A history of Kentucky and Kentuckians; the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume III, Part 63

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 63

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Joseph F. Wright, our subject, was born in Campbell county, Kentucky, September 17, 1836, and received the advantages of an aca- demic education and engaged in farming until 1863. In October of that year he located in Alexandria and engaged in the general mer- chandise business in partnership with John Todd, a brother of Mr. Wright's first wife, which partnership continued for fourteen years. At the end of this time Mr. Wright sold out and returned to his first pursuit, that of farming and fruit growing, and in this in- dustry he has continued ever since. His farm adjoins Alexandria and much of it is within the corporate limits, a very valuable holding and under the best improvement.

Mr. Wright in 1862 married Mary A., a daughter of Solomon Todd, a native of Eng- land. She died in 1879, leaving no children. In 1881 Mr. Wright married Emma J. Ripley, of Indianapolis, Indiana, and they were the parents of the following children : Ethel B., Elsie R., Grace R. and J. Donald. Mr. Wright greatly resembles his father in that extraor- dinary strength and tenacity of will, courage, perseverance and work-power that spring from it, as well as in the tact and judgment which make men skilful in seizing opportuni- ties, and which of all intellectual qualities are most closely allied with character. He is a stanch Democrat, and has served as president for five years of The Campbell County Agri- cultural Society. He helped organize the banki of Alexandria and has been a member of its board of directors since its organization and at the present time is vice president of the, same.

CAPTAIN THOMAS J. BUSH .- A man of broad culture and staunch character, Captain Bush, of Lexington, holds high rank among its citizens of prominence and worth, and is remembered as a brave soldier by his veteran comrades whether in Civil war times they wore

I.m. Bush.

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the blue or the gray. It happened, in those good cheer, generosity and happiness. He and far-away days, that Captain Bush was a staunch Union man and for three years served as captain in the Twenty-fourth Kentucky In- fantry. He entered the service in 1861, was commissioned captain, was aide-de-camp on General Buell's staff, and is mentioned in the reports of his superior officer for "efficient service," especially at the battles of Shiloh and Perryville. With the exception of that stir- ring period of his life, which so proved his staunch fidelity to his beliefs, his career has been rather one of peaceful industry, unswerv- ing loyalty to his friends and relatives, and earnest desire to maintain high ideals of living and citizenship. His experience and his edu- caton have made him a cultured southern gen- tleman who has succeeded in his undertakings without resorting to the inconsiderate and pug- nacious methods which so many men of to-day feel that they must adopt to "push their way through the world."

Captain Bush was born in Lexington, which he has always called his home. and is a son of the late Dr. James M. Bush, one of the best beloved and highly esteemed physicians of his day, whose life and services to his profes- sion and to his fellows are recorded in other pages of this work. His grandfather, Philip Bush, Jr., came from Virginia to Kentucky in pioneer times, and was one of the earlier settlers of Frankfort. He married Miss Eliza Palmer, who was a sister of the wife of Gen- eral John Adair, and belonged to a family of distinction, her mother having been before marriage a Miss Benoist, of South Carolina. They reared a number of children, two of whom became famous-Joseph H., the cele- brated artist, and Dr. James M. Bush. Again reverting to the family tree and tracing its roots to the soil of the old world, it is learned that the immediate Bush ancestry had its origin in Mannheim, Germany, where the great- grandfather of the Captain, Colonel Philip Bush, Sr., was born. In 1750 Colonel Bush emigrated to the western world and located at Winchester, Virginia, where he spent his re- maining days. He married Catherine Slough, who was a native of Pennsylvania, and her father was also an officer in the Revolutionary war. Colonel Philip Bush, Sr., the emigrant, was a colonel in the Revolutionary war.

Thomas J. Bush, in whose veins flows this good blood from Germany, Virginia and Ken- tucky, is a product of the Blue Grass state-by birth, by education, by preference and deep- rooted affection. He was educated at Transyl- vania University, but never entered upon a professional career, his time being devoted to his private affairs, which reflect prosperity,

his sister occupy the family homestead in Lex- ington during the winter season, but spend the warmer months of the year at Bar Harbor, under the picturesque and invigorating spell of the coast of Maine. The strong mutual love of brother and sister has prevented either from forming that conjugal attachment which is the common lot of humanity.

JAMES M. BUSH, M. D .- To be a master both of the theory and the practice of medi- cine is the laudable ambition of the able mem- bers of the profession; a profession whose mastery is worthy the best efforts of the profound scholar and of the helpful, brave and warm-hearted man who yearns to lighten the ills of his suffering fellows. In these closely related domains of medicine-science and practice-the late Dr. James M. Bush, of Lexington, was a leader, and therefore a benefactor ; he was a most scholarly man and one of the prominent figures in the progress of medical education in the South, as well as a skilful physician and surgeon who faith- fully and cheerfully underwent the ordinary hardships of his profession and bravely vol- unteered his services in seasons of epidemic or disaster. He drew to him men, women and children by the confidence which they had in his wisdom, in his absolute trustworthiness and his great warm heart. That is the defi- nition of the ideal physician of yesterday, to- day and to-morrow.

James M. Bush was a native of Frankfort, Kentucky, born in May, 1808, and obtained his education preliminary to his professional studies in Danville. Subsequently he began the study of medicine with Dr. Goldsmith, a noted Louisville physician, and about 1830 came to Lexington to still further pursue his studies in the medical department of the Tran- sylvania University, where he had the ad- vantage of the tutorship of Dr. Benjamin W. Dudley, one of the leading surgeons in the state. After his graduation from that insti- tution, in 1833, Dr. Bush became demonstrator of anatomy under Dr. Dudley, and in 1837 he succeeded his former tutor to the full pro- fessorship. In 1839 Dr. Bush assumed the combined chair of anatomy and surgery at Transylvania University, and for ten years he continued to honor that position and add to the high standing of the faculty and the medical school. The brilliant promise of his student days was fully realized in the ex- tended reputation which he made as an edu- cator of other minds and hands. Always tak- ing the lead in scholarship, the thesis which he wrote prior to his graduation is still pre- served among the archives of the Kentucky

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University (then Transylvania University ) as a remarkable production for one of his years.

In 1849, with some of his associate pro- fessors, Dr. Bush moved to Louisville and as- sisted in the organization of the Kentucky School of Medicine; they adopted the plan of lecturing in the new school during the win- ter seasons and at the Transylvania Univer- sity in the summer months. These labors, in connection with a considerable practice in medicine and surgery, fully occupied Dr. Bush's time and absorbed his energies until shortly before the outbreak of the Civil war. Now a man of middle age, he had fairly earned a broad professional name as an ed11- cator and an earnest and able practitioner. From the period of the early thirties, when he so bravely and untiringly applied every faculty of his untried professional talents to the allevi- ation of the sufferings of the cholera victims in Louisville and Lexington, until the coming of the rebellion, he had never lowered either his moral or his medical ethics. Wherever there was suffering that he could ease he was on the ground, if his services were desired, and he was also eager to spread abroad the intelli- gence of any improvement in medical or surgi- cal practice which he believed of special bene- fit to humanity. In the rendition of this lat- ter service to hiis profession and the public he is specially to be remembered for his success- ful efforts in making the world better ac- quainted with the special investigations and advances made by Dr. Dudley in the practice of lithotomy, for which the latter had become famous and which Dr. Bush had largely adopted in his own work.

During the period of the Civil war and from that time until his death, February 8, 1875, Dr. Bush was actively engaged in the practice of his profession at Lexington. One of the most skillful surgeons of the state in actual operations, he also won distinction for his thoroughness and accuracy in the diagnosis of difficult cases brought to him as a consult- ing member of the profession. At his funeral in the Episcopal church were evinced those touching evidences, too sacred to be detailed, of the unspeakable grief which his death oc- casioned to those nearest to him, and the gen- eral feeling of loss among those whose lives had come into less intimate contact. A memo- rial of the deceased was afterward published in book form, containing a beautiful poem by Rosa Vertner Jeffrey; resolutions of respect adopted by the physicians of Fayette county, by the city council of Lexington, by the offi- cers of the Nothern Bank of Kentucky, and by the Pharmaceutical Association, as well as

tributes of praise and love from many of the leading newspapers and publications of Kentucky.

Dr. James M. Bush married Miss Charlotte James, a native of Ohio and a daughter of Thomas and Charlotte ( Massie) James. Mrs. Charlotte Massie, her maternal grandmother, was a sister of General Nathaniel Massie, Ohio's first governor, who, however, declined to serve after he had been declared elected to the office over his contestant to the position. Three children were born to James Bush and wife, as follows: Dudley, who died in 1873, and, young as he was, who had attained a posi- tion of prominence in medical science; Nannie Massie, and Captain Thomas James, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere. The death of the oldest son, Dudley Bush, was a great sorrow to the parents and perceptably saddened the last days of the Doctor, as it had been one of his fondest ambitions to he succeeded in his professional work by the able, promising and affectionate physician of still youthful age.

EDWARD GIBSON ISAACS, eldest son of Rich- ard H. and Julia E. (Taylor) Isaacs was born at the family homestead in Jefferson county, December 26, 1868. His father was a gallant Confederate soldier, serving the first year of the war in the First Kentucky Cavalry and later in Gen. John H. Morgan's division as a member of the Eighth Kentucky Cavalry.

On his mother's side, E. G. Isaacs comes also of soldier stock, being the great-great- grandson of Jonathan Taylor who was one of ten Virginian brothers who served in the Re- volutionary war. Jonathan Taylor was a lieu- tenant in the Virginia Convention Guards, and each of his nine brothers was also an officer in the army or naval forces of the colonies. On the maternal side, Mr. Isaacs is the great- great-grandson of William Taylor, another of the ten brothers who was major of the Ninth Virginia regiment in the Revolution. The paternal great-grandfather, Dr. Francis Tay- lor, son of Jonathan Taylor, married his first cousin, Ann Elizabeth, daughter of Major William Taylor. Gen. Zachary Taylor, hero of the Mexican war and later president of the United States, was the son of another of these ten gallant patriot sons of Virginia.

Mr. Isaacs received his education in the schools of Jefferson county, and at an early age, engaged in the drug business after serving an apprenticeship with his uncle, T. P. Taylor, and graduating from the Louisville College of Pharmacy. Subsequently, he engaged in busi- ness with his uncle and is now the active man- ager of the Taylor-Isaacs Drug company and vice president of the T. P. Taylor Drug

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Company one of the largest wholesale and re- tail drug establishments in Louisville, the cor- poration conducting four large and complete establishments in the central and busiest dis- tricts of the city.

Mr. Isaacs married Miss Lula Monks and has two children. Edith and Edward Gibson, Jr.

JAMES T. SLADE .- Among the many pros- perous, active and progressive business men of Lexington, James T. Slade, a leading real estate dealer, holds a place of prominence. During his long and varied career he has been identified with several enterprises, and in the development and advancement of each indus- try has met with satisfactory results. He was born August 7, 1838, in Harrison county, Ken- tucky, near Cynthiana, in the very same house in which his father, James Slade, first drew the breath of life.

William Slade, his grandfather, was born in Virginia, of Scotch-Irish ancestry. .During the closing years of the eighteenth century he with three of his brothers followed the emi- grant's trail westward, two of the brothers stopping in Ohio, while he and the other bro- ther came to Kentucky. Locating near Cyn- thiana, William Slade purchased upwards of one thousand acres of land in that vicinity, and on the farm which he redeemed from its original wildness he carried on general farm- ing and stock raising during the remainder of his years. His wife, whose name before mar- riage was Melvina Bromfield, attained the good old age of ninety-two years.

As a young man James Slade embarked in mercantile pursuits and, that having been be- fore the days of railroads, was also engaged in freighting, in the transportation of produce from the interior towns to Augusta, Mays- ville, Cincinnati and other points on the Ohio river, operating six teams of six horses each, bringing back on the return trip heavy loads of merchandise. A stanch Union man at the time of the Civil war, he was a member of the Home Guards, and lost an arm while in the service. He spent his entire life of seventy- four years in his native county, passing away in 1874. He married Eleanor Orr, who was born in Harrison county, Kentucky, a daughter of James Orr, and she died in the same county in 1886, aged eighty-eight years. Nine chil- dren were born of their union, namely: Wil- liam, Sarah, Daniel, James T., Mollie, Zerilda, Julia, Maria and Fanny.

Availing himself of every opportunity given him for obtaining an education when young, James T. Slade attended schools in Woodford county taught by his cousin, George W. Wil-

liams, and was later under the instruction of B. W. D. Seeley and J. T. Ferguson. Acquir- ing a substantial knowledge of the common branches of study, he taught school one term while yet a boy in his teens, and subsequently took his first lessons in surveying from his cousin, Mr. Williams, who was a civil engi- neer. In 1859 Mr. Slade entered Georgetown College, and during his first year in that insti- tution partly defrayed his expenses by tutor- ing three- children three hours each day. In the winter of 1861 and 1862 he studied medi- cine at the Saint Louis Medical College, from which he and one of his chums, George W. Johnson, were expelled in the spring of 1862 for making a rebel flag and hanging it in the college. Subsequently taking charge of a school five miles from Lexington, Mr. Slade boarded with Mrs. John R. Viley, with whom Mrs. Breckinridge, wife of General John C. Breckinridge, was then boarding. After spending two years as a teacher in that dis- trict, he taught two years in the Withers' neighborhood, and for four months thereafter was engaged in the cattle trade, buying in the mountain counties and selling in Lexington.

Directing his attention then to an entirely new occupation, Mr. Slade spent a few weeks in Herkimer county, New York, where he ac- quired proficiency in the art of cheese-making. Coming back to Kentucky, he erected, near Clintonville, the first cheese factory ever put up south of Mason and Dixon's line, and there built up an extensive business, using the milk from six hundred cows in his subsequent oper- ations. In 1870 he retired from cheese mak- ing, and the following eight years served as county surveyor. In March, 1871, while filling that office, Mr. Slade, with a partner, estab- lished the real estate business of which he is now the sole proprietor, and which has since that time, a continuous period of forty years, been conducted in the same office. From 1880 until 1904 he was largely interested in coal mining in southern Kentucky and northern Tennessee, along the line of the Cincinnati and Southern Railroad. When that road was first proposed Mr. Slade, with others of like enterprise, raised the money to buy the right- of-way, and was then appointed by the county, with Dr. George O. Graves and P. Burgess Hunt, to buy said right-of-way.

In addition to his extensive real estate deal- ings Mr. Slade is actively interested in various western mining companies, including the "Old Town," at Idaho Springs. Colorado; the "United States Gold Corporation," at Boulder, Colorado ; and the "Dives," the "Pelican" and the "7.30," at Silver Plume, Colorado, in the latter of which he is a director. Active and

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successful throughout his career, Mr. Slade's various interests have taken him into many parts of the Union and brought him in close tact with men prominent in both business circles and in public life.

Mr. Slade married, September 5. 1873, Bet- tie H. Newberry, who was born and educated in Lexington. Her father, William H. New- berry, came from thrifty German stock, and married Amanda Van Pelt, who was of pure Holland ancestry. Mr. and Mrs. Slade are the parents of four children, namely: Ada Bell, wife of John B. Dame; James T .; D. D .; and Theodore. Both Mr. and Mrs. Slade are worthy members of the Baptist church, with which he united in 1856, and which he has for thirty-two years represented as a delegate at the Southern Baptist Convention.

JAMES H. THOMPSON .- Among the repre- sentative agriculturists of the younger genera- tion in Bourbon county, Kentucky, James H. Thompson is widely known as a public- spirited citizen who has achieved eminent suc- cess in his chosen vocation. He is a native son of the fine old Blue Grass state and was born in Montgomery county on the 2d of July, 1872. His parents are George C. and Rebecca (Scott) Thompson, concerning whom further mention is made on other pages of this work, in the sketch dedicated to Albert S. Thompson. Mr. Thompson was reared to the sturdy dis- cipline of the home farm and he availed him- self of the advantages afforded in the public schools of his native county. He matriculated in Transylvania University, at Lexington, Kentucky, and in this well ordered institution he was later graduated. After his marriage, in 1894, Mr. Thompson took up his abode on a farm on the Greenwich Pike and in 1902 he purchased the old Bedford farm on the Mays- ville and Lexington pike, about five miles south of Paris. This fine estate consists of nine hundred acres of most arable land and the improvements on the place are of the most modern type.

In politics Mr. Thompson has ever been a stanch adherent of the principles and policies for which the Democratic party stands sponsor and he has been an active factor in the local councils of the party. He has been a member of the Democratic county committee for a period of twelve years, during four of which he has served as chairman of this body. Fra- ternally he is affiliated with the Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks and the Knights of Pythias. He and his wife are earnest mem- bers of the Christian church at Paris and they are held in high esteem by their fellow citizens.

On the 8th of August, 1894, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Thompson to Miss Tillie

R. Ferguson, who was born in Bourbon county, Kentucky, the date of her birth being Novem- ber 9, 1874. She is a daughter of James W. and Martha (Hume) Ferguson, who were among the early pioneers and highly respected families of Kentucky. To Mr. and Mrs. Thompson have been born two children,- Lucile F., who was born on the 20th of Sep- tember, 1895, was summoned to the life eter- nal on the 5th of September, 1896; and James W., who was born on the 16th of October, 1897, is now attending school in the county.

VOLNEY W. FERGUSON .- An honored and respected citizen and a force in the life of the state as one of its most extensive agriculturists and stock raisers is Volney W. Ferguson, whose splendid tract of one thousand fertile and highly improved acres lies in Bourbon county. It is an indication of the opportunities and advantages which Bourbon county affords to her citizens that so many of her native sons still reside within her borders, having no in- clination to seek homes elsewhere. And it was here the nativity of the gentleman whose name initiates this paragraph occurred on May 23, 1867. He is a scion of some of Ken- tucky's best pioneer stock. His parents, James W. and Martha (Hume) Ferguson, were both natives of the state and both were born in the year 1830. After uniting their hands and fortunes in marriage they settled near Paris, on the Hume and Bedford Pike, where they made their home for a number of years. Sev- eral years before their demise they removed to Paris, where they both died in the year 1895. James W. Ferguson was a man distinguished for industry and energy, a man who made ideas realities, and he was held in general affection as one of the most liberal and public- spirited citizens of his community. His in- fluence was assured for every worthy enter- prise and he was a beneficent factor in the development of county and state. He sulc- ceeded, becoming a farmer and stock dealer of extensive operations, and at his death he owned about five thousand acres of land in Bourbon, Fayette and Scott counties. He and his wife were members of the Christian church and enjoyed the respect of all who knew them.{ They were the parents of nine children and those who survive are to be numbered among Kentucky's fine representative citizenship. The ensuing is an enumeration of their off- spring: Matilda died in infancy ; William H. is deceased; Margaret is the wife of Dr. W. C. Usery, of Paris; A. Lunsford resides in Scott county, Kentucky; Robert H. is de- ceased ; Lucy E. married Joseph Hall and re- sides in Paris, Kentucky ; Volney W., the sub- ject, is the next in order of birth; James W. ;

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is a citizen of Bourbon county ; and Matilda R., the youngest member of the family, is the wife of J. H. Thompson.

Volney W. Ferguson, the immediate sub- ject of this review, was reared upon the farm and has always followed the vocation. He received his education in the public schools of Paris and about the time of his attaining his majority he laid the foundations of a household of his own by marriage. The young lady to become his wife was Miss Elizabeth Payne, a native of Scott county, where her birth occurred October 18, 1869. She is the daughter of George L. and Mariah (Gay) Payne. Following their marriage, which was celebrated June 28, 1888, Mr. Ferguson and his bride settled near Hutchinson, on the Lex- ington & Maysville Pike, and on this property they made their home until 1895. In that year Mr. and Mrs. Ferguson removed their goods and chattels to their present attractive prop- erty, situated about eight miles west of Paris. As before mentioned his holdings are of an important character, consisting of about one thousand acres in Bourbon county, and he pays much attention to the raising of stock in addition to his operations in general farming.

The union of Mr. and Mrs. Ferguson has been cemented by the birth of seven children, as follows: Mariah G., Robert H., Martha H., June P. (deceased), Lucy H., Matilda R., and Volney W., Jr. Both Mr. Ferguson and his wife are active and consistent members of the Christian church. The former is one in whom the social proclivities are not undeveloped and he finds profit and pleasure in his fraternal re- lations, which extend to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Modern Woodmen of America. In short, in the com- munity in which he is best known and where his interests are centered he enjoys "golden opinions of all sorts of people."

WILLIAM CAMPBELL PRESTON BRECKIN- RIDGE was born August 28, 1837, near Balti- more, Maryland, and died in Lexington, Ken- tucky. November 19, 1904. He was the sec- ond son of Robert J. and Ann Sophonisba Preston Breckinridge. He was for a time a student at Jefferson College, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, then at Center College, Dan- ville, Kentucky, where he graduated in 1855. In 1857 he graduated from the Louisville Law School and entered upon the practice of his profession in Lexington. Upon the outbreak of the war between the states he entered the Confederate army. In 1863 he became colonel of the Ninth Kentucky Cavalry, which he com- manded with remarkable skill and unsurpassed courage until the close of the war. At the very end of that struggle he commanded the

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A history of Kentucky and Kentuckians; the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume III, Part 63

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