A history of Kentucky and Kentuckians; the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume III, Part 40

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 40

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W. J. KENNEDY .- In connection with an in- dustrial enterprise of marked scope and an im- portance the subject of this review has attain- ed a high degree of success and is known as one of the representative business men of Nicholas county, Kentucky, of which he is a native son. W. J. Kennedy owns and con- trols the destinies of that prosperous and ever- growing concern, The Carlisle Milling Com- pany, these flour mills consuming over fifty thousand bushels of wheat each year and pro- ducing a high quality of flour. Mr. Kennedy was born February 12, 1843, and is the son of A. J. and Sallie Ann (Hillock) Kennedy, both of these worthy people having been born in the same county as their son. A. J. Ken- nedy was born on Christmas day, 1821, and died at the age of seventy years. The mother was born but nine days later than her husband, (January 2, 1822) and she is still living in the very house in which she began housekeeping as a young bride. The year of their marriage was 1842 and they began farming, and con- tinued agricultural operations successfully un- til the demise of the husband and father. The mother is, as was the father, an earnest and consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal church, South. Their union was cemented by the birth of six children, three of whom are alive at the present day. Mr. Kennedy is the eldest ; John resides in Harrison county, Ken- tucky, and Bettie is the widow of William Cottingham and makes her home with her mother. The Kennedy family were Nicholas county pioneers, the paternal grandparents of him whose name initiates this brief review being William and Mary (Broaks) Kennedy, both natives of Nicholas county. . Glancing back two generations farther into the past we find that the family originates in Scotland, the great-great-grandfather, David, a native of the "land o' cakes," having followed the gleam- ing of the star of hope for wider opportunity

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from the shore of the new world. Upon his arrival in America he made his way to Vir- ginia and became a Revolutionary soldier. In 1790 he made his way to Kentucky and settled in Nicholas county where he secured a tract of land, some of it still being owned by the Kennedys.

W. J. Kennedy was reared upon his father's country homestead and received but a limited education. When eighteen years of age he found it necessary to face alone the serious issues of life and his first venture was in the capacity of a dealer in live stock, which he followed for a period of four years. In the fall of 1865 he went to Headquarters, Nich- olas county, and entered the mercantile busi- ness, conducting a general merchandise store for fifteen years. In 1880 he sold out and made a radical change by purchasing a farm near Moorefield, Nicholas county, where for six years he engaged in farming and tobacco. growing. His residence in Carlisle and his identification with the industrial activities of the place dates from 1888. The Carlisle Mill- ing Company has a capacity of eighty barrels a day and, as before mentioned, consumes over fifty thousand bushels of wheat in the operations of a year. It is to such substantial and well conducted institutions that the pros- perity of Carlisle is owing.

It is not, however, merely in an industrial capacity that the usefulness of Mr. Kennedy to the city must be measured, for he has also proved his efficiency as a public servant and his two terms as mayor of Carlisle were most sat- isfactory to the community in general. He has likewise been a member of the city council. He is connected with the great Masonic fra- ternity, belonging to Daugherty Lodge, No. 65, In the matter of religious faith he and his wife belong to the Methodist Episcopal church, South.

Mr. Kennedy has been twice married. His first union was celebrated in November, 1865, the lady to become his wife being Eliza Smith, a native of Nicholas county, Kentucky. She passed to the Great Beyond January 4, 1888, her years being forty-three. She was the mother of six children, four of whom are liv- ing at the present day, as follows: Samuel, a citizen of Carlisle, Kentucky ; Claudia, wife of G. E. Smith, of Indianapolis, Indiana; W. E. residing in Nicholas county, Kentucky; and Warren, of Carlisle. Mr. Kennedy was mar- ried a second time to Mrs. Alice James, widow of S. A. James, their marriage occurring No- vember 15, 1892. By her previous marriage, Mrs. Kennedy had two children, one surviving -a son Harry who resides in Fayette county, Kentucky. There are no children by the sec-

ond union. Mrs. Kennedy's maiden name was Alice Watson and she was a native of Bourbon county, her parents being Samuel and Lou (Holladay) Watson.

CHARLES M. WISE is a well-known farm- er-citizen of Nicholas county and of that fine type of Southern gentleman of whose pos- session Kentucky is so proud. He is the son of that well-remembered and highly respected agriculturist and friend of good education, John Wise. He is a veteran of the Civil war, that conflict serving as the dividing line between two vocations which have engaged his attention, he having been a merchant in his younger days and a farmer at the present time. Although still operating his lands, Mr. Wise at present resides at Carlisle. He was born in Fleming county August 6, 1835, and is the son of John and Mary ( Prather) Wise. The former was born in Virginia, but came as a young man to Kentucky and located in Ma- son county, near Mays' Lick. During the war of 1812 he served as major in Poage Regi- ment, which was raised in Mason county. He married for his first wife a Miss Shotwell, daughter of Major Shotwell of Mason county, and six children were born to them, all of them being now deceased. His second mar- riage, with Mr. Wise's mother, was celebrated in Fleming county, Miss Prather being a na- tive of that county. Of the four sons and four daughters who came to bless their home but four survive. Mr. Wise is the youngest of the four. The father removed to Fleming from Mason county about the time of his second marriage. He became a successful farmer and organized a school district, known as Wise's, before the time of the county school system. He was a man of progressive ideas and had the gift of making them fine reali- ties, and he was at the forefront in many of the beneficial campaigns of his day.

Charles M. Wise was reared in Fleming county and there attended the common schools in which the majority of the young men of his time received what education they were to en- joy. At the age of sixteen he found it neces- sary to face the serious issues of life and began clerking in a store. A few years later he and K. Wood started a general merchan- dise store at Blue Lick Springs, and of this Mr. Wise had charge until the fall of 1862. By that time the Civil war had proved to be a problem which could not be solved within a few weeks, as many had at first hoped, and Mr Wise enlisted in Company B, of the Ninth Kentucky Cavalry, of which the well-beloved William Breckinridge was colonel. This was a part of Morgan's command and Mr. Wise was with him on his raid through Ohio. He

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partook of the varied fortunes of war and was captured when Morgan surrendered in 1863 and sent on to Camp Chase, near Columbus, Ohio, where he remained a short time. He was subsequently transferred to Johnston's Is- land, where he was held a prisoner until the close of the war.

Upon returning home Mr. Wise found that the store belonging to him and his partner had been destroyed, and that the business of which he had believed himself the owner had evaporated into thin air. He accepted the situation philosophically, but decided to aban- don the thought of a mercantile career and he began farming on his father-in-law's estate half a mile east of Carlisle. Later, when he found himself able, he purchased this and op- erated it and lived upon it continuously until 1904, when he sold a part of it and removed with his goods and chattels to Carlisle, where he and his wife are enjoying in leisure the fruits of their former industry and where they have greater time and opportunity for the cultivation of those friendships of which they enjoy an unusual number. Mr. Wise still manages the cultivation of his farm. He has many times proved himself one of the most enlightened of the agriculturists of the locality. He is a life-long Democrat and he and his wife are faithful and consistent mem- bers of the Presbyterian church.

Mr. Wise was married in the month of February, 1858, the lady to become his wife being Sallie Long, a native of Nicholas coun- ty. She is the daughter of John and Nancy (Nesbit) Long. Her father, born in Nich- olas county November 27, 1800, died in 1883; and the mother, born near Carlisle, Pennsyl- vania, May 22, 1800, enjoyed even longer life than the husband to whom she was devoted, her demise occurring two years after his in the year 1885. They were the parents of two children, Mrs. Wise being the elder. A broth- er William, a veteran if the Confederate army service, resides in Nicholas county. Mrs. Wise's paternal grandfather, Elakin Long, was a native of Maryland, and his wife, Jemima Victor, was born in Nicholas county, Kentucky, and passed on to her reward in Il- linois in 1864, her years numbering eighty- four. Her maternal grandfather, Nathan Nesbit, was born in Maryland, as was also his wife. They were Nicholas county pion- eers and when the country was new settled half a mile east of Carlisle, where the father purchased land, cleared it and improved it and made a tillable and valuable tract of it.

Mr. and Mrs. Wise are the parents of five children, The eldest child and only son, William J., is a merchant and resides at Car-

lisle. Nancy Lee is the wife of James Crock- ett, of Bath county ; Betty is at home; Ida is the wife of Elliott Coliver and makes her home in Carlisle ; and Effie Kate is at home.

Mr. Wise renews old wartime associations as a member of Peter Bramlett Post, Confed- erate Soldiers of America, and since 1857 has been a member of the Masonic order, in which he takes no small amount of pleasure. Mr. and Mrs. Wise are among those fortunate pairs who have celebrated their golden wed- ding and are still permitted to enjoy an ideal life companionship.

SAMUEL PATTON HAGER .- Although he en- tered upon the realities of life scantily equipped as regarded education and financial resources, Samuel Patton Hager, an honored and highly esteemed citizen of Ashland, Boyd county, possessed keen powers of discernment and discrimination and a splendid business brain, these amply supplying the deficiencies of book knowledge and wealth. With such steady purpose and disciplined plan has he wrought and labored that his works have been crowned with golden success, and he is spending the evening tide of his busy and useful life at his pleasant home, happy in the consciousness of duty well performed. A native of Kentucky, he was born in Floyd county May 22, 1834, a son of General Daniel Hager. He is of pio- neer descent and comes of substantial German stock, his grandfather, Jolın Hager, the emi- grant ancestor, having settled in Kentucky at an early period.

John Hager was born, December 26, 1759, in Hesse Cassel, Germany. Emigrating to the United States during the Revolutionary war, he fought with the colonists under Gener- als Sumter and Marion. At the close of the conflict he located in Amherst county, Vir- ginia, where he married, in 1785, Mary Schrae- der, by whom he had seven children, namely : John, George, William, Elizabeth, Henry, James and Daniel. About 1806, accompanied by his wife and their two younger sons, he migrated to this country, and after spending a year at the mouth of Beaver Creek moved on down to the mouth of Johns Creek, on the Big Sandy river, in Floyd county, where his death occurred in 1819. His wife, who was born in Virginia in 1755, died in her Kentucky home in Floyd county in 1847, aged ninety-two years.

Born in Amherst county, Virginia, Novem- ber 15, 1801, Daniel Hager, familiarly known as General Hager, was but five years old wlien he came with his parents to Kentucky. He grew to manhood on the home farm, and, suc- ceeding to its ownership, lived there until 1840. In April of that year he purchased what was then called the Vanhoose farm but is now

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known as the Hager Gap farm, then in Floyd, but now included within the limits of Johnson county. In 1843 he bought the Hayden farm, a mile from the Vanhoose farm, and in 1845 assumed its possession. He subsequently re- moved with his family to Paintsville, Johnson county, only three miles distant, and was there engaged in the mercantile and hotel business for seven years. Returning to his farm, he was there engaged in agricultural pursuits from 1859 until 1865, when he again settled in Paintsville, where he continued his resi- dence until his death, July 5, 1887, at the ven- erable age of eighty-six years. On January 31, 1822, General Daniel Hager married Violet Porter of Russell county, Virginia, a daughter of John and Elizabeth (Pendleton) Porter She died in Paintsville, Kentucky, February 22, 1877, aged seventy-three years.

The brief record of the more important points in the life of Samuel Patton Hager may prove an inspiration to the poorly circum- stanced youths of today, for it is a living ser- mon upon the achievements of industry, hon- esty and frugality. Receiving but limited ed- ucational advantages in his rural home, he be- gan his business career in 1852 as a clerk in his father's store in Paintsville, Kentucky. At the end of four years, having acquired a prac- tical knowledge of the business, he started in for himself in that city, in 1857 admitting to partnership his brother-in-law, William Staf- ford. A few months later this firm closed out, and Mr. Hager, in the fall of 1857, sought a new field of action, going to Tinney's Grove, Missouri, where he was engaged in mercantile pursuits until the spring of 1859. Return- ing then to Kentucky, he resumed business in Paintsville. In 1863, in company with his brother Henry Hager, and Dr. J. W. Martin, he embarked in the steamboating business on the Big Sandy river. Disposing of that busi- ness at the close of the Civil war, Mr. Hager opened a store of general merchandise in Paintsville and conducted it most successfully until April, 1881, when he sold a half interest in the business to his brother, Daniel M. Ha- ger, and moved with his family to Ashland, Kentucky, where he has since resided.

The first year after his removal to Ashland, Mr. Hager was engaged with J. M. S. Lane in the wholesale hardware business, being head of the firm of Hager & Lane. Selling out then to his partner, Mr. Hager, with his eldest son, William C. Hager, embarked in the dry goods business under the firm name of S. P. Hager & Son, and here built up a substantial trade. He is now senior member of the well- known insurance firm of S. P. Hager & Son, and is successfully conducting a general insur- ance business.

Since taking up his residence in Ashland, Mr. Hager has been conspicuously identified with the leading enterprises of the city. He was the first secretary of the Ashland Fire Brick Company and also of the Ashland and Catlettsburg Street Railway Company. He has served as vice-president and director of two financial institutions, the Bank of Ashland and the Merchants' National Bank, and as a director in a number of the leading corpora- tions of the city. A man of strict integrity, he has won the confidence of his fellow-men, and is held in high respect by his large circle of friends and acquaintances.

A Jacksonian Democrat, Mr. Hager was ap- pointed postmaster at Paintsville in 1856, and served ten years. He and his wife are mem- bers of the Methodist church, South, of which he was steward and trustee and a Sunday- school worker.

At Paintsville, Johnson county, Kentucky, November 21, 1861, Mr. Hager was united in marriage with Angelina Brown, a daughter of Judge Thomas S. Brown. Six sons blessed their union, namely: William C., Harry H., Fred, Edgar B., John S. and Paul Vernon. Fred and Paul Vernon died in infancy, and Harry H. passed to the higher life in June, 1909. Mr. and Mrs. Hager have traveled ex- tensively, both at home and abroad, twice tour- ing Europe and the Orient, and they have a large circle of acquaintances on both sides of the Atlantic. They are people of refinement and culture, and at their hospitable home de- lightfully entertain their many friends. Fra- ternally Mr. Hager stands high in Masonic circles, being a member and past master of Poage Lodge, No. 325, A. F. & A. M .; a mem- ber and past high priest of Apperson Chapter, No. 81, R. A. M. ; and a member and past com- mander of Ashland Commandery, No. 28, K. T.

R. DILLARD HUNTER .- Clark county is for- tunate in being represented in the general as- sembly of Kentucky by R. Dillard Hunter, a man whose highest consideration is given to the welfare of the state and primarily to that of the community in which he has long played a prominent and praiseworthy role. He is one of those native sons who have paid Clark county the supreme compliment of remaining within her pleasant borders during the early part of his life. His birthdate was June 2, 1846, and the scene of his nativity was in the vicinity of the waters of Hickman and Mar- ble Creek in Jessamine county. His parents were Moses and Lucy A. (Bronaugh) Hunter and his father answered to the double calling of farmer and trader. He was a native of Jessamine county, and the mother was a na-

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tive of Culpeper county, Virginia. The Hunter family is found, upon looking a few decades into the past, in Virginia, and the grandfather, John Hunter, served his coun- try as a Revolutionary soldier from the Old Dominion state.

R. Dillard Hunter received his preliminary education in the common schools of Jessamine county, and afterwards attended the Grundy Commercial College at Cincinnati, Ohio, where he secured a business training which has proved useful to him in many respects. His early years were passed upon his father's farm and in early life he came to the conclu- sion to adopt as his own the great basic in- dustry. He has engaged in agriculture throughout his active career, and, ever alert to the latest developments, in this field which keeps pace in advancement with other lines of endeavor he has met with success. For a period of seven years, from 1891 to 1898, Mr. Hunter served as cashier of the Bank of Win- chester, Kentucky, and in early life was for a while deputy clerk of the Jessamine county court. Public spirited and reliable, his ser- vices have ever been of the most valuable sort. After his marriage Mr. Hunter moved to Clark county, where he has served two terms as magistrate. In 1907 he was elected to the general assembly in which he has served his second term and is now (1911) a candidate for the office.

Mr. Hunter is a life-long Democrat, having ever given his loyal allegiance to the men and measures of that party. He is a student of men and affairs, and as said before, is ever happy when able to serve the interests of the state and county. He is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks in their organization at Winchester, Kentucky, having joined about the year 1902. He is a member of the Baptist church, to whose creed his forbears likewise subscribed, and he was named in honor of the pioneer Baptist preach- er, Dr. R. T. Dillard.

On the 21st day of March, 1872, Mr. Hunter was united in wedlock with Miss Me- lissa Bush, of Clark county, Kentucky, a daughter of Richard G. Bush. The marriage was solemnized at the home of the bride's uncle, G. S. Mitchell, of Jessamine county. To this union was born five children: Bettie I., now the wife of Dr. D. Middleton Lawson, of Nowata, Oklahoma; Richard B., a farmer of .Clark county; David C., an attorney of Lexington, Kentucky; June, a farmer of Clark county ; and Mary L., now the wife of Prewitt Harris, of Winchester, Kentucky.

OSCAR C. ROBERTSON, D. O .- A prominent osteopath at Cynthiana, Kentucky, who ranks high in his particular field of enterprise and who has been an active factor in professional and public affairs in this section of the state, is Dr. Oscar C. Robertson, who was born in Davis county, Kentucky, on the 23d of March, 1883. He is a son of Louis N. and Ida (Vanover) Robertson, both of whom are now residing at Owensboro, this state. The father was born in Davis county on the 7th of May, 1860, and the mother was likewise born in that county, the date of her birth be- ing May 16, 1862. They became the parents of seven children, namely : Oscar C., of this re- view; Myrtle, who is the wife of D. J. Taylor, of McLean county, Kentucky; and Bertha, Gilbert, Laimie, Elsie and Jewel, all of whom remain at the parental home. The paternal grandfather of the doctor was D. C. Robert- son, who is a native of McLean county, Ken- tucky, where his birth occurred in 1837. He and his wife are now living in Davis county, Kentucky. His father, William Robertson, was a son of John Robertson, who was born in Virginia, whence he came to Kentucky in company with two of his brothers about the year 1800. One settled in Paducah, one in Oldham county and John, in McLean county. The maternal grandfather of Dr. Robertson was John Vanover, who was born in Davis county, Kentucky, of parents who immigrated to this state form North Carolina. The or- iginal progenitor of the Robertson family in America was of Scotch-Irish extraction.

Dr. Oscar C. Robertson, the immediate sub- ject of this review, was reared to adult age on the home farm in Davis county, to the pre- cinct schools of which place he is indebted for his early educational training. In 1904 he was matriculated in the Kirksville, Mis- souri, School of Osteopathy, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1906, with the degree of Doctor of Osteopathy. He began the practice of his profession at Cyn- thiana, where he has built up a large and rep- resentative patronage and where he has gained prestige as one of the leading practitioners in this section of the fine old Blue Grass state. In 1910 Dr. Robertson was elected president of the Kentucky Osteopathy Association and he has long been an influential member of the state board of health. In politics he endorses the cause of the Democratic party. In a fra- ternal way he is affiliated with St. Andrew Lodge, No. 18, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and he is also connected with the Knights of Pythias. His religious faith is in

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harmony with the tenets of the Baptist church, in which he is superintendent of the Sunday- school.

On the 30th of June, 1908, was recorded the marriage of Dr. Robertson to Miss Goldie Whittaker, who was born in McLean county, Kentucky, and who is a daughter of R. H. and Josephine (Houston) Whittaker, promi- nent residents of that county. To Dr. and Mrs. Robertson has been born one child, Rob- ert Louis, whose birth occurred on the 2d of September, 1910.

URBAN M. SWINFORD .- The destinies of Nicholas county lie in the hands of her young- er generation, and among Carlisle's most promising young citizens assuredly must be mentioned Urban M. Swinford, master com- missioner of Nicholas county and junior mem- ber of the well-known law firm of Swinford & Swinford. It is indeed appropriate that a young man of his natural attainments should have identified himself with the law, for in no profession is there a career more open to tal- ent and in no field of endeavor is there de- manded a more careful preparation, a more thorough appreciation of the ethics of life, or the underlying principles which form the basis of all human rights and privileges.

Urban M. Swinford is a native son of Ken- tucky, his birth having occurred at Berry, Harrison county, Kentucky, August 9, 1882. He is the scion of well-known Kentucky fam- ilies, his parents being M. C. and Nannie (King) Swinford, both natives of Harrison county and both now residing at Cynthiana. McCauley Swinford is one of the prominent and highly esteemed men of this centre, being an ex-representative and at the present serv- ing in the capacity of mayor. For years he has been recognized as one of the distinguish- ed and talented members of the Harrison county bar. The subject is one of a family of four children and the second in order of birth. V. C. resides in Paris, Kentucky; C. L. is a physician practicing at Cynthiana ; and Anna K. is the wife of Lewis Eward, of Greenburg, Indiana.

Cynthiana is endeared to Mr. Swinford by all the happy associations of childhood and youth. He attended the graded schools of his native town and subsequently matriculated at Smith Classical School. By no means con- tent to "let well enough alone" in the matter of an education, in 1901 and 1902 he attended Central University at Danville, Kentucky, there taking a literary course, and having come to the conclusion to follow the honored paternal example in the matter of a vocation, in the fall of 1903 he entered the University of Missouri at Columbia and there took a course

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A history of Kentucky and Kentuckians; the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume III, Part 40

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