USA > Kentucky > A history of Kentucky and Kentuckians; the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume III > Part 102
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HERBERT P. STIVERS, M. D .- Actively con- cerned with the best interests of his native county and known as one of the representa- tive physicians and surgeons of this section of the state, Dr. Stivers is engaged in the suc- cessful practice of his profession in Jefferson county and resides in a beautiful rural home
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at Wildwood Station, at the Fern Creek cross- ing of the Bardstown turnpike,-about some miles distant from the city of Louisville. He is secretary of the Jefferson County Fair As- sociation, is the owner of a fine landed estate and takes a deep interest in the promotion of the agricultural industry and allied enterprises in his home county, where he is known as a citizen of distinctive progressiveness and pub- lic spirit. Herbert Porter Stivers was born on the family homestead, near old Fern Creek postoffice, Jefferson county, on the 14th of December, 1870, and is a son of Joseph L. and Melville (Webb) Stivers. Joseph L. Stivers was born near Jeffersontown, this county, on the 13th of February, 1832, and his death oc- curred February 19, 1906. He was a son of James and Margaret (Church) Stivers, both of whom were born in the State of Virginia, where the respective families were founded in the Colonial epoch. James Stivers was a child at the time of his parents' removal from the Old Dominion state to Kentucky, where he was reared to manhood and where he contin- ued to reside until his death, having been numbered among the prosperous agriculturists and honored and influential citizens of Jeffer- son county. His wife, who likewise was a child at the time of her parents' coming from Virginia to Kentucky, was the second daugh- ter of John Church, founder of the great mu- sic house known as the John Church Com- pany, in the city of Philadelphia. The father of James Stivers secured large tracts of land in Jefferson county and became an extensive farmer and slaveholder. He was one of the sterling pioneers of this section of the state and contributed much to its civic and indus- trial development and upbuilding. His landed estate included the site of the present little village of Fern Creek, and the old homestead, adjoining the grounds of the Jefferson County Fair Association on the south, is now owned by his daughter, Miss Sue E. Stivers. James Stivers was ninety-one years of age at the time of his demise and his wife attained to the extremely venerable age of ninety-six years, having survived him by several years and both having died in the '8os. James Stivers like- wise was one of the extensive farmers and stockgrowers of Jefferson county and, as a man of strong character and impregnable in- tegrity, he wielded no little influence in the community. He erected his fine old home- stead residence about the year 1836, and the same is still in an excellent state of preserva- tion. He was in no sense a politician, though he was essentially loyal and public-spirited, and while he never sought office he was cho-
sen candidate for representative of Jefferson county in the Legislature, on the Democratic ticket. Though he became a candidate only two days prior to the election, such was his personal popularity that his friends rallied to his support without any preliminary campaign in his behalf and he was defeated by only two votes. He was uncompromising in his advo- cacy of the policy of state's rights and thus gave unqualified support to the cause of the Confederacy during the Civil war, after the close of which his tenacity of conviction was such that he never became thoroughly "recon- structed." One of his sons, Frederick, served as a Union soldier, much to the sorrow of the father. Of his children six sons attained to years of maturity, and his brother Newton was the grandfather of the present superin- tendent of schools for Jefferson county.
Joseph L. Stivers was reared and educated in Jefferson county and here he never severed his allegiance to the great basic industry under whose influences he had been trained. He be- came one of the progressive and successful agriculturists and stock-growers of the county and was ever ready to lend his aid and influ- ence in support of measures and enterprises tending to advance the general welfare of the community. He was a man of broad mental ken and pronounced opinions, strong in his convictions but ever tolerant in his judgment. He commanded unqualified popular esteem and was influential in public affairs of a local order. His political proclivities were indi- cated by the staunch support given by him to the cause of the Democratic party, and he served for a number of years in the office of justice of the peace. His life course was guided and governed by the highest principles of integrity and honor.
Joseph L. Stivers was thrice married. He first wedded Miss Mollie Beckley, who was born and reared in Missouri and who died in that state within a year after her marriage. He was a resident of Missouri for a short period and after his return to Kentucky he married Miss Melville Lois Webb, who was born and reared in Hancock county, Tennes- see, and who came to Kentucky with her mother after the death of her father, Benja- min Webb. She was summoned to the life eternal on the 21st of May, 1886, and was survived by two children, of whom the young- er is Dr. Herbert P., of this review. . The eld- er, Miss Lila, who was born on the 8th of October, 1860, maintained her home with her brother and there her death occurred on the 9th of February, 1910. For his third wife Joseph L. Stivers married Mrs. Margaret Ann
John. E. Abraham
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(Monks) Stivers, widow of Edwin L. Stivers, son of William Allen Stivers, eldest brother of Joseph L. Mrs. Stivers survives her hus- band and now resides in the city of St. Joseph, Missouri. No children were born of the third marriage.
Dr. Herbert P. Stivers was reared under the gracious influences of a cultured and re- fined home and the major portion of his earlier educational discipline was received under the direction of private tutors. In preparation for the work of his chosen profession he entered, in 1894, the Hospital College of Medicine, in the city of Louisville, and in this well ordered institution he was graduated in June, 1896, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. Com- ing forth admirably equipped for the exacting duties of his profession, he has since been en- gaged in active general practice in his home county, and it is gratifying to note that he has secured a large and representative clientage in the community that has ever been his home, his success and unequivocal popularity setting at naught all application of the scriptural aphorism that "a prophet is not without honor save in his own country." In 1905 the Doctor erected his present modern residence and the same is one of the many beautiful country homes of Jefferson county. He keeps in close touch with all advances made in the sciences of medicine and surgery and has recourse to the best standard and periodical literature of his profession, besides which he is a member of the American Medical Association, the Kentucky State Medical Society and the Jef- ferson County Medical Society. He is medi- cal examiner for a number of representative life-insurance companies, and in a fraternal way he is affiliated with Shibboleth Lodge. Free and Accepted Masons.
Dr. Stivers is emphatically enterprising and progressive as a citizen and his loyalty to his native county and state is of the most insistent order. He was the prime mover in affecting the organization of the Jefferson County Fair Association and was chosen its first secretary. an office of which he continued incumbent for several years. He is still a member of the board of directors, of this association and has done much to promote its interests and to make its annual fairs so remarkably successful both in a financial way and as representing well the industrial resources of the county. The association purchased new grounds and has erected excellent buildings thereon, be- sides making the best of improvements along other lines.
On the 25th of June, 1902, was solemnized the marriage of Dr. Stivers to Miss Grace
Hughes, daughter of Charles H. Hughes, a representative citizen of Louisville. Mrs. Sti- vers was born and reared in the Kentucky me- tropolis and was educated in the Cedar Grove Academy, an institution conducted under the auspices of the Catholic church. She is a wo- man of most engaging personality and is a gracious chatelaine of the beautiful family home, which is a center of generous hospital- ity. Dr. and Mrs. Stivers have two children,- Cathrine Melville, who was born July 6, 1903, and Herbert Porter, Jr., who was born Janu- ary 18, 1905.
CAPTAIN JOHN E. ABRAHAM, whose busi- ness career has been one of intense and well- directed activity, is now in public service as United States inspector of steam vessel hulls and is a well known citizen of Louisville. Al- though his career has not been filled with thrilling incidents, probably no life history pub- lished in this volume can better serve to dem- onstrate to young men the power of honesty and integrity, of diligence and perseverance in insuring success, and Captain Abraham has through these admirable traits gained a posi- tion of prominence and distinction that justly entitles him to a place in this publication.
Captain John E. Abraham was born in Pleasureville, Henry county, Kentucky, on the 31st day of August, 1844, the son of Charles and Sarah (Cubbage) Abraham, natives of Prussia and Ohio respectively. When the fa- ther was about twenty-two years of age he came to the United States on a visit to some cousins living in Ohio, and like many others who have come on the same mission stayed to make a permanent home, so well pleased was he with the country and people. He never returned to Prussia and married in Ohio, com- ing soon afterward to Kentucky, where he en- gaged in merchandising in Pleasureville. Subsequently he was in business in Lockport, Kentucky, where he remained until his death, which occurred on the night of the memorable cyclone in March, 1900. His widow now re- sides in Litchfield, Grayson county, Kentucky, being in her eighty-sixth year.
Captain Abraham was reared in Lockport, Henry county, Kentucky, to which point his parents removed when he was a lad and he was educated in the public schools. In the second year of the war between the states, fired with the enthusiasm of youth and desire for active participation in danger, which is in- herent in the young and fearless, he ran away from home and on September 10, 1862, en- listed, first in Company B, of Breckenridge's Battalion, Confederate Army. Upon the con- solidation of Stoner's and Breckenridge's bat-
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talions, he became a member of Company C, Ninth Kentucky Cavalry, commanded by Colonel Breckenridge. He was orderly ser- geant and for some time was in charge of his company, and finally surrendered at Washing- ton, Georgia, May 6, 1865, and took the oath of allegiance at Nashville, May 26, 1865.
After the war Captain Abraham engaged in merchandising with his father at Lockport, Henry county, but later engaged in that busi- ness at Smithfield, Kentucky. Five years later he returned to Lockport to assist his father in the business, as the latter had become quite old and feeble. Aside from his business in- terests his life has been actuated by unselfish motives, prompted by patriotism and guided by truth and justice. After devoting some time to the interests connected with his fa- ther's business, Captain Abraham engaged in the government contracting business, supply- ing the United States government with stone and lumber for locks and dams on river work. He next engaged in steamboating and owned and operated a boat on the Ohio and Ken- tucky rivers, Packet Line. On March 27, 1894, Captain Abraham was appointed to his present important government position.
Captain Abraham has taken an active part in Democratic politics for many years, and was elected to the Kentucky General Assembly from Henry county. He is a member of the Confederate Veterans Association. Captain Abraham was married in Smithfield, Kentucky, to Bettie, the daughter of the Hon. W. L. Vorris, state senator of Kentucky. Their three children are: Effie, who married Owen T. Yates, of Litchfield, Kentucky; Annie V., at home, and Charles W. The Captain's of- ficial service has won him high commendation, for in all his public acts he has been charac- terized by the utmost fidelity to duty, by a thorough understanding of the tasks which de- volve upon him and by earnest effort to ad- vance the general welfare, placing the good of the country before partisanship and the wel- fare of his country before personal aggran- dizement.
ROBERT MARSHALL, one of the worthiest and most prominent of the farmer-citizens of Montgomery county, is a member of the fa- mous Marshall family of Virginia and Ken- tucky, and a descendant of the great chief jus- tice. He owns and operates some four hun- dred valuable acres and breeds and raises some of the best stock in all the state of Kentucky. He was born in Fayette county October 28. 1839, and is a son of Glass Marshall, also a native of that county. His grandfather and namesake the Rev. Robert Marshall, was in his day one of the best known of Kentucky
divines. Glass Marshall, the father, was born in the year 1809 (November 19), and died April 26, 1899. He was three times married, the first time to a Miss Foster; the second to Mary Boyd, the subject's mother ; and third to Mrs. Lizzie Cook, nee Paine. Mary Boyd was born in the city of Philadelphia, Novem- ber 4, 1801. Glass Marshall was educated un- der the tuition of his father, who conducted a classical school, engaged in farming as a life work and for years was an elder in Bethel church. Mr. Marshall was one of a family of five children, the other members being: Alfred, who resides in California ; Samuel, de- ceased; Elizabeth, principal of the Female In- stitute of Princeton, Kentucky ; and Mary W., deceased, who was the wife of H. H. Allen, of Washington, D. C.
Mr. Marshall was reared upon the farm and received his education in Joel H. Marvin's pri- vate school and the Bethel Classic School, from which he was graduated. His youth was passed in those serious and thoughtful times just preceding the Civil war, when instinc- tively it was felt that a period of sharp struggle lay before, and when about every fireside in the land, in the conversation of friends and neighbors, and in the secret of millions of human hearts the battle of opinion was wag- ing. In 1861 Mr. Marshall enlisted in the Independent Scouts of Tennessee, under Cap- tain Culvin F. Sanders, and served until April 22, 1864, when he was paroled at Greenburg, North Carolina. After his long service as a soldier he returned home and was for a time engaged in farming, but in the year 1868 began teaching in his Alma Mater, the Bethel Classic School. Among his pupils were such men as Dr. W. N. Thompson, Junius W. Johnson, Charles M. Lewis, Dr. Payne and a number of other Kentuckians who were to achieve honor and prominence.
Mr. Marshall's career as an educator was of thirteen years' duration and was marked by his attainment of general recognition as one of the enlightened members of the calling. He decided, however, upon a change of occupation and accordingly removed to Mt. Sterling, where for eight years he conducted a hardware business. He then resumed agricultural ac- tivities, for which honorable calling he had always cherished an inclination, removing to his present homestead of four hundred acres in Montgomery county, which his wife had re- ceived as a heritage from her father. This desirable acreage of Kentucky hill and dale is adorned by a beautiful home, which is the cen- ter of a gracious hospitality.
Mr. Marshall secured for himself a happy and congenial life companionship by his mar-
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riage on July 20, 1881, to Miss Eliza D. Ma- gowan, daughter of William C. and Caroline Scott (Davis) Magowan, and granddaughter of that revered statesman, the Hon. Garrett Davis, for many years United States senator. Mrs. Marshall was born upon the farm on which she now resides, February 27, 1856. Her father was born December 29. 1827, and died July 22, 1895; while the mother's birth occurred April 4, 1831, and her death, June 15, 1874. The union of Mr. and Mrs. Marshall has been cemented by the birth of three chil- dren. Mary Boyd, named for her paternal grandmother, is the wife of Charles Derick- son and resides in Mt. Sterling ; William Glass is at home and operates the home farm in con- junction with his father; and Garrett D. is a student at the University of the South. Caro- line, a daughter of Mrs. Marshall by a former marriage, is the wife of D. Byrd Gwinn, of Huntington, West Virginia.
Mrs. Marshall's grandfather Magowan came to the Blue Grass state from Virginia and located in Montgomery county, where he pur- chased a large tract of land and became a successful farmer. Her father was here reared and married and engaged in agricul- ture with a marked degree of success until the time of his death.
Giving his heart and hand to all worthy causes Mr. Marshall has been a life-long mem- ber of the Presbyterian church and an elder at Mt. Sterling. He superintended the laying of the foundation and the building of the church edifice, and also played a helpful part in the building of the church at Bethel, Ken- tucky. He is a Democrat,-straight-as he puts it, having always given unswerving alle- giance to the policies and principles of that party to which belongs the "Solid South." No one in Montgomery county is better informed on general subjects, for all his life he has been a deep reader and student, keeping specially well in touch with the progress of the times.
In this connection it can not be otherwise than appropriate to give a sketch of the life of Mr. Marshall's grandfather, that famous Ken- tucky minister, Rev. Robert Marshall, who was to the church what Chief Justice Marshall was to the bench and bar.
On the 13th of June, 1793, the Rev. Robert Marshall was ordained pastor of Bethel and Blue Spring churches-known at an earlier date as McConnell's Run church. His official connection with Bethel church embraced a period of. nearly thirty years. With the excep- tion of about ten years-from 1802 to 1812- he spent the whole of his ministerial life in this church and among this people -- a thing that does not usually occur in the life of the
minister of the gospel. He was born in the north of Ireland, in the noted county of Derry, in the year 1760. His ancestors were of the Scotch-Irish race, so noted not only in the his- tory of their own country, but in the history of all countries were God has a worshiper, or truth an adherent, or liberty, civil and religious a defender. The story of their heroic and per- sistent struggle for truth and righteousness ever has and ever must nerve the arm and inspire the soul of all who love principle more than expediency. From his childhood the principles of evangelical religion were inculcated-as these principles were deduced from the Word of God and formulated in the Larger and Shorter Catechisms.
At the age of twelve years he emgirated with his mother, his only surviving parent, and her family to the state of Pennsylvania. There he received the elements of a plain English education. Four years afterward, when he was only sixteen years old, he enlisted in the American army, then struggling for libertv. both civil and religious. He was in six general engagements in the Revolutionary war, one of which was the hard-fought battle of Mon- mouth, where he narrowly escaped with his life, a bullet grazing his locks. While in the army he never swore an oath, though profanity was common in the camp, and he never drank a drop of ardent spirits, though it formed a part of the daily ration. When not on duty he retired to his tent and devoted himself to study. After the close of the war, on his return home, he connected himself with what was then known as the Seceder church, but afterward doubted whether he had been truly converted. Soon after this, under the preach- ing of the noted Dr. McMillan he became a true child of God and the evidence of his con- version grew stronger and stronger until the day of his death. In the twenty-third year of his age he resolutely began studying for the ministry. His academical studies were pur- sued at Liberty Hall. While there a student, the venerable Dr. Archibald Alexander states that he maintained a consistent and exemplary walk among a set of profane and wicked youths, and though standing alone, commanded universal respect. His theological studies were directed by Dr. McMillan and he was licensed to preach in western Pennsylvania in the year 1790. In that year he labored with great success and zeal in the remarkable re- vival then going on in Virginia and in the year 1792 removed to Kentucky with his wife and labored as a missionary under the direction of the Synod, in the following year being or- dained pastor of Bethel and Blue Spring churches. While preaching to these churches
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he also conducted a classical school at which many noted men received their education, among them: Montgomery Blair, prominent in the political world; General Humphrey Marshall, the distinguished lawyer, statesman and soldier ; Rev. W. H. Forsythe, Rev. David R. Preston, Rev. John N. Lyle, Dr. Nash Mc- Dowell, Macauley Witherspoon, Phillip Hock- aday and many others.
Sanguine and impulsive in his feelings, he was carried away by the torrent of enthusiasm that swept over Kentucky in the years 1801, 1802 and 1803. He soon became one of the chief leaders and favored the party afterward known as "New Lights," but from his promi- nence and zeal among them were at that time called Marshallites. Though to a certain ex- tent embracing and promulgating the new measures, yet he never fully adopted their views or entered into their wild extravagances. He had an almost unbounded influence over thousands upon thousands who hung on his words at the great camp-meetings and with a wave of his hand he could quiet the most bois- terous audience. In a short time he saw the dangerous tendency of the doctrines then propagated and promptly returned to the bosom of the church of his fathers. For what he conceived to be right, he stood up in its de- fense, like the sturdy oak that never bends its head to the storm, and yet, when convinced of his mistake, he acknowledged it with equal promptness and magnanimity. In the year 1812 he was reinstated in the pastoral charge of Bethel church, where he continued to preach the gospel at intervals until the year 1819, During the whole period of his ministry, em- bracing forty-two years, he received as salary only four thousand dollars, at the rate of about ninety-five dollars and twenty-five cents a year, and out of this, for five consecutive years, he gave his full salary to the building of Bethel church. It was his custom to give for years one hundred dollars to the American Bible Society. He departed this life June 16, 1832, in the seventy-second year of his age, and his remains are interred in Bethel churchyard.
As a preacher, Robert Marshall was clear, logical, systematic and adhered closely to his text. He was occasionally calm, mild and per- suasive, but more generally warm and vehe- ment and even startling in his language and manner, particularly when he attempted to arouse and impress his audience. He was a useful man and a successful preacher and his labors were abundantly blessed of God, to what extent eternity only can reveal. Con- spicuous among the numerous converts under his ministry may perhaps be classed no less noted and no less useful minister of the gospel
than Dr. Thomas Cleland, who in his autobi- ography speaks of Rev. Marshall in the high- est terms, calling him his "favorite preacher."
Rev. Robert Marshall was twice married, the first time to Jenny Vance, August 2, 1792. She died February 21, 1798, in the thirtieth year of her age. The children of the first marriage were Rachel Vance Marshall, who died in the eighteenth year of her age; Rev. James V. Marshall, who died aged thirty- eight, on his way as delegate to the General Assembly at Guyandotte, Virginia; and Rev. Samuel Vance Marshall, born February 6, 1798, and died at Madison, Indiana, November 30, 1860.
On the 20th of December, 1798, Rev. Mr. Marshall was married to Betsy Glass, who died November 12, 1848, in the seventy-eighth year of her age. She is buried by his side in Bethel graveyard. The children by this mar- riage were: Joseph Glass Marshall, who died April 8, 1855; Betsy Glass Marshall, died September 6, 1841 ; Robert Marshall, who died October II, 1861; Sarah B. Marshall, who died April 8, 1869; and Glass Marshall, father of Mr. Marshall, the immediate subject of this review.
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