A history of Kentucky and Kentuckians; the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume III, Part 6

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 6

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Works, at Ashland. He helped lay out and develop Ashland; was a large stockholder in the Ironton Iron Railway; was one of the founders of the Second National Bank of Ironton, Ohio, being president of the latter in- stitution for a number of years after its or- ganization, in 1864; and was a director of the Ashland National Bank. In his political con- victions he was originally a Whig, having cast his first vote for John Quincy Adams for president. At the time of the founding of the Republican party, in 1858, he became a stanch supporter of its principles and policies and during the Civil war he was an ardent Union man. He passed the latter years of his life at his home in Ashland, in which place he took up his residence on the 6th of April, 1882, and his death occurred June 8, 1890. He was married on the 4th of December, 1828, to Sarah Ellison, a native of Buckeye Station, Adams county, Ohio, and a daughter of John Ellison, an early settler in that coun- ty. She passed to her reward at Hanging Rock, in 1871, at the age of sixty-one years. They became the parents of nine children, eight of whom grew to maturity, of which John Means was the first in order of birth.

John Means, the immediate subject of this review, was born at West Union, Adams county, Ohio, on the 21st of September, 1829. He was afforded excellent educational advan- tages in his youth but on account of ill health left Marietta College, without graduating, in 1848. In the following year he pursued a spe- cial business course and began life as store- keeper at the Ohio Furnace, then owned by his father and David Sinton, of Cincinnati. Later he became bookkeeper at the furnace and in 1851 went to Buena Vista Furnace, in Boyd county, Kentucky, where he soon as- sumed the position of manager, retaining this position until 1855, in which year he located at Catlettsburg, where he became financial agent and supply agent for the furnace, acting in that capacity until the inception of the Civil war, which caused the fires to be extinguished in these great furnaces. In 1857 he estab- lished his home at Ashland, where he contin- ued to reside during the balance of his life. He was one of the originators, in 1856, of the Cincinnati & Big Sandy Packet Company, a business comprised chiefly of large freighters in the iron region. This concern was incor- porated in 1866, after which time Mr. Means was a director and a large stockholder in the same for a number of years. In 1856 he be- came a director in the Kentucky Iron, Coal and Manufacturing Company, organized for the purpose of founding and building the city of Ashland and for the establishment of fac-

tories and railways. In 1865 he was elected president of that company and served in that capacity for many years. He was one of the organizers of the Lexington & Big Sandy Railway Company, Eastern division, in which he was a large stockholder, served as director and vice-president and was elected president in 1870, this being one of the largest and most successful corporations in this section of Ken- tucky. To this concern belongs the Ashland Furnace, which was originated and planned by him, the entire plant having been built un- der his supervision : his twin daughters had the honor of first "firing" this great furnace, the date being August 30, 1869. Mr. Means was one of the organizers of the Ashland Coal Company ; the Hanging Rock Iron & Coal Company ; and later he was one of the princi- pal owners of the Pine Grove, the Union and Ohio Furnaces, and the coal-mining interests of Hanging Rock, Ohio. He was one of the directors of the Norton Iron Works and was treasurer of that company while it was in progress of construction, in 1872. In the fol- lowing year he was one of the organizers of the Low Moor Iron Company, of Virginia, becoming president of the same at the time of organization. He had a large interest in the fifty thousand acres of mineral and other lands of the above companies and he was gen- erally concerned in the extensive enterprises of his father, who in turn had interests in the son's affairs. In 1856 he helped organize the Bank of Ashland, in which he was incumbent of the position of cashier from January, 1866, to July, 1869, and after resigning which posi- tion he continued as a director in the bank until its liquidation, in 1872, and the organiza- tion of its successor, the Ashland National Bank, of which he became vice-president. In 1870 he was interested in laying out the town of Russell, Kentucky, opposite Ironton, Ohio, and in the same year he bought land and laid out the Ashland cemetery, being trustee in management of the latter for a number of years. He was among the first to uncover the mineral wealth of Eastern Kentucky and was largely instrumental in bringing capital and skill to this section for its proper development.

In politics Mr. Means was ever aligned as a stalwart supporter of the cause of the Re- publican party and during the war of the Re- bellion he was a strong Union man. In 1860 Mr. Means was elected trustee of the town of Ashland and served continuously in that ca- pacity and as a member of the city council for many years, some thirty in all. He was actively connected with every movement in upbuilding the community since the establish- ment of Ashland. During the Civil war he

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was commissioned by the military board of the state to forward and pass over public ways all soldiers, recruits and war equipage in this part of Kentucky and in 1872 he was ap- pointed, by Governor Leslie, as one of five commissioners from Kentucky to confer with five commissioners from each of seven other states to present a memorial to congress for the purpose of improving the Ohio river. He owned the Ashland Academy property and was a most liberal patron ot education and an earnest supporter of the common-school system. In 1874 he was Republican candi- date to represent his district in congress and while he received a heavy majority of the votes cast in his home county, the opposition majority precluded the possibility of his elec- tion. He was a man of the most extraordi- nary ability and capacity and never undertook any cause or work, which he did not succeed in bringing to a favorable issue. His religious faith coincided with the teachings of the Pres- byterian church and he was a loyal and gen- erous contributor to all matters concerning the church of this denomination in Ashland.

On the 25th of October, 1854, was solem- nized the marriage of Mr. Means to Mrs. Har- riet E. Perkins, the youngest daughter of Dr. Samuel Prescott Hildreth, of Marietta, Ohio. Dr. Hildreth was a member of the Ohio leg- islature, was assistant state geologist and was one of the most learned and most prominent men in that state. Mr. and Mrs. Means be- came the parents of the following children- Thomas Hildreth is residing in the old home- stead at Aslıland; Eliza Isabella is the wife of William B. Seaton, of Ashland, concern- ing whom a sketch appears elsewhere in this work; Lillian and Rosalie, twins, the former of whom is the wife of William E. Maynard, of Brooklyn, New York, and the latter is the wife of Dr. Ernst Luther Bullard, of Rock- ville, Maryland; Harold maintains his home at Ashland and Ellison Cooke resides at Low Moor, Virginia. Mrs. Means was summoned to eternal rest on the 13th of March, 1895, and on the 3d of June, 1896, in New York City, Mr. Means wedded Miss Mary Peck Seaton, a native of Greenup county, Ken- tucky, and a daughter of the later Samuel Seaton, a pioneer and well known citizen of Eastern Kentucky. John Means died at his home, in Ashland, February 14, 1910, and no greater tribute can be paid to his memory than that expressed in the article written by Rev. William D. Ryan at the time of his demise, a portion of the same being here incorporated.

"In this day, when disinterested citizenship is all too rare a jewel, it is helpful to reflect upon a course of high-minded patriotism such

as that of Mr. Means. For thirty years he sat in the city council. As chairman of the com- mittee on finance he gave to the affairs of the city the same careful, efficient attention that his own business received. He was never so absorbed in his own affairs that he refused to serve his city. He sought no political pre- ferment. In 1874 the nomination to represent his district in congress was, without his so- licitation, tendered him. He accepted it and issued a declaration of his principles that was notable for its dignity, its clearness and its manliness. In the election of his opponent he lost nothing in prestige. Perhaps there is no need more urgent to-day than for this high- minded type of citizenship who recognize the obligations of patriotism in times of peace. Everything that had to do with human better- ment concerned him. Throughout his ca- reer he has shown in a most practical way his interest in education. In the early days he promoted and sustained the Beech Grove Academy. Since the coming of the public schools he has given them his hearty and sub- stantial support. The site for the building where all the colored children of our city are educated was his free gift, and one of our most beautiful school buildings was named in his honor.

"There was a modesty and lack of all osten- tation in Mr. Mean's work as a benefactor. It is known that his ear was open to the cry of the poor. There is perhaps not a religious or philanthropic organization in the city that has not been aided by his liberality. In his giving, as in all affairs of his life, he had firm convictions of his own and acted in accord with them. It was his special delight to help the needy to help themselves. Without break- ing the seal of silence that was usually about his benefactions, it may be said of him, as has been said of another, 'He added to the sum of human joy and were everyone to whom he did some loving service to bring a blossom to his grave, he would sleep to-night beneath a wilderness of flowers.'

"With mind as alert and enthusiasm as wholesome as that of a youth of twenty, this man of four score years would sit in his wheel- chair and talk on any subject that might most interest his caller. His range of interests was remarkable in all its scope. In all lines of business he could, of course, talk as an ex- pert; likewise in civil engineering, in metal- lurgy and in mining. But he could speak, too, with ripeness and wisdom in almost any realm of thought. To discuss with him history, or literature, or science, or questions of the day was to be delightfully entertained and in- structed. He knew and loved the best in lit-

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erature, and he had the best on his book- shelves. He had his heroes in American his- tory, among them Lincoln, Grant and John Quincy Adams. An intensely active business career had not crowded out taste and time for the finer things of life, and in his declin- ing years of dignified ease how great was his heritage of joy in these wider interests! His home was a radiating center of happiness, around him wife and other loved ones, whose highest joy was found in his comfort-a mu- tual devotion here that makes us whisper 'heaven' when we think of his home. May the Christ of Gethsemane comfort these aching hearts in this time of separation."

JAMES E. MCCRACKEN was born July 1, 1845, in Cincinnati, Ohio, and received a com- mon school education. In his early life he was compelled to seek employment, owing to family financial affairs, and before the break- ing out of the rebellion in 1860 he was in the state of Mississippi, there employed as mail boy carrying United States mail from Coffee- ville to Panola by horse back. At the break- ing out of the rebellion he returned to Cin- cinnati, Ohio.

A short while after his return from Missis- sippi he enlisted in the Eighteenth Regulars as a drummer boy, but did not go to the front, and through influence was released. Soon af- terward, however, he enlisted and served six months as a United States teamster, doing some hard service. After his term of team- stership expired he remained with the Second Kentucky Cavalry and did duty at the battles of Shiloh, luka, Decatur and others. He then returned to Cincinnati, taking up the profes- sion of river pilot, and secured a license as a U. S. Steersman, under the order of General Grant, doing duty on government transporta- tion on White River, Arkansas, and lower Mississippi, and also on the Tennessee and Cumberland, and after the close of the Rebel- lion he still retained employment in that ca- pacity, also holding other prominent positions on the river. He was then employed by the old Cincinnati and Nashville Packet Com- pany, where he remained until 1875, when he retired from the river and embarked in the building material business, locating at the cor- ner of Front & Ludlow streets, Cincinnati, Ohio, and is still in that business, his being one of the oldest established business houses in Cincinnati and is doing a large and heavy business, the firm being well known.

In 1865 he took up his residence in the city of Newport, Kentucky, and immediately became identified with the interests of that city, serving three terms in the city council from the First ward and four terms on the

Board of Education from the First ward, over which he was presiding officer for two years, when he retired with the greatest honors that were ever bestowed on a retiring president. He organized and founded the Campbell County Protestant Children's Home, and was its president for ten years, when he retired.

He was one of the most prominent and ar- dent workers for the Democratic party, and was the treasurer of its County Executive Committee for several years, and also held the position of chairman of the City Executive Committee for several years. In 1886 he de- clined to become a candidate for state repre- sentative, but on October 2d of the same year was nominated for mayor on the Democratic ticket, but was defeated by a small majority. He was then appointed, by Judge Mckibben, a member of the Police and Fire Commission- ers' Board, and was elected chairman of the said board. He was identified with the old First National Bank of Newport, being one of its directors and stock-holders, and was one of the founders and organizers of the Newport Safe Deposit Company, being elected president, and has ever since been its presid- ing officer.

He assisted to organize and found the Newport Builders' Exchange, and was its first president, and was also one of the char- ter members of the Cincinnati Builders' Ex- change, and in 1891 was elected president of the said exchange, being identified with the same for a great many years. He was at one time largely interested in the Clifton Suburb- an Home and Building Company, and also in the Ft. Thomas Land Company, over which he was the presiding officer. He has been iden- tified with the Newport Mutual Fire Insur- ance Company for over twenty-five years, and in 1902 was elected its president.

In 1884 he became identified with the Or- der of Knights of Pythias, and soon thereaf- ter joined the military branch. In 1890 he was appointed and served four years as quar- termaster of the Kentucky Brigade. He served two years as chief of staff and two years as adjutant, when he was elected col- onel, commanding the Fourth Regiment, un- der which capacity he served for four years. He was a member of General Carnahan's staff for two terms, and in 1905 was elected brigade commander of the Kentucky Brigade, and has since that time held that position, tak- ing a very active part in the interests of the Order of Knights of Pythias, with the rank of brigadier general, and has commanded a great many large military parades.

The subject of this sketch was the youngest of five children of William and Lucy (Win-

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ters ) McCracken. William McCracken in his youth represented the Fifth ward of Cincin- nati, and was a prominent member of the Democratic party. He was in the Mexican war, with General Robert Lytle, and after he returned from the war he became associated with the old Cincinnati Commercial paper, be- ing also owner and editor of the Columbus Delta. Lucy (Winters) McCracken was the daughter of Captain John Winter, a steam- boat capitalist. William McCracken's par- ents, Dr. Nathaniel McCracken and Bridget Collins McCracken were born near the city of Dublin, Ireland, and were the descendants of Colonel Joseph McCracken of the British Army, and Bridget Collins McCracken was the descendant of Bishop Banks of Ireland, and they emigrated to this country and settled in Cincinnati when the village consisted of thirty houses. They located on the outskirts of the village, what is now called Fourth street, between Walnut and Main, on the east side, known then as the old Presbyterian burying ground.

James E. McCracken married Adeline Mad- dox, the daughter of Charles Maddox, of Owen county, Kentucky, and they now re- side at their country home, Bonnie Leslie, adjacent to the city of Newport.

General McCracken is considered a self- made man.

MASON BROWN LUCAS .- Few people are better known in the locality than Mason Brown Lucas, county jailer of Franklin coun- ty, a descendant of pioneer Kentuckians, and the possessor of an extremely interesting Civil war record. Mr. Lucas is a native of the state, having been born in Stamping Ground, Scott county, May 16, 1843. His parents were LeGrand and Luticia (Jones) Lucas, the father a native of the county which also gave his son birth and the mother, of Frank- lin county. LeGrand Lucas was for many years a hotel keeper at Stamping Ground and as a natural outcome both of his vocation and his genial personality was known for miles about. The grandfather, Stephen Lucas, was a native of the Blue Grass state, who shared its romantic history in the early days, and the great-grandfather, Thomas Lucas, was a na- tive of England, who crossed the Atlantic and became one of the state's pioneers. The mother's family has likewise been identified with Kentucky for a number of generations. The father was Feeland Jones and the mother bore the maiden name of Betsy Greenwald, and was a member of a prominent family.

Mason. Brown Lucas was reared in his na- tive place and attended its public schools. At the age of seventeen he left the parental home

and came to Franklin county, which was to prove the scene of his subsequent career. Shortly afterward, although so young, he en- listed in the service of the Confederate army in the secret service corps under a Mr. Will- iams, from whom he became separated and of whom he quite lost track. In 1861 he joined the forces of General John Morgan, being a member of the Third Kentucky Cavalry, whose colonel was Richard M. Ginnolt, and served until the end of the war. He was captured at Buffington's Island in the Ohio River at the time of General Morgan's raid into Indiana and Ohio and was taken to Camp Morton, Indianapolis. Four months later he was transferred to Camp Douglas at Chicago, where he languished for fifteen months. Being subsequently exchanged he went to Chesa- peake Bay and near Richmond re-entered the service, in which he continued until Lee's sur- render. He served in the body guards of General John C. Breckinridge and President Jefferson Davis, and went with Davis to Washington, Georgia, where his forces were disbanded. At the latter place he was paid off with thirty-two Mexican dollars, this princely sum representing his compensation for four years' service to the Confederacy.

Mr. Lucas returned home and went to work on the farm, receiving for his labors one dol- lar a day, which compared favorably indeed with his previous compensation. A year later he began farming on his own account in Franklin county, and he has since then en- gaged successfully in the cultivation of the soil and particularly has dealt in tobacco. Mr. Lucas gives allegiance to the Democratic party and for four years was in the revenue service under President Cleveland. In 1909 he was elected county jailer by a majority of seven hundred and twenty.

Mr. Lucas laid the foundation of a home on October 22, 1867, when he was united in marriage to Miss Julia Polk Head, a native of Franklin county and the daughter of Thomas Jefferson Head. To this union were born six children (two of whom are deceased), as fol- lows: Zeb Stewart; John Mason; Thomas Jefferson, who was killed; Luticia; Sally, de- ceased; and Mattie. The death of the wife and mother occurred in 1902. Mr. Lucas is a member of the Baptist church.

CLEMENT BENEDICT SPALDING, M. D. - Among the names of the younger physicians and surgeons of Louisville who have attained a satisfying degree of success is the gentle- man whose name heads this sketch and whose name is descended from a line of ancestry that is a heritage of worth. He is the descendant of two old Kentucky families, the Spaldings

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and the Hills. The paternal grandfather was Dr. Benedict Spalding, a native of Marion county, where for years he was a leading physician, practicing in Lebanon. He was a prominent man, a true Southerner in every- thing but one principle, he was an Abolition- ist. He died soon after the war between the states. The father of our subject is Benedict Spalding, who was born in Lebanon, Ken- tucky, in 1851, was educated in the private school of Professor Failes, who is now the dean of Centre College, Kentucky, and was graduated from the Harvard Law School, Harvard University, since which time he has been in active successful practice in Lebanon, Kentucky. The maternal grandfather of our subject was Colonel Thomas P. Hill, one of Kentucky's prominent lawyers, who was a native of Lincoln county, Kentucky, where he practiced his profession for years successfully. He died in Stanford, Kentucky in December, 1908, at the age of eighty-three years. Mary, the mother of our subject, was born in Stan- ford, Lincoln county, Kentucky.

Clement Benedict Spalding is one of the younger practitioners in the medical and sur- gical art in Louisville, where he is practicing his profession in connection with Dr. Irvin Abel. He was born in Lebanon, Marion coun- ty, Kentucky, on April 4, 1880, the son of Benedict Spalding, attorney of that place. Dr. Spalding graduated from Centre College, Kentucky, with the degree of A. B. in 1901, and from the Louisville, Kentucky, Medical College in 1904. He was for one year interne at St. Joseph's Hospital, Lexington, Ken- tucky, then, in April 1905, came to Louisville and engaged in general practice, but at pres- ent limits his practice in a great extent to surgery. He is a member of the Physicians and Surgeons Society of Louisville, of the Jefferson County Medical Society, of the Kentucky State Medical Society, and of the Louisville Society of Medicine. He taught anatomy and surgery at the old Louisville Medical College, and also taught those same branches in the Louisville Hospital College, and is now demonstrator of operative surgery in the medical department of the University of Louisville and visiting surgeon to the Lou- isville City Hospital.

GEORGE H. AHLERING .- For a period of more than thirty years Mr. George H. Ahler- ing has been engaged in the practice of law in his native town of Newport, where he was born August 1, 1845. His parents, Henry and Mary (Abring) Ahlering, were both natives of Hanover, Germany, whence they came to the United States when young, the former having made the long and weary trip alone,

at the age of fifteen years, and the latter in the company of her parents, at which time she was a child of seven years. Both located at Newport, Campbell county, Kentucky, where they were reared, eventually met and where their marriage was solemnized in the year 1844. Mr. Ahlering became a contractor of prominence in his adopted home and laid many of the early streets of Newport, besides which he constructed various wharves on the Ohio river. On the inception of the Civil war he served for a short time in a Kentucky regi- ment, mostly on guard duty. He was sum- moned to eternal rest in 1904, at which time he had attained the venerable age of. eighty- two years, and he was deeply mourned by rel- atives and a wide circle of loyal friends. He survived his cherished and devoted wife by two years, her death having occurred in her seventy-ninth year. Mr. and Mrs. Ahlering became the parents of nine children, five of whom are now living, the subject of this re- view being the first born.

George H. Ahlering received his prelimi- nary education in the public schools at New- port, and he later supplemented this training by a course in the Commercial Business Col- lege, at Cincinnati. When twenty-one years of age he engaged in the grocery business at Newport, but disposed of this business at the end of one year, at which time he removed to Cold Springs, this county, where he followed the same business for several years and while a resident of this place he served most effi- ciently in the capacity of postmaster. He also served here as magistrate. In 1878 he began reading law in the offices of Judge Mckibben. of Newport, and so rapid was his progress in the absorption and assimilation of the sci- ence of jurisprudence that he was admitted to the Kentucky bar in the spring of 1879. He immediately began the practice of his profes- sion at Newport, where he controls a large and representative clientage and where his success has been on a parity with his well di- rected efforts. For several years he main- tained an office in the cities of Newport, Ken- tucky, and Cincinnati, Ohio, in partnership with C. L. Raison, under the firm name of Raison and Ahlering. In politics Mr. Ahler- ing gives an uncompromising support to the principles and policies of the Republican party, on whose ticket, in 1891, he was elected mayor of Newport. He served in this capac- ity for one year, when the change was made from the old to the new constitution. During his regime as head executive of the city the first brick-paved streets and the main sewers of Newport were constructed. During Gov- ernor Bradley's administration he served on

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A history of Kentucky and Kentuckians; the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume III, Part 6

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