and merchandise firm of Curry & Company.
350
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
In 1896 this concern embarked in the wholesale grocery
business, and continued with consistent growth and ad-
vancement until 1903, when the business was destroyed
by fire. When the new plant was erected the business
was reorganized as the N. L. Curry Grocery Company,
its present style, and since then has enjoyed a con-
stantly increasing trade. The healthy growth of this
enterprise may be largely attributed to the tact that it
is conducted upon a sound business policy. The pro-
prietor takes the stand that he is in business to serve,
and with that view in mind most conscientiously works
toward the purpose of an equitable distribution of his
goods at a minimum cost to the user.
Mr. Curry is a firm believer that every man should
be a producer, that he who is merely a consumer is a
parasite. He is well versed in the history of Kentucky
and is an enthusiastic supporter of the Historical
Society in his county. As have been the members of
his family for generations, he is a devout member of
the Presbyterian Church, and an officer therein. He
is always receptive and quick to respond to calls for
the support of movements for the betterment and ad-
vancement of civic conditions. In his pleasant home
he is a most hospitable and engaging host.
On December 21, 1886, Mr. Curry was united in
marriage with Miss Mary Cordelia Whittington, who
prior to their marriage was a teacher in the Daughters
College of Harrodsburg, an old and famous institution
ranking high in Kentucky's list of colleges.
H. Preston Sights, M. D. A Kentucky physician
and surgeon for over a quarter of a century, Doctor
Sights represents one of the very old families of the
state. He is a descendant of Jacob Sights, who came
from Europe to the American colonies and was on the
American side through the Revolutionary war. He
married a Miss Preston, of Pennsylvania. After the
war he came West and settled in Henderson County,
Kentucky, and spent the rest of his life as a planter at
Cairo. He was a Revolutionary soldier. The grand-
father of Doctor Sights was Preston Sights, a native
of Henderson County, who spent his life in this sec-
tion as a planter and slave owner. He died at Cairo
at the age of ninety-two. Preston Sights was a son
of David Sights, who also spent his life in Henderson
County, where three or four generations of the family
have been identified with agricultural affairs.
James J. Sights, father of Doctor Sights, was born
near Cairo in Henderson County in 1835, and spent
all his life in that community as a farmer. He died
at Robards in 1914. He was a democrat, an active
member and elder of the Christian Church and deeply
interested in Masonry. James J. Sights married Miss
Annie Russel Sanderfer, who was born in 1836 and
reared in Henderson County, and at the age of eighty-
four makes her home with her son Doctor Sights.
She became the mother of five children : John E., a
contractor and lumber dealer, who died at Robards
at the age of fifty-three; H. Preston; James, a farmer
who died at Niagara, Kentucky, at the age of thirty-
two ; Eugene, an oil operator living at Fowlerton,
Texas; and Thomas, a farmer who died at Niagara
at the age of twenty-six.
Doctor Sights grew up in Henderson County, ac-
quired a rural school education, and graduated with
the A. B. degree in 1882 from the Corydon Collegiate
Institute at Corydon, Kentucky. Following that he
had two years of experience as clerk in a drug store
at Topeka, Kansas, and one year with W. S. Johnson,
a druggist at Henderson, Kentucky. For six years he
was in the drug business for himself at Robards and
Corydon, Kentucky. In the meantime, in 1889, he
registered as a pharmacist on the State Board of
Pharmacy, and subsequently entered the University of
Louisville as a medical student, receiving his M. D.
degree in 1894. Until 1896 he practiced at Henderson,
and then continued his advanced studies at the New
York Polyclinic until 1898, in which year he was ap-
pointed first assistant superintendent to the Western
State Hospital at Hopkinsville, Kentucky. He was at
that post of duty four years, and in 1901 removed to
Paducah to engage in private practice. In 1910 Doctor
Sights was appointed superintendent of the Western
State Hospital, and held that office from July 1, 1910,
until July 1, 1916. Since then he has been engaged in
a general practice at Paducah, with offices in the Citv
National Bank Building.
Doctor Sights served six years as health officer of
Paducah, is a former president of the McCracken
County Medical Society, a member of the State Medi-
cal Society, a member of the American Medical Asso-
ciation, and a fellow of the American Medico
Psychological Society. During the World war he was
chairman of the Medical Advisory Board of District
No. 2, comprising five counties, and also chairman of
the Home Service of the Red Cross. He was a par-
ticipant in other features of the war program. Doctor
Sights is now acting assistant surgeon of the United
States Public Health Department.
Politically he is a republican, is an elder of the
Christian Church and is affiliated with Plain City
Lodge No. 449, A. F. and A. M. ; Paducah Chapter
No. 30, R. A. M. ; Paducah Commandery No. 11, K.
T. ; and is a member of the Paducah Board of Trade
and Country Club. He and his family live in one of
the modern and attractive homes of the city, at 711
Jefferson Street.
In November, 1886, at Cairo, Kentucky, Doctor
Sights married Miss Virginia Niles, daughter of Rev.
A. A. and Mary (Phillips) Niles. Her father was a
Baptist minister and her mother is still living at Hen-
derson, Kentucky. Doctor and Mrs. Sights have two
children: Maj. Warren P. Sights and Ethel Virginia.
Warren P. Sights graduated from the Paducah High
School, received his Bachelor of Science degree from
the University of Chicago in 1908, and in 1915 gradu-
ated with the M. D. degree from Rush Medical Col-
lege. He was a member of the Black Friars dramatic
organization at the University and is also a Phi Kappa
Sigma, Nu Sigma Nu, Theta Nu Epsilon and a member
of the Alpha Omega Alpha honorary medical fra-
ternity. His abilities brought him recognition while
a student in Chicago. After graduating he served one
year as resident surgeon at the Presbyterian Hospital
in that city. For two years he was assistant to Dr.
A. D. Bevan, one of America's distinguished surgeons
and a professor in Rush Medical College. Major
Sights was also assistant instructor in the surgical de-
partment of the college for two years.
On May 17, 1917, he was commissioned a captain in
the Medical Reserve Corps, and was assigned duty in
training physicians in different camps. May 19, 1918,
he was sent overseas to France, had his first experience
in a large army hospital in Paris, and then became
assistant of United States Surgical Team No. 72 and
took charge of his team at the front after the Chateau
Thierry drive. He was with the shock division at the
front until the signing of the armistice, and was then
put in command of Army Base Hospital No. 13. While
at the front he was promoted to the rank of major
and was mustered out April 19, 1919, and since then
has been associated with his father in practice. Major
Sights is a republican, a member of the First Christian
Church, is affiliated with Plain City Lodge No. 449,
A. F. and A. M., Paducah Lodge No. 217 of the Elks,
and is a member of the Country Club.
Ethel Virginia Sights is a graduate of the Paducah
High School and of the College of Music at Cincin-
nati. She married Lieut. Page B. Blakemore, and they
reside at Isabella, Tennessee, where he is assistant
superintendent of the Isabella Copper Mines. Mr.
and Mrs. Blakemore have one son, Page Preston Blake-
more, born January 3, 1919.
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
351
Ewen D. Isenberg. With the exception of about
two years Ewen D. Isenberg has been continuously
before the people of Metcalfe County as the incumbent
of positions of public trust for a period of twenty-five
years, during which time he has demonstrated the
possession of executive qualities of large calibre and
a capacity for putting into effect his conscientious de-
sire to be of service to his fellow-citizens. Formerly
for a long period the holder of a postmastership',
since 1916 he has occupied the office of Circuit Court
clerk of Metcalfe County, and in the fall of 1921 was
a candidate for the office of county clerk and was
elected without opposition.
Mr. Isenberg was born on a farm in Monroe County,
Kentucky, March 4, 1868, a son of John M. and Martha
Emeline (Goode) Isenberg. His grandfather, Daniel
Isenberg, was born in 1798, at Jonesboro, Tennessee,
and in 1828 removed to Monroe County, Kentucky,
where his death occurred in 1868. He was an ex-
tensive and successful farmer and also operated a
grist mill, being rated among the substantial men of
his community. He married Lydia Molder, who was
born at Jonesboro, in 1801, and died in Monroe County
in 1872.
John M. Isenberg was born January 21, 1834, at
Jonesboro, Tennessee, and from the age of eleven years
was reared in Monroe County, Kentucky, where he
completed his education in the rural schools. Reared
on a farm, in young manhood he adopted the pursuits
of the soil as the medium through which to work out
his success, and was so engaged until the outbreak of
the war between the states, when, in 1861, he became
a Union soldier, enlisting in the Ninth Regiment, Ken-
tucky Volunteer Infantry, with which he served
throughout the period of the war. Mr. Isenberg's
regiment saw much hard fighting, in all of which he
showed himself a brave and faithful soldier. He was
captured at Stone River, although exchanged shortly
thereafter, and other of the leading engagements in
which he participated were Shiloh, Missionary Ridge
and Lookout Mounta:n. After his return from the
war he turned his attention to mercantile pursuits and
eventually became a leading merchant at Emberton,
Monroe County, where he owned and operated first
a horse-power mill and later a water-power flour and
grist mill. In 1881 he retired from active pursuits
and removed to Metcalfe County, where his death
occurred near Cyclone July 25, 1886. He was a man
of excellent business abilities, strict integr'ty and good
citizenship, and enjoyed in full degree the esteem and
confidence of his associates. A republican in politics,
he took only a good citizen's interest in public matters,
but served capably as coroner of Monroe Countv for
one term. For many years he was an elder of the
Free Will Christian Church. Mr. Isenberg married
first Miss Melvina Lloyd, of Monroe County, who
died in that county, leaving one child, William Harri-
son, who was engaged in farming until his death, in
1870, at Rocky Hill Station, Edmonson County, Ken-
tucky. Mr. Isenberg's second marriage was tn Miss
Martha Emeline Goode, who was born in 1832. in
Washington County, Tennessee, and was reared in
Monroe County from the age of fourteen years. She
died at Summer Shade, Metcalfe Countv, in 1004. She
and Mr. Isenberg were the parents of the following
children : Elizabeth, who died at Bona'r, Tennessee, at
the age of forty-three years ; Sarah Jane, who died at
the age of two years ; Andrew P., who died when
three years of age ; Lydia Susan, who died at the age
of one year; Marv Bell, of Yeso, New Mexico, the
widow of Smith Bush, who was a farmer and stock
raiser of that locality; Thomas B., a leading merchant
of Persimmon, Monroe County; Ewen D., of this
record; Adaline, the wife of Thomas Dubree, foreman
in a coal mine at Nortonville, Kentucky ; Cora E., the
wife of David Stinnett, a coal miner of Ravencroft,
Tennessee; Gertrude C, the wife of Robert M. Chat-
man, a farmer and merchant of Persimmon, Kentucky ;
and Nevada, the wife of Frank Cope, a coal miner of
Clifty, Tennessee.
Ewen D. Isenberg received his education in the rural
schools of Monroe and Metcalfe counties, and at the
age of seventeen years left school to engage in farm-
ing on his own account in Metcalfe County, following
this vocation for a period of six years. In the mean-
time, when still a youth, he had become greatly in-
terested in public affairs, and when only twenty-one
years of age was elected a member of the Metcalfe
County Republican Committee, a position which he
occupied for more than twenty years. On June 1,
1896, he was appointed postmaster at Summer Shade.
Kentucky, and retained that office until June I, 191 3.
Following this he was a merchant for one year at
Vivian and was otherwise employed until November,
1915, when he was elected clerk of the Circuit Court
of Metcalfe County and entered upon the duties of
that office in January, 1916, for a term of six years.
His offices are in the courthouse at Edmonton, the
county seat. In 1921 Mr. Isenberg became a candidate
for the office of county clerk and was elected to that
position. His official record is one which entitles him
to a position among the really capable and conscien-
tious officials of the county, and his work has at all
times been effective, faithful and expedit'ous. He is
a stanch republican and is considered one of the strong
members and willing and constructive workers of his
party in Metcalfe County. Mr. Isenberg is a member
of the Christian Church, and while a resident of Sum-
mer Shade served as deacon. His fraternal affiliation
is with the Modern Woodmen of America. He owns
a comfortable modern residence on Glasgow Avenue.
During the World war he was officially appointed and
authorized as. vice chairman of the United War Work
campaign of Metcalfe County, and likewise assisted in
the work of the Metcalfe County Draft Board, in ad-
d'tion to which he supported all drives and movements
liberally.
On March 21, 1895, at Tompkinsville, Kentucky, Mr.
Isenberg married Miss Margaret (Maggie) C. Bow-
man, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin J. Bowman,
both of whom are deceased. Mr. Bowman was a farmer
and a veteran of the Civil war, in which he fought as
a Union soldier. Four children have been born to
Mr. and Mrs. Isenberg; Daisv E., born February 17,
1806. the wife of Roscoe T. Norman, a mail contractor
of Summer Shade, Kentucky, and a veteran of the
World war ; Lanos B., born March 16, 1903, a clerk,
who resides with his parents ; Lawrence Lee, born
December 10, 1907. a student of the graded school at
Edmonton; and Elsie Odell, born May 3, 1912, also
attending the public school.
Moses W. Howard, Circuit Court clerk of Harlan
Countv, is a man who stands high in the esteem and
confidence of his fellow citizens, whom he has been
serving for some years in a public capacitv. He was
born on a farm at the mouth of Poor Fork in Harlan
County. 1 J/J miles north of Harlan, Tanuary 27,
18-7. He is a son of Tames G. Howard, a grand-
son of William S. Howard, and great-grandson
nf Beniamin Howard, who was born in North Carolina,
but died in what is now Bell Countv, Kentucky, hav-
ing come to the state in young minhood and engaged
in farming. He married a Miss Slusher. who died in
what is now Bell County. William S. Howard was
born in Harlan County, in 1807, and died on the home-
stead in Bell County, having been shot and killed in
1872. A farmer by occupation, he operated a large
farm. He married Elizabeth Green, who was born in
Harlan County, and died on the home farm in Bell
County.
James G. Howard was born in what was then Har-
lan County but is now Bell County, in 1835, and died
at London, Kentucky, in October, 1863. He was
352
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
reared and married in Harlan County, and lived in
this county practically all his life, his home being
located at the mouth of Poor Fork, and there he was
engaged in farming and merchandising. In politics he
was a republican. During the war between the North
and the South he enlisted and was made captain of
Company E, Forty-seventh Kentucky Volunteer In-
fantry. Stricken with typhoid fever, he started for
home, but died before he reached it, passing away, as
before stated, at London, Kentucky. He married a
third cousin, Matilda Howard, who was born in Har-
lan County in 1838, which is now included in Bell
County. Her death occurred at Gross, Harlan County,
April 3, 1921. Their children were as follows : El-
hanan M., who owns and operates a portion of the old
homestead, the remainder being now occupied by the
Baxter depot, for which purpose he sold the land;
Moses W., who was second in order of birth ; and
three sons who died in infancy.
Moses W. Howard attended the local schools of
Harlan County, and was reared on his father's farm.
When he was seventeen years old he went into the
lumber woods, and was engaged in logging and various
other occupations, and later learned the carpenter trade,
which he followed until 1898. He was then elected
Circuit Court clerk of Harlan County, on the repub-
lican ticket, and has been successively re-elected in
1903, 1909 and iqi 5 for terms of six years each, his
present term expiring in January, 1922. He has held
other offices, for four years being a police judge of
Harlan, and for ten years a member of the Harlan
Board of Education. Mr. Howard is a member of the
Presbyterian Church, of wlr'ch he is a trustee. Fra-
ternally he belongs to Harlan Lodge No. 879, F. and
A. M.; Harlan Lodge No. 148, I. O. O. F.; Middles-
boro Lodge No. no, B. P. O. E., and to the Improved
Order of Red Men. He owns a desirable and com-
fortable modern residence at 302 Culver Street, Harlan,
and a dwelling on Clover Street. During the late war
he was one of the energetic workers in behalf of the
cause, assisted in all of the drives, and bought bonds
and War Savings Stamps and contributed to all of the
war organizations to the full extent of his means.
On December 20, 1876, Mr. Howard was married on
the present site of Baxter to Miss Nancy E. Turner,
a daughter of George B. and Margaret A. (Crump)
Turner, both of whom are deceased. Mr. Turner was
a very prominent man, serving as a member of the
Kentucky State Assembly, as a justice of the peace,
and as county judge of Harlan County, to which offices
he was appointed by Governor James B. McCreary,
and served until his death. Mr. and Mrs. Howard
became the parents of the following children: George
Turner, who resides at Harlan, is vice president and
general manager of the Harlan State Bank; Margaret
M., who resides at Ross Point, Harlan County, is the
wife of Isom Jones, a farmer ; William Tames Robert,
who is a farmer of Hardin County; Rella Catherine,
who resides at Harlan, is the widow of Wade Skid-
more, former county superintendent of schools of Har-
lan County, who died in 1904 at Harlan ; Elhanan M.,
Jr., who is a physician and surgeon of Harlan ; Georg'a
Lillian, who resides at Harlan, married A. C. Jones,
county superintendent of schools of Harlan County
and whose sketch appears elsewhere in this work; and
Mary Louisa, who resides at Harlan, married George
Ward, stenographer for the Kentenia Corporation, large
holders of coal lands. Having held his present office
for so many years, Mr. Howard is an expert with ref-
erence to its various details, and his manner of at-
tending to them meets with the approval of all con-
cerned. As a citizen he is recognized as being one
of the level-headed, reliable and efficient men of Har-
lan, and one in whom implicit confidence may be, and
is, placed.
Jacob Lee Cox, deputy collector of internal revenue
at Frankfort, has been in the revenue service for over
a quarter of a century, and is a member of one of
the old and respected pioneer families of Kentucky.
His paternal ancestors came from England to Mary-
land in Colonial times. His grandfather, Jacob Cox,
was born in Virginia in 1790 and came with his parents
to Kentucky, where his father engaged in a mercantile
business, settling in Lexington, his being one of the
first general stores there. Subsequently he located on
the Elkhorn at Stedmantown in Franklin County, fol-
lowed farming. By trade he was an expert saddler,
and the work he did in that line was unsurpassed in
ingenuity and artistic skill. He died at Stedmantown
in 1878. He served as a soldier in the Mexican war
and held the rank of colonel in the old Kentucky
Militia. Col. Jacob Cox married Mary Fenwick, who
was born in Kentucky in 1791, and died at Stedman-
town when 100 years of age.
Leonard James Cox, father of Jacob Lee Cox, was
born in Franklin County in 1830. He spent most of his
life in his native community, conducted a large farm
for_ many years, but in 189.S practically retired from
business and removed to Houston, Texas, where he
employed his time and capital to some extent in the
real estate business. He died at Houston in 1912.
For several terms he was chosen to represent Frank-
lin County in the Legislature, and was a democrat and
a member of the Baptist Church. Leonard J. Cox
married Sophronia Stedman, who was born at Sted-
mantown in Franklin County in 1834 and died at
Houston, Texas, in 1900. The Stedmans were a Welch
family who were Colonial settlers in Massachusetts.
Her father, Eben H. Stedman, was born in Boston in
1807, and came to Kentucky in early life with his
father's family. He built and operated a paper mill,
which was the central institution of the village of
Stedmantown in Franklin County. He was also a
farm owner there. He finally left Kentucky and re-
moved to the plains country of Southwestern Texas,
and died in Live Oak County, that state, in 1887. The
children of Leonard James Cox and wife were: Louis
L., a farmer at Stedmantown ; L. J., Jr., an attorney
by profession, now serving as tax commissioner for
the Southern Pacific Railroad, with home at Houston,
Texas ; Dr. Eben S., a physician of Galveston, Texas ;
Mary Belle, wife of Dr. C. C. Barrell, a physician at
Houston; Jacob L. ; C. B., a railroad man, living at
Dalhart, Texas; and Daisy, wife of Leonard Aber-
crombie, an attorney at Omaha, Nebraska ; and Nellie
wife of Dr. Charles O. Rich, a prominent surgeon of
Omaha.
Jacob Lee Cox was born at Stedmantown July o.
1863, and when ten years of age, being a boy of frail
health, his parents sent him to the southwest border to
live with his grandfather Stedman in Live Oak County,
Texas. He grew up there in the home of his uncle.
Cornelius Cox, and had a thorough training and ex-
perience as a ranch hand and also acquired a good
education. At the age of nineteen he returned to
Stedmantown. Kentucky, and for a time looked after
his father's farm and for four years served as deputv
sheriff under John W. Gaines of Franklin County. He
then continued farming and stock raising on his
father's old place until 1893. when he entered the
revenue service as a storekeeper. Twenty years later,
in 1913, he was appointed deputy collector of internal
revenue, and has performed those duties since that
date with offices in the Federal Building. His home is
at no Washington Street, and he has been a resident
of Frankfort since 1893.
Mr. Cox is a democrat and a member of the Baptist
Church, has been affiliated with the Masonic Order
for twenty-five years, is a member of Hiram Lodge
No. 4, A. F. and A. M., Frankfort Chapter No. 3,
"Yq-nIw YORK
/.BRARY
° ■
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
353
R. A. M., Frankfort Commandery No. 4, K. T. He
was active in the several war drives in Franklin
County, being a bond and saving stamp buyer, and
assisted in every cause for the successful prosecution
of the war.
November 2, 1904, at Cincinnati, Ohio, Mr. Cox
married Miss Nellie Thomas, daughter of Harry and
Mary (Schofield) Thomas, Both her parents are now
deceased, her father having been a farmer in Franklin
County. Mr. and Mrs. Cox have two children : Louis,
born February 4, 1907, and Sophronia, born January
29, 1909.
John W. Call, president and manager of Call
Brothers Hardware Company of Pikeville, wholesalers
and retailers, is one of the most energetic and success-
ful business men of Pike County, and one whose ex-
ample has exerted a constructive influence on his com-
munity, which is shown on every side. He was born in
Washington County, Virginia, December 14, 1868, a son
of William P. and Rebecca (Smith) Call.
In 1873 William P. Call moved to Pike County, Ken-
tucky. He was a carpenter by trade, and was a con-
tractor and builder here for several years, developing his
connections until he had a large contracting business
and acquired considerable wealth. He also operated a
sawmill on Shelby Creek for twenty-two or twenty-three
years. In all of his operations he carried on his business
in a careful manner and deserved the prosperity which
attended him. Spared for many years beyond the or-
dinary span of life, he died in January, 1918, on a farm
in Pike County, where he had passed the last years of
his life, at the age of eighty-nine years. His wife only
survived him a year, she dying in January, 1919, when
sixty-nine years of age. In religious faith they were
Methodists, and very devout. Eleven children were
born to them, ten of whom, seven sons and three daugh-
ters, still survive, a most remarkable family record. Of
them all John W. Call is the eldest.
Growing up at Pikeville, John W. Call attended the
schools of the county seat and made himself useful as
a carpenter under his father's supervision. As he
learned his trade and the proper methods of doing busi-
ness he began taking contracts on his own account, and
executed them so well that he built up a valuable con-
nection. He also operated a sawmill on Crocus Creek,
and owned an interest in the Big Sandy, Sea Gull and
H. M. Stafford Steamboats, which operated on the Big
Sandy. For three years Mr. Call acted as an engineer
on one or other of these boats, and during this latter
period, together with his brother, J. C. Call, opened a
small hardware store and tin shop under the name of
Call Brothers. This business proved so profitable that
in 1905 the partners incorporated the Call Brothers
Hardware Company, of which Mr. Call became presi-
dent and manager, and since then he has devoted him-
self to the conduct and expansion of this concern. The
business has grown in a remarkable manner, ncessitat-
ing the erection of a brick storeroom expressly for this
company's retail trade. The wholesale business is also
heavy, and the commercial standing of the company is
of the highest. The brothers are also undertakers,
Mr. Call being a graduate of the Clark School of Em-
balming of Cincinnati, Ohio, and his son is also a gradu-
ate of this same institution. Mr. Call is a man who
recognizes the needs of his community and seeks to
meet them, so is now erecting a modern garage to afford
proper and satisfactory accommodation for car owners.
For some time he has been agent for his vicinity of
the Dodge cars. When the project of providing a
proper water supply for Pikeville was launched he was
one of the men who originated the necessary company,
and still holds his stock, although his original associates
have all dropped out. ' For four years he served as a
member of the Citv Council of Pikeville, and on leav-
:ng that body did not cease to advance the interests of
Vol. V— 33
the city, for he has always been one of its most en-
thusiastic boosters.
In 1889 Mr. Call was united in marriage with Miss
Ollie Sowards, a daughter of H. C. Sowards, who was
born in Pike County in 1874. Mr. and Mrs. Call have
one child, William P., Jr., who is associated with his
father in business. The Presbyterian Church has in
him a devout member, and he is serving the local con-
gregation as elder. Long a republican, he has taken an
active part in the councils of his party. Fraternally he
is a Blue Lodge and Chapter Mason, and belongs to
the Odd Fellows. It would be difficult to find a man
more thoroughly typical of the best interests of Pike
County, and he has the satisfaction of knowing that
his efforts in behalf of his community are appreciated
and that he stands very high in public esteem.
C. M. Russell, M. D. The debt owed by humanity to
the skill, patience, sacrifice, and talents of the medical
profession can never be adequately discharged. The
noble men who belong to its ranks when they take the
oath of Hippocrates appreciate- the fact that they have
entered upon a career which will require of them an
immolation of self and a constant dedication to the
work of serving their kind. Very few of these physi-
cians and surgeons fail to live up to the highest concep-
tions of their calling, while many transcend all
ordinary bounds and win the affection, respect and
appreciation of the multitudes. Adair County numbers
among its medical men some of the finest characters
to be found in the country, and one deserving of special
mention because of the work he has done and the
service he is constantly rendering is Dr. C. M. Russell
of Columbia.
Doctor Russell was born at Louisville, Kentucky,
June 21, 1870, a son of Joseph Russell, and grandson
of James M. Russell, who was born in Lincoln County,
Kentucky, in 1806, his father having located there at
an early day, when he came to Kentucky from Scotland,
by way of Virginia. James M. Russell moved to
Columbia in young manhood, and died in this city when
he was eighty-eight years old. During his long and
useful life he became very prominent, and served as
postmaster of Columbia from the beginning of Presi-
dent Lincoln's first administration to the beginning of
President Cleveland's first term, when a democrat was
appointed. He was one of the two men in Adair County
who supported Abraham Lincoln for the presidency in
1860. His wife, who was a native of Virginia, bore the
maiden name of Susan Mitchell, and she, too, died at
Columbia at an advanced age.
Joseph Russell was born in Columbia, May 1, 1840,
and died in this city in June, 1905. Growing up at
Columbia, he attended its schools, and shared his father's
admiration for Abraham Lincoln and the principles he
represented, so that when war was declared between
the two sections of the country he enlisted, in 1861, in
the Third Kentucky Volunteer Infantry, and served
until peace was proclaimed, participating in the battles
of Chickamauga, Shiloh, Lookout Mountain. Missionary
Ridge, Stone River, Reseca, and others of less im-
portance, and was with General Sherman on his memor-
able March to the Sea. At the time of his discharge
he was first lieutenant of Company A of his regiment.
During his period of service he was twice wounded,
once at the battle of Resaca, and again at that of Stone
River, being shot through the shoulder both times.
Following his honorable discharge Joseph Russell
located at Louisville, Kentucky, and for forty years
maintained connections with the firm of Bamberger,
Bloom & Company, the largest wholesale dry-goods
house then in business in the South. In 1904 he re-
turned to Columbia, and lived in retirement until his
death. From the time he cast his first vote he was a
zealous republican. Early uniting with the Presbyterian
Church, he continued a strong churchman until his
354
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
demise. For many years he maintained membership
with the Masonic fraternity and with the Grand Army
of the Republic. Joseph Russell married Susan Frisbie,
who was born in Wayne County, Kentucky, in January,
1848, and died at Columbia January 5, 1906. Their chil-
dren were as follows : Doctor Russell, who was the
eldest; Jo, who is in the insurance business at Louis-
ville, Kentucky ; and three daughters who died in in-
fancy.
Doctor Russell attended the graded schools of Louis-
ville, Rugby College of that same city for a year, and
then, in 1889, entered the Kentucky School of Medicine
at Louisville, from which he was graduated in June.
1800, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He was
also graduated from the medical department of the
University of Louisville in March, 1891, with the degree
of Doctor of Medicine. In 1891 he entered upon the
practice of his profession at Columbia, where he has
since remained, and has built up a very valuable general
medical and surgical practice, with the exception of
1884 and 1885, when he was engaged in practice at Mar-
celine, Missouri. His offices are in the Jones Building
on the Public Square. He owns a modern residence on
Greensburg Avenue, which is one of the most com-
fortable and desirable homes in the city. A repub-
lican, he has been active in local affairs and is now
serving as coroner of Adair County, and has held this
office for twenty-four consecutive years. For sixteen
years he was secretary of the Adair County Board of
Pension Examiners, during the McKinley, Roosevelt
and Taft administrations. He belongs to the Presby-
terian Church. A Mason, he holds membership in
Columbia Lodge No. 96, F. and A. M. ; and Columbia
Chapter No. 7, R. A. M. He also belongs to the
Knights of Pythias, Woodmen of the World, Modern
Woodmen of America, and the Knights of the Macca-
bees. As a member of the Adair County Medical
Society, the Kentucky State Medical Society, the Ameri-
can Medical Association, the Russell Springs Medical
Society and the Green River 'Medical Society he keeps
in touch with modern progress in his profession, and
gives these organizations the benefit of his ideas and
co-operation.
Like so many of his calling, Doctor Russell offered
his services to the Government during the period of
war, but was rejected on account of disability. There-
fore as he found he could not go to the front he threw
himself into the local activities and probably was just as
useful for he participated in all of the drives, bought
bonds and stamps, and contributed not only of his time
but also of his means to all the war organizations.
In 1891 Doctor Russell married Miss Mary Nell, a
daughter of Capt. George and Rachel (Turner) Nell,
both of whom are deceased. The father was a captain
in Hewitt's battery during the war of the '60s, and
later served as clerk of the Adair County Court. Mrs.
Russell died in 1904, at Columbia, leaving one daughter,
Regina, of Columbia, who is the wife of D. W. Denton,
a manufacturer of spokes and staves. Doctor Russell
married in 1906, at Bowling Green, Kentucky. Miss
Angeline Clark, a daughter of Lieut. John and Emily
(Curd) Clark, both now deceased. During the above
mentioned war Lieutenant Clark served under Gen-
eral Morgan. Returning from the war, he engaged in
farming and stockraising for many years. Doctor and
Mrs. Russell have two children : Frances, who was
born November 5, 1006; and Catherine, who was born
March 9, 191 1.
As a physician Doctor Russell measures, up to the best
standards of his profession, and is now accepted as one
of the leading exponents of the healing art in this part
of the state. As a citizen he has never shirked any
duty, but manfully shouldered the responsibilities of
public office and so creditably acquitted himself that he
has been returned again and again by his appre-
ciative constituents. As a man he has few equals, for
he is considerate, kindly, generous and efficient, giving
lavishly of his knowledge and talents and striving in
every way to be of service to his fellow men.
Fred P. Hill, of Columbia, is not only numbered
among the reliable and successful druggists of Adair
County, but he is also on the Board of Directors of
the dependable Bank of Columbia and a stockholder
of the National Bank of Kentucky at Louisville. He is
a man of broad business experience and dependability,
and is making a record in his home community which
entitles him to a foremost position among the prominent
men of his part of the state.
The birth of Fred P. Hill took place at Columbia,
February 13, 1886, and he is a son' of Jo Hill, who was
born in Monroe County, Kentucky in 1851, and died
at Whitewright, Texas, in 1903. His father, a native
of Virginia, moved to Monroe County, Kentucky, many
years ago, and died there, having been a farmer for
a long period, beginning as such when pioneer conditions
prevailed in that part of Kentucky.
Jo Hill grew up in Monroe County, but left it soon
after reaching manhood's estate and located permanently
at Columbia. Here he established himself as a merchant
and became one of the leading men of this section,
serving for a term as sheriff of Adair County, and
always taking an active interest in local affairs. In
1896 he moved to Horse Cave, Hart County. Kentucky,
and for two years conducted a hardware store. His
health had been failing for some time and he retired.
At different intervals he had visited Texas in the hope
of benefiting his health, and it was on one of these trips
that he passed away. A stanch democrat, he was always
prominent in politics. While in the office of sheriff
he many times demonstrated his resourcefulness and
courage when compelled to enforce the law, and could
have continued in office for a much longer period had
he cared to do so, but increasing business cares and
the beginning of the failure of his health caused him
to withdraw from the arena, much to the disappoint-
ment of his friends, who would have been gratified
to have supported him in every way possible to advance
his political interests. A man of high character, he
found in the creed of the Christian Church the expres-
sion of his religious belief, and he remained on its
membership rolls as long as life continued. Jo Hill
married Mary Jane Paull, who was born in Cumberland
County. Kentucky, in i860, and died at Columbia in
1888. They were married in Cumberland County. The
children born to them were as follows : Henry Franklin,
who is a large farm owner and lives at Lexington,
Kentucky ; Fred P., who was second in order of birth ;
and Georgie, who died at the age of seven years.
Fred P. Hill first attended the public schools and later
the Lindsay-Wilson Training School of Columbia, leav-
ing the latter at the age of seventeen years to go into
a drug store at Columbia as a clerk. After holding
that position for five years he bought this drug store, the
property of his uncle, the late T. E. Paull, January 9.
1908, and conducted it alone until 1917, when, on account
of the increase in the volume of business, he found it
expedient to take into partnership O. A. Taylor, and
they now have one of the leading drug stores in Southern
Central Kentucky. Mr. Hill owns the modern store
building and fixtures, and it is located on the west side
of the Public Square. He also owns a modern residence
on High Street, where he maintains a comfortable home.
For some time he has been on the directorate of the
Columbia Bank, and is a stockholder of the Monticello
Banking Company and the National Bank of Kentucky
at Louisville. In politics, like his father, he is a
democrat. During the late war he took a very active part
■in local war work, and enlisted as a dollar-a-year man
in the marine service. He bought bonds and stamps
and contributed to all of the war organizations with
lavish generosity. Reared in the atmosphere of a re-
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
355
ligious home, he early joined the Christian Church, of
which his parents were members, and is still one of its
pillars.
In September, 1919, Mr. Hill was united in marriage
with Miss Carmon Belcher, a daughter of W. O. and
Ella (Wood) Belcher, residents of Greenville, Kentucky,
where Mr. Belcher is engaged in the practice of law.
Mrs. Hill was graduated from the Western Kentucky
State Normal School at Bowling Green, Kentucky, and
is a highly cultured lady. Mr. and Mrs. Hill have
no children.
Solid and reliable, Mr. Hill knows his trade and how
to meet its demands. He and his partner take pride
in making their establishment one of the finest of its
kind in this part of the state, and enjoy an immense
patronage. Having spent all of his life at Columbia, it
is but natural that Mr. Hill should display a very
sincere interest in the solving of its various civic
problems and devote some attention to them. His busi-
ness responsibilities have probably prevented his entering
politics personally, but he gives an intelligent support
to the candidates of his choice, and when they are
elected does all in his power to assist them in rendering
a proper service to the taxpayers. Such men as he
form the great backbone of American citizenship and
are a valuable asset to any community in which they see
fit to operate.
Cortez Sanders. Combined with a natural fearless-
ness and resourcefulness, Sheriff Cortez Sanders, of
Adair County, possesses an innate appreciation of the
dignity of the law and the necessity for its proper
enforcement. He entered upon the discharge of his
onerous duties with the determination to live up to the
highest conception of his oath of office, and no man can
truthfully point to a single deviation from it. Holding
office during the trying period following the termination
of the war, as well as during its final year, he has had
much need of tact and courage, but has brought his
county through the reconstruction days very creditably,
and his records show a remarkable freedom from the
more serious violations of the law. A man like Mr.
Sanders is a credit to his community, to his family and
to himself, for unless he had possessed the requisite
characteristics he could never have been the success
he is.
Sheriff Sanders was born on a farm in Adair County,
seven miles south of Columbia, June 7, 1879, a son of
W. F. Sanders, and grandson of Thompson Sanders,
who was born in 1806, in North Carolina, where his
ancestors had located upon coming to the American
Colonies from England. Thompson Sanders died in
Adair County, Kentucky, in 1896, having been a farmer
of this region for a number of years.
W. F. Sanders was born on his father's farm in Adair
County, in 1851, and has lived in the county all his life.
At the time of his marriage he moved on his present
farm, and here he has been very successfully engaged in
farming. A strong republican, he served as road com-
missioner of Adair County for two years during the
later '90s, but aside from that has not rendered any
public service. Early uniting with the Christian Church,
he has since then been one of the pillars of the local
congregation, and for the past fifteen years has served
it as a deacon. He married Joan Powell, who was born
in Adair County in 1852, and they became the parents
of the following children : Patria, who married W. H.
Hamon, a merchant of Glenville, Adair County ; Effie,
who is unmarried and lives with her parents ; Sheriff
Sanders, who was third in order of birth ; Mattie, who
died at Joppa, Adair County, when twenty-five years of
age, married L. P. Coffey, who died in Adair County,
where he was engaged in merchandising ; L. M., who is
a farmer of Taylor County ; Eldridge, who lives with
his parents, is assisting in operating the home farm;
Leslie, who died at the age of three months ; and Charles
E., who is engaged in the insurance business at Lamar,
Colorado.
Growing up on the farm Sheriff Sanders learned to be
a good farmer, and at the same time prepared himself
by attendance at the rural schools for school-teaching,
and from the time he was twenty-one years old until he
was thirty-one he was an educator, having schools in
different parts of Adair County. At the same time he
was engaged in farming. When he left the schoolroom
permanently he settled down to farming on his own
farm, leaving it to assume the duties of his present
office in January, 1918, having been elected to it in
November, 1917. His offices are in the courthouse.
In August, 1919, he sold his farm at an excellent figure,
but still retains his comfortable modern residence on
Jamestown Street, Columbia. Ever since he cast his
first vote he has been active in politics as a republican.
During the period that this country was a participant
in the World war Sheriff Sanders was numbered among
the active local workers, and rendered valuable assist-
ance in the Red Cross and other drives. His contribu-
tions to the various organizations were very generous.
In February, 1913, Sheriff Sanders was married to
Miss Bertha Breeding in Adair County. She is a
daughter of J. A. and Maria (Acre) Breeding, residents
of this county, where Mr. Breeding is engaged in farm-
ing. Mr. and Mrs. Sanders have one son, William
Breeding, who was born March 4, 1917.
W. R. Myers. Self-help has accomplished about all of
the worth-while things in the world, and the door of
opportunity has generally been opened by the men
who have found success awaiting them within. In every
locality every year there are hundreds of young men
who cherish ambitions in one direction or another, but
only a certain small percentage ever reach the top of the
ladder. It requires a stalwart spirit to fight one's way
through discouragements and temporary failures, but
naught is worth winning that is not worth fighting for,
and the individual who has won his own way to success
finds the fruits thereof much sweeter than he who has
not been called upon to make the effort. Prominent
among the self-made men of Adair County is to be
mentioned W. R. Myers, of Columbia, proprietor of the
leading flour mill in the county and a man who is
identified with other matters of a business and civic
character in his community.
'Mr. Myers was born at Glasgow, Barren County,
Kentucky, September 8, i860, a son of Robert and Mary
Ellen (Tracy) Myers. His grandfather, Mike Myers,
was born in 1788, in Germany, and as a young man
immigrated to the United States, settling in Barren
County, Kentucky. Having learned the trade of miller
in the old country, he established himself in business in
the same line upon his arrival here, and had the distinc-
tion of building the first steam mill, a flour mill, ever
erected in Barren County, it being necessary for him to
haul the machinery and equipment by wagon from
Louisville. He died at Carol Hill, Barren County,
in 1863. He reared four sons, all of whom became
millers.
Robert Myers, the father of W. R. Myers, was born
in 1821, in Barren County, Kentucky, and received his
education in the rural schools in the vicinity of Glasgow,
a community in which he made his home throughout
life. Under his father's teachings he became a skilled
miller and very competent millwright, and his energies
throughout his career were devoted to flour milling,
in which he won a modest success. He died at Glasgow
in 1909, in the faith of the Christian Church, of which
he had always been a strong supporter. In politics
he was a democrat. Mr. Myers married Mary Ellen
Tracy, who was born in 1832 in Missouri, and died
at Glasgow in 1907, and to them there were born the
following children: Benjamin A., a flour miller, who
died at Glasgow at the age of forty-five years ; Elizabeth,
356
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
the wife of John Saunders, of near Glasgow, formerly
a miller but now a farmer ; Alice, who died near Glas-
gow, aged forty years, as the wife of George Mathews,
a flour miller, who also passed away there ; John T.,
a flour miller, who died at Glasgow, aged forty years ;
Jannie, the wife of John Pritchard, of Sonora. Kentucky,
formerly a flour miller; W. R., of this notice; Sallie,
of Denison, Texas, the widow of Dr. Charles Rutledge,
for some years a successful physician of Denison;
James Hise. formerly a flour miller, now engaged in
the hardware and implement business at El Paso. Texas ;
and Emma, the wife of Felix Bradford, one of the
successful business men of Glasgow, where he is the
owner of a garage and a hardware store.
W. R. Myers was educated in the rural schools of
Barren County, which he left at the age of sixteen years.
When he was but eight years of age he had entered his
father's mill, where he learned the milling business
in its every department, branch and particular. In [891
he removed to Greensburg, Kentucky, where he built
the first roller flour mill ever erected at that point,
and this he operated for twelve years before silling
out. In tqo2 he came to Columbia and bought the roller
mill situated on the Campbellsville Pike, just at the edge
of the town, and in the operation of this enterprise, the
leading one of its kind in Adair County and with a
fifty-barrel capacity, daily, had the assistance of his
partners, his son, Fred Myers, and E. B. Barger. his
son-in-law. Mr. Myers has been variously connected
with other enterprises. He built, owned and operated
the electric light plant at Monticello, Kentucky, which
he sold in 1921, and also built, in 1906 the electric light
plant at Columbia, which he sold in 1910. He and his
son Fred were the first to make a success of carrying
passengers, mail, express and freight in motor cars from
Columbia to Campbellsville, although this businesshad
been attempted three times before, all such ventures
having been failures. Mr. Myers and the members of
his family always have made a success of their pioneer
ventures into any field of enterprise, and the prosperity
of these undertakings make evident their possession of
superior ability and versatility. Mr. Myers was ap-
pointed by Governor McCreary, upon recommendation
by Attorney General James Garnett. as state examiner
of licensed chauffeurs in 1913, and filled this office
efficiently for four years, the duties of the position
obliging him to visit the principal towns in Kentucky
and hold examinations for chauffeurs.
Mr. Myers is the owner of a modern residence near
the Public Square, one of the most desirable in the
city, in which he has his own electric lighting system,
running water and other conveniences. He is a demo-
crat in his political views and takes an interest in the
success of his party, but has not been an office seeker
and is interested chiefly in public affairs as a good
citizen. He is a member of the Christian Church, in
which he is an elder, and is active in all its movements.
Fraternallv he is affiliated with Columbia Lodge No. 96,
F. and A. M. ; Columbia Chapter No. 7, R. A. M.. of
which he is past high priest ; and Marion Commandery
No. 24, K. T. He took an active part in all local war
activities, assisted in all the drives, and bought bonds
to the limit of his means, and he obeyed the laws in
reference to his business, which was operated by the
United States Government during the period of the war,
in every way showing himself a 100 percent American
citizen.
Mr. Myers was married in 1883. at Glasgow, Kentucky,
to Miss Cattie Wilcoxson, a daughter of Newt and
Margaret (Squires) Wilcoxson, both of whom are de-
ceased. Mr. Wilcoxson was for many years a substantial
farmer of Green County, Kentucky. To Mr. and Mrs.
Myers there have been born four children: Robert
Albert, born in 1885. a resident of Monticello, Kentucky,
where he i~ employed as an electrician: Fred, born in
1888, a mechanic of Columbia, Kentucky, owner of a
garage and partner of his father and brother-in-law
in the operation of the flour mill; Myrtle, the wife of
E. B. Barger, of Columbia, manager of a professional
baseball team, owner of a leading hardware store at
Columbia, and a partner in the flour milling business ;
and Mary, the wife of H. M. Barnett, a successful
business man of Chicago and St. Louis, who handles
commercial automobiles, trucks and bodies.
Andrew Jackson Thompson. The history of a
state is undoubtedly a record of the careers and accom-
plishments of its leading men in various comnumi-
ties, and if this be true still more so is it of any in-
dustry or institution. No concern can rise higher
than its dominating officials, for upon their energy,
sense of values, business connections and w'se and
sound policies is it built and expanded. One of the
sound and conservative institutions of Edmonton.
Kentucky, is the Peoples Bank of Metcalfe County, of
which Andrew Jackson Thompson is president. Mr.
Thompson is one of the men who through a long and
honorable career at Edmonton and associat:on h-re
with the most representative of the city's men has
proven himself worthy of all trusts reposed in him,
and able to discharge any duty imposed upon him. no
matter how onerous.
\ndrew Jackson Thompson was born in Hart County,
Kentucky, May 11. 1867, a son of S. W. and Fannie
( Mclnteer) Thompson. His grandfather, Samuel
Thompson, was born in 1801, in Virginia, and became a
pioneer farmer of Metcalfe County, where be spent
the remainder of his life in the pursuits of farnrng
and stock raising, and died, honored and respected,
in 1873. "Old Sorrel." as he was familiarly known
among his neighbors, was a man of wonderful physique
and prodigious strength, and manv tales have erne
down regarding his prowess and feats of endurance.
His son, S. W. Thompson, was born in 1839 in Metcalfe
County, where he was reared to farming pursuits and
educated in the public schools. He was married in
Metcalfe County, but about i860 removed to Hart
County, and there engaged in farming. Later, while
still continuing his agricultural interests, he embarked
in the insurance business and also carried on mer-
chandising. His industry and good management com-
bined to gain him success in the several ventures in
which he was engaged, and at the time of bis death,
which occurred in 1917, he was accounted one of the
well-to-do men of his part of Hart County. In politics
he was a democrat, while his fraternal affiliation was
with the Masonic Order. He was an active and gen-
erous supporter of the Cumberland Presbyterian
Church, of which he was a life long member. Mr.
Thompson married Miss Fannie Mclnteer. who was
born in 1843, near Edmonton, Metcalfe County, and
died in Hart County, in 1919, and thev became the
parents of the following children: Tilford T., a nlanter
in the vicinity of Fort Deposit, Alabama; William
A., a cotton planter of Mississippi, who, falling ill at
the age of fifty-one vears, went for treatment to a
hospital at Memphis, Tennessee, where he died during
an unsuccessful operation; Andrew Jackson, of this
review : Anna, the wife of William Burd. a farmer at
Hardyville, Hart County; Mattie, the wife of Leo
Burks, an employe of the street railway companv. at
Louisville; Lena, the wife of Forest Rhea, a farmer
of Hardvville : James Robert, principal of Harriman
College, Harriman, Tennessee; and J. P., who is en-
gaged in the insurance business at Pineville, Mis-
souri.
Andrew J. Thompson received his early education in
the rural schools of Hart County, this training being
supplemented later by attendance at the Southern
Normal School, Bowling Green, Kentucky, which he
left in 1898. In the meanwhile he had commenced to
teach in the rural schools of Simpson County, this
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
337
state, at the age of nineteen years, and employed him-
self in this manner for a period of three years. Feel-
ing the need of further training, and desiring to pre-
pare himself along business lines, he pursued a course
at the Indiana University at Valparaiso, and when he
left that institution in 1899, came to Edmonton. Here
he became principal of the graded school, a capacity
in which he was engaged for three years, subsequently
going to Hiseville, this state, and acting as principal
of the school at that point for two years. Mr. Thomp-
son returned to Edmonton in 1904 and entered the
Peoples Bank of Metcalfe County in the capacity of
assistant cashier. Two years later he was elected
cashier, and acted in that capacity until August, 1919,
when he was made president of the institution, an
office in which he has remained to the present.
The Peoples Bank of Metcalfe County was estab-
lished as a private bank in 1898 by C. W. Thompson,
and in 1906 was incorporated as a state bank. Its of-
ficers at this time are : A. J. Thompson, president ; J.
R. Wilson, vice president, and Charles J. P. Carver,
cashier. The capital stock is $20,000, the surplus and
profits $12,000, and the deposits approximately $300,000.
The banking house, a modern structure, is situated at
the corner of Stockton and Main streets and is well
and appropriately equipped. This institution stands
high in the banking circles of Kentucky, and the con-
fidence in which it is held is a reflection of the faith
placed in its president. During the time he has been
identified with the business interests and finances of
Edmonton Mr. Thompson has always maintained a
high standard and unflinching methods of procedure.
He has followed constructive lines, and the weight of
his character and the strength of his influence have
aided in bringing others to his policy. He is the owner
of a modern residence on Glasgow Street, one of the
most desirable and comfortable homes of Edmonton
together with a farm of 220 acres, just at the edge of
town and partly in the corporate limits, and also has
five other farms in Metcalfe County, totaling 680 acres.
While his large interests have made him an exceed-
ingly busy man, Mr. Thompson has never fa'led to do
his full duty as a citizen. During the World war period
he gave his services unreservedly to the cause, and wa?
chairman of all the drives, except one, of Liberty
Loans, Red Cross, et;„ in Metcalfe County. He was
chairman of the Metcalfe County Chapter of the
American Red Cross and Government food inspector
of Metcalfe County, and in addition contributed gen-
erously of his means in the support of every move-
ment. Politically he supports the principles of the
democratic party, while his religious connection is with
the Presbyterian Church, in which he has served for a
number of years as an elder.
In 1894, '" Metcalfe County, Mr. Thompson was
united in marriage with Miss Nora Hamilton, a daugh-
ter of James A. and Alice (Bell) Hamilton, the latter
of whom is deceased. Mr. Hamilton, who is president
of the Farmers and Merchants Bank of Edmonton,
is one of the extensive farmers and large landholders
of this region, owning some S.ooo acres of land. To
Mr. and Mrs. Thompson there have been born the fol-
low'ng children : Rowena, who died at the age of eight
years ; Samuel A., assistant cashier of the Liberty Na-
tional Bank of Bowling Green; Ernest, who attended
the Kentucky State University for two years, entered
the United States service during the World war, and
was sent to the State University for training as an
officer, but at the signing of the armistice returned to
h's father's farm, where he is now engaged in agri-
cultural operations; Philip J., who is assisting in the
operation of his father's farm and resides with his
parents; Mary J., a graduate of Edmonton High
School and now a student at the College of Music and
Fine Arts, Indianapolis, Indiana ; John, who is attend-
ing Edmonton High School ; Elizabeth, in the eighth
grade of the graded school at Edmonton; and William
and Woodrow, who are also grade school pupils.
James H. Wisehart. An impressive instance of the
power of innate energy, self-reliance, indomitable reso-
lution and incessant perseverance in molding an un-
aided career is manifest in the life of James H: Wise-
hart, an influential and extensive farmer and prominent
and useful cit'zen, whose property is located near
Fisherville, at Clark, one mile from the Shelby County
line but in Jefferson County, eighteen miles southeast
of Louisville.
Mr. Wisehart, who belongs to one of the old and
honored families of this region, was born in Shelby
County, two miles from his present home, January 13,
1 84 1, a son of George and Mary (LeMaster) W'se-
bart. George Wisehart was also a native of Ken-
tucky, where he was born in 1801, his parents having
been natives of Maryland and early settlers of Jeffer-
son County. One of his brothers, John, removed to
Tennessee, where he died, and another, James, went
to Illinois, where he passed away. Still another brother,
was Harman, and a brother located in Jefferson County,
who was a mechanic. There were also three sisters
in the family, Cathrine, Christine America and Eliza.
George Wisehart elected to remain in Kentucky,
where he spent the remainder of an active career. As
a young men he located in Shelby County, where he
married Mary LeMaster, a daughter of Hugh Le-
Master, who was one of the well-known early farmers
near the Shelby-Jefferson County line. Following
his marriage Mr. Wisehart purchased a farm near the
LeMaster property, and for many years carried on
agricultural operations in that locality. His first wife
died there at the age of sixty-two years, and he later
married Elizabeth Blankenbaker, of Jefferson County,
to which county he then removed, settling near Middle-
town, where his death occurred in his seventy-ninth
year. By his first wife he was the father of seven
children: George and Benjamin, who d:ed when young;
Martha, who married William Beasley and removed to
Kansas, where both died, she in her seventy-ninth
year ; Hugh, who was engaged in farming in Jefferson
County until his death at the age of fifty-nine years;
Mary, who died in childhood; James H., the only one
of his parents' children living; and Sarah, who died
young. The son Hugh was twice married. His first
wife was Elizabeth Brumley, and they had two chil-
dren, William and James. By his second wife he also
had two children, George and Joseph.
James H. Wisehart received his educational training
in the public schools and was reared to agricultural
pursuits. At the age of twenty-two years he was
united in marriage with Miss Mary Burdon, a member
of a fine old family of this region, a review of which
will be found in the sketch of her brother, James W.
Burdon, included with the review of the latter's son,
Edward 0. Burdon, elsewhere in this work. She is a
daughter of one of the old pioneers of this locality,
Ahaseurus Burdon and his wife, Mary A. (Racer)
Burdon. Following their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Wise-
hart began farming in Shelby County, near her old
home, but in 1897 located on the present farm, the
old Malone property of sixty-two acres. The house
on this farm was erected about 1871 by Ahaseurus
Burdon, by whom it was occupied until his death,
following which Mr. Wisehart bought the interest
of the other heirs to the property. In addition to
carrying on general farming operations, Mr. Wisehart
for fourteen years operated a huckster wagon, going
to the Louisville market. He made the most of his
opportunities and took advantage of everything that
would advance him in a legitimate way, and in this
manner made better progress than some of his less
industrious brother agriculturists. He has always been
one of the hardest of workers, and to his untiring in-
358
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
dustry, together with economy, frugality and fair deal-
ing, is attributable his success. His father was a
whig in politics and later a republican, and the son
is an adherent of the principles of the latter party.
His religious connection is with Fisherville Christian
Church.
After more than fifty years of happy married life
Mrs. Wisehart passed to her last rest March 2, 1915.
She and her husband were the parents of the following
children : George Anderson, who died in infancy ;
Robert, a farmer of Jefferson County, who married
Aurelia Boswell, and has no children ; Edgar, who is
carrying on agricultural operations on the farm ad-
joining that of his father, married Lena Curry and has
seven children, Mary, Clara May, Edmund, Roy,
Ethel and Edith (twins) and Alma; Edna, who is
unmarried and has passed her entire life on the home
place, where she has devoted herself to the care of
her parents ; Elizabeth, who married Robert Smith, a
farmer of Shelby County, and has three children,
Henry, Ellen and Harvey; Rose N., one the most
popular young ladies at the Christian Church, whose
death at the age of nineteen years caused universal
sorrow in the community ; and Anna Belle, the wife
of James Lashbrook, the proprietor of a store at
Clark Station, Shelby County, and has one child,
Evelyn.
Thomas J. Williamson. For nearly thirty years
Thomas J. Williamson has been engaged in contracting
and building at Pikeville, and his interests are largely
centered in this work at the present time, although he
also has numerous other connections, one of the most
important of which is with the Day and Night National
Bank, of which institution he is vice president. To his
skill and ability are due many of the imposing structures
now occupied as residences or used for business pur-
poses, and evidences are abundant of his having con-
tributed largely to the generally pleasing architectural
aspect of the thriving little city. He at all times has
been a broad-minded and thoroughly earnest citizen.
Mr. Williamson was born on John's Creek, Pike
County, Kentucky, March 4, 1873, a son of Freeman
and 'Matilda (Scott) Williamson. Freeman William-
son was born on Tug River, Kentucky, near the present
site of Williamson, West Virginia, which took its name
from the Williamson family, or rather from one of its
members, Wallace J. Williamson. During the war be-
tween the states Freeman Williamson served as a
soldier in the Confederate Army, and at one time was
a war prisoner on Johnson's Island. Following the
close of the conflict he engaged in farming in Pike
County, and continued to apply himself to agricultural
pursuits until his retirement some years before his
death, which occurred in October, 1918, when he was
eighty-four years of age. Mrs. Williamson, who was
born on John's Creek, still survives her husband, at
the age of eighty-five years, and makes her home
with her son at Pikeville. They were the parents of
twelve children, of whom ten survive, the eldest sixty-
four years of age and the youngest thirty-nine, as
follows : Barbara, the widow of D. B. Morris, of Pike-
ville; John L., a contractor and builder of Pikeville;
Elizabeth, the wife of A. R. Lowe, a merchant of John's
Creek; Belle, the wife of S. M. Davis, a merchant of
Varney, Kentucky; Kentucky, the wife of W. F. Bar-
nett, magistrate at 'Meta, Pike County ; R. L., a con-
tractor of Williamson, West Virginia ; Napoleon, a
farmer and stock dealer of Meta ; Thomas J. ; Mary,
the wife of James Cains, of Varney; Dixie, the wife
of Harlan Clevenger, an attorney of Horning, Okla-
homa ; Ben, a fanner who died on John's Creek ; and
Maude, who died as the wife of John Clark, of John's
Creek.
Thomas J. Williamson spent his early school days at
John, Kentucky, and attended school three years at
Sidney, Kentucky, and later attended the public schools
of Pikeville, to which place he came as a lad to learn
the trade of carpenter. For three years he worked at
a daily wage of fifty cents and board, and then joined
his brother-in-law, D. B. Morris, with whom he carried
on carpentry and contracting until the elder man's death.
Since then he has been in business by himself, and it
is estimated that he has built fully one-third of the
houses now standing at Pikeville, in addition to numer-
ous others in nearby communities. He is the owner
of many structures at Pikeville, and has been one of
the main developing factors of the city, not only as a
contractor and builder but as a contributor to educa-
tional, religious and civic enterprises and institutions.
In addition to understanding his business thoroughly
he has had the faculty of commanding excellent serv-
ice from others, and as a large employer of labor has
won an excellent reputation for consideration and tact-
fulness.
Mr. Williamson was the main organizer of the Day
and Night National Bank of Pikeville, of which he is
first vice president. The high esteem and confidence in
which he is held was shown when he was able to secure
subscriptions for $250,000 worth of stock. The comp-
troller at Washington, however, granted the bank's
charter for $100,000 worth of stock, and the suscription
was reduced accordingly. This bank, the affairs of
which are in splendid condition, is said to have more
stockholders than any other institution of its kind in the
United States, and is strictly a community affair. In
1921 Mr. Williamson purchased the Peoples Bank of
Pikeville, and he is also manager and sole proprietor
of the Builders' Supply Company of Pikeville and has
a number of other interests. In 1918 he bought about
100 acres of ground in the city and has laid out the
Williamson addition, which he has improved and there
has been over fifty houses built thereon and about 400
lots sold. This is the finest residential part of the town.
In politics Mr. Williamson is a democrat, but has not
sought public office, and his religious connection is
with the Christian Church. A man of strong and up-
right character, he has lent solidity and worth to the
city of his early adoption.
On March 20, 1895, Mr. Williamson married Belle
Weddington, daughter of William Weddington, of Coal
Run, Kentucky, and they have two sons, David C. and
Julius C.
Capt. William Johnson Stonf., commissioner of
Confederate pensions for the State of Kentucky, is
one of the most distinguished of the surviving vet-
erans of the war between the states, and for many
years has enjoyed many exalted positions in the United
Confederate Veterans of Kentucky. Captain Stone
for ten years represented the First District in Con-
gress, and while otherwise prominent in public affairs
his business career has been largely spent on a farm.
Captain Stone, whose official residence is at Frank-
fort but whose legal residence is at Kuttawa, was born
in that portion of Caldwell County, now Lyon County,
June 26, 1841. The Stones originally were Scotch
people and Colonial settlers in Virginia. His great-
grandfather, James Stone, was a native of Virginia,
and spent most of his life as a farmer at Lewisburg
in that state, where he died. Leasil Stone, father of
Captain Stone, was born in the Spartanburg District
of South Carolina in 1805, was reared in Upper
Carolina, and as a young man came to what was then
a part of Caldwell County, Kentucky, where he married
and where he lived out his life as a farmer. He died
in Lyon County January 11, 1872. He was a democrat
in politics and a member of the Baptist Church.
Leasil Stone married Nancy Killen, who was born in
the Spartanburg District, South Carolina, in 1800 and
died in Lyon County November 11, 1879. Her chil-
dren were six in number: Temperance, who died in
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
359
Lyon County at the age of ninety, was the wife of
Andrew Brashen, a farmer, who died in Crittenden
County; Mary, who became the wife of William White,
a farmer, and both died in Lyon County, she at the
age of forty-eight ; Caleb, a Lyon County farmer, died
while visiting in California, at the age of eighty-two;
Sarah, who became the wife of Jacob Green, a farmer,
and she died in Livingston County, Kentucky, in 1863;
Frances, who died at the age of seventy-one, was the
wife of Wesley Clinton, a farmer, and both died in the
State of Washington ; William Johnson, the youngest
of the family.
Captain Stone was educated in the rural schools of
Lyon County and spent the first twenty years of his
life on his father's farm. In June, 1861, he enlisted
in the Confederate Army, at first in Company G of
the First Kentucky Cavalry, later in Company F of the
Fifth Kentucky Cavalry, until after Morgan's raid
through Ohio in 1863, and finally was in Company C
of the First Battalion, Morgan's Mounted Men. He
saw three years of active service, participating at Fort
Donelson, Shiloh, Jackson, Mississippi, Chickamauga,
and many minor engagements. He was shot in June,
1864, at Cynthiana, Kentucky, his wound resulting in
the loss of his right leg. He gave a full measure of
devotion to the cause of the South.
After the war Captain Stone, undeterred by physical
handicaps, resumed the responsibilities of farming in
Lyon County, and for half a century has been one of
the producers in that section of the state. He still owns
his farm four miles west of Kuttawa.
As soon as civil rights were restored to the soldiers of
the Confederacy he began taking an active part in poli-
tics as a democrat. In 1867 he was elected to represent
Lyon and Caldwell counties in the Kentucky Legis-
lature, serving during the session of 1867-68. In 1875
he was elected to. represent Lyon and Marshall coun-
ties, and was speaker of the House of Representatives
in the session of 1875-76. Again, in 1883, he was
elected to represent the same counties. In November,
1884, Captain Stone was elected to Congress from the
First Kentucky District, and served as one of the able
members of the Kentucky delegation at Washington
from March 4, 1885, until March 4, 1895, a period of
ten years, embracing all of Cleveland's first administra-
tion and two years of the second administration. Cap-
tain Stone was appointed commissioner of Confed-
erate pensions March 18, 1912, by Governor James
McCreary and has filled that office for the past eight
years. His headquarters are in the New State Capitol.
Captain Stone is a prominent layman of the. Baptist
Church, served for many years as clerk of the church
at New Bethel in Lyon County, and for fourteen years
was moderator of the Little River Association of Bap-
tists. In the United Confederate Veterans he is a
past commander of Camp No. 527, represented by
membership in Lyon and Caldwell -counties, served for
ten years as brigadier general of the Second Brigade
of the Kentucky Division, and for the past five years
has been major general commanding the Kentucky
Division of the Confederate Veterans.
October 29, 1867, at Cynthiana, Kentucky, Captain
Stone married Miss Cornelia Woodyard. She was
born at Cynthiana in 1841 and died at Jackson, Mis-
sissippi, October 28, 1906. Her parents were Thomas
B. and Susan Woodyard, and her father at one time
was County Court clerk of Harrison County. Captain
Stone has two children : Sudie, wife of S. J. Snook,
general agent for the Penn Mutual Life Insurance
Company, with home at Paducah ; and Willie, wife of
Charles W. Young, chief clerk of the railway mail
service at Louisville. On March 10, 1909, at Hender-
son, Kentucky, Captain Stone married Mrs. Elizabeth
(Hughes) Chambers, daughter of Samuel C. and Judith
Hughes. Her father at one time was one of the ablest
lawyers in Western Kentucky, his home being at Mor-
ganfield.
Judge Rollin Hurt, judge of the Court of Appeals
for the Third Appellate District of Kentucky and chief
justice of the court, achieved a high reputation as a
lawyer in his home county of Adair, and his abilities
and character as a judge have measured up to the
best traditions of the old and modern Kentucky bench
and bar.
Judge Hurt, whose home is at Columbia when not on
the bench at Frankfort, was born in Adair County,
Kentucky, October 18, i860, son of Young E. and Mary
Morrison (Montgomery) Hurt. In the paternal line
he is of Welsh ancestry, his great-grandfather, Moses
Hurt, having come from Wales and become a Colonial
settler in Virginia. Judge Hurt's grandfather, William
Hurt, was born in Bedford County, Virginia, in 1757.
He was a youth when the struggle for independence
began, served with the Virginia Continentals, was in
Washington's Army during the winter at Valley Forge,
and participated in the battle of Monmouth and other
engagements. In 1792 this Revolutionary veteran came
to Kentucky and settled in Adair County, and he spent
the rest of his life as a farmer. He died in 1842. His
first wife was Miss White, and the grandmother of
Judge Hurt was Elizabeth McMurray, who died in
Adair County. They were married in Barren County,
Kentucky, in 1814.
Young E. Hurt was born in Adair County in 1818,
and lived all his life on the same farm which his father
had owned before him. He was a man of ability and
good judgment, saw his affairs prosper, and was one
of the very influential citizens of the community. He
served four terms as sheriff of Adair County and held
that office at the time of his death, on February 17,
1871. For many years he was a leader of the demo-
cratic party in his section of the state.. He was a
devout member of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South, and affiliated with the Masonic fraternity.
Young E. Hurt married for his first wife Susanna
Morrison, a native and life long resident of Adair
County. She was the mother of his first five children.
His second wife, and the mother of Judge Hurt, was
Mary Morrison Montgomery, who was born in what
is now Metcalfe County, Kentucky, in 1824, and died
in Adair County in 1903. She was the mother of eight
children. The first five children of Young E. Hurt
were : Joan, who married William H. Patterson, a
farmer, both now deceased ; Leslie Combs, who became
a Kansas farmer and died at Montpelier in 1868;
Monterey, living in New Mexico, widow of Henry
Dohoney, a lawyer ; James W., a farmer who died
in Adair County in 1915 ; and Sue, who died in
Oklahoma in 1919, wife of Samuel W. Miller, an Okla-
homa farmer. Judge Hurt was the tenth of his
father's family, and the fifth child born to his mother.
His brothers and sisters were : Robert Montgomery,
a farmer in Adair County ; Cyrus, a farmer in New
Mexico; Lucian, a carpenter and builder of Adair
County; Mattie, unmarried and living in Adair County;
Marietta, wife of W. B. Rowe, a farmer in Adair
County ; Young E., Jr., an Adair County farmer ; and
Jennie wife of Leslie Johnson, a farmer in Adair
County.
Judge Rollin Hurt grew up on his father's farm,
attended the rural schools, also the Columbia Male and
Female High School, and as a youth manifested self-
reliance and formulated and worked out the plans for
his mature career. To the age of sixteen he lived on
the home farm, and following that was a farm hand
and engaged in other work to the age of twenty. He
began studying law during these years of his minority.
He made such progress in his studies that he was first
admitted to the bar at the age of nineteen, in 1879.
He began practice in 1880 at Edmonton in Metcalfe
County, remaining 'there three years. For one year he
published a newspaper at Columbia, and from 1886
until 1890 was a railway postal clerk, with headquarters
at Cincinnati and Chattanooga. Since 1890 his time
360
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
and energies have been wholly devoted to his profession
and his office as a judge. He began practice at Colum-
bia and from 1890 to 1898 served as county attorney
of Adair County, his term in this office being seven and
a half years. From the congenial duties of an exten-
sive law practice in his home locality he was called to
the higher service of the state by election in 1914 as
judge of the Court of Appeals for the Third Appellate
District, comprising twenty-three counties of the state,
from Louisville to the Tennessee line. He took office
January I, 1915, for a term of eight years, ending in
1923, and became chief justice of the court on January
17, 1921.
Judge Hurt's name appeared on the Cleveland and
Hendricks ticket as elector in the campaign of 1S84.
He was the elector representing the Eleventh Congres-
sional District. Judge Hurt is a director in the Bank
of Columbia in his home town, is a member of the
Kentucky Chapter of the Society of the Sons of the
Revolution, and during the World war besides send-
ing his son to the colors he exerted himself in behalf
of local war causes, making many speeches in his home
county of Adair. His Frankfort residence is on Shelby
Street.
November 5, 1894, Judge Hurt married Miss Cary
Chandler, daughter of William and Anna (Horde)
Chandler, now deceased. Her father for many years
was a merchant at Campbellsville, Taylor County,
Kentucky. The only son and child of Judge Hurt is
Ralph, born December 30, 1895. He was a student in
Georgetown College at Georgetown, Kentucky, and
from there volunteered in April, 1917. at the outbreak
of the war, was trained at Fort Benjamin Harrison in
Indianapolis, and was with some of the first Amer-
ican troops sent to France early in the summer of
1917. He saw nearly two years of service abroad,
being returned and mustered out in July, 1919. He
lives with his parents.
K. O. Grassham is a native Kentuckian with a widely
diversified business experience throughout the country,
and for several years past has been a resident of Pa-
ducah, where he is now manager of the Chero-Cola
Bottling Company, one of the prosperous business con-
cerns of the city.
Mr. Grassham was born at Salem, Livingston County.
Kentucky, February 12, 1884. His grandfather was a
native of Virginia, and on coming West settled in Ten-
nessee, and about 1861 located in Livingston County.
Kentucky, where he followed farming until his death.
Montgomery Grassham, father of the Paducah business
man, was born in Tennessee in 1857, and was about
four years of age when his parents moved to Liv-
ingston County, Kentucky, where he was reared and
married. He was a farmer in early life and then
learned the blacksmith's trade, an occupation he has
followed steadily at Salem for the past thirty-five
or forty years. As a young man he served on the local
police force at Salem, is a democrat, and has been very
attentive to his duties as a member of the Christian
Church for years. He is also affiliated with the
Masonic fraternity. The second wife of Montgomery
Grassham was Martha Elizabeth Mahan, who was
born in 1857, near Dyers Hill in Livingston County,
Kentucky. Of her five children K. O. Grassham is
the youngest. C. C. Grassham, the oldest, is an at-
torney living at Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and is also
an oil operator and counsel for the Ayer & Lord Tie
Company. Martha, the second child, is the wife of Dr.
C. E. Purcell, a physician and surgeon at Paducah ;
Sallie D. is unmarried and lives with her parents at
Salem ; and William M. is a mine operator at Rosa-
clare, Illinois.
K. O. Grassham was educated in the public schools
of his native Kentucky village and subsequently in the
Cherry Brothers Business College at Bowling Green.
On leaving school in 1906 he was employed one year
as a telegraph operator with the Postal Telegraph
Company at Paducah and for eighteen months was
an operator with the Illinois Central Railway Com-
pany. From 1908 until 191 2 he traveled over prac-
tically all the states of the Union as representative of
the Sullivan Medicine Company. Following that for
a year or so he was city salesman at Columbus, Georgia,
for the National Biscuit Company, but in April, 1914,
returned to Paducah to become general manager of
the Chero-Cola Bottling Company. This is a busi-
ness that has enjoyed a rapid growth and extension dur-
ing the past four or five years. Its products are
Chero-Cola and a general line of soda waters, the out-
put being shipped all over Southwestern Kentucky,
Northern Tennessee and Southern Illinois. The offices
and plant are at 910 South Fifth Street.
Mr. Grassham is a democrat, a member of the Chris-
tian Church, and is prominent in Masonry, being
affiliated with Plain City Lodge No. 449, A. F. and A.
M., Paducah Chapter No. 30, R. A. M., Paducah Com-
mandery No. 11, K. T., and Rizpah Temple of the
Mystic Shrine at Madisonville.
His home is at Thirty-first Street and Broadway.
He married at Columbus, Georgia, in 1910, Miss Clara
Belle Wardlaw, daughter of W. E. and Clara (Fred-
erick) Wardlaw, residents of Columbus. Her father
is a Georgia plantation owner. Mrs. Grassham is a
graduate of the high school at Rome, Georgia. To
their marriage were born two children: Charles Oliver,
who died in infancy, and Charles William, born No-
vember 19, 191 5.
Thomas B. McGrf.gor, assistant attorney general of
the State of Kentucky, has been a Frankfort lawyer
for the past thirteen years, is wisely known in his pro-
fession, also in business and banking circles, and many
audiences all over the Middle West .have also come to
have a high appreciation of his talents on the lecture
platform.
The McGregors have been in Kentucky for several
generations. Prior to that they were a Colonial family
in the Carolinas. Mr. McGregor traces his ancestry
in direct line to members of the famous Highland
Scotch clan of McGregor. One of his direct ancestors,
Duncan McGregor, was a son of the famous Rob Roy.
A son of Duncan was John McGregor, who with his
son Samuel participated in the battle of Preston Pans,
where Prince Charles defeated the English. Because
of their participation in the rebellion of 1745 and the
carrying off of Jean Grey, the McGregors were pro-
scribed by acts of Parliament and were hunted like
foxes on many occasions in Scotland.
Samuel McGregor, great-great-grandfather of the
Frankfort lawyer, and a son of John, immigrated to
South Carolina and became a planter in that colony.
William McGregor, a son of Samuel, was born in
South Carolina, and was the founder of the family in
Kentucky, first settling on Tradewater River and after-
ward moving to Jackson's Purchase in what is now
Marshall County, where he lived out his life. He was
a pioneer Baptist preacher in Kentucky. William Casey
McGregor, grandfather of Thomas B. McGregor, was
born in South Carolina in 1828. He had a brother who
was named Preston McGregor, the name being con-
ferred by his grandfather in commemoration of the
battle of Preston Pans. This Preston McGregor, a
great-uncle of the Frankfort lawyer, died in Southern
Missouri in 1910. William Casey McGregor was only
a child when his parents came to Kentucky and set-
tled on Tradewater River in what is now Hopkins
County. Later the family moved to Jackson's Pur-
chase. William C. McGregor married in what is now
Marshall County, and lived there as a farmer and
planter until his death in 1908. He became a whig
and later affiliated with the republican party. His wife
was Sarilda Copeland, who was born in Trigg County,
Kentucky, in 1832, was reared there and died in Mar-
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
361
shall County in 1912. Only one of their children is
now living, Levie, wife of William Sledd, a farmer
at Iola in Marshall County.
William N. McGregor, father of Thomas B. Mc-
Gregor, was born in Marshall County in 1855, was
reared and married there and for several years carried
on an extensive plantation and a business as a country
merchant at Fristoe in Marshall County. Later he
moved to Benton, Kentucky, and was the leading hard-
ware merchant of that town until his death in March,
1917. He was also a republican, and for many years
a deacon of the Baptist Church. His wife was Mary
Jane Reeves, who has born in Graves County, Ken-
tucky, in 1854, and is still living at Benton. Her
father, Alp Reeves, lost his life during the Civil war
as a Confederate soldier. Thomas B. McGregor is the
oldest of his parents' children. His brother, William
Clarence, was in the hardware business with his father
at Benton, and died there in 1915. The youngest, Roy
L., is in the real estate business in Nebraska.
Thomas Burnett McGregor was born near Fristoe in
Marshall County September 14, 1881, attended the pub-
lic schools, graduated from Benton Seminary in 1899,
and from the Southern Normal School of Bowling
Green in 1901. He received his law degree from Cum-
berland University at Lebanon, Tennessee, in 1905, but
had in the meatime studied law and was admitted to the
bar at Eddyville, Kentucky, in 1902. He began prac-
tice in that year at Benton, and also maintained a law
office at Paducah in 1907. Mr. McGregor came to
Frankfort in December, 1907, to accept appointment as
assistant to Attorney General James Breathitt. He
served in that capacity until 1912, and then resumed
his private law business at Frankfort. In 1920 he was
again appointed assistant attorney general, under At-
torney General Charles I. Dawson. For his official
business his offices are in the New State Capitol, and
he also has his law offices in the McClure Building.
Mr. McGregor was the republican nominee in 191 1
and 1915 for the office of attorney general. The first
time his opponent was James Garnett, and in that year
occurred a democratic landslide. His campaign in
1915 was a close race with M. M. Logan.
In addition to his regular law practice Mr. McGregor
has had a close and active association with a number
of business concerns. He is a director of the Henry
Clay Fire Insurance Company of Lexington, a director
of the People's State Bank of Frankfort, a director of
the Allan Motor Company of Frankfort, director of the
Kentucky Rock Asphalt Company of Louisville, and
is interested in several oil companies, being president
of the Allen McLean Oil Company. He is presi-
dent and manager and the largest stockholder in the
People's State Bank Building, better known as the Mc-
Clure Building. This is the leading office building of
Frankfort, a seven-story- structure at the corner of
Main and St. Clair streets, with fifty offices besides
the People's State Bank.
Mr. McGregor is a member of the First Presbyterian
Church of Frankfort, affiliated with Benton Lodge
No. 701, A. F. and A. M., Frankfort Lodge No. 530 of
the Elks, is a member of the Frankfort, Kentucky
and American Bar Associations, the Commercial Law
League of America, the Frankfort Chamber of Com-
merce, Frankfort Y. M. C. A., the American Political
Science Association, and the American Geographic
Society. These associations indicate to some extent
the wide scope of his intellectual activities. He is said
to own one of the largest private libraries in the state,
and all his life he has been a close student of litera-
ture, history, politics and economics. For the past five
years he has appeared on many lecture platforms over
the Central and Eastern States, discussing historical,
political, educational and inspirational topics. During
this time he has been connected with the Redpath
Chautauqua, the National Lincoln Chautauqua and
the Mutual Chautauqua and Lyceum Bureaus.
His home is one of the finest in the capital city, lo-
cated at 207 Shelby Street. The house itself is sur-
rounded by some very attractive and well kept grounds.
December 19, 1906, Mr. McGregor married Miss
Nellie Palmer, daughter of Thomas F. and Lucy
(Stilley) Palmer. Her parents are now deceased. Her
father was for a number of years one of the leading
lawyers of Western Kentucky. Mrs. McGregor is a
graduate af Hamilton College of Lexington. They
have one daughter, Eleanor Palmer McGregor, born
January IS, 1910.
A. B. Hammond is assistant state treasurer under
James A. Wallace. He was formerly associated with
Mr. Wallace at Irvine, Kentucky. Mr. Hammond is an
expert accountant and business man of wide and varied
experience, and has held many important and con-
fidential relations with business firms in different parts
of the state.
He was born at Ballardsville in Oldham County, Ken-
tucky, April 15, 1855. His grandfather, Presley Ham-
mond, spent all his life in Shelby County, Kentucky,
was a farmer and inn keeper, and died comparatively
young. He married a Miss Wasson, of Oldham County.
Wilson L. Hammond; their son, was born in Shelby
County, Kentucky, in 1830, grew up on a farm there,
but was married at Ballardsville in Oldham County,
where he lived until i860, following his trade as a
blacksmith. He then removed to Smithfield, Henry
County, and continued the work of his trade until his
death in 1910. He began voting as a whig and after-
ward was a stanch republican, was very zealous in his
church membership as a Baptist and a member of the
Masonic fraternity. Wilson Hammond married Nancy
Ellen Powell, who was born in Oldham County in 1836
and died at Smithfield in 1912. Her father, Marshall
Powell, was born in Shelby County in 1791, son of a
pioneer from Virginia to Shelby County, and spent his
active life as a farmer in Oldham County, where he died
in 1865. The children of Wilson Hammond and wife
were: Melissa Ann, wife of Brice Randall, a carpenter
and builder at Louisville ; Alonzo B. ; Lapo, who died
young; Goodloe, who died at Pleasureville in Henry
County at the age of forty ; Otis, who lived on the
old home farm in Smithfield; Murtie, wife of a farmer
in Jefferson County, Kentucky ; Cora, who married A.
Brown, a contractor, died in 1904; Fannie, who died
at the age of fourteen ; Harry, a machinist at Louis-
ville ; Eddie, who died when fourteen years of age ; and
Walter, who died in childhood.
Alonzo B. Hammond lived at Smithfield to the age
of eighteen and acquired his education in the public
schools there. After leaving school he clerked in a
store for four years at LaGrange in Oldham County,
following which he was in a drug store at Smithfield
until 1876. He first came to Frankfort during the
Centennial year, and during the remainder of the
century was an expert accountant and bookkeeper for
local sawmills and lumber yards, after which he was
engaged in the lumber business for himself in Frankfort
until 1916.
In that year he removed to Irvine, where his services
as an accountant were in such demand that he was
undoubtedly one of the busiest citizens of the locality
for four years. He kept the books and looked after the
other details of management for the James A. Wallace
wholesale and retail lumber yards and mercantile busi-
ness, was bookkeeper for the Farmers Bank, also for
the Tidal Oil Company, served as city clerk, kept books
for the Oleum Refining Company and the Crown Oil
Company, and also assisted in keeping the records at
the Courthouse for the county clerk and sheriff. While
at Irvine he was chairman of the School Board and
secretary and treasurer of the Business Men's Club,
and while these were activities sufficient to fill six
days of the week he spent part of every Sunday as
superintendent of the Sunday School of the Methodist
362
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
Episcopal Church and also as a memher of its Board
of Trustees. In 1920 Mr. Hammond returned to Frank-
fort as assistant state treasurer under Mr. Wallace.
His home is at 123 East Campbell Street in Frankfort.
He put himself into every drive for the raising of war
funds during the World war, was especially active in
the Victory Loan, and served as treasurer of the local
Salvation Army fund.
In 1885, at Frankfort, Mr. Hammond married Miss
Lena Rogers, daughter of R. and Emma (Pettit)
Rogers, now deceased. Her father for thirty years
was connected with the Louisville and Nashville Rail-
road as paymaster and roadmaster and later was in
the furniture and undertaking business at Frankfort.
Mr. and Mrs. Hammond have three children : Miss
Nan, at home; Lee, a stenographer with the Louisville
and Nashville Railroad Company at Pascagoula, Mis-
sissippi ; and Margaret, born October 28, 1906.
James Alexander Scott. While his duties as chair-
man of the Board of State Tax Commissioners give
him an official residence at Frankfort, James Alexander
Scott is a Pike County man, long identified with public
affairs there and with interests as a merchant and
farmer. He is a business man of fine judgment and
has given deep study to the tax problems of the state
and is one of the best qualified men who have ever
held a place on the Board of State Tax Commissioners.
Mr. Scott is of old Virginia and more remotely of
Scotch ancestry. His grandfather, Andrew Scott, was
born in Scott County, Virginia, and was a pioneer in
Pike County, Kentucky, acquiring extensive lands which
he developed as a farm. He died on his homestead
twelve miles north of Pikeville. He married Peggy
McCoy, a native and life long resident of Pike County.
John M. Scott, father of James A., was born on the
farm twelve miles north of Pikeville in 1839, and
spent his life in that county, where for many years
he was one of the largest farmers and land owners. At
one time he owned 1,600 acres, and gave his personal
supervision to his farming interests until 1888, when
he removed to Pikeville. Thereafter he was in the
mercantile and livery business until his death in 1905.
As a republican he was honored with the office of
county treasurer for two terms. He was a very devout
member of the Christian Church. John M. Scott mar-
ried Minerva Dixon, who was born in Johnson County,
Kentucky, in 1841, and died at Pikeville in 1900. They
had six children : Morrell, who died on a farm in
Pike County at the age of twenty-two; Millard, a
merchant who died in Pike County at the age of twenty-
four ; Roscoe, a farmer and merchant living on the old
homestead in Pike County ; James A. ; Floris C, con-
nected with the Pond Creek Coal Company and a
resident of McVeigh ; and Dixie who died at the age
of twenty-seven, was the wife of L. H. Lawson, a
merchant and farmer of Pikeville.
James A. Scott was born on the same farm as his
father, twelve miles north of Pikeville, December 2,
1875. From the age of thirteen he lived in Pikeville.
where he finished his public school education. In 1897
he graduated from the Northern Indiana Normal School
at Valparaiso, in the commercial course, and after that
was a merchant at Pikeville for some years. He still
owns a business house in that town and a farm of
sixty acres five miles west, forty acres of this being level
river bottom land and highly productive. He is also
interested in the old Scott homestead, which is still
one of the largest farms in Pike County, containing
1.1 14 acres, and with valuable mineral and timber re-
sources. His legal home is at Pikeville and he has a
modern residence with very extensive grounds in one
of the best residential sections of the town. His home
at Frankfort is at 322 Conway Street and his offices
are in the New State Capitol.
Mr. Scott served as sheriff of Pike County from 1906
to 1910, and from 1910 to 1916 was clerk of the Circuit
Court. He was therefore no stranger to public affairs
when he first came to Frankfort to serve as assistant
secretary of state from August 10, 191 6, to May I, 1917.
On May 27, 191 7, he was appointed a member of the
State Tax Commission, and for the past three years
has been chairman of the board.
Mr. Scott is a director of the Kentucky Rock Asphalt
Company of Louisville and a stockholder in the First
National Bank of Pikeville. He was a worker in the
various war campaigns and a contributor of his personal
resources to the Liberty Bond and other causes. He is
a republican in politics, a past master of Thomas C.
Cecil Lodge No. 275, A. F. and A. M., at Pikeville, a
member of Pikeville Chapter No. 133, R. A. M., Indra
Consistory of the Scottish Rite at Covington, is a past
grand of Pikeville Lodge No. 294, Independent Order
of Odd Fellows, a member of Frankfort Lodge No. 530,
of the Elks, and of the Maccabees at Pikeville.
Mr. Scott married Miss Fannie Reynolds at Pikeville
April 11, 1900. Her parents, M. C. and Eliza (Amick)
Reynolds, live at Coal Run in Pike County, where her
father is a farmer and also local minister of the
Methodist Church. Mr. and Mrs. Scott have four
children: 'Minerva, torn January 22, 1901 ; Henry James,
born December 30, 1907; William Frank, born November
16, 1912; and Tola Annette, born August 31, 1918.
Archibald Dixon, who was born in Caswell County,
North Carolina, April 2, 1802, was one of the distin-
guished figures in the whig party of Kentucky, and one
of the really eminent Kentuckians of the past century.
His grandfather was Col. Henry Dixon, a most gallant
Revolutionary officer, who at the battle of Camden dis-
tinguished himself by holding the field the entire day
against the British Army with his regiment of North
Carolina militia in conjunction with the Maryland troops.
For his action in that battle the highest tributes were
paid him by Light-Horse Harry Lee in his "Southern
Memoirs." Chief Justice Marshall in his "Life of
Washington," Judge David Schenck in his history
"North Carolina, 1780-81," and Lamb, the British his-
torian.
He died at the Red House in Caswell County, North
Carolina, in 1782 of wounds receive.d in the Revolu-
tionary war. His father, Wynn Dixon, entered the
army in 1780 as an ensign, at the age of sixteen, and
served during the remainder of the war. For gallant
conduct at the battles of Camden, Eutaw and Guilford
Court-House he was promoted to a lieutenancy. He
was a charter member of the North Carolina Society
of the Cincinnati. He married Rebecca Hart, daughter
of David Hart.
David Hart and his brothers, Nathaniel and Thomas
Hart, were among the nine .members of the Transyl-
vania Company who in March, 1775, bought of the
Cherokee Indians for $50,000 in money and goods over
20,000,000 acres of land in Kentucky and Tennessee
(mostly in Kentucky), and built, in April, 1775, in
Madison County, Kentucky, Fort Boonesboro, thereby
making possible the settlement of Kentucky by white
men, the opening of the way for the conquest of the
Northwest Territory by Gen. George Rogers Clark in
'778-79, and the purchase of the Louisiana Territory
by Jefferson in 1803. Archibald Dixon was the son of
Capt. Wynn Dixon, and the only son of his mother,
who was Capt. Wynn Dixon's second wife. In 1803
they removed to Kentucky, where they selected for
their home one of the loveliest spots in all this lovely
Kentucky of ours, about six miles from the City of
Henderson, or "Red Banks," as it was then called. And
here, under the shadow of the primeval forest, listen-
ing to the songs of the wonderful birds pictured by
Audubon, to the howls of the wolf and the scream of
the wild-cat by night, skating for miles over the flats,
or wading up to his waist in the water in these same
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
363
flats after wild ducks, hunting the deer and wild tur-
keys through the grand old woods, oftentimes having
as his companion the great naturalist, Audubon, riding
races with his young companions and joining in all
their games, grew to manhood the lad who was to
"achieve for himself fame and fortune by native force,
honor and pluck." Tall and straight and strong, hand-
some as Apollo, active and graceful, Nature was his
foster-mother, and from her he received a nurture that
no modern art could supply. His father's health being
greatly impaired, while a mere boy the care of the farm
fell chiefly upon him. With the assistance of a negro
man he plowed the fields and raised the corn for bread ;
he grew the cotton which his mother and sisters spun and
wove and made into clothing for the family; he tapped
the trees to make the sugar and molasses, the only
kind they then had ; he killed the deer and tanned the
hides which his mother fashioned into outer garments
for him ; whilst the only shoes he ever had when a boy
were manufactured by himself of the same material.
But though he plowed the ^fields or hunted the deer
through the days, yet his winter evenings were spent in
reading aloud to his mother and sisters from the best
poets and authors, whilst they picked the cotton or
knit the stockings. His young imagination was fired
with the sublime ideas of Milton and Homer ; Pope and
Addison were his familiar friends, and the greatest of
all poets and philosophers, Shakespeare, became as one
of his household gods. In that primitive log house, by
the light of a tallow candle or blazing wood fire he sat
and read through the long evenings. Capt. Wynn Dixon
had lost his fortune by going security for a friend, but
his family retained in the wilderness of the Green River
Country the habit of culture and thought which had
belonged to them in the old North State. The great
book of Nature lay open before the lad in all its pages.
In her vast solitude, amidst her trackless wilds, he
learned that cool caution in danger, that patience of
labor and energy of pursuit, that watchful judgment
and quick action which, engrafted on the dauntless
courage of a soul that never knew fear or deceit, and
united to a vehement will and impetuous temper that
brooked no opposition or control, made his afterlife a
success under difficulties that would have overborne one
less able or less daring. From her, too, he learned early
to adore the beautiful. In the hush of the morning, when
the light first breaks over the world, he worshiped at
her altar. When the moon's soft rays threw their
splendor on forest and on stream his young heart arose
in gladness and delight; and the stars in their mys-
terious loveliness thrilled his whole being.
To the last days of his life no flower was as dear
to him as the wild rose which in his boyhood had
clothed field and wood, hill and vale, with the bright-
ness of its delicate beauty; and no song so sweet as
that of the native mocking-bird. He received no educa-
tion in the schools save what could be obtained at the
"field school," taught by a Mr. Anderson, a most ex-
cellent gentleman, who gave instruction, however, in
only the plainest elements, and the whole time he at-
tended school was only six months. But after studying
two years in the office of James Hilyer, his uncle
by marriage, and a gentleman of good legal attainments
and many excellent and noble qualities, he was admitted,
at the age of twenty-two, to the bar and began the
practice of the law. A biographer says of him at this
period "Mr. Dixon made rapid progress in his studies.
His whole heart was in the work. His days and nights
were devoted to the prosecution of a science which to
a beginner seems made up of recondite principles and
dry details. Pleasure was forgotten, amusement dis-
regarded. He worked not for fame only, but for
bread."
The first time he left home to go on the Circuit he
wore a suit of blue jeans spun and woven and made
up by his mother, and had to borrow ten dollars to pay
his expenses. But his talents, high character and noble
bearing soon won him friends, and he sprang into a
lucrative and extensive practice in a marvelously short
time. Nor was it confined to his own state. He was
quite as popular and as much sought after in the Circuit
Courts of Southern Indiana and Illinois. Outside of
his law practice Mr. Dixon made various adventures
in a business way, and was usually very successful. He
took a flat boat loaded with corn to New Orleans once,
when a very young man, and sold it at good profit.
Some years later he set up a store on the corner of
Main and Second streets, employing Squire James
Hatchett to sell the goods which he himself went to
New York and purchased at auction sales, selling them
at low prices and realizing handsome profits. In eight
years he cleared $18,000 in this business. All of his
means he invested in land and negroes, and in 1854 he
had become one of the wealthiest planters and largest
slave owners in Southern Kentucky. In 1830 he was
elected to the Legislature from Henderson. In 1836
he was elected to represent the counties of Henderson,
Hopkins and Daviess in the Senate. In 1841 he was
again elected to the Legislature from the County of
Henderson without opposition. In 1844 he was elected
lieutenant governor of Kentucky on the ticket with
Judge Owsley, the whig candidate for governor, whom
he outran by several thousand votes. In 1848 Archibald
Dixon, who had adhered steadily to Mr. Clay in the
contest between him and Taylor for the presidential
nomination, was chosen elector for the state at large, and
was also the choice of the great majority of the whig
convention for the office of governor. But the unyield-
ing opposition of a faction of the whigs, which had
never forgiven him for the brilliant race he had made
in 1844, nor for the superior majority he had then won
over the governor elect, convinced him that his nomina-
tion would cause a split in the ranks of his party. Being
satisfied that any disagreement in the whig party of
Kentucky would materially impair its efficiency in the
approaching presidential, as well as gubernatorial, con-
test, he did not hesitate to sacrifice his personal ambition
to the good of the whig cause, and agreed to with-
draw from the contest providing his opponent, W. J.
Graves, would do the same. John J. Crittenden was
then nominated by the convention and was elected over
Governor Powell, as was Taylor over Cass, by a hand-
some majority. In 1849 Mr. Dixon was unanimously
chosen as delegate to the Constitutional Convention from
Henderson County. It assembled at Frankfort on
Monday, October I. The first direct evidence of the
weakening of the whig party in Kentucky, as the re-
sult of Mr. Clay's emancipation letter of February 17,
i84g, was now given in the election to the presidency of
the convention of James Guthrie, democrat, over
Archibald Dixon, whig, by a strict party vote, with
seven majority. Mr. Dixon's speech in support of his
resolution defining the right of property was called "the"
speech of the convention.
In February, 1851, Mr. Dixon was nominated by the
whig party as their candidate for governor, and was
defeated by his fellow townsman, the Hon. L. W.
Powell, by the small majority of 850. In that contest,
though Mr. Dixon ran ahead of all the other candidates
on the whig ticket, he was the only one defeated, and
Powell was the only one on the democratic ticket
elected.
In November, 1851, it became the duty of the Legis-
lature of Kentucky to elect a successor to Mr. Under-
wood, whose time in the Senate of the United States
would expire March 3, 1853. There was a very excit-
ing contest in the whig party over the nomination, for
this office between the friends of Mr. Dixon on the one
side and of Hon. John J. Crittenden on the other. It
resulted in the withdrawal of both gentlemen, when
Hon. John B. Thompson was put in nomination and
elected over Mr. Stone, democrat, by seventy-three to
364
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
sixty-five. Mr. Clay having, on December 17, resigned
his seat in the Senate to take effect on the first Monday
of September, 1852, it became necessary to elect his
successor, and on December 30, 1851, Mr. Dixon was
elected over James Guthrie, democrat, by seventy-one to
fifty-eight. While in the Senate Mr. Dixon was the
author of the Repeal of the Missouri Compromise.
In i860 he was, one of the electors for the state at
large on the Douglass ticket, and made an active canvass
of the state in its advocacy.
In the introductory to his admirable history "The
Union Cause in Kentucky, 1860-65" Capt. Thomas Speed
says: "If an effort should be made to determine who
were the twelve most distinguished citizens of Ken-
tucky in 1861 it would not be possible to find any who
would be named before John J. Crittenden, James Guth-
rie, S. S. Nicholas, Chief Justice George Robertson,
Robert J. Breckinridge, Charles A. W'ickliffe, James
Speed, James F. Robinson, Joshua F. Bell, Archibald
Dixon, James Harlan and William H. Wadsworth."
And further on says : "There is a genuine pathos in
the speech of Hon. Archibald Dixon at Louisville in
April. 1861. 'My sympathies are with the South, but I
am not prepared to aid her in fighting against our gov-
ernment. If we remain in the Union we are safe. In
a just cause I will defend our state at every point and
against every combination, but when she battles against
the law and the constitution I have not the heart, I have
not the courage, to do it. I cannot do it ; I will not
do it. Never strike at that flag of our country, nor
follow Davis to tear down the Stars and Stripes.' "
Archibald Dixon was a success as a lawyer, a states-
man and in business, but nothing in his political career
deserves as much praise as his efforts to prevent the
secession of Kentucky. All over the state his patriotic
voice was raised in eloquent speech in advocacy of the
Union.
When he died, the following is one of the many
tributes paid to his memory : "He belonged to that
class of statesmen who served their country from the
love of it, whose proudest birthright was their Amer-
ican citizenship, and who esteemed their country's honor,
their own, and their own, their country's. When a boy
he had heard from his father's lips of the struggles
at Camden and Eutaw, and how his grandsire had fallen
fighting for American liberty. He came from a stock
who laid the foundations of our independence and gave
their lives to secure it.
"Born while the Union was in its infancy, and breath-
ing the same air that unfolded a new born and glorious
flag, it is not to be wondered at that Archibald Dixon
through all his political life, should be guided by the
principles of his forefathers and inherit their patriot-
ism." He died April 26. 1876.
Archibald Dixon was married twice, first, in March,
1834. to Elizabeth Robertson Cabell, of the Virginia
family of Cabells, who died of cholera in September,
1852, leaving six children. In October. 1853, he married
Susan Peachy Bullitt, of the distinguished Bullitt family
of Jefferson County, Kentucky, a descendant of Dr.
Thomas Walker, and Col. John Fry, and a great grand-
niece of Patrick Henry. She died in 1907. Her history,
"The Missouri Compromise and its Repeal," ranks
among the best as a contribution to the history of our
country. It was a labor of love to vindicate the action
of her husband in bringing about that repeal.
Archibald Dixon. M. D.. F. A. C. S. Until ill
health forced him to retire from the practice of his
profession, Archibald Dixon was one of the most widely
known physicians and surgeons of Kentucky. His great
skill in surgery earned him an Honorary Fellowship in
the American College of Surgeons, one of the most
coveted honors of the profession.
He was born at Henderson, Kentucky, March 4, 1844,
son of Archibald and Elizabeth Robertson (Cabell)
Dixon. His great grandfather, Col. Henry ("Hal")
Dixon, who so signally distinguished himself at the
battle of Camden, was one of the ablest officers in the
Revolutionary war, and died in 1782 of wounds received
in that war.
His grandfather, Wynn Dixon, joined the army in
1780, when sixteen years of age, and fought to the
close of the war. He was promoted on the field to a
lieutenancy, and was a charter member of the North
Carolina Society of the Cincinnati, of which society
Doctor Dixon is a member. The Dixon forebears were
Scotch-Irish.
His father, Archibald Dixon, was elected twice to
the Lower House and once to the Senate of the Legis-
lature of Kentucky, was lieutenant governor, member
of the Constitutional Convention of 1849, and to the
United States Senate, to succeed Henry Clay, where he
was the author of the Repeal of the Missouri Com-
promise. He was a highly successful lawyer and
planter, and one of the largest slaveholders in Kentucky.
Doctor Dixon acquired his early education in the local
schools of Henderson, attended the Academy of Burrell
Basset Sayre at Frankfort and afterward the University
of Toronto, Canada. His early years were devoted to
farming, but in 1877 he graduated from the old Louis-
ville Medical College with high honors for scholarship.
Throughout his active practice he never ceased in his
zeal to acquire new experience and knowledge, and at-
tended courses and clinics in surgery at London, England.
New York, Chicago, St. Louis and Rochester, Min-
nesota. He practiced at Henderson and gained and
for many years enjoyed a large and lucrative profes-
sional business, which he resigned finally on account of
failing health.
For years he was a member and in 1885 was honored
with the office of president of the Mississippi Valley
Medical Association. He was also president of Ken-
tucky's oldest medical organization, the McDowell Med-
ical Society, and president of the Kentucky State
Medical Association. Doctor Dixon not only gave his
time and energies to his private practice, but was a
student and observer whose work contributed perma-
nent knowledge to the advancement of the profession.
He was for many years a correspondent and contributor
to medical journals.
He has served as a member of the Kentucky State
Board of Health, of the Kentucky Tuberculosis Com-
mission and of the State Board of Control for Char-
itable Institutions. He is now a member of the National
Conference of Charities and Corrections, of the National
Tuberculosis Conference, of the Kentucky Conference
of Social Work, of the Kentucky State Medical Asso-
ciation, Mississippi Valley Medical Association, Amer-
ican Medical Association and is a Fellow of the Amer-
ican College of Surgeons.
Governor Stanley appointed him a member of the
State Board of Control and Correction, and in that
capacity he rendered distinguished service, being a
strong advocate of a non-political and unpaid Board of
Control. He drew up a report suggesting reforms rela-
tive to the administration of state charitable institu-
tions. His ideas were subsequently recommended by
Governor Morrow to the Legislature, and legislation
enacted to carry them out. Thus Kentucky today,
through his initiative, has a board of control whose
members are unpaid and are appointed without regard
to politics.
The following letter written to Doctor Dixon by the
Hon. Edwin P. Morrow, then a candidate for governor,
shows how heartily he endorsed those ideas. "Prince-
ton, Kentucky, October 4, 1919. Dr. Archibald Dixon,
Henderson, Kentucky. My Dear Doctor Dixon : In
whatever good I have accomplished, or that I may
accomplish, in this state I owe my inspiration to you.
I owe you for the help and encouragement you have
given me, and so, at last, I am but the voice that has
$*W~UL£% <&wmfa&ik*L
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
365
spoken your thoughts, voiced your sentiments, and
fought for your ideals. I do thank you most sincerely
for all your help. With kind regards and best wishes,
I am, sincerely yours, Edwin P. Morrow."
In his letter to Doctor Arthur McCormack, Doctor
Dixon thus summarizes his action in the matter.
"Dear Arthur: Mrs. Jonas told me that you were
good enough in an address before the women's meeting
at Lexington to give me credit for the work I had done
toward divorcing our Charitable and Correctional In-
stitutions from political control. I wish to thank you
very much for it and to call your attention to the fact
that Mr. Vance Armentrout, whose letters in the
Courier-Journal purporting to give a history of condi-
tions relating to these Institutions from their inception
to the present time, ignored me altogether and failed
to give me such credit as I know I deserve in initiating
the move to entirely and forever free all state institu-
tions from the blight of political control. You know
and Governor Morrow knows and Judge Hines knew
that I had begun this work very shortly after I became
a member of the Board of Control (1017). Surprised
and disgusted with the utter neglect of the inmates of
the Feeble Minded Institute, herded together like so
many pigs in a pen, with little or no attempt to segre-
gate the sexes ; with no teaching, no classification, no
hospital, no means to prevent epidemics of contagious
diseases as there was no provision for quarantine, the
entire outlook was sickening. In discussing this hor-
rible situation with the board, I was told that nothing
could be done, for the lack of money, the per capita
allowance was hardly sufficient for ordinary running
expenses and for the feeding and clothing of the popula-
tion. The water supply was inefficient, the pressure
was so low that water had to be pumped into the tank
relied upon to extinguish fire, if one should occur. The
water for the institution was furnished by the water
company at Frankfort at an exorbitant rate and fre-
quently the supply would be so short that it was a
matter of impossibility to keep the tank filled sufficiently
to be of any use in case of fire or even to flush the
closets. The pump used for filling the tank was barely
able with constant work to furnish a supply for ordinary
purposes. In fact, the Feeble Minded Institute was a
disgrace to Kentucky and a shame upon her humanity.
The board of control was a board in name only and
could do nothing without the consent of the governor.
Political control was supreme and had been for many
years. The laws relating to the management of the
charitable institutions of the state were inefficient and
a bar to any improvement in the conditions of the in-
mates ; they were decades behind the methods commen-
surate with the development and progress demanded by
more progressive states. I at once determined to rem-
edy this state of affairs, but received little encourage-
ment from an}' source. The administration looked with
a jealous eye upon any move which promised to inter-
fere with its political control of these institutions. The
board of control, while not absolutely opposing it,
warned me that it was a useless task and if persisted
in would in all probability end in the abolishment of
the board and the creating of a board which would be
content to draw their salaries and do the bidding of the
administration, regardless of any effort demanded to
remedy or improve the chaotic conditions which existed
in all state institutions, but more especially in the Feeble
Minded Institute. This was what actually occurred, as
you will remember ; the bipartisan board was abolished
by the Legislature which was controlled by the governor,
and a partisan board created, composed of five demo-
crats, headed by the three prison commissioners. I took
my medicine, and notwithstanding the lack of encourage-
ment, redoubled my efforts to divorce these institutions
from the blight and deadly handicap of political control.
I consulted with Alexander Johnson, with Dr. Thomas
H. Waine, with State Inspector Nat Sewell and with
Vol. V— 34
the leaders of the- women's clubs of the state. I wrote
letters to the Courier-Journal and Herald and, hoping
to accomplish much through the aid of the medical pro-
fession, I prepared and read papers before the Kentucky
State Medical Society at its annual meetings in 1917-
18-19, ah of which were published in the Kentucky
Medical Journal, as was also the paper on "Care of
Defectives," which was prepared by request of Judge
Hines, president of the Kentucky Division of the Coun-
cil of National Defense, and which you were good
enough to read for me before the state conference at
Lexington. You will remember that Ed. Morrow, then
a candidate for governor, heard you read this paper
and immediately asked me to send him a copy of it at
once, stating that he was hand and glove with me and
that he would do everything in his power to aid me in
divorcing entirely and forever the State Charitable In-
stitutions from the strangle hold of politics; that he
would endeavor to have it embodied in the republican
state platforms and would argue it from the stump in
every county in Kentucky. How well he complied with
his promise is shown by the radical changes which have
taken place since his election in the management of the
charitable and correctional institutions of the state.
Yet with all this Mr. Armentrout did not even mention
my name in the history of these institutions written for
the Courier-Journal. I am very proud of my work in
bringing before the people of Kentucky these facts
which culminated in the appointment of the present
board of control and of the radical changes for the
better which this unsalaried board has accomplished and
is accomplishing. I think I deserve credit for the
pioneer work I did in bringing all this about. Will you
not inform the public of this by writing a letter to the
Courier-Journal and to the Herald, calling attention to
Mr. Armentrout's articles and to the fact that he utterly
ignored me in them, which was evidently unfair. In
writing to Jonas in reference to my subscription to the
Herald I mentioned the Armentrout letters and his
failure to give me even a look in. Am enclosing a letter
from him, in which he advises me to send a letter or
two for publication in the Herald, as you will see. You
upon more than one occasion told me that you would
do anything for me, hence I am asking that you will
write such a letter, for I know of no one whose letter
would more fully command the attention of the people
of Kentucky. I should be glad if you would publish
what I have written or such portion of it as you may
wish to, in the State Medical Journal. Let me con-
gratulate you and Kentucky upon the splendid work
you have done and are doing. Mrs. Jonas informs me
that the women of the state are praising you from the
Big Sandy to the Mississippi. With kindest possible
regards for you and your wife and for your father
and his wife. Sincerelv, your friend."
The following complimentary notice of Doctor Dixon
appeared in the New England Medical Monthly for
August, 1908: "Though Dr. Archibald Dixon is doubt-
less more familiarly known to physicians of the Middle
West than to those of New England, nevertheless many
of us here in Connecticut have met the genial, whole-
souled physician from Henderson, and will not soon
forget that he is not only exceptional as a clubman and
surgeon, but that he is the most manly of men and
carries the big sympathetic heart of a woman in his
bosom. Doctor Dixon, himself, was, we think, the
most popular "president" that has yet held the official
position and, at the same time, honorable position of
the head of the Mississippi Valley Medical Association.
The doctor has been a frequent contributor to the New
England Medical Monthly in the past, and we find it
not only pleasing but highly instructive to turn back
to some of these old files occasionally and digest some
of the rich food for thought which he ever succeeded
in furnishing. It will be readily seen that we are ex-
ceedingly enthusiastic over this biographical text of
J66
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
ours ; but we feel positive that every one of our readers
would be infected in a similar manner should they
chance some day to be brought, as we have, into per-
sonal relationship with the genial ex-president of the
Mississippi Valley Medical Association."
The following tribute was paid Doctor Dixon by that
distinguished surgeon and physician, Joseph M. Mat-
thews, of Louisville, Kentucky. "I have known him
for years, and in all that time he has not fallen below
my ideal. In all these years of intimacy, familiarity
has never bred contempt in me. I have watched him
as a younger brother watches, lovingly jealous, yet
proud of him, alert for a failing or weakness which I
never found, or if I thought I found a flaw in him
knew that it was a part of a character too strong, too
generous for me to criticize."
On December 14, 1864, Doctor Dixon married Mar-
garet Herndon, daughter of Judge John C. Herndon
and his wife, Margaret Clark Herndon, of Frankfort,
Kentucky. Their daughter, Margaret Herndon Dixon,
the wife of Edward A. Jonas, editor of the Louisville
Herald is, and has been for some years, employed by
the State of Kentucky to teach domestic science, and
has been a most capable and efficient teacher.
A younger daughter, Julia Ballard Dixon, married
David Clark, Jr., a tobacconist of Henderson, Kentucky.
Two sons were born to them, David Henderson Clark
and Archibald Dixon Clark. David Henderson Clark,
at the age of seventeen, graduated with high honors
from the Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland, in 1917,
was overseas during the World war with a destroyer
fleet, and recently was transferred from the destroyer
Bulmer in the Pacific fleet to the battleship Wyoming
of the Atlantic fleet, with the rank of first lieutenant.
F. W. Ferguson, actuary of the state insurance
department of Kentucky, is one of the thoroughly com-
petent men who are devoting their time and capabilities
to the transaction of the business of the commonwealth,
oftentimes at the sacrifice of their personal interests
Never before in its history has the state been manned
by such efficient officials, and the progress this region
is making toward returning to normal conditions proves
the worth of these men.
The birth of F. W. Ferguson took place at Louisville.
Kentucky, and he is a son of John Ferguson, Jr.. and a
grandson of John Ferguson, Sr., a native of Scotland,
who came to the United States in young manhood,
settling at Wheatley, Massachusetts, where he died in
i860. He was a clergyman of the Presbyterian Church,
and very well educated. He was married after coming
to this country, and his son, John Ferguson, Jr., was
born at Wheatley in 1815. His death occurred at Louis-
ville, Kentucky, in 1889.
In 1829, when fourteen years of age, John Ferguson,
Jr., came to Louisville, Kentucky, and remained there
for many years, becoming one of the most extensive
wholesale grocers of that city. In time his interests
necessitated his establishing another house at New
Orleans, Louisiana, and he divided his time between the
two cities, but spent his latter days at Louisville. He
was a republican. In his religious faith he espoused the
creed of the Presbyterian Church, and gave to the local
congregation of that denomination a most hearty support.
John Ferguson was married to Sarah Jane Moore,
who was born at Louisville, Kentucky, September 23,
1829, on the present site of the Gault House, where the
old home of her family then stood. She survives her
husband and still lives at Louisville. Their children
were as follows : John Moore, who died at Louisville
at the age of fifty-six years, was in an insurance busi-
ness ; E. H., who is a retired business man of Louisville,
was president and owner of the Kentucky Refining
Company, cottonseed oils, and also of the Louisville
Soap Company ; Eva, who married John E. Churchill,
a son of Samuel B. Churchill, now deceased, formerly
secretary of state of Kentucky, and she resides at
Louisville, her husband, who was in the insurance busi-
ness, being now deceased ; F. W., who was fourth in
order of birth; Ella F., who married J. T. Reed, an
attorney of Louisville, now deceased, is a resident of
Louisville ; James A., who was general manager of the
Louisville Soap Company, died at Louisville aged fifty-
two years ; R. H., who was connected with the Kentucky
Refining Company, died in the Northwest aged forty-
four years ; L. K, who was president and owner of the
Globe Refining Company, cottonseed oils, died at Louis-
ville aged forty-two years; and Minnie M., who married
Isaac F. Starks, a member of the firm of Crutcher &
Starks, clothiers, of Louisville.
F. W. Ferguson was educated in the public schools of
Louisville and was graduated from its high-school
course, following which he attended the Highland Mili-
tary Academy of Worcester, Massachusetts. He left
school when he was twenty years of age and entered
the Bank of Kentucky, and, beginning at the bottom,
worked himself up to be receiving teller, occupying that
position during the last three years he was with the
hank. In 1888 he went to Pitkin, Colorado, and was
associated in a private bank with Edward G. Richmond,
a son of Dean Richmond, the first president of the
New York Central Railroad Company. After four
years, during which time Mr. Ferguson and Mr. Rich-
mond owned and operated this bank, 'Mr. Ferguson dis-
posed pf his interest, returned to Louisville, entered the
general insurance business in that city, and was occupied
with it until January 5, 1920, when he assumed the
duties pertaining to his present office, as actuary of the
state insurance department, to which he was appointed
by John J. Craig, state auditor. His offices are in the
new State Capitol, and he lives at 218 West Campbell
Street, but maintains his legal residence at the Court-
land in Louisville. He is a republican. The Episcopal
Church holds his membership. Fraternally he belongs
to Frankfort Lodge No. 530, B. P. O. E. At one time
he was president of the Alvery-Ferguson Company,
conveyors of Louisville, but sold his interest in 1904.
During the late war he was connected with the Federal
food administration, especially in the sugar distribution
in Kentucky, which took up all of his time for a year.
He bought bonds and War Savings Stamps to the extent
of his ability, and did everything within his power
to aid the administration in carrying out its policies.
He is not married.
His long association with the insurance business
qualifies him for his present office, but he is also fitted
for his duties because of his natural capabilities, and is
giving to them a conscientious attention which is result-
ing very favorably for all concerned. A man of the
highest standing, he has won appreciation from his
fellow citizens and is an excellent example of the best
element in his state and party.
Miles Everett Lee, state custodian of public buildings
and grounds at Frankfort, is one of the capable and
reliable men of Kentucky, who has won his appointment
through merit and who is giving universal satisfaction
because of the efficient manner in which he is dis-
charging his duties. He was born near Elizabethtown,
Hardin County, Kentucky, May 12, 1880, a son of Silas
Lee, and grandson of Miles Lee, who died near Belmont,
Bullitt County, Kentucky, before the birth of his grand-
son. For many years he was very active as a farmer
and became a successful man. Miles Lee married Sarali
Cundiff, who also died in Bullitt County. The Lee
family was established in Virginia during the Colonial
epoch of this country, when its representatives came
from England.
Silas Lee was born near Belmont, Bullitt County,
Kentucky, in 1845, and was there reared, but moved to
Hardin County after reaching his majority. Here he has
continued to live, and has devoted himself to agricultural
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
367
pursuits with gratifying results, as he is now one of
the leading farmers of his neighborhood. In politics
he is a democrat. From the time he joined the Baptist
Church he has continued to be one of its active support-
ers and liberal contributors. Silas Lee was married to
Almeda Lee, who was born near Elizabethtown, Ken-
tucky, in 1844, and died in Hardin County in the spring
of 1883, having borne her husband two children : Miles
Everett and his sister Lizzie, who married Alonzo
Pate, a farmer in the vicinity of Vine Grove, Hardin
County, and a prominent democrat of that region.
Miles Everett Lee attended the Hardin County country
schools, the Hardin Collegiate Institute and Center
College at Danville, Kentucky, but left the latter in
1903, at the close of his freshman year. For the sub-
sequent eight years he taught school in Hardin County,
and was also local editor of one of the newspapers
of Elizabethtown. For one term he served as county
assessor, then entered a general insurance business, with
which he was occupied until he was elected to the
State Assembly in 1915 from Hardin County, and was
re-elected in 1917, on the democratic ticket. He served
in the session of 1916, the special session of 1917 and
the session of 1918, and in the latter year was a member
of the rules committee, and was on a number of im-
portant committees during the time he was a member
of the Legislature. Mr. Lee was author of the local
option law making the second conviction for bootlegging
a felony, and this bill passed. He was joint author,
with Senator Jay Harlan, of the Budget Bill, passed in
the session of 1918, putting all state departments on a
budget system. On July I, 1918, Mr. Lee was made
custodian by the Board of Sinking Fund Commissioners
to fill an unexpired term expiring March 1, 1922. His
jurisdiction includes the new state capitol, the old state
capitol, the executive mansion now occupied by the
governor, and the old mansion, as well as the grounds
surrounding all of these, which office is a very respon-
sible one.
The Baptist Church holds 'Mr. Lee's membership.
He belongs to Morrison Lodge No. 76, A. F. and A. M.,
of Elizabethtown; Elizabethtown Chapter No. 34, R.
A. M. ; Elizabethtown Chapter. O. E. S. ; and Elizabeth-
town Commandery No. 37, K. T. While he lives at
Frankfort, Mr. Lee maintains his legal residence at
Elizabethtown, where he is a property owner. During
the late war he was one of the zealous workers in
behalf of the Hardin County war activities, was secre-
tary of the Red Cross drive in 1918, assisted in all of
the drives, and bought bonds and War Savings Stamps
and contributed generously to all of the organizations.
On June 26, 1907 Mr. Lee was married near Elizabeth-
town, Kentucky, to Miss Ethel K. Purcell, a daughter of
Leven and Catherine (Stader) Purcell. Mr. Purcell,
who was a farmer of Hardin County, is now deceased,
but his widow survives and makes her home at Louis-
ville, Kentucky. Mr. and Mrs. Lee have two children,
Carl Purcell, who was born November 5, 1909; and
Almeda Catherine, who was born May 16, 1914.
Mr. Lee is a man who has steadily risen, never fail-
ing to justify the confidence reposed in him. His fellow
citizens long ago recognized the fact that in him they
would have a dependable and conscientious representa-
tive, and he is living up to the record he made formerly
in the work he is doing in his present office. Such men
as he add prestige to the state and set an example those
who come on the scene of action in subsequent years
will do well to follow.
John H. Showalter. With the completion of the
magnificent new capitol at Frankfort has come the
necessity for first-class men to carry on the work of
operating the various departments of the building, and
one who is ranked with the best is John H. Showalter.
chief engineer of the power plant, a man widely known
and recognized as an expert in his line. He is a native
of Frankfort, where he was born April 22, 1888, a son
of W. B. Showalter, and a grandson of Daniel Sho-
walter, who was born at Uniontown, Pennsylvania,
where his ancestors had settled upon coming to this
country from Germany during the Colonial epoch in
this country's history. At an early day he moved to
Virginia, where he was engaged in the manufacture of
scythes and sickles, but in 1841 came to Kentucky, and,
settling at Paris, Bourbon County, was there occupied
for many years as a distiller. He produced the first
corn whisky in Kentucky, calling it Bourbon after the
county in which it was manufactured, and thereafter
the "name has been applied to whisky made from corn.
He died at Paris, Kentucky, at a date prior to the birth
of his grandson.
W. B. Showalter was born in Virginia in 1833, but
was brought by his parents to Kentucky in 1841, and
was reared in Bourbon County, leaving it to come to
Frankfort in 1851, and here he has since resided, his
home now being at 526 Shelby Street, this city. For
fourteen years he was a distiller with J. & J. M. Saffel,
having installed the plant, and he was also with the
Pepper Distillery, the Old Crow Distillery and the
Hermitage Distillery. He invented the slop dryer used
in all distilleries, which converts the slops into a dry
cake that is fed to cattle on the ranches all through the
West. In addition to his distilling interests he was
extensively engaged in farming, but retired in 1900.
Mr. Showalter has always voted the republican ticket.
He belongs to the Baptist Church, and is one of the
strong supporters of the local congregation. An Odd
Fellow, he is a charter member of Capital Lodge No. 6,
of which he is a past grand. During the war between
the North and the South he enlisted at Frankfort in
the Union Army, was commissioned a lieutenant, and
became master of transportation of General Burnside's
command. W. B. Showalter was married to Nora Shea,
who was born at Baltimore, Maryland, in 1846, and
died at Frankfort, Kentucky, in April, 1915. Their
children were as follows : Lillie D., who married Earl
Wills, died in Shelby County, Kentucky, in October,
1919, but her husband survives her and is engaged in
farming in Shelby County ; William Saffel, who is a
farmer and stocktrader of Shelby County; Sarah Bush,
who is unmarried, lives with her father; Dennie Shea,
who is a farmer residing at Frankfort ; Julia S., who
married Stephen W. Gibbs, a city mail carrier of Frank-
fort; John H., who was sixth in order of birth; and
Earl, who is a draughtsman in the State Good Roads
Department, lives at Frankfort.
John H. Showalter attended the public schools of
Frankfort and was graduated from the high-school
course of this city in 1906. For the subsequent four
years he was employed on his father's farm in Franklin
County, and then engaged with the Standard Oil Com-
pany at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, as a boilermaker's
helper, and remained there for two years, leaving to
go with the Holly Pump Company of Buffalo, New
York, as assistant to the wrecking engineer. After a
year there he came to Frankfort and installed the pump
now used by the Frankfort Water Company, which is a
triple expansion pump, costing $90,000. It is one of the
best in the country. This work of installation consumed
five months, and when it was completed Mr. Showalter
became assistant engineer for the Frankfort Water
Company, and was later promoted to be chief engineer,
holding the latter position for eighteen months.
On July I, 1918, Mr. Showalter enlisted in defense
of his country during the great war, and was sent to
Fort Thomas, Kentucky, for three weeks, but was then
transferred to Camp Humphreys, Virginia, and from
there overseas, landing in France October 1, 1918,
after a trip of fourteen days. He was trained there
until October 16, and was then sent to the Saint Mihiel
sector and the Argonne front, and was in this campaign
of twenty-six days with the One Hundred and Seven-
teenth Division of French Colonial Troops. This divi-
368
HISTORY ( »F KENTUCKY
sion was backing up the Thirty-third, Twenty-ninth and
Twenty-sixth American Divisions, and the last two days
of the drive was hacking up the All-American Eighty-
second Division. Mr. Showalter was then assigned to
the One Hundred and Thirtieth Engineers Construction
Corps, and remained with the latter command in France
until July 29, 1919, when he was returned to the United
States, and was mustered out of the service at Camp
Taylor August 18, 1919. He returned to civilian life
after having done his dutv as a soldier, entering tin-
employ of the Kentucky Wagon Works at Louisville,
and was engaged in removing two boilers from the
Kentucky Distillery to the Kentucky Wagon Works in
Louisville, a very important piece of work. These
boilers weighed twenty-five tons each. Then, until
January 20, 1920, Mr. Showalter was transportation boss
for the Iring Transportation Company of Louisville.
At that time he was appointed chief engineer of the
state capitol power plant at Frankfort, and is still
efficiently discharging the duties pertaining to this very
important position. The plant and offices are located
on the Kentucky River, just east of the new state
capitol building.
Mr. Showalter has the same political convictions as
his father, and votes the republican ticket. He belongs
to the Roman Catholic Church. Fra'ternally he belongs
to Frankfort Council No. 1483, K. of C. in which he
has been made a Third Degree Knight. He is one of
the zealous members of the American Legion. Mr.
Showalter is unmarried, and resides with his father
and sister, but owns twentv-seven citv lots on Capitol
Hill.
Asa F. Goomwin, M. D. Ever since graduating from
medical college Doctor Goodwin has carried on an
extensive practice as a physician and surgeon at Wade's
Mill in Clark County. Wade's Mill, located eight miles
northeast of Winchester, is the center of a very rich
agricultural region, and many of the fine old Kentucky
families live there and thereabout. It was formerly
an industrial center of considerable magnitude, having
various mills, distilleries and other institutions.
Doctor Goodwin represents an old Morgan County
family and was born at Ezel in that county January 24.
1878. His grandfather, John Goodwin, was a farmer.
trader and merchant of Tazewell County, Virginia.
Samuel D. Goodwin, father of Doctor Goodwin, was
burn in Tazewell County, and when six years of age
was brought to Kentucky by his stepfather, Stephen
Sampless. He grew up in Kentucky, acquired a common
school education, and became an expert practical geol-
ogist, with a very skillful knowledge of coal formation,
and his services in locating coal properties were in great
demand. He was also a teacher fur many years in
Morgan County, and later engaged in the lumber in-
dustry with home at Ezel, where he died at the age
of seventy-six. He served as local magistrate. Samuel
D. Goodwin married Eliza Pieratt, a native of Morgan
County, who died in 1896. Her grandfather. Valentine
Pieratt, came from France as a soldier with General
Lafayette to help the American Colonies win indepen-
dence, and after the war lived in Pennsylvania. His
son, John Pieratt, moved from Pennsylvania to the
present vicinity of Owensville, Kentucky. Eli Pieratt,
father of Eliza Pieratt, moved to Ezel in Morgan County
when that section was a wilderness. He married a
daughter of Joseph Nichols, the first minister of the
Campbellite or Disciples faith in that region. The
Pieratts were long people of the highest standing and
prominence in the community. Eli Pieratt did much
to build up the town at Ezel, including stores and mills.
Several of his descendants and of his father, John, are
still active in Morgan County citizenship.
Asa F. Goodwin grew up at Ezel, attended the public
schools there, an academy at West Liberty, and Ken-
tucky Wesleyan College at Winchester. At the age
of sixteen he began teaching, and continued that voca-
tion for eight years in Morgan County in the intervals
of his attendance at schools. He took his medical
course in the Kentucky School of Medicine, Louisville,
where he spent four years and graduated in 1902.
Doctor Goodwin at once moved to Wade's Mill, where
he succeeded Dr. John E. Snowden, and for eighteen
years has been busy with the cares and reseponsibilities
of a general practice. He is a former president of the
Clark County Medical Society and is a member of other
medical organizations. He also does farming on a
rather extensive scale, growing crops of tobacco, corn,
etc., and keeping a number of thoroughbred hogs. He is
a member of the Masonic Order, and has always given
his support to church activities.
In 1900 he married Elizabeth Reyburn, member of the
prominent family of that name at Kiddville in Clark
County. Doctor and Mrs. Goodwin have two children,
Samuel R.. a student in high school and Asa Floyd.
Thick Cowan Bknnett. The legal profession is
one that demands much and requires of its devotees
implicit and unswerving devotion to its exactions.
bony and continued study, natural ability, and keen
judgment with regard to men and their motives are
all required in the making of a successful lawyer.
That so many pass beyond the line of the ordinary in
this calling and become figures of note in political life
demonstrates that this profession brings out all that
is best and most capahle in a man. For ages the most
brilliant men of all countries have turned their atten-
tion to the study of the law, and especially is this true
in the United States, where the form of government
g'ves opportunity for the man of brains to climb even
into the very highest position within the gift of the
people, and it is a notable fact that from among the
lawyers have more of our great men come than from
among all the other callings combined. One of the
men of Crittenden County who has ably served the
people both as a learned and experienced attorney and
public official, and has a brilliant future before h'm,
is Trice Cowan Bennett of Marion.
Trice Cowan Bennett was born near Tolu, Crit-
tenden County, Kentucky, December n, 1886, a son of
Judson Bennett, and grandson of John Bennett who
was born in Kentucky, in 1807, and died at Hopkins-
ville, Kentucky, in 1903. He came to Livingston
Countv in an early day and developed a valuable farm
near Salem, where he spent many years. The Ben-
netts came from Ireland to Virginia during the Colo-
nial epoch of this country, from whence migration was
made into Kentucky.
Judson Bennett was born in what is now Livingston
County, Kentucky, in 1846, but came to Crittenden
County in young manhood, and resided on a farm
two miles west of Tolu until he retired, at which time
he moved to Marion, Kentucky, and here since 1903
he has been one of the honored residents of the county
seat. For many years he was an extensive farmer and
stockraiser, and was very successful. He is a demo-
crat. A zealous member of the Presbyterian Church,
he has always been active in his support of the local
congregation, and was the prime mover in securing
the erection of the new church edifice at Tolu. Judson
Bennett married Bettie Wallace, of Crittenden County,
a daughter of Dr. William Wallace, now deceased,
who for many years was one of the leading physicians
'>f Crittenden County. Mrs. Bennett was born in Vir-
ginia in 1847, and died in Crittenden County in 1899.
Their children were as follows: Mary, who married
T, F. Harris, for twenty years a prominent merchant
of Tolu and now living on the Bennett homestead;
Wallace, who was drowned in 1900 in the wreck of
the steamer "Golconda," in which disaster sixty-five
persons lost their lives ; Henry, who died in 1900, was
1 merchant of Tolu; Hugh, who is a merchant and
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
369
farmer, resides at Tolu ; and Trice Cowan, who was
the youngest born.
Trice Cowan Bennett attended the public schools
of Tolu and Marion, Kentucky, and was graduated
from the Marion High School in 1904. He then en-
tered the Central University of Kentucky, where he
took the full legal course and was graduated therefrom
in 1007 with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. He is a
member of the Greek Letter college fraternity Phi
Delta Theta. In 1907 he began the practice of his
profession in the Southern District of Indian Ter-
ritory, where he remained until in October, 191 1,
when he returned to Crittenden County and established
himself in a general civil and criminal practice at
Marion. His offices are in the Carnahan Building, and
he has a very valuable connection and has been asso-
ciated with some of the most important jurisprudence
since he has come back to the county. A strong
democrat, he was elected on his party ticket county
attorney, and served as such from 1913 to 1918. The
year of 1918 Mr. Bennett spent in the legal division of
the United States Government at Washington, District
of Columbia, during the great war. He belongs to
the Methodist Episcopal Church. A Mason, he is
a member of Bigham Lodge No. 256, A. F., and
A. M., and he also belongs to Princeton Lodge No.
HIS, B. P. O. E., and is a charter member of Rose-
wood Camp No. 22, W. O. W., of Marion. In addi-
tion to his other interests he is a director of the
Pinnacle Leasing and Developing Company, and owns
a modern residence on Poplar Street, Marion.
Mr. Bennett was first married in 1908, at Marion,
Kentucky, to Miss Mildred Haynes, a daughter of H.
A. and Lizzie T. (Adams) Haynes. Mr. Haynes died
in 1920, having been a very prominent man in his
day. He was the founder of the Kentucky Fluor Spar
Company, and was elected Circuit Court Clerk of Crit-
tenden County on the republican ticket, of which he
was a zealous supporter for many years. Mrs. Haynes
survives her husband and lives at DeLand, Florida.
The first Mrs. Bennett died December 7, 1912, hav-
ing borne her husband two children : Mary Elizabeth,
who was born April 7, 1910; and Mildred Wallace,
who was born February 3, 1912. Mr. Bennett married
on December 4, 1915, at Dycusburg, Kentucky, Miss
Ida Lou Ramage, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Fred
Ramage, the former of whom is a farmer and stock-
raiser of Dycusburg, but the latter is deceased. Mr.
and Mrs. Bennett have no children.
Mr. Bennett is a man of flaming sincerity and great
natural ability. A close student, he has trained him-
self and developed his capabilities until he is now
easily one of the leaders in his profession and party in
the county. Personally popular, he has made many
warm, personal friends, and his patriotic action in
going to Washington to aid the Government during the
period of the war met with the approval of his fellow
citizens. Such men as he form the real bulwark of
true Americanism and can be depended upon to rise to
the occasion whenever there is need of their special
services, as well as to do their duty day by day during
ordinary times.
Edward H. Blake. Of the agriculturists of Bour-
bon County who in their activities are displaying the
possession of true progressiveness and modern tenden-
cies, one whose property gives evidence of its owner's
good management and up-to-date methods is Edward
H. Blake, of Centerville, on the Georgetown pike,
eight miles northwest of Paris. Mr. Blake was born
near Stony Point, Bourbon County, January 1, 1858, a
son of Thomas and Nora (Burke) Blake.
Thomas Blake was born June 24, 1824, in County
Limerick, Ireland, and was twenty-eight years of age
when he emigrated to the United States and settled
for a short time in New York. He then went to
Canada, where he lived for one year, and in 1854 came
lo Nicholasville, Kentucky, where as a railroad laborer
he helped build the extension from Lexington to
Nicholasville. During this time Mr. Blake knew much
of hard work and was taught to respect the value of
money. _ While in Canada he had arisen each morning
at 3 o'clock and worked until 10 o'clock at night,
cutting hay with a scythe at a time when it was too
hot to wear anything else but light trousers, all for
$5 per month. His salary was a little better in the
radroad work, and later he was an overseer for Drum-
mond Hunt in Fayette County in farming. He was
married at Nicholasville in 1857 to Nora Burke, who
was born in County Limerick, Ireland, and came to the
United States in 1853 to join her sister, Mrs. Thomas
Grace, who had preceded her by one year, and with
whom she was living when she met Mr. Blake. After
their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Blake located at Stony
Point, where Mr. Blake began contracting as a turn-
pike builder, a vocation which he followed until 1863,
during which time he built among others the turnpike
from Jackstown to Paris. During these five years
Bourbon County labor was worth $1.10 per day and
board was $2.25 per week, while eggs were delivered at
5 cents a dozen.
In March, 1863, Mr. Blake moved to Scott County
and rented a farm from Milton Kinville for two years,
subsequently spending a like period on a farm rented
from another party. Returning to Bourbon County, he
lived for four years on the old George Coyle farm,
and in 1870 came to Centerville and purchased eighteen
acres of land, on which he built a home. This is now
a part of the property owned by his son, Edward H.,
and the original building is included in the present
home. He also rented other land, and continued to
be engaged in agricultural pursuits during the re-
mainder of his life. Mr. Blake had always been a
strong and healthy man, and his sudden death, Sep-
tember 9, 1901, when seventy-seven years of age, of
heart trouble, caused a severe shock to his family
and his numerous friends. He was a democrat and
active in the ranks of his party, and although not an
office seeker kept well posted on all events and issues
and supported worthy movements. He had received a
good common school education in his youth and was
a man of intelligence and good judgment. He was a
member of the Catholic Church at Paris and consistent
in his support and attendance, as was his worthy wife,
who died in 1909 at the old home. They were the
parents of the following children : Edward H. ; Mar-
garet, who married Edward Welsh, a railroad man
of Paris ; Annie, the wife of James Burke, a railroad
man of Paris, who was formerly deputy sheriff of
Bourbon County for eight years under Sheriffs George
Bowen and Wallace Mitchell ; Thomas, who died at the
age of eighteen years in 1884; and John, who died on
the home farm as a bachelor in May, 1914, aged forty-
seven years.
Edward H. Blake received his education in the pub-
lic schools of his native locality and grew up on the
home farm. At the time he attained his majority he
began looking after all the details on the home place,
and about 1890 took full charge thereof as manager,
since which time he has bought out the other inter-
ests and is now sole owner. He has remodeled and
enlarged the home, has erected a large tobacco barn
and other buildings, and in various ways has added
to the improvement of the property, making it one
of the attractive and valuable estates of Bourbon
County. At this time he has 125 acres of highly
productive land with three sets of buildings, and in
his operations grows large crops of tobacco, hay, corn,
wheat, etc. He is modern in his methods and dis-
plays the ability of making an intelligent use of the
.latest improved machinery and appurtenances. While
farming has been his chief interest and business, he
has also participated in other ventures. He was one
of the organizers and a director of the Peoples Bank,
370
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
and when that institution was consolidated with the
Deposit Bank, as the Peoples Deposit Bank, he became
a member of the directing board of this house, which
enjoys an excellent reputation in banking circles.
Politics and public affairs have played only a secondary
part in his career, but he has not failed in his discharge
of the duties of good citizenship and worthy measures
have always found in him a stanch supporter and will-
ing co-operator.
Mr. Blake was married October 15, 1913, to Miss
Agnes Kerr, who was born and reared at Memphis,
Tennessee, and as a young woman came to Lexington,
where she entered the home of Mrs. Thomas Grace,
the aunt of Mr. Blake. To Mr. and Mrs. Blake there
have come two children : Edward Anthony, born June
T3> 1915; and Mary Margaret, born June 2, 1918. Mr.
and Mrs. Blake are members of the Catholic Church
of the Annunciation at Paris.
James Franklin Cummings. With the exception of
an interim of six years James Franklin Cummings has
been identified with insurance matters in Western Ken-
tucky for twenty-two years, and since March, 1918,
when he became an independent operator, has built up
one of the largest enterprises of its kind in this part
of the state, his headquarters being at Paducah. Mr.
Cummings is a native Kentuckian, born in Henderson
County, February II, 1853, a son of A. J. and Harriet
Walker (Johnson) Cummings.
The Cummings family originated in Scotland, whence
they immigrated to America during Colonial times,
making their new home in North Carolina. In that state
was born the grandfather of James Franklin Cummings,
Moses Cummings, who was the pioneer of the name
into Henderson County, where he was engaged in agri-
cultural pursuits until his death. He married a Miss
Sinclair, a native of Tennessee, and among their chil-
dren was A. J. Cummings, who was born in Tennessee,
in 1816. He was still a child when brought to Hender-
son County, Kentucky, where he was reared and edu-
cated, and where he became a successful farmer. In
1858 he removed to Daviess County, this state, where his
death occurred in the same year. He was a member of
the democratic party and of the Baptist Church, and
was a man of strong religious principle. He married
Harriet Walker Johnson, who was born in 1829, in
Henderson County, Kentucky, and who survives her
husband and resides on the home farm at Curdsville.
They became the parents of three children : Robert N.,
a carpenter and builder who died in Christian County.
Kentucky, at the age of fifty-five years; James Frank-
lin ; and Caroline Williams, who died when nineteen
years of age.
James F. Cummings secured his early education in
the rural schools of Daviess County, Kentucky, until he
was twentv years of age, in the meantime devoting the
summer seasons to working on the farms of the home
community. When he was twenty-one years old he se-
cured a school in Daviess County, and while teaching
his class spent his spare time in studying higher sub-
jects, attending night school at Owensboro and a com-
mercial college at that place. He was thus engaged for
three years, following which he established himself in
business as the proprietor of a grocery at Curdsville, con-
ducting this establishment for six years. He then re-
sumed teaching in Daviess County, and continued
therein for several years, and in 1897 went to Owens-
boro, near which place he taught school for eight
months. Mr. Cummings began his connection with the
insurance business at Owensboro in 1898, and remained
there until 1900, when he removed to Evansville, In-
diana, and followed the same line for one year. Re-
turning to Owensboro, he was connected for eight
months with the Commonwealth Insurance Company,
being subsequently transferred by that concern to Louis-
ville, Kentucky, and made assistant superintendent. In
1907 he came to Paducah as superintendent of this com-
pany, a position which he held for four years, and then
temporarily left the insurance business, becoming city
circulator for the News-Democrat, a position which he
retained for six years. In March, 1918, Mr. Cummings
resumed operations in the insurance line, this time on
his own account, and has built up one of the largest
enterprises in Western Kentucky in the handling of
life, accident, fire, automobile and other kinds of in-
surance. He maintains offices at 705 City National
Bank Building. Mr. Cummings is a stockholder in the
Seven States Oil Company and owns a modern residence
at 703 South Ninth Street, as well as other real estate
at Paducah. In politics a republican, he has taken an
interest in civic affairs, and served as police judge at
Curdsville and as a member of the Paducah School
Board for four years. He is a member and deacon of
the Presbyterian Church, and belongs to the Masonic
fraternity.
In 1881, in Daviess County, Kentucky, Mr. Cummings
was united in marriage with Miss Archie A. Blincoe,
who was born in that county, a graduate of Mount St.
Joseph College. To this union there have been born
children as follows : Mary Ollie, a graduate of the
Owensboro High School, now the wife of Paul Rausch,
chef in a large hotel at Fond du Lac, Wisconsin; Mary
Lima, a graduate of the International Correspondence
School at Scranton, Pennsylvania, who resides at home
and is an efficient stenographer in the employ of Rubel's |
Dry Goods Store; Nettie, the wife of L. G. Yates,
proprietor of an automobile garage at Louisville ; Ho-
bart, a graduate of St. Mary's College, Paducah, who
was the first lad from Paducah to enter the United
States service in the World war, went to Columbus for
training in 1916, was stationed at a number of camps
in this country and mustered out of the service in
December, 1919, since which time he has been identified
with the Louisville Herald ; Rubert, twin of Hobart, a J
graduate of St. Mary's College, Paducah, and now as- I
sistant manager of the Otis Hidden Company, wholesale |
furnishings, of Louisville; and Christine, the wife of I
Charles Fowler, of 1302 Broadway, Paducah, connected
with the Illinois Central Railroad shops.
James L. F. Paris. For a quarter of a century Mr.
Paris has been actively associated with the educa-
tional affairs of Crittenden County, and after a long
period as a teacher he was chosen by popular election to
the responsibilities and duties of county superintendent
of schools, the office he now fills, with headquarters at
the county seat of Marion.
He was born in Crittenden County October 23, 1877.
His grandfather, Obediah Paris, was born in Tennessee
in 1808, the family having been identified with the
pioneer era of Tennessee and Kentucky. Obediah
Paris was a farmer, and in 1852 moved with his family
to Crittenden County, Kentucky, where he died about
1878. He married a Miss Ellison, a native of Virginia,
who also died in Crittenden County.
Louis H. Paris, father of the county superintendent
of schools, was born in Smith County, Tennessee, in
1841, and was eleven years of age when brought to
Crittenden County. He achieved a pronounced and
enviable degree of success and prominence as a farmer
in this part of Kentucky, and was closely identified
with the agricultural history of this section until his
death in 1902. His old farm, now owned by his son
James, is four miles southeast of Marion. Politically
he is affiliated with the republican party, and was a
very devout and active member of the Baptist Church,
serving as deacon many years. Louis Paris married
Sarah E. Walker, who was born in Tennessee in 1844,
and died at the old homestead in 1909. She was the
mother of eight children : Charles H., a farmer resid-
ing near Woodville, Mississippi; Sarah Ellen, wife of
J. F. Conger, and their home is also a farm near Wood-
^
./
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
371
ville ; H. C, a minister of the Baptist Church who
lives at Marion; N. W., who was in the internal reve-
nue service and died at Louisville at the age of thirty-
nine ; James L. F. ; Paul, a farmer in Crittenden
County; Carrie, wife of Talmadge Hill, a Crittenden
County farmer ; and Linnie, unmarried and living at
Woodville, Mississippi.
James L. F. Paris acquired his early education in
the rural schools of Crittenden County, graduated
from the grade schools of Marion and finished his
high school course there at the age of eighteen. Soon
afterward he qualified as a teacher and forthwith be-
gan his long experience as a teacher in the rural
schools of Crittenden County. He was a popular
worker in the country schools of the county and in
November, 1917, was elected county superintendent,
beginning the duties of his four-year term in January,
1918, and has recently been re-elected for another four
years as the superintendent of the Crittenden County
schools. He has had the chief responsibility of main-
taining the efficiency of the schools in a very critical
period, and has under his supervision sixty-five schools,
twenty teachers, and a scholarship enrollment of three
thousand. His offices are in the O. M. James Build-
ing on Carlisle Street in Marion.
Mr. Paris is actively identified with the County and
State Teachers Associations. He is a republican, a
Baptist and superintendent of the Sunday School in
the Church. While he owns a good home in town,
on Depot Street, he also owns, as above noted, his
father's old farm home southeast of Marion, and
spends part of the year in that suburban residence.
In 1898, in Crittenden County, he married Miss Cora
A. James, daughter of H. A. and Drucilla (McDonald)
James. Her parents live on a farm near Marion and
her father is a dentist by profession. Mr. and Mrs.
Paris have five children : Jamie, born April 26, 1902,
a student in the Marion High School; Ruth, born
April 26, 1904, also in the High School at Marion ;
Gladys, born December 4, 1907 ; Christine, born June 5,
1910, and Evelyn, born in 1914, are all pupils in the
grammar schools.
Chastain Wilson Haynes. An acute, cool-headed
man of business may command respect because of his
great capacities in managing vast enterprises and his
power to change circumstances and conditions to suit
his will, and may have as chosen associates others of
like caliber and similar power and interests, but in order
to secure the confidence and esteem of his fellowmen
he must have other qualities to win the support of his
constituents for public office. Chastain Wilson Haynes,
mine operator and mayor of Marion, is a man who
stands very high among business men, and is making
a splendid record for himself as chief executive of the
county seat of Crittenden County.
Mayor Haynes was born at Marion, Kentucky,
March 18, 1882, a son of Harry A. Haynes, and
grandson of Robert Fulton Haynes, who was born in
Crittenden County, Kentucky, in 1831, and died at
DeLand, Florida, in 1896. Until 1884 he continued
to reside in Crittenden County, where he was an ex-
tensive farmer, and at one time served as sheriff of
the county, and for many years was magistrate of
his magisterial district. Studying law, he was ad-
mitted to the bar and for some years practiced law,
and at all times he was prominent as a republican.
In 1884 he moved to DeLand, Florida, where he be-
came a fruitgrower. He married Anna Chastain, of
Clay County, Kentucky, who died at Marion, Ken-
tucky. The Chastains were of French descent. The
paternal great-grandfather of Mayor Haynes, Robert
Henry Haynes, was a prominent man in agricultural
circles, and spent his life in that part of Livingston
County now included in Crittenden County. His death
occurred before the birth of his great-grandson. The
Haynes family was established in what is now Crit-
tenden County in 1802, in which year the great-great-
grandfather Haynes, a surveyor and farmer, came from
his native state of Virginia to what was 'then Liv-
ingston County. The family is of English stock, and
the first traces of it in this country are found in North
Carolina, from whence its members went to Virginia
and thence, as before stated, to Kentucky.
Harry A. Haynes was born near Marion, Kentucky,
December 6, 1855, and died at DeLand, Florida, Jan-
uary 30, 1920. Growing up in Crittenden County, he
became a fluor spar miner and was secretary and
treasurer of the Kentucky Fluor-Spar Company for
fifteen years before he died. In politics he was a re-
publican, and he served as Circuit Court Clerk from
1880 until 1902. Very zealous as a member of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, he was a steward in the
local congregation, and for twenty years was one of
the three main supporters of the church in his neighbor-
hood. He was equally faithful in living up to the
ideals of Masonry, and belonged to Bigham Lodge
No. 256, A. F. and A. M., of which he was a past
master. He also belonged to Blackwell Lodge No.
57, K. of P., of Marion. Harry A. Haynes was mar-
ried to Lizzie Turner Adams, who survives him and
lives at DeLand, Florida. She was born at Yellow
Springs, Ohio, May 29, 1857. The children born to
her and her husband were as follows : Mayor Haynes,
who was the eldest; Robert Henry, who died in Feb-
ruary, 1917, at Marietta, Oklahoma, was engaged in
a real estate and abstract business ; Mildred, who died
December 7, 191 2, married T. C. Bennett, an attorney
of Marion, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in
this work ; Wilbur Vance, who is an oil operator of
Evansville, Indiana ; Lizzie, who was born in 1891
and died in 1893 ; Mary Ammonette, who is living with
her mother ; and Ruth Fulton, who married H. C. San-
derson, a chemical manufacturer of Columbus, Ohio.
Mayor Haynes was educated in the graded schools
of Marion, Kentucky, and was graduated from its high
school course in 1899 under Prof. Charles Evans, the
John B. Stetson University of DeLand, Florida, where
for two years he specialized in chemistry, and the Uni-
versity of Kentucky at Lexington, from which he was
graduated in 1905 with the degree of Bachelor of
Science and as a member of the Greek Letter college
fraternity Phi Delta Theta. For one year between his
collegiate courses he served as deputy Circuit Court
Clerk under his father.
In 1905 Mayor Haynes entered the employ of the
Kentucky Fluor-Spar Company as bookkeeper, and held
that position until 1908, in which year he went into a
mail order business with his brother Wilbur V., this
connection continuing until 1912. Mayor Haynes then
returned to the Kentucky Fluor-Spar Company and was
its secretary and treasurer until 1918, at which time
the company was sold, and for the subsequent year
Mr. Haynes was with the Gugenheim Mining Com-
pany. Since then he has been occupied with operating
several fluor-spar mines for himself. These mines are
located in Crittenden County. A strong republican, he
was elected mayor of Marion in 1918 and is the present
incumbent. He is also a member of the school board
and one of the most progressive men of this part of
the county. The Methodist Episcopal Church holds
his membership, and he is serving the Marion congre-
gation as steward. A Mason, he belongs to Bigham
Lodge No. 256, A. F. and A. M. ; Crittenden Chapter
No. 70, R. A. M. ; Wingate Council No. 40, R.
and S. M., Madisonville Commandery, K. T., and
Rizpah Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of Madison-
ville, Kentucky. He is also a member of Black-
well Lodge No. 57, K. of P., of Marion. In ad-
dition to his other interests Mayor Haynes owns
stock in the Marion Bank, and his modern residence
on West Bellville Street, one of the finest bungalows
in Marion. During the late war he took an active
part in all of the local war work, and was manager
372
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
of the sales of the Fourth and Fifth Liberty Loans
in Crittenden County, and raised the full quota for
both.
In 1909 Mayor Haynes was united in marriage at
St. Louis, Missouri, to Miss Susie Gilbert, a daugh-
ter of A. M. and Fannie (Crawford) Gilbert. Mrs.
Gilbert, who was the daughter of the late Dr. J. W.
Crawford, a pioneer physician of Crittenden County,
and who for 40 years kept ahead of his profession
and was a man of the highest standing,, is deceased,
but Mr. Gilbert is living and is now police judge of
Marion, where he resides. Mrs. Haynes was graduated
from the Marion High School and also attended the
University of Kentucky at Lexington, Kentucky.
Mayor and Mrs. Haynes have one daughter, Elizabeth
Lee. who was born April 12, 1910.
James H. Orme of Marion, has been in the drug
business in that city continuously for more than a
quarter of a century. His enterprise has contributed in
many ways to the material progress of his home city
and county, and his good citizenship has come to be
regarded as no less reliable in times of public need.
Mr. Orme, who is of Irish ancestry, his paternal fore-
fathers having come from Ireland to Virginia in Colonial
times, was born at Uniontown in Union County, Ken-
tucky, June 25, 1871. His father, George W. Orme,
whose birth occurred at Shepherdsville in Bullitt County.
Kentucky, in 1837, grew up in his native county and then
moved to Union County, where he was married and
where he exercised his skill and ingenuity as a harness
maker. He conducted a shop, hired a number of
skilled workmen, and at a time when articles classed
under the title of saddlery were made by hand, and
made well and durably, he developed a manufacturing
establishment, one of the most extensive in the state.
He sold his factory in 1881, and after that was engaged
in business as a retail merchant of buggies and carriages
until he retired in 1898. The last ten years of his life
he was retired at Uniontown, where he died in 1908.
He was a democrat, served as a member of the Council
at Uniontown, was a member of the Christian Church
and was a very ardent Mason. While his years were
devoted to business, he invested his surplus means in
land and became a large land owner, chiefly near
Morganfield in Union County. This property since his
death has been distributed among his children. George
W. Orme married Margaret Ray, who was born near
Morganfield in 1840 and died in Uniontown in 1876.
She was the mother of three children: Martha, wife
of W. C. Bland, a grain merchant at Uniontown; R.
L, who was a druggist at Evansville, Indiana, where
he died May 9, 1918; and James H.
James H. Orme grew up at Uniontown, attended the
public schools, also the S. K. College of Hopkinsville,
spent one year in Pilot Grove Institute at Pilot Grove,
Missouri, and took the regular course in the School of
Pharmacy of Vanderbilt University at Nashville and
graduated Ph. G. in 1892. Immediately following his
graduation he returned to Marion and entered the
drug business as a member of the firm Moore & Orme.
A year later he bought out the interests of his partner,
R. L. Moore, and since then has been sole proprietor
of a business that has been kept growing and improving
and steadily maintained its prestige as the leading drug
store of Crittenden County. Mr. Orme owns the large,
modern store building in which the business is conducted
and also an adjoining building. He constructed those
buildings in 1905, after the destructive fire which
destroyed so much of Marion, including three business
buildings owned by Mr. Orme. He is also owner of a
comfortable home on Depot Street, and has a half
interest in his father's old farm of 400 acres near
Morganfield. Mr. Orme is also president of the Marion
Milling Company, flour manufacturers.
He served several terms on the City Council, is a
democrat, a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
and fraternally is affiliated with Rosewood Camp No. 22,
Woodmen of the World, and Princeton Lodge No. 1 1 15,
of the Elks. In 1893, at Marion, he married Miss
Bessie Carnahan, daughter of W. G. and Clara (Doug-
las) Carnahan. Her mother is still living at Marion,
while her father, who was a capitalist, died in 1917.
Mrs. Orme is a graduate of the Marion High School.
To their marriage were born two children. George,
the son, born July 19, 1895, graduated from the Marion
High School, attended Kentucky State University two
years, and left university in January, 1918, to receive
training at Camp Taylor. Louisville, and was in service
until mustered out in November, 1918, with the rank of
second lieutenant. He is now associated with his father
in the drug business at Marion. He married Louise
Clement of that city. The daughter, Margaret Orme,
was born June 11, 1904, and is now in the sophomore
year of Hamilton College at Lexington.
V. O. Chandler. Not only is the office of sheriff
one of the most important in a county, but it is also
the most dangerous, and no man can hope to properly
measure up to its requirements unless he possesses
certain characteristics. The capable sheriff must first of
all be pre-eminently brave, unflinchingly honest, tire-
lessly energetic, and be a good jutjge of men and their
motives so that he can understand them and predicate
their actions. All who are elected do not have these
qualifications, and quite a few are failures, but one
of the men who is certainly fitted for his office is V. O.
Chandler, sheriff of Crittenden County and one of the
most highly esteemed men and prosperous citizens of his
section.
V. O. Chandler was born in Crittenden County,
January 8, 1884, a son of William J. Chandler, and
grandson of George Chandler, a native of North Caro-
lina, who died in Sumner County, Tennessee, about
1848, having been the pioneer of his family into that
region, where he carried on farming. The maternal
great-grandfather, Alexander Clark, was born at Belfast,
Ireland, and came to the American Colonies prior to
the Revolution, in which he participated as a member of
the Colonial Army. In return for his services the
Government awarded him a land grant in the eastern
part of Crittenden County, Kentucky, to which he
moved. Some of this he cleared, and he became a large
and prosperous landowner. Alexander Clark married
a Miss Cunningham, who was born in New England
and died in Crittenden County. Stories are still repeated
in the Clark and Chandler families that she used to
relate about witchcraft. The maternal grandfather,
William Clark, was born in Crittenden County, where
he spent his entire life, and there he died before the
birth of his grandson.
William J. Chandler was born in Sumner County,
Tennessee, in 1837, and died in Crittenden County
February 7, 1897. Until he was eleven years old he
lived in his native county, but then was brought to
Crittenden County by his mother and step-father, and
here he continued to reside the remainder of his life.
Having been trained as a farmer, he naturally took to
that line of work and pursued it so industriously and
capably that he became a very successful agriculturist,
owning 120 acres of land on Pidgeon Roost Creek,
thirteen miles east of Marion. Of this farm 100 acres
are now owned by his son, Sheriff Chandler. With
the organization of the republican party Mr. Chandler
became one of its zealous supporters, and always voted
its ticket the rest of his life. The Cumberland Presby-
terian Church held his membership, and he was a very
active supporter of the local congregation. William
J. Chandler was married to Frances Caroline Clark,
who was born in Crittenden County, Kentucky, in 1845,
and died at Marion, Kentucky, October 21, 1918. Their
children were as follows : Joseph L., who is a farmer,
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
373
resides thirteen miles east of Marion; William Riley,
who is a farmer in the same neighborhood as Joseph ;
Jefferson Monroe, who is a merchant of 'Marion ; Chester
M., who is operating the old home farm for his brother,
Sheriff Chandler; Sheriff Chandler, who was the fifth
in order of birth; and Oat, who lives two and a one-half
miles east of Marion, is a farmer.
Growing up in his native county, Sheriff Chandler
was reared as any farmer's son of his neighborhood
and period, being sent to the rural schools during the
winter months and taught to make himself useful on the
farm during the summer ones. He turned his attention
to farming, and conducted his father's farm until 1908,
when he moved to Blackford and was engaged in a hard-
ware business there until 1913, when he sold and
returned to the farm for about a year. In December,
1913, he was appointed deputy sheriff of Crittenden
County, assuming the duties of this office in January,
1914, and during the succeeding four years made such
an admirable record that he was the logical candidate
of his party for sheriff, and was elected in November,
1917, by a handsome majority. In January, 1918, he
took office for a term of four years. His offices are
located in the Court House. Sheriff Chandler is a
reptiblican, and in addition to the offices already enumer-
ated, has held that of deputy assessor of Crittenden
County for a term of two years. He is a member of
the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Well known in
Masonry, he belongs to Ashley Lodge No. 706, A. F.
and A. M., of Blackford, Kentucky. He also belongs
to Blackford Lodge No. 337, I. O. O. F., and at one
time belonged to the Modern Woodmen of America.
While residing at Blackford he was a director of the
Blackford Bank. In addition to the 100 acres he owns
of the old homestead he also owns a farm of 118 acres
adjoining, and a third which has nearly 105 acres. For
many years he has carried on a general farming and
stockraising business, and is a recognized leader in
agricultural matters.
On October 13, 1909, Sheriff Chandler was married
to Miss Ethel I. Metcalf, a daughter of John and
Permelia (Ashley) Metcalf, both of whom are now
deceased. Mr. Metcalf was at one time a buyer and
seller of timber, and specialized in railroad ties. Mr. and
Mrs. Chandler have three children, namely : John Wil-
liam, who was born May 5, 1911; Emmett Ashley, who
was born July 20, 191 3; and Venera Ada, who was born
February 4, 1916.
During the period of the war there was no more
zealous worker in behalf of the various drives launched
for the sale of Liberty Bonds and war organizations
than he, and he subscribed to his very limit to all of
them. Since he has been sheriff he has made his name a
terror to law-breakers, who recognize the fact that he
insists upon the enforcement of law and the maintenance
of order. However, while he is stern in his insistence on
this, he is equally firm in his determination to give to
every person, no matter of what he be accused, a fair
deal, and all, while they fear him, also respect him
and accord to him a confidence a man of another
caliber could not inspire.
Frederick Warren Nunn. Seventeen years of prac-
tice and the exercise of his individual skill and abilities
have brought Frederick Warren Nunn the rank of
effective leadership in the dental profession of Critten-
den County. He is a man widely known for his other
interests, including an effective share in the agricultural
and horticultural development of his home county.
Doctor Nunn was born in Henderson County, Ken-
tucky, October 25, 1877. The family is of Scotch origin,
but was established in Virginia in Colonial days. His
grandfather, Hugh W. Nunn, was a native of Kentucky,
belonged to a pioneer family of Henderson County,
and spent his active life there as a farmer. M. Y.
Nunn, father of Doctor Nunn, was born in Henderson
County in 1851 and is now living with his son Frederick
W. at Marion. Until he retired at Marion in 1912 his
interests and activities were identified with the handling
of an extensive farming proposition in Henderson
County. He is a democrat, and a very faithful member
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He married
Sallie E. Denton, who was born in Henderson County
in 1854 and died at Marion in 1916. Of their three
children Frederick W. is the youngest. Oarence, the
oldest, spent his active life as a farmer and died at the
age of forty-two in Daviess County. Olga, the only
daughter, is the wife of Eugene Sights, an oil operator
living at Fowlerton, Texas.
Frederick W. Nunn acquired his early training in the
rural schools of Henderson County, and as a youth
acquired considerable proficiency in farm labor and
management. In 1903 he received the degree of Doctor
of Dental Surgery from Louisville College of Dentistry,
and since that date has been busily engaged in his
profession at Marion. His offices are in the McConnell-
Wiggin Building on Carlisle Street. He is a member of
the State and National Dental Societies and is now
serving as dental examiner for returned soldiers in
Crittenden County, having been appointed to that office
by the dental supervisor of the Seventh District at
Cincinnati.
Doctor Nunn is a democrat, is a steward in the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and fraternally is
affiliated with Bigham Lodge No. 256, A. F. and A. M.,
at Marion, Blackwell Lodge No. 57, Knights of Pythias,
Rosewood Camp No. 22, Woodmen of the World, and
Marion Chapter of the Eastern Star. Doctor Nunn's
efforts as a farmer and fruit grower are expended on
his farm of 120 acres a mile south of Marion. Forty
acres of this farm is devoted to an extensive apple
orchard. He has his modern suburban home on that
farm, and owns considerable other real estate in Marion.
He is also president of the National Farm Loan Asso-
ciation of Crittenden County.
In 1900, in Henderson County, Doctor Nunn married
Miss Mary Louise Harris, a daughter of B. L. and
Sallie (Cromwell) Harris. Her father was a farmer
and died in 1919, and her mother is living at Coryden,
Kentucky. The three children of Doctor and Mrs.
Nunn are: N. Y., named for his grandfather, born
August 31, 1902, now a student in the Elkton Training
School ; Frederick Bruce, born May 9, 1906, attending
the public schools of Marion ; and Mary Charlotte, born
June 29, 1909, also attending the Marion schools.
T. Atchison Frazer, M. D. One of the men longest
in service as a physician and surgeon in Crittenden
County is Doctor Frazer of Marion, who has spent more
than a quarter of a century in the work of his chosen
vocation, and his attainments have brought him many
unusual distinctions among medical men in South-
western Kentucky.
Doctor Frazer was born in Hopkins County November
12, 1869. His birthplace was a log cabin, not so much
a sign of poverty of the family as the typical habitation
of the fairly well-to-do residents of that section in
the period immediately following the close of the Civil
war. Doctor Frazer is descended from a family origi-
nally French, the name being spelled Frazee. From
France they went to Ireland, and his great-grandfather
came to America and settled in Warren County, Ken-
tucky, where he spent the rest of his life as a farmer.
There was a relative of the family who held the rank of
general and was killed in the Revolutionary war. The
father of Doctor Frazer was Thomas Alexander Frazer,
who was born in Warren County in 1838 and died in
Hopkins County in 1913. He was reared in Warren
and Hopkins counties, and at the beginning of the
Civil war enlisted in the Union Army from Hopkins
County as a member of the Seventeenth Kentucky Cav-
alry. When the war was over he established his home
374
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
in Hopkins County, and successive years brought him
more than ordinary prominence and prosperity as a
farmer and stock man. He voted as a republican and
was very faithful in the performance of his duties as a
churchman, being active in the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South. He married Mary Jane Lynn, who
was born at Slaughterville, Kentucky, in 1844, and died
on the old homestead in Hopkins County in June, 1919.
These parents had a large family of children, twelve
in number, and nearly all the sons have retained alle-
giance to the soil as practical farmers. The oldest is
James Hamilton, a farmer in Hopkins County. Doctor
Frazer is the second in age. Isaac Shelby, the third
born, John S., the fifth, Thad. A., the seventh child,
Clifton R., the ninth, William C, the tenth, and
George P., the eleventh, are farmers in Hopkins County.
The fourth is Lula, wife of J. H. Buchanan. Lizzie is
the sixth child and is the wife of A. O. Ellis, a Pull-
man car conductor living at St. Louis, Missouri. Kittie,
the eighth child, is the wife of John D. Lansden, a
farmer at Nebo, Kentucky. Mattie, the youngest, is
the wife of Lysander Bone, a farmer near Dalton in
Hopkins County.
T. Atchison Frazer while growing up on the farm
and having the benefits of a rural environment early
looked to a professional career as the means of satisfy-
ing his special abilities and ambition. He was educated
in country schools, and the M. and F. Academy at
Providence, Kentucky, and from there entered the medi-
cal department of Vanderbilt University at Nashville.
He received his M. D. degree in 1894, and at once
entered on a busy practice at Blackford, Kentucky.
From there in 1900 he removed to Marion, where for
twenty years he has carried on his work as a general
physician and surgeon. His offices are in the old Post
Office Building on Carlisle Street, and he has a modern
home on Depot Street.
Doctor Frazer is county health officer of Crittenden
County and has held that post for nineteen years. He
has used his office as a means of safeguarding the peo-
ple and homes of the county, and has made much
progress in public health work in this section of the
state. He was active during the war, being chairman
of the Crittenden County Council of Defense, under
appointment by Governor A. O. Stanley. He also served
as the medical member of the Crittenden County Draft
Board and is now acting surgeon of the War Risk In-
surance Bureau, and is examiner for the Vocational
Training Board. He is a member of the Crittenden
County, State and American Medical associations, the
Ohio Valley Medical Society, the Southern Medical
Society and the Southwest Kentucky Society. Doctor
Frazer owns a farm of 270 acres adjoining Marion on
the northwest. He is a republican in politics and is an
active member and trustee of the Methodist Episcopal
Church. Fraternally he is a past master of Bigham
Lodge No. 256, A. F. and A. M., serving as master in
1908, and just ten years before he was master of
Ashley Lodge No. 706 at Blackford. He is also affiliated
with Crittenden Chapter No. 70, R. A. M., and Wind-
gate Council No. 40, R. and S. M.
In 1895, at Marion, Doctor Frazer married Miss Cleo
Nunn. Her parents, S. A. and Anna (Clement) Nunn,
live in Crittenden County, her father being a well-
known farmer of that section. Mrs. Frazer was a
teacher in the schools of Crittenden County for three
years before her marriage. They have seven children,
Carl O, Joseph S., Theodore R., Robert N., Ada Nell,
Edwin Walker and Chastain Lynn. The three youngest
are pupils in the public schools of Marion, while Robert
N. is in the Marion High School. Carl O., now at home
and engaged in farming, is an ex-service man of the
World war and spent a year with the Expeditionary
Forces in France and in Germany. The second son,
Joseph S., is a motor mechanic, and Theodore R. is
with the U. S. G. S.
John S. Roebuck, Jr. It is a third of a century since
John S. Roebuck, Jr., was admitted to the bar and
began practice at Newport. Since then he has handled
a large volume of general practice in the courts of
Newport, Covington and Cincinnati, and as a citizen
his interests have been intimately identified with his
community through all the years.
Mr. Roebuck was born at Prescott, Ontario, Canada,
February 22, 1865. His grandfather was Henry Roe-
buck, who was born in India. His mother, being left a
widow, brought her six sons from India to Canada and
established her family on a homestead at Coteau, On-
tario. Her maiden name was Elizabeth Hyde. After
coming to Canada she became the wife of Col. William
Simpson, who was collector of customs at Brockville.
Henry Roebuck was reared and educated in Canada,
for a number of years was a steamboat captain on the
St. Lawrence River and finally retired to his farm and
died at Coteau in 1877. He was a man of exceptional
physique, his chest measure being fifty-four inches.
This characteristic is noteworthy because both his son
and grandson seem to inherit it, and while the Newport
lawyer has been devoted to his profession his enthusiasm
is readily aroused by any subject connected with out-
door life and he has written many short stories and
sketches for such publications at the Outing and the
Forest and Stream of New York. His father was a type
of the perfect all around athlete, and had an almost
national reputation as an amateur boxer, fencer and
wrestler. At one time he was superintendent of the
Cincinnati Gymnasium. He was six feet tall, and when
in athletic condition weighed 190 pounds. Henry Roe-
buck married a Miss Nichol, a native of the Isle of
Guernsey, who died at Montreal.
John S. Roebuck, Sr., was born at Coteau, Ontario,
in 1833, was reared there, was married in the neighbor-
ing City of Brockville, and was a bank cashier at Coteau
and Prescott. In 1869 he brought his family to New-
port, Kentucky, and for a time was employed as a book-
keeper and later was general manager of the Weir Frog
Company of Cincinnati. While in Canada he had served
as a major in the Dominion Artillery. He was a mem-
ber of the Masonic fraternity and the Episcopal Church.
He was one of the highly honored citizens of Newport,
where his old time friends hold him in grateful mem-
ory. He died June 6, 1905. His wife was Emily B.
Jessup, born at Brockville, Canada, in 1835, and, at the
age of eighty-six, a resident of Newport. Many prom-
inent people in this section of Kentucky will readily
pay tribute to the splendid work she did for years as
a teacher of music and art. She began teaching these
subjects fifty years ago, and taught practically every-
one who has shown some special distinction in those
arts at Newport and vicinity. She retired from this
professional work about 1909. Of her three children
John S. Roebuck, Jr., is the youngest and only son.
Catherine S., who has been a practicing physician at
Newport for the past twenty-five years, lives at 223
East Fifth Street in Newport and is the wife of N. D.
Evatt, a solicitor. Mary W. Roebuck became the wife
of Otto Mulot, a physician and surgeon at Brooklyn,
New York.
John S. Roebuck, Jr., was about four years of age
when his parents removed to Newport, and he received
his early education in the public schools of Cincinnati.
He graduated LL.B. from the Cincinnati Law School
in 1887, and is one of the older members of the Alumni
Association of Cincinnati University. He began prac-
tice at Newport and has also handled much legal busi-
ness in the cities of Cincinnati and Covington. His
offices are at 313 York Street in Newport. He is a mem-
ber of the 'Campbell County Bar Association, is a re-
publican, a member of the Episcopal Church and has
to his credit nine years of service in Company B,
Second Regiment, Kentucky State Guards. During
the World war he was deeply interested in every phase
I
Vho. 6 f^nJ-^tA.
(r
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
375
of patriotic work and served as a member of the Home
Guards at Newport.
In 1894, in Mason County, Kentucky, he married Miss
Emma M. Massman, daughter of Louis J. and Louise
(Nueff) Massman. Her father was an accountant in
Cincinnati. Mrs. Roebuck is a graduate of the Notre
Dame Academy of Cincinnati. Their only child, Zip-
porah L. Roebuck, is an art student in the Cincinnati
Art Academy.
Benjamin L. Nisbet, member of one of the oldest
and most prominent families of Hopkins County, quali-
fied for the practice of law about five years ago, but
more than half of the time since then was taken up
by his military service. He was both on the Mexican
border and in France.
Mr. Nisbet was born at Madisonville August 23, 1892.
His paternal ancestors were Colonial settlers in North
Carolina, coming from Nisbet, Berwickshire, Scotland.
His great-grandfather was James Nisbet, a native of
North Carolina, who a century or more ago came to
Kentucky and lived out his life as a farmer in Hopkins
County. The grandfather of the Madisonville lawyer
was also James Nisbet and was born in Hopkins County
in 1827. He was a man of much prominence, served
two terms as sheriff of Hopkins County, owned a large
amount of farm land, and was interested in the first
ice factory in Madisonville. He died at Madisonville
in 1914. His wife was Jane Davis, who was born at
St. Charles in Hopkins County and died at Madisonville
in 1809. Their son, J. C. Nisbet, was born in Hopkins
County in 1856, and for many years has been one of
the county's leading farmers and stock men. He lives
at Madisonville, and in addition to the handling of his
own properties he is manager of the farms of the
Nisbet estate, comprising about 1,000 acres owned by
the late W. A. Nisbet, the well-known coal mine
operator, banker and farmer. J. C. Nisbet served as
deputy sheriff under his father for eight years when
a young man, also as constable in Madisonville ten
years, and has given much time to public affairs. He
has served as chairman of the school board in the
Munn's school district. He is a democrat and is a
member of the Grapevine Christian Church, the oldest
church of that denomination in Hopkins County. J. C.
Nisbet married Sallie E. Wheatley, who was born in
Owen County, Kentucky, in 1859 and died in Hopkins
County in 1894. She was the mother of two children,
Mary Wheatley and Benjamin L. The daughter, who
died in January, 1920, was the wife of C. C. Woodruff,
who is assistant superintendent of the Fox Run coal
mines at St. Charles, Kentucky.
Benjamin L. Nisbet acquired some of his education
in the rural schools of Hopkins County. He graduated
from the Madisonville High School with the class of
1912, and in 1915 received his LL. B. degree from Ken-
tucky State University at Lexington. He entered upon
a general practice of the law at Madisonville imme-
diately after graduating. About the same time, in
June, 1915, he enlisted in the Kentucky National Guard.
During the fall and winter of 1916-17 he was called
from his work as a lawyer to serve with the National
Guard on the Mexican border. While there he was
regimental commissary sergeant on the non-commis-
sioned staff. He received his discharge from this service
at Louisville March 15, 1917. Less than a month later,
on April 13, 1917, he was called to duty by the
outbreak of the war against Germany. He was with
the troops that mobilized at Lexington, was commis-
sioned a second lieutenant May 25, 1917, and while
stationed at Lexington served as assistant judge advo-
cate of the Kentucky National Guard. After enrollment
in the National Army he was transferred, September
I, 1917, to Camp Shelby, Mississippi, as a member of
the Sixty-third Depot Brigade on Gen. Roger Williams
staff. He was next transferred to the One Hundred and
Forty-ninth Infantry and was promoted to first lieu-
tenant December 14, 1917. He served as division in-
struction officer in the One Pound Cannon School. Mr.
Nisbet went overseas in September, 1918, landing at
Southampton, England, and crossed the channel to La
Havre in October. After going abroad he was trans-
ferred from the One Hundred and Forty-ninth In-
fantry to the One Hundred and Sixty-first Infantry,
First Depot Brigade, and served as commandant of the
Headquarters Company Specialty Schools at Contres,
France. The last of December, 1918, he was transferred
from the One Hundred and Sixty-first Infantry to
Classification Camp at St. Aignan, France, and subse-
quently assigned command of St. Aignan Casualty Com-
pany No. 988 for return to the United States. He
sailed from Brest March 1, 1919, landed at Hoboken,
New Jersey, was sent to Camp Merritt, New Jersey,
and then to Camp Taylor at Louisville, where he was
mustered out in April, 1919.
Mr. Nisbet resumed the active practice of law at
Madisonville July 1, 1920, and is now in the full swing
of his professional career. His offices are in the
Overall Building on East Center Street. He is a demo-
crat, a member of the Christian Church, and is affiliated
with Madisonville Lodge No. 738 of the Elks, of which
he is lecturing knight. He lives in a very attractive
bungalow residence on North Main Street. Mr. Nisbet
married at Lexington in February, 1918, Miss Helen
Lafferty, daughter of W. T. and Maude (Ward) Laf-
ferty, her father being dean of the Kentucky State
University Law School. Her parents are both promi-
nent socially in Lexington, and her mother is one of
Kentucky's prominent women. Mr. and Mrs. Nisbet
have one daughter, Helen Louise, born April 21, 1919.
Letcher R. Fox has been one of the leading mem-
bers of the bar of Madisonville for the past twenty
years, is the present county attorney, and his abilities
are in line with the substantial traditions of a family
that has been in this section of Kentucky for more
than a century.
His great-grandfather Fox was born in North Caro-
lina in 1747, and about the year 1800 came to Ken-
tucky and established a home on a farm in Hopkins
County, near St. Charles. On that same farm was
born Letcher R. Fox and also his father and grand-
father. The great-grandfather died on the homestead
in 1830. He had cleared the land and first cultivated
it. His wife was Cynthia Laffoon, also a native of
North Carolina. She died on the Kentucky homestead.
The Laffoons were a Holland Dutch family, while the
Foxes are Scotch-Irish.
The grandfather of Letcher R. Fox was John Crit-
tenden Fox, who was born near St. Charles in Hop-
kins County in 1822 and spent all his life on that
homestead. He died there in 1884. While he was a
democrat, in early life he was a stanch Union sym-
pathizer and became a republican after the war. He
was a member of the Christian Church and for many
years an elder in the Christian Privilege Church, the
oldest church of that denomination in Hopkins County.
John C. Fox married Mahalia Moore, who was b'orn
in Hopkins County in 1820 and died on the home farm
in 1870. They were the parents of four sons and one
daughter : Hampton, who served as a Union soldier
until he died of measles ; James H, father of the
present county attorney; Mattie, who is the wife of
T. P. Woodruff and lives on a farm near St. Charles ;
Franklin Pierce, a farmer near St. Charles ; and George
Buchanan, who is a farmer in the same community.
James H. Fox was born in the old homestead Jan-
uary 22, 1847, had a rural school education, and in
October, 1863, became a Union soldier in the 35th
Kentucky Infantry. He was in the battle of Salt
Works, Virginia, and in many skirmishes. After the
war he returned home, was a farmer near St. Charles
376
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
until 1888, then for eighteen years conducted a saw
mill business in Hopkins County, and since then has
lived retired in Madisonville. He is a stanch repub-
lican, and while living in the country served thirteen
years as magistrate in the St. Charles district and for
two terms police judge of St. Charles. He is a member
of Madisonville Post of the Grand Army, is a Mason,
and has been almost a life-long member of the Chris-
tian Church. In 1867, in Hopkins County, he married
Miss Misdycie Rob'nson. She was born near St.
Charles in iS_|6 and died at the Fox farm in 1881.
She is survived by three children: Ida, wife of Eugene
Brown, a carpenter and builder of Hopkinsville ; Claude
U . who lives in Chicago and is a salesman for the
wholesale dry goods house of Carson, Pirie, Scott &
Company; and Letcher R., the youngest. In 1883, in
Hopkins County, James H. Fox married Miss Martha
Jane White, who was born in that county in 1862.
They have two children: Yada, wife of I. fl. Vannoy,
a merchant at Madisonville, and Edgar P., a hardware
merchant at Madisonville.
Letcher R. Fox was born on the old home near St.
Charles, March 25. 1870, and all his early years were
spent in that community. He attended the rural schools,
the grade schools at St. Charles, and the South Ken-
tucky College at Hopkinsville, and studied law under
Judge J. F. Lands of Hopkinsville, the late judge of
the Superior Court of Kentucky. In the meantime,
from the age of eighteen to twenty-one, he taught in
some of the rural schools of his native county. Ad-
mitted to the bar in 1900, Mr. Fox immediately began
practice at Madisonville, and his professional work
has included a wide range of civil and criminal cases,
many of them the most important tried in local courts.
He has increased his professional reputation through
the vigorous manner in which he has handled his
duties as county attorney. He was elected to that
office in 1917, and began his term of four years in
January, 1918.
Mr. Fox has acquired many other associations with
his home city. He is a stockholder and director in the
Citizens Bank & Trust Company of Madisonville, and
besides his own modern home at 322 South Scott
Street owns two business buildings on Main Street
and a farm near St. Charles. He invested of his per-
sonal resources in war securities, and was a speaker
and worker in all the campaigns for the sale of Liberty
Bonds and other drives. As a republican he was a
stanch admirer of Theodore Roosevelt, attended the
Chicago convention as a Roosevelt delegate, and later
helped nominate Mr. Roosevelt on the progressive
ticket. During that campaign he was himself candidate
for Congress from the Second Kentucky District. He
is a member and deacon of the Christian Church, and
is affiliated with Madisonville Lodge No. 143. A. F.
and A. M. ; Madisonville Lodge No. 738 of the Elks;
Eureka Camp No. 25, Woodmen of the World; White
Oak Nest, Order of Owls: Madisonville Camp. Mod-
ern Woodmen of America: and Victoria Lodge No. 84
of the Knights of Pytlv'as at Earlington. In 1904, in
Christian County, near Hopkinsville, Mr. Fox married
Miss Ora Lee Clardy. daughter of James H. and Annie
Maria (Cayce) Clardy. Her parents are retired farm-
ers living at Lafayette in Christian County. Mrs.
Fox's maternal grandfather, George Cayce, was oik of
the carlv settlers near Hopkinsville, coming from Illi-
nois. The two children of Mr. and Mrs. Fox are
Anita, born July 20, 1907, and Nell Arden, born Oc-
tober 27, 1913.
RosroE Eastwood is one of the young county officers
of Hopkins County, represents one of the old and sub-
stantial names of this section of the state, and prac-
tically ever since he left high school has been engaged
in some duties at the courthouse in Madisonville.
Mr. Eastwood was born on a farm in the north part
of Hopkins County, near Slaughters, November 6,
1889. His paternal ancestors were English and first
settled in North Carolina. His grandfather, Wylie
Eastwood, was a native of North Carolina, but as a
young man came West and settled in Hopkins County,
Kentucky. He followed farming and planting, and at
the time of the war between the states joined the
Confederate Army and gave up his life for the South
in the battle of Fort Donelson early in the war. He
married a Miss Ashby, a native of Hopkins County.
C. H. Eastwood, father of Roscoe Eastwood, was born
in Hopkins County in 1858 and has spent all his active
life as a farmer in the northern part of the county.
Though he was left fatherless at an early age, he has
achieved more than ordinary success, is one of the \
largest land owners of the county, having about 1,000
acres, and has been very successful in raising hogs on
an extensive scale. Since 1910 his home has been on
a farm a mile and a half east of Slaughters. He is a
democrat and a member of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South. C. H. Eastwood married Sallie A.
Orton, who was born near Slaughters in 1867. Roscoe
is the oldest of their children. Lottie is the wife of
M. E. Toombs, a farmer near Slaughters; C W.
Eastwood is a farmer in the same vicinity ; Frank is
a student in the. Kentucky State University at Lexing-
ton; and Benjamin is still carrying on the work of
the public schools.
Roscoe Eastwood grew up on his father's farm, made
the best of the advantages of the rural schools and in
1910 graduated from the Madisonville High School.
Soon after leaving high school he was appointed deputy
county clerk, and performed those duties for two and
a half years. Following that he was deputy sheriff
two years, and in November, 191 5, had the honor of
being elected Circuit Court clerk of Hopkins County,
a very distinctive honor for a young man who was
but twenty-six years of age at the time of his election.
He began his official duties for a term of six years
January 3, 1916. The only interruption to his official
service came when he entered the army in 1918, spend-
ing two months in a training school at Cookeville,
Tennessee, then for three months at Fort Leavenworth,
and two and a half months at Camp Meade, Mary-
land. He was mustered out January 28, 1919, and at
once resumed his duties as Circuit Court clerk. Mr.
Eastwood is a democrat, a member of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South, and affiliated with Madison-
ville Lodge No. 143. A'. F. and A. M. ; Madisonville
Chapter No. 123, R. A. M. ; Madisonville Commandery
No. 27, K. T. ; Rizpah Temple of the Mystic Shrine
at Madisonville; and Madisonville Lodge No. 738 of
the Elks.
William Walter Crick, present county judge of
Hopkins County, was born on a farm seven miles
southeast of Madisonville, near the mouth of Flat
Creek. April 5, 1882, and has achieved business suc-
cess and public honor in communities where the people
have known him since boyhood.
Judge Crick's paternal ancestors came from Ireland
in Colonial times. His grandfather. James Crick, was
born in Coffee County, Tennessee, in 1818, was reared
and married in his native county, was a farmer there,
and as a stanch Union man joined the LTnion Army in
the Civil war and served throughout as a non-com-
missioned officer. At the close of the war he moved
to Indiana, but in 1870 settled in Christian County,
Kentucky, and lived on his farm there until his death
in 1885. He was a republican and a Methodist. James
Crick married Sallie Mangrum, a native of Coffee
County, Tennessee, where she died a few years after
their marriage.
W. M. Crick, father of Judge Crick, was born at
Tullahoma, Tennessee, in 1857, accompanied his father
to Indiana after the war, and was still young when
the family settled in Christian County, Kentucky, in
1870. At the time of his marriage in Madisonville he
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
377
was carrying the United States mail between Madison-
ville and Providence. Subsequently he moved to the
farm seven miles southeast of Madisonville where Wil-
liam W. Crick was -born, but in 1884 moved to another
farm near White Plains, two miles east of that village,
and is still actively engaged in agriculture in that
location. He has been successful as .a farmer, and
particularly as a fruit grower, having the largest cul-
tivated orchard in the southern part of Hopkins County.
He is a republican, and was candidate on that ticket
for the office of county jailer of Hopkins County in
19T0. For thirty-six years he has been one of the
leading members of the Cumberland Presbyterian
Church in his community and is an elder. He has been
identified with the Masonic order for forty-one years.
W. M. Crick married Mary Hardiman, who was born
at Hopkinsville, Kentucky, in 1863. Her father, George
Washington Hardmian, was born in Buckingham Coun-
ty, Virginia, in 1822 and came to Hopkins County,
Kentucky, during the Civil war. He was a well known
and successful farmer and a leading democrat of his
community. He died in Hopkins County in 1899. He
and his father while living in Buckingham County,
Virginia, were extensive slave holders and during the
war they freed 162 of their slaves. George W. Hardi-
man married Lucy Cotton, a native of Kentucky, and
she died on the Hardiman farm in Hopkins County.
W. M. Crick and wife were the parents of seven
children, William W. being the second. The oldest,
Serena, is the wife of John L. Josey, a miner living
at Mortons Gap, Kentucky;- James George is a ma-
chinist living at Johnson City, Illinois; Leota lives at
Evansville, Indiana, widow of Frank Redmond, who
was a building contractor; Elsie is the wife of Otis
Dillingham, a farmer near White Plains, Kentucky;
Herbert W. in 1919, when twenty-one years of age,
was supervisor of Christian County Schools, was grad-
uated from Bowling Green University in 1920, and is
now principal of the Mortons Gap schools ; Nora Lee
is a teacher in the Whitfield school near White Plains,
and between times carries advanced studies in Bowling
Green University.
William Walter Crick acquired his early education
in the common schools of Hopkins County, and from
the age of seventeen to nmeteen gave all his time to
his father on the home place. Following that for a
year he was an employe of the construction depart-
ment of the Illinois Central Railway. His longest
business association was with the Hope Milling Com-
pany of White Plains. He was with that industry
fifteen years, begintr'ng in the mechanical department,
and for the last nine years was manager of the mills.
Mr. Crick always showed an active and public spirited
interest in local affairs, and in 1909 was appointed
city judge of White Plains by Governor Willson, and
was regularly elected to that office for two terms. He
resigned upon his election as county judge of. Hopkins
County on the republican ticket. His election to the
office of county judge was an interesting political
event in Hopkins County, which is normally demo-
cratic. He led his ticket by 730 votes, and his personal
majority was 944. He was elected in November, 1917.
and began his four-year term in the courthouse in
January, 1918. In October, 1919, he was given a dis-
tinctive honor by election for a term of one year as
president of the County Judges Association of Ken-
tucky. At the primary election, August 6, 1921, Judge
Crick was nominated on the republican ticket for
State Senator, Sixth Senatorial District.
Judge Crick is a stockholder in the Citizens Bank
& Trust Company of Madisonville, in the Hope Mill-
ing Company of White Plains, and is also the ex-
clusive agent for Hopkins, Muhlenberg and McLean
counties for the Studebaker automobiles. Judge Crick
as a res-dent of Madisonville moved into a very com-
plete and modern home which he built in 1920 at the
corner of Sugg and Seminary streets. He is a member
Vol. V— 35
of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, is a past
master of Orphans Friends Lodge No. 523, A. F. and
A. M., at White Plains, having held the post of wor-
shipful master four different years; is affiliated with
Madisonville Chapter No. 123, R. A. M. ; Madisonville
Commandery No. 27, K. T. ; Rizpah Temple of the
Mystic Shrine at Madisonville ; Madisonville Lodge
No. 738 of the Elks, Willow Camp No. 113, Woodmen
of the World, at White Plains ; Willow Grove No.
113 of the Woodmen Circle; and is a member of Nor-
tonville Chapter of the Eastern Star and the Daughters
of the Rebekah. He is especially prominent in Odd
Fellowship, being a member of Mount Carmel Lodge
No. 246, at White Plains, and at the age of twenty-six
was district deputy grand master for Hopkins County.
Judge Crick married at Springfield, Tennessee, in
1902, Miss Maude D. Farmer, daughter of John and
Jennie (Bruce) Farmer, both deceased. Judge and
Mrs. Crick have two daughters, Ruth, born June 7,
1903, in the second year of the Madisonville High
School, and Grace, born January 8, 1910.
Augustus R. Steele. One of the enterprising young
business men of Paducah, now engaged very success-
fully in a real estate and insurance concern, is a veteran
of the great war, and holds the respect and confidence
of his fellow citizens both as a former soldier and
reliable man of affairs. He was born at Clarksville,
Tennessee, August 1, 1880, a son of James Steele, now
a resident of Cleburne, Texas.
James Steele was born in Ireland in 1865, and re-
sided there until he came to the United States and
settled first in New York State, from whence he came
to Clarksville, Tennessee. After a number of years
spent in that locality, during which period he was
engaged in farming, he moved to Paris, Tennessee, in
1901, and then, in 1919, went to Texas, at present
being interested in agricultural matters in the vicinity
of Cleburne. His political convictions are such as to
make him a democrat, and while he was living in Paris
he served as a police magistrate. Having been reared
by careful parents, he early joined the Methodist
Episcopal Church as an outcome of their teachings,
and has since continued one of the firm supporters of
the denomination in the several places in which he
has resided. His wife bore the maiden name of Susan
Sanders, and she was born at Clarksville, Tennessee,
in 1859, and died at Paris, Tennessee, in 1901, having
borne her husband the following children : Augustus
R., who was the eldest born ; W. R., who was a car-
penter and builder, died at Paris, Tennessee, in 1918;
David, who is a tinner, lives at Cleburne, Texas ;
Broadus, who is manager of a theater at Kent, Ohio ;
and Leonard lives at Cleburne, Texas, and is in the
tinning business.
Augustus R. Steele attended the public schools of
Paris, Tennessee, and the Branham & Hughes Prepara-
tory School for boys at Springhill, Tennessee, and was
graduated from the latter in 1903. Immediately there-
after he moved to Jackson, Tennessee, to become
superintendent of the Nashville, Tennessee, Life In-
surance Company, and held that position for two years.
In 1905 he came to Paducah as manager of the collec-
tion department of the Home Telephone Company,
leaving it after five years of effective work to become
sales manager of the Billings Printing Company, and
remained with that concern for two years. Mr. Steele,
however, had always felt that he would rather be in a
business of his own, and when the opening came in
1913 for him to establish himself in a general insur-
ance business he grasped it, and his success proves the
wisdom of his choice. He also handles real estate,
with offices at 203-4 City National Bank Building. He
is general agent for the Philadelphia Life Insurance
Company, agent for the Massachusetts Bonding Com-
pany, agent for the American Central Fire Insurance
Company, agent for the Mechanics & Traders Insurance
378
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
Company, agent for the American Alliance of New
York City, agent for the Victory Insurance Company of
Philadelphia, agent for the Ohio Valley Insurance Com-
pany, and is prepared to write insurance in almost any
of the old line companies, both life and fire.
Like his father, he is a democrat and a Methodist, in
the latter connection maintaining membership with the
Fountain Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church, is chair-
man of its Board of Stewards, superintendent of the
Sunday School, and scoutmaster of the troop He
belongs to Paducah Lodge No. 26, K. of P.; and Pa-
ducah Homestead No. 4453, B. A. Y„ and is serving
the latter as secretary.
In 1906 Mr. Steele was married at Paris. Tennessee,
to Miss Ruth Hastings, a daughter of F. M. and Har-
riet (Dortch) Hastings, the former of whom is a
farmer residing at Paris, Tennessee. His wife died
several years ago. Mr. and Mrs. Steele have no chil-
dren.
In August, 1 9 1 8. Mr. Steele entered the United States
service with the Young Men's Christian Assoc'ation.
and was sent overseas for France. After his arrival
in France he was assigned to general camp work as
divisional secretary, having charge of forty-eight secre-
taries during the greatest period of activity. He re-
mained in the service until May 1, 1919, when he was
stricken with pleuro-pneumonia. After leaving the
hospital he was mustered out on account of disability,
and returned to Paducah on May 30, 1919, and re-
sumed his business operations. He is an experienced
insurance man and understands realty values, so that
those desiring to invest in e'ther line find that it is
safe to rely on his judgment.
Reginald V. Bennett, principal of the Lindsay-
Wilson Training School at Columbia, and a clergyman
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, is one of
the scholarly men and earnest prelates of Kentucky,
who both by precept and example, is exerting a strong
influence for good on his generation. He was born at
Ceralvo, Ohio County, Kentucky. March 9, 1885, a son
of Sam P. Bennett, and grandson of Timothy Bennett,
who was born in Virginia in 1827, and died at Center-
town, Ohio County, Kentucky, in 1908. Coming to
Kentucky in young manhood, he settled in Ohio Coun-
ty, developed a farm, was married to Miss Martha
Tichenor, a native of the county, and both rounded
out their useful and honorable lives upon their farm.
The Bennetts came to the American Colonies from
Scotland and settled in Virginia.
Sam P. Bennett was born near Rockport, Ohio
County, Kentucky, and has spent his life in Ohio
County with the exception of the six years he lived at
Louisville, Kentucky. He has been an extensive farmer,
and is still engaged in that calling, living on his fine
farm at Narrows, Kentucky. While he was at Louis-
ville he was in the employ of the Hlino's Central Rail-
road Company, but found that he preferred an agri-
cultural life and so returned to Ohio County. While
he has always voted the democratic ticket, he has not
been active in politics. The Missionary Baptist Church
holds his membership and he has always been a strong
supporter of it. He is equally zealous as a Mason.
His wife was Miss Naomi Shultz before her marriage.
She was born near Hartford, Kentucky, in 1861. and
died at Narrows, March 25, 1907. Their children were
as follows :
Clarence S., who is an electrical engineer of Port-
land. Oregon, is with the General Electric Company ;
Reginald V., who was second in order of birth :
Joseph B., who is a druggist of Cairo. Illinois; Arthur
R., who is chief engineer of the United States Ship-
ping Board of New York City, is a veteran of the
World war, in which he served as an engineer on
transports and crossed the ocean fourteen times ; Carl
W., who is professor of agriculture at the University
of Michigan, Ann Arbor, is also a veteran of the World
war, in which he served as a member of the Coast
Artillery; and Roswell, who is now a student at the
Kentucky State University at Lexington. During the
World war he enlisted in the Aviation Corps, and after
being trained was sent overseas to England, which he
had just reached when the armistice was signed, so
that he was not at the front.
Mr. Bennett attended the rural schools of Ohio
County and Vanderbilt Training School at Elkton, Ken-
tucky, from which he was graduated in 1906. He
then entered the Vanderbilt University at Nashville,
Tennessee, and was graduated therefrom in 1912 wiFh
the degree of Bachelor of Arts and as a member of
the Phi Beta Kappa Greek letter college fraternity,
which is an honorary fraternity.
In the meanwhile Mr. Bennett had begun teaching
school, and was so engaged in Ohio County during
1904 and 1905. During 1906 and 1907 he was pro-
fessor in the Vanderbilt Training School, and during
1908 and 1909 he taught in the Wilson Training School
of Fayetteville. Tennessee. For the subsequent two
years he was principal of the Franklin County High
School in Tennessee. In 1912 Mr. Bennett joined the
Louisville Conference of the Methodist Episcopal
Church. South, and was sent to Corydon. Kentucky, as
pastor of the church of that denomination in that city,
and remained there until 1916, when he was transferred
to Beechmont Church, Louisville, and remained there
until 1918. In the latter year he was elected principal
of the Lindsay-Wilson Training School at Columbia,
and entered at once upon the discharge of his duties.
The school was established iii 1903 and belongs to the
Louisville Conference of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South. The buildings are all modern brick
structures and are known as the Administration Build-
ing, the Girls' Building and the Boys' Building. These
buildings are in ten-acre grounds, and are located at
the eastern edge of Columbia. Mr. Bennett has six
teachers and 200 pupils under his supervision.
A man of strong convictions, he prefers to vote in-
dependently of party ties. A Mason, he maintains
membership with Columbia Lodge No. 96, F. and A.
M. During the late war he took an active part in the
local war work, assisting in all of the drives for the
different purposes, bought bonds and stamps to the
limit of his means, and contributed very generously to
all war organizations.
On June 20. 1912, Mr. Bennett was married at
Decherd, Tennessee, to Miss Augusta M. Carpenter, a
daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Carpenter, residents
of Decherd, Tennessee, Mr. Carpenter being a loco-
motive engineer for the Nashville, Chattanooga & Saint
Louis Railroad. Mrs. Bennett attended the normal
school at Winchester. Tennessee. Mr. and Mrs. Ben-
nett have four children, namely : Louise, who was born
June 19, 1913, is a student of the Lindsay-Wilson
Training School; Jessica, who was born December IS,
1915; Reginald Victor, who was born December 12,
1917; and Joel Samuel, who was born in 1920.
Since Mr. Bennett has assumed charge of the Lind-
say-Wilson Training School this institution has been
infused with new life, and the progress has been rapid
and commendable. Pupils from this school have a
high rating, and Doctor Bennett is constantly intro-
ducing improvements in methods, for he is a very pro-
gressive man and is never content to rest upon laurels
already won, but is seeking new ones through con-
tinued study and eflort. His interests are centered in
his work, although he takes his civic responsibilities
seriously and strives to lend his influence to all moral
reforms and uplift movements. Personally he has a
large following, .and is recognized as one of the strik-
ing figures in the educational and religious life of his
part of the state.
Wesley Monroe Rardin. It is just forty years since
Wesley Monroe Rardin began his career as a lawyer
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
379
at Butler. The reputation associated with his name
today is the result of accumulating achievements and
an extensive business that has reached out far beyond
the borders of his home county. He is one of Ken-
tucky's foremost attorneys, and in earlier years also bore
a prominent part in politics.
His family has been in Kentucky for more than a
century. His great-great-grandfather was John Rardin,
a native of County Cork, Ireland. The family for sev-
eral generations spelled the name O'Reardon. John
Rardin was a settler in Pennsylvania in Colonial days
and was killed there by the Indians. His son, John
Rardin, was born in Pennsylvania in 1755, and when
about twenty years of age enlisted under General Daniel
Morgan as a member of the Bucktail Guards, and
served under that commander during the siege of Bos-
ton in 1775-76. Later he was with Morgan in the
Southern campaign, participating in the battle of Cow-
pens. His record showed participation in other im-
portant campaigns of the Revolution, and after the war
he was a pensioner. In 1812 he brought his family to
the West and founded the Rardin homestead in Pen-
dleton County. He bought extensive tracts of wood-
lands in 1817, and their development was continued
under his sons. This old Revolutionary soldier died in
Pendleton County in 1835. Before coming West he
married Miss Massie Hull, who died in Pendleton
County in the later forties.
The grandfather of the Butler attorney was John
George Washington Rardin, who was born at Elizabeth,
Pennsylvania, in January, 1798, and was fourteen years
of age when he accompanied his parents on a flatboat
down the Ohio from Pittsburgh. His life was devoted
to agriculture, and he died at the old home, Rardin
Farm, in July, 1850. In Pendleton County he married
Nancy Record, who was born in Maryland in 1801 and
died at Rardin Farm in August, 1883.
Their son, Greenberry Stuart Rardin, was born in
Campbell County, Kentucky, September 19, 1832, and
besides farming he operated steam saw mills and grist
mills. July 16, 1874, he moved to Butler, was a farmer
and also a carpenter, and built a number of the older
homes of that community. At one time he was also a
star route mail carrier. In poltics he was a republican.
For twenty years he served as street commissioner of
Butler, and laid out and built many of the streets and
highways in that locality. He was a faithful member
of the Baptist Church from 1857 until his death, which
occurred September 19, 1912, and he was one of the
principal organizers and supporters of the Baptist
Church in Butler. He led a most exemplary Christian
life. Fraternally he was an Odd Fellow. His wife
was Mary Jane DeMoss, whom he married in Campbell
County, where she was born December 14, 1840. She
died at Butler, January 9, 1920. Of her two sons, Wes-
ley Monroe is the older. The second, Cary Alvin, was
horn in Campbell County, May 20, 1863, also became a
lawyer and for twenty years practiced with his brother,
until 191 2, when he removed to Covington and was a
collector and salesman for the Dines-Scbahell Furniture
Company. He died at Covington, April 4, 1915.
Wesley 'Monroe Rardin was born in Campbell County,
September 28, 1858, attended rural school there, and
took a four-year course, ending in 1874, in the Beech
Grove Academy at Beech Grove. During the winter
terms of 1874-75 and 1875-76 he was an assistant in the
public school at Butlei, and taught in rural schools of
Pendleton County in 1877 and 1878. During 1878-79
he studied languages, mathematics and rhetoric at Aspen
Grove Academy under Professor George W. Shaw and
Charles Drake. His work as a teacher continued in the
schools of Pendleton and Campbell counties until May,
1883, and during the last year he was in charge of the
academic department of the Alexandria School at Alex-
andria, Kentucky.
In the meantime he had employed his leisure time in
the study of law, being a student in the offices of Judge
A. E. Howe of Butler and Judge Edward Reiley at
Alexandria. He was admitted to the bar August 21,
1881. His examiners were Judge J. S. Boyd of the
Twelfth Judicial Circuit, Judge James O'Hara of Cov-
ington, and Judge T. P. McKibben of Newport, all
distinguished and eminent men in the Kentucky bar.
It was in September, 1883, that Mr. Rardin turned his
undivided attention to his law practice at Butler. For
many years his clientage has been an extensive one, and
there is seldom a session in which he does not have
cases pending before six circuit judges in six different
circuits. His reputation as an attorney is well estab-
lished in Pendleton, Campbell, Kenton, Bracken, Grant
and Harrison counties, and occasionally he has handled
business in Nicholas and Fleming counties. His great
forte as a lawyer has been in land and equity litigation.
He has also handled considerable criminal practice, and
figured as chief counsel for the defense in one celebrated
case, that of the Commonwealth of Kentucky vs. Wal-
lace Bishop. Bishop and a companion had murdered a
hobo at the Lagoon at Ludlow, Kentucky, and figured
in a spectacular attempt to escape to Cincinnati, being
intercepted by the police at the suspension bridge be-
tween Covington and Cincinnati. During the encounter
that followed he shot and killed a policeman, McQuerey,
and when hemmed in by his pursuers jumped into the
river, but was rescued and captured. He was indicted
and tried in July, 1900, Mr. Rardin having accepted his
defense. He was convicted and sentenced to hang, but
Mr. Rardin carried the case to the Court of Appeals,
arguing it before the full bench, the opposing counsel
for the state being Attorney Robert C. Breckinridge.
The decision of the lower court was sustained by the
Court of Appeals, when Mr. Rardin filed a petition for
a rehearing and at the rehearing he obtained a com-
plete reversal. The second trial was held in the Kenton
County Circuit Court, resulting in a verdict of life
imprisonment.
Professional work has given Mr. Rardin a full pro-
gram and one well calculated to satisfy his ambitions.
He has accumulated considerable property, including his
office building, modern home and other real estate in
Butler, and also a farm of seventy-five acres a mile
north of town. He was for sixteen years city attorney
and town clerk of Butler. He was reared in a repub-
lican family and cast his first vote for Garfield in 1880,
and consistently supported that party until 1904, when
he completely changed his political creed and has since
been a democrat. The larger part of his political activ-
ities came while he was a republican. In 1890 he was
a candidate for Congress and succeeded in greatly re-
ducing the majority of his opponents. He was presi-
dential elector for the Sixth District in 1892 and in
1897 was republican candidate for the State Senate
from the 26th Senatorial District.
Mr. Rardin is a member of the Covington and New-
port Bar Associations, is affiliated with the Odd Fellows
and Knights of Pythias and is an elder in the Christian
Church. During the World war he was permanent
legal adviser for the Pendleton County draft board, a
member of the County Fuel Administration, and he
and his two daughters filled out 500 questionnaires for
recruited men from Pendleton, Kenton and Campbell
counties.
It is a matter of interest to note that "Rardin Farm."
referred to in previous paragraphs, remained in the
possession of the Rardin family for just a hundred
years to the month.
On May 13, 1885, near Butler, Mr. Rardin married
Miss Ida May Yelton, daughter of Charles G. and
Rosa (Stephenson) Yelton, now deceased. The Yeltons
were a family of pioneers in Pendleton County and her
father was a farmer. The great-grandfather was
Charles Yelton, who came to Pendleton County in 1798.
Mrs. Rardin was liberally educated and was a teacher
380
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
before her marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Rardin had four
children : The second, Eugene S., die at the age of
one year. Charles Vernon, the oldest, born April I, 1886,
graduated from Butler High School, and since October
20, 1916, has been a division clerk in the purchasing
department of the Air Craft Service of the War De-
partment at Washington. On November 12, 1913, he
married Miss Ruth Ann Croasdale of Liberty Center,
Indiana and they have a little son, Robert Eugene
Rardin. Rosa Evelyn Rardin, born April 5, 1892, is
the wife of Ernest F. Sharp, and they live on and
operate Mr. Rardin's farm near Butler, and they also
have a young son, Roger Ernest Sharp. Lilly May,
the youngest child, was born August 23, 1894, and
was married February 19, 1921, to John \Y. Brad-
bury, of Pendleton County. Mr. Bradbury, who was a
farmer, is an ex-service man and was in France from
May 1, 1918, to November 10, 1918. He was in the
Twenty-eighth Division, participated in the Marne cam-
paign and was wounded in the battle of Fismes.
One of the chief delights of Mr. Rardin's busy
life is when he is in the company of his little grandsons
doing his part in training their young minds so they
will become loyal and good citizens of our great state
and nation.
Richard A. Magraw. With offices in the McCarty
Building on Main Street in the thriving Town of Cadiz,
judicial center of Trigg County, Mr. Magraw here con-
ducts one of the leading general insurance agencies of
the county, and he is one of the representative busi-
ness men of the younger generation in his native county.
He was born at Roaring Springs, this county, on the
7th of March, 1883, and is a son of Flavins A. Magraw,
who was born on a farm ten miles south of Cadiz, this
county, in the year 1843, and who was one of the hon-
ored citizens of Roaring Springs at the time of his
death, September 8, 1906. He was reared on the old
home farm which was the place of his birth, and upon
attaining to his legal majority be engaged in the general
merchandise business at Roaring Springs, where he
built up a representative business in this line and where
he was a leader in community sentiment and action,
his political allegiance having been given to the demo-
cratic party. His widow, whose maiden name was
Bettie Burke, now resides with her children. She was
born and reared on a farm only one mile distant from
that which was the birthplace of her husband, and the
date of her nativity was the ye*r 1852. With her
children she is associated in the ownership of the fine
old homestead farm of the Magraw family ten miles
south of Cadiz, this place comprising 250 acres. Of
the children the eldest is Dr. Norris C, of whom in-
dividual mention is made on other pages of this volume ;
Bazie is the wife of Major T. Carter, a prosperous
farmer in Christian County; Mary is the wife of E.
Feut Dawson, a representative farmer in the vicinity
of Roaring Springs; Zilpah is the wife of Samuel
Moore, and they reside in the City of Memphis, Ten-
nessee ; Richard A., of this review, was the next in
order of birth; and Betsie is the wife of Eugene H.
Hester, who is a successful farmer in Christian County.
The Magraw family was founded in Trigg County in
the early pioneer days by the great-grandfather of him
whose name initiates this sketch. This honored an-
cestor was born in North Carolina, where the original
American progenitors settled in the Colonial period
of our national history, upon immigration from Ireland.
Archibald B. Magraw, grandfather of Richard A.
of this review, was born in Trigg County, in 1809, and
here passed his entire life, during which he contributed
his quota, as had his father in earlier stages, to the
civic and material development of the county. For many
years he was engaged in the general merchandise busi-
ness at Linton, the while he continued his association
with farm industry. He was one of the patriarchal citi-
zens of the county at the time of his death, which
occurred at Linton, in 1893. His wife, whose maiden
name was Mary Burbridge, was born in Trigg County
in the year 1829, and she was venerable in years at
the time of her death, which occurred in 1912, at
Sturgis, Union County.
After having duly availed himself of the advantages
of the schools of his native county Richard A. Magraw
completed a commercial course in the Kentucky State
Normal School at Bowling Green, where he continued
his studies until the year 1905. Thereafter he served
thirteen months as deputy clerk of the Circuit Court
for his native county, and for the ensuing seven years
he gave effective service as deputy clerk of the county
court. Still continuing his residence at Cadiz, on the
1st of January, 1915, Mr. Magraw here established him-
self in the insurance buisness, and as an underwriter
for a number of leading insurance companies he has
built up a substantial and prosperous business. In Jan-
uary, 1917, he was appointed master commissioner of
the County Court of Trigg County, and of this office
he has continued the incumbent, besides giving careful
attention to his individual business enterprise. He was
reappointed master commissioner at the January term
of the County Court in 1920. Mr. Magraw is a stanch
advocate of the principles of the democratic party, and
during the nation's participation in the World war he
was signally active and loyal in the furthering of the
agencies through which the Government was supported
in its war activities. He was a vigorous worker in
the forwarding of the local drives in connection with
the various Governmental loans, and at the time of
the draft it is certain that no resident of Trigg County
gave more continuous and valued assistance in the mak-
ing out of questionnaires for the men whose age made
them eligible for military service. This work was done
by him in a gratuitous way, and in other lines he gave
evidence of his loyalty and patriotism. Mr. Magraw
owns and occupies one of the attractive modern resi-
dences of Cadiz. He and his wife are members of the
local Baptist Church, and he is affiliated with Cadiz
Lodge No. 121, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons.
On the 6th of October, 191 1, was solemnized the
marriage of Mr. Magraw, at Nashville, Tennessee, to
Miss Lucy Hopper, a daughter of Thomas E. and Alice
( Peal ) Hopper, who reside on their farm two miles
west of Cadiz. Mr. and Mrs. Magraw have three chil-
dren, whose names and respective dates of birth are
here recorded: Elizabeth, January 12, 1913; Thomas,
January 25, 1915; and Lucy, June 14, 1917.
Frank J. Hardesty is an ex-service man who served
in both the artillery and the aviation departments of
the army, is an electrician by profession, and since the
war has been manager of the Kentucky Light and Power
Company at Princeton.
Mr. Hardesty was born at Campbellsburg, Kentucky,
June 12, 1894, a son of James F. and Susie O. (Sullivan)
Hardesty. His father was also born in Campbellsburg
and was a blacksmith by trade. He and his wife were
married in Henry County, Kentucky, and she was born
there in 1864, and is now living at Eminence. There
are four children : Moses, an electrician at Memphis,
Tennessee ; Estle, also an electrician, whose home is at
Franklin, Indiana ; Frank J. ; and Eugene, employed
in electrical work at Louisville.
Frank J. Hardesty was educated in the public schools
of Eminence, Kentucky, attending high school through
the sophomore year and until he was about seventeen
years of age. After some varied employment in that
village he entered the service of the Eminence plant of
the Kentucky Utilities Company. During the next three
years he busied himself with routine duties and also
became proficient in the electrical trades, and has all
the fundamentals of experience and practice connected
with the profession of electrical engineering.
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
381
Mr. Hardesty joined a local company of the National
Guard in May, 1915, and on June 15, 1916, was com-
missioned first lieutenant in the First Kentucky In-
fantry. For two months he was in training at Fort
Thomas, Kentucky, and was then sent to the Mexican
border at El Paso, Texas, where he remained on duty
with his command for six months. At the very begin-
ning of America's participation in the war against Ger-
many he was transferred to Louisville on bridge guard
duty, and served in that capacity from April 4 to
October 1, 1917. At Camp Shelby, Mississippi, he was
transferred to the Field Artillery, and remained with
that branch of the service until April 1, 1918, when he
was transferred to the air serivce at Fort Sill, Oklahoma,
and given a course in aerial observation, which was
completed June 8, 1918. On June 13, 1918, he was sent
to Mount Clemens, Michigan, and was given further
intensive drilling in aerial gunnery until July 8, 1918.
He was then ordered to Park Place, Texas, a suburb
of Houston, and was assigned to the Second Provisional
Wing, but before being called overseas the armistice
was signed and he was mustered out with the rank of
first lieutenant December 31, 1918.
Mr. Hardesty was not long in resuming his place as
a citizen, and on January 24, 1919, came to Princeton
as electrician for the Kentucky Light & Power Com-
pany and two months later was promoted to manager
of the plant at Princeton and Dawson Springs, the
post of responsibility he holds today, with offices on
West Main Street in Clinton. He is a democrat, is
an active member and steward in the Methodist Episco-
pal Church, South, is affiliated with Eminence Lodge
No. 218, A. F. and A. M., and is a former member of
the Odd Fellows and Modern Woodmen of America.
He also belongs to the local post of the American
Legion.
Mr. Hardesty, whose home is in the Henrietta Apart-
ments, was married July 17, 1918, at 'Madison, Indiana,
to Miss Edna Grace Turner, a daughter of James H.
and Elma (Grinstead) Turner. Her father is a farmer,
and both her parents reside at Nicholasville, Kentucky.
John William Thomson is a veteran flour miller in
Hopkins County and is proprietor of a milling institu-
tion at Madisonville that has been in existence forty
years. Mr. Thomson is a native of Hopkins County,
and his people were early settlers here.
His grandfather, John Thomson, was born near Rich-
mond, Virginia, and was a wealthy planter and slave
holder. In 1832 he started West to establish a new
home in Hopkins County, Kentucky. Accompanying
him were his own family and his slaves, making a
total of sixty persons altogether. The journey was
accomplished by slow stages, and some of its incidents
indicate the broad and generous hospitality of that
day. While on the way to Western Kentucky they
stopped for a visit of two weeks with a brother who
lived in Eastern Kentucky, near Paris. There were
supplies and accommodations for the entire party,
though needless to say the visit of such a household
to any modern home would be regarded almost as a
calamity. When the party moved away from Paris
John Thomson was told by his brother to fill a wagon
with bacon. At that time hogs ran wild in the woods
of Hopkins County and bacon was one of the most
easily procured food commodities. John Thomson on
coming to Hopkins County paid $2,000 for 1,000 acres
of land four miles north of Madisonville, and de-
veloped that into a large and attractive plantation.
He lived here the rest of his life. His wife was a
Miss Ellis, also a native of Virginia, who died in
Hopkins County.
Their son Robert S. Thomson was born near Rich-
mond, Virginia, in 1820, and was twelve years of age
when he came to Kentucky. He was reared on the old
plantation, and lived on a portion of this farm for
many years. His enterprise led him into the saw-
milling industry, and he conducted the first steam saw
mill in Hopkins County. He continued that business on
a profitable scale until ill health compelled him to
abandon it in 1876, and he died the following year. He
was a democrat in his political affiliations, and after
middle age was converted and joined the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South. He was a zealous Mason.
Robert S. Thomson married Phoebe Ann Pritchett, who
was born in Hopkins County in 1827 and died here
in 1897, at the age of seventy. She was the mother
of a large family of fourteen children, a brief record
of whom is as follows : Florence, who was the wife of
L. Fowler, a Hopknis County farmer, and both are
deceased ; Elizabeth, who married Richard Bailey, a
farmer in Webster County, Kentucky, and they are
deceased; Verda' is the wife of C. M. Steffy, a real
estate man at Oklahoma City, Oklahoma ; Annie is the
wife of T. W. Bailey, a merchant at Bartlesville, Okla-
homa ; Erne, who lives at Bisbee, Arizona, is the widow
of W. S. Grace, a farmer; John William is the sixth
of the family and was born on his father's farm four
miles north of 'Madisonville March 4, i860; W. S. is
in the real estate business at Madisonville ; Bernard
was a young farmer in Hopkins County when he died ;
the next three children, who died in early childhood,
were Waller, Janie and Edgar; Helen was married
to J. Y. Orton, a. farmer in Hopkins County, and both
were deceased ; Robert, Jr., was a saw mill owner and
operator in Hopkins County and died unmarried ; and
James Q., the youngest, died on his farm in Hopkins
County.
John William Thomson acquired a rural school educa-
tion, and he lived on the old homestead of his father
to the age of thirty. Appointment to the office of
deputy tax assessor brought him to Madisonville in the
fall of 1890. After filling that office about a year he
served four years as deputy sheriff, and in November,
1894, was elected to the office of sheriff, beginning his
term January 1, 1895. He was elected for three years
and was the first sheriff of the county elected under
the Constitution. After performing the duties of his
office with a high degree of efficiency and credit he
became a local grocery merchant for seven years, but
on March 4, 1905, bought the flouring mills of Mrs.
J. A. Lunsiord. For five years he conducted these
mills with a partner, John H. Hankins, and on March
4, 1910, became sole proprietor. He managed the mills
under his personal supervision until 1918, since which
year his son John William, Jr., has been assistant man-
ager. The mill was erected in 1880, but the modern
flour milling machinery now in use was installed in
1904. The mill has a capacity of seventy-five barrels
per day, and grinds a large part of the wheat produced
by local farmers and manufactures grades of flour in
great demand over this section. The mill is at the
corner of Center and Mill streets.
Mr. Thomson is owner of one of the finest farms in
Hopkins County, located seven miles east of Madison-
ville. It comprises 216 acres and is 1% miles long.
The land is very level and fertile. Mr. Thomson also
owns a business building on Center Street and a modern
residence at 233 Sugg Street. He served two years as
school trustee of 'Madisonville, and for one term was
mayor of the city. Mr. Thomson is a democrat, a
member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and
is affiliated with Madisonville Lodge No. 143, A. F.
and A. M. He was one of the citizens of Madisonville
who responded loyally to every demand made by the
Government in the course of the war, and gave not
only his personal means but his leadership and in-
fluence as well.
At Madisonville Mr. Thomson married Miss Mamie
Hopewell, daughter of Rev. J. H. and Florence (Gooch)
Hopewell. Her father was one of the splendid old
time preachers, a minister of great ability and force
382
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
of character, and widely known in the Baptist Church
of Kentucky'. 'Mrs. Thompson is a graduate of the
Madisonville High School. Seven children have been
born to their marriage. The oldest, John William,
Jr., was born August 23, 1897, is a graduate of the
Madisonville High School, and on his twenty-first birth-
day registered for army service and was in training at
Camp Taylor when the armistice was signed. As noted
above, he is assistant manager of the flour mills. The
younger children are : Florence, a student in the
Lindenwood Female College of St. Charles, Missouri;
James Hopewell, who died at the age of eighteen ;
Frances, in the Madisonville High School ; W. Q. and
Helen, both in grammar school ; and Edward.
Leslie Gerald Ray has become widely known over
Hopkins County as a very successful and skillful dental
surgeon, and is also a citizen of Madisonville enjoying
many property interests and close association with the
community's welfare.
Doctor Ray was born in Livingston County, Kentucky,
January 18, 1876. His grandfather, Joseph Ray, was
born in Kentucky in 1812 and was one of the early
farmers of Livingston County, and died on his land
there in 1887. The great-grandfather, Joseph Ray, was
born in Virginia. The grandmother of Mr. Ray, Mary
Ellis, was born in New York. Her parents came from
the Island of Guernsey. She married at the age of
seventeen and died at the age of fifty-eight years.
Charles Ray, father of Doctor Ray, was born in Liv-
ingston County in 1841, and spent all his life in that
locality with increasing and very profitable interests as
a farmer and planter. He died oh his farm ten miles
west of Smithland in 1915. He was a democrat and a
very active member of the Cumberland Presbyterian
Church. Charles Ray married Miss Sarah Alice Foster,
who was born in Livingston County in 1849. and died
on the old homestead in 191 1. Their children were:
Ella Lee, wife of Sidney A. Trail, a farmer in Liv-
ingston County ; Miss Ida, who lives with her brother
Ernest on the farm adjoining the homestead; Josie,
who died at the age of twenty-four; Leslie Gerald;
Ernest, a farmer and land owner in Livingston County ;
Courtney Ellis, operating the old homestead farm ; and
Alice, who died at the age of twenty-two.
Leslie Gerald Ray attended the rural schools and the
grade schools at Hampton, Kentucky, and acquired the
equivalent of a high school education. His duties and
interests were associated with the home farm until he
was twenty-six, and he then prepared for his profes-
sional career at the Louisville College of Dentistry,
graduating with the degree Doctor of Dental Surgery
in 1905. Doctor Ray practiced for nine months in
Princeton, Kentucky, fourteen months at La Center in
McCracken County, and since then has been a busy
professional man at Madisonville, associated with Dr.
E. B. Hardin. They have elaborately furnished and
equipped dental parlors in the McLeod Building on
South Main Street, and they represent the very highest
standards of the dental profession.
Doctor Ray is also a director in the Citizens Bank
and Trust Company of Madisonville, and is owner of a
half interest in the old homestead farm of 320 acres in
Livingston County. He was one of the local citizens
most keenly interested in the success of local cam-
paigns for the successful prosecution of the war, and
gave both of his time and personal resources to that
patriotic cause. He is a member of the State Dental
Association, the West Central Dental Association and
the National Dental Association. Doctor Ray is a
democrat, and while reared in the Presbyterian Church
is now affiliated with the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South. He is a member of Madisonville Lodge No.
143, A. F. and A. M., Madisonville Chapter No. 123,
R. A. M., Madisonville Commandery No. 27, K. T.,
Rizpah Temple of the Mystic Shrine, Madisonville
Lodge No. 738 of the Elks and Eureka Camp No. 25,
Woodmen of the World.
December 24, 1908, in Livingston County, Doctor Ray
married Miss Bettie Vivian Duley, daughter of W. W.
and Bettie (Gammon) Duley, who now live at Eliza-
bethtown, Illinois, as retired farmers. Mrs. Ray grad-
uated from the Normal School at Bowling Green,
Kentucky, and for six years before, her marriage was
a popular teacher in Livingston County.
John G. White. M. D., has achieved marked success
and prestige in the work of a profession that was
dignified and honored by the character and services
of his father, and he has been actively engaged in the
general practice of his profession at Cerulean, Trigg
County, Kentucky, since 1894, with secure status as one
of the representative physicians and surgeons of the
county and also as a citizen of prominence and in-
fluence. The doctor is president of the Bank of
Cerulean, of which he was one of the organizers, and
in other connection he has done much to further the
civic and material prosperity and advancement of his
home community.
Doctor White was born at Spring Garden, Alabama,
on the 17th of March, 1871, and is a son of Doctor
Thomas N. and Mary . (Amberson) White, the former
of whom was born at Elberton, Georgia, in 1839, and
the latter was born at Spring Garden, Alabama, in
1842, her death having there occurred in 1871. Of the
children of this union the eldest is Anna, who is the
wife of George Garnett, a retired merchant residing at
Piedmont, Alabama ; William T., is a representative
merchant in the City of Birmingham, Alabama; Martha
is the wife of John Whorton, a farmer near Cave
Spring, Georgia ; Mary is the wife of Dr. Joseph P.
Allgood, who is engaged in the practice of dentistry
at Piedmont, Alabama ; Dr. John G., of this review,
was the next in order of birth.
After the death of his first wife Dr. Thomas N.
White married Josephine Glover, who was born at
Goshen, Alabama, in 1849, and whose death occurred
at Spring' Garden, that state, in 1884. Of this second
marriage were born three children: James N. is a mer-
chant at Rome, Georgia ; Hugh H. is a lawyer and
is engaged in the successful practice of his profession
at Gadsden, Alabama; and Paul B. is engaged in the
wholesale grocery business at Rome, Georgia. For his
third wife Doctor White wedded Miss Fannie Mitchell,
who was born and reared at Spring Garden, Alabama,
where she has continued to reside since the death of
her husband, in 1919.
Dr. Thomas N. White was graduated from the medi-
cal college at Augusta, Georgia, and was a young man
when he engaged in practice at Spring Garden, Ala-
bama. He was there actively following the work of
his profession when the Civil war was precipitated,
and he forthwith subordinated all personal interests
to tender his services to the Confederate Government.
He serevd as a surgeon in the Confederate Army during
the entire period of the war, and thereafter he con-
tinued in the active general practice of his profession
at Spring Garden until his death. With all of ability
and zeal he gave himself to the work of his humane
vocation during the course of a long, useful and be-
nignant life, and he held inviolable place in the con-
fidence and esteem of the community in which he thus
labored for fully half a century. He was a stalwart
democrat of well fortified convictions, was affiliated with
the Masonic fraternity and the United Confederate
Veterans, and was a zealous member of the Baptist
Church. Doctor White was a boy at the time of the
death of his father, who was a prosperous farmer near
Elherton, Georgia, the original American representatives
of the White family having come from England.
The public schools of his native town afforded to
Dr. John G. White his early education, which was
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
383
effectively supplemented along academic or literary
lines by his attending Oxford College, at Oxford, Ala-
bama, in which institution he was graduated as a
member of the class of 1892 and with the degree of
Bachelor of Arts. In preparation for his chosen pro-
fession he then entered the medical department of
Vanderbilt University, at Nashville, Tennessee, where
he effectively supplemented the instruction previously
received under the able preceptorship of his father and
where he was graduated in 1894, with the degree of
Doctor of Medicine. In that year he initiated the prac-
tice of his profession at Cerulean, Kentucky, and here
he has long controlled a large and representative gen-
eral practice, with high standing as one of the able
physicians and surgeons of Trigg Countv. He is an
appreciative and valued member of the Trigg County
Medical Society, and holds membership also in the
Kentucky State Medical Society and the American
Medical Association. The doctor owns the building
in which his office is established, on Main Street, and
also his modern residence on the same street. He is
found staunchly arrayed in the ranks of the democratic
party and is essentially loyal and public-spirited in his
civic attitude. He maintains affiliation with Cerulean
Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and Lime-
stone Camp, Woodmen of the World. He is serving
as local surgeon for the Illinois Central Railroad. The
doctor was a vigorous supporter of Trigg County war
activities during the late World war, and gave liberal
subscriptions to the various Governmental loans.
In 1903 Doctor White became prominently identified
with the organization and incorporation of the Bank
of Cerulean, of which he has been continuously a di-
rector and of which he has been the president since
1905. J. Lloyd Blakely is vice-president; Samuel J.
Roberts, cashier ; and W. Eugene Turner, assistant
cashier. The bank bases its operations on a capital
stock of $15,000; its surplus fund now aggregates
$7,500; and its deposits are about $130,000. The institu-
tion has proved a valuable acquisition in furthering the
business interests of Cerulean and the surrounding dis-
tricts, and has met with a loyal and representative
support. • *
In June, 1905, was recorded the marriage of Doctor
White to Miss Josephine Southern, who was born in
Kentucky but who was a resident of Clarendon, Texas,
at the time of her marriage. Doctor and Mrs. White
have no children.
Alpheus E. Orton. Thirty years ago the present
site of Dawson Springs was a farm, with but a house
or two upon it, and its owner and the people of the
neighborhood had no realization of the wonderful
natural resources lying below the surface which were
to make this region famous the world over. On July
2, 1881, the first mineral well, known as the Arcadia
Chalybeate Well, was discovered by W. I. Hamby,
and on June 7, 1893, while boring for water to run
his hotel, he accidentally struck an inexhaustible stream
of mineral water capable of supplying water for 100,000
people or more daily. It is known as Hamby's Salts,
Iron and Magnesia Well, is located on Main Street,
thirty feet from the door of Hamby's Hotel, and is
owned and operated by the Dawson Salts & Water
Company, of which Alpheus E. Orton is secretary and
treasurer.
Alpheus E. Orton was born at Hanson, Hopkins
County, Kentucky, February 15, 1875, his grandfather
having established the family in that vicinity, coming
to that region from North Carolina, where he was
born. His son, Edward W. Orton, father of Alpheus
E. Orton, was born on the farm near Hanson in 1823.
He spent his life in Hopkins County, living near Han-
son until 1882, and being engaged in farming, but in
that year moved to Hanson and for many years served
as its police judge, having had experience in this line,
as he had been a magistrate of his district while living
on his farm. He was a democrat, and a very promi-
nent factor in his party. Early joining the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South, he gave it an earnest and
generous support, and he was equally zealous as a
Mason. His death occurred at Hanson in 1902, and
he was mourned by a wide circle of persons whom he
had attached to him. During the war between the
North and the South he had served in the Union Army
as a member of Company B, Seventeenth Kentucky
Infantry Regiment, and was a gallant soldier until the
close of the war. He married first a Miss Stevens
and for his second wife Miss Anna Almon, who was
born in Christian County, Kentucky, in 1840, and died
at Hanson in 1889. Their only child was Alpheus E.
Orton.
, Growing up in Hopkins County, Alpheus E. Orton
attended the public schools of Hanson and the College
of Pharmacy at Louisville, Kentucky, and was gradu-
ated from the latter in 1896 as a graduate in pharmacy.
For the succeeding year he was engaged in clerking in
a drug store at Owensboro, Kentucky, and then held
a s'milar position at Hopkinsville, Kentucky, for six
months. Going to Evansville, Indiana, he was in a
wholesale drug house, and had charge of the labora-
tory of both the Evansville Drug Company and the
Carlstedt Medicine Company until in September, 1901,
when he came to Dawson Springs and engaged in the
natural and concentrated mineral water business in
association with his father-in-law, W. I. Hamby, and
his brother-in-law, H. G. Hamby, under the firm name
of the Dawson Salts & Water Company, Incorporated,
which connection is still maintained.
The company ship their mineral water to every state
in the Union and to foreign lands, including Erance,
Spain, Canada and even Germany, which formerly was
considered to have the most efficacious mineral waters
in the world. It is claimed that the water from the
Hamby well will cure indigestion, jaundice, constipa-
tion, boils, chills, appendicitis, heartburn, torpid liver,
nervousness, nephritis, Bright's d'sease, dilation of the
stomach, catarrh of the stomach, duodenitis, cystitis,
dysentery, neurasthenia, chronic eczema, rheumatism,
gout, calculi, female irregularities, nervous and sick
headaches, obstructed menstration, blood diseases, dys-
pepsia, diarrhea, hysteria, malaria, dizziness, dropsy,
diabetes, albuminaria, glycosuria and similar maladies
requiring the use of those minerals held in solution in
this water. It contains an excess of sodium magnesium
sulphates, and iron, manganese, calcium nitrate, sodium
phosphate, free carbonic acid gas and associate miner-
als. It is particularly effective in the treatment of
rheumatism, and remarkable cures in this disease have
been made through its use all over the United States
and in foreign countries.
The offices of the company are located in the Dawson
Salts & Water Company's Building at 120 South Main
Street, this building being one of the principal struc-
tures of the business section of Dawson Springs and
is the property of the company. In addition to being
secretary and treasurer and a stockholder of this com-
pany Mr. Orton has other interests and is a director
of the New Century Hotel, the Commercial Bank of
Dawson and the Dawson Springs Auditorium Com-
pany. He owns one of the best modern residences in
the city, in one of the most desirable locations, and
also considerable real estate at Dawson Springs. Mr.
Orton is the owner of the news business of Dawson
Springs, which is operated under the name of Orton
& Hamby, and he is recognized as one of the wealthy
men of this locality. For two terms he was a member
of the City Council, being elected on the democratic
ticket ; for two terms was city clerk, and is now in his
second term as city treasurer. He belongs to the
Christian Church, of which he is a deacon, and he is
a member and secretary of its official board. A Mason,
384
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
he belongs to Dawson Lodge No. 628, A. F. and A. M. ;
Madisonville Chapter No. 27, R. A. M.; Princeton
Council, No. 43 ; Princeton Commandery No. 35, K. T. ;
Grand Consistory of Kentucky, A. A. S. R., in which
he has been raised to the thirty-second degree; Rizpali
Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of Madisonville ; Queen
Anne Chapter No. 133, O. E. S., of which lie is a past
patron, and he is a past grand patron of the Grand
Chapter of Kentucky, O. E. S. He was elected grand
junior warden of the Grand Lodge of Kentucky Ma-
sons in October, 1920. Mr. Orton also belongs to
Dawson Lodge No. no, I. O. O. F., of which he is a
past grand; Magnolia Camp No. 73, W. O. W., of
Dawson Springs ; Dawson Springs Camp No. 12392,
M. W. A.; and for the past twenty years has belonged
to Post J, T. P. A., of Evansville, Indiana.
During the late war Mr. Orton was one of the most
effective workers for the cause, was chairman of the
committee having charge of the drive for the Salva-
tion Army in this district, and lavishly bought bonds,
stamps and subscribed to all of the drives. He was
also made chairman of the Finance Committee of the
United States Government Hospital now being erected
at Dawson Springs, and is still discharging the duties
pertaining to this responsible office.
On December 22, 1897, Mr. Orton married Miss
Minnie Hamby at Dawson Springs. She is a daughter
of W. I. and Stacy (Menser) Hamby, of Dawson
Springs. There are no children. Mr. Hamby is now
retired, but is one of the most prominent men of this
section. To him is due in large degree the remarkable
expansion of a farm site into a thriving health resort
of 1800 people, forty hotels and boarding houses,
newspapers, electric lights, water works, sanitary
sewers, bath houses, manufactories, bottling works,
up-to-the-minute business houses and every improve-
ment to be found at any first-class resort of this char-
acter. While he now leaves the details to his son and
son-in-law, Mr. Hamby still retains his interest in his
hotel and well, and takes great pride in them and the
city itself.
Mr. Orton is a man well fitted for the business to
which he has devoted the best years of his life. His
professional training and knowledge enable him to
correctly judge of the value of the waters, and his
business ability guides him in marketing the product.
His faith in the locality led him to make investments
which have proven exceedingly valuable, and his pros-
perity has been honorably earned through his capa-
bilities, natural and trained, and his recognition of the
properties of the well which has not only made its
owner and those associated with him men of large
means, but Dawson Springs famous the world over.
Henry Dennert from the age of three was reared
an orphan boy, went to work for his own support at
the age of twelve, and for all the disadvantages and
handicaps of such a youth has achieved a high and com-
mendable position in Newport affairs, where he is one
of the leading manufacturers and citizens.
Mr. Dennert was born at Newport, March 25, 1873.
His father, William Dennert, was born in Germany in
1846, came to America when a young man and settled
at Newport, and for a number of years was a contractor
in road work. He was a republican and a member of
the Lutheran Church. His wife was Margaret Leap,
who was born in Campbell County, Kentucky, in 1848,
and died at Newport in 1876. William Dennert tbe
same year started for the West, and his family heard
nothing of him again. He left three children. Charles
is now foreman in the Newport Foundry Company.
Carrie became the wife of William Fisher, a worker in
a shoe factory, and both died at Newport, she at the
age of thirty-seven.
Henry Dennert, the youngest of the children, was
educated in the St. Joseph Orphan Asylum at Cold
Spring, Kentucky, but at the age of iwelve began
earning his own living and from that time until he
was twenty-two spent the daylight hours working in a
shoe factory and part of the night time assisting in a
bakeshop at Newport. From 1895 to 1903 he was em-
ployed in Cincinnati shoe factories of the Duttenhoffer
Shoe Company and the Mann Shoe Company.
Mr. Dennert became a pants manufacturer at New-
port in 1903, starting with a very limited capital and
with an equipment of only three machines. The busi-
ness has steadily grown under his active supervision
until the factory today, at 918 Liberty Street, is one of
the modern industrial plants of Newport, has equipment
of 100 machines and capacity for 1,000 pairs daily. Two
hundred persons are employed in this business, of which
Mr. Dennert is sole owner and proprietor.
His interests as a manufacturer of clothing have had
an even wider scope than this one industry. In 1914
he established an overall factory at Eighth and Madison
streets in Covington, beginning with fifty machines, and
after two years moved to 515 Scott Street in the Crigler
& Crigler Building at Covington, where he installed 250
machines and built up the business to a regular work-
ing capacity of 1,800 dozen overalls a week. This busi-
ness he sold October 12, 1918, to The U. S. Overall
Company.
As a sales organization for the handling of the output
of his pants factory Mr. Dennert organized in 1914
the LTrfit Pants Company, whose offices are in the Swift
Building on Third Street, Cincinnati. This company is
the medium through which all his manufactured product
is marketed to the retail trade. Mr. Dennert is presi-
dent of the company and his partners in the business
are J. Bass and Charles Brosey. Mr. Dennert during
his active business career has acquired much realty
property, including a business block at 633-637 York
Street, Newport, a modern home at 925 Isabella Street
and a dwelling house adjoining and also another dwell-
ing at 912 Liberty Street.
Besides giving all his moral support to the Govern-
ment during the war Mr. Dennert fulfilled his patriotic
duty by seeing that his plant turned out with prompt
efficiency ■ work involving the manufacture of 250,000
pair of pants for the Government. He is a republican
in politics, an active member of Corpus Christi Catholic
Church of Newport, Newport Council No. 1301, Knights
of Columbus, Catholic Order of Foresters, St. George
Benevolent Society and Newport Chamber of Commerce.
In 1895, at Newport, he married Miss Anna Sendel-
bach. a native of Campbell County, who completed her
education in the John's Hill School of that county. To
their marriage were born eight children : Marie died
in infancy; Harry, born January 8, 1900, attended the
Corpus Christi parochial schools and Miller's School of
Business at Cincinnati, and is now his father's book-
keeper; Arthur, born March 5, 1002, was educated in
the parochial schools and the Newport Business Col-
lege, and is now manager of the Mutual Tailoring
Company, located at 633-5-7 York Street, Newport,
Kentucky. This business was established in April, 1921.
Lillie died at the age of five years ; Henrietta, born
October 1, 1906, is a student in the Corpus Christi
Business College; Bertha, born December 15, 1908;
Loretta, born October 24, 1910; and Olivia, born Sep-
tember 24, 1912, all pupils in the Corpus Christi pa-
rochial schools.
Mrs. Dennert, who is deeply interested in church and
philanthropic causes, being a member of the Ladies'
Auxiliary, the Mothers' Society and the Married Ladies'
Society in Corpus Christi parish, is a daughter of An-
thony Sendelbach. He was born in Campbell County,
Kentucky, in 1850 and died at St. Elizabeth Hospital
in Covington in June, 1917. He spent practically all
his life in Newport, where he was a tailor. He was a
democrat and a Catholic. His wife was Mary Shearer,
who was born in Indiana in 1854 and died at Newport,
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
385
Maicli 25, 1909. Mrs. Dennert's grandfather, Jacob
Sendelbach, was born in 1788, and his active life was
spent on a large farm at John's Hill in Campbell
County, where he died in 1878, at the age of ninety.
Mrs. Dennert is the oldest of a family of twelve chil-
dren. A brief reference to her brothers and sisters is
as follows r George, manager of the U. S. Overall
Company's factory, a resident of Fort Thomas; John,
foreman in the Reukin Paper Box factory at Cincinnati
and a resident of Dayton, Kentucky; Michael, who died
at the age of seven years ; Charles, an employe of the
U. S. Overall Manufacturing Company at Newport;
Rosie, who died when four years of age; Edward,
shipping clerk for the U. S. Overall Manufacturing
Company at Newport; Ollie, an employe of Mr. Den-
nert's manufacturing establishment; Eva, of Newport,
widow of Otto Roeber, who was a member of the
mounted police of Cincinnati; Frank, in the Dennert
factory at Newport; Anthony, shipping clerk for the
Urfit Pants Company of Newport; and Peter, a fore-
man in the Dennert Pants factory.
John R. Jones, M. D. While he was an army medi-
cal officer in home camps and in France during the
war, Doctor Jones with that exception has employed
his abilities and talents as a physician and surgeon at
Princeton for the past eighteen years and is a member
of one of the best known families of Caldwell County.
His grandfather was of Irish ancestry, was born in
Virginia, where members of the family settled in
Colonial times, and, coming to Kentucky, established
a home in Caldwell County and lived out his life as
a practical farmer here. William H. Jones, father of
Doctor Jones, was born in Caldwell County, on a farm
twelve miles north of Princeton, in 1841. He spent
' his long and active life in the county as a farmer,
and after his marriage moved from the farm wheie
he was born to another just west of Princeton, and
pursued his diversified activities as an agriculturist
in that locality until his death in April, 1920. While
the old home is three-quarters of a mile west of
Princeton, part of the farm is within the city limits.
This is a very valuable property. It was appraised for
the purpose of determining the inheritance tax at
$35,000. William H. Jones extended his influence and
activities beyond his farm into the civic and business
life of his community. He was for three years a
Union soldier during the Civil war, and was one of
the leading republicans of his section of the state. For
six terms he represented Caldwell County in the Legis-
lature. He was an elder in the Presbyterian Church,
and at the time of his death was the oldest mason in
Caldwell County, being a member and a past master
of Clinton Lodge No. 82, A. F. and A. M., at Prince-
ton. William H. Jones married Maggie E. Fryer, who
was born twelve miles north of Princeton in 1856 and
is still , living on the homestead west of Princeton.
Doctor Jones is the second in a family of five chil-
dren. The oldest, Lena, is the wife of J. F. Morgan,
a hotel proprietor at St. Louis, Missouri ; Charles F.,
the third in age, has gained prominence as a Kentucky
banker, being cashier of the National Bank of Ken-
tucky at Louisville, one of the largest banking insti-
tutions in the Middle West; William E. is a farmer
at Princeton and for a number of years was a civil
service Government employe, and also participated in
( the World war, going to France and being mustered
I out as a sergeant; the youngest is Clyde, a farmer six
miles west of Princeton.
John R. Jones was born at the old homestead three-
quarters of a mile west of Princeton on May 25, 1881,
and acquired his early education partly in rural schools
and partly in the schools of Princeton, graduating from
the high school in 1898. He immediately entered the
Hospital College of Medicine at Louisville, graduating
in 1902, and since then as a means of refreshing him-
self in professional technique has attended a number
of clinics and lectures at Chicago and Louisville. He
began practice at Princeton in 1902, and has carried
the work of a general physician and surgeon. Since
1902 he has been surgeon for the Katterjohn Construc-
tion Company. His offices are in the Williams Build-
ing on Main Street, and he also lives there. Doctor
Jones is unmarried.
He was enrolled in the Medical Corps August 10,
1917, with the commission of first lieutenant, and at-
tended the Medical Officers' Training Camp at Fort
Oglethorpe, Georgia, was on duty in several camps on
this side of the water, and in September, 1918, went
overseas to France. He was on duty with the 118th
Field Artillery, 31st Division, and during the remainder
of the war and for some months afterward was abroad.
He returned and was mustered out December 21, 1919.
Doctor Jones is a republican. He is present city
health officer of Princeton and is a member of the
County, State and American Medical associations. He
is active in the Central Presbyterian Church, is affili-
ated with the Knights of Pythias and with Princeton
Lodge No. HIS of the Elks.
Thomas Lynch Logan. The career of Thomas
Lynch Logan of Madisonville has been almost entirely
identified with business affairs. He held one office,
was candidate for one office, and his candidacy was a
test of his popularity in Hopkins County. He was the
youngest man to ever hold the office of sheriff in the
county.
Mr. Logan,' who is now doing a successful business
as general agent of the Provident Life and Accident
Company, was born on a farm near Charleston in Hop-
kins County, August 18, 1884. His grandfather, Tom
Logan, was a native of Ireland, came to America early
in life, served as a soldier in the War of 1812, and
spent his business career as a farmer in Hopkins
County. He died at a good old age, about forty years
ago, at his home near Hanson in Hopkins County.
He married a Miss Blue. S. M. Logan, father of
former Sheriff Logan, was born in the northern part
of Hopkins County, near Hanson, in 1857, and shortly
after his marriage" settled on his present farm, a mile
north of Charleston, where for many years he has
conducted his agricultural operations on an extensive
and successful scale. He is a democrat and one of
the most active members of the Universalist Church
in the community. S. M. Logan married Dixie Lynch,
who was born at Charleston in 1861. Her father,
Mack Lynch, was a native of North Carolina, coming
from that state to Hopkins County, Kentucky, and for
many years was a farmer, merchant and tobacconist at
Charleston, being one of the county's leading citizens.
He died at Charleston in 1896. Mack Lynch married
Rebecca Franklin, a life-long resident of Hopkins
County. The children of S. M. Logan and wife are:
Mack, who assists in the management of the home
farm; Ola, wife of H. W. Cox, a farmer in Madison-
ville; Thomas Lynch; Clint, a coal miner living at
Madisonville; Brad, a clerk in the postoffice at Owens-
boro ; Ray, on the home farm.
Thomas Lynch Logan acquired a rural school edu-
cation and also attended the Southern Normal Uni-
versity at Bowling Green until 1908. After completing
his education and leaving the farm he taught one year
at Bulan, Kentucky, was principal of schools at Charles-
ton one year and one term at Ashbyburg in Hopkins
County. The following four years he spent as as-
sistant bookkeeper and outside foreman for the Crab-
tree Coal Company at Ilsley in Hopkins County.
Mr. Logan learned the duties of sheriff as deputy
to Sheriff J. B. Stanley, a brief service which was fol-
lowed by a year as manager of a general store at
Earlington, Kentucky. Then for six months he was
employed in closing out a bankrupt stock of goods for
386
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
the Morrow Dry Goods Company at Nebo. In 1913
he came to Madisonville, where for a time he was
bookkeeper for the Coil Coal Company. In the pri-
mary elections of 1913 his name was presented to the
voters as candidate for the nomination of sheriff.
There were eight other candidates, all good men, since
there is always keen competition for the honors of
sheriff. Mr. Logan received a plurality of 750 votes in
the primaries, and in the general election was chosen
by a majority of 1475. This was one of the biggest
majorities ever given a candidate for county office by
either party in Hopkins County. As previously noted,
he was the youngest sheriff the county ever had. He
began his official term January I. 1914, and during
the next four years justified all the confidence enter-
tained by the voters as to his abilities and efficiency
About the time he left the sheriff's office lie was ap-
pointed chairman of the Hopkins County Exemption
Board, and for a year, until the work of the board was
closed, early in 191 9, gave practically all his time to
its duties.
Then leaving public life Mr. Logan became general
agent for the Providence Life and Accident Company
of Chattanooga. He has supervision of ten Kentucky
counties, with Madisonville as his headquarters. His
offices are over the Citizens Bank and Trust Company.
Mr. Logan also owns a valuable farm of 100 acres
fourteen miles west of Madisonville, and has one of
the good homes of the city, on Hall Street. He is a
democrat, a member of the Christian Church and is
affiliated with Bulah Lodge No. 609, A. F. and A. M.,
and Madisonville Lodge No. 738 of the Elks.
He married at Princeton, Kentucky, in 1914, Miss
Helen Davis, daughter of Professor W. B and Helen
(Winstead) Davis. Her father is an educator, and
he and his wife now live at Clovis, New Mexico. Mrs.
Logan is a graduate of the high school at Fredonia,
Kentucky. To their marriage were born two chil-
dren: Helen Lynch, on June 13, 1916, and William
Owen, on April 9, 1920.
John Franklin Hoover. Some of the most repre-
sentative business men of this part of Kentucky are
located at Dawson Springs, finding in this c'tv excel-
lent opportunities for the development of their facul-
ties and securing a fair share of prosperity. One of
them is John Franklin Hoover, manager of the City
Water Company and Ice Plant, who is recognized as
one of the experts in his line and a citizen of marked
public spirit. He was born at Livermore, McLean
County, Kentucky, July 28, 1872, a son of George Bur-
dett Hoover, and a grandson of Richard Hoover, who
was born in Virginia and died in Ohio County, Ken-
tucky, in 1883. He was a farmer by occupation and
the first of his family to come to Ohio County.
George Burdett Hoover was born in Ohio County,
Kentucky, in 1839, and died at Livermore, Kentucky,
in 1881. Reared and educated in Ohio County, he be-
came a farmer of that region, but later moved to
Livermore and embarked in a mercantile business,
which occupied him until his death. Both in his native
county and at Livermore he supported the candidates
of the democratic party, and he was equally earnest in
his connection with the Methodist Episcopal Church of
both places, having early joined that organization. He
married Susan Simmons who was born in Ohio Coun-
tv. Kentucky, in 1843. and died at Dawson Springs,
Kentucky, in 1912, surviving her husband for many
years. Their children were as follows: Vollie T., who
died at Louisville, Kentucky, in 1918, was in the em-
ploy of the American Tobacco Company ; Maude, who
married a Mr. Ratterree, a druggist of Louisville; John
Franklin, who was the third in order of birth ; Belle,
who married C. B. Long, a retired merchant of Mad-
isonville. Kentucky: and Georgia, who married Dr.
C. A. Niles. a physician and surgeon of Dawson Springs,
a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this work.
John Franklin Hoover attended the public schools of
Livermore until he was sixteen years old, and then
left school and came to Dawson Springs, arriving here
in 1888. For a time he did whatever work he found to
do, and later became a dealer in real estate, buying
realty and holding it until he could sell at a profit.
In 1918 he became superintendent of the City Water
Company, and still holds that position, his offices being
located on Railroad Avenue, at Sycamore Street. The
company supplies Dawson Springs with water and man-
ufactured ice, and Mr. Hoover superintends the opera-
tion of both plants.
In addition to his duties as superintendent Mr.
Hoover has numerous realty holdings, including his
substantial modern residence on Franklin Street, which
is supplied with city water, electric lights and other
improvements, five dwellings, a business block on South
Main Street, and in partnership with Dr. C. A. Niles
owns sixty vacant lots in the city. He also has an
interest in the Tolo Water Company's building and the
company itself, and he is a stockholder and secretary
of the City Water Company. A democrat, he served
as a member of the City Council for several terms, and
is active in his party. Fraternally he belongs to Daw-
son Lodge No. 628, A. F. and A. M. During the late
war Mr. Hoover was one of the most zealous workers
in behalf of the cause, and bought bonds and sub-
scribed to the various organizations to the utmost ex-
tent of his means, and did everything within his power
to aid the administration in carrying out its policies.
In 1898 Mr. Hoover married Miss Cora Simpson, at
Carmi. Illinois. She was a daughter of Mr. and Mrs.
John M. Simpson. Mr. Simpson is now deceased, but
was a farmer of White County, Illinois. His widow,
who survives him, is residing at Carmi, White County,
Illinois. The first Mrs. Hoover was a college gradu-
ate. She died at Carmi, Illinois, in 1903, having borne
her husband one son, John Franklin, Jr.. who died at
the age of ten weeks. In November, 1912, Mr. Hoover
married at Jeffersonville. Indiana, Miss Stella Pearl
Dishman, born in Marshall County, Kentucky. She
was graduated from the public schools of her native
county and attended its high school course. Mr. and
Mrs. Hoover have one child, Gene, who was born
February 11, 1920. Having lived at Dawson Springs
for so many years, Mr. Hoover naturally is interested
in it, for he has assisted in its development and has
been instrumental in bringing about many improve-
ments, both as a private individual and as a public
official.
Robert Crenshaw is one of the veteran and dis-
tingirshed members of the bar of Trigg County, in
whose metropolis and judicial center, the City of
Cadiz, he has been engaged in the practice of his pro-
fession for more than half a century. Aside from his
admirable achievement in his profession and his status
as an influential citizen, further interest attaches to his
career by reason of the fact that he is a native of Trigg
County and a scion of a family whose name has been
worthily identified witli the history of this county for
more than a century. His grandfather, Cornelius Cren-
shaw, was born and reared in Virginia, and in Halifax
County, that state, he wedded Miss Nancy Kent. He
represented the historic Old Dominion State as a sol-
dier and officer in the War of 1812, during which he
was stationed the greater part of the time at Norfolk.
Virginia. In 1819 he came to Kentucky and became one
of the pioneer settlers and most influential citizens of
Trigg County, where he acquired a large tract of land
and became an extensive farmer. His success was dis-
tinctive and he was one of the largest taxpayers of
the county. Both he and his wife long held member-
ship in the United Baptist Church, but eventually trans-
ferred their membership to the Christian Church. He
was a man of fine mentality, upright and honorable in
all of the relations of life, and ever moved by a high
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
387
sense of personal stewardship, this being shown in
earnest Christian service and in kindly consideration
extended to his fellow-men. The lineage of the Cren-
shaw family traces back to sterling English origin,
and the American progenitors settled in Virginia in
the Colonial epoch of our national history.
Robertson Crenshaw, father of him whose name
initiates this review, was born in Halifax County, Vir-
ginia, in September, 1816, and thus was a child of about
three years at the time the family home was established
in Trigg County, Kentucky, where he was reared to
manhood under the conditions and influences of the
pioneer days and where eventually he became a promi-
nent and successful exponent of agricultural and l:ve-
stock industry, with a large and valuable landed estate
in Roaring Snrings precinct, where he continued his
residence until the time of his death, which occurred
on the 12th of February, 1853. In politics he was an
old-line wh:g, and both he and his wife were earnest
members of the Christian Church. He maintained ac-
tive affiliation with the time-honored Masonic fraternity,
was known for his civic loyalty and progressiveness.
was influenzal in community affairs and commanded
secure place in popular confidence and respect. In
1839, at Cadiz, was solemnized his marr:age to Miss
Mary Frances Walden, who was born in Trigg County,
then a part of Christian County, in the year 1819, and
whose death occurred in 1852. Mrs. Crenshaw was a
sister of Dr. John C. Walden, who achieved distinction
as a minister in the Christian Church at Maysville,
Mason County, and in other localities in the state.
Robertson and Mary Frances (Walden) Crenshaw be-
came the parents of six children : Albert, who became
a representative agriculturist in Trigg County, died at
the age of fifty-five years; James, a retired merchant,
resides at Earlmgton, Hopkins County; William is a
prominent physician and surgeon in the Stat° of Okla-
homa; Robert, the immediate subject of this sketch,
was the next in order of birth ; John W. is a repre-
sentative physician and surgeon at Cadiz, and is in-
dividually mentioned on other pages of this work; and
Cornelius is a substantial farmer near Greenville,
Texas.
Robert Crenshaw acquired his early educat'on in the
rural schools of his native county and was reared in
the home of his uncle, Thomas Crenshaw. He was
born in Roaring Springs Precinct, Trigg County, on the
4th of June. 1847, and was but five years of age at
the time of his mother's death, and his father died in
the following year, so that the boy was taken into the
home of his father's brother, as noted above. In pur-
suance of progressive educational work he attended in
turn the A. J. Wyatt School for young men, near Con-
cord, Christian County, and also the nrenaratory school
conducted in the same county by G. P. Street. He
continued his educational application until he was nine-
teen years of age, and during the following two years
was activelv associated with farm enterprise. He then
began reading law under the able and punctilious
preceptorship of Judge Thomas C. Dabney, whose
daughter he later married, and in 1868 he was admitted
to the bar of his native state. To his honored pre-
ceptor, the late Judge Dabney, a memorial tribute is
dedicated on other pages of this history. Since the
vear of his admission to the bar Judge Crenshaw has
been continuously engaged in the practice of his pro-
fession at Cadiz, his offices being situated in a build'ng
on Main Street, opposite the countv courthouse. His
professional novitiate was of short duration, as he soon
proved his powers as a resourceful trial lawyer and
well fortified counsellor, with the result that he built
up a substantial and representative practice, his clien-
tage having been one of important order during the
long intervening years and having involved his appear-
ance in connection with much of the important litiga-
tion in the courts of this section of Kentucky. Judge
Crenshaw has held inviolable his allegiance to the demo-
cratic party, and while he has been influential in its
local councils and campaign activities he has invariably
refused to become a candidate for office, save in line
with his profession. He served four years as county
attorney, 1872-6, and for three years presided on the
bench of the County Court, 1884-7. his administration
having shown that he possessed the true judicial cast
of mind and his rulings having been marked by the
fairness and equity that ever conserve the ends of
justice. Few of his judicial decisions met reversal by
courts of higher jurisdiction. For two years, 1872-4,
Judge Crenshaw served as school commissioner of
Trigg County, and he has ever shown loyal and helpful
interest in community affairs and in the advancement
of his native county along both civic and material lines.
He is one of the oldest and most honored members of
the Trigg County Bar Association, of which he is
president at the time of this writing, in 1920. He is
an elder in the Christian Church of Cadiz, in which
hoth he and his wife have long been zealous workers.
Their beautiful home is one of the fine residence
properties of Cadiz, the same being situated on Main
Street, and the grounds being adorned with fine shade
trees, ornamental shrubbery and well-kept lawns. This
home, with Mrs. Crenshaw as its gracious and popular
chatelaine, has long been a center of much of the rep-
resentative social life of the community. Judge Cren-
shaw is the owner of other real estate in his home city,
as well as a valuable farm eighteen miles west of Cadiz,
on the Tennessee River, and another farm near Pem-
broke, Christian County.
Judge Crenshaw has always been earnest in the
furtherance of those measures and objects which tend
to advance the welfare of humanity, and has never
lacked the courage of his convictions. His character-
istics make him well qualified for leadership in popular
sentiment and action, and he is well fortified in his
opinions concerning Governmental and economic poli-
cies. He has made numerous contributions to the
newspaper press, and his writings have been widely
quoted. The Judsre took a h;gh stand on the matter
of the liquor traffic, which he believes to be a public
menace, and he was an active worker in behalf of the
cause of prohibition. In 1894 he was chosen chairman
of the executive committee which initiated a canvass
of Trigg County in behalf of the nroh-bition party and
the elimination of the liquor traffic within the borders
of the county. The matter of prohibition in the county
was submitted to popular vote in that year, and the
righteous cause was carried by a majority of more
than 500 votes. For this result Judge Crenshaw is
consistently to be accorded a large measure of credit,
and his work in the connection gained to him the com-
mendation of the best element of citizenship in his
native county. Concerning his splendid work for the
el:mination of saloons in the county, the following
estimate has been given : "He undertook a task which
hy many was considered unpopular, and one in which
few men could hope to succeed, but not the magnitude
of the undertaking nor the jeers of the enemies of
temperance nor the opposition of so-called business
interests could deter him from throwing the full force
and weight of his influence agauist a social wrong and
in favor of the best interests of society." Mrs. Cren-
shaw is a woman of fine social qualities and has
marked literary talent, as shown in her frequent and
invariably interesting contributions to l'terary and re-
ligious periodicals.
As may naturally be inferred, Judge Crenshaw was
active and influential in the furtherance of the various
Governmental and adjunct activities advanced in sup-
port of the nation during its participation in the great
World war. He assisted earnestly in the various drives
for subscriptions for the Government loans, the sup-
port of the Red Cross, etc., was himself a liberal and
loyal subscriber to the loans, and he also gave timely
and valued assistance in the filling out of question-
388
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
naires for young men called upon to register for mili-
tary service, his work in this connection having brought
to him special compliment on the part of Government
officials.
In the year 1877 was solemnized the marriage of
Judge Crenshaw to Miss Minnie Dabney, daughter of
the late Judge Thomas Dabney, to whom a memoir is
dedicated on other pages, as before stated. Mrs. Cren-
shaw has long been a leader in the social and religious
circles of Cadiz, and during the World war period she
was specially active in Red Cross work and in other
service tending to support Governmental agencies in
the war. Judge and Mrs. Crenshaw became the parents
of seven children: Susan Moore, who became the wife
of Roger L. Clark, now a resident of Tennessee, died
in Trigg County at the age of twenty-two years. James
Rumsey is general claim agent for the Standard Grow-
ers Exchange Company at Orlando, Florida. Dabney
Hewell is general freight-claim agent for the Charleston
& Western Carolina Railroad, and also for the Georgia
Railroad, with headquarters at Augusta, Georgia. Rob-
ert Walden was graduated in the law department of
the University of Kentucky and is now engaged in the
practice of his profession in the City of Atlanta,
Georgia, as a member of the representative law firm
of Anderson, Roundtree & Crenshaw. John W. was
graduated in the law department of Cumberland Uni-
versity, and he likewise is engaged in the practice of
law in the City of Atlanta, where he is senior member
of the firm of Crenshaw & Lindsay. He volunteered
for service with the Young Men's Christian Associa-
tion when the nation became involved in the World
war, and was in active service with this organization in
England and France for twelve months. Albert, who
was graduated in the law department of the University
of Kentucky, was but twenty-three years of age at the
time of his death, in July, 1914. Archie Douglas is
associated with the firm of Ernst & Ernst, certified
public accountants in the City of Atlanta. Georgia. He
became a member of the Un'ted States Navy in July,
1918, passed three months in the Officers' Training
Corps at Lexington, Kentucky, and was thence trans-
ferred to the Great Lakes Naval Station at Chicago.
Illinois, where he remained until he was mustered out
and honorably discharged, with the rank of master at
arms, in February, 1919.
Thomas C. Dabney. The character and achievement
of Judge Dabney marked him with all of certitude as
one of the honored and distinguished lawyers and jurists
of the State of Kentucky, and this publication cannot
fail to pay a tribute to his memory.
Thomas C. Dabney was born in Louisa County, Vir-
ginia, September 20, 1823, and died at Cadiz, Trigg
County, Kentucky, on the 12th of November, 1886.
He was a son of Albert Gallatin Dabney and Ann
F.liza (Catlett) Dabney, representatives of patrician
Virginia families that were founded in the Old Do-
minion commonwealth in the early Colonial days. Judge
Dabney gained his academic education under the able
direction of Elder George P. Street, and after complet-
ing his literary and scientific courses he turned his
attention to the study of law when a youth of eighteen
years. It was soon after initiating his law studies that
he established his residence at Cadiz, the judicial center
of Trigg County, Kentucky. Here he served as deputy
county and circuit clerk under J. E. Thompson, and
simultaneously he continued his law studies under the
preceptorship of Hon. C. D. Bradley, who was at that
time one of the leading members of the bar of this
section of the state. After his admission to the bar
Judge Dabney engaged in the active practice of his
profession at Cadiz in 1844, and his fine personal quali-
ties and exceptional professional talent soon brought him
a due measure of success and prestige. He served sev-
eral terms as county attorney, and in 1852 was elected
to the bench of the County Court. In July, 1857,
there came to him further judicial honors, as he was
then elected judge of the Circuit Court of the Second
District of Kentucky, this district having at that time
contained seven counties. With marked distinction he
continued his administration on the circuit bench until
the expiration of his term in 1862, when he declined
re-election and resumed the private practice of his
profession, which was dignified and honored by his
noble character and large and worthy achievement.
His was a nature of marked spirituality and gentle-
ness, and thus he was kindly, tolerant and considerate
in all of the relations of life, with naught of intellectual
bigotry, and with keen appreciation of the well-springs
of human thought and action. His home life was ideal
in every way, and in the community he showed his
stewardship in aiding all worthy measures and under-
takings, as well as in offering succor to those in afflic-
tion and distress. He was ever a student, and his
reading compassed much of the best in literature,
including earnest study of the Bible, by whose teachings
his course was ever guided and governed. He was a
stanch and effective advocate and supporter of the prin-
ciples of the democratic party, and was active in uphold-
ing its cause, though he never consented to become a
candidate for public office save in line with the work
of his profession.
Albert Gallatin Dabney, father of Judge Dabney, was
born in Lmisa County, Virginia, in 1798, and became an
extensive planter and slaveholder. In the autumn of
1830 he came with his family to Kentucky and estab-
lished his residence in Christian County. While a
resident of Virg'nia he served as a major in the State
Militia, and concerning him the following estimate has
been written : "He was a typical gentleman of the
old regime, and carried himself, as he wore his mili-
tary title, with stately dignity." His father, Cornelius
Dabney, was a prosperous planter and representative
citizen of Louisa County, Virginia, where he remained
until his death, as did also his wife, whose family name
was Winston. He was of French-Huguenot ancestry
and a descendant of one of three brothers — Cornelius.
John and Isaac — who fled from France to escape the
persecution incidental to the revocation of the Edict of
Nantes and who found liberty in the American Colony
of Virginia. The original authorgraph of the name
was D'Aubigne, and the motto on the crest of the coat
of arms of this patrician French family was "Faithful •
and Grateful." Of the three brothers who came to
America Cornelius figures as the ancestor of the sub-
ject of this memoir.
On the 7th of March, 1848, was solemnized the mar-
riage of Judge Dabney to Miss Susanna Rumsey, who
was born at Hopkinsville, Kentucky, July 10, 1826, the
only child of James D. Rumsey, and she survived her
honored husband by about four years. She continued to
reside in the old home at Cadiz until she too passed
to eternal rest, on the 10th of August, 1800. Her father
was a native of Maryland and was a son of Dr. Edward
Rumsey, who became one of the pioneer physicians and
surgeons in Christian County, Kentucky, and who was
one of the honored citizens of that county at the time of
his death, the Rumsey family being likewise of patrician
distinction and its name having been long and worthily
identified with American history. Mrs. Dabney received
excellent educational advantages and was a woman
of culture and gracious personality — one whose memory
is revered by all who came within the sphere of her
gentle influence. Concerning her the following interest-
ing statements have been written : "She continued her
reading through life, and at her death had studied
and gained understanding of more books than any
other woman in the commonwealth of Kentucky. Her
great-uncle. James Rumsey, and her own uncle, Edward
Rumsey, were men of great ambition, and to the former
is now universally conceded the discovery and applica-
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
389
iii/n of the power of steam in the navigation of boats,
while the latter, while still comparatively a young man,
represented the Second District of Kentucky in the
United States Congress, where he was the peer and
intimate associate of such men as Richard H. Menifee,
Wise of Virginia, Ingersoll of Pennsylvania, and Pren-
tiss of Mississippi. As a public speaker he was incisive,
his rhetoric rich and his declamation graceful. In the
early days of his brilliant career Edward Rumsey was
summoned home on account of the illness and death
of his entire family of children, the loss of whom so
humbled his spirit that he refused to return to his seat
in Congress or to appear again before a public audience.
James Rumsey, the inventor mentioned above, possessed
the delicate temperament of true genius, and he died
in London, England, while lecturing before the Royal
Society on the application of steam power to navigation.
But the chief charm of 'Mrs. Dabney did not lie in the
long line of her distinguished ancestry, her ripe scholar-
ship, or finished culture, but in her native goodness, her
kind and tender care as the mother of a large family
of children, and the solicitude she manifested for the
enjoyment and pleasure of a host of friends who were
her almost constant companions and welcome guests."
Concerning the children of Judge and Mrs. Dabney
the following brief record is given in conclusion of this
memoir : James R., a graduate of the University of
Kentucky, became judge of the County Court of Hen-
derson County and died at Hopkinsville September 23,
1895. Albert J. was graduated from the Univers-ty of
Kentucky and the United States Naval Academy at
Annapolis, and he finally resigned from the navy on
account of impaired health. Since that time he has
devoted his attention to effective educational service in
colleges in Tennessee and Kentucky, and in the mili-
tary academy at Staunton, Virginia. Cornelia became
the wife of James R. Averitt, and is now deceased.
Thomas C. died April 13, 1873, while a student in the
University of Kentucky. Annie S. is a resident of
Cadiz and the widow of W. L. B. Cook, president
of the Bank of Trenton, Kentucky. Minire is the
wife of Judge Robert Crenshaw, of whom individual
record is given on other pages of this work. Edward
F., who was graduated from the Kentucky University,
is now deceased. Dr. A. S. Dabney, practicing den-
tist in Chicago.
George I. Brandon was born and reared in Trigg
County, and the estimate placed upon him in the home
community sets at naught any application of the aphor-
ism that a prophet is not without honor save in his
own country, and he is serving with marked efficiency
and acceptability as clerk of the County Court, with
residence at Cadiz, the judicial center of the county.
He was born on a farm three miles north of Cadiz,
and the date of his nativity was May 29, 1873. In this
county were likewise born his parents, Irvin A. and
Susan A. (Roberts) Brandon, the former in the year
1843, near Cadiz, and the latter in 1848, near Roaring
Springs. Irvin A. Brandon was a son of John L. and
Eliza (Hollowell) Brandon, the former of whom was
born in Virginia and the latter in Caldwell County,
Kentucky, both representatives of sterling pioneer fam-
ilies of the Blue Grass State. John L. Brandon was
a son of Irvin and Mary (Lawson) Brandon, who
were born and reared in Virginia and who came from
the historic Old Dominion State to Kentucky and set-
tled in Trigg County in 1827, their old homestead
farm being situated near the Village of Wallonia, and
this place having continued their home until the close
of their lives. The Brandon family was founded in
Virginia in the Colonial epoch of our national history,
the original representatives of the name having come
from Scotland. John L. Brandon became one of the
substantial farmers and representative citizens of Trigg
County, and here he and his wife continued to reside
until their death.
Irvin A. Brandon, a man of energy, ability and pro-
gressiveness, achieved distinctive success in connection
with agricultural enterprise in his native county, where
for many years he gave virtually his undivided atten- .
tion to farm industry. For ten years he was engaged
in the general merchandise business at Wallonia, where
also he was actively identified with the lumber busi-
ness, in connection with which he owned and operated
a saw mill. He died on his farm near Wallonia on
the 2d of January, 1916, a citizen of liberality and loy-
alty, a successful business man and a native son who
commanded high place in the esteem of the people of
Trigg County. He was a democrat in political ad-
herency, and was an active member of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, as is also his widow, who still re-
sides on the old home farm near Wallonia. Of their
e'ght children George I., of this review, is the elder
of the two surviving. Glenn resides with his widowed
mother on the home farm, of which George I. has the
active management.
George I. Brandon is indebted to the rural schools
for his early education, which was supplemented by
his attending the public schools, including the h'gh
school at Wallonia. Thereafter he completed a course
in the commercial department of the Ceneral Normal
College at Danville, Indiana, in which institution he
was a member of the class of 1895. He then returned
to the parental home, but on the 16th of December of
the following year entered service as deputy county
clerk under the administration of F. K. Grasty. This
position he retained ten years, and thereafter he was
for eighteen months secretary and treasurer of the
Cadiz Hardware Company. Upon resigning this posi-
tion he engaged in the general insurance business at
Cadiz, and this enterprise he has since successfully
continued, his insurance agency being one of the most
important in the county in the scope and efficiency of
its service. In November, 1917, Mr. Brandon was
elected clerk of the County Court for a term of four
years, and he assumed the duties of this office in Jan-
uary, 1918. His strong hold upon popular confidence
and esteem in his native county was significantly shown
in the fact that for this office he had no opposing
candidate in either the primary or general elections.
Mr. Brandon has been active and influential in the
local councils of the democratic party. He holds mem-
bership in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South,
while Mrs. Brandon is a member of the Baptist Church.
He is affiliated with Cadiz Lodge No. 121, Ancient
Free and Accepted Masons, and Green River Lodge
No. 54, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of which
he is a past grand. In addition to his attractive mod-
ern home on East Main Street, Mr. Brandon owns a
well improved farm of 120 acres five miles north of
Cadiz, and also has an interest in the old home farm
of his father. He was liberal and influential in the
furtherance of the various war activities in Trigg
County during the nation's participation in the World
war, and as a citizen he is progressive and public-
spirited, with abiding interest in all that concerns the
welfare of his native county and state.
On the 2d of January, 1901, was solemnized the
marriage of Mr. Brandon to Miss Jimmie A. Glover,
daughter of James H. and Sallie A. (Terry) Glover,
who reside at Cadiz, Mr. Glover being a retired
farmer. Mr. and Mrs. Brandon have two ch'ldren:
Felix Redford, who was born August 16, 1905, is in
1921, a student in the John Locke Training School at
Elkton, Kentucky, completing the high school course,
and Sarah Agnes, who was born May 25, 191 5, is at-
tending the primary department of the Cadiz High
School.
Rev. Hubert Schmitz. The early history of the
Roman Catholic Church in Kentucky bears record of
missionary zeal, hardship, cheerful endurance and great
accomplishment. It is possible, however, to venerate
390
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
the early priests of the church and never lose sight
of what their great faith, perseverance and determined
resolution brought about in the wilderness, and at the
.same time turn a thoughtful glance in the direction of
the grave responsibilities resting upon their most worthy
successors, who face the perplexing questions and facts
of life in their priestly capacity in the twentieth cen-
tury. One of these faithful servants of the church is
found in Rev. Hubert Schmitz, pastor of St. Joseph's
Roman Catholic Church at Warsaw, a learned and ex-
perienced priest who not only looks carefully after the
spiritual welfare of his large parish, but has displayed
great executive ability concerning its temporal progress.
Rev. Hubert Schmitz was born at Luftelberg, near
Bonn, Germany, September 19, 1878, a son of Peter
Joseph and 'Margaret (Welter) Schmitz. Peter Joseph
Schmitz was born at Luftelberg in 1836 and died there
in 1892. His business throughout life was the manu-
facturing of pottery. He married Margaret Welter,
who survives and resides at Defiance, Ohio. She was
born in 1857 at Odendorf, Germany. Of their family of
four children Hubert was the firstborn, the others be-
ing : Gerhard, who is pastor of St. Michael's Roman
Catholic Church at Defiance, Ohio; Peter, who died
in the old home in Germany, at the age of twenty-three
years ; and Joseph, who resides at Tiffin, Ohio, and is
vice president of the Monarch Manufacturing Company.
Father Schmitz first attended the parochial school at
Luftelberg for eight years, then spent five years in a
high school and college at Steyl, Holland, where his
record stands of having completed the regular six-year
course in five years. In preparation for the church he
then spent two years in the study of philosophy in a
seminary at Vienna, Austria, and one more year in the
study of humanistic sciences, a year of theological
training following in the great University of Bonn.
In 1907 Father Schmitz came to the United States
and for two years attended Mount St. Mary's Seminary,
Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1909 he was ordained by Bishop
Maes, and his first appointment was as assistant pastor,
under Rev. Tom Major, of the Good Shepherd Church,
Frankfort, Kentucky. Five months later he was ap-
pointed assistant to Rev. M. G. Leick at Corpus Christi
Church, Newport, Kentucky, where he continued for
three years, and for the following three years was as-
sistant pastor under Rev. I. M. Ahmen, of St. Aloysius
at Covington, Kentucky. In 1916 Father Schmitz came
to Warsaw as pastor of St. Joseph's Church. This
parish was founded and church dedicated in 186S. and
Father Schmitz found much to be done in a material
way as well as a large parish to be cared for spiritually.
The church and rectory are situated on the Sparta Turn-
pike and the structures were remodeled in 1920. Father
Schmitz ministers to forty families, his parish taking
in all of Gallatin County and additionally the voting
precinct of Sanders in Carroll County, together witii
one half of Owen County, in which the city of Owenton
is included. The pastor of St. Joseph's leads a busy,
useful life and is much esteemed not only by his own
parish but by those with whom he comes into friendly
intercourse in everyday affairs.
Robert Wesley Brandon, M..D. Three generations
of the Brandon family have contributed to the medical
and surgical history of Tennessee and Kentucky, start-
ing with Dr. Wesley Brandon, continuing through the
career of Dr. Finis Brandon and bringing the achieve-
ments of those down to the present time in the person
and work of Dr. Robert Wesley Brandon, one of the
leaders of the medical profession of Christian County,
who has followed his honored calling at LaFayetie
since 1008. The services of these three able, learned
and conscientious medical men have covered a period
of three-quarters of a century of the history of their
profession and have served to make the name honored
and respected wherever known.
Dr. Robert Wesley Brandon was born at Linton,
Trigg County, Kentucky, July 6, 1882, a son of Dr.
Finis and Cornelia Eugenia (Cobb) Brandon. He be-
longs to a family of Scotch-Irish stock, the original
American ancestor of which immigrated to this country
in Colonial times and settled in Virginia, whence an
early member of this branch migrated as a pioneer
to Stewart County, Tennessee. There was born the
great-grandfather of Dr. Robert W. Brandon, Chris-
topher Brandon, who passed his entire life as a farmer
in Stewart_ County. His son, Dr. Wesley Brandon,
was born in Stewart County, in 1820, was educated
for the profession of medicine, and spent his long and
honorable career as a physician and surgeon, his death
occurring at Bumpus Mills, Tennessee, in 1007. He
married Miss Harriet Wallace, also a native of Stewart
County, who died before the birth of her grandson.
Dr. Finis Brandon was born near Dover, Stewart
County, Tennessee, in 1857, and was reared and mar-
ried in that county. He was educated at Vanderbilt
University and the University of Nashville, from both
of which institutions he received the degree of Doctor
of Medicine, and began his professional career at Lin-
ton, Kentucky, whence he came to LaFayette in iS8q.
He continued in the active practice of his calling until
his death in 1004. and won a high and honored place
among the medical men of Christian County. Doctor
Brandon was a life-long democrat, but his close devo-
tion to professional ditties precluded the idea of his
entrance upon the political arena. He was a faithful
member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South,
to the movements of which he was a liberal contrib-
utor. Doctor Brandon married Miss Cornelia Eugenia
Cobb, who was born in 1850. in Stewart County, Ten-
nessee, and who survives him as a resident of La-
Fayette. There were two children in the family: Dr.
Robert W. ; and Carter Hillman, a merchant of La-
Favette.
Robert Weslev Brandon was educated primarily in
the public schools of LaFayette, and after his gradua-
tion from the high school as a member of the class
of 1800 enrolled as a student of Vanderbilt Training
School, Elkton, Kentucky, where he spent two years.
In the fall of 1904 he entered Vanderbilt University,
from which he was duly graduated in 1908 with the
degree of Doctor of Medicine, and while at that in-
stitution he ioined the Phi Beta Pi Greek letter col-
lege fraternity, in which he still retains membersh'p.
Doctor Brandon did not give up his studies at the
time of his graduation, as he has been a close and care-
ful student of his profession, and has taken two
post-graduate courses, first at the Chicago Eye, Ear,
Nose and Throat College, in 1017, and later at the
Lovola Post-Graduate School, New Orleans, in 1918.
Doctor Brandon began bis professional career at La-
Fayette in T908, and since then has built up a large,
lucrative and representative general practice. He has
risen to a recognized place among the leaders of his
calling in Christian County, and has gained and re-
tained the confidence of the general public and the
esteem and regard of his fellow-practitioners. His
offices are located in the Brandon building, which is
owned by him, as is also the barber shop building and
a farm of 17? acres located one-quarter of a mile
southeast of the ctiy. He holds membership in the
Christian County Medical Society, the Kentucky State
Medical Society and the American Medical Associa-
tion, while his non-professional connections include
identification with LaFayette Lodge No. mr, A. F.
and A. M. : LaFayette Camp No. 11470, M. W. A., and
other bodies, and he is an ex-member of the Inde-
pendent Order of Odd Fellows. A democrat in poli-
tics, be has shown a public-spirited interest in local
affairs, and at present is a member of the town Board
of Trustees. With his family he belongs to the Meth-
odist Episcopal Church. South.
Doctor Brandon was married in 1909, at Nashville,
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
391
Tennessee, to Miss Jennie Lacy Doss, daughter of R.
M. and Martha (Reams) Doss, the latter a resident
of Akron, Ohio, where Mr. Doss, now deceased, was
formerly a railroad detective. Mrs. Brandon is a
lady of numerous graces and accomplishments and a
graduate of the Hume-Fogg High School, Nashville,
Tennessee. Doctor and Mrs. Brandon are the par-
ents of three children : Ruth Virginia, born November
30, 1910; Robert Wesley, Jr., born October II, 1912;
and Martha Eugenia, born March 29, 1915.
Henry D. Co wand came to Hopkins County just
twenty years ago, and his first experience in business
was in a position that netted him a salary of only
six dollars a week. Hopkins County people now know
Mr. Cowand as active head of a splendid department
store at Madisonville, as member of a mercantile cor-
poration operating a large chain of stores, and as one
of the busiest and most successful men of affairs in
this section of the state.
Mr. Cowand was born at Windsor, North Carolina,
October 15, 1879. He is of Scotch-Irish stock. His
grandfather, Albert Cowand, was born in Northamp-
ton County, North Carolina, and spent his active life
as a planter and at one time before the war owned
seventy-five slaves. From the age of thirty-five to
fifty-two he lived in Bertie County, North Carolina,
and then returned to Northampton County, where he
died. He married Mary Jane Willford, a native of
Virginia, who died in Northampton County. Robert
A. Cowand, father of the Madisonville merchant, was
born at Windsor, North Carolina. His mature years
were also devoted to planting on a large scale, and
prior to the war he employed many slaves in the culti-
vation of his fields. He served as a captain in the
Confederate Army, and was present at the battle of
Gettysburg and in other campaigns. Active in local
affairs, he served as a town commissioner twenty years
and was an influential democrat in his section. At the
age of eight years he was converted and joined the
Missionary Baptist Church, and his church was always
one of the strongest interests of his life. He died
in advanced years at Windsor, in 1882. Robert A.
Cowand married William Julia Burden, who was a
life-long resident of Windsor, where she was born in
1825 and died in 1903. They were the parents of five
sons, John T., William, James R., Robert Lee and
Henry D. The four oldest are all farmers in Bertie
County, North Carolina, Henry being the only repre-
sentative of the family in Kentucky.
Henry D. Cowand was educated in the public schools
of his native town, and the day he reached his ma-
jority he left his father's plantation and arrived at
Madisonville, Kentucky, October 18, 1900. The next
six weeks he earned $6 a week in the store of Dulin
& McLeod. Leaving there to accept a salary of $12
a week, he was employed from January to September,
1901, in the Victory Drygoods Company's store at
Earlington. The next step of progress promoted him
to $15 a week as clerk in the commissary store of the
St. Bernard Mining Company at Earlington. He was
with that business for eight years, and while there laid
the foundation of a sound mercantile experience and
knowledge. With this experience and with such
capital as he had been able to accumulate he opened,
on January 15, 1909, a general retail store under the
name of Barnes-Cowand Company at Earlington. In
1912 he became individual proprietor of the Cowand
Mercantile Company at Earlington and continued busi-
ness there until he sold out in October, 1917.
At that date he moved to Madisonville and became
a member of the Cowand-Hauger Company, a syndi-
cate which now operates a chain of stores from Flint,
Michigan, to Fort Worth, Texas. There are forty-
two stores capitalized and operated through the central
management of the Cowand-Hauger Corporation. Mr.
C. D. Hauger is president of the company, Mrs. H.
D. Cowand is vice president, and H. D. Cowand is
secretary, treasurer and general manager of the Mad-
isonville department store of the firm. This is a busi-
ness that has rapidly grown, and the store on North
Main Street in Madisonville is one of the model insti-
tutions of the kind in this part of Kentucky. .
In addition to his mercantile interests Mr. Cowand
is also a director in the Citizens Bank & Trust Com-
pany at Madisonville, is a director and stockholder in
the Invader Oil Company of Fort Worth, Texas, and
has accumulated some valuable farming interests in
Kentucky, including three farms totaling 285 acres in
Hopkins County. He is therefore a contributor to
agricultural production in his part of the state. His
home is one of the most complete modern residences
in Madisonville, located at 127 East Broadway.
Mr. Cowand is a democrat, is a member and deacon
of the First Christian Church, and is affiliated with
Madisonville Lodge No. 738 of the Elks, and Eureka
Camp No. 25, Woodmen of the World. During the
war Mr. Cowand was county chairman of the publicity
department promoting Liberty Loans and all other
authorized drives and campaigns for the successful
prosecution of the war.
In 1906, at Earlington, he married Miss Virgie Rule,
daughter of John and Mary Rule. Her mother is still
living at Earlington. Her father was foreman of the
St. Bernard coal mines. Mrs. Cowand died in 1910,
leaving one daughter, Margaret, born January 6, 1910.
In 1913, at Madisonville, Mr. Cowand married Miss
Lynna Galoway, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Lynn
Galoway. Her father, now deceased, was a merchant
and farmer at St. Charles, Kentucky, where her mother
is still living. Mrs. Cowand is a graduate of the Ken-
tucky Bethel College, Hopkinsville, Kentucky, • receiv-
ing the A. B. degree, and also has diplomas in paint-
ing and music and is a thorough artist.
Basil M. Brooks. Though only forty years of age
Basil M. Brooks has had a wide range of business ex-
perience and achievement, was a bank cashier and bank
president in very early manhood, has been prominent
in public and civic affairs, and for several years -past
has lived in Madisonville, where he is the senior mem-
ber of one of the leading general insurance agencies
in that section of the state.
Mr. Brooks was born in Webster County, Kentucky,
May 3, 1880. His paternal ancestors came from Eng-
land and were Colonial settlers in Maryland. His
great-grandfather, Charles Brooks, was a native of
Maryland, and early in the last century came to Ken-
tucky and developed a pioneer farm in that part of
original Hopkins County wh:ch is now Webster County.
He lived there the rest of his life. Absalom Brooks,
his son and grandfather of the Madisonville insurance
man, was born in what is now Webster County in 1813,
and spent his life as a farmer in that community,
where he died in i860. He married Susan Bailey, who
was born in Hopkins County in 1830 and died in
Webster County in 1876.
Willis C. Brooks, father of Basil M., was born in
1859, in the same house in which his son Basil was
born. In 1861 his mother brought the family to Hop-
kins County, where he was reared and educated. After
his marriage he lived in Webster County, on his farm
three miles west of Slaughters. In 1881 he again re-
turned to Hopkins County. His business as a farmer
was notably successful, he was a breeder and dealer in
live stock, and made his farm, eleven miles north of
Madisonville, one of the most productive and valuable
places in Hopkins County. In 1890, while still retain-
ing the ownership and supervision of his farm, he
moved into the village of Slaughters in Webster
County, where he lived until his death on September
26, 1908. Outside of his immediate business he was
prominent in other affairs, being president of the
Farmers and Merchants Bank of Slaughters from 1902
392
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
until his death. He was one of the organizers of this
hank and was also a successful merchant, having been
one of the founders of the Slaughters Mercantile Com-
pany, conducting the leading department store in
Webster County. He was a democrat, and was a life-
long Methodist, being one of the leading laymen of
the church.
Willis C. Brooks married Katherine Murphey, who
was born in Hopkins County, eight miles east of Mad-
isonville, in 1859. She now lives at Slaughters. Her
grandfather, Charles Murphey, was of Scotch-Irish
ancestry and one of the pioneer farmers of Hopkins
County, where he is buried. Katherine Murphey's
father was John Murphey, who was born in Hopkins
County in 1832, spent his active life as a farmer and
tobacconist, acquired extensive land holdings, and died
in the county in 1895. He married Ann Davidson, who
was born in Hopkins County in 1840 and died in 1906.
Basil M. Brooks is the older of two children. His
sister, Mayme, is the wife of E. K. Coffman, an in-
surance man at Slaughters. Basil Brooks was educated
in public and private sct*ools at Slaughters, and dur-
ing 1895 attended the W. R. Smith Business College
at Lexington. Then, at the age of sixteen, he began
an active business career. During 1896-97 he was em-
ployed as a bookkeeper in Madisonville. In 1898 he
taught a school in Webster County, and in 1899 for a
time was associated with a mercantile business in
Slaughters. In the fall of that year he entered the
Kentucky State University at Lexington, where lie-
pursued his studies until 1901. February 28, 1901, he
was elected cashier of the Farmers and Merchants
Bank of Slaughters, but did not take charge of the
office until he came home from the university on July
1, 1901. He was cashier of the bank until May 8,
1909. At that date he resigned and took personal
charge of the home farm and his father's estate, and is
still managing the property for his mother. On June
30, 1909, he was elected president of the Farmers and
Merchants Bank of Slaughters, and proved his finan-
cial judgment and ability in managing the affairs of
this bank until 1917. In the meantime, from 1901 to
1909, he had engaged in the insurance business. In
July, 1916, Mr. Brooks left the home farm and re-
sumed the insurance business at Slaughters, and since
December, 1917, has devoted his energies to building
up a large and important general insurance agency
at Madisonville, his offices being in the Citizens Bank
& Trust Company Building on South Main Street.
While the past twenty years have been filled with
many exacting business responsibilities, Mr. Brooks
has also taken an intelligent part in public affairs. He
served on the Town Council at Slaughters and was
chairman of the Council, from 1904 to 1910 was a mem-
ber of the Board of Trustees of the Kentucky State
University from the Second Congressional District,
and was one of the organizers and is still an active
member of the Hopkins County Drainage Commis-
sioners. He is a democrat, is a member of the Board
of Stewards of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South,
at Madisonville, is chairman of the Building Commit-
tee for the contemplated new church, and has served
as Sunday School superintendent. Fraternally he is
affiliated with Slaughterville Lodge No. 347, A. F. and
A. M., Slaughterville Chapter No. 106, R. A. M.,
Madisonville Commandery No. 27, K. T, and is a
charter member of Rizpah Temple of the Mystic
Shrine at Madisonville. He is also a charter member
of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity of the Ken-
tucky State University. During the war he was ac-
tively associated with all the campaigns in his home
locality to strengthen the arm of the Government in
the great war, and was county sales chairman for the
Fourth and Victory Loans, and a liberal investor in
Government securities himself.
On December 11, 1901, at West Point, Kentucky,
Mr. Brooks married Miss Margaret Ogden, daughter
of William C. and Margaret (Kuykendall) Ogden.
Her father, now deceased, was a merchant at Slaugh-
ters, Kentucky. Mrs. Brooks is a popular member of
Madisonville social circles, particularly interested in
music and skilled vocally and instrumentally in that
art. She is a graduate of music from the Woman's
College of Oxford, Ohio, and is a member of both
the Chautauqua and Woman's Clubs. Mr. and Mrs.
Brooks have had three children. Margaret K., born
December 1, 1903, graduated from the Madisonville
High School in 1920 and is now in the first year at the
Kentucky State University. Willis C, born February
[4, 1906, is in the first year of high school. The
youngest, Harry Ogden, born October 25, 1914, died in
his third year, June 21, 1917.
William N. Stice. The same ambition and deter-
mined purpose which enabled Mr. Stice to gain through
his own application and efforts a liberal education and
to become a successful teacher in the schools of Ken-
tucky have stood him well in hand in his business
career, and he is now the owner of the well equipped
and thoroughly modern flour mill at Cerulean, Trigg
County, this milling plant having been erected and
equipped by him in 1902 and its output capacity being
sixty barrels of flour a day.
Mr. Stice was born in Edmondson County, Kentucky,
March 10, 1867, and is a son of David M. and Marilda
(Logan) Stice, the former of whom was born in Nortli
Carolina, in the year 1810, and the latter was born
near Brownsville, Edmondson County, Kentucky, in
1827. The father died on his farm near Brownsville
in 1875, and the mother remained in that county until
her death in 1881. David M. Stice was a boy at the
time of the family removal from North Carolina to
Edmonson County, Kentucky, in the early part of the
nineteenth century, his father, Andrew Stice, a native of
North Carolina, having died while en route to the
new home and the widowed mother having continued
with her children on the sad and arduous overland
journey to Edmonson County, where she passed the
remainder of her life and where she reared her large
family of children. A devoted and unselfish mother,
she endured the hardships and privations incidental to
pioneer life in Kentucky. Her husband had rendered
gallant service as a patriot soldier in the war of the
Revolution.
David M. Stice was reared under the conditions
that marked the pioneer period in the history of Edmon-
son County, where eventually he became an extensive
and successful exponent of farm industry and where
he remained until his death. The family name of his
first wife was Dicus, and she was a young woman at the
time of her death. He later married Miss Marilda
Logan, who survived him by about six years, and of
their four children William N., of this review, is the
eldest; Catherine is the wife of Monroe Wilson, a
farmer near Tilford, Butler County, Kentucky; Susan,
who resides in Grayson County, is the widow of Joseph
Woosley, who was a substantial farmer of that county ;
and Cecelia became the wife of Marion Johnson, both
having died in the State of Arkansas, where Mr. John-
son had been a successful timber dealer.
The rural schools of his native county afforded
William N. Stice his early education, and his higher
scholastic training was acquired through his own efforts,
including determined application to private study and
reading. He was but seven years of age at the time
of his father's death, and from that time until he was
fourteen years old he found employment that enabled
him to aid in the support of his widowed mother and
the younger children. He was fourteen years old when
his loved mother passed away, and thereafter he con-
tinued to be employed by the month, the while he used
his earnings wisely in the furtherance of his education.
Thus it was that he defrayed the expenses incidental
to the completion of a course in the high school at
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
393
Leitchfield, judicial center of Grayson County, in which
school he was graduated as a member of the class of
1890. Thereafter he devoted fourteen years to success-
ful service as a teacher in the public schools, and this
active pedagogic work, as combined with his zealous
study and reading, enabled him to gain the equivalent
of a liberal education. He was a popular teacher in the
schools of Edmonson, Barren, Grayson and Hopkins
counties, and after terminating his service in this im-
portant field of endeavor he was for three years engaged
in operating a flour mill at Dawson Springs, Hopkins
County. He sold this milling plant and business in
1902, in which year he came to Cerulean, Trigg County,
and erected his present fine milling plant, to the opera-
tion of which he has since given his close attention,
the while he has developed a substantial and prosperous
business, as the products of the mill are of the highest
standard and constitute the best advertisement and
commercial asset of the business.
Mr. Stice is one of the leading citizens and business
men of the thriving Village of Cerulean, where he is
serving as police judge at the time of this writing, in
1920. He is a democrat of utmost loyalty, he and his
wife hold membership in the Baptist Church, and he
is affiliated with Cerulean Lodge No. 875, Ancient Free
and Accepted Masons, and Cerulean Camp No. 238,
Woodmen of the World. In addition to his mill prop-
erty, Mr. Stice owns his substantial and attractive
residence at the corner of Main and Washington streets,
this being one of the best and most modern houses
in the village.
At Newport, Campbell County, in the year 1896, was
solemnized the marriage of Mr. Stice to Miss Sallie
K. Graham, daughter of Thomas J. and Theresa (Horn)
Graham, both of whom are deceased, Mr. Graham
having been a successful merchant and farmer in Gray-
son County. Mr. and Mrs. Stice have seven children :
Lois, who is now at the parental home, was graduated
from the University of Louisville as a member of the
class of 1920, and received therefrom the degree of
Bachelor of Arts ; Eunice is, in 1920, a student in the
musical conservatory of the University of Louisville,
in the academic department of which institution she
is a member of the class of 1923 ; Mary is a member of
the sophomore class in the same institution ; Rachel
and Rebecca, twins, were graduated from the Cerulean
High School as members of the class of 1920 ; William
is a member of the sophomore class in the same high
school ; and Sarah likewise is attending the public
schools of Cerulean. The family is one of prominence
and unqualified popularity in connection with the rep-
resentative social activities of the home community.
George E. Hatcher, M. D., is a young man whose
professional ability marks him as one of the able physi-
cians and surgeons of Trigg County and whose resource-
fulness and versatility is shown in his finding time to
give his personal supervision to his valuable farm prop-
erty in this county. With residence and headquarters
in the Village of Cerulean, he has built up a prosperous
general practice and gained definite vantage ground
as one of the representative physicians and surgeons
of his home county.
Dr. George Edward Hatcher was born at Pekin, Illi-
nois, April 20, 1883, and is a son of Henry C. and Ellen
(Clauser) Hatcher, who still maintain their home at
that place, where the father is now living virtually
retired after many years of active association with the
harness and saddlery trade and business. Henry C.
Hatcher was born at Canton, Illinois, April i, 1843,
and when he was a lad of nine years his parents removed
thence to Tremont, that state, where he was reared and
educated and where he was residing at the time when
the outbreak of the Civil war caused him to tender his
aid in defense of the Union. He enlisted in a regiment
of Illinois volunteer infantry, and during the major
part of his period of service was called upon for clerical
duties in connection with the officers' headquarters of
his command. After the close of the war he established
his residence at Pekin, Illinois, where he has since
maintained his home and where he served eight years
as deputy Circuit Court clerk for Tazewell County.
He is a democrat in political allegiance, and is affiliated
with the Grand Army of the Republic and the Inde-
pendent Order of Odd Fellows. On August 15, 1865,
was solemnized his marriage to Miss Ellen Clauser,
who was born at Pekin, Illinois, July 12, 1846, and of
this union have been born nine children : Don died at
the age of ten years, as the result of an accident which
caused concussion of the brain ; Frank E. is a commis-
sion merchant in the City of Butte, Montana; Charles
C, in engaged in the real-estate business at Pekin,
Illinois ; Mary Katherine is the wife of Schuyler C.
Scrimger, of Pekin, Illinois, her husband being in the
internal revenue service of the1 Government ; Fred
F., is Wisconsin state manager for the John Deere
Plow Company, with headquarters in the City of Mil-
waukee ; Laura L., remains at the parental home ;
Dr. George E., of this sketch, was the next in order
of birth; Bessie died at the age of ten months; and
Rose Lou is the wife of Fred F. Newmann, a jeweler
and watchmaker at Chenoa, Illinois.
In the public schools of his native place Dr. George
E. Hatcher continued his studies until his graduation
from the Pekin High School as a member of the class
of 1900. For two years thereafter he was employed in
a drug store at Pekin, and in the meanwhile he received
license as a registered assistant pharmacist. In 1902,
in consonance with his ambition and well formulated
plans, he entered the medical department of the Uni-
versity of Tennessee, in the City of Nashville, and
in 1906 received from this institution his well earned
degree of Doctor of Medicine. While at the university
he became affiliated with the national medical fraternity
known as the Alpha Kappa Kappa. After his graduation
Doctor Hatcher gained fortifying clinical experience by
one year of service as an interne in the Nashville City
Hospital, this preferment having been won on the score
of his having received second honors of his class at the
time of its graduation. From 1907 until February, 1910,
Doctor Hatcher continued in the practice of his pro-
fession at Nashville, where he was then appointed
assistant physician of the Tennessee Central Hospital
for the Insane. Of this position he continued the
incumbent until July, 1914, when he established his
residence at Cerulean, Kentucky, where he has since
been engaged in the general practice of his profession,
with a large and representative clientage and with
specially high reputation in the field of surgical work.
The Doctor owns a modern residence and well equipped
office building on Main Street, and two miles northeast
of his home village he is the owner of a fine farm
estate of 250 acres, this tract being fertile and productive
bottom land, its improvements being of excellent order
and the farm being the stage of progressive enterprise
in agriculture and the raising of high-grade cattle and
horses.
Doctor Hatcher takes loyal and public-spirited interest
in community affairs, is a member of the Board of
Education of Cerulean, is a democrat in politics,_ and
he and his wife hold membership in the Chrisitan
Church . He is serving at the time of this writing, in
1920, as president of the Trigg County Medical Society,
and holds membership also in the Kentucky State
Medical Society and the American Medical Association.
He is retained as examiner for nervous and mental
diseases in connection with the United States Public
Health Service, and during the World war was zealous
in the advancing of the various Governmental loans
and other war activities. The Doctor is one of only five
Kentucky physicians holding membership in the Amer-
ican Medico-Psychological Association, and in his home
394
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
village he is affiliated with the camp of the Modern
Woodmen of America.
On May 15, 1907, at Cerulean, was solemnized the
marriage of Doctor Hatcher to Miss Annie Hamilton
Turney, daughter of R. Paul and Martha (Smith)
Turney, both of whom are deceased, Mr. Turney having
been a representative farmer and business man of
Trigg County and having been prominently identified
with banking enterprise at Cerulean. Doctor and Mrs.
Hatcher have one child, Pauline, who was born April
17, 1908.
Charles Greenleaf Franklin, city judge of Madi-
sonville, began the practice of law ten years ago, is a
native of Hopkins County, and has gained the honors of
his profession among people who have known him all
his life. .
Judge Franklin was born at Dawson Springs in
Hopkins County March 11, 1883. He represents the
fourth generation of the Franklin family in Hopkins
County. His great-grandfather, Thomas Franklin, was
a native of Virginia but when a young man came West
and settled in Hopkins County, where he was married
and where he spent many years as a farmer near
Dawson Springs. The grandfather of Judge Franklin
was Finis Franklin, who was born near Dawson Springs
in 1830. He was a merchant, served as a Confederate
soldier all through the war, and died at the home ot
his son Benjamin L. Franklin, in 1000. His first wife,
the grandmother of Judge Franklin, was Dicie Wilson,
who was born near Dalton in Hopkins County and
died near Dawson Springs. Finis Franklin married for
his second wife Miss Cooksey, a native of Caldwell
Countv, Kentucky.
Benjamin L. Franklin, father of Judge Franklin, was
born near Dawson Springs in 1862, and has lived in that
one community practically all his life. For the past
thirty-five years he has conducted a successful mercantile
establishment near Dawson Springs. He is a democrat,
a member of the Universalist Church, and is affiliated
with Bulah Lodge No. 609, A. F. and A. M.. His wife
was Jeffie Davis Mason, who was born at Dawson
Springs in 1864 and died there in 1905. A brief record
of their children is as follows. Ha, wife of George
Finley, a farmer between Earlington and Dawson
Springs; Charles G. ; Flora, at home; Ruby, principal
of schools at Nebo, Kentucky; Delia, wife of L. B.
Wilkey, a farmer at Nortonville ; Vaden, wife of Mack
Fitzsimmons, their home being on a farm near Dawson
Springs; Leslie B., who is bookkeeper for a coal com-
pany at Lynch, Kentucky; and Ruth, at home. Ben-
jamin L. Franklin married for his second wife Lora
Downing, a native of Hopkins County. They have two
children, Thelma Ray and Lillith, both at home and
attending school.
Charles Greenleaf Franklin secured his early educa-
tion in the rural schools, attended the high school at
Dawson Springs, graduated with the Bachelor of
Science degree in 1904 from the Southern Normal
University at Bowling Green, and after leaving college
was for four and a half years chief clerk in the state
auditor's office at Frankfort. This employment fur-
nished him an opportunity to pursue the study of law
and also permitted him to earn the money to complete
his legal education. Judge Franklin is a graduate of the
Law School of Cumberland University at Lebanon,
Tennessee, completing his course and receiving the
LL. B. degree in 1910. He is a member of the Sigma
Alpha Epsilon college fraternity. On being admitted
to the bar Judge Franklin opened his office at Madison-
ville, and his talents have been in large demand both
in civil and criminal practice. His offices are in the
Baker & Hickman Building on East Center Street,
opposite the Courthouse. Judge Franklin was elected
city judge in August, 1919, for a term of two years.
In August, 1921, he was nominated for county attorney
bv the democratic party, the opposing party offering no
opposition. During the war he spoke over Hopkins
County in behalf of the various war drives, and was
otherwise a leader both by personal example and through
his influence to promote the success of all local cam-
paigns. He has prospered in his affairs, is owner of a
farm near Silent Run in Hopkins County, has a dwelling
on Scott Street and his own modern home at 232 West
Broadway. He is a member of the County and State
Bar Associations, is an active member of the Christian
Church, has served as superintendent of its Sunday
School two years and is affiliated with the Masonic
Order and Madisonville Lodge No. 738 of the Elks.
In April, 1914, at Madisonville, he married Miss
Minnie Sugg, daughter of John Will and Arminta
(Johnson) Sugg. Her mother is deceased, and her
father, a retired shoe merchant, lives with Judge and
Mrs. Franklin. The latter have two children : Frieda
Dupree, born April 23, 1916, and Carroll Sugg, born
April 3, 1919.
Samuel Coombs, county judge of Carroll County, has
for many years been a leader in rural and agricultural
activities in that section of Kentucky. He won his
prosperity directly from the soil by the hardest kind
of concentrated effort and intensive energy, and he cer-
tainly merits the position of influence he enjoys today.
Judge Coombs was born in Hardin County, Kentucky,
June 29, 1851. His grandfather, Thomas Coombs, was
a native of Virginia and was a pioneer farmer of
Trimble County and finally conducted a hotel at Ewing
Ford in Carroll County. He died in Henry County,
Kentucky. His son, Isham Coombs, was born in
Trimble County in 1800, a date showing that this
family has been in Kentucky practically throughout the
period of statehood. He grew up in Trimble County,
but before his marriage moved to Hardin County and
for many years conducted a large farm. He joined the
Masonic Order, was a democrat, and a loyal member of
the Christian Church. His death occurred in Hardin
County in 1867. His wife, Martha Ann Cash, was born
in Hardin County in 1823 and died in Carroll County
in 1904, at the age of eighty-one. They became the
parents of a large family of children : Henry, a farmer
to the age of thirty and afterward for a number of
years jailor in Barren County and later took up the
monument business and died while still so engaged at
Carrollton at the age of sixty-eight ; Warren Thomas,
a farmer and teamster, who died in Barren County ;
Samuel ; Ben, who was a farmer in Henry County and
died at Campbellsburg ; Isham, a farmer near Paducah ;
William, who lives on his farm near Campbellsburg;
Richard B., tollgate keeper of the Carrollton and Milton
Turnpike who died in Carroll County ; Donnah. who
died in Trimble County in 1901, wife of Otis Dunnaway,
a butcher living at Campbellsburg r Gabriel, a farmer
who died in Oklahoma; A. L., an Oklahoma farmer;
Charles, a farmer living at Carrollton ; Kate, of Stroud,
Oklahoma, widow of Robert Bland, a farmer.
Judge Samuel Coombs acquired a rural school educa-
tion in the counties of Hart and Barren, and his en-
vironment was the home farm until the age of twenty-
three. He then farmed a year in Trimble County and
from February until November, 1875, in Warren Coun-
tv, and since that year his home has been in Carroll
County. He had to start without a dollar, and for
years he literally earned his living by the sweat of
his brow. On coming to Carroll County he bought a
farm at George's Creek and expended his efforts at that
place for fifteen years. The next farm he purchased
was on the little Kentucky River, and he remained there
with steadily growing prosperity for fifteen years.
Judge Coombs in 1912 bought the Bridges farm at the
corporate limits on the south side of Carrollton, and
while during 1918-20 he had his home in Carrollton,
he now lives at his modern residence on the farm and
gives his active supervision to its cultivation.
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
395
He was elected county judge in 1017, and has given
close attention to his duties at the Court House since
January I, 1918. Judge Coomhs is a member of the
Carroll County Farm Bureau, the Farmers Union, the
Eureka Union, the Burley Tobacco Growers Association,
is a director in the Carrollton National Bank, a stock-
holder in the Farmers Loose Leaf Tobacco Warehouse
Company at Carrollton, and the economic and civic
welfare of his county is a matter that never fails to
arouse his interest, judge Coombs is a democrat, for
twenty years has been an elder in the Christian Church,
and is a past grand of Browinski Lodge No. 64, Inde-
pendent Order of Odd Fellows. Like all other good
citizens of Carroll County he was ready with his time,
influence and resources to support the cause of the
Government in the World war.
Judge Coombs has a fine family. He married in
Trimble County in 1874 Miss Evaline Mitchell who died
May 20, 1921. She was a daughter of Addison and
Emily (Coombs) Mitchell, now deceased. Her father
was a farmer. Judge and Mrs. Coombs had nine
children. The oldest is Marcellus, a farmer in Carroll
County; Addie Vernon is the wife of T. A. Maddox,
a Carroll County farmer ; Mattie Thomas died in Car-
roll County at the age of thirty, the wife of W. M.
Carlisle, now a farmer in Indiana ; Emma Lola is the
wife of J. C. Cantwell, living on a farm in Carroll
Count ; Charles has also pursued agriculture ; Homer
Otis died in Carroll County at the age of seven years ;
Orville William is identified with farming; Samuel
Forest, a machinist by trade, living at home, answered
the call to the colors in November, 1917, was trained at
Camp Taylor, then at West Point, and went overseas,
spending five months in France and had completed his
intensive training ready for front line duty when the
armistice was signed, being a machine gunner in a
machine gun corps of the Field Artillery ; John, the
youngest of the family, is active manager of the home
farm near Carrollton.
Thomas O. Turner is consistently to be designated
as one of the representative citizens and business men
of Trigg County, of which he is a native son. He
is a prominent merchant at Cadiz, the judicial center
of the county, is the owner of valuable farm property
in Trigg County, as well also as in the states of Mis-
sissippi and Texas, and has important financial interests
in his home county.
Thomas Oscar Turner was born at Cerulean Springs,
this county, June 20, 1872, and is a representative of
one of the old and influential families of this county.
His paternal great-grandfather, James Turner, was born
and reared in North Carolina, and became one of the
pioneer exponents of farm industry in Trigg County,
Kentucky, where he and his wife, whose family name
was Rogers, passed the remainder of their lives and
where he died in the '40s. His son R. R., grandfather
of him whose name introduces this review, was born
at Cerulean Springs, this county, in 1812, became one
of the substantial farmers and influential citizens of
the Cerulean Springs section of the county and here
remained until his death in 1882. His wife, whose
maiden name was Leah Goodwin, was born at Cerulean
Springs in the year 1806, and her death there occurred
in 1887. Mr. Turner served thirty-five years as a
justice of the peace and was familiarly known as
'Squire Turner.
J. J. Turner, father of the subject of this sketch,
was born on the old homestead at Cerulean Springs
in the year 1843, and there he passed his entire life,
one of the leading exponents of agricultural industry
in that section of his native county and as a citizen
whose sterling character gave him secure place in
popular confidence and good will. He was a staunch
supporter of the principles of the democratic party,
was influential in local affairs of public order, and he
and his wife were zealous members of the Primitive
Baptist Church. He served as a gallant young soldier
of the Confederacy during the climacteric period of the
Civil war, as a member of Company B, Eighth Kentucky
Infantry. Among the important engagements in which
he took part were those of Fort Donelson, Shiloh,
Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge.
He was with the forces that opposed General Sherman
in his historic Atlanta campaign and subsequent march
from Atlanta to the sea. At Fort Donelson he was
captured by the enemy, and thereafter was held a
prisoner of war near Indianapolis, Indiana, about nine
months. Mr. Turner's death occurred in April, 1893,
and in his passing his native county lost one of its
most honored citizens. His wife, whose death occurred
in April, 1920, was born near Golden Pond, Trigg
County, in August, 1848, and was a representative of
another of the sterling pioneer families of this favored
section of the Blue Grass state. Of their children the
eldest was William R., who was a prosperous merchant
at Cerulean Springs at the time of his death, in Novem-
ber, 1919; Ella died at the age of one year; Thomas
O., immediate subject of this review, was the next in
order of birth ; Leah is the wife of Charles K. Warren,
a merchant at Cerulean Springs ; Martha is the wife
of J. L. Blakely, a farmer near that place; D. D., who
died in 1918, was a carpenter and builder at Cerulean
Springs; Benjamin F. is a merchant in that village;
J. M. is postmaster of the City of Cadiz and is individ-
ually mentioned on other pages of this work ; Woodson
is the wife of Oscar E. Stewart, who is identified with
coal-mining operations in Illinois, their home being at
Cercy, that state.
Thomas O. Turner gained his youthful and limited
education in the public schools at Cerulean Springs,
and he was seventeen years of age when he left school.
Thereafter he was associated with farm enterprise in
the old home locality until he had attained to his legal
majority, when he engaged in the general merchandise
business at Cerulean Springs, where also he conducted
the Cerulean Springs Hotel for a neriod of ten years,
in the meanwhile continuing his alliance with farm
industry. In 1915, he established his present mercantile
business at Cadiz, though he did not take up his resi-
dence in this city until 1917. He has disposed of the
major part of his interests at Cerulean Springs, though
he still owns and conducts his well equipped general
store at that place. In 1919 he established also a dry-
goods store at 'Murray, the county seat of Calloway
County, and it will thus be seen that he is one of the
most progressive, even as he is the most successful,
business men of this section of Kentucky. His large
and finely stocked and appointed mercantile establish-
ment at Cadiz is the leading department store in Trigg
County, and his store at Murray has equal precedence
in Calloway County. The Cadiz store is located on
Main Street, opposite the Courthouse, and its effective
service has gained to it a large and appreciative support-
ing patronage. Mr. Turner owns and occupies one
of the attractive modern residences of Cadiz, on Main
Street, and in addition to being the owner of a well
improved and valuable farm property near Cerulean
Springs he has a farm of 320 acres in Jones County,
Texas, and one of 320 acres in Tippah County, Mis-
sissippi. He is a director of the Bank of Cerulean
Springs, a stockholder in the Cadiz Bank & Trust Com-
pany, and is a stockholder also in the Henry Clay Fire
Insurance Company and the Southern Life Insurance
Company.
Mr. Turner is a stalwart in the local ranks of the
democratic party, and is a member of the Democratic
Executive Committee of the First Congressional District
of Kentucky, but is not a very strong prohibitionist. He
holds membership in the Primitive Baptist Church, in
which he has served as clerk of the Board of Trustees
for fully a quarter of a century. Mr. Turner was a
396
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
most loyal and active supporter of the various war
activities in his county during the nation's participation
in the World war, and was a liberal subscriber to the
various Governmental loans in support of the war
service.
In 1892, at Cerulean Springs, was solemnized the
marriage of Mr. Turner to Miss Laura Ladd, daughter
of the late H. F. and Josephine (Armstrong) Ladd,
both of whom died on their homestead farm near
Cerulean Springs. Mr. and Airs. Turner have no
children living, but one son died at the age of three
days, in 1896 and another son died at the age of six
years, 1907. Mrs. Laura Ladd Turner has been a
member of the Missionary Baptist Church since child-
hood.
Benjamin Morgan Plain served a long and thorough
apprenticeship as a merchant's clerk at Madisonville
before he went into business for himself, and his train-
ing, experience and exceptional talent for business have
enabled him to develop one of the largest and most
complete hardware establishments in this section of
Kentucky.
Mr. Plain was born on a farm near Bremen in Mc-
Lean County, Kentucky, January 23, 1875. The Plains
were Colonial settlers in Virginia, and his grandfather,
Daniel Plain, was born in that old commonwealth. As
a young man he came West to McLean County, Ken-
tucky, was married there, and while a brick mason by
trade he also owned and operated a farm. He died
in McLean County many years ago. His wife was a
Miss Coffman, a native of Virginia, who died in McLean
County. Benjamin Plain, father of the Madisonville
merchant, was born in McLean County in 1822, was
reared and married in his native locality, was first a
merchant and later a farmer, and in 1876 moved to a
farm in Muhlenberg County, where he continued the
vocation of agriculture until his death in 1890. He
was a democrat, a very interested member and worker
in the Baptist Church, and a member of the Masonic
fraternity. Benjamin Plain married Sarah Morgan,
who was born in Muhlenberg County in 1846, and died
at Madisonville in 1908. They were the parents of nine
children: Misses Ruth and Annie, living at 'Madison-
ville; Susie, who died at Summers Store in Muhlenberg
County, wife of Charles Martin, now a mine operator
living at Greenville, Kentucky; Mollie, wife of Rev. F.
E. Burkett, a Presbyterian minister in Illinois; Sallie,
who died at the age of nineteen ; Earl, who died when
twenty-four ; Benjamin Morgan, who was the seventh
in age ; John, who died at the age of twenty-three ; and
Miss Kate, who lives with her unmarried sisters at
Madisonville.
Benjamin Morgan Plain spent his early life on his
father's farm, and while there attended the rural schools
of Muhlenberg County. He also attended school at
Madisonville. Reaching the age of seventeen, he went
to work as clerk in the general store of Bailey & Com-
pany at Madisonville. He was there two years, but
it was his association for seven years as a clerk for
C. E. Owen at Madisonville that brought him a complete
and well rounded knowledge of the hardware business.
Knowing the retail hardware trade thoroughly, he was
for a year a traveling salesman for the Hart Hardware
Company of Louisville, covering Western Kentucky.
Then, in 1902, he engaged in business for himself under
the firm name of Finley & Plain. After three years he
sold his interest to his partner, and in 1905 established
his present hardware house at 109 North Main Street.
This is the Plain Hardware Company, for some years
a partnership, but has been under the sole ownership
of Mr. Plain since 1919. The company handles all kinds
of hardware, farm implements, vehicles, stoves and
ranges, and does a volume of business which entitles
it to distinction as probably the largest general hardware
house between Owensboro and Paducah.
Mr. Plain is also owner of a comfortable modern
home on East Broadway. He was a buyer of Govern-
ment securities during the war and lent his active
influence in other ways to the success of local campaigns.
He is a member and elder of the Presbyterian Church,
and has served as a member of the City Council.
On March 30, 1905, at St. Charles, Kentucky, Mr.
Plain married Miss Joennell Galloway, daughter of
L. B. and Margaret (Woodruff) Galloway. Her mother
is still living at St. Charles, where her father died,
he having been a merchant for a number of years.
Mrs. Plain is a graduate of West Kentucky College at
Hopkinsville. To their marriage were born two chil-
dren: Nell Morgan, on August 26, 1908; and Mar-
guerite, on April 28, 1910.
Sam J. Roberts is a young man who lias made for
himself a prominent place in connection with bank-
ing activities in Trigg County, where he is giving ef-
ficient service as cashier of the Bank of Cerulean, one
of the substantial and well ordered financial institu-
tions of this progressive section of the Blue Grass
state.
Mr. Roberts was born at Tobaccoport, Stewart
County, Tennessee, on the 10th of August, 1886, and
is a scion of stanch old southern stock, the American
progenitors of the Roberts family having come from
England and settled in North Carolina in the Colonial
period of our national history. In that state Robert
Roberts, grandfather of the subject of this sketch,
was born in the year 1817, and as a young man he set-
tled at Tobaccoport, Tennessee, where he followed
the vocation of mechanic for many years and where he
became a substantial and valued citizen. There he re-
mained until his death in 1870. There also was
solemnized his marriage to Miss Elizabeth Elliott, who
was born in Tennessee, in 1822, and who passed the
closing period of her life in the City of Nashville,
that state, where she died in 1901, when nearly eighty
years of age. Of the surviving children the eldest is
Thomas J., who is engaged in the insurance business
in the City of Nashville; Allen likewise resides in that
city, where he is in the employ of the Government;
John H. is engaged in the insurance business in the
City of Washington, D. C. ; Robert E., a mechanic, is
a resident of the City of St. Louis, Missouri; Edward,
likewise a skilled mechanic, resides at Atlanta, Georgia ;
and Manie, who now resides with her brother, Thomas
J., is the widow of Jesse Hicks, who was a farmer in
Stewart County, Tennessee.
F. S. Roberts, father of him whose name introduces
this review, was born at Tobaccoport, Tennessee, in
the year 1852, and there his death occurred on the nth
of November, 1917. In that locality he passed his en-
tire life, and he was one of the extensive farmers and
substantial citizens of Stewart County at the time of
his death. He was a loyal supporter of the principles
and policies of the democratic party, maintained af-
filiation with the Masonic fraternity, and was a zealous
and earnest member of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South, as is also his widow, who still resides
at Tobaccoport. Her maiden name was Martha Hicks
and her birth having occurred at Tharp, Tennessee, in
1861. Of the children the eldest is George B., who is
a progressive exponent of farm industry near the old
home town of Tobaccoport; Sam J., of this sketch,
was the next in order of birth ; Beulah is the wife of
Robert Brandon, a farmer near Tobaccoport; Earl S.
likewise is identified with farm industry in the old
home county, near Tobaccoport; Irene is the wife of
Claude Hamilton, likewise a farmer in that locality; and
Billie remains with his widowed mother.
Sam J. Roberts gained his early education _ in the
public schools at Tobaccoport, Tennessee, and in 1905
was graduated from the high school at Bumpus Mills,
that state. Thereafter he completed an eighteen
months' course in the Bowling Green Business College,
at Bowling Green, Kentucky, in which institution he
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
397
was graduated as a member of the class of 1908. For
the ensuing ten years he continued his active alliance
with farm industry in his native county, and he then,
in January, 1918, became cashier of the Bank of Cowan,
at Cowan, Tennessee, but in the following year came
to Cerulean, Trigg County, Kentucky, where he has
served efficiently as cashier of the Bank of Cerulean
since February, 1919, further mention of this stanch
institution being made on other pages, in the per-
sonal sketch of its president, Dr. John G. White. Mr.
Roberts has identified himself fully and loyally with
the civic and business interests of Cerulean and is
serving as treasurer of the village. At Limeport, Ten-
nessee, he is affiliated with Limeport Lodge No. 207.
Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. He was a loyal
supporter of the various loan drives and other Gov-
ernmental activities in Trigg County during the Amer-
ican participation in the World war. He and his wife
are earnest members of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South, and they are popular factors in the
social life of their home community.
June 4, 1913, recorded the marriage of Mr. Roberts
to Miss Vira Ross, of Legate, Tennessee, where her
widowed mother still resides, her father having been
one of the representative farmers of that locality. Mrs.
Roberts is a daughter of Melvin and Mary (Bibbs)
Ross, and prior to her marriage she had graduated
from the high school at Huntington, Tennessee. Mr.
and Mrs. Roberts have a fine little son, Stanley, who
was born February 28, 1918, and who holds undis-
puted dominion in the attractive home of his parents.
Norris C. Magraw, M. D., who is engaged in the
practice of his profession at Cadiz, judicial center of
Trigg County, has gained secure vantage ground as
one of the representative physicians and surgeons of
his native county. He was born in Trigg County, on
a farm near Roaring Springs, on the nth of Septem-
ber, 1872, and in the same part of the county his father,
the late Flavins A. Magraw, was born in the year
1849. Archie B. Magraw. grandfather of the Doctor,
was born in North Carolina, in the year 1809 and be-
came one of the sterling pioneer settlers of Trigg
County. Kentucky, where he was for many years en-
gaged in the general merchandise business in the
village of Linton. There his death occurred in 1893,
when he was about eighty-four years of age. He
married Miss Mary Burbridge, who was born and
reared in Trigg County, but whose death occurred at
Sturgis, Union County. The Magraw family lineage
traces back to stanch Scotch origin, and the founder
of the American branch settled in North Carolina
prior to the war of the Revolution. Flavius A.
Magraw passed his entire life in Trigg County, where
he was in earlier years actively identified with farm
industry. He finally established himself in the mer-
cantile business at Linton, and there he remained
until his death, in 1008. His widow, whose maiden
name was Bettie Burke resides near Roaring Springs,
in which section of Trigg County she was born in the
year 18=0. Of the children Dr. Norris C, of this
review, is the eldest; Bazie is the wife of Major T.
Carter, a farmer near Hopkinsville, Christian County;
Mary is the wife of Edward F. Dawson, a farmer in
the vicinity of Roaring Springs ; Richard A., who is
master commissioner of Trigg County, resides in the
City of Cadiz, where he is engaged in the insurance
business; Zilpah is the wife of Samuel Moore, a
traveling commerc'al salesman, and thev reside in the
City of Memphis, Tennessee; Bettie is the wife of
Eugene Hester, a farmer near LaFayette, Christian
County.
Dr. Norris C. Magraw is indebted to the rural
schools of Trigg County for his preliminary educa-
tional discipline, which was supplemented by a two
years' course in what is now Valparaiso University, at
Valparaiso, Indiana. In preparation for his chosen
profession he entered the medical department of the
University of Louisville, in which institution he was
graduated in 1894, with the degree of Doctor of
Medicine. He has been insistent in keeping fully in
touch with the advances made in medical and surgical
science through recourse to the best in the standard and
periodical literature of his profession, through his
alliance with various medical societies, and by a spe-
cial post-graduate course in Roosevelt Hospital, New
York City, in 1904. In the year of his graduation
Doctor Magraw engaged in practice at Roaring Springs,
where he remained until 1910, when he removed to
Bolivar, Christian County, which continued as the cen-
tral stage of his successful professional work for the
ensuing eight years. In 1918 he returned to his na-
tive county and established himself in practice at
Cadiz, the county seat, in which broader field he has
since continued his general practice as a physician
and surgeon, with offices in the Cadiz Bank Building.
The Doctor maintains active affiliation with the Trigg
County Medical Society, the Kentucky State Medical
Society and the American Medical Association. He
was elected as a member of the Medical Reserve Corps,
subject to call into active service, during the period of
the nation's participation in the great World war, and
his eldest son died of pneumonia while in the mili-
tary service of the United States in this war. The
Doctor is unfaltering in allegiance to the democratic
party, is affiliated with Hill City Camp No. 20, Wood-
men of the World, in his home city, and here both
he and his wife are active members of the Christian
Church.
In December, 1894, shortly after his graduation from
medical college, Doctor Magraw was united in mar-
riage to Miss Letitia Hayes, who likewise was born and
reared in Trigg County, where her father was a rep-
resentative farmer in the vicinity of Roaring Springs.
Mrs. Magraw is a daughter of John W. and Lucy
(Ledford) Hayes, both of whom are deceased. Doc-
tor and Mrs. Magraw became the parents of five chil-
dren, all of whom remain at the parental home ex-
cept the eldest, Raymond, who entered the military
service of his country in October, 1917, and who died
of pneumonia at Camp Taylor, Louisville, Kentucky,
on the 13th of the following March, his life having
been sacrificed to patriotism as fully as were those
of the fine young Americans who fell on the battle-
scarred fields of France. N. Cottrell is a member of
the class of 1923 in the Cadiz High School, as is also
Norinne, and Ralph and Paul are grade students in the
public schools of Cadiz.
Edward Wilson Holt was born and reared in some
of the chief coal producing sections of Pennsylvania,
began work in a coal office as soon as he left public
school, and mining and the coal business have con-
stituted the chief interest and work of his mature
career. Mr. Holt has been a resident of Kentucky
for sixteen years, is prominent as a coal operator, be-
ing associated with his brother in the ownership and
operation of one of the largest mines of Ohio County.
Mr. Holt was born in Center County, Pennsylvania,
June I, 1876. His paternal ancestors came from Eng-
land and settled in Pennsylvania in Colonial times.
His great-great-grandfather John Holt was a colonel
in the Revolutionary Army and was buried in Miles-
burg, Pennsylvania. The grandfather Vincent Benton
Holt, who was a cousin of Governor Curtin of Penn-
sylvania, was born in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania,
August 21, 1810, and died May 5, 1883. He spent all
his mature career in that section as a lumberman.
His wife was Miss Nancy Wilson of Clearfield. She
was born October 23, 1815, and died March 13, 1881.
Their son, Alfred Holt, was born April 6, 1850, in
Clearfield County and lived in that and the adjoin-
ing county of Center all his life. He was a lumberman
and farmer and died in Clearfield County December 28,
398
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
1878, at the early age of twenty-eight years. He was
a democrat and a member of the Presbyterian Church.
In Clearfield County he married Elizabeth Ann Briggs,
who was born in England in 1856, but was reared in
Clearfield County, Pennsylvania. She became the
mother of two sons, Edward W. and Benton Briggs,
both of whom were very small children when their
father died. She afterwards married A. W. Cowder,
a retired farmer and lumberman, and is still living in
Clearfield County.
Edward Wilson Holt attended the rural schools of
Center County until he was about fifteen years of
age, when he was taken into the coal office of the Ben-
ton Coal Company at Hastings, Pennsylvania. He re-
mained there three years, working and acquiring ex-
perience. He then left Pennsylvania and for a year
was a cowboy with some of the large cattle outfits
operating in the Yellowstone Valley at Montana and
Wyoming. One winter he also spent in the copper
mines of Butte. Returning to Pennsylvania in 1897,
Mr. Holt was for two years manager of the Ponfeigli
Coal Company at Garrett, then managed for six years
the Colonial Coal Company at Hooversville, Pennsyl-
vania, and also the Federal Coal Company and the
Whitney and Kemmerer interests of Philadelphia at
Hooversville. He was financially interested in these
mines as well.
Disposing of his Pennsylvania business in 1905, Mr.
Holt came to Central City. Kentucky, and opened the
coal mine of the Holt Coal Company. This mine was
continued in active production under Mr. Holt until
sold. June 1, 1920. On October 1, 1920, he and his
brother bought the mine of the McHenry Coal Com-
pany, located a half mile south of McHenry. This
mine has a capacity of a thousand tons of bituminous
coal per day, and the services of about 200 men are
required for its operation. The Holt brothers are sole
owners.
Edward W. Holt is president of the Western Ken-
tucky Coal Companies Association, an organization
for mutual benefit representing the larger part of the
producing companies in Western Kentucky. Mr. Holt
is also a stockholder and vice president in the First
National Bank of Central City, where he resides. He
and his brother own a farm of 500 acres a mile south
of McHenry and he and his brother are joint owners
of a fine herd of pure bred Hereford cattle. Mr. Holt
has a modern home on Center Street in Central City.
During the World war he was chairman of the Red
Cross drive for one half of Muhlenberg County and
threw the full influence of his moral and financial sup-
port to every campaign to help win the war. Mr. Holt
is a republican in politics, is a trustee of the Methodist
l*"p:scopal Church South, and is affiliated with Mos-
hannon Lodge No. 391 F. and A. M. at Phillipsburg,
Pennsylvania.
At Phillipsburg in 1906 he married Miss Mary C.
Childs, daughter of James Bingham and Margaret
(Brown) Childs now deceased.
Benton Briggs Holt, younger brother of Edward
Wilson Holt, is also a resident of Central City and like
his brother is a thoroughly experienced coal operator.
He married Miss Bessie Woodburn of Central City,
and they have two children, Elizabeth, born in 1912,
and Benton, born in 1915.
Jamics M. Turner is giving a most effective and
popular administration in the office of postmaster of
Cadiz, judicial center of Trigg County, to which posi-
tion he was appointed on the 4th of July, 1914. Mr.
Turner is a popular representative of one of the old
and honored families of Trigg County and was born
on the fine homestead farm of his father, near Ceru-
lean Springs, on the 29th of December, 1884. In the
same locality his father, John J. Turner, was born in
the year 1839, and in that section of the county the
latter passed his entire life, his death having occurred
April 4, 1893. He became the owner of a large and
valuable landed estate in his native county, and was a
progressive and successful exponent of agricultural and
live stock industry throughout his entire active career.
He was a loyal advocate and supporter of the cause of
the democratic party, gave valiant service as a soldier
of the Confederacy in the Civil war, during virtually
the entire period of which he was in active service,
and he and his wife were zealous members of the
Primitive Baptist Church. As a young man John J.
Turner married Miss Martha E. Atwood, who was
born near Canton, Trigg County, in 1840, a represent-
ative of another of the sterling pioneer families of this
section of Kentucky. Mrs. Turner survived her hus-
band more than a quarter of a century, and her death
occurred at Cerulean Springs in 1920. Of the children
the first born was William R., who was a retired mer-
chant at Cerulean Springs at the time of his death,
when he was fifty-one years of age ; T. O. is engaged
in the dry-goods business at Cadiz, as one of the
leading merchants of Trigg County; Leah is the wife
of C. K. Warren, a merchant at Cerulean Springs;
Martha is the wife of J. L. Blakely, a prosperous
farmer near Cerulean Springs ; Dalton D., a carpenter
and builder by vocation, died in 1918, at Cerulean
Springs; Benjamin F. is clerk in a general store in
that village; James M., subject of this review, was
the next in order of birth; and Woodson is the wife
of E. O. Stewart, who is identified with coal-mining
enterprises in the State of Illinois, where they maintain
their home at Sesser.
Robert Turner, grandfather of the postmaster at
Cadiz, was born in Virginia in 1808, and became one of
the pioneer settlers and representative agriculturists in
the vicinity of Cerulean Springs, Trigg County, Ken-
tucky, where his death occurred in 1888. He long
served as a justice of the peace, and was widely and
familiarly known as 'Squire Bob Turner. His wife,
whose maiden name was Leah Goodwin, was a member
of another of the influential pioneer families of the
Cerulean Springs district.
The public schools of Cerulean Springs afforded to
James M. Turner his early educational training, and
under the effective preceptorship of Professor Ben-
jamin E. Thorn he received the virtual equivalent of
a high school course. He continued his studies until
he was eighteen years of age, and for a decade there-
after was employed as a clerk in mercantile establish-
ments at Cerulean Springs. In 1913 he took a clerical
position in a grocery store at Cadiz, but on the 4th of
July of the following year was appointed postmaster of
this fine little city. His efficiency in office needs no
further voucher than the fact that at the expiration
of his first term he was reappointed, on the 3d of Oc-
tober, 1918, for a second term of four years. He has
been an active and loyal worker in the ranks of the
democratic party in his native county, and he served
six years as clerk of the Village Council of Cerulean
Springs. He is affiliated with Cadiz Lodge No. 121,
Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and he and his
wife hold membership in the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South. Their attractive home, on West Main
Street, is one of the modern residence properties of
Cadiz, and is a center of generous and unostentatious
hospitality. Mr. Turner was vigorous and influenzal
in supporting the various war activities in Trigg County
during the period of the nation's participation in the
World war, and did much to further the success of
the local drives for subscriptions to the Government
loans.
At Hopkinsville, Christian County, in the year 1010,
was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Turner to Miss
Anna Rawls, daughter of William G. and Cora (Mc-
Connell) Rawls, of Cerulean Springs, where Mr.
Rawls is a retired merchant. Mrs. Turner was grad-
uated in the Kentucky State Normal School at Bowling
Green and prior to her marriage had been a success-
CSW^c.^^^ >a&
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
399
ful and popular teacher in the schools of Trigg and
Christian counties. Mr. and Mrs. Turner became the
parents of two children, of whom the younger, James
Minos, died at the age of three years. The surviv-
ing child, Anna Garvin, was born October 16, 191 1, and
is now attending the public schools of Cadiz.
Charles M. Ecklf.r, M. D., has been one of the lead-
ing physicians and surgeons of Grant County for thir-
teen years, with home at Williamstown. He is member
of an old and honored Grant County family, grew up
in a rural district, and from his earnings as a railroad
clerk gained the funds which enabled him to complete
his medical education, and the energy and self reliance
that carried him through those early years have been
important factors in his professional success.
His great-grandfather was a native of Virginia and
one of the pioneer settlers of Harrison County, Ken-
tucky, where he lived out his life as a farmer. The
grandfather, Jacob Eckler, was born in Harrison Coun-
ty and as a young man removed to Grant County,
where he married and where he followed farming in
the Dry Ridge community. He married a Miss Byers,
a native of Harrison County, who also died in Grant
County. Their son, Francis M. Eckler, was born near
Dry Ridge in 1849 and he lived and died on part of
his father's homestead and his birthplace. His career
was an uninterrupted devotion to the pursuits of the
practical farmer. He died in January, 1917. He was a
republican voter and a member of the Baptist Church.
Francis M. Eckler married Ann Elizabeth Harrison,
who was born near Heekin in Grant County in 1849
and died at the old home farm in August, 1916. Her
children were : William Jacob, owner and operator
of the homestead farm ; Perry, who died in infancy ;
Edward W., a farmer a mile northwest of the home-
stead ; Doctor Lester T., who graduated from the old
Miami Medical College of Ohio in 1901, and practiced
until his death at Falmouth in October, 1918, at the age
of thirty-nine.
Charles M. Eckler, the fifth and youngest of the
family, was born on the farm near Dry Ridge March
31, 1880, and in that environment he spent the years
until he reached manhood. He attended country schools
and the Williamstown High School until he was
eighteen, and for two years taught in a country dis-
trict. During 1900 he took a course in Bartlett's Busi-
ness College, now the Miller Business College, of Cin-
cinnati, and following that was a clerk in the office of
the master mechanic of the Chesapeake & Ohio Rail-
road at Covington until 1905. With a portion of his
earnings and savings he entered the medical school of
the University of Louisville, and graduated M. D. June
29, 1908. In October following his graduation he located
at Williamstown, and has since practiced both medicine
and surgery. His offices are in the Webb Building, and
he owns one of the most complete and modern homes
of the city, on Main Street.
Doctor Eckler has been a member for twelve years
and for seven years secretary and treasurer of the
Grant County Medical Society, and since beginning
practice has also been affiliated with the Kentucky State
and American Medical Associations. As one of the
public spirited men of the community he was of course
actively identified with the war program of Williams-
town. For three consecutive years, 1917, 1918, 1919,
he was master of Grant Lodge No. 85, F. and A. M.,
is a member of Houser Chapter No. 116, R. A. M., at
Falmouth, Indra Consistory No. 2, of the Scottish Rite
at Covington, and also the Temple of the Mystic Shrine
at Covington. He is a member of Centurion Lodge
No. 100, Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Doctor
Eckler is a republican. He has been local surgeon for
the C. N. O. & T. P. Railway Company since April,
1920.
On June 3, 1913, at Covington, he married Miss Nora
Vol. V— 37
Eloise Conrad, daughter of Clay and Mary Elizabeth
(Webb) Conrad, residents of Williamstown. Her father
is a retired farmer and for many years has been a
prominent figure in the democratic party of the county,
being a former county judge and former Circuit Court
clerk. Mrs. Eckler, who is a graduate of the Willliams-
town High School, became the mother of three children :
Mary Elizabeth, born August 7, 1916; Charles William,
who died at the age of four months ; and James Connor,
who died when two months old.
James J. Backus, M. D., is successfully established
in the practice of his profession as one of the able and
representative physicians and surgeons of Christian
County, where he maintains his residence and profes-
sional headquarters in the village of Gracey. In this
section of the county he controls a large practice that
vouches alike for his technical ability and his secure
hold upon popular confidence and esteem.
Dr. James Jackson Backus was born in Norfolk
County, Province of Ontario, Canada, on the 24th of
July, 1856, and that the family had long been estab-
lished in that attractive section of the Dominion of
Canada is attested by the fact that the Doctor's father,
Edward M. Backus, was born in the same county in
1820. The father attained to venerable age and was
visiting in the City of Chicago, Illinois, at the time of
his death, in 1903. He was a son of William Backus,
who passed his entire life in Norfolk County, Ontario,
where he died about the year 1859. his entire active
career having been marked by effective association
with farm industry. The original American represent-
atives of the Backus family came from England and
settled in Ontario, Canada, in the pioneer period of its
history, the family name having been long and worthily
identified with the annals of Norfolk County. Edward
M. Backus was reared and educated in his native
county, where he became a successful farmer and
where also he owned and operated a grist mill. In
1864 he removed with his family to Lagro. Ind;ana,
where he engaged in the lumber and live-stock business
and where he remained until 1869, when he removed
to Versailles, Ohio, and became a dealer in poultry.
About the year 1870 he engaged in the produce com-
mission business at Logansport, Indiana, where he re-
mained about two years. Thereafter he was for a time
a resident of his old home county in Canada, and after
his return to Indiana he followed the milling and mer-
cantile business until 1885, when he came to Kentucky
and turned his attention to farm enterprise near the
City of Bowling Green. After the death of his wife he
retired from active business, and his death occurred in
the City of Chicago, as previously noted. He was a
democrat in politics, and both he and his wife were
zealous members of the Christian Church. Mrs. Backus,
whose maiden name was Violetta Contryman, was
born in Norfolk County, Ontario, Canada, in 1830, and
her death occurred on the home farm near Bowling
Green, Kentucky, in the year 1901. Of the children the
eldest is Abram Contryman Backus, who is a director
and the manager of a leading pressed steel corporation
in the City of St. Louis, Missouri ; William is en-
gaged in the marble and granite business at Bowling
Green, Kentucky; Edward M., a retired capitalist, died
in the State of Florida, on the 15th of June, 1920 ; Dr.
James J., of this sketch, was the next in order of
birth ; and Frank, a sk'lled bookkeeper and accountant,
resides in the State of Texas.
Dr. Tames J. Backus gained his early education in
the public schools of Ontario, Canada, and the states
of Indiana and Ohio. After the removal of the fam-
ily to the vicinity of Bowling Green, Kentucky, he
began reading medicine under the effective preceptor-
ship of Dr. William H. Blakely, a leading physician
and surgeon of Bowling Green, and during the winter
of 1884-5 he was a student in the Chicago Homeo-
400
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
pathic Medical College, in which institution he later
continued his studies until his graduation and his re-
ception of the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1886.
In 1885, however, he passed a successful examination
before the Kentucky State Board of Medical Exam-
iners, received his license and engaged in the practice
of his profession at Bowling Green. After his gradua-
tion from the medical college he there continued in
practice until January, 1887, when he came to Chris-
tian County and became the first physician and
surgeon to engage in practice in what is _ now the
thriving little village of Gracey, from which head-
quarters he has developed a large and representative
practice that marks him as one of the prominent ex-
ponents of medical and surgical science in Christian
County. In his home village he owns his attractive
residence and office property, as well as other local
realty, and also a well improved farm situated four
miles northwest of the village.
Doctor Backus is affiliated with the Christian County
Medical Society, the Kentucky State Medical Society
and the American Medical Association. He is a stanch
advocate of the principles of the democratic party, and
is one -of the most loyal and public-spirited citizens
of Gracey, where he has served many years as president
of the Village Council, a position of which he is the
incumbent at the time of this writing. He is a member
of the Masonic fraternity, and both he and his wife are
active members of the Baptist Church. The Doctor
was specially vital and earnest in supporting Govern-
mental agencies in Christian County during the na-
tion's participation in the World war, and tendered
his service as a member of the medical corps of the
United States Army, though he was not called into
active service by reason of his age. He aided in the
furthering of the local drives in support of the various
Government loans, and was otherwise influential in war
activities in his home county.
On the 19th of May, 1886. was solemnized the mar-
riage of Doctor Backus to Miss Margaret E. Blakely.
daughter of Jones and Virginia K. (Bryant) Blakely,
the former of whom died on his farm near
Gracey, and the latter still remains on the old home
place. Doctor and Mrs. Backus have four children :
Miss Virginia K. remains at the parental home; Sudie
K. is the wife of John M. Maior, a farmer near Hoo-
kinsville, Christian County ; Margaret Louise is the
wife of George M. Major, who is a farmer in Trigg
County and who is a brother of John M. Major, men-
tioned above; and Lowena remains a member of the
parental home circle.
David Franklin Ramsey, an ex-service man, is one
of the popular young citizens of Madisonville, has been
a banker but is now proprietor of one of the leading
automobile sales agencies in the city.
Mr. Ramsey was born at Madisonville May 29, 1896
His father was the late Frank D. Ramsey, one of the
largest property owners in Hopkins County and who
at his death inMadisonville in 1914 left a large estate.
He was born in Webster County, Kentucky, in 1850,
was reared there, but as a young man moved to Hopkins
County and bought a farm near Nebo. About 1873
he moved to Madisonville and laid the foundation of
his fortune as a tobacco dealer. He was also a large
land owner, one of the organizers and directors of the
Hopkins County Bank, a director of the Providence
Coal Company, and had many other business interests.
He was a democrat, and was a charter member and one
of the leading members of the Baptist Church at Madi-
sonville. At Madisonville he married Janie Langley.
She was born in Webster County, Kentucky. There
were three children. Marie, the oldest, is the wife of
Rev. Stuart R. Crockett, a Presbyterian clergyman now
in charge of a church at Montreat, North Carolina.
James Karr, the second child, is a farmer and lives at
Madisonville. David Franklin is the youngest, is un-
married and lives with his mother at 370 North Main
Street in Madisonville.
Mr. Ramsey graduated from the Madisonville High
School in 1915. He also spent a year in the Virginia
Military Institute at Lexington, and while there had
some military discipline that fitted him for active
service in the volunteer army. In June, 1916, he joined
the Federal troops that were sent to the Mexican
border. He was there as a member of the First Ken-
tucky Infantry for nine months. He was mustered out in
March, 1917, as battalion sergeant major. On April 12,
1918, he joined the National Army, was sent to Camp
Shelby, Mississippi, was commissioned a second lieu-
tenant of infantry, subsequently was at Camp Pike,
Arkansas, and finally was a member of the Tank Corps
at Camp Polk, North Carolina. He received his honor-
able discharge December 28, 1918. On returning home
Mr. Ramsey became teller of the Hopkins County Bank
on March 4, 1919, and performed his duties with that
institution until August 20, 1920, and is still one of the
bank directors. Since leaving the bank he has been
selling automobiles as the authorized agent at Madison-
ville for the Buick cars and the Samson tractors. He
has a well equipped garage and offices on North Main
Street and is doing a thriving business. Mr. Ramsey
is a democrat, a member of the Baptist Church, and
has fraternal affiliations with Madisonville Lodge No.
143, A. F. and A. 'M., Madisonville Chapter No. 123,
R. A. M., Madisonville Commandery No. 27, K. T.,
Rizpah Temple of the Mystic Shrine, and Madisonville
Lodge No. 738 of the Elks. He is one of the large
owners of real estate in Madisonville, his properties
including seven business buildings besides a number of
residences.
Rev. Peter H. Pleune, Numbered among the
earnest, scholarly and popular young divines of his
denomination, Rev. Peter H. Pleune, is pastor of the
Highland Presbyterian Church of Louisville. He was
born at Grand Rapids, Michigan, May 17, 1883. a son
of Martin C. Pleune, still a resident of Grand Rapids,
who was born in Holland in 1850. His widowed mother
brought him to the United States in 1866 and located
at Grand Rapids, and there Martin C. Pleune was
reared and educated, and developed into a successful
wood and coal merchant, but is now practically retired
from business activities. He has always been a strong
advocate of republican principles and candidates. The
Reformed Church holds his membership, and he is a
very active worker in the church, and has held the of-
fices of both elder and deacon. Martin C. Pleune
married Minnie Thomas, who was born in the Neth-
erlands in 1852, and her mother, also a widow, brought
her to the United States when she was young, and she
grew up at Grand Rapids, Michigan. Their children
were as follows : Anthony, who is manager of the
Cedar Rapids Gas Company, lives at Cedar Rapids,
fowa ; Christine, who married H. J. Sprick, an ex-
tensive manufacturer of a household cleaner, lives at
Grand Rapids ; Frederick, who is stereotyper for the
Evening Press, lives at Grand Rapids ; Reverend Peter
H.; Grace, who married A. Oltman. Jr., a painter and
paperhanger of Grand Rapids ; and Henry, who lives at
Grand Rapids, is secretary to the president of the
United Light & Railway Company of Grand Rapids.
Rev. Peter H. Pleune attended the public schools of
Grand Rapids until he was fourteen years old, and then
began to be self-supporting by becoming an employe
for the Baxter Laundry Company of Grand Rapids,
with which he remained for four years. All of this
time the ambitious lad cherished the determination to
fit himself for the ministry, and took the first steps
when he entered Hope College Preparatory School at
Holland, Michigan, and from it he was graduated in
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
401
1905. He then became a student of Hope College,
and was graduated therefrom in 1909 with the degree
of Bachelor of Arts.
His theological training was obtained in the New
Brunswick Theological Seminary at New Brunswick,
New Jersey, from which he was graduated in 1912
with the degree of Master of Arts. In 1913, 1914
and 1915 Reverend Pleune took post-graduate work in
the Union Theological Seminary at New York City.
In the meanwhile, in 1912, he became pastor of the
Church of the Comforter in New York City, and re-
mained there until 1916, when he was transferred to
the Presbyterian Church at Paducah. In October,
1920, he became the pastor of the Highland Presby-
terian Church. The church is located at the corner of
Cherokee Road and Highland Avenue. This is one of
the leading Presbyterian Churches not only of Louis-
ville but of the state and has a membership of 850.
Mr. Pleune is a man well versed in the doctrines of
his creed and an eloquent speaker, and he is also
an inspiration for activities of the best kind, and few
movements which have for their object the raising of
the moral standard and the betterment of conditions
generally are carried to successful completion without
his aid being requested. He has always possessed a
distinct impulse toward the humanities among the lead-
ers of thought, and is recognized as a man of great in-
fluence and dignity. While he is not readily deceived
in men or the motives which actuate them, he is so
broad in his charity, so liberal in his conception of
his duty toward his fellow man, that he can forgive
bountifully, and encourage hopefully, so that he has
friends in every rank of life.
Mr. Pleune is a Mason and belongs to Plain City
Lodge No. 449. A. F. and A. M. Long a member of
the Paducah Rotary Club, he was elected its presi-
dent for 1920-21.
On June 5, 1912, Mr. Pleune was united in marriage
at Grand Rapids, Michigan, to Miss Louise Margaret
Melis, a daughter of John C. and Margaret (Buob)
Melis, both of whom are deceased. Mr. Melis was a
printer by trade and for some years a resident of
Grand Rapids. Mrs. Pleune attended the public
schools of Grand Rapids, and was graduated from its
high school course. She is a lady of charming per-
sonality, thoroughly in sympathy with her husband's
work. Their little daughter, Louise Margaret, was
born on January 4, 1918.
John Grizzle Young. M. D. Nine years of effort to
maintain the health of a large part of the population
of Kiddville has drawn the career of Dr. John Grizzle
Young within the fold of a large and emphatic need,
giving him an increasing outlet for a wealth of pro-
fessional and general usefulness. He was born in
Lawrence County, Kentucky, November 23, 1874, a son
of William and Sina (Grizzle) Young, and a grand-
son of John W. and Mahala CKelley) Young.
Jesse Young, the great-grandfather of Doctor Young
came from Virginia to Kentucky about the year 1803
and settled in Lawrence County, his old home being still
in the family name as the property of the widow of
Thomas Young. John W. Young bought and patented
a tract of 3000 acres of good land on Irish Creek, thus
being able to give to each one of his children a farm,
ranging in acreage from 250 to 300 acres each. A
leader in his community he was a justice of the peace
for twenty-four years, and was one of the organizers
of the Irish Creek United Baptist Church, in the
faith of which he died at the age of seventy-five years.
Like his honored father William Young devoted his
career to agricultural operations on the same tract
of land. The year before he died he sold_ this and
bought land in Greenup County where he died at the
age of fifty-two years, his widow still surviving him
being a resident of Greenup County and aged sixty-
eight years. Of their twelve children, nine grew to
maturity and eight are living at this time. Dr. John G. ;
Rufus B., a resident of Greenup County; Delia, the
wife of Richard Griffith, of Huntington, West Vir-
ginia; James Monroe, a mechanic of Portsmouth, Ohio;
Mahala, who died at the age of twenty years ; America,
the wife of Robert Wheeler, an agriculturist of Green-
up County; Ulysses S., resident of Portsmouth, Ohio:
Fairet E., also a resident of Portsmouth, Ohio; and
Nola, who is unmarried.
John Grizzle Young remained on the home farm un-
til he was twenty-six years of age, at which time he
began teaching in the rural schools in the vicinity of the
home farm. In the meantime he attended the Blaine
Normal School, and while still teaching started his
medical course at the age of twenty-seven years at
the Kentucky School of Medicine, Louisville. Gradu-
ated with the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1906,
he started practice June 30 of that year in Greenup
County, following which he went to Morgan County.
In 1912 he came to Clark County and opened an of-
fice at Kiddville, where he has built up a splendid
practice. He has been deservedly successful, and is a
necessary adjunct of many of the finest households
in this part of the county. Doctor Young belongs to
the Clark County Medical Society, of which he was
formerly president, and the Kentucky State Medical
Society. He is interested as an agriculturist in general
farming and tobacco and corn growing on his well-
cultivated farm at Kiddville, and has other interests. .
On December, 25, 1906, Doctor Young was united
in marriage in Lawrence County, with Mahala Carter,
and to this union there have been born two children:
Erie, born in 1909; and Loomis, born in 191 1. Doc-
tor and Mrs. Young are members of the Methodist
Episcopal Church at Indian Fields, 1% miles from their
home. He is ex-worthy master of W. H. Cunning-
ham Lodge No. 572, at Schollsville, which he has rep-
resented in the Grand Lodge. Personally, he is a man
of rare discretion, tact and helpfulness, an earnest
and painstaking exponent of the best tenets of medical
science, and an indefatigable seeker after those things
which produce health and therefore happiness to the
human race.
Leo M. Sewell. The younger generation of success-
ful business men and competent public officials of Clinton
County is well and worthily represented at Albany
by Leo M. Sewell, who has been postmaster at Albany
for three years and who also conducts a thriving
mercantile business. In the conduct of his establish-
ment Mr. Sewell has shown hmiself enterprising and
progressive, and in the discharge of his official duties
has displayed a conscientious endeavor to give the public
the maximum service, all of which tends to give him an
excellent standing in the respect and confidence of
his fellow-citizens.
Mr. Sewell was born at Livingston, Overton County,
Tennessee, January 24. 1895, a son of John Albert
and Bettie (Nivens) Sewell. His grandfather, Rev.
Isaac Sewell, was born in 1822, in Jackson County,
Tennessee, where he followed farming and was a clergy-
man of the Baptist Church. He likewise was a resident
of Overton County for some years, and late in life
moved to Texas, where his death occurred in 1907.
Rev. Mr. Sewell fought as a soldier of the Confederacy
during the war between the states. He married a Miss
Morgan, who was born in 1827 in Putnam County,
Tennessee, and died in Texas in 1905.
John Albert Sewell, father of Leo M. Sewell, was
born in 1856, in Jackson County, Tennessee, and was
reared and educated in that county, but as a young man
went to Clay County, that state, where he was married.
He was a sawmill owner and operator there for about
ten years, following which he removed to Overton
County and continued to follow the same line of busi-
ness. He is now one of the successful sawmill operators
102
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
of his locality and also owns and operates a flour and
grist mill. Mr. Sevvell has always been a man of
industry and his good management of his affairs has
resulted in the accumulation of a gratifying property.
In politics he is a republican, but his interest in political
matters is confined to that taken by every good citizen.
As a lifelong member of the Baptist Church he has been
active in its work and liberal in his support of its
movements. Fraternally, he is affiliated with the
Masonic order. Mr. Sewell married Miss Bettie Nivens,
wlin was born in 1866, in Clay County. Tennessee, and
they are the parents of seven children : Ettie, who
married James Davidson, a farmer of Gainsboro, Ten-
nessee : Hassell. a farmer and sawmill operator of
Byrdstown, Pickett County, Tennessee; Arnold: Isaac
Thomas; Leo M. ; James Morgan; and Rosa, the wife
of Ben Deck, a farmer of Crawford, Tennessee. Of
these children, three of the sons saw service in the
fighting forces of the United States. Arnold Sewell,
who was in the United States Army for eight years,
and had the rank of first lieutenant, was stationed at
Atlanta, Georgia, as an instructor during the World
war. He is now a conductor on trains running from
Jacksonville, Florida, to Washington, D. C, with head-
quarters at the former place. Isaac Thomas, Sewell
was a member of the famous Buckeye Division of the
American Expeditionary Forces and spent ten months at
the front in France, during which time he participated in
five of the major battles and a number of the minor
engagements. He now resides with his parents and is
employed as a mechanic at Monroe, Tennessee. James
Morgan Sewell enlisted in the United States Navy
during the World war and made several voyages across
the ocean on transports convoying soldiers to the battle
areas. As stenographer to the captain of the vessel
it was his duty to post news for the soldiers on board
ship. Since his discharge he has resided with his
parents at Monroe, Tennessee, and is employed as a
mechanic.
Leo M. Sewell acquired his education in the rural
schools of Overton County, Tennessee, and the public
school at Albany, and in 1915 put aside his studies
to become a salesman in a general store at Albany.
He continued to be thus engaged until October, 1918.
when he was appointed by President Wilson as post-
master of Albany, a position which he has since occupied.
Ili^ conduct of the postoffice has been satisfactory
in every particular and his intelligent handling of affairs
has served to put the mail service at Albany on a higher
plane, much to the gratification of the citizens of the
community. At about the time of his appointment to
the postmastership, Mr. Sewell established himself in
commercial affairs as the proprietor of a mercantile
establishment, which he has built up to generous propor-
tions, his store being located on the south side of the
Public Square.
In political matters Mr. Sewell is a democrat. He
is a member of the Christian Church, in the work of
which he is active, having served for some time, as
«at present, as secretary and treasurer of the Sunday
school. Fraternally, he is affiliated with Albany Lodge
No. 206, F. & A M.. During the World war period
he interested himself actively in every movement inau-
gurated for the assistance of the soldiers and sailors,
serving on committees and subscribing liberally to
funds, and was also manager of the drive that resulted
in every soldier from Clinton County receiving a gen-
erous package from home, Christmas, 1918. Mr. Sewell
is unmarried and makes his home at the Smith Hotel.
Frank J. Conly. For more than a century some
of the men who have attained to prominence in states-
manship, the professions, commerce or industry, have
begun their life career in the field of school-teaching,
and found that the discipline they were necessarily
forced to exert over themselves in order to control
their pupils, and the contact with human nature, in
the making, were of incalculable value to them in after
life. Johnson County has its full quota of these rep-
resentative men, who, after having won popular approval
in the schoolroom, have become equally valuable in other
lines, and among them it is but just to mention in this
connection Frank J. Conly, manager of the Paintsville
Furniture Company, at one time, however, one of the
well-known educators of this region.
Frank J. Conly was born at Paintsville, December 17,
1882, a son of James Hayden and Ellen (Rice) Conly,
both of whom belonged to old and representative
families of Johnson County. James H. Conly was ljorn
at Hagerhill, Johnson County, in June, 1839, and died
in 1913. He was a son of John Conly, also a native of
Hagerhill, who died in 1898 when about seventy-seven
years of age and his life was spent in agricultural work,
his several farms lying between Big and Little Lick
Fork of Jennie's Creek. His father was a brother of
Constantine Conley. Some of the members of this
family spell the name "Conley"; others, "Connelley,"
while Frank J. Conly and the members of his immediate
connections follow his style, but they are all related.
For a part of the time during the period the North
and the South were at war, he was a member of the
militia, and was a Southern sympathizer. He owned a
farm on the Rockhouse Fork of Paint Creek, near
Paintsville, and he was also noted as an instructor, for
thirteen years being one of the leading educators of
the county. One of the oldest Masons in Johnson
County at the time of his death, he was zealous in
behalf of his order, and always maintained membership
with the lodge at Paintsville. He was one of the
organizers of the Farmers Alliance in Johnson County.
In politics he was always a democrat. His wife was
a daughter of William Rice, and she was born on
Jennie's Creek. She is now over eighty years of age,
and lives on the old Rockhouse homestead. Of the ten
children born to James H. Conly and his wife, all are
now living, and the youngest is now thirty-two years
of age. They are as follows: Louisa, who is the wife
of John Reynolds, lives on Barnetts Creek in Johnson
County; Millard V., who is a farmer on Big Paint
Creek near Paintsville; John C., who is a farmer living
on Little Lick fork of Jennie's Creek; Sola, who is
the wife of William Trimble, lives on Upper Barnetts
Creek near Oil Spring; Lindsey S., who is a resident
of Paintsville ; C. F., who is living on a portion of the
old Rockhouse homestead ; A. F., who is also living on
a part of the old Rockhouse homestead ; Genoa,
who is the wife of Alonzo Conley, a farmer of Rock-
house; Frank J., whose name heads this review; Virgia
Lee, who is the wife of Ray Turner, assistant cashier
of the Paintsville Bank & Trust Company.
Frank J. Conly received his early educational training
in the public schools of Paintsville, later becoming a
student of the Sandy Valley Seminary, and completed
his education in the State Normal School at Bowling
Green, Kentucky. For four years he was principal
of the Van Leer graded school, and then for one year
was a substitute at the Sandy Valley Seminary. Going
to Oklahoma he was for one year in charge of the
commercial department of the Ada High School, and
then returned to Paintsville. For a time he was engaged
in teaching two rural schools at Boones Camp. It was
then that he left the educational field to become a clerk
in the employ of the Northeast Coal Company at
Thealka, later becoming a member of the office force
of this company. In 1919 he accepted his present posi-
tion, he, with others of his old associates in the North-
east Coal Company being the owners of this concern.
In 1917 Mr. Conly ran on the democratic ticket for
the office of county superintendent, and was defeated
by less than 100 votes, which testifies to his strong
personal popularity as this county has a majority of
2,000 republican votes.
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
40:1
In 1911 Mr. Conly was married to Clara Moilett, a
daughter of John R. Moilett, and they have four daugh-
ters, namely: Alice Vivian, Frances Ellen, Ruby Vir-
ginia, and Joanna. Mrs. Conly was born at Boones
Camp. Her father was a son of John R. Moilett,
Senior better known as "Big-eye" Moilett. The Moilett
family is an old one in the Big Sandy Valley. The
family was founded in America by Noah Moilett who
was an English soldier sent to the colonies during
the American Revolution. So impressed did he become
with the justice of the Ameican cause that he left the
English forces and joined the Colonial Army, and after
the war was over, settled in the land for whose liberty
he had fought. With other Revolutionary soldiers,
he was given a grant of land, the patent to which bears
the signature of James Monroe, then governor of
Virginia, but subsequently President of the United
States. This land was located in what later became
West Virginia. From Montgomery County that state,
the Moilett family later migrated to Eastern Kentucky,
some of its members settling on Rockcastle Creek in
Martin County, and others on Grassy Creek in Johnson
County. It is to the latter that Mrs. Conly belongs.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Conly are earnest members of the
Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. Conly is a Mason.
They are fine people, and have gathered about them a
congenial circle of warm personal friends. Mr. Conly
has never lost his interest in educational matters and is
always striving to raise the standards of education and
stimulate public interest in public improvements for
the betterment of the schools. Having cultivated his
intellectual faculties beyond the average, he is able
to take a broad outlook on life and to understand differ-
ent phases of public affairs. His fellow citizens appre-
ciate this and look to him for advice on many matters,
and feel for him a respect which is shown in numerous
ways.
Ora Lee Roby. Trained faculties and an enlightened
understanding, in these modern days, contribute materi-
ally to individual success, and more and more is the
world at large asking for educated men not only for the
accepted professions, but also for those along agricul-
tural lines and in the field of public life. The trained
thinker is demanded for the deciding of public questions
which, while they may be perplexing to the general
public, must be clear to the lawmaker. Thus it is seen
that the work of the educator is becoming increasingly
important and that only men of sound ability should
be placed in positions where they are called upon to
accept the responsibility for the education of the youth
of our land. In Ora Lee Roby, Bullitt County has
a County Superintendent of Schools whose long experi-
ence, thorough training and natural abilities qualify
him thoroughly for the discharge of the duties of his
position and in support of this statement is given the
evidence of the elevated standards and increased effi-
ciency of the school system in the county during his
regime.
Mr. Roby was born on a farm in Bullitt County,
Kentucky, September 15, 1881, a son of William J.
and Joan (Hibbs) Roby, natives of the same county.
His paternal grandfather was William Roby, who was
born in Virginia, while his maternal grandparents were
Isaac C. and Annie Elizabeth (Goldsmith) Hibbs,
natives of Kentucky. William J. Roby was a farmer
during his earlier years, but eventually disposed of his
property and turned his attention to salesmanship, in
which he spent the closing period of his life. Mrs.
Roby, who survives her husband, is a resident of Eliza-
bethtown, Kentucky. She and her husband were the
parents of two sons and one daughter.
The eldest of his parents' children, Ora Lee Roby
was reared on farms in Kentucky and Missouri in his
boyhood, and his education was acquired in the rural
and town schools, several normal schools and a Baptist
Co-Educational College, at Bardstown, Kentucky. After
leaving the latter, at the age of twenty-four years,
he adopted the profession of teaching, and has been
engaged in educational work ever since. Mr. Roby
served his apprenticeship in the rural districts of this
state, hut after his probationary period was over his
abilities were recognized and his appointments became
more important in character. Eventually, in 191 1, he
was elected to the office of County Superintendent of
Schools of Bullitt County, a post which he has since
filled to the entire satisfaction of the people of this
locality. He is earnest, enthusiastic and energetic in
his methods, practical in his aims and successful in the
application of his principles. In his work he is able
to secure the co-operation of his fellow-workers, the
teachers, and this spirit of helpfulness has done much
to raise the standards and to advance the general system.
Mr. Roby is a democrat in his political views, is a
Master Mason fraternally, and in his religious con-
nection belongs to the Baptist denomination. Since
locating at Shepherdstown he has made and retained
numerous warm friendships.
Mr. Roby was married in 1908 to Miss Cora B.
Hardy, daughter of George W. Hardy, for a number of
years a prominent merchant at Pitts Point, Kentucky.
Prior to her marriage, Mrs. Roby was engaged in
educational work for several years, and still takes a
great interest therein, in that way being of material
assistance to her husband.
James M. Withrow has for many years lived on a
farm near Spring Station in Woodford County. His
farm and home, his family relationship as well, as his
personal character, are all matters of more than ordinary
interest to those who appreciate the substantial qualities
in the old time Kentucky citizenship.
The Withrow residence is half a mile back from the
pike, and stands on what was once the site of an old
Indian stockade. The location of this pioneer place of
protection is permanently identified by a fine spring,
excavated out of solid rock to a depth of thirty feet
with steps leading down from the grade to the spring.
While the practical value of the spring is no longer
regarded, it is a place of much curious interest to the
historically minded.
Mr. Withrow was born at Frankfort, Kentucky,
November 26, 1849. His father John S. Withrow was
a native of Pennsylvania. There were three brothers
one of whom went West, one to Virginia and John S.
Withrow went with his parents to Kentucky. He was
a child when his parents moved to Hawesville, Kentucky.
He secured his early business training in Frankfort,
where for a time he was a partner with Jacob Swigart.
About 1850 he moved to Woodford County, and prior to
the Civil war located on the farm now occupied by
James M. Withrow. John S. Withrow married Cath-
erine McKee, of a noted family of that name whose
record is given in some detail on other pages of this
publication. She inherited the present Withrow farm
and most of her married life was spent in Woodford
County. For a number of years they lived on the old
Blackburn farm of 479 acres, and later moved to a
farm near Midway, another part of her share in the
McKee estate. Mrs. John S. Withrow died in 1880,
survived by her husband about twenty years. They
reared three sons and two daughters : James M. ;
Lillie, wife of Dr. J. C. Hughes, dean of the Keokuk
Medical College of Keokuk, Iowa, and now a resident
of Florida ; William H., who practiced medicine in
Kentucky, also in Wisconsin and Minnesota, and died
at Minneapolis; Mary, who became the wife of Luther
Eastin and both died at Lexington; and John, who died
in young manhood while on the old farm near Midway.
He married Miss Ermie America Davis, who is also
deceased, leaving one son, John Eastin Withrow.
James M. Withrow grew up in Woodford County,
404
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
and the greater part of his life has been spent on his
present farm. He married Maude Davis, of Woodford
County, and their one child is Catherine McKee, a
student in high school.
Mrs. Withrow is a granddaughter of Samuel Cassell,
who was born in Fayette County, Kentucky, March 7,
1814, son of John and Hester Cassell. Samuel Cassell,
a pioneer in the Middle West, operated the first steam
mill at Lexington, and later erected a steam mill on
his farm five miles south of Lexington. Samuel Cassell
in 1838 married Sally Bryan of Jessamine County,
daughter of William T. and Margaret Bryan, native
Kentuckians. Her father was a soldier in the War of
1812 and was with General Dudley at his defeat at
Fort Meigs, Ohio. William T. Bryan, who died Sep-
tember 6, 1852, was a member of the Providence Chris-
tian Church in Jessamine County. The mother of
Mrs. Withrow was one of the first students in Hamil-
ton College at Lexington. Through her mother she had
an interesting relationship with the historic Bryan and
Gist families of old Kentucky. Her mother, Sally
Bryan, was a daughter of Margaret (Gist) Bryan,
Margaret being a daughter of William and Mary (Gate-
wood) Bryan of Virginia. One of the American officers
of the battle of Kings Mountain was Ensign Nathaniel
Gist. William Bryan was a son of Daniel and Elizabeth
(Turner) Bryan and Daniel Bryan's sister, Rebecca, was
the wife of Daniel Boone. The history of this family
is closely associated with Bryan's Station in Kentucky.
Mrs. Withrow's" father was Hillary Offutt Davis.
The present Davis home near Midway is possibly the
oldest house now standing in Woodford County. It was
erected in 1779. One room was known as "Preacher's
Rest." It was called Locust Grove for many years,
but all the trees that furnished the title have dis-
appeared. Another feature of the homestead was
"Lovers' Retreat," a seat between two immense trees.
The estate altogether comprised about 1,000 acres.
Right of way for the first railroad in the state was
donated by John W. Davis, father of Hillary Offutt
Davis. It was William Davis, father of John W., who
erected the house in 1779.
Hillary Offutt Davis, who died in June, 1886, at
the age of forty-five, was born at the old Davis
homestead. John W. Davis married America Gaines,
who died when past eighty years of age. Her brother.
Edmund Pendleton Gaines, was born in Virginia in
1779 and was made a major general in 1814 at Fort
Erie. He was in the Regular Army until his death in
1849, and had the distinction of capturing Aaron Burr
at Fort Stoddard on Tombigbee River.
Leslie M. Vance, the efficient and popular cashier
of the People's Bank of Greensburg, is a native son
of Green County and a scion of one of the old and
honored families of this section of Kentucky. His
paternal grandfather, W. T. Vance, was born and
reared in Green County, and here the major part of
his active life was passed, he having become one of
the most substantial exponents of farm industry in
the county, but having removed to Butler County, and
here continued his activities as a farmer during the
later years of his life. His death occurred in that
county, and his wife passed away in Green County.
Her maiden name was Mary A. Perkins, and her
parents were pioneers of Green County, where she was
born and reared and where she passed her entire life.
W. T. Vance was a son of William Vance, who was
born in North Carolina and who was the founder of
the family branch in Green County, where be became
a pioneer farmer and where he and his wife, whose
maiden name was Elizabeth Caven, continued to re-
side until their deaths. The Vance family lineage
traces back to sterling English origin, and representa-
tives of the name settled in North Carolina prior to
the war of the Revolution.
Leslie M. Vance was born on the old homestead
farm of his father on Green River, in the western
part of Green County, the date of his nativity having
been January 3, 1879. His father, E. L. Vance, who
resides in the vicinity of Eve, this county, was born
in that district in 1856, and has resided continuously
on the old homestead farm which was the place of
his birth. He has long been one of the progressive
and successful exponents of farm enterprise in his
native county, is a republican in political allegiance,
is a loyal and public-spirited citizen who commands
unqualified popular esteem, and is a zealous member of
the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. As a young
man E. L. Vance wedded Miss Nannie A. Cantrell,
who was born near Holly Grove Church, Green County,
and who died on the old Vance homestead farm at
Eve on May 17, 1887, the subject of this sketch being
the eldest of the children of this union ; William E.
is in the railway mail service and resides at Elizabeth-
town, Hardin County; Minnie L. is the wife of John
Womack, a farmer near Mason City, Illinois ; Mattie
L. is the wife of A. S. Cole, who is engaged in the
real estate and insurance business at Campbellsville,
Kentucky ; Hattie, who died at the age of thirty years,
was the wife of Sylvester Larimore, who now resides
at Campbellsville and who has given his attention to
farming since his retirement from the. internal revenue
service in Kentucky.
For his second wife E. L. Vance wedded Miss Ada
McCubbin, who was born in the vicinity of Eve, Green
County, in i86r. Of this union have been born the
following children : Ollie is a merchant and farmer
at Eve ; Mary Alice is the wife of Leslie Scott, a
prosperous Green County farmer ; Charles is a sub-
stantial farmer near Powder Mills, Hart County;
George is similarly engaged in the vicinity of Lobb,
Green County; Muriel is the wife of William Close,
a farmer near Lobb ; Lulu is the wife of Roscoe Rag-
land, a farmer near Eve; and Ruby, Sanford, Odell and
Leo remain at the parental home.
After having profited by the advantages offered in
the rural schools of his native county Leslie M. Vance
continued his studies in East Lynn College at Buffalo,
Larue County, in which institution he completed in
1898 the work of the senior year. In the meanwhile,
at the age of eighteen years, he became a teacher in
the rural schools of his home county, and his services
as a successful and popular teacher here continued
nine years, besides which he was actively identified
with farm enterprise during this period. He still
owns one of the well improved and valuable farms
of Green County, the same comprising 400 acres and
being situated three miles west of Greensburg.
Mr. Vance remained on his farm until 1906, when
he entered the United States internal revenue service
as a storekeeper and gauger for the Fifth Revenue
District of Kentucky. He thus continued his service
seven years, with official headquarters at Greensburg,
and in 1913 he was elected cashier of the People's
Rank of Greensburg, of which- position he has since
continued the popular incumbent. This bank was
organized in 1902 and was duly incorporated under
the Kentucky banking laws, its operations being based
mi n capital stock of $40,000, and its deposits now ag-
gregating fully $300,000, the while its surplus and un-
divided profits aggregate $8,000. The banking offices
are modern in equipment and facilities, and the insti-
tution plays a large part in the furtherance of the
general business and industrial prosperity of Green
County. H. A. Moss is president of the bank, E. E.
Perkins is vice-president, and the assistant cashier is
A. L. Perkins.
Mr. Vance is not only one of the representative
business men of the capital town of his native county
but is also one of its most vital and progressive cit-
izens. He is chairman of the Greensburg Board of
Education, is a republican in political allegiance, and
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
405
he and his wife hold membership in the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South, in the local church of which
denomination he has served several years as superin-
tendent of the Sunday School. Mr. Vance is affiliated
with and is a past master of Greensburg Lodge No.
154, Free and Accepted Masons, and is a member also
of Greensburg Chapter No. 36, Royal Arch Masons;
Marion Commandery No. 24, Knights Templars, at
Lebanon ; Greensburg Chapter No. 232, Order of the
Eastern Star of which he is past patron; and Kosair
Temple Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic
Shrine, in the City of Louisville. He is affiliated also
with Greensburg Camp No. 560, Woodmen of the
World.
Aside from his alliance with the bank and with
farm enterprise Mr. Vance is president of the Greens-
burg Loose Leaf Tobacco Warehouse Company and
president of the Green County Progressive League.
His home, with a modern house and attractive grounds,
is situated on North Cross Street, and in addition to
tin's he is the owner of other, valuable realty in Greens-
burg.
The war activities of Green County gained much
from the loyal and energetic service rendered by Mr.
Vance, who was chairman for the county in all of
the drives for subscriptions to the Government loans,
and he played a big part in causing the county to "go
over the top" with more than designated quota in each
of these drives, in connection with which he himself
gave subscriptions to the. full limit of financial con-
sistency.
On March 27, 1899, in the City of Nashville, Tennes-
see, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Vance to Miss
Mattie R. McCubbin, daughter of the late John P. L.
and Mary (Heiser) McCubbin, who were honored
citizens of Green County, where Mr. McCubbin was
a representative farmer, for many years prior to his
death. Mrs. Vance was afforded excellent educational
advantages, including those of the Young Ladies' In-
stitute at Cannier, Hart County, and she is a popular
leader in the social activities of her home community.
Mr. and Mrs. Vance have six children: Nannie M.,
who was born March 12, 1902, was graduated from
the Greensburg High School as a member of the class
of 1921 ; Lois E., born May 17, 1903, and Ruth, born
June 24, 1906, are students in the Kentucky College
for Women, Danville, Kentucky, the former being a
member of the class of 1922 and the latter being in
her freshman year ; Elizabeth, born June 9, 1912, and
Cora Frances, born October 28, 1914, are attend'ng
the public schools ; and William, the youngest of the
children, was born May 31, 1918.
Vincent Monroe Williamson has long been a promi-
nent figure in the business, public and political affairs
of Christian County. He represents the county in the
Legislature, and has a large and prosperous business
at Hopkinsville.
Mr. Williamson is of Scotch-Irish ancestry, and his
forefathers were Colonial settlers from Ireland. His
grandfather, John Thomas Williamson, was born in
the State of Illinois, and about 1852 came to Christian
County, Kentucky. He lived a few years as a farmer
in this county, but later went back to Illinois, where he
died. He married Nancy Wood, who was a native of
Christian County, Kentucky.
Their son W. T. Williamson was born in Illinois Sep-
tember 5, 18-14, and was about eight years of age
when his parents came to Christian County, where he
was reared and married, and where in mature years
he achieved much success and prominence as a farmer
and citizen. In 1886 he moved to Hopkinsville, and in
1891 was elected county jailor, beginning his term in
January, 1892 and filling that office for seven years,
having been re-elected in 1895. In that year he was
also elected a member of the Official Court, and began
a four-year term in 1896. He had established a livery
business at Hopkinsville in 1886, and gave it his per-
sonal management until 1891. For a number of years
he lived retired, and he died at Hopkinsville August 9,
1917. He was a republican in politics, was a very liberal
supporting member of the Baptist Church, was a director
in the Bank of Hopkinsville, and a director in the Acme
Milling and Elevator Company. When the Civil war
came on he joined the Confederate Army, at first in the
Third Kentucky Cavalry and later with the Seventeenth
Kentucky Infantry. He fought at Shiloh, Chickamauga,
Perryville, Gettysburg and many other battles of the
war.
W. T. Williamson married Adelia Renshaw, who was
born in Christian County in 1847 and died at Hopkins-
ville in 18S7. They were the parents of seven children:
Debby, who is the wife of James M. Davenport, a re-
tired merchant of Hopkinsville ; H. R., in the garage
and automobile business at Colbert, Oklahoma ; J. T. a
farmer of Christian County; Ellen, whose first husband
was Mack Perkins, who had a transfer business at
Hopkinsville, and she is now the wife of J. P. Watson,
connected with the Keach Furniture Company of Hop-
kinsville; Vincent Monroe is the fifth in age; W. E.
Williamson is a farmer of Christian County ; and James
A., the youngest, is in the automobile business at Hop-
kinsville.
Vincent Monroe Williamson attended the rural schools
of Christian County, also the city schools of Hop-
kinsville, and in 1891 graduated from J. O. Ferrell's
High School in that city. For two years after com-
pleting his education he was deputy sheriff, spent one
year in a grocery store, and then for a time had an
interesting western experience, including life as a cow-
boy in Indian Territory. Returning to Hopkinsville,
Mr. Williamson on November 30, 1898, established a
transfer business with limited capital and facilities, but
has seen it prosper and enlarge under his direction
until it is now the largest transfer business in Christian
County. The barns and offices are at 116-117 West
Seventh Street. For many years he has done a large
business in selling horses and mules. He has invested
much capital in local real estate, and formerly owned
a number of dwellings in Hopkinsville, but sold them
all during 1919 except his modern home, one of the
best in the city, at 945 South Virginia Street.
Mr. Williamson is one of the prominent leaders in
the republican party of Western Kentucky. For two
years, in 1907-08, he was chairman of the Republican
County Executive Committee and from 1909 to 1914
was postmaster of Hopkinsville, during the administra-
tion of President Taft. In 1902 he again became chair-
man of the Republican County Committee. In Novem-
ber, 1919, he was elected a member of the Legislature
to represent the Fourteenth District of Christian County,
and was one of the influential men in that body during
the 1920 session. He was chairman of the suffrage and
election committee, member of the committee on rules
and other committees. While in the Legislature he
introduced the Jeff Davis Memorial Park Bill, for the
purpose of establishing a park at the birthplace of
the president of the Southern Confederacy near Hop-
kinsville. This bill was passed. He also introduced the
Williamson Bill, providing a tax of 60 cents on 100
pounds of tobacco, designed to keep the tobacco crop in
Kentucky for manufacture so that this state could have
the benefits of the manufacturing tax instead of going
to other states. Mr. Williamson put up a great fight
for this bill and it passed the House.
Mr. Williamson is a member of the Christian Church,
Hopkinsville Lodge No. 37, A. F. and A. M., Hopkins-
ville Lodge No. 54s of the Elks, Blackwell Lodge No.
57 of the Knights of Pythias, Rosewood Camp No.
22, Woodmen of the World.
In Hopkinsville April 27, 1897, he married Miss
Lillian Henderson, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W. M
406
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
Henderson, now deceased. Her father was a Todd
County farmer. Mr. and Mrs. Williamson have two
children : Thelma and Douglas E. The son attends
the public schools of Hopkinsville, while the daughter
finished her education in Georgetown College at George-
town, Kentucky.
Cyrus M. Williamson, a popular young business
man of Hopkinsville, an ex-service man who was
wounded in France, is proprietor of the Sudden Serv-
ice Station at Twelfth and Main streets.
He was born in Hopkinsville August 29, 1895. His
father was the late William Thomas Williamson, a
prominent citizen of Hopkinsville, who died August
9, 1916. He was three times married, and a son of
his first marriage is Vincent Monroe Williamson, a
Christian County citizen whose record precedes this
sketch. The third wife of W. T. Williamson was
Laura L. Cook, a native of Virginia, still living at
Hopkinsville with her son, Cyrus. The older of her
two children is Adelia, wife of J. T. Jackson, Jr., of
the Jackson Lumber Company of Lexington.
Cyrus M. Williamson was educated in the Hopkins-
ville schools, spent two years in McLean College, and
in 1914 bought an interest in the Blades Cary Com-
pany, dealers in men's furnishing goods on Ninth
Street in Hopkinsville. The firm then became the
Cary-Williamson Company, and was continued under
that title until 1920, when it was sold to the Cooper
Ware Company. On retiring from this business Air.
Williamson built the filling station on Twelfth and
Main streets known as the Sudden Service Station,
and has done a tremendous business from this point.
On December 30, 1917, Mr. Williamson married Miss
Elizabeth S. Harris, daughter of Judge S. D. Harris,
of Henderson, where Mrs. Williamson was reared and
educated.
Mr. Williamson joined the colors April 28, 1918, and
went to England and thence to France, landing June 15,
1918, less than two months after the date of his enlist-
ment. He spent about eleven months in France. He
was a corporal and sergeant, took part in the St. Mihiel
campaign, in numerous battles in which the American
forces were engaged, and in the great conflict of the
Argonne Forest was wounded October 19th. He was
then taken to the evacuation hospital, where his wound
in the left arm was treated, and he was then sent back
to the base hospital, about eight miles from Nevers.
He received his honorable discharge May 1, 1919, and
returned home and resumed his business and civilian
career as noted above.
Mr. Williamson is affiliated with Lodge No. 545 of
the Elks, Hopkinsville Chamber of Commerce, the
Woodmen of the World, the First Baptist Church and
is one of the public spirited young men of progress in
the city of Hopkinsville.
Osso Willis Stanley. In the eight years since his
admission to the bar Osso Willis Stanley has achieved
most favorable recognition as a lawyer in Nelson
County and is also one of the prominent and
progressive young men in republican politics in that
section of the state.
He was born at Bardstown January 29, 1887, son of
Osso and Iola (Neal) Stanley of that city. His parents
were born in Nelson County and his father for many
years was a leading architect and building contractor.
One of six children Osso Willis Stanley was reared
at Bardstown and from an early age his ambition com-
pelled him to make the utmost use of his opportunities.
in school and partly by his own efforts and earnings
he acquired a liberal as well as a professional educa-
t'on. He attended public schools, took a business course
at Bowling Green, and for several years was clerk in
the Louisville offices of the Louisville and Nashville
Railroad. While thus supporting himself he attended
night sessions of the Jefferson School of Law, and
received a diploma in 191 1 and in the same year was
admitted to the bar on examination at LaGrange. Mr.
Stanley began practice at Bardstown in May, 1913, and
for several years has ranked as one of the able lawyers
of the county.
In 1920 his name was on the republican ticket as
candidate for presidential elector in his district. Gov-
ernor Morrow appointed him chairman of the com-
mittee to receive for the State the "Old Kentucky
Home" at Bardstown, but he resigned this office before
the work of the committee had been completed. He is
also member of the staff of Gov. Edwin P. Morrow
with rank of Colonel. Mr. Stanley is a Knight Tem-
plar Mason, is past master of Duval Lodge No. 6, F.
and A. M. at Bardstown, and he is an active member of
the Methodist Church. In 1908 he married Miss
Amanda Sisco. They have three children : John C,
Charles Hayden and Virginia Willis Stanley.
Sylvester Pike was born in Meade County where
lis father, Joseph Pike, a native of Maryland, was a
pioneer settler. Sylvester Pike married Sarah Newton,
a native of Marion County, Kentucky. Surviving them
are two sons and four daughters. Sylvester Pike was
a comparatively poor man when he went to Union
County. Out of the prosperity gained by several
years of diligent prosecution of his work as a farmer
he was able to identify himself at Uniontown in 1880
with a larger business career as a merchant and
banker. He was a man of fine intelligence and good
business sense and amassed a large estate.
He was before his death known as one of Union
County's wealthiest citizens and was also known for his
integrity of character and his progressiveness in all
civic matters. He was a stanch friend of education
and a generous supporter of the Catholic Church.
During his declining years he removed to Louisville,
and died in his home in that city in 1914 at the age
of sixty-eight.
The Rev. W. D. Pike, at present pastor of St.
Joseph's Church, Bardstown, Kentucky, is the youngest
Min of Sylvester Pike.
William Hobson. In considering the relative im-
portance of any man to his community it is necessary
for the biographer to weigh carefully his services not
only as a factor in the professional and industrial life,
but also as a citizen. The life of William Hobson of
Jamestown affords ample scope for reflection and con-
sideration, for it shows a man who has accomplished
what is somewhat unusual. Mr. Hobson was one of
the leading attorneys of Russell County and also a
manufacturer of no mean importance in all of his work
never allowing the duties of one calling to infringe
upon those of the other.
William Hobson was born at Scottsburg, Indiana,
February 19, 1870, a son of Jesse L. Hobson and grand-
son of William Hobson, who was born near Shelby-
ville, Kentucky, in 1803 and died near Scottsville,
Indiana, in 1873. For the greater part of his life he
lived in Shelby and Spencer counties, Kentucky, and
was a farmer by occupation. The elder William Hob-
son married a Miss Thomas of Bardstown, Kentucky,
and she, too, died near Scottsville, Indiana. The father
of the elder William Hobson moved to Shelby County,
Kentucky, from Virginia and there became a success-
ful farmer.
Jesse L. Hobson was born at Louisville, Kentucky,
in 1837, and died at Campbellsville, Kentucky, in Aug-
ust, 1907. He was reared at Louisville, but after his
marriage lived at Scottsville, Indiana, until 1886 when
he returned to Kentucky and spent the remainder of
his life at Campbellsville. For many years he was ex-
tensively engaged in farming and was a man of large
means. Later on in life he retired from agriculture and
for the last fifteen years of his life he was associated
with his son. A republican by conviction and in prac-
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
407
tice he felt it incumbent upon him to give his country
his services during the war of the '60s and belonged
to Company H, Twenty-second Indiana Volunteer In-
fantry. After serving during the first eighteen months
of the war he was so severely wounded at Pea Ridge,
Arkansas, as to be incapacitated for further service
and consequently was honorably discharged. The
Methodist Episcopal Church had in him a sincere
member and he always gave the church a strong sup-
port. Jesse L. Hobson was married to Millie M.
Ridlen, who was born at Louisville, Kentucky, in 184s
and died at Campbellsville, in 1889. Their children
were as fojlows : Charles M., who died at the age of
thirty-eight years, was manager and stockholder of
the Matson Lumber Company ; Lena, who died at the
age of nine years; William, who was third in order of
birth ; Nora, who died at the age of nine years ; Nor-
man, who was manager of S. H. Grinstead & Company,
wholesale poultry and produce dealers of Campbells-
ville was assassinated at that city April 22, 1921, by an
insane man ; Claude, who is in the insurance business
at Hartford City, Indiana; Leslie, who is a conductor
for the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company, lives
at Louisville, Kentucky ; Emma, who lives at Camp-
bellsville, married Walter Ellis, county clerk of Taylor
County ; Walter, who is an oil well driller of Camp-
bellsville; and John Lee, who was an attorney, died of
influenza at Hartford City, Indiana, December 16, 1918.
William Hobson attended the public schools of New
Albany, Indiana, being graduated from the high school
course of that city in 1886, following which he and his
brother Charles came to Campbellsville, and engaged
in the timber business and succeeded so well that Mr.
Hobson continued in this line for eleven years, during
a portion of this time being connected with the Royer
Wheel Company of Cincinnati, Ohio. On November
15, 1897, Mr. Hobson was appointed postmaster of
Campbellsville by President McKinley and held this
office for two terms, or for a period of seven and
one-half years, leaving the office June 30, 1904, to be-
come manager of the Royer Wheel Company of Cincin-
nati, and for a year took care of all the business of
this company in Kentucky. He then embarked in the
manufacture of spokes, singletrees and neck yokes,
under the firm name of the Kentucky Singletree &
Spoke Company, at Campbellsville, and continued in
this line of business, although the plant has been
located in Russell County since the fall of 1917. Mr.
Hobson owned the stock of this company, and de-
veloped it into one of the important industries of this
section.
In the meanwhile in addition to all his other re-
sponsibilities he took upon himself studying for the
bar and was admitted to it in 1911. He was led to
take up this study through his connection with the
Royer Wheel Company for whom he transacted all
of the legal work, gaining in this way a very valuable
and practical experience in his profession. On No-
vember 20, 1917, Mr. Hobson came to Jamestown,
where he built up a very valuable connection profes-
sionally and engaged in a general civil and criminal
practice. In addition to other interests Mr. Hobson
owned considerable property, including his modern
residence on Main Street, Jamestown, which was built
in 1921 and is one of the finest homes in the city; a
fine home at Louisville where his wife and children
have spent some time in order to afford the latter better
educational opportunities ; 2,409.6 acres of farm, timber
and oil land located in Adair and Russell counties ;
and several pieces of real estate at Campbellsville.
Like his father, Mr. Hobson was a strong republican.
Brought up in the faith of the Methodist Episcopal
Church by his Christian parents, he early connected
himself with that denomination and was always active
in religious work and at the time of his death was
teacher of the large and earnest Bible class composed
of men connected with the Jamestown Church. In
Masonry he belonged to Pitman Lodge No. 124, F. and
A. M. of Campbellsville which he served for nine
years as worshipful master; Taylor Chapter No. 90;
R. A. M. of Campbellsville ; and Marion Commandery
No. 24, K. T. of Lebanon, Kentucky. He was also a
member of Jamestown Lodge No. 359, I. O. O. F. ;
Campbellsville Camp, M. W. A. ; Green River Tent
No. S, K. O. T. M. of Campbellsville, of which he was
past commander ; Campbellsville Camp, W. O. W., and
the Modern Brotherhood. During the late war Mr.
Hobson was found numbered among the enthusiastic
workers in behalf of the war activities and assisted in
all of the drives with effective and characteristic thor-
oughness. He bought bonds and stamps and contrib-
uted to all of the war organizations as generously as
h;s means permitted. It was he who built up the local
chapter of the American Red Cross, developing it into
the banner chapter of the county, and assisted by his
family, all of whom are fine musicians, held musical
rallies to stimulate interest and secure donations.
On September 20, 1893, Mr. Hobson was married at
Stanford, Kentucky, to Miss Mary Stephenson, a daugh-
ter of W. P. and Bettie (Hill) Stephenson, residents
of Stanford, Mr. Stephenson being now retired from
his former occupation of farming. Mr. and Mrs. Hob-
son became the parents of four children, namely :
Grace, who resides at Louisville with her mother, is
the widow of S. W. Finnell, whose death occurred
June 9, 1919, when he was struck by a train at Lebanon
Junction while in the employ of the Louisville & Nash-
ville Railroad Company; William Jesse, who was killed
by a train at Stanford, Kentucky, when he was eight
and one-half years old ; Charles Paul, who was grad-
uated from the Campbellsville High School, is a resi-
dent of Jamestown and superintendent of the Ken-
tucky Singletree & Spoke Company; and Stella,, who
lives with her mother at Louisville, is in the employ
of the New England Life Insurance Company. Mr.
Hobson was a man of remarkable organizing and
systematizing powers and accomplished much for the
good of the several communities in which he resided.
As a lawyer he was keen, resourceful and well versed
in the law, and his standing in his profession an
enviable one. His wide and strong influence in poli-
tics was early recognized and he was one of the active
republicans of this part of the state. _ His business
connections were commensurate with his other accom-
plishments and he built up a large and flourishing
plant by untiring energy and remarkable initiative.
Arch H. Pulliam. For over forty years the name
Pulliam has been prominently and favorably known in
the official life of Nelson County. Arch H. Pulliam
is now in his third consecutive term as Circuit Court
clerk, and his father, the late John W. Pulliam, was
also an honored county official.
Mr. Pulliam's grandfather, Archibald Pulliam, was
a native of Virginia and on coming to Kentucky first
settled in Shelby County, where he spent his active life
as a farmer and where he died in 1885. John W.
Pulliam, his son, was born in Shelby County in 1842
and as a young man moved to Nelson County, was a
farmer for some years, and in 1879 was elected county
jailer, an office he filled twelve years. He was then
chosen county assessor and by appointment from Gov-
ernor Beckham served eight years as receiver for the
Lakeland Asylum. He spent his last days at Bards-
town, where he died August 19, 1910, at the age of
sixty-nine. He was a lifelong democrat in politics.
His first wife was Lydia Glass, a native of Anderson
County, who died in 1888 at the age of forty-five. She
was the mother of two children, Arch H. and Mrs.
Morgan Edelen. John W. Pulliam afterwards married
Mrs. Margaret Glass McLain, a sister of his first wife.
She died in 1919.
Arch H. Pulliam who was born in Nelson County
May 31, 1877, attended the public schools, and in 1899
408
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
graduated from the Northern Indiana Normal School
and Business University at Valparaiso. He was only
sixteen years of age when he became a deputy in the
circuit clerk's office under Frank E. Daugherty. After
graduating he used his skill as a stenographer to good
advantage and for sixteen years served as court re-
porter for the Tenth Judicial District. In 1909 he was
elected Circuit Court clerk, and was reelected in 1913
and again in 1921. In 1920 Governor Morrow ap-
pointed him a member of the Old Kentucky Home
Commission and he was elected by the Commission a
chairman at its first meeting, held in Bardstown, in
October, 1920. Mr. Pulliam is active as a democrat,
is a Knight Templar Mason and a member of the
Presbyterian Church. December 12, 1905, he married
Miss Alice May, daughter of John S. and Annie E.
May of Bloomfield. Mrs. Pulliam was one of the vic-
tims in the fateful tragedy of the Shepardsville rail-
road wreck in 1917. Her sister, Miss Sallie May. be-
came the wife of Mr. Pulliam August 19, 1921.
Francis Napoleon Gardner. It is not given to all
men to make a success in business, but those who do
possess the faculty of knowing the line for which
they are best fitted, and are clear-visioned enough to
concentrate their energies upon it, can be reasonably
certain of satisfactory results. One of the men of
Paducah who has become one of the leading furniture
merchants in McCracken County through just these
qualities is Francis Napoleon Gardner.
The birth of Mr. Gardner occurred in McCracken
County on April 7, 1866, and he comes of one of the
old and honored American families of Scotch-Irish
descent, the representatives of which came to North
Carolina during the Colonial epoch, and from there
have spread out over the United States. It was in
North Carolina that Will'am Gardner, the grandfather
of Francis N. Gardner, was born, he coming into the
world in 1807, in the City of Salisbury, and he died
at Hico, Calloway County, in 1905, during his long
life witnessing changes not only in Calloway County,
where he had been a pioneer, but in the country as
well. His business acumen made him a merchant,
but at the same time he followed his instincts and
was extensively engaged in farming. He married
Frankie Miller, who also died in Calloway County.
The father of Francis N. Gardner was Francis
Napoleon Gardner, and he was born at Snow Hill.
Calloway County, Kentucky, in 1827, and d:ed at Pa-
ducah in March, 191 1. Reared, educated and married
in his native county, he chose it as the scene of his
initial business venture and developed into a prosperous
merchant, tobacco dealer and farmer. Prior to the
birth of his namesake son he came to McCracken
County, and in addition to being interested in farming,
was engaged in business as a contractor, and as such
built the Benton gravel pike. In 1893 he moved to
Paducah, where until his retirement he conducted a
grocery. In his political convictions he was a demo-
crat, for the principles of that party gave his views
proper expression. A member of the Baptist Church
from youth, he served in it as a deacon for half a
century. He was equally faithful as a member of the
Masonic fraternity, and in every respect lived up to
the highest standards of honorable manhood.
Francis N. Gardner, Sr., married Mrs. Mary (Moss)
Haymer, who was born in Tennessee in 1830 and died
in McCracken County, Kentucky, in 1872. Their chil-
dren were as follows : William, who is a photographer
of Vienna, Illinois; Mollie, who died unmarried at
the age of twenty-one years; Nannie, who died at the
age of twenty-three years; Lillian, who died at the
same age as Nannie; and Francis N, who was the
youngest born. As his second wife Francis N. Gard-
ner, Sr., married Miss Sallie Temple, a daughter of
Rev. J. X. Temple, of McCracken County, a clergy-
man of tlie Episcopal Church. The second Mrs. Gard-
ner was born in McCracken County in 1849, a"d died
at Louisville, Kentucky, in 1918. By this second mar-
riage there were the following children : Temple, who
was a traveling salesman and died at Louisville, Ken-
tucky, when he was thirty-eight, and Nellie, who died
unmarried, at Murray, Kentucky, aged thirty-four
years.
Francis N. Gardner, whose name heads this review,
was reared in McCracken County and attended its
rural schools and the Hico High School. Later he
became a student of the State Normal College at
Carbondale, Illinois, and remained there for two years,
but left it in 1889. In the meanwhile he had been
engaged in teaching school in Marshall and McCracken
counties, Kentucky, for four years, entering the edu-
cational field when he was only nineteen years old.
In 1889 he came to Paducah and secured employment
in a retail and wholesale drug store, where he re-
mained for a year, and then took up the insurance
business, which he carried on until 1896 as a repre-
sentative of the Prudential Insurance Company, and
built up a large clientele. However, it was his am-
bition to own his business, and he made a start on his
present road of endeavor when in 1896 he opened a
book, stationery and music store on Broadway, be-
tween Fourth and Fifth streets, and conducted it until
the spring of 1897. His experience during these few
months taught him that while he was fitted to be a
merchant, that his first line did not afford him suffi-
cient scope, and in April of that same year he estab-
lished his present business, but only in a very small
way, his capital being $950. Small was the beginning,
but the start was in the right direction. Mr. Gardner
has found himself, and from the first he was success-
ful. Under his astute management this business has
been gradually expanded until it is today the leading
one of its kind in Western Kentucky. His large
establishment is located at 114-116 South Third Street,
and he handles a general line of house furnishings,
including furniture, stoves, rugs and floor coverings
of all kinds, and his trade territory embraces Western
Kentucky, Southern Tennessee and Southern Illinois.
Mr. Gardner has other interests and owns a modern
residence at 509 Washington Street, which is com-
fortable as well as sightly. Like his father he is a
democrat and a Baptist, inheriting both his political
and rel'gious opinions from the elder man. He be-
longs to Ostego Tribe No. 60, I. O. R. M., of Paducah,
and to the Paducah Board of Trade.
In December, 1899, Mr. Gardner married Miss Fran-
ces Elizabeth Kennett, born at Huntington, Cabell
County, West Virginia, where she was educated, com-
pleting her schooldays in Marshall College. Mrs. Gard-
ner is a lady of unusual mental powers, and is an
important factor in the Woman's Club, the Mother's
Club and the Baptist Church, all of Paducah, and is
especially active in church work.
Mrs. Gardner is a daughter of John H. Kennett,
and granddaughter of Levi Lancaster Kennett, Sr.
The latter was born at Newark, Delaware, in 1818,
and came of a Scotch-Irish ancestry, the original
Kennetts coming to Pennsylvania during the Colonial
period in this country's history. Levi L. Kennett died
at Huntington, West Virginia, in 1895, having lived
for many years in West Virginia, where he was a
stone mason, and was engaged in building dams and
bridges across the Kanawaha River in West Virginia.
He married Frances Freeland, who was born in Penn-
sylvania in 1826, and died at Huntington, West Vir-
ginia, in 1884.
John H. Kennett was born in Pennsylvania in 1845,
and died at Huntington, West Virginia, in 1905. He
was married at Shrewsberry, West Virginia, to Letitia
Ault, who was born at Maiden, West Virginia, in 1844,
and died at Williamson, in the same state, in 1915.
After his marriage John H. Kennett moved to Hunt-
ington, where the remainder of his life was spent,
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
409
and there he was engaged in the livery business. In
young manhood he was a railroad contractor. He
owned the first wharf boat ever used at Huntington,
West Virginia. The democratic party had in him a
firm supporter. For many years he was a consistent
member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. His only
fraternal connection was his membership with the
Knights and Ladies of Honor. The children born to
John H. Kennett and his wife were as follows : Mrs.
Gardner, who was the eldest; Levi, who is a hotel
man of Ashland, Kentucky; Andrew Clay, who lives
at Wheeling, West Virginia; Julia Starr, who married
Mark Russell, a commission merchant of Williamson,
West Virginia; Sallie E., who is the wife of F. M.
Turner, sales manager for Cupples of Saint Louis,
Missouri, at Detroit, Michigan ; and John Grover
Cleveland, who died at Huntington, West Virginia,
when nineteen years old.
Mr. and Mrs. Gardner became the parents of two
children, namely: William Kennett, whose brief life
story is told on succeeding pages, and John David,
who was born July 30, 1906, died at Huntington, West
Virginia, on July 29, igio.
A man of far vision and understanding of the re-
quirements of his trade, Mr. Gardner has been able
to increase his business rapidly, and yet safely. During
all of the years he has been employed in building up
his own interests he has not been negligent of his
civic duties, but has taken an intelligent part, always
as a private citizen, in the progress of Paducah, and
is proud of the growth of the city and the place it is
rightfully taking among the centers of importance in
the state and the surrounding country.
William Kennett Gardner, who left life just at
the threshold of promising achievement, was born at
Paducah October 29, 1900, and died just a few weeks
before attaining his twenty-first birthday, on Septem-
ber 22, 1921. He graduated from the Paducah High
School June 5, 1919, and thereafter for two years
was rapidly growing in wisdom and efficiency as an
associate of his father's furniture business. He shared
the political views of the democratic party, and from
the age of eleven had been a member of the First
Baptist Church and was active in the Young Business
Men's Bible Class, for which he acted as pianist. In
other ways he was identified with the musical life of
this community, was a member of the Paducah Country
Club, and a member of the Alumni Club. The Alumni
Club of Paducah prepared the following resolutions,
that may properly supplement the brief record of an
all too brief life :
"Recently the all-levelling hand of death reached
out and touched one of our number, the first of this
fraternity to be called to the Beyond since our organi-
zation. In that summons this club has lost a friend
and a comrade, a member whose absence all of us
keenly feel.
"Those of us who knew Kennett Gardner personally,
as companion and friend and chum, feel most acutely
the silence when his name is spoken. Around the club
table where he met with us there is a chair that is
vacant, and the voice once lifted in happy fellowship
is heard no longer. His presence, his personality, his
kindly advice and willing service to the organization,
all are recollected. But in the passing of Kennett
Gardner this club has not alone been loser. Aside from
those who were closest and dearest, and whose grief
can never be assuaged, not even by the healing scythe
of time, his passing is felt in a broader sense. For
it is the young men of the type of Kennett Gardner
that constitute the future citizenship of our city. It is
to young men of his splendid character and lofty ideals
to whom Paducah looks for her leadership in the
coming years. Men of his stamp are rare and Paducah
needs them. That this club should have lost Kennett
Gardner is a source of sorrow, that the city should
have lost him is to be deplored. There can be no
progress without leadership ; there can be no real and
lasting and effective leadership without energy and
intelligence and character, without vision and hope
and enthusiasm. These attributes Kennett Gardner
possessed in marked degree. They served to endear
him to every member of this fraternity, to popularize
him everywhere. Whatever measure of success would
have come to Kennett Gardner in the passing years,
and surely success would have come to him, that re-
ward could not be richer than the deserving heart and
mind and soul which merited them by his own stal-
wart manhood.
"We of the Alumni Club pay this last tribute to our
fellow worker in the sincerity of appreciation, and in
the full knowledge that our words are but futile
against the oppressive grief which has come to those
who loved him most. But in our own sorrow at his
passing we sympathize most keenly with his parents,
and to them we humbly bring condolence as best we
may.
"As a member of the club, the death_ of_ Kennett
Gardner is severely felt by this organization. No
member served more willingly or with more zeal and
enthusiasm, none worked with greater skill and appli-
cation in the tasks that presented opportunity for
service. In the musical life of the club he meant
much to us ; and in that sphere he is especially missed.
In every other activity of our fraternity his death has
occasioned the deepest sorrow."
Orland C. Seeley. A business experience covering
a number of years is, according to its nature, honorable
or otherwise, but in either case it develops capacity
and either broadens or lessens the outlook on life.
While every type of business man must possess cer-
tain qualities to insure success in his undertaking, those
indispensable to the banker rest on a higher plane than
in many lines, and for this reason, if for no other, the
banker occupies a position in a community removed
from many of his fellow-citizens. As a bank represents
the most conservative of all institutions, so must those
connected therewith be regular, steadv and substantial
in their actions and characteristics. Orland C. Seeley,
cashier of the Black Mountain Bank of Evarts, Ken-
tucky, has spent some years behind the counters of
financial institutions in this state, for although he_ is
still a young man his career has been one in which
he has gained much experience. This has taughthim
conservatism, but at the same time it has given him a
correct idea of the value of a certain amount of pro-
gressiveness, and it is the combination of these two
in his character that makes him valuable to his insti-
tution and has placed him in a position or recognized
imnortance in his line of endeavor.
Mr. Seeley was born at Portersburg, Clay County.
Kentucky, April 18, 1893, a son of Pleasant D. and
Lizzie (Martin) Seeley. His father, a resident of
London, Kentucky, was born in Laurel County, this
state, in 1865, and was there reared and married. For
a number of years he devoted himself exclusively to
farming, but later began to carry on this vocation in
conjunction with work as a traveling salesman, and
since 1908 has made his headquarters at London,
where he occupies a comfortable home. He is highly
thought of in his community and is accounted an in-
dustrious, capable and versatile man and one who can
be denended unon to discharge fullv the highest re-
sponsibilities of good citizenship. He is a republican
in his political allegiance, holds membership in the
Masonic fraternity, and is a member of the Baptist
Church and a supporter of the movements thereof.
Mr. Seeley married Miss Lizzie Martin, who was born
in 1863 in Laurel County, and resides at London, a
faithful member of and worker in the Baptist Church.
They have been the parents of the following children :
Raina, who is the wife of Henry Doan, a carpenter
410
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
of London, Kentucky ; Carl, a traveling representative
for large mercantile concerns, who makes his head-
quarters at Lexington; Kash, who is clerk in the com-
missary of a large coal concern at Highsplint, Harlan
County ; Orland C, of this review ; Clyde, who is of
adventurous spirit and has no settled place of resi-
dence or occupation; Claude, the twin of Clyde, who
died at the age of eight months ; and Gladys, who is
residing with her parents at London.
Orland C. Seeley acquired his primary educational
training in the rural schools of Laurel County, follow-
ing which he entered the high school at London, which
he attended until reaching his senior year. He was
nineteen years of age when he left school to receive
his first experience in bus'ness and financial affairs,
and was given his introduction to the banking business
as clerk in the Farmers State Bank of London, an
institution with which he was identified for four vears.
In April. 1918, Mr. Seeley enlisted in the United States
Army and was sent to Indianapolis, to the vocational
training attachment, where he remained eight weeks.
He was then transferred to Camp Hancock, where he
remained thirty days, following which he was sent to
Ihe Raritan Arsenal, and remained at Metuchan, New
Jersey, for thirty days. Later he was stationed at the
Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland, and rema'ned
there from August. 1918, to March 4, 1919, and on
March 13. 1919, was honorably discharged at Camp
Taylor. L'pon his return to civil life he entered the
National Bank of London, of which institution he was
assistant cashier from April I, 1019, until September
20. 1919. at which t'me he resigned to come to Evarts
and accept the position of cashier of the Black Moun-
tain Bank, a position which he has retained to the
iin sent. This bank was opened for business Septem-
ber 15. 1919. and has been a great success as a state
bank. Its officers are: president, T. G. Wright, Lynch,
Kentucky; vice president, Dr. W. E. Riley. Lynch,
Kentucky; and cashier. Orland C. Seeley. The capital
stock of the institution is $25,000, and its arjproximate
deposits at this time are Sioo.ooo. Mr. Seeley devotes
bis entire time and attention to the duties of his posi-
tion and has won the esteem of his associates and the
confidence and good will of the bank's patrons. He-
is a republican in politics, although he has had no time
for political matters, and his religious faith is that of
the Christian Church.
Mr. Seeley was married February 2, iqiS, at London,
Kentucky, to M;ss Lucy Mooney, daughter of James
and Mary 1 Nicholson) Mooney, residents of London,
where Mr. Mooney is the proprietor of a blacksmith
shop. Mrs. Seelev is a graduate of the high school at
London. She and her husband are the parents of one
child, Helen Joyce, who was born May 11, 1920.
William S. Nappi:r, M. D. In adding the name of
Dr. William S. Napper to its citizenship in 1905, Leb-
anon Junction was to profit by the services of a man
who possessed both the ambition and ability to make
himself a factnr of large professional usefulness. Dur-
ing his residence here he has not only acquired a large
practice, but has gained the well-merited confidence of
the community, and his public-spirited citizenship has
at all times been a factor in the furtherance of worthy
civic and other movements.
Doctor Napper was born on a farm in Bullitt County.
Kentucky. January 21. i860, a son of William and
Susan Catherine (Shawler) Napper. His great-grand-
father on the paternal side was John Napper. a native
of Virginia, of Scotch descent, who moved in young
manhood to Nelson County, Kentucky, and there
rounded "lit his career in the pursuits of agriculture.
His son. William Napper, the grandfather of Doctor
Xapper. was born in Nelson County, and as a young
man adopted farming for his life work, a vocation
which he followed uninterruptedly throughout a long
and honorable career. He married Patsie Duvall, and
among their children was William Napper, who was
born in Nelson County. As a young man William
Napper the younger came to Bullitt County, where he
was married and where he devoted himself to tilling
the soil four miles east of Lebanon Junction. He
was a man of industry and ability, and won personal
success and the esteem of his fellow-citizens. Mr.
Napper married Susan Catherine Shawler, who was
born in Bullitt County, daughter of Anthony and Eliza-
beth (Johnson) Shawler, natives of the same county,
the former being a son of Jacob Shawler, a native of
Germany. Elizabeth (Johnson) Shawler was a daugh-
ter of William (Bill) Johnson, of the same family as
is Congressman Ben Johnson.
William S. Napper attended the district school near
his father's farm in the vicinity of Lebanon Junction,
following which he went to the graded and high
schools at Baylis. Illinois. He pursued his medical
studies at Louisville University, from the medical de-
partment of which institution he was graduated with
his degree as a member of the class of 1891, and at
that time began practice in the rural districts of Nelson
County, with his headquarters near Boston. For four-
teen years he ministered to the needs of that locality,
and in 1905 came to Lebanon Junction, where a gratify-
ing patronage has grown up around him and a large
following has responded to his practical demonstra-
tions of skill and resource. He has a tactful and
sympathetic manner, and a personality which inspires
confidence in his good will and ability. Doctor Napper
is a member of the Bullitt County Medical Society and
the Kentucky State Medical Society, and is railway
surgeon for the Louisville & Nashville Railroad at
this point. As a fraternalist he is a Knight Templar
Mason and a Noble of the Mystic Shrine, and his
political allegiance is given to the candidates and prin-
c'ples of the republican party. His religious faith is
that of the Baptist Church, to which the members of
his family also belong. He has supplied an element
of strength and substantiality to his community for the
past sixteen years and has been one of the most in-
terested as well as active observers of its developing
prosperity.
In 1894 Doctor Napper was united in marriage with
Miss Elizabeth M. Masden, a native of Bullitt County,
daughter of lonathan Masden, a well-known agricul-
turist of Bullitt County, who made his home here for
many years.
William H. Slone, who has recently retired from
the poultry business at Paintsville, Johnson County.
was one of the leading representatives of this line of
business enterprise at the judicial center of his native
county for a period of sixteen years, and he is now
living with secure standing as one of the representative
citizens of Paintsville, where he is chairman of the
Board of Education.
Mr. Slone was born on a farm near Davisville, a
village in Lawrence County, but the place of his na-
tivity is in Johnson County. He was born July 27,
1877. and is a son of Marvel F. and Elizabeth
(Wheeler) Slone. The father was born in Scott Coun-
tv, Virginia, May 24. 1847. and was a son of John
Slone, who came with his family from that county to
Johnson County, Kentucky, when the son Marvel F.
was a boy. John Slone became a substantial farmer
in the vicinity of the hamlet of Sip, this countv, and
was one of the venerable and honored pioneer citizens
of Johnson County at the time of his death in 1806.
He represented Kentucky as a gallant soldier of the
L'nion in the Civil war, his service having been with
the Fourteenth Kentucky Volunteer Infantry. Marvel
F. Slone was reared and educated in Johnson County
and eventually became one of its representative farm-
ers, his farm having been not far distant from the old
homestead of his father. His death occurred in 1014.
His widow was born on Laurel Creek, and survived
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
411
him by less than one month. Both were earnest mem-
bers of the United Baptist Church. Marvel F. and
Elizabeth (Wheeler) Slone became the parents of
seven sons and nine daughters, of whom William H.
was the seventh in order of birth. The eldest son,
Isaac, is now county jailer at Paintsville, Kentucky.
William H. Slone acquired his early education prin-
cipally in the village schools of Blaine and Paintsville,
and thereafter continued his studies in the University
of Kentucky, at Lexington. He taught four terms of
school, and depended upon his own resources in de-
fraying the expense of his higher education. Finally
he became a traveling salesman for the Snyder Hard-
ware Company, of Louisa, Kentucky, which prominent
wholesale house he represented through the Big Sandy
and Licking valleys. He continued his effective serv-
ice "on the road" for a period of three years, and then
engaged in the poultry business at Paintsville. He
built up a substantial and prosperous business in the
buying and shipping of poultry and after continuing
operations along this line for sixteen years he retired
from this business to take up larger activities in coal,
oil and timber.
Mr. Slone is a member of the board of directors
of the Paintsville National Bank, has been actively
identified with oil-development enterprise in this sec-
tion of the state, and has been liberal and progressive
both as a citizen and business man. He takes special
interest in educational affairs, and is serving as chair-
man of the Paintsville Board of Education. He is a
republican in political adherency, and is affiliated with
the local Blue Lodge and Chapter of the Masonic fra-
ternity. His wife is an active member of the United
Baptist Church at Paintsville, and their home is one of
the most attractive, even as it is the most hospitable,
in the county seat of Johnson County.
The year 1904 recorded the marriage of Mr. Slone
to Miss Pearlina Pack, who likewise was born and
reared in Johnson County, and whose father was a
soldier in the Fourteenth Kentucky Infantry in the
Civil war, the same regiment in which the grandfather
of Mr. Slone served. Mr. and Mrs. Slone have two
sons, Darwin, who was born in Paintsville, Kentucky,
August 23, 1907, and Leroy, born August 18, 1909.
Paul Rogers. Among the farmers of Clark County
the results of whose operations render a good account
of their husbandry, is Paul Rogers, who carries on
general farming activities seven miles east of Win-
chester, on the Ecton Pike. Mr. Rogers was born near
Irvine, Estill County, Kentucky, July 24, 1863, a son of
Marcus D. and Lucinda (Tipton) Rogers.
The grandfather of Mr. Rogers, Elder William Rog-
ers, was a pioneer minister of the Christian Church,
in which he labored for more than forty years after
coming to Kentucky from Virginia, he being well
known in the mountain sections of Clark and other
counties. He passed his life as a farmer and preacher
and was greatly revered by the people of his com-
munity, who recognized in him an earnest, God-fearing
man of many splendid qualities of character. He and
his wife were the parents of twenty children, of whom
two were living in 1920: Isiyacar, of Powell County,
and Mrs. Sally Meadows of Wolfe County, both in
extreme old age. Marcus D. Rogers was born Sep-
tember 5, 1833, in Estill County, and with the excep-
tion of four years passed on the Ben Groome farm in
Clark County, spent his entire life on the old home
place, where he died October 11, 1907, his wife, who
was born June 14, 1828, dying October 13, 1895. Dur-
ing the many years that he made his home on this
property, Mr. Rogers did not suspect that this tract
was a valuable oil property, but such proved to be the
case, as some twenty of the most valuable wells of
the region are located thereon, yielding a handsome
and consistent income in royalties. One of the sons,
J. Floyd, farming nearby, has many productive wells,
Vol. V— 38
while William T., another son, has an extensive oil
tract in Texas. Marcus D. and Lucinda (Tipton)
Rogers were the parents of seven sons : William
Simpson, formerly a farmer, but now a grocer of
Dayton, Ohio; James Buchanan, a farmer of Powell
County; Martin and Marcus D., twins, the former a
farmer of Estill County and the latter deceased at the
age of thirty years ; Reuben, who died at the age of
thirty-nine years at Dayton ; Paul ; and Stephen A. D.,
a mechanic at Dayton.
Paul Rogers received his education in the public
schools of Estill County, and was there married De-
cember 24, 1885, to Priscilla Cockerum, daughter of
James and Caroline (Cooper) Cockerum, and step-
daughter of John Rice. She was born October 31,
1865, in Breathitt County, Kentucky, where her father
died when she was a child, and she was brought by her
mother to near the Rogers home in Estill County.
To Mr. and Mrs. Rogers there have been born the
following children: James F., born September 22, 1886.
taught school for eleven years from his eighteenth
year, five years being in the local schools and the rest
in two other schools, always boarding at home, and now
is president of the electric light company, and also in-
terested in a water and ice company at Irvine, Estill
County ; he married Clay Tipton and there were born
unto them five children: Glen Clive, Gracie Marie,
Dixie Irene, Troy Hulen and Lula May ; Margaret E.,
who died in childhood ; Cora Lee, who also died in
childhood ; William T., born May 10, 1897, engaged in
farming on a property adjoining that of his father,
married Ella R. Howell and they are the parents of
two children, one died in infancy and William T., Jr.,
an infant ; and James J. Rogers, born November 20,
1895, who married Emma Lowrey, is associated with
his father on the home farm, spent two years in the
United States Army, seeing several months of service
in France, and was honorably discharged in February,
1919.
Following his marriage, Paul Rogers settled on a
part of the home farm in Estill County, where he
carried on operations until 1917, in that year coming
to his present farm. He had acquired all of the old
property and had built a new residence thereon, al-
though the old home in which he was born is still
standing. His present farm was acquired from Asa
Kidd, who had erected the residence here in 1912, this
being a fine country home of brick with all modern
conveniences, standing on an elevation. The property
comprises 172 acres, and as Mr. Rogers is a careful
and thorough farmer his labors have been attended
with good results. He takes a good citizen's interest
in public affairs, and whatever measures are proposed
tending to promote the general welfare meet with his
earnest support. The family has been identified with
the Bethlehem Christian Church since the time of his
preacher-grandfather.
.Richard Morgan Hocker. A capable and energetic
representative of the banking interests of Bullitt Coun-
ty is found in Richard Morgan Hocker, who since his
arrival at Lebanon Junction in 1889 has gained a financial
footing in every way commensurate with his most san-
guine expectations. In invading the realms of finance,
Mr. Hocker has swung far from the moorings of his
youth, for his earliest associations were those with
railroading, although he came of agricultural stock.
Mr. Hocker was born on a farm in Marion County,
Kentucky, August IS, 1856, a son of Samuel and Mary
Jane (West) Hocker. Samuel Hocker was born of
respectable and respected parents in Lincoln County,
Kentucky, and as a young man went to Marion County,
Kentucky, where he followed farming until his death
in 1876, when he was sixty-three vears of age, his birth
having occurred April 8, 1813. While he was a quiet,
honorable and inoffensive citizen, at the close of the
war between the states he was accused of having been
412
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
a sympathizer of the Confederacy, and in 1865 was
arrested by so-claimed local Unionists, but of doubtful
character. In the dark days of the Reconstruction
period, men's passions were easily inflamed and it needed
but small excuse or none at all for the worst element
to cause distress to even the most peaceful and inno-
cent man. While Mr. Hocker was released, his farm
buildings and crops were burned, causing him a loss
of $3,000. Mr. Hocker was a democrat in politics, and
in his religious faith a devout Methodist. By his first
marriage he had three children. His second wife was
Mary Jane West, a native of Simpson County, Kentucky,
and they had seven children, among whom was Richard
Morgan.
Richard Morgan Hocker attended the district schools
and was reared on the home farm until the age of
sixteen years, at which time he began clerking in a store.
This lasted only for a short period, however, when he
was attracted to railroading, as were then, and still
are, so many of the youths of the country districts.
Securing work with the Louisville & Nashville Railroad,
he was on the Memphis branch until contracting yellow
fever, in 1878, and was sent home from Erin, Tennessee,
for recovery. He then resumed railroading, which, in
all, he followed for a period of eight years for the
most part as a conductor. In 1889 Mr. Hocker located
at Lebanon Junction and established himself in the
hotel business, which he followed for ten years. He
then became cashier of the Lebanon Junction Bank, and
after several years was made president of that institu-
tion, as such having served to the present. Mr. Hocker
may be said to be a departure from the long-accepted
type of banker, having a degree of adaptability and
public spirit rarely associated with his prototype of some
years ago. He relieves the arid and unchangeable
routine of his labor with participation in politics and so-
ciety, in both of which he wields a sane and progressive
influence. While he is a democrat, he is not radically
so. His religious faith is that of the Baptist Church.
He has always taken an active interest in fraternal work,
and is a member of the Independent Order of Odd
Fellows, a Knight Templar Mason, and a Noble of the
Mystic Shrine.
On May 8, 1889, Mr. Hocker was united in marriage
with Miss Mollie Ricketts, a native of Bullitt County,
and a daughter of Jonathan Ricketts.
John H. Collings. The energy and business ability
of John H. Collings have built up a threshing machine
and sawmill business in Bullitt County which compares
favorably with the best enterprises of the kind in this
part of the state. Mr. Collings has a thorough knowl-
edge of his business, sufficient courage to weather in-
evitable depressions in trade and sufficient wisdom to
realize that only by maintaining a high standard can
he hope for uniform and continued success.
Mr. Collings was born on a farm in Bullitt County,
Kentucky, April 30, 1862, a son of Benjamin H. and
Nancy (Deats) Collings. The Collings family origi-
nated in Virginia, whence came the great-grandfather
of John H. Collings. This sturdy pioneer from the Old
Dominion reached Kentucky before it had been granted
statehood and took up land in Bullitt County, where he
followed farming during the remainder of his life and
developed a fertile property and a home for his family.
Among his children was Abner Collings, the grandfather
of John H. Collings. He was born in Bullitt County, in
1800, and as a youth adopted the vocation of his father,
that of planting. During his career he made the most
of his opportunities, but was not allowed to reach a
full measure of success, as his life was cut short at
the age of forty years.
Benjamin H. Collings was born in Bullitt County,
near Belmont, in 1837, and acquired a public school
education. He was reared as a farmer's son, and when
he reached years of maturity took up farming as his
regular vocation. Like his father, he did not live long
enough to see the fruits of his labor materialize into
pronounced success, but his industry had gained him
a goodly property even at the age of thirty-five years,
when his death occurred in 1872. He was a Baptist
in his religious faith and his political allegiance was
given to the republican party. Mr. Collings married
Nancy Deats, who was born at Belmont, in 1841, a
daughter of Richard W. Deats, a son of the original
pioneer of Bullitt County. Richard W. Deats was the
founder of the station and postoffice at Deatsville, and
for many years was one of the well-known men of his
locality. Mrs. Collings died in 1906, at the age of sixty-
five years, being the mother of five children, of whom
four survive, one having died at the age of thirteen
years.
John H. Collings was given the advantages of a com-
mon school education and was reared on the home farm.
As a youth he displayed an interest in machinery and
much mechanical ingenuity, and after attaining his ma-
jority began operating threshing machines and sawmills.
This business he now has followed for more than
forty years and has built up an excellent patronage
throughout Bullitt County. He is known as a man of
integrity and sound reliability, and as one of the very
liberal-minded and progressive men of the community
who as a citizen and a business man has evinced quali-
ties worthy of admiration and emulation. In the
republican party, Mr. Collings has been a leader and
a worker for years, and for four years has served
as a member of the republican county committee. Fra-
ternally, he is affiliated with the Independent Order of
Odd Fellows, in which he has numerous friends, while
his religious connection is with the Baptist Church.
In 1889 Mr. Collings was united in marriage with
Miss May Hays, daughter of James Hays and Rowena
(Kineson) Hays, of Bullitt County. Mr. and Mrs.
Collings have one son: Ben H., a graduate of the
Kentucky State University, and a resident of Hamilton,
Ohio, where he is superintendent for the Andrews
Asphalt Paving Company. Ben H. Collings married
Bessie Hayden, also a graduate of the Kentucky State
University.
Samuel B. Robinson, M. D. For sixty years the
name of Robinson has been honorably known at War-
saw, Kentucky, in the field of medicine as well as in
public affairs of moment, and probably no resident was
better or more favorably known here than Dr. Samuel
B. Robinson. This is his native place, he having been
born here November 21, 1856, and this was his chosen
home throughout a long and busy life. His parents were
Dr. John T. and L. C. (Moore) Robinson, and his
paternal grandfather, Samuel B. Robinson, was the
pioneer of the family in Gallatin County.
Dr. John T. Robinson was born April 11, 1829, at
Princeton, Indiana, a son of Samuel B. and Lydia (Mc-
Kimm) Robinson, the former of who was a native of
Baltimore, Maryland, and the latter of Kennebec, Maine.
There is no record of Samuel B. Robinson attending
West Point Military Academy, but his brother was
there as a classmate of Humphrey Marshall. In the
early part of 1829 Samuel B. Robinson went to Prince-
ton, Indiana, and later in the year came to Gallatin
County, Kentucky, locating at Jackson's Landing, about
six miles from Warsaw. He was a merchant all his
iife and died in 1835. Dr. John T. Robinson began his
business life early as a pilot on the Ohio River, and re-
mained a river man until 1853, in the meanwhile becom-
ing captain of several well known river steamers, one
of these vessels, the "John T. Cline," plying between
Madison, Indiana, and Louisville, Kentucky, and another,
the equally well patronized, "Alvin Adams." From
1855 until i860 he followed merchandising at Warsaw,
in the latter year entering Cleveland Medical College,
from which he was graduated in 1861. Doctor Robin-
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
413
son had been a student of medicine from the age of
nineteen years, persevering under all manner of handi-
caps with a determination that met with its reward when
he received his well earned degree at Cleveland. He
immediately located in practice at Warsaw and became
an eminent physician and surgeon whose professional
reputation extended through this section of the state.
His death occurred at Warsaw, April 5, 191 1. At Madi-
son, Indiana, August 24, 1852, he married Miss L. C.
Moore, and five children were born to them: Oliver
Mclntyre, who died in infancy ; Samuel B. ; Mclntyre
Moore, born in 1858, who became a well known public
man in the City of Washington, for years was assistant
doorkeeper of the House of Representatives, and died
in that city, February 6, 1889; John Gibson, who was
born October 15, 1866, filled a clerical position in Cin-
cinnati at the time of his death, December 25, 1900;
and Allie De Long who was born October 4, 1871, and
also filled a clerical position in Warsaw at the time of
his death, February 26, 1906.
The late Dr. John T. Robinson was a lifelong demo-
crat in his political views. He was a Union man in
sentiment at the time of the war between the states,
in everything except the emancipation of the slaves,
which he deemed an unwise and unjust measure at the
time. He served in the office of provost marshal. He
was a Royal Arch Mason, was a faithful member of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, and in all his relations,
professional or otherwise, set an example of true manli-
ness and high character.
Samuel B. Robinson obtained his general education
in the public schools of Warsaw, and greatly to his
father's satisfaction, early decided upon a medical career,
in preparation for which he entered Pulte Medical Col-
lege, Cincinnati, from which he was graduated with his
degree in 1881, but for three winters following returned
and took post graduate courses. Doctor Robinson prac-
ticed with his father until the latter's death and then
continued alone along the same line of high class medical
and surgical general practice and is very successful.
He is a valued member of the Gallatin County Medical
Society, the Kentucky State Medical Society, and the
American Medical Association.
At Covington, Kentucky, in 1891, Doctor Robinson
was married to Miss Hattie Swope. Her parents are
deceased, her father, Benjamin Swope having been a
large farmer and tobacco dealer in Gallatin County. He
was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South, a steward in the church and a teacher in the
Sunday School. A democrat by inheritance and from
conviction, Doctor Robinson was honored many times
by his party in election to important public offices, the
duties of which he performed most efficiently and to
forward the best interests of Warsaw. He was mayor
of the city for eight years, a member of the city board
of trustees for many years, and United States examiner
for war risk insurance for Gallatin County. During the
period of the World war he was medical examiner for
the Gallatin County draft board, and patriotically ex-
pended time and means in the furtherance of every
movement sanctioned by the Government.
Doctor Robinson is a member of Tadmore Lodge
No. 108, F. and A. M., Warsaw, and Warsaw Chapter,
R. A. M. and of Warsaw Council, Junior Order U. A. 'M.
In addit'on to his profession he has property and other
interests, the former including a farm situated between
Warsaw and Sparta, his office building on Main Street,
a handsome modern residence on the same street and
business buildings here. He has always encouraged
home enterprises and is a stockholder in three large
furniture companies at Warsaw, and also a stockholder
in the Florence Deposit Bank, at Florence, Indiana,
and at other points is interested in tobacco warehouse
property.
Roscoe I. Kerr, M. D. One of the recent additions,
speaking compara' vely, to the medical men who have
the health and sanitation of Bullitt County under their
care, is Dr. Roscoe I. Kerr, of Shepherdsville. While he
has been located in his present community only four
years, he has already gained the confidence and patronage
of a large and representative practice and in a number
of difficult and complicated cases has displayed the
possession of marked skill and trained faculties.
Doctor Kerr is a product of the farming districts of
Harrison County, Indiana, where he was born August
1, 1886, a son of Enos S. and Quintilla (Heizer) Kerr,
the former a native of Indiana and the latter of Ken-
tucky. Enos W. Kerr, the paternal grandfather of
Doctor Kerr, was born in Virginia and in young man-
hood removed to Indiana, where he passed the re-
mainder of his life in agricultural pursuits. His son,
Enos S. Kerr, adopted the vocation of teaching school
in young manhood and followed it to some extent
throughout his life, although he also had extensive
agricultural interests. He was industrious and capable
and would doubtless have achieved a notable success
in life, but his career was cut short by his death at
the early age of forty-six years. A democrat in poli-
tice and a man of some influence in his community, he
was held in high regard by his fellow-citizens, who
elected him to several local offices in Harrison County,
Indiana, where he always made his home. His widow
survived him and died at the age of sixty-four years,
at Louisville. In the family there were four sons and
two daughters, all of whom reached maturity.
Roscoe I. Kerr was reared in Indiana until he was
sixteen years of age, at which time he accompanied his
widowed mother to Louisville. In Indiana he had
attended the public schools, and in an evening school
had prosecuted a commercial course. Following this,
he was a student at Louisville University for six years,
thereby gaining his literary and medical education, and
received his degree of Doctor of 'Medicine from that
institution in 1910. Beginning practice at Louisville,
he was so engaged until January, 1913, when he took
charge as superintendent of Highland Hospital, a
position which he held for one year. He was then
identified with Back Hospital, Jackson, Kentucky, for
2l/z years, and in 1917 came to Shepherdsville, where he
has since been engaged in a constantly-growing practice.
His achievements have been of a steady and practical
nature here and his abilities have been demonstrated
along the regular lines of his calling. At present he
is serving as health officer for his county. Doctor Kerr
continues to be a student and takes advantage of the
opportunities for advancement offered by membership
in the Bullitt County Medical Society, the Kentucky
State Medical Society and the American Medical
Association. He is a democrat in politics, a Master
Mason and a member of the Baptist Church. In con-
nection with his profession, Doctor Kerr owns and
conducts the only drug store at Shepherdsville.
In 1910, at Louisville, Doctor Kerr was united in
marriage with Miss Catherine E. Gilbert, of that
city, and they are the parents of four children.
Rev. William A. Worthington, a clergyman of the
Reformed Church in America and a prominent figure
in educational work in Kentucky, is superintendent of
the Annville Institute at Annville, Jackson County, an
excellent institution maintained under the auspices of
the Reformed Church.
Professor Worthington was born on a farm near
Poplar Grove, Boone County, Illinois, and the date
of his nativity was May 30, 1877. His paternal grand-
father, Thomas Worthington, was born at Manchester,
England, in 1804, and was reared and educated in his
native land, where he learned and followed the trade
of calico printer. At Manchester his wife, whose
maiden name was Elizabeth Sidebotham, was born in
the year 1807, and there their marriage was solemnized.
They continued their residence in England until 1825,
when as young folk of ambition and earnest purpose
414
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
they came to the United States and first settled in
Rhode Island, where 'Mr. Worthington gave his atten-
tion to farm industry for the ensuing decade. In 1835
he became a pioneer settler in Boone County, Illinois,
near the present Village of Poplar Grove, and there
he homesteaded and developed a productive farm. Both
he and his wife passed the remainder of their lives
in that county, where his death occurred in 1880. Mrs.
Worthington attained to the extremely venerable age
of ninety-three years and was one of the revered pioneer
women of Illinois, though she passed the closing period
of her long and gracious life at Richmond, Minnesota,
where her death occurred in 1000.
George W. Worthington, father of him whose name
initiates this review, was born in Boone County, Illinois,
in 1843, and died at Long Branch, New Jersey, in 1903.
He was reared to manhood in his native county, received
good educational advantages, as gauged by the standards
of the locality and period, and became a prosperous
farmer. He was a gallant young soldier of the Union
in the Civil war, in which he served three years as a
member of Company B, Fifteenth Illinois Volunteer
Infantry, with which he participated in many important
engagements, including the historic battles of Shiloh and
Chickamauga, as well as the siege of Vicksburg and the
battle of Corinth. After the war he continued his active
association with farm enterprise in Boone County, Illi-
nois, until 1883, when he sold his farm and, by reason
of the impaired health of his wife, established his resi-
dence at Eustis, Lake County, Florida, and remained
there until 1902. He then removed to Long Branch,
New Jersey, where his death occurred in the following
year. His political allegiance was given to the republican
party, he was actively affiliated with the Grand Army
of the Republic, and both he and his wife were earnest
and zealous communicants of the Reformed Church in
America.
As a young man George W. Worthington wedded
Miss Elizabeth Van Valkenburg, who was born in
Columbia County, New York, in 1844, and who was
summoned to the life eternal in 1884, at Eustis, Florida.
Of their children the eldest is Mary Elizabeth, wife of
George O. Butler, a civil engineer by profession, their
home being maintained at Miami, Florida ; Ella is the
wife of Francis Alger, a successful orange grower at
Eustis, Florida; Rev. William A., of this sketch, was
the next in order of birth and is the youngest of the
children.
The public schools of Lake County, Florida, afforded
William A. Worthington the major part of his pre-
liminary education, and there his studies included the
curriculum of the high school at Eustis. Thereafter he
was for one year a student in historic old Rutgers
College at New Brunswick, New Jersey, where he next
entered the New Brunswick Theological Seminary,
which, like Rutgers College, is an old established insti-
tution of the Reformed Church in America. He was
graduated from the seminary as a member of the class
of 1909, and was duly ordained a clergyman of the
Reformed Church, in various departments of the work
nf which his service has continued to the present day.
He has achieved a most excellent work since assuming
the position of superintendent of the Annville Institute,
which was established in 1910 and which under his
vigorous and earnest executive and scholastic administra-
tion has attained to a high standard of academic effi-
ciency. The institute is situated on the north side of
Pond Creek, at Annville, and is fifteen miles north-
east of East Bernstadt. The buildings include the
administration building, the class-room building, two
dormitories for boys and two for girls, besides the two
cottages that serve as the residences of the superin-
tendent and assistant superintendent. A corps of thir-
teen efficient and enthusiastic teachers is retained, and
the enrollment of students at the time of this writing,
in the summer of 1921, is 267. The institute has secure
place as one of the valuable educational institutions of
Kentucky, and offers to students the best of advantages
in all of its departments.
Professor Worthington has identified himself fully
and loyally with community interests since establishing
his home at Annville, and his influence is felt in the
directing of public sentiment and action in Jackson
County. His political faith is that of the republican
party, but he has had neither time nor desire for public
office. He is a director of the Bond State Bank at
Bond, Jackson County. During the nation's participa-
tion in the World war Professor Worthington bent His
ability and energies to effective patriotic service by aid-
ing in all of the local drives in support of the Govern]
ment war bond issues, etc., and by active service in
the promotion of the Red Cross and other patriotic
work.
In 1909, at McKec, judicial center of Jackson Coun-
ty, Kentucky, was solemnized the marriage of Pro-
fessor Worthington to Mrs. Henrietta A. (Zwemer)
TeKolste, the widowed daughter of Rev. James F.
and Kate (Nyland) Zwemer, who reside at Holland,
Michigan, in which fine little city, founded by sturdy
Hollanders in the pioneer period of Michigan history,
Doctor Zwemer is the distinguished and honored presi-
dent of the Western Theological Seminary of the Re-
formed Church in America. Mrs. Worthington was
graduated from Hope College at Holland, is a woman
of culture and gracious personality, and plays a large
part in the refined social and academic activities of
the educational community in which she lives and in
which her circle of friends is coincident with that of
her acquaintances.
John G. Tye, M. D. By the possession of those
sterling characteristics and that specific ability that
make for maximum success in his profession Doctor
Tye has gained high vantage place as one of the rep-,1
resentative physicians and surgeons of his native coun-
ty and is established in the successful general practice
of his profession at Barbourville, the county seat, with
offices in the Parker Building on Knox Street.
Doctor Tye was born on the homestead farm of the
family near Barbourville, and the date of his nativity
was May 15, 1881. His preliminary educational advan-
tages were those of the rural schools, and in 1903 he
was graduated from the high school department of
Union College at Barbourville. Thereafter he con-
tinued his studies one year in Cumberland College at
Williamsburg, Whitley County, and after thus fortify-
ing himself along academic lines he entered the medi-
cal department of the University of Louisville, in which
excellent institution he was graduated in 1909, with
the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He has continued
a close and appreciative student along professional
lines and has availed himself of the advantages of the
clinics of the City Hospital of Louisville, which he
visits for this purpose nearly every year, and in which
he served as an interne during the year 1919.
Upon his graduation from the medical school Doctor
Tye established himself in practice at Barbourville,
where he has since continued his earnest and effective
professional labors, the success of which is best at-
tested by the broad scope and representative character
of his practice.
The democratic party receives the unequivocal alle-
giance of Doctor Tye, and as a member of the same
he was elected to the City Council of Barbourville, in
which he gave effective service marked by liberal and
progressive politics. He and his wife are influential
members of the Christian Church in their home city,
and he is serving as a deacon of the same. In a pro-
fessional way he maintains active alliance with the
Knox County Medical Society, the Kentucky State
Medical Society and the American Medical Associa-
tion. The Doctor has completed the circle of both
York and Scottish Rite Masonry, in the latter of which
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
415
he has received the thirty-second degree, as a member
of the Sovereign Consistory in the City of Louisville,
where also he holds membership in Kosair Temple of
the Mystic Shrine. His ancient craft affiliation in his
home city is with Mountain Lodge No. 187, Free and
Accepted Masons, and here also he holds membership
in Barbourville Chapter No. 137, Royal Arch Masons,
the while his chivalric affiliation is with Pineville
Commandery of Knights Templar at the county seat
of Bell County. He is a member also of the Barbour-
ville Camp of the Modern Woodmen of America. The
Doctor is a stockholder in the National Bank of John
A. Black at Barbourville, and also in the Kentucky Oil
Shale Company. He is the owner of valuable real
estate at Barbourville, including his attractive residence
at 308 Main Street. He is the owner also of a well
improved farm one mile east of Barbourville.
Doctor Tye was found as one of the loyal and vig-
orous supporters of war activities in his home county
during the World war period, and was one of the two
physicians chosen as medical examiners for the Knox
County Draft Board. He served also on the executive
committee of the Knox County Chapter of the Red
Cross, of which committee he is still a member in 1921,
and he was a member of committees in charge of the
local drives in support of the Government war loans and
Savings Stamps, the while he made his financial con-
tributions to these causes of consistent liberality.
The year 191 1 recorded the marriage of Doctor Tye
to Miss Jessie Miller, daughter of Judge J. S. and
Carrie (Brittin) Miller, the latter of whom is deceased.
Judge Miller, who is now living retired at Barbour-
ville, formerly served as county judge of Knox County.
Doctor and Mrs. Tye have three children, whose names
and respective dates of birth are here recorded : James
Gorman, July 23, 1912; Anna Lois, February 9, 1916;
and Gene, August 2, 1918.
Doctor Tye is a representative of one of the oldest
and most honored pioneer families of Southeastern
Kentucky. He is a descendant in the fifth generation
of John Tye, who was born in Virginia, where the
family was founded in the early Colonial era of Amer-
ican history. John Tye became one of the earliest
settlers in Whitley County, Kentucky, where he cleared
and reclaimed the first farm on Big Poplar Creek, a
work in which he had the service of his retinue of
seventy-eight slaves. The house which he erected as
a family home at Carpenter is still standing and is one
of the most venerable landmarks of Whitley County.
This honored founder of the Tye family in Kentucky
served as a patriotic soldier in the war of the Revolu-
tion. His son, Joshua, great-grandfather of Doctor
Tye of this sketch, was born in Virginia and was
young at the time of the family removal to Kentucky.
He became one of the leading farmers and influential
citizens of Whitley County, where he passed the re-
mainder of his life, as did also his wife, who was born
in Virginia and whose family name was Cummins.
George W. Tye, grandfather of the Doctor, was born
in Whitley County in 181 1, and died at Tye Bend, near
Barbourville, Knox County, in 1886, he having become
an extensive farmer in that locality and having been
the owner of a large number of slaves in the period
prior to the Civil war. He married Miss Anna Owens,
who likewise was a native of Whitley County, and
whose death occurred at their old home at Tye Bend,
Knox County. Their son, Henry Clay Tye, was born
at the old home at Carpenter, on Big Poplar Creek,
Whitley County, in 1849, and his death occurred near
Barbourville, Knox County, in 1907. He was a boy
at the time his parents established their home on the
farm at Tye Bend, Knox County, where he was reared
to manhood and received the advantages of the common
schools of the period. A man of strong individuality
and marked ability, he long held prestige as one of the
extensive and substantial representatives of farm in-
dustry in Knox County, and his death occurred on his
fine homestead farm one mile south of Barbourville.
He was a stanch democrat, served as a soldier of the
Confederacy in the Civil war, and was a man whose
character and achievement marked him for inviolable
place in popular confidence and good will. His widow,
whose maiden name was Diana Glasscock, still re-
sides on the old home farm. She was born in the
State of Tennessee. Of the children the eldest is
Drew, who is dairy inspector in connection with the
health department of the City of Atlanta, Georgia ;
Ellen is the wife of J. R. Jones, who is now living
retired at Barbourville, where for a long period he held
the office of cashier of the National Bank of John A.
Black; Rosa is the wife of John Parker, a leading
merchant at Barbourville; Dr. J. G, immediate sub-
ject of this sketch, was the next in order of birth;
J. J. is engaged in the practice of law at Barbourville ;
Charles H. is associated with the drug business in this
city; Thomas owns and operates the old home farm;
and Kager is a traveling salesman for the Louisville
Grocery Company, which he represents in Bell and
Harlan counties.
Leander Porter Holland, of Paducah, has given
thirty years to the service of the Ayer & Lord Tie
Company of Chicago, and for the past eighteen years
has been superintendent of its purchasing department
in Kentucky and adjoining territory. The Ayer &
Lord Tie Company is the largest organization of its
kind in the world as manufacturers, contractors and
dealers in railroad and cross ties, telegraph and tele-
phone poles and similar material. While the head-
quarters of the business are in Chicago, its productive
organizations and branch agencies are found in practi-
cally every timbered section in America.
Leander Porter Holland, who entered the business
at the bottom and is one of the experts in the organi-
zation today, was born in Lyon County, Kentucky,
August 8, 1861. The Hollands have been in Kentucky
since about the close of the Revolutionary war, and
were previously Colonial settlers in Virginia. Mr.
Holland's grandfather, John Holland, was born in
Caldwell County, Kentucky, in 1792, and lived there
all his life as a farmer, dying in 1877. William Hol-
land, father of Leander P., was born in Caldwell
County in 1828, but spent nearly all his life in Lyon
County, where he was a farm owner and operator on
an extensive scale. At one time he owned 700 acres
of the rich soil along the Cumberland River. He died
in 1913. He served several terms as justice of the
peace, was active in community affairs, but was rather
non-partisan in politics. He was one of the most
active members of his Baptist Church and was affili-
ated with the Masonic fraternity. At one time he was
a member of the State Militia. William Holland
married Mary Jane Hopper, who was born in Lyon
County in 1838 and died there in 1898. They became
the parents of a large family of fourteen children, a
brief record of whom is as follows : John A., a
farmer in Lyon County; Rebecca L., widow of C.
Lady, a prosperous farmer in Lyon County, where she
is still living; Marion, who died in infancy; W. W.,
who began his career as a farmer, subsequently was
state business agent of the Farmers and Laborers
Union at Louisville, and then worked under his brother
Leander for the Ayer & Lord Tie Company and died
at Cumberland City, Tennessee, at the age of forty-
eight; James M., a prosperous farmer and owner of a
portion of the old homestead in Lyon County; Sarah,
who died in infancy; Mary J., living at Paducah and
owner of the fine farm of her late husband, Joseph
Chaudet, on the Tennessee River in Livingston County;
Leander P. ; Monocho, the ninth child, a son, died in
infancy; Martha Ann, wife of W. P. Hildreth of
Lyon County; Eliza Frances, wife of F. P. Hildreth,
living on their farm in Lyon County; Ellen, deceased
wife of G. L. Gray, a farm owner in Lyon County;
416
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
Alice, deceased, married Y. L. Smith, a mechanic at
Kuttawa in Lyon County; and Ida May, who died in
1919, wife of W. W. Knoth, a farmer in Lyon County.
Leander P. Holland grew up on his father's large
farm in Lyon County, attended the rural schools, and
remained at home until he was twenty-five. For two
years after that he followed farming on his own ac-
count in Lyon County, also spent one year in Trigg
County, moved to Grand Rivers in 1889 and served
two years as town marshal, and for the following two
years conducted a meat market at Kuttawa. These
were his business experiences prior to the time he
entered the tie business for the Ayer & Lord Company.
He began his work under the direction of a cross tie
inspector on the Cumberland River, and knows every
phase of the business from that of a timber worker
to office management. He became superintendent of
the purchasing department for the Tennessee, Cum-
berland and Ohio rivers in 1902, and his offices are
on the tenth floor of the City National Bank Building
at Paducah. He is also a director and stockholder
in the Ayer & Lord Company, and is a stockholder
and director in the Paducah Chero-Cola Company.
Mr. Holland is a republican, a member of the Baptist
Church, is affiliated with Plain City Lodge No. 449,
F. and A. M., and is also an Odd Fellow. His home
is at 1438 Broadway. He married in Trigg County,
Kentucky, in 1885, Miss Jennie L. Holland, who though
of the same family name is not related. Her parents,
W. C. and Maria (Clements) Holland, now deceased,
lived in Trigg County, where her father was an ore
miner and manager of the Hillman ore mines. To
Mr. and Mrs. Holland were born seven children :
Hal. who died at the age of two and a half years;
B. L., now living at Charleston, Massachusetts, was
for eight years in the United States Navy, and after
the World war was with the Allied Troops at Scapa
Flow, witnessing the surrender of the German fleet ;
Will C, in the lumber business at Iuka, Mississippi ;
Rebecca L., who died in infancy; Virginia Dare, whose
husband, N. T. Tull, lives at Jackson, Mississippi, and
has charge under the budget system of the Baptist
missionary work for that state; Grace Trueman, wife
of C. C. Jordan, a lumberman and livestock dealer at
Iuka ; and Leander Porter, who bears her father's
name, and is still at home.
George Riley Keen M. D. The debt owed by
humanity to the medical profession is one that cannot
be fully discharged, nor ought it to be regarded lightly
for from the men connected with it have come the
most illuminating truths regarding the race and the
methods to be followed in curative and preventative
measures. Especially has this been true during recent
years when the self-sacrifice of the profession has been
demonstrated in every possible way. The Kentucky
physicians and surgeons stand foremost among those
of the country, and Allen County has contributed its
quota to the long list, one of them being Dr. George
Riley Keen of Scottsville.
Doctor Keen was born in Allen County, February 3,
1873, a son of Rev. Asbury W. Keen, a retired Baptist
clergyman, now living on his farm near Portland, in
Sumner County, Tennessee. He was born in Sumner
County, Tennessee, in May, 1837, a son of Elisha Keen,
a native of Virginia, who passed away in Sumner
County, Tennessee, where he located many years ago,
and became a prosperous farmer. Asbury W. Keen
was born of his marriage with Sallie Wolfe, his second
wife, who died in Allen County. After holding charges
in Allen County, Kentucky, and Sumner County, Ten-
nessee, in 1917, Mr. Keen retired from the ministry
and is now interesting himself in the work of his fine
farm. Strong in his convictions, he has supported the
candidates of the republican party from its organiza-
tion. He is a zealous Mason. One of the men of
Kentucky to enlist in the Union Army, he served as a
soldier for two years, and took part in several very
important battles including those of Shiloh, Lookout
Mountain and Missionary Ridge, of the war between
the North and South, but serious disabality, incurred
while in the service, necessitated his honorable dis-
charge and he returned home. He married Martha
Mitchell, born in Allen County in 1832, who died in
that same county, June 27, 1915. They became the
parents of the following children : Samantha E., who
died in Allen County when twenty-eight years old, was
the wife of George Smith now a farmer of Denton
County, Texas ; William David, who is a farmer, re-
sides at Lewisville, Texas ; James W., who is a farmer
of Allen County; Henry W., who died in Allen Coun-
ty when twenty years old; Mary E., who died at the
age of fourteen years; Dr. E. J., who is a physician
and surgeon of Woodburn, Kentucky, is mentioned
elsewhere in this work; and Dr. George Riley, who
was the youngest.
When he was eighteen years old George Riley Keen
struck out for himself, and made practical use of the
knowledge he had acquired in the rural schools of
Allen County, by teaching school in his home county,
following that pursuit for five years. He then entered
the medical department of the University of Tennessee
at Nashville, and was graduated therefrom in 1900
with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. In 1917 he
took a post-graduate course at the Chicago Polyclinic
in order to perfect himself along certain lines. In
1900 he located in Trousdale County, Tennessee, and
there spent eleven years, and then moved to Scotts-
ville, where he has since remained building up a name
and connection for himself which testify to his skill
and popularity. Doctor Keen maintains his offices in
the Keen Building, which is also the home of the
Oliver drug store, and which he owns, and he also
owns his modern brick residence which he remodeled
in 1920, making it one of the most desirable ones in
the city. It is conveniently located on Fifth Street at
Market. In addition to these two pieces of real
estate Doctor Keen is the owner of three dwellings at
Scottsville, and is a director of the Scottsville Utilities
Company.
While he gives his unqualified support to the repub-
lican party, he confines his participation in politics to
casting his vote for the party candidates. The Baptist
Church has always received his generous support, and
he is not only one of its efficient members, but for the
past six years has been a deacon of the Scottsville
congregation. A Mason, he belongs to Graham Lodge
No. 208, A. F. and A. M. Professionally Doctor Keen
belongs to the Allen County Medical Society, the Ken-
tucky State Medical Society, and the American Medi-
cal Association. During the late war Doctor Keen
was a very zealous war worker, and was especially
active in behalf of the Red Cross, although he rendered
material assistance in all of the drives. His purchase
of bonds and stamps and contributions to all of the
organizations were very liberal.
In July, 1898, Doctor Keen was married in Allen
County to Miss Emma Dalton, a daughter of Burge
Dalton, who resides on his farm in Allen County.
Mrs. Dalton is deceased. Doctor and Mrs. Keen have
one son, Douglas, who was born March 9, 1904. Doc-
tor Keen is a man of strong personality and warm
sympathies, and his patients not only learn to rely
implicitly upon his judgment, but become very deeply
attached to him.
Robert E. Callahan has been chief of police at
Ludlow continuously for almost thirty years, a period
of service that indicates the vigor and efficiency with
which he has performed his duties.
Mr. Callahan was born at Harrison, Ohio, October
2, 1858. His father, Dennis Callahan, was born in
Ireland in 1836, as a young man came to America and
located at Harrison, Ohio, where he married and where
HISTORY OP KENTUCKY
417
he followed his trade as cooper. In 1859 he moved to
Manchester, Ohio, and in 1862 to Aurora, Indiana,
working at his trade during these years. In 1888 he
moved to Ludlow, Kentucky, and at the time of his
death in 1903 was foreman for the passenger depart-
ment of the C. & O. and T. P. Railroad companies.
He served as city assessor at Aurora, Indiana, was a
democrat and a member of St. James Catholic Church
at Ludlow. He married in 1857 Kate Brady, who was
born in Ireland in 1837 and died at Aurora, Indiana,
in 1871. Robert E. is the oldest of their children;
Lizzie is the wife of Charles Taylor, a blacksmith at
Ludlow ; Catherine is the wife of John Connor, a
Chesapeake & Ohio locomotive engineer, at Price's Hill
in Cincinnati; Miss Mary lives at Ludlow; Annie is
the wife of Joseph Stinegar, a railroad switchman at
Covington ; William is in the boiler shops of the Louis-
ville & Nashville Railroad at Louisville; Miss Hattie
keeps a hotel at Detroit, Michigan ; Nora is the wife
of James Cowan, a shoe salesman, living at Price's Hill,
Cincinnati; and James is a boilermaker at Cincinnati.
Robert E. Callahan was educated in the parochial
and public schools at Aurora and while a schoolboy
worked in his father's cooper shop. Leaving school at
the age of seventeen he was employed by the O. & M.
Railway Company and in the rolling mills at Aurora,
and for two years was on the police force. Chief
Callahan moved to Ludlow in 1890 and after a year
and a half in the Southern Railroad shops was elected
chief of police in 1892. He has been chosen his own
successor at every election since then. Mr. Callahan
was one of the sterling patriots who helped fulfill the
war program of Ludlow. He is an independent in
politics, a member of the Catholic Church and is affil-
iated with Kehoe Council No. 1764, Knights of Co-
lumbus. He owns a modern home at 121 Oak Street.
In 1885 at Aurora, Indiana, he married Miss Sarah
Downton, who was born at Aurora in 1863 and died at
Ludlow in 1898. She was the mother of three chil-
dren: Emmett, a machinist at Ludlow; William, a
boilermaker by trade, was in training as a member of
the Engineer Corps when the armistice was signed,
and Earl, an employe of the Baltimore & Ohio Rail-
road living at Bromley, Kentucky. In 1903 at Ludlow
Chief Callahan married Mrs. Mary (Griffin) Jones,
daughter of James and Mary (Carroll) Griffin. By
this marriage she has one daughter, Kathryn, a student
in the LaSallette Academy at Covington.
Clarence O. Messenger, superintendent of the
Glogora Coal Company at Glo, Floyd County, is a
practical coal mining man and engineer, and is con-
stantly studying so as to keep abreast of the advances
made in his industry. He acquired the fundamentals of
his profession while teaching school. After he had
mastered the technical part from courses with the
International Correspondence School, he put this
knowledge to practical use, and since then has risen
rapidly, his being a responsible position.
The birth of Mr. Messenger occurred in Roane
County, West Virginia, June 30, 1887, and he is a son
of W. L. and May (Conley) Messenger, both natives
of West Virginia. W. L. Messenger was a farmer,
and a carpenter and builder. A zealous Methodist, he
always took an active and effective part in church
work.
Growing up in his native county Clarence O. Mes-
senger attended the local schools of Roane County,
and was fitted for school-teaching. For three years
thereafter he was engaged in teaching in the various
counties of West Virginia, but one of these years being
in Roane County. During this time he was studying
engineering and surveying, as before stated, and when
he had completed the courses with his correspondence
school was able to take a position with the United
Thacker Coal Company of Williamson, West Virginia,
as rodman on their engineering staff. At the close of
his second year with this company he was made resi-
dent engineer of the Thacker Coal & Coke Co., which
position he held for eighteen months when he left to
go with the Red Jacket Consolidated Coal & Coke
Company at Red Jacket, West Virginia, and during
the two and one half years he was in the employ of
this latter concern he became chief engineer of it.
Mr. Messenger then formed connections with the Ma-
deria Hill-Clark Coal Company, and during his three
and one-half years with them he became their assistant
general superintendent. During the latter part of
1916 he left the Maderia Hill-Clark Company and went
with the Borderland Coal Company as their general
superintendent, remaining with them for five months
when he accepted the position of general manager of
the Kanawha Valley Coal Company, with which he
continued until 1918, at which time he was made gen-
eral manager of the Wells, Elkhorn Coal Company.
In March, 1920, he assumed the responsibilities of his
present position, and since then has been superintendent
of the Glogora Coal Company. It is interesting to
note in this connection that Glogora means best coal
in the Welsh language.
On June 19, 1909, Mr. Messenger was married at
Williamson, West Virginia, to Miss Jessie Windle, a
daughter of J. M. and Sophrona (Lake) Windle, farm-
ing people of Taylor County, West Virginia. Mr. and
Mrs. Messenger have four children, namely: Burl,
Hale, Lake, and Doris Eleanor. They suffered a sad
bereavement in the death of their fourth and fifth
children, Paul and Clarence Ogden, Jr. The former
died in January, 1919, and the latter two weeks later.
Mr. Messenger belongs to the Chapter and Scottish
Rite of the Masonic fraternity. Brought up as he was
in a strictly religious home and taken to the services
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, it was but
natural that he should early unite with that denomina-
tion, and he has since continued one of its members.
Outside of his home and business ties his chief interest
is his church and he is a generous contributor to it
of time and money.
Col. William Robert Marsee. On Owens Branch of
Big Brush Creek, six miles southeast of Barbourville,
Knox County, lies the fine old homestead farm which
figures as the birthplace of Wm. Robert Marsee of
Barbourville, who is vice president of the National
Bank of John A. Black, and who is prominently con-
cerned also in coal mining enterprises in this section
of the state, besides which he has developed a sub-
stantial business as a contractor in road construction
and street paving. It is thus due that in this publica-
tion Mr. Marsee be accorded recognition as a pro-
gressive business man of large and varied interests and
as a citizen of distinctive loyalty and public spirit.
The birth of Mr. Marsee occurred on the 29th of
October, 1864, on the old homestead mentioned above,
and he is a representative of an honored family that
was founded in Southeastern Kentucky in the pioneer
days, his paternal great-grandfather, Rev. Thomas Mar-
see, having been a pioneer clergyman of the Baptist
Church in this section of the state and having also
developed a productive farm in what is now Bell
County, where he continued to reside until his death.
His son, Chadwell, grandfather of the subject of this
sketch, was born on the old home farm on Yellow
Creek, Bell County, in the year 1807, and was one of
the venerable and honored citizens of Knox County at
the time of his death in 1890. His active career was
one of close and effective association with farm enter-
prise, through the medium of which he contributed his
quota to the industrial and civic prosperity of Bell
and Knox counties, in each of which he had repre-
sentative farm interests during his residence within
their respective borders. His wife, whose name was
Drusilla Burkett, passed her entire life in Bell County.
Their son, W. D., father of him whose name initiates
418
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
this review, was born in Harlan County, in November,
1835, his parents having maintained their home in that
county for a comparatively short period and having
removed to Knox County when he was a boy. In this
latter county he was reared to manhood, here his mar-
riage occurred, here he became a substantial farmer,
and here he continued to reside on his home farm
six miles southeast of Barbourville until his death in
1888. Of conditions that existed in this section of
Kentucky in the period of his boyhood an idea is
conveyed in the statement that he was a sturdy lad of
receptive mind when he and his brother James first
had the privilege of seeing a regular wagon. The
vehicle was being driven by its owner near the Pour
Fork of the Cumberland River when it was descried
by the two wondering boys, and they followed the
wagon a distance of three miles, waiting to observe
what they were sure would prove a natural result —
that the rear wheels of the wagon would overtake and
run over the front wheels. Mr. Marsee marked the
passing years with worthy achievement and worthy
living, his political allegiance being given to the re-
publican party, and both he and his wife having been
earnest members of the Missionary Baptist Church.
As a young man Mr. Marsee married Miss Arilla
Owens, who was born on her parents' home farm on
Owens Branch of the Cumberland River in Knox
County in 1836, that branch of the river having been
named in honor of her father. Mrs. Marsee survived
her husband by about seven years and remained on the
home farm until her death in 1895. James C, eldest
of the surviving children, is a prosperous farmer near
Artemus, Knox County ; Joseph D. has for the past
thirty years been successfully engaged in farm en-
terprise near Rogersville, Greene County. Missouri;
Elizabeth, the wife of King Johnson, died in 1916 on
the farm which is still the place of residence of her
husband, near Artemus, Knox County ; Alice, who died
in the year 1881, on Owens Branch of the Cumberland
River, Knox County, was the wife of Frank Hamil-
ton, who now resides at Warren, this county, and who
is actively identified with coal mining; Mary Jane first
became the wife of Calvin Lawson, a farmer and
school teacher, and after his death she became the
wife of Rev. Adam Petry, a clergyman of the Baptist
Church and also a farmer on Cane Creek, Whitley
County, where his death occurred, his widow being
now a resident of Hazard, Perry County ; W. R.,
immediate subject of this sketch, was the next in order
of birth; Annie, whose death occurred in 191 1, on
Brush Creek, Knox County, was the wife of Thomas
Gibson, who is still a farmer and coal miner in that
locality; Virginia Belle is the wife of William Rick-
etts, who is a carpenter by vocation, and they reside
at Barbourville: George M. resides at Wheeler, Knox
County, in which vicinity he is engaged in coal mining;
Thomas, a locomotive engineer, resides at Artemus,
Knox County; Cordelia is the wife of Sherman Sharp,
a farmer and coal mine foreman in the State of
Illinois.
The rural schools of Knox County were the med 'urn
through which Willaim R. Marsee received his youth-
ful education, and he continued to be associated in the
activities of his father's farm until he was twenty-two
years of age. Thereafter he gave his attention to in-
dependent farm enterprise in his native county until
1906, when he sold his farm and engaged in the real
estate business and in the operating of coal mines on
Brush Creek, this county. In 1919 he established his
residence at Barbourville, and he is still prominently
identified with coal mining operations. He was the
first to operate a mine in the Hazard coal field in
Perry County, and in this connection effected the
organization of the Blue Grass Coal Corporation, to
which he sold his mine on the 3d of September, 1917.
He is now the owner of a mine at Highsplint, Harlan
County, and this mine has an output capacity of 300
tons daily. He is interested also in a mine on Beaver
Creek. Floyd County, this mine having a productive
capacity of 500 tons daily. Mr. Marsee, as previously
noted, is vice president of the National Bank of John
A. Black, an old and substantial institution at Bar-
bourville that had its inception in the private bank
established many years ago by John A. Black. As a
contractor Mr. Marsee at the time of this writing
is giving his attention to the construction of Kentucky
rock-asphalt paving on the streets of Barbourville, his
contract in this connection being one of $50,000. He
owns and occupies one of the modern and attractive
residences of Barbourville, the house, on Depot Street,
being of two stories, with eight rooms and with the
best of modern equipment and facilities. A man of
seemingly unlimited capacity for work, Mr. Marsee is
finding time to give effective service as police judge
of Barbourville, and he is chairman of the Board of
Trustees of the Barbourville Baptist Institute, of
which specific record is given on other pages of this
work. He is a deacon in the Baptist Church in his
home city, and is chairman of the executive board of
the North Concord Association of the Missionary Bap-
tist Churches, besides which he is a member of the
building committee which has supervision of the erec-
tion of the new Baptist Church edifice at Barbour-
\ ille. In politics he is a stanch republican. He was
colonel on Governor James D. Block's staff, Governor
Block being a democrat and Mr. Marsee a republican.
He is also president of the Southeastern Kentucky
Fox Hunters' Association. Mr. Marsee was vigorous
and charactetristically loyal in the furthering of all local
war activities during the period of American participa-
tion in the World war, he having served on committees
in charge of drives in support of the Liberty and Vic-
tory Loans, and War Savings Stamps, Red Cross work,
etc. He was a member of the Local Advisory Board
which held meetings at various points in the county
and devised ways and means for the advancing of
patriotic service along all lines. He gave individual
financial cooperation of liberal order, especially in
subscribing for the Government bond issues and Sav-
ings Stamps.
The year 1887 recorded the marriage of Mr. Marsee
In Miss Hannah Ricketts, who likewise was born and
reared in Knox County and who is a daughter of the
late George W. and Ella (Golden) Ricketts, honored
citizens of this county at the time of their deaths. Mr.
Ricketts was long numbered among the representative
farmers of Knox County and was a veteran of the
Civil war, in which he gave gallant service in defense
of the Union, his service with the Forty-ninth Ken-
tucky Volunteer. Infantry having covered a period of
three years. Mr. and Mrs. Marsee have a fine family of
children, and in the following record it will be noted
that they gave four of their sons to the nation's serv-
ice in the great World war : Spencer, eldest of the
children, resides at Harlan and is a machinist in coal
mines in that vicinity. J. W. remains at the parental
home and is in charge of construction work in con-
nection with his father's street-paving contract enter-
prise. He is an electrician by trade and in this capacity
has been actively identified with coal mining operations
in tli is part of Kentucky. He had the highest physical
examination of any boy in the county, and became a
number of the Eighty-fourth Engineering Corps of
the United States Army, with the rank of sergeant,
and was in active service in France for a period of
eleven months. P. M., who is chief clerk in the meat
market of the Steel Company at Benham, Harlan
County, enlisted in the United States Navy when the
nation became involved in the World war, his training
having been received at the Great Lakes Training
Station near the City of Chicago, and thereafter he
was in service as a machinist on the battleship Maine
on the coast of Cuba during the winter of 1918-ig.
Thereafter he was in transport service on vessels
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
419
bringing the American soldiers home from France
after the close of the war. Fred G., who resides at
the parental home, operates an electric motor in coal
mines near Barbourville. He likewise is a veteran of
the World war and was on his way to service over-
seas when the armistice was signed and the vessel on
which he was being transported turned back to the
home port. Andrew S., likewise a member of the
parental home circle, is bookkeeper and store clerk
for the coal company at Highsplint, Harlan County.
He likewise represented Kentucky as a gallant young
patriot in the nation's service in the World war, and
was stationed in France for a period of six months.
The transport on which he crossed the Atlantic to
France was sunk by the enemy, and of the 638 persons
on board 438 were drowned. Amanda is, in 1921, a
senior in the high school department of the Barbour-
ville Baptist Institute, and in this institution William
Robert, Jr., youngest of the children, likewise is a
student.
John Parker conducts one of the leading mercan-
tile establishments in the thriving little City of Bar-
bourville, Knox County, and is known and valued as
one of the progressive merchants and loyal and public-
spirited citizens of the county seat of his native county.
He was born on the home farm of his parents, on
Little Poplar Creek, this county, on the 2d of October,
1871, and in that same locality his father, Alexander
Parker, passed his entire life, his birth having occurred
in 1843 and his death in 1906. His entire active career
was one of successful farm enterprise on Stony Fork
of Little Poplar Creek, and he was one of the sub-
stantial and highly honored citizens of his native
county at the time of his death. His political adher-
ency was with the republican party, and lasting honor
attaches to his name by reason of his loyal service as
a soldier of the Union in the CiVil war. He served
somewhat more than three years as a member of the
Eighth Kentucky Volunteer Infantry, and among the
many important engagements in which he took part
were the battles of Chickamauga, Stone River and
Gettysburg and the siege of Vicksburg. He was an
honored member of the Grand Army of the Republic
at the time of his death. His wife, whose maiden
name was Martha F. Warfield, was born in Knox
County, on the Cumberland River, in 1849, and now
resides at Barbourville, the county seat. Of the chil-
dren the eldest is Dr. James W., who resides at Gray,
Kentucky, and is one of the representative physicians
and surgeons of Knox County ; Gordon is a prosperous
farmer of the Stony Fork district of the county;
John, of this review, was the next in order of birth ;
W. R. is a merchant in the City of Yakima, Washing-
ton ; Dr. A. L. is engaged in the practice of dentistry
at Barbourville; Dinah is the wife of Joseph S. Davis,
a farmer near Rain, Knox County; Pleasant resides
upon a part of the old home farm and is well upholding
the prestige of the family name in connection with
agricultural industry ; Lucinda is the wife of A. B.
Partin, a farmer near Corbin, Knox County ; and
Jemima is the wife of W. A. Campbell, another of the
successful farmers of Knox County, near Corbin.
After profiting by the advantages of the rural schools
of his native county John Parker entered Cumberland
College at Williamsburg, in which institution he con-
tinued his studies until he was twenty-four years of
age, though in the meanwhile, at the age of _ eighteen
years, he had initiated his successful service as a
teacher in the rural schools of his native county. His
active work in the pedagogic profession was continued
for a period of seven years, and in 1897 he was elected
clerk of the County Court, of which office, by re-
election in 1901, he continued the incumbent until 1906.
In igo3, in addition to his official service, he had
established a general merchandise business at Barbour-
ville in association with his brother W. R. The enter-
prise was conducted under the firm name of Parker
Brothers until 1905, when W. R. Parker sold his
interest to Benjamin E. Parker, a cousin, whereupon
the firm title of Parker & Parker was adopted. With
the splendid growth of the enterprise it was found a
matter of commercial expediency to incorporate the
business in 1908, and under the title of the Parker
Mercantile Company the principals of the concern
erected the Parker Building at the corner of Knox
and Liberty streets and established the business in
large and attractive quarters in this modern structure.
In 1915 the partnership relations between John and
Benjamin E. Parker were dissolved, and thereafter
John Parker was a successful traveling salesman
through Southeastern Kentucky until the spring of
1918, as a representative of Engelhard & Sons, im-
porters of and wholesale dealers in teas, coffees and
spices, with headquarters in the City of Louisville.
In March, 1918, Mr. Parker established his present
enterprise at Barbourville, as a dealer in men's fur-
nishing goods, hats, caps, etc., and his ability and
personal popularity have been potent forces in building
up the leading business of this order in Knox County,
the modern and well equipped store being eligibly
situated on the Public Square.
Mr. Parker is aligned loyally in the ranks of the
republican party, and he and his wife are zealous
members of the Baptist Church at Barbourville, in
which he is serving as a deacon and also as treasurer.
He is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, the Inde-
pendent Order of Odd Fellows and the Improved
Order of Red Men. He is a member of the Board of
Trustees of the Barbourville Baptist Institute, and
served twelve years as president of this board. He is
a director and also the secretary of the Barbourville
Cemetery Company, which has developed the local
cemetery into one of distinctive beauty. In addition
to owning the attractive residence which he occupies
on College Street he is the owner of the fine old home
farm which was the place of his birth, and thus con-
tinued his alliance with productive farm industry in
his native county. Mr. Parker was alert and patriotic
in furthering the various local service in connection
with American participation in the World war, and
his personal contributions to the purchase of the
Government war bonds were of maximum liberality as
gauged by his available financial means.
The year 1901 recorded the marriage of Mr. Parker
to Miss Rosa Lee Tye, who was born in Knox County,
on the Cumberland River, in which district her father,
the late Henry C. Tye, was a representative farmer,
his widow, whose maiden name was Dinah Glasscock,
maintaining her home on the Henry Tye farm in that
locality. Mr. and Mrs. Parker have four children :
Harold, who was born October 8, 1902, is a student in
Marion Military Institute at Marion, Alabama; Mary
Ellen, who was born in September, 1904, is attending
the Barbourville Baptist Institute, as are also Anna
Elizabeth, born in 1906, and Miriam Kathryn, born
June 5, 1909.
Mr. Parker is a scion of one of the old and honored
families of Knox County, with whose history the
family name has been closely linked for more than a
century. His grandfather, Gordon Parker, was born
in the Little Poplar Creek district of this county in
1816, and on the Stony Fork of this stream his death
occurred in 1891. He developed the fine old home-
stead farm on Stony Fork, and was one of the sub-
stantial agriculturists and influential citizens of his
native county for many years prior to his death. He
married Miss Lucinda Terrell, who was born on Indian
Creek, this county, in 1816, and died on the old home-
stead in 1881. Gordon Parker was a son of Richard
Parker, who was familiarly known as Dickey Parker
and of English parentage, who came from his native
State of North Carolina to establish himself in pioneer
farm enterprise in the Little Poplar Creek district of
420
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
Knox County, his marriage having been solemnized in
this county August 23, 1804, to Sarah Stephens, of
German parentage. They were among the first pio-
neers in the Poplar Creek vicinity, and there passed
the remainder of their days and are buried near the
old homestead.
Andrew J. Johnson was born in a coal district, has
been working in and around coal mines since he was
a boy, and in recent years has played a prominent part
in the coal mining development of Eastern Kentucky.
In 1917 he organized and developed the mines of the
Standard Elkhorn Company, and was president of the
corporation until it was reorganized in 1920 and he is
now its vice president and general manager. This
company has a lease on 1,327 acres and has ten open-
ings with all the modern machinery and equipment for
profitable and efficient mining operations. The com-
pany has an extensive market for its cannel coal,
found in a vein twenty inches thick. Cannel coal con-
tains four per cent ash. The cannel coal underlies a
stratum of bituminous coal from forty-four to forty-
six inches thick.
Mr. Johnson was born in Tioga County, Pennsylva-
nia, April 6, 1867, son of Lawrence and Sophia (Ander-
son) Johnson. His father has spent all his active life
as a coal miner and in the coal districts of Pennsyl-
vania. He is now living in his eighty-first year, while
the mother passed away July 14, 1920. Andrew J. is
one of a family of seven sons and one daughter, all
living but one son. Two of his brothers are also
coal men.
Andrew J. Johnson acquired his schooling before
he was ten years of age, though in the routine of
his business he has been a student of text books and
through correspondence courses and by study and
experience has become a mining engineer of unusual
ability, as his career indicates. At the age of ten he
was working in the mines as a trapper boy, and at
fourteen was operating a coal mining machine. Mr.
Johnson was promoted to foreman in 1896 and in 1901
to mine superintendent. In 1902 he became general
superintendent for the J. H. Weaver & Company with
headquarters at Philadelphia. A year later he was
appointed district superintendent for the Consolidation
Company in the Garrett district. He remained there
until 1905 and then spent a year in Wyoming, investi-
gating the lignite fields in Sheridan County. During
1906-7 he was again a mine superintendent in Penn-
sylvania and came to Kentucky in the western fields
as general superintendent under a receivership. For
two years he had supervision of some large mines in
that section, and after that until 1910 was a consulting
engineer at Madisonville, Kentucky.
From there he came into Eastern Kentucky for the
Consolidation Company at Van Leer on Miller Creek
in Johnson County, and in 1915 he began his experi-
ence in the Beaver Creek district, where he organized
and developed the mines of the Stanley Coal Company,
and later was identified with the Duncan Elkhorn
Company. He sold his interests in this company and
then organized the Standard Elkhorn Company. He
lias developed other mines, including the Jack's Creek
Coal Mine and is president of that company.
In 1887 Mr. Johnson married Christina Olsen. Their
two sons are both practical coal men. John O. is
superintendent and engineer for the Standard Elkhorn
Company, while William H. is electrician and machinist
in charge of the machinery at the Jack's Creek mine.
James O. Evans. The farming activities of James
O. Evans, eight miles north of Winchester, are perhaps
chiefly distinguished by his specialty as a grower of
blue grass seed. He is one of the largest producers
of this seed in the state, and usually has several hun-
dred acres devoted to the crop.
In the house he and his family still occupy he was
horn April 23, 1877. This is the old Captain Wright
farm and close to the Bourbon County line. His par-
ents were John and Eliza (Bean) Evans. His grand-
father was also named John Evans and his great-
grandfather was Archie Evans of Welsh ancestry.
Archie Evans came out to Kentucky in 1800 as rep-
resentative of other parties in looking up lands and he
acquired land of his own on Donaldson Creek in Clark
County, and remained there the rest of his life. He
brought his son John with him from Culpeper County,
Virginia, he being then five years old, having been
born in 1795. John Evans married Damarias Dooley
and both of them spent their lives on the old home-
stead in Clark County, where he died at the age of
seventy-five and his wife at eighty. Damarias Evans
spent her last years in the home of her son, John. She
had four children, the sons being Thomas and John,
while the daughters were Sally, who married David
Bratton, and lived near the old home, and Mary, who
became the wife of William Allen and removed to
Greencastle, Indiana. The son, Thomas Evans, spent
his life near North Middletown, where he died at the
age of seventy-five. His two daughters were Mrs.
William M. Jones and Mrs. A. G. Jones, both of
North Middletown.
John Evans, father of James O. Evans, was born in
Donaldson's Creek November 26, 1826, and grew up in
that vicinity. At the age of thirty-seven he married
Eliza Bean and in 1867 he bought the Captain Wright
farm, which then contained about four hundred forty-
five acres. The house on the farm had been built by
Captain Wright, is a stone structure, but has been
remodeled by subsequent owners. It was one of the
first two houses in that section to have glass windows,
and some of these windows with the sash are still in
use. The frame timbers are made of black locust aMd
walnut. John Evans, who lived on the farm until his
death on February 24, 1907, was extensively engaged
in raising fat stock, particularly cattle. He was a lead-
ing and prosperous farmer and for eight years per-
formed the duties of a local magistrate. He was a
democrat in politics. For years he made a practice
of exhibiting his thoroughbred jacks at local fairs. He
was also a stockholder and director in several banks.
John and Eliza Evans had seven children: Sally, who
married Nelson Mason and lived on an adjoining farm;
Mary, wife of Cass P. Goff ; Anna, now living at home
with her mother, is the widow of Walter Cooper; John
T., a resident of Winchester; Eli B., a mill and com-
mission man at Mountain Grove, Missouri; James O. ;
and Dannie, wife of C. C. Hadden of Bourbon County.
James O. Evans has given his active years to the
management of the home farm and now directs the
cultivation and handling of 725 acres, a very valuable
property. This includes the old Evans homestead,
which he owns himself. Mr. Evans has 450 acres in
blue grass for the production of seed, and his annual
crop is about five thousand bushels. In addition he
is extensively interested in raising fat cattle, sheep
and hogs chiefly. Mr. Evans has served as a school
trustee, is an elder and deacon in the Christian Church
at North Middletown, Kentucky. He has also been
much interested in sports, and in 1907 was appointed
by Governor Beckham as a delegate to a Game Con-
servation Convention at Norfolk, Virginia. Mr. Evans
is a stockholder in the Clark County National Bank, Cit-
izens National Bank, and Peoples State Bank and Trust
Company of Winchester and the North Middletown
Deposit Bank of North Middletown.
At the age of twenty-five he married Mary Best
Tarr of Bourbon County. Her father was the late
William Tarr, of Lexington, one of the prominent
citizens of the state. Mr. and Mrs. Evans have three
sons, William K., J. Hughes and Ira C.
Beverly P. Jones, M. D. On a picturesque moun-
tain-side farm near Manchester, Clay County, Ken-
tucky, Dr. Beverly Patterson Jones was born September
TO
<OX AND
I
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
421
18, J 880, and there was little local augury to indicate
that with the passing years he was destined to gain
place as one of the representative physicians and surgeons
of another Kentucky county. He proved, however,
the artificer of his own destiny, chose his vocation
in life, prepared himself thoroughly for his exacting
profession and is now established in active and success-
ful practice at Barbourville as one of the able and
influential physicians and surgeons and popular citizens
of Knox County. The Jones family was founded in
Clay County in the pioneer days, as indicated by the
fact that here Milton Jones, grandfather of the doctor,
was born and passed his entire life. He was one of
the substantial farmers of the county at the time of
his death, his home farm having been four miles east
of Manchester. On this farm now resides his son
Preston, who owns the property and who has resided
in that vicinity from the time of his birth, which oc-
curred in the year 1851. His farm operations are con-
ducted on an extensive scale and he is a leader in
progressive industry of this important order in his native
county. He is a democrat in politics, and while he
ha? had no desire for political preferment he has at
all times been liberal and public-spirited and taken
loyal interest in community affairs. His wife, whose
maiden name was Sarah Hounchell, was born on a
farm on Goose Creek, five miles east of Manchester,
Clay County, in 1850, and is a representative of another
of the well known families of that county. Of the
children of this union the eldest is Montgomery, who
resides at London, Laurel County, and is a construc-
tion foreman in the service of the Louisville & Nash-
ville Railroad ; Dr. Beverly P., of this review, was
the next in order of birth ; Rachel became the wife
of Gabriel Dezarn, who is a farmer six miles east of
Manchester, Clay County, and there her death occurred
in 1913, her husband having subsequently contracted a
second marriage, with Miss Maude Herd ; Joe died
on the old homestead farm of his parents in 1915, he
having been associated in the work and management
of the place.
Supplemental to the discipline which he gained in
the public schools of his native county was that which
Dr. Beverly P. Jones acquired in the Sue Bennett
Memorial College at London, Laurel County, in which
he completed the work of the junior year. He then
entered the medical department of the University of
Louisville, prosecuted his studies with characteristic
earnestness and receptiveness, and was graduated as
a member of the class of IQ06. After thus receiving
his degree of Doctor of Medicine he established his
residence, in September of the same year, at Man-
chester, Clay County, where he served his practical pro-
fessional novitiate. On the 4th of March of the fol-
lowing year he was retained as surgeon for the Coalport
Coal Company, of Coalport, Knox County, where he
continued his service in this capacity until the spring
of 1921. In 1909 he became official surgeon also for
the Trosper Coal Company at Trosper, Knox County,
and in 1915 he extended his professional functions by
assuming a similar position with the Carter Coal Com-
pany at Warren, Knox County. He continued his service
as surgeon for these three coal-mining corporations
until the 14th of April, 1921, and in the meanwhile
he had accorded similar service to the Wheeler Coal
Company at Anchor and Trosper, with which he be-
came thus associated in April, 1915. He served simul-
taneously as surgeon for the Roth Coal Company at
Wheeler, and besides the exigent demands thus made
upon his attention in these connections, he developed
also a large private practice in an extended rural dis-
trict. He was thus engaged at the time of the great
epidemic of influenza in 1918-19, and in the former
year he treated 1,600 cases of influenza, while in 1919
he had 300 cases. It can readily be understood that
his high sense of professional stewardship has been
on a parity with his earnest and effective service, and
few practitioners have worked harder or more faith-
fully. On the 14th of April, 1921, Doctor Jones re-
signed his positions with these various coal companies,
through the medium of which he had gained broad and
varied clinical experience of much value, and it was
at this time that he established his residence at Bar-
bourville, where he is meeting with the success that is
his just due as a skilled physician and surgeon and as
a citizen of sterling characteristics. He maintains well
appointed offices in rooms over the Cole & Hughes de-
partment store on the Public Square, and finds his
new field of professional work one of most inviting
order. He is identified with the Knox County Medical
Society, the Kentucky State Medical Society and the
American Medical Association. He has purchased and
occupies a modern residence on Depot Street, and is
the owner also of an unimproved building lot on Pine-
Street. At Barbourville he is a stockholder in the
National Bank of John A. Black, one of the most sub-
stantial financial institutions of this part of the state,
and he is a stockholder also in the Cooper Ridge Coal
Company, at Highsplint, Harlan County. Doctor Jones
is aligned loyally in the ranks of the democratic party
and is affiliated with Mountain Lodge No. 187, Free and
Accepted Masons ; Barbourville Chapter No. 137, Royal
Arch Masons ; and London Commandery of Knights
Templars, at London, Laurel County.
In the World war period Doctor Jones gave vigorous
co-operation in the furtherance of local drives in sup-
port of the Government war bond issues, served cm
the local Red Cross committee, and that his subscrip-
tions to the Government bonds were liberal is shown
in the fact that he still holds such bonds to the value
of $12,500. Besides this he invested $1,000 in War
Savings Stamps and made generous contributions to
the various subsidiary war causes.
At Berea, Kentucky, on the 21st of December, 1915,
was solemnized the marriage of Doctor Jones to Miss
Nina King, daughter of the late John B. and Serrilda
King, the father having been a representative farmer in
Jackson Countv and having served a number of years
as a county official. Doctor and Mrs. Jones have no
children. r
Shephard H. Bryant. It is not so wonderful^ for
a man to succeed when everything turns out right,
when each investment yields a fair percentage of profit,
and every effort is crowned with success. When,
however, adversity falls to his lot and he still pros-
pers, then a man has every reason to be proud of his
achievements. Shephard H. Bryant, who owned the
largest dry goods house between Louisville and Nash-
ville, and was recognized as the embodiment of the
prosperity of Scottsville, was one who rose in spite
of obstacles, and owed his success to his grit, de-
termination and faith in his own capabilities.
Mr. Bryant was a native son of Allen County, hav-
ing been born within its confines December 9, 1870.
His father, A. J. Bryant, was born in Virginia in
1810, and died at Scottsville in 1896. He was mar-
ried in Tennessee, and from then until 1866, when he
came to Allen County, he lived on a farm near Red
Boiling Springs. Both in Tennessee and in Allen
County he operated as an extensive farmer, but re-
tired in 1892 and moved to Scottsville, which con-
tinued to be his place of residence until he was claimed
by death. From the organization of the republican
party he voted its ticket. Strong in his support of
the "Methodist Episcopal Church, South, he long was
one of its sincere members. He married Mary Ross,
who was born in Tennessee in 1846, and died at Scotts-
ville in 1912. Their children were as follows: O. _S.,
who is a retired financier of Scottsville; Sis, who died
near Scottsville, married Montgomery Oliphant, a
farmer, who died in Texas; John, who is a farmer
of Allen County; William, who was a merchant, died
at Scottsville when fifty-six years old; James K., who
422
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
was a physician and surgeon, died at Nashville, Ten-
nessee, aged thirty-four years ; A. C, who is a mer-
chant of Scottsville ; Lou, who is unmarried, lives at
Scottsville ; and Shephard H., who was the youngest
born.
Shephard H. Bryant was reared on his father's farm
until he was eighteen years old, when he established
his present mercantile venture in a very small way.
Twice his store was wiped out by devastating fire, but
each time he went right to work to re-establish his
business, and at the time of his death had the fine
store on the south corner of the Public Square, his
trade having assumed vast proportions. Mr. Bryant
made a special feature of the service he rendered his
customers, many of whom continued with him during
all of his years in business.
Like his father, he was a republican. At one time
he belonged to the Woodmen of the World, but was
not connected with any fraternity at the time of his
death. He owned a comfortable modern residence
on Market Street. During the late war he took a
zealous part in all of the local war activities, assisting
in all of the drives, buying bonds and War Savings
Stamps, and contributing to all of the various organi-
zations to the extent of his means.
In 1893 Mr. Bryant married at Scottsville Miss
Mollie Pitchford, a daughter of J. F. and Hellon
(Brown) Pitchford. Mr. Pitchford was county super-
intendent of schools of Allen County at the time of his
demise. Mrs. Pitchford died in 1003 at Scottsville.
Mr. and Mrs. Bryant had three children, namely:
Curtis, who was born September I, 1898, is an oil well
driller, and lives at Scottsville; at Scottsville, Ken-
tucky, in 1909, he married, for the second time, Miss
Ethel Garrett, daughter of R. W. and Amanda (Wal-
lace) Garrett. Two children were born, one dying in
infancy and the other still living. Randall the second
son of Mr. and Mrs. Bryant was born November 19,
1912, and Barry was born July 12, 1918.
It was not only as a merchant that Mr. Bryant
rendered a service to his community, for he was never
backward in giving an effective support to all measures
looking to a permanent bettering of existing conditions,
and very few men have done more in this way than
he. Sane and reliable, he of course did not favor
any waste of the taxpayers' money, but he did believe
that the progressive city must keep abreast with the
times in the way of public improvements, and en-
deavored to bring others of his fellow citizens to his
way of thinking, with excellent results. Such men
as he are a valuable adjunct to any section for their
influence is always constructive and elevating.
The death of Mr. Bryant occurred August 20, 1921,
at Scottsville.
Joseph Birchel Campbell, who is engaged in the
successful practice of law at Barbourville, judicial cen-
ter of Knox County, is one of the prominent and in-
fluential younger members of the bar of his native
county, which is one of the most populous and impor-
tant in Southeastern Kentucky. He was born on a
farm near Barbourville, on the 7th of August, 1884,
and is a scion in the fourth generation of a family
whose name has been worthily linked with civic and
industrial history in this county since the earlv pio-
neer days, his great-grandfather Campbell, a native of
North Carolina, having been one of the very early
settlers in Knox County, where he reclaimed a farm
from the practical wilderness and where he passed the
remainder of his life. His son, William M., who,
though not of German lineage, gained the local sobri-
quet of "Dutch Billie," was born on Indian Creek,
Knox County, in 1825, and was a farmer in the locality
during the major part of his active career, though he
passed the closing period of his life in the State of
Indiana, where he died in 1910, near Otwell.
He whose name initiates this review is a son of John
A. and America (Thompson) Campbell, both of whom
were born in the Indian Creek section of Knox County,
the former on the 2d of August, 1846, and the latter
on the 17th of September, 1848. They now reside near
Barbourville, and their fine homestead farm lies on
Indian Creek, in the locality that is endeared to them
by the gracious memories and associations of many
years. John A. Campbell was born on this farm and
has long been known as one of the most progressive
and successful exponents of agricultural industry in
his native county, where for fifteen years he was also
identified with extensive lumbering operations. He
is a democrat in his political allegiance, and while he
has never desired political office he has wielded much
influence in community affairs as a citizen of sterling
character and strong mentality. Of the children the
eldest is W. H, who resides on his farm on Indian
Creek, Knox County, and who is engaged also in the
mercantile business and the manufacturing of lumber;
Mary is the widow of M. B. Cooper and remains on
his home farm on Indian Creek; Joel died at the age
of fifteen years; Elizabeth became the wife of Jacob
Engle, a farmer and merchant in the Indian Creek dis-
trict, where he died at the age of fifty years, she hav-
ing passed away at the age of forty-two years; Ellen
is the wife of G. M. Cooper, a farmer and merchant
in that same part of Knox County; and Joseph Birchel,
of this sketch, is the youngest of the number.
The discipline which Joseph B. Campbell received in
the public schools of his native county was supple-
mented by a course in the Kentucky State Normal
School at Richmond, in which he was graduated in
July, 1910, and in which he was president of his class
in the senior year. He forthwith entered the law de-
partment of the University of Kentucky, in which he
was graduated as a member of the class of 1912, with
the degree of Bachelor of Laws. He had simultane-
ously pursued a course in the academic or literary de-
partment of the university, and in the following year,
1913, he received from the institution the supplemental
degree of Bachelor of Arts. In the autumn of the
latter year he returned to his native county and became
a candidate on the democratic ticket for the office of
county superintendent of schools. He made a splendid
showing at the polls but was defeated. In the following
spring he established his residence at Barbourville,
where for the ensuing six years he was associated
with J. D. Tuggle in the practice of law. He then,
on the 1st of December, 1919, opened an office on
Knox Street, on the Public Square, where he has since
maintained his headquarters in the individual practice
of his profession, in which he has a representative
clientage and has developed a most substantial law
business. He has proved himself a vital and resource-
ful trial lawyer, has appeared in connection with im-
portant causes presented in the courts of this section
of the state, and is one of the progressive and public-
spirited citizens of the thriving county seat. He is
president of the Harlan Gem Coal Company, which is
incorporated for $60,000. and which is successfully op-
erating mines at Ages, Harlan County, its output capac-
ity being 300 tons a day. He is a stockholder in the
First National Bank of Barbourville, and also in the
John A. Black National Bank of this city, besides which
lie is associated with J. J. Tye in the ownership and
conducting of a leading fire-insurance agency at Bar-
bourville. With characteristic zeal and loyalty he as-
sisted in the local drives in support of the Government
war loans and other patriotic activities in his native
county during the period of American participation in
the World war, and his personal contributions to the
various causes were limited only by his available means,
his subscriptions to the war bonds and savings stamps
having been liberal, and his having been generous
contributions to the work of the Red Cross, Salvation
Army, Young Men's Christian Association, etc. Mr.
Campbell is staunchly aligned in the ranks of the re-
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
423
publican party, and in his home city he is affiliated
with Mountain Lodge No. 187, Free and Accepted
Masons; Barbourville Chapter, No. 137, K. T., Royal
Arch Masons, and Barbourville Lodge of the Inde-
pendent Order of Odd Fellows, in which fraternity
he is identified also with the encampment body and
the adjunct organization, the Daughters of Rebekah.
September 17, 1916, recorded the marriage of Mr.
Campbell to Miss Sue Mae Green at historic Cum-
berland Gap, Tennessee. She is a daughter of W. S.
and Sarah (Steynor) Green, who maintain their home
at Barbourville, the father being a substantial retired
farmer of Knox County. Mr. and Mrs. Campbell
have a winsome little daughter, Birchel Mae, who was
born April 7, 1918, and who wields buoyant sovereignty
in the pleasant family home on Main Street, Barbour-
ville.
S. B. Dishman has a record of many years of ef-
fective achievement in the legal profession and as a
judge of the Circuit Court of the district comprising
Knox, Clay, Laurel, Jackson, Owsley and Leslie coun-
ties, while further evidence of his commanding place
in popular confidence and esteem is that of his having
given four years of characteristically able administra-
tion as mayor of his fine little home city of Barbour-
ville, judicial center of Knox County.
Judge Dishman was born at Barbourville, his present
stage of professional activity, and the date of his
nativity was March 29, 1856. His father, John Dish-
man, was born in the State of Virginia, in 1822, and
was a son of William Dishman, likewise a native of
the Old Dominion commonwealth, where the family
was founded in the early Colonial period of American
history. William Dishman came with his family to
Kentucky and numbered himself among the pioneer
settlers in Jessamine County, where he became a pros-
perous planter and influential citizen and the owner
of a large landed estate. The family name of his wife
was Branau, who survived him by a number of years
and passed the closing period of her life at Barbour-
ville, he having died in Jessamine County. John Dish-
man was reared and educated in Central Kentucky, and
in 1852 established his residence at Barbourville. For
many years he was here engaged in the practice of law
as one of the really distinguished members of the bar
of this section of the state, besides which he was an
influential figure in the councils of the democratic
party in Southeastern Kentucky. He was chosen the
first county attorney of Jessamine County and there-
after was engaged in the practice of his profession in
the City of Lexington, where his marriage occurred,
and where, as a strong supporter of the Confederate
Government during the period of the Civil war, he
was held virtually as a prisoner by Federal authorities
during a part of the war. He thereafter served as com-
monwealth attorney of the mountain district of Ken-
tucky, comprising Knox, Harlan, Letcher, Perry, Breath-
itt, Owsley, Clay, Jackson and Laurel counties, his in-
cumbency of this office having covered a period of six
years. He also gave effective service as special judge,
and held court in the mountain district of Southeast-
ern Kentucky many different times. He was actively
affiliated with the Masonic fraternity for many years
prior to his death, which occurred at Barbourville in
1894. His wife, vohose maiden name was Jane T. Atchi-
son, was born in the City of Lexington, this state, in
183S, was there reared and educated, and there her
marriage occurred. Mrs. Dishman survived her hus-
band by about six years, and though she continued
her residence at Barbourville she died while visiting
at Pineville, Bell County, in the year 1900. She was
a devout member of the Christian Church. Of the
children the eldest is Lou, who now resides in the City
of Seattle, Washington, her husband, W. E. Word,
having been a prominent merchant of Barbourville,
Kentucky, at the time of his death; James H. was a
Vol. V— 39
man of important business interests at Barbourville at
the time of his death, when fifty years of age; Laura
is the wife of A. K. Cook, who is engaged in the prac-
tice of law at St. Petersburg, Florida; Judge Dishman
of this review was the next in order of birth ; Carrie,
who resides at Barbourville, is the widow of John P.
Dickinson, who was a prosperous business man at Mid-
dlesboro, Bell County, at the time of his death ; Lillie
is the wife of D. H. Williams, a successful fruit-
grower at North Yakima, Washington ; Virginia is the
wife of W. W. Stephens, who is general manager of
the street railway system of Kansas City, Missouri ; and
Annie is the wife of William McKee Kelly, who is
engaged in the real estate business at St. Petersburg,
Florida.
Judge S. B. Dishman acquired his preliminary edu-
cation in the public schools at Barbourville and there-
after pursued a higher academic course of study in Tus-
culum College, near Greeneville, Tennessee. In prepar-
ing himself for the profession that had been dignified
and honored by the service of his father he entered
the law department of Central University at Richmond,
Kentucky, in which he was graduated as a member of
the class of 1877. His reception of the degree of
Bachelor of Laws was virtually coincident with his
admission to the bar of his native state, and he forth-
with engaged in practice at Barbourville, where he
now has prestige as a veritable dean of the bar of
Knox County. He long controlled a large and repre-
sentative general law business, but he now confines
himself to civil practice, the while his valuable counsel
is frequently sought in connection with criminal causes
of important order. Judge Dishman maintains his
offices in the John Dishman Building on Knox Street.
He has been a leader not only in the local councils of
the democratic party but also in community sentiment
and action in his native city and county. He was
appointed circuit judge to fill out the unexpired term
of Judge J. H. Tinsley, resigned, and under this ap-
pointment he continued his service on the bench for
a period of six months. At a later period he was
again called upon to fill out a similar unexpired term
of six months on the bench of the judicial circuit com-
prising Knox, Clay, Laurel, Jackson, Owsley and Leslie
counties — the same district that had engaged his pre-
vious administration in this office. Judge Dishman
had the distinction of being elected the first mayor of
Barbourville after it had received a city charter, and
he gave a most effective administration of four years.
Thereafter he served two years as a member of the
City Council. Both he and his wife are earnest and
valued members of the Christian Church in their home
city, where also he is affiliated with Mountain Lodge
No. 187, Free and Accepted Masons, and Barbour-
ville Chapter No. 137, Royal Arch Masons, besides
which he has long been an appreciative and honored
member of the Kentucky State Bar Association. He
is a stockholder and director in several important coal
mining corporations in this section of the state and
also in the Dixie Wholesale Grocery Company of
Barbourville. His real estate interests include his at-
tractive home property on Knox Street, where he has a
modern brick house of seven rooms ; the building in
which his law offices are maintained, on Knox Street;
another residence property at Barbourville; a valuable
farm of thirty-five acres lying within the corporate
limits of the city; and the tract, 5j£_ miles west of
Barbourville, that is widely known as Dishman Springs,
the fine mineral waters of which attract many visitors,
both for the benefit to be gained from the medicinal
water and also to enjoy the attractions of the beautiful
place, this farm estate comprising 300 acres, and the
judge and his family there having a modern cottage that
serves as a summer home. In addition to these note-
worthy properties Judge Dishman also owns 300 acres
of coal land in Knox County.
All local patriotic movements in connection with
424
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
American participation in the World war received the
earnest and fruitful co-operation of Judge Dishman,
who aided actively in the campaigns in support of the
Government war loans, etc., made liberal subscriptions
to these loans and to all subsidiary war causes, and
gave effective service as chairman of the Knox County
Draft Board.
At Barbourville, in the year 187S, was solemnized the
marriage of Judge Dishman to Miss Annie H inkle,
daughter of Anthony and Sarah (Hoskins) Hinkle,
both of whom are deceased, Mr. Hinkle having been
the owner of valuable farm and mill properties and
having been one of the prominent and honored citizens
of Knox County at the time of his death.
In conclusion of this review is given brief record
concerning the children of Judge and Mrs. Dishman :
Capt. E. B. Dishman, D. D. S., is a graduate in den-
tistry but gives much of his time and attention to
oil-producing operations, in which field of industry he
is handling properties in Columbia, South America, his
home being still at Barbourville, where he was born
and reared. He represented Knox County as a gallant
young soldier in the World war, in which he became
captain of a brigade of artillery and had command of
the same during a period of three months of active
service in France. Laura is the wife of J. A. Mc-
Dermott, a progressive real estate broker and coal
operator, their home being at Barbourville. William
G. likewise remains in his native city, where he is
engaged in the practice of law. He was in service in
the United States Navy during one year of American
participation in the World war. S. B., Jr., likewise a
lawyer by profession, is employed in the war depart-
ment at Washington, D. C, and was in the nation's
military service during one year of the war, he having
attained to the rank of second lieutenant and having
been stationed in the great military camp at Battle
Creek, Michigan, during the greater part of his period
of service.
Joseph H. Allen, M. D. The substantial results of
years of effort, intelligently directed by a trained
mind, are gratifying to the one who has devoted his
life to carrying out the highest ideals of a certain
calling. No man can be greater than his appreciation
of the debt he owes the world, and the professional
men who rise highest are those who endeavor to aid
humanity and assist their associates. One of the lead-
ing medical men of Floyd County, whose career shows
marked capability, and who is also well known in busi-
ness circles as president of the Sandy Valley Hard-
ware Company, is Dr. Joseph H. Allen, of Langley.
Doctor Allen belongs to one of the old and honored
families of the Beaver Creek Community, where he
was born May 29, 1888, a son of Thomas G. and
Susan (Stephens) Allen, and a grandson of Samuel
and Sarah Allen, natives of Kentucky. Thomas G
Allen was born on Beaver Creek, near Alphoretta, De-
cember 5, 1844, and as a young man engaged in the
family occupation of farming. Through good man-
agement and wise investment he greatly added to his
inheritance, and at one time was the owner of 3,600
acres of land on Beaver Creek. He took an active
part in the affairs of the community, and as a friend
of education served capably in the office of school
trustee. He died in 10.12. Mr. Allen married Susan
Stephens, daughter of Samuel and Sarah Stephens, and
they became the parents of three sons and three daugh-
ters : Rosa, the wife of Hon. W. P. Leslie, district
judge of Colorado, Texas; Dr. Joseph H. ; Effie, the
wife of Dr. R. W. Duke, of Bosco, Floyd County;
Charles E„ who is engaged in farming in the vicinity
of Northern, this state; Schuyler C, also a farmer at
Northern ; and Octavia, the wife of Townsee Combs,
a civil engineer of Langley.
Joseph H. Allen received his early education in the
home schools and completed his literary training at
Valparaiso, Indiana. He then began preparation for
his profession, and June 30, 1910, was graduated from
the medical department of the University of Louis-
ville, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. During
his college days, Doctor Allen established a splendid
record as an athlete, and has always maintained his
love for manly and invigorating pastimes, in which
he still excels. In 1910 he commenced the practice
of his profession at Langley and here has built up a
large clientele in medicine and surgery and estab-
lished himself firmly in the confidence of the public
and in the esteem of his fellow-practitioners. A man
of broad ideas, comprehensive knowledge and varied
ability, he has put to good use the talents which he
possesses and has made himself a useful member of
society. He holds membership in the Floyd County
Medical Society and the Kentucky State Medical So-
ciety, and as a fraternalist belongs to Wayland Lodge,
F. & A. M. In politics he is an adherent of republican
principles. Early in the World's war, Doctor Allen
joined the Medical Corps, and after training at Fort
Oglethorpe received a commission as first lieutenant.
He is president of the Sandy Valley Hardware Com-
pany, a large and growing concern at Allen, and has
various other important interests.
On November 12, 1912, Doctor Allen was united in
marriage with Miss Bertha May, daughter of George
A. May, and to this union there have been born four
children: George E., Claude L, Harriet and an infant.
Mrs. Allen is a leading member of the Methodist
Church.
Hermon Jackson. Of all of the offices within the
gift of a county, that of sheriff is the most respon-
sible, and no man need hope to make a praiseworthy
record unless he be courageous beyond the common
run of men ; quick in decision so as to meet and
solve the many complexities which constantly arise ;
cool in judgment; wise in his estimation of human na-
ture, and kindly of heart so that, while enforcing
the law, he may at the same time give to his charges
fair and unprejudiced treatment. All men are not
fitted by nature or training to be such an official, but
Hermon Jackson, the present sheriff of Butler County,
is proving his worth as a citizen, and displaying just
these characteristics in his work of maintaining law
and order.
Sheriff Jackson was born on a farm seven miles west
of Morgantown, in Butler County, December 20, 1883,
a son of Burrell Jackson, who was born in Muhlenberg
County, Kentucky, and died in Butler County, in 1897.
Brought to Butler County in childhood, he was here
reared and married, and here he carried on a large
farming business. Zealous as a member of the Baptist
Church, he lived in his life the creed he professed,
and was a fine type of Christian manhood. He mar-
ried Dora Hawes, who was born in Butler County, and
died in the same county in 1895. Their children were
as follows : Nora, who died at the age of thirty years
in Butler County, never having been married; Sheriff
Jackson, who was second in order of birth ; Pearl, who
iiever married, died at the age of twenty-seven years;
Lila. who is the widow of Peter Goodman, a farmer
of Butler County, resides in Muhlenberg County.
Sheriff Jackson was reared on his father's farm and
remained there until he had reached his seventeenth
year, at which time he began working for neighboring
farmers, and so continued until he was twenty-one.
From 1905 until 1907 he was occupied with clerking in
different stores in Butler County, and one at Morgan-
town, and in the latter vear went with the Home Tele-
phone Company at Glasgow, Kentucky, and spent a
year For the subsequent year he served as post-
master at South Hill, Butler County, and at the same
time carried on a mercantile business, but in 1909
returned to Morgantown and for eight years was
deputy sheriff, in that office proving so brave and ef-
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
425
ficient in every way that he was the logical candidate
for the office of sheriff, and was elected to it on the
republican ticket in 1918 for a term of four years.
His offices are in the courthouse. He owns a com-
fortable modern residence at Morgantown.
Like other of his fellow citizens Sheriff Jackson
took a patriotic interest in the local war work during
the late war and assisted in all of the drives, contributed
to all of the organizations very liberally, and bought
bonds and war savings stamps to the full extent of
his means.
In December, 1917, Sheriff Jackson was married in
Butler County to Miss Eva Barrow, a daughter of
Mr. and Mrs. Monroe Barrow. Mr. Barrow is a
farmer of Ballard County, Kentucky, but his wife is
deceased. Sheriff Jackson has no children.
Thomas D. Tinsley. One of the most beautiful
and progressive little cities of the picturesque mountain
district of Southeastern Kentucky is Barbourville, the
judicial center of Knox County, and the people of the
city have shown excellent judgment in choosing as its
mavor the native son whose name initiates this paragraph
and who further has prestige as one of the representa-
tive members of the bar of his native city and county.
Mr. Tinsley, who is giving a most loyal and progres-
sive administration as chief executive of the municipal
government of Barbourville, was born in this city
January 27, 1880. He is a scion of one of the honored
and influential pioneer families of this section of the
Blue Grass State, as is evident when it is recorded
that his paternal grandfather, George Tinsley, was born
on the site of the present Village of Middlesboro,
Bell County, a son of William Tinsley, who was born
in that same section of Kentucky, not far from Cum-
berland Gap, in the year 1790, his father, William
Tinsley, Sr., having been born near Salem, Virginia,
a representative of a sterling family, of English lineage,
that was founded in the historic Old Dominion com-
monwealth in the Colonial period of American history.
William Tinsley, Sr., became one of the verv early
settlers in the vicinity of the present town of Middles-
boro, Bell County, where he became a prosperous farmer
and slave-owner and where he passed the remainder
of his life as did also his wife, whose maiden name
was Marie Amner. At the time of his settlement near
Middlesboro that section was still a part of Knox
County. William Tinsley, Jr., was reared on the
ancestral homestead and became one of the substantial
and influential citizens of his native district, he having
passed his life in the original Knox County from
which Bell County was segregated, and his career hav-
ing included effective service as sheriff of Knox County
at the time of the Civil war. He passed the closing
years of his life at Barbourville, where his death
occurred in the year 1872. His wife, whose maiden
name was Mollie Craig, was born in that part of Knox
County now included in Bell County, and the family
home was in Bell County at the time of her death.
George Tinsley, who became one of the successful
representatives of farm industry in Bell County, died
while the Civil war was in progress, and his wife, whose
maiden name was Annie Ingram, passed her entire life
in what is now Bell County. Their son, William W.,
father of him whose name introduces this review,
was born in the Cumberland Gap District of Kentucky
in 1851, and there was reared to manhood on the old
homestead farm, upon which Middlesboro now stands.
Since 1870 he has maintained his residence at Barbour-
ville, and he was engaged in Government contract work
in connection with star mail-route service until 1887,
from which vear until 1908 he held the office of clerk
of the Circuit Court, a position of which he thus con-
tinued the incumbent for more than twenty years and
in which he made a record almost unprecedented in
duration, as well as efficiency, in this part of the state.
Since his retirement from this office he has maintained
a general supervision of his well-improved farm near
Barbourville, and he has also been in continuous serv-
ice as referee in bankruptcy for this county since 1909.
He is a stalwart in the local ranks of the republican
party, he and his wife are zealous members of the
Christian Church, and he is affiliated with Mountain
Lodge No. 187, Free and Accepted Masons, at Bar-
bourville, and with Barbourville Chapter No. 137, Royal
Arch Masons, of which he was high priest in the year
1921. His wife, whose maiden name was Martha
Hoairn, was born at Crab Orchard, Lincoln County,
Kentucky, on the 7th of June, 1853. Of their children
the eldest is Mrs. Maude Marcum, who is now serving
as assistant state librarian at Frankfort, Kentucky's
capital city. She is the widow of Harry G. Marcum,
who was engaged in the insurance busineess at Cat-
lettsburg, Boyd County, at the time of his death. The
present mayor of Barbourville was the next in order
of birth. George F. resides at Barbourville and is
serving as state bank examiner. Mayo is the wife of
Charles F. Rathfon, executive head of the wholesale
lumber firm of Rathfon, Scent & Company at Bar-
bourville. John Alexander is superintendent of the
New Jersey State Home for Boys at Jamesburg, New
Jersey. Lucy, youngest of the children, is the wife of
Norval H. Cobb, secretary of the Winfield Manufactur-
ing Company at Warren, Ohio.
Thomas D. Tinsley is indebted to the public schools
of Barbourville for his early education, and in his
native city he also completed a course in Union Col-
lege, in which he was graduated as a member of the
class of 1898. He then became an assistant in the
law office of the late Judge James H. Tinsley, his
uncle, under whose able preceptorship he carried for-
ward his study of the law and made excellent and
substantial progress in the assimilation of the science
of jurisprudence. He was admitted to the bar in
1906 and has since continued in active general practice
at Barbourville, where he is a member of the repre-
sentative law firm of Dishman, Tinsley & Dishman,
in which his professional coadjutors are Judge S.
B. Dishman and the latter's son, S. B. Dishman, Jr.
This firm controls a large and important law business
and Mr. Tinsley has high professional standing, by
reason of his close adherence to ethical standard and
by reason of the success which he has won in con-
nection with important causes presented in the various
courts, in both civil and criminal departments.
Mayor Tinsley is unswerving in his allegiance to
the republican party, is well fortified in his views con-
cerning economic and governmental policies, and is
essentially liberal and public-spirited in his civic atti-
tude. He served two terms as a member of the Board
of Education of Barbourville, and in November, 1917,
was elected mayor of his native city. He assumed
office on the first Monday in January, 1918, for the
prescribed term of four years, and forthwith initiated
an administration that has been notable for progres-
siveness and for splendid advancement in all depart-
ments of city affairs. Within his reg'me as mayor
all of the principal streets of Barbourville have been
paved, there being nearly eight miles of the best type
of asphalt pavement, and he has infused liberality and
enthusiasm into all other departments of city service,
with the result that the people of Barbourville have
increased pride in the general attractiveness and effec-
tive government of their fair home city.
Mayor Tinsley is a deacon of the Christian Church
at Barbourville, of which his wife likewise is an earnest
member. He is affiliated with Mountain Lodge No.
187, Free and Accepted Masons; has served two terms
as high priest of Barbourville Chapter No. 137, Royal
Arch Masons, and represented the same in the Grand
Chapter of Kentucky, in which he was chosen grand
master of the first veil. It will be recalled from pre-
vious annotation in this review that the mayor's father
426
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
is serving as high priest of the home chapter of Royal
Arch Masons at the time of this writing. Mayor
Tinsley is vice president of the Cumberland & Man-
chester Railroad Company, has substantial interests in
connection with coal-mining industry in this section
of the state, and on Main Street of Barbourville he
owns and occupies one of the most modern and attrac-
tive residences of the city.
The mayor of the county seat city of Knox County
took specially loyal and active part in the furtherance
of local patriotic service and co-operation during the
nation's participation in the World war. He aided in
all of the drives for war objects, his influence was
extended also by his liberal contributions of financial
order, and he was chairman of the campaign here con-
ducted for war service under the auspices of the Asso-
ciated Charities of Barbourville.
In the City of Louisville, on the 7th of October,
1914, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Tinsley to
Miss Annie D. Albright, daughter of Dr. G. H. and
Annie (Costello) Albright, who reside at Barbour-
ville, where Doctor Albright is a representative physi-
cian and surgeon. Mrs. Tinsley, like her husband, is
a graduate of Union College, an institution which does
much to give Barbourville precedence as one of the
important educational centers of the state. Mayor and
Mrs. Tinsley have one son, William Granville, who
was born August 4, 1917, and who still maintains much
of autocratic dominion in the pleasant family home.
Rev. Lathey E. Curry, A. B., has made a record of
able and effective service both as a clergyman of the
Baptist Church and as a representative figure in edu-
cational work in his native state. That he is now
president of the Barbourville Baptist Institute, at the
judicial center of Knox County, attests the high esti-
mate placed upon him as a successful educator arid
executive, and in his present official position he is
showing the characteristic enthusiasm and consecration
of effort that give assurance of progressive service by
the school over which he is placed in charge and of
which specific mention is made in an article following
this brief review of his personal career.
Prof. Lathey Ernest Curry was born in Green County,
Kentucky, on the 24th of February, 1879. His paternal
grandfather, George Washington Curry, was born in
the same county, in 1820, and was a resident of Pierce,
that county, at the time of his death in 1887, his
entire active life having been passed as a farmer in
that locality, where his father was a pioneer settler
and a man of influence in community affairs in the
early days. George W. Curry married Miss Martha
Willis, who was born in Green County in 1822 and
whose death there occurred in 1901. Their son, A. W.,
was born in that county on the 28th of May, 1853,
and died on his home farm near Pierce, that county,
July 9, 1914, he having well upheld the prestige of the
family name as a substantial farmer and as an up-
right, loyal and liberal citizen of his native county.
He served four years as magistrate in his home com-
munity, and was otherwise influential in public affairs
of local order. He was a most earnest and zealous
member of the Baptist Church, as is also his widow,
and he was called upon to serve in virtually all official
positions of lay order in the church of which he was a
member and in which he was a deacon for many
years. His widow, whose maiden name was Elizabeth
Lucinda Sandige, was born near Crailhope, Green
County, April 5, 1861, and now resides at Pierce, that
county. Of the children the subject of this review
is the eldest ; Henry A. is a prosperous farmer near
Pierce, Green County; Thomas died on the old home
farm at the age of thirty-one years ; Professor D. P. is
a member of the faculty of the Western State Nor-
mal School of Kentucky at Bowling Green ; Rev. T. S.,
a clergyman of the Baptist Church, resides near Pierce,
Green County; Lura died in infancy; L. C, who has
been for several years principal of the consolidated
school near Hardyville, Hart County, is, in 1921, a
student in the State Normal School at Bowling Green,
while his is the honor of having represented his native
state as a gallant young soldier in the World war, he
having been in France eight months and the armistice
having been signed shortly after he had there been
ordered to the front ; Tara Selena is the wife of H.
L. Sinclair, D. D. S., who is engaged in the practice
of his profession at Upton, Hardin County; Bronston
L. is a successful farmer near Pierce, Green County;
and Miss Inez remains with her widowed mother. The
maiden name of the first wife of A. W. Curry was
Ellen O'Bannion, who was born in Hart County, and
whose death occurred on the home farm of her husband
in Green County, she being survived by one daughter,
Ellen, who is the wife of J. E. Shirley, a farmer near
Pierce, Green County.
Lathey E. Curry gained his early education in the
rural schools of his native county, and his parents
gave him all possible encouragement and aid in con-
tinuing his educational work. He attended the normal
schools at Greensburg and Canmer, and on the 6th of
June, 1917, was graduated from Georgetown College,
at the county seat of Scott County, with the degree of
Bachelor of Arts. While a student in that institution
he was an appreciative and popular member of the
Ciceronian Literary Society. He initiated his peda-
gogic career when he was twenty years of age, and
he gave ten terms of successful service as a teacher
in the rural schools in Green and Hart counties. There-
after he taught two years in the graded school at
Cave City, Barren County, and in 1917 became prin-
cipal of the high school at Smithfield, Henry County,
besides which he served as pastor of the Baptist
churches at Pleasureville and Bethlehem, he having
in the meanwhile been ordained a clergyman of the
Baptist Church. In 1918 he became principal of the
high school at Bethlehem, Henry County, where he
continued his service until 1920, besides retaining the
two pastoral charges mentioned above. In July, 1920,
he became president of the Barbourville Baptist Insti-
tute, and in addition to his vigorous and effective ad-
ministration of this excellent institution he conducts pas-
toral services at the Baptist Church of Artemus, Knox
County, twice each month, and serves as supply pastor
to the Baptist churches of London, Corbin, Middles-
boro, Barbourville and two or more rural churches.
His energy and self-abnegating devotion are on a
parity with his ability and enthusiasm, and he is
achieving a large and benignant service both as a cler-
gyman and an educator. President Curry resides at
Brown Hall, a dormitory building of Barbourville Bap-
tist Institute. He is aligned loyally in the ranks of
the democratic party, and is affiliated with Pleasureville
Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons. He was char-
acteristically zeaious in the promotion of patriotic
service and objects during American participation in
the World war, and in Henry County he delivered
many speeches in the furtherance of war activities,
besides making consistent financial contributions to the
various war causes.
On the 28th of June, 1905, in Hart County, was sol-
emnized the marriage of Professor Curry to Miss
Henrye T. Hedgepeth, daughter of J. R. and Mollie
CBale) Hedgepeth, who reside on their farm near
Defries, that county. Professor and Mrs. Curry be-
came the parents of three children, of whom the first
born, Pauline Elizabeth, died in infancy. The surviv-
ing children are Alva Edith, who was born July 29,
1914, and Lathey Ernest, Jr., who was born February
9, 1920.
Barbourville Baptist Institute. In the fine little
city, nestling in the picturesque mountain district of
Knox County and constituting the metropolis and ju-
dicial center of the county, Barbourville, is found an
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
427
admirable institution that is doing splendid service in
advancing effective educational work in this section
of Kentucky, and of the executive head of the Bar-
bourville Baptist Institute, Rev. Lathey E. Curry, spe-
cific mention is made in the article which immediately
precedes this review. It is in every sense consistent
that in this volume be given a brief record concerning
the institute, and the data for the following context
are drawn largely from the 1919-20 catalogue of the
institution, without formal marks of quotation.
The Barbourville Baptist Institute was founded by
the Cumberland River Baptist Church. The first ses-
sions were held in the church house, but later the
public-school building at Barbourville was rented for
the use of the school. The institute was from the
beginning so well patronized that the trustees deter-
mined to give the school a permanent home, with the
result that in 1902 a small brick building was erected
on the present campus. The school labored under many
discouragements, but finally the Home Mission Board
of the Southern Baptist Convention came to its aid.
Through the assistance of this board and the generosity
of friends of the institution the administration build-
ing has been enlarged and two dormitories, one for
boys and one for girls, have been erected. The Home
Mission Board has continued its support and is con-
tributing liberally to the operating expenses of the
school. The institute has been a great help to the
young people of this section of Kentucky, and it may
consistently be said that no other school in the moun-
tains of Southeastern Kentucky has had a finer body
of students.
The Administration Building is a substantial brick
structure which provides class rooms and a large au-
ditorium used for chapel and assembly purposes. The
Boys' Home is a three-story brick building erected in
191 1, modern in construction and equipment, with hot
and cold water on each floor, with shower bath, with
steam heat and electric lighting. Brown Hall, the
Girls' Home, is a brick structure of five stories and
the most modern appointments and accessories. These
homes are in close proximity to the Administration
Building and are under the direct supervision of the
faculty. The teachers live with the pupils in these
homes, while Brown Hall has the large and excellently
conducted dining hall which serves both teachers and
students. A well-improved little farm owned by the
institution provides the best of garden products, besides
having its cows and other farm live stock. Without
modification is the following quotation from the cata-
logue of the Barbourville Baptist Institute : "We do
not claim to have the only good school in the land.
There are many excellent schools, but if you are looking
for a school that offers strong literary departments, a
thorough, up-to-date course for teachers, a practical
course in domestic science., a valuable agricultural
course, the best advantages in music and expression,
you will find this institution is the place. The atmos-
phere of our school is cheerful. Our students are
cheerful and happy. We are a real happy band of
workers. With our strong faculty, healthy and beau-
tiful location and our well appointed buildings, _ we
have no hesitation in claiming superior advantages."
The courses of study in all departments of Barbour-
ville Baptist Institute are well co-ordinated and are
of the best modern standard and include a commercial
department. The expenses of students are kept at
the lowest possible point, and the dominant note in the
general administration is that of service. _ The school
has high place among similar institutions in Kentucky,
and has won its rank by the service which it has given
and which it continues to give, with ever increasing
efficiency. The faculty has been carefully selected to
insure the maximum of efficiency in each department,
and there is a spirit of enthusiasm and oneness of
interest that animates both teachers and students. Bar-
bourville and Knox County may well take pride in
having within their borders this noble and well regu-
lated institution of learning and service, and its Board
of Trustees give most earnest, unselfish and liberal
co-operation in maintaining and advancing the work of
the school, which has gained inviolable vantage-place
in the confidence, good will and supporting patronage
of the people of this favored section of the Blue Grass
state.
George W. Weaver. Statistics prove that more re-
liable and dependable men are developed in the calling
of a farmer than in any other industry. The inde-
pendence and self-reliance of the farm bring out qual-
ities which are valuable in any line of endeavor, while
the patience and hard work necessary to bring about
fruitful results form habits of industry and thrift not
easily thrown off. The agricultural lands of the Allen
County are so valuable that they hold many of their
young men, who sometimes remain on their properties
until their retirement, and then again, in the full ma-
turity of their usefulness, embark in other channels
where the lessons they have learned are exceedingly
useful. George W. Weaver, clerk of the Circuit Court
of Allen County, is a native son of Allen County, and
until he was thirty-two years of age, gave to agricul-
ture his undivided efforts. He is proving himself
equally valuable as a public official, and is recognized
as one of the best types of Kentucky manhood.
George W. Weaver was born on a farm in Allen
County, August 14, 1877, a son of William T. Weaver,
and grandson of William Weaver, who was born in
Virginia, and died in Allen County before the birth of
his grandson. One of the early farmers of Allen
County, he became a prosperous resident of this re-
gion. He married Elizabeth Dobbson, who was born
in Virginia, and died in Allen County. The Weaver
family is an old one in this country, its representatives
having come here from Scotland, and located in Vir-
ginia when it was still a colony of England.
William T. Weaver was born in Allen County in 1828,
and died in this county in 1896, having spent his entire
life here, and being occupied in farming, in this in-
dustry achieving a well-merited prosperity. His po-
litical sentiments made of him an ardent republican.
The Baptist Church had in him an earnest supporter,
and he was one of the most effective workers in the
local congregation of that denomination. During the
war between the two sections of the country, he was
one of the sons of Kentucky who espoused the cause
of the North, and he served in the Union Army, first
as a member of the Twenty-sixth Kentucky Volunteer
Infantry, and later as a nurse in a hospital. He mar-
ried Amanda Williams, who survives him and resides
on the home farm which is located eight miles north
of Scottsville. Mrs. Weaver was born in Allen County
in 1839. Their children were as follows : Henry T.,
who is a farmer, lives on the homestead ; John W.,
who was a successful man and mine operator, died at
Webb City, Missouri, when he was fifty years old;
Mary, who married Lemuel E. Henderson, a farmer, is
now deceased, as is her husband, both of them pass-
ing away in Allen County; Charles, who is engaged
in farming near the family homestead, has been a
magistrate for the past twelve years ; Annie, who mar-
ried R. B. Justice, county judge of Allen County, and
a resident of Scottsville, is spoken of at length else-
where in this work ; William E., who is a farmer of
Allen County ; Nannie, who died at the age of eighteen
years ; George W., who was the eighth in order of
birth ; Amanda Allen, twin sister of George W., who
married C. H. Tabor, a merchant of Halifax, Allen
County; Dr. L. M., who is a captain in the regular
army, is stationed at Camp Funston, Kansas, is a vet-
eran of the Great war. He was the first to enlist in
the medical corps from Allen County, and spent nearly
three years in France.
George W. Weaver attended the rural schools of
428
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
Allen County, and was then a student of the Allen
County High School, from which he was graduated in
1899. Returning to the home farm, he remained on
it until he was thirty-two years old, and in the mean-
while made many friends throughout the county. In
1909 he was the candidate of the republicans for Cir-
cuit Court clerk, was elected by a handsome majority,
and assumed the duties of his office in January, 1910.
In 1915 he was re-elected, and took office for his sec-
ond term in January, 1916, for a term of six years
more and was re-elected in November, 1921, for third
term without opposition from either party. He was
appointed trustee of jury fund of Allen County, and
was appointed master commissioner of the Allen Cir-
cuit to take effect January 1, 1922. His offices are in
the courthouse. Brought up in the faith of the Bap-
tist Church, he early connected himself with it, and
is now clerk of the Scottsville congregation. Fra-
ternally he belongs to Graham Lodge No. 208, A. F. &
A. M.; Oliver Camp No. 436, W. O. W. of Scotts-
ville, and at one time belonged to the Knights of
Pythias. He owns a comfortable modern residence on
Fourth Street, and a farm four miles north of Scotts-
ville, containing 236 acres of valuable land. During
the late war Mr. Weaver was very active in promoting
all of the drives, and was secretary of the Red Cross
Chapter, in this region, devoting much of his time to
his duties as such. He was exceedingly liberal in his
buying of bonds and stamps and his contributions to
the various organizations.
On June 17, 1908, Mr. Weaver was married in Allen
County to Miss May Stephens, a daughter of Crit-
tenden and Ella (Grubbs) Stephens, the former of
whom is deceased, having in his lifetime been a farmer.
His willow since his death was married second to
Thomas Young, a farmer, and they reside at Gaines-
ville. Allen County, Mr. and Mrs. Weaver have five
children, namely: Mildred, who was born April 25,
1910; Edgar Stephens, who was born August 8, 1012;
Nathalie, who was born December 16, 1914, died De-
cember 31, 1920; Frances Gertrude, who was born in
January, 1918, and Marjorie May, who was born Feb-
ruary 13, 1921.
Mr. Weaver is one of those quiet, effective workers,
who takes a deep interest in whatever he undertakes,
and knows just how to go about so as to secure the
best results. In his office he is rendering a valuable
service, and he is equally useful as a citizen, for he
stands back of all movements which have for their
object the improvement of the city and county, and
the raising of the moral standard. He has long been
in favor of better schools, good roads and further aids
to the agriculturalist, and has not been backward in
exerting his influence in behalf of these measures. Such
men as he not only are important adjuncts locally,
but they are a vital force in inculcating the lessons
of real Americanism in the minds of the rising gen-
eration, especially at this time when the radical ele-
ment is issuing its vicious propaganda. His work
during wartimes was but the logical outcome of the
principles he has always held, and the record he made
as an official of the local chapter of the Red Cross
stands as a monument to his efficacy and patriotism.
Arthur L. Nichols, county court clerk of Grayson
County, is one of the men who has never failed to
plan and stimulate the growth of Leitchfield and the
county, and has become one with their manifold in-
terests. He was born in Grayson County, July 30,
1880, a son of J. V. Nichols, and grandson of Jeptha
Nichols, a native of Virginia, who died in Grayson
County many years ago, having been one of the early
farmers of this region, to which he came in 1835.
He married a Miss Johnson, who was born in Vir-
ginia and died in Grayson County. The Nichols fam-
ily is of Scotch-Irish descent and was first founded
in Virginia.
J. V. Nichols was born in Grayson County in 1840,
and died at Clarkson, Kentucky, in 1914, having spent
his life in his native county. During the war between
the North and the South he enlisted in the Union
Army and served as a soldier for three and one-half
years as a member of the Twenty-seventh Kentucky
Volunteer Infantry. He participated in the battle of
Knoxyille, Tennessee, and was in all of the battles and
skirmishes of his regiment. Because of the exposure
and hardships of his service his health was practically
shattered, and he and his family were for years very
poor. Arthur L. Nichols was born' in a little log
house which continued to be the family residence for
a long period. While the father was a farmer, his
strength did not permit his carrying on any extensive
operations, and his children were forced to work hard
to assist him and get a start in life. A man of high
principles, he did not regret his service, and brought
up his children to be good and loyal citizens. The
republican party received his steadfast support. A
Christian in the highest sense of the term, he took
his creed into his everyday life, and was always an
exemplary member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
He married Lovina C. Salsman, who was born in
Grayson County in 1846, and died at Clarkson in 1918.
Their children were as follows: Elizabeth, who mar-
ried D. R. Line, a farmer, resides two miles from
Clarkson, Kentucky; Bertie, who died at the age of
twenty-eight years, is survived by her husband, M. D.
Grayson, a farmer living near Clarkson; Arthur L.,
who was the third in order of birth ; George C., who
lives near Clarkson, is a farmer; S. E., who is a drug-
gist of Louisville, Kentucky; and five others who died
in infancy.
Arthur L. Nichols is essent'ally a self-made man
and has had to work very hard for all he has acquired.
His educational training was confined to that afforded
by the country schools of Grayson County, and while
attending school he had to work hard on the farm,
where he remained until he was nineteen years old.
At that time he secured employment in the timber
business in Grayson County, and was so occupied dur-
ing a period of six years. During all of that time lie
was making friends for himself on account of his
willingness to serve, his cheerfulness under adversity,
and his ability to overcome obstacles, and when he was
appointed postmaster of Clarkson by President Roose-
velt the community rejoiced with him over his good
fortune. President Taft reappointed him, but hi,s
successor was named when there came a change in
political administrations. So capable did he prove
himself, however, as postmaster that when he was
nominated on the republican ticket for the office of
county court clerk, he received a very hearty support
at the polls in November, 1917, which elected him bv
a handsome majority, and he assumed the duties per-
taining thereto in January, 1918, for a term of four
years, and was re-elected in 1921 by an increased
majority for another four-year term. His offices are
located in the Court House at Leitchfield. Reared
in the faith of the Methodist Episcopal Church, he
affiliates with that denomination. He belongs to Wil-
helm Lodge No. 720, A. F. and A. M. ; Leitchfield Chap-
ter, R. A. M , and he is a member of Kennedy Camp
No. 24, W. O. W., and Clarkson Camp, M. W. A.
He owns his seven-room bungalow, a modern residence
on Main Street, and a farm which is located one mile
northeast of Clarkson.
During the late war Mr. Nichols was one of the
effective workers in behalf of all of the drives in
Grayson County, and rendered great service to the
drafted men by assisting them to fill out their ques-
tionnaires. He bought bonds and War Savings Stamps
and contributed to all of the war organizations to the
full extent of his means.
On August 12, 1009, Mr. Nichols was united in mar-
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
429
riage with Miss Mildred Alexander, of Brownsville,
Kentucky, the only child of J. T. and Alice (Hazelip)
Alexander, the former of whom is a banker and cap-
italist of Brownsville, Kentucky, but the latter is de-
ceased. Mrs. Nichols attended the Western Kentucky
State Normal College at Bowling Green, Kentucky,
and there specialized in elocution, and is a very tal-
ented lady. Mr. and Mrs. Nichols have two children,
namely: Alexander, who was born May 13, 1910; and
Alice Mildred, who was born June 19, 1920. Genial,
generous to a fault, unfailing in his loyalty to a friend,
a man of ideas, he is a type of indefatigable resource
that is the builder of character.
Claudy Estv Gary. The capacity for finding en-
joyment in what one has to do, of being able to invest
one's labor with interest and enthusiasm, are essentials
of success which have been incorporated in the career
of Claudy Esty Gary, Superintendent of Schools of
Butler County, Kentucky. From the time that he be-
gan educational work, fifteen years ago, Mr. Gary has
not only been a student and participant in the devel-
opment of the educational system in Kentucky, but has
always found pleasure in his labors, no matter how
onerous, and perhaps this is one reason why his
achievements are touched with the mark of originality
and individuality and why they have borne so much
fruit.
Mr. Gary was born at Welch's Creek, Kentucky, July
23, 1887, a son of John M. and Mahala (Wilson) Gary.
The branch of the family of which he is a member
had its origination in England and the first immigrant
came iu America during the early history of Colonial
Virginia. The great-grandfather of C. E. Gary was
William Gary, who was born in the Old Dominion and
was a pioneer of Butler County, Kentucky, where his
last years were passed in agricultural pursuits and
where he died in advanced age well esteemed and re-
spected.
William Gary, son of William, the pioneer, and
grandfather of Claudy Esty Gary, was born January
10, 1839, in Butler County, Kentucky, and had little
more than passed his majority when occurred the out-
break of the war between the North and the South.
In this struggle he enlisted in the Union forces and
fought bravely and faithfully until the close of hostil-
ities, when he returned to the peaceful pursuits of
farming. These occupied his attention and energies
during the remainder of his life, which extended be-
yond four-score years, his death occurring September
16, 1920. He was a man of splendid qualities and had
the respect and warm regard of those with whom he
was associated. He married Caroline Davis, who
was born in 1835, in Ohio County, Kentucky, and died
in Butler County, in 1900. For his second wife, the
grandfather married Armilda Burden, a native of
Butler County, who survives him as a resident of
Grayson County, this state.
John M. Gary, father of Claudy Esty Gary, was
born in 1867, at Welch's Creek, Butler County, Ken-
tucky, and received his education in the rural schools
of his native community. He was likewise reared
there, grew to manhood, adopted the occupation of
agriculture, and was married, and for many years
carried on operations as a successful and progressive
Butler County farmer. In 1918 Mr. Gary transferred
his attention to the oil industry, having realized on
several investments therein, and at the present time is
located at Goose Neck, Texas, where he is working as
an operator of several valuable properties. He has
resided in that community since 1918 and has received
splendid returns from his investments. In political
matters Mr. Gary gives his firm allegiance to the cause
of republicanism, although he has not been a seeker
after personal preferment of a political or public nature.
He joined the Baptist Church as a young man and
has always been a member thereof, and has lived his
faith. Mr. Gary married Miss Mahala Wilson, who
was born in 1S60, in Butler County, Kentucky, and
died here in 1916.
The only child of his parents, Claudy Esty Gary, re-
ceived his early education in the rural schools of But-
ler County, following which he pursued a course at
the Butler County High School, at Morgantown, from
which he was duly graduated with the class of 1905.
At that time he entered the Western Kentucky State
Normal School, at Bowling Green, which he left after
one year. In the meantime, in 1905, Mr. Gary had
commenced his labors as a country school teacher. This
probationary period extended over something like eleven
years, during which time he was broadening his edu-
cation, enriching his experiences and gaining an inti-
mate knowledge of his work and of the motives and
hearts of the children placed in his care. Thus when,
in 1916, the call came and he was elected to be county
superintendent of schools of Butler County, he was
fully prepared and ready for the place. He took office
in January, 1918, and entered upon his duties for a
four-year term, with his offices in the Courthouse at
Morgantown. He has achieved much in the way of
reforms and innovations, and has won the respect and
confidence of the teachers and pupils, as well as of
the general public. Under Mr. Gary's charge are
ninety schools, 101 teachers and approximately 5,000
pupils. He takes a deep and pleasurable interest in
his work and at all times is endeavoring to make his
services more valuable.
Mr. Gary is the owner of his own pleasant and at-
tractive modern home on Roberts Street, Morgantown,
and is a director in the Butler County Oil and Gas
Company. In politics he adheres to the principles of
the republican party, the candidates of which he sup-
ports without question. He holds membership in the
Kentucky Educational Association and belongs to the
Baptist Church at Morgantown. During the period of
the great World war, Mr. Gary took an active and
constructive part in all local war activities in Butler
County and contributed his full share toward the suc-
cess of every project.
In 1916, in Butler County, Mr. Gary was united
in marriage with Miss Emma Belle Ingram, daughter
of H. D. and Josie (Embry) Ingram, who reside at
Tilford, Butler County, where Mr. Ingram is engaged
successfully in the general merchandising business. Two
children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Gary : Joffre
S., born May 23, 1917 ; and Emma Lois, born De-
cember 27, 1919.
Leslie Martin. The high position occupied by Leslie
Martin in the esteem and confidence of his fellow
citizens in the locality of Cynthiana, five miles west
of which place he is the owner of a valuable farm, is
the result of long years of honorable agricultural en-
deavor and accomplishment and a public service of
twelve years as magistrate, during which he has ex-
emplified a conscientious desire to discharge fully and
capably the duties of his office.
Leslie Martin was born April 3, 1872, son of Hon.
C. B. and Sarah (Stump) Martin, and his birthplace
was the old Martin homestead just across the road
from his present farm. The old homestead is now
occupied by his brother George C. Martin, and the
interesting record of the father and other members
of the family is given elsewhere in this publication.
Leslie Martin acquired his early education in the public
schools of Harrison County, and subsequently had a
business course in a commercial college at Flemings-
burg. When he graduated from this college he was
equipped to take up a business career, but instead re-
turned to farming, to which he has applied himself
with gratifying results ever since, he being at this time
the owner of a two hundred and five acre tract five
miles west of Cynthiana. He raises all the standard
crops and engages to some extent in stock raising, and
4:S0
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
the substantial buildings, modern machinery and gen-
eral equipment and the air of prosperity hovering
around the estate speak eloquently of the good man-
agement and progressive ideas of the owner.
Mr. Martin married, February 6, 1896, Miss Fannie
Rees, a daughter of Hyson Rees. She acquired her
education in the public school of Harrison County and
in Smith's Classical School of Cynthiana. Four chil-
dren have been born to this union : C. B., Jr., who
died in childhood ; Jean, a graduate of the Cynthiana
High School, class of 1921, and now a student of
Transylvania College, Lexington, and Ruth and Rena,
twins, who are attending Cynthiana High School. Mr.
and Mrs. Martin are members of the Unity Christian
Church, in which Mr. Martin is a member of the
Board of Deacons. He is a member and a past master
of the Burns Grange, in the work of which he takes
a constructive and helpful interest. In politics a dem-
ocrat, he has served as a magistrate since 1907, and
his record in that position has been that of an earnest
and highminded official.
C. J. Nelson. The railroad man of today is the
product of a system which affords to the faithful
worker ample opportunity for individual development
in various branches. The numerous divisions in tin-
work necessary to successfully operate a railroad create
a variety that is so comprehensive that many of the
best men of the country became associated with one
or other of the great systems which are actually the
backbone of all industrial, commercial and agricultural
life. One of the men who has risen in the service
and is now connected in an important capacity with
the railroad work of Kentucky is C. J. Nelson of
Paducah, commercial agent for the Chicago, Burling-
ton & Quincy Railroad. He was born at Winterset,
Iowa, on September 1, 1887, a son of S. J. Nelson.
S. I. Nelson was burn in Sweden, near Christiania,
in [852, and lived there until lie was thirteen years
1 ild. At that tender age he left his native land and
came all by himself to the United States and settled
near Biggsville in Henderson County, Illinois, and after
working for farmers until grown, took up farming on
his own account and continued to follow that calling
until he retired. From Biggsville he moved to Mount
Pleasant, Iowa, where he was married, later going to
Winterset, Iowa, and finally to Albia, where he is still
living. He has always given a strong support to the
republican party, and been equally faithful in his ad-
herence to the faith of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
of which he has long been a member. His wife bore
the maiden name of Lucetta Simmons, and she was
born at Mount Pleasant, Iowa, in 1856. They became
the parents of two children : C. J., who was the elder,
and Frank S., who is cashier of the Peoples National
Bank of Albia, Iowa.
After graduating from the Winterset High School
C. J. Nelson was a student of the Highland Park
College of Des Moines, Iowa, and later took a com-
mercial course of a year's duration. He then entered
the employ of the Western Union Telegraph Company
as a telegraph operator, and was stationed at Fairfield,
Iowa, for eighteen months. Leaving the telegraph
company, he then became associated with his present
road and has continued with it ever since. His first
employment with it was as telegrapher at Beckworth,
Iowa, and he held similar positions along the main
line of the road, and was also station agent during
the later years of his telegraphic work. In 1912 he
entered the traffic department of the Chicago, Burling-
ton & Quincy Railroad at Burlington, Iowa, and was
made traveling freight agent. During the late war he
was transferred to Washington, District of Columbia,
and was traffic expert of the inland traffic service for
the United States war department, handling shipments
of Government freight of all kinds, moving troops,
and rendering a service which cannot be easily over-
estimated. After the signing of the armistice he re-
turned to Burlington, Iowa, and resumed his duties
there. Mr. Nelson had become too important a man
for his old position, a fact his road recognized, and
on March 11, 1920, he was sent to Paducah, Kentucky,
to take care of its interests as a commercial agent.
His offices are located at 1016 City National Bank
Building. His territory covers Illinois as far north
as Centralia, and the lines of the Nashville, Chat-
tanooga & Saint Louis Railroad from Paducah, Ken-
tucky, to Nashville, Tennessee, and Memphis, Tennessee.
In 1912 Mr. Nelson was united in marriage with
Miss Frances Lucille Trimble at Albia, Iowa. Mrs.
Nelson is a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Trimble,
now living at Montezuma, Iowa. Earlier in life Mr.
Trimble was a farmer, but after a number of years
of successful operation of his farm lands he retired
and is now enjoying the fruits of his years of industry.
Mr. and Mrs. Nelson have one daughter, Marguerite
Ann, who was born October II, 1918.
Mr. Nelson prefers to vote independently, using his
judgment in his selection of a candidate. Both by
inheritance and conviction he is a Methodist. Well
known in Masonry, he belongs to Astor Lodge No.
505, A. F. and A. M., Albia, Iowa, and Rajah Temple,
A. A. O. N. M. S., Madisonville, Kentucky. Since
coming to Paducah he has become a member of the
Paducah Board of Trade. Possessing as he does a
comprehensive knowledge of the vast and intricate
problems connected with the conduct of gigantic sys-
tems of transportation, he is eminently prepared to
handle the responsibilities of his present position. His
connection with the war department gave him an ex-
perience full of educational value in his special line
and added to his usefulness to his organization. While
be is one of the recent additions to the City of Paducah,
bis important position and striking personality have al-
ready brought him to the notice of the public, and
he is acquiring a local interest in this beautiful Ken-
tucky city and its hospitable people which will be
augmented as time passes.
Anthony R. Roberts. One of the oldest families
along Shelby Creek in Pike County is that of Roberts,
located in that region of Eastern Kentucky through
four generations and from pioneer times. Anthony
R. Roberts is an engineer of broad, practical expe-
rience, and for some years past has been in the lumber
business in Pike County, his home being at Hildason.
He was born August 7, 1886, on Shelby Creek below
the present location of Esco. His parents were John
and Sarah Elizabeth (Damron) Roberts, his grand-
father being Daniel Roberts and his great-grandfather
James Roberts. James Roberts was the pioneer who
came from the eastern side of the Cumberland Moun-
tains and secured a grant of land on both sides of
Shelby Creek extending for a long distance. He and
his son Daniel, who was also born on Shelby Creek,
gave their time and energies chiefly to farming. John
Roberts who was born October 7, 1856, at the location
on Shelby Creek where he lives today, has also been
a farmer, but for a number of years was in the timber
business, rafting timber down the Big Sandy. His
father Daniel was a Confederate soldier and an ordained
preacher of the Regular Baptist Church. The mines
of the Elkhorn-Shelby Creek Mining Company are
located on land leased to the company by John Roberts.
Sarah Elizabeth Damron, who was the wife of John
Roberts, was born at Louisa, Kentucky, February 16,
1859. Of the fourteen children of their marriage nine
are still living.
Anthony R. Roberts attended the home school, also
went to school at Prestonsburg and the Eastern Ken-
tucky Normal at Louisa. He excelled in mathematics,
and after completing his education he taught school
live years. For four years he was teacher of higher
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
431
mathematics in schools near Seattle, Washington.
While in the Northwest he entered and for six years
was in the Regular Army, being with the 108th Coast
Artillery. While with his command at Fortress Monroe,
Virginia, he took special work in engineering at Old
Point Comfort. He received the unusual promotion
to the non-commissioned staff of gunners.
After making this record in the army Mr. Roberts
returned to Kentucky and assisted in the organization
of the Elkhqrn-Shelby Creek Coal Company and opened
its mine. He continued with the company until its
property was sold to the present owners. Later he
and his brother W. L. Roberts engaged in the saw-
mill and lumber business on Shelby Creek and besides
manufacturing native Kentucky lumber they operate a
lumber yard at Virgie.
June 21, 1916, at Virgie Mr. Roberts married Miss
Mattie Bentley, daughter of K. P. Bentley. She was
born at Wales on Indian Creek in Pike County. They
have two children, Howard and Ruth R. Mr. Roberts
is a member of the Knights of Pythias at Ashland
and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Douglas
and in political affiliations is a Democrat.
Oscar B. Bertram. A Kentucky lawyer of twenty
years' standing, Oscar B. Bertram has for the greater
part of that period been a member of the Monticello
bar, and in Wayne County has found an interesting
diversity of duties in his profession and profitable asso-
ciation with business affairs as well.
This family was established in Wayne County by his
great-grandfather, William Bertram, who came from
Virginia soon after his marriage. His grandfather was
Jonathan Bertram, who was born in 1823 and died
in 1893, spending his life as a farmer in Wayne County
and also combining the duties of a minister of the Bap-
tist Church. His wife was a Miss Atkins, who also
lived all her life in Wayne County.
Alvin Bertram, father of the Monticello lawyer, was
born in Wayne County in 1847, but in 1865 moved to
Clinton County, where he lived on a farm. He early
became an ordained minister of the Baptist Church, and
his services have covered a wide range in a number of
Southern States, and he is particularly well known in
Clinton, ' Wayne, Pulaski, Russell and Cumberland
counties. At one time he preached in Missouri. He is
now pastor of a church in Clinton County and lives at
Albany. He is one of the few ministers of the Gospel
who have sat in the Kentucky Legislature, and twice
represented Wayne and Clinton counties during the
sessions of 1894 and 1898. He is a democrat and a
member of the Masonic fraternity. Alyin Bertram
married Rosa Young, who was born in Clinton County
in 1839 and died at Albany August 19, 1919. She was
the mother of six children: William, a farmer in Clin-
ton County; Elza, law partner of his brother Oscar at
Monticello, who was a state senator in 1910-12; Joseph,
a farmer in Wayne County; Oscar B. ; Prentice, a
farmer in Albany; and Lena, wife of Silas Denney,
manager of a lumber plant at Spiceland, Indiana.
Oscar B. Bertram was born in Clinton County Janu-
ary 27, 1875, was reared in a rural district there, at-
tended country schools and also the high school at
Albany. From the age of twenty-two he taught for two
years in his native county, and in the meantime studied
law and was admitted to the bar in 1900. For three
years he practiced at Albany and from 1903 to 1912 at
Jamestown in Russell County, and since the latter date
his home and offices have been at Monticello, where with
his brother he handles a very extensive civil and crim-
inal practice. His offices are in the J. L. Eads Building.
He owns one of the best homes in town, on Kendrick
Avenue, and has a farm in Wayne County.
During the World war Mr. Bertram was a member
of the County Draft Board and devoted much of his
time filling out questionnaires for recruited men. He is
a member of the Official Board of the Methodist Episco-
pal Church, South, is a democrat in politics and is a
public spirited citizen ever ready to lend his cooperation
and support to every civic movement in the community.
At Albany, Kentucky, December 18, 1901, he married
Miss Ermine Ballenger, daughter of F. M. and Minerva
(McFarland) Ballenger, deceased. Her father was for
a number of years a traveling representative of the
Louisville drygoods house of J. M. Robinson, Norton
& Company. Mr. and Mrs. Bertram have six children :
Allan O., born August 29, 1902, who after completing
his education in the Monticello High School joined the
Regular Army and is still in the service ; Leeta W., born
November 16, 1904, attending high school ; Philip A.,
born July 20, 1906, Frances M., born September 16, 10x19,
Nina, born September 16, 1909, and George, born May
31, 191 1, all pupils in the grammar school at Monti-
cello.
J. C. Denney was for a number of years identified
with farming and business in Wayne County, but for
the past eight years his time and energies have been
almost entirely bestowed upon his official duties in the
Court House, first as County Court clerk and now as
county judge.
Mr. Denney represents a family that has been in
Wayne County four generations, having been estab-
lished here by his great-grandfather, who came from
Virginia. His grandfather was Jackson Denney, a life
long resident of Wayne County, who died at the village
of Denney in 1896. His active years were devoted to
farming. He married a Miss Dick, also a native of
Wayne County, C. S. Denny, father of Judge Denney
was born in 1843 and died in December, 1910, at Griffin,
and during his active life accumulated extensive land
holdings and was one of the leaders in the agricultural
affairs of the county. He was a republican in politics.
C. S. Denney married Sarah J. Ryan, who was born in
Wayne County in 1844 and is now living at Monticello.
She was the mother of seven children : J. R. Denney, a
merchant who died at Griffin at the age of thirty-seven ;
W. M. Denney, a Monticello merchant; T. S. Denney,
a farmer at Oil Valley in Wayne County ; Miss Minnie
and Miss Nannie J., at home with their mother; J. C.
Denney ; and J. L. Denney, a merchant who died at
Monticello at the age of thirty-four.
J. C. Denney was born in Wayne County, January
27, 1879, and up to the age of eighteen attended the
rural schools, subsequently broadening and advancing
his education by home reading and study. Six years of
his early manhood were devoted to the practical tasks
of a farmer. Following that he was a merchant at
Monticello until 1914. He has an interest in his father's
estate of a thousand acres located near Griffin, a valu-
able property comprising timber, coal and oil lands. He
also owns other real estate in Huntington, West Vir-
ginia, and has what is regarded as the best home in
Monticello.
In November, 1913, Mr. Denney was elected County
Court clerk, and filled that office for four years, from
January 7, 1914. In November, 1917, he was elected
county judge, and took the official oath of office Janu-
ary 5, 1918. He is a republican and a Baptist. During
the World war his individual patriotism and official
position prompted him to every possible effort in behalf
of the Government in local war work. Judge Denney
married at Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1914, Miss Osa B.
Young, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. R. P. Young. Her
mother is deceased. Her father is a traveling salesman
living at Buckhannon, West Virginia. Mr. and Mrs.
Denney have one daughter, Beatrice Mae, born May 17
I9T5-
Joe Parker Harrison is a lawyer, business man and
farmer, and his interests have identified him prominent-
ly with Monticello and Wayne County for a quarter of
a century.
He is of an old Virginia Colonial family, of English
432
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
ancestry. His great-grandfather came out of Virginia
and was a pioneer of Daviess County, Kentucky. His
grandfather, J. G. Harrison, was born in Daviess
County in 1800 and spent his life there as a farmer,
was a leader in the old whig party and at one time held
the office of sheriff. He died at Owensboro in 1865.
J. G. Harrison married Margaret Wilson, who was born
in Daviess County in 1804 and died in Franklin in 1869.
The father of the Monticello attorney was Rev. T. G.
Harrison who was born at Owensboro March 24, 1837,
was reared in Daviess County, and for many years was
identified with the Louisville Conference of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, as an itinerant minister.
His pastoral duties were discharged chiefly in Hardin,
Hopkins, Henderson, Pulaski and Wayne counties. He
died at Monticello March 23, 1906. He was a member
of the Masonic fraternity and a democrat. In Pulaski
County, Rev. Mr. Harrison married Miss Lucy Parker,
who was born near Monticello in 1847, and died there
in April, 1918. Joe Parker is the oldest of their chil-
dren, and there were 6 others : R. E., who died at
Madisonville at the age of fifteen ; F. R. Harrison, an
attorney at Akron, Ohio ; Tommie and Lucy, unmarried
and living at Monticello ; Eddie, who died at the age
of five years ; and Nellie who died at Monticello in 1919,
wife of C. C. Duncan, a member of the Monticello bar.
Joe Parker Harrison was born at Somerset in Pulaski
County November 14, 1867. His early educational op-
portunities were given him by the common schools of
Taylor and Hardin counties, and in 1885 he graduated
from the Normal School at Madisonville. For ten
years his work was largely teaching in Wayne, Lyon
and Hart counties. He studied law and was admitted
to the bar in 1887, but did not begin active practice un-
til he located at Monticello in 1895, and since then has
done much important work as an attorney. His offices
are in the Citizens National Bank Building, and he is a
director of that bank. For four years he was police
judge of Monticello. His home is an attractive brick
bungalow half a mile north of Monticello on the Burn-
side Pike, where he owns a farm of fifty acres. He
has another farm of 325 acres on the Norman Ferry
road near the Cumberland River, and is profitably en-
gaged in general farming and stock raising. He is also
a director of the Monticello Improvement Company
and the Monticello Cemetery Company and rendered
patriotic service as a member of the various committees
performing war duty in Wayne County. He is a demo-
crat, a steward in the Methodist Episcopal Church.
South, a member of Monticello Lodge No. 431, F. and
A. M.. is a past high priest of Monticello Chapter No.
152, R. A. M., and a member of the Monticello Bar
Association.
In December. 1916, at Pleasureville, Kentucky, Mr.
Harrison married Miss Sophia Parker, daughter of
E. F. and Eliza Ann (Gover) Parker, now deceased.
Her father was a farmer and miller in Pulaski County.
Mrs. Harrison completed her education in the Manns-
ville Academy in Taylor County.
James Franklin Young, M. D. The entire county
of Wayne has a place of peculiar esteem for Doctor
Young, who has practiced at Monticello for thirty years,
and has combined with the duties and obligations of a
capable man of medicine. the character and activities of
a good citizen and a kindly friend and neighbor.
Doctor Young was born in Wayne County July 6,
1859. His great-grandfather, John Young, moved his
family from Pennsylvania in pioneer times, settled near
Mount Pisgah in Wayne County, lived on a farm there
until after his children were grown, and then started
for the West, and his subsequent experience and fate
were unknown to his family. His son, Israel Young,
grandfather of Doctor Young, was a native of Pennsyl-
vania but grew up and spent practically all his life in
Wayne County, where he followed farming. He was
an ardent whig in politics. His wife was Esther Ander-
son, a lifelong resident of Wayne County. Andrew
Young, their son, was born in Wayne County June 17,
1823, and was a skilled mechanic, being a blacksmith,
and while living on his farm conducted a shop for the
repair of wagons and other implements. He died in
Wayne county October 19, 1905. He was a republican
a leading member of the Baptist Church, and was
affiliated with the Masonic fraternity. Andrew Young
married Elizabeth Tuggle, who was born in Wayne
County in 1832 and died there in 1915. She was the
mother of five children: Bernatta Jane, wife of Harvey
Burnett, a retired rancher at Tribune, Kansas; James
Franklin; Martha, wife of George Dunnington, a farmer
in Wayne County; Mary, wife of Ahile Buttram, a
railroad man living at Parsons, Kansas; and Minnie,
wife of Virgil Sutton, a farmer in Wayne County.
Dr. James F. Young made the best of his early ad-
vantages in a rural district of Wayne County during
his youth. He attended rural schools, graduated with
the degree Bachelor of Science from the National
Normal University at Lebanon, Ohio, in i88t, and sub-
sequently took the medical course in the University
of Louisville, graduating in 1891. In that year he
located at Monticello and began the practice of medi-
cine, which he has continued with the utmost devotion
ever since except the years 1900-01, when he was con-
nected with the Interior Department at Washington
D. C. In addition to the demands of his private prac-
tice he has for the past twelve years performed the
duties of county and city health officer, and during the
World war was examining surgeon for the Wayne
County Draft Board, a duty requiring a large part of
his time while Wayne County was filling its quota of
enlisted men. Doctor Young performed a similar serv-
ice for the Government in the Spanish-American war
in 1898. He has one of the very desirable homes of
Monticello, and also a farm of 200 acres, eight miles ■
southwest of that city. He is a member of the County,
State and American Medical Associations, is a republi-
can and a Methodist.
On April 12, 1882, in Wayne County, Doctor Young
married Miss Helen Daugherty, daughter of Mr. and
Mrs. James Daugherty, now deceased. She died in
Monticello in 1884, leaving no children. In 1887, in
Pulaski County, Doctor Young married Miss Lizzie
Stigall, daughter of F. F. and Fannie (Tucker) Stigall.
Her parents are also deceased. Doctor and Mrs. Young
had three children : Frank, the oldest, died at the age
of twenty years, while a senior in the Monticello High
School. Anna Lee born January 30, 1894, is a graduate
of the Monticello High School and completed her edu-
cation in Valparaiso University in Indiana. Harry, the
youngest, born in 1897, is a high school graduate, spent
two years in Georgetown College in Kentucky, and
while teaching in the public schools of Wayne County
he is also completing his higher education in the Ken-
tucky State University at Lexington.
John M. Campbell, one of the most efficient mem-
bers of the bar of Grayson County, comes naturally
by his ability and sturdiness of character, for he is
descended from one of the fine old families of Vir-
ginia which was founded in America by representa-
tives of it that came to this country from Scotland
in search of religious and political freedom at an early
day, and thereafter took a constructive part in the
development of affairs in their locality. John M.
Campbell was born in Grayson County, near Millers-
town, May 13, 1876, a son of A. S. Campbell, and
grandson of Ed Campbell, who was born in Culpeper
County, Virginia, and died near Creelsboro, Russell
County, Kentucky, before the birth of his grandson.
He was one of the very early farmers of Russell
County. His wife, who bore the maiden name of
Frances Rowe, was also born in Culpeper County,
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
433
Virginia, in 1822, and she died in Grayson County
in 1912.
A. S. Campbell was born in Hardin County, Ken-
tucky, in 1845, near what is now Upton, but was reared
in Hart and Grayson counties. He married in Hart
County where he lived for two years, and then moved
to Grayson County, where he developed into a success-
ful and extensive farmer, and is still occupied with
agricultural matters on his valuable farm near Mil-
lerstown. All his mature years he has been a strong
democrat. A. S. Campbell married Jemima Eliza-
beth Craddock, who was born in Hart County,
Kentucky, in 1847, and died on the home farm April
27, 1891. Their children were as follows: Sarah
Frances, who married Dr. W. F. Nichols, a physician
and surgeon of Munfordville, Kentucky; Ed T., who
is a farmer and resides in the vicinity of Millerstown ;
John M., who was third in order of birth; Ida B.,
who is not married and has charge of a ladies' suit
and furnishings store at Greeley, Colorado ; Anna, who
married Charles A. Nelson, a farmer, lives near White
Mills, Hardin County, Kentucky; Bird, who is not
married and lives with her sister Ida at Greeley, Col-
orado ; and James A., who is a veterinary surgeon and
lives at Williamsfield, Illinois.
John M. Campbell attended the rural schools of
Grayson County, the normal school at Millerstown,
and the one at Vine Grove, Kentucky, leaving the
latter institut:on in 1901. In the meanwhile, when
twenty-one years, old, he began teaching school in
Grayson and Hardin counties, and continued to be an
instructor in the rural districts for six years. Having
decided upon the profession of law as his life work,
he began a rigorous course of training for it, and
became a student of the Northern Indiana Law School
at Valparaiso, Indiana, from which he was graduated
in 1904 with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. That
same year he went West, and remained in that section
of the country for three years, but returned to Ken-
tucky in 1907 and entered upon the practice of law
at Leitchfield, where he has carried on a general civil
and criminal practice ever since. His offices are located
over Moorman's drug store on Maincross Street on
the Public Square. He is a democrat. The Methodist
Episcopal Church, South, has him on its membership
rolls. He belongs to Leitchfield Lodge No. 236, F. and
A. M. ; Leitchfield Chapter No. 143, R. A. M. ; Eliza-
bethtown Commandery No. 37, K. T. ; and Kosair
Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of Louisville, Kentucky.
Mr. Campbell is a man of ample means and owns a
hotel property and a livery stable at Leitchfield, and
is interested in a farm in the eastern part of Gray-
son County.
During the time this country was engaged in war-
fare he was one of the enthusiastic workers in behalf
of administration policies, rendering efficient aid in all
of the drives, especially as one of the Four-Minute
Speakers in behalf of the Liberty Loans, Red Cross
and other drives in Grayson County. He also assisted
the drafted men in making out their questionnaires,
and devoted much of his time to war work. In addi-
tion to rendering all the possible aid without recom-
pense aside from the satisfaction he experienced in
the realization that he was doing his duty as a loyal
citizen, Mr. Campbell bought heavily of bonds and
stamps, and contributed generously to all of the war
organizations. He is unmarried.
Charles W. Connor is a mine engineer, and has been
identified with executive responsibilities in mining
operations ever since leaving university. Since April 15,
1918, he has been general manager of the Elkhorn
Shelby Creek Coal Company at Esco in Pike County,
and is also vice president of the Northeast Kentucky
Coal Association and on the executive board of the Pike
County Association.
Mr. Connor was born at Uniontown in one of the im-
portant centers of the coal fields of Pennsylvania
October 1 1, 1883. He is a son of Charles and Jane
(Musgrove) Connor, his father a native of Scotland
and his mother of England, where the parents were
married. Charles Connor began working in the mines
of Scotland when only nine years of age. Late in the
seventies he came to the United States and after satis-
fying himself of the advantages of this country he
brought his family from England in 1880 and estab-
lished a home at Uniontown, Pennsylvania. After com-
ing to America he attended night school and also took
correspondence courses in mine engineering, and this
theoretical knowledge supplementing his practical skill
brought him growing responsibilities. He was mining
superintendent, for eight years was mine inspector of
the Fifth District and was assistant chief inspector of
West Virginia, but has now retired from active work.
He is also proprietor of the St. Charles Hotel at Nor-
ton. He is held in wide regard as an expert on coal
properties and has made examinations and reports on
a number of coal fields. He is still active at the age
of sixty-five and his wife is sixty-seven. They are mem-
bers of the Methodist Episcopal Church and Charles
Connor is a Scottish Rite Mason.
Their family consists of four sons and three
daughters, and all the sons have become identified with
some department of the coal industry. Charles W.
Connor is a graduate of the high school of Uniontown,
Pennsylvania, and spent three years as a student of
mine engineering in the Pennsylvania State College.
During his vacation he was connected with engineering
departments of mines. Beginning in 1904 for two years
he was in the Engineering Department of the H. C.
Frick Coke Company, for three years was mining engi-
neer at Elsworth, Pennsylvania, for the Elsworth Coal
Company, and for one year was cashier of the Elsworth
National Bank. He then returned to the Frick Coke
Company as assistant superintendent and left that cor-
poration to become general mine superintendent for the
Carter Coal Company at Coalwood, West Virginia. He
was on duty there two and a half years and for four
years was superintendent for the Solvay Collieries Com-
pany at Marytown, West Virginia. It was this wide
and useful experience that he brought to his duties as
general manager of the Elkhorn Shelby Creek Com-
pany at Esco, Kentucky.
Mr. Connor in October, 1907, married Miss Agnes
Turnbull, daughter of Matthew Turnbull of Union-
town, Pennsylvania. They have one son, Charles W.
Connor. Mr. and 'Mrs. Connor are Methodists, and he
is affiliated with the Masonic Lodge at Pikeville, the
Knight Templar Commandery and Shrine at Ashland,
and has also attained the thirty-second degree of
Scottish Rite. He is a republican.
William Edward Woodrow. A graduate in medi-
cine, in the active practice of his profession at Monti-
cello for twenty years, Doctor Woodrow retired from
that vocation a few years ago, and practically his entire
time and capital are now enlisted in development and
production work as one of Wayne County's leading
oil men.
Doctor Woodrow was born at Newburg in Jefferson
County, Kentucky, February 20, 1867. His people have
lived in that section of Kentucky since almost the
period of earliest settlement. The family was estab-
lished by his great-grandfather, a native of England,
who before the close of the eighteenth century came
to Kentucky and settled on a farm two miles south-
east of the village of Newburg, where he lived out
his life. He was a volunteer at the time of the second
war with Great Britain, and was under Commodore
Perry at the battle of Lake Erie. The grandfather
of Doctor Woodrow was Alexander Woodrow, whose
entire life was spent in the Newburg community at
434
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
Louisville, where he was born in 1800 and died in
1872. He always lived on his father's farm there, and
he earned a military record as a soldier in the Mexican
war. He was county surveyor of Jefferson County,
Kentucky, for many years. His wife was a Miss
Guthrie, a native and life long resident of Jefferson
County. William G. Woodrow, father of Doctor Wood-
row, was born April 15, 1837, and died April 17, 1886,
having lived all his life at Newburg. He was widely
known as a successful horticulturist. In politics he
was a democrat, and was a member of the Cumber-
land Presbyterian Church and the Masonic fraternity.
William G. Woodrow married Sarah Elizabeth Coe,
who was born October 21, 1836, in Jefferson County
and died at Newburg July 19, 1919. She was the
mother of six children : Anna May, wife of Charles
M. Robb, a farmer at Buechel in Jefferson County ;
Thomas Alexander, a farmer in the same community ;
Elizabeth, of Louisville, widow of William Cahill, who
was a farmer in Jefferson County; William Edward;
Clarence Elmer, a machinist in the shops of the Louis-
ville & Nashville Railroad at Louisville; and Ada Emma,
whose husband. William R. Taylor, was a farmer,
carpenter and builder and tobacco dealer, with home
at Owensboro. He died July 10, 1920, and his widow
now resides at Louisville.
William Edward Woodrow spent his early life on
his father's old homestead and fruit farm in Jefferson
County, attended the rural schools there, and after a
variety of early experiences entered the Hospital Col-
lege of Medicine at Louisville in 1896, receiving his
M. D. degree in 1898. During 1901 he went back
to Louisville for a special course in rectal surgery
under Doctor Matthews. Doctor Woodrow after grad-
uating began practice at Monticello in 1898 and earned
a high rank in his profession bv his earnest labors,
which continued until 1919. While in practice he was
an active member of the County, State and American
Medical associations, and during the World war was
assistant medical examiner for the Wrayne County Draft
Board and made many speeches over the county in
behalf of the Liberty Loan campaigns.
Doctor Woodrow has been deeply interested in the
oil development work in Wayne County since 1907,
and the good judgment he has displayed in this field
has given him wide note as one of the county's lead-
ing oil producers. He is a democrat in politics, and
has to his credit one term as councilman and two terms
as mayor of Monticello. He is a deacon in the Chris-
tian Church, a teacher of the Men's Bible" Class, and
is affiliated with Monticello Lodge No. 431, F. and
A. M., and is a past high priest of Monticello Chapter
No. 152, R. A. M.
January 2, 1895, at Arthur, Illinois, Doctor Woodrow
married Miss Ada Belle Cahill, daughter of Caleb
Grandison and Ophelia (Monday) Cahill. Her parents
both died at Lawrenceburg in Anderson County, Ken-
tucky. Her father during his active life was a pros-
perous farmer, and he had a record of three years'
service as a Union soldier with a Kentucky regiment
commanded by Colonel Wolford. Dr. and Mrs. Wood-
row have one son, Jennings Earl, born August 10, 1897.
James W. Simpson was one of the founders and
is the proprietor and editor of the only newspaper in
Wayne County, known as the Wayne County Out-
look. It is a high class country weekly, influential,
informing, and furnishes a splendid medium of pub-
licity for all legitimate interests represented in the
county.
Mr. Simpson was born at Monticello March 7, 1881.
His grandfather, Reuben Simpson, was the founder
of the family in Wayne County in pioneer times, and
had extensive farming interests there. He was a native
of North Carolina. Moses Simpson, father of the
Monticello editor, was born in Wayne County in 1825
and spent practically all his life at Monticello. For
fully half a century he had the leading business as
a saddler and harness maker and dealer in the county.
Moses Simpson, who died at Monticello in 1896, was
a democrat in politics and a member of the Christian
Church. He was also affiliated with the Independent
Order of Odd Fellows. His wife was Anna McGee,
who was born in Wayne County in 1839, and died in
1918. They had four chidren : Emma, wife of A. H.
Baugh, pastor of the Christian Church at Huston-
ville, Kentucky ; Miss Mattie, of Monticello ; Joseph,
a farmer at Wasco, California; and James W.
James W. Simpson attended public school at Monti-
cello only to the age of fourteen, and after that gained
his education by frequent and diligent contact with
work and everyday affairs. For about ten years he was
a clerk in stores, hotels and postoffice, then, in 1904, as-
sisted in organizing the Wayne County Outlook, and
during the same year became owner and has since be-
come sole proprietor and editor. The Outlook circu-
lates throughout Wayne County, over many adjacent
sections of the state, and Wayne County people who go
elsewhere always have the Outlook follow them. It is
independent in politics. Mr. Simpson owns his offices,
newspaper plant and residence on Short Street.
He is a stockholder and treasurer of the Wayne Taxi
Company of Monticello. He is a member of the Ken-
tucky Press Association, has been a deacon in the
Christian Church, and for four years was master com-
missioner of Wayne County. He is a republican in
politics. During the World war his newspaper gave
the full force of its influence to the support of the
Government, and Mr. Simpson was personally active
as well in the various campaigns. At Berea, Kentucky,
in 1909 he married Miss Elnora Robinson, daughter of
Dr. T. A. and Litha (Ponder) Robinson, residents of
Corbin, Kentucky, where her father is a jeweler. Mr.
and Mrs. Simpson have two children : Margaret, born
February 28, 1912, and William, born July 2, 1918.
James Ballinger Tarter, M. D. Belonging to one
of the most important professions, Dr. James Ballinger
Tarter of Russell Springs is making a record for him-
self which reflects credit on himself, his family and his
community, and building up a connection which is very
valuable. He was born on a farm near Sunshine, Rus-
sell County, Kentucky, November 25, 1881, a son of
Wesley Monroe Tarter, grandson of Squire Tarter, and
great-grandson of the Tarter who brought the family
from Virginia into Kentucky and became one of the
leading farmers of Russell County. Squire Tarter was
born in Kentucky in 1819, and died in Russell County
in 1907, having spent the greater part of his life in
Russell County, and devoted himself to blacksmithing
and farming. He married Polly Schoolcraft, who was
born and died in Russell County.
Wesley Monroe Tarter, who is now living at Irvins
Store, Russell County, was born at Waterloo, Pulaski
County, Kentucky, in 1861, and has resided in Russell
County since he was four years of age. Adopting farm-
ing as his life work, he is still engaged in agricultural
pursuits which have proved profitable. In politics he
is a democrat, but he has never cared for office. A
member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, he
gives the local congregation of that denomination a ^
strong and sincere support. Wesley Monroe Tarter
married Narcissus Tucker, who was born in Russell
County in 1858. Their children are as follows: Mollie,
who resides at Irvins Store, married Jonah Gosser, a
farmer; Doctor Tarter, who is the second in order of
birth ; Joseph, who is a farmer residing at Big Oak,
Russell County ; Elmer E., who is a graduate of the
State University at Lexington, Kentucky, is a teacher
in the high school of Carlisle County, Kentucky ; Jennie
M.. who lives at Brady. Russell County, married Daniel
Roy, a farmer and owner of a saw-mill; Chrisman V.,
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
435
who is a farmer and merchant of Jabez ; and Lola,
who is a student of the Western Kentucky State Normal
School at Bowling Green, Kentucky.
Doctor Tarter grew up on his father's farm and at-
tended the rural schools and the graded schools of
Middleburg, Kentucky. Displaying even as a child
unusual talents, it was decided that he should adopt a
profession, and he entered the medical department of
the University of Louisville, took the regular course,
and was graduated therefrom June 30, 1910, and at once
entered upon the practice of his calling at Ono, Russell
County, where he remained until 1918, in that year com-
ing to Russell Springs, where he has since been occu-
pied with a general medical and surgical practice. He
owns his modern residence, where he maintains a com-
fortable home, and a modern office building both of
them being on Main Street, a dwelling also on Main
Street, and a farm of 130 acres of land located one
mile west of Russell Springs. He has followed in his
father's footsteps in politics and religion, and is very
active in church work, now serving as superintendent of
the Sunday school. A Mason, he belongs to Russell
Springs Lodge No. 840, F. & A. M., and he also
is a member of Russell Springs Lodge No. 180, I. O.
O. F. Professionally he belongs to the Russell County
Medical Society, which he is now serving as president,
and the Kentucky State Medical Society. During the
late war he was active in war work, serving as chair-
man of the Civilian Relief Committee of Russell County,
and as assistant medical examiner for the draft board
of the county. He bought bonds and stamps and con-
tributed to all war organizations to the limit of his
means.
On July 16, 1910, Doctor Tarter was married in
Russell County to Miss Ada Wade, a daughter of Hugh
L. and Lucy (Smith) Wade, farming people and mer-
chants of Irvins Store, Kentucky. Doctor and Mfs.
Tarter have two children, namely : Eleanor, who was
born May 20, 1911; and Dravo E., who was born
January 6, 1918. Doctor Tarter is a man who has
thrown his whole soul into his work, and has never
ceased to be a close student. Not only is he a carefully
trained physician and surgeon, he is also a broad-
visioned man of striking personality who is able to
infect his patients with some of his own wholesome out-
look on life, and consequently those to whom he
ministers become his firm friends. As a citizen he is
ever alive to the importance of community work with
reference to sanitation and the handling of those ques-
tions which come within his sphere of action, and al-
ways holds himself ready to render any service which
will bring about a further improvement of existing con-
ditions. Such men as Doctor Tarter are a constructive
element in their communities and their efforts are al-
ways exerted in behalf of progress.
W. H. Nunn. The influence exerted in the develop-
ment and furtherance of the interests of a community
by a live and enterprising newspaper cannot be lightly
disposed of, for the editor of such a publication occupies
a vantage ground from which he is capable of swaying
community action and molding public thought and opin-
ion. Albany, the county seat of Clinton County, is to be
congratulated, therefore, upon the possession of such a
clean, reliable and energetic newspaper as The New Era,
the publisher and editor of which is W. H. Nunn, who
has been identified with newspaper work since the he-
ginning of his career and who, since taking over the
ownership of this sheet, in 191 1, has contributed mate-
rially to the welfare of his adopted community.
Mr. Nunn was born near Glasgow, Barren County,
Kentucky, September 14, 1886, a son of James and
Elizabeth (Knipp) Nunn. His grandfather, Thomas
Nunn, was born in Virginia, a member of an old and
highly honored fariiilv of the Old Dominion State, who
became a pioneer of Barren (now Cumberland) County.
Vol. V — 10
Kentucky, and was engaged in farming near Marrow-
bone, where he died prior to the birth of his grandson.
James Nunn, father of W. H., was born near Marrow-
bone, in 1838, and was reared in his home community,
where he received his education in the public schools.
As a youth he went to Metcalfe County, Kentucky, and
at the outbreak of the War between the States enlisted
in the Union Army and served with bravery in that
struggle. On his return from the war he was married
in Metcalfe County, and shortly thereafter removed to
Barren County, this state, where he secured property
near Glasgow and engaged in agricultural pursuits dur-
ing the remainder of his life, his death occurring in 1892.
He was a republican in politics, but took no part in
public life, preferring to devote himself entirely to his
farming interests. He married Miss Elizabeth Knipp,
who was born in 1854, in Metcalfe County, and survives
him as a resident of Glasgow, and they became the
parents of four children : Thomas, who is the
proprietor of a tailoring establishment at Glasgow ;
W. H. ; Joe R., a printer of Glasgow ; and W. E., the
owner of a public garage at Glasgow.
W. H. Nunn secured his education in the rural dis-
tricts of Barren County, and at the age of eighteen
years left school to enter the office of the Glasgow Re-
publican, a newspaper with which he was connected for
a period of four years. From that community he went
to Horse Cave, Kentucky, where he assisted in the
publication of the Baptist Advocate for one year, and
spent the following year working as a journeyman
printer at St. Louis. His next location was Smith
Grove, Kentucky, where he was foreman in a printing
office for eight months, and in 1908 he arrived at
Albany.
In the spring of 1908 there had been established at
Albany a newspaper known as the New Era, by Clarence
L. Bell, of Lexington. Mr. Bell soon became dis-
couraged with his venture, and this gave Mr. Nunn and
Blaine Campbell an opportunity to become the owners
of a newspaper. They accepted it and conducted the
newspaper in partnership until 191 1, when Mr. Nunn
bought Mr. Campbell's interests, since which time he
has been the sole proprietor and editor. He conducts
The New Era as a republican organ, but endeavors to
give his readers a clear, unbiased view of all questions,
political or otherwise, and has built it up to the leading
newspaper in Southern Central Kentucky. It is reliable
in its news, avoids sensationalism, and contains much in-
teresting feature matter, as well as timely editorials.
The people of the community have encouraged Mr.
Nunn's efforts by subscribing liberally, and he has the
support of the merchants and professional men in his
advertising columns. The paper circulates freely in
Clinton and the adjoining counties. Mr. Nunn is the
owner of the building and plant, situated on Washington
Street, on the Public Square, and has facilities for
doing all kinds of first-class job printing.
On May 25, 1918, Mr. Nunn was inducted into United
States service, being sent for training to Camp Taylor,
whence he was transferred to Camp Beauregard,
Louisiana. He embarked for overseas August 6, 1918,
with the Thirty-ninth Division, an infantry contingent
of the American Expeditionary Forces, and was in
France until January, 1919, when he was transferred
to the Eighty-ninth Division, a field artillery unit, and
sent to Germany with the Army of Occupation, being
stationed at Irril, Germany, until May 18, 1919. He
then returned to the United States and was mustered
out at Camp Taylor, with the rank of corporal, June
10, 1919. On his return, he at once resumed the
publication of his newspaper. Mr. Nunn is a republican
in his political allegiance and as a fraternalist belongs
to Albany Lodge No. 206, F. & A. M., in which he
has numerous friends. In his investments in Albany
real estate he has given evidence of the faith which
he possesses in regard to the future development and
436
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
growth of this city and of the increasing property
values which will follow.
Mr. Nunn was married in 10,10, at Byrdstown, Ten-
nessee, to Miss Minnie Smith, daughter of J. P. and
Leona (Smith) Smith, residents of Albany, where
Mr. Smith is proprietor of the Smith Hotel. Mrs.
Nunn died in May, 1912, without issue.
Edward Owen Burdon as a boy had some thought
of a professional career. When he was eighteen his
father died, and he then surrendered his ambition
to attend college, and went into business on a small
scale as a huckster. In later years he has been known
as one of the most prominent farmers and land owners
in Jefferson County, and is a leading dairyman, being
one of the largest individual contributors to the milk
supply of Louisville. Mr. Burdon's home is at Fisher-
ville, seventeen miles southeast of Louisville. This
old village was named in honor of the man who built
a mill there 125 years ago. This mill has recently
been torn down.
Mr. Burdon was born not far from Fisherville
July, 28, 1873, son of James W. and Mary (Pound)
Burdon. His grandfather Ahasuerus Burdon came to
Jefferson County from Lexington. It is said that he
was one of the nineteen sons, all of whom married.
Ahasuerus Burdon was a farmer in Jefferson County,
but at his death was laid to rest in the family cemetery
in Shelby County. He was the father of eight chil-
dren, there being five sons : John who became a
physician ; James W. ; Willis who lives at Louisville ;
Luther who was a teacher in Kentucky and Indiana
and died in middle life; and one that died as a young
man. The daughters were : Mary who died at the
age of seventy, wife of J. W. Wisehart ; Laura who
became the wife of William Wisehart; and Cassandra
widow of Gillan Moorehead and living at Louisville.
James W. Burdon acquired a good education and
for several years taught in Kentucky and Indiana. At
the age of twenty-seven he married Mary Pound, who
was then twenty-one. She is still living, and represents
some of the old families of Kentucky. She is descended
from Hezekiah Pound, who was born in New Jersey in
1761 and served as a Revolutionary soldier. From
New Jersey he removed to Maryland and in 1790 came
to Kentucky and died in Bullitt County in 1839 and was
laid to rest at King's Church in that county. His son
John Pound was born in Maryland in 1784 and died at
Malatt in Jefferson County in 1851. He married Polly
Boyer. Their son James Pound was born August 17,
1809, and died while visiting his brother Pressley in
Linn County, Missouri, December 7, 1855.
James W. Burdon died in November, 1891, at the age
of forty-seven. He was bom December 25, 1844.
After his marriage he had lived for two years in
Henderson County, and then returned to the old home-
stead and was devoted to its management and cultiva-
tion until his death. He was a democrat and a member
of the Fisherville Christian Church. He had five
children: Edward O. ; Minnie, wife of Calvin Bryant,
a farmer in Jefferson County ; Charles Alvin, the
merchant at Fisherville ; William Clarence who died
when thirty-five years of age; and Pressley, a telegraph
operator and railroad agent at Jeffersontown.
Edward O. Burdon continued his first enterprise as
a huckster until he was past thirty. He also operated
a slaughter house and sold meat at wholesale and also
operated a number of wagons that carried meat direct
to the consumers in the country. His business grew
until it amounted to $50,000 annually and employed
twenty people. He bought his stock all over Shelby,
Spencer and Jefferson counties. Over a period of
years Mr. Burdon bought land until he now owns
700 acres, paying as high as $75 and as low as
$10 an acre. This land is divided into three farms,
and he gives his personal supervision to all of them.
His dairy business is now conducted with a herd of
seventy-five cows, producing milk for the Louisville
market. Mr. Burdon fifteen years ago came to his
present home the William Driscoll farm, containing
about 300 acres. The residence was erected about
1865 by Mr. Driscoll. Mr. Burdon has done much to
improve and beautify this country home. He is an
elder in the Fisherville Christian Church.
April II, 1907, he married Miss Ida Snyder of
Spencer County, daughter of Mark and Mary (Hern-
don) Snyder. Her mother is still living. Her father
was a farmer and died when about fifty years of age.
William G. D. Flanagan, M. D. Russell County
has some of the most reputable and skilled physicians
of this part of the state, men whose lives have been
devoted to their professional work, and who stand
deservedly high in public esteem, and of them none
is more worthy of mention than Dr. William G. D.
Flanagan of Jamestown. He is a native son of the
county, having been born here October 7, 1865. His
father, Wesley Flanagan, and his grandfather, Bryant
Flanagan, were also born in Russell County, but his
great-grandfather, John Flanagan, was born in North
Carolina, from whence he came to Russell County, and
here he died after having been a farmer of this local-
ity for many years. The Flanagan family is one of the
old-established ones of the country, the emigrant of
the name having; come here from Ireland during
Colonial days. Bryant Flanagan was a farmer of
Russell County, where he spent his whole life, and here
he died, as did his wife, Mrs. Millie (French) Flanagan,
who was also a native of the county.
Wesley Flanagan was born in 1828 and died in 1897,
having spent all of his life in his native county with
the exception of one year he lived in Iowa. In his
younger life he was a farmer, but for twenty years he
served as pension attorney of Russell County, and then,
in 1893, he retired. He was a republican, but not active 1
in politics. As a member of the Christian Church,
he took a deep interest in religious matters. Wesley
Flanagan married Elizabeth Catherine Bailey, who was I
born in 1833, in Russell County, and died in this countj
in July, 1917. Their children were as follows: Mar-
garet, who died at the age of twenty-eight years;
Sarah C, who resides at Ono, Russell County, on her
farm, is the widow of Cicero Wilson, formerly a
farmer, now deceased; Millie, who died at Fort Hill,
Russell County, married Rev. C. L. Bradley, a clergy-
man of the United Baptist Church, who died at Cains
Store, Pulaski County, Kentucky; Winifred, who re-
sides on her farm near the Cumberland River, is the
widow of A. F. Bolin, formerly a farmer, now de-
ceased * Doctor Flanagan, who was the sixth in order
of birth; Mary, who married Elmer Hughes, a farmer
and former merchant, lives at Ono, Kentucky ; and
three who died in infancy.
Doctor Flanagan was reared on his father's farm and
attended the rural schools. He was engaged in farm-
ing from the time he reached his majority until 1889,
and in that year entered the medical department of
the University of Louisville and spent a year. Leaving
that institution, he entered the Louisville Medical Col-
lege, and was graduated therefrom in 1890 with the
degree of Doctor of Medicine. He took post-graduate
courses, and in 1909 took a general course in medicine
at the Hospital College of Medicine at Louisville. In
1890 he began the practice of his profession in Russell
County, and in 1897 located at Jamestown, where he
has since built up a very desirable professional con-
nection. He is the owner of his modern residence
and office on Jefferson Street. A republican, Doctor
Flanagan served as health officer of Russell County
for six years. He belongs to the Christian Church.
Fraternally he is a member of Jamestown Lodge No.
359, I. O. O. F., while professionally he belongs to the
^j/stZ^ c^^/^~^
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
437
Russell County Medical Society, the Kentucky State
Medical Society and the American Medical Association.
Like all loyal Americans Doctor Flanagan took an
active part in local war work during the World war,
was medical examiner for the Local Draft Board, and
served as secretary of the Board of United States
Pension Examining Surgeons for the county. He
bought bonds and stamps and contributed to all of the
war organizations to the full extent of his means. He
is now designated examiner for the United States Com-
pensation Bureau for the enlisted men of the World
war of Russell County.
In 1892 Doctor Flanagan married in Wayne County,
near Bart, Kentucky, Miss Angie Norfleet, a daughter
of Mr. and Mrs. John Norfleet, both of whom are
deceased. Mr. Norfleet was a farmer of Wayne Coun-
ty. Doctor and Mrs. Flanagan have no children.
Isaac Harrison Thurman, lawyer and banker at
Springfield, and for eighteen years judge of the seven-
teenth Judicial Circuit and re-elected now for a fourth
term; has rounded out thirty years of membership in
the Kentucky bar, and represents the third generation
of a family who have contributed to the dignity and
achievements of the legal profession.
Judge Thurman was born at Springfield, Kentucky,
January 5, 1864, son of Livingston Rudd and Sarah
Ellen (Froman) Thurman, also natives of Washington
County. His great-grandfather Livingston Thurman
with two brothers came from Virginia to Kentucky
in pioneer times. Livingston Thurman was a settler in
Marion County. The paternal grandparents of Judge
Thurman were George C. and Maria (Rice) Thurman.
The former became one of the leading lawyers in the
early bar of Springfield, served as commonwealth
attorney and died when still comparatively young in
1856. His children were Livingston Rudd and George
W. and Elizabeth and Catherine. Both sons took up
the legal profession, George W. practicing at Hodgen-
ville. Livingston Rudd Thurman was a well qualified
lawyer, but when he died in 1882 at the age of fifty-one
he had been incumbent for nearly twenty-five years,
practically half of his life, of the office of County
Judge of Washington County. He was a 'Mason and a
Presbyterian. He was survived by his widow who died
at the age of fifty-six. Their children were Maria
Rice, Katy, William R., Nannie Ray, Isaac H., Mary
Lou and Elizabeth, all of whom were reared in Spring-
field. The only two survivors are Katy and Isaac H.
Isaac Harrison Thurman was eighteen years of age
when his father died. In the meantime he had acquired
a good education in the Springfield country schools
and in Central University at Richmond. He studied
law in the University of Virginia and was licensed
to practice in Kentucky in September, 1891. Since
that date he has been one of the strong and able lawyers
of Washington County. In 1893 he was chosen county
attorney to fill an unexpired term and was then elected
for a full term. In 1004 Governor Beckham appointed him
to fill out an unexpired term as Circuit Judge of the
Eleventh District, comprising Washington, Marion,
Taylor and Green counties. He was elected to succeed
himself in 1909, and was chosen for a third term in
1915 and in 1921 for a fourth term. His record as a
jurist has been one of unquestioned integrity and
scholarly interpretation of the law, and has contributed
not a little to the general confidence reposed in the
Circuit Bench of the state.
Judge Thurman lives on his farm near Springfield
and farming is his chief avocation and recreation. For
the past thirteen years he has been president of the
Peoples Deposit Bank of Springfield. He is a demo-
crat and a member of the Presbyterian Church. In
1893 he married Miss Alice McElroy, daughter of
Mr. and Mrs. R. Y. McElroy, of Washington County.
Their two children are Livingston R. and Hattie Rod-
man, the latter the wife of S. L. Barber of Louisville,
Kentucky.
John A. Logan. During the past sixteen years John
A. Logan has been engaged in the practice of law at
Brownsville, and by his devotion to the duties of his
profession, his close study and his pronounced ability
has won a liberal and representative clientele. He has
maintained throughout his entire career a high stand-
ard of professional ethics and honorable principles.
Mr. Logan was born in Butler County, Kentucky,
September 29, 1878, a son of Stanford J. and Catherine
(Humphrey) Logan. This family originated in Scot-
land, whence it came to America in Colonial times and
settled in Virginia, in which state, in 1804, was born
M. M. Logan, the grandfather of John A. Logan.
His father having died when he was a child of three
years, in 1807 M. M. Logan was brought to Kentucky
by his mother, traveling on horseback, in the same party
that brought the old and honored Lindsey family to
this state. He experienced the hardships of pioneer
life in Edmonson County, where he grew to manhood,
and there he was an early timber man and hunter and
later a farmer. He was prominent in public affairs
and greatly esteemed by the people of his community,
and for forty years occupied the position of justice
of the peace. After the death of his wife, Nancy
Murlin Logan, he moved to Grayson County, in the
evening of life, and there passed away in 1892.
Stanford J. Logan was born in 1835, in Edmonson
County, Kentucky, and died in that county September
5, 1909. He was reared and married in his native
locality, where he was engaged in farming until he
enlisted in the United States Army for service during
the Civil war, as a member of the Eleventh Kentucky
Regiment, Volunteer Infantry. He was with this
organization for more than three years, during which
time he established a splendid record for bravery and
devotion and took part in a number of important en-
gagements, including Shiloh. At the close of his nrli-
tary service he returned to his farm, was married and
then went to Butler County, Kentucky, where he be-
came a timber worker and also engaged in agricultural
work to some extent. Returning to Edmonson County,
he settled near Brownsville, and late in life retired
from active pursuits. He was a republican in his
political views, and while a resident of Butler County
served in the capacity of justice of the peace. He was
a faithful member of the Christian Church, and his
fraternal connection was with the Masons. Mr. Logan
married Miss Catherine Humphrey, who was born in
1835 in Edmonson County, and died in Butler County
in 1879, and they became the parents of three chil-
dren : Charles L., who was engaged in teaching school
until his death, at the age of twenty-two years, in
Butler County ; Murley, who died when a school pupil
at the age of fourteen years; and John A.
John A. Logan secured his early education in the
rural schools of Butler County, and began teaching
school at the age of eighteen years. He began at
Brownsville and later taught at Rock Hill and other
places in Edmonson County during a period of eight
years, for six years of which time he was a member
of the Edmonson County Board of Examiners. Dur-
ing this time, also, he attended a preparatory school,
the Lee Seminary, in Grayson County, for three years,
and read law in the office of Gen. M. M. Logan, a
cousin, being admitted to the bar at the age of twenty-
one years.
When he gave up school-teaching Mr. Logan entered
upon the practice of law at Brownsville, where he has
since made rapid advancement in his calling. He lives
in his own home, one of the most substantial and
modern at Brownsville, on Washington Street. He is
a republican, has served two terms as county attorney
of Edmonson County, six years as master commis-
438
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
sioner and was elected in November, 1921, common-
wealth's attorney for the Eighth Judicial District. He
is a member of the Christian Church. As a fraternal-
ist he is affiliated with J. S. McCorkle Lodge No.
355, A. F. and A. M.; and Brownsville Lodge No.
104! I. O. O. F., of which he is a past grand. Mr.
Logan is a member of the Kentucky State Bar Asso-
ciation and a stockholder and local attorney for the
Kentucky Rock Asphalt Company.
Few Edmonson County citizens labored harder or
more faithfully in the movements that were inaugurated
for winning the war. He was chairman of the Third,
Fourth and Fifth Liberty Loan committees; chairman
of the Red Cross Chapter of Edmonson County, a
position which he still retains; was legal advisor for
the Draft Board and national government appeal agent ;
was chairman of the Fuel Commission and chairman of
the Edmonson County Council of Defense; and bought
bonds, stamps, etc., freely, and contributed generously
to every worthy cause.
On December 1, 1901, Mr. Logan was united in mar-
riage in Grayson County, Kentucky, with Miss Eliza-
beth F. Roberts, daughter of Joseph and Mary (Wil-
son) Roberts, both deceased, the former of whom was
a pioneer of Grayson County, where he owned and
operated a gun shop. Prior to her marriage Mrs.
Logan was engaged in teaching school for three years
in Grayson County. Three children have been born
to Mr. and Mrs. Logan : Rex, born in 1902, a member
of the freshman class of the Kentucky State Uni-
versity, Lexington ; Victor R., born in 1904, in the
United States Navy, stationed at the Great Lakes
Naval Training Station, Great Lakes, Illinois; and
Ben T., born in 1910, who is attending the public
school at Brownsville.
Clyde E. Purcell, M. D. A Kentucky physician and
surgeon whose work has been distinguished by original
research and application of new principles of his
science. Doctor Purcell was born in Lewis County,
Kentucky, July 25, 1872, and represents an old Amer-
ican family. His first American ancestor was George
Purcell who came to the American colonies from
France during the Revolution. George Purcell married
Margaret Randolph and their only child was John
Purcell, who married Mary Bland. William C. Purcell,
grandfather of Doctor Purcell, was a son of John and
Mary Purcell. William Purcell was born in Kentucky.
Benjamin J. Purcell, father of Doctor Purcell, married
Mary F. Norris, daughter of Jackson Norris of Alburn,
Kentucky.
Doctor Purcell acquired his early education in district
schools of Lewis County, also in a private school, and
at the age of nineteen entered the National Normal
University at Lebanon, Ohio, where he graduated in
1896, and he also took a classic course at the Southern
Normal, Huntingdon, Tennessee. For seven years he
was a teacher in city and graded schools in Kentucky
and in 1903 graduated from the Hospital College of
Medicine at Louisville, as valedictorian of his class.
Since his graduation he has been in practice at Paducah
and for a number of years past his work has been
as a specialist in the eye, ear, nose and throat. Post
graduate studies in his special field have been pursued
in the Manhattan Eye and Ear Institute of New York,
and he has kept in touch with the eminent men of
his profession in the various societies. He is former
secretary and president of the Southwest Kentucky
Medical" Society, a member of the American Medical
Association, during the World war was member of the
Medical Advisory Board, and is a member of the
McCracken County Medical Society, and Kentucky
State Medical Association.
Doctor Purcell was on the program of tin- American
Medical Association at its convention in St. Louis in
June, 1910, delivering an address on the Submucous
Resection uf the Nasal Septum illustrated by instru-
ments of his own invention for that operation. Doctor
Purcell was the first to use the bronchoscope to revive
an apparently dead child due to diphtheritic membran-
ous obstruction in the lung, and was also first in
Kentucky and second in medical history to use the
bronchoscope to remove such membranous diphtheritic
obstruction. Doctor Purcell is a democrat and a mem-
ber of the Elks.
Martha Grassham Purcell was almost instinctively
drawn into educational work when a girl, and the
high ideals of an educator have remained with her
during subsequent years. Mrs. Purcell is one of Ken-
tucky's able women, a leader in school and social prog-
ress, an author and historian, and for years has been
closely allied with every progressive movement in her
home city of Paducah.
She was born at Dycusburg, Kentucky, February 24,
1867, daughter of Montgomery and Martha Elizabeth
(Mahan) Grassham. Her father was a native of Ten-
nessee and her mother of Kentucky, and both descended
from old Virginia families. Mrs. Purcell's brothers
were Hon. C. C. Grassham, William M. and K. Oliver
Grassham. Her sisters were Emma, Annie, Lucy all
three deceased, and Sarah D.
When Mrs. Purcell was a child her parents removed
to Salem, Livingston County, Kentucky, where she was
reared and acquired her early education. She was
only thirteen years of age when her courage and
resourcefulness were tested by her appointment to
teach in a country school near Salem. Her own educa-
tion was continued in the National Normal School at
Lebanon, Ohio, and the Southern National University
at Huntingdon, Tennessee, of which she is a graduate.
She taught during her college career, and subsequently
returned to the southern Normal University at Hunt-
ingdon, Tennessee, as instructor, and while there she
was married. Mrs. Purcell organized the first two
graded schools in Livingston County, serving as prin-
cipal of both, conducted a number of teachers' institutes
and summer normals and for several years was on the
County Board of Examiners in Livingston County.
Altogether she was for twelve years a member of the
board of teachers' examiners and has been a member
of the Board of Education of Paducah.
Mrs. Purcell is author of "The Settlements and
Cessions of Louisiana," "Stories of Old Kentucky,"
"A History of Livingston County, Kentucky," "An
Outline of American Literature 1608-1913," "Paducah
in History," and numerous poems and punitive writings.
She was organizer and chairman of the School
Improvement League, an organization which extended
its influence over the thirteen counties of the First
Congressional District. Mrs. Purcell introduced the
resolution in the local Paducah Woman's Club which
subsequently was endorsed by city, county and state
health officers and resulted in "the law prohibiting public
drinking cups in Kentucky. She has been president
since its organization of the Women's Hospital League
and recently was elected president for life. She was
for several years chairman of the Legislative Com-
mittee, of the State Federation of Women's Clubs of
the First Congressional District and in the United
Daughters of the Confederacy she has been chairman
of the educational department, corresponding secretary
and chairman of the Year Book. During the World
war she was chairman of the Food Administration for
McCracken County, assisted in appointing other chair-
men of the other twelve counties of the First Con-
gressional District, and was originator of the Pennyrile
Patriotic Plan whereby food was canned in every
school district, part being distributed to needy families
nf soldiers and the surplus sold for patriotic purposes.
rVs historian for McCracken County for the World
war she has nearly completed the three principal divi-
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
439
sions of her work. One is a complete record of all
enlisted men and the history of all civic organizations
doing war work. The second is a War Museum, con-
taining one of every article made hy the Red Cross and
many trophies from overseas. The third is the memo-
rial avenue of trees, one for each of the 2,000 men
who went out from McCracken County. She is Chair-
man of History, First Congressional District, Kentucky
Federation of Women's Club. In this work she is
marking all historical sites in Southwest Kentucky.
Mrs. Purcell has acted as chairman of the Speakers
Bureau of the democratic party for McCracken County,
is a member of the Filson Club of Louisville, the
Jefferson School Improvement League, the Paducah
Woman's Club, Paducah Country Club, the Church
Furnishing Society, and both she and Doctor Purcell
are devout members of the Christian Church, in which
she is a teacher in the Woman's Bible Class.
To her marriage with Dr. Clyde E. Purcell three
children were born : Ewart Edison Grassham, deceased ;
Sarah La Verne, one of the popular students of the
University of Kentucky, president of the Lucy Jeffer-
son Chapter, Children of the American Revolution, and
a pledge of the Epsilon Omega Chapter, Kappa Delta,
Lexington, and during the World war member of the
Canteen Committee and Victory Girls ; and Elizabeth
Lois who was winner of the Nelle Winn medal his-
torical award from the Kentucky Division United
Daughters of the Confederacy, and is a member of the
Lucy Jefferson Chapter, Children of the American
Revolution, Paducah.
Ben Wesley Doom. The record of the life of an
upright, reliable and efficient man is valuable inasmuch
as it demonstrates that in this country of ours a man
is able to rise as far as his capabilities will carry him,
and that business men respect those who prove worthy
of their esteem. Ben Wesley Doom is still in the very
prime of young manhood, but he has already traveled
well along the road leading to success, and as station
agent at Kuttawa and manager of the Kuttawa branch
wholesale house of Davidson, Seay, Adams Produce
Company is a well-known figure in the business life
of this locality.
Ben Wesley Doom was born on a farm one and one-
half miles west of Kuttawa, in Lyon County, Kentucky.
February 28, 1891, a son of John Gracev Doom, and
grandson of Ben Doom, who died on his farm lying
on the east bank of the Cumberland River in Lyon
County prior to the birth of his grandson. Born in
Pennsylvania, he came of German descent, and a man
of sturdy stock. A practical farmer, he came to Lyon
County in search of cheaper land, and continued in
agricultural pursuits all his life. He married Amanda
Madewell, who was born in Tennessee and died in
Lyon County, Kentucky. Their children were as fol-
lows : Josephine, who married a 'Mr. Braswell, lives
at Kuttawa, but her husband is deceased; Julia, who
married R. J. Doom, a farmer of Lyon County ; Laura,
who married W. M. Wadlington, a retired farmer,
lives at Kuttawa; John G., who is mentioned below;
Nat, who is a farmer of Lyon County; Lillie, who is
the widow of John Ray, a farmer, lives at Kuttawa ;
Eva, who married John Johnson, a carpenter and
builder, lives at Kuttawa ; Sophia, who is deceased ;
Mack, who is a merchant of Poplar Bluff, Missouri ;
Ben, who is a farmer of Lyon County ; and Charles,
who is also a farmer of Lyon County.
John G. Doom was born in Lyon County, Kentucky,
in 1854, and died on his farm one and one-half miles
west of Kuttawa in 1899. He was reared and married
in his native county, and then located on the farm
on Poplar Creek and the Cumberland River where
he died. This creek is known all over the state because
of the particularly fertile land lying along it. When
he died the farm contained 280 acres, and his widow
still owns 160 acres of it. For many years he was
known far and wide as a very successful fanner. In
politics he was a democrat, but he did not care for
public office. He married as his first wife Nannie
Doom, a second cousin, who was born in Lyon County.
She died on the farm, having borne no children. As
his second wife John G. Doom married "Sis" Doom,
a sister of his first wife. She was also born in Lyon
County, and died on the farm, having borne her hus-
band one daughter, Cora, who married F. H. Herring,
a farmer of Lyon County. As his third wife John
G. Doom married Miss Rena McQuigg, who was born
in Lyon County in 1870. She survives her husband
and lives on the home farm. Mr. and Mrs. Doom
had the following children : Ben Wesley, whose name
heads this review ; John Young, who lives on and
operates the homestead ; and Ernestine, who married
Jesse Beaver, a flagman for the Illinois Central Rail-
road, lives at Kuttawa.
Ben Wesley Doom attended the rural schools of
Lyon County, and remained on his father's homestead
until 1909, at which time he left home and began work-
ing for the Illinois Central Railroad Company, be-
ginning as a clerk and rising to be station agent and
telegraph operator at Eddyville. He learned telegraphy
by himself and has the remarkable record for faith-
fulness of not having missed a pay day since he entered
the employe of the company. Mr. Doom, as before
stated, is manager for the Kuttawa branch of the
Louisville, Kentucky, house of Davidson, Seay, Adams
Produce Company. This is one of the largest of its
kind in Kentucky, Tennessee and Missouri.
In his politics Mr. Doom is a democrat. He is a
member of Suwanee Lodge No. 190, A. F. and A. M.,
of Kuttawa ; and affiliates with the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South. He owns a modern residence on
Sycamore Street, which is a substantial, comfortable
bungalow, one of the best at Kuttawa, and a business
building occupied by Doom Brothers, millers. During
the late war Mr. Doom took a very active part in all
of the local war work, buying Liberty Bonds, War
Savings Stamps to his limit, and also subscribed very
generously to all of the various organizations.
In 1912 he married, at Kuttawa, Miss Dixie Gaines,
a daughter of W. T. and Mollie (Doom) Gaines. They
reside at Kuttawa, where Mr. Gaines is a blacksmith.
Mr. and Mrs. Doom have one child, Ben Wesley, Jr.,
who was born April 15, 1918.
Guy Davis. The Bankers of America form the
backbone of the nation's prosperity and secure its
continued prestige in industrial and commercial affairs.
Without exception these astute men of large interests
have preserved the country from disastrous panic during
the trying days of the war and reconstruction periods,
and as the business of the world is gradually recover-
ing, are safely guiding the people into sound channels
of investment and achievement. In every community,
large or small, the banker is a man of importance, and
his financial establishment is the barometer of the
actual prosperity of his locality. Owing to its immense
and varied industries Kentucky has need of the services
of some of the sanest and most experienced bankers
of the South, and one of these men who has displayed
a sagacious conservativeness so necessary during the
troublous times of the past few years is Guy Davis,
cashier of the Bank of Marrowbone.
Guy Davis was born at Marrowbone, Cumberland
County, Kentucky, November 16, 1879, a son of W. R.
Davis and grandson of John Davis. The Davis family
came from Scotland to Virginia during the Colonial
epoch of this country, and there John Davis was
born in 1808. Inheriting the same spirit which had
prompted his ancestors to leave their home in Scot-
land, John Davis migrated from his in the Old
Dominion and became the pioneer of his family in
440
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
Cumberland County, Kentucky, making the then long
and somewhat dangerous trip immediately following his
marriage. He and his bride, who had borne the maiden
name of Kittie Miller, and was also a native of Virginia,
settled at Marrowbone, and here both rounded out their
useful lives and passed away, the year of his demise
being in 1868. John Davis was a farmer and acquired
considerable means and gained the confidence and
respect of his fellow citizens.
W. R. Davis was born at Marrowbone in 1834, and
died here August 6, 1906, having spent his entire life
in this vicinity. In addition to being an extensive and
successful farmer, during his younger years he served
for two terms or eight years as superintendent of
schools of Cumberland County. Under the administra-
tion of President Cleveland he served the Government
as a gauger and storekeeper. In politics he was a
staunch democrat. As a member of the Presbyterian
Church he was earnest in his support of the local
congregation of that denomination, and was very
active in religious work. A Mason, he held member-
ship in Ashmole Lodge No. 450, F. and A. M., which
he served for many years as worshipful master, and
he also belonged to the chapter of this fraternity.
He married Sophia Alexander, who was born in Cum-
berland County in 1838, and died at Marrowbone,
Kentucky, February 7, 1909. Their children were as
follows : Lauretta, who married Dr. Joe R. Schooling
and died at Los Angeles, California, in 1918, and he
died at Marrowbone, Kentucky, having been in life a
successful physician and surgeon; Cornelia, who first
married W. E. Alexander, a locomotive engineer who
met his death at the post of duty in a railroad wreck
at Dodge City, Kansas, married for her second husband,
James D. Davis, a farmer and merchant of Bowling
Green, Kentucky, where he died in 1913, his widow
continuing to reside in that same city ; Kate, who
married Frank L. Smith, died at Marrowbone, in 1903,
he having died at Mendota. Illinois, in 1903, as a
member of the police force of that city ; W. E., who
is a farmer residing at Marrowbone ; and Guy, who is
the youngest in the family.
Guy Davis is a very well-educated man, having
supplemented his training in the rural schools of Cum-
berland County with a course of two years at the
Western State Normal School at Bowling Green and
one at the Bowling Green Business University, and
was graduated from the last named institution in 1901.
In the meanwhile he has begun teaching school, enter-
ing the educational field at the youthful age of eighteen
years. At different times he taught school in Cumber-
land County for four years, and from 1901 to 1903 he
taught in Washington County, Mississippi. From 1903
to 1904 he was in the employ of the Yazoo & Missis-
sippi Valley Railroad Company. In the latter year he
entered the Bank of Marrowbone as cashier, and held
that responsible position until 1909, when he resigned
and was engaged in farming for himself until 1917,
and during 1916 was also engaged in teaching school.
In 1917 he returned to the Bank of Marrowbone as
cashier, and still holds this position. The bank, which
is a state institution, was estalished in 1902, and its
present officials are: James I. Alexander, president;
Reuben Norris, vice president ; Guy Davis, cashier ;
and Daisy Pace, assistant cashier. This bank has a
capital of $15,000; surplus and profits of $15,000, and
its deposits are $150,000. The bank occupies commodi-
ous quarters in a brick building on Main Street. Mr.
Davis is no politician, although he gives an earnest
support to the democratic ticket. The Presbyterian
Church holds his membership. Fraternally he belongs
to Cumberland Lodge No. 413, F. and A. M., of Burkes-
ville ; Royal Arch Chapter No. 45, Glasgow ; and
Cumberland Camp No. 11837, M. W. A., of which
he has been clerk for eight years. He owns his farm
of no acres, which is situated two miles east of
Marrowbone, but resides at Marrowbone. During the
late war he was one of the enthusiastic workers in
behalf of administration policies, and was awarded a
medal for his sales of War Savings Stamps and Liberty
Bonds. He assisted very materially in all of the drives,
both by making extensive purchases and generous con-
tributions, and securing donations from others. His
interest never wavered nor did his efforts slaken as long
as there was any need of his exertions.
On November 18, 1918, Mr. Davis was united in mar-
riage at Leslie, Kentucky, to Miss Pearl Allen, a
daughter of George N. and Theressa (Hutchens) Allen,
residents of Leslie, Kentucky, where Mr. Allen is
engaged in farming. Mrs. Davis was graduated from
the celebrated Alexander College of Burkesville, Ken-
tucky. The only child born to Mr. and Mrs. Davis,
little William George, died in infancy. They are
recognized as being among the leading people of
Marrowbone, and number their warm, personal friends
by the hundreds, for they are deservedly popular. In
everything Mr. Davis has undertaken he has' displayed
consummate ability and could have made a name for
himself in several lines. He was particularly successful
as an educator, and the people of Cumberland County
would be glad if they could induce him to again
assume the responsibility of training their children,
but he feels that he can render a better service in
connection with his bank. However, he is always glad
to give advice, which is practical and wide in its scope,
for he is not only a well-educated, but also a well-
informed man, and takes a warm interest in the younger
generation, especially those who desire to go into busi-
ness on their own account.
William Alfred Kinne, president of the State Bank
of Stearns and land industrial agent for the R. L.
Stearns Coal and Lumber Company, was founder of
the Town of Stearns and in many ways has been the
most influential factor in its development. Mr. Kinne
is also one of the prominent men in Kentucky politics.
He became associated with the Stearns industrial and
capitalistic interests in Michigan, his native state. He
was born at Leroy, Ingham County, July 31, 1865, of
Scotch-Irish ancestry, a son of Newton Irving and
Wealthy M. (Link) Kinne. His father was born near
Otsego, New York, in 1838, and was a carpenter and
builder by trade. In 1872 he removed to Northern
Michigan, took up a homestead of Government land,
and lived on his claim until 1880, when he moved to a
farm near Scottsville, Michigan, where he is still living
at the age of eighty-three. He has been retired since
1891. For many years he was one of the leaders
in the republican party in his locality, and served
as county superintendent of poor of Lake County two
terms, eight years. He is an active member of the
Baptist Church and is affiliated with the Independent
Order of Odd Fellows. He has to his credit a record
of three years and five months of service as a Union
soldier in Company I of the Eleventh Michigan In-
fantry. His wife was also born in Otsego County,
New York, in 1840.
William Alfred Kinne attended the district schools
of Michigan and graduated in October, 1887, from
Bartlett's Commercial School at Lansing. Following
that he clerked in the store of a large lumber company
at Wingleton, Lake County, was acting postmaster,
and for three years was in the employ of J. S. Stearns
at Stearns, Michigan. While thus employed he held
the office of township highway commissioner and super-
visor, and in 1890 was candidate for County Court
clerk, being defeated by twenty votes. Two years later
he was elected county treasurer of Lake County, an
office he filled four years.
On leaving the county treasurer's office Mr. Kinne
engaged in lumber and logging operations, and became
associated with the Stearns Salt & Lumber Company's
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
441
interests in 1897. In 1901 he came to Kentucky as the
representative of the Stearns interests in the purchase
of coal and timber lands and was instrumental in
founding the Town of Stearns and for many years has
been land industrial agent for the Stearns Coal &
Lumber Company. He was also at one time director
for the Kentucky & Tennessee Railway Company.
The State Bank of Stearns was organized in 1933,
Mr. Kinne being one of the principal stockholders and
its president. He is a stockholder in the Stearns Co-
operative Coal Company, operating with a capital of
$600,000.
Mr. Kinne has been a recognized man of power in
the republican party in his section of the state. He has
served as chairman of the McCreary County Republican
Committee for eight years aiid in 1921 was elected to
the State Senate. While in Michigan lie served as
highway commissioner and supervisor of Elk Township
of Lake County from 1892 to 1896, as township treasurer
four years, was county treasurer from 1896 to 1900,
and for a portion of that time was deputy sheriff.
Both in Michigan and Kentucky he has performed the.
duties of a school official during the greater part of the
time since 1896. He is a member of the Baptist Church,
is a Knight Templar Mason and is affiliated with the
Eastern Star, Independent Order of Odd Fellows
and Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
On May 1, 1893, 'Mr. Kinne married at Stearns, Mich-
igan, Miss Nola E. Miller, daughter of Zach and
Elizabeth Miller. On May, 4, 1921, at Lawrenceburg,
Kentucky, he married Miss Lena Frazier. Mr. Kinne
has three children, Theresa, Howard and Frances.
Theresa was married in September, 1915, to Brinkley
Barnett, of Somerset, Kentucky, now professor of
electrical and mechanical engineering at the University
of Kentucky. The daughter Frances was married to
Capt. Solander Taylor of Somerset in June, 1920. He
served overseas during the World war. The only son,
Howard I. Kinne, was a first lieutenant in the Aviation
Corps and was shot down over Cirges, France, Septem-
ber 18, 1918.
Col. John B. Wathen, of Lebanon, is a foremost
business man, acting as postmaster, stock farmer, is
one of Kentucky's best known citizens and has achieved
many distinctions as a man of affairs.
He was born at Lebanon, Marion County, March 24,
1856. His great-grandfather came to 'Marion County
from Baltimore, Maryland. He married a Miss Spald-
ing, a sister of Archbishop Spalding of Baltimore,
Maryland. The grandfather of Colonel Wathen was
John B. Wathen, Sr., who was born near Lebanon,
Kentucky, and was a pioneer merchant of Lebanon.
William Wallace Wathen, father of Colonel Wathen,
was for many years a merchant of Lebanon, also
postmaster, and died there August 14, 1894, at the age
of sixty-two. He married Ann T. Graves, a daughter
of Thomas Graves, a leading distiller, farmer and stock
raiser, and an uncle of Capt. A. Graves, who was
member of State Legislature and member of Congress,
and Col. John Graves, both men of military and public
distinction in Kentucky. Mrs. Ann Wathen died
November 22, 1902, at the age of seventy-two. Her
oldest child, Nannie L., became the wife of W. R.
Spalding, a leading merchant of Lebanon, and the
other daughter, Mary, married Thomas R. Spalding,
who was a well known farmer, stock dealer and breeder,
and both nephews of Archbishop Spalding.
John B. Wathen was educated at Lebanon, attending
St. Mary's College and Cecilian College. His business
life was begun in his father's store and later he was
with L. A. and W. F. Spalding & Company at Lebanon.
Later he became a traveling salesman and represented
Kahn, Wolf & Company of Louisville, Kentucky, and
later the J. & L. Seasongood & Company of Cincinnati,
flnd from there he went with Nathan Brothers, of
New York, wholesale clothiers. When Luke P. Black-
burn became governor of Kentucky Mr. Wathen was
honored by being appointed a member of his staff,
with the rank of colonel.
President Cleveland appointed Colonel Wathen to an
Indian agency in the Northwest, with headquarters at
Chicago, whence he moved his family. The illness of
his wife, the climate not agreeing with her, interfering
with the discharge of his duties in that location, he
was offered a transfer to western territory, but declined
that post and returned to Kentucky. About the same
time he also refused a position in the treasury depart-
ment at Washington. His most cherished business
interests for years have been the Highland View Stock
Farm, within half a mile of the City of Lebanon. This
contains 200 acres, and for years has been the source
of some of the registered trotting and saddle horses.
His breeder's stock sales have been attended by the
stock men of different parts of the country. Among
the fine horses produced on his farm were Gazette,
with a record of 2:o7J4; Aileene, 2 '.07%. ; Norvadine,
who made a trial record of 2:08; Allert, 2:13, and
he bred a large number in the 2 :30 class, besides two
that broke the world's record. He was the first man
in Marion County to sell a horse for $10,000, that
being the sum he received for Gazette 2 :07J4. From
time to time Colonel Wathen has continued to improve
and beautify the Highland View Farm, and still con-
tinues raising the finest strains of stock. He is strictly
a business method farmer, keeping accurately a set
of books on all his transactions. His farm is noted as
one of Kentucky's show places, and still continues under
the direct personal management of Colonel Wathen,
though his other official and business reponsibilities
are very exacting. In September, 1915, he was ap-
pointed postmaster of Lebanon, as a result of the
influence of his life long friend and college mate.
Hon. Ben Johnson of Bardstown, congressman of the
Fourth Kentucky District. ^Colonel Wathen holds the
post office under civil service. His years of experience
have only added to his geniality and his friends multiply
with the passing time.
Colonel Wathen is a member of the Catholic Church,
a former member of the Knights of Columbus, has been
identified with many movements and organizations of
a public nature, and in politics is a democrat.
On October 2s, 1883, he married Miss Fannie E.
Russell. They were married at St. Augustine's Church
at Lebanon by the Rt. Rev. William G. McCloskey
of Louisville. The bride was given away by Governor
Blackburn, and the best man was Judge Charles E.
Kincaid. Her father, the late Judge William E. Russell,
was one of Kentucky's distinguished lawyers. Colonel
and Mrs. Wathen enjoyed a happy union about twenty-
five years. Her death on July 8, 1908, inflicted grief
upon the entire community. She was beloved and
esteemed as a gracious friend, a perfect wife and
mother, and a most devoted member of the Catholic
Church. The funeral services were conducted by the
Very Rev. Joseph A. Hogarty, who in his sermon paid
tribute to her exceptional life and character, her liberal
education, her gifts as a musician, and her hospitality.
During her lifetime she had many times made her home
a place of entertainment for the most distinguished
men of Kentucky and was accorded the honor of a
most charming hostess.
Colonel and Mrs. Wathen had a family of seven
children. Charles Kincaid, born February 28, 1885.
was engaged in clerical and newspaper work at Louis-
ville, later in New York, and is now at Buenos Aires,
South America. Mary Edith, born October 31, 1886,
holds a responsible position in the treasury department
at Washington, D. C. The next two children were
Nannie L., born February 14, 1888, and William Wal-
lace, born May 11, 1890, both of whom died in infancy.
Fanny Russell, born January I, 1892, is also employed
442
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
at Washington in the treasury department. Susie
Elder, born September 27, 1893, is an assistant auditor
in the treasury department. All these daughters grad-
uated with honors at Loretto Academy. The youngest
child and son, John B., Jr., was born August 22, 1896,
and is a special life and fire insurance agent, with
headquarters at Washington, D. C.
On March 2, 1916, Colonel Wathen married Miss
Eleanor C. Mansfield, of Louisville. They were mar-
ried in the Cathedral of the Assumption by the pastor,
Very Rev. P. M. J. Rock, Charles Kincaid Wathen, son
of Colonel Wathen, was best man, and the maid of
honor was Miss Jessie Mansfield of Indianapolis,
cousin of the bride. The Mansfield family has long
been a prominent one socially and otherwise in Louis-
ville, and Mrs. Wathen was one of that city's most
popular young women. Her father, William Mansfield
of New York City, is a prominent railroad official.
Mrs. (Morony) Mansfield was noted for her stately
beauty, charm of manner and high Christian ideals,
and was born and reared in Philadelphia. Since the
second marriage of Colonel Wathen the Highland View
home has been restored to much of its former social
activity. Mrs. Wathen is a gifted, educated lady, of
many talents, a real social leader, and deeply interested
in many philanthropic and benevolent movements.
Newton S. Shaw. There is no profession in which
the admonition to "make haste slowly" can be more ad-
vantageously followed than that of the educator, it being
an acknowledged fact that those who have attained
to eminence in this field have been men of the most
thorough preparation. However great their native tal-
ents, the unformed fledglings do not reach the high posts
of honor today, but those whose education and training
have enabled them to survey a broad field of knowledge
before they fairly entered the activities of their career.
Newton S. Shaw, superintendent of schools of Allen
County, Kentucky, is a typical modern educator who
has laid a broad foundation for continuous personal
development and professional progress.
Mr. Shaw was born in Allen County, Kentucky, Jan-
uary 23, 1887, a son of Berry W. and Applewhite
(Brawner) Shaw, and a member of an old family of
Allen County, which was founded here by his great-
grandfather, a native of Virginia, who was one of the
pioneer agriculturists of this county. John J. Shaw,
the grandfather of Newton S. Shaw, was born in Allen
County, where he was engaged in farming until the
outbreak of the Civil war. He enlisted in the Ninth
Regiment, Kentucky Volunteer Infantry, for service in
the Union army as a fifer, and participated in many
important engagements until stricken by measles. He
was on the road to recovery, but suffered a relapse
which caused his death at Columbia, Kentucky, when
he was still a comparatively young man. John J. Shaw
married Elizabeth Stinson, who was born in 1830, in
Allen County, and died in 1918.
Berry W. Shaw was born in 1855, in Allen County,
Kentucky, and has been a lifelong farmer, his property
at present being near Amos, twelve miles east of Scotts-
ville. He has been an industrious, painstaking and per-
severing farmer and as a result has accumulated a
valuable and extensive property. In politics Mr. Shaw
is a republican, and his fraternal connection is with
Acresville Camp, M. W. A., of Monroe County, Ken-
tucky. He is a regular attendant and active supporter
of the Baptist Church and a man who is held in the
highest esteem in his community because of his many
sterling traits of character. He was first married to
Miss Applewhite Brawner, who was born in 1858, in
Allen County, and died on the home farm, January 9,
1888, and they became the parents of three children :
James R., who is engaged in farming in Allen County ;
Lela M., wife of F. A. Coots, a farmer near Amos,
Allen County, and Newton S. Mr. Shaw took for his
second wife Miss Sallie M. Belk, who was born in 1867,
in Barren County, Kentucky, and they became the par-
ents of two children : Robert W., who is engaged in
farming near Amos ; and Joe Jackson, a farmer in the
same community.
Newton S. Shaw received his primary educational
training in the rural schools of Allen County, and his
further schooling, which was secured at various periods
until he was thirty-one years of age, included attendance
of forty weeks at the Western Kentucky State Normal
School, Bowling Green ; five months at the Allen County
High School, Scottsville, and five months at the Mount
Eden High School, in Spencer County. During all this
period, and up to the present, he has been a close stu-
dent, being an omnivorous reader of history, the classics,
good current literature, etc., and a seeker after in-
formation in various fields. He began his experience
as a teacher in 1908, and from that time until 1917 he
taught in the rural districts of Allen County. Becoming
broadly and favorably known because of his erudition,
capacity for instilling his own knowledge in others, his
personality and popularity caused his name to be ad-
vanced in 1917 as a candidate for the superintendency
of Allen County's schools, a position to which he was
duly elected and the duties of which he assumed in Jan-
uary, 1918, for a term of four years. He has discharged
his responsibilities in an entirely capable manner and his
administration has been featured by a number of im-
provements and innovations which have served to elevate
the educational system here and to contribute to the wel-
fare of the schools, the pupils and the community. Mr.
Shaw has under his supervision sixty-eight white and
five colored schools, sixty-nine white and six colored
teachers, and 4,400 scholars. He maintains offices
in the Guy Building, on the north side of the
Public Square, Scottsville. In politics Mr. Shaw is a
republican. He belongs to the Kentucky Educational
Association and Holland Camp, M. W. A., and is an ex-
member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He
owns a comfortable modern residence on Third Street.
Mr. Shaw has always, encouraged worthy movements
by his support and cooperation, and during the World
war period displayed the attributes of a public-spirited
and loyal citizen by working effectively in behalf of the
war activities.
In 1914, in Allen County, Mr. Shaw was united in
marriage with Miss Ivy D. Holland, who was born
near Amos, Allen County, Kentucky, a daughter of
Mr. and Mrs. William T. Holland, the latter now de-
ceased, and the former a farmer in that community.
Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Shaw :
Irene, who died at the age of two years, six months ;
Norville, who died aged three months; Clorine, born
July 22, 1918; and Guy Oveleta, born November 6, 1920.
Mrs. Daisy (Davis) Pace. No record of the annals
of Cumberland County would be complete without some-
what extended mention of the life and actions of some
of its members of the so-called weaker sex. The chivalry
of the men and the beauty of the women of Kentucky
remain unaltered, but there has come into consideration
of late years a new factor, the ability of the women and
their efficiency in other walks of life aside from those
formerly accorded to them. One of the best examples
of the modern woman of the Blue Grass State is Mrs.
Daisy (Davis) Pace, who is not only well known be-
cause of her success in farming, but also for her de-
pendability as a banker, she now being assistant cashier
of the Bank of Marrowbone.
Mrs. Pace was born at Marrowbone, Kentucky, De-
cember 25, 1876, a daughter of George H. Davis, and
granddaughter of William Davis. The last named
gentleman was born at Richmond, Virginia, but left his
native state for Cumberland County, Kentucky, soon
after his marriage and located at Marrowbone, and
there he died before the birth of Mrs. Pace. After
MR. AND MRS. JAMES T. BASHAM
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
443
coming to Cumberland County he bought extensively of
farm land, which he operated with his own slave labor.
He was a man of prestige at Marrowbone, and of large
means. His wife, who was Patsy Harvey before her
marriage, was born at Richmond, Virginia, and died
at Marrowbone, Kentucky, in 1877.
George H. Davis was born at Marrowbone in 1845,
and died here, August 14, 1896, having spent his entire
life in the place of his nativity. He was an extensive
farmer and one of the leading live-stock dealers of
this part of the state, raising handling and shipping a
high grade of live stock. He also dealt heavily in
cattle and horses. A man of progressive ideas he intro-
duced new methods and machinery in his work, and
bought the first binder ever brought into Cumberland
County. Up to his death he took a pride in keeping
his farm supplied with the latest improved machinery
and appliances, and his experiments were followed with
much interest by his neighbors. He was a democrat,
but not active in politics. The Presbyterian Church held
his membership, and he was long recognized as a pillar
of the church. His wife was Sallie A. Beck before her
marriage, and she survives him and makes her home
with her daughter, Mrs. Pace. Mrs. Davis was born
at Marrowbone, Kentucky, November 28, 1853. She, too,
is a Presbyterian. Mrs. Pace is the only child of her
parents.
Growing up in her native town, Mrs. Pace was given
a more liberal education than falls to many of her sex,
and after she had completed her studies in the rural
schools of Cumberland County, she became a student
of Liberty College, Glasgow, Kentucky, which institu-
tion she left in 1894, at the close of her sophomore year.
On January 10, 189S, Mrs. Pace was married at Mar-
rowbone to James E. Pace, who was born in Cumberland
County, Kentucky, in 1870, and died at Marrowbone
January 7, 1917. Mr. Pace attended the rural schools
of Cumberland County, Alexander College at Burkes-
ville, the Glasgow Normal School at Glasgow, Ken-
tucky, and completed his education at the Cumberland
University at Lebanon, Tennessee. Until 1902 he was
engaged in merchandising at Marrowbone, where he had
been located for a decade, and during all of this time
being engaged in farming. In 1902 he entered the Bank
of Marrowbone as assistant cashier, later was elected
cashier and held that position until his death. He was
a staunch democrat. The Presbyterian Church held his
membership, he was a great worker in the church
and Sunday School and a liberal supporter of both.
Fraternally he belonged to Cumberland Camp No. 1 1837,
M. W. A., and served it as counsel and clerk, holding
the latter office for a number of years. In 1913 he
carried out a project he had long entertained and visited
the Holy Land on a Cook's tour, visiting Palestine,
Egypt, Greece, Italy, England and other countries, and
taking many pictures of the interesting places, which
later afforded great pleasure and gave instruction to
many, for he had these views made into slides with
which he illustrated a lecture he prepared. So popular
did this lecture become that he was asked to deliver
it to churches all over this part of Kentucky. Mr. Pace
was a pleasing and forceful talker, and carried his audi-
ences with him on the wonderful trip he had taken, and
of which he had made so faithful a record. He was a
son of H. S. Pace, born in Metcalfe County, Kentucky.
H. S. Pace died at Louisville, Kentucky, in June, 1902,
although he was at that time a resident of Auburn, Ken-
tucky. He was a veteran of the war between the states,
having been in the Confederate service under General
Morgan, and participated in that commander's celebrated
raids. Mr. Pace was taken prisoner and thereafter con-
fined in a Federal prison until the close of the war, his
capture occurring on one of the last of General Morgan's
raids. Following the close of the war H. S. Pace came
to Marrowbone, and was here extensively engaged in
farming until 1898, when he moved to Auburn in order
to give his children the advantage of attending the su-
perior schools of that city, but he retained possession
of his farm. He married Mollie Barton, who was born
in Metcalfe County, Kentucky. She survives her hus-
band and lives at Waterview, Kentucky. Mr. and Mrs.
James E. Pace became the parents of two children :
Georgia Alexander, who was married in 1917 at Jef-
fersonville, Indiana, to W. L. Alexander, and they reside
at Marrowbone, where he is a prosperous farmer and
live-stock dealer, and they have two children, James
Ledmon, born December 31, 1918, and Daisy Belle, born
September 10, 1920, and James Fred, who was born May
26, 1900, and is a graduate of the Western State Normal
School of Bowling Green. He is now student at the
State College at Ames, Iowa. He was graduated in
1919 from Castle Heights Private Military Academy
at Lebanon, Tennessee.
Mrs. Pace owns her farm, which is within the cor-
porate limits of Marrowbone and comprises 400 acres
of very valuable land. She manages this large farm
herself, and is noted for her progressiveness. She bought
the first tractor and first tobacco setter in Cumberland
County, and follows her father's example in operating
her property according to the best and most approved
methods, in all of her work being ably assisted by her
son, James Fred. Mrs. Pace owns a modern residence,
with up-to-date out-buildings and equipments, and op-
erates a first-class hotel at Marrowbone. Her Duroc-
Jersey hogs of blooded stock, of which she raises a large
quantity, are noted for their superior quality, and com-
mand exceptional prices.
Mrs. Pace finds pleasant relaxation in her membership
with the Royal Neighbors which fraternity she joined
during the life time of her husband, who was so much
interested in the Modern Woodmen of America, of
which it is an auxiliary. During the World war she
was very active, proving herself in every respect a
hundred-per cent American. She bought heavily of
Liberty Bonds and War Savings Stamps, and con-
tributed to all of the war organizations, particularly
those in behalf of the Red Cross. For some years she
has been assistant cashier of the Bank of Marrowbone,
and is equally competent in this capacity. Indeed it
would be difficult to find anything beyond the capabilities
of Mrs. Pace, and her fellow townsmen are vastly proud
of her and appreciate her value to the community. She
has decidedly proven that a woman can accomplish
much and still neglect none of the duties of a devoted
wife and watchful and loving mother.
James Thomas Basham. In the election in No-
vember, 1917, of James Thomas Basham to the office
of county attorney of Grayson County, expression was
given of the recognition of the abilities of one of the
county's younger generation of lawyers. Mr. Basham
has been a member of the Kentucky bar only since
1914, but during the period since his admission both
at Hardinsburg and Leitchfield has displayed qualifica-
tions that have won him public confidence and respect
and have contributed materially to his advancement in
his calling.
Mr. Basham was born at Stephensport, Breckin-
ridge County, Kentucky, on his father's farm, January
17, 1887, a son of Winston L. and MeHssa B. (Shell-
man) Basham. The family originated in Scotland, and
the first of this branch to come to America settled in
Virginia during the period of the war of the Revolu-
tion. George W. Basham, grandfather of James T.,
was born in Virginia, whence he came in young man-
*hood to Kentucky and settled in Breckinridge County.
A pioneer of the region that afterward become Steph-
ensport, he was a sturdy, self-reliant agriculturist of
substantial qualities, who won and held the respect
and esteem of the people among whom his life was
passed. George W. Basham married a Miss Campbell,
who was born in Tennessee, and both passed away in
444
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
Breckinridge County before the birth of their grandson.
Winston L. Basham was born in the vicinity of
Hardinsburg. Kentucky, in 1847, and was there edu-
cated, reared and married. Following the course of
the majority of the male members of the family, he
early adopted agriculture as his life work, and to this
vocation has devoted his energies throughout a long,
useful, honorable and successful career. In hale old
age, he is still accounted one of the active and ex-
tensive farmers of Breckinridge County, where he oc-
cupied a high place in the esteem of those who know
him. In politics he is a republican, and his fraternal
affiliation is with the Masonic Order. Mr. Basham
married Melissa B. Shellman, who was born in 1863,
near Union Star. Breckinridge County, and they became
the parents of four children: James Thomas; Mary
B., the wife of W. H. Gibson, a farmer near Stephens-
port and deputy sheriff of Breckinridge County: Paul
M., clerk of the Circuit Court of Breckinridge County
and a resident of Hardinsburg; and Eva S., the wife
of Zeno Miller, bookkeeper in the Louisville National
Bank.
James Thomas Basham was reared on the home
farm and attended the rural schools of Breckinridge
County until reaching the age of eighteen years, at
which time he began teaching the country districts.
After two years of this work he entered the Western
Kentucky State Normal College at Bowling Green,
from which he was graduated in 1910. and then again
took up the vocation of teaching, which he followed
for one year in Breckinridge County and a like period
in Monroe County, Kentucky. Following this Mr.
Basham took a special course in law at the University
of Louisville, and was admitted to the Kentucky bar
in May, 1914. He entered upon the practice of his
profession at Hardinsburg, where he remained until
July, 1016, and at that time secured his introduction
to the people of Leitchfield, where he has since made
rapid progress in his profession. Mr. Basham was
engaged in a general practice until November, 1917,
when he was elected county attorney of Grayson Coun-
ty, on the republican ticket, and assumed the duties
of office in January, 1918, for a term of four years.
He has discharged his responsibilities in a splendidly
capable manner and his display of inherent talent and
legal abilities has served to gain him public confidence
and the respect of his contemporaries. He maintains
offices in the courthouse.
Mr. Basham belongs to the various organizations of
his profession, and is a public-spirited citizen whose
name has been identified with various worthy public
projects. He took an active part in all local war
activities, and in addition to helping in the various
drives and subscribing freely and contributing liberally,
served on the Fuel Administration Committee, was a
member of the Council of Defense for Grayson County,
and filled out the greatest number of questionnaires of
any person in the county. He is a member of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and president of
the Young Men's Sunday school class. He owns a
modern residence on Main Street, a comfortable two-
story home, as well as other real estate. He is well
known in fraternal circles, holding membership in
Leitchfield Lodge No. 236, F. and A. M., of which he
is junior warden; Leitchfield Chapter No. 143, R. A.
M.; Elizabethtown Commandery No. 37, K. T. ; Kosair
Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of Louisville; and Leitch-
field Camp, M. W. A., in which he has filled all the
chairs.
On November 5, 1918. Mr. Basham married Mis*
Effie Sadler, daughter of H. G. and Mary Catherine
(Durbin) Sadler, both of whom are now deceased,
Mr. Sadler having been a well-known and highly re-
spected citizen of Shrewsbury, Kentucky, where he
was variously engaged in merchandising, milling and
farming. Mrs. Basham, a graduate of the Western
Kentucky State Normal College, Bowling Green, was
elected county superintendent of schools in November,
1917, by the largest majority ever given a candidate
for public office in Grayson County, and occupies that
position at present. A woman of many graces and
accomplishments, she is a member of the State His-
torical Society and county historian for Grayson
County. Mr. and Mrs. Basham have no living chil-
dren.
Sam Elswtcx is one of the active merchants of Pike
County, his place of business being at Penny on the
Caney Fork of Shelby Creek. Mr. Elswick grew up
in that locality and was formerly a railroad man until
an unfortunate accident terminated his career in that
line, and he then turned his attention to merchandising.
Mr. Elswick was born on Caney Fork, March 23,
1888, son of George W. and Eliza (Branham) Elswick.
His father who was born near Pikeville in 1836 is still
in the best of health in spite of eighty-five years and
lives on his farm on Caney Fork. All his active years
have been devoted to agriculture and he has lived at
his present location on Caney for half a century. He
is a citizen held in the highest esteem for what he has
done and also for what he is. In politics he supported the
democratic ticket for many years but is now a republican.
His church membership is with the old Union Church
on Elswick Branch of Shelby Creek. He is a member
of the regular Baptist faith. His first wife, Eliza Bran-
ham, was born in the same year as her husband and
died in 1896. The second wife of George Elswick was
Elizabeth Greer, also a native of Pike County.
Sam Elswick is the youngest of a family of eight
children. All but one live in Pike County. He attended
common schools on Caney Fork and at the age of sixteen
was earning his own living on farms and in the mines.
From this occupation he entered the service of the
Baltimore & Ohio Railroad as a brakeman and con-
tinued until he lost his right foot in an accident. Then
in 1918 he invested his capital and experience in a gen-
eral stock of merchandising on Caney Fork, a mile
from Penny Station and at Penny Postoffice. He has
a good trade, and besides the income he derived from
his business he owns a fine farm.
In 1918 Mr. Elswick married Alma Sword, daughter
of Masey Sword. She was born on Island Creek and
her family came here from Virginia.
G. A. Hunt. No community can be greater than the
business interests centered within its confines, so that it
is easily possible to measure the importance of a city
by the commercial rating of the men engaged in doing
business at that point. As a center of distribution, as
well as the county seat of Allen County, Scottsville oc-
cupies a prominent place because of the dependability
and enterprise of its business men who have worked
hard to build up an enviable prestige among those of
their calling in different parts of the state. One of these
men is G. A. Hunt, one of the leading tobacconists of
this part of Kentucky, whose immense modern ware-
house is a monument to the importance of the tobacco
industry, and the acumen of its owner.
G. A. Hunt was born in Allen County, May 1, 1868,
a son of I. N. Hunt. His grandfather lived and died
in Simpson County before his grandson had outgrown
childish things, having been one of the early farmers
of that region. I. N. Hunt was born in Allen County,
in 1848, and died at Scottsville, November, 1916. During
the war between the North and South, although only a
lad of thirteen years, he enlisted in the Confederate
service under General Morgan, and was captured at the
close of the war, being at that time stationed in Vir-
ginia. Following the declaration of peace, he continued
to reside in Virginia until after his marriage, when he
returned to Allen County, and was engaged in farming
and dealing in tobacco, his homestead being located
eight miles north of Scottsville. In 1908 he left the
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
445
farm for Scottsville, and continued to deal in tobacco
until his death, his operations being at all times car-
ried on upon an extensive scale. A stanch democrat,
he always gave to his party the most rigid fealty, and
for many years he served as a magistrate. He was a
member of the Baptist Church and very active in his
support of the local congregation. A Mason, he belonged
to Gainsville Lodge, A. F. & A. M. He married Eliz-
abeth Porter, who was born in Virginia, in 1849, and
died at Scottsville, in the home of her son, in 1914. Their
children were as follows : G. A., who was the eldest ;
Chasteen, who is a tobacconist of Bowling Green ; Ada,
who is the wife of John L. Grubbs, a farmer of Allen
County ; John W., who is a farmer and tobacconist, lives
at Scottsville.
G. A. Hunt attended the rural schools of Allen County,
and was reared on his father's farm, on which he re-
mained until after he had reached his majority. He
was then taken into partnership with his father, and
thev operated together in the tobacco business until the
death of the elder man in 1916. That year the two or-
ganized and incorporated The Farmers Loose Leaf
Tobacco Company, under the laws of the state of Ken-
tucky, and commenced the erection of the immense
warehouse, mentioned above, but I. N. Hunt did not
live to see it completed. G. A. Hunt carried on the
work of construction, and now maintains his offices in
it. This building is located on the south side of the Glas-
gow turnpike. The officers of the Planters Loose Leaf
Tobacco Company are as follows : L. Atwood, president ;
and G. A. Hunt, secretary, treasurer and manager. The
company handles all grades of loose leaf tobacco. The
warehouse owned by the company is the first one ever
built in Allen County. Politically Mr. Hunt is a demo-
crat. He belongs to the Baptist Church and Gainesville
Lodge, A. F. & A. M. In addition to his modern resi-
dence on the south side of the Glasgow turnpike, Mr.
Hunt owns a farm of 113 acres located eight miles
north of Scottsville, on which he carries on general
farming. During the late war he took an active part in
local war work, and helped in all of the drives.
In 1900 Mr. Hunt was married at Lafayette, Tennes-
see, to Miss Zela Motley, a daughter of Eddie and
Nancy (Ritchey) Motley, both of whom are deceased.
Mr. Motley was formerly a farmer of Allen County,
and a very well-known man. Mr. and Mrs. Hunt be-
came the parents of the following children: Loren, who
was born in 1903, is attending the Allen County High
School ; Ruth, who was born in 1907 ; Evelyn, who was
born in 1909; Grace, who was born in 1915 ; and G. A.,
Junior, who was born in 1918. One of the solid, re-
sponsible men of Allen County, Mr. Hunt naturally holds
a very high position among the tobacco operators of
this region, and his fellow citizens regard him with
respect because of the integrity and straight-forwardness
of all of his actions.
Aubrey F. Crow. In nothing is the progress of the
age more clearly shown than in the changes which have
taken place in the methods of caring for the dead. The
modern funeral director is today a man who has been
carefully trained in his chosen profession, who holds
certificates of merit and has an appreciative understand-
ing of the proper manner of arranging the last cere-
monies so as to render a dignified and gratifying tribute
to those who have departed this life. One of these
men of Allen County is Aubrey F. Crow, admittedly
one of the best funeral directors, not only at Scotts-
ville, where he maintains his headquarters, but also
throughout a wide territory contiguous to the city.
Mr. Crow was born in Allen County, September 3,
1889, a son of Wesley W. Crow, a grandson of James
William Crow, and a member of one of the old families
of this region, as his great-grandfather was one of
the pioneer farmers of Allen County, coming here from
Virginia at a very early date and spending the re-
mainder of his useful life in this section of the state
James William Crow was born in Allen County, and
died at Vernon, Texas, in 1888, although he lived in
Allen County the greater part of his life. He was a
merchant and was at different times engaged in busi-
ness at Lucas, Rocky Hill, Gainesville and Scottsville,
Allen County, prior to his removal to Texas near the
close of his career. He married Sarah Frances Hinton,
who was born in Allen County in 1828, and died at
Vernon, Texas, in 1914.
Wesley W. Crow was also born in Allen County, in
1857, and died at Scottsville in 1905. Reared and mar-
ried in Allen County, he made this portion of the state
his permanent home. By trade a carpenter, he later
became a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South, and was a very effective preacher and exhorter.
From 1880 to 1890 he was at Scottsville, and then for
five years was a resident of Vernon, Texas, but at the
expiration of the period returned to Scottsville, where
he remained until death claimed him. His political
principles were in accordance with those of the demo-
cratic party. Wesley W. Crow was married to Lucy
Frances Follis, who was born in Allen County in 1859,
and died at Scottsville in 1895. Their children were
as follows : Annie Alice, who married J. H. Ayers,
a farmer of Margarett, Texas ; Thomas W., who is in
partnership with his brother, Aubrey F., lives at Scotts-
ville; Edith, who is unmarried, lives with her brother,
Aubrey F. ; Pernie Lou, who died at the age of four
years ; Aubrey F., who was the fifth in order of birth ;
Mary S., who married A. H. Dorsey, a druggist of
Horse Cave, Kentucky.
Aubrey F. Crow was educated in the rural schools of
Allen County, and when he was fifteen years old began
to earn his living in the spoke factory at Scottsville,
in which he remained for a year. For the next eighteen
months he clerked in a grocery store, and for the fol-
lowing year was in a drug store. During all of this
period he saved his money, and in 1915 was able to
embark in a business of his own, he and his brother
establishing themselves in the undertaking business.
Mr. Crow had learned all of the details of this calling
with Pearson & Tabor, undertakers of Scottsville. The
Crow brothers have so firmly established themselves in
the confidence of the public that their patronage has
increased and they now have the largest undertaking
establishment between Louisville and Nashville. They
are the only firm of their kind in the county. The
offices and storage rooms are on East Main Street.
Mr. Crow is a democrat, and for the past two years
has been a member of the City Council. Both as a
member and steward of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South, he exerts a strong influence for good
in his community. Well known in Masonry, he belongs
to Graham Lodge No. 208, A. F. and A. M.; and
Scottsville Chapter No. 171, R- A. M. He owns a com-
fortable modern residence on Bowling Green Avenue,
and with his brother owns a farm of fifty-five acres,
located one-half mile north of Scottsville. During the
late war Mr. Crow was one of the effective workers
in behalf of the local war activities, assisting in all of
the drives. He bought bonds and war savings stamps,
and contributed to the various organizations to the
full extent of his means.
In 1909 Mr. Crow was married at Bethpage, Ten-
nessee, to Miss Irene Lovelace, a daughter of Sidney J.
and Julia (Payne) Lovelace. Mrs. Lovelace is resid-
ing at Scottsville, but Mr. Lovelace, who was a mer-
chant and county judge of Allen County, is deceased.
Mr. and Mrs. Crow have two children, namely: Eliza-
beth Lovelace, who was born January 25, 1914; and
Aubrey F., Jr., who was born May 5, 1916.
Mr. Crow is one of the substantial men of Scotts-
ville and takes a proper pride in the progress of the
city. Professionally he is recognized as one whose sym-
pathetic handling of the details of his calling is soothing
and dependable in the period of greatest bereavement.
446
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
H. Clay Howard, of Paris, has been a lawyer for
over a third of a century, has enjoyed many distin-,
guished honors in his state and outside, and has con-'
tributed to the many distinctions associated with the
names of his ancestors in Kentucky.
He is a son of Henry Clay Howard, Sr., and his
mother was Elizabeth Bayne Lewis Howard, and he
therefore belongs to the famous Clay and Lewis fam-
ilies of Kentucky. Mr. Howard was born at Mt.
Sterling, November 14, i860, and was liberally edu-
cated, attending private schools, and in 1884 received
the LL. B. degree from Columbian (now George Wash-
ington) University. He was president of his graduat-
ing class, and the following year received the degree
Master of Laws from the same university.
Admitted to the bar in 1885, he began active prac-
tice at Paris in 1S87, and early achieved prominence as
a lawyer. He was elected and served from 1894 to 1898
as county judge of Bourbon County, and from 1898 to
191 1, for seventeen years, was referee in bankruptcy.
In national affairs Judge Howard gained a reputation
as a diplomat while serving as envoy extraordinary and
minister plenipotentiary to Peru, South America, from
March 4, 191 1, to September 9, 1913. In 1919 he was
appointed colonel upon the staff of Governor Morrow
of Kentucky.
Judge Howard is a republican, was delegate to the
Republican National Convention in 1900, and was chair-
man of the state campaign committees in 1909 and
1910. He is also known in the realm of authorship,
being editor of the life writings and speeches of Cassius
M. Clay. Judge Howard lives at Paris and in his
home city he married Margaret Helm Clay on January
27, 1897.
Joseph F. Jones passed his entire life in Clark
County, Kentucky, was a member of one of the distin-
guished pioneer families of this favored section of the
state and in all of the relations of life he maintained
the gracious patrician standards of the fine old South-
ern regime of ante-bellum days. He was actively con-
cerned with civic and industrial affairs in his native
county as one of its representative agriculturists and
stock-growers and public-spirited citizens, and his
character and achievement were such as to render most
consistent the memorial tribute here entered.
Joseph Francis Jones was born on a farm adjoin in g
the fine old place on which he died, in Clark County,
and the date of his nativity was November 20, 1833
He was a son of Thomas Ap Jones and Elizabeth
(Fauntleroy) Jones. His paternal grandfather, Maj.
Thomas Ap Jones, was born and reared in Virginia,
where the family was founded in the early Colonial
period, and he served with distinction as an officer in
the Patriot Army in the War of the Revolution. His
birth occurred in Richmond County, Virginia, and
there he married Miss Frances Carter, a daughter of
Councillor Robert Carter, son of King Carter. They
continued their residence in the Old Dominion until
their deaths, and Major Jones was there the owner
of a large plantation, the while he was one of the
influential and honored citizens of his community.
Thomas Ap Jones, Jr., father of the subject of this
memoir, was reared and educated in Virginia and at
Mars Hill, Richmond County, was solemnized his mar-
riage to Miss Elizabeth Fauntleroy. Thereafter be
continued as a prosperous planter in Essex County, Vir-
ginia, until May, 1810, when he set forth for Kentucky,
accompanied by his family and by his retinue of slaves,
nearly 100 in number. Six months were required to
complete the long overland journey through a virtual
wilderness, and the family passed the first winter at
Harrodstown, Boyle County, a town from which was
developed the present fine little city of Danville. In
the spring removal was made to Clark County, where
Mr. Jones became the owner of nearly one thousand
acres of land, bis prime reason for locating in this
county being the accessibility to the Kentucky River,
by means of which he could obtain transportation for
the crops of tobacco which he purposed to raise on his
pioneer farmstead. Just prior to coming to Kentucky
he had sold his old plantation, Bathhurst, in Virginia,
for $20,000 and thus he was in excellent financial cir-
cumstances when he initiated his career as a Kentucky
pioneer. His landed estate in Clark County adjoined
the old homestead later owned and occupied by his son,
Joseph F., and in the substantial brick house which he
here erected and which eventually was destroyed by
fire he and his wife passed the remainder of their lives.
He was fifty-four years of age at the time of his death.
April 12, 1843, and his widow passed to eternal rest
on the 31 st of August, 1865, at the venerable age of
seventy-five years. Of their ten children all but one
attained to years of maturity: Frances Tasker, Thomas
Ap (III), Griffin Fauntleroy, Roger, Eliza (Airs. Sam-
uel T. Martin), Joseph Llewellyn Cadwallader (became
one of the leading members of the bar of Clark County
and was serving as county clerk at the time of his
death in 1802), Sarah Jane (wife of General Arm-
stead Blackwell), and Joseph Francis (subject of this
memoir) and tw.'n sister who died in infancy.
Joseph Francis Jones was reared on the old home
plantation and received in his youth excellent educa-
tional advantages as gauged by the standards of the
locality and period. As a young man he wedded Miss
Emma Virginia Morford, who was born at Richmond,
Virginia, but reared and educated at Nashville, Ten-
nessee, she having been the guest of a cousin in Ken-
tucky at the time when she formed the acquaintance
of her future husband. Her father, Noah Barton Mor-
ford, was an artist of no little distinction at Trenton,
Xew Jersey, and was but thirty-six years of age at
the time of his death. Mrs. Jones is a woman of cul-
ture and must gracious personality, and she proved a
popular chatelaine of the beautiful rural home provided
by her husband, the same having become widely known
as a center of hospitality and patrician social activities.
In the death of Joseph Francis Jones on the 10th of
December, 1916, Clark County lost one of its most
honored and popular citizens. He was but ten years
of age at the time of his father's death, and when a
lad of fourteen years he assumed a large share of the
management of his father's estate. He remained with
his widowed mother until her death in 1865. Finally
he purchased the fine old homestead of the late Gen.
Richard Hickman, a place widely known by the title
of Caveland, so named from a large cave nearby. The
fine old Southern mansion which adorns the place
was erected by General Hickman in the year 1797, at
which time he was lieutenant governor of Kentucky and
who remained on the homestead until his death, the
remains of both he and his wife being interred in the
family cemetery on this homestead. The ancient regime
of refined hospitality which marked the beautiful home
during the life of the original owners was effectively
mntmued after the place came into the possession of
Mr. Jones, who here had a valuable landed estate of
nearly seven hundred acres, devoted to diversified agri-
culture and the raising of fine livestock, including
standard-bred horses, Shorthorn cattle and Cotswold
sheep. Mr. Jones took loyal interest in public affairs,
especially in lvs native county, but had no ambition
for political office. During the last five years of his
life his health was so impaired that he was confined
to his home much of the time, but he bore his afflictions
w'th characteristic equanimity and retained to the last
the management of his estate and business. He cast
his first Presidential vote for Franklin Pierce and his
last for President Woodrow Wilson, though he left his
sick-bed to achieve this result. He was an earnest
member of the Presbyterian Church, in which he served
many years as an elder and of which his widow like-
wise is a devoted member. Mrs. Jones still remains
on the old home place and still delights to extend in
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
447
the ancient and stately mansion a gracious welcome and
entertainment to her many friends. Of the children the
eldest is Thomas Barton, who is a successful breeder
of fine horses in Fayette County; Henry M. likewise
is a prominent horseman, is an exponent of standard-
bred horses, and maintains his residence at Winchester,
judicial center of Clark County; Annie E. remains at
the old home with her widowed mother ; William M.
is the subject of an individual sketch that immediately
follows this memoir; Sallie F. and Lucy E. remain
with their widowed mother; Joseph F., Jr., is a skilled
machinist and is now a resident of the State of Cali-
fornia; and L. Catesby remains with his mother and
sisters on the old home place, of which he has the
active management.
William M. Jones. In the foregoing memoir, dedi-
cated to his father, the late Joseph Francis Jones, is
given adequate record concerning the family history
of William M. Jones, who was born on the old home-
stead mentioned in the preceding article, the date of
his nativity having been January 24, 1867. On this
fine old homestead he was reared to manhood, and his
higher educational discipline was obtained in old Tran-
sylvania College at Lexington. He had active charge
of the old home place at the time of his marriage, in
1888, and in the following year he erected his present
modern and attractive house, on a part of the old
homestead, of which he owns about seventy acres, though
he utilizes a total of about two hundred and eighty
acres in his vigorous and successful enterprise as an
agriculturist and stock-grower. He raises principally
tobacco, corn and wheat, and in the livestock depart-
ment of his farm industry he has a fine herd of twenty-
five Shorthorn cattle at the time of this writing, in
1920. He has exhibited Shorthorn cattle at various
county and state fairs and has won numerous prizes
on such exhibits. On his farm he also raises Hamp-
shire swine of the best type, and his place is known
as the Wayside Stock Farm. He also feeds each season
a goodly number of hogs, and in this special field of
enterprise he is associated with his son in Woodford
County. For thirty-one years Mr. Jones operated a
threshing machine each successive season, and in this
connection he became widely known throughout Clark
County, where he covered the same territory with his
threshing outfit year after year, with a number of
patrons whose names appeared continuously on his list
for fully thirty years. Mr. Jones has distinctive me-
chanical ability, and thus he was able to maintain his
standard of service in the threshing enterprise up to
the highest point. He has taken loyal interest in com-
munity affairs and is known as a progressive and
public-spirited citizen of his native county. _ He has
appeared on one or more occasions as a candidate for
the office of county sheriff, but political exigencies
have compassed his defeat each time. He is actively
affiliated with the time-honored Masonic fraternity, in
which h;s ancient craft affiliation is with Pine Grove
Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. He is a
member of the Commandery of Knights Templars at
Winchester, and the temnle of the Mystic Shrine in
the City of Lexington. His religious faith is that of
the Presbyterian Church, and his wife holds member-
ship in the Christian Church.
In 1888 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Jones
to Miss Tennie Sweeney, of Lancaster, Garrard County,
and of this union have been born four children: Eliza-
beth is the wife of James B. Ellison,_ of Madison
County; Joseph M. is a prosperous agriculturist and
stock-grower in Woodford County, his wife, whose
maiden name was Mary Catherine Watts, having been
born and reared in that county; Annie Morford, who
remains at the parental home, is a graduate of the
Winchester High School; and William M., Jr., who
likewise remains at home, is a member of the class
of 1921 -in the high school at Winchester, the home
place being situated nine miles southwest of that city.
Capt. Wiley L. Dixon, a captain of infantry in the
regular army, now stationed at Fort Thomas, Kentucky,
is a native of the state, his ancestors for several gene-
rations have been prominent in Henderson County, and
he is a.descendant of an American officer in the Revolu-
tion who particularly distinguished himself at the battle
of Camden.
This patriotic ancestor was Henry Dixon, a life long
resident of North Carolina, who served as captain,
major and lieutenant colonel in the Continental Troops
under General Washington. He was inspector general
on the staff of General Greene at the time of the battle
of Eutaw Springs. His wife was Miss Martha Wynn,
and one of their sons, Wynn Dixon, served as a
lieutenant in the Revolutionary Army. However, the
line of paternal descent to Capt. Wiley Dixon is through
another son, Henry Dixon, Jr., who was born in Caswell
County, North Carolina, and about 1804 established his
home in Henderson County, Kentucky, where some
of his descendants live today. He was a successful
planter, operating his fields with slave labor, and had
the honor of representing Henderson County in one
of the early State Legislatures. He married Mary
Johnston, a native of Virginia, who died in Henderson
County. Their son, Henry Dixon the third, great-
grandfather of Capt. Wiley Dixon, was born in Hender-
son County in 1809 and spent his life there as a farmer,
planter and slave owner, and was a captain in the
Kentucky State Militia. He died in 1879. His wife
was Anna Maria Ashby of Virginia ancestry. The
next generation of this old Henderson County family
was represented by John Edward Dixon, who was
born in 1831 and died in 1900, having spent all his life
in Henderson County. In a business way he was identi-
fied with farming and planting. He married Miss Mary
Sugg, who is still living, at the age of eighty-two, in
Henderson, and was born in that countv in 1839.
The father of Capt. Wiley Dixon was Dr. Wiley Lee
Dixon, who was born in Henderson County in 1869,
received a high school education there, and graduated
from the St. Louis College of 'Medicine. He practiced
at Morganfield in Union County. Kentucky, until 1902.
when he removed to Clarkton, Missouri, and followed
his profession there until his death in 1905. He was
a democrat, served as a school trustee at Clarkton, and
was affiliated with the Eoiscopal Church and the
Ancient Order of United Workmen. Doctor Dixon
married in Henderson County Miss Nancy Dixon
Moselev, now living' at Henderson. She was born in
Henderson County May 19, 1870, and is a graduate
of the Henderson Female Seminary. Wiley L. is the
oldest of her three children : Thomas Edward is con-
nected with the Samuel Cupples Company at St. Louis,
Missouri. Her daughter, Martha Elizabeth, lives at
home.
Capt. Wiley L. Dixon was born in Henderson County,
December 30. 1890, was educated in the public schools
of Morganfield, at Clarkton, Missouri.^ and finished his
freshman vear in the Henderson High School. He
studied law and was admitted to the bar in December,
1913. At the age of sixteen he became an employee
of the Henderson Journal, remaining with that news-
paper seven months. His first military service began
April 10, 1907, as a member of Company B of the
Third Kentucky Infantry, National Guard, and for six
months he was on duty during the Night Riders disturb-
ances of 1908. Up to January, 1910, he was an employe
of the Mann Brothers Department Store at Henderson
and was then appointed demity clerk of the Henderson
Circuit Court, an office he filled until February 14, 1912.
Then as a major in the National Guard he was on
duty in the adjutant general's office until December n,
Vol. V— 41
448
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
1913, being relieved upon his entrance into the race for
the chief clerkship of the Kentucky Senate. He was
elected and served during the Session of 1914, and
was also connected with the state treasurer's office until
September 15, 1915. After leaving Frankfort he re-
turned to Henderson and was in the insurance business
until January, 1917, and for several months following
was in the valuation accountant's office of the Lquisville
& Nashville Railroad Company at Louisville. From
July until August 25, 1917, Captain Dixon was a book-
keeper with the prominent contracting firm, the Mason
& Hanger Company, who had the contract for building
the cantonments at Camp Zachary Taylor. He left this
employment to enter the Second Officers Training
Camp at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana.
A complete detailed record of Captain Dixon's mili-
tary service may be appropriately entered in this con-
nection. His record in the Kentucky National Guard
is as follows : enlisted April 10, 1907, in Company
B Third Kentucky Infantry, appointed corporal, elected
second lieutenant February 10, 1910; appointed First
lieutenant March 11, 1911; appointed captain April 4,
1911; appointed major, I. G. Department, February 17,
1912, and detailed for duty in the adjutant general's
office, Frankfort. Kentucky. Relieved December 11,
1913. Dropped from the roster of officers December
31, 1913, office being unauthorized by the War Depart-
ment.
His service record with the Federal Armies during
and since the World war is as follows : enlisted Second
Officers Training Camp, Fort Benjamin Harrison, In-
diana, August 26, 1917; commissioned a captain, in-
fantry, O. R. C, November 27, 191 7; assigned to
Eighty-eighth Division, Camp Dodge, Iowa, attached
to the One Hundred and Sixty-third Depot Brigade,
January 1, 1918, attached to the Three Hundred and
Fifty-second Infantry, January 4, 1918. Transferred
to Camp Hancock, Georgia, May 25, 191 8, assigned to
Twenty-fourth Recruit Company, R. R. Depot, May
28, 1918. Assigned to the main training depot MGTC,
Camp Hancock, Georgia, June 19, 1918. Announced as
adjutant, June 19, 1918. Promoted August 19, 1918, to
be major infantry, with rank from August 15, 1918.
Assumed command of training group No. 2, main
training Depot, MGTC, August 24, 1918. Assigned to
command Sixth Battalion, group two, September 1,
1918. Assigned to command group two, October
21, 1918. Assigned to Sixth Battalion about December
I, 1918. Assigned to command the training battalion,
Camp Hancock, Georgia, Januarv 1919. Assigned in-
fantry officers' school, Camp Lee, Virginia, March
14, 1919, with orders to report April 1. Attached to
the Sixty-second Infantry, Camp Lee, Virginia, April
29, 1919. Assigned War Department, Commission on
Training Camp Activities, May 26, 1919. given the
Tenth District, with headquarters at Chicago, Illinois.
Assigned War Plans Division G. S. and as officer in
charge of the music sub-section camp activities section,
October 16, 1919. Assigned A. G. O., E. and R. Division,
June 26, 1920, same duties. Assigned Fort Thomas,
Kentucky, August 17, 1920, as education and recreation
officer. Accepted a commission as captain infantry,
regular army on September 20, 1920.
While Captain Dixon is now at the Recruit Depot at
Fort Thomas, his permanent residence is at Henderson,
and his permanent post office address is the War
Department at Washington. He is a democrat in
politics, a member of the Episcopal Church, belongs to
the Society of the Cincinnati, is affiliated with Fort
Thomas Lodge No. 808 F. and A. M., the Tribe of Ben
Hur, and Henderson Camp, Modern Woodmen of
America. September 25, 1913, at Frankfort, he married
Miss Gazelle Toombs, daughter of Walter K. and Sarah
CMinter) Toombs, residents of Louisville, where her
father is connected with the Stewart Dry Goods Com-
pany. Mrs. Dixon is a graduate of the high school of
Frankfort. They have three children: Nancy Mildred,
born June 26, 1914; Wiley Lee, Jr., born December 13,
1915; and Robert Toombs, born May 25, 1917.
William Dingus has been widely and favorably
known among the people of Floyd County for a long
period of years, was in early life a teacher and mer-
chant, studied law and was admitted to practice a
quarter of a century ago, is also an ordained minister
of the Baptist Church, and is the present county
attorney of Floyd County at Prestonsburg.
Mr. Dingus was born at the Forks of Beaver in
Floyd County October 21, 1857, son of James H. and
Sarah B. (Halbert) ■ Dingus and grandson of William
Dingus of Scott County, Virginia. James H. Dingus
was a native of Scott County, Virginia, and came to
Kentucky when a young man about 1855. He was a
Union soldier during the Civil war, being with Company
F of the Thirty-ninth Kentucky Mounted Infantry
under Captain Webb. He was in the battles of Salt-
works and Puncheon and other important battles, and
for a short time was a prisoner of war, but made his
escape. His life after the war was devoted to farming
in Floyd County, where he died June 3, 1903, at the
age of seventy. His wife Sarah was a daughter of
John Halbert, who came from North Carolina. She
died November 26, 1919, at the age of eighty-five. She
was almost a lifelong member of the Methodist Church.
Of her children William is the oldest; John L. is a
farmer at Wheelersburg, Ohio ; David C. is a farmer
and business man at Alphoretta in Floyd County ;
George A. is a farmer in Greenup County; Elman L.
is a farmer at Alphoretta; Amanda is the wife of M.
L. Preston of Smalley; and Elizabeth is the wife of
S. B. May, a merchant and business man at Langley,
Kentucky.
William Dingus grew up on his father's homestead,
attended the common schools nearby, also was a student
at Prestonsburg, and at the age of sixteen qualified as
a teacher. Teaching was a profession that engaged him
for some years and he taught altogether eight schools.
For ten years after his marriage Mr. Dingus was in
the mercantile business at Goodloe, Kentucky, and in
March, 1901, he removed to Prestonsburg.
For the past thirty years he has been one of the
prominent leaders in the republican party in Floyd
County. In 1893 he was the unanimous choice of the
republican convention for United States senator to
represent the Thirty-third District. He had no opposi-
tion in the election, and in 1895 was reelected over
Judge J. K. Dixon. He was in the Senate while
Governor Bradley was governor. While in the Senate
he diligently pursued the study of law, and was ex-
amined by judges Hazelrigg and J. H. Lewis and ad-
mitted to the bar in 1894. He practiced law in con-
nection with merchandising, and since 1901 has been
one of the leading attorneys at Prestonsburg. He was
chosen county attorney of Floyd County in 1917 and still
fills that office.
Mr. Dingus has been a member of the Baptist Church
since 1890 and for many years has been an ordained
minister of that denomination. He has been especially
interested in Sunday School work. Several years ago
Mr. Dingus was nominated for assistant secretary of
state by J. P. Lewis, but the choice was not approved
by Governor Stanley.
Mr. Dingus has sat in the Grand Lodge of Masons
and is the present secretary of Zebulon Lodge No. 275
F. and A. M. He is also affiliated with the Inde-
pendent Order of Odd Fellows, is past sachem of the
Improved Order of Red Men, and a member of the
Maccabees.
Mr. Dingus married Pocahontas L. Layne, who was
born at Prestonsburg, daughter of J. S. Layne. They
lave a family of six children: Nora M. is the wife
of W. H. Powers, a business man at Henderson, Texas ;
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
449
Joseph S. is a teacher and farmer at East Point in
Floyd County; T. H. Dingus is now district manager
for the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company at Evans-
ville, Indiana. Grace living at Prestonsburg, is the
widow of Carl Ford. William A. is associated with
the Morell Supply Company of Prestonsburg. The
youngest of the family is Sallie B.
Whitfield Family. Whitfield has been a distin-
guished name in several Southern states throughout
a period of seven or eight generations. Two prom-
inent coal operators of Eastern Kentucky bear that
name and are of that lineage. Both were born in
Marengo County, Alabama, but the family was earlier
identified with North Carolina and still earlier with
Virginia.
The Whitfields came from Lancashire, England, and
the ancient form of the name, Hoit-Feldt, suggests
that their ancestors were probably among those North-
men who settled on the coast of Morecambe Bay
about or before the time of Alfred the Great. The
family coat of arms signifies descent from the sea
kings.
Mathew Whitfield came to Virginia by way of Bar-
bados in the ship Prosperous in the year 1679, and
received one or more grants of land from the Virginia
government for bringing colonists into the country.
He is supposed to have owned or chartered his ship.
Mathew was a son of Mathew, who was a son of a
Sir Thomas Whitfield of the East India Company.
He had two children of record, a son, William, known
as William I, who married in 1713 or 1714 Elizabeth
Goodman of Nansemond County, Virginia, and a
daughter, Elizabeth, who married in 1717 John Smith,
a great-grandson of John Smith of the East India
Company. It is recorded that this younger John Smith
was baptized at Barbados in 1679.
William Whitfield I and his wife Elizabeth Good-
man had eleven children, among these William II,
born 1715. William II married Rachel Bryan, who
was a daughter of Needham Bryan and his wife, Anne
Rambeau, and granddaughter of William Bryan and
Alice Needham. Alice Needham, born about 1668,
was a granddaughter of the Sir Robert Needham' of
Lambeth, so often mentioned by John Evelyn in his
Diary. Rebecca, a sister of Rachel Bryan, married
Daniel Boone of Kentucky, who named one of his
stations Bryan.
William "Whitfield II (1715-1758) and his wife,
Rachel Bryan, had a numerous issue, among them,
William, born 1743, married Barbara Williams; Bryan,
born 1754, married Winifred Bryan ; Needham, born
1756, married four times ; and Elizabeth, who married
first a Smith and afterward Farquhard Campbell.
All of these sons were soldiers of the Revolution.
In the battle of Moores Creek Bridge in 1776 William
and his brother-in-law, Ben Williams, captured Colonel
Farquhard Campbell and General Macdonald, both
wounded. Colonel Campbell was carried to Rockford.
the seat of William Whitfield II, where he was nursed
back to health by Elizabeth, whom he afterward mar-
ried. Some of their descendants live in Sumter County,
Alabama. One of them, Robert Macgregor Campbell,
was an officer in the recent World war.
General Bryan Whitfield (17^4-1817) married Wini-
fred Brvan, a daughter of Nathan Bryan, who was a
son of Hardy Brvan and grandson of Edward Bryan.
This branch of the Bryan family is traced back to a
roval line in Ireland-
General Bryan Whitfield, above mentioned, was
owner of a large estate known as Pleasant Plains,
Lenoir County, North Carolina. Immediately after
the Revolutionary war North Carolina established a
state militia, and the master of Pleasant Plains was
appointed major-general. Gen. Bryan Whitfield in the
year 1789 was one of the founders of the University
of North Carolina and one of its first trustees.
It was on his plantation, Pleasant Plains, that Nathan
Bryan Whitfield was born September 19, 1799. Gen.
Bryan Whitfield entertained liberally and his house
was a meeting place for the cultured people of his
section. In this hospitality he shared honors with his
wife, who, as noted, was the daughter of Nathan
Bryan, a large land and slave owner who died in 1798,
while a member of the National Congress.
Nathan Bryan Whitfield early developed special in-
tellectual genius. His father, observing the prema-
ture development of the child's mental powers, forbade
that he should be taught letters before he reached his
seventh birthday. At the age of nine he attended
school under a tutor and at twelve he entered the
University. His prudent father again interfered and
sent him to the counting room, the business office of a
merchant, where he might be employed in other direc-
tions than the study' of books. However, the next
year he matriculated at the University, where he fin-
ished his education at the age of seventeen. At an
early age he was counsellor of state for the State of
North Carolina. Soon after coming of age he was
commissioned major-general to succeed his father.
After him his brother George held the commission,
and when George moved to Florida the third brother,
James, was similarly dignified in the military affairs
of the state.
Nathan Bryan Whitfield in the year 1819 married
his cousin Elizabeth, or Betsy Whitfield, who was a
daughter of Needham Whitfield, mentioned in the pre-
vious genealogy. She died in 1846, leaving six children,
Mary, Bryan Watkins, Needham George, Nathan
Bryan, Edith and Bessie. In 1834 General Whitfield
brought his wife and a large number of slaves to
Marengo County, Alabama. Some years later he
built his home near Demopolis, Alabama, on the site
of the old Indian agency and named it Gaineswood in
honor of General George S. Gaines, who was the
Government agent at the place. Gaineswood was a
masterly construction of original architecture. The
master was both architect and builder. He had no
assistance to draw the plans, no labor was employed
except his own slaves until the fresco work and the
panel painting were ready to be done. Then he sent
to Philadelphia for skilled white workmen. The draw-
ing room was forty feet long and two great Parisian
mirrors were set in the walls. The heavy carpet was
woven to fit the floor without seams. Gaineswood
was visited by architects from all parts of the country,
and one eminent authority declared it the "Purest tvpe
of Grecian architecture in America." During the Civil
war in 1863 Gaineswood was the headquarters of
General Polk, one of General Whitfield's lifelong
friends. At Gaineswood General Whitfield sunk the
second artesian well that was bored on the American
Continent. This was done with tools made in his plan-
tation blacksmith shop.
General Whitfield never sought public office. Never-
theless he was one of the strong men and great per-
sonalities of his time in the state. He was active in
counsel and personal aid of public enterprises, planned
the beautiful buildings of the Western Alabama Fair
Association at Demopolis and promoted the early fairs
held there. His second wife was Betty Whitfield.
Natalie was the only child of this marriage.
One of the children of General Whitfield of Gaines-
wood was Dr. Bryan Watkins Whitfield, who was
born in North Carolina in 1828 and died in 1908. He
was educated at the University of North Carolina,
studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania
and for many years practiced as a physician and sur-
geon at Demopolis, having spent the greater part of
his life from childhood in Marengo County. During
the war between the North and the South he entered
the service of the Confederate government and gave
his time, his services and his plantation to the cause
he so ardently espoused. Recognizing the dire need
450
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
of chemicals and medicines because of the blockade
so rigidly enforced he manufactured niter, raised pop-
pies, from which he extracted a crude opium, and
from the food grown on his plantation kept those
who were in need. There are few instances of a more
complete devotion to duty than that offered by the
self-sacrificing deeds of Doctor Whitfield. The demo-
cratic party and principles had in him an ardent sup-
porter. A communicant of the Episcopal Church, he
ever lived up to its highest ideals and contributed
generously of his means to it. He was a Royal Arch
Mason. Doctor Whitfield in 1855 married Mary Alice
Foscue, the original spelling of which name was
Fortescue. This family moved to North Carolina in
early Colonial times. Mary Alice Foscue spent all
her life in Marengo County, Alabama. Her children
were Allen, who died in infancy; a son that died in
infancy; Bessie Alice, who became the wife of James
Whitfield, a physician and surgeon and coal operator
and very successful business man, and both died at
Demopolis ; Jesse George, a civil engineer in Marengo
County ; Augustus Foscue and Bryan Watkins, who are
the Kentucky coal operators and whose individual
sketches follow ; Nathan, a planter in Marengo County ;
Alice, who died at San Angelo, Texas, in 1921, wife
of Levin Compton, formerly a cotton planter of Ma-
rengo County, Alabama, and now a merchant at San
Angelo; Hettie, wife of Thomas L. Sharpe, a coal
operator of Nauvoo, Alabama ; the three succeeding
children, two sons and a daughter, all died in infancy;
and Mary, the youngest, who died at Demopolis, was
the wife of Thomas E. McKinley, a manufacturer of
wagon material and other woodwork at Demopolis.
Augustus Foscue Whitfield, who represents the
Whitfield family in Kentucky, is president of the Clover
Fork Coal Company of Kitts, Harlan County, and was
formerly identified with the Left Fork Coal Company
of Arjay in Bell County, these being two of the suc-
cessful mining corporations operating in this section
of Eastern Kentuckv,
He was born in Marengo County, Alabama, Decem-
ber 25, 1861, and his early boyhood fell within the
period of war and reconstruction. For three terms
he attended common school in Marengo County, and
he lived on his father's plantation until he was twenty-
one. Later for two and a half years he was a student
in the Alabama Polytechnic Institute at Auburn, and
for five years was in the signal service of the LTnited
States Army and the Weather Bureau. He did signal
work or field service in the war against Geronimo.
while that famous Indian was still holding out against
the United States forces. During this duty he was
stationed at Fort Thomas, Arizona. From 1890 to
1809 Mr. Whitfield was engaged in surveying and
other kinds of work in his native state. In the latter
year he entered his present field of endeavor, in which
he has found congenial and profitable employment.
For seven years he was connected with the coal min-
ing industry at Nauvoo, Alabama, and in that time
he and his associates opened two mines at Nauvoo
and one in Jefferson Countv, Alabama. He served as
secretary and treasurer of the Black Creek Coal Com-
pany and of the Warrior Pratt Coal Company, but
sold his Alabama property in 1007 and. coming to Ken-
tucky, with his brother B. W. Whitfield, organized the
Left Fork Coal Company of Ariay in Bell County.
In 191 1 he assisted in organizing the Clover Fork Coal
Company, with headquarters at Kitts in Harlan County,
and served it as secretary and treasurer unt'l 1017
when he was succeeded by his son, A. F. Whitfield.
Jr. In 1010 he was elected president, the office he still
holds. The mines of the Clover Fork Company are
located at Kitts and have a capacity of twenty-five cars
per day.
Mr. Whitfield has his home at Middlesboro, where
among other properties he owns his residence at Burn-
hamwood and Inglewood roads. He is an independent
in politics. For many years he has been a communi-
cant of the Episcopal Church. In Masonry he belongs
to Pinnacle Lodge No. 661, F. and A. M., at Middles-
boro ; Louisville Consistory, in which he has been
raised to the thirty-second degree, and Kosair Temple
of the Mystic Shrine at Louisville. During the late
war he was one of the zealous workers in behalf of
the Government and bought bonds and War Savings
Stamps and contributed without stint to the war or-
ganization.
In 1888 Mr. Whitfield married at Yuma, Arizona,
Miss Mary Emma Clark, who was born at Benicia,
California. Mr. and Mrs. Whitfield have had the
following children born to them : Mary Alice, who is
with her parents ; A. F., Jr., who is secretary and
treasurer of the Clover Fork Coal Company, lives at
Kitts, and married Evangeline Hudson, of Cincinnati,
Ohio; Eugene, who died in infancy; Edward Clark,
who is general manager of the Clover Fork Coal
Company, lives at Kitts, is not married, and is a veteran
of the World war, in which he perfected himself in
flying, but as he was a skilled repairer and very useful
in the manufacture of airplanes, was kept in this coun-
try and used for this class of work during the eighteen
months he was in the service, but was mustered out
as a sergeant in the aerial service; William, who is a
student of the Kentucky State University at Lexing-
ton, Kentucky; Hettie, who is a student at Breneau
College. Gainesville, Georgia; Thomas, who is a stu-
dent of the Middlesboro High School; Margaret, who
is attending the Middlesboro graded schools ; an in-
fant, twin of Margaret, who died at birth ; and Jesse
George and Dorothy, both of whom are attending the
Middlesboro graded schools.
Both in Alabama and Kentucky Mr. Whitfield is
recognized as a man who has never failed to do his
dutv to his home community. His success in life is
of his own making. He is of the caliber that is only
stimulated, not discouraged, by reverses. He and his
wife have reared a fine family and all of them are
held in the highest esteem in the several communities
in which they reside.
Bryan- Watkins Whitfield, of Kitts, Harlan Coun-
ty, one of the most skillful and successful coal oper-
ators in the State of Kentucky, bears the name of his
honored father. Dr. Bryan Watkins Whitfield, whose
career is briefly noted in the sketch of the Whitfield
family. He is not only a namesake, but in every way
worthy of his father's name and character, and in
business, in the loyalty of good citizenship, and the
integrity of manhood is thoroughly entitled to the name
of Whitfield.
He was born in Marengo County, Alabama, in 1864.
The family fortunes having been largely dissipated as
a result of the war, he was reared under the influences
that proceeded from his cultured and high-minded par-
ents, but had to realize most of his own advantages
beyond the limited facilities available to the family
purse. He attended common school two years and at
the age of eighteen entered the Agricultural and Me-
chanical College of Starkville, Mississippi, where he
studied three years. This period of study reenforced
his natural abilities for constructive work and engi-
neering. After leaving college he was resident engi-
neer on the construction work of the Kansas City,
Memphis and B'rmingham Railroad until 1800, when
he became superintendent for the Galloway Coal Com-
panv of Carbon Hill and Galloway in Walker County,
Alabama. In 1899, as president of the Black Creek
Coal Companv. he opened the mines on that company's
property at Nauvoo, Alabama, and continued in the
capacity of president until December, 1906, at which
time he sold his interest in the company. In January,
1007, he also sold his interest in the Warrior Pratt
Coal Company in Jefferson County, Alabama, a newly
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
451
formed corporation then engaged in developing and
nearly ready to ship coal. He was also president of
this company.
Bryan W. Whitfield in 1907 entered the coal industry
of Eastern Kentucky, helping to form the Left Fork
Coal Company, which opened and operated two mines
at Arjay, Kentucky. He was president of that com-
pany until the property was sold to the Continental
Coal Corporation. He and his associates then formed
the Clover Fork Coal Company at Kitts, and he re-
mained president of this corporation until January 1,
1919. He is now president of the Harlan Colliers
Company at Ages, Kentucky, a new mine with a ca-
pacity of about twenty-five cars per day. During the
past fourteen years through his connection with the
companies noted and in other ways his influence has
been a constructive one in the development of the coal
industry of Eastern Kentucky.
Mr. B. W. Whitfield married Miss Lou Morrow, of
Mississippi, who died soon afterward, leaving no chil-
dren. His second wife was Miss Amme Keyes, daugh-
ter of Preston Keyes, of Sheffield, Alabama. Their
children are : Frances, a student of art in New York ;
Bryan, a student in the Kentucky University at Lex-
ington ; Mary, a student in the Kentucky College for
Women at Danville ; and a son now deceased.
B. W. Whitfield is a thirty-second degree Scottish
Rite Mason and a member of the Mystic Shrine at
Birmingham. During the late war his special patriotic
service was in the line of his long, practical experi-
ence. He bent every resource toward the increase of
coal production within his own mines and to aid the
fuel administration in production and conservation
everywhere. He was also a liberal contributor in a
financial way to the Red Cross, Loan and War Sav-
ings Stamps drives.
Col. C. B. Lyttle is one of the veteran members of
the bar of Clay County and achieved marked distinction
in the work of his profession, his practice being now
confined to occasional appearance in connection with
cases of important order. He is a native son of Ken-
tucky, a representative of one of the old and honored
families of this section of the Blue Grass State, and
in his profession and as a liberal and public-spirited
citizen he has contributed much to the prestige which
his distinguished father had here given to the family
name as a talented lawyer and as a man of much influ-
ence in community life and public affairs of more gen-
eral order.
Colonel Lyttle was born at Harlan, judicial center of
the Kentucky County of the same name, and the date
of his nativity was March 10, 1850. The lineage of
the Lyttle family traces back to sterling Scotch-Irish
origin, and the founders of the American branch of
the family settled in Virginia in the Colonial period
of our national history. Harrington Lyttle, grandfather
of the subject of this review, passed his entire life in
Lee County, Virginia, was a successful planter and a
citizen of prominence and influence and was a resident
of Jonesville, that county, at the time of his death,
which 'occurred prior to the birth of his grandson,
Colonel Lyttle of this review.
Hon. David Y. Lyttle, father of him whose name
initiates this article, was born in Lee County, Virginia,
in the year 1821, and died at his fine homestead farm,
Cedar Craig, one-fourth of a mile north of the Court
House at Manchester, Clay County, Kentucky, in the
year 1907. He was reared and educated in the Old
Dominion State, and about the year 1846 he came to
Kentucky and established his residence at Harlan,
county seat of Harlan County, whence in 1856 he re-
moved to Clay County and engaged in the practice of
law at Manchester, besides becoming the owner of the
nearby Cedar Craig farm, which he developed into one
of the fine properties of this section of the state and
which continued his place of residence during the re-
mainder of his long and worthy life. He became one
of the distinguished members of the Kentucky bar, and
for many years controlled an exceptionally large and
representative law business, which involved his inter-
position in many litigations of major importance. He
continued in the practice of his profession throughout
his entire active career, and was one of the venerable
and honored citizens of Clay County at the time of his
death. A leader in the councils of the democratic party
in this section of Kentucky, he preferred to give his
attention to his profession rather than to function in
public office, but he consented at one time to represent
the Thirty-third Senatorial District in the Kentucky
Legislature. The records of the State Senate show the
excellent constructive work and loyal service which he
gave as a member of that body. He was a lieutenant
colonel of the Kentucky State Militia during the cli-
macteric period of the Civil war. Both he and his
wife were zealous members of the Christian Church,
and he was liberal in the support of its various activities.
As a young man Col. David Y. Lyttle wedded Miss
Drusilla Brittain, who was born in Harlan County,
Kentucky, in 1823, and who died at the Cedar Craig
homestead in Clay County in the year 1863. Of the
children of this union the eldest is Prof. G. Brittain
Lyttle, who now resides in the home of his only surviv-
ing brother, Colonel Lyttle of this sketch. Professor
Lyttle is a man of high intellectual attainments and has
achieved special pedagogic distinction as a teacher of
the Spanish language, his professional service having
been rendered in the cities of Knoxville, Tennessee, and
New Orleans, Louisiana, as well as in various other
communities. Dale C. was a farmer near Manchester,
Clay County, at the time of his death in 1882. Colonel
Lyttle of this review was the next in order of birth.
Louisa and William died in infancy. Nancy became the
wife of A. J. Hecker, an attorney, and both died at
Manchester, Clay County, she having been but thirty
years of age at the time of her demise. James was
a prosperous merchant in the City of Topeka, Kansas,
at the time of his death in 1901. Sallie is the wife
of Harvey L. Hatton, ot Barbourville, Knox County.
Robert Lee was a resident of Harlan County at the time
of his death in 1891.
After the death of his first wife Col. David Y. Lyttle
married Miss Ellen Jett, who was born in Breathitt
County, Kentucky, in 1839, and whose death occurred
at the old homestead, Cedar Craig, in 1884. Four chil-
dren were born of this marriage : Malva, who became
the wife of D. K. Rawlings, died at Cedar Craig, Clay
County, in 1884, and her husband was engaged in the
practice of law at London, Laurel County, at the time
of his death ; Cassie, who resides at Versailles, Wood-
ford County, is the widow of B. White, Jr., who was
a farmer by vocation and who was murdered by an
assassin in the spring of 1921 ; Leonora is the wife of
Frank P. Milburn, a successful architect, and they re-
side in the City of Washington, D. C. ; Margaret is the
wife of George Combs, of Washington, D. C, where
as a talented newspaper man he represents the Balti-
more Sun, a leading paper in the metropolis of Mary-
land.
The public schools of Manchester, Clay County, af-
forded Col. C. B. Lyttle his early education, and there-
after he was for four terms a student in the University
of Kentucky at Lexington. In preparing himself for his
profession he was signally favored in having received
the preceptorship of Hon. W. C. Breckinridge and Hon.
John T. Shelby, two of Kentucky's most distinguished
lawyers. Prior to attending the lectures delivered by
these able legists he had so far advanced his technical
studies as to prove himself eligible for the bar, to which
he was admitted in 1871. In that year he engaged in
the practice of his profession at Manchester, and the
judicial center of Clay County continued as the central
stage of his extensive and important activities for many
years, even as it continues to represent his home at the
452
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
present time, in which he is retired from active practice
save when called upon to give his able interposition in
cases of major importance. The Colonel has long held
high reputation as a skilled and resourceful trial lawyer,
and in both the civil and criminal departments of his
profession he has won many noteworthy court victories
in connection with causes of more than local celebrity.
He resides upon his beautiful suburban homestead,
known as Brooks View, a finely improved farmstead of
300 acres one-fourth of a mile west of Manchester,
besides which he retains ownership of a part of his
father's old home place, Cedar Craig.
At all times has Colonel Lyttle stood exponent of
loyal, liberal and progressive civic ideals, and his political
allegiance has been given unreservedly to the democratic
party. As a young man he served three terms, a total
of twelve years, as county attorney of Clay County, and
he served as presidential elector for the Eleventh Con-
gressional District of Kentucky at the time of the elec-
tion of President Wilson for his first term. He served
as a colonel on the military staff of Governor Black.
The Colonel has wielded much influence in the further-
ance of educational advancement in his county and state,
and in a professional and business way has had im-
portant association with railroad affairs in Kentucky.
Both he and his wife hold membership in the Pres-
byterian Church at Manchester, and are active in its
support and work. Their beautiful home is known as
a center of gracious hospitality and as the stage of
much of the representative social life of the community.
In 1878 was solemnized the marriage of Colonel Lyttle
to Miss Bell Garrard, daughter of Gen. T. T. and Lucy
(Lee) Garrard, both of whom died in Clay County,
Representatives of old and distinguished Kentucky fam-
ilies. General Garrard as a young man served as
captain of a Kentucky company in the Mexican war,
and in the Civil war it was his to give gallant service
as a brigadier general in command of troops that did
splendid work in defense of the cause of the Union.
Throughout his business career General Garrard was a
successful manufacturer of salt near Manchester, and
he was long known and honored as one of the influ-
ential citizens and leading men of affairs in Clay
County. Mrs. Lyttle is a woman of most gracious
personality and of distinctive culture, her educational
advantages in her youth having included those of
Loretta College and the Ben Franklin School at Frank-
fort, Kentucky's capital city. In conclusion is given
brief record concerning the children of Colonel and
Mrs. Lyttle : John Dishman, eldest of the number,
died at the parental home when twenty-one years of
age; Theophilus T., who was born in 1881, is a pros-
perous lumber dealer at Manchester and is also iden-
tified with important coal-mining operations in this sec-
tion of the state; David Y., named in honor of his
paternal grandfather, has professionally followed in the
footsteps of his father and grandfather and is one
of the representative younger members of the bar of
Clay County, where he was born in 1882 and where
he resides on his home farm near Manchester ; Emma
is the wife of John Lucas, a coal operator, and they
reside at East Manchester ; James M., a resident of
Manchester, is a lumber dealer and coal operator; Lucy
is the wife of C. B. Donnelly, who owns and operates
a portion of the old Lyttle family homestead farm,
Cedar Craig, besides which he is, in 1921, private sec-
retary to Hon. J. M. Robsion, representative of the
Eleventh Kentucky District in the Congress of the
United States; Carl died in infancy; Helen is the wife
of J. M. Keith, who is engaged in the insurance busi-
ness in the City of Knoxville, Tennessee ; Drusilla
is the wife of John C. White, Jr., a prosperous farmer
near Park Valley, Clay County.
Mrs. Mabel (Van Dyke) Bell has the unique dis-
tinction of being the first and only woman appointed
and performing the duties and responsibilities of a
United States commissioner. She has filled that place
at Covington, in the Eastern District of Kentucky, since
January 1, 1912, at which time Hon. A. M. J. Cochran,
judge of the United States District Court for the East-
ern District of Kentucky, confered that office upon her.
Her ability and qualifications were not unknown, for
she had served as deputy clerk in the Federal Court
for several years prior to her assuming the commis-
sioner's duties. For nearly ten years she continued
in both offices, but the increasing amount of work
occasioned by the war made it necessary for her to
give up one or the other and she resigned as deputy
clerk.
Mrs. Bell was born in Maysville, Kentucky, where
her father, L. W. Van Dyke, had located after leaving
the home of his father, David Van Dyke, a Presby-
terian minister, a descendant of the Van Dykes of
Holland, who left the old country and in Colonial days
settled in Pennsylvania.
After leaving his Philadelphia home L. W. Van Dyke
wandered a little and ultimately settled in Maysville,
Kentucky, where he married and where he carried on
the business of insurance until 1877, at which time he
moved to Covington, Kentucky, and established insur-
ance offices in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was a pioneer in
several plans of life insurance, originating the an-
nuity life, and several others. His early death pre-
vented the success coming to him that afterward came
to his followers. In 1878 he died, leaving a widow,
who survived a few years only, and one child, Mabel.
Mrs. Bell's mother was Laura Howell, one of a
large number of descendants of the Baltimore family
of that name. Her father, Abram Howell, early left
the place of his birth, education and marriage (Balti-
more), and traveling over the mountains in what was
then known as a "Dearborn" with his wife, mother-
in-law and several children and servants, he came to,
admired and therefore settled in Kenton County, Ken-
tucky, where he purchased a large farm. The land
comprising that farm is now covered with the tracks
and repair shops of the L. and N. and the C. and O.
Railways. Mr. Howell was one of the prominent,
prosperous and enterprising business men of Coving-
ton_ in those early days and engaged in many under-
takings. He owned a large fleet of steam-boats plying
the Ohio between Cincinnati and New Orleans, and
it was on one of these boats, the Sheperdess, when
returning from the south, that he and a son-in-law lost
their lives in the burning of the boat.
Mr. Howell was an ardent republican, taking active
part in the campaigns and torch light processions of
that day. He and his wife, Mary Curtis, died within
a short time of each other, leaving a family of eleven
children, all of whom are now deceased.
Mrs. Bell acquired her education in Covington and at
Science Hill, Shelbyville, Kentucky, where under Doctor
Poynter she with many other Kentucky girls, was
given the best of training under the instruction of
that noted and capable instructor.
In February of 1900 Mabel Van Dyke married Francis
Johnson Bell, of Danville, Kentucky. She is the proud
mother of two sons, both of whom show marked ability
along scientific electrical lines. The older boy, David
Van Dyke, born December, 1900, was a student at
the Cincinnati Ohio Mechanics Institute when war was
declared in April, 1917, and although but sixteen he
volunteered, was accepted and enlisted in the Kentucky
First. He received intensive training in Hattiesburg,
Mississippi, and was sent overseas in October. He re-
turned in January, 1919, and immediately returned to
his electricity. The second son, Thomas Helm, born
in November, 1902, graduated from Covington High
School in June, 1920, and is still a student.
Good health has never been one of the possessions of
Mrs. Bell, but with great endurance and energy, to-
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
453
gether with ambition for her two boys, who were small
children when left to her support, she has hewed her
way through paths not before traveled by woman. Hav-
ing blazed the trail, she will, of course, be followed
by many others and she wishes them all success. Her
achievements have not been great, but have been un-
usual and original, and for that reason Kentucky should
be proud of this daughter. She always says, with a
sincere smile, that she could have done nothing with-
out her wonderful friends, and to them she owes
everything.
Naret M. White. Well and favorably known in the
coal industry of Floyd County is Naret M. White, gen-
eral manager of the Colonial Coal and Coke Company,
of Prestonsburg. Mr. White has been connected with
this line of industry practically since he entered upon
his career, and during about forty years of identifica-
tion therewith has been the incumbent of numerous
important positions. In the various communities in
which he has been located he has always been found a
man of the highest principles and strictest integrity,
and at Prestonsburg, where he has lived since 1910,
has formed many sincere and lasting friendships.
Mr. White was born on a farm near Rio Grande,
Gallia County, Ohio, August 30, 1861, a son of D. A.
and Mary J. White, the latter of whom died when her
son was still a child. D. A. White, at the outbreak of
the war between the states, joined the Union army as
a wagonmaster, and later in the war was with the
Squirrel Rifle contingent when the daring Confederate
officer Morgan made his raid into Ohio. After the
war Mr. White resumed his activities as an agricul-
turist, a vocation in which he became very prosperous
and with which he was identified until his death in
1919, at the age of eighty-five years. He was a mem-
ber of the Methodist Church for magy years, and his
family were reared in the midst of a strict Methodist
atmosphere.
Brought up in a home where truth and industry were
placed at their proper value, N. M. White attended the
country district schools and later the Rio Grande Col-
lege, and at the age of eighteen years was a country
school-teacher. One year of this work, however, suf-
ficed to show him that he did not care for the vocation
of the educator, and he accordingly accepted a position
as clerk in a dry goods store at Jackson, Ohio. He
received his introduction to the coal industry as weigh-
master for the Emma Coal Company, and one year
later was transferred to the Ada mine, a property
owned by the Superior Coal Company, at Jackson, Ohio.
Later he was accountant for that concern, but five
years of constant service in the office broke down his
health and his concern transferred him to outside work
as superintendent of the mine at Glenroy. After three
years he became general superintendent of all the
mines, extending from Wellston to Jackson, and acted
in that capacity for sixteen, years. In 1910 Mr. White
came to Prestonsburg to become general manager of
the Colonial Coal and Coke Company, the home office
of which is at Pottsville, Pennsylvania. This is a
Delaware corporation organized to operate in the Ken-
tucky coal fields, and owns and operates four mines,
Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4, on the west side of the Big Sandy,
and mine No. 1 on the east side of that stream. This
was one of the pioneer companies of this region, its
operations having started in 1909.
Since locating at Prestonsburg, Mr. White has built a
home and taken an active part in the life of the com-
munity, where he is held in the highest esteem. He
and his worthy wife are consistent members of the
Methodist Church. Mr. White has supported all worthy
measures in a public-spirited way, but has confined his
interest in public affairs to that taken by a good citizen,
never seeking office on his own account. He is an
enthusiastic Mason and Knight Templar and belongs
to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, his
fraternal connections being with the bodies at Jackson.
In 1887 Mr. White was united in marriage with Miss
Ella L. Crossland, of Jackson, Ohio, and to this union
there have been born a son and a daughter : Naret M..
Jr., and Ellanoel, the latter of whom is unmarried and
resides with her parents. Naret M. White, Jr., received
good educational advantages and, having chosen civil
engineering as his profession, took a course in that
study at the Ohio State University. Upon his gradua-
tion from that institution he engaged for a time in high-
way building in Ohio, but later came to Kentucky and
established himself in business as the proprietor of a
drug store at Prestonsburg. Still later he entered the
field of coal operation, and at the present time is
general manager of the Winchester Coal Company,
which operates extensive mines at Emma, Floyd County,
where he is accounted an energetic and enterprising
business man and good citizen. Like his father, he is
an enthusiastic Mason, and has been master of Zebulon
Lodge No. 273, of Prestonsburg, while a resident of this
city. He holds membership also in the Knight Tem-
plars, and is a Noble of the Mystic Shrine.
Judge Ashland T. Patrick, Circuit Judge of the
Thirty-first Judicial District, has earned numerous dis-
tinctions during his long career at the bar and in public
affairs, covering a period of forty years.
Something in the environment of his birthplace seems
to develop able lawyers and influential leaders of men.
Judge Patrick was born June 2, 1859, in what is now
Magoffin County, then a part of Floyd on Burning
Springs Fork of Licking River. In that same locality
were born such eminent men as Judge J. P. Adams,
Judge David Redwine, Judge Matthew Redwine, Judge
D. W. Gardner and a number of other notable Ken-
tucky attorneys.
The parents of Judge Patrick were John W. and
Abigail (Salyers) Patrick, both representing old and
prominent families of Eastern Kentucky. The Patricks
came from Tazewell County, Virginia. The grandfather
of Judge Patrick was John Patrick, who was born in
Burkes Gardens in Tazewell County and with his fam-
ily came to the Licking Valley of Kentucky in 1820,
establishing his home on the land where his grandson
was born. John Patrick owned and farmed a large
tract of land in the Valley and was an active Methodist
and a democrat before the war. He proved faithful to
the Union in the struggle between the states. He was
an uncle of Capt. Reuben Patrick, who stole the cannon
from Humphrey Marshall from his camp and that piece
of ordnance is now owned by the family at Salyers-
ville. John Patrick was past eighty when he died.
John W. Patrick likewise followed farming and was
also a merchant. He died in February, 1919, at the
age of eighty-two. His wife, Abigail Salyers, was a
daughter of Jacob Salyers, who lived at Oil Springs in
Johnson County. She died in the month of April fol-
lowing her husband when eighty years of age. They
had been married half a century. In their family of
eleven children Judge Patrick is the oldest. Bascom
C. is a farmer at Salyersville ; Martha E. is the wife
of Judge W. L. May of Salyersville ; John H. is a
farmer in Magoffin County; Permelia is the wife of
D. B. Patrick of Salyersville; Dona C. was elected
sheriff of Magoffin County in November, 1921 ; Mary
B. was married to James A. Rowland of Winchester;
Jefferson is a resident of Salyersville; D. P. lives at
Picher, Oklahoma; Gemma is the wife of Oliver Pat-
rick of Ivyton, Kentucky; and Ben, the youngest, lives
in Magoffin County.
Ashland T. Patrick was liberally educated in the
classics as well as in the law. He attended George-
town College in Kentucky, and the Ohio Wesleyan
University at Delaware. He finished his university
course at the age of twenty-two. He taught three
terms of school and in 1881 was admitted to the bar.
Judge O'Rear became an attorney the same day. Judge
454
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
Patrick was associated in his law practice at Salyers-
ville^ with W. W. House until the latter's death, and
retained his home at Salyersville until 1916, when he
removed to Prestonsburg. His abilities commanded
the choice of an extensive general practice as a lawyer,
but for many years he has shared the responsibilities'
of public office at the same time. At the age of
twenty-four he was superintendent of schools of Ma-
goffin County, serving four years. From 1886 to 1896
he was United States Commissioner. He was elected
County Attorney in 1901, and filled that office four
years. Judge Patrick was elected Circuit Judge in
191S. being chosen on the republican ticket in a demo-
cratic district. Judge Patrick " is affiliated with the
Masons, Maccabees, Junior Order United American
Mechanics, and was formerly a deacon and is now an
elder in the Presbyterian Church.
In 1882 he married the daughter of W. W. House,
his former law partner. Judge and Mrs. Patrick have
four children. Lenore is the wife of Dr. R. C. Adams,
who served with the rank of colonel in the Medical
Corps with the American forces in France. Hortense
is the wife of B. J. Elam, an attorney and also editor
of the Independent at Salyersville. "The son, Henry
B., who answered the call to the colors and was as-
signed to clerical duty at Baltimore during the war, is
now connected with the Land Department of the Elk-
horn Coal Company at Prestonsburg. The youngest is
Effie E., wife of Charles Milby. a traveling salesman
with home at Buffalo in Larue County.
John William Moore, who was one of General Mor-
gan's men during the Civil war, has given more than
half a century to the service of agriculture and stock
raising, and practically all that time has lived on his
present farm eight miles southwest of Winchester.
This is the original T. Thomas Ap Jones farm, and is
situated a mile from the Kentuckv River, in the south-
western part of Clark County. 'The farm for years
and years was noted as a nursery, and many orchards
far and near over Kentucky received their foundation
stock from this land. For a number of years past it
has been cultivated as a general farm.
Mr. Moore represents an old Kentucky family,
though he is a native of Missouri. He was born in
Scotland County of that state July 23, 1843, a son of
Reuben and Mary E. (Lowe) Moore. His grand-
father, also named Reuben, was one of three brothers
who came from Albemarle County, Virginia, to Ken-
tucky about 1800. Reuben settled in Madison County,
one of his brothers in Montgomery County, and still
another went to Tennessee. Reuben Moore, Sr., was
born June 27, 1782, and d'ed in Madison County. Ken-
tucky, September 2, 1846. He married, March 31,
1803, Mrs. Mary (Wagoner) Watts. They had the
following family: George T., born August 31, 1807,
removed to Missouri, where he died ; William W., born
July 23, 1812, died in Madison County, Kentucky, at
the age of ninety-four, and his family are still rep-
resented there ; Elizabeth, born October 3, 1816, moved
after her marriage to Missouri ; Sarah, born June 27,
1818, also married and went to Missouri; Reuben, Jr.;
John F., who was born November 24, 1821, and
moved to Missouri; Mary M., born in 1824, became
a resident of Missouri ; and Joseph W., who was born
May ir, 1827, lived in Madison County until the Civil
war and then moved to Missouri, where he died.
Reuben -Moore, Jr., was born May 17, 1820, and on
August 18, 1842, married Mary E. Lowe. On their
marriage they moved to Scotland County, Missouri,
where John W. Moore was born the next year. After
two years they came back to Kentucky for the purpose
of settling up the estate of Mrs. Moore's stepfather.
Dr. William Webb. Reuben Moore was administrator
of that estate and died about a year after his return to
Kentucky. His younger son, Reuben M., was born after
his father's death on the old Webb place, and the wid-
owed mother remained there in Clark County until her
death in 1863. At the time of her death her son, John
W., was a prisoner in Camp Douglas, Chicago. Reuben,
the younger son, lived with his mother and grand-
mother and after his marriage located at Lexington.
He became well known as a driver and trainer of
trotting horses and died at the age of fifty.
John William Moore grew up and lived with his
mother until he entered the army. He attended school
at Harrisburg and also what is now the Agricultural
and Mechanical College at Lexington. He left that
school to go into Gen. John Morgan's Army, and was
with Morgan's Raiders when most of them were cap-
tured in Ohio. For a time he was held a prisoner of
war in the Ohio Penitentiary and later at Camp
Douglas, Chicago. He was finally exchanged after
twenty-one months as a prisoner, and in February,
1865, he rejoined his old command in Virginia and
served until Lee's final surrender.
On October 14, 1867, Mr. Moore married Mary T.
Jones, a daughter of Fauntleroy Jones and a grand-
daughter of Thomas Ap Jones. Mr. and Mrs. Moore
were married in one of the rooms of the comfortable
old residence where they still reside. This home was
originally built by an early German settler in this
locality, then known as Germantown, and at one time
the Post Office was kept in the house. Fauntleroy
Jones remodeled the home. Mr. Moore conducted the
nursery on the farm for his wife's father, and about
twenty years ago he came into ownership of 125 acres
of the Jones place, which originally contained 350 acres.
Finally he discontinued the nursery business and has
since given his time to general farming.
After more than fifty years of married companion-
ship Mr. Moore lost his wife, March 12, 1920, at the
age of seventy-seven. His only daughter lives with
him. She is Mattie E. Pursley, wife of John G.
Pursley. She has* one son, William Fauntleroy Purs-
ley. John G. Pursley is widely known as a very suc-
cessful business man, the owner and manager of 600
acres of farm land in Clark County. Mr. Moore is a
member of the Masonic Lodge, Royal Arch Chapter,
Knight Templar Commandery at Winchester, the Mys-
tic Shrine at Lexington, and several times filled the
chair of master in the local lodge and has been re-
peatedly representative to the Grand Lodge. A demo-
cratic voter, he has never cared for office and in church
matters is an elder in Mt. Zion Christian Church.
Lee Salmons, superintendent of the Middle Creek
Coal Company and a resident of Prestonsburg, is a
native of Eastern Kentucky and as a youth took up
mining and has been identified and associated with
practically every phase of the great coal developments
in this part of the state, one of the greatest sources
of wealth to Kentucky.
Mr. Salmons was born near Prestonsburg in Floyd
County, April 15, 1872, son of David and Katharine
(Campbell) Salmons. Her father was born in Taze-
well County, Virginia, in 1849 and as a young man
came to the Big Sandy Valley. He had a brief service
in the Civil war, and his active life has been spent_ in
farming and in the timber business. He is still living
at his home near Prestonsburg. His wife was born in
Knox County, Kentucky. Of their four sons and three
daughters six are living, Jane and Martha at home ;
Cio, wife of George Clift of Prestonsburg; Lee; Jo-
seph, connected with the Eureka Coal Company; Henry,
with the Middle Creek Coal Company ; and Thomas,
who was also a miner and died at the age of twenty-
four.
Lee Salmons had a common school education and as
a boy his working experience was on the farm and in
the timber. He took many rafts of timber down the
Big Sandy and came to know the river perfectly.
When he abandoned that industry he began coal mining,
and he has worked in the mines and has helped open
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
455
many shafts and drifts in Eastern Kentucky. For
thirteen years he has been connected with the Middle
Creek Coal Company, beginning as a machine operator,
then as an electrician, was promoted to foreman and
is now superintendent. While a past master of the
art of coal mining Mr. Salmons as a citizen has main-
tained a public spirited attitude to the best interests
of his community and has directed his special influence
in behalf of good schools. He is a democrat and Mrs.
Salmons is a member of the Methodist Church.
April 28, 1898, he married Emma Crum, daughter of
Michael Crum of Prestonsburg. They have one daugh-
ter, Anna, now the wife of Goble Brown of Prestons-
burg.
Edward L. Grubbs has gained marked success and
distinctive prestige in connection with educational work
in his native state, where he has been continuously en-
gaged in teaching for somewhat more than thirty years
and where he is now superintendent of the city schools
of Junction City, Boyle County.
Edward Lee Grubbs was born at Shelby City, Boyle
County, on the 29th of June, 1869, and is a son of
William Edward Grubbs and Desdemona (Young)
Grubbs, the former of whom was born in the State of
Virginia, September 22; 1843, and the latter of whom
was born in the State of Indiana, November 5, 1850,
their marriage having been solemnized at Shelby City,
Kentucky, on the 17th of December, 1867.
William E. Grubbs was reared and educated in his
native state, where for two years he was a student
in the historir old University of Virginia at Charlottes-
ville, and he was one of the gallant young men who
represented the Old Dominion State as a soldier of the
Confederacy in the Civil war. He served in the com-
mand of Gen. Robert E. Lee during virtually the entire
period of conflict between the states of the North and
the South, and was with the noble commander of the
Confederate forces, General Lee, at the time of his
.surrender at Appomattox Court House April 9, 1865. It
is needless to say that he lived up to the full tension
of the great internecine conflict and took part in many
of the important battles marking its progress. After
the close of the war, which left his loved native state
devastated and industrially prostrate, Mr. Grubbs con-
sulted ways and means for re-establishing himself in
peaceful pursuits. In February, 1S67, he arrived at
.Shelby City, Kentucky, and a few months later he
here married Miss Desdemona Young, a descendant of
Andrew McConnell January, of Maysville, who was a
member of one of the old and influential families of
Eastern Kentucky. At Shelby City Mr. Grubbs be-
came a successful contractor and builder, and he erected
many public buildings and private houses in this and
other sections of Kentucky. For some time he was
engaged in the milling business, and he served as su-
oerintendent of building at Frankfort, the capital of
the state, besides which he was a forceful contributor
^o the newspaper press during a period of fully twenty
vears. He was twice a candidate for the State Legis-
lature and he served one term as magistrate of Dis-
trict No. 5 in Boyle County. He was one of the
venerable and honored citizens of this county at the
time of his death, August 30, 191 1, his cherished and
devoted wile having passed to eternal rest on the 27th
of July, 1899, both having been devout members of
me Christian Church. They became the parents of
five children; of whom the subject of this review is
the eldest. Lilv L., who was born September 18, 1870.
became the wife of Embrey Beazley, of Stanford,
Lincoln County, in 1808, and there her death occurred
on the 29th of July, 1901. Hayden Young Grubbs, who
was born November 27, 1872, was graduated from Cen-
ter College at Danville in 1S00, and in 1896 graduated
from the United States Military Academy at West
Point. He continued in service as a member of the
United States Army until his death, received the rank
of lieutenant colonel at the time of the Spanish-Amer-
ican war, in which he was in active service as a com-
manding officer, and he was killed in action in an
engagement in the Philippine Islands on the 1st of
October, 1899. Bertha V., who was born April 17,
1877, was united in marriage, in 1906, to Hugh F.
Ewing, her husband having been engaged in the milling
business at Parkersville, Kentucky, at the time of his
death, March 8, 1920. The widow and four children are
now residents of Boyle County, where Mrs. Ewing is
a successful and popular teacher in the White Oak
School. Dewitt Clinton Tucker Grubbs, the younges/
of the children, was born May 14, 1880, was grad-
uated at Center College in 1900 and at West Point
in 1905, and after having served with the United States
Army in the Philippine Islands and on the Mexican
border he finally participated with his command in the
activities of the American Expeditionary Forces in
France during the late World war, in which he at-
tained to the rank of lieutenant colonel. He is now
attending the School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He
was a major of infantry in the United States Tank
Corps, and served as inspector of the Eighty-fourth
Division while it was stationed at Camp Taylor,^ Ken-
tucky, at the time of the World war. Colonel Grubbs
married Miss Caroline H. Cronkrite, a graduate of
the University of Montana, her home having been at
Missoula, Montana, and her marriage having been
solemnized in 1008. The family home of Colonel and
Mrs. Grubbs and their son and daughter is now main-
tained in the City of Cleveland, Ohio.
After due preliminary discipline Edward Lee Grubbs
entered Center College at Danville, Boyle County, in
which he was graduated as a member of the class of
1889 and with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, the
supplemental degree of Master of Arts having been
conferred upon him by his alma mater in 1892. He
was valedictorian of his class and in his sophomoric
year, 1887, he won the annual prize of a gold watch
for excellence in Latin, this prize having been awarded
annually since 1872. At Center College he was a class-
mate of Hon. A. O. Stanley, a former governor of
Kentucky. Mr. Grubbs chose the pedagogic profession
as his vocation, and such has been his success in the
same that he has had no reason to regret his choice.
After his graduation he became a teacher in the public
schools at Middlesboro, Bell County. In that 'locality
it was then customary for male persons more than
thirteen years of age to carry pistols or revolvers,
and thus murders were of frequent occurrence. He
did all in his power to discourage the bearing of fire-
arms and to eliminate the enmities that caused their
use. It is worthy of note that while at Middlesboro
Mr. Grubbs supplemented his income by service as a
hod carrier, and by this means assisted in defraying
the expenses of his senior year in college, and from
which he made daily trips from Shelby City four
miles distant. He has continuously been engaged in
teaching since 1889, and within this long period he has
been principal of the high school at Stanford for two
years; a teacher in the preparatory department of
Center College at Danville for one year; and given
sixteen years of service in the public schools of Shelby
City and Junction City, Boyle County, in which latter
place he has held his present pedagogic office since
1913. He and his family hold membership in the
Christian Church, and he is an elder in the church oi
this denomination at Junction City, besides being a
teacher in its Sunday School his work in this capacity
having covered a period of thirty-five years. In con-
nection with educational, church and civic affairs Mr.
Grubbs is a member of the reportorial staff of the
two daily papers at Danville, the county seat, and in
his home city he is affiliated with and official collector
for Camp No. 11342, Modern Woodmen of America,
besides being financial secretary of the local organiza-
tion of the Junior Order United American Mechanics.
456
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
At Danville he is affiliated with the Lodge and Chapter
bodies of York Rite Masonry, and at Junction City
he holds membership in Tent No. 6, Knights of the
Maccabees. His wife has been home demonstrator of
domestic science in Boyle County since 1915, and prior
to her marriage had given special attention to the study
of domestic science and economy, in which she had
become a teacher prior to accepting her present posi-
tion, in which her service has proved most successful
and popular. Mr. Grubbs has ever maintained alle-
giance to the democratic party, has been a staunch
advocate of woman suffrage and believes that wages
and salaries should be regulated by efficiency, with no
restrictions by reason of sex.
On the 2d of January, 1901, was solemnized the
marriage of Mr. Grubbs to Miss Jennie C. Fox, of
Shelby City, Boyle County, she having previously been
a student in the Kentucky College for Women at Dan-
ville. Of this ideal union have been born six children,
concerning whom brief record is given in the conclud-
ing paragraph of this review:
Margaret Lee, who was born June 6, 1902, was grad-
uated in the Junction City high school as a member
of the class of 1920, and is preparing to complete a
course in domestic science at the University of Ken-
tucky. At the time of this writing, in the autumn of
1921, she is the popular teacher in the White Oak
District School in Boyle County. Hayden Young, the
eldest son, was born November 21, 1903, and was a
member of the class of 1921 in the junction City High
School. He is an ambitious student and is attending
the United States Military Academy at West Point,
class of 1925. Edward Fox was born October 10,
1905, and is a student in the Junction City High School,
lis plan being to complete the curriculum of the
department of agriculture in the University of Ken-
tucky. William E. was born July 3, 1908, and, like
his brothers, has already formulated plans for his
future, his intention being to take an effective course
in a business college or at West Point, New York.
Caroline C, who was born June 20, 1910, is in the
sixth grade of the Junction City public schools. Her-
man Stanley, who was born September 18, 1913, com-
pleted the work of the third grade in the public schools
in the summer of 1920.
Fred Meade. The claim of Fred Meade, of Paints-
ville. upon the confidence and esteem of his fellow-
citizens rests upon twenty-three years of effective work
in the field of education. Commencing as a teacher
in the rural districts at the age of eighteen years, he
has labored without interruption in the instruction of
the young, and since 1910 has accomplished markedly
beneficial achievements while holding the office of super-
intendent of schools of Johnson County.
Mr. Meade was born at Oil Springs, Johnson County,
Kentucky, June 3, 1880. He attended school at Oil
Springs, East Point and Paintsville, and the normal
school at Richmond, and when but eighteen years of
age started teaching in the rural districts. During the
next twelve years his labors as an instructor were
confined to the country schools, and in this time he
became well known and greatly popular in the localities
in which his educational efforts were centered. Recog-
nition of his general worth and all-around ability came
in November, 1910, when he was elected county super-
intendent of schools. It is a commentary upon his
ability and the general satisfaction which he has given,
that he has retained this post ever since and has been
elected for another four year term, sixteen years in
all. He has labored incessantly and disinterestedly in
an effort to advance constantly the standard of edu-
cation in his county, and that his efforts in this direction
have not been in vain is indicated by the excellence
and efficiency of the schools which are under his juris-
diction.
In 1900 Mr. Meade was united in marriage with Miss
Lulu M. Butler, herself formerly a teacher, and to
this union there have been born nine children : Au-
gustus E. ; Anna Gladys, who died as a child of four
years ; June E. ; Ruth M. ; Genoah M. ; Georgia Lee ;
Fred Hamilton ; Everett Bruce, who died in childhood ;
and Murah E. Mr. and Mrs. Meade are faithful mem-
bers of the Christian Church.
In politics Mr. Meade is a republican, and his frater-
nal connection is with the local lodge of the Knights
of the Maccabees. Always a public-spirited citizen
and a supporter of worthy movements, during the
World's war he served on many committees of the
Red Cross, Y. M. C. A., etc., and worked and gave
without stint. He occupies a high and substantial place
in the confidence and cordial good will of the people
of his county.
Urey Woodson. Outside of Kentucky more people
know Urey Woodson as a great chieftain of the demo-
cratic party than as a newspaper publisher and editor.
For many years as member and secretary of the Demo-
cratic National Committee Mr. Woodson enjoyed the
acquaintance and had the confidence of all the prom-
inent men of the party, and newspaper men generally
credited him with knowing as much of what was going
on within the inner councils of the party as any other
leader.
However, the career of Mr. Woodson belongs pecu-
liarly to Owensboro and to the Owensboro Messenger.
He was born at Madisonville, Kentucky, August 16,
1859, son of Samuel C. and Rebecca (Hawthorn)
Woodson. He has been a resident of Owensboro
since he was twenty-two years of age.
In 1914 his initials appeared beneath a few lines pub-
lished in the Messenger : "Thirty-three years ago to-
day— October I, 1881 — I came to Owensboro a stranger,
a boy, with but a few dollars in my pocket, seeking a
home and a business. For nearly a third of a century
I have now been identified with Owensboro and the
Messenger. Owensboro has been good to me and to •
the Messenger, and I hope the Messenger under my
direction has been creditable to Owensboro."
There were many who knew how to fill in this brief
paragraph with deserved tributes to what Mr. Wood-
son had achieved in this third of a century. One of
Kentucky's newspapers to take the cue was the Frank-
fort State Journal, from which the following para-
graphs are quoted :
"The Owensboro Messenger of last Thursday con-
tained a modest paragraph of editorial reminder that
thirty-three years ago that day Urey Woodson, a boy,
little known and little knowing what would be the out-
come of venture, arrived unheralded in the city of
Owensboro and bought The Messenger.
"Owensboro, The Messenger and Editor Woodson
have grown up together, the first to a city of impor-
tance, the second into a newspaper of more than corre-
sponding influence and the last named into a prominent
figure in national politics as well as in the civic and
business life of his community.
"Speculation on what any one of the three would
have been dissociated from the other two quickens
perception of the close relationship a newspaper bears
to the community it serves ; and though best known to
the world at large, perhaps, by reason of his political
career, Urey Woodson is a real newspaper man of
exceptional ability, who made The Messenger what it
is by personal attention to the details of every depart-
ment.
"He has other financial interests now and great
political honors, but there is no doubt that his news-
paper is the pride of Mr. Woodson's life; for he put
his life into the making of it those years he spent
the "better part of twenty-four hours a day building
up a morning newspaper.
"The State Journal felicitates Urey Woodson and
the city of Owensboro and the paper through which
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
457
for a third of a century Mr. Woodson has kept his
neighbors informed about neighborhood affairs and
what was going on in the big world outside, besides
occasionally dropping a little well directed editorial
shrapnel just to remind the heedless ones that the
Messenger was still on the firing line."
The only public office Mr. Woodson ever filled was
as railroad commissioner for Kentucky from 1891 to
1895. Previously he had declined appointment as secre-
tary of state of Kentucky for a term of four years,
tendered him by Gov. John Young Brown. After his
term as railroad commissioner he declined to hold any
other public office and has rigidly adhered to this de-
termination.
The score years marking his membership as the
Kentucky representative on the Democratic National
Committee was from 1896 to 1916, and during the
years 1904 to 1912 he was secretary of the committee.
February 12, 1885, Mr. Woodson married Elizabeth
Ford, of Owensborn. To them were born two daugh-
ters, Elizabeth Ford (now Mrs. Hamilton Alexander)
and Janey Hawthorn (now Mrs. William E. Over-
street) and all make their homes in Owensboro.
R. A. Baker has been a Kentucky business man for
over thirty years. He made a name for himself in
the thoroughbred industry, and for about twenty years
was identified with the distilling industry. He is vice
president of the Frankfort Distillery Company.
Mr. Baker was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in Sep-
tember, 1865. The Baker family came originally from
England, and Mr. Baker's grandmother was of Welsh
stock. His father, William W. Baker, was born at
Marietta, Ohio, in 1825, and was a veteran steamboat
captain and pilot on the Ohio, Mississippi and Missouri
rivers. In early days he operated some of the old
keel boats that floated down the rivers with Northern
merchandise and produce. For a number of years he
was captain and pilot for the Anchor lines of river
boats, and also owned and operated boats of his own.
He was up and down the rivers all the way from New
Orleans to the utmost navigable waters of the Missouri
at the foot of the Rocky Mountains. He lived in
Missouri a few years, and the old home where he
died was in Carrollton, Missouri. He died in 1891.
He was a democrat in politics and a very active mem-
ber of the Methodist Episcopal Church. William W.
Baker married in St. Louis, Missouri, Miss Mary M.
Woolfolk, who was born in that Missouri city in 1831
and died at Carrollton, Missouri, in 1876. George,
the oldest of their five children was for several years
secretary and treasurer of the Frankfort Distillery
Company and died at Frankfort at the age of sixty.
Zachary, the second son, died at Carrollton in 1882.
William Jackson, the third son, died in Boston, Massa-
chusetts, in 1916 and was buried at the old home in
Carrollton, Missouri. At the time of his death he was
secretary and treasurer of the distillery company. The
only daughter, Cordelia Taylor, is unmarried and lives
at Frankfort.
R. A. Baker, the youngest of the family, was edu-
cated in the public schools of Carrollton, Missouri, at-
tended Central College at Fayette, and left school in
1885, at the age of twenty, to begin a business career.
For two years he was in the employ of the William
Barr Drygoods Company of St. Louis, and in 1887
came to Frankfort, Kentucky. Here he became a mem-
ber of the firm Hinde & Baker, an association still in
existence. This firm gained a reputation all over the
Central and Southern states in the thoroughbred race-
horse business, and bred some of the horses well known
to fame, including Dick Wells, Reynolds and Goodrich.
The Hinde & Baker firm own and operate 600 acres
of land as one of the high class model farms of Frank-
lin County, Kentucky. Mr. Baker lives on this farm,
where he has a modern home, and is still interested
in the livestock business. The farm contains some of
the finest equipment found on any country place in
the state.
It was in 1901 that Mr. Baker turned his attention
to the distillery business, when he and associates, in-
cluding Mr. Hinde, established the Frankfort Distillery
Company, manufacturers of Swastika and other brands
of whiskey. Mr. Baker has been vice president, Thomas
W. Hinde, of Chicago, is president, and the present
secretary and treasurer is A. C. Thompson, of Frank-
fort. The offices are located at the distillery at the
Forks of the Elkhorn, four miles east of Frankfort.
Mr. Baker and Mrs. Baker also own the Labrot-Graham
Distillery, twelve miles from Frankfort and six miles
from Versailles in Woodford County. This distillery
manufactured the Old Oscar Pepper brand, one of the
oldest brands of whiskey in the world. The offices of
the Labrot-Graham Distillery are in the McClure Build-
ing at Frankfort.
Mr. Baker is an independent democrat, a member of
the Methodist Church, and is affiliated with Hiram
Lodge No. 4, A. F. and A. M., Frankfort Chapter No.
3, R. A. M., Frankfort Commandery No. 4, K. T.,
and Frankfort Lodge No. 530 of the Elks. In August,
1911, at Frankfort, he married Miss Irma Labrot.
daughter of Leopold and Louise (Welch) Labrot. The
mother is still living at Frankfort, where her father
died. Her father was owner of the Labrot-Graham
Distillery.
Herbert Brent McClary. Self-made men are to be
found in every country, but no where have they de-
veloped as in the United States, where the opporturiies
are so much better that the energetic, ambitious man
who has inherent talent can always be sure of better-
ing his condition and rising to a place of preferment
and prestige among his fellows. In the career of Her-
bert Brent McClary this has been demonstrated clearly,
and his record likewise proves that a man need not
depart from the strict principles laid down by the
Golden Rule to achieve the awards of life. While his
ambitions have been great, he has never allowed his
desire for success to cloud his appreciation of the rights
of others, and thus, while he has been advancing in
fortune and position, he has retained the friendship
and esteem of those with whom he has been associated.
Mr. McClary is now secretary and acting manager of
the Auburn Mills, at Auburn, Kentucky, and a man
well and favorably known to the milling trade in Ken-
tucky.
Herbert B. McClary was born near Broadhead, Rock-
castle County, Kentucky, September 10, 1881, a son
of Andrew Kinkade and Elizabeth Belle (Smith) Mc-
Clary, and a member of a family that, originating in
Scotland, was founded in Virginia in Colonial times.
His grandfather, Andrew McClary, was born in Vir-
ginia about 1800, and as a young man went as a pioneer
to Rockcastle County, Kentucky, where he eventua'Jy
became an extensive farmer and large land and slaw
holder. He was a whig in politics, and died in Rock
castle County in 1883. Mr. McClary married a Mis»
Rollins, who died in Rockcastle County at the remark-
able age of ninety-six years.
Andrew Kinkade McClary was born July 16, 1844,
in Rockcastle County, where his entire life was passed
in the pursuits of agriculture. A man of industry
and good judgment, he made a success of his opera-
tions, and at the time of his death, in 1006, was the
owner of a good property. Politically he was a re-
publican, and his religious faith was that of the Baptist
Church, of which he was a strong supporter, and filled
the office of deacon for many years. He was affiliated
fraternally with the Masonic order. Mr. McClary mar-
ried Elizabeth Belle Smith, who was born January 28,
1863, in Rockcastle County, and died there January
27, 1895. There were three children in the family,
namely: Herbert Brent; Andrew Cecil, born Sep-
tember 15, 1883, assistant cashier of the Farmers Ex-
458
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
change Bank of Nicholasville, Kentucky; and Joseph
Frank, born September 11, 1891, an employe of a coal
company at Dawson, New Mexico.
Herbert B. McClary was educated in the rural schools
of Rockcastle County, Kentucky, including a rude log
structure bearing little resemblance to the modern schools
of this time, and when nineteen years of age gave
up his studies and started to devote his entire time
to the work of the home farm, where he had formerly
spent his summers. When his father died, in 1906,
he left the farm and went to Louisville, where he
secured employment in a hardware store, but after one
year resigned to accept the position of cashier of the
Farmers Bank of Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, and
retained that post from August 3, 1907, to June I,
1912. He next became traveling representative for a
wholesale grocery firm of Owensboro, Kentucky, and
in that capacity covered Muhlenberg, Ohio, and a
number of other counties in Central Kentucky, until
becoming traveling salesman for the Auburn Mills,
of Auburn, Kentucky, covering this state and Tennessee.
Mr. McClary "made good" in this capacity in such a
degree that he was eventually called in from the road,
December 4, 1914, to become secretary and acting man-
ager of the mills, positions which he has retained to
the present time. The company is incorporated under
the state laws of Kentucky, and Mr. McClary's fellow
officials are: J. Guthrie Coke, president; and R. L.
Stevenson, vice president. The mills, situated on Liberty
Street, have an actual capacity of 200 bbls. daily, and
under Mr. McClary's efficient management all of this
product finds a ready market.
Mr. McClary is a republican in politics, and has taken
some interest in public affairs. Formerly he was clerk
of the Town of Dunmore, and at the time of his
arrival at Auburn he was made clerk of this place,
a position which he has filled continuously since 1914.
He likewise holds the office of clerk in and is one of
the deacons of the Baptist Church, of which he has
been a member since youth. His fraternal affiliations
include membership in Auburn Lodge No. 374, A. F.
and A. M., of which he served as worshipful master
for two terms; Mount Vernon Chapter No. 140, R.
A. M. ; and Knob City Lodge No. 29, I. O. O. "F.,
of Russellville. He owns a pleasant home at Dunmore.
Mr. McClary took an active part in all local war activi-
ties in Logan County, helping in all the drives and
being a generous contributor and subscriber to the
various funds and causes. He was likewise secretary
of the Red Cross during most of the period of the
great struggle, and gave much of his time to this work.
Mr. McClary married January 19, 1908, at Dunmore,
Kentucky, Miss Ethel DePoyster, daughter of J. S.
and Vivian DePoyster, the former a druggist and
tobacconist at Dunmore, where Mrs. DePoyster died.
Mrs. McClary, who attended the Baptist Female College
at Hopkinsville, in young womanhood, died March =;,
1919. at Auburn, leaving two children: Frances Eliza-
beth, born January 18, 1910; and John Heltsley, born
Aprd 23, 1913.
On October 1, 1921, Mr. McClary was married at Au-
burn. Kentucky, to Mrs. Bess (Smith) King, daughter
of Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Smith, old residents and most
highly respected residents in the community. She was
the widow of Hugh King, who died at Auburn, Ken-
tucky. She has one daughter, Elizabeth King, who
resides with Mr. and Mrs. McClary.
John Bland Lasley. Seven years of efficient and
faithful service in the capacity of postmaster of Lewis-
burg has served to place John Bland Lasley high in
the esteem and confidence of the people of that enter-
prising community. Appointed first in 1914, he has since
received two other appointments, and during his terms
of office has brought the mail system to a high order
of efficiency.
Mr. Lasley was born at Lewisburg, August 1, 1887,
a son of William W. and Minnie N. (Haden) Lasley.
The family of which he is a member is of English
origin, Mr. Lasley's great-great-great-grandfather hav-
ing been the immigrant and an early settler of the
Colony of Virginia. His son, Manoah Lasley, was
born in Virginia, and November 12, 1795, came to
Kentucky and located in Green County, where he labored
as a clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
He married Mary Wash, who belonged to a prominent
Methodist family of Virginia, and both died at Greens-
burg, this state. James Lasley, the great-grandfather
of John B. Lasley, was born in Virginia in 1780, and
became the first hatter in Green County, Kentucky,
although in later years he turned his attention to farm-
ing. He died near Greensburg in 1853, and his wife,
who had been Nancy Smith, of Virginia, also passed
away in Green County.
John Lasley, the grandfather of John B. Lasley, was
born in 1809, at Greensburg, Kentucky, and was reared
in Green County, whence as a young man he went
to Logan County. There he engaged in agricultural
operations for many years and died on his farm in
1880. He was a democrat in politics, and as a church-
man was one of the stanch supporters of the Methodist
Episcopal Church. For several years he served in
the State Militia. Mr. Lasley married Minerva Grinter,
who was bom in 1823, in Logan County, and died at
Lewisburg in 1897, and they became the parents of
the following children : Bettie, the widow of Judge
Black, former county judge of Randolph County, Ar-
kansas, Mrs. Black now residing with her brother
William W. ; Mary E., the wife of A. W. McReynolds,
a farmer near Adairville, Kentucky; J. T., a former
lawyer of Blythesville, Arkansas, who died in 1914;
William W. ; Irene, deceased, who was the wife of
the late J. B. Hines, a merchant of Russellville, Ken-
tucky; Nannie, unmarried, who is a resident of Kansas
City, Missouri ; Georgia L., of Lewisburg, widow of
the late J. B. Kennerly, a Logan County farmer; S. B.,
deceased, who was a stationary engineer of Kansas
City, Kansas; John M., an architect and builder of
Santa Cruz, California; Alice, the wife of W. A.
Rhoades, a farmer of Oakville, Logan County ; and
Manoah, a resident of Belden, California.
William W. Lasley was born in Todd County, Ken-
tucky, March 4, 1850, and received his early educa-
tion in the rural schools of Logan County. Deciding
upon a career as a physician and surgeon, he pursued
his medical studies at the Medical University of Louis-
ville, from which he was graduated with his degree
as a member of the class of 1885. In that year he
began practice at Lewisburg, where after thirty-five
years of splendid professional labors he is still rated
as one of the leading physicians and surgeons. He
belongs to the Logan County Medical Society and the
Kentucky State Medical Society, and as a fraternalist
holds membership in Lewisburg Lodge No. 324, A. F.
and A. M. Doctor Lasley is the main pillar of the
Christian Church, in which he officiates in the capacity
of elder. In political adherence he is a democrat. He
is the owner of a modern home on Third Street and
of a farm of 150 acres three miles south of Lewis-
burg. Doctor Lasley took a prominent part in all war
activities in Logan County, helping in the drives for
all purposes, and contributing and subscribing liberally.
In 1885, at Lewisburg, he was united in marriage with
Miss Minnie N. Haden, a daughter of J. N. Haden.
Mr. Haden was born in 1825, at Auburn, Logan County,
and for many years was an agriculturist, although he
later turned his attention to selling tobacco as a travel-
ing representative of large concerns. He died in Chris-
tian County in 1905. Mr. Haden married Sallie Louisa
Thurmond, who was born in 1841 in Logan County,
and died at Lewisburg in 1902. Mrs. Lasley was reared
in the faith of the Christian Church and has been very
active in the work of that faith. She and her husband
are the parents of the following children: John Bland;
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
459
William T., an attorney of Lewisburg, residing with
his parents, who in 1914 became the youngest member
of the Kentucky Legislature, was reelected in 1918,
serving two regular sessions and a special session, was
appointed by Governor Stanley as a captain in the
Quartermaster's Department in 1918 but resigned and
volunteered for the World war, and was in training
at Camp Gordon, Alabama, at the time the armistice
was signed ; Sarah Elizabeth, the wife of Bland Arnold,
cashier of the Lewisburg Banking Company ; and Marion
G., residing with his parents, who enlisted in August,
1918, and was sent to the Officers' Training Camp at
Camp Gordon, where he was commissioned a second
lieutenant, and is still a member of the Officer's Re-
serve Corps.
John B. Lasley was educated in the public schools
of Lewisburg and at Bethel College, Russellville, from
which he was graduated in 1906. At that time he
became sales manager for the Beech Creek Coal Com-
pany, with headquarters at Nashville and Memphis,
and filled that position until resigning in May, 1914,
when he was appointed postmaster of Lewisburg. He
was reappointed, January 1, 1915, and again November
17, 1919, for a term of four years. As noted above,
his service has been a very satisfactory one, and the
city and its people have profited greatly through his
conscientious and efficient labors. Mr. Lasley is a
democrat and a member of the Christian Church. He
belongs to Lewisburg Lodge No. 324, A. F. and A. M. ;
Logan Lodge No. 97, I. O. O. F., of which he is a
past grand ; and Bowling Green Lodge No. 320, B. P.
O. E. He owns a comfortable modern residence at
Lewisburg. During the World war he took an active
and helpful part in the various activities in Logan
County, assisting in the Red Cross, Liberty Loan and
other drives, and being a generous contributor and
liberal subscriber.
In October, 191 1, at Nashville, Tennessee, Mr. Lasley
was united in marriage with Miss Myrtle Gilliam,
[ who was born in Logan County, and to this union there
has come one child, John Bland, Jr., born May 8, 1914.
William Landon Kimbrough. In making a study
of the careers and characters of those who have at-
tained business and public success it is but natural
to demand the secret of their prosperity and to look
for the motives that prompted their actions. Success
comes after all to but a few, and careful study of
the careers of those who stand highest in public esteem
proves that in nearly every case those who have been
devoting their lives to their special lines of business
have gradually risen. Self-reliance, conscientiousness,
energy and honesty, these are characteristics that appear
to produce the best results. To these we may at-
tribute much of the success that has rewarded the
efforts of William Landon Kimbrough, a leading busi-
ness man of Guthrie, a representative of Todd County
in the Kentucky Legislature, and the present mayor
of Guthrie.
Mr. Kimbrough was born in Todd County, Ken-
tucky, December 3, 1859, a son of William Landon
and P. B. (Terry) Kimbrough. The Kimbrough "fam-
ily is of Scotch-Irish origin, and was founded in Vir-
ginia during Colonial days. Thomas Winston Kim-
brough, the grandfather of William L. Kimbrough, the
I younger, was born in Virginia in 1706, and as a young
man came with his bride, Susan Gaines, also born in
Virginia in 1796, to Todd County as a pioneer farmer.
He spent the rest of his life in farming here, tilling
his broad acres with slave labor, and he passed away
at Hadensville December 25, 1868, his wife having
died in 1842. They were people who had the unqualified
respect and esteem of those among whom they passed
their lives.
William Landon Kimbrough, the elder, was born at
Hadensville, near Guthrie, Kentucky, September 18,
1824, and as a young man adopted farming as his
vocation. He eventually became one of the leading
farmers of Todd County for his day, and at the time
of his death was the owner of 1,600 acres of valuable
and highly cultivated land in Todd County, Kentucky,
and Robertson County, Tennessee. He likewise gave
much attention to merchandising at Hadensville, where
he owned a leading establishment, and in agricultural
and business circles was known as capable and pro-
gressive, while his reputation was that of a man of
the highest business and personal integrity. In early
years a whig, he later transferred his support to
the democratic party, and served four terms in the
capacity of magistrate of his district. His fraternal
affiliation was with the Masonic Order. Mr. Kim-
brough died at Dawson Springs, Kentucky, June 25,
1885. He married Miss P. B. Terry, who was born
August 14, 1831, in Logan (now Todd) County, and
died at Hadensville September 20, 1880. They became
the parents of the following children : Lizzie, of Louis-
ville, the widow of R. B. Rankins, who was a retired
hardware merchant of that city; Charles G., a farmer
of Robertson County, Tennessee, who died at the age
of fifty-nine years; Eugenia B., who died at Louisville
at the age of fifty-four years ; and William Landon.
William Landon Kimbrough, the younger, was edu-
cated in the rural schools of Todd County and Bethel
College, Russellville, which latter he left in 1879. At
that time he started operations on the home farm, to
the ownership of which he succeeded at the time of
his father's demise, and continued its operation until
1912, although he did not dispose of it by sale until
five years later. In 1912 he was appointed postmaster
of Guthrie, and served in that capacity for four years
and two months, after which he spent a year in trav-
eling in Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma.
Upon his return, he settled at Guthrie, where he
founded his present feed, seed and coal business, the
leading enterprise of its kind in Todd County, the
store being situated at the corner of Front and Ewing
streets and the warehouse and coal yard on State
Street. In addition Mr. Kimbrough is the owner of a
pleasant and comfortable modern home on Third Street.
In politics a republican, he served two terms as mag-
istrate while still residing at Hadensville, and in 1907
was elected representative of Todd County in the
State Legislature, serving in the session of 1908. He
was again elected to that body in November, 1919, and
served in the session of 1920. On November 8, 1921,
he was elected mayor of Guthrie, Kentucky. He was
accounted one of the active and constructive members
of that body, and worked faithfully in behalf of the
interests of his constituents, his county and his state.
Mr. Kimbrough was married October 8, 1883, at
Allensville, Kentucky, to Miss Sallie Yost, daughter of
E. A. and Nannie (Custer) Yost, both of whom are
deceased. Mr. Yost was a merchant at Allensville. To
Mr.and Mrs. Kimbrough there have been born the fol-
lowing children: Lizzie, born July 6, 1885, is the wife
of Hadley Cregor, a druggist at El Paso, Texas ; Wil-
liam Landon, Jr., born March 3, 1887, engaged in the
feed and seed business at Tennyson, Indiana; Andrew
C, born September IS. 1889, manager of a department
store at Lovington, New Mexico; Rankins B., born
September 13, 1891, assistant cashier of the City Na-
tional Bank of El Paso, Texas ; Keith K, born Decem-
ber 28, 1893, who is engaged in business with his father;
Sallie, born September 1, 1896, unmarried and residing
with her parents ; Evelyn, born September 27, 1808, the
wife of D. T. Mimms, a farmer near Guthrie; and
Robert, born August 1, 1002, at home, a graduate of
St. Mary's (Kentucky) College, and a law student in
the Kentucky State University.
Phil C. Andrews. In Russellville is one of the
largest and oldest drug houses in Southern Kentucky,
established by the late B. B. Andrews, and continued
with increasing prestige and prosperity by his sons,
460
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
one of whom is Phil C. Andrews, who for ten consecu-
tive years has been the honored and efficient mayor of
this municipality.
While the Andrews family have been identified with
Russellville for nearly forty years, they did their pio-
neering when they came over the mountains into Ten-
nessee as well as in Kentucky. The great-grandfather
of Phil C. Andrews was George Andrews, who was
born and reared and married in the State of Virginia.
Toward the close of the year 1795 he moved into
Kentucky and in October, 1810, went to Williamson
County, Tennessee. Mark Lyell Andrews, grandfather
of P. C. Andrews, was born December 2, 1796, at a
place between Lexington and Richmond, Kentucky. He
was about fourteen when the family moved to Ten-
nessee, and in November, 1819, he joined the Metho-
dist Episcopal Church. His zeal for service to man-
kind was represented by an ambition to enter the active
ministry, though the cares and responsibilities of rear-
ing a family debarred him from this profession. He
was licensed as a local preacher September 22, 1822,
was ordained a deacon in the same year by Bishop
Soule, and in 1830 was ordained an elder at Columbia
by Bishop Roberts. From the year 1836 until his death
nearly forty years later he was almost continuously in
public service. In 1836 he was defeated as a candidate
for the office of Circuit Court clerk. He was elected
to that office in 1840, and until September, 1874, held
that position and gave a fidelity and performance to
its duties rarely seen. He became an intimate friend
of many great lawyers and jurists in Tennessee, in-
cluding Grundy Fletcher Smith, Marshall L. Camp-
bell, Foster, Cook, John L. and John B. McEwen, the
Hills and R. M. Ewing. A memorable scene was
that attending his last day in office. The court was
presided over by the late W. P. Martin. Judge David
Campbell, who had known the Circuit Court clerk from
boyhood, reviewed his life, while other speakers fol-
lowed, and these speeches, personalities and the com-
plete environment presented a moving spectacle of an
aged public servant leaving the theater of his activities.
His name for probity and integrity for years had been
a proverb. It was said that he had joined more people
in the bonds of matrimony than any man who ever
lived in Tennessee, and on countless occasions he was
the solace and comfort at the bedside of dying men
and women in his part of the state. His own death
occurred at his home two miles west of Franklin, Ten-
nessee, November 16, 1878, aged eighty-one years,
eleven months and fourteen days. His long life rep-
resented a remarkable devotion to the service of the
public and humanity, and few men could live more
stately lives. On May 16, 1816, he married Eliza Dean.
Their son, B. B. Andrews, was born in Franklin,
Tennessee, in 1838. and died at Russellville, Kentucky,
March 16, 1909. He was reared and married in his
native Tennessee community, was a graduate in med-
icine of Vanderbilt University, and after practicing
his profession in Franklin, Tennessee, until 1882 he
removed to Russellville, Kentucky, and established the
drug business now continued by his sons. At the very
beginning of the war between the states he enlisted
in Colonel Starnes' Fourth Tennessee Cavalry, was in
the command of General Forrest, and continued on
duty until he surrendered in May, 1865. He was a
democrat and for sixteen years was mayor of Russell-
ville. He served as grand chancellor of the State of
Kentucky in the Knights of Pythias. He possessed the
same genial warmth of heart and mind as his father,
lived in an unbroken circle of admiring friends and
from first to last was a gentleman in the best sense
of the term. After his death it was said of him :
"His time was spent almost entirely in his business
house and with his family. He was faithful to every
trust committed to him. While a soldier for the lost
cause he cheerfully met every requirement in the dis-
charge of his duty. He had firmly established opinions
on civic and moral questions, yet he differed with
others with so much courtesy that they were almost
ashamed to have to dissent from his opinion."
B. B. Andrews married Martha Easley Wilson, who
was born in Williamson County, Tennessee, in 1843
and died at Russellville in 191 1. She was the mother
of two sons, Phil C. and Clarence Wilson, the latter a
partner in the drug business established by his father.
Phil C. Andrews was born in Williamson County,
Tennessee, March 26, 1870, and was about twelve years
of age when the family removed to Russellville. He
completed his early advantages in the public schools and
in 1891 graduated from Bethel College. On leaving
college he became associated with his father, and in
1909 he and his brother, Clarence, succeeded to the
ownership and management of the store, one of the
largest in Southern Kentucky. The brothers own the
modern store building at 180 North Main Street. P. C.
Andrews is also a director in the Southern Deposit
Bank.
His citizenship has been a constant exemplification
of unselfish public spirit. During the World war he
was a leader in securing the success of every local
drive, and merits no small degree of the credit for
the city and county doubling every quota assigned the
locality. He was chairman of the Red Cross drive
in 1918, and as chairman of the War Savings Stamp
drive he had the satisfaction of seeing the county sub-
scribe $588,000, exceeding by $108,000 the quota allot-
ted. Mr. Andrews is still on the executive committee
of the local Red Cross Chapter.
He was first elected mayor of Russellville in 191 1
and was reelected in 1915. After serving eight con-
tinuous years he was again elected in 1919 to fill an
unexpired term of two years. Much of Russellville's
progress toward the acquisition of modern municipa'
facilities has been achieved under the administration
of Mayor Andrews. During the past ten years many
of the city's streets have been paved with concrete, the
city parks beautified, new machinery installed in the
city light plant, and the general ideals and tendencies
of the community have been given a distinctly forward
trend. Mr. Andrews was on the committee which
secured the rearrangement of the Dixie Highway so
as to pass through Russellville. He is a democrat, is
chairman of the lay committee of the Methodist Epis-
copal Church, is a past master of Russellville Lodge
No. 17, A. F. and A. M., a past high priest of Rus-
sellville Chapter No. 8. R. A. M., and belongs to
the order of High Priesthood, is a member of Owens-
boro Commandery No 15, K. T.. the Louisville Con-
sistory of the Scottish Rite and Kosair Temple of the
Mystic Shrine at Russellville. Besides his modern
home at 156 Fourth Street, he is owner of four other
dwelling houses in the city.
Mr. Andrews married Miss Lena Raetz at Rus-
sellville in 1897. Her parents, Fred and Mollie (Wel-
ler) Raetz, are deceased, her father having been for
many years a merchant in Russellville. Mrs. Andrews
is a graduate of Logan College in Russellville.
Lester E. Hurt. Occupying a prominent place
among the professional men of Lewisburg, Kentucky,
is Lester E. Hurt, superintendent of schools and well
and favorably known as an educator throughout Logan
County. He has practically devoted his entire life to
educational work, and in this field of endeavor has
risen step by step until he fills a position of large
responsibility.
Lester E. Hurt comes from old Scotch ancestors who
settled in Virginia in Colonial days, and his grand-
father, William Hurt, was born in the Old Dominion. |
From there he removed to Kentucky and for many
years followed farming in Logan County, retiring in
old age to Hopkinsville. He married Sarah Hall, who
died in Logan County, his death following in 1883, at
Hopkinsville.
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
461
Lester E. Hurt was born March 5, 1875, at Auburn
in Logan County, Kentucky, the only son of Atwood
G. and Mary A. (Appling) Hurt, the former of whom
was born at Auburn in 1838, and the latter near Au-
burn in 1848. Atwood G. Hurt spent his entire life
in Logan County, in his earlier years being a carpen-
ter and builder and later an extensive farmer. He was
a man of exceptionally sound judgment and concerned
in all the various neighborhood interests that make
for good citizenship and peaceful relationships. He
was a faithful member of the Cumberland Presbyterian
Church, was a republican in politics and belonged to
the order of Odd Fellows. He died at Auburn, Ken-
tucky, in 1908. He married Mary A. Appling, who
still resides at Auburn. They had two children : Lester
E. and Ruby, the latter of whom is the wife of J. P.
Haders, who is a farmer near Auburn.
In the rural schools in Logan County Lester E. Hurt
- received his early educational training, afterward at-
tended Auburn Seminary and was not more than twenty
years old when he began to teach country schools in
his native county. Subsequently he entered the South-
ern Normal School at Bowling Green, Kentucky, from
which he was graduated with the class of 1910, with
the degree of Bachelor of Science. In the following
year he received a teacher's life certificate, because of
superior educational qualifications, from the Western
State Normal College at Bowling Green. By this time
his choice of profession had been made and in 191 1 he
accepted the position of principal of the Sedalia High
School, at Sedalia, Graves County, Kentucky, which
responsible position he continued to fill until 1915,
when, in the same capacity, he went to Water Valley,
also in Graves County, where he remained as principal
for the succeeding three years. In 1918 he came to
Lewisburg as superintendent of schools, and the suc-
, cess that has attended his efforts here has proved the
value of his constructive policy and the wisdom of his
administrative methods. The schools of Lewisburg
have never been conducted on a sounder basis nor
with more satisfactory results. Mr. Hurt is. a man
whose personality counts for a great deal, and this
was particularly illustrated during the World war,
when effort of every kind was demanded for patriotic
movements. He not only took an active part in fur-
thering all these, but was especially successful in arous-
ing the interest and emulation of organizations of
school boys in farming and gardening, taking it upon
himself to be their instructor. Mr. Hurt owns 375
acres of fine land in Logan County, divided into three
separate farms.
At Auburn, Kentucky, in 1907, he married Miss
Maude Lee, who is a daughter of J. W. and Angie
(Farmer) Lee, the latter of whom is deceased. The
father of Mrs. Hurt is a farmer in the neighborhood
of Homer, Kentucky. Mrs. Hurt is a graduate of the
School of Oratory of the Western State Normal Col-
lege, Bowling Green. Mr. and Mrs. Hurt have one
child, Lester E, who was born September 21, 1916.
They are members of the Baptist Church. Mr. Hurt is
interested in many intellectual movements for the fur-
thering of research, culture and superior scholarship,
and is a valued member of the Kentucky Educational
Association. In fraternal life he belongs to Lewisburg
Lodge No. 324, A. F. and A. M. ; Logan Lodge No. 97,
Odd Fellows, of which he is a past grand ; Auburn
Camp No. 343, W. O. W., Auburn ; and Water Valley
Camp, M. W. A., Water Valley, Kentucky. He takes
a hearty interest in public matters as an earnest, wide
awake citizen and votes with the republican party but
has no political ambition.
Jesse Lee Russell, M. D. It is impossible for the
conscientious devotee of medicine and surgery to ar-
rive at a state of mind where he is satisfied with
what he has accomplished, no matter how eminent His
achievements, for with an understanding of what is
Vol. V— 42
awaiting the man of science the many doors yet un-
opened which will lead to new realms in the ameliora-
tion of the ills of mankind, and in the constant yearn-
ing to add to his store of knowledge he, of necessity,
keeps on striving for perfection. Among the physi-
cians of Logan County, one who is a close and constant
student and ardent investigator, while at the same
time caring for a large and rapidly-increasing practice,
is Dr. Jesse Lee Russell, of Adairville.
Doctor Russell was born March 6, 1885, in Logan
County, Kentucky, a son of J. S. and Sarah (Boyd)
Russell. The family to which he belongs is of Irish
origin and was planted in America during Colonial
days, the first of the name locating in Virginia. The
great-great-grandfather came from Ireland in 1759,
located in Virginia, and he served in the Continental
army. In that state, at Petersburg, was born the
great-grandfather of Doctor Russell, Thomas Russell.
In 1804 he came to Logan County, Kentucky, where he
became an extensive farmer and slaveholder, and where
his death occurred. He married a Miss Lester, a na-
tive of Virginia, of German descent, and among their
children was the grandfather of Doctor Russell, Robert
Russell, who was born in Logan County in 1813. Robert
Russell followed in the footsteps of his father and
for many years was an extensive farmer of Logan
County, where his death occurred in 1878. He was a
man of some influence and prominence in his com-
munity, where he was held in high regard and esteem.
He married a Miss Dalton.
J. S. Russell, father of Dr. Jesse Lee Russell, was
born in Logan County in 1842, and is still a resident
of the county, his home being at Oakville. Here he has
spent his entire life with the exception of the time
that he served as a Confederate cavalryman, first under
the intrepid Forrest, and later under General Lyon,
with whom he made the campaign in Kentucky, Ten-
nessee and Alabama during the winter of 1864-65. At
the close of his military career he returned to the
peaceful pursuits of farming, in which he continued to
be engaged very successfully and extensively until his
retirement. He is a stanch democrat and a faithful
member and active supporter of the Methodist Church.
Mr. Russell married Miss Sarah Boyd, who was born
in 1844 in Davidson County, Tennessee, and died at
Oakville, Kentucky, in 1907. They became the par-
ents of ten children : R. A., a resident of Oakville ;
Ada, the wife of M. E. Moseley, a farmer in the vi-
cinity of Oakville; Mollie, the wife of E. L. Akin, a
farmer near Paducah, this state; Ruth, the wife of
Albert Beatty, a mechanic of Oakville; W. A., a farmer
of Adairville; Annie, the wife of R. C. Harper, a
farmer of Oakville; John E., an automobile mechanic
of Lima, Ohio; W. B., medical missionary of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, now stationed at
Soochow, China; Dr. Jesse Lee, of this review; and
Carrie, the wife of Roy Orndorff, a farmer of Adair-
ville.
Dr. Jesse Lee Russell secured his primary education
in the rural schools of Logan County, attending the
schools at Red Oak Grove and Oakville, then entering
the Kentucky School of Pharmacy, Louisville, from
which he was graduated in 1909, with the degree of
Graduate in Pharmacy. In the meantime he had en-
tered the medical department of the University of
Louisville, and in 191 1 was graduated therefrom with
the degree of Doctor of Medicine. In 1911-12 he served
as interne at the Good Samaritan Hospital, Lexington,
and in the latter year came to Adairville and embarked
in practice. He has built up a large, important and
lucrative practice in medicine and surgery, and is
accounted one of the leaders among the younger mem-
bers of his profession in Logan County. His offices
are situated on the northwest corner of the Public
Square. Doctor Russell is a member of the Logan
County Medical Society, the Kentucky State Medical
Society, the Southern Medical Association and the
462
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
American Medical Association. Holding to high ideals
in his professional work, his service has always been
characterized by a devotion to duty and with an appre-
ciation of the responsibilities resting upon him. He
is a man of broad information, and, keeping in touch
with all recent work in his calling, his sound judgment
and experience enable him to decide what is valuable
and that which is unessential in his practice.
During the World war Doctor Russell enlisted for
service in the United States Army Medical Corps, and
September I, 1918, was commissioned a first lieutenant.
He was sent to Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, and later
to Camp Greenleaf, Georgia. He served in the Gen-
eral Hospital No. 14 at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia,
and was ordered with Base Hospital No. 161, for
overseas duty, but the armistice was signed before he
embarked, and he was honorably discharged from Head-
quarters No. I, Base Hospital Group, at Fort Ogle-
thorpe, December 24, 1918. Prior to his enlistment he
had assisted materially in all the drives launched in
his locality, and was one of the nine members of the
Council of National Defense of Logan County. He
was also a generous contributor to the various move-
ments and a liberal purchaser of bonds, etc. A demo-
crat in his political views, Doctor Russell has long
been active in public affairs, and from January 1,
1914, to January 1, 1918, served Adairville in the ca-
pacity of mayor, giving the city an excellent adminis-
tration. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South. As a fraternalist he belongs to Adair-
ville Lodge No. 238, A. F. and A. M., of which he is
a past master ; and Red River Camp No. 348, W. O. W.
Doctor Russell is a stockholder in the Adairville
Lighting Company, owns a valuable farm of 150 acres
seven miles east of Russellville, and has a comfortable,
modern residence on South Main Street, and a modern
office at the northwest corner of City Square, Adair-
ville
On July 15, 1912, at Nashville, Tennessee, Doctor
Russell was united in marriage with Miss Sadie Mims,
a graduate of the Western Kentucky State Normal
College of Bowling Green, Kentucky, and a daughter
of Carlos and Ella (Boyd) Mims, the latter of whom
resides at Webster, Florida, while the former, who
was a telegraph operator, is deceased. Doctor and Mrs.
Russell have two children : Sarah, born August 23,
1913; and Rebecca, born January 18, 1918, both at
Adairville.
Jno. B. Gaines. If all owners of great metropolitan
journals were as conscientious as Jno. B. Gaines, pub-
lisher of the Park City Daily News and the News-
Democrat Messenger, the influence for proper living
conditions, clean government, maintenance and exten-
sion of public improvements and a proper administra-
tion of affairs would prevail, for it is and always has
been his policy to advocate in no unmeasured terms
these standards, and through the medium of his news-
papers awaken interest in them.
Jno. B. Gaines was born in Warren County, on a
farm near Woodburn. September 30, 1854, a son of
Samuel B. Gaines, and grandson of John B. Gaines,
who was born, lived and died in Virginia. Samuel
B. Gaines was born in Virginia in 1820, and died in
Warren County, Kentucky, in 1856. He came to War-
ren County, when a boy, and was reared in Warren
and Allen counties, and after his marriage, in War-
ren County, he located on a farm at Old Woodburn.
and was a pioneer merchant. At Woodland, Barren
County, he passed away. At one time he was engaged
in merchandising at Gainesville, and the place was
named in his honor. The democratic party had in
him a strong supporter, and he was equally zealous in
his work in behalf of the Christian Church, of which
he was a consistent member. Samuel B. Gaines was
married to Bettie Ritter, who was born in Glasgow,
Barren County, in 1828, and she died at Bowling Green
in 1901. They had two children: Mary Ellen, who
died at the age of fifty-eight years, was the wife
of Joe S. Kirby, now living at Richardson, Texas ;
and Jno. B., whose name heads this review.
Jno. B. Gaines attended the rural schools of his
native county and Scotts School at Bowling Green,
from which he was graduated in 1873. He then en-
tered the railroad business with the Hannibal & Saint
Joseph Railroad Company, in the general passenger
and ticket office at Hannibal, Missouri, where he re-
mained for two years. He was then made general pas-
senger agent of the Mississippi Valley & Western Rail-
road Company, located at Hannibal, Missouri, being
the youngest man to hold this responsible position.
After a year Mr. Gaines left railroading for journal-
ism, going with the Saint Louis Globe, which was after-
ward consolidated with the Democrat as the Globe-
Democrat. He began his career as a reporter and
among other important assignments was that of inter-
viewing Gen. U. S. Grant.
In 1876 Mr. Gaines established the Warren County
Enterprise at Woodburn, and later published the Logan
County Enterprise at Russellville. His next venture '
was the Simpson County Enterprise, which he published
at Franklin. Going to Paducah, he published the Pa-
ducah Enterprise, and in 1881 established the Louisville
World. In 1882 he located at Bowling Green, where
he established the Park City Daily News, which he
continues to edit and publish. Since then Mr. Gaines
has bought out a number of newspapers in the city, the
most recent being the Messenger, and has consolidated
these dozen or more in the Park City Daily News,
and the semi-weekly, the News-Democrat Messenger,
both of which are democratic papers. Mr. Gaines is
recognized as the "nestor" of journalism in Kentucky,
and has been associated with some of the leading
newspaper men in the country. His plant and offices
are located at 437 Tenth Street, and his equipment is
thoroughly modern, his devices including linotypes and
a Perfecting press. The papers circulate in Warren
and surrounding counties, and are recognized as au-
thoritative with reference to oil matters in this part
of Kentucky. Mr. Gaines is a strong democrat, and .
served as postmaster of Bowling Green under Presi-
dent Cleveland's second administration. He owns a
modern residence at 1327 State Street, where he main-
tains a comfortable home, and a farm which is located
3'j miles south of Bowling Green. The Methodist
Episcopal Church holds his membership. During the
late war he both personally and through his papers
was very zealous in promoting all of the local work
in Warren County. He bought bonds and war stamps
to the very limit of his ability, and did everything
within his power to aid the Government in carrying
out its policies. For two terms he has been presi-
dent of the Kentucky Press Association, and his
fellow members delight in paying him honor, for they
are proud of his record as a newspaper man and are
attached to him personally.
In 1878 Mr. Gaines married at South Union, Ken-
tucky. Miss Winnie McCutchen, a daughter of Hugh
and Mary ( Morton) McCutchen, both of whom are
deceased. For many years Mr. McCutchen was a
farmer. Mr. and Mrs. Gaines have three children:
Morton B., who is in the advertising business at In-
dianapolis, Indiana; C. M., who is managing editor of
the Park City Daily News; and Anne Norton, who
lives at home.
Mr. Gaines went into the newspaper business and
learned it at a time when owners of journals realized
their responsibility and sought to mould public opinion
and gave the people the news in a dignified and accu-
rate manner. He has never subscribed to the policies
of "yellow" journalism, although he has been broad-
gauged enough to keep his organs fully up to the de-
rhands of modern progress. It has always been his
aim to make his readers feel that what appeared in
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
463
the columns under his charge was reliable, and has
succeeded so well that he is regarded as one of the
most dependable newspaper men in the state.
Joseph Alexander Humphreys. "Sumner's Forest,"
located about eleven miles west of Lexington in Wood-
ford County, now owned by Lucy Alexander Humph-
reys Johnstone and her sister, Sarah Gibson Chenault,
is one of the historic places of Kentucky. It takes its
name from General Jethro Sumner, who was born in
Virginia about 1733 and who was active and prominent
in the measures that preceded the Revolution and in the
Revolution itself. In 1760 he was paymaster of the
Provincial troops of North Carolina, and in 1776 was
appointed colonel of the Third North Carolina Regi-
ment. He served under Washington in the North,
was commissioned a brigadier general in 1779, and
took part in the campaign under General Greene
when the British were expelled from the Carolinas.
This Revolutionary soldier died in North Carolina about
1790. For his services he received a grant of about
3,000 acres on the South Elkhorn. The modern Sum-
ner's Forest is about four miles from that creek.
General Sumner owned other large tracts, and it is
probable that his holdings in this section of Kentucky
were nearer 20,000 acres. It is supposed that he
erected or had erected the residence, which was a
combined dwelling and fort and is located about two
miles from the Village of Fort Garrett and some
twelve miles southwest of Lexington, and about eight
miles from Versailles. Within the recollection of men
still living this pioneer building was surrounded by
dense forests. The property and about 3,000 acres of
the land was acquired in 1792, or perhaps some years
earlier, by John Brown, the first United States senator
from Kentucky, whose career is noted elsewhere in
this publication. John Brown was the ancestor of
the present owner. John Brown acquired it from
Thomas Sumner, a son of General Sumner, for $2
an acre. John Brown's wife was from Philadelphia
and, not liking the forest life, he abandoned it as a
home and brought his father, John, and his mother
from Virginia and gave to them the property. In
1803 it passed to another son, Preston Brown, who
in turn sold it to his nephew, David Carlisle
Humphreys in 1826. The mother of Mr. Humphreys
was Mary Brown.
Sumner's Forest has ever been a place of entertain-
ment and noted for its hospitality. The bill of fare is
still preserved of a noted dinner given July 29, 1856,
to thirty-four prominent guests. Almost everything
good to eat is listed, and waiters for the occasion were
imported from Louisville.
David Carlisle Humphreys, who acquired Sumner's
Forest in 1826, had been a merchant, a dealer in flour,
buying the entire output of several mills and shipping
the product to the sugar planters of Louisiana and
Mississippi. When he bought Sumner's Forest it con-
tained about 640 acres. Later he bought Waverly, the
old home of the parents of John B. Haggin, a noted
horseman, near Midway, and at Waverly Mr. Humphrey
spent his later years. He married Sarah Scott, daughter
of Doctor Joseph and Martha (Finley) Scott, of Lex-
ington and Frankfort. To their marriage were born
two sons, Joseph Alexander Humphreys and Samuel
Brown Humphreys. The family line represented in
Samuel Brown Humphreys is now extinct. He married
Margaret Stribling, of Virginia, and died when com-
paratively young on a farm near his father's place. His
two sons, David and Thomas, both died childless. His
daughter Mary became the wife of Anthony Dey, her
cousin, of New York, and she died without issue. Lucy,
another daughter of Samuel became the wife of A.
J. Alexander, of Woodburn, and they lived at Sher-
wood, near her father, but her three children died
in childhood. The only daughter of David Carlisle
Humphreys was Mary Brown Humphreys, who was
born in 1830 and was famous for her beauty of person
and charm of intellect. Her hand was sought by scores
of suitors before it was finally bestowed. On the wall
of the library of Sumner's Forest hang two portraits
in oil, one showing this famous beauty and another
her mother, Sarah Scott Humphreys.
Joseph Alexander Humphreys, a son of David C.
Humphreys, was born at Frankfort in 1826, and at the
age of eighteen months was taken to Sumner's Forest.
After the age of twelve he lived with the family at
Waverly. His father gave him Sumner's Forest, and
he took possession of the property at the age of twenty-
one. His talents and education were such as to ad-
mirably qualify him for the possession of such a home.
He was a graduate of Centre College and also Yale
College, and took a special course in medicine at Prince-
ton University. For three years he was a student
in Europe, studying at Paris and traveling through
nearly all the great centers of culture. In 1853 ne
married his cousin, Sarah Gibson, daughter of Tobia-;
Gibson, of Terre-bonne Parish Louisiana,. Tobias Gib-
son was -a sugar planter, and married Louisiana Hart, a
daughter of Nathaniel and Susannah (Preston) Hart,
names conspicuous in Kentucky history.
It was during the ownership of Joseph A. Humphreys
that Sumner's Forest became noted for its production
and its home industries. He employed an expert
gardener to plant orchards and vineyards, and made the
farm notable for its livestock. He brought from Ver-
mont the first celebrated 'Morgan race horses, including
Mambrino Chief, from which the greatest of all horses
are proud to trace lineage. "Nancy King" was a great
brood mare in the Sumner's Forest stables. Mr.
Humphreys introduced to that section of Kentucky the
first portable steam engine, using it to replace horse
power for threshing grain. He was a student, an ob-
server, and had the courage to try out his advanced
ideas. He lived in advance of his time, and many of
his visions have since been realized in the time of his
children. He made extensive enlargements and re-
modeled the old residence, nearly doubling its capacity.
He added entirely new the library section. The pos-
sessor of ample means, as he traveled he collected
articles of rare value in various countries and ex-
emplifying the best handiwork of special artists. A
large part of this collection is still preserved and now
has a priceless value. While still unmarried and with
no definite attachments, he secured while in Prague a
full set of several hundred pieces of rare Bohemian cut
glass, which he planned as a wedding present for his
future wife. Doubtless this was the first of such work
ever seen in Kentucky, and some of it is still in the
old home. His collection also included paintings, ivory,
jade carving and rare books, and many pieces of mag-
nificent furniture, and practically all of them have
special associations with the home and those of the
family whose lives have been chiefly spent at Sumner's
Forest. In the collection are coats of arms of a dozen
related families and recorded in books of heraldry.
Joseph A. Humphreys lived intensively and enjoyed the
resources of the world as he passed through it. He
died at the age of thirty-six in New York in 1863. His
wife survived him nearly half a century and spent her
last years at her father's old estate, Magnolia, in Terre-
bonne Parish, Louisiana. To their union were born
five children. Of these Lucy Alexander became the
wife of Lewis Johnstone in 1884, and for many years
they have occupied Sumner's Forest. The second child,
Louisiana Hart, died at an early age. Belle died in
childhood. The other surviving daughter is Sarah Gib-
son, now Mrs. C. D. Chenault, of Lexington, and a
joint owner of Sumner's Forest. They have two daugh-
ters, Sarah Gibson, who married G. D. Buckner, and
Lucy Humphreys who married M. W. Anderson great-
grandson of Henry Clay. The only son, Joseph A., Jr.,
464
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
is in the real estate business at Houraa, Louisiana. He
has one son Joseph A., III.
Lewis Johnstone, who has given a practical direction
to the management of Sumner's Forest as an agricul-
tural property, is a native of South Carolina where his
father was a rice planter. His father subsequently
removed to Louisiana and became an extensive sugar
grower. Mr. and Mrs. Johnstone have lived at Sum-
ner's Forest since 1887 and he entered at once into the
affairs of his community and to the promotion of
the best interests of Kentucky. He is an extensive
sheep grower has made tobacco a special crop of the
farm, and is interested in the Fayette Tobacco Ware-
house. Mr. Johnstone some years ago was prohibi-
tion candidate for Congress against W. C. P. Breckin-
ridge, and the campaign served to bring the prohibition
question squarely before the public.
G. A. Willoughby. The grocery business has one
essential advantage— it is an absolute necessity. Nev-
ertheless, too many people trade upon this fact, and,
in consequence, are a long way removed from the
hustling, resourceful man known as the twentieth-
century grocer. As in all lines of business, a financial
creed is necessary in order not to fall behind the
procession. There are few better qualified to advise
in this direction than G. A. Willoughby, a leading
merchant of Bowling Green.
Mr. Willoughby was born on a farm ten miles from
Bowling Green, Kentucky, at Alvaton, Warren County,
February 9, 1885, a son of Marion and Nannie (Dur-
ham) Willoughby, and a member of a family which
originated in England and the founder of which ill
America immigrated to Virginia in Colonial times.
The great-grandfather of Mr. Willoughby was the
pioneer from Virginia to Allen County, Kentucky,
where was born Simeon Willoughby, the grandfather
of G. A. He was a farmer throughout his life in
Allen County, and died a number of years before the
birth of his grandson. Marion Willoughby was born
in 1852 in Allen County, where he was reared, educated
and married, and in 1878 removed to Alvaton, Warren
County, where he subsequently became a substantial
farmer and the owner of a large tract of land. He
followed agricultural pursuits throughout his life and
died on his farm February 22, 1888, highly respected
and esteemed. He was a stanch republican in politics
and he and the members of his family belonged to
the Baptist Church, in the work of which Mr. Wil-
loughby took an active and interested part. He mar-
ried Nannie Durham, who was born in Allen County,
Kentucky, in 1858, and she survives him as a resident
of Bowling Green. They became the parents of five
children : J. P., a veterinary surgeon of Scottsville,
Kentucky; Stella, the wife of J. P. Stiff, a dry goods
clerk of Bowling Green; L. B., the proprietor of a
wholesale bakery at Bowling Green; G. A.; and S. N.,
of this city, who is associated with his brother in
the Willoughby Grocery Company.
G. A. Willoughby attended the rural schools in the
Alvaton community and resided on his father's farm
until he was fifteen years of age, at which time he
secured employment driving a grocery wagon for a
store at Bowling Green. After six months of this
work he was taken into the store as clerk by the pro-
prietor, J. J. Dobson, and during the seven years that
he was thus employed learned every phase of the
grocery business, from the ground up. On September
1, 1908, Mr. Willoughby established a store of his own,
and because of his lack of capital it was a modest
venture. As is usually the case, he at first belonged
to the corner grocery type, but refused to get in a
rut and consequently a way was opened for him to
develop and grow. He was twenty-three years of age
when he embarked in business on his own account,
and he marked out his business chart as clearly as his
capital, knowledge, field and scope would permit. He
moved slowly in the beginning, until he had learned
the motion of fortune's wheel, and never ventured
ahead until he had an objective point in view. His
. capital of $454 was invested in a modest but well-
chosen stock, to which he added from time to time as
his finances would permit, and in the meantime com-
pelled attention by his departure from threadbare tra-
ditions. His goods always have been arranged in
orderly and attractive manner, and cleanliness is a
feature of his establishment. He directs much atten-
tion to supplying the best goods obtainable, has a
reputation for reliability that in itself is a trade-
winner, and never advertises anything that he has not
on hand. He has won out on merit, good nature,
courtesy and belief in himself and his ability to suc-
ceed, and his store, at the corner of Main and State
streets, is now one of the leading groceries between
Louisville and Nashville.
Mr. Willoughby is the owner of a modern residence
at 1265 West Chestnut Street, one of the most attrac-
tice and desirable homes of Bowling Green, and he is
interested financially in the oil development in this part
of the state. The high esteem in which he is held
by his associates may be seen in the fact that he is
president of the Retail Grocers' Association of Bowl-
ing Green. He is a director in the Home Builders Com-
pany and treasurer of the local Y. M. C. A., and during
the World war period was an active worker in and
generous contributor to the various movements started
to assist in the success of American arms abroad. As
a fraternalist he holds membership in Bowling Green
Lodge No. 51, I. O. O. F., of which he is a past
grand, and in politics gives his support to the re-
publican party, although he has never been an office
seeker. He belongs to the Baptist Church with his
family, and is helpfully interested in the work of the
Sunday School.
On June 12, 1912, Mr. Willoughby was united in
marriage at Bowling Green with Miss Amy Dobson,
daughter of J. J. and Nora (Brite) Dobson, the latter
deceased and the former a resident of Bowling Green.
Mr. Dobson, under whose training Mr. Willoughby
secured his preparatory knowledge of the grocery busi-
ness, was a pioneer among the merchants of this city
and is still engaged in the retail grocery trade. Mrs.
Willoughby, who is a graduate of the music department
of Potter College, at one time a celebrated school of
Bowling Green, is very talented as an instrumental
musician and is widely known and popular in musical
circles of the city. She and her husband are the
parents of two children: Eleanor, born May 27, 1915;
and G. A., Jr., born August 8, 1918, both at Bowling
Green.
H. A. McElroy. The name of McElroy is a well-
known one all over Kentucky and Tennessee, for it
is connected with the dependable five and ten cent
stores in all of the leading centers of these two states,
operated under that name and managed by the presi-
dent of the H. A. McElroy Company, H. A. McElroy,
whose capital has backed the enterprise from the first.
Mr. McElroy was born near Scottsville, Allen County,
Kentucky, June 13, 1869, a son of M. H. McElroy,
grandson of James McElroy, and great-grandson of
Captain McElroy, a cavalry officer of the American
Revolution under General Marion's command. James
McElroy was born in South Carolina and died in Allen
County, Kentucky, before the birth of his grandson.
He was the pioneer of his family into Allen County.
James McElroy married a Miss Ham. The McElroy
family immigrated from Scotland to South Carolina
during the Colonial epoch of this country.
M. H. McElroy was born in Allen County in 1828,
and died near Bowling Green in 1895. Reared, educated
and married in Allen County, he was there engaged in
farming upon an extensive scale until 1884, when he
moved to Smith Grove, Kentucky, and for two years
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
465
rested from his labors, which had been quite arduous.
In 1886 he came to his farm near Bowling Green, where
he spent the remainder of his life. Politically a dem-
ocrat, he gave his party his earnest support. As a con-
scientious member of the Baptist Church he upheld the
moral standards of his community and set an example
in Christian living. He married Kareen Hunt, who was
born in Allen County, Kentucky, in 1831, and died in
the same county in 1872. Their children were as fol-
lows: Ellen, who is residing at Wichita, Kansas, the
widow of John W. Whitney, who was a farmer and
also foreman in an ax-handle factory of Gallatin, Ten-
nessee; Ollie, who died on a farm near Bowling Green
at the age of fifty years, was the wife of T. J. Ham,
who is now residing at Bowling Green ; J. K., who is
a retired merchant of Bowling Green; A. C, who was
a merchant of Bowling Green for many years, and
died in this city in 1907; and H. A., who was the
youngest born.
Until he was twenty-one years old H. A. McElroy
remained on his father's farm, his educational advan-
tages being those afforded by the rural schools of his
neighborhood. Leaving home at the time of his ma-
jority, he entered a hardware store of Bowling Green
as a clerk, and continued in it until 1904. This store
was owned by his brother, A. C. McElroy, and in 1904
he bought an interest in the business. At the time of
his brother's death he and the other brother, J. K.
McElroy, took possession of the business and conducted
it together until 1909, when H. A. McElroy bought his
brother's interest, and remained in it alone until 1919,
when he sold it in order to devote all of his time to
the chain of five and ten cent stores which had been
established in his name. During the time he was the
sole owner of the hardware store he developed it into
the leading one of the city.
In 1915 the McElroy chain of stores was started by
F. V. Andrew, Mr. McElroy furnishing the capital.
The company is incorporated under the laws of Ken-
tucky and Tennessee, with a capital of $500,000, and
the officials of it are as follows : H. A. McElroy, presi-
dent; L. G. Singleton, vice president; Roy Claypool,
secretary and treasurer. The offices of the company are
in the McCormack Building of Bowling Green, and
the five and ten cent stores which it operates are to
1 be found in Glasgow, Madisonville, Mayfield, Bowling
I Green, Somerset, Fulton, Murray, Franklin, Morganfield,
I Owensboro, Kentucky, and Union City, Dyersburg,
> Springfield, Paris, Brownsville, Tennessee. The suc-
cess of this venture has been way beyond the most
sanguine expectations, and more will be added to the
■ chain of stores from time to time.
In politics Mr. McElroy is a democrat. He belongs
, to the Baptist Church. Fraternally he is a Knight of
; Pythias. Having faith in local enterprises, he has seen
fit to invest in some of them, and is now a director of
1 the Liberty National Bank and president of the Jamison
Oil Company. He owns a modern residence at 1217
' Park Street, where he maintains a comfortable home.
Like all loyal Americans, Mr. McElroy gave the ad-
ministration a hearty support in its war policies, and
took a zealous part in all of the local war activities,
assisting in every drive and buying bonds and Saving
: Stamps and contributing to all of the organizations to
Jhe full limit of his ability.
In 1906 Mr. McElroy married in Warren County
; Miss Ethel Claypool, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Tom
J. Claypool, both of whom are now deceased. He was
a successful farmer of Warren County for many years,
; and died at Bowling Green in December, 1906. In
October, 191 1, Mr. McElroy married Miss Hawley
Payne of Bowling Green, a daughter of W. T. and
Janie (Hudson) Payne, who reside in Warren County,
where Mr. Payne is engaged in farming. Mr. and
Mrs. McElroy have the following children : Frances
Ellene, who was born May 15, 1914; Ruth Payne, who
was born October 14, 1916; H. A., Jr., who was born
February 25, 1918; and John Robert, who was born
August 7, 1920.
While the idea of a chain of stores handling articles
which could be sold for 5 and 10 cents each did not
originate with Mr. McElroy, he has developed new
features in the business, and is handling its affairs in
the same capable and effective manner as he did those
of his immense hardware establishment. He is a
born business man of superior executive ability, and
now that he is giving all of his time and attention
to his company much progress may be looked for in
every way. As a citizen he measures up to the highest
and most exacting standards, and has done much in a
quiet way to improve conditions in his home city. His
family is one of the old ones of this section, and he is
accepted as an excellent example of native Kentuckians,
one whose stock is rooted in the traditions of the pio-
neer days of the great commonwealth.
Will B. Hill. The business interests of Bowling
Green have a progressive and enterprising representa-
tive in Will B. Hill, proprietor of the leading music
store between Louisville and Nashville. Mr. Hill is
the acknowledged leader in musical circles of Bowling
Green, and through his interest and enthusiasm the
people of this community have been enabled to enjoy
the performances of a number of this country's cele-
brated artists.
Will B. Hill was born in Bowling Green, October
13, 1882, a son of Samuel Henry and Mary Prudence
(Hall) Hill. The family was founded in Kentucky
by the great-grandparents of Mr. Hill, who came from
Virginia in 1817. During their trip there was born
to them the grandfather of Mr. Hill, Thomas G. Hill,
whose birth occurred in the year mentioned, in a
covered immigrant wagon, at Murfreesboro, Tennes-
see. As an infant he was taken to Lincoln County,
Kentucky, where he spent the remainder of his life
as a farmer, dying in 1890, a substantial and highly
respected citizen.
Samuel Henry Hill was born in 1838, in Lincoln
County, Kentucky, and was reared in his native county.
As a young man he located at Russellville, where he
engaged in the live stock business, and in the same
line came to Bowling Green in 1873, where he estab-
lished and developed a large and prosperous business.
His death occurred in this city, where he was widely
and favorably known, in 1908. Mr. Hill was a demo-
crat and was interested in public affairs, serving ef-
ficiently in the capacity of city assessor for twelve
years. He was affiliated with the Presbyterian Church.
During the Civil war period he bought live stock for
the Confederate Government. Mr. Hill married at Rus-
sellville Miss Mary Prudence Hall, who was born in
1849 in Barren County, this state, and died at Bowling
Green in 1886. They became the parents of the fol-
lowing children : Thomas Granville, who served in
the United States Navy for several years and then
entered" the United States Quartermaster's Department
and was stationed in the Philippine Islands, where he
died at the age of twenty-four years ; Jennie Brister,
who died at the age of twenty-one years, unmarried;
Samuel W., who saw service in the Philippines as or-
derly to General Humphreys during the Spanish-Amer-
ican war, was later orderly to the late Maj. Archibald
W. Butt, and died at the United States Government
Sanitarium at Fort Bayard, New Mexico, while still a
member of the Quartermaster's Department; and
Will B.
Will B. Hill received his education in the public
schools of Bowling Green, which he left at the age of
sixteen years to accept a position in a tailoring estab-
lishment, where he received $1 a week to start, being
gradually advanced during the three years of his
connection therewith. When he was nineteen years
of age, having thoroughly master the details of the
464
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
is in the real estate business at Hourna, Louisiana. He
has one son Joseph A., III.
Lewis Johnstone, who has given a practical direction
to the management of Sumner's Forest as an agricul-
tural property, is a native of South Carolina where his
father was a rice planter. His father subsequently
removed to Louisiana and became an extensive sugar
grower. Mr. and Mrs. Johnstone have lived at Sum-
ner's Forest since 1887 and he entered at once into the
affairs of his community and to the promotion of
the best interests of Kentucky. He is an extensive
sheep grower has made tobacco a special crop of the
farm, and is interested in the Fayette Tobacco Ware-
house. Mr. Johnstone some years ago was prohibi-
tion candidate for Congress against W. C. P. Breckin-
ridge, and the campaign served to bring the prohibition
question squarely before the public.
G. A. Willoughby. The grocery business has one
essential advantage — it is an absolute necessity. Nev-
ertheless, too many people trade upon this fact, and,
in consequence, are a long way removed from the
hustling, resourceful man known as the twentieth-
century grocer. As in all lines of business, a financial
creed is necessary in order not to fall behind the
procession. There are few better qualified to advise
in this direction than G. A. Willoughby, a leading
merchant of Bowling Green.
Mr. Willoughby was born on a farm ten miles from
Bowling Green, Kentucky, at Alvaton, Warren County,
February 9, 1885, a son of Marion and Nannie (Dur-
ham) Willoughby, and a member of a family which
originated in England and the founder of which in
America immigrated to Virginia in Colonial times.
The great-grandfather of Mr. Willoughby was the
pioneer from Virginia to Allen County, Kentucky,
where was born Simeon Willoughby, the grandfather
of G. A. He was a farmer throughout his life in
Allen County, and died a number of years before the
birth of his grandson. Marion Willoughby was born
in 1852 in Allen County, where he was reared, educated
and married, and in 1878 removed to Alvaton, Warren
County, where he subsequently became a substantial
farmer and the owner of a large tract of land. He
followed agricultural pursuits throughout his life and
died on his farm February 22, 1888, highly respected
and esteemed. He was a stanch republican in politics
and he and the members of his family belonged to
the Baptist Church, in the work of which Mr. Wil-
loughby took an active and interested part. He mar-
ried Nannie Durham, who was born in Allen County,
Kentucky, in 1858, and she survives him as a resident
of Bowling Green. They became the parents of five
children : J. P., a veterinary surgeon of Scottsville,
Kentucky; Stella, the wife of J. P. Stiff, a dry goods
clerk of Bowling Green ; L. B., the proprietor of a
wholesale bakery at Bowling Green; G. A.; and S. N.,
of this city, who is associated with his brother in
the Willoughby Grocery Company.
G. A. Willoughby attended the rural schools in the
Alvaton community and resided on his father's farm
until he Was fifteen years of age, at which time he
secured employment driving a grocery wagon for a
store at Bowling Green. After six months of this
work he was taken into the store as clerk by the pro-
prietor, J. J. Dobson, and during the seven years that
he was thus employed learned every phase of the
grocery business, from the ground up. On September
1, 1908, Mr. Willoughby established a store of his own,
and because of his lack of capital it was a modest
venture. As is usually the case, he at first belonged
to the corner grocery type, but refused to get in a
rut and consequently a way was opened for him to
develop and grow. He was twenty-three years of age
when he embarked in business on his own account,
and he marked out his business chart as clearly as his
capital, knowledge, field and scope would permit. He
moved slowly in the beginning, until he had learned
the motion of fortune's wheel, and never ventured
ahead until he had an objective point in view. His
. capital of $454 was invested in a modest but well-
chosen stock, to which he added from time to time as
his finances would permit, and in the meantime com-
pelled attention by his departure from threadbare tra-
ditions. His goods always have been arranged in
orderly and attractive manner, and cleanliness is a
feature of his establishment. He directs much atten-
tion to supplying the best goods obtainable, has a
reputation for reliability that in itself is a trade-
winner, and never advertises anything that he has not
on hand. He has won out on merit, good nature,
courtesy and belief in himself and his ability to suc-
ceed, and his store, at the corner of Main and State
streets, is now one of the leading groceries between
Louisville and Nashville.
Mr. Willoughby is the owner of a modern residence
at 1265 West Chestnut Street, one of the most attrac-
tice and desirable homes of Bowling Green, and he is
interested financially in the oil development in this part
of the state. The high esteem in which he is held
by his associates may be seen in the fact that he is
president of the Retail Grocers' Association of Bowl-
ing Green. He is a director in the Home Builders Com-
pany and treasurer of the local Y. M. C. A., and during
the World war period was an active worker in and
generous contributor to the various movements started
to assist in the success of American arms abroad. As
a fraternalist he holds membership in Bowling Green
Lodge No. 51, I. O. O. F., of which he is a past
grand, and in politics gives his support to the re-
publican party, although he has never been an office
seeker. He belongs to the Baptist Church with his
family, and is helpfully interested in the work of the
Sunday School.
On June 12, 1912, Mr. Willoughby was united in
marriage at Bowling Green with Miss Amy Dobson,
daughter of J. J. and Nora (Brite) Dobson, the latter
deceased and the former a resident of Bowling Green.
Mr. Dobson, under whose training Mr. Willoughby
secured his preparatory knowledge of the grocery busi-
ness, was a pioneer among the merchants of this city
and is still engaged in the retail grocery trade. Mrs.
Willoughby, who is a graduate of the music department
of Potter College, at one time a celebrated school of
Bowling Green, is very talented as an instrumental
musician and is widely known and popular in musical
circles of the city. She and her husband are the
parents of two children: Eleanor, born May 27, 1915;
and G. A., Jr., born August 8, 1918, both at Bowling
Green.
H. A. McElroy. The name of McElroy is a well-
known one all over Kentucky and Tennessee, for it
is connected with the dependable five and ten cent
stores in all of the leading centers of these two states,
operated under that name and managed by the presi-
dent of the H. A. McElroy Company, H. A. McElroy,
whose capital has backed the enterprise from the first.
Mr. McElroy was born near Scottsville, Allen County,
Kentucky, June 13, 1869, a son of M. H. McElroy,
grandson of James McElroy, and great-grandson of
Captain McElroy, a cavalry officer of the American
Revolution under General Marion's command. James
McElroy was born in South Carolina and died in Allen
County, Kentucky, before the birth of his grandson.
He was the pioneer of his family into Allen County.
James McElroy married a Miss Ham. The McElroy
family immigrated from Scotland to South Carolina
during the Colonial epoch of this country.
M. H. McElroy was born in Allen County in 1828,
and died near Bowling Green in 1895. Reared, educated
and married in Allen County, he was there engaged in
farming upon an extensive scale until 1884, when he
moved to Smith Grove, Kentucky, and for two years
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
465
rested from his labors, which had been quite arduous.
In 1886 he came to his farm near Bowling Green, where
he spent the remainder of his life. Politically a dem-
ocrat, he gave his party his earnest support. As a con-
scientious member of the Baptist Church he upheld the
moral standards of his community and set an example
in Christian living. He married Kareen Hunt, who was
born in Allen County, Kentucky, in 1831, and died in
the same county in 1872. Their children were as fol-
lows: Ellen, who is residing at Wichita, Kansas, the
widow of John W. Whitney, who was a farmer and
also foreman in an ax-handle factory of Gallatin, Ten-
nessee; Ollie, who died on a farm near Bowling Green
at the age of fifty years, was the wife of T. J. Ham,
who is now residing at Bowling Green; J. K., who is
a retired merchant of Bowling Green; A. C, who was
a merchant of Bowling Green for many years, and
died in this city in 1907; and H. A., who was the
youngest born.
Until he was twenty-one years old H. A. McElroy
remained on his father's farm, his educational advan-
tages being those afforded by the rural schools of his
neighborhood. Leaving home at the time of his ma-
jority, he entered a hardware store of Bowling Green
as a clerk, and continued in it until 1904. This store
was owned by his brother, A. C. McElroy, and in 1904
he bought an interest in the business. At the time of
his brother's death he and the other brother, J. K.
McElroy, took possession of the business and conducted
it together until 1909, when H. A. McElroy bought his
brother's interest, and remained in it alone until 1919,
when he sold it in order to devote all of his time to
the chain of five and ten cent stores which had been
established in his name. During the time he was the
sole owner of the hardware store he developed it into
the leading one of the city.
In 1915 the McElroy chain of stores was started by
F. V. Andrew, Mr. McElroy furnishing the capital.
The company is incorporated under the laws of Ken-
tucky and Tennessee, with a capital of $500,000, and
the officials of it are as follows : H. A. McElroy, presi-
dent; L. G. Singleton, vice president; Roy Claypool,
secretary and treasurer. The offices of the company are
in the McCormack Building of Bowling Green, and
the five and ten cent stores which it operates are to
be found in Glasgow, Madisonville, Mayfield, Bowling
Green, Somerset, Fulton, Murray, Franklin, Morganfield,
Owensboro, Kentucky, and Union City, Dyersburg,
Springfield, Paris, Brownsville, Tennessee. The suc-
cess of this venture has been way beyond the most
sanguine expectations, and more will be added to the
chain of stores from time to time.
In politics Mr. McElroy is a democrat. He belongs
to the Baptist Church. Fraternally he is a Knight of
Pythias. Having faith in local enterprises, he has seen
fit to invest in some of them, and is now a director of
the Liberty National Bank and president of the Jamison
Oil Company. He owns a modern residence at 1217
Park Street, where he maintains a comfortable home.
Like all loyal Americans, Mr. McElroy gave the ad-
ministration a hearty support in its war policies, and
took a zealous part in all of the local war activities,
assisting in every drive and buying bonds and Saving
Stamps and contributing to all of the organizations to
the full limit of his ability.
In 1906 Mr. McElroy married in Warren County
Miss Ethel Claypool, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Tom
J. Claypool, both of whom are now deceased. He was
a successful farmer of Warren County for many years,
and died at Bowling Green in December, 1906. In
October, 191 1, Mr. McElroy married Miss Hawley
Payne of Bowling Green, a daughter of W. T. and
Janie (Hudson) Payne, who reside in Warren County,
where Mr. Payne is engaged in farming. Mr. and
Mrs. McElroy have the following children : Frances
Ellene, who was born May 15, 1914; Ruth Payne, who
was born October 14, 1916; H. A., Jr., who was born
February 25, 1918; and John Robert, who was born
August 7, 1920.
While the idea of a chain of stores handling articles
which could be sold for 5 and 10 cents each did not
originate with Mr. McElroy, he has developed new
features in the business, and is handling its affairs in
the same capable and effective manner as he did those
of his immense hardware establishment. He is a
born business man of superior executive ability, and
now that he is giving all of his time and attention
to his company much progress may be looked for in
every way. As a citizen he measures up to the highest
and most exacting standards, and has done much in a
quiet way to improve conditions in his home city. His
family is one of the old ones of this section, and he is
accepted as an excellent example of native Kentuckians,
one whose stock is rooted in the traditions of the pio-
neer days of the great commonwealth.
Will B. Hill. The business interests of Bowling
Green have a progressive and enterprising representa-
tive in Will B. Hill, proprietor of the leading music
store between Louisville and Nashville. Mr. Hill is
the acknowledged leader in musical circles of Bowling
Green, and through his interest and enthusiasm the
people of this community have been enabled to enjoy
the performances of a number of this country's cele-
brated artists.
Will B. Hill was born in Bowling Green, October
13, 1882, a son of Samuel Henry and Mary Prudence
(Hall) Hill. The family was founded in Kentucky
by the great-grandparents of Mr. Hill, who came from
Virginia in 1817. During their trip there was born
to them the grandfather of Mr. Hill, Thomas G. Hill,
whose birth occurred in the year mentioned, in a
covered immigrant wagon, at Murfreesboro, Tennes-
see. As an infant he was taken to Lincoln County,
Kentucky, where he spent the remainder of his life
as a farmer, dying in 1890, a substantial and highly
respected citizen.
Samuel Henry Hill was born in 1838, in Lincoln
County, Kentucky, and was reared in his native county.
As a young man he located at Russellville, where he
engaged in the live stock business, and in the same
line came to Bowling Green in 1873, where he estab-
lished and developed a large and prosperous business.
His death occurred in this city, where he was widely
and favorably known, in 1908. Mr. Hill was a demo-
crat and was interested in public affairs, serving ef-
ficiently in the capacity of city assessor for twelve
years. He was affiliated with the Presbyterian Church.
During the Civil war period he bought live stock for
the Confederate Government. Mr. Hill married at Rus-
sellville Miss Mary Prudence Hall, who was born in
1849 in Barren County, this state, and died at Bowling
Green in 1886. They became the parents of the fol-
lowing children : Thomas Granville, who served in
the United States Navy for several years and then
entered" the United States Quartermaster's Department
and was stationed in the Philippine Islands, where he
died at the age of twenty-four years; Jennie Brister,
who died at the age of twenty-one years, unmarried;
Samuel W., who saw service in the Philippines as or-
derly to General Humphreys during the Spanish-Amer-
ican war, was later orderly to the late Maj. Archibald
W. Butt, and died at the United States Government
Sanitarium at Fort Bayard, New Mexico, while still a
member of the Quartermaster's Department; and
Will B.
Will B. Hill received his education in the public
schools of Bowling Green, which he left at the age of
sixteen years to accept a position in a tailoring estab-
lishment, where he received $1 a week to start, being
gradually advanced during the three years of his
connection therewith. When he was nineteen years
of age, having thoroughly master the details of the
466
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
business, he established a modest store of his own.
When this enterprise was started, and for some time
thereafter, his business consisted of pressing and mend-
ing clothes, but through his good workmanship, in-
dustry and fidelity this was developed into one of the
leading tailoring houses of Bowling Green, employing
at times as many as thirty people. In 1914 Mr. Hill,
severed his connection with this line of industry to
embark in the music business, and at present his estab-
lishment on Park Row is the leading music store be-
tween Louisville and Nashville.
Possessed of a splendid tenor voice, Mr. Hill has
been greatly interested in musical matters since his
youth and has been the main factor in developing an
interest in this art at Bowling Green. As local concert
manager he has been instrumental in bringing to this
city may of the famous musical artists of the country,
including Mabel Garrison, Florence McBeth and others,
and is associate manager of the Bowling Green Annual
May Music Festival. He has been tenor soloist of
the choir of the Frst Baptist Church for fifteen years.
Mr. Hill is president of the Oratorio Society of the
Western Kentucky State Normal School, holds mem-
bership in the Lions Club of Bowling Green, and is a
member of the Board of Directors of the Bowling
Green Country Club, and is a member of Lodge No.
320, B. P. O. E., of Bowling Green. In politics he is
a democrat. He took a very prominent and active
part in war work, particularly in behalf of the Red
Cross, and on one occasion collected $3,000 in a tin
bucket on the streets of Bowling Green for that
worthy movement.
Mr. Hill is unmarried and resides at the Foster
Apartments on Man Street.
Eugene R. Bagby, proprietor of the Ford garage at
Bowling Green, is one of the experienced men in this
line of business, and a man whose standing in his
community is unquestioned. He was born at Louis-
ville, Kentucky, July 29, 1871, a son of Eugene A.
Bagby, and grandson of Albert K. Bagby, who was
born in Culpeper County. Virginia, and died at Glas-
gow, Kentucky, in T893, having been the pioneer of his
family in Kentucky, where he was engaged in farming.
He married Martha Wooten, who also died in Glas-
gow, Kentucky. The Bagby family originated in Scot-
land, from whence imnrgration was made to Virginia
during the Colonial epoch of this country.
Eugene A. Bagby was born in Glasgow, Kentucky, in
1839, and died at Bowling Green in 1912. Growing
up in Glasgow, he became a druggist of that city, but
in 1866 moved to Louisville, and for fifteen years
thereafter was with McFerran, Shalcross & Company,
meat packers, noted for their Magnolia hams and other
rqlted meats. In 1881 he moved to a farm at Midway,
Kentucky, but after four years spent in conducting it
he went West to Garden City. Kansas, and for a
time conducted a real-estate business there. Sub-
sequently he went to California for Kingan & Com-
pany, establishing a branch house for this firm at San
Francisco in 1890, and was connected with it until 1894,
when he returned to Kentucky and for eight years was
in the drug business again. He also spent some time
with the Kentucky Title Company of Louisville, but,
his health failing, he was induced to locate at Bowling
Green with the hope that the salubrious air and climate
would prove beneficial, but after a year or two he
died. In politics he was a democrat, but did not care
for public honors, so contented himself with casting
his vote for his party's condidates. The Episcopal
Church held his membership, and he was always a
strong churchman. He married Margaret McFerran,
who was born at Louisville in 1841, and died at Midway
in 1882, having borne her husband the following chil-
dren: James, who died young; W. A., who died at
Glasgow when twenty-six years old, was with the
Deposit Bank of that city; Eugene R.; John B., who
died in infancy; and an infant daughter who died at
birth.
Eugene R. Bagby attended the public schools of
Louisville until he was seventeen years of age, at which
time he entered the Deposit Bank of Glasgow, begin-
ning at the bottom of the ladder. It was not long,
however, before his merits received recognition and
he was promoted, and when he left at the end of two
years he was holding the position of assistant book-
keeper. He then accompanied his father to San Fran-
cisco, and for two years was shipping clerk for Kingan
& Company. Coming back to Kentucky, Mr. Bagby
became interested in agricultural pursuits, and for ten
years was one of the largest producers of Shorthorn
cattle and Duroc hogs in Warren County. Realizing
the necessity for a change on account of ill health, he
went to Orlando, Florida, and after four years spent
there felt sufficiently recovered to return to Bowling
Green, but decided it would be better to occupy him-
self with a business which was not too confining, and
so established his present garage in a small way. In
it he found congenial conditions and profit, and his
business has grown until it is now the largest of its
kind between Louisville, Kentucky, and Nashville, Ten-
nessee. His new garage is located on State, at Eleventh
Street. Mr. Bagby is agent for the Ford automobiles
and tractors, and is the sole proprietor of his business.
His residence is at ii22?4 State Street. Like his
father he is a democrat. Fraternally he belongs to
Bowling Green Lodge No. 320, B. P. O. E.
During the period that this country was at war Mr.
Bagby was one of the zealous workers and participated
in all of the drives in Warren County. Personally he
bought bonds and stamps and contributed very gen-
erously to all of the war organizations, doing every-
thing "in his power to assist the Government to carry
out its policies.
In 1892 Mr. Bagby married at Bowling Green Miss
Mildred Wallace Woods, a daughter of Dr. John G.
and Martha Woods, both of whom are deceased. Doc-
tor Woods was a distinguished physician of Glasgow,
and later was engaged in farming in Warren County.
A man of public character, he represented the people
of Warren County in the State Assembly, and also was
state printer. Mr. and Mrs. Bagby have no children.
It would be difficult to find a more public-spirited
man than Mr. Bagby, or one who is more sincerely
interested in the progress of Bowling Green and War-
ren Countv. His acquaintance is a wide one, and his
circle of friends is almost as large. The service which
he renders to the public is appreciated, as the increase
in his business plainly demonstrates, and he has every
reason to be proud of what he has accomplished in the
past decade.
Joseph Morris Ramsey, vice president of the Citi-
zens National Bank of Bowling Green, has long been
accepted as one of the astute financiers of Warren
County, and is a man of sterling integrity and wide
civic influence. He was born in Clark County, Ken-
tucky, November 2, 1870, a son of William Nathaniel
Ramsey, grandson of Joseph Ramsey, and a member
of one of the old families of Virginia, from which
state his great-great-grandfather came to Clark County,
Kentucky, just after the close of the American Revo-
lution Joseph Ramsey was born in Clark County in
1820, and died there in January, 1875. He was a clergy-
man of the Presbyterian Church, and for many years
was an eminent divine, carrying on his ministerial du-
ties in various parts of Clark County, and also was
occupied with agricultural activities in connection with
his large farming property. He married Miss Cynthia
Haggard, a native of Clark County, who passed away
in that county. .
William Nathaniel Ramsey was born in Clark County
March 19, 1841, and was there reared, but he was mar-
ried in Montgomery County, Kentucky. Until 1890 he
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
467
was busily engaged in farming, but since that year has
I lived in retirement at Winchester, that county. Since
casting his first vote he has given his support to the
candidates of the democratic party, and at one time was
chairman of the County Central Committee. The Pres-
byterian Church, U. S. A., holds his membership, and
he is a very strong churchman. A Mason, he is a
member and was one of the founders of W. H. Cum-
mingham Lodge No. 572, A. F. and A. M., and for
forty years has been its secretary. During the period
of the war between the two sections of the country
he was a lieutenant of the Kentucky State Militia.
William Nathaniel Ramsey married Mary Elizabeth
Morris, who was born September 9, 1836, in Scott
County, Kentucky, and died February 16, 1910, in Clark
County, at Winchester. Their children were as fol-
lows: W. H., who is a farmer of Montgomery County;
J. C, who is in the lumber business with the McCor-
mack Lumber Company at Mount Sterling, Kentucky;
Kate M., who is the widow of B. F. Patton, pastor of
the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A., now resides at
Augusta, Georgia; Rena Sue, who married B. S. Hag-
gard, a retired farmer and landowner of Winchester,
Kentucky; Joseph Morris; Sallie L., who is the widow
of Ed W. Ramsey, at one time in the transfer busi-
ness at Winchester, Kentucky, a prominent democrat,
who served as city assessor, is matron of the Asheville,
North Carolina, Hospital; and Mary Elizabeth, who
married Dr. C. M. Driver, of Mounds, Oklahoma, a
physician and surgeon.
Joseph Morris Ramsev attended the rural schools of
Clark County, and the Kentucky Western College at
Winchester, leaving the latter in 1891, and entered the
joint freight office of the Chesapeake & Ohio and the
Louisville & Nashville Railroads at Winchester, start-
ing in as a messenger. He was promoted through
various grades to be ticket agent, holding the latter
position for six years of the ten years he was with
this office. In 1901 he resigned to enter the lumber and
railroad tie business, with headquarters at Clay City,
Kentucky, where he remained for four years.
In 1905 Mr. Ramsey came to Bowling Green to be-
come cashier of the Bowling Green National Bank,
which he assisted in organizing, and he continued to
occupy that responsible position for six years, when,
in 191 1, this bank was consolidated with the Citizens
National Bank, and he was made vice president and
one of the directors of the new organization. He was
also secretary and treasurer of the Bowling Green Trust
Company, which is owned and controlled by the Citi-
zens National Bank. In 1914 Mr. Ramsey retired from
active service in the bank, although he holds his posi-
tions with the Citizens National Bank, and continues
with the Bowling Green Trust Company. In that year
he established himself in a real-estate and insurance
business, which he is still conducting. _ He is a demo-
crat, and very active in his party, serving as a member
of the City Council for four years. For many years
he has been a member of the Westminster Presby-
terian Church, U. S. A., of which he was a deacon for
twelve years, and in 1920 was made an elder. Frater-
nally he belongs to Aeolian Lodge, K. of P.; Bowling
Green Lodge No. 320, B. P. O. E., and is active in
both. He owns a modern residence at 1307 _ Park
Street, which is one of the most desirable ones in the
city and supplied with every modern convenience. Dur-
ing the late war he was one of the zealous workers
in behalf of the various drives, and bought bonds and
stamps and contributed to all of the war organizations
to the full extent of his ability.
On June 20, 1906, Mr. Ramsey married at Sheldon,
Iowa, Miss Sadie Frances Gibson, a daughter of Rev.
William Gibson, a minister of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, North, who is now deceased, having passed
away in 1918, aged ninety-two years, at Fort Collins,
Colorado. Mrs. Ramsey was graduated from Hahne-
mann Medical College, Chicago, Illinois, with the de-
gree of Doctor of Medicine, and was engaged in the
practice of her profession at Bowling Green until her
marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Ramsey have no children.
John Edwin Tyler. For many years the general
public has patronized the soda fountains handling the
soft drink known as Coco Cola, and even within the past
two years, when countless other beverages have been
placed on the market, this favorite brooks no rival. It
is stimulating, healthful and refreshing, and does not
cloy the palate as do so many other drinks which are
offered for consumption. This beverage was one of the
first of the drinks placed upon the market, and it con-
tinues to occupy a front place among them all, as any
vendor of them will testify. The bottling plant of the
company is located at Bowling Green and is owned by
John Edwin Tyler, one of the astute business men of
the city.
John Edwin Tyler was born in Meade County, Ken-
tucky, December 27, 1876, a son of Thomas E. Tyler,
and grandson of John K. Tyler, who was born in In-
diana in 1823. He died at Cape Sandy, Indiana, in 1891,
having been a farmer there for many years. Thomas
E. Tyler was born in Indiana in 1850, and died at Con-
cordia, Meade County, Kentucky, where his parents
moved when he was two years old, and there he was
reared and married. A carpenter by trade, he left that
calling to become a druggist, and was in that business
a the time of his demise. During the war between the
North and the South he enlisted in the Twelfth Ken-
tucky Cavalry, was captured and sent to Belle Isle, and
there confined for about a year, when he was released.
A stanch republican, he served as a magistrate for many
years. With the organization of the Grand Army of
the Republic he enrolled himself as a member of the
local post, and continued with it as long as he lived.
He married Helen T. Tyler, who was born in New
York State in 1850. She survives her husband and lives
at Concordia, Kentucky. Their children were as fol-
lows : James Newton, who was a retired farmer, died
at Louisville, Kentucky; Willis G., who is a railroad
employe, lives at Dayton, Ohio ; John Edwin, who was
third in order of birth; Inez, who married J. E. Buren,
a merchant of Rhodelia, Kentucky; and Lila, who mar-
ried Robert Mattingly, of the Ten Broeck Tire Company
of Louisville, Kentucky.
John Edwin Tyler attended the public schools of Con-
cordia, Kentucky, and the Louisville College of Phar-
macy, and passed the state board examination in
pharmacy in 1895. From then on until 1910 he was
connected as a druggist with stores at Louisville, Frank-
fort and Central, Kentucky. In the latter year he moved
to Bowling Green and here opened a drug store that.
he conducted until 1917, when he bought the Coco Cola
bottling plant which he has since conducted. This is
the leading bottling business between Louisville and
Nashville, Tennessee. The plant and offices are at 816
State Street. Mr. Tyler owns a modern residence at
1353 State Street, which is one of the finest and most
desirable ones in the city. Politically he is a republican.
He is a member of the Bowling Green Chamber of
Commerce. A man of progressive ideas, he has never
failed to branch out when the opportunity arrived, and
has oil interests in the Kentucky fields.
At the time when the acid test was made of men's
loyalty Mr. Tyler made a most excellent showing, and
for eighteen months devoted nearly all of his time to
war work. He was chairman of the Exemption Board,
and bought bonds and stamps and contributed to all of
the organizations way beyond his means, for his whole
heart was in the cause.
In 1909 he married at Shelbyville, Kentucky, Miss
Robby Read, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Read,
both of whom are deceased. He was a farmer in
468
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
Shelby County, Kentucky. Mr. and Mrs. Tyler have
one daughter, Sarah, who was born December 21, 1910.
J. Mott Williams. There is an old saying that
nothing succeeds like success, and the evident truth of
it lies on a very solid foundation. The man who has
proven his ability to carry to a successful culmination
projects of one character is certain to possess those
qualities which will insure an efficient operation of sim-
ilar concerns and prove his worth in the business world.
Therefore, others, always on the outlook for dependable
and energetic men of affairs, seek his co-operation, and
he is given opportunities for investment which would
not have been open to him had he been a failure. There
are very few successful men whose entire capital is sunk
in any one enterprise, and it will be found that the ma-
jority are interested in several lines of business, either
in their home city or in those with which the commercial
or industrial connections are close. Such is the case
with J. Mott Williams of Bowling Green, whose im-
mense clothing and furnishings establishment, the
largest between Louisville and Nashville, is the pride
of the city, for he has other interests, and is a con-
structive force in his community.
J. Mott Williams was born near Greensburg, Ken-
tucky, July 27, 1865, a son of Thomas A. Williams, and
grandson of Pascall Mottley Williams, who was born
at Richmond, Virginia, in 1798, and died in Green
County, Kentucky, in 1869, having moved there in 1820.
At one time he owned 4,000 acres of land and a large
number of slaves and was a man of wealth and re-
sponsibility. He married Miss Martha Sydnor, who was
born in Virginia and died in Green County, Kentucky.
The Williams family came to Virginia from Wales
during the Colonial epoch of this country's history. The
materal grandfather of Mr. Williams of whom we write
was John T. Millen, who was born in Logan County,
Kentucky, and died at Liberty, Missouri, before the
birth of his grandson. He was reared near Elkton,
Kentucky, and was the first sheriff of Todd County after
it was created from a portion of Logan County, and
was re-elected to the same office. He married a Miss
Greenfield, and moved to Liberty, Clay County, Mis-
souri, where he was engaged in farming. Four of his
children reached maturity, namely: Mrs. Williams;
Gideon T., who is an extensive farmer and breeder of
blooded cattle at Liberty, Missouri; Alice, who married
Sam W. Taliaferro, is deceased, as is her husband; and
Sam, who is a farmer of Clay County, Missouri. The
Millen's emigrated from Ireland to Virginia when it
was still a colony of England. The name was originally
McMillend.
Thomas A. Williams was born in Green County, Ken-
tucky, in 1839, and died in Christian County, Kentucky,
in 1915. Until 1869 he remained in his native county'
where he was reared and became a prosperous farmer,
but in that year moved to Todd County, and continued
his agricultural operations upon an extensive scale.
In 1873 he bought a farm in Logan County, and after
conducting it for twenty years sold it and bought one
in Christian County, where his life terminated. As a
democrat, Methodist and Mason he lived up to the
highest ideals of Christian manhood, and was zealous
in behalf of party, church and fraternity. Thomas A.
Williams married in Todd County Miss Elizabeth Mil-
len, who was born in Todd County in 1838, and died
in Christian County in 1898. Their children were as
follows: Alice, who married Dr. T. P. Allen, a physi-
cian and farmer of Pembroke, Christian County;
J. Mott, who was second in order of birth; George W.'
who was a grocer, died in Christian County, unmarried!
at the age of thirty years; Benjamin W., who was en-
gaged in farming in the vicinity of Pembroke, Christian
County, died there when forty-three years old; Nellie,
who married Stonewall Rees, a farmer now deceased'
is living at Pembroke, Kentucky; Thomas B., who was
a bookkeeper, died at Alberquerque, New Mexico, aged
twenty-five years.
J. Mott Williams attended the public schools of Logan
County, and then took a year's course at Bethel College
at Russellville, which he left in 1885. For the next five
years he occupied himself with work on the home farm,
but feeling that his abilities could be better developed in
the business world than as a farmer he became a clerk
in a dry-goods store at Allensville, Kentucky, and held
that position for three years. Then, in 1893, he with
James V. Walker engaged in a general mercantile busi-
ness at Olmstead, Kentucky, under the firm name of
Walker & Williams. After four years Mr. Williams sold
his interests to James V. Walker and founded the firm of
Williams, Gill & Viers at Allensville, and opened a gen-
eral dry-goods store. Here he was engaged very success-
fully until 1900, when he sold his interest to his partners,
and then for three years owned a general store at South
Union, Kentucky, which was operated under the name of
Williams & Harris. Selling once more in 1904, Mr. Wil-
liams went to Louisville, and traveled for the Louis-
ville Dry Goods Company, selling dry goods and furnish-
ings and covering Indiana and Kentucky for six years.
For the next three years he was on the road for the
Ferguson-McKenney Dry Goods Company, traveling out
of Saint Louis, Missouri, in Texas. In 191 1 he bought
his present clothing and furnishings business at Bowling
Green, which is located at 908 State Street, and operated
under the name of Williams & Moore. His associate
in this business is Frank P. Moore and the two are
equal partners. This house has been developed into the
leading store of its kind between Louisville and Nash-
ville, and attracts custom from a wide area. Mr. Wil-
liams owns a pretty, comfortable and modern residence
at 1303 State Street, in one of the most desirable resi-
dence sections in the city, and a dwelling at 131 1 State
Street.
In his fraternal affiliations he maintains membership
with Bowling Green Lodge, K. of P., of which he is
a past chancellor. He belongs to the Bowling Green
Rotary Club and to the Bowling Green Chamber of Com-
merce, and it one time was president of the latter. Dur-
ing the late war he was one or the very efficient local
workers, and served as chairman of the Warren County
War Savings Stamp Committee. His certificate of ap-
pointment is signed by J. D. Linn, federal director, and
James B. Brown, state director. However, he did not
confine his efforts to this one feature of the war work,
but took part in all of it, and bought bonds and stamps
and contributed lavishly to all of the organizations. He
received a certificate of merit from the United States
Government for his services.
In 1901 Mr. Williams married near Rich Pond, War-
ren County, Miss Lena Harris, a daughter of S. O.
and Ellen (Ennis) Harris, both now deceased. Mr.
Harris was at one time one of the prosperous farmers
of Warren County. Mrs. Williams graduated from the
Nicholasville, Kentucky, College. Mr. and Mrs. Wil-
liams have one daughter, Ellen, who was born January
19, 1902. She graduated from the Lincoln School of
Providence, Rhode Island, in 1920, and is now taking
voice culture at Boston, Massachusetts. She is- a
talented young lady, and possesses what is very rare,
a real contralto voice.
Mr. Williams is undoubtedly a very successful man,
and his prosperity has come to him gradually as the
logical outcome of carefully laid plans of business
development. Gradually he progressed, learning thor-
oughly each line before he invested his money in it,
and then, through the impulse of his vigor and acu-
men, placing its affairs in such a condition that he
was able to realize a handsome profit when he sold.
His connection with a concern today is proof first
that it rests on a sound foundation, and second that
its stock will increase in value. Such men as Mr. Wil-
liams are the best kind of assets a community can
.
U>**»
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
469
possess, for apathy is dispelled, the people are awak-
ened to the possibilities of the section, natural resources
are developed, outside capital is brought in, and all
values are enhanced, once they take control.
George H. Moseley. This is the age of progress ;
old methods are vanishing before the advance of modern
ones, and in nothing is this more clearly shown than with
reference to the operation of the households of the coun-
try. In former years all of household operations were
done at home, no matter how few the number of hands
to perform the tasks, the only way of lightening the
labor was to call into the home outside assistance. Now
such methods are not in vogue. Instead of a home-
maker wasting her strength and time over the washtuh,
she sends her soiled clothing to a dependable laundry
and gives it no further thought until it is returned to
her ready to be worn. So popular have these laundries
become that the business of conducting them is now
numbered among the important industries of every com-
munity, and it is a small place indeed that does not have
at least one of these establishments. Of course in a city
of the size of Bowling Green there are many laundries,
but one which has attained a well-earned reputation for
reliability and excellence of service is the Troy Steam
Laundry, of which George H. Moseley is proprietor.
George H. Moseley was born in Sumner County, at
Gallatin, Tennessee, November 8, 1881, a son of Charles
H. Moseley, and grandson of Samuel Moseley, who was
born in Jessamine County, Kentucky, in 1812, and died
at Gallatin, Tennessee, in 1896, although he spent the
greater portion of his life in Jessamine County. Ken-
tucky, where he was engaged in farming, but when he
retired he located at Gallatin. He married Mary Single-
ton, who was born in Sumner County, Tennessee, and
died at Gallatin.
Charles H. Moseley was born in Jessamine County,
Kentuckv, in 1848. and died at Bowling Green in May,
1920. He was reared in his native county, removing to
Sumner County, Tennessee, in young manhood, and there
he carried on farming and operated a hotel and traded
in livestock, being one of the wealthy and influential men
of that region for many years. In 1889 he moved to
Bowling Green, where he embarked in a real-estate busi-
ness. In 1905 he went to Birmingham, Alabama, and
carried on a real-estate business in that city until 1919.
when he returned to Bowling Green, where a little later
death claimed him. He was a democrat. The Christian
Church held his membership. He married Susan Ann
Phillips, who was born in Sumner County, Tennessee, in
1855, and she survives him and lives at Bowling Green.
Their children were as follows : William, who died at
Gallatin, in infancy; Charles Henry, who died at Bowl-
ing Green at the age of thirty years, was a railroad em-
ploye ; Samuel E., who was a partner of his brother
George in the Troy Steam Laundry, died at Bowling
Green in 191-I, being at that time thirty-six years of age;
Anna May, who married Harry Eastman, a wholesale
and retail dealer in buggies at Dallas, Texas ; George
H., who was the fifth in order of birth ; Albert, and
Garr, who are both residents of Dallas, Texas, and are
there engaged in handling buggies at wholesale and re-
tail ; Robert, who died at Bowling Green at the age of
fourteen years ; and Elizabeth Louise, who married Dr.
Wallace Barr, a dental surgeon of Bowling Green.
George H. Moseley attended the public schools of
Bowling Green and Ogden College, and was graduated
from the latter institution in iqoi. Having acquired his
literary training, he proceeded to secure business expe-
rience in the laundry owned by his brother Samuel and
operated under the firm name of Breeding & Moseley, of
Bowling Green, and in time became his brother's partner,
having bought the interest of Mr. Breeding. This associa-
tion of the two brothers continued from 1903 until 1914,
when the elder brother died, and the mother succeeded to
his interest, she still being her son's partner. The Troy
Steam Laundry also owned and operated an establish-
ment at Paris, Tennessee, until 1916, when it was sold.
This laundry at Bowling Green is now the leading one
of its kind between Louisville and Nashville, and work
is sent to it from all over Warren and neighboring
counties for a radius of 100 miles. The laundry plant
and offices are at 420 Main Street, and Mr. Moseley and
his mother own the building they occupy. This laundry
is fully supplied with all modern facilities and equipment,
and in connection with the laundry work a dry cleaning
plant is also operated. The business is operated under
the firm name of troy Steam Laundry & Dry Cleaning
Company. Mr. Moseley is connected with other interests
and is now secretary of the Farmers Loose Leaf Tobacco
Warehouse Company. He is a democrat, and is a mem-
ber of the City Council. He belongs to Bowling Green
Lodge No. 51, I. O. O. F. ; Bowling Green Lodge No.
320, B. P. O. E. ; and was a representative to the Grand
Lodge, Dallas, Texas, in 1908. He owns his modern
residence at 534 Main Street, which is one of the finest
and most desirable ones in the city ; the Saint James
apartment building, the leading apartment house in Bowl-
ing Green, located on Chestnut Street ; and he did own
the Neal Business Block, but sold it in 1920. During
the late war he was one of the zealous participants in
all of the local activities, helping in all of the drives and
serving as chairman of the sales committees in all of
the Liberty Loan campaigns. He bought bonds and
Saving Stamps and contributed to all of the organizations
to the utmost.
On November I, 191 1, Mr. Moseley married at Bowl-
ing Green Miss Martine Aull, a daughter of Dr. T. H.
and May (Moseley) Aull, both of whom are now de-
ceased. Doctor Aull at one time was a prosperous drug-
gist of Bowling Green. Mrs. Moseley was graduated
from the Oxford, Ohio, College. Mr. and Mrs. Moseley
have one daughter, Virginia Bohon, who was born July
31, 1920.
Charles Ezra Marvin. For a quarter of a century
Charles Ezra Marvin has been one of Kentucky's noted
cattle breeders, and has probably done as much to build
up the great strain of Aberdeen-Angus in this state as
any other one man. His home and industry center in
Audubon Stock Farm, located in Scott County, eleven
miles northwest of Lexington, on the Bethel and Mid-
way Pike, not far from Payne's Depot. Mr. Marvin's
land includes the place owned by his grandfather. He
settled down to the interesting and quiet vocation of
farming and stock raising after an active career as a
railroad builder and railway executive, and his abilities
as an engineer were such that would have carried him
to a high place among eminent Americans in that pro-
fession, in that he continued the work chosen and
followed during his early manhood.
Mr. Marvin represents the eleventh consecutive gen-
eration of his family in America. During the past three
centuries many prominent Americans have carried the
Marvin blood, including Samuel Huntington, one of the
signers of the Declaration of Independence. The
family was established by Mathew Marvin, who came
from Essex County, England, in 163=; and located in
Boston. His older brother, Reinold Marvin, settled at
Hartford, Connecticut, in 1638. During Revolutionary
times there was a Matthew Marvin who was ensign
of the train band at Lyne, Connecticut, and captain.
A son of this Revolutionary soldier was Joseph
Marvin, who was born in 1772 and died in 1873, in
his one hunderd and first year. He died in Trumbull
County, Ohio, whither in 1821, with wife and nine
children, he journeyed from Connecticut to join the
pioneers of the Ohio Western Reserve. He traveled
with wagons and six oxen and a one-horse carriage, and
the party were six weeks in making the journey. He
settled in the woods in Eastern Ohio.
His son Ezra Marvin was born in 1798, and died at
470
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
Bazetta in Trumbull County in 1863. He was a major
of militia and in politics a red hot democrat. He and
his family were people of great prominence and in-
fluence in that section of Ohio and were represented
in the ministry, in education and in politics.
It was largely on account of the bitterness in politics
in Ohio that caused him to send his son, Joel Hall
Marvin, south for his education. Joel Hall Marvin was
born in 1823, and in 1854 graduated from Center College
at Danville, Kentucky, when that school was under
the administration of Doctor Young. He remained in
Kentucky and after his graduation located in Fayette
County and opened what became a noted school at old
Bethel Church. Some of his pupils were Gen. John B.
Castleman, Gen. Basil Duke, Clifton Breckinridge,
Roddie Breckinridge, Theophilus J. Breckinridge,
Joseph C. Breckinridge, Madison C. Johnston, E. P.
Halley and others of local or national prominence. He
gave the school such high standards and such a wide
reputation that it became known as Bethel College,
and he continued the work until his marriage.
Another of his pupils was Sarah Lewis, whom he
married in i860. She was a daughter of Charles B.
and Pauline (Routt) Lewis. Her father came from
Rockingham County, Virginia, and in 1829 bought the
land now included in the Audubon Stock Farm of
Charles E. Marvin. Charles Lewis was one of the
skilled old time mechanics, a contractor and builder, and
erected the first Phoenix Hotel in Lexington. He also
had an interesting part in pioneer railroad construction
and operation in Kentucky. He was made general
manager of the railroad from Frankfort to Lexington
when that was a road of stone rails with cars drawn by
horses. Under his administration the bed was laid with
wooden rails and the first steam locomotive was brought
from Pittsburg, being floated down the river on a flat-
boat to Maysville and thence drawn by oxen to Frank-
fort and on to Lexington. At the trial run of this
engine about 500 horsemen followed the train, and kept
pace for a mile or two, when the engineer asked per-
mission to open the throttle and the horses were soon
left far behind. Mr. Lewis designed the bevel tread
wheels so that the two opposite wheels could be made
solid on the axle, overcoming the difficulty of turning
curves. He remained as general manager of the rail-
road until iron rails were brought into use. Though
thus active in transportation affairs, Mr. Lewis made
his home on the farm in Scott County from 1829 until
his death in 1880, at the age of eighty. In 1840 he built
the main part of the residence still standing, and an
addition to the middle part, which is of stone construc-
tion and dates from a previous time. In this old home
Sarah Lewis was born in 1820. Joel H. Marvin after
his marriage located on a farm near Midway in Wood-
ford County, five miles from the Lewis homestead, but
in 1875 bought the Lewis property, Mr. lewis living
with his daughter until his death. The Lewis farm
contained about 400 acres, all of it now incorporated in
the Audubon Stock Farm.
Joel H. Marvin, who died in 1891, was a justly dis-
tinguished man and left a record of service affecting
the lives of many individuals. He was principal of a
school at Lexington at one time. On his farm near
Midway he built a school, where he prepared many
boys for college. All his old pupils have cherished
his memory. He was a democrat, but never an office
seeker, and was a consistent Christian and member of
the Presbyterian Church. While he could deliver an
effective speech, he was somewhat timid and not fond
of public life.
Charles Ezra Marvin was the only one of his
parents' children to reach mature years. He was born
August 23, 1861. After his junior year in Georgetown
College he entered Washington and Lee University in
Virginia and received his B. A. and C. E. degrees in
1882. His teacher in mathematics and civil engineering
was Gen. Custis Lee, a son of the great Confederate
hero. Following his graduatoin he entered the Govern-
ment service and was employed with a staff of Govern-
ment engineers in making a survey of the Missouri
River from Sioux City to Kansas City, preparatory to
improvements. For another three years he was asso-
ciated with the Louisville and Nashville Railroad Com-
pany in building the railroad bridge over the Ohio at
Henderson. His associates there included Mr. Courtney,
the present chief engineer of the Louisville and Nash-
ville, and also Mr. Ferris, who gained fame as de-
signer of the Ferris Wheel at the Chicago World's Fair.
Mr. Marvin was then made division engineer of the
Louisville & Nashville, on the division between St.
Louis and Nashville, and later of the division centering
at Birmingham, Alabama, where he built a large amount
of new track for the road. He was with the Louis-
ville & Nashville for six years, and then for five years
had charge of the engineering department of the Central
Railway of Georgia, with headquarters at Macon. Fol-
lowing that Mr. Marvin became a general contractor,
building railroads and public works, and during the
four or five years he concentrated his capital and ener-
gies in that direction his success was pronounced.
About 1894 Mr. Marvin began winding up his out-
side business affairs preparatory to taking full charge
of the farm in Kentucky. He embraced the theory and
practice of pure bred stock, and having ample means
he indulged this ambition to found a model stock farm
on an extensive scale. In 1896 he went abroad and per-
sonally selected in England and Scotland a herd of
about twenty Aberdeen-Angus cows, which became the
nucleus of the pure bred Aberdeen-Angus that have
been a feature of the Audubon Stock Farm for a
quarter of a century. He still keeps a herd of about
thirty breeding cattle of this strain. Audubon Stock
Farm has sent many winners to fairs and exhibitions.
The great Aberdeen-Angus "Kloman" was bred at
Audubon, and his descendants have been grand cham-
pions, he naving won that honor at the International
Stock Show in 1913. One of Kloman's get was Plow-
man, which sold in 1920 for $40,000. Another great
animal used on Mr. Marvin's farm was Zaire XV,
one of the greatest bulls in the world, and the sire of
many grand champions. He also bred Key of Heather,
grand champion cow at almost every show in Canada.
The sales from Audubon are largely to breeders and
consist chiefly of young stock, always in great demand
because of the steadily maintained reputation of Mr.
Marvin's stock. For twenty years or more he has
been a judge of cattle at various State Fairs and also
at the International in Chicago, and has contributed
many articles to stock journals. By various purchases
Mr. Marvin has acquired all his grandfather's old
estate of about 400 acres, and has refused more than
$400 an acre offered for his farm. Of his land about
sixty acres are kept in tobacco.
In 1897 Mr. Marvin married Julia Halley, daughter
of E. P. and Theresa (Combs) Halley, a family of well
known farming people in Scott County, though her
parents now live in Lexington. Mrs. Marvin grew up
in the same neighborhood as Mr. Marvin, and was
twenty-one at the time of her marriage. They have
three daughters, Louise, Mary Lewis and Julia, the
first a student in Hamilton College at Lexington and
the two younger in the high school at Midway. Mr.
Marvin, like his father, has had no ambition for politics.
He enjoys hunting and fishing, and has made many
interesting excursions through the West and also the
South. Both he and Mrs. Marvin have been students
of the antique, and their house is filled with priceless
mahogany pieces, many of them heirlooms. Mr. Marvin
some years ago attended the sale at Washington of the
effects of Jerome Bonaparte, and at that sale secured a
chair formerly used in the United States Senate.
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
471
Hubert D. Graham, manager of the Warren County
Strawberry Growers Association, is one of the sage
and experienced men of Warren County, who is cap-
ably attending to the affairs of his organization and is
affording the growers of this region an opportunity
to market their product, and at the same time is pro-
tecting the fruit pickers. This organization is fast
assuming very important proportions, and is one of the
vital business assets of Bowling Green. Mr. Graham
was born in Bowling Green, September 21, 1861, a
son of Lawrence A. Graham, and grandson of Asher
W. Graham.
The Grahams came to Virginia from Scotland dur-
ing the Colonial epoch of this country, but on his
mother's side Mr. Graham is of Irish origin. The
family was established in Kentucky by his great-grand-
father, who left Virginia and became one of the pioneers
of Warren County. His son, Asher W. Graham, was
born at Bowling Green in 1784, and died in that city in
1864. He was a distinguished attorney and jurist, and
was very well-known in Masonry. His period of active
practice at the bar extended over thirty years, and dur-
ing the war between the two sections he was judge of
the Court of Appeals, and was also judge of the Circuit
Court for many years.
Lawrence A. Graham was born in Bowling Green in
1827, and died at Austin, Texas, in 1918. Reared, edu-
cated and married in Bowling Green, he found this city
a desirable field of operation as a dry-goods merchant,
and built up a connection and establishment that was sec-
ond to none in Warren County, and was the leading one
between Louisville, Kentucky, and Nashville, Tennessee.
This he successfully conducted for many years, and was
recognized as one of the most enterprising business men
in this region. In 1887 he moved to Austin, Texas,
where for a short time he was in a dry-goods business,
but in 1893 he retired permanently from all activities.
A strong democrat, he was zealous in behalf of his
party, and served in the City Council of Bowling Green
for many terms, and also as city clerk. He was a ruling
elder in the First Presbyterian Church of Bowling Green.
In Masonry he reached the Commandery and was a
Knight Templar. Lawrence A. Graham married Marga-
ret Dunavan, who was born in Bowling Green, Kentucky,
in 1839, and died in this city in 1883. Their children
were as follows : Lucien, who is secretary and treasurer
of the Bowling Green Ice & Cold Storage Company;
Hubert D., who was second in order of birth ; Chessie,
who married E. C. Rawlins, a telegraph operator of
Brooklyn, New York; Lena, who married P. Crow, of
Texas ; Asher W., who is the traveling representative
of a wholesale drug and supply house, with which he
has been connected for twenty years, and is a resident
of Saint Louis, Missouri.
Hubert D. Graham first attended the public schools of
his native city, and then took a course in the old and
celebrated Warren College, which he left at the age of
nineteen years, for he felt he preferred a commercial to
a professional life. His first practical experience of the
fudamentals of business were acquired in the dry-goods
establishment of his father, but in 1883 he felt competent
to branch out for himself and for nine years was profit-
ably engaged in handling furnishing goods and shoes.
His next business venture was that of handling mer-
chandise as a broker, and he was so very successful in
this line that he remained in it until 1909, when he was
offered and accepted his present very responsible posi-
tion.
This section of Kentucky is the natural home of the
strawberry, and during the pioneer days the woods and
pastures were full of this delicious fruit. For a num-
ber of years no attempt was made to improve upon the
wild growths, but gradually the more advanced of the
agriculturists realized that the cultivated varieties could
be introduced and raised to advantage. When they suc-
ceeded others followed their example, and finally it was
discovered that the farmers were raising many more
berries than they could market locally. Once more the
progressives saved the day, for they evolved the idea
that if arrangements could be perfected to provide a
means of shipping the product to outside markets the
acreage devoted to strawberry culture could be increased,
and the fruitgrowers could raise in carload lots. In 1908
thirty acres were planted and five carloads were shipped
by the association as a test. The results were so grati-
fying that the business has been expanded to as many as
621 carloads annually. It is planned to have 2,200 acres
planted for 1921.
The organization, which operates under the caption of
the Warren County Strawberry Growers Association, is
composed of 700 growers, many additional members hav-
ing been drawn into the association through Mr. Graham's
careful and well-planned management. The market for
these crops includes all eastern points, such as Detroit,
Chicago, Columbus, Cleveland, Buffalo, New York,
Boston and other important centers east of the Missis-
sippi River. During the short season the association
loads from eighty to eighty-five cars daily.
To pick these crops from 10,000 to 12,000 people are
required, and Warren County furnishes one-half of this
number, the remainder coming from the adjacent coun-
ties. The farmers obligate themselves to take care of
the pickers, and so pleasant is the work that teachers,
with their pupils, make the harvesting a regular picnick-
ing_ period. The offices of the company are at 436^
Main Street, and the shipping office is at 923 Adams
Street.
Mr. Graham is a democrat, and served as a member
of the City Council of Bowling Green, and for the past
four years has been treasurer of the city School Board.
Brought up in the First Presbyterian Church, he early
united with it, and is now one of its deacons. He is a
charter member of Post I, Kentucky T. P. A., and be-
longs to the Bowling Green Chamber of Commerce. He
owns a _ modern residence at 1262 West Chestnut Street,
which is one of the very best in the city; and a river
farm of 120 acres and a fruit farm of ninety acres two
miles northwest of Bowling Green.
During the late war Mr. Graham gave ample and con-
vincing proof, although none was needed, of his intense
loyalty by his activities in selling bonds, stamps and rais-
ing funds for the different organizations, and was one of
his own best customers, his personal holdings represent-
ing an investment which is really beyond his means. He
also served as chairman of the fuel commission of War-
ren County.
In 1884 Mr. Graham married at Campbellsville, Taylor
County, Kentucky. Miss Trannie Buchanan, a daughter
of John T. and Ellen (Smoot) Buchanan, both of whom
are deceased. Mr. Buchanan was one of the leading
farmers of Taylor County, Kentucky, for many years.
Mrs. Graham was graduated from the Shelbyville Fe-
male College. Mr. and Mrs. Graham became the parents
of the following children : Lawrence B.. who was born
October 20, 1884, was graduated from Ogden College,
Bowling Green, and also attended the Kentucky State
LIniversity at Lexington, is on his father's fruit farm,
which he is now operating; and Caldwell S., who was
born November 8, 1894, attended Ogden College, and is
now at home.
Lewis Granger Singleton, D. D. S. Not only is Dr.
Lewis Granger Singleton one of the most dependable
dental surgeons of Bowling Green, but he is also vice
president of the corporation operating a chain of five and
ten cent stores all over Kentucky and Tennessee, and is
recognized as one of the leading professional and busi-
ness men of the city. He was born in Lincoln County,
Kentucky, February 1, 1881, a son of Nathan Singleton,
and grandson of Kit Singleton, who died near Eubank in
Lincoln County, across the line from Pulaski County,
many years before the birth of his grandson. He was
472
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
one of the pioneers of Lincoln County and a man widely
and favorably known.
Nathan Singleton was born near Waynesburg, Ken-
tucky, in 1835, and he died there September 1, 1907,
his entire life having been spent in Lincoln County. Both
as a minister of the Baptist denomination and a farmer
he was a useful man, and his fellow citizens held him
in the highest esteem. Politically he was a democrat.
He married Julia Ellen Gooch, who was born near
Waynesburg in 1842, and died at Waynesburg February
6, 1890. Their children were as follows: McHenry,
who died on the homestead at the age of twenty-one
years ; Martha, who married James Gooch, a farmer of
Eubank, Kentucky ; Garland, who is county superintend-
ent of schools of Lincoln County, resides at Stanford,
Kentucky; E. O., who is a railroad freight agent, lives
at Rocky Ford, Colorado; Melissa, who died at Stanford,
Kentucky, aged thirty-three years ; Lucy, who married
W. P. Reynolds, a farmer of Eubank; A. C, who is a
master electrician in the United States Army, is stati-
oned at Fortress Monroe. Virginia, and served overseas
for six months during the late war ; T. H., who was
graduated from the Hospital College of Medicine, Louis-
ville, Kentucky, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine,
is engaged in a general practice as a physician and sur-
geon at Bowling Green; and Lewis Granger, who was
the youngest of the family. After the death of his first
wife Nathan Singleton married Mary Eoff, who was
born near Eubank. Kentucky, and is now living at New
Philadelphia, Ohio. There were two children by the
second marriage, Alice and Clay, both of whom are liv-
ing with their mother.
Doctor Singleton attended the local rural schools, and
was engaged in teaching in them for five years. He
then entered the Louisville College of Dentistry, from
which he was graduated in 1904 with the degree of
Doctor of Dental Surgery. Immediately thereafter he
established himself in practice at Bowling Green, since
which time he has built up a large and very valuable
connection. His offices are located on Park Row. The
H. A. McElroy Company, a $500,000 corporation operat-
ing the chain of stores above referred to, is one of the
important concerns of Warren County, and Doctor
Singleton's connection with it as vice president gives
it added strength. He owns a comfortable modern bun-
galow at 1 125 Laurel Avenue, and a 140 acre farm seven
miles southwest of Bowling Green.
In politics Doctor Singleton is a democrat, but aside
from voting his party ticket does not participate in
public life. The Baptist Church has in him one of its
most zealous members, and he is now assistant financial
secretary of the local congregation, and one of its most
active supporters, this church being one of the leading
ones of the denomination in Kentucky. Fraternally he
belongs to Bowling Green Lodge. K. of P., and Bowling
Green Lodge No. 51, I. O. O. F.. of which he is past
grand.
On September 15, iroS, Doctor Singleton married at
Bowling Green Miss Tempie D. Potter, a daughter of
Virgil and Mary (Duncan) Potter, the former of whom,
now deceased, was county iudge of Warren County at
the time of his death, and for many years had been one
of the leading democrats of this part of the state and a
very prominent citizen. Mrs. Potter survives her hus-
band and lives with her son-in-law, Doctor Singleton.
Doctor and Mrs. Singlton have three children, namelv :
Edmund, who was born August 4, 1912; Marian, who
was born June 7, 1914; and Virginia, who was born
October 21, 1915. Experienced and skilled in his pro-
fession, Doctor Singleton has an extensive practice, and
has won approval in this line, but he is esteemed in many
other ways, for he is prominent in many lines and never
fails to live up to the highest standards of citizenship.
Lon D. Hanes of Bowling Green, is the leading oper-
ator in general insurance and real estate between Louis-
ville, Kentucky, and Nashville, Tennessee, and has been
profitably engaged as such since 1900, during this period
being connected with some of the most important realty
transfers in the city and county, and selling a vast
amount of insurance of all kinds. He has also played an
important part in civic affairs and is today admittedly
one of the most prominent men of Warren County.
Mr. Hanes was born four miles north of Franklin,
Simpson County, Kentucky, March 16, i860, a son of
Abram C. Hanes, and grandson of Peter Hanes, who was
born in Virginia in 1777, and died in Simpson County,
Kentucky, in 1862. He served his country in the War
of 1812, enlisting from Virginia or Tennessee. Follow-
ing the close of that conflict he migrated into Simpson
County, Kentucky, and was there engaged in farming
for many years. His wife was Nancy Bibb, and she
was born in Virginia and died in Simpson County. The
Hanes family is an old one in Virginia, where the Amer-
can founder settled when coming to this country from
Scotland prior to the Revolutionary war.
Abram C, Hanes was born in Sumner County, Ten-
nessee, in 1826, and died at Bowling Green in 1914. He
was reared in Sumner County, Tennessee, and came to
Simpson County, Kentucky, when a young man, and was
there married. From then on until 1904 he was success-
fully engaged in farming in that county, but then came
to Bowling Green and made his home with his son
until his death. From the organization of the republican
party until the close of his long and useful life he voted
its ticket, and he was equally zealous in his support of
the Christian Church, of which he was long a consistent
member. Like his father, he was not found lacking
when his country called, and enlisted and served in the
Mexican war. He married first Christiana Breedlove, a
native of Simpson County, Kentucky, and who died in
that county. They had two children, one of whom was
Sarah Nancy, called Sallie, who married Charles Mayes,
a carriagemaker of Franklin, Kentucky, is deceased, as
is her husband. Abram C. Hanes married for his sec-
ond wife Mrs. Angie E. (Breedlove) Mallory, a sister
of his first wife. She was born near Richmond, Vir-
ginia, in 1829, and died at Auburn, Logan County, Ken-
tucky, in 1886. The children of the second marriage
were as follows : Christiana, who married G. C. Hunt,
an extensive farmer near South Union, Simpson County,
Kentucky, is now deceased, as is her husband ; Lon D.,
who was second in order of birth ; and Abie L., who
died in Colorado, aged twenty-two years.
Lon D. Hanes was educated in the rural schools of
Simpson County, and was graduated from the Auburn
High School in 1882. He then entered the Spencerian
Business College of Cleveland, Ohio, and was graduated
therefrom in November, 1883. In 1884 Mr. Hanes be-
came a clerk of Ford Brothers, general merchants of
Franklin, Kentucky, and remained with them for one
year, following which he held a similar position in a store
of South Union for two years. In 1886 he went to
Garden City, Kansas, and for two years conducted a
real-estate and abstract business, but, selling it, returned
to Kentucky and entered the service of the Louisville &
Nashville Railroad Company at Russellville. Later he
was transferred to Memphis, Tennessee, and after a short
time there was sent by the company to Owensboro. Ken-
tucky, and made superintendent of its yards. In 1889 he
went into the contracting business, and carried it on
for eleven years. During that period he became inter-
ested in real estate, and in 1900 opened bis present offices,
and has built up a business which is the largest of its
kind in a wide region. He is conveniently located at
931 State Street. He owns a modern residence at 1.341
College Street, where he maintains an elegant home. He
is a democrat. Mr. Hanes was a member of the City
Council for eight years, and after serving as a member
of the Board of Education for twelve years was elected
its president, which office he is now holding, having
occupied it for four years, and was re-elected in 1921
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
473
for another four year term. The Christian Church has
his membership, and he is a deacon of the local congre-
gation.
During the late war Mr. Hanes did valiant service
in behalf of the cause, buying Saving Stamps and bonds
and contributing to all of the organizations to the ut-
most extent of his ability. He assisted in all of the
drives, and was chairman of the Publicity Bureau of
Warren County, and devoted much of his time to help-
ing along all measures promulgated by the admin-
istration.
In 1886 Mr. Hanes married at Hopkinsville Miss Lula
L. Proctor, a daughter of William and Ellen (Viers)
Proctor, both of whom are now deceased. During his
lifetime Mr. Proctor was a farmer. Mr. and Mrs. Hanes
became the parents of the following children: Lula,
who married T. W. Kendrick, proprietor of a men's
furnishing and dry cleaning and pressing establishment
at Bowling Green; and John L., married Miss Minnie
Clark, of Oakton, Kentucky, is teller of the Citizens
National Bank of Bowling Green. Mr. Hanes' nephew,
Doris A. Hanes, a son of his brother Abie, was par-
tially reared by him. The young man is a resident of
San Antonio, Texas, and is in the re-organization depart-
ment of the United States Army. He enlisted in 1914,
and was sent to the Mexican border as a private. From
time to time he was promoted through all of the grades
to the rank of lieutenant colonel in the contracting de-
partment, and served through the great war. While
stationed in Texas, he still maintains his residence with
his uncle.
In every relation of life Mr. Hanes measures up to
the highest standards of American manhood. He has
been eminently successful in business, has been accorded
civic and religious honors, and has won the regard of a
wide circle of business acquaintances and personal
friends. In his home circle he is beloved and revered,
and his children show the effect of his watchful and
devoted care. In his work as a realty operator he has
been the instrument by means of which the city has ex-
panded, new building has been encouraged, and old ones
kept in good repair. Through his agency thousands hav«
been aroused to the expediency and necessity of provid-
ing against death and accidents of every kind to their
persons and property. It was not given to him to serve
his country on the battlefield, as did his grandfather and
father, but he rendered it equally valuable service at
home, and no man has a better record for conscientious,
earnest and purposeful endeavor during the late war.
Such men are rare, and when found are prized by their
fellow citizens because of the power of their example
and the value of their work.
J. Whit Potter. The bankers of the country are the
men who control its destinies, for upon their sagacity,
sane actions and financial aid depend the continuance of
all business from the tilling of the soil to the placing of
the completed product in the hands of the consumer.
Because of the great importance and the vast possibilities
of the office none but the best men for it are placed at
the head of the banking institutions. Such an election
is an honor craved by many, and of necessity bestowed
upon but a few, and it is one which speaks for itself.
To be the president of a sound bank means that the man
so elevated has through long years proven himself to
be utterly reliable in every transaction ; dependable in
times of stress; an excellent judge of human nature;
and a citizen of unquestioned loyalty. The stockholders
of the American National Bank had these characteristics
and requirements in mind when they elected as their
chief executive J. Whit Potter of Bowling Green.
J. Whit Potter was born on a farm eight miles south
of Bowling Green, in Warren County, November 6, 1851.
He is a son of David Potter, and a grandson of Fred-
erick Potter, who was born in North Carolina in 1781,
and died seven miles south of Bowling Green in 1887.
He was a farmer and was the pioneer of his family
into Warren County. Marrying Elizabeth Kirby, a
daughter of General Kirby, a Revolutionary officer, after
coining to Warren County, where she was born, he
settled down in that region for the remainder of his
life. His wife also died in Warren County. The Potter
family was established in Virginia by the original im-
migrant who came to this country from Ireland in
Colonial times, and from that colony representatives
moved on south into North Carolina.
David Potter was bom in Warren County, Kentucky,
in December, 181 1, and died in Warren County, Ken-
tucky, in March, 1905. His birth occurred on a farm
adjacent to the one on which his son was born, and he
was reared and educated in Warren County. From very
young manhood he devoted his energies and abilities
to farming, and was so successful that he amassed a
fortune of $100,000 through legitimate argricultural
activities, and continued them until 1868, when he moved
to Bowling Green, and lived retired until claimed by
death. He was an old-line democrat, and cast his vote
for Charles O'Connor when he was running against
Horace Greeley. When still a lad he united with the
Baptist Church, and from then on was one of the most
steadfast members of the local congregation. David
Potter married Deborah Hagerman, who was born in
Warren County, in 1814, and died in Bowling Green in
1 871.
J. Whit Potter attended the rural schools of Warren
County, Bethel College at Russellville, Kentucky, which
he left in 1872, and then for the next seven years was
deputy sheriff of Warren County. He then became in-
terested in handling live stock, real estate and insurance,
and carried on a very extensive business in these lines
for five years. These operations led to his establishing
in 1886 the banking house of Barclay, Potter & Com-
pany, which was merged into the American National
Bank in 1909, and at the same time the Potter-Matlock
Trust Company was established by Mr. Potter. Since
1909 Mr. Potter has served as president of both concerns.
The modern brick and stone building occupied by these
institutions was erected in 1907, and is located on State
Street. It is one of the finest bank buildings in Ken-
tucky.
The capital of the American National Bank is
$125,000; its surplus and profits are over $100,000 and its
deposits are $2,000,000. The officials of this bank are
as follows : J. Whit Potter, president ; Julian W.
Potter, vice president ; M. O. Hughes, vice president ;
W. L. McNeal, vice president ; and G. D. Sledge, cashier.
The Potter-Matlock Trust Company has a capital stock
of $50,000; surplus and profits of $4^,000 and trust
deposits of $460,000. Its officials are : J. Whit Potter,
president ; Joe W. Ford, vice president ; Euclid Hard-
castle, vice president ; and Julian W. Potter, secretary
and treasurer.
In his politics Mr. Potter is a democrat, but has never
aspired to public office. Like his father, he is a Baptist,
and is chairman of the Board of Deacons, and super-
intendent of the Sunday School. The present church
edifice, which stands on State Street, at Chestnut, one
of the finest in Kentucky, was erected greatly through
his instrumentality, he serving as chairman of the Build-
ing Committee, and contributed lavishly toward the
building fund. This church, begun in 1913, was com-
pleted in 1914. Well-known as an Odd Fellow, Mr.
Potter belongs to Bowling Green Lodge No. 51 I. O. O.
F., of which he is a past grand, and he has been a
representative of the state to the Sovereign Grand
Lodge of the order for eighteen years consecutively, and
was reelected to this office November 17, 1920. While
grand master he dedicated the Odd Fellows' home at
Lexington, Kentucky, which was largely the outgrowth
of his efforts, he having introduced the first resolution
providing for the home. After serving as chairman of
the Building Committee of the home Mr. Potter con-
Voi. V— i3
474
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
sented to be a member of its directorate, and has con-
tinued as such since then, a period of twenty-two years.
He belongs to the Pendennis Club of Louisville, is presi-
dent of the Rotary Club of Bowling Green, and is one
of the regents of the Western Kentucky State Normal
School, and is now the chairman of the board. Mr.
Potter displayed his executive ability with reference to
this institution and was an active force in the erection
of the administration building, and a $240,000 dormitory
building on Norma! Heights. His name and influence
have been sought by many concerns and corporations,
and he has consented to serve as a director of the Inter-
Southern Life Insurance Company, and as a member of
the executive committee of this company. He resides in
the Saint James Apartments of Bowling Green. Mr.
Potter owns several farms in Warren County, and con-
siderable realty in the city.
When this county- was at war he participated actively
in all of the drives, and was chairman of the Second
Liberty Loan Committee. He bought bonds and stamps
lavishly, and contributed in an equally generous manner
to all of the organizations. His benefactions, however,
did not cease with the close of hostilities, but continue,
and among other things he is a director of the Kentucky
Children's Home Society at Louisville.
In 1 88 1 Mr. Potter married at Nashville, Tennessee.
Miss Blanche Jamison, a daughter of Dr. S. M. and
Virginia (Johnston) Jamison, both of whom are now
deceased. Doctor Jamison was a physician of Nashville
for many years, and very prominent in his profession.
Mrs. Potter was graduated from the Ward Seminary
of Nashville. Mr. and Mrs. Potter became the parents
of one child, Julian W., who was born April 15, 1889.
He is now connected with the Guaranty Trust Company
of New York City, the second largest financial institu-
tion in the United States, and is vice president and man-
ager of its subsidiary company, the Italian Discount &
Trust Company, a $20,000,000 institution on Walker
Street, at Broadway. For seven years he was vice presi-
dent of the American National Bank of Bowling Green
and secretary of the Potter-Matlock Trust Company, and
received his banking training under his father's super-
vision. During the great war he was in the naval avia-
tion branch of the service, and was stationed at Cam-
bridge, Massachusetts, and at Pensacola, Florida, hold-
ing the rank of an ensign.
The record of the accomplishments of Mr. Potter is
so filled with notable deeds that it is not easy to do
justice to them or the man in an article of such limited
space. From this record, however, it is plainly evident
that he has never shirked a responsibility, or failed to
carry through to successful completion any project he
undertook. Keenly alive to the possibilities of his home
city, he has always striven to develop them, and to give
to its people every advantage possible. Not only is he
splendidly typical of the very best element among the
great bankers of the country, but he is also of the real
American and an embodiment of Kentucky chivalry and
courtesy.
William F. Ennis, one of the contractors of Bowling
Green, was born in Warren County, Kentucky, April 13.
1856, a son of W. T. Ennis, who was also born in War-
ren County, in 1825, and died in this county in 1862.
having spent his entire life within its confines. He was
a grist-mill operator and owner, his being one of the
very first mills for grinding flour and cornmeal in
Warren County. This business was conducted under the
firm name of Ennis & Dishman, the junior member being
Harvey Dishman. In politics W. T. Ennis was a whig.
He married Mandane Gatewood, who was born in War-
ren County in 1833, and died in this county in 1903.
Their children were as follows : Josephine, who is not
married, is living with her brother; Marshall M., who
is a farmer and public administrator, lives in Warren
County; William F., who was third in order of birth;
and Belle, who died unmarried in Warren County when
she was forty-eight years old.
William F. Ennis attended the rural schools of War-
ren County, and was reared on his fathers' farm. After
leaving the homestead he operated a farm of his own
until 1900. The property is a valuable one, located two
miles west of Bowling Green, and contains 200 acres of
land, which is devoted to general farming and of which
he owns an interest. Since 1900 Mr. Ennis has been
engaged in contracting and stone masonry. He intro-
duced ground limestone in Warren County, and now
operates a plant manufacturing this commodity. The
value of this ground limestone has become so generally
recognized that none of the farmers of the county feel
that they can do without it. So great is the demand
that several other persons have opened up plants to
grind the stone. Mr. Ennis manufactures 10,000 tons
annually. He also carried on a very large contracting
business and has executed all of the cut stone work on
every building of consequence erected in Bowling Green
during the past ten years. For some time he has been a
director in the Bowling Green Chamber of Commerce,
and of the Bowling Green Y. M. C. A. He belongs to
the Westminster Presbyterian Church, of which he has
been an elder since 1900. Fraternally he is a member of
Bowling Green Lodge No. 51, I. O. O. F. His offices are
conveniently located in the McCormack Building. Dur-
ing the late war he took an active part in the local war
work from start to finish, participating in every drive
for funds and bond sales. He contributed liberally to
all of the war organizations, and bought bonds and War
Savings Stamps to the extent of his means.
In 1898 Mr. Ennis married at Nashville, Tennessee.
Miss Beulah Holeman, a daughter of W. K. and Nannie
(Sweeney) Holeman. Mr. Holeman is deceased, but
for many years was engaged in farming. His widow
survives and lives at Bowling Green. Mrs. Ennis died
at Bowling Green in 1907, leaving four children, as fol-
lows: William F., Jr., who was born October 5, 1899.
is with his father in business, and served as an enlisted
man during the late war, was at the Plattsburg trai-
ning camp, and the armistice was signed eighteen days
before the date upon which he would have otherwise
received his commission ; Mandane was graduated from
the Bowling Green High School, and is now at home;
Noel is attending the public schools; and Leslie is also
attending the public schools.
Roy Claypool, cashier of the Liberty National Bank,
is one of the astute financiers of Warren County, and a
highly-esteemed resident of Bowling Green, where his
merits receive full recognition. He was born in Warren
County, on a farm ten miles east of Bowling Green.
May is, 1879, a son of T. J. Claypool, grandson of
Stephen Claypool, and great-grandson of Stephen
Claypool, who was born in North Carolina, where
the family had been established in Colonial times,
and from there moved to Warren County, Kentucky, at
a very early day, becoming one of the farmers of this
region, and here he died. His son Stephen was born
in Warren County in 1817, and died at Scottsville, Ken-
tucky, in 1910,. having spent the greater part of his life
in Warren County. For many years he was engaged in
farming and merchandising, and when he retired he
settled at Scottsville. He married first Miss Elizabeth
Robertson, grandmother of Roy Claypool, who was born
and died in Warren County. After her demise Stephen
Claypool married Miss Abbie Moore, who was born in
Warren County, but died in Arkansas. The Claypools
are of Scotch origin.
T. J. Claypool was born on the same farm as his son,
in 1845, and he died on this farm in 1913. His life
was spent here and he carried on large operations as a
farmer and stockraiser. The democratic party had his
allegiance. For many years he was a strong supporter
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, which he had early
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
475
joined. T. J. Claypool married Elizabeth Carpenter,
who was born in Warren County in 1844, and died on
the farm in igi3. They had children as follows : Clyde,
who married A. L. Madison, a real-estate operator of
El Paso, Texas; C. W., who operates the homestead;
A. S., who was a merchant, died in Warren County when
twenty-five years old ; Ethel, who is deceased, was the
wife of H. A. McElroy, of Bowling Green, a sketch
of whom appears elsewhere in this work ; Roy, who was
fifth in order of birth; and Albert, who is chief dis-
patcher of the Illinois Central Railroad at Memphis,
Tennessee.
Roy Claypool attended the rural schools of his native
county and the Southern Normal School at Bowling
Green, and was graduated from the latter in 1899. For
the subsequent four years he was engaged in teaching
school in Warren County, and then he went into the
mercantile business at Motley, where he remained for
six years, moving from there to Claypool, which con-
tinued his home until 1914, at which time he established
himself as a hardware merchant at Bowling Green,
under the firm name of Claypool & Hendrick Hardware
Company. Until 1919 Mr. Claypool continued this as-
sociation, and then in September of that year assisted in
organizing the Liberty National Bank of Bowling Green,
of which he has since been cashier. The bank is at
915 College Street. The officials of the bank are as
follows : Henry H. Denhardt, president ; Fred Pushin,
vice president ; Fred Keune, Junior, vice president ; Dr.
G. E. Townsend, vice president ; B. S. Huntsman, vice
president ; and Roy Claypool, cashier. This bank has a
capital of $125,000; surplus and profits of $21,000 and
deposits of $8oo,coo. While it is one of the newlv
organized banks, the men connected with it are of such
a character and financial standing that its success was
assured from the beginning.
In politics Mr. Claypool is a democrat. He has al-
ways been active in the Baptist Church, of which he is
a member and head usher. He is secretary and treasurer
of the H. A. McElroy Company, a $500,000 corporation
operating a chain of five and ten cent stores throughout
Kentucky and Tennessee ; and he is president of the
Planters Loose Leaf Tobacco Warehouse Company, a
$.30,000 corporation. Mr. Claypool owns a modern resi-
dence at 936 Elm Street, where he maintains a com-
fortable home. During the late war he was an active
participant in all of the local activities and assisted in
all of the drives. He bought bonds and War Savings
Stamps to the extent of his means, and was a liberal
contributor to all of the organizations.
In 1904 Mr. Claypool married at Elizabethtown, Ken-
tucky, Lena Motley, a daughter of Robert and May
CClaypool) Motley, farming people of Claypool, Ken-
tucky. Mrs. Claypool died in 19 13, leaving a daughter,
May Elizabeth, who was born January 13, 1900. In 1917
Mr. Claypool married at Bowling Green Miss Sarah
Mitchell, a daughter of W. H. and Ida (Claypool)
Mitchell, of whom the latter is deceased, but the former
survives and resides at Bowling Green, where he is en-
gaged in handling fruits, vegetables, lime and cement as
a wholesale dealer. Mrs. Claypool was graduated from
the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, and is a skilled
instrumental musician. By his second marriage Mr.
Claypool has a daughter, Ida Mitchell, who was born
February 12, 1920.
T. W. James. The twenty years since he attained
his majority J. W. James has employed to such good
nurpose and so progressively that he is one of the
leading business men of Southern Kentucky, and has
established and built up at Franklin a wholesale grocery
house that is now one of the chief assets of that city
as a commercial center.
Mr. James was born in Simpson County, Kentucky.
May 15, 1880. His paternal ancestors were English and
early settlers in Virginia, where his grandfather, John
James, was born. The latter in early life moved to
Tennessee, followed farming in that state, and died at
Hartsville. He married a Miss Ball. John R. James,
father of the Franklin merchant, was born in Trousdale
County, Tennessee, in 1845, but after the war lived in
Simpson County, Kentucky. He was a youth when he
enlisted in a Tennessee regiment of the Confederate
Army, was in the battle of Shiloh in 1862, later at
Chickamauga, and was in many other important engage-
ments until the close of hostilities. For many years he
conducted a general merchandise store eight miles east
of Franklin, and died in Simpson County in 1901. He
was a democrat, a very active and devout Presbyterian,
and a member of the Masonic fraternity. John R. James
married Mary E. Clack, who was born in Simpson
County in 1853 and now lives at Franklin. She was
the mother of nine children, several of whom have be-
come merchants. Nora died ip Allen County, Kentucky,
at the age of twenty-five, wife of Tom Eubanks, a saw
mill operator at Lafayette, Tennessee; Birdie is the
wife of B. Dobbs, a merchant in Simpson County ; J. W.
James is the third of the family; Herbert is a merchant
in Simpson County; Nellie is the wife of Carter Jones,
a merchant in Allen County ; Mary is the wife of George
Dobbs, a farmer in Simpson County; Jesse is in the
lumber business in Simpson County; Paul conducts a
store in Sumner County, Tennessee; while Bettie, the
youngest, is the wife of Will Stinson, a farmer in Simp-
son County.
J. W. James attended the rural schools of Simpson
County, was twenty-one years of age when his father
died, and after that operated the farm for three years.
Leaving the farm he entered general merchandising in
the rural districts of Simpson County, and continued as
a retailer until 1918, when he established his wholesale
grocery house in Franklin. He has warehouse and
offices on South Main Street, and has perfected a service
that now supplies a large part of the retail trade over
a wide section of country around Franklin. He is di-
rectly and financially interested in seven retail grocery
houses in Simpson and Allen counties, Kentucky, and in
Sumner County, Tennessee.
Mr. James owns one of the best homes in Franklin,
on East Cedar Street. Besides his personal contribu-
tions in a financial way to the success of the World war
he took a great deal of time from his business to per-
form his duties as a member of the Local Draft Board.
He is a democrat in politics, a member and elder of the
Presbyterian Church, and is affiliated with Newroe
Lodge No. 592, A. F. and A. M., in Allen County, and
Graham Chapter No. 80, R. A. M, at Franklin.
Mr. James married at Jeffersonville, Indiana, in 1919
Miss Ida Belle Hammond, daughter of V. D. and
Lizzie (Johns) Hammond. Her parents live in Simpson
County and her father is one of the prominent citizens
here, a farmer, teacher, and former representative in
the Legislature. Mrs. James is a graduate of the Frank-
lin Female College and also attended the Western State
Norma! School at Bowling Green. For several years
she was a teacher, part of the time in Simpson County
and also at Anchorage in Jefferson County. Mr. and
Mrs. James have one child, Johnnie, born May 2, 1920.
William Z. Jackson, M. D. No other profession re-
quires such careful preparation or makes such exacting
demands upon its members as does that of medicine,
but the recompenses are many, although the remunera-
tion is generally sadly inadequate. The conscientious
physician and surgeon cannot help but realize that upon
his skill and service depend the health and lives of his
community and be inspired to further effort by his re-
sults. He gains friendships which endure for life, and
oftentimes public honors are bestowed upon him, for his
fellow citizens realize that he may be the most intelli-
gent and open-minded among them. One of the best
representatives of this learned and responsible profes-
476
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
sion in Carlisle County is Dr. W. Z. Jackson of Arling-
ton, Kentucky.
Doctor Jackson was born in Bedford County, Ten-
nessee, April 7, 1871, a son of Will Jackson and grand-
son of Willis Jackson, who was born in Tennessee in
1810 and died in Bedford County about 1871, having
gone into that county at a very early day and become
one of the extensive landowners and farmers. A
mechanic by trade, he also developed large interests as
a furniture manufacturer and became a person of wealth
and position. He married Nancy Rutledge, a native of
Tennessee. The Jacksons came to the American Colonies
from England and located in North Carolina.
Will Jackson was born in Bedford County, Tennessee,
in 1841, and died in that county in 1883, having spent
his life there and become a prosperous man and suc-
cessful farmer. During the war between the states
he served in the Confederate -Army until the battle of
Shiloh, in which engagement he had the misfortune to
be shot in both legs below the knees. While lying on'
the battlefield he was captured and taken to Saint Louis,
Missouri, and subsequently was exchanged. Mr. Jack-
son never recovered from his injuries, but suffered from
them the remainder of his life. From the time he cast
his first vote he gave the candidates of the democratic
party his hearty support. During his youth he united
with the Primitive Baptist Church, and from then on
during the remainder of his life he gave his church a
very active and earnest support. He married Lizzie
Taylor, born in Bedford County, Tennessee, in 1849.
She died in that county in 1916, having survived her
husband many years. Their children were as follows :
John, who lives on the old farm in Bedford County;
Doctor Jackson, who was second in order of birth ;
James Edgar, who lives on his grandfather's old farm
in Bedford County ; Nannie, who married Alonzo
Brooks, a railroad employe, resides at Nashville, Ten-
nessee ; Thomas Boyle, who is a farmer, resides two
miles southeast of Arlington ; and Bertha, who married
Nat Lamb, a farmer of Bedford County.
Doctor Jackson attended the rural schools of his
native county and through the junior year of the Long-
view High School at Longview, Tennessee, following
which he worked on a farm in Illinois for eighteen
months. He then entered the medical department of the
University of Tennessee, at Nashville, from which he
was graduated in 1898, with the degree of Doctor of
Medicine. Since then he has taken two post-graduate
courses at his Alma Mater, one in 1907 and one in 1908,
and in June, 1909, took a third of three weeks at the
Postgraduate Medical School of Chicago. In 1898
Doctor Jackson began the practice of his profession at
Berkeley, Kentucky, and remained there for seven and
one-half years. He then came to Arlington, where he
has since built up a remunerative general medical and
surgical practice and is rightly numbered among the
leading men of his profession in Carlisle County, and
he is local surgeon for the Illinois Central Railroad
Company. His offices are on Main Street, and he owns
the building in which they are located, and also his
modern residence, which is one of the best in the city.
Doctor Jackson owns a half interest in a farm of 120
acres that is located at Tombs, Illinois.
Inheriting his political opinions from his father, Doctor
Jackson is a democrat. He belongs to the Baptist
Church. A Mason, he is affiliated with Arlington Lodge
No. 582, A. F. and A. M., and he is also a member of
Arlington Lodge No. 309, I. O. O. F., of which he is
a past grand. Professionally he belongs to the Carlisle
County Medical Society, the Kentucky State Medical
Society, the Kentucky Southwestern Medical Society,
the Southern Medical Society, the American Medical
Association and the Illinois and Y. M. V. A. Medical
Society.
In 1899 Doctor Jackson married in Bedford County,
Tennessee, Miss Annie Williams, a daughter of Matt
and Sarah (Tune) Williams, both of whom are de-
ceased. During his life time Mr. Williams was a farmer.
Doctor and Mrs. Jackson have no children.
Allen Prichard Banfield, M. D. A prominent
figure in professional life in Boyd County, Kentucky,
and well known over a much wider field, is Dr. Allen
Prichard Banfield, of Catlettsburg, specialist in diseases
of the eye, ear, nose and throat. Dr. Banfield may
be used as an illustration of the rewards that usually
follow in the wake of youthful industry and self respect,
combined with the determination to overcome every
obstacle in the path leading to the object of his efforts.
Dr. Banfield is a native of Kentucky, born in what
was then Carter, now Boyd County, June 16, 1850.
His parents were Crisley Perry and Martha (Prichard)
Banfield, both of whom were born in Kentucky. His
paternal grandfather was long a substantial resident of
Garner, Kentucky, but farther back the family records
have been lost. Crisley Perry Banfield, father of
Doctor Banfield, was a farmer and stockman in Boyd
County, a respected citizen of his community and active
in church and politics. His death occurred September
10, 1878. On August 16, 1849, he was married to
Martha Prichard, a member of a very old and promin-
ent Southern family. She was born January 5, 1832, and
died August 25, 1893, the mother of ten children.
Her father was born May 3, 1796, and died in Boyd
County, Kentucky, September 21, 1877. His father,
William Prichard, had been kidnaped in his native
land by the crew of a sailing vessel and was fourteen
years old when he was left in Russell County, Virginia,
where he evidently became a man of some importance
as the records of that county show that he purchased
a tract of land in 1800 and sold the same in 1810, and
in the following year he came to Kentucky.
Allen Prichard Banfield had such early educational
advantages as were afforded in the private school con-
ducted at Catlettsburg by Mrs. Neppie Roberts, a lady
of fine educational acquirements, and under Mrs. Rob-
erts he was prepared to become a teacher himself.
Aside from his professional college training, this was
the only "university" that Doctor Banfield ever had
the benefit of attending. He had early made up his
mind to become a physician, but a medical education
even then was expensive, and in a family of ten chil-
dren, boyish preferences do not usually secure much
family attention. He was not discouraged, however,
when he learned that he would have to earn the money
for himself if he persisted in leaving the farm to acquire
a profession, for he knew that he had resources within
himself that he could call to his aid. For two years
then, he engaged in teaching country schools, reading
medical books in the meantime as opportunity offered,
and at the end of that time, was accepted as a medical
student in the office of his uncle, Dr. Allen Prichard,
a leading general practitioner in his day.
Under his uncle's preceptorship, Doctor Banfield made
rapid headway, and by 1873 had accumulated both
sufficient capital and preparatory knowledge to become
a student in a Cincinnati Medical College, from which
he was graduated in 1876, with his degree of M. D.
He entered into practice at Buchanan, and during the
succeeding seventeen years devoted himself to a general
practice of medicine, demonstrating in these years of
useful activity, the wisdom of his choice of career in
youth. A man of progressive thought in every direc-
tion Doctor Banfield decided to increase his scientific
knowledge in relation to the diseases of the eye, ear,
nose and throat, with hope of being able to remedy
the troubles in these organs that have become so preva-
lent in late years, possibly from changed conditions of
living, and in 1893 he went to New York City and
in the great New York Post-graduate School and Hos-
pital, took a special course of the most important
and exhaustive kind. Since then Doctor Banfield has
specialized in this line, in which he has attained emin-
ence in the state.
j^W^Sf*
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
477
Doctor Banfield is yet a student, being of that type
that can set no limit to the discoveries of his beloved
science, and for twenty years, he has dedicated from
one month to three in every year to post-graduate work
in one or other of the great medical centers, having
studied and operated in clinics in New York hospitals,
in the Royal London Opthalmic Hospital, the largest
opthalmic or eye hospital in the world and also in the
Golden Square Hospital of London for ear, nose and
throat, and likewise in the celebrated hospitals of Paris,
France. In 1900 he came to Catlettsburg, where he has
financial interests. He is a member of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South, and belongs to the Free-
masons and Elks.
Nathaniel L. Rogers, M. D. The problems of health
are really the problems of life and must pertain to all
questions of human interest, so that the physician and
surgeon is the most important man of his community.
He must possess a wide range of general culture, be
an observant clinician and well read neurologist, even
though he never specializes along any particular line.
To take his place among the distinguished men of his
profession he must bear the stamp of an original mind
and be willing to be hard-worked, while at the same
time his soul oftentimes faints within him when study-
ing the mysteries of his calling. Acquainted with the
simple annals of_ the poor and the inner lives of his
patients, he acquires a moral power, courage and con-
science which permit him to interfere with the mechan-
ism of physical life, alleviating its woes and increasing
its resistance to the encroachments of disease. No won-
der that a skilled, learned and sympathetic medical man
commands such universal admiration and respect, and
one who measures up to the highest standards in every
respect is Dr. Nathaniel L. Rogers of Wickliffe.
Doctor Rogers was born at Linton, Trigg County,
Kentucky, August 1, 1863, a son of Richard S. and
Mary J. (Carr) Rogers. Richard S. Rogers was born
in Trigg County, Kentucky, in February, 1818, and died
at Wickliffe, Kentucky, in 1893. His wife was born in
December, 1818, and she died at Wickliffe, Kentucky,
March 1, 1905. Reared and married in Trigg County,
Richard S. Rogers developed into a merchant and farmer
of some prominence, and held the office of a justice of
the peace for thirty years. When he retired from active
participation in his former employments he moved to
Wickliffe. A democrat, during the war between the
North and the South he espoused the side of the Union
and later became a republican, voting for the candidates
of that party until his death. He was a member of the
Masonic fraternity. He and his wife had the following
children ; Nancy, who died at the age of fifteen years
of typhoid fever ; Thomas Benton, who enlisted in the
Union Army during the war between the two sections
of the country and died of smallpox at Bowling Green,
Kentucky, while in the service; Cyrus S., who was
killed while serving as a Union soldier on a gunboat
which was on the Ohio River conveying prisoners from
Louisville, Kentucky to Nashville, Tennessee ; Ann, who
married Webster Futrell, and died in Trigg County,
Kentucky, when thirty years old, but her husband sur-
vives her and is now living in Trigg County retired
from_ his former occupation of farming; Melissa, who
married Robert Joyner, an attorney, died in Trigg
County, as did her husband; Dr. W. J., who died at
Wickliffe in 1895, was a practicing physician and sur-
geon ; Miranda, who married Flavius Rasco, a farmer
now deceased, is living at Wickliffe; J. B., who is a
druggist of Barlow, Kentucky; Mary Douglas, who
married W. D. Rasco, a gardener of Wickliffe; David,
who died of brain fever at the age of seven years ;
and Doctor Rogers, who was the youngest.
After attending the rural schools of Trigg and Car-
lisle counties Doctor Rogers took a course at the Farm-
ington Institute at Farmington, Kentucky, and then
entered the Hospital College of Medicine at Louisville,
Kentucky, from which he was graduated June 17, 1890
with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He has taken
post-graduate courses at the Chicago Polyclinic and one
at his Alma Mater at Louisville, Kentucky, in general
courses and surgery. In 1890 he established himself in
a general medical and surgical practice at Wickliffe, and
has built up a connection which not only is extensive
but very valuable. He is a charter member of the
Ballard County Medical Society and was its first presi-
dent; he belongs to the Kentucky State Medical Society
and the American Medical Association, and is enthu-
siastic relative to the benefits of these organizations.
Through the medium of the Methodist Episcopal
Church he finds expression for his religious creed, and
is one of its most valued members at Wickliffe. A
Mason, he belongs to Wickliffe Lodge No. 625, A. F.
and A. M., and Antioch Chapter No. 74, R. A. M., of
Wickliffe. He owns his modern residence on the cor-
ner of Cumberland and Fourth streets and three farms
in Ballard County, comprising in all 300 acres, as well
as several dwellings and two business buildings at Wick-
liffe, including his own office building on Court and
Fifth streets. He is local surgeon for the Illinois Cen-
tral and the Mobile & Ohio Railroad companies.
In 1891 Doctor Rogers married at Wickliffe Miss
Cattie L. Thomas, a daughter of Robert and Sarah
(Turk) Thomas. Mr. Thomas was a farmer of Ballard
County, Kentucky. Mrs. Rogers was born in Henry
County, Kentucky. Doctor and Mrs. Rogers became the
parents of the following children : Noyl Boone, who was
born in 1897, is with his father studying medicine. After
he had graduated from the Wickliffe High School he
entered the Kentucky State University at Lexington,
Kentucky, but at the close of his first year entered the
United States service during the great war, and was
sent to Fort Benjamin Harrison at Indianapolis, Indiana,
and from there to the Officers' Training Camp at Fort
Fremont, California, when the signing of the armistice
released him from the army, and he returned to Wick-
liffe following his honorable discharge. The second
child, Robert Thomas, was born in 1900, and is now a
resident of Cairo, Illinois, and is connected with a drug
store of that city, having taken a course in the Louis-
ville School of Pharmacy. During the great war, in
spite of his youth, he served in the United States Navy
for nine months, and was sent overseas twice. The
youngest son, Nathaniel L., Jr., was born in 1907, and
he is entering upon his high school course at Wickliffe.
While his elder sons were in the army and navy Doctor
Rogers was doing his part as a loyal American at home,
and participated actively in all of the local drives and
was a member of the local examining draft board. He
offered his services to the medical branch of the army,
but was refused on account of physical disability.
The Rogers family is one of the old-established ones
in the United States, its representatives coming here
during the Colonial epoch and settling in North Caro-
lina, where they and their descendants took a con-
structive part in the development of that region. It was
in North Carolina that Doctor Rogers' grandfather,
David Rogers, was born, and his father, also David
Rogers, was born and died in the "Tarheel State." The
elder David Rogers was a sea-faring man. The younger
David Rogers, after he had reached manhood estate,
moved to Kentucky, and established the family in Trigg
County, and there he was engaged in farming upon an
extensive scale. His wife was a Miss Sumner, of North
Carolina. It is interesting to trace back in these typical
American families, for as an almost universal rule it
is found that the desirable characteristics which made
of their founders sturdy builders of what is now the
mightiest nation in the world have been transmitted to
the intrepid young men in khaki and blue who proved
so invincible when pitted against the most carefully and
thoroughly trained soldiers ever sent into battle.
478
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
Milton C. Anderson. Unless the modern lawyer is
a man of sound judgment, possessed of a liberal educa-
tion and stern training, combined with a keen insight
into human nature, there is not much hope of his
meeting with success. The reason of this lies in the
spirit of the age, with all of its complexities. Modern
jurisprudence has become more and more intricate be-
cause of new conditions and laws, and the interpreta-
tion of them is relegated to the bar and bench. Years
of experience, constant reading and natural inclination
must be superinduced upon a careful training for suc-
cess at the bar, and if this is true with regard to the
attorney in a private practice, it is necessarily all the
more forcible when applied to those of the profession
who are using their talents and knowledge of the law
in the discharge of the duties of public office. The
records of Ballard County show that never before have
there been so many able members of the bar within its
confines, so that selection for the office of county
attorney becomes more and more difficult each election.
However, in the person of Milton C. Anderson, the
present incumbent, the people of Ballard County have
an ideal official, and one who is giving an unusual
measure of satisfaction for the masterly manner in
which he is handling the many difficult problems pre-
sented to him.
Mr. Anderson was born at Grahamville, McCracken
County, Kentucky, March I, 1887, a son of Herbert
Anderson, grandson of Cornelius Anderson, and great-
grandson of Robert Anderson. The Anderson family
originated in Scotland, from which country immigra-
tion was made to America and settlement effected in
Virginia during Colonial times. Robert Anderson was
lwrn in Virginia, from whence he came as a pioneer
into Christian County, Kentucky, and there established
a deaf and dumb school and taught it for a number
of years. His death took place in Christian County.
Cornelius Anderson, son of Robert Anderson and
grandfather of Milton C. Anderson, was born in Chris-
tian County, Kentucky, and died at Wickliffe, Kentucky.
Moving from Christian County in 1866, he spent some
time at Paducah. Kentucky, and then went to Florence
Station. Kentucky. Still later he moved to Woodville,
McCracken County, and finally to Wickliffe, where he
lived in retirement. His life work was done as an
educator in the public schools. Cornelius Anderson
married Amanda Smith, who was born in Christian
County, Kentucky. She survives her husband and
makes her home at Wickliffe.
Herbert Anderson, son of Cornelius Anderson and
father of Milton C Anderson, was born near Hopkins-
ville, Christian County, Kentucky, in 1854, but was taken
by his parents in 1866 to Paducah and later to Florence
Station, and he was reared at the latter place and
there educated. After he reached manhood's rotate he
moved to Grahamville. where he is still residing, being
extensively interested in farming and fruitraising, hav-
ing been a successful pioneer in the latter industry in
his region. A democrat, he served as a justice of the
peace for many years. Fraternally he is a member of
the Odd Fellows. Joining the Christian Church many
years ago, he has found in its creed and services the
religious atmosphere which was congenial, and he has
always been one of its strongest and most effective sup-
porters. Herbert Anderson married Jennie Holland,
who was born near Grahamville, Kentucky, in i860, and
their children are as follows : Jessie, who married C.
M. Barbee, a farmer, lives at Springfield, Tennessee .
Clarence H., who is a farmer of Grahamville; Milton
C, who was third in order of birth; Elizabeth, who is
unmarried and lives with her brother Milton C. ; S. A.,
who is a farmer of Grahamville; and Herbert, who is a
student in the Georgetown College at Georgetown, Ken-
tucky, and is preparing himself for the medical pro-
fession.
Milton C. Anderson attended the rural schools of
McCracken County, Hall-Moody Institute, a preparatory
school at Martin, Tennessee, and then read law and was
admitted to the bar February 10, 1910, and imme-
diately thereafter entered upon the active practice of
his profession. From the beginning he took an active
part in politics and became an active factor in the
democratic party. On its ticket he was elected county
attorney in the fall of 1917, and took office in January,
1918, moving his home to Wickliffe at that time. His
offices are in the court house, and he owns his modern
residence on Tennessee Street, Wickliffe. He is a mem- ;|
ber of and a deacon in the Baptist Church. A Mason,
he belongs to Hazelwood Lodge No. 489, A. F. and
A. M., of Barlow; Antioch Chapter No. 74, R. A. M.;
Paducah Commandery, K. T.; and Rizpah Temple, A. J
A. O. N. M. S., of Madisonville. He also belongs to \\
Oscar Camp, M. W. A., of Oscar, Kentucky ; and Wick- i
liffe Camp, W. O. W. Mr. Anderson is attorney for I
the Bank of Barlow, for the J. T. Polk Canning Com- «
pany, for the Hendricks Mill and Lumber Company,
and the W'illiamson-Kuney Mill and Lumber Company,
and is recognized as a very able corporation lawyer. J1
He has an interest in four farms in Ballard County,
totaling 271 acres, and is a man of ample means.
During the period this country was in the great war ■
Mr. Anderson was an active participant in all of the
local war work and made speeches throughout Western
Kentucky and Southern Illinois in behalf of the various
drives. He was very generous, contributing his time,
talents and money to the cause, and no calls on him
from the Government were made in vain.
On August -', 1909, Mr. Anderson was united in mar-
riage at Metropolis, Illinois, with Miss Pearl Wray, a
daughter of J. P. and Annie (Reesor) Wray, now resi- I
dents of Oscar, Kentucky, where Mr. Wray has ex-
tensive farming interests, although formerly he was a I
merchant. Mr. and Mrs. Anderson have one daughter,
Evelvn Pearl, who was born September 3, 1917.
It "would be difficult to find a man more thoroughly
embued with the spirit of his times or more anxious
to aid in the development of his community. He has
traveled far on the road leading to distinction, and the
future opens up very bright before him. Such men as
Mr. Anderson are a credit to their profession and to the
people who place them in offices of dignified responsi-
bility.
Willie A. Simmons. In educational circles of Mon-
roe County Willie A. Simmons has become well and
popularly "known as an instructor of scholastic and
executive ability through the capable manner in which
he has discharged the duties of several offices of trust
and responsibility. In his present capacity as superm-
ini.knt of schools of Fountain Run he is adding to his
well-merited reputation for accomplishment, and the
general confidence in which he is held indicates the
value of his services.
Mr. Simmons was born on his father's farm near
Fountain Run, Monroe County, September 1, 1885, a
son of H. C. and Ellen (Eaton) Simmons. His grand-
father. Green Simmons, was born in 181 1 in South
Carolina, and in young manhood migrated to Kentucky.
taking up land in Monroe County which was subse-
quently developed into the old Simmons homestead. He
developed a valuable and productive property, con-
veniently situated 2l/2 miles north of Fountain Run, an 1
became one of the well-to-do men of his locality, his
entire career being devoted to agricultural pursuits. In
his transactions he was always upright and honorable,
and as a result he bore an honored name in the com-
munitv of his home, where he passed away in 1891.
II. C. Simmons was born on the home farm near
Fountain Run in 1862, and there was reared and re-
ceived a rural school education. When he reached
years of discretion he adopted farming as his life work,
and to this vocation he has applied his energies unre-
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
479
mittingly throughout his career. He still continues to
make his home 2}4 miles north of Fountain Run, where
he has an attractive and well-cultivated property, on
which are to be found the latest improvements and sub-
stantial, up-to-date buildings. He is justly accounted
one of the successful farmers of his locality, as well as
a citizen of public spirit and general worth. Politically
he is a republican, but has not entered actively into
public life. He is an active member and stanch sup-
porter of the Baptist Church. Mr. Simmons married
Miss Ellen Eaton, who was born in 1868 near Tracy,
Barren County, Kentucky, and she also survives and
resides on the old home farm. They have been the
parents of the following children: Willie A., of this
review ; Claude K., who met an accidental death on the
farm when nine years and ten months old, being kicked
by a vicious horse ; Neelie, who died at the age of
eighteen months ; Necie, who resides with her parents ;
Tom, who is a student at the Fountain Run High
School ; and Grace, who is attending the graded school
here.
Willie A. Simmons is largely self-educated. As a
boy he attended the rural schools of Monroe County
and worked on his father's farm, where he remained
until about the time of attaining his majority. Having
decided upon a career as a teacher, he secured a posi-
tion in the rural districts and for six years continued
to instruct the minds of the country youths. Then,
feeling the need of further preparation, which he had
been unable to secure theretofore, he entered the
Western Kentucky State Normal School at Bowling
Green, from which he was graduated in 1913. In 1914,
for the summer term, he entered the Valparaiso
(Indiana) University, and during 191 5 and 1916 at-
tended Peabody College, Nashville, Tennessee, special-
izing in the department of education. Mr. Simmons
has continued teaching during this time, in 1913 having
been made principal of the graded and high school at
Hiseville, Barren County, a position which he held for
five years. He was next principal of the Harrison
County High School at Oddville, Kentucky, for one
year, and in 1919 was elected principal of the graded
and high school at Fountain Run, a position which he
has since retained.
Mr. Simmons has brought to his work trained facul-
ties and enlightened understanding, combined with real
capacity for painstaking endeavor and a meritorious
zeal and enthusiasm. With these qualities as equipment
he has done much to improve the school system at
Fountain Run and to work himself into the confidence
and esteem of the people of his locality. He is an
active member of the Kentucky Educational Asso-
ciation. In politics he is a republican, and his religious
connection is with the Baptist Church. He owns and
occupies a comfortable modern residence at Fountain
Run. During the World war he was living in Harri-
son County and was hindered from making speeches in
behalf of the cause on account of sickness.
In 1917, near Glasgow, Kentucky, Mr. Simmons was
united in marriage with Miss Lena Tolle, daughter of
Mr. and Mrs. Gene Tolle, the latter of whom is de-
ceased, while the former is a resident of Glasgow,
where he is engaged in agricultural operations. Mrs.
Simmons attended the Western Kentucky State Normal
School at Bowling Green, and for eight years prior
to her marriage was a teacher in the rural districts of
Monroe County. To Mr. and Mrs. Simmons there has
been born one child, Elizabeth, born October 26, 1918.
Lee O. Dixon, manager of the Arcadia Hotel at
Dawson Springs, is one of the men responsible for the
remarkable growth and development of this famous
health resort, and he is recognized as one of the best
hotelmen in the country. Just as Americans are
awakening to the fact that their own country is pos-
sessed of scenery far exceeding in grandeur anything
afforded by the old world, so are they learning that the
natural mineral waters of the wells at Dawson Springs
are far superior to those of foreign health resorts. Not
only is this appreciation given by Americans, but the
owners of the wells are daily filling heavy orders from
all over the world for the bottled waters.
It is but natural with such a steady and increasing
influx of visitors who seek a cure from various ailments
or a renewal of health in the wonderful waters of
Dawson Springs that the business of affording them
proper accommodations should assume very important
proportions, necessitating the employment of the best
talent in the country. The early efforts of the kindly
tavern-keepers have given way to carefully systemized
hostelries, conducted upon a scale of elegance and
luxury not to be excelled anywhere, and men of national
repute are placed in charge of the affairs. The growth
of the Springs is more dependent upon the capabilities
of these efficient men than might be imagined, for if
those who are ailing in health and suffering from
nervous complaints are not made comfortable and happy
they will not remain, no matter how beneficial the
waters may prove. Mr. Dixon appreciated this from
the first and has thrown his whole heart into making
the Arcadia Hotel a model institution, and guests come
to it again and again as they return to the Springs.
Lee O. Dixon was born in Hopkins County, Ken-
tucky, March 1, 1878, a son of B. T. Dixon, and grand-
son of Charles Dixon, who was born in Charlottesville,
Virginia, in 1796 and died at Dalton, Kentucky, in 1874.
He came to Hopkins County with his wife and three
children and located near Dalton and became a pros-
perous farmer of that locality. The maiden name of
his wife was Martha Figg, and she was born in Vir-
ginia in 1800. Her death occurred near Dalton, Ken-
tucky, in 1878. The Dixons came from England to Vir-
ginia long before the American Revolution.
B. T. Dixon was born near Dalton, Hopkins County,
Kentucky, in 1848, and he is now living at Dawson
Springs. Brought up in his native neighborhood, he
became a country merchant, and in 1882 moved to Daw-
son Springs, where he was one of the pioneers in the
mercantile life of the place. But one house now re-
mains of the few which constituted the village at the
time he moved to it, and he has advanced with the
prosperity of the place. After being profitably engaged
in business as a merchant for eight years he became
the proprietor of the Dixon House, and conducted it
until 1912, when he sold it and retired. He has always
been a democrat. The Missionary Baptist Church holds
his membership and he is very active in its support.
B. T. Dixon married Tinnie Sisk, who was born at
Silent Run, Hopkins County, Kentucky, in 1856.
Lee O. Dixon was reared at Dawson Springs, and
after attending its schools became a student of the
County Normal School at Madisonville, Kentucky, but
left in 1897, at the completion of his junior year, and
was occupied in various ways before he became a
traveling salesman through Western Tennessee. Com-
ing back to Dawson Springs, for twelve years he was in
the restaurant business, disposing of his interests in
1916 to accept the position of manager of the Arcadia
Hotel, the original hotel of the Springs and one of the
leading ones today. This hotel, which has accommoda-
tions for 160 guests, is located on North Railroad
Avenue, in a densely shaded park where are numerous
wells of the natural mineral waters which have made
Dawson Springs famous the world over. Among these
wells is the famous Number 4, and the Number 1 well,
the first one to yield the mineral water, is also in this
park. Mr. Dixon is half owner of the Dawson Springs
Brick Company. During the late war he took an active
part in all of the local war work, and also subscribed
to his limit for all of the issues of the bonds, stamps
and to all of the organizations. He has always been
a democrat. Early joining the Baptist Church, he has
480
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
been zealous in its work and is now its treasurer. A
Mason, he belongs to Dawson Lodge No. 628, A. F.
and A. M., and he is also a member of Dawson Lodge
No. no, I. O. O. F., and of Dawson Springs Camp
No. 12392, M. W. A.
On June 17, 1903, Mr. Dixon married at Clay, Web-
ster County, Kentucky, Miss Birdie Dixon Grant, a
daughter of E. W. and Fannie (Sun) Grant, farming
people of Clay, Kentucky. Mr. and Mrs. Dixon became
the parents of the following children : Raymond Ford,
who was born May 30, 1904, is a senior in the Dawson
Springs High School ; Mary Lucille, who was bom
August 28, 1906, is a freshman of the same school ; and
Norman Grant, who was born February 9, 1912, is the
youngest.
Having been identified with practically all of the
development of Dawson Springs, 'Mr. Dixon is very
enthusiastic with reference to it, and feels that there
are no limits to what may be expected of it in the way
of further expansion. Nature has been lavish to this
section of the state ; there is no lack of sufficient capital
for all kinds of improvements ; and plans have already
been made to utilize to the utmost the marvelous re-
sources of this remarkable region.
Sylvanus Wilson, president of the First National
Bank of Russell Springs and proprietor of The Supply-
Company, is one of the commanding figures in the
business life of Russell County, and is a man widely
and favorably known all over this part of Kentucky.
His transactions, which are of great magnitude, are
carried on with scrupulous attention to detail and ac-
cording to the highest principles of commercial in-
tegrity, and he is the recognized leader in many move-
ments of civic importance.
Mr. Wilson was born on a farm near Russell Springs,
March 20, 1878, a son of Daniel Wilson, who was born
in Russell County in 1842, where his father, a native
of Virginia, had settled upon coming to Kentucky and
becoming a farmer. Until 1887 Daniel Wilson continued
to be engaged in farming in the vicinity of Russell
Springs, but in that year moved to the city, and for
twenty-four years thereafter was one of its leading
merchants, but retired from active participation in his
business in 1910, although he still maintains his resi-
dence in this community. Only a lad of sixteen when
the republican party came into being, he was so im-
pressed by the discussions he heard at that time that
when he came to vote he enlisted in its ranks and
has never left them. The Baptist Church holds his
membership, and he is a strong supporter of the local
congregation of that denomination. A Mason, he be-
longs to Russell Springs Lodge No. 840, F. & A. M.
During the war between the North and the South he
served during the last two years of the conflict in the
Thirteenth Kentucky Cavalry. He married Sarah J.
Wilson, who, although she bore the same name, was
not a relative. Mrs. Wilson was born in Russell County
in 1847. Their children are as follows: William A.,
who is engaged in farming in the vicinity of Russell
Springs ; and Sylvanus, who is the younger.
Sylvanus Wilson attended the rural schools of his
native county and lived at home until he was eighteen
years old. From childhood he has displayed a business
ability that is remarkable, and when only thirteen years
old his father made him manager of his mercantile
establishment. Young as he was the lad proved him-
self capable of discharging the duties laid upon him,
and in 1910 bought the business and at once began to
expand it, continuing to develop it until he now has the
leading mercantile house of the county. He owns the
large modern store building on Main Street which is
the home of his establishment, and also a modern resi-
dence on Main Street. Mr. Wilson has other interests,
for he owns a valuable fifty-four-acre farm which is
011 the edge of town, a half interest in a farm of ninety-
five acres in the vicinity of Russell Springs, and con-
siderable real estate at Russell Springs. In 1906 Mr.
Wilson was one of the organizers of the First National
Bank of Russell Springs, and has continued its presi-
dent since its doors were opened for business. This
bank has a capital of $25,000; surplus and undivided
profits of $2,000; and deposits of $150,000. His asso-
ciates in the bank are H. M. Smith and W. G. Rexrvat,
vice presidents, and G. W. Hill, cashier.
During the period that this country was in the World I
war Mr. Wilson and his wife took a leading part in the
local war activities, she being especially valuable in the
Red Cross work. Mr. Wilson gave generously of his
time to the cause, and bought bonds and stamps and
contributed to all of the war organizations to the limit
of his means.
In 1896 he married at Russell Springs Miss Arizona
Kimble, a daughter of George A. and Mary (Bradshaw)
Kimble, the latter of whom is deceased. Mr. Kimble is
a retired merchant of Russell Springs. Mr. and Mrs.
Wilson have two children, Lettie May, who lives at j
Russell Springs, married Guy M. Snow, who owns a|
half interest in 'Mr. Wilson's store and is his partner ;
and Sarah K., who is at home.
The career of Mr. Wilson shows what a man can I
accomplish when he is permitted to follow his natural
bent. While of course one of his ability could have
made a success of almost anything he undertook, still
it is certain that his inclinations and talents all led him
to adopt his present calling and that he is eminently
fitted for mercantile and financial pursuits. He under-
stands the laws of demand and supply ; is able to
predicate just about what will be required to meet the
demands of his customers within a given time; can
look ahead and buy understandingly and profitably, and
offer timely stocks at prices as low as is justifiable
considering the market and the quality. Having made
such a success of his own business he knows how to j
render excellent advice and conserve the interests of
others with reference to their financial affairs. Such
a man as Mr. Wilson renders a service to his com-
munity, county, state and country not easily over-
estimated, and is worthy of all of the confidence he
inspires.
G. W. Hill. From Maine to California and from
the Canadian border to the Rio Grande, the men of
paramount importance in every community no matter
what its size are those connected with the banking
business, for upon them rests the responsibility of main-
taining the financial stability of the business houses
and industrial plants in their midst, and sustaining the
credits with the outside world. Of necessity they are
men of force of character, strong determination, con-
servative policies and excellent judgment or their stock-
holders would not have selected them for the positions
they hold, nor would their depositors confirm their elec-
tions by a continuance of their patronage. Therefore,
when it is stated that a man is a banker, immediately
he is accorded a consideration not bestowed upon all,
and few, indeed, are there instances where a man so
honored proves unworthy of the trust reposed in his
integrity and discretion. Accorded therefore his right-
ful place among his fellow citizens, G. W. Hill, cashier
of the First National Bank of Russell Springs, is num-
bered among the responsible and worth-while men of
Russell County.
G. W. Hill was born in Owen County, Kentucky, June
29, 1864, a son of George Hill, who was born in Derby-
shire, England, in 1827, and died in Owen County, Ken-
tucky, in 1915. His father, also George Hill, was born
in England, where he was reared and married, but in
1831 he left his native land and came to the United
States, settling first in Pennsylvania. Later he left the
Keystone State for Illinois, and from there went to
Saint Joseph County, Michigan, where his death oc-
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
4S1
curred. During all of these changes he was occupied
with farming. His wife, whose maiden name was
Brown, was bom in England in 1802, and died in Saint
Joseph County, Michigan, in 1884.
George Hill, father of G. W. Hill, was reared in
Saint Joseph County, Michigan, and attended its rural
schools, but left that section for Owen County, Ken-
tucky, about 1848, and became a very prominent man of
that region, where he was extensively engaged in farm-
ing and merchandising. For twelve years he served as
a magistrate, and was always active in the democratic
party. The Baptist Church had in him an earnest and
consistent member, and he was a strong churchman
until his death. He married Mahala Smith, who was
born in Owen County, Kentucky, in 1832, and died there
in 1913. Their children were as follows: John, who
resides in Owen County, is a farmer ; Thomas, who
resides at Cincinnati, Ohio, is a prominent Mason and
is now acting as superintendent of one of the Masonic
temples of that cityj Man-, who lives near Johnstown,
Pennsylvania, married Robert Noel, a musician ; Sarah,
who resides at Covington, Kentucky, married Charles
Strother, an attorney; G. W., who was fifth in order of
birth : I. \\\, who is in the office of the United States
internal revenue department of Louisville, Kentucky :
Addie, who is a resident of Owen County, married
James Davis, a farmer; YVillard, who died at the age
of twenty-one years ; and Forrest, who is a farmer of
Owen County.
G. \Y. Hill attended both the rural schools and the
Owenton High School until he was sixteen years old,
and when only seventeen years old began teaching
school in the rural districts of Owen County-, and was
so occupied for a period of five years. He then entered
the commercial field and until 1904 was engaged in
merchandising at Jonesville, Owen County. That year
saw him apnointed deputy county clerk of Grant County,
and he held that position for five years, during that
period acquiring a reputation for painstaking fidelity
to anv task assigned him. In 1909 he moved to Somer-
set, Kentucky, and for ten years was cashier of the
Citizens Bank of that city, leaving it to become as-
sistant cashier of the First National Bank of Russell
Springs in 1920. On May, 1921, Mr. Hill's exceptional
abilities received proper recognition in his election to
the office of cashier of this bank, and he is still in it
to the satisfaction of all .parties and the welfare of the
hank. This sound financial institution was established
May 12, 1906. and its officials are : S. Wilson, presi-
dent: H. M. Smith, vice president; U. G. Rexrvat.
second vice president; and G. W. Hill, cashier. The
capital is $25,000: the surplus and profits are $2,000;
and the deposits are $150,000.
Both by inheritance and conviction Mr. Hill is a
democrat, but he has confined his participation in public
affairs to supporting his party candidates. He belongs
to Somerset Lodge No. 75, I. O. O. F., and Somerset
Camn Xo. 418. W. O. W. Mr. Hill owns a modern
dwelling at Somerset. During the late war he was one
of the energetic workers in behalf of local activities,
participating in all of the drives, and buying bonds and
stamps and contributing to the various war organiza-
tions to the limit of his means.
In 1895 he married at Vevay. Indiana. Miss Anna
Salvers, a daughter of James and Mary E. ( Parent")
Salvers, both of whom are now deceased. He was a
farmer of Grant County. Kentucky, for many years.
Mr. and Mrs. Hill became the parents of the following
children : Consuela. who married Sylvester Newton
and lives at Louisville. Kentucky, where he is an oil
distributor : and Margaret, who married D. S. McChord.
a clerk of Lebanon, Kentucky.
Add Tarter. Prominently identified among the schol-
arly men and efficient educators of Russell County, Prof.
Add Tarter, principal of the Russell Springs High
School, is one of the dependable citizens of this region.
His work since coming to Russell Springs marks him as
a man who has chosen well his life work, and he has
won the affection of his pupils and the confidence of
their parents.
Professor Tarter is a native of Russell County, hav-
ing been born at Decatur, Kentucky, September 27, 1887,
a son of Samuel Tarter, and grandson of Reader M.
Tarter. The Tarter family originated in Ireland, from
whence emigration was made to the American Colonies
at an early day, and from then on until the time of
Professor. Tarter's great-grandfather those of the name
continued to reside in Virginia. He, however, struck
out into Kentucky and was one of the pioneer farmers
of the southern part of Central Kentucky. His son,
Reader M. Tarter, was born in Kentucky and died at
Decatur before the birth of Professor Tarter. For the
greater part of his life he was engaged in farming in
the vicinity of Decatur. He married Martha M. Gad-
berry, a native of Kentucky, who also died at Decatur.
Samuel Tarter, who is still a resident of Decatur, was
born in that city in 1861, and there he has spent his
entire life. For many- years a successful farmer, he is
still following that calling. In politics he is a democrat.
He married Sarah Emily Cravens, who was born in
Kentucky in 1862, and died at Decatur in 1915. Their
children were as follows : John F., who is engaged in
farming near Liberty, Casey County, Kentucky; Ira,
who is a farmer of Font Hill, Russell County ; Professor
Tarter, who was third in order of birth ; and Flonie,
who lives at Russell Springs, married L. R. Wilson, Jr.,
a clerk in a store.
Professor Tarter attended the rural schools of Rus-
sell County, the Russell Springs High School, and the
Western Kentucky State Xormal School at Bowling
Green, Kentucky, from which he was graduated and
during this period received the equivalent of a four-year
high school course and a two-year college course. In
the meanwhile, in 1908, he had begun to teach school,
and was connected with the rural schools of his native
county for four years. During 1912, 1913, 1914, 1915
and 1916 he served as principal of the graded schools
of Oalcton, Kentucky, and during 1917 and 1918 was
principal of the county high school at Albany, Kentucky.
His work as an educator was interrupted by his re-
sponse to his country's call, when he enlisted May 27,
1918, in the World war and was sent to Camp Taylor,
Louisville, Kentucky. After six weeks there he was
transferred to Camp Beauregard, Louisiana, where he
remained until August 2, 1918, on which date he was
sent overseas to France. Before he left this country
he had been made sergeant of Company L. One Hundred
and Third Infantry. After he reached France he was
made supply sergeant, first of the Fifth Depot Division,
and later of the Central Recorders Office, and remained
at Bourges for the greater part of the time. On
August 9, 1919, Professor Tarter sailed from Brest.
France, for the L'nited States, and was mustered out of
the service at Camp Taylor September 4, 1919.
From the time of his return home until May, 1920,
he was a general bookkeeper in the First National Bank
at Russell Springs, and in September of that year was
made principal of the graded and high schools of this
city. He has under his supervision six teachers and
350 pupils, and they, as well as he, are making a record
for efficiency and scholarship. Like his father he is a
democrat. The Baptist Church holds his membership,
and he is a faithful worker in its ranks. A Mason, he
belongs to Russell Springs Lodge No. 840, F. and A. M.,
and Columbia Chapter, R. A. M. Professionally he is
a member of the Kentucky Educational Association.
Professor Tarter is unmarried.
Having steadily advanced, earning the money to prose-
cute his own studies, Professor Tarter is a man who
appreciates the value of a thorough educational train-
ing. A natural teacher, he not only imparts knowledge
in such a manner as to make study interesting, but also
482
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
stimulates his pupils to renewed effort, and awakens in
their expanding minds the desire for broader fields of
intellectual development. At the same time he so regu-
lates his supervision of his assistants as to secure their
hearty co-operation, and in this, as in other ways, se-
cures for the rising generation the best of instruction.
Having devoted more than a year of his life to the
service of his country, Professor Tarter has proven in
a most effective and practical way his interest in it and
its institutions, and may be depended upon to imbue
those under his charge with the highest kind of pa-
triotism, and to give to his home community a cheerful
and valuable support whenever it is necessary.
L. W. McGee. In the record of business achieve-
ments of the merchants of Burkesville the name of
L. W. McGee occupies a conspicuous place. His ad-
mirable efforts have not only contributed materially to
the business interests of the county seat, but his career
has been one that redounds to his credit, and as presi-
dent of the firm of McGee Brothers, dry goods, shoes
and notions dealers, he occupies a place among the
leaders in his line in Cumberland County.
Mr. McGee was born at Burkesville, January 15, 1870,
and is a son of J. J. and Sallie (Williams) (Baker)
McGee. He is of Scotch descent on the paternal side,
the original McGee in America having emigrated from
the land of the thistle and the heather in pre-Revolu-
tionary war days and settled in the Colony of Virginia.
J. J. McGee, the elder, grandfather of L. W. McGee,
was born at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, and as a young
man went to Nashville, Tennessee, where he married
a Miss Jones, a native of that city, who died in Cum-
berland County. From Nashville the young couple came
to Cumberland County. Kentucky, where the grand-
father secured a tract of farming land and soon became
an extensive farmer and live stock dealer, as well as a
large tobacco raiser. From Burkesville, his home, it
was his custom to make trips to New Orleans with flat-
boat loads of tobacco, and on one of these trips, while
on the Mississippi River, he contracted cholera, from
which he died. He and his worthy wife were the
parents of a large family of children.
J. J. McGee, the younger, father of L. W. McGee,
was born in 1834 in Cumberland County, where he has
spent his entire life, being at present a retired resident
of Burkesville. As a young man he adopted the voca-
tion of farming, an occupation in which he won gratify-
ing success, his industry bringing him large returns
which his business ability allowed him to invest with
honorably gained profit, and his integrity winning him
the respect of his business associates. In 1900 he gave
up active labor and retired to his comfortable home at
Burkesville, where he has since been in the enjoyment
of the fruits of his earlier labor. His home on Columbia
Street, one of the most desirable residences at Burkes-
ville, he still owns, but he has disposed of his farms.
He is a democrat and a member of and active worker
in the Christian Church. He is a member and a past
master of Cumberland Lodge No. 413, F. and A. M.,
of Burkesville. Mr. McGee first married a Miss John-
son, of Cumberland County, who died leaving two chil-
dren : J. G., formerly a merchant at Burkesville, who
died at the age of forty-eight years ; and Mary, who
died at Campbellsville, Kentucky, aged forty-nine years,
as the wife of John Q. Alexander, who travels out of
Louisville as a representative of the Carter Dry Goods
Company of that city. After the death of his first wife
Mr. McGee married Mrs. Sallie (Williams) Baker, who
was born in 1841 in Cumberland County, and died at
Burkesville in 1917. By her first marriage she had two
children : B. C. Baker, proprietor of the Hotel Burkes-
ville; and Mannie, the wife of T. J. Lawhorn, a farmer
and live stock dealer of Burkesville. Mr. and Mrs.
McGee became the parents of seven children: Elva,
senior member of the Independent Tire Company of
Nashville, Tennessee; L. W., of this notice; C. M.,
who resides at Burkesville and is junior member of
the firm of McGee Brothers; Hattie, the wife of Robert
Gowdy, a farm owner and real estate broker of Camp-
bellsville ; Charles, a former Cumberland County farmer,
who died at Burkesville at the age of thirty-seven years;
Jacob T., cashier of the Bank of Cumberland at Burkes-
ville; and Effie, the wife of W. T. Ortley, a practicing
attorney of trie State of Colorado.
L. W. McGee is indebted for his early education to
the public schools of Burkesville, he being a graduate
of the high school, class of 1887. He next attended
Kentucky University at Lexington, but went only
through the sophomore year, when he left college and
began to clerk in the store of his father and uncle,
G. B. McGee, at Burkesville. After twelve years of
clerking he formed a partnership with his brother, J. G.
McGee, and conducted a general mercantile business,
and when his brother died, two years later, L. W. Mc-
Gee became sole owner of the enterprise. This he
carried on alone until 1921, when he admitted to part-
nership his younger brother, C. M. McGee, at that time
forming the present firm of McGee Brothers, of which
L. W. McGee is president. This is now one of the lead-
ing dry goods, shoes and notions establishments in Cum-
berland County, and trade is attracted from all over
the countryside to the modern store located on the west
side of the Public Square. A full and up-to-date line
of goods is carried, particular attention being paid to
the wants and needs of the patrons, and efficient service,
fair representation, popular prices and courteous atten-
tion combine to make the establishment a popular and
well-patronized place of business.
Mr. McGee is a democrat in politics, but has not
sought public office. However, he has never been lax
in his citizenship, and has shown a commendable interest
in all movements which have promised to benefit his
community. In the World war period he was active in
working for the success of the Red Cross, Liberty
Loan and other drives, and was a generous contributor
thereto. Reared in the faith of the Christian Church,
he has been an active supporter thereof, and at present
is serving in the capacity of elder. His only fraternal
affiliation is with Burkesville Lodge, Knights of Pythias,
in which he has numerous friends. He owns and occu-
pies a pleasant modern home on High Street.
In 1892, at Burkesville, Mr. McGee was united in
marriage with Miss Lee King Baker, who was born
in Cumberland County, a daughter of G. F. and Ade-
laide (Owsley) Baker, natives of this county, who are
both now deceased. Mr. Baker was for many years a
merchant of Burkesville, where he was widely and
favorably known in business circles and as a citizen.
Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. McGee :
Cecil, who is engaged in agricultural pursuits in the
vicinity of Muldon, Mississippi; Agnes, who is the wife
of Leslie McComas, agent for Dodge and Ford auto-
mobiles and owner and operator of the leading public
garage at Burkesville, a sketch of whose career will
be found elsewhere in this work ; and Sallie King, who
is a student of the senior class at the Kentucky College
for Women.
John M. Waugh, one of the ablest representatives
of the legal profession at Ashland, has steadily made
his way to the front by sheer ability and a persistence
that has never allowed him to lose sight of the ideals
and ambitions he learned to cherish as a young man.
Mr. Waugh was born in Carter County, Kentucky,
June 19, 1873, son of George W. and Aura (Bellew)
Waugh, both natives of Kentucky. Mr. Waugh is of
French and German stock. His father was French and
his grandfather, German, and both were married in
France. His grandmother bore the family name of
Duduitt, and was a niece of Governor La Croix, promi-
nently identified with the early French colony that
settled along the Ohio River. Some of Mr. Waugh's
ancestors were pioneers in the iron industry in the
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
483
famous Hanging Rock iron region of Ohio at Ports-
mouth. Mr. Waugh exemplifies some of the character-
istics of his ancestry, the French predominating, com-
bined with some of the sturdy qualities of the German.
He has the fire and enthusiasm of one and the per-
sistence of the other, and undoubtedly his personal
character has been an important asset in his professional
and public career. Mr. Waugh's father was a Con-
federate soldier in the Civil war, serving with a
Virginia regiment.
John M. Waugh when a boy mover] with his parents
from Carter to Lawrence County, where he" attended
the common schools. While in school he prepared
himself for teaching and for twelve years he taught
in Carter and Lawrence counties. While teaching he
diligently studied law and was admitted to the bar in
June, 1895. Mr. Waugh began practice at Grayson in
Carter County. He was elected for his first term as
commonwealth attorney in 1903. At that time he was
elected in the old Twentieth District, comprising Carter,
Boyd, Lawrence, Morgan and Elliott counties. At the
close of his first six year term in 1909 he was reelected
for the new district, No. 32, comprising Lawrence,
Carter, Elliott and Morgan counties. In 1915 he was
re-elected for a third term, which expires January I,
1922. In 1918 Mr. Waugh removed his office from
Grayson to Ashland, and formed a law partnership
with Fred Vinson. This partnership was dissolved in
1919, and since then Mr. Waugh has been senior member
of the firm Waugh & Howerton. He is a member of
the County, State and American Bar Associations, is a
Presbyterian, a Knight Templar Mason and Shriner,
and a democrat in politics. His hobby is baseball, and
he is fond of all outdoor sports.
In 1897, at Grayson, he married Miss Anna Frater,
daughter of Frank and Jennie Frater, native Ken-
tuckians. Her father was a successful lawyer, who
died February 2, 1921. Mr. and Mrs. Waugh have a
family of seven children, named Kenneth, Clyde, Char-
lotte, Annabell, Louise, Esther and Pauline. The sons
Kenneth and Clyde both answered the call to the
colors during the World war and were in training at
Camp Taylor with the infantry though neither had the
opportunity to go overseas.
John G. Talbot, M. D. Numbered among the dis-
tinguished surgeons and physicians of his county, Dr.
John G. Talbot is recognized as one of the most de-
pendable and worth-while citizens of Burkesville, where
he has resided since 1897. During the World war he
gave his country the benefit of his skill and knowledge
of his profession, and for twenty years has been con-
nected with the public health service of the government.
Doctor Talbot was born at Danville, Kentucky, No-
vember 25, 1872, a son of Charles H. Talbot, grandson
of John G. Talbot, and great-great-grandson of the
pioneer of the family from Virginia to Kentucky. The
latter located in the vicinity of Danville, and his son,
the great-grandfather of Doctor Talbot, died near Dan-
ville, on the Harrodsburg Turnpike, where he had long
been engaged in farming. All of the early members
of the Talbot family were agriculturalists. The Talbot
family went over to England from Normandy in 1066
with William the Conqueror, and several centuries there-
after other members of the family sought refuge from
religious persecution in the American Colonies, location
being made in Virginia. John G. Talbot, Doctor Tal-
bot's grandfather, was born at Danville, Kentucky, in
1806, and died there in 1876, having spent his entire life
at Danville. He was an extensive and successful farmer.
His wife bore the maiden name of Smith, and she was
born in Garrard County, Kentucky, and died near Dan-
ville before the birth of her grandson.
Charles H. Talbot, father of Doctor Talbot, was born
at Danville in 1837, ar|d died at Versailles, Woodford
County, Kentucky, in February, 1908. Reared at Dan-
ville, he attended its public schools and Center College
of that city, being graduated from the latter institution
with the degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Master of
Arts. Following his graduation he taught school in the
Deaf and Dumb Institute of Danville for twenty
years, and then for five years more was an instructor
in a similar institute at Jackson, Mississippi. Returning
to Kentucky, he located at Versailles, where he lived
until his death. In addition to his educational labors
Mr. Talbot found pleasure and profit in farming, and
during all of the time he was teaching owned and
operated farming property. A republican, he was active
in his party, and was chairman of the Republican Cen-
tral Committee of Woodford County for a number of
years, and was otherwise prominent in politics in his
neighborhood. A very active supporter of and worker in
the Presbyterian Church, he exerted a vast amount of
good and carried his religion into his everyday life.
During the war between the states he enlisted in 1861
in the Nineteenth Kentucky Volunteer Infantry, and
served all through the war with the rank of a first
lieutenant. He participated in the Red River campaign,
during which one-half of his regiment was lost, and was
all through the siege of Vicksburg and in other im-
portant engagements. After the close of the Red River
campaign he was stationed at New Orleans, Louisiana.
For many years he maintained membership with the
Grand Army of the Republic. He married Lenora
Hann, who was born in Woodford County, Kentucky,
and reared and educated at Danville, having graduated
from Caldwell College of Danville with the degree of
Bachelor of Arts. Mrs. Talbot survives her husband
and makes her home with her son, Doctor Talbot. Mr.
and Mrs. Talbot became the parents of the following
children : Alexander, who died at Danville at the age
of five years ; Elizabeth, who is unmarried, is a mis-
sionary of the Presbyterian Church and stationed at
Kashing, China ; Finley, who was a merchant, died at
Versailles, Kentucky, aged twenty-nine years ; Eliza,
who married Dr. W. H. Venable, a physician and sur-
geon of Killing, Central China; Doctor Talbot, who
was fifth in order of birth; Addison, who is a missionary
of the Presbyterian Church, is stationed in the Chekiang
Province, Northern China; Louise, who lives at Pitts-
field, Massachusetts, is the widow of Randolph McGill,
who died at Washington, District of Columbia, having
been a wholesale druggist ; Ellen C, who is unmarried,
is clerk of a senatorial committee and resides at Wash-
ington, District of Columbia; Charles H., Jr., who is a
clergyman of the Presbyterian Church, resides at Somer-
set, Kentucky; Lenora, who married Earl Hamilton, a
minister of the Swedenborg Church of Urbana, Ohio ;
and Edwin, who died at the age of two years.
Doctor Talbot attended the preparatory department
of Center College, and then for two years was a student
of the Kentucky State University at Lexington. In
1894 he entered the Hospital College of Medicine at
Louisville, Kentucky, and was graduated therefrom in
1897 with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. Imme-
diately following his graduation he located at Burkes-
ville, where he has since remained, carrying on a
.general medical and surgical practice. His offices are
located on the south side of the Public Square. He
owns a comfortable residence on College Street, Burkes-
ville. A republican, he is interested in the success of
his party, and served as county health officer of Cum-
berland County for three years. He is designated ex-
aminer in the public health service for the United
States Government, and has held this office for twenty
years, and he is also president of the pension board of
the United States Government at Burkesville.. Early
uniting with the Presbyterian Church, he has long been
very active in the local congregation, of which he is now
recognized as the main pillar, is an elder of it, and clerk
of the sessions. Professionally he belongs to the Cum-
berland County Medical Society, the Kentucky State
184
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
Medical Society and the American Medical Associa-
tion. During the World war, in September, 1918, Doctor
Talbot enlisted for service and was commissioned a
captain in the medical corps. He was sent to Chick-
amauga Park, Georgia, later being transferred to Camp
Meade, Maryland, where he spent five weeks, and then
to Camp Sheridan, Alabama, for a month. He was
honorably discharged from Camp Taylor, Louisville,
Kentucky, in December, 1918, and returned home.
Doctor Talbot married at Louisville, Kentucky, in
May, 1900, Miss Susan Owsley, a daughter of W. F.
Owsley, Jr., and his wife, Mrs. Sarah (Alexander")
Owsley, and a sister of William Fayette Owsley, a
sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this work. Mrs.
Talbot was graduated from Miss Note's Seminary, one
of the most celebrated finishing schools for young
ladies. Doctor and Mrs. Talbot have had five children,
namely : Sarah, who died in infancy : John G., who
was born October II, 1902, is a student in the Western
Normal School of Bowling Green, Kentucky ; James
Alexander, who was born July 30, 1905, is a student of
the Burkesville High School; Owsley, who was born
February 25, 1907, is. attending the public schools; and
Susan, who was born January 1, 1909, is also attending
the public schools.
During the many years Doctor Talbot has lived at
Burkesville he has become thoroughly identified with its
best interests, and has never failed to take a public-
spirited part in all movements which had for their legiti-
mate object the betterment of existing conditions and
the raising of the moral standard. A skilled and very
efficient physician and surgeon, he has earned the
prestige which is his, and also the confidence and grati-
tude of his fellow men in numerous ways.
Less McComas. One of the results of the devel-
opment of modern civilization is the creation of new
lines of business to meet the demands of the people,
and among them one which is attracting to it some of
the best business men of the country is that connected
with the storage and repair of automobiles. When the
fact is realized that every sixth person in the country
owns an automobile some idea can be obtained of the
immense demand for the services of a garage. As the
majority of these cars are in everyday use, and the
owners of them demand first-class care of them, the
men operating these garages necessarily have to be
those who are experts in the business. One of these
men who is meeting with a well-merited success in
his work at Burkesville is Less McComas.
Less McComas was born at Blacks Ferry, Cumber-
land County, Kentucky, June 4, 1897, a son of Dix
McComas, and grandson of Jess McComas, a native of
Virginia. Leaving the Old Dominion, Jess McComas
became the pioneer of his family into Kentucky and
settled at Cloyds Landing, Cumberland County, where
he bought a large amount of farm land and engaged in
agricultural pursuits upon an extensive scale. He died
on his farm before the birth of his grandson.
Dix McComas was born at Cloyds Landing in 1868,
and was there reared, becoming a farmer and live
stock trader. In 1905 he came to Burkesville, where
be still resides. Since coming here he has been engaged
in business as a heavy live stock trader, and still car-
ries on his large farming interests, being very success-
ful in both lines. He is also interested with his son
in the Burkesville Garage, and is an extensive stock-
holder in various mercantile concerns of Burkesville
In fact he is the leading business man of this part of
the county. While he votes the democratic ticket,
his large business interests have prevented his enter-
ing politics to any great extent, although he is much
interested in the success of his party and firm in his
determination to secure for Burkesville the advantages
of proper civic improvements. For many years a strong
factor in the Christian Church, he is now one of its
deacons, and is very generous in his benefactions to
the local congregation. Dix McComas married Ger-
trude Gentry, who was born at Blacks Ferry, Ken-
tucky, in 1872. Their only child is Less McComas.
Growing up at Burkesville, Less McComas received
his educational training in its public schools and was
graduated from the Burkesville High School in 1917.
Immediately thereafter he established himself in his
present business, which is the leading one of its kind
in Cumberland County. It is located on the Public
Square and Columbia Avenue, and is well-equipped in
every particular. -Mr. McComas is a natural born me-
chanic and finds pleasure as well as profit in his busi-
ness. He owns a modern residence on Columbia Ave-
nue, built in 1921, which is one of the most desirable
and finest at Burkesville: and also a half interest in a
farm of 200 acres which is located in the western
part of Burkesville. As this land is within the city
limits it is very valuable property.
Following in the footsteps of his father, Mr. Mc-
Comas is a member of the Christian Church and a
democrat, and served as one of the town trustees of
Burkesville during 1920. During the World war he
took a zealous part in all of the local war activities,
aixl bought bonds and Savings Stamps and contributed
to all of the war organizations to the fullest extent of
his means.
In 1917 he married at Celina, Tennessee, Miss Agnes
McGee, a daughter of L. W. McGee, a sketch of whorh
appears elsewhere in this work. Mrs. McComas, who is
a highly educated and charming young lady, was grad-
uated from the Burkesville High School. Mr. and
Mrs. McComas have two children, Donald Keith, who
was born in 1918; and Leslie, who was born in 1920.
William Turner Curtis. A few years ago the
visitor to the smaller communities of the country could
not help but be impressed by the fact that so few of
its business men could be called young. The call of
the city had drawn all of the more aggressive younger
men to its ranks, leaving the really important work in
the hands of those who in the ordinary course of
events would be thinking about taking life more easily.
Now, however, the tide has turned in the other direc-
tion, and fortunately for the young men themselves,
their elders and their home communities these younger
men are remaining where their abilities are receiving
proper recognition from those who know them and
appreciate their possibilities. This condition is espe-
cially true at Burkesville, which is the scene of action
of some very alert and successful young business men,
the majority of whom have at their backs an honorable
record of service, either as soldiers or public-spirited
citizens during the World war. One of them is Wil-
liam Turner Curtis, a prosperous hardware merchant
and a veteran of the war.
Mr. Curtis was born near Meshack, Monroe County,
Kentucky, September 9, 1896, a son of J. U. Curtis.
The father was born near Mount Hermon, Monroe
County, Kentucky, in 1866, and was there reared and
educated. He was married near Blacks Ferry, al-
though in Monroe County. Then moving to the vicin-
ity of Mount Hermon, he conducted a mercantile estab-
lishment at that point for one year, leaving it for
Meshack, where he continued in the mercantile trade
for six years. Becoming interested in agricultural mat-
ters, he bought a farm on the Cumberland River, in
the vicinity of Meshack. and was engaged in operating
it for six years. In the fall of 1908 he moved to a
farm he had bought one mile west of Burkesville. This
farm comprises 600 acres of very valuable land and on
it he has since resided. Mr. Curtis also owns another
farm, two miles southwest of Burkesville, that contains
300 acres, and is regarded as one of the most extensive
farmers of this part of the state. In politics he is' a
democrat, but has never aspired to public honors, con-
fining his party support to exercising his right of suf-
frage. Early uniting with the Christian Church, he
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
485
has ever since given it an earnest and generous support
and is one of the leading members. A Mason, he
.belongs to Cumberland Lodge No. 413, A. F. and A. M.
J. U. Curtis married Sallie E. Gentry, who was born
near Blacks Ferry, Kentucky, in 1876. Mr. and Mrs.
Curtis became the parents of the following children:
Leon, who operates his father's farm of 300 acres, is
a veteran of the World war, having served in Franct
for eighteen months as a member of the Field Hospital
Corps; Kate Clyde, who is unmarried, lives with her
parents; William Turner, who was the third in order
of birth; Dixie, who died at the age of two years;
Frank, who is assisting his brother W. T. in the hard-
ware business ; Ruby, who is a student of the Western
Normal School at Bowling Green, Kentucky; Hazel
and Helen, both of whom are students of the Burkes-
ville graded schools. „,.„. ^
Growing up in Cumberland County, William turner
Curtis attended its rural schools and the graded and
high schools of Burkesville, remaining in the latter
through the sophomore year. Then, from 1917 to 1918,
he was a student of the Bowling Green Business Uni-
versity. During the summer of 1918 he was employed
on the home farm. In the meanwhile, in August, 1918,
he had enlisted in the United States Navy, and was
called into the service in October, 1918, and was sent
to the Great Lakes Naval Station at Chicago, Illinois.
The signing of the armistice, however, resulted in his
being released December 15, 1918. During his period
of service he was attached to the aviation branch of
the navy. In May, 1919, he returned to Burkesville
to become manager of the leading hardware business
in Cumberland County. It is located on Columbia
Avenue, on the Public Square. The business is owned
by Mr. Curtis' father and his uncle, Dix McComas,
and is in a flourishing condition. Mr. Curtis is a demo-
crat, and has served as town trustee. He is a member
of the Christian Church, in which faith he was reared.
A Mason, he belongs to the same lodge as his father,
Cumberland Lodge No. 413, A. F. and A. M. He
also maintains membership with the American Legion.
He owns a modern residence at Burkesville, where
he maintains a comfortable home, and there he and
his wife dispense a delightful hospitality to their many
friends. .
In June, 1919, Mr. Curtis married at Livermore, Ken-
tucky, Miss Octavia Quigg, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs.
D. H. Quigg. Mr. Quigg resides at Louisville, Ken-
tucky, where he is engaged in a cooperage business.
Mrs. Quigg is deceased. Mrs. Curtis attended college
at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, for a year, and then for
three years was a student of Randolph-Macon Wom-
an's College at Lynchburg, Virginia. Mr. and Mrs.
Curtis have no children.
J. Walter Collins. Throughout his career from the
time that he left school J. Walter Collins has been
before the people of Burkesville and Cumberland
County in one or another official capacity, and since
Januarv, 1918, has occupied the office of clerk of the
County Court. In fact, from the outset of his career
he has been identified with this court, and his long
connection therewith has been characterized by faith-
ful and capable service which has gained him a high
place in the confidence of all who have had business
with that tribunal.
Mr. Collins was born in Cumberland County, June
17, 1881, a son of J. M. and Elizabeth (Heard) Col-
lins, and is a member of a family which originated 111
Ireland and was founded in Virginia during Colonial
times. W. C. Collins, the grandfather of J. Walter
Collins, was born in Virginia in 1822, and as a young
man came to Cumberland County and established the
old family home on the bank of Mud Camp Creek.
There he spent his life in agricultural pursuits and
died in 1903. During the Civil war he served as a
Union soldier throughout the struggle. He was a re-
publican in his political allegiance.
J. M. Collins, father of J. Walter Collins, was born
in 1849 in Cumberland County, where he has passed
his entire life. He followed farming until 1897, in
which year he came to Burkesville and was elected
County Court clerk, taking office in 1898 and remaining
therein for three terms of four years each. He was
then elected county judge and served four years,
after which he returned to farming for four years,
and at the end of that time was appointed master
commissioner of the Cumberland Circuit Court. He
began acting in that capacity in January, 1918, for a
term of six years, and in addition to the duties of
that office also discharges those of the office of deputy
county clerk. He is a stalwart republican in politics
and a man of some influence in the ranks of his party.
A life long member of the Christian Church, he is
active in the work of that denomination. During the
Civil war Mr. Collins served as a member of the Home
Guards. In addition to his farm of ninety-three acres
near Neely's Ferry, Cumberland County, he owns a
modern residence on Lower River Street, Burkesville.
Mr. Collins married Miss Elizabeth Heard, who was
born in 1845 in Overton County, Tennessee, and died at
Burkesville in 1903. They became the parents of eight
children: O. C, who is engaged in general merchan-
dising at Campbellsville, Kentucky; Ova, who died at
Glenmary, Tennessee, as the wife of Elmore Wright a
general workman of that place; Dora, the wife of W.
S Shelley, a farmer of Clinton County, this state; J.
Walter of this review; Franklin, who died at the age
of nine years; Ida, the wife of Henry Thurman, a
farmer of Burkesville; Wilkie, a carpenter of Cumber-
land County; and Mattie, the wife of G. H. Hoffman,
a teacher in the public schools of Monroe County, Ken-
tucky. .... ,
J Walter Collins received his education in the rural
schools of Cumberland County, which he left at the
age of twenty years. In 1900 he was appointed deputy
County Court clerk, a position which he "filled efficiently
until 1918, when he assumed the duties of County
Court clerk, an office to which he had been elected the
preceding November. Taking office January 1, 1918,
he assumed the responsibilities attaching thereto for a
four-year term. In this positron he has discharged his
duties faithfully and well, fairly earning the confidence
in which he is universally held. Mr. Collins offices
are in the Court House at Burkesville From 1909 to
1918 he was also commissioner of the Cumberland
Circuit Court. He is a republican in politics and a
member and deacon of the Christian Church As a
fraterrmlist he holds membership in Cumberland Lodge
No 4H F. and A. M., Burkesville; Glasgow Chapter
No' 48 ' R A. M., Glasgow ; and Burkesville Camp,
Modern Woodmen of America He is the owner of a
modern residence on Columbia Pike. Mr Collins took
an active part in war work, assisting all the drives and
contributing thereto, and was a member of the commit-
tee in the Red Cross drive for funds.
On October 8, 1904, he was united in marriage with
Miss Edna Tones, of Leslie, Kentucky, daughter of
T G. and Lela (Bow) Jones, farming people of near
Burkesville. Four children have been born to this
union : John Paul, born November 25, 1905, a studen
fn the Burkesville graded school; Lela May, who died
aged one and one-half years; Noxie E„ who died aged
one year; and James M., born July 25, 1913, attending
the graded school.
Hon William E. Miller. The career of Hon. Wil-
liam E Miller, of Burkesville, is one in which he has
demonstrated the possession of qualities making for the
highest type of public service. For many years he has
been the incumbent of public offices of responsibility
and trust in all of which he has faithfully discharged
Vol. V— 44
486
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
the duties devolving upon him, and since 1920 has heen
a member of the bench in the capacity of county judge
of Cumberland County.
Judge Miller was born September 15, 1858, in Cum-
berland County, Kentucky, a son of Clinton W. and
Martha (Davis) 'Miller, and belongs to a family which
originated in England and came to America during
Colonial times, settling in Virginia. In that state was
born the grandfather of Judge Miller, Jehu Miller,
who shortly after his marriage to Emily Willis, of
Virginia, migrated to Cumberland County, Kentucky,
and here followed farming during the remainder of a
long and honorable career. Clinton W. Miller, the
father of Judge Miller, was horn in 182.3 in Cumberland
County, and as a youth learned the trade of car-
penter. This he followed in his native locality until
1886, at which time he practically retired from active
labor, although after settling at Burkesville he assisted
in the building of the William Owsley residence. He
died at Burkesville in 1890, greatly honored and re-
spected. Mr. Miller was a stalwart republican in his
political views and a strong churchman of the Christian
faith. He married Martha Davis, who was born in 1827
in Cumberland County, and died in that county in
1878. They became the parents of the following chil-
dren : James E., who w:as engaged in farming in Cum-
berland County for a long period and died here at the
age of seventy years ; Mary, of Sherman, Texas, the
widow of S. H. Smith, who died in the Lone Star State
after a career as an agriculturist ; Jehu, who followed
farming for a long period in Cumberland County and
died at Burkesville at the age of fifty-five years; Emma,
who died aged fifty years in Kansas, as the wife of
J. J. Kelley, who is now a ranchman of Colorado;
Nannie, who died at Burkesville, aged forty-two years,
the wife of I. J. Moore, who followed carpentry and
passed away at Van Alstine, Texas ; Ellen, who mar-
ried George Smith, a farmer, both dying near Van
Alstine. Texas, Mrs. Smith being fifty years old at the
time of her demise; Emmett P., who followed farming
in Kansas until his death at the age of fortv-six years;
J. W., who followed blacksmithing at White Wright,
Texas, and died at that community when sixty-six
years of age; Milton, who died when young; Calvin,
who also died as a chiid ; Judge William E„ of this
review; Lockey, who died at the age of sixteen vears;
Alice, the wife of J. J. Dicken, a farmer of Texas ;
Amanda, the wife of John Willis, a farmer of Texas ;
and Alexander, who is carrying on agricultural opera-
tions in the Lone Star State.
^ William E. Miller attended the rural schools of
Cumberland County and the normal schools of jiowlins
Green and Glasgow, continuing to be a student until
he was twenty-seven years of age. In the meantime,
at the age of twenty-three years, he had commenced
teaching in the rural districts of Cumberland County.
In August. 1886, he was elected to the office of Circuit
Court clerk of Cumberland County. This position he
held for eleven consecutive years, rendering efficient
and faithful service during all that period, and in 1807
his services were recognized by his election to the State
Senate, as the representative of Clinton, Cumberland.
Adair, Russell and Wayne counties. He proved himself
a constructive member of that body, serving in the ses-
sions of 1808 and 1900 and the special session of 1809.
and worked faithfully in behalf of his constituents.
In the meantime he had studied law, and in 1899 was
admitted to the bar. For a time he practiced his pro-
fession, but in 1902 returned to public life when
appointed postmaster at Burkesville, a position which
he retained for nlA years. When he left the post-
mastership Mr. Miller took up farming, but in 1920
was again called to Burkesville, this time to accept the
appointment as county judge to fill out an unexpired
term, lasting until January, 1922. As in the other of-
fices which he has held, he has discharged his duties
fully and efficiently, and has maintained the dignity of
the judicial office and rendered his decisions in a wise
and impartial manner.
Judge Miller is a republican in his political views. |
His religious connection is with the Christian Church,
in which he is serving as an elder, and his fraternal 1
affiliation is with Burkesville Lodge No. 413, F. and
A. M. He is the owner of a modern residence on Lower
River Street, one of Burkesville's comfortable homes,
and the Telephone Exchange Building on Main Street.
Judge Miller played the part of a loyal American citi-
zen during the World war, in which he assisted all the
drives and contributed generously to all the funds.
In 1887. in Cumberland County, he married Miss
Minerva Vincent, daughter of James and Abigail (Bow)l
Vincent, farming people of Cumberland County, both of I
whom are deceased, and to this union there were born
the following children: Noxie B., the wife of Dr. K. '
E. Miller, of Raleigh, North Carolina, a physician and]
surgeon connected with the public health service of]
the United States Government ; Mayne, a student in a
technical school at Raleigh, North Carolina, who en-'
listed in the United States Navy in 1918 and for twelve
months was stationed at the Great Lakes Naval Train-
ing Station, Great Lakes, Illinois; Benton, a clergyman
of the Christian Church at Lexington; Nida and Kasey, I
students at Transylvania University. Lexington; and
Kingsley, attending the Burkesville High School.
N. S. Hume. Like numerous others who have at- j
tained to public distinction, N. S. Hume, of Burkes-
ville, Circuit Court clerk of Cumberland County, began
his career as a country school-teacher. In the years
that followed he was engaged in a variety of occupa-
tions, but since 1912 has been the occupant of official
offices in which he has displayed a high order of execu-
tive ability as well as elevated ideals of public service. I
He has occupied his present post since 1916, and his
incumbency thereof has been characterized by able dis- v
charge of duty.
Mr. Hume was born at Cloyd's Landing, Cumberland
County, Kentucky, January 4, 1870, and is a son of
James and Caroline (Cloyd) Hume. This branch of
the Hume family is of English descent, the original
American ancestor having immigrated to the Colony of
Virginia some years before the Revolutionary war. The
grandfather of N. S. Hume, Charles Hume, was born'
in Virginia, whence he migrated as a youth to Knox-
ville, Tennessee, a community in which he was engaged
in agricultural pursuits for many years. A few years
before his death he moved to Cumberland County, and
there passed away at Cloyd's Landing. He married a
Miss Nemo, who was born near Knoxville, Tennessee,
and died at Arat, Cumberland County.
James Hume, the father of N. S., was born November
10, 1828, near Knoxville, Tennessee, and resided in that
community until he was nineteen years of age, securing
in the meanwhile a country school education. In 1847
he moved to Cumberland County, where he was married
and where he followed agricultural pursuits during the
remainder of his life, his industry and ability combining
to make him a well-to-do agriculturist. In politics he
was a republican, and his strong religious support was
given to the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, in the
faith of which he died August 13, 1902, at Cloyd's
Landing. Mr. Hume married Miss Caroline Cloyd, who
was born in 1836 at Cloyd's Landing, a daughter of
Capt. John Cloyd, a native of Virginia. Captain Cloyd,
after whom Cloyd's Landing was named, was a pioneer
in Cumberland County and a successful farmer, leading
merchant and extensive tobacco dealer. He married a
Miss O'Bannion. Mrs. Hume died June 7, 1882, leaving
six children : John M., a farmer and ex-merchant
of Bowling Green ; W. T., who is engaged in farming
near Glasgow ; Lizzie, wdio died in February, 1889. as
the wife of V. C. Pulliam, a farmer of Burkesville;
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
4S7
Etta, of Tompkinsville, Kentucky, the widow of Sher-
man Spear, who was a distinguished attorney of that
place; N. S., of this review; and Carrie, the wife of
F. B. Harlan, a merchant of Ardmore, Oklahoma.
N. S. Hume received his early education in the rural
schools of his native community, supplementing this by
attendance at the normal school at Tompkinsville, and
at the age of twenty-one years' became a teacher in the
rural districts of Cumberland County, a vocation which
he followed for three years. For two years there-
after he was employed as a clerk in the store of his
brother, John M. Hume, at Cloyd's Landing, and then
turned his attention to farming, in which he was engaged
until 1909. In that year he came to Burkesville and at
first was a clerk in a general store at this place, later
becoming the operator of a flour mill. This occupation
was followed by various others until 1912, when he be-
came storekeeper and gauger in the United States in-
ternal revenue department, holding this position until
1915. In November of that year Mr. Hume was the
successful candidate for the office of Circuit Court
clerk, and entered upon the discharge of his duties
January 3, 1916, for a term of six years. His record
in this office has been an excellent one, and he has
satisfactorily taken care of all the responsibilities that
have devolved upon him. His offices are in the court
house at Burkesville. A republican in politics, he has
long been one of the stalwart supporters of his party
in Cumberland County. While still residing at Cloyd's
Landing he served four years in the capacity of justice
of the peace. His religious connection is with the
Christian Church, to which the members of his family
also belong, and his fraternal affiliation is with Cumber-
land Lodge No. 413, F. and A. M., of which he has been
secretary for six years. He owns a modern home on
Celina Street. During the World war he did his full
part as a 100 per cent American citizen, and was an
active worker in all the drives.
On October 2, 1893, at Celina, Tennessee, Mr. Hume
was united in marriage with Miss Maggie McCoy, a
daughter of M. L. and Margaret (Coe) McCoy, the
former a retired farmer of Clovd's Landing and the
latter now deceased. Three children have been born
to Mr. and Mrs. Hume: Winnie, the wife of B. T.
Cloyd, a farmer and superintendent of a fluor spar mine
at Marion, Kentucky : Carrie, residing at home, a
teacher in the public schools and a student in the Wes-
tern Normal School at Bowling Green ; and Glee, who
graduated from the Burkesville High School in 1920
and is now a student of the Western Normal School.
Charles Reuben Hicks. In the arena of political
preferment, with its accompaniments of antagonism and
jealousy; in the effort, professionally, to maintain order
and method in a strenuous and overwrought age, it
may be said of Charles Reuben Hicks, countv attorney
of Cumberland Countv, that he has kent faith with
the people and with himself, and has shown a single-
ness of purpose and claritv of ideals beyond 'be ?«eP"s
thus endowed. During the several terms that he has
occupied his present office he has discharged the duties
thereof in a manner which has won public confidence
and esteem and has added to the reputation which he
gained as a private practitioner of his profession.
Mr. Hicks was born in Cumberland Countv. October
31. 1868, a son of Reuben and Margaret (Smith) Hicks.
His grandfather, Anthony Hicks, was born in Powhatan
County, Virginia, where he was reared and married,
and resided on a plantation for several vears, and in
1822 brought his family to Cumberland County, where
he followed farming for more than thirty years. In
1854 he moved to Missouri, where his death occurred in
the '70s. Mr. Hicks married Cynthia Maxey, also a
native of Powhatan County, Virginia, who died in
Cumberland County, Kentucky, during the '40s. Reuben
Hicks, father of Charles Reuben, was born in Pow-
hatan County, Virginia, in 1812, and was about tei\
years of age when brought to Cumberland County,
where he was reared and educated. As a youth he
adopted the profession of an educator, and had the dis-
tinction of teaching the first free school class ever or-
ganized in Cumberland County. His entire life was
devoted to instructing the young, and when he died,
at the age of ninety-six years, in April, 1909, twenty
years after his retirement from his profession, had a
record of having taught in seventy-two different schools.
He was also the owner and operator of a Cumberland
County farm and a clergyman of the Methodist Epis-
copal Church, South, served as a justice of the peace for
thirty-two consecutive years, and was a member of the
building committee that erected the Court House at
Burkesville. An ardent Unionist, he was one of five
men in Cumberland County who voted for Abraham
Lincoln in his first campaign for the presidency, and
during the mustering days of the war between the states
served in the State Militia with the rank of regimental
captain. In politics he was a stalwart republican.
Reuben Hicks was a man of strong and virile qualities,
fearless, courageous and conscientious, and during his
long and honorable career did much to encourage the
principles of morality, education, religion and good citi-
zenship. His death took from Cumberland County one
of its strong and helpful citizens. Mr. Hicks married
Margaret Smith, who was born in 1833 in Cumberland
County, and who survives him as a resident of the old
home farm eight miles northeast of Burkesville. They
were the parents of eleven children: Susan, the wife of
Charles Jennings, a mechanic of Omaha, Arkansas ;
William A., a general workman, who died in Cumber-
land County at the age of twenty-six years ; Mattie, the
wife of W. T. Coop, a farmer of Cumberland County;
Francis Clayton, a timberman of Cumberland County ;
Cynthia, who married first Rev. William P. Coop, a
clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South,
and after his death married A. Morrison, a farmer of
Cumberland County; George Richard, a farmer of this
county ; Ardenie, the wife of James Melton, a farmer
of Oklahoma; John Edwards, who operates the old
home farm with his brother Timothy F. ; Charles Reu-
ben, of this notice; Daniel, a farmer of Cumberland
County, who met his death in 1896 by drowning in the
Cumberland River, three miles north of Burkesville ;
and Timothy F., who assists in the operation of the
home farm.
The educational training of Charles Reuben Hicks, as
applies to school attendance, was confined to the rural
institutions of Cumberland County and the public school
at Burkesville. his boyhood and youth being divided be-
tween his studies and work on the home farm. At the
age of twenty-one years he adopted the profession of
his father, that of teaching, and this he followed for a
period of eleven years, during which he built up a
reputation as one of the most efficient and popular edu-
cators in the country districts. Mr. Hicks, however, had
ambitions for the legal profession, and during his leisure
hours applied himself assiduously to the study of law,
with the result that in 1902 he was admitted to the bar
and opened an office at Burkesville. Here he has had
a constantly growing practice in general civil and crim-
inal jurisprudence. In November, 1904, he was elected
county attorney of Cumberland County, to fill out an
unexpired term of one year, and in November, 1005.
was reelected for a full term of four years, taking office
in January, 1906. He was again elected to this office
in November, 1917, taking office in January, 1918, for a
four-year term, and in November, 1921, again became a
candidate for the county attorneyship, without opposi-
tion. His offices are in the Court House at Burkesville.
Mr. Hicks' tendency is toward a simplicity of legal in-
terpretation and toward the establishment of those con-
ditions which deepen the channels of human brother-
hood. His gifts for usefulness are stable and many-
sided.
488
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
In political matters Mr. Hicks supports the principles
and policies of the republican party. As a fraternalist
he belongs to Cumberland Lodge No. 413, F. and A. M.,
of which he has been worshipful master six times ;
Columbia (Kentucky) Chapter No. 8, R. A. M. ; Colum-
bia Council, R. and S. M. ; Burkesville Lodge No. 156,
I. O. O. F., of which he is a past grand; Burkesville
Camp, M. W. A. ; and Burkesville Chapter No. 160,
O. E. S., of which he has been worthy patron for the
past nine years. He owns a one-half interest in a farm
of 103 acres in Cumberland County, and has a number
of business connections. Always a supporter of worthy
movements, during the World war period he distin-
guished himself by his activity in wartime enterprises
for the support of the country's fighting forces. He has
the distinction of having filled out more questionnaires,
free of charge, for the recruited men than any other
person in Cumberland County; was chairman of the War
Chest Fund drive in the county, which, when $1,300 was
needed, responded with $2,200; and in various other
ways assisted every movement by his abilities, time and
means. Mr. Hicks is unmarried.
Mrs. Cora (Simpson) Payne. In days like the
present, as never before, the world has reason to ac-
knowledge that among the noblest lives led are those of
women, and whether they lay claim to equality in life's
opportunities or do not matters little in assembling facts.
Few there are with enlightened minds who will not
concede brilliant intellect, warm sense of justice and
heavenly compassion to the sex that has followed, rather
than accompanied, man on his way. The change time
has wrought may be said to have broadened her sphere
in her widened area of influence and in her achievements
that blossom in every field. This may not be discounted.
These reflections come easily when considering the use-
fulness and efficiency of a life like that chosen by Mrs.
Cora (Simpson) Payne, of Burkesville, whose super-
intendency of the Cumberland County public schools
has been of such profound importance to the cause of
education in this county.
Mrs. Payne was born on a farm ten miles southeast
of Burkesville, Cumberland County, a daughter of J. J.
and Justina (Marcom) Simpson, and a member of a
family which came from Ireland to America during
Colonial times and settled in Virginia. William Simp-
son, the grandfather of Mrs. Payne, was born in 1801
in Cumberland County, where his father had settled on
his pioneer arrival from Virginia, and there passed his
entire life as an agriculturist, the grandfather dying in
1887. J. J. Simpson was born in 1845 in Cumberland
County, where he was reared and educated, and when
still a mere youth enlisted in the Union Army for serv-
ice during the war between the states, joining Company
E, Fifth Regiment, Kentucky Volunteer Infantry. He
remained with this regiment throughout the period of
the war, participating in such engagements as Chicka-
mauga, Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, and
established a commendable record for valor and faith-
ful performance of duty. On his return to the life of
a civilian he took up farming as an occupation, and after
his marriage established a home and settled down to an
agricultural career. However, he possessed qualities
that made him desirable as the incumbent of public
offices, and he was called by his fellow citizens to the
post of county assessor, following which he served as
county clerk and finally as county judge of Cumberland
County, filling these positions for nineteen years con-
secutively. He took a prominent and influential part in
republican politics, won the respect and esteem of asso-
ciates and opponents alike, and in 1906 retired to Colum-
bia, Kentucky, with an honorable record for splendid
public service. Mr. Simpson is a very active worker
in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and belongs
to the Masonic fraternity and the Grand Army of the
Republic. He married Justina Marcom, who was born
in 1849, in Cumberland County, Kentucky, and they be-
came the parents of the following children : Elizabeth,
the wife of W. J. Payne, a farmer of Ellensburg, Wash-
ington ; Edna, of Livingston, Tennessee, the widow of
Dr. W. H. Thrasher, a physician and surgeon who died
at Albany, Kentucky; W. B., who is engaged in general
merchandising at Missoula, Montana; G. B., the pro-
prietor of a pharmacy at Rice, Texas ; B. L., an attorney- .
at-law of Burkesville; Cora, who is now Mrs. Payne
of this review; Bercie, the wife of James Briley, secre-
tary of a large corporation at Walla Walla, Washing-
ton ; Otis, a railroad agent at Ellensburg, Washington ;
and Marvin A., a farmer of Leonard, Texas.
Cora Simpson received excellent educational advan- J
tages in her youth, first attending the public schools at
Burkesville, later Alexander College at the same place,
and subsequently going to Cherry Brothers Normal
School, now the Western State Normal School, at Bowl-
ing Green, Kentucky, where she completed the junior
year. She then entered Valparaiso University, at Val-
paraiso, Indiana, from which she was graduated with
the class of 1905, receiving the degree of Bachelor of
Arts. This was followed by postgraduate work at the
University of Chicago, Illinois, during the summer ses- t
sion of 1905. Her first practical experience as an edu-
cator came as a teacher in the Lindsay-Wilson Training
School at Columbia, Kentucky, where she spent one
year, and following this she taught in the public schools
of Burkesville until 1914. In November, 1913, her abil-
ities were recognized by her election to the office of
county superintendent of schools of Cumberland County,
the duties of which office she assumed in January, 1914.
Her work during her first term of office was of such a
satisfactory character that in November, 1917, she was
re-elected for another term of four years, beginning in
January, 1918. Under Mrs. Payne's supervision are fifty-
six schools, fifty-eight teachers and approximately 3,300
pupils. In the conduct of her office she has put many
of her personal ideas into operation and has been re-
sponsible for innovations which have been greatly ben-
eficial to the school system in the county. She is greatly
popular with teachers and pupils alike, and while a strict
disciplinarian her sound sense of justice has been re- I
sponsible for the bringing about of a feeling of under-
standing and co-operation that has done much to advance
the public school cause and the general efficiency of the
system. Mrs. Payne's offices are in the Court House at
Burkesville. She is a republican in her political affilia-
tion, and belongs to Burkesville Chapter No. 160,
O. E. S.; the Women's Christian Temperance Union
and the Kentucky Educational Association. An active
member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, for
a number of years she has taught a class in the Sunday
School.
On June 25, 1906, occurred the marriage of Miss Cora
Simpson to C. R. Payne at Columbia, Kentucky. Mr.
Payne was born in Barren County, Kentucky, and re-
ceived his education in the public schools of Glasgow
and the Kentucky Wesleyan College. Becoming a
clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South,
he filled the pulpit of the church of that denomination
at Burkesville for four years, then being made business
manager of the Lindsay-Wilson Training School, a posi-
tion in which he remained until 1906. During the fol-
lowing year he preached at Davis, West Virginia, and
in 1907 came to Burkesville. At present he is engaged
in the operation of his large and valuable farm located
fourteen miles south of the county seat. He is a dem-
ocrat in politics and is fraternally affiliated with the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Mr. and Mrs.
Payne are the parents of one child, Justina, born May
29, 1908.
Mr. Payne formerly married Miss Dora Huddleston,
daughter of Dr. J. B. and Virginia (Rainy) Huddles-
ton, both now deceased, the former having been a physi-
cian and surgeon of southern Cumberland County, where
he was likewise engaged in farming. Mrs. Dora Payne
died in 1904, at Columbia, having been the mother of
Bolivar Bond
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
489
twin daughters: Dimple, now a student at Berea (Ken-
tucky) College ; and Dora, who died at the age of eleven
years.
Bolivar Bond for a number of years was a merchant
in Woodford County, but his chief success has been
earned during the past dozen years as a real estate
operator, and particularly as a real estate auctioneer,
with a degree of success in that line little less than
phenomenal.
Mr. Bond, whose home is at Versailles, was born in
Anderson County, Kentucky, February 24, 1867. His
father, Rev. Preston Bond, was a noted itinerant min-
ister of the Methodist Church in the early days, who
covered all the mountainous sections of Kentucky and
for some years was a settled pastor of the church at
Lawrenceburg. He died at the age of seventy-six at
his old home in Anderson County, being then on the
superannuated list. Rev. Preston Bond was a cousin
of the father of J. R. Bond, a business man at None-
such in Woodford County. Rev. Preston Bond married
Belinda F. Arthur, of Barboursville, Kentucky. She
was a sister of the late Edward F. Arthur, to whose
career a special sketch is devoted.
Bolivar Bond was educated in the Lawrenceburg
High School and Normal and at the age of twenty-
one began teaching in Mercer County, where he re-
mained two years, and he taught one term of school
at Nonesuch in Woodford County. He there opened
a store in partnership with his cousin, J. R. Bond,
and continued active in that business, building it up
to large and successful proportions for some fifteen or
sixteen years. He had full charge of the store while
his business partner was away in Canada for several
years.
It was in 1908 that Mr. Bond began his real estate
business at Versailles. His work has become widely
extended all over the Blue Grass section and he has
handled farm lands and has done much platting and
subdivision work. He is a member of the Fidelity
Realty Company and was also actively associated with
the syndicate which bought the Ashland tract, the old
home of Henry Clay, and made this one of the most
successful subdivisions marketed within recent years.
Mr. Bond was auctioneer in the sale of this tract. He
also sold the Kincaid property. In his business he is
now associated with his two sons, James E. and Doc
Bond. The firm became Bolivar Bond & Sons in 1918.
In that year they sold more than nine and a half-
million dollars' worth of real estate, chiefly farm prop-
perty, consisting of 36,291 acres and bringing an av-
erage of over two hundred and fifty dollars an acre.
These transactions covered practically the entire Blue
Grass section, and with few exceptions the land was
all sold at auction. In several cases Mr. Bond has
been the selling agent for one owner through a period
of years. While he began his business on a small scale,
his reputation is now well established all over Ken-
tucky. His son. Doc Bond, is a graduate of an auction
school, and is the right-hand lieutenant of his father,
while his son, James E. Bond, was a member of the
Fifty-fifth Field Artillery, Nineteenth Division, in the
World war, having enlisted in May, 1918, and was hon-
orably discharged in February, 1919, and is an expert
clerk of sales.
Recently Mr. Bond erected a beautiful home at Ver-
sailles, at a cost of $47,000. He has never been in pol-
itics, is a member of the Masonic order. His son,
James, is also a Mason, and he and his sons are all
members of the Knights of Pythias.
At the age of twenty-four Mr. Bond married Helen
Dean, of Mercer County, daughter of the late Strother
and Elizabeth (Jones) Dean. The former was a land
owner of that county. Mr. and Mrs. Bond's four
children, all at home, are Helen T., a graduate of
Margaret College at Versailles, James E., Doc, and
Jesse Lillard.
Edward F. Arthur was a Kentuckian distinguished
by his high character as well as. by notable experiences
and achievements. He died at his home at Williams-
burg, March 11, 1921, at the age of ninety-one.
He was born in Knox County, Kentucky, June 12
i>\30, youngest child of Ambrose and Jane Gilbert
(Fletcher) Arthur, the latter a native of South Caro-
lina while his father came from Virginia and settled
in Knox County in 1803. The Arthurs are a notable
family of Old Virginia as well as Kentucky. John
Arthur^ was governor of Sumner Isle in 1640. In
1648 Governor Sir James Berkeley granted land to
the family south of the James River, where the Arthurs
remained 100 years. In 1780 Governor Jefferson made
a grant of land in Western Virginia to Col. Thomas
Arthur, a Revolutionary hero and grandfather of the
late Edward Arthur. Colonel Arthur died and is
buried in Knox County. From the early Indian wars
to the World war each generation of the Arthurs has
furnished soldiers and stanch patriots. Ambrose Ar-
thur, father of the late Edward Arthur, was a month
old when the Revolution broke out and in the War of
1812 he commanded a company of volunteers from
Knox County and was at Tippecanoe and the River
Raisin, was one of those who escaped from the defeat
and massacre known as Dudley's Defeat, and subse-
quently, under General William Henry Harrison, in-
vaded Canada and participated in the battle of tlie
Thames.
Edward F. Arthur from His parents and ancestors
inherited length of days and vigor of mental faculties
and a robust constitution, and while his life was spent
in practical affairs he was also a reader and a keen
observer and a man of unusual information outside
the routine of his experience. At the age of sixteen
he volunteered his service in the war with Mexico,
and after the close of hostilities he was in garrison
duty for a year in the City of Mexico. He was a
California forty-niner, crossing the plains with some
of the early parties that sought a fortune in the gold
mines of the West. He returned by way of Panama
and New Orleans, and later made a second trip over
the plains and came back by way of Nicaraugua. A
few years later he again took up arms, this time as
a Southern soldier, and for four years was with the
Confederate armies, coming home at the close in debt,
a ragged veteran, with nothing left but his courage
and honor. He met the changed conditions and the
difficult problems bravely, and reared and educated
eleven children, to whom he left the fair record of an
upright and brave life. In all the changing fortunes
of a long career his courage never left him and his
character was one of absolute sincerity and faithful-
ness to all obligations. May 1, 1866, he married Susan
Houtt, of Anderson County. Of their six sons and
five daughters, nine survived with their mother. Mr.
Arthur was an uncle of Bolivar Bond, of Versailles,
of whom brief mention is made in the preceding sketch.
William C. Keen, M. D. There is no profession to
which men devote themselves more dignified in its ethics
or more reasonably helpful to the world than that of
medicine. Similar claims are made by the church and
by the law, but they, while essentially true enough in
their assertions, are based on other foundations. The
healing art demands of its real followers that natural
reverence for the human body that commands the ex-
ercise of all the skill that years of study and training
have brought to them. Methods may differ, systems
may not be quite alike and personality counts for much,
but the aim and principle remain the same. Among the
members of the medical profession well known in Cum-
berland County is Dr. William C. Keen, whose skill and
faithfulness, together with his determined hopefulness
and cheerfulness, have made his presence valued in many
households during the last quarter of a century, which
period has covered his residence at Burkesville.
490
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
William C. Keen was born in Cumberland County,
July 30, 1853, a son of John F. and Louisa (Neathery)
Keen. The Keen family is of Scotch-Irish origin and
was founded in Colonial Virginia prior to the War of
the Revolution. Sampson Keen, the grandfather of
Doctor Keen, was born in Virginia and as a young man
migrated to Cumberland County, where he spent the rest
of his life as a farmer and a local preacher of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, dying before the birth of
his grandson. He married Elizabeth Frazier. also a
native of Virginia, who died in Cumberland County.
John F. Keen, the father of Doctor Keen, was born
in 1821, in Cumberland County, where he passed his
entire life as a farmer and a local clergyman of the
Methodist Episcopal Church. He was a successful
agriculturist because of his energy and business ability,
and his good citizenship was displayed on all occasions.
Originally a democrat, the issues of the Civil war caused
him to change his views to some extent and he became
an independent republican. Mr. Keen was a member of
the Masonic fraternity. He died November 13, 1892.
He married Louisa Neathery, who was born in -1832 in
Clinton County, Kentucky, and died in Cumberland
County August 5, 1895. They became the parents of
eleven children : Ellen J., deceased, who was the wife
of the late Littleton Ballou, a farmer and merchant of
Russell County, where both passed away ; Dr. William
C; Lucetta, who died in infancy; Burletta A., deceased,
who was the wife of Alvin Cawley, a farmer of Cum-
berland County, where both died; Helen, deceased, who
was the wife of Martin Smith, a farmer of Clinton
County, where both died ; Dr. Wilbur Thomas, deceased,
who was a physician of Cumberland County ; Austin
Bryant, deceased, who was a farmer of near Burkes-
vilie and at one time sheriff of Cumberland County;
Robert S., deceased, who was a blacksmith of Cumber-
land County ; Travis, who is engaged in agricultural pur-
suits in this county ; Louisa Frances, who died at the
age of twenty-two years ; and Sarah, who died in infancy.
William C. Keen acquired his early education in the
rural schools of Cumberland County, and at the age of
twenty-three years began teaching in the country dis-
tricts of Cumberland and Clinton counties. While thus
engaged he attended the public school at Burkesville,
and in 1878 entered the Kentucky School of Medicine
at Louisville, where he spent one year. He next en-
rolled as a student in the medical department of the
University of Tennessee, at Nashville, from which he
was graduated in the spring of 1880, with the degree of
Doctor of Medicine. He has continued to be a student
of his profession, and in 1889 took post-graduate work
at Bellevue Hospital, New York City, and in 1895 took
another post-graduate course, studying general medicine
and surgery in the Postgraduate Medical School of
Chicago.
In 1880, immediately after securing his diploma,
Doctor Keen began the practice of his calling at Row-
ena, Russell County, Kentucky, but remained in that
community only eighteen months, going then to Albany,
Clinton County, where he continued for eleven years.
In 1895 he took up his residence at Burkesville, where
he has since built up a large general medical and
surgical practice and has worked his way to a leading
place among the medical men of Cumberland County.
His offices are situated over Brake & Carr's drug store,
on the Public Square, where he has a large medical
library and a well-equipped laboratory and reception
room. During- the past ten years he has served as
health officer of Cumberland County, and for a number
of years was United States pension examiner. He is
a member of the Cumberland County Medical Society-,
of which he was secretary for twelve years, until his
recent resignation, of the Kentucky State Medical
Society and of the American Medical Association.
A stalwart republican in his political tendencies.
Doctor Keen has taken a leading and prominent part
in local affairs, and in 1901 was elected to the State
Legislature, representing Cumberland and Adair coun-
ties in that body during the session of 1902. He is a
member and steward of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South, and as a fraternalist holds membership
in Cumberland Lodge No. 413, F. and A. M., of Burkes-
ville ; and Clinton Chapter No. 57, R. A. M., of Albany.
He is the owner of a comfortable residence on High
Street. The World war period found him active in
various movements. He was special advisor to the
United States Government in regard to the advisa-
bility of sending physicians of this section into the serv-
ice or retaining them in their home communities, where
they would be more useful. In addition to helping
in all the drives he was a liberal contributor to all
causes.
On September 15, 1881, Doctor Keen married Miss
Exona Ballou, daughter of John and Frances (Grider)
Ballou, both of whom are deceased, Mr. Ballou having
been a Russell County farmer. Doctor and Mrs. Keen
have four children : Littleton Oscar, who volunteered
for the World war and was sent to Fort Riley, Kan-
sas, where he contracted the influenza and later pneu-
monia, and after his recovery was sent to Panama,
where he was subsequently taken into the public health
service in the Canal Zone for the United States Gov-
ernment ; William G., who is a practicing attorney at
Lindsay, California; Sallie Velma, the wife of Pres-
cott Sandidge, an attorney of Burkesville; and Mary
D., the wife of Wickliff Alexander, postmaster of
Burkesville.
William Sherman Taylor, M. D., one of the skilled
and deeply appreciated physicians and surgeons of •
Cumberland Count}-, is carrying on an extensive prac-
tice at Marrowbone. He was born at Glens Fork,
Adair County, Kentucky, October 31, 1865, a son of 1
George McKenzie Taylor, and grandson of George W.
Taylor, born in Virginia in 1789. He died at Rennix 1
Creek, Cumberland County-, in 1865. When a young ■
man he located at Glens Fork, Kentucky-, and was a
pioneer clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal Church
in Adair County. In later years he was made presiding
elder, and before the split in the church occurred, as
a result of the war between the two sections of the
country, he presided over the Louisville Conference.
George McKenzie Taylor was born in Adair County,
in 1817. and died at Glens Fork in 1891, having spent
practically all of his life in that vicinity, where he was
engaged in farming. He was a republican. The Meth-
odist Episcopal Church held his membership, and he
was all his life a strong churchman. He married Mary
Jane McClain. who was born in Adair County in 1837, .
and died at Glens Fork in 1888. Their children were
as follows : James R., who was a physician and sur- I
geon, died at Columbia, Kentucky, aged twenty-three
years ; B. F.. who died at Columbia, aged sixty-three
years, and he, too, was a physician and surgeon ; Z. T.,
who was a farmer, died at Glens Fork, aged sixty-one .
years; Fannie, who died at Columbia, aged fifty-one
years, married H. B. Garnett, a farmer of Columbia ;
Dr. W. S., who was the fifth in order of birth; Mary
McClellan. who died at the age of one year; Bruce,
who is in the timber business, lives in the mountains ;
of Kentucky; Richard, who died in infancy; and Lena,
who lives at Columbia, married George McMahan. a
poultry dealer.
Doctor Taylor attended the rural schools of Ada-r
County, and lived on his father's farm until 1883. I 1
that year he entered the medical department of tht
University of Louisville, and was graduated therein 1
in 1888, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. I 1
that year he began the practice of his profession ;n
East Fork, Metcalfe County, Kentucky, but after three
years moved to Glens Fork, and remained there for
fifteen years. In 1904 he came to Marrowbone and 1
has since then built up a very desirable medical and
surgical practice. He owns his modern residence on
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
491
Main Street. He is a republican, a member of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and lives up to
his firm convictions in politics and religion. Pro-
fessionally he belongs to the Cumberland County Med-
ical Society, the Kentucky State Medical Society and
the American Medical Association. During the late
war he took a zealous part in the local war activities,
assisted in all of the drives, and bought generously of
the bonds and stamps and contributed to the various
war organizations to the full limit of his means.
In 1888 Doctor Taylor married at Glens Fork Miss
Lillian Blair, a daughter of James B. and Arminta
(Wilson) Blair, both of whom are now deceased. Mr.
Blair was a farmer of Adair County. Doctor and Mrs.
Taylor have three children, namely: Carrie, who mar-
ried Flowers Parish, a farmer of Bakerton, Kentucky;
Glad\-s, who married Dennis Smith, a farmer of the
vicinity of Marrowbone; and Raj-, who lives with his
parents.
Doctor Taylor has not only established his reputa-
tion as dependable medical man, but has also won and
holds the affection of those to whom he has so faith-
fully ministered and the confidence and respect of his
fellow citizens. In every movement in his community
which has for its object the betterment of existing
conditions and the maintenance of a high moral stand-
ard he is sure to be found in the van of progress,
for he recognizes the fact that in order to get the
best out of life and preserve health it is necessary to
advance in every possible way.
Walter A. Armstrong, one of the leading business
men of Creelsboro, has very valuable farming and oil
interests in Russell County, and is developing them in
a manner which yields him profit and prestige in his
community. He was born at Livingston, Tennessee,
October 17, 1869, a son of William J. Armstrong, grand-
son of Thomas N. Armstrong, great-grandson of Lan-
don Armstrong, and great-great-grandson of Col.
James Armstrong, who commanded a regiment under
General Washington during the American Revolution,
and in return for his military services was accorded
large grants of land located near the mouth of Wolf
River in Tennessee. He moved to this land, developed
a valuable and extensive plantation, and died on it.
The Armstrong family was founded in this country
during its Colonial epoch by ancestors who came here
from England and settled in Virgina.
Landon Armstrong was born near the mouth of Wolf
River, Tennessee, and died near Monroe, Tennessee,
haying been an extensive farmer and large slave owner.
His son, Thomas X. Armstrong, was born near Mon-
roe, Tennessee, in 1809, and died there in 1906, having
passed his life in this vicinity. He was a distinguished
lawyer, a well-educated man, having graduated from
Center College, Danville, Kentucky, and at one time
served as attorney general of Tennessee. In addition
to his professional duties he owned and operated a large
amount of farm land. Thomas N. Armstrong mar-
ried Mary Cullom, w-ho was born near Monroe, Ten-
nessee, and there died when her son, William J. Arm-
strong, was a child.
William J. Armstrong was born at Livingston, Ten-
nessee, in 1843, and died at Creelsboro in June, 1905.
Growing up at Livingston, he was there married and
engaged in merchandising, continuing in business there
until 1871, when he moved to Creelsboro and contin-
ued his merchandising until his death, developing a
large and important business connection. Both as a
democrat and member of the Christian Church he lived
up to his strong convictions of right and wrong, and
was a very active supporter of the church. He was
equally zealous as a Mason and was a very fine man
in every respect. He married Rebecca M. Keeton, who
was born at Livingston, Tennessee, in 1847, and died
at New Bern, North Carolina, in September, 1917. Mr.
and Mrs. Armstrong had the following children : Wal-
ter A., who was the eldest; Effie, who married J. D.
Babcock and resides in South Carolina, where her hus-
hand is engaged in practice as a physician and surgeon;
William B., who is a dental surgeon of Knoxville, Ten-
nessee ; Ernest C, who is a real-estate broker and a
physician and surgeon of New Bern, North Carolina ;
Alfred P., who is a physician and surgeon of New
Mexico; Roy M., a physician and surgeon of Creels-
boro.
After attending the rural schools of Russell County
Walter A. Armstrong became a student of the high
school at Celina, Tennessee, and later of that at Albany,
Kentucky. He then entered Transylvania University at
Lexington, Kentucky, but left it in 1889 and was em-
ployed as a bookkeeper at Fort Wayne, Indianaj for
six months. For the following three 3rears he was a
clerk on steamboats operating on the Cumberland River.
In 1892 he located permanently at Creelsboro and be-
gan to farm, and is still so occupied. He now owns
1,000 acres of farming and oil land situated near Creels-
boro, on the bank of the Cumberland River, which is
extremely valuable. In addition to this property he
is also extensively engaged in the lumber business, and
for a year was engaged in merchandising at Creelsboro,
but sold the business. He has six producing wells on
his farm and is drilling another one. His modern
residence is located on his farm and is thoroughly
up-to-date, as are all of his buildings, and here he and
his family enjoy life. He is a democrat. While not
a member, he affiliates with the Christian Church
and is generous in his donations toward its support.
During the late war he took an active part in all of
the local work, helping in all of the drives and buying
War Savings Stamps and contributing to all of the
war organizations to the full extent of his means.
In August, 1902, Mr. Armstrong married at Creels-
boro, Miss Cora Campbell, a daughter of John W.
and Mary O. (Helm) Campbell, both of whom are
deceased. Mr. Campbell was a farmer and live-stock
dealer near Creelsboro. Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong
have one child, Effie, who married J. O. Miller and
lives near Crocus, Adair County, Kentucky. Mr. Miller
is a merchant
Fred Beshear. It is a far cry from the primitive
makeshift wooden coffin knocked together by a local
cabinetmaker or carpenter and the kindly offices of the
neighbors, which were all that could be accorded the
departed in pioneer da3-s, and the elegant casket and
dignified and scientific service rendered by the modern
funeral director. It would not be true to say that
this generation holds its dead in more affection or
respect, but it is correct to state that this age has
made wonderful advancement in the method of hand-
ling this extremely important matter, and that much
of this progress is due to the intelligence and efforts
of the men who have directed their capabilities along
these lines. It would be difficult to find today a
community too small to command the services of a
modern undertaker, and in one of the size and im-
portance of Dawson Springs the men representing the
profession rank with the best in the state. One who
is an honor to his calling and community is Fred
Beshear, who in addition to maintaining and operating
a thoroughly modern undertaking establishment also
handles furniture.
Fred Beshear was born on a farm one mile north
of Dawson Springs, February 6, 1879, a son of J. R.
Beshear, and grandson of Thomas Beshear, who was
born in Hopkins County, Kentucky, and died near
Dawson Springs. He was among the pioneer farmers
of this neighborhood, and owned the land upon which
a portion of the City of Dawson Springs now stands.
It was his father, the great-grandfather of Fred Be-
shear, who brought the family into Hopkins County,
492
HISTORY OF KKNTUCKY
and here ever since the members of this honored family
have taken a constructive part in the development of
this region.
J. R. Beshear was born near Dawson Springs in 1848,
and was reared in the neighborhood. Early in life
he was an educator, and taught school in Hopkins and
Caldwell counties, but after some years of successful
endeavor in this field he moved to his farm located a
mile north of Dawson Springs, and conducted it until
a few years ago, and was also interested in other farm-
ing properties nearby. In 1895 he moved to Dawson
Springs, where he has since resided, being engaged in
general labor. He is a democrat in his political faith.
In religious matters he holds to the belief of the
Primitive Baptists and is a devout Christian, carrying
his creed into his everyday life and setting an example
of uprightness all would do well to emulate. J. R.
Beshear married Nancy E. English, who was born in
Caldwell County in 1851. She died at Dawson Springs
in 1905, having borne her husband the following chil-
dren : Fred, who is the eldest born ; Tennie, who first
married Arthur Ridley, a farmer, and after his death
she married John Allen, a farmer, and they live at
Dawson Springs; Lennie Jane, who married B. F.
Dame, a carpenter and coal miner, lives at Dawson
Springs; Ed, who is a clergyman of the Primitive
Baptist Church, lives in Marshall County, Kentucky;
Emma, who died at the age of eighteen years; and
Ammie, who died at the age of five years.
Fred Beshear remained on the farm until he reached
his majority, and in the meanwhile he attended the
rural schools of Hopkins County. Until 1904 he was
occupied in doing general work in the timber and in
farming, but in that year he came to Dawson Springs
and embarked in a grocery business, beginning in a
small way and expanding as his trade justified him,
and sold at a profit at the end of four years. He
then organized the firm of Clark, Beshear & Clark,
furniture and undertaking, of which he is general man-
ager and active head of the firm. This is the leading
establishment of its kind in this section of the state,
and orders come to it from a wide area. The store is
located at 108 South Railroad Avenue.
Mr. Beshear is a democrat, and served on his party
ticket as mayor of Dawson Springs for the year 1919,
giving his city a sound and businesslike administration.
He is a member of the Primitive Baptist Church, and
is one of the active supporters of the local congregation.
During the late war he was zealous in behalf of the
various drives for raising funds and subscribed to all
of them until he could go no further.
In 1002 Mr. Beshear married in Hopkins County.
Kentucky, Miss Telia M. Ridley, a daughter of O. P.
and Cynthia (Menser) Ridley, who reside on their
farm one mile north of Dawson Springs. Mr. and Mrs.
Beshear have one daughter, Opal B., who was born
July 11, 1904, and is a student in the Dawson Springs
High School. She has proven herself a brilliant pupil,
and will graduate from high school and in music when
only sixteen years of age.
Isaac Newton Day, president of the Commercial
Bank of Dawson Springs, is one of the experienced
bankers and solid men of Hopkins County, whose
association with this institution gives it added strength
and prestige and his community, a guarantee that its
affairs will be handled in a conservative and depend-
able manner. Mr. Day is a native son of Hopkins
County, for he was born on a farm within its con-
fines, located eight miles east of Dawson Springs, Jan-
uary 26, 1857.
The Day family is one of the old-established ones of
America and was founded in this country by its rep-
resentatives who came to Virginia from England during
the Colonial epoch. The grandfather of Mr. Day,
Evans Day, was born in Virginia and died in Roanoke
County of that commonwealth prior to the birth of
his grandson, having large property interests in that
region and being a planter upon an extensive scale.
The father of Mr. Day, John Day, was born in
Roanoke County, Virginia, in 1822, and the City of
Roanoke stands today on the site of his birthplace. His
death occurred on the farm he bought eight miles east
of Dawson Springs, May 4, 1884. Reared and edu-
cated in his native county, John Day left it in 1847
and sought new surroundings and broader opportuni-
ties in Hopkins County. His hopes were amply real-
ized and he became one of the most successful and
wealthy men of his neighborhood. In politics he was
always a strong democrat. The Christian Church held
his membership from his youth. John Day married
in Hopkins County, Ilgeretta Hamby, who was born
in Hopkins County in 1826, on the farm adjoining the
one later purchased by Mr. Day, on which she died in
1888. Their children were as follows : John Thomp-
son, who is a retired farmer of Dawson Springs ;
James E., who was associated with his brother Isaac
N. in a mercantile business and was a farmer, died
at Jacksonville, Florida ; Isaac Newton, whose name
heads this review ; Mary Jane, who married Frank
Sisk, a farmer, died at Earlington, Kentucky, as did
her husband; and Alice L., who married Claude Old-
ham, foreman of a coal business of Earlington, Ken-
tucky.
Isaac Newton Day went to Forest Home College in
Jefferson County, Kentucky, for two years after he had
completed his attendance at the rural schools of Hop-
kins County, and then, in the spring of 1880, returned
home and began farming and teaching school, and for
six years kept himself occupied both winter and sum-
mer. In 1889 he established himself in a mercantile
business at Saint Charles, Kentucky, but a year later
sold it. However, he had found his real bent and con-
cluded that he would find success in the business arena
rather than in the schoolroom. Coming to Dawson
Springs in 1891 he established what grew to be the
leading mercantile establishment of Hopkins County.
Always progressive, he has endeavored to be a little
ahead of the times, and was the first man to put in
a glass show-case counter in the county and to make
many other innovations. In 1912 Mr. Day sold this
business so as to devote his time and attention to his
banking interests, for he had in 1907 entered the Com-
mercial Bank of Dawson Springs as president, having
been one of the organizers of the bank and has been
its chief executive for a number of years. The officers
of the bank are as follows: I. N. Day, president; J.
E. Hayes, vice president; and Hal Harnard, cashier.
The bank has a capital of $40,000, a surplus and profits
of $25,000, and deposits of $500,000. Its resources are
over $500,000. The banking house is located on South
Main Street, in the center of the business district of
Dawson Springs.
Mr. Day is a democrat, served as a member of the
City Council, and for fifteen years has been a member
of the School Board. A Unitarian, he is very active in
his support of the local congregation. He owns a
modern residence on Hunter Street, between Kegan
Street and Railroad Avenue, and is it one of the best
at Dawson Springs. In addition to this he_ owns a
number of dwellings and other real estate, including
two brick business blocks in the city. Mr. Day was
the first man to erect a business house at Dawson
Springs with a pressed brick front, and there are many
other instances which could be cited to show how
active he has been in developing and improving his
community. He owns three farms in Hopkins County
and one in Caldwell County, Kentucky, and two farms
in the State of Mississippi. During the late war he
was one of the zealous participants in the local activi-
ties, not only subscribing lavishly, but also making
speeches throughout the county in behalf of the drives.
In addition to the work he did as an individual the
bank under his direction was a strong factor in bring-
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
493
ing the quota of Hopkins County up to the amount
assigned in all of the drives.
In addition to other interests Mr. Day is secretary
and treasurer of the Dawson Pharmacal Company, a
successful and growing concern of the city; is presi-
dent of the Business Men's Association, which under
his supervision has become one of the most potent
bodies of its kind for a town of this size in the
state, and he is a director of the Auditorium of Daw-
son Springs.
On March s, 1901, Mr. Day married at Paducah,
Kentucky, Miss Ella M. Baker, a daughter of S. W.
and Jane (Miller) Baker, residents of Princeton, Ken-
tucky, the former being a retired farmer. Mr. and
Mrs. Day have two children : John S., who was born
January 7, 1902, is a student of the Marion Institute,
at Annapolis, Maryland ; and Roy B.,, who was born
August 12, 1906. Mr. Day was one of the factors in
bringing the Great Federal Hospital to Dawson
Springs.
Frank G. Wake. Among the prominent men of
Madisonville, using the term in its broadest sense to
indicate business and financial acumen, sterling char-
acter, public beneficence and upright citizenship, is
Frank G. Wake, vice president of the Farmers National
Bank of Madisonville and a leading tobacco warehouse
owner and operator. Mr. Wake was born in Nicholas
County, Kentucky, where his mother was visiting at the
time, December 22, 1861, a son of R. W. Wake, and
belongs to a family which originated in England and
settled in Colonial days in North Carolina, where, in
the county bearing the family name, was born the grand-
father of Frank G. Wake, Dr. Ambrose Wake. Am-
brose Wake was a physician and surgeon who was
a pioneer into Webster County, Keutucky, whence he
went to the vicinity of Cerulean Springs, but later re-
turned to Webster County and passed away near
Providence, his death being caused by the complications
which followed the sting of a "yellow-jacket." Dr.
Ambrose Wake married Miss Mary Calmese, who was
born in Fayette County, Kentucky, and died near Ceru-
lean Springs.
R. W. Wake was born in 1833 in Webster County,
Kentucky, and died on his farm in Lyon County, on the
south bank of the Cumberland River, two miles east of
Eddyville, in 1888. He was reared in the vicinity of
Cerulean Springs and as a young man removed to Lyon
County, for a few years living at Eddyville, where he
practiced law. Eventually he located on the farm in
Lyon County, and during the remainder of _ his life
divided his time between agricultural operations and
a country law practice. He was a democrat in politics,
held membership in the Masonic fraternity, and was a
member of the Baptist Church. Mr. Wake first mar-
ried Miss May Lyon, who was born in Lyon County,
which was named in honor of her father, 'Chittington
Lyon. She died at Eddyville in 1859, leaving one son,
Lionel, who resides on the old home place. Mr. Wake,
took for his second wife Miss Nellie Gracey, who was
born at Eddyville in 1838, and she died there in 1863,
and they had three children : Frank G. ; Flora and
Lula, who died in infancy. R. W. Wake married for
his third wife Miss Cordelia Hayes, who was born in
Lyon County and died without issue on the home place.
Mr. Wake's fourth wife was Miss Tennie Hayes, born
in Lyon County, who died there without issue. For his
fifth wife he married 'Miss Nat Ella Doom, who was
born in 1842, in Lyon County, Kentucky, and died at
Kuttawa in 1890. To this union there were born three
children: Hugh, a leading and prominent business man
of Kuttawa, where he is head of the big dry goods con-
cern of Hugh Wake & Company, and a sketch of whose
career will be found elsewhere in this volume; Mary
of Kuttawa, the widow of K. S. Doom, formerly a Lyon
County farmer ; and Ambrose, who died at the age of
one year.
Frank G. Wake was educated in the public schools of
Eddyville, graduating from the high school with the
class of 1876, and his first employment aside from the
work of the home farm was a position as clerk on the
steamboat "John S. Bransford," running from Nashville
to the head of the Cumberland River. After one year
spent in this capacity he went to old Mexico, where
during the year of 1880 he bought cochineal, and then
returned to this country. Going to Arkansas, he be-
came clerk on the steamboat "Milt Harry" on the White
River, a position in which he remained eight months.
He next embarked in the tobacco business at Clarks-
ville, Tennessee, as an exporter, and there formed a
connection with T. D. Luckett, under the firm name of
the Luckett-Wake Tobacco Company, but in 1910 dis-
posed of his stock therein and bought a cotton planta-
tion in Le Flore County, Mississippi, which he sold in
1916. In the meantime Mr. Wake had come to Madi-
sonville, where he had built a loose floor tobacco ware-
house, which he has operated with much success to the
present time. In 1919 he extended the scope of his
operations in this connection by building a similar ware-
house at Providence, Webster County, and this he like-
wise operates. He is widely known in the tobacco
industry, where he has the reputation of being a thor-
oughly informed and capable man, shrewd in his judg-
ments, accurate in his foresight and strict in upholding
his business integrity. He is vice president of the
Farmers National Bank of Madisonville and has various
civic and social interests. In politics he is a democrat,
and his religious connection is with the Episcopal
Church, in which he is a warden. During the war
period he took an active part in all local war activities
in Hopkins County, where he helped in the drives for
bonds and funds and subscribed to the various move-
ments to the limit of his resources.
In 1894 Mr. Wake married at Madisonville Miss
Willie Pritchett, daughter of Dr. O. A. and Mary Ann
(Bishop) Pritchett. Doctor Pritchett, who was a well-
known physician and surgeon, is now deceased, and Mrs.
Pritchett makes her home at Madisonville. Mr. and
Mrs. Wake have no children.
R. Harper Gatton. The community of Madisonville
takes a great deal of pride in its fine public school
system, which since its reorganization less than twenty
years ago has been steadily improving and keeping pace
with the new standards and needs of educational
progress. The executive and administrative head of the
schools is R. Harper Gatton, city superintendent, and
Mr. Gatton has been actively identified with the schools
of Madisonville for the past ten years.
While he was born at Madison, Indiana, February I,
1891, he represents an old Kentucky family. Originally
the Gattons for a number of generations lived in Ire-
land, and an island off the Irish coast is known as
Gatton Isle in honor of the family. His grandfather,
John Gatton, was a native of Virginia, but spent his
active life as a farmer in Muhlenberg County, Ken-
tucky, where he died before his grandson, Harper
Gatton, was born. Rev. J. S. Gatton, father of Super-
intendent Gatton, was born near Central City in Muhl-
enberg County in 1845, and has had a long and useful
career in the ministry of the Baptist Church. He
grew up in his native county, graduated from Bethel
College at Russell ville, and for about half a century
was active in the ministry, largely in Central Kentucky,
though about thirty years ago he was pastor _ of a
church at Madison, Indiana. Some of his principal
charges in Central Kentucky were Elizabethtown,
Shelbyville, Eminence and Campbellsville. He is now
living retired at Elizabethtown, where he was married.
He is a democrat in politics. His wife bore the maiden
494
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
name of Amy Smallwood. She was born in Elizabeth-
town in 1838. The Smallwoods were of English stock,
and her grandfather, James Smallwood, served with
the rank of general in the Revolutionary Army. Her
father, also named James Smallwood, spent most of
his life as a farmer in Maryland, near Washington,
D. C. He married Nan Hutchinson. Rev. J. S. Gatton
and wife had five children, Harper being the youngest.
Ethel, the oldest, is the wife of Wayne Overall, a
farmer in Hardin County, Kentucky; Elizabeth is the
wife of L. K. Lazenby, a hardware merchant at States-
ville, North Carolina; Rachel is the wife of E. N.
Todd, who is assistant state highway commissioner, with
home at Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; and Harry is a
farmer in Hardin County, Kentucky.
R. Harper Gatton was reared and educated in Ken-
tucky, attended the public schools at Eminence and
Campbellsville, and in 1912 graduated A. B. from
Georgetown College at Georgetown, Kentucky. The fall
following his graduation he came to Madisonville as
principal of the high school. Two years later he was
chosen city superintendent of schools, and has occupied
that post and ably guided the city school administration
throughout the peculiarly difficult period of the World
war. Madisonville has three school buildings, and under
his supervision are a staff of thirty-one teachers and
scholarship enrollment of 1043. Mr. Gatton is an active
member of the Kentucky Educational Association and
since 1917 has served as a trustee of his Alma Mater,
Georgetown College. He is vice president of the Madi-
sonville Business Men's Association, and was a member
of the Speakers Bureau and through his official position
and as a private citizen did much to arouse his home
community to the support of all war causes. He is
secretary of the Hopkins County Public Health League.
Mr. Gatton has also acquired some business connections,
being treasurer of the Chickasaw Coal Company and
is interested in 500 acres of coal land. He spent some
time as a post graduate student in education at the
University of Chicago.
He is a democrat, a member of the Baptist Church,
and is affiliated with Madisonville Lodge No. 143, of
the Masons. He owns a modern home on South
Seminary Street. In 1914, at Richmond in Madison
County, Kentucky, he married Miss Margaret Lackey,
daughter of S. W. and Allie (Cochran) Lackey. Her
parents still live on their farm near Richmond. Mr.
and Mrs. Gatton had two daughters, Winona, born
January 28, 1918, and Margaret, born November 19,
1920. Mrs. Gatton died December 12, 1920.
Thomas Latin Coil. The energies of the Coil
family have been transmitted effectively into the indus-
trial and business affairs of Hopkins County for a long
period of years. The chief business of Thomas L. Coil
since boyhood has been lumber manufacture, in which
he was associated with his father, and for a number of
years past has operated and owned the chief lumber
milling plant in the county.
Mr. Coil, whose home is at Madisonville, was born on
his father's farm three miles northeast of Nortonville
in Hopkins County, February 17, 1873. The Coil family
came originally from Scotland, but was established in
Virginia in Colonial times. His grandfather was Enoch
Coil, a native of Virginia, who was the founder of the
name in Hopkins County, Kentucky, where he spent the
rest of his life as a farmer. William Houston Coil,
father of Thomas L., was born in Virginia in 1846, was
reared in Todd County, Kentucky, and as a young man
established a home in Hopkins County, where he mar-
ried. After his marriage he located on a farm near
Nortonville, lived for fifteen years on a farm near Ear-
lington, and in 1884 moved to Madisonville, from which
point he continued the operation of his farm and also
engaged in the lumber and saw mill business. He was
one of the active spirits in Madisonville's commercial
affairs, and for many years conducted a thriving lumber
industry. He died at Madisonville in April, 1901. He '
was a democrat in politics. William H. Coil married ,
Permelia Hanks, who was born on a farm near Norton- j
ville in 1846 and is now living at the old homestead in
Madisonville. Her children were: W. D. Coil, one of !
the most prominent coal operators in the State of Ken- j
tucky, living at Madisonville; Rena, whose tirst husband
was Wallace Sick, and she is now Mrs. Newman, living
in California; Thomas L. ; Emma, who lives in Madison- ,
ville, the widow of C. B. Hanger, an undertaker; Grace, ,
wife of Phil Shelton, a truck farmer in California; !
Eura, wife of Dr. A. L. Thompson, a physician and sur-
geon at Madisonville; and Frank E., who is employed in tl
tne coal business of his brother, W. D. Coil.
Thomas L. Coil acquired his education in the rural t
schools of Hopkins County, lived on his father's farm I
to the age of lourteen, and learned the saw milling in- G
dustry under the direction of his father and was asso- '
ciated with the elder Coil in lumber manulactunng un- '
til the latter's death. He has since continued the busi- I
ness for himself. His mills are located near Manitou I
in Hopkins County, and they manufacture large quan- I
titles of both hard and soft wood lumber. Mr Coil re-
sides at 227 Sugg Street in Madisonville. He is a demo-
crat, and is affiliated with Eureka Camp I\o. 2 s Wood- '
men of the World.
In Richmond, Kentucky, in 1897, he married Miss
Dannie ioung, daughter ol John M. and Salhe (Laffoon)
loung. She was three years of age when her mother
died, and her lather is a retired larmer at Madison-
ville. Mr. and Mrs. Coil have one son, Wallace Houston,
born November 14, i«98, who completed his education
in the Madisonville High School and is now assisting
his father in business. 6
f Jw LGI? uHASf is the suc«ssful son of a successful
lather and has distinguished himself by his push and
enterprise as a citizen and business man at his native
town of Sharpsburg. His chief business interests are
represented in extensive farm lands and the production
thereof, and he is also a stock trader.
Mr Sharp was born July 4, 1876, son of Waller
and Mettie (Elgin) Sharp, the former a native of
Sharpsburg and the latter of Georgetown in Scott
County, Kentucky. The life record of Waller Sharp
is more fully portrayed on other pages of this pub-
lication. He was a remarkable man and builded his
career on a most substantial foundation, though he
had little education. He was a grocery merchant, a
buyer of wheat and tobacco, and at one time was one
of the largest tobacco producers and dealers in Bath
County. He headed the tobacco pool for this county.
When he died he left an estate of 2,600 acres. While
not a member of any church, he was liberal in sup-
port of churches and is gratefully remembered for
his many practical acts of philanthropy and helpful-
ness. As a democrat he represented his county two
terms in the Legislature. Of his four children only
two are now living: G. Elgin and Waller, the latter
a farmer and stockman at Sharpsburg.
G. Elgin Sharp grew up at Sharpsburg, attended the
public schools and also Major Fowler's Military School
at Mount Sterling four years and Professor Gordon's
school at Lexington one year, finally finishing in Tran-
sylvania University of Lexington. He continued to be
identified with home interests until 1907, when he mar-
ried Miss Emily White, who was born in Bath County,
but was reared in Montgomery County. Mr. and Mrs.
Sharp have two children, Elgin White, born in 1908,
who has completed the common school course, and
Waller, born in 1913. Mr. and Mrs. Sharp are mem-
bers of the Christian Church. He is a democrat and
is the present chairman of the Sharpsburg School Board
and was a member of the board when the new school
house was built. Mr. Sharp owns and directs the work
t
A
\
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
495
on some fourteen hundred acres of land and is a
■ stockholder in the Citizens Bank of Sharpsburg.
Mrs. Melzi M. Day, district president of the Womens
Christian Temperance Union and one of the best-known
of her sex not only in her home town of Dawson Springs,
but throughout the country, belongs to that gallant band
of women who have been engaged in a life-long fight
that so recently terminated in the passage and ratifica-
tion of the Eighteenth Amendment.
Mrs. Day was born on a farm one-half a mile north
of Dawson Springs, Kentucky, the eldest daughter of
Bush Alexander, who was born in Hopkins County, Ken-
tucky, in 1841, and his father, Patton Alexander, was
born in North Carolina, but died at Dawson Springs,
Kentucky, in 1882. Patton Alexander was the pioneer
of his family in Hopkins County, Kentucky, coming
here when a young man, and here marrying and devel-
oping a valuable farming property. He married Chris-
tine Menser, a native of Virginia, who died at Dawson
Springs in 1886. The Alexanders originated in England,
from whence they came to North Carolina in Colonial
times, but the Mensers were Hollanders.
Bush Alexander spent his life in Hopkins County,
where he acquired a meager public school education. After
his marriage he settled on his farm just north of Daw-
son Springs, and was very prosperous, specializing in
dairying. His death occurred at Dawson Springs in
1909. In politics he was a democrat, but never aspired
to public honors. A zealous member of the Christian
Church, he was instrumental in securing the erection
of the first church edifice at Dawson Springs of that
denomination, and continued a generous supporter of it
the remainder of his life. He belonged to Dawson
Lodge No. 628, A. F. and A. M. Bush Alexander mar-
ried Julia A. Eison, who survives her husband and lives
at Dawson Springs. She was born in Caldwell County,
Kentucky, in 1845. The children born to Bush Alex-
ander and his wife were as follows : Mrs. Day, who was
the eldest ; Elma, who married C. E. Cummins and re-
sides on the Alexander homestead ; Iva, who married
H. C. Boitnott, died at Denver, Colorado, at the age of
forty years, but her husband and thjree daughters sur-
vive her and live at Dawson Springs, Mr. Boitnott,
being a farmer ; and J. H., who was a bookkeeper, died
at Forest City, Arkansas, when twenty-four years old.
Mrs. Day attended the public schools of Dawson and
those of Madisonville, Kentucky, and completed a high-
school course at Dawson Springs. For the subsequent
six years she was engaged in teaching in the public
schools of Hopkins County, and was very popular as
an educator. In 1894 she was married at Dawson
Springs to James Evans Day, who was born in Hopkins
County, near the village of Saint Charles, September
17, 1854, and died at Jacksonville, Florida, February 6,
1917, although still a resident of Dawson Springs. He
was reared in Hopkins County, and completed his educa-
tional training in the Forest Home Military Academy at
Anchorage, Kentucky. Mr. Day and his brother devel-
oped large mercantile interests at Dawson Springs and
became leading stockmen and farmers of the county,
operating under the firm name of Day Brothers. Mr.
Day was a stockholder in the Commercial Bank of Daw-
son, and also handled timber and lumber upon an ex-
tensive scale. In politics he was a democrat, and served
on the School Board of Dawson Springs, and during
that time raised the standard of the school system to its
present state of efficiency. He was a firm believer in the
necessity for providing proper educational facilities for
the rising generation and was always ready to stand back
of his convictions. Mr. and Mrs. Day became the parents
of three children, namely : Jeanon, a teacher by pro-
fession, is now a student in Peabody College, Nashville,
Tennessee; Evelyn, who married D. M. Burchfield, one
of the prosperous business men of Manila, Philippine
Islands, and introducer of the automobile there, has
lived there for some years, as his father was the first
white man to settle in the islands after the United States
acquired possession of them, since which time he has
devoted much attention to the advancement of agricul-
ture; and Retta May, who is a student in Vanderbilt
University, Nashville, Tennessee.
Mrs. Day owns her residence, a modern one, at 405
Kegan Street, and her ample grounds, covering one city
block, with a private garage, are well-kept. She is also
the owner of the business building occupied by the
Dawson Pharmacal Company ; a dwelling on Kegan
Street; three farms in Hopkins County; one farm in
Mississippi and one farm in Caldwell County, and is
possessed of ample means.
Her religious convictions led her to unite with the
Christian Church, and she belongs to the local congrega-
tion of which her father was so generous a supporter,
and her own benefactions to it are large. Mrs. Day is
one of the women whose outlook has always been broad.
Having acquired more than an ordinary amount of cul-
ture and general information and developed her natural
faculties through study, reading and her educational du-
ties, she soon saw the dire need of concerted action by
the women of the country against the liquor traffic. Affi-
liating herself with the Women's Christian Temperance
Union, she soon became a forceful factor in the local
body, and was elected to its several offices. Her work
was of such a character that attention was called to
it throughout the state and other duties were assigned
her until today she has the honor of holding the
highest office of her district. As is but natural she
has given the prohibition party her support, even long
before there appeared any opportunity for her to vote
its ticket. She has exerted herself in the suffrage
movement, and the women of Kentucky have every
reason to be proud of her and grateful for her efforts
in their behalf. Reared in a comfortable home, hap-
pily married and the mother of a fine family of chil-
dren, as far as her own personal needs were concerned
Mrs. Day could have rested content, but she is not of
that caliber. She knew the need for work by intel-
ligent women and felt it her duty to give to her sex
the benefit of her knowledge and efficiency, and the
results are worthy of the woman and her cause. It
is perfectly safe to declare that had it not been for
the labor, patience and perseverance of the workers
for prohibition the Eighteenth Amendment would
never have been written. To them, and principally to
them alone, belongs the credit for the greatest reform
the world has known.
Will P. Scott. Long after Will P. Scott has been
called to his last reward the results of his life of
endeavor along many lines will remain as an enduring
monument to him and his high aims, which is more en-
during than marble or granite, and of infinite more
value to those who come after him, as well as to his
contemporaries. For many years he has been closely
identified with the development of Dawson Springs,
of which he is now mayor and where he is carrying
on an immense business as president and manager of
the Dawson Pharmacal Company, and of the county,
whose good roads testify as to the unremitting fight
he has waged in order to secure them.
Will P. Scott was born on a farm near Nebo, Hop-
kins County, Kentucky, January 25, 1870, a son of
W. T. Scott, and grandson of Adam Donald Scott,
born in North Carolina in 1807, who moved to Hop-
kins County, Kentucky, in 1845. Both as a farmer and
school teacher he took an active part in the life of
Hopkins County, and died here in 1889. He married
Jemima Howard, who was born in North Carolina in
1812, and died in Hopkins County in 1888. The Scotts
were originally from Scotland, from whence they came
to America about 1660 and located in Massachusetts.
The name was originally Stuart, but the American
emigrant, owing to his Scotch birth, was called "Old
Man Scott" so much that the spelling was changed,
496
IlIS'P >RV • )[■' KIN J I ( KY
and for many generations Scott has been used by all
of his descendants. He had five sons, one of whom
went to Canada, one to Pennsylvania, one to North
Carolina, one to Virginia and one remained in Massa-
chusetts. Will P. Scott is descended from the branch
which was established in North Carolina. General
Scott of Mexican war fame belonged to the same
branch of the family.
\Y. T. Scott was born in Hopkins County, Kentucky,
in 1845, and died on the old home farm near Nebo
June 30, 1918. All of his life was spent in this county,
and he gave all of his mature years to farming. The
republican party exemplified his ideas with reference
to political creed, and he supported its candidates con-
scientiously. He was equally zealous as a member of
the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and of the Ma-
sonic fraternity. During the war between the two
sections of the country he enlisted in 1863 in the Sev-
enteenth Kentucky Mounted Infantry, and served until
the close of' the war, being mustered out at Bowling
Green, Kentucky, in 1865. He married Hannah Parker,
who was born in 1847 on a farm within a mile of her
present farm, in the vicinity of Nebo, Kentucky. She
is a daughter of Wylie Parker, who was born near
Nebo in 1801, and died on the farm now occupied by
his daughter, Mrs. W. T. Scott, in 1851. His father
was the pioneer of the family in Hopkins County,
and settled on this farm, and at one time owned a
very large amount of land in the neighborhood of
Nebo. This pioneer gentleman of the Parker family
married a Miss Graham, whose parents came to Amer-
ica from Ireland, and her father served under Gen.
Andrew Jackson in the War of 1812 and took part
in the battle of New Orleans in 1815. The children
born to Mr. and Mrs. W. T. Scott were as follows :
Will P., who was the eldest; Roy, who resides at Daw-
son Springs, where he is operating the Hamby Hotel,
of which he is the proprietor ; John I., who lives on
a portion of the old homestead ; and Lena, who married
Guy Parish, superintendent of a coal mine at Circle
City. Kentucky.
Will P. Scott attended the rural schools of Hopkins
County, and at the same time was taught to make
himself useful on his father's farm, and these lessons
in industry and thrift then learned have been of great
benefit to him in his after life. When he was eighteen
years old he began teaching the country schools of
Hopkins County, and was so engaged for two years,
following which he entered the newspaper business at
Madisonville, and for a year published the Kentucky
"Grit," which he had established. He then located at
Central City. Kentucky, and published the Central City
"Republican," and during that same time traveled for
a wholesale drug house. In 1896 he came to Dawson
Springs and established a drug store, which he con-
ducted until 1904 and then sold it and organized the
Dawson Pharmacal Company, of which he is president
and manager. This company manufactures pharma-
ceutical medicines, and the market extends into every
state of the Union and even further, for orders are
received from as far off as Bombay, India ; Old Mex-
ico, Cuba and France. The warehouse and offices are
at 101, 103 and 107 North Railroad Avenue. Mr. Scott
owns a modern residence on South Main Street, which
is the best one at Dawson Springs. It was built in
1899 and is thoroughly modernized and equipped with
electric lights, hot and cold water, and other conven-
iences. A republican, Mr. Scott served as postmaster
of Dawson Springs from May, 1897, until August,
1914. In the meanwhile he read law and was admitted
to the bar May 26, 1916, and on June 1 of that year
assumed the duties of city attorney, and discharged
them until October, 1919. In November, 1919, he was
elected mayor of Dawson Springs, taking office De-
cember 1, 1919, and is still the incumbent. He is also
engaged in the practice of law. He is a member of the
Presbyterian Church, of which he is an elder, and
was superintendent of the Sunday School connected
with the local congregation for fifteen years. Well
known in Masonry, he belongs to Dawson Lodge No.
628, A. F. and A. M., of which he is a past master,
having served as such from 1900 to 1905 ; Madisonville
Chapter No. 27, R. A. M. ; Madisonville Commandery.
K. T.; and Rizpah Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of
Madisonville. He also belongs to Madisonville Lodge
No 738, B. P. O. E., and to the Madisonville Bar
Association.
During the late war Mr. Scott took an active part
in all local war work, assisting in all of the drives,
was chairman of the committees on two of the bond
issues, chairman of the Red Cross organization, and
still holds that office. He was deputy food admin-
istrator of the Dawson Springs district of Hopkins
Count}'. As an effective Four-Minute Speaker he did
such good work that he was the most sought after
man in the district, and his audiences listened to h'm
with appreciative attention whenever and wherever he
addressed them.
In 1893 Mr. Scott married at Central City, Kentucky.
Miss Fannie Stephens, a daughter of James and Mar-
garet (Jones) Stephens, the former of whom died at
Central City, where he was superintendent of a coal
mine, but the latter survives and still lives at Central
City. Both were born in Wales and came to the
United States, settling in Kentucky in 1876. Mr. and
Mrs. Scott became the parents of the following chil-
dren : Margaret Hannah, who married James Orange
and resides at Dawson Springs, where he is city mail
carrier, -and while he was in the army and served
overseas his brave wife carried the mail for him and
looked after their three little children ; Mary Edith,
who married Vaughn P. Frahlich. a telegrapher for the
Illinois Central Railroad and lives at Marion, Ken-
tucky.
The section of Kentucky embraced in Hopkins and
surrounding counties was a number of years ago
notorious because of the large number of lawless men
who infested the region. There was a large element
of criminals, bootleggers and others, and it seemed im-
possible for the law to hold them in check. Mr. Scott,
who has always sfood firm for the enforcement of law
and order, made up his mind to do what he could to
rid this region of these undesirables. To be better
able to cope with them he studied law, and was ad-
mitted to the bar when forty-six years of age, a re-
markable feat in itself, but he did more. The lawless-
ness reached its height when the rough element killed
Marshal K. H. Keach July 19. 1916, but he was then
prepared to fight these lawbreakers and began his war
against them. It was an uphill fight, and sometimes
it seemed as though he was alone, but other good citi-
zens joined him in his efforts, and now Dawson Springs
is one of the most orderly and law-abiding communi-
ties of the state. However, the credit for this desir-
able condition must be accorded him. Mr. Scott also
succeeded in having many of the offenders sent to the
penitentiarv, and the remainder, finding Dawson
Springs no longer a desirable place of residence for
those of their criminal propensities, left for parts un-
known, to the delight of all of the good citizens. The
magnificent work accomplished by Mr. Scott will en-
dure and will live in the memories of his fellow towns-
men and his name will be handed down by them to
posteritv.
Mr. Scott has not confined his public-spirited efforts
to elevating the moral tone of his community, but also
put up an equally strong fight for good roads, and his
work in this cause has resulted in a marked improve-
ment in the roads in this part of Kentucky. When he
began the roads in and about Dawson Springs were
almost impassable at certain seasons, but now some
of the best roads to be found in the state are these
same rebuilt roads, and Mr. Scott and his supporters
are still working to extend the movement so as to im-
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
497
prove those in outlying districts. Such men as Mr.
Scott are a decided acquisition to any neighborhood
in which they see fit to settle, and Dawson Springs is
fortunate, indeed, in having him as one of its resi-
dents and whole-hearted workers.
E. A. Stevens. The value of the waters of Dawson
Springs from a medicinal standpoint is universally rec-
ognized and the reputation established for them has
brought many to this city to drink them as well as
creating a demand for them in a bottled state. Out
of these demands have grown a number of reliable busi-
ness concerns, and one of them is that conducted by
E. A. Stevens, who owns one of the natural and con-
centrated mineral water wells. He also bottles this
water and exports it all over the country.
E. A. Stevens was born in Hopkins County, on a
farm three miles north of Madisonville, Kentucky,
October 21, 1868, a son of T. J. Stevens, and a mem-
ber of an old Colonial family of Virginia, where his
grandfather was born. He later, however, brought
his family to Hopkins County, Kentucky, and settled
near Madisonville, and was engaged in farming the
remainder of his life. The great-grandfather was also
born in Virginia and died there at the advanced age
of ninety-nine years.
T. J. Stevens was born on the same farm as his
son, August 26, 1842, and was there reared and edu-
cated, and for a number of years was occupied with
conducting it, but is now living retired at Madisonville,
having ample means acquired from his extensive farm-
ing operations. In politics he is a republican. The
Christian Church has in him a zealous member and
generous supporter. He married Laura Jackson, who
was born in Hopkins County in 1851, and died at Han-
son, Kentucky, in 1904. Their children were as fol-
lows: Walter, who died in infancy; E. A., who was
second in order of birth ; Edward, who is engaged in
the flour milling business and lives at Bowling Green,
Kentucky; Lillie E., who is deceased; Martha, who
died at the age of nineteen years ; John W., who is a
flour miller and lives at Nebo, Kentucky; and Emma,
who married Lloyd Ashby, manager of the ice plant
of Madisonville, Kentucky.
E. A. Stevens grew up on his father's farm, where
he remained until he reached his majority, and at the
same time attended the rural schools. Leaving the
farm, he began to learn the flour milling business at
Madisonville, and was connected with it for fifteen
years in the employ of U. J. Holland. Mr. Stevens
then went to Providence, Kentucky, and for a year was
interested in a flour mill with W. M. Farless. For the
subsequent seven years he was engaged in a flour mill
at Hanson, Kentucky, leaving there for Dawson Springs
in 1905, and once more establishing himself in the flour
milling business, in which he continued until Febru-
ary, 1920, when he disposed of his interests. In 1917
Mr. Stevens bought the property on which his well
is located, on Alexander Street, and had the well dug
for him. The water being up to his expectations, he
built a pavilion about it, and finding that it was one
of the best wells of the springs he began bottling the
water and ships it every day and to every state in the
Union.
Elected to the City Council on the republican ticket,
Mr. Stevens has taken a constructive part in the devel-
opment of the policies of Dawson Springs and has a
high sense of civic duty. He belongs to the Christian
Church, in which he is a deacon. A Mason, he belongs
to Dawson Lodge No. 628, A. F. and A. M., and he
is also a member of Dawson Lodge No. no, I. O. O. F.,
of which he is a past grand ; Dawson Springs Camp
No. 12392, M. W. A. ; and Magnolia Camp No. 73,
W. O. W. He owns a modern residence at Hall and
Franklin streets, one of the finest in Dawson Springs.
During the late war he took a very active part in the
local war work, assisting in the sales of bonds, and
Vol. V— 45
subscribing personally to his limit, being in full accord
with all of the movements to raise funds and help the
soldiers.
On January 31, 1898, Mr. Stevens married at Mad-
isonville, Kentucky, Miss Sallie Fugate, who was born
near Madisonville. Mr. and Mrs. Stevens have one
child, Elizabeth, who married Joe Peck, a traveling
representative for Armour & Company, and resides at
Princeton, Kentucky.
William J. Faull. The achievements in the career
of William J. Faull, office manager of the St. Bernard
Mining Company, of St. Charles, Kentucky, are typical
of the accomplishments noted in the lives of other
men who are entitled to be known as self-made. When
he entered upon his struggle with the world his only
possessions outside of a common school education were
those of ambition, energy and a willingness to carry
out acceptably any honorable work that, fell to his lot.
His career has been characterized by steady and well-
earned advancement, and today he occupies a position
of recognized importance in the line of business in
which his entire life has been spent.
Mr. Faull was born at Ducktown, Polk County, Ten-
nessee, October 23, 1871, a son of George H. Faull.
His father, born in Cornwall, England, in December,
1850, came to the United States at the age of eighteen
years and located at Ducktown, where he secured em-
ployment in the copper mines. Later he removed to
Coal Creek, Tennessee, where he became a coal miner,
and in 1878 came to Kentucky and for one year worked
in the coal mine at Empire. His next location was at
St. Charles, where for a quarter of a century he was
a mine foreman for the St. Bernard Mining Company,
at the end of which time he retired on a pension and
moved to Earlington. Thereafter he was employed
intermittently as a forester, and while on a visit to
Herrin, Illinois, died in January, 1914. Mr. Faull was
a republican and always took an interest in the affairs
of his community. He served effectively as a member
of the School Board of St. Charles for a number of
years, as a member of the City Council, and always
possessed in full degree the respect and confidence of
his associates and fellow-citizens. He was a devout
Christian and a faithful member of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South, and his fraternal affiliation
was with the Masons.
In Ducktown, Tennessee, Mr. Faull married Eliza-
beth Ann Roberts, who was born in Cornwall, England,
in February, 1852, and survives him and resides at
Earlington. Her father, Jonathan Roberts, was born
in England and immigrated to the United States about
1857, settling near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he
lived for a number of years, removing then to Duck-
town, Tennessee, where he died. He was a life-long
miner. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Faull were
as follows: William J.; Annie, the wife of J. B. Hibbs,
a coal miner of St. Charles; Henry, a coal miner of
Herrin, Illinois ; Ena, the wife of Horace Harrison, a
coal miner of Clay, Kentucky; Ella, who died at the
age of three years ; Nora, who died unmarried at the
age of twenty-nine years ; and Barton, a coal miner,
who resides with his mother at Earlington, Kentucky.
Barton Faull entered the United States service in
March, 1918, and was sent for training to Camp Custer,
Michigan. He went overseas with the heavy artillery
and was in the Metz sector, right at the front, when
the armistice was signed. Returning to the United
States, he was honorably discharged and mustered out
of the service in April, 1919.
William J. Faull received his education in the pub-
lic schools of St. Charles, and entered the employ of
his present concern in 18S4, his first work being trap-
ping and driving. He gradually worked his way up
through many grades, such as boss driver, assistant
mine foreman for one year and locomotive engineer
for the company for eighteen months, and in 1902
/
498
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
was made office manager, a position which he holds at
this time. Industry, integrity, native ability and fidel-
ity have been the means by which he has secured ad-
vancement, and each of his promotions has been won
by personal merit. Mr. Faull has the implicit confi-
dence of his associates and superiors, and the good
will and friendship of his men. He is thoroughly
informed as to all details of the business, having per-
sonally experienced the work in the various depart-
ments, and this gives him a sympathetic knowledge of
conditions, which, combined with his executive ability,
makes him a valuable official. The offices of the com-
pany are located in the St. Bernard Mining Company's
store building at Main and Greenville streets.
A republican in his political affiliation, Mr. Faull is
one of the influential members of his party, and has
rendered valuable service to the city as a member of
the council for eight vears. Fraternally he holds mem-
bership in E. W. Truner Lodge No. 548, A. F. and
A. M„ Earlington : Earlington Chapter No. 141, R. A.
M.; St Bernard Commandery No 129, K. T. ; and Riz-
pah Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., Madisonville; and
is an ex-member of the Knights of Pythias and the
Woodmen of the World. He has other business inter-
ests and is secretary and treasurer of the Buck Run
Coal Company at St. Charles. Mr. Faull owns a mod-
ern residence on College Street, a comfortable home
with modern improvements, including hot water heat-
ing and city water. He was chairman of the Liberty
Loan and other committees, including the Red Cross,
and during the war period was a liberal subscriber to
all movements inaugurated for the support of the
Government.
Mr. Faull married at St. Charles in 1896 Miss Joan
McAllister, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Mc-
Allister, the former a native of Scotland and the latter
of Ireland, and both now deceased. Mr. McAllister
was for some years a coal miner at St. Charles. Five
children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Faull: Mona
Meade, born in February, 1897, who married T. N.
Sisk, a coal miner of St. Charles; Marjorie, who died
at the age of seventeen months; Perry Kemp, born
September 10, 1000, manager of a Piggly Wiggly store
at Dayton, Ohio; Margaret Elizabeth, born April 28,
1003, who attended high school at Earlington and now
resides with her parents; and Mary Sue, born Febru-
ary 2, 191 1, who is attending school.
Neville Leaxder Holemax, proprietor of the H. &
H. Water Company of Dawson Springs, is one of the-
leading men of his community and connected with its
most important business houses either as an official or
stockholder. A practical druggist, he is well qualified
to be at the head of a concern like the H. & H. Water
Company, and in this capacity, as in all others, he dis-
plays his good judgment and fairness of dealing in a
manner eminently satisfactory to all parties concerned.
Mr. Holeman was born at Madisonville, Hopkins
County, Kentucky, July 14, 1861, a son of N. M. Hole-
man, who was born at Hopkinsville, Christian County,
Kentucky, in 1835. His death occurred at Dawson
Springs in .1906, he having played a very prominent part
in the development of this place as a health resort.
Leaving Hopkinsville, where he had been reared and
educated, in 1858, N. M. Holeman moved to Madison-
ville, Kentucky, and was one of the pioneer druggists
of Hopkins County. At that time the majority of the
physicians furnished the drugs to their patients, but
he had the distinction of filling the first prescription
ever issued in Hopkins County. In 1881 the medicinal
value of the waters of Dawson Springs was discovered,
and in 1882 the Arcadia Hotel was erected. Mr. Hole-
man's attention was attracted to the place, and in 1887
he was induced to come here and buy this hotel, which
he continued to conduct until his death, although in
later years he had the assistance of his son, N. L.
Holeman, in doing so. He was a man of the highest
character, living up to the ideals of the Christian
Church and the Masonic fraternity, being a member
of both and zealously supporting them. His vote was
cast conscientiously for the candidates of- the demo-
cratic party, for he believed that its principles were
the best for' the country.
N. M. Holeman married Miss Sallie W. Goodlove,
who was born in Hopkins County in 1839, and died
at Madisonville in 1913. Their children were as fol-
lows : Lelia, who married Judge J. F. Dempsey, a very
prominent attorney of Madisonville, who has been
county judge, county attorney and state railroad com-
missioner; Neville L., who was second in order of
birth ; and H. H, who is a real estate broker, druggist
and banker of Madisonville.
Growing up at Madisonville, Neville L. Holeman was
graduated from its high school course in 1879, and then
took a course at Eminence College, Eminence, Ken-
tucky. Returning to Madisonville, he was in the drug
business there with his father until 1886, when he
went West, and for a year conducted a confectionery
business at Harper, Kansas. Once more he went back
to Madisonville, and for a year was in the drug busi-
ness, but in 1888 came to Dawson Springs and for a
year devoted himself to the drug business. During the
summer of 1890 he joined his father in the hotel busi-
ness, and at the death of the latter became the pro-
prietor of the Arcadia Hotel, and conducted it until
1916, when he disposed of it and established the busi-
ness known as the H. & H. Water Company, having for
his partner J. C. Meadows. They are shippers of min-
eral waters, both natural and carbonated. The territory
of this company embraces all of the United States and
Canada, and they are the largest shippers by far of nat-
ural mineral waters in Hopkins County. The offices
and headquarters are located in their fine new pavilion,
which they erected in 1917 on South Main Street. In
addition to this company Mr. Holeman is president of
the City Water & Ice Company; vice president of the
Dawson Pharmaceutical Company; a director of the
Auditorium of Dawson Springs, of the Commercial
Bank of Dawson Springs, and a stockholder in
other enterprises. A democrat, he has long been a
member of the School Board, of which he has been
chairman for fifteen years, and for two terms was one
of the town trustees. He was appointed by Governor
Stanley as state election commissioner, but declined the
honor. Well known in Masonry, he belongs to Dawson
Springs Lodge No. 628, A. F. and A. M., which he
served in 1899 as worshipful master; Madisonville
Chapter No. 27, R. A. M. ; Madisonville Commandery,
K. T.; and Rizpah Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of
Madisonville. He is also a member of Madisonville
Lodge No. 738, B. P. O. E., and Magnolia Camp No.
73, W. O. W„ of Dawson Springs. Mr. Holeman
owns his comfortable modern residence on South Main
Street. Dawson Springs, and is interested in a 300-
acre farm in Hopkins County. During the late war
he took an active part in all of the local activities,
and subscribed for bonds and stamps to his limit.
In February, 1896, Mr. Holeman married at Louis-
ville, Kentucky, Miss Lee Demf, a daughter of G. A.
and Lena Demf, both of whom are deceased. Mr.
Demf was a tobacco salesman and manufacturer. Mr.
and Mrs. Holeman became the parents of the following
children: John H., who was born in November, 1896,
is associated with his father in business and lives at
home, is manager of the Auditorium, and a veteran
of the great war, having enlisted in the United States
Navy in 1918 and served until he was mustered out
in January, 1919; Virginia, who was born in December,
1898, was graduated from the Young Ladies' Seminary
at Cincinnati, Ohio, is now at home; Neville Goodlove,
who was born in May, 1905, is attending high school
at Columbia, Tennessee; and David Fletcher, who was
born in February, 191 1. Mr. Holeman is not only a
sound and experienced business man, but he is also
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
499
an enthusiast with reference to Dawson Springs and
anxious to do everything in his power to develop it
still further and add to its attractive features. He
knows the value of its waters and recognizes the fact
that while they are eminently beneficial, however taken,
an added efficacy is gained from them when the patient
enjoys the advantages afforded by Dawson Springs.
William Thomas Davis, proprietor and publisher
of the Dawson Springs "Progress," is one of the most
alert young business men of Hopkins County, and one
whose progress has been watched with admiration by
his many friends. He was born in Daviess County,
Kentucky, June 16, 1899, a son of B; T. Davis, and
grandson of Archie Gregory Davis, who died in
Daviess County in 1902. He was a clergyman of the
Baptist Church and the first of his family to locate in
Daviess County. The maternal grandfather of William
Thomas Davis was Paxton Hale, and he died at Cal-
houn, Kentucky, in 1879. By occupation he was a
nurseryman, and established his family in McLean
County, Kentucky, many years ago.
B. T. Davis was born in Daviess County in 1865,
where he was reared, educated and married, and where
he established himself as a farmer. In the spring of
1908 he came to Dawson Springs with the hope of
improving his health, and found the climate and sur-
roundings so beneficial that he decided to locate here
permanently. He is independent in his political views,
but has no aspirations toward office. For many years
he has been a member of the Baptist Church, and has
always given the local congregation of»that denomina-
tion his active support. B. T. Davis married Miss
Carma Hale, who was born in McLean County, Ken-
tucky, in 1857, and their children are as follows :
Charles Gregory, who is a resident of Dawson
Springs; Charlotta Elizabeth, who married Arthur H.
Lillie and lives on her father's farm; and William
Thomas, who is the youngest.
William Thomas Davis attended the public schools
of Dawson Springs, and was taking its high school
course when he left school at the age of fourteen years.
He began to learn the newspaper busineess with the
Dawson Springs Tribune, beginning at the bottom of
the ladder and steadily mounting through well-merited
promotions until he was made its editor in 1916, and
continued to hold that position until the spring of
1918, when he went with the Frankfort State Jour-
nal as pressman and remained there for eight months.
Then for one month he was with the Madisonville
Messenger. On April 1, 1919, Mr. Davis established
the Dawson Springs Progress, an independent jour-
nal which circulates in Hopkins and surrounding coun-
ties. The plant and offices are located at m Rail-
road Avenue, and are equipped with all modern ma-
chinery, including linotype machines, the plant being
one that would do credit to any city. Mr. Davis re-
sides at 215 Railroad Avenue. He is a democrat, but
does not carry his politics into his newspaper. Fra-
ternally he belongs to Dawson Springs Camp No. 12392,
M. W. A. Although a young man in point of years,
he has had a long and varied experience in the news-
paper business and is fully qualified for his responsible
position as a moulder of public opinion, and is_ un-
questionablv possessed of a high order of business
ability. His evident sincerity, his determination to
give his readers a clean, entertaining paper with plenty
of local news, unbiased as to politics, and his ability
have won for him the approval and support of the
best element in the county.
Charles Albert Niles, M. D., one of the reliable
and popular physicians and surgeons of Dawson
Springs, is not only enjoying a large practice which
he has built up through his skill and experienced knowl-
edge, but is also connected with financial and other
interests of his community, and is held in the highest
respect by all who know him. He was born at Cairo,
Henderson County, Kentucky, February 29, 1872, a son
of Rev. Albert A. Niles.
Reverend Niles was born near Calhoun, Kentucky, in
1838, and died in Henderson, Henderson County, Ken-
tucky, in 1914. While still a young man he moved to
Henderson County, and as a member of the Holiness
Association did evangelical work in behalf of the Mis-
sionary Baptist Church, being the pioneer clergyman in
his part of Henderson County. Later he went into
Illinois, Texas and other states on his evangelical
work, but continued to maintain his residence in Hen-
derson County. A man of great eloquence, he accom-
plished a vast amount of good and was greatly be-
loved by the people everywhere he went. A man of
strong convictions, he reserved the right to vote as
his conscience dictated and did not bind himself by
party ties. He married Miss Mary Phillips, who was
born in Henderson County, Kentucky, in 1845, and she
survives him and makes her home at Henderson. Their
children were as follows : George M., who was born
February 3, 1864, is a druggist of Union City, Ten-
nessee; Maria Virginia, who was born February 13,
1866, married Dr. H. P. Sights, a physician and sur-
geon of Paducah, Kentucky; Mary Lovina, who was
born February 6, 1868, married O. E. Laird, pastor of
the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and an at-
torney, lives at Cairo, Illinois ; Sarah Elizabeth, who
was born April 14, 1870, married B. L. Patterson,
pastor of the Holiness Church of Nashville, Tennessee ;
Doctor Niles, who was fifth in order of birth ; Ben
Edward, who was born February 15, 1875, is an at-
torney and realtor of Henderson, Kentucky; Lillie Etta,
who was born January 18, 1878, married Hal Crews,
a newspaper publisher of Springfield, Illinois; Anna
Idell, who was born September 21, 1880, married Ben
W. Floyd, owner of a plumbing establishment of Mor-
ganfield, Kentucky; and Ruth, who was born Decem-
ber 29, 1884, is a school teacher and resides with her
mother.
Doctor Niles attended the rural schools of Hen-
derson County, the high school of Cairo, Kentucky,
and when he was sixteen years old began to be self-
supporting, obtaining a position in the postoffice- at
Corydon, Kentucky, where he remained for six months.
In 1894 he began teaching in the rural schools of Hen-
derson County, and continued to pursue this calling
for four years. In the meanwhile he- attended the
Kentucky School of Medicine at Louisville, Kentucky,
for two years, and then had a year's training at the
Hospital College of Medicine at Louisville, from which
he was graduated in 1898 with the degree of Doctor
of Medicine. On September 15, 1898, he established
himself at Dawson Springs, where he has carried on
a general medical and surgical practice ever since. His
offices are over the Fullerton Drug Store on South
Main Street. Doctor Niles is local surgeon for the
Illinois Central Railroad Company. He owns one of
the best modern residences in the city, and it is
located on South Main Street. In addition to it he
owns nine dwellings at Dawson Springs, the public
garage on Princeton Avenue, a half interest in the
Dawson Springs Swimming Pool, an interest in
the Dawson Springs Tolo (water) Plant, an interest
in the Dawson Springs Park, a farm one-half a mile
south of Dawson Springs and is a stockholder in the
Commercial Bank of Dawson Springs.
A strong republican, Doctor Niles served Dawson
Springs as mayor for two terms or eight years. He is
a member of the Missionary Baptist Church, to which
he gives an active support. A Mason, he belongs to
Dawson Lodge No. 628 A. F. and A.M., and profes-
sionally he maintains membership with the Hopkins
County Medical Society and is a member of the County
Board of Health. During the late war he took a
very active part in all of the local war work,_ assisting
in all of the drives and subscribing to his limit, and,
500
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
in fact, doing everything in his power to aid the ad-
ministration to carry out its policies.
In 1914 Doctor Niles married at Louisville, Kentucky,
Miss Georgia Hoover, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs.
George Hoover, both of whom are now deceased. Mr.
Hoover was a hotel proprietor at the time of his
uemise. Doctor and Mrs. Niles have no children.
G. F. Boughner is an attorney and business man of
Covington. In early life he was identified with the
leaf tobacco business, but for more than twenty years
he has devoted his time and energies to his chosen
profession.
His family history goes back to the earliest pioneer
times in Kentucky, even while the Colonies on the
Atlantic seaboard were being settled. The Boughners
were of German descent, and the first son born in
this country so far as there is record was Mathias
Boughner, born in Sussex County, New Jersey, in 1740.
The name of his wife is unknown. Of their eight
children two sons were William Boughner, born in
1762, and Peter, born in 1764. Both were soldiers in
the Revolutionary war on the side of the Colonists.
After the war William remained with the Colonists
but Peter moved into Canada and was one of the first
settlers in Norfolk County, Ontario, near Simcoe. He
was the grandfather of Elias Boughner, who had the
gift of a born orator and was elected and served a
life term as county clerk of Norfolk County. He
died in 1920, and he owned the original homestead in
Norfolk County. The descendants of these pioneer
Boughners hold an annual reunion at Port Dover on
Lake Erie in Norfolk County, Canada, and the number
of these descendants directly sprung from the old
colonists or related by marriage is now more than five
thousand. (The history of Peter Boughner's family
can be found in Owen, Pioneer Sketches of Long
Point Settlement).
The name of William Boughner's wife is unknown.
Of their several children two sons were Peter Bough-
ner and John Wesley Boughner. These Boughner
brothers came down the Ohio River, and while in Ohio
were overtaken by the Indians and John Wesley was
killed. Peter Boughner came on to Kentucky, married
and reared a family of four sons and two daughters.
The names of the sons were Bishop, Bail, Joab and
Sail, while the daughters were Dorcas and Margaret.
Joab Boughner, third son of Peter Boughner, was
born in Bracken County, Kentucky, in 1801, and lived
there all his life, cultivating and managing an exten-
sive farm. He died in 1872. His wife was Elizabeth
Blythe, who was born near New Boston in Clermont
County, Ohio, in 1814, and died in Bracken County.
Kentucky, in 1907. To their union three sons and one
daughter were born: William J., John Wesley, George
A. and Margaret Boughner. George A. and Margaret
never married. William Boughner married Narcissus
Thomas, of Augusta, Kentucky, and reared a family on
the old home farm where Joab Boughner settled, and one
of his sons, William R. Boughner, and a daughter,
Margaret Boughner, still live on and own the farm.
John W. Boughner was born in Bracken County June
26, 1836, was reared and married in his native county
and for several years conducted a retail dry goods and
grocery store, one of the leading enterprises of its kind
in the county. During the war between the states he
joined the Confederate Army under General Morgan and
was with that leader during the raid at Augusta, Ken-
tucky. In 1867 John W. Boughner moved to Newport.
Kentucky, and later became associated with L. H.
Brooks, under the firm name of Boughner & Brooks, in
the tobacco business in Cincinnati. For a number of
years he was president of the Planters Tobacco Ware-
house at Cincinnati, one of the largest enterprises of the
kind in the city, and he continued to be a leading and
influential figure in the business until his death. He
died at Covington August 1, 1908. He was a democrat
in politics and a very active worker in the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South. He and his brother William
were charter members of Bracken County Lodge of
Masons.
John W. Boughner married Jacova N. Laughlin, who
was born in Bracken County February 14, 1840, and died
at Covington in 1892. Jacova N. Laughlin was a grand-
daughter of Benjamin Laughlin, who was of Scotch
ancestry and of a pioneer Maryland family. Benjamin
Laughlin as a young man came from Maryland to
Fayette County, Kentucky, but the last years of his life
were spent in Bracken County. He married Elizabeth
Chalfant, who was born in Maryland in 1790 and died
in Bracken County. Their son, Benjamin F. Laughlin,
was born in Fayette County November 18, 1808, spent
his active career as a farmer near Augusta, and died at
Augusta April 21, 1881. He was a leader in the educa-
tional affairs of his community and a democrat in politics.
His wife was Martha Ann Dora, who was born in
Bracken County November 28. 1818, and died at Augusta
June 23, 1502. Jacova was the second of their family
of eleven children, the youngest of whom is Dr. Samuel
D. Laughlin, a prominent citizen of Augusta, whose
individual career is sketched elsewhere in this publication
and contains further details of the Laughlin family his-
tory.
The only child of John W. Boughner and wife is
G. F. Boughner, who was born at Berlin, Bracken Coun-
ty. Kentucky, April 25, 1864, and has lived since infancy
in Covington, where he attended the public schools,
graduating from high school in 1881. He then took up
the study of law with the firm of Carlisle, Goebel &
Carlisle, later with Theodore F. Hallam and still later
with L. E. Baker. For some fifteen years he was en-
gaged in the leaf tobacco business, but since his admis-
sion to the bar in 1898 has been busy in his chosen pro-
fession, and throughout those years has had offices with
B. F. Graziani at 508-510 Madison Avenue, Covington.
Mr. Boughner has been a member of the Scott Street
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, for fifty years. He
is a democrat but has never sought public office. He ex-
pressed his convictions during the war by putting all his
available means at the service of the Government in the
purchase of securities and in assisting committees to fill
local quotas and gave a large amount of time to war
work.
Samuel J. DeBord is now in his third consecutive
term as sheriff of Boyd County. He was a popular
and successful business man at Ashland before he en-
tered politics, and the manner in which he has assumed
and handled his official responsibilities has brought
him a growing confidence that has been manifested
in increasing majorities every time he has became a
candidate for re-election.
Mr. DeBord was born in Lawrence County, Ken-
tucky. September 2. 1876, a son of Stephen and Augusta
(Hatfield) DeBord, the former a native of Lawrence
County and the latter of Floyd County. Stephen De-
Bord owned and operated a farm in Lawrence County,
hut in 1900 removed to Ashland, where he died in 1904
at the age of fifty-one. His widow is still living at
Ashland. The family are Baptists in religious con-
nections.
Sheriff DeBord. one of a family of five sons and
two daughters, attended school in a country district
in Lawrence County, also at Louisa, and at the age
of seventeen was learning business as clerk in a gen-
eral store at Dingess, West Virginia. About the time
he reached his majority the Spanish-American war
broke out and he volunteered in the Third Kentucky
Regiment. He saw service in Cuba for about a year
during the reconstruction period, when General Wood
was governor general of the island and effecting his
widely heralded reforms in civic and sanitary measures.
On returning home Mr. DeBord joined his brother,
William, and established a store at Ashland. They
&a^ ^ JJU ti^y*-d
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
501
continued this business until 1910. In the meantime
William was studying medicine, and since graduating
has been one of the leading physicians of Ashland.
Prior to his first election as sheriff Mr. DeBord
was for eight years jailer of Boyd County. The first
time he was candidate for sheriff his chief opposition
was in Catlettsburg, and he lost that town by 450 votes.
Four years later there was a complete reversion of
sentiment in his favor at Catlettsburg, which gave him
a majority of 400. The third election he carried Cat-
lettsburg by goo. ..„„■/-> n
July 5, 1903, Mr. DeBord married Mollie Carroll,
daughter of John Carroll, of Grayson, Kentucky. They
have two children, Walter A. and Alma Lucile. Mr.
DeBord has a number of business interests, is a direc-
tor of the Ashland National Bank, a director of the
McClintock Fields Dry Goods Company, and is treas-
urer of the Silver Run Oil Company, one of the pro-
ducing companies in the East Kentucky territory. In
politics he is a stanch republican, a member of the
Kiwanis Club, and is affiliated with Hampton Lodge
No. 235 of Catlettsburg, with the chapter and com-
mandery and with El Hasa Temple at Ashland, A. A.
O. N. M. S. He is also a member of the Eastern
Star, Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the
Junior Order United American Mechanics. Mr. De-
Bord is one of the active members of the First Meth-
odist Episcopal Church at Ashland. He is now on the
building committee supervising the construction of a
church edifice that will be one of the largest and finest
church homes in the state.
Charles D. Cole, secretary and treasurer of the
Pope-Cawood Lumber & Supply Company, owner of
coal lands, member of the City Council, election com-
missioner of Harlan, and a director of the Harlan
State Bank, is one of the leading men of this section
and belongs to a distinguished family. He was born
in Laurel County, Kentucky, February 6, 1887, a son ot
Perry V. Cole, and grandson of Jerome Cole, who was
born in Missouri in 1832 and died at McKee, Jackson
County, Kentucky, in 1904. Leaving Missouri after
he had passed his majority, Jerome Cole came to Ken-
tucky, and for some years was engaged in farming
and teaching in the public schools of Owsley County.
Subsequently he moved to Jackson County, buying a
farm five miles south of McKee, and while operating
it was still engaged in teaching school. In 1902 he
retired and located at McKee, where he lived until
claimed by death. He was a republican in politics.
The Christian Church held his membership and also
had his service as one of its clergymen. During the
war between the North and the South he served in the
Union Army during the last two years of thenar, as
a member of a Kentucky volunteer regiment of infantry.
He married Rhoda Moore, who was born in Owsley
County, Kentucky, in 1839 and died on the home farm
in Jackson County in 1889. Their children were as
follows : Margaret, who died in Laurel County, Ken-
tucky, at the age of thirty years, was the wife of John
Hellard; Martha, who died in Jackson County, Ken-
tucky, at the age of forty years, was the wife of David
Hellard; James, who is a farmer of Jackson County;
John, who is deceased; Perry V., who is mentioned at
length below ; Simeon, who died in Jackson County
at the age of twenty-two years; William, who is a
mine foreman, lives in Harlan County ; Harvey, who
is a farmer and general workman, resides in Laurel
County; and Wiley, who was a farmer, died in Laurel
County at the age of thirty years.
Perry V. Cole was reared on his father's farm until
he was twenty years old, and at that time left to
become a coal miner and worked at this business in
Laurel County for five years, when he embarked in a
mercantile business at East Bernstadt, Kentucky, con-
ducting this store for six years. For ten years he was
in the same line of business at Pittsburg, Laurel County,
and during that time served as postmaster. In 1908 he
became state mine inspector and moved to Barbours-
ville, Knox County, and lived there for seven years
while holding that office. At the expiration of this
period he began to operate coal lands in Harlan County,
starting in this business without capital, but has done
so well that today he owns 250 acres of coal land at
the head of Clover Fork, Harlan County. In 1917 he
located permanently at Harlan, and since 1918 has been
president of the Harlan State Bank. Mr. Cole owns
his modern residence, corner of Central and Third
streets, which is one of the most desirable and com-
fortable homes in the city. He also owns the Kelly
Hotel on Main Street, which is one of the leading
hostelries in the city. He is a republican. The Baptist
Church has him as a member and trustee. A Mason,
he belongs to Harlan Lodge No. 879, F. and A. M.,
is a past master of the Pittsburg, Kentucky, lodge, a
member of Harlan Chapter No. 165, R. A. M. ; Kosair
Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of Louisville, Kentucky,
and he is also a Knight-Templar 'Mason, and belongs
to the order of Odd Fellows. During the late war he
took the greatest of interest in the local war work, as
did his son Charles D., and both were heavy investors
in bonds and stamps and generous contributors to the
war organizations.
On December 28, 1884, Perry V. Cole married in
Laurel County, Kentucky, Miss Cassie Williams, a
daughter of John H. and Sarah (Laws) Williams,
both of whom are deceased. For many years Mr. Wil-
liams was a successful farmer of Laurel County. Mr.
and Mrs. Perry V. Cole became the parents of the
following children : Delbert, who was a merchant,
died at the age of twenty-five years ; Charles D., whose
name heads this review ; Ida, who married W. S. Hud-
son, a printer, lives at Barboursville; Ollie, who married
W. T. Chappell, a druggist of Corbin, Kentucky;
Arthur, who is in business with his father, is manager
of the Kelly Hotel.
Charles D. Cole was educated in the public schools
of Laurel County and the Sue-Bennett Memorial School
at London, Kentucky, leaving school in 1905 to help
his father in his mercantile business at Pittsburg,
Kentucky. In 1908 he accompanied his father to Bar-
boursville, and, buying the Mountain Advocate, edited
it for two years. Leaving the newspaper field, he
entered the First National Bank of Barboursville as
assistant cashier, and held that position until his resig-
nation in 1913, when he came to Harlan and became
a coal operator. In 1917 he sold his coal interests,
although at present he has others at Clover Fork in
Harlan County. For several years thereafter he was
an active operator in the real estate business, leaving
it in 1920 to become secretary and treasurer of the
Pope-Cawood Lumber & Supply Company, which offices
he still holds. This is the leading lumber company
in Southeastern Kentucky, and handles lumber and all
kinds of building materials. The offices and yard are
situated on Depot Street, opposite the depot.
Mr. Cole is a stanch republican, and is now serving
his second year as a member of the City Council of
Harlan. He is election commissioner of Harlan County.
Well known in Masonry, he belongs to Harlan Lodge
No. 879, F. and A. M. ; Harlan Chapter No. 165, R. A.
M. ; Duffield Commandery No. 42, K. T. of Harlan; and
Kosair Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of Louisville, Ken-
tucky. In addition to his stock in the Harlan State
Bank, of which he is a director, he owns and operates
a confectionery store on Central Street, and owns his
comfortable modern residence on Cumberland Avenue.
This is a very attractive home, a feature of it being
the use of cobblestones in the outside chimney, porch
pillars and for a wall surrounding the premises.
On September 24, 1913, Mr. Cole married at Bar-
boursville, Kentucky, Miss Adah Tinsley Stephens, a
daughter of James A. and Nannie (Anderson)
502
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
Stephens, residents of Indianapolis, Indiana. Mr.
Stephens is a traveling salesman. Mr. and Mrs. Cole
have two children, Doris, who was born February 23,
191 7, and Charles Marvin, who was born January 9,
1920. Both Mr. Cole and his father have played a
very important part in the development of the coal
industry of Harlan County, their energy and foresight
adding very materially to the coal production of this
locality. As citizens they measure up to the best stand-
ards of American manhood, and their home community
owes them a heavy debt for what they have accom-
plished in every way, for they are men of action and
determination, and make a success of whatever they
undertake.
John W. Rawlings has been a successful lawyer at
Danville for thirty years, was formerly a successful
educator, and is one of the best known public speakers
and leaders of public movements in the state.
He was born on a farm in Marion County, Kentucky.
This farm was on the North Rolling Fork near Gravel
Switch. His opportunities for education and profes-
sional advancement he discovered and made largely for
himself. He attended Perryville Academy, Columbia
College, taught in a high school for six years, and
before and after engaging in law practice served twenty-
four years as county superintendent of schools in Boyle
County. This long service was largely responsible
for many of the present high standards exemplified
in the schools of the county.
Mr. Rawlings began practice at Danville in the spring
of 1889. For several years he was a partner with
Robert Harding, but more recently his work has been
done entirely as an individual lawyer. He has handled
a large business in all the local and state courts and
cases in the Federal courts have taken him before the
branches of the Federal judiciary in Kentucky, Ohio, .
and also in Dallas, Texas. Mr. Rawlings is an un-
usually gifted speaker. He is deeply versed in a wide
range of general literature, particularly the scriptures,
and his ready and apt use of quotations lend both force
and attractiveness to his oratory. He is in demand
as a speaker at many prominent gatherings. He has
many times served as a delegate to democratic con-
ventions, and is one of the leading democrats of the
state. Mr. Rawlings has valuable property interests in
Texas, including 1800 acres of grazing and farm land
This land is now in the territory where active drilling
is in progress for oil development. He is attorney for
the L. & N. Railroad Company, the Southern Railway
Company, the Singer Sewing Machine Company, and
the Commonwealth Power Railway & Light Company.
Socially he is a member of Franklin Lodge No. 28,
F. and A. M., Franklin Chapter No. 22, Ryan Com-
mandery No. 17, and Kosair Temple of Louisville,
A. A. O. N. M. S. He is also a member of the Baptist
Church and active in Sunday school work, and for
some years taught the Bible class.
March 3, 1881, Mr. Rawlings married Miss Lila
Westerfield, who was born near Harrodsburg in Mercer
County, Kentucky, attended the common schools of that
county, and finished her education at Parksville. Mr.
and Mrs. Rawlings had four children. Ada B., who
died at the age of seventeen, had already shown pro-
nounced ability as a pianist. Mame A. is the wife of
W. H. Hartman, income tax inspector whose home is at
Louisville, but whose temporary location is in Washing-
ton, D. C. Miss Margaret Lucile, aged twenty-one,
is a graduate of the Louisville Conservatory of Music
and Dramatic Art, is also a graduate of the Carnegie
School of Dramatic Art in New York, and is preparing
to use her splendid abilities in a professional way. The
only son, Henry C. Rawlings, was educated in the
schools of Danville, was a telegrapher by occupation
until the great war, when he enlisted, July 28, 1918, at
Danville, and served as a member of the Three Hundred
and Thirtieth Guard and Fire Company until discharged
at Camp Mills, Long Island, January 23, 1919.
Perry Cline Sanders, M. D. One of the worthy
native sons of Kentucky who has attained distinctive
success in his chosen life work is Dr. Perry C. Sanders,
of Danville, who is easily the peer of any of his fellows
in the qualities that constitute correct manhood and
good citizenship. He is what he is from natural endow-
ment and self-culture, having attained his present stand-
ing solely through the impelling force of his own strong
nature. He possesses not only those powers which have
made him successful in the practice of the healing art,
but also those gentle traits that mark genial and helpful
social intercourse, and he therefore commands the good
will and esteem of all with whom has come in contact.
Perry Cline Sanders was born on a rough mountain
farm at the foot of Pine Mountain, near where Jenkins
is now located in Pike County, Kentucky, December 7,
1881, and is the son of Jacob and Mahulda (Ison)
Sanders. Both of these parents were born and are now
living in Lincoln County, Kentucky, where the father
continues his original occupation of farming. Perry
C. Sanders attended the common schools until fourteen
years of age and then began teaching rural schools,
teaching during the fall term and then using his pay
to take him through normal and high schools during
the remaining winter months. He also did teaming,
and in this way he continued for nine years, when, not
being satisfied with the salary of a rural school teacher,
he decided to take up the study of medicine. To this
end he matriculated in the medical department of the
University of Louisville, where he was graduated with
the degree of Doctor of Medicine June 30, 1910. Im-
mediately thereafter he entered upon the practice of
his profession at Elkhorn City, Kentucky, where he met
with success, acquiring a good reputation as a skillful
physician and surgeon. In 1913 Doctor Sanders became
surgeon for the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad Company,
though not relinquishing his private practice. He also
became chief surgeon for the Carolina, Clinchfield &
Ohio Railroad Company, which was then doing heavy
construction work through the Cumberland Mountains.
During the period while he was engaged with this
particular work he performed the amputation of seven-
teen legs and many other operations of a minor char-
acter, incidental to construction work of that sort. H?
has full charge of the sanitary conditions of the camps
along the twelve miles of this construction work and,
aided by two assistants, he organized, equipped and
supervised a modern hospital in which to care for the
men employed on the work, prompt and efficient atten-
tion being given to all sick or injured workmen. This
work was completed and the road joined to the Chesa-
peake & Ohio road at Elkhorn City in 1916. Doctor
Sanders remained in the service of these roads until
September, 1919, when he moved to Danville, Kentucky,
in order to give his children better educational advan-
tages. Entering upon the practice of his profession
here, the Doctor quickly won the confidence and good
will of the community and is today in command of
a large and constantly growing patronage, covering a
wide radius of surrounding country.
Doctor Sanders is entitled to a large meed of credit
for his attainments, for he started in life practically
alone as far as any material assistance was concerned,
and he has won his way up the ladder of success only
by his own indefatigable and persistent efforts. He has
been successful in his financial affairs and helped to.
organize the Bank of Elkhorn City, of which he became
first vice president. He is a member of the Boyle
County Medical Society, the Kentucky State Medical
Society and the American Medical Association. He is
also a member of the Free and Accepted Masons.
On July 5, 1000, Doctor Sanders married Ferba
Bartley, of Pikeville, Kentucky, and they are the parents
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
503
of three children, Ernest Victor, Verna Thelma and
Virgil Perry, all of whom are attending the public
schools in Danville. Personally the Doctor is a man of
genial disposition and generous impulses, who easily
makes friends, and he is a popular member of the circles
in which he moves.
John C. Humphries, the popular and efficient sheriff
of Trigg County in 1920, is not only one of the vigorous
executive officers of the county, but is also one of its
extensive agriculturists and stock-growers, and his
standing in the community is such as to entitle him to
special recognition in this publication.
John Charles Humphries was born at Princeton,
Caldwell County, Kentucky, December 25, 1887, and he
is a scion of one of the old and influential pioneer
families of this section of the Blue Grass State. His
paternal great-grandfather, a native of Virginia, be-
came one of the early settlers in Trigg County, Ken-
tucky, where he developed a productive farm and where
he passed the remainder of his life. He was a rep-
resentative of a staunch family, of Scotch origin, that
was founded in Virginia in the Colonial era of our
national history. John Charles Humphries, grandfather
of the subject of this sketch,. who was named in his
honor, passed his entire life in Trigg County and
became one of its representative farmers and influential
citizens. He was for two terms representative of this
county in the State Legislature and was a vigorous
and effective advocate of the principles of the demo-
cratic party. His wife, whose family name was Wem-
berley, likewise passed her entire life in Trigg County,
both having died prior to the birth of the present sheriff
of the county. John O'Hara, maternal grandfather of
Sheriff Humphries, was a native of Ireland and became
a pioneer agriculturist and slave owner in Caldwell
County, Kentucky, where he passed the residue of his
life. His wife, whose maiden name was Elizabeth
Cartwright, was born in Virginia in 1825, of Scotch
ancestry, and she passed the closing years of her long
and gracious life at Princeton, Caldwell County, where
her death occurred in 1912, her husband having preceded
her to eternal rest.
John Calhoun Humphries, father of him whose name
introduces this review, was born in Trigg County in
1841 and died at Princeton, Caldwell County, in 1906.
He was reared and educated in Trigg County, and here
his first marriage occurred. He remained in his native
county until 1885, when he removed to Princeton, Cald-
well County, and became a successful tobacco merchant,
besides owning a valuable farm property in that county.
He was a democrat in politics and was an earnest
member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South,
besides which he long maintained affiliation with the
United Confederate Veterans and the Independent
Order of Odd Fellows. He was a gallant soldier of the
Confederacy during virtually the entire period of the
Civil war, took part in many important engagements,
including that of Fort Donelson, where he was wounded
and captured, and for several months was held as a
prisoner of war in the old college building at Princeton,
Kentucky, but finally effected his escape and rejoined
his regiment, with which he continued in active service
until the close of the war. The family name of his
first wife was Hardy, and her death occurred in Trigg
County. She is survived by two children : Lock, who
is a tobacconist in the city of Louisville, and Gertrude,
who is the wife of Joseph Barber, a farmer in Trigg
County. For his second wife John C. Humphries
married Miss Elizabeth O'Hara, who was born at
Princeton, Caldwell County, in 1864, and who still
maintains her home at that place. Of the children of
this union John C, of this sketch, is the eldest ; James
is deputy sheriff under the administration of his older
brother ; Mary Evelyn is the wife of Hugh Hammond,
a merchant at Hopkinsville, Christian County ; Miss
Calla remains with her widowed mother ; Joseph Black-
burn is identified with the automobile business in the
City of Detroit, Michigan ; Lurline has been appointed
a deputy sheriff by her brother John C. and is a valued
assistant in the office of the sheriff of Trigg County,
at Cadiz ; and Robert Thomas has the active charge
of his father's farm near Princeton, Caldwell County.
The sheriff of Trigg County acquired his youthful
education in the rural schools of Caldwell County, where
also he pursued a higher course in Princeton College,
in which excellent institution he continued his studies
until he was nineteen years of age. Thereafter he was
associated with the operations of his father's farm about
one year, and in the autumn of 1910 was appointed a
deputy sheriff of Trigg County, a position of which he
continued the incumbent until November, 1917, when
he was elected sheriff of the county for a term of
four years. He assumed the duties of this office in
January, 1918, and his administration has fully justified
the popular choice of the incumbent. Since he estab-
lished his residence at Cadiz in 1909 Mr. Humphries
has also been continuously engaged in the real-estate
business, and he is the owner of a valuable farm of
120 acres three miles west of Cadiz, as well as a farm
of 130 acres adjoining Cadiz at the south and on the
Little River, and a farm of eighty acres adjoining the
city on the north. Thus he is to be credited as one
of the progressive agriculturists and stock-growers of
Trigg County. His political allegiance is given to the
democratic party, and he and his wife are zealous
members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South,
in which he is serving as steward. Sheriff Humphries
is affiliated with Cadiz Lodge No. 121, Ancient Free
and Accepted Masons ; Green River Lodge No. 54,
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, at Hopkinsville,
of which he is a past grand; Hill City Camp, Woodmen
of the World ; Cadiz Camp, Modern Woodmen of
America ; Cadiz Homestead, Brotherhood of American
Yeomen ; and Cadiz Chapter, Order of the Eastern Star.
At Cadiz Mr. Humphries is the owner of four resi-
dence properties, including his own home, which is one
of the most modern and attractive in this thriving little
city, with seven acres of well kept grounds, adorned
with fine shade trees and shrubbery and recognized as
one of the most beautiful places in the best residential
section of Cadiz. Sheriff Humphries was chairman of
the Liberty Loan organizatoin of Trigg County and
was one of the most vigorous and resourceful factors
in the furtherance of the various war activities in the
county during the nation's participation in the World
war, while his subscriptions to the various Government
loans were liberal and patriotic.
In 1912 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Hum-
phries with Miss Lena A. Thomas, who was born and
reared in Trigg County and who is a daughter of
Starkey A. and Inez (Miller) Thomas, the former of
whom was a representative farmer of this county at
the time of his death and the latter of whom maintains
her home at Cadiz since the death of her husband.
Mr. and Mrs. Humphries have two children : James
Calhoun, born February 23, 1913, and Ruth Evelyn,
born February 24, 1915.
Andrew H. Card has been concerned with the lum-
ber business since his early youth, has gained compre-
hensive and accurate knowledge of all details of the
manufacturing and distributing of lumber, and in his
independent operations he now holds a position of re-
cognized precedence and influence in connection with this
line of industry in Southeastern Kentucky. He is both
a manufacturer of and dealer in lumber. In the buying
and selling of lumber he is the most extensive individual
operator in this section of Kentucky, and he maintains
his residence and executive business headquarters in the
City of Pineville, county seat of Bell County.
Mr. Card was born in Bedford County, Tennessee,
504
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
October 13, 1873, and is a scion of a sterling pioneer
family of that state, as becomes evident when it is noted
that his grandfather, Samuel Hughes Card, was born in
Smith County, Tennessee, in the year 1800. This native
son attained to patriarchal age and was a resident of
Bedford County, that state, at the time of his death in
1892. He established his home in Bedford County in the
year 1820, and there he became a prosperous farmer and
slaveholder, as well as a citizen of prominence and in-
fluence in community affairs. There was solemnized his
marriage to Miss Margaret Neil, who was born in North
Carolina in 1804, and who preceded him to the life eternal
by about three years, her death having occurred in 1889.
The first representatives of the Card family in America
came from Scotland to this country and settled in the
Colony of Maryland long before the War of the Revolu-
tion. Members of the family in a later generation settled
as pioneers in North Carolina and Tennessee.
Andrew C. Card, father of him whose name introduces
this review, was born in Bedford County, Tennessee, on
the 25th of April, 1844, was there reared to manhood and
there he was for a long term of years actively identified
with important business and industrial interests. He was
a merchant and lumber dealer, and also owned and oper-
ated saw mills. He continued his activities as a man of
large affairs in his native county until 1893, when he re-
moved to Scotsboro, Alabama, and in that locality en-
gaged extensively in the lumber business as a manufac-
turer and dealer. He there owned and operated saw-
mills until his retirement from active business, and he
has since continued to maintain his home at Scotsboro.
He served as a Union soldier in the Civil war. He en-
listed as a member of Company D, Tenth Tennessee
Volunteer Infantry, early in the year 1863, and his serv-
ice covered a period of three years and four months, as
he continued in the army for some time after the close
of active hostilities. He took part in the battles of Mur-
freesboro, Nashville and other important engagements.
He personally recruited a company for the service and
was made captain of Company C, Fourth Tennessee Vol-
unteer Infantry, to which he was transferred from the
regiment in which he originally enlisted and with which
he was identified at the close of the war. His wife,
whose maiden name was Adorine Cleveland, was born
at Nashville, Tennessee, December 19, 1845, and in her
native city her death occurred in April, 1916. Of the
children the eldest is Rena, who is the wife of R. A.
Coffey, a planter and live-stock dealer at Scotsboro,
Alabama, and a former banker; Izora is the wife of
William Card, superintendent of a saw-mill and lum-
ber business at Tuscaloosa. Alabama ; Hugh Cleveland
resides at Pineville. Kentucky, and is a successful lum-
ber jobber; Andrew H, of this sketch, was the next in
order of birth ; Milton E. died at the age of three years
in the city of Nashville.
Andrew H. Card attended the public schools of his
native county until he was thirteen years old, when he
became a messenger boy in the service of the Western
Union Telegraph Company at Nashville. He gained
two years' active experience in this position, and he then
entered the employ of a lumber company at Tullahoma,
Tennessee, his alliance with this concern continuing five
years, within which by his effective service and the
ability which he developed through self-discipline, ob-
servation and close application he rose to the position of
head bookkeeper. For the ensuing nine years he was
bookkeeper and sales manager for J. Bates & Company,
leading lumber jobbers in the City of Nashville, and he
then put his experience to good use by initiating inde-
pendent lumbering operations, with headquarters at
Nashville. For two years he operated saw mills at Ste-
venson, Alabama, and for the ensuing two years he con-
ducted similar operations at Hollywood, that state. There-
after he leased saw mills and continued operations under
this arrangement until 1910, when he went to Cincinnati,
Ohio, and established a wholesale lumber yard. This
he conducted three years, at the expiration of which, in
1913, he came to Pineville, Kentucky, where he has since
continued successfully in business as a buyer and shipper
of lumber upon an extensive scale. For some time he
operated saw mills in Bell County, and he then trans-
ferred his mills to Harlan County, where he is still
operating the same effectively. At Wasioto, Bell Coun-
ty, he owns and operates a planing mill, the products of
which are utilized by the retail trade. Mr. Card has been
progressive and resourceful as a business man, liberal
and public-spirited as a citizen, and he has so ordered
his course as to command unqualified popular confidence
and good will. He is a staunch democrat and has been
a valued member of the City Council of Pineville since
1916. Both he and his wife are communicants of the
Protestant Episcopal Church, and he is serving as treas-
urer of the Pineville Church of this denomination. The
attractive and modern residence property which consti-
tutes the family home is situated on Virginia Avenue,
and is the center of much of the representative social
life of the community, with Mrs. Card as a gracious and
popular chatelaine. In the Masonic fraternity Mr. Card
maintains affiliations as here noted: Bell Lodge No. 691,
Free and Accepted Masons; Pineville Chapter No. 158,
Royal Arch Masons ; Pineville Commandery No. 39,
Knights Templars; Pineville Chapter No. 89, Order of
the Eastern Star; and Kosair Temple of the Mystic
Shrine in the City of Louisville. He holds membership
also in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the
Knights of Pythias, the Knights of the Maccabees, and
the Concatenated Order of Hoo-Hoos, a lumbermen's
fraternity. In the World war period he served as a
trustee of the Bell County Chapter of the Red Cross,
was a member of committees in charge of local drives
in support of the Government war loans, Savings Stamps,
etc., and the liberality of his personal subscriptions gave
further evidence of his patriotic stewardship.
On the 16th of February, 1897, in the City of Nash-
ville, Tennessee, was solemnized the married of Mr. Card
with Miss Elizabeth Chamberlin, daughter of Colonel
James and Delia (Nichol) Chamberlin. Colonel Cham-
berlin gained his military title through service as an
officer in the Union Army in the Civil war, and long
held prestige as one of the leading members of the Nash-
ville bar. He finally retired from active practice and
continued his residence at Nashville until his death, his
widow being still a resident of that city. Elizabeth,
eldest of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Card, was grad-
uated from the University of Kentucky in 1920, with the
degree of Bachelor of Arts, and the year 1921 finds her
in successful service as a teacher in the public schools
of Porto Rico; A. H. Card, Jr., born November 8, 1900,
is a student in the Kentucky State University; Hugh
Cleveland, who was born October 11, 1902, and Harold
Patterson, born August 9, 1905, are students in the Pine-
ville High School; and the youngest of the children is
Nelle, born June 6, 191 1, she being a pupil in the public
schools of Pineville.
Cyrus H. Linn, M. D. In the measure that a man
proves the broadness and sincerity of his character and
his sense of the responsibility devolving upon him does
he deserve and achieve lasting success. This is particu-
larly true in the field of medicine, where without a sane,
sound outlook on life no individual can hope to produce
upon others that impression so desirable in order to
firmly establish permanent prosperity and worth-while
reputation. In the medical profession of Lyon County
Dr. Cyrus H. Linn has achieved success through the
possession of this characteristic as well as through
marked ability, grounded on long and faithful training
and developed through practical experience.
Doctor Linn was born on a farm six miles from Mat-
toon, at Lerna, Coles County, Illinois, June 30, 1862, a
son of Cyrus C. Linn. His first American ancestor on
the paternal side was John Linn the first, who emi-
grated from Scotland in 1730 and settled on a tract of
land in Adams County, Pennsylvania, known as the
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
505
Manor of the Mask, being accompanied by two brothers,
Adam and Robert Linn, the latter of whom died in
1732. John Linn the first died about November 25, 1792,
after having spent many years as a planter. He had six
children: William, who married Martha Scott; John,
who married Mary Gettys ; Samuel, who married Mar-
garet Linn ; Andrew, who married Eleanor Scott ; David,
who married Jeannette Linn; and Hugh. Hugh Linn,
the grandfather of Dr. Cyrus H. Linn, was born in 1790
at the Manor of the Mask, and was a pioneer into Coles
County, Illinois, where he founded the old Linn home-
stead. There he passed the rest of his long and honor-
able career as a farmer and died July 3, 1859. He was
first married, March 8, 1814, to Mary Weir Wilson, born
February 8, 1793, who died August 26, 1826. On Sep-
tember 7, 1827, he married Phoebe Crane, who was born
in September, 1803, and died January 2, 1867.
Cyrus C. Linn was born in 1837 on the Linn home-
stead in Coles County, Illinois, and spent his entire life
in that county, his death occurring in 1865. He was
reared on the old homestead and engaged in farming
until 1861, when he enlisted in the One Hundred and
Twenty-third Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry, for
service in the Civil war, and was disabled at the battle
of Perryville. He was invalided home, but did not re-
cover, dying when his son was only three years old. He
was a republican in politics and was a strong churchman
of the Presbyterian faith. Mr. Linn married Susan E.
Means, who was born in 1836 in Coles County, Illinois,
and died at McKean, Illinois, in 1877. They had two
children : Edgar C, a veteran of the Spanish-American
war and later a machinist at Kuttawa, Kentucky, where
he died at the age of fifty-nine years, and Dr. Cyrus H.
The Means family was founded in America by Wil-
liam Means, who came from Ireland, about 1700 and
married Nancy Simonton, also a native of Ireland. They
settled in Pennsylvania, whence they removed to Spar-
tanburg, South Carolina. William Means, son of William
the emigrant, was born near Staunton, Virginia, May 3,
1763, and when an infant was taken by his parents to
Union County, South Carolina. When he was but seven-
teen years of age he became a "minute man" of the Revo-
lution, and enlisted in the patriot forces from Union
County. He served in the battle of Cowpens January
17, 1781, guarding baggage, and applied for a pension
September 28, 1833. Twelve or fifteen years after the
close of the war he removed to Georgia, and after re-
siding in that state for thirteen years went to Adams
County, Ohio, where he lived for twenty-three years.
He then went to Paris, Edgar County, Illinois, in 1822,
and died June II, 1848. His son, Hugh Means, the
maternal grandfather of Dr. Cyrus H. Linn, was for
many years engaged in flat-boating to New Orleans from
his home community of Eugene, Indiana, where his
death occurred.
Dr. Cyrus H. Linn was educated in the public schools
of Illinois and Indiana and attended the Collegiate In-
stitute of Princeton, Kentucky, during 1881 and 1882.
At that time he secured employment as a wood machinist,
a vocation which he followed for five years, during
which time he applied his spare time to the study of
medicine under Dr. A. D. Purdy, of Kuttawa. Next
he entered the University of Tennessee, medical depart-
ment, at Nashville, where he was a student during the
term of 1887- 1888, and for two and one-half years
practiced under a state license in Livingston County.
Kentucky. At the end of that time he entered Bellevue
Hospital Medical College, New York City, being grad-
uated therefrom in 1891, with the degree of Doctor of
Medicine, and in that year commenced practice at Grand
Rivers, Kentucky, where he remained two years. Doctor
Linn then came to Kuttawa, and was engaged in practice
until 1895, in which year he was appointed surgeon for
the Kentucky Branch Penitentiary at Eddyville, and
acted in that capacity two and one-half years. Resuming
practice at Kuttawa, he has continued therein to the
present time and is now rated among the leading physi-
cians and surgeons of Lyon County. His offices are sit-
uated in the Post Office Building.
Doctor Linn belongs to the Lyon County Medical
Society, the Kentucky State Medical Society, the Amer-
ican Medical Association, the Joint Association of Rail-
way Surgeons, the American Association of Railway
Surgeons and the Southwestern Kentucky Medical So-
ciety, and is local surgeon for the Illinois Central Rail-
way Company. During the war period he offered his
services to the United States Army the day before he
reached his fifty-fourth birthday, but was not accepted.
However, he was made a member of the Volunteer
Medical Service, authorized by the Council of National
Defense, and took an active part in the various move-
ments necessitated by war's demands. Doctor Linn has
been prominent in the ranks of the republican party in
his community and was a candidate for Congress in 1900.
In 1508 he was a delegate to the Republican National
Convention held at Chicago. He is a member and elder
of the Presbyterian Church. Doctor Linn is the owner
of a modern home in Lyon County, a handsome residence
on Oak Avenue, completely equipped with running
water, electric lights and all modern conveniences. While
his time is fully occupied, Doctor Linn is interested m
those measures which tend towards a better education
of the masses and an awakening of the people to the
necessity for more sanitary regulations and hygienic con-
ditions. He is not bound by his professional knowledge,
but is able to take a broad, humanitarian view of life
and join with others in working towards effecting im-
provements that will raise the average man and woman
and develop the best quality of citizenship .
Doctor Linn married in 1895, at Kuttawa, Miss Mayd-
well Wilcox, of this place, and to this union there was
born one son, Cyrus H., Jr. He was born September 6,
1896, and was educated in the public schools of Kuttawa
and the Augusta Military Academy at Fort Defiance,
Virginia. He entered the United States service in No-
vember, 1915, as a yeoman in the Navy, and during the
World war was on the submarine supply ship Bushnell,
being overseas during the greater part of the conflict.
He was mustered out of the service in November, 1919,
and is now in the United States Merchant Marine serv-
ice, being on the steamer Atlantis. Doctor Linn's first
marriage was unhappily terminated by divorce in 1912.
On November 18, 1916, he married Mae L. Mathews, of
Kuttawa, Kentucky, who now shares with him a happy
home.
Hugh Wake. For more than fourteen years Hugh
Wake has been identified with the mercantile interests
of Kuttawa, and during this period has developed the
largest dry goods enterprise in Lyon County, now con-
ducted as Hugh Wake & Company. A man of public
spirit, he has sought at all times to advance the prog-
ress of his adopted community, yet has been content
to center his activities in business and financial affairs
without desiring the emoluments or transient honors
of public or political life.
Mr. Wake was born on a farm on the south bank
of the Cumberland River, two miles east of Eddyville,
in Lyon County, Kentucky, March 9, 1871, a son of
R. W. Wake. He belongs to a family which, orig-
inating in England, immigrated to America in Colonial
times and settled in North Carolina, where, in the
county bearing the family name, was born the grand-
father of Hugh Wake, Ambrose Wake. Ambrose Wake,
a physician and surgeon, was a pioneer into Webster
County, Kentucky, whence he went to the vicinity of
Cerulean Springs, but later returned to Webster County
and passed away near Providence, his death being
caused by the complications which followed the sting
of a "yellow-jacket." Dr. Ambrose Wake married Miss
Mary Calmese, who was born in Fayette County, Ken-
tucky, and died near Cerulean Springs.
R. W. Wake was born in 1833 in Webster County.
Kentucky, and died on the Lyon County farm on which
506
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
his son was born, in 1888. He was reared in the
vicinity of Cerulean Springs and as a young man
removed to Lyon County, for a few years living at
Eddyville, where he practiced law. Eventually he lo-
cated on the farm in Lyon County, and during the
remainder of his life divided his time between agricul-
tural operations and country law practice. He was a
democrat in politics, held membership in the Masonic
fraternity, and was a member of the Baptist Church.
Mr. Wake first married Miss May Lyon, who was
born in Lyon County, which was named m honor of
her father, Chittington Lyon. She died at Eddyville
in 1*59, leaving one son, Lionel, who resides on the
old home place. Mr. Wake took for his second wife
Miss Nellie Gracey, who was born at Eddyville in
1838, and died there in 1863, and they had three chil-
dren : Frank G., vice president of the Farmers National
Bank of Madisonville and a leading and prominent
business man, a sketch of whose career appears else-
where in this work ; and Flora and Lula, who died in
infancy. R. W. Wake married for his third wife Miss
Cordelia Hayes, who was born in Lyon County and
died without issue on the home place. His fourth wife
was Miss Tennie Hayes, born in Lyon County, who
died there without issue. For his fifth wife Mr. Wake
married Miss Nat Ella Doom, who was born in 1842,
in Lyon County, Kentucky, and died at Kuttawa in
1890. To this union there were born three children :
Hugh; Mary, of Kuttawa, the widow of K. S. Doom,
formerly a Lyon County farmer; and Ambrose, who
died at the age of one year.
Hugh Wake received his education in the public
schools of Eddyville, and after his high school educa-
tion returned to the home farm, where he assisted
his father. In 1906 he bought out the stock and
good will of A. B. Irwin & Son, dry goods merchants,
and under his own name built up what is conceded to
be the largest dry goods business in Lyon County.
This business he conducted alone until January 3, 1920,
when lie admitted his son, J. D. Wake, and J. C. Barnett
to partnership, and the business is now conducted as
Hugh Wake & Company. Mr. Wake is the owner of
the store building, which is situated on the north side
of Oak Avenue; the Post Office Building, a fine new
structure of brick, built in 1917; a modern residence on
the north side of Oak Street, one of the modern and
comfortable homes of Kuttawa; and other valuable
real estate. He is a director and stockholder of the
Citizens Bank of Kuttawa, having been identified with
his sound and stable institution in these capacities for
the past eight years, and is president of the Kuttawa
Cemetery Board. He was made a Mason December
29, 1900, and is a member of Suwanee Lodge No. 190,
A. F. and A. M.: Lyon Chapter No. 61, R. A. M ;
Phillip Sweigert Council, R. and S. M, of Eddyville;
Paducah Commandery No 11, K. T.; and Rizpah Tem-
ple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of Madisonville. He took an
active part in all local war activities, helping in all
the Liberty Bond loans, assisting in the various drives,
and subscribing for every purpose to the utmost extent
of his ability
In 1890 Mr. Wake married in Lyon County Miss
Rowena F. Hayden, a daughter of W. E. and Polly A.
1 \\ licatley) Hayden, farming people of Lyon County.
Mrs. Wake died in 1902, leaving the following chil-
dren: R. W., who died February 14, 1919. at Kuttawa,
where he had been cashier of the Citizens Bank for
three years, a position in which he had been very
active in war work, collecting double the amount of
any other person in the county; J. D.; and Sybil Hay-
den, the wife of G. E. Jones, a hardware merchant of
Kuttawa. J. D. Wake was born March 30, 1896, and
attended the Kuttawa public schools until he finished
his sophomore year at the high school, when he left
to pursue a course at the Bowling Green Business
University in 1913 and 1914. Returning to Kuttawa,
he entered his father's store, where he was employed
until June 15, 1917, then enlisting in the United States
Navy. He was sent to Newport, Rhode Island, for
three weeks, arid then transferred to Portsmouth,
New Hampshire, where he spent three months, fol-
lowing which he was on the U. S. S. Arkansas until
February 17, 1918. On July 14, 1918. he sailed for
overseas, where his battleship joined the British fleet,
with which, November 21, 1918, it assisted in bringing
the German fleet into the Firth of Forth, Scotland.
He was mustered out as a non-commissioned officer
February 24, 1919, and returned to his home, becoming
a partner in his father's business in January, 1920.
J. D. Wake is a democrat. He belongs to Suwanee
Lodge No. 190, A. F. and A. M., of which he is sec-
retary; Lyon Chapter No. 61, R. A. M.. Eddyville;
Paducah Commandery No. 11, K. T. ; and Rizpah Tem-
ple, A. A. O. N. M. S., Madisonville. He is secretary
of the Kuttawa Cemetery Board In March, 1919,
J. D. Wake married Miss Freda Mae Bannon, daugh-
ter of E. G. and Sarah (Martin) Bannon, farming
people near Hawesville, Kentucky. Mrs. Wake is a
graduate of the Eddyville Higli School. She and
her husband had one child, James Duke, Jr., who was
born in December, 1919. and died at the age of six
weeks.
In 1904 Hugh Wake married Mrs. Lucy (Walker)
Wolfe, who was born in Livingston County, Kentucky,
and they had one child, Mary Devona, who died aged
four years.
IIkxry Clay Cross as a boy employed the oppor-
tunities afforded by his father, a newspaper publisher,
to learn the printing and newspaper business, and that
has been his work ever since. He is now publisher and
proprietor of the Lyon County Herald, one of the
leading country papers of Western Kentucky, pub-
lished at Eddyville.
He was born near Brewers in Marshall County, Ken-
tucky, March 15, 1893, and is of Scotch-Irish ancestry.
His grandfather, Alexander Cross, came from North
Carolina, where he was born, and was one of the
early farmers in Marshall County. Kentucky, and died
at Brewers in 1868. A. A. Cross, father of the Eddy-
ville editor, was born at Brewers in 1862, was reared
and married in Marshall County, and spent a number
of years as a farmer. Later he entered the flour milling
business, owning the roller mills at Benton. Subse-
quently he acquired the Benton Tribune-Democrat, and
was editor and proprietor of that newspaper until he
retired in 1919, and he is still living at Benton. He-
is a democrat in politics and an active Baptist. A. A.
Cross married Mary Susan Ivey, who was born at Har-
vej 111 Marshall County in 1862. Henry Clay is the old-
est of their children; Gania is the wife of W. E. Wyatt,
a telegraph operator at Benton; William B. is a stu-
dent in the College of Electrical and Mechanical Engi-
neering at Davenport, Iowa; Urey Woodson, the
youngest, is a schoolboy at Benton.
Henry Clay Cross attended the rural schools of
Marshall County, and in 1912 graduated from Clinton
College at Clinton, Kentucky. With a good education
as a foundation he took up the newspaper business,
and had a thorough apprenticeship at Henderson, Ken-
tucky, and at Memphis, Ripley, and Dyersburg, Ten-
nessee, and at brief intervals worked in other places.
In hji6 he bought the Lyon County Herald, and for
the past four years has employed all his exceptional
personal talents to make that a model of country jour-
nalism. The Herald was established in 1906, and has
always been democratic in politics. Mr. Cross now
has one of the best equipped newspaper plants in West-
ern Kentucky, the mechanical facilities including lino-
type, modern presses and folder, and everything found
in an up-to-date newspaper office. The Herald has a
wide circulation and influence over Lyon and sur-
rounding counties. Both through his newspaper and
personally, Mr. Cross was active in forwarding every
LONS
fct MU&JLh$x
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
507
movement undertaken at the behest of the Govern-
ment for the successful prosecution of the war. Dur-
ing 1919 he was county chairman for Lyon County
of the War Savings organization.
In addition to the responsibilities of conducting the
Herald Mr. Cross has for the past eight years been a
guard in the Kentucky Penitentiary. He is a democrat,
a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South,
and is owner of two parcels of improved real estate
at Eddvville, including his modern home on South
Shelby Street.
In 19T3, at Fulton, Kentucky, Mr. Cross married
Miss Edna Maes Hanberry, daughter of T. T. and
Belle (Litchfield) Hanberry, residents of Eddvville,
where her father is an attorney. Mr. and Mrs. Cross
have two children, Eugene M., born in July, 1914, and
Clay Lamar, born in August, 1917.
William M. DeBord, M. D. One of the busiest
physicians and surgeons in Boyd County, Doctor De-
Bord has been an earnest worker in everything he
has ever undertaken. He comes of sturdy stock, pio-
neers in Eastern Kentucky, and he has the family
qualities of self-reliance that have never failed him
whether his responsibilities were those of a merchant, a
soldier or a physician.
Doctor DeBord was born in Lawrence County, Ken-
tucky, August 25, 1873, son of Stephen and Augusta
(Hatfield) DeBord, both natives of Kentucky. The
DeBords came originally from France and were identi-
fied with the Colonial period of the Carolinas. Some
of them served in the Revolutionary war. The great-
grandfather of Doctor DeBord was one of the first
settlers on the Big Sandy in Eastern Kentucky. He
was a hatter by trade, and had a family of eleven
daughters and one son. His only son became a very
influential man in Eastern Kentucky, was a school
teacher, practiced law, was a minister of the Gospel,
and one of the best educated men in that part of the
state. His family consisted of four daughters and
four sons, Stephen being the youngest. Stephen De-
Bord was a farmer by occupation, but he also took a
deep interest in such public matters as school and
church.
William M. DeBord was five years old when his
father lost his health, and after that he had to work
his way while getting an education. He attended the
common schools in Lawrence County, and at the age
of nineteen completed a normal course at Blaine. He
did work at different times, and as a young man he
joined the National Guard of Kentucky. When the
Spanish-American war broke out he went with his com-
pany into the Federal service, and was in the Cuban
campaign with Company C of the Third Regiment of
Kentucky as a non-commissioned offier. He was at
Matanzas and La Union, Cuba, for about a year and
subsequently he continued his interest in the military
establishment of Kentucky and for seven years was a
lieutenant. He received his honorable discharge a
year before the World war broke out, and was unable
to get accepted for active duty during that period,
though so far as his busy duties as a physician would
permit he helped in all the local drives.
After the Spanish-American war Doctor DeBord and
his older brother, Samuel, engaged in the mercantile
business. He continued in that for about five years
and then sold out and used his capital to complete his
higher education. He took the regular four years'
course in Kentucky University at Lexington, and then
entered the Medical College at Louisville in 1903, grad-
uating M. D. in 1907. Doctor DeBord at once came
to Ashland and has since been in general medical and
surgical practice. He is a member of the County,
State and American Medical associations, a strong re-
publican, and a member of the First Methodist Epis-
copal Church. His hobby is outdoor sports, and one
of his favorite diversions is going camping with his
family.
In 1899, in Boyd County, Doctor DeBord married
Miss Susie Compton, daughter of Robert and Rhoda
(Cox) Compton, natives of Kentucky. Doctor and
Mrs. DeBord have four children : Chlora Mae, Teddie
Roosevelt, Carma, and William Howard.
Newton Willard Utley for over twenty years has
been a prominent figure in the Lyon County Bar, is a
former state senator, a banker and the community has
long expected of him leadership in all important public
matters. A strong ambition to make himself useful in
the world first led Mr. Utley to prepare for the ministry,
and as a missionary he did some brilliant work in the
far East until his own health and the health of his
wife compelled him to return to his native state.
The Utleys were identified with a very early period
of settlement in Virginia and also with some of the first
settlements in Western Kentucky. They came out of
England and were identified with the original Virginia
Colony at Jamestown. Mr. Utley's grandfather, Merrill
Utley, was a native of North Carolina, but came West
and was one of the first to establish a settlement west
of the Tennessee River, in Marshall County, Kentucky.
He lived out his life as a farmer there and died before
the birth of Newton W. Utley. His wife, Elizabeth,
was a native of Wales. William Washington Utley,
father of the Eddvville lawyer, was born in Simpson
County, Kentucky, in 1818, but grew up in what is
now Marshall County, where he was married and where
he spent his active life as a prosperous farmer. He
died in 1878. He was a democrat and in religion was
inclined toward the Primitive Baptist Church. His
wife, Sarah Ann Holland, was born in Marshall County
in 1820 and died there in 1905. They were the parents
of a family of nine children : Elizabeth Katherine,
who married W. E. Warren, a farmer, and both died
at Paragould, Arkansas; John died at the age of
seventeen; James Monroe spent his life as a typical
westerner, as a miner, prospector and cowboy, saw
much of the life of the western states, and died in
Nevada at the age of sixty-five ; Edna was only twenty
years of age at the time of her death; Wilson A. was
a minister of the Christian Church and died in Marshall
County at the age of fifty; Jacob V., a farmer, died
in Marshall County in 1889; Newton W. is the seventh
in the familv; Anna, living in Marshall County, is the
widow of Richard Ratcliffe, who was a farmer and
trader; and Viola is the wife of W. J. Ellis, a retired
business man living at San Antonio, Texas.
Newton Willard Utley was born in Marshall County
May 12, i860, and lived there on his father's farm to
the age of twenty. His early advantages were only
those of the rural schools. As a means of helping
himself in his career he was a teacher for four years,
in Marshall, Hickman and Fulton counties. He then
entered Vanderbilt University at Nashville, taking the
theological course and received the degree Th. G. in
1887. He remained another year at the University,
doing post-graduate work in sciences and modern lan-
guages. He was then assigned to duty by the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South, as an independent missionary,
but was identified with the Southern Methodist Mission
in Japan. He then, under the auspices of that mission,
established the Kwansei Gakuin at Kobe, Japan, and in
subsequent years has had the satisfaction of seeing that
develop into one of the largest mission schools in the
world. In the midst of his prosperous labors abroad his
health failed and he was compelled to return to Ken-
tucky. He returned to Japan in 1893 as a missionary,
and traveled over Southern Japan, establishing and
developing mission stations. He continued this work
until 1896, when, on account of the failing _ health of
his wife, he was obliged to return to his native land.
508
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
In earlier years Mr. Utley had diligently pursued
the study of law, and after returning to Eddyville he
resumed his studies and was admitted to the bar in
1897, and since that date has been one of the active
members of the bar, with a large practice. He still
maintains his law offices at Eddyville. His natural
qualities of leadership soon brought him into promi-
nence in local politics. On the democratic ticket he was
elected a member of the State Senate in 1899, and was
one of the most influential members during the sessions
of 1900 and 1902. After the assassination of Governor
Goebel he was designated president pro tern of the
Senate, and was elected to that office in 1902 and served
as acting lieutenant governor. During the Session of
1900 he was chairman of the conference committee on
suffrage and elections, and during the extra session of
that year, as chairman of the conference committee on
elections, practically drew up and perfected the measure
which is now on the statute books oi the State Election
Laws.
Mr. Utley is vice president of the Citizens Bank of
Kuttawa, and is a director of the First State Bank of
Eddyville. He served several years as vice president
nf the Kentucky State Bar Association. During the
World war he practically abandoned his profession and
other interests to devote himself heart and soul to
every patriotic cause, acting as chairman of the Council
of Defense, as food administrator for Lyon County,
as a member of all the bond and other committees and
as chairman of the Red Cross and chairman of the
Relief Committees. His church is a vital interest of
his life and he is a steward of the Eddyville Methodist
Episcopal Church. South, and chairman of the Board of
Trustees of the church property. He is a Royal Arch
Mason, being affiliated with Joppa Lodge No. 167, A.
F. and A. M. The Utley family reside in one of the
very best homes of Eddyville, located on Franklin
Street.
Mr. Utley married at Eddyville in 1890 Miss Mary
S. Childers, daughter of Rev. William and Lucy
(Gracey) Childers. Her mother is still living at
Eddyville. Her father spent his active life as a
minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
Mrs. Utley finished her education in the Woman's
College at Nashville, Tennessee. In addition to the
substantial achievements of his own life Mr. Utley
regards with peculiar satisfaction the careers of his
three sons. Willard, the oldest, was born in Japan
May 5, 1891. and is a lawyer by. training, having grad-
uated from the law school of Kentucky State Univer-
sity in IQ12. At the beginning of the war he was an
employe of the Department of Justice and the Govern-
ment refused to release him for army duty. However,
he was subsequently commissioned a second lieutenant
and attached to the Intelligence Service at San Antonio.
Texas, being on duty there from May, 1918, until the
close of the war. He is now with the real estate
department of the United States Government, with
headquarters at San Antonio.
The second son is Francis W.. who was also born
in Japan, March 17, 1895. He entered the Government
service early in the war, in June, 1917, joining the navy
and was trained at Newport, Rhode Island. For twelve
months he was on the destroyer Cassin, with head-
quarters at Queenstown, and engaged in convoy work
and searching the high seas for U boats. Francis W.
UJtlei- graduated from the Vanderbilt Training School
at Elkton. Kentucky, and from the Bowling Green
Business University. He is now in the safe cabinet
business in San Antonio, Texas.
Merrill H., the third son, was born July 11, 1901,
distinguished himself as a student and has already
gained a promising foothold in business life. He grad-
uated from the Eddyville High School and from the
Bowling Green Business University, and is now in the
managing department of the Standard Oil Company
at Jackson, Misisssippi.
Edward Hall James. Forty years of continuous
practice as a lawyer gives Edward Hall James the
distinction of being the dean of the Lyon County Bar.
It is said that in all these forty years he has never
missed a term at local court at Eddyville, and has had
an active share in all the important litigation and
professional business in his judicial district.
Mr. James was born and reared in an interesting
and picturesque section of country between the Cumber-
land and Tennessee Rivers, five miles south of Eddy-
ville. His birth occurred on his father's farm January
18, 1859. He represents old American stock of Revolu-
tionary connections. His paternal ancestors were English
and were Colonial settlers in New Jersey. One ofj
Mr. James' great-great-great-grandfathers was General
Hall a prominent officer of the Continental Army during
the Revolution. General Hall married the Revolu-
tionary heroine, Lydia Darrah. at whose home in Phil-
adelphia General Howe had his quarters. Learning of
the intention of the British to attack Washington's
Army, she by a clever stratagem went through the
British lines and informed an American officer, and ,
thus the Continental troops were fully prepared when
the enemy attempted their surprise attack. The grand-
father of the Eddvville lawyer was J. L. James, who
was born in New Jersey in 1799. He spent most of his
life in the iron manufacturing industry, at first at
Bridgeton, New Jersey, later at Clarksville and Dover,
Tennessee, and he died at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in
1875. He was a whig in politics and later a democrat.
He married Miss Arnie, a native of Pennsylvania, who
died in Montgomery County, Tennessee. The father
of the Eddyville lawyer was also named J. L. James.
He was born at Bridgeton, New Jersey, and was a small
boy when his parents moved to Clarksville, Tennessee.
He was reared there and at Dover, was married in
Montgomery County of that state, and after his mar-
riage engaged in iron manufacturing, at first at Phoenix
Furnace in Tennessee, then at the Great Western
Furnace in Stewart County of the same state, and about
1854 came to the Mammoth Furnace in Lyon County,
Kentucky. He was associated with the operation of
that pioneer iron plant until the beginning of the Civil
war closed down the furnace, the product being con-
fiscated by the United States Government. Following
that he moved to the farm where his son Edward H.
was born, but left that in 1868 and thereafter lived in
Eddyville, and for twenty years was a commercial
traveler. He retired in 1888 and died at Eddyville in
August, 1894. He was a Mason, and, like his father,
began voting as a whig, but subsequently became affili-
ated with the democratic party. J. L. James married
Miss Eliza Ann Smith, who was born in Montgomery
Countv, Tennessee, in 1819. and died at Eddyville in
July, 1894. The oldest of their six children was a
daughter named Henry, who died in Montgomery
County, Tennessee, wife of John Steele, a farmer now
deceased; Fannie, the second in age, died at Eddyville
at the age of twenty-five, her husband, Henry Machen,
a farmer moving to Missouri, where he died ; Bettie
married F. A. Wilson and both died at Eddyville. her
husband being a lawyer: James L., Jr.. is district sales
manager for the Gulf Refining Company and lives at
New Orleans ; Edward H. is the fifth in age, and Claud,
the youngest, is an oil dealer at New Orleans.
Edward Hall James acquired his early education at
Eddvville, the family moving there when he was nine
vears of age. He studied law in the offices of R. W.
Wake and F. A. Wilson and in December. 1880. was
admitted to the bar and at once began the practice
which has been uninterrupted and has brought him
such favorable prominence as an attorney. Besides his
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
509
engagements in private practice he served for eight
years as county attorney of Lyon County, for eight
years as master commissioner of the Circuit Court, and
he also filled out the unexpired term of Judge T. P.
Gray as county judge. He was a member of the City
Council of Eddyville four years. Mr. James has his
ofhces in the Lyon Block on Water Street. Since
December I, 1919, he has also been in the family grocery
business, with a store on Water Street, and has de-
veloped a very profitable enterprise. His home is a
fine residence on Water Street, overlooking the Cumber-
land River.
In September, 1884, at Eddyville, Mr. James married
Miss May Cassidy, daughter of Dan B. and Clara
(Wolf) Cassidy, now deceased. Her father was one
of the early members of the Eddyville bar.
John Jones. While upwards of four decades of his
life have been devoted to the serious business of agricul-
ture in Lyon County, John Jones has also figured at
different times in a prominent way in local affairs and
politics, and is the present sheriff at the Courthouse at
Eddyville.
His grandfather, also named John Jones, was one
of the pioneer settlers of Lyon Countv, coming from
North Carolina. The family was established in Ken-
tucky more than a century ago, since William Jones,
father of Sheriff Jones, was born in Lyon County in
1811. Practically all his life was devoted to the care
and superintendence of his farm three miles north of
Eddyville, where he died in 1877. He was a republican
in politics. In his native county he married Miss
Melinda Holmes, of another pioneer family of Lyon
County. She was born in 1815. She died on the old
homestead in 1894. In a family of nine children Sheriff
John Jones is the youngest. Some brief mention of
his brothers and sisters is as follows: May Ann. who
died on a farm adjoining the old homestead, wife of
A. B. Lewis, also deceased; R. H. Jones, who spent
his life as a farmer jn Lyon County, where he died at
the age of seventy-one; Thomas, who also died on a
Lyon County farm at the age of fiftv-eight; Peter, a
retired farmer living with Sheriff Jones; W. B., a
retired merchant at Kuttawa. Kentucky ; Lida, who died
in Lyon County, wife of James Lewis, a farmer in
the same locality : Lewis, who died on his farm in Lyon
Countv in 1918 ; and Maggie, who died at Kuttawa
aged forty, wife of Frank Cook, who is employed in
a hox factory at Cairo, Illinois.
It was on the old homestead three miles north of
Eddyville that Tobn Jones was horn November 8, 1861,
and after obtaining his education in the rural schools
he took a share in the work and the management of the
old homestead, and it was only recently, in T020, that
he moved away from the scenes of his birthplace, and
even then did not move far, since his nresent farm is
two and a quarter miles north of Eddyville. He has 240
acres and now, as in the past, does a prosperous busi-
ness as a general farmer and stock raiser. He also
owns a half interest in a farm of 150 acres near
Kuttawa.
Outside of an active interest in local politics in his
community Mr. Jones did not figure in county politics
until 190.=;, when he was a candidate for sheriff and
lost the election bv onlv one vote. In November. IQ17,
the people gave him generous support in his eandidacv.
and he began his duties as sheriff in Januarv, 1918.
for a term of four years. In his capacity as sheriff
and as a private citizen he was allied with every local
movement in the town and countv to afford a vigorous
prosecution of the war, including his leadership in
putt-'ng his school district over the top in all war
subscriptions.
In 1877, in Lvon County, Sheriff Jones married Miss
Cora Glenn, a daughter of William and Celia (Young)
Glenn both now deceased. Her father was a farmer
Vol. V^16
in Lyon County. Mr. and Mrs. Jones have six children :
Clara, at home ; Ileen, wife of Floyd Hooks, teacher
in the high school at Woodburn, Kentucky ; William
Thomas, who died in infancy ; John R., living at home
and a. clerk in the Kentucky State penitentiary, is an
ex-service man, having enlisted in September, 1918,
and spent seven months in France, being mustered out
in May, 1919; Maude, wife of Burnie Green, who lives
on the farm north of Eddyville and helps Mr. Jones
in its operation ; and Porter, who also helps on the farm
and lives with his parents.
Dudley Herndon Earle. One of the men who is
entitled to considerable credit with relation to the
development of the commerial and financial interests
of Dawson Springs is Dudley Herndon Earle, hard-
ware merchant, bank stockholder and reliable citizen.
He was born five miles north of Dawson Springs, on
a farm at Charleston, Hopkins County, Kentucky, Sep-
tember 3, 1892, a son of Dr. Ben P. Earle, grandson
of Eziath Earle, and great-grandson of the member
of the family who came to America during the progress
of the Revolutionary war and located in North Caro-
lina, where, although a native of England, he took a
constructive part in the development of that state and
became one of its honored citizens.
Eziath Earle was born in South Carolina in 1808,
and died in Hopkins County in 1882. At an early day
he moved to Robertson County, Tennessee, and thence
to Hopkins County in 1856. During the period of the
war between the two sections of the country he was
in Southwestern Missouri, but returned to Hopkins
County after peace was declared and resumed his
farming. He was also a minister of the Primitive
Baptist Church, and a most excellent man. His first
and second wives were cousins, by the name of Clark,
and his third wife was a Mrs. Poor, a native of Ken-
tucky, who died in Missouri, and she was the grand-
mother of Dudley H. Earle.
Dr. Ben P. Earle was born in Robertson County,
Tennessee, in 1846, and died at Charleston, Kentucky,
on his farm, in 1918. He was reared in Hopkins
County and in Southwestern Missouri, and studied
medicine under Doctor Bailey of Logan County, Ken-
tucky, and in the University of Louisville, from which
he was graduated with the degree of Doctor of Med-
icine. He began the practice of his profession at
Charleston, being one of the pioneers of that neigh-
borhood, and continued his practice for forty-nine
years. He was always active in the ranks of the dem-
ocratic party and in the Western Kentucky Medical
Society, which he served as president for years, and
the Kentucky State Medical Society, of which he was
vice president. He also belonged to the American
Medical Association. Not only was he an eminent
physician, but he was a close student and scholarly
man. Being beyond the age- for service in the great
war, he nevertheless took the deepest interest in it
and was spared to see it come to a close with the
signing of the armistice, which he often declared was
his greatest desire. During the period of this coun-
try's active participation in the war he exerted him-
self to the utmost and took part in all of the drives
and subscribed to the very limit for bonds, stamps and
to the various organizations. Had all of the citizens
of the country given such practical proof of their
patriotism, the resources of the country would have
been greatly augmented. Both by inheritance and con-
viction he was a believer in the creed of the Primitive
Baptist Church, and was always a strong supporter of
the local congregation, of which he was one of the
most conscientious members.
Doctor Earle married Mary Ann Roberts, who was
born at Charleston in 1858 and died at Charleston in
1918, five weeks before her husband. Their children
were as follows : Ila, who married Judge W. T. Fow-
ler, assistant attorney general of Kentucky, a very
510
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
prominent man and a resident of Frankfort; Lula, who
married A. C. King, a farmer, resides in South Chris-
tian County, Kentucky; Dr. E. R., who is a specialist
in diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat, lives at
Urbana, Ohio ; I. B., who is a civil engineer in the
employ of the Illinois Central Railroad Company, lives
at Carbondale, Illinois; Thomas E., who is a civil
engineer, lives at Union City, Indiana ; Dudley Hern-
don, who was the sixth in order of birth ; and Anna
Nell, who is a bookkeeper of Columbus, Ohio.
Dudley H. Earle attended the local schools of his
native place and the Kentucky State University at
Lexington, Kentucky, which latter institution he left
in 1910, and for a year thereafter was engaged in
working on the home farm. He then was employed
in the Coates drug store at Hopkinsville for a year,
but returned to the home farm and remained on it
from 1912 to 1918, when he became an employee of
the Illinois Central Railroad Company at Dawson
Springs, and held that position for a year. Mr. Earle
then bought the business of the Staninger Hardware
Company, and now has the leading hardware business
in Hopkins County, his store being located on Railroad
Avenue. He is a stockholder in the Commercial Bank
ot Dawson, and is one of the live and prosperous young
business men of this city.
In politics he is a democrat. He belongs to Dawson
Springs Camp No. 12392, M. W. A., of Dawson Springs.
In 1912 Mr. Earle married at Madisonville, Kentucky,
Miss Addie Louise Morgan, a daughter of M. S. and
Catherine (Mencer) Morgan. Mr. Morgan was a
farmer, but is now deceased. His widow, who survives
him, lives at Dawson Springs. Mr. and Mrs. Earle
have one son, Herndon Morgan, who was born July 1,
I9I3-
Judson Carl Jenkins. Dawson Springs has estab-
lished a standard of excellence for its public schools
which is attracting attention from educators all over
the state, and this admirable condition has been brought
about through the conscientious efforts and skilled capa-
bilities of Superintendent Jenkins, one of the best
qualified men in his profession this country has pro-
duced. He is a native son of Kentucky, as he was
born at Clay, Webster County, November 24, 1879, and
has proven himself worthy of his great state and his
old and honored family.
The great-great-grandfather of Judson Carl Jenkins,
of whom we are now writing, was born in England,
came to America, located in Virginia, and when the
Colonies threw off the yoke of England he served in
the Colonial Army and was an armorer under the
direct command of General Washington. His son,
W. W. Jenkins, was the great-grandfather of Superin-
tendent Jenkins, and he was born in Virginia, but left
it for North Carolina. Still later he migrated to Web-
ster County, Kentucky, where he died in 1881, at the
remarkable age of 108 years. By trade he was a gun-
smith, and worked at it for many years. His long
life enabled him to witness remarkable changes, and
in his old age he was fond of relating to his descend-
ants the surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown,
which he distinctly remembered. His wife was born
in France and belonged to an old Huguenot family,
and she and her parents were forced to flee to North
Carolina from France on account of religious perse-
cution.
The grandfather, W. W. Jenkins, was born in Web-
ster County, Kentucky, and died at Dixon, Kentucky,
when his son, L. D. Jenkins, was a little child. He
was a blacksmith and worked at his trade in Webster
County, where his life was spent. He married a Miss
Barnes, who was born in Caldwell County, and died
in Webster County.
L. D. Jenkins, father of Superintendent Jenkins, was
born at Caseyville. Kentucky, in 1848, and is now living
at Dawson Springs. Growing up at Clay, Kentucky,
he lived there for some time following his marriage,
and was there engaged in blacksmithing. In 1883 he
moved to Dawson Springs and was the pioneer black-
smith of this city. Ever since he cast his first vote
he has been a democrat. The Christian Church holds
his membership. Fraternally he belongs to the Odd |
Fellows. When he was fifteen years old he enlisted
in the Kentucky Home Guards, and served in this
division during the war between the North and the
South. L. D. Jenkins married Miss Lizzie M. Doss,
who was born in Webster County, Kentucky, in 1850,
and died at Dawson Springs in 1889. Of the six chil-
dren born of this marriage Judson C. Jenkins is the
only survivor, the other five dying in infancy. As his
second wife L. D. Jenkins married Miss Martha Clay-
ton, who was born in Caldwell County in 1857, and
died at Dawson Springs in 1902. There were no chil-
dren of this marriage.
Superintendent Jenkins attended the public schools of
Dawson Springs and the Princeton High School, where
he completed the work necessary for him to enter
college. He then took a year's course in the Princeton
Collegiate Institute, following which he entered the
Southern Normal University at Huntingdon, Tennes-
see, and was graduated therefrom in 1904, with the
degree of Bachelor of Science, and later had the de-
gree of Bachelor of Laws conferred upon him. In
later years he took up post-graduate work at the Uni-
versity of Tennessee, the University of Kentucky, the
University of Chicago, and Peabody College, and is
now taking a course at Smith-Hughes in vocational
agricultural work, all of this having been done during
his vacation periods.
In the meanwhile Mr. Jenkins began teaching school,
and for eight years, or from 1898 until 1906, he was
an educator of Caldwell County. In 1906 he became
principal of the Princeton High School and held that
position for two years, and then, in the fall of 1908,
came to Dawson Springs as superintendent of its
schools, and is still serving as such. At present he
has under his supervision ten teachers and 425 pupils.
One of the best graded and high school buildings in
Kentucky was erected at Dawson Springs in 1915,
and Superintendent Jenkins has raised the standard of
scholarship until it surpasses in excellence that of the
building. He is an enthusiast in his work, and not
only keeps abreast of his profession but possesses a
natural ability for imparting knowledge in a manner
which is entertaining and impressive, and his pupils
show the results of his scholarly and sympathetic
training.
Like his father he is a democrat and a member of
the Christian Church, and is an elder in the local
congregation. A Mason, he belongs to Dawson Lodge
No. 628, A. F. and A. M. He also maintains mem-
bership in the Kentucky Educational Association and
is an active factor in it. In addition to his modern
residence on Eison Street, Dawson Springs. Mr. Jen-
kins owns a farm in Caldwell County. During the
late war he was an ardent worker in behalf of all of
the local activities, and subscribed and contributed to
his limit to all of the drives. He served as chairman
of the Council of Defense of Dawson Springs, and in
every possible way did what he felt was his duty to
his country and community in such times of great
stress.
In 1900 Mr. Jenkins married in Caldwell County Miss
Laura Wadlington, a daughter of R. L. and Julia
(Brown) Wadlington. Mr. Wadlington, who was a
farmer of Caldwell County, is now deceased, but his
widow survives him and resides at Princeton. Ken-
tucky. Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins have one child, Judson,
Jr.. who was born September 7, 1919. ^, .
Always a supporter of law and order, Mr. T'^:ins
ranged himself, as a matter of course, with the., best
element upon coming to Dawson Springs. When it
became necessary to adopt stringent measures to drive
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
511
out a vicious element in this locality he was not found
lacking in the courage of his convictions, but did his
part in bringing about the reform movement and ex-
pelling the evil-doers, although he would be the last
one to lay claim to any credit for his efforts, for he
is a modest man and whatever he is able to accomplish
in the way of civic duty he takes as a matter of course
and a part of his day's action, but the fact remains,
nevertheless, that he did exert a very strong and ef-
fective influence and rendered an efficient service to
the officials in direct charge of the prosecution.
Lonnie Houston Wilkie, cashier of the First Na-
tional Bank of Dawson Springs, is one of the best-
known and alert young business men of Hopkins
County. His rapid rise has been watched with interest
by his friends, who are glad to accord him the confi-
dence his abilities and business successes entitle him.
He was born at Charleston, Hopkins County, Kentucky,
September 25, 1893, a son of Walter V. Wilkie, and
grandson of Sam H. Wilkie, who was born near Beu-
lah, Kentucky, in 1846, and died near Richland, Hop-
kins County, in 1903, having been engaged in farming
in Hopkins County all of his life. He married a
Miss Tirey, who was born near Beulah in 1847, and
died near Richland, Kentucky. Their children who
are now living are : Walter V., who is mentioned at
length below ; and William H., who lives at Brush,
Colorado. The Wilkie family is of Scotch-Irish origin,
and its representatives came to the American Colonies,
settling in North Carolina, from whence they migrated
into Tennessee, where the great-grandfather, Jackson
Wilkie, was born. He was a farmer and circuit rider,
and became one of the pioneers of Hopkins County.
His death occurred at Beulah, Kentucky, before the
birth of his great-grandson, L. H. Wilkie, but he is
remembered by the older residents as a most excellent
man and successful preacher and farmer.
Walter V. Wilkie was born near Beulah, Kentucky,
in 1868, and he was reared, educated and married in
Hopkins County. For some time following his mar-
riage he was engaged in farming near Charleston, and
then moved to the vicinity of Dawson Springs in 1902,
and continued his agricultural operations until 1907,
when he came to Dawson Springs, and has been oc-
cupied with well drilling ever since. His political con-
victions make him a democrat. He belongs to Mag-
nolia Camp No. 73, W. O. W., and Dawson Springs
Camp No. 12392, M. W. A. Walter V. Wilkie mar-
ried Mattie F. McGrigor, who was born near Charles-
ton, Kentucky, in 1868, and they became the parents
of the following children: Lova J., who married Cal-
lie Holeman, is foreman in the sugar mill of Brush,
Colorado ; Lonnie Houston, who was second in order
of birth ; and Lexie J., who is associated with his
rather in business at Dawson Springs. He entered the
United States service in June, 1918, as a member of
the navy, and was sent to the Great Lakes Training
Station at Chicago, Illinois, from whence he was trans-
ferred to Charleston, South Carolina, doing patrol duty
on board several ships. For a time he was stationed
at Halifax, Nova Scotia, in the naval aviation depart-
ment, and was finally mustered out of the service
July 17, 1919.
Lonnie H. Wilkie attended the local schools of his
native county and the Dawson Springs High School,
and was graduated therefrom in the class of 1913. In
the meanwhile he filled the position of bookkeeper in
the Commercial Bank of Dawson for four years while
he was attending school, and in this way gained a
knowledge of the fundamentals of banking. In De-
cember, 1913, he went to Palo Alto, California, and
remained three years at Leland Stanford, Junior, Uni-
versity. During the summer of 1916 he was engaged
in working on farms, and in November, 1916, entered
the United States Marine Corps and was drill instruc-
tor at Mare Island, California, until August 31, 1917.
On that date he was transferred to the paymaster's
department at San Francisco, California, and remained
there until November 23, 1917. From there he was
sent to the paymaster's department at Washington,
District of Columbia, and later was at the headquar-
ters of the Marine Corps at Washington until Febru-
ary, 1918. Once more he was transferred and, going
to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was on board the "Von
Steuben," a captured German liner, and was attached
to the First Replacement Battalion and landed in
France February 26, 1918. From Brest he was sent
to Saint Aignan and thence to Chatillon, where he
remained until April 8, 1918, when he was transferred
to the chief paymaster's office, Paris, France. Various
duties were assigned him which took him all over
France, but his headquarters were at Paris until he
was returned to the United States April 4, 1919. Re-
turning to Washington, he was granted a furlough, and
spent the time from April 11 to April 26 at home. Mr.
Wilkie was then ordered to report at Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, and remained on duty at the office of
the paymaster of the Advance Base Force until he
was honorably discharged August 30, 1919. While he
was abroad Mr. Wilkie visited Germany and Belgium,
and is very well posted with reference to war condi-
tions in those countries and France.
Returning home after his discharge he organized the
First National Bank of Dawson Springs, which opened
its doors for business February 25, 1920. The officers
of the bank are as follows: James D. Meadors, presi-
dent; T. H. O'Brien, vice president; L. H. Wilkie,
cashier; and Dessie Glover, assistant cashier. The
bank is located on South Main Street, at Railroad Av-
enue. It has a capital of $25,000 and a surplus of
$2,500, and although a new institution it has already
taken the place in the community to which the stand-
ing of the men backing it entitles it.
On December 28, 1917, Mr. Wilkie married at Daw-
son Springs, while home on a furlough, Miss Minnie
D. Morris, daughter of Amon and Tinsey (Claxton)
Morris, who are residing on their farm near Dawson
Springs. Mrs. Wilkie was graduated from the Dawson
Springs High School and then attended the Bowling
Green Normal School and Vanderbilt University at
Nashville, Tennessee, for a year, and holds a state
certificate for teaching. Mr. and Mrs. Wilkie own
their modern residence on Sycamore Street, which
is one of the most comfortable homes at the Springs,
and here they delight to welcome their many friends.
Mr. Wilkie is a democrat. He belongs to the Baptist
Church and is generous in his contributions to its sup-
port. A young man in years, he has had a wide and
varied experience, and his knowledge of men and their
motives is somewhat profound and especially qualifies
him for the responsible position he is now filling.
Francis Monroe Jackson, M. D. Hopkins County
has within its confines some of the most skilled and
dependable physicians and surgeons of the state, men
of the highest character, whose lives are spent in the
noble work of caring for the sick and afflicted and in
bringing about more sanitary living conditions in their
communities. One of these men, who enjoys a well-
merited high repute both as a physician and as a
citizen, is Dr. Francis Monroe Jackson, of Dawson
Springs, whose position in his profession is unques-
tioned.
Doctor Jackson was born in Hopkins County, on a
farm five miles west of Dawson Springs, April 19, 1870,'
a son of Nathan B. Jackson, and a grandson of Thomas
Jackson, who was born in North Carolina in 1809 and
died in Caldwell County, Kentucky, in 1863. It was
he who brought the family into Caldwell County from
North Carolina, and he became one of the most suc-
cessful and extensive farmers of that region. He
married Winnie Creekmur, a native of Ireland, who
died in Caldwell County in 1900, aged ninety-nine years
512
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
and eleven months. They had five sons who served
during the war between the North and the South, three
being in the Union Army and two in the Confederate
Army. The Jacksons are of Scotch-Irish descent, and
were established in North Carolina when it was still
an English colony.
Nathan B. Jackson was born in Caldwell County,
Kentucky, in 1835, and he died at Dawson Springs in
1902. In young manhood he left his native county,
where he had been reared and educated, and came to
Caldwell County, settling on the farm which was his
son's birthplace, and continued to operate it until 1885,
when he retired, moved to Dawson Springs, and here
rounded out his life in ease and comfort. During the
war between the two sections of the country he en-
listed in Company E, Twentieth Kentucky Volunteer
Infantry, and served throughout the war, becoming
a corporal and participating in the battles of Shiloh,
Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge and Chicka-
mauga, and in the campaign against Vicksburg. On
July 4, 1863, he was wounded, his command being at
that time pursued for eleven miles in one hour and
fifteen minutes by John Morgan and his raiders, from
Lebanon to Springfield, Tennessee. Later Mr. Jack-
son was with General Sherman on his march to the
sea. was present when General Nelson was killed and
also when Dick Morgan lost his life, his service in all
including seventy-two engagements, large and small.
From the time he cast his first vote he was a repub-
lican. He was married to Sarah E. Smith, who was
born in Hopkins County, Kentucky, in 1839, and died
at Dawson Springs January 2, 1904. They became
the parents of children as follows : W. T., who is a
farmer of Dawson Springs ; B. T., who is chief of
police of Dawson Springs; and Doctor Jackson, who
was the youngest born.
Doctor Jackson attended the public schools of Daw-
son Springs, and was graduated from its high school
course in 1892. For the subsequent four years he was
engaged in teaching school in Hopkins County, when he
was appointed chief of police of Dawson Springs, and
discharged the duties pertaining to that office for
a period of six years. Having decided upon a medical
career, in 1004 he entered the Hospital College of Medi-
cine at Louisville, Kentucky, and remained a student of
that institution until 1907, leaving it in the latter year
to enter the Louisville Medical College, from which
he was graduated in 1908 with the degree of Doctor
of Medicine. That same year he established himself in
a general medical practice at Dawson Springs, and has
been here continuously ever since, with the exception
of the time he was in the service of his Government
during the great war. He tried to get accepted in
the medical corps and was twice refused on account
of disability, and then, in December, 1917, volunteered
for mining service for the Sterling Coal Company at
Daniel Boone, Kentucky, where he spent three months.
and then for three months was at the works of the
Memphis Coal Company of Mannington, Kentucky,
completing his work May 1, 1918, and returning to
Dawson Springs. His offices are at No. 5 South Main
Street. He is a strong supporter of the republican
party. The Methodist Episcopal Church has him as
one of its zealous members, and he is now serving
as a steward of the local congregation. Fraternally
Doctor Jackson maintains membership with Dawson
Lodge No. 628, A. F. and A. M. ; Magnolia Camp No.
73, W. O. W. ; Dawson Springs Camp No. 12392. M.
\V. A.; and Grove No. 67, Woodman Circle. Pro-
fessionally he belongs to the Hopkins County Medical
Society, Kentucky State Medical Society and the Amer-
ican Medical Association. He owns his modern resi-
dence at 202 North Main Street, the finest in the city,
and also a dwelling on Franklin Street, corner of Ke-
gan Street.
In 1893 Doctor Jackson married in Hopkins County
Mi>s Man D. Osburn, a daughter of H. C. and Eliza-
beth (Pool) Osburn, the latter of whom is deceased,
but the former, who is a retired farmer, is living at
Sebree, Kentucky. Mrs. Jackson was graduated in
music, and is a skilled performer in both vocal and
instrumental music. Doctor and Mrs. Jackson have
one son, Niles Osburn, who was born January 13, 1899.
He was graduated from the Bowling Green Business
University at Bowling Green, Kentucky, and is now
bookkeeper and stenographer in the Planters Bank at
Clarksdale, Mississippi, where he is held in high esteem
by his associates and the customers of the bank. Doc-
tor Jackson has identified himself with Dawson Springs
ever since locating here, and is rightfully numbered
among its prominent citizens and trustworthy profes-
sional men.
Edward F. Coffman, one of the level-headed, re-
sourceful and efficient men of Russellville, holds the
office of postmaster, and although one of the younger
generation is held in high esteem because of the service
he is rendering his community. He was born at Russell-
ville, October 28, 1890, a son of J. Bradley Coffman,
grandson of Edward Coffman, and great-grandson ol{
Adam Coffman, who was born in Pennsylvania, where
his family settled upon coming to the American Colonies
from Germany. Adam Coffman came to Logan County
in 1801, and soon afterw-ard bougth a farm seven miles
south of Russellville, where he died. It was on this farm
that his son Edward Coffman was born in 1824, and he
died on this same farm in 1902. He was engaged in
farming upon an extensive scale and was the largest
cattle buyer in Logan County during the time of his
active participation in business. Edward Coffman mar-
ried Clarissa Cloud, who was born in Kentucky in 1830,
and died in Logan County in 1917.
J. Bradley Coffman was born in Logan county in 1862,
and died at Russellville in 1912. He was a graduate of
the University of Louisville, Bachelor of Laws, and re-
ceived the degree of Master of Arts from De Pauw. He
was one of the distinguished men of Logan County, and
a highly educated gentleman. After graduating from
De Pauw University, Greencastle, Indiana, with the
degree of Bachelor of Arts, class of '82, and from the
University of Virginia at Charlottesville, Virginia, with
the degree of Bachelor of Laws, class of '85 he entered
the internal revenue service of the United States Govern-
ment, and was stationed at Owensboro, Kentucky, from
1889 until 1893. In the latter year he returned to Logan
County and was there engaged in the practice of law
until 1898. Prominent in the republican party, in 1896
he was the successful candidate of his party to the State
Assembly as a representative from Logan County, and
served during the session of 1897. In 1898 he was ap-
pointed postmaster of Russellville, and took charge of
the office in April of that year, and continued to hold
the office until his death. In 1909 he was the candidate
of his party for county judge, but was defeated, al-
though he ran ahead of his ticket on account of his
personal popularity. The Christian Church had in him
a very active supporter, and he lived its creed in his
outside life. He belonged to the Phi Gamma Delta
Greek letter fraternity. J. Bradley Coffman married
Julia Evans, a daughter of Selhy Evans, who died at
Russellville before his grandson, Edward F. Coffman,
was born, and where he was one of the early merchants.
Mrs. Coffman survives her husband and lives at Rus-
sellville. She and her husband had the following chil-
dren : Selby E., who resides at Wilson, North Carolina,
is agent for the American Railway Express Company,
married Miss Nell Howard, born at Brandenberg, Ken-
tucky, and has one child, Selby E., Jr., who was born
November 8, 1920; and Edward F. Coffman, who is the
elder of the two sons. Selby E. Coffman enlisted in
the 1st Florida Infantry in June, 1917, and after attend-
ing an officers school was commissioned first lieutenant
and saw overseas service from November 1918, to July,
1919, with Base Hospital no, stationed for some time at
1
to
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
513
Beau Desert, France. His wife, Nell Howard, was a
member of a Red Cross Unit, also with Base Hospital
No. no, and they met and were married while in France.
After attending a private school of Russellville Ed-
ward F. Coffman became a student of Bethel College
at Russellville, and was graduated therefrom in 1910,
with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. For the subsequent
year Mr. Coffman studied in the business department
of that institution and was graduated in shorthand and
typewriting in 191 1. Following this he was stenographer
for the Crescent Coal Company of Bevier, Kentucky,
for a year, when he was made post office clerk at Rus-
sellville in July, 1912, and held the office until April,
1919, with the exception of a short time after the demise
of his father when he was acting postmaster. On April
I, 1919, he was appointed assistant postmaster at Rus-
sellville, and on October I, 1919, received his appoint-
ment as postmaster of the same office for a term of four
years under the civil service, he standing first in a com-
petitive examination. Like his father, he is a republican
and a member of the Christian Church, and at present
he is treasurer of the local congregation of that denom-
ination. Mr. Coffman belongs to the Sigma Alpha
Epsilon Greek letter fraternity. His residence is at 680
East Second Street. During the late war he took an ac-
tive part in local war work, being in charge of the post
office activities in the sale of War Savings Stamps for
Logan County, which oversold its quota of approximately
$500,000 worth of stamps.
In October, 1916, Mr. Coffman married Miss Emma
Hill, a daughter of Robert T. and Emma (King) Hill.
Robert T. Hill died December 21, 1920, and his wife,
Mrs. Emma (King) Hill, died in 1899. By trade he
was a blacksmith, and at one time he served as jailor of
Logan County. Mr. and Mrs. Coffman have one child,
Emma Hill, who was born July 31, 1917. Mr. Coffman
is discharging the responsible duties of his office in
characteristic fashion and giving satisfaction to all
classes. He was elected state secretary of the Ken-
tucky State League of Postmasters at the annual con-
vention held at Louisville in August, 1921. Having
spent his life in this line of work, he understands it
thoroughly and it would have been difficult to get a
postmaster better fitted for the office.
James Henry Payne, president of the Bank of Ar-
lington and one of the most dependable and solid men
of Carlisle County, is also an extensive farmer and
heavy landowner, whose interests are many and varied
and whose affairs are well managed under his capable
supervision. He was born in Carlisle County, Ken-
tucky, January 30, 1862, a son of William Johnson
Payne, and grandson of Joseph Payne, a pioneer
farmer of Carlisle County.
William Johnson Payne was born in Van Buren
County.-Tennessee, in 1844, and died in Carlisle County,
Kentucky, at the home of his son, James Henry, in
November, 1919. Brought to Carlisle County in 1853
by his parents, he here was reared, married and spent
the remainder of his useful and upright life, devoting
himself to farming, and through it winning ample
means and the respect of his fellow citizens. He was
a democrat in politics and a Baptist in religion, always
taking an active part in church work. He married Mary
Jane Ramsey, born in Carlisle County in 1845, and she
died at Bardwell, Kentucky, in 1911. Their children
were as follows: James Henry, who was the eldest;
David, who died at Bardwell, Kentucky, when he was
thirty-four years of age, was a salesman in a store ;
Thursday Ann, who died at the age of sixteen years ;
and George W., who lives at Bardwell, is engaged in
practice there as a physician and surgeon.
James Henry Payne attended the local schools and
was reared on his father's farm until he was nineteen
years old. He then went with his parents to Bard-
well, Kentucky, and for the subsequent ten years was
engaged in clerking in a dry goods store, and then for
another ten years was a traveling salesman for a dry
goods house. He then moved on a farm of 700 acres
one mile east of Arlington, and since then has been
actively engaged in a general farming and stock-raising
business, having become one of the leading agricul-
turists of Carlisle County. In 1901 the Bank of Arling-
ton was established as a state institution, and Mr.
Payne is now its president, his associates being: R. E.
Stanley, vice president, and J. C. Neville, cashier. The
bank has a capital of $24,000; surplus and profits of
$20,000, and deposits of $175,000. Mr. Payne is also
president of the Bank of Milburn, Kentucky. He
belongs to the State Bankers Association and the Amer-
ican Bankers Association. Not confining his interests
to the lines already mentioned, he has been very liberal
in the investment of his money in local enterprises,
and is president of the Arlington Picture Company,
is president of the Payne Dry Goods Company, a direc-
tor of the Blackbottom Oil Company of Bardwell, and
owns stock in a number of concerns at Arlington and
Bardwell, all of which benefit through his connection
with them, for his advice is sage and valuable and his
methods unfailingly successful. He is a democrat and
Baptist, like his father, and he is serving the Arling-
ton church of his faith as treasurer and deacon.
In 1892 Mr. Payne was united in marriage at Ar-
lington with Miss Sallie Catherine Neville, a daughter
of R. B. and Clarissa (Berry) Neville, both of whom
are now deceased. Mr. Neville was one of the early
farmers of Carlisle County, and owned at one time
the land on which Arlington now stands. Mr. and
Mrs. Payne have no children of their own, but have
raised three : Emma Lee Carter, who married Guy H.
Davis, a traveling salesman; Emma May Payne, eight
years old ; and James Dewitt Payne, ten years old, re-
siding with Mr. Payne. In every movement which has
for its object constructive work for the community
Mr. Payne has taken a leading part, but he has never
been willing to countenance a wasteful expenditure
of public funds or the making of public improvements
which are not necessary or those which are destined
to benefit the few. He is a man of strong personality,
and the effect of his influence is felt in the maintenance
of the credits of the county and the equalization of
supply and demand.
John Christopher Neville, cashier of the Bank of
Arlington, is one of the men who has earned the right
to be considered one of the leading men of his com-
munity through his own efforts. He was born in Car-
lisle County, Kentucky, February 28, 1861, a son of
R. B. Neville, who was born in Tennessee in 1826
and died in Carlisle County, Kentucky, in 1909. Reared
in Tennessee, he attended its schools, but when he
reached manhood's estate he came to Carlisle County,
Kentucky, and was married after coming to this locality.
All of his life he was engaged in farming. A demo-
crat, he served as a justice of the peace, but did not
hold other office. Very religious, he gave a strong
support to the Baptist Church, of which he was a con-
sistent member. R. B. Neville married Clarissa Jane
Berry, who was born in Carlisle County, Kentucky,
in 1830, and died in this county in 1902. Their chil-
dren were as follows : Elizabeth Ann, who married
W. H. Lightfoot, a farmer, is now deceased, but his
widow resides at Arlington; W. N., who is engaged in
a milling business at Arlington; G. W., who is a car-
penter and builder of Waco, Texas ; J. T., who was a
farmer, died at Arlington; John Christopher, who was
fifth in order of birth; Ida, who married J. T. Roland,
a carpenter and builder of Arlington, is deceased; and
Sallie Catherine, who married J. H. Payne, and lives
on the Neville homestead one mile east of Arlington.
John Christopher Neville attended the rural schools
of Carlisle County and Clinton College, being grad-
uated from the latter institution in 1882. For the
subsequent twelve years he was engaged in teaching
514
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
in his native county, and then went to farming, this
calling absorbing his time and attention until 1907,
when he went to Arlington, Kentucky, and became
cashier of the Bank of Arlington. This bank was
established in 1901 as a state institution and has a
capital of $24,000; a surplus of $20,000, and deposits
of $175,000. The officials of the bank are: J. H. Payne,
president; R. E. Stanley, vice president; and J. C.
Neville, cashier. It is one of the sound banking insti-
tutions of this part of the state. Mr. Neville is a dem-
ocrat. He belongs to the Baptist Church, which he
is now serving as clerk. For some years he has main-
tained membership with the State Bankers Associa-
tion and the American Bankers Association. Mr. Nev-
ille owns a farm one mile east of Arlington, and there
he is carrying on general farming and stock-raising.
His residence, however, is at Arlington, and it is near
the Illinois Central Railroad station and is modern in
construction and equipment.
In 1909 Mr. Neville married at Jackson, Tennessee,
Miss Annie Davis, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Swep
Davis, both of whom are now deceased. In life Mr.
Davis was a farmer of Tennessee and a successful
man. Mr. and Mrs. Neville have no children.
W. J. Ruby. An important share of the commercial
activities of the City of Madisonville have been car-
ried by members of the Ruby family for a number
of years. W. J. Ruby is a banker, successful head
of one of the larger institutions in Hopkins County,
the Kentucky Bank & Trust Company, and is one of
the youngest bank presidents in the state.
He was born at Madisonville August 18, 1880. His
father was J. E. Ruby, who was born in Webster
County, Kentucky, in 1849. He was reared in Web-
ster County, and was a graduate of Princeton College at
Princeton, Kentucky. While at Princeton attending
college he met Miss Yaden Turner, who was born in
that college town in 1852. They were married in
Princeton, but spent all their married lives in Madi-
sonville. J. E. Ruby for many years owned and con-
ducted a leading grocery and hardware business in
Hopkins County, and built and owned the first brick
store building in Madisonville. He died when only
forty-one years of age, in 1890. He was a democrat,
was very closely identified by interests and member-
ship with the Christian Church, and was a member of
the Order of the Golden Cross. His widow survived
him a quarter of a century and died at Madisonville
in 191?. Their children were: T. E. Ruby, member of
the Ruby Lumber Company, one of the leading indus-
tries of Madisonville ; L. E. Ruby, also a member of the
Ruby Lumber Company; W. J. Ruby; Clyde, who was
a-.sociated with the Lumber Company and died at Madi-
sonville in 1914; H. D. Ruby, a graduate from the law
department of the University of Louisville, who went to
Arizona for his health and died at Tucson ; Lucien, the
youngest, is manager of the branch of the Ruby Lumber
Company at Providence, Kentucky.
W. J. Ruby was educated in the public schools of his
native city and spent two years in the South Kentucky
College at Hopkinsville. He left college in 1899, at the
request of his mother that he take charge of the grocery
business of his father's estate, and successfully managed
that for three years. After that he was in the general
insurance business until 1906, since which year his busi-
ness role has been that of a banker. For two years he
was vice president of Morton's Bank, and since then has
been president of the Kentucky Bank & Trust Com-
pany. This company was established March 4, 1901,
under a state charter, and during the twelve years that
Mr. Ruby has been its president its service and resources
have increased until it is one of the leading financial
institutions in this part of Kentucky, with total assets
of more than $1,125,000. Its deposits are over $1,000,000
and it operates on a capital of $50,000, with surplus and
profits of $75,000. Besides Mr. Ruby as president the
vice president and cashier is P. B. Ross and the assistant
cashier, L. K. Bell.
Mr. Ruby, and family live in a charming suburban
home, though adjoining the corporate limits of Madison-
ville. His residence was erected in 1918, and it is on a
farm of 200 acres, thoroughly equipped for the busi-
ness of modern farming. Mr. Ruby is a member of the
State Bankers Association, served four years as city
treasurer, is a democrat, a member of the Christian
Church and is affiliated with Madisonville Lodge No.
738 of the Order of Elks. Through his position as a
banker and as one of the well known citizens of Hop-
kins County he exerted a strong influence in behalf of
every campaign in the city and county to support the
Government during the World war.
In October, 1917, at Jacksonville, Alabama, Mr. Ruby
married Miss Anna Grace Connor, a native of Georgia.
They have one son, W. J., Jr., born October 22, 1919.
Charles Orlando Osburn has had forty years of
continuous association with the commercial affairs of
Madisonville, has been a merchant, hanker and public
official, and is now secretary of Hopkins County's lead-
ing department store, Dulin's Incorporated.
The Osburns are an English family which settled
in Virginia in Colonial times. The founder of the
family in Kentucky was Isaac Osburn, grandfather of
the Madisonville merchant. He was born at Leesburg,
Virginia, in 1783, and as a young man came West by
one of the few available routes at that time, floating
down the Ohio River to Louisville and subsequently
establishing a home in Nelson County. In 1843 he
moved to Richland, Hopkins County, developed a farm
there, but spent his last days at Madisonville and died
in 1880. William Thomas Osburn, his son, was born
in Nelson County, Kentucky, in 1831, and was twelve
years of age when the family moved to Hopkins County.
He was reared and educated in that county and after
his marriage moved to Madisonville. He was an expert
gunsmith, and that trade was the basis of his business
career. He died at Madisonville in 1896. He was a
democrat, a member of Madisonville Lodge No. 143,
A. F. and A. M., and Oriental Lodge No. 99, of the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows. William Thomas
Osburn married Ann Elizabeth Waetzell, who was born
at Madisonville in 1840 and died in her native city in
1900.
Only child of his parents, Charles Orlando Osburn
was born at Madisonville September 3, 1861. Most
of his education was acquired in the public schools of
Madisonville when they were under the supervision
of Professor Boring. Leaving school at the age of
twenty he began his business career as clerk in Bishop
and Company's dry goods store. During the next
eight years he laid a sound foundation of commercial
knowledge and experience. Then for two years he sold
the famous Pingree shoes, manufactured by Pingree
& Company of Detroit, to the retail trade in Kentucky
and Tennessee. After leaving the road Mr. Osburn was
in the furniture and undertaking business at Madison-
ville for ten years. He became a banker in 1901
as cashier of Morton's Bank at Madisonville, and
held that post of responsibility for ten years. It was
while in the banking business that he was elected and
served as county treasurer of Hopkins County for five
years. Mr. Osburn has always regarded his most con-
genial relationship as one of a commercial and mercan-
tile nature, and in 1911 he became a clerk in Dulin's
Incorporated, but has since improved his connections
as department manager, stockholder and secretary of
the company. Probably every family in Hopkins County
has patronized this model department store on South
Main Street.
Mr. Osburn also served as city clerk of Madisonville
six years. He is a democrat, a very interested worker
and a deacon in the Christian Church, and is prominent
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
515
fraternally, being a past master and present secretary
of Madisonville Lodge No. 143, A. F. and A. M., past
high priest and secretary of Madisonville Chapter No.
123, R. A. M., is a past eminent commander and present
recorder of Madisonville Commandery No. 27, K. T.,
is recorder of Rizpah Temple of the Mystic Shrine, and
is a past grand of Oriental Lodge No. 99 of the Inde-
pendent Order of Odd Fellows. Through his personal
contributions and his influence he was associated with
all the varied activities promoting the success of the
war.
Mr. Osburn and family live in a modern home on
South Main Street. He married at Madisonville in
1S86 Miss Jessie Parker. Her parents, Mr. and Mrs.
William B. Parker, are now deceased. Her father was
a farmer and also a lumber merchant. The only child
of 'Mr. and Mrs. Osburn is William, who was born
July 27, 1889. He is a graduate of the Tri-State College
of Angola, Indiana, and is an electrical engineer by
profession. He now lives in Cincinnati. During the
war he entered the United States service and was with
the colors nearly two years. His assignments to duty
were at Fort Thomas, Waco, Texas, Fort Sill, Okla-
homa,, Anniston, Alabama, and from thence in North
Carolina. He was in the Electrical Corps, and part
of the time in aerial service relaying messages from air
ships to the artillery. His rank was that of top
sergeant.
Lawrence Waller Pratt is one of the most exten-
sive tobacco growers in Hopkins County. He does
farming on a large scale, with diversified production,
and is a thorough business farmer, being a business
man by training as well as a practical agriculturist.
Judge Clifton J. Pratt, his father, was one of the
most distinguished lawyers of Hopkins County for
many years. The late Judge Pratt was born near
Eureka, Woodford County, Illinois, son of Jonathan
Pratt. The latter was born in 1818, moved to Madison-
ville, Kentucky, when Clifton was a child, and lived
there until his death in 1888. Clifton J. Pratt was
reared and married at Madisonville and as a young man
qualified for the legal profession. For many years
he was a member of the oldest law firm of the city,
Waddill & Pratt, and was accorded many of the honors
of his profession and of politics. He had the distinction
of being the first republican ever elected to a political
office in Hopkins County. As a young man he was
elected to the State Senate, was elected and served one
term of six years as judge of the Second Judicial
District, and at one time was a candidate for nomination
as governor, when his rival was former Governor
Taylor. He withdrew from the race and accepted a
place on the ticket as attorney general. He was the
only republican to hold a state office at that time.
During the Civil war he served as a courier in the
Union Army. He was an active member of the Chris-
tian Church many years. Judge Pratt died at Madison-
ville May 25, 1918, his death being the result of a stroke
of paralysis. He married Miss Sallie Waddill, whose
father, Otway Waddill, was a member of the law firm
of Waddill & Pratt. She was born at Madisonville
in 1852 and died in her native city May 29, 1919.
Judge and Mrs. Pratt had four children : W. R. Pratt,
who lives at Independence, Katlsas, where he is engaged
in the stationery and office supply business and is a
former mayor ; Lawrence W. ; Otway, who died at the
age of seven months; and Virgil, who died at the age
of seven years.
Lawrence Waller Pratt was born at Madisonville
March 24, 1880, attended the public schools of his
native city and until 1901 was a student in Center
College at Danville, Kentucky. He is a member of
the Beta Theta Pi college fraternity. From the time
he left college in 1901 until 1904 he was in the stationery
and musical instrument business at Madisonville. He
then moved West, to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and
for five years was secretary of the Oklahoma Canning
Company. He still owns a residence property in Okla-
homa City, at the corner of Twelfth and Hudson
streets.
Since returning to Hopkins County in 1909 Mr. Pratt
has given almost his undivided energies to farming. He
and his brother W. R. together own 1500 acres of land.
He individually operates 700 acres. His farming is on
a diversified scale, but his importance as a tobacco
grower is indicated by the fact that his crop in 1918
amounted to 90,000 pounds. Mr. Pratt lives in Madison-
ville, having a fine modern home at 416 West Center
Street.
His name and personal resources were in evidence
in local campaigns for the raising of funds and prosecu-
tion of other war activities during the World war
struggle. He is a republican, is affiliated with Madi-
sonville Lodge No. 738 of the Elks. On August 6,
1919, at Evansville, Indiana, Mr. Pratt married Miss
Eleanora Arnold. Her father, William Arnold, was
born at Bardstown, Nelson County, Kentucky, in 1852,
was reared there, was married at the Village of Boston
in Nelson County, and in 1888 moved to Lebanon
Junction, Kentucky, and since then has been an employe
of the Louisville & Nashville Railway Compay. He
is a democrat in politics. William Arnold married
Marguerite Botto, who was born at Boston in Nelson
County in 1852. Their children were: Fannie, wife of
Disney Ryan, a locomotive engineer living at Louisville ;
Joe, an employe of the Louisville & Nashville Railway
Company, living at Louisville ; Eva, wife of Arthur J.
Thompson, a locomotive fireman with the Louisville &
Nashville Company at Louisville ; Mrs. Pratt ; Guy, a
livestock dealer living at Lebanon Junction ; and John,
a concrete contractor with home at Louisville. Mrs.
Pratt was educated in the public schools of Boston,
Kentucky, finished her junior year in Bethel Academy
at Bardstown, and then took the course of training for
a trained nurse, a profession she followed for ten years
before her marriage. She is a member of the Graduate
Nurses Association and a member of the Catholic
Church. Mr. and Mrs. Pratt have one child, Lawrence
Waller, Jr., born June 5, 1920.
Samuel Edward Crouch, M. D. Incomplete indeed
would be a history of Kentucky without distinctive
mention of that large body of men who labor in the
broad field of medical service. Some have chosen a
particular path and some work under particular com-
binations of method, but all can be justly credited
with scientific knowledge and a due regard for the
preservation of the public health together with a faith-
ful devotion to their own patients that has, on occasion,
been heroic. To the profession of medicine Dr. Samuel
Edward Crouch, of Evarts, Harlan County, early de-
voted his energies, and after an honorable and success-
ful practice of more than thirteen years stands as 'a
representative of the highest in his line of endeavor.
Doctor Crouch was born at Statesville, North Caro-
lina, January 5, 1883, a son of Stephen Adolphus and
Eliza Jane (Sisk) Crouch. Stephen Adolphus Crouch
was born in i860 in Iredell County, North Carolina,
where he was reared and educated, but as a young man
went to Davie County in the same state, where he
was married. A millwright by trade, he followed that
vocation for some time at Statesville, North Carolina,
following his marriage, but in 1886 moved to Williams-
burg, Kentucky, where he followed the same vocation
until his retirement, some time before his death in 1907.
He was a republican in his political views, and a mem-
ber and strong supporter of the Baptist Church. He
married Eliza Jane Sisk, who was born in 1859 in Davie
County, North Carolina, and died at Williamsburg, Ken-
tucky, in 1912. They became the parents of the follow-
ing children : Cora, who married John W. Crowley,
516
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
principal of the graded and high school at Highsplint,
Kentucky ; Dr. Samuel Edward, of this review ; R.
Frank, a millwright at Colmar, Illinois ; Delia, the wife
of Albert White, building superintendent for the High-
splint Coal Company at Highsplint, Kentucky; and
Maude, the wife of Jesse White, general manager of
the Lovett Fruit Company, wholesale dealers in fruit
at Harlan.
Samuel Edward Crouch received his primary educa-
tion in the public schools of Williamsburg, following
which he pursued a course at Cumberland College in
his native place. His medical studies were pursued at
the Louisville Hospital Medical College, from which
he was graduated in 1908, with the degree of Doctor of
Medicine. In that year he commenced practice at Wil-
liamsburg, where he remained until 1912, in that year
removing to Pleasant View. That community continued
to be the scene of his labors and the place of his resi-
dence until 1918, when he came to Evarts, and here
has since built up a large and lucrative general medical
and surgical practice, his offices being located in the
Styles Building on Yocum Street. In addition to hav-
ing a large private practice Doctor Crouch is acting as
company surgeon for the Superior-Harlan Coal Com-
pany, the Harlan-Liberty Coal Company, the J. L.
Smith Coal Company, the R. L. Brown Coal and Coke
Company and the Harlan-Kelokia Coal Company. He
served as county health officer of Whitley County dur-
ing 1915 and 1916, and is a member of the Harlan
County Medical Society, the Kentucky State Medical
Society and the American Medical Association. After
so long and faithful a performance of professional
duties, during which he has ever upheld the standards
of professional ethics, Doctor Crouch may feel some-
what gratified to know that he is held in high esteem
by other members of the fraternity and that they num-
ber him with the able physicians in a county in which
medical ability has reached a high point.
In his political tendencies Doctor Crouch is a re-
publican, and for some years has taken an active interest
in the success of his party, being at present a member
of the Republican County Committee and an influential
member of the organization. His religious connection
.is with the Baptist Church, and worthy movements and
charities receive his support. As a fraternalist he
belongs to Yocum Lodge No. 897, F. and A. M.. of
Evarts, of which he is senior warden; Harlan Chapter
No. 165, R. A. M., of Harlan ; Pineville Commandery
No. 39, K. T. ; London Council No. 60, R. and S. M.. of
London, Kentucky ; and Kosair Temple, A. A. O. N.
M. S., of Louisville; and to Evarts Council No. 157,
J. O. U. A. M., of which he is a past counsellor, and
to Evarts Lodge, I. O. O. F. ; Doctor Crouch is the
owner of a comfortable residence on Harlan Avenue,
where he makes his home, a dwelling on Fox Street,
and other real estate at Evarts. His participation in the
war time movements that characterized this section was
an active and helpful one, and in addition to being a
heavy subscriber and generous contributor to the various
drives he acted as medical examiner for the Harlan
County Draft Board.
In 1 910, at Barbourville, Kentucky, Doctor Crouch
was united in marriage with Miss Rosetta Lawson,
daughter of Isom and Nancy (Crowley) Lawson, the
latter of whom is deceased and the former a resident
of near Barbourville, where he is engaged in agricul-
tural pursuits.^ Mrs. Crouch is a graduate of the Bar-
bourville Baptist Institute and a woman of many accom-
plishments and graces. She and her husband are the
parents of three children : Cora, born in July, 1913 ;
Delia, born in June, 1917; and Irma May, born in June,
1919-
Arthur Jenkins, M. D. The fact that a physician's
name for high personal character is as dear to him
as his reputation for skill is proven by his effort to
live up to the moral obligations of his calling. Few
realize how self-sacrificing a medical man must be.
Not only has he been compelled to devote years of
preparation for his life work, but he must continue
to be a student as long as he lives. A large amount
of his practice is unremunerative, and he is called upon
to risk his own health and sometimes his life to min-
ister to others. Yet, to the credit of the profession
be it said that the exceptions to the general rule are
so few as to weigh but little in the standing of the
practitioners, while those who measure up to the high-
est standards are in an overwhelming majority. One
of the beloved physicians of Harlan County, who is
engaged in a general practice at Harlan, is Dr. Arthur
Jenkins.
Doctor Jenkins was born in Meade County, Kentucky,
June 28, 1871, a son of L. L. Jenkins, who was born
in New York State in 1S31, and died at Elizabethtown,
Hardin County, Kentucky, in 1886. He was reared
in Meade County, Kentucky, and continued to reside
there for some years after his marriage, and was en-
gaged in farming. In 1883 he moved to Elizabeth-
town, where he owned and operated a sales and feed
stable, and was well known and highly respected. In
politics he was a democrat, and in religion a Baptist,
and was a deacon in the church. He married Eliza
Nail, who was born in Daviess County, Kentucky, in
1835, and died at Elizabethtown, Kentucky, in 1890.
Their children were as follows : Emma, who lives in
Hardin County, is the widow of Andrew Hunt, a
farmer of Meade County, Kentucky, now deceased ;
Mollie, who died in Meade County, was the wife of
George Roberts; Ella, who resides at West Point,
Kentucky, is the widow of J. T. Bland, formerly a
merchant of Brandenburg, Kentucky; C. N., who is a
farmer of Meade County; Minnie, who died in Indiana,
was the wife of R. O. Cresap ; Lula, who married G. T.
Dowell, a mechanic of Vine Grove, Hardin County;
Doctor Jenkins, who was eighth in order of birth ;
and Addie. who married Dr. J. T. Wells, a physician
and surgeon of Dallas, Texas.
Doctor Jenkins attended the public schools of Eliz-
abethtown^ and was graduated from the high-school
course in 1886. For one year he was a student of
the Kentucky State University at Lexington, Kentucky,
and then after a year spent at home he entered the
University of Louisville and was graduated from the
medical department after three years, in 1891, with
the degree of Doctor of Medicine. Later he took
post-graduate courses at the Chicago Polyclinic. In
1891 he began his practice near Jellico, Tennessee, and
remained there for six years, leaving that vicinity to
locate near Gray. Kentucky, as physician and surgeon
for the North Jellico Coal Company. After five years
with that company's mines near Gray he spent ten
years at the mines of the same company at Wilton,
Kentucky. In 1912 he located permanently at Harlan,
and has built up a large and valuable general medical
and surgical practice. His offices are in the Masonic
Building on Central Street. He is a democrat and
a Baptist. Professionally he belongs to the Harlan
County Medical Society, the Kentucky State Medical
Society and the American Medical Association. Doc-
tor Jenkins is president of the Harlan Liberty Coal
Companv, whose mines are located one mile north of
Evarts, Kentucky. They" have a capacity of 1,000 tons
per day
Doctor Jenkins married at Louisville, Kentucky, in
1805, Miss Lelia McGlohan, a daughter of Mr. and
Mrs. T. McGlohan, the latter of whom is deceased.
The former lives in Carter County, Kentucky, where
he is a coal operator. Doctor and Mrs. Jenkins have
three children, namely: Sherley, who was born in
1896, lives at Detroit, Michigan, and is a salesman for
the Frederick Stearns Wholesale & Manufacturing
Company, pharmacists; Raymond, who was born in
1898, has charge of the store and offices at his father's
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
517
mines; and Arthur, who was born in 1901, is a med-
ical student at the University of Louisville.
Stephen M. Cawood. In naming the citizens of
Harlan County who, while winning personal success
and prominence, have contributed materially through
public service to the welfare and progress of their
communities mention should undoubtedly be made of
Stephen M. Cawood, coal operator, railroad builder,
bank director and real estate man, who has also filled
various positions of public trust and at present is city
tax collector of Harlan. His life has been one of
singular activity and constant advancement, and in
the several communities in which he has resided his
standing is that of a substantial and reliable citizen.
Mr. Cawood was born at what is now Cawood, Har-
lan County, Kentucky, April 28, 1874, a son of Stephen
and Virginia (Calloway) Cawood. His grandfather,
John Cawood, was a native of Tennessee, whence he
came as a young man to Harlan County, Kentucky,
and here passed the remainder of his life as an agri-
culturist. He married Miss Nancy Turner who was
born in Harlan County, and both died at Cawood prior
to the birth of their grandson. Stephen Cawood was
born in 1839 at Cawood, and passed his entire life
in that community. He was educated in the rural
schools and reared to agricultural pursuits, and for
many years was a successful farmer, dying on his
valuable and well-improved property in 1907. He was
a democrat in politics, but sought none of the honors
of public life. Mr. Cawood married Miss Virginia
Calloway, who was born in 1842 in Calloway, Bell
County, Kentucky, and died in Cawood during the
same year as her husband. They were the parents
of nine children, as follows : John, who died at
Cawood in 1908; Charles, a teamster of Harlan, who
was the victim of murder in 1890; Nannie, the wife
of L. S. Ledford, a farmer of Cawood; Bettie, the
wife of J. C. Carter, a farmer of that locality; George,
who is engaged in the mercantile business and real
estate ventures at Harlan, and is one of the largest
property owners of the city; Stephen M., of this re-
view ; Joanna, who died in 1907, at Harlan, as the
wife of John H. Nolan, a school teacher in his earlier
years and later a merchant, who died in 1921 ; J. F.,
head of the city water works and engaged in the
plumbing business at Harlan; and Mary Belle, the
wife of W. VV. Smith, a farmer at Cawood.
Stephen M. Cawood attended the public schools of
his native locality and was reared on the home farm,
on which he resided until reaching the age of eighteen
years. At that time he became a clerk in a store at
Evarts, but after three months resigned this position
and established himself in business at what is now
known as Cawood, that community being named in his
honor when the post office was established in his
store and he was appointed postmaster, a position which
he retained for fifteen years. In 1908 he came to
Harlan, seeking to widen the scope of his activities,
and here engaged in the real estate business and in
merchandising. In 1913 he was elected sheriff of
Harlan County, holding that office until 1917, inclu-
sive, during which time he continued his mercantile
operations as a dealer in hardware and implements.
This business he sold in 1919. Mr. Cawood retained
his real estate holdings at Cawood and is now one of
the extensive realtors of that locality, where his hold-
ings are large and important. As a coal operator at
the present time he is one of the owners of the Ellis-
Knob Coal Company, and is building a railroad from
Rue to Cawood. He owns an interest in 1,600 acres
of coal and timber lands at Cawood. He is likewise
a director in the First State Bank of Harlan, the
largest and most successful financial institution in the
mountain districts of Kentucky; possesses a modern
residence on Ivy Street, Harlan, one of the most de-
sirable and comfortable homes in the city; and owns
the Cawood Building, a business block on Central
Street.
In his various business transactions Mr. Cawood
has shown himself alive to every opportunity, but em-
inently fair and above-board in his dealings. His
knowledge of land values is extensive and his judg-
ment shrewd and keen. Independent in politics, he
defers to his own judgment in making his choice of
candidates and issues. At the present time he is serv-
ing capably as tax collector of Harlan, and in this
capacity, as in others, is showing a conscientious desire
to be of real service to his fellow citizens. With his
family he belongs to the Presbyterian Church, and
serves as secretary of the Sunday school thereof.
Fraternally he is affiliated with the Masons, the Inde-
pendent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of
Pythias, in all of which he is popular. Mr. Cawood
took a helpful part in all local war activities, being
an active worker in the drives for various causes and
a contributor to all worthy enterprises.
In 1897 he married at Cawood Miss Nannie Pope,
daughter of M. L. and Jerusha (Skidmore) Pope,
the former of whom, a farmer, died at Cawood, while
the latter survives and is a resident of Harlan. Mrs.
Cawood died in 1898, at Cawood, her infant child
dying at the same time. In 1900 Mr. Cawood mar-
ried at that place Miss Laura Smith, daughter of G. W.
and Jerusha (Unthank) Smith, the latter of whom
is deceased, while the former is a resident of Vir-
ginia. Eight children have been born to this union,
as follows: Nola, born in 1001, who is the wife of
O. R. Winfrey, the owner and operator of a public
garage at Harlan; Estelle, born in 1902, a senior at
the Western College for Women, Oxford, Ohio ; Ava,
born in 1904, who is attending the high school at
Harlan ; Alma, born in 1907, Smith, born in 1909,
Mildred and Muriel, born in 1913, all attending the
graded school at Harlan; and Carl Edward, born in
1917-
Abner C. Jones. While learning and education are
almost universally held at high value, there have been at
times those who have deplored the supposed lack of
practical business qualities in those whose lives have been,
more or less, given mainly to concentrated labor in the
educational field. That this may be an entire miscon-
ception is sometimes discovered, a most interesting ex-
ample being found in Abner C. Jones, county superin-
tendent of schools of Harlan County, Kentucky. Enter-
ing the teaching profession in boyhood, Mr. Jones has
continued so closely and intimately concerned along this
line that seemingly both mental and physical forces have
been heavily taxed, yet it would be difficult to find a
keener, wider-visioned or thoroughly practical business
man. His many well managed interests include numer-
ous enterprises of large importance at Harlan and
throughout Harlan County.
Abner C. Jones was born at Pansy, Harlan County,
Kentucky, December 25, 1885, and is a son of Milton
and Charlotte (Fee) Jones, both of Kentucky parentage.
The family was founded in Harlan County by the great-
grandfather, Jackson Jones, a native of North Carolina,
who came here in early manhood as a pioneer and spent
the rest of his life as a farmer near Harlan. The son
who survived him was John Jones, who was born on the
farm near Harlan in 1824, and died at Harlan in 1899,
where he had been a merchant all his life. He married
Martha Creech, who was born near Harlan in 1832, and
died there in 1916.
Milton Jones, son of John and Martha Jones, was born
near Harlan, Kentucky, in 1858. He spent his entire
life as a farmer in Harlan County and died there in
1916. He was a man of sterling character, and was a
democrat but never was willing to serve in a public
capacity. He married Charlotte Fee, who was born near
Hurst, Harlan County, Kentucky, in 1864 and died at
Harlan in 1905. Of their family of seven children.
il8
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
Aimer C. is the fourth in order of birth, the others
being : W. M., who resides near Harlan, is serving in
the office of city clerk; J. H., who is a merchant, resides
in Harlan County; H. H.. who is a miner, resides at
Pansy, Harlan County; Lester C, who resides on YVal-
lin's Creek, Harlan County, follows mining; Addie B.,
who is a teacher of music, resides at Nashville, Ten-
nessee; and Dewey, who is a resident of Harlan, Ken-
tucky.
Miner C. Jones obtained his early educational training
in the rural schools, becoming a student then in the acad-
emy at Harlan, from which he was graduated in 1900,
and during 1901 he taught school at Pansy, afterward,
at intervals, teaching rural schools in the county for seven
years. In the meanwhile he was a student in the normal
department of Berea College until 1904, and took special
studies at Maryville College, at Maryville, Kentucky,
leaving there in 1907. In 191 1, when the Harlan County
High School was organized at Harlan, Kentucky, Mr.
Jones was called to its principalship, and he served in
that office continuously until January, 1918, when he
assumed the duties pertaining to the office of superin-
tendent of schools to which he had been elected in
November, 1917, for a term of four years. In April,
1921, he was elected by the county Board of Education
for another term of four years. He maintains his offices
on the second floor of the Masonic Building at Harlan,
Kentucky, having under his supervision 66 schools, 135
teachers and 10,000 pupils. The high standard of
scholarship maintained, the contentment and hearty co-
operation of his teaching force and the interest and
enthusiasm of the pupils all bear testimony to the ex-
cellence of Mr. Jones' methods and to his executive
ability.
In politics Mr. Jones is a republican, and he occupies
a position of influence in the councils of his party in the
county. As the first mayor of Harlan he gave definite
evidence of the quality of his public service by not only
revising but putting into effect the admirable ordinances
which make Harlan one of the most orderly and pros-
perous little cities in the state. It has always been his
forward-looking policy in matters of public concern to
give encouragement both financially and officially to
home enterprises of admitted worth, and to many of
these his name is a valuable asset. He is president of
the Harlan County Automobile Company ; is secretary
and treasurer of the Harlan Theater Company; a mem-
ber of the general insurance firm of Lewis, Campbell
& Jones : has an interest in the Harlan Garage building
on the corner of First and Short streets; and also owns
an interest in the Cumberland Theater Building on Main
Street.
In 1902, at Harlan, Mr. Jones married Miss Georgia
Howard, who is a daughter of M. W. and Nancy E.
(Turner) Howard. Mr. Howard is a resident of Har-
lan and is Circuit Court clerk of Harlan County. Mrs.
Jones is a graduate of Harlan Academy. Mr. and Mrs.
Jones have one daughter, Mildred, who was born Oc-
tober 13. 1908. The family home is an attractive,
modern residence on Clover Street. The family be-
longs to the Presbyterian Church, in which he is an
elder. He is a member of Harlan Lodge No. 879,
F. and A. M., and professionally is identified with the
Kentucky Educational Association.
During the World war Mr. Jones was one of the
sturdy, loyal supporters of the various patriotic move-
ments thai had so much to do with the ending of strife
and proving the unselfishness that permeates the true
American when dire need arises to defend his comrades
or country. He took an active part in all local measures,
was a member of the executive committee of the Harlan
County Chapter of the American Red Cross, county
chairman of the War Savings campaign, served as a
Four-Minute Man, and contributed personally to the
extent of his means. He has so lived that he well de-
serves the esteem and confidence in which he is held.
Hon. George Riley Pope. It is but a step from the
practice of law to the holding of important public office,
and in most live and enterprising communities members
of the bar are to be found occupying offices of trust
and responsibility. While their professional knowledge
is of great service to them in the discharge of their
duties, not all have served as capably or effectively as
has George Riley Pope, mayor of the City of Harlan
and one of the leading members of the Harlan County
bar.
Mayor Pope was born at Cawood, Harlan County,
November 5, 1882; a descendant of Scotch ancestors who
settled at an early day in North Carolina, and a son of
William Solomon and Minerva (Burkhardt) Pope. His
grandfather, the Rev. William Solomon Pope, was born
in North Carolina, and as a young man migrated as a
pioneer to Harlan County, Kentucky, where he followed
farming and labored as a minister of the Methodist
Episcopal faith. In spite of his ministerial calling he
was a man of determined opinions upon the issues of
the war between the states, and during that struggle
fought valiantly as a Union soldier. He married a
Miss Ball, who was born in Harlan County and spent
her life here, and both died on the farm on Catron's
Creek prior to the birth of their grandson.
William Solomon Pope, father of George R. Pope,
was born at Cawood, Harlan County, in 1865, and was
educated, reared and married in his native community.
There he was engaged in farming until a few years
after his marriage, when he removed to near London,
Laurel County, Kentucky, where he has been engaged
in farming to the present. He has been a good manager
and is now in the possession of a large and valuable
property, highly improved and very productive. His
entire life has been devoted to the development of his
farming interests and he has not been interested in
politics save as a good citizen, although a stanch sup-
porter of the principles of the democratic party. He
belongs to the Methodist Episcopal Church and is an
active and generous supporter thereof. Mr. Pope mar-
ried Miss Minerva Burkhardt, who was born in 1863,
at Cawood, and five children have been born to them :
George Riley; Joanna, the wife of Joseph Reed, a coal
miner of East Bcrnstadt, Kentucky ; John, a brakeman
for the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, residing at
Covington, Kentucky ; Emerson, a machinist, residing
at Hamilton, Ohio ; and Sarah, the wife of Mr. Dixon,
who operates a motor in the coal mines at Poor Fork,
Harlan County.
George Riley Pope received his early education in the
rural schools of Laurel County, and later attended the
Sue Bennett Memorial School at London, Kentucky,
from which he was graduated in 1905. His education
was completed by a course in law at the Kentucky State
University, from which he was graduated with the class
of 1910, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Laws. In
the meantime, in 1900, he had commenced teaching, and
was thus engaged in the rural districts of Bell County
for seven years and in Harlan County until 1918, with
the exception of the time he spent in attending college.
In 1910 he had taken up his residence at Harlan, where
in addition to teaching school he had practiced his pro-
fession, and in November, 1917, was elected mayor of
the city-, taking office in January, 1918. Upon election
to the mayoralty he gave up his educational labors in
order to devote his time to his official duties, and these,
with his constantly increasing law practice, now occupy
his entire attention. As mayor he has given the city
an excellent administration and has done much work
that will be lasting in its benefits. A great friend of
civic improvement, he has contracted for $300,000 worth
of asphalt streets for Harlan, of which $200,000 worth
have already been installed. In other ways his ad-
ministration has also been business-like, constructive and
energetic, and he has won the confidence and esteem of
his fellow citizens in marked degree. In a professional
THOS. CORWIN ANDERSON
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
519
way he has shown himself a capable, thorough and
learned lawyer, and since his arrival at Harlan has
made rapid strides in his profession.
Mayor Pope is a republican in his political allegiance.
His religious connection is with the Methodist Epis-
copal Church, and fraternally he is affiliated with Bax-
ter Lodge No. 819, F. and A. M., of Baxter; and
Harlan Lodge No. 170, K. of P. He is the owner of
a comfortable modern home on Clover Street, four
other dwellings at Harlan, and considerable real estate.
After the United States entered the World war he took
an active part in local war campaigns, serving as Gov-
ernment appeal agent for Harlan County, assisting in
all the drives, making speeches throughout the county
and contributing and subscribing to the limit of his
means.
In 1913, at White Star, Harlan County, he married
Miss Verda Howard, daughter of M. J. and Mary Eliza-
beth (Skidmore) Howard, residents of White Star, in
which communitv Mr. Howard is engaged in farming.
Mrs. Pope attended the Kentucky State Normal School
at Richmond, Kentucky, where she received a life teach-
er's certificate, and prior to her marriage taught school
for four years in Harlan County. Four children have
come to Mayor and Mrs. Pope: Aubrey, born in 191 S;
Carlos, born in 1917; Billie, born in 1919; and Charlie,
born in 1921.
Judson M. Anderson, proprietor of the Hinkston
Stock Farm of 200 acres three miles north of Mount
Sterling, is one of the most progressive of the agri-
culturists of Montgomery County, and a man who
stands high in public confidence. He was born at Side
View, Montgomery County, July 19, 1894, a son of
English and Cora (McDaniel) Anderson, grandson of
Thomas C. Anderson, and great-grandson of John J.
and Anna Anderson. John J. Anderson became the
owner of 2,200 acres of land, and was a gifted man
and good citizen. He had nine children, all of whom
are deceased.
English Anderson was born August 4, 1870, and
was killed by a negro in 1919. His wife died in 1906.
They were the parents of four children, namely: Jud-
son, Corwin, French, an extensive farmer, and Mary,
who was in the Government service in Washington,
District of Columbia.
Judson M. Anderson grew up on the homestead, and
after attending the local schools took a three-year
agricultural course, following which he began farming
to put to practical use the knowledge he had acquired.
Coming to Montgomery County, he bought his pres-
ent farm, and owns other land, his holdings amounting
to 200 acres of valuable land. Here he is engaged in
raising stock and specializes on breeding Duroc-Jersey
hogs. He is the administrator of his father's large
estate, so lias his hands full at present. His farm is
admitted to be one of the best equipped in this part
of the county, and his experiments are watched with
great interest by his neighbors, who recognize his ex-
pertness in matters pertaining to farming and stock-
raising.
In 1914 Mr. Anderson married Elizabeth Hart, a
daughter of A. S. Hart, and they have one child, Sid-
ney, who was born December 29, 1915. They are
members of the Christian Church, and are valued by
their fellow members in the local congregation of that
denomination. In fraternal matters Mr. Anderson is a
Mason and has taken the Knight Templar and Shriner
degrees. He is a native of the county with which he
has so thoroughly identified himself and its interests,
and he is willing and anxious to do everything within
his power to enhance its welfare and add to its im-
provements. He is especially favorable to those having
in view the betterment of the roads, for he appre-
ciates the necessity for having good roads all through
the state.
John Bradley Carter. To succeed as a member of
the Kentucky bar requires more than ordinary ability
which has been carefully trained along the lines of the
legal profession, as well as a vast fund of general in-
formation, and keen judgment with regard to men and
their motives. In any of the growing communities
there is so much competition, events crowd each other
so closely and circumstances play so important a part in
the shaping of events that the lawyer has to be a man
capable of grasping affairs with a ready understanding
and competent to effect satisfactory results. One of
those who has won distinction as a member of the bar
of Harlan County is John Bradley Carter, who has suc-
ceeded not alone as a private practitioner, but as a public
official. Mr. Carter is a native of Harlan County and
a product of its agricultural districts, having been born
on a farm at Crummins Creek, Martin's Fork, Cum-
berland River, May 2, 1875, a son of John Crockett and
Nancy (Cawood) Carter.
On the paternal side Mr. Carter is a descendant of
ancestors who came from Ireland to Virginia during
Colonial times. His paternal grandfather, John Carter,
was born in 1813 in Wise County, Virginia, where he
was married, and shortly after that event migrated with
his young bride to Harlan County, Kentucky, settling
among the pioneers of this district and assisting in the
development of the country through the cultivation of
his farm. He died in Harlan County in 1888, aged
seventy-five years. John Carter married a Miss Clark,
a descendant of George Rogers Clark.
John Crockett Carter, father of John Bradley Carter,
resides on the home farm on which his son was born.
John C. Carter was born at Catron's Creek of Martin's
Fork in Harlan County, October 4, 1846, and has re-
sided in that vicinity all his life, having been engaged
in farming his present property since 1872. His opera-
tions have been extensive in scope and proportionately
successful, and in his community he is adjudged a pro-
gressive farmer and substantial, reliable and public-
spirited citizen. In politics he is a supporter of the
principles of the democratic party, and his fraternal
connection is with the Masons. He belongs to the Bap-
tist Church, as did his wife, who was born in 1858 on
Crummins Creek, and died on the home farm in Feb-
ruary, 1889. The Cawood family originated in Eng-
land, whence its earliest members immigrated in
Colonial times to New England, and branches then
went to Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky. The ma-
ternal great-grandfather of Mr. Carter, John Cawood,
was born in Washington County, Virginia, whence he
came to Martin's Fork, Harlan County, and was the
original owner of the old home farm in that locality.
He passed his entire life as an agriculturist, and died
full of years and honors on the property which he had
reclaimed. He married a Miss Turner, who was born
and passed her life in Harlan County. Their son, John
Cawood, the maternal grandfather of Mr. Carter, was
born in 1823 at Martin's Fork, and was an extensive
farmer in that locality, where he passed his entire life.
He was a man of marked capability, of industry and
of public spirit, and during the war between the states
fought valiantly as a soldier of the Union. Late in life
he became embroiled in a feud which sprang up between
two families in the mountain districts, and in 1889 was
killed by one of the feudists. John Cawood married
Louannie Jones, who was born in 1838, five miles from
Harlan, in Harlan County, and died on the home farm
in 1913. Five children were born to John Crockett and
Nancy (Cawood) Carter, as follows: Green Gibson, who
died in infancy; John Bradley, of this notice; Mildred,
the wife of H. H. Howard, of Harlan, sheriff of Har-
lan County; Mollie, the wife of C. J. Nolan, who does
clerical work at Harlan ; and Milton, who assists his
father in the operation of the home farm.
The rural schools of Harlan County furnished John
Bradley Carter with his early educational training, fol-
520
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
lowing which he attended Williamsburg (Kentucky)
Academy from 1893 to his graduation May 28, 1898.
In the meantime he taught summer and fall terms in
the rural schools, having also taught for a short time
prior to entering the academy. On June I, 1898, he en-
listed for service in the army during the Spanish-
American war, and was made second lieutenant of Com-
pany H, Fourth Regiment, Kentucky Volunteer In-
fantry, being stationed around Lexington for a time
and later being transferred to Anniston, Alabama. He
was honorably discharged and mustered out of the serv-
ice February 12, 1899, and returned to Harlan County,
where he resumed teaching in the rural schools for
two years. Later, during 1901 and 1902, he taught
school two years. In the meantime, however, he had.
in igoo, entered Center College, Danville, and after
studying for one year in the law department was ad-
mitted to the Kentucky bar in 1901. Coming to Harlan
at that time, he began the practice of his profession at
once, and has been engaged therein ever since, having
built up a large and lucrative professional business.
Capable of handling large affairs, important interests
have been placed in his hands, and whether in the
courts or in the relation of counsellor, he has given
proof of his ability in solving intricate legal problems
or in devising a course of action that has its foundation
in sound legal wisdom. During a period of eight years,
from 1906 to 1914, he served as county attorney of Har-
lan County, and for three years, from 1919 to 1921
inclusive, city attorney of Harlan. On August 6, 1921,
he was again nominated on republican ticket for county
attorney. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church
and a trustee thereof, and as a fraternalist is affiliated
with the Lodge and Encampment of the Independent
Order of Odd Fellows: Middlesboro Lodge No. 119,
B. P. O. E. ; and the Knights of Pythias. He owns a
modern home on Ivy Street, one of the comfortable and
desirable residences of the city; four other dwellings
at Harlan ; 400 acres of coal and timber lands in Harlan
County, and five acres of very valuable property within
the corporate limits of Harlan. His offices are situated
in the S. C. Howard Building on Central Street, Harlan.
He was chairman of the Harlan County Chapter of the
American Red Cross during the World war, and ex-
erted himself to the limit of his energy and means in
assisting the various campaigns inaugurated for the
winning of the war.
Mr. Carter married in October, 1902, at Harlan, Miss
Amelia Howard, daughter of S. C. and Emily (Smith")
Howard, residents of Harlan, where Mr. Howard is a
retired merchant and hotel proprietor. Mrs. Carter
died March 2g. 1912, leaving the following children:
Florence Clav, born in 1903, a student in the high school
at Harlan: Ruby, born in 1505, also a high school stu-
dent: and Howard, born in 1509, attending the graded
1. Mr. Carter was again married, at Louisville,
in 1916. when he was united with Miss Susan Warren,
daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Cary I. Warren, the latter
deceased and the former a retired investor of Louis-
ville. To this union there has been born one son.
Warren, horn in 1917.
Rev Alfred Hanses had the great honor and re-
sponsibility of being appointed the first resident pastor
of "lie of the largest new Catholic communities in the
state, the parish of the Church of the Resurrection at
I ynch, one of the great coal mining centers of Eastern
Kentucky.
Father Hanses, who previously had been an assistant
in the Cathedral at Covington, was born in Detroit,
Michigan, October 16, 1891. His father, Henry Hanses.
was born in Westphalia, Germany, in 1864. was reared
and educated there, learned the carpenter's trade, and
served his regular term in the German Army, doing
garrison duty at Strassburg. He came to the United
States about 1884, locating at Detroit, where he fol-
lowed his trade until the panic years of the nineties,
when he sought employment in the Springfield car shops
and later was a motorman for the Detroit Street Rail-
way Company. He died at Detroit, February 21, 1901.
After acquiring American citizenship he was a democrat
in politics and was always a devout Catholic. In Detroit
he married an acquaintance of his boyhood, Baldwin
Goebel, who was born in Westphalia in 1866 and came
to America and located at Detroit about 1886. She is
now living at Covington. There were five children :
Henry, who died at the age of six years; Alfred; An-
thony, who died at the age of two and a half years;
Henry, assistant pastor of St. John's Church at Coving-
ton, Kentucky; and Elizabeth, living with her mother.
Rev. Alfred Hanses received his primary education
in the parochial schools at Detroit, attending St. Boni-
face School. He pursued his classical studies one year
in St. Joseph's College at Renssellaer or Collegeville,
Indiana, and from there entered St. Charles College of
the Sulpician Fathers at Ellicott City, Maryland. He
was graduated in the classical course in 191 1, and in
the spring of that year the college building burned and
the school is now at Catonsville, Maryland. In the fall
of 191 1 Father Hanses went abroad and attended the
American College in Rome until the fall of 1916, and
at the same time took lectures in the University of the
Propaganda. After completing his work in philosophy
and theology he returned to America and on November
4, 1916, was ordained by Bishop Ferdinand Brossart,
the present bishop of Covington. On November nth
he was appointed assistant pastor of St. Mary's Cathe-
dral at Covington and remained there until June 25,
1919, when he was called to his present duties as pastor
of the Church of the Resurrection at Lynch.
This parish was established in October, 1918, for the
benefit of the numerous Catholic population who live
in this mining town. The Catholics in the parish at
present number about fifteen hundred, and a handsome
new church was completed in December, 1921. Father
Jerome Lawrence attended the needs of this parish until
Father Hanses was appointed resident pastor.
Dr. T. G. Wright, a skillful and successful dental
surgeon who cares for the dental cases in the populous
mining community of Lynch, has also proved himself
a successful business man, is a banker and has a
number of interests in that section of Eastern Ken-
tucky.
Doctor Wright represents one of the old established
families of Eastern Kentucky. He was born in Letcher
County May 15, 1885. His great-grandfather Wright
came from Virginia to Letcher County in pioneer
times and lived out his life on a farm there. The
grandfather, William M. Wright, was a life-long resi-
dent of Letcher County, w-here he acquired extensive
landed interests. He died at McRoberts in 1888. His
wife also bore the name of Wright and was a life-
long resident of Letcher County. W S. Wright, father
of Doctor Wright, was born on Boone's Fork in Letcher
County in 1852, and lived in that one locality all his
days. He died January 1, 1900. While he owned a
farm and lived in a rural community, much of his
business activity was in logging and timber operations.
He was a stanch democrat, held the office of justice
f > f the peace eight years, and was a very devout mem-
ber of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He
also belonged to the Masonic fraternity. W. S. Wright
married Lettie Bates, who was born in October, 1851,
nil Rockhouse Creek in Letcher County and is now
living at the old homestead on Boone's Fork near the
Village of Seco. She is the mother of eleven children:
Nancv. wife of James Johnson, a merchant at Robin-
son Creek, Pike County; Martha, of Seco, widow of
William Venters, a farmer; Ritter, wife of L. B.
Tolliver, a farmer on Rockhouse Creek; S. J., a real
estate man at Millstone in Letcher County ; Mary,
wife of W. W. Craft, a farmer at Millstone; William,
a farmer who died at Seco in 1902 ; Dr. T. G. ; J. F..
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
521
who is also a dentist by profession and lives at Rus-
sell ; J. W., a merchant at Seco ; B. F., a physician
and surgeon at Seco; and Dallas, wife of Arch C.
Craft, a farmer at Thornton in Letcher County.
Dr. T. G. Wright as a youth and man has abundantly
proved his ability to make the best use of opportuni-
ties. As a boy he attended rural schools in his native
county, graduated in 1905 from the high school in
Prestonsburg in Floyd County, and pursued a two
year course in the Western State Normal College at
Bowling Green. This was followed by two years of
teaching in his native town, and from 1909 to 1912
he was a student in the Louisville College of Den-
tistry, graduating in the latter year with the degree
D. D. S. Doctor Wright practiced two years at Mc-
Roberts in his home county, was then at Fleming
until 1918, and in August of the latter year became
the official dental surgeon at Lynch for the United
States Coal & Coke Company. His offices are in the
Lynch Hospital. He is a member of the State and
National Dental societies.
fn a business way Doctor Wright is president of
the Black Mountain Bank of Evarts, is president of
the Harlan Theater Company at Harlan, and a director
in the Harlan Automobile Company. He was a com-
mittee worker throughout the period of the World
war in behalf of Liberty Loans, Red Cross and other
drives. In politics he is a democrat, and is a member
of the Baptist Church and Fleming Lodge No. 868,
F. and A. M.
At Thornton in 1907 he married Miss Carrie B.
Blair, daughter of Charles and Virginia (Brahe) Blair.
Her mother lives at Whitesburg, Kentucky!. Her
father, a farmer, died at Thornton. Dr. and Mrs.
Wright had three children : Marie, who died six
weeks after birth; Hazel Irene, born April 3, 1910;
and Earl, born March 12, 1912.
R. L. Parrott is a young ex-service man whose
business career has been almost altogether in connec-
tion with commissary departments of coal companies,
and he is now assistant manager of the United Supply
Company at Lynch.
He is a native of Tennessee and represents a pioneer
family of that state. He was born at Jacksboro in
Campbell County January 7, 1895. The Parrotts are
of Scotch ancestry and the family located in Virginia
in Colonial times. His grandfather, Ledford Parrott,
was born in Virginia and was a tanner by trade. He
settled in Campbell County, Tennessee, in early days
and died at Buckeye in that state. His wife was a
Miss Sharp, a native of Tennessee, who spent her
last year in Missouri. D. W. Parrott, father of R. L.
Parrott, was born in Campbell County in 1866, was
reared and married there, and after his marriage
located at Jacksboro, where he followed farming and
later was a merchant and for twelve years post-
master. He was a volunteer soldier during the
Spanish-American war period. In 1910 he became a
coal operator at Elk Valley in Campbell County, but
in 1918, during the World war period, he entered
the service of the DuPont Powder Company and
was at the DuPont plant at Carney's Point, New
Jersey, when he died in February, 1919. His mother
was of French extraction. In religious matters he
was a faithful Baptist, was a republican voter, and
a member of the Modern Woodmen of America. D. W.
Parrott married Mary Bowman, who was born at
Newcomb, Tennessee, in 1866, and is now living at
LaFollette in that state. Of five children R. L. Par-
rott is the oldest and the only son. His sisters Nola,
Nannie, Leona and Juanita, all live with their mother
at LaFollette, Tennessee. The three older are in
commercial positions, while the youngest is a high
school student.
R. L. Parrott attended public school at Jacksboro,
completed his junior year in the high school at Elk
Vol. V— 47
Valley, and has been making his own way since he
was nineteen. For two years he taught school in
Campbell County, after which he became clerk in the
commissary of the Morley Coal Company at Morley
in Campbell County. A few months later he went
with the Four Seam Block Colliers Company near
Hazard, Kentucky, left that to become commissary
clerk with the Algoma Block Company of Lothair in
Perry County, with which he remained one year, for
four months was with the Clear Fork Coal & Coke
Company at Fonde, Kentucky, and was then with
the Jellico Wooldridge Coal Company as store man-
ager at Wooldridge, Tennessee, until he answered
the call to the colors in July, 1918. He trained at
Camp Hill, Newport News, Virginia, and in other
camps until September, when he went overseas to
France. He was stationed on duty at Camp Saint
Sulplice, being a sergeant of Headquarters Company
No. 346, Labor Battalion, though most of the time
he was on detached service as clerk of Company A
of the 346th Labor Battalion. He was made a casual
in April, 1919, and was mustered out at Mitchell Field.
Long Island, May 26, 1919.
Mr. Parrott entered the service of the United Sup-
ply Company at Lynch on July 18, 1919, beginning as
clerk in the grocery department, and the exact and
capable performance of increasing responsibilities has
brought him promotion to assistant manager, with
supervision over the three commissaries of the com-
pany at Lynch, and with a force of employes num-
bering 140. His office is in the Main Street Commissary.
Mr. Parrott is a republican in politics. In 1915, at
Elk Valley, Tennessee, he married Miss Clossie Baird,
daughter of Richard and Lucinda (Lay) Baird, now
residents of Linton, Indiana, where her father is a
mine foreman. Mr. and Mrs. Parrott have one child,
Richard Estler, born August 8, 1918.
Preston O. Lewis, M. D. Medical science has so
progressed that advances therein are made almost
hourly. Specializing observation on disease has worked
marvelous changes in methods of treatment; tireless
theoretic experiments have proven the truth of con-
tentions, and only after results have been demon-
strated beyond reasonable doubt are discoveries given
to the public. In the work of the past quarter of a
century are to be noted such practical advances as
the development of bacteriology, the partially success-
ful efforts to wipe out tuberculosis, and the curbing
almost to extinction of bubonic plague, cholera, diphthe-
ria, typhoid, spinal meningitis and similar maladies.
This marvelous progress has not come naturally, but
is the outcome of the tireless, aggressive and self-
sacrificing work of the men who have devoted them-
selves to the profession of medicine. One who is
practically but entering upon his career of usefulness
in this broad field of endeavor is Dr. Preston O. Lewis
of Evarts, a rapidly rising member of the Harlan
County medical fraternity and president of the Big
Black Mountain Coal Company.
Doctor Lewis was born at Eden, Alabama, October
5, 1892, a son of James W. and Emma (Robertson)
Lewis. His paternal grandfather, I. R. W. Lewis,
was born in 1830 in North Carolina, and as a young
married man went to Eden, Alabama, where he was
residing at the outbreak of the great civil struggle
between the forces of the South and North. Enlist-
ing in the Confederate Army, he saw active service
throughout the period of the war, and then returned
to Eden, where he engaged in merchandising and in
dealing in live stock. He became one of the suc-
cessful and highly esteemed men of his community,
and when he passed away in 1898 was accounted one
of his community's leading citizens.
James W. Lewis, the father of Doctor Lewis, was
born in 1858, at Vincent, Alabama, and was reared
in the vicinity of that town, although married at Eden.
522
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
Following his union he engaged in agricultural opera-
tions, in which he achieved a worthwhile success, but
in 1915 retired from the tilling of the soil and re-
moved to Leeds, Alabama, his present home, where
he is a bottler of soft drinks. He is independent in
his political views, and has been an active and public-
spirited citizen. For some time he served as county
road commissioner of Saint Clair County, Alabama.
A life-long member of the Baptist Church, he has been
active and generous in his support of its movements.
Mr. Lewis married Miss Emma Robertson, who was
born in 1867 at Eden, Alabama, and they became the
parents of the following children : James Wallace,
Jr., who is his father's partner in the soft drinks
bottling business at Leeds, Alabama, and is also a
retail coal dealer; John R., who is engaged in the
bottling business at Montevallo, Alabama, and is the
proprietor of a retail coal yard; Preston O., of this
review; Lillie, who is the wife of E. T. Hurst, a
mechanic of. Birmingham, Alabama; and Floy, who
is unmarried and makes her home with her parents.
Preston O. Lewis received his early education in
the public schools of Eden and Pell City, Alabama,
graduating from the high school at the latter place
in 1909. He then entered the State Normal School
at Jacksonville, Alabama, where he spent one year,
and entered Birmingham College, where he commenced
the study of pharmacy. He lacked only three months
of graduating in that study when he left that institu-
tion and entered the medical department of Vander-
bilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, from which he
was graduated in 1917 with the degree of Doctor of
Medicine, and following that acted as interne at the
Hillman Hospital, Birmingham, and at the Birming-
ham Infirmary for one year.
In 1918 Doctor Lewis began the practice of his
profession at Kildav, Harlan County, Kentucky, and in
1919 removed to Black Mountain, where he remained
until October, 1920. He then took up his residence
and began practice at Evarts, where he has since built
up a gratifying professional patronage, his offices being
situated in the Styles Building on Yocum Street.
Although still one of the comparative newcomers in
the ranks of his profession, Doctor Lewis has al-
ready made rapid strides toward the attainment of
a high position therein, and in several difficult cases
has demonstrated his complete ability and thorough
learning. In politics he maintains an independent stand
and but little of his time is given to political matters,
save as they interest him as a good citizen. His re-
l:gious connection is with the Baptist Church, and
fraternally he is affiliated with Yocum Creek Lodge
No. 897, F. and A. M.; Harlan Chapter No. 165, R.
A. M.; Pineville Commandery No. 39, K. T. ; and
Kosair Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of Louisville. For
some time past he has been interested in the coal
industry, and now has valuable holdings as president
of the Big Black Mountain Coal Company, a going and
growing concern. Doctor Lewis occupies his own
pleasant modern residence at Evarts. He was a gen-
erous contributor to all the campaigns during the
World war period, and assisted materially in the va-
rious drives for funds.
In 1917, at Birmingham, Alabama, Doctor Lewis
was united in marriage with Miss Willie Griggs, daugh-
ter of Mr. and Mrs. W. B. Griggs, residents of La-
Grange, Georgia, where Mr. Griggs is engaged in
merchandising. Mrs. Lewis is a graduate of the South-
ern Female College at LaGrange. She and her hus-
band are the parents of one daughter, Roslyn Irene,
born July 4, 1919.
William Clay Turner. Among the representative
men of Harlan County, Kentucky, are native sons who
have been honorably identified with this section all their
lives, and one of these who is widely known and uni-
versally respected is William Clay Turner, a foremost
citizen of Evarts, where he is a leading figure in the
lumber industry and also in other lines through the
orderly growth and natural expansion of his well man-
aged business interests.
Mr. Turner was born near Evarts, Kentucky, October
9. 1872, and is a son of 'Moses and Bettie (Lewis)
Turner, and a grandson of James and Bettie (Clay)
Turner. Moses Turner was born in 1849, on his father';
farm near Evarts in Harlan County, and has spent his
life in the same neighborhood. He has had large farm
interests and is also a merchant at Evarts, of which
place he formerly was postmaster. He has long been a
recognized factor in republican politics in Harlan
County, frequently serving in local offices, and at one
time being deputy sheriff. He is one of the older
members of the Masonic Lodge at Evarts. He married
Bettie Lewis, who was born in 1848 at Poor Fork,
Harlan County, and died near Evarts in 1895. They
became the parents of the following children: John,
who is a farmer, lives near Toledo, Washington; Wil-
liam C. ; Mary, who married Carter Lewis and resides
at Evarts ; Jane, who married Irvin Cornett, a member
of the police force at Evarts ; George, who died at
Evarts in 1904, was a schoolteacher ; James and Aimer,
twins, the former of whom is a merchant at Evarts
and the latter, also a merchant, resides two miles east
of Evarts ; and H. B., who is the present postmaster
of Evarts.
William C. Turner attended the public sshools of
Evarts, and when nineteen years old began to teach
in the country schools, teaching about four years in all.
In 1894 he embarked in the mercantile business at a
point one mile east of Evarts, and still owns an interest
in a general store at Evarts, although other enter-
prises have long since claimed the larger part of his
attention. Since 1918 he has been largely concerned in
the lumber business and has a large lumber yard near
the railroad depot at Evarts, where he has ample trans-
portation facilities. Mr. Turner owns considerable val-
uable real estate at Evarts, including his comfortable
private residence on Harlan Street, ten other dwellings
and two business properties, one being a feed store near
the railroad depot and the other a substantial store
building. He is interested in- other local enterprises of
importance, being president of the Evarts Supply Com-
nanv and on the directing board of the Black Mountain
Bank.
At Richmond, Kentucky, in April, 1896. Mr. Turner
married Miss Celia May Creech, a daughter of Jona-
than and Leah (Lewis) Creech, both of whom are
deceased. Mr. Creech was formerly- a dealer in real
estate and also a farmer at Paint Lick and other sec-
tions. 'Mr. and Mrs. Turner have three children:
Hallie. who finished the high school at Evarts, re-
sides at home; Daisy, who resides with her parents,
attended college at Berea, Kentucky ; and Imogene,
the wife of C. E. Johnson, who is with a grocerv house
at Harlan, Kentucky. Mr. Turner and his family arc
members of the Congregational Church, and he is serv-
ing as church secretary and treasurer.
While active in business all his life, Mr. Turner has
been interested also in a political way and on the re-
publican ticket has frenuently been called to accept
public responsibilities. He is a member of the board
of education, is serving in the city council with marked
efficiency, and for ten years served as deputy county
clerk. Durine the strenuous days of the World war
he set a patriotic example, taking an active and unselfish
part in local measures and loyally supported the various
organizations that contributed through various avenues
to the ending of hostilities.
Dillard S. Price. M. D. Of Kentucky phvsicians
whose lives left a very strong impress upon their com-
munities, one whose memorv should be especially re-
called was that of Dr. Dillard S. Price of Clark County.
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
523
He was born in Henry County, Kentucky, in 1832, on
the 23d of May, and died the 29th of May, 1908. His
parents were Doctor Andrew and Eveline (Watkins)
Price. His mother died in extreme old age at Bergen,
Kentucky. Dr. Andrew Price practiced at Indian Oil
Fields, Pilot View and at Bergen. Dillard S. Price was
well educated in the classics and in medicine, and when
only nineteen years of age began practice. His father
had a desperate case of typhoid fever, and the son
took charge of this case and carried it through suc-
cessfully, and thereafter for the two years before he
received his diploma he was busy with a growing
clientage. He was only one of many members of the
Price family who became physicians. He had two
brothers. Doctor Ansel and Dr. John Price, who were
both physicians at Harrodsburg, Kentucky, and the
family is still represented in the medical profession in
that town. The only survivor of Dr. Dillard Price's
generation is his sister Eveline, who became the wife
of Dr. O. H. Buck of Paris, Kentucky, where she is
still living. Dr. Dillard Price began practice ten miles
from Winchester, on the Muddy Creek Pike, and in a
few years his professional business extended over sev-
eral counties. He remained in that one locality for
twenty-six years, later for four years practiced at North
Middletown, while his children were in school, and in
1883 moved to Winchester, where his work as a physi-
cian continued practically to the end of his life. For
half a century he was one of the honored, busy and
highly skilled men of his profession. His ability was
widely recognized. He excelled in diagnosis, and when
his mind was once made up on a subject he seldom de-
parted from his convictions and his scientific opinions
were generally approved by the results. He was very
busy in his profession, and acquired great wealth so
far as his income and book accounts showed, though he
was a poor collector and never realized half of the value
of his service. He was reared a Presbyterian, but later
studies inclined him to the Baptist faith. He was a
member of the Masonic Order.
In February, 1868, Doctor Price married Mattie E.
Hunt, who is still living. Their children to reach
mature years were : William A., an attorney at Cov-
ington ; Shastine, who lives at Winchester ; Gertrude,
who was a teacher and died unmarried; Sterling
Breckenridge Price, who served with the United States
Forces in the Philippines, made a splendid record for
his ability in handling some of the savage tribes of
those islands, and subsequently, at the age of twenty-
six, while en route to Java and Borneo, was killed by
hold-up thieves in New York City ; Evelyn, wife of
R. P. Taylor, cashier of the Clark County Bank at
Winchester; Kate, now at home, formerly a teacher
in the music department of an Alabama College ; while
two other children, Ansel and Ella, both died in child-
hood.
James 'McConnell Hubbard, M. D. Not only is Dr.
James McConnell Hubbard recognized as being one of
the most skillful physicians and surgeons of Hickman,
but he is also prominent in financial circles, and is now
serving as president of the Farmers & Merchants Bank
of that city. He was born in Fulton County, iy2 miles
east of Fulton, on his father's farm, August 5, 1863, a
son of Charles Henry Hubbard.
Charles Henry Hubbard was born at Essex, Massa-
chusetts, in 1832, and died at Hickman, Kentucky,
October 1, 1901. His parents, natives of Massachusetts,
moved from that state to Paris, Tennessee, when he
was a small boy, and when he was six years old they
located on a farm 2l/2 miles east of Fulton, where both
later died. After his marriage, which took place at
Columbus, Kentucky, Charles Henry Hubbard lived on
this homestead, which continued to be his home until
he retired from active life, at which time he moved to
Hickman, and from 1883 until his demise lived in that
city. Like his son, he was a physician, and was grad-
uated in his profession from the Ohio Medical College
of Cincinnati, Ohio. In politics he was a democrat.
The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, held his mem-
bership. Charles Henry Hubbard was united in mar-
riage with Sally McConnell, born in Kentucky in 1842,
and she survives him and lives at Hickman. Their chil-
dren were as follows : Dr. James M., who was the
first born ; and Charles, who died in childhood.
Dr. James M. Hubbard was reared in Fulton County
and attended the rural schools, and then became a
student of the Kentucky 'Military Institute near Frank-
fort, Kentucky, for a year. For another year he at-
tended the Georgia Military Institute at Savannah.
Georgia, and then entered the Missouri Medical College
at Saint Louis, Missouri, from which he was grad-
uated in 1886 with the degree of Doctor of Medicine.
That same year he began the practice of his profession
at Hickman, where he has since remained, building up
a large and lucrative practice in medicine and surgery.
At present he is the oldest physician in point of service
at Hickman. His offices are on Union Street. He
owns his fine modern brick residence on Buchanan
Street, which is the most desirable,, in the city, and
is surrounded by large grounds, tastefully laid out an^l
beautifully kept. He also owns the family homestead
of 228 acres east of Hickman and a farm of 250 acres
on the State Road, five miles east of Hickman, as well
as a half interest in a farm of 400 acres in Mississippi
County, Missouri. Doctor Hubbard has an eighth in-
terest in 3,5100 acres near Dyersburg, Tennessee, and is
president of the Farmers & Merchants Bank of Hick-
man, to which office he was elected in January, 1919.
and is a stockholder and director of the Curlin Raincoat
Company. For the past twenty years he has been local
sureeon of the Nashville, Chattanooga & Saint Louis
Railroad.
The Farmers & Merchants Bank, one of the strongest
financial institutions of Fulton County, was established
in 1895, and its officers are as follows: James M. Hub-
bard, president; C. B. Travis, vice president; R. M.
Tslar, vice president ; and B. C. Rammage, cashier. The
bank has a capital of $6=;,ooo. a surplus and profits of
$70,000, and deposits of $500,000.
In politics Doctor Hubbard is a democrat, has served
as citv health officer, and is now a member of the Ful-
ton County Health Board, in both offices rendering a
valuable service to the community in securing and en-
forcing sanitary regulations. Since his youth he has
helonged to the Methodist Episcopal Church. A Mason,
he belongs to Hickman Lodge No. 761. A. F. and A. M. ;
Hickman Chapter No. 49, R. A. M. ; Fulton Com-
mandery No. 34, K. T. ; and Rizpah Temnle, A. A. O.
N. M. S.. of Madisonville, Kentucky. Professionally
he maintains membership with the Fulton County Medi-
cal Societv. the Kentucky State Medical Societv, the
American Medical Association, and the Southern Medi-
cal Association.
In May. 1887, Doctor Hubbard married at Brooks-
ville, Florida. Miss Rosa B. White, a daughter of S. N.
and Nancy White. At one time Mr. White was the
owner of "a flour-mill and mercantile establishment at
Hickman, but later on in life he bought an orange grove
at Brooksville, Florida, where he died, but his widow,
now a very aged lady, survives him and continues to
live at Brooksville. Doctor and Mrs. Hubbard have two
daughters, Lillie and Charlotte. Lillie Hubbard is a
gifted musician. She attended Belmont College at
Nashville, Tennessee, studied music under special in-
structors in New York City, and is an expert in both
vocal and instrumental music. She was married to
Brantley Turpin. a merchant tailor, and they reside at
Hickman. Charlotte Hubbard spent two years at Bel-
mont College at Nashville. Tennessee, and also took up
the study of music in the Conservatory of Music at
Cincinnati, Ohio, her parents giving her, as they did her
524
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
sister, every advantage. Both ladies are highly accom-
plished and the center of a congenial social circle. She
was married to W. B. Amberg, of Hickman, a sketch
of whom appears elsewhere in this work.
Doctor Hubbard belongs to that class of men who
hold to the highest standards of professional ethics.
His life has been spent in doing good, and it is said
of him that he never refused to attend a patient no
matter at what financial loss. During the many years
he has lived at Hickman he has seen many changes
take place, not only in the community, but in his pro-
fession, but he has kept abreast of them all and is a
recognized authority in his calling. Personally he has
won men because of his uprightness, his stalwart quali-
ties, and his unflinching attitude with reference to civic
improvement and moral uplift. Such men as he make
the world the better for their passage through it, and
exert an influence upon their times and locality which
live after them.
J. Smith Hurt is not only to be designated as one
of the progressive representatives of farm industry in
his native county but also has the distinction of own-
ing and residing i upon the well improved homestead
farm which was the place of his birth, the same being
eligibly situated four miles northwest of Mount Ster-
ling, county seat of Montgomery County. Here Mr.
Hurt was born on the 14th of April, 1880, a son of
Harvey and Elizabeth ( Mason) Hurt, both likewise
natives of Montgomery County, where the former was
born January 18, 1830, and the latter on the 25th of
November, 1841. Both of the parents were reared on
farms in this county, and the father so well improved
the advantages offered in the local schools that he
became a successful teacher in the rural schools of
the county while a young man. After his marriage he
settled on the farm now operated by his son, J. Smith
Hurt, of this sketch, and here he and his wife passed
the remainder of their lives, persons of fine character
and well worthy of the high regard uniformly ac-
corded to them in their native county. The father
was a staunch democrat in politics, and he and his
wife were zealous members of the Christian Church
at Somerset, in which he served as a deacon. Of the
nine children, six are living at the time of this writ-
ing, in IQ2I : Marv is the wife of Dr. J. F. Jones, of
Mount Sterling; Bettie is the wife of J. R. Hunt;
Mason is a railroad clerk at Middletown, Ohio ; Miss
Catherine remains on the old home farm with her
brother, J. Smith Hurt, who is the next younger of
the children ; and Stella is the wife of J. 0. Kirk, of
Grassy Lick, Montgomery County.
While the practical discipline of the home farm
proved of enduring value to J. Smith Hurt, he did
not neglect to make good use also of the advantages
offered by the public schools of his native county, his
training having included the curriculum of the high
school. He has since been actively and successfully
identified with farm enterprise, and is the owner of
sixty-nine acres of the old homestead. He js still a
bachelor, and his sister, Miss Catherine, presides over
the domestic economies and social affairs of the pleasant
rural home, both being members of the Christian Church
and his political support being given to the democratic
party.
The Hurt family has been one of prominence and
influence in this section of Kentucky for many years.
Colonel J. S. Hurt served as a private in the Mexican
war, was colonel of a regiment in the Civil war and
became one of the leading lawyers of Central Eastern
Kentucky. He was prominent in public affairs, and on
one occasion was his party's candidate for representa-
tive of his district in the United States Congress. Wil-
liam Hurt, an uncle of the subject of this review, was
a member of the faculty of the Christian College at
Columbia, Missouri. Capt. John C. Mason, great-grand-
father of J. Smith Hurt on the maternal side, was a
gallant officer in the War of 1812, in which he par-
ticipated in the battle of New Orleans. He became an
extensive land-owner in Montgomery County, Ken-
tucky. James Hurt was a wealthy speculator residing
at Kansas City, Missouri, at the time of his death.
James E. Keeley. One of Owensboro's old time
business men and citizens is James E. Keeley, an Eng-
lishman by birth, but a resident of this thriving Ken-
tucky city nearly forty years.
Mr. Keeley was born in London, England, in 1851.
As a boy he attended the Charter House School in
London. For a time he was apprenticed to the London
School of Photography, and at the age of eighteen was
a member of the London Volunteers. Eventually he
took up his father's trade as a tailor, and in 1871, at
the age of twenty, accompanied his parents to America.
He remained in New York about six years and then
went to Cincinnati to follow his trade. He acquired his
naturalization papers as an American citizen at Cincin-
nati. Looking for business opportunities elsewhere,
with mind fixed on the West Mr. Keeley chanced to
meet Tyler McAtee, who needed the services of a tailor
in the Phillips Bros. & McAtee store in Owensboro.
Mr. Keeley accepted the proposition made to him by
Mr. McAtee and thus in 1883 began his residence and
his business career at Owensboro. Eventually he bought
out the tailoring department and now for many years
the firm of J. E. Keeley & Son has supplied a high
class tailoring service to the discriminating patronage
of the city.
The Owensboro Messenger recently published an in-
cident in the life of Mr. Keeley recorded in the follow-
ing words : "When connected with the London School
of Photography in March of 1863, the wedding proces-
sion of Queen Alexandra and the Prince of Wales,
afterward Edward VII, passed by on its wav to the
Cathedral, and he ran out to watch it pass. There was
a jam in some way which enabled him to get near the
royal carriage while it halted. That was the last time
he ever saw the Queen until in May of IQ20 he saw her
on the screen at the Empress Theater. She was shown
unveiling the statue of Edith Cavell in Trafalgar
Square.
"After witnessing the picture Mr. Keeley wrote to
Queen Alexandra, now the queen mother, of seeing her
picture in America on the screen. She replied through
her secretary, expressing her gratification at hearing
from him and enclosed a picture of herself and Edward
VII at the state opening of the House of Lords."
Joseph L. Leach, whose whole active career has been
passed in Bourbon County, where, beginning as a renter,
he has progressed through his innate qualities of in-
dustry, perseverance, economy and integrity to the
ownership of a valuable and productive property and
the position of a substantial, influential and useful
member of the community, SlA miles northwest of Paris,
was born at Lee's Lick, Harrison County. Kentucky,
November 2, i860, a son of Ambrose Dudley and
Frances (Forsythe) Leach.
Hezekiah Leach, the paternal grandfather of Joseph
L. Leach, was born in Virginia, and as a young man
migrated to Harrison County, where he passed the rest
of his life as a farmer and died October 20, 1827. On
February 16, 1800, he married Millie Bentley, who died
May 11, 1857. Ambrose Dudley Leach was born June
3, 1818, in Harrison County, where he obtained a public
school education and started to work when still a youth.
He was married June 15, 1846, to Frances Forsythe,
who was born September 7, 1826, in Harrison County,
a daughter of Augustus Forsythe, a native and life-long
farmer of Harrison County. About 1870 Ambrose D.
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
525
Leach brought his wife ancc children to Bourbon County,
where he engaged in farming as a renter on the Clay
and Keyser Turnpike. Later he bought a property near
Centerville, on the county line of Bourbon and Scott
counties, mainly in the former county, and there finished
his career on the land now owned by his son Ambrose
D. Leach the younger. Mr. Leach was a democrat, but
did not engage in politics or political affairs, nor did
he care for public office. This good citizen, capable and
industrious farmer and worthy man died November 16,
1897, and was survived by his good wife until February
20, 1900. They were the parents of the following chil-
dren : Ann Eliza, who married Joseph May, of Bour-
bon County; Emily Frances, who married William
Sageser and lives near the old home place ; Jesse A.,
a leading farmer of the Centerville community ; Joseph
L. ; James W., who died September 14, 1894, aged
twenty-eight years; Augustus, who died January 3, 1897,
at the same age ; Ambrose Dudley, who owns and
operates the home farm and other property ; John, who
is farming in the vicinity of Centerville ; Mollie, who
died soon after her marriage to Sam Sageser ; and
George Thomas, who is farming near the home of his
brother Joseph L.
Joseph L. Leach is indebted to the common schools
of Harrison and Bourbon counties for his education.
He was reared on the home farm, on which he resided
until his marriage at the age of twenty- four years to
Margaret (Maggie) Sageser, who was born in Fayette
County, but lived in Bourbon County, on the Hawkins
and Cummings Pike, where her parents, James and
Margaret (Jones) Sageser, were neighbors of the Leach
family. James Sageser was born in Fayette County
and passed his life in farming, his death occurring in
1897, when he was seventy-two years, near Centerville.
Mrs. Sageser was born in Kentucky, of Virginia
parentage, was married in her 'teens, and survived to
the age of eighty-three years. In the Sageser family
there were thirteen children, of whom eight grew to
maturity : Sarah Elizabeth, who married Lee Cox and
resides near Paris ; Mary, who married Elza Harp and
after his death Stephen Shipley and died while in
middle life; William Henry, residing on the old home
place in Bourbon County ; Lucinda, who married Thad
Cummings and lives on the old home place ; Noah, a
resident of Scott County; Margaret; Sophia, the wife
of Ambrose D. Leach, a brother of Joseph L. Leach ;
and Florence, the wife of George Thomas Leach, a
brother of Joseph L. Leach.
Following his marriage Joseph L. Leach rented land
for some years and then came to his present farm, a
tract of 220 acres 5J/z miles from Paris, the former
David Hume Farm. Here he has erected a fine set of
buildings, including a modern residence which com-
pares favorably with any in this section. The home
stands at the rear of an extensive and well-kept lawn
stretching back from the pike, which is sufficiently in-
clined to give the residence a commanding position.
Mr. Leach likewise farms a part of the Sageser prop-
erty, one mile distant, and a property of 135 acres that
he has rented for thirty-eight years. He carries on a
general line of farming and grows cattle, sheep and
hogs, and in all his operations has been uniformly and
gratifyingly successful. Primarily a farmer, Mr.
Leach's undoubted abilities have led him into business
and financial affairs, where he has been equally success-
ful and prosperous, being at this time a director in the
First National Bank of Paris and the Independent
Warehouse Company, in the advancement and develop-
ment of which his judgment has played no small part.
He is a democrat in politics, but has not sought public
office. A man of sound intelligence, his support has
been gratefully received in movements which have
tended toward the betterment of local and county
affairs.
Mr. and Mrs. Leach have one daughter, Maude, who
attended Bourbon College, Paris, a wholesome and ac-
complished young woman who still resides with her
parents. The family belongs to the old Union Christian
Church.
William Walker Bridges. While a number of im-
portant enterprises have claimed the attention and en-
listed the abilities of William Walker Bridges, it is
principally as president of the Black Diamond Coal
Mining Company that he occupies a position of marked
business preferment. This company, although having
its headquarters at Drakesboro, has such extensive in-
terests throughout the surrounding territory that its
operations are indicative of the huge proportions which
the coal-mining industry has attained during compara-
tively recent years in this section of Kentucky. Aside
from the magnitude of these interests the prodigious
strides made in improving and perfecting the methods
of mine-workers through the ingenious contrivances of
modern invention, which enhance the facilities of pro-
duction and multiply the precautionary appliances for
safeguarding the lives of subterranean workers, are
strikingly manifest in the mines of this concern as
definitely directed by Mr. Bridges in his presidential
capacity.
Mr. Bridges was born in Union County, Kentucky,
March 12, 1873, a son of George W. and Alice (Jarboe)
Bridges. His grandfather, David Bridges, was born in
1818, and was a pioneer of Union County, Kentucky,
where he passed his life in agricultural pursuits and
died in 1883. George W. Bridges was born in 1840, at
Uniontown, Kentucky, and was reared and received his
education in Union County. For a time he was engaged
in merchandising at Uniontown, but in 1884 went to
Russellville, where he was the proprietor of a hotel for
two years. In 1886 he made removal to Owensboro,
where his death occurred two years later. While he
was a man of good business ability and industry, his
early death prevented him from accumulating a com-
petence. In politics he was a democrat. Mr. Bridges
married Miss Alice Jarboe, who was born in 1845 at
Louisville, Kentucky, and survives her husband as a
resident of St. Louis, Missouri. They became the par-
ents of six children : Joseph, who was attending public
school at Russellville when he died in 1885 ; Elnora, the
wife of George B. Simmons, a clothing merchant of
St. Louis ; William Walker, of this review ; James T.,
superintendent of coal mines at Drakesboro ; C. G., a
general business man of Drakesboro; and Robert A., a
wholesale and retail coal merchant at Memphis, Ten-
nessee.
William Walker Bridges received his education in
the public schools of Russellville and Owensboro, but
the death of his father made it necessary that he should
contribute to the support of the family, and when he
was only fifteen years of age he secured a position with
the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company, for which
company he was a telegraph operator in Kentucky and
Indiana for four years. Mr. Bridges came to Drakes-
boro August 25, 1892, as bookkeeper for the Black
Diamond Coal Mining Company, and later was pro-
moted to secretary of this concern, of which he was
subsequently made manager. In 1916 he was elected
president, a position which he has since retained, the
other officers of this company, which is incorporated
under the laws of the State of Kentucky, being : T. A.
Isaac, vice president ; J. Pierce Jones, secretary ; and
Miss Frances E. Jones, treasurer. This company owns
approximately 2,000 acres of coal lands, with a produc-
tion of thirty-two carloads daily, and maintains two
operations at Drakesboro, headquarters for the concern.
A new mine was opened in 1918 with a prospective
production of being the largest single producer in the
state. Full equipment has been installed to produce
3,000 tons in eight hours of bituminous No. 9 seam coal.
Mr. Bridges gives his chief attention to the direction
526
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
of this company, but also has various other interests,
and is vice president of the Citizens Bank of Drakes-
boro. He owns one of the finest residences in the city,
located on Main Street, a modern and attractive home,
has a large number of other dwellings which are occu-
pied by tenants, and is the owner of the drug store at
Drakesboro. He has always been a public-spirited and
constructive citizen, and during the World war period
was generous in his contribution to the various funds,
bought freely of bonds and stamps and gave much of
his personal time and attention to forwarding the various
movements. In political matters he supports the can-
didates and principles of the republican party, and his
religious faith is that of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, in which he is an active worker and a member
of the Board of Stewards. His only fraternal affilia-
tion is with Cundiff Lodge No. 244, A. F. & A. M.,
of Drakesboro.
In 1898, at Owensboro, Kentucky, Mr. Bridges mar-
ried Miss Eleanor Grace Jones, daughter of John W.
and Eleanor (Anderson) Jones, the latter of whom re-
sides at Drakesboro, while the former, who was in-
terested in the Black Diamond Coal Mining Company,
is now deceased. Mrs. Bridges, a lady of liberal educa-
tion and numerous graces and accomplishments, at-
tended Logan College, Russellville, in her youth. Two
children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Bridges :
Grace Gladys, born February 12, 1902, a student at the
Kentucky School for Women, Danville, Kentucky; and
Frances Eleanor, born January 31, 1908, who is attend-
ing the graded school.
Mrs. Bridges is a niece of the late James T. Pierce,
who came from Alabama in 1888 to Drakesboro and
became the original developer of the properties now
owned by the Black Diamond Coal Mining Company,
Mr. Bridges taking up the work where Mr. Pierce left
off. Mr. Pierce was identified with the company until
his death in 191 5, when he was eighty-one years of age,
and was one of the highly respected and successful men
of his community. He was a thirty-second degree
Mason and very zealous as a strict observer of all the
rules and rites of that fraternity, and was also an active
and conscientious member of the Baptist Church. Mrs.
Lizzie (Valentine) Pierce, who survives him, still con-
tinues to carry on her late husband's good work in the
church, and her charities and good deeds are numerous.
Beverly L. Bradshaw. The qualities of adaptability,
persistence and good judgment have prevailed in the
energetic career of Beverly L. Bradshaw, winning for
him an enviable rank among the business, political and
social elements of Tompkinsville. Mr. Bradshaw began
his active career as a doctor of osteopathy, but for some
years past has been a member of the leading hardware
firm of Bradshaw & Hagan, and since 1914 has dis-
charged the duties of postmaster at Tompkinsville in a
highly efficient and satisfactory manner. He is a native
of Simpson County, Kentucky, and was born October
28, 1875, his parents being James W. and Sallie (Hat-
field) Bradshaw.
William Bradshaw, the grandfather of Beverly L.,
was born in Virginia, a member of an old and well-
known family of that state, and was a young man when
he came to Simpson County, Kentucky, where he
rounded out his career and died before the birth of his
grandson. He was a brick mason by trade, and samples
of his good work and skill at his trade are still to be
found in many of the older structures now standing
at Russellville. James W. Bradshaw was born in 1835,
in Simpson County, where he still resides, at Franklin,
in hale old age. As a young man he adopted farming
for his life work, and this he followed industriously
during_ a long period of years, so that at the time of
his retirement, in 191 1, he had accumulated a large and
valuable property. In politics a democrat, for many
years he was active in the ranks of his party, and his
capability and integrity caused his fellow citizens to
elect him to a number of offices, while he was also ap-
pointed to various others. Prior to the war between
the states he served as postmaster at Franklin, later
was deputy sheriff of Simpson County and subsequently
was a magistrate for many years, in all these capacities
demonstrating a conscientious desire to serve his com-
munity well. Mr. Bradshaw married Miss Sallie Hat-
field, who was born in 1843 in Simpson County, and died
at Franklin in 1914. They became the parents of the
following children : Sam H., a physician and surgeon
of Atlanta, Georgia ; Erasmus, an attorney of Franklin ;
William, who died in infancy; Josie, the wife of Dr.
W. H. Harper, a physician and surgeon of Orlando,
Florida ; Minnie, who married John W. Evans, a mer-
chant of Rockville, Missouri; Beulah, the wife of
Russell Duley, a rural mail- carrier of Rockville;
Pauline, the wife of Charles Fields, a merchant of
Danville, Kansas; Beverly L.; and Jack H., an ex-
guard in the State Penitentiary at Eddyville, Kentucky,
and now engaged in merchandising at Rockville,
Missouri.
The rural schools of Simpson County furnished Bev-
erly L. Bradshaw with his primary school education,
and his boyhood and youth were passed on the home
farm, where he remained until after he had reached
man's estate. He then entered the Southern School of
Osteopathy at Franklin, Kentucky, from which he was
graduated in 1901, with the degree of Doctor of Osteop-
athy, and at that time first came to Tompkinsville,
where he practiced his vocation for one year. He then
went to Athens, Georgia, and followed his profession
for a like period, then returning to Tompkinsville and
still continuing his calling. Embarking then in mer-
cantile pursuits, in 190S he formed a partnership with
S. T. Hagan in establishing the hardware firm of Brad-
shaw & Hagan, which now conducts the leading hard-
ware establishment in Monroe County, situated on Main
Street, Public Square. The firm carries a full and up-
to-date line of shelf and heavy hardware, paints, oils,
glass, farm machinery, etc., and the large custom which
it enjoys has been built up through good management,
a policy of straightforward dealing and fair representa-
tion and unfailing courtesy upon the part of the pro-
prietors. The firm enjoys an excellent reputation in
business circles, and this reflects upon 'the personal
standing of Messrs. Bradshaw and Hagan, who are well
and favorably known as business men.
Mr. Bradshaw is a stanch democrat and for a num-
ber of years has been one of the strong and influential
men of his party in this local ty. He was appointed
postmaster of Tompkinsville in 1914, and has con-
tinued to occupy that position ever since. His duties
have been discharged in a thorough and capable man-
ner, and the people of Tompkinsv lit and the vicinity
have enjoyed excellent mail service. As a citizen he
has taken his part in the various movements which
have been promulgated to benefit the community, and
during the World war he was active in the various
enterprises wh'ch were founded to give aid and en-
couragement to this country's fighting forces. He
was chairman of the War Savings Stamps drives,
spending much time in canvassing Monroe County
for the sale of these stamps, and also assisted in the
other drives, in addit'on to contributing freely to all
activities. Mr. Bradshaw is the owner of the build-
ing in which the hardware store is located, of his
own home on Main Street, a very desirable modern
dwell'ng, four other residences at Tompkinsville, and
a farm of 150 acres just outside of the corporate
limits of the city to the west. Fraternally he is affil-
iated with Tompkinsville Lodge No. 753, F. and A. M. ;
Glasgow Chapter No. 45, R. A. M. ; Glasgow Com-
manderv No. 36, K. T. ; and Kosair Temple, A. A.
O. N. M. S., of Louisville.
In 1903 he was united in marriage at Moss, Ten-
nessee, with Miss Chloe E. Evans, daughter of Tom
and Maggie (Barr) Evans. Mr. Evans, who was for
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
527
a number of years a well-known and highly respected
merchant of Tompkinsville, is now deceased, but his
widow still survives him and resides at this place.
To Mr. and Mrs. Bradshaw there have come three
children: Thomas Evans, born August 2, 1908; Kath-
leen, born in June, 1910; and. Nellie Ruth, born in
1913. The children are all attending school, as their
parents, who believe in the value of education, are
giving them good advantages which will fit them for
the positions in life which they will be called upon
to occupy.
George A. Clutts. Out of little less than fifty years
of a life time George A. Clutts has spent over a third
of a century at coal mining. He is one of the best
known mine superintendents of the Eastern Kentucky
fields, and through his industry, perseverance and
fidelity has raised himself from the ranks to a large
volume of interesting and important responsibilities.
Mr. Clutts, whose home is at Hildason in Pike Coun-
ty, is superintendent for the J. B. Elkhorn Coal Com-
pany of the mines at Douglas on the Shelby branch
of the Chesapeake and Ohio.
He was born in Greenup County, Kentucky, June 5,
1875, son of Thomas F. and Elizabeth (Gee) Clutts.
His father, who was born on the north side of the
Ohio River in Ohio, died in 1916 at the age of sev-
enty, while his mother, a native of Greenup County,
died in 1913, at the age of fifty-nine. Thomas Clutts,
who for several years in his younger life followed
farming, was a practical miner the remainder of his
active years. His work was done largely in Whitley
and Bell counties, Kentucky. He was a mine fore-
man. During the Civil war he was a Union soldier,
first in the 40th Kentucky Mounted Infantry, later
being transferred to the artillery, and participated in
many battles. He was an active republican, and both
he and his wife were Methodists. The family history
is notable in more ways than one. There were six
sons and five daughters of Thomas Clutts and wife,
and all of them grew up and were married. The
father attended the marriage of every one of the
eleven and the mother was a witness to these marriage
ceremonies except in the case of her youngest child.
The sons all became identified with coal mining in the
Kentucky fields. John W. is electrician for the Ken-
tucky Block Coal Company at Typo; Charles H. is
foreman for the Highsplint Coal Company in Harlan
County; B. F. is general manager of the Lotts Creek
Company in Perry County ; Thomas is assistant elec-
trician of the Kentucky Block Coal Company; and
James was killed in a railroad wreck at Sewanee.
Tennessee.
George A. Clutts began working in coal mines when
he was only eleven years of age. The best and most
useful part of his education was asquired in night
school in Whitley County under Professor G. M.
Cooper. Before he was twenty years of age he was
mine foreman at the Old Lily Coal Company's mine
at Lily, Kentucky. Subsequently he was foreman for
the Pitman Coal Company at Pittsburg, Kentucky,
the Black Bear Company at Black Bear, the Matthew-
Jellico Coal Company and was then promoted to gen-
eral superintendent at Elys. In Harlan County he
opened the mines of the Looney Creek Coal Com-
pany, and was a stockholder and the general manager
in that company. Later he sold his stock and became
general superintendent of the Jellico Company at Tous-
ley in Bell County. This group of mines was sold
to Jewett, Biglow & Brooks, who are the owners of
the J. B. Elkhorn Coal Company, and on January 1,
1919, Mr. Clutts was transferred to the Elkhorn Com-
pany's mines at Douglas in Pike County. The mine
under Mr. Clutts' direction has been in continuous
operation even during the general depression affect-
ing other mines in Eastern Kentucky.
November 5, 1900, Mr. Clutts married Annie Fulton
Johnstone, who was born at Huntington, West Virginia,
June 6, 1877, daughter of W. W. Johnstone. They
are the parents of four children: Arthur E., May
F., Myrtle R. and George M. Arthur E., the oldest
son, is a youth of very interesting capabilities. He
finished his public school work at the age of eleven,
then attended the East Kentucky Normal at Richmond,
Union College at Barbourville, and took a business course
in the Mayo College at Paintsville, Kentucky. He is
now bookkeeper for the J. B. Elkhorn Coal Company
at Douglas. Mrs. Clutts is a member of the Christian
Church. Mr. Clutts has his Lodge and Chapter affilia-
tions with the Masonic Order at Barbourville, is a
member of the Knights Templar Commandery at Pine-
ville and the Mystic Shrine at Ashland. In politics
he is a democrat.
Henry Marshall Barnes is a Graves County citizen
whose enterprise over a long period of years has been
chiefly concentrated upon agriculture and farm man-
agement. His home is at Water Valley and he has
had much to do with the upbuilding of town com-
munities and is president of the Citizens Bank there.
Mr. Barnes was born in Graves County July 1, 1853.
His paternal ancestors came from England and set-
tled in North Carolina in Colonial times. His grand-
father, Benjamin Barnes, was born in North Carolina
in 1794, and at an early day left Nash County in his
native state and came West, living for a time in Ken-
tucky, but about 1831 settled in Weakley County, Ten-
nessee, where he spent the rest of his life as a farmer
and where he died in 1846. For a number of years
he held the post of magistrate, and was deeply inter-
ested in the welfare of his church, the Primitive
Baptist. Politically his vote was always cast as a
democrat. Benjamin Barnes married Temperance Ann
Taylor, who was born in North Carolina* in 1801, and
died in Weakley County, Tennessee, in 1846. David
Barnes, father of the Water Valley banker, was born
in Weakley County in 183 1 and grew up in a rather
pioneer environment in that section of Tennessee. In
1848 he moved to Graves County, Kentucky, where
he was married and where for many years he developed
and managed extensive landed interests, emphasizing
the raising of horses, mules and cattle. He took much
interest in the democratic party, but outside of home
and business the chief object of his ambition was to
promote the welfare and prosperity of his church, the
Cumberland Presbyterian. He did much to maintain
interest and a working organization, served as elder
many years, and was also a member of the choir. For
many years he was closely affiliated with the Graves
County Grange. David Barnes, who died in August,
1900, married Lucretia Elizabeth Fonville, who was
born in Graves County February 5, 1835, and died in
the spring of 1900. Henry Marshall is the oldest of
a large family of children: William Elijah is post-
master of Water Valley; Joseph Edwin was killed in
the machinery of a cotton gin at the age of seven
years ; Loretta, his twin sister, died at the age of
one year; David Adolphus and Thomas, both died in
childhood ; Annie P., who was born in i860 and died
in 1905, was the wife of Smith Wilson who is now
a rancher in Texas; Emma E. is a resident of Water
Valley; Charles H., born in 1868, lives at San An-
tonio, Texas ; Berney L., who died in Graves County
at the age of twenty-one; Benjamin L., owner of some
extensive farming interests in Graves County; and
Karl Huntington, a dentist at Nashville, Tennessee. _
Henry Marshall Barnes grew up and lived on his
father's farm to the age of twenty, acquiring a rural
school education. Acquiring an interest in his father's
property, he continued farming for himself to the age
of twenty-two and then bought a farm of his own.
In all the succeeding years he has been a factor in
the advanced program of Graves County agriculture,
has owned a number of different places, and has farmed
528
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
in two localities outside of Graves County, one year
in Texas and one year in Hickman County, Kentucky.
He sold the greater part of his farm holdings in the
tall of iyi8. The land on which the Town of Water
Valley is built was at one time owned chiefly by Mr.
Barnes and by his father-in-law, and a part has since
been sold for town lots except about twenty acres
which constitutes Mr. Barnes' home and modest farm.
His home is the finest in the village, a modern brick
residence, and he also has four other dwellings.
In 1905 Mr. Barnes took an active part in the organ-
ization of the Citizens Bank of \\ ater Valley, and
served as vice president until H117 and since then
has been president. The bank has a capital of $25,000,
surplus and profits of $8,000, and average deposits of
$130,000. E. G. Stokes is vice president and E. Glenn
Stokes, Jr., is cashier.
A number of outside interests have attracted Mr.
Barnes' capital and enterprise. He is a stockholder
and director in the American Fluor Spar Company
and the National Fluor Spar Company, and is a stock-
holder in the Preston Motors Company of Birming-
ham, Alabama, in the Archor Cord lire & Rubber
Company of Minneapolis, Minnesota, the Fairbanks
Oil Company, and the Inter-Southern Life Insurance
Company of Louisville. Interested in affairs associated
with the community welfare, he has served as trustee
of the local schools, was a member of the Graves
County Grange, is an elder of the Presbyterian Church
of America, and a democratic voter.
In November, 1872, at Water Valley, Mr. Barnes
married .Miss Georgia Stokes, daughter of Samuel and
Emaline (Crutchfield) Stokes. Her father was born
in 1822, and for many years was a farmer and tobacco
dealer at Water Valley, where he died in 1897. Her
mother was born in 1825, and died in February. [912.
Mrs. Barnes died at Water Valley in March, [913,
and her three children all died in infancy.
In May. 1017, Mr. Barnes married Aldora Cartwright,
who was born in Caldwell County, Kentucky, was
educated in the public schools of Princeton and 111
the State Normal School of Bowling Green, and for
twenty years was a successful teacher in Kentucky
and Texas. She was an active worker in the Pres-
byterian Church and its Woman's Missionary Society.
Her father, John J. Cartwright, was born in Cald-
well County in [842, was reared and married in that
county, but later removed to Franklin County, Illinois,
where he continued his life as a farmer until his death
in 1882. He married Drusilla Creasy, who was born
in Floyd County, Virginia, in 1845, and died at Prince-
ton, Kentucky, in 1896. The second wife of Mr. Barnes
died May 1, 1921, and was buried at Princeton,
Kentucky.
Charles D. Campbell. One of the substantial and
well ordered banking institutions of Adair County is
the Farmers Bank of Knifley, and in addition to
being cashier of this bank Charles D. Campbell is
the owner of one of the well improved farm estates
of the county and is a progressive young business
man and influential citizen of the Village of Knifley.
Mr. Campbell was born in Casey County, Kentucky,
January 4, 1884, and is a scion of one of the sterling
pioneer families of this section of the state. He was
not born until after the death of his paternal grand-
father, Moses Campbell, who was born and reared in
Virginia, and who became a pioneer farmer in Casey
County, Kentucky, where he remained until his death.
He served as a gallant young soldier in the Mexican
war and was also a soldier of the Union in the Civil
war. W. P. Campbell, father of the subject of this re-
view, was born in Casey County in 1840, and there his
death occurred in 1918. He passed his entire life in his
native county and became an extensive and successful
farmer near Liberty, with secure vantage-ground as one
of the honored and influential citizens of Casey County.
He was a republican in political allegiance, and both he
and his wife were zealous members of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South. When the Civil war was
precipitated he enlisted as a soldier of the Union, and
as a member of the Tenth Kentucky Volunteer Infantry
he continued in active service at the front for 2>y2 years.
He participated in many engagements, including a num-
ber of the most important battles marking the progress
of the great conflict, among which were those of Shiloh,
Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain and Gettysburg. His
wife, whose maiden name was Mary E. Harrison, was
born in Taylor County in 1840, and died in Casey-
County in 1908. The eldest of the children was Susan,
who became the wife of George Shankling and died in
Casey County at the age of sixty-two years, Mr. Shank-
ling being now a farmer in Taylor County. Ida is the
wife of Clay Evans, a farmer in Marion County. W. S.
was an official in the claim department of the Louis-
ville Street Railway Company at the time of his death,
when forty-five years of age. Joan is the wife of
S. L. Malone, a carpenter and contractor in the City of
Louisville. Charles D., of this sketch, is the youngest
of the number.
After having profited by the advantages of the rural
schools of his native county Charles D. Campbell at-
tended the normal academy at Middleburg and the
Presbyterian College at Campbellsville, in which latter
institution he was graduated as a member of the class
of 1903. He learned the trade of telegraphist, and as
such was employed as an operator in the City of St.
Louis, Missouri, for six months. Thereafter he at-
tended the Kentucky State Normal School at Bowling
Green for one term, and he then entered the service
of the Prudential Life Insurance Company as an at-
tache of the Kentucky headquarters office in the City of
Louisville. He made a record of ten years' effective
service in the employ of this great insurance corpora-
tion, and thereafter he was engaged in farming enter-
prise m his native county until iyig. He became con-
nected with the Farmers Bank of Kniflev as cashier
August 10, 1920. This bank initiated business on the
day that he was made cashier. It is incorporated as a
state bank, with a capital of $15,000, its deposits now
being $35,000. W. T. Hendrickson is president of the
institution and J. W. Knifley is its vice president.
Mr. Campbell is aligned in the ranks of the repub-
lican party, he and his wife are members of the Baptist
Church, and he is affiliated with Merrimac Lodge No.
778, Free and Accepted Masons; Louisville Camp,
Modern Woodmen of America; and Knifley Camp No.
658, Woodmen of the World. He owns and occupies
what is conceded to be the best residence at Knifley, and
is the owner of a valuable farm of 180 acres on Casey
1 reek. During the nation's participation in the World
war Mr. Campbell was an influential force in the fur-
thering of local movements in support of war activities,
lie not only subscribed liberally but also gave much
lime and energy to the sale of the Liberty Bonds in the
( it) of Louisville, where he aided in a campaign for the
sale of bonds for the amount of $5,000,000. In the
campaign of five days the sale aggregated $7,000,000 in
three days, so that Louisville contributed more than its
quota and made a splendid record in the connection,
as dul it also in subsequent bond issues.
December 7, 1009, recorded the marriage of Mr.
Campbell with Miss Myrtle Hendrickson, daughter of
William T. and Lorana (Sanders) Hendrickson, of
Campbellsville, Taylor County, the father being presi-
dent of the Farmers Bank of Knifley and the owner
"I large landed interests in Taylor County and in the
State of Indiana. Mr. and Mrs. Campbell have a win-
some little daughter, Kathleen, who was born January
7. I9I7-
Henry Deibel. A leading representative of the gar-
dening and truck-growing interests of Jefferson County,
-Tolfiyfv^
PUBLIC
LIBRAE
„ ^or >
dt^uk^H&^JtoM
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
529
who is now retired from active affairs and is living in
comfortable retirement at Buechel, is Henry Deibel.
He belongs to one of the oldest families of his locality
and has been interested in agricultural affairs since
young manhood, at present being vice president of the
Farm Bureau, of which he was one of the organizers.
Mr. Deibel was born on the home farm five miles
south of Louisville June I, 1862, a son of Henry and
Christina (Kellerman) Deibel, natives of Bavaria, Ger-
many, where both were born on the Rhine River. In
1835, at the age of sixteen years, Henry Deibel immi-
grated to the United States and located at Louisville,
where he secured employment. When his industry had
resulted in the accumulation of sufficient funds he sent
for his brother Peter, who joined him and who later
became a farmer in Utica Township, where Peter's son,
William, now makes his home on the same property.
At Louisville Henry Deibel met Miss Kellerman, who
had come to this country when nineteen years of age
and to whom he was married in 1853. At the age of
about twenty-five Mr. Deibel married a French girl,
named Mary Cordia. They were married six years, and
from this union there was one daughter, Josephine,
who became the wife of John Drescher. A year after
the death of his first wife he married Miss Kellerman
in 1853. From Louisville Mr. Deibel went to New
Orleans, where he began to cut wood by the cord and
later secured employment with a German contractor in
railroad bridge construction, being thus engaged in the
first railroad in Louisiana. The paymaster on the work
absconded, defrauding Mr. Deibel of three months'
wages, and he decided to return to Louisville, working
his passage back by sawing wood. His first employment
here was on the truck farm of G. W. Gaulbert, who
at the start paid him $5 a month, but who later in-
creased his salary. After leaving Mr. Gaulbert's em-
ploy at the end of two years he started to work for
Daniel Daup, a large land owner, who admired the
industrious young man so much that at the end of
six years he assisted Mr. Deibel to get a start on his
own account, he renting a part of the present Deibel
farm. The land, however, had been used for growing
hemp, and was practically worthless for the growing of
other crops, with the result that Mr. Deibel decided
to give it up and to endeavor to find something better.
His wife, however, had faith in the land, and after she
had had a conference with Mr. Daup the latter induced
Mr. Deibel to make a further trial and this proved
more satisfactory. From that time forward his progress
was marked and rapid, and as he got his land fer-
tilized and productive he added to his holdings." He
accumulated 127 acres of land, paid $250 per acre for
the home farm, and just after the close of the war be-
tween the states paid $420 per acre for twenty-eight
acres just opposite the home property. For the greater
part he specialized in vegetables, something for which
the members of this family have been noted in these
parts for many years. Mr. Deibel cared for no public
office, but devoted himself entirely to his farm, his
capable management of which was shown in the prize-
winning products which he displayed at the local fairs.
He died November 17, 1884, and his wife April 18, 1907,
both in the faith of the Lutheran Church, which they
attended at Louisville. They were the parents of the
following children : Emma, the wife of Phil Eichert,
a baker of Louisville ; Katie, the wife of Jacob
Kreischer, of Oklahoma; Henry, of this notice ;_ Eliza-
beth and Christina, who are unmarried and live on
the home place ; and Adeline, the wife of William
Barth, a contractor of Louisville.
The only son of his parents, Henry Deibel has passed
his entire life on the home place. He acquired his edu-
cation in the public schools and as a young man adopted
the vocation of his father for his own life work,
securing forty-three acres of the home farm, for which
he paid $700. To this he added by purchase until he
now has eighty-three acres, growing a general line of
vegetables, which are sent to the market and always
secure top prices. In the way of garden and truck-
farming the Deibels comprise one of the oldest fami-
lies of the locality identified with the same line of
business, in which they have been engaged for sixty
years or more. Mr. Deibel gives steady employment
to nine people, and during certain parts of the year
also hires extra help. He was one of the originators of
the Farm Bureau, in the organization and development
of which he has assisted materially, and is vice presi-
dent of this body, which has a total of about 800 mem-
bers, of whom over 600 are active. He is independent
in politics and his religious connection is with the
Lutheran Church, of which his parents were early
members.
At the age of twenty years Mr. Deibel was united in
marriage with Miss Anna Hoock, daughter of John and
Elizabeth (Lanter) Hoock, and to this union there have
been born four sons : Louis ; Henry W., a grocer of
Louisville, Theodore and Edward. Henry married
Louise Kiefer and has two sons, Kenneth and Irvin.
Louis, Theodore and Edward Deibel have operated the
home farm for the past three years under the firm
style of Deibel Brothers, continuing in the same line
as that followed by their father and grandfather. They
are men of high standing in their community, and are
enterprising, progressive and thoroughly reliable in all
their dealings. Theodore and Edward are unmarried.
Louis married Miss Nettie Brumley and they are the
parents of three sons : Robert, Louis, Jr., Ray, and
one daughter, Adele.
Leonidas H.York, M. D., has shown both pro-
fessional and civic loyalty and progressiveness by es-
stablishing and maintaining the well equipped River-
view Hospital at Louisa, Lawrence County, and this
institution has proved of inestimable value in the com-
munity as well as a splendid adjunct of service in con-
nection with the representative professional activities
of its proprietor, Doctor York being essentially one
of the leading physicians and surgeons of this sec-
tion of the state.
Dr. Leonidas Hamlin York was born on a farm in
Wayne County, West Virginia, January 4, 1851, and
is a son of Joseph D. and Elizabeth (Ratcliff) York.
The father was born at Higginsport, Ohio, in the year
1810, a representative of one of the earliest pioneer
families of that section of the Buckeye State, and he
was reared to manhood in Ohio, where he continued
his residence until 1840, when he removed to West
Virgmia, which was at that time still a part of Vir-
ginia. In this removal he was accompanied by his
brother. Dr. Joshua, and they were animated by high
hopes of future developments in the production of coal
and the building of railroads in that section. They
secured large tracts of land on both sides of the Tug
Fork of the B:g Sandy River, and a portion of this
land is still retained in the possession of the family.
Doctor York also practiced medicine for many years,
being a pioneer. Charles T. York, a son of Doctor
York of this review, owns the farmstead in Wayne
County, West Virginia, upon which his mother was
born. " Joseph D. York did not, perhaps, realize the
full measure of the ambitious purpose that led him
to establish a home in West Virginia, but he became
one of the successful and influential exponents of farm
industry in that state, and ever commanded unqualified
popular esteem by reason of his sterling character and
nobly purposeful life. His brother. Doctor Joshua,
became one of the representative physicians of that
section of West Virginia. Thomas York, brother of
Doctor Toshua, was a farmer in Lawrence Countv and
died in this county. During the later years of his life
he lost his eyesight. Joseph D. York was a young
man at the time of his removal to West Virginia, and
in Wayne County, that state, was solemnized his mar-
5:30
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
riage with Miss Elizabeth Ratcliff, who was there
horn at the falls of the Tug River — a place now known
as Glenhayes — in the year 1825. Mr. York was eighty-
six years of age at the time of his death, in 1896, and
his wife passed to eternal rest at the age of seventy-
six years, both having been devout members of the
Christian Church and he having been a close student
of the Bible, his familiarity with which was such that
he could quote with accuracy from all parts thereof.
Mr. York was republican in politics. Of his family of
nine sons and three daughters only two are now living,
Doctor York of this review and Mrs. Sarah Ann Atkins,
of Kermit, West Virginia One son. Dr. William R.,
became a successful physician and surgeon in Carter
County, Kentucky. John Y.. another of the sons, was
for forty years prominently engaged in the timber
business on the Big Sandy River, was a man of prom-
inence and influence in his native state and served as a
member of the Senate of the West Virginia Legis-
lature.
Dr. Leonidas H. York received his early education
in the schools of his native state, and in preparing
for the profession of his choice he read medicine under
the effective preceptorship of his older brother, Dr.
William R. York. He thus continued his studies three
vears and then entered the celebrated Eclectic Med-
ical College in the City of Cincinnati, Ohio, in which
he was graduated as a member of the class of r88l.
After thus gaining his degree of Doctor of Medicine
he established himself in practice at Glenhayes, West
Virginia, whence he later removed to Fort Gay, that
state, on the opposite side of the Big Sandy River
from Louisa. Kentucky. For a number of years the
doctor maintained an office at each. Fort Gay and
Louisa, and lie built up a general practice that ex-
tended far and wide through this section, both in
Kentucky and West Virginia, his professional business
todav ramifying throughout the Big Sandy River Val-
ley and the mountain districts of this region. The
doctor has been fortunate in the possession of a strong
physique and the best of health, and thus he has been
able to endure the heavy labors that have fallen to
lis portion in traversing long distances, day and night,
in inclement weather and over poor roads, in his faith-
ful work of alleviating human suffering and distre-^
He maintains high ideals of the responsibility which
his profession involves, has observed its best ethical
code, and has shown great self-abnegation in his ever-
ready response to the call of distress, no matter how
great the hardships and labors involved. It may thus
he readilj understood that his is a secure place in the
confidence and esteem of the extended communal dis-
trict that has profited by his faithful service. He has
kept in close touch with the advances made in medical
and surgical science, has recourse to the best standard
and periodical literature of his profession, and in T007
he completed an effective course of special study in
the Post-Graduate Medical College in the City of New
York. In that same year he erected and equipped his
fine modern hospital at Louisa, and this institution,
known as Riverv'ew Hospital, is one that is a source
of pride to the city, as well as one that provides the
hest of service to those who avail themselves of its
excellent facilities. Doctor York has made his practice
of general order, but has gained specially high reputa-
tion in the surgical department of his profession, in
which he has to his credit many successful operations,
both maior and minor. In the conducting of his hos-
pital he has a valued assistant in the person of Doctor
Brumley.
Doctor York is vice president of the Louisa National
Bank and also of the Louisa & Fort Gay Bridge Com-
nanv. which built the fine bridge, one-fourth of a mile
in length, that spans the Big Sandy River between
Louisa and Fort Gay and affords a valuable connecting
link between Kentucky and West Virginia. The doc-
tor is identified with various medical societies, is a
republican in politics, is affiliated with the Masonic
fraternty, in which he is a past master of the lodge
of Free and Accepted Masons at Fort Gay, his capitu-
lar membership being in the Chapter of Royal Arch
Masons at Louisa, the while he is affiliated with the
Commandery of Knights Templars in the City of Mays-
ville and with El Hasa Temple of the Mystic Shrine
:it Ashland. He holds membership in the Missionary
Baptist Church, and his wife is a member of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
The year 1871 recorded the marriage of Doctor
York with Miss Permelia G Allison, daughter of John
H. Allison, Sr., and they have two children: Mary E.
is the wife of Dr. A. W. Brumley, who is associated
with Doctor York in the professional conducting of
Riverview Hospital. Charles T. is business manager
of this hospital, he being a graduate of the Kentucky
Military Academy, besides which he took a business
course in the Kentucky Normal School at Louisa. He
married Ethel Kirk, daughter of Judge A. J. Kirk,
and they have two children, L. H. York, Jr., and A. K.
York.
I. N. Bowles. In the thriving little Town of Sum-
mer Shade, located in Metcalfe County, is found an
institution indicative of the county's financial strength,
this being the Bank of Summer Shade. This state
bank, which was opened for business in December.
1907. has had a successful career, and has been fortunate
111 possessing the services of capable officials, among
whom at present is I. N. Bowles, cashier, who has been
identified with the institution since 1908. During his
connection with the bank Mr. Bowles has demonstrated
the possession of marked abilities, and has played his
part in gaining friendships and material prosperity for
the concern which he represents.
Mr. Bowles was born at Summer Shade January 1.
[872, a son of LaFayette and Amanda (Payne) Bowles.
His grandfather, John Bowles, was born in Virginia and
was a young man when he migrated to Metcalfe County.
Kentucky, where he married a Miss White. He settled
down to agricultural pursuits, in which he continued
to be engaged throughout his life, and died before the
birth of his grandson, as did also his wife. They were
people whose many excellent qualities of mind and
heart endeared them to those among whom their lives
were passed.
LaFayette Bowles was born on his father's farm in
Metcalfe County August 27, 1831, and received a public
school education. He was reared as a fanner's sou and
early adopted the vocation of farming as his life work,
in occupation which he followed throughout his career.
A man nf industry, integrity and probity, he won and
held the respect of his fellow citizens and accumulated
a satisfying property, in the management of which he
displayed good business judgment. He was a demo-
crat, but never had any desire for public office, although
he took a good citizen's interest in public affairs and
was a stanch supporter of worthy movements. He died
at Summer Shade, where the greater part of his life
had been passed, in February, 1907. leaving manj to
mourn him. Mr. Bowles married Miss Amanda Payne.
who was horn September 4, 1829, in Metcalfe County,
,1 woman of estimable qualities, and who died at Sum-
mer Shade in September, 1892. I. N. Bowles was the
only child.
The public schools of Metcalfe County furnished
I. N. Bowles with his educational training, and until he
was twenty-one years of age he divided his time be-
tween attending school and working on the home farm.
He then left home, and during the next ten years
traveled extensively, working on farms in Kansas and
California, as well as in his native county. While he
had been growing to manhood he hail assimilated the
rudiments of the carpenter trade, and during his ex-
periences he had perfected himself in this trade, which
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
531
he eventually adopted and followed until September,
1908. At that time he accepted an offered opportunity
and entered the Bank of Summer Shade in the capacity
of assistant cashier. On June 30, 191 I, he was elected
cashier of this institution, a position he has held to
the present time, his fellow officials being: J. T. Harbi-
son, president ; and E. T. Bartley, vice president. The
bank has a capital stock of $15,000; surplus and profits
of $9,000 ; and deposits of $200,000. It occupies a sub-
stantial building at Summer Shade, and has an excel-
lent reputation in the banking circles of the county.
Mr. Bowles is very popular with the customers of the
institution, and his unfailing courtesy and wise counsel
are greatly appreciated by the depositors. He has been
an active participant in local affairs and his influence
has always been on the side of progressive and construc-
tive policies. He took a helpful part in all local war
activities, devoting much time to the cause, and served
on the committees for the bond sales, each of which was
put over the top. In political matters he is a democrat,
but he has had no time to think of occupying public
office. He is the owner of a modern residence on Main
Street, the most desirable home at Summer Shade.
On June 20, 1907, Mr. Bowles was united in marriage
at Moss, Tennessee, with Miss Inez Harbison, a daugh-
ter of C. S. and Mattie (Hensley) Harbison, residents
of Summer Shade, Mr. Harbison having been an agri-
culturist and well-known citizen of this locality for
many years. Four children have come to Mr. and
Mrs. Bowles : Guy W., born May 28, 1908 ; Wilma May,
born October io, 1910; Mabel Ruth, born January 18,
1914; and Mary Catherine, born February 21, 1916.
The three first named are attending the Summer Shade
public school, and all will be educated in a manner that
will fit them for the positions in life which they are
called upon to occupy.
Thomas J. Phillips, a mining engineer of wide and
varied experience both in the United States and abroad,
has in later years become well known in the Eastern
Kentucky coal fields and is now a resident of Pike
County, being general manager and a stockholder in
the Ford Elkhorn Mining Company on Robinson Creek.
He and B. H. Ford, of Cincinnati, are owners of this
plant.
Mr. Phillips was born at Llanelly, South Wales, April
26, 1879, and comes of a prominent mining family of
Southwestern England. His parents were Philip and
Mariah Phillips. Philip Phillips with a brother was a
coal operator on an extensive scale in Wales for thirty-
two years. He died in 1913, at the age of seventy-six,
having survived his wife several years.
Thomas J. Phillips enjoyed the best educational op-
portunities open to a young Englishman.. He finished
the work of the common schools in Wales at the age
of fourteen and then entered and spent four years at
Oxford University. After leaving university he con-
tinued for three years his technical studies as an
engineer at the School of Mines at Wigan. When a boy
he frequently dug coal in his father's mines, and his
university training was largely supplemental to the
practical knowledge of mine engineering. For two
years he was in the British consular service in Canada,
and in 1905 went to Scranton, Pennsylvania, as superin-
tendent of the coal interests of the Delaware, Lacka-
wanna & Western Railroad. As an engineer one of his
most notable undertakings was the designing at Pitts-
burgh, Pennsylvania, of the largest power house in the
United States, built for the National Tube Works.
For six years he was with the H. C. Frick Coke Com-
pany as a construction engineer. He then went to the
Northwest as chief engineer for the Issaquah Coal
Company. This was a great German syndicate, and it
is said that 45 per cent of the stock was owned by the
German Kaiser. Mr. Phillips obviously had no knowl-
edge of any ulterior designs or propaganda that might
have had its source in this ownership.
Leaving the Northwest, Mr. Phillips returned again
to the East and became general manager at Clarksburg,
West Virginia, for the McDonald Fuel Company. He
is still a stockholder in that corporation. About the
same time he acquired his interests in the Ford Elk-
horn Mining Companv in Pike County. Kentucky.
Mr. and Mrs. Phillips are members of the First Bap-
tist Church at Louisa, Kentucky. He is a member of
the Scottish Rite Consistory and Shrine at Ashland, the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows and is a republican.
He is a member of the Pike County and Northeastern
Kentucky Coal Association.
David Arthur Bates, M. D. In the community
where he was' born and reared and where his people
have been honored and respected citizens for several
generations Doctor Bates has performed his best work
as a physician and surgeon. This old home community
is at Okolona in Jefferson County.
He was born on the Bates estate three miles east
of Okolona, on the old Sheperdsville Road, twelve miles
south of the court house at Louisville, July 10, 1882,
son of William S. and Melinda E. (Smith) Bates.
His father was born on the same farm December 15,
1856. The grandfather, Samuel Bates, was likewise a
native of the same community, born there in 1815, and
died in 1872, when fiftv-seven years of age. The great-
grandparents were John and Mary Bates who came
from Pennsylvania and were pioneers in Northern Ken-
tucky. The sons of John and Marv Bates were Samuel,
Levi, George, Washington and William.
Samuel Bates improved a large farm of 280 acres.
His children were: Price, at the old home; Alice,
widow of James Jackson ; David, who graduated in
medicine at Louisville and for thirty years practiced
at Sheperdsville, until his death at the age of fiftv-
f our ; Henry, of Cincinnati ; Jennie, widow of John
Hall, living at New Albany ; Lydia, widow of W. K.
Frver, of Fern Creek ; and William S.
William S. Bates, who is still living at Okolona, has
long been an active member of the Cumberland Presby-
terian Church, a church that has gained the allegiance
of nearly all members of this family in the various gen-
erations. The mother of Doctor Bates, Melinda E.
Smith, was the daughter of Levi and Jane Smith,
farmers at Fairmount in Jessamine County. William
S. Bates and wife had the following children :
Lawrence, who was a merchant at Louisville when he
died at the age of thirty-eight ; David A. ; Meredith,
who was accidentally killed when eighteen vears old ;
Emma, who died in 1920, wife of P. K. Miller, Jr. :
William T., of Elizabethtown ; and Eulah, a music
teacher at Okolona.
David Arthur Bates spent his boyhood on the old
farm. Part of his education was acquired in the Au-
burn Seminary, and at the age of eighteen he began
teaching. He taught school and attended to his medical
studies alternately. He was a member of the last grad-
uating class from the old Kentucky School of Medicine
at Louisville in 1908. He began his practice in a coal
mining town in West Virginia, but an accident caused
him to give up that work and he then returned to his
old neighborhood at Okolona and has built up a very
profitable practice here and enjoys the thorough respect
and esteem of his old neighbors. He is a member
of all the medical societies, but is not interested in
politics. Doctor Bates also has farming and stock breed-
ing interests, and organized and was president of the
Bullitt County Fair Association.
At the age of twenty-six he married Miss Lula A.
Starks, daughter of a farmer of Bullitt County. She
was twentv-one when she married and had been a
teacher in her home county. She was educated in high
532
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
school and in Hamilton College in Lexington and in
the Normal School at Bowling Green. Doctor and Mrs.
Bates have two children : David A., Jr., and Mary
Alice. Doctor Bates is a Master Mason, a memher of
the Royal Arch Chapter at Louisville, and Mrs. Bates
is a past worthy matron of the Eastern Star and has
sat in the Grand Chapter.
Roy Holman. Of all the professions the law, per-
haps, requires the largest amount of study along gen-
erally uninteresting lines, for the physician is apt to
become absorbed in scientific discovery at the beginning
of his reading, while the minister starts out with a
mind illumined and a heart atune. The hard facts of
the law that have to be learned by themselves, and so
learned that the understanding is quickened into the
comprehension that may later be drawn upon before
judge and jury, have very often discouraged a student
at the outset and have resulted in his turning to a much
easier vocation. Therefore it may be easily seen that
the successful lawyer must possess intellectual qualifica-
tions, and his logical understanding, his keenness of per-
ception, his scientific acquaintance with jurisprudence,
his tenacity of purpose, and his unrivaled powers of
application are all necessary, and these must be devel-
oped to their utmost. Roy Holman, of Wickliffe, whose
position as a member of the Ballafd County Bar is
unquestioned, is a man who has the above mentioned
qualifications, and he continues to stimulate them by
reading and investigation. At the same time he is
rendering valuable service to the county as clerk, and is
admittedly one of the most representative men of this
part of Kentucky.
Mr. Holman was born in Ballard County. Kentucky,
October 10, 1805, a son of C. J. Holman, and grandson
of William Holman, a native of Indiana, who came into
Kentucky and bought 1,000 acres of land on the bank
of the Ohio River, near Ogden's Landing, when this
part of the state was a wilderness. He then brought
his family to his property and developed a farm of
great value and magnitude, which he operated a num-
ber of years, and he remained in Ballard County until
his death. He married Sarah Hawthorne, a native of
Ireland. The Holman family is also of Irish origin, it^
representatives having come from the Emerald Isle to
the American Colonies and located in Virginia.
C. J. Holman was born in Ballard County, Kentucky,
in 1873, and was there reared, educated and married,
and developed into an extensive farmer. In 1918 he
moved to Paducah, and is there engaged in an auto-
mobile and transfer business under the name of the
Holman Transfer Company. His political convictions
make him a strong supporter of democratic principles
and candidates. He maintains membership with the
Odd Fellows. C. J. Holman married Fannie Hodges,
. who was born in McCracken County, Kentucky. Their
children are as follows : Roy, who was the eldest ;
Bernice, who was graduated from the Bandana High
School and Saint Mary's College of Paducah, is now
taking a business course in stenography, and lives with
her parents.
Roy Holman is a Ballard County product, for he not
only was born here, but he is a graduate of the Ballard
County High School, class of 1016, and was reared on
his father's rural estate, where he resided until he was
elected county clerk in the fall of 1917, and took office
on January 7, 191S. being at that time the youngest
officeholder in the State of Kentucky. He is a young
man of much more than ordinary mentality, for he read
law, and was admitted to the bar one week after he
attained to his majority, and is well versed in his pro-
fession. Needless to say, he is a democrat, and very
active in local affairs. Fraternally he maintains mem-
bership with Hesperian Lodge, I. O. O. F., of Wick-
liffe, and Wickliffe Camp, W. O. W. He owns a
modern residence on Fourth Street, where he and his
charming wife take pleasure in entertaining their many
friends.
During the period that this country was in the great
war Mr. Holman was an effective participant in all of
the local war activities, was chairman of the Ballard
County Council of Defense, and in every way did all
he could to aid the administration in carrying out its
policies. Mr. Holman was campaign chairman of the
Democratic County Central Committee during the can-
didacy of A. O. Stanley for United States senator,
and largely to his efforts is due the eminently successful
showing made by Ballard County in the contest.
On June 16, 1916, Mr. Holman married at Metropolis.
Illinois, Miss Bonylin Dulworth, a daughter of J. T.
and Bertha (Herring) Dulworth, who are now residents
of Ballard County, Kentucky. Mr. Dulworth is an ex-
tensive and successful farmer. Mrs. Holman is a
graduate of the Ballard County High School. Mr. and
Mrs. Holman have two children, namely: George
Tavlor, who was born June 18, 1917; and William Cas-
well, who was born in May, 1920. Mr. Holman is a
young man of towering ambition, who loves to give of
his means, time and talents to community and party
causes, to be in the forefront of civic movements, and
through his achievements draws the attention of his
friends and the gratitude of his community.
Samuf.l HARRFxn Brown. One of the most pro-
gressive and reliable of the younger members of the
I ogan County bar, who stands high in professional
ability and as a man of broad business and general
judgment, is Samuel Harreld Brown, of Russell ville.
During his comparatively short career he has been
identified with some important litigation, in which he
has demonstrated the possession of broad and accurate
knowledge of the fundamentals of his profession, and
has displayed the industry, talent and fidelity to the
interests of his clients that augur well for his con-
tinued success.
Mr. Brown was born at Lewisburg, Kentucky. Novem-
ber 25, 1805, a son of J. W. and Manthis (Harreld)
Brown. The Brown family originated in Scotland,
whence its first American member came to Virginia
during Colonial times, and in that state was born the
great-grandfather of Samuel H. Brown, James Brown.
James Brown as a young man started from his home
in the Old Dominion State with his destination Ken-
tucky, and upon reaching Clarksville, Tennessee, met
and married a Miss Lyons, and resided in that city for
a time. Subsequently he resumed his journey, with his
bride, and eventually reached Logan County, where he
became a successful planter and slave-bolder, and also
owned and operated a water mill. Both he and Mrs.
Brown passed away at Lewisburg. this state.
James Samuel Brown, the grandfather of Samuel H.
Brown, was born in 18,37 in Kentucky, and was reared
and educated in the vicinity of Lewisburg, where he
became an extensive farmer and planter and a man of
importance and influence in his community. He died
near Lewisburg, greatly respected, in 1913. Mr. Brown
married Nancy Milam, who was born in 1845, near
Lewisburg, and died in that community in 1910. They
became the parents of eight children : J. W. ; C. P., a
farmer residing at Lewisburg; J. B., a farmer and
cattleman of Channing, Texas ; Cora, the wife of J. E.
Milam, a farmer of Lewisburg; J. E., also an agricul-
turist in the vicinity of Lewisburg; Annie, who married
P. C. Gaston, a farmer in the same locality; S. A., a
cotton broker of Leland, Mississippi ; and J. R., also of
Leland, a partner of his brother, S. A.
J. W. Brown was born in 1867, at Lewisbi-.rg, near
which place he was reared on the farm, acquiring his
education in the public schools. Later he became_ a
school-teacher, following that vocation during the win-
ter terms and applying himself to agriculture during
the summers, and at this time is the owner of a fine
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
533
farm of 600 acres five miles northeast of Lewisburg.
In addition to carrying on extensive operations as a gen-
eral farmer, as a raiser of stock he has also made a
success, and is acknowledged generally to be one of the
skilled and capable agriculturists and stockmen of his
locality. He is a democrat in his political adherence.
He belongs to the Missionary Baptist Church, of which
he is a very active supporter. Mr. Brown married Miss
Manthis Harreld, who was born in 1878, near Lewis-
burg, and to this union there have been born five chil-
dren: Samuel Harreld; Cora, the wife of Rev. W. C.
Harrell, a minister of the Missionary Baptist Church
in Logan County ; a daughter who died in infancy ;
J. W. Jr., a student in the Lewisburg High School ; and
Lavelle, who is attending the graded schools.
Samuel Harreld Brown received his primary educa-
tional training in the rural schools of Logan County,
following which he pursued a course in the Lewisburg
High School, and was graduated therefrom with the
class of 1915. For one year he taught school in Logan
County, in the meantime taking the preparatory steps
for his professional training, and then entered the Ken-
tucky State University at Lexington. He was a student
of this university in the law department when the United
States entered the World war, and August 27, 1917, he
entered the Second Officers' Training Camp at Fort Ben-
jamin Harrison, near Indianapolis, Indiana. There he
was commissioned a second lieutenant November 27,
1917, and was assigned to the Eighty-fifth Division,
Camp Custer, Michigan. Reporting for duty December
15, 1917, he was attached to the 339th Infantry until
July, 1918, when he was transferred as personnel ad-
jutant to the Fourth Officers' Training Camp at Camp
Custer, and continued in that capacity one and one-half
months. He then went to the 160th Depot Brigade, but
was placed on special duty later at Camp Perry, Ohio,
where he was in the small arms firing school for six
weeks. On October 5, 1918, he returned to the 160th
Depot Brigade at Camp Custer, and continued with that
outfit until receiving his honorable discharge March 12,
1919-
While in the army Mr. Brown had been admitted to
the Kentucky bar at Frankfort in 1917. When he was
mustered out of the service he immediately opened an
office in the Citizens National Bank Building, on South
Main Street, Russellville, and since then has built up
a large and lucrative practice in general civil and crim-
inal law. He has made rapid strides in his calling and
has gradually won public confidence and support in the
display of natural talents which have been developed
through study and training. Mr. Brown is a member
of the Logan County Bar Association, and is recognized
as an attorney who respects the best ethics of the pro-
fession. In politics he is a democrat, and his religious
faith is that of the Baptist Church. Fraternally he is
affiliated with Logan Lodge No. 97, I. O. O. F., of
Lewisburg; Amelia Lodge No. 56, K. of P., Russell-
ville ; and the Alpha Sigma Phi Greek letter college
fraternity, for membership in which he was chosen while
attending the State University.
In July, 1918, at Lewisburg, Mr. Brown was united in
marriage with Miss Minnie L. Kennerly, a daughter of
J. B. and Georgia (Laslie) Kennerly, the latter of
whom is a resident of Russellville, while the former,
who for many years was a well-known and highly re-
spected farmer of Logan County, died at Lewisburg in
1920. Mrs. Brown is a graduate of Port Arthur
(Texas) College. She and ber husband have two chil-
dren : Clyde Harreld, born May 26, 1919 ; and Joe Ella,
born in June, 1920.
Alderson Drane Mansfield. Modern industry has
revolutionized household operations and removed much
of the drudgery from a woman's life. Formerly every
operation connected with the home had to be performed
by the housewife, and the wonder is that she survived
to reach even middle age. The pioneer women made
all the soap used for all purposes ; canned and preserved
as well as dried their fruit and vegetables ; cured their
ham and bacon; spun and wove and then manufactured
from the cloth they had produced the clothing for all
the members of their family. They knit the socks and
mittens, recovered the furniture and of course did all of
the cooking. Of all the work, however, none was more
laborious than the washing. These hard-working
women used to be overshadowed all day Sunday with
the realization that on Monday morning they would be
forced to bend over the wash tub and wear away their
youth and strength to cleanse the family clothing and
linen from the accumulation of a week's dirt. The other
members of the household also rebelled against washr
day because it brought only a rehash dinner owing to
"mother's" absorption with the wash. Even when the
changing times brought into the households of those of
moderate means the washwoman, conditions left much
to be desired. The confusion of washday, the unwhole-
some steam of the suds and the upsetting of regular
customs put everyone in a bad temper. Finally those
conducting laundries for the caring for the linen of the
men branched out, installed new machinery and offered
inducements to the housewives, and today there are few
families who do not send part, if not all, of their cloth-
ing to a laundry. With the success of this branch of
the cleansing business assured, another departure was
made, and after experiments a system of dry cleaning
was perfected so that the many garments today worn
by almost every woman, which would not survive immer-
sion in water, are made quite as good as new. All of
these improvements have come about because of the
vision and foresight of men of enterprise, and their
efforts are now being seconded by the younger genera-
tion who have taken up the work and further expanded
it. One of these enthusiastic young business men of
Logan County, worthy of more than passing mention,
is Alderson Drane Mansefild, secretary, treasurer and
manager of the Russellville Laundry and Dry Cleaning
Company of Russellville.
Alderson Drane Mansefild was born at Russellville,
April 11, 1897, a son of W. A. Mansfield, who was born
near Scottsville, Kentucky, in 1858, and died at Russell-
ville June 13, 1920. He was reared in Allen County, in
young manhood came to Russellville, and for twenty
years was a leading merchant of the county seat. In
politics a strong democrat, he was active in his party,
but did not desire office. His chief relaxation outside
of his business was his church, and for many years he
was a generous and active member of the Methodist
Episcopal Church. W. A. Mansfield married Laura
Johnson, who was born in Logan County in 1862. She
survives her husband and resides at Russellville. The
children born to W. A. Mansfield and his wife were as
follows : Mary Sue, who is unmarried and lives with
her mother ; Tom, who is a farmer of Logan County ;
Irl, who is a druggist of Auburn, Kentucky ; Coy, who
lives with her mother; Charlie, who is a telegraph
operator of Paris, Texas ; Alderson D., who was the
sixth child; and Rosa Bele, who lives with her mother.
Alderson D. Mansfield attended the public schools of
Russellville until he was eighteen years old, and then
for a year worked in the office of the News-Democrat
of Russellville. On June 26, 1916, he enlisted in the
United States Army and was sent to Fort Thomas,
Kentucky, and two months later to El Paso, Texas,
where he spent eight months, and was then honorably
discharged. Returning home, a month later he re-
enlisted in the service and went to Lexington, Kentucky,
for four months, and thence to Hattiesburg, Mississippi,
for a year. On October 30, 1918, he embarked for Eng-
land, landing at Southampton November 6, 191 8, from
whence he was sent to France. He was in the Thirty-
eighth Division, but was transferred to the Second
Division November 11, 1918. For the subsequent eight
Vol. V— 48
534
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
months he was with the Army of Occupation in Ger-
many, but was then sent home, and discharged August
18, 1919.
Returning to Russellville, Mr. Mansfield worked in
the office of the Russellville Messenger until February
I, ICiiO, when he came with the Russellville Laundry
and Dry Cleaning Company, and on March 15 of that
year was promoted to secretary, treasurer and manager.
This is the leading laundry between Bowling Green and
Hopkinsvillc. It has modern machinery and equipment
and is admirably adapted for the business in hand. The
laundry is located on Main at Second Street.
Mr. Mansfield is a democrat. He belongs to the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South. His residence is
on Main Street. He is not married. Mr. Mansfield
brings to his business a broader vision and greater
tolerance because of his period of service in defense of
his country, and, like other of the young men of his gen-
eration, is going in the years to come be all the better
citizen because he risked his life to preserve his native
land from invasion.
William Basil Hacan. One of the worthy and
energetic representati\ o of the younger business ele-
ment of South Central Kentucky is William Basil
Hagan, better known as Basil Hagan, who is manager of
the establishment at Tompkinsville of the firm of Brad-
shaw. Hagan & Company, the leading hardware dealers
of Monroe County. Mr. Hagan, although still a young
man, has acquitted himself in a manner that has won the
confidence of the public and the respect of his associates,
and in his present position is laying the foundations i< ir
what will in all probability be a career of signal use-
fulness and success in the business world.
He was born at Fountain Run, Monroe County. Ken-
tucky, March 11, 1807, a son of James Riley and Annie
Fenn (Faulkner) Hagan. The Hagan family, as the
name would indicate, originated in Ireland and immi-
grated to America in Colonial times, settling in Virginia,
whence came the great-grandfather of Mr. Hagan as
a pioneer to Monroe County. The first family of the
name to come to this county arrived at a period when
there were no houses, and for a time lived in a cave
one mile east of Tompkinsville. James Harvey Hagan,
the grandfather of Basil Hagan, was born in 1846, in
Monroe County, and was reared in his native locality,
where he was married. He later moved over into Allen
Count}', although still near Fountain Run, and there
rounded out a successful career as a farmer, dying in
1903. He was a man who was highly esteemed in h i-,
community because of his integrity in business, his loy-
alty in friendships and his public spirit in civic affairs.
He married Melissa Wood, who was born in 1845, 111
Virginia, and was brought as a child of twelve years to
Monroe County by her parents, Willis and Eliza Wood,
natives of Virginia. Mr. Wood, who was a pioneer
farmer and slaveholder of Monroe and Barren counties,
passed away in the latter county when eighty-three years
of age, while his wife died in the same county when
eighty years old. Mrs. Melissa Hagan, at the age of
seventy-six years, still makes her home on the old
farm in Allen County, where she is held in great
reverence.
James Riley Hagan was born December 14. 1870, in
Allen County, and was reared on his father's farm near
Fountain Run, his education being acquired in the pub-
lic schools of the rural districts. When he was twenty-
six years of age he left the home place and embarked
in business as a flour miller at Fountain Run. conduct-
ing a mill at that point for nine years. He then made
removal to his present handsome farm situated on Main
Street, within the corporate limits of Fountain Run,
where he owns a property of 109 acres of splendidly im-
proved and productive land, on which is situated one of
the most modern and desirable residences in Monroe
County, surrounded by well-kept grounds and beautiful
shade trees. ]n addition to being a successful farmer
he is also a prosperous stock raiser, and his transactions
have always been carried on in such a manner that his
business reputation is of the best. He is a democrat in
politics, but has not sought public office, preferring to
give all of his time and attention to his agricultural in-
terests. He has always been a supporter of progressive
movements, and education and religion have found in
him a generous friend. On March 12, 1896, Mr. Hagan
married in Macon County, Tennessee, Miss Annie Fenn
Faulkner, who was born March 3, 1871, near Fountain
Run. Benjamin Faulkner, the great-grandfather of
Basil Hagan on his mother's side, was born August 4,
1804, in Virginia, and was a pioneer of Monroe County,
where he followed farming as a slaveholder for many
years, and where his death occurred, as did that of his
worthy wife, Mary, also a native of Virginia. James
Harvey Faulkner, the maternal grandfather of Mr.
Hagan, was born near Fountain Run in 1837, and wdien
still a young man moved from Monroe County just over
the county line into Allen County, where he followed
farming during the rest of his life, his death occurring
in 191 j. He was a man of industry and probity who
had the respect of his neighbors and associates. During
the war between the states he fought throughout the
struggle as a soldier of the Confederacy. He married
Angeline Frane, who was born at Flippin, Monroe
County, and still survives him as a resident of the Allen
County farm. She is a daughter of John Frane, who
was born in Monroe County and passed his life as an
extensive live stock trader and farmer, accumulating
considerable wealth. He died on his farm in the Flippin
community. To James R. and Annie F. Hagan there
have been born three children: William Basil; Ammy
Angeline, the wife of Floyd Jones, a farmer of Barren
County ; and Mildred, a student in the graded school at
Fountain Run, who resides with her parents.
Basil Hagan attended the graded school at Fountain
Run and then entered the high school at that place, but
after one year, when eighteen years of age, left school
and returned to the home place, where he became asso-
ciated with his father in the cultivation of the property.
At the age of twenty years he engaged in clerical work,
first at Fountain Run, later at Tompkinsville and finally
at Louisville, and was so engaged in the latter place
when the United States entered the World war. On
May 30, 1918, he enlisted in the United States Navy and
was sent to the Great Lakes Naval Training. Station at
Great Lakes, Illinois, serving three months at Camp
Decatur. He was then transferred to Hampton Roads,
Virginia, where he was made mail clerk for the public
works department, and held this position until receiving
his honorable discharge January 22, 1919. as a seaman
of the second class. Returning to Tompkinsville, he
was employed by the firm of Bradshaw, Hagan & Com-
pany, the leading hardware merchants of Monroe
County, 111 the capacity of manager, a position which he
has filled to the present time. He has shown himself
capable of handling the management of this important
concern, the business of which is growing appreciably
under his direction. Mr. Hagan is a democrat, but has
found time only to take a good citizen's interest in
political matters. His religious connection is with the
1 hristian Church, and he holds membership in James
Chisam Post, American Legion, at Tompkinsville.
Mr. Hagan married December 30, 1919, at Glasgow,
Kentucky, Miss Florence Simmons, daughter of Ish and
Nannie (Mcintosh) Simmons, residents of Bowling
Green, Kentucky, in which locality Mr. Simmons is en-
gaged in extensive agricultural operations. Mrs. Hagan
attended the Western Kentucky State Normal School
at Bowling Green, and for four years prior to her mar-
riage was a teacher in the rural schools of Barren
County.
William Brown Smith, veteran Richmond lawyer
and long a prominent leader in democratic politics, is
"to hew ^'?x
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
535
still practicing at the age of eighty-nine, and is one of
the few attorneys in the state whose professional record
began before the Civil war.
He was born at Richmond May 26, 1832. He is of
English parentage and ancestry. His father, Solomon
Smith, was born in England in 1804 and his grandfather
was Jasper Smith, who brought the family to the United
States about 1810 and first settled at Providence, Rhode
Island, where he was a clothing manufacturer. Later
he removed to Cynthiana, Kentucky, and located on a
farm, subsequently buying a farm 2Y2 miles from Lex-
ington on the Nicholasville Pike, and for fifteen years
lived in Lexington, where he died in 1850. His grand-
son remembers him as an old English gentleman of
aristocratic manners. Jasper Smith married a Miss
Thompson, a native of England, who died at Lexington.
Through her William Brown Smith is a great-nephew
of William Thompson, an English soldier who was killed
at the battle of Waterloo. The five children of Jasper
Smith, all now deceased, were Joshua, Peter, Solomon,
William and Patience.
Solomon Smith grew up on the farm near Cynthiana,
but in 1824 left there and came to Richmond, where he
married and where he was in business as a pioneer mer-
chant tailor. He was an old-line whig in .politics and a
devout Presbyterian. He died at Richmond in 1870.
His wife, Maria Brown, was born at Richmond in 1810
and died there in 1875. Of her four children William
B. is the oldest and the only survivor. Thomas was a
merchant and died at Richmond at the age of sixty-
nine ; George, a farmer, died at Beattyville aged forty-
seven; and Bettie died at Richmond aged seventy, wife
of Curtis Moberly, a shoe merchant.
William Brown Smith attended a private school at
Richmond and subsequently went East and entered the
school founded by Alexander Campbell, Bethany Col-
lege in Brooke County, Virginia, now West Virginia.
He was a student there four years, and graduated in
July, 1853, with the first honors in a class of seventeen.
Not long after returning to Richmond Mr. Smith went
to Texas and taught a school in that state for six
months. He studied law at Richmond and was admitted
to the bar in 1856, and for about a year was actively
identified with the local law fraternity. In 1857 ne went
to Northwest Missouri, and for five years practiced at
Platte City. Since about the beginning of the Civil war
he has been in continuous practice at Richmond, for a
period of nearly sixty years, and he still maintains
offices in the McKee Building.
He was democratic representative in the Legislature
in 1889-90, and in 1876 was a candidate for the Court
of Appeals, his rival, Judge Elliott, being chosen by a
margin of one vote. Mr. Smith has been twice a dem-
ocratic elector. In 1896 he cast the only electoral vote
given by Kentucky for Bryan. He was again state
elector in 1908, and in that year the democratic National
Committee selected him for active campaigning in New
York, New Jersey and Connecticut. He is a member of
the Christian Church, and has been a deacon and super-
intendent of the Sunday School for thirty years. He
is also a member of the Masonic fraternity.
Mr. Smith owns one of the most attractive homes in
Richmond, located on the Summit, and has much other
local real estate and farm property. Though in ad-
vanced years he took an active part in all the drives
during the World war. On August 10, 1854, in Madison
County, he married Elizabeth A. Parks, and they trav-
eled life's highway together for fifty-eight years, until
her death in 1912. She was a daughter of John W. and
Nancy (Snoddy) Parks, Madison county farmers. Mr.
Smith became the father of four children. Nannie is
the wife of John W. Parks, a banker at Las Vegas,
Nevada; Cynthia is the wife of Robert Burnam, cashier
of the Madison National Bank at Richmond; Minnie,
who died at the age of thirty-nine, was the wife of
William White, a druggist at Richmond; Margaret, the
youngest, died in childhood.
Claude L. Walker. Some men find their inspira-
tion in the multitudinous duties of business life, and
through extensive operations develop their natural
capabilities until they are able not only to acquire
wealth and distinction, but also to render their com-
munities a constructive service of great value. One
of the men whose strength of will and calibre of brain,
combined with indomitable ambition, have advanced
him until he is called into counsel by his associates at
Hickman, and is a recognized authority on public ques-
tions and matters relating to lumbering, real-estate and
agriculture, is Claude L. Walker, extensive land-owner
and manager of the Mengel Company.
Claude L. Walker was born at Hickman, April 20,
1869, a son of B. R. Walker, and grandson of James
P. Walker. The latter was born in Scotland, where
the name was spelled Walsum, and died in South Caro-
lina before his grandson was born. He came to South
Carolina to take possession of large grants of land he
had received from the King of England, and developed
into one of the wealthy men and large land-owners of
that colony. His father accompanied him to South
Carolina, and, renouncing the titles to which he might
have laid claim, he became a staff officer under Gen-
eral Washington during the American Revolution.
B. R. Walker was born in South Carolina in 1829,
and died at Hickman, Kentucky, in 1905. He was
reared in South Carolina, where he received his pre-
liminary educational training, but subsequently matricu-
lated at the University of Tennessee, and was gradu-
ated therefrom at the completion of his courses, and
became an attorney-at-law of considerable distinction.
About 1851 he came to Hickman and entered upon the
practice of his profession. In politics a democrat, he
was stanch in his support of party policies and candi-
dates, and was rewarded by political honors, as he
was twice elected county judge, and served as sheriff
for two terms. His record in both offices was of
such a high character that it made him known all over
his district, and he was the logical candidate of his
party for state representative and was twice re-elected
to succeed himself, and then he was further honored
by election to the State Senate. In him the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South, had one of its most earnest
and effective members and supporters. During the
war between the two sections of the country Mr.
Walker served in the Confederate army under General
Forrest and was just as good a soldier as he was a
citizen in times of peace. Among other important en-
gagements of that war he took part in the battles of
Shiloh, Lookout Mountain, Corinth and Fort Pillow.
B. R. Walker was united in marriage with Victoria
Stephens, who was born at Louisville, Kentucky, in
1838, and died at Hickman in January, 1920. Their
children were as follows: Clinton, who died young;
Hubert, who died at the age of nineteen years; Kate,
who married E. E. Reeves, lives at New Madrid, Mis-
souri, where he is engaged in a flour-milling business;
Claude L., whose name heads this review; and Men-
tor, who is not married and resides at Hickman.
Growing up at Hickman, Claude L. Walker attended
its schools and had planned to attend college, but owing
to reverses sustained by his father he was forced to
leave school when he was only seventeen years old
and go to work on a farm in order to assist in the
support of his parents. In order to meet his obliga-
tions the father was forced to sell the homestead, but
later on in life this property was bought back by
Claude L. Walker. He continued as a farmer until
he was twenty-three years old, and then branched out
and became interested in saw-milling and lumbering,
and developed these interests until May 1, 1900, when
he sold and became general manager of the Mengel
Company, one of the very largest box manufacturing
companies in the United States. The factory of the
company at Hickman is its largest plant, and employ-
ment is here given to 900 persons, all of whom are
536
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
under Mr. Walker's supervision. It was established
in 1877 and incorporated in 1899. The other factories
are one at Louisville, Kentucky ; one at Winston-
Salem, North Carolina; one at Elkhart, Indiana; two
at Saint Louis, Missouri; one at Lufkin, Texas; one
at Jersey City, New Jersey; one at Mengelwood, Ten-
nessee, and one at Rayville, Louisiana. The tropical
operations of the company are at Axim, Gold Coast,
Africa,; Central America, British Honduras, San
Domingo, and its products include mahogany logs, ma-
hogany lumber, mahogany veneer, three-ply veneer,
panels, hardwood lumber, cocoa beans, tropical prod-
ucts, packing boxes, tobacco boxes, cigar boxes, fibre
boxes, fibre containers, automobile parts and battery
boxes. The capital and surplus of the company is
$10,000,000. The officers are: C. C. Mengel, president;
A. D. Allen, vice president ; C. R. Mengel, vice presi-
dent; C. C. Mengel, Jr., vice president; S. C. Mengel,
vice president; J. W. Sliger, vice president; H. P.
Roberts, secretary; and V. H. Bryan, treasurer, and
these gentlemen, together with the following list, com-
prise the Board of Directors: C. E. Davis, S. L. Fra-
zier, T. S. Hamilton, D. C. Harris, W. L. Hoge, C. H.
Lindley, J. H. Maclay, J. H. Mahler, H. \Y. Mengel.
J. A. Moore, F. Scheicher and R. S. Sliger. The
Hickman branch is under the charge of C. L. Walker
and I. Horine, his assistant.
Mr. Walker is a democrat. He was a colonel on
Governor McCreary's staff and also on Governor Stan-
ley's staff. When President Taft visited Hickman Mr.
Walker was chairman of the Reception Committee. He
belongs to the Episcopal Church and is one of its
vestrymen. Long a member of the Hickman Board
of Trade, he is now its president. He owns a modern
residence in Southern Heights, an addition to Hickman
which Mr. Walker platted and sold. It is the leading
residential section of the city. All of the houses were
built subject to certain restrictions, and great care
has been exercised to keep out all undesirable people.
In addition Mr. Walker owns 3,600 acres of land in
Lake County, Tennessee. 8,000 acres of land in Dyer
County, Tennessee, and is interested in farming upon
an extensive scale.
In 1890 Mr. Walker was united in marriage with
Miss Inez Parker at Hickman. She is a daughter of
Sam and Lydia (Faris) Parker, who reside in South-
ern Heights, Hickman. Mr. Parker is connected with
the Mengel Company. Mr. and Mrs. Walker have
three children : H. Swayne, a sketch of whom appears
elsewhere in this work; Ruth, who was married Sep-
tember 21, 1911, to Chester L. Barnes, an operator
in logs and timber, and they live at Southern Heights;
and Ben, who is with his father in the Mengel Com-
pany.
Mr. Walker had the grit, vision and a really mar-
velous ability to overcome obstacles, or he could not
have reached his present position, starting out, as he
did, a youth without money, influential backing, or the
usual educational training, and burdened with the sup-
port of others. He is earnest and purposeful and his
presence and association act as a mental tonic, and
a bracing inspiration to those with whom he is brought
into daily contact.
Richard S. Rose, who is presiding on the bench of
the Circuit Court of the Thirty-fourth Judicial District
of Kentucky, comprising Knox, Whitley and McCreary
counties, maintains his residence at Williamsburg, the
county seat of Whitley County, and prior to his eleva-
tion to the Circuit Bench he had established well his
vantage ground as one of the representative members,
of the bar of this section of his native state.
Judge Richard Sherman Rose was born in the Wolf
Creek district of Whitley County on the 27th of June,
1873, and he is a scion of the fourth generation of the
Rose family in this section of Kentucky, with whose
history the family name has been closely identified for
more than a century. William Rose, a native of Ireland,
became the founder of the family in Southeastern Ken-
tucky. He settled in Whitley County in the very early
pioneer period, when this section was in the initial stages
of development, and as a young man of vigor and
sterling character he contributed much to civic advance-
ment and pioneer farm industry in the county, where his
marriage was solemnized and where he and his wife
passed the remainder of their lives. His was the dis-
tinction of having been a gallant young patriot soldier
in the War of the Revolution. His son, Larkin, grand-
father of Judge Rose, was born on the old homestead
farm on Big Polar Creek, Whitley County, in the year
1804, and his entire life was passed in that locality,
where he became a successful exponent of farm industry
and was influential in community affairs. He married
Miss Linda Powers, and they passed the remainder of
their lives in Whitley County, where his death occurred
in 1879, h's wife having preceded him to eternal rest by
several years. Their son, Sterling M., father of him
whose name initiates this review, was born at the head
of Big Polar Creek, Whitley County, on the nth of
May, 1844, and was there reared to adult age, the while
his educational advantages were those of the common
schools of the locality and period. After his marriage
he farmed in various sections of his native county, and
it was on his homestead farm on Little Poplar Creek
that he reared his children and continued his residence
until 1906, when he removed to his present farm near
Swan Lake, Knox County. He is a stalwart democrat,
is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, and he and his
wife are earnest members of the Baptist Church, Mrs.
Rose, whose maiden name was Clorinda Crowley, was
born on Cane Creek, Whitley County, in 1845, a repre-
sentative of another of the honored pioneer families of
this part of the Blue Grass State. Of the children the
eldest is Mary M., who is the wife of Lewis Pennett, a
iarmer on Little Poplar Creek, Whitley County; James
is associated with his father in the management of the
home farm in Knox County; Judge Richard S., of this
review, was the next in order of birth ; George M., is a
prosperous farmer on the Cumberland River near Bar-
bourville; Sarah Angeline is the wife of Silas Sears,
who is engaged in farm enterprise nine miles south of
Barbourville ; Rachel is the wife of John Adams, an-
other representative farmer of that locality ; Nannie is
the wife of G. F. Rains, who is employed as a locomotive
fireman on the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, and they
reside at Corbin, Whitley County ; William is a pro-
gressive farmer near Williamsburg, this county;
Amanda is the wife of William Rutherford, a farmer
near Swan Lake, Knox County.
Judge Richard S. Rose is indebted to the district
schools of Whitley and Knox counties for his prelim-
inary educational discipline, which was effectively sup-
plemented by his attending the well ordered private
college conducted by Prof. John T. Hays at Barbour-
ville, and by his continuing his studies through the
junior year at Williamsburg Institute. For a time he
was a student in Valparaiso University, at Valparaiso,
Indiana, and in 1898 he was graduated from the law de-
partment of Center College at Danville, Kentucky, his
reception of the degree of Bachelor of Laws having been
practically coincident with his admission to the bar of
his native state. In the same year he engaged in the
active practice of law at Barbourville, but in the fol-
lowing year he transferred his residence and profes-
sional headquarters to Williamsburg, judicial center of
his native county, where he has since maintained his
home. He developed a large and representative law
practice in Whitley and Knox counties, and to the same
he continued to give his undivided attention until his
election to the bench of the Circuit Court of the Thirty-
fourth Judicial District in November, 1917. He
assumed his official duties in January, 1918, and
in his administration has shown the true judicial
acumen which implies broad and exact knowledge
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
5:57
of law and precedent and circumspection in preserving
justice and equity, with the result that few of his de-
cisions on the bench have been appealed to courts of
higher jurisdiction. A resourceful and vigorous advo-
cate of the principles of the republican party, Judge
Rose has been influential in its councils and campaign
activities in this section of the state, and in November,
1905, he was elected representative of Knox and Whit-
ley counties in the Kentucky Legislature, in which he
served with characteristic loyalty and efficiency during
the General Assembly of 1906, as an active working mem-
ber of the House and the various committees to which
he was assigned. In 1902-3 he served as police judge at
Jellico, Whitley County, though at the time he was
residing at the county seat. The Judge is affiliated with
Williamsburg Lodge of the Knights of Pythias. He is
the owner of six residence properties at Williamsburg,
including his attractive home place on River Street, and
he is the owner also of a farm that lies partly within
the corporate limits of the same thriving little Kentucky-
city. He was influential in local war activities during
American participation in the World war, aided in all
of the drives in support of Government war bond issues,
savings stamps. Red Cross work, etc., and made his per-
sonal contributions in a financial way as great as his
resources justified. He did effective service in assisting
recruits to fill out their questionnaires and was ready
at all times to do his part in furthering all patriotic
measures and enterprises.
At Jellico, Tennessee, in 1899, was solemnized the mar-
riage of Judge Rose to Miss Lucy Rawlings, who had
been a student in Valparaiso University at the time when
he was attending that institution. She is a daughter
of LaFayette and Fannie (Kogar) Rawlings, her father
being a prosperous farmer near Burning Springs, Clay
County, Kentucky, and her mother being deceased.
Judge and Mrs. Rose have two children, Fannie, who
was born April 27, 1907, and William Lindsey who was
born September 9, 1915.
Phineas L. Skinner. Of the substantial and highly-
respected residents of Clark County who belong to the
yesterday rather than the today of this region, but who
are still remembered because of sterling qualities of
character which impressed themselves upon their asso-
ciates, one who always merited the high esteem in
which he was held was the late Phineas L. Skinner,
of the Winchester community. Mr. Skinner belonged
to the only one of the original families to remain on
their old estates between Winchester and Mount Ster-
ling, was born in the family home which stands on a
commanding rise, a commodious structure commen-
surate with the surroundings of an extensive property,
seven miles east of Winchester, on the Mount Sterling
Pike, June 6, 1846, his parents being Isaac C. and Fanny
(Lauder) Skinner.
Cornelius Skinner, the grandfather of Phineas L.,
located in Clark County prior to 1800, and during his
career as an agriculturist accumulated several thousand
acres of land, which reached for miles and included the
present Skinner farm. His home, a rock house, was in
the rear of the Besuden farm house, 2lA miles out of
Winchester, and there he spent his life. The property
which he presented to his son Isaac C, and which he
had also improved, was one mile from a mill where he
had his grinding done, but each was reached by a
different road, owing to the topography of the section.
Once, in strolling from the mill up the valley, he came
to his own property, the present Skinner farm, but
failed to recognize it, having had no idea that the farm
and mill were so close together. Of his children the
sons with the exception of Isaac C. went to Missouri,
while a daughter, Margaret M. Calmes, spent her life
in Clark County, Ohio. Isaac C. was the only one to
remain in Kentucky with the exception of a daughter
who married a Mr. Groom and inherited the old home-
stead.
Isaac C. Skinner inherited a portion of his father's
property, and added thereto until he had about 1,400
acres, but much of this has since been sold off and the
Skinner farm now consists of about 430 acres. The old
home he built before his marriage is still standing, and
in that he spent his life, dying when about seventy-five
years of age. Prior to the war between the states he
operated his property with slave labor for some years.
In addition to being a farmer he operated a flour, meal
and saw mill, which he erected by himself and which
depended upon steam power for its operation. The old
stone buhrs, hewed from the native rock, are still to
be found on the property, interesting mementos of a
by-gone period. Mr. Skinner's widow survived him
some thirty-five years and died in 1908, at the age of
eighty-seven. They were the parents of the following
children: Phineas L. ; Isaac O, who resided in Ken-
tucky until 1910, at which time he removed to the State
of Washington, where he is now a farmer and mer-
chant; Alice, who died as the wife of Thomas Summers
Buhr, of Mount Sterling ; Joseph H., educated at Dan-
ville, Kentucky, Princeton University, and in Germany,
who became a Presbyterian minister and served charges
at Paris, Texas, and Talladega, Alabama, at which
latter place his death occurred when he was thirty-six
years of age ; Doctor Cornelius, who is engaged in the
practice of medicine and surgery at Louisville ; and
Allen, a farmer, who spent some years in Texas but
eventually returned to Kentucky, where he died at the
age of thirty-six years.
Phineas L. Skinner passed his entire life on the
present Skinner farm. He received an inheritance from
his father, to which he added until he had accumulated
430 acres, all fine Blue Grass land. He devoted himself
almost exclusively to general farming, with a line of
good live stock, and his industry and good management
combined to make his efforts successful. The present
residence was erected by him in 1867. Mr. Skinner was
never a politician, although he voted the democratic
ticket, but was a substantial and constructive citizen
who suppored worthy movements in his locality. He
was a faithful member and for some years elder of the
Presbyterian Church at Union, in the vicinity of his
home. A man of sound integrity and uprightness of
character, he was a moral force in his community, and
when he died, April 27, 1910, his locality lost one who
was widely mourned.
At thirty-one years of age Mr. Skinner was united in
marriage with Miss Louisa Fishback, of Pine Grove,
Clark County, daughter of James and Mary (Femester)
Fishback. Mrs. Skinner, who survives her husband,
still resides on the old home place, which has always
been one of the noted social centers of the community
and is in a delightful location. Three children were
born to Mr. and Mrs. Skinner: James Lauder; Alice
M., who died in early womanhood ; and Matt L. The
two sons are operating the property in partnership and
have made a success of their activities in the line of
general farming. During the last four years James L.
has been a director in the Clark County Bank. Matt
L. is a prominent Mason and belongs to the Knights
Templar and the Mystic Shrine. The brothers are
members of the Presbyterian Church at Winchester.
Neither are actively interested in politics, and both are
single.
Connell R. Maddux. Properly placed among the
leading men of his calling at Bowling Green, Connell
R. Maddux is carrying on a very extensive business in
selling insurance and making loans, his natural abili-
ties fully qualifying him for this field, in which there is
so much competition. He was born at Nashville, Ten-
nessee, December 1, 1885, a son of G. A. Maddux, and
538
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
grandson of R. G. Maddux, who was born in Virginia,
where the representatives of the family had settled upon
coming to America from Ireland during the Colonial
period. Leaving Virginia as a young man, R. G. Mad-
dux became a pioneer of Putnam County, Kentucky,
and after some years spent in farming in that region
moved to Davidson County, Tennessee, where, after
again being engaged in farming, he died before the birth
of his grandson. R. G. Maddux was married to a Miss
Robertson, who was born in Virginia and died in
Davidson County, Tennessee.
G. A. Maddux was born in Tennessee in 1845, and
is now a resident of Nashville, Tennessee. He was
reared in Davidson County, Tennessee, and married in
Robertson County, that state, where he continued to
reside, becoming a very extensive farmer. With the
outbreak of the war between the two sections of the
country he enlisted in the Confederate Army, and was a
member of the First Tennessee Infantry. Serving until
the close of the war, he participated in the battles of
Murfreesboro, Lookout Mountain, Chickamauga and
other important engagements. At the close of hostili-
ties he returned to Tennessee and, locating at Nash-
ville, was a dealer in real estate for many years. In
politics he is a democrat, and served as jailor of David-
son County. For the past thirty-five years, however, he
has been special loan agent of the Northwestern Mutual
Life Insurance Company, his territory covering Ken-
tucky and Tennessee. The Baptist Church holds his
membership, and he is a very strong churchman. A
zealous Mason, he has been raised in his order, and he
also belongs to the Odd Fellows, Elks and Red Men.
G. A. Maddux married Elizabeth Connell, who was
born in Robertson County, Tennessee, in 1847, and died
at Nashville, Tennessee, in 1918. Their children were
as follows : Gus W., who was a contractor for con-
crete construction work, building the bridge across the
Cumberland River at Nashville, the Galloway Memorial
Hospital, the New Tennesse State Normal School at
Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and other important build-
ings, died at Nashville when only thirty-four years old;
Connell R., who was the second in order of birth;
William R., who is a real-estate broker, lives at Nash-
ville, Tennessee; Frank G., who is a real-estate broker
of Nashville.
Connell R. Maddux attended the public schools of
Nashville, and was graduated from the Montgomery
Bell Academy of that city in 1909, following which he
became a student of Vanderbilt University during 1904.
He then entered the general insurance business at Nash-
ville, and remained in it for two years. Going to
Denver, Colorado, in 1906, he was a reporter on the
Denver Post, the Rocky Mountain News and the Denver
Times, spending two years in visiting western states,
but only worked when he felt like doing so, as he was
on a protracted wedding trip. Returning to Tennessee,
he established himself at Memphis as an insurance
broker, but left that city in May, 1910, and came to
Bowling Green and opened his present insurance and
loan business. Under Mr. Maddux are four general
agents and eighty-six sub-agents, and his business has
grown to be the leading one of its kind in Kentucky
and the South. He covers the entire states of Kentucky
and Tennessee and parts of Ohio and Indiana. He
occupies a suite of six rooms in the Cook Building,
giving employment to five people in his own office, and
he maintains a branch office at Paducah, where three
people are employed. Mr. Maddux is also extensively
interested in the oil business in Warren and surrounding
counties, and is president of the Croix Oil Company.
He is also president of the Trutona Medicine Company
of Louisville, president of the Kentucky Mortgage and
Securities Company of Bowling Green, and is a stock-
holder and director in several other business concerns.
In addition to owning his modern residence at 1225
State Street, which is one of the prettiest and most
desirable ones in the city, Mr. Maddux also owns two
farms in Warren County, one of 275 acres and the
other of fifty-five acres of very desirable land, and a
1,027-acre farm in Barren County. He is also the owner
of a considerable amount of real estate in Nashville.
Politically he is a democrat, in religious belief he is a
Baptist, and is a strong supporter of the church, while
his fraternal affiliations are those he maintains with
Bowling Green Lodge No. 320, B. P. O. E. He is
also a member of the Lions Club of Bowling Green, the
Bowling Green Country Club, the Audubon Country
Club of Louisville, and the Louisville Automobile Club.
During the late war he took an active part in local
work, assisting in all of the drives and buying bonds
and stamps and contributing to all of the war organiza-
tions to the full extent of his ability.
On July 17, 1906, Mr. Maddux married at Decatur,
Alabama, Miss Ella Wicks, a daughter of Mr. and
Mrs. John Wicks, the latter of whom is deceased.
Mr. Wicks is an extensive tobacco buyer of Hopkins-
ville, Kentucky. Mr. and Mrs. Maddux have no chil-
dren. Having made insurance his life study, Mr.
Maddux is fully qualified to give expert advice with
reference to it, and he is also recognized as a sagacious
advisor in making investments and securing loans. In
a business like his personality is a valuable asset, and
those who go to Mr. Maddux feel convinced that the
man back of all of the operations is one to be implicitly
trusted and his advice taken and acted upon.
James Andrew Bybee. Though his life was largely
devoted to his business as. a farmer, land owner and
trader, James Andrew Bybee will long be remembered
as one of the constructive factors in the affairs of Clark
County. He never held any public office, but was deeply
interested in improvements, particularly of a physical
nature, affecting the welfare and progress of his com-
munity. One conspicuous example of this was the Bybee
Pike, one of the fine highways of Clark County and prop-
erly named for him, since he took the lead in having it
built and as a large land owner did much to pay for the
construction.
Mr. Bybee was one of a large and influential family
of that name in Clark County. He was born December
6, 1840, and died November 9, 1915. He was born on the
farm which he still owned at the time of his death. His
parents were James and Jencey (Adams) Bybee, and the
grandfather was also named James, whose old home was
on Four Mile Creek, two miles from the Kentucky River,
and that farm is still retained in the family, being the
property of Mrs. J. K. Allen, the only surviving child
of the late James Andrew Bybee. The father of James
A. Bybee spent all his married life on the farm where
his son was born, but during the last six years he lived
retired at Winchester, where he died at the age of
eighty-three. His wife, Jencey, was reared in Madison
County, Kentucky, and died at the age of seventy- four
at her country home where she had lived all her married
life. They were the parents of three sons: William,
who as a young man moved out to Oregon ; Colby, who
lived at Mount Sterling until his death; and James A.
The daughters were: Frank, who married Jeff Quisen-
berry and died in Clark County; Mary, who died young
as the wife of Shelton Quisenberry ; Minerva, who mar-
ried Frank Emerson and spent her married life in Illi-
nois ; and Emma, who lives in Texas and is the only
surviver, being the wife of Stephen Clinkonbeard.
James Andrew Bybee at the age of twenty-five mar-
ried Rebecca Hodgkin, a member of the prominent Hodg-
kin family of Clark County and daughter of Phillip B.
and Sally A. (Hampton) Hodgkin. Further reference to
the Hodgkin family is made elsewhere in this publication.
Rebecca Hodgkin was only sixteen years of age at the
time of her marriage. She was born and reared on a
farm five miles south of Winchester, on the Bybee Pike.
That fine farm was the scene of her married life and is
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
539
still owned by her daughter, Mrs. Allen. She grew up
on that farm and her parents were both deceased when
she married. She was one of five children. Mr. and
Mrs. Bybee moved to the Hodgkin homestead at the time
of their marriage. This farm contained 300 acres. Mrs.
Bybee died December 16, 1919, having spent her last
days with her daughter. The late Mr. Bybee was a man
of great energy and ambition, and even to the last was
active in farming and handling his business affairs with
a view to greater extension of his properties. Besides
the 300 acre Hodgkin homestead he also bought the lands
formerly owned by his father and grandfather, and in
time had about 900 acres, constituting almost a single
tract. Besides the supervision and operation of the farms
he was an extensive mule trader, and his operations cov-
ered an extensive territory in the South for many years.
For a number of years he was in this business in asso-
ciation with his brother-in-law, Sam P. Hodgkin, whose
home is on Colby Pike in Clark County. Mr. Bybee was
not only public spirited in behalf of measures affecting
the improvement of the locality in such matters as good
roads, but was also liberal in practical charities, and did
a great deal for the poor and unfortunate. He was al-
ways deeply interested in his employes, and has the fac-
ulty of retaining their services year in and year out.
One of them remained with him for thirty-five years.
Mr. and Mrs. Bybee had two daughters. The daughter
Alice died at the age of twenty-nine at Milledgeville,
Georgia. She was the wife of L. C. Hall, but left no
children. The only survivor is Cora, Mrs. J. K. Allen.
She still retains all the extensive farm lands above
described, and these farms are operated by Mr. Allen and
her only son, James Bybee Allen, now a capable young
man of twenty-three. He was well educated in high
school and business college. Mrs. Allen also has a
daughter, Nancy Rebecca, a student in high school. J.
K. Allen for about thirty years was an active hardware
merchant at Winchester, but for the last six or seven
years practically all his time and energies have been de-
voted to the management of the extensive Bybee estate.
Toy F. Hinton, county court clerk of Allen County,
vice president and bank director, is one of the most
substantial young men of Scottsville, and one who is
justly popular all over the county. His family is one of
the oldest in Allen County, having been founded here
by his great-grandfather, a native of Virginia, who was
a pioneer farmer of this region and a man of high re-
pute. His son, Fletcher Hinton, the grandfather of T.
F. Hinton, was born in Allen County, and died here
prior to the birth of his grandson. He married a Miss
Walker, who was born and died in Allen County, and be-
came a prosperous farmer.
William F. Hinton, son of Fletcher Hinton and father
of T. F. Hinton, was also born in Allen County, in 1845,
and died in the same county, at the village of Petroleum,
in 1919. With the exception of his period of military
service in the Union Army as a member of the Fifty-
second Kentucky Volunteer Infantry, which covered the
last two years of the war between the North and the
South, his entire life was spent in Allen County, and his
efforts were exerted along agricultural channels, he be-
coming one of the largest farmers of this neighborhood.
A firm believer in the principles of the republican party,
he gave them an unqualified support. He was equally
zealous in behalf of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South, of which he was long a member. William F.
Hinton married Miss Sallie Ferguson, who was born in
Simpson County, Kentucky, in 1843, and died in Allen
County in 1906. Their children were as follows: Effie,
who married J. L. C. Mayhew, a farmer of Allen County ;
William Edgar, who is a farmer of Allen County; Em-
mett, W., who is a farmer of Allen County ; Roy P., who
is a merchant of Petroleum, Allen County; Bettie B.,
who is not married and resides in Allen County; Toy
F., who was born near Chapel Hill, Allen County, No-
vember 1, 1885 ; and Julius, who died at the age of six
years.
Toy F. Hinton attended the rural scholls of Allen
County, the Allen County High School at Scottsville
and the Western Kentucky State Normal School at
Bowling Green, leaving this last named institution in
191 1. In the fall of that year he was elected county
court clerk to fill an unexpired term, and in November,
1913, was elected to a full term and re-elected to the
same office in November, 1917. His offices are in the
Court House. Politically he is a republican. Fratern-
ally he belongs to Graham Lodge No. 208, A. F. and
A. M. ; Scottsville Chapter No. 171, R. A. M. ; Bowling
Green Commandery No. 23, K. T. ; Kosair Temple,
A. A. O. N. M. S., of Louisville; Half Way Lodge,
I. O. O. F., of Half Way, Allen County; Chapel Hill
Camp, M. W. A., of Chapel Hill, Allen County; and
Half Way Lodge, K. of P. Within recent years he has
become associated with the Allen County National Bank,
and is now serving it as vice president and member of
its Board of Directors. He has also invested in the oil
fields of Allen County, and is interested in their devel-
opment, possessing great faith in their possibilities. As
a stockholder and secretary of the Scottsville Hotel Com-
pany Mr. Hinton is connected with the commercial inter-
ests of his home city, and he owns stock in several busi-
ness buildings of Scottsville. He has also invested in
farming land, and owns 200 acres nine miles west of
Scottsville and 400 acres four miles east of Scottsville.
When Allen County took up the work of raising money
to carry on the war Mr. Hinton was found to be one of
the enthusiastic helpers, and he not only exerted him-
self to secure subscriptions from others, but was one of
the best of his own contributors, buying bonds and
stamps to the full extent of his means, while his dona-
tions to all causes were exceedingly liberal. Mr. Hinton
is not married.
Fred Keune, Sr. There are some remedies on the
market which are so efficacious as to require no special
advertising, as their merits speak for themselves. The
Compound Vitelli Company, of Bowling Green, of
which Fred Keune, Sr., is the manager, is manufactur-
ing a compound for use in cases of tuberculosis.
Fred Keune, Sr., was born at Frankfort, Kentucky,
June 3, 1859, a son of Fred Keune, who was born
in Munster, Germany, in 1825, and died at Frankfort
in 1870. He was reared and educated in Germany,
but came to the United States when a young man and,
locating at Frankfort, spent the remainder of his life
in that city, becoming one of the leading bakers and
confectioners. He was a democrat, and the Catholic
Church had in him a zealous member. Before he im-
migrated he had served the obligatory military service
time required in his native land. He married Frederika
Brehme, who was born in Berlin, Germany, in 1830,
and died at St. Louis, Missouri, in 1905. Their chil-
dren were as follows: Fred, who was the eldest; Theo-
dore, who was a grocer, died at Saint Louis, Missouri ;
Louise, who is not married, resides at Saint Louis ;
and Henry, who was a grocer, died in that city.
Fred Keune, Sr., attended the parochial and public
schools of Frankfort, Kentucky, until he was thirteen
years old, and then came to Bowling Green and for
a year was employed in a bakery. For another year
he worked in the woolen mills here. Leaving Bowling
Green, he went into the Louisville & Nashville Rail-
road shops and served an apprenticeship of six years
as a machinist, following which he went to Marshall,
Texas, and for two years worked as a machinist in the
employ of the Texas & Pacific Railroad Company.
In 1882 he returned to Bowling Green and embarked in
a mercantile business, which he conducted until 1918
and then sold. Having acquired an interest in the
Compound Vitelli Company, he became its manager
and now devotes himself to its affairs. This remedy
540
HISTORY ( IF KENTUCKY
is regarded as the best in the world for tuberculosis.
The company is incorporated for $25,000 under the
laws of Kentucky, and its officials are : George T.
Massey, president; Roy Hogan, vice president; Fred
Keune, Sr., manager and secretary ; and W. H. Rabold,
treasurer.
Mr. Keune is a democrat politically, a Catholic in
religious faith and fraternally he belongs to Bowling
Green Council No. 1315, Knights of Columbus, in which
he has been made a third degree knight, and to the
Catholic Knights. During the late war he responded
genei'fcusly and loyally and participated in all of the
war activities, assisting in all of the drives, buying
bonds and stamps and contributing to all of the or-
ganizations.
In 1883 Mr. Keune married at Bowling Green Miss
Mary A. Burke, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John
Burke, both of whom are now deceased. Mr. Burke
was at one time the owner of a cafe. Mrs. Keune
graduated from Loretti Academy of Madison County.
Kentucky. Mr. and Mrs. Keune have one son, Fred
Keune, Jr., who is a merchant of Bowling Green.
Mr. Keune's maternal grandfather, a Mr. Brehme,
was born in Berlin, Germany, and died in Bowling
Green, Kentucky. He brought his family to the United
States in 1846, and for a number of years was a farmer
of La Grange, Kentucky, but after he retired from
his farm he spent some time at Frankfort, and then
settled permanently at Bowling Green, where his last
days were spent in plenty and comfort. On both sides
of the family Mr. Keune comes of German stock, of
the best kind. His people belonged to the class which
gave to America Carl Schurz and some of the most
reliable and hard-working citizens of their period. The
descendants of these German settlers of the middle
'40s and early '50s are today the best and most loyal
people of the United States. Mr. Keune is a fine busi-
ness man, has made a success in his several undertak-
ings, and at the same time has firmly established him-
self in public esteem.
C. H. Sandusky. The exacting conditions of twen-
tieth century progression have resulted in specializa-
tion in every line of industrial and constructive activ-
ity. Men of marked ability have proved beyond ques-
tion, by experiment and consecutive action, that the
best and most productive results are produced by single-
hearted devotion to some particular line. The reason
for this is palpably evident. With so many competitors
it is impossible for a man to become an expert in all
lines, and therefore those who aim for the heights take
the logical methods of reaching their goal. C. H.
Sandusky, of Columbia, long ago realized the truth of
the statement that he who dissipates his energies in all
directions reaches no definite destination, and since the
outset of his career has devoted himself to the manu-
facture and handling of lumber.
Mr. Sandusky was born on a farm two miles south-
west of Glens Fork in Adair County, Kentucky, Jan-
uary 19, 1875. a son of S. L. and Joanna (Wilkinson)
Sandusky. His great-grandfather, Anthony Sandusky,
was born in Virginia, and became a pioneer of Clinton
County, Kentucky, where he went after his marriage
and where the rest of his life was passed as a carpenter
and builder. His son, Samuel Sandusky, the grand-
father of C. H., was born October 1, 1812, in Clinton
County, and early in life adopted the vocation of farm-
ing, which he followed in his native locality until
1870, in that year removing to Adair County. There
he secured a farm near Glens Fork, on which he con-
tinued operations until his death, September 15, 1900.
He was a man of industry who utilized good manage-
ment in the handling of his property and the transac-
tion of his business, and as a result accumulated a
modest fortune and was considered one of the well-to-
do men of his day and locality. He was not desirous
of public life, but was contented to devote himself en-
tirely to his farming interests. Mr. Sandusky married
Polly Bates, who was born in 1809 in Wayne County,
Kentucky, and died in Adair County in 1893.
S. L. Sandusky, who is now a retired resident of
( olumbia, was born April 7, 1848, in Clinton County,
where he was reared and educated, and as a young
man just past his majority accompanied his parents
to Adair County in 1870. For three years thereafter
he was associated in agricultural work with his father,
but in 1873 came to the farm upon which his son,
C. H., was born, and there engaged in successful oper-
ations until his retirement in 1919. Like his father,
he has been a man of industry and good judgment, who
has been able to make his labors pay him well, and
who, in the transaction of business, has always used
such honorable methods as to gain him the confidence
and good will of those with whom he has been asso-
ciated. Mr. Sandusky is a republican in his political
views. He married Miss Joanna Wilkinson, who was
born November 26, 1856, in Adair County, Kentucky,
and to this union there were born the following chil-
dren : C. H. ; Victoria, the wife of Vernon Taylor, a
painter and decorator near Greenwood, Indiana; John
M., the owner and operator of a flour mill at Har-
rodsburg, Kentucky ; Eva, residing on her farm near
Glens Fork, Adair County, the widow of Joel Wil-
kinson, who was a farmer there ; Thomas Franklin, of
Harrodsburg, where he is a partner of his brothers,
John M. and Joe, in the ownership of a flour mill;
Nora, the wife of Will Powell, a farmer near Glens
Fork, Kentucky; Annie, the wife of Nathan B. Kel-
sey, a merchant of Columbia; Joe, of Harrodsburg, a
partner of his brothers, John M. and Thomas Franklin,
in the ownership of a flour mill; William H., who is
engaged in the lumber business at Columbia ; and Fan-
nie, the wife of Ed Lawhorn.
C. H. Sandusky received his education in the rural
schools in the vicinity of Glens Fork, and was reared
on the home farm, on which he remained until reach-
ing the age of nineteen years. At that time he entered
a planing mill and furniture factory at Columbia, in
the employ of which he remained for three years, his
next position being with Hurt Brothers, the proprietors
of a planing mill. After one year's experience in this
latter connection, and in partnership with his three
brothers, William, Thomas Franklin and Joe, he es-
tablished a planing mill at Columbia, which they oper-
ated until 1918. At that time, feeling that there was
greater profit to be derived if the business was singly
owned, C. H. Sandusky purchased the interests of his
brothers, and since that time has conducted it as the
sole owner and operator, this being the leading business
of its kind in Adair County. Mr. Sandusky manufac-
tures building materials of all kinds and his plant and
offices are situated near Russell's Creek, at the north-
east edge of Columbia, where he has the most modern
equipment known to the trade. He has built up a
large and thriving business in his line through able
management, initiative and resource, and his standing
is an excellent one in business circles, where his name
is synonymous with integrity and honorable dealing.
He is the owner of a pleasant and attractive home on
the Campbellsville Pike, in addition to three other
dwellings in Columbia. A republican in politics, he
has taken a good citizen's interest in public affairs and
at one time served as a member of the Board of Town
Trustees of Columbia. His religious connection is
with the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Frater-
nally Mr. Sandusky is affiliated with Columbia Lodge
No. 96, F. and A. M., and the Independent Order of
Odd Fellows, in both of which he has numerous friends,
as he has also in business life.
On February 5, 1902, Mr. Sandusky was united in
marriage in Adair County with Miss Maude Sutton, a
daughter of Charles and Catherine (Chaney) Sutton,
residents of Columbia. For a number of years Mr.
. Sutton was engaged in agricultural pursuits in Adair
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
541
County, but at this time is living in retirement, enjoy-
ing the fruit of his early labors. Three children have
been born to Mr. and Mrs. Sandusky : Sam, who died
at the age of eighteen months ; Henry, born August 3,
1906, and attending school ; and Effie, born May 17,
1910, also a pupil at school.
Robert Lake Dudley. With every movement con-
stituting a factor in the progressive development of
Fleming County since pioneer times, members of the
Dudley family have been actively and public-spiritedly
identified. Robert Lake Dudley, of this family, was
associated with his father in the management and oper-
ation of the railroad that gave Fleming County an
outlet to markets and to the general railroad system
of Kentucky, and for a number of years has been gen-
eral manager of the road known as the Flemingsburg
& Northern Railroad Company. Mr. Dudley is also
president of the Peoples Bank of Flemingsburg.
He was born in Fleming County August 13, 1875.
His father is Newton S. Dudley, who was born in
Fleming County in 1840, son of James H. Dudley, who
was born while the Dudley family was coming over
the mountains from Virginia to Kentucky. James H.
Dudley spent all his life in Fleming County, where he
was an extensive land owner. Newton S. Dudley was
a Union soldier, a captain in the Sixteenth Kentucky
•Infantry, and for half a century has been one of the
county's most prominent men. He was the builder of
the railroad which at first was planned as a line con-
necting Cincinanti and Cumberland Gap. A company
of Fleming County people was organized in 1872, and
in 1875 the line of rails had been completed from
Flemingsburg north to a connection with the Louisville
& Nashville at Flemingsburg Junction. For a num-
ber of years this was a narrow gauge road, but was
made a standard gauge in 1908. The Flemingsburg
& Northern owns its own equipment of rolling stock
and is one of the recognized short line railroads of the
United States. Newton S. Dudley continued in charge
of its operations until 1905, when the company's affairs
were reorganized and he was succeeded by his son,
Robert L., who had begun his work with the railroad
when a boy. This road now has eighteen employees,
runs four round trips daily, and has been operated at
a financial profit.
Newton S. Dudley married Belle Stockwell, of Flem-
ing County, who died forty years later, in 1905.
Robert Lake Dudley was educated in local schools
and graduated from Center College at Danville in
1896. In the meantime he had learned telegraphy at
the age of twelve, and was a practical railroad man
before he completed his college education.
Besides having the active management of the rail-
road he is president of one of Fleming County's most
prosperous banking institutions, the Peoples Bank, and
is also president of the Flemingsburg Milling Com-
pany, a merchant milling concern. Mr. Dudley is a
republican, but has never been in politics for the sake
of office. He served in the City Council as one of the
progressive leaders in the successful fight made against
strenuous opposition to give Flemingsburg modern
municipal improvements, including electric light, paving
and sewerage.
Mr. Dudley married Katherine Monroe, daughter of
Capt. W. W. Monroe, of Lexington. Her father was
a captain in the Confederate army under General Mor-
gan and was captured with Morgan's forces in Mon-
roe and held in a Northern prison until the close of
the war. Mrs. Dudley is a graduate of Sayre College
of Lexington. They have two children, Winder
Thomas and Katherine.
E. O. Jackson is one of the partners in ownership
and the active manager of Pine Park Place, one of
Kentucky's great livestock breeding farms and has been
so for more than thirty years. It is located in Shelby
County, four miles southeast of Eminence and eight
miles north of Shelbyville. W. H. Curtis was the
founder of the industry that gave prominence to the
farm, that of breeding Hereford stock. For years he
was one of the largest breeders of Herefords in Amer-
ica, the head of his herd being Old Beau-Donald,
which had a world reputation. He was the first man
in Kentucky to pay $1,000 for a bull. The business
continued under his active supervision until 1917, when
he took his main herd to Shepard, Alberta, Canada.
Out of his foundation stock were established several
herds, and he supplied bulls by the carload for live-
stock men in all the western states.
Pine Park Place was sold in 1917 to the firm of
Speith, Phelps & Jackson, who continue it as a breed-
ing center for Herefords and also have featured to
some extent thoroughbred horses. The farm comprises
330 acres, and in 1918 was built a large, commodious
home, standing well back from the pike on an elevation
and one of the most attractive country places in the
Blue Grass region. The present owners began their
breeding with a herd of twelve cows, for which they
paid $3,500 in 1917. Their herd now comprises sixty-
nine head, and the head of the herd is Jack Woodford
the 18th, who was a grand champion two-year-old in
1920. Their surplus stock is all sold to breeders at
prices ranging from $250 to $7,000, and in one sale
of twenty-four head the average price paid was $354.
The active responsibility of management devolves
upon E. O. Jackson, who was born in Henry County
May 9, 1885, son of B. F. and Sally (Corbin) Jackson.
His father, still living on his farm in Henry County,
was formerly widely known as a breeder of Jacks and
owns a grand champion of his class. Mr. Jackson's
mother, who died at Easter in 1921, achieved more than
a local reputation as a chicken fancier, and her poultry
won honors in many shows and expositions in and
outside the state.
E. O. Jackson grew up on the home farm, acquired
a good preparatory education. He is a member of the
Elks Lodge. In 1913 he married Aph Pryor Phelps,
daughter of Laban Phelps, of Louisville. Mrs. Jackson
was reared in Louisville. She is a granddaughter of
Judge William S. Pryor, the distinguished Kentucky
lawyer and judge, whose home was at New Castle.
Mr. and Mrs. Jackson have two children, Laban Phelps
and Laura Pryor.
Bailey P. Wootton. The law is known as a stern
mistress, demanding of her devotees constant and un-
remitting attention, and leading her followers through
many mazes and intricacies before she grants them
success at her hands. This incessant devotion fre-
quently precludes the idea of the busy and successful
lawyer indulging in activities outside of the imme-
diate path of his profession, especially if his vocational
duties are of a large and important nature. But there
are men who find the time and the inclination to devote
to outside interests, and who by the very reason of
their ability in the law are peculiarly and particularly
fitted to perform capable service therein. Bailey P.
Wootton, of Hazard, president of the Hazard Bar
Association, has for a long period been known as a
close devotee of the law. A master of its perplexities
and complexities, his activities have been directed
incessantly to the demands of his calling. Yet he has
found the leisure to discharge in a highly efficient
manner the duties pertaining to the conduct of the
Hazard Bank and Trust Company, of which he is
president, the establishment of telephone companies
and other refining influences of civilization, the con-
duct of a newspaper, and the performance _ of the
responsibilities dictated by a high ideal of citizenship,
and he is, therefore, probably known in other fields
as well as he is as a thorough, profound and learned
legist.
Mr. Wootton was born on a farm in Muhlenberg
542
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
County, Kentucky, May _>o, 1S70, a sun of J. E!i and
Sarah Jane (Taylor) Wootton. His grandfather was
Joshua Wootton, a miller and distiller of Tennessee.
J. Eli Wootton was born in what was then Trousdale
(now Sumner) County, Tennessee, in 1836, and in
1854 accompanied the family to the Rhoads farm in
Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, whence two years later
they moved to the farm on which Bailey P. Wootton
was born. J. Eli Wootton was a farmer in ordinary
circumstances, and was an outspoken democrat in his
political views. When the issues between the South
and the North resulted in the outbreak of the war
between the states, he unhesitatingly cast his lot with
the Union and was active in the organization of a
company in the Eleventh Regiment, Kentucky Volun-
teer Infantry, in which he became sergeant, and which
was recruited at Rochester. He served bravely and
faithfully under Crittenden and Sherman, but during
the latter part of the war became very ill, and after
a long confinement in the hospital at Nashville was
honorably discharged because of total disability. He
then returned to his home farm and continued his
agricultural operations until his death, which occurred
in August, 1903, when he was sixty-seven years of age.
Mr. Wootton married Sarah Jane Taylor, who was
born in August, 1845, in Ohio County, Kentucky, a
daughter of Harvey Taylor, and a member of a family
which came to Kentucky from Virginia. Mrs. Woot-
ton, who is a devout member of the Christian Church,
survives her husband as a resident of Central City,
Muhlenberg County, near the old home place which
is now the possession of her son, Bailey P. There
were three sons in the family : Theodore A., the
proprietor of a photographic studio at Martin, Ten-
nessee; Finis A., a teacher who was preparing for the
law when he died at the age of twenty-three year- :
and Bailey P.
Bailey P. Wootton, realizing the value of an educa-
tion, determined that he would secure this desirable
asset in his youth, and as the family finances did not
seem sufficient to enable him to attain his object he
set about getting finances of his own. In various ways
he made money. When only a lad he edited a small
paper at Rochester, later was editor of a paper estab-
lished at Paducah in the Panhandle of Texas to boost
the new country there, and in his vacation periods
taught those who were less learned than himself. In
tfrs way he managed to work his way through the
public schools of Muhlenberg County, Rochester Sem-
inarv and Lebanon University, from the last-named' of
which he graduated in 1800, "with the degree of Bach-
elor of Arts after a course in civil engineering. For
three years thereafter he continued to teach in Muhlen-
berg County, and it was as a teacher that he came to
Hazard in 1893. The nearest railroad at that time
was forty miles distant, but Mr. Wootton, with the
foresight that lias ever characterized his activities,
saw the future of the community and was content to
cast his lot among those who would grow with the
community and share in its prosperity. In 1894 he
was made principal of the school, and through his
efforts a second story was added to the one-story,
one-room schoolhouse and numerous other improve-
ments were made. He remained as principal for four
rears, or until his activities in other fields necessitated
his giving up teaching. Ever since then he has been
one of the foremost promoters of education here, and
through his efforts much has been accomplished in
putting the cause of learning upon its present high ped-
estal. Many of the successful men of the valley
today boast that Mr. Wootton was their instructor.
While acting as principal of the little schoolhouse
Mr. Wootton had applied himself to the study of law.
and in 7807 was admitted to the bar. Shortly there-
after he became convinced that he needed further
instruction in his chosen calling, and in 1S08 he grad-
uated in law from Southern University at Huntington.
Returning to Hazard, he began the practice of his
calling, and soon had an extensive legal practice, which
has grown to large proportions with the passing of
the years. He was counsel for the old L. & E. Ra;l-
road from 1906 to 1911, and from 1911 to 1920 for the
Louisville & Nashville. Likewise he represented many
of the leading coal companies, writing their charters
and acting as their counsel in court procedure, and his
practice today is one of the largest and most impor-
tant in Perry Count}-. The esteem in which he is held
by his fellow-practitioners is shown in the fact that he
is president of the Hazard Bar Association.
In 1903 Mr. Wootton began the organization of the
first financial institution at this point, the Bank of
Hazard, which in 1906 became the First National Bank,
of which he was a director and president at one time.
In 1917 he founded the Hazard Bank and Trust Com-
pany, a strong institution which has an excellent repu-
tation in banking circles and the full confidence of
the public, of which he is president. Mr. Wootton was
likewise a pioneer in the telephone field in this region.
In 1900 he was the organizer of the Jackson and Haz-
ard Telephone Company, the first line of its kind
here, and two years later organized the Big Leather-
wood Telephone Company. He was instrumental also
in building the first light and water plant, which later
became the Kentucky and West Virginia Power Com-
pany. He is still proprietor of the Hazard Herald, .
which was established in 1009.
A stalwart democrat in his political allegiance, Mr.
Wootton was chairman of the County Democratic
Committee for a period of twelve years, and is now
State Democratic Executive Committeeman from the
Tenth District. He was appointed a delegate from
Kentucky in 1915 by Governor James B. McCreary to
the Southern Agricultural Congress ; was commissioned
a colonel upon the Governor's staff by Governor A. O.
Stanley in 1916; and was delegate from the Tenth Dis-
trict of Kentucky to the Democratic Convention in
Saint Louis in 1916 which nominated Woodrow Wil-
son. As a fraternalist he belongs to Hazard Lodge,
F. and A. M., of which he is a past master; Phoenix
Chapter, R. A. M., of Phoenix, Arizona, where he
spent the winters of 1916-17; Winchester Com-
mandery, K. T. ; and the Mystic Shrine at Lexing-
ton. He also belongs to Hazard Lodge of the Knights
of Pythias. With all his success Mr. Wootton is un-
assuming in character. He has ever been a loyal
friend, and those with whom he struggled side by
side in the early days will always find him ready to
give an assisting hand when it is needed.
Mr. Wootton married in 1902 Miss Rebecca Boggs.
who was born October 17, 1880, in Knott County,
Kentucky, (laughter of J. C. Boggs, who is now a
merchant at Chandler, Oklahoma. Mrs. Wootton died
April 6, 1914, after having been the mother of three
children : Thomas P., who graduated from the Ken-
tucky Military Institute in 1921 and is now attending
the University of New Mexico; Sarah, who died at
the age of three years; and Anita, wdto was one year
old at the time of her death. In November, 1916. Mr.
Wootton was united in marriage with Miss tiara ( ol-
lins, daughter of Albert Collins, of Bourbon County,
Kentucky, and they have two children : Kittie and
Alice. Mrs. Wootton is a member of the Christian
( hurch and takes an active part in social affairs at
Hazard.
Leck Martin. Some of the richest mineral land in
Eastern Kentucky is in the Beaver Creek Valley. Long
lie tore the development of the mineral resources was
thought of a member of the Martin family came into
this valley and acquired immense tracts of land up
and down, part of which is still owned by his descend-
ants while much of it is devoted to the production of
coal by various companies.
A grandson of the original settler here i^ Leek Mar-
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
543
tin, a well known business man at Garrett on Beaver
Creek. He was born on a farm now partly covered
by the town of Wayland, July 8, 1875, and his father,
Adam Martin, was born in the same place, son of
John and Anna Martin. John Martin was a native of
Virginia and died on Beaver Creek at the age of eighty.
At one time he owned land stretching seven miles along
Beaver Creek, extending from the present location of
Lackey upstream. Many coal mines have been estab-
lished and worked out on the Martin lands. The
Martin holdings were also rich in timber resources.
Adam Martin, who died in 10x14, at the age of sixty-
one, married Emeline Martin, a native of Knott County,
Kentucky. They were the parents of five children : Jim
Buck, a farmer living in Lewis County ; Julia ; Ella,
wife of William Estep, of Garrett; Thomas, who died
at the age of fifteen; and Leek.
Leek Martin finished his education in the Prestons-
burg Normal School and at the age of twenty-one be-
gan farming on the old homestead. He has cultivated
several crops of corn on the present site of Wayland.
Mr. Martin has had his home in Garrett since 1901,
and for a number of years he was a merchant, and he
still operates a grist mill, using gas from a well on
his own land for motive power. He is one of the
substantial residents of that community, helpful in all
community affairs, and votes as a democrat.
In 1901 he married Miss Kate Estep, daughter of
Nathaniel Estep, who was born in Johnson County,
Tennessee, seventy-eight years ago, formerly lived in
Scott County, Virginia, and served four years in the
Confederate Army in the Twenty-fifth Virginia Cav-
alry. He was exposed to the danger of many battles,
including Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain and Mis-
sionary Ridge. He moved into the Beaver Valley in
1884, and the Goodin and Barney Mine is located on
his land. Mr. and Mrs. Martin have five children,
named Lida, Stella, William Hite, Georgia Shannon
and Mary Emma.
Charles Lee Venable, M. D. For over thirty years
Doctor Venable discharged his tasks and responsibilities
as a physician and surgeon in Kentucky, and the greater
part of the time in Simpson County and the City of
Franklin. Doctor Venable was an officer in the Medical
Corps during the World war, on duty in the home camp
and in France for about two years.
He was born in Warren County, Kentucky. January
25, 1867. His grandfather was James Venable, a native
of Inverness, Scotland, and of French Huguenot stock.
He came to America, settled in Virginia and died at
Petersburg in that state. Joseph Venable, father of
Doctor Venable, was born at Petersburg, Virginia, in
1801, Doctor Venable being the youngest of his nine
children by two marriages. Joseph Venable grew up
in his native town in Virginia, as a young man came to
Allen County, Kentucky, where he was a farmer, mer-
chant and trader, and about 1856 moved to a farm in
Warren County, where he lived until his death in Octo-
ber, 1866. He was an active democrat and for a number
of years was a deputy sheriff in Allen County. He
gave his active support to the Baptist Church and was
a member of the Masonic fraternity. In Allen County
he married Miss Lucinda Pulliam, who died there, the
mother of five children, James and William, both de-
ceased; Richard, a farmer at Woodburn, Kentucky;
Mary, wife of James Potter, a farmer at Woodburn;
'and Alice, wife of J. W. Robb, a druggist at Woodburn.
After removing to Warren County Joseph Venable
married Mrs. Rebecca (Bryant) Ennis, who was born
in Logan County in i8;6 and died in Warren County
in 1894. She was the mother of four children : Eli
Bryant, now a retired merchant at Silver City, New
Mexico, and former county court clerk of Grant
County, New Mexico ; Joseph L., a druggist at Scotts-
ville, Kentucky ; Calvin D., a retired farmer at Bowling
Green ; and Charles Lee.
Charles Lee Venable was born about three months
after the death of his father, and was left with his
widowed mother on a farm in Warren County, where
he attended rural schools. He also attended a private
school conducted by Prof. B. F. Rogers at Richmond,
Kentucky. For two years he was a student in the
Central Normal College at Danville, Indiana, and be-
gan the study of medicine in the University of Virginia
at Charlottesville, where he received his M. D. degree.
He was there during 1885-86 and then entered the
medical department of the University of Tennesse, at
Memphis. He did post-graduate work, specializing in
internal medicine at Rush Medical College at Chicago
in 1894. Doctor Venable began practice in Warren
County in 1887, but a few months later moved to
Kansas City, Missouri. In 1889 he returned to War-
ren County, practiced there two years, and in 1891
moved to Simpson County, and his professional work-
was done in this section of Kentucky until his death
February 21, 1921, a period of thirty years. From
1910 his home and offices were in Franklin. Doctor
Venable was a member of the Simpson County, State
and American Medical associations, the Southern Med-
ical Association and the Army and Navy Medical
Society.
In May, 1917, he volunteered his services in the Med-
ical Corps, attended the training camp for medical
officers at Camp Greenleaf, Chattanooga, where he was
commissioned a first lieutenant in June, 1917, and in
October, 1917, was transferred to the Base Hospital
at Camp Sevier, Greenville, South Carolina. In May,
1918, he joined the University of Virginia Hospital
Unit No. 41 for overseas duty, and was in France from
June, 1918, until February, 1919. Just before em-
barking for overseas he was commissioned captain and
in France was promoted to the rank of major. He
was in Paris during the bombardment of July, 1918,
and was at the battle front during the St. Mihiel cam-
paign from October until November of that year. He
was then made commanding officer of the Red Cross
Military Hospital No. 6 at Bellevieu, France, this being
a hospital exclusively for gassed patients. He was
evacuated home in February, 1919, and soon afterward
resumed his congenial associations at Franklin.
Doctor Venable was a democrat, a member of the
Baptist Church, and affiliated with Harney Lodge No.
343, A. F. and A. M., at Woodburn and Pluto Lodge,
Knights of Pythias, at Adairville. His family have an
attractive home at 313 West Cedar Street.
Doctor Venable was a grandfather when he entered
the army service, showing that age is no bar to active
patriotism. He married in Warren County, Kentucky, in
February, 1892, Miss Sibbie Jenkins, daughter of J. Wes-
ley and Nancy (Simmons) Jenkins, both now deceased.
Her father was a Kentucky farmer. Mrs. Venable is
a graduate of the Liberty Female College of Glasgow,
Kentucky. The two children are James J., and Mary
Edith Venable, the latter at home. James J. Venable,
a resident of Birmingham, Alabama, where he is con-
nected with the Crane Iron Company, married Maybell
Roberts, of that city, and their two children are James,
Jr., and Mary Ross.
Gordon Rice. That opportunity has not signified so
much as the man is proven in the everyday life of any
community. To one man openings may appear, all
favorable, and yet because of his lack of efficiency or
fitness he may not enter through the portals. His as-
sociates and intimate friends, with no more advantages
in the way of capital or outside influence, on the other
hand, may be able to forge ahead and, choosing one
of these, pass on to affluence and prominence. It all
depends upon the character of the man himself. This
is especially true in the insurance field, where none but
the efficient can hope to succeed. While the general
public is being educated to the importance of insur-
ance and the value of policies as a safe and dependable
544
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
investment, there are so many engaged in this line
of business, and all of the old line companies offer
practically the same rates, that the insurance man has
to possess perseverance, energy and resourcefulness in
marked degree to earn a fair living from selling insur-
ance. That many do possess just these qualities, the
success achieved by such a large proportion conclusively
proves. One of the men of Carlisle County who has
made a name for himself as a general insurance man
of Bardwell is Gordon Rice.
Gordon Rice was born in Fulton County, Kentucky,
March 12, 1884, a son of T. M. Rice, and a grandson
of William Rice, a native of Owen County, Kentucky.
In manhood he went into Obion County, Tennessee,
and developed valuable farming interests there. He
spent the remainder of his life in that section of the
state, and there passed away in 1881. The wife of
William Rice bore the maiden name of Fannie Threl-
keld, and she was born in Obion County, Tennessee,
where she passed away.
T. M. Rice was born in Obion County, Tennessee,
in i860, where he was reared and educated, but after
he reached his majority he came to Kentucky, and
with the exception of three years, when he returned
to his native county, he has spent the remainder of
his life in Fulton County, where he has been engaged
in farming with profit to himself and advantage to
the agricultural development of his region. At pres-
ent he is living near Jordan and is recognized as one
of the representative men in this part of the state. In
politics he is a democrat. T. M. Rice married Nannie
Boyer, who was born near Hickman, Kentucky, in
1865. Their children are as follows: Gordon, who was
the eldest ; Lucy, who married J. W. Mayes, lives near
Hickman, Kentucky, where he is engaged in farming ;
and Wilson B., who is assisting his father on the
farm.
Gordon Rice attended the public schools of Fulton
County and Hickman College, at Hickman, Kentucky,
following which he became a student of the Georgia
Robinson Christian College, a normal college at Hen-
derson, Tennessee, and remained there for a year,
leaving it in 1903. Having thus qualified himself for
the profession of teaching, Mr. Rice entered the edu-
cational field and for two years taught in the schools
of Tipton County, Tennessee, and for your years in
Fulton County, Kentucky. Then, in 1010, he began
selling insurance in Fulton County, and remained there
until the fall of 1913, when he moved to New Orleans,
Louisiana, and remained in that city for eight months.
Returning to Kentucky, he was at Hickman until Feb-
ruary, 1915, when he came to Bardwell and established
his present business, which is the leading insurance
one of the city. He is a general insurance underwriter
of life, fire, liability, automobile and other kinds of
insurance, and represents the leading insurance com-
panies of the country. His offices are on Front Street.
Mr. Rice supports the principles and candidates of the
democratic party. He belongs to the Christian Church,
to which he is a generous contributor. A Mason, he
belongs to Bardwell Lodge No. 409, A. F. and A. M. ;
Antioch Chapter, R. A. M. ; and Fulton Council, R.
and S. M. He belongs to Bardwell Lodge, I. O. O. F.,
and Rosewood Camp No. -38, W. O. W. At present he
is serving as junior warden of the Blue Lodge. In
addition to his other interests he is a director of the
Blackbottom Oil Company, and he owns his residence
on Elsey Avenue, where he maintains a comfortable
home.
In 191 1 Mr. Rice was united in marirage with Miss
Ruby Ramer at Union City, Tennessee. She is a
daughter of George and Bobbie (Leet) Ramer, farm-
ing people of Moscow, Kentucky. Mrs. Rice is a very
accomplished lady, having graduated in music, and is
skilled in both vocal and instrumental music. Mr.
and Mrs. Rice have three children, namely: Paul Gor-
don, who was born September 15, 1912; George Thomas,
who was born October 4, 1915; and Ruby Dorothy, who
was born December 21, 1918.
Mr. Rice is an expert in insurance matters and is
prepared at all times to give information relative to
the subject. He believes it to be his duty to call at-
tention to the necessity of properly protecting various
interests through an adequate amount of insurance.
There was a time when straight life and fire insurance
were the only kinds to be written. Now risks are
taken on almost everything and protection is afforded
against all kinds of calamities. Mr. Rice is endeavor-
ing to educate the public so as to make them realize
that in buying insurance they are merely providing
against contingencies, and, when the risks are written
against the individual, making an investment which
affords better returns, everything considered, than any
other. Since he has been waging his effective cam-
paigns the insurance business has shown a marked im-
provement not only at Bardwell but in the surround-
ing territory, and many an afflicted family has had
cause to be thankful to Mr. Rice when it was realized
that because of his efforts and advice adequate provi-
sion had been made. More than one person here, as
the years advance, rejoices that he need take no special
thought for his old age because, acting under Mr.
Rice's instructions, he has taken out enough insurance
to give him an income when his productive period is
over. As is but natural, a man who is occuped with
work that in its nature is of a missionary character
must be a constructive force in his community, and
Mr. Rice continues to be interested and helpful with
reference to the advancement of Bardwell, although
all he does is in a private capacity, for he has no time
or inclination for a public life.
John F. Kirksev, M. D. For two decades Doctor
Kirksey has performed all the services required of a
physician and surgeon in the community of Sedalia.
has gained a name as a careful and skillful leader in
his profession and has taken an equally public-spirited
and influential part in various local affairs.
Doctor Kirksey was born in Calloway County, Ken-
tucky, August 10, 1875, a son of T. 0. Kirksey and
grandson of Frank Kirksey, who was born in North
Carolina in 1816 and as a young man came West and
settled in Calloway County, Kentucky, where he fol-
lowed a career as a farmer and trader. He died in
the county in 1008. He married after coming to Cal-
loway County Priscilla Casey, who was born in this
state in 1818 and died in Calloway County in 1000.
T. O. Kirksey was born in Calloway County in 1852,
spent most of his active life there as a farmer, and in
1896 removed to Mayfield and engaged in merchandis-
ing. Since 1910 he has been a resident of Sedalia, and
has been chiefly interested as a farmer in the com-
munity. He is a democrat, an active worker in the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and is affiliated
with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. T. O.
Kirksey married Emma Edwards, who was born in
Calloway County in 1854. Doctor Kirksey is the older
of their two children. The only daughter, A. L. D. O.,
married George Billington, a farmer, and both died
soon after their marriage in Calloway County.
Doctor Kirksey attended the rural schools of Callo-
way County while a boy, also Murray Institute at Mur-
ray, Kentucky, and graduated with the M. D. degree
from the medical department of the University of
Louisville in 1897. He has since taken several post-
graduate courses in the Chicago Polyclinic, and has
neglected no opportunity to keep abreast of the won-
derful advances in medical and surgical knowledge. He
began practice at Lynnville in 1897, and since Janiz-
ary I, 1899, his home has been at Sedalia, where he is
the only representative of his profession at the pres-
ent time. Doctor Kirksey owns a fine modern home,
surrounded with extensive and well-kept grounds, and
offices situated on the State Highway, just at the edge
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
545
of town. He is a member of the County, State and
American Medical associations, also of the South-
west Kentucky Medical Association, and fraternally is
identified with Mayfield Lodge No. 679, A. F. and A.
M. ; Sedalia Lodge of Odd Fellows; and Sedalia Camp,
Woodmen of the World. Politically he is a democrat.
Doctor Kirksey for the past twelve years has been
chairman of the Board of Trustees of Sedalia. He is
a director in the First National Bank of Mayfield, and
with the assistance of his father operates a fine farm
of 100 acres at Sedalia and another farm of 200 acres
just south of town. His chief crops are corn, tobacco
and hay.
January 2, 1903, at Casey, Illinois, Doctor Kirksey
married Miss May Robinson, daughter of Mr. and
Mrs. Dickson Robinson, both deceased. Her father
was a farmer in Clark County, Illinois.
Charles F. Cato. Dawson Springs is known the
world over as an ideal health resort, but those who
make it their permanent home realize that it is more
than that, for it is one of the most flourishing little
cities in Kentucky and its people a class which is satis-
fied with nothing but the best. The business men who
are conducting the leading concerns here recognize this
fact and see to it that their stocks are varied and
timely; its city fathers have installed and maintain mod-
ern improvements ; and everything is done to meet the
demands and expectations of the home dwellers as
well as the transients. One of the live and public-
spirited business men of the city deserving of special
mention in connection with Dawson Springs and its
activities is Charles F. Cato, manager of the Cowand-
Hanger Company's mercantle establishment, bank direc-
tor, and owner of stock and realty.
Charles F. Cato, who belongs to an old and aristo-
cratic Virginian family, was born near Nebo, Hopkins
County, Kentucky, April 23, 1875, a son of W. W. Cato,
and grandson of Henry Cato, who was born in Vir-
ginia, but died on the farm in Christian County in
1892, which is now owned by his grandson. He estab-
lished his family in Kentucky, and in addition to de-
veloping a valuable farming property, was an attorney-
at-law, and was engaged in the practice of his pro-
fession at Hopkinsville. He married Susie Wade, who
died in Christian County.
W. W. Cato was born near Wallonia, Trigg County,
Kentucky, but was reared in Christian County after
he reached the age of twelve years, and in 1872 came
to Hopkins County and embarked in a saw-mill busi-
ness, continuing in it for a number of years. Selling
his interests, he farmed in the vicinity of Dawson
Springs and was elected and served as magistrate of
Charleston District No. 6 for two years. Leaving his
farm in 1895, he moved into Dawson Springs, which
was rapidly developing into a health resort, and became
a hotel proprietor, but retired from that line of busi-
ness in 1918, and is now living retired at the home of
his son, Charles F. Cato. He is a member of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, active in his sup-
port of the local congregation, and is equally zealous
as a Mason, belonging to Dawson Lodge No. 628,
A. F. and A. M., of which he is a past master. W. W.
Cato married Mary J. Glover, who was born at Green-
brier, Tennessee, in 1853, and died at Dawson Springs
in 1918, at the home of her son. Their children were
as follows : B. L., who lives at Wichita Falls, Texas,
is a geologist; Charles F., who is second in order of
birth ; Stella C, who married Ralph Stephenson, a
mechanic of Chicago, Illinois ; Ross C, who is a con-
tractor and builder of Wichita Falls, Texas ; J. F.,
who was an employee of the Illinois Central Railroad
Company, died at Dawson Springs in October, 1918;
and Margaret, who married G. Baxter Ramsey, lives
at Dawson Springs, where he is conducting a laundry
business.
Charles F. Cato was educated in the public schools
of Dawson Springs, and was graduated from its high
school course at the age of eighteen years, following
which he began working for William M. Lynch, a
general merchant, with whom he remained from 1895
until 1900. In the latter year he went to Wyckliffe,
Kentucky, and for a year remained in the employ of
Matt Smith, a general merchant. Returning to Daw-
son Springs, he began working for Day Brothers in
their genneral store, but in 1902 left them to go on
the road for a men's furnishing house in Saint Louis,
Missouri, with which he remained for three years,
covering Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee and portions
of Alabama. In 1905 he went to Texas and traveled
for the Barr Company, of Mansfield, Ohio, handling
store fixtures, and remained with that concern until
1909, his territory being Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas,
Nebraska, Arkansas and Missouri. For the subsequent
two years he covered the same territory for a furni-
ture concern of Galax, Virginia, and then, in 191 1,
once more came back to Dawson Springs and bought
the general merchandise business of W. D. Laffoon,
conducting it until February 16, 1916, when he sold
his business. For a few months he took a well-earned
rest, and in August of that same year became manager
of his present company, which handles a general line
of dry goods, clothing and furnishing goods of all
kinds, and is the leading store of this character in
Hopkins County. It is conveniently located at 114
South Main Street. Mr. Cato is a director of the First
National Bank of Dawson Springs ; owns a half inter-
est in the Dawson Springs Brick Company; is secretary
and treasurer of the K. & K. Oil Company of Ken-
tucky and Kansas ; and owns a comfortable seven-room
residence which was remodeled in 1918 and is supplied
with all modern city conveniences, including city water
and electric lights. It is surrounded by ample grounds
two acres in extent, which are well kept, and in which
are fine shade trees and 100 fruit trees. In addition
he owns a 125-acre farm in Christian County on Sand
Lick Creek, the one originally the property of his
grandfather.
Mr. Cato is a democrat and served as a member of
the City Council for four years. Reared in the faith
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, he embraced
its creed early in life, and is not only a zealous mem-
ber but is a steward of the local congregation and
secretary and treasurer of the Official Board. His
donations toward the support of the church are so
generous that he is recognized as its main financial
pillar. Fraternally he maintains membership in Daw-
son Lodge No. 628, A. F. and A. M., and is secretary
of the lodge. During the late war Mr. Cato entered
upon the local activities in behalf of the cause with
the same ardor which characterizes him, and subscribed
to the various drives and bought bonds and stamps way
beyond his means, cheerfully and proudly making the
sacrifices necessary in order that he do so, and in
every way proving his appreciation of the honor of
being a real American, descended from the "Amer-
ican Fathers."
On October 5, 191 1, Mr. Cato married at Nashville,
Tennessee, Miss Rosalou Gleaves, a daughter of E. C.
and Rosa (Lowe) Gleaves. Mrs. Gleaves is deceased,
but Mr. Gleaves lives at Paducah, Kentucky, where he
is working as a mechanic for the Illinois Central Rail-
road Company. Mr. and Mrs. Cato have two children,
Baker Gleaves, who was born October 15, 1912; and
Mary Rose, who was born June 14, 191S-
W. W. Bond, cashier of the Moscow State Bank,
is one of the dependable men and financiers of Hick-
man County, and his present position is the outcome
of his own industry, faithfulness and energy, for he
has worked his way up from very small beginnings.
Mr. Bond was born at New Liberty, Owen County,
Vol. V— 49
546
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
Kentucky, June 27, 1891, a son of Albert Bond, who
was born at New Liberty in 1863, a son of Charles
Bond.
Charles Bond was born at New Liberty, Kentucky,
in 1845, a son of W. A. Bond, who was a native of
Scott * County, Kentucky. He became one of the
pioneers of New Liberty, where he died in i860, and
there he was very successfully engaged in merchandis-
ing. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Willina
Branham, was also born in Scott County, Kentucky,
and she, too, died at New Liberty. The Bonds are
of English origin, the American ancestors having come
from England to Virginia at a very early day. Charles
Bond was reared at New Liberty, and there he was
engaged in farming until his death in 1872, which was
occasioned by his team of horses running away with
him. His wife, Jennie Todd, was born at New Liberty
in 1845, and she resides at her birthplace.
Albert Bond spent his entire life at New Liberty,
where he died in 1901, having been active as a saw-mill
proprietor and operator. In politics he was a democrat,
but he never sought public office. The Christian Church
held his membership, and he always took an active
part in church work. For years he belonged to the
Odd Fellows. - Albert Bond was united in marriage
with Lide Coats, who was born at New Liberty _ in
1869, and they became the parents of the following
children: W. W., who was the eldest born; and C. H.,
who is a leading merchant of Moscow.
W. W. Bond attended the public schools of New
Liberty, but left school when he was sixteen years
old to become self-supporting, entering the Fifth Na-
tional Bank of Cincinnati, Ohio. He started at the
bottom and worked his way up through individual
merit to be bookkeeper, and held that position until
1910, when he was offered and accepted the position
of clerk in the Kanawha Hotel at Charleston, West
Virginia. In 1915 he returned to New Liberty, Ken-
tucky, and for three years occupied himself with farm-
ing, but he is better fitted for a business life, and so
turned toward the line of business he understands
so well and in 1918 came to Moscow to accept the posi-
tion he still holds, that of cashier of the Moscow
State Bank. It was established in 1904 as a state
institution, and its officers are as follows: J. T. Little,
president, and W. H. Brown, vice president, Mr. Bond
being the cashier. The capital stock is $15,000; the
surplus and profits are $6,000 and the deposits are
$80,000. Reared by a father of democratic convictions,
Mr. Bond supports the principles of that party through
inheritance and conviction. He is a Mason and belongs
to Model Lodge No. 200, A. F. and A. M., and he also
is a member of the State Bankers Association.
In 1915, Mr. Bond was united in marriage with Miss
Marv Russell Connell at Louisville, Kentucky. Mrs.
Bond is a daughter of Dr. J. W. Connell, now deceased,
but formerly a physician and surgeon, and his wife
Mrs. Mattie (Gayle) Connell, who survives him and
lives at New Liberty. Mr. and Mrs. Bond have two
children: William, who was born December 22, 1915;
and Howard, who was born August 29, 1917.
J. D. Rollings, M. D. Some men possess so much
energy and executive ability that no profession or
business offers sufficient opportunity to induce them
to confine their efforts to it alone. They have the
ability and inclination to do well whatever they under-
take, and are able to carry on entirely dissimilar under-
takings at one and the same time. Such a man is
Dr. J. D. Rollings of La Center, Kentucky, eminent
physician and surgeon, noted breeder and raiser of
Hereford cattle, vice president of the Bank of La
Center, and an active figure in practically every interest
of moment in his part of Ballard County.
Doctor Rollings was born in Ballard County, Ken-
tucky, September 4, 1861, a son of C. N. B. Rollings,
and grandson of John T. Rollings, a native of Halifax
County, Virginia, who died about 1852, when he was
fifty-six years of age. He first married Elizabeth
Simmons, of Virginia, and they had the following
family born to them: C. N. B., who was the eldest;
and John A., Nathan L., Margaret and James W.,
all of whom are deceased. After the death of his first
wife John T. Rollings was again married, and he
and his wife had three children, namely: Martin V.,
who is deceased; Frank M., who lives near Needmore,
Ballard County, Kentucky, where he is engaged in
farming; and Sarah, who married a Mr. Elliott, is also
deceased.
C. N. B. Rollings was born in Christian County,
Kentucky, October 8, 1828, and died in Ballard County,
Kentucky, in 191 1. He grew to manhood in Christian
County, Kentucky, but in 1846 accompanied his parents
to Ballard County, which continued to be his home
during the remainder of his life. Mr. Rollings was one
of the men who supported the prohibition cause long
before there was any hope of its being successful and
was uncompromising in his convictions and brave
enough to support them in spite of public sentiment. It
is a great regret to Doctor Rollings that his father was
not spared long enough to participate in the rejoicing
of his party over the passage and ratification of the
Eighteenth Amendment. Both as a Mason and a
member of the Christian Church he lived up to the
highest conceptions of a gentleman and good citizen,
and was very active in church work. His material
labors were performed as a farmer, and were re-
warded with a gratifying measure of success. While
he had but few educational advantages in his youth,
he added to his store of knowledge and enriched his
mental capabilities through reading books which were
of great value to him.
On December 31, 1856, C. N. B. Rollings married
Miss Ann R. Bugg, a daughter of Richard and Pru-
dence (Chapell) Bugg, of Ballard County, Kentucky.
Mrs. Rollings was born in Christian County, Kentucky,
in 1824, and died in Ballard County, Kentucky, in 1884.
She and her husband had the following children : Lula,
who married Branch Bailey, now deceased, a farmer,
and they had two children, Charles and Bascum. After
Mr. Bailey's demise she was married to Otho Owen,
and they reside in Ballard County, Kentucky, where he
is engaged in farming. They have one child, Andrew ;
Doctor Rollings was the second in order of birth ;
Charles R., who lives at La Center, is a farmer ; James
Wesley is a farmer and lives at La Center ; Lizzie
married E. A. Stevenson, a retired farmer living at
Barlow ; Lena, who married Hardy L. Nance, lives on
the old home farm one mile east of Hinkleville,
Kentucky.
Doctor Rollings attended the rural schools of Ballard
County, and remained on his father's farm until he
was nineteen years of age, at which time he left home
and entered the Kentucky Medical College at Louisville,
Kentucky, from which he was graduated June 28, 1882,
with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. That same
years he began the practice of his profession in Ballard
County, and for two years lived on the old farm, and
then, in 1884, came to Hinkleville, where he has since
been engaged in a general medical and surgical prac-
tice. His post office address, however, is La Center.
He owns his fine modern residence and offices at
Hinkleville, which are surrounded by thirty-five acres,
and farms in Ballard County comprising 400 acres in
all, and has built up these farms until they are now
very productive. Doctor Rollings is specializing, with
extremely gratifying results in the breeding and raising
of Hereford cattle. His herd is a fine one and he has
built up a reputation for this strain of cattle which
extends throughout Western Kentucky. His herd is
headed by Beau Roseland, sired by Bonnie Lad the
Twentieth. Beau Roseland is a three-quarters brother
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
547
to Ardmore, which sold for $31,000. Doctor Rollings
bought Beau Roseland out of the herd of Walter L.
Yost of Kansas City, Missouri. Doctor Rollings is
vice president of the Bank of La Center, and is presi-
dent of the Ballard County Independent Telephone
Company. In politics he is a democrat. For many
years he has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, and has held lay offices in the church. A
Mason, he is a member of Antioch Lodge No. 332,
A. F. and A. M. He belongs to the Ballard County
Medical Society, the Kentucky State Medical Society,
the American Medical Association, and the South-
western Kentucky Medical Association.
In 1884 Doctor Rollings married at Cairo, Illinois,
Miss Mattie L. Skinner, a daughter of W. L. and
Martha (Neal) Skinner, both of whom are now de-
ceased. Mr. Skinner was for many years one of the
prosperous farmers of Southern Illinois. Doctor and
Mrs. Rollings became the parents of the following chil-
dren : Marie, who married Dr. B. C. Overbey, a physi-
cian and surgeon of La Center, a sketch of whom
appears elsewhere in this work ; and Neal, who grad-
uated from the Ballard High School at La Center,
following which he took a year's course at the Ken-
tucky State University at Lexington, Kentucky, and a
business course at the Business University at Bowling
Green, Kentucky. On September 18, 1918, he entered
the United States service and was sent to Camp Buell,
Lexington, Kentucky, and was made a sergeant of his
company. The armistice was signed three days before
the date set for the departure of his organization from
camp to the assembly point to make ready for embarka-
tion for France, and he was mustered out of the service
December 14, 1918, and returned home. He is now
engaged in superintending his father's farms.
Mrs. Rollings is a very superior lady. She was
educated under the instruction of private tutors, and
has developed her naturally fine intellectual abilities.
In the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which she is a
member, she has found plenty of opportunity to exercise
her talents for organization and executive action, and
she is also valued in the Woman's Club of La Center.
During the great war she was one of the most active
participants of her locality, and devoted a great deal
of her time to Red Cross work. She organized the
Hinkleville Auxiliary of the La Center Chapter of
the Red Cross, and served as its chairman. She is the
historian of Ballard County, and compiled the records
of the soldiers who went into the service from Ballard
County. This record is recognized as so valuable that
it has been decided to bind it that it may be preserved
for perpetual reference and kept at the Courthouse
at Wickliffe, the county seat of Ballard County.
Leslie Atkins Puryear. Without any doubt this
country is on the threshold of its greatest period of
prosperity. Within the next score of years every
industry, each enterprise, all professions, are going to
feel the result of the mighty impulse reacting from the
service rendered by the young men of the Nation who
when their Government was in danger responded to
its call and risked their lives in its defense. It stands
to reason that any right-minded young man who has
fought to preserve his country is not going to remain
indifferent to its future welfare. Broadened by their
experiences, strenghtened by the realization of a task
• well done, and developed by the training they received,
the veterans of the great war are going to prove in
their future connections with the business, professional
and political affairs of their times that they are just
as invincible in peace as in war. Kentucky sent into
the various branches of the service the very flower
of its young manhood, and some of these ardent young
souls lie under the white crosses of the battle-fields
of Flanders and France, but fortunately many of them
have returned and are today rendering a fine account
of themselves in their everyday occupations. One of
them is Leslie Atkins Puryear, manager and owner
of the Hardin Milling Company, one of the busiest
mills in Marshall County.
Leslie Atkins Puryear was born at Paducah, Ken-
tucky, January 31, 1890, a son of T. H. Puryear, and a
member of one of the old-established families of Vir-
ginia, to which province members of it came from
France at the time of the persecution of the Huguenots.
T. H. Puryear was born near Boydton, Virginia, and
died at Paducah, Kentucky, in 1898. He was reared
at his birthplace, and came West to Clarksville, Ten-
nessee, after he had reached his majority, was there
married and for a time operated successfully as a
tobacco dealer. In the later '70s he moved to Paducah,
Kentucky, and was the pioneer tobacco dealer of that
city, developing an extensive business and becoming
one of the substantial men of that locality. In politics
he was a stalwart democrat. During the war between
the North and the South he served in the Army of
Virginia under Gen. Robert E. Lee, to whom he, as
all the other Confederate soldiers, was devotedly at-
tached. T. H. Puryear married Ella Atkins, who was
born at Clarksville, Tennessee, and they became the
parents of the following children : Henry, who died
when young at Paducah, Kentucky ; Lucy, who died
in childhood; Sallie, who also died in childhood; Annie,
who married S. T. Hubbard, an extensive tobacconist
of Paducah, Kentucky ; Clara, who married Dr. Edwin
Mims, head of the department of English in the
Vanderbilt University of Nashville, Tennessee; Peter,
who died at Paducah, Kentucky, when he was thirty-
five years old, at that time being assistant cashier and
accountant of the Citizens Savings Bank of that city ;
Wilson G., who resides at McKenzie, Tennessee, is
associate principal of the McKenzie School ; M. H.,
who is cashier for the Nashville, Chattanooga & Saint
Louis Railroad Company at Paducah, Kentucky ; and
Leslie Atkins, who was the youngest.
Growing up at Paducah, Leslie Atkins Puryear
attended its public schools, later becoming a student
of the McKenzie School at McKenzie, Tennessee. He
then took a course at Trinity College at Durham,
North Carolina, leaving that institution when in his
senior year, in the fall of 191 1. For the subsequent
year he was an accountant for the Nashville, Chatta-
nooga & Saint Louis Railroad Company in the super-
intendent's office, leaving that position to take a clerical
position with the E. E. Sutherland Medical Company,
where his talents received recognition through promo-
tion until he was made advertising manager, and he
remained with this concern until the business was sold.
In 1915 Mr. Puryear was made principal of the Peoples
Tucker School of Springfield, Tennessee, and dis-
charged its onerous duties very acceptably for two
years.
In the meanwhile this country entered the great war,
and Mr. Puryear, responding to his patriotism, which
was very strong, enlisted in September, 1917, and was
sent to Atlanta, Georgia, and placed in the Three Hun-
dred and Twenty-first Field Artillery. After receiving
his training he was sent overseas in April, 1918, and
when he reached France was placed in the Saumur
Artillery School, and was later transferred to the One
Hundred and Twenty-eighth Field Artillery, Thirty-
fifth Division. The organization was sent to the Verdun
front, Sommedieu sector, where he saw some hard
service. In April, 1919, he was sent home, and was
honorably discharged with the rank of second lieutenant
in April, 1919.
Upon his return to Kentucky Mr. Puryear went into
business for himself, and is now owner and manager
of the Hardin Milling Company. The mill is located
along the tracks of the Nashville, Chattanooga & Saint
548
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
Louis Railroad, and has a capacity of twenty-five
barrels of flour per day, and this capacity is taxed
to the utmost all of the time.
Mr. Puryear is a democrat. The Methodist Episcopal
Church holds his membership, and he is held in high
esteem in the local congregation. He is a member of
Hardin Lodge No. 73, I. O. O. F., the Kappa Sigma
Greek letter college fraternity and the American Legion.
He owns his modern residence on Watt Street, where
he has a comfortable home, and he and Mrs. Puryear
welcome their many friends with true Southern hos-
pitality.
In September, 191 1, Mr. Puryear married at Saint
Louis, Missouri, Miss Oma Dorothy Dacus, a daughter
of R. L. and Annie (Donahue) Dacus. Mrs. Puryear
was born at Fulton, Kentucky, and was graduated from
the Centenary College of Cleveland, Tennessee. Mr.
and Mrs. Puryear have two children : Selwyn Elise,
who was born May 19, 1912; and L. A., Jr., who was
born February 9, 1916. Mr. Puryear is making a
remarkable success of his undertaking, and is planning
a further expansion of his business, which is already
justified by his trade. Although he has not resided
for a long period at Hardin he has gained the con-
fidence of its citizens and is accepted as a young man
of sterling character and unusual business attainments.
W. H. Justice was for many years prominent in
Allen County, an educator, and at the time of his
death was county clerk. He was a twin brother of
Judge Robert B. Justice, whose career is sketched
elsewhere in this publication.
W H Justice was born in Warren County, Ken-
tucky, December 3, 1863. His grandfather, Ja'ck Jus-
tice, was born in Tennessee in 1812, and as a young
man moved to Warren County, Kentucky, where he
became a prosperous farmer and where he died in
1852. His wife. Miss Nanney, was also a native of
Tennessee, and. died in Warren County, Kentucky.
The Justice family originated in Scotland, some of
the members coming to America in Colonial times and
locating in North Carolina. The late W. H. Justice
was a son of J. A. Justice, who was born in Warren
County November 3, 1831, and died there January 28,
1898. During his lifetime he developed a large farm,
was a republican in politxs and very early in life
united with the Baptist Church and was liberal in
supporting it and a leader in church work. He had
special gifts as an eloquent speaker. His first wife
was Bettie L'ghtfoot, a native of Warren County, who
died there leaving two children. The second wife
of J. A. Justice was Miss Moore, who likewise lived
all her life in Warren County. The only son of this
union died in infancy. Tlie third wife of J. A. Justice
was Lucinda Williams, who was born in Simpson
County, Kentucky, in 1838, and died in Warren Cotintv
February 27, 1020. She was the mother of the fol-
lowing children: a daughter who died in infancy;
Hetf'e Fannie, who married S. L. Holland, a farmer
in Allen County: W. H. and Robert B. ; F. W., who
died as a farmer in Allen Countv at the age of twentv-
six ; W. B.. widow of Griver Poe, a farmer, and she
now lives at Dallas. Texas: Isaac J., a resident of
Dallas; Emma, wife of Dr. J. G. Poe, a physician at
Dallas, Texas ; and Wiley, who died at the age of
eleven years.
W. H. Justice secured his early school education,
attended the State Normal, and for seventeen years
rl:d effective work as a teacher and educator in Allen,
Warren and Simpson counties. After this long serv-
ice in the school room he was elected and was serving
as county clerk of Allen County when he died at
Scottsville. Tune 30, 1911. He was also owner of a
farm in Allen County. In politics he was always a
stanch republican and was a life-long member and
sunporter of the Baptist Church.
At Scottsville in 1806 W. H. Justice married Miss
Alva Mayhew, daughter of J. W. and Rebecca
(Walker) Mayhew. Mr. and Mrs. Justice had two
children, Willie Vertrice and Ovaleta. Ovaleta, in Jan-
uary, 1916, was married on board a train between
Bowling Green, Kentucky, and Nashville, Tennessee, to
Dr. Lonie W. Johnson, one of Scottsville's prominent
and respected young professional men. Doctor John-
son was born at Akersville, Kentucky, January 17, 1887,
son of Yancey Lycurgus and Lutitia (Patterson)
Johnson. His father was a prominent farmer and
stock-raiser at Akersville, and died at his home place
in 1909, his widow, now fifty-three, still living on the
homestead. Lonie W. Johnson attended grade school,
graduated from high school at Akersville, and in 1908
entered the dental department of the University of
Tennessee at Nashville. He received his degree in
191 1 and at once established his office at Scottsville
on Court House Square. He is one of the ablest rep-
resentatives of the modern profession of dental sur-
gery in the county, and is ably assisted in his work
by his brother, L. O. Johnson. Doctor Johnson owns
a fine modern residence on Bowling Green Road, also
a farm in Allen County, and is a director in the
First National Bank of Scottsville. He was a mem-
ber of the City Council two terms, four years, and
has been secretary and treasurer of the Allen County
Republican Committee. He is one of the deacons of
the Baptist Church. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson have one
daughter, Marjorie. Mrs. Johnson is socially prom-
inent in Scottsville and has broad intellectual inter-
ests. Besides graduating from the public schools of
Scottsville, she finished her education at Russellville,
in the Logan College for Young Women.
Robert Briggs Justice, County Judge of Allen County
is one of the best-known men in this part of Kentucky.
and one whose popularity with all classes is founded
upon his personal characteristics. His connections with
the business life of Scottsville reflect credit upon his
acumen and sagacity, and since he was placed on the
bench through the vote of his fellow citizens, he has
displayed his excellent judgment and sense of fair deal-
ing so as to win universal approval.
Judge Justice was born in Warren County, Kentucky,
December 3, 1863, a son of J. A. Justice, and grandson
of Jack Justice, who was born in Tennessee in 1812,
and died in Warren County, Kentucky, in 1852, having
been a prosperous farmer in the latter state for a num-
ber of years. He married a Miss Nanney, who was
born in Tennessee, and died in Warren County. Ken-
tucky. The Justice family originated in Scotland, from
whence its representatives came to the American Colo-
nies and settled in North Carolina.
J. A. Justice was born in Warren County, Kentucky.
April 3, 1832, and died in that county. January 28, 1898,
having spent all of his life there, and having developed
very valuable agricultural interests. He was a strong
supporter of the republican party. A consistent Chris-
tian, he early united with the Baptist Church and for
the remainder of his life he was a constant attendant
upon its services, donated liberally to its support, was
a leader in all of the church work, and was an eloquent
speaker. He married first Bettie Lightfoot, who was
born in Warren County, and died there, having one
child a girl who died in infancy. Later J. A. Justice
was married to a Miss Moore, who was born and died
in Warren County, and they had a son who died in
infancy. After her demise Mr. Justice was married to
Lucinda Williams, who was born in Simpson County,
Kentucky, in 1838, and died in Warren County, February
27, 1920. Their children were as follows : a daughter,
who died an infant; Hettie Fannie, who married S. L.
Holland, a farmer of Allen County; Judge Justice,
who was the third in order of birth ; W. H., who is
the twin brother of Judge Justice, died June 30, 191 1,
at Scottsville, being County Clerk eight years at the time
$x
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■ mmiwm^
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
549
of his demise, but he had been for seventeen years a
school-teacher of Allen, Warren and Simpson counties ;
F. W., who was a farmer, died in Allen County at the
age of twenty-six years ; A. B., who is the widow of
Grider Poe, a farmer, resides at Dallas, Texas ; F. W.,
who was a farmer, died in Allen County ; Isaac J., who
is a general workman, lives at Dallas, Texas; Emma,
who married Dr. J. G. Poe, a physician of Dallas,
Texas; and Wiley, who died at the age of eleven years.
Judge Justice attended the rural schools of Allen
County, and remained on his father's farm until he was
twenty-four years old, although he had been teaching
school for nine years during the winter months, in
Allen and Warren counties, and he kept up this line of
work for six years after he left home. In November,
1894, he was elected County Clerk of Allen County, and
re-elected in 1897, and served one term of three years,
and a second one of four years. In 1902, upon leaving
office, he embarked in a mercantile business at Scotts-
ville and conducted it for four years, but on account
of ill health, sold his business and rested until 1912,
when in January of that year he assumed the duties
pertaining to the office of County Judge, to which he had
been elected in the preceding November. After four
years he was re-elected for a term of four years more.
His offices are in the courthouse. For a number of
years he was a director of the Citizens National Bank,
but severed this connection owing to pressure of other
responsibilities. Judge Justice owns an elegant modern
residence on Bowling Green Avenue, that is one of the
very finest in the city, and it is surrounded by six acres
of land. He also owns six dwellings in Scottsville, and
a business building on the Square, as well as a farm of
sixty-one acres one mile north of Scottsville. During
the late war he took an active part in all of the war
activities, assisting in all of the drives, buying bonds and
saving stamps, and contributing to the various organi-
zations to the full extent of his means, being one of
the most liberal donors in the county.
In February, 1892, Judge Justice was married to Miss
Annie Weaver, in Allen County. She is a daughter
of the late W. T. and Amanda H. (Williams) Weaver.
During his lifetime Mr. Weaver was a farmer, and dur-
ing the war between the two sections of the country,
he served in the Union Army. His widow survives
and makes her home on her farm which is located
eight miles north of Scottsville. Mrs. Justice was en-
gaged in teaching school in Allen County for eight years
prior to her marriage. Judge and Mrs. Justice became
the parents of two children, namely : Robert Lee, who
died at birth; and Dorothy Lee, who was born May
27, 1909.
Max H. Roder, one of the most prominent coal mining
contractors in McCreary County and Southeastern Ken-
tucky, went into the mines as a worker when a boy of
eleven, and almost his entire range of experience covers
this industry, so that he is familiar with coal mining in
many of the largest bituminous districts of the Middle
West.
Mr. Roder, whose home is two miles north of Stearns
in McCreary County, was born in Hesse, Germany,
September 6, 1873. His father, John Roder, now living
retired with his son Max, was born in Saxony in 1844,
was reared there, and performed his duty as a soldier
both in the German-Austria war of 1865-66 and in the
Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71. He was a coal mine
worker in Germany until he was forty years of age, and
in 1886 brought his family to the United States and
located on a farm at Beaver Creek, Kentucky. He
farmed there eight years, and then for eighteen years
lived on his farm at Greenwood in McCreary County,
finally retiring to enjoy the competence earned by many
years of active labor. He began voting as a democrat
after acquiring American citizenship, but subsequently
became a republican and is a member of the Lutheran
Church. At Berlin, Germany, John Roder married
Johanna Rose, who was born in that city in 1844, and
died at Greenwood, Kentucky, in 1909. Of their five
children Max is the youngest. Louisa, the oldest, is the
wife of William Kopf, a button manufacturer in Ger-
many ; Helena is a Catholic nun in Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil; Ida, who died at Louisville at the age of forty-
five, was the wife of William Peterson, a farmer who
died in Michigan; and Mrs. Bertha Schneider is the
wife of a farmer at Bolton, Michigan.
Max H. Roder had all his education in the schools
of Germany before he was eleven years of age. He
came to the United States in 1884 and immediately went
to work in the coal mines of Beaver Creek, Kentucky.
He learned coal mining there and later, as an experi-
enced miner, went to Coalburg, Alabama, was in the
mines there four years, spent two years in the great
mining district at McAlester, Oklahoma, one year at
West Bay City, Michigan, then another year at Coal-
burg, Alabama, a year at McAlester, Oklahoma, and in
1900 located at Paris, Kentucky, where he remained
three years. Another two years he was connected with
the coal mining interests at Harrisburg, Illinois, and in
1905 engaged in his present business as a coal mining
contractor, with headquarters at Stearns, Kentucky.
For the past ten years he has been the leading contractor
at Barthell, and has permanently located in that district.
He owns his home, with six and a half acres of ground
two miles north of Stearns and also has seventy-five
acres at Greenwood and other real estate over the
county.
Mr. Roder identified himself with all the local pa-
triotic organizations during the World war, lending his
influence to the cause of the Government in raising
funds and giving of his own means in the same direction.
Among other business interests he is a director in the
Ridge Fork Oil Company. He is a republican, a Pro-
testant in religion, and is affiliated with Ora S. Ware
Lodge, F. and A. M., Cliff Spring Lodge No. 317, Inde-
pendent Order of Odd Fellows, of which he is a past
grand, and is a past chancellor of Standard Lodge No.
147, Knights of Pythias.
In 1901, at Parkers Lake, Kentucky, he married Miss
Alice Moneca Souleyret, daughter of J. C. and Moneca
(Raboul) Souleyret. Her mother is deceased. Her
father is a mine foreman and surveyor at Wiborg, Ken-
tucky. Mr. and Mrs. Roder became the parents of nine
children : Violet, born in 1903, is a high school graduate
and is the wife of Arthur Cheney, a restaurant pro-
prietor at Pine Knot ; Ida May, born in 1905 ; Helena,
born in 1507, a high school student ; Ruby, born in 1909 ;
the fifth child, a daughter, died at the age of ten months;
Edwald, born in 1913; Ernest, born in 1915; Earl, born
in 1917, met his death by accident at the Whitley City
Railroad crossing May 27, 1921 ; and Maxine, born in
1920.
Michael O'Sullivan, publisher and editor of the
Shelby Sentinel, has been a business man of that
community forty years, and it was his thorough talents
as a business man rather than previous training in
journalism that contributed to the great success he has
achieved in the management of the Shelby Sentinel, one
of the oldest papers in this section of the state and under
its present ownership one of the most influential.
The Shelby Sentinel, under the name of the Shelby
News, was established in the year 1840, and quickly
became a prominent organ of the whig party in this
section of the state. With the disruption of the whigs
and after the close of the Civil war the party policies
of the paper were changed to democratic, and at the
same time was found necessary to change the name
of the paper and since then it has been the Shelby
Sentinel.
Mr. O'Sullivan was born at Augusta, Georgia, Septem-
ber 30, 1859, son of Daniel and Nora (Hartnett) O'Sul-
350
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
livan. His parents were born in Ireland, were married
in New York, and prior to the Civil war moved to
Augusta, Georgia. Daniel O'Sullivan was a Confederate
soldier, enlisting as a member of the Fifth Georgia
Volunteer Infantry, but shortly afterward became a
member of the famous T. J. (Stonewall) Jackson Bri-
gade, and served in that command until the close of the
war as a lieutenant and brevet captain. In 1865 he
moved his family to Shelbyville, Kentucky, and for many
years was in business there as a merchant tailor.
Michael O'Sullivan was six years of age when he came
to Shelbyville. His early education was acquired in
Professor Wilson's private school there and in St.
Joseph's College at Bardstown. Among his schoolmates
were the late Maj. Gen. J. Franklin Bell, the late Thomas
Grasty of the Manufacturers Record of Baltimore, and
Charles Grasty, formerly editor of the Baltimore Sun
and now an official of the New York Times. Mr. O'Sul-
livan graduated at Bardstown in 1880, and for a num-
ber of years his active business relations were as a
merchant tailor.
In 1904 he bought a somewhat depleted plant and other
accessories of the Shelby Sentinel, and has since given
his undivided attention to the task of building up a real
newspaper. Under his management the Sentinel has
enjoyed its greatest prosperity, has a large circulation,
and is one of the best equipped weekly newspaper
plants in Kentucky.
Mr. O'Sullivan is a democrat of the old school. Only
once he has sought political honors. In 1898 he was
elected representative from Shelby County to the Legis-
lature, and the one term he was member of that body
proved his fitness and thorough qualifications for public
leadership, though he declined any further office. He has
been active nevertheless in the councils of the party,
serving as a committeeman.
Mr. O'Sullivan is a member of the Catholic Church
and the Knights of Columbus. In 1889 he married Miss
Ella McGann, who departed this life October 31, 1921,
on the thirty-second anniversary of their marriage. Mr.
O^Sullivan has two sons, Daniel M. J. and James M.
O'Sullivan. The son Daniel, now associated with his
father in the newspaper business, was a second lieutenant
in the army, trench mortar battery, and saw overseas
duty during the World war. The son James was in the
United States Navy and is now a member of the firm
of the Strand moving picture theater at Shelbyville.
Gayle Prather. Among the men of Kentucky who
have worked their way to positions of importance
through native talent, capacity for painstaking labor,
natural equipment for their calling and thorough and
comprehensive study and training, one who has be-
come popularly known is Gayle Prather, formerly su-
perintendent of public schools of Clarkson and now
connected with the Grayson County State Bank of
Leitchfield. Many years of Mr. Prather's career were
devoted to the calling of the educator, and his career
has been one of steady and well-merited advancement.
After locating at Clarkson he contributed greatly to the
advancement and elevation of the school system and
facilities, and at the same time gained and held the
confidence, respect and esteem of teachers, parents and
pupils.
Mr. Prather was born April 17, 1887, on a farm in
Owen County, Kentucky, a son of Judge T. O. and
Merrimac (Thornsherry) Prather. His grandfather,
James Prather, was born in Virginia, and for many
years followed the vocation of a distiller, but died
in Owen County, Kentucky, when his son T. O. was
still young. T. 0. Prather has resided in Owen County
all his life, and is now the owner of a flourishing lum-
ber business at Owenton, as well as of important agri-
cultural interests in Owen County. He has been prom-
inent and influential in public affairs, having served
formerly as a magistrate for twelve years and as county
judge of Owen County four years, and is still a leader
of the democratic party in his locality. An active sup-
porter of the Baptist Church, he was moderator of the
Owen Baptist Association for ten years. Judge Prather
married Merrimac Thornsherry, who was born in
Owen County in i860, and they have had six children :
Arthur, Carrie and Sebree, who all died young; Gayle;
Bettie, residing with her parents, is the widow of Owen
Simpson, who at the time of his death was connected
with the Queen City Club, Cincinnati, Ohio; and W. E.,
a merchant and school teacher of Owen County.
Gayle Prather received his primary education in the
rural schools of Owen County, and subsequently at-
tended the Owenton High School until the senior year.
Later he took a course at the Eastern State Normal
School, Richmond, Kentucky, from which lie was grad-
uated in 1909, receiving a teacher's certificate, and at
the present time possesses a teacher's life certificate.
Mr. Prather's educational labors commenced when he
was eighteen years of age. At that time he was given
a school in the rural districts of Owen County, where
he taught for three years, and his next position was
that of principal of schools of South Portsmouth, Ken-
tucky, where he remained one year. He first came to
Clarkston in 1909, as principal of schools, continuing
as such three years, and then went to Caneyville, this
state, in a like capacity and for a like period. Return-
ing to Clarkson in 1915, he afterward occupied the posi-
tion of superintendent of schools, both graded and
high, and had six teachers and 300 pupils under his
supervision and care. As noted, his work was of a high-
ly efficient character and a highly important factor in ele-
vating the standards of education at Clarkson. He is a
valued and interested member of the Kentucky Educa-
tional Association. Mr. Prather resigned from his
position as head of the Clarkson High School on Jan-
uary 1, 1922, to accept a position with the Grayson
County State Bank, Leitchfield, Kentucky, which posi-
tion he now occupies. This honor came to him because
of his popularity among the school people of the county.
This bank is the oldest bank in Grayson County, the
most popular institution of its kind in the state. Its
resources are more than $500,000, with a capital stock
of $25,000 and a surplus of $20,000. This bank has,
besides Mr. Prather, an active president, two active
vice presidents and a bookkeeper.
Mr. Prather is a democrat and has taken an active
part in local affairs, having been a member of the
Town Council. He is a deacon in the Baptist Church,
and as a fraternalist holds membership in Wilhelm
Lodge No. 720, F. and A. M. His pleasant modern
residence, which he owns, is located on North Patter-
son Street. Mr. Prather took an active part in all local
war activities in Grayson County, helping in all the
drives, buying freely of bonds and War Savings
Stamps, and contributing to the various organizations
to the extent of his means. He was also chairman
of the Red Cross, United War Relief and Liberty
Loan campaigns, and devoted much time to the cause.
In 1909, in Grayson County. Mr. Prather was united
in marriage with Miss Pansy Witten, daughter of H. E.
and Annie (Graham) Witten, the latter of whom is
deceased, while the former is a farmer and owns a
valuable property in the vicinity of Clarkson, where he
makes his home. Mr. and Mrs. Prather are the parents
of five children: Fay, born November 7, 1910; Ruth,
born August 15, 1912; Mabel, born October 2, 1914;
Gayle Jr., born December 17, 1917; and Gordon, born
July 17, 1920.
Edford L. Walters. The youth compelled to make
his own way in the world, without the aiding influence
of family or other advantages, should receive encour-
agement from the career of Edford L. Walters, cashier
of the First National Bank of Jenkins. Left an orphan
in childhood, Mr. Walters was compelled to gain his
own education to a large extent, and his boyhood and
youth were filled with hard and continuous struggle.
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
551
His success has been entirely his own, and has been
all the more gratifying and satisfactory because it has
been self gained.
Mr. Walters was born on a farm near Paintsville,
Johnson County, Kentucky, July 29, 1891, a son of
John C. and Nancy Ann (Arrowood) Waiters, and a
member of a family which settled at an early day
in the Flat Gap community. His grandfather was
Shady Walters, who followed farming for many years
in Johnson County, and this was also the vocation of
John C. Walters, who died when thirty-eight years of
age, in May, l8t)r, two months before the birth of his
son Edford L. Mrs. Walters followed her husband
to the grave seven years later.
The youngest in a family of eight children, of whom
four sons and a daughter are now living, Edford L.
Walters, following the death of his mother, went to
live on the farm of an elder brother, W. J. Much of
his time was demanded on the farm in the hard work
of producing crops, but the youth was determined to
secure an education, and after attending the public
school at Paintsville he pursued a course at Sandy
Valley Seminary at that place, now known as the John
C. C. Mayo College. He also attended Hazel Green
Academy in Wolfe County, and likewise obtained a
commercial training by attending a business college at
Bowling Green. In the meantime he had been working
faithfully on the farm of his brother, and also had
experience working in the coal mines. With the prep-
aration secured through attendance at business college
he was able, at the age of twenty years, to obtain em-
ployment in the Paintsville National Bank, where for
some time he acted in the capacity of bookkeeper. Five
years later he became cashier in the McRoberts Bank
at Fleming, Letcher County, and remained in that posi-
tion until the fall of 1917, when he was called to Jenkins
to become cashier of the First National Bank, a post
which he has since retained. Mr. Walters is methodical
in his habits and practical in his aims, is a promoter
of stable and conservative interests, and as a citizen
and banker maintains standards in keeping with the
best welfare of the community'.
In 1916 Mr. Walters was united in marriage with
Miss Eulah Fitzpatrick, daughter of John Fitzpatrick,
of East Point, Johnson County, Kentucky, and to this
union there has been born one daughter, Julia Mariato.
Mr. and Mrs. Walters are members of the Jenkins
Baptist Church, of which he is treasurer. He belongs
to the Blue Lodge and Chapter of Masonry at Paints-
ville, and to the Commandery and Shrine at Ashland.
His political tendencies cause him to support the demo-
cratic party.
Leon B. Stephan. In his work as a teacher and school
superintendent Leon B. Stephan has rendered a service
which can not be over estimated. Children are natu-
rally imitative, and when they have constantly before
them an example of upright, honorable Christian man-
hood, it is but natural that they should strive to re-
produce in their own lives the qualities they learn to
admire. Being a born teacher, Mr. Stephan not only
possesses the faculty of imparting knowledge, but of
inspiring others and influencing them very favorably.
Mr. Stephan, who was formerly connected with the
city school system of Louisville, and is now superin-
dent of the schools at Jenkins in Eastern Kentucky,
was born at Huntington. Indiana, March 12, 1884, son
of George and Mary (Bickel) Stephan, both of whom
survive, he being sixty-five and she sixty-three. They
make their home at Huntington, Indiana, where for
eighteen years George Stephan was engaged in teach-
ing in the grade schools. For four years he served as
county treasurer, and for the same length of t'me he
was one of the township trustees. At present he is
living retired. Both he and his wife belong to the Re-
formed Church. They had seven children born to them,
six sons and one daughter, and all survived but one
son.
After being graduated from the Huntington High
School in 1903 Professor Stephan took the regular
course in the Indiana State University at Bloomington,
and was graduated therefrom in 1908 with the degrees
of Bachelor of Arts and in 1913 as Master of Arts.
At intervals during 1903 to 1908 he was engaged in
teaching at Huntington. Following his graduation
from the University he was professor of languages
at the Lhiiversity of New Mexico, Albuquerque, for five
years. For five years more he was engaged in teaching
languages at a boys school at Louisville, Kentucky, and
then was made assistant superintendent of Louisville
school. In 1919 Professor Stephan's services were se-
cured by the Hazard School Board. He resigned the
superintendency of the Hazard city schools in the
spring of 1921 to become superintendent of schools at
Jenkins, the Consolidation Coal Company town in
Letcher County.
In 1908 Professor Stephan was united in marriage
with Amy Kitt, a daughter of Obediah and Salome Kitt,
of Huntington, Indiana. Politically Professor Stephan
is a republican, but is not active. He is a member of
the Methodist Episcopal Church, and is one of its
stewards. Fraternally he maintains membership with
the Knights of Pythias and Loyal Order of Moose.
During the late war he took a zealous part in the work
of the Red Cross, and assisted very materially in all
of the various drives.
Lewis E. Harvie, a prominent lawyer at Whitesburg,
has for the past seventeen or eighteen years repre-
sented in a legal capacity many of the large industrial
corporations in Eastern Kentucky.
He comes of an old and honored Virginia family and
was born at Danville, Virginia, January 29, 1878, son
of Dr. Lewis E. and Martha (Rutherfoord) Harvie.
Both parents were of Scotch ancestry. John Harvie
came to America in 1732. He was King's Council and
attorney for Lord Fairfax in Virginia. Both the
Harvie and Rutherfoord families owned extensive tracts
of land in the vicinity of Richmond, Virginia. Members
of the Harvie family fought as soldiers for American
independence. The mother of the Whitesburg attorney-
is still living at Danville, at the age of seventy-
five. His father, Doctor Harvie, who died in 1917, at
the age of seventy-five, acquired his early education in
the Virginia Military Institute and in 1861 enlisted in
Stonewall Jackson's Brigade. He was a lieutenant dur-
ing the Virginia campaigns, and was wounded durng
the retreat from Gettysburg and taken prisoner. He
spent one year on Johnson's Island before his exchange,
and then after a furlough rejoined the army and for
the last weeks of the war was engaged in scout duty
for Gen. Joseph E. Johnston in the Carolinas. Fol-
lowing the war he took up the study of medicine at
the Virginia Medical College at Richmond, and from
1870 enjoyed a high standing in the profession at Dan-
ville. For many years he was a member of the Vir-
ginia State Board of Health.
Lewis E. Harvie was one of a family of four sons
and six daughters, all living. He spent three years in
the Danville Military Institute and completed his law
work in the Western Reserve University at Cleveland.
He graduated in 1903, and in the same year came to
Hazard, Kentucky, as representative of the Tennis Coal
Company. He did much abstract of title work for
coal lands for this company and other interests. In
1910 Mr. Harvie removed to Whitesburg, and for the
past ten years has been associated in practice with Jesse
Morgan. , During the World war he was president of
the Draft Board of Letcher County. Mr. Harvie is
unmarried.
Charles H. Burton. The industrial development of
Eastern Kentucky has attracted here a number of men
552
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
from other states and localities with established rec-
ords of achievement and success in business and profes-
sional affairs. One of them is Charles H. Burton, civil
engineer and attorney, who for the past ten years has
been a resident of Whitesburg in Letcher County and
has been engaged in an extensive program involved in
the industrial development of that locality.
Mr. Burton was born at Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Nov-
ember 12, 1865, son of Charles W. and Helen (Walk-
er) Burton, natives of Chautauqua County, New York.
His father was born in 1827 and died in Cedar Rapids
at the age of seventy-seven. His mother died in 1919,
aged eighty-five. Charles W. Burton largely through
his own efforts acquired a thoroughly liberal education,
finishing in the Fredonia Academy of New York. He
was a noted mathematician, and for several years taught
at Fredonia and later went to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, as
superintendent of schools. He was head of the school
system of that progressive Iowa city for a number of
years, and he also served on the City Council and as
justice of the peace. He was a Universalist in religion
and his wife was a Baptist. Fraternally he was master
of the Masonic Lodge at Cedar Rapids and high priest
of the Royal Arch Chapter, and was a republican in
politics. Both the Burton and Walker families were
of English descent.
Charles H. Burton was one of a family of three
sons and two daughters. He graduated from the Cedar
Rapids High School at the age of eighteen, and fol-
lowed this with a civil engineering course at the Uni-
versity of Iowa, being granted his degree at the age of
twenty-three. In his profession as an engineer he was
for a time employed in railway construction work in
Iowa, and subsequently went to Lake Charles, Louisi-
ana, with P. H. Philbrick, who had been his former
instructor in the University of Iowa and was chief of
the engineering department of the Kansas City,
Watkins & Gulf Railway. After four years in Louisi-
ana Mr. Burton returned to the Iowa State University
and took the law course. As a lawyer he practiced at
Mason City and Iowa City for five years. In 1900 he
removed to St. Louis, Missouri, and for a year was
employed as an expert accountant by a wholesale house
and performed similar work at Iowa City until 1905.
He then went back to Lake Charles, Louisiana, and
was assistant city engineer and then city engineer of
that municipality.
Mr. Burton came to Whitesburg, Kentucky, in 1910
as legal representative of the Swift Coal & Timber
Company, owners of 22,000 acres of land in this section.
While his time has been quite fully taken up by the
affairs of the corporation, he has been generous of his
time and talents in behalf of local improvements. He
has been a member of the school board during the
building period and since, has served on the town coun-
cil, and was city engineer.
Mr. Burton in 1900 married Miss Hannah Blowers,
of Iowa City. They have two adopted daughters,
Blanch and Ethel Reece. Mrs. Burton is a member
of the Presbyterian Church. He is affiliated with the
Delta Tau Delta and Phi Delta Phi college fraternities,
the Masonic Lodge and Woodmen of the World, and
is an independent republican.
George M. Roberts. Eight miles to the northwest of
Mount Sterling, Montgomery County, is situated the
excellent farm owned and occupied by this sterling cit-
izen, whose progressive policies and well directed activ-
ities have brought to him substantial success, as is
attested by his ownership of a well improved farm
estate of 480 acres.
Mr. Roberts was born in Platte County, Missouri,
December 30, 1859, but is a representative of staunch
old Kentucky families, his parents, James Y. and Susan
CStofer) Roberts, having both been born in this state —
the mother having been a native of Montgomery
County. After their marriage the parents continued
their residence in the old Blue Grass State until 1856,
when they removed to Platte County, Missouri, where
their father purchased a farm. James Y. Roberts there
continued his activities as a farmer for several years,
and he then sold his farm property and returned with
his family to Kentucky. For two years the home was
maintained in Bourbon County, and Mr. Roberts then
purchased a farm in Montgomery County, this old
homestead having continued his place of residence un-
til his death, and his wife likewise having died there.
Both were earnest members of the Christian Church,
and Mr. Roberts held membership in the Masonic fra-
ternity. He was a staunch democrat, a man of fine
mentality, and while a resident of Missouri he served
as a member of the State Senate. Of the seven chil-
dren only three are living, George M., of this review,
Ann, who is the widow of S. S. Priest and who re-
sides at Mount Sterling, and Emma, of Mount Sterling.
George M. Roberts was still an infant at the time
when his parents returned from Missouri to Kentucky,
and he was reared on the old home farm in Mont-
gomery County, his educational advantages having been
those of the rural schools of the locality and period.
He early gained practical experience in all details of
farm enterprise, and for a period of several years he
owned and conducted the Sideview general store. In
December, 1897, he married Miss Lulu Mark, and
shortly afterward they established their home on a
farm which is an integral part of his present valuable
landed estate of 480 acres, the greater part of this
tract having been secured through the means of the
financial success which Mr. Roberts has won for him-
self. He is aligned in the ranks of the democratic
party, but has had no desire for public office. He and
his wife are active members of the Christian Church
at North Middleton, and he is serving as an elder of
the same. Mr. and Mrs. Roberts have four children :
Levitt, James, Mark and Paul. Levitt was one of the
gallant young patriots who represented Kentucky in
the nation's military service in the late World war, he
having been a member of the Aviation Corps and hav-
ing been in active service in France for some time prior
to the close of the war.
Harry G. Hoffman, president of the Chamber of
Commerce of Mount Sterling and Montgomery County,
is vouchsafed this important official preferment by rea-
son of his secure standing as a progressive business
man and public-spirited citizen of his native city and
county, his birth having occurred at Mount Sterling
on the 2d of April, 1877. He is a son of Albert and
Laura (Gill) Hoffman, and that the family name has
long been identified with the history of Montgomery
County is shown in that fact that the father likewise
was born at Mount Sterling, on the 8th of March, 1847,
the mother having been born at Olympia Springs, Bath
County, on the 26th of April, 1848. Albert Hoffman
was a son of William and Julia Ann Jordon (Wilker-
son) Hoffman, both of whom were born at Mount
Sterling, where the respective families were founded
in the early pioneer period of Montgomery County his-
tory. William Hoffman became one of the prominent
and influential citizens of his native county, where he
served as cashier of the Exchange Bank of Kentucky
at Mount Sterling, besides which he here established
in 1847 the pioneer insurance agency which was long
conducted under his name and until his death, his son
A. Hoffman having succeeded him in the business and
continued its executive head until he too passed to
the life eternal in 1919, when he bequeathed it to his
sons, J. M. and Harry G. Albert Hoffman was one
of the substantial business men and honored citizens
of Mount Sterling at the time of his death, and in this
city his widow still maintains her home.
In the public schools of Mount Sterling Harry G.
Hoffman continued his studies until he had duly prof-
ited by the advantages of the high school, and there-
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
553
after he became actively associated with the insur-
ance business conducted by his father and founded by
his grandfather, as already noted in this context. He
continued his active alliance with the original Hoffman
Insurance Agency until 1906, when he proved himself
well fortified for broader activity in the same field of
enterprise by taking up a general agency work. He
now has the state agency in Kentucky for the Pacific
Mutual Life Insurance Company of California, and he
has developed the business of this corporation most
effectively since assuming his present position. Mr.
Hoffman maintains an independent attitude in politics,
is affiliated with the local Blue Lodge and Chapter of
the Masonic fraternity, and he and his wife hold mem-
bership in the Christian Church. The home of Mr.
Hoffman is one of the most attractive in Mount Sterl-
ing, the residence being situated on a tract of five acres
on North Maysville Street.
On the 23d of October, 1900, was recorded the mar-
riage of Mr. Hoffman and Miss Virginia Grubbs, who
likewise is a native of Montgomery County and who is
a graduate of Washington College. Mr. and Mrs. Hoff-
man have two children : Thomas G., who was born
July 9, 1906, is a member of the class of 1922 in the
Mount Sterling High School ; and Laura G., who was
born January 7, 1908, likewise is a student in the public
schools of the home city.
It may be noted that the maternal grandparents of
Mr. Hoffman were Harrison and Georgia Ann (Lans-
downe) Gill, and that the latter was a half-sister
of Richard Menifee, a distinguished figure in Kentucky
history.
Thomas J. Moberley is a representative of an old
and honored Kentucky family and is one of the alert
and successful farmers of the younger generation in
Montgomery County, where he is engaged in progres-
sive agricultural and live-stock enterprise on the old
home farm which was the place of his birth and which
is situated five and one-half miles northwest of Mount
Sterling, the county seat. Here he was born on the
6th of September, 1885, a son of James G. and Anna
(Whitsett) Moberley, the former of whom was born
in Madison County, this state, in 1832, and the latter
of whom was born in Montgomery County, in 1852.
James G. Moberley was a boy at the time of the family
removal to Montgomery County, and he was reared on
the farm now owned and occupied by J. C. Graves, of
whom individual mention is made on other pages of
this work. On this farm he continued to reside for
the first three years after his marriage, and he then
left the old dwelling and removed to the house which
he erected on the Paris Turnpike, where he and his
wife passed the remainder of their lives and where
he long held precedence as one of the successful farm-
ers of this section of the county. He was a democrat
in politics, and both he and his wife held membership
in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Of their
six children five are living at the time of this writing,
in 1921 : Grace is the wife of W. E. Farris ; Miss
Mary was the next in order of birth and still resides
in Montgomery County ; Nell is deceased : Thomas J.
is the immediate subject of this review; Katie is the
wife of Roy S. Green ; and Mattie is the wife of E. R.
Waid.
Thomas J. Moberley supplemented the discipline of
the public schools by attending the Kentucky Wesleyan
College at Winchester, and from his youth to the pres-
ent time he has been actively associated with the varied
operations of the old home farm, of which he owns
186 acres. He takes deep interest not only in further-
ing the prestige of his native county as a center of
agricultural and live-stock industry, but is also loyal
and public-spirited as a citizen. He is a democrat in
political allegiance, and he and his wife hold member-
ship in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
December 31, 1912, recorded the marriage of Mr.
Moberley and Miss Belle Swetmann, who was born
in Bath County, this state, July 20, 1891, a daughter of
Neri and Mary (Elam) Swetmann. Mrs. Moberley re-
ceived excellent educational advantages, including those
of a private collegiate institute, in which she was grad-
uated, and prior to her marriage she had been a suc-
cessful and popular teacher in the schools of Mont-
gomery County. Mr. and Mrs. Moberly have three
children : James, Jeanne and Evaline.
Stephen Combs, Jr. A young lawyer of exceptional
ability, Judge Combs has already impressed himself as
one of the representative younger members of the bar
of his native county, and that he has his full share of
popular confidence and esteem in the district where he
is best known is shown by the fact that he is now
serving as county treasurer of Letcher County, besides
which he made an excellent, though brief, record on
the bench of the County Court. He is one of the vital
and popular citizens of Whitesburg, and aside from
his official duties as county treasurer he has secure
vantage-ground as a successful lawyer.
On the old family homestead of his paternal grand-
father, a property now owned by his father, Stephen
Combs was born on the 24th of January, 1891, this
ancestral place being situated on Smoot Creek, Letcher
County. He is a son of Wesley and Mary (Breeding)
Combs, the former of whom was likewise born on the
old homestead farm, in 1850, and the latter of whom
was born on Breeding Creek, in what is now Knott
County, Kentucky, she having been familiarly known
as Polly and her death having occurred December 9,
1009, when she was fifty-five years of age. Wesley
Combs, who owns and still resides on the old home-
stead farm which was the place of his birth, is a son
of Wesley Combs, Sr., who was born in Perry County
and who became one of the substantial farmers and
highly esteemed citizens of Letcher County, which he
represented as a gallant soldier of the Union in the
Civil war, he and other men of the family having been
staunchly arrayed in the ranks of the republican party.
Wesley and Mary Cor Polly) Combs became the
parents of thirteen children, of whom ten are living:
Louisa, who became the wife of Solomon Frazier, died
at the age of forty-five years ; Dr. John W. is en-
gaged in the successful practice of medicine at Brow-
nell, Kansas ; James is a progressive farmer of Letcher
County and also conducts a general store at Dalna, a
station on the line of the Louisville & Nashville Rail-
road ; William is a merchant at Fleming, Letcher
County; Minta is the wife of S. H. Frazier, a farmer
near Dalna; Harlan remains with his father on the old
home farm; Minalee is the widow of H. C. Frazier
and resides at Dalna; Malinda is the wife of H. Y.
Brown, a popular teacher in the schools of Letcher
County ; Charles was a student in a dental college in
the City of Louisville at the time of his death, when
twenty-two years of age ; Stephen, of this review, was
the next in order of birth; Lorinda died at the age of
twenty-three years ; Bradley and Blaine are twins, the
former being, in 1921, a student in the Kentucky Nor-
mal School at Richmond and the latter being associated
with the activities of the home farm of his father.
Four of the sons were in the nation's service in con-
nection with the great World war. Dr. John W. Combs
entered the medical corps of the army and in the same
gained commission as captain at Camp Oglethorpe,
Georgia. Stephen, to whom this sketch is dedicated,
attended the Second Officers' Training Camp at Fort
Benjamin Harrison, near Indianapolis, Indiana, and
though he was honorably discharged from the service
on account of physical disability, he was assigned to
special detached duty at Whitesburg, judicial center of
his native county, where he was associated with the
work of the local draft board, and later he was received
at Camp Taylor, where he was stationed at the time
of the signing of the armistice. Bradley, one of the
554
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
twin brothers, was receiving training at Camp Pike at
the time when he received his honorable discharge.
Blaine, the other twin, was in service at Camp Taylor
and at Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and later he was in
one of the military camps in the State of New York,
besides doing guard duty in shipyards in that state. He
was at Camp Sheridan at the time when he received his
discharge.
Judge Stephen Combs attended the school in his home
district, later attended the public schools of Whites-
burg, and thereafter he pursued higher studies in the
Mountain Training School at Hindman, under the di-
rection of Prof. George Clark. In preparation for his
chosen profession he entered the Jefferson School of
Law in the City of Louisville, in which he was grad-
uated as a member of the class of 1912 and from which
he received his degree of Bachelor of Laws, with
virtually coincident admission to the bar of his native
state. Prior to this he had tested his pedagogic powers
by teaching in four different rural schools in Letcher
County. He initiated the practice of law at Whites-
burg, where he has since maintained his home, and
in 1915 he was here associated in practice with Judge
David Hays, of whom personal mention is made on
other pages of this work. He next became a member
of the law firm of Lewis, Cook & Combs, with which
he continued his active practice until he was appointed
judge of the County Court in 1920, to fill out an un-
expired term. His service on the bench continued
about one year, and within his administration of this
judicial office the voters of the county manifested in
an electoral way their sanction of the issuing of road
bonds by the county to the value of $300,000. Thus
was initiated in an effective way the construction of
good roads in Letcher County, an appreciable amount
of constructive work in this line having been done
prior to the retirement of Judge Combs from the bench.
In January, 1921, he was elected county treasurer, and
thus he is able to exemplify further his deep interest in
his native county and to lend his personal and official
influence in the furtherance of civic and material prog-
ress. He is a stalwart in the local camp of the re-
publican party, is serving in 1921 as senior warden of
the Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons at Whites-
burg, his Masonic affiliations including membership in
the Commandery of Knights Templars at Winchester
and the Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Lexington, be-
sides which he holds membership in the Knights of
Pythias, the Loval Order of Moose and the Order of
Owls.
December 29, 1917, recorded the marriage of Judge
Combs and Miss Charlotte Fields, who was born and
reared in Letcher County, a daughter of M. C. Fields.
Mrs. Combs and her infant daughter died on the 9th
of December, 19:8. She was a woman of culture and
gracious personality, and prior to her marriage had
been a popular teacher in the schools of her native
county, she having attended school at Berea and also
at the Eastern Kentucky Normal at Richmond.
Thomas D. Burgess, M. D., is a leading physician
and surgeon of Lawrence County and controls a large
and representative practice, with residence at Louisa,
the county seat.
The Burgess family in America is of English origin.
The Southern branch of the family was established by
William Burgess, who first settled in Virginia, and on
account of his religious belief he went to the South
River Colony in Maryland in 1649. The official records
of 1658 bear evidence that he was a Quaker, as in that
year he declined to take the necessary oath to become
justice. He represented the people in the House of
Burgesses in 1659, and soon appears as high sheriff and
justice of Anne Arundel County. Later he was com-
missioned as member of the council of the province, and
when in 1684 Lord Baltimore sailed for England he
appointed Hon. William Burgess as deputy-governor and
lieutenant general of the province during his absence.
He died in the year 1686, leaving a large family of chil-
dren. Many of the Burgesses came back to Virginia
from Maryland, whence their ancestor had fled because
of being a Quaker. Many of his descendants resumed
the simple faith of their ancestor and followed the perse-
cuted Quakers to other states. During the Revolution-
ary war Burgesses lived in both Tidewater and Pied-
mont, Virginia, and took part in the war. They spread
in settlement to different parts of the state, and one,
John Meredith Burgess, came from Albemarle County
as one of the early pioneers of the Kanawha Valley.
I. John Meredith Burgess married about 1812 Judy
Cobb, daughter of Fleming Cobb, who as a youth of
thirteen years accompanied his uncle, Thomas Upton,
from near Richmond to the Kanawha Valley in 1781.
Judy Cobb was the granddaughter of Leonard Morris,
the first permanent white settler in the Kanawha Valley,
and a builder and protector of forts in the valley against
the ravages of the Shawnee Indians during the Revo-
lutionary war.
II. Fleming Cobb Burgess was the youngest of the
five children of John Meredith Burgess and Judy
(Cobb) Burgess. He married in 1835 Adelaide Wood,
of Kanawha County, who was a descendant of the old
Wood family of Virginia. He was a land owner and a
timberman, but more successful as a farmer. He reared
a large family of children.
III. James Washington Burgess was the eldest child
in the family of Fleming Cobb Burgess and Adelaide
(Wood) Burgess, and was born in 1837, near St. Albans.
In i860 he married Elizabeth Ann Harmon, of Cabell
County, who was descended from a line of clergymen
of the Baptist faith. The original Harmon family of the
South came from England and lived for a time near
the Moravian settlement in North Carolina, whence they
came to the valley of Virginia. Elizabeth Ann (Har-
mon) Burgess traces her ancestors through the Brum-
fields of Wayne County, West Virginia, to her great-
grandparents, John Hoover and Peggie (O'Brien)
Hoover, of Lee County, Virginia, the former of whom
was born in Germany and the latter in Ireland. Mr. and
Mrs. Burgess lived near St. Albans until 1887, when they
removed to Huntington, where they died, the former in
1904 and the latter in 1921. James W. Burgess and
Elizabeth (Harmon) Burgess were members of the
Missionary Baptist Church. He was a republican in
politics and was deeply interested in community affairs
of public order, especially in the maintaining of high
standards of education. They had the following chil-
dren: Victoria Evelyn is the wife of Dr. G. A. Shumate,
of Glenlyn, Virginia; Adda Marguerite is a resident of
Huntington, West Virginia ; Frances C, with the title
of B. S. from the University of Chicago, is a teacher
in Marshall College at Huntington, and her twin sister,
Anna L., died in 1888, at the age of twenty-three years,
she likewise having been a popular teacher in Marshall
College ; and Dr. William Henry Burgess is an active
practitioner of medicine at Williamson, West Virginia.
Dr. Thomas Dickinson Burgess was born in Kanawha
County, West Virginia, December 15, 1869, and gained
his early education in the public schools of his native
county and then continued his studies in Marshall Col-
lege at Huntington until he was nineteen years of age,
when he began the study of medicine. At the age of
twenty-two years he was graduated from the medical
department of the University of Maryland, in the City
of Baltimore, and in 1902 he completed an effective post-
graduate course in the Post-Graduate College in the City
of New York. He has specialized in surgery during the
greater part of his professional career, and since receiv-
ing his degree of Doctor of Medicine he has practiced
successively at Gilbert, Mingo County, West Virginia,
three years ; at Matewan, Mingo County, that state, four-
teen years ; and at Louisa, Kentucky, since that time.
He has been for many years local surgeon for the Nor-
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
555
folk & Western Railroad, both while residing at Mate-
wan, West Virginia, and since establishing his home at
Louisa. During his fourteen years of residence at
Matewan the doctor was retained as the official physician
and surgeon for fourteen coal-mining companies in that
section of West Virginia. Since coming to Louisa he
has held the position of local surgeon for the Chesapeake
& Ohio Railroad. At Matewan he conducted a private
hospital for a period of six years. Dr. T. D. Burgess
during his fourteen years' residence at Matewan, West
Virginia, was the first surgeon in Mingo County to per-
form a successful operation for penetrating gunshot
wound of the abdomen, also the first in Mingo and ad-
joining counties to perform the successful operation for
the removal of large Ovarian Cysts and likewise the
first surgeon in Wyoming County, West Virginia, to
perform the operation for abdominal pregnancy and of
Cesarean Section in Pike County, Kentucky, the first
of this series of major surgical operations having been
performed by him in April, 1896. This pioneer surgery
of this vicinity was performed under extreme disadvan-
tage in the private homes of individuals in the rural dis-
trict before any hospital had ever been established closer
than 100 miles of this vicinity. His practice since his
removal to Louisa has been extended to all parts of the
Tug, Levisa and Guyan rivers district and into other
sections of Eastern Kentucky, West Virginia and Vir-
ginia, especially in connection with surgery, in which he
has gained reputation that far transcends mere local limi-
tations. At Matewan he served for twelve years as a
member of the city council and the board of health, and
he has given four years of effective and loyal service
as a member of the city council of Louisa, and as chair-
man of its committee on municipal improvements he
has been specially progressive and has been a strong
advocate of the various measures that have been ad-
vanced for the general good of the community, especially
in the excellent work that has been accomplished in the
paving of city streets.
Doctor Burgess is actively identified with the
Lawrence County Medical Society, the Kentucky State
Medical Society and the American Medical Association.
His political allegiance is given to the republican party;
he is affiliated with the Master Masons Blue Lodge at
Louisa, Kentucky, Chapter of the Masonic Fraternity at
Wayne, West Virginia, the Commandery of Knights
Templars at Ashland, Boyd County, where he likewise
maintains affiliation with the El Hasa Temple of the
Mystic Shrine. He is a member also of the Independent
Order of Odd Fellows. Doctor Burgess is one of the
directors of the Louisa National Bank and an extensive
land holder in the mineral regions of Eastern Kentucky,
as well as the owner of other valuable real estate in
other sections of Kentucky and West Virginia.
In April, 1899, was solemnized the marriage of Doctor
Burgess and Miss Willie Jane Burgess, daughter of
Thomas Jefferson Burgess and Onolda Z. (Garred) Bur-
gess of Gallup, Lawrence County, Kentucky, the former
a descendant of the Burgesses of Albemarle County,
Virginia, and an extensive land holder and farmer of the
Big Sandy Valley, the latter tracing her ancestry through
the Garred (also called Garrard, Garrett or Jarrett)
family of French origin to James Garrard, fourth gov-
ernor of Kentucky, and the Graham (or Greame)
family, who are of Scotch-Irish descent, to the pioneer
settlers of Augusta County, Virginia, one of whom, Wil-
liam Graham, son of Michael Graham, was the founder
and for twenty years rector of Liberty Hall Academy,
which later was called the Augusta Academy and still
later became Washington and Lee University. He was
educated at Princeton College numbering among his
classmates James Madison, afterward President of the
United States, Aaron Burr and Henry Lee, father of
Robert E. Lee, and was a personal friend of George
Washington. William Graham's ancestry goes back to
Scotland, to Richard Graham (or Greame), known as
Viscount Preston, who was secretary of state of Scot-
land under King James, was leader of the House of
Commons and Earl of Montrose about the year 1685 ;
also to James Graham (Greame) of Claverhouse, Vis-
count of Dundee, who was leader of the Clans of the
Highlands of Scotland and who was the general in com-
mand of King James' army at the battle of Kilikrankie
about the close of King James' reign when William
Prince of Orange was crowned King ; also to Malcolm
Graham (Greame), who was bound in wedlock with a
golden chain to Ellen Douglass by King James II, this
Malcolm Greame being the same person referred to by
Sir Walter Scott in his "Lady of the Lake." The
Greame Coat of Arms being blazoned : quarterly : first
and fourth or, on a chief sable three escallops of the
field (for Greame). Second and third Argent, three
roses gules, barbed and seeded proper (for Montrose)
Crest; an Eagle, wings hovering, perched upon a heron,
lying upon its back, proper, beaked and membered gules.
Motto: N'Oubliez— Do not forget. The Garred Coat
Armor is complete with Shield, Crest, Motto and Sup-
porters. It is blazoned : Argent, a saltire gules. Crest :
A lion rampant, crowned, or motto : En Dieu Est mon
Esperance. The supporters are lions rampant, crowned
or, each holding a spear.
Of the four children of Doctor and Mrs. Burgess
three are living: Elizabeth Ann, aged nineteen, Cornelius
Jefferson, aged fourteen, and Julia Jane, aged twelve.
Thomas Dickinson, Jr., the second child, died in early
childhood. Elizabeth Ann, who is a second year student
at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, showed excep-
tional musical talent at the age of four years, when she
began singing solos at church socials at Matewan, West
Virginia, and at the age of fourteen was the soloist
at several of the largest Red Cross meetings of the citi-
zens of Lawrence County, Kentucky, during the engage-
ment of the United States in the World war, in the
activities of the citizens to raise financial support for the
United War Work Relief Fund, at which meetings, cov-
ering a brief period, nearly $6,000 were subscribed by
the tear-dimmed-eyed patriotic citizens of a community
not accustomed to such form of solicitation, but who
stood, both young and old, so loyally by every interest of
the Stars and Stripes. Doctor and Mrs. Burgess hold
membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
The attractive family home, covering a space of four
acres in the City. of Louisa, is a center of gracious
and unostentatious hospitality.
John F. Mark is not only one of the representative
farmers of the younger generation in Montgomery
County but also has the interesting distinction of mak-
ing the old homestead farm of the Mark family the
stage of his progressive farm industry. This excellent
farm is situated eight miles northwest of Mount Sterl-
ing, the county seat, on the Mount Sterling and Paris
Turnpike, one of the best thoroughfares of the country-
side of this section of the state. On this farm John
Fisher Mark was born on the 13th of January, 1889, a
son of Benjamin F. and Fannie (Roberts) Mark. The
father likewise was born on this old homestead, the
date of his navitity having been January 15, i860. Ben-
jamin F. Mark is a son of John and Nancy (Combs)
Mark, and the former's father, Robert Mark, was the
founder of the family in Montgomery County, he hav-
ing come to Kentucky from Virginia and having been
one of the early settlers in Montgomery County, where
he acquired a large tract of land and developed much
of the same to productiveness. Here he and his wife
passed the remainder of their lives. John Mark be-
came likewise one of the substantial farmers of this
county, where he and his wife continued to reside until
their deaths. Their children were twelve in number,
namely: Fisher, Jason, William, Benjamin F. Rubie,
James, Mary, Belle, Susan, Lizzie, Emma and Mug.
Benjamin F. Mark was reared on the old home farm,
and had the advantages of the public schools of the lo-
cality. After his marriage he settled on the farm now
556
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
operated by his only son, John F., of this sketch, and
here he and his wife continued to reside until 1919, when
they retired from the farm and established their home
in Mount Sterling, where the death of Mrs. Mark oc-
curred on the 13th of July, 1920, and where Benjamin
F. Mark remains as one of the substantial retired
farmers and sterling citizens of his native county. Mr.
Mark is a loyal supporter of the cause of the demo-
cratic party, and he is an elder of the Giristian Church,
of which his wife likewise was a devoted member,
John F., whose name initiates this review, being their
only child.
To the public schools of his native county John F.
Mark is indebted for his early education, which was
supplemented by his attending the Millersburg Military
Institute, in Bourbon County. He has since been con-
tinuously associated with the work and management
of the home farm, and has had sole supervision of the
same since the retirement of his father. Fortified by
early experience and by progressive methods, he is a
representative of the vigorous and successful exponents
of farm industry in Montgomery County, and has his
farm well ordered in both its agricultural and live-
stock departments. His political allegiance is given to
tlie- democratic party, and he and his wife hold mem-
bership in the Christian Church.
On the 2d of June, 1910, Mr. Mark wedded Miss
Margaret J. Robinson, who was born in Montgomery
County. September 18, 1887, a daughter of R. C. and
Mary (Stevens) Robinson. Mrs. Mark received the
advantages of the public schools of Mount Sterling, in-
cluding the- high school, and later was graduated in a
private school. Mr. and Mrs. Mark have six children,
whose names and respective dates of birth are here re-
corded: Frances R.. March 29, 1911; John R., June
t8, 101 2 ; Mary E., June 5, 1914; Benjamin F.. Jr., Feb-
ruary 6, 1917; Henry B.. July 28, 1919; and James F.
May io. [921.
John M. Cook. The bar of Letcher County is nota-
ble for its high standard, and among its representative
members of the younger generation is Mr. Cook. Addi-
tional interest attaches to his career by reason of the
fact that he is a native son of this county. His practice
is largely in the civil department, and he maintains his
home and professional headquarters at Whitesburg,
the county seat.
Mr. Cook was born in the Rockhouse Creek district
of Letcher County on the 28th of March, 1888. and is
a son of Dr. Thomas A. and Elizabeth (Caudill) Cook,
the former of whom was born in Scioto County, Ohio,
in 1863, and the latter of whom was born in Letcher
County, Kentucky, in the same year. Doctor Cook was
a child at the time of his parents' removal to Ken-
tucky, was reared to manhood in Letcher County,
availed himself of the advatages of its schools, and by
his successful work as a teacher he provided the funds
to defray the expenses of his course in the Louisville
Medical College, since his graduation in which institu-
tion be has been successfully engaged in practice on
Rockhouse Creek as one of the able and representative
physicians and surgeons of Letcher County. He for-
merly served as a member of the board of pens'on ex-
amining surgeons for this county. Of the three chil-
dren John M., of this sketch, is the eldest; Minerva is
the wife of Rev. E. C. Watts, pastor of the Methodist
Church at Lynch. Jackson County ; and Alice died in
childhood.
John M. Cook profited fully by the advantages of-
fered in the public schools of his native county, and
after leaving his studies in the Whitesburg schools he
entered Center College at Danville, where he remained
one year. Thereafter he was for a similar period a
student in Transylvania University at Lexington, and
his law course was taken in the law department of
the University of Louisville. In the meanwhile he had
given two years of effective service as a teacher in
the public schools at Democrat, Letcher County, and
in 1912 he was admitted to the bar. From that year
until the early part of the year 1921 he was associated
in practice with Judge J. P. Lewis at Whitesburg, and
since severing this partnership alliance he has con-
dinted an individual practice, with a clientage and busi-
ness that indicate alike his ability and the popular
estimate placed upon him in his old home county. In
January, 1918, Mr. Cook became a private soldier in
the United States Army and was sent to Camp Taylor
for training for service in connection with the World
war. He was later transferred to Camp Beauregard,
Louisiana, where he became a member of the one
Hundred and Fifty-fourth Infantry, which command
he accompanied to France, his overseas service having
been of eight months' duration. He was transferred
to special duty in the payroll department of the Ameri-
can Expeditionary Forces, with which he was connected
until his return to the United States, his honorable dis-
charge having been granted in January, 1919, on Long
Island, New York. He entered no plea for exemption
when the nation became involved in the war, and has
the satisfaction of knowing that he did his assigned
part and was able to show his patriotism in the great
struggle against despotism.
Mr. Cook is a vigorous advocate of the principles of
the republican party, is affiliated with the Blue Lodge
and Chapter organizations of York Rite Masonry, and
also with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks,
and he and his wife are active members of the Presby-
terian Church at Whitesburg.
In July. 1912, was solemnized the marriage of Mr.
Cook and Miss Sallie Mullins, daughter of David C.
Mullins, a well known citizen of Partridge, Letcher
County, and the one child of this union is a daughter,
Gertrude.
Garrett D. Sullivan has developed at Mount Ster-
ling, Montgomery County, a substantial and prosperous
business as a dealer in poultry and eggs, and the enter-
prise which he has thus established proves a valuable
contribution to the commercial activities of this vigor-
ous little city.
Mr. Sullivan was born in Mason County, Kentucky.
April 23, i860, and is a son of Garrett P. and Susan
( Pierce) Sullivan, both likewise natives of that county,
where both were born in the year 1829. The parents
were reared and educated in their native county, their
technical schooling having been limited, and there their
marriage was solemnized. They continued their resi-
dence in Mason County until 1878. when they removed
to Montgomery County, where the father purchased a
farm near Grassy Lick. Mr. Sullivan was a man of
energy and progressiveness. and was successful in his
farm enterprise, in connection with which he had the
dist nction of being the first man to engage in the
raising of tobacco in Montgomery County. He also
became a successful buyer and shipper of tobacco, of
which he was an authoritative judge, and he did much
to advance the tobacco industry in this section of the
state. It is interesting to note that his son Garrett D.,
immediate subject of this sketch, planted the first to-
bacco on the home farm, and thus the first in the
county, the young man having risen at a specially early
hour in the morning in order to assure himself of the
honor of setting out these first plants. The father was
one of the venerable and honored citizens of Mont-
gomery County at the time of his death, in 1015, his
wife having passed away in 1908. All of the six child-
ren still survive the parents, and the eldest of the num-
ber is Henry, who owns and resides upon the old home-
stead farm, which is one of the valuable places of Mont-
gomery County; Joseph P. resides at Mount Sterling;
Garrett D.. of this sketch, was the next in order of
birth; William is a resident of Charleston, Illinois;
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
557
Mrs. Lillie Walden resides in the State of Tennessee ;
and Mattie is the wife of Rev. Mr. Palmeter, of Lincoln
County, Kentucky.
Garrett D. Sullivan was reared to the sturdy discipline
of the farm and was about eighteen years of age at the
time of the family removal to Montgomery County.
He attended school during the winter terms and aided
in the work of the home farm until he had attained
to his legal majority. After his first marriage he was
engaged in farming in Clark County four years, and
he then returned to Montgomery County and engaged
in the buying and shipping of tobacco, with head-
quarters near Grassy Lick. He was thus engaged four
years, and then resumed his active association with
farm enterprise, in which he continued until 1888, when
he established his residence at Mount Sterling, where
he has since been successfully engaged in the poultry
and egg business. He owns the well equipped building
in which his business is conducted, and is the owner
also of his pleasant home property at 24 North Syca-
more Street. He is a staunch democrat in politics, but
has had no desire for political activity or public office.
As a young man Mr. Sullivan wedded Miss Fannie
King, and she died while they were residing in Clark
County, there having been no children of this union.
On the 3d of January, 180x1, Mr. Sullivan was united
in marriage with Miss Antha O'Rear, who was born in
the State of Missouri, on the ioth of January, 1869, a
daughter of Joseph and Mary D. O'Rear, both natives
of Montgomery County, Kentucky, where the former
was born in 1843 and the latter in 1847. The parents
of Mrs. Sullivan resided only one year in Missouri,
and then returned to Montgomery County, Kentucky,
where they have since maintained their home, both
being members of the Presbyterian Church, as is also
their daughter, Mrs. Sullivan. Mr. and Mrs. Sullivan
have three children: Riggs, who was born May 16, 1894,
was educated in the public schools and a business
college, and is now married and a resident of Mount
Sterling; Marjorie, who was born October 29, 1903, is
a graduate of the Mount Sterling High School and re-
mains at the parental home, as does also Virginia, who
was born February IS, 1907.
Mr. Sullivan is one of the wide-awake and pro-
gressive business men of Mount Sterling, and in his
home city he maintains affiliation with the Lodge of the
Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
~~ Frank P. Boyd. At a point three and one-half miles
north of Mount Sterling, the county seat of Mont-
gomery County, is situated the fine property known as
Fairfield Farm, and the owner and manager of this
modern and productive rural estate of 475 acres is the
progressive citizen whose name initiates this paragraph
and who is not only one of the successful agriculturists
and stock-growers of Bath County but who is also
engaged in the buying and shipping of live stock and
is a director of the Farmers Tobacco Warehouse Com-
pany of Mount Sterling, of which- important corpora-
tion Robert Howell is the president.
Mr. Boyd was born near Bethel, Bath County, Ken-
tucky, on the 13th of January, 1883, and is a son of
Jacob and Eliza (Hendricks) Boyd, both natives of
Bath County, where they now maintain their home in
the village of Bethel. The father is one of the extensive
farmers of the county, and is prominently identified
also with banking enterprise, being one of the influential
citizens of his native county. His political support is
given to the democratic party, and he and his wife are
active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South. Of the three children Frank P., of this review,
is the eldest; Narra, a graduate of the female college
at Millersburg, is the wife of Henry McCue, of Sharps-
burg ; and Elizabeth, who was graduated from Ran-
dolph-Macon College in the State of Virginia, with the
degree of Bachelor of Arts, remains at the parental
home.
Frank P. Boyd has been from his boyhood actively
associated with the basic industries of agriculture and
stockgrowing, and his early experience amply forti-
fied him when he initiated independent operations in
this connection. In addition to receiving the advan-
tages of the public schools of his native county he at-
tended and was graduated from the Kentucky Military
Institute. He remained at the parental home until
he had attained to his legal majority, and he has since
been independently engaged in farm enterprise, in which
his vigorous and well directed endeavors have brought
to him unequivocal success and a secure place as one
of the representative exponents of this line of industry
in Montgomery County.
Mr. Boyd is found loyally aligned in the ranks of
the democratic party, takes lively interest in com-
munity affairs and has served four years as magistrate
of his precinct. At Mount Sterling he is affiliated with
the Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, .
and there he and his wife hold membership in the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
In June, 1903, was solemnized the marriage of Mr.
Boyd and Miss Catherine Dickerson, who was born and
reared in Hardin County, this state, and their only
child, Carl B., who was born May 20, 1904, is, in 1921, a
senior in the Augusta Academy at Augusta, Bracken
County, Virginia.
Paschal Young Pursifull, M. D. Born and reared
in Eastern Kentucky, Doctor Pursifull after graduating
in medicine returned to the same section for his pro-
fessional career and has gained enviable distinction in
the field of surgery during his work at Whitesburg in
Letcher County.
Doctor Pursifull was born near Pineville in Bell
County, December 16, 1879, son of Mount and Orpha
(Hurst) Pursifull. His grandfather was Matthew
Pursifull. Mount Pursifull was a native of Bell
County. His uncle, Henry Pursifull, was for twelve
years county judge of Bell County. Mount Pursifull
was associated with Judge Pursifull in the organization
of the First National Bank of Pineville, a very strong
financial institution. Mount Pursifull is also a civil
engineer and surveyor by profession, and became a
dealer in large tracts of land. It was his policy to buy
up numerous small holdings, and concentrate them and
dispose of the land in larger parcels. While he was
only forty-seven when he died in 1898, through his
business and other interests he had many important
contributions to the substantial development of Bell
County. For years as an incident to his other em-
ployment he filled the office of county surveyor. In
young manhood he also taught school. His wife, Orpha
Hurst, was the daughter of a Baptist minister whose
home was in Claibourne County, Tennessee. She died
a few months after her husband, being the mother of
three sons and three daughters.
Doctor Pursifull was the oldest of the children. His
early education was acquired at Rose Hill Academy in
Virginia and he graduated from the Pineville High
School. For one term he was a teacher. Not finding
this occupation congenial, he began in 1901 the prepara-
tion for his present career in the Hospital Medical
College at Louisville, where he graduated in 1904. He
subsequently spent a year in special work in materia
medica, surgery and general practice at the City Hos-
pital at Louisville. The resident physician of that
hospital was Dr. Ed Wilson, of Pineville, who had
been Doctor Pursifull's schoolmate. They formed a
partnership for practice at Pineville, remaining there
one year, and came together to Whitesburg in iox>5,
where they were associated for another year. Since
then Doctor Pursifull has been alone in his professional
work, and has taken care of most of the surgical cases
in this community. He served as county health officer
and during the World war made the medical examina-
558
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
tions for the local Draft Board. He is a member of
the County and State Medical Associations.
In 1906 he married Miss Nellie Gorman, daughter of
Perry Gorman, Sr., a coal operator at Jellico, Tennes-
see. Doctor and Mrs. Pursifull have two children,
Hobert Young and Renavia. Doctor Pursifull was a
deacon in the Baptist Church until his professional
work became so heavy that he could serve no longer.
He is a member of the Masonic Lodge and Chapter,
the Elks at Middlesboro, and the Independent Order of
Odd Fellows. Politically he is a democrat.
R. Monroe Fields. Character and ability have given
to R. Monroe Fields a secure vantage-ground as one
of the leading members of the bar of his native county,
and this fact needs no further voucher than the state-
ment that he served as commonwealth attorney for the
district comprising Letcher and Pike counties, his home
being at Whitesburg, judicial center of the county first
named.
Mr. Fields was born in the King's Creek district of
Letcher County, January 24, 1881, and is a representa-
tive of a family whose name has been long and worthily
identified with the history of Southeastern Kentucky.
His grandfather, Rev. R. H. Fields, was a pioneer
clergyman of the Baptist Church in this section of the
state, and followed his work with consecrated devotion,
his services as a minister having extended throughout
many counties in this section of the state, and his
labors having been arduous and self-sacrificing, in min-
istering in remote and isolated communities that were
to be reached only by the traversing of rough moun-
tain roads. Rev. R. H. Fields served as a loyal soldier
of the Union in the Civil war, was a stalwart republican
in politics, served for a long period in the office of
justice of the peace, and wielded wide and benignant
influence. He was eighty-two years of age at the time
of his death.
He whose name introduces this sketch is a son of
Matthew C. and Rachel (Mustlewhite) Fields, both of
whom likewise were born and reared in Letcher County,
where the father became a representative farmer and
country merchant and where he served two terms as
justice of the peace, both he and his wife being mem-
bers of the Baptist Church. They now reside at Poor
Fork, Harlan County, to which place they removed in
1919, Mr. Fields being sixty-four years of age and his
wife fifty-seven years at the time of this writing, in
1921. To them have been born eight sons and six
daughters. One of the sons, Dr. D. M., is a physician
at Poor Fork; Ira is a merchant at that place, and
Benton there follows the trade of carpenter, while
Hiram also resides at Poor Fork.
R. Monroe Fields profited fully by the advantages of
the public schools of the neighborhood in which he
was born, as is evident when it is stated that he gave
four years of effective service as a teacher in the
schools of his native county. He finally entered the
law department of the University of Louisville, in
which he was graduated as a member of the class of
1904, his admission to the bar of his native state having
been practically coincident with his reception of the
degree of Bachelor of Laws. He began practice at
Whitesburg, and for four years here maintained a
professional alliance with Felix G. Fields. In 1009 he
was elected county attorney of his native county, serv-
ing one term of three years, and in this office he made
so excellent a record as a prosecutor that he was a
logical candidate for the position of commonwealth at-
torney of the district, comprising Letcher and Pike
counties, to which he was elected in 1912 and reelected
in 1915, filling this office until 1921. In this office Mr.
Fields has given a most able administration and added
greatly to his professional prestige, so that his name
has been brought prominently into consideration in
connection with candidacy for the bench of the Circuit
Court. He is a republican, and has been prominent in
the councils and campaign activities of the party in
his section of the state. As a youth he became a mem-
ber of the Baptist Church founded by his paternal
grandfather on King's Creek, and he and his wife now
hold membership in the Missionary Baptist Church of
Whitesburg. In his home village Mr. Fields is affiliated
with the Blue Lodge and Chapter of the Masonic
fraternity, and his chivalric affiliation is with the Com-
mandery of Knights Templars at Winchester, besides
which he is a member of the Temple of the Mystic
Shrine in the City of Lexington, and holds member-
ship also in the Improved Order of Red Men and the
Junior Order United American Mechanics.
The year 1905 recorded the marriage of Mr. Fields
with Miss Florence Tyree, who was born and reared
in Letcher County, a daughter of Samuel C. Tyree,
who was formerly engaged in the practice of law in
this county but who is now a clergyman of the Mission-
ary Baptist Church and pastor of the church of this
denomination at London, Laurel County. Mr. and
Mrs. Fields have four children: Mabel, Glenn, Beulah
and Hazel.
Bert C. Bach, M. D., who is established in the suc-
cessful practice of his profession at Whitesburg, judi-
cial center and metropolis of Letcher County, has
gained place as one of the representative physicians
and surgeons of the county and has developed a sub-
stantial practice. It is interesting to record that three
of his brothers likewise are physicians and are achiev-
ing marked success in their profession, Dr. Arthur
Bach being engaged in practice in the City of Lex-
ington, and Drs. Wilgus and Luther Bach being suc-
cessful practitioners at Jackson, Breathitt County,
where they also conducted a well equipped hospital.
All of the brothers are graduates of the medical de-
partment of the University of Louisville.
Dr. Bert C. Bach was born near Jackson, Breathitt
County, on the 22d of April, 1882, and is a son of
Hiram and Mary (Bach) Bach, both of whom were
born and reared in Breathitt County, where they still
maintain their home on their farm, the father being
sixty-two years of age and the mother sixty-five years
at the time of this writing, in the summer of 1921, and
both being representatives of sterling pioneer families
of Kentucky. Hiram Bach is not only a successful
farmer in his native county, but also conducts a pros-
perous general store at Stephenson. He is a republican
in political allegiance, and both he and his wife hold
membership in the Baptist Church. The original repre-
sentatives of the Bach family in Kentucky came either
from Virginia or North Carolina, and there is ample
assurance that the family was founded in America in
the early Colonial days. The representatives who first
came to Kentucky settled in Letcher County, whence
removal was later made to Breathitt County, where the
name has since been prominently identified with civic
and material development and progress.
The early educatioTial advantages of Dr. Bert C. Bach
included those of Lee Institute in his native county,
and he gave four years of effective service as a teacher
in the rural schools of Breathitt County. From 1003
to 1905 he was in service as hospital steward in the
United States Army in the Philippine Islands, and
there he saw active service at the time of the insur-
rection on the part of certain of the native tribes. In-
cidentally he gained valuable experience in connection
with medical and surgical work and thus fortified him-
self greatly for the profession which was later to
become his vocation. He remained in the Philippines
two years and seven months, and after his return to
the United States he entered the medical department
of the University of Louisville, where he continued his
studies during the year 1909, and until his graduation
in 1910, his work as an undergraduate having included
also service in the City Hospital. Since obtaining his
degree of Doctor of Medicine he has taken effective
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
559
post-graduate courses in the Chicago Polyclinic and in
the medical department of Tulane University in the
City of New Orleans. Doctor Bach entered the medical
corps of the United States Army at the time of the
World war, and in the same he received his commission
as captain on the 6th of November, 1918, five days be-
fore the signing of the historic armistice brought the
war to a close. The Doctor initiated the practice of
his profession at Quicksand, Breathitt County, where
he became contract physician in the service of a large
lumber corporation, and it was from that locality that
he came to Letcher County and established himself in
practice at Whitesburg, where splendid success has
attended his able and earnest professional endeavors.
He is secretary of the Letcher County Medical Society,
and is a member also of the Kentucky State Medical
Society and the American Medical Association. Doctor
Bach is a man of commanding physique, being six feet
and four inches in height and of weight that is pro-
portionate, so that he is well fortified for the arduous
duties of his professional work, which involves visita-
tions to many remote parts of the county and the fac-
ing of storms as well as the traversing of roads that
in many instances are not improved, some being little
more than mountain trails. He is a staunch republican,
his Masonic affiliations include membership in the
Commandery of Knights Templars at Mount Sterling
and the Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Lexington, and
his religious faith is that of the Presbyterian Church,
his wife being a member of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South.
In the year 191 1 Doctor Bach wedded Miss Edna
Williams, daughter of Thomas Williams, of Hazel
Green, Wolfe County, and they have a winsome little
daughter, Lucille.
John T. Kumbrough is distinctively one of the repre-
sentative business men of Owingsville, judicial center
of Bath County, where he owns and conducts a well
equipped' and appointed drug store and is also vice-
president of the Farmers Bank, one of the substantial
financial institutions of the county.
Mr. Kumbrough was born on a farm near Millers-
burg, Nicholas County, Kentucky, January 13, 1846,
and is a representative of one of the well known and
highly honored pioneer families of that county, his
father, John G. Kumbrough, having been born and
reared in Nicholas County, and the mother, whose
maiden name was Hannah J. Smith, having been born in
Harrison County, this state. John G. Kumbrough was
reared and educated in his native county and repre-
sented Kentucky as a gallant soldier in the Mexican
war, in which he sacrificed his life in 1848, dying in a
hospital. His young wife was left to care for their
two children, John T., of this review, who was then
about two years old, and Mary Ruth, who became the
wife of Dr. E. W. Richards and who became the
mother of five sons and four daughters. In 1850 the
widowed mother came with her two children to Owings-
ville, Bath County, and here she maintained her home
until her death, in 1869.
John T. Kumbrough gained his youthful education in
the village schools of Owingsville, and he was a mere
lad when he initiated his independent career by taking
a position as clerk in a local drug store, at a salary
of $10 a month. He applied himself diligently to the
study of the business, made substantial advancement in
technical knowledge of pharmacy and within the
period of his four years of clerical work in the drug
store he so made his value realized that he was given
an excellent salary, as gauged by the standards of the
locality and period. At the expiration of the four years
he purchased a drug store at Owingsville, in partnership
with another young man, and for two years the enter-
prise was conducted under the firm name of Kum-
brough & Bascom. He then sold his interest in the
business, and for the ensuing eleven years was asso-
ciated with G. W. Connor in the same line of business,
under the firm title of Connor & Kumbrough. He then,
in 1881, purchased his partner's interest, and he has
since continued the business in. an individual way. He
now has prestige as one of the oldest merchants of
Owingsville in point of continuous activity, and
through honorable dealings and effective service he
has achieved substantial success, together with an in-
violable place in the confidence and high regard of
the community in which he has lived from his childhood
and in which his advancement has been won through
his own ability and well ordered endeavors. In addition
to being owner of the drug store and vice-president of
the Farmers Bank of Owingsville, Mr. Kumbrough is
the owner of a well improved farm of 200 acres, and
through the medium of the same has contributed his
quota to the advancement of agricultural and live-
stock industry in Bath County. He has had no am-
bition for public office or political activity, but is un-
swerving in his allegiance to the democratic party. He
is a past master of Bath Lodge No. 55, Free and
Accepted Masons, and as a citizen he is loyal and
public-spirited.
In January, 1872, Mr. Kumbrough wedded Miss Ella
T. Maury, who was born in the City of Louisville and
who was graduated in Maysville Academy. Mrs. Kum-
brough passed to the life eternal in the year 1891. Of
the two children the elder is Lawrence O., who was
born in October, 1872, and who is now a partner in
his father's old established drug business; Nellie, who
was born in 1877, became the wife of John K. Richards
and is now deceased, she being survived by three chil-
dren.
Joseph R. Dawson. Though he now resides at
Owingsville, the county seat, Mr. Dawson owns and
has the general supervision of the fine old homestead
farm on which he was born and reared and which is
one of the valuable places of Bath County, this landed
estate comprising 215 acres. He gives similar attention
to farm properties owned by his two widowed sisters,
and his superintendency thus covers a total of 47s acres
of the productive land of Bath County.
On the old homestead farm which he now owns
Joseph R. Dawson was born November 21, 1855, and
he is a scion of the third generation of the Dawson
family in Bath County, his paternal grandfather, Joseph
Dawson, having come from the State of Maryland and
numbered himself among the pioneer settlers in Bath
County, where he reclaimed and improved a productive
farm, besides which as a skilled millwright he erected
and equipped a grist mill that was long continued in
operation and that was one of the landmarks of the
county for many years, it having been known far and
wide as the Dawson Mill. In this county, Joseph
Dawson passed the remainder of his life, as did also
his wife, whose maiden name was Nancy Botts. Their
children were three in number, William, John and
Jefferson.
Jefferson Dawson, father of him whose name intro-
duces this review, was born at the family homestead,
one mile west of Owingsville in the year 1820, was
reared under the conditions and influences of that
pioneer period in the history of Bath County and re-
ceived the advantages of the common schools. He early
began to contribute his aid in the operation of his
father's farm and mill, and during the course of a long
and useful life he marked the passing years with vigor-
ous and successful enterprise as a farmer, the while he
owned and improved a large farm property, both he
and his wife having continued to reside on the old
homestead place until their deaths, when well advanced
in years. As a young man Jefferson Dawson wedded
Miss Eliza Rice, who likewise was born and reared in
Bath County, and of their twelve children only five
are living at the time of this writing, in 1921 : Mary is
the widow of James Ficklow ; Joseph R., of this sketch,
560
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
is the next younger; Jannie is the wife of Lewis W.
Young, of Bath County ; Ella is the wife of Walter
Harper, of this county; and Sallie is the widow of
R. B. Brother. All of the surviving children continue
their residence in Bath County, as representatives of
one of the sterling pioneer families of this now favored
section of Kentucky.
The old home farm continued as the abiding place
of Joseph R. Dawson until he had attained to his legal
majority, and in the meanwhile he profited by the ad-
vantages afforded in the common schools. After leav-
ing the parental home he was for nine years employed
as superintendent of the Hamilton farms, representing
one of the large landed estates if this district of Ken-
tucky, and he then returned to the old homestead farm,
which eventually came into his possession, and to the
supervision of which he has since continued to give
his attention, though he has maintained his residence at
Owingsville since the year 1899.
Mr. Dawson is a staunch supporter of the cause of
the democratic party, and is a member of the Chris-
tian Church, as also his parents. He was loyal
and liberal in support of the various local activities of
patriotic order during the period of the nation's par-
ticipation in the World war, and he still retains
possession of the Government war bonds which he pur-
chased with consistent liberality. Mr. Dawson is a
bachelor.
Elmer H. Hicks. One of the rising men in public
affairs of Grayson County, who has discharged the
duties of his official position in a manner calling for
the commendation of his fellow-citizens, Elmer H.
Hicks clerk of the Circuit Court, is a product of this
county, where he has spent his entire life. A lawyer by
profession, he has brought to the responsibilities of his
office a conscientious desire to make the best use
possible of his thorough legal training, and his efficiency
and energy have been greatly appreciated by those who
des're expediency in court matters.
Mr. Hicks was born on a farm near Millerstown,
Grayson County, Kentucky. December 8, 1886, a son
of Hendrix and Sarada (Carby) Hicks. The family
was founded in Kentucky at an early date and for some
years was located in Hardin County, where the great-
grandfather of Mr. Hicks was a pioneer and where he
passed the greater part of his life in agricultural pur-
suits. William Hicks, the grandfather of Elmer H.
Hicks, was born in 1823, in Hardin County, but as a
young man removed to Grayson County, where he fol-
lowed farming for many years, his retirement coming a
short time before his death, which occurred at Big
Clifty, Kentucky, in 1808. He was a man of worth
and substantial qualities, and possessed in the fullest
degree the esteem and respect of the people in the com-
munities where his home was made.
Hendrix Hicks was born in 1851, near Big Cliffy,
Grayson County, and was reared and educated in that
locality, where he spent all of his life in agricultural
pursuits and died in 1904. His early education was
limited, but later years proved him to be a man of
considerable mental ability. He belonged to the prac-
tical class of agriculturists and was energetic and pro-
gressive, while in his dealings with his fellow-men he
was straightforward and above-board, winning their
confidence and respect. He was a republican, but not a
politician, and was not a seeker for public preferment at
the hands of his party. He was of the Christian faith
and supported his church liberally in all its movements.
Mr. Hicks married Miss Sarada Carby, who was born
in 1850, in Hardin County, and who survives him as a
resident of Louisville. They became the parents of five
children : Fannie, who died at the age of twenty-seven
years, near Millerstown, Kentucky, as the wife of Frank
Nunn, who is now an agriculturist in Kansas ; Lucretia,
who died unmarried at the age of twenty-two years ;
Dr. J. H., a successful practicing physician and surgeon
of Louisville ; Elmer H. ; and C. C, a real estate agent
at Leitchfield.
Elmer H. Hicks received his early education in the
rural schools of Grayson County, where he was reared
on the home farm. His inclinations, however, were not
for the career of an agriculturist, but rather for a
professional life, and he eventually decided upon the
law as the medium through which to gain success. En-
rolling as a student at the Western State Normal Uni-
versity, Bowling Green, Kentucky, he attended that
institution through the junior year, and when he left,
in 1910, took up the study of law. Subsequently he
attended the University of Louisville, Louisville, Ken-
tucky, and the McKinley University, Chicago, from
which he graduated with the degree of Bachelor of
Laws, and in 1916 was admitted to the Kentucky bar.
In the meantime, in November, 1915, Mr. Hicks had
been elected Circuit Court clerk of Grayson County,
and in January, 1916, entered upon the duties of that
office, which he has filled to the present time, his offices
being in the Court House at Leitchfield. He is capable,
energetic and courteous, and has proven one of the
most popular and efficient court attaches that Grayson
County has had.
In political matters Mr. Hicks is a stanch republican,
while his religious connection is with the Christian
Church, in which he is an elder. Fraternally he is
affiliated with Leitchfield Lodge No. 236, A. F. and
A. M. ; and Leitchfield Camp, M. W. A. He has evi-
denced his faith in the future prosperity of his locality
by practical investments in real estate, being the owner
of a comfortable two-story home of modern design on
Maple Street, a dwelling near the Public Square, a
dwelling in the suburbs of Leitchfield and a farm of
100 acres north of the county seat one-eighth of a mile
Always patriotic and public-spirited, during the World
war he was a generous supporter and active worker in
connection with the various war activities promoted in
Grayson County.
In 191 1, at Milwood, Grayson County, Mr. Hicks was
united in marriage with Miss Myrtle Crawford, daugh-
ter of J. Wallace and Monie (White) Crawford, who
reside near Louisville, Mr. Crawford being a highly
respected farmer of that commusity. Mr. and Mrs.
Hicks have had five children: Edward, born July 13,
1913; Edwin, twin of Edward, born July 13, 1913, who
died February 9, 1920; Marguerite, born August 29,
1015; Dorothea, bom January 10, 1918; and Crawford,
born February 10, 1921.
William Mitchell Evvixc, M. D. For three genera-
tions the name of Ewing has been held in high esteem
in medical annals in Kentucky, Dr. William Mitchell
Ewing, a prominent physician and surgeon of Cave City,
Barren County, having followed in the professional
footsteps of father and grandfather. This has long
been a substantial and representative family in the
state, a leading one in culture and good citizenship, and
one that more than once, in some of its branches, has
contributed to the country men of national importance.
William Mitchell Ewing was born February 9, 1882,
at Smith's Grove, Warren County, Kentucky, and is a
son of Dr. George T. and Sallie (Porter) Ewing, a
grandson of Dr. Thomas Webb and Martha (Saunders)
Ewing, and a great-grandson of William Ewing, the
original settler, a native of Ireland, who came early to
Virginia, married, reared a family and died there.
Dr. Thomas Webb Ewing was born in 1816, at Buck-
ingham Court House Buckingham County, Virginia, was
reared on his father's plantation, was afforded superior
educational advantages for the time and was a student
of medicine in the old University of Virginia, from
which he received his medical degree. He married
Martha Saunders, who was born in 1820, in Prince
George County, Virginia, and died at Smith's Grove,
Kentucky, in 1902, to which place they came shortly
after their marriage. Dr. Thomas Webb Ewing was
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
561
one of the eminent medical men of his day in Kentucky.
He died in his home at Smith's Grove in Warren
County in 1892.
Dr. George T. Ewing was born at Smith's Grove,
Kentucky, May 30, 1850, and has practically spent his
life there. Following his graduation from the medical
department of the University of Louisville he returned
to his native place and entered upon the practice of his
profession, to which he assiduously applied himself
for many years, retiring in 1918 after a professional
career of great usefulness. In politics he has always
been identified with the democratic party, and he has
been equally faithful as a member and cheerful sup-
porter of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He
belongs to the Masonic fraternity and also to the order
of Odd Fellows. He married Miss Sallie Porter, who
was born near Scottsville in Allen County, Kentucky,
in 1851, and died at Smith's Grove, Kentucky, in 1909.
They became the parents of four children : Thomas D.,
who is in the railway mail service, lives at Smith's
Grove ; Porter Yandell, who is a farmer near Smith's
Grove, for many years was proprietor of a drug store
there; William Mitchell; and Frank S., who is a dental
surgeon at Smith's Grove.
William Mitchell Ewing attended the public schools
at Smith's Grove, then entered Smith's Grove College,
which he left in his senior year to enter the State Col-
lege at Lexington, Kentucky, and during his year there
completed his classical course, which he had commenced
in Smith's Grove College. He early had decided upon
his choice of profession and completed a medical course
in the medical department of the University of Louis-
ville, from which he was graduated with his degree in
1904.
Aside from the usual professional experience of
ordinary practice Doctor Ewing has a wide field of
work and knowledge to draw upon. Following his
graduation he became an interne in the United States
Public Health and Marine Hospital at Evansville, In-
diana, afterward, for eleven months, being assistant
surgeon there, and then spent two years as surgeon for
the Tennessee Coal & Iron Company, stationed at their
hospital just out of Birmingham, Alabama. In January,
1908, he came to Cave City, Kentucky, where he has
built up a large and substantial practice both in med-
icine and surgery. He maintains well equipped, modern
offices in the Post Office Building on Front Street.
Keeping fully abreast with the discoveries of medical
science, Doctor Ewing seizes every opportunity for pro-
fessional knowledge. In 1912 he attended clinics at
Washington, D. C, for post-graduate work in anatomy.
In March, 1918, he entered military service in the
United States, and was commissioned a first lieutenant
in the Medical Corps, with foreign service in prospect.
On July 18, 1918, he left for Europe as a member of
the 88th Division, 313th Sanitary Train, 349th Ambu-
lance Company, safely reached his destination and for
the next five months was mainly stationed five kilo-
meters from the Swiss border, just opposite the Hin-
denberg line. Of the strain of that experience Doctor
Ewing, like the most of his hero comrades, says little,
but there are many who recall him with gratitude. He
returned to his own land as a casual and was honor-
ably discharged in December, 1918, at Camp Mills,
Long Island.
At Smith's Grove, Kentucky, in 1907, Doctor Ewing
married Miss Maude Crump, who died, leaving no chil-
dren, May 20, 1915, at Cave City. She was socially well
known, a daughter of William and Lou (Hudson)
Crump, both now deceased. Her father was a wealthy
business man, farmer and mule dealer in Warren
County.
Doctor Ewing has never taken any very active part
in politics, the duties of his profession practically pre-
cluding it, but his political convictions made him a
democrat, in which faith he was reared. During college
days he took a great deal of interest in his Greek
letter fraternity, the Phi Chi. He is now identified
with such representative scientific organizations as the
Barren County Medical and the Kentucky State Med-
ical Societies, the Southern Medical Association and
the American Medical Association.
Henry J. Daily, M. D., has the personality and
technical ability that make for unequivocal success in
the exacting profession of his choice, and he holds
secure prestige as one of the representative physicians
and surgeons in Bath County, where he is engaged in
active general practice, with residence and professional
headquarters at Owingsville, the county seat. The
Doctor was born at Millersburg, Bourbon County, Ken-
tucky, on the 20th of November, 1874, and is a son of
Charles H. and Martha (Wilson) Daily, the former
of whom was born in Bracken County, this state, Feb-
ruary 24, 1847, and the latter of whom was born in
Bourbon County, February 3, 1852, their marriage hav-
ing been solemnized on the 2d of July, 1871. The
father received the advantages of the common schools,
and that he made excellent use of these advantages is
shown by the fact that he became a successful teacher
in the Kentucky schools, his record in the pedagogic
profession having included service of forty years, and
his activities as a teacher having been principally in
the schools of Bracken, Robertson, Harrison and
Nicholas counties. He was also long and actively con-
cerned with farm enterprise. Mr. Daily was a staunch
and well fortified advocate of the principles of the
democratic party, was affiliated with Bratin Mills Lodge
No. 475, Free and Accepted Masons, and both he and
his wife were earnest members of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South, in which he served both as
superintendent of and a popular teacher in the Sunday
School. Of the seven children all except one are liv-
ing: Sabina is the wife of R. G. McDowell ; Dr. Henry
J., of this sketch, was the next in order of birth; James
M. is a prosperous farmer in the State of Oklahoma;
Mabel is the widow of W. H. Green and resides in
Oklahoma City; Lucile is the wife of P. A. Tankserly;
Wilson D. is a prosperous farmer in Oklahoma; and
Daisy died at the age of fourteen years.
Doctor Daily passed the period of his childhood and
early youth principally at Millersburg, his native place,
and in addition to attending a private school he was for
some time a student in the Kentucky Military Institute
at Millersburg, in which he was graduated. In the
furtherance of his education along academic lines he
then entered Vanderbilt University at Nashville, Ten-
nessee, and in this institution he was graduated as a
member of the class of 1899, and with the degree of
Bachelor of Arts, the following year having recorded
his reception of the degree of Master of Arts after an
effective post-graduate course in the same university.
In preparation for his chosen profession he then en-
tered the celebrated Tufts Medical College in the City
of Boston, Massachusetts, where he continued his
studies one year. He then became a student in the
medical department of the University of Louisville in
the metropolis of his native state, and in this institution
he was graduated in 1903, with the degree of Doctor
of Medicine. On the 21st of July of the same year
Doctor Daily opened an office and engaged in the prac-
tice of his profession at Owingsville, where he has
since continued his effective and successful profession-
al service and where he now controls a large and repre-
sentative general practice. He keeps in close touch
with advances made in medical and surgical science,
and thus brings to bear the most approved modern
methods and agencies in the work of his profession.
He is actively identified with the Bath County Medical
Society, the Kentucky State Medical Society and the
American Medical Association. The year 1921 finds
him serving as secretary of the Bath County Medical
Society.
Doctor Daily is aligned in the ranks of the demo-
cratic party, and Doth he and his wife are active mem-
bers of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in their
562
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
home village, he having charge of the laymen's organ-
ization of this church. The Doctor is prominently
affiliated with the time-honored Masonic fraternity, in
which he is a past master of Bath Lodge No. 55,
Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, at Owingsville; a
first high priest of Owingsville Chapter, Royal Arch
Masons, which has been constituted recently ; and at
Carlisle, Nicholas County, he is affiliated with Nicholas
Council, Royal and Select Masters, and with the Com-
mandery of Knights Templars. He holds membership
in the Owingsville Tent of the Knights of the Macca-
bees.
In the year 1903. was solemnized the marriage of
Doctor Daily and Miss Cora May King, of Carlisle,
Nicholas County, where she continued her studies in
the public schools until her graduation in the high
school. Dr. and Mrs. Daily have three children, whose
names and respective dates of birth are here recorded :
Charles F., August 26, 1005; Mary Bruce, September
21, 1908; and Henry J., Jr., March 2, 1911.
Stuart English Duncan. In looking around for
men of vigorous and forceful character who_ have
taken important and prominent part in the affairs of
men the biographer is not expected to deal only with
valiant and martial heroes, for in the world of sci-
ence and arts, in the marts of trade, and in the pro-
fessions and politics of the day there are found men
of action, capable and earnest, whose talents, energies
and enterprise command the respect of their fellow-
men, and whose lives are worthy examples deserving
emulation.
That the life of such a person should have its public
record is proper because knowledge of men whose sub-
stantial reputations rest upon their attainments, char-
acter and success must necessarily exert a wholesome
influence on the rising generation of the American
people.
In this connection it is appropriate to review the
career of Stuart English Duncan, first vice president
of the Peaslee-Gaulbert Company, a director of the
Kentucky Wagon Manufacturing Company, B. F. Avery
& Sons, the National Bank of Kentucky, and an officer
in the Second Presbyterian Church, Louisville, and
treasurer of the Synodical Presbyterian Orphanage, An-
chorage, Kentucky. Mr. Duncan was bom in Ken-
tucky's metropolis July 30, 1866. His father, cut
down on the threshold of what promised to be a
brilliant career in the ministry, was Joseph De Witt
Duncan, a native of Elizabethtown, Kentucky and de-
scendant of an old Virginia family. He was the son
of Thomas H. and Lucretia Duncan, of Hardin County,
Kentucky, whose antecedents were among the early
settlers of Lincoln County, founded in 1781, before
Kentucky was taken into the Union and was a part
of the State of Virginia.
Thomas H. Duncan was a prosperous merchant of
Elizabethtown. His wife was the daughter of John
and Agnes (Fisher) Bigler and the latter was the
daughter of Steven and Magdaline (Garr) Fisher.
Steven Fisher, the great-great-grandfather of Stuart
English Duncan, was the son of Louis and Barbara
(Blandkenbaker) Fisher, all of Virginia.
Joseph De Witt Duncan was graduated early in life
from old Centre College, Danville, one of the lead-
ing educational institutions of Kentucky. He had been
out of college only a short while when the country
became engulfed in civil war. Being descended from
a long line of Virginians, he unhesitatingly cast his lot
with the South in the four year struggle that ensued,
enlisting in the command of Gen. John H. Morgan,
that daring Kentucky cavalry leader, who did as much
to harass the enemies of the Southland as any one
leader in the Confederate army. He remained with
this valiant soldier throughout hostilities, seeing serv-
ice under Basil W. Duke, later a major general but
then a lieutenant in Morgan's command and Gen. John
B. Castleman, then a colonel, both of Louisville. He
took part in some of the hardest fought skirmishes of
the war, always acquitting himself brilliantly. When
the war was over, Joseph De Witt Duncan took up
the practice of law, forming a law partnership with
W. R. Kinney and Timothy Needham. The three had
offices, under the firm name of Kinney, Duncan, Need-
ham, in a building on the southwest corner of Fifth
and Jefferson streets, Louisville. It was only a few
years later that Joseph De Witt Duncan decided to enter
the ministry. He attended a Presbyterian seminary at
Columbia, South Carolina, was graduated from there
and then accepted the pastorate of the Third Presby-
terian Church. He was in the first year of that pastor-
ate, and was firmly entrenched, in the hearts of his
parishioners when called by death February 22, 1878.
The mother of Stuart E. Duncan, Eliza English, is
still living. She like her husband was born in Elizabeth-
town and descended from early Virginia settlers. Her
mother was the daughter of Luke and Eliza Munsell,
the former a prominent surgeon. Her great-grandfather
on her mother's side was Achilles Sneed, a prominent
attorney of Frankfort, Kentucky and first clerk of the
Kentucky Court of Appeals.
A man of unimpeachable integrity and the highest
sense of honor, Stuart English Duncan stands at the
top in the business, civic and social life of Louisville,
and is generally recognized as one of the leading busi-
ness executives of the South. He possesses a person-
ality that has drawn to him friends from practically
every walk in life, but he has never aspired to public
office, the blare of trumpets and the fanfare of politics
never appealing to him. His love of home is one of his
chief characteristics.
For recreation Mr. Duncan delights in a game of
golf now and then, and takes keen pleasure in hobnob-
ing with his intimates at the Pendennis, Louisville
Country, Audubon and other clubs with which he has
long been identified. It is in his own home in the role of
host to an assembled company of his familiars that he is
happiest, however.
Mr. Duncan was only twelve years old when his father,
then pastor of the Third Presbyterian Church, Louis-
ville, died at the age of thirty-four. As a result the
son, the eldest of three children, two of whom are liv-
ing, had to content himself with a common school educa-
tion. When sixteen he sought his first employment,
finding it with the Louisville Presbyterian Assurance
Company. He left that concern one year later, identi-
fying himself with the Peaslee-Gaulbert Company.
The present wife of Mr. Duncan is Annie Leathers,
daughter of Maj. John H. Leathers, until recently presi-
dent of the Louisville National Bank and now chairman
of the Board of Directors of that institution. They were
joined in wedlock November 11, 1902, and have a daugh-
ter. Anne Stuart Duncan.
Mr. Duncan's first wife was Mary Louise Grinstead,
daughter of W. E. Grinstead, Louisville. They were
married December 20, 1894. As a result of this union
two children, Eliza English Duncan, deceased, and Wil-
liam Grinstead Duncan, were born.
Although he has never aspired to a political office Mr.
Duncan has long taken a keen interest in everything
pertaining to the welfare and advancement of his city,
state and nation. He is independent in politics, being
governed in his choices for public office largely by the
issues involved and the principles for which the various
aspirants stand.
He is a member of Louisville Lodge No. 4, F. & A. M. ;
King Solomon Chapter No. 5, R. A. M. ; DeMolay Com-
mandery No. 12, K. T. ; and Kosair Temple, A. A. O.
N. M. S. He has ever found pleasure in helping the
deserving needy and has assisted a number of struggling
voung men desirous of bettering their conditions in life.
James Tolliver, sheriff of Letcher County, has set
a high standard of efficiency in an office which is chief-
ly responsible for conditions of law and order in this
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
563
section of the state. Mr. Tolliver is in every way fitted
for such responsibilities, coming of a family of rugged
men, has virility in physique as well as in mind, and
without a show of strength impresses and causes men
to respect him and accept his official acts and commands
as final authority.
Mr. Tolliver was born in the Valley of the Kentucky
River, near Fleming, March 10, 1876, son of Melvin
and Arminda (Baker) Tolliver. His father was a
native of North Carolina, and has spent his active life
as a farmer. He now lives on his farm near Fleming.
The mother died in 1917. Of thirteen children there
are eleven living sons. All of them have the character-
istics of physical strength, and the father and eleven
sons are a number sufficient to constitute a full jury.
Sheriff Tolliver was the fourth among the children.
He attended the home schools and for a number of
years followed the plow and labored at other phases of
the agricultural vocation. In 1909 he accepted the post
of deputy sheriff under Louis Cook, and served four
years under Sheriff Cook and four years under Sheriff
C. H. Beck. In 1917 he was himself chosen as high
sheriff, and has made his term notable in many respects.
During the three years he has been in office he has
broken up 125 illicit stills in the county and captured
over 300 men, and in that work has had the able co-
operation of the county attorney. Sheriff Tolliver is six
feet tall, and a man in every sense of the word.
In 1899 he married Miss Florence Quillen, daughter
of Wiley Quillen. She was also born at the head of
the valley. Their six children are: Jacob, Rebecca,
William, Alex, Lola and Samantha. Mrs. Tolliver is
a member of the Baptist Church, and in politics he is
a republican.
Col. John A. Webb, a Whitesburg merchant, has
exemplified many of the fine characteristics of this old
and historic family in Eastern Kentucky. He has
handled the practical side of business affairs with
masterful results, has taught school, has done duty as
a soldier and officer in the State Militia and with the
Federal forces, and at all times has been one of the
strong and responsible citizens who could be depended
upon for the counsel of wisdom and efficiency of action
when required.
Colonel Webb was born at what is now the coal
village of Mayking, then known as the Big Bottom or
Mouth of Big Bottom locality on Kentucky River,
November 25, 1875. His parents were Wiley W. and
Elizabeth (Polly) Webb. His grandfather was the
historic character in Eastern Kentucky known as Ben
Webb. Ben Webb, a cousin of Daniel Boone, came to
the Kentucky Valley with a colony of seven families
from North Carolina about 1796. Ben Webb was a son
of James Webb, an Englishman, who settled in America
and joined the colonists in their struggle for independ-
ence. While an aide to General Washington he was
shot through the body at the battle of White Plains,
left on the field for dead, but recovered. He was liv-
ing on the eastern shore of Maryland when his son Ben
was born in 1771. He came to Kentucky after his son
Ben, and spent the rest of his life on the Kentucky
River. Ben Webb, who lived to the age of ninety-
seven, was one of the early sheriffs of Eastern Ken-
tucky and otherwise a man of prominence.
Wiley Webb was born at the mouth of Big Bottom
October 29, 1828, and died December 29, 1915, at the
age of eighty-seven. He spent all his life farming in
his home locality. He acquired a good education
through his own efforts and was a teacher, and in 1870
was elected sheriff of Letcher County. He was a
stanch democrat and a member of the Baptist Church.
His wife, Elizabeth Polly, died in 1890, at the age of
fifty-three. She was born near the mouth of Colly
Creek, daughter of David Polly, of a family that came
to Kentucky about 1800, probably from North Caro-
lina. Wiley Webb and wife had the following sons and
daughters : Hiney, wife of Doctor Blair, of Apache,
Oklahoma ; E. L., a farmer near Portland, Tennessee ;
Cornelia, wife of J. W. Adams; Mattie, wife of Lee
Craft, of Salem, Indiana ; John A. ; B. M., who was in
the hotel business at Norton, Virginia; Jane, wife of
John A. Craft, who has been identified with the official
affairs of Letcher County thirty years as Circuit and
County clerk and county judge.
Col. John A. Webb received his education in the
home schools, at Pineville, Kentucky, and at what is
now Cumberland College at Williamsburg, Kentucky.
At the age of sixteen he began teaching, and while
connected with educational affairs he was principal of
the Whitesburg Academy. Colonel Webb has been
more or less closely identified with merchandising for
many years. In 1898 he established John A. Webb &
Company, with his brother B. M. Webb as his partner.
They opened a general store at Whitesburg, but sold
out in 1904. In 1906 Colonel Webb resumed merchan-
dising, and it has been almost a regular practice with
him to close out his merchandise stock about every two
years and then resume business soon afterward.
He first took an active part in local military affairs
during the operations of the Ku Klux in Eastern Ken-
tucky in 1901. At that time he organized Company H
of the Second Kentucky Militia, was elected captain of
the Company, and during subsequent service became
major and lieutenant colonel. During the night rider
troubles in 1908 he was with his command engaged in
preserving peace and order at Mount Sterling for two
months and in Bracke County, five months. In 1916
Colonel Webb was again called to service, this time
as a member of the Federal forces for guarding the
Mexican border. He spent eight months on duty at
Fort Bliss Texas, remaining there until he resigned his
commission in January, 1917.
Colonel Webb has also given his capital and enter-
prise to the development of the mineral resources of
Eastern Kentucky. He was associated with Judge
David Hays and C. H. Back in the organization of the
Smoot Creek Coal Company, which developed valuable
property which they sold January 1, 1918. Colonel
Webb served as a member of the State Board of
Equalization in 1916-17 under appointment from Gov-
ernor Stanley. He is a democrat in politics and is
affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
December 27, 1905, he married Cornelia Frazier, who
was born on Kingdom Come Creek, daughter of B. N.
Frazier. Colonel and Mrs. Webb have six children,
named Dixie, Pansy, Gay, Frank, Mae and Maud.
Joseph B. Goodpaster, the venerable and honored
president of the Farmers Bank of Owingsville, Bath
County, is a man of marked mental and physical vigor,
though he has passed the psalmist's span of three score
years and ten, and he is essentially one of the repre-
sentative and influential citizens of his native village
and county, even as he is a popular scion of one of
the honored pioneer families of this section of the old
Blue Grass State.
Mr. Goodpaster was born at Owingsville, on the 3d
of March, 1849, and is a son of Levi and Jane V.
(Allen) Goodpaster. Th*- father was born in 1820, on
a pioneer farm near Owingsville, and was a son of
Joseph Goodpaster, who came from Tennessee and be-
came one of the pioneer settlers in Bath County, where
he developed a productive farm and where both he
and his wife, whose family name was Jones, passed
the remainder of their lives. Levi Goodpaster re-
mained on the old home farm until he was a youth
of fifteen years, and in the meanwhile he had profited
by the advantage of the common schools of his native
county. Upon removing to Owingsville at the age noted
he became a clerk in a general store, and with the
passing years he became one of the leading merchants
of the village, he having long conducted a- general store
at Owingsville. To his enterprise also was due the
364
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
establishing of the first bank in the village, this institu-
tion having been known as the bank of Levi Good-
paster and he having conducted the same with ability
and scrupulous integrity until the time of his death,
which occurred on the 7th of July, 1876. He was a
man who achieved success through his own well
ordered activities, and in all the relations of life he
commanded secure place in the confidence and good
will of his fellow men. He did much to advance the
civic and material interests of Bath County and its
judicial center, and his name merits a place of honor
in every work reviewing the history of Bath County.
After his death the banking business was continued
under the title of the Goodpaster Bank until 1893, when
a reorganization occurred and the institution was in-
corporated as the Farmers Bank of Owingsville, the
son Joseph B. being made the first president under the
reorganization and having continued the incumbent of
this executive office to the present time. Levi Good-
paster was loyal and liberal as a citizen, was a staunch
supporter of the cause of the democratic party, and
both he and his wife were zealous members of the
Christian Church at Owingsville, he having been its
most influential member and having contributed to its
support with a high sense of personal stewardship.
His wife survived him by several years, and of their
eleven children all but one atttained to years of ma-
turity. Of the number only four are living at the
time of this writing, in the autumn of 1921, and Joseph
B., of this review, is the eldest of the four; Charles
W. is a representative member of the bar of Bath
County and is engaged in the practice of his profession
at Owingsville; Benjamin M. is a prosperous farmer
and miller in this county; and Espy H, who resides at
Owingsville, is the owner of a valuable farm property
in this county.
Joseph B. Goodpaster has resided continuously at
Owingsville from the time of his birth to the present,
save for a period of one year, August, 1864, to August,
1865, during which the family resided in Greencastle,
Indiana, at the time when the Civil war was in progress.
He profited by the advantages offered in the schools of
his native village, and supplemented this discipline by
attending the Kentucky State Agricultural College at
Lexington. As a young man he was engaged in the
hardware business at Owingsville about one year, and
he then assumed active charge of his father's banking
business. He has shown marked executive ability in
the development and upbuilding of the substantial busi-
ness now controlled by the Farmers Bank of Owings-
ville, J. T. Kumbrough being its vice-president; E. L.
Byron, its cashier ; and J. R. Ammerman and C. S.
Elliott, its assistant cashiers. In addition to the presi-
dent, vice-president and cashier the directorate of the
institution includes also A. G. V. Cook, R. H. Connor,
C. W. Goodpaster, A. N. Crooks, A. H. Dawson and
A. T. Byron. Mr. Goodpaster is a partner in a leading
general store at Owingsville and is the owner of a
valuable farm estate of 1,000 acres in Bath County. He
is loyal in his allegiance to the democratic party, is an
elder in the Christian Church of his native village and
his wife holds membership in the Presbyterian Church.
April 28, 1875, recorded the marriage of Mr. Good-
paster and Miss Alice McElroy, who was born in
Marion County, this state, October 19, 1855. They
have no children.
David Hays. Southeastern Kentucky claims Judge
Hays as one of its leading lawyers and jurists, and in
the active practice of his profession he has been identi-
fied with much of the important litigation in the various
courts in this section of the state, his practice having
extended also into the higher courts of Kentucky and
the Federal courts. He has specialized in the depart-
ment of criminal law, and in the same has gained rep-
utation that extends beyond local limitations. Judge
Hays maintains his residence and professional head-
quarters at Whitesburg, judicial center of Letcher
County.
The old family homestead in which Judge Hays was
born is situated on Rockhouse Creek, in what is now
Knott County, Kentucky, and the date of his nativity
was January 6. 1872. He is a son of Captain Anderson
Hays and Rachel (Sizemon) Hays. Captain Anderson
Hays was born in Floyd County, this state, and was
ninety-four years of age_at the time of his death. That
Judge Hays of this reviWv is a scion of long-lived stock
is evident when it is stated that all of his grandparents
lived to be over 100 years of age except his paternal
grandmother, who died at the age of ninety-eight. The
Hays family came to Eastern Kentucky about the year
1790, and the name has been one of prominence in con-
nection with the civic and material development and
upbuilding of this now favored section of the Blue
Grass State. John Hays, father of Captain Anderson
Hays, in company with eight brothers became founder
of the family in Southeastern Kentucky, whither they
came from Virginia and North Carolina. Capt.
Anderson Hays was reared under the conditions and
influences that marked the pioneer days in Floyd
County, and there he continued to reside until his re-
moval to the vicinity of McPherson Post Office, at the
forks of Troublesome Creek, where he was residing at
the time when Hindman, judicial center of the newly
organized county of Knott, was there established. He
gave the major part of his active life to farm industry,
and at the time of the Civil war he entered the
Confederate service, in which he became captain of a
company in the regiment commanded by Col. Benjamin
Caudell. While with his regiment at the front he was
finally captured by the enemy, and thereafter he was
confined in the Federal prison on Johnson's Island in
Lake Erie eighteen months, or until the close of the
war. He took part in many battles and minor engage-
ments and proved a gallant and efficient soldier and
officer. His eldest son, James, was a member of the
same regiment.
Judge David Hays, the youngest of the children, had
seven brothers and two sisters living when he had at-
tained to the age of forty years. His mother was of
half Cherokee Indian blood and was a sister of Black-
Hawk, the famed Cherokee chief.
In a school over which Professor George Clark pre-
sided at Hindman, Judge Hays received the greater
part of his early education, and that he profited fully
by the excellent advantages afforded him is shown in
the fact that he has to his credit eleven terms of ef-
fective service as a teacher in public and select schools.
He read law under the preceptorship of Professor
Clark, mentioned above, and was admitted to the bar
at Hindman in 1899. From that time until 1906 he
worked in the timber districts of this section of the
state, and had his full quota of arduous labor in the
rolling of logs and rafting the same to market. In
1906 he engaged in the practice of law at Whitesburg,
and here he has gained special prominence as a crim-
inal lawyer of marked ability and resourcefulness, his
practice having, as previously noted, extended to the
Federal courts, including the Appellate Court in the
City of Cincinnati, Ohio. When the judicial district
comprising Pike and Letcher counties was created
Judge Hays was made the first commonwealth attor-
ney for this new district, and he has since given ef-
fective service also as police judge at Whitesburg, be-
sides which, a loyal and public-spirited citizen, he gave
a specially progressive administration in the office of
mayor of Whitesburg. He is a leader in the local
councils of the democratic party, as a representative of
which he had the distinction of being defeated by only
one vote as democratic candidate for county attorney
of Letcher County at a time when the normal republi-
can majority was 1,400. He has served as chaplain of the
the lodge of Free and Accepted Masons at Whitesburg,
is affiliated with the Chapter of Royal Arch Masons at
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
565
Winchester, the Commandery of Knights Templars
at Winchester, the Temple of the Mystic Shrine at
Lexington, and holds membership also in the Order of
the Eastern Star and that of the White Shrine.
The year 1896 recorded the marriage of Judge Hays
with Miss M. Bell Halcomb, daughter of John Hal-
comb, a well known citizen of Letcher County, and of
this union have been born five children : John L. was
graduated in the Whitesburg High School, and when
the nation became involved in the World war he at-
tended the instruction school maintained for the train-
ing of officers in connection with the University of
Kentucky, where he continued as a member of the
training corps until the close of the war ; William is
a graduate of the Whitesburg High School; Dalena is
the only daughter, and in her honor the Dalena station
on the Louisville & Nashville Railroad was named; and
the two younger children of the happy home circle are
Carl Bruce and Nassarita.
Jeff Ison. Everyone in Letcher County respects the
integrity of Jeff Ison. There is good ground for this
widespread admiration. He is gifted with great
physical strength, he has been a hard worker all li is
life, has used his hands as well as his mind, has worked
at times against heavy odds, has overcome much and
has found the riches of esteem as well as those of
material prosperity.
The Ison family is one of the oldest in this section
of Kentucky and came from North Carolina and first
settled on Linefork. Jeff Ison was born March 28, 1854.
As a boy he attended the free schools, and grew up
accustomed to farm labor. His rugged physique made
him well qualified for the arduous toil of the timber,
and it is said that he never met anyone that could
back him down in handling logs. For several years he
floated timber down the Kentucky River, and is still
nterested in the saw mill business. Altogether he has
operated eight saw mills, having managed the mills of
the Macklin Kilburn Company for Floyd Day of Lex-
ington. Since 1879 he has also been in the mercantile
business. His first store, a very small one, was at the
mouth of Rockhouse, and he hauled his goods from
Prestonsburg and Pikeville on the Big Sandy, also
from London and Jackson, Kentucky, and Abingdon,
Virginia. This method of getting goods from long
distances by hauls over the mountains was continued
until railroads penetrated this section of Kentucky.
While he has had many reverses, Jeff Ison has never
denied a debt. In the course of his business career he
has owned a number of farms. Once when hard
pressed for money he sold a farm for $1,200. Later
the purchaser received $8,000 from the railroad for
right of way across one little corner of the tract.
While busy with his milling and merchandise opera-
tions Mr. Ison has also given his attention to farming.
The Blackey Coal Company has its mines on his land.
The Ison home at Blackey and also at other places
has always been open to friends and strangers alike.
Mr. Ison has helped in way of donations to every church
and school for miles around. He donated the ground
on which the Stuart Robinson College was built. He
was once elected magistrate, although a democrat in
pol'tics, and was the only democratic official in the
county at the time. He was chosen magistrate when
J. P. Lewis was county judge.
In 1873 Mr. Ison married Mary Stamper, who was
born at Rockhouse March 12, 1857, daughter of Isaac
D. Stamper. Mrs. Ison is a member of the Baptist
Church. They are the parents of seven living children:
Polly Ann, wife of Jonah Ison. a well to do farmer of
Rockhouse, afflicted with blindness ; Lucinda, wife of
William Maggard, a Rockhouse farmer; Print, a mer-
chant at Pershing; Millie, wife of James Stamper, asso-
ciated with Mr. Ison in the mercantile business at
Blackey; Manta, wife of County Judge Fess Whitaker,
of Letcher County; Ada, wife of John Crane, a lumber
and saw mill man; Ida, twin sister of Ada, who is
married to Ralph Shenneman, a machinist in the shops
at Blackey.
Col. N. M. Webb, of Whitesburg, veteran educator
and newspaper man of Letcher County, is one of the
citizens foremost in influence in that section of Ken-
tucky, and his family is one of the oldest and one of
the iargest in that historic portion of the state.
The history of the family begins with James Webb,
an Englishman, who came to America before the Revo-
lution. He was in the war for independence as an aide
de camp to General Washington. At the battle of White
Plains he was shot through the body and left on the
field for dead. He recovered from this wound and
subsequently followed his son Benjamin to Kentucky.
James Webb married a sister of Daniel Boone's mother.
One of the characteristics of the Webb family is long
life. James Webb died at the age of 106 years and it
will be noted that others attained ages very close to
the century mark.
Benjamin Webb, son of James, was born in 1771,
probably on the east coast of Maryland. He possessed
an adventuresome spirit that led him into varied occu-
pations. As a young man he was for a time in the
slave trade. From Maryland he removed to Ashe or
Buncombe County, North Carolina, and in a company
composed of seven families who had heard of Kentucky
and had the western fever started to follow the Boone
trail through the Powell Valley and over the mountains
to the head of the Kentucky River. They located on
the river above the mouth of Boone's Fork in 1796 or
1797. Later they moved to the present coal town of
May King, then known as Bottom Fork, where Benjamin
Webb spent the rest of his life and died at the age of
ninety-seven. He was the first sheriff of Perry County,
which then comprised a large portion of Eastern Ken-
tucky. It was his custom to walk to the State Capital
each year to make settlement of his accounts. Benja-
min Webb had twin sons, Nelson and Daniel, as his
first born, and Nelson died of a strange disease, being
taken to Baltimore for operation. He died at the age
of twenty-one.
Jason L. Webb, father of Col. N. M. Webb, was born
in 1820. His mother was Jennie Adams, who came
with the Webbs from North Carolina when a young
woman. Jason L. Webb cleared up a farm in the
neighborhood of Thornton Creek, and spent his active
life there. This land is still owned by his family.
Jason Webb for many years held the post of local
magistrate, and at one time was county assessor. In
election to that office he had a competitor, and the elec-
tion was so close as to cause a dispute. They compro-
mised by dividing their jurisdiction in half, Jason mak-
ing assessments on one side of the river and his oppon-
ent on the other. Jason Webb, who died in 1904, at the
age of eighty-four, married Elizabeth Craft, who died
in 1861. His second wife was Lou Hubbard, a daughter
of Robert Shanklin Hubbard, who came from North
Carolina. She was born in Tazewell County, Virginia.
Her mother was a Boiling, a descendant of Pocahontas
and of the same relationship as Mrs. Woodrow Wilson.
Jason ,Webb by his first wife had five sons and three
daughters, and nine children by his second marriage
All these nine children are still living.
Nehemiah Mark Webb was born December 6, t866.
and attended school on Bottom Fork and in Whitesburg,
and also Hiawassie College in Tennessee. His active
work as an educator covered a period of twenty-one
years. He did his first teaching in Virginia and later
was connected with schools around Whitesburg.
The newspaper history of Letcher County is in effect
a part of Colonel Webb's individual experience and, his-
tory. The first newspaper ever printed in the county
was the Pound Gap Enterprise, started in December,
1880, with Tip Nickels and John Pearl, editors. The
building in which it was printed stood in the middle of
566
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
one of the principal streets of Whitesburg, and was
torn down only a few years ago. The paper was
published about fifteen months and was then removed
to Pikeville.
In 1905 came the second venture in Letcher County
journalism. The News Publishing Company was
organized and in March of that year the Letcher
County News was started. It was to be a weekly in-
dependent. N. M. Webb and E. P. Blair were chosen
by the owners to run the paper and the business. It
continued with fair promise of success up to the
November election which nearly wrecked the business.
Mr. Webb resigned, and the News "crawled along" for
about two years, when the whole outfit was bought by
Colonel Webb.
With this equipment Colonel Webb founded and be-
gan the publication of the Mountain Eagle, a newspaper
that has been continued without variation or shadow of
turning ever since. It is now a $10,000 corporation,
and the paper is one of the best in the mountainous sec-
tion of Kentucky.
Without any solicitation on his part Colonel Webb
was appointed postmaster of Whitesburg in 1914, re-
ceiving his commission from Woodrow Wilson. He
is a stanch Democrat. His church is the regular Baptist
and he is affiliated with the Lodge and Encampment of
the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Improved
Order of Red Men, and the Junior Order United Amer-
ican Mechanics.
June 15, 1893, Colonel Webb married Sarah Ellen
Williams, daughter of Hiram Williams, of Whitesburg.
Ten children were born to their marriage : Myrtle, wife
of Louis Wiseheart, of Louisville; Pearl, who was
killed in a runaway accident at the age of eight years ;
Ethel, at home ; Willa, assistant postmaster and wife
of Erich Rierson, of Bluefields, West Virginia;
Esteva, a high school graduate and carrying a large
business responsibility in the Mountain Eagle office ;
Roselye, who died at the age of fourteen ; Edda, who
died when four years of age ; Roberta, now ten years
of age ; Vernon Woodrow Wilson ; and Ralph Waldo
Emerson Webb.
Thomas Kennedy is one of the principals of the
Kennedy-Jones Company, which has built up a large
and prosperous wholesale grocery business at Mount
Sterling, the county seat of Montgomery County, and
he is essentially one of the representative business men
and progressive and public-spirited citizens of this
thriving little city.
Mr. Kennedy was born at Carlisle, Nicholas County,
Kentucky, on the 13th of October, 1867, and is a son
of Thomas and Frances (Pickrell) Kennedy, the
former of whom was born at Headquarters, Nicholas
County, in 1833, and the latter of who was born near
Poplar Plains, Fleming County, in August, 1843.
Thomas Kennedy, Sr., was graduated from DePauw
University at Greencastle, Indiana, and he became one
of the leading members of the bar of Nicholas County,
Kentucky. After his marriage he established his home
at Carlisle, the judicial center of that county, and there
he continued in the successful practice of his profes-
sion until the time of his death. He was a staunch
democrat, and was influential in political affairs and
community life, witli secure place in popular confidence
and esteem. Both he and his wife were earnest mem-
bers of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and in
the same he gave effective service as superintendent of
the Sunday school. Of the four children the eldest is
Judge Harry Kennedy, who has proved an able suc-
cessor of his father as one of the representative mem-
bers of the Nicholas County Bar, where he is engaged
in the practice of law at Carlisle and where he has
also served on the bench of the County Court. He is
a graduate of the Kentucky Wesleyan College. James
who was graduated from the Cincinnati College of
Pharmacy, is now engaged in progressive farm enter-
prise near Mount Sterling, Montgomery County.
Thomas, Jr., of this review, was the next in order of
birth and Frank, a graduate of Center College at Dan-
ville, Kentucky, is now a resident of the City of Los
Angeles, California.
Thomas Kennedy, Jr., gained his preliminary educa-
tion in the public schools of his native city and there-
after continued his studies in the Kentucky Wesleyan
College at Millersburg, Bourbon County. As a young
man he engaged in the retail drug business at Mount
Sterling, and he has been numbered among the sub-
stantial and successful business men of this city for
more than a quarter of a century. He sold his drug
store and purchased a laundry, which he successfully
operated z/2 years, and on the 21st of March, 1921, he ■
became associated with E. E. Jones in establishing the
wholesale grocery house of the Kennedy-Jones Com-
pany, the success of which has been unqualified. The
high standing of the principals and their progressive
business policies, as coupled with effective service, have
gained to their establishment a substantial trade
throughout the territory normally tributary to Mount
Sterling as a distributing center. Mr. Kennedy is a
director of the Mount Sterling Exchange Bank, his
political faith is that of the democratic party, and in
the Masonic fraternity his affiliations are with the
Lodge, Chapter and Commandery in his home city.
January 30, 1894, recorded the marriage of Mr.
Kennedy and Miss Anna Prewitt, who was graduated
from Daughters College at Harrodsburg, this state, and
is a popular factor in the representative social activities
of Mount Sterling. Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy have two
children: Frances, was graduated from Randolph-
Macon College at Lynchburg, Virginia, as a member
of the class of 1921 and with the degree of Bachelor
of Arts, and Nelson, who graduated from the Mount
Sterling High School as a member of the class of 1909.
Cambridge F. Martin, B. A. To the public schools
of Owingsville, Bath County, Professor Martin has
brought a high standard of efficiency, and the best evi-
dence of the popular estimate here placed upon his
services is that afforded in his having served continu-
ously as superintendent of the village schools of the
county seat since the year 1905.
Professor Martin was born at Carlisle, judicial center
of Nicholas County, Kentucky, on the 14th of May,
1868, and is a son of George R. and Sarah (Nichols)
Martin, the former of whom was born in Bath County,
this state, in August, 1830, and the latter of whom was
born in Bourbon County in April, 1831. Robert Bruce
Martin, grandfather of him whose name introduces this
review, was born in Iowa, where his parents were
pioneer settlers of the very early period in the history
of that commonwealth, and as a young man he resided
for a short time in Bath County, Kentucky. He then
returned to Iowa, where he became a prosperous farm-
er, and where both he and his wife passed the re-
mainder of their lives, both having been earnest
members of the Methodist Episcopal Church and one
of their sons having become a clergyman of this
church. Of the seven children George R. was the
eldest, and he was reared on the home farm in Iowa,
he having been a child at the time of his parents
removal from Kentucky to that state. He was grad-
uated in an Iowa academy, and as a young man he
returned to Kentucky, his native state, where for fif-
teen years he was a successful and popular teacher in
the public schools. He was also a surveyor of ability,
and did much surveying of land in this state, besides
which he became a successful buyer and shipper of
live stock. He was a man of versatility and marked
business ability, and became well known throughout
Nicholas County and adjoining counties. His death
occurred in August, 1905, and his venerable widow
maintains her home at Richmond, Virginia. Mr. Martin
was a zealous member of the Methodist Episcopal
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
567
Church, as is also his widow, and he served as a mem-
ber of its Official Board, as well as a teacher in its
Sunday school. At Paris, Kentucky, he maintained
affiliation with Daugherty Lodge No. 6o, Free and
Accepted Masons, and also with the Chapter of Royal
Arch Masons. Mr. Martin was a staunch supporter of
the principles of the democratic party, and in Nicholas
County he served not only as county surveyor but also
as a member of the Board of County Supervisors. Of
the five children four are living: Willie, who was
graduated in the Carlisle High School, is the wife of
Hon. J. C. Gillespie, who was a prosperous farmer in
Nicholas County, Kentucky, and who served as a
member of the State Senate, their home now being in
the State of Virginia; Cambridge F., of this review,
was the next in order of birth ; Florence D., a grad-
uate of the female college at Millersburg, Kentucky,
is the wife of E. Gore, and they reside in the State of
California; Miss Aletha is with her widowed mother
at Richmond, Virginia.
In the public schools of Carlisle, Kentucky, Prof.
Cambridge F. Martin continued his studies until his
graduation in the high school, and thereafter he was
for one year a student in what is now Valparaiso
University, at Valparaiso, Indiana. Thereafter he was
a student in the Kentucky Wesleyan College until his
graduation from this institution with the degree of
Bachelor of Arts, and since that time he has made a
record of splendid achievement in the pedagogic pro-
fession. He was for five years a teacher in the rural
schools of Nicholas County, thereafter was a teacher
in the city schools at Carlisle for nine years, and his
service in the public schools at Owingsville has now
(1921) covered a period of sixteen years. As super-
intendent of the Owingsville schools he has brought
to bear progressive policies and advanced methods, with
the result that he has brought the schools up to a
specially high standard, the while he has had the ap-
preciative co-operation of the Board of Education and
the people of the village in general.
Professor Martin has identified himself loyally with
all local interests, and in his home village is the owner
of an attractive and modern residence property on
Main Street. He is aligned in the ranks of the demo-
cratic party, is a past master of Bath Lodge No. 55,
Free and Accepted Masons, and is affiliated also with
the local Chapter of Royal Arch Masons. He retains
the religious faith in which he was reared and is an
active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and
his wife and daughter hold membership in the Chris-
tian Church.
On the 21 st of November, 1S97, was solemnized the
marriage of Professor Martin and Miss Ragan Dal-
zelle, who was graduated in the academy at Sharps-
burg, Kentucky, and who was for one year a student
in Valparaiso University, at Valparaiso, Indiana. Pro-
fessor and Mrs. Martin have one daughter, Micha, who
was born August 3, 1900, and who is a graduate of
the Owingsville High School and of the Kentucky
College of Women at Danville.
James L. McCoy, a man of fine intellectuality and
sterling character, left a definite impress upon the
history of his native state, was in the most significant
sense the architect of his own fortune, and marked
the passing years with large and worthy achievement.
As a citizen of prominence and influence and as a
man who made his life count for good in its every
relation it is most fitting that to his memory be paid
a tribute in his history of Kentucky, a state which he
honored by his character and his achievement. Mr.
McCoy was editor of the Pike County News at Pike-
ville from August 1, 1920, until January 28, 1921, when
ill health made it necessary for him to lay down his
labors and seek the aid of specialists. His death oc-
curred in the General Memorial Hospital in New York
City on the 7th of April, 1921, and from an apprecia-
tive editorial that appeared in the Pike County News
are taken the following extracts : "Only those who
were closely associated with him knew the extremity
of the suffering he endured during the last few months
of his illness. Until recent years Colonel McCoy was
deeply interested in state and national politics, and he
was widely known, both within and without Kentucky.
During more recent years he had been engaged in
newspaper work. He knew many people and most of
human nature, and his kindly disposition, his keen
sense of humor and his great fund of general knowl-
edge made him a most delightful friend and companion.
Although his stay in Pikeville was of short duration,
he had a wide circle of friends here, and he was very
much interested in and attached to Pikeville and the
surrounding section, and proud of its enterprise and
progress."
James Lawrence McCoy was born on a farm in
Greenup County, Kentucky, July 25, 1856, and thus was
sixty-four years of age at the time of his death. His
early discipline was that of the farm, and while he
availed himself of the advantages of the common
schools of the locality and period, his broader educa-
tion, and it was most liberal, was acquired through ef-
fective self-discipline and long years of association with
men and affairs. As a young man he studied law and
was admitted to the bar, but expediency led to his
taking a position in the railway mail service of the
Government. While a resident of Bell County he
served two terms as county superintendent of schools.
Later he became deputy revenue collector for the
Eighth District of Kentucky, with headquarters at
Jackson, Breathitt County.
He was for a number of years identified with the
government Indian service on a reservation in the
State of Minnesota. He then returned to Kentucky.
In 1918-19 he was corporation clerk in the office of
the Kentucky secretary of state at Frankfort, and it was
from this office he removed to Pikeville and became
editor of the Pike County News. Prior to this he had
been similarly identified with the publishing of the
Cumberland Courier at Pineville, and the Jackson Times
at Jackson. Colonel McCoy was active and influential
in republican politics in Kentucky for forty years, and
his activities touched national politics in a large de-
gree. He was campaign manager of his party for the
State of Kentucky in the presidential election of 1908,
and was long known and honored as one of the most
influential citizens of Central and Eastern Kentucky.
For some time after his marriage he resided in the
City of Lexington, and his widow now maintains her
home on a fine farm two miles east of Owingsville,
Bath County. Colonel McCoy was a man of strong
individuality and well fortified convictions. He was
tolerant and kindly in his judgment of his fellow men,
as he had appreciation of the well-springs of human
thought and action, and his religious faith, shown _ in
earnest personal stewardship, was that of the Christian
Church, of which his widow likewise is a devoted
member. He was long and actively affiliated with the
Masonic fraternity. A man who stood "four square
to every wind that blows," his character was the posi-
tive expression of a noble nature, and he merited and
received the unqualified respect and esteem of his fel-
low men in all walks of life.
On the 27th of January, 1885, was solemnized the
marriage of Colonel McCoy and Miss Emma Lewis,
daughter of Doctor H. H. and Melvina (Moore) Lewis,
of Salt Lick, Bath County. Doctor Lewis was a native
of Kentucky, was graduated from a leading medical
college in the City of Cincinnati, Ohio, and was long
one of the representative physicians and surgeons of
Bath County, Kentucky, where both he and his wife
died. Their four children were daughters, and three
of the number survive the honored parents: Elizabeth
is the wife of Dr. S. C. Alexander, who is engaged
in the practice of medicine at Salt Lick; Emma is
568
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
the widow of the subject of this memoir; and Erne
is the wife of M. L. Cassily.
Mrs. McCoy gained her early education in the public
schools at Salt Lick, and later was graduated from
North Middleton College with the degree of Bachelor
of Arts. A woman of culture and gracious personality,
she proved the true companion and helpmeet of her
husband, and their home life was ever of ideal order.
Of the three children the eldest is Lewis, who was
born March 10, 1886, and who resides at Owingsville,
Bath County. The maiden name of his wife was Cleora
Bailey, and their one child is a son, James L. Malcolm.
The second son, graduated from the University of Ken-
tucky with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and was
a capta'n in the National Army during the period of
American participation in the World war. He re-
mains with his mother on the home farm near Owings-
ville and is still a bachelor. Nell C. the only daughter,
is a graduate of Hamilton College, Kentucky, and also
of Wellesley College, Boston, Massachusetts. She is
the wife of Logan Shearer, of Lexington, Kentucky,
and they have three children : Mary Lewis, Nell Mc-
Coy and Logan, Jr.
Lewis Dempsf.y, a former merchant of Inez, presi-
dent of the Inez Deposit Bank, which he organized,
one of the promoters of the Kermit-Warfield Bridge
Company, the Warfield Coal Company and the Dempsey
Coal Company, one of the organizers and a director
in the Kermit State Bank, county chairman of the Big
Sandy River Improvement Association and of the Good
Roads Organization, is easily the leading man of
Martin County, and one whose interests are of tower-
ing magnitude. His responsibilities are many and
varied, but he is carrying them all with efficient capa-
bility, and rendering his people a service not often
given by any one man.
Born at Warfield on Tug River August 26, 1852,
Lewis Dempsey is a native son of Martin County, for
the part of Lawrence County in which Warfield was
located at the time of his birth is now a part of Martin
County. His parents were Mark and Lucinda (Alley)
Dempsey. Mark Dempsey was born in Botetourt
County, Virginia. Although he had no educational ad-
vantages and was entirely self-taught, Mark Dempsey
was a man of such strong mental qualifications that
he became a teacher, and traveled over many parts of
the United States, in which he established and taught
subscription schools. In 1848 or 1849, when still a
young man, he went to the old city of Santa Fe, in
what is now New Mexico, going over the old Santa
Fe Trail with a trading party, and he conducted a
store for a year among the Mexicans and Indians. His
travels brought him to the vicinity of Warfield, and he
opened a store which he operated in connection with
farming and timber dealing until the Civil war in
1861, when he operated a store at Louisa, Kentucky.
returning home at the close of the war.- Finally he de-
voted all of his time to his mercantile interests, con-
tinuing in active business until within a few years
of his death, which occurred when he was seventy-
seven years old. He was a man whose vision was so
broad that he was far ahead of his times, and clearly
foresaw the subsequent oil and coal development, in
which he had unqualified faith, although many thought
him impractical for holding such views. His son has
lived to see the vision of the father materialized into
a wonderful fact that has developed all of this region
of Eastern Kentucky. With the idea that because of
the oil and coal held in reserve land in these regions
would at one time be very valuable, Mark Dempsey
invested heavily in land and owned vast tracts of it.
He survived his wife for some years, she having passed
away at the age of sixty-five years. Long a Mason,
he was advanced to the Chapter, and belonged to
Louisa Chapter, R. A. M. Formerly a whig, he be-
came a republican, but after the close of the war
changed to the ranks of the democratic party. A man
of great force of character, and much more education
than the majority, he served as a magistrate for a
number of years ; was the first school commissioner
of Martin County and deputy county clerk for Law-
rence County before the formation of Martin County.
One of the most self-reliant of men, he was able to
see his path before him and then to walk in it without
wavering. It is said of him that he was a successful
school-teacher before he had ever seen a grammar,
and later on in life he was able to lead men through
his own flaming sincerity, and his son inherits many of
his desirable qualities. The family is of Irish extrac-
tion, his father, William Dempsey, having come to
America from the vicinity of Cork, Ireland. He mar-
ried a Miss Rachel Soloman, a Jewish lady, of Phila-
delphia, Pennsylvania.
Mark Dempsey and his wife became the parents of
the following children : Josephine and Nancy Ann,
who died unmarried; Mary, who is the wife of R. F.
Cassady, of Inez; Laura E., who is the wife of Dr.
A. D. Speer, of Inez; Jane, who is the wife of Mr.
Troy Wiles, of Warfield ; Lewis, whose name heads
this review ; Alice, who was a teacher, and died at the
age of eighteen years; John, who was a merchant of
Warfield, died at the age of fifty-five years; Joseph B.,
who was in business with his brother Lewis, and the
father of Albert, Fannie and L. A. and Joseph, the
firm of Dempsey Brothers, leading merchants at Inez
and Warfield, died at Inez. During the war between
the North and the South Joseph Dempsey served in
the Union Army.
Lewis Dempsey attended the schools of Warfield and
its vicinity, and then took a three years' course at
Masonic Academy at Louisa, and completed his educa-
tion at Marshall College, Huntington, West Virginia.
Subsequently he acquired a knowledge of the funda-
mentals of business in a commercial college, Bryant
& Stratton's, at Cincinnati, Ohio. When only seven-
teen years old he began teaching school, and taught
in Wayne and Logan counties, West Virginia. The
father of Jack Dempsey, the present champion, was a
pupil of Lewis Dempsey, and a relative. After three
years as a school-teacher in West Virginia Mr. Demp-
sey came to Martin County, and was here engaged
for two years in teaching in its public schools and
also taught in the subscription schools of this county.
He conducted the first teachers' institute in Martin
County, and had what was somewhat unusual for those
days, a first-class teacher's certificate. So evident was
his ability that he was urged to accept a position with
a commercial agency at Cincinnati, but as he pre-
ferred to remain in his home neighborhood he opened
a store at Inez, and for the subsequent thirty years
continued to sell goods, and only retired from the
mercantile field because of the magnitude of his other
interests. In 1903 Mr. Dempsey and John C. C. Mayo
organized the Deposit Bank of Inez, of which Mr.
Dempsey has since continued the president.
When coal and oil developments commenced Mr.
Dempsey was one of the first men to see their possi-
bilities, and he has thrown himself into the various
operations with a vigorous resourcefulness which has
been felt all along the line. Among these giant cor-
porations with which he has long been connected is
the one which bears his name, and the Warfield Coal
Company. He was one of the promoters of the
Kermit-Warfield Bridge Company, which built the
$300,000 bridge connecting Kermit and Warfield over
Tug River, completed and opened May 21, 1921. This
company was organized in 1919 by ten operators and
owners of coal lands in the vicinity of Kermit and
Warfield, with a capital of $125,000. These men rec-
ognized the fact that if this coal field was ever properly
developed it would be necessary to build a standard
gauge railroad bridge so as to permit the running of
(lie railroad into the field. The magnitude of the work
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
569
and the difficulties of the undertaking discouraged some
of the original stockholders, but the more resolute
worked all the harder, and finally overcame all ob-
stacles, not the least of which was the discovery of
a bed of quicksand where they had expected to reach
solid rock. Because of these and other difficulties it
was found that the bridge would cost much more than
was originally estimated, and $25,000 additional stock
and $125,000 in bonds were issued to meet the in-
crease in expenditures. The Himler Coal Company
took over practically all of the stock, and the remain-
ing stockholders absorbed the bond issue, which gives
the Himler Coal Company the controlling interest. The
bridge, now completed, is the most expensive and the
heaviest ever built across Tug River. The officials of
the Kermit-Warfield Bridge Company are as follows :
D. E. Hewitt, president; Martin Himler, vice presi-
dent; E. J. Lang, treasurer; and W. M. Hale, secretary.
The Himler Coal Company, which has the most com-
plete plant on Tug River, was first organized about
1917, with a capital of $40,000, and is a co-operative
company, and first operated at Himler, West Virginia,
along the old line of the Norfolk & Western Railroad.
Desiring a new location and a broader field, they ac-
quired a lease on 2,200 acres of the Warfield field from
the Berger interests of Cincinnati and D. E. Hewitt,
and here built a plant at a cost of at least $750,000,
the best-equipped one in Kentucky or West Virginia.
This company is planning to invest $1,500,000 in de-
veloping the natural resources of this region. This
company plans building an ideal mining camp, with
all of the houses modern and supplied with many con-
veniences, and a sanitary sewerage system will be put
in. This camp is to be located in Martin County, and
it will greatly aid in the further development of this
part of the state. This company proposes to stand
ready to aid in the upbuilding of the schools and roads.
It will employ hundreds of men at good wages, over
one-half of whom will be stockholders in the company.
Its camp will furnish a market to Martin County farm-
ers for all their products. This company has for its
purposes, aside from the mining of coal :
First, it is a test of the idea of co-operation between
capital and labor in the carrying on of the industries
of the country, and,
Second, it is a plan for the Americanization of for-
eigners.
Because of the strained relations existing in some
industries between capital and labor the people of
the country are watching the outcome of the experi-
ments of the Himler Coal Company, and those in
Martin County are particularly interested, for it is giv-
ing them the outlet that heretofore they have not been
able to obtain for their various products, and will, they
are sure, result in a wonderful expansion of all their
enterprises.
It was fortunate for the people of Martin County
that the destinies of two such forceful men as Lewis
Dempsey and John C. C. Mayo ran in similar chan-
nels, for they, working together as they did until the
death of the latter, made possible the promotion of
many of the sturdiest enterprises now flourishing in
this vicinity. It is interesting to note that while serv-
ing as school commissioner Mr. Dempsey examined
Mr. Mayo and granted him a license to teach. Prob-
ably had he never entered the educational field Mr.
Mayo might not have conceived the idea of establishing
a school in which the students might be surrounded
by the influences of true Christianity, now materialized
in the John C. C. Mayo College of Paintsville.
In 1876 Mr. Dempsey married Miss Essie Golden,
born at Ashland, Kentucky, a daughter of Rev.
Fletcher Golden, a Presiding Elder in the Methodist
Episcopal Church, Prestonsburg District. Mr. and
Mrs. Dempsey became the parents of four children,
namely: Ifazel, who is the wife of Rev. Charles T.
Barton, a Methodist minister of Steele, Missouri; Co-
rinne, who is the wife of Frank Cooper, of Paintsville,
Kentucky; Evelyn, who is the wife of Charles Moss,
general store manager of the Consolidation Coal Com-
pany's store at McRoberts, Letcher County, Kentucky;
and Gladys, who is at home. Always an earnest mem-
ber of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, he is
now serving as a member of its Board of Trustees at
Inez, and for years he was a teacher in the Sunday
school. He belongs to the Blue Lodge of Inez, the
Chapter of Louisa, the Commandery and Shrine of
Ashland, and the Consistory at Covington, and is one
of the best-known Masons in this part of Kentucky. A
man of strong convictions, he prefers to vote inde-
pendently. He never misses an election and carefully
studies the qualifications of the candidates for office
before giving them his support. Mr. Dempsey has ac-
quired a large amount of this world's goods, but his
material prosperity represents only a small part of
his life work. He has established a reputation for
honesty which is so sound and well-founded that it
has given him a standing among men that cannot help
but be gratifying. His word is taken without reserva-
tions, and men come to him for advice on all subjects,
knowing that they will be told the truth. When Mr.
Dempsey backs a proposition his fellow citizens know
that it is a dependable one or he would not be con-
nected with it. They appreciate the fact that his long
connection with the Deposit Bank gives it solidity.
When he sold them goods his customers were sure of
getting just what they asked for at a price as low
as was consistent with the quality of the article and
the market quotation. His coal companies and other
industrial enterprises are operating much more capa-
bly because he helped in organizing them, placing them
on the same solid foundations of right and equity he
has always insisted upon, and his example has led
others to strive for a cleaner business career. Mr.
Dempsey is the most representative man of his times
and locality, and he richly deserves all of the prestige
he has acquired, for he has earned it all by reason of
his natural and carefully trained qualities of brain and
heart.
Sam Lewis Wooldridge. In Kentucky business,
finance and sport the name of S. L. Wooldridge ranks
among the very highest. He owns a big farm three
miles south of Versailles in Woodford County,
most widely noted perhaps for the famous Wooldridge
kennel. Wooldridge's hounds of the Walker strain
have a national and international reputation among
hunters everywhere. Mr. Wooldridge is also vice presi-
dent of the Woodford County Bank & Trust Company
at Versailles.
His father, the late Samuel Lewis Wooldridge, was
prominently known both in Fayette and Woodford
counties, having moved to Versailles in 1890. He was
president of the Wooldridge Mine at Jellico, Tennes-
see, was president of the Bank of Woodford until his
death on January 8, 1901, and his home was the 400-
acre farm known as Village View at the edge of Ver-
sailles. He built the present beautiful home on that
farm. His first wife was Ann Mary Holloway, of
Woodford County. After her death in 1878 he mar-
ried Martha Avent.
Sam Lewis Wooldridge was born at the Village
View Farm, Versailles, February 28, 1879, and com-
pleted his education in Washington and Lee University
in Virginia and the University of Kentucky. He was
one of the organizers and served as president and treas-
urer of the Bachelor Oil Company, a million dollar cor-
poration, which acknowledged him as the active ex-
ecutive head throughout its existence. The company
was organized in April, 1919, and was recently sold
to the Superior Oil Company. It had a notable rec-
ord of successful production in Lee County, Ken-
tucky, owning twenty-one wells there. The company
paid sixty per cent dividend on its investment.
Vol. V— 51
570
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
S. L. Wooldridge for years has been a breeder of
the Walker hounds. He has served as president of
the National Fox Hunters Association and is still a
director. His breeding kennel is featured by Big
Stride 500, the leading sire of winners in 1920 both in
the field and on the bench. The greatest contest race
ever held between the Walker hounds and the July
hounds of Georgia was held at Barry, Massachusetts,
with ten entries representing each strain. Mr. Wool-
dridge was master of the Walker hounds, and Big
Stride was the leading winner of the successful con-
testants. Out of four championships of IQ20 three of
the winners were bred in the Wooldridge kennels. Mr.
Wooldridge has served as president of the Kentucky
Fox Hunters Association, and as a director of the
Barry, Massachusetts, Association. He is president
of the Chase Publishing Company, publishers of The
Chase at Lexington, a monthly journal widely read
among all fanciers of the foxhound and also a journal
of general interest to sportsmen.
His home is Arry Mount Farm, comprising 300 acres
three miles south of Versailles. It was the old home
of the ancestors of Willis Fields, and the residence is
one of the landsmarks of Central Kentucky, being over
a hundred years old. Besides his dog kennels Mr.
Wooldridge is a breeder of Poland China hogs and his
son, S. L. Wooldridge third, is a breeder of game
chickens.
Mr. Wooldridge married Russell Wasson, a native
of Versailles and daughter of the late Ed Wasson, a
druggist of that city. They have two children, S. L.
Wooldridge third, aged thirteen, and Mary. Mr.
Wooldridge has also had a notable success as a trainer
of hunters' horses for hunting purposes, and many of
the animals trained by him have commanded high
prices in eastern markets. He takes an active part
in democratic politics, is local chairman of the party
and was one of the three directors of the Red Cross
and chairman of the drive during the World war.
During the war period he responded fully to the de-
mands made by the Government and planted and har-
vested a crop of 300 acres of wheat, the largest
individual crop of that cereal in Woodford County.
He used a tractor to plant and harvest the crop.
Rkzin G. Owings, whose well improved homestead
farm is situated four miles northeast of Mount Ster-
ling, Montgomery County, is a representative of one of
the old and influential families of this section of the
Blue Grass State, his parents having been born in Rath
County, and the town of Owingsville, that county, hav-
ing been named in honor of the family of which the
subject of this sketch is a scion.
R. G. Owings was born in Montgomerv County on
the 28th of August, 1877, and is a son of Joshua and
Julia CEwing) Owings, the former of whom was born
in December, 1837, and the latter in 1843, her death
having occurred February 14. 1016. Joshua Owings,
who is now one of the venerable and honored citizens
of Mount Sterling, was born and reared in Bath Countv
and is a son of Rezin and Mary (Kelso) Owings, both
of whom were likewise born in Bath County, where
the respective families were founded in the early pio-
neer days. Joshua is one in a family of five chil-
dren, the names of the other four being as here noted :
Mary, Thomas, Crittenden and Edward. Joshua Ow-
ings availed himself of the advantages of the common
schools of his native county and thereafter continued
his studies in Center College at Danville. After his
marriage he rented land near Ewington, Montgomery
County, his wife having there inherited 460 acres of
excellent farm land, and he likewise having received
a goodly heritage of land. He became the owner of a
valuable farm property of 1,200 acres and was long
numbered among the most extensive and successful ex-
ponents of agricultural and live-stock enterprise in this
section of the state. Upon his retirement from the
farm he established his residence at Mount Sterling,
where he has since maintained his home. He is a
zealous member of the Presbyterian Church, as was
also his wife, and he served as an elder in the Spring-
field Church of this denomination. His political alle-
giance has ever been given to the democratic party, and
while he has never sought public office he has been a
figure of prominence and influence in connection with
community affairs. Of the children the eldest is Miss
Hattie, who resides with her father at Mount Sterling;
Mary is the widow of J. L. White ; Jack is a prosper-
ous farmer in Bath County; Bettie is wife of Clifford
Prewitt ; Rezin G, of this review, was the next in
order of birth; and Joshua, Jr., resides at Mount Ster-
ling.
Rez:n G. Owings was reared on the old home farm
in Montgomery County, and in addition to having re-
ceived the advantages of the public schools of Mount
Sterling he attended Central University at Richmond.
After his school days he resumed his active association
with the work and management of his father's large
farm estate, and he is now the owner of a valuable
farm property of 400 acres, lying partly in Montgomery
and partly in Bath County. He is one of the vital and
successful representatives of agricultural and live-stock
industry in this district, and is a loyal and public-
spirited citizen whose circle of friends is coincident
with that of his acquaintances. He is a democrat in
his political proclivities, and both he and his wife are
active members of the Christian Church.
On the 21st of November, 1006, was solemnized the
marriage of Mr. Owings and Miss Clara Bascom, who
was born and reared in Bath County and who there
received the advantages of the public schools. Mr.
and Mrs. Owings have no children.
Richard Pindell Stoll. For upwards of a century
the name Stoll has been held in the highest honor and
esteem in the City of Lexington, where members of
that family have been the source of much initiative
and enterprise in business and also prominent influ-
ences in the civic and political affairs of the commu-
nity and state. A member of the family of special
distinction was the late Richard P. Stoll, who was born
at Lexington January 21, 1851, and died in his home
city March II, 10.03.
His grandfather, Gallus Stoll, was a native of Wuer-
temberg, Germany, and in 1818 brought his family to
America. Several ys^rs later he moved to Lexington,
Kentucky, and remained a resident of that city the
rest of his life. George Stoll, father of Richard P.
Stoll, was born at Philadelphia in 1S19, grew up at
Lexington, and for a number of years was engaged in
the furniture business and later as an insurance man.
He married Mary J. Scrugham, who was born at Lex-
ington April 12, 1824. Her father, Joseph Scrugham,
was born in Transylvania County, Virginia, in 1777
and lived in Lexington from early manhood until his
death. Joseph Scrugham married Mary Vallanding-
ham, a daughter of George and Peggy (Frier) Val-
landingham. George Vallandingham was a soldier in
the War of the Revolution. The name Frier is one
of special prominence in Fayette County. Peggy
Frier's parents, Robert and Jane Frier, came from
Yorkshire, England, and after a residence of a few
years in Virginia came as pioneers to Kentucky, where
Robert Frier was identified with the organization of
Fayette County and served as one of its first trustees
and later as sheriff of the county and as a delegate
to the first Kentucky Constitutional Convention.
Richard P. Stoll was educated in the public schools
of Lexington, in the University of Kentucky, and spent
several years in the internal revenue service, serving
as collector for his district. He became a prominent
distiller, and was president of the Commonwpaith Dis-
tilling Company until its plant and property were sold
to the Kentucky Distilleries & Warehouse Company.
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
571
After that he was head of the firm Stoll & Hamil-
ton in the wholesale whiskey business and was head
of the firm when he died. He was also president of
the Lexington City National Bank and the Lexington
Gas Company, was treasurer of the Lexington Railway
Company, and his sincere interest in the welfare of his
home city enabled him to accomplish an inestimable
amount of good in the development of its institutions.
He was a man of wide interests and frequently
served in positions of responsibility without correspond-
ing remuneration. At the time of his death he was
president of the Board of Trustees of the Eastern
Kentucky Asylum for the Insane. He was also at
one time president of the Kentucky Trotting Horse
Breeders Association, and the breeding of fine horses
was perhaps his chief hobby. He enjoyed a long record
of prominence in the republican party of the state.
He was elected to represent Fayette County in the
Legislature in 1875 and again in 1897. He was once
a candidate on the republican ticket for state treas-
urer, and in 1900 a candidate of the Lexington District
for Congress. He participated in the famous Repub-
lican National Convention of 1880, where he was one
of the "Old Guard" of 360 delegates that voted until
the end for the nomination of General Grant.
In 1875 Richard P. Stoll married Elvina Stoll, a
native of Louisville, daughter of John G. Stoll, who
was a grandson of GaJJus Stoll, the founder of the
family in America, as above noted. Mr. and Mrs.
Stoll had two sons, Richard C. and John G.
Richard C. Stoll. a son of the late Richard Pin-
dell Stoll, is a lawyer by profession while his father
was a constructive business man, but otherwise his ca-
reer bears a striking resemblance to that of his father,
particularly in his prominence in citizenship and as a
leader in the republican party in Kentucky.
He was born at Lexington March 21, 1876, and grad-
uated with the A. B. degree from Kentucky State
College in 1895. The State University in 1913 con-
ferred upon him the honorary degree Doctor of Laws.
He took his law course in Yale University, graduat-
ing LL. B. in 1897, and at once returned to Lexing-
ton and began the practice of his profession. As with
his honored father, much of his time has been taken
up with business affairs. He has served as general
counsel of the Kentucky Traction and Terminal Com-
pany and the Lexington Utilities Company.
Mr. Stoll served with the rank of colonel on the
staff of Governor Bradley from 1898 until the close
of that administration. He was a delegate tp the
Republican National Conventions representing . the
Seventh District of Kentucky in 1912, 1916 and 1920,
and in 1912 and 1916 was on the notification commit-
tees presenting the nomination of the party to Mr.
Taft and Mr. Hughes, and in 1920 he was on the
committee to notify Calvin Coolidge of his nomination.
From 1912 to 1920 he served as chairman of the Fay-
ette County Republican Committee and during 1914-15
was a member of the Kentucky State Board of Elec-
tion Commissioners. He was especially active during
the period of the war, serving as chairman of the Com-
mittee on Public Safety of the Kentucky Council of
Defense from 1917 until the close of the war, and was
state inspector and head of the Protective League for
Kentucky during the war period. This organization
was one of the most valuable of the volunteer bodies
enlisted to assist the Government in the critical era
of the war, and acted as an auxiliary in conjunction
with the Bureau of Investigation of the Federal De-
partment of Justice.
Mr. Stoll is chairman of the Executive Committee
and vice chairman of the Board of Trustees of the
University of Kentucky, is a director of the First and
City National Bank, is vice president of the Kentucky
Yale Club, a member of the Sons of the Revolution,
and has served as president of the Kentucky Trotting
Horse Breeders Association. He is a member of
the Pendennis Club and Country Club of Louisville,
Queen City and University Clubs of Cincinnati, Yale
and Republican clubs of New York, and Lexington and
Country clubs of Lexington. Fraternally he is affili-
ated with Lexington Lodge No. 1, F. and A. M., Lex-
ington Chapter No. 1, R. A. M., Webb Commandery
No. 2, K. T., Oleka Terpple of the Mystic Shrine.
He is a Presbyterian. In 1919 Mr. Stoll married
Angelene Chesnut, a daughter of George W. and
Josephine (Satler) Chesnut, of Danville, Kentucky.
He has one son, Richard Pindell Stoll.
Arthur T. Byron is associated with his brother
E. L. in the hardware business at Owingsville, county
seat of Bath County, and is also a stockholder in the
Farmers Bank of Owingsville, of which his brother
E. L. is the cashier. He has gained a place of prom-
inence in connection with business enterprise and civic
affairs in his native county, and is a representative of
one of the old and influential families of Bath County.
He was born on his father's farm in this county No-
vember 24, 1871, and is a son of J. N. and Lucinda
(Lacy) Byron, both likewise natives of Bath County,
where the former was born in 1845 and the latter in
1847. After their marriage the parents settled on a
farm, and later the father became a manufacturer of
boots and shoes at Owingsville, all work having been
done by hand and the business having been developed
to one of appreciable scope and profitable returns.
The parents, now venerable in years, still reside in
Owingsville, secure in the high regard of all who
know them and having the distinction of being rep-
resentatives of pioneer families which aided in the
early development and upbuilding of the county along
both civic and industrial lines. J. N. Byron is a staunch
republican, and in former years he was influential in
local politics. He served as a member of the Re-
publican County Committee and he was for four years
postmaster of Owingsville, under the administration of
President McKinley. Both he and his wife are zeal-
ous members of the Christian Church. Of their
eleven children, nine sons and two daughters, nine are
living at the time of this writing, in 1921 :_ Nannie
is the wife of S. D. Thompson ; E. L. is cashier of the
Farmers Bank of Owingsville and also associated with
his brother Arthur T. in the hardware business, as
previously noted ; Arthur T. was the next in order of
birth ; O. F. is engaged in the practice of law in the
City of Omaha, Nebraska; R. C. is engaged in the
retail grocery business at Owingsville and Ellis C. is
similarly engaged at Dayton, Tennessee ; C. C. is a
hardware merchant at Catlettsburg, Kentucky; Jewell
L. is clerk in the hardware store of his brothers at
Owingsville; and Miss Ena remains at the parental
home, though she is a student in the Cincinnati Con-
servatory of Music at Cincinnati, Ohio, at the time
when this sketch is in preparation.
The public schools of Owingsville afforded Arthur T.
Byron his early education, which included the curricu-
lum of the high school, and in 1889 he became a
clerk in a local hardware store. He gained thorough
knowledge of all details of the business and thus was
well fortified when in 1899 he formed a partnership
with his brother E. L. and engaged independently in
the same line of enterprise, the firm having a large
and well equipped store and controlling a substantial
and prosperous business in the handling of heavy and
shelf hardware, stoves and ranges, agricultural imple-
ments, etc. Arthur T. Byron is not only a stockholder
but also a director of the Farmers Bank. He is a
prominent member of the Kentucky Retail Hardware
Association, of which he was president in 1920, and
of which he had previously served as treasurer and
vice president. His political allegiance is given to the
democratic party, and both he and his wife are zealous
members of the Christian Church at Owingsville, he
572
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
being a deacon in the same and chairman of its Board
of Deacons. He is past master of Bath Lodge No. 55,
Free and Accepted Masons, of which he is now secre-
tary, and he is a member of the Chapter of Royal Arcli
Masons and the Commandery of Knights Templars
at Mount Sterling, Montgomery County. He is scribe
of the Owingsville Chapter of the Royal Arch Masons
No. 62.
Mr. Byron married Miss Delia McGinety, of Fal-
mouth, this state, she having been graduated in the
high school in the City of Covington. Kentucky. Mr.
and Mrs. Byron have three children : LaRue, who was
graduated from the Owingsville High School, is now
in the employ of the American Mutual Insurance Com-
pany of Indianapolis, Indiana: Lacy H„ a graduate of
the high school at Owingsville, is a traveling salesman
for the Robinson Brothers Hardware Company ; and
Vergaline is a graduate of the Kentucky Central Uni-
versity at Danville, she being now at the parental home
and a popular factor in the social life of her native
village.
Rohert E. Catlktt. One of the finest landed estates
of Bath County is "Prospect Hill." which comprises
1,000 acres of land two miles south of Owingsville,
the county seat, and is equipped with modern improve-
ments that mark it as a model farm estate. Of this
property Robert E. Catlett is manager, and his also
is the distinction of being a native son of Bath Count)'.
He was born at Owingsville on the 12th of December,
1877, and is a son of Dr. John T. and Elva (Ewing)
Catlett, the former of whom was born in Virginia, in
1850, and the latter of whom was born at Prospect
Hill, the fine farm estate mentioned above. Mrs.
Catlett is a daughter of the late Andrew J. Ewing.
who was born and reared in Bath County, and who
through his own ability and efforts accumulated a large
landed estate in this county, he having developed the
Prospect Hill homestead, which was his place of resi-
dence until his death. Mr. Ewing was one of the hon-
ored and influential citizens of Bath County, did much
to further its civic and industrial progress and com-
manded the high regard of the community in which
his entire life was passed and in which, through his
effective energies, he rose from obscurity to a place of
prominence as an extensive landholder and successful
farmer. He became the father of one son and seven
daughters, all of whom are living except the one son.
Miss Elva Ewing received excellent educational ad-
vantages, including those of a private school at North
Middletown, Bourbon County, and those of Nazareth
College, in which institution she was graduated. Dr.
John T. Catlett was a man of fine intellectual attain-
ments and was graduated from a leading medical
school. He was a surgeon in the Confederate service
in the Civil war, and after its close he became one
of the leading physicians and surgeons of Bath County,
Kentucky, where lie maintained his residence at Ow-
ingsville until bis death. Both he and his wife were
members of the Presbyterian Church. Of the three
children two are living, and the subject of this sketch
is the younger. Agnes T., who attended the Mary
Balwin Institute, is now the wife of Pierce Winn, of
Mount Sterling, Montgomery County.
Robert E. Catlett attended the public schools of Ow-
ingsville until he was thirteen years of age, and there-
after he continued his studies in the Kentucky Military
Institute at Lyndon, Jefferson County, until his grad-
uation at the age of twenty-one years. He has since
given the major part of his time and attention to the
management of his mother's extensive landed estate
and to the general operations of the Prospect Hill
farm. His mother is the owner of 1,635 acres of land,
is a stockholder in the Farmers Bank of Owingsville
and also in the Montgomery National Bank at Mount
Sterling. Mr. Catlett is a democrat in political alle-
giance, is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd
Fellows and the Knights of Pythias, and he and his
wife hold membership in the Presbyterian Church at
Owingsville.
In November, 1903, was solemnized the marriage of
Mr. Catlett and Miss Emily N. Brothers, who was
born and reared in Bath County and who is a daughter
of J. R. Brothers. She graduated from the high school
at Owingsville. Mr. and Mrs. Catlett have one daugh-
ter, Lucile, who is, in 1921, a student in the college at
Roanoke, Virginia.
Mr. Catlett is known as one of the vigorous and
progressive exponents of agricultural and live-stock
industry in his native county, is liberal in his civic atti-
tude and takes consistent interest in all things tending
to advance the social and material prosperity of his
native county and state.
Fkaxk S. Allen, president of the Exchange Bank of
Sharpsburg, represents a family that has been one of
distinction in this section of Kentucky from earliest
pioneer times to the present. Frank S. Allen is a
brother of that eminent American soldier, Maj. Gen.
Henry T. Allen.
The founder of the family in Kentucky was John
Allen, who was born in James City County, Virginia,
in 1740. He married Jane Tandy, of Albemarle County,
in 1781 and shortly afterward came West and settled
in that portion of old Virginia subsequently known as
Kentucky. His home was on*Cane Ridge in Bourbon
County, and he was the first circuit judge of Bourbon
County and one of the commissioners who established
the state capital at Frankfort. He and his wife were
the parents of ten children. His son, Granville Allen,
was born in Bourbon County November 15, 1786, and
married Miss Jane Sanford. Their children numbered
five. Their son, Sanford Allen, was born in Bourbon
County on April 29, 1810, and married Susan Shumate,
who was born July 29, 1814. They were the parents
of fourteen children, seven of whom are still living,
the youngest being over sixty years of age. Jennie is
the widow of Chester Cracraft ; Eliza is the widow of
Rev. J. K. Nunnelley : J. W. Allen is a retired mer-
chant ; the fourth is Frank S. ; S. C. Allen is cashier
of the Exchange Bank of Sharpsburg; next to the
youngest is Gen. Henry T. Allen, who was born at
Sharpsburg, April 13, 1859, and graduated from West
Point Military Academy in 1882. He was promoted to
the rank of major general August. 5. 1917. Among
other distinctions he as an army officer did much ex-
ploration work in Alaska, represented the United States
as a military attache in Russia and Germany, was an
officer in the Cuban campaign and in the Philippines,
and was organizer and chief of the Philippine Con-
stabulary. He served in the Mexican expedition of
1916 and during the World war was first commander
of the 30th Division, then commander of the 90th Di-
vision, and finally commander of the 8th Army Corps
and in July, 1919, was appointed commander of the
American forces in Germany. The youngest of the
children is Thomas J., born July 7, i860, a merchant in
Sharpsburg, Kentucky.
Frank S. Allen was born at Sharpsburg, February
16, 1850, and received his early education in the com-
mon schools. In May. 1866, his father organized the
Exchange Bank of Sharpsburg, and soon afterward
Frank entered that institution and in January, 1868,
was made cashier. Since 1891 he has been president
of the bank, which was incorporated during the
seventies. It has a capital of $20,000 and surplus of
$11,000. The officials of this old and substantial institu-
tion are : Frank S. Allen, president ; S. C. Allen,
cashier; while the other directors are T. J. Allen, W.
S. Linsay, J. R. Crockett and Walter Shrout.
Mr. Allen married Miss Imogene Stoner, who died
in May, 1882, leaving one daughter, Imogene, now the
wife of A. B. Ratliff. On March 14, 1893, Mr. Allen
married Lucy B. Talbot. They have two children.
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
573
Frances, born January 2, 1894, is a graduate of the
Woman's College at Danville and the wife of R. H.
Upson, who has achieved many honors in aviation.
The son, Frank T., is a graduate of Center College
at Danville and is a farmer near Bloomfield in Nelson
County. He married Miss Susie Clark. Mr. Allen
has four grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Mrs.
Allen is a member of the Presbyterian Church.
Politically he votes as an independent. Among other
interests he has 300 acres of farming land in Nelson
County, and is interested in coal properties and coal
development in Morgan County.
Otto A. Rothert. Intimately associated with the his-
tory of his state and city because of his labors in
putting into permanent form the record of his times,
and his long and arduous research work with reference
to the achievements of former generations, Otto A.
Rothert, of Louisville, is one of the really important
men of Kentucky, and will be remembered with grate-
ful appreciation long after finis has been written on
the last page of his life history. He was born at Hunt-
ingburg, Indiana, June 21, 1871, a son of Herman and
Franziska (Weber) Rothert.
Herman Rothert was born in Hanover, Germany, in
1828, and came to the United States in 1844, shortly
thereafter settling at Huntingburg. Indiana, where his
father, Gerhard Rothert, had located a few years previ-
ously. After conducting a general store for a number
of years Herman Rothert devoted the greater portion
of his time to the buying and handling of tobacco,
which he exported to Europe. He remained in the
tobacco business until 1889, when he retired and moved
to Louisville, Kentucky, where he died in 1904, his
widow surviving him until 1914. In 1854 he married
Franziska Weber, who was born in Baden, Germany,
in 1835, and came to America in 1852. They had the
following children, named in the order of birth, all
of whom were born at Huntingburg, Indiana : Franklin,
who died in infancy, Sophia M. B., John H., Hugo C.
and Otto A.
Before he completed the high-school course of his
native town Otto A. Rothert went to the University
of Notre Dame, where after one year of preparatory
study and four years of college work he was graduated
June 21, 1892, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Sci-
ence.
Following the completion of his collegiate training
Mr. Rothert became his father's private secretary, and
in the meanwhile did office work, first in the Falls
City Tobacco Works and later in the Gait House until,
in 1904, he began a twelve-month tour of the West,
including Alaska, the Hawaiian Islands and Mexico
in his itinerary. Mr. Rothert has visited practically
all of the well-known places, in North America, and
many of those that are not well known. His travels
aroused in him an interest in history. Since 1910 he
has devoted the greater part of his time to research
work, especially in reference to the history of Ken-
tucky. In 1917 he was elected secretary of the Filson
Qub. which office he still holds.
Mr. Rothert has written a number of newspaper
and magazine articles on history and travels. He pub-
lished two large books : A history of Muhlenberg
County, Kentucky, in 1913, and The Story of a Poet,
Madison Cawein, in 1921, and two small ones: A His-
tory of Unity Baptist Church, in 1914, and Local
History in Kentucky Literature, in 1915. He now has
in preparation a volume on the history of the outlaws
in the Ohio Valley in pioneer times.
The Louisville Courier-Journal, June 10, 1921, in an
editorial says :
"Mr. Rothert is spending his life and means in
original historical and biographical work, with no hope
of reward except the satisfaction which attends good
w ->rk well done, much of which would never have been
done except for him. He prosecutes this work with
such intelligence, unselfishness and sympathy, with such
patience, diligence and love, as to insure its per-
manent value to those who read as well as those who
write history. His volume on Cawein is monumental,
another result of his labors which already had placed
Kentucky under lasting obligations to him and which
make for his own name a place in the history of the
state that he is collecting and recording."
While not either a club or lodge man, Mr. Rothert
is, however, and long has been, an active member of
the Louisville Lodge of Elks. Among the historical
societies of which he is a member are: The Filson
Qub, the Kentucky State Historical Society, the South-
western Indiana Historical Society, the State His-
torical Society of Wisconsin, the Tennessee Historical
Society, the Mississippi Valley Historical Association,
and the American Historical Association. Mr. Rothert
is unmarried.
Arch C. Adams. The responsibilities and honors of
business and citizenship go to those who have proved
themselves worthy of such either by natural ability or
by training. One of the men of outstanding prom-
inence in Letcher County is Arch C. Adams, whose
career throughout his life has been well known to the
people of that section. He has been an able teacher,
has taken a share in the work of institutions and local
government, and is also a very resourceful banker.
Mr. Adams, who is now cashier of the Blackey State
Bank, was born near Whitesburg, February 20, 1874,
son of Stephen and Martha (Jenkins) Adams. His
grandfather, Isaac Adams, came to Kentucky either
from Georgia or North Carolina, and spent his life as
a farmer. Stephen Adams was born on Little Cowan
Creek in Letcher County in 1840, and was likewise
identified with agricultural pursuits. He died January
1, 191 1. During the Civil war he was a member of
the State Guard in the Union Army. In politics he
always voted as a republican. Martha Jenkins was
born near Whitesburg in 1849, and is still living at
the old homestead on Little Cowan. She is a member
of the Regular Baptist Church. Of their eleven chil-
dren eight are still living. Polly, wife of J. R. Adams,
a farmer near London; Arch C. ; Susan, wife of J. A.
Long, a farmer at Little Cowan; Minerva, wife of
J. H. Gibson, living at the old Adams farm; John M.,
of Whitesburg, where he has been a merchant and
is also associated with the old Union Bank ; Mattie and
Minnie, twins, the former the wife of Dr. D. M. Fields
of Poorfork, while Minnie is the wife of Felix G.
Fields, present county attorney; Luella, wife of John
Vermillion, on Little Cowan. The children deceased
are Jane, the oldest, who died at the age of eighteen;
Henry D., who died in childhood ; and Cornelia, who
died at the age of thirty-eight, the wife of Lee Hale.
Arch C. Adams as a boy determined to secure a
liberal education and made every effort to realize that
object. While he attended country schools, he later
received superior advantages at Fountain City, near
Knoxville, Tennessee, and finished his education in Val-
paraiso University of Indiana.- At the age of seven-
teen he taught his first term of school, and continued
an educator for ten years. In 1901 he became county
superintendent of schools of Letcher County.
In banking he had his first experience with the
Union State Bank, later was cashier of the Bank of
McRoberts for one year, and on leaving that institu-
tion took up the practical side of farming on Little
Cowan. With the establishment of the Blackey State
Bank he accepted the post of cashier.
During the war Mr. Adams was chairman of the
Letcher County Draft Board and otherwise active in
all patriotic movements in his locality. He and his
wife are members of the Baptist Church in Whitesburg,
to which town they have recently moved their home.
Mr. Adams is clerk of the church and active in Sun-
day school. He is a republican voter. February 20,
574
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
1918, he married Rachel Fields, daughter of Ira Fields.
Mrs. Adams was a teacher before her marriage.
Andrew Jackson Kirk. An old and representative
family of Eastern Kentucky bears the name of Kirk,
a name that has long been identified with substantial
development as well as being distinguished on both
bench and bar. A prominent member of this honorable
old family in Johnson County is Judge Andrew Jack-
son Kirk, who served for twelve years on the Circuit
Bench of the Twenty-fourth Judicial District of the
State of Kentucky. Since retiring from his judicial
duties he has been a leading citizen of Paintsville.
where in addition to being counsel for many important
corporations he attends to a general practice that brings
him into professional relations covering Eastern Ken-
tucky.
Judge Kirk was born at Warfield, Martin County.
Kentucky, March 19, 1866. His parents were Joseph
M. and Nancy (Dingus) Kirk, both of whom were
born in Kentucky, descendants of remote Scotch an-
cestors, who settled first in Virginia and subsequently
spread into Eastern Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana.
Joseph M. Kirk, father of judge Kirk, was a man of
large importance in Martin County'. He served dur-
ing the war between the states as a member of Com-
pany I, 39th Kentucky Infantry, Union Army, of which
he was captain, and although once captured by the
enemy, sustained no lasting injuries. His oldest son,
James D. Kirk, however, who enlisted when but six-
teen years old, was so seriously wounded in action
that he has ever since been awarded a pension. An-
other of his sons, Hon. T. S. Kirk, a prominent re-
publican politician and statesman, was republican leader
in the State Senate during the memorable Goebel and
Taylor contest. His other son, Jfidge Kirk, being the
youngest of his twelve children, all were more or less
active in public affairs, and at one time during his
service of two terms as county attorney of Martin
County, four of his sons also held county offices.
Andrew Jackson Kirk was primarily educated in the
common schools of Martin County, then entered Val-
paraiso University, Indiana, where in 1890 he com-
pleted his course in law and in the same year was ad-
mitted to the Kentucky bar. He entered into practice
in his native county, and during the ensuing sixteen
years reached a foremost position there, serving both
as county and commonwealth attorney. His sound
judgment and breadth of view in these public capaci-
ties brought him still more the esteem and confidence
of his fellow citizens, and in November, 1904, he was
elected to the Circuit Bench, his jurisdiction covering
at that time Johnson, Martin, Floyd, Pike and Knott
counties. At the end of his first term he was re-elected
to the new district that comprised Johnson, Martin and
Pike counties, over which he presided two terms, un-
til 1916, retiring at the end of twelve years of honor-
able service on the Circuit Bench. He was eminently
qualified for that high position by his sound knowl-
edge of the law and his scrupulous rectitude.
Judge Kirk returned then to private practice, and to
a large degree his time is taken up with the problems
presented to him in the capacity of corporation couiit
sel, a relation he occupies with the C. & O. Railroad
for the Sandy Valley division, which takes in Lawrence,
Johnson, Floyd and Pike counties : for the B. & O.
Railroad in Johnson County ; general counsel for the
Elkhorn division of the Consolidated Coal Company:
the Federal Oil & Gas Company; the United Fuel Gas
Company, and several other minor concerns, and he is
now temporarily located at Jenkins, Kentucky.
Judge Kirk married in December. 1888, at Inez, in
Martin County, Kentucky, Miss Elizabeth Goebel, whose
parents were Drury and Rachel Goebel, the former of
whom served through the war between the states in
the Federal Army and afterward became a substantial
farmer. A family of nine children has been born to
Judge and Mrs. Kirk : Garnet M., who is the wife
of C. T. Rule, president of the Big Sandy Hard-
ware Company at Paintsville ; Conrad F., who is a
graduate of Center College, Danville, Kentucky, is
engaged in the practice of law at Paintsville, and mar-
ried Mildred Powell, of this city; Laban, who is con-
ducting The Market House at Lexington, Kentucky,
married Mollie McWharter, daughter of a prominent
real estate dealer at Lexington ; Ethel T., who is the
wife of Charles York, a real estate dealer at Louisa,
Kentucky, where he is also a farmer and is a son of
Dr. L. H. York, who owns the River View Hospital
at Louisa; Andrew J., who is an electrician, carries on
an electrical supply business of his own at Paints-
ville, married Peggy Williams, an accomplished lady
and a former teacher; and Chester A., Langley, Louie
and Alice May, who reside with their parents.
Not only is Judge Kirk professionally prominent in
Johnson County, but his public spirit and solidity of
character have been manifested so frequently and in
other directions than the law that he is justly deemed
an example and leader by his fellow citizens. In po-
litical life he has always been of the republican faith,
although no man could be called less prejudiced in con-
sidering the great questions of the day. He was
brought up in a family where the Christian religion
was much more than a name, and he has been a mem-
ber of the Baptist Church since boyhood. For many
years he has been a member of the Masonic fraternity,
Knight Templar and Shriner, and belongs also to the
Odd Fellows and Knights of Pythias, as well as to
social benevolent organizations that have appealed to
his intellectual tastes and his charitable impulses.
Winfield Scott Gabhart, M. D. In the career of
Dr. Winfield Scott Gabhart, of Harrodsburg, there is
to be found much of a nature encouraging to the youth
who without friends or financial assistance is seeking
to gain a start on the road to success. Through de-
termination, close application and tireless industry he
has worked his way from the humble surroundings of
a cabin home on a rough hill farm to the guardianship
of a large and remunerative surgical practice in the
city, and from obscurity and poverty to professional
prominence and financial affluence.
Doctor Gabhart was born in a humble home on the
Chapman River in Mercer County, January 9, 1887, a
son of Morgan and Margaret (Nicholson) Gabhart,
natives of the same county, his father having been born
on the same hill farm. There were four children in
the family, all of whom through their ambition and
the influence of their early home training have risen
beyond their early environment. C. T. Gabhart is one
of the successful farmers of Washington County; Wil-
liam R. Gabhart is one of Mercer County's first farm-
ers and has prospered greatly; and Ada Florence is
now the wife of W. O. Trower, of Cornishville,
Mercer County, a modern and progressive agriculturist.
As a lad Winfield Scott Gabhart attended the country
school at Cedar Grove until he was sixteen years of
age. He had set his mind on a professional career, but
finances were lacking at home for the working out of
his ambitions, and he accordingly set about to earn the
money necessary for his further education. Making
his own way. he completed a literary course at Elm-
wood Academy, Perryville, Kentucky, after which he
taught school for four years, a term each at Cedar
Grove, Hungate, Ebenezer and Nevada. With the
•money thus earned, and by strict economy and doing
such honorable work as came to his hand outside of
study hours, he attended the University of Kentucky,
and was graduated from the medical department in
1910, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He not
only finished with the highest honors of his class,
but was vice president thereof, the class consisting of
202 members. These honors were greatly appreciated
by Doctor Gabhart, who added practice to theory by
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
575
serving an interneship in the City Hospital, Louisville.
On leaving that institution he went to Mackville, Wash-
ington County, where he formed a partnership with
Dr. W. T. Barnette, and remained there seven years,
during which period he took post-graduate courses in
New York City, at the world-famous Mayo Brothers'
institution at Rochester, Minnesota, and at Chicago.
In July, 1918, fully prepared for his work, Doctor Gab-
hart located at Harrodsburg, where he has since spe-
cialized in surgery and in X-ray and radium work.
His well-appointed offices and operating rooms are
fully equipped with the latest appliances known to the
profession, and during the comparatively short period
that he has been engaged in his special line of endeavor
he has progressed far toward the attainment of some-
thing more than local reputation. He is accredited
with being possessed of splendid surgical skill, and
his knowledge of the subjects upon which he has con-
centrated is thorough and comprehensive, practical as
well as theoretical. He belongs to the leading medical
bodies, has a number of social and civic connections
and is rapidly becoming an important factor in the
life of the city.
In 191 1 Doctor Gabhart was united in marriage
with Miss Marie Jameson, a registered nurse of Louis-
ville, who has been his chief nurse and proficient as-
sistant. During the last two years at Macksville Doctor
and Mrs. Gabhart conducted a private hospital, of
which Mrs. Gabhart was head nurse, and this institu-
tion, during its short tenure under the Gabhart man-
agement, proved a wonderful success. Two children
have come to the Doctor and his wife: Lucille, born
January II, 1914; and Winfield Scott, Jr., born
August 19, 1920.
Isaac N. Lewis, of Whitesburg, farmer, surveyor
and former teacher, is a member of one of the oldest
and most prominent families in Letcher County.
He was born at the mouth of Colliers Creek on the
Cumberland River in Letcher County, January 16, 1871,
son of John J. and Clarinda (Kelly) Lewis. His
grandfather was Wilson Lewis, a native of North
Carolina. This branch of the Lewis family has been
in Eastern Kentucky for considerably more than a
century. One of its most distinguished members is
Judge J. P. Lewis, former secretary of state and now
state banking commissioner of Kentucky and also a
legal resident of Whitesburg. John J. Lewis, father of
Isaac N. Lewis, died in 1918, at the age of _ sixty-eight.
His wife died in 1899, when about fifty-six years of
age. She was a native of Wise County, Virginia.
John J. Lewis was largely self educated, and at the
age of eighteen began teaching, and taught school in
a number of localities in Eastern Kentucky. He was
also a surveyor and had a scientific and mathematical
mind. He filled the office of county surveyor one
term. An active business he pursued for a number of
years was getting out timber and floating the logs down
the Cumberland River. He acquired the ownership of
a large tract of land, much of that land being under-
laid with coal. He was a republican and a thorough
prohibitionist in sentiment. He and his wife were
members of the Regular Baptist Church. Six of their
ten children are still living: Jane, wife of D. C. Mul-
lins, a merchant and saw mill operator at Partridge ;
Isaac N.; Rebecca, wife of Henry D. Raleigh, a farmer
at Partridge ; Samantha, wife of J. L. McKnight, a
farmer at Conway in Rockcastle County; Ollie, wife of
T. M. Mullins, a farmer and merchant on Oven Fork ;
and Stacy, wife of a farmer at Mount Vernon. An-
other son, W. F. Lewis, was a graduate of the Indiana
Normal School at Valparaiso, and was a teacher and
surveyor, living on Collier Creek, where he died at
the age of about thirty-one.
Isaac N. Lewis acquired his early education in the
local schools near home, attended Curry College in
Lee County, Virginia, and did his active work as a
teacher on Sandlick on the Big Cowan, and taught one
term on the Poor Fork. In February, 1901, he moved
to Sandlick, near Whitesburg, and has conducted his
farm in that locality for the past twenty years. Much
of his time has also been devoted to surveying, and he
has much of the ability of the family in that line. He
is a kindly, affable gentleman, and a citizen who has
well earned the wealth of esteem he enjoys.
April 24, 1889, Mr. Lewis married Miss Lizzie Fair-
child, who was born on Sandlick, -a daughter of J. S.
Fairchild. She died June 17, 1920, at the age of fifty-
eight. Their children are : Ollie, at home ; Maggie,
wife of S. J. Cornett, of Mount Vernon, Rockcastle
County; W. F., who lives at the old Lewis home at the
mouth of Colliers Creek, where Isaac Lewis was born ;
Roy F., now at home, was a soldier in training at
Camp Taylor, and his command was under orders to
go overseas when the armistice was signed ; Clarinda,
wife of Roy Crawford, a civil engineer living at Col-
son ; and John S., who died at the age of seventeen,
while a student in Berea College.
Isaac N. Lewis is a Chapter Mason, has been master
of Whitesburg Lodge and has attended Grand Lodge.
He is a republican in politics.
Robert Dixon, president of the Dixon & Moore
Wholesale Grocery Company, one of the important and
well organized commercial concerns of Louisa, Law-
rence County, holds precedence as one of the represent-
ative business men of this section of his native state.
Mr. Dixon was born on a farm on Paint Creek, near
Paintsville, Johnson County, Kentucky, August 7, 1858.
His father, Martin V. Dixon, was born in the State
of Virginia in 1805, and was a child at the time of the
family immigration to Kentucky, where his parents
became pioneer settlers in what is now Johnson County,
they having been among the first to establish a home at
Paintsville. The father of Martin V. Dixon established
a pioneer grist mill at the foot of a hill and below
the grove known for many years by the name of its
owner, John C. C. Mayo, who was one of the most
prominent and influential citizens of Johnson County,
where a college at Paintsville is named in his honor.
This primitive mill was operated by horse power, and.
the pioneers came from far and near to avail them-
selves of its service, persons often coming from points
so far distant that they found it necessary to remain
over night while waiting their turn in the grinding of
grists. Mr. Dixon extended the hospitality of his home
in accord with the generous old Southern regime. He
was also a minister of the Baptist Church, but en-
countered the disapproval of his congregation by reason
of playing a violin during ministerial services in that
community. He continued as one of the honored pio-
neer citizens of Johnson County until his death, which
occurred prior to the Civil war.
Martin V. Dixon became skilled both as a millwright
and blacksmith, and he conducted a shop on Paint
Creek, near Paintsville. He had remarkable mechanical
ability and could produce almost any device or ac-
cessory to be manufactured with tools. He erected and
equipped many grist mills in the Big Sandy Valley,
among the number having been Borders Mill on
Georges Creek. He owned the greater part of the land
on which the town of Paintsville, the county seat, now
stands, was a leader in community affairs, and both
he and his wife were members of the Baptist Church.
Mrs. Dixon, whose maiden name was Ruth A. Porter,
was a daughter of Samuel Porter, and she died in 1894,
at the age of sixty-seven years. Mr. Dixon attained
to the venerable age of eighty years and preceded his
wife to the life eternal, his death having occurred in
1885. Of their ten children only three are now living —
Robert, of this review ; Arminta, the wife of John H.
Abel, a contractor in the City of Youngstown, Ohio ;
and Sarah, the wife of Green George, who is a pros-
perous farmer near Portsmouth, Ohio. Of the de-
576
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
ceased children it may be recorded that John became
a farmer in the State of Illinois, where he died at the
age of seventy years; Lee died at the age of thirty-
five years in Johnson County, and his twin brother,
Isaac B., who became a prosperous farmer, died at
Louisa, Lawrence County, in 1919; James M. was
engaged in the general merchandise business in the
village of Charley, Lawrence County, at the time of
his death, when a young man.
In a rural school on Paint Creek Robert Dixon
gained his early education, and among his teachers was
VV. E. Conelley, who figures as one of the editors of
this history, and when he was twenty years of age Mr.
Dixon, with a capital of $600, established a general
store in the village of Charley, Lawrence County. The
enterprise thrived from the beginning, but finally he
sold his store and business to his brothers and
removed to Louisa, the county seat. In 1890 he was
persuaded to accept nomination as the democratic
candidate for the office of county clerk, and by suc-
cessive re-elections he continued the incumbent of this
office twelve consecutive years. Mr. Dixon has always
maintained secure place in popular confidence and
esteem, and he was not permitted to retire from service
in public office, as shown by his having served three
terms as county treasurer and six years as postmaster
of Louisa under the administration of President Wil-
son. He resigned his position as postmaster upon the
change in the national administration.
After his retirement from the office of county clerk
Mr. Dixon became one of the organizers of the firm of
Watson & Dixon, which engaged in the wholesale
grocery business at Louisa, and later he became one of
the organizers of the Dixon & Moore Wholesale
Grocery Company, of which he is now president and
general manager, the substantial trade of the company
extending throughout the territory normally tributary
to Louisa as a distributing center. Mr. Dixon was
one of the organizers also of the First National Bank
of Louisa and the Louisa National Bank, of which
latter he is a director. His progressiveness and public
spirit were further shown in his active association with
the organization of the Louisa and Fort Gay Bridge
Company, which erected a bridge, one-fourth of a mile
in length, that spans the forks of the Big Sandy River
and connects the states of Kentucky and West Virginia,
an improvement that has inured greatly to the benefit
of Louisa. Of tills corporation Mr. Dixon is treasurer
and a director.
As may be inferred from a preceding statement, Mr.
Dixon is a staunch supporter of the cause of the demo-
cratic party, and he is affiliated with the Masonic
fraternity and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows,
in the local lodges of which he has passed official
chairs, besides having represented the organizations in
the respective Kentucky Grand Lodges. In Masonry
his affiliations include membership in the Chapter of
Royal Arch Masons at Louisa.
In 1883 Mr. Dixon wedded Miss Sadie Borders, who
was born at the mouth of Georges Creek, which enters
Big Sandy River in Lawrence County, and who is a
daughter of the late Arthur Borders. Mr. and Mrs.
Dixon have four children : Frederick is engaged in the
jewelry business at Louisa, and at the time of this
writing is assistant postmaster of the city, in 1921 ;
Lawrence is associated with the wholesale grocery
business of which his father is the executive head ;
Roberta remains at the parental home, as does also
Robert, Jr., who holds a clerical position in the Post
Office.
John R. Fairchii.d. M. D. Embued with a high sense
of civic responsibility and the obligations of his pro-
fession. Dr. John R. Fairchild. of Inez, is one of the
most representative men of Martin County, and one
who holds the respect and confidence of his fellow-
citizens. His standing in his profession is unquestioned,
and he has never failed to give to his home city and
county more than a fair measure of service.
Doctor Fairchild is a native son of Kentucky, for he
was born at Paintsville, Johnson County, October 7,
1865, a son of William and Alva (Estep) Fairchild.
William Fairchild was born on Jennie's Creek in 1835,
and he is now a resident of Paintsville, and although
eighty-six years of age, enjoys excellent health. His
father, Enoch Fairchild, a blacksmith by trade, came to
Johnson County from North Carolina and settled near
Paintsville, where he continued his blacksmithing. The
men of the Fairchild family have all been natural
mechanics, and he found pleasure as well as profit in
this business. During the war between the North and
the South William Fairchild served as a soldier in the
Union Army in the Fourteenth, the Thirty-ninth and
the Forty-fifth regiments of infantry from Kentucky,
and was in the battle of Cynthiana, one of the last
engagements of the war. Returning home after the
declaration of peace, he conducted a blacksmith shop
at Paintsville for about forty years. His wife died in
1891, when fifty years of age, an earnest member of
the United Baptist Church. William Fairchild subse-
quently married Laura Spradlen. By his first marriage
he had five children, as follows: Mary, who is the wife
of Dr. F. M. Bayes, for many years a prominent
physician of Paintsville; Minta, who is the wife of Dr.
W. F. Fairchild, of Flora, Illinois; Alra, who is the
wife of Randolph Salmons, of Williamson, West Vir-
ginia; Jessie, who is the wife of North Price, of
Paintsville ; and Doctor Fairchild, who was second in
order of birth.
His schooldays were spent at Paintsville and Flat
Gap, and as soon as he could secure the necessary cer-
t'ficate he engaged in teaching school in Johnson
County. He read medicine in the office of Dr. F. M.
Bayes, and in 1889 entered the Louisville Medical Col-
lege, known as the LTniversity of Louisville, and was
graduated therefrom in 1892, with the degree of Doctor
of Medicine. Immediately thereafter he established
himself in a general practice at Inez, now the county
seat of Martin County. At the time he located at Inez
he was a perfect stranger, but so popular did he be-
come that two years later he was elected county
assessor, and seven years later, county clerk. In 1915
he assisted in securing the election of J. F. Bailey, his
nephew, to the Circuit Bench, but for eighteen years
he had been examining surgeon for the pension depart-
ment of the United States Government, and during the
late war examined over 1,000 men for the service,
being among the patriotic physicians of Martin County
who served on the local Draft Board. He did not limit
his services to the Draft Board, however, but was very
zealous in behalf of the Red Cross and other war work,
and was one of the effective speakers in behalf of the
various drives. Doctor Fairchild has continuously kept
up, along with his other duties, his general practice,
and has always had a large clientele, and always
answers all calls made upon his skill. Like so many
of his profession, he is exceedingly generous, and con-
tributes his services when needed without hope of re-
muneration if his patients are not in a position to pay
for them.
In 1886 Doctor Fairchild married Sue Allen, a
daughter of Capt. Jack Allen, of Paintsville, and they
became the parents of three children, namely: Lorna,
who is the wife of Grant Wheatley, of Paintsville;
Fred, a young man of promise, who is at home ; and
Willie, who died when a youth of eighteen years. A
man of deep religious convictions, Doctor Fairchild has
been an ordained minister of the United Baptist Church
since 1900, and for three years has been moderator. He
takes an active part in Sunday School work, and is
convinced that the way to inaugurate a new era of
religious living is to commence with the children. Ac-
cording to his ideas, if they are brought up in the
right way they will not only continue in it, but will
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
577
influence their parents to change their mode of life to
a certain extent, if not altogether. Fraternally he is
a Mason and Odd Fellow. In politics he is a republi-
can, and has been one of the leaders in his party in
Martin County for many years. As the above record
shows, it would be difficult to find a man more repre-
sentative of the best element in his part of the state,
or one more deserving of public approval. His fame
is not confined to local circles, for his work in con-
nection with the pension department of the Govern-
ment brought him into contact with some of the lead-
ing men of the state and country, and by them he is
held in the highest regard as a man of unflinching in-
tegrity and unusual ability. When his country was at
war he was not found among the slackers, but in the
front rank of the earnest and efficient workers. Per-
sonal interests were forgotten during that period of
stress, and he labored to give to his locality the best
that was in him. Doctor Fairchild wields a powerful
influence, for he belongs to two of the most learned
professions, and is enthusiastic with reference to both.
Having made his Sunday School work his hobby for
years, he is achieving some remarkable results through
its medium, and the effects of his work will be known
for years to come in a better, cleaner and more con-
structive element among the rising generation.
Herschel Clay Baker, of Columbia, has been a
member of the Adair County bar for nearly six decades
and is one of the few lawyers still living who tried
cases during the Civil war period.
He was born in Cumberland County, Kentucky, De-
cember 16, 1841, son of E. C. and Sarah M. (Alex-
ander) Baker, while his grandfathers were William
Baker and Joseph Alexander. Judge Baker's fore-
fathers were prominent in the Colonial history of
Virginia and in the pioneer era of Kentucky. William
Baker, his paternal grandfather, was born in Chester-
field County, Virginia, December 17, 1764, and moved
to Cumberland County, Kentucky, in 1805. He had
served as a soldier in the Revolutionary war during the
latter part of the struggle, and received a pension for
that service. The maternal grandfather, Joseph Alex-
ander, was born January 30, 1780, son of John
Alexander, who was born in December, 1741, and they
removed from Henry County, Virginia, to Cumberland
County, Kentucky, John in 1805 and was followed
soon afterward by his son. John Alexander was also
a soldier in the Revolutionary war. Joseph Alexander
married in Henry County, Virginia, March 12, 1807,
Nancy Bouldin, a daughter of Joseph Bouldin, who
was son of Thomas Bouldin. Col. Thomas Bouldin
went from Maryland to Lunenburg, now Charlotte
County, Virginia, in 1744. He had married Nancy
Clark in Pennsylvania in 1731. Col. Thomas Bouldin
held a commission as magistrate, sheriff and lieutenant
colonel of militia under the Colonial government of
Virginia. The farm in Charlotte County, Virginia,
settled by Col. Thomas Bouldin in 1744 and on which
he is buried is still occupied by his descendants.
Judge H. C. Baker was educated in the common
schools of Columbia, Male and Female High School
there, and graduated in 1862 from Center College at
Danville. He studied law under his uncle, Judge T. T.
Alexander, and was admitted to practice in 1863, since
which date he has been a member of the bar of
Columbia. Nearly all his active energies have been be-
stowed within the strict limits of his profession. In
1864 he was appointed master commissioner of the
Adair Circuit Court, and later was elected county attor-
ney. In 1873 he was elected a member of the Legisla-
ture, serving in the session of 1873-74. In November,
1903, he was elected judge of the Twenty-ninth Judicial
District, comprising the counties of Adair, Russell,
Metcalfe, Casey, Cumberland and Monroe. Judge Baker
was on the bench six years.
For two or three years he was engaged in editorial
work as owner and editor of the Columbia Spectator.
He also served for several years as a director and
president of the Bank of Columbia. He was a presi-
dential elector in 1896 on the sound money ticket headed
by Palmer and Buckner, and since that campaign has
supported the republican party. He is a Royal Arch
Mason and an elder in the Presbyterian Church, U.
S. A.
At Lebanon, Kentucky, October 15, 1867, Judge Baker
married Dollie Miller Lisle, daughter of Thomas
Waller and Nancy Lisle of Green County. Her father
was a prominent lawyer and business man of Greens-
burg, at one time was a presidential elector and was
a member of the Kentucky Constitutional Convention
of 1850. The children of Judge and Mrs. Baker are :
W. Lisle Baker, cashier of the Bank of Monticello ;
Sallie A. Baker, of Columbia: Mrs. W. R. Walker, of
Cleburne, Texas ; Tyler A. Baker, of Cleburne ; Mrs.
W. D. Jones, of Knoxville, Tennessee; and Herschel
T. Baker, of Columbia.
McClellan Calvin Kirk. There is much of an en-
couraging nature in the career of McClellan Calvin
Kirk to be found by the ambitious youth who is forced
to make his way without the assistance of financial aid
or influential friends. Left as the support of his
mother and younger brothers and sisters by the death
of his father when he was but a youth, he not only
accepted and discharged his responsibilities in a cap-
able manner, but also managed to secure- an education
that formed a substantial foundation upon which he
has built a real structure of success. Today he is a
leading citizen, a leader of the Johnson County bar,
and one of the men actively helpful in the civic affairs
of Paintsville.
Mr. Kirk was born November 8, 1868, on a farm
located near the present site of Warfield, Martin
County, Kentucky, upon which property were also born
his father, James T. Kirk, and his grandfather, John
Kirk. The latter and a brother, Thomas Kirk, were
ministers of the Primitive Baptist faith and were prom-
inent in the organization of several churches of that
denomination in Eastern Kentucky, James T. Kirk
died in 1883, at the age of fifty-seven years, while his
widow, who bore the maiden name of Sarah C. Mash,
now resides at Inez, Martin County, aged seventy-four
years. She was born in North Carolina and came to
Kentucky in the year 1867. Mr. Kirk was active in
the development of coal mines at Warfield under the
direction of Col. G. R. C. Floyd, and was likewise man-
ager of the salt works at that place. He served a term
as jailer of Martin County and was active in politics,
as have been other members of the family, who have
likewise taken an active part in church work. He and
his wife, Sarah C, were the parents of four children :
McClellan Calvin ; Nora, the wife of P. F. Ward, an
attorney of St. Louis, Missouri ; Lee, of Huntington,
West Virginia ; and Myrtle, the wife of W. H. Barcus,
of Los Angeles, California.
The eldest of his parents' children, McClellan C.
Kirk, was called upon to assist in the family's support
when only a boy. With the advantages of only limited
public school training in Martin County, he went to
work in a coal mine belonging to the Peach Orchard
Mining Company, and at the end of two years was
its manager. Eventually he was able to realize his
cherished ambition of securing a legal training, and in
1894 was graduated from the Valparaiso (Indiana)
Law School, following which he entered upon the
practice of his profession at Inez, where he was asso-
ciated in practice with Judge A. J. Kirk for six years.
He was police judge of Inez from 1895 to 1899, and
also served as postmaster of that place for twelve
years. Following this he came to Paintsville, where
he has since been engaged in practice. In addition to
having a large private clientele, which covers the entire
Big Sandy Valley, he is local counsel for the C. & O.
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
Railway Company in Johnson, Floyd, Pike and Law-
rence Counties, and counsel for the Mrs. John C. C.
Mayo Company, Mrs. S. P. Fetter, the Consolidation
Coal Company, the North-East Coal Company and
many others of the leading business enterprises of his
section. He is a hard and industrious worker, and no
lawyer in the valley is more painstaking and studious.
In 1899 Mr. Kirk was united in marriage with Miss
Bessie Cassady, daughter of Benjamin and Angeline
Cassady of Martin County, and they have two sons:
K. Russell and W. H. Mr. Kirk is a man of domestic-
tastes and is devoted to his family. He, nevertheless,
enjoys the companionship of his fellows and is a popu-
lar member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows,
the Knights of Pythias, the Benevolent and Protective
Order of Elks, Inez Lodge, F. and A. M., of which
he was master for five years, Louisa Chapter, R. A. M ,
Ashland Commandery, K. T., and Covington Consistory,
R. and S. M„ having become a Mason at the age of
twenty-one years. He belongs also to the Shrine at
Ashland. lie is public-spirited and always ready to
aid in the movements that elevate the intellectual and
material advancement of the community. During the
World war he was chairman of the Johnson County
Draft Board, and took a leading part in the Y. M. C. A.,
Red Cross and Liberty Loan drives. A republican in
politics, he has taken an active part in public affairs,
and in 1912 was elected a member of the State Legis-
lature, in which body he accomplished effective work
as a member of various important committees, includ-
ing those of railroads and mines and mining. Mr. Kirk-
is superintendent of tin- Mayo Memorial Sunday School
at Paintsville, and in all church and Sunday School
work is helpfully interested.
Hox. Francis A. Hopkins. In an all too brief
career Francis Alexander Hopkins did such work in
his profession and exerc:sed such magnanimous lead-
ership in public affairs as to secure for him lasting
gratitude among the eminent Kentuckians of his gen-
eration. The accomplishments and experiences of his
life were richly varied . but these may be allowed to
speak for themselves, while bis friends have the deepest
reverence and respect for his character both private
and as a public man.
Francis Alexander Hopkins was a native of Old
Virginia of prominnt colonial ancestry, and was a
transplanted citizen to Eastern Kentucky. He was
born at Jeffersonville, now known as Tazewell in Taze-
well County. Virginia, May 27, i8sj. His grandfather
John Hopkns married Mary Turner, daughter of
Rev. James Turner, a noted Presbyterian minister of
Bedford County, Virginia. Mary Turner's mother was
Sallie Leftwich, a daughter of William Leftwich, who
was a lieutenant colonel in the American forces during
the War of the Revolution and also captain of milit'a
during the. Colonial wars. The father of Francis A.
Hopkins was John Calvin Hopkins.
Francis Alexander Hopkins was educated in the
Tazewell High School and early in life exhibited what
was to develop into one of his predominating character-
istics, namely, the championing of what he considered
to be right. In January, 1874. he moved from Taze-
well to Prestonsburg, Floyd County, Kentucky, where
he was soon admitted to the bar and subsequently
rose to the position of one of the leading attorneys
of Eastern Kentucky.
From the outset of his career he was before the
public in one or another capacity, and in all the trusts
imposed upon him he proved the stanch faithfulness
of his character. In 1882 he was elected superintendent
of schools of Floyd County, and during his term he
succeeded in imparting a new quality and better stand-
ards to free school education. Later he was chosen
a delegate to represent the counties of Floyd, Knott
and Letcher in the convention which framed the present
Constitution of Kentucky. In that body he was the
moving spirit in having incorporated into the Consti-
tution a section which forfeited all claims under the
Old Virginia Land Grants for failure to list for tax-
ation, thereby clearing away the clouds upon the titles
of the land owners of Eastern Kentucky which by the
existence of these Old Virginia land grants impeded
development of the natural resources of this section
of the state. He was a member of the Board of
Trustees of the State University of Kentucky for
a number of years and was untiring in his efforts
to make the institution second to none in the country.
In 1902 Mr. Hopkins was elected to the Fifty-e'ghth
Congress and in 1904 was re-elected, serving in the
Fifty-ninth Congress. During both terms he attracted
attention by his work on both in committee and on the
floor of the house. The chief subject of his study
while in Washington was immigration. During his
labors in connection with this important national ques-
tion he was invited to address and did appear before
numerous organizations in New England, and before
retiring from Congress he introduced a bill to restrict
immigration. However, his ideas on that subject were
in advance of the times. Mr. Hopkins was elected
as a delegate at large from the State of Kentucky
in 1916, sitting in the National Convention of that year.
From the day he came to the state Congressman
Hopkins was a leader in clean politics. Outs'de of his
professional and political career he also deserves credit
for his efforts, particularly in his later years, to intro-
duce a better grade of livestock into his portion of
the state. He was always ready to labor with his
people for better conditions generally. He was a
Mason of very high standing.
In his death which occurred at Prestonsburg June
5, 1918, his city and state lost one in every way worthy
to represent them on the largest and most important
issues of the times. So far this sketch has considered
chiefly the formal details of his life. Fortunately a
better tribute to the real elements of his strength and
nobility of character are at hand in a beautiful tribute
that was paid him by Governor Augustus Owsley-
Stanley of Kentucky. This tribute is given in full:
"It was my good fortune to know Frank Hopkins
as few knew him. During many long and pleasant
years of close and intimate acquaintance I was privi-
leged to see and, in a measure, to understand him as a
citizen, as a statesman and as a man: to sit by bis
hearthstone and to know something of that ideal home
life which was the source of his deepest and most
abiding joy. I knew him as husband and as father
and as friend.
"Frank Hopkins was not a politician. He instinc-
tively abhorred the art and artifices of pol'tics High
official position came to him as a deserved tribute from
an intelligent and appreciative constituency who under-
stood his worth. It was not attained by the cunning
or the devices of the professional office-seeker. He
was inherently honest, instinctively sincere, uncon-
sciously courageous. Deliberate in forming opinions,
he approached every public question with an open
mind, giving it careful, earnest and thorough investi-
gation before reaching and expressing an opinion.
When once convinced of the justice of a cause, he
was adamant, and no fear of popular disfavor, no
thought of personal aggrandizement, ever induced him
to depart from the straight path of duty.
"He was big of heart as well as of brain. In Con-
gress and out, and especially during the stress and
peril of present conditions, his constant thought was
of the people of the mountains and especially of Floyd
County. Their success, their security and their happi-
ness were an integral part of his noble life, and in
his untiring, disinterested devotion he labored without
ceasing for the material development of his country
and for the happiness of his people. He was essentially-
practical. Philanthrophy with him was not an idle
emotion — it was a sane, fixed and indomitable purpose.
£&y^tL*.
CyTZccc /&. ' /&<r?CJU*t^
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
579
"To increase the fertility of the soil and the diversity
of the crops, to raise the standard and character of
livestock, to improve domestic conditions, the home
life of the poor, these were the things of which he
thought more, infinitely more, than of his own personal
property.
"His friends and his neighbors will know only when
he is gone how much they owe this stalwart, gentle,
modest man. Possessing an accurate and varied knowl-
edge of public affairs and an infinite capacity for labor,
it is only after he is gone that they whom he loved and
for whom he labored will fully appreciate the in-
estimable value of his superb and tireless service to
the new life of enterprise and progress just opening
to the people of Eastern Kentucky.
"Few great men have ever stood the crucial test
of intimate acquaintance as Frank Hopkins stood it.
The nearer you approached him, the bigger he became
and better. He was immaculate in his domestic life,
the most loyal and devoted of husbands, the fondest
and gentlest of fathers. It was in the privacy and in
the happiness of his home that I learned to love and
to treasure this great and good man.
"He leaves to those who loved a noble and dis-
tinguished career, the memory of a life that is as
inspiring and as beautiful as some old sweet song.
A grateful people and a loving family will erect a
monument to his memory, but more lasting than
Corinthian brass or marble or granite are the noble
deeds of the man himself."
Francis Alexander Hopkins married in November,
1876, Miss Alice Gray Davidson, daughter of Joseph
Morgan and Mary Amanda (Hatcher) Davidson. By
family position and by her individual qualifications
Mrs. Hopkins was in every way fitted to share in the
important destiny of Mr. Hopkins. She was born at
Prestonsburg November 23, 1857. Her father Joseph
Morgan Davidson, who was born in Floyd County
June 25, 1837, was the first sheriff of that county after
the war, represented it two terms in the Legislature,
and at the time of his death on September 9, 1882,
was candidate for Congress. He was a very successful
business man, owning large tracts of land, and some
of the richest coal mines in Eastern Kentucky have
been developed on lands once owned by him. Joseph
M. Davidson stood considerably over six feet in height,
and his physical stature was well matched by his native
intellect and force of character. However, he was
virtually self educated. His parents Samuel P. and
Judith (Lackey) Davidson were natives of Old Virginia
and pioneers of Eastern Kentucky. They were of
Scotch ancestry. The mother of Mrs. Hopkins, Mary
Amanda Hatcher, was born in Floyd County October
■7, 183S, and she survived her husband, passing away
May 11, 1890. She left four daughters: Mary Sallie,
wife of H. H. Fitzpatrick now living at Prestonsburg;
Mrs. Alice G. Hopkins; Josephine B.; and Ann^
Martha who died in 1885. Mrs. Hopkins acquired,
partly through her own determined efforts, a liberal
education. She attended public schools, for six months
was a student in a Female Seminary at Steubensvillc,
Ohio, and also attended a school at College Hill near
Cincinnati and the Glendale Seminary. Once she rode
seventy-five miles on horseback to attend school. Mrs.
Hopkins is a faithful member of the Methodist Church.
Five children were born to Francis A. Hopkins and
wife : Joseph Davidson Hopkins, born October 13,
1877, and died June 30, 1879; Elizabeth Anne; Mary
Martha, born March 30, 1882, and died June 5, 1882;
John Calvin ; and Josephine Davidson Hopkins.
Of the two surviving daughters Elizabeth Anne was
born May 17, 1879, was educated in the public schools
of Prestonsburg, in the Glendale Female College of
Glendale, Ohio, and on December 29, 1898, was married
to William Henry Layne of Prestonsburg. She is a
devout Presbyterian and to the untiring efforts of Mr.
and Mrs. Layne are due the present existence and
strength of the Presbyterian Church at Prestonsburg.
The younger surviving daughter Josephine Davidson
Hopkins was born September 8, 1885. She was also
educated in the public schools of Prestonsburg and.
finished in the Hamilton College and Campbell-Hager-
man College of Lexington, Kentucky. On September 7,
1904, she was united in marriage with Thomas Edward
Dimick of Prestonsburg, a son of G. H. Dimick, pioneer
oil and gas man of Pennsylvania who came to Ken-
tucky in the year 1889. Mrs. Dimick is also an active
member of the Presbyterian Church.
Col. John C. Hopkins, worthy son of an illustrious
father — the late Francis A. Hopkins, whose career has
been reviewed — has enjoyed a successful place among
the members of the legal profession of Floyd County,
is a native of Prestonsburg, and is one of the thoroughly
alert, progressive and public spirited citizens of that
community.
He was born at Prestonsburg June 25, 1883, and in
addition to his early training in the public schools he
attended Hogsett Military Academy at Danville, Ken-
tucky, the Randolph-Macon Academy at Bedford, Vir-
ginia, and finished his literary training in Center College
at Danville, where he was graduated A. B. in 1904.
Colonel Hopkins studied law at the University of Vir-
ginia as a member of the class of 1906. He was ad-
mitted to the bar in 1906 and at once began practice
at Prestonsburg, where he rose to a high place in his
profession. He had attracted a large, prominent and
lucrative clientele when owing to ill health he was
forced to discontinue his professional career and he now
devotes his time to managing his personal and his
mother's extensive interests.
The military title by which his many friends over
Eastern Kentucky always identify him is the result of
his appointment on December 28, 1915, as aide de camp
on the governor's staff with the rank of colonel by
Governor Augustus Owsley Stanley. Colonel Hopkins
was sincerely devoted to the cause of the Government
during the World war. Pfe was appointed Government
Appeal Agent for the local board of Floyd County pur-
suant to Act of Congress of May 18, 191 7, and was
honorably relieved of his duties as such March 31, 1919.
He was also appointed and served as a member of the
Legal Advisory Board of Floyd County pursuant to Act
of Congress of May 18, 191 7, and continued this work
until honorably released March 31, 1919. Thus for over
two years, from America's entrance into the war with
the Central Powers, he had official responsibilities and
outside of them he lent the full strength of his private
aid and influence to a speedy and effective prosecution
of the war.
Colonel Hopkins is associated with many of the com-
panies engaged in the development of the mining in-
dustry in Floyd County and Eastern Kentucky. He also
does an important work in carrying on the agricultural
enterprise inaugurated by bis father. While somewhat
inclined to politics his work in that direction has never
been actuated by any desire for personal preferment.
Colonel Hopkins became a Mason just after reaching
his majority, and rapidly rose through the York Rite
to the Commandery and through the Scottish Rite to
the thirty-second degree. He is also a member of the
Mystic Shrine.
On December 15, 1909, Colonel Hopkins was united
in marriage with Miss Valentine Pieratt, of Mount
Sterling, Kentucky, a granddaughter of Hon. John
Wickliffe Kendall, of West Liberty, Morgan County,
Kentucky, prominent in matters of State and Govern-
mental affairs, having served in the Legislature of
Kentucky for term after term, having been elected
and served as commonwealth's attorney in his judicial
district for years, and having been elected to and
served in the Congress of the United States from the
580
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
Tenth Congressional District of Kentucky, where he was
stricken and died while prosecuting his duties. To the
marriage of John Calvin Hopkins and Valentine Pieratt
has been born one son, John Calvin, Jr., born July 22,
1 91 8.
Oscar M. Johnson, the oldest Shorthorn cattle
breeder in Kentucky, became interested in that in-
dustry as a boy when he purchased his first registered
cow. That was long before the beginning of boys
clubs and other popular means now used to stimulate
and encourage youthful enthusiasm and enterprise in
stock breeding. Mr. Johnson for many years has been
prominent in Shorthorn circles in Kentucky, and is
one of the men who have made their prosperity through
pure bred livestock.
Mr. Johnson, whose home for the last fifteen years
has been at Millersburg, was born in Nicholas County,
and still owns the old homestead where he first saw
the light of day August 17, 1858. That land has been
in the possession of the Johnson family for at least
a century. His father, Mason Johnson, was born there
June I, 1824. The grandfather, Jonathan Johnson,
came to Nicholas County, Kentucky, from Virginia.
He acquired 300 acres of land in that locality and
improved and developed it as a farm, living there
until his death at the age of eighty-six. He married
Rachel Dills at Cynthiana, and she died at the old
homestead in 1859. They were the parents of three
sons and two daughters, named Mason, Hiram, John,
Nancy, who became the wife of Elijah Summitt, and
Rachel, who was the wife of John Steeres.
The old farm homestead descended to Mason John-
son, who married Patsey Victor. They were the par-
ents of four sons : Bruce and Charles N., both
deceased ; Stewart, a merchant in Texas ; and Oscar M.
Oscar M. Johnson attended the country schools near
the old farm until he was about eighteen, and after
that had a share of the farm labors until he was
twenty-one, when he bought ninety acres of land
nearby. He was only ten years of age when he bought
a registered Shorthorn cow, known as Nannie G, for
which he paid $150.00. He had developed a consider-
able herd of this fine stock by the time he was twenty-
one. He inherited the 300 acre homestead from his
father, and in that locality and on that land his active
interests were centered until January 1, 1906, when
he removed to Millersburg in order to place his chil-
dren in school. For a great many years Mr. Johnson
has held an annual sale of Shorthorns. His herd is
now headed by Premier, one of the champion bulls
in the show ring. He paid for Premier $625.00. Mr.
Johnson is one of the directors of the Kentucky Short-
horn Association, and is a director of the Farmers
Bank of Millersburg. He is a democrat in politics
and a member of the Christian Church.
December 18, 1889, at Paris, he married Miss Katie
Myall. She was born in Bourbon County, Kentucky,
July 21. i860, and is a graduate of Hamilton College
at Lexington. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson have two chil-
dren. The daughter, Ethel, is a graduate of the
Middlebttrg Female College and the wife of Alexander
Miller, of Millersburg. The son. Robert M., graduated
from the Military Institute at Millersburg and is
now in the life insurance business at Paris, Ken-
tucky. He married Eldora Chambers, of Maysville.
Thomas S. Robertson, farmer, stock raiser and
banker at Bethel, has achieved substantial prominence
as a citizen and business man in the community that
has known him all his life and in which his family
has played a useful role since pioneer times.
Mr. Robertson was born near Bethel in Bath County
January 31. 1863, son of A. G. and Margaret A.
(Stone) Robertson and grandson of Richard and Phil-
adelphia CStone) Robertson. Richard Robertson came
to Bath Countv at an early day with his maiden sister.
Nancy Robertson. On Bald Eagle in Bath County he
visited the family of Valentine Stone, whose daughter
Philadelphia he married, and they then settled on part
of the Valentine Stone estate. Richard Robertson and
wife reared a family of fourteen children, all now de-
ceased. Their son, Albert G. Robertson, was born
February 7, 1825, and became a prosperous farmer.
He was deeply interested in religious movements and
was a deacon in the Bethel Christian Church. In pol-
itics he was a democrat. He and his wife had six
children : Belle, wife of William McCray, a farmer
near North Middletown, Kentucky; Lulu, wife of C.
C. Hazelrigg, a former sheriff of Bath County and
now connected with the Louisville & Nashville Railroad
at Louisville ; Susan, wife of P. R. Stone, of Bath
County; Mary D., wife of M. T. Botts, of Mount
Sterling; A. R., a land owner and loose leaf tobacco
dealer; and Thomas S.
Thomas S. Robertson grew up on his father's farm,
but in addition to the district schools attended high
school and Transylvania College at Lexington. After
completing his college course he engaged in the loose
leaf tobacco business, and for some time represented
the Louisville Tobacco Warehouse Company over this
section of Kentucky. He owns a handsome country
place of 1,400 acres, now largely devoted to general
farming. His livestock specialty has been mules.
Mr. Robertson married Miss Sheila H. Scott, who
died in 1918, the mother of three children: Albert S.,
the oldest, attended Transylvania University three years
and married Stella Crouch ; Lila Ruth is a graduate of
high school and of Hamilton College at Lexington with
the class of 1918, and graduated with honors from the
Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Virginia. The
youngest, Harold S., is a high-school graduate. Mr.
Robertson married for his present wife, Miss Catherine
Cochran, of Lexington, Kentucky. She graduated from
the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music in 1890, and is
one of the most talented musicians in Bath County.
She studied abroad, and for a number of years was
a teacher of voice. Mr. and Mrs. Robertson are active
members of the Christian Church and Sunday school
workers. He is a democrat, and is affiliated with New-
ton Lodge No. 286, F and A. M.
Joe W. Kenton is one of three brothers who hold
and farm together one of the largest estates in Nicholas
County, comprising 1,100 acres, a farm that largely rep-
resented the accumulations of the late W. J. Kenton,
their father. This farm is on the Maysville and Lex-
ington Pike, nine miles south of Carlisle.
W. J. Kenton was born in Nicholas County, Novem-
ber 9, 1842, son of Simon Kenton and directly re-
lated to the famous family of Kentucky pioneers
that included the great scout and companion of Daniel
Boone, also named Simon Kenton. W. J. Kenton was
reared and educated in Nicholas County, and on Feb-
ruary 13, 1868, married Margaret McClanahan, who
was born May 18, 1837. On the McClanahan farm at
one time stood the county seat of Nicholas County.
After their marriage W. J. Kenton and wife began
housekeeping on Sugar Creek, and so limited was their
capital that they used boxes for tables and chairs.
They lived on Sugar Creek from their marriage until
October, 1891, and then moved to the farm where
the widowed mother still resides. W. J. Kenton was
a charter member, past master and secretary for many
years of Blue Lick Lodge No. 495, F. and A. M. He
was a republican in politics.
His three sons are Marcus, Charles and Joe W.
Marcus married Isadora Bradley, and Charles married
Carrie Braefield. These three brothers took their Ma-
sonic degrees and were made masters the same night
in Blue Lick Lodge. Joe and Charles are both past
masters, while Marcus is present master of the lodge.
They are all republican voters. Joe and Marcus are
also members of Nicholas Chapter No. 18, R. A. M.
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
581
They own the old estate of 1,100 acres in common, and
are easily among the most extensive farmers in this
section of the state..
Joe W. Kenton was born in Nicholas County, Feb-
ruary 8, 1872, grew up on the home farm, acquired
a common-school education, and on May 29, 1918, mar-
ried Susie Rafferty. She was born in Nicholas County
October 4, 1874, daughter of Daniel and Mary (De-
land) Rafferty. Her parents were natives of Ireland
and they were married at Carlisle, Kentucky, after
which they located along the Maysville Pike, where
they lived until her father was killed at the age of
seventy-six. In the Rafferty family were four chil-
dren: Anna, Henry, Sallie and Susie. Anna was the
wife of James George, and left two children. Mrs. Joe
Kenton is a member of the Catholic Church.
Arris Wiggins is one of the largest land owners in
Nicholas County, and has had a life-long connection
with farming in Eastern Kentucky. His home is on
the Lexington and Maysville Pike, 3^ miles northwest
of Carlisle.
Mr. Wiggins was born in Mason County, Kentucky,
November 18, 1856, son of Clayburn and Sarah
(Buckler) Wiggins. His father was a native of Mary-
land, while his mother was born in Fleming County,
Kentucky. Clayburn Wiggins came to Kentucky when
a young man, anad after his marriage settled on a
farm in Mason County. He was one of the very pros-
perous farmers of his day and built up a large estate
in land and other property. He was a republican, and
he and his wife were Methodists. Of their eight chil-
dren seven are still living: Rachel, wife of James
Meis; Effie, wife of Abe Shepherd, of Fleming County;
Alice, wife of Jefferson Wheatley; Nancy, widow of
Henry Saxon; M. T. Wiggins, a farmer in Mason
County; Arris; and Wilson B., also in Mason County.
Arris Wiggins grew up on his father's farm and
as a youth attended school, chiefly in the winter terms,
while the rest of the year was spent in the labors of
the farm. As his share of his father's estate he re-
ceived about three thousand dollars, and with this he
bought land in Mason County and farmed there for
several years. In 1890 he removed to Nicholas County
and bought the Governor Metcalf farm of 255 acres.
He continued to live there for nearly thirty years, but
in 1919 bought the Doctor Miller place of 156 acres,
which is his present home. From this he gives his
supervision to his extensive property comprising some
twelve hundred acres in Nicholas County.
Mr. Wiggins is a republican in politics. February
9, 1910, he married Mary B. Taylor.
W. L. Coleman, of Russellville, entered the railroad
service when he left college, has had successive promo-
tions in responsibility, and is the present freight agent
of the Louisville & Nashville at Russellville.
Mr. Coleman was born at McKenzie in Carroll
County, Tennessee, July 14, 1887. His paternal ances-
tors came out of Ireland and were early settlers in
North Carolina. His grandfather, William Albert
Coleman, was born in North Carolina in 1824. Moving
west into Carroll County, Tennessee, he became a
farmer on a large scale and lived there until his death
at McKenzie in 1910, at the age of eight-six. He mar-
ried Margaret Norman, who was born in North Caro-
lina in 1829 and died at McKenzie in 1909. Their son,
J. W. Coleman, was born in Carroll County in 1861!
He grew up a farmer, was a merchant for six years,
but then resumed farming, and still lives near Mc-
Kenzie, where he owns a large amount of land and
does a profitable business as a stock breeder. He has
served as a magistrate in his home community, is a
democrat, a member of the Presbyterian Church and
is affiliated with the Woodmen of the World. J. W.
Coleman married Anna Beadles, who was born in Car-
roll County, Tennessee, in 1863. W. L. Coleman is
the oldest of their six children, Grady is a farmer in
Carroll County, Lucille is at home, Guy is in the yard
office of the Illinois Central Railroad at Cairo, Illinois,
and Margaret and Louise are both at home.
W. L. Coleman spent his youthful years on his
father's farm in Carroll County, attended rural schools,
and up to the age of twenty was a student in Bethel
College of the Presbyterian Church at McKenzie. He
received his early training in railroading at McKenzie,
beginning as clerk for the joint station of the Louis-
ville & Nashville and the Nashville, Chattanooga &
St. Louis Railroads. From that he was promoted to
ticket clerk, and in November, 1913, was assigned to
duty at Russellville. He was yard clerk for the Louis-
ville & Nashville, became chief clerk in June, 1916,
and since December 6, 1918, has been freight agent.
His work as a railroad man was an essential serv-
ice during the World war, but he also actively partici-
pated in the various local campaigns in Logan County
in behalf of the various drives for funds and other pur-
poses. Mr. Coleman is a democrat, a member of the
Baptist Church at Russellville and is affiliated with the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights
of the Maccabees. His home is at 268 East Second
Street. July 18, 1908, at McKenzie, Tennessee, he
married Miss Lillian Brooks, daughter of J. E. and
Essie Brooks. Mrs. Brooks lives with Mr. and Mrs.
Coleman. The father, who died at Stanley, Kentucky,
March 18, 1917, was for many years a section fore-
man of the Louisville, Henderson & St. Louis Rail-
roads. Mr. and Mrs. Coleman have three children :
Brooks, born November 14, 1912; Joseph, born No-
vember 4, 19 16; and Lillian Elizabeth, born July 10,
1919.
Thomas Pinckney Hill was born at Springfield,
Washington County, Kentucky, August 30, 1826, the
descendant of that class of pioneers who wrested the
wilderness from the Indian savages, and made it into
a Commonwealth. His paternal ancestors came from
Maryland into what is now Kentucky about the year
1872, Clement Hill being the first of the name to emi-
grate here. His mother was Louisa Peyton whose
grandfather, Valentine Peyton, a soldier of the Revo-
lution, came from Virginia into Kentucky at the close
of the War for Independence, and her maternal grand-
father, Matthew Speed, was also a Revolutionary sol-
dier. The latter belonged to the same family as James
Speed, attorney general in Mr. Lincoln's cabinet. Colonel
Hill's father was Thomas P. Hill, who practiced law
for a short time at Springfield, Kentucky, and in New
Orleans, dying at an early age. His father's brother,
the late Hon. Clement Hill, of Lebanon, Kentucky, was
a gifted lawyer, who attained high rank in his profes-
sion.
Thomas P. Hill received his literary education at
St. Mary's College, of Marion County, Kentucky. He
then took up the study of law, his preceptor being
Hon. John Kinkead, himself a man of massive mind,
and a renowned practitioner of the Kentucky bar. Upon
obtaining a law license, Mr. Hill moved to Missouri,
but in a short time he returned to his native state,
locating at Monticello, in Wayne County, of which he
was appointed county attorney in 1848. Afterwards he
resided at Somerset, Kentucky, for a brief period, and
in 1854 he came to Lincoln County, Kentucky, where
he lived for the remainder of his life.
Soon after attaining his majority, Mr. Hill married
Miss Maria Peyton, of Lincoln County, and of this
marriage three children survive. Mrs. Hill died in
1867. In 1869 Mr. Hill married Mrs. Frances Fowler,
widow of Col. A. Fowler, of Little Rock, Arkansas.
She died in 1901. Some time after her death, Colonel
Hill married Miss Mary Peyton, of Standiford, Ken-
tucky, who survived him.
582
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
To say that Colonel Hill was a splendid lawyer is but
stating a truth that becomes self-evident when we ex-
amine his mental characteristics. He possessed an
alert, penetrating mind that could quickly, almost in-
tuitively, separate truth from error; a wonderful power
of analysis that could penetrate the most involved
propositions and cast them, with apparent ease, into
their component elements ; a process of thought so un-
erringly logical that it struck directly at the vice of an
adversary argument, no matter how spacious it might
be, and a fine sense of proportion that enabled him
always to grasp in a case the pregnant facts, and to
dismiss from his attention those that were but inci-
dental.
To these natural qualifications he added a rich learn-
ing acquired through years of close application to the
law. He was profoundly versed in the doctrines of the
Common Law. His feeling toward it was akin to
reverence. He appreciated, of course, its weaknesses ;
he knew its imperfections, but too, he saw the grandeur
of it, saw in it the unconquerable spirits of the Anglo-
Saxon race, its love of justice, its struggles for equality,
and its aspirations for freedom. He delighted to search
its principles and vindicate its rules by solving with
them the problems that met him in the court room and
in the office. It is needless to state that one of his
independent and reflective cast has scant patience with
the modern practice of sustaining a proposition merely
by citation of cases. Always with him it was the voice
of reason that must decide, not the echo of authority.
But his pre-eminent characteristics as a lawyer was
his power in argument before the panel. With a re-
markably rich vocabulary, and a fluency of speech that
knew not hesitation, he united a voice of such exquisite
timber that it lay every emotion captive to its utterance
and a grace of gesture that the finished actor might
have envied. He understood human nature so thor-
oughly that he could play upon the sensibilities of his
auditors as the musician his violin. Pathos-laughter-
hate-the affections, he loosed and bound the feelings as
he desired. When occasion required it, he brought to
his aid a wealth of imagery and transported the jury
by the flights of his eloquence, or, again, he would en-
force his argument by homely illustrations common to
the experiences of all. and thus win their intimate con-
fidence. Indeed, of him, as of Rufus Choate, it might
truly be said, "He was the Ruler of the Twelve."
Though liberally endowed with qualities that would
surely have won him recognition from the public had
he sought it, Colonel Hill never cared for political pre-
ferment. But this does not mean that he took no con-
cern in affairs of public moment. On the contrary, the
natural bent of his mind, as well as the intimate study of
the history of our republic, its peculiar institutions, and
the development and the significance of our political
parties, caused him to have a deep interest in public
affairs. In truth, he was a student of the science of
government. Therefore, he tooke delight in politics
in its character as an interpreter and administrator of
the true powers of government ; but to that phase of it
that has to do merely with the disribution of spoils, he
was absolutely indifferent.
A staunch believer in the tenets of democracy as ex-
pounded by Jefferson, Jackson, and Cleveland, his powers
as a public speaker caused him frequently to be sum-
moned to the hustling in times of state and national
campaigns. Before the people as before the jury he
was wonderfully effective. When he arose to speak,
his very first utterance would rivet the attention of
his audience. There was something about his voice
that held one fascinated. It was so clear, so pene-
trating, and susceptible of such excellent modulation,
that instinctively one felt that he was listening to a
master of art, of vocal expression. His fluency and
felicity of speech were as striking as his voice. Not
only did he have a full vocabulary, but he could fit the
word exactly to the idea. So characteristic of him
as a speaker was this, that frequently his phrases, by
reason of their aptness, became current ever afterwards
with those that heard him.
These, however, are but the graces of oratory, are
but means to an end. The man who is worthy of the
name of orator must have far more than these accom-
plishments, he must have a message to deliver. So
it was with Colonel Hill. He spoke from a full com-
prehension of his subject. His mind at once, construc-
tive and analytical, and seasoned by deep reflection,
grasped with mastery the issues before the people and
unfolded them to his hearers so clearly and simply that
the most stolid among them felt that thrill that comes
to one when first stirred by awakened processes of
thought. They left his presence charmed with the
music of his voice, it is true, but, far better than that,
they left his presence taught to think.
In igoi Colonel Hill voluntarily retired from the
practice of law. He had amassed a large estate, but,
as he was in full possession of his faculties, in splendid
health, devoted to his profession, and with a wide clien-
tage, his retirement was an unusual act. His explana-
tion of it was significant. He said he wished to step
out of the way of the younger members of the bar.
The statement revealed a prominent trait of his char-
acter— his interest in the younger attorneys. He in-
vited them to discuss with him their cases, and he was
ever ready to help them untangle their knotty problems.
He loved to be with them, to come in touch with their
buoyancy, and to live over again his first days at the
bar. They, in turn, welcomed him to their circles.
They admired and respected him, but, more than tltat
they entertained a warm affection for him. Their rela-
tions with him were not marked by that aloofness so
often found between age and youth ; it was character-
ized by a beautiful spirit of close comradeship. In his
passing they lost both counselor and friend.
Not only in his profession, but also in the field of
polite literature he was broadly cultured. He had a
comprehensive knowledge of history, ancient, mediaeval,
and modern, and his powerful imagination lent itself
readily to the study of the poets ; while he was unusually
familiar with the Latin classics. The character of his
mind was reflected in his favorite writers — Tacitus,
Horace, Tasso and Milton.
Socially, Colonel Hill was a delightful companion.
He was so gifted as a conversationalist that, like Dr.
Samuel Johnson, in every gathering he was found he
was the central figure not through self obtrusion, but
by common consent and desire. Unlike the great lexicog-
rapher, however, he was uniformly courteous, and a
stranger to detraction. Here he was as versatile as at
the bar or before the populace. Nature had blessed
him with such memory that he seemed to carry for-
ward with him everything that he had read or observed.
He had an inexhaustible store of reminiscences, an in-
fectious humor that left no sting, and a capacity for
rapid, vigorous thinking, that did not wait on studied
reflection. The subjects upon which he discoursed were
as various as life itself. Literature, economics, religion,
political science, the common affairs of every day life,
all were his themes, and all glowed under his touch.
He had a truly wonderful talent for vivid portrayal.
By a simple gesture he could draw a picture as graphic
as can the artist with his pencil ; if he were describing
men, as contrasted with events, he so vitalized them
that his hearers almost felt their presence.
His favorite topic was the law. He loved to dwell
upon its majesty to show that it was indeed an exalted
calling. His devotion to his profession was inspiring.
"It partook," as one who knew him has truly said, "of
the nature of chivalry." He imbued all who rime
under his influence with a sense of their high ob'iga-
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
583
tion as ministers of the court, and it is a tribute to him
that the bar of which he was so long the Nestor, ob-
served the amenities of the court room with scrupulous
care and practiced the ideals of their profession with
strict fidelity.
Colonel Hill died at his home in Stanford, Kentucky,
on the 8th day of December, 1908. The span of his
years was more than four score, but that Providence
who had so generously endowed him for the journey of
life, was tender to him till the last. To few of flesh
is it given to come down to the grave ripe in years with
such serenity and peace. The afflictions and sorrows
so often attendant in the declining days were absent,
and in their place was a dignity, a contentment of mind,
and a power of acute reasoning that brought an un-
wonted charm to old age, and one left his presence
feeling that there is a glory in the evening skies un-
known to the splendors of morning airs.
Gustavus Emert, owner and proprietor of a fine
farm on the Maysville Pike, eight miles south of Car-
lisle, has spent nearly all his life in Kentucky, and his
career has been one marked by struggles against ad-
versity during his youth and by a constant upward
progress in his relations as a business man and citizen.
Mr. Emert was born in Coblentz, Germany, June 24,
i860, and his mother d'ed in Germany when he was
four years old. His father, Daniel T. Emert, married
again, and in 1865 brought his family to the United
States and located at Newport, Kentucky, where he
lived until his death, August 14, 1870. Gustavus Emert
was one of two children, his sister, Louise, being the
wife of Andrew Black, now a county commissioner of
Campbell County, Kentucky.
Gustavus Emert was ten years of age when his
father died. He attended school at Newport about six
years altogether, and early learned how to support him-
self. He worked on farms, for three years followed
the trade of machinist, and later built a store on the
Maysville Pike and did a prosperous business as a
general merchant at Ellisville for twelve years. On
retiring from merchandising he bought his present
farm, consisting of 112 acres, and has since devoted
his labors to its management and improvement.
On January 7, 1890, Mr. Emert married Fannie
Taylor, of Robertson County, Kentucky, where she was
born December 14, 1859. Mr. and Mrs. Emert are
members of the Christian Church, and he is a demo-
crat in politics.
John Henry Ewing, representing one of Kentucky's
oldest families, is a successful general farmer in the
Harrods Creek community of Jefferson County.
He was born at the old Rudy home, the place of
his maternal ancestors at St. Matthews, Kentucky, May
27, 1876, son of Benjamin F. and Mary Adele (Rudy)
Ewing. He is of Scotch ancestry, his first American
ancestor being John Ewing, who come to the United
States in 1729. In 1788 Thomas Ewing came from
Virginia to Kentucky, and his son, James, born in 1791
was a soldier in the War of 1812. Benjamin F. Ewing
was born in Washington County, Kentucky, in 1840,
was liberally educated, and in 1885 established the
creamery business at .Louisville now known as D. H.
Ewing & Son. His wife, Mary Adele Rudy, was born
at St. Matthews in 1853 and died in 1917. Of their
four children the youngest is Benjamin F. Ewing, a
well-known Louisville lawyer.
John Henry Ewing was reared and educated in Jef-
ferson County and was a youthful volunteer at the
time of the Spanish-American war. He enlisted in the
First Kentucky Regiment under Gen. John B. Castle-
man, and was with the army of occupation in Porto
Rico. For over twenty years he has been engaged in
farming, and since his marriage has lived on the old
Barrickman place at Harrods Creek. He and his wife
now own most of her father's old farm. Mr. Ewing
is a democrat, has served as precinct committeeman, is
a member of the Masonic order and the Methodist
Episcopal Church at Middletown. He is a well-known
sportsman, particularly as a fox hunter.
November 22, 1905, Mr. Ewing married Mary Wade
Barrickman, daughter of William and Sarah Elizabeth
(Carpenter) Barrickman, and granddaughter of Jona-
than and Ann (Wilhoit) Barrickman. Jonathan Bar-
rickman was reared by a family named Noland. His
wife, Ann, was the daughter of Elizabeth Shirley.
Ann was one of four sisters, all noted throughout the
length and breadth of Culpeper County, Virginia, for
their beauty. Ann's three daughter, Jane, Verinda and
Sarah, were equally noted in Kentucky. These were
sisters of William Barrickman. The old home of
Jonathan Barrickman was in Oldham County, where
he and his wife were buried. His sons all reared large
families, and all lived long and useful lives though
by nature they were quiet, good citizens, without public
records, their chief interest away from home being
their church. Among the sons were Elijah, Isaac, Law-
rence, John and William.
At the age of forty William Barrickman married in
Bullitt County Sarah Elizabeth Carpenter, daughter
of Wilhite and Letitia Ann (Magruder) Carpenter.
Wilhite Carpenter was an attorney, served in both
the House and Senate, and was one of the three com-
missioners at the building of the Eddyville Penitentiary.
The mother of Wilhite Carpenter was Rhoda Wilhoit,
a member of the Shaker community at Harrodsburg,
and her mother was Ann Shirley of Virginia, a cousin
of the Elizabeth Shirley previously mentioned. Wil-
hite Carpenter was accidentally shot and died at the
age of eighty-one, while his widow survived him three
years.
William Barrickman secured the present homestead
at Harrods Creek about 1878, purchasing it from West-
port Oldham. He also secured 200 acres of the old
Allison farm. At one time the Allison family owned
about ten thousand acres in this vicinity, the last rep-
resentative of the family being James Allison. James
erected the home now occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Ewing,
some time before the Civil war. The old Allison fam-
ily cemetery is on the farm. None of the Allisons own
land here. William Barrickman died August 29, 1900,
at the age of seventy-seven, leaving an estate of about
eight hundred acres. His widow still survives. He
was noted as a very successful farmer and business
man, fed cattle for export, and arranged his activities
so that there was business all the year around. He was
a democrat who never sought office, a member of the
old Boonesville Christian Church, and a man of hon-
orable character widely known and influential, though
naturally retiring and preferring his home to other
society. He enjoyed company in his own home and
his wife was a social leader having grown up among
public people. She was a graduate of the Louisville
Female College and she still retains much of the vigor
of her youthful years. William Barrickman and wife
had five children : Wilhite, an attorney at Dallas,
Texas, and secretary of the Chamber of Commerce;
Miss Lillian; Mrs. Mary Ewing; Miss Jane at home;
and William, Jr., who is employed in the postoffice at
Louisville.
Mr. and Mrs. Ewing are the parents of four chil-
dren : James William, Elizabeth Ann, John Henry, Jr.,
and Dan Carpenter. Mrs. Ewing is a member of the
Baptist Church at Glen View.
Marquis de Lafayette Greer. It would be difficult
in a brief sketch to do credit to the career of Marquis
de Lafayette Greer better known as M. D. L. Greer
584
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
and his interesting family. Mr. Greer has been one
of the leaders in the modern development of Eastern
Kentucky. He began life poor, and his prosperity has
come chiefly from his individual enterprise and leader-
ship in making the great potential resources of East-
ern Kentucky available.
Mr. Greer, who among other interests is a merchant
at the mouth of Beef Hide, -Myra Postoffice, was born
at Moritz Mills in Ashe County, North Carolina, De-
cember 26, 1859, son of Levi and Almira Louisa
(Miller) Greer. His grandparents were Isaac and
Nancy Greer, who also acquired interests in Eastern
Kentucky, buying the land on Beef Hide, part of which
was deeded to Levi Greer. Isaac Greer, who died at
the age of seventy-six, is remembered for his skill as
a trapper and explorer and he was a thorough natural-
ist and had an encyclopedic knowledge of the woods
and nature. He was a very lovable and quaint char-
acter of his time. Levi Greer was born in Ashe County,
North Carolina, June 13, 1833, and his wife was born in
the same county but in that part that is now Watauga
County. They paid their first visit to Pike County,
Kentucky, in 1858. They soon went back to North
Carolina, but in 1859 made permanent settlement in
Eastern Kentucky, locating on a farm ll/2 miles above
the mouth of Beef Hide. The land in this ori-
ginal settlement is now owned by their son Marquis
de L. Levi Greer was a citizen whose life was above
reproach. His business was that of a farmer. For
seventeen years he held the office of justice of the
peace, and it is noteworthy that none of his decisions
were ever changed by higher courts. In early life he
was a deacon in the Baptist Church and later an elder
in the Christian Christs Church. He died July 5, 1908.
His first wife, Louisa Miller, died in 1879 at the age
of forty-five, being the mother of five sons and two
daughters. Levi Greer afterwards married Catherine
Johnson and had one daughter by that marriage. In
politics he was a republican and is remembered for his
kindly hospitality, a trait that has been typical of the
present generation of the Greers as well.
The oldest son of his father, Marquis de Lafayette
Greer, has spent practically all his life in Eastern Ken-
tucky. He attended school on the Beef Hide and also
a term at Virgie under the instruction of W. H. C.
Johnson. He began for himself at the age of twenty
as a farmer on a little place above the mouth of Beef
Hide. In 1884 he invested a modest capital of $200
in a stock of goods which he displayed at his own
home, and there laid the foundation of a successful
career as a merchant. In 1891 he moved to his present
location at the mouth of the creek and since 1906 in
addition to his store has also been postmaster of Myra.
Many years ago Mr. Greer had an ambition to own
an orchard of twenty acres. His interest in horti-
culture has never subsided and he has a great many
acres in fruit and has done much to stimulate fruit
growing in this section. His home is a comfortable
structure with the distinction of being the first brick
house in Shelby Valley. As a merchant Mr. Greer
has had a great volume of trade, and has always been
ready to extend credit to the needy, and those in great-
est need have as a rule been the first to receive credit
from him. Having grown up in this district, he knows
the people, and much of his enterprise has been a di-
rect benefit to his old friends and neighbors. In con-
junction with J. C. C. Mayo and B. F. Johnson he
was largely instrumental in the development of coal
lands in this part of the state. It is said that no one
who accepted his advice in regard to disposal of coal
lands ever had cause to regret the transaction.
Not far from the Greer home was the home of Smith
Mullins, three miles above the mouth of Beef Hide.
A daughter born to the Mullins family on December
4, i860, was named Drusilla. Mr. Greer and Drusilla
fell in love with each other, and Mr. Greer determined
to marry the girl of his choice, though he had no con-
siderable difficulty in getting the parental consent. He
urged Mr. Mullins to give him work at 25 cents a day
in cash so that he might pay an account he was owing
W. H. C. Johnson. Mr. Mullins failed to employ him so
he sold a rifle for $4. This was in the fall after their
marriage. On May 15, 1879, he and Drusilla were
married. To their marriage have been born seven sons
and seven daughters, and thirteen of them grew to
mature years without the aid of physicians. This is a
most interesting family : Levi C, the oldest, born
March 21, 1880, lives at Eubank, Kentucky; Joseph J.,
born in 1881, died August 4, 1908. Morgan Lee, born
April 27, 1883, is associated with his father in busi-
ness. Francis M., born October 27, 1884, died Sep-
tember 13, 1918, just as he was preparing to enter the
Theological Seminary at Bethany, West Virginia, to
prepare for the ministry of the Christian Church.
Creed C, born September 12, 1886, is a successful mer-
chant at Shelby Gap. Sarah A., born February 17,
1889, is the wife of W. W. Bentley, a coal operator at
Pikeville. Jessie M., born March II, 1891, is the wife
of E. E. Vanover, a traveling salesman at Waynes-
burg, Kentucky. Florence Mabel, born January 6,
1893, is the wife of Ray Sanders of Dorfon, Kentucky.
Mary Alice, born December 1, 1894, is the wife of
Joseph Alley, formerly a teacher in Pike County and
now engaged in farm demonstration work at Border-
land, West Virginia. Marcus McK., born August 18,
1896, is a farmer and Baltimore & Ohio Railway
employe in Pike County. George D., born September
18, 1898, is a student in Milligan College in Tennessee.
Bessie P., born August 4, 1900, is a teacher and is also
attending Milligan College. Laura B., born July 2,
1902, died in childhood. Clara E., born August 2, 1903.
All of the children are member of Christs Church ex-
cept two of the youngest boys.
Mr. and Mrs. Greer are active members of the Myra
Christian Church and in politics he is a republican.
Everett C. Wilhite, M. D. An accomplished young
physician and surgeon Doctor Wilhite is doing his
professional work in his native City of Monticello,
where the family has been one of prominent connec-
tions for many years.
His father, Theodore Wilhite, came to Monticello
as a young man, having been born in Virginia in 1822.
For many years he was the leading druggist at Monti-
cello, and died in that city in 1895. He was of English
descent, the Wilhites having come to Virginia in co-
lonial days. Theodore Wilhite married Telitha Shep-
ard. who was born in Wayne County, Kentucky, in 1829
and died at Monticello in 1901. They were the parents
of four children: Marsh, born in 1853, a farmer at
Monticello; Bill, who was a farmer and died at Jenkins,
Georgia, at the age of sixty-three ; Samuel M., born in
1863, former city comptroller of Louisville and now
auditor for the Ford Manufacturing Company in that
city ; and John R.
John R. Wilhite was born at Monticello in 1871 and
has spent his life there, having been a traveling sales-
man until 1919 and since then has been assistant cashier
of the Monticello Banking Company. He is treasurer
and an active member of the Christian Church and
votes as a democrat. John R. Wilhite married Ethel
Cook, who was born at Monticello in 1873 and died
May 26, 1910. Doctor Wilhite is their oldest child.
Jean is a farmer at Monticello, and Owen and Eliza-
beth are students in the Monticello High School.
Everett C. Wilhite was born at Monticello, Septem-
ber 20, 1895, graduating from high school in 1915. He
spent one year in the College of Science and Arts
of the University of Louisville, and then took the full
four-year course in the Medical Department, graduat-
ing June 3, 1920. He is a member of the Phi Chi
college fraternity. While in University Medical School
he had two years of practical experience as an interne
in the City Hospital of Louisville and for four months
Charles W. Burt
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
585
was an interne in the Jewish Hospital of Cincinnati.
While doing his work as an interne at the City Hospi-
tal he was also enrolled in the Medical Reserve Corps
but was never called to active duty.
Doctor Wilhite took up his duties as a private physi-
cian and surgeon at Monticello in 1920. His offices
are in the Kennedy Building and he owns a modern
home on High Street. He is a member of the Wayne
County and State Medical Associations, and for two
years was city assessor of Monticello. He is a demo-
crat, a member of the Christian Church and is affiliated
with Monticello Lodge No. 431 Free and Accepted
Masons and Monticello Camp Modern Woodmen of
America.
December 23, 1920, Doctor Wilhite married Miss
Helen Gertrude Webb. Her father was Rev. Mr. Webb,
a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
Her mother, Emma Dale Webb, lives at Henryville,
Indiana. Mrs. Wilhite is a graduate of the Girls High
School at Louisville, is a trained nurse, and during
the World war did Red Cross work at Brooklyn, teach-
ing first aid to recruited men.
Edward Leslie Worthington of the Maysville law
firm of Worthington, Browning & Reed, has been a
member of the Mason County Bar over forty years.
His life has been devoted to his profession and its
varied responsibilities, only once answering the call of
public office, and also to the interests of a gentleman
of rare intellectual culture and character.
He was born in Mason County, October 20, 1851, a
descendant of Capt. John Worthington who came from
Manchester, England, and settled in Maryland in 1670.
His grandfather, Thomas Tolley Worthington, with
his twin brother, James Tolley Worthington, was born
in 1771 and came to Kentucky about 1795, Thomas
settling in Mason County and acquiring a large estate,
and serving as one of the pioneer magistrates and
sheriffs of the county. His son, Madison Worthing-
ton, was born in 1821 and died in 1897. Madison
Worthington was a worthy representative of a long
line of brave, honorable and sagacious men from whom
he was descended, and who have contributed to the
material development and moral uplift of every com-
munity in which they are found. To those character-
istics which distinguished his forefathers were added
qualities which were peculiarly his own. He was a
man of fine judgment, calm, philosophic and reflective
temperament; cheerful, kindly and patient; such a man
as friends and relatives instinctively turn to for advice
and assistance.
The mother of E. L. Worthington was Elizabeth
Margaret Bledsoe, and he was the only son of his
father's two marriages. His mother was a daughter
of Benjamin Bledsoe who came to Kentucky from
Culpeper County, Virginia, and was a brother of
Judge Jesse Bledsoe, a United States senator.
E. L Worthington grew up on the old homestead
farm in the beautiful uplands of Mason County near
Gerniantown. He had a careful home training, at-
tended the public schools, Kentucky University, and
graduated from the Cincinnati Law College in 1874.
He established his home at Maysville March 1, 1880,
and for forty years has been continuously involved in
the heavy labors of a large and important private
practice. For a number of years he was associated
with W. D. Cochran, in the law firm of Worthington
& Cochran, and since the death of Mr. Cochran in
1919 he has been a member of the firm of Worthing-
ton, Browning & Reed. He and his firm are general
counsels in Kentucky for the Chesapeake & Ohio Rail-
way Company, the Bank of Maysville and a number
of other corporations. One of the many interesting
cases in which Mr. Worthington has appeared was that
of Hackett vs. Trustees of the Brooksville Graded
School, which secured to the school children of Ken-
tucky the right to have the Bible read in the public
schools. The only office for which he was ever a
candidate was for the State Senate, to which he was
elected in 1885 and served four years.
August 3, 1897, he married Laura Katherine Han-
nan, daughter of Dr. William Franklin Hannan, a
lineal descendant of the Madison, Taylor and Henry
families of Virginia which contributed two of our
presidents and our greatest orator. Her mother,
Matilda Caroline Grayum, was of a family connected
by many ties with the life and affairs of old Virginia,
and the settlement of the West. Mr. and Mrs. Worth-
ington have one child, Leslie Katherine Worthington.
A scholarly author of distinction and an able writer
thus speaks of Mr. Worthington : "In oratory he is
especially gifted, his legal utterances and writings be-
ing strikingly apt, appropriate and concise. Mr. Worth-
ington is universally recognized by his contemporaries
at the bar as a man of exceptional learning and abil-
ity in the practice of law. 'He has an analytical mind,
is a deep thinker, and possesses to a rare degree ability
to see things as they are and to enable others to do
likewise. Penetration, depth, veracity in Carlyle's
sense, lucidity and force are the distinguishing qualities
of his mind, and as a lawyer he stands at the fore-
front,' is the opinion expressed of him by one of the
most learned jurists of our times. His attitude toward
his colleagues at the bar is always marked by an un-
failing courtesy, kindliness and sincerity, which endears
him to all who enjoy his intimate acquaintance.
"Perfect in his integrity, yet simple and unpretend-
ing, Mr. Worthington has had the confidence and
esteem of the entire community throughout his career.
As a citizen his attitude has been essentially public-
spirited and progressive.
"Mr. Worthington is not only a man learned in his
profession, but is versed in science, literature, music
and the fine arts. His favorite recreation is astronomy,
of which he is a great student, owning a fine collection
of works on that subject and a large Bardou telescope,
and possessing a knowledge of it not found outside the
larger universities."
Charles Wellington Burt, during his comparatively
limited residence in Kentucky, distinguished himself by
his phenomenal energies as an industrial executive, han-
dling with remarkable ability some extensive timber and
saw milling operations. Son of a prominent Michigan
lumber man and railway official, he lived from early
boyhood a life of action, was concerned with big plans
and the execution thereof, and showed himself a master
of every problem and a complete adequacy for increas-
ing responsibilities.
He was born at Saginaw, Michigan, March 17, 187 1.
His father W. R. Burt of Saginaw was a pioneer lum-
ber manufacturer and individually or in association with
others had a controlling interest in some of the largest
operations that marked the lumber industry of Northern
Michigan. He also served as president of the Ann
Arbor Railroad.
In 1897, in company with M. I. Brabb of Romeo,
Michigan, W. R. Burt bought the old Cross saw mill
at Ford, Kentucky, and in addition acquired a large
acreage of timberland in the mountains of Eastern
Kentucky.
In the meantime Charles Wellington Burt had grown
to manhood and as a school boy had acquired consider-
able experience in railroading. He worked during the
construction of the Ann Arbor Railroad and subse-
quently as a fireman and locomotive engineer. He was
a graduate with honors from the law department of
Cornell University but never practiced law to any
extent.
He was entrusted with his father as manager of
the Kentucky milling and lumbering operations and at
once took charge of the mill. He made it a success
586
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
from the beginning and developed one of the largest
enterprises of the kind in the state. To handle a part
of the product he established an office at London, Eng-
land. This office he established during his wedding
trip.
October 14, 1898, Mr. Burt married Miss Mary Belle
Halley of Scott County, daughter of Henry Simpson
Halley. Mr. Burt rapidly extended his milling inter-
ests to a number of saw mills, planing mills, and in
the height of the industry employed between 400 and
500 men in the mills. These mills were operated
both day and night. Charles W. Burt was a dynamo
of energy and a constant worker, ready at any moment
in the day to respond to the call of duty. For five
years after his marriage he lived at Ford, giving direct
supervision to the milling operations. Another five
years his home was at Winchester. After ten years of
successful operations he closed out the remaining tim-
ber land interests and dismantled the mills. Ford vil-
lage was made up almost entirely of the employes of
the Burt and Brabb Company. Mr. Brabb is now a resi-
dent of Detroit. W. R. Burt depended entirely upon his
son Charles to operate the Kentucky interests, and
visited Kentucky only occasionally. He died at Saginaw
in March, 1919.
After selling his lumber interests in Kentucky
Charles W. Burt was for about a year manager of the
cement plant at Belleview, Michigan, and then came to
Lexington where he was induced to purchase a home
through Mrs. Burt's brother. The big interests and
plans of his later years were centered in Alabama,
where his father owned a large amount of land. He
was developing this property, had fenced several sec-
tions, and was planning his stock ranch, the installation
of saw mills, and the development of its coal and iron
resources. Mr. Burt had started north for the purpose
of consulting his father concerning some plans for fur-
ther development of the Alabama property, when he
died of heart trouble while driving from Cincinnati to
Detroit. His death occurred July 31, 1917. He had
built a residence in Alabama expecting to make his
home there.
While in Winchester Mr. Burt took an active inter-
est in several fraternities and civic organizations. The
Lexington home where Mrs. Burt resides is two miles
south of that city on the Nicholasville Pike. It is the
old Pettit farm place. The residence was built before
the Civil war. The land surrounding the residence is
126 acres, a portion of an original grant of about
3,000 acres, extending to the Kentucky River, a grant
made by the State of Virginia to Edward Ward in
1784. Mrs. Burt's home is one of the most attractive
Kentucky country residences. It stands on elevated
ground at some distance from the Pike, is surrounded
by native forest trees, and it possesses some of the
most distinctive qualities of beauty found in any part
of the rural landscape around Lexington.
Mrs. Burt was educated in the Miss Butler's private
school and is a graduate of Sayre College of Lexing-
ton. She is an active member of the Presbyterian
Church. She has three daughters : Alice Amine is the
wife of Kendal! McDowell of Lexington; Lydy Belle
is Mrs. Clarence Levis of Fayette County. The young-
est is Marion Stone Burt, a student in Miss Choate's
School at Brookline, Boston.
Elijah H. Maggard, M. D. A physician and sur-
geon in charge of the hospital at Fleming, Doctor Mag-
gard has had a wide experience in the institutional
side of his profession, is a very skilled surgeon, and a
man of highest standing in the medical circles of the
state.
Doctor Maggard was born in Elliott County, Ken-
tucky, August 14, 1875, son of Silas and Sabra (Whitt)
Maggard. His grandfather, David Maggard, was s
minister of the Regular Baptist Church and one of
six brothers who followed that calling at some time or
other in Eastern Kentucky. Silas Maggard was born
on the Cumberland River in Letcher County in 1839
and as a young man moved to Carter County, later to
Elliott County, and is now living in Carter County
retired from business. He was a farmer and for many
years. in the timber business, operating mills on the Little
Sandy. He has been affiliated with the Masonic Order
for thirty-five years. He married in Carter County,
where Sabra Whitt was born seventy-two years ago,
daughter of the Edward Whitt who came from Rus-
sel County, Virginia. The Maggards are an old Amer-
ican family and on coming to this country first set-
tled at Jamestown, Virginia.
Elijah H. Maggard was the third among seven chil-
dren. He attended school at Grayson, the Holbrook
Normal at New Foundland, and taught six terms of
school while getting ready for his major profession.
He began the study of medicine in the Barnes Med-
ical College at St. Louis, and in 1901 graduated at the
University of Louisville. He took post graduate work
in medicine in 1905 and also graduated in the Dental
College at Louisville. He did further post graduate
work in surgery in 1910. From the time of his gradua-
tion until 1910 Doctor Maggard practiced in the coun-
try locality of Newfoundland in Elliott County. From
1910 to 1913 he was surgeon in charge of the State
Penitentiary at Frankfort and for a short time was
connected with the Kentucky Houses of Reform at
Lexington. He left there to take charge of the min-
ing practice for the Elkhorn Company at Wayland in
Floyd County. During the World war he was on duty
with the Federal District Board at Lexington for the
Eastern District of Kentucky for fourteen months.
Doctor Maggard also practiced at Ashland, Kentucky,
one year, then removed to Fleming to take charge of
the hospital.
Doctor Maggard is a former member of the State
Board of Health and is active in the Letcher County
and State Medical societies. He is a democrat in pol-
itics and is affiliated with Hiram Lodge No. 4, Free and
Accepted Masons at Frankfort and with the Independ-
ent Order of Odd Fellows. Mrs. Maggard is a mem-
ber of the Christian Church. He married April 12,
1899, Martha Frazier, daughter of James Frazier of
Wesleyville, Carter County. They have one daughter,
Opal.
Mitchell C. Napier, who is superintendent of the
public schools of Perry County, has devoted his entire
life since entering upon his independent career to edu-
cational effort. He has been particularly successful and
marked progress has been made by the schools of this
county since they came under his direction. Intel-
lectually and personally, Mr. Napier is a happy leader,
and in his belief that knowledge is the key that un-
locks life's most valuable treasure boxes, has been able
to impress this thought on the minds of the youths of
the county, the result being shown in added ambition
and increased interest.
Mr. Napier was born on a farm in Leslie County,
Kentucky, September 16, 1880, a son of Macager and
Elizabeth (Napier) Napier, and a grandson of Maca-
ger Napier the eider. Macager Napier the younger
was born in Perry County in 1832, and as a young man
engaged in farming, the Blue Jay Coal Mine being
located on a property that was formerly owned by him,
although in later years he cultivated a farm near Yer-
keys. At the outbreak of the Civil war he enlist''
the Fourteenth Regiment, Kentucky Vounteer Ca
and served through a large part of the war as a f
of the Union, establishing a splendid record fc
very and faithful performance of duty. In late
he was county judge of Perry County; also se
assessor of that county when it was still a
Leslie County, and at all times was a stear
structive and dependable cit'^en. A stanch re
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
587
he took much interest in the success of his party, and
was considered one of the strong and influential men
in its ranks in his locality. At the time of his death,
in 1914, when he was eighty-two years of age, he was
probably the oldest member in Perry County of the
Masonic fraternity, which he had joined at Whitesburg,
many miles from his home, in young manhood, but
at the time of his death was a member of Hazard
Lodge No. 676. He and Mrs. Napier belonged to the
Primitive Baptist Church. She was born in Perry
County, where she died in May, 1919. Of their nine
children, four are now living: Sallie, who is the wife
of Charles Wootton, of Typo ; Rebecca, who is the
wife of John Campbell, a farmer near Yerkey; Eliza,
the wife of Dr. G. W. Campbell, of Viper, Perry
County; and Mitchell C.
Mitchell C. Napier attended the rural schools of
Perry County, following which he received instruction
at the Hazard school under Bailey P. Wootton, now
president of the Hazard Bar Association and of the
Hazard Bank and Trust Company. Later Mr. Napier
pursued a one-year course at Berea, following which
he entered upon his career as a teacher in the rural
school of Perry County. For sixteen years he fol-
lowed his vocation, finding in it everything to satisfy
his ambitions and gratify his aims, and in 1917 was
elected superintendent of the public schools of Perry
Township, consisting of eighty-nine rural schools, a
position to which he was re-elected in 1921. Mr. Napier
has made an excellent official and the schools have
prospered and flourished under his superintendency.
In 1916 Mr. Napier was united in marriage with Miss
Matilda Campbell, who was born near Yerkey, Perry
County, daughter of Elhanan Campbell. To this union
there have been born five children : Ora, Sherill, Opal,
Mary Lena and Arlis Mitchell. Mr. and Mrs. Napier
are consistent members of the Campbell's Bend Mis-
sionary Baptist Church, of which Mr. Napier was for-
merly deacon. He is a republican in his political al-
legiance. As a fraternalist, he is master of Yerkey
Lodge of Masons, and has attended four sessions of
the Grand Lodge ; and councilor commander of the
Knights of Pythias, having represented his order at the
Grand Lodge on six occasions.
Samuel M. Ward. Because of certain existing local
conditions, it is unusual for a county attorney of Perry
County to hold the office for more than one term.
Therefore the fact that Samuel M. Ward is acting in
this capacity for the second time may prove sufficient
to denote to the observant that he is a man of un-
usual qualifications. Mr. Ward was born at Salyers-
ville, Magoffin County, Kentucky, December 18, 1885,
and is a son of Isaac J. and Araminta (Prater) Ward.
His grandfather, William Ward, was born in North
Carolina, whence he removed as a young man to Wolfe
County, Kentucky, where he died when his son, Isaac,
was a small boy.
Isaac J. Ward was born in Wolfe County, Ken-
tucky, in 1840, and as a youth learned the trade of
carpenter. He was engaged in working at that voca-
tion up to the outbreak of the war between the states,
when he enlisted in the Fourteenth Regiment, Ken-
tucky Volunteer Infantry, with which he served
throughout the war, participating in numerous engage-
ments and being with General Sherman's forces in the
March to the Sea. He was honorably discharged with
igiyhe rank of sergeant at the close of the struggle, and
ton, turned to his home in Magoffin County, where he
counse,med carpentry. Later he took up house building
way Ci specialty and many of the structures still standing
of othe131 county, as well as at Hazard and in other
cases in of. Perry County, stand as monuments to his
of Hacland good workmanship. While residing in Magof-
School ounty he served as a justice of the peace. He
tucky thtt0 Hazard in 1891 and here became active in the
ican party, filling the office of county chairman
of the committee and practically rebuilding the party.
Previous to his advent the county offices had always
been held by democrats, although as a rule the county
would go republican in the national elections. His lead-
ership brought about a change as to officeholders, as
well as to the party in power. Mr. Ward was a past
master of Hazard Lodge No. 676 of Masons and
a member of the Christian Church, in the faith of
which he died February 2, 1908, at the age of sixty-
eight years. Mr. Ward married Araminta Prater,
who was born in Magoffin County, Kentucky, a mem-
ber of a family which moved from the Blue Grass dis-
trict to Magoffin County at an early day. She died
October 5, 1920, at the age of seventy-one years, hav-
ing been the mother of six children, of whom four
are living: Thaddeus S., a contractor of Colorado
Springs, Colorado ; Walter S., living on a farm at
Fairston, Larue County, Kentucky ; William A., a civil
engineer of Daisy, Perry County ; and Samuel M. The
two deceased were : James A., a civil engineer, who
died at the age of thirty-seven years; and John D., an
attorney of Hazard, who died in 1918 at the age of
thirty-five years.
Samuel M. Ward attended the public school at Haz-
ard, where he had as his teacher, Bailey P. Wootton,
and during 1906 and 1907 pursued a course at the Jef-
ferson School of Law, Louisville. Admitted to the bar
in May, 1907, he became associated with W. H. Miller
in the practice of his profession at Hazard, and this
association continued until 1909, when Mr. Ward held
a position in the office of the Secretary of State at
Frankfort. He remained in the same position during
1910, and then returned to Hazard and resumed his
private practice, to which he devoted himself until 1913.
In that year he was elected to the office of county at-
torney, and in 1917 was re-elected for another four-
year term. Mr. Ward, a republican, had a close race
each time for this office, his plurality on the first oc-
casion being thirty-five votes, and on the second sixty-
two votes. He has had an excellent record in office
and has won the confidence of the public and the re-
spect of all who have had business with his office.
Mr. Ward is a member of the Hazard Bar Association
and the Loyal Order of Moose. His religious faith is
that of the Methodist Episcopal Church, while Mrs.
Ward is a Baptist.
In August, 1908, Mr. Ward was united in marriage
with Miss Octa Maugans, of Williamsburg, Kentucky,
and they are the parents of six children: Breta Belle,
Frank Marcus, Donald Augustus, Ethel Marie, Henry
Beecher and Hugh Adron. Mrs. Ward is a native of
Delaware County, Ohio, and a woman of many graces
and accomplishments.
Amerida M. Gross, M. D., is not only one of the
skilled practitioners of Perry County, but is one of the
owners of the Hazard Hospital, and is now serving as
county judge, having the unusual distinction of being
the successful candidate for that office on the demo-
cratic ticket in a republican stronghold. He was born
on a farm near Buckhofn, where three generations of
the Gross family have resided. The date of his
birth was December 13, 1880, and he is a son of John
and Ella (Riley) Gross. John Gross was born on the
same farm as his son, in 1858, and still makes it his
home. His father, Peter Gross, was born in Breathitt
County, Kentucky, and he was the son of Simon Gross,
a native of North Carolina. The Gross family has
long been connected with agricultural matters, and
its members have been well-to-do citizens of the sev-
eral communities in which they have lived. For many
years they have been largely instrumental in securing
the development of Buckhorn community, and have al-
ways taken a special interest in the improvement of
educational matters, the school of that locality through
their 'efforts having become a notable institution. The
older members were Baptists. Peter Gross had a
586
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
from the beginning and developed one of the largest
enterprises of the kind in the state. To handle a part
of the product he established an office at London, Eng-
land. This office he established during his wedding
trip.
October 14, 1898, Mr. Burt married Miss Mary Belle
Halley of Scott County, daughter of Henry Simpson
Halley. Mr. Burt rapidly extended his milling inter-
ests to a number of saw mills, planing mills, and in
the height of the industry employed between 400 and
500 men in the mills. These mills were operated
both day and night. Charles W. Burt was a dynamo
of energy and a constant worker, ready at any moment
in the day to respond to the call of duty. For five
years after his marriage he lived at Ford, giving direct
supervision to the milling operations. Another five
years his home was at Winchester. After ten years of
successful operations he closed out the remaining tim-
ber land interests and dismantled the mills. Ford vil-
lage was made up almost entirely of the employes of
the Burt and Brabb Company. Mr. Brabb is now a resi-
dent of Detroit. W. R. Burt depended entirely upon his
son Charles to operate the Kentucky interests, and
visited Kentucky only occasionally. He died at Saginaw
in March, 1919.
After selling his lumber interests in Kentucky
Charles W. Burt was for about a year manager of the
cement plant at Belleview, Michigan, and then came to
Lexington where he was induced to purchase a home
through Mrs. Burt's brother. The big interests and
plans of his later years were centered in Alabama,
where his father owned a large amount of land. He
was developing this property, had fenced several sec-
tions, and was planning his stock ranch, the installation
of saw mills, and the development of its coal and iron
resources. Mr. Burt had started north for the purpose
of consulting his father concerning some plans for fur-
ther development of the Alabama property, when he
died of heart trouble while driving from Cincinnati to
Detroit. His death occurred July 31, 1917. He had
built a residence in Alabama expecting to make his
home there.
While in Winchester Mr. Burt took an active inter-
est in several fraternities and civic organizations. The
Lexington home where Mrs. Burt resides is two miles
south of that city on the Nicholasville Pike. It is the
old Pettit farm place. The residence was built before
the Civil war. The land surrounding the residence is
126 acres, a portion of an original grant of about
3,000 acres, extending to the Kentucky River, a grant
made by the State of Virginia to Edward Ward in
1784. Mrs. Burt's home is one of the most attractive
Kentucky country residences. It stands on elevated
ground at some distance from the Pike, is surrounded
by native forest trees, and it possesses some of the
most distinctive qualities of beauty found in any part
of the rural landscape around Lexington.
Mrs. Burt was educated in the Miss Butler's private
school and is a graduate of Sayre College of Lexing-
ton. She is an active member of the Presbyterian
Church. She has three daughters : Alice Amine is the
wife of Kendall McDowell of Lexington; Lydy Belle
is Mrs. Clarence Levis of Fayette County. The young-
est is Marion Stone Burt, a student in Miss Choate's
School at Brookline, Boston.
Elijah H. Macgard, M. D. A physician and sur-
geon in charge of the hospital at Fleming, Doctor Mag-
gard has had a wide experience in the institutional
side of his profession, is a very skilled surgeon, and a
man of highest standing in the medical circles of the
state.
Doctor Maggard was born in Elliott County, Ken-
tucky, August 14, 1875, son of Silas and Sabra (Whitt)
Maggard. His grandfather, David Maggard, was a"
minister of the Regular Baptist Church and one of
six brothers who followed that calling at some time or
other in Eastern Kentucky. Silas Maggard was born
on the Cumberland River in Letcher County in 1839
and as a young man moved to Carter County, later to
Elliott County, and is now living in Carter County
retired from business. He was a farmer and for many
years. in the timber business, operating mills on the Little
Sandy. He has been affiliated with the Masonic Order
for thirty-five years. He married in Carter County,
where Sabra Whitt was born seventy-two years ago,
daughter of the Edward Whitt who came from Rus-
sel County, Virginia. The Maggards are an old Amer-
ican family and on coming to this country first set-
tled at Jamestown, Virginia.
Elijah H. Maggard was the third among seven chil-
dren. He attended school at Grayson, the Holbrook
Normal at New Foundland, and taught six terms of
school while getting ready for his major profession.
He began the study of medicine in the Barnes Med-
ical College at St. Louis, and in 1901 graduated at the
University of Louisville. He took post graduate work
in medicine in 1905 and also graduated in the Dental
College at Louisville. He did further post graduate
work in surgery in 1910. From the time of his gradua-
tion until 1910 Doctor Maggard practiced in the coun-
try locality of Newfoundland in Elliott County. From
1910 to 1913 he was surgeon in charge of the State
Penitentiary at Frankfort and for a short time was
connected with the Kentucky Houses of Reform at
Lexington. He left there to take charge of the min-
ing practice for the Elkhorn Company at Wayland in
Floyd County. During the World war he was on duty
with the Federal District Board at Lexington for the
Eastern District of Kentucky for fourteen months.
Doctor Maggard also practiced at Ashland, Kentucky,
one year, then removed to Fleming to take charge of
the hospital.
Doctor Maggard is a former member of the State
Board of Health and is active in the Letcher County
and State Medical societies. He is a democrat in pol-
itics and is affiliated with Hiram Lodge No. 4, Free and
Accepted Masons at Frankfort and with the Independ-
ent Order of Odd Fellows. Mrs. Maggard is a mem-
ber of the Christian Church. He married April 12,
1899, Martha Frazier, daughter of James Frazier of
Wesleyville, Carter County. They have one daughter,
Opal.
Mitchell C. Napier, who is superintendent of the
public schools of Perry County, has devoted his entire
life since entering upon his independent career to edu-
cational effort. He has been particularly successful and
marked progress has been made by the schools of this
county since they came under his direction. Intel-
lectually and personally, Mr. Napier is a happy leader,
and in his belief that knowledge is the key that un-
locks life's most valuable treasure boxes, has been able
to impress this thought on the minds of the youths of
the county, the result being shown in added ambition
and increased interest.
Mr. Napier was born on a farm in Leslie County,
Kentucky, September 16, 1880, a son of Macager and
Elizabeth (Napier) Napier, and a grandson of Maca-
ger Napier the eider. Macager Napier the younger
was born in Perry County in 1832, and as a young man
engaged in farming, the Blue Jay Coal Mine being
located on a property that was formerly owned by him,
although in later years he cultivated a farm near Yer-
keys. At the outbreak of the Civil war he enlisted in
the Fourteenth Regiment, Kentucky Vounteer Cavalry,
and served through a large part of the war as a soldier
of the Union, establishing a splendid record for bra-
very and faithful performance of duty. In later years
he was county judge of Perry County; also served as
assessor of that county when it was still a part of
Leslie County, and at all times was a steady, con-
structive and dependable cit'^en. A stanch republican,
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
587
he took much interest in the success of his party, and
was considered one of the strong and influential men
in its ranks in his locality. At the time of his death,
in 1914, when he was eighty-two years of age, he was
probably the oldest member in Perry County of the
Masonic fraternity, which he had joined at Whitesburg,
many miles from his home, in young manhood, but
at the time of his death was a member of Hazard
Lodge No. 676. He and Mrs. Napier belonged to the
Primitive Baptist Giurch. She was born in Perry
County, where she died in May, 1919. Of their nine
children, four are now living: Sallie, who is the wife
of Charles Wootton, of Typo ; Rebecca, who is the
wife of John Campbell, a farmer near Yerkey; Eliza,
the wife of Dr. G. W. Campbell, of Viper, Perry
County; and Mitchell C.
Mitchell C. Napier attended the rural schools of
Perry County, following which he received instruction
at the Hazard school under Bailey P. Wootton, now
president of the Hazard Bar Association and of the
Hazard Bank and Trust Company. Later Mr. Napier
pursued a one-year course at Berea, following which
he entered upon his career as a teacher in the rural
school of Perry County. For sixteen years he fol-
lowed his vocation, finding in it everything to satisfy
his ambitions and gratify his aims, and in 1917 was
elected superintendent of the public schools of Perry
Township, consisting of eighty-nine rural schools, a
position to which he was re-elected in 1921. Mr. Napier
has made an excellent official and the schools have
prospered and flourished under his superintendency.
In 1916 Mr. Napier was united in marriage with Miss
Matilda Campbell, who was born near Yerkey, Perry
County, daughter of Elhanan Campbell. To this union
there have been born five children : Ora, Sherill, Opal,
Mary Lena and Arlis Mitchell. Mr. and Mrs. Napier
are consistent members of the Campbell's Bend Mis-
sionary Baptist Church, of which Mr. Napier was for-
merly deacon. He is a republican in his political al-
legiance. As a fraternalist, he is master of Yerkey
Lodge of Masons, and has attended four sessions of
the Grand Lodge ; and councilor commander of the
Knights of Pythias, having represented his order at the
Grand Lodge on six occasions.
Samuel M. Ward. Because of certain existing local
conditions, it is unusual for a county attorney of Perry
County to hold the office for more than one term.
Therefore the fact that Samuel M. Ward is acting in
this capacity for the second time may prove sufficient
to denote to the observant that he is a man of un-
usual qualifications. Mr. Ward was born at Salyers-
ville, Magoffin County, Kentucky, December 18, 1885,
and is a son of Isaac J. and Araminta (Prater) Ward.
His grandfather, William Ward, was born in North
Carolina, whence he removed as a young man to Wolfe
County, Kentucky, where he died when his son, Isaac,
was a small boy.
Isaac J. Ward was born in Wolfe County, Ken-
tucky, in 1840, and as a youth learned the trade of
carpenter. He was engaged in working at that voca-
tion up to the outbreak of the war between the states,
when he enlisted in the Fourteenth Regiment, Ken-
tucky Volunteer Infantry, with which he served
throughout the war, participating in numerous engage-
ments and being with General Sherman's forces in the
March to the Sea. He was honorably discharged with
the rank of sergeant at the close of the struggle, and
returned to his home in Magoffin County, where he
resumed carpentry. Later he took up house building
as a specialty and many of the structures still standing
in that county, as well as at Hazard and in other
parts of Perry County, stand as monuments to his
skill and good workmanship. While residing in Magof-
fin County he served as a justice of the peace. He
came to Hazard in 1891 and here became active in the
republican party, filling the office of county chairman
of the committee and practically rebuilding the party.
Previous to his advent the county offices had always
been held by democrats, although as a rule the county
would go republican in the national elections. His lead-
ership brought about a change as to officeholders, as
well as to the party in power. Mr. Ward was a past
master of Hazard Lodge No. 676 of Masons and
a member of the Christian Church, in the faith of
which he died February 2, 1908, at the age of sixty-
eight years. Mr. Ward married Araminta Prater,
who was born in Magoffin County, Kentucky, a mem-
ber of a family which moved from the Blue Grass dis-
trict to Magoffin County at an early day. She died
October 5, 1920, at the age of seventy-one years, hav-
ing been the mother of six children, of whom four
are living: Thaddeus S., a contractor of Colorado
Springs, Colorado; Walter S., living on a farm at
Fairston, Larue County, Kentucky; William A., a civil
engineer of Daisy, Perry County; and Samuel M. The
two deceased were : James A., a civil engineer, who
died at the age of thirty-seven years; and John D., an
attorney of Hazard, who died in 1918 at the age of
thirty-five years.
Samuel M. Ward attended the public school at Haz-
ard, where he had as his teacher, Bailey P. Wootton,
and during 1906 and 1907 pursued a course at the Jef-
ferson School of Law, Louisville. Admitted to the bar
in May, 1907, he became associated with W. H. Miller
in the practice of his profession at Hazard, and this
association continued until 1909, when Mr. Ward held
a position in the office of the Secretary of State at
Frankfort. He remained in the same position during
1910, and then returned to Hazard and resumed his
private practice, to which he devoted himself until 1913.
In that year he was elected to the office of county at-
torney, and in 1917 was re-elected for another four-
year term. Mr. Ward, a republican, had a close race
each time for this office, his plurality on the first oc-
casion being thirty-five votes, and on the second sixty-
two votes. He has had an excellent record in office
and has won the confidence of the public and the re-
spect of all who have had business with his office.
Mr. Ward is a member of the Hazard Bar Association
and the Loyal Order of Moose. His religious faith is
that of the Methodist Episcopal Church, while Mrs.
Ward is a Baptist.
In August, 1908, Mr. Ward was united in marriage
with Miss Octa Maugans, of Williamsburg, Kentucky,
and they are the parents of six children: Breta Belle,
Frank Marcus, Donald Augustus, Ethel Marie, Henry
Beecher and Hugh Adron. Mrs. Ward is a native of
Delaware County, Ohio, and a woman of many graces
and accomplishments.
Amerida M. Gross, M. D., is not only one of the
skilled practitioners of Perry County, but is one of the
owners of the Hazard Hospital, and is now serving as
county judge, having the unusual distinction of being
the successful candidate for that office on the demo-
cratic ticket in a republican stronghold. He was born
on a farm near Buckhorn, where three generations of
the Gross family have resided. The date of his
birth was December 13, 1880, and he is a son of John
and Ella (Riley) Gross. John Gross was born on the
same farm as his son, in 1858, and still makes it his
home. His father, Peter Gross, was born in Breathitt
County, Kentucky, and he was the son of Simon Gross,
a native of North Carolina. The Gross family has
long been connected with agricultural matters, and
its members have been well-to-do citizens of the sev-
eral communities in which they have lived. For many
years they have been largely instrumental in securing
the development of Buckhorn community, and have al-
ways taken a special interest in the improvement of
educational matters, the school of that locality through
their "efforts having become a notable institution. The
older members were Baptists. Peter Gross had a
588
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
brother who served in the Confederate Army, and three
brothers who were in the Union Army during the con-
flict of the '60s. While as a general rule the members
of the Gross family have been democrats, a few of
them belong in the republican ranks. All of them
have been and are very liberal in their support of
schools and churches and are most estimable and de-
sirable citizens. Doctor Gross is the eldest of his
parents' nine children, the others being as follows :
Malvery, who is the wife of James Hignite of Clay
County, Kentucky; Mary, who is the wife of S. J.
Burnes ; Amanda, who is the wife of Dr. Z. M. Ab-
shire, a physician of Buckhorn ; Floyd, who lives on
the old homestead : John, who is in the empjoy of a
coal company; and Lettie, who is at home, all ol whom '
are living; and Martha, who died at the age of eleven
years; and an unnamed infant, who is deceased. Floyd
Gross, of the above family, served in the army during
the late war.
Doctor 'Gross attended the Buckhorn public schools,
and after completing his own education taught, in the
schools of Perry County for five years. He then
matriculated^ at the Hospital College of Medicine at
Louisville, Kentucky, and was graduated therefrom in
1905, following which he began the practice of med-
icine at Hazard, where he has since continued. For
two years he was in partnership with Dr. Taylor Hurst.
Later he formed his present connection with Dr. R. L.
Collins. In 1917 they established the Hazard Hospital,
which is an industrial one. and in April, 1920, acquired
their present modern hospital build'ng, which is well
equipped for their work.
No member of the Gross fanrly has ever sought
office and Doctor Gross' father refused the nomination
for sheriff of Perry County, although strongly urged
to accept. In 1917 the friends of Doctor Gross per-
suaded him to permit the use of his name on the demo-
cratic ticket for the office of county judge of Perry
County. This is one of the strongest republican dis-
tricts in the state, but so universal is the confidence
felt in Doctor Gross, and so great is his personal popu-
larity that he ran way ahead of his party and was
elected by a handsome majority.
In 1905 Doctor Gross was united in marriage with
Emma Morgan, a daughter of Elijah Morgan of Haz-
ard, and they have three children, namely: Fred,
Paul and Colburn. Mrs. Gross is a granddaughter of
Zacbarah Morgan, and a member of the Daughters
of the American Revolution. Professionally Doctor
Gross belongs to the Perry County Medical Society,
which he is now serving as president, the Kentucky
State Medical Society and the American Medical As-
sociation.
J. Everett Jones. In the successful career of J.
Everett Jones, of Hazard, may be found a lesson for
the aspiring youths who feel that they are handicapped
by lack of advantages. His early life was one of con-
stant struggle, of unending endeavor to gain a foot-
hold in order that he might -start on the highway to
commercial prosperity and position. The obstacles
which he encountered were numerous, but his persever-
ance and ambition were great, and his unflagging in-
dustry and self-confidence eventually brought him to
his desired goal. He is now at the head of several of
the largest of Hazard's enterprises and is accounted one
of the leading business citizens of his adopted city.
Mr. Jones was born near Williamsburg, Whitley
County, Kentucky, December 18, -1884, a son of H. S.
and Lillie S. (Siler) Jones. His father, a traveling
salesman for Curry, Tunis & Norwood, wholesale
grocers, died when still a young man, and J. Everett
Jones, the eldest of four sons, was called upon early
to begin to be self-supporting. He attended Williams-
burg Institute until he was fifteen years of age, at
which time he secured employment in a retail store,
where he remained three years at a salary of $15 per
month. Following this, his employments were numer-
ous and varied. He worked in the mines and on the
railroads, and in fact disdained no honorable employ-
ment that promised to remunerate him in money and
experience. Eventually, Mr. Jones became identified
with the Jellica Grocery Company, a wholesale concern,
and remained with this concern, in the offices, until
1915. in which year he came to Hazard. Here he en-
tered immediately into the life of the community and
became an active and prominent factor in its business
affairs. His first venture was the formation of the
Hazard Grocery Company, which, a few months later,
was merged with the Mahan Company, of which Mr!
Jones is at present the active manager. This concern
deals in wholesale groceries, electrical and mine sup-
plies, and is carrying on an extensive and remunerative
business, with a branch house at Winchester, this state.
Not long after his arrival at Hazard, Mr. Jones be-
came one of the leaders in the establishment of the Pat-
ton Company, wholesale dry goods dealers, of which
concern he is president, and which, also under his
direction, has grown to important proportions. Mr.
Jones is a member of the board of directors of the
Hazard Board of Trade and has several civic con-
nections and social associations. He has identified him-
self with a number of worthy movements in which his
public spirit has been exemplified.
In 1908 Mr. Jones was united in marriage with Miss
Lissie Skinner, of Whitley County, Kentucky, and their
numerous friends are always welcomed at the pleasant
Jones home.
Nody Starkey. The death of Nody Starkey on
April 2, 1921, ended the career of one of the remarkable
men of Eastern Kentucky. He possessed the energy
and determination of several average men, and after he
was once embarked upon an undertaking practically no
obstacles could prevent him from achieving what lv
started out to achieve. He amassed a fortune, and
Pike County and other sections of Eastern Kentucky
remember him as the man who built and extended that
indispensable system of communication, the telephone,
so that communities formerly isolated are now in con-
stant touch.
Nody Starkey was born in Switzerland, October 2T,
1872. His father, Albert Starkey, brought the family
to the United States about 1878, and for a number of
years^ was a successful contractor. The Starkeys lived
at Norfolk, Virginia, Chattanooga, Tennessee, and
Somerset, Kentucky. Albert Starkey lost his life at
Williamsburg. Kentucky, when his son, Nody, was a
child. Mrs. Mollie Starkey, mother of Nody, is still
living at the age of eighty-five.
Nody Starkey was six years of age when brought to
America. Apart from his inheritance of a strong body
and remarkably active mind he had few opportunities.
What schooling he acquired was by virtue of his study
and application while earning his living in other ways.
He was the chief support of his widowed mother, being
a newsboy and also having a laundry agency. A friend
of that early period of his life was Edwin Morrow, now
governor of Kentucky. Nody Starkey and a brother
started a steam laundry at Somerset, and after selling
his interest in that he and William Harkness were part-
ners in the building of another laundry at Middleboro.
After a number of years Mr. Starkey retired from the
laundry business to enlist his capital and enterprise in
a telephone system. He built a new exchange at Lon-
don, Kentucky, and after zl/2 years he sold that plant
for $10,000, a sum of money which in former years had
been the limit of his expectations as the goal of fortune.
He then bought the old telephone system at Pineville,
built and extended it to all parts of Bell County, con-
necting it up to Middleboro, and after selling his in-
terests there he spent three years in Little Rock,
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
589
Arkansas, and at other points in the West and
Southwest.
In 1906 Mr. Starkey returned to Williamshurg, Ken-
tucky, and soon afterward regarded Pike County as a
new field of endeavor. On July 31, 1906, at Jellico, he
married Miss Stella Watts Crutchfield, daughter of
A. J. Crutchfield, and of an old family related to such
distinguished persons as Sir John Hawkins and Presi-
dent Taylor. Mr. and Mrs. Starkey came together
to Pikeville, and Mrs. Starkey for fifteen years was
the active lieutenant and sharer in all her husband's
undertakings. At that time there was a single long
distance telephone wire for all the telephone service of
Pike County. By good team work Mr. and Mrs. Starkey
extended the system to all portions of the county and
connected it with other adjacent sections of Eastern
Kentucky, and also across the Big Sandy into West
Virginia and Virginia. While Mr. Starkey did the field
work in construction Mrs. Starkey attended to the office
details. For several years they also had charge of the
Western Union business at Pikeville. The late Mr.
Starkey was well regarded as a human dynamo of
energy. He owned several other valuable properties.
The First Baptist Church was organized in the Starkey
home, and he was generous in his donations to other
churches. He was a trustee of the Odd Fellows Build-
ing in Pikeville, and was also affiliated with the Masons,
Eastern Star and Maccabees.
Rev. Asbel S. Petrey, president of the Hazard Bap-
tist Institute, founder of the Three Forks Baptist As-
sociation, one of four to found the Hazard Wholesale
and Retail Hardware Company, and one of the leaders
in the Baptist denomination in this part of the state, is
one of the men of his cloth who has known how to
combine religious faith with practical Christianity in
such a manner as to exert a lasting influence on his
community and win the approval and high regard of
all with whom he is associated. He was born on a 'farm
at Boston, Whitley County, Kentucky, not far from
Jellico, Tennessee, December 5, 1866, a son of Adam
and Sentlia (Monroe) Petrey and grandson of Samuel
and Elizabeth (Bryant) Petrey.
Samuel Petrey was a farmer and he also conducted
a blacksmith shop for his own convenience as he was
a natural mechanic. He was also a musician and in
his youth was noted for his skill in playing a violin.
In later life he became a very devout member of the
Baptist Church. All over his section he was known
as an absolutely honest man and one whose word was
accepted as another's bond. Adam Petrey was also a
very religious man, and because of his activity in
church and Sunday school work was called "Praying
Ad." He owned and operated a farm in Whitley
County, and lived to be sixty-two years old. For many
years he held membership in Boston Lodge, A. F. and
A. M., and he was active in public affairs as a re-
former. After the death of his first wife, who passed
away when fifty-one years old, he married the widow,
Lawson, who survives him and lives at Hazard. The
mother of Reverend Petrey was a daughter of Levi
Monroe (descended from President Monroe), a trader
and stockbuyer, who drove his stock to southern points
and there sold it, and became well known in com-
mercial circles. At one time Mr. Monroe served in
the Kentucky Legislature as the first representative
from Whitley County. During the war between the
states he moved to Sharps Chapel, Tennessee, and there
died. The members of the Monroe family were all
democrats, but the members of the Petrey family were
republicans except Adam Petrey, who in sympathy with
his southern wife became a democrat. The following
children were born to the parents of Reverend Petrey,
namely: Rev. A. S., who is the eldest; James D., who
is a truck-farmer at Corbin, Kentucky; Rev. Samuel,
who is a minister of the Baptist denomination, is active
in religious work, but makes his living as a blacksmith
in the mines at Mountain Ash, Kentucky; L. A., who
is a foreman of railroad work for the Louisville &
Nashville Railroad at High Cliff, Kentucky; Mattie,
who is the wife of Dr. E. Kelley of Hazard; John W.,
who is a merchant at Harlan, Kentucky; Rev. Marshall
A., hard coal operator and Baptist minister; and Wil-
liam C, who died when a child. By his second mar-
riage Adam Petrey had three children, two daughters
and a son, the latter being Charles E. Petrey, a mer-
chant of Hazard.
Asbel S. Petrey attended the public schools of Sax-
ton, Kentucky, and a subscription school of Boston,
Kentucky. He was converted and united with the
Baptist Church at the age of twenty-one. He attended
Cumberland College, from which he was graduated in
1893 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and subse-
quently he was a student of the Theological Seminary
at Louisville, Kentucky. In order to secure the neces-
sary funds for further study of his own, Reverend
Petrey began teaching school at an early, age in the
rural districts, and subsequently was connected with
Cumberland College, being instructor in its normal
department in 1893. Still later he was an educator at
Hazard Institute, from 1902 to 1918 being president of
the institution. Since the latter date, however, he has
devoted himself to executive work relative to the
school, and to his ministerial duties.
Since his ordination as a minister in 1890 Mr. Petrey
has been very active in ministerial work, and among
other things has built two churches at Hazard, the
second one replacing the first, which was destroyed by
fire. The first church was built when most of the
building material for it had to be hauled from Jack-
son by teams, and in pushboats up the Kentucky River
a distance of forty miles. He has also built churches
at Dwarf, Dryhill and Calvary, near Corbin, the last
named during the first years of his ministry. He is
now pastor of the First Baptist Church of Whites-
burg, and has had charges at Hindman, Hyden, Mount
Olivet, and in fact almost all of the churches in the
Three Forks Association have had the benefit of his
efforts, and he is a big man in every way, and one
possessed of abounding enthusiasm for his work. A
man of powerful physique, he has been favored with
splendid health during his useful life, a blessing he
deeply appreciates. His energy found an outlet during
the years at the beginning of his ministry in hard
work in the timber woods to get out the necessary
lumber for the churches he was building, so that it
can be truthfully said that he constructed them through
his own efforts. He was one of the organizers of the
Three Forks Baptist Association, and of the Hazard
Baptist Institute, establishing the latter in 1902 with-
out funds, but with faith that they would be forth-
coming, and this confidence has been justified, for today
the institution is one of the important educational or-
ganizations of the state. Plans have just recently
been perfected for a much greater expansion of the
institution's scope of usefulness. With his cooperation
the Hazard Hardware Company has been expanded and
is now a very important concern, and through his con-
nection with the Three Forks Baptist Association, of
which he was also the founder, it has grown to im-
portant proportions.
In May, 1895, Mr. Petrey was married to Sarah
Effie Harmon, a daughter of Jacob and Lucinda Har-
mon, of Pine Knot, Kentucky. The Harmon family
is an old one in Kentucky and members of it have
served as county judges and in other official positions
in Whitley county. Reverend and Mrs. Petrey have
the following children : Maude, who graduated at
Cumberland College with the degree of A. B., taught
three years in the Baptist Institute at Hazard ; Ruth
is a graduate from the Georgetown College with de-
gree of A. B., and is teaching in the Baptist Insti-
tute ; Gertrude graduated from the Cumberland Col-
lege with A. B. degree; Marie, the wife of W. D.
Vol. V— 53
590
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
Harris ; and Paul, Sanetha, Dorothy, Kathleen and
Helen now attending the Baptist Institute at Hazard,
Kentucky. Mr. Petrey is erecting a new residence
near the institute at Hazard. He is a Master Mason.
Like the rest of his family he is a democrat, but
his time has been so occupied with other duties that
he has not taken an active part in politics aside from
giving an earnest support to moral issues. He is a
man whose influence is one of the strongest factors
for good in Perry County and so sincere and con-
vincing is he that he carries his fellow citizens with
him and secures their co-operation no matter what
their religious creed may be. Through his energy
and public spirit many movements for the betterment
of the community and the maintenance of high moral
standards have come into being, and he can always
be depended upon to advise wisely in all matters per-
taining to the proper conduct of affairs, for he is not
only a spiritual man, but an intensely practical one
as well, and his remarkable executive abilities are
unquestioned.
William Engle, treasurer and manager of the
Hazard Hardware Company, which conducts both
wholesale and retail business and which stands as one
of the important commercial concerns of the judicial
center of Perry County, is one of the most vital and
progressive business men of the county and has been
a prominent figure in the upbuilding of the substan-
tial business enterprise of which he is the general
manager. The Hazard Hardware Company, which has
a large and well equipped establishment, was organized
in 1912, with capital of $5,000, and with the' develop-
ment of its remarkably large and far-reaching busi-
ness, in both wholesale and retail departments, the
corporation has found it expedient to increase the
capital stock to its present figure, $50,000. The offi-
cers of the company, in addition to Mr. Engle, are
as here designated : J. L. Morrison, president ; S. B.
Brashears, vice president, was killed in World war
in France while serving as first lieutenant ; and Rev.
A. S. Petrey, secretary. It is interesting to note that
not only is the secretary of the company a clergy-
man of the Baptist Church but also all other officers
of the company are zealous and prominent members
of the same church and all are members of the board
of trustees of the Baptist Institute at Hazard, with
exception of J. L. Morrison.
William Engle was born at Dwarf, Knott County,
Kentucky, on the 6th of June, 1885, and is a son of
Henry and Polly Ann (Combs) Engle. The father
was born in the State of Virginia and became one
of the prosperous farmers of Knott County, Kentucky,
the old homestead farm near Dwarf and on Trouble-
some Creek, being still the residence of his widow.
Henry Engle died in 1902, at the age of forty-seven
years. He was a man of sterling character, was an
honored and influential citizen of his community and
was a leader in the Baptist Church, of which his
widow likewise is a devoted member. Of their eight
children, William, of this review, is the eldest, two
of the number being deceased ; Jason remains with his
mother on the old home farm and has active man-
agement of the same; Harvey is a member of the
class of 1922 in the Baptist Institute; Anderson en-
listed in the United States Army and is now stationed
at Camp Knox, he having been too young to serve
in the late World war.
The early education of William Engle was obtained
in the public school at Dwarf, on Troublesome Creek,
and in the Baptist Institute at Hazard. He early
began to aid in the activities of the home farm, and
as a youth he clerked in various stores at Hazard
and Dwarf. For a time he owned a partnership in-
terest in a drug store at Hazard, where he was asso-
ciated with Doctor Kelley, this partnership alliance
continuing five years. Upon the expiration of this
period Mr. Engle became one of the organizers of
the Hazard Hardware Company, and his vigorous and
progressive policies have contributed greatly to the
splendid success that has attended this representative
business concern of Perry County.
Mr. Engle is not only one of the representative
business men of Hazard but is also one of its loyal
and public-spirited citizens, as shown by his lively
interest in all that concerns the communal well being.
He is a democrat in political allegiance, and he and
his wife are earnest members of the Missionary Baptist
Church, in which he has served as a deacon since his
young manhood. He is also, as previously intimated,
a trustee of the Baptist Institute at Hazard. In the
Masonic fraternity he is affiliated with the Blue Lodge
at Hazard, the chapter of Royal Arch Masons at
Whitesburg, the Commandery of Knights Templars at
Winchester, Oleika Temple of the Mystic Shrine at
Lexington, and with the Scottish Rite Consistory in
the City of Louisville.
In 1913 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Engle
to Miss Bertie Fannie Beavens, daughter of James
Beavens, of Union County, and they have three chil-
dren: Alien Bertie, Orland Rayford, and William, Jr.
George W. Nicholson, chairman of the board of
trustees of the Hazard Institute, is one of the sub-
stantial and dependable men of Perry County, and
has charge of the undertaking department of the
Hazard Hardware Company, wholesalers and retailers,
and actively interested in the welfare of the institute,
four of the members of this large concern being
members of the board of trustees, and all of them
contributing generously toward its support.
The birth of George W. Nicholson occurred on a
farm in Whitley County, Kentucky, March 7, 1868.
He is a son of Riley and Emily (Skeen) Nicholson,
grandson of Jacob Nicholson, who was the youngest
of a family of thirteen sons and three daughters born
to his father Samuel Nicholson. Samuel Nicholson
died in Virginia, from whence Jacob Nicholson came
to Whitley County, Kentucky, settling at Lot, and
there he was engaged in farming.
Riley Nicholson and his wife reared their family
in a one-room log cabin, and George W. Nicholson,
like so many others, read and studied by the light
of the pine-knot fire. Brought up in a strictly re-
ligious atmosphere, when only a lad of eleven or
twelve he joined the Baptist Church, being the third
generation to do so on Cane Creek, and he has never
wavered in his interest in this denomination. His
father, who was born in 1822 lived until 1905, but
his mother died in 1888, when fifty-four years old.
She was a daughter of W. B. Skeen, a prominent
man of his day. Riley Nicholson and his wife had
four sons and four daughters, and George W. was
the seventh in order of birth, and the youngest son.
During his boyhood in his locality, educational ad-
vantages were poor and George W. Nicholson walked
two and one-quarter miles to Pleasant View on Cane
Creek to attend school, which was a subscription one
and in order to secure the money to pay his tuition
he sold butter and eggs. Always ambitious when
he was seventeen years old he went to Williams-
burg, with only 75 cents in his pocket, determined to
attend the academy, and succeeded in doing so, work-
ing as a janitor and doing other jobs to defray his
expenses. The Williamsburg Academy is now known
as Cumberland College, and from it he was graduated
in 1895 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Fol-
lowing this Mr. Nicholson entered the educational
field and taught in twenty schools, having in all over
3,000 pupils under his charge at different times, and
he was always active in Sunday school work, so his
influence over the youthful mind was an extended
one, and always was exerted for high purposes. When
he was only eighteen years of age he had begun his
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
591
educational work, teaching a school that was located
five miles distant from his home. For the full five
months he taught this school he received $74.00, less
than $15.00 per month. Subsequently he taught at
Jacksboro, Knox County, Tennessee, in the academy
at Rowen, Kentucky, and also at Morehead, Kentucky.
Finally, leaving the schoolroom, Mr. Nicholson en-
tered the business arena and established himself in
a furniture and undertaking business at Corbin, Ken-
tucky, and after twelve years there moved to Barbour-
ville, Kentucky, and there carried on a grocery busi-
ness and was made a member of the board of trustees
of the Baptist Institute of that city. In 1904 Mr.
Nicholson took a course in Barnes Embalming School
of Louisville, Kentucky, and is an experienced under-
taker, and came to Hazard to assume charge of the
undertaking department of the Hazard Hardware Com-
pany. In this capacity he is rendering a much-appre-
ciated service to the people of Perry County, and
his skill and kindly sympathy in the time of great
trouble gain him warm friends among those to whom
he ministers.
In 1897 Mr. Nicholson was married to Lucy Siler,
a daughter of Adam Siler of Whitley County. She
was born near Jellico, Whitley County. She is one
of thirteen children, all of whom are married, and
all of the seven sons are now deacons of the Baptist
Church. Mr. and Mrs. Nicholson became the. parents
of seven children, namely: Lela, who is a graduate
of the Hazard Institute, is employed in the Perry
County Bank at Hazard; Charles, who is attending
the institute ; Beulah, who died in 1920, was a gradu-
ate of the institute, and a leader in church and Sunday
school work ; Gladys, who is also attending the in-
stitute; Lois, who is attending school; and Nina
Frances and George T., who are at home.
Always active in church work, as above stated, Mr.
Nicholson is now serving the local congregation of
the Baptist denomination as a deacon. He is a zealous
Mason, and belongs to Hazard Lodge No. 676, Ancient
Free and Accepted Masons, and in 1922 served as
Master of his lodge; Barbourville Chapter, Royal Arch
Masons ; and London Commandery, Knights Templar.
He is a member of the Eastern Star, of which he is
Worthy Patron. In addition Mr. Nicholson main-
tains membership with the Knights of Pythias, the
Junior Order of United American Mechanics, and the
Loyal Order of Moose, being a dictator of the latter.
During the late war he volunteered for service in
the Young Men's Christian Association. In politics
he is a republican and during his stay at Corbin he
served as a member of the city council. Realizing
the importance of securing the passage of the Nine-
teenth Amendment he has been active in prohibition
work, and no one in Perry County rejoices more than
he in the triumph of his cause. He is a man of the
most exemplary life and has ever sought to lead others
into the right path through precept and example.
Having been in contact with youthful minds during
so many years he understands boys and girls and
knov.c how to bring home to them the value of clean,
Christian living and moral attributes, and never ceases
in his good work in their behalf.
Lennox B. Turnbull, Jr. The experience of Len-
nox B. Turnbull, Jr., in the hardware business has
been unique aid interesting and has covered every
phase of the business, including the unloading of
cars and traveling by horse-back as a salesman prior
to the advent of railroads in several parts of the
country. Devoted to this industry from the time he
left college halls, his advancement has been steady
and continuous, and through individual merit he has
won his way to the presidency of the Sterling Whole-
sale Hardware Company, 'ocated at Hazard, where
he also occupies the position of president of the Hazard
Board of Trade.
Lennox B. Turnbull, Jr., attended the graded schools
in North Carolina, where his father was occupying
a pulpit at Durham, after which he pursued a course
at Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Vir-
ginia. His first business experience was secured with
a hardware establishment at Bristol, Virginia, where
he began at the bottom of the ladder and was em-
ployed in such work as unloading cars, etc. His in-
dustry and natural ability, together with his aptitude
in gaining a knowledge of the details of the business,
soon won him promotion and before the end of his
employment at Bristol he was engaged as a traveling
salesman, his territory being portions of southwest
Virginia to which railroads had not yet been built.
He likewise included Harlan and Letcher counties,
Kentucky, where there were likewise no transporta-
tion lines, and this necessitated his traveling on horse-
back, with his samples and change of clothing packed
away in his saddle-bags. After severing his con-
nection with the Bristol concern, Mr. Turnbull joined
the traveling force of the Norton Hardware Com-
pany, of Norton, Virginia, and it was as a representa-
tive of this firm that he first came to Hazard, via
horse-back. The journey, in its making, required some
thirty days, the greater part being spent in the saddle,
over bad roads and in all kinds of weather. The
training, however, was an excellent one, and Mr.
Turnbull was brought into touch with the people who
were to become his later customers in a way that
he would not have otherwise.
He came to Hazard in 1914 and organized the
Sterling Hardware Company. Under his direction, the
company has made rapid advancement and now con-
trols a large and constantly growing trade all over
this part of the state. The present establishment,
a commodious brick structure, was erected in Sep-
tember, 1920. Mr. Turnbull is what is termed a live
wire. He knows his country as well as he does his
business, and through this knowledge has been able
to assist it in the way of civic and other improve-
ments. As president of the Board of Trade he has
been active in the promulgating of movements under
the stimulating influence of which Hazard has bettered
its condition as to business status, and his civic efforts
have always been on the side of constructiveness and
progress. Mr. Turnbull has several social connections
and is deservedly popular among his associates. He
is unmarried.
Granby Carew Smith, cashier of the Bank of Hind-
man, is well-known to the people of Hindman and
Knott counties, for he attained to distinction as an
educator and was successful as a merchant before
1905 when he entered the banking business in con-
nection with his present position. He is a man of
sound judgment and thorough understanding of the
finances of his locality, and during his many years
connection with his bank, has won appreciation for
himself and prestige for his institution.
Mr. Smith was born at Jackson, Breathitt County,
October 10, 1870, a son of Reuben Randolph and
Virginia (Chapman) Smith, both natives of Virginia,
as their first names would indicate. They went to
Kentucky as young people, and were married at Jack-
son. He was born in 1834, and died in 1909; and
she, born in 1839, died in 1916. By trade he was
a carpenter, but was also connected with the selling
force of one of the mercantile establishments at Jack-
son. During the war between the North and the
South he served in the Confederate army. At one
time he was jailer of Breathitt County. Both he
and his wife were active church members, and main-
tained membership with the Baptist Church. A strong
believer in the doctrines of the prohibition party, he
gave them an earnest and conscientious support. The
following are the children born to him and his wife:
Mary, who is deceased, was the wife of the late J. T.
592
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
Davis ; Monroe, who died at Jackson when thirty-six
years old; Granby C, who was third in order of
birth: and Martha, who is the wife of Joseph Keyser
of Columbus, Ohio.
Granby C. Smith attended the public schools of
Jackson, and those at Hindman, and in the latter
was under the instruction of Professor Clark, while
at Jackson Professor Dickey was his preceptor. Early
in life he entered the educational field and won dis-
tinction in it as one of the able and popular educators.
As Professor Clark's assistant at Hindman he be-
came well known to the people of Knott County,
and in 1894 was the successful candidate of his party
for the office of county superintendent of schools of
Knott County, and held it for four years. For several
years following the termination of his term of office
he was engaged in a mercantile business, and as book-
keeper he was connected with one or more of the
leading concerns of Hindman. Then, in 1905, as be-
fore stated, he entered the Bank of Hindman as
cashier and in it found his life-work amid congenial
surroundings.
In 1892 Mr. Smith was married to Mary B. Baker,
a daughter of Judge W. W. Baker. She was born
at Hindman, and was here reared and educated. She
is very active in the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South. Mr. and Mrs. Smith became the parents of
six sons and six daughters, and one of their sons,
Barrett Travis Smith, volunteered for service during
the World war, and was on the firing line in France.
Mr. Smith is a zealous member of the Masonic
fraternity. In politics he is a democrat, and has al-
ways been active in his party. There are few men
who stand as high in public esteem and confidence
in Knott County, as he, and this desirable condition
has been brought about through his own efforts and
by reason of his high character and superior order
of ability.
Col. Edmund Haynes Taylor, Jr., of Thistleton.
Frankfort, was born in the last year of the second
decade of the nineteenth century and has already lived
into the first year of the second decade of the twentieth
and has carried much of the enthusiasm and vigor com-
monly associated with youth into his serene and dignified
old age. Longevity alone is an interesting but not
important distinction. It is on the score of practical
achievements, many of them broadly and vitally related
with the welfare of the state, that the career of Colonel
Taylor merits all that can be said of him in these
pages.
Colonel Taylor represents the seventh generation of
this branch of the Taylor family in America. The
heads of the successive generations were: 1, James,
who settled on 1,000 acres of land in Virginia in 1668:
2, James, who was a colonel of a regiment of Colonial
militia and member of the Virginia House of Burgesses,
1702-1714; 3, George, a member of Virginia House of
Burgesses, 1748-1758, colonel of Virginia colonial militia,
father of ten sons, all of whom served as officers in
the Revolutionary war, 1776-1783 — a record not sur-
passed by any one family in the history of the country;
4, Richard ; 5, Richard, Jr. ; 6. John Eastin ; 7, Edmund
Haynes .Taylor, Jr. The first James Taylor came from
Carlisle, England, in 1668. Among his descendants were
President James Madison and President Zachary Tay-
lor, also John Taylor, Edmund Pendleton, the noted
jurist and a number of others distinguished in war,
politics and business.
Richard Taylor (4) served with distinction as cap-
ta'n and commodore of the Virginia Continental Navy
during the Revolutionary war and was twice wounded.
All his brothers were officers in either the army or the
navy. His son Richard Taylor, Jr., was government
surveyor of Jackson's Purchase in Kentucky.
Col. Edmund Haynes Taylor, Jr., so named to dis-
tinguish him from his uncle, a prominent Kentucky
banker, was born at Columbus, Kentucky, February 12,
1830, a son of John Eastin and Rebecca (Edrington)
Taylor. He was liberally educated both at home and
in some of the best schools of the day. He attended
Boyer's French School at Conti Street in New Orleans.
He has always recognized a great debt to the school
and the personal discipline of B. B. Sayre, one of the
most famous of Kentucky's earliest educators at Frank-
fort. In the Sayre School at Frankfort, some of his
classmates were United States Senator George Graham
Vest of Missouri, John M. Harlan, who became a jus-
tice of the United States Supreme Court and S. I. M.
major.
On December 21, 1852, Colonel Taylor married Miss
Frances Miller Johnson. She was born September 10,
1832, and died October 11, 1898, in the forty-seventh
year of their marriage. Eight children were born to
their union. The first of these is Jacob Swigert Taylor,
whose career is sketched following this. The second
Mary Belle, born September 20, 1855, became the wife
of Dr. J. Lampton Price; Rebecca, born September 2,
'857, was married to Richard W. Kline; Eugenia, died
in infancy; Kenner, born at Frankfort, November 15,
1S63, married Juliet Rankin Johnson, daughter of W.
S. Johnson, of Henderson, and has two daughters, Eliz-
abeth Rankin, born November 18, 1895, and Frances
Johnson, born November 6, 1900; Margaret Johnson,
born September 29, 1866, is the widow of Philip Fall
Taylor ; Edmund Watson, born at Frankfort, Decem-
ber 10, 1868, is unmarried ; and Frances Allen, the
youngest, born March 26, 1872, was first married to
Pythian Saffell, her second husband being James M.
Saffell.
On leaving school Colonel Taylor entered the Branch
Bank of Kentucky at Frankfort under his uncle Ed-
mund H. Taylor, then cashier. At the age of twenty
he opened the books of the Commercial Bank of Ken-
tucky at Paducah and also the books of its branches
at Harrodsburg and Versailles, becoming cashier of the
Versailles branch. Soon thereafter he founded the pri-
vate banking house of Taylor, Turner & Company,
which was later succeeded by Taylor, Shelby & Com-
pany, at Lexington.
The big work of his life, however, was accomplished
as a distiller. In the early sixties he organized the
firm of Gaines, Berry & Company, distillers, and in
1868 organized the firm of W. A. Gaines & Company
and built the Old Crow and the Hermitage distilleries
at Frankfort. In 1874 he rebuilt and operated the
Oscar Pepper Distillery, near Frankfort, in conjunction
with his ward James E. Pepper, a son of Oscar Pepper.
He had built in 1869 the O. F. C. Distillery near
Frankfort and subsequently organized the E. H. Tay-
lor Company and built the Carlisle Distillery.
While associated with these distillery enterprises
Colonel Taylor made an ultra fine whiskey on the
famous site of the famous old Taylor plant, and it
was the product of this plant that brought the Taylor
whiskey a world wide reputation. In 1886 Colonel
Taylor disassociated himself from all his other distilling
interests and organized the firm of E. H. Taylor, Jr.
& Sons, confining his operations exclusively to the
old Taylor plant. Experts have pronounced the old
Taylor plant the finest distillery in the wcjrld.
Besides being president of the E. H. Taylor, Jr. &
Sons, distillers of Old Taylor, at Frahkfort, Colonel
Taylor is the owner of the famous Flereford Farms
in Woodford County, Kentucky. A mirnber of years
ago he established the nucleus of his Herefords and
gradually built up the most celebrated iTereford herd
in this country. It was noted for the celebrated
$12,400 Woodford bull, and others '0f the great im-
ported Hereford bulls in Amer/Yca. Besides the great
stock farm, Colonel Taylo,r- owns Thistleton Farms
on which he resides near Frankfort.
Much has been written off Colonel Taylor's work with
the Herefords. His W oodford County farm is de-
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
593
scribed in Alvin H. Sanders' "Story of the Hereford."
In a recent issue of the Breeders' Gazette (September
IS, 1921), appears an article entitled "Constructive
Work with Herefords," setting forth the distinctive
elements in the success of Colonel Taylor as a breeder
of pedigreed livestock. For its value as illustrating
an example in Kentucky's industrial life as well as
presenting the tribute it carries to Colonel Taylor him-
self, the article in the Breeders' Gazette is here quoted:
"A man who by virtue of his achievements is entitled
to be classed among the thinking, practical, successful,
constructive breeders of his time is that distinguished
Kentuckian, Colonel E. H. Taylor, Jr.. the owner of
Hereford Farms. His work in the Hereford world
with his cattle, designated as Woodfords' justifies this
characterization. All his life a student and one identi-
fied with the breeding of thoroughbreds and an exten-
sive feeder of cattle for the shambles, it was not diffi-
cult for him to apply his experience and knowledge to
good purpose in the selection and breeding of Here-
fords. As the history of Hereford breeding goes, Col-
onel Taylor is comparatively new in the ranks. His
record of achievement is all the more remarkable be-
cause of that fact. It tends to emphasize what he has
accomplished in a comparatively short time. To begin
with, Colonel Taylor, while remarkably successful in
the business world, was little known to the pedigree
cattle fraternity until about the time that he had suc-
cessfully negotiated the purchase from W. H. Curtice
of the promising bull Beau Perfection 24th for $12,400,
the then high price for a bull of the breed. This bull
was a son of old Perfection, an international champion,
that sold for $9,000. Beau Perfection 24th was by the
champion Dale, and his dam was Belle Donald II 4th
by a double Beau Donald. He was afterwards renamed
Woodford, in honor of the county in which he was to
be used at Hereford Farms.
"Colonel Taylor did not stop here. He drew from
leading herds of America and England females that
were up-to-date types of the breed. The merit and
quality of these females were inherited from a line of
ancestry of proved worth, as recognized by every
observer of the progress of the breed in this country
and England. With the acquisition of females of this
class, the real work — the work that earned for this
man a place among the greatest breeders of his time,
the work which is one of the most valuable contribu-
tions to history in the making — began at Hereford
Farms. To that work this article is dedicated as a well
earned tribute to a man who has liberally devoted his
wealth and talents to the furtherance of a cause near
to his heart and to the breeder and beginner, who ap-
preciates that a study of the factors entering into
a worthy success is time profitably spent, and a great
aid to every one who is ambitious to achieve both
success and distinction as a producer of good livestock.
"Hereford Farms, near Frankfort, Kentucky, are
ideal for stock breeding. A soil underlaid with lime-
stone, the richest of bluegrass and pure, clear water
are invaluable aids to the moulding of ideal animal
form. Colonel Taylor enjoys these aids. He owns
one of the largest and most beautiful tracts in the
famous bluegrass region of his state. He is singularly
aided by nature and by a class of breeding stock that
possess qualities inherited from ancestry of excep-
tional producing worth.
"Woodford was the type of bull that is essential if
good resu'ts are to be expected. He was not a large
bull; he was short of leg, smoothly and evenly bal-
anced, displaying unusual masculinity in a head that
was short, widt and impressive. He was of the mel-
low-fleshed, early maturing kind. He disclosed few
defects. A critical julge, upon studying the bull, would
really contend that he should prove to be unusually pre-
potent, and that when mated to matrons of real
merit sho^'d make a remarkable record as a sire.
Tin: he did to a remarkable degree, and, notwithstand-
ing that his career was cut short as a result of his
death by fire, he lived long enough and sired a sufficient
number to give him a certain permanent place among
the greatest sires known to the Hereford breed. He
was a show bull of distinction. His record as a sire
reveals how accurately he passed on his showyard
qualities to his sons and daughters.
"It is not my intention to list here all the winnings
of the get of Woodford, but a reference to a few of
the most important will indicate the remarkable ex-
tent to which Hereford Farms' production by this sire
achieved distinction, and to what extent the bull bred
on his sons and grandsons. One of his most distin-
guished sons was Woodford 9th, of practically the
same line of blood as his sire. He was either junior
or grand champion at the Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and
Missouri State fairs, the American Royal, the Interna-
tional Live Stock Exposition and the Panhandle State
Fair in 1917, and was retired to the breeding herd at
the end of that season. Woodford was the sire or
grandsire of 18 per cent of the winners at the 1920
International and the sire of the grand champion
female Belle Woodford 28th at the 1920 American
Royal. He was the sire or grandsire of 21 per cent
of the money winners at the 1920 International Live
Stock Exposition; he was the grandsire of the grand
champion female Donna Woodford 5th and the junior
champion Lady Woodford at the same show in 1920.
He had six sons whose get were winners of these
national shows. He was the sire or grandsire of the
young herds that won three first prizes and one second
prize at the 1919 and 1920 American Royal and Inter-
national Live Stock Exposition; he was the sire or
grandsire of the calf herds that won five firsts, one sec-
ond prize and two thirds at the 1918, 1919 and 1920 Amer-
ican Royal and International Live Stock Exposition.
A study of the breeding of the prize winners at the
last (1920) International discloses that Woodford leads,
by comfortable margin, any other bull as a begetter of
principal Hereford prize winners. His prepotency is
not matched by that of any other bull of the breed so
far as showyard records tell the story.
"If these facts prove anything it is that Colonel
Taylor secured in Woodford 500,000, a remarkable
sire, and that he has in the line of blood represented in
his pedigree an asset of great value. That bull's hered-
ity has 'nicked' most acceptably with the females in
the herd, resulting, in most instances, in the production
of cattle, which when fitted for leading shows, easily
find their ways to the tops of their classes.
"Many men of wealth have assembled collections of
different breeds of live stock, but few have achieved
the measure of success which has fallen to Colonel
Taylor, for the simple reason that they failed to have
the right conception of the business in which they had
invested their money and, not getting the right grasp
of the business failed to devote to it the talents which
in the case of Colonel Taylor won outstanding success.
He had, first of all, that primary essential, the love
of good livestock and his training and experience were
applied to it in shaping its destiny and directing it to
the goal which should and must be the ambition of
every breeder who hopes to make a name which will
endure. The breeder who has the dollar sign as his
goal will not do it. He may realize his ambition in
that respect, but in the absence of a love for his work,
either inherited or acquired and a zeal to improve his
productions as he goes along, he may, of course, hope
to make his mark as a constructive breeder, but in all
probability he will see his career ended without having
achieved real success.
"Colonel Taylor has shown the way to success. While
many men may be prevented by their lack of capital,
from doing as much as he has done in a brief space
of time, yet many who have an inborn love for good
stock may in a smaller way emulate his example and
594
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
achieve in a measure the distinction that he has earned
as a breed improver. Such men will not have lived in
vain. Colonel Taylor is a public benefactor; he has
done more than 'make two blades of grass grow where
one grew before.' He has produced the kind of cattle
that will make two pounds of beef grow where but
one pound grew before, and, in addition, will pass on
to generations to follow a line of breeding which will
make it easier for his followers who use it to succeed.
He has, besides, left a record of achievement as a
Hereford breeder that is more enduring than granite.
Such is one man's tribute to a grand old man in Amer-
ican Herefordom."
Many public honors and responsibilities have been
accorded this noted Kentuckian. For seventeen years
he served as mayor of Frankfort. On August 3, 1891,
he was elected representative from Franklin County
for a term of two years and res'gned February, 1893, to
become candidate for senator from the 20th District
to which office he was elected Februarv 21st to fill the
unexpired term of Judge William Lindsay, who had
been elected United States senator. He was again
elected senator from the 20th District on November 3,
1901 and served for a term of four years.
On April 27, 1917, at His magnificent countrv home.
Colonel Taylor entertained a representative body of the
"American Association of Collegiate Registrars," and
in return this body of fifty-eight college and university
men inscribed with their signatures a "d'ploma" read-
ing as follows :
"American Association of Collegiate Registrars.
Whereas we the President and Faculty of the American
Association of Collegiate Registrars, "in appreciation of
the generous hospitality accorded us by Colonel Edmund
H. Taylor, Jr., at his beautiful estate at the Hereford
Farm, have found convincing demonstration of his
proficiency as a Lavish Host, a Genial Leader and a
Cordial Friend, and have thus received a signal experi-
ence of Southern hospitality at the hands of one of its
most distinguished exemplars ; now, therefore, do we
under the authority of a unanimous resolution of our
Association, hereby confer upon him the degree of
Master of Hospitality. In testimony whereof we have
hereunto set our hands this 27th day of April, 1917,
at Lexington in the State of Kentucky."
Some of Colonel Taylor's soc'al and other interests
are manifest in his having membership in the following
clubs: Pendennis Club of Louisville; Filson Club of
Louisville; Kentucky State Historical Society; The
Lincoln Farm Associat'on ; The Kentucky Society Sons
of the American Revolution ; Society of Colonial Wars ;
Lexington Country Club; Lexington Club; Kentucky
Thoroughbred Horse Breeders Association ; American
Hereford Cattle Breeders Association; life member of
the International Livestock Exposition Assoc'ation ; life
member of the Hereford Herd Book Society of Here-
ford, England; Chicago Athletic Association of Ch:-
cago; Saddle and Sirloin Club of Chicago; and Frank-
fort Lodge of the Elks No. 530.
Jacob Swigert Taylor, a son of Col. Edmund
Haynes Taylor, Jr., is vice president of the E. H. Tay-
lor, Jr. & Sons and for many years has been one of
Frankfort's most substantial citzens.
He was born at Frankfort, September 30, 18^3, and
was educated in a private academy at West Chester,
Pennsylvania, and also in the noted private school of
B. B. Sayre at Frankfort. He left school at the age of
eighteen to enter his father's business, and for many
years has carried the chief executive responsibilities of
the E. H. Taylor, Jr. & Sons. His offices are on the
fifth floor of the McClure Building in Frankfort. Mr.
Taylor is, like his father, a democrat, a member of the
Episcopal Church and is affiliated with Hiram Lodge
No. 4, A. F. & A. M., Frankfort Chapter No. 3, R.
A M„ and Frankfort Commandery No. 4, of the
Knights Templar. He is also a member of Frankfort
Lodge No. 530 of the Elks and a past exalted ruler.
Among other extensive business interests he is a
director in the Farmers Deposit Bank of Frankfort.
He is a member of the Pendennis Club, Louisville,
Filson Club, Louisville, vice president of the Kentucky
Society Sons of the American Revolution, member of
the executive committee of the Kentucky Historical So-
ciety and a member of the Society of Colonial Wars
in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
He resides at the beautiful old family homestead of
Thistleton, one of the most distinctive homes at the
Capital City, with 900 acres of park and farming lands
adjoining.
November 24, 1880, at Frankfort, J. Swigert Taylor
married Miss Sadie Bacon Crittenden. She was born
August 27, 1859, a daughter of Major Eugene W. Crit-
tenden, who was the youngest son of John J. Crittenden
and on her mother's side was a granddaughter of Judge
Harry Innis. Major Eugene W. Crittenden served as a
colonel in the Union army during the Civil war, after-
ward held a major's commission in the regular army
and died near Tucson, Arizona, and was buried at The
Presidio in San Francisco. Major Crittenden married
I aura Bacon, who was born at Frankfort in 1832 and
died in her native city in 1898.
J. S. Taylor had the misfortune to lose his wife and
the compan'on of forty years on June 29, 1920. She
was the mother of a daughter, Mary Belle, and a son,
Edmund Haynes, Jr. Mary Belle Taylor, who was
born in Frankfort, September 20, 1883, was married
September 2, 1909. to Charles Walter Hay. Mr. Hay
was born at Charlestown, Indiana, November 12, 1878,
son of Charles Sherrod and Mary Charlotte (Runyan)
Hay. Mr. Hay is now engaged in the insurance and oil
business at Frankfort. The children of Mr. and Mrs.
Charles Walter Hay are : Edmund Haynes Taylor Hay,
born on the 12th of August, 1910, Eugenia Crittenden
Hay, born on the 4th of June, 1913, Charles Walter
Hay, Jr., born on the 20th of October, 1914, and Jacob
Swigert Taylor Hay, born on October 2, 1918.
Edmund Haynes Taylor, Jr. Ill, who represents the
ninth generation of the Taylor fanrly in America, was
burn at Frankfort November 30, 1886, and is unmar-
ried. He served as a private in the Seventeenth Com-
pany of the United States army during the World
war, being stationed at Fort McDowell, Angel Island,
California.
Peyton Richie. When an individual has been the
ncumbent of an official position for nine years it
would be an anomaly if the citizens of his community
were not pretty generally informed as to his character
;'iid abilities. Contrary opinions notwithstanding, the
public is almost invariably shrewd in the estimate
which it puts on the worth of men acting in posi-
tions of responsibility, and it therefore stands to rea-
son that the high regard in which Peyton Richie is
R'ill held, after nine years of service as jailer of
Knott County, is indicative of the efficiency and fidelity
of his service.
Mr Richie is a member of an old and highly re-
spected family of Knott County, or the territory that
is now included within its boundaries, and was born
December 20, 1873, on Buckhorn Creek, Breathitt
County, being a son of Zachary and Sylvania (Camp-
hell) Richie. His grandfather was James Richie, a
Ifelong farmer of Breathitt County, and his great-
grandfather Crockett Richie, who came to Kentucky
from North Carolina among the pioneer., and took
up his residence on Clear Creek. Zach?ry Richie, or
"Zach" as he was more familiarly known to his neigh-
bors, was a soldier of the Confederacy during the
war between the states, and with the exception of
the time that he spent in military service devoted
his entire career to farming in what is now Kno '
County, where he died March 3, 1920, when seven -„
seven years of age. He was a stalwart cn.rr■.ocra,
me
Th
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
595
his political convictions, but took only a good citizen's
interest in public affairs. Mrs. Richie's family, the
Campbells, have taken a leading part in various affairs
in Kentucky for many years. She had been married
lo Mr. Richie for more than fifty years and survived
him only twenty-five days, passing away March 28,
1920, when seventy-three years old, in the faith of the
Baptist Church. They were the parents of five chil-
dren : John, who is engaged in farming on Trouble-
some Creek ; Peyton, of this notice ; Joseph, who is
a merchant and farmer on Riley Fork of Trouble-
some Creek, in Breathitt County; Greer, a coal oper-
ator of Birmingham, Knott County; and Elliott, a
farmer on Lot's Creek.
After securing his education in the public school
on Buckhorn Creek in his native locality, Peyton
Richie gave all of his time and attention to farming
until the year 1913, when he was elected jailer of
Knott County. So well did he perforin his duties
and so satisfied were the people with his services,
that in the election of 1917 he was elected by a hand-
some majority, carrying all but two precincts in his
county. Mr. Richie is the only one of his family to
ever seek office with the exception of a cousin, Jason
Richie, who was at one time county attorney. He
has displayed fidelity and a sense of responsibility
in the conduct of his office, and has vindicated the
faith and confidence placed in him by his fellow-
citizens. Politically Mr. Richie is a democrat, and
fraternally a Master Mason, member Hindman Lodge
No. 689, and a member of the Odd Fellows, in both
of which orders he is popular with his fellow-members.
In 1905 Mr. Richie was united in marriage with
Miss Hannah Johnson, known as C. B. Richie, who
was born in Knott County, daughter of Coley John-
son, an agriculturist of this county. To this union
there have been born seven children, all of whom
reside at home: Farris, Dora, Farlinia, Essie, Jacob
E., Devert and Frances May.
In November, 1921, Mrs. Rich:e was elected jailer
of Knott County, by a good majority, this is the first
woman elected to this office in the state. She is
known to her many friends of Knott County as C. B.
Richie, but her given name is Hannah.
Adam Campbfxl. The awards that are attainable in
character and influence through a life of industry and
probity, guided and regulated by a sense of obliga-
tion, are illustrated in the career of Adam Campbell,
superintendent of schools of Knott County. Possessed
of more than ordinary faculty as an educator, as a
youth he entered upon his life work and has never
failed to carry out the obligations laid upon his will-
ing shoulders and to follow up opportunities that
have opened up before him with steadiness and in-
dustry, gaining step by step the rare fruits of well-
directed enterprise until he finds himself the occupant
of a position of responsibility and the object of the
sincere regard of his fellow-citizens at Hindman.
Mr. Campbell was born August 28, 1875, at Vest,
Knott County, a son of Jasper and Naomi (Smith)
Campbell. His grandfather was William Campbell,
who lived on the Buckhorn, while his great-grand-
father was Rev. Jackson Campbell, a pioneer minister
of the Baptist Church, who made his home on Lot's
Creek. Jasper Campbell, in early life a school teacher,
has been for many years a merchant at Vest, where
he still makes his home, aged seventy years, his worthy
wife also surviving at sixty-seven years of age. Mr.
Campbell was famed in his younger days for his skill
at mathematics and still retains this faculty. A dem-
ocrat in politics, he was elected county surveyor of
Knott County in 1892, and he and his wife are faith-
ful members of the regular Baptist Church. Of their
seven children who are now living, four are edu-
cators.
Adam Campbell went to school on Buckhorn Creek,
and later received the advantage of instruction under
Professor Clark, at Hindman. During the twelve years
that he taught in the rural and mountain districts
of his locality he became intimately known to the
people and well informed as to the country, and in
these directions also was assisted by his experience
as county surveyor, an office in which he served from
1903 to 191 1. He was elected superintendent of schools
of Knott County in 1913, and has retained this office
uninterruptedly to the present, during which time he
has contributed materially to the advancement of the
cause of education. He has labored incessantly for
higher standards, and it has been his fortune to gain
the confidence and good will of teachers, pupils and
parents, with the result that his work has proved
more effective and the general public has reaped
the benefit. Mr. Campbell is a democrat in his political
allegiance. He belongs to the Independent Order of
Odd Fellows ; was master of Hindman Lodge, Ancient
Free and Accepted Masons, from 1910 to 1914, during
which he attended the Grand Lodge; and holds mem-
bership in Whitesburg Chapter, Royal Arch Masons,
and the Commandery at Winchester.
In 1896 Mr. Campbell was united in marriage with
Miss Josephine Dobson, daughter of William Dobson,
of Vest, and to this union there have been born five
children : Troy P., now a member of the general
merchandise firm of Bailey & Campbell, at Hind-
man; who was a sergeant in the army during the
World war, serving on the battle lines in France and
also in the statistical department of Headquarters of
the Fifth Division; Dora, who is the wife of E. C.
Holliday, of Hazard, Kentucky; and Cassie, Raleigh
and Viola, who reside with their parents at Hindman.
Mrs. Campbell is a member of the regular Baptist
Church and has been active in its work.
Clyde R. Levi, of the Ashland bar, is not only an
able man in the routine of his profession, but ex-
ceptionally talented as an orator and gifted public
leader, whose name is already widely known through-
out Kentucky.
Mr. Levi was born at Ashland, October 9, 1883, son
of Henry and Hattie (Brubaker) Levi. His parents
were born in Ohio, and his father for many years
was a merchant at Ashland. Clyde R. Levi attended
the common and parochial schools at_ Ashland, gradu-
ating in 1902, and took his professional training in
the law school of Center College at Danville, where
he graduated LL. B. in 1904. He at once opened an
office and has since been engaged in the general prac-
tice of law at Ashland.
January 13. 1920, Governor Morrow appointed him
one of the three members of the Kentucky State
Workmen's Compensation Board, who have jurisdic-
tion over all claims in personal injury cases. The
duties of this office require his presence much of
the time at Frankfort. Mr. Levi is unmarried. He is
a Methodist, and has from youth been keenly inter-
ested in politics as a stanch republican. He is a mem-
ber of the County and State Bar associations and is
prominent in the Order of Elks, being past exalted
ruler of Ashland Lodge, deputy grand exalted ruler
of Eastern Kentucky, and is first vice president of
the Order in Eastern Kentucky. He is an honorary
member of the Central Labor Union of Boyd County.
While in college Mr. Levi was one of the star foot-
ball players of Center College, playing half back, and
was also an all around athlete, being a member of
the college track team. During the war he made
speeches all over Eastern Kentucky, and he has the
magnetism and personality that sway and convince
an audience. His friends anticipate for him some
of the highest honors in state politics.
Floyd Brewer, cashier of the Himler State Bank
at Warfield, is one of the sound business men and
596
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
astute financiers, and a man who is widely and fa-
vorably known throughout this part of Kentucky. He
was born at Warfield, September 8, 1876, a son of
Isaac and Alcie (Spaulding) Brewer. Isaac Brewer
was born in what is now Mingo County, West Vir-
ginia, but at that time Logan County, in 1851, and
he died in 1908 his widow surviving him until 1918,
when she passed away at the age of sixty-seven years.
They were married in Logan County, West Virginia,
and some time thereafter moved to Warfield, Martin
County, which continued to be their home the re-
mainder of their lives. Isaac Brewer had timber in-
terests along the Tug River and operated upon an
extensive scale. He opened up stores at various places,
and in everything operated on a big scale. His lum-
bering covered all branches of the business, for he
bought and sold, and rafted his product to market
down the Sandy River. Intensely energetic, he was
able to make a success of everything he undertook.
Having a faith in the future of this region, he in-
vested in vast tracts of land underlaid with valuable
coal deposits. In the Methodist Episcopal Church
he found expression for his religious faith, but he
did not confine his contributions to his own church,
but was generous to other denominations desiring to
build churches, for he believed in extending their
scope, and he was also active in securing the erection
of schools. A life-long republican, he gave that party
an earnest support, but would not accept nominations.
Isaac Brewer was a man ahead of his time, and had
some of his contemporaries listened to him when he
stated his belief in the future development of Eastern
Kentucky they might have acquired at reasonable fig-
ure, land that now is almost priceless. Of the four
children born to him and his wife, Floyd Brewer
is the only survivor. Tantha, who died at the age
of twenty-one years, was the wife of Lewis Dempsey,
of Warfield; Anderson died in childhood; and Wallace
died at the age of thirty.
Floyd Brewer attended the local schools and a pri-
vate school at Inez, and then was associated with his
father in his extensive business operations, begin-
ning this connection when still a youth. He alter-
nated between the timber and the stores, and also
was on steamboats plying tin the Tug River. After
his father's death he continued in the mercantile
branch of the business, and then, early in the war
period, turned his attention to the development of
the coal fields, realizing the necessity of increasing
the output of this country. He has continued his
coal operations and is now vice president of the War-
field Coal Company and treasurer of the Dempsey
Coal Company. Mr. Brewer has also attained to dis-
tinction in the banking circles of Eastern Kentucky,
and is vice president of the Kermit State Bank, as
well as cashier of the Himler State Bank of War-
field, and is a stockholder in several other banks of
this region. He also owns stock in the Inter-State
Bridge Company, which recently completed a railroad
bridge across the Tug River, connecting the mines of
Martin County with the Norfolk & Western Railroad,
one of the most progressive and constructive move-
ments ever inaugurated and carried to a successful
completion in this part of Kentucky. The bridge,
which was opened in May, 1921, cost $300,000.
In 1900 Mr. Brewer was united in marriage with
Jennie Parsley a daughter of Jesse Parsley, one of
the well-known men in former years of Martin County.
Mrs. Brewer was born at Crum, Wayne County, West
Virginia. Mr. and Mrs. Brewer have three children,
namely: Walter, who was born February 5, 1003;
Gladys, who was born April 16, 1005 ; and Paul, who
was born March 12, 191 1. Reared in the faith of
the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, Mr. Brewer
early united with it and has continued one of its
sincere members ever since. He is a Mason, and
belongs to the Blue Lodge at Warfield and the Chapter
at Louisa. Like his father, he is a strong republican,
but, also like him, he has had no desire for public
advancement. The Brewer home is one of the most
beautiful residences of Warfield, and here a delight-
ful hospitality is shown by an ideal host and hostess
upon many occasions. '
James Blaine Clark. No lawyer at the Martin
County bar is generally acknowledged to have a more
ready and sound judgment in broad and intricate mat-
ters of the law than James Blaine Clark, city attorney
of Inez, and a man with a brilliant record both in
his profession and in that of an educator. From the
very outset of his career in the law his thoroughness
in the preparation in whatever litigation was entrusted
to him inspired that confidence in himself which has
been infectious and an assurance of success. Although
his profession has absorbed much of his time and
mental strength, Mr. Clark has found time to enter
politics, for it is his firm conviction that it is the
duty of every_ citizen to show an intelligent and effec-
tive interest in public matters, and has become one
of the leaders of his party in this part of the state.
Not only has he been the successful nominee of his
party upon several occasions for the office of city
attorney, but he was selected by it in 1921 for the
important office of circuit judge, his abilities having
long been recognized as of the caliber requisite for the
bench. A man of firm convictions, settled purpose,
practical in his aims, he has advanced steadily to a
high and substantial position, and has been effective
also in the realization of those projects which are
now being advocated by all good citizens of modern
tendencies.
James Blaine Clark was born at Odds on Daniel's
Creek in Johnson County, Kentucky, May 5, 1884, a
son of Samuel and Sarah (Wells) Clark. Samuel
Clark was born at the family home on Daniel's Creek
in September. 1846. and his wife was born that same
year. The original home of the Clarks in Johnson
County was on Grassy Creek, where Morgan Clark,
grandfather of James Blaine Clark, located. Daniel
Wells settled on the creek which bears his first name.
Subsequently the Wells family moved to locations on
Grassy Creek, and the Clarks, to Daniel's Creek, and
their representatives are still to be found in these
localities, and all of them are substantial and law-
abiding, as they have always been. Samuel Clark,
now seventy-five years of age, is living in comfortable
retirement at Odds.
Morgan Clark, father of Samuel Clark, was born
rai Little Mud Creek in Floyd County, Kentucky, and
he was a son of Samuel Clark, a native of North
Carolina, who came to Kentucky about 1800, locating
on Little Mud Creek at a time when all that region
was still a wilderness, and it required considerable
faith in the future of the state to brave the hard-
ships of frontier life. Still there were compensations
to such a life, for the early settlers were able to ac-
quire land at very low figures, and to take a dominat-
ing part in public matters. The elder Samuel Clark
was no exception to this rule and secured control of
a large amount of land on both Big and Little Muddy
creeks. His son, Morgan Clark, was also a farmer,
operating upon an extensive scale. Samuel Clark,
following in the footsteps of his forebears, became
a farmer, and for some years lived on John's Creek,
but after his marriage moved to Daniel's Creek. For
many years he served as a magistrate in Johnson
County, and has always been a man of prominence.
Finding in the principles of the republican party the
ideals he upheld in politics, he has always given to
it his earnest and conscientious support. While he
has never united with any religious organization, he
is a supporter of church work and a contributor to
the Methodist Church, of which his wife is a member.
After moving to Odds he went into the mercantile
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
597
business, and for a long period was one of the lead-
ing business men of his section, and still retained his
farm. He and his wife became the parents of twelve
children, of whom James Blaine Clark is the youngest.
Ten of these children are still living. Mrs. Clark is
a daughter of William Wells.
James Blaine Clark and his brother, Emsey Clark,
attended the public schools of Odds, and the latter
also became a teacher, and is now pursuing his call-
ing in the State of Oklahoma. James Blaine Clark
decided to become a lawyer, but in order to earn the
money to pay for his professional training, entered
the educational field, and taught six schools in John-
son County prior to entering the law department of
the University of Indiana, from which he was gradu-
ated in 1908. So marked was his success as an edu-
cator that even after he had obtained his degree he
was induced to continue teaching, and accepted a
position as principal of the Inez schools, and held
it for four years. In the meanwhile, however, he be-
gan practicing law, and so impressed were his fellow
townsmen with his ability, his knowledge of the law
and his sterling integrity that when he was made the
candidate of the republican party for city attorney
in April, 1909, they elected him by a large majority,
and he served them in that capacity for four years.
In 1917 he was again elected to that office, and is
the present incumbent of it. After careful consider-
ation of all of the possible candidates for circuit judge
in 1921, he was chosen at the primaries to lead his
party to victory-
In 1907 Mr. Clark was united in marriage with Miss
Lutie De Long, a daughter of John P. De Long, of
Martin County. Mr. and Mrs. Clark have three chil-
dren, namely: Haskill, Sheldon and Jewel. Frater-
nally Mr. Clark maintains membership with the Ma-
sons and Odd Fellows.
Mr. Clark is fortunate in the choice of his pro-
fession. Its employments are congenial to him, and
he has followed them with unflagging interest and
zest. To him the work of the law is not drudgery,
but a source of keen, intellectual pleasure, and its
controversies afford him frequent opportunities to
gratify his love of conflict. It is his rare good fortune
to be a worker in love with his work, and to find
in it adequate and satisfying occupation for all his
faculties. He has pursued it with entire devotion,
not as a trade but as a profession, and the pecuniary
rewards, although they have come to him in satis-
factory measure, have been the least of its attrac-
tions, and his labor in any given case is not propor-
tioned to the amount, but to the questions involved
therein. Nature has equipped him generously for the
profession, and he has supplemented her gifts by the
conduct of his life. Possessing as he does a broad,
clear and vigorous mind, orderly and logical in its
processes, with a singular capacity for recognizing
and seizing upon the vital and essential, combined
with his flawless integrity, there is little wonder that
he should be acknowledged as possessing just those
characteristics so necessary in the ones elevated to
the bench, and all concede that he well merits the
honor thus conferred upon him in his selection as a
candidate of his party.
William Preston, lawyer, born near Louisville, Ky.,
October 16, 1806, died in Lexington, Ky., September 21,
1887. His education was under the direction of the
Jesuits at Bardstown, Kentucky. He afterward studied
at Yale, and then attended the law school at Harvard,
where he was graduated in 1838. He then began the
practice of law, also taking an active part in politics.
He served in the Mexican war as lieutenant-colonel
of the Fourth Kentucky Volunteers. In 1851 he was
elected to th= Kentucky House of Representatives as
a Whig, and in the following year he was chosen to
Congress to fill the vacancy caused by Gen. Humphrey
Marshall's resignation, serving from December 6, 1852,
until March 3, 1855. He was again a candidate in
1854, but was defeated by his predecessor, General
Marshall, the Know-Nothing candidate, after a violent
campaign. He then became a democrat, and was a
delegate to the Cincinnati convention in 1856, which
nominated Buchanan and Breckinridge. He was ap-
pointed United States minister to Spain under the
Buchanan administration, at the close of which he re-
turned to Kentucky and warmly espoused the cause
of the South. He joined Gen. Simon B. Buckner at
Bowling Green in 1861 and was made colonel on the
staff of his brother-in-law, Gen. Albert Sidney John-
ston, when that officer assumed command. He served
through the Kentucky campaign, was at the fall of
Fort Donelson, the battle of Shiloh, where General
Johnston died in his arms, and the siege of Corinth.
He was also in many hard- fought battles, especially
at Murfreesboro. At the close of the war he returned
to his home in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1867 he was
elected to the Legislature, and in 1880 he was a dele-
gate to the convention that nominated General Han-
cock for the presidency.
George Robertson, jurist, born in Mercer County,
Kentucky, November 18, 1790, died in Lexington, Ken-
tucky, May 16, 1874. He received a classical educa-
tion at Transylvania University, studied law, was ad-
mitted to the bar in 1809, and began practice at Lan-
caster. In 1816 he was elected to Congress, and he
served two terms, being chairman of the land com-
mittee and a member of the judiciary committee. He
was re-elected a second time, but resigned his seat in
order to resume the practice of law. He drew up the
bill for the establishment of a territorial government
in Arkansas, in the discussion of which the House
was equally divided on the question of prohibiting
slavery, an amendment to that effect being carried, but
afterward rescinded by the casting vote of Henry Clay
as speaker. The system of selling public lands in small
lots to actual settlers at a cash price of $1.25 per acre
was projected by him. After his retirement from Con-
gress he was offered the attorney-generalship of Ken-
tucky, but declined this and other appointments in or-
der to devote himself to his profession; yet in 1822
he was elected against his desire to the Legislature,
and remained in that body until the settlement of the
currency question in the session of 1827, being a leader
of the party that opposed the relief act that made the
depreciated notes of the state banks legal tender for
the payment of debts. He was speaker of the assembly
from 1823 until 1827, except in 1824, when the in-
flationists, having gained a large majority in both houses,
sought to abolish the Court of Appeals, which had de-
cided against the relief bill, by creating a new court.
He drew up a protest in 1824, that contributed greatly
to the final triumph of the anti-relief or old court
party, and wrote and spoke frequently on the exciting
questions at issue. He was also the author of a mani-
festo that was signed by the majority of the Legis-
lature in 1827. He was offered the governorship of
Arkansas, the mission to Colombia in 1824, and in 1828
the Peruvian mission, but he declined all these appoint-
ments. For a time he filled provisionally the office of
secretary of state in 1828. In the same year he was
made a justice of the Court of Appeals, and in 1829
he became chief justice, which post he held until 1843,
when he resigned and resumed active practice. From
1834 until 1857 he was professor of law in Transylvania
University. The degree of LL. D. was conferred on
him by Centre and Augusta colleges. His published
works include "Introductory Lecture to the Law Class"
(Lexington, 1836) ; "Biographical Sketch of John
598
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
Boyle" (Frankfurt, 1838); "Scrap-Book on Law, Pol-
itics, Men, and Times" (1856). A collection of his
speeches, law lectures, legal arguments, and addresses
has heen published.
B. E. Adams. In spite of the contention of a few
that a division of property would result in great pros-
perity for all, experience teaches that only by hard
work, intelligent direction of effort and faithful per-
formance can success be permanently attained, not
only for the individual, but also for the country. The
person who refuses to do his full share of the world's
work does not deserve support, and conversely, too
much credit cannot be given him who has not neg-
lected his duty, but striven to give a fair service for
the money received. In the career of B. E. Adams
of Louisa, manager of the Lobaco Company at Louisa,
a branch of the famous Coca Cola Company, a manu-
facturer of ice and bakery goods, is this exemplified
in a marked degree. Mr. Adams has steadily ad-
vanced, but his promotion has come only because
he has deserved it, and not on account of undue
influence.
B. E. Adams was born at Danielsville, Georgia,
April Hi, 1886, a son of Rev. T. J. and Eliza F.
(Tucker) Adams, natives of Georgia, but of Vir-
ginian ancestry. Reverend Adams was a graduate
of Demorest College and a clergyman of the Con-
gregational faith, whose life was devoted to missionary
work all over the State of Georgia. At one time he
also served as state commissioner of education, hav-
ing been appointed to that office by the governor of
Georgia. During the war between the states he served
in the Confederate Army under Gen. John B. Gordon,
enlisting at the early age of sixteen years. Among
other engagements he took part in the battle of Chick-
amauga. No doubt the experiences he went through
when a mere lad led him to go into the ministry later
on in his career. A zealous Mason, he participated
in the organization of a number of lodges of his
fraternity. A man of wide vision, as well as in-
tellectual development, he recognized the fact that
there is great need for better educational advantages,
and did all he could to secure the best schools and
teachers for the children of Georgia, not only as com-
missioner, but also in his capacity as a private citizen.
His death occurred in 1897, when he was only forty-
nine years of age. His wife died in 1895, when she
was forty-two years old. They had six children, all
sons, as follows : E. W., wbo is manager of the
Coca Cola plant at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; C. E.,
who is an attorney practicing in Ohio maintains his
res'dence in Georgia ; Rev. E. L. who is connected
with Young-Harris College a Methodist institution;
H. T., who has been connected with the John B.
Stetson Hat Company at Philadelphia. Pennsylvania,
for years ; B. E., whose name heads this review ; and
A. T. who is a stock farmer, residing at Danielsville,
Georgia.
B. E. Adams attended Young-Harris College, from
which he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor
of Arts, with the intention of taking up the study of
the law, but decided upon a commercial career, and
his success in it proves the wisdom of his choice.
While still a boy, he had entered the employ of the
Coca Cola Company, and before he completed his
collegiate training he returned to this concern, and
for two years had charge of its plant at Chattanooga,
Tennessee. At the end of that time, however, he
went back to college and completed his course. The
Coca Cola people, recognizing his business ability, in-
duced him to return to them, and put him in charge
of their Philadelphia plant, where he remained for
two years. He was then transferred to the plant in
New Orleans, Louisiana, and took charge of it until
he was sent to the plant at Dayton, Ohio, where he
was in charge of the business for five years. Mr.
Adams was then made manager of the plant at Louisa.
This is a very large plant, and the trade extends
over a wide territory. The original plant was de-
stroyed by fire after he took charge of it, and the
present one was constructed under his supervision.
In 1009 Mr. Adams was united in marriage with
Maud Strick, of Dayton. Ohio. Mr. Adams is a
member of the Congregational Church while his wife
belongs to the United Brethren Church. Fraternally
Mr. Adams maintains membership with the Odd Fel-
lows, but his home has his first attention, and then
his business, so he does not devote much time to
outside matters.
Griffin Murphy has been one of the able and
energetic citizens of Covington nearly twenty years,
and is one of the proprietors of the Southern Paper
Company, Incorporated, paper jobbers who do an ex-
tensive business all over the Ohio Valley.
Mr. Murphy has lived practically all his life in
Kentucky, but was born during the temporary resi-
dence of his parents at Terre Haute, Indiana, Febru-
ary 4, 1885. His father, Thomas Murphy, was born
in Ireland in 1833 and in 18-19, at the age of sixteen,
came to America and at Cincinnati finished his educa-
tion, graduating from St. Xavier's College. For many
years he was a prosperous merchant, conducting two
clothing stores, one at Cincinnati and one at Carlisle,
Kentucky. He was engaged in business until his
death, which occurred at Cincinnati in 1890. Thomas
Murphy was a democrat in politics and a devout
member of the Catholic Church. His wife was Mar-
garet Elizabeth McDonald, who was born at Cin-
cinnati in 18-17, and died at Covington in the fall of
1908. They were the parents of nine children, two
of whom died in infancy, Griffin being the youngest
survivor. The oldest, Margaret, died unmarried at
Cincinnati at the age of twenty-seven. Nannetta
Stewart is the wife of Harry B. Brennan, a resident
of Shreveport, Louisiana, a successful attorney with
offices both at Shreveport and New Orleans. Miss
Emily died at Maysville, Kentucky, at the age of
twenty-one. Eugena is the wife of John W. Sullivan,
a lumber mill operator with home at Colfax, Louisiana.
Mary Agnes is the wife of John W. Williams, a
Kentucky farm owner with home at Cincinnati. Lorena
died at the age of fifteen.
Griffin Murphy was about a month old when his
parents removed to Maysville, Kentucky, and while
the family home was there his father continued his
clothing business at Cincinnati and Carlisle. Griffin
Murphy was educated in the parochial schools at Mays-
ville, graduated from high school in 1902, and in the
same year came to Covington. For six years he was
an employe of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway.
In 1008 he became identified with the firm of Orene
Parker Company, the oldest wholesale liquor house
of Covington, and later as a member of the firm Mr.
Murphy had a prominent part in its prosperous busi-
ng-.. He continued therewith until January 1, 1920,
when he and Max Davis organized the Southern Paper
Company, Incorporated, with offices at 12-16 East Pike
Street. As paper jobbers they do a large business
throughout the states of Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Vir-
ginia and West Virginia.
Mr. Murphy is a democrat, a Catholic, is a fourth
degree Knight of Columbus, and for a number of
years was treasurer of Bishop Carroll Council No.
702. He is a member of the Industrial Club of Cov-
ington. He and his family live in one of the beautiful
suburban homes around Covington, at 80 Woodlawn
Avenue, Fort Mitchell. His residence is an attractive
stucco and red tile roof house set in the midst of
eight acres of ground. Mr. Murphy was a liberal
bond buyer and gave much of his time to the support
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
59!)
of the various organizations carrying the burden of
war activities in Kenton County.
In September, 1909, at Covington, he married Miss
Lillian Frances Sullivan, daughter of John D. and
Margaret (Powers) Sullivan. Her mother still lives
at Covington, where her father, who died in 1917,
was in the wholesale lumber business. Mrs. Murphy
is a graduate of the La Sallette Academy at Cov-
ington. They have three children : Virginia, born
in October, 1910; Griffin, Jr., bom January 1, 1912;
and Marjorie Elizabeth, born March 14, 1916.
James W. Rankin is one of the men who grew
up in the Blue Grass district of Kentucky and has
found the rewards of prosperity in a long continued
devotion to agricultural affairs. He is a resident of
Nicholas County, his home being on the Howes Farm
four miles southeast of Carlisle on the Maysville and
Lexington Pike.
Mr. Rankin was born in Nicholas County, May 27,
1861, son of James and Tabitha (Sims) Rankin. His
father was born in Nicholas County May 28, 1830,
and his mother in Bourbon County in November,
1836. The father spent his life as an active farmer
and died May 25, 1875. He was a democrat and a
member of the Baptist Church. The mother is still
living, and after fourteen years of widowhood be-
came the wife of L. J. Ham. By her first marriage
she was the mother of nine children, seven of whom
are living, Nicholas, James W., Robert, Anna, H. N.,
John T. and Lucy.
James W. Rankin was thirteen years of age when
his father died and that practically ended his school-
ing and thereafter he employed his time and labor
in contributing to the support of the family. He
remained at home until he was twenty-two. He
married Mary A. Masten, and they started with prac-
tically no capital, rented, and gradually accumulated
means to purchase land of their own. Mr. Rankin
now owns 160 acres in N>cn°las County and also has
improved real estate in Cynthiana and Paris. For
the past twenty-one years his home has been on the
Howes farm comprising 23s acres.
Mr. Rank:n lost his wife by death October 25, 1919.
There are four children. Nora is the wife of H.
R. Hillock and they live on Mr. Rankin's farm. Eliza-
beth is the wife of Dr. H. C. Blount of Leesburg,
Kentucky. Homer is a graduate of the Carlisle High
School and the Lexington Business College, is a car-
penter at Paris, and married Fairy Anderson. Edna,
the youngest child, is a graduate of the Millersburg
Female College and the wife of S. M. De Myer of
Woodstock, Tennessee. Mr. Rankin is a deacon in
the Baptist Church, and is affiliated with Amity Lodge
No. 40, F. and A. M., and the Knights of the Mac-
cabees.
Ed R. Prewitt. The agriculturalists of Montgomery
County may be recognized by reason of their enter-
prising spirit, though understanding of their call-
ing, and the fine condition in which they keep their
farms and equipment. Ed R. Prewitt is one of these
modern farmers, whose valuable farm is located three
'ind one-half miles south of Mount Sterling, and he
«as born on this farm April 30, 1871. His parents
were W. H. and Bettie G. (Rogers) Prewitt, and the
former was born in Montgomery County, July 9, 1841,
and his wife was born in Bourbon County, Kentucky,
in 1847. They were married in Bourbon County, and
lived in Fayette County, Kentucky, for a time, mov-
ing then to Montgomery County and settling on the
farm now owned by him, and here they still reside.
The paternal grandfather, Nelson Prewitt, had spent
his entire life on this farm, so it has been in the
family for many years. It was bought by Nelson
Prewitt, a native of Culpeper County, Virginia, who,
after his marriage with Mary Ann Coleman, of Caro-
line County, Virginia, came to Kentucky and settled
on this farm, which became the homestead of their
family.
Growing up on this farm, W. H. Prewitt attended
the local schools and learned to be a farmer under
his father's experienced training. After he had com-
pleted his courses in the public schools his father
sent him to the private school conducted by Professor
Drake, a noted educator of Cincinnati, Ohio. Mr.
Prewitt joined the Christian Church, and rose to be
an elder in it. Prominent as a democrat, he served
as a magistrate and justice of the peace. He was
the father of three children, namely: Ed R., whose
name heads this review ; Harvey, who is engaged in
farming on the homestead; and Anna, who is the
wife of Thomas Kennedy, of Mount Sterling. Harvey
Prewitt graduated from Bethany College at Bethany,
West Virginia, and Anna graduated from Daughters
College, Harrodsburg, Kentucky.
Ed R. Prewitt was also given excellent educational
advantages, for after he had finished his studies in a
private school he was sent to Bethany College for
two years. Leaving college, he returned to the farm
and took charge of it. He now owns 615 acres of
land, and is recognized as one of the successful agri-
culturists of Montgomery County. Mr. Prewitt has
other interests, and is one of the directors of the
Exchange Bank of Mount Sterling.
On February 27, 1900, Mr. Prewitt married Patsy
Prewitt, who was born in Montgomery County. They
became the parents of three children, namely: Ed-
ward, who was born June 17, 1901, was graduated
from the Mount Sterling High School, and is now
a junior at Center College; Elizabeth C, who was
born July 9, 1903, was graduated from the Mount
Sterling High School in 1921 and is now a freshman
at Randolph Macon Woman's College, Lynchburg, Vir-
ginia ; and Anna K., who was born March 22, 1905,
is a senior in the Mount Sterling High School. Mr.
and Mrs. Prewitt belong to the Christian Church, in
which he is a deacon. Like his father he is a demo-
crat, but he has not gone into politics to any great
extent. A practical man and good farmer, Mr. Prewitt
is numbered among the responsible citizens of his
home community, and is recognized as a worthy rep-
resentative of his old and honored family.
Richard Godson. Among the citizens of Woodford
County whose interests are broad as the community
itself, one of the most notable is Richard Godson,
Midway lawyer and an unselfish and devoted leader
in everything that promotes the highest interest and
general welfare of that community.
Mr. Godson was born in Boston, Massachusetts.
His father came from England and died at Midway,
Kentucky, when his son Richard was only nine years
old. The latter was given a home by Doctor Poynter
and wife, and has lived with that excellent couple
ever since, having never married, and in the years
of his growing success has rendered what return he
could for the admirable care given him by this gener-
ous family.
As a youth he learned the printer's trade, and served
as a typo on various publications. He was prepared
for college in the excellent private school of Prof.
John R. Hammond, and then entered Washington and
Lee University at Lexington, Virginia, where he grad-
uated. After his admission to the bar he began his
law practice, and in that profession has won .distinc-
tive recognition.
Mr. Godson has served as counsel in some im-
portant causes, including that of the old Deposit Bank
at Midway, for the looting of which two officials
were convicted and sent to the penitentiary. He was
also counsel for one of the parties interested in the
noted Frank Harper will case, and has rendered serv-
ice in other important cases. Soon after his gradu-
600
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
ation Mr. Godson, in company with Joseph R. Wil-
liams, bought the Blue Grass Clipper of Midway,
and was actively identified with that publication six-
teen years, ten years of the time being its editor.
Mr. Godson is now attorney for the Dudley Coal
Company, the Marian Coal Company and the W. S.
Dudley Oil and Gas Company of Lexington.
For many years he has served as police judge of
Midway, and in many respects his judgment and opin-
ion have been accepted as the representative sentiment
in any matter affecting local improvements and better-
ments. He has constantly advocated the introduction of
approved public service in streets, lighting, gas for fuel,
a public cemetery, schools and everything that tends to
make a more desirable home community. He has
been a director of the two banks at Midway and is
a past master of Buford Lodge No. 494, F. and A. M.
He is a member of Versailles Commandery, and Oleika
Temple, Lexington, Kentucky.
James Johnson Gibson, was born August 21, 1870,
near Ewing, Lee County, Virginia. He was the son
of George W. and Mollie R. Gibson. J. J. Gibson (he
was generally known by this name only), was a very
close student and deep thinker 1o the day of his death.
He was a man of fine physique and striking personality,
always kind and gentle to his patients, and very seldom
refused to make a call. He took an active part in the
cause of Temperance and in fact in everything that
was for civic improvement of the community, was a
kind father and idolizing husband and wedded to his
profession.
Four Gibson brothers came over from Ireland in
1775 and homesteaded land in Powells Valley, Virginia,
and a great amount of this land today still belongs to
the Gibson family. This includes the present home of
Doctor Gibson's father near Ewing, Virginia.
Doctor Gibson was placed in boarding school at the
tender age of nine years. He finished high school in
June, 1886, and immediately began reading medicine
under the tutelage of the late Dr. James Morrison of
Cumberland Gap Virginia, who was a very noted and
successful physician and surgeon of his day. He re-
mained a student of Doctor Morrison for one year and
until the Baltimore Medical College at Boston opened
for the Fall term of 1887, he was a student at this
college till the close of the year in 1888. In the fall
of 1888 he entered the Hospital Medical College of
Louisville, Kentucky, and on the 18th day of June, 1889,
he was awarded two diplomas from this college — one
in medicine and one in surgery. He also did post
graduate work in this college and specialized in Obstet-
rics and diseases of women for which he received his
third diploma. Doctor Gibson was the youngest of his
graduating class of forty-seven M. D's. He was gifted
with a natural talent for medicine. On commencement
day, 18th day of June, 1889, Prof. William H. Boiling,
President of the College had Doctor Gibson stand by
him on the stage while he paid him a very high compli-
ment. President Boiling referred to Doctor Gibson
as the boy doctor of the class, all of whom were his
seniors and some of them about twice his age, and
exhibiting the two diplomas that had been given him
by the college said that Doctor Gibson was gifted with
one of the greatest natural talents for medicine that he
had ever seen manifested by anyone. After finishing
his post graduate work Doctor Gibson made a short
visit to his parents at Ewing, Virginia.
The Days, at Jackson, Kentucky, were people of much
influence and warm personal friends of the Gibsons,
hence Doctor Gibson decided to locate for the practice
of his profession in Jackson. All was well for almost
a year. He was building a fine practice and had made
many friends, when one dark rainy night when return-
ing from a call in the country two men stepped out
from the side of the road and Doctor Gibson at once
threw up his hands asking them not to shoot and telling
them who he was. He produced his pill pockets as
evidence and they were convinced that he was not the
man they were looking for so he was allowed to return
to his boarding house. After this experience he made
very few calls at night and when he did some one
always accompanied him. He collected what outstand-
ing bills he could in a very quiet way and in a very
short time bid the little town a long good-bye. In the
fall of 1891 his father bought the Embry farm, located
one mile south of Athens on the Cleveland road in
Fayette County and gave the southern half of this farm
to Doctor Gibson. He immediately moved to the farm.
He made friends fast and soon built up a very lucrative
practice not only in his own county but also in the ad-
joining counties of Clark, Bourbon and Madison.
June 9, 1897, Doctor Gibson was married to Miss
Mollie Lee Porter, daughter of John W. and Mary S.
Porter of Clark County, Kentucky. To this union was
born a son, and only child, James Porter Gibson,
January 31, 1900.
Doctor Gibson was a consistent member of the
Christian Church and at the time of his death he
was deacon, trustee and superintendent of the Sunday
School. He gave liberally to the support of the church
and all eleemosynary institutions. He was always ready
to assist his friends financially — too much so for his
own success. At three different times in his life he
endorsed notes for friends and it took all of his surplus
cash each time to pay the notes. His word was regarded
"good as gold." He was a stanch democrat and always
took an active part in the political campaigns. He was
waited on by a committee from his party and asked
to make the race for representative, but he very gra-
ciously declined. He was commissioner and receiver
for Fayette County, a member in good standing in the
American Medical Association, the Southern Medical
Association, the Mississippi Valley Medical Association,
The Kentucky State Medical Association, The Ken-
tucky Midland Medical Association, The Fayette
County Medical Society and The Tuberculosis Asso-
ciation. He took a very active part in the cam-
paign to have the present Tuberculosis Sanitarium
erected in his county. He was ex-State Councilor of
the Jr. O. U. A. M. and, a Mason of good standing.
In his practice he made a special study of syphilis and
its treatment. He always attended the annual meeting
of some one of the different medical societies of which
he was a member. He was a regular subscriber to
the best medical journals and was well posted in the
new diseases and the latest treatment with the new
medicines. In his practice he had called many prominent
physicians and surgeons in consultation and they invari-
ably agreed with him in his diagnosis and treatment.
On the day of his death, he was up early in the morning
to see some patients who lived in Jessamine County, in
order that he could get back to the church in time for
services. He had just returned to his home on Sunday,
May 28, 1916, at I P. M., and was stricken with
apoplexy just as he started to enter the yard. Several
physicians and surgeons were summoned immediately
and all human aid that could be given was rendered
to Doctor Gibson, but he never regained consciousness
and was a corpse at 5 P. M., of the same afternoon.
His sudden death was a great blow to his wife and son
and to all who knew him.
In just a very short time after the numerous physi-
cians had been summoned to see Doctor Gibson, friends
of the family began collecting at his home and many
were present at the time of his death and a large num-
ber remained over night and until his funeral (May
30th — 10 A. M.). It was just a continuous stream of
friends coming for just a few minutes to view the re-
mains at the home. The casket was not opened at the
church. The funeral was one of the largest in the
county, people from all walks of life were present,
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
601
the high and the low, the rich and the poor. The floral
designs were many and elaborate, requiring an auto
truck to carry them from the church to the family lot
in the Lexington Cemetery. His funeral was the first
automobile procession in Lexington and was so an-
nounced in the Leader the next day.
Doctor Gibson came from a long line of professional
and business men. He was born and reared on his
father's farm one mile east of Ewing Station, Virginia,
in Powells Valley. His father, G. W. Gibson, has
amassed quite a fortune and still resides on this farm
that has been handed down to the youngest son in the
family for several generations. He inherited this farm
from his father J. J. Gibson, who was an extensive land
owner and also owned a number of slaves. He had two
houses in the back yard for the slaves — one for the
men and one for the women. One has been torn away,
but the other is still in good repair and is used for
a granary with the original lock and key that reminds
one of the key to our state reformatory. He was a
much larger land owner than is his youngest son, G. W.
Gibson. At the time of his death he left to each of
his seven children several hundred acres of land besides
much personal property. Doctor Gibson's father has
given this home place to his younger son, Doctor Gib-
son's only brother, Thomas Shelby Gibson. Doctor Gib-
son's sisters are Mrs. O. C. Harmon in Washington, D.
C., and Mrs. Henry Clay Smith of Rose Hill, Virginia,
and two sisters are deceased, Mrs. C. A. Bales and Mrs.
G. W. Smith.
His uncle, the late J. J. Gibson of Pineville, Ken-
tucky, was a prosperous lumberman, and Dr. Clyde
Johnson and Dr. Edgar Johnson, cousins of Doctor
Gibson, are prominent physicians and surgeons of
Seymour, Texas. Dr. Shultz Gibson, another cousin,
is a dentist of Middleborough, Kentucky. The late
Dr. James Morrison, Sr., of Cumberland Gap, Virginia,
and Dr. James Morrison, Jr., also of Cumberland Gap,
are cousins, and Dr. T. T. Gibson of Middleborough,
Kentucky, who began the study of medicine under the
late Dr. J. J. Gibson, and James V. Gibson, a prominent
merchant of Big Stone Gap, Virginia, are also his
cousins. John Gibson, an uncle living in Jonesville,
Virginia, is a prosperous merchant ; and James Gibson,
a prominent attorney of St. Joseph, Missouri, is another
cousin. Thomas Shelby Gibson, prominent farmer and
business man near Lexington, Oklahoma ; J. N. Gibson,
prominent business man of Gibson Station, Virginia ;
Zack Gibson (deceased), who was a very successful
farmer and business man near Gibson Station, Vir-
ginia ; the late Dr. Hugh Gibson of Richmond, Ken-
tucky, and Dr. Moss Gibson, and Dr. Burg Gibson,
present owners and proprietors of the Gibson Sanato-
rium, are all his uncles. Henry Johnson Gibson, of
Pineville, Kentucky, president of the Kenmont Oil
and Gas Company, is a cousin ; and also Thomas
Franklin Gibson, a very successful business man of
Pineville, Kentucky. Doctor Gibson's maternal grand-
father was the late Capt. Thomas Shelby Gibson, of
Gibson Station, Virginia. He was a captain in the Civil
war and likewise lost his slaves and most of his per-
sonal property during the war, but he had a good farm
left and lived very comfortably in a fine home till his
84th year. In the Gibson family James and Thomas are
favorite names for the sons, and Lucy and Elizabeth
for the daughters.
James Porter Gibson, only son of the late Dr. J. J.
Gibson, is a young man of sterling character and one
of the few boys who returned home from the war
camps not smoking a cigarette. He received his early
training in the county schools. He had two years'
training in the Athens High School and in the fall of
1916 he entered Millersburg Military Institute and re-
mained till the close of the school year. In 1917 he
entered Augusta Military Academy, near Staunton, Vir-
ginia, and in 1918 entered the Students Army Training
Vol. V— 54
Camp at Lincoln Memorial College in Tennessee. He
was made first sergeant here and ordered to sail for
Siberia. The Armistice was signed just two weeks be-
fore the date set for him to leave camp. After he was
mustered out he entered the State University of Lexing-
ton, Kentucky, and was made sergeant of the senior
class. After commencement at the university he en-
tered the Reserve Officers Training Camp at Camp
Taylor, Louisville, Kentucky. He was made a second
lieutenant at the close of the camp. He again entered
the university the following fall. After commence-
ment at State University in June, 1920, he entered the
Reserve Officers Training Camp at Camp Custer, Battle
Creek, Michigan. He was made a first lieutenant at
this camp and won two medals, one in marksmanship
and one in deportment. He again entered the university,
was made captain of Company A. He was taking a
pre-medical course with his degree. He was married
on March I, 1921, to Miss Mae Smith, only daughter
of Mr. and Mrs. Noble Smith, prominent and influen-
tial citizens of Harlan County, Kentucky, where he now
resides.
Doctor Gibson's widow inherited many business tac-
tics from her father, J. W. Porter, who was a very
successful farmer and business man, now retired and
living in Cincinnati, Ohio. Previous to her marriage
to Doctor Gibson, she acted as her father's secretary,
conducted all of his correspondence and wrote prac-
tically all of his checks. She knew just how many men
her father had employed, the kind of labor each was
to do and the compensation each was to receive. Mrs.
Gibson has always been an active church worker, was
deeply interested in the cause of suffrage, and now
manifests a very keen interest in all of the political
campaigns. She is also an active member of the Wom-
an's Christian Temperance Union, of which she is a
local officer and was a delegate to the International
Convention in Washington, D. C, in September and
October, 1920. Mrs. Gibson has always been very fond
of out-of-door sports, especially horseback riding. She
has a string of registered saddles on the farm, where
she and her friends go out for the week-ends and enjoy
the sport.
St. Clair Walker, after some early years devoted to
teaching and the newspaper business, took up life in-
surance as his profession, and has earned a high rank
in insurance circles. For a number of years he has
been special agent for the Jefferson Standard Life In-
surance Company at Louisville.
Mr. Walker was born in Muhlenberg County, Ken-
tucky, May 17, 1862, and is member of a family of
prominence that has been identified with Kentucky
since the earliest period of settlement. This branch
of the Walker family came originally from Virginia.
The great-great-grandfather of St. Clair Walker was
Dr. Thomas Walker, a Virginian who came to Ken-
tucky as early as 1750. Doctor Walker was the first
man to lead an expedition into the wilds of what is
now Kentucky, and he settled in Adair County. The
great-grandfather of St. Clair Walker was Hugh
Walker, a native of Virginia. He was a farmer, and
lived successively in Fayette County, Adair County,
Todd County and finally in Daviess County. He mar-
ried Ann Fry, a native of Virginia, and granddaughter
of Dr. Thomas Walker. Her husband was Henry
Fry, and his father, was Gen. Joshua Fry, who earned
distinction as a Colonial and Revolutionary soldier.
The grandfather of St. Clair Walker was Iverson
Walker, a native of Kentucky, and whose life was de-
voted to farming. He married Annie Waggoner, a
native of Todd County, and of a well-known Ken-
tucky family.
The parents of St. Clair Walker were William H.
and Martha E. (Bradley) Walker. His father was
born in Todd County, March 31, 1835, and died in
602
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
January, 1914. His mother was born in Smith County,
Tennessee, in 1841 and died in 1885. Of their six chil-
dren three are still living, St. Clair being the oldest.
His father was reared and educated in Todd County,
and as a youth learned the tailor's trade, a business
which he followed for himself at South Carrollton, Ken-
tucky, for a number of years. Later he took up the
tobacco business, and was a tobacco dealer until a few
years before his death, when he retired and removed
to Louisville. While at South Carrollton he served as
police judge. He was a democrat and a member of the
Baptist Church.
St. Clair Walker finished his education in the West
Kentucky Normal College, and had an experience of
about three years as a teacher. For four years he
was business manager of the Owensboro Enquirer, and
at the age of twenty-eight took up the life insurance
business. For several years he has been one of the
leading builders of business for the Jefferson Standard
Life Insurance Company of Greensboro, North Caro-
lina, and has his offices in the Stark Building at Louis-
ville. Mr. Walker is a member of the Filson Club,
the Baptist Church and is a democrat.
October 21, 1886, at Hartford, Kentucky, he married
Fannie E. Allen. They have five children: Dr. Allen
H, Edith C, Martha R., wife of Capt. Charles R.
Lanahan, U. S. A., Moses S. and David K.
William Rosecrans McCoy, during a quarter of a
century has been in active practice of the law at Inez,
Martin County, Kentucky. His substantial qualifica-
tions have been fittingly recognized, and he now oc-
cupies a commanding position among the members of
the legal profession of Eastern Kentucky. His record
proves that he possesses a marked breadth and versatil-
ity, and his success may well be envied by others who
have not been so fortunate. His activities, however,
have not been entirely confined to legal matters, for
he has always been found ready to render services
when it was required of him, and in every way has
measured up to the highest conception of American
manhood of the finest type.
William Rosecrans McCoy was born at Pleasant,
Martin County, Kentucky, March 18, 1873, a son of
Pleasant P. and Sarah Ann (McGlothlin) McCoy. His
father was born in Floyd County, Kentucky, a son of
William McCoy, who was born in Pike County, Ken-
tucky, a son of John McCoy. John McCoy was born
near the site of the battle of Antietam, Maryland, and
was a son of William McCoy, who moved with his
family to the State of Virginia, and early in the eight-
eenth century moved to Pike County, Kentucky, where
the grandfather of the subject of this sketch was born
and reared. John McCoy was a large land owner and
a lover of fine horses, and in order to indulge this
fondness, maintained his own race course. The grand-
father and great-grandfather of William Rosecrans
McCoy were highly respected and had great confidence
in the future of the timber and mineral lands of East-
ern Kentucky, and acquired large acreages of it.
The father of William Rosecrans McCoy was born
February 15, 1844, and his mother was born May 27,
1849. They were married February 11, 1872. To this
union was born six children, all of whom are living :
Harlow W. McCoy, of Thomas, Floyd County, Ken-
tucky; Cornwallace McCoy, of Grundy, Buchanan
County, Virginia ; Rebecca A., wife of Henry Black-
burn, of Cherokee, Lawrence County, Kentucky; Hayes
McCoy, of Bartlesville, Oklahoma ; and George W. Mc-
Coy, of Jenkins, Letcher County, Kentucky; and Wil-
liam R., whose name heads this review.
Pleasant P. McCoy acquired and owns large tracts
of timber and mineral land in Lawrence, Martin and
Pike counties, and now resides at Cherokee, Lawrence
County, Kentucky. From his young manhood he has
been a farmer and timberman, and it was the ambi-
tion of his life that he might have farms for each of
his children, which he acquired, but only two of them
have ever lived on farms.
The subject of this sketch attended the public schools
of his native county, worked on the farm during his
childhood and early manhood, and later attended the
Inez Normal School and Eastern Kentucky Normal at
Prestonsburg. Later he taught in the public schools
of his native county for seven years, and in this way
he earned money to further pursue his education and
to aid his brothers in acquiring an education. While
teaching school he read law, passed his examination,
was admitted to the bar in 1896, and opened an office
and began practice January 1, 1900, at Inez, where he
has since remained. His practice extends to the State
and Federal Courts of Kentucky, and in addition to
carrying on a general practice he has served his county
as trustee of the Jury Fund under A. J. Auxier ; was
police judge of Inez for two years; master commis-
sioner of the Martin Circuit Court under A. J. Kirk ;
for eight years prior to 1913 was county attorney of
Martin County. During the World war he was Gov-
ernment appeal agent of the Local Board and a mem-
ber of the Legal Advisory Board of Martin County,
so his public service has been an important one. He
is a Mason and Elk and elder of the Presbyterian
Church.
On June 8, 1898, Mr. McCoy married Bertha Marrs,
daughter of H. H. Marrs, of Prestonsburg, Kentucky.
They have three children: Charles M., Daisy and Wil-
liam R., Jr.
Mr. McCoy is a lawyer of broad and practical ability,
thorough, determined, alert, versatile and resourceful.
His ability in handling business litigation recommends
him to the consideration of some of the large corpora-
tions of this part of the state, and he is oftentimes
called upon to represent them. Because he was forced
to work for his education he, perhaps, prizes his knowl-
edge more than do some who acquired it through no
special exertion of their own, and at any rate he makes
splendid use of it, not only for his clients, but his
community generally, and is always to be found in the
front ranks of those who are eager to render to their
fellow citizens the best that is in them.
Frank N. Burns. In support of the contention of
his friends that Frank N. Burns is one of the strong-
est and most influential personalities in the public af-
fairs of Western Kentucky there are some interesting
proofs. The state elections of 1919 are still fresh in
the minds of the people. Though the republicans swept
the state they failed of complete victory in the office
of state railroad commissioner, to which Mr. Burns was
elected. Mr. Burns had established himself success-
fully in law practice at Paducah before he was drawn
into politics, was elected and served as mayor of Padu-
cah under circumstances that attracted much attention,
and during the war was one of the foremost men in
his section in upholding the American cause.
Mr. Burns was born at Clifton, Tennessee, August
11, 1879. His ancestors were of Scotch and English
extraction. His father's branch was of the same
ancestry as that of Robert Burns. On leaving Scot-
land they became Colonial settlers in Virginia. Frank
N. is a name borne in all the generations, and it was
the name of Mr. Burns' grandfather, who was born in
Wayne Count}', Tennessee, and spent his life there,
dying in 1883. In ante-bellum times he owned a large
plantation of 1,600 acres and had a numerous retinue
of slaves.
Frank N. Burns, father of the Paducah attorney, was
born in Wayne County, Tennessee, in 1847, grew up
and married there, and followed farming. In 1887 he
established his home on a dairy farm at Columbia,
Tennessee, but the next year went to Texas, first ranch-
ing at Abilene and in 1889, in the Big Springs country
of Western Texas. He returned to Franklin, Tennes-
see, in 1891, and spent the rest of his life as a farmer
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
603
in that locality, though he died while on a visit at
Harrison, Arkansas, in 1893. He was a stanch demo-
crat, and a very active member of the Methodist
Church. He was a Mason and was also affiliated with
the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Frank N.
Burns married Sallie A. Harbour, who was born in
Hardin County, Tennessee, in 1846, and died at Park-
ers in that state in 1892. She was the mother of five
children : Frank N. ; James, a merchant at Paducah ;
M. Grover, a merchant at Waterbury, Connecticut r
Gladstone, a Paducah merchant ; and Lish, who oper-
ates an alfalfa ranch and lives at Los Angeles, Cali-
fornia.
Frank N. Burns, the Kentucky railroad commissioner,
was educated in the public schools of his native county
and those of Paducah, Kentucky, attended the Academy
at Martin's Mills in Tennessee, graduating in 1894, was
also a student of the Paducah High School, and for
six years was enrolled in Valparaiso University at Val-
paraiso, Indiana. He received his Bachelor of Sci-
ence degree from that institution in 1897, and in 1902
received the degrees A. B. and LL. B. To complete
his law course he attended the University of Mich-
igan, receiving the LL. B. degree from that institu-
tion in 1904. In the fall of that year he went to
Chicago, and for 4^ years was connected with the
law firm of Winston, Payne, Strawn & Shaw, one
of the largest legal organizations in the West whose
various members have achieved great distinction in
their profession, including Judge Barton Payne, a mem-
ber of President Wilson's Cabinet, and whose dis-
tinguished services to the Government during and since
the war have brought him national distinction.
In 1908 Mr. Burns returned to Paducah, and for
twelve years has been busy with a general civil and
criminal practice. He is a member of the firm Hend-
rick & Burns, with offices in the City National Bank
Building.
Mr. Burns served as an alderman of Paducah from
1912 to 1914, and in 1915 was the first commissioner
of public safety under Paducah's commission form of
government. In the fall of 1915 he became a candidate
for mayor or president of the commission, but was
defeated by a blood oath organization of negroes. The
election had many sinister aspects and received much
attention from the public press of the country at the
time. After extended formal hearings the Court of
Appeals ousted all the members of the municipal gov-
ernment elected through the influence of this secret
organization and ordered a new election. In that cam-
paign in 1016 Mr. Burns was elected by a large ma-
jority. The election and the court procedure set
a new law in election cases. So far as known it is
the only case in American municipal government in
which a blood oath organization ever figured. Mr.
Burns held the office of mayor until elected a state
railroad commissioner in the fall of 1919. As mayor
he cooperated both officially and as a matter of personal
patriotism with the Council of Defense and made many
Dublic addresses in behalf of the Red Cross, Loan and
War Savings drives. Before America entered the war
he had been heard upon the subject of military pre-
paredness.
Mr. Burns is a member of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, and for several years held the office of ste-
ward. He is affiliated with Plain City Lodge No. 449,
F. and A. M., Paducah Chapter No. 30, R. A. M.
Paducah Commandery No. II, K. T., Kosair Temple
of the Mystic Shrine at Louisville, is a member of
the Paducah Shrine Club, Magnum Lodge No. 21
and Union Encampment No. 70 of the Independent
Order of Odd Fellows, Paducah Camp No. 11313,
Modern Woodmen of America, Olive Camp No. 2,
Woodmen of the World, Paducah Homestead No. 4453,
Brotherhood of American Yeomen, the Tribe of Ben
Hur, Paducah Lodge No. 217 of the Elks. He is a
member of the Paducah Board of Trade, Paducah
Country Club and the McCracken County and State
Bar associations. Among other interests Mr. Burns
is president of the Harbour Department Store Com-
pany at Paducah, and he owns considerable city real
estate, including his home at 507 North Seventh
Street.
June 26, 1907, at Ann Arbor, Michigan, he married
Miss Natalie E. Fischer, daughter of Mr. and Mrs.
Fred Fischer the latter now deceased. Her father is an
educator and for a number of years past has been a
teacher in the public schools of Ann Arbor. Mrs.
Burns graduated in pipe organ and piano from the Con-
servatory of the University of Michigan, for four
years was a teacher there after graduation, and many
competent critics have called her the ablest pipe organ-
ist in the South. Mr. and Mrs. Burns have one child,
Frank N., Jr., who was born March 17, 1915, and is
the fifth successive Frank N. Burns in as many genera-
tions. He has inherited his mother's talent for music.
Prof. W. A. Warren. The present efficient and
highly popular superintendent of schools of Horse
Cave, Kentucky, Prof. W. A. Warren, has been engaged
in educational work throughout his career, which has
been one of constant and consecutive advancement.
Showing an inclination for this calling in his youth,
he engaged therein when still in his teens, and while
engaged in teaching continued to prepare himself still
further for what he had chosen as his life work. In
his case merit has been recognized and rewarded, and
the years of close application which he devoted to study
have demonstrated their worth in acquiring for Pro-
fessor Warren a position of preferment and prestige.
W. A. Warren was born near May field, Graves
County, Kentucky, May 3, 1891, and is a son of Chris
and Mary (Cook) Warren. His father also a native
of Graves County, was born in 1849, and has spent his
entire career in the county of his birth, where he still
makes his home. For many years he was engaged
in agricultural pursuits, but as an industrious, able
and resourceful man was able to put by a competence
for his declining years and is now living in comfort-
able retirement. His life has been one that has merited
the respect and esteem in which he is universally held.
In politics he is a democrat. Mr. Warren married Miss
Mary Cook, who was born in Graves County in 1856,
and they have had the following children: Henry C,
who is engaged in farming in Weakley County, Tennes-
see; James B., who is farming in Graves County, Ken-
tucky; Sallie, the wife of James Malone a Graves
County farmer ; Annie, the wife of R. E. Holmes, a
miller of Sedalia, Graves County; Eddie F., engaged in
farming in Graves County; Arthur F., a merchant of
Rogers, Arkansas ; and W. A.
The early education of W. A. Warren was acquired
in the rural schools of Graves County, where his boy-
hood was passed on his father's farm. He graduated
from the Wingo High School in that county in 1916,
but in the meantime had started teaching in the rural
schools of Henry County, Tennessee, in 1910. After
spending five years in that county he was made princi-
pal of the high school at Pilot Oak, Kentucky, and
spent one year in that capacity, following which he
enrolled as a student at the Kentucky State Normal
School at Bowling Green, Kentucky, and graduated
therefrom after a three-year course in 1919. During
the school years of 1919-1920 Professor Warren served
as principal of the high school at Hazel, Calloway
County, Kentucky, and in the fall of the latter year
was elected superintendent of the graded and high
school at Horse Cave, a position which he still oc-
cupies. Under his supervision in this office are nine
teachers and 325 scholars, with all of whom Superin-
tendent Warren is greatly popular. He has done much
to advance the school system at this place, and his
work has been greatly gratifying to the people of the
community, whose children are being given the best
604
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
of benefits in preparing themselves for the positions
which they will be called upon to fill in life. The new
modern brick school building was erected at Horse
Cave in 1914, and is well equipped in every way, sev-
eral new features having been added during the super-
intendency of Professor Warren. He continues as a
close and constant student, keeping fully abreast of the
forward movements being made in his profession, and
is an interested member of the Kentucky Educational
Association. His religious connection is with the
Christian Church. While the duties of his calling have
been of such an exacting character as to preclude the
idea of his entering actively into politics or public life,
he takes an interest in civic affairs as a good citizen,
and is an independent democrat in his political rela-
tions. During the World war, while attending the
normal school at Bowling Green, he took an active part
in all war movements. In this connection he was able
to assist greatly through the production of entertain-
ments for the raising of war funds.
In 1913, at Cottage Grove, Tennessee, Professor
Warren was united in marriage with Miss Lennie Mc-
Allister, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. A. McAllister,
the former of whom is deceased, while the latter is a
resident of Milan, Gibson County, Tennessee, in the
vicinity of which place Mr. McAllister was a well-
known farmer for many years. Mrs. Warren attended
the National Bible School at Nashville, Tennessee, for
three years, and was subsequently graduated from the
C. J. Shubert Conservatory of Music of Nashville.
She is skilled in piano, voice and expression, and is a
woman of marked intellectual attainments. Professor
and Mrs. Warren have no children.
Dr. G. M. Cook. In Perry County one of the best
remembered citizens was the late Dr. G. M. Cook, who
died when about fifty-nine years of age, and to the
last was diligent in the service to which talent and
inclination had called him.
He was born in Jackson County, but moved to Leslie
County some thirty-four years before his death. He
was not a graduate of any medical school, but seemed
to have the faculty of knowing more of human ail-
ments and how to relieve sufferers than many who
come out of the great schools and colleges. At one
time he carried on a hospital at Hyden and held clinics.
Once a well-known preacher passing that way, ob-
serving a great number of people gathered by the road-
side, inquired the cause, and was answered, "This is
the day when everybody for miles around comes to get
treatment from Dr. Cook."
There are a large number of people living in this
and adjoining counties who have special personal rea-
sons to remember him with gratitude. He was sur-
vived by a wife and nine children.
Hon. William Worth Stephenson. No history of
Kentucky would be complete without an extended men-
tion of the life and work of Hon. William Worth
Stephenson, brilliant attorney, astute statesman, accu-
rate historian and accomplished gentleman of parts,
whose memory is held in reverent affection by his fel-
low townsmen at Harrodsburg. Mr. Stephenson is a
native son of Kentucky, having been born in Madison
County, this state, October 24, 1857, a son of Dr.
Andrew Tribble Stephenson, grandson of Joseph H.
Stephenson, and great-grandson of Thomas Stephen-
son, the latter being of English descent, and serving in
the southern division of the Continental army during
the American Revolution.
Joseph H. Stephenson was born in Orange County,
Virginia, November 6, 1771. He was a third cousin
to Hon. Andrew Stevenson, the speaker of Congress,
and a cousin with one more remove, to Hon. John
W. Stephenson, governor of Kentucky. The name
was originally spelled with a "v," but Joseph H.
Stephenson, becoming convinced that it was derived
from Stephen and son of Stephen, through the argu-
ment with a schoolmaster, he changed the "v" to
"ph" and he and his descendants thereafter so spelled
it. Prior to 1800 Joseph H. Stephenson moved to
Madison County, Kentucky, and purchased five small
farms. On December 23, 1806, he was married to
Mary Tribble, daughter of Andrew Tribble, one of
the pioneer Baptist ministers of Kentucky and a man
known far and wide because of his great piety and
eloquence. She was the granddaughter of Thomas
Burris, who received large land grants for service in
the American Revolution. Her death occurred in 1872.
in the eighty-fourth year of her age, she long outliv-
ing her husband who passed away in 1837. He was in
three campaigns against the Indians in Indiana. He
always had a great aversion to political life. At the
time of his death he owned 600 acres of land, and was
a man of ample means.
Dr. Andrew T. Stephenson was educated in the pub-
lic schools of Madison County, and in 1845 began his
study of medicine. During 1846 and 1848 he attended
his first course of lectures at Transylvania, Lexington,
Kentucky, but was graduated from the Medical School
of Ohio, Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1848. Doctor Stephenson,
in 1858, attended the schools and hospitals of Phila-
delphia and New York to further perfect himself in
his profession.
On April 22, 1852, Doctor Stephenson was married
to Elizabeth Ann Smith, a daughter of Benjamin and
Judith Smith of Madison County, who dowered her
with land and slaves. They became the parents of
five children, namely : Martha, Mary A., William W.,
Julia and Elizabeth. In the fall of 1S60 Dr. and Mrs.
Stephenson moved to Washington County, Kentucky,
settling on a large farm in the vicinity of Springfield,
which remained their home until they came to Mercer
County, and bought a farm of 454 acres which was
held in the family until 1915.
William W. Stephenson was reared in an intellectual
atmosphere and by watchful parents, who early saw
that the lad possessed unusual faculties and determined
to develop them, so they sent him to the best schools
of Harrodsburg. and then, in 1876, he entered the Col-
lege of Arts, University of Kentucky, at Lexington,
Kentucky, now Transylvania College, and was a student
of that body for two years, leaving it to enter Bethany
College, of Virginia, from which he was graduated in
1879 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, as salutato-
rian, a distinction never before conferred upon a stu-
dent who had been at the college only one year, and
he later had the degree of Master of Arts accorded
him as well.
Upon his return to Kentucky he studied law, and
was admitted to the bar of his native state in 1881,
and immediately entered upon the practice of his pro-
fession. In addition to his knoweldge of the law, he
was an expert stenographer and found this of great
use to him in his practice. While carrying on his
constantly augmented law practice, he also was inter-
ested in agricultural pursuits and all that pertains to
the welfare of the great body of landowners. For
many years he superintended the farm his father had
bought in Mercer County in 1864, from which the
family moved in 1866, to Harrodsburg, and he con-
tinued to maintain his residence in that city the re-
mainder of his life.
In politics Mr. Stephenson attained a prestige which
placed him among the leading men of Kentucky. In
August, 1889, he was elected by a handsome majority
as representative from Mercer County to the State
Assembly, and was honored by the speaker of the
House by being placed on a number of important com-
mittees. In the session of 1889-90 he was made chair-
man of the committee on Codes of Practice, which was
composed of a number of distinguished lawyers of the
House; and was a member of the committee on Gen-
eral Statutes and that on Constitutional Conventions,
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
605
and on two special committees. His logical manner of
speaking and his close attention to every detail of
public business, made him a power in behalf of any
object he saw fit to champion, so that it was but natural
that he was re-elected in 1891, and in the subsequent
sessions served on the Judiciary and other important
committees. In the session of 1892 he was the father
of a number of very important bills, among them being
the Stephenson Revenue Bill, which was passed in
record time, fifteen days, as an emergency measure,
and by it the state was saved many thousands of dol-
lars.
In the fall of 1893 Mr. Stephenson was elected to
the State Senate from the Twentieth District, com-
prising Anderson, Franklin and Mercer counties, and
received a majority of 1,600 over his republican oppo-
nent, and when he took his seat, was one of the
youngest members of the Senate. At once he began
to take a prominent and compelling part in the legis-
lative work of that body, and was elected, in the ses-
sion of 1894, without opposition, chairman of the State
Democratic Caucus and Joint Caucus, and also chair-
man of the Committee on Public Offices. He was also
a member of the committee on General Statutes and
Rules. From bills and joint resolutions introduced by
him four very necessary laws were added to the stat-
utes of Kentucky. One of these is an act on voluntary
assignments which passed the Senate unanimously, and
almost unanimously in the House. To him is due a
large share of the credit of the "Husband and Wife"
bill. In 1896 he was again elected chairman of the
Senate Caucus and Joint Democratic Caucus ; was
chairman on the committee on Corporations, and after
the death of Hon. Rozel Weissinger, was chairman of
the committee on General Statutes. He was a mem-
ber of the following committees : Rules, Constitutional
Conventions ; Books and Insurance ; and Libraries and
Public Offices.
In his political sentiments and principles Mr.
Stephenson was always a democrat. He early took a
strong stand in favor of sound money. In 1891 he
was sent as a delegate to the commercial congress, held
at Kansas City, Missouri, and being placed on the
committee on Resolutions, strongly opposed a free coin-
age resolution. He openly declared his opposition to
the Chicago platform in a public interview the day
following the nomination of William Jennings Bryan,
in 1896, and was elected as district delegate to the
convention of the national democrats, held at Indian-
apolis, Indiana, in 1896, and was secretary of the Ken-
tucky delegation to that convention.
Well known in Masonry, Mr. Stephenson belonged
to Harrodsburg Lodge No. 153, A. F. & A. M., and
attained to the Knights Templar degree in the Com-
mandery. He possessed a keen, rapid, logical mind,
plus business sense and real capacity for hard work.
Scholarly in his attainments, he had an excellent pres-
ence, an earnest, dignified manner, marked strength
of character, and a thorough grasp of the law, and
the ability accurately to apply its principles. Always
actively interested in public affairs, and participating
earnestly in any efforts made by his associates to stimu-
late a spirit of patriotism and loyalty to American
institutions, he was easily one of the most constructive
forces Kentucky has ever had.
Mr. Stephenson had many sides to his character.
In addition to the manifold activities already given,
there was another phase which must be dwelt upon
for it is of such value to posterity, and that is the
interest he took in the history of the state and particu-
larly in the portions of it pertaining to Mercer and
Boyle counties. His attention was probably first called
to these events through the medium of his large ab-
stract business which he built up in connection with
his law practice. In order to properly equip his office
for handling this business he gathered together an
invaluable compilation of plats and abstracts and data
from the earliest records in his section of the state,
down to the time of his demise.
From 1901, he devoted his intervals of leisure from
the demands of exacting business to historical re-
search touching the annals of Kentucky and the two
counties above mentioned, and was recognized as an
authority on the history of these two counties. He was
the local organizer of the Harrodsburg Historical So-
ciety, and its president from its beginning in the spring
of 1907, until his death. He made speeches, published
articles, and strove with arduous and loving zeal to
awaken the people of Mercer County to a proper ap-
preciation of and interest in their great historic past.
Being a classical scholar, he read the best in ancient
and modern literature, with special attention to Ken-
tucky, and collected a large and well-selected library
for his home, besides his splendid law library in his
office. He broadened his knowledge and widened his
vision by travels throughout America, and one trip to
Europe.
Many organizations were proud to number him
among their members, and for years he belonged to
the Filson Club, the Bar Association of Kentucky, the
Ohio Valley Historical Association and the American
Historical Association. He was a director of the Ken-
tucky State Historical Association, and vice president
of the Louisville Chapter, Sons of the American Revo-
lution. An appreciation of his services was shown in
his appointment as trustee of the Kentucky School for
the Deaf at Danville. Kentucky, by Governor Augustus
Willson. For a number of years he was secretary of
the Harrodsburg Commercial Club. A zealous worker
in the Christian Church of Harrodsburg, he was one
of its elders for years, and for thirteen consecutive
years he was superintendent of the Sunday school con-
nected with this church. Mr. Stephenson knew the
leading men of his times, and was an intimate friend
of Colonel Durrett and J. Stoddard Johnston, the lat-
ter being his guest in 1908.
When Mr. Stephenson died he left a substantial
estate, but he was not a wealthy man. Money did not
appeal to him in itself, but only as the means for the
gratification of his taste for books, travel, refined liv-
ing, and for the fuller development of character.
Probably no better tribute could be paid to his mem-
ory than the following, which appeared after his death :
"A gentleman. We hear the term
How often misapplied,
But in his case we know full well
He bore it till he died.
"A gentleman ! Forgive us, God,
But wonder sways alone,
The worthless ones — why leave us such,
And take the blameless one?"
L. A. H.
Martha Stephenson. Of those who appreciate the
forces and personalities that have been most effective
in advancing Kentucky's standards of sound culture
lasting recognition is due Miss Martha Stephenson of
Harrodsburg on account of both the length and high
quality of her service and disinterested devotion to the
educational welfare of her home state.
She is a sister of the late W. W. Stephenson, whose
biography contains the story of this historic family.
Martha Stephenson was born in Madison County,
March 4, 1853. Her parents moved to Washington
County at the beginning of the war of the states and
during the four years of warfare they employed gov-
ernesses to teach their daughters Martha and Mary.
They moved to Mercer County in the autumn of 1864,
and Martha was graduated from historic Daughters
College, at Harrodsburg, in 1870, while that school was
under the presidency of John Augustus Williams. She
also pursued some post-graduate studies and taught
606
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
a few classes in Daughters College during the semes-
ters of 1870-71 and 1871-72. She was called to teach
in Madison Female Institute at Richmond, Kentucky,
in 1875, remaining there three years, and from 1880
to 1883 was teacher of English literature, history and
art criticism at Hamilton College at Lexington. At
that time she was known as Miss Mattie Stephenson,
and it was the insistence of club women in the state
that caused her to change her name to Martha. She
was again at Hamilton College during 1885-86 and
1886-87.
Her best work has been done through many years
of thought and studious effort in her home at Harrods-
burg. She was a leader in the intellectual life of
that community, and gradually from this historic old
town her influence has become state wide. At Har-
rodsburg she has been identified with every move-
ment for community culture, social, religious, educa-
tional, philanthropic, and in recent years even politi-
cal. She was a pioneer club woman of Kentucky,
and was the first president of the College Street Club
of Harrodsburg, which became conspicuous for its
progressive ideals in the early years of the Kentucky
Federation of Women's Clubs. A group of women
among whom she was most active was responsible
for the establishment of the Harrodsburg Public Li-
brary, and she was one of the library directors until
other duties compelled her to resign, and since then
she has been an honorary director. She was a char-
ter member of the Harrodsburg Historical Society and
for several years has been its secretary-treasurer. She
is a member of St. Asaph's Chapter of the Daugh-
ters of the American Revolution at Danville, and is
a member of the Filson Club of Louisville. During
the World war she was active with pen and voice in
keeping the home fires burning, and received a medal
for special service in the Liberty Bond campaign. The
League of Nations aroused in her something more
than a partisan or sentimental sympathy, and in one
of her many public articles she marshalled an inter-
esting array of evidence showing that our Federal
Constitution was opposed on many of the very grounds
that have been alleged against the federation of nations.
Many of Miss Stephenson's articles have been pub-
lished and reprinted in such papers as the Lexington
Herald and the Louisville Courier Journal, and the
Kentucky Historical Register preserves in more perma-
nent form several of her addresses, particularly the
one she delivered in May, 1903, before the Federation
of Women's Clubs in Lexington. The circumstances
leading to this address deserve some particular refer-
ence.
Miss Stephenson, who is now honorary vice presi-
dent of the Kentucky Federation, was elected chair-
man of the Program Committee of the State Federa-
tion in 1895, a year after the Federation was organ-
ized. She had a prominent part in its affairs until a
long illness lasting from 1897 to 1901. In the latter
year she was made chairman of the Educational Com-
mittee recently provided for by the Federation and
as chairman of this committee she appeared before the
Convention of 1903 and had the courage to make a
full report of the conditions revealed by the Federal
census of 1900, in which Kentucky stood thirty-seventh
among the states in points of literacy. Her searching
analysis made the statistics tell truths that cold figures
can not do, and her address and the subsequent dis-
cussion made the subject of illiteracy one that could
not be avoided as a flagrant fact, however annoying
it was to complacent state pride. This address was
undoubtedly one of the most important chapters in
arousing public opinion and official action to the mod-
ern program of general education in Kentucky, and in
the last twenty years more real progress has been
made in extending the facilities of the common schools
so as to be accessible to practically every community
in the state than was recorded in all the preceding
years.
John Augustus Williams was one of Kentucky's
greatest educators. From the quiet nobility of his
character proceeded influences that are still alive direct-
ing and molding the careers of men and women two or
three generations removed from the period of his
activity. A tribute to his work and character should
be entered as a permanent record in this history of
the state, and such a tribute has become available
through the pen of one of his admirers and one of
Kentucky's gifted women, Miss Mary A. Stephenson
of Harrodsburg. The following article by Miss Steph-
enson was written in 1918.
John Augustus Williams was born, September 21,
1824, in Bourbon County, Kentucky. His father was
Dr. Charles E. Williams of Montgomery County, Ken-
tucky, an eminent physician. The Williams family was
of Welsh extraction and came from Virginia to this
state in the early days of its settlement. President
Williams' early school days were at Paris, Kentucky.
At the age of fifteen years he entered Bacon College,
then located at Georgetown, and graduated from it in
1843, at Harrodsburg, to which place the college had
been removed. The degree of A. M. was conferred
upon him by this institution and that of LL. D. by the
Masonic University at LaGrange, Kentucky. For a
time he studied law, but later chose teaching for his
life work and began his career in 1848, first taking
charge of a seminary in Mt. Sterling and later estab-
lishing a female college at North Middletown; but as
early as 1851 he reached out for a wider field of activ-
ity. In that year he went to Missouri and founded
Christian College at Columbia. His peculiar gift as an
educator was felt in the distinction he gave to each of
these schools. In 1856, with his father, he purchased
the celebrated Greenville Springs property at Harrods-
burg and established Daughters College, so widely
known in this and many other states. Its career of
eminent usefulness and success was uninterrupted for
many years. The calamitous Civil war for a while
interfered with distant patronage, but the order of the
college exercises was not broken for a single day dur-
ing that dark period.
In 1865 President Williams was appointed to the
chair of Moral and Mental Philosophy in Kentucky
LTniversity and afterward to the presidency of the State
College and to that of the College of Arts at Lexing-
ton. The latter position he declined, the others he
accepted and filled ; and in 1868 he resigned his posi-
tion in the university and returned to Harrodsburg
and resumed his presidency of Daughters College.
Again there came to him many pupils from distant
states, to fill its halls and for many years it enjoyed
prosperity, and acquired the reputation of sending out
the best educated women of any institution in this
section. Its graduates were sought as teachers not
only in this, but in many other states, and they reflected
glory upon their alma mater. President Williams'
educational methods were in advance of his time. The
curriculum was short as compared with the curriculum
of the leading woman's colleges of the present day;
but he did more than make the minds of his pupils
storehouses of knowledge, he taught them to think
and sent them forth with confidence and power, and
wherever they went their influence was felt. Education
it has been said, ought to be the simple power to
climb a height. This was the secret of President
Williams' success; he had the art of giving this power,
that is the command of their faculties to his pup K
He was extraordinary in his power of impressing his
pupils with ideals and aspirations for a larger, fuller
development. This caused him to be remembered by
his graduates through the years and they sent their
daughters to the college, so that he became the edu-
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
607
cator of the second generation. Yes, his influence
lives through the third and fourth generations.
President Williams wrote and spoke much in behalf
of higher education. He was one of the original mov-
ers in the organization of the State Teachers' Asso-
ciation and was a contributor to various literary and
religious periodicals. He is author of the life of
"Elder John Smith" and a work on "Christian Ethics."
He was a great lover of the beautiful in poetry, litera-
ture and art, and possessed refined and discriminating
tastes.
Ill health caused him to resign the presidency of the
college in 1894, and he lived quietly in Harrodsburg
until his death in November, 1902. He was buried
in Spring Hill Cemetery.
Rev. Jesse Head. A sketch by Rev. William E.
Barton, D.D., LL. D. Author of "The Soul of Abra-
ham Lincoln" and "The Paternity of Abraham Lincoln."
Jesse Head, who married the parents of Abraham
Lincoln, was born in Frederick County, Maryland, June
10, 1768. He married on January 9, 1789, Jane Ramsay,
who was born April 19, 1768. About 1795 he migrated
from Maryland to Kentucky and made his home on Road
Run, now known as Lincoln Run, in Washington County,
Kentucky. There he was neighbor to the Lincolns and
Berrys. He owned fifty acres of land on Road Run and
two town lots in Springfield, where he carried on the
business of a cabinet maker. On May 25, 1798, his
name was removed from the muster roll of men subject
to militia duty in Washington County on account of his
having a license to preach.
On October 2, 1805, a meeting of the Western Confer-
ence held in Scott County, Kentucky, and presided over
by Bishop Asbury, recorded his name as an ordained
deacon of the Methodist Episcopal Church. These are
all the records that have been discovered to date of his
ecclesiastical standing. He later became a justice of
the peace, and some question has been raised as to
whether his marriages were those of a justice or a
minister ; but his marriage returns are signed by him as
a Deacon of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He
became a trustee of the Town of Springfield, and his
name appears on tax lists and in records of Washington
County from 1797 to 1810.
In March, 1810, he bought a lot in Harrodsburg,
and resided there during the remainder of his life.
On October II, 1811, he was elected to fill a vacancy
on the Town Board, and continued to be a member
of the Board of Trustees of Harrodsburg, with one
of his brief intervals, until 1827. He frequently presided
at the board meetings, and often acted as clerk, many
pages of the records being in his hand writing.
He preached in Harrodsburg, Lexington and other
places, but was never pastor of the Harrodsburg church ;
nor is it known that he ever rode a regular circuit.
He conducted many funeral services and married many
couples. He had a carpenter shop opposite the court-
house in Harrodsburg and was widely known in that
town and its vicinity. In 1830 he edited a democratic
newspaper called "The American." He died March
22, 1842, in his seventy-fourth year, and is buried in an
unmarked grave.
When commissioners were appointed to make an in-
ventory of his estate they found that all he possessed
belonged to his son, who had bought it in years previ-
ously at a sheriff's sale.
Jesse Head was a man of strong character and of
great moral courage, and deserves to be remembered
as one of the most illustrious citizens of Mercer and
Washington counties. His special title to fame grows
out of the fact that he has preserved for us the legible
and indubitable record of the marriage of the parents
of Abraham Lincoln, which he solemnized at Beech-
land, in Washington County, June 12, 1806. The record
of this marriage was long lost, but was found in
1878. It set at rest a long and cruel controversy and
caused the name of Jesse Head to be remembered in an
important relation with that of the great president,
Abraham Lincoln.
For the patient research that has disclosed this
information I am indebted to Hon. Joseph Polin of
Springfield, Kentucky, Hon. L. S. Pena of Lebanon,
Kentucky, and Miss Mary A. Stephenson of Harrods-
burg, Kentucky.
Harold R. Hummel. Keen-witted, clear-headed and
brainy, Harold R. Hummel, of Paducah, holds a posi-
tion of prominence among the rising young business
men of McCracken County, being associated with the
firm of Hummel Brothers, one of the foremost insurance
agencies in West Kentucky. A native of Paducah, he
was born October 3, 1891, a son of W. P. Hummel,
an active and highly esteemed resident of the city. His
grandfather, Fred A. Hummel, Sr., a native of Isladen,
Germany, became implicated in the Carl Schurz Revolu-
tion of 1848, a price was placed upon his head, and he
was compelled to leave his native land. Coming to
America, the land of hope and promise, he settled first
in Pennsylvania, where he followed his trade of a
gunsmith for a time, but later became a pioneer of
Paducah, Kentucky, where he continued a resident until
his death.
Born in Paducah in 1863, W. P. Hummel was edu-
cated in the public schools, and since arriving at man's
estate has ever performed the duties devolving upon
him as a loyal and faithful citizen. For thirty-five
years he has been actively engaged in the insurance
business as a member of the enterprising firm of
Hummel Brothers, being in partnership with his brother,
F. A. Hummel, Jr., his offices being in the City National
Bank Building, numbers 621-22-23. A stanch democrat
in politics, he has served as city councilman, as a
member of the Carnegie Public Library Board, and on
the Tuberculosis Sanitary Hospital Board. He is a
member of the Paducah Board of Trade; is secretary
of the West Kentucky Mausoleum Company ; and both
he and his son Harold are correspondents for the Brad-
street Company. He is a prominent and influential
member of the Evangelical Church. He occupies
an improved residence at 1009 South Third Street, and
owns valuable real estate in the city.
W. P. Hummel married, in 1890, Emily Kruer, who
was born and educated in Kentucky. She passed to
the life beyond in 1898, in Paducah, leaving three chil-
dren, namely: Harold R., the special subject of this
brief personal record; Helen, a graduate of the Paducah
High School, lives at home ; and Ruth, also a graduate
of the Paducah High School, is a young woman of rare
business ability and tact, and is now rendering efficient
service as office manager for Hummel Brothers.
Having been graduated from the Paducah High
School with the class of 1910, Harold R. Hummel
entered the State University of Kentucky in Lexington,
where he completed the studies of the junior year.
He subsequently attended the Colorado School of Mines
at Golden, Colorado, specializing in mineralogy. The
following three years Mr. Hummel was associated, at
Bisbee, Arizona, and in Sonora, old Mexico, with the
Copper Queen Mining Company, which has the largest
annual output of copper in the world, having been a
buyer of ore and bullion.
At the outbreak of the World war in 1914, Mr.
Hummel returned to Paducah, and entered the firm of
Hummel Brothers, with offices in the City National
Bank Building, and was engaged in the general insur-
ance business until 1917. Enlisting then in the United
States service, he was mustered into the First Officer's
Training Camp at Fort Benjamin Harrison, near Indi-
anapolis, Indiana, on May 15, 1917. Being subsequently
transferred to the secret force, of Post G 34, Chemical
Warfare Service, Mr. Hummel was engaged in manu-
608
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
facturing a Methyl or Lewisite poison gas until Decem-
ber 15, 1918, being the only Kentuckian to be employed
in that special line of service. Being then mustered
out of service, he returned to Paducah and resumed
his former position with Hummel Brothers, continuing
thus associated with his father and uncle in the exten-
sive and remunerative insurance business the firm is so
ably carrying on.
True to the religious faith in which he was reared,
Mr. Hummel is a worthy member of the Evangelical
Church. He is actively identified by membership with
various fraternal, social, educational and industrial
organizations. He is a member of Paducah Lodge
No. 127, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons ; Paducah
Chapter No. 30, Royal Arch Masons ; Paducah Council
No. 32, Royal and Select Masters ; Paducah Com-
mandery No. II, Knights Templars; Rizpah Temple,
Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.
He is also a member of the Paducah Shrine Club;
secretary of the Paducah & Illinois Fishing Club ; of
the Theosophical Society, Adyar, Madras, India; of the
National Geographic Society; of the Nogales Rifle Club,
Nogales, Arizona ; of the Adventurers Club, New York
City; of the American Junior Institute of Mining Engi-
neers, New York City ; of the Paducah Board of Trade,
and is an active member and the secretary of McCracken
County Post, American Legion. Mr. Hummel, who is
not married, resides with his father on South Third
Street.
William P. Ham. Maple Farm, of which William
P. Ham is proprietor, is located 4^-2 miles south-
east of Carlisle in Nicholas County. It is one of
the farms that give high character to the agricultural
district and the home surroundings of the county. It
comprises eighty acres and is the birthplace as well as
the scene of the active labors of its present proprietor.
Mr. Ham was born there June 27, 1857, son of
Preston and Elizabeth (Berry) Ham and a grandson of
John and Margaret (Potts) Ham, also natives of
Nicholas County, where they lived out their lives on
a farm. Preston Ham was born in Nicholas County
in 1826, and his wife was also a native of this state.
After their marriage they settled on what is now Maple
Farm, and both remained here the rest of their days.
They were members of the Christian Church at East
Union, and the father was a republican in politics.
William P. Ham was the only child of his parents.
He grew up on the home farm, had a public school
education, and for over forty years has been a busy
agriculturist.
November 19, 1878, he married Jennie N. Watkins.
Mrs. Ham was born in Illinois, daughter of Marion
and Miriam (Willis) Watkins. Her father was a native
of Illinois and was killed while a Union soldier in the
Civil war. Her mother was born in Clarke County,
Kentucky, and after her husband's death returned to
Kentucky with her children, locating in Nicholas County.
Mr. and Mrs. Ham have five living children. Perlie
is the wife of Will Stone. The son Clarence, who has
made a name for himself as a scholar and educator,
is a graduate of the Carlisle High School, of Kentucky
University and Cornell University, was for several years
instructor in Kentucky University, and is now in the
faculty of the mechanical engineering department of
the University of Illinois. He married Martha Dunn.
The third child, Jesse, is a member of the United
States army. Ida May is the wife of Clarence Buntin,
of Nicholas County. Frank, unmarried and at home, is
an ex-service man who was with the Expeditionary
Forces in France. The family are members of the
Christian Church, and the son Frank is affiliated with
Daugherty Lodge No. 65, F. and A. M. Mr. Ham
has always been a republican in politics.
Walter C. MacCready. While he is still numbered
among the recent acquisitions of Paducah, Walter C.
MacCready has already established himself firmly in
public confidence through a display of acknowledged
ability as an architect. In his special field of factory
construction he is recognized as an expert, and the work
with which he has been connected thus far has attracted
favorable criticism and comment.
Mr. MacCready was born at St. Louis, Missouri,
September 15, 1879, a son of Harry B. and Emma L.
(Wolfe) MacCready. The family originated, as the
name would indicate, in Scotland and was founded in
America in Colonial times. John C. MacCready, the
grandfather of Walter C., was born in 1824 in Ohio,
where he was a college professor, and in middle life
moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where he passed the rest
of his career as a public lecturer, dying in 1889. He
married Elizabeth L. Barkeley, also a native of Ohio,
who died at St. Louis, a member of an old Colonial
family which originated in England. A number of the
Barkeleys have won distinction, and among them are
two cousins of Walter C. MacCready's father, ex-Su-
preme Court Judge Sheppard Barkeley, of Missouri, and
Doctor Barkeley, a prominent physician and surgeon
of St. Louis.
Harry B. MacCready was born at Puxatawney, Ohio,
June 7, 1859, and was a young man when he went with
his parents to St. Louis, where he was married. With
the exception of the years of 1906, 1907 and 1908, when
he was engaged in the carriage and wagon making
business at Paducah, he has followed that business at
St. Louis. He is a republican and a Christian Scientist.
Mr. MacCready married Miss Emma L. Wolfe, who
was born March 15, 1861, near Cincinnati, Ohio, and
two children were born to them : Walter C. ; and Wil-
liam R., representative at St. Louis of the Supreme
Council of the railroad labor unions of the United States.
Walter C. MacCready received his education in the
public schools of St. Louis, being graduated from
high school in 1897. While he has never enjoyed a tech-
nical training in any of the accredited institutions de-
voted to his specialty, his education being confined vir-
tually to the public schools of his native city, his pro-
fessional career includes the designing of numerous
notable structures in various large cities. When he left
school he engaged in general draughting, and began
specializing in architectural draughting in 1905. Com-
ing to Paducah March 3, 1920, he established offices
at 221-222 City National Bank Building, and here
has made a specialty of factory construction. One of his
latest contracts is the erection of the McKee-Blevin
Company factory on South Third Street. Mr. Mac-
Cready is a republican, but has found little time from
his profession to devote to public matters, although he
takes a good citizen's interest in politics. He fraternizes
with the Masons. Mr. MacCready is unmarried and
resides at the Craig Hotel.
John W. Hughes. Two miles southeast of Owings-
ville, judicial center of Bath County, is situated the
homestead farm of Mr. Hughes, and the general appear-
ance of the place at once marks him for consideration
as one of the exponents of thrift and enterprise in con-
nection with farm industry in this section of his native
state, while further interest is involved in the fact that
his birth occurred on the farm which is the stage of his
present progressive activities, the date of his nativity
having been January 16, 1862. He is a son of James
B. and Lou (Branham) Hughes, the former of whom
was born in Madison County, this state, in 1817, and the
latter of whom was born in Bourbon County, in 1830.
James B. Hughes was a child at the time of his parents'
removal to Bath County, where he was reared on a
pioneer farm and where he received the advantages of
the common schools of the period. After his marriage
he settled on the farm now owned by his son John W,
of this review, and here he passed the residue of his life,
as one of the substantial farmers and highly respected
citizens of the county, both he and his wife having at-
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
609
tained to advanced ages and both having been consistent
members of the Christian Church. He was a democrat
in political adherency and was affiliated with the Inde-
pendent Order of Odd Fellows. Of the four children
the subject of this review is the youngest; Lizzie is
the widow of J. W. Atkinson, Miss Ella remains with
her only brother on the old homestead farm ; and Nannie
is the wife of Royce Allen, of Winchester, Clark County.
The early education of John W. Hughes was acquired
in public and private schools in his native county, and
in 1884-1885 took a course in the law department of the
historic old University of Virginia, at Charlottsville. He
did not, however, engage in the practice of his profes-
sion, but returned to the home farm, in the ownership
and management of which he has found ample scope for
successful achievement and for the utilization of his ex-
ceptional executive ability. He has brought to bear the
most approved methods of scientific agriculture, has
stood exponent of industrial and civic progressiveness
in his native county, and has effectively upheld the pres-
tige of a family name that has long been honored in
this section of the Blue Grass State. His well fortified
political convictions place him loyally in the ranks of
the democratic party, and he is affiliated with the Mount
Sterling Lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order
of Elks. He is eligible also for membership in the
Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, as
his maternal great-grandfather, William Branham, was
a patriot soldier in the great struggle for national
independence.
The well improved farm estate of Mr. Hughes com-
prises 340 acres, and in addition to his activities as an
agriculturist he gives special attention to the raising
and feeding of excellent grades of cattle and hogs. Mr.
Hughes still permits his name to be enrolled on the
roster of eligible bachelors in his native county, and his
maiden sister, Miss Ella, is the popular and gracious
chatelaine of the pleasant old home.
John H. Chandler has been a member of the Louis-
ville bar for over twenty years, and on the score of
personal ability has achieved many of the best honors
of his profession.
He was born at Campbellsville in Taylor County,
Kentucky, July 18, 1873. son of Joseph H. and Ara-
minta E. (Hiestan) Chandler, also native Kentuckians.
His great-grandfather came from Virginia when a
young man and established a home in Green County,
when that county included the present county of Taylor.
Joseph H. Chandler was born and reared in Taylor
County, and practiced law for more than half a century
there. He wielded great influence in the democratic
party, and at one time was a member of the State
Senate.
Youngest in a family of eight children, John H.
Chandler grew up at Campbellsville, attended "public
school, and took his college course in old Central Uni-
versity at Richmond. He graduated A. B. in 1895,
and for several years was a successful teacher in gram-
mar and high schools of his native town, and for three
years was principal of the preparatory department of
Central University. During five summer vacations he
was also a traveling representative of that institution.
While teaching at the Academy he studied law and was
graduated from the Law School of Central University
in 1899. He did some practice at Richmond, but in
September, 1899, moved to Louisville, and long since
achieved recognition as one of the able lawyers of the
city bar. Mr. Chandler was a lawyer, then almost at
the outset of his career, who successfully attacked the
old Kentucky vagrancy law as a violation of the Federal
Constitution, and after his contention had been sus-
tained by the courts the law was repealed and a new
one enacted.
Mr. Chandler has given his time and energies to
the general practice of law, but has accepted some respon-
sibilities of a public nature, and from 1901 to 1905 was
a county commissioner of Jefferson County. He is a
democrat, a member of the Kentucky and Louisville
Bar Associations, Commercial Club, Y. M. C. A., is a
Mason and Elk, and a member of the Sigma Alpha
Epsilon college fraternity. He is a member of the
Highland Baptist Church.
In December, 1901, he married Miss Agnita Clara
Fleming. She is a daughter of Judge William D.
Fleming, long a prominent figure in the Louisville bar.
T. B. Callis. The men who are now engaged in the
production of oil in the rich fields of Kentucky have
been recruited from various other lines of industry,
from agriculture, business, finance and the professions.
The lure of the black product which has built up so
many great fortunes in this country is one that is hard
to withstand, and many have given up other lines of
activity to risk their all on the chance of developing
properties of rich productiveness. All have not been
as successful as has T. B. Callis, an operator in Warren,
Simpson and Logan counties, who formerly was engaged
in farming and the drug business at Bowling Green
and who still owns a suburban residence on Scottsville
Pike, near that city.
Mr. Callis was born on a farm in Warren County,
Kentucky, January 27, 1878, a son of A. W. and Mary
(Feland) Callis. His grandfather, William Callis, was
born in Virginia and became a pioneer into Webster
County, where he passed the rest of his life as a farmer
and miller, dying there before the birth of his grandson.
William Callis married Sarah Posey, who was born in
1803 and died in 1886, in Warren County, Kentucky.
They were people who were greatly esteemed in their
community and were known to be industrious, honorable
and God-fearing.
A. W. Callis was born in 1847 in Webster County,
Kentucky, where he was reared to manhood and re-
ceived an ordinary education in the common schools
of the rural districts. As a young man he came to
Warren County, where he began farming on his own
account, and through industry and good management
he has become one of the substantial agriculturists of
his locality, with a splendid farm situated at Alvaton,
Warren County, a community in which he is held in
high esteem because of his honorable business methods,
other sterling traits of character and his public spirited
citizenship. Mr. Callis is a democrat in politics and an
active supporter of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
He married Mary Feland, who was born in 1849 m War-
ren County, Kentucky, and they are the parents of the
following children : W. A., a physician and surgeon
of Louisville, who enlisted in the United States serv-
ice, attained the rank of captain, served eighteen months
in France during the World war, and later was with the
Army of Occupation in Germany ; J. F., residing at
Bowling Green, who is associated with his brother T.
B. in his oil operations; Marion, who is unmarried and
makes her home with her parents ; Frank, who resides
with his parents and operates the home farm ; T. B. ;
L. M., who is a shoe salesman and resides at Mayfield,
Kentucky; and George W., of Glasgow, Kentucky, who
is the proprietor of a flourishing grocery.
The rural schools of Warren County furnished T. B.
Callis with his educational training, and his boyhood
and youth were passed on his father's farm. At the
time he was twenty years of age he decided to take
up some other vocation than tilling the soil, and accord-
ingly became apprenticed to the drug business at Bowling
Green and followed it for seven years. Then, with
his brother J. F., he established a pharmacy at Bowling
Green, a business operated under the firm style of Callis
Brothers, which they developed into one of the leading
pharmacies between Louisville and Nashville, and which
they operated with much success until June, 1920. At
that time the brothers disposed of their interests in
610
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
order to give all their time and attention to the devel-
opment of their oil properties in Warren, Simpson and
Logan counties. T. B. Callis' chief production at this
time is at or near Memphis Junction, although he also
has producing properties in various other places. He
still mantains his home in Warren County, having a
pleasant suburban residence on Scottsville Pike, one-
half mile out of Bowling Green.
In politics Mr. Callis supports the principles and can-
didates of the democratic party, but has had no desire
for the honors of public office. He is a member of the
Methodist Episcopal Church and of the Official Board
thereof. During the war period he was an enthusiastic
supporter of all movements for the sale of bonds and
the acquirement of funds, contributing generously and
buying to his limit. In civic affairs he has shown his
public spirit by working in behalf of movements which
have shown themselves worthy the consideration of
citizens of advanced tendencies, and is in favor of im-
provements along educational, religious and moral lines.
In 1905, at Bowling Green, Mr. Callis was united in
marriage with Miss Mary V. Parks, who was born in
Warren County, a daughter of W. H. and Jane Virginia
(Porter) Parks, natives of this state, who are now both
deceased. Mr. Parks in his early years was an agricul-
turist, but in later life turned his attention to building
and contracting, and numerous structures at Bowling
Green stand as evidence of the skill and good workman-
ship of his thirty years of activity in this direction.
Mr. and Mrs. Callis are the parents of one son, Andrew
Parks, born September 27, 1906, who is a member of
the graduating class of 1920 of the Bowling Green
Grammar School, eighth grade.
James A. Wallace. As state treasurer of Kentucky
Mr. Wallace is one of the prominent officials in the
new capitol at Frankfort, but his home is Estill County,
where for many years he has been a leading banker,
public official, merchant and land owner, and a power
in republican politics in that section of the state.
The Wallace family originally settled in Madison
County, his great-grandfather having been the pioneer.
His grandfather spent all his life as a farmer in that
county. Andrew Wallace, father of the state treasurer,
was born in Madison County in 1833, but grew up and
spent most of his life at Irvine in Estill County, where
he was a carpenter and contractor. He fought all
through the Civil war as a Union soldier in the Four-
teenth Kentucky Cavalry, was a stanch old-school re-
publican in politics, and also a member of the Masonic
fraternity. He served as county jailor a few years
following the Civil war. He was an active member of
the Methodist Episcopal Church. His death occurred
at Irvine in 1903. Andrew Wallace married Clara
Ellen Tracy, who was born at Stanton, Powell County,
Kentucky, in 1843, and is still living at Irvine, where
they were married. Their children comprised sixteen
in number, three of whom died before reaching adult
years. Among the others are : E. B. Wallace, a con-
tractor and builder at Cincinnati; C. C. Wallace, a law-
yer of Richmond, Kentucky ; H. G. Wallace, a carpenter
and contractor, who died at Irvine, September 29, 1920;
T. Q. Wallace, a merchant of Irvine ; Katie, wife of
Estill Payne, a merchant and farmer at Blackwell, Okla-
homa; Dr. T. Wallace, a physician and surgeon at
Irvine.
James A. Wallace was born at Irvine in Estill County
on August 5, 1867, was educated in the local public
schools and had four terms in the Kentucky State Col-
lege at Lexington. Leaving college in 1888, he spent
two years as manager of local mills and camps along
the Kentucky River for the Asher Lumber Company.
For another two years he was storekeeper and gauger
for the United States internal revenue department, and
was then elected Circuit Court clerk of Estill County,
an office he filled two terms of six years each. Then
after an interval of a year he engaged in banking at
Irvine, where he organized and established the Farmers
Bank of Estill County in 1905, and has since been
cashier of that institution, holding the office even
through his present term as state treasurer. Mr. Wal-
lace owns about 7,000 acres of land in Estill County,
a large farm in Bourbon County and the Gibson ranch
in Jackson County, Oklahoma, and does farming on a
very extensive scale. Among important business inter-
ests he is president of the Oleum Refining Company
of Pryse, Kentucky, and for twenty-five years has been
a prominent merchant in Estill County, at one time
operating as many as five stores in the county. He was
one of the men in his section of the state who con-
tributed of their private resources for the benefit of the
war "until it hurt," and as chairman of the Victory
Loan he had the satisfaction of seeing his district sub-
scribe far beyond the quota.
Mr. Wallace was chairman of the republican county
committee of Estill County for sixteen years. He was
alternate delegate for the state at large to the Repub-
lican National Convention at Philadelphia when Mc-
Kinley was nominated for his second term in 1900. He
was a delegate to the convention at Chicago when Taft
was nominated in 1908, representing the Tenth Kentucky
District, and has attended a number of other national
conventions in a private capacity. In the notable tri-
umph of the republican party in the state election of
1919 he was chosen state treasurer, and he began his
official term of four years January I, 1920.
In 1902, at Winchester, Kentucky, he married Mrs.
Hattie B. (Clay) Hardwick, who died May 10, 1903.
Her father was a former county judge of Powell
County. On May 29, 1908, at Louisville, Mr. Wallace
married Mrs. Olive (Price) Breeding, daughter of
David and Lucy A. (Brandenburg) Price, now deceased.
Her father came to Kentucky from Wales and was a
farmer in Estill County, where Mrs. Wallace was
reared, finishing her education in a young ladies semi-
nary. Mr. and Mrs. Wallace have two children : James
A., Jr., born January n, 1911, at 11 o'clock a. m., and
Mary Elizabeth, born July 10, 1916.
Mr. Wallace has been a deacon in the Christian
Church at Irvine for over twenty years. For two terms
he was worshipful master of Irvine Lodge No. 137,
A. F. and A. M., is affiliated with Richmond Chapter
No. 25, R. A. M., and Richmond Commandery No. 19,
K. T., is a member of Oleika Temple of the Mystic
Shrine at Lexington, and is affiliated with the Knights
of Pythias and filled all the chairs in the Junior Order
United American Mechanics.
Edgar Thompson Riley, M. D. The profession of
medicine in Todd County has one of its ablest represen-
tatives in Dr. Edgar Thompson Riley, whose experience
and accomplishments in the profession cover a period
of a quarter of a century, and for about half of that
time he has had his home at Trenton.
His people have been Americans for generations. The
family originated in Ireland, where the name was
spelled O'Riley, and that spelling was retained by one
or two of the generations after they settled in Colonial
Virginia. Doctor Riley's great-grandfather was a native
of Virginia, where he was reared and married, and in
early pioneer times came West over the mountains and
settled in Logan County, Kentucky, where he lived
out his life. Jonathan Riley, grandfather of Doctor
Riley, was born in Virginia in 1808, and was brought
as a child to Kentucky ; becoming a farmer near Olm-
stead in Logan County and lived there until his death
in 1882.
On that old Logan County homestead N. B. Riley
was born in 1840, and had just attained to manhood when
the war broke out between the states. In 1861 he joined
the Confederate Army and was all through the war for
four years. He was in a regiment commanded by Col-
QfrUfdAlt
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
611
onel Johnston of Clarkesville, Tennessee. He partici-
pated in the battle of Shiloh and was in Vicksburg
until the surrender of that Mississippi stronghold. After
being held a prisoner of war for several months he
was exchanged, rejoined his command and fought until
the end. He married in Logan County and remained
there as a farmer until 1873, when he settled near Al-
lensville in Todd County. N. B. Riley, who is now liv-
ing retired at Elkton, at the age of eighty, became owner
of a large amount of land and devoted it to diversified
farming and stock raising. He has lived retired since
1917. He is one of the prominent citizens of the
county, very active and influential in the democratic
party, and for three terms represented Todd County
in the Legislature. He is a member of the Christian
Church. N. B. Riley married Isabelle Page, who was
born near Olmstead in Logan County in 1850. The
oldest of their children is Spurgeon, a graduate of
Harvard University and now practicing medicine at
Jackson, Mississippi. Dr. Edgar Thompson Riley, who
was born near Allensville in Todd County May 7, 1874,
is the second of his parent's children. Page, the third,
is_ connected with the Southern Railroad Company at
Birmingham, Alabama. Napoleon, Jr., is in the fur-
niture business at Detroit, Michigan. Lloyd, who died
in 1904, was the wife of A. W. Gill, a farmer at Fergu-
son Station in Logan County. Isabelle, the youngest
of the family, is the wife of Robert Ewing, traveling
representative for a wholesale grocery house and a
resident of Elkton.
Edgar Thompson Riley spent his youth on his father's
farm, had the discipline of farm life, though not to
the extent of drudgery, and attended the country schools.
For two years he was a student of the Agricultural
College, now the Kentucky State University at Lexing-
ton. Leaving college in the spring of 1892, he took
up the study of medicine under Dr. R. L. Boyd at
Allensville, remained under his preceptorship for six
months, and then took the full course in the University
of Louisville Medical School, graduating in 1896.
Doctor Riley in 1904 spent several months in post-
graduate work at the Chicago Polyclinic. From the
time of his graduation in 1896 until 1900 he enjoyed a
practice among his old neighbors at Allensville. He
then removed to the Gulf Coast and built up a profit-
able practice at Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, where he
remained until the fall of 1907. He has been estab-
lished in the general practice of medicine and surgery
at Trenton since February, 1908, his offices being in
the Dickinson Block. He is a member of the Todd
County, State and American Medical Associations, is
a democrat, a member of the Christian Church and
affiliated with Trenton Lodge No. 406, A. F. and A.
M. He was associated with other progressive and
patriotic citizens in promoting the success of the various
war campaigns in Todd County.
In 1898, at Jackson, Tennessee, Doctor Riley married
Miss Pattie M. Matthews, daughter of Samuel and
Martha (Smith) Matthews. Her mother is still living
at Jackson. Her father died there and was one of the
extensive farmers of that vicinity. Doctor and Mrs.
Riley have had two children, Isabelle, who died at the
age of four and a half years, and Edward, born Feb-
ruary 11, 1906.
Wood H. Ford. From the beginning of the postal
service the representative men of each community have
been chosen to fill the important office of postmaster.
As so much responsibility rests in their hands, it is
necessary for them to be men of strict honesty, reliability
and integrity. Wood H. Ford, postmaster at Rocky
Hill Station, Kentucky, is one of the able officials in
the employ of the postal authorities, and is discharging
his duties in a way that awakens admiration and elicits
commendation on all sides.
Wood H. Ford was born at Brownsville, Edmonson
County, Kentucky, February 24, 1857, a son of D. J. L.
Ford, and a member of a family that originated in
Ireland and immigrated to the colony of Virginia long
before the outbreak of the war of the Revolution. Dr.
William Ford, the grandfather of Wood H. was born
in 1775 in Virginia, and became a pioneer in Edmonson
County, Kentucky, where he practiced medicine and
surgery for many years and where he was well and
widely known and greatly respected. He died in Ed-
monson County, on the Dixie Highway, in i860. Dr.
D. J. L. Ford, the father of Wood H., was born in
1814, at Munfordville, Hart County, Kentucky, but
was reared, educated and married in Edmonson
County, where he lived in the country and at Browns-
ville and practiced medicine until 1870. He then made
removal to Rocky Hill Station. Like his father he
became greatly honored in his profession, in which
he reached a distinguished place in his locality, and
was a valued member of the Edmonson County Medi-
cal Society, the Kentucky State Medical Society and
the American Medical Association. His fraternal
affiliation was with Bowling Green Lodge No. 51, I.
O. O. F. He was a strong churchman and belonged
to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in the faith
of which he died in 1894. In politics he was a demo-
crat. Doctor Ford married first a Miss Quishenbery,
who died in Edmonson County, and they had six chil-
dren, of whom all are deceased ; William, Luther, Sal-
lie, Mary, Silas and Catherine. Doctor Ford took for
his second wife Miss Rebecca Vertresse, who was
born in 1816, in Edmonson County, and died at Rocky
Hill Station, in 1896, and they have five children :
Delaware, who was a railroad freight conductor and
met an accidental death at Florence, Alabama ; Cora,
who died at Rocky Hill Station as the wife of J. F.
Walker, now a grocer of Bowling Green ; Robert, who
died in infancy; Wood H. ; and Susie, who died at Glas-
gow, Kentucky, as the wife of T. M. Shader, a stove
and tin dealer of that place.
Wood H. Ford received his education in the rural
schools of Edmonson County, leaving his studies at
the age of fifteen years to enter the service of the
Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company in the ca-
pacity of station agent at Rocky Hill Station. He acted
in this capacity and as telegraph operator for a period
of forty-four years, during which long and faithful
service he became one of the best known and most
popular agents of this company. On October I, 1918,
he retired. In politics a democrat, Mr. Ford has long
been known as one of the strong party men of his
locality. In 1912 he was appointed postmaster of
Rocky Hill Station, and in 1916 was reappointed to
this office, his present term expiring in June, 1921.
During his incumbency he has brought about a number
of innovations which have contributed to the better-
ment of the service, and his unfailing courtesy and
efficacious and expeditious handling of the mails have
served to place him high in the confidence and good
will of his fellow citizens.
Mr. Ford is the owner of a farm of fifty acres
at Rocky Hill Station, on which he carries on general
farming, and also has a splendid brick residence, the
finest in the city. Likewise he is the owner of a
dwelling situated on eleven acres of ground here, and
of a public garage and an oil and gasoline filling sta-
tion on Main Street. He belongs to the Methodist
Episcopal Church, and his fraternal affiliation is with
McClure Lodge No. 539, A. F. and A. M., Rocky Hill
Station. Mr. Ford took an active part in all local
war activities in Edmonson County, helping in the
drives for all worthy purposes, buying bonds and
War Savings Stamps, and contributing to the differ-
ent organizations to the extent of his abilities.
In 1882, at Rocky Hill Station, Mr. Ford was united
in marriage with Miss Katie Morris, daughter of Mr.
and Mrs. Mason Morris, pioneer farming people near
this place, who are both deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Ford
have one son, Q. B., formerly his father's assistant for
612
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
eighteen years, and now station agent for the Louis-
ville & Nashville Railroad Company at Rocky Hill
Station. He married Miss Lura Spradling, who was
born at Rocky Hill Station, and they are the parents
of three children : Mary, Grace and Fred.
John W. Duke, M. D. Prominently identified
with the medical profession of Kentucky, Dr. John
W. Duke of Hindman is engaged in a general medical
and surgical practice, but is also deeply interested in
research work, and active in forwarding sanitary im-
provements not only in his home community but through
the state. He was born at Hindman, June 9, 1873, a
son of Peyton M. and Nancy (Madden) Duke, he
born in Watauga County, North Carolina, and she in
Letcher County, Kentucky. When he was a young
man Peyton M. Duke came to Kentucky, his arrival
being during the year 1856. For a time he had been
a resident of Tennessee, but believing better opportuni-
ties were to be found in Kentucky, he located at what
is now Hindman, then McPherson, and was its first
postmaster, receiving the appointment in 1859, and he
later held the same office, his term expiring in 1890.
When he came here all of this region was included
in Letcher County. During the war between the
North and the South he served in the Confederate
army under Capt. Ben Condill, and was captured and
for thirteen months was confined in the military prison
at Rock Island, Illinois. While he warmly espoused
the side of the South, so just was he that he com-
manded the respect of both sides, and was always a
leader among his associates. He was equally zealous
in church work and for years was one of the pillars
of the congregation of the Methodist Episcopal Church
at Hindman, which he assisted in organizing. During
the early days when McPherson had not yet developed
into Hindman he taught school, and many of the
pupils who came under his influence showed the benefi-
cial effects the remainder of their lives. The death
of this excellent and prominent man occurred De-
cember 26, 1894, at the age of sixty-one years, as he
was born in 1833. His widow survives him and
makes her home with her son, Doctor Duke, and al-
though well over eighty years of age, is still active in
church circles. Their children were as follows : John
W., who is the eldest ; Richard W., who is a practicing
physician at Hueysville, Kentucky, is a graduate of the
University of Louisville; Minta, who is the wife of
Dr. G. M. Adams, D. D. S., of Hazard.
Doctor Duke attended the schools of Hindman and
had for his teachers, among others, Judge Baker and
Prof. George Clark. He taught school in Perry and
Knott counties for six years, and then became a student
of the Kentucky School of Medicine at Louisville,
Kentucky, and was graduated therefrom in 1896. The
money necessary for him to take his medical course
was earned by him as a teacher. All his life he has
been a close student, and still devotes much of his
leisure moments to reading and study. Doctor Duke has
been active in research work and in securing better
sanitary conditions, and was responsible for the in-
stallation of the first United States hospital for treat-
ment of the eyes.
In 1902 Doctor Duke married Eva Hays, a daughter
of James Hays. Doctor and Mrs. Duke have the fol-
lowing children : Hope, Brodia, Lottie and James.
Doctor Duke is a member of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South, and is a member of the Board of
Stewards, is equally zealous as a Mason, and is on ad-
visory board of Hindman settlement school. In politics
a democrat, he has been quite active in his party.
For eleven years he served Knott County as jailor,
and during the period he was in office did much to
improve tne sanitary condition of the county jail.
Some of his ideas at the time seemed almost revolu-
tionary, so far ahead was he of the majority of the
people, but today they are accepted as only humane
and necessary. Every new theory of practical character
which is brought into the open by the profession re-
ceives close attention from Doctor Duke, for he is one
of the medical men who does not believe in standing
still no matter how much knowledge he possesses, but
is ever pressing ahead. To such men as he the world-
at-large owes a heavy debt because of what is ac-
complished through the patient, intelligent and pains-
taking research work they are constantly carrying on
for the good of their fellow creatures.
Robert Haviland Conway has been usefully active
in the business and financial life of Cynthiana for
thirty years. He is secretary-cashier of the Cynthiana
Building and Savings Association, and at different times
has also been a leader and active adviser in a number
of movements connected with the general welfare of
the city and county.
Mr. Conway was born at Havilandville, in Harrison
County, November 8, 1864, and is a member of one of
the old and prominent families long identified with that
section of Kentucky. His parents were Dudley Berry
and Margaret ( Haviland) Conway. His father was
born in Lewis County, Kentucky, September 3, 1820,
son of Miles and Susan (Berry) Conway. His grand-
parents were natives of Virginia, descended from
Scotch ancestry, who went to that colony during the
eighteenth century. Miles Conway was an early Ken-
tucky pioneer, going into the Western wilderness when
this was still a part of Old Virginia. He owned land
under title from Virginia in what is now Fayette
County, Kentucky. He sold 1,000 acres there in 1792
for $1,000. Shortly afterward he moved to Lewis
County and owned and developed a large tract of land
there. He lived in Lewis County until his death at
the age of ninety-three. His son, Dudley Berry Con-
way, spent his early life in Lewis, Mason and Harrison
counties, and in February, i860, was married in Har-
rison County. He was a slave holder, and for a num-
ber of years he conducted a grist mill and carding
mill at Havilandville. In 1868 he moved to a farm
on Beaver Creek, near Baptist, but left the farm in
1876 and conducted a store for a year. In the spring
of 1878 he sold his farm and moved to Oddville, where
he was in the general mercantile business until 1886,
when he came to Cynthiana and lived retired until his
death in 1889. His wife died in January, 1901. He
was a republican, a member of the Masonic Order,
and both were active church members. While he was
a stanch Union man during the war, he could not regard
the Confederate soldiers as anything but neighbors,
and when Morgan's men invaded his section of the
state he contributed food for this ragged regiment.
His children were three in number: Robert H. ; Miss
Frances, of Cynthiana; and William E., of Lancaster,
Ohio.
Robert H. Conway grew up in Harrison County and
had a common school education. He lived at home
until after his father's death, then did clerical duty,
and in 1892 entered the Internal Revenue service, with
which he was identified until 1901. He was storekeeper,
gauger and deputy collector.
The Cynthiana Building and Loan Association was
organized in 1888, and since 1902 Mr. Conway has been
its secretary, and through his business ability and personal
popularity has contributed a great deal to the success-
ful record of the association. He is also in the fire
insurance business.
Mr. Conway married Mary Van Hagen MacCollough,
who was born in Cynthiana in July, 1878. They have
four children : Robert M., a graduate of the Cynthiana
High School ; William S., a high school student ; Martha
and Dudley F., in grammar school. The family are
members of the Christian Church. Fraternally Mr.
Conway is affiliated with St. Andrew Lodge No. 18,
F. and A. M., and is a charter member of Quinby Lodge
No. 58, Knights of Pythias, was for thirty years keeper
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
613
of records and seals of the lodge, is past chancellor,
has been a member of the Grand Lodge and president
of the Association of K. of R. & S. of Kentucky. He
has been secretary of Lodge No. 438 of the Elks since
1901. He is also secretary-treasurer of the Harrison
County Health and Welfare League.
Edward Stokes Smith, M. D. With few interrup-
tions and vacations Doctor Smith has given his time
and talents to his extensive private practice at Hodgen-
ville and over LaRue County for nearly forty years
and has completely earned the honor and esteem of the
community by his devotion to his work and the high
standard of citizenship he has exemplified.
Doctor Smith was born on a farm in Hart County,
Kentucky, October 23, 185S. His paternal grandparents
were Stokely and Margaret (Cobb) Smith, natives of
Greenbrier County, Virginia, and early settlers of Tay-
lor County, Kentucky. The maternal grandparents were
David and Elizabeth (Brown) Highbaugh, who came
from Culpeper County, Virginia, and were identified
with the pioneer settlement of Hart County, Kentucky.
Dr. Jerome Smith, father of the Hodgenville physician,
was born in Taylor County, and his life work as a
country physician was done in the Hammonville com-
munity of Hart County, where he practiced medicine
half a century. His last years were spent in Hodgen-
ville, where he died at the age of seventy-four. Dr.
Jerome Smith married Catherine Highbaugh, a native
.if Hart County, who died in 1870, the mother of six
children. The second wife of Dr. Jerome Smith was
Martha Walters, and to that union were born two
children.
Edward Stokes Smith grew up at Hammonville,
acquired an academic education, and at the age of
seventeen began the study of medicine. He was twenty
years of age when in 1879 he received his medical
diploma from the Louisville Medical College, and at
once returned to Hammonville to enter practice. In
1883 he received a second diploma from the Bellevue
Hospital Medical College of New York City, and again
in the winter of 1896 went East to attend the New
York Post Graduate School of Medicine. On grad-
uating from Bellevue in 1883 he located at Hodgen-
ville, and in that community he has found his work
and the discharge of his responsibilities has fully
earned the esteem associated with his name. He is a
member of the LaRue County, the Muldraugh Hill
Medical societies, the Kentucky State and American
Medical associations, and is a member of the Kentucky
Railway Surgeons Association, having been local sur-
geon for a number of years for the Illinois Central
Railway Company. Doctor Smith is a democrat in
politics. He owns several hundred acres of farm land.
In 1887 he married Miss Mary L. Stiles, a native
of LaRue County and daughter of Kitchel Stiles. The
two sons of their marriage are Stokely and Sidney
Smith, druggists by profession. Sidney Smith was a
wireless operator for the Government during the World
war.
John T. Hinton. The name Hinton has had a very
large significance in the business and professional life
of Paris, Kentucky, through several generations.
The founder of the family in that section of Ken-
tucky was Richard E. Hinton, who was a native of
Virginia, and as a young man moved to Bourbon
County, Kentucky. He was a hatter by trade and fol-
lowed that occupation in Paris. He married in Paris
Elizabeth Marston, a native of Maryland.
John T. Hinton was one of their ten children and
was born at Paris January 29, 1837. He acquired a
public school education and at the age of sixteen ap-
prenticed himself to the trade of cabinet-making. After
completing his apprenticeship of four years he remained
two years longer under his employer, and in i860 en-
gaged in business as a furniture merchant and under-
Vol. V— 55
taker at Paris. For more than half a century that
business has been continued by the family. John T.
Hinton was also president of the Citizens Bank of
Paris, vice president of the Bourbon Bank of Paris
and a director in the Agricultural Bank of Paris.
He possessed a remarkable facility in handling ex-
tensive affairs, doing many things well. He had a
prominent part in the councils of the democratic party.
He was for four years chairman of the Bourbon County
Committee, became a member of the council when
Paris was incorporated as a city, and for a number of
terms was mayor. In 1895 he was elected to the Legis-
lature and twice reelected without opposition. Governor
Beckham appointed him for two terms as chairman
of the Charitable Institutions Commission of the state.
He was for many years president of the Paris Cemetery
Company. He was also identified with the Bourbon
County Agricultural Society, was an Odd Fellow, and
for thirty years or more held the post of deacon in
the Christian Church.
At Paris, April 10, i860, he married Miss Elmeta
Hamilton, daughter of Henry Hamilton and cousin of
former Governor John Young Brown. She died in
January, 1874, the mother of seven sons, four of whom
reached mature years, William O., Edward T., Albert
and John T., Jr. These sons were all interested in
the business of their father. William O. Hinton is the
father of O. P. Hinton, a prominent attorney of Paris.
John T. Hinton married Miss Mary G. Brown February
2, 1875. She was the daughter of Elisha Brown and
a cousin of Gov. John Young Brown.
J. D. Whiteaker, M. D., state senator from Morgan
County; has been an active physician and surgeon at
Cannel City for over a quarter of a century and has
discharged an exceptionally broad range of duties, both
professional and public.
Doctor Whiteaker was born at Caney Postoffice in
Morgan County, October 1, 1871, son of Alexander and
Zerilda (Brown) Whiteaker, the former a native of
Virginia and the latter of Kentucky. His -paternal
grandfather spent all his life in Virginia and was a
Confederate soldier. The maternal grandfather was
born in Kentucky, but the maternal grandmother came
from Virginia. Alexander Whiteaker moved to Ken-
tucky about 1866 and spent the rest of his life as a
Morgan County farmer. He was active in public affairs
and for twenty years held the office of magistrate.
Doctor Whiteaker attended the common schools of
Morgan County, took a normal course at West Liberty,
and for seven years was a teacher in his native com-
munity. School teaching is a valuable preparation for
any line of useful endeavor, and the work also afforded
him some of the means he required to complete his
medical studies. Doctor Whiteaker graduated from the
Kentucky School of Medicine at Louisville in 1894 and
at once began practice at Cannel City, the community
that has known him throughout his professional career
as one of the able physicians and surgeons. He is
physician for the Ohio & Kentucky Railway and the
Kentucky Block Cannel Coal Company. He is a mem-
ber of the Morgan County and the State Medical asso-
ciations.
For a number of years along with growing profes-
sional prominence has come a decided influence in public
affairs. He is county chairman of the democratic party,
member of the State Executive Committee for his dis-
trict, and was elected to the State Senate in 1917. He
was the type of progressive citizen who is needed in
the legislative halls of Kentucky. Doctor Whiteaker
is a member of the lodges of the Masons and Odd
Fellows and is a member of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South.
January 1, 1908, at Cannel City he married Miss
Dora Lykins, whose people have been in Kentucky for
several generations and have had much to do with
public affairs.
614
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
William Ellsberky Ezzell. Never before in the
history of the country has there been such an insistent
and healthy demand for insurance, and men in its
various sections engaged in this line of business are
finding ample opportunity for writing a large amount
of excellent risks. For years all of the dependable
companies have been carrying on an educational cam-
paign as to the benefits of buying insurance, not only
as a protection for the family in case of an untimely
death, but as a sound investment and an adequate pro-
vision for old age. The results of these constructive
campaigns are now being felt. One of the men of
Paducah who has been connected with this excellent
work for some time is William Ellsberry Ezzell, general
agent for the Commonwealth Life Insurance Company.
The Ezzell family originated in England, from which
country the American ancestor came to the Colonies
and located in North Carolina. From there members
of the family migrated to other Southern colonies, and
ihe grandfather of William E. Ezzell, Harry Ezzell,
was born in Georgia. He became a pioneer of Carroll
County, Tennessee, and was there engaged in farming
until his death, which occurred before the birth of his
grandson. His wife, who bore the maiden name of
Gilbert, was a native of Western Tennessee, and she,
too, died in Carroll County, that state. They had four
sons, one of whom, Benjamin, served in the Confederate
army and became a major in the service.
William E. Ezzell was born at McKenzie, Tennessee,
on March 3, 1886, a son of R. G. Ezzell, who was born
in Carroll County, Tennessee, in 1832, and he died at
McKenzie in 1899, having spent his entire life in Carroll
County. For many years he was a farmer in the vicinity
of McKenzie, where he owned a large and valuable
farm, and attained to a gratifying success. In pol-
itics he was a democrat and served as a magistrate
for over thirty years. Both he and his wife were devout
members of the Baptist Church. He was a Mason.
R. G. Ezzell married Sarah Ellsberry, who was born
in Carroll County, Tennessee, in 1853. She survives
her husband and makes her home at McKenzie, Ten-
nessee. She and her husband had the following chil-
dren : Harry M., who is a traveling salesman for the
Simmons Hardware Company, lives at McKenzie, Ten-
nessee; Albert G., who is a farmer and merchant of
McKenzie; William E., whose name heads this review;
and Sarah B., who is unmarried, lives with her mother.
William E. Ezzell attended the public schools of
McKenzie, Tennessee, and the Southern Normal Uni-
versity at Huntington, Tennessee, leaving the latter in-
stitution after a year, when he was only eighteen years
old. Until 1908 he remained on the homestead and
then entered the life insurance field at Fulton, Kentucky,
remaining there for eighteen months and then leaving
it for Paducah to establish his present business connec-
tions, and since 1910 he has represented the Common-
wealth Life Insurance Company as general agent. He
is also a broker for the Mutual Life Insurance Com-
pany of New York City and the Aetna Life Insurance
Company. His offices are located at Nos. 418-19-20
City National Bank Building. Mr. Ezzell has had
great faith in the city and has demonstrated this in a
practical manner by investing in a modern residence at
2222 Jefferson Street, which is one of the most com-
fortable and well-furnished homes of the city. Like
his father he is a sound democrat, but has never come
before the public for office. The First Christian Church
of Paducah holds his membership and he is also serv-
ing it as a deacon. Well known in Masonry, he belongs
to Plain City Lodge No. 449, A. F. & A. M. ; Paducah
Chapter No. 30, R.' A. M. ; Paducah Commandery No.
11, K. T.; Rizpah Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of Mad-
isonville, Kentucky, and the Paducah Shrine Club.
He is also a member of the Rotary Club and the
Paducah Board of Trade.
On November 4, 1915, Mr. Ezzell was united in mar-
riage with Miss Frances C. Calder, a daughter of
Thomas and Rosa (Eldred) Calder. Mr. Calder was
a locomotive engineer, whose residence was at Fulton,
Kentucky, but he died at Chicago, Illinois, in 1919. His
widow survives him and makes her home at Paducah.
Mrs. Ezzell was graduated from the college at Fulton,
Kentucky. Mr. and Mrs. Ezzell have one child, Wil-
liam E., who was born on March 25, 1917.
John Milton Baker, county attorney of Knott
County, is one of the capable and prominent attorneys
and public officials of his part of Kentucky, and a
man who has been called upon to serve his home com-
munity upon several occasions and has done so with
dignified capability. Mr. Baker was born at Hazard,
Perry County, Kentucky, October 28, 1867, a son of
Judge William W. and Josephine (Martin) Baker.
Judge William W. Baker was born at the mouth of
Lott's Creek in Perry County, Kentucky, just after
the arrival of his parents from Virginia. He became
one of the most prominent men of his times and lo-
cality, and now, at the age of seventy-five years, is
serving as police judge of Hazard. For a number of
years he was a merchant at Hazard, and he served
Knott County as county judge, and in 1870 was sheriff
of Perry County and served as county superintendent
of schools and member of Kentucky Legislature in
1894. During his younger years he was a teacher, so
that in his various capacities he has become a well-
known man in both Perry and Knott counties, and has
held other offices than these mentioned, for his fellow
citizens have always had great faith in his abilities and
integrity. He is a Methodist and a Mason. A demo-
crat, he has alway been a leader in his party. His
first wife, Mrs. Josephine (Martin) Baker, was born
in Floyd County, Kentucky, and died when their son,
John Milton, was twelve years old. Judge Baker was
later married to Nancy Vermillion, who was born in
Letcher County, Kentucky. John Milton Baker is one
of the following children born to his parents: Adam,
who is a resident of Hazard ; Hattie, who is the widow
of J. Dranhon, of Hazard; Mary B., who is the wife
of G. C. Smith, cashier of the Bank of Hindman,
Kentucky ; Emma, who is the wife of John A. Dran-
hon, of" Oklahoma; and John Milton, whose name
appears at the head of this article.
John Milton Baker attended the public schools of
Hazard, and during 1883 and 1884 was a student of
the State University at Lexington, Kentucky. When
he was only sixteen years old he entered the educa-
tional field and taught two schools at Hindman, and
also several terms at Quicksand and on Jones Creek.
In 1888 he went to Prestonsburg, Kentucky, and there
read law with Judge Jatres Goebel and was admitted
to the bar in February, 1889. Returning to Hindman
he was engaged in the practice of his profession, and
from 1894 to 1898 served as county treasurer of Knott
County. He is now serving his second term as county
attorney, and is a rigorous and resourceful prosecutor.
Very active as a Methodist, he is serving the local
church as steward and trustee. In politics he is a
democrat. Fraternally he belongs to the Masons, Odd
Fellows and Red Men.
On March 1, 1888, Mr. Baker was married to Maggie
Smith, who died one year later. In 1889 he was mar-
ried to Nancy Childers, a daughter of George W.
Childers, of Hindman, and they became the parents
of five children, namely: G. C, who is agricultural
agent at Louisa, Kentucky ; Harold K., who is a resi-
dent of Wheeling, West Virginia, was in training at
West Point, Kentucky, during the World war; and
Grace, John M., and Harmon S., who are at home.
Mr. Baker is a man whose nature is both practical
and ideal and founded upon a fine enthusiasm based
upon common sense. He is occupied in giving his best
efforts toward the establishment and maintenance of
an honest administration of his office, and in the
prompt and wise performance of his duties he is
)n &<ut(j^
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
615
demonstrating that he is equal to the responsibilities
of almost any elevation in his profession which may
come to him.
Guerney C. Baker. There are times when even
experienced and careful agriculturists are confronted
with farm problems they have no means of solving.
Certain crops fail entirely, fruits do not mature and
mysterious ailments attack their stock. In years past
Lawrence County, Kentucky, has suffered greatly, but
in recent years the former incalculable loss has been
reduced to a minimum through the thoroughly effi-
cient scientific methods employed by the present county
agent, Guerney C. Baker, an agricultural expert, who
supplements his technical knowledge with a conscien-
tious spirit of industry that makes him one of the
most useful citizens of Eastern Kentucky.
Mr. Baker was born at Hindman, Knott County,
Kentucky, May I, 1892, and is a son of J. M. and
Nannie C. (Childers) Baker, both of whom were born
in Kentucky. The father of Mr. Baker is serving
his second term as county attorney of Knott County,
is the democratic candidate for circuit judge of the
Thirty-second Judicial District, and has long been
prominent in civic affairs at Hindman and in the
courts of Knott County.
Following his graduation from the high school at
Hindman in 1912 Guerney C. Baker served for a time
as deputy clerk of the County Court of Knott County,
then entered college at Berea, Kentucky, for a voca-
tional course, and after two years of training in the
agricultural department was awarded a diploma with
degree to follow. Thus prepared for the work of
county agent, Mr. Baker shortly after leaving college
received from the Agricultural Department at Wash-
ington, D. C, appointment as county agent for Knott
and Perry counties, Kentucky, in which area he served
until January I, 1918, when he was appointed by the
same authority county agent for Lawrence County.
When Mr. Baker assumed charge in Lawrence
County he found much to contend with, no small
matter being the outbreak in that year of the black
leg disease that Was decimating the farmers' cattle
and causing loss that was felt all over Eastern Ken-
tucky. With unflagging energy the new county agent
applied his remedies, and during the succeeding twelve
months, working sometimes day and night, he vac-
cinated 5,416 cattle and practically stamped out the
disease. He has endeavored also to impart such
knowledge throughout the farming district as will be
largely preventive in the future, a number of the
most progressive cattle raisers purchasing the vaccine
outfits that he has taught them to use. He has been
equally successful in handling other farm problems
and has by foresight and science cleared up many
conditions that formerly operated against agricultural
prosperity here. Personally Mr. Baker is very popular
in the farming districts, for he is patient and under-
standable in his teaching, thoroughly in earnest in
his efforts to be helpful, and public esteem and con-
fidence is with him. ,
In 1912, at Hindman, Kentucky, Mr. Baker married
Miss Clair Amburgey, who is a daughter of Judge
R. H. and Lucinda (Adam) Amburgey. Her maternal
grandfather was a soldier in the war between the
states. In 1884, when Knott County was organized.
Judge Amburgey was elected county clerk and clerk
of the Circuit Court, serving in both offices for one
full term. Following this he was elected county clerk
for six terms, and then became county judge, and
enjoys the record of having served in county offices
for thirty-six consecutive years.
Mr. and Mrs. Baker have three children : Helen
Rue, Eugene Lawrence and Dorothy June. The family
belongs to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
In political life Mr. Baker has always been identified
with the democratic party. During the World war
he was very active in all the patriotic movements in
his county, serving as chairman of the American
Protective League, chairman of the Red Cross and
as a Three-Minute Man, being one of the most effec-
tive speakers as well as most willing workers.
The Filson Club (By Otto A. Rothert). The Fil-
son Club was organized May 15, 1884, in Louisville.
From the standpoint of continuous existence it is the
oldest historical association in Kentucky and one of
the oldest in the Middle West. The only other state-
wide historical society in Kentucky is the Kentucky
State Historical Society, at Frankfort, which was re-
organized in 1896. The thirty books of Kentucky his-
tory written by members of the Club and printed as
"Filson Club Publications" are well known among stu-
dents of National and Kentucky history and can be
found in many of the large libraries in the country.
These publications, however, represent only one phase
of work accomplished by the club. Other activities are
shown by the papers written for the club and by sundry
materials gathered by members and now preserved in
its archives.
Ten citizens of Louisville met on May 15, 1884, at
the residence of Col. Reuben Thomas Durrett, Brook
and Chestnut streets, and organized an association for
the purpose of collecting and preserving Kentucky his-
tory. The organizers were Reuben T. Durrett, Richard
H. Collins, William Chenault, John Mason Brown,
Basil W. Duke, George M. Davie, James S. Pirtle,
Thomas W. Bullitt, Alexander P. Humphrey and
Thomas Speed. Colonel Durrett, the chief instigator
of this movement, was a journalist, lawyer, man of
affairs, and a student of Kentucky history. He was
elected president, with Thomas Speed, secretary and
Edmund T. Halsey, treasurer.
The organization was named The Filson Club. It
was so called in honor of John Filson who, one hun-
dred years before, in 1784, published the first history of
Kentucky — "The Discovery, Settlement and Present
State of Kentucke." The first paper read before the
club was by Colonel Durrett, and with equal appropriate-
ness an enlargement of this paper was its first publica-
tion—"John Filson, the First Historian of Kentucky,
An Account of His Life and Writings."
Six meetings of the club were held in 1884, at vary-
ing intervals. In February, 1885, the time for regular
meetings was agreed upon — the first Monday night of
every month, except July, August and September, the
summer vacation. Nine regular meetings have been
held every year since then on the nine specified" Mon-
day nights, though special meetings have occasionally
been called.
The club was incorporated on October 6, 1891. Its
purpose is thus set forth in one of the articles of in-
corporation : "The principal place of business of this
corporation is Louisville, Kentucky. The general na-
ture of business to be transacted is the collection and
preservation and publication of historic matter per-
taining to the State of Kentucky and adjacent states;
and the cultivation of a taste for historic inquiry and
study among its members. The club shall have power
to collect, maintain and preserve a library and a
museum, and to acquire suitable grounds and buildings
in which to place them."
As to qualifications for membership, anyone inter-
ested in Kentucky history was then, and still is, eligible.
Preparing a paper for the club never was obligatory.
From 1884 to 1913 meetings were held in Colonel
Durrett's library at his residence, the main feature be-
ing a prepared paper, a set lecture or an informal talk,
followed by an open discussion of the subject and,
frequently, by personal reminiscences. Then a closing
recess, as it were, took place : all present became Colonel
Durrett's personal guests. Cider was served and the
gentlemen who smoked were supplied with "Filson
Club" cigars made by a member of the club.
616
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
Colonel Durrett's home was the depository and head-
quarters for the club from its beginning and continued
as such for twenty-eight years until his death in 1913.
After his death the club's archives were transferred to
the private library of R. C. Ballard Thruston, in the
Columbia Building, where, at Mr. Thruston's expense,
they are carefully preserved and made available to the
public.
The meetings in Colonel Durrett's library were, of
course, open only to members, personally invited guests
and representatives of the press. Since his death all
meetings, except those in January have been in the
Louisville Free Public Library and were open to the
public. The first of these January meetings was held
in 1914, when the club was the guest of Bennett H.
Voting in his residence on Ormsby Avenue. Since that
year both members and their personally invited friends
have been, on each first Monday in January, the guests
of Vice President R. C. Ballard Thruston in his library
where the club's portraits, papers, books and relics are
housed. At these meetings the social feature, which
in Colonel Durrett's time was made so attractive, con-
tinues to add its charm and interest, and those attend-
ing are given an opportunity to look over the latest
additions to the archives.
From the time of its origin down to 1913 the club
was to a very great extent dependent on Colonel Dur-
rett. During those many years The Filson Club was,
in a sense, his club. That dependence began to react
after his death and to arouse the membership to a
realization of the necessity of running a less private
and more public association. In 1914 the club began
to consider the framing of a new constitution and the
adopt'ng of new by-laws. Because of the World war
and the business conditions throughout the country that
followed, it was deemed best to attempt no radical
changes for a while. The membership now [1922] feels
that the time for such changes is rapidly approaching.
Among other projects contemplated is the acquiring of
a building.
Since 1913 many original papers have been read,
four new Filson Club Publications have been pub-
lished, and some material added to the archives. The
dues have been changed from $3 to $2 a year, and the
money used toward defraying the general expense of
the club. Every publication represents a financial loss.
In Colonel Durrett's day this deficit was usually met by
him, sometimes by the author. The publications issued
since his death have been financed by the author of the
book or by some other member.
Every officer contributes his work, and has done so
since the beginning of the organization. Officers, past
and present, are as follows :
Presidents: Reuben T. Durrett. 1884 to 1913; James
S. Pirtle, 1913 to 1917; Alfred Pirtle, 1917 to date.
Vice Presidents : J. Stoddard Johnston, 1891 to 1913 ;
James S. Pirtle, 1913 to 1913: R. C. Ballard Thruston,
1913 to date.
Secretaries: Thomas Speed, 1884 to 1905; Alfred
Pirtle, 190s to IQI7; Otto A. Rothert, 1917 to date.
Treasurers : Edmund T. Halsey, 1884 to 1888 ; Attila
Cox, 1888 to 1892 ; Kentucky Title Savings Bank & Trust
Company, 1892 to date.
On April 24, 1921, the club made a pilgrimage to the
sites of some of the old forts or stations on Beargrass
Creek, and thus inaugurated visits to unmarked historic
places for the purpose of arousing interest in them.
Research work is being done along various lines of
Kentucky history and the preparation of more papers
and Publications continues.
Much Kentucky history which otherwise might have
been lost forever is preserved in the club's thirty pub-
lications and its many papers. The following is a list
of The Filson Club Publications:
Publications of The Filson Club.
No. 1. John Filson. An Account of his Life and
Writings. By Reuben T. Durrett. Illustrated. 132
pages. 1884.
No. 2. The Wilderness Road. By Thomas Speed.
75 pages. 1886.
No. 3. The Pioneer Press of Kentucky. By Wil-
liam Henry Perrin. Illustrated. 93 pages. 1888.
No. 4. Life and Times of Judge Caleb Wallace. By
William H. Whitsitt. 151 pages. 1888.
No. 5. An Historical Sketch of St. Paul's Church,
Louisville. By Reuben T. Durrett. Illustrated. 75
pages. 1889.
No. 6. The Political Beginnings of Kentucky. By
John Mason Brown. 263 pages. 1889.
No. 7. The Centenary of Kentucky. Prepared for
publication by Reuben T. Durrett. Illustrated. 200
pages. 1893.
No. 8. The Centenary of Louisville. By Reuben T.
Durrett. Illustrated. 200 pages. 1893.
No. 9. The Political Club, Danville, Kentucky. By
Thomas Speed. 167 pages. 1894.
No. 10. The Life and Writings of Rafinesque. By
Richard Ellsworth Call. Illustrated. 227 pages. 1895.
No. 11. Transylvania University. By Dr. Robert
Peter and Miss Johanna Peter. 202 pages. 1896.
No. 12. Bryant's Station. Memorial Proceedings.
Prepared for publication by Reuben T. Durrett. Illus-
trated. 277 pages. 1897.
No. 13. First Explorations of Kentucky. By J.
Stoddard Johnston. Illustrated. 222 pages. 1898.
No. 14. The Clay Family. By Zachary F. Smith
and Mrs. Mary Rogers Clay. Illustrated. 252 pages.
1899.
No. 15. The Battle of Tippecanoe. By Alfred
Pirtle. Illustrated. 158 pages. 1900.
No. 16. Boonesborough. By George W. Ranck.
Illustrated. 286 pages. 1901.
No. 17. The Old Masters of the Bluegrass> By
Samuel W. Price. Illustrated. 181 pages. 1902.
No. 18. The Battle of the Thames. By Bennett H.
Young. Illustrated. 274 pages. 1903.
No. 19. The Battle of New Orleans. By Zachary
F. Smith. Illustrated. 209 pages. 1904.
No. 20. The History of the Medical Department of
Transylvania University. By Dr. Robert Peter and
Miss Johanna Peter. Illustrated. 193 pages. 1905.
No. 21. Lopez's Expeditions to Cuba. By Ander-
son C. Quisenberry. Illustrated. 172 pages. 1906.
No. 22. The Quest for a Lost Race. By Thomas E.
Pickett. Illustrated. 229 pages. 1907.
No. 27,. Traditions of the Earliest Visits of For-
eigners to North America. By Reuben T. Durrett. Il-
lustrated. 179 pages. 1908.
No. 24. Sketches of Two Distinguished Kentuck-
ians : James Francis Leonard, by John Wilson Town-
send ; Joseph Crockett, by Samuel W.- Price. Illus-
trated. 170 pages. 1909.
No. 25. The Prehistoric Men of Kentucky. By
Bennett H. Young. Illustrated. 343 pages. 1910.
No. 26. The Kentucky Mountains. By Mary Ver-
hoeff. Illustrated.- 208 pages. 1911.
No. 27. Petitions of the Early Inhabitants of Ken-
tucky to the General Assembly of Virginia. By James
R. Robertson. Illustrated. 246 pages. 1914.
No. 28. The Kentucky River Navigation. By Mary
Verhoeff. Illustrated. 257 pages. 1917.
No. 29. The Anti-Slavery Movement in Kentucky.
By Asa Earl Martin. 165 pages. 1918.
No. 30. The Story of a Poet : Madison Cawein.
By Otto A. Rothert. Illustrated. 545 pages. 1921.
John K. Hendrick, who a quarter of a century ago
represented the First Kentucky District in Congress,
has been engaged in the practice of law for forty-five
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
617
years and has earned many of the marks of prominence
in his profession in the western part of the state.
Mr. Hendrick, whose home has been at Paducah for
many years was born in Caswell County, North Caro-
lina, October 10, 1852. He was born after the death of
his grandfather, John Hendrick, a native of Virginia,
who settled in Caswell County, North Carolina, and
followed the life of a planter. John Hendrick married
Miss Ruth Murray, a native of Virginia, wlu) also died
in Caswell County. William H. Hendrick, their son,
was born in Virginia in 1817, and went as a young man
to Caswell County, North Carolina, where he followed
planting. In 1856 he moved out to Logan County, Ken-
tucky, and spent the rest of his life as a farmer. He
died in 1873. Politically he was an ardent democrat.
William H. Hendrick married Susan D. Bennett, who
was born in Virginia in 1819 and died in Christian
County, Kentucky, in 1856. She was the mother of
four children : Fannie, who became the wife of Tire
Gillum, a farmer, and both died at Mayfield, Kentucky ;
Mrs. Kate Johnson, who died in Christian County, and
her husband is a retired farmer at Hopkinsville ; John
K. is the third of the family; and Ada died unmarried
in Livingston County, Kentucky.
John K. Hendrick grew up on his father's farm in
Logan County, attended rural schools, Bethel College
at Russellville, and studied law under his uncle, Judge
Caswell Bennett, at Smithland. Judge Bennett, the
youngest brother of Susan D. Bennett, died while on
the bench as a judge of the Court of Appeals of Ken-
tucky in 1894. John K. Hendrick was admitted to the
bar in 1875, began practice at Smithland, and was soon
engaged in an extensive professional work in all the
surrounding counties. In 1898 he moved to Paducah,
and for over twenty years has enjoyed a large business
both in civil and criminal practice, his offices being in
the City National Bank Building. He is a member of
the McCracken County, State and American Bar asso-
ciations. His time has been closely devoted to the law,
though his public record includes service of four years,
1887-91, as a member of the State Senate, while his
election to Congress came in 1894, and he served one
term beginning in 1895 and ending in 1897. Mr. Hen-
drick is a past grand of Smithland Lodge of the In-
dependent Order of Odd Fellows.
For a number of years he and his family lived in a
comfortable, modern home at 809 Broadway. He mar-
ried at Smithland, Kentucky, June 19, 1877, Miss Lula
Grayot, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A. A. Grayot, both
now deceased. Her father was a druggist at Smith-
land. Mrs. Hendrick graduated from a finishing school
for young ladies at Cincinnati. To their marriage were
born four children. Alfred A., a graduate of the Vir-
ginia Law School, is now paymaster for a large copper
company at Bisbee, Arizona. W. R. is a real estate
broker at Paducah. Harry B., now clerk in the Hotel
Palmer at Paducah, enlisted at the first call, was sent
to camp at Syracuse, New York, but was eventually
rejected on account of physical disability. The young-
est of the family, Nellie, is in Red Cross work at
Washington, District of Columbia.
Warner Edwin Hay'nes, a prominent real estate man
of Frankfort, was with the Eighty-first Division in
France, was an American student in one of the great
universities of that country after the armistice, and
following his return to this country located in Kentucky
and took up his present business.
Mr.- Haynes was born at Bishopville, South Carolina,
April 27, 1896. His paternal ancestors came originally
from Ireland to North Carolina. His grandfather,
Warner Haynes, spent all his life in Whiteville, North
Carolina, where he died in 1898. Before the war he
was a large planter and slave owner, fought as a Con-
federate soldier, and continued planting in his native
vicinity the rest of his life. He married a Miss Powell
likewise a lifelong resident of Whiteville. E. B. Haynes,
his son, was born at Whiteville February 24, 1858, and
early entered the ministry of the Methodist Church
South. As a young man he went to Bishopville, South
Carolina, where he was married and where he lived
until his retirement. He is a democrat in politics. Rev.
Mr. Haynes married Vici Elizabeth Arrownts, who
was born at Bishopville in 1867, and died there in
1505. Of their children Neil Kenneth is a merchant
at Hartsville, South Carolina ; Lula who died at Bethune,
South Carolina, in 1919, wife of H. S. Lucas, a farmer;
Claude is a banker at Columbia, South Carolina ; Warner
E. is the fourth in age ; Miss Laurine is a teacher in
the Piedmont High School at Londale, North Carolina ;
and Miss Lena is a student in that high school.
Warner Edwin Haynes was educated in the public
schools of Bishopville, graduated from the Piedmont
High School at Londale, in North Carolina, in 191 5,
and on April 27, 1918, enlisted and had four months of
training at Camp Jackson, South Carolina. He went
overseas with the Eighty-first Division and was in active
service until the signing of the armistice. He was then
mustered out and was one of the American soldiers who
accepted the invitation of the French government to
study abroad and was in the law department of Tolouse
University at Tolouse, France. After returning to this
country he continued his law studies in Chattanooga
College of Law at Chattanooga, Tennessee, graduating
with the LL. B. degree in June, 1920.
September 1, 1920, Mr. Haynes came to Frankfort
and established the Frankfort branch of the well known
real estate brokerage firm of Ford, Wood & Haynes. He
has the active management of this office on the third
floor of the McClure Building. His associates are J. M.
Ford and C. E. Wood, a well known real estate firm
of Georgetown, Kentucky.
Mr. Haynes is a democrat, a member of the Methodist
Episcopal Church and is one of Frankfort's most popular
young citizens and business men.
April 3, 1020, at Georgetown he married Miss Frances
Wood, daughter of C. E. and Katherine (Shropshire)
Wood of Georgetown. Her father has already been
named as a member of the firm Ford, Wood & Haynes,
real estate. Mrs. Haynes finished her education in
Georgetown College.
Michler Brothers Company. Lexington knows the
Michler Brothers Company as the title of a very enter-
prising firm of florists and landscape gardeners, a busi-
ness that was established by the father of the present
proprietors something over twenty years ago. The foun-
der the late Carl Michler was a native of Wuertemburg,
Germany. He was liberally educated and came to the
United States about 1869 when a young man. He had
been trained in the work of floriculture and landscape
gardening, but for many years he earned his living as a
teacher in Lutheran parochial schools at Cumberland,
Maryland, and at his home there continued his interests
in floriculture. In 1897 he moved to Lexington and
for several years taught private classes in German.
It was in 1900 that he constructed his first small
greenhouse, at first only an adjunct of his home. He
had the real genius of a plant grower and his products
came into immediate favor and there was a demand that
made it difficult to keep his facilities expanding fast
enough. Carl Michler died in 1912 at the age of sixty-
nine but before his death saw his business highly pros-
perous, and conducted in a modern plant. Since 1902
the home of the business has been at 417 East Maxwell
Street. The company has 12,000 square feet under glass
and makes a specialty of growing the choicest of flowers.
The active members of the business at present are
Charles, L. A. Michler and their sister Miss Rose.
The late Carl Michler married in Maryland, Elizabeth
Goodman who survived him. There are two other sons,
618
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
William A., connected with the Klein Michler Company,
clothing merchants at Lexington ; and George J., a Lex-
ington real estate man.
Charles Michler while a member of the firm Michler
Brothers Company is widely known as a specialist in
landscape gardening and while he keeps two forces of
men active under his supervision he is constantly busy
in his work all over the blue grass section. He has been
employed for landscape work on many fine estates, also
for public park and playgrounds, and is one of the lead-
ing men in his profession in Kentucky. He is deeply
interested in the movement for the conservation of bird
life as a member of the Audubon Society. He is a mem-
ber of the Board of Commerce, the Pyramid and Lions
clubs. George Michler is a stockholder in the Phoenix
Amusement Company and his brother L. A. Michler has
been a director in that company from the time of its in-
corporation. He is a member of the Optimist Club and
the Board of Commerce.
The brothers are active Masons, L. A. Michler being
a Knight Templar, and their sister is a member of the
Eastern Star.
John Lawrence Harmon, educator, business man and
farmer, is now in his second term as county superin-
tendent of schools of McCreary County, and in South-
eastern Kentucky where he has lived all his life he is
widely known for the activities and service that have
proceeded from him and have affected other interests
than those in which he has been immediately concerned.
The Harmons are one of the oldest and best known
families of old Whitley County, their home having been
chiefly in that section which is now McCreary County.
His great-grandfather established the family here in
pioneer times, coming from North Carolina. His
grandfather John Harmon, was born in 1811 and died
in 1894, being a lifelong resident of Whitley County,
though his home for many years was at Marsh Creek
in what is now McCreary County. He was a farmer.
His wife was Martha Ross who was born in 1817 and
died in 1898, likewise a lifelong resident of Whitley
County.
J. C. Harmon, father of Professor Harmon, was
born in Whitley County in 1845, learned merchandising
as a clerk, and for many years was owner and pro-
prietor of an extensive business at Pine Knot. He died
at Pine Knot, February 19, 1919. He was a school trus-
tee there, also owned and operated a farm, was a standi
republican in politics and one of the active supporters of
the Baptist Church. His wife was Lucinda Wood, who
was born on Jellico Creek in Whitley County in 1850, and
is still living at Pine Knot. The oldest of her children
is John Lawrence Harmon. Sarah, the second in age,
is the wife of Rev. A. S. Petrey, a Baptist minister
who has charge of the Baptist Institute at Hazard, in
Perry County, and preaches in several churches of that
vicinity, Martha Etta, the third child, died when six-
teen years of age. The fourth is Jeriah Edward, who
is mentioned below, and the youngest, Winnie Ethel,
died when six years old.
Jeriah Edward Harmon, a well known Whitley
County physician, was born January 6, 1879. He spent
three years in Cumberland College at Williamsburg,
graduated M. D. from the Hospital College of Medicine
at Louisville in 1905, and since graduation has en-
joyed an extensive practice at Pine Knot and is also
the only druggist in that town. He has served as
health officer, a member of the school board eight
years, is a member of all the medical societies, and also
prominent in fraternal affairs. He is vice president of-
the Pine Knot Banking Company. Dr. Harmon mar-
ried at Pine Knot in 1900, Miss Nola Morgan, daughter
of S. G. and Nancy (Manning) Morgan. Her father
was a merchant at Pine Knot. The children of Dr.
and Mrs. Harmon are Winnie, born in 1902; Ernest,
born in 1904 ; Maude, born in 1905 ; Kenneth, born in
1907; Clarence, born in 1909; Pauline, born in 1913, and
Helen, born in 1920.
John Lawrence Harmon was born in Whitley County,
February II, 1874, and grew up at Pine Knot. His
father being a prosperous merchant he was afforded
good educational advantages, attending public schools,
and in 1898 left his studies in Cumberland College at
Williamsburg after completing the junior year. He
had in the meantime taught school and continued
teaching in Whitley and McCreary counties until Jan-
uary, 1918. Education has been his chief interest,
though some important business responsibilities have
also occupied his time and energies. Mr. Harmon was
elected county superintendent of schools in Novem-
ber, 1917, and began his first term in January, 1918.
By re-election he entered upon the duties of his second
term in January, 1922.
Mr. Harmon owns a modern home at Whitley City,
and for many years has been a prosperous farmer.
He owns an attractive county estate of forty-six acres
at Pine Knot, and has directed the management of
this farm since 1901. He also has 150 acres of wood
lands near Marsh Creek. For ten years Mr. Harmon
has also handled fire and life insurance.
During the World war he was chairman of a com-
mittee to secure laborers for the building of Camp
Knox and Camp Taylor, and was a member of local
committees for the Liberty Loan and Red Cross drives,
and made his office as county superintendent of schools
an instrument of service in reaching out over the
county and promoting the sale of war savings stamps.
Mr. Harmon is a republican. He is a member of the
Kentucky Educational Association.
December 16, 1901, at Pine Knot, he married Miss
Minnie Spencer, daughter of Robert C. and Hettie
(Smith) Spencer, residents of Pine Knot Her father
is a retired music teacher, and Mrs. Harmon is a
musician widely known over this section of Kentucky,
a well trained instrumentalist and vocalist and a teacher
of music. During the World war she devoted a large
part of her time to patriotic movements and spoke in
behalf of the various drives throughout McCreary
County. Mr. and Mrs. Harmon are the parents of
seven children, a group of young people distinguished
by their intellectual abilities. Lawrence, the oldest,
born in 1902, is a graduate of the Whitley City High
School and now a student in Cumberland College, at
Williamsburg; Virgil, born in 1904, in the junior class
of the Whitley City High School; Judson is said to be
the youngest common school and high school graduate
in the state, having completed his studies in the eighth
grade when eleven years of age, graduating from the
high school at Whitley City at the age of fifteen, and
is now taking his freshman year in Cumberland Col-
lege. The younger children are Mabel, in the junior
class of high school; Maynard, in the fifth grade;
Marie, born in 1915 and already in the second grade,
and John, Jr., was born in 1918.
Monte J. Goble. Representing a well known family
of Eastern Kentucky, Monte J. Goble has devoted over
thirty years of his active life to banking, and for
twenty years of that time has been connected in in-
creasing responsibilities with the banking interests of
the City of Cincinnati, where he resides.
He was born at Louisa, Lawrence County, Kentucky,
March 21, 1874, son of Montraville B. and Mary J.
(Northup) Goble. The Goble family in America was
established by some early French Huguenot settlers
in New Jersey, who came to this country before the
Revolutionary war. Greenville Goble, grand father of
the Cincinnati banker, was a prominent man of Eastern
Kentucky, a lawyer by profession, and held a number
of political offices including prosecuting attorney at a
time when Lawrence County embraced the territory now
divided among several counties. His wife was of an
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
619
ancestry including the Wilson, Jones and the Greene
families of Virginia and North Carolina.
Montraville B. Goble was also a native of Lawrence
County, and took up the profession of law at the age
of nineteen, but soon became interested in the coal, tim-
berland and lumber industry, and devoted all his active
lifetime to the affairs growing out of these connec-
tions. His wife, Mary J. Northup, was born in Wash-
ington County, New York, of an old family in that
state, the original name Northup being changed by some
branches to Northrop and Northop. On her mother's
side she was related to the Hicks of Granville, and
Glens Falls, New York, and to the Roblees of the same
section of New York and Vermont. Mary J. Northup
after the Civil war moved to Lawrence County, Ken-
tucky, with her brother, Col. Jay H. Northup, who be-
came partner with Montraville B. Goble in the lumber
and coal land business.
When Monte J. Goble was two years of age his par-
ents removed to Catlettsburg at the mouth of the Big
Sandy, and he was reared there, attending the grammar
and high schools. He spent three years from 1888 to
1891 in Washington and Lee University at Lexington,
Virginia, and on leaving College began his banking
career in the Big Sandy National Bank at Catlettsburg.
He was with that institution from 1891 to 1902, and
in the latter, year moved to Cincinnati. He began as
assistant cashier in the First National Bank, later was
promoted to cashier when the Fifth and the Third
were merged in 1908 as the Fifth-Third National Bank.
He is now vice president of this, one of Cincinnati's
largest banking institutions. Mr. Goble has devoted his
time to banking, and is rated as an authority on finan-
cial and economic conditions in this section of the Ohio
Valley.
He was reared and educated in the South, acquired
the view point of a Southerner, but in his business
career has been associated with the interests and the
men of the North, and out of this experience he has
acquired an independent attitude and view as to poli-
tics, regarding the man and the issues of more im-
portance than the party and believing that an independ-
ent element is always needed as a balance wheel be-
tween the two great parties.
His loyalty to the South has been shown on many
occasions to the satisfaction of a great many southern
banks in their enterprises, and this probably was most
strongly brought out at the general bankers' meeting
called in Lexington, Ky., early in January, 1922, when
the bankers of Ohio and Indiana were desirous of co-
operating with the bankers of Kentucky, in helping out
in the financing of the growers in the Light Burley
districts of the three states.
The Burley Tobacco Growers Co-operative Associa-
tion, which was endeavoring to raise funds to handle
the pool tobacco, was just getting ready to call for sub-
scriptions for finances from the several hundred bankers
assembled in the Phoenix Hotel, when Mr. Goble asked
the chairman if he could respond for his bank before
the general call for subscriptions was made. This was
agreed to, and his institution through him made the
offer to lend the association $500,000, as well as to re-
discount the association's paper which might be given
by the other bankers. This offer to re-discount the
paper purchased from the association by other banks
in the district carried no qualifications as to the banks
being correspondents of the Fifth-Third National Bank
of Cincinnati. This offer was made at a very oppor-
tune time, and practically every banker in the room
subscribed his full quota, for about $5,000,000 was
raised before the meeting adjourned.
Mr. Goble at college was a member of the Alpha
Tau Omega Fraternity, and has since taken both the
Scottish and York Rite degrees in Masonry. He is a
member of the Maketewah Country Club, the Business
Men's Club and the Chamber of Commerce of Cin-
cinnati.
February 23, 1909, he married Bessie Bradley, daugh-
ter of Frank A. and Susan Foster Bradley of Cincin-
nati. Her parents were reared in Cincinnati and her
parents in turn were representatives of some of the
earliest settlers in the city. Mr. and Mrs. Goble have
two children: Monte J., Jr., born in 1910; and Mary
Northup, born in 191 1.
Joseph M. Emmart. Coming to Louisville in 1905,
Mr. Emmart has since figured conspicuously in the
meat packing and provision industry, and is the chief
executive officer of the Louisville Provision Company,
one of the largest concerns of its kind in the Ohio
Valley.
Mr. Emmart comes of a family that has long been
identified with the food packing and provision busi-
ness. He was born near the City of Baltimore, Mary-
land, March II, 1882, a son of William M. and Lizzie
J. (Gregg) Emmart, also natives of Baltimore County.
His grandfather, Girard Emmart, had a farm in Balti-
more County and was one of the pioneer members of
the Methodist Episcopal Church, the first Sunday
School of that denomination in that part of Maryland
having been held in his home while his son, William
M., was a boy, and later a church was built on the
grandfather's farm. William M. Emmart, who was
born in 1850 and died in 1921, devoted his early years
to farming and later engaged in the canning industry
as president of the Emmart Packing Company of
Baltimore. He was a leading member of the Metho-
dist Church. He is survived by his widow and two
sons and two daughters of a family of four daughters
and two sons.
Fourth among these children, Joseph M. Emmart
attended school at Baltimore, but as a boy went to
Chicago and when only twelve years of age was office
boy for the great Chicago merchant, Marshall Field.
He acquired a thorough training for his present busi-
ness with Swift & Company in the car routing depart-
ment, and in 1905 came to Louisville and for some five
years was associated with the Louisville Packing Com-
pany. In 1910 he was one of the organizers of the
Louisville Provision Company, and has since been sec-
retary, treasurer and manager of this extensive local
industry.
Mr. Emmart's company during the World war sup-
plied millions of pounds of meat to the Government
at Camp Taylor. He put forth extra exertions in
handling his business for patriotic motives, and asso-
ciated himself with other war movements. He is a
member of the Y. M. C. A., of the Optimist Club, of
the Audubon Club, of the Board of Trade, of which
he is a director and is also a director in the Louis-
ville Automobile Club. He is affiliated with Preston
Lodge No. 281, F. and A. M., Eureka Chapter No.
101, R. A. M., DeMolay Commandery No. 12, K. T.,
with the Grand Consistory of Scottish Rite and Kosair
Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He is a member of the
Christian Church. Mr. Emmart married Miss Anne
May Webb on February 10, 1910. She is a native of
Boyle County, Kentucky. They have one son, Bartlett
Milward Emmart.
John W. Caldwell, soldier, born in Prince Edward
County, Virginia, died in Frankfort, Kentucky, Novem-
ber 9, 1804. He removed to Kentucky in 1781, served
in the conflicts with the Indians and became a major-
general of the militia. He was a member of the Ken-
tucky state conventions of 1787 and 1788, and of the
state senate in 1792 and 1793. At the time of his death
he was lieutenant governor.
John Marshall Harlan, born in Boyle County, Ken-
tucky, June. 1, 1833, was graduated at Centre College in
620
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
1850, and at the law department of Transylvania Uni-
versity in 1853. In 1851 he was adjutant general of
Kentucky, and in 1858 he became judge of Franklin
County, Kentucky. He was afterward an unsuccessful
whig candidate for congress, and at the beginning of
the Civil war entered the Union Army as colonel of
the Tenth Kentucky Infantry. He was attorney gen-
eral of Kentucky in 1863-7, and was the unsuccessful
republican candidate for governor of the state in 187 1
and 1875. He was a member of the Louisiana commis-
sion that was appointed by President Hayes, and on
November 29, 1877, became associate justice of the
United States Supreme Court, as successor of David
Davis; served until his death in 191 1.
Benjamin Hardin, statesman, born in Westmoreland
County Pennsylvania, in 178-I, died in Bardstown, Ken-
tucky, September 24, 1852. He removed to Kentucky
in childhood, received a primary education, studied law,
was admitted to the bar in 1806, and began to practice
at Bardstown. He served in the state house of repre-
sentatives in 1810-11 and 1824-5, and in 1815 took his
seat in Congress, having been elected as a whig, and
served till 1817 and again from 1833 till 1837. In 1844
he was appointed secretary of state of Kentucky, and
held office till his resignation in 1847, and was a mem-
ber of the State Constitutional Convention of 1849. He
was distinguished as a debater, and his style was pun-
gent and sarcastic. John Randolph of Roanoke de-
scribed him as a "kitchen-knife, rough and homely, but
keen and trenchant."
Benjamin Helm Bristow, statesman born in Elk-
ton, Todd County, Kentucky, June 20, 1832. He was
graduated at Jefferson College, Pennsylvania, in 1851,
studied law, and was admitted to the bar of Kentucky
in 1853. He began practice at Elkton, whence he re-
moved to Hopkinsville in 1858. At the beginning of
the Civil war, at a time when the state was wavering
between loyalty and secession, he entered the Union
Army as lieutenant-colonel of the Twenty-fifth Ken-
tucky Infantry, and was engaged at the capture of
Fort Donelson and at the battle of Shiloh, where he
was wounded. He afterward became colonel of the
Eighth Kentucky Cavalry, and served throughout the
war with distinction. While still in the field he was
elected to the state senate for four years, but resigned
at the end of two years serving only from 1863 until
1865. He was United States District Attorney for the
Louisville district from 1865 until 1870. The ability
with which he filled these offices led to his appointment
as solicitor-general of the United States on the organ-
ization of the department of justice in October, 1870.
In 1872 he resigned to become attorney for the Texas
Pacific railroad, but soon returned to the practice of
law at Louisville. He was nominated attorney-general
of the United States in December, 1873, but not con-
firmed. President Grant appointed him secretary of
the treasury on June 3, 1874, and this office he filled
acceptably until the end of June, 1876, when he resigned,
owing to the demands of his private business. At the
republican national convention of that year, held in Cin-
cinnati, Ohio, he was a leading candidate for the presi-
dential nomination, receiving 113 votes on the first
ballot.
and was a candidate for Congress in that year, but was
defeated by L. Q. C. Lamar. He was the founder of
the levee system in his state, and in 1858 he became
president of the levee board of the Mississippi- Yazoo
Delta. In 1861 he was elected brigadier-general by the
state convention, of which he was a member, but his
commission was refused by Jefferson Davis on account
of old political differences. He was elected to the
United States Senate in 1865, but was not allowed to
take his seat. He was elected governor in 1869 on the
republican ticket, from which office he resigned on
being elected to the United States Senate, where he
served for six years, from December 4, 1871. In 1873
he was defeated as an independent candidate for gov-
ernor of his state.
Hon. Joshua F. Bell was a lineal descendant of Dr.
Thomas Walker, the first recorded explorer of Ken-
tucky, and of Joshua Fry, the distinguished pioneer
teacher of historic mention. He was born in Danville
November 26, 181 1, where he graduated at college in
1828, and died August 17, 1870. Qualified for the pro-
fession of law, in 1845, he was elected to Congress,
and in 1850, became secretary of state under Governor
Crittenden. In 1861, he was one of the six commis-
sioners to the peace conference at Washington City,
and a delegate to the Border State Convention. He
declined the nomination for governor in 1863, of the
Union Democratic State Convention, tendered by an
overwhelming majority. Kentucky has produced but
few men superior in literary attainments, in legal ability,
and in statesmanship, to Mr. Bell. As an orator, he
ranked among the first men of Kentucky. He was a
close logical and powerful speaker, and the smooth-
ness and beauty of his eloquence gained for him the
appellation of "Bell of the Silver Tongue."
Richard Henry Stanton, born in Alexandria, Vir-
ginia, September 9, 1812. He received an academic
education, studied law, was admitted to the bar, and
practiced at Maysville, Kentucky. Elected to Congress
as a democrat, he served from December 3, 1849, till
March 3, 1855; was presidential elector on the Bu-
chanan ticket in 1856; state attorney for his judicial
district in 1858; a delegate to the National Democratic
Convention in 1868; and district judge in 1868-74. He
edited the "Maysville Monitor" and "Maysville Ex-
press," and published a "Code of Practice" in civil and
criminal cases in Kentucky, "Practical Treatises for
Justices of the Peace, etc., of Kentucky " and a "Prac-
tical Manual for Executors, etc., in Kentucky."
Thomas Marshall, son of John Marshall, of West-
moreland County, and Elizabeth Markham, his wife,
was born in Washington parish, Westmoreland County,
April 2, 1730; was a lieutenant in the French and Indian
war ; burgess for Fauquier County in the assemblies
of 1761-1765, 1766-1769, 1769-1771 1772-1774, 1775, and
a member of the conventions of 1774. 1775, 1776; colonel
of the Third Virginia Regiment in the Continental
army ; in 1780 surveyor-general of the lands in Ken-
tucky appropriated to the officers and soldiers of the
Virginia Continental line; removed to Kentucky and
died there June 22, 1802. He married Mary Randolph
Keith, and was father of Chief Justice John Marshall.
James Lusk Alcorn, statesman, born near Golconda,
Illinois November 4, 1816. He early removed to Ken-
tucky, and was educated at Cumberland College. For
five years he was deputy sheriff of Livingston County,
Kentucky, and in 1843 was elected to the Legislature.
In 1844 he removed to Mississippi and began the prac-
tice of law. From 1846 to 1865 he served in one branch
or the other of the Legislature. In 1852 he was chosen
elector-at-large on the Scott ticket, and in 1857 was
nominated as governor by the whigs. This he declined
Alexander Galt Barret was born in Louisville, Ken-
tucky, October 4, 1870, the son of Henry W. and Emma
(Tyler) Barret. He graduated from Harvard College
in 1889, receiving the degree of A. B. and from Har-
vard Law School in 1893, with the degree of LL. B.
Immediately upon his graduation in 1893 he entered
into the practice of his chosen profession in Louisville.
He was engaged in a number of prominent cases in
which he was on the winning side. He was one of
the counsel for the Fusion party in their successful
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
621
contest of the election held in Louisville and Jefferson
counties in 1905, which election was set aside as fraudu-
lent by the Court of Appeals of Kentucky. He served
as chairman of the Board of Public Works of Louis-
ville under Mayor James F. Grinstead from November,
rc.07, to November, 190Q. Mr. Barret was treasurer of
the Orphanage of the Good Shepherd and secretary of
the Children's Free Hospital of Louisville and also a
trustee of the Lincoln Institute of Kentucky.
Joel T. Hart, sculptor, born in Clark County, Ken-
tucky, in 1810, died in Florence, Italy, March I, 1877.
He received a common school education, and was ap-
prenticed to a stonecutter in Lexington, Kentucky, where
he began to model busts in clay. In 1849 he went to
Italy to study, and there, under the patronage of the
Ladies' Clay Association, modelled a statue of Henry
Clay, which is now in Richmond, Virginia. His next
work was a colossal bronze statue of Mr. Clay which
is now in New Orleans, and the marble statue of that
statesman in the Louisville Court House. Thirty years
of his life were spent in Florence, during which time
he finished busts and statues of many distinguished
men. His best compositions are "Charity," "Woman
Triumphant," and "Penserosa." He invented an ap-
paratus for obtaining mechanically the outline of a
head from life. It consisted of a metallic shell, which
surrounded the head, with a space between, perforated
for a large number of pins. Each pin was pushed in-
ward till it touched the head, and there fastened. The
shell was then filled with plaster, which was cut away
till the points of the pins were reached, thus forming
a rough mould.
James Streshley Jackson, soldier, born in Fayette
County, Kentucky, September 27, 1823, died in Perry-
ville Kentucky, October 8, 1862. He was graduated at
Jefferson College, Pennsylvania, and in law at Transyl-
vania University, in 1845, and began practice. At the
beginning of the Mexican war he raised a regiment of
volunteers, and served for a time as lieutenant. While
in Mexico he had a difficulty with Col. Thomas F. Mar-
shall, which resulted in a duel, and he resigned to
avoid trial by court-martial. He then resumed prac-
tice first at Greenupsburg and afterward at Hopkins-
ville, Kentucky, and in i860 was elected to Congress
as a Unionist, but resigned his seat in autumn, 1861,
and organized for the National Government the Third
Kentucky Cavalry, of which he became colonel. He
took an active part in the battles of Shiloh, Corinth,
Iuka and Athens, and on July 16 1862, was commis-
sioned brigadier-general of volunteers. He commanded
a division of McCook's Gorps, of the army of the Ohio,
at the battle of Perryville, where he was killed. Gen-
eral Jackson possessed great personal attractions, and his
impetuosity led him into several duels in addition to
the one above mentioned.
Ballard Bland was born at Fredericksburg, Vir-
ginia, October 16, 1761. When he was eighteen years
old he emigrated to Kentucky, and became one of its
earliest settlers. He joined a volunteer force which,
under Colonel Bowman, which was attempting to free
the district of savages, and served in the expedition
into Ohio. A year later he took part in George Rogers
Clark's raid against the Piqua towns, and in 1794 he
was with General Wayne at the battle of the Fallen
Timbers. He was a man of great bravery, and became
one of the most renowned Qf Indian fighters. In 1780
he was eployed by George Rogers Clark to explore the
banks of the Ohio from the Falls, at what is now Louis-
ville, to the mouth of the present town of West Point.
Ballard's most harrowing experience was while wit-
nessing the slaughter of his father mother and two
sisters by a party of fifteen Indians. A younger sister
escaped after being scalped and left for dead. Ballard
was too late to save their lives, but from his place of
concealment killed nearly half of the Indians. After
peace had been restored, Ballard was sent several times
as a representative to the State Legislature. The County
of Ballard, Kentucky, and its capital, Blandville, were
named in his honor. He died September 5, 1853.
C. F. Burnam. Hon. Curtis Field Burnam was born
in Richmond, Kentucky, on May 24, 1820, the descend-
ant of English ancestry, the first authentic knowledge
of his paternal ancestry coining from Cecil County,
Maryland, where they located in the earlv part of the
Eighteenth century. There his grandfather, John Bur-
nam, was born in 1761, and was taken by his parents
to Virginia. He joined the Revolutionary army on July
31. 1776, in the Third South Carolina Regiment, and
participated in the battles of Cowpens and Guilford
Court House and closed his military service at York-
town. After the war he went south and settled near
Raleigh, North Carolina, living there for a number of
years and on December 4, 1787, married Ann Fort, the
daughter of Capt. Frederick Fort, a Revolutionary sol-
dier. Here Thompson Burnam, the father of the sub-
ject of our sketch was born in 1789, and in 1790,
becoming imbued with the spirit of the pioneer, John
Burnam crossed the mountains and brought his family
by way of the Wilderness Road to Kentucky. After
living at various places he finally settled in the Green
River country and died near Bowling Green, Kentucky,
in 1831, honored and respected by all who knew him.
His wife, who was a woman of strong character and
intellect, also died near Bowling Green, where they are
both buried.
Thompson Burnam, the father of our subject, re-
ceived only a limited education and entered the store
of a merchant at Richmond at an early age and by his
industry and ability soon acquired a competency and
became a successful merchant in his own name. He
was a man who wielded a great influence in the com-
munity and helped to give it a remarkable standing
for integrity and solvency with the merchants on the
eastern states. He married Lucinda Field in 1815, in
Bourbon County, Kentucky. She was born in Culpeper
County, Virginia, April 8, 1792, and was the daughter
of John and Diana Field and the granddaughter of
Col. John Field, killed at Point Pleasant in 1774 in
the battle with the Indians, led by the celebrated Chief
Cornstalk. This battle is considered by many histor-
ians as the beginning of the Revolutionary struggle.
The wife of Col. John Field was Ann Rogers Clark,
thought to be, as the name would indicate, a near rela-
tive of Gen. George Rogers Clark. Both of Curtis F.
Burnam's parents lived to an honored old age and
died in Richmond, Kentucky, where they were buried.
They left numerous descendants and to all the priceless
heritage of a name without stain or blemish.
Mr. Burnam received his preliminary education at
the Mission Male Seminary at Richmond, Kentucky,
which was a preparation for college, and in January,
1837, when he was seventeen years of age, he left his
home to enter upon his career at Yale College, New
Haven. He traveled to Philadelphia in stage coaches,
where he first saw a steam car, and took his first ride
from Philadelphia to New York, and from there to
New Haven by boat. He passed examination for the
Sophomore class, but on account of his youth was ad-
vised to enter the Freshman class, which he did. He
did not return home during his college career, but re-
mained at New Haven continuously until May, 1840.
He always loved books and to the end of his life they
were his companions. He won many college honors,
alike for literary productions, oratory and scholarship,
in the Senior year being elected class orator, delivering
the farewell address. He was chosen a member of the
622
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
Skull and Bones Club and of the Phi Beta Kappa
Society, and in fact had more college honors than
usually fall to the lot of one boy.
During his college life he acquired the habits of sys-
tematic study and reading which continued throughout
his whole life. His vacations had been spent largely
in the college library reading books of every character.
By reason of this summer work he acquired a famil-
iarity with English literature, both prose and poetry,
which was destined to be of the greatest service to him
and of pleasure to his friends. He possessed a won-
derful memory and the unusual ability to make apt
quotations and to tell exactly from whence they came.
Mr. Burnam began the study of law soon after reach-
ing home, commencing his studies in the office of Judge
Daniel Breck, a distinguished jurist. He continued his
studies in the law department of Transylvania Uni-
versity, from which he graduated in 1842. For a time
he was the partner of William C. Gooddloe, who
shortly afterward became circuit judge and continued
as such for many years. Mr. Burnam practiced with
great success and in a few years he was engaged on
one side or the other in practically all the important
cases in Madison and the adjacent counties. During
this period and until the beginning of the war there was
a great deal of litigation relating to slaves .and although
Mr. Burnam and his people were slave owners, his
sympathies were in accord with Mr. Clay's for the
gradual emancipation of the negroes. Mr. Burnam's
success as a lawyer through his whole career was
attributable not only to his knowledge of the law, but
to his unswerving loyalty to his clients, his great ability
as a pleader and his conscientious preparation of his
cases.
His pleadings, always written by himself, were models
of brevity, clearness and elegant English. He was a
great jury advocatem during a period when the reputa-
tion of the Kentucky bar for eloquence was at its
height. He had the charm both of voice and language
and many of his arguments in celebrated cases have
become traditional among the great speeches of the
Madison County bar. Mr. Burnam's speech-making
was not confined to his profession or political questions,
as he was from early manhood to old age being con-
stantly asked to deliver addresses by literary institu-
tions and on public occasions of all kinds, many of his
addresses having been printed in pamphlet form for
preservation.
Mr. Burnam's political career began early in life, the
law, government and politics having been closely asso-
ciated, especially in the South. He was commonwealth
attorney for awhile and presidential elector more than
once. In 1851 he first represented his county in the
State Legislature. During the years from 1850 to i860
Mr. Burnam was twice a candidate for Congress, los-
ing the nomination in each instance by a narrow margin,
which reverses he afterward considered fortunate be-
cause they sent him back to the practice of the law,
which was much more remunerative than holding office.
Mr. Burnam became a warm personal friend of Mr.
Lincoln and supported all measures tending to strengthen
his administration of the government, and in 1864 was
active in his advocacy of the re-election of the great
abolitionist. At the outbreak of the Civil war, although
Kentucky was a slave state, Mr. Burnam, animated by
that intense patriotism which ever characterized him
and by the anti-slavery principles inherited from his
father, gave himself up to work of the preservation of
the Union.
Mr. Burnam was a member of the Legislature from
i860 to 1864, and being chairman of the Committee
on Federal Relations, did everything in his power to
keep Kentucky from passing acts of secession. His
services were of great value after the issuing of the
Emancipation Proclamation in the endeavor to mediate
between the parties so hotly in conflict at that time.
In 1863 he was captured in Lexington by a detachment
of Morgan's cavalry and held as a prisoner of war
because of his prominence as a leader of the Union
party of the state. He was exchanged for a younger
brother of General Morgan's, who was also a prisoner
of war.
In 1875 Mr. Burnam was, without solicitation, offered
the position of assistant secretary of the United States
treasury by General Bristow. He accepted and held
the office until General Bristow's resignation. The fol-
lowing fifteen years of Mr. Burnam's life were devoted
almost exclusively to his profession, although he took
the greatest interest in the progress and welfare of his
count}', state and nation, and was actively interested
in everything pertaining to the progress of his com-
munity, banks, schools and public improvements of all
kinds. He was a member of nearly all the state con-
ventions of his party, also a delegate to a number of
national conventions. In 1883 he took a vacation and
spent several months in Europe, and during this absence
was unanimously elected president of the Kentucky
State Bar Association. He was instrumental in the
organization of a constitutional convention and in 1890
was elected a delegate to this constitutional convention
by an overwhelming majority from his county. He
enjoyed the work of the convention very much and
often said that he expected this to be his last public
service, but he was mistaken, for during the strenuous
times of 1899 Mr. Burnam was called upon to make
the race for state senator in his district, although he
was in his eightieth year, and not present at the con-
vention. He remained in Frankfort during the whole
of the legislative session, endeavoring in every way to
uphold and maintain the majesty of the law. Mr. Bur-
nam was re-elected to the state senate in 1903, and
during that period introduced and had passed the law
establishing the Confederate Home, thereby showing
his liberal views on such questions. He made a great
speech on the Berea College bill during his term and
all this service was given after Mr. Burnam had passed
his eighty-fifth year, with the adjournment of this ses-
sion of the Legislature, March, 1906, his public career
closed.
The closing years of his life were beautiful. Mr.
Burnam enjoyed them, he loved his home, his family
and his friends ; he loved nature, birds, trees and books
and from the latter he derived more recreation than
from anything else. He read and re-read fiction, poe-
try and history. His memory was wonderful and in no
wise impaired and his knowledge of Latin was re-
markable. One of his great pleasures was in reading,
in the original, of the poems of Horace, Virgil and
others, and in the evening he frequently played whist
with the members of his family and with friends.
Mr. Burnam was married in May, 1845, to Miss
Sarah Helen Rollins, of Boone County, Missouri. She
was a daughter of Dr. Anthony W. Rollins, and a
sister of Hon. James Rollins, both of whose names are
connected with the early history of Missouri, especially
with the establishment and growth of the University
at Columbia. The married life of Mr. and Mrs. Bur-
nam was blessed in every way, with children, health
and many years. Mrs. Burnam was a woman of the
old type, handsome, gracious, frugal and industrious,
preferring to devote her time to the duties of home
- instead of the modern women's clubs, charitable, a true
friend and her first care the happiness of her husband
and children. After more than fifty-nine years of
wedded life they were parted by her death on May 13,
1904. They were the parents of eight children, all of
whom grew to maturity and six of whom have sur-
vived their parents.
Mr. Burnam was a member of the Masonic fraternity
and was held in great esteem by the brotherhood. A
most beautiful incident of his life was the occasion of
his eighty-seventh birthday, when a banquet was ten-
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
623
dered him by the Masons of his native town and county,
a tribute of the esteem in which he was held among
them. In religion he was an "Old Baptist," this being
the church of his fathers.
Mr. Burnam died March 19, 1909, at his home, Bur-
namwood, after a short illness. He was buried from
the Baptist Church with full Templar honors, in the
cemetery at Richmond, which more than fifty years
before he had helped to dedicate and of whose business
organization he was long president. His force of char-
acter, his gentleness of disposition and his fixed pur-
pose always to do the right impressed all who met him.
He never willingly gave offense or wounded the feel-
ings of those whom he opposed, but rather seemed to
win their confidence and respect by his courtesy and
ability, and his most glorious epitaph is that he is loved
and remembered in the hearts of his family and friends.
The Richmond tar, many corporations, college presi-
dents, prominent ecclesiastics, the governor and many
others sent resolutions and letters of condolence to the
family and in all ways demonstrated the personal and
public loss the community sustained when Curtis Field
Burnam died.
Basil W. Duke was born in Scott Countv, Kentucky,
May 28. 1838. He was the only child of Nathaniel W.
Duke and Mary Ann Pickett (Currie) Duke. At the
early age of sixteen, the father entered the navy as a
midshipman and was steadily advanced by merit, to a
captaincy. He died among friends at Paris, Kentucky,
in July, 1850. General Duke's mother was born in
Richmond, Virginia, December 17, 1813; was married
October 4, 1833, and died in Lexington, Kentucky, Feb-
ruary 24, 1847.
General Duke's early education was begun in the
private schools of Scott County, but he had the great
advantage afterward of attending the fine private school
of Rev. Lyman W. Seely, at Maysville. Later he at-
tended at Georgetown College and the famous Centre
College at Danville. He was a nervous impetuous
youth not altogether inclined to the strict discipline of
the schools, but his was a quick, impressible mind, tak-
ing hold of a subject with a readiness that probably
gave him a better education than he ever imagined he
had. On leaving college he began the study of law
under the valued training of Chief Justice George Rob-
ertson, than whom no better lawyer has sat upon the
bench of Kentucky's highest court. Taking his degree
from the law department of Transylvania University
before his twenty-first anniversary, General Duke went
to Missouri, stopping first in Saline County, but going
soon afterwards to St. Louis, where he was admitted
to the bar and began the practice of his profession.
His military spirit first developed here and he be-
came the captain of a company of "Minute Men" who
were sympathizers with the South. He was also ap-
pointed by the governor, police commissioner of St.
Louis, a position of far more importance then than now.
The storm clouds of war were gathering, and young
Duke's sympathies were all with the South. He urged
upon the governor the importance of seizing the arsenal
at St. Louis and the securing of the munitions of war
there stored. The governor hesitated and the arsenal
was lost. General Lyon got there first and the Con-
federates lost the much-needed military stores. A force
was sent against the "Minute Men" but Duke burned
the bridges over the Gasconade and Osage rivers, thus
saving himself and his men from capture. For this
bit of military enterprise, he was subsequently indicted
for arson and also for treason, though never tried for
either alleged offense. The Federal authorities in Mis-
souri were anxious to capture Duke, and knowing this
he left the state to its own devices. Coming back to
Kentucky, he joined his brother-in-law, John H. Mor-
gan, who led to the South three companies that were
later to become parts of the division known to all as
"Morgan's Men." Morgan was captain of Company A,
and Duke was his first lieutenant and acting adjutant
of the command. This little command began at once
to make history and never left off until there was no
more a Confederacy. The first great battle in which
the command participated was at Shiloh when it was
in the fiercest of the fighting and it was here that Duke
received the first of the three wounds from which he
was to suffer during the war. Owing to his activity
in this and many other battles. President Roosevelt ap-
pointed General Duke a member of the Shiloh Com-
mission, in 1911.
Returning home from the war General Duke engaged
in the practice of law ; was a member of the Legisla-
ture and state's attorney for six years. He was the
author of the "History of Morgan's Command" and
of a volume of "Reminiscences" and a graceful con-
tributor to the press.
General Duke was married July 8, 1861, to Miss Hen-
rietta Hunt Morgan of Lexington, Kentucky, the sister
of Gen. John H. Morgan.
John Boyle, jurist, born in Botetourt County, Vir-
ginia, October 28, 1774, died in Kentucky January 28,
1834. His parents removed to Kentucky when he was
five years old. He received a good education, studied
law and began to practice his profession in Lancaster
in 1797. Elected to Congress in 1803, he served three
successive terms until March 3, 1809. He was appointed
governor of Illinois, then a territory after leaving Con-
gress, but declined to serve, preferring the bench of
the Court of Appeals of Kentucky. Of this court he
became chief justice in April, 1810, and retained the
place until November 8, 1826, when he was appointed
United States District Judge for Kentucky, an office
which he held during the remainder of his life.
John Breathitt, governor of Kentucky, born near
New London, Virginia, September 9, 1786, died in
Frankfort, Kentucky, February 21, 1834. He removed
with his father to Kentucky in 1800, was a surveyor
and teacher, studied law, and was admitted to the bar
in 1810. He was an earnest Jacksonian democrat, and
for several years was a member of the Legislature. He
was lieutenant-governor of Kentucky in 1828-32, and
governor in 1832-4.
Henry Bidleman Bascom, Methodist Episcopal
bishop, born in Hancock, Delaware County, New York,
May 27, 1796, died in Louisville, Kentucky, September
8, 1850. He was descended from a Huguenot family.
He had but little education, but before the age of
eighteen he was licensed to preach, and admitted to
the Ohio conference, where he did hard work on the
frontier, preaching in one year 400 times, and receiv-
ing a salary of $12.10. His style being too florid to
suit the taste of those to whom he preached, he was
transferred, in 1816, to Tennessee; but after filling ap-
pointments there and in Kentucky, he returned to Ohio
in 1822, and in 1823 Henry Clay obtained for him the
appointment of chaplain to Congress. At the close of
the session of that body he visited Baltimore, where
his fervid oratory made a great sensation. He was
first president of Madison College, Uniontown, Pa., in
1827-8, and from 1829 till 1831 was agent of the col-
onization society. From that time until 1841 he was
professor of moral science and belles-lettres at Au-
gusta College, Kentucky. He became president of
Transylvania University, Kentucky, in 1842, having
previously declined the presidency of two other col-
leges. Doctor Bascom was a member of the general
conference of 1844, which suspended Bishop Andrew
because he refused to manumit his slaves, and the pro-
test of the southern members against the action of the
majority was drawn up by him. In 1845 he was a
member of the Louisville convention, which organized
624
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
the Methodist Church, South, and was the author of
its report ; and he was chairman of the commission
appointed to settle the differences between the two
branches of the church. In 1846 he became editor of
the "Southern Methodist Quarterly Review," and in
1849 he was chosen bishop, being ordained in May,
1850, only a few months before his death. Doctor
Bascom was a powerful speaker, but was fond of strong
epithets and rather extravagant metaphors. He was
the author of "Sermons from the Pulpit," "Lectures
on Infidelity," "Methodism and Slavery." A posthumous
edition of his works was edited by Rev. T. N. Ralston
(Nashville, Tenn., 1850 and 1856). See "Life of Bishop
Bascom," by Rev. Dr. M. M. Henkle (Nashville, 1854).
Robert Anderson, soldier, horn at "Soldier's Re-
treat," near Louisville, Kentucky, June 14, 1805, died
in Nice, France, October 27, 1871. He graduated at
West Point in 1825, and was appointed second lieu-
tenant in the Third Artillery. He served in the Black
Hawk war of 1832 as colonel of the Illinois Volun-
teers. In 1835-37 he was instructor of artillery at
West Point, and in 1837-38 he served in the Florida
war, and was brevetted captain. Subsequently he was
attached to the staff of General Scott as assistant ad-
jutant general, and was promoted to captain in 1841.
He served in the Mexican war, and was severely
wounded at Molino del Rey. In 1857 he was appointed
major of the First Artillery, and on November 20,
i860, he assumed command of the troops in Charles-
ton Harbor, with headquarters at Fort Moultrie. Ow-
ing to threatened assaults, he withdrew his command
on the night of December 26th to Fort Sumter, where
he was soon closely invested by the Confederate forces.
On April 13, 1861, he evacuated the fort, after a bom-
bardment of nearly thirty-six hours from batteries to
which he replied as long as his guns could be worked.
He marched out, with his seventy men, with the hon-
ors of war, on the 14th, saluting his flag as it was
hauled down, and sailed for New York on the follow-
ing day. In recognition of his service he was appointed
brigadier-general in the United States Army by Presi-
dent Lincoln, and was assigned to the command of the
Department of Kentucky, and subsequently to that of
the Cumberland. In consequence of failing health, he
was relieved from duty in October, 1861. He was re-
tired from active service, October 27, 1863, and on
February 3, 1865, he was brevetted major-general. He
sailed for Europe in 1869 for his health, but died there.
He translated and adapted from the French "Instruc-
tions for Field Artillery, Horse and Foot" (1840), and
"Evolutions of Field Batteries" (i860), both of which
have been used by the war department. It was largely
owing to his personal efforts that the initial steps were
taken organizing the Soldiers' Home in Washington.
Charles A. Wickliffe, politician, born in Bardstown,
Kentucky, June 8, 1788, died in Howard County, Mary-
land, October 31, 1869. He was educated at the Bards-
town grammar school, studied law, was admitted to the
bar in 1809, and began practice in Bardstown. He soon
achieved distinction as a lawyer. He was aide to Gen.
Samuel Caldwell at the battle of the Thames, Octo-
ber 5, 1813, was a member of the state house of
Representatives in 1814-23, and sat in Congress from
Kentucky in 1823-33, having been chosen as a Henry
Clay democrat. He was then elected again to the
state Legislature, and was its speaker in 1834. In 1836
he was elected lieutenant-governor of his native state,
and in 1839 he became acting governor. In 1841 he
was appointed postmaster-general by President Tyler,
holding the post till March, 1845, and in the latter year
he was sent by President Polk on a secret mission to
Texas in the interests of annexation. He was a mem-
ber of the State Constitutional Convention of 1845 a
member of the Peace Congress in February, 186 1,
served again in Congress in 1861-3, having been chosen
as a Union Whig, and was a delegate to the Chicago
National Democratic Convention in 1846. Mr. Wick-
liffe was wealthy, and his aristocratic bearing and
contempt for the poorer classes won him the name of
"the Duke."
John Clarke Young, educator, born in Greencastle.
Pennsylvania, August 12, 1803, died in Danville, Ken-
tucky, June 23, 1857. He was the son of an eminent
clergyman of the Associate Reformed Church, studied
at Columbia for three years, then went to Dickinson
College, where he was graduated in 1823, spent two
years at Princeton Seminary and, while acting as a
tutor in Princeton College during the next two years,
was licensed to preach by the New York Presbyter)
on March 7, 1827. He was installed as pastor of a
Presbyterian church in Louisville, Kentucky, in 182S.
and two years later was chosen president of Centre
College, which office he filled until his death, officiating
also after 1834 as pastor of a Presbyterian church in
Danville. In a controversy with Rev. Samuel Crothers
and William Steele he upheld the views of the Ken-
tucky emancipationists and deprecated the aims of the
Abolitionists. He received the degree of D. D. from
Princeton in 1839, and in 1853 was moderator of the
General Assembly. His first wife was a niece of the
Rev. Robert J. Breckinridge, and his second a daughter
of John J. Crittenden. His publications include a
"Speech Before the Kentucky Colonization Society"
(1832), and an "Address to the Presbyterians of Ken-
tucky, Proposing a Plan for the Instruction and Emanci-
pation of Their Slaves," which he prepared in 1834 for
the committee of the Kentucky synod that had passed
resolutions in favor of gradual emancipation. Of the
address 100,000 copies were circulated. It elicited the
strictures of the Ohio Abolitionists to whom Doctor
Young replied in a letter entitled "The Doctrine of
Immediate Emancipation Unsound," which first appeared
in the newspapers in 1835.
Lunsford Pitts Yandell, physician, born in Dixon
Springs, Tennessee, July 4, 1805, died in Louisville,
Kentucky, February 4, 1878. He was graduated at the
medical department of the University of Maryland in
1825, and in 1826 settled in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
In 1830 he removed to Nashville and in 1831 to Lex-
ington, Kentucky, thence in 1837 to Louisville. He
was elected professor of chemistry in Transylvania Uni-
versity in 1831, and in 1837 to the same chair in the
medical department of the University of Louisville.
In 1849 he was transferred to the chair of physiology and
pathological anatomy, and in 1859 became professor of
the theory and practice of medicine in Memphis Medical
College. He held the presidency of the Louisville, Lex-
ington and Kentucky Medical societies, and of the Louis-
ville College of Physicians and Surgeons. For six years
he edited the "Transylvania Journal of Medicine" and in
1840-56 the "Western Journal of Medicine and Surgery."
He was the author of a prize essay on "Fever" ; a report
on "The Medical Sciences" (1849) ; one on "American
Medical Literature" (1873) ; also one on the same sub-
ject before the International Medical Congress held in
Philadelphia in 1876; and other medical papers and
addresses.
James Morrison, army contractor, born in Cumber-
land County, Pennsylvania, in 1755, died in Washing-
ton, District of Columbia, April 23, 1823. He was the
son of an Irish emigrant, and was for six years in the
Revolutionary army, doing good service as one of Daniel
Morgan's corps of riflemen. After the war he engaged
in business in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and became
sheriff. In 1792 he removed to Lexington, Kentucky.
There he became successively land-commissioner, rep-
resentative in the Legislature supervisor of the revenue,
navy agent, contractor, for the northwestern army dur-
ing the War of 1812, quartermaster-general, president
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
625
of the Lexington branch of the board of trustees of
Transylvania University. He acquired great wealth,
which he expended in refined hospitality, the judicious
patronage of deserving young men, and the encourage-
ment of literature. He was a man of great natural
ability and much decision of character, and had made
good early deficiencies by extensive reading. He died
while he was prosecuting a large claim against the Gov-
ernment in Washington.
Richard H. Collins was born in Maysville, Ken-
tucky, in 1824. He was a lawyer by profession and
successfully practiced at the Cincinnati bar for eleven
years, but after that time devoted most of his time
to literary and historic pursuits. He was editor of
the Maysville Eagle for about ten years and the estab-
lisher and publisher of the Danville Review in 1861.
His contributions to the newspapers and periodicals of
his day have been many, and while yet in the prime
of life, he died in 1889 at the home of a daughter in
Missouri, with whom he was visiting. He was the
author of "Collins' Historical Sketches of Kentucky,"
published in 1874.
William B. Allen, author of "A History of Ken-
tucky," published in 1872, was a native Kentuckian, born
near Greensburg in 1S03. He was a lawyer by profes-
sion and at one time a member of the Legislature. In
1859, he published the "Kentucky Officers' Guide."
Lewis Collins was born in Fayette County, Ken-
tucky, in 1797, and died at Lexington in 1870. He was
editor and proprietor of the Maysville Eagle from
1820 to the publication of his "Historical Sketches of
Kentucky," in 1847, a period of nearly thirty years,
during which time there appeared in his columns many
valuable historic articles. Not the least important of
these were reprints of the "Notes on Kentucky," which
John Bradford contributed to the Kentucky Gazette.
In 185 1, he was made judge of the Mason County Court,
and held this office until 1854.
John Bradford was born in Virginia in 1749, and
came to Kentucky in 1779. In 1787 he established the
Kentucky Gazette at Lexington, and issued the first
number August nth, on a half sheet of coarse print-
ing paper, 10^2 by 17 inches. He died while sheriff
of Fayette County, the last of March, 1830.
Horatio W. Bruce. An exalted figure in connection
with public affairs and the legal profession in the State of
Kentucky was that of the late Judge Horatio Washington
Bruce, who was born near Vanceburg, Lewis County,
Kentucky, on February 22, 1830, and who died in the City
of Louisville on the 22nd of January, 1903. His char-
acter was moulded on a noble scale ; his intellectual
attainments were of exceptionally high order; he was
long a leading member of the Kentucky bar ; he served
in public offices of distinguished trust ; and his life and
labors constitute a lasting and valuable contribution to
his native state. It is but in justice due that a tribute
to his memory be entered in this publication.
Horatio Washington Bruce was a son of Alexander
and Amanda (Bragg) Bruce. He received his academic
education at private schools in Lewis County, Ken-
tucky, and in Manchester, Ohio. Without the advan-
tages of a college or university course he, nevertheless,
mastered not only the elementary English branches, but
mathematics, pure and applied, and the Latin language,
chiefly by his unaided efforts — being blessed with strong
natural powers of mind and that great zest for learn-
ing which made him a student from early boyhood. Such
were his legal and other requirements, among them a
sufficient knowledge of French to enable him to read it
well, that in 1872 he was elected to a professorship in
the law department of the University of Louisville, which
position he filled creditably for some seven or eight
years.
In his sixteenth year Judge Bruce became a sales-
man in a general store, and he was thus engaged up
to 1849. During this period of time he was in charg:
of the Vanceburg postoffice. During the years 1849-50
he taught school and studied law. He began the prac-
tice of law when twenty-one, and, continuing the habit
already formed of close and systematic study of prin-
ciples and practice, he rose to prominence in his pro-
fession, becoming one of the foremost lawyers of Ken-
tucky.
Judge Bruce began his professional career in Fleming
County, which he represented in the Legislature in
1855-56, and in the latter year he was elected common-
wealth attorney for the Tenth Judicial District, but
before the expiration of his term of office he resigned
and removed to Louisville, in December, 1858. He was
reared a Whig, and with that party took part in the
presidential election of 1852, by making speeches in
favor of Scott and Graham. He acted thereafter with
that party until its organization was broken up and most
of its members had become identified with the Ameri-
can or Know-Nothing party; then he was with the lat-
ter party until after the presidential election of i860,
during which campaign he spoke for the Bell and
Everett ticket. In 1861 he became the State Right's
party candidate for Congress in the Louisville district,
but was unsuccessful of election. He was a member
of the southern conference at Russellville, Kentucky,
October 29-31, 1861. This convention represented the
southern sentiment of Kentucky, passed an ordinance
of secession, adopted a constitution, and organized a
provisional government, under which the state was ad-
mitted to the Confederacy. Of the council of ten, hav-
ing legislative functions, Mr. Bruce was made the
member for the Louisville District. At the election
held January 22, 1862, he was elected to represent Ken-
tucky in the Confederate Congress, and was re-elected,
January 10, 1864. He was prominently identified with
the Kentucky representatives of the Confederacy from
the first to the last.
"At the close of the conflict between the North and
the South, Judge Bruce returned to Louisville and re-
sumed the practice of law. In August, 1868, he was
elected circuit judge of the Ninth Judicial District. In
January, 1873, he was appointed chancellor of the Louis-
ville Chancery Court, to fill a vacancy pending the spe-
cial election in February following, when he was elected
for the unexpired term. In August, 1874, he was re-
elected for a full term, but a short time before the ex-
piration of the term (March, 1880), he resigned to
accept the attorneyship of the Louisville and Nashville
Railroad, in which position he continued until his death
in 1903, rounding out his notable professional career.
He was a Royal Arch Mason and a member of the
Kentucky Society of the Sons of the American Revo-
lution.
Thomas H. Hines was born in Butler County, Oc-
tober 9, 1838. Availing himself of the best schools of
the country, he improved his education by private study.
Taught in 1859, in Masonic College, Lagrange. Resigned,
and entered the Confederate service, September, 1861,
as a lieutenant in a company raised at Bowling Green.
After Shiloh, he joined Morgan's Cavalry and organized
a company, of which he was chosen captain. Such were
his qualities that he was sometimes put in higher com-
and, even of a brigade. His daring and skillful ad-
ventures in Kentucky, his planning and effecting escape,
with Morgan and others, from the Columbus (Ohio) pen-
itentiary, his recapture and escape, are told. After the
war he studied law with Gen. John C. Breckinridge,
in Canada, completing his studies at Memphis, Tenn-
essee, while editing the Daily Appeal. In 1867 he re-
moved to Bowling Green, and practiced his profession
Vol /— 56
626
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
successfully. In 1878, he was elected judge of the
Appellate Court from his district. He was delegate
from Franklin County in the Constitutional Convention.
Madison C. Johnson was born September 21, 1806.
He passed his boyhood in diligent study in the country
school and in reading and meditation, three miles from
Lexington, on the Harrodsburg Road. He early ac-
quired the faculty of continued and consecutive thought,
and of patiently mastering his subject. With this dis-
cipline, and a mind of comprehensive and analytic
power, the methods which appeared laborious and slow
at first, in time easily placed him in the lead in all
studies. At the age of sixteen, he entered Transylvania
University, and graduated under Doctor Holly, at the
head of a class of thirty-three. He chose the profes-
sion of law, and pursued its study under Martin D.
Hardin and Robert Wickliffe. He was admitted to the
bar in 1825, in the midst of the confusion of the Old
and New Court controversy. For sixty years, until his
death, December 7, 1886, he may justly be styled the
Nestor of the Bar, in a state distinguished for its able
attorneys.
Green Clay, born in Powhatan County, Virginia, Au-
gust 14, 1757, was of an ambitious and enterprising
nature. Before he had attained the age of twenty
years, he had realized that better opportunities were
to be found elsewhere than in his native region, and
he removed to Kentucky, where he became a man of
great wealth and prominence, having realized the value
of land and followed the avocation of surveying. He
represented Kentucky interests in the Virginia Legis-
lature ; was a leader in the Kentucky Constitutional
Convention of 1799; and was a member of the con-
vention which ratified the Federal Constitution. For
many years he was a member of either one or the other
branches of the Legislature, and served for a time as
speaker of the Senate. When General Harrison was
besieged by the British in Fort Meigs in 1813, he went
to the assistance with 3,000 volunteers and completely
routed the enemy. Having been left in command at
this fort, he defended it with ability against the com-
bined attacks of the British under General Proctor,
and the Indians under Tecumseh. He retired to his
plantation at the conclusion of this war, and devoted
his time and attention to its cultivation, passing away
to his last rest, October 31, 1826. The famous Henry
Clay was a cousin.
George Rogers Clark was born near Monticello, Al-
bemarle County. Virginia, November 19, 1762; son of
John and Ann (Rogers) Clark; and grandson of Jona-
than and Elizabeth (Wilson) Clark. He practiced sur-
veying and in 1771 or 1772 made a long tour through
the upper Ohio Valley and cleared and improved land,
in Grave Creek Township, twenty-five miles below
Wheeling. In Dunrrore's war, Clark was either on
Dunmore's staff or in command of a company, and
rendered such efficient service that he was offered a
position in the British Army, which he declined. In
1775 he was deputy surveyor under Capt. Hancock Lee
to lay out lands on the Kentucky River for the Ohio
Company, and remained there until the fall, making
his headquarters at Leestown and Harrodstown. In
1776, after a visit home, he returned to Kentucky,
where he became a leader of the settlers. He was
chosen a member of the Virginia Legislature and after
a journey to Williamsburg found that body adjourned.
It was necessary for the settlers in Kentucky to be
supplied with gunpowder, and Clark obtained from
Governor Patrick Henry a letter to the Executive Coun-
cil. They refused to comply with Clark's request un-
less Clark would be responsible for the value of the
powder if the Legislature failed to legalize the trans-
action. Clark declined to assume any risk, on the
ground that if Virginia claimed Kentucky she should
protect it. The ammunition was granted and Ken-
tucky was recognized as a part of Virginia. On the
reassembling of the Legislature Clark was present and
succeeded in gaining formal recognition of the Ken-
tucky Country and its organization as a county with
the same name and boundaries it now has as a state.
In January, 1777, gunpowder was delivered in Ken-
tucky. Clark stopped at Leestown and McClelland's
and set about to organize aggressive warfare against
the Indians, who had been making serious depredations.
He was given the rank of lieutenant-colonel and in-
structed by Governor Henry to enlist seven companies
of soldiers, of fifty men each. With this force he
was to attack the British post at Kaskaskia. Early in
May. 1778, he departed from Red Stone with only one-
third of the troops expected. He stopped at the mouth
of the Kentucky River and finally to the falls of the
Ohio, and selected Corn Island for his camping ground.
His men numbered about 170, and on June 24, 1778,
they started for Kaskaskia, arriving there on the eve-
ning of July 4. Before daylight they had disarmed the
town. Clark sent a part of his force to take possession
of the French villages up the Mississippi, Capt. Joseph
Bowman succeeding in capturing Prairie du Rocher,
Cahokia, and other villages. Meanwhile Clark secured
the allegiance of the inhabitants of Vincennes, the most
important post on the river. At Cahokia he met rep-
resentatives from several tribes, and secured treaties of
peace. On February 5, 1779, the little army left Kas-
kaskia for Vincennes. For ten days they marched
through the waters then overflowing the Wabash River
and all its tributaries ; Fort Sackville and Vincennes
were captured after considerable fighting. Clark re-
ceived a commission from Governor Henry, dated De-
cember 14, 1778, promoting him colonel. He contem-
plated attacking Detroit, but decided it to be imprac-
ticable, owing to his scanty force. On June 12, 1779,
Virginia presented Colonel Clark with a costly sword
in recognition of his service. He returned to the falls
of the Ohio later in 1779 and found that the garrison
had removed to the mainland and constructed a fort
in what is now Louisville, Kentucky. Early in 1780
he proceeded to the mouth of the Ohio River and built
Fort Jefferson, but owing to sickness and Indian at-
tacks, the fort was abandoned in 1781. In that year he
was commissioned brigadier-general and began to recruit
troops for an attack on Detroit. This expedition,
through the failure of Colonel Lochry to reach Wheel-
ing until after Clark's departure, was unsuccessful, and
the defeat embittered Clark's after life. On Clark's
return to the West he set about organizing the militia.
Fort Nelson, on the site of Louisville, was constructed,
and early in November, 1782, at the head of 1,000 men,
he marched against the Indians on the Miami River
and subdued them. In January, 1783, the treaty of
peace with Great Britain was ratified by Congress and
attention was turned to the vast territory of land ac-
quired through the efforts of General Clark, but Vir-
ginia, exhausted by the war, failed sufficiently to pro-
vide for his troops, and on June 2, 1783, he was re-
lieved of his command. His financial condition ren-
dered impossible the purchase of food and clothing, and
necessity led him to appeal to the Government. The
appeal was unheeded, and even the half pay allotted to
all Continental officers was denied him, as he had been
a member of the Virginia Militia and not of the Con-
tinental Army. He lived in obscurity until [785, when
he was appointed a commissioner to treat with Indian
tribes. In 17S6 he again acted as United States com-
missioner, negotiating a treaty with the Shawnees. Later
in that year he commanded a campaign against the In-
dian tribes on the Wabash, but it proved a failure, and
he was unjustly censured by Virginia and Congress.
Mortified by his treatment and neglect General Clark-
accepted a commission from the French government
of "major-general in the armies of France and com-
mander-in-chief of the French revolutionary legion on
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
627
the Mississippi River." He was to lead a force of
2,000 men against New Orleans and the Spanish pos-
sessions on the lower Mississippi with a view to revo-
lutionizing the Spanish control and government of that
region. This plan was never carried out. In 1781
General Clark was granted 8,049 acres of land in In-
diana for his services in reducing the British posts.
He resided in Clarksville many years, living alone in
a log house, stricken with paralysis, ill, helpless and
poor. The General Assembly of Virginia, in a letter
written by James Barbour, dated Richmond, October
29, 181 1, conveyed to him the intelligence that that
body had voted him an annuity of $400, tendered him
their earnest sympathy and notified him of the act of
the Assembly in causing to be made a sword with ap-
propriate devices, emblematic of his actions, whicli with
the annuity would be duly forwarded to him. On re-
ceiving the letter he said: "I am too old and infirm
to ever use a sword again, but I am glad that my old
mother state has not entirely forgotten me, and I thank
her for the honor." He died a few years later at the
home of his sister, Mrs. Lucy Croghan. In 1869 his
remains were removed to Cave Hill Cemetery, Louis-
ville, Kentucky, and his grave marked with a hand-
some monument. On February 25, 1892, the anniversary
of the capture of Fort Sackville, a movement was in-
augurated in Indianapolis, Indiana, to raise a suitable
statue to his memory, and on February 25, 1895, it was
placed on its pedestal in Monument Place, Indianapolis.
John Floyd, born in Jefferson County, April 24, 1783,
son of Col. John Floyd, and a descendant of an early
Virginia immigrant. He attended Dickinson (Pennsyl-
vania) College, studied medicine at the University of
Pennsylvania, was graduated in 1806, and settled in
Montgomery County, Virginia. He was appointed a
justice of the peace in 1807; major of militia in 1808;
surgeon in the Virginia line, 1812, and same year was
elected to the House of Delegates; was brigadier-gen-
eral of militia. In 1817 he was elected to Congress,
and as a leader in the House wielded a potent influence.
He opposed the administration of John Quincy Adams,
and aided largely in the election of Jackson. He in-
troduced the first bill for the occupation and settle-
ment of Oregon. He became governor, March 4, 1830,
and continued as such till March 4, 1834. In his mes-
sages he severely condemned President Jackson for his
proclamation against South Carolina, and took ground
against military coercion, but he did not believe in the
doctrine of nullification. South Carolina gave him her
vote for the presidency in 1832. While he was serving
as governor, occurred Nat Turner's slave insurrection
in Southampton County, and the trial and execution
of the leader, Nat Turner. He was in poor health for
some time previous to the expiration of his term, and
he died from paralysis, August 15, 1837, at Sweet
Springs, Montgomery County.
Benjamin Winslow Dudley was born in Spotsyl-
vania County, Virginia, April 12, 1785, son of Rev.
Ambrose Dudley. His father removed to Lexington,
Kentucky, in 1786, and there the son obtained his early
education. He studied medicine with Dr. Frederick
Ridgeley, of Lexington, and afterward attended lec-
tures at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in
1806. He opened an office in Lexington, but had little
practice. Desiring to better qualify himself for his
work, but lacking the means, he purchased a flatboat,
which he loaded with produce and floated to New Or-
leans, where he invested the proceeds in flour. This
was taken to Gibraltar and Lisbon, where he disposed
of it at a large advance. From Spain he went to
Paris, and there studied under Paul A. Dubois. After
three years there he went to London and studied sur-
gery under Abernethy and Sir Astley Cooper. He re-
turned home in 1814, and found Lexington in the midst
of an epidemic of typhoid pneumonia, which was fol-
lowed by bilious fever. Abscesses formed among the
muscles and in many cases amputation was necessary.
Doctor Dudley applied bandages and his success in
these cases led him to urge the general use of the bandage
until this treatment was widely adopted. In 181 7 a
medical school was added to the Transylvania Uni-
versity, and he was elected to the chairs of anatomy
and surgery. Doctor Dudley condemned bloodletting,
taking advanced ground in the matter. His skill with
the knife soon gained him a national reputation and
his success in lithotomy was so great that in England
he was declared to be "the lithotomist of the nine-
teenth century." He operated for stone in the bladder
225 times and lost only six patients. Believing that
Asiatic cholera was a water-borne disease, during the
first great epidemic in this country (1832) he and his
family drank cistern instead of well water, and were
the only ones in Lexington to escape the disease. He
contributed valuable essays to the "Transylvania Jour-
nal of Medicine." He was married, in 1821, to a daugh-
ter of Maj. Peyton Short. He died in Lexington, Ken-
tucky, June 20, 1870.
Richard Henderson, born in Hanover County, Vir-
ginia, in 1734. His parents were poor and unable to
give him an education, and he could neither read nor
write until he was grown to manhood, but served as
constable and under sheriff. In 1762 he went to North
Carolina, where he studied law, was admitted to the
bar and in 1769 was made an associate judge of the
Superior Court. In 1770 public feeling ran high on
account of the excessive taxation enforced under Gov-
ernor Tryon and a mob assailed him in the court room
and forced him from the bench. After the Revolu-
tionary war, and when order was restored, Henderson
was re-elected judge, but would not qualify, having
formed the Transylvania Lumber Company, for the pur-
pose of acquiring large tracts of the public domain.
In effecting this purpose he negotiated "the Watoga
Treaty" with the chiefs of the Cherokee Indians, by
which the company came into possession of all the
lands lying between the Cumberland River, the Cum-
berland Mountains and the Kentucky River — a territory
larger than the present state of Kentucky — and was
named Transylvania, with Boonesborough as its cap-
ital. Among the members of the company were Daniel
Boone, Richard Calloway, John Floyd, James Harrod
and Thomas Slaughter, and they formed a most com-
prehensive and equitable system of government. How-
ever, Henderson's purchase was subsequently annulled
by Virginia, as an infringement of her chartered rights;
but, to compensate the settlers, the Legislature granted
to them a tract of twelve miles square on the Ohio River,
below the mouth of Greene River. In 1779 Judge Hen-
derson and four others were appointed commissioners
to run the boundary line between Virginia and North
Carolina, into Powell's Valley. He now removed to
Tennessee, and engaged in law practice in Nashville.
In 1780 he returned to North Carolina, and settled
down upon his farm. He died in Hillsborough, North
Carolina, January 30, 1785. A son, Archibald, became
a distinguished lawyer in North Carolina, and a mem-
ber of Congress from that state; another son, Leonard,
became chief justice of North Carolina.
George Nicholas, born in Hanover, Virginia, about
1755, son of Robert Carter Nicholas, lawyer, jurist and
statesman, and grandson of Dr. George Nicholas, who
immigrated to Virginia about 1700. In 1772 he grad-
uated from William and Mary College. He was a
major of the Second Virginia Regiment in 1777, later
colonel, promoted for meritorious service. He was a
member of the Virginia convention that ratified the
Federal Constitution, was active in the convention, and
as a member of the Virginia House of Assembly was
628
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
influential in shaping legislation. In 1790 he moved to
Kentucky, and was a member of the convention that
met in Danville in 1792, to frame a state constitution.
The constitution as adopted was largely his work. He
was the first attorney-general elected under its provi-
sions. He died in Kentucky in 1799.
James Harrod, born in Virginia in 1746; reared and
educated in his native state, immigrated to Kentucky
in 1774, and built the first log cabin on the present site
of Harrodsburg ; he was a successful agriculturist, an
expert with the rifle, and a brave and intrepid soldier,
ranking as one of the leaders in military affairs, dis-
tinguishing himself at the battle of Point Pleasant in
1774; subsequently he represented Harrodsburg (which
was named in his honor) in the Transylvania Assembly ;
he was in the habit of making solitary excursions into
the forest, and from one of these trips, which was
undertaken about the year 1825, when he was about
eighty years of age, he never returned, nor was any
trace of him ever discovered.
Daniel Doup was born in Hagerstown, Maryland.
December 25, 1796. He served under Jackson in the
War of 1812. His reminiscences of that war were
the delight of our childhood. The description of the
fortifications of cotton bales at New Orleans, the unique
order not to fire until they could see the eyes of the
British, the account of the overwhelming victory,
thrilled us beyond expression.
Daniel Doup came to Kentucky about 181 7, and was
married in 1818 to Lydia Doup, daughter of Col. George
Doup. George Doup was the uncle of Daniel Doup,
and had gone from Maryland to Kentucky some years
previously, settling at Brunerstown (near Jefferson-
town).
In the early years of his married life Daniel Doup
lived near New Albany, Indiana, on a farm, but about
1820, or perhaps a little later, returned to Kentucky,
purchased the tract now known as Strathmore, and
lived there until the close of life, in 1872. He was a
man of sterling integrity, unflagging energy and keen
intellect. He was recognized as authority in matters of
business, politics or finance. His system of gardening
produced the very best results. His crops of Irish and
sweet potatoes were always carried off as the prizes by
the northern buyers.
Daniel Doup owned quite a number of slaves who
yielded him both respect and confidence. A little in-
cident which happened about three years after the close
of the Civil war will give an idea of the relations be-
tween this master and his erstwhile slaves. It was the
annual "hog killing" season on the Doup Farm. Long
rows of fat hams, shoulders, spare ribs, back-bones and
sausage lay in salt under the shed. Uncle Charles and
a companion seeing a chance for some "easy money"
each took a sackful of the juicy meat, and under cover
of darkness walked to "town." When offering their
goods for sale they were arrested and locked up.
Charles got a message to go early in the morning for
Mars. Daniel, who came immediately, paid the fine and
took the culprits, who had stolen his meat, home and
told them to go to work and behave themselves. He
never sold a slave and never separated families. Some
of the faithful ones were set free years before the gen-
eral emancipation and given a tract of land with cabin
thereon.
He had an accident in middle life which came near
being fatal. He had sent a man down into a well to
clean it out. When the man called up the gas was
quite strong, Daniel Doup told him to come up imme-
diately, and that he himself would go down, feeling
he would prefer to take the risk than expose another.
On the way down he fell, overcome by the gas, and
was drawn out in an insensible condition, with badly
injured spine. He recovered sufficiently to walk again
short distances, but had to be driven over the farm
and neighborhood, and the tall commanding figure was
sadly bent and enfeebled.
He was a warm personal friend of Abraham Lincoln
and corresponded for years with him.
Daniel and Lydia Doup had two children : Eleanor,
who died in childhood; and Emmeline, who married
James Edward Briscoe, of Jefferson County, Kentucky.
Daniel Doup was also reputed to be the wealthiest
man in Jefferson County.
James Lewis. While his Woodford County farm
two miles south of Versailles has been the residence
of Mr. James Lewis and the scene of his prospering
activities for only a few years, he represents one of
the long established families of the county, one that
has done its share in the agricultural development
and in the community life of this section through
four generations.
He was born at the old Clover bottom home of the
Lewis family January 25, 1885. His great-grandfather,
James Lewis, came out of Virginia and settled on the
farm which is still occupied by his great-granddaughter.
This pioneer lived out his life on that farm and died
when past ninety. His son. Greenberry Lewis, a lad
when the family came to Kentucky, spent his active
life on the same farm and reached the remarkable age
of ninety-seven. His wife was Lucinda Yowell. Linza
Lewis, father of James Lewis, was born at the old
ancestral home in 1854, and gave his active business
efforts to the homestead, spending his last years in
Versailles. He owned the farm at the time of his death
in 1918. Linza Lewis married Tina Shackelford, who
was born in Indiana, daughter of Zach Shackelford,
and was ten years of age when her family moved to
Kentucky. Her home is at Versailles. Their four chil-
dren are : Mary, wife of Charles Boston ; James ;
Mildred, wife of Eugene Wilson, a Woodford County
farmer ; and Bennie, who is the wife of Roy Leedy
and they occupy the old Lewis homestead of 211 acres.
James Lewis grew up on that farm and lived there
for a year after his marriage. At twenty-one he mar-
ried Sally Bond, daughter of John and Phebe (Utter-
back) Bond, now living on their farm in Anderson
County. Mr. and Mrs. Lewis have four children:
Linza, Verna May, James Bond and J. Hunter.
The farm Mr. Lewis owns he acquired in 1920, and
was the old Robert McConnell farm. It comprises 360
acres, and he had lived on it and operated it for five
years before the purchase. He handles it as a stock
and grain proposition, and is one of the live leaders
in the agricultural affairs of Woodford County. In
1921 he became democratic candidate for sheriff. Mr.
Lewis is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias.
Jesse T. Bryant. Among other interests of large
importance that make Hart County a notable section
of the State of Kentucky agriculture occupies a lead-
ing position, and its scientific farmers and stockraisers
are among the most intelligent and substantial of its
citizens. A prominent and representative farmer of
Hart County, a public-spirited and patriotic citizen as
well, is found in Jesse T. Bryant, cashier of the Hardy-
ville Deposit Bank, of Hardyville, Kentucky.
Jesse T. Bryant was born at Hardyville, Hart
County, Kentucky, May 11, 1874. His parents were
Langston P. and Virginia (Harrison) Bryant, both
natives of Kentucky and now deceased. Langston P.
Bryant was born in Cumberland County, in 1S24, and
died at Hardyville in Hart County in 1902. His father,
Jesse Bryant, was born in Virginia, and from there
came as a pioneer to Cumberland County, Kentucky,
where he spent the rest of his life. He married a
Miss Pace, a member of an old and representative family
of Cumberland County.
Lagston P. Bryant was reared on his father's farm
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
629
in Cumberland County. In 1861, when war between
the states was precipitated, he enlisted in the Union
Army and served two years as a member of the Twenty-
First Kentucky Volunteer Infantry, during that time
taking part in the battle of Murfreesboro, Tennessee,
and in other engagements. After the war was over
he came to Hart County, and was an extensive and suc-
cessful farmer near Hardyville up to the time of his
death. He was a man of standing in the community,
a member of the Masonic fraternity, and an ardent
republican. He married in Monroe County, Kentucky,
Virginia Harrison, who was born there in 1831, and died
at Hardyville in 1907. She was a lady of many ac-
complishments and educational acquirements, and prior
to her marriage had taught school in Monroe County.
Among her schoolmates in girlhood was Preston H.
Leslie, who later became governor of Kentucky, and
subsequently among her own pupils were A. L. Peter-
man, the distinguished educator and author, and like-
wise Benton McMillan, for many years a notable member
of the United States Congress from Tennessee. Five
children were born to Langston P. Bryant and his
wife, Jesse T., being the fourth in order of birth,
the others being: James B., who is connected with the
Louisville Herald, lives at Nashville, Tennessee, at
present, but is an inveterate traveler and has seen a large
part of the habitable globe ; Ethel, who is the wife of
A. G. Compton, station agent at Kansas City, Missouri,
was married first to Will Edwards, who at the time
of his death was clerk of the Chancery Court at Louis-
ville ; John M., who is a farmer, lives at Hopkinsville,
Kentucky ; and Evie, who is a trained nurse.
Jesse T. Bryant was reared on the home farm and
had excellent school privileges at Hardyville. He
assisted his father until the latter's death in 1902, when
he took over the operation of the farm, which he now
owns. It is a magnificent property situated on the
Jackson Highway, one-half mile north of Hardyville,
and comprises 210 acres. Mr. Bryant engages in gen-
eral farming and raises thoroughbred cattle and Duroc
hogs, his farm industries being carried on according
to modern methods and with the assistance of the best
improved machinery. He resides on this farm in a
handsome modern residence, and has spared neither
trouble nor expense in making the surroundings appro-
priate and comfortable. He owns a second farm, situ-
ated one mile east, which contains seventy acres, all his
land being improved with substantial buildings.
In addition to his agricultural, Mr. Bryant has other
important interests. In 1902, when the Hardyville De-
posit Bank was established, he entered the institution
as assistant cashier, and in 1903 was elected cashier, in
which office he has continued. The officers of the bank
are as follows : Ernest Burks, president ; Robert Duna-
gar, vice president; Jesse T. Bryant, cashier; C. S. Rhea
and Miss Minnie Carter, assistant cashiers. This finan-
cial institution is a state bank capitalized at $150,000;
surplus and profits, $11,000; deposits, $150,000.
During the World war Mr. Bryant took a very active
part in all local activities and devoted much time and
effort to selling Liberty Bonds and promoting Red Cross
work. He was lavish in his purchases of bonds and
Savings Stamps, and contributed to all the patriotic
movements to the extent of his means. He was not
alone in this patriotic work, for others over this broad
and loyal land were doing the same, but it may be
questioned if any other individual more definitely or
patriotically proved the genuineness of his public spirit
in this connection after the war was over. At its close
Mr. Bryant, with the largest measure of generosity,
contributed all his bonds and War Savings Stamps
toward paying for the erection of a $50,000 new school
building, to be a memorial to the Hart County soldiers
in the great war. It is a splendid building, one of the
finest in the state, of modern brick construction and
situated half way between Hardyville and Canmer, Ken-
tucky, easily available to both places. In furthering this
enterprise Mr. Bryant not only demonstrated the sin-
cerity of his patriotism but exhibited the practical quali-
ties which have made him an admirable business man
and useful citizen.
In December, 1899, at Bowling Green, Kentucky,
Mr. Bryant married Miss Maggie Gallavan, whose
parents were Patrick and Julia (Locke) Gallavan, both
of whom are deceased. For an extended period Mr. Gal-
lavan was watchman for the Green River Railroad
bridge at Murfordsville, Kentucky. Mr. and Mrs.
Bryant have the following children : William Allen,
born April 13, 1902, is a student in the State University,
Lexington, Kentucky; Harry G., born June 24, 1903,
is a student in the Western State Normal School at
Bowling Green; James Maxey, born June 23, 1905,
is a student in the Memorial Consolidated School, men-
tioned above; and Richard B., born in 1907; Jesse T.,
•Jr., born in 1909; Langston Patrick, born in 1913,
all three attending the Memorial Consolidated School
at Hardyville; and Charles H., born in 1917.
In political affiliation Mr. Bryant is a republican,
reserving for himself, however, the privilege of voting
independently when his own excellent judgment so
directs. For a long time he has been a somewhat im-
portant factor in official life in Hart County, having
served for twenty-four consecutive years as deputy
county clerk, for eleven years has been a member of
the School Board at Hardyville, and for almost a
quarter of a century has been a notary public. As in-
dicative of his sterling character it may be mentioned
that he was but twenty-one years old when he was
made a Mason and has held an office in the lodge every
year since. He belongs to Rio Verde Lodge No. 698,
F. and A. M., at Hardyville, of which he is a past
master, and for the past ten years has been treasurer.
Hart County can name few citizens who are held as
more trustworthy or have a wider circle of personal
as well as business friends.
I
Bernard Gratz was a particularly lovable and big-
minded Kentucky gentleman of the finest of social
and family connections, and while he never married
and died more than thirty years ago any tribute that
might be paid his memory would be read with ap-
preciation by the many friends who recall his life
and deeds. The old homestead where he lived most
of his life is known as "Canewood" located on the
Frankfort Pike fifteen miles west of Lexington in
Woodford County. It is now the home of his nephew,
Benjamin Gratz Crosby. This estate has been in the
Gratz family since 1840. The house itself is a rambling
structure, made up of a series of large rooms and dates
back for fully a century.
Benjamin Gratz, father of Bernard Gratz was born
at Philadelphia, September 4, 1792. He graduated from
the University of Pennsylvania in 181 1, enlisted in
1813 and until the close of the War of 1812 was in
active service with the rank of second lieutenant.
He was admitted to the bar in 1817 and soon after-
ward came west to prosecute the claims for the Illinois
& Wabash Land Company. The winter of 1818 he spent
at Vincennes, Indiana, and the following year he came
to Lexington. At Lexington he married Maria Gist,
of the historic Gist family. Her father was the Revo-
lutionary character Col. Nathaniel Gist, who at the
time of the marriage of his daughter was living in
that portion of old Bourbon County which subse-
quently became Clark County. After the death of
his first wife he married Anna Boswell Shelby of
Lexington. Benjamin Gratz became a partner with
Col. James Morrison in hemp manufacture at Lexington,
and after the death of Colonel Morrison in 1823 con-
tinued the business with John Bruce, who died in 1836,
and his personal enterprise was responsible for con-
tinuing the business on a large scale for twenty-five
630
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
years more. He practically retired from business in
1861, though his influence in the affairs of his section
of the state continued for many years thereafter.
He was a stanch Union man. He was a whig opposed
to secession and afterwards a conservative democrat.
He was the oldest trustee of Transylvania University,
and was one of the committee to raise funds to move
Kentucky University from Harrodsburg to Lexington.
He also helped establish the Lexington Library, was
first president of the Agricultural & Mechanical Asso-
ciation, and in 1829 was instrumental in securing the
construction of a stone road from Lexington to the
Ohio River, the first modern highway in the state.
In 1830 he was one of the incorporators of the Lex-
ington & Ohio Railroad, and its second president. He-
was a member of the first city council of Lexington
in 1832, and in 1834 became one of the first directors
of the Bank of Kentucky, and also a director of the
Northern Bank of Kentucky at its founding in 1835. •
He was on the committee of arrangement for the
funeral of Henry Clay in 1852, and joined the Clay
Monument Association in 1857. He became one of the
First members of the Fayette Historical Society in 1870.
During 1866-69 he was a L7nited States revenue in-
spector. His sight failed him in 1876 but even after
that he retained the deepest interest in Lexington.
The full Christian name of the late Bernard Gratz
was Michael Bernard Gratz, who was born in 1822
and died in 1889, spending most of his life at "Cane-
wood." Originally this farm comprised 180 acres,
being part of the old Alexander estate, but Bernard
Gratz had increased the acreage to over 900 when he
died. He became a noted thoroughbred horseman as
well as a general farmer, and his success in business
enabled him to express in practical manner the warm-
hearted interest and consideration he always felt for
the welfare of others. He had friends both among
the rich and poor and there were none too poor or
destitute to escape his care and thoughtfulness.
The foundation and start of his career as a thor-
oughbred horseman was given him by his aunt, formerly
Miss Gist, the wife of Frank Blair, a Washington
editor. She gave him a fine mare, but in later years
his stables produced many great horses. He was
breeder of Virgil, a noted stallion, the sire of Hindoo ;
of Checkmate, a famous racer ; Phil Lee ; Prodigal,
which entered the Futurity as a two-year old; and
Silent Friend. He owned his racing stables, but his
horses were raced under another name. He was best
known as a breeder, and some of his choicest stock
was sold as yearlings.
Bernard Gratz was interested in everything affecting
the community, yet was a man of retiring disposition.
He also had a military record, being an officer on
General Buell's staff in the Union army. He rode, start-
ing at sun-up and arriving before dark, the no miles
form Big Hill to Louisville on his thoroughbred Old
Mike to notify the Federal authorities of the advance
of the Confederates in their effort to capture Louis-
ville, and succeeded in rallying sufficient support to
repel that invasion. He was once asked to go into
Woodford County and requisition horses from Con-
federate sympathizers. His reply was characteristic :
"I'll take the horses of Bernard Gratz but will not
take those of my old friends, even if they are Con-
federates."
Benjamin G. Crosby, a nephew of Bernard Gratz,
and his family now live in his uncle's old home. Mr.
Crosby married Eliza Pitman of Kirkwood, Missouri.
Her father's family had moved from Virginia to
Kentucky, and early in the nineteenth century went to
Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. Crosby have two sons : John
Peirce and Benjamin Gratz Crosby, Jr.
James R. Sidle. Worshipful Master of Craycraft
Lodge No. 652, F. & A. M., and one of the leading
farmers of Nicholas County, is living on his farm
in Nicholas County, which is located twelve miles west
of Carlisle, Kentucky. He was born in Nicholas County.
October 15, 1866, a son of George W. and Elizabeth
(Smith) Sidle. George W. Sidle was born in Nicholas
County, but his wife was born in Harrison County.
After their marriage they located in Nicholas County,
where they spent the remainder of their useful and
upright lives. He was a zealous Mason, a fine man
and strong republican. There were five children born
to the marriage of George W. Sidle and his wife,
namely : James R., who was the eldest ; Luticia, who is
the wife of Milton Smith; Cora, who is deceased; an
unnamed infant; and John H., who is a farmer of
Nicholas County.
Growing up on the homestead James R. Sidle learned
farming under his father's instruction and attended
the common schools of his home district. After his
marriage he bought the home farm of sixty-six acres
to which he has since added until he now has 187 acres
of very valuable land, and on it he is carrying on
farming with satisfactory results.
On December 20, 1897, Mr. Sidle was married to
Serrelda Friman, who was born in Nicholas County,
Kentucky. They have three children, namely : Lizzie
G., who is the wife of Frazier Piatt, lives in Nicholas
County; and Edgar C. and Howard, both of whom are
at home. Both Mr. and Mrs. Sidle belong to the
Christian Church. Well known in Masonry Mr. Sidle
belongs to Craycraft Lodge No. 652, F. & A. M., and
Nicholas Chapter Number 41, R. A. M. He is the
present Worshipful Master of the Blue Lodge. While
he votes the republican ticket, he has never gone into
politics very actively, but he is deeply interested in the
success of his party and the development of his home
county, and ready and anxious to do everything to
bring about any improvement of existing conditions.
A first class farmer and citizen, Mr. Sidle measures
up to high standards and is one of the most highly
respected men in this part of the state.
Edward L. Gambill, doctor of dental surgery, en-
joys an extensive professional practice in the com-
munity in which he was born and reared, Jackson,
Breathitt County, Kentucky.
He was born on a farm near Jackson, and is a
son of William E. and Katherine (Little) Gambill.
Both the Gambill and Little families have been
identified with Eastern Kentucky for generations. His
paternal grandfather was William Gambill who married
Elizabeth Alexander of North Carolina, his native
state. They left there when quite young, and settled
in Eastern Kentucky when this section was largely an
unsettled wilderness.
His maternal grandparents were John and Jennie
(Strong) Little, who were born and reared in Breathitt
County. His father William E. Gambill was a Union
soldier in the Civil war, and was a member of the
Fourteenth Kentucky State Guards, better known as the
"Three Forks Battalion." His life has been spent as a
farmer near Jackson where he and his wife now live,
he being seventy-six years of age and she being seventy-
three. He is a member of the Masonic Order at Jack-
son, Kentucky, and is a republican, always having taken
a leading part in the politics of Breathitt County.
The youngest of six living children, Edward L.
Gambill,' while a boy attended the public schools, later
Lee's Collegiate Institute at Jackson, Berea College,
at Berea, and the Eastern Kentucky State Normal
School at Richmond. He taught in the public school
three years. In 1910 he passed a civil service examina-
tion at Lexington, Kentucky, and was appointed to
a position in the Department of Commerce, Wash-
ington, District of Columbia. Later he held a posi-
tion in the Bureau of Rolls and Library State De-
partment. After leaving the Government service he
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
631
graduated from the Dental department of George-
town University, Washington, District of Columbia, in
June, 1914. He passed the District of Columbia Board
of Dental Examiners and was licensed to practice den-
tistry in the District of Columbia and also passed the
Kentucky State Board examinations the same year
and soon began his professional work at Jackson where
he has built up one of the largest dental practices in
Eastern Kentucky. He is a member of the Kentucky
State Dental Association and keeps in touch with the
latest progress in dental technique and science.
On July 15, 1918, he entered the United States Mili-
tary service and was located at Camp Meade, Mary-
land, where he served till the armistice was signed.
While there he contracted influenza and spent several
weeks in the hospital. He was discharged from the
army December 21, 1918. He is now holding an ap-
pointment in the United States Veterans Bureau as
dental examiner in this locality, rendering treatment to
ex-service men who are beneficiaries of war risk insur-
ance.
He is a member of the local Order of Knights of
Pythias, being chancellor commander, and the Psi Omega
Dental Fraternity, Junior Order United American Me-
chanics and the Masonic Order. He is one of the
directors of the Hargis Commercial Bank and Trust
Company and a member of the Brethren Church.
Drew Burchett Adams. To bear so old and honor-
able an American name as that of Adams confers dis-
tinction, and to be able to trace the ancestral line back
to 1634, when the hardy pioneer of the family reached
these shores, and to find in that ancestral line not only
worthy forefathers in the quieter walks of life, but two
great presidents of the United States, many statesmen
and great diplomats whose achievements have gone far
to make this beloved country what it is today, justifies
a large measure of family pride. Obviously, however,
in the case of Drew Burchett Adams, for four years past
the able county clerk of Lawrence County, no such back-
ground is needed although true, for Mr. Adams is his
own person is recognized as a young man of sterling
character who is entirely deserving of the respect and
confidence with which he is regarded.
Drew Burchett Adams was born on his father's farm
near Cherokee, in Lawrence County, Kentucky, May 20,
1889, and is a son of Felix and America (Young)
Adams, both of whom were born in Kentucky, of parents
born in Virginia, who settled early near Cherokee in
Lawrence County. The maternal grandfather of Mr.
Adams survived until 1901. His father has been a
substantial farmer and stockraiser for years. Mr. Adams
attended the public schools at Cherokee and Blaine, and
also a private school, after which he became a student in
the Kentucky Normal School at Louisa, where he com-
pleted an academic course in preparation for teaching
and afterward, for ten years, taught country schools in
Lawrence County. In 1915 he completed a commercial
course and after that taught school one more year.
In his educational work Mr. Adams was very success-
ful and, coming into contact with a large number of his
fellow citizens, became exceedingly well known and uni-
versally popular, and to such an extent that in Novem-
ber, 1917, they elected him county clerk for a term of
four years. In accepting the office Mr. Adams assured
his political friends that he would not serve more than
one term, thereby preventing them re-electing him ac-
cording to their desire, as he has served the county so
honestly and efficiently that the tax payers regret chang-
ing clerks. On retiring from public office, Mr. Adams
proposes to become a merchant, being part owner of one
of the leading business houses at Louisa, which is con-
ducted under the firm name of Adams & Berry, and
in this relation will continue to be one of the substantial
and dependable men of Lawrence County.
In 1918 Mr. Adams was married to Miss Earlie
Thompson, a daughter of Lindsay and Lucy Jane
(Adams) Thompson, farming people and natives of Ken-
tucky. They have one daughter, Margery Elizabeth.
Mrs. Adams is a member of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, while Mr. Adams was brought up in the Bap-
tist faith, but irrespective of creeds, he sincerely believes
in the beneficial influence of all religious bodies and is
generous in his support. Politically he is a republican
and takes an active interest in public affairs. Fraternally
he is a member of the Order of Red Men and the Order
of Odd Fellows, and belongs also to the auxiliary, the
Order of Rebekah.
Harry Taylor Gilbert is a progressive young busi-
ness leader at Hazard, member of the firm A. B. Gil-
bert & Company, general insurance, and has been fa-
vorably identified with the citizenship of Perry County
since 1918.
Mr. Gilbert is a native Kentuckian and represents one
of the state's old and prominent families. His father,
grandfather, and great-grandfather were all Baptist min-
isters, though following other occupations as well. The
great-grandfather was a native of Virginia and one
of the early settlers in Clay County, Kentucky. The
grandfather was a surveyor and acquired extensive land-
holdings in Clay and Leslie counties, and surveyed many
of the permanent lines through Eastern Kentucky. He
died when well past the century mark.
Rev. Taylor Joseph Gilbert, father of the Hazard
business man, was a native of Clay County, and did
his first work as a minister of the Baptist Church in that
county and subsequently carried the Gospel to many
remote sections of Eastern Kentucky. In January, 1902,
he moved to Oklahoma, and died there in March of the
same year. He married Polly Maggard, who is now liv-
ing at Mangum, Greer County, Oklahoma. More of
the family history will be found in articles elsewhere
in this publication. The children were : James M., a
leading attorney and banker at Pineville, Bell County ;
Mittie, deceased wife of E. M. Caudill ; A. B. Gilbert,
senior member of A. B. Gilbert & Company, with head-
quarters at Pineville; Lettie, wife of George Stone of
Mangum, Oklahoma ; Harry T. ; Thomas Joseph, a coal
operator at Knoxville, Tennessee ; and Mary, of Man-
gum, Oklahoma, widow of Ben Parker.
Harry Taylor Gilbert was born at Benge, Clay County,
March 16, 1889, and attended the district schools there
until he went with his parents to Oklahoma in 1902.
He continued his education in that territory and also did
some farming there. In 191 1 he returned to Kentucky,
for four years was on the road as a traveling salesman,
and then became associated with his brother in the in-
surance business. In 1918 he established the Hazard
office of A. B. Gilbert & Company, and has since de-
veloped this as the leading general insurance agency of
Perry County, representing some of the old-line com-
panies and offering a service in all branches of insurance.
Mr. Gilbert married Miss Nolia Maude Gatliff, daugh-
ter of Joseph Gatliff of Williamsburg. They have two
children, Florence Pauline and Marjorie. Mr. Gilbert is
affiliated with Hazard Lodge No. 676, Free and Accepted
Masons, Richmond Chapter No. 16, Royal Arch Masons,
Webb Commandery No. 2, Knights Templar, and Oleika
Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Lexington. He is a
member of the Elks at Middlesburg, is a Baptist and
democrat, and Mrs. Gilbert is a member of the Daugh-
ters of the American Revolution.
William Pryor Thorne. One of the oldest members
of the Kentucky bar is William Pryor Thorne of Emi-
nence, who was admitted to the bar about the time the
Civil war closed, and whose home and professional in-
terests have always been central at Eminence, though
his fame as a lawyer is at least state wide. He has en-
joyed many notable honors and responsibilities in the
public affairs of his home state.
632
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
He was born March 5, 1845, at a farm in the northern
part of Shelby County midway between Shelbyville and
Eminence. His grandparents were John and Elizabeth
(Kimberlan) Thorne, people of Scotch-Irish ancestry
who lived at Thornleigh between Manchester and Lon-
don, England. Leaving there they came to America and
settled in Virginia and considerably more than a century
ago came to Kentucky and located in Shelby County.
The first deed for land in Kentucky was signed by Pat-
rick Henry of Virginia. John Thorne assisted in build-
ing the pioneer fort known as Lynch's Station and his
own land was nearby on Bullskin Creek. That old home
with so many associations for the family was subse-
quently acquired and carefully preserved by William P.
Thorne. Three of John Thome's nephews and three
nieces were killed by the Indians in the vicinity of Clear
Creek. Not far away on the same creek is the place
known as Thome's Hole, used as the baptismal place
of the Burkes Branch of the Baptist Church for several
generations. In the same vicinity is the old Colonel Todd
home. John Thorne was buried on his farm and the
burial place was subsequently preserved at the sale of
the property by the grandson William P. Thorne. John
Thorne the pioneer had two sons, William Kimberlan
and Andrew Jackson. The latter removed from Ken-
tucky to Terre Haute, Indiana. There were five daugh-
ters, the only one remaining in Kentucky being Nancy
who became the wife of Wallace Morrison, brother of
"Horizontal Bill" Morrison, a distinguished Illinois con-
gressman.
William Kimberlan Thorne was born in Shelby County
but spent his active years on his farm a mile west of
Eminence in Henry County, where he died in 1886 at the
age of seventy-eight. He married Mary Moody, who
was born in Henry County and survived her husband six
years, reaching the same age. They were the parents of
three sons. The oldest A. J. Thorne was for four years
a Confederate soldier, an officer in Morgan's command
and died soon after the war. Another son Shelby Todd
remained at the old homestead and occupied the resi-
dence built by William K. Thorne during the '30s.
William Pryor Thorne was raised on a farm as his
early environment, but at an early age determined to
follow the profession of the law. He was sixteen when
the war broke out and he came to manhood and pre-
pared for his profession while the country was involved
in the great civil strife. He attended Eminence College
under President W. S. Giltner and studied law with two
distinguished Kentuckians, his namesake Judge W. S.
Pryor and Judge George C. Drane. He was not vet
twenty-one when he was admitted to the bar and he
opened his first office at Eminence and has been satis-
fied to allow his ripe achievements as a lawyer to be
credited to that town of Henry County. His home there
is known as Thornleigh in honor of the ancestral home
of his grandparents in England. Judge Thorne has
practiced in all the courts and few lawyers in the
state have had a more varied and important clientage
during the past half century. He enjoys the distinction
of earning and collecting the largest cash fee of over
$50,000 in one case of any lawyer in Henry County. His
knowledge as a lawyer, his ability as a pleader and
speaker, and his long habit of thoughtful study of cur-
rent issues in politics have enabled him to discharge
many responsibilities of a public nature though he was
never perhaps very actively a candidate for office.
He is a democrat, and was prosecuting attorney of his
county for four years, democratic elector of his state,
delegate to the national convention and four times he
has represented his county in the Lower House of the
Legislature. While in the Legislature he was author
of the Thorne Tobacco Bill, the Thorne Whiskey Bill
and a law compelling railroads to fence their right-of-
way. In 1903 he was elected lieutenant governor lead-
ing the democratic ticket and served the four years
with Governor Beckham. He presided over the Senate
through two regular and two special sessions, and had
the unique honor of not a single appeal being taken
from one of his parliamentary decisions. He was state
delegate to notify William J. Bryan of his nomination.
Mr. Thorne has also been interested in banking at
Eminence, and has been affiliated with the Masonic
Order and the Elks.
March 27, 1866, he married Miss Anna Dickerson who
was born in Kenton County, Kentucky, daughter of R.
A. Dickerson and sister of, former Congressman W. W.
Dickerson and R. T. Dickerson, president, Bank of
Williamstown, Kentucky. Mr. and Mrs. Thorne became
the parents of three children. Agnes P. became the wife
of Lindsay T. Crabb of Louisville. Bernice is the wife
of James E. Waugh of Christian County, Kentucky.
The only son, William Pryor Thorne, Jr., was educated
as a lawyer but most of his life has been taken up with
business affairs and politics. He was at one time con-
nected with the American Tobacco Company, and later
with a coal and lumber company in California. He was
sergeant at arms of Kentucky House of Representatives
and clerk of the State Board Equalization, was ap-
pointed by President Woodrow Wilson postmaster of
San Luis Obispo, California, holding this for four
years, and is now in an important position with the
Southern Pacific Railroad in California.
James Rice Bond, the leading general merchant at
Nonesuch, has been actively identified and well known
in this locality of Woodford County for a quarter of
a century or more. He came to Woodford from Ander-
son County, where he was born March 25, 1869, son of
David W. and Mary Frances (Rice) Bond. His grand-
father, James Bond, was also a resident of Anderson
County, of Virginia stock. David W. Bond was born in
1828 and died in 1895. His life was chiefly spent as
a farmer, but during the war between the states he
was in Company G of the Sixth Kentucky Infantry, the
Orphans Brigade, and gave four years of his early man-
hood to fighting the cause of the Confederacy. The wife
of David W. Bond, Mary Frances Rice, was born in
1833 and died in 1892. She was born in Shelby County,
her grandfather having moved from Boyle to Shelby
County while her own father, James Rice, moved
from Shelby to Anderson County when she was twelve
years old.
James Rice Bond lived in Anderson County until he
was nineteen, and while there attended common schools
and a seminary at Lawrenceburg. Mr. Bond for three
sessions taught at Mount Edwards and for seven terms
taught in the Nonesuch School. His connection with
educational affairs at Nonesuch continued until 1896,
though in 1894 he had bought out H. D. Wilson, the
business partner of his cousin Bolivar Bond. He con-
tinued to be associated with Bolivar Bond in business
until 1908, when their stock of goods was closed out at
auction. In the meantime, from 1897 to 1900, Mr. Bond
had an interesting experience in the Canadian Northwest
as a topographer with the Canadian Pacific Railroad
during the laying out and construction of new lines.
While he was in the Northwest his partner had charge
of the store. In 1908 Mr. Bond opened a new store at
Nonesuch, and for the past thirteen years has been
busily engaged in merchandising and farming. In 1921
he became candidate for sheriff of Woodford County.
He is a democrat, a Knight Templar Mason and a
member of the Presbyterian Church. In 1900 he mar-
ried Miss Josephine Redman. They have one son, Lewis
C, born in 1901, and now a student in Center College
at Danville.
Hon. John C. Eversole, circuit judge of the district
composed of Leslie, Owsley and Perry counties, is a
worthy representative of the dignity and greatness o'
the state in the domain of the law, which he has hon
ored for thirty years. He is a native Kentuckian, hav
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
633
ing been born on the Kentucky River, just opposite
the present location of the town of Chavies, in Perry
County, January 27, 1865, a son of Maj. John C. and
Nancy Ann (Duff) Eversole.
Judge Eversole belongs to an old and honored family,
the first members of which in America, Christopher
Ebersole (as then spelled) and his wife, were probably
from Holland. They came, however, from near Berlin,
Germany, in about 1755 to America and settled in Penn-
sylvania. A son, Jacob Ebersole, married Mary Kesley
and went with a German colony to Ashe County, North
Carolina, where he had brothers and sisters, and where
the old records show that the members of the colony
made cloth out of cotton and flax. The Ebersoles re-
turned to Pennsylvania, whence some of them migrated
to Ohio, but Jacob, who was a Baptist preacher and not
well-to-do in this world's goods, came to Kentucky and
settled on land on the Kentucky River, near Grapevine
Creek, in what is now Perry County. This land is still
in the possession of the Eversole family. Jacob, who
could not speak English plainly, lost his congregation,
but the family later organized the old Grapevine Baptist
Church, where Jacob preached for many years. He and
his wife had five sons : John, Abraham, Peter, Worley
and Joseph, all farmers on the Kentucky River, Abraham
also being a preacher of the Baptist faith.
Worley Eversole, the grandfather of Judge Eversole,
followed farming throughout his life. From his father
he had learned to speak the German language, and as
he also had a German teacher he became proficient in
reading and writing in German. Maj. John C. Eversole,
the father of Judge Eversole, with his brother Joseph
as a partner, was engaged in merchandising and stock
trading and in dealing in numerous commodities, their
store being at the present site of Chavies in Perry
County. They were also farmers, and Joseph Eversole
was a deacon in the Baptist Church, a member of the
State Legislature_ in 1845, and a strong whig and later
a republican. During the war between the states he was
in the commissary department of the Union service.
Maj. John C. Eversole, who was the owner of much
land and the holder of numerous business interests, laid
aside his personal ambitions at the outbreak of the war
between the states and accepted a captain's commission
in the Union army. Later he assisted in recruiting the
Fourteenth Regiment, Kentucky Volunteer Infantry,
which Col. H. C. Lilley commanded, and was made
major. While on a furlough and a visit to his home
May 2, 1864, he met his death at the hands of guerillas,
he being then only thirty-six years of age, and his
youngest son, John C. of this notice, not yet born. His
wife, who was born January 26, 1828, died July 17,
1900, when seventy-two years of age. They were the
parents of the following children : Henry C., formerly
circuit judge, and now a resident of Annville, Jackson
County; George W., a resident of Krypton, Perry
County; Clarke, engaged in farming at Berea, Madison
County ; Judge John C. ; Mary, of Hazard, the widow
of Justice Bowling; Polly, the widow of George W.
Fields ; Sarah, who died at the age of fourteen years ;
Elizabeth, who died at the age of twenty-three years,
as the wife of H. C. Napier; Jane, who died when
twenty-three years of age, as the wife of Stephen
-Napier; and Joseph, a former merchant, attorney and
preputy collector, who died at Hazard.
w John C. Eversole attended the public schools and
MJnion College at Barbourville, and began teaching
alchool when he was twenty years of age. While thus
atngageH he commenced the study of law, reading Black-
Vtone in his leisure moments and later applying himself
aio his profession in the office of his brother, Henry C.
Vtfter his marriage, in 1891, at Hazard, he was admitted
Go the bar and at once commenced the practice of his
ailrofession here, although his home for years had been
Cheated in the lower part of the county and at Booneville
Rpi Owsley County. For two terms he served as county
attorney in Owsley County, and in 1915 was elected judge
of the Circuit Court on a distinctly "dry" ticket. He has
continued to hold this office to the present time, and has
a splendid record for upholding the law, having made
a strenuous fight against the illegal liquor traffic and
being sustained in the great majority of his decisions
by the higher courts. Judge Eversole maintains member-
ship in the Hazard Bar Association, the Kentucky Bar
Association and the Circuit Judges Association of Ken-
tucky. In his political relations he is a republican.
On January 28, 1888, Judge Eversole was united in
marriage with Miss Alice Hogg, daughter of Stephen
P. Hogg, of Owsley County. Mrs. Eversole, a woman
of remarkable attainments and very talented, has been
of great assistance to her husband, and to her he gen-
erously gives credit for a large share of his success.
Their only daughter, Pauline, is the wife of Thomas F.
Hargis, of Yakima, Washington. Judge and Mrs. Ever-
sole are consistent members of the Presbyterian Church.
Fraternally he is affiliated with the Master Masons at
Booneville, and the Odd Fellows at Hazard.
i
Ira J. Francis, D. D. S., is established in the success-
ful practice of his profession at Whitesburg, Letcher
County, with an office that is equipped with modern
appliances and facilities for the execution of dental work
of the highest grade. The Doctor is a native son of
Kentucky, his birth having occurred at Dirk, Knott
County, on the 30th of May, 1889. He is a son of
Samuel and Lettie (Mullins) Francis. The father was
born on the Carr's Fork farm on which he now resides
in Letcher County, he being, in 1921, seventy-seven years
of age and his wife, sixty-seven. Both are representa-
tives of old and highly respected families of that dis-
trict. Samuel Francis was a loyal soldier of the
Southern Army in the Civil war under Captain Hanck,
and his active career has been one of close association
with farm industry. Success attended his well ordered
activities in this important field of enterprise, he has
been active and influential in community affairs, and his
liberality and paternal loyalty were shown in his giving
to his children the best possible educational advantages.
His wife was born on Carr's Fork, at Dirk, Knott
County, Kentucky, and both are members of families
that came from North Carolina and settled in South-
eastern Kentucky in the pioneer days. Samuel Francis
has been an active member of the Baptist Church fully
forty years, and his wife likewise is an earnest member.
Of their six sons and six daughters all are living ex-
cept one daughter, Dr. Ira J., of this review, being the
youngest of the number.
The district school on Carr's Creek near his home
was the medium through which the preliminary educa-
tion of Doctor Francis was gained, and after leaving
the same he pursued a higher course of study at Berea
College, with further academic studies in the University
of Louisville. In 1906 the family removed to Daven-
port, Lincoln County, Oklahoma, where the home was
continued for three years, during which Doctor Francis
there attended school during the winter terms, -\fter
the return of the family to Kentucky he finally entered
the dental department of the University of Louisville, in
which he was graduated as a member of the class of
1913, and with the degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery.
He then entered into the practice of his profession at
Hindman, Knott County, later removed to Hazard, Perry
County, and in the latter place he continued his practice
until 1918, since which year he has been numbered
among the successful and popular dental practitioners at
Whitesburg, judicial center of Letcher County. Doctor
Francis maintains lively interest in all that touches the
welfare of his home town and county, his political
allegiance is given to the democratic party, and he is
a Royal Arch Mason.
In July, 1914, Doctor Francis wedded Miss Ennis
Pigmon, daughter of Wilburn and Mary Pigmon, of
634
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
Knott County, and the four children of this union are
Hazel Mary, Ira J., Jr., Mary Loas and Samuel Wilson.
W. M. Pursifull. In his professional activities as a
civil engineer, this well-known citizen of Hazard, Perry
County, has been closely associated with the develop-
ment of many important mining enterprises in Eastern
Kentucky, among the number being those of the Haz-
ard Coal Company, the Blue Gras's Coal Company, the
Daniel Boone Mining Company, the Crawford Coal
Company, the Four Seam Collieries Company, the Ash-
lers Coal Company, and the Hazard, Jr., Mine on
First Creek. He is retained as engineer for the Ken-
tucky & West Virginia Power Company, a corporation
of important development and industrial functions.
Mr. Pursifull was born in Bell County, Kentucky,
December 30, 1883, and is a son of M. J. and Orpha
(Hurst) Pursifull. M. J. Pursifull was born and
reared in Bell County and became a prominent and
successful civil engineer, besides which he developed
an extensive business in the handling of real estate and
the furtherance of promotive enterprises. He died in
19.02, at the age of forty-eight years, after having
played an influential part in the civic and material de-
velopment and progress of Bell and other counties in
this section of his native state. His widow still re-
sides in Bell County. Their children are six in num-
ber— three sons and three daughters.
At the age of eighteen years W. M. Pursifull was
graduated from the high school at Pineville, Bell
County, and thereafter he gave himself to careful study
and practical work in surveying and civil engineering
under the effective preceptorship of his father. In
fact, his experience along this line was initiated when
he was a mere boy, and he was able to do effective sur-
veying work when he was but fourteen years of age.
At Pineville he became associated with the engineer-
ing firm of Johnston & Johnston, and he remained at
that place until 1905, when he formed a professional
alliance with the representative engineering firm of
Fox & Peck at Big Stone Gap, Virginia, where in
1908 he was admitted to partnership and the name of
the firm was changed to Fox, Peck & Pursifull. It was
as a representative of this firm that he came to Haz-
ard and entered upon his successful work in connec-
tion with the development of coal-mining enterprise in
this section of the state. He was for some time presi-
dent of the Woodburn Coal Company in Letcher County,
and was president also of the Hazard, Jr., Coal Com-
pany. Mr. Pursifull is at the present time president
of the Hazard Exchange Bank, besides which he holds
the office of city engineer, in which connection he has
personal supervision of extensive street-paving work
that is being carried to completion. He is one of the
most vital and public-spirited young men of the fine
little city in which he maintains his home and of
which he served as mayor during the period of the
World war, his personal and administrative activities
having been used effectively in furthering the success
of the varied governmental agencies in support of war
activities. Mr. Pursifull is a democrat, is affiliated with
the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and his
name remains enrolled on the roster of eligible bach-
elors in Perry County.
Tilford A. Braswell is one of the prominent county
officers of Lyon County, serving as County Court clerk.
He is a member of one of the oldest and most sub-
stantial families of this section of Kentucky, and his
own active career for many years was identified with
railroading and subsequently as a merchant until he
entered upon his present official duties.
The Braswells are of Irish stock. They were very
early settlers in Tennessee. One of the men who
contributed most to the early business enterprise and
development of Eddyville was Nicholas T. Braswell,
grandfather of Tilford A. He was born in Tennessee
and subsequently acquired extensive tracts of land in
Lyon County, Kentucky, owning a portion of the ground
on which the modern City of Eddyville stands. While
his interests were long identified with farming, he also
built up a large business as a merchant at Eddyville,
and owned much land in the city. He was one of the
community's foremost citizens. He died in 1893 at
Eddyville. He was very closely identified with the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, of the town, and
in politics was a democrat. Charles Braswell, a son of
the pioneer merchant, was born in Lyon County in
1834. was reared in his native vicinity but spent the
greater part of his active career as a steamboat engineer,
running on boats between St. Louis and New Orleans.
He died at Paducah, Kentucky, in 1872. His wife was
Josephine Doom, who was born in Lyon County in 1847.
Her father, Ben Doom, was born in the same county in
1806, the Dooms having been identified with pioneer
things in Lyon County. Ben Doom, whose life was
spent as a farmer in that county, where he died in T875,
married Amanda Madewell, who died in Lyon County
at the age of eighty-four. Their daughter Josephine
was one of thirteen children and is now living at
Kuttawa, Kentucky. Tilford A., is the elder of two
children. His sister, Madaline, born in 1871, is the
wife of John Scott, a farmer at Kuttawa.
Tilford A. Braswell was born on his father's farm
two miles south of Eddyville March 10, 1869, but at-
tended school at Eddyville. He graduated from the
Eddyville High School in 1887, and during the next
twelve years was actively associated with his grand-
father's general store, the pioneer mercantile enterprise
of Eddyville. He then entered railroading as a locomo-
tive fireman with the N. M. and M. V. Railway, which
subsequently became a part of the Illinois Central. He
was in the service of the Illinois Central until 1913,
when he left the road to engage in the restaurant busi-
ness at Kuttawa. In the fall of 1917 he was elected by
a comfortable margin to the office of County Court clerk,
and began his four year term in January, 1918.
Mr. Braswell in his official capacity and also as an
individual gave generously of his means and his influ-
ence to all local war activities, helping sell bonds and
raise other funds and keep up the patriotic record of
ihe county. He is a former member of the Brotherhood
of Locomotive Firemen, is affiliated with Cumberland
Camp No. 138, Woodmen of the World, at Eddyville
and is a democrat. He owns one of the very attractive
residences of Eddyville, located on Water Street, a home
with electric lights, city water, baths and other con-
veniences, surrounded with well kept grounds and some
fine old shade trees.
At Metropolis, Illinois, in 1890, Mr. Braswell married
Miss Lillian Long, a daughter of William H. and
Mollie Long, now deceased. Her father was at one time
a merchant at Eddyville, and Mrs. Braswell is a grad-
uate of the Eddyville High School. They have two
children. The son, Clifford, made a notable record as
a soldier. He was born July 15, 1893, graduated from
the Eddyville High School, and in 1915 joined the
Regular Army. For two years he was at a post in the
Philippine Islands, was raised to the rank of second
lieutenant while there, going up from the ranks, and
early in the World war was with that contingent o)e
American forces sent to Russia. While there he wa_s
promoted to first lieutenant. He was still abroad wheir
his term of enlistment of three years and six month
expired, and he then accepted service with the Red Cros;
with the rank of captain, and remained on duty f.
Russia, Japan, China and Siberia until August 14, 1921
when, after an absence of practically five years, hi_
returned home and rejoined old friends and family %'
Eddyville. The daughter, Maurine Braswell, is th^
wife of R. A. Squires, who is manager of the Fairbanks,,. .
Morse Company's business at Evansville, Indiana. la\
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
635
Clement William Hucgins, Louisville lawyer, has
been in practice in that city for the past twelve years
and at the same time has enjoyed a distinctive leader-
ship in the democratic party in his section of the state.
Mr. Huggins was born in Barren County, Kentucky,
September 19, 1873, son of James Pendleton and Carolyn
(DeNeale) Huggins. His father, who for many years
conducted a successful nursery business in Barren Coun-
ty, was born there June 4, 1842, and died October 30,
1898. He was a democrat and a member of the Baptist
Church. His wife was born in Nelson County, Ken-
tucky, September 29, 1847, and is still living. Of the
two children the older is Elizabeth, wife of John A.
Macmillan of Dayton, Ohio.
Clement W. Huggins acquired a public school educa-
tion in his native county, and in 1902 graduated from
the law department of Vanderbilt University at Nash-
ville, Tennessee. Before going to the university he had
been employed as a bookkeeper and began the study of
law under Judge Sterling B. Toney. He also received
a law degree from the University of Louisville in 1909,
in which year he began his active practice in that city.
For nine years Mr. Huggins was attorney for the
Sinking Fund Commissioners of Louisville. In 1908
he was chosen a member of the Democratic Electoral
College, and for five years was on the Democratic State
Executive Committee. He is a member of the State and
Louisville Bar Associations, and is affiliated with the
Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and Knights
of Pythias.
George L. Everly, M. D. Twenty-five years of con-
tinuous work in his profession as a physician and surgeon
in Ohio County has brought Doctor Everly a position of
prominence and secure esteem. In his chosen vocation
he followed in the footsteps of his honored father, whose
life was one of genuine service and high attainments
in the field of medicine and surgery, and father and son
have been factors in the medical history of Ohio County
for considerably more than half a century.
George L. Everly was born in Ohio County November
10, 1862. His grandfather was a life long resident
and farmer of McLean County, son of a pioneer settler
from Virginia. Dr. J. M. Everly was born in McLean
County in 1837, was reared and acquired his early
education in that locality, and was a graduate of the
Eclectic Medical College of Cincinnati. He was still a
young man when he located in Ohio County, and he
continued his work as a physician at Ceralvo practically
until the close of his life. He died in August, 191 1.
He had the qualities of mind and character that made
him an exemplary physician and surgeon, widely known
over his section of the state for his success in practice,
and was greatly beloved by the community which he
served so many years. Always a busy man, he was,
nevertheless, active in local affairs, was postmaster at
Ceralvo a number of years, also owned and operated
a drug store and grocery store there, was a democrat
in politics, a very loyal member of the Methodist Epis-
copal Church and was a Royal Arch Mason. Dr. J. M.
Everly married Susan Mary Kimbley, who was born
in Ohio County in 1842 and died at Ceralvo in 1920.
Of her large family of children Dr. George Everly is
the oldest and the only one to take up his father's
?"-ofession. Lizzie, the second in age, died at Ceralvo,
!sife of J. W. Garrett, now a merchant at Nelson in
lniuhlenberg County; Charles B. is a merchant at Cer-
PPvo; Minnie L. is the wife of L. P. Fulkerson, a farmer
•°_i Ceralvo; Emma B., of Ceralvo, is the widow of
*?jrgil Fulkerson, a merchant ; Jesse was a boat carpenter
rt'U died at Evansville, Indiana, at the age of forty-five ;
'larvin is a coal miner at the Williams Mine in Ohio
bounty; W. N. Everly is a miner living at Rockport ;
I'jid Eddie G. is the wife of W. S. Hill, residents of
f feralvo, though Mr. Hill is a teacher of the schools of
iockport.
George L. Everly spent his early life at Ceralvo,
attended public school there and under the inspiration
and guidance of his father determined at an early date
to become a physician. In 1895 he graduated from his
father's school, the Eclectic Medical College of Cincin-
nati, and in the same year took up active practice at
Ceralvo. He remained in that community until 191 1,
when he removed to Rockport, where he has a busy
general medical and surgical practice. He is a member
of the Ohio County Medical Society, and had the honor
of being elected president of the State Eclectic Medical
Society in 1917. He owns a modern home and offices in
Rockport, also four dwelling houses there. He offered
his services to the Medical Reserve Corps in 1918, but
was never called for active duty, though he shared with
other prominent leaders in the community the responsibil-
ities of promoting the success of various war campaigns.
Doctor Everly is a democrat, is a past junior warden
of Ceralvo Lodge No. 253, A. F. and A. M., member
of Rockport Lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fellows,
and Rockport Tribe of the Improved Order of Red Men.
In 1896, in Ohio County, he married Miss Clemmie
Park, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Park, both
of whom are now deceased. Her father was a farmer in
Ohio County. Mrs. Everly, who died at Rockport in
October, 191 1, was the mother of four children who
survive : Hazel, born in 1898, was educated in the high
school at Bowling Green, Kentucky, was a teacher for
one year in Muhlenberg County, and is now a book-
keeper for the Rockport Coal Company ; Gladys, born in
1899, is the wife of Homer Boyd, of Rockport, a
securities salesman of the Trustees System Service
Corporation ; Jesse Levy, born in 1901, and Addis, born
in 1903, both students in the Rockport High School.
James H. Martin has done well his part in upholding
the prestige of Nicholas County in the field of agricul-
tural and live-stock industry, and is the owner of one
of the well improved farms of the county, while previ-
ously he was the owner of one of the largest farm
estates in the county. He continues to give a general
supervision to his model farm of 500 acres, but resides
in the village of Millersburg, where he is the owner of
one of the most modern and attractive home properties
of the place.
Mr. Martin was born in Harrison County, Kentucky,
March 29, 1866, and is a son of J. W. and Nancy
(Bradley) Martin, the former of whom was born in
Harrison County, in 1827, a representative of a sterling
pioneer family of that section of the state, while his
wife was born in Robertson County, in 1834, and is still
a resident of Nicholas County, where his death occurred
in the year 1914. J. W. Martin was reared to manhood
in his native county, received his education in the
common schools of the locality and period, and his active
association with the pursuits of the farm was initiated
in his boyhood on the old home farm of his father.
At the age of seventeen years he manifested his youthful
patriotism by enlisting for service in the Mexican war,
as a soldier in which he served until its close. Later
years found him in active service as a soldier of the
Confederacy in the Civil war. He took part in numerous
engagements, in one of which he received a wound in
one of his arms.
After his marriage J. W. Martin settled in Robertson
County, and later he returned to Harrison County,
where he continued his activities as a farmer until 1881,
when he removed to Nicholas County and rented a farm.
It was not until after his son James H., of this review,
was twenty-one years of age that J. W. Martin here
purchased a farm, of 135 acres, and with the passing
years he gradually added to this nucleus until he was
the owner of a valuable farm property. He was one
of the venerable and honored citizens of this county
at the time of his death.
James H. Martin is indebted to the schools of Harrison
/
636
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
County for his early education, and there he learned at
first hand the intricacies and details of farm work, the
while he waxed strong in mental and physical powers.
He accompanied his parents on their removal to Nicholas
County, and after he had attained to his legal majority
he here purchased a farm of 135 acres, to which, with
increasing prosperity, he continued to add until he had
a valuable property of 900 acres. This property he
eventually sold to advantage, and thereafter he owned
a valuable tract of 1000 acres, virtually in one body,
nf which he retains 673 acres, besides being the owner
of a farm of thirty-eight acres in Bourbon County.
His increasing prosperity in the passing years has not
been the result of accident but rather has been the
normal reward of well directed effort, effective manage-
ment of affairs, circumspection and good judgment in
investments. Resolute purpose, integrity and fairness
in all things, and a realization of the true values in
human thought and action have characterized the course
of Mr. Martin, and at all times has he maintained secure
place in the confidence and good will of his fellow men.
He takes loyal interest in all that touches the communal
welfare, but has had no desire for the honors or emolu-
ments of public office of any kind. His political alle-
giance is given to the democratic party, and he and
his wife are active members of the Christian Church
in their home village.
October 31, 1894, recorded the marriage of Mr. Martin
and Miss Maud M. Robbins, daughter of Dr. John L.
Robbins, long a representative physician and surgeon
in Bourbon County. Mr. and Mrs. Martin have four
children: Lucile is the wife of Lee Norton; J. L. is the
wife of James Ellington ; Lovell, who is now at the
parental home, served in the United States Navy in the
period of the World war, as a member of the Hospital
Corps ; and Jimmie is the youngest member of the
parental home circle.
Mr. Martin gave loyal support to the various patriotic
causes in the period of national participation in the
World war, and subscribed his quota to the various war
bonds issued by the Government, besides supporting Red
Cross service and other agencies tending to advance the
war policies of the Government. Though the most of
his landed estate lies in Nicholas County, the home
village of Mr. Martin is in Bourbon County, not far
distant from his farm property.
Grover Cleveland Allen. A lawyer whose attain-
ments have placed him in the front rank of the Eastern
Kentucky bar, and also a successful business man,
Grover Cleveland Allen is the present Commonwealth's
Attorney for the judicial district of which West Liberty
is the center. He is a resident of that city.
Mr. Allen was born at what is now Lee City in Wolfe
County, Kentucky, December 7, 1884, being named in
honor of the democratic president elected only a few
weeks before his birth. His father was Caleb B. Allen.
his grandfather George Allen, his great-grandfather
Richard Allen, while the next ancestor was a native of
Wales, coming to America at an early date and settling
in North Carolina. Richard Allen was born in North
Carolina, and before 1800 came to what is now Magoffin
County, Kentucky, and took up a large tract of land.
For a short time he lived at Caney, and then removed
to White Oak Creek, in what was then Morgan but
now Magoffin County. Richard Allen was a pioneer,
endured all the hardships and trials of redeeming a.
portion of the wilderness to cultivation, and was a
highly respected and influential resident of the com-
munity where he died at the age of sixty-nine. He
married Edith Williams a daughter of Daniel Williams.
They were the parents of Daniel, Elijah, Polley Ann,
Violet Dorcas, Joseph, Nancy Smiley, George and
Rachel.
George Allen was born in Magoffin County, devoted
his active years to farming, but died at the age of forty-
five. His children were C. B. ; Hughey, who died
young; Eli, who died in 1912; Margaret, who married
James Salley ; and Sarah, who married D. B. Elam.
Caleb B. Allen was born in Magoffin County, Novem-
ber 11, 1859, and was only seven years of age when
his father died and he was left largely to make his own
way through the world. At the age of eighteen he
moved to Wolfe County locating at Red River on the
present site of Lee City. He was a farmer there, also
engaged in the lumber business, and opened one of the
first stocks of goods at Lee City and is still one of the
busy merchants of that community. He is an active
member of the Baptist Church, and several times was
honored with the office of master of Pieratt Lodge
No. 725, F. and A. M. Caleb B. Allen married Rhoda
Elam, daughter of Joel Elam who came from Wise
County, Virginia and settled in Morgan County, where
his daughter Rhoda was born. The children of C. B.
Allen and wife were: Sophronia; Cela, who died at the
age of twelve; Grover Cleveland; Leebern, now County
Attorney of Wolfe County; Seebren ; Freeland T. ; Mae,
wife of T. C. Boothe a farmer at Bethel, Ohio; William,
a merchant at Quicksand, Kentucky ; Mrs. Mildred
Mclntosch of VanLear, Kentucky.
Grover Cleveland Allen spent his early life in the
vicinity of Lee City, attended district schools, and
completed a liberal education in the Hazel Green
Academy, the Wesleyan Academy and finally took his
law course in the University of Louisville, where he
graduated with the class of 1906. While attending
college and in order to earn money to defray his
expenses in law school, he taught in Wolfe and Breathitt
counties and after graduating from law school he was
principal of the Campton High School one term. Since
then he has devoted his time to his legal and business
interests. For a few years he was associated in practice
with S. Monroe Nickell at Compton and later continued
his practice alone. Mr. Allen served as County Attorney
of Wolfe County and as master commissioner. During
the period 1917-19 Mr. Allen had some extensive inter-
cuts in the oil and gas industry in Wolfe, Magoffin
and Morgan counties, and is now a member of the
Collier Oil-Gas Company of West Liberty.
Mr. Allen was called to the duties of Commonwealth's
Attorney on November 8, 1921, when he was elected by
the imposing majority of 3,288 votes, leading his ticket
by a large number. His district comprises Wolfe,
Magoffin and Morgan counties.
Mr. Allen is a member of the Christian Church and
of Pieratt Lodge No. 725, F. and A. M., and the Royal
Arch Chapter at Jackson. He is a democrat. His first
wife was Irene Garringer of White Haven, Pennsylvania.
She died in 1918 leaving three children, Malcolm, Frank
and Harold E. After her death Mr. Allen married
Miss Mary Whitenack of Clermont County, Ohio. They
have a son William Hager.
Douglas I. Day, junior member of the representative
law firm of Field & Day, of Whitesburg, Letcher Coun-
ty, Kentucky, was born at Linefork, this county, Septem-
ber, 16, 1874, and is a son of Judge Henry T. and Mary
(Cornett) Day. Judge Day was born on the Cumber-
land River in Letcher County in 1856, and is a represent-
ative of an old Colonial family of Virginia, representa-
tives of which came by way of the old Daniel Boone
trail and numbered themselves among the pioneer settlers
in Southeastern Kentucky. Judge Henry T. Day was for
many years a successful teacher in the schools of this
section of Kentucky, and he continued his residence
on the Cumberland River in Letcher County until aboi t
twenty years ago, when he established his home one mile
east of Whitesburg, where he and his wife still reside.
He served as county judge of Letcher County from 1913
to 1917, made an excellent record on the bench, and has
been otherwise an honored and influential citizen of hip-
native county. He is a stalwart republican, is affiliated
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
637
t
with the Blue Lodge and Chapter of the Masonic fra-
ternity, served several terms as master of the Lodge
of Free and Accepted Masons at Whitesburg, besides
having frequently represented the same in the grand
lodge of the state. Mrs. Day likewise is a native of
Letcher County, where she was born in the year 1858.
and both she and her husband are representatives of
old and honored pioneer families of this county. Of
their four children three are living, Douglas L, of this
review, being the eldest of the number; N. R., resides
upon a farm near that of his father, and in addition
to being one of the successful exponents of agricultural
industry in his native county he is actively associated
with the productive operations of the Mayking Coal
Company; James M. is assistant cashier of the First
National Bank of Whitesburg; John B. died at the age
of twenty years.
The public schools of Letcher County gave to Douglas
Irvine Day his early educational advantages, and he
later completed a course, including commercial law, in
the Bryant & Stratton Business College. For twelve
years he was numbered among the successful teachers
in the public schools of this part of the state, and he
read law under the preceptorship of his present partner,
Judge David D. Fields, of whom specific mention is
made on other pages of this work, Judge Fields at that
time having been legal representative of a number of
large and important land and coal companies. Mr. Day
was admitted to the bar in 1916, and at once entered into
partnership with his honored preceptor, Judge Fields,
with whom he has continued to be associated in the
control of a large and important law business which
touches both the civil and criminal departments of
practice. Mr. Day has gained high reputation as a trial
lawyer, and among his recent experiences was the de-
fending of a son charged with the murder of his father,
while previously he had been retained for the defense
of a father charged with the killing of a son. Prior to
engaging in the active practice of his profession Mr. Day
had given effective service as official court stenographer
for the judicial district comprising Letcher, Perry,
Leslie and Owsley counties.
_ Mr. Day is a staunch and loyal advocate of the prin-
ciples of the republican party, is affiliated with the
Whitesburg Blue Lodge and Chapter of the Masonic
fraternity, and has twice served as worshipful master
of the former, besides twice representing the same in
the Grand Lodge of Kentucky. He holds membership
also in the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks
and the Improved Order of Redmen, the latter of which
he has represented in the Grand Lodge of the state. In
a professional way he holds membership in the Com-
mercial Law League of America.
In 1894 Mr. Day wedded Miss Maggie Wells, who
likewise was born and reared in Letcher County and
who is a daughter of Joseph Wells. Of the three chil-
dren of Mr. and Mrs. Day two are living, Lawrence
M. and Lona, who remain at the parental home; Daisy
died at the age of ten years. Mrs. Day is a member of
the Baptist Church and is a popular factor in the social
life of her home community.
Anderson D. Park, M. D. While one of the busiest
physicians at Rockport, where he began practice after
graduating in medicine twenty years ago, Doctor Park
is perhaps even better known for his active leadership
in business affairs. He has been president of the Rock-
port Deposit Bank from its establishment, has several
. other active business interests, and at the same time
^"s been deeply concerned with movements representing
ie- civic enterprise of his locality.
Doctor Park was born at Olaton in Ohio County, Ken-
uCky, January 31, 1875. The Park family is of Scotch
ficestry. From Scotland they first moved to Nova
j:otia, but established a home in Pennsylvania in the
plonial period of history. Doctor Park's grandfather
was born near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and spent most
of his life there on a farm. He lived for a few years
at Dayton, Ohio, and late in life came to Ohio County.
Kentucky, and died near Olaton in 1861. He married
a Miss Fitzgerald, a native of Maryland, who also died
in Ohio County.
Jesse B. Park, father of Doctor Park, was born at
Dayton, Ohio, in 1826, and was about fourteen years
of age when the father moved to Ohio County, Ken-
tucky, in 1840. He became a farmer near Olaton, and
when the Civil war came on he espoused the Union
cause and enlisted in Company B of the Seventeenth
Kentucky Infantry. He was in service about a year,
participating in the battle of Shiloh. He always voted
as a republican and was an active member of the Meth-
odist Episcopal Church. Jesse B. Park who died near
Olaton in 1879, married Mrs. (Her) Daniel, who wa°
born near Rosine in Ohio County in 1832 and died
at Hartford, this state, in 1911. They were the parents
of five children : Joseph, a farmer near Horse Branch,
Ohio County; James F., a rural mail carrier living at
Hartford ; Janie, wife of Lee Mason, a merchant at
Rockport; Fannie, who died at Olaton in 1894, wife of
Henry Felix, now a farmer at Olaton ; and Anderson D.
Anderson D. Park was four years old when his father
died, but he grew up in the country district of Ohio
County and had his first advantages in the rural schools
there. In intervals of other employment he acquired a
liberal education both in general subjects and medicine.
He attended Hartford College at Hartford, Kentucky,
and in 1897 received the Bachelor of Science degree
from the West Kentucky College at South Carrollton.
For two years he was a student in the Hospital College
of Medicine at Memphis, and completed his course with
one year in the Hospital College of Louisville, where he
graduated in 1901. Doctor Park at once began practice
at Rockport, and his work has identified him with this
community continuously except for six months during
1905-06, when he had his office in " Hartford. His
professional offices are in the Rockport Deposit Bank
Building.
The Rockport Deposit Bank was opened to business
in January, 1904. It is a state bank, has capital of
$15,000, surplus and profits of $7,500, and deposits of
$75,000. The officers are A. D. Park, president; Ernie
Curtis, vice president, and C. H. Fraim, cashier. Doctor
Park has been president and active head of this institu-
tion from the time of its organization. He is also
a stockholder and manager, secretary and treasurer of
the Rockport Lumber Company, Inc. This is a business
operating saw mills on the bank of the Green River
along the Illinois Central track, and manufacturing rough
lumber, beams, and other hardwood products.
Doctor Park represented Ohio County in the State
Legislature during the Sessions of 1904, and for four
years served as town trustee of Rockport. He is a
republican and was prominently associated with the
various war activities in Ohio County.
In 1903, at Hartford, he married Miss Ida Smith,
daughter of Joseph H. and Diana (Piatt) Smith, both
now deceased. Her father was a stationary engineer
in the mines at Echols, Kentucky. Doctor and Mrs.
Park have four children: Helen, born August 3, 1906,
a student in the Rockport High School ; Woodrow, born
October 21, 1910; Edmund, born February 21, 1915;
and Dorothy, born December 24, 1918.
Edmund B. Perry. Himself one of the best known
citizens of Morgan County, the career of Edmund B.
Perry involves the story of one of the old and prominent
families of Eastern Kentucky. In all the generations
the Perry's have been marked by rugged strength and
fine character, with high convictions of right and duty,
they have borne their share in the development and
improvement of the land, and have also faced danger
in times of war. Edmund Perry has an abundance
638
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
of the pioneer virtues, and though in his eightieth year
he believed the Government might have used him to
advantage in the World war, and would have gone as
eagerly to the front as any young recruit.
He was born August 15, 1839. He bears the same
name as his first American ancestor Edmund Perry, a
native of Wales, who came to America in 1650, settling
in Rhode Island where he bought land from the Indians.
He lived there until his death. His son Daniel Perry
a native of Rhode Island as a young man went out to
the real frontier, Greenbrier County, Virginia, now
West Virginia, and became one of the last land owners
in that section. He died there in advanced years His
son John M. Perry, grandfather of Edmund B. Perry,
was born in Greenbrier County, and married Elizabeth
Nicholas, for whose family a portion of old Greenbrier
County was named Nicholas County. John M. Perry
and his wife brought their children to Kentucky in
1798, making their first settlement on the site of Mount
Sterling in Montgomery County where he took up 160
acres. From there he removed to Morgan County,
taught school here and followed farming as his main
vocation. He and his wife both attained the venerable
age of ninety-two and they were buried in the Harrison-
McClure grave yard three miles northwest of Liberty.
Their family consisted of five sons and ten daughters,
and all of them are now deceased, though they reached
advanced years.
Thomas D. Perry, father of Edmund B., was born
in Greenbrier County, Virginia, August 5, 1706. He was
about two years of age when his parents went through
the wilderness into Kentucky following a "hog path" to
Montgomery County. He grew up here, and learned
all the arts of woodcraft and was a noted hunter, killing
many deer, bear and panther in this section of Kentucky.
He possessed a magnificent physique and was equal to
any of the hardships that pioneers had to endure. His
great industry and his business ability made him highly
successful as a farmer and at one time he owned 32,000
acres in Morgan County. Like other members of the
family he was long lived and was ninety-three when he
passed away at his home three miles north of West
Liberty on Elk Fork. He married Matha B. Wells,
daughter of Edmund and Saley (Casity) Wells, and
she lived to the age of ninety. They were the parents
of seven sons and seven daughters named : Sarah,
Rachel, Frances, Elizabeth, Jane, Mary. Margaret, Cyrus,
Thomas N., Benjamin F., John M., Edmund B., James
W., and Daniel D., who died in infancy.
It is an honor to represent such a rugged family line
as this. Edmund B. Perry has manifested the best
character of his forefathers. He was reared in a time
when there were few advantages to be supplied by
schools, and his education was the result of attending
a subscription school conducted about three months
each year on Elk Fork three miles from West Liberty.
Later for a time he attended a high school in Bath
County. He remained with his father until he was
twenty-one. When the Civil war came on he joined
the Confederacy, for four months was employed in secret
service, and in 1862 joined the cavalry under Gen. John
Morgan in Col. Richard Ganough's Regiment. In Octo-
ber, 1862, he was captured at Grayson, Kentucky, but
was paroled the next day and in March, 1863, was ex-
changed. He then rejoined his command, and was in
the service until the time of surrender at Mount Sterling,
Kentucky.
Mr. Perry had a romantic engagement with Miss
Evelina Gardner of North Carolina, which continued
eleven years before they were happily married on April
10, 1867. She was the companion of his life and fortunes
fi ir a little more than forty years and passed away
October 30, 1907. After his marriage Mr. Perry engaged
in the lumber business and farming, and he was one
of the first to develop the coal measures under his land
in this section of Eastern Kentucky. He is credited
with having made the first shipment of coal on log
rafts down the Licking River. • Mr. Perry still owns
300 acres of valuable farm and coal lands. The coal
under his land is the cannel coal, of which there is a
large quantity and there is another vein of soft coal.
His farm is about two and a half miles north of West
Liberty on Elk Fork. This land was at one time a
portion of his father's estate.
By his first marriage Mr. Perry had the following
children: a daughter that died in infancy; John M.,
Jr., Henry Gardner, Ollie Parker of Quicksand, Ken-
tucky, Samuel South, Benjamin Franklin, deceased, and
Mary Elizabeth, wife of B. F. Elam.
The second wife of Mr. Perry was Cordia Allen
Lewis, daughter of A. W. Lewis, and of a family that
came from Pennsylvania and New York state. Mr.
Perry is a member of the Christian Church, and is a
democrat in politics.
David Wark Griffith. While David Wark Grif-
fith did not invent motion photography nor the photo-
play, he has made it a greater invention by lifting
it from a commercial level into the realm of art, and
every day sees an advance toward a higher plane of
achievement. In 1908 Mr. Griffith entered the employ
of the Biograph Company, incorporated in 1904, and
with his advent real stories in pictures began to be told.
He was then a young man of twenty-eight, having had
experience as a reporter, actor and scenario writer, but
in July, 1908, he directed his first picture, "The Ad-
ventures of Dollie." That picture "caught'' the public
and during the decade and a half which has since
elapsed, that public has learned that the name Griffith
guarantees something that is an advance over anything
that has ever been shown them on the silver screen.
His "ideas" have startled, even shocked, the industry.
but the public has welcomed them so heartily that
Griffith is the best known name in the moving picture
industry. His great pictures, beginning with the "Birth
of a Nation," are so well known that to name them is
to repeat a well known story, but "Hearts of the World"
had a mission and no war-time propaganda was so
effective. What is not so well known, even to the
"movie fan," is the fact that to Mr. Griffith's genius
is due many of the most important features of the
mechanical construction of the plays he produces, the
"close-up," the "cut-back," the "long shot," all of which
he introduced, also the "fade out," and "mist photog-
raphy." He has perfected several inventions and he
has the credit of making the first two reel picture, the
first four reel, five reel, seven reel and first twelve reel
picture. His energy is tremendous and he works under
high pressure, yet despite his hours of hard work at
the studio he is a patron of the theater and opera,
reads widely, is a student of art, a musician and whether
the subject under discussion is music or musicians, art
or artists, history or historians, the drama or drama-
tists, philosophy, logic or religions of the world, Mr.
Griffith takes an understanding part and shows his great
familiarity with those subjects. He is a young man
and g.eat as has been his achievement it will sureiy
fade away before the accomplishment of the future.
He says :
"The future, that is almost a forbidden topic because
we know nothing whatever about it. We hope to
achieve bigger and better things in the future, how-
ever. We want to make better pictures ; go forward.
We shall try to make each picture better than the last.
We desire most sincerely to add something new to
each picture. This will be our effort. We are •""
working together for one common cause : to make r>>
best pictures we know how to make." e\\c
Mr. Griffith is a native son of Kentucky, his faml
originally Virginians, his mother of the Oglesby, Ci .'«'
ter-Shirley families of Georgia. His father, JacJ
Wark Griffith, was born in Virginia, came to Kentucl /
.v-
a.
It.
to
tie
>>
t.
o
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
639
in 1887. Was twice elected to the House of Repre-
sentatives from his district. At the outbreak of war
between the states he enlisted in the Confederate serv-
ice and organized a company of cavalry which was
sworn in as a unit of the First Kentucky Cavalry,
Confederate States army, October 15, 186 1, Jacob Wark
Griffith, captain. The regiment was stationed at Bow-
ling Green, Kentucky, in October, 1861, and in February,
1862, covered the retreat of Johnson's army toward
Nashville, and later was on duty at Decatur, Alabama,
guarding the bridges of the Memphis & Charleston
railroad. The First Kentucky fought at Shiloh, April
6, 1862; joined General Forrest in his advance into
Kentucky later in the year, and was attached to the
command of General "Joe" Wheeler, September 14, 1862.
In January, 1863, the regiment was assigned to the
command of Gen. A. Buford, but was returned again
to General Wheeler later in the same year.
The train of which Colonel Griffith was then captain
left Lone Jack, Missouri in the spring of 1850, begin-
ning with some thirty-five or forty mule teams and
over a hundred men, a few women and children. They
were later joined by groups from other points consisting
besides the mule teams 300 head of cattle. Proceeding
west over the Santa Fe trail as far as Utah, they rested.
The Lone Jack unit went the northern route by Don-
ners Lake and Fort Sutter ; the balance of the train
finished the journey over the Santa Fe trail with an
outlook constantly to warn against forays. They were
attacked on several occasions. At one time in Colo-
rado they assisted in rescuing a small party of women
and children, survivors of a train that had been attacked
and destroyed by the Indians.
Captain Griffith was with his regiment in all the
foregoing service, leading his company gallantly until
March I, 1863, when he was commissioned lieutenant-
colonel of the First Regiment, Kentucky Cavalry, a
rank he held until the close of the war. After the
return of the regiment to General Wheeler's army in
1863, Colonel Griffith continued on active duty, and in
many of the engagements hereafter noted he com-
manded the regiment, owing to illness or absence of
the colonel. The First Kentucky was engaged at
Hewey's Gap, Chattanooga, McMinnville, Hills Gap,
and Missionary Ridge, covering the Confederate retreat
from that point, and on December 28, 1863, suffered
severe losses at Charleston, Tennessee.
Colonel Griffith was wounded at Hewey's Gap, Ten-
nessee, and again in the Sequatchie Valley. He had
not recovered sufficiently to mount his horse when the
battle of Charleston, Tennessee, was fought, Decem-
ber 28, 1863, but was present. At a critical point in
the battle the First Kentucky was ordered to charge
and not being able to lead his men on horseback and
eager to be with them, he commandeered a horse and
buggy standing near, was helped in and led the regi-
ment in a charge on the Union lines. Incidentally it
may be said that this particular charge of the First
Kentucky was victorious, probably, however, cavalry
never having before been led in that manner during a
charge.
In January, 1864, the regiment was engaged at Rin-
gold Gap, and constantly opposed Sherman's advance
on Atlanta, fighting at Dalton, Dry Gap, New Hope
'Church, Noonday Creek, Kenesaw Mountain, Pine
'Mountain, Lost Mountain, and Entrenchment Creek.
•'The First Kentucky pursued and captured a large de-
tachment of Sherman's raiders in Georgia, and then
were ordered to Saltville, Virginia, thence to Asheville,
where General Wheeler's army was rejoined. After
Appomattox, the First Kentucky Cavalry was selected
by Secretary of War Breckinbridge, as a personal
escort to President Davis, but after his capture by the
I Union forces the regiment surrendered, and on May
10, 1865, was paroled at Washington, District of
J Columbia.
jiVol. V— 57
At the close of the war General "Joe" Wheeler said
of the regiment:
"I am always glad to think and write about the gal-
lant old First Kentucky Cavalry ; it was as brave a
body of men as any officer had the good fortune to
command. If I sent them into action oftener than I
should have done, it was because I knew they would
be equal to any heroic duty which might be imposed
upon them."
Lieut.-Col. Jacob Wark Griffith married Mary Per-
kins Carter Oglesby, of ancient family long seated in
the state of Georgia, and they were the parents of
eight children: Mattie; William W. ; Albert L. ; Annie;
Jacob W. (2) ; Virginia ; David W., the principal char-
acter of this review, and Ruth.
David Wark Griffith, the youngest son of Lieut.-Col.
Jacob Wark and Mary Perkins (Carter) Oglesby Grif-
fith, was born at LaGrange, Kentucky, January 16,
1880, and there was educated in the public schools and
under the instruction of his eldest sister, Mattie.
After school days were over he finally left LaGrange
and obtained a place on the reportorial staff of the
Louisville Courier Journal, writing "theatrical notes,"
"death and funerals," "police news" and covered the
"morgue," his duties multitudinous, his pay infinitesi-
mal. From the Courier Journal he went to the Louis-
ville Stock Company and the next season was with
the "Strolling Players," then with Ada Gray's com-
pany, playing the clergyman in "Trilby," Francis
Lewisohn in East Lynne and other parts. Later he
was with Walker Whiteside, playing Iowa towns ; was
one season with Helen Ware and another season with
Nance O'Neil in Shakespeare and Ibsen in Boston,
playing as his star part Sir Francis Drake in "Eliza-
beth." He was also with James O'Neil in the Neil
Alhambra Stock Company in Chicago, and played the
role of Abraham Lincoln with great success. His
salary had been raised during these experiences from
$8 to $18 weekly.
After leaving the stage he was employed in the iron
works at Tonawanda, New York, going thence to New
York City. There he wrote verses and a story or two,
selling one of his poems, "The Wild Duck," to Leslie's
Weekly for $35. He wrote a play, "A Fool and a Girl,"
which James K. Hackett produced. Soon after this he
returned to Chicago and there attended his first picture
show, coming away deeply impressed by what he saw.
He wrote a picture story and with it returned to New
York, offering his story to the Edison studio. Not
hearing anything, he wrote another and better story
which he submitted to the Biograph Company, 11 East
Fourteenth Street, who paid him $15 for it and asked
for "more." That settled the question of his future
and he resolved that he would both write, direct and
make motion pictures. He secured a position with the
Biograph Company as a writer of scenarios at a daily
salary of $5. He kept right up with the duties of his
position, but kept continually requesting those in charge
to let him make a picture, and finally he was allowed
to do so. The result was "The Adventures of Dollie,"
her marvelous experiences at the hands of gypsies, a
picture 715 feet in length, that was released by the
American Mutoscope & Biograph Company, July 14,
1908. The picture was a success and marked a new
era, introducing the art of motion pictures.
Mr. Griffith spent nine years with "Biograph" direct-
ing during the last five years. During that time he
had introduced many innovations and given to the mo-
tion picture industry its great uplift. He compelled
natural action, brought in use the "close up," the "long
shot," the "cut-back," and the "mist photography."
Compelled the lengthening of pictures from one to four
reels and gave to the world many new players, Mary
Pickford, being discovered and trained by Mr. Grif-
fith, as were Lillian and Dorothy Gish and a score of
others. In all, he made about one hundred pictures for
640
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
"Biograph," producing among the last of these "Judith
of Bethulia," a picture in four reels with Blanche
Sweet as Judith. He had fought the Biograph owners
on the two reel story and won, but a four reel picture
was too much, and in October, 1913, Mr. Griffith re-
signed from the Biograph staff and formed an asso-
ciation with the Reliance-Majestic companies, making
pictures under the same roof and releasing them under
the name of Mutual Films.
In his new connection Mr. Griffith was given a free
rein and continued with Reliance-Majestic four months,
producing "The Battle of the Sexes." Mr. Griffith left
the Reliance-Majestic studios in January, 1914, and on
February 14 following, arrived in Los Angeles to pro-
duce "The Clansman" which was finally produced as
"The Birth of a Nation" at Clune's Auditorium Feb-
ruary 8, 1915, a picture which dwarfed anything ever
before attempted on the silver sheet. During that time
he had also given the final touches to "The Escape"
and made "The Avenging Conscience" and "Home
Sweet Home."
Early in March, 1915, having seen "The Birth of a
Nation" successfully presented, returned to California,
began building the world's biggest picture "Intolerance,"
which was first shown at the Liberty Theatre, New
York City, September 6, 1916, a story with one theme,
as explained on the program, but told in four parts
running side by side. While in London in 1917, Mr.
Griffith, by command, gave a showing of "Intolerance"
for the Royal family. The picture has been shown all
over the civilized world.
When the United States entered the World war, Mr.
Griffith was in England, and when the English literary
men decided that a great war picture would greatly
improve the morale of the people, a meeting was ar-
ranged between the English premier, Lloyd George,
and the man whom it was decided was the "big" man
for the big picture, David Wark Griffith. Said Lloyd
George in addressing Mr. Griffith :
"You will do this to aid humanity. The idea back
of your splendid story is a message to civilization that
its fight will not be in vain. Let me be the first to
predict that when you have completed your labors you
will have produced a masterpiece which will carry a
message around the world — a story which will inspire
every heart with patriotism, with love of country, with
the great cause for which the civilized nations of the
world are now fighting in France. This, Mr. Griffith,
is the greatest and most wonderful task you ever have
attempted. God speed you in your great work and
grant that you may accomplish your desires."
Thus was born "Hearts of the World." From the
United States by cable Mr. Griffith summoned "Billy"
Bitzer, his cameraman, Lillian and Dorothy Gish, "Bob-
by" Harron and a dozen other players of merit, and
upon their arrival they proceeded to France as guests
of the British government and with credentials that
would take them to all fronts. The players worked
under fire and the machinery of the world's greatest
war was bent to his purpose, to take this greatest of
war pictures under actual war conditions and at the
same time to tell on the screen "the sweetest love story
ever told." The picture was finished in Los Angeles
and was officially shown in Clune's Auditorium, Los
Angeles, March 12, 1918, and in New York at the
Forty- fourth Street Theatre, April 4th following, a
premiere on the following night being given to special
guests of diplomats, government officials, army and
navy officers of highest rank and representatives of
the British and Canadian governments and army and
navy officers.
Of "Hearts of the World," a love story with the
war as a background, Mr. Griffith said :
"The tale concerns the people to whom war came,
rather than the war itself. The story our poor little
heroes and heroines tell is the story of truth, unfolded
in a land where nothing was impossible ; where all the
world was a Gethsemane and the earth a forest of
crosses on which hung the atoms of broken humanity.
In the night, outside every man's door, anguished voices
cry out. Whatever the darkness holds, we must take
our lantern and go out into it."
The mass effects in the picture exceeded anything
ever before seen and there was a reality about it that
was "gripping." French infantry marching, battle lines,
trench attacks, German troops, refugees grouped in a
ruined church, a most extraordinary scene. For two
and a half hours Mr. Griffith played upon every human
emotion, winning a popular verdict that was most won-
derful in its approbation, no audience ever having been
so stirred. This was Mr. Griffith's contribution to the
Allied forces and as a single item was unsurpassed.
His next picture was "The Great Love," followed by
"The Greatest Thing in Life," a war picture that proved
the greatest thing in life was unselfishness. "A Ro-
mance of Happy Valley" was next in order; then came
"The Girl Who Stayed at Home" with Clarine Sey-
mour as the star; "True Heart Suzie" with Lillian
Gish, the Gish sisters, Lillian and Dorothy always his
principal stars.
Then came "Broken Blossoms," which sets a new
standard. In the spring of 1919, Mr. Griffith signed
a contract in conjunction with Mary Pickford, Charlie
Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks ("The Big Four") with
the United Artists Corporation. Other great pictures
Mr. Griffith has recently produced are: "Way Down
East" and "Orphans of the Storm." These pictures
are wonderful in the themes, in their photography and
heart interest. They have so won the public that a
"Griffith" production is now an event to be watched
and waited for ; not alone by audiences but by pro-
ducers and artists. When in September, 1921, "Orphans
of the Storm" was shown in Louisville, Kentucky, Gov-
ernor Edwin P. Morrow wrote Mr. Griffith, "On be-
half of the commonwealth of Kentucky, I urge you to
be present in the old Kentucky home when your great
picture of the French Revolution is produced in your
native state. You are a part of the commonwealth
and we are proud of you and feel that we have the
right to ask your presence and to give you a welcome
as a son in whom Kentucky is well pleased." Mr. Grif-
fith accepted the invitation and was personally intro-
duced by the governor to a large audience in the Shu-
bert Theatre.
Samuel G. Tate has practiced law at Louisville
fifteen years. He has earned the position of one of
the able lawyers of Kentucky's metropolis, and his career
recalls also that of his honored father, Rev. John C.
Tate.
Rev. John C. Tate is now the oldest active member
of the Southern Presbyterian Church. He is in his
ninetieth year, having been born in Missouri January
19, 1832, and has discharged the duties of the ministry
for more than half a century. Rev. John C. Tate was
educated in Center College of Kentucky and Yale Uni-
versity. He married Minna Callis, who was born at
Hopkinsville, Kentucky, and is still living.
Second among their four children, Samuel G. Tate
was born at Hopkinsville August 21, 1879, and partly
from his talented father and partly through his owr
exertions enjoyed a liberal professional training. H(i_
was for four years a teacher, and he finished his educai
tion in Southwestern Presbyterian University at Clarks(t
ville, Tennessee. Mr. Tate was admitted to the bail
by examination in 1906, and since that year has practice^
at Louisville. He is a member of the Louisville anc
Kentucky Bar Associations, and has to his credit ont^
term in the City Council. He is a democrat in politics
December 23, 1920, he married Emmade (Boyd)l ^J
McCullers.
i
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
641
Calloway Napier, one of the leading attorneys of
this part of the state served Perry County as county
attorney for four years, is Commonwealth's attorney
for the 33rd Judicial District; is vice president of the
Hazard Bar Association and is accepted as one of the
city's most dependable citizens as well as a distinguished
member of his profession. He comes of a most notable
family, the history of which is as follows :
The Napier family descends from the Earl of Lennox.
A second son, Donald, performed valiant service for the
King of Scotland in 1296. The King, after the battle
of which service was rendered, called the soldiers to-
gether and said :
"Ye have all done valiantly but there is one amongst
ye who hath Na-peer (no equal)," and, calling Donald
into his presence, commended him in regard to his
worthy service, and in commemoration of this he changed
his name from Lennox to Napier. The King gave him
the lands of Gosford and lands in Fife and made him
his servant. Since then many generations of the name
rendered service to the Kings of Scotland, and later to
those of England.
Some who gained added distinction were John Napier,
who lived from 1550 to 1615, was the inventor of
logarithms ; and Sir Charles Napier, who was an author
and historian. The family has been noted in many
ways, members of it serving as lords of England, gen-
erals of armies and naval officers.
Sir William Francis Patrick Napier was born near
Dublin, Ireland, in 1785, and in young manhood came
to the United States, first living in Virginia, but later
migrated to what is now Perry County, Kentucky, where
he died in 1866. From the time of his arrival in Perry
County the Napiers have been connected with much of
importance in the history of Kentucky, and all that they
have done reflects credit upon the name.
John Napier, the son of William Napier, had a son,
Stephen William, who was the grandfather of Calloway
Napier. A brother of his, McCager Napier, served as
county judge of Perry County. Many of the family
were soldiers in the Union Army during the war be-
tween the states, and among them was McCager Napier,
father of Calloway Napier. The father served in the
Forty-seventh Kentucky Volunteer Infantry, in which
he enlisted when only sixteen years old. He was
wounded at the battles of Cynthiana and Bowling Green,
Kentucky, and early in the war had the misfortune to
be captured by the Confederates, but was later ex-
changed and rejoined his regiment.
The wife of McCager Napier, and mother of Callo-
way Napier, bore the maiden name of Anna Engle, and
she was born in Virginia, seventy-four years ago. She
now resides with her son, the father having passed away
April io, 1910, aged sixty-four years. She is a devout
member of the Primitive Baptist Church. In politics
the father was a republican.
Calloway Napier was born February 26, 1881, on Balls
Fork of Troublesome Creek, on his father's farm of
532 acres of valuable coal and timber land, and here
the other three sons and four daughters of his
Barents were also born. Concerning the surviving chil-
1 Jren : William who lives on the old homestead, is a
farmer and is engaged in the timber business on the
river adjacent to his property; Polly, who is the wife of
William Messer, a farmer of Balls Fork of Trouble-
some Creek in Knott County; Hiram, who also lives on
die old homestead; P. C, who is part owner of the
Hazard Hardware Company, wholesalers and retailers ;
(Ida, who is the wife of Beecher Davidson, an electrician
f Breathitt County, who is working in the mines on
otts Creek. Those who are deceased are : Allie, who
was the wife of Pearson Dobson, died at Vest, Knott
County, Kentucky, in 1914 when she was thirty-four
years of age: and Lunah, who was the wife of Kearney
(McNew, of Lakeville, Magoffin County, Kentucky, died
in October, 1920, when she was thirty years of age.
Calloway Napier spent his early schooldays in attend-
ance at a school held in a log house on Balls Fork, and
sat on a log pole, so primitive were the furnishings.
Still he learned rapidly and when ready was sent to the
Hazard schools. Later he attended the East Kentucky
Normal School at Prestonsburg, Floyd County. In order
to reach this school he walked a long distance across the
mountains. A youth of towering ambitions, he resolved
upon a professional career and in order to prepare him-
self for it took the Scientific Course, and read law at the
Southern Normal School, Bowling Green, Kentucky,
from which he was graduated in 1905. In order to earn
the money to pay his way Mr. Napier taught school at
different times in Perry County. Following his gradua-
tion he established himself in a general legal practice
at Salyersville, and remained there for two years, and
then, in 1907, located permanently at Hazard. In 1909
he was elected county attorney of Perry County, and
served as such for four years, and made an enviable
record in that office. In August, 1921, he received the
republican nomination for commonwealth attorney of the
Thirty-third Judicial District, and was elected to the
office November 8, 1921, by a majority of more than 4,000
votes. He has now declared his candidacy for United
States Congress.
On January 26, 1909, Mr. Napier married Adaline
Combs, a daughter of Spencer Combs, and a member
of a notable family in the history of Kentucky. Mrs.
Napier was born at Smithboro, Knott County, Kentucky.
Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Napier,
namely: Calloway, Jr., Virginia and Spencer C. Mr.
Napier is a trustee of the Hazard Baptist Institute. He
belongs to the Masons, Odd Fellows, Moose and Knights
of Pythias, and the Junior Order American Mechanics.
Mr. Napier is an excellent lawyer, learned, industrious,
painstaking and conscientious. He has gained a reputa-
tion for being one of the most forceful lawyers of the
local bar. His keen, analytical mind affords him unusual
facility in working out the details of a case, and it is
said that before going into the courtroom he must know
that he is thoroughly prepared for every development
that may arise during the trial. His contemporaries are
quick to acknowledge his special abilities and his high
position among the lawyers of this section of the state.
Curtis B. Johnson, M. D. From Louisville, his
native city and the home of his family for many years,
Doctor Johnson on completing his medical education
came to Earlington, and for twenty years has been one
of the busy physicians and surgeons of that community
of Hopkins County.
Doctor Johnson was born at Louisville March 22,
1879. He is of English ancestry, and the Johnsons for
several generations lived in Virginia. His grandfather,
Absalom Y. Johnson, was born in Virginia in 1830, but
spent most of his life in Louisville, Kentucky, where
he died in 1912. For many years he was a manufacturer
of buggies and wagons, and subsequently was a store-
keeper and gauger for the United States Government.
Frank H. Johnson, father of Doctor Johnson was born
at Louisville in 1852 and that city has been his home
practically all his life. Until 1893 he was assistant
cashier of the Merchants National Bank, then for three
years practiced as an expert accountant, and in 1897
became assistant state auditor at Frankfort, holding that
position five years. For another three years he was
traveling auditor for the American Distillery and Ware-
house Company, and since then has been occupied with
his duties as treasurer of the Bray, Robinson Woolen
Mills of Louisville. His home is at 942 South First
Street in Louisville. He is an alderman in the Louis-
ville City Government, is a republican in politics, and
is prominent as a member of the Christ Church Cathe-
dral of the Episcopal Church. He is a member of the
Masonic fraternity. Frank H. Johnson married Mar-
garet Drysdale, who was born in Louisville in 1855.
641!
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
Their first two children were Frank, Jr., and Drysdale,
each of whom died at the age of eighteen months.
Dr. Curtis B. Johnson is the third in age. Roger L. is
a traveling constructing engineer for the Westinghouse
Manufacturing Company, with headquarters at Atlanta,
Georgia. Alexander E. is the agent for the Continental
Casualty Company at Louisville. Frank H., Jr., is con-
nected with the Louisville Health Department.
Curtis B. Johnson attended the public schools of his
native city, graduated from the Dupont Manual Training
High School in 1896, and the following four years were
devoted to his studies in the medical department of the
University of Louisville. He graduated in 1900, and the
next thirteen months, before coming to Earlington,
served as an interne in the Good Samaritan Hospital
at Lexington. Doctor Johnson began practice at Earl-
ington in 1901, and has become known in that community
not only as a very able physician but as a citizen of many
interests and of great public spirit. He is a member of
the County, State and American Medical Associations
and the Southern Medical Association. He was village
treasurer at Earlington for eight months, until he re-
signed on account of other duties, in August, 1920.
He has served as a member of the Hopkins County
Health Board, and was appointed a presidential elector
on the republican ticket in 1920. Besides his modern
home on Farren Avenue he owns six other dwelling
houses in the town. Doctor Johnson is a vestryman of
St. Mary's Mission Episcopal Church at Madisonville
and fraternally is affiliated with E. VV. Turner Lodge
No. 548, A. F. and A. M., Earlington Chapter No. 141,
R. A. M., St. Bernard Commandery No. 129, K. T., all
at Earlington, Rispah Temple of the Mystic Shrine at
Madisonville, Earlington Chapter of the Eastern Star,
Earlington Lodge of Odd Fellows, Victoria Lodge No.
84, Knights of Pythias, at Earlington, Earlington Lodge
of the Loyal Order of Moose, and is a member of Madi-
sonville Lodge No. 738 of the Elks and the United Order
of the Golden Cross.
In April, 1908, at Hopkinsville, Doctor Johnson mar-
ried Miss Mabel M. Martin. Her parents, C. T. and
Nettie (Isor) Martin, are now deceased. Her father
for many years was a contractor and builder at Earl-
ington.
Robert Perry Pepper. A complete history of the
Kentucky thoroughbred would give frequent credit to
the great horses and influence of the stables maintained
for many years by the late Robert P. Pepper, a horse-
man of national distinction and one of the well remem-
bered citizens of Woodford County.
He was born at "Sweet Home" near Grassy Springs
Church, Woodford County, in 1830, son of Samuel
and Mahala Pepper. In the. early part of his married
life he owned a distillery near Frankfort until the plant
burned, and thereafter his interests were concentrated in
Woodford and Scott counties, where he owned several
farms, the most noted of these being the well known
South Elkhorn Stock Farm in Scott County. He also
maintained a home at Frankfort. He continued active
in the breeding of trotting horses until his death in 1895.
He is buried in the Frankfort Cemetery.
The head of his stables was the great Onward, said
to have held the world's record as the sire of the largest
number of horses in the 2 :30 class. Of the noted sires
owned by him were Norval, Madrid and Acolyte. Many
of his horses were sold at Tattersalls in New York.
The breeding stables were sold at the .death of his
only son, Robert Pepper, Jr., about a year after the
death of Robert Pepper himself. His farms were like-
wise sold, and the horse Onward, then retired, was
purchased by Mrs. Stokes.
A pen picture of Colonel Pepper shows a very hand-
some man, six feet two inches tall, with broad shoulders,
ruddy complexion, blue eyes, perfect teeth and noted
everywhere for his distinguished address and bearing.
He was given the title of Colonel by courtesy. Colonel
Pepper was twice married. His first wife was Miss
Annie Kinkead, of Versailles, Kentucky. By her he
had one daughter, Pauline, now Mrs. Clay Hatchitt, of
Frankfort. The second wife of Colonel Pepper was
Miss Elizabeth Starling, daughter of Colonel Lyne and
Maria (Hensley) Starling. She was reared and lived
in New York until as a young woman she came to
Frankfort, where she was married, and she still main-
tains the old home at Frankfort, to which she came
as a bride nearly fifty-eight years ago. To this union
were born seven children. The oldest, Robert P. Pepper,
Jr., is deceased. The second, Miss Laura Startling Pepper,
resides in Frankfort. The third is Mrs. Charles D. Clay,
wife of Col. Charles D. Clay, U. S. A., at Lexington.
The next daughter is Miss Elizabeth Pepper. Mrs.
Frederick Goedecke, was the wife of Lieutenant Colonel
Frederick Goedecke, U. S. A. Louise M. Pepper is de-
ceased. The youngest is Mrs. Thomas Lee Smith, wife
of a colonel in the United States Army.
Miss Elizabeth Pepper was born and reared in Frank-
fort, and is a graduate of Ogontz School of Pennsyl-
vania. Her love for the country life led her to par-
ticipate in practical agriculture, and for the past seven
years she has owned and lived on the old Edwards
place in Woodford County, on the McCracken Pike,
three miles west of Versailles. This farm comprises 125
acres, and Miss Pepper has been successful in the hand-
ling and operation of a choice dairy of Jersey cows. The
home, an old brick residence built by the original owner,
Edwards, stands back on a fine elevation a quarter of a
mile from the Pike, and is located in one of the charm-
ing spots of Woodford County.
Warren Peyton, superintendent of schools at Beaver
Dam, taught his first country school twenty-five years
ago, and except for the intervals while he was ac-
quiring and finishing his own education has had an
almost continuous association with educational work and
is consequently well known over the state and has filled
some very responsible positions in the schools of different
towns and communities.
Mr. Peyton was born on a farm near Leitchfield in
Grayson County November 28, 1877, and is a descendant
of Daniel Peyton, a Virginian who fought as an Amer-
ican soldier in the Revolutionary war and for his services
received a grant of land from Virginia in Kentucky,
which was then part of the Old Dominion. He came
West to take advantage of this land grant, and thus be-
came one of the pioneer farmers of Grayson County.
His son, Elijah Peyton, grandfather of Warren Peyton,
was born in Grayson County in 1832, and spent nearly all
his life there as a farmer. Late in life he moved to
the vicinity of Rockport in Ohio County, where he died
in 1917. He married Mary Jane Pierce, who was born
in Ohio County in February, 1833, and is still living, at
the age of eighty-seven, near Rockport.
Allen Peyton, father of Professor Peyton, is still liv-
ing on his farm in the western part of Grayson County,
and was born on a farm adjoining his present homestead
in 1854. His well directed energies over a period of
more than forty years brought him substantial success
in his home community. He is a republican and a mem-
ber of the Baptist Church. Allen Peyton married
Nancy Heady, who was born near Owensboro in Daviess
County in 1854. Warren is the older of their two chil-
dren. Their daughter, Mary, is the wife of James F.
Cooksey, a farmer on a place adjoining her father's .
farm. i,
Warren Peyton during his youth lived on his father's!
farm, attended the rural school of Grayson County.k
and after he began his career as a teacher he graduated
in 1900 from Hartford College in Hartford, Keiiturky,i\s ,
and in 1904 received his A. B. degree from the National W
Normal University at Lebanon, Ohio. In 1915 for >j/
further work he was granted the degree Bachelor of. '
'
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
643
Science by Peabody College at Nashville. His first
school was in a country district of Grayson County,
where he taught in 1896. He continued country school
work six years, and in 1902 became assistant principal
of the grade and high schools at Leitchfield. From 1906
to 1910 Mr. Peyton was county superintendent of schools
of Grayson County. From 191 1 to 1918 he was principal
of the high school at Utica in Daviess County, and then
for two years was principal of the high school at Fords-
ville in Ohio County. He took up his duties as super-
intendent of schools at Beaver Dam in September, 1920.
The schools of Beaver Dam have a scholarship enroll-
ment of 250, and he has a staff of eight teachers under
him.
In January, 1920, Mr. Peyton began a term of four
years as a member of the State Board of Teachers
Examiners. For ten years he has been active in the
meetings and committee work of the Kentucky Educa-
tional Association. He was a leader in Ohio County
during the World war, assisting in the sale of Govern-
ment securities and the raising of funds for various
auxiliary purposes through the schools and among all
classes of citizens. Mr. Peyton was made a Mason at
Leitchfield in 1906, and is now affiliated with Beaver
Dam Lodge No. 420, F. and A. M., and is a member
of J. O. Davis Chapter No. 32, R. A. M., at Owensboro.
January 1, 1907, at Louisville, he married Miss
Beatrice McCabe, daughter of Barney and Margaret
(Ryan) McCabe. Her mother lives at Leitchfield,
where her father, a retired farmer, died. Mrs. Peyton
is a graduate of the Bowling Green Business University.
They have one child, Tennyson, born January 4, 1908.
Samuel O. Crooks centralizes his activities at Owings-
ville, judicial center of Bath County, and has become one
of the representative buyers and snippers of live stock
in his native county. His birth occurred on the home
farm of his father in Bath County September 21, 1873.
He is a son of J. T. and Sallie (Rice) Crooks, both
likewise natives of Bath County, with whose civic and
industrial history the 'names of the respective families
have been identified since the pioneer days. J. T. Crooks
was born in the year 1836, a son of Alfred Crooks, who
developed one of the excellent pioneer farms of this
county. He was one of the earliest settlers of Bath
County, and here his marriage to Mary Owings was
solemnized, she having been a member of another of
the influential pioneer families of the county. Alfred
Crooks settled near the Springfield Church, and later
removed to the vicinity of Pealed Oak, where he long
continued his activities as a farmer and where he and
his wife passed the closing period of their lives. Their
sons were three in number, J. T., R. B and Samuel.
After his marriage J. T. Crooks settled on a farm
near his father's old home place, and as a young man he
was in active service as a soldier in the Civil war.
After the close of the war he continued to be one of
the representative farmers of Bath County until his
death, his wife likewise having died at the old home
farm. He was affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and
he and his wife were active members of the Presbyterian
Church. Of their twelve children, seven are living in
1921 : Emma, Ida, Fannie, Alfred N., Mary, Samuel O.
and Robert B.
The early experiences of Samuel O. Crooks were
those of the home farm on which he was born, and in
this connection he gamed practical experience of forti-
fying order, the while he made good use of the oppor-
tunities afforded in the public schools of this native
I county, his final school work having been in the excellent
sqhool conducted by Professor Goodman. He has shown
his good judgment by continuing his association with
the basic industries of agriculture and live-stock enter-
1 prise. After his marriage he remained on the farm for
ten years, and then removed to Owingsville, where he
' has since built up a subtsantial and prosperous business
in the buying and shipping of live stock, a field of enter-
prise in which he has become a local authority on values.
Mr. Crooks is a staunch supporter of the cause of the
democratic party, is a member of the Methodist Episco-
pal Church, South, and his wife holds membership in
the Presbyterian Church.
May 20, 1897, recorded the marriage of Mr. Crooks to
Miss Nellie Dye, of Louisville, this state, where she
was born and reared. Of this union there are three
children: Kenneth, who was born March 21, 1899, is a
graduate of the Owingsville High School and is now as-
sociated with his father in business, the maiden name
of his wife having been Mary W. Denton; Sarah E.,
who was born in October, 1901, and who was graduated
from the Owingsville High School, is the wife of Ruby
Kincaid, who is serving as superintendent of schools for
Bath County; and Grace L., who likewise was graduated
from the local high school, remains at the parental home.
Oscar R. Rankin. The enterprise of Oscar R. Ran-
kin as a farmer and stockman is easily distinguished in
Bourbon County, since he is proprietor of the Ash Wood-
land Stock Farm, a splendid and widely extended estate
comprising 1,300 acres, situated on the Cynthiana and
Millersburg Pike, two and a half miles north of Millers-
burg.
Mr. Rankin also owns the old Rankin homestead,
which has been in the possession of the family for 130
years. He was born in Nicholas County, Kentucky,
February 8, 1852, son of N. A. and Elizabeth (Frymen)
Rankin, the former a native of Nicholas and the latter
of Harrison County. The grandparents were John and
Elizabeth (Becket) Rankin. John Rankin married in
Harrison County, and then settled ten miles northwest
of Carlisle, on the land just mentioned as the old home-
stead now owned by Oscar R.
John Rankin had four children by his first marriage
and five by his second. Nicholas A. was one of the
five, grew up on the home farm, succeeded to its owner-
ship, and operated it until his death. He was a stanch
democrat and a member of the Baptist Church. Of
his eight children five are still living : James M., a
Harrison County farmer; Oscar R. ; Samuel, a retired
farmer at Cynthiana; Robert W., of Harrison County;
and Alice, wife of Dr. William Phillips, of Harrison
County.
Oscar R. Rankin grew up on the home farm, made
good use of his advantages in the local schools and
also attended the Kentucky Wesleyan College and a
teachers training school at Catlettsburg. For four years
he was a teacher in country schools.
November 3, 1874, he married Jane Alice Layson,
daughter of William and Elizabeth A. (Patten) Layson.
Her father was born December 22, 1809, son of Isaac
and Polly (Moore) Layson, who with their family
came down the Ohio River in boats to Louisville, passed
Lexington when it was a town of log cabins and
settled in Bourbon County, a mile north of Paris, where
Isaac Layson developed a farm from the wilderness and
lived until his death. All his four sons and two daugh-
ters are now deceased. William Layson grew up on the
old farm north of Paris, and by his marriage to Eliza-
beth Patten had two children, Jane Alice and America.
The latter is deceased. William Layson became a very
successful farmer and business man, was a democrat and
a member of the Presbyterian Church.
After his marriage Oscar R. Rankin moved to the
home he now occupies, but with a comparatively small
farm as compared with the Ash Woodland Stock Farm
of today. He has made that property what it is by
successful management through a period of nearly half
a century. He and Mrs. Rankin have three daughters :
Annie, who is a graduate of the Millersburg Female
College and the wife of John R. Grimes, living near
Millersburg; Margaret, who is a graduate in music and
the wife of Dr. N. H. McKinney; and Kate, who is
married and lives near Millersburg.
Mr. Rankin h one of the deacons in the Baptist
644
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
Church, while Mrs. Rankin belongs to the Presbyterian
denomination. He is a past master of Amity Lodge No.
40, F. and A. M., a member of Cynthiana Chapter No.
18, R. A. M., and is a past eminent commander and the
only surviving charter member of Coeur de Leon Com-
mandery No. 26, K. T. He is also a member of Saw-
han Chapter of the Eastern Star. Mr. Rankin takes an
active part in the affairs of the democratic party. He
is vice president and one of the organizers of the Ex-
change Bank of Millersburg. The other officers are :
John Leer, president, and John McDaniels, cashier.
William R. Thompson, M. D., has proved in effective
service the legitimacy of his choice of vocation and has
gained success and prestige as one of the representative
physicians and surgeons of Montgomery County, at
whose judicial center, the City of Mount Sterling, he is
established in the general practice of his profession.
Doctor Thompson was born in Fayette County, Ken-
tucky, on the 21st of April, 1871, and is a son of Mal-
com and Bettie (Royster) Thompson, the former of
whom was born in the City of Lexington, this state, on
the 21st of September, 1842, and the latter of whom was
born in Boyle County, December 1, 1849. The original
representatives of the Thompson family in America
came from Scotland and established themselves on the
Potomac River in Virginia in the early Colonial period
of our national history. Charles R. Thompson became
a citizen of distinguished influence in Colonial affairs,
was a member of the Continental Congress, of which he
became the secretary, and upon him developed the honor
of transcribing the Declaration of Independence as dic-
tated by Thomas Jefferson. The fine old estate originally
developed by the Thompson family on the Potomac
River is still in possession of descendants. Charles R.
Thompson, grandfather of Doctor Thompson of this
review, came to Kentucky in an early day and estab-
lished his home at Lexington, where he engaged in the
manufacture of hemp bagging. He continued his resi-
dence at Lexington until 1862, and thereafter he was
actively and extensively engaged in farm enterprise
until the time of his death. His marriage to Miss Julia
Drake was solemnized in 1829, and concerning their chil-
dren the following data are available : Nannie became
the wife of N. B. Carpenter; Malcom, father of the sub-
ject of this sketch, was the next younger of the chil-
dren ; Mary H. became the wife of Albert Bohannan ;
and Clara became the wife of Gabriel Gaines.
Malcom Thompson was reared and educated at Lex-
ington, and at the age of twenty-one years he became
a progressive exponent of farm industry in Fayette
County, where his marriage occurred and where he long
held status as one of the substantial farmers and repre-
sentative citizens of his native state. Upon leaving the
farm he returned to Lexington, and there he and his
wife passed the remainder of their lives, secure in the
high regard of all who knew them. Of the four sons,
three attained to years of maturity and of the number
Doctor Thompson of this review is the eldest ; Charles
R. is owner and operator of the stock yards in the city
of Lexington; and Clifton L. is president and manager
of a leading wholesale grocery company in that city.
The early years of Doctor Thompson were passed on
the old home farm in Fayette County, and in addition to
receiving the advantages of the public schools he at-
tended also the excellent private school conducted by
John L. Patterson, who is now president of the Univer-
sity of Louisville. After having well advanced his educa-
tion along academic lines Doctor Thompson followed the
course of his ambition and entered the medical depart-
ment of the University of Louisville, in which he was
graduated as a member of the class of 1892. After
thus receiving his degree of Doctor of Medicine he
established his residence at Mount Sterling, which has
continued the center of his able and successful profes-
sional service during the long intervening period of
thirty years. He controls a substantial and representa-
tive practice, does not permit himself to lapse in prac-
tical knowledge of the advances made in medical and
surgical science, is serving as a member of the surgical
staff of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, and is actively
identified with the Montgomery County Medical Society,
the Kentucky State Medical Society and the American
Medical Association. It is specially interesting to record
that the professional office of Doctor Thompson has
been consecutively used by physicians for three genera-
tions. It was formerly the office of Dr. Benjamin P.
Drake, who was graduated from Transylvania Univer-
sity at Lexington in 1825, with the degree of Bachelor of
Arts, and who received from the same institution in
1827 the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He came to
Mount Sterling in 1852, and here continued in the prac-
tice of his profession until his death in 1874. His office
was thereafter adopted as the professional headquarters
of Dr. Roger Q. Drake, who occupied the same and
maintained high professional standing in this community
until his death in 1905, since which time Doctor Thomp-
son has occupied the office and continued the earnest and
effective service of his honored predecessors.
Doctor Thompson is distinctly loyal and public-spirited
as a citizen, has served as a member of the City Council
of Mount Sterling, and is a staunch advocate of the
principles of the democratic party. He is affiliated with
Mount Sterling Lodge No. 23, Ancient Free and Ac-
cepted Masons, of which he is a past master, and he
holds membership also in the local Chapter of Royal
Arch Masons and the Commandery of Knights Templars.
Both he and his wife are zealous members of the Baptist
Church in their home city, and he is a deacon in the
same, as well as a member of its Board of Trustees.
In 1895 was solemnized the marriage of Doctor
Thompson and Miss Fannie E. Reed, who was born
and reared at Mount Sterling and who was here gradu-
ated in the high school. Doctor and Mrs. Thompson
have three children : Cynthia, a graduate of the Mount
Sterling High School, is the wife of Robert Covington;
Malcom was graduated from the local high school and
is, in 1921, a student in the medical department of the
University of Pennsylvania; and William R., Jr., is a
student in the Mount Sterling -High School.
Francis Marion Moore. In agricultural and business
circles of the community of Greendale, as well as at
Lexington, there is no name that is better or more favor-
ably known as standing for enterprise, energy and ac-
complishment than that of Moore, which is borne by the
five Moore brothers, Francis M., Edward, Earl, Welling-
ton, Jr., and Roger, agriculturists of ability and modern
tendencies, and merchants who have built up a large
and flourishing business in the meat line.
A worthy representative of the name and of the talents
possessed by the family is Francis Marion Moore, who
was born in Franklin County, Kentucky, March 14, 1880,
a son of Wellington and Rebecca (Griggs) Moore.
Wellington Moore was born in Fayette County, four
miles north of Lexington, on the Georgetown Pike, May
7, 1849, a son 0I Francis Marion Moore. The latter
was born on the Vermont Pike, 3J/2 miles west of Lex-
ington, in 1822, a son of Butler and Polly (Rozzell)
Moore, the former a native of Albermarle County, Cul-
peper Court House, Virginia. As a young man Butler
Moore came to Kentucky, where he was married shortly
thereafter and passed his life in farming, dying at the
age of seventy-eight years. Mrs. Moore survived her
husband a long time and died at the age of ninety- four j
years at the home of her son, Francis Marion, with
whom she had lived for some years. He, like his brother
Marquis Lafayette, had been born at the time of the
visit of the young French hero, General Lafayette, at 1
Lexington in 1826. Marquis L. Moore died at the age
of seventy years in Pulaski County, where his sons still
reside.
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
645
Francis Marion Moore, the elder, was married in 1843
to Susan A. Eales, of Bourbon County, Kentucky. The
greater part of his life was passed in Fayette County,
and in 1863 he bought the land in on the Greendale
Road, four and one-half miles north of Lexington, which
is now owned by his son Wellington. He was a demo-
crat and a very public-spirited man, but never cared for
public office. With his family he belonged to the Cave
Run Baptist Church. Mr. Moore died in his eighty-
sixth year, his wife having passed away eight years
before. They were the parents of the following chil-
dren : John B., a farmer of Fayette County, who died
at the age of sixty-eight years ; Wellington, the father
of Francis M. of this notice; Susan A., who died as the
wife of Robert Fitzgerald, of Owen County, Kentucky,
at the age of thirty-five years; Frank L., who is en-
gaged in farming on the Leestown Pike in Fayette
County; Benjamin Lafayette, a farmer of Fayette
County, who died at the age of fifty- four years;
Cleveland, a resident of Lexington ; and George Wash-
ington, a farmer of Fayette, who died at the age of
fifty years.
Wellington Moore was about twenty-two years of
age when he married, April 11, 1871, Miss Rebecca
Griggs, a neighborhood friend, daughter of Rice and
Martha (Wright) Griggs. They became the parents
of six sons and one daughter : William Rice, of Lex-
ington ; Dorothy S., the wife of Walter S. Welch, a
job printer of that city; and Francis Marion, Edward,
Earl, Wellington, Jr., and Roger, the latter four of
whom reside with their parents, the five brothers, as
already noted, being members of the firm of Moore
Brothers. Earl Moore served twelve months in the
United States Naval Reserve and for a few months
saw service on the U. S. Mine Sweeper "Missouri"
during the World war.
Francis Marion Moore attended the public schools of
his home community. The family fortunes or lack of
fortune caused him to enter upon his independent career
when he was still a lad. A series of misfortunes had
attended his father's career, and much of the elder
man's time was spent at the hospital in what proved
to be a vain attempt at recovery. Wellington Moore
has now been blind for eight years, but still retains
his other faculties and has been of much assistance to
his sons in the building up and development of their
business. Francis M. Moore was only twelve years old
when with his brother Edward he took up the butcher
business, supplying both the retail and wholesale trade
from the market at Lexington. The latter branch of
the business is the one which has been continued by the
firm of Moore Brothers, to which firm the younger
brothers were admitted in turn as they reached the
proper age. Naturally, the business was started on a
very small scale, all of the original capital being neces-
sary to swing the first deal. Thus left without any re-
sources the brothers were for a time in troubled straits,
but, if their father could not help them personally, he
had established a reputation during his active career
of being a man of the highest integrity, whose word
was as good as his deed, and this splendid credit
reflected with due advantage on his sons, who were
able to tide themselves over the first four or five years,
until they could find a solid foot-hold. In the meantime,
with their family, aided materially by the moral support
and encouragement of their devoted mother, and while
they attended to the wholesale business their elder
brother, William R. Moore, handled the retail end as an
employe, although later he became disassociated from
the business.
Eventually the brothers found themselves upon a
secure substantial financial basis and began to increase
the scope and importance of their operations. At this
time their farming operations cover 1,200 acres of land,
all of which they own, included in three farms, one
being on the edge of Woodford County and the others
in Fayette County. They have paid all the way from
$105 to $400 per acre for their land, on which each
year they are adding improvements in the way of build-
ings, machinery, equipment, etc. Tenants are on the
farms, which are operated for the growing of stock
and tobacco, about eighty-five acres being devoted to
the latter product. The brothers buy cattle, hogs,
sheep, etc., breed Duroc swine, principally for their
own use, deal in mules, which they bunch up and feed
for the Southern trade, handling sometimes as many
as 200 or more animals and buy, fatten, ship and sell
hogs the year round in addition to supplying the local
market. The firm belongs to the stockholders of the
Bank of Commerce of which Francis M. Moore was an
original stockholder and director. The brothers are all
democrats, but while very public-spirited have never
cared for public office. They are members of the First
Baptist Church, while their father is a member of the
Christian Church and their mother is a Presbyterian.
Four of the brothers are still single and make their
home with their parents.
Francis Marion Moore married at the age of thirty
years Miss Ruth C. Coleman, of Scott County, Kentucky.
They have no children. Mr. and Mrs. Moore reside in
their neat home near Greendale Station, in which com-
munity they have numerous warm friends and well-
wishers.
J. Claude Sandlin, D. D. S. The dental profession,
the work of which involves both a science and a mechan-
ical art, has an able representative at Hazard, Perry
County, in the person of Doctor Sandlin, who has here
built up a substantial practice and established himself
firmly in popular confidence and esteem, both as a
practitioner and as a citizen. The Doctor was born at
Manchester, Clay County, Kentucky, April 17, 1896, and
is a son of Dr. H. G. and Margaret (Hayes) Sandlin.
Dr. H. G. Sandlin was born in Jackson County, this
state, in 1866, and through his effective service as a
teacher in the Kentucky schools he earned the funds that
enabled him to defray the expenses of his course in a
leading medical college in the City of Louisville. Later
he took effective post-graduate courses in the City of
New York. He was engaged in practice at Manchester,
Clay County, until 1900, when he removed to Richmond,
Madison County, where he has since continued in suc-
cessful general practice. He is affiliated with the Inde-
pendent Order of Odd Fellows and the Benevolent and
Protective Order of Elks, and he and his wife hold
membership in the Baptist Church, in which he has
served as deacon. Dr. and Mrs. H. G. Sandlin have
four sons and one daughter.
After due preliminary discipline Dr. J. Claude Sand-
lin entered Millersburg Military Institute at Louisville,
and there he remained as a student four years. At the
Kentucky metropolis also he gained his initial training
in the line of dentistry, and in 1918 he was graduated
in the Central Dental University in the City of Chi-
cago. In the same year he entered service in connec-
tion with the nation's preparations for participation in
the World war. He received his military training at
Camp Oglethorpe, Georgia, and there was commis-
sioned a second lieutenant. The signing of the armistice
made it unnecessary to call his command to service
abroad, and he received his honorable discharge in De-
cember, 1918. He thereafter continued in the prac-
tice of his profession at Richmond, Madison County,
until the spring of 1920, when he established his resi-
dence at Hazard, where he has developed a successful
and representative practice and where he has gained
secure place in popular esteem. The Doctor has his
office equipped with the best of modern appliances and
facilities, and he keeps in thorough touch with all ad-
vances made in the work of his profession. He still
maintains affiliation with the Richmond Lodge of the
Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
646
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
Hon. Walter L. Prince. One of the youngest and
most efficient members of the bench in the State of
Kentucky, Walter L. Prince comes naturally by his
ability and sturdiness of character, and when he was
elected judge of the County Court of Marshall County
in 1918 the substantial qualities of one of the younger
members of the legal fraternity were fittingly recog-
nized. Likewise he attained the distinction of being
the only man ever elected to public office in Marshall
County on the republican ticket.
Mr. Prince was born at Birmingham, Marshall County,
Kentucky, January 30, 1886, a son of John F. Prince.
The Prince family had its origin in England, whence
the great-grandfather of Judge Prince, John Prince,
immigrated to North Carolina. In that state was born
James Prince, the grandfather of Judge Prince, in 1828.
.As a young man he moved to Tippah County, Mis-
sissippi, and there became a highly successful planter,
owning about 1,000 acres of land, in the cultivation of
which he employed himself until the outbreak of the
war between the states. His sympathies being with the
Union, he made his way North and enlisted in 1861,
fighting with the Federal forces until his capture by
the Confederates in 1863. He was confined in a South-
ern prison at New Orleans, Louisiana, where his death
occurred in the same year. He married Miss Adelia
Dyson, who was born in Georgia in 1835 and died De-
cember 28, 1919, at Higginson, Arkansas.
John F. Prince, father of Walter L., was born in
1854, in Tippah County, Mississippi, and was about
nine years of age at the time of his father's death. At
that time, with his two brothers, he was brought by
his mother to Smithland, Kentucky, but after one year
moved to Paducah, and in 1866 settled in Marshall
County. Here Mr. Prince was reared, educated and
married, and here his entire life has been passed as
an agriculturist, his present home being at Maple
Springs. An industrious and intelligent man, his career
has been crowned with success, and at the present time
he is the possessor of a comfortable competence. Mr.
Prince is a stanch republican and a devout member and
active supporter of the Presbyterian Church. He mar-
ried Miss Rosie S. Bryant, who was born in 1862, at
Birmingham, Marshall County, Kentucky, and to this
union there have been born eight children : Carl I.,
a prosperous agriculturist at Blytheville, Arkansas ; R.
A., who is carrying on agricultural operations in Mar-
shall County ; Walter L. ; Homer C, who resides with
his parents ; Frank P., who died at the age of two
years ; Meta L., who married Louis Gregory, the owner
and operator of a property adjoining the Prince farm;
Grace L., the wife of Speer Faughen, a farmer near the
Prince homestead ; and Charles H., who resides with
his parents.
Walter. L. Prince attended the rural schools of the
neighborhood of his father's farm in Marshall County,
later secured the benefits of attendance at high school
at Benton, and then entered the Western Normal School
at Bowling Green, where he was a student for three
years. Following this he enrolled as a pupil at Cum-
berland University, Lebanon, Tennessee, and after a
brilliant college course was graduated in 1912 with the
degree of Bachelor of Laws. Prior to this, while still
in his junior year, he had been admitted to the bar, in
191 1, and during the vacation of that year began prac-
tice in Marshall County. He began a general civil
and criminal practice immediately after his graduation,
and in 1913 established an office at Benton, where he
has been located to the present time, and where his
reputation has grown by leaps and bounds. It was not
long after his arrival that he began to gain public
favor and confidence, and his hold upon the people
grew stronger daily, until in November, 1917, he was
elected county judge of Marshall County on the re-
publican ticket, in a veritable stronghold of the demo-
cratic party, Marshall County having never before or
since chosen a republican for county office. He began
his term of four years in January, 1918, and the man-
ner in which he has discharged the responsibilities of
his honored position furnishes ample proof that the
confidence reposed in him by his fellow-citizens was
not misplaced. He maintains offices in the County Court
House.
Judge Prince from young manhood has been one
of the bulwarks of the republican party in Marshall
County, where that organization is decidedly in the
minority. He is a member of the State Central Com-
mittee of his party in the First Congressional District,
and of the Executive Committee thereof. His religious
affiliation is with the Presbyterian Church, and as a
fraternalist belongs to Benton Lodge No. 701, A. F.
and A. M.; Elm Canu NJo. 117, Modern Woodmen of
America; and Benton tamp No. 12336, Woodmen of
the World, in all of which he is possessed of numerous
warm and appreciative friends. During the period of
the great struggle in Europe he took an active part in
all local war activities, being speakers' director in all
Liberty Loan campaigns for Marshall County, serving
in a like capacity for the Red Cross drives, acting as
chairman of the Civilians' Relief War Work and be-
ing also county chairman for the drive for the War
Chest Fund.
In 1909, at Paris, Tennessee, Judge Prince was united
in marriage with Miss Mayme Cross, daughter of
Squire E. F. and Harriet (Dotson) Cross, residents of .
Benton. Squire Cross, who is a farm owner and was
formerly engaged in active agricultural operations, has
served as county road engineer and is widely and fa-
vorably known in this vicinity. Judge and Mrs. Prince
have no children. They own a modern residence with
twelve acres of land adjoining Benton on the west.
Judge Charles Kerr. The publishers exercise a
grateful privilege in presenting a brief biography of the
editor of this History of Kent— '-v. Judge Charles Kerr,
of Lexington. His professional . .id public service is
so well known that any record of it would hardly be
required by the present generation of Kentuckians.
Judge Kerr has been a member of the Lexington
bar over thirty-five years. A busy lawyer and judge,
not always enjoying the best of health, his friends have
frequently expressed surprise at the great volume of
work he has accomplished in these capacities. For
all these demands upon his time and energy, he has
indulged for years the pursuit of a remarkably broad
range of intellectual interests, such as are usually
open only to men of comparative leisure. Judge Kerr
has never asserted any claims to the role of historian,
yet some of his studies and sketches of great Ken-
tuckians, of special riods in the life of the state,
and the early Kentuc bar, reveal the thorough study
and thought he has en to the subjects and a rare
insight and judgmei in selecting the details that
illumine the characte d conditions of the time.
Since his youth was spent on a farm, without special
school advantages, his personal acquaintance with men
and affairs began only with the inception of his law I
studies in Lexington. But it is doubtful if any Kentuck-
ian of this day knows better the influences and forces )
that have molded and entered into the history of Ken-
tucky than Judge Kerr. Taking the field of Kentucky
history as a whole, he may rightly be acknowledged as a
critical authority on the relative importance and value
of the groups of subject matter that must be consir'^red
in a history of the state.
These statements, representing the opinion of his his-
torical friends and associates, may be permitted as an
introduction to the formal outline of the facts of his
life that follow.
Charles Kerr is a native of Eastern Kentucky and
was born at Maysville, December 27, 1863. His great-" '
grandfather, with four brothers, came from Scotland^
to Pennsylvania in Colonial times. His grandfather, t
I
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
647
Samuel Kerr, was a native of Pennsylvania and in 1800
bought land in Mason County, Kentucky, and was a
farmer during his active life. Jesse J. Kerr, father of
Judge Kerr, was born in Mason County and followed
farming and stock-raising there until 1880, when he
bought a farm in Fayette County. He married Eliz-
abeth Lyon Alexander, daughter of William and Mary
(Terhune) Alexander, natives of Virginia.
Charles Kerr spent the first years of his life on his
father's farm in Mason County. He attended public
school, but he was never graduated from any college,
and his real education was acquired in the school of
necessity. He was twenty-one when he left the hard
routine of his father's farm in Fayette County and
began the study of law at Lexington, in the office of
Col. W. C. P. Breckinridge and John T. Shelby. He
was admitted to the bar in 1886, and was in the law
office of Beck & Thornton until the death of Senator
James B. Beck in 1890, when Col. R. A. Thornton took
him into partnership. They were associated in the
practice for eighteen years. Judge Kerr for several
years was a lecturer on the subject of corporations and
contracts in the Law College of Kentucky State Univer-
sity and Transylvania University. In former years
Judge Kerr was associated with several business enter-
prises in Lexington, but the only one he now retains
is that of director in the Fayette Home Telephone Com-
pany.
In politics he was reared a democrat and was active
with that party until ,896, in which year he supported
the sound money wing of the party, and since that cam-
paign has been a republican. He worked in the interest
of the party in several campaigns and after the close
of the great war he wrote for leading periodicals of
the country opposing the League of Nations, and deliv-
ered many speeches in opposition to that institution.
As a busy and successful lawyer, Judge Kerr was
not looking for the honors and responsibilities of pub-
lic office. He went on the bench as judge of the Fay-
ette Circuit Court by special appointment from Gov-
ernor Willson, to fill a vacancy caused by the death
of Judge Watts Parker. He was appointed March 17,
191 1, and was reelected without opposition. Judge Kerr
served five years and was elected by the largest ma-
jority ever given any Circuit judge in that district.
He continued his service with this court until June,
1921, when he was appointed by President Harding as
United States District judge for the District of the
Canal Zone, Panama, and during the past year he has
held sessions of this court and resided at Ancon.
About the time Judge Kerr left for Panama, Charles
N. Manning, president of the Security Trust Company,
wrote what he called a layman's appreciation — a tribute
that any man might regard as worth a lifetime of effort
to deserve. Just a part of this may be incorporated
in the present article:
"His unselfish, patriotic services during the great
World war in Red Cross drives, Liberty Loan cam-
paigns, and all other lines of community effort will
not soon be forgotten. It is well known that he fre-
quently contributed editorials to the Lexington Herald
—editorials which for elegance of style, for purity of
diction, for breadth of view, for historical knowl-
edge and for a certain high inspirational quality
were not excelled by those of any journal in the land.
And when the United States entered the war— a con-
summation which he earnestly desired and strove to
bring about — he labored unceasingly with voice and with
pen to elevate and strengthen the morale of our people,
both soldiers and civilians, and to aid in the marshalling
and mobilization of all the resources of the nation for
the attainment of speedy and complete victory.
"The variety and extent and accuracy of his historical
inowledge are marvelous. One can but wonder how
in such a busy life he has contrived to find time to ac-
cumulate such a mass of material not specially related
to his profession. It will be a great misfortune if he
does not at some time put in permanent form, for the
benefit of posterity, his knowledge of Kentucky history,
if no other.
"As an orator Judge Kerr is fluent, witty, logical,
eloquent and forceful. The immense stores of knowl-
edge which he possesses on so many different subjects
are so swell classified and arranged in his mind as to be
instantly available to him on any occasion. I well re-
member, and recall with great appreciation, the eloquent
oration delivered by him at the services held at the
Lexington Opera House in memory of Theodore Roose-
velt. There was not, among all the wealth of eulogy
which the death of that illustrious leader and great
American inspired, any more worthy, more compre-
hensive, more beautiful, or more eloquent appreciation
of his life and character than the threnody spoken by
Judge Kerr on that occasion. It alone would give him
high rank among the orators of the day.
"These are but some of the things, briefly and im-
perfectly sketched, which render Judge Kerr famous.
These things make us proud to call him our friend ;
there are other qualities of which I will not now speak
which bind him to us as with hoops of steel. We are
glad that broader fields of usefulness have been opened
to him. We know that for years he has rendered serv-
ices to this community and to this state at a sacrifice
of health, strength and money. Some of us know that
the manner of choosing judges in Kentucky is dis-
tasteful to him ; perhaps many of us will agree that
the system is unwise and wonder how on the whole it
has worked as well as it has. We realize that democ-
racies as a rule, and our own in particular, expect their
teachers, their preachers and their judges to get a goad
part of their reward in the consciousness of duty well
done, in the performance of services supremely needed
and divinely blessed, and not in 'money current with
the merchant.' And so we rejoice that a position of
great dignity and honor, affording equal opportunities
for service and of greater emolument, has been offered
to him. We rejoice that, though republics may be un-
grateful, republicans are not always so, and that the
services of our friend may be more adequately rewarded
in the future than in the past. We have heard that
this new position carries with it something of royal
power and prerogative, and if we concede the maxim
that of all possible governments that of the wise and
benevolent despot is best, we know that Panama will
be well governed during his reign; that he will dis-
charge the duties of his high office with honor to him-
self and credit to his country; and we trust that it will
prove merely a trial-ground or entry-way to that goal
of the great lawyer's ambition — a seat on the bench
of the Supreme Court of the United States, for which
his talents, his learning, his ability and his character so
eminently fit him."
Judge Kerr is a Knight Templar Mason and a Bap-
tist, while Mrs. Kerr is a member of the Episcopal
Church. At Lexington, October 27, 1896, he married
Miss Linda Payne, daughter of John B. and Ellen
(Woolley) Payne. Mrs. Kerr is connected with some
of the most distinguished families of Kentucky on both
her father's and mother's side. Her grandfather was
Judge A. K. Woolley, a distinguished Kentucky jurist,
and through her grandmother she is a great-grand-
daughter of Robert Wickliffe, another eminent lawyer
of Kentucky. She is also a descendant of Gen. John
Howard of the Revolutionary war. Through her
father's and mother's families she is nearly related to
the Breckinridge, Preston, Wickliffe, Woolley, Howard
and Payne families of Kentucky and Virginia. At the
time of her removal to Panama she was president of
the Woman's Club of Central Kentucky.
Judge and Mrs. Kerr have two children : Charles
Kerr, born in 1899, a graduate of the University of
Virginia and the Massachusetts School of Technology;
and Margaret Howard Kerr, born in 1908.
/
1982
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