A history of Kentucky and Kentuckians; the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume III, Part 15

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 15

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In the matter of politics Mr. Robertson gives his allegiance to "the Grand Old Party," as its supporters are pleased to call it, and his fraternal relations consist of membership in the Knights of Pythias and the Red Men. He is a communicant of the Episcopal church.

PRESLEY MEGUIAR .- That honored citizen, the late Presley Meguiar, was for many years identified in no uncertain manner with a num- ber of the most important concerns of this part of Kentucky. A financier of talent, he was at the same time one of the largest tobacco dealers in the state. He was a veteran of the Civil war and during his long life he stood close to many of the most important events in the history of the county. Mr. Meguiar was

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born in Robinson county, Tennessee, April 25, 1825, and died in Louisville, Kentucky, January 29, 1904. He was reared upon a farm and owing to adverse circumstances re- ceived but a limited education. His first adventure in the world of affairs was as the proprietor of a book store in Franklin, Ken- tucky, whence he removed early in life. After carrying this on for a short time he removed to Bowling Green, Kentucky, and became a partner in a drug store. During the last three years of the Civil war he was a soldier in the Confederate service, being assigned to duties in the commissary department. After the ces- sation of hostilities between the north and the south he removed to Louisville and it was while in that city that he became interested in the tobacco business. He proved to be one of the most astute and brilliant of business men and his scope of affairs grew with the years, until at the time of his death he was one of the largest dealers in the entire south. His activi- ties were by no means limited to the tobacco trade, even though engaged in it in such an extensive manner, and it was his distinction to be one of those who assisted in the organi- zation of that sound corporation, the Fidelity Trust Company of Louisville, in which he continued to be a director until his summons to the life eternal. He was also a director of the Louisville Heating Company from the time of its organization and of several other companies.

Mr. Meguiar was first married to a Miss Curd, the marriage being solemnized at Bowl- ing Green, Kentucky. The maiden name of the second Mrs. Meguiar, who now survives her honored husband, was Mary E. Ray, and she was born in Montgomery county, Ken- tucky, October 27, 1831. She is the daughter of John Ray, an Indianan, who on December 13, 1829, took as his wife Emily Keas, who was born in Montgomery county, Kentucky, January 21, 1811. Neither she nor her hus- band were long-lived, the father dying in 1834 and the mother on April 25, 1835. Of their three children Mrs. Meguiar is the only one living at the present day. She was reared by an aunt. Her grandfather, John Ray, was a Methodist minister of the old circuit rider school who traveled over the states of Indiana and Kentucky preaching salvation to the souls of men. On February 11, 1857, she married John W. White, who was born in Virginia October 24, 1824, and died in Mt. Sterling, Kentucky, October 7, 1869. John W. White came from the Old Dominion to Montgomery county when a boy to visit his grandfather and the older man persuaded him to make the visit a permanent one. He reared and educated him and his grandfather's farm was the scene

of his youthful years. He adopted agriculture as a life work and for a number of years was connected with the banking interests of Mt. Sterling, the once well-known firm of White, Hoffman and Barnes now being designated as the Exchange Bank. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. White were three in number. Eu- gene died at age of four years and eleven months. Isa B. became the wife of Robert M. Trimble and she and her family now live with Mrs. Meguiar, her three Trimble grand- children being J. W. White Trimble, Robert M. Jr., and Mary Ray. John W. resides in Mt. Sterling.

The second marriage of Mr. Presley Me- guiar was solemnized in February, 1876. Mrs. Meguiar has always resided in Mt. Sterling, where she has a beautiful home, while Mr. Meguiar spent part of each week at his busi- ness in Louisville, and Kentucky's largest city was the scene of his demise. The suc- cess he achieved was entirely due to his own efforts, his indomitable courage, perseverance and unfailing good judgment having stood him in better stead than more tangible capital. He was a force in the business world and both from this aspect and as a good citizen he will long be remembered. Politically he was a loyal Democrat and though not in public life, he was interested in all the important ques- tions of the day. He was for years a member of the Chester Street Methodist church of Louisville and he was extremely liberal in his benefactions to the church. He was president of the "Church Extension Board" of the Methodist Episcopal church, South, from the time of its organization until his death. Mrs. Meguiar has been a life-long member of the Methodist Episcopal church, South.

CHARLES H. WHITLATCH, M. D .- The med- ical profession in the city of Louisville has as one of its able and representative younger members, Dr. Charles Henry Whitlatch, who has here been engaged in practice since 1906 and he has built up a successful business, which is constantly increasing in scope and im- portance.

Dr. Whitlatch was born in Charlestown, Clark county, Indiana, on the 23d of Novem- ber, 1880, and is a son of Isaac and Sarah J. (Toombs) Whitlatch. His father was born in Scott county, Indiana, about 1850, a son of Isaac Whitlatch, who was also a native of Indiana, in which state the family was founded in the early pioneer days, original representa- tives having moved there from Philadelphia. The lineage of the family is traced back to staunch Scotch-Irish stock. The mother of Dr. Whitlatch was born at Milton, Kentucky, in 1852, and her death occurred in 1897. She was a daughter of John Toombs, who was

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born in Kentucky, in 1806, and who died in 1898, at the age of ninety-two years. He had witnessed and contributed to the development of the state and in his venerable age he often recalled that he remembered Louisville when it was a mere village.

Dr. Charles H. Whitlatch is indebted to the public schools of his native town for his early educational discipline, which included a course in the high school, in which he was graduated in the class of 1900. Thereafter he completed a course and was graduated in the Bryant & Stratton Business College, in the city of Louis- ville, after which he entered the old Louisville Hospital College of Medicine, in 1901. In this well ordered institution he completed the pre- scribed course and was graduated as a mem- ber of the class of 1905. He received his de- gree of Doctor of Medicine and also had the distinction of securing third honors in the class of one hundred students. This gained to him an appointment as interne for one year at the Infirmary on Gray street, where he se- cured clinical experience of much value. He has been engaged in the general practice of his profession in Louisville since 1906, and for two years he was assistant professor of ob- stetrics in the Louisville Hospital Medical Col- lege. He is now assistant to the chair of sur- gery in the medical department of the Louis- ville University, besides which he has the dis- tinction of being city physician, to which posi- tion he was appointed in 1909, for a term of four years. Dr. Whitlatch is actively identi- fied with the Jefferson County Medical So- ciety, the Kentucky State Medical Society and the American Medical Association, taking an active interest in the work of each and also having recourse to the best standard and peri- odical literature of his profession. In a fra- ternal way Dr. Whitlatch is identified with the Modern Woodmen of America, and both he and his wife hold membership in the Broad- way Christian church.

In 1907 was solemnized the marriage of Dr. Whitlatch to Miss Mary B. Chambers, who was born at Henderson, Kentucky, and who is a daughter of Byrd L. Chambers, a represen- tative citizen of that place. Dr. and Mrs. Whitlatch have one daughter, Dorothy, who was born on the 10th of March, 1909.

OWEN J. CARPENTER, a wholesale liquor dealer and one of Covington's leading real estate developers, is a native Kentuckian and his ancestry numbers among its members some of the most valuable and interesting of the Blue Grass state pioneers. He was born in Boone county, February 7, 1854, and is the son of Caleb and Zeurilda (Utz) Carpenter, both of whom were likewise natives of the county which was once the scene of the ac- tivities of the celebrated Daniel Boone and

which appropriately received his cognomen. The carpenter family was originally one one of the Colonial families of Virginia and a few citizens of the "Old Dominion" were better known or more beloved than Mr. Carpenter's great-grandfather, the Rev. William Carpen- ter, a German Lutheran minister who for many years labored for the welfare of human- ity "without money and without price."

The above-mentioned William Carpenter was born in Madison county, Virginia, May 20, 1762, but he later cast his fortune with Kentucky, founding the Carpenter family there and being one of the Boone county pioneers. In 1778, when only sixteen years of age, he entered the Colonial army and served until the close of the Revolution. He seems to have studied theology under the Rev. G. Henkel and as he was a member of the Pennsylvania Ministerium it is likely that he was ordained by that body. His ordination must have been satisfactory for he was called upon to minister in Episcopal pulpits without question. He was, however, Lutheran in faith and ministered in that church for many years, being the father of that church organi- zation in Boone county. His identification with clerical affairs began with his twenty- fifth year and his early career was passed in his native county in Virginia. In 1813 he came over to Kentucky, located near Florence, in Boone county, and there entered upon many years of great usefulness, his entire service as an exponent of the Scriptures being of forty-five years duration. Twenty-six years of this time he served as pastor of the Heb- ron church in his native county in Virginia, and he followed a colony composed of mem- bers of his church to Boone county where he was pastor for nearly twenty years prior to his death, on February 18, 1833. He, with others who contemplated removing to Kentucky's fer- tile acres, made a trip of inspection to Boone county in 1804, but it was fully nine years later when he settled there permanently. By heritage and his own activities he was a man of means and he secured a large farm in the new home, upon which he lived with his fam- ily and slaves during the remainder of his life- time. As he asked and received no salary for his ministerial labors a farm was a practical necessity. This tract was located near the present town of Florence and was an at- tractive and valuable property and his fam- ily of boys and his slaves cleared and tilled it. It has been said of him that he never lacked the comforts and never craved the luxuries. He was a typical pioneer of the better class and presented a distinguished appearance in his Colonial costume, with his knee breeches, which he wore up to the time of his death. Of William Carpenter, pioneer preacher and

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philanthropist, it may truly be said that he de- titled to credit, he having served for many voted his entire life to the uplift of humanity, and the memory and influence of the good he did assuredly was not "interred with his bones."

Caleb Carpenter, the father of Owen J. Carpenter, was reared and educated in Boone county and for several years followed the oc- cupation of a farmer and stock trader. He located in Covington, Kentucky in 1871, and at one time during his residence in this city engaged in the wholesale liquor business. He was cut off in the prime of life, his death oc- curring in 1878, at the age of forty-nine years. His widow survived him for three decades, dying at Delhi, Ohio, in 1908, at the age of seventy-five years. She was a daughter of David Utz, a native of Culpeper county, Vir- ginia, and of German descent. Like the for- bears on the paternal side of the family he came to Kentucky at an early day. The name of his father was Absalom Utz. Mr. Car- penter was the third in order of birth of the eight children of his parents, five of these surviving at the present day.

The pleasant, if strenuous, experience of the farmer's son were the lot of Owen J. Car- penter in his early years. He received a com- mon school education and was about eighteen years of age when he removed with his par- ents to Covington in the fall of 1871. The following year he became associated with his father in the wholesale liquor business, and in 1879, shortly after his father's demise, he be- came established in this business on his own account in partnership with his brother David L. In 1886 he succeeded to the entire management of the concern and has ever since operated it with financial success.

The talents of Mr. Carpenter, fortunately, have not been confined to his one line of en- deavor, but he has from time to time been interested in various business enterprises and corporations of Covington and vicinity. Much of his time has been expended upon real estate development, and his services in this line to the city of his residence are indeed com- mendable. He is known as the "father of Ft. Mitchell," a suburb, and it was through his well-directed effort that electric roads were built thereto. He bought the land now occu- pied by the town of Ft. Mitchell, platted the same and sold it, having secured means of con- veyance and transportation to the larger town. Subsequently several additions to the same were platted and Ft. Mitchell, now a corpo- ration of the sixth class, can boast of some of the finest residences in this section of the country.

As one of the organizers of the Kenton Wa- ter Company Mr. Carpenter is likewise en-

years as president of the foregoing. This com- pany was largely instrumental in building up the suburb of Latonia. In the face of this distinguished achievement it is not strange that Mr. Carpenter is accounted one of the leaders in upbuilding this section.

Mr. Carpenter forsook the ranks of the bachelors and laid the foundation of a con- genial home life by his marriage on the 18th day of October, 1883. the lady to become his wife being Mattie J. Adams, a native of Mis- souri, who was brought by her parents to Versailles, Kentucky, at the time of the Civil war, she being then an infant. Her father was William W. Adams, for many years a prominent stock man of Lexington, Kentucky. Two sons have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Carpenter, William A. and Owen Coleman, the latter of whom died at the age of seven years.

Mr. Carpenter was for many years a Demo- crat, but since 1896 he has cast his vote with the Republican party.

WOODFORD W. LONGMOOR .- It was within the province of the late Woodford Woodnut Longmoor to have wielded a large and benef- icent influence in the business, social and pub- lic affairs of his native state, which he also represented as a gallant soldier of the Con- federacy in the Civil war, and he was that ex- ponent of that high type of manhood which ever stands indicatory of usefulness and sub- jective integrity and honor. He was incum- bent of the office of clerk of the Kentucky court of appeals at the time of his death, which occurred in Frankfort, the capital city, on the 20th of March, 1891.

Mr. Longmoor was a scion of families whose names have been identified with the his- tory of Kentucky since the pioneer epoch. He himself was born in Kenton county, on the 21st of June, 1840, and he was a son of George and Amanda (Hammett) Longmoor, the for- mer of whom was born in Bourbon county, this state, and the latter of whom was born in Kenton county, where her father Samuel Hammett, was a pioneer farmer. George Longmoor became one of the prosperous agri- culturists of Kenton county, where he con- tinued to reside until his death, which occurred in 1847, his wife surviving him by a number of years.

As a lad of fourteen years Woodford W. Longmoor was sent to the neighboring city of Cincinnati, Ohio, to attend school, where he continued his studies for a period of five years, the last two of which he passed in Farmers' College, an excellent institution of that period. He also completed a commercial course in the same city, and there he assumed

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a clerical position in a foundry after he left school. When the Civil war was precipitated upon a divided nation he forthwith manifested his intrinsic loyalty to the cause of the Con- federacy by enlisting as a private in Company H, Second Kentucky Infantry, with which he served three months, at the expiration of which he was compelled to return to his home that he might recuperate from injuries re- ceived in a severe fall. After his recovery he assisted in the organization of two companies, under the command of Captain Corbin, of Boone county, and he accompanied the com- mand as far as Mount Sterling, Montgomery county, where the troops were routed by Un- ion soldiers, who had concealed themselves in the court house and in private dwellings. In this encounter a number of the Confederate soldiers were killed. In attempting to effect his escape Mr. Longmoor was captured by the Winchester Home Guards, who incarcerated him in the Clark county jail. The next day he was sent to Lexington, and later he was taken to Covington and Cincinnati, from which latter city he was removed to Camp Chase, at Colum- bus, Ohio, and finally he was sent to the Fed- eral prison on Johnson's island, in Lake Erie. After several months of imprisonment he was exchanged, in the autumn of 1862. He made his way to Murfreesboro, Tennessee, where he found Colonel Hanson of the old Second In- fantry, and by this commander Mr. Long- moor became a member of Company B of the Second Kentucky Cavalry, with which he re- mained until after the battle of Cynthiana, Kentucky, on the 17th of June, 1864. He par- ticipated in the various raids and engagements in which his command was involved, and in the memorable raid of General Morgan he was again captured. He was held at Camp Douglas, Chicago, for four months and then made his escape. After a perilous trip through Ohio and Kentucky he finally succeeded in rejoining his regiment at Wytheville, Vir- ginia. At Cynthiana, on the 11th of the same month, he had received a severe wound in the thigh, and this injury finally necessitated the amputation of his right leg.

For nearly two years after the amputation of his leg Mr. Longmoor was unable to move about, but in 1866 he engaged in the dry-goods business at Burlington, Boone county. Eight months later he removed to Cynthiana, Har- rison county, where he was engaged in the hardware business, in which he continued until 1868, when he changed to the furniture busi- ness, in which he there continued until 1874. In that year he was elected clerk of the circuit and criminal courts of Harrison county, of which office he continued incumbent for six-

teen years. In 1890 there came further recog- nition of his ability and effective services, in that he was elected clerk of the Kentucky court of appeals, the highest tribunal of the state. He took the oath of office in Septem- ber of that year and moved to Frankfort, where he continued in tenure of the office until his death, which occurred on the 20th of the following March, after an illness of brief duration. Mr. Longmoor was a man of strong intellectual powers and mature judgment, and his life was guided and governed according to the highest principles of integrity and honor, so that he held inviolable place in the confi- dence and respect of his fellow men. He was an uncompromising advocate of the cause of the Democratic party, and was for many years active in its work. He was affiliated with the United Confederate Veterans' Association and other civic organizations.

In the year 1867 was solemnized the mar- riage of Mr. Longmoor to Miss Louisa Bell Addams, of Cynthiana, Kentucky, and she now maintains her home in Frankfort. She is a daughter of the late Abram Addams, who was a scion of an old and distinguished Virginia family, a number of whose members were found enrolled as patriotic soldiers in the war of the Revolution. Woodford W. Longmoor, Jr., the only child of Mr. and Mrs. Longmoor, is given a brief sketch in following paragraphs.

Woodford W. Longmoor bears the fully patronymic of his honored father, to whom brief memorial tribute has been paid in the preceding paragraphs, and it may be said that he is well upholding the presige of the family name. Mr. Longmoor is now incumbent of the office of city clerk of Frankfort, is a mem- ber of the bar of his native state and has been successful in connection with the promotion of important enterprises so that he stands as a representative business man of the capital city, where he has maintained his home since his father here assumed the office of clerk of the court of appeals.

Woodford Woodnut Longmoor, Jr., was born in Cynthiana, Kentucky, on the 21st of January, 1872, and there he was reared to years of maturity, duly availing him- self of the advantages of the public schools and having been graduated in the high school as a member of the class of 1890. He then began reading law under the effective preceptorship of John B. Minor in the University of Virginia, at Charlottesville, and later he continued his studies in the Louis- ville Law School, but the sudden death of his father in March, 1891, caused him to abandon his work in this institution. He returned to Frankfort, where he was appointed deputy

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clerk of the court of appeals, of which his father had been clerk at the time of his death and in which office the latter was succeeded by his wife's brother, Abram Addams. The subject of this sketch held the office of deputy clerk for seven years, and in the meanwhile, in 1892, he had been licensed to practice law. After leaving the office of the clerk of the court of appeals he was for a time in the law office of Hon. Proctor Knott, former governor of the state, and later was identified with pro- fessional work in the office of Thomas H. Hines, another representative member of the bar of the capital city.

Mr. Longmoor was the organizer of the Frankfort Telephone Company, and for more than five years he was actively identified with the telephone business, in connection with which he showed marked initiative and admin- istrative ability, as did he later in the pro- motion of the electric interurban line between Frankfort and Versailles,-this being the first interurban road to be granted a franchise in Kentucky. Mr. Longworth was elected city clerk of Frankfort in November, 1909, and the duties of this office now engross a goodly por- tion of his time and attention. He has ever manifested a lively interest in the history of his native state and is at the present time vice- president and curator of the Kentucky State Historical Society. He is also one of the vice- presidents of the Ohio Valley Historical So- ciety, and he is an enthusiastic worker in both of these sterling organizations. In the Ma- sonic fraternity he has attained the chivalric orders, being therein identified with the Frankfort commandery of Knights Templars, and he is also a member of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He is one of the valued members of Frankfort Lodge, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, of which he is past exalted ruler. His political faith is that in which he was reared, and he is thus a stalwart in the camp of the Democratic party.

On October 15, 1901, Mr. Longmoor was united in marriage to Miss Ruth Gordon Ely, daughter of Dr. James R. Ely, one of the leading physicians and representative citizens of Frankfort.

J. LYMAN BRYAN, county clerk of Newport, is not only entitled to consideration on his own account and for his own high qualifica- tions, but is interesting as the scion of a dis- tinguished Kentucky family and the direct de- scendant of the noted American pioneer and explorer of the Blue Grass state, Daniel Boone. Mr. Bryan was born in New Liberty, Owen county. Kentucky, December 6, 1869, his parents being John Gano and Eunice Isa-

bella (Fish) Bryan. Both of them were na- tive Kentuckians, the former's birthplace be- ing Fayette county, and the latter's Boone county. They were married in Owen county, and located soon after in Fayette county, where the father pursued the calling of a farmer. He died in 1880, at the early age of thirty-six years.

John Gano Bryan was descended from one of the oldest Kentucky families. His great- great-grandfather, William Bryan, born March 7, 1833, married Mary Boone, a sister of Daniel Boone, Kentucky's first white settler. Daniel Boone married Rebecca Bryan, a sis- ter of William Bryan, thus connecting the two pioneer families in a very intimate way. Will- iam Boone was the first settler at Bryan Sta- tion, and that he came there many years prior to the date given in history is evident from records at Salisbury, North Carolina, which show that he disposed of his lands there prior to such date. It was in 1779 that he with his family and three brothers, Joseph, James and Morgan, arrived at the fort. William Bryan headed a hunting expedition in company with eleven others and in a skirmish with the In- dians was wounded, and died in the station a few days later, this being in 1780. The re- moval to Kentucky was due to political perse- cution and illegal taxation, and the Boones and the Bryans being united by intermarriage became possessed by the desire to live in the country, untrammeled by unjust laws. They were attracted to Kentucky by the fertile fields, beautiful rivers and forests and came here after a tedious journey, becoming dis- tinguished citizens.

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A history of Kentucky and Kentuckians; the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume III, Part 15

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