USA > Kentucky > A history of Kentucky and Kentuckians; the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume III > Part 105
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grand outlook in this great science, the art of healing.
EDWARD M. FLEXNER was born in Louis- ville, Kentucky, December 5, 1864, the son of J. A. and Laura (Sicher) Flexner. Both par- ents were natives of Bohemia, coming to Louisville before the Civil war. Edward left school before his twelfth year to face the serious problems of life. Like many others who have risen to prominence, he sold papers. Later he worked at the printing trade, and at sixteen entered the establishment of Bam- berger, Bloom & Company which dominated the dry goods business of the city at the time. At this period young Flexner developed a fondness for politics and it looked like that strenous field would claim his activities. For six years he served as page in the Board of Aldermen, and in the campaigns of that per- iod showed such aptitude for the game that he was called "the boy politician." At eigh- teen he was given a road position by his house and traveled in the state of Kentucky and be- came known from one end of the state to the other. At twenty-five he went into business for himself in the West, and for a few years he was lost to Louisville. Returning to the city of his birth some years ago he quit mer- chandising, being now president of the Flex- ner Distilling Company. In 1896 he wedded Miss Belle Katz of Chicago, Illinois. Two boys adorn their home-Edward M. Flexner, Jr., aged thirteen, and Henry Watterson Flexner, aged eleven.
CAPTAIN JOHN THOMAS GAINES .- One of the citizens of whom Jefferson county has especial reason to be proud is the gentleman whose name initiates this sketch, who first gained title to distinction above most men by his services as a soldier during the war be- tween the states, and later took high rank as a teacher, in which he has held several re- sponsible positions and is still in the same line.
Captain Gaines was born in Anderson county, Kentucky, on September 5, 1841. His father was Keeling Carlton Gaines, a native of Orange county, Virginia, the son of Thomas and Elizabeth (Rowe) Gaines natives of Virginia, the former of Rockingham county, the latter from Orange county. The maternal great-grandfather, Colonel Thomas Rowe, was an officer with General Washing- ton at Yorktown, Virginia, and his sword is still in the family possession. The · paternal great-grandfather was Robert Gaines, of Rockingham county, and the great-great- grandfather was William Henry Gaines, who married Isabella Pendleton. The Gaines fam-
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ily came originally from England, and goes back to the Virginia colony in early times. Beyond William Henry Gaines, were Richard 3rd, Richard 2nd and Richard Ist. Richard 2nd was with Washington at Braddock's de- feat. The mother of Captain Gaines was Marian Pulliam, who was born in Franklin county, Kentucky, the daughter of John and Elizabeth (Blackwell) Pulliam. John Pulliam was a Kentuckian and removed to Jefferson county and died in Jeffersontown. Robert Blackwell, great-grandfather of the Captain, was with Clarke, the explorer. The first Gr the Gaines to come to Kentucky, of this branch, was Thomas Gaines, grandfather of the Captain, who settled first in Mercer county, but a year later located on his farm in Anderson county, where he lived the re- mainder of his life. The father of the Cap- tain was an infant when the family came to Kentucky in 1810. He was living near Frank- fort when the war between the states started and he became chaplain of the Fifth Ken- tucky Regiment, Confederate army, and died at La Grange, Georgia, having been taken sick in camp just before the battle of Mis- sionary Ridge, but was carried back to La Grange. The mother died in Louisville, at the Captain's home, in 1893. To the parents nine children were born, of whom there are four still living. Leonidas, was a first lieutenant of Duke's Regiment of Kentucky, Morgan's Troops, and was killed in Tennessee. Junius Moreau, another son, belonged first to Stearn's Third Regiment, Tennessee Cavalry, but was transferred to his brother's Company of Morgan's Troops. went on the Morgan raid into Indiana, was captured and died a pris- oner at Camp Morton, Indiana.
Captain John Thomas Gaines received his education at the country schools and in 1858 entered the Kentucky Military Institute, and from the Institute, went to the front when the school was suspended in the winters of 1861- 62. In 1862 he entered the Confederate army in Acton's Company of Dushay's Battalion, of which he was commissioned first lieuten- ant. After the retreat out of Kentucky and while at Knoxville his company and one other were attached to the Ninth Kentucky Regi- ment, Colonel Thomas Hunt, commanding, and his company became Company K. He com- manded the company out of Kentucky, the Captain having dropped out of the ranks, but was carried on the rolls, however, until 1864. The two companies joined the Ninth Regi- ment at 'Murfreesboro and our subject still commanded Company K as first lieutenant. They saw their first service at .Hartsville. Tennessee, where after an all night march
they surrounded and captured three regi- ments of infantry, a battery and a squadron of cavalry, in all about two thousand men, which they took to Murfreesboro. This oc- curred in December, 1862, and in the last of that same month saw the battle of Murfres- boro. From Murfreesboro the regiment went into quarters at Manchester and in the Spring of 1863 they were ordered south with Gen- eral Breckenridge and at Montgomery, Ala- bama, an order came detaching Companies I and K and ordering them to Virginia, with the intention of recruiting a new regiment. All of that summer, from April to August, they spent in West Virginia doing outpost duty and scouting. They were next ordered to Knoxville and were attached to the Fifth Kentucky Regiment, as Companies I and K, and proceeded to Chickamauga, then Mission- ary Ridge and other battles. They spent the winter of 1863 and 1864 in winter quarters at Dalton, the army having been reorganized at Missionary Ridge, troops from different states being thrown together and thus Com- panies I and K became a part of the "Orphan Brigade." He was in command of his com- pany during Sherman's campaign to the sea.
From South Carolina on March 3, 1865, two days after Sherman captured Columbus, Captain Gaines, together with forty others, started for Kentucky to recruit. The Captain with several others got through and reached Kentucky on April 6th, after a hard and trying experience in getting over the moun- tains. The surrender of Lee and Johnson soon followed and the war was over, and go- ing to Lexington, the captain took the oatlı of allegiance.
The war being over, the Captain turned his sword into the plowshare, went into the field and helped to raise a crop of corn, working for eighteen dollars a month and board. As he was intrepid in times of war, so he was valorous in times of peace, and this often re- quires as much courage as the other. His sturdy character was not vanquished and he was as ready to carve out a new career for himself as when he buckled on his sword ready to do or die for his country's sake. That fall he opened a school at Bridgeport, Ken- tucky, and in 1868 he was appointed first as- distant principal of the graded schools of Frankfort, where he taught for five years. In 1873 he was elected principal of a Lexington school and in 1877 he was elected principal of the Broadway School, Louisville, Ken- tucky, where he taught for eighteen years, and then transferred to the Tenth Ward School. Captain Gaines was next elected to the principalship of the Louisville Commer-
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cial High School in 1900, being the second principal of the school and he has since con- tinued in this position, occupying it at the present time.
He has served as president of the Louis- ville Educational Association, as president of the Kentucky State Teachers' Association, has frequently attended the National Teach- er's Conventions, and is an active member of the National Commercial Teachers Federa tion. He is a member of the "Orphan Bri- gade" organization and of George B. Caston Camp, Confederate Veterans.
Captain Gaines married Cordelia Russell in 1866, who was born in Franklin County, Kentucky, the daughter of Captain John W. Russell, who was a captain in the New Or- leans and Louisville river trade, and during the Harrison administration was appointed to the command of the snag boat. He served in the war of 1812. To Captain and Mrs. Gaines were born the following children: Margaret J., who married Dr. W. W. Ross, of Prescott, Arizona; Mariam, at home; An- nie J., who married Robert J. Hunter, a Presbyterian minister, now of Canton, North Carolina ; J. Russell, born in Franklin county, Kentucky, now county surveyor of Jefferson county, Kentucky; Thomas Carlton, cashier of a bank at Middleton, Kentucky; Cordelia, who married Arthur Storke, bookkeeper for the Kentucky Electric Company. The life record of Captain Gaines is full of encourage- ment to those who would win in life's race by adherence to straightforward rules of con- duct, for he is a man whose influence would be felt in any community and who has left the imprint of his individuality wherever he has lived.
REV. JOHN HENRY RILEY .- It is with a feeling of satisfaction that the writer es- says the task of touching briefly upon the details of the record of the character of the able and devoted pastor of the Church of the Annunciation, B. V. M., Shelbyville, Ken- tucky. He has been an indefatigable and zeal- ous worker in promoting both the temporal and spiritual growth of the parish over which he is placed in charge, while his influence in diocesan affairs has been potent for good. A man of high intellectuality and unmistakable consecration to the work of the Divine Master, ever devoted to the Mother Church in all her gracious and beneficent functions, his life has been one of signal usefulness as a clergyman and a man, and this resume of his career can- not fail to be read with interest to church peo- ple and to all others who have had cognizance of his earnest and effective endeavors.
Father John Henry Riley was born in Fall
River, Massachusetts, on July 19, 1862, the son of Daniel and Mary A. (Sullivan) Riley, both natives of Ireland and among the first Catholic settlers of Fall River. They are both still living, the mother being the oldest living Catholic settler of Fall River.
Father Riley was educated at the public schools and graduated from the Fall River High School, class of 1881. He entered the Holy Cross College, Worcester, Massachusetts, and thence the St. Charles College, Ellicott City, Maryland, from which he graduated in the class of 1884. He further extended his education by entering St. Mary's Seminary, Baltimore, Maryland, but on account of ill health withdrew from that institution. For a year he studied architecture under J. B. Burt, at Fall River, Massachusetts. Having again resumed his studies he was ordained to the Priesthood by Rt. Rev. William George Mc- Closkey, D. D., Bishop of Louisville, at the Cathedral of the Assumption, Louisville, Ken- tucky, January 1I, 1891. He was stationed at the Cathedral, Louisville, until June, 1891, then for a time in Davies county, Kentucky, next was for nine years at the Mother House. of the Sisters of Loretto, in Marion county, Kentucky, where he was chaplain, and finally transferred, in 1906, to Shelbyville.
He has not only shown marked zeal and earnestness in his clerical work but has mani- fested an administrative ability which has been most potent in insuring the temporal wel- fare of his parish and he is held in the highest esteem for his devotion to his church and principles, as well as for his able service in his holy calling as a priest of the church. He erected the new parochial residence in 1910 and liquidated debts against the church which had been outstanding for years. He is a man of broad humanitarian principles, of deep sympathy and of most kindly and benevolent spirit. His recognition of the tri-fold nature of man, of individual responsibility and of the obligations that rest upon the strong to aid and strengthen the weak have prompted his earnest, effective and far-reaching efforts for the moral development and his active co- operation for intellectual progress as well. He is a member of the Louisville Council of the Knights of Columbus.
HENRY C. WALBECK .- No man occupies a more enviable or honorable position in finan- cial circles in Louisville than Henry C. Wal- beck. Throughout almost his entire business career he has been closely associated with mon- eyed interests and his name in banking circles is one which carries with it weight and con- fidence, for throughout an active career he has displayed thorough understanding of banking
Henry Chalbeck
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methods and the progressive spirit which en- ables one to advance beyond existing condi- tions into fields giving a broader outlook and wider scope.
A native son is Henry C. Walbeck, president of the German Insurance Bank, his birth oc- curring in Louisville, on Main street near Sec- ond street on the 17th of August, 1848. He is the son of Peter Van Walbeck, a native of Amsterdam, Holland, who came to Louisville, Kentucky, in 1840 and became the pioneer manufacturer of furniture in Louisville, estab- lishing the first furniture factory in that city. His first factory was on Floyd street between Market and Main streets. Then he removed to Lexington, Kentucky, where he bought a farm and engaged in agricultural pursuits for a little over a year, but farming proved to be only an incident among the activities in which he was engaged and he made it a profitable enterprise rather than a chief occupation for he returned to Louisville and re-engaged in the manufacture of furniture, building a fac- tory on Walnut street between Jackson and Hancock streets where he continued in busi- ness until his death in the cholera epidemic in 1852, in the forty-eighth year of his age. His wife, the mother of our subject, was Frederica Meyers, who was born in Oldenburg, Germany. The parents were married in Baltimore, Mary- land, and Mrs. Walbeck died November 17, 1888. Their children were as follows : Martin Van Walbeck, living in Sacramento, Califor- nia ; Henrietta, widow of the late George Dill of Louisville, Kentucky; Mary, married to George Preuser of Louisville, Kentucky ; and William, died in infancy, and Henry C.
Henry C. Walbeck was educated in the pub- lic schools, Boyd's Commercial School and Meyer's Commercial School of Louisville. At the early age of thirteen he started out to en- gage in the business of life and seek what it held for himself, to which end he became a clerk under Captain Tucker of the United States Quartermaster's Department on Second and Main streets, Louisville.
In about 1863, he went with J. H. H. Wood- ward, claim agent, with whom he remained about one year and then Capt. John C. Lemon, another claim agent secured his services. About one year later he engaged with Brenner, Socksteder & Bates, dealers in artists' paints and materials as their bookkeeper. In 1867 Mr. Walbeck began the career in which his future life was to be spent and in which he has risen to the top. Commencing with the position of bookkeeper in the German Secur- ity Bank, he continued there for nearly four years leaving that bank as teller. Just here an interlude occurred in his banking business when he took a position with George Dreis-
back Co., flour and mill feed, as bookkeeper, where he remained only a few months and then took the position of teller in the German Bank, corner of Fifth and Market streets, where he continued for nearly twenty-seven years, during which time he was cashier of the bank for a period of between ten and eleven years. Mr. Walbeck entered the German In- surance Bank, January 1, 1896, as cashier, which position he filled until the death of W. H. Edinger, president, in 1910, when he suc- ceeded to the presidency of the bank in Au- gust. A man of great energy, activity and force of character, his perceptions are wonder- fully quick and he has a broad grasp of the scope and bearing of the many important busi- ness propositions which he is called upon to consider. During the first two years of his ad- ministration as cashier of the German Insur- ance Bank, the deposits of that bank increased nearly $3,000,000.
Mr. Walbeck has served in various positions in the different societies and associations to which he belongs. He served as treasurer of the Lakeland Asylum (state institution) for about seven years without salary. For thirty odd years he served as treasurer of Antiquity Lodge, A. O. U. W. He is treasurer of the Salvage Corps, which position he has held since February, 1905, and was secretary of the German Insurance Company, succeeding Mr. Edinger as president of the company in An- gust, 1910. Mr. Walbeck was one of the or- ganizers of the South Avenue Methodist church and a member of its board of trustees for many years.
Mr. Walbeck married Lucie M. Bayles, daughter of Colonel Jesse Bayles and to this union the following children have been born: Eveline, a most talented young lady who passed away in death at the early and inter- esting age of twenty-three years, she designed the "log cabin" for the Republican party ; Jessie, who married Dr. B. L. Jones, Profes- sor of the College at Kalamazoo, Michigan; Henry C., M. D., of Lexington, Kentucky ; Ed- win M., married Nannie Taylor, of Pasadena, California, and are residents of Louisville : Annette, who died in infancy.
Mr. Walbeck is absorbed in his business af- fairs to the extent that he has refrained from taking any active part in politics or public movements, but in a quiet way has contributed his share toward securing good government and to promote charitable, reformatory and church work. His sagacity, his conservatism and his unqualified reputation for uprightness, honesty and integrity combined to establish perfect confidence in the institutions with which he has been connected. The consistency and perseverence which he displayed through-
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out his youthful endeavors to forward him- self in a business world in which he only had his own determined will and good standing to recommend him, serve to show the depth of character and strict adherence to principle that has excited the admiration of his contempo- raries. He has been faithful to the high offices in which he has been called to serve and is widely known and respected by all who are at all familiar with his honorable and useful career.
CHARLES COTESWORTH MARSHALL .- The name of Judge Charles C. Marshall ranks high among his professional brethren of the Shelby county bar, and we are pleased to present to his numerous friends and acquain- tances this sketch of his useful life. In the possession of admirable qualities of mind and heart, in holding marked precedence as a dis- tinguished member of the legal profession, and in being a man of high attainments and dis- tinct executive ability, Judge Marshall chal- lenges attention as one distinctively eligible for representation in this compilation, while his earnest and upright career, his fine geneal- ogical record and his position as a man of af- fairs, but serve to render the more consonant an epitome of his life history in this connec- tion.
Judge Marshall was born in Charleston, Mississippi, on May 26, 1868, the son of Charles C. and Mattie (Hill) Marshall. The father was a native of Virginia and served in the Confederate army. He came from Vir- ginia to Kentucky, thence went to Mississippi, and there married his wife, who was a native of that state. Both parents died when the Judge was about one year old.
Judge Marshall was reared in Shelbyville by his aunt, Mrs. Joseph Foree, whose hus- band was long the county judge of Shelby county. He received his early education in the public and private schools of Shelbyville, from whence he matriculated in Georgetown. (Kentucky) College, where he spent three years. In early manhood Judge Marshall de- termined to make the practice of law his life work, and after completing his literary educa- tion began studying for the bar, reading law in the office of Pryor Foree, of Shelbyville, and he was admitted to the har in 1893. He at once entered into practice, forming a part- nership with E. B. Beard, which lasted until 1907. He was prosperous from the first and soon ranked among the first attorneys in the community. He served as county attorney of Shelby county from 1902 to 1906, and upon the resignation from the judgeship of the Twelfth Kentucky Judicial District of Judge J. Frank Peak in 1907, our subject was ap-
pointed to fill the vacancy, was then elected to the unexpired term, and in 1909 was elected to serve the full term, beginning January, 1, 1910. The Twelfth Judicial District is the largest, save one, in Kentucky, extending from the Ohio river to the Salt river and embracing the counties of Shelby, Henry, Spencer, An- derson, Oldham and Trimble.
Judge Marshall is a member of the Masonic order, having attained the Royal Arch de- grees. He married Miss Elizabeth Wickliffe, who was born in Louisiana, the daughter of Governor Robert C. Wickliffe, a Kentuckian who became a governor of Louisiana. She is the granddaughter of Governor Wickliffe of Kentucky. They have two children : Margaret Wickliffe and Charles C., Jr. Judge Marshall has had a successful and enviable professional career and it is to his credit that general pub- lic sentiment approves his actions as honest, faithful, zealous and conspicuously business like, and his various official duties have been discharged with a promptness and fidelity worthy of the highest commendation.
J. MORRY WAKEFIELD .- One of the well- known, prominent and highly esteemed citi- zens of Shelbyville, Kentucky, is the subject of the present review, and the history of the influential men of the state would not be com- plete without notice of one who has taken so large a part in the public affairs of the com- munity. Mr. Wakefield is a native of Ken- tucky, born in Spencer county on February I, 1849, the son of James H. Wakefield, who was born in Spencer county, Kentucky, Aug- ust 30, 1810. The grandfather was Matthew Wakefield, who was born in 1788, in what is now Spencer county, Kentucky, but which was then Virginia. The great-grandfather was a native of Pennsylvania, of Scotch-Irish par- ents, and he was a Kentucky pioneer, having been one of the first settlers in what is now Spencer county. He married a Miss Jackson, a descendant of the famous. old Jackson fam- ily. Matthew Wakefield, the grandfather, married Elizabeth Heady, who was a native of what is now Spencer county. The mother of the subject was Mary E. Taggart, who was the daughter of James Taggart. She lived born in county Antrim, Ireland, in June, 1814, in her native town until she was about twenty years of age and then (in 1834) came with her family to the United States, said family consisting of the parents, two sons. and five daughters. They came direct from county An- trim to Spencer county, Kentucky. The father of the subject died in May, 1909, and the mother, in September, 1882. The children of this marriage are as follows: Mathew, de- ceased; Mark, deceased; John D., living in
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North Dakota; J. Morry, our subject ; Joseph W., residing in Spencer county; Alice, who married Miles McKee, and is now deceased; Annie E., who married John S. May, of Spencer county, Kentucky, and is now living in Jefferson county, this state.
J. Morry Wakefield, the immediate subject of this review, was reared on the farm in Spencer county and received his education in the public schools and in the school of Pro- fessor T. J. Dooland in Shelby county. A due proportion of farm work naturally fell to his share and his early environments were conducive to his taking an active and working interest in the business of farming and stock trading. In the latter line he commenced to play an active part very early in life, remain- ing on the farm at home until his marriage, in 1872, when he started out on his own ac- count and engaged in agricultural pursuits on his own responsibility. During the years 1875 and 1876 he engaged in the grocery business in Louisville, but his tastes and inclinations were in the direction of farming and at the close of the latter year he bought a farm in Spencer county and for fourteen years op- erated it prosperously and happily, being well known and highly respected throughout the entire community. In 1890 he located in Shelbyville, purchased a livery business and for a period of eight years engaged in that calling. In 1902 he made a somewhat radical change by purchasing the Hotel Armstrong in Shelbyville and 'for a number of years he has acceptably and admirably played the role of "Mine Host," while at the same time trad- ing extensively in Jersey cattle. He has very recently retired after a useful and successful life and enjoys in leisure the society of his wife and family and many friends.
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