A history of Kentucky and Kentuckians; the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume III, Part 20

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 20

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On the 21st of September, 1886, was sol- emnized the marriage of Dr. Huffman to Miss Mary L. McKenney, who was born in Harri- son county, this state, on the 22nd of July, 1868, and who is a daughter of Richard and Amanda (Stewart) McKenney, both of whom are now deceased. Dr. and Mrs. Huffman be- came the parents of two children,-George Richard, who was born March 24, 1896, and Anna Frances, who was born January 5, 1899, her death occurring on the 24th of September, 1904.

JAMES T. EARLE .- One who owes his pres- tige as a successful business man and in- fluential citizen to his own well directed ef- forts is James Thomas Earle, who was born in Harrison county, Kentucky, on the 27th of August, 1866, and who is a son of Jonathan R. and Aramenta (King) Earle, both of whom were likewise born in Harrison county. Mr. Earle is a scion of one of the fine old families of the Blue Grass state, where various repre- sentatives of the name followed with consider- able success the great basic industry of agri- culture. Jonathan R. Earle became the owner of a fine landed estate in Harrison county and he raised the same to a high state of cultiva- tion. He is now living virtually retired with his children in the city of Covington. During the Civil war he served as a valiant soldier in the home guards, an organization to prevent homes, railroads and public property from be- ing destroyed. Kentucky furnished soldiers to both armies and as many sympathizers of both sides were left at home an organization of this kind was highly essential. In politics he ac- cords and unswerving allegiance to the princi- ples and policies of the Republican party. Aramenta (King) Earle was summoned to the life eternal in 1908, secure in the high regard of all with whom she came in contact. Mr. and Mrs. Earle became the parents of eleven children, six of whom are now living.

James T. Earle, sixth in order of birth of

the eleven children, was reared on the home- stead farm in Harrison county and received his preliminary education in the common schools. At the age of eighteen years he be- gan to learn the art of telegraphy and was sub- sequently employed by the Louisville & Nash- ville Railroad Company as telegrapher and agent in various places. In the fall of 1886 he went to Fort Worth, Texas, where he took up stenography and typewriting in the Commer- cial Business College. There he became the private secretary to the general manager and receiver of the International & Great North- ern Railway Company. Two years later he resigned this position and came to Cincinnati where he assumed the position of private sec- retary to the joint agent of the Chesapeake & Ohio and the Louisville and Nashville Rail- roads. In this office he was promoted to the position of cashier and in 1896 he became joint freight agent of these railroads which in- cumbency he still retains. For many years he has been a resident of Covington, having established his home in Latonia when that place was a hamlet of but one hundred and fifty people. In this suburb he has erected seventy-seven houses and he has been most influential in connection with its local affairs. Before Latonia was annexed to Covington Mr. Earle served as post-master, president of its school board, as a member of its council and he served for four years as its mayor .. having been the last incumbent of that office. He took an active part in its consolidation with Covington and while mayor he assisted in the organization of the State Law & Order League at Louisville, Kentucky, being elected as the first president of the same. He was also one of the organizers of the First Na- tional Bank of Latonia, in 1902, and he has since served as president of this bank. In politics he is an uncompromising advocate of the cause of the Republican party and was the first Republican appointed by the State Elec- tion Commission as election commissioner in Kenton county after the repeal of the Goebel election law, which almost caused a civil war in Kentucky. He is a member of the state board of equalization, being appointed to this office by Governor Willson in 1910 for a term of four years. Fraternally Mr. Earle is af- filiated with the Masonic Order and with the Knights of Pythias. He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce in Cincinnati and has served as a member of its board of directors and as secretary of the same. Both he and his family are members of the Baptist church.

In 1889 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Earle to Miss Katherine B. Good, who was born and reared in Harrison county, an

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old schoolmate of Mr. Earle's, and who is a daughter of Joshua J. Good, for many years a prominent business man of Cynthiana, Ken- tucky. Her maternal grandfather was Colonel Renaker, a representative of one of the old- est families of the state. He was a distin- guished Democratic campaign speaker and was at one time a member of the state legislature. Mr. and Mrs. Earle became the parents of five children, whose names are here entered in order of birth,-Marietta, Lucile, Katherine, James and Elizabeth, four of whom remain at the parental home, Katherine having died a few months after her birth. Mrs. Earle is a prominent factor in connection with the social activities of Covington and her home is a rec- ognized center of gracious hospitality.

EDWARD J. MCDERMOTT. - Numbered among those who have attained precedence and success as members of the bar of Ken- tucky is Edward J. McDermott, who is en- gaged in the practice of his profession in his native city of Louisville, where he was born on the 29th of October, 1852. He is a son of William and Catherine McDermott. In June, 1833, William McDermott sailed from Bel- fast, Ireland, when he was a boy, and settled in Louisville, which then had about 5,000 peo- ple .. There he married Catherine, who was born in Kentucky. Her grandfather was a soldier of the Revolution. At the first public school in Louisville at the Southwest corner of Fifth and Walnut Street she was given a silver medal, which Mr. McDermott has and on which was engraved the words: "City School July 29th, 1831. From Louisville City to Catherine L. Byrne for scholarship." Will- iam McDermott died here November 9, 1854. Catherine McDermott died here March 30, 1890. In 1871 Mr. McDermott was gradu- ated in and given a medal by the Male High School of Louisville, after which he was a student in the Queen's College, Belfast, Ire- land, for one year, and for one year in the University of Göttingen, in the kingdom of Hanover, Germany, and he still speaks and writes German. After his return to America he entered the law school of historic old Har- vard University, in which he was graduated as a Bachelor of Laws in 1876. In the same year he began the active practice of his pro- fession in the city of Louisville, where his abilities and his devotion to his chosen voca- tion have gained for him pronounced success and prestige. In 1880 he was elected to the lower house of the state legislature and in the same year was presidential elector for his state on the ticket of his party. While in the legislature he was selected to deliver the welcoming speech to the guest of the legis-

lature, Charles Stuart Parnell, the great Irish leader in the English Parliament, who later, publicly and by letter, expressed his hearty appreciation of this speech in the most flatter- ing terms of admiration. In 1888 Mr. Mc- Dermott served as United States Chief Super- visor of Elections for Kentucky; in 1890 he was a member of the state constitutional con- vention ; in 1892 he was chairman of the com- mittee of three that prepared the charter for the city of Louisville which is still in force; and in 1894, in a primary where almost 20,000 votes were cast, he was selected by a big majority over two strong competitors as the candidate of the Democratic party for the office of representative in Congress. Before the election, the late Richard Watson Gilder, the poet and the great editor of the Century magazine, wrote: "I hope to Heaven Mc- Dermott will win for Congress. He is a man of the Wilson sort (referring to the Hon. W. L. Wilson of West Virginia and the Demo- cratic leader of the House) and would be for good government all along the line." In De- cember, 1894, the Century said, in one of its editorials, that the nomination of Mr. McDer- mott was a significant and hopeful sign for good government ; but by reason of the panic of 1893 and a secret anti-Catholic agitation going on over the country at the time, he was defeated with the remainder of the ticket in the Republican land-slide of 1894.

Mr. McDermott is known as a speaker of especially fine ability ; and, by special invita- tion has appeared as a guest of and speaker before the foremost commercial bodies in Bos- ton, New York, Chicago and other cities, and also before many important national or- ganizations, such as the National Municipal League, the American Political Science Asso- ciation, etc. He has delivered lectures at several universities of the North and South and before big audiences in our large cities. His lecture on "Leo XIII and the Papacy" was delivered to large audiences in Louisville, Cincinnati, St. Louis and Atlantic City. Of Mr. McDermott's speech in Louisville on "The North" before the Wholesale Druggists' Association of America in 1891, Mr. George William Curtis, while editor of Harper's Weekly, wrote:

"I am conscious of my own proud fond- ness for New England but the New England feeling of my day was never that of the Es- sex Junta. It was always blended with the pride of nationality. That is the only state pride in this country and it is that which your speech fosters and makes it a public service."

Of Mr. McDermott's speech on "Commer- cial and Political Problems from a Southern

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Standpoint," at the great annual dinner of the New York Board of Trade February 24th, 1892, Mr. Curtis wrote:

"The warmth of its reception was a proof of its eloquent statement of the common feel- ing. It is a chapter in the gospel of public morality which will be like seed upon good ground."

At that dinner the speakers were ex-Min- ister J. W. Foster, Col. W. C. P. Breckin- ridge. Member of Congress from Kentucky, Mr. St. Clair McKelway (Editor of the Brooklyn Eagle), Mr. Frederick Taylor and Mr. McDermott. His speech was a plea for clean politics, a clear platform, courageous leaders and sound money. The New York Evening Post on February 25, 1892, published only Mr. McDermott's speech and said:

"The chief honors of the evening, however, were won by Mr. McDermott, whose refer- ences both directly and indirectly to Mr. Cleveland brought out great applause. At the close of his speech Mr. McDermott re- ceived quite an ovation. The guests arose, waved their napkins and cheered him again and again."

This speech so pleased ex-President Cleve- land that he had Mr. McDermott invited to the preliminary private caucus of his leaders at Chicago before the meeting of the Demo- cratic Convention that nominated him again for the Presidency in 1892.

At the meeting of the American Political Science Association held at St. Louis in the latter part of December, 1910, Mr. McDer- mott read a paper entitled "The Delays and Reversals on Technical Grounds in Civil and Criminal Trials." This paper is to be printed in the proceedings of the Association and also simultaneously in the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology of Chicago, and in the American Law Review of St. Louis. An editorial in the St. Louis Times entitled "Help- ful Criticism" referring to this paper says in part :

"There is hope of improvement in the work of the courts when members of the legal pro- fession make an earnest search for defects, and offer remedies for ills which the public is made to feel in countless ways * A * plea for simplicity in the drawing up of in- dictments touches one of the defects in the law which have come down from generations far removed. All the matters dealt with by Mr. McDermott are familiar, and it is not to be supposed that they can be remedied readily, or without vigorous effort."

At the annual banquet of the Engineers and Architects Club of Louisville, of which Mr.

McDermott was recently elected an honorary member, the predominating subject was "In- telligent City Building." The principal speaker of the evening was Mr. McDermott, his sub- . ject being "Planning for the Future." Mr. McDermott kept right to his subject all the way through his speech from which the fol- lowing is a very short extract :

"In the government of cities Europe has far surpassed us. There political questions are not for a moment considered in municipal government, and the ablest and most unselfish men have managed the European cities with economy, ability and success. We must change our whole conception of the government of the city and the rights of the public as against individuals. We must give a new and more vigorous application to the legal principle : 'Sic utere tuo ut alienum non laedas.'

"The first consideration for every city is to preserve the health of its citizens by good sanitation, by providing first, a pure and abundant water supply and second, good drain- age * * The wise and fortunate plan- * ning of Washington one hundred years ago by a man of genius has been one of the chief causes that have made our capital the most beautiful city in America. Similar work sev- eral thousand years ago made Athens the most beautiful and the most distinguished city in the world. Public opinion must be turned to this subject-must be turned in the right direction. If a city is to thrive and be comfortable and beautiful, it must be planned in advance as carefully as a house is planned before it is built."

Besides being a brilliant orator Mr. Mc- Dermott is a very forceful writer. The lead- ing article in the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology for January, 1911, is by him and this article has also appeared in the Kentucky State Medical Journal and in many of the Medical Journals in the country and has been approved by many editorials in the leading newspapers of the country. His editorial "Our Shame" in the Louisville Courier-Journal, has attracted much attention. In this article he scores those who make it easy for criminals to escape altogether or with a light sentence and those who pardon, wholesale, life con- victs, especially murderers. In the Columbiad of February 1. 1911, the monthly journal of the Knights of Columbus is printed a sketch of Chief Justice Edward Douglas White writ- ten by Mr. McDermott by special request. The chief justice sent a letter to Mr. McDer- mott thanking him for the sketch which he said gave him pleasure because it was "more candid, more sensible and less extremely ful-

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some" than many which had appeared in the newspapers and magazines since his appoint- ment.

Mr. McDermott was twice elected (in 1901 and 1907) vice president of the Ken- tucky State Bar Association and was elected in 1905-6 president of the Louisville Bar Association and as local secretary of the Harvard Law School Association. He was twice offered an appointment to a Circuit judgeship by the Governor of the State; but he declined the appointment. He was selected to speak for Louisville at the dedi- cation of her building at the Tennessee Centennial Exposition at Nashville in 1897 and to speak for Kentucky at the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904 and at the unveiling of Lincoln's splendid monument in Hodgen- ville in 1909. He conducted and won the suit in Hodgenville that brought about the sale of Lincoln's home, which was later bought by Mr. Collier of New York and presented to the Lincoln Memorial Association as a national park. In 1907 he was president of the Kentucky State Development Association and presided at the convention in November. Mr. McDermott enjoys distinctive popularity in his native city and is here identified with such representative organizations at the Pen- dennis and Commercial Clubs. In 1892 he was elected as the Commercial Club's annual honorary member of that year, one being se- lected each year for meritorious public serv- ices. That club had then 1,000 members and now has over 3,000. Mr. McDermott is a man of broad culture and fine literary ability and he has made contributions to many maga- zines and other periodicals, literary, legal and scientific.

He is a member of the Catholic church and in 1910 was Grand Knight of the 700 Knights of Columbus of this city. Mr. Mc- Dermott was the only speaker at the public celebration of the Silver Jubilee of Bishop William G. McCloskey May 23, 1893, and at the installation of his successor, Bishop Denis O'Donaghue, at the Cathedral of Louisville March 30, 1910. He was also selected to speak at the Silver Jubilee Banquet of the late distinguished Bishop Thomas U. Dudley of the Episcopal church in January, 1900, and at large public banquets to Dr. William H. Whitsitt, president of the Baptist Theological Seminary in 1899, and to the Rev. Carter Helm Jones, of the Baptist church, in October, 1907, and to the Rev. E. L. Powell, of the Christian church, in May, 1905.

On October 15, 1895, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. McDermott to Miss Susan Rogers Barr, granddaughter of Col. Jason

Rogers and daughter of Susan Preston Rogers Barr and the late Hon. John W. Barr, who was one of the prominent lawyers and jurists of Kentucky and who presided for twenty years on the bench of the United States Dis- trict Court of Kentucky. Mr. and Mrs. Mc- Dermott have three children, namely: Susan Barr, Edward J., Jr., and Catherine Watson Barr.

MAJOR JOHN MILLER .- The names and deeds of those who have wrought nobly in the past should not be allowed to perish and it is in the making of perpetual record con- cerning such persons that a publication of this order exercises its supreme function. The name of the Miller family is one which is ineffaceably traced on the history of Bour- bon county, Kentucky, and which has been identified with the annals of American history since the early colonial epoch. Strong men and true, and gentle and gracious women have represented the name as one generation has followed another upon the stage of life, and loyalty and patriotism have been in distinc- tive evidence, the while the family escutcheon has ever been a symbol of integrity, honor and usefulness. In Kentucky, where the fam- ily was founded more than a century and a half ago, there have been many worthy citizens to upbear the prestige of the name and thus there is peculiar consistency in offer- ing in this publication a review of the family history.

Major John Miller, the founder of Millers- burg, Bourbon county, Kentucky, and one of the earliest settlers of this section of the state, was born in Sherman's Valley, near Carlisle, Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, on the 21st of September, 1752, and he is the progenitor of many descendants resident of Bourbon and Nicholas counties at the present time. Major John Miller, in company with his brother, Robert, and several others, emi- grated from Pennsylvania to Kentucky in 1775, having been induced to take this action by the Governor of Virginia, who gave to each of them a pre-emption grant of four hundred acres of land in that section of Kentucky, which was then a part of Fincastle county, Virginia. The long and hazardous journey through the wilderness was made on foot and the sturdy pioneers arrived at their destina- tion without serious difficulty en route. Major John Miller and his brother, together with William McClelland and William Steele, had the prescience to discern the special advar :- tages and attractions of what is now Millers- burg precinct, Bourbon county, and here they secured their respective allotments of land. In addition to his grant of four hundred

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acres, Major Miller entered an additional tract of one thousand acres, which he secured at the nominal expenditure of twenty shillings per hundred acres. While they were sur- veying their lands they were continually menaced by the Indians and on one occasion William Steele was wounded by one of the savages. Concerning the conditions and in- cidents touching the lives of these sterling pioneers the following pertinent record has been written, being from the pen of George W. Bryan, who was one of the representa- tive citizens of Millersburg. But slight change is made in the phraseology in the reproduc- tion of the article.

"To protect their families from attack and siege of the Indians, each of the Millers built upon his lands a log block house or fort, Major Miller's being built near the present boundary line of Bourbon and Nicholas coun- ties, on the land now owned by his great- grandson, William M. Layson. Robert Miller's was near the big spring on Isaac Chanslor's farm. These block houses were loop-holed and sufficiently large to accommodate the fami- ilies of the neighboring settlers, who often fled to tliem for refuge. After planting a few acres in corn by simply tickling the rich soil with the hoe, the pioneers returned in the latter part of the year to Pennsylvania for their families. In the following spring they began their return journey, traveling by land to Pittsburg and thence down the Ohio in flat boats, intending to land at Limestone, Maysville, and then to proceed to their settle- ment, forty miles distant, over the 'Old Buffalo Trace,' which is now the Maysville and Lex- ington turnpike road. The danger in making the voyage down the river came not, how- ever; from the water, but from the shore. From tree and bush, from rock and ravine the deadly bullet and the flint-head arrow, dipped in poison, singly and by volleys, kept constantly on the alert the harassed voyageurs, compelling them to keep their boats in the middle of the river, to be out of range. But with all their precautions, Robert Miller fell a victim to their attacks and his body fell into the river and into the hands of the In- dians. Owing to this hostility, the travelers did not land at Maysville as they had intended, but continued their river journey to Bear- grass, Louisville, where there was a settlement and fort, and it was not thoughit safe to settle upon their lands until about 1785-6. But even then, as everyone conversant with the early history of the 'dark and bloody ground' knows, they were often subject to sudden at- tacks by wandering bands of Indians from

beyond the Ohio, who resented the occupa- tion of their hunting grounds by the whites.

"The settlement grew in population and importance, as it was on the highway of im- migration into Kentucky from the east. So that in 1798 Major John Miller had surveyed one hundred acres, which was laid off in town lots and incorporated as the town of Millersburg. As the facilities of transporta- tion were meagre and the eastern markets distant, a great many trades and factories were established to supply the necessities of the community. More, in fact, a great many more, before the incorporation than there is now,-a century later.

"The flouring mill was built by the Millers on each bank of the Hinkston. Flour, to- gether with jeans, linsey-wool and flax cloths, spinning wheels, furniture, etc., as well as the products of the farm, were hauled in road wagons to Maysville, and shipped by flat-boats down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans. The money received was mostly silver, and, as it was before the advent of steam, getting back was another matter. But many a return trip was made on horse-back, with saddle-bags containing the silver, not only to Millersburg, but on to Philadelphia, where merchandise was pur- chased, hauled by land to Pittsburg, and then by flat-boat to Maysville, where the road wagons received it for final delivery to purchasers."

Soon after coming to Kentucky Major Jolın Miller returned to Cumberland county, Penn- sylvania, where was solemnized his marriage to Ann McClintock, who accompanied him on his return to Kentucky. As noted in a preceding paragraph, some time had elapsed before he made final settlement on his land in Bourbon county, where he continued to reside until his death, which occurred on the 5th of September, 1815. His wife was born in Pennsylvania, on the 9th of July, 1755, and died at the old homestead in Bourbon county, Kentucky, on the 19th of December, 1825. Major Miller served with distinction in the war of the Revolution and was known as an able commander having been major of his regiment. As has already been stated, Major Miller eventually surveyed one hun- dred acres of his land and platted the same into town lots, thus becoming the founder of Millersburg, which was named in his honor. lle was a man of fine intellectual and physical powers and wielded large and beneficent in- fluence in connection with the material and social development of Bourbon county, where he ever held a secure place in popular con-

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A history of Kentucky and Kentuckians; the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume III, Part 20

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