A history of Kentucky and Kentuckians; the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume III, Part 117

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 117

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Mr. Gay married February 10, 1848, the lady to become his wife being Martha N. Scott, who was born in Clark county, Ken- tucky, in August, 1830. Mr. Gay had the misfortune to lose her who had been his help- meet for over forty-five years, her death oc- curring in 1875. This happy union was ce- mented by the birth of seven children. Nancy C. is the wife of D. G. Howell, of Montgom- ery county ; William is deceased; J. Dunlap lives upon the home farm; Robert S. is de- ceased; Breckinridge is in Montgomery county ; Watson is a citizen of Clark county ; and James E. is of Montgomery county.

LARKIN T. GARNETT .- Prominent among the prosperous and well-to-do agriculturists of Harrison county is Larkin T. Garnett, whose birth occurred on the farm which he now owns and occupies April 1, 1848. His estate, lo- cated on the Two Lick pike, is well culti- vated and well managed, with its substantial house and barns forming one of the most at- tractive pieces of property in the neighbor- hood, the whole being a credit to his energy and ability. On this homestead his paternal grandfather, Larkin Garnett, located in 1807, and here the birth of Mr. Garnett's father, William Garnett, occurred, June 20, 1817.

Larkin Garnett was born in Virginia, Feb- ruary 2, 1782, and there lived until 1807, when he followed the emigrant's trail to Harrison county, Kentucky. Taking up wild land on Two Lick pike, he cleared a good farm and also followed the trade of a mechanic, by his energy and forethought acquiring considera- ble property. He died October 6, 1856, a re- spected and honored citizen. To him and his wife, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Bell, twelve children were born, six of them being sons.

William Garnett was brought up on the parental homestead and educated in the pio- neer schools of his day. Succeeding to the ownership of a part of his father's estate, he carried on farming and stock raising with signal success, from time to time investing his surplus cash in additional land, acquiring title to fourteen hundred acres in Harrison county.

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On the farm which he had lived so many years his death occurred March 31, 1890, in the seventy-third year of his age. A Demo- crat in his political relations, he was much re- spected and esteemed throughout the commu- nity as a man of integrity and worth. He belonged to the Union Baptist church, of which his wife was likewise a member.

William Garnett married Margaret Van Deren Newell, who was born near Robinson Station, Harrison county, Kentucky, Decem- ber 16, 1822, and died December 24, 1910. To them five children were born, as follows : Lar- kin T., the special subject of this personal record; Sallie E., widow of Paul King; Hugh N., of Harrison county ; William T., de- ceased; and Clarence Lee, in whose sketch, which appears elsewhere in this volume, ad- ditional ancestral and parental history may be found. Margaret Van Deren Newell was a daughter of Captin Hugh Newell, who was born in Harrison county, Kentucky, in 1793.

Captain Hugh Newell was a soldier in the war of 1812, being among the brave Ken- tucky troops that took part in the engagement at Raisin river. He became a farmer from choice, and was actively engaged in tilling the soil in Harrison county, being one of the tore- most agriculturists of his day. He was not an educated man in the modern sense implied by the term, but he had a vast fund of general information gleaned from reading and obser- vation, and became influential and prominent in public affairs, as a stump speaker in polit- ical campaigns having no peer and few equals. He was sent to the State Legislature several terms, serving in both branches of the House. He took an active and leading part in the Senate and in the Lower House in settling questions of importance, his opinions and de- cisions bearing weight and influence with his fellow members.

He had almost passed the prime of life when his great talent as an orator was made mani- fest, and his services as a stump speaker were in constant demand. Captain Newell was a man of very decided convictions, which he ex- pressed boldly and fearlessly, although he was never aggressive, and he was popular not only with his own party but with his opponents, who listened to him without prejudice or crit- icism, and were oftentimes brought over to his side of the question by his brilliant and convincing logic. The captain had a very at- tractive and magnetic personality, being tall and of fine physique, with a broad forehead. a firm jaw and a bright gray eye, which held the audience as if by magic. He frankly espoused the cause of his party, taking a firm stand against banks, internal improvements and the protection of American industries, his

addresses on these subjects being marvels of simplicity, wit and wisdom, his figures of speech reaching the intellect and hearts of his hearers, and penetrating into the minds of his many hearers like so many scintillations of light. After his death a warm tribute was paid to his ability, integrity and worth by one who had apparently nothing in common with him in his public career, differing from him upon all topics of the day, and ever opposing him on all public matters.

Reared on the farm which he now occupies, and educated in the district schools, Larkin T. Garnett assisted his father in the manage- ment of the homestead during the days of his boyhood and youth, becoming familiar with all branches of agriculture. On attaining his ma- jority, his father gave him an interest in the home place, and he has since been prosper- ously engaged in general farming and stock raising. He owns one hundred and forty-two acres of choice and valuable land, and in its cultivation and improvement has displayed much skill, having never been satisfied with less than the best possible results to be ob- tained from his labor.

Mr. Garnett married, April 21, 1881, Lilly J. King, who was born in Harrison county, Kentucky, May 27, 1861, a daughter of George Thomas King. Her grandfather, George King, was born October 18, 1795, and died May 4, 1864, in Harrison county, Ken- tucky, while his wife, Sarah B., was born March 18, 1808, and died December 5, 1888. George Thomas King, who spent the greater part of his life in Harrison county, was born July 12, 1833, in Harrison county, and died April 11, 1864. He married Susan Cranzmyle, who was born in Harrison county, of pio- neer ancestry. Two children were born to them, as follows: Lilly J., now Mrs. Gar- nett; and George King, of Cynthiana. Mr. and Mrs. Garnett are the parents of two chil- dren, namely : Mary, wife of Joseph Lake, of Poindexter, Kentucky ; and Carrie S., wife of Joseph Kimbrough, of Harrison county. In politics Mr. Garnett has ever been a staunch supporter of the principles of the Demo- cratic party. Religiously Mrs. Garnett is a member of the Union Baptist church.

DWIGHT A. MCAFEE is conducting a splen- did dairy farm of some four hundred acres in Shelby county, Kentucky. He is a well known representative of agricultural interests and he was at one time actively connected with mercantile affairs in this county. As a bus- iness man he is widely known and held in the highest esteem for his straightforward meth- ods, which have ever been of a character that will bear the closest investigation and scrutiny. He stands to-day a strong man, strong in his

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honor and good name and in the regard of his fellow citizens, which is uniformly tendered him.

In Mercer county, Kentucky, on the 20th of December, 1859, occurred the birth of Dwight A. McAfee, who is a son of William H. and Mary J. (Armstrong), both of whom were likewise born in Mercer county, where they passed their entire lives and where their deaths occurred. The father was a farmer by occupation and he was a citizen of prominence and influence in his home county. To Mr. and Mrs. William H. McAfee were born four . children, whose names are here entered in respective order of birth,-Dwight A., Nan- nie, Irene and William, Jr. Dwight A. Mc- Afee, the immediate subject of this review, grew up on the old homestead farm and his boyhood was not dissimilar to that of many another country lad. He assisted his father during the busy seasons and attended the dis- trict schools during the winter terms. After attaining to years of maturity he was engaged in the hardware business at Lawrenceburg, Anderson county, for a period of five years, at the expiration of which he disposed of his store and stock and became a traveling sales- man for the hardware firm of Robinson Brothers & Company, continuing in the em- ploy of that prosperous concern for fully a quarter of a century. His long term of serv- ice well indicates how satisfactory were his *efforts as a salesman and it is needless to say that he was eminently popular among his cus- tomers, his affability and unfailing courtesy going a long way to insure business.

In 1906 Mr. McAfee turned his time and attention to farming operations, and in that year he purchased his present fine estate of four hundred acres in Shelby county. He re- signed his position as salesman for Robinson Brothers & Company in 1909 and he now di- rects all his energies toward improving and cultivating his farm. He is interested in di- versified agriculture and in the dairy busi- ness, caring for his breeded cattle in connec- tion with the latter line of enterprise.

Mr. McAfee is decidedly successful in his various business ventures, the same being due to persistency of purpose and a determination to forge ahead and make the most of every opportunity. In his political convictions he is aligned as a stalwart supporter of the cause of the Democratic party and while he has never had time nor desire for political pre- ferment he contributes in generous measure to all projects advanced for the good of the general welfare. He and his wife are active workers and devout members of the Presby- terian church and they hold a high place in the confidence and esteem of their fellow citizens.

In Franklin county, Kentucky, Mr. McAfee was united in marriage to Miss Martha M. Berryman, whose birth occurred in Wood- ford county, Kentucky, on the 4th of Novem- ber, 1867. She is a daughter of Robert H. and Maria L. ( Whittington) Berryman, both of whom were natives of Woodford county, where the father was a representative agri- culturist until his death. Mrs. McAfee was the tenth in order of birth in a family of eleven children, and she grew up and was educated in her native place. Mr. and Mrs. McAfee have three children .- Irene B., born June 3, 1888, is the wife of Adam McMakin; Henry B. was born on the 29th of July, 1890, and he remains at home, as does also Clinton J., whose natal day is the 20th of August, 1898.

Mr. McAfee is a man of broad experience and fine intelligence and he is clearly entitled to classification among the leading citizens of Shelby county-a man whose marked indiv- iduality is the strength of integrity, virtue and deep human sympathy.

ROBERT W. BLEDSOE, M. D .- Though not a native of Kentucky, Dr. Bledsoe is a scion of a family that was founded in this state in the early pioneer epoch and it has been his . to win success through his own efforts. He earned the money with which to defray the expenses of his technical education and he is now numbered among the representative phy- sicians of the northwestern part of the state. His work is limited to the eye, ear, nose and throat, in the city of Covington, and he is prominently identified with the educational work of his profession and as a citizen is given unalloyed confidence and esteem.

Robert Walter Bledsoe was born in the city of Cincinnati, Ohio, on the Fourth of July, 1873, and is a son of Asa T. and Margaret (Grogan) Bledsoe, the former of whom was born at Harrison, Hamilton county, Ohio, and the latter at Dover, Wayne county, Indiana. For a number of years the father was engaged in the manufacturing of soap in the city of Cleveland, Ohio, and when the subject of this review was an infant the family home was es- tablished in Covington, Kentucky, where the father engaged in the grocery business at Pike and Madison streets, later becoming travel- ing salesman for soaps. The Bledsoe family was founded in Virginia in the Colonial days and representatives of the same were num- bered among the early pioneers of the cen- tral part of Kentucky, where they settled when this state was still a part of the colony of Vir- ginia. It is a matter of record that members of the family were killed by the Indians in those early days and that those bearing the name played well their parts in connection

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with the civic and industrial development of the state.

Dr. Bledsoe was one year old at the time of his parents' removal to Covington, where he was reared to adult age and where he was afforded the advantages of the public schools. As a lad of about eight years he became much interested in telegraphy. . He secured the telegraphic code, constructed a rude instru- ment of his own and learned the various let- ters and other signs. Later he was enabled to secure a regular instrument and he estab- lished a neighborhood line, upon which he and a number of his playmates were enabled to practice. At the age of sixteen years he se- cured the position of delivery clerk in the local office of the Western Union Telegraph Com- pany, under James E. Lyle, who had served as telegraph operator during the Civil war and who was an honored citizen of Covington. After serving one year in the position noted and having, in the meantime, perfected him- self as a telegraphist, he secured employment as telegraph operator on the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway, where he remained in service for nearly ten years, during which time he worked as either day or night operator at most stations on the Cincinnati division. Dur- ing the last three years of his service, in ad- dition to his official duties, he had studied medicine at night and during other leisure times. Thus it will be seen that his ambition was one of clear and definite purpose, as he worked and studied assiduously in the mean- while, carefully conserving his earnings. In 1896 he was enabled to enter the Miami Med- ical College, in the city of Cincinnati, in which institution he completed the full four year course and in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1900, duly receiving his well earned degree of Doctor of Medicine. Officials of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway gave him employment as telegraph operator during his vacations and he was thus able to defray the expenses of his professional edu- cation.

Elizabeth Hospital and Protestant Children's Home in Covington. The Doctor is an ap- preciative member of the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Oph- thalmology and Oto-laryngology, the Cincin- nati Academy of Medicine, the Kentucky State Medical Society and the Kenton-Camp- bell County Medical Society. For five years, from August, 1902, to August, 1907, he was visiting physician to the Covington Isolation Hospital for smallpox. He is found aligned as a stanch supporter of the cause of the Democratic party.

In the year 1904 was solemnized the mar- riage of Dr. Bledsoe to Miss Mollie McKenna, who was born and reared in Covington and who is a daughter of John McKenna, a prom- inent contractor and well known citizen. On the 12th of April, 1911, a son was born to Dr. and Mrs. Bledsoe, and in honor of both his grandfathers was named John Asa.

THOMAS MADOR GILMORE, of Louisville, was born in Columbus, Georgia, September 4, 1858. His father was a Confederate soldier and followed the fortunes of the South under Generals Joseph E. Johnston, J. B. Hood and others, participating in the noted battles of the war, Missionary Ridge, Atlanta and the other great engagements of the Army of Ten- nessee. The writer of this sketch has con- cluded to let Mr. Gilmore write his own bio- graphy in part, and at the same time remain ignorant of the fact that he is doing it. The notes he has furnished are far more interest- ing than any rearrangement would be. He writes : "My father lost everything in the war and died very soon after its close, so at twelve years of age I went to work on a farm in Al- abama, where I had an experience very sim- ilar to that related in a book called 'Checkers.' I mean that I did not receive anything for my work and I had to work so late at night and get up so early in the morning that on going to bed at night I was apt to meet myself com- ing out. I had a pretty hard experience and when fifteen years of age, I was glad to get a position as cashier in a restaurant at Opelika, Alabama. This position I held for just one day and lost it through no fault of mine, but simply because I did not know how to set down in figures one dollar and a half, and the proprietor doubted if I was capable of keeping his books. I remember that I set the dollar down all right but did not know how in the world to put down the half of a dollar in figures.

Immediately after his graduation Dr. Bled- soe opened an office in the city of Covington and his success has been of the most unequiv- ocal order, giving him prestige as one of the essentially representative physicians and sur- geons of the city, where he controlled å large general practice and later (in 1910) took up the specialty of the eye, ear, nose and throat. He was clinical instructor of medicine in his alma mater, Miami College, for seven years and since the consolidation of the institution "Soon afterwards I drifted to Kentucky and began to work for a business firm at Leb- anon. Two years afterwards I was discharged and drifted out into the world making a pre- with the University of Cincinnati, he con- tinued to serve in the same capacity until he gave up the general practice of medicine. He is a member of the medical staff of the St. carious livelihood. At nineteen a phrenolo-

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gist told me that I was destined to be a writer and a speaker and though I did not know a comma from a semicolon, my ambition was excited and I began to send copy to the coun- try newspapers. These articles were not pub- lished. By the time I was twenty-two years old, having made some progress, I wrote ar- ticles on the tariff which Mr. Henry Watter- son thought were good enough for publication in the Courier-Journal, and thus began my reputation. In time, I became a public speaker. Ten years after I had left Lebanon, I was invited back to that town by the Dem- ocratic Committee to a political meeting and Governor J. Proctor Knott and myself were the speakers. My former employer there gave me a dinner and boasted that he had raised me. I do not care to state just how he had 'raised' me, but he was a wonderfully energetic man and did love a fight.

"Incidentally I began to write for 'Bon- forts Wine and Spirit Circular' in New York, a publication that is now recognized as the leading wine and spirit publication of the world. It is now published by Loeser Broth- ers and Gilmore, and I am the Gilmore of the firm."

Two years ago, Mr. Gilmore founded the National Model License League, an organiza- tion that is leading the fight against the Anti- Saloon League and at the same time is oppos- ing the disorderly saloons of the country. The License League advocates a law originated by Mr. Gilmore and which has been adopted in five states. It covers the entire country with its speakers and publications, among the speakers being ministers connected with large churches in various parts of the country. The movement is attracting much attention throughout the country, Dr. Lyman Abbott having discussed it exhaustively in "The Out- look."

Mr. Gilmore is a fine type of the self-made man. He is a nervous, magnetic speaker and an interesting writer. About him at his coun- try home at Crescent Hill, a suburb of Louis- ville, are his three children, all of whom are grown. His son is a practicing lawyer and his youngest daughter is a writer whom Madison Cawein and Joaquin Miller predict will be one of the great poets of this country. A book of her poems and a tragedy are ready for pub- lication as this sketch is written.

HENRY A. POWER .- He whose name ini- tiates this review is secretary and manager of the Power Grocery Company, whose enter- prise represents one of the leading wholesale industries of the thriving city of Paris, Ken- tucky, and he is numbered among the dis- tinctive captains of industry in his native state. Through his association with the bus-

iness interests of Paris he has done much to further its prestige as an industrial and dis- tributing center, and here he has a secure van- tage ground in popular confidence and esteem, thus being well entitled to consideration in this publication. Henry A. Power was born near Maysville, Mason county, Kentucky, on the 4th of July, 1861, and is the son of John W. and Sarah A. (Bramel) Power, both of whom were likewise born in Mason county, the former in 1825 and the latter in 1840. Mr Power devoted his entire active business ca- reer to agricultural pursuits and he was a cit- izen whose loyalty and patriotism were of the most insistent order. Both he and his wife have been summoned to the life eternal.

Henry A. Power was reared to maturity on the home farm, in whose work he early began to assist his father, and his preliminary edu- cational advantages were those afforded in the public schools of his native county, the same being supplemented by more advanced study in the Maysville Seminary. When he had at- tained his legal majority he accepted a position in the wholesale grocery establishment of Omar Dotson, of Maysville, Kentucky, and at the expiration of one year he went to Cin- cinnati, Ohio, and entered the employ of the Flach Brothers Grocery Company as travel- ing salesman. He remained incumbent of this position until 1892, when he came to Paris, Bourbon county, and became instrumental in organizing the Power Grocery Company, of which important corporation he has been sec- retary and manager since its organization. The officers of this wholesale grocery concern are as follows :- G. C. Lockhart, president ; Charles Stephen, vice-president ; George Alexander, treasurer ; and Henry A. Power, secretary and manager. It was incorporated under the laws of the state in 1892, but in 1895 it became a private copartnership. The company employs an average of twenty-five men, six of whom are traveling representa- tives in Kentucky, northern Tennessee and Virginia. The company are exclusive distri- buting agents in their territory for a great many popular brands of goods, including the Perfection and Elephant brands of corn ; Ken- tucky Capitol tomatoes, packed by the Frank- fort Canning Company, of Frankfort, this state ; Quality California canned fruits, packed by the Golden State Canning Company, of On- tario, California ; Fox Lake canned peas from the Fox Lake Canning Company, of Fox Lake, Wisconsin; Princess Hawaiian canned pine- apples, from the Hawaiian Islands ; El Verso and San Felice cigars, manufactured by the Deisel-Wemmer Company, of Lima, Ohio; and many commodities handled by first-class trade in this section of the Union. In con-

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nection with the grocery business is a broom manufactory, which was established in 1900 and which has grown to large dimensions and now holds rank as one of the important man- ufacturing industries of central Kentucky. Mr. Power is the owner of a fine estate just outside the city limits of Paris, on the Lex- ington pike, where he has been eminently suc- cessful in the breeding of thoroughbred saddle and harness horses. Both Mr. and Mrs. Power are members of the Methodist Epis- copal church, South, at Paris, in which he is superintendent of the Sunday-school. He is also chairman of the board of stewards and trustees in his church and he served as lay delegate to the last general conference of the Methodist Episcopal church, South, which met at Asheville, North Carolina, in May, 1910. In a fraternal way Mr. Power is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and with other local organizations of a representa- tive character. Though never a seeker of pub- lic office, he has been diligent in support of all measures and enterprises projected for the welfare of the city and county.

On the IIth of October, 1888, was cele- brated the marriage of Mr. Power to Miss Janey Bashford, a native of Paris, this county, where she was born in July, 1865, being a daughter of Allen and Mary (Rowland) Bashford, both representative and highly es- teemed citizens of this city. Mr. and Mrs. Power have two daughters,-Allene B., whose birth occurred in August, 1889, and Sarah, born in April, 1899. Both Mr. and Mrs. Power are popular factors in connection with the best social activities of the city and their beautiful suburban residence is recognized as a center of generous and gracious hospitality.

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A history of Kentucky and Kentuckians; the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume III, Part 117

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