Biographical cyclopedia of the commonwealth of Kentucky, Part 12

Author: Gresham, John M., Co., Pub
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: Chicago, Philadelphia, J. M. Gresham company
Number of Pages: 726

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KENTUCKY BIOGRAPHIES.

gaged in farming and tanning. He was an orthodox Quaker and a man of many noble traits of character. He married Sarah Gattan, who was born in Dundee, Scotland, in 1775, and died in Knox County, Ohio, in 1853. Her parents immi- grated to America when she was a child. Abner and Sarah Murphy had ten children: Hiram, Robert, William (father), Jane, Mary, Basil, Rachel, Eleanor, Sallie and Elias.

Abner Murphy's father was a native of the north of Ireland, an Irish Quaker, who settled in Maryland in 1773.

George J. Mckinney (maternal grandfather) was born in Loudoun County, Virginia, in 1787, and removed to Knox County, Ohio, where he was a farmer. He married Elizabeth Thomas, daughter of Leonard Taylor Thomas, who was born in Buoys Island, in the Potomac, son of Captain Thomas, who belonged to the English army and served in the French and Indian war. After the close of the war he resigned his com- mission in the regular army and married the widow of Colonel Leonard Taylor. All of the Taylor family were members of the Episcopal Church.

James Johnston, who was George Mckinney's maternal grandfather and the great-great-grand- father of Prof. A. G. Murphy, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, whose residence was near Philadelphia. After the war he went to Loudoun County, Virginia, and bought a large tract of land, upon which he lived until he was ninety years old, and died in 1830.

Prof. Abner G. Murphy was educated in the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware. He en- tered the preparatory department in 1845, remain- ing one year. In 1849 he entered again, taking the full course in the University proper, and was graduated in the class of 1855.

He went to Millersburg, Kentucky, soon after- wards and held the chair of Latin and Greek in the Millersburg Male and Female Collegiate In- stitute until 1859, when he was placed in charge of the Kentucky Wesleyan College, of which he was the principal organizer. He remained there until 1881, when he went to Shelbyville and taught Latin and Greek for some time; but returned to Millersburg and was connected with the Female

College until 1886, when he was elected president of the Logan Female College at Russellville.

Prof. Murphy has instructed hundreds of young men who have risen to eminence in almost every profession and calling in life, who owe much to his wise and helpful advice. Few men can look back over a useful and well spent life with greater satisfaction. But Prof. Murphy is by no means on the retired list, as his usefulness has not been impaired by long service in the field of education and his advancing years and ripe scholarship and untarnished Christian character have given him a hold upon the confidence and respect of the people of Russellville, and qualify him in an eminent degree for the splendid work in which he is engaged in their midst.

Prof. Murphy's first wife was Emily Savage, daughter of Pleasant M. Savage. She was born in Mason County, in 1829; and was educated in Lexington, Kentucky, and Clarksville, Tennes- see, completing a very thorough course at the latter place under the instruction of Dr. Irvine, a distinguished educator of his day. There were six children by this marriage: George William, born November 3, 1859, died March 12, 1864; Elizabeth R., born December 3, 1860; Clara M., born February 22, 1863; Mary B., born March 18, 1864; Harriet, born March 18, 1864, died in infancy; Irwine S., born April 27, 1867. Mrs. Emily S. Murphy died July 5, 1867.

Prof. Murphy's second wife, to whom he was married May 28, 1889, was Mary G. Williams, who was born in Parkersburg (now West), Vir- ginia, and was educated in Dr. Prettyman's Fe- male College, Louisville, Kentucky.

E PHRAIM D. SAYRE, President of the Se- curity Trust and Safety Vault Company of Lexington, was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, September 25, 1820. His father, James C. Sayre, was born in the same city, November 1I, 1781, and was driven from his home to Madison by the army in the Revolutionary war. He was married May 16, 1867, to Elizabeth P. Hamilton of Elizabeth, New Jersey, who was related to Alex- ander Hamilton. In 1825 Mr. J. C. Sayre came to Louisville, leaving his family in Elizabeth, who followed him in 1827. He purchased a farm

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near the city which is now that part of Louisville bounded by Main, Jefferson, Twenty-first and Twenty-sixth streets. He was a coach trimmer by trade and, before coming to Kentucky, had been in the Merchant Service, commanding a vessel which ran between New York and New Orleans from 1804 to 1825. He lived on his farm after coming to Kentucky and died October 6, 1847, when sixty-six years of age. His broth- er, David A. Sayre, was born in Madison, New Jersey, in 1793; came to Lexington in 1811; founded the Sayre Bank in 1820 and the Sayre Female Institute in 1853. His death in 1870 was greatly lamented by his city and state, for he was one of the greatest public benefactors that ever lived in Kentucky.

Ephraim D. Sayre lived on the farm mentioned and attended school in Louisville, receiving an education which prepared him for the successful business career which he began in 1839, when nineteen years of age, in the Alsop Mills, corner of Eighth and Jefferson streets (then in the sub- urbs of Louisville), and afterwards was with Glover, McDougall & Co. in the Union Foundry. February, 1848, he went to Lexington and en- tered the banking house of his uncle, David A. Sayre, whom he succeeded in the business at a later day, maintaining the high credit and stand- ing of the bank by his excellent management of its affairs.

During his long residence in Lexington he has occupied many positions of trust, and the confi- dence placed in him by his fellow citizens has never been regretted. He was treasurer of the Agricultural and Mechanical Association for thirty-nine years-from 1850 to 1889; and has been the secretary and treasurer of the Lexington Cemetery Company since 1850, a very responsi- ble position, which he has filled to the entire satisfaction of the directors and lot owners, which may be inferred by the fact that he carries securi- ties for the cemetery of over eighty-two thousand dollars.

He organized the Security Trust and Safety Vault Company of Lexington, one of the most solid financial institutions in central Kentucky, and has been its president after the first year since its origin; and as long as he may be able to give

it the benefit of his superior judgment and ability as a financier and manager of trusts, it is not probable that he will have a competitor for this responsible position.

Mr. Sayre and Mary E. Woodruff were married in 1850 and they have five children who have reached maturity. Mr. Sayre is a man of vigor- ous constitution, careful in his habits, and al- though a little past seventy-five years of age, is in good health and is in the full enjoyment of all of his faculties, and has had the benefit of ex- tensive travel, having returned, in March, 1896, from a trip to the West Indies, South America and Cuba, which was one of the most delightful of the many excursions he has made.

JOHN G. SIMRALL, a leading lawyer and distinguished jurist of Louisville, son of Rev. John G. and Sarah (Bullock) Simrall, was born in Fayette County, Kentucky, March 18, 1840. His father was a noted Presbyterian min- ister and his mother was a daughter of Waller Bullock, a native of Virginia, but for a long time a prominent farmer of Fayette County, Kentucky, and a near neighbor and intimate friend of Henry Clay. He was a violent Democrat, but in all other matters he was an enthusiastic admirer of the great commoner. His eldest son, Rev. Dr. Jo- seph J. Bullock, who died about two years ago, married a sister of General John C. Brecken- ridge, and was at one time chaplain of the United States Senate.

Judge Simrall's paternal grandfather, James Simrall, was a native of Virginia who came to Kentucky when he was a boy and was one of the earliest settlers of Shelby County. He recruited a regiment and commanded it during the war of 1812. He was a gallant soldier, a brave and daring officer and was conspicuous in many en- gagements. He survived the dangers and hard- ships of army life, but died a few years later from the effects of exposure while in the service of his country.

John G. Simrall received his primary educa- tion in the Fayette County schools, under the immediate guidance and assistance of his schol- arly father; and, at the age of fourteen, was suf- ficiently advanced to enter Centre College at

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Danville, from which he was graduated as saluta- torian of his class in 1857. There were forty- seven graduates in the class, including Senator J. C. S. Blackburn, ex-Governor James B. Mc- Creary, Judges Dulaney, Hunt, Mckay and oth- ers who have figured prominently in the history of Kentucky during the last quarter of the century.

Mr. Simrall was employed as a teacher in the family of Junius Ward of Mississippi for one year following his graduation, and then began the study of law in the office of Judge Robertson of Lex- ington. After two years of careful instruction by his distinguished preceptor, he was well pre- pared for the senior class in the law department of the University of Louisville, from which he graduated with high honors in March, 1861.

He began the practice of law in Louisville in partnership with Judge William S. Bodley, with whom he was pleasantly associated until the death of Judge Bodley in 1878. A partnership was then entered into between Mr. Simrall and Temple Bodley, a son of his former partner, and this relation was dissolved in 1882 when Governor L. P. Blackburn appointed Mr. Simrall vice chan- cellor of the Louisville Chancery Court, in the place of Honorable Alfred T. Pope, who had resigned. After serving this unexpired term, Judge Simrall was elected judge of the Law and Equity Court, which superseded the Vice Chan- cellor's Court. This election occurred in 1884 and was for a term of six years, a deserved com- pliment to a faithful officer and a splendid recog- nition of his ability and probity as judge of one of the highest courts in the city This endorse- ment was especially marked, as he had no oppo- sition in the Democratic convention in which he was nominated, or by the opposing party in the general election which took place in August, 1884. In this exalted position he more than met the expectation of his most sanguine friends, and his resignation two years later was regretted by members of the bar and by the public, who had great confidence in him as an able and upright jurist.

He resumed the practice of law, which offered larger compensation, and in which he has been most successful, having no superior in the pro- fession at the Louisville bar. Notwithstanding

his purpose to devote himself exclusively to his large practice in the higher courts, his friends persuaded him to become a candidate for the vacancy in the Court of Appeals in 1895. He was an independent Democratic candidate; but it was not a Democratic year, and he could not stoop to modern electioneering methods. Believ- ing that a high judicial office should not be trailed in the dust or gained by political intrigue, he cheerfully submitted to honorable defeat. It was an instance in which politics triumphed over the better judgment of the people. The acceptance of the office would have required great personal sacrifice on the part of Judge Simrall, and he could not have enjoyed the honors of the position if they had been dissipated by any question as to the manner of his election.

Judge Simrall was married in 1863 to Cornelia Smith, daughter of Thomas P. Smith of Louis- ville, a lady of unusual literary attainments and culture and endowed with superior intellectual and social faculties. They are members of the Second Presbyterian Church.

They have one daughter, Nellie, who married Lindley M. Kneasbey, now professor of the sci- ence of government at Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. The marriage a few years ago was one of the most brilliant social events that has ever taken place in the city.

D AVID A. SAYRE, banker, was born March 12, 1793, in Madison, New Jersey. His parents were in humble circumstances, but were industrious and honest, and, above all, were Chris- tians. In 18II he came to Kentucky and settled at Lexington, where he resided continuously until his death. At the time of his arrival in Lexington, he was without money and without friends. He had acquired a knowledge of silver-plating, and to that devoted himself until 1823, and for the next six years connected with his trade a broker's office. In 1829, he turned his attention wholly to the banking business, in which he amassed a large fortune, and for half a century was one of the most valuable citizens Lexington ever had. He had a rare combination of gifts; although greatly devoted to the acquisition of wealth, was at the same time a cheerful giver, and never dis-

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played the traits of the miser or spendthrift; trusted to his head in trading, and to his heart in giving, and rarely found either to fail him. With- out a very liberal education, he belonged to that class of men who despise alike help or hin- drance in making their way in the world. He brought unbounded cheerfulness everywhere into his presence, and, while being innately modest, detested rowdyism and profanity. He possessed peculiarities and eccentricities, but they rather served to bring him into general favor. He was a man of strong and subtle intellect, which gave him great promptitude in action, and his conclu- sions hardly ever failed in bringing about the highest good. He was always ready to co-oper- ate in any public enterprise by which the city in which he resided, or the state of his adoption, might receive benefit, ever contributing with a liberal hand to the accomplishment of that end. His influence and power were not felt alone among business men. His office was the resort of the most distinguished men of Central Ken- tucky, numbering among his associates Clay, Crittenden, Wickliffe and Morehead, and by them his advice was considered wise and good. The manner in which he used his wealth, probably more than anything else, is worthy of regard; avarice never took possession of him, and bitter thoughts never poisoned the milk of human kind- ness in his heart. As he grew rich, he com- menced distributing; and, as he advanced in age, he became more gentle and loving. He was an earnest Presbyterian of the Calvanistic school, and yet was without narrowness or bigotry in his views and charities. He recognized his de- pendence on his Creator, and therefore felt his obligations to man. It was this, no doubt, to a great extent, which led him to bestow his boun- ties, and to extend his hand for the good of those around him. He looked well after the in- terests of his family, then to the interests of his neighbors, and, finally, to the general public; and, having no children of his own to be educated, he devoted his means and heart largely to the education of others. In 1854, he donated to the trustees, in perpetuity, for female education, the costly buildings and grounds now occupied by the institution known as the Sayre Female Insti-

tute. To that magnificent gift he added largely during his life, until the institution which bears his name, in the completeness of its appointments for educational purposes, ranks as one of the first in the valley of the Mississippi. In 1825, Mr. Sayre married Abby V. Hammond, of Norfolk, Vir- ginia, who was his faithful counselor and encour- aged him in his good works. She still survives him. He died in Lexington, September 10, 1870, and his death was accompanied by every demon- stration of sorrow and respect, from the citizens at large, the officers of Sayre Institute, of which he was the founder and benefactor, and from the Northern Bank of Kentucky, with which he had been from time to time connected. The fountain of his moral life and actions was Christianity, and, abiding firmly in the fulfillment of the great faith in which he had lived, he sank peacefully into the arms of death. His place may not be filled in a generation.

JOHN M'CANN, Justice of the Peace, Louis- ville, Kentucky, has fought his way from the obscurity in which he served an apprenticeship in a machine shop to a position of honor and trust, in which he commands the respect of the com- munity, and is now one of the best known and most popular citizens of Louisville. He was born in that city June 27, 1848, and was educated in the Catholic and public schools, and, when he left school, he thought he would like to be a machin- ist and he worked at that trade with commenda- ble industry for two years. Believing that his employer was not pushing him along as fast as he should, after two years of drudgery, he aban- doned the trade and went on the river as a bar- keeper, a more attractive life and a more profit- able business. After three years of this, he thought it too easy for a man of his physical ability and mental capacity and he quit the river and was employed as a molder in the foundry of Grainger & Company for two and a half years, when, in 1871, he was elected constable, which office he filled so industriously and efficiently for four years that his friends told him he might as well be the magistrate, and to this office he was duly elected in 1875 and has served in the same capacity continuously for more than twenty years,

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In 1887 his friends concluded that he should go up a little higher and they elected him state sen- ator, in which relation he served four years with distinction and was re-elected in 1890 and served until July, 1893, when he resigned. Under the old constitution he had held the offices of senator and magistrate, but as he could not hold both under the new constitution, he resigned his seat in the senate and completed his term as magis- trate, to which he was again re-elected in 1894.

Squire McCann has always taken a lively inter- est and an active part in politics, and is so popular that he could easily have any office to which he might aspire, simply for the asking. He has made the duties of the magistrate a careful study, has familiarized himself with the law bearing upon such cases as come under his jurisdiction, with the result that he has secured a more liberal share of business than any other magistrate in the city. Coming up from the machine shop, he has acquired a knowledge of human nature, and, as a justice of the peace, a fund of general information and a knowledge of law which would qualify him for a much higher station in the legal profession; but he is ambitious only to do his duty, and this he believes may be done in an humble sphere as well as in a more exalted station.

Mr. McCann was married in October, 1871, to Mary E. Parker, daughter of Charles Parker of Louisville, but formerly of LaRue County. They have one daughter living, whose name is Ada.

Mr. McCann's father, James McCann, was a native of Ireland, who married Mary Condon before leaving the old country, and came to the United States in 1839. They at once located in Louisville, where Mr. McCann was engaged in the grocery business until 1868, when he died. Mrs. McCann survived him until 1886, when she died, aged sixty-three years.

C APT. JOHN H. M'BRAYER of Lawrence- burg, whose fame has become world-wide on account of the superior whiskey which bears his name, was born in Lawrenceburg, June 17, 1826. On his next birthday he will be three score and ten years of age, and yet he is an active, vigorous man, attentive to business, full

of energy and as wide awake as any of the younger men around him.

His father, Alexander McBrayer, was a Ken- tuckian who was well educated and one of the most intelligent and successful business men of his generation. He began life, as many others did at that time, as a trader; but became a mer- chant tailor in Lawrenceburg, in which business he continued until his death, which occurred at an early age in 1828. His father, William Mc Brayer, was a native of North Carolina.

Susan Wright McBrayer (mother) was born in Augusta County, Virginia, April 29, 1797, and died at the country home of her son, James A. Mc- Brayer, March 19, 1887, being ninety years of age. Her father, John Wright, was a Virginian by birth, who came to Kentucky when he was quite young and lived for a time in Cumberland Coun- ty. He afterwards removed to Greene County, Ohio, and while clearing out a farm was killed by the falling of a tree.

Capt. McBrayer received a good common school education in Lawrenceburg and vicinity. At the age of nineteen he enlisted for one year's service in the Mexican war. He command- ed a company known as the "Salt River Tigers." It was by his order that the memorable charge on Santa Anna's men was made that won the day a at Buena Vista and which settled the differences between the United States and Mexico. Thus, before he was twenty years of age, he had made a reputation for a strength of character which he has main- tained through half a century. His reminiscences of the lively times he experienced in Mexico are always of the deepest interest to his friends and would make a thrilling chapter in history.

After his return from Mexico, he was in the mercantile business in Lawrenceburg for ten years, during which time, in 1848, he established the distillery which has produced the best whis- key ever made in Kentucky and which is known throughout the world by his name. He is largely interested in the product of a distillery now con- ducted by J. R. Walker, the reputation of which he guards with jealous care.

Capt. McBrayer has never cared for office, but served two years as sheriff of his (Anderson)

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County in 1861-2 by appointment of the County Court. He is an Odd Fellow and a Mason, through which orders he has done much for the aid of others.

Capt. McBrayer has been quite successful in his business enterprises and takes great interest in public affairs, and is particularly well posted in matters of finance. He has theories of his own respecting the national currency, and is able to express them in clear and vigorous language. He does not pose as an orator or a public speak- er, but he can interest any audience and can ex- press his ideas in clear, good English. He favors the blending of silver and gold, making a coin that is neither gold nor silver and is both. He would make the present silver half dollar a dollar by adding eleven and two-thirds grains of gold, and so with the silver dollar, add twenty-two grains of gold and make it a two-dollar piece. He says: "This is the shortest method to make a parity in the two metals, and secure domestic quiet in finance."

H ON. JAMES MADISON M'ARTHUR of Dayton, Kentucky, now in the eighty-fifth year of his age, has been prominent in public affairs for over fifty years, and has done much for the public improvement of Newport and Day- ton. The latter place was laid out by him and largely built up through his individual enterprise.

Mr. McArthur was born near Georgetown, Kentucky, January 3, 1810, and in 1815 his parents removed to Newport, where he was edu- cated in the best private schools; and at the age of fifteen years he entered Center College at Dan- ville and studied for one year. He had no predi- lection for professional life, preferring a business career, which he planned and carried out with unusual success. He began by investing and trading in real estate in Campbell County, and stuck to his purpose, until, at one time or another, he had actually owned more than one-third of the land in Campbell County. He then turned his attention to the improvement of Newport; opened the first street in that city; invested his capital in the building of houses for residences and busi- ness; helped others by selling land on ten years' time and building houses for those who did not

have the money to pay for their houses, adopting a plan very similar to the present plan of building and loan associations.

While in Newport he was president of the City Council for ten consecutive years. He estab- lished the Newport Safety Fund Bank, of which he was president from 1852 to 1856; and it was his generous spirit which led the bank to make too many loans, resulting in the failure of the banking institution. This crippled Mr. McAr- thur financially, but it did not dampen his ardor in the work of improvement to which he had de- voted his life.

Having removed from Newport to Dayton in 1848, he was for many years actively engaged in building up the new town, which he had laid out with the assistance of James T. Berry and Henry Walker. He was president of the Dayton Coun- cil for eight years; built the street railway be- tween Newport and Dayton in 1870 and sold it in 1879.

Mr. McArthur was twice elected to the legisla- ture, in 1846 and in 1873. He introduced and secured the passage of what is known as the "Cemetery Act;" was the originator of an act levying tax on real estate to assist in establishing public schools; and also secured the passage of the "Mechanics Lien Law;" and was instrumental in securing the enactment of various other laws for the public good.

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Biographical cyclopedia of the commonwealth of Kentucky, Part 12

Author: Gresham, John M., Co., Pub Publication date: 1896 Publisher: Chicago, Philadelphia, J. M. Gresham company Number of Pages: 726

Author: Gresham, John M., Co., Pub
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: Chicago, Philadelphia, J. M. Gresham company
Number of Pages: 726