A history of Kentucky and Kentuckians; the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume III, Part 107

Author: Johnson, E. Polk, 1844-; Lewis Publishing Company
Publication date: 1912
Publisher: Chicago, Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 860

USA > Kentucky > A history of Kentucky and Kentuckians; the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume III > Part 107

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MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY KEMPER .- A man of liberal education and actively engaged in the practice of law in Lexington, Fayette county, has brought to his profession a well- trained mind and habits of industry which have won him success at the bar and gained for him the respect and esteem of his fellow- men. A son of Professor Charles Joseph Kemper, he was born July 29, 1874, in Louisa county, Virginia. His grandfather, George Whitefield Kemper, and his great-grandfather, Charles Kemper, were natives of Virginia. The emigrant ancestor of the family, one Johann Kemper, came to America from Ger- many with a colony consisting of twelve Ger- man families, in Colonial times, and settled in Virginia, in a locality called Germania.

Born and brought up in Fauquier county, Virginia, George Whitefield Kemper, his grandfather, studied medicine in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, when young, and having re- ceived the degree of M. D. located at Port Republic, Rockingham county, Virginia, where he was engaged in his professional duties dur- ing his remaining years, becoming the leading physician of his community. Dr. Kemper married Matilda Graham, who was born in Virginia, of Scotch ancestry.

Professor Charles Joseph Kemper, A. M., was born in Rockingham county, Virginia, in 1829, and in the private schools of the Valley of Virginia laid a substantial foundation for

his future education. Being subsequently graduated from the University of Virginia, he began his professional career as a teacher. At the breaking out of the war between the states he was one of the corps of instructors at Bethany College, in Bethany, West Virginia. Resigning his positicei, he enlisted in the Con- federate army, in the department of engineers. After spending some time in engineering work on the field, he was transferred to Richmond, Virginia, where he served as Captain of En- gineers in the offices of the Confederate topo- graphical survey commission until the evacua- tion of that city. At the close of the war he resumed his professorship in Bethany College, with which institution he was connected until 1884. Returning to his old home in Virginia, he established a private high school in Louisa county, Virginia, where he taught until 1889, at which time he was offered and accepted a professorship in what was then "Kentucky University," but now known as "Pennsylvania University," at Lexington, Kentucky. He remained with that institution as professor of Astronomy and applied math- ematics and engineering until 1897, when he resigned and returned to Louisa county, Vir- · ginia, and there resided until his death, in 1902.

Professor Charles J. Kemper married Mary Burnley Pendleton, who was born in Louisa county, Virginia, a daughter of Dr. Joseph Winston and Elizabeth (Goodwin) Pendleton. She died in November, 1903, leaving four children, namely: Charles Pendleton, George Whitefield, Matthew Fontaine Maury and Graham Hawes.

After leaving his father's high school in Virginia, Matthew F. M. Kemper came with his parents to Lexington, Kentucky, and four years later, in 1893, was graduated from Transylvania University with the degree of A. B. The following year, 1894, he was hon- ored by the university with the degree of A. M., and in 1895 was given the degree of LL. B. in the College of Law. Mr. Kemper sub- sequently attended the University of Virginia under the instruction of his kinsman, the late John B. Minor, and since that time has been successfully engaged in the practice of his chosen profession in Lexington, being one of the best known members of the Fayette county bar.

Mr. Kemper married, in 1902, Esther Field Whitney, who was born in Fayette county, Kentucky, a daughter of George H. and America Innes Whitney. Mr. and Mrs. Kemper have one child, George Whitney Kemper. Politically Mr. Kemper is a staunch supporter of the principles of the Democratic

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party, and fraternally he is a member of Lex- ington Lodge, No. 89, B. P. O. E.

Since his admission to the bar Mr. Kemper has appeared in a great many of the most im- portant trials in his part of the state and is known as one of the most forcible and effec- tive jury advocates in central Kentucky.

WILLIAM M. BULLITT .- As one of the representative members of the bar of the city of Louisville and as one of the loyal and pub- .lic-spirited citizens of the metropolis of his native commonwealth, William Marshall Bul- litt is well upholding the prestige of a name that has been identified with the annals of Kentucky in a most distinguished and influ- ential way and which has here had able and honored representatives in the several genera- tions. The lineage is traced back to sterling French-Huguenot origin, and the founder of the family in America was Joseph Bullet, who fled from his home in the beautiful province of Languedoc, France, to escape the religious persecutions incidental to the revocation of the historic Edict of Nantes, and who found refuge and freedom in the American colonies. He came to this country in 1685 and settled near Port Tobacco, Maryland. He was born in 1660 and his death occurred in 1702. Ow- ing to the English law prohibiting aliens from holding land in the American colonies, he changed the original French orthography of his name, Bullet, to the English form, Bullitt, which has since been retained by his descend- ants. Benjamin Bullitt, son of Joseph, was born in 1700 and died in 1776. His son Cuth- bert, judge of the General Court of Virginia ( 1788-1791) was born in 1740 and died in 1791, and the latter's son, Alexander Scott Bullitt, who was born in Virginia in 1762, was the founder of the Kentucky branch of the family.

Alexander Scott Bullitt, great-grandfather of him to whom this sketch is dedicated, was a man of prominence and influence in Vir- ginia, of whose Legislature or House of Dele- gates, he was a member in 1783. He was commissioned by Patrick Henry as major of the militia of Prince William county, Vir- ginia, and also as county lieutenant, and he became one of the pioneers of Kentucky at the time when this commonwealth was still an in- tegral part of Virginia. He was a member of the convention which formulated plans for the making of Kentucky an independent state, and he was also a delegate to the first state constitutional convention, in 1702. In the same vear which recorded the admission of Ken- tucky to the Union he was elected speaker of the first session of the senate of the new com- monwealth. He served as president of the

state senate for twelve successive years, at the expiration of which he retired from public lite. He was elected the first lieutenant gov- ernor of the state and was president of the second constitutional convention, in 1799. He died on the 13th of April, 1816. At various points in the generic and individual history appearing in this work will be found further data concerning this distinguished citizen, in whose honor Bullitt county was named.

William C. Bullitt, son of Hon. Alexander Scott Bullitt, was born in Kentucky in 1793, and he died, in Jefferson county, this state, in 1877. He was a lawyer by profession but early retired from practice to devote his at- tention to agricultural pursuits, in connection with which he was the owner of a fine landed estate of large area. He, like his honored father, was a man of fine ability and was in- fluential in public affairs. He was a member of the third constitutional convention of the state-that of 1849. His son, Thomas W. Bullitt, father of him whose name initiates this review, was born at Oxmoor, Jefferson county, Kentucky, on the 17th of May, 1838. He was graduated in Center College, at Dan- ville, this state, as a member of the class of 1858, and thereafter he attended the law de- partment of the University of Pennsylvania, in which institution he was graduated. He was admitted to the bar of the Keystone state in 1861, in the city of Philadelphia, where he was engaged in the practice of his profession for one year thereafter. When the Civil war was precipitated he showed unequivocal loy- alty to the cause of the Confederacy. He enlisted in the Confederate army, as a member of a Kentucky regiment, in 1862, and served until the close of the war. He was held as a prisoner of war for some time-at Column- bus, Ohio, and at Fort Delaware. He long held prestige as one of the leading members · of the Louisville bar, where he continued in the practice of his profession until his death. which occurred on the 3d of March, 1910. He was a staunch advocate of the basic prin- ciples for which the Democratic party long stood sponsor, as exemplified by Jefferson and Tackson, but when the financial plank regulat- ing the coinage of silver was adopted by the national convention of 1896 he found his views so greatly at variance with the principles thus advocated that he became an independent or "gold" Democrat, in which he was a mem- her of the Chicago conference that called the Indianapolis convention which placed in nom- ination General Palmer as presidential candi- date on the sound-money Democratic ticket in 1896. He was a delegate to this convention and gave active and effective service in the

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ensuing campaign. His religious faith was that ot the Presbyterian church. He was a man of great intellectual and professional tal- ent and his sterling character gained and re- tained to him the confidence and high regard of his fellow men in all walks of life. He married Miss Annie P. Logan, daughter of Judge Caleb W. Logan, a distinguished jurist of Kentucky. The latter was a son of Hon. William Logan, who represented Kentucky in the United States senate and who was a son of General Benjamin Logan, another distin- guished Kentuckian. Judge Caleb W. Logan married Miss Agatha Marshall, daughter of Dr. Louis Marshall, of Buck Pond, Ken- tucky, who was a younger brother of the re- nowned Chief Justice John Marshall.

William Marshall Bullitt was born in the city of Louisville on the 4th of March, 1873. and after having been accorded the advantages of the Rugby School and Trinity Hall, two of the excellent educational institutions of his native city, he continued his studies at Law- renceville School, New Jersey, where he was prepared for Princeton University, that state, in which institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1894 and from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Science. In preparation for the work of his chosen pro- fession he was matriculated in the Louisville Law School, in which he was graduated in 1895, with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. He was admitted to the bar of his native state on the 26th of April, 1895, and forth- with entered the office of Bullitt & Sheild, of which his honored father was the senior mem- ber. Under these conditions he gained his initial experience in the practical work of his profession. and in 1900 he became associated with his father in practice under the firm name of Bullitt & Bullitt. which was retained until the death of his father, since which time he has conducted a successful individual prac- tice. He is a director of and counsel for the Union National Bank. the First National Bank, the Kentucky Title Company, and the Kentucky Title Savings Bank & Trust Com- pany, besides which he is a member of the directorate of both the Louisville, Henderson & St. Louis Railroad Company and the Fi- delitv Trust Company. He was counsel for the Republican contestants of the election of 1005, and when the case was carried to the Kentucky court of appeals that tribunal set aside the election of that year, as touching all city and county offices in Louisville and Tef- ferson countv. and ordered a new election, which was duly held. He has won other im- rortant causes in the various courts and is known as a versatile and resourceful advocate.

He was chairman of the board of public safety of Louisville from November 14, 1907, until May, 1909, when he resigned.

In politics Mr. Bullitt is aligned as a staunch supporter of the cause of the Republi- can party, and he was a delegate at large from Kentucky to the Republican national conven- tion at Chicago in 1908, in which he served as a member of the committee on resolutions. He is a communicant of the Protestant Episcopal church, is a member of the Metropolitan and Princeton Clubs of New York City, the Pen- dennis and Country Clubs of Louisville, and the Society of the Sons of the American Revo- lution. Mr. Bullitt is a bachelor.

JOHN MCCAULEY .- Among the prominent men whom Lexington has been called to mourn within the past few years none have been more missed in the industrial circles of the city than John McCauley, who contributed largely towards advancing the material and financial prosperity of the community in which he lived. Coming from a long line of thrifty Scotch ancestors, he was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which was likewise the birthi- place of his father, John McCauley, Sr.

John McCauley, Sr., was a man of rare tact and discrimination, and as a man of much business ability met with eminent success in his undertakings. Both he and his good wife, Mary McCauley, spent their entire lives in the Quaker City. He was connected with one of the noted patriotic organizations of that city. having been a charter member of the Sons of Liberty.

John McCauley, the special subject of this brief biography, acquired a good education in the Philadelphia schools. Traits that distin- guished him in after life were developed in his early life, and when ready to take up the bur- den of life on his own account ambition caused him to try a new field of action. Com- ing, therefore, to Kentucky, Mr. McCauley lo- cated in Lexington, Fayette county. Desirous of wisely investing his money, he established himself as a manufacturer of hemp and cotton

bagging, and for several years carried on a substantial business in that line of industry. He also established other enterprises of a like nature, and for some time was successfully en- gaged. also, in banking, becoming one of the leading capitalists of the city. Successful in his undertakings, he continued a resident of Lexington until his death.

The maiden name of the wife of Mr. Mc- Cauley was Mary Meredith Coleman. She was born in Fayette county, Kentucky, a daughter of James and Elizabeth Breckinridge ( Mer- ritt) Coleman, a granddaughter of Samuel and

Kilbourne th Smith

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Elizabeth (Breckinridge) Merritt and great- granddaughter of Colonel Samuel Meredith.

Colonel Samuel Meredith was an officer in the English army and fought against the In- dians. At the breaking out of the Revolution- ary war, he joined forces with the Colonists, and had command of the army at Williams- burg. Locating in Richmond, Virginia, at the close of the struggle for independence, he was there actively engaged in the practice of law until his death. Colonel Meredith married Sarah Henry, a sister of Patrick Henry. At the death of her illustrious brother she became owner of his portrait, painted on ivory by a celebrated artist and mounted in gold ; and also of a memorial painting representing a female figure mourning at his tomb, the figure having on its head hair taken from the head of Pat- rick Henry. These two unique and beautiful memorials have descended from one genera- tion of the family to another and are now owned by Mrs. McCauley's daughters, Miss Laetitia McCauley having one and her sister, Mrs. Fletcher Johnston, having the other. Col- onel Meredith's son, Samuel Meredith, was a pioneer settler of Fayette county. A well-to-do agriculturist, he brought a large number of slaves with him from his Virginia home and became an extensive planter and a man of in- fluence, serving on the staff of a Governor, and as a colonel in the State Militia.

Mrs. Mary Meredith (Coleman) McCauley was a life-long resident of Fayette county. She died at the comparatively early age of forty-one years, leaving four daughters, name- ly: Elizabeth Coleman, who married Colonel J. Fletcher Johnston and has one son, Mere- dith Johnston, now a journalist in New York City; Laetitia Preston; Florence Virginia, widow of Benjamin L. Goodwin, of whom a brief sketch appears elsewhere in this work; and Mary Breckinridge, wife of Dr. Alfred M. Peter.

KILBOURN W. SMITH .- The late Kilbourn W. Smith was for many years one of the most prominent insurance men of Louisville, but he did not confine his attention alone to this line. He was prominently connected with many concerns and was a man of resourceful business ability and marked enterprise and carried forward to a successful completion whatever he undertook. It is with profound respect to his memory and admiration of his character that we record this memoir of his life.

Kilbourn W. Smith was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, April 28, 1841, the son of Charles J. W. and Elizabeth (L'horton) Smith, the father a native of Bedford, Pennsylvania, of English extraction, and the mother a native

of Nantes, France. His maternal grand- father was a native of Nantes, France, and served as an officer in the French army under Napoleon Bonaparte. The father of our sub- ject was born in Bedford, Pennsylvania, September 19, 1813, and came west to Ohio and settled in Cincinnati in 1830, where he was clerk in a general store for some time, and then coming to Louisville engaged in business in which he continued until 1834, when he returned to Cincinnati. He then en- gaged in merchandising on his own account and later on entered the real estate business. In 1850 Mr. Smith was elected sheriff of Hamilton county, Ohio; in 1854 he was de- feated for mayor of Cincinnati, and in 1874 he was appointed a fire commissioner of that city. He was a prominent Mason and Odd Fellow and in 1837 was grand secretary of the latter order and wrote the seventh charter of the Grand Lodge of Ohio. In 1849, dur- ing the business panic of that year, he failed in business and passed through bankruptcy, but later in life discharged every one of his obligations to the penny, although not held legally. In 1874 he was elected president of the Farmers' and Mechanics' Fire Insurance Company of Cincinnati. His death occurred in 1883.

Kilbourn W. Smith was educated in the public schools of Cincinnati, Ohio, graduat- ing with honors at the Hughes high school in 1859. He began his business life as clerk in a Cincinnati commercial house, where he spent two years, then entered a large whole- sale grocery house of the same city as sales- man and manager. In 1866 he commenced his career as an insurance man, his first engagement being the state agency for Ken- tucky of the Mutual Benefit Life Insurance of Newark, New Jersey, and in the following year moved to Louisville and took charge of the insurance business of the above company and continued as state agent for many years. He was prior to this time vice president of the Third National Bank, and retired from active business about 1897. His systematic business methods, his sound judgment, his enterprise and his laudable ambition all contributed to make his business career a prosperous one, and after he assumed his connection with the company its business increased in a large measure. He built up the largest and most successful agency in Kentucky or the south and was recognized as one of the best and most progressive insurance men in Kentucky. He always took an active interest in promot- ing the advancement and building up of Louisville and was prominent as a citizen. His business interests, too, were of such a

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nature that they contributed in large measure to the general progress and prosperity as well as to his individual success.

Mr. Smith was a member of the Louisville Board of Trade; was one of the organizers and a member of the first board of directors of the Home and Savings Fund Company ; was a director and the vice president of the Third National Bank of Louisville; and served as a member of the board of managers of the Industrial school. He was an Elder in the Covenant Presbyterian church, a promi- nent Odd Fellow and a thirty-third degree Mason, and at the time of his death was a member of the board of directors of the Masons' Widows and Orphans Home of Ken- tucky and of the Reform school. He had been twice married ; first to Miss Delia Wake- field, of Henrietta county, Ohio. His second marriage was to Mrs. Elizabeth Heasley Maxon, who survives him. Mr. Smith died April 11, 1904, and as his name stood during his life time as the synonym of sterling worth and strict integrity, as such after death it en- dures, a precious legacy to his family and held in lasting endurance by the body of his fellow-citizens, and makes the record of his life honorable alike to him and to the com- munity in which he lived.

COLONEL HART BOSWELL .- For many years one of the leading citizens of Lexington and vicinity, Colonel Hart Boswell was popular and prominent in both business and political cir- cles, as a public official devoting his energies to the advancement of the best interests of his constituents and to the development of city, county and state. A son of William Boswell, Jr., he was born in 1831, in Palmyra, Missouri. His paternal grandfather, William Boswell, Sr., a life-long resident of Virginia, was an extensive and successful planter, acquiring considerable property. The maiden name of his wife was Judith Cobb.

William Boswell, Jr., born in Virginia, in 1802, emigrated when young to the newer state, Kentucky, and here married Rachel Reece. She was a daughter of David Reece and granddaughter of Joel and Rachel (Welch) Reece. Joel Reece made a trip to Kentucky long before the Revolution- ary war, and, although he did not settle here, he acquired title to large tracts of land. His son, David Reece, born in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, inherited large tracts of this land, lying in Harrison county, near Cynthiana, and soon after the Revolution assumed posses- sion of his land in that locality, and there lived for a while. Subsequently selling out, he bought land on what is now Russell Cave Pike, a few miles from Lexington, Fayette

county, and was there a resident until his death, in 1833. David Reece married, in 1801, Eleanor Barrett. She was born in Maryland, and was a lineal descendant of Thomas and Margaret Barrett, who emigrated from Eng- land between 1635 and 1640, and settled first in Braintree, Massachusetts, from there removing to Robin Hill, Chelmsford, Massachusetts, where several generations of the Barrett fami- ly subsequently lived and died.

William Boswell, Jr., continued a resident of Palmyra, Missouri, until after the death of his wife. Returning then to Kentucky, he was en- gaged in mercantile business in Louisville the remainder of his life, dying in 1874. He left two sons, namely : David F. and Hart, the lat- ter the special subject of this sketch.

An infant when his mother passed to the life beyond, Hart Boswell was brought to Fayette county, Kentucky, and here reared by his ma- ternal grandparents, David and Eleanor (Bar- rett) Reece. He laid a substantial foundation for his future education in the public schools, and in early manhood was graduated from Transylvania University. He become identi- fied with the Whig party when young, always being a stanch Union man, and when war was declared between the states he enlisted in the Union army and was placed upon General Cruff's staff, with the rank of captain, and served under command of General Buell. On returning from the army Mr. Boswell resumed farming on his grandfather's homestead, and succeeded to the ownership of the estate. He made a specialty of breeding trotting horses, an industry in which he acquired fame and success. Noteworthy among the many fast horses which he bred was "Nancy Hanks," the mare that broke all trotting records and is to- day the most popular brood mare in the coun- try. Becoming prominently identified with the Republican party, Colonel Boswell took an act- ive part in politics. He was popular in both parties, however, and when elected to the State Legislature had the votes of both Demo- crats and Republicans.

Colonel Boswell married, in July, 1866, Miss Hannalı Moore, a native of Fayette county. She comes of honored ancestry on both sides of the house, being descended from pioneers whose names figure conspicuously in Ken- tucky's history and achievements. Her father, William Grant Moore, was also born in Fay- ette county, Kentucky, while his father, John Moore, was a native of Culpeper county, Vir- ginia. Mrs. Boswell's great-grandfather, Will- iam Moore, was born in Virginia, a son of Samuel and Charity (Coats) Moore, who moved from their birthplace, Charles county,

y aPrice

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Maryland, to Virginia, and there spent their remaining years. This ancestor, Samuel Moore, served as a soldier in the French and Indian wars. On January 2, 1778, William Moore married Hannah Ransdel, and twelve years later, in 1790, he migrated with his fam- ily to Kentucky, being one of the first fourteen permanent settlers of Fayette county. Pur- chasing a tract of timbered land on what is now Russell Cave Pike, he cleared a large tract, and there he and his faithful companion subse- quently lived, honored and respected for their sterling worth and integrity. Their son, Jolın Moore, born in 1787, was three years old when his parents brought him to the Blue Grass country. He succeeded to the occupation to which he was reared, and during his active life was engaged in farming in Fayette county.

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A history of Kentucky and Kentuckians; the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume III, Part 107

Author: Johnson, E. Polk, 1844-; Lewis Publishing Company Publication date: 1912 Publisher: Chicago, Lewis Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 860

Author: Johnson, E. Polk, 1844-; Lewis Publishing Company
Publication date: 1912
Publisher: Chicago, Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 860