A history of Kentucky and Kentuckians; the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume III, Part 36

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 36

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George Washington Stamper, Jr., passed his youth in a manner similar to that of the farmer boy of that day, attending the district school during the winter months and working on the home farm during the summer seasons. When he had attained to the age of sixteen years he entered his father's store, where he learned the details of general merchandising and he continued an inmate of the parental home until he had reached his legal majority. Thereafter he worked in a blacksmith shop for a time and was engaged in farming on his own account for a couple of years, at the expiration of which he started a general store on a small scale on Grassy creek. This store, which he still owns and operates. has been doing busi- ness for the past thirty-five years. For thir- ty-three years Mr. Stamper was the able in- cumbent of the office of postmaster at Head of Grassy and he was one of the oldest postmas- ters, in point of continuous service, in this section of the state. He also became inter- ested in the timber business while located on Grassy creek, and he was for many years en- gaged in the stave business and in other en- terprises most successfully. In 1888 he es- tablished his residence at Vanceburg and in the following year he organized the Stamper Stave & Lumber Company, which carried on an extensive trade for nine years, at the expi- ration of which that firm was dissolved and Mr. Stamper continued in the lumber busi- ness in partnership with his brother, Joshua Stamper. Two years later, in 1900, he be- came a member of the firm of Johnson & Stamper, the same engaging in the railway tie business, getting out railway ties at various points in this section of the state. This busi- ness is now controlled by Johnson & Stamper, who are successors to the Elliott Tie Com- pany, which conducts its operations on the Little Sandy river. The annual output of this concern is from two hundred thousand to five hundred thousand ties.

In September. 1889, Mr. Stamper laid the foundation of his present large mercantile es- tablishment at Vanceburg by opening a gen- eral store in one room. This concern has grown to such gigantic proportions that it now occupies space equivalent to nine ordinary store rooms, the stock consisting of every- thing found in a modern department store except hardware. All Mr. Stamper's success- es are due to his indefatigable energy and great business ability and it is no exaggeration to say that he is one of the greatest hustlers in the state. In addition to his other interests he owns several fine farms in the Ohio valley and he has extensive real-estate holdings in

Vanceburg, where he has constructed a num- ber of residences and the majority of the bus- iness block he now occupies. He was one of the organizers of the Deposit Bank at Vanceburg, of which he is president at the present time and in which he is one of the heaviest stockholders. At the time of the building of the local electric plant he was elected president of that corporation, of which position he is still incumbent. He is a man of tremendous vitality and most extraordi- nary executive capacity. Beginning with practically nothing in the way of worldly goods, he has grasped his opportunities as they appeared and made of success not an ac- cident but a logical result. To-day he is rec- ognized as one of the biggest financiers in eastern Kentucky and his fair and honorable methods in all his business dealings have gained to him the highest regard of his fellow citizens.

Mr. Stamper is a loyal Democrat in his po- litical proclivities, but he has not had much time for political activity, having been a mem- ber of his first convention in 1910, at which time his influence was felt in no slight degree. In the Masonic order he has passed through the circle of the York Rite branch, holding membership in Polar Star Lodge, No. 363, Free & Accepted Masons; and Maysville Com- mandery, No. 10, Knights Templars. He and his wife are devout members of the Christian church, to whose charities and benevolences he has ever been a liberal contributor and in whose faith his children have been reared.

In 1872 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Stamper to Miss Sophia W. Stafford, a native of Carter county and a daughter of Sylvester Stafford, a farmer who served in the Union army in the Civil war and who died in service. Mr. and Mrs. Stamper have eiglit children, namely-Rebecca, Cinda, William J., James E., Cora Mae, Julia, Bessie L. and Marie, all of whom were born in Lewis coun- ty and all of whom were afforded excellent educations.

ORVILLE P. POLLITT, the present popular and efficient incumbent of the office of county clerk of Lewis county, Kentucky, is now serving his fourth term in office, and in dis- charging the duties incident thereto is acquit- ting himself with all of honor and distinction. Mr. Pollitt was born at Portsmouth, Ohio, on the 18th of September, 1871, and he is a son of James and Lucy C. (Parker) Pollitt, both natives of Lewis county and both members of old Kentucky families. Alexander H. Pollitt, paternal grandfather of the subject of this review, was born and reared in Mary- land, whence he came with his parents to

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Lewis county in an early day, location being made on a farm. James Pollitt studied law as a youth and became an eminent practitioner of his profession in Lewis county and in Portsmouth, Ohio. He was summoned to the life eternal at the age of forty-seven years, his death having occurred at Portsmouth in 1885. He served as judge of Lewis county for sev- eral terms immediately after the close of the Civil war and was very prominent in public affairs during his life-time. His widow, who still survives him, now maintains her home at Vanceburg. Mr. and Mrs. James Pollitt be- came the parents of two children, of whom Orville P. is the only one living in 1911.

Mr. Pollitt of this review was a lad of but fourteen years of age at the time of his father's death. He was reared to maturity at Portsmouth, his education consisting of such advantages as were afforded in the pub- lic schools of that place. He also attended school at Vanceburg and after leaving school he worked on a farm for a short time. In 1888 he was appointed deputy clerk of Lewis county, remaining in tenure of that office until the fall of 1897, at which time he was elected county clerk, of which latter office he has continued incumbent during the inter- vening years to the present time, this being his fourth term in office. His administration has been characterized by good judgment and staunch devotion to the duties at hand and it is worthy of note here that in the last election he met with no opposition in either the pri- maries or in the election proper.

In politics Mr. Pollitt is a staunch advocate of the principles and policies for which the Republican party stands sponsor and he has ever been an ardent supporter of all measures and enterprises projected for the good of the community. In a fraternal way he is affili- ated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Junior Order of the United American Mechanics. In his religious faith Mr. Pollitt is a devout member of the Meth- odist Episcopal church. lle is unmarried.

WALTER S. HATFIELD, M. D .- Compared with every other profession that of medicine ranks foremost in the way of human helpful- ness. It requires great ability and innate talent, and in addition to these a spirit of sacrifice and genial kindliness must ever be in evidence ready to inspire faith and hope in each and every patient. Possessed of these qualities, Dr. Hlatfield has gained prestige as one of the leading physicians and surgeons in Kenton county. He was born near South Bend, Indi- ana, on the 23d of June, 1854. and is a son of Abel Janny and Martha ( Zigler ) Hatfield, the former of whom was a native of Wayne county, Indiana, and the latter of Virginia.

The Hatfield family traces its ancestry back to Welsh origin, the great-grandfather, Jonas Hatfield, having emigrated from Wales to the United States in the year 1773, when but nine years of age. He first settled in Pennsylvania and later removed to Kentucky, where he was united in marriage to Miss Rachel Janny. They became the parents of several children and after a time established their home in Dayton, Ohio. In 1810 they removed to Green's Fork, on White River, Wayne county, Indiana. There Jonas Hatfield passed the resi- due of his life, his death having occurred in 1813. During the major portion of his active business career he was engaged in agricultural pursuits. Of his children, Nathan E. Hatfield was the grandfather of the Doctor; he was born at Dayton, Ohio, in 1804, and he es- tablished his home in St. Joseph county, In- diana, in 1830, being a pioneer farmer in that county. He married Emily Roe and they had eleven children, nine of whom attained to years of maturity. Nathan was summoned to the life eternal in March, 1875, at the age of seventy-one years, and his cherished and de- voted wife passed away in 1882, at the age of seventy-one years. Abel Janny Hatfield was the eldest of their eleven children and he was born on the 10th of June, 1828. He married Martha Zigler, a native of Virginia, where her birth occurred in February, 1830, and whence she accompanied her parents to St. Joseph county, Indiana, in 1838. Her father was Samuel Zigler and he followed farming until 1866, at which time he became interested in the sawmill and lumber business, continuing to be identified with that line of enterprise until his death, which occurred in 1874, at the age of seventy-four years. His wife was Margaret Garwood and she died in 1883, at the age of seventy-three years. Abel Hatfield passed most of his life in St. Joseph county, Indiana, being a mere infant at the time of his parents' removal to that county. He was a farmer, horticulturist and apiarist and he died in 1897, in his sixty-ninth year, his wife having passed to her reward September 26, 1861. Of their six children all but one are living, Dr. Walter S. Hatfield being the third in order of birth.

Dr. Hatfield was reared and educated in his native county, his rudimentary training being supplemented by a course in the high school at Niles, Michigan, where his parents resided from 1864 to 1874. In 1880 he be- gan the study of medicine, under the able pre- ceptorship of Dr. John Maurer. of South Bend, Indiana. In 1880 he was matriculated in the Hahnemann Medical College, at Phil- adelphia, Pennsylvania, and in this excellent institution he was graduated as a member of

W.S. Hatfield Mio.

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the class of 1882, duly receiving his degree of Doctor of Medicine. He initiated the prac- tice of his profession at Benton Harbor, Mich- igan; and later he was engaged in practice at South Bend, Indiana. In the fall of 1883 he removed to Covington, Kenton county, Ken- tucky, where he has built up a large and l11- crative practice and where he has since main- tained his home with the exception of two years, which he spent in the city of Cincinnati, Ohio. He is a member of the Kentucky State Society of Homeopathy, the Southern Homeo- pathic Society and the American Institute of Homeopathy. In politics he accords a staunch allegiance to the principles and policies of the Republican party but he has never been a can- didate for political honors, preferring to give his entire time and attention to the exacting demands of his profession. He has ever shown a deep interest in all movements pro- jected for the general welfare of the commu- nity and he is held in high confidence and es- teem by his professional confreres, as well as by his fellow citizens. Both he and his wife are popular factors in connection with the best so- cial activities of their home city.

On the 29th of August, 1887, was solem- nized the marriage of Dr. Hatfield to Miss Elizabeth Heron, who was born in Toronto, Canada, and who is a daughter of John and Sarah (Dunkin) Heron, both of whom were natives of England, where their marriage took place and whence they emigrated to Canada. In 1863 they removed to Cincinnati, Ohio, where John Heron died about one year later. Mrs. Heron died in 1889, in Covington, Ken- tucky. James Heron, a well known furniture dealer in Cincinnati, is a brother of Mrs. Hat- field. Dr. and Mrs. Hatfield became the par- ents of three children, one of whom died in infancy. Walter H., who was born on the 26th of August, 1888, is now a student in Hahnemann Medical College, in the city of Philadelphia, being a member of the class of 19II. James E., the other son, is attending school in Covington. He was born on the 12th of July, 1891.

CHARLES KITCHEN is the president of the Second National Bank of Ashland, Kentucky, besides being engaged in various other im- portant business interests, and the history of his family connections and of his business career will prove an interesting chapter in the annals of Kentucky. Mr. Kitchen was born on a farm in Carter county, Kentucky, four miles from Willard, on January 28, 1845, the son of Andrew J. and Winnie (Bays) Kitchen. The former was a native of Green- brier county, West Virginia, of English an-

cestry, and the latter was born in Scott county, Virginia, of Scotch-Irish descent.

Andrew Kitchen, the grandfather of our subject, was a native of Greenbrier county, West Virginia, then old Virginia, but left there about 1830 and brought his family to Kentucky, locating on a farm in Carter county, near Willard, becoming an agricultur- ist, well known and respected, and continu- ing in that business the remainder of his life. He became an extensive farmer and slave owner and raised large quantities of corn, which found a ready market throughout that section. Soon after coming to Kentucky, he was elected to the legislature, served one term, being a leading Democrat. He had served in the war of 1812 in a Virginia regiment and was known thereafter as Major Kitchen.

Andrew J. Kitchen, the father of our sub- ject, was reared in Carter county on the home- stead, where he became a farmer and in which occupation he passed his entire life, dying at the age of seventy-four. He was a justice of the peace for many years and known far and wide as Squire Kitchen. His widow survived him for several years, dying in March, 1908, at the age of eighty-four years. She was the mother of ten children, two of whom are dead, our subject being the second in order of birth.

Charles Kitchen was reared on the farm in Carter county and early in life was dis- ciplined to the tasks of hard work in the hills of Kentucky. He was a hoy when the Civil war broke out, and during that strenuous period educational advantages were almost at a standstill and Mr. Kitchen was enabled to at- tend school for only a few weeks of each year. He was at the home place until a young man and in the fall of 1865 engaged in the mer- chandise business for himself near Leon, then known as Deer Creek postoffice, the postoffice being in his store and Mr. Kitchen was post- master for many years. Later he bought a farm of two hundred acres from his grand- father, on which a store was located. He con- tinued farming and merchandizing very suc- cessfully for many years, and during that time bought more land adjoining, having twelve hundred acres in one piece besides farms in other places. He has a hobby for farming and enjoys that branch of industry in all its phases. He still continues to in- crease his holdings, and at one time owned over two thousand acres of land.

In 1880 Mr. Kitchen engaged in the lumber and saw mill business. building a mill at Leon on the bank of Little Sandy river, buying logs in Elliott county and floating them to the mill.

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He has been in this line of manufacturing lumber ever since and is one of the leaders in Kentucky, his business having increased to enormous proportions. In 1898 he became interested in lumber manufacturing at Ash- land and engaged with a partner under the firm name of Van Sant, Kitchen & Company, which owns a large mill at Ashland, one at Mayhan, West Virginia, and a small one on the Kentucky river. They recently bought the poplar timber on twenty-seven thousand acres of timber land in Breathitt county, Ken- tucky, which is being shipped by train loads to the mills in Ashland.

Mr. Kitchen helped organize the Second National Bank at Ashland and has been a director from the first and is now president of the same. His business interests are widely scattered, but such is his energy and the cog- nizance of the fact that a man to prosper must attend personally to his affairs that he su- pervises his various interests while he has been able to continue his residence at Leon, Carter county.

In politics Mr. Kitchen is a stanch Demo- crat. At the time of the election of the State Board of Equalization by vote of the people he was elected from his congressional district and served one term of two years. During the early days of Carter county he served as school superintendent of that county. Mr. Kitchen is a member of the Masonic order, allied with the Blue Lodge in Grayson and with the Royal Arch Chapter and the Com- mandery, Knights Templar in Ashland. In February, 1866 he was married to Loretta King, a native of Carter county, Kentucky. They are the parents of ten children, of whom nine are living. Their names are: James H., Ida May, Mollie Lee, John W., Icy Myrtle, Effie Winnie, Lula Belle, Lottie Florence and Charles J. Jr. One son, Andrew William, died at the age of two years. These children were all raised in their native county, well educated and all married and settled in life except Lottie Florence, who is still at home. Mr. Kitchen and family are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, South at Leon. Mrs. Kitchen died in May, 1904, and he was again married in 1910, to Nellie B. Golden, of Normal, Kentucky.

JAMES H. KITCHEN is connected with such a diversity of business interests, that a short sketch of his life will indicate something of the extent and scope of his efforts. A man of resourceful business ability, he stands among those whose keen discrimination not only en- ables them to recognize the opportunity of the present but also the exigencies and possibili- ties of the future, and his work is proving a

substantial and important element in the up- building and development of that section of the country which is fast becoming a great center in commercial and industrial life .:

Mr. Kitchen, vice-president of the Wright- Kitchen Lumber Co., of Ashland, Kentucky, was born in Carter county, Kentucky, Janu- ary 8, 1867, the son of Charles and Loretta (King) Kitchen, a sketch of Charles Kitchen being printed elsewhere in this work. James H. was reared on the farm in Carter county and being the oldest of ten children, went to work at an early age on the farm and in the store at Leon, for his father, and later became a partner of his father's under the firm name of Chas. Kitchen & Son, which continued suc- cessfully for twenty-five years and which suc- cess was due in no small way to the business foresight and sagacity of James.

He is still interested in the store and lands in that section, but has not confined his at- tention entirely to that one branch of indus- try. He continued to make his home in Car- ter county until 1910, when he located at Ash- land. In 1895 Mr. Kitchen entered into part- nership with Senator W. B. Whitt and organ- ized a wholesale grocery at Ashland, under the firm name of Kitchen, Whitt & Co., and" three years later incorporated with a capital of $100,000 and rapidly enlarged to the pres- ent proportions, and lead this line in north- east Kentucky. The officers elected at the first are still in office: J. H. Kitchen, presi- dent; W. B. Whitt, vice-president; J. B. King, secretary; F. R. Henderson, general manager.

Mr Kitchen for several years has been in- terested in manufacturing staves in Carter county and also for several years has been a member of the Kitchen Lumber Company which owns twenty thousand acres of timber land in North Carolina. In January, 1910, in connection with his brother Charles, he bought an interest in a large lumber concern at Ashland, then known as the Wright, Sauls- berry Lumber Company and the same was in- corporated as the Wright, Kitchen Lumber Company, with a capital stock of $75,000. The officers are Giles Wright, president ; J. H. Kitchen, vice-president ; Chas. Kitchen, Jr., secretary and treasurer. This firm operates a large saw mill at Ashland on the Ohio river, the logs coming from what is known as Big Sandy territory, the capacity of the mill being thirty-five thousand feet daily. It ships lum- ber to all parts of the country, making a spe- cialty of oak and poplar, and employs about forty men in the mill and yards at Ashland.

In politics Mr. Kitchen is in sympathy. with the Democratic party. For twenty-three

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years he was Postmaster at Leon, Carter coun- ty, having the post office in the store. So- cially, he is a member of the Masonic order, being connected with the Blue Lodge No. 145, at Grayson and the Royal Arch Chapter, No. 81 Commandery and No. 28 Elhasa Temple of the Shriners at Ashland.

On May 17, 1888, Mr. Kitchen was mar- ried to Florence Pope, of Leon, Kentucky, and they are the parents of seven children : Nadia, Bessie, Bertram, Maud, James Jr., Charles and Lauretta, and parents and chil- dren are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, South.

WILLIAM P. WORNALL .- In the matter of definite accomplishment in connection with the great industry of agriculture William P. Wornall has gained vantage ground and is numbered among the representative farmers and stock-growers of the younger generation in Bourbon county, which has been his home from the time of his nativity and in which he is held in unqualified confidence and esteem.

Concerning the genealogy of the Wornall family the following data are here incorpo- rated. The original progenitors of the name in America were Roby and Edyth Wornall, who were of English ancestry and who were Colonial residents in Virginia. Their son Thomas, born December 13, 1775, died No- vember 3, 1838, was prominent in public af- fairs during his life time. He was sheriff. a member of the Kentucky house of repre- sentatives from Clark county in 1809, and was a colonel in a Kentucky regiment in the war of 1812. On the 24th of January, 1797, was recorded the marriage of Thomas Wornall to Miss Susan, a daughter of John Bowen and Susan (Rion) Bowen. She was born Janu- ary 21, 1777, and of the ten children born to this union eight grew to maturity, namely,- Richard, Eliza Ann, Alfred, Thomas, James, Nancy Tucker, Perry and Susan Rion. Rich- ard, the first born, went to Missouri, locating near Westport Landing, now Kansas City. He married Judith Ann Glover, who had been raised by John Bristow, and she died in Mis- souri. Subsequently Richard married Mrs. Mary Harrison, mother-in-law of General John S. "Cerro Gordo" Williams. By his first wife he had three children, of whom Eli- za died unmarried; as did one son Thomas. The other son, John Bristow, moved early in life to Westport, Missouri; he served in the Missouri state.senate from 1870 to 1874 and was prominently mentioned for governor of the state. He took an active part in the affairs of the Baptist church, was for many years moderator of the Blue River Association and was long president of the board of trus-

tees of William Jewell College, at Liberty, Missouri. He had four sons, one of whom, Thomas J., was in Missouri state senate from 1904 to 1908. John Bristow Wornall had three other sons, Francis Clay, John B., Jr .. and Charles Hardin.

Eliza Ann, the second child of Thomas and Susan (Rion) Wornall, married a Mr. An- derson, of Winchester, Kentucky; they had no children. Alfred, the third child, married Lucinda Hedges and he was summoned to eternal rest in 1836, being survived by one son Alfred, who served in the Confederate army during the Civil war and who married Margaret Hamilton. He died September 19, 1908, and was not survived by any children. Thomas, Jr., the fourth in order of birth of the above-mentioned children, married Re- becca Beau and had two children, James W., who wedded Sophia Edwards, had no off- spring; and John T., who married first Ann Ewalt and later Mrs. Redmon: The latter union was prolific of one son, John T., Jr., now of Lair Station, Harrison county, Ken- tucky. James Rion Wornall, fifth child of Thomas and Susan Wornall, married Anne Moore, of Winchester, Kentucky: They had two daughters, the elder of whom, Eliza, married Joseph Croxton, of near Winchester, and has four children, Anne, Carrie Lee, Jo- seph and Clay; and the younger of whom, Ann Clay, married William Buckner, of Bour- bon county, Kentucky, and became the mother of three children, Thomas Moore, James Mon- roe and Lucy. Nancy Tucker Wornall, sixth child of Thomas and Susan Wornall, was unit- ed in marriage to Samuel (Graybeard) Clay, of Bourbon county: They had four chil- dren, of whom Alfred died in youth : Thomas Henry married Fannie Conn Williams, of Paris, Kentucky, and has four children, George Williams, Thomas Henry, Jr., Naunine and Alfred; Susan Elizabeth married Cassius M. Clay, Jr., prominent in politics and candi- date for governor of Kentucky, in 1911 : They had four children, Brutus J., Samuel H., An- nie L. and Sue: James Eldred Clay, fourth child of Nancy T. W. Clay, married Elizabeth Alexander, of Paris, Kentucky, and had five children, Belle Brent, Naunine, James E., Jr., Samuel and Charlton. Perry Wornall, youngest son of Thomas and Susan R. Worn- all, was born October 12, 1819, and married Elizabeth Ewalt, daughter of Samuel and Syn- thia (Pugh) Ewalt and half sister of Ann Ewalt, who married John T. Wornall, as pre- viously noted. They had two sons, Samuel Ewalt, born March 27, 1846, and Thomas Parker, born December 13. 1847, and died November 23, 1891. Samuel Ewalt Wornall

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A history of Kentucky and Kentuckians; the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume III, Part 36

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