A history of Kentucky and Kentuckians; the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume III, Part 25

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 25

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

In 1883 Mr. McDaniel assumed the office of deputy county clerk of Harrison county, and he retained this incumbency for four years, during which time he resided in Cyn-

thiana, the judicial center of the county. He then secured the position of individual-de- posit bookkeeper in the Farmers' National Bank of Cynthiana, a position which he re- tained for six years, at the expiration of which impaired health caused him to resign the same. Thereafter he was identified with various pur- suits until 1896, when he engaged in the gen- eral merchandise business at Cynthiana, and he continued in this line of enterprise until 1901, when he disposed of the business and became one of the principals in effecting the organization of the Harrison Deposit Bank at Cynthiana, in which institution he had charge of the individual-deposit books until 1906, when he resigned the position to accept that of cashier of the Exchange Bank of Mil- lersburg. He has since continued in tenure of this office and through his careful and able administration of the executive affairs of the institution he has done much to fur- ther its success and popularity. The bank is amply fortified in capitalistic resources and in the personnel of its principals, and he him- self is a stockholder and director of the same.

A man of broad mental ken and much in- tellectual power, Mr. McDaniel naturally takes a lively interest in public affairs, and he is especially loyal and progressive in his civic at- titude. He is ever ready to lend his influence and co-operation in the support of measures and enterprises tending to advance the social and material well-being of his home city and county, and while he has been in no sense a seeker of political preferment he accords a staunch support to the principles and policies for which the Democratic party stands sponsor in a basic sense. He is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and both he and his wife hold membership in the Methodist Episcopal church, South.

In Bourbon county, Kentucky, on the 22d of October, 1884, Mr. McDaniel was united in marriage to Miss Mary S. Batterton, who was born in this county on the 2d of June, 1858, and who is a daughter of Benjamin A. and Mary J. (George) Batterton, both of whom were likewise born in Kentucky. Mr. and Mrs. McDaniel have five children, namely : Mary E., John F., Jr., Richard S., Kizziah M., and George.

FRANCIS M. WOODWARD .- A venerable and highly honored citizen of Campbell county is Francis Marion Woodward, who has been a resident of the county for nearly two score of years and who is now serving in the office of justice of the peace. He maintains his home in the attractive little suburban town

1265

HISTORY OF KENTUCKY AND KENTUCKIANS

of Bellevue and his circle of friends in the community is coincident with that of his acquaintances.

Francis Marion Woodward was born in the city of Cincinnati, Ohio, on the 2d of Octo- ber, 1832, and is a son of Amos and Cynthia (Gay) Woodward, both of whom were born in the vicinity of the city of Buffalo, New York, and both of whom were young at the time of the immigration of the respective families to Ohio, in the year 1819. Both families settled in Cincinnati and the names became closely identified with its pioneer an- nals. There was solemnized the marriage of Amos Woodward and Cynthia Gay, and they became the parents of four sons and three daughters, of whom one son and two daugh- ters died in childhood. Three of the children are living at the present time. One son, Har- vey, was a valiant soldier in the Fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry in the Civil war, in which he served four years, though he was held captive in southern prisons during twenty- two months of this period- principally at Salisbury, North Carolina, and in historic old Libby prison, at Richmond, Virginia. He now resides in the state of California. William Woodward who now lives at Fort Thomas, Kentucky, was like his brother a loyal soldier of the Union, having served for one year in the Fifty-third Kentucky Mounted Infantry.

When a young man Amos Woodward, father of the subject of this sketch, became a steamboat engineer, and he continued to be identified with navigation affairs on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers during the residue of his life, serving the major portion of the time on packet boats plying between Cincinnati and New Orleans. He died near Dyersburg, Ten- nessee, in 1878, at the age of seventy-six years. His devoted wife was summoned to eternal rest in 1869, at the age of fifty-nine years.

Francis M. Woodward, the second in order of birth in the family of six children, was reared to maturity in Cincinnati, where his early educational privileges were those af- forded in the common schools of the period. His advantages in this respect were some- what meager, but he has profited by the les- sons learned under the guidance of that head- master, experience, and is a man of broad and accurate information. He is the eldest of the three brothers now living, and concerning the other two mention has been made in a pre- ceding paragraph. In his youth Mr. Wood- ward served a thorough apprenticeship at the brick-layer's trade, in which he became a skilled artisan, and he continued to be actively identi- fied with the work of his trade for the long period of fifty-eight years, within which he

was concerned in the erection of many large public and business buildings in Ohio and Ken- tucky. On the 6th of May, 1909, while work- ing on a building, he fell a distance of thirty- four feet, and after he had struck the ground a brick gable fell upon him, inflicting injuries of such serious nature that he has since been incapacitated for the active work to which he devoted so many years of his earnest and industrious life. He was nearly seventy-seven years of age at the time of this accident, and only his strong constitution, fortified by right living in past years, enabled him to recuperate from his injuries. Since that time he has lived virtually retired in Bellevue, where he finds due demand upon his time and atten- tion in administering the affairs of his office of justice of the peace, a position of which he has been an incumbent for the past decade and in which his services have been marked by much discrimination and judicial acumen. For thirty-five years he has resided in either Dayton or Bellevue and he is well known in Campbell county, where he commands secure vantage ground in popular confidence and es- teem. He was a charter member of Brick- layers' Union, No. I, in the city of Cincinnati, and later was made an honorary member of Union No. 2, at Newport, Kentucky. Of the organization first mentioned he is the only charter member now living, and further dis- tinction is given in this connection by reason of the fact that this union was the first of kind organized west of the Alleghany moun- tains. In politics Mr. Woodward has ever accorded a staunch support to the cause of the Republican party, with which he united at the time of its organization, and he cast his first presidential vote in support of its first standard-bearer, General John C. Fremont.

Mr. Woodward has been twice married. On the 6th of August, 1856, he wedded Miss Elodia Cordingly, who was born and reared in Cincinnati, Ohio, and who was a daughter of John L. Cordingly, a steamboat engineer and machinist who was a well known and highly esteemed citizen of Cincinnati in the early days. Mr. and Mrs. Woodward became the parents of four children, one of whom died in infancy ; Charles F., single, is a resi- dent of Dayton, Kentucky; Carrie L. is un- married also resides in Dayton; and Minnie Grace is the wife of Robert E. L. Clary, who is general freight agent for the southern division of the Louisville & Nashville Rail- road, with headquarters in the city of Bir- mingham, Alabama. Mrs. Woodward passed to the eternal life on the 2d of February, 1875, at Dayton, Kentucky, and on the 17th of September, 1884, in the city of Cincinnati,

1266

HISTORY OF KENTUCKY AND KENTUCKIANS

was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Wood- ward to Mrs. Elizabeth (Garner) Jasper, who was the widow of William Jasper. Mrs. Woodward was born in England and was three years of age at the time of her parents' im- migration to the United States. The family resided for a number of years at Lexington, Kentucky, and there she married William Jas- per, who died in 1880. Of this union were born four children of whom one is deceased. Those living are: Lillie, the wife of William McClure, a resident of Bellevue; Bessie Jas- per a resident of Bellevue; and George Jasper who resides at Springfield, Massachusetts.

RICHARD ALEXANDER ROBINSON .- The late Richard Alexander Robinson was one of the leading citizens and business men of Louis- ville. A sketch of his life finds an appropri- ate place in the history of those men of bus- iness and enterprise in Kentucky whose force of character, whose sterling integrity, whose fortitude amid discouragements, whose good sense in the management of complicated af- fairs and marked success in establishing large industries and bringing to completion great schemes of trade and profit have contributed in an eminent degree to the development of the vast resources of the country.

Mr. Robinson was in the broadest sense a self-made man, being both the architect and builder of his own fortune, and in large meas- ure the promoter of the commercial prosper- ity of the community in which he lived, but it was not only his success that made him one of the most honored and respected residents of the city, it was the character of the man, his unfaltering honesty, his kindly purposes, his recognition of the good in others, his broad sympathy and unbounded charity. These endeared him to all with whom he came in contact until memory now holds his life history as a sacred treasure.

Mr. Robinson was born October 23, 1817, on "Spring Hill" farm near Winchester, Frederick county, Virginia, the oldest son of J yles Robert and Catherine (Worthington Goldsborough) Robinson, while his paternal grandparents were Alexander and Priscilla Robinson of Baltimore, Maryland, where Alexander was a prominent merchant. Lyles, the father of Richard A., was reared by his annt at Winchester, Virginia, his mother hav- ing died in his early infancy. He married ('atherine Worthington Goldsborough, the (laughter of Dr. Richard Goldsborough, of Cambridge, Maryland.

After attending the Winchester Academy Richard A. Robinson in 1832 began his busi- ness career as a clerk in a general store in Shepherdstown, Virginia. His mother died

in 1828 and his father, in 1834, leaving young Richard A., as the eldest child, practically the head of the family of orphaned children, and it was the object to prepare a home where all the children could be together that brought Richard A. to Louisville, Kentucky, in 1837. Here he became a bookkeeper in a wholesale grocery house, but a year later he entered the employ of Casseday & Ranney, where he was bookkeeper until 1841, when he engaged in business for himself as a member of the firm of Robinson, Lee & Company, which firm es- tablished a retail dry goods store on Market street. In the meantime he had succeeded in bringing to Louisville his brothers, two of whom, Goldsborough and Archibald M., be- came members of the above firm. Mr. Lee dying in 1841, the business was continued un- der the firm name of Robinson & Brothers. In 1842 he married Eliza D., the daughter of William F. and Mary S. Pettet, of Louis- ville, and soon after that event he transferred his interests in the dry goods business to his brothers and himself engaged in the retail drug business on Market street, in company with Arthur Peter. In 1846 Mr. Robinson established a wholesale drug business on Main street, which became the house of R. A. Rob- inson & Company in 1855. Subsequently his sons, William A. Robinson, Worthington Rob- inson and A. Lee Robinson, and Charles W. Pettet became associated with him, and the business developed later into what is now the Robinson-Pettet Company, one of the largest concerns in that line in the South.

To open a new avenue of trade for other of his sons, the wholesale hardware house of Robinson Brothers & Company, was estab- lished in 1878, and later Mr. Robinson formed a joint stock company to operate the "Louis- ville Woolen Mills," of which he became the president. He was also one of the founders of the Louisville Cotton Mills, of which his son William A. became first president.

Years before this Mr. Robinson, with other prominent business men, established the Un- ion Lime & Cement Company, of which he became president. For six years he was a di- rector of the Louisville & Nashville Rail- road, and for five years of the Elizabethtown & Paducah Railroad Company. He was also a director of the Louisville Bridge Company.

Mr. Robinson's religious faith was an ele- ment of his life and prompted him to the most honorable relations with his fellowmen, it be- ing manifest in every transaction where he endeavored to put into practice the golden rule. He became a member of St. Paul's Episcopal church when it was established in 1839 and served as Sunday school teacher,

B.a.Crutcher.

1267

HISTORY OF KENTUCKY AND KENTUCKIANS

vestryman and warden in the church. After St. Paul's was removed to its present loca- tion Mr. Robinson became a member of St. Andrew's church. In 1882 he was elected the first honorary life member of the Louisville Board of Trade.

The public benefactions of Mr. Robinson cover a wide territory and a great variety of objects. He made large donations to several worthy institutions and contributed with large liberality to every worthy charity or society to assist the poor or the unfortunate. There was no educational cause or institution which did not find in him its most powerful ally and most capable supporter. It was not wonder- ful that in the life of this large-souled, un- swerving, conscientious man all the generous and philanthropical affections should grow and flourish. He felt himself enobled by his work. Among other benevolent work Mr. Robinson endowed a scholarship in the The- ological Seminary of Virginia for the educa- tion of Episcopal ministers; and made en- dowments of five thousand dollars each to the Louisville Charity Organization Society, the Home for Friendless Women, Home of the Innocents, the Orphanage of the Good Shep- herds and the Young Men's Christian Asso- ciation. He also gave liberally to the Prot- estant Orphan Asylum, the John N. Norton Memorial Infirmary and St. Andrew's church. The old Winchester Academy which Mr. Rob- inson attended as a boy was succeeded by the Shenandoah Valley Academy, which has taken high standing in Virginia, and in 1894 Mr. Robinson purchased and presented to the Academy, a tract of twenty acres adjoining Winchester, and upon which it has since been established in a permanent home. He also endowed three scholarships in the Academy.

His generous nature was also just, as every one who knew him intimately well under- stood. He was loyal in his friendships and generously remembered the friends of his youth. The tenor of his life was even and in all his relations he was honorable and relia- ble. The lesson of such a man's life is worth something in a community, the sagacious man of business holding in mind the complex de- tails of its numerous departments, the quiet citizen who discharges with seriousness and conscientious fidelity the duties of citizen- ship, the benevolent and generous Christian who recognizes the claims of humanity and seks to befriend, improve and uplift those who need help-such a man has not lived in vain-he has been successful.

He died peacefully and well prepared on December 9. 1897. His religion need not be sought with a lantern and doubted when

found, for the man of iron judgment and un- bending will, of powerful perceptions and resolute purposes, uncovered his head and went obedient to every mandate. He planted here and planted there, and rejoiced in the time of harvest. He believed in the inscription on the high priest's miter, and sought to send the light of holiness and peace into all the cor- ners of the earth.

BENJAMIN A. CRUTCHER, who in the gen- eral practice of law has built up an extensive patronage indicative of his comprehensive knowledge of the principles of jurisprudence and his correct adaptation thereof to the points in litigation, has been numbered among the members of the bar since 1884. He is at pres- ent commonwealth attorney, residing in Win- chester, Kentucky.

Mr. Crutcher was born in Jessamine county, Kentucky, June 21, 1856, the son of Thomas B. and Sarah ( Price) Crutcher. His father was born in Jefferson county, Kentucky, Feb- ruary 14, 1831, and died in Jessamine county, Kentucky, at the age of seventy-two years. His mother was born at Bardstown, Nelson county, Kentucky, February 21, 1831 and is still living at Nicholasville, Kentucky. They were the parents of seven children, of whom six are living: John A., living in Louisville, Kentucky; Benjamin A .; Lizzie, in Nicholas- ville ; Sallie, deceased ; Carrie, Thomas B. and Fannie, the last three living in Nicholasville. Our subject's grandfather, Norvill Crutcher, and his wife, Sarah ( Pollock) Crutcher, were natives of Virginia and of Welsh descent. They came to Jessamine county, Kentucky, when our subject's father was a boy, having previously lived in Jefferson county. Thomas B. Crutcher, the father, was given a common- school education and for fifty years he was in the mercantile business in Nicholasville. He was police judge and served on the city council for a number of years and was an act- ive member of the Baptist church. He took a great interest in educational work and was president of the Jessamine Female Institute and promoted Bethel Academy and finally combined the two schools into one.

Mr. Benjamin A. Crutcher was reared in Nicholasville, Kentucky, where he began his education by attending the common and graded schools, and continued by his taking a literary course at William Jewell College, at Liberty, Ohio, from which he returned home. While working in his father's store, he read law and was admitted to the bar in 1884, and immediately began the practice of his profes- sion. Mr. Crutcher was elected county attor- ney and served one term, then was re-elected

1268

HISTORY OF KENTUCKY AND KENTUCKIANS

and served until he was elected commonwealth attorney in 1892, when he resigned the office of county attorney. At his first election he had some opposition, but since then he has had none, and as he is serving his fourth term, the completion of the present one will make twenty-four years in all. In 1907 Mr. Crutcher removed to Clark county and pur- chased a farm of one hundred and fifty acres on the Paris Pike, where he resided until the spring of 1910, when he removed to Winches- ter. His district is composed of Clark, Jessa- mine, Madison and Powell counties.

Mr. Crutcher married, in 1879, Cora Og- den, a native of Winchester, Kentucky, wlio died in 1889 at the age of thirty years. She was a daughter of James and Mary ( Baldwin) Ogden. Three children were born of this un- ion : Mary, at home; James O., of Winches- ter; and Allan, at home. Mr. Crutcher's sec- ond marriage occurred on November 24, 1892. to Emma Hedges, who was born in Circle- ville, Ohio, December 12, 1858, a daughter of Joshua Hedges, of Pickaway county, Ohio. One child has been born to this union, Will- iam, who is at home. Mr. Crutcher is a mem- ber of the fraternal orders of Masons, Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias, being connected with these orders in Nicholasville and with the Elks in Winchester. He and his family are members of the Methodist Epis- copal church South. Mr. Crutcher in poli- tics has been a life-long Democrat, and, keep- ing well informed on the questions and issues of the day, is able to support his position by intelligent argument. He takes an active in- terest in community affairs and has been in- fluential in the ranks of his party, doing all in his power to promote its growth and secure its success. His is a well rounded character, in which the varied interests of citizenship, of professional service, home and social life have received due attention. He is a well read man, has a host of friends, and in all relations he has commanded the esteem of those with whom he has come in contact, while the com- munity interests have benefited by his co-oper- ation and practical labors.

CHATZ M. DEAN .- In the various counties of Kentucky are to be found many of the native sons of these respective sections who have found within their borders ample scope for effective effort along business and pro- fessional lines and who have achieved sitc- cess worthy of the name. Such an one is Mr. Dean, who is recognized as one of the rep- resentative business men of his native county and who is successfully identified with the tobacco trade at Worthville, one of the thriv- ing and attractive towns of Carroll county.

Chatz Miller Dean was born on the old homestead farm near the village in which he now resides, and the date of his nativity was July 10, 1861. He is a son of Chatz T. and Permelia (Tucker) Dean, the former of whom was born in Harrison county and the lat- ter in Bourbon county, this state, and both of whom were representatives of old and hon- ored families of the Blue Grass common- wealth. William P. Dean, grandfather of him whose name initiates this sketch, was a native of Pennsylvania, where the family, of English origin, was founded in the Colonial era. He was reared and educated in his na- tive state, whence he emigrated to Kentucky in the latter part of the eighteenth or early in the nineteenth century. He secured a large tract of land in Harrison county, but a few years later he removed to Carroll county, where he secured land in the vicinity of the present town of Worthville. He became one of the pioneers of this section of the state and contributed his quota to its civic and industrial development and upbuilding. The old home- stead is still in the possession of his descend- ants, and on this place he continued to reside until his death, when about seventy years of age. His name merits an enduring place on · the roster of the worthy and honored pioneers of Carroll county. He accumulated a large landed estate, was the owner of many slaves and was numbered among the leading planters of the northern part of the state. His wife survived him by a number of years, and the estate was greatly depleted through the rav- ages of the Civil war and through the conse- quent freeing of the family slaves. Mrs. Dean attained to the venerable age of ninety-eight years and was summoned to the life eternal about the year 1869, her remains being laid to rest beside those of her husband on the old homestead plantation. She became the mother of three sons and four daughters, all of whom are now deceased.

Chatz T. Dean was a boy at the time of the family removal to Carroll county, where he was reared to maturity on the home farm, in the meanwhile duly availing himself of the advantages of the common schools of the lo- cality and period. When about twenty years of age he initiated his independent career, without assistance from his father or others, and his self-reliance and ambition led him to secure a position in the employ of Joseph Thompson, who was the owner of . several thousand acres of land in the valley of the Kentucky river and who was a prominent breeder of fine horses, in connection with which line of enterprise he maintained a pri- vate race track. Finally Mr. Dean purchased

1269

HISTORY OF KENTUCKY AND KENTUCKIANS

land from Mr. Thompson and began indepen- dent operations as an agriculturist and stock- grower. He eventually accumulated a valuable landed estate of about one thousand acres, the greater portion of this tract having been formerly a part of the Thompson estate, which was originally granted by Virginia to John Williams and which next passed into the hands of Mr. Thompson, from whom Mr. Dean pur- chased his original homestead, as has just been noted. The old parchment deed from Vir- ginia, of which Kentucky was then an integral part. is now in the possession of the subject of this sketch and is prized as a valuable his- torical and family heirloom. Chatz T. Dean became the owner of a number of slaves, but these were given freedom as the result of the Civil war. Mr. Dean was numbered among the representative planters of Carroll county, was a man of strong character and impreg- nable integrity and always held secure place in the confidence and good will of his fellow men. He continued to reside on his fine old homestead until his death, in 1873, at the age of sixty-five years. He was liberal and loyal as a citizen, was a staunch and effective ad- vocate of the cause of the Democratic party and both he and his wife were most earnest and zealous members of the Methodist Episco- pal church, with whose southern body they identified themselves after the Civil war had brought about the division of the denomina- tion in the north and south. Mr. Dean de- frayed the major part of the expense of the erection of the Methodist church near his old homestead, in 1870, and the cost of the building was about three thousand dollars. This was called Dean chapel, and when the new edifice of the Methodist Episcopal church, South, was recently completed in the village of Worthville it was consistently entitled the Dean Memorial church, in honor of this noble and honored citizen, members of the family having contributed most generously to the building of the new church. Mrs. Dean sur- vived her husband by a period of fifteen years and continued to reside on the homestead, endeared to her by the gracious memories and associations of the past, until she too was called to the life eternal, at the age of seventy- eight years, her memory being revered by all who came within the compass of her gentle and gracious influence. She was born in Bour- bon county and was a daughter of William and Elizabeth (Day) Tucker, who were na- tives of Maryland and who were young at the time of the removal of the respective families to Bourbon county, Kentucky, where their marriage was solemnized. They eventu- ally removed to Grant county, where they

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

A history of Kentucky and Kentuckians; the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume III, Part 25

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