Biographical
Sketches of Prominent Citizens of Jessamine County.
Transcribed and Submitted by Barb Z.
James Irvin.
The last Revolutionary soldier to die
in Jessamine county was James Irvin. He was born in Mecklenburg county,
Va., in 1754, and died in Jessamine county in 1851, at ninety-seven
years. He served seven years in the Revolutionary war and was badly
wounded at the Battle of Guilford Court House, March 15, 1781. He was
shot in the left hip. He came to Jessamine county in 1793 and raised a
large family of daughters who all lived to be over eighty-seven years
of age.
He is the only Revolutionary soldier
who very many of the people in Jessamine county ever saw. When Gen.
William O. Butler was a Democratic candidate for Governor of Kentucky
in 1844, James Irvin and four other Revolutionary veterans rode in the
carriage with General Butler from the place of Mr. John Butler, on
Jessamine creek, on the Danville pike, to Nicholasville, where General
Butler was to speak, in the field adjoining the colored cemetery, close
to the line of the R., N., I. & B. R. R.
When Irvin was wounded in battle he
was left at the house of the father of William A. Graham, the
distinguished politician of North Carolina, and Secretary of the Navy
under Millard Fillmore. While sick he cut his initials on a stone and
the date of his wounding and brought this stone with him to Kentucky
when he emigrated to the state. He lived on the place now owned by Mr.
Dean, near Sulphur Well, and was buried in the Hickman neighborhood.
Frederick
Zimmerman.
One of the strong characters in the
early history of Jessamine county was Frederick Zimmerman, its first
surveyor. His ancestors came from Salzwedel, Germany. His forefathers
emigrated to New York. After a passage of six weeks over the Atlantic
they settled on the Hudson river, at the village of Rheinbeck, in
Dutchess county. Remaining in New York four months two brothers settled
in Culpeper county, Virginia, where was born Frederick Zimmerman. He
moved to Jessamine county prior to 1792, and lived in the Marble creek
district. He married Judith Bourne, daughter of Henry Bourne. His work
in the surveys of Jessamine county shows that he was a competent and
faithful official. His sons and daughters have been industrious,
upright citizens and have performed well the duties devolved upon them.
John Zimmerman, Daniel Zimmerman, Augustus Zimmerman and Morton
Zimmerman, long and favorably known in the county, were sons of
Frederick Zimmerman. A numerous posterity still reside in the county
which their ancestor helped to redeem from the savages, and in the
earlier history of which he was a strong and influential factor.
Francis
Phipps
Was born on the 21 st of October,
1751, and was for a long time a resident of Jessamine county. He was
engaged in surveying the Lexington and Danville pike, by Col. W. R.
McKee in 1829- 30. He resided at Mr. Thos. Scott's house for several
years, at which place the letter, copied below, was found. References
are made to Rev. John Price, who, afterwards, came to Jessamine county,
and was long a Baptist minister in this locality, and the letter is
otherwise full of interesting matter:
In Mess, No. 10, Colonel Hamilton's
Regiment, Little York, 12 miles from Williamsburg, Oct. 21st, 1781.
My Dear Parents: I have only time to
inform you that the British army, under old Cornwallis, surrendered to
General Washington on the I9th. Capt. Charles Johnston, who will leave
for Mecklenburg to-morrow, will give you full particulars of this great
and glorious achievement.
On the 25th of September our army,
led by the beloved Washington, reached the headquarters of General La
Fayette, at Williamsburg, and on the 30th, our army marched in a body
to attack York and Gloucester. On the 7th of October, Washington opened
the attack on Cornwallis with 100 pieces of cannon. It was a most
beautiful sight to see our bomb-shells bursting in the midst of the
enemy, tearing down whole companies of our enemies—as we could see them
from the high ground near the river. During the siege, which lasted 17
days, two strong redoubts were stormed by our regiment, led by Col.
Hamilton. We were assisted in the charge by the French. When within a
few yards of the redoubt. Col. Hamilton rode up to the regiment, and
said in a voice like the bursting of a shell: "Charge those men, my
brave comrades,'who wish to make slaves of our people." We rushed at
them with a loud shout, and captured over two hundred—killing and
wounding about fifty. We lost about seventy-five of as brave men as
ever pulled a trigger at an enemy of our liberty. Our French soldiers
lost as many as we did. It would have done the heart of every lover of
liberty good to have seen the red-coated rascals surrender to our army
on the 19th—old Cornwallis and his army—numbering 8.000 muskets: I
counted fifty brass and one hundred and sixty iron cannon.
At about 12 o'clock our army was
drawn up in two lines, extending more than a mile in length. Our French
fellow-soldiers were placed on our left and headed by their General. At
the head of our ragged, but brave soldiers, 1 saw the noble Washington,
on his horse, looking calm and cool as he was when crossing the
Delaware river a few years before. Many of the rustic people of this
part of Virginia, consisting of old men, women and children, assembled
in numbers equal to the military, to witness the surrender of the old
murderer, Cornwallis. Every face beamed with joy and gladness—but a
profound silence prevailed ; no talking, no noise of any kind, save the
slow, measured step of our enemies, was heard. General Tarleton's
troops at Gloucester surrendered at the same time to our French
soldiers. Everything was done in a quiet manner.
After the surrender, I saw our
beloved Washington and Colonel Hamilton talking with all the British
officers. Old Cornwallis and Tarleton were very polite to our officers,
and it was a surprise to see old Cornwallis treating our beloved
commander and Colonel Hamilton with so much consideration. Cornwallis
is a large man, with dark brown hair, a ruddy face, good nose and has
the appearance of a man of kind heart and good intentions. General
Tarleton is also a large man. but not so big as old Cornwallis. His
countenance is hard and tyrannical; and his mean, dark eyes are full of
cruelty. Some few of the Carolinians saw him after the surrender was
over, and cursed him as he passed up the road on his way to the ship
that was to take the British to New York. When the boys cursed him he
never made any reply, but rode away, showing no high temper, that he
was known to have by some Carolinians who remembered his cruelties in
South Carolina.
The Rev. John Price preached for the
soldiers on Sunday last. His sermon was listened to by many officers,
such as General Lincoln, Cols. Henry Lee, Hamilton and Woodford. My
health is good, and my wound in the arm is well. I can not tell you
where to send me a letter, as I have no means of knowing whore our
regiment is ordered to. Some say we are to go to New York, and th >
rumor is that we are to remain in Virginia, or at the town of Trenton,
in "the Jersies." Present my love to my youngest sister, also to Mr.
Watkins and family, and tell Mr. Watkins his son is truly a
self-denying soldier, one who loves his country and is willing, if need
be, to die in her defense. Pray for me that I may be spared to see you
once more alive.
Your loving son,
Francis Phipps.
Gen. Henry M. Chrisman
General Chrisman, who received his
title from the militia service, was the youngest son of Hugh Chrisman
and was born in the old stone house on the Hickman creek in 1800, and
died in Nicholasville. in 1876. His mother was a McKinney, and his
grandmother was a sister of Jas. McDowell who was in a company of
Colonel Dudley's regiment in the war of 1812.
One of the most pleasant traits of
General Chrisman's character was his hospitality clothed with kindness
and benevolence. He was fond of company and his house was thronged with
young and old friends, and they made that part of Jessamine happy by
their constant courtesies to their neighbors. His wife died in 1852, he
in 1876, and they are buried on the cliffs near the old stone building.
This house was put up by Thomas Metcalf, who was known as "the old
stone hammer" governor, for which position he offered himself
twenty-eight years afterward, when he was elected, defeating Maj. Wm.
T. Barry by a majority of only 709. It is related of Governor Metcalf
that at one time, when working at Chaumiere, he was invited to take
dinner with David Meade, but he declined upon the ground that Mr. Meade
had not asked his hands to dine with him. Colonel Meade then predicted
that the stone mason would become governor of Kentucky, and he lived
long enough to see this prophecy verified.
Peter Simpson
Was born in Washington county,
Pennsylvania, in 1758. He served two years in the Revolutionary war
under General Wayne, was in several battles and skirmishes in New York
and New Jersey, and at the battle of Monmouth was slightly
wounded. He was visiting Jessamine county in 1794, and was present at
Colonel Price's Fourth of July celebration that year. He returned to
Virginia, and in 1802 removed from the valley in Virginia and settled
in the Marble creek neighborhood, where he lived until his death in
1835.
Col. John McKinney
Was one of South Carolina's
contributions to Jessamine county. He was born on the Pedee river,
South Carolina, in 1756, and served in the Revolutionary war, first
under General Patterson, and also under Gen. Francis Marion. Colonel
Sumter, and Gen. Harry Lee.
He first settled on what is known as
the Butler farm, in 1790, and that year he erected a log house on that
place which was only torn down a few years ago, and in this house most
of his children were born. His daughter, Mrs. Sallie Cloke, who died in
Versailles some years ago, at an advanced age, was born on this farm in
1794, while Mrs. Catherine Brown, wife of George I., was born in 1802.
Colonel McKinney was a gentleman of
the old school, an enterprising farmer and a patriotic citizen. He
removed to Woodford county, where he spent the remaining years of his
life, and died at an advanced age.
Col. John Mosely
This gentleman was born in Buckingham
county, Virginia, in 1760, and settled in Jessamine in 1793. He served
in the Revolutionary war, and was a gallant soldier. He enjoyed the
distinction of having reared the largest family every known in
Jessamine—he had three daughters and eighteen sons. He was extremely
popular in his neighborhood, and his descendants in Jessamine are very
numerous and still live in the immediate neighborhood where their brave
and prolific ancestor settled.
Com. Daniel Boone Ridgeley
Com. D. B. Ridgeley, who served with
distinction in the United States navy, was born in Jessamine county on
the 30th of August. 1813, and died in Philadelphia. May 5, 1868.
He entered the navy as midshipman
April 1, 1828. He participated in the bombardment and capture of Vera
Cruz and other Mexican ports, and was connected with the Naval
Observatory at Washington in 1850-52. He commanded the steamer
"Atlanta'' in the Paraguayan expedition, He volunteered for active
service in the Civil war, and commanded the steamer "Santiago de Cuba."
He commanded a steamer in the North Atlantic squadron, and assisted in
the bombardment of Fort Fisher, North Carolina. He was a member of the
Board of Naval Examiners at Philadelphia, in 1868. at the time of his
death. His mother was a daughter of Col. John Price, who was chiefly
instrumental in organizing Jessamine county, and was born on the farm
of his grandfather in the Hickman neighborhood. He purchased the
McKinney farm in Jessamine in 1850, and passed his vacations there. He
always spoke with great pride of his native county, and held the old
home place as a sentimental investment.
John Speed Smith
Was born on the Caspar Harbaugh
place. Jessamine county, July 31, 1792. He served with distinction in
the War of 1812— was at the battle of Tippecanoe, and was Aide to
General Harrison at the battle of the Thames.
He removed to Madison county in his
early manhood, where he became a distinguished lawyer. He represented
Madison county in the legislature in 1819, '27, '30, '39, '41, and '45,
and the Senate in 1846 and '50. He was speaker of the House of
Representatives in 1827. He was a member of Congress in 1821-23, and
was Secretary to the Legation of the United States Commissioners sent
to the South American colonies. Jackson appointed him United States
District Attorney for Kentucky. In 1839 he was made joint Commissioner
with Gov. Jas. T. Morehead to visit the Ohio legislature to secure the
passage of laws to prevent the enticement of slaves and to provide a
more efficient means of returning slaves who had escaped; the
Commissioners were successful in, this work.
For several years prior to his death
he was State Superintendent of Public Works, and through his life was
one of the most prominent and popular men in Kentucky.
William T. Barry
Was one of the most brilliant and
eloquent men who made Kentucky so famous in the first thirty years of
its existence. He was in his childhood a resident of Jessamine county.
Horn in Virginia in 1783, he came, with his father, when a child to
Kentucky, and lived for a short while in Fayette, and then moved to
Jessamine county, where he lived several years, when the family
returned to Lexington. After attending school at the Woodford Academy
he graduated at Transylvania University and commenced the practice of
law when twenty-one years of age. in Lexington.
From 1805 to 1835, his life was a
wonderful series of successes. Fortune appeared to lavish upon him all
of its choicest blessings.
He was, very early in his
professional career, appointed Attorney for the Commonwealth in Fayette
county. His learning, eloquence and industry at once gave him both
popularity and prominence. He was elected to fill a vacancy in the
Legislature from Fayette in 1807. He was again elected in 1809; chosen
to represent the Ashland district in Congress in 1810, he was again
elected representative in the Legislature in 1814. In the discussion of
the matters which led up to the War of 1812, no man was more eloquent,
earnest or wise, and by his brilliant, patriotic speeches he won the
admiration and confidence of all parties. In the war he exhibited a
high degree of courage and gallantry while serving on the staff of
Governor Shelby, who, disregarding precedents, took the field as the
Commander-in-Chief of the Ken- tuck} forces. He was in the battle of
the Thames, which added such splendid luster and renown to Kentucky and
her soldiers.
He became Speaker of the Kentucky
House of Representatives in 1814, and was elected to the United States
Senate while holding that place. He represented Kentucky in the Senate
for two sessions, and then resigned to accept the Circuit Judgeship
upon a meager salary. In 1817, he was forced to stand as a candidate
for the State Senate, and it was his magnetic power and influence which
enabled him while in the Kentucky Senate, to secure large aid to
Transylvania University and afterwards he became a lecturer in the Law
Department. His name gave the Law School prestige and magnificent
success. In 1820 he was elected Lieutenant Governor by an overwhelming
majority of 11,000 votes in a total of 55,000, and at this time was
unquestionably the most popular man in Kentucky.
Henry Clay, in 1825, accepted the
place of Secretary of State and identified himself with the Adams
administration. This cost Mr. Clay many friends in Kentucky, where the
recollection of New England's opposition to the admission of Kentucky
into the Union, had left great prejudice against it. Barry sided with
those opposed to Mr. Clay.
Mr. Barry was appointed Chief Justice
of "The New Court" in January, 1825, and held the place until a repeal
of the New Court Act, in 1826. He was a candidate for Governor in 1828,
and was defeated by only 709 votes, but his wonderful canvass and
superb eloquence caused the state in the following year to cast its
vote for Andrew Jackson, by a majority of 7,934. Mr. Barry was
appointed Postmaster General by Jackson, and held the office until
declining health forced him to surrender it.
In the hope that a change in location
and a milder climate might restore his health, the President nominated
Mr. Barry to be Minister to Spain. He sailed for his post, but died at
Liverpool, England, in 1835.
Nineteen years later (1854), by an
act of the Legislature, the remains of Mr. Barry were disinterred,
brought to Kentucky and buried in the state lot, at Frankfort. His
friends erected a monument to his memory in the court house yard in
Lexington.
Theodore O'Hara, the brilliant poet,
delivered an oration upon this occasion (Nov. 8, 1854), concluding with
these thrilling words:
"Let the marble like a minstrel rise
to sing to the future generations of the Commonwealth, the inspiring
lay of his high genius and lofty deeds. Let the autumn wind harp on the
dropping leaves, her softest requiem over him. Let the winter's purest
snow rest spotless on his grave. Let spring entwine her brightest
garland for his tomb, and summer gild it with her mildest sunshine, and
let him sleep embalmed in glory till the last trump shall reveal him to
us, all radiant with the halo of his life."
Jessamine, as the scene of his
earliest youth, claims a part in the history of this child of most
auspicious fate, whose career, for splendid achievement, superb
eloquence, courageous contest, unvarying success, unchanging
popularity, and wondrous influence has no equal in the past of Kentucky
and will have none in its future.
Rev. John Metcalf
To Rev. John Metcalf belongs the
honor of laying off the county seat of Jessamine, and also of naming
the town. He was a native of Southampton county, Virginia, and came to
Kentucky in the spring of 1790, bringing with him not only his
credentials as a minister, but also a heart full of love to God. Bethel
Academy was established in 1790, and was opened for the reception of
pupils in January, 17c^4.. ft was the second institution of learning
ever established by the Methodist church in the United States, the one
at Cokesburg being the first. The labors of Mr. Metcalf were confined
largely to Jessamine county. He traveled a few circuits in Fayette and
Mercer, but his life work was connected with Jessamine. He took charge
of Bethel Academy at the request of Bishop Asbury. He began his work as
founder and continued his taliors there as the principal of this school
in the "wilderness." He infused his own earnest and enthusiastic spirit
into the institution. He labored under tremendous disadvantages in his
work, but he overcame most of them, and brought success where other men
would have had only failure.
He was the first Methodist minister
who ever preached a sermon in Lexington. Pastoral work in those days
was done under great difficulties, traveling on horseback through the
traces with no well-defined roads, and hunting up the pioneers in their
cabins, and far removed from neighbors in their loneliness and their
surrounding dangers, this man of God was ever ready to discharge his
duties. He was compelled to ride through the canebrakes and woods and
pathless forests, but he had the spirit of his Master, and he never
faltered in the work which the Head of the Church had given him to do.
In his studies, in his pastoral work and at the head of the school, he
found enough in those days to occupy the heart and hands of any man.
Plain, practical and earnest, he attracted attention and won hearts,
and he generally drew large crowds of people, who were glad to hear
him. He was largely instrumental in building up the Methodist church in
Jessamine county. He was born in 1758 and died at his home in
Nicholasville, in 1820, having reached his 61st year. It was through
his labors that the white frame Methodist church, was first erected in
Nicholasville, in 1/99.
Rev. Nathaniel Harris
Few men have ever been better known
in Jessamine county than Rev. Nathaniel Harris. He was born in
Powhattan county. Va., in 1759, of Presbyterian parentage. being an
only son, he was indulged in many things, which in the end proved
hurtful. His intercourse with what were then known as the gentlemen of
the day, caused him to become both profane and wicked.
Shortly after his father removed from
the old home place he became a volunteer in the American army, and was
in the battle of Guilford Courthouse, North Carolina.
He was converted in August, 1783, and
joined the Methodist church, and the conviction forced itself upon his
mind that he was called to preach. He settled in Jessamine county in
1790, and he was principal of the English department in the Bethel
Academy.
He preached in the various towns in
Central Kentucky, and in administering to the afflicted and the sick
none ever excelled him. At marriages and funerals his presence was
always sought, because of his tender sympathy and because of the love
and confidence manifested towards him. He founded several Methodist
churches in Jessamine county.
The last years of his life were spent
in Versailles, where he purchased a home for himself and his two maiden
daughters. He died on the I2th day of August, 1849, lacking only a few
days of ninety years of age. He had been in the Methodist ministry for
more than sixty years. On the 26th of August, 1843, he entered in his
journal, "I am this day eighty-four years old. I stand to my engagement
to be holy for the Lord."
The records which contain the
certificates of the earlier marriages in Jessamine county, show that
his services for these ceremonies were largely in demand. On the I4th
of March, 1799, he married Jesse Hughes and Nancy Nicholson, and a very
large proportion of the early marriages celebrated in the county were
solemnized by him. He was a faithful, earnest, devout man of God. Some
might call his sphere humble, but his influence on the religious and
moral condition of Jessamine county will long be felt, and in it he has
a monument, which should be both to his church and to those of his
name, a cause of unfailing pride.
Samuel H. Woodson
Samuel H. Woodson was a step-son of
Col. Joseph Crockett. While in the military service in Albemarle
county. Virginia, and guarding prisoners which had been surrendered by
Burgoyne. Colonel Crockett protected the property of Mr. and Mrs.
Tuckel Woodson. There resulted from this circumstance a warm attachment
between Mr. Woodson and Mrs. Woodson and the young officer. Shortly
after Colonel Crockett had been ordered to come west and serve under
George Rogers Clark, in command of the Illinois or Crockett Regiment,
which had been dispatched by the state of Virginia to assist Clark in
his contest with the Indians, Tucker Woodson died, and after Colonel
Crockett returned from the West he fell in love with the handsome young
widow and married her.
After this marriage, in 1783, Colonel
Crocket came to Kentucky and soon brought his family here, in 1784, and
with him came out Samuel H. Woodson, his step-son. Colonel Crockett
gave him a father's love, affection and attention. He was prepared for
the law and had every advantage the educational facilities of Kentucky
then could offer.
He entered for his step-son about a
thousand acres of land, part of which is that now owned by Mr. Jesse
Bryant, on the pike between Nicholasville and Lexington.
He read law with Col. George Nicholas
and named one of his sons for Judge Nicholas. At the time of the
formation of Jessamine county he was chosen clerk for the county. As he
held his office for life, it was considered a distinguished place. He
built the house on the Sheeley place, about one mile from Nicholasville
on the Danville turnpike, and kept his office as clerk there. There
were no county buildings in those days and the judges and clerks used
their residences for the discharge of their official duties. He married
Annie Randolph Meade, a daughter of Col. David Meade, of Chaumiere.
He resigned the clerkship in 1819 and
was succeeded by Daniel B. Price. He was elected to congress from the
district, and moved to Frankfort in 1826. He came, in 1827, to attend
circuit court in Nicholasville and rode, in very warm weather, on
horseback from Frankfort to Nicholasville. During the term of court he
went out to Chaumiere, was taken suddenly ill and died, in the
forty-seventh year of his age. He was a man of great culture, superb
integrity, much learning, and in his day was one of the distinguished
men of Kentucky. He left a large family, and the people, not only of
his district but of Jessamine and Franklin, his adopted home, mourned
his early death. He represented Jessamine county in the legislature
from 1819 to 1825.
Maj. Daniel B. Price
Maj. Daniel B. Price was born in
Powhattan county, Virginia, the nth day of May, 1789. His father, John
Price, removed to Kentucky in 1794, taking with him Daniel, his only
son. and purchased 1,200 acres of land in Bourbon county. The title
proving defective, he afterwards removed to Clark county, where he
lived to the extreme old age of ninety years.
When a boy, Major Price came to
Nicholasville and was appointed deputy clerk for Samuel H. Woodson, and
when Mr. Woodson resigned, in 1816, he succeeded him and held the
office, giving entire satisfaction until 1851, a period of thirty-five
years, which is the longest period any one office was ever held by the
same man in the county.
In 1813 he married Eliza Crockett,
the fourth child of Col. Joseph Crockett, who died during a cholera
epidemic in 1832. He subsequently married Miss Stuart, daughter of Rev.
Robert Stuart.
He was a member of the Presbyterian
church in Nicholasville and for half a century a ruling elder. He was
also a trustee of Center College and one of the directors of the
Theological Seminary at Danville. Dr. Robert J. Breckinridge said of
him: "Probably no citizen of Jessamine county was ever more generally
and favorably known, and certainly no one was ever more thoroughly
respected. A man resolute for God's saving truth in proportion as his
meek and gentle spirit, he lived upon it as his life and soul."
He won and retained the respect and
confidence of the entire community. He was looked up to as a man of
splendid judgment and unswerving integrity. Noble memories of his life
and character survive after a lapse of nearly forty years.
Tucker Woodson
At Chaumiere in Jessamine county, in
1804, Tucker Woodson was born. 1t is a remarkable fact that he and his
wife were born in the same house and in the same room. His wife was
Evelyn Byrd. and she was a daughter of Sarah Meade. daughter of David
Meade. He and his wife were both possessed of ample fortune. They
received the best education that Kentucky could give. He chose the law
as his profession but spent most of his life in care of his landed
estates. He was a born politician, a man of the highest refinement of
feeling, of the strictest integrity, the kindest heart and charming
manners. He was a great Whig and a follower of Mr. Clay. He represented
Jessamine county in the legislature in 1835, '36, '37 and '40. Was also
in the senate in 1842-46 and 1853-7.
He was always popular among his
neighbors and friends and even his political opponents loved him. Of
distinguished lineage, he was always the friend of the humbler people.
He owned land in what was then known as the Plaquemine District which
included Sulphur Well, now Ambrose. This was considered in early days
the roughest district in the county, but it was there that Mr. Woodson
had his warmest friends.
In the great race for Congress
between John C. Breckinridge and Robert Fletcher, in 1853 in which
Breckinridge was elected by 526 majority, Mr. Woodson had charge of the
Plaque-mine District, and for a long time it was remembered in
Jessamine county how shrewdly and beautifully he played his opponents.
A leading Democrat had been sent by Major Breckinridge to handle the
money and control the votes in the Plaque-mine District. In those days
pecuniary inducements paid to voters were not looked upon in the same
light in which they are now regarded. The idea that all things were
fair in politics and war pervaded the public mind and the purchase of
votes was carried on with a good deal of publicity and without any
reproach or disapproval on the part of political opponents.
The Democratic manager had been
provided with a large number of new bills issued by the Northern Bank
of Kentucky. They were fives and tens, for even in those days good
prices were paid for votes, and especially in this election, which
called forth the highest enthusiasm and the greatest devotion of the
rank and file on both sides. Mr. Woodson saw with dismay the large
amount of new notes which were being circulated by his political
opponents, and he turned over in his mind a plan by which the effect of
this new money could be avoided. Taking one of the men aside whom he
knew very well, and who had received already one of these new bills, he
asked him if he was sure that it The New York was good; saying, what
was true, that there had been circulated a large number of counterfeit
bills lately and that if he and his. friends were taking money from the
Democratic manager, Mr. Scott, they had better be very careful as to
its genuineness. At the same time he pulled from his own pocket a roll
of well-worn and old-time bills and placing the new and old bills side
by side, commented upon some differences. The news spread like wildfire
that the new bills were counterfeit and the floaters refused to receive
them and turned in disgust from the Democratic manager, who only had
new bills, and would receive nothing but the old time Whig money, which
Mr. Woodson and his friends were ready, under proper conditions, to
distribute.
A strong pro-slavery man, he sided
with the government in the Civil war, but it was conceded on all hands
that he acted from conviction, and few men of his prominence and of his
activity escaped with so small a number of enemies.
In 1872 he was elected county. judge
on the Republican ticket and died in 1874. Hospitable, courteous,
cultivated, honest, patriotic and true, he left behind him a.large
array of friends who mourned his death.
His home was always open to friends
and strangers alike. Gifted in conversation, a capable raconteur, and
full of the purest and gentlest kindness, he won the hearts of all who
came under his roof. His wife, one of the housekeepers of those times
which made Kentucky housekeeping renowned in all the civilized world,
sympathized with the hospitable instincts of her husband, and united
with him to make his home always pleasing and attractive. Some of the
rich treasures of Chaumiere had descended to them and these, enlarged
by contributions from other relatives and ancestors, gave their home a
charm which will never be forgotten by those who entered its portals.
For thirty years Judge Wood- son and his family entertained more and
more delightfully than any citizen of Jessamine county, and no couple
ever left more delightful memories of real Kentucky home life than they.
Chaumiere.
In 1796 there was established in
Jessamine county one of the most beautiful and attractive country homes
in America. It was founded by David Meade, who was born in Virginia on
the 29th of July, 1743. At seven years of age he was sent to England
with the hope that change of climate might improve his health and also
for the purpose of furnishing better means of education than were then
in existence in America.
Here he remained until 1761, when he
returned to his native land. He had acquired only a general knowledge
of mathematics, geography, French, grammar and drawing, but he had
cultivated science and the elegant arts.
He had two brothers, younger than
himself, both of whom afterwards became distinguished in the American
army. Richard Kidder, an aid de camp to General Washington, and who had
charge of the details of the execution of Major Andre, and Everard, who
was an aid de camp to General Lincoln, and he himself was subsequently
raised to the rank of General.
In his twenty-fourth year he married
Sarah Waters, a daughter of Mr. William Waters, of Williamsburg,
Virginia, and in 1769 he was elected to represent Nansemond county in
the House of Burgesses. This was his first and only political
experience. This assembly was dissolved by the representative of the
crown on account of certain resolutions which it had passed upon the
subject of the disagreement between England and the colonies.
Prior to 1796 David Meade, a son of
the founder of Chaumiere, came to Kentucky. He was attracted by the
splendid climate, fertile soil, wonderful forests and charming
surroundings, and induced his father to leave a beautiful home in
Virginia, on the James river, and come to the wilds of Kentucky. He was
captivated by the glowing description of the new land given by his son,
and, though accustomed to all that wealth and culture could give, he
was willing to abandon the comforts and the associations of his
Virginia home and build him a new one amid the forests of Kentucky.
David Meade was a man of large
fortune. Under the laws of primogeniture, then prevailing in Virginia,
he inherited the major share of his father's estate, and his wife also
brought him no inconsiderable dowry. He came to Kentucky in 1796 and
debated for some time whether he would settle on the forks of Elkhorn,
in Franklin county, or in Jessamine county, but through his personal
regard for Col. Joseph Crockett, who had come to Kentucky in 1784, and
settled in Jessamine county, in 1787, he was induced to choose
Jessamine as his future home.
He purchased about three hundred
acres of land from the Crocketts and Woodsons. This land is four miles
from Nicholasville, on the turnpike which connects the Lexington and
Danville, and the Harrodsburg and Lexington turnpikes, and is now owned
in large part by Mr. John Steel. The beautiful forest trees attracted
his admiration and won his affections. Sugar trees, poplar, ash, oak,
hackberry and walnut, all growing in most superb profusion, determined
his choice of residence. He had large tracts of land in other parts of
Kentucky.
He founded at this locality a home,
called Chaumiere des prairies. but it was familiarly known throughout
the country as Chaumiere. which is the French for Indian Village. On
this small place David Meade lavished vast sums of money. He had all
the tastes of an educated and refined Englishman. Whatever could have
induced such a man with such a fortune to have come down the Ohio river
in n flatboat, and land at Maysville and suffer the inconvenience of
travel and transportation from Nicholasville to Jessamine county, and
to live in such a remote and unimproved district, is almost impossible
to understand.
He laid out a hundred acres of
Chaumiere into a beautiful garden. He imported rare and exquisite
plants. He made lakes, constructed water falls, shaped islands, built
summer houses and porters' lodges, and in this backwoods wilderness
created an ideal Englishman's home. He had a large retinue of liveried
servants, splendid coaches, magnificent furniture, service largely of
silver, and maintained in every way the style of a feudal lord.
The house was one-story, built of
various materials, stone, brick and wood, but all erected for comfort
and for convenience. Here David Meade lived from 1796 to 1832. During
his thirty- six years of residence in Jessamine county he made no
change in his method or manner of living. His service, his carriages,
his liveries, fashion of entertainment, his own personal dress and that
of his wife, always elegant, were still maintained in true English
style. Different from everybody else in Kentucky in his style of
living, he never excited the envy of his less wealthy or less cultured
neighbors. The hospitality and elegance of his home were the boast of
Kentucky. No distinguished man eve1 came to the state who did not
express a desire to see this wonderful place, and none were ever
disappointed in receiving a cordial invitation for the enjoyment of its
hospitality.
No other home in Kentucky ever
entertained so many Presidents, for at various times the roof of
Chaurniere covered Monroe. General Jackson. General Charles Scott, and
General Taylor. All the distinguished families of Kentucky were invited
and always welcomed within its borders. Henry Clay was a constant
visitor at this delightful residence, and a very funny story is told of
the politeness of Mr. Clay and Mr. Meade. Mr. Clay had come to spend
the night at Chaumiere. Mr. Meade was too polite to suggest to Mr. Clay
that it was time to retire, and Mr. Clay was too polite to tell Mr.
Meade that he desired to retire, and so they sat up and talked all
night.
Aaron Burr often visited Chaumiere.
He was there again and again with Blennerhasset, and there is in
possession of a member of the family a mirror before which Aaron Burr
sat and had his hair powdered. After the arrest of Aaron Burr he was
permitted to remain in custody at Chaumiere. and Col. Meade's son
acted as chief of the guard during his stay.
Mrs. Meade was as elegant, refined
and cultured as her husband. They died within six months of each other.
The costly furniture, cut glass and
china, with which one hundred guests could at one time be served, have
been scattered throughout the country. The lovely and beautiful
bric-a-brac can be found in many homes, and there is still in
Chillicothe, Ohio, a piano upon which Mrs. Meade, when three-score and
ten, played, and it was the first instrument of its kind ever brought
into the state of Kentucky.
The eldest son had died young and
unmarried. At Colonel Meade's death, none were able to maintain or to
hold Chaumiere, and so it went under the hammer on the block and was
bought by a plain, practical farmer. This surprised and distressed the
citizens of Jessamine county, who had taken a just pride in this
strange and beautiful home, and in a little while after the new' owner
of the place had been announced, there was placarded in large letters
on the houses over the grounds the words ''Paradise Lost." This caused
the purchaser to become indignant, and in less than a week the
beautiful flower gardens were filled with horses, cattle and hogs. The
glorious forest trees were felled, lodges torn down, parks destroyed,
and lakes drained. A portion of the house was pulled down, and in the
rooms which were once the resort of fashion and made memorable by the
presence of the most distinguished people in the land, were stored
wheat and corn. Only three rooms now remain of this once magnificent
home.
On a hill overlooking Chaumiere in a
neglected burying- ground, sleeps the dust of David Meade and his wife
and a few of his family, but the memories of Chaumiere will long live
in Jessamine county and in the West.
Notwithstanding its difference from
the other homes in Jessamine county, and notwithstanding the difference
between him and his neighbors, there was no jealousy. He did not
interfere with his fellow-countrymen, He entertained their guests if
they were refined and reputable, and he sought no political preferment,
asked for no honors, only desiring to be permitted to live in his own
way and to exhibit his own taste in his own home.
It was arranged that General La
Fayette should be entertainer! at Chaumiere, and for this purpose
Colonel Meade constructed a beautiful octagonal room. This, with two
other small rooms off of the octagonal room, are all that remains as a
monument to the beauty and to the charming associations connected with
this marvelous home in the wilderness.
John
Cawbey
John Cawbey was a resident of
Independence, Mo. In September, 1884, he wrote to S. M. Duncan a letter
which contains many interesting facts in regard to some of the olden
time people in Jessamine, and also some reminiscences in regard to Dr.
Trisler, the first physician in Jessamine, and which indicates that Dr.
Trisler was something of a medium and fortune teller and practiced
these arts in addition to medicine. For many years, traditions have
been floating among the people of pristine Jessamine, in regard to the
marvelous power of Dr. Trisler and his possession of mysterious powers
in locating disease, finding lost property, and in early days there
were many who accredited the good, old doctor with the highest order of
supernatural vision.
Mr. Cawbey says: "My mother died at
Franklin, Ind., in her 70th year; my father died in his 47th year; my
grandfather, John Cawbey, lived to the age of 87 years. His wife, my
grandmother, lived to the age of 105 years, and died in Mercer county,
Ky. My grandfather was born in Lincoln county, Kentucky, and settled in
Jessamine county in 1808, where he spent all his life, and was buried
at old West Union church lot, better known as the "Hoover graveyard."
In this old lot lie my first wife, her brother, father, and
grandfather, Conrad Earthenhouse, the father of the late venerable
Elizabeth Bowman, who lived to reach the great age of 108. She died in
1886. 1 have in my keeping Dr. Peter Trisler's German medical works,
printed in Wittenberg, Germany, in 1442, which makes 442 years since
they were printed. (Printing was invented in 1440.) I have also the
Bible of Dr. Trisler, which is 400 years old and a commentary over 300
years old, in the German language. The first of his medical books
contains 1,180 pages, the second book, 1.342 pages. I send you this
information for the purpose of giving you a correct account, and the
dates that I found concerning the first settlers on Jessamine creek,
among my papers which I sent to Missouri several months before I left
Jessamine county. When I have more time it will afford me pleasure to
give you many more interesting facts concerning the old settlers along
Jessamine creek and their occupation. Beginning on the west side of
Hickman road, running down Jessamine creek, there was the home of
Joseph Wallace, who was a farmer and tanner. Next was John Carroll,
farmer and auctioneer; Peter Funk, farmer and distiller; Michael
Ritter. farmer and vender of crockery ware, etc.: Samuel Walls, farmer;
Thos. Reynolds, father of Barney Reynolds, farmer and distiller, and
spent much of his life fishing; Jacob Myers, father of the late W. B.
Myers, was a manufacturer of gun powder on the farm where Wm. Mathews
now lives; Richard West was a gunsmith and farmer, and owned the farm
where Wm. Bourne is now living; Christopher Arnspiger lived on the
other side of the creek, was a farmer and cooper; next came the old
Howser mill property,owned by Abraham Howser and George Mason. Both had
an equal share in the mill, and each one had his part of the farm, and
both carried on a distillery of their own ; next was the Bennett farm—
this old Mr. Bennett fell down from his barn loft and killed himself.
He was an old bachelor, and would often hide himself when ladies passed
his house; Conrad Earthenhouse was a farmer and weaver, and also had a
distillery; George Smith, the grandfather of Willis is. Smith, lived on
the farm now occupied by Willis; he was a farmer and distiller. On that
old farm in his grandfather's lifetime, I ground corn for the said
distillery in the year 1827. At old Thomas Haydon's mills, now owned by
James Lewallen, formerly by Frank Grow, there was a distillery attached
to this property. It has passed through many hands since I first knew
the place; the next farm on the creek was the old Crozier mill and
cotton factory. This property, like many others in those days, had a
distillery on it. It was here on this farm that the first steam engine
was ever used in Jessamine county. Mr. Crozier and James Hill ran it
for nineteen years. The next place was that owned by Mr. Womack and
Thos. Bryan, who owned the old paper mill and grist mill built by old
John Lewis. This mill was the first one erected in Jessamine county,
and had the first French buhr stones brought to Jessamine county, which
cost Mr. Lewis $1,200. The old mill is now owned by John H. Glass.
"Before closing this long letter I
will relate some of Dr. Trisler's strange performances. He would
sometimes invite his neighbors to see him. He would then disappear in
the very presence of the company, and none could tell what had become
of him. He could stop the flow of blood from any wound by giving the
initials of the proper name of any man or women—this was all that was
required. He could tell where stolen property was concealed. He could
light a candle in a large room by rubbing his hands together. He could
tell the exact number of pigs a sow would have at a litter. These are
matters of fact and have been tested and are well known as facts, among
the early settlers of Jessamine county. I remember, myself, there lived
a man on the farm of Thomas Gordon, about one mile south of
Nicholasville, who had a horse stolen. He came to see Dr. Trisler,
three times before he would tell him where the horse was. On the third
day Dr. Trisler met the owner of the stolen horse and told him to go to
the town of Lancaster, in Garrard county, and near the county jail he
would find the horse hitched to a fence; he added: "But the man that
took the horse from vour stable has been killed in a drunken frolic."
This may appear unreasonable, but I know it to be true. Very truly,
your friend,
John Cawbey.
Alexander Wake
Alexander Wake was the first County
Judge of Jessamine county under the Constitution of 1850. He was born
in Fauquier county, Virginia, in 1797, and died in Nicholasville in
1867. Through his maternal and paternal ancestors, he inherited the
love of liberty, for both took part in the war for independence. In the
beginning of the present century, Judge Wake's father removed to
Woodford county. He brought with him from Virginia, a large number of
slaves. Judge Wake commenced the study of law and was admitted to the
practice of his profession in 1820. In 1851, when he was elected County
Judge, he refused to grant license to sell liquor. Judge James Letcher,
of Garrard county, was the first judge who refused to grant such
license, and he was immediately followed by Judge Wake, of Jessamine.
He was a fearless man in the discharge of his official duty; he knew
neither friend or foe on the bench; he followed the dictates of his
conscience and his judgment, and commanded the respect and confidence
of his fellow-citizens.
John B. Cook
In 1810 Dawson Cook, who was a native
of King and Queen county, Virginia, removed to Nicholasville, bringing-
with him his son, John B. Cook, then four years of age. Early in life
Mr. Cook- entered business in Nicholasville, became a member of the
Methodist church, and in all the relations of life acted well his part.
He was kind, generous, thoughtful and courteous to his friends and
neighbors. One characteristic of his life was his devotion to his
church. For fifty-two years he was an earnest supporter of the
Nicholasville Methodist church, and was rarely, if ever, absent from
his seat in the sanctuary, He died in 1886, in the seventy-third year
of his age.
One of his sons, Rev. T. B. Cook, was
adjutant of the Fifth Kentucky Confederate infantry, and later a
distinguished Methodist divine. His sons, John, Edward, and Bush L.
Cook, the latter proprietor of the Hotel Nicholas, and one daughter
survive him. His piety and his patriotism combined with his kind and
genial manners render him one of the best remembered citizens of
Jessamine county.
Capt John Wallace
Was born in Bucks county,
Pennsylvania, Dec. 18, 1748. His father had come from Ireland in 1737.
Captain Wallace served in the Revolutionary armies under General
Washington. He had three brothers in his company. He was with
Washington when he crossed the Delaware, and fought the battle of
Trenton. Colonel Rahl, the commander of the Hessians, in that battle,
was killed by one of the sharpshooters in Captain Wallace's company.
There Captain Wallace took from one of the Hessian officers a sword,
which was kept in the family for eighty years, and was taken by Federal
soldiers from the house of the Rev. Joseph Wallace, in Independence,
Missouri, during the late war. After his marriage to Jane Finley, in
1777, he removed to Virginia, but shortly after came to Fayette county,
Ky., accompanied by several members of his family. His son, Joseph
Wallace, married Sarah 1'arr, January 24, 1829, and shortly after this
Captain Wallace settled in Jessamine county, where the East Fork and
main Jessamine Creek unite, and carried on for more than forty years an
extensive tannery. He was a most efficient business man, kindly and
considerate in all the relations of life, and was one <of the best
citizens that ever lived in Jessamine. He died at his place, a few
miles south of Nicholasville, Dec. 19, 1855, in the 76th year of his
age. Mrs. T. J. Brown was one of his daughters. Scattered throughout
Kentucky and Missouri are his descendants. They carry with them as
their inheritance the manly, patriotic, intelligent and Christian
instincts which marked their ancestors.
A Romantic Story.
On the first day of January, 1841, a
young man about thirty years of age, made his appearance in
Nicholasville, which then had a population of only 550 inhabitants. His
name was Ross Hughes, and he was a stage driver, a native of Ireland
and a man of pluck and energy. He obtained employment, and rented an
old house then belonging to Albert Young. He and his wife constituted
the family. He drove the stage from Nicholasville to Harrodsburg, over
rough roads in winter. After he quit driving the stage, he one day told
his wife that, he must visit Louisville and New Orleans. He remained
away from home for a long time and the gossips of the town made the
young wife unhappy by their disagreeable insinuations. After an absence
of four months the husband returned, but within a week he received a
budget of letters, and told his wife that he must go at once to St.
Louis, and in a few hours, he took his departure for the last time from
Nicholasville, and gossip again turned its hateful tongue to the
disturbance of the life and heart of the young wife. The public felt
that she was deserted. Shortly after she became a mother, and for
eighteen months lived on in silence, hoping and trusting. At the end of
this time she received a letter from her husband directing her to come
at once with her child, which she did, after disposing of her little
household effects. Upon reaching St. Louis she found that her husband
was the owner of a splendidly furnished house with every convenience
for her comfort, and with colored servants ready to obey her wishes. In
due time the little girl born in the little log house on the 27th of
January, 1841, became a lady in fashionable society in St. Louis, and
later the wife of an English Lord, and the mistress of a superb mansion
in London society. She died Lady Stirling, on the 6th day of September.
1889, in London. Her first husband was a distinguished Major General,
in the Federal army. The old log house in which Lady Stirling was born
is still standing, and is the property of Mr. Corrington. It has been
altered and weatherboarded anew, and is still one of the most
comfortable residences in the town. It was erected in 1804, and is on
the corner lot in the rear of Joseph Lear's livery stable.
Prolific of Statesmen.
In one corner of Jessamine county
there were six neighborhood boys, living almost in sight of each other,
all of whom played together and attended the same school. Four of
these—George S. Shanklin, Otho R. Singleton, Sam'l H. Woodson and A. G.
Talbott—became members of Congress; the fifth—Jos. B. Crockett—
became one of the most distinguished state judges in America, and was
for many years Chief Justice of California; while the sixth— Richard K.
Call—was elected to Congress from Florida, in 1823. He was Governor of
Florida from 1836 to 1839, and again from 1841 to 1844. Such a record
of distinguished services from one neighborhood is certainly rare in
this or any other county.
George S. Shanklin.
Hon. G. S. Shanklin was the youngest
son of John Shanklin. who was one of the early pioneers, emigrating
from Pennsylvania politician or time-server. He was a man of a high
sense of integrity, modesty, courtesy and of retiring disposition. He
was an able and successful practitioner of law, a man of most
incorruptible honor. He was elected to Congress in 1865. and
represented Jessamine county in the lower house in 1838, and was
Presidential Elector in 1864. The latter years of his life were spent
upon his farm, about three miles from Nicholasville, on the Versailles
turnpike. He died April 1st, 1883. seventy-five years of age.
Otho R. Singleton.
One of the distinguished sons of
Jessamine was Otho R. Singleton. He was born near Keene, in 1816. In
1842 he settled in the state of Mississippi. He was a gifted man. of
superb presence, fine courage and attractive address, and in his
adopted state became very prominent. He was the son of Lewis Singleton,
and nephew of Elijah Singleton. He attended Bards town College in his
early life, and immediately after going to Mississippi was elected and
served two years in the legislature. He afterwards served six years in
the Mississippi State Senate, and in 1852 was the presidental elector
from Mississippi. He was chosen as a member of the 33d, 351h and 36th
Congresses. He entered the Civil War with a Mississippi regiment, and
acquitted himself with great gallantry. At the battle of Leesburg :1
Federal officer from Boston—a Captain Watson—demanded his surrender. At
that time Mr. Singleton was a captain in the Second Mississippi
regiment. His response to the Federal officer was a shot which killed
him instantly. After the war Mr. Singleton was elected a member of the
44th Congress, and served in 1875 as a member of that body. His father
was an extensive hemp manufacturer, and maintained his factory near
Keene. He died a few years since at Jackson. Miss.
Rev. John T. Hendricks, D. D.
Mr. Hendricks was one of the most
useful and also one of the most distinguished men educated in
Jessamine. Having united with the Nicholasville Presbyterian church,
the officers of the congregation discovered that he was a man of fine
mind and deep religious convictions. The church undertook his education
for the ministry, and amply did he repay it for the services rendered
by it to him in his youth.
He was born in Barren county in 1810.
His father came from Virginia and settled in Kentucky in 1805. and died
in Jessamine county in 1831), two miles east of Nicholasville. His wife
who was Mary Tilman, died at the same place in February. 1838. His
ancestors were staunch Protestants and served under William, Prince of
Grange. in the war waged by Philip H. of Spain against the
Protestants of Holland, about the middle of the Sixteenth century.
While preparing for the ministry, he
undertook the work of colporteur in Jessamine county, and his report of
his labors is still in existence. He distributed 31 Bibles free, sold
15, donated 25 Testaments, and sold 5. His report closes with these
words : '"1 have been engaged five days, finding my own horse, "at one
dollar per day. which I have received.
"March 6, 1830."
He visited in all 148 families in the
territory bounded as follows : From Nicholasville with the Shaker road
to Jessamine- creek, with the same to the river, up the river to the
Paint Lick road, to the beginning.
Dr. Hendricks died only a few months
ago in the 88th year of his age. His services at Clarksville, Paducah
and other portions of the Presbyterian church in the Southern states,
have given him wide distinction as a man of great earnestness, and
great faithfulness in his Master's cause.
John Gorman.
John Gorman, a member of Captain
Price's company, was a native of Wayne county. Pa. He was born in
1792. He removed to Kentucky in very early life, and when the call was
made for volunteers, in 1812, he promptly offered his services. He was
the first man in Captain Price's command to fire a gun in the battle of
Raisin. He killed an Indian and a British soldier early in the morning.
He long lived in the western part of
Jessamine county as one of its best and worthiest citizens and died in
1876, in his eighty- second year. He was brave, honest and patriotic.
Capt. Thomas T. Cogar.
Nature was generous to Capt. Thos. T.
Cogar, and gave him as his portion in life, fourscore-and-six years.
His father, Michael Cogar, settled in
Jessamine in 1790 at the head of Jessamine creek, and there his son
Thomas was born in 1796.
Captain Cogar was a man of strong
mind and the kindest impulses. His devotion to friends knew no
limitations. He married Miss Ruth Ewing in 1822, and :n 1847 removed to
the Kentucky river, at Cogar's Landing, sometimes called Brooklyn. Here
he carried on a large trade and managed the shipping business on the
Kentucky river, from that point.
He became a distinguished Mason, and
commanded, for many years, one of the crack military companies of the
county. He managed to secure a large pork-packing establishment at his
landing and by his energy and popularity built up a remunerative trade
for such a locality.
He represented Jessamine county for
two terms, in the legislature of 1867-71, and died in Nicholasville in
1882. He was an honorable man, a patriotic citizen, a loyal friend, and
an intelligent and faithful legislator.
John Barkley.
In the earlier history of Jessamine
county that portion of it lying in the general neighborhood of Keene
produced an unusual number of very enterprising as well as very gifted
men. Among these was John Barkley, who held large landed interests in
Jessamine county prior to 1834. At that time Mr. Barkley removed to
Boyle county, and established the first hemp manufactory south of the
Kentucky river. He was largely engaged in merchandise and was also one
of the leading men in the development of the state. He was born in
Jessamine county in 1809.
He was the first President of the
proposed railroad from Lexington to Danville from the South. Railroad
building at that period presented almost insurmountable difficulties.
Mr. Barkley went to New York and engaged a civil engineer to examine
the prospects for the construction of the road. The mighty chasms of
the Kentucky river stood in the way. Cantilever and suspension bridges
for railways had not then been used or even invented, The construction
of a railway was practically impossible without a bridge which would
span the Kentucky river. Mr. Adams, the engineer, surveying the road
from Lexington to Danville, proposed to span the Kentucky at the point
where the Cincinnati Southern now crosses.
The engineering and financial
difficulties would have defeated most men, but they only aroused Mr.
Barkley to higher effort. He was a man of great pluck, high order of
talent, sparkling wit and a fine conversationalist. He had received the
best educational advantages and had followed these with wide reading,
especially in English literature.
He represented Boyle county in the
legislature in 1845. and was a leader in all movements for the
prosperity and development of the county.
Prior to his death he had purchased
one of the finest farms in Boyle county, near Danville, and was
residing there at the time he undertook the construction of the
Lexington & Danville Railroad. While on his way from Danville to
Nicholasville, in company with Mr. Adams, the engineer, to arrange some
matters in connection with the enterprise, the horse, which he was
driving, became frightened on the cliffs of the Kentucky river, and ran
away, striking the vehicle against a rock on the side of the road. He
was thrown out and instantly killed. This occurred on the 21 st day of
January. 1853.
Few men at that time would have been
a greater loss to Kentucky. Mr. Barkley was one of the master spirits
of enterprise in that period when Kentucky, above all others, needed
men to lead, promote and advance internal improvements.
He left the work which he had
inaugurated for others to complete, but the boldness of his plans and
the wisdom of his designs have been vindicated in later years and that
great thoroughfare, the Cincinnati Southern Railway, is the
consummation-of that which Mr. Barkley had devised at a time when other
men would have dismissed such a project from their minds as utterly
impossible.
Joseph B. Crockett.
In 1808, Joseph B. Crockett was born
at Union .Mills, on Hickman creek, A short while after, his father
removed to Logan county, and there the son attended a classical school.
In 1827 he entered the University of Tennessee, at Nashville, but in
consequence of the straitened pecuniary condition of his father, he was
compelled to leave the University after one year. He studied law at
Hopkinsville with Governor Morehead. In 1830 he formed a partnership
with Gustavus A. Henry, which, after two years, was dissolved. In 1833,
he was elected to the legislature, where, at once, his talents and his
industry gave him a high stand. He was again elected to the legislature
in 1836, to fill a vacancy, and shortly after this he was appointed
Commonwealth's Attorney by Governor Clark. His career as a prosecutor
was brilliant and able, but the duties of the office were uncongenial ;
his talents led him to prefer the defense rather than the prosecution,
and he soon established a reputation for being- one of the ablest
criminal lawyers ever known in Kentucky.
In 1840, he removed to St. Louis,
Mo., where a most brilliant success crowned his career,-but, his health
giving way, in 1852 he settled in California, and in a little while
found himself in the very front rank of the bar in that state.
His kindness of heart and his
generous courtesy secured for him the highest popularity. Upon the
death of Judge Shapter, of the Supreme Court of California, Mr.
Crockett was appointed to nil the unexpired term. He held the place of
Chief Justice for twelve years and retired in 1880—the result of
infirmity produced by advanced years. He was regarded by the people of
California as one of the most brilliant, able and distinguished judges
who ever sat on the bench of the Supreme Court.
David Bowman.
One of the unique characters in the
early history of Jessamine county was David Bowman. He was born in
Bucks county. Pa., in 1784. and settled in Jessamine county, on
Jessamine creek, in 1800. His forefathers in Pennsylvania were members
of the Church of the United Brethren. Mr. Bowman united with the
Presbyterian church in Nicholasville in 1825, and was for more than
sixty-five years a faithful and devoted attendant. At the time of his
death in 1879, he was the oldest member of the church and was the last
of the old men born m the eighteenth century.
When a young man he became addicted
to the use of liquor; resolving to rid himself of this habit, he went
to Lexington and after a three days' walk in the mud, reached that
city. There he received the help of a gentleman, who aided him to go to
New Means on a flatboat, and there he took service on a ship, which
plied between New Orleans and Havana, and followed the sea for twelve
years, and accumulated quite a fortune. He returned to Jessamine
county, married, and on twelve acres of land always had corn and wheat,
and money to spare.
For many years he attended church in
Nicholasville. coming on horseback, with his wife behind him. He
insisted to the time of his death upon wearing a blue, spade-tail coat.
John Butler.
John Butler was the son of Thomas
Butler, one of the old sheriffs of Jessamine county, under the
Constitution of 1779. He was born in Jefferson county, Ya.. in July,
1813, and was only six years old when his father settled in Jessamine
county. He was a kind, honest and upright man, and commanded the
respect and confidence of his fellow-citizens. He was deputy sheriff
two terms, and died March 1. 1870. He was one of the substantial and
enterprising men of Jessamine county.
James R. Davis.
James R. Davis was born near
Nicholasville in 1809. He was the third son of James Davis, and nephew
of William Davis, two brothers, who came from Culpeper Court House, Va
, and settled in Jessamine county in 1798. James Davis was the son of
Henry Davis, of Culpeper county, Ya., who served in the Revolutionary
War, under General Washington, and General Wayne. He died in Fayette
county in 1794.
James R. Davis lived in the Sulphur
Wells neighborhood for fifty years. He was a good and worthy man, noted
for his hospitality. He died in 1886.
Samuel Woodson Price.
Samuel Woodson Price, son of Maj. D.
B. Price and Eliza Crockett, was born on the 5th of August, 1828, in
Nicholasville, Ky. He early exhibited a marvelous talent for drawing,
and he could draw the capital letters before he knew his alphabet. All
his holidays and Saturdays were spent in sketching on paper and
modeling in clay. When quite a boy he was sitting in the court house at
a famous trial. Thomas F. Marshall was addressing the jury for the
prisoner. During this speech the attention of the young artist was
drawn to an old and prominent farmer who was listening, with eager
attention to the eloquent words which were being uttered. His head was
resting on his hands, his fingers along the side of his face, while his
mouth was wide open. In a little while the sketch was completed. He
handed it to the sheriff, who laughed aloud and in turn handed it
to the judge, who also was not able to suppress his mirth. It was
passed from neighbor to neighbor, and everybody laughed, and the
speaker was compelled to pause for a few minutes.
After attending the Nicholasville
Academy he was sent to the Kentucky Institute to complete his
education. This was in the fall of 1846. He was at once made Professor
of Drawing, with the rank of First Lieutenant. In 1847 the University
suspended and he went at once to Lexington to pursue his studies with
the renowned painter. Oliver Frazier. There he attained splendid
success. His painting, "Old King Solomon," is one of the most noted
ever produced in Kentucky. His portrait of Chief Justice George
Robertson, and the painting of Dr. J. J. Whitlock and his family, rank
among the masterpieces of the state. The Government purchased from him
a portrait of Major-General Thomas, which is now in the National
Gallery, at Washington.
At the beginning of the war he
commanded an independent company at Lexington, known as the Old
Infantry. Most of this company entered the Federal service. He was
afterwards appointed Colonel of the Twenty-first Kentucky Infantry. He
brought this regiment to a high state of efficiency, and the service it
afterward performed in the Civil war, from '61 to '65, was in
considerable measure induced by his splendid training. At the battle of
Stone River he made a heroic stand and was opposed to the Kentucky
Confederate troops under Breckinridge.
General Price was badly wounded at
Kenesaw Mountain and taken from the field. This incapacitated him for
further active service. He was appointed commandant of the post at
Lexington, and was such at the close of the war. He was brevetted
Brigadier-Genera1 for his gallant conduct at Kennesaw, and afterwards
was Postmaster at Lexington, which place he held for two terms. He
moved to Louisville after his retirement from the position of
Postmaster, to pursue his profession, portrait painting, but the loss
of his eyesight prevented him from further work, and he is now totally
blind. He is a writer of vigor and a member of the Filson Club, for which he
frequently prepares sketches, which are greatly appreciated and highly
valued. Several of his paintings take high rank, and one, "Caught
Napping." is a masterpiece of its kind. The closing of his professional
life by the destruction of his sight, was a great loss, not only to
Kentucky but to all lovers of art.
William T. Willis.
Captain Willis was born on the loth
of June. 1794, in Culpeper' county, Va., and was killed at the battle
of Buena Vista, February 23rd. 1847. Hc married first Hetty E. Howe,
daughter of a Presbyterian minister. He had been educated at a seminary
taught bv his father-in-law. He was elected to represent (ireen county
in the Legislature several times, and also represented Green and Hart
in the Senate in 1833 and 1838. He made the race for Congress in that
district in 1839, with a majoritv of 2,000 against him, which he
reduced to 200. At that time he was believed to be on his death-bed,
and this seriously affected h1s vote. After his marriage he began
merchandising, and shipped large quantities of tobacco by flat-boat,
and drove horses through the country to New Orleans. The partner, who
he sent on one of these expeditions, was taken sick after selling the
horses and tobacco, and died, and before Captain Willis could reach the
place of his demise, the proceeds of the sale had disappeared. Being
involved, he returned at once, sold out his stock, and commenced
studying law and practiced in Green and adjoining counties.
Notwithstanding that he had a large debt and p family of eight
children, and at that time was compelled to meet such men as Samuel
Brent, Ben Hardin, Judge Underwood and Judge Buckner. he succeeded
admirably in his profession. In 1840 he removed to Harrodsburg,
remained there three years, and then came to Jessamine county. He was a
man of singular energy and great ability, He had built up a large
practice, and was regarded throughout Kentucky as one of its most
promising statesmen. Although fifty years of age at the breaking out of
the Mexican war, be at once organized a company for service and his
ardent patriotism is best attested bv the fact that with him. three of
his sons volunteered as privates; the youngest of whom was barely
fifteen years of age.
The following is a list of his men :
Roll of Company "V," Second Regiment,
Kentucky Foot Volunteers—Mexican War:
Wm. T. Willis, 1st captain, killed at
Buena Vista.
Captain—James O. Hervy. First
Lieutenant—William R. Keene. Second Lieutenant—Thos. J. Proctor. Second
Lieutenant—Wm. C. Lowry. Sergeants—Williant L. Smith 1 st, Andrew J.
Nave, 2d, Jno. C. Winter 3d, William Cox 4th; Corporals—Edward P. Green
1st, Dudley Portwood 2d, John A. Willis 3d, Clms. C. Hagan 4th.
Drummer—Cortney L. Burch.
Privates—Allen, Jno. H; Brown, Geo.
W.; Burchell, Daniel; Burton. Theodric : Bruner. Thos. J.; Beymer.
Saml.; Castle, Augustus B.; Crane, Asa C.; Crane, Jno. P.: Collins,
William ; Daniel, Wm. H.: Dickerson. Woodson ; Day, Wm.; Duman, James;
Easby. Andrew L.: Easby. Josiah ; England, Jas. S.; Fain, John ; Ford,
Joshua G.; Ford. Edward D.; Garison, John A.; Graves, Living; Gibony,
William: Grant. Geo. W.: Howard. Robt. S.; Hamilton, William: Hunter,
John; Hayden. Isah P.; Hill, Greensbury; Harvey. Trotter; Hawkins,
James; Jackman, Jos., Masters, Irvine; Marvin. Wm. F.: Masters,
Jackson; Marks, Geo. L; Martin, Robert; Moore, Andrew B.; McCampbell,
Jno. G.; McConnel, Jas. A.; McMurtry. John; Nooe, Albert K.; O'Brien,
William; Overstreet. Saml. R.; Page. Thos. C.; Patterson. Wm.:
Roberson, Jacob C.: Roberts, Andrew J.; Rash. John ; Saunders, Jno. A.;
Saunders, Geo. W.; Sacre, John : Sharp, Ezekiel K.: Sweitzer. John :
Tutt, Wm.; Thompson, Jno. T.: White, Jas. N.; Wilson. John ; Willis.
Edmond C.: Willis, Jas. H.
Jacob Kreath Robinson, in the
official list spelled Robertson, was one of the youngest men in this
company. He was born in 1829. The oldest man in the company, John
Hunter, was born in 1804. and was the son of John Hunter, the first
settler. He was severely wounded in the leg at the battle of Buena
Vista and died in 1881. Robinson was also a soldier in the late war,
passed through all its hardships and dangers, endured its privations,
and now resides at Harrodsburg, Ky.
This company was ordered to report at
Louisville to be mustered into service. They assembled at Mundy's
Landing on the Kentucky river; some came on horseback, some in
carriages, and they were ordered there to meet the steamboat Blue Wing.
When the company reached the river the steamboat was at Brooklyn, and
while coming down to Mumly's Landing ran into a sandbar and stuck.
Capt. Philip Thomson's company from Mercer county, was also on the way
to Louisville. With ropes the soldiers pulled the steamer from off the
sandbar twice, and, after it had stuck the third time, Capt. Thomson
went to Salvisa and obtained wagons and drove through to Louisville,
while Captain Willis's company took coalboats at Mundy's Landing, rowed
themselves down to Frankfort, and arrived there the next day. After
taking breakfast in Frankfort, the steamer arrived at the landing and
they took passage and reached Louisville, and were mustered in by Col.
George Croghan. From Louisville they were transported to New Orleans by
steamers, and after remaining there a few days, they crossed the Gulf
of Mexico in some old British sailing vessels, and arrived at Brazos on
the Rio Grande river. A part of the regiment was engaged in the battle
of Monterey. Shortly after this the regiment was ordered to the city of
Saltillo, and from thence, marching with General Taylor, they engaged
in the battle of Buena Vista. This was one of the nrost brilliant
battles that crowned American arms, and it was the only battle in which
the entire regiment, with which Captain Willis' company was connected,
was engaged. This regiment was commanded by Col. William R. McKee, from
Lancaster; Henry Clay. Jr., was Lieutenant-Colonel, and Cary H. Fry,
Major. The company was enrolled on the 21st of May, 1846, in
Nicholasville, and was mustered in at Louisville June 9. 1846, and was
mustered out at New Orleans June g, 1847.
The story of this battle has always
reflected great credit and renown on Kentucky courage. The second
Kentucky Regiment was on the right flank of the army and held it
throughout the battle, defeating the ene-my opposite to them, which was
twice their number. At this time the left flank gave way, and its
retreat was only stopped by General Taylor and Jefferson Davis and the
cavalry, who drove them back to face the enemy. It was then that
Colonel Karelin, of the First Illinois, and Colonel McKee, of
the Second, made a disastrous charge against an overwhelming
force. This charge was made against the earnest protest of Colonel
McKee and Captain Willis, but Hardin insisted upon making it, and
Lieutenant-Colonel Clay urged it, and the Kentucky boys, fearing that
the Illinois men would get the glory, McKee then united in the charge
and was killed. Col. Henry Clay, Jr., was wounded, and Captain Willis,
with the high courage and noble generosity which marked his whole
career, was urging his men to take the Lieutenant-Colonel from the
field, when the Mexican Lancers came rapidly down and killed both
Colonel Clay and Captain Willis. Harvey Trotter, a soldier from
Jessamine, was killed at the same time. James O. Hervey succeeded
Captain Willis, and only four of the men who were engaged in the battle
of Buena Vista in this company, now remain in Jessamine : John A.
Willis, William C. Lowrey, William Hamilton and David Switzer. Captain
Willis' remains, as well as those of Trotter, were removed by the State
of Kentucky, and reinterred in the state ground in Frankfort cemetery.
It was upon the occasion of the reinterment of these soldiers that
Theodore O'Hara wrote his immortal poem of'' The Rivouac of the Dead,"
commencing as follows :
"The muffled drum's sad roll has beat
The soldier's last tattoo;
No more on Life's parade shall meet
That brave and fallen few.
On Fame's eternal camping-ground
Their silent tents are spread,
And glory guards, with solemn round,
The bivouac of the dead."
Robert Young
Robert Young, a resident of Jessamine
county for more than sixty-four years, was born in Fayette county, on
Elkhorn creek, not far from the Jessamine line, in 1803. His father,
John Young, was a Revolutionary soldier and served three years under
General Greene. At the breaking out of the war he was only sixteen
years of age. He was engaged in the battles of Eutaw. Springs, Monk's
Corner. Guilford Court House, and at Yorktown. Robert Young was the son
of John Young by his second wife, Cynthia McCullough.
He learned that manufacturing with
his
brother-in-law, Mr. Fritzlen, at Versailles, and in 1825 established
himself in Nicholasville. He accumulated a moderate fortune and in
1848 purchased a farm and retired from business as a manufacturer.
He married Josephine Henderson, a
granddaughter of Col. Joseph Crockett, and reared a large family. His
oldest son, Rev. Daniel H. Young, was one of the leading Presbyterian
ministers of Kentucky; his two sons, Robert and Melanchthon. two of the
county's most substantial and successful farmers and most respected and
loved citizens, while his other son. Col. Bennett H. Young, resides in
Louisville and is the author of this book. His eldest daughter
married Dr. Charles Mann and his youngest daughter. Josephine, now
resides in Nicholasville.
Robert Young was a man of high
integrity and possessed all the best and noblest qualities of
citizenship. His word was better than his bond. Just, generous and
conscientious in all his dealings, he commanded, as he deserved, the
respect and confidence of his friends and acquaintances. He was an
earnest, faithful member and officer of the Presbyterian church and was
an honored member in many of its councils. No one ever questioned the
reality of his religion: he carried it into all the dealings of his
life. He died November 29th, 1889, beloved and deeply mourned by the
entire community. He never failed to help those who were in want and
the grateful remembrance of those who had received of his liberality
and kindness is a rich legacy for any man.
Albert Gallatin Talbot
Was born in Jessamine county, in the
Keene neighborhood, where his father at that time resided. He
subsequently removed to Boyle county, and represented that county in
the Legislature ;n 1869-73. and m 1850 he was a member of the
Thirty-fourth and Thirty-fifth Congresses, and of the Constitutional
Convention of 1849.
He was a man of indomitable energy,
agreeable manners, and was a successful politician.
David Crozier.
David Crozier was a native of
Pennsylvania, born in 1795. and came to Jessamine county when he was
quite a young man. He built what is known as Grazier's Mill, which is
half stone and half wood, on Jessamine creek. In 1845 he carried on a
cotton factory at his mill. He worked about forty hands, mostly boys
and girls, and manufactured cotton cloth and jeans. With the
introduction of railroads, and with the difficulty in getting materials
(for by this time Jessamine county had ceased to grow cotton, and the
supply of wool was never large enough to run the mill), this mill was
closed. Thereafter Mr. Crozier became associated with Dr. A. K.
Marshall in carrying the mails from Lexington to Mean Station, Tenn.
He was energetic and enterprising and
did much to foster and maintain the earlier manufacturing
establishments of the county.
Dr. Francis Marion Jasper.
Dr. Francis Marion Jasper, who died
at Cincinnati on the 22nd of June, 180,2, while not a native of
Jessamine county, was long one of its most successful physicians, and
his descent entitles him to more than passing notice. His Revolutionary
ancestors came from Wales. His great-grandfather, Abraham Jasper, was
born in Wales in 1728 and settled in Georgetown. South Carolina. From
there he moved to a residence on Cooper river, near Charleston. His
oldest son became a prominent Tory, while his other sons, Nicholas
Jasper, John Jasper and William Jasper, were brave and devoted soldiers
in the cause of their country during the Revolutionary war, having
served under General Sumter in North and South Carolina.
After the Revolutionary war, Nicholas
Jasper settled in Pulaski county, Ky., and became the father of a
large family of brave and patriotic sons. Nicholas Jasper was born near
Charleston, South Carolina, in 1752. Sergt. William Jasper was the
youngest child, born in 1757. He was not quite twenty years old during
the siege of Fort Moultrie, near Charleston, when the flagstaff was
broken by a shot from the British. On seeing the flag thus lowered by a
shot, Sergeant Jasper immediately sprang down and replaced the flag
amid a tremendous fire from the British fleet, commanded by Sir Peter
Parker. For his bravery on that occasion Governor Rutledge, in the
presence of the regiment, took his sword from his side and presented it
to Sergeant Jasper. He offered the brave soldier a commission, which he
refused. He was killed in the assault on Savannah, Oct. 7, 1779, when
he was not quite twenty-two years of age.
Capt. Thomas Jasper, who was the
father of Dr. Francis Marion Jasper, represented Pulaski county in the
legislature of Kentucky in
1833. '34 and '35, and when the War of 1812 was declared he enlisted in the company commanded by
Capt. Harry James. He was in
the regiment of Colonel Simrall. He was at the battle of the Thames and fought with splendid
courage on that occasion.
Dr. Jasper practiced his profession
in Jessamine county more than
thirty years. He answered every known call for his services. He was
kind, tender and gentle, and the question of remuneration affected
neither the length nor the ability of his services. He was one of
Jessamine's best citizens.
Henry Metcalf
Was the oldest son of Rev. John
Metcalf, who surveyed Nicholas- ville. He was born in the year 1800.
and died at his home in Nicholasville, January 18, 1879. He passed his
entire life in Nicholasville. He was a useful citizen and a
manufacturer of ropes and bagging. He had a large factory which he
operated for a long time successfully. He was a man of extraordinary
sweetness of temper, and also of high character. He did the right as he
knew it. He opened the first Sunday-school in the Southern Methodist
Church in Nicholasville in the spring of 1843, and was for long years
one of the stewards in that church and was liberal in the support of
his church and earnest m its cause. He married a daughter of John
Fishback, who settled in Kentucky in 1790, in Jessamine county, where
he died in 1845. Mr. John Metcalf, who still survives and lives in
Nicholasville, was his eldest son. George Metcalf. another son, now
resides in Lexington, and was a gallant soldier in the Fifth Kentucky
Infantry, C. S. A., while Charles Metcalf, the youngest son, is one of
the leading lawyers in Tennessee, and President of the Tennessee State
Bar Association. John Metcalf and James Metcalf, two of his sons, are
still living, while two of his daughters, Miss Sallie and Miss Alice,
now reside in Nicholasville at the old home place of their grandfather,
who laid out and named the town.
Louis H. Chrisman.
Among the men of Jessamine who were
prominent in the first fifty years of its existence was Louis H.
Chrisman. He was born in 1813 and died in 1866, at his home two miles
north of Nicholasville on the Lexington and Danville pike. He was
always active in politics, was a warm partisan, and after a heated
contest was elected sheriff of Jessamine county in 1858. He was the
youngest son of Joseph Chrisman, brother of Gen. Hugh Chrisman. Joseph
Chrisman was born in Rockingham county, Ya., in 1/76, and came to
Kentucky with his brother and settled in Jessamine county in 1790.
Mr. Chrisman served as a volunteer
aid on the staff of Gen. Wm. R. Terrell, of the Federal army, who was
killed at Perryville. He was one of the leaders of the Whig party in
Jessamine county and was always a delightful companion wherever he went
on account his fine social qualities. He was an extraordinary whistler.
He could carry the several parts while whistling a tune and this made
him a welcome guest at every political meeting. He was a kind neighbor,
a sincere friend, a generous opponent and a patriotic citizen. Mr. A.
L. and George Chrisman, his sons, still reside on the old homestead.
Daniel P. Young.
Rev. Stuart Robinson, in speaking of
Rev. D. P. Young, said :
"Mr. Young was perhaps the most
successful of all the ministers of the Presbyterian church in Kentucky
in winning souls to Christ. His greatness consisted in his wonderful
skill in engaging the attention, alike of the converted and
unconverted, in the Gospel way of salvation, and his eminent ability in
expounding the Scriptures, setting forth that way, and beseeching men
in Christ's stead to be reconciled to God. The secret of his success
was in large part that his heart was in his work; and he was a man who
had a very large heart, filled with the love of Christ and the love of
souls. Nobody who knew him ever doubted the earnestness of his piety
and holy zeal in the service of his Master. The many people all over
Kentucky, who these twenty years after his death, grasp the hands of
his children with a warmer clasp when they know who they are, and who
speak their affection for him with tears in their eyes, is the greatest
evidence of the warm place he held in the hearts of those who came
under his influence."
Daniel P. Young was the oldest child
of Robert and Josephine Henderson Young, and on the lot where Jessamine
Female Institute now stands, was born on February 22d, 1833.
Under his mother's influence he early
consecrated his life to Christ and resolved in his boyhood to devote
himself to the gospel ministry.
After passing through the home
schools he entered Hanover College, at Hanover, Indiana, and graduated
in the class of 1852. After finishing his course there, he prepared to
attend Transylvania University to pursue the study of law, but while on
his way to Lexington he was induced by his conflicting emotions to
change his mind and turned back to Danville. Ky., where he entered the
Presbyterian Theological Seminary.
His first charge was at Georgetown,
Ky., where under his ministry the membership of the church was largely
augmented and in an unusual degree he won the love and affection of his
congregation.
From there he removed to the renowned
Providence church, in Mercer county, and from there he was induced by
the insistence of friends to accept the charge of the Nicholasville
church. In both success crowned his efforts and he was blessed in the
upbuilding of these churches.
In 1878, he was called to the charge
of the Presbyterian church at Anchorage, and in conjunction with it the
principalship of Rellewood Seminary and Kentucky Presbyterian Normal
School. His eminent fitness for this position was recognized on every
hand, but, within a few months after he removed to Anchorage, on June
30th, 1878, he ended the labors of his earnest, useful and faithful
life.
John Lafon
The Lafons who came to American were
refugees from France during the Huguenot persecution. The founders of
the family settled in South Carolina and Virginia, and their
descendant. Richard Lafon, married Miss Anna Maxey. removed to Kentucky
and settled in Jessamine county in 1793. They came over the Wilderness
Road, with their herds and household effects and slaves and settled,
through a patent, a thousand acres, comprising the original Fountain
House tract, being the lands now occupied by Burner, Phillips, Bryants,
and Elkins and others, about two and a half miles from Keene, toward
Lexington. Richard Lafon was:. a man of unusual education for that
period. He left a reasonable fortune, although he died a comparatively
young man. He built one of the first brick dwelling houses in the
county.
His son, John Lafon, was born
December 4, 1800. He early had every social and literary advantage, and
traveled not only in the United Slates but abroad. He was a man of
unusual energy, great judgment, bright and comprehensive views, and
was a born leader of men. As a result of his trading and manufacture he
spent his winters in Cuba and New Orleans and his summers in Kentucky
on his farm. At one time he leased all the hemp factories in three
counties and shipped their product to the South by way of the Kentucky
and Ohio rivers.
He was a close friend of Henry Clay
and in many important matters his adviser. He was the moving spirit and
the president of the Lexington & Harrodsburg Turnpike Company at
the period of its completion. The road was commenced in 1834, by the
state, then abandoned and then leased by the state to Lewis Singleton
for twenty years. Singleton died shortly after the acquisition of the
road, and it was then taken up by John Lafon and completed through to
Perryville in 1847. The work near the Kentucky river was done under Mr.
Lafon's administration, and required very large outlay and a high order
of engineering skill. He had tremendous difficulties, both physical and
financial. to overcome, but
with his master mind he worked out a magnificent success and in the
completion of this turnpike rendered Fayette, Jessamine, Mercer and
Boyle counties an incalculable benefit.
Backed by his energy and financial
ability, this great thoroughfare was built in the face of great
difficulties. Such improvements in those days could only be carried on
at large expenditure, relatively much larger than now, and to undertake
the construction of a graded road such as this pike, through the
country on either side contiguous to the Kentucky river, demonstrates
that he was a man of a high order of moral courage as well as the
possessor of great sagacity and unyielding will.
He married Mary Ann Barkley, whose
grandfather had been compelled to leave Ireland, where a price had been
placed on his head. And in the struggle for Irish independence he was
the friend of Robert Emmett and devoted to the liberty of his country.
Mrs. Lafon was also a descendant of the Higbees and they came from New
Jersey. In early days they built boats on South Elkhorn and hauled them
to Brooklyn and other landings on the Kentucky and launched them, from
whence they were floated to New Orleans.
A man of culture himself, possessed
of a large estate, inherited both from h1s father and his mother, he
made a home in every way attractive and delightful. His hospitality was
unbounded; he accumulated one of the best libraries in Kentucky,
collected curios, and by his intelligence, his enterprise and his
talents became associated with and was the friend of many of the
leading men of the state. His home at one time almost rivaled
Chaumiere. He built a beautiful house, he laid out handsome grounds,
erected bath houses and spring houses, built laundries with hot and
cold pipes, constructed artificial lakes, and improved charming drives.
There was on his land an apparently bottomless spring from which boiled
up a great volume of water. This, by a splendid circular stone basin,
he changed into a most attractive fountain and called his home after
it—Fountain House. With these surroundings he founded an elegant and
ideal home. He secured rare flowers and adorned his yard with every
variety of tree that could be grown in the locality. He died in 1848 in
the very meridian of his career. His early demise was a great loss to
his native county in its social, physical and educational interests.
Dr. John W. Holloway.
Dr. John W. Holloway, who represented
Jessamine county in the Constitutional Convention of 1890, and who took
a prominent part in the deliberations of that body, was a son of
Spencer 1 Followay, and was born in the county on the 30th of April,
1823. His grandfather, James Holloway, was a native of Virginia, and
was a captain in the Revolutionary war, and settled in Jessamine county
very early in its history. His son, Spencer Holloway, was born in 1792,
and died at the advanced age of 89, in the year 1883. His son, John W.
Holloway, passed his early life on a farm. At 23 years of age he went
to Louisville and undertook the study of medicine under Dr. John L.
Price and remained there three years, and finally graduated in 1850,
from the Medical Department of the University of Louisville.
From that time on to the present he
has practiced medicine at Keene. He has met with unqualified success in
his profession as well as in his conduct of a large farm. He is a man
of strong mental vigor, truest friendship, unflinching courage and
highest integrity.
In the Constitutional Convention he
earnestly advocated equal property rights for women and bitterly
opposed the ballot system. While the convention did not adopt his views
they all respected his sincerity, his integrity and his unusual
courtesy.
Letcher Saunders.
Mr. Saunders was born in
Nicholasville on October 29, 1864. His father, C. R. Saunders, died in
Nicholasville in 1874. Mr.Saunders was educated in the common schools
of Nicholasville. He is one of the most expert penmen and careful
clerks that have ever served the people of Jessamine. He was a pupil of
Prof. A. N. Gordon, while principal of Bethel Academy, and when
six-teen years of age, he entered the Circuit Court Clerk's office as
deputy of Lewis D. Baldwin. Subsequently he became clerk in the general
freight offices of the Louisville & Nashville R. R. Co., at
Louisville. He returned to Nicholasville in 1885, and one month after
his return he was nominated for Circuit Clerk at the Democratic
primary, defeating his competitor by a handsome majority. His conduct
of the office was such that he was nominated without opposition for a
second term. As Circuit Clerk he took the front rank in Kentucky. He
married the daughter of Jas. W. Glass, of Garrard county, January 1,
1887. His grandfather, Austin Smithers, during the epidemic of cholera
in 1855 went through the tents visiting the sick and caring for the
dead and dying. White and black alike received his attention, and he
never wearied in waiting on those who needed his services during that
terrible scourge. Mr. Saunders comes of an ancestry full of humane and
noble characteristics, and his popularity is undoubtedly the result of
these inherited qualities.
Few men have done more.for. Jessamine
county than Mr. G. W. Lyne. He has been engaged in the real estate
business, and his enthusiasm and energy have enabled him during that
period to dispose of $2,000,000 worth of property and he has been
instrumental in inducing a large number of strangers to settle in the
county. Mr. Lyne is comparatively a young man, only thirty- one years
of age. He is a successful auctioneer and is the only man who ever made
the real estate business in Jessamine county a success.
William W. White
William W. White, who died at his
residence, in Nicholasville, on January 5, 1887, in the 80th year of
his age, was one of the most earnest supporters of the doctrines of
Alexander Campbell and was instrumental in building up several
congregations of that faith in the county. He organized what is known
as the Little Hickman church on the 27th of January, 1841. He was a son
of William G. White, who came from Culpeper Court House, Va. He became
impressed with the doctrines propounded by Mr. Campbell and from the
time of his uniting with that denomination until the end of his life
gave his time and talents and energy to building up the church which
adopted them. His membership was in the Nicholasville Christian church.
However people might differ with Mr. White in his theological views,
none ever doubted the earnestness and the faithfulness of his Christian
service and of the unselfishness of his ministration. He was plain,
simple-hearted and earnest. While engaged in other business, he
preached always as occasion offered and never failed to respond to such
calls as his church made upon him.
Rev. Thomas R. Welch, D. D.
Rev. Thomas R. Welch, D. D., one of
the leading Presbyterian ministers of the Southern Presbyterian church,
the son of John Welch and B. J. Rice, was born near Nicholasville,
September 15th, 1825. Most of his ministerial life was passed in
Arkansas, where he removed in 1851, and took charge of the church in
Little Rock. After a course in Bethel Academy, he graduated from Center
College in 1844, and in 1870, his Alma Mater conferred upon him the
degree of Doctor of Divinity. Dr. Welch was singularly honored by his
church. He held many positions of trust in its courts and institutions.
He led a busy and successful life. Possessed of a fine presence, genial
manners and ready sympathy, he found a welcome everywhere. Another has
said of him :
''By long residence, abundant labors,
eminent administrative ability. Dr. Welch is the Presbyterian Nestor of
Arkansas, and no man in the state is held in higher esteem or wields a
stronger influence."
He died a few years since, deeply
regretted by the people of the great denomination to which he belonged
and sincerely mourned by the members of his own congregation at Little
Rock.
Mrs. Sarah Withers, an aunt of Dr.
Welch, and long a resident of Bloomington, Illinois, was a most
benevolent, charitable and earnest Christian woman. At her death, a few
years since. she made the officers of the Nicholasville Presbyterian
church her residuary legatees, and directed that the funds thus
bequeathed should be used for the maintenance of a public library in
Nicholasville. Quite a large sum, estimated at about $20,000, will be
realized and it will be sufficient to equip and maintain a complete and
efficient library in the city.
Maj. J. H. Hanly
Maj. John Hay Hanly, born in Seville,
Spain, in 1784, who settled in Jessamine county, in 1871, was the son
of an officer of the British army.
On his arrival at his new home, in
what was then the far west, he purchased a very large tract of land on
the Kentucky river, six miles south of Nicholasville. Hi.; house, a
frame cottage of liberal dimensions, located on a bluff many feet above
the river, was appropriately named "Cliff Cottage." Its picturesque
beauty of location excited the admiration of the distinguished painter,
Healy, who visited Maj. Hanly, when sent by the king, Louis Phillippe,
of France, to paint the portrait of Henry Clay. On entering the
grounds, he is said to have exclaimed, "Grand and beautiful."
It was at this home of beauty that
the generous proprietor and his estimable family dispensed old time
Kentucky hospitality, during a period of more than half a century.
Maj. Hanly was a very positive
character, highly intellectual, just in all his dealings, truthful,
honest, and brave; he was, in all the elements that constitute a
gentleman of the old school, a man to be admired and trusted. He was a
firm believer in the Roman 'Catholic faith and in the democracy of
Andrew Jackson. He was a fine shot, and prided himself upon the
accuracy of his aim.
On one occasion, Col. David Goodloe,
who had been challenged by Mr. White, M. C., of Madison county, to
fight a duel, came to Maj. Hanly to practice with the major's dueling
pistols. He became so expert, after considerable practice, would hit
the
bull's eye repeatedly. When the duel finally came off, his antagonist
stood with his back to a barn. Both gentlemen were game and fired at
the word. Neither were hit, and much to their disgust, Major Hanly,
after a most diligent search, failed to find that the colonel's bullet
had even struck the barn.
John A. Willis
John A. Willis, son of Capt. W. T.
Willis, while not a native of Jessamine, has resided within its borders
for fifty-five years. He was born in Green county on the 5th day of
August. 1820; attended a
seminary at Greensburg.
and afterwards at Munfordsville, and in 1839 attended St. Mary's
College, near Lebanon. He joined the Presbyterian church in Greensburg
in 1840, came with his father to Mercer county and studied law and
obtained his license in 1843, and moved with his father to
Nicholasville in 1844. He enlisted in his father's company, and was
appointed a corporal. He followed the Second Kentucky Regiment in all
its battles and marches, and was mustered out at New Orleans in J847-
While the regiment was stationed at Comargo, Mr. Willis was stricken
with fever, and all thought that it was impossible for him to live.
After the death of McKee and Clay and Captain Willis, the regiment were
anxious to be mustered out of the service, and, at the expiration of
twelve months, the time for which they were enlisted, they were brought
to New Orleans and disbanded.
Mr. Willis, after taking a full
course in the Commercial College, in Cincinnati, returned to
Nicholasville and taught in Keene. After two years' service in the
county schools, he became assistant in Bethel Academy, in
Nicholasville. After this time he was appointed Master Commissioner of
the Jessamine Circuit Court by Judge William D. Goodloe, upon the
unanimous petition of the entire bar, embracing both Whigs and
Democrats. The place was given to Mr. Willis without any solicitation
on his part, and he retained it for sixteen years. After the close of
the civil war he was elected twice as County Clerk, both times without
opposition. A one-armed Confederate soldier was nominated against him
in the last race, but withdrew.
Upon retiring from the Clerk's office
in 1871 with such citizens as Mr. George Brown, Dr. Brown Young, G. S.
Shanklin, Samuel Muir, Charles Farra, Hervey Scott, and William H.
Hoover, he organized the First National Bank of Nicholasville, and
acted as its cashier from 1871 until 1881, when he was elected
president, and held this position until 1896. He was elected elder in
the Nicholasville Presbyterian church at the same time with Robert
Young, in the year 1859. In 1860 he was elected clerk of the session,
shortly before the death of Maj. D. B. Price, and has been such clerk
for thirty-two years.
Patriotic, honest, faithful, just,
conservative and kindly. Mr. Willis has been a leading citizen of
Jessamine county since his return from service in the Mexican War, to
which he gave his father and one year of hard and trying service.
William Brown.
William Brown, the youngest son of
George I. Brown, was born in Nicholasville on the 23d of May, 1839; he
died June 1, 1890. He was a man of brilliant parts. He allied himself
with the Republican party, and attained a high place in its councils.
Senator James B. Beck said of him that he was the strongest man of his
party with whom he had ever come in contact. He was a warm, personal
friend of James G. Blaine, who had a great admiration for his talents
and his ability. His mind was analytic, comprehensive and logical. At
school he did not appear to study as other boys, but he always knew his
lessons and fully understood every subject of which the text books
treated. He was fearless and on many occasions eloquent. Had he devoted
himself to the law, his chosen profession, rather than to have entered
the domain of politics, he would have become one of the first jurists
of the country.
E. R. Sparks.
No history, of Jessamine county would
be complete without a sketch of Hon. E. R. Sparks. His enterprise,
coupled with his faith in the future of Nicholasville, and his large
investments, both in manufactories and in the laying out of additions
and construction of streets and houses, have been greatly instrumental
in increasing the population of Nicholasville. and in widening its
influence and traffic. He was born about a mile east of Nicholasville
on the 31st of January, 1840, and was the son of Isaac and Mary Ann
Hendricks Sparks. His mother was a sister of the late Rev. John T.
Hendrick, D. D., the distinguished Presbyterian divine. Mr. Sparks'
father was born in Ohio and in early life moved to Jessamine county,
where he lived until his death, on Jan. 28th, 1887, in his eighty-first
year. Mr. Sparks was named for a distinguished Methodist minister. Rev.
Edwin Roberts. From his early manhood he has demonstrated himself to be
the possessor of great sagacity, and his uniform success in all his
financial transactions has given him a wide reputation for business
capacity. He has held few public offices. In 1882, he was elected State
Senator and served until 1886. In the Senate he was popular,
conservative, and secured the confidence and the respect of those
associated with him in that body. For years he was a councilman, and
was prominent in the city government of Nicholasville. He has carried
on a large manufactory for hemp in the county seat, which gives employment to a number
of hands. He is in the highest degree public spirited, and is always
helpful to his town and his county in every public enterprise.
John Harrison Welch.
John Harrison Welch, although
comparatively a young man, has held quite a number of public offices in
Jessamine county and is at present Master Commissioner of the Jessamine
Circuit Court. He was born in Nicholasville. His great grandfather,
John Welch, early settled in Jessamine county, having removed from
Virginia to that county in 1782. Mr. Welch was educated at Bethel
Academy; was also a graduate of Kentucky \Vesleyan College, at
Millersburg, in 1877. He graduated from the Louisville Law School in
1881, located in Nicholasville. where he has since practiced his
profession. At twenty years of age, he was elected Superintendent of
common schools of Jessamine county.
He represented the county in the
lower house of the General Assembly of Kentucky, in 1889 and '90, in
'91, '92 and '93, and has been prominent in the county affairs since
his majority.
Rev. George Stokes Smith.
Reverend George Stokes Smith was a
Baptist preacher and was also a delegate to the convention, at
Danville, in 1792, which framed the first Kentucky Constitution. He was
the maternal grandfather of the large and numerous family of Moseleys,
Wallers and Smiths, who live in the Keene neighborhood. He has over 250
descendants in Kentucky, and was one of the men who lived in the limits
of Jessamine county in the earliest days of its settlement.
He was a successful Baptist preacher,
and served several churches in Woodford and Mercer counties, and at the
old Mount Pleasant Church, at Keene. He led a useful, honorable and
distinguished life. His election to the Constitutional Convention in
1792, shows his wide popularity and his distinguished position,
Fayette county had five members, and among them men of high standing,
but none wielded more influence than their ministerial colleague.
Hon. Thos. J. Scott.
Jessamine county is at present in a
judicial district, composed of Jessamine, Madison, Estill, Clark and
Powell. The Circuit Judge is Hon. Thomas J. Scott, who was born in
Madison county, but his father. Dr. John Scott, was a native of
Jessamine county, whence his father removed, when quite a young man, to
Richmond, Ky. His mother was a
descendant of
Col. Estill, one of the most celebrated pioneers of Kentucky. He was
educated at Mount Pleasant College, in Missouri, from which he
graduated at the age of nineteen. Immediately he returned to Richmond,
where he entered the law office of Maj. Squire Turner: in 1871 he was
admitted to the bar, and in 1875 was elected County Attorney, to which
position he was re-elected twice without opposition. In 1886 he was
elected Common Pleas Judge for the district composed of the counties of
Madison, Clark, Bourbon, and Montgomery; and in 1802, he was
elected Circuit Judge of the .Twenty-ninth judicial district without
opposition, and has been similarly re-elected for the second term. He
is recognized throughout the state as one of the ablest Circuit Judges.
His careful preparation, his studious habits and his sterling integrity
render him a model circuit judge. Although genial and kindly in his
personal relations, on the bench he knows nothing but the strictest
justice, and this has won for him the respect and admiration of all the
people of the district.
Rev. Stephen Noland
This distinguished Methodist divine
was born in Wayne county, Indiana, on the 13th of May, 1818. His
ancestors came from Wales and settled in Virginia twenty-five years
before the war of the American Revolution. In his seventh year, his
mother died and he was brought to Kentucky, and made his home with his
grandparents. In 1834 he entered the clerk's office in Richmond, Ky.,
where he remained five years, He used all his leisure moments for the
study of law, and was admitted to the bar in 1839. He began the
practice of his profession in Richmond, and shortly removed to Irvine,
Estill county, Ky., and there he sought licen- sure in the Methodist
ministry. In 1839 he married a sister of the late Samuel F. Miller, one
of the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States.
Rev. Stephen Noland, who succeeded his father in the banking business,
was the second son—his other son, Samuel H. Noland, removed to Texas.
Stephen Noland made the race for Commonwealth's Attorney in the
district, which then embraced seven counties, against C. C. Rodgers, of
Lexington, and defeated him by a majority of 800 votes. While holding
the office of Commonwealth Attorney, he became a terror to evil-doers
throughout the district. All sorts of influences were brought to bear
to defeat Mr. Noland, but they were without avail. In 1854 he came to
Nicholasville, and shortly afterwards assumed charge of the Methodist
Episcopal church. South. Notwithstanding the variety of his
occupations, he never gave up the preaching of the Gospel.
The first bank in Nicholasville was
organized by Mr. Noland in 1864, it was known as the Bank of Noland,
Wilmore & Co. He was a man of great sagacity and judgment in the
conduct of his business; of wide benevolence and charitable impulses,
he has probably given away as much money in charitv as any man who ever
lived in Jessamine. His second wife, Miss Virginia Brown, daughter of
Thos. J. Brown, who inherited the many
excellent traits of her family,
survived him. He died on the 27th of January, 1890, after a lingering
illness, and deeply regretted by the entire community, among whom he
spent the last forty years of his life.
The Duncans
Among the earliest settlers in
Jessamine county were James Duncan and Charles Duncan. They located
within the boundary of Jessamine early in 1788. Charles Duncan was born
in Cul- peper county, Va., in 1761. He was the father of William
Duncan, so long known, who died at his home immediately above
Nicholasville in 1863. William Duncan's mother was Margaret Burnside,
sister of the Revolutionary soldier, Robert Burnside, the great uncle
of Gen. A. E. Burnside. William Duncan was born near Barclay's old mill
in 1788. In 1813 he married Nancy Blackford, daughter of Benj.
Blackford.
James Duncan, the grandfather of S.
M. Duncan, was born in Culpeper county. Va., July 18, 1763, and was
among the last white men killed by the Indians. With two companions,
John Huckstep and Joseph Burnside, he went to the mouth of Paint Lick
to get salt. They had made the salt and were returning home, when
suddenly the report of a gun was heard and Burnside fell with a bullet
through his heart. James Duncan was shot by another Indian who had
climbed up on a high bluff, and the bullet entered the head of James
Duncan, killing him instantly. Huckstep escaped to Crab Orchard, where
Col. Whitley sent out a party in pursuit of the Indians and followed
them to near Cumberland Gap. They captured the horses of the two men
who had been killed, but the Indians made their escape.
Alexander C. Duncan, the father of S.
M. Duncan, was the oldest child of James Duncan, who was killed in his
28th year and left three small children. When a small boy James Duncan
ran away from home in company with Nathaniel Harris, the distinguished
Methodist minister, and enlisted in the army of General Greene, and was
at the battle of Guilford Court House and at the siege of Yorktown.
James Duncan was born July 18. 1763, and was married to Mary Crockett,
daughter of William Crockett, of Wythe county, in 1787. One hundred
years after the death of Jan es Duncan, there came a great rise in the
creeks which enter Paint Lick. They disclosed a skeleton. On
examination of this skeleton a bullet hole was found in the head and
the remains were identified as those of James Duncan, who had been
killed and buried at that point nearly a century before. Every bone was
perfect with the exception of the right foot. The remains were removed
to Nicholasville cemetery and laid to rest amid kindred dust.
The descendants of James Duncan and
his brother, who thus early made their home in Jessamine county, in
large numbers still reside in the county and they have always been good
citizens and patriots.
S. M. Duncan
Mr. S. M. Duncan, who has been one of
the most diligent, and faithful of all the antiquarians in Kentucky,
was a son of Alexander Crockett Duncan and Hannah N. Williams, the
latter being a native of Mecklenburg county North Carolina. She was
born March 8, 1793. and died in 1861. Mr. Duncan's father was born in Fort R'ackamore, Russell
county, Virginia, and came to Jessamine county in 1788. He was an
infant when his father, James Duncan, settled within the limits of
Jessamine county. S. M. Duncan was born in Pulaski county, in 1830. He
enjoyed limited advantages of education, but most wonderfully improved
tb.em—he only had three months' schooling. He worked for thirty years
at his trade as carpenter, and learned cabinet-making, which he
followed five years, but afterwards gave that up and returned to his
original calling. He has gathered together an immense amount of
material concerning not only the earliest history of Jessamine county
and its people, but in regard to the early history of Kentucky. He has
always had a passion for acquiring old letters and documents, and, but
for his patience and care and labor, not onlv in the finding, but in
the preservation, of materials, it would have been impossible for any
one to write a history of Jessamine county. Mr. Duncan began this
collection of material when quite a young man. He talked with men who
had been in the Revolutionary War, and to those who had in their minds
fresh recollections of the struggles, trials and dangers of pioneer
life in Kentucky. He has written a great deal on the subject, and
deserves the thanks of the people, not only of Jessamine countv, but of
Central Kentuckv.
Andrew Hemphill
Andrew llemphill was one of the most
scholarlv men tha1 lived in Jessamine county in its early days. He
lived in the southern part of the county, settling there in 1823. He
was born in Tyrone county, Ireland, in 1800. He obtained his education
at Trinity College. Dublin, and came to American in 1819. landing at
Philadelphia. In a very short time he was chosen as teacher of Lathilan
academy in the city of Reading, in Berks county, and
subsequentlv became principal of the academy, which position he held
for two years. He settled in Jessamine county in 1823, and was married
to Mildred Tapp. He came to Jessamine county through his uncle James
Hemphill who had purchased a farm in that section of the county many
years before. In 1823 James Hemphill died and made Andrew his heir,
devising to him 250 acres of land on Hickman creek six miles east of
Nicholasvillc. Mr. Hemphill through all his life retained his
scholarship. He read Latin and Greek with great fluency. He died in
1863.
It was his custom for many years to
visit the schools in which the classics were taught. These comings were
always regarded by the Latin and Greek scholars with fear and
trembling. While he was there he would call upon them to read
selections from the Roman and Grecian authors. The scholars imagined
that they could never do the thing just as Mr. Hemphill would do it;
yet he was always kindly, helpful and suggestive in, his examinations,
and never went away from the schools without saying pleasant and
agreeable words to the scholars. He was the father of a large family of
children, many of whom are now residents of Jessamine county, and are
among its best and most substantial citizens.
Mr. John Henry Glass
Mr. John Henry Glass, who now owns
Glass Mills, near Wil-more, was born in 1838, of German parentage, in
Jessamine county. After going to school during his boyhood in
Cincinnati, he learned the trade of cabinetmaker, with his father, who
was one of the most skilled mechanics who ever lived in Jessamine
county. In 1870 Mr. Glass erected a mill in Lancaster, Ky., which is
still in successful operation. Afterwards he sold out to George Denny,
the president of the national bank, and moved back to Jessamine and
bought the property known as the old paper mill, on Jessamine creek,
about three miles above its mouth. This mill had been operated for more
than 100 years. After running it about three years he tore part of it
down and erected a new building and put in new machinery, retaining,
however, the water power, which had been in constant use for more than
a century.
This mill is operated all the year
round, has its office and switch at Wilmore, Ky., and is one of the
best manufacturing enterprises in Jessamine county. It has a large
trade up and down the Cincinnati Southern Railroad, and its brands of
flour are considered among the very best manufactured in the West. The
principal of these, "The Daniel Boone," shows Mr. Glass' / patriotism.
Mr. Glass has been instrumental in building ten miles of turnpike in the western part
of the county and in furnishing a constant and liberal home demand for
grain, which has much increased land values in that section. Blessed
with a large family, he has trained them both to industry and morality,
and he is one of the useful men of the communitv.
Benjamin A. Crutcher
Bcnjamin A. Crutcher, the present
Commonwealth's Attorney for the Twenty-fifth Judicial district, which
includes Jessa- mine, Madison, Estill, Clark, and Powell counties, was
born in Nicholasville, June 2\, 1856. Elected County Attorney in 1884,
he resigned to become a candidate for Commonwealth's Attorney. He was re-elected Commonwealth's
Attorney in 1897. He is a man of conservative instincts, careful
preparation, unquestionable honesty and great industry. He has proven a
most admirable Prosecuting Attorney, firm, faithful, yet considerate
and just, he represents the commonwealth as if he were representing his
own affairs, and the entire distr1ct recognizes his great efficiency
and ability.
Thomas B. Crutcher
The Hon. Thos. Crutcher is now Police
Judge of Nicholasville. He was born in Jessamine county in 1831. He is
the father of Benj. A. Crutcher, the Commonwealth's Attorney for the
district. For a long time he was one of the leading merchants in Jessamine. He is a man of the old
school, upright, conscientious, always considerate to others. For five
years he has been Judge of the City Court of Nicholasville. and has
made a most excellent record. He is a member of the First Baptist
church and is one of its most earnest and enthusiastic supporters.
John Spears Bronaugh
John Spears Bronaugh was born in the
Keene neighborhood and spent his early years on his father's farm. With
a vigorous constitution as well as a vigorous mind, he improved all his
educational advantages, and attended college at Transylvania
University, at Lexington. He read law with Judge James Prior, near
Carrollton,. Ky. Faithful, studious, patient and laborious, when
admitted to the bar in 1847, at Nicholasville, he was well prepared for
the practice of his profession. For more than half a century he has
been prominent in all the litigation which affected the people of
Jessamine, and by his good judgment, his great learning and wise counsel, he has
endeared himself to the whole community, and secured a high place in
the estimation of his fellow-citizens. At a time when the government of
Nicholasville needed a strong hand and an economical administration,
Mr. Bronaugh was called by the voice of his townsmen to assume the
duties of the Mayoralty. He evolved order out of chaos, systematized
all the affairs of the city government and as executive officer so
conducted himself and the affairs of the town that it was with
difficulty he could avoid the solicitations of the voters to hold the
office always, and it was only his persistent refusal to accept the
office which caused the people of the town to elect another man. He has
always stood for the best interests of the county and town, and while
conservative, he had been enterprising and has been a leader in all
that has brought the county to its present prosperity and splendid
development. The county has trusted him in many important transactions
and he has always conducted them with prudence, skill and ability.
THOS. J. BROWN
Curd, Esq.,
Is one of the Magistrates of the
county and resides in the neighborhood of Wilmore station. Successful
in business, kindIy in manner, faithful in hrs official life, he
commands, as he de
serves, the support and confidence of
his district. Whatever is for the best interests of the whole county
always has his hearty approval and assistance.
Levi Luther Todd.
The Levi Luther Todd referred to in
the minutes of the town of Nicholasville, was born in Lexington, Ky.,
July 26, 1791. He was educated at Transylvania University, and
practiced law several years. He served with distinction in the war of
1812. He removed to Lafayette, 1nd., in 1833, and there held a
distinguished judicial position.
In 1867 he came to Lexington and
presented to the Masonic Grand Lodge, of Kentucky, then in session
there, the sword and ln-lt of Col. Joseph Hamilton Daveiss, which were
worn by Col. Daveiss when he was killed, in the battle of Tippecanoe,
on the 7th of November, 1811. He died near Indianapolis, in 1867.
Dr. T. R. Welch.
On the one-hundredth anniversary of
the existence of Nicholasville. Jessamine county is part of the
Senatorial district in which are included Woodford and Scott counties.
The Senator from this district is Thomas R. Welch, M. D., an able and
successful homeopathic physician, now residing in Nicholasville. in
which place he was born on the 4th of February, 1860.
Hewas educated at Bethel Academy under Professor Gordon, and is a
graduate of the Wesleyan College. He taught in the city schools of
Nicholasville and graduated from the Hahnemann College in 1885, and
from that time on has practiced in Jessamine county. He is a member of
the Board of Examiners for tilt- schools of the county, of the
Nicholasville Board of Education, the State Homeopathic Association and
of the American Institute of Homeopathy. He is also a member of the
Baptist church and of the Odd Fellows and Knights of Pythias.
He has been earnest and faithful in
the discharge of his duties in his profession. In 1879 the
Twenty-second Senatorial district, of which Jessamine was a part,
became a political battle-ground. It was the home district of the Hon.
J. C. S. Blackburn, and the Hon. Henry L. Martin was nominated on a
platform antagonistic to Senator Blackburn's views. Jessamine county,
by courtesy, was entitled to name the Democratic candidate, and a
strong popular man was required. By a unanimous demand Dr. Welch was
called to make the race for Blackburn. His majority in the district was
2,454, an extraordinary manifestation of the confidence of the people
of the district. Jessamine county gave him an almost unprecedented
majority of 977 votes. His conduct in the legislature justified the
confidence of his district. He took a prominent part in the
deliberations of that historical legislature.
Harrison Daniel
Harrison Daniel was for many years
one of the most prominent citizens of Jessamine county. He \vas the
grandson of Col. John Price, and born in 1790. His father, John Daniel,
was a native of Orange county, Virginia, and came to Kentucky in the
year 1787. He was related to the Daniels in the northern neck of
Virginia, and family history says that he served in the army of General
Washington at Brandywine, Trenton and Monmouth. He settled on Marble
creek and here his son was born. In the early history of Kentucky Mr.
Daniel was a useful and important character. He was High Sheriff and
represented Jessamine county in the legislature in 1826. He possessed
extraordinary mathematical talents. His son, William Daniel, went to
the Mexican war in the company of Captain Willis. He had a wonderful
faculty for making and keeping friends, and many of his descendants
still remain in Jessamine county, whose people theit ancestor so
faithfullv served.
Dr. John C. Welch
Dr. John C. Welch was born in
Jessamine county in 1823. He practiced medicine for forty years in the
county, except during his service for four years as surgeon of the
Twentieth Kentucky volunteer infantry. In 1863 he was promoted to
brigade surgeon. In 1877 and 1879 he represented Jessamine county in
the lower house of the legislature. He was a brother of Dr. Thomas R.
Welch, the distinguished Presbyterian divine.
George Brown
George Brown was born in
Nicholasville on February 28, 1819, and died October 30, 1897. He first
attended school at St. Joseph's, Bardstown, Ky., afterward at Center
College, Danville and finally at Transylvania University in Lexington.
Upon leaving college he at once engaged in the business of the
manufacture of hemp. His father had been one of the pioneers in hemp
manufacture in Lexington and the son acquired a practical knowledge of
the business in early life. Owning a large number of slaves, which he
used in his business, he made it extremely profitable and he continued
in the manufacture of hemp for many years. In the fall of 1853 he moved
to a farm on Jessamine creek, about two miles from Nic'holasville, and
in conjunction with his farm operated a hemp manufactory. He married
Ann M. Hemphill in 1843, who proved to him an affectionate, faithful
and helpful wife. She was one of the model housekeepers of Jessamine
county and as neighbor and friend had no superior.
Mr. Brown was a man of intense
activity; domestic in his taste, he loved his home and added to it
those things which made it attractive. He was a model husband ami
father. When twenty-two years of age, he united with the Nicholasville
Presbyterian church, in the faith of which he continued to the end of
his life, and at his death he was the oldest living member of the
organization. He was converted under the preaching of Rev. David Todd.
He was efficient and earnest in his Christian work and was always one
of the liberal and helpful members of the congregation. He was a pure,
good man; long president of the jessamine County Bible Society, he was
not only active but useful in the Bible work and has left behind him no
enemies and a host of friends.
Gen. Samuel Dickerson Jackman
Gen. Samuel Dickerson Jackman was a
Brigadier-General in the Confederate Army of Missouri. He was born in
Nicholas- ville in the brick house on the left hand side of the road
leading to Sulphur Well, and opposite the present house of Thos. B.
Crutchcr, Sept. 18, 1825. He was a courageous soldier, vigorous and
active in the field, and was extremely successfuly in his raids on the
Federal lines in Missouri during the war. His mother was the daughter
of David Dickerson, and he served in the War of 1812. His father, Dr.
John Jackman, left Jessamine county and settled in Missouri in 1831.
General Jackman removed from Missouri at the close of the war. to
Texas, where he died in 1893. He amassed a large fortune and died
childless.
Judge Wm. H. Phillips
It is a remarkable fact that every
officeholder in Jessamine county, upon the occasion of the centennial
of its capital city, was born and reared in the county. Judge Wm. H.
Phillips, who is County Judge, has held that office longer than any man
who ever had it. He was born in Jessamine county on the 3Oth of March,
1838. His education was received at the common schools, and the early part of his life was passed on
a farm. He attended Bethel Academy as a student, coming from his
father's home, in Nicholasville. From the time of his earliest manhood
to 1874 he was an industrious farmer, and he never sought office but
was a faithful and efficient worker for his father. In that year he was
nominated for County Judge. The nomination was to some extent
unexpected by him-and unsought. At that time the Democratic nominees
were considered the leaders of a forlorn hope; the Republican party was
organized and had able leaders, and all the county offices were held by
tj1em; but Judge Phillips was elected by a majority of fourteen votes,
and the Circuit Court Clerk was chosen by the same majority. The rest
of the Democratic ticket was defeated. In 1878 Judge Phillips was again
elected, although opposed by the strongest man in the Republican party,
and also by an independent Democrat; then his majority was 26 votes. In
1882 he was elected without opposition, and he has held the office of
County Judge for 23 years. His ancestors were Huguenots, who came from
the James river, and settled in Kentucky about 1/90. His official
career-is unusual and extraordinary, and manifests the high esteem in
which he is held by the people of his native county. His official acts
have stood the closest scrutiny, and his numerous endorscments-by the
voters is a testimonial of H1e highest character.
Dr. Alexander K. Marshall
Dr. Alexander K. Marshall was a
member of Congress from the Ashland District in 1855. He was the third
son of Dr. Louis Marshall, who was the youngest brother of
Chief-Justice John Marshall. Louis Marshall lived in Woodford county,
at a place called Buck Pond. There Alexander K. Marshall was born the
nth of February. 1808. He studied medicine and at the age of 25 came to
Nicholasville and practiced his profession, which he did with marked
success. He united with John G. Chiles in 1842, in operating a stage
and mail line through the Kentucky mountains to Bean Station, Tenn.,
and continued in this business for more than 20 years. This, however,
did not prevent him from practicing his profession.
He was a man of fine presence and of
courage in the statement of his convictions. He represented Jessamine
county in the Constitutional Convention of 1849, defeating George I.
Rrown by 80 majority. He was elected to Congress on the Know Nothing
ticket, defeating James O. Harrison, a distinguished Lexington lawyer,
by over 1,500 majority. He died :n Fayette countv in 1886.
James Willlard Mitchell
The present County Attorney, James
Willard Mitchell, was born in Nicholasville, in 1861. His father, Jas.
T. Mitchell, was eldest son of Dr. Geo. W. Mitchell; his mother was the
third daughter of the late Thomas Jefferson and Mary Jane Wallace
Brown, who was the eldest daughter of Joseph Wallace, son of Capt John
Wallace. Captain John Wallace was one of the most
distinguished of the Revolutionary soldiers who came to Jessamine. He
served with General Washington and General Wayne; he was at the battles
of Brandywine, Trenton, Monmouth, Long Island, and was with Washington
at Valley Forge.
No man in Jessamine county commands
in a higher degree the confidence of his fellow-citizens and no one is
capable of arousing more enthusiasm in his party and among his friends.
He has great will force, unflinching energy, and has been often
compared to Gen. Joseph Wheeler, whom he is not unlike in stature and
appearance.
Mr. Mitchell was elected County
Attorney by a large and flattering majority. The County Attorneyship
was the first position to which Mr. Mitchell was elected and he fills
it with credit to himself and to his constituents. He is a man also of
fine business capacity, thorough reading and preparation, great
punctuality in the discharge of his official and personal business. Few
men are more eloquent or effective on the stump. He understands human
nature, and is destined if he chooses to follow public life, to become
a leader of men.
He married Miss Annie Anderson,
daughter of Capt. Samuel M. Anderson, He is thoroughly identified with
the people of Jessamine, and they, in turn, feel a just pride in his
success and his attainments in his profession.
Francis M. Bristow
\\'as born in Clark county, Ky., on
the nth of August, 1804. He lived for twenty-six years on the farm now
occupied by Mrs. Mary Ann Bourne, three miles east of Nicholasville. He
was well educated, studied law, and divided his time between his
profession and farm. He early moved to Todd county with his father, who
had settled in Jessamine county in the year 1790. In 1830-31 Mr.
Bristow was elected to the Kentucky Legislature, in 1846 to the State
Senate, and was a member of the State Constitutional Convention in
1849. In 1854 he was elected Representative in Congress to fill the
unexpired term of Presley Ewing. and in 1859 was again elected as
Representative from Kentucky to the 36th Congress.
His sou. Benjamin H. Bristow, served
with distinction in the Federal army, afterwards became
Solicitor-General, was a candidate for President before the Republican
party, was long a resident of Louisville, but moved from that city to
New York, where he has achieved distinction and success in the practice
ot law.
Frances M. Bristow died at Elkton,
Ky., January 10, 1864.
Curd Lowry, County Clerk.
Curd Lowry, the present county clerk
of Jessamine county, is the third son of the late Judge Melvin T.
Lowry, who was county and circuit clerk for twelve years prior to his
death, in 1887. He secured the office in opposition to Robt. S. Perry,
who had held it for sixteen years and his race in this respect was
phenomenal.
He was born November 19, 1862, at the
home of his maternal grandmother, Mrs. Harrison Daniels.
He was for two terms deputy clerk
under L. D. Baldwin. In 1887 he moved to Kansas City where he remained
two years and then returned to a position in the First National Bank.
His great-grandfather on his mother's side was John Daniels, who
settled in Fayette county in 1788 and married a sister of Col. John
Price. His paternal grandfather settled in Jessamine county long before
its organization. He comes of distinguished parentage and lineage and
his popularity is the result of his kindly heart and gentlemanly manner.
Magistrates of Jessamine County.
In this, 1898, Jessamine county is
divided into five magisterial districts. At the last November election,
the gentlemen chosen to fill this responsible office were as follows:
ROBERT CLEMMONS.
Mr. Clemmons resides at Brannon on
the Cincinnati Southern Railroad near Fayette county line. He is one of
the leading farmers in
Jessamine county, and has been elected magistrate for several terms. He
was born in Fayette county, is about fifty- five years of age, and is
honest, clear-headed, and a faithful representative of the interests
which his fellow-citizens entrust to his keeping.
He resides in Nicholasville. He was
the son of Mason Barkey, who was a-large farmer on the Harrodsburg
Pike. He was born in 1848, and is engaged in the hardware business in
Nicholas- ville. He is a man who is highly esteemed by his
fellow-citizens.
ALLEN W. ROBINSON
Resides in the Marble creek
neighborhood. He was a grandson of John Robinson. He is a man who never
shrinks from doing his duty, and has made a most efficient officer.
WILSON FAIN
Lives in the Hickman neighborhood. He
is a son of Larkin Fain, who represented Jessamine county in the
Legislature in 1850-55. He enjoys to an unusual degree the confidence
and respect of his fellow-citizens in that portion of the county in
which he resides.
Col. Wm. A. Lewis.
Who commanded a regiment from
Kentucky at the battle of the Raisin, in 1812, in which regiment were
two companies, Gray's and Price's, from Jessamine county, was long a
resident in the county. He was born in Virginia, in 1778, and died in
1835. His exposures in the War of 1812 brought on rheumatism, and the
colds he contracted in the northwestern army settled in his eyes and
resulted in a total loss of eyesight. He was a gallant soldier and a
man respected and loved by all the people of the county. In the
terrible battle of Raisin he showed splendid heroism, and a high order
of courage, and had his advice been followed, the terrible tragedy of
that battle would have been avoided.
Allen L. McAfee
Was long a prominent public man in
Jessamine county. He died of cancer of the throat March 16, 1888. He
was the second son of Col. Robert McAfee, and was born in McAfee,
Mercer county, on the 15th of August, 1825. He was admitted to the bar
in Harrodsburg in 1845. and removed to Little Rock, Arkansas, where he
commenced the practice of his profession. About this time the war with
Mexico broke out, and he volunteered as a private in Captain Mean's
company of cavalry, which was one of the companies in the regiment of
Col. Ambrose Yell, who was killed at the battle of Buena Vista. In that
battle Colonel McAfee bore a prominent part in the charge of Humphrey
Marshall and Colonel Yell against 6,000 lancers, led by General Mineon,
who attempted to take the American batteries. In the charge in which
McKee, Clay and Willis were lost, Colonel McAfee saw a Mexican lancer
in the act of killing a wounded soldier. He instantly shot the Mexican.
He used what was in those days a celebrated gun known as the
Mississippi rifle.
At the close of the Mexican war,
Colonel McAfee moved to Nicholasville, and married Miss Elizabeth
Shely. In 1857 he was elected a member of the Kentucky legislature.
Early in 1861 Colonel McAfee was arrested as a Southern sympathizer; he
was taken from his home at 12 o'clock at night on the 21st of June, and
without warrant or charge was carried and lodged in prison in
Lexington. A writ of habeas corpus was taken out by Frank Hunt, Esq.,
and W. C. P. Breckinridge, Esq., in order to get Colonel McAfee before
the Federal Court, then in session at Frankfort, but the Federal
officers suspended the writ of habeas corpus. On the way to Camp Chase,
in Cincinnati, he escaped by walking away from the guards, passed
through Central Kentucky and reached the South. He was commissioned
lieutenant- colonel by James A. Seddon, Confederate Secretary of War.
In 1864 he raised a battalion of 300 mounted men, and was with General
Jones in Western Virginia, and helped to defeat General Averill's
rail on Harrodsburg in 1864. He was severely wounded in 1862 at Rig
Creek Gap. He was captured in 1864, and remained in Camp Douglas until
the close of the war. He was a magnificent looking man in physical
appearance, and possessed a high degree of courage.
In 1866 he was elected State Senator,
defeating Richard Spurr, of Fayette, by over 500 votes.
Andrew McAfee
Andrew McAfee, who at present
worthily represents his ward in the city council, is one of the younger
generation of colored men, who by his conduct and character has done
much to dissipate the
prejudice against the
education of his race. He was educated in the local schools for his
race, and by his energy and determination has won the confidence and
trust of his constituents.
Hon. William R. Welch
Long Judge of the Appellate Court of
Illinois, was the son of John and Eliza Rice Welch, and was born in
Jessamine county, one mile south of Nicholasville, in January, 1828. He
graduated at Transylvania University, in Lexington, and early in his
professional life was elected County Attorney of Jessamine county. In
1864 he removed to Carliesville, Ill., where he entered upon the
practice of his profession and at once took high rank as a lawyer.
Three times he was elected Circuit Judge of the district which
comprised his home, and was twice appointed Appellate Judge, which
latter position he was filling at the time of his death, in August,
1888.
A strong partisan, he was always an
impartial judge, and it was said of him that he had fewer reversals
than any Circuit Judge in this State. He married Miss Annie Corn, a
most lovely and charming woman, who also was born in Nicholasville, and
resided there at the time of her marriage.
Samuel Thompson Corn
Was born in Nicholasville in 1838. He
graduated at Princeton College, N. J. He served on Col. Sanders Bruce's
staff during the war, in the Federal Army, and at its close located at
Carlinsville. Ill., to which place his brother-in-law, Judge William
R. Welch, had preceded him. He was twice elected Commonwealth's
Attorney from his district, and was, in 1884, appointed by Grover
Cleveland a District Judge of Wyoming Territory. In 1896 he was elected
Chief Justice of the State of Wyoming, and now resides in Cheyenne,
that state.
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