A history of Kentucky and Kentuckians; the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume III, Part 57

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 57

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The states prior to Ohio have never re- ceived anything, and the bill proposed to equalize them. The national domain was ample and had he been retained in Congress such equity would have been done. How- ever, before he could be again nominated the free silver question swept the country, cap- turing his party; and, he, refusing to bow down to it, was defeated in the convention by one thirty-fourth of a vote by T. Y. Fitz- patrick.

In 1888 when the remains of Joel T. Hart, Kentucky's sculptor, were brought from Italy and reinterred in the Frankfort Cemetery, Judge Beckner delivered an oration .on the life and work of the illustrious dead at the request of the governor, which showed a pro- found acquaintance with matters of art and a rare appreciation of Hart's work. In 1890 he delivered an address at the unveiling of the monument of Governor Luke P. Blackburn, his friend of former days, and one whom he looked up to as a noble humanitarian and philanthropist. In 1885 he addressed the So- cial Science Association of the United States at its annual meeting at Saratoga, New York, on "The Educational Situation in the South." His address before the State Teacher's Asso- ciation at Hopkinsville in 1882 was published throughout the state and brought about the convention in Frankfort in April, 1883, and the inter-state convention in Louisville in September of the same year, attended by dele- gates from twenty-seven states, and of which Judge Beckner was chairman, all of which led to the new school laws of 1883-4 and the doubling of the school fund.

In his county and town he has been the leading spirit of reform and progress for nearly half a century. He worked for mac- adamizing the roads, for every railroad that tried to enter, improvement of the common schools, waterworks, electric lights, the plac- ing of the Kentucky Wesleyan College in Winchester, and for the location of factories, the improvement of farming, and every move-

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ment that looked toward better things. He was a strenuous opponent of the theory that the "good old times" were the best, and could amuse a crowd by recounting sarcastically the "good old things" and the "good old ways." It was his boast that years did not age him and that he kept up with the times as well as any other "boy." He was the founder of Winchester's hustling Commercial Club and trained in public service many of the young men who have made it such a success.

In the negro race he saw a duty for the white man which it would be cowardly to shirk. He believed in educating them as the only means of preparing them for that cit- izenship which they possessed; and his sym- pathy for the weak and oppressed made him ever their friend. He never failed to speak for them or to them, even when so doing cost him friends and social prestige. In 1884 he assisted in preparing and distributing fifty thousand copies of an address advocating Fed- eral aid to education.

The last few years of his life were some- what embittered by the effect of his political views. He opposed free silver and later Sen- ator Goebel; and as his custom was, sought no middle ground but called himself a Re- publican and doubtless voted as such ever after the Music Hall Convention. This was bitterly resented by his erstwhile Democratic colleagues, and for a while greatly weakened his influence and alienated friends of a life- time. Such things are not done lightly nor are they soon forgotten. But such things he considered merely personal and personal af- fairs were always accorded but secondary consideration by him when public affairs were at stake. All his life he had claimed the priv- ilege of speaking his mind, and never hes- itated to practice it. In times of high political excitement this was a dangerous habit.

His new party welcomed him, making him its nominee for attorney-general on the ticket headed by Morris Belknap. He made a vig- orous campaign, but was cut down in its midst by a spell of pneumonia contracted by open air speaking, which came near killing him and from which he never entirely re- covered. During the Roosevelt campaign he stumped the state with the President, and his powerful voice and terse logic never failed to hold and impress the crowd no matter how large. At the time of his death he was chair- man of his County Executive Committee and deeply interested in affairs local, state, national and throughout the world.

The disbarment proceedings instituted against him in 1906 resulted not only in his acquittal but in establishing the right of an

attorney to testify in certain conditions, a right which he had asserted but which his accusers would have denied him. However, the trial was a great strain on him, from which he never entirely recovered. He was ably defended by Senator William Lindsay, of Frankfort, Judge Lewis Apperson of Mt. Sterling, and Byrd & Jouett and S. T. Davis of Winchester, all of whom volunteered their services. The question of his right to prac- tice before the Circuit Court of his home was raised during the pendency of his trial, but Judge J. M. Benton, presiding at that time, quickly decided that he had the right to prac- tice and took occasion to say, "that motions to disbar attorneys are usually made on the ground that they have been faithless to their clients, but in this case the charge is that Judge Beckner had been too faithful to his clients and in doing so has treated the court with contempt." Until his death he main- tained a law office with his son as partner.

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He never ceased to interest himself in the social movements around him, taking an ac- tive part in Professor J. G. Crabbe's whirl- wind campaign for educational reform in 1909, in local school affairs, politics, local op- tion campaigns of which he was an ardent champion, and was a frequent contributor to the daily papers on subjects of state and na- tional interest. He was an admirer of Pres- ident Roosevelt, whom he knew personally for many years.

His mother, who was the strongest influ- ence he knew as a young man, was a loyal wo- man in the Civil war, but the influences thrown around him in Maysville were all Southern and his sympathies were always with the South, but tinged with a hatred of slav- ery. Jefferson was his political teacher and states rights appealed to him, so that he made an attempt to get South and join the Confed- erate army ; but his mother hearing of it made such an appeal to him, in a letter still extant, that he gave the matter up and came to Win- chester to escape the Federal draft in Mays- ville. Such were his political beginnings and although he wound up a Republican he could never be said to be a Hamiltonian. He merely submitted to the nationalizing as inevitable, the result of the war and modern progress in transportation and invention.

He followed the breeding of Scotch-Irish ancestors into the Presbyterian church, where he was an elder and a loyal and devout mem- ber. He represented the Kentucky synod at the General Assembly at Montgomery, Ala- bama, and took a leading part in its debates and work.

He died at the home of his son, Lucien

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Beckner, in Winchester, Kentucky, on the 14th day of March, 1910, of edema of the lungs, brought on by a general run down con- dition resulting from a stroke of paralysis, and immediately caused by a spell of grippe, caught enroute to Florida, where he had hoped to escape the rigors of a Kentucky spring. He hastened home, lingered a few weeks and died. The last few weeks he sat by the fire and read or was read to by his children or grandchildren. Plato's account of the death of Socrates he read several times and seemed to realize that he was approaching the great mystery, of which approach Socrates gives such a noble demonstration and Plato such a sublime description. He is buried in Win- chester cemetery „beside his wife, who pre- ceded him in 1899.

CHARLES FULLER GRAINGER .- The city of Louisville has been signally. favored in the class of men who have occupied its offices, for they have usually been found true to the trust reposed in them and have brought to bear in the discharge of their duties good business ability and patriotic zeal. Such is the case with the Hon. Charles Fuller Grainger, ex-mayor and a man of affairs of Louisville, whose offi- cial service and business career are alike com- mendable and worthy of record. In matters of citizenship he is always progressive, ready to lend his aid and co-operation to movements which have for their object the upbuilding of the community. Although a great deal of his time is necessarily given to his business affairs he has manifested a spirit that has made him a potent factor in the furtherance of all public enterprises.

Mr. Grainger was born in Louisville, Ken- tucky, on January 23, 1854, the son of the late William H. Grainger, who was a pioneer iron manufacturer of Louisville, he having estab- lished what is now the Phoenix Foundry and Machine Company in 1833. Mr. C. F. Grain- ger received his education in the public and private schools of Louisville and after acquir- ing a substantial degree of learning to equip him for the requirements of life, he went to Chicago, where he remained four years. Re- turning to Louisville, he began his business career in 1874, first by entering his father's foundry, in which he learned the business in all its details and fitting himself for the respon- sibilities that might come to him. In 1879 he became his father's partner, continuing as a partner until 1889, when he bought out his father's interest, thus becoming sole owner. In 1891 Mr. Grainger organized and incorporated the firm of Grainger & Company, owners of the Phoenix Foundry and Machine Works, with himself as president. Mr. Grainger figures as

one of the most prominent representatives of industrial interests in the city. The real up- builders and promoters of a city are the men who control its trade relations, furnishing em- ployment to many workmen and putting in operation the wheels of the machinery of com- merce. With keen recognition of opportunity and the resolute purpose that enables one to win success Mr. Grainger has made his way to a leading place in commercial and industrial life, having the respect of all and the entire confidence of his business associates.

It is not alone in commercial circles that Mr. Grainger has won honor, for political recogni- tion has been fully awarded him. In 1889 he was elected to the City Board of Aldermen and by successive elections continued a member of that body until 1895, serving as president of the board during the latter year. In Novem- ber, 1901, he was elected mayor of Louisville and was re-elected in November, 1903, serving two full terms with honor and credit alike to himself and the city. In 1910 he was chosen president of the Louisville Water Company. In analyzing the life work of Mr. Grainger it is noted that his public service has been marked by steady progression and by most unfalter- ing fidelity to the trusts reposed in him. When public business is placed in the hands of the class of citizens to which he belongs there is every assurance that the best interests of the public will be attended to. Enterprising and public-spirited, his capable official service, re- liability in commercial circles and many ex- cellent personal traits have made him popular with his fellow townsmen.

In 1894 Mr. Grainger married Mrs. H. L. Cooke, daughter of Captain Silas F. Miller, of Louisville.

CALVIN STEVENSON, who is successfully en- gaged in the great basic industry of agricul- ture in the vicinity of Carrs, Lewis county, Kentucky, was born in this county on the IIth of February, 1861. He is a son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Lockhart) Stevenson, both of whom were natives of Adams county, Ohio. The father was born in 1805 and after availing himself of the educational advantages afforded in the public schools of his native place he turned his attention to the pedagogic profession. While still a young man he en- gaged in the general merchandise business at Concord, Kentucky, where was solemnized his marriage to Miss Elizabeth Stephenson, a daughter of John Stephenson, a farmer and pioneer who owned a large tract of land, in- cluding the town site of Concord, Kentucky. To this, union were born four children-two boys and two girls-Edward, John, Elizabeth and Ann. The mother of these children was

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summoned to the life eternal at Concord in 1847, and subsequently the father married again. He continued to be identified with the merchandise business at Concord, and in that line of enterprise developed a large business, Concord being one of the central trading points in those days. His health failing, however, he was forced to retire from active participation in strenuous business affairs and he removed to his farm at Carrs, Lewis county, in 1860, there residing until his death, which occurred in 1865. He left a large estate and many slaves who were freed at the close of the war. His second wife, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Lockhart, bore him six children, one of whom, a daughter, died in infancy. The sons were: Robert, George, Samuel, Luther and Calvin, all of whom are deceased except Calvin, to whom this sketch is dedicated, and his next older brother, Luther, who now resides at Carr's, Kentucky. Elizabeth (Lockhart) Stevenson was born on the 18th of September, 1827, and her death occurred on the Ioth of December, 1889. She was a daughter of Robert Lock- hart, a native of Bourbon county, Kentucky, his parents having been natives of North Car- olina, whence they emigrated to Kentucky in the early pioneer days. Of their children but two, Robert and one brother, survived, and after the death of the parents they were reared to maturity by their father's slaves. As a young man Robert went to Adams county, Ohio, where he cleared a farm and became a successful and wealthy agriculturist. There he married and raised a family and in the war of 1812 he was a gallant soldier in an Ohio regiment. He was present at Hull's sur- render, at Chicago, and after being paroled from further service he walked home.

Of the children born to Samuel and Eliza- beth (Lockhart ) Stevenson, Calvin was the youngest in order of birth, and he was reared to the invigorating influences of the old home- stead farm, on which he resides at the pres- ent time. After completing the curriculum of the common schools of Lewis county he pursued a course of study in the National Normal University at Lebanon, Ohio. He re- turned to his old home in 1881, and he has been actively identified with farming and stock-raising to the present day. His splen- did estate of two hundred acres, eligibly lo- cated one mile distant from Carrs, is one of the most modern and highly cultivated farms in Lewis county. Everything about the place is indicative of thrift and industry and all shows the good management of its practical owner. In politics Mr. Stevenson accords a stalwart allegiance to the cause of

the Democratic party and while he has never manifested aught of ambition or desire for the honors or emoluments of political office of any description he is ever on the alert and enthusiastically in sympathy with all measures and enterprises projected for the advance- ment of the general welfare. In a fraternal way he is affiliated with the Masonic order and he and his wife are devout members of the Methodist Episcopal church.

In the year 1888 was solemnized the mar- riage of Mr. Stevenson to Miss Mary Willim, a native of Lewis county and a daughter of William Willim, who was long engaged in farming in this section of the old Blue Grass state and who was a representative of an old Kentucky family. William Willim was called to eternal rest in 1898. To Mr. and Mrs. Stevenson have been born three chil- dren,-Elizabeth Lee, William Forest and Margaret Helen, all of whom remain at the parental home.

WILLIAM WARREN VANNATTA .- One of the progressive and popular representatives of that most wholesome and independent of vo- cations - agriculture - is William. Warren Vannatta, whose fine farm of four hundred and eighty acres is one of the well-conducted estates of Shelby county. In addition to his- agricultural interests he is a director in the Peoples' Bank of Shelbyville and success has been the logical result of his well-directed activities. He has given his aid to many movements and measures which have tended toward the betterment of his town and com- munity, and by strict adherence to high and manly principles he has won a wide circle of friends both through business and social rela- tions.

Mr. Vannatta was born April 1, 1876, near Clay Village, Shelby county, and in the same vicinity occurred the birth of his father, Thomas Vannatta, January 6, 1844. The grandfather, William Vannatta, died in Shel- by county when seventy-nine years of age. Thomas Vannatta was removed from the scene of a useful life June 20, 1908, but his memory will long remain green in the hearts of the many who knew and respected him. He was a farmer during the earlier part of his career and he subsequently engaged in the mercantile business in Clay Village. He then removed to Christianburg, Shelby county, where for some fourteen years he was occu- pied as a merchant, but the attractions and advantages of country life had remained strong with him and in the year 1886, he re- turned to his farm and there resided during the remainder of his life. He was married in Shelby county, September 30, 1873, to Sallie

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Thomas Vannatta

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E. Newton, born in Shelby county July 8, 1853. She was a daughter of Thomas S. and Martha (McWilliams) Newton. Thomas Newton was born November 27, 1823, in Shelby county, and the birth of his worthy wife occurred in the same county on July 23 of the preceding year. Thomas Vannatta and his wife were zealous Baptists and they were the parents of two children who lived to matu- rity, the subject's sister, Verna O., being the wife of Rev. William W. Horner, a clergy- man of the Baptist church.

Mr. Vannatta passed his boyhood days in Clay Village and for his education he is in- debted to the schools of Shelbyville and to Georgetown College. From the first he planned to devote his energies to the great basic industry of agriculture and he has proved very successful in his vocation. His farm of four hundred and eighty acres is well situated and well improved and the scene of advanced methods of agricultural procedure. He gives his heart and hand to the principles of the Democrat party, takes decided interest in public affairs, and is a valued member of the Baptist church.

REV. WILLIAM FLETCHER McMURRY, D. D. -There is not a finer sight in the world than the spectacle of a good and unselfish life, rich in the harvest of merited reward from kind deeds on behalf of humanity, while it is equally true that it is not an easy task to describe ade- quately a man who has led an eminently active and busy life and who has attained to a position of high relative distinction in the more impor- tant and exacting spheres of human endeavor, and yet it is true that the biographical history of a state would lack completion if it did not mention the names and deeds of those true Christians whose endeavors and examples have done so much to make this earth beautiful and life worth living. It is with a feeling of satis- faction that the writer essays the. task of stating briefly some of the details of the rec- ord of the character of the subject of this sketch.

Dr. McMurry, corresponding secretary of the board of Church Extension of the Method- ist Episcopal church, South, with headquar- ters at Louisville, Kentucky, was born in Shelby county, Missouri, June 29, 1864, but is descended from an old Kentucky family. He is the son of Rev. William Wesley McMurry, a native of Missouri, born in Marion county March 24, 1837, the son of William McMurry, who was born in Marion county, Kentucky, December 10, 1795. The McMurrys trace their ancestry back to the Scotch Earl Murry. The original Kentucky settler was John Mc- Murry, who came from Virginia and settled in

Marion county before Kentucky was made a state, he having secured a Virginia land grant of six hundred acres of land. In about 1835 William McMurry, the grandfather, moved to Marion county, Missouri. He married Eliza- beth Wilson, who was born in Garrard county, Kentucky, July 12, 1802. The mother of our subject was Mary Elizabeth Williams, who was born in Marion county, Missouri, in 1840. She is still living. Her husband died in Shelby county, Missouri, in 1902, and there she now makes her home. Rev. William Wesley Mc- Murry attended the Shelby ( Missouri) high school,-a church institution-of which he be- came president in after years. He entered the ministry in 1858, his work being almost exclu- sively devoted to mission territory. A number of times he represented his church in the gen- eral conference and was long a presiding elder and a leader in Missouri Methodism. He was a church builder, and his son, our subject, has in his possession a cane made from a rafter of an old church, the first one his father built in the woods in pioneer days in Missouri, the tim- ber used in its construction, in which he helped, having been cut from the standing trees in the woods.

William F. McMurry was reared in Shelby county, Missouri, his early education being se- cured in the old Shelby high school while his father was president of the school and also afterward. He then spent two years, from 1880 to 1882, at St. Charles College, Missouri, and was finally graduated from Central Col- lege, Fayette, Missouri, in 1886. During this last year he entered the Missouri conference and was at St. Joseph, Missouri, for three years; Macon, Missouri, four years; Rich- mond, Missouri, four years; St. Joseph Dis- trict, four years; St. Louis District one year ; and Centenary Church, city of St. Louis, four years. He was a member of the General Con- ference, the law making body of the church, in 1902, 1906 and 1910. He received his honor- ary degree of Doctor of Divinity from Emory and Henry College, Virginia, in 1901. In May, 1906, Dr. McMurry was elected by the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal church, South, corresponding secretary of its board of Church Extension for a term of four years, and in May, 1910, he was re-elected for an- other term of four years.

As a mark of the great esteem in which Dr. McMurry is held he was chosen to represent the Methodist church in the mission fields of Brazil, of which a short account follows, taken from the daily paper :

"Dr. W. F. McMurry, who was re-elected secretary of the board of Church Extension of the Methodist church at the recent General

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Conference, held at Asheville, North Carolina, returned to the city last night and expressed great satisfaction over the results accomplished by the meeting and the outlook for church work during the coming year. Dr. McMurry was given another term as the head of this im- portant body in the church despite the fact that there was a decided movement on the part of certain factions in the conference to defeat him, and it was through his efforts that the headquarters of the board were kept in Louis- ville and its field of operation vastly increased. Not only was the board's membership increased from twenty-six to forty members, but a sam of $1,000,000 or more will be placed in Dr. Mc- Murry's hands for distribution and the board will either erect a handsome office building for its accommodation or take up quarters in one of the large buildings of the city.

"Besides his re-election, an additional com- pliment was paid Dr. McMurry by his being chosen by the conference to make a tour of the mission field in Brazil, with a view of learning the needs of the church there. The motion to appoint Dr. McMurry as the church's envoy to South America was made by the board of mis- sions whose headquarters are at Nashville, Tennessee, and which has the care of all the missionary propoganda in America's sister re- publics. The purpose of Dr. McMurry's visit will be to learn just what building operations are needed to equip the missions there so that they may best carry on their work. Dr. Mc- Murry will travel over the entire field in Brazil, visiting each mission and taking notes where it will pay most to erect schools and churches. Many of these missions have only frame build- ings, while many rent halls for their services. It is now the intention of the Board of Mis- sions, in connection with the Board of Church Extension, to erect suitable edifices for the ac- commodation of the workers. Dr. McMurry is being sent as an expert, and upon his recom- mendations at least $50,000 will be expended in building churches, the finest of which will probably be located in Rio de Janeiro.

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A history of Kentucky and Kentuckians; the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume III, Part 57

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