A history of Kentucky and Kentuckians; the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume III, Part 61

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 61

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the mother being seventy years old. Mr. Mc- Allister was reared in Virginia and he was graduated in the Virginia Military Institute, at Lexington, as a member of the class of 1859. After leaving school he removed to Texas, where he married and became a prominent and influential farmer. The maternal grandfather of Mrs. Shanklin was Harrison Marsh, who is said to have been the first white child born in Harrison county, Kentucky; he married Polly Raymond, of Harrison county, and they removed to Missouri about 1843, whence they later removed to Dallas county, Texas. Mr. and Mrs. Shanklin have three children,-Glenn P., born in Dallas county, Texas, on the 4th of January, 1886; Mary McAllister, born in Shelby county, Kentucky, on the 2d of August, 1890; and Agnes Virginia, born in Shelby county, on the 17th of May, 1896. All the children remain at the parental home and they are most popular factors in connection with the best social activities in this community.

EDWARD R. FITCH, M. D .- There is par- ticular interest attaching to the career of Dr. Edward Rufus Fitch for he is a representa- tive of the type of American manhood of whom the country has every reason to be proud. He occupies a notable position among the pro- fessional men of Greenup county, Kentucky, and to this rank he has risen through the utili- zation of possibilities that lie before all. His native talent has led him out of comparatively humble surroundings to large worldly success through the opportunity that is the pride of our American life, and he holds prestige to-day as one of the leading physicians and surgeons in this section of the fine old Blue Grass commonwealth.

Dr. Fitch is a native son of Greenup county, where his birth occurred on the 18th of Janu- ary, 1873. He is a son of George and Mary (Martin) Fitch, the former of whom was born in Greenup county and the latter of whom claimed Boyd county, this state, as the place of her nativity. The father was a farmer by vocation and occupation and he was summoned to the life eternal in 1883, at the comparatively young age of forty-two years. His widow, who survived him for a number of years, passed away on the ist of January, 1911, in her sixty-ninth year. The Fitch family is of English extraction, the original progenitor of the name in America having settled in Massa- chusetts, whence James Fitch, grandfather of the Doctor, came to Greenup county, Ken- tucky, in the early pioneer days. He was the founder of this branch of the Fitch family and after his arrival in Kentucky he became iden- tified with agricultural pursuits, passing the residue of his life in this state. John Martin,

the maternal grandfather of him of whom this sketch is dedicated, was a native son of Penn- sylvania and he was a child at the time of his parents' emigration from the old Keystone state of the Union to Kentucky. He was a tanner by trade and his public-spirited in- terest in all matters touching the general wel- fare was of the most insistent order. George and Mary Fitch became the parents of nine children, six of whom are living at the present time, in 1911, the doctor having been the fourth in order of birth.

To the public schools of Greenup county Dr. Fitch is indebted for his early educational training. He remained at home assisting in the work and management of the home farm until 1898, in which year he was matriculated in the Kentucky School of Medicine, in the city of Louisville, Kentucky, in which excel- lent institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1901, with the degree of Doc- tor of Medicine. Immediately after gradua- tion he located at Russell, where he has since been engaged in a general practice. In con- nection with his life work he is a member of the Greenup County Medical Society, of which he was formerly secretary and of which he is now president. He is also a valued and ap- preciative member of the Kentucky State Medical Society and the American Medical Association, in the work of which he has taken an active and interested part. In a fraternal way he is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, at Russell, and in his political allegiance he is a stanch advocate of the prin- ciples and policies for which the Republican party stands sponsor. He has ever manifested a deep and sincere interest in public improve- ments and is at the present time a member of the town council, in connection with which he has taken an active part in the street-paving system.

On the Ist of October, 1901, was celebrated the marriage of Dr. Fitch to Miss Bertha Mc- Carty, who was born and reared at Grayson, Kentucky, and who is a daughter of L. R. McCarty, a prominent and influential citizen at Greenup, this county. Dr. and Mrs. Fitch have no children. They are devout members of the Methodist Episcopal church, in which he is a member of the official board. Dr. and Mrs. Fitch are popular factors in connection with the best social activities of Russell, where they are held in high esteem by their fellow citizens.

Dr. Fitch was one of the organizers of the First National Bank at Russell and he has been a stockholder and a member of the board of directors of the same since the time of its incorporation. He is a man of remarkable

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executive ability and among the salient charac- teristics which have contributed so much to his success as a doctor is that broad human sym- pathy that goes so far to inspire hope and cheerfulness in the heart of a patient. Liberal minded and tolerant in all his views Dr. Fitch has a large circle of friends and commands the unalloyed regard of his fellow men.

ALFRED COMBS .- A man of veritable talent, enterprising and far-sighted, Alfred Combs has achieved marked success in his business under- takings, and as a member of the Combs Lum- ber Company is identified with one of the fore- most industries of Lexington. He was born November 22, 1844, in Breathitt county, Ken- tucky, which was likewise the place of birth of his father, Henry Combs.

Matthew Combs, his grandfather, was born, of Scotch ancestors, in Virginia, where he grew to manhood. Coming to Kentucky in the early part of the nineteenth century, he lived for nearly twenty years in Perry county, and then moved to that part of the same county that is now included within the boundaries of Breathitt county. Securing a large tract of land, he became one of the most extensive farmers and stock raisers of his community, carrying on a large business for a number of years. After his retirement from active pur- suits he made his home with his children, dying in Wolfe county, Kentucky, at the age of sev- enty-four years, while visiting a son. He mar- ried Fanny Brown, a native of Asheville, North Carolina, but both her parents were born in England. Her father served as a soldier throughout the entire period of the Revolu- tionary war. She survived her husband, at- taining the advanced age of ninety-three years. To her and her husband nine children were born and reared, as follows: Matthew, Alfred, Aaron, Richard, Rachel, Isaac, William, Na- than and Henry. Henry and Alfred inherited the parental acres, and on the old home place each erected a substantial set of farm build- ings.

Born in 1818, in Breathitt county, Henry Combs became owner, by inheritance, of a part of the old homestead, as previously stated, and was there actively engaged in agri- cultural pursuits the remainder of his sixty- eight years of earthly life. He was three times married. His first wife, whose maiden name was Tampa Davis, was born in 1815, in that part of Perry county, Kentucky, now known as Breathitt county, where her parents, John and Elizabeth ( Prophet) Davis. settled as pioneers and afterwards spent their lives. She died at the early age of thirty-three years. leaving eight children, namely: James, Dul . cina. Sewell S., Larkin, Jane, Alfred, Asbury

A. and William. He married, second, Polly Grigsby, also a native of Perry county. She died at the age of forty-three years, leaving seven children: Isaac, Minnie, Matthew, Ed- ward, Angeline and Eveline, twins, and Polly. He married for his third wife Mrs. Mary (Swango) Johnson, who survived him a few years. He was a man of strong religious con- victions and a member of the Baptist church.

Receiving his education in the common schools of Wolfe county, Alfred Combs began his active career as a school teacher, in the meanwhile spending his leisure studying civil engineering. Becoming proficient in his studies, he made many important surveys in Breathitt county, and in 1872 he made the largest survey ever performed in the state, the same consist- ing of 154,800 acres in Breathitt county, in a rough country. At the age of thirty-one years Mr. Combs located at Frenchburg, Menifee county, where he was engaged in mercantile pursuits for two years. Going from there to Cornwall, a railroad town in the same county, he conducted a general store there for eighteen years, and while there also engaged in the manufacture and sale of lumber. In 1895, his sons having become associated with him, Mr. Combs came to Lexington, and here estab- lished the Combs Lumber Company, which does the largest retail lumber and construction business in the state.

Mr. Combs married first, in 1867, Esther Horton, who was born in Lee county, Vir- ginia, of Scotch-Irish ancestry. Her father, William Horton, a native of the same county, migrated with his family to Wolfe county, Kentucky, where he bought land and was en- gaged in general farming and stock raising 11n- til his death. His wife, who was, before mar- riage, a Miss Richmond, was born in Alabama, but was brought up and educated in Virginia. Mrs. Esther Combs died at the age of forty-five years. Mr. Combs married for his second wife Alice McClelland, who was born in Bourbon county. Kentucky, as was her father, Robert McClelland, who was of Scotch descent. Rob- ert McClelland was employed as a tiller of the soil in Bourbon county for many years, but spent the later days of his life in Lexington, living retired from active business. The maiden name of his wife was Frances Taylor. and her father was an extensive agriculturist, owning and operating a large farm lying six miles north of Lexington. Mr. Combs has reared six children, namely : Thomas, William, John, who died at the age of twenty-eight years : Isaac N., Sewell S. and James. Thomas married Viola Downs. and they have one daughter, May. Isaac N., who married Mattie Smith, has two children, Newton and William

Alfred lombo

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Alfred. James married Edna Ruble, and they have one daughter, Nancy. Religiously, Mr. and Mrs. Combs are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, South. Politically, Mr. Combs is an earnest adherent of the Demo- cratic party. Fraternally, he belongs to Beaver Lodge, No. 505, A. F. & A. M., of which he is a past master.

WILLIAM HENRY EDINGER .- In reviewing the biographies of different men in various oc- cupations of life, the conclusion is reached that in the vast majority of cases men have sought employment where circumstances have placed them and in some cases it seems that men with a peculiar fitness for a certain line have taken it up and marked success has followed. Such is the fact in the case of the subject of this sketch. Although he followed several differ- ent lines of industry he succeeded in each one and when he found the line he was particularly suited for he recognized the fact and stayed with it to its ultimate success.

The late William Henry Edinger was one of Louisville's prominent citizens and bankers. He was born at Marietta, Ohio, October 18, 1843, but was brought by his parents to Louis- ville when he was an infant. His father, George Edinger, now deceased, was born on the river Rhine, Bavaria, in 1807 and as a boy saw the first Napoleon. He came to the United States when a young man and located at Reading, Pennsylvania, in the early thirties, where he married Rosina Schneider, who was born in the county of Muelacher, Wurtem- burg, Germany in 1815, and who died in 1876. From Pennsylvania George Edinger removed to Ohio and thence to Louisville in 1844, and in this city he was for many years engaged in the manufacture of wagons. To him and his wife, children were born as follows: Ja- cob Edinger, a wagon manufacturer located in Louisville ; Sophia, married to Frederick Bar- ringer, living on his place at Cherokee Park, Louisville ; John, died in childhood in Louis- ville ; William H., the subject of this sketch, died July 12, 1910, at Louisville, Kentucky ; Andrew, president of Edinger & Co., of Lou- isville; Rosina, who died in infancy. Fred- erick, died January 23, 1903, in his fifty-sec- ond year.

William Henry Edinger, when but a boy, went to work on the farm of his brother-in- law, Frederick Barringer, whose farm formed what is now a part of Cherokee Park, Louis- ville, Kentucky. Here he was engaged in the usual avocations of farm life and remained for eight years, in addition to his customary duties, being also market boy for his brother- in-law at the old market house which was built in the street, and ran from Third to Fourth on

Market street, Louisville. For these duties and his work on the farm receiving as pay from three to twenty dollars per month.

On January 1, 1864, Mr. Edinger became a "route boy" for the Louisville Anzeiger news- paper and while thus engaged prepared him- self for higher endeavors by attending Boyd's Commercial School and he finished the course in bookkeeping in three months. He con- tinued at this work of carrying papers for the Anzeiger for fifteen months and in March, 1865, he began bookkeeping for the whole- sale grocery firm of Billing & Dreisbach. On the first of January, 1870, Mr. Billing retired from the business and Mr. Edinger became a partner and two years later on January I, 1872, Mr. Dreisbach retired on account of old age. Afterwards W. H. Bohmer and still later E. Gripp became members of the firm under the name of Edinger, Gripp & Bohmer. Later on Mr. Edinger bought out his two partners and conducted the store alone until 1880 when he admitted his brother Andrew as a partner and the firm became W. H. Ed- inger & Brother. Up to about that time the store had been a wholesale grocery house car- rying a heavy line of flour, but from then on the business of W. H. Edinger & Bro., be- came that of a flour house.

Mr. Edinger did not confine his attention alone to this one line of business. While he was still in the grocery business. he became a member of the board of directors of the Ger- man Insurance Bank and in 1896, following the death of the President, Mr. J. J. Fisher, he was chosen as the head of the bank. Mr. Edinger brought to the presidency so great a prestige as a well known and successful busi- ness man, and an unusual personal popularity that the volume of business of the bank in- creased from the very start. In 1890 he was compelled to give up his private business and sold out his interest in W. H. Edinger & Bro. to his partner and from that time on gave his full time and attention to the German Insurance Bank. Mr. Edinger was identified with various interests in addition to his bank- ing business, some of them being very im- portant industries, and at the time of his death was president of the Peter & Melcher Steam Stone Works, vice president and di- rector of the Louisville Lighting Company, a director in the Louisville Gas Company, pres- ident of the J. P. Gray Sanitary Milk Com- pany, director in the Central Consumers Com- pany and director of the Cave Hill Cemetery Association. He was also president of the German Insurance Company, an allied in- stitution of the German Insurance Bank.

In 1877. Mr. Edinger married Barbara, the

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daughter of Joseph and Barbara Peter, of Louisville, Kentucky, the pioneer steam stone contractor who constructed several prominent buildings, among which were the Galt House and the City Hall. To them the following children were born, John Rozel, born Decem- ber 14, 1875, deceased ; Ida Ruth Ritcher, born October 11, 1880, Walter Scott, born October 9. 1882, Edwin Robert, born September I, 1884, Clarence Henry, born May 7, 1887, de- ceased, and two grandchildren, Clarence Rozel, the son of Walter Scott and William Victor Jr., son of Ida Ruth Ritcher.

Mr. Edinger was a perfect man, simple and childlike in his manner, loved his home and his friends. He was a man who won the re- spect and admiration of all with whom he came in contact, as a citizen he lent of his time and effort to promote the very best interests of his community.

ANDREW EDINGER is a well known merchant and popular German citizen of Louisville, Kentucky, his extraction being among the vigorous, intellectual and energetic natures which have made Germany what it is today and is taking such a prominent and active part in helping to form this country, all to its good. Among the various foreigners who all help to make this great republic none are more welcome than the fine class of Germans and among them none have a more honorable posi- tion or have a higher standing then Andrew Edinger.

Andrew Edinger was born in Louisville on January 8, 1846, the son of the late George Edinger and brother of the late William H. Edinger of whom a full biography is given in another part of this work. His father was born on the Rhine river in Bavaria and came to the United States when a young man lo- cating at Reading, Pennsylvania, · where he married Rosina Schneider who was born in the county of Muelacher, Wurtemburg, Ger- many. Andrew Edinger attended the public schools and took a business course at the Bryant and Stratton Commercial College. His first introduction to business was his becom- ing a carrier-boy for the Anzeiger for a num- ber of months. In 1868 he became bookkeeper for the John P. Cronise Lake Ice Company and when that firm became the Northern Lake Ice Company, Mr. Edinger became the cashier which position he held for eight years. In 1880 he became a member of the firm of W. H. Edinger & Bro, and upon the retirement of his brother William H. from the firm he carried that business on for a time by himself, adding hay and grain to that of flour and then incorporated it into the Edinger Flour & Feed Company, of which company he is president.

His success has been of pronounced type and he is known as one of the representative men of the city in whose future and greater pre- cedence he has the utmost confidence, while a more loyal and enthusiastic citizen of the commonwealth cannot be found.

Mr. Edinger is a member of the Commercial Club, and of the board of trade. His relig- ious convictions are evidenced by his mem- bership with the First German Methodist church and he is a director of the Deaconess' Hospital. Mr. Edinger married Emma Eliza- beth, daughter of the late Joseph Peter and sister to Mrs. W. H. Edinger and Mrs. Charles H. Bohmer. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Edinger are as follows: Emma Henrietta ; William Edward, a salesman for the Ahrens & Ott Company of Louisville ; Joseph P., a sales- man for the Henry Vogt Machine Company of Louisville; Oscar W., salesman for the Ed- inger Flour & Feed Company, Louisville; C. Albert, secretary of the. Edinger Flour & Feed Company, Louisville. William E., Oscar W. and C. Albert were all married during the year 1909.

HERMAN HENRY SCHMIDT .- After a use- ful and beneficent career Mr. Schmidt is liv- ing retired from an active business life. He is a prominent citizen of Covington, and he built up one of the largest wholesale grocery houses in the city. He was born in Prussia, Germany, February 10, 1842, a son of Her- man Harry and Anna Mary (Kruer) Schmidt, who were also born in Prussia, and there they lived and died, the father a farmer. They were the parents of five children, three sons and two daughters, and three are living in the United States, one in Germany and one is deceased. At the age of nineteen Herman H. Schmidt, the son, left home and native land to come to America and soon after his arrival in this country he located in Covington, where he resumed work at carpentering, he having also followed that vocation in Germany. Begin- ning with January of 1862 he was a govern- ment teamster throughout the war, for six months hauling supplies from Lexington to Cumberland Gap. In 1870 he entered upon his long and successful connection with the grocery trade in Covington, and after about eighteen years he enlarged his interests to the wholesale trade and built up one of the largest houses of its kind in Covington. Although he gave up its active management some years ago the business is still carried on by his sons un- der the name of H. Schmidt & Sons. During several years he was one of the directors of the Citizens National Bank, and in politics he is allied with the Democratic party, but not a partisan in local affairs.

Slutiny & Hinkson

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In 1863, Mr. Schmidt was united in mar- riage with Mary Helena Gruger, who was brought from her native country, Germany, to the United States when three years of age by her mother, her father having died in Ger- many. Mr. and Mrs. Schmidt have thirteen children living, namely: Elizabeth, Bernard, Carrie, Henry, George, John, Mayme, Mar- garet, Helena, Flora, Lenora, Amelia, Freda, and two children died in infancy. The family are members of the Catholic church.

HARRY J. MEYERS .- Though a resident of the city of Covington Mr. Meyers has his headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio, just across the Ohio river, where he is executive head of the Meyers Lumber Company, one of the sub- stantial concerns engaged in the wholesale and retail lumber business in the Queen City. He is deeply interested in all matters touching the welfare of his home city and state and has had the distinction of being chosen to repre- sent his county in the state legislature.

Harry J. Meyers was born in Covington, on the 17th of September, 1877, and is a son of Frank B. and Louisa (Mesker) Meyers, both of whom were born in Cincinnati, Ohio, of German lineage. For nearly two score years Frank D. Meyers has been a traveling sales- man for tailor's trimmings. He was reared in and was for many years a resident of Cov- ington, but he has recently established his home in Clifton, a beautiful suburb of Coving- ton. His wife was but four months old at the time of her parents' removal to Clifton. Of the three children, all of whom are living. the sub- ject of this review is the oldest. Harry J. Meyers is indebted to the parochial schools of Covington for his rudimentary education and he later continued his studies in the St. Fran- cis Xavier Academy, in Cincinnati, after leav- ing which institution he was a student for two years in a military institute at Dayton, Ohio. He then entered the New York State Normal School. in the city of Buffalo, in which he was graduated when nineteen years of age. Shortly afterward he became traveling freight agent for the Chicago, Hamilton & Dayton Railroad, a position which he retained for four years, at the expiration of which, in 1904, he effected the organization of the Meyers Lum- ber Company, of Cincinnati, in which he has ever since been one of the interested princi- pals and of whose business he has had the ac- tive management.

In politics Mr. Meyers has ever accorded a stanch allegiance to the Democratic party and he has given effective service in behalf of its canse. In November, 1909, he was elected to represent the eighty-seventh district in the state legislature, receiving a majority of nine Licking river, four miles above the forks, at

hundred and eighty-two votes,-the largest majority ever accorded a legislative candidate in the district. He proved a most conserva- tive and able legislative officer and took an active part in the deliberations on the floor and in the committee room, having been assigned as a member of a number of important com- mittees. He introduced and ably championed the bill which made of Harlan and Bell coun- ties a new judicial district and was also author of the bill raising Millsboro to the status of a city of the third class. He is a member of the Covington Lodge, No. 109, Free & Accepted Masons, and he and his wife are members of the First Presbyterian church.

On the 4th of September, 1900, was sol- emnized the marriage of Mr. Meyers to Miss Margaret Vos, who was born and reared in Covington and who is a daughter of August and Elizabeth (Cook) Vos, the former of whom was born in Covington and the latter in Cincinnati. Mr. Vos is a prominent banker and stock broker of Cincinnati and is presi- dent of the Cincinnati Stock Exchange, at the time of this writing. Mr. and Mrs. Meyers have one son, Harry J. Jr.

STERLING P. HINKSON .- A prosperous and progressive agriculturist of Harrison county, Sterling P. Hinkson is the descendant of one of its earliest pioneers, Colonel John Hinkson, who with several companions dauntlessly pushed his way into a wild, uncultivated coun- try, coming to Kentucky while yet

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A history of Kentucky and Kentuckians; the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume III, Part 61

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