A history of Kentucky and Kentuckians; the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume III, Part 12

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 12

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Baron H. Woodbury was the youngest child of his parents and he was only about a year old when they located in Dayton. He was reared in Dayton and received a common school education. During his early years he busied himself with varied employments. He drove a wagon in the coal trade, and for sev- eral years was engaged in steamboating on the White river in Arkansas, owning a boat in partnership with his brother. In 1883 he re- tired from this business and returned to Kentucky, settling in Newport and buying a mineral water plant, which he operated suc- cessfully for nearly a quarter of a century. He developed a large business and the prod- uct of his factory enjoyed an excellent reputation. In 1907 a stock company was or- ganized and Mr. Woodbury's son became principal owner, Mr. Woodbury having since retired. His executive talents have not been limited to the management of his factory but he was one of the organizers of the Central Savings Bank & Trust Company and has been a member of the directorate since its incep- tion. Politically Mr. Woodbury is inclined toward the men and measures of the Repub- lican party, although in local matters he is in- dependent rather than partisan. He has never aspired to share the honors and emoluments of office. He is a lodge man, being a member of the Masonic fraternity and of the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows, of which latter he is a charter member.

Mr. Woodbury in 1883 laid the foundation of a home life by his marriage to Bird Ella Stamper, a native of Covington and daughter of Pleasant Stamper, a carpenter and builder who lived in Dayton at one time. To Mr. and Mrs. Woodbury was born one son, Charles Buchanan, who as previously mentioned is now at the head of the Woodbury mineral water factory. The mother passed to the Great Beyond March 12, 1907.

OLIVER HAYDEN SKILES, president of the People's State Bank of Frankfort, was the principal organizer of this substantial and

prosperous institution, which took its place among the city's successful enterprises in June, 1909. Mr. Skiles is a man of discretion and sound judgment and he has proven that he has executive gifts of a high order, all of which serve to make him an ideal incumbent for an office of a nature as important as the one filled by him. This is not his initial venture at bank organizing, for it is due to him that the state bank at Mt. Eden, Shelby county, Kentucky, came into existence in 1900. Mr. Skiles' con- nection with the Mt. Eden bank was of nine years' duration.

As is the case with so many Americans who play the more important roles in the varied drama of our national life, Mr. Skiles was born upon a farm in Owen county, Kentucky, November 20, 1866, and he passed his earlier years among its busy, but wholesome scenes. His parents were Christopher C. and Margaret (Hulette) Skiles, both of whom were born on farms in Owen county, the former, March 22, 1844, and the latter, April 27, 1848. When Mr. Skiles was a child about five years of age he had the great misfortune to lose his mother by death, her demise occurring October 15, 1871. In due time the father married again, the lady to become his wife being Isabel Bab- bitt, of Franklin county. By the first mar- riage there were three children, namely : Oliver H., Alflora and Margaret S., all of whom are living. To the second union ten children were born. The father is still living in Owen county, where he has followed for so long a time the calling of agriculture. Polit- ically he gives stanch allegiance to the Demo- cratic party and he is a careful student of those questions which affect the general wel- fare. In church faith he is a Baptist. Mr. Skiles' grandfather was John Skiles, who was born in Virginia of Scotch-Irish parentage. He was an early settler of Owen county and was the father of five stalwart sons, all of whom married and settled in Owen county, to whose material prosperity they and their chil- dren have greatly contributed.

Circumstances permitted Oliver Hayden Skiles to obtain but a limited education in his earlier days, his books and desk in the school room early having to be abandoned for the more serious problems of life. Having a real desire for learning he has since effectually remedied by his own study and research any such defects as might have existed. When he was twenty-three years of age he left the farm and for the next ten years engaged suc- cessfully in a new line of work, the merchan- dise business, which he conducted first for four years at Moxley, Kentucky, and then for six years at New Liberty, this state.

As previously mentioned Mr. Skiles estab-

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lished the Mt. Eden bank in 1900, and for nine years acted as its cashier, then selling his interests and establishing the People's State Bank in January, 1909, the new institution opening for business some six months later, and in the short time ensuing building up a splendid business.

Like many of his brethren in the South Mr. Skiles gives whole-souled allegiance to the Democratic party, and has never been among those to crave the honors and emoluments of office. He finds much pleasure in his lodge affiliations, which embrace the Knights of Pythias and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He is a member of the Christian church, in which he holds the office of deacon.

In 1888 Mr. Skiles was united in marriage to Miss Addie S. Rude, daughter of Captain Willis Rude of Covington, Kentucky, in which place Mrs. Skiles was born and reared. Their union has been blessed by the birth of four children : Howard Gayle, Walter Edward, Oliver Raymond and Dimple (deceased). The eldest son, Howard Gayle Skiles married Miss Allie May Fawkes, of Shelbyville. He has great native ability and has made rapid progress as a banker. When he was nineteen years of age he was elected cashier of the Cit- izens' Bank at Pekin, Indiana, which position he now holds. The two other sons are asso- ciated with their father in the Peoples' State Bank.

Oliver Hayden Skiles may be reckoned as a representative citizen. His career is an inspir- ing one, for he began at the bottom of the lad- der and his progress upward has been made by his own efforts, for he has not been depend- ent upon helping hands.

OSCAR F. BARRETT .- The life history of Os- car F. Barrett is that of a successful business man who owes his advancement to close ap- plication, energy, strong determination and ex- ecutive ability. He has never allowed outside pursuits to interfere with the performance of business duties or the meeting of any business obligations, and thus he stands to-day one of the prosperous residents of his community, with extensive business interests in various parts of Kentucky, and strong in his honor and good name.

Oscar F. Barrett was born in Meigs county, Ohio, on April 27, 1860, the son of John and Dorothea (Harpold) Barrett, the former a na- tive of Lewis county, Kentucky, and the latter of Meigs county, Ohio. The Barretts origi- nally came from Virginia, and were among the pioneers of Lewis county, Kentucky, in the thirties. Davis Kelly Barrett, grandfather of our subject, was a native of Virginia and came to Kentucky with his family, locating in Lewis

county. He turned his attention to river in- terests in later years on the Ohio and Missis- sippi rivers, conducting an extensive business until the war between the states, when he lost his packet boats in the South. Later he re- turned to Virginia, where he died. The father of our subject was reared in Kentucky, mov- ing later to Meigs county, Ohio, where he married and then settled in Covington, Ken- tucky, and for many years was engaged in the wholesale coal business and river transporta- tion. He died at his home in Fort Thomas, Kentucky, in 1897, at the age of fifty-eight years. When a young man and soon after his marriage he enlisted in the One Hundred and Forty-first Ohio Volunteer Infantry, served a short time, and was mustered out as captain of his company, receiving his discharge on ac- count of disability, although not serious. His widow survives him, residing at Fort Thomas. They were the parents of three children, one of whom died in infancy and two living at the present time, our subject being the eldest of the children.

Oscar F. Barrett was six years old when his parents settled in Covington, Kentucky, where he was reared, and was educated both in Cov- ington and in Dayton, Kentucky, at the pub- lic and private schools, finishing at Hughes High School of Cincinnati. For a number of years he was associated in business with his father, and after his father's death succeeded to and continued the same line, river trans- portation and boat building, the ship yards being at Levana, Ohio. His business includes the Frankfort Elevator Coal Company, of which Mr. Barrett is president, and which ex- tends over all points on the Ohio, Mississippi and Missouri rivers, with five tow-boats in commission. Mr. Barrett employs about three hundred men and practically is sole owner of all the interests involved in the business. He was one of the organizers of the Campbell County Bank at Bellevue, Kentucky, a pros- perous institution of which he is president and he is a director of the Louisville and Cincin- nati Packet Company, a director of the Con- solidated Boat Store Company and a director of the Columbia Life Insurance Company of Cincinnati. While he was a resident of the Highland, Kentucky, district he was chair- man of the Board of Trustees. Mr. Barrett was never active in politics, his numerous business interests occupying all his attention, although he belonged to several social socie- ties. He is a Mason, having taken the degrees as high as the Knight Templar, Scottish Rite and Shriner, and is also a member of the Knights of Pythias, and Eagles.

Mr. Barrett was married in 1890 to Mary

E. F. Horine, M.D.

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E. Slack, a native of Mason county, Ken- tucky, and a daughter of Jacob A. Slack, a farmer and tobacco merchant of that county who died in Covington, Kentucky. He be- longed to an old Kentucky family. A brother who died recently was of the fourth genera- tion of Jacob A. Slack who had owned the old homestead. Mr .. and Mrs. Barrett have two children : Oscar Slack, sixteen years old, attending Cincinnati University, and Dorothy Marie. Mr. Barrett is a member of the Bap- tist church and for a number of years while living in Dayton, Kentucky, was a trustee and deacon of the church and for ten years was superintendent of the Sunday-school. His wife and son are members of the Christian 'church. He has conducted all affairs, whether of private interests or of public trusts, as to merit the esteem of all classes of citizens, and no word of reproach is ever uttered against him. As a man and citizen he enjoys the prosperity which has deservedly come to him.

EMMET F. HORINE, M. D .- As one of the representative physicians and surgeons of the younger generation in the city of Louisville, Dr. Horine is especially entitled to recogni- tion in this publication, while further interest attaches to his career from the fact that he is a native son of Kentucky.

Dr. Emmet Field Horine was born in Brooks, Bullitt county, Kentucky, on the 3rd of August, 1885, and is a son of Dr. George and Elizabeth B. (Barrall) Horine. Dr. George Horine was born in Bullitt county on the 10th of April, 1857, and was a son of Jacob Horine, who was likewise a native of the same county, where he was born on the 27th of February, 1824, and where his death occurred on the Ioth of December, 1876. Jacob Horine married Emily Ann Foster, who was born in Bullitt county on the 9th of April, 1835, and who died December 7th, 1865. Jacob Horine was a son of Captain George Horine, who was born in a German settlement in western Pennsylvania, on the 25th of April, 1790, and whose death occurred January 30, 1877. He married Margaret Kennedy and became one of the influential and honored citizens of Bul- litt county, Kentucky, where he owned a valu- able landed estate on Knob Creek. On the 27th of January, _829. Governor Thomas Met- calfe commissioned him a captain in the Thir- ty-second Regiment, First Brigade of the Ken- tucky Militia, and this commission is treasured as a valuable heirloom by Dr. Emmet F. Ho- rine, whose name introduces this review. Cap- tain Horine was requested to recruit men in Bullitt county and with them to assist in the defense of General Gaines, who was then op- erating on the Sabine river in Louisiana. Cap-

tain Horine was a son of Jacob Horine, who was born in one of the Rhenish provinces of Germany, about 1750. This worthy ancestor emigrated to America about 1770 and located in the western part of Pennsylvania. He be- came a member of the Pennsylvania militia and assisted in subduing the Indians at the time of the memorable Wyoming massacre. In the war of the Revolution he was found enrolled as a valiant soldier in the Continental line. He married Barbara Schwartz, in 1780, and in 1795 they removed to Mercer county, Kentucky, where they remained until 1798, when they established their home in Bullitt county, about one and a half miles distant from the Jefferson county line. There Jacob Horine secured several hundred acres of land and reclaimed a valuable farm, thus being the founder of the family in Kentucky. Jacob Horine was a son of Frederick Horine, who was born in Germany, in 1715, and who served as a soldier in the German army, in the reign of Frederick the Great.

Elizabeth B. (Barrall) Horine, mother of Dr. Horine, was born in Bullitt county, Ken- tucky, and is a daughter of Silas F. Barrall, who was likewise a native of that county and who died in January, 1910, at the age of seventy-six years. The lineage of the Barrall family is traced back to staunch French line- age, and Christian Barrall, grandfather of Mrs. Elizabeth B. Horine, was a native of France, whence he came to America as a young man, becoming one of the early settlers of Louisville, Kentucky. Dr. George Horine was graduated in the Kentucky School of Medicine, in 1879, and secured first honors of his class, being awarded a medal for the highest class averages in surgery and materia medica. After his graduation he began the practice of his profession at Brooks, Bullitt county, and eventually he turned his attention more particularly to the treatment of the dis- eases of the eye, ear, nose and throat, in con- nection with which he completed a thorough post-graduate course. He continued in prac- tice in his native county until 1892, when he removed to Americus, Georgia, where he was engaged in the work of his profession along the special lines noted until his death, which occurred on the 8th of December, 1903. He was survived by his wife, one son and one daughter, and after his death they returned to Kentucky and established their home in Louis- ville.

Dr. Emmet F. Horine was about seven years of age at the time of the family re- moval to Americus, Georgia, to whose public schools he is indebted for his early educational training. Thereafter he entered Emory Col-

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lege, at Oxford, Georgia, where he was a stit- dent in 1902-3, but he withdrew from this in- stitution while an undergraduate by reason of the death of his father. After the removal of the family to Louisville, where his mother still maintains her home, he entered the Kentucky School of Medicine, in which he was gradu- ated as a member of the class of 1907, and from which he received his well earned degree of Doctor of Medicine. In his junior year he received a gold medal for the highest aver- age in scholarship, and in reward for having achieved the highest average in his senior year he was appointed to the position of in- terne in St. Anthony's Hospital, in Louisville, where he retained this incumbency foi fifteen months and where he gained most valuable clinical experience. At the expiration of the period noted the Doctor engaged in the gen- eral practice of his profession in Louisville, and here he is proving very successful in the vocation that was likewise dignified and hon- ored by the services of his father. He is a close and appreciative student, and in the med- ical department of the University of Louis- ville he is assistant to the chairs of surgery, abdominal surgery and gynecology. He is a member of the Jefferson County Medical So- ciety, the Kentucky State Medical Society and the American Medical Association and is a close observer of the ethics of his profession, so that he has gained the unqualified confi- dence and esteem of his confreres, both of his own and the younger generations.

CHARLES J. KEHM, M. D., is not only one of Newport's able and successful practitioners but for the past eight years he has given emi- nent satisfaction in the more public capacity of health officer, displaying commendable zeal in his watchfulness over sanitary conditions in the city and inaugurating several reforms which have proved of great benefit to the com- munity. Dr. Kehm was born in Baltimore, Maryland, February 7, 1869, and is the son of Adam and Elizabeth (Glaser) Kehm, both natives of Germany, who followed the ex- ample set by so many of their friends and as- sociates and came to the United States to seek improved fortunes in a land of newer civiliza- tion and richer opportunity. They were both young people at the time of their emigration and they were reared and educated in Balti- more, in which city they met each other and united their hands and fortunes in matrimony. In 1890 they removed to Newport, and here the father, who had followed the vocation of shoe making, died in 1895 at the age of forty- nine years. His widow still survives and makes her residence in Newport. Dr. Kehm was one of five children, four of whom are

living, and all of them are residents of this city.

Dr. Kehm was reared and educated in the "Monument City," and shortly after his grad- uation from the high school of his native place he decided upon the vocation for which his subsequent career was to prove him eminently well fitted. He chose the Eclectic Medical College of Cincinnati for his alma mater and was sent forth from her portals in 1896 with the degree of M. D. His choice of college no doubt had a great deal to do in deciding his future residence, for after several years he came over the river to Newport, of which town he had already received a favorable im- pression. He is identified in the happiest manner with the life of the town and enjoys a good-sized and remunerative practice. He belongs to several of those societies destined to bring together the members of the profes- sion and to assist in the dissemination of all such progressive ideas as may be evolved in the most enlightened and zealous investiga- tion. His affiliation extends to the American Medical Association and the state and county societies.

Dr. Kehm is a loyal Republican, and, as previously mentioned, has served for a num- ber of years as Newport's health officer, and prior to that time he gave two years of effi- cient service as district health physician.

Dr. Kehm was married in 1897 to Miss Cora Wentz, of Findlay, Ohio, a native of the Hoosier state, and to their union have been born a son and daughter, named Charles and Charlotte, respectively. Both Dr. and Mrs. Kehm are communicants of St. Mark's Lu- theran church.

OLIVER HOLT KELSALL, M. D .- Among the brightest and most promising young physi- cians and surgeons of Louisville may be men- tioned that of our subject, Dr. Oliver Holt Kelsall, a native son of the Blue Glass state, having been born in Louisville on February 18, 1878, the son of John and Martha (Crow- ell) Kelsall. The father was a native of Eng- land, and came to the United States when twenty-one years of age, locating in Louisville. He was with the B. F. Avery Manufacturing Company of Louisville for many years and at the time of his death was assistant general manager of that concern, which is one of the largest manufacturing concerns in the south. When he first came to Louisville he was a machinist without means, and his first work was on the building of the Big Four Railroad bridge. He then began work in the B. F. Avery & Company shop, and worked his way up to superintendent, then to assistant gen- eral manager. He was a fine singer and sang

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tenor in Warren Memorial Presbyterian church. He lost his life on March 27, 1890, in the cyclone which struck Louisville upon that date. He was a member of the Walnut Street Presbyterian church and a Mason, be- longing to the Blue Lodge, F. & A. M., Royal Arch, Knights Templars, and attaining as high as the thirty-second degree in the Scottish Rite. The mother was born in Louisville, Kentucky, the daughter of Stephen Brun Crowell, a native of New Jersey, and she died in the fall of 1888. They were the parents of the three following children : John Bright, a machinist with the Louisville City Railroad Company, Oliver Holt and George Avery, who is professor of electrical engineering at East Lansing, Michigan.

Dr. Kelsall received his education in the public schools in Louisville and was graduated from the Louisville Male High School in 1896. He then entered the medical depart- ment of the University of Louisville and was graduated therefrom with first honors in the class in 1899, receiving the M. D. degree. In order to acquire a practical knowledge of medicine and treatment, immediately after graduation he went to the City Hospital, where for one year he was resident physician and surgeon, after which he entered the gen- eral practice of medicine and surgery in Louis- ville, meeting with a deserved success and having a large and prominent list of patrons. In addition to his practice he finds time to en- gage in various other pursuits. He taught various branches in the medical department of the Kentucky University for several years and was appointed to the chair of Genito- Urinary Diseases and Bacteriology in the medical department of the Kentucky Univer- sity, and upon the amalgamation of the schools he filled the same chair in the Univer- sity of Louisville.

Dr. Kelsall is a member of the Jefferson County Medical Society, the Kentucky State Medical Society, the American Medical Asso- ciation and the West End Medical Society of Louisville. He married Miss Stella C. Fischer, who was born in Louisville, the daughter of Jacob and Caroline (Decker) Fischer, natives of Louisville. The Doctor and his wife have four children: Estella, Oliver Crowell, Harvey Irwin and Martha Ann. Dr. Kelsall and his wife are members of Covenant Presbyterian church.

J. S. Crowell, a large publisher of Spring- field, Ohio, who published the "Woman's Home Companion" and the "Farm and Fire- side" periodicals, which he founded, is an uncle to the Doctor. The grandmother on the Doctor's mother's side was a Graham and was

born in the north of Ireland, the daughter of Scotch-Irish Presbyterian parents.

ARCHIBALD WALLER OVERTON .- The stand- ing of Archibald Waller Overton, cashier of the Farmers' National Bank of Frankfort, both as a private citizen and a man of affairs is unimpeachable throughout that section of the Blue Grass state which was the scene of his birth and where for so many years he has made his home. Nowhere does true patriot- ism and state loyalty bloom more brightly than in the breast of the Kentuckian, and Mr. Overton may be pardoned for an unusual amount of pride in his state and in his family, for his paternal grandfather, Waller Overton, came to Kentucky from his native Louisa county, Virginia, only three years later than the celebrated Daniel Boone, who began the exploration of her fair acres in 1769.

Mr. Overton was born November II, 1846, on his father's farm in Fayette county, his parents being Dabney Carr and Eliza (Har- ris) Overton. This was also his father's birthplace, but his mother had come from Louisa county, Virginia. The father followed the honorable vocation of agriculture and was also one of the early magistrates of his county at a time when that office was an elevated and important one and when its incumbent was the recipient of high esteem and many hon- ors. He was the father of nine children, only three of whom survive at the present day.

When Mr. Overton was a lad about eleven years of age he removed to Virginia with his guardian, General D. B. Harris, who lived . in Louisa county, where he was engaged in the manufacturing of tobacco, and in the cul- tivation of the soil. General Harris was a son of Frederick Harris, of Louisa county, Vir- ginia, the first president of the old Virginia Central Railroad, now a part of the C. & O. Railroad, and it was the first railroad built in the South, and one of the first in the United States. Frederick Harris was also a captain in the war of 1812. There in Virginia Mr. Overton grew to manhood, receiving his ru- dimentary education in the public schools and later entering the Virginia Military Institute. Like most young men of his period he was familiar with agriculture in all its depart- ments and could no doubt have made of it a successful life vocation had he so chosen. At the beginning of the Civil war he was a cadet in the Virginia Military Institute and like his fellow students enlisted in the army of the Confederacy. He saw some hard fighting and participated in the battle of New Market, when the forces of General John C. Breckin- ridge met those of General Sigel of the Union army. He subsequently resumed his stud-

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A history of Kentucky and Kentuckians; the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume III, Part 12

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