A history of Kentucky and Kentuckians; the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume III, Part 111

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 111

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It has been Mr. Whitney's good fortune to achieve the highest success in the line of en- deavor to which he has devoted his interest and energies. Many horses famous in sport- ing annals have come from his stud. His thoroughbred Banastar was the winner of the Brooklyn handicap and afterward sold for $30,000. Raffaello, who sold for $3,300, was a great stake winner and bred Heliobas, who was of the same category and who as a two year old sold for $10,000. And this is by no means a complete enumeration of his splendid contribution to the field. He was never a large breeder, for he believes in quality rather than quantity, and his horses have always been exceptionally fine. He at one time owned Farandale, a noted thoroughbred stallion. In earlier days Mr. Whitney was a prominent cattle feeder and in the past seventeen years he has bred and raised some of the best thor- oughbred stock in the country. He does not raise horses to race, but to develop and sell. He is a business man of particularly clear per- ceptions and a Kentucky gentleman of the admirable type which has made the designa- tion a mark of pride and one of the highest recommendations in the world. He and his wife and daughters dispense most charming and generous hospitality at beautiful Wood- lawn and are prominent in the best social life of the section.

Politically Mr. Whitney is an independent Democrat, independent because he is not suf- ficiently partisan to sacrifice to his partisan- ship the choice of the best man and measure for his support. His business affairs have ever been such as to preclude his activity in public affairs and he has never accepted office. His fraternal affiliations are confined to the Be- nevolent and Protective Order of Elks.

JOHN L. VEST .- The junior member of the law firm of Tomlin & Vest of Walton, is recognized as one of the representative mem- bers of the bar of Boone county, and he is

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also vice president of the Equitable Bank & Trust Company, of Walton, one of the sub- stantial and ably managed financial institu- tions of this part of the state.

John Lewis Vest was born at Verona, Boone county, Kentucky, on the 13th of No- vember, 1875, and his prominence in his pro- fession and as a citizen sets as naught all ap- plication of the scriptural aphorism that "a prophet is not without honor save in his own country." Mr. Vest is a son of Carter H. and Miranda (Lewis) Vest, both of whom were likewise born and reared in Kentucky, where the respective families were founded in an early day. Carter H. Vest devoted prac- tically his entire active career to the great in- dustry of agriculture and was one of the rep- resentative farmers and tobacco growers of Boone county at the time of his death, which occurred in 1907, at which time he was sixty- seven years of age. He was a man of strong mentality and inflexible integrity in all the relations of life, so that he was never denied the unqualified confidence and esteem of his fellow men. He was a staunch adherent of the Democratic party, and while never am- bitious for official preferment, he manifested a lively interest in all that touched the general welfare of the community. He was not a member of any church, but his widow, who still resides in the old homestead, is a zealous member of the Salem Baptist church. They became the parents of seven children, of whom six are living, and of the number the eldest is he to whom this sketch is dedicated.

On the home farm John L. . Vest passed his boyhood and youth, and in connection with its affairs he gained his initial experience in the duties of life. His preliminary educational discipline was secured in the little school house of the home district and was supple- mented by a course in the private schools at Verona and common schools at Walton, be- sides which he was a student for some time in the National Normal University, at Lebanon, Ohio. In the meanwhile he had assisted in defraying the expenses of his own education by teaching at intervals in the public schools, success attending his efforts as an exemplar of the pedagogic profession. While thus en- gaged Mr. Vest also began the study of law, and finally he entered the law office of his present partner, John G. Tomlin, under whose effective preceptorship he continued his tech- nicál reading until he proved himself eligible for admission to the bar, in August, 1899. He initiated the work of his chosen profession by opening an office at Independence, Kenton county, where he was engaged in practice for a few years and gained his professional spurs

through effective work as an advocate and counselor. In January, 1910, he formed a partnership with his former preceptor, Mr. Tomlin, with whom he has since been asso- ciated in practice at Walton, and the firm of Tomlin & Vest controls a large and represen- tative business in this locality, its members proving able and valued coadjutors. Mr. Vest is a member of the Kenton County Bar Asso- ciation and his close observance of the un- written code of ethics has retained to him the confidence and esteem of his professional con- freres. He is known as a strong and versa- tile trial lawyer and has been identified with not a little litigation of important order.

While devoting close attention to the work of his profession, Mr. Vest has shown a deep interest in all that touches the civic and ma- terial welfare of the community, and his at- titude is that of a liberal and public-spirited citizen. He was one of those most prominently concerned in the organization of the Equitable Bank & Trust Company, of Walton, which was incorporated in April, 1910, and of which he has been vice-president from the beginning. In politics he maintains an independent atti- · tude, and he thus gives his support to the men and measures meeting the approval of his judgment. In 1909, while a resident of Boone county, he was made the Republican nominee for representative in the State Legislature, and while he made no campaign at all he re- ceived more than the normal vote, but there was absolutely no chance to overcome the strong Democratic majority that has long ob- tained in that county-a majority which he from the start realized would preclude the pos- sibility of his election.

Neither Mr. Vest nor his wife are mem- bers of any church, but he is a Royal Arch Mason and also a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias, and both he and his wife are mem- bers of the Order of the Eastern Star.

On the 3rd of January, 1906, Mr. Vest was united in marriage to Miss Edna May Loomis, who was born and reared in Kenton county and who is a daughter of Walter T. Loomis, a successful farmer and representative citizen of that county, of which he served for some time as county clerk. Mr. and Mrs. Vest have one child, Walter Dudley, who was born on the 6th of March, 1908.

THOMAS DEVLIN MURRAY .- By a system- atic application of his abilities to his daily work Thomas Devlin Murray, of Lexington, has achieved success in life, as secretary for the various industries controlled by a Phila- delphia syndicate being associated with many of the important affairs not only of Lexing-

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ton but of central Kentucky. He was born in Lexington, Kentucky, of Irish ancestry, his father, Patrick Murray, Jr., having been of Irish birth.

His grandfather, Patrick Murray, Sr., was born in Roscommon county, Ireland, and with the exception of a brief visit in the United States spent his entire life in his native land. He married Bridget O'Rourke, and they reared four sons, Patrick, John, James and Edward. Patrick and John were the only children to come to this country to live. John settled in Iowa, and after living there a few years removed to South Dakota, where he carried on a thriving business as a dealer in agricultural implements.

Patrick Murray, Jr., was born and educated in county Roscommon, Ireland. Marrying when but eighteen years old, he came with his bride to the United States, landing in New York City. After spending two weeks in Brooklyn, he started westward, going by rail to Pittsburg, thence .down the Ohio river to Maysville, Kentucky, from there coming by stage to Lexington, arriving in this city strangers in a strange land, with no other capi- tal than strong hands, willing hearts and vig- crous health. He at once found work with the Lexington Gas Company, which had just been established, and for forty years there- after was one of the most faithful and trusted employes of that company. Industrious and thrifty, he saved his money, and is now living retired from active pursuits, enjoying to the utmost the fruits of his earlier years of toil. His wife, whose maiden name was Bridget Devlin, was born in Roscommon county, Ire- land, a daughter of Thomas and Mary (Dowd) Devlin, and her only brother, Thomas Devlin, Jr., still resides in his native county. Their union was blessed by the birth of six children, namely: Thomas Devlin, the special subject of this brief biographical re- view; John Joseph ; Katherine; Anna, wife of Thomas F. Quinn; Beatrice, who married William M. Irvine; and Ella.

Educated in the public schools of Lexington and at the state College, Thomas Devlin Mur- ray began his active career at the age of sev- enteen years, when he entered the employ of the Adams Express Company, with which he was connected for some time. Resigning that position, he accepted the office of cashier in the freight department of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company, and served for three years under W. S. McChesney, Jr. In 1890 Mr. Murray became secretary for the Hercules Ice Company. Three years later he was transferred to the city office of the Belt Electric 'Line Company, the Central Electric

Company, the Passenger and Belt Railway Company, and the Belt Land Company. In February, 1889, these various companies were merged into the Lexington Railway Line, which is the property of a Philadelphia syndi- cate, an organization which also owns all the interurban lines as well as the City Light Plant. Mr. Murray is the secretary for these combined industries, and in the performance of the duties devolving upon him in this ca- pacity has shown marked ability and business acumen.

HENRY S. BARKER .- Among the distin- guished legists and jurists of Kentucky is numbered Judge Henry Stites Barker, who was long one of the leading representatives of his profession in the city of Louisville, where he also served with distinction on the bench of the appelate court of the state, and who re- signed this office in 1910 to assume that of president of the University of Kentucky, at Lexington, a notable institution in which the state takes just pride. He has lent dignity and honor to the bench and bar of his native commonwealth, and the state is further to be congratulated in having gained his adminis- trative interposition in connection with the work of its fine university. It is gratifying to the editors and publishers of this history to be able to incorporate within its pages a brief review of the career of Judge Barker, whose career has been one of exalted usefulness and honor.

Henry Stites Barker was born in Christian county, Kentucky, on the 23d of July, 1850, and is a son of Richard H. and Caroline M. (Sharp) Barker, both representatives of fam- ilies early founded in the state of Virginia, where the original progenitors in America took up their abode in the Colonial epoch of our national history. The genealogy of the Barker family is traced back to staunch old English stock, and that of the Sharp family is of Scotch and Irish extraction. The Bar- ker family has been identified with the indus- trial and civic annals of Kentucky for many generations, as the original representatives in this state came hither from Virginia soon after the close of the war of the Revolution. In Todd county, Kentucky, was born Richard H. Barker, father of the distinguished president of the University of Virginia, and he became a lawyer of prominence and influence in Chris- tian county, where he died in 1853 when the subject of this review was about three years of age. He was a man of irreproachable char- acter and was known for his excellent profes- sional and intellectual attainments. His wife was born in Christian county, this state, and was a daughter of Dr. Maxwell Sharp, who

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came to Kentucky from Virginia and became one of the pioneer physicians of Logan county, whence he eventually removed to Christian county, where he continued to reside until his death, which occurred in 1864.

After due preliminary discipline along well ordered academic lines Judge Barker was ma- triculated in the University of Kentucky at Lexington, of which institution he is now president. After leaving the university he took up his residence in Louisville, where he read law under effective preceptorship and where he was admitted to the bar in 1875. For several years he was here associated in prac- tice with his brother, M. S. Barker, and later he had as his professional confrere a Mr. Kohn, with whom he maintained a partnership alliance under the firm name of Koln & Bar- ker until 1888, when he was elected city attor- ney. He had in the meanwhile gained dis- tinctive prestige as an able and versatile trial lawyer, and in the office noted he added ma- terially to his professional laurels, the while he was given emphatic mark of popular appro- bation, the metewand of ability and effective service, in that he was twice re-elected city at- torney, of which position he thus continued in- cumbent until 1897, when he resumed the pri- vate practice of his profession, in which he con" tinued with all of success until honored by elec- tion to the bench of the Kentucky appellate court. Here he gave evidence of the breadth and profundity of his legal knowledge and also showed the eminently and judicial bent of his mind. His rulings were marked by con- cise summing up of the law and evidence and few of his decisions met with reversals by high tribunals. Judge Barker continued on the bench until 1910, when there came a signal recognition of his high character and fine ability in that he was elected president of his alma mater, the University of Kentucky. He assumed the functions of this important and exacting office in 1910, and has established his home in Lexington. Both by reason of his fine intellectual attainments and on account of his wide experience and excellent constructive and administrative ability, there is no measure of doubt that the University, the crown of Kentucky's fine educational system, shall find its every interest conserved and advanced un- der the regime of Judge Barker.

In politics Judge Barker is a staunch and effective advocate of the principles and poli- cies for which the Democratic party has ever stood sponsor in a generic sense and he has been an active worker in behalf of its cause. He is identified with various fraternal and social organizations of a representative order.

In 1886 was recorded the marriage of Judge

Barker to Miss Kate Meriwether, daughter of the late Captain Edward Meriwether, one of the honored citizens of Todd county, where Mrs. Barker was born and reared.

THOMAS LEWIS HORNSBY .- In many re- spects, Thomas L. Hornsby, the widely known and enterprising citizen of Shelby county, is the most prominent live stock man in Kentucky. He served as the first president of the State Live Stock Breeders' Associa- tion, which organization made it possible to inaugurate a state fair in Kentucky; he was the first importer of Hereford cattle into his native commonwealth and he has done as much to elevate the breed of that hardy and splendid blooded stock as any man in Ken- tucky. He was a director in the Kentucky Hereford Breeders' Association, when that body was organized, and has always shown both an initiative and a thoroughness in all his undertakings which have rightly brought him to his present prominence. His identification with the business covers a period of twenty- five years and in that time he has raised some of the best horses in the country and has showed them everywhere. One of his most famous horses was Indicator, a prize winner and at the Chicago World's Fair he received more prizes for his horses than any other person. His entire farm is devoted to the business.

Mr. Hornsby was born upon the farm upon which he still resides on the 8th of December, 1852. His family originated in Virginia, viewed from an American standpoint, and was English as to old-world ancestry. Joseph Hornsby, the grandfather, came from the Old Dominion to Shelby county, in the south- western part of which was born John Allen Hornsby, father of Thomas L., on the 16th of April, 1811. John A. Hornsby married Julia Ann Booker, a native of Shelby county and a daughter of Colonel Richard Booker, who, with his brother Samuel, was an early pioneer of that section of the state. Colonel Booker died on the farm now occupied by Mr. Hornsby of this sketch. The father of the latter, John A. Hornsby, died July 29, 1887, and the mother, May 22, 1869. They were the parents of six children, one of whom, Will- iam, died in infancy. Those who reached ma- turity were as follows: Joseph W. a resident of Shelby county; Frances Cordelia, the widow of J. S. Calloway, who died in Henry county, Kentucky ; Thomas Lewis, subject of this biography ; Mattie Julia, who passed away in her twenty-sixth year; and Cynthia, who is now the wife of W. L. Hudson, of Louis- ville.

Mr. Hornsby received his early training on

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the home farm and in the district schools of his son James was also born in that state, March 4, 1787, just two years before the in- auguration of George Washington as first president of the United States. The boy was reared in the Old Dominion and married, in his early manhood, Mildred Shepherd, herself a native of Virginia, born December 16, 1790. The marriage ceremony was performed by the bridegroom's father, and the young couple passed the earlier years of their wedded life near the scenes of their birthplace. In 1830 they located near Bagdad, Shelby county, where the husband and father died March 28, 1863, and his widow May 14, 1874. his native locality, later pursuing a course at Eminence College and engaging as his own master, in the business of farming and live- stock breeding. His operations in the latter field were gradually centered in the work of improving the Hereford breed of cattle, both in the importation of pure registered stock and careful and scientific home selection. The re- sult of his labors is to give Kentucky a stand- ing in this regard which it never enjoyed be- fore ; also to draw into her coffers thousands of dollars from the lovers and promoters of high-grade blooded cattle in other states. He and his brother, Joseph W., have been asso- ciated in this business for many years, under the firm name of Hornsby Brothers and their eight hundred acre live-stock farm in Shelby county is one of the most thoroughly ap- pointed and valuable for the purpose of any in the state. Thomas L. Hornsby, aside from his large interests and fine promotional labors as a live-stock breeder and dealer, is identified with business and public affairs of moment to the community. He is a director in the Shelby - Clinton county, Missouri, June 27, 1901 ; Lucy County Construction Company and active in the church and charitable work of the Chris- tian denomination, having been officially con- nected with the local society for some time.

Mr. Hornsby married December 8, 1882, Miss May Louise Baskett, who was born in Shelby county, Kentucky, on August 31, 1860, a daughter of James S. and Phoebe L. ( Neal) Baskett. Her parents were also born in this county, and her mother died in Henry county, August 7, 1906. Mrs. Hornsby was the third- born of six children and the first thirteen years of her life were spent in her native county, when her parents made the family home in Henry county. (For further details of the Baskett family, reference is made to the sketch of James S. Baskett published else- where in this history.) Mr. and Mrs. Thomas L. Hornsby are the parents of four living chil- dren-John Allen, Thomas L., Jr., May L., and Nannie B. Hornsby. The eldest son mar- ried Miss Lucile Nevile Morgan, of Eminence, June 2, 1909, and he is now engaged in farm- ing on his farm in Shelby county.

JAMES S. BASKETT .- A prosperous farmer, an upright citizen, an able business man, a Democratic leader of local and county promi- nence, and a man of public and Christian spirit-James S. Baskett of Henry county is a most substantial and honorable type of the old time and the modern Kentuckian. He . was born near Bagdad, Shelby county, Febru- ary 17, 1832, and is a son of Tames and Mil- dred (Shepherd) Baskett. The grandfather, Rev. William Baskett, was a Virginian, and

Seven children were born to this union of Mr. and Mrs. James Baskett. Sarah E., the eldest, was the wife of Addison Jessee and died near Waddy, on the Ist of October, 1864; Nancy A., who married James G. Bayne, passed away at Bagdad, also Shelby county, July 1, 1878; Frances J. spent the last years of her life in that county as the wife of Thomas M. Hartford and died September 24, 1910; William C., the fourth born, died in M., who married J. D. Bohannon, died at Mil- ledgeville, Georgia, July 20, 1903; James S., the special subject of this biography, is the only surviving member of the family, Nancy M., the youngest, dying in Shelby county, No- vember 21, 1852, as the wife of John Y. Kin- caid.

Mr. Baskett was reared at the old family home near Bagdad, and continued to reside in Shelby county until 1876. In the spring of that year he came to Henry county and set- tled on the farm which he has since cultivated and improved, one of the reasons for his change of location being his election to the presidency of the Deposit Bank of Eminence which had occurred during the previous Jan- uary. He continued at the head of its affairs for the unusual period of thirty-three years, or until January, 1909. At the present time he gives most of his time to the care of his farm and homestead, which embraces two hundred and twenty-one acres of superior land. Mr. Baskett has taken an abiding in- terest in the politics of his county during his residence of forty-five years therein. For ten years he served as chairman of the Demo- cratic County Committee and, even with his retirement from active politics has still wide influence as a wise adviser in political and public matters. In his earnest religious activ- ities, he is identified with the Christian church, in which he has been an elder for these many years.

James S. Baskett was married in Shelby county, near Bagdad, on the 25th of January,

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1855, to Miss Phoebe L. Neal, who was born in that county December 22, 1832, a daughter of Lewis Neal and his wife. Mrs. Baskett's father, who is deceased, was a native of Jes- samine county, Kentucky, and she herself passed away on the 7th of August, 1906. Of the six children born to this union the follow- ing facts may be mentioned: Nany E., is the widow of J. T. Rees; Margaret D. married C. N. Rowland, a resident of Shelby county ; Mary L., is the wife of Thomas L. Hornsby, whose biography is elsewhere published ; Min- nie S. is Mrs. R. J. King; Florence L., mar- ried B. F. Snyder ; and Loran B. is the young- est of the six.

CHARLES LOGAN RAILEY .- William Ran- dolph, younger son of Richard, of Morton Hall, was born in Yorkshire, in 1651 and died in 1711. He came to Virginia in 1674 and set- tled on Turkey Island. He was a member of the House of Burgesses. He married Mary Isham, of Bermuda Hundred, Virginia, and left nine children. Isham Randolph, of Dun- geness, third son of William, born in 1690, died in 1742. He was a member of the House of Burgesses and Colonial agent in London. He married, in 1717, Jane Rogers, of Shadwell, suburb of London, and left eight children. His daughter Elizabeth married, in November, 1750, Colonel John Railey, of Stonehenge, Chesterfield county. She left eight children. Isham Randolph's daughter Jane married Peter Jefferson in October, 1739, and was the mother of Thomas Jefferson. Another daugh- ter of Isham Randolph married Carter Har- rison of Clifton.

Charles, Isham and Randolph, younger sons of Colonel John Railey, moved to Kentucky. Charles was engaged to Mary Mayo, whose family would not consent to her coming to Kentucky, then a wilderness. They left a ball at Richmond, Virginia, were married and rode on horseback to Kentucky, the only possible way of getting through the forest. The three brothers took land adjoining. Charles built first a log cabin near a spring, and to them were born six sons and four daughters, the sons all six feet tall and over, the daughters scarcely less. Logan, the youngest son, six feet and two inches, was named for the Indian Chief Logan, who was kind to and protected them from the less friendly Indians. To a large box elder tree, the stump of which still sends forth green sprouts, the children were tied while the mother went to the spring for water. All three brothers prospered. The log cabin was replaced with a substantial residence, which continues in the family. Charles rep- resented his county, Woodford, in the State Legislature, and was a man of influence, of

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A history of Kentucky and Kentuckians; the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume III, Part 111

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