USA > Kentucky > A history of Kentucky and Kentuckians; the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume III > Part 98
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him, he told the prisoners to remain in Clays- ville, where they were paroled.
Mr. Lebus remained in Cynthiana about one month and started on his way to Columbiana county, Ohio, to the home of a brother, and remained with him until he secured a situation! in one of the schools of the county. After com- pleting his session, about the Ist of April, 1863, he visited his father, who was then living in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, near the college he had left five years before. He re- mained with his father until August of that year, when having heard that Kentucky was no longer the battle ground of the contending armies, and having been invited to resume his school in the district of his first work, he re- turned to Kentucky once more and continued teaching in the same district until 1864.
He was then called to take charge of a pri- vate school at Newport, Kentucky, where he taught until July I, and during vacation, from July I to September I, he was engaged as an agent and clerk for a wholesale book store in Cincinnati, Ohio. On September I, he re- turned to Newport to resume school, but after one week was taken with typhoid fever, which confined him in a hospital for two months. In the meantime, Mr. Lebus requested a friend of his, who was out of a situation, to take the school which he was compelled to give up. As soon as he was able to leave the hospital, he, upon the invitation of his brother, went to Oddville and remained with him until he re- gained his strength, when he was again called upon by the wholesale firm in Cincinnati, for which he had worked during the summer, to canvass the cities of Cincinnati, Covington and Newport and Indianapolis, Indiana. Mr. Le- bus remained in this business until April, 1865. and returned to Cincinnati the morning before the assassination of President Lincoln. Mr. Lebus says he had witnessed during the war many strange scenes and passed through many periods of excitement, but the state of public feeling in Cincinnati when the news of President Lincoln's assassination came to the city surpassed all he ever witnessed before or after.
Having heard that the residence of Dr. Fries of Cincinnati had been visited and demolished by a mob because he was a southern sympa- thizer. during the evening of the next day after his arrival, he walked around to call upon Dr. Fries, whom he had known as a boy in his native state, but a policeman who was on guard to protect the family would not permit him to enter the building. After remaining a week in Cincinnati, Mr. Lebus again went to his brother Lewis, living on his
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farm near Oddville, and about the Ist of May, visited some friends in Nicholas county, and while there was prevailed upon to open a pri- vate school, which he did, teaching until the close of the autumn session in 1865, and then returned to Oddville, where he was but a few days when he was prevailed upon to teach the district school of that place, which had just been reorganized. At the close of that session he was called upon by the leading citizens of the neighborhood, about four miles each of Cynthiana, who had erected a new school house, to take charge of the school there.
Mr. Lebus was engaged from year to year in the duties of teaching at this place until the fall of 1869, when he was requested to take charge of the general school interests of Har- rison county and for this purpose he was ap- pointed by the county judge as superintendent. At the time when he took charge, very few of the schools had been reorganized and he was compelled to visit every part of the county for the purpose of laying out districts, defining their boundaries and seeking teachers to take charge of the various schools. In this work he was re-elected superintendent four terms, serving eight years in all.
While in this office, on September 14, 1871, Mr. Lebus was married at Lexington, Ken- tucky, to Miss Nannie Kinbrough. Shortly after this marriage she was engaged to teach in the district in which Oddville was situated, and she was assisted by Mr. Lebus, as it was a large school with the older pupils. At the close of this session, Mr. Lebus purchased a farm on "Gray's run," about two miles west of Cynthiana, and gave his attention to farming, while at the same time he superintended the schools of Harrison county. At the close of his last term he concluded to give his whole time to farming, and having purchased from time to time tracts of land, he now has a fine farm of three hundred acres. In the fall of 1892, after having purchased an adjoining tract of land on the Cynthiana and Conners pike, he moved to his present residence.
Mr. Lebus is one of the best educated men in Harrison county, has been a deep reader and a student all his life, is a man of fine per- sonality and his wife is a lady of the old school. She was born May 18, 1850, in Har- rison county, on the Leesburg pike, and is a daughter of John M. and Susan (Jones) Kin- brough. The father was born in Harrison county, and died on January 21, 1869, at the age of sixty-three years, and the mother, born in Nicholas county, died in 1881, aged seventy years. They were of old and prominent fam- ilies and became the parents of ten children, three of whom are living: Elizabeth D., wife
of Samuel S. Clay, of Bourbon county, Ken- tucky; Alexander, living in California; and Nannie, the wife of our subject. Mr. and Mrs. Lebus are the parents of thirteen children : Mary Lawrence, born May 25, 1872, and died at the age of twelve years ; Samuel Kinbrough, born August 13, 1873, married and has one son, Joseph F., and is a resident of Los An- geles, California; Joseph S., born January 4, 1875, residence in Raven, Colorado; Lewis S., born May 5, 1876, residence in Harrison county, Kentucky; Susan Elizabeth, born November 18, 1877, is living at home; John H., born January 22, 1879, died January 22, 1910; Charles B., born September 8, 1880, residence in Victoria, British Columbia ; Fran- cis H., born in January, 1882, residence in Cyn- thiana; Anna P., born January 10, 1884, is living at home; Gertrude, born November 2, 1885, wife of T. S. Terry, residence in Okla- homa City; Edward L., born March 10, 1887, residence in Crockett, California; Lena W., born April 3, 1888, living at home; Linus L., born in February, 1891, living at home. Mr. and Mr. Lebus are members of the Catholic church.
JOHN C. BONNYCASTLE .- A man of ability, enterprise and sound judgment, John C. Bonnycastle holds a place of note among the successful business men of Lexington, where he represents the Standard Oil Company. He was born in Louisville, Kentucky, a son of Captain John C. Bonnycastle, and has here spent the major part of his life.
Professor Bonnycastle, his paternal grand- father, was born in England, where he re- ceived a college education. At the earnest solicitation of Thomas Jefferson, he came to America to teach mathematics at the Univer- sity of Virginia, being the first to occupy that chair, and was a member of the faculty of that institution until his death. He married Ann Mason Tutt, a daughter of Charles Pen- dleton Tutt and Ann Mason Chichester, both of Virginia, and to them three children were born.
Captain John C. Bonnycastle was born at Charlottesville, Virginia, and soon after leav- ing the public schools entered the West Point Military Academy, from which he resigned after three years. He first saw service during the Mexican war, and was later commissioned captain and fought the Indians in California and in the wilds of the far western territories. Being a true-hearted Southerner, he naturally loved and sympathized with the South, and when Civil war was declared he resigned his position in the army and remained neutral throughout the struggle. Settling in Louisville, Kentucky, he was engaged in the insurance
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business for a while, but lived retired during the latter part of his life, dying at the age uf fifty-eight years. The maiden name of his wife was Harriet Everett. She was born in Louisville, a daughter of Isaac Everett, who was born in Woodford county, Kentucky, where his parents were pioneers. Isaac Everett was for several years a wholesale dry goods merchant in Louisville, but later, in part- nership with Mr. Throckmorton, was proprie- tor of the Galt House. He married Adele Barney, a daughter of Commodore Barney, of the United States navy. Nine children were born of the union of Captain and Har- riet (Everett) Bonnycastle, as follows : Adele Everett, of Louisville; Mary S., wife of Dr. R. T. Yoe; Isaac, deceased; Harriet, wife of H. L. Cooper; Ann M., wife of Charles T. White; Henry C., a captain in the United States Army, married Marie Kennedy; Wil- liam R., an electric engineer, married Ida Hen- derson; Arthur C. married Eva May Wieland Farmer; and John C.
Completing his early studies in the public schools of Louisville, John C. Bonnycastle be- gan at the age of seventeen years to clerk in a wholesale dry goods store in Louisville, and continued thus employed nine years. He was subsequently a commercial traveler for two years, his headquarters being in Saint Louis the first year and in Cincinnati the second year, and he then traveled for the Standard Oil Company nine years. Coming then to Lexington, Mr. Bonnycastle has since been a resident of this city, and as a representative of the Standard Oil Company has had control of its extensive interests in this city.
Mr. Bonnycastle married, in 1898, Alice Augustus, who was born in New Orleans, a daughter of Reginald and Ellen (Semmes) Augustus, and a granddaughter of General B. B. Semmes. Mr. and Mrs. Bonnycastle have two children, Eleanor Augustus and Har- riet Everett.
BENJAMIN LLOYD GOODWIN .- Well edu- cated, enterprising and progressive, the late Benjamin Lloyd Goodwin was for many years one of the leading agriculturists of Fay- ette county, in which he spent his entire life. A man of sterling qualities, honest and up- right in all his dealings, he was widely known as a kind and accommodating neighbor, a lov- ing husband and father, an esteemed and trustworthy citizen, and his death, in 1903, was a cause of general regret.
Lloyd Goodwin, his father, was born in Louisa county, Virginia, coming from an old and respected family that settled in the eastern part of Virginia in Colonial days. Lured westward across the dividing ridge, he located
in Fayette county, Kentucky. Purchasing a tract of wild land, he cleared and improved a farm, having the help of his slaves, and en- gaged in farming and stock raising on an ex- tensive scale, remaining here until his death. His wife, whose maiden name was Mary Graves, was, likewise, of Virginian stock, be- ing descended from a well-known and prom- inent family of that name. Both she and her husband lived long and useful lives and were held in high respect throughout the com- munity.
Born September 23, 1834, and brought up on the parental homestead, Benjamin Lloyd Goodwin received excellent educational ad- vantages, but had no desire for a professional career. Following in the pathway of his an- cestors, he devoted his time and attention to agriculture, as a general farmer and stock- raiser, meeting with eminent success.
Mr. Goodwin married December 29, 1898, Florence Virginia McCauley. She was born in Lexington, Fayette county, Kentucky, a daughter of John and Mary M. (Coleman) McCauley, of whom a brief account may be found on another page of this volume. After the death of her husband, Mrs. Goodwin pur- chased a pleasant, attractive home in Lexing- ton, where she is now living with her two children, Mary Virginia Goodwin and Benja- min Lloyd Goodwin. Mrs. Goodwin is a woman of culture and refinement, and a worthy member of the Episcopal church.
JESSE B. KINCHELOE .- From the fair Old Dominion, with its romance, its gallantry and its fine traditions, came both the paternal and maternal ancestors of Jesse B. Kincheloe. One of them came either in 1779 or 1780, at the head of a colony, and built Kincheloe Fort on Simpson Creek in Nelson county. The Kin- cheloes were men of action and bravery and prominent in the communities in which their interests were centered. Kincheloes have car- ried arms in the Revolution, in the war of 1812, and in the Rebellion, and in times of peace have well served the nation and their neighbors in public office. The name is well known in this part of the country, and bearing it with honor in Shelby county, Kentucky, is Jesse B. Kincheloe, now retired from the active labors of life and living in happy fashion upon his fine old homestead situated in the outskirts of the city. He has devoted much of his time to agriculture ; was for a time in the internal revenue service ; is a leading Republican and has held office frequently, having for twelve years been magistrate of Spencer county.
Mr. Kincheloe was born in Spencer county, Kentucky, February 26, 1843, his parents being A. C. and Elvira S. (Buckner ) Kincheloe. The
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mother was a sister of Dr. Moses Buckner of Shelbyville and the daughter of Moses V. Buck- ner, a pioneer from Greenbrier county, Virginia, to Spencer county. The subject's great-grand- father, William Kincheloe, of Prince William county, Virginia, as mentioned above, came to Kentucky in the days of the Revolutionary war as the leader of a colony and built Kincheloe Fort. He was a lieutenant in the war, serving in a Virginia regiment, and he was one of those who endured the rigors and deprivations of the winter at Valley Forge, kept in courage only by the presence of the beloved Washing- ton. As the country was in a very wild condition he superintended the building of a fort, which was destroyed by Indians in 1782, just follow- ing the battle of Blue Lick. He was absent at the time, being on military duty in other parts. This dauntless pioneer died in 1798, and his will is on record at Bardstown, the document bearing evidence of the fact that he was a large land owner. His sword carried in the Revo- lution was carried by his son Jesse during the River Raisin campaign, at the Thames in Can- ada in 1813, and also at the affair at Fort Meigs. The sword is now the much-prized possession of the immediate subject of this review. William had six sons who reached maturity, Dr. Jesse Kincheloe being the grand- father of Mr. Kincheloe.
Dr. Jesse Kincheloe was a well-known Spencer county physician, who removed from that section in the year 1819 and took up his residence in Louisiana. He died in that state in 1820, a victim of yellow fever. He had four brothers who served in the war of 1812, one being the Rev. William Kincheloe, of Green River. Mr. Kincheloe's paternal grandmother was Anna Cochran, who was also the aunt of Judge Cockran, of Louisville. She spent most of her useful life on her farm in Spencer county, where her children were reared, her death occurring at the age of seventy-five years. A. C. Kincheloe, father of the subject, had one brother, William, who died in Spencer county not more than eight years ago, and a half sister, Elizabeth Stone, who was the mother of the Hon. George C. Gilbert, former member of Congress. She was also the grand- mother of County Judge Ralph Gilbert, of Shelby county. Almanzon Cochran spent his life in Spencer county and was sheriff of the same for several terms. In his later years he was magistrate for a period. He possessed a tract of fine land and followed farming with some success. His death occurred in 1899, at the age of eighty-four years. The wife and mother preceded him to the Great Beyond by more than forty years, her death having occurred in 1856, at the age of thirty-five years.
There were four sons and one daughter in the family, namely: Jesse B .; Dr. M. B., now of Joplin, Missouri; Dr. A. C., of Joplin, Mis- souri; A. X., a commercial man, located at Hardinsburg, Kentucky; and Josephine, wife of James Jewell, of Livingston county, Ken- tucky.
Jesse B. Kincheloe spent his boyhood upon the old homestead in Spencer county. His schooling was interrupted by the breaking out of the Civil war, as was the case with so many of the young men of the country. For ten years he operated a farm in Shelby county and for the next decade was in the internal revenue service as deputy collector, and then as chief deputy, with offices at Owensboro. His identi- fication with the revenue service continued up to the year 1885. In that year he purchased the James Gilbert farm in Spencer county and there resided, devoting his time to its operation until 1903. Upon the day upon which he be- came sixty years of age he sold his property and now resides upon a similar estate at the edge of Shelbyville, where in semi-retirement he enjoys general friendship and respect.
Mr. Kincheloe has ever given a great deal of interest to political matters and is loyally Re- publican in his political convictions. He is, however, not an office seeker, his interest being rather altruistic and arising from a genuine desire for the attainment of good general con- ditions. He has attended the various national conventions as a spectator. It is an eloquent commentary upon the regard which he enjoys and which he has enjoyed that in Spencer county, where he lived prior to coming to Shelby county, he was twelve years magistrate in a Democratic district, Democrats and Re- publicans being normally at a ratio of three or four to one.
Mr. Kincheloe was married on the 19th day of January, 1881, Miss Tillie Huston, of Hen- derson, Kentucky, daughter of Captain Hus- ton, becoming his wife. His second marriage occurred on the 8th day of December, 1892, when he was united to Mary, daughter of Colonel Quin Morton, of Shelby county. Mrs. Kincheloe was born in Shelby county, on the old Eminence pike, six miles north of Shelby- ville. Colonel Morton was a noted officer of the Civil war. While in Missouri he opposed General Price at the battle of Lexington, which was the occasion of the surrender of Colonel Mulligan. He was captured with General B. B. Prentiss at Shiloh and incarcer- ated in Andersonville prison for some months. He was a very large man,-the largest in Shelby county,-weighing three hundred and fifty pounds. At the close of the war he went to Missouri, but soon returned to his beloved
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Kentucky, where he died in 1878, at the age was taken from his farm by a company of the of about sixty years. His later life was passed in Shelbyville, near his daughter's present home. His son, A. Logan Quin, served twenty years in the United States army, inheriting his father's military talents. He received his train- ing at West Point and was afterward an in- structor there. He is now living retired on Long Island, New York. His mother sur- vived until December 3, 1910, her years at the time of her demise numbering eighty-four.
Mrs. Kincheloe's ancestors, James Venable Morton and his wife, Judith, came from Prince Edward county, Virginia, and settled six miles north of Shelbyville, founding the family there in pioneer days. They owned eighteen hun- dred acres of land. Joseph, their son, married Elizabeth Watkins, and the daughter of that union - Elizabeth - married William Quin Morton and they returned to Virginia, where they resided for sixteen years. . Then returning to their native state, they here spent the re- mainder of their lives, their residence being maintained upon the Joseph Venable home- stead. They reared eight sons and four daugh- ters, Colonel Quin Morton being one of the children. He married Elizabeth Ann Logan, daughter of Alexander and Verlinda (Offutt) Logan. Two children were born to the first marriage of the subject, both of them dying in childhood. The present Mrs. Kincheloe is ac- tive in the affairs of the Presbyterian church; their home is hospitable and attractive and they rejoice in hosts of friends.
GEORGE G. BROWN .- The president of the Brown-Forman Company, distillers of and wholesale dealers in Kentucky whiskies, has been a prominent factor in connection with the important line of industry with which he is now identified and has been concerned with local business interests for nearly half a cen- tury, having here taken up his residence when a youth of about nineteen years. He stands exemplar of the best type of citizenship and through his business operations and individual influence he has done well his part in further- ing the commercial and industrial develop- ment and upbuilding of his home city.
George Garvin Brown was born at Mun- fordville, Hart county, Kentucky, on the 2d of September, 1846, and is a son of John Thompson Street and Mary (Garvin) Brown. The lineage is traced back to staunch Scotch origin on both the paternal and maternal sides. The following interesting data are worthy of perpetuation in this sketch. John Boog, suc- cessful farmer in the parish of Kempsey, near the city of Glasgow, Scotland, in the time of the persecution of the Protestants, who had refused to submit to the dictates of the Pope,
king's dragoons to the historic Cross of Glas- gow, where he was beheaded. James Brown, a grandson of this martyred Scotsman, figures as the great-grandfather of him whose name introduces this article. James Brown was a son of William and Janet (Boog) Brown, the latter of whom was a daughter of John Boog, previously mentioned. William Brown and his wife continued to reside in the city of Glasgow until their death. James Brown, who was born on the 22d of August, 1722, was engaged by merchants of Glasgow to assist their factor in the colony of Virginia. He was twenty years of age at the time of accepting this position and he came to America and served in that capacity at Williamsburg, Virginia, for a few years, at the expiration of which he returned to Glasgow. Subsequently, as factor in another company of merchants, he returned to Virginia and opened a store at Newcastle, Hanover county, that state, and after conducting the business for a few years he engaged in business on his own account. In 1751 he married Miss Mary Thompson, of Hanover county, and shortly afterward he set- tled on a plantation in the southern portion of that county, where he passed the remainder of his long and useful life, having been one of the representative planters of that section of the Old Dominion. He died on the 13th of May, 1805, in his eighty-third year. His wife, who died on the 9th of August, 1789, in her fifty-fifth year, was a daughter of John Thompson, who was born in Twindale, North Briton. John Thompson was a staunch Pres- byterian. He left his father's farm as a youth and located in the city of London, Eng- land, where he entered the employ of a to- bacco merchant. Later he became a factor for London merchants in the colony of Virginia, where both he and his wife, whose maiden name was Ann Holt, continued to reside until their death.
William Brown, third son of James and Mary (Thompson) Brown, was the grandfa- ther of the subject of this sketch. On the 27th of May, 1782, this worthy ancestor, in com- pany with his brother Patrick, set forth from Hanover county, Virginia, for Kentucky. They came by the way of Boone's trace or the Wilderness road, and arrived at Harrods- burg, Kentucky, on the 29th of the following July. There they met their brother James, who left them the following day on an expedi- tion, and the next time they saw him he was among the dead on the battlefield of the Blue Licks, where the sanguinary battle was fought between the Indians and the whites on the 18th of August, 1782-a conflict in which the
Seo. G. Brown
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savages greatly outnumbered their white an- tagonists.
George G. Brown, whose name initiates this article, has in his possession a copy of the original map of Kentucky made by his grand- father, William Brown, and showing his itin- erary over the Wilderness road, besides a cartographic view of the Ohio river and its tributaries. This is the oldest map of the state of Kentucky in existence to-day and the same was made in 1782. Mr. Brown has also an original inventory made by his great uncle, James Brown, that is of particular historic in- terest and the headlines indicate its purport, being as follows: "An inventory of horses, guns, etc., taken into publick service for the use of the Kentucky militia on the expedi- tion against the Indians, under the command of Colonel George R. Clark, July 22, 1780." The inventory shows horses valued from nine hundred to twelve hundred pounds in ·colo- nial money and an item from the record is as here noted: "One bro. horse nine years old, about fourteen hands high, branded on rear shoulder, thus (character), on butt (charac- ter) ; appraised to nine hundred pounds, the property of Colonel George R. Clark.". In the same inventory is indicated a kettle that belonged to Captain Robert Todd, grandfather of the wife of Abraham Lincoln, and this item is as follows: "Brass kettle, appraised thirty pounds, the property of Captain Rob- ert Todd."
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