USA > Kentucky > A history of Kentucky and Kentuckians; the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume III > Part 10
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115 | Part 116 | Part 117 | Part 118 | Part 119 | Part 120
cided victory and the suit ended. Mr. Strother also defended John Etly, indicted for the mur- der of his wife, which was one of the most celebrated criminal cases ever tried in Ken- tucky. Mr. Strother has always taken an act- ive interest in politics, but has never sought nor held office since coming to Louisville except that of member of the Board of Education of the city under the new school law, to which he was elected in 1910 without solicitation.
Mr. Strother is a member of the Jefferson County and Kentucky State Bar Associations and is a Mason and Odd Fellow, a member of the Filson Club, Sons of the American Revo- lution and of the Methodist Episcopal church, South. He married Mary Frances Greenwood, who was born in Bedford, Trimble county, Kentucky, the daughter of Isaac S. and Cath- erine Morton (Young) Greenwood, and Mr. and Mrs. Strothers are the parents of the fol- lowing children: Catherine Pryor, Shelby French, Eugene Thomas (died in December, 1903) and Ralph Greenwood.
HUGH CROCKETT MCKEE, present superin- tendent of the Frankfort City Schools, has given distinguished service since his election to that important office in July, 1904, having be- come a potent factor in all movements which tend toward the elevation of educational stand- ards in that city. By ancestral record and present loyalty Professor McKee is a repre- sentative Kentuckian. His forefathers and their achievements will merit a passing glance.
His parents were Robert B. and Serena D. McKee, the former born in the old McKee homestead which was patented under the Vir- ginia government by John McKee, the sub- ject's grandfather. John McKee was born in Virginia and was of Scotch-Irish lineage, and his wife was a daughter of Colonel Anthony Crockett of Revolutionary fame. Professor Hugh Crockett McKee is thus a great-grand- son of that celebrated American. John McKee was a farmer by vocation and was the first magistrate of his district after Kentucky be- came a state. He lived to be eighty-four years of age and was a widely-known and much respected man.
Robert B. McKee, father of the subject, pre- vious to the Civil war was employed for four years in the Western River and Harbor Im- provements service. He was warden of the Missouri penitentiary at Jefferson City for six years before the war and devoted the last twenty-five years of his life to teaching in the public schools. He was state examiner under Hon. Deshay Pickett, superintendent of public instruction. At the time of his demise he was seventy-six years of age. His wife was a na-
1192
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY AND KENTUCKIANS
tive of Ohio county, Kentucky, of Scotch- Irish descent. She bore her husband four children, of whom Professor McKee was the third.
Hugh Crockett McKee was born on the old McKee homestead in Franklin county, June 10, 1871. Upon this fair domain he was reared and came to young manhood. He received his early education in the public schools and his A. B. degree in the Kentucky Military Insti- tute. As seen from the foregoing Professor McKee may claim his pedagogical inclinations by right of heritage. Soon after his graduation he taught school for two years at Shelbyville. He afterwards opened a private school at Frankfort, which he conducted for a good many years or until his election to the superin- tendency of the Frankfort city schools in July, 1904.
He has since attained recognition as one of the state's leading educators, having been presi- dent of the Kentucky Educational Association in 1909, which year the organization registered a very large membership and a successful cam- paign for better educational conditions was conducted throughout the state.
Professor McKee finds pleasure in his lodge relations. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. As to his church as- sociations, he is junior warden of the Ascen- sion Episcopal church, having been one of its vestrymen since 1902.
In 1897 Professor McKee was married to Miss Stella Jones, of Frankfort, daughter of Marcus A. and Sarah M. Jones. They have two daughters, Virginia and Sarah Mason.
FRANK G. ADER is an extensive contractor, and the breadth and importance of his business have made him a leading representative of trade interests and one of the substantial pro- moters of the material development and gen- eral prosperity of the country. Mr. Ader is in the concrete construction business at New- port, Kentucky, in which city he was born October 18, 1874, the son of Peter and Mary (Collett) Ader. The father, a native of
Bavaria, Germany, when about two years old came to the United States with his parents in 1844, being the youngest of fourteen children. The family settled on a farm on Owl Creek, about seven miles from Newport, in Campbell county, Kentucky, where the parents of Peter lived the remainder of their lives. The farm is still owned by the heirs. Peter Ader was reared on the farm and when a young man went to Cincinnati and worked in a furniture factory for thirty years, maintaining his resi- dence at Newport. In 1893, when the cement industry was in its infancy, he engaged in that
business in Newport, being the pioneer in that line in northern Kentucky, importing cement in those days from Germany. He built up an extensive business, in which he continued un- til his death, which occurred in 1904, on the 6th of July, at the age of sixty years. The business was carried on by Peter Ader & Son after 1900, Frank G., our subject, becoming a member at that date. Mr. Peter Ader was always very active in all that pertained to the best interests of the city, serving on the fire and police boards and holding several minor offices. In politics he was a lifelong Demo- crat, and during the time of the war between the states he was a member of the Home Guards at Newport. He was married twice, first to a Miss Krontz, who was the mother of two sons, and after her death he married Mary Collutt.
Mary Collutt, the mother of our subject, was born in Pennsylvania, her parents both being foreign born, her father a native of Alsace Lorraine and her mother, from Prussia, Germany, of French descent. They came to the United States and settled in Pennsylvania, and later became pioneers of Cincinnati. The mother had three sons by Peter Ader, of whom our subject is the eld- est, and she died in Newport in 1906, at the age of sixty-three years. She had been pre- viously married to Charles Wuest, by whom she had been the mother of two sons.
Frank G. Ader was reared in Newport and educated in the public schools, acquiring the branches usually taught in those departments. When fifteen years old he began mechanical engineering, and, learning the same, worked in Cincinnati for a time, but he was young and restless and wanted to see more of the world than he had hitherto had an opportun- ity of doing. For two years he stayed in Arizona and southern California, being em- ployed as an engineer in those countries. Re- turning to Newport in 1900, he entered into business with his father in the concrete con- struction work, and after his father's death bought out the interests of the heirs and since 1904 has carried on the same under the firm name of the Frank G. Ader Construction Company, which has developed into one of the largest in this line in Kentucky, giving employment to many men and handling many large contracts.
In addition to Mr. Ader's regular business he is interested in various other affairs. He is a director in the Daylight Building Associa- tion of Newport and also director of the Cin- cinnati Builders' Supply Company. In poli- tics Mr. Ader has always been a stanch Democrat but has never taken an active part
17 ha
1193
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY AND KENTUCKIANS
in political affairs, as his business life made all the demands upon his time that he could manage.
On November 7, 1906, Mr. Ader was mar- ried to Elizabeth Huber, a native of Newport, Kentucky, and daughter of the late Phillip Huber, who for many years was a wholesale confectioner in Cincinnati. Mr. and Mrs. Ader have one child, named Mary Julia.
JOHN Y. CONN .- Standing at the helm of two of Newport's most useful and thriving industries, the Newport Coal Company and the Newport Ice Company, is John Y. Conn, who serves in the capacity of president of both of those institutions. These two con- cerns give employment to nearly fifty men and thus contribute in good measure to the mate- rial prosperity of the city, and Mr. Conn thus plays the beneficent role of the citizen who furnishes honorable support for many of the more dependent members of society.
Mr. Conn is a native Kentuckian and was born in Jefferson county on September 4, 1859. His parents were Allen J. and Eliza- beth (Tyler) Conn, the former a native of Indiana and the latter of Jefferson county, Kentucky. The father was a farmer and was very successful in his chosen vocation, own- ing and operating a fertile tract of land situ- ated about sixteen miles east of Louisville. Here he lived the greater part of his life and from here was called to his reward at the age of seventy years. The mother is the repre- sentative of an old Kentucky family and may be numbered among the pioneers of the Blue Grass state, or if not strictly speaking among the pioneers, Kentucky being one of the states earliest settled, she is, nevertheless, one of those who well remembers the charming life of Kentucky in ante-bellum days. Now at the age of seventy-six years she resides upon the old homestead. She is the mother of five chil- dren, three boys and two girls, two of whom are living at the present day, Mr. Conn and a younger sister, Mary Miller.
John Y. Conn passed his boyhood days upon the farm and enjoyed the manifold ex- periences of the lad who has an opportunity to live near to the heart of nature. He re- ceived a common school education and had some thought of following in the paternal footsteps in the choice of life work. In fact he adhered to this resolution until after his thirtieth birthday, pursuing his agricultural ventures independently in both his native county and in Shelby county. Somewhere near the year 1890 Mr. Conn located in New- port and organized the Frigid Ice Company, and he has ever since been closely and promi- nently identified with its fortunes, and for the
past ten years has served in the capacity of president, bringing to the solution of its prob- lems judgment of a distinguished character. The plant is equipped with the most modern machinery, having indeed from the first em- ployed the latest and best methods known in the business. It has been enlarged from time to time until it has a present capacity of sev- enty-five tons daily and supplying trade in both Newport and Cincinnati. This industry gives employment to about thirty people and is counted as one of the very substantial con- cerns of Newport.
Mr. Conn's executive gifts are by no means of small calibre and it is not strange that he has not been content to limit himself to the management of one concern, even though it be of an important character. On July 6, 1906, the Newport Coal Company began busi- ness, Mr. Conn having organized it and from the first served in the capacity of president. It has a capital stock of ten thousand dollars, and both a wholesale and retail business is done. This furnishes employment to between fifteen and twenty men and in the four years of its existence has experienced a . steady growth, and should its future progress prove proportionate to its past it will eventually en- roll itself among the large businesses of this part of the Blue Grass state.
On the 25th of September, 1870, Mr. Conn laid the foundation of a happy household by his marriage to R. Belle Frederick, a native of Jefferson county and the daughter of Blueford Frederick, a Jefferson county agriculturist and the member of an old Kentucky family which originally came from the "Old Dominion." Both Mr. and Mrs. Conn are members of the First Baptist church of Newport, the former having for many years been active in further- ing the good and just measures promulgated by the church and having served as trustee for a period of fifteen years. Although not par- tisan in local matters Mr. Conn casts his vote with what its adherents are pleased to call the "Grand Old Party."
JAMES F. JETT .- One of the prominent and influential representatives of the great dis- tilling industry in Kentucky is this well known and highly esteemed citizen of Carrollton, where his capitalistic interests are of broad scope and importance. He has achieved large and definite success through his own efforts and "by very intelligible merits," as Emerson wrote concerning the great Napoleon. De- pendent entirely upon his own resources from his youth, Mr. Jett has had the power to marshal the forces at his command in an im- pregnable phalanx and has made of success not an accident but a logical result, the while
1194
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY AND KENTUCKIANS
his course has been guided by those principles of integrity and honor that ever beget ob- jective confidence and esteem. As one of the representative "captains of industry" in his native county and state Mr. Jett is well en- titled to recognition in this history of Ken- tucky and Kentuckians.
James F. Jett was born at Carrollton, Car- roll county, this state, on the 20th of June, 1847, and is a son of Richard V. and Eliza- beth (Bradley) Jett, the former of whom was born in Virginia and the latter in Maryland. The lineage of the Jett family is traced back to staunch French origin, and the name be- came identified with the annals of American history prior to the war of the Revolution. The original representatives of the name in the new world established their home in Vir- ginia, and in that historic old commonwealth Richard V. Jett was reared to maturity under the sturdy discipline of the farm. As a young man he came to Kentucky and settled on a tract of land near Carrollton, where he en- gaged in agricultural pursuits, in connection with which he also found definite requisition for his services at the work of his trade, that of shoemaker. He was here employed at his trade for a number of years, in the itinerant way common to the early days. He went about to the homes of the settlers and manufactured shoes from leather that had been tanned by them. Finally he re- moved from his farm to Carrollton, which was then a small village, and here he con- tinued to reside until his death, at the age of sixty-five years. His wife, who was born in the year 1810, survived him by a score of years and attained to the venerable age of eighty-four years. She was a child at the time of the family removal from Mary- land to Carroll county, and her parents estab- lished their home at Ghent, where they became pioneer : settlers. Richard V. and Elizabeth (Bradley') Jett became the parents of ten children, of whom the subject of this review was the ninth in order of birth, and of the number six are now living.
James F. Jett was afforded but limited edu- cational advantages in his boyhood and youth, as he was enabled to attend the common schools in only an irregular and desultory way, and he early initiated his career as one of the world's workers. His mind was receptive, however, and his ambition led him to read and study in an effective way, and this af- forded him a firm foundation for the broad fund of information which he has since gained in connection with the practical associ- ations of a significantly earnest and successful career. At the age of twenty years Mr. Jett
secured employment in the old Darlington dis- tillery, near Carrollton, and with the same he continued to be identified for a period of three years, during which he applied himself zealously and gained an excellent knowledge of the various details of the business. After leaving this distillery he passed several years in the city of Lexington and he was employed in various positions at other points in the state. He was energetic and enterprising, carefully conserved his resources and eventu- ally formulated definite plans for independent business operations. In 1881 he formed a partnership with his brothers, Joseph S., George W. and Albert N., and they estab- lished a small distillery in Carrollton. From this modest nucleus has been evolved the large and modern institution with which Mr. Jett continues to be actively identified, and the distillery is recognized as one of the most important in the state. In 1889 the business was incorporated under the title of the Jett Brothers Distilling Company, and its opera- tions are based on a capital stock of seventy- five thousand dollars. The stock in the cor- poration is now held almost entirely by Joseph S. and James F. Jett and they are numbered among the most progressive and substantial business men of their native county. James F. Jett has been the general manager of the business from the time of its foundation and has been president of the company from the time of its incorporation. The distillery is essentially modern in equipment and facilities, has a capacity for the utilization of five hun- dred bushels of grain daily, and its trade, based upon the high standard of products, ex- tends throughout the most diverse sections of the Union. The "Richland" brand of whis- key is a product of this distillery and has long enjoyed marked popularity throughout the country. In connection with the distillery the by-products are effectively utilized in the feeding of cattle, and the large barns of the company have a capacity for the accommoda- tion of five hundred head of cattle.
James F. Jett has been a hard worker dur- ing his entire career, and his capacity seems to have no bounds. He has not been self- centered or looked merely to individual ag- grandizement, but as a citizen has manifested the utmost loyalty and public spirit .. He has given his aid and influence in the promotion of innumerable measures and enterprises that have conserved the advancement and welfare of his home city and county, and it is worthy of special note that he was one of the fore- most in promoting and carrying to successful completion the building of the fine bridge across the Kentucky river between Carrollton
1195
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY AND KENTUCKIANS
and Prestonville,-a work that required eight years to compass. This enterprise met with much opposition but the great value of the bridge is now uniformly recognized, as it has afforded facilities of inestimable benefit to the city of Carrollton and to the inhabitants on the west side of the river. The undertaking was carried through by a private company, organ- ized and incorporated for the purpose, and the city and its citizens also contributed to the funds required for the completion of the bridge. Mr. Jett became treasurer of the company at the time of its organization and still continues incumbent of this office. In 1909 he effected the organization of the Car- rollton Leaf Tobacco Warehouse Company, which was incorporated with a capital stock of forty thousand dollars and of which he has been president from the start. The warehouse of this company is a substantial structure of brick, steel and concrete construction, and covers an entire acre of ground, as it is two hundred and four feet square in general lat- eral dimensions. It is one of the most modern buildings of its kind, as well as one of the largest, in the entire state, and affords facili- ties that are of great value in connection with the tobacco industry in this section of the state. Mr. Jett's public spirit has been fur- ther evidenced by his erection of the Carroll- ton opera house block, one of the best build- ings in the city and one that affords the best of facilities for the better class of dramatic and musical entertainments which it is now possible to secure to the city. The fine audito- rium has a seating capacity for the accommo- dation of six hundred persons, and is a credit and a source of pride to the city.
Though never imbued with any desire for public office, Mr. Jett accords a staunch al- legiance to the Democratic party and he has contributed his quota to the success of its cause through his activity in its local contin- gent. He is affiliated with the Carrollton lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows, in which he has passed the various offi- cial chairs, and this organization has but one member that has been longer identified there- with than he. Mr. Jett has also the distinc- tion of being at the present time the oldest native-born citizen residing in Carrollton, where his circle of friends are coincident with that of his acquaintances.
In 1879 Mr. Jett was united in marriage to Miss Albertine Anders, who was born in the state of Arkansas, though a representative of an old Kentucky family. Though they have no children of their own Mr. and Mrs. Jett have shown a deep interest in aiding the chil- dren of others less fortunately placed, and
they have contributed most generously to the education of a number of children, while they are ever ready to give their aid in support of worthy charities and benevolences.
JETHRA HANCOCK, M. D .- Among the na- tive sons who have been the architects of their own fortunes and have won both fame and fortune may be mentioned Dr. Jethra Han- cock, physician of Louisville. Dr. Hancock was born in Birchville, Kentucky, on the 7th of July, 1875, the son of the Rev. Thomas Howell Hancock. The family traces its gen-
ealogy back to the Hancocks of Virginia. Rev. Thomas H. Hancock was born in War- ren county, Kentucky, in 1834, the son of Isaac Hancock, a native of Warren county, Kentucky, and for fifty years was an evangel- ist of the Methodist Episcopal church, in east- ern Kentucky. At the present time he is con- ducting a training school in Wayne county, Kentucky, which he founded and which is in line with his evangelistic work, in which he is still active. He is a pioneer in evangelical work in Kentucky, is a very devout Christian and has devoted his life to the church. He married Lucy Margaret Nichols, who was born in Elbo (also known as Nichols) Springs, twelve miles from Glasgow, in Barren county, the daughter of Thomas Nichols, who was a native of Kentucky, of Virginia parentage.
To Rev. Thomas H. Hancock and wife sev- en children were born, as follows: Cora, who married R. C. Lorimore and resides in Hart county, Kentucky; Ula married L. C. Thomas and resides in Hart county, Kentucky; Von- tress married Bettie Means, who is now de- ceased, and he lives in Texas, engaged in the business of farming; Edgar married Nannie Lorimore and resides in Hart county, Ken- tucky; Jethra is our subject; Uel is engaged in newspaper work in New York city; and Ada is unmarried, a tonber in 481385 -Louisville public schools.
Dr. Hancock was reared on the farm and secured his education under Professor C. W. Matthews at Munfordsville and Greensburg, Kentucky. Professor Matthews is now living in retirement in Louisville. He is one of the best known educators in Kentucky, and many of the leading and most successful men of Louisville in all lines of business and the pro- fessions of to-day were his pupils. At the age of sixteen years Dr. Hancock went to work on the farm, working during the sum- mers and attending school in winter time, and later teaching. By the time he was twenty years old he owned a good farm, which he had purchased with his earnings and which he still owns, and this is a record that very few young men can claim. He was graduated from the
Vol. III-4
1196
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY AND KENTUCKIANS
Louisville Hospital Medical College in 1905, with the degree of M. D., and that same year entered the practice in Louisville in which he has been engaged ever since, meeting with the success that has attended all his endeavors and which he richly deserves for his industry, per- sistence and persevering application.
Dr. Hancock is a member of the Masonic order, belonging to Greensburg Lodge, No. 54, F. & A. M. He is also a member of the Jef- ferson County Medical Society, the Kentucky State Medical Society and the American Med- ical Association. In 1900 Dr. Hancock mar- ried Lora Heizer, of Greensburg, Kentucky, who died in December, 1901, her child dying at the same time.
MERREL CLUBB RANKIN, commissioner of agriculture, labor and statistics for the state of Kentucky, is one of the progressive and public-spirited citizens of Frankfort, and in his capacity as a public servant has given the most efficient and discriminating service, which has served to corroborate in fullest measure the wisdom of the choice of his con- stituents. His office is an appropriate one, for his birth and early years are calculated to put him into sympathetic touch with the cause of the farmer, since he was born on a farm in Henry county, Kentucky, September 9, 1849, and there spent his boyhood and youth. His parents are Paschal Hickman and Rebecca (Clubb) Rankin, the father be- ing a native of Henry county, Kentucky, and the mother, of Madison county, this state. His forbears were Southerners and patriots, his paternal grandfather, David Rankin, hav- ing been born in Harrison county, Kentucky, and his father, Mr. Rankin's great-grand- father, being a native of Virginia, who re- moved to the Blue Grass state and became one of its doughty pioneer settlers. He was of Scotch-Irish descent. On the maternal side the family is English in descent, and the grandfather, Elijah Clubb, was a Virginian.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.