USA > Kentucky > Biographical cyclopedia of the commonwealth of Kentucky > Part 18
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W ALKER C. HALL, attorney-at-law, Cov- ington, son of Mary J. McCloud and John Arnold Hall, was born in Covington, June 14, 1863. His father was born in Kenton Coun- ty in 1813 and was educated in the country schools; was a farmer and stock trader, and was assessor of Kenton County from 1864 to 1872. During the Civil War his sympathies were with the Union, and after the war he voted the Democratic ticket. He died May 14, 1890, and is buried at Inde- pendence, in Kenton County.
Thomas Hall (grandfather) was born in North Ireland; came to Virginia when a young man, and taught school for a number of years. His father came to America from Ireland and was a soldier in the War of the Revolution.
Mary J. McCloud Hall (mother) was born and educated in Kenton County and was married to John A. Hall in 1859. She is now living in Cov- ington.
Walker C. Hall enjoyed superior advantages in the public schools of Covington, and afterwards took a course in the Central Normal College, Danville, Indiana. In 1885, when twenty-two years of age, he was elected principal of the West Covington public schools, and served in that ca- pacity for two years, when, in 1887, he was elected principal of the First District public schools, in Covington. He held this position four years, the latter part of which time he spent in studying law.
He then attended the Cincinnati Law School, graduating in 1890. He began the practice of law in September of the same year in partnership with James P. Tarvin, under the style of Tarvin & Hall, which partnership was dissolved on the first of March, 1895, since which time Mr. Hall has conducted a large practice without an as- sociate.
He is interested in a number of land syndicates and other business enterprises.
Mr. Hall was married August 10, 1887, to Min- nie Belle Britting, daughter of Louis K. Britting, manufacturer of the well-known Britting pianos, of Cincinnati. Mrs. Hall was educated in the schools of Ludlow and in the Cincinnati High School, and is a lady of unusual intelligence and refinement. They have one child, Leslie Virgil, born April 18, 1892.
W ILLIAM M. HANNA, M. D., a distin- guished member of the medical profes- sion and a highly respected citizen of Henderson, son of John S. and Jane (King) Hanna, was born in Shelby County, Kentucky, September 25, 1837.
His father, John S. Hanna, was born in Har- rodsburg in 1798, and was educated there. He was an excellent farmer and a prominent citizen of his county; was married in 1825 to Jane King, daughter of Thomas and Anna (McAfee) King, and they had seven children: Margaret, Thomas, James, Samuel, William M., John S. and Eliza Hanna. Mr. Hanna and his wife were members of the Presbyterian Church, and he was an elder for many years. He was a member of the Old State Militia, and was every ready to do his duty, as soldier or citizen. He died in 1878, and is buried in Shelbyville.
Thomas Hanna (grandfather) was born in Vir- ginia and came to Kentucky about the time of the war for independence; married Margaret Smith, daughter of Colonel Smith, of North Caro- lina; died in Shelby County, Kentucky.
James and Martha Hanna (great-grandparents) were natives of the north of Ireland, where they were married. They came to America and settled in Berkeley County (now West), Virginia. Four of their twelve children were born in Ireland, and eight in Virginia. After living in Berkeley Coun-
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ty some years they emigrated to Kentucky, about the time of the Revolutionary War, and located in Mercer County with the early settlers.
Thomas King (maternal grandfather), a Vir- ginia farmer, came to Shelby County, Kentucky, and married Annie McAfee, then living in Har- rodsburg. They had six children, including Jane, who married John S. Hanna. Mr. King and his family were members of the Presbyterian Church, and were among the best people of Shelby County, where they lived, died and are buried.
Margaret Smith Hanna (grandmother) was a daughter of Colonel John Smith and Margaret Dobbins Smith, natives of North Carolina. Colonel Smith won his military title in the Revo- lutionary War, and after peace was declared he removed to Kentucky and made his home in Shelby County.
Dr. William M. Hanna was graduated from Centre College, Danville, in the class of 1858, re- ceiving the degree of A. B. In 1859 he began the study of medicine in Shelbyville with Dr. A. S. Frederick; matriculated in the University of Louisville, in 1862, and after graduating in medicine from that institution, he spent one year in the United States Marine Hospital at Louis- ville, in which service he gained valuable prac- tical experience.
In 1862 he enlisted as a private soldier in the Confederate army, under General Morgan, and was with him in his famous raids in Indiana and Ohio. In 1863 he was assigned as assistant sur- geon of the Second Kentucky Cavalry, in which capacity he served until the close of the war. His service in the army was equivalent to as many years of schooling, being of the most practical nature.
After the close of the war, Dr. Hanna located at Henderson and has remained there, engaged in the line of his profession, without interruption, for over thirty years. He soon took his place among the leading physicians of the city, where he is held in the highest esteem and enjoys the confidence of the entire community. He is a man of fine personal appearance and pleasing address, of kind disposition and sympathetic nature; a constant and a diligent student, keeping pace with the advancement in medical science; is a member
of the Henderson County Medical Society, the Kentucky State Medical Society, and of the American Academy of Medicine and American Medical Association. He is an elder in the Pres- byterian Church, as was his father before him, both branches of his family having belonged to that church for several generations. In the mat- ter of politics he is simply an independent Demo- cratic voter.
Dr. Hanna was married in 1865 to Mary Matthews, daughter of Rev. William C. Matthews, D. D. They have three children living: Mary, John and Jane.
Dr. William C. Matthews, father of Mrs. Hanna, was one of the most learned and distinguished ministers in the Presbyterian Church (North). He began preaching at Martinsburg (now West), Vir- ginia; was pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Shelbyville for twenty-five years, and of a church in Louisville for five years. His death, in 1880, was mourned by a wide circle of friends and ac- quaintances throughout the State.
C HARLES LEONARD HARRISON, city clerk of Bellevue, son of William H. and Sarah A. (Winwood) Harrison, was born in Cin- cinnati, Ohio, July 26, 1856. His father, Rev. William H. Harrison, was born in Frederick, Maryland, in 1818; and was pastor of the First English Lutheran Church, Cincinnati, for twenty- five years, and at the same time was a member of the Board of Education, in Cincinnati, and also a member of the Union Board of High Schools, and held these offices for over twenty years. He died in Cincinnati, of cholera, in 1866.
Zephaniah Harrison(grandfather) was a brother of President William Henry Harrison, and was a resident of Frederick, Maryland.
Sarah A. Winwood Harrison (mother) was born in Springfield, Ohio, in 1828; and is now living at Linwood, Ohio.
Dr. Benjamin Winwood (grandfather) was a practicing physician of Springfield, Ohio, and was a surgeon in the Union army and died in the service in 1864 in Memphis, Tennessee. His father came from England.
Charles L. Harrison grew to manhood in Cin- cinnati; and, after leaving school, in which he
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had enjoyed excellent advantages, he became a civil engineer, and in connection with his brother, William H. Harrison, built the Cincinnati & Eastern Narrow Gauge Railroad.
He became a resident of Bellevue, Kentucky, October 31, 1883; and in 1888 he was elected city clerk, and was re-elected in 1890 and again in 1892, and in November, 1893, he was re-elected for a term of four years, under the new city char- ter. His personal popularity and his efficiency in the discharge of his official duties are fully at- tested by his frequent election to this office.
In July, 1895, he published the first weekly issue of the Newport Republican, of which he is editor and proprietor, and which is already an im- portant factor in local politics. As indicated by its name it is a Republican journal; and it is a vigorous mouth-piece for the party in whose in- terests its weekly visits are made. Mr. Harrison personally is regarded as a leader in the Repub- lican ranks; and, with the aid of his paper, he wields an influence in local politics that is hard for the opposing party to overcome. He enjoys the honor of having been a delegate to the con- vention at Louisville which nominated W. O. Bradley for governor, and he deserves much credit for the active part he took in securing the election of Mr. Bradley.
Mr. Harrison is a highly respected citizen of Bellevue, a member of the Dayton Presbyterian Church, and a member of the Blue Lodge of Masons.
He was married in 1888 to R. Ella, daughter of Piersol Shaner, deceased, of Vanceburg, Ken- tucky.
JAMES MADISON HUGHES, a prominent citizen of Paris, and the president of the Citizen's Bank of that city, was born in Nicholas County, Kentucky, April 20, 1825. For many years he has been a citizen of Bourbon County, closely identified with her business interests.
He is a son of Jesse Hughes, a native of Bour- bon County, and a grandson of David W. Hughes, who was a major in the war of the Revolution, and a native of Virginia, who removed to Ken- tucky in 1784 and pre-empted one thousand acres of land in the neighborhood of Paris, and also a
tract of land in Clark County. He remained in Kentucky for a while and then returned to Vir- ginia and brought his wife and children and re- sided on this tract of one thousand acres for a few years. He afterwards removed to a tract on Flat Creek, where he remained until his death. His wife was Margaret Frame, daughter of an immigrant from north of Ireland. His father was a native of Wales.
Jesse Hughes (father) wedded Priscilla Par- ker, a daughter of Thomas Parker of Maryland. Thomas Parker removed to Kentucky and settled on Cane Ridge, four miles from Paris. Jesse Hughes was prominent in the business affairs of Bourbon County for many years. He died at Carlisle in 1854. He had eight children, three of whom are now living, two sons in Texas and one son in Bourbon County.
James M. Hughes' early years were spent on a farm in Nicholas County; and in 1854, the year of his father's death, he was elected clerk of the Nicholas County Circuit Court, and served in that office for four years. At the expiration of that time, in 1859, he removed to Millersburg, Bourbon County, and formed a partnership with his nephew, John G. Smedley, in the dry goods trade, and remained actively engaged in that business until 1866, when he took charge of the County Court's office, retaining his interest in the dry goods store. Mr. Hughes was four times re-elected to this office and held it for twenty consecutive years, at the end of which time he refused further election on account of impaired health. For many years he has been one of the leading directors of the Citizens' Bank, and for the past six or eight years has served as its presi- dent. The capital stock of this bank is $100,000, with a surplus of $20,000 and average deposits of nearly $100,000. In 1861 Mr. Hughes was mar- ried to Mrs. Sally Holliday Kenney of Millers- burg. She died in 1865; and he subsequently mar- ried Rebecca A. Roseberry, sister of Hiram M. Roseberry, president of the Agricultural Bank of Paris. They have one daughter, Jessie.
In addition to his large city interests, Mr. Hughes owns a farm of one hundred acres within a mile of Paris, which he superintends, and in which he takes a good deal of pride.
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JOSIAH HARRIS, a prominent member of the Paducah bar, was born in Columbia, Adair County, Kentucky, November 14, 1840. His father, Josiah Harris, was born in Maryland, April 26, 1810, and removed to Kentucky with his father when he was a young man, and located at Elizabethtown. He subsequently removed to Adair County, where he owned considerable land and was a merchant. A few years later he went to Louisville, where he was engaged in the same business at the beginning of the Civil war. His sympathies were with the Union, but he took no active part in the war and cared but little for politics. He was a member of the Christian Church and was greatly interested in its work; conscientious in business, and was devoted to his home. He died in Louisville, August 6, 1865, and is buried in Cave Hill Cemetery.
Josiah Harris (grandfather) was a native of Maryland who came to Kentucky as before indi- cated. His father Josiah (great-grandfather) was a captain in the Revolutionary war and was mor- tally wounded at the battle of Cowpens. Realizing that he must die, he sent a small breast-pin plate to his wife as a token of his affection and as a souvenir of the battle. This little pin has been held by the family as a great treasure, and was given to the subject of this sketch by his father. The Harris family originally came from England.
Sallie Wiles King Harris (mother) was born in Cumberland County, November 20, 1820, and was educated at Danville, Kentucky. She mar- ried Josiah Harris January 16, 1839, and died January 16, 1878. She was a devout member of the Christian Church.
Milton King (grandfather) was born in Albe- marle County, Virginia, May 30, 1801, and came to Kentucky with his parents when a youth. He was circuit clerk of Cumberland County for fifty years to a day. He afterwards removed to Pa- ducal and lived a retired life until October 4, 1884, when he died. His wife was Sallie Wiles, daughter of General Wiles of Virginia. She dicd in 1840.
Samuel King (great-grandfather) was a Vir- ginian of Welsh extraction.
Josiah Harris, lawyer of Paducah, who bears, and has honorcd the name of his father, grand-
father and great-grandfather, was educated in Columbia, Kentucky, in that excellent school of which John L. McKee was president. He fin- ished his work in the school room at the age of nineteen and entered the law office of King & King of Paducah and attended the law depart- ment of the University of Louisville, graduating from that institution when he was twenty years of age, having taken the full two years' course in one year. He passed a rigid examination con- ducted by Judge Zack Wheat, Governor Thomas E. Bramlette and Judge George W. Kavanaugh and was granted license to practice law when twenty years of age.
In his first work he was associated with Judge Wintersmith of Louisville, but when the Civil war commenced, he went to New Orleans as pay- master in the shipyards where the Confederate Government was engaged in building gunboats. He remained there until the approach of the fleet under Gencral Ben F. Butler, when he left New Orleans and returned to Paducah.
When the war was over he resumed the prac- tice of his profession, locating in Paducah. He took a lively interest in politics and became an enthusiastic Prohibitionist; was a candidate for representative in the legislature in 1872 and was defeated; was candidate for state senator in 1876 and was again defeated; was elected to the legis- lature for the term of 1883-4; was defeated for rc-election in 1885 on account of the anti-whiskey legislation, which he had favored; was a candidate for attorney general on the Prohibition ticket in 1887; was twice a candidate for Congress, in 1889 and 1891, and was nominated for governor of Kentucky by the Prohibition party in 1892. He was chairman of the executive committee of his party from 1888 until 1892 and was prominent in all the councils of his party. Mr. Harris is not in politics for revenue or for office, but from principle; and an occasional defeat does not deter him from trying again, if he may thereby advance the cause which he has so much at heart.
Mr. Harris was twice married and is now a widower. His first marriage occurred June 5. 1864, to Cora Endera, daughter of Henry Endera, an early scttler of Paducah and one of the first merchants of that city. She was born December
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19, 1842, and died January 9, 1879. His second marriage was to Mattie Dunn of Livingston County, Kentucky, June 4, 1882. She was a daughter of Captain George Dunn of Smithland. She was born March 28, 1859, and died August 10, 1894. He has one daughter, Hallie, the child of his first wife. She was born April 1, 1868; married Charles L. Wurtham of Louisville, Jan- uary 1, 1889, and is the mother of three children, Cora, Josiah Harris and Summers Wurtham.
Mr. Harris is a member of the Presbyterian Church and is a highly respected citizen of the city in which he has made his home for nearly a third of a century.
JOHN P. HOBSON, a leading attorney at
law of Elizabethtown, son of Willis W. and Arabella (Bolling) Hobson, was born in Powhat- tan County, Virginia, September 3, 1850.
His father was a native of the same county, where he is still engaged in farming, and is one of the best citizens of the county. He was a soldier in General Wickham's brigade in the Con- federate army.
Joseph Hobson (grandfather) and Caleb Hob- son (great-grandfather) were born in Powhattan County, Virginia, where they lived and died. Atwood Hobson (great-great-grandfather) was a native of England, who came to the United States in 1744 and settled in Powhattan County. All of these men were excellent citizens, quiet and un- ostentatious, "diligent in business, fervent spirit, serving the Lord," and no name is more highly honored in the community in which the Hobsons have lived for six or seven generations.
Arabella Bolling Hobson (mother) was a na- tive of Petersburg, Virginia, a devout member of the Presbyterian Church, in which her husband, Willis W. Hobson, has been an elder for forty-five years, and a lady of exceptional intelligence and purity of character. She died at the age of fifty- five years, May 20, 1882.
John P. Bolling (maternal grandfather) was born in Amelia County, Virginia, of which he was sheriff at one time. He died in Petersburg, April, 1861.
John P. Hobson was brought up in Powhattan County, attending the district and private schools
until he was prepared for college, when he went to the Washington and Lee University, from which he received his diploma signed by Robert E. Lee, in June, 1870. He then came to Ken- tucky and taught school in Lynnland Institute in Hardin County for three years, after which he began the study of law with A. M. Brown of Elizabethtown, and was admitted to the bar in I873. He at once began the practice of his chosen profession in Elizabethtown, and met with almost immediate success, soon taking rank among the leading lawyers of his section. He has never actively engaged in politics or any out- side business ventures that would prevent him from entire devotion to his legal work.
Mr. Hobson was married February 25, 1885, to Ella Nourse, daughter of Charles E. Nourse of Elizabethtown; and they have four sons and one daughter: Charles N., Peyton, Mary B., Willis E. and Robert P. Hobson. Mr. and Mrs. Hobson are active members of the Presbyterian Church.
C HARLES E. HOGE, Cashier of the State National Bank of Frankfort, and a mem- ber of the large contracting firm of Mason, Hoge & Company, was born in Albemarle County, Virginia, May 5, 1845.
His father, Rev. Peter C. Hoge, was a native of Augusta County, Virginia, and a graduate of a Virginia college. For ten or twelve years he was a Presbyterian minister, but left that denom- ination and was for many years a distinguished preacher in the Baptist Church, in which he labored successfully. He was a man of high character and a preacher of more than ordinary power and was well known and highly esteemed throughout his state. He removed from Augusta to Albemarle County in 1844 and made his home there until his death in 1876, at the age of sixty- six years.
Captain James Hoge (grandfather) was a na- tive of Scotland who came to the United States when he was qutie young and served as a captain in the war of the Revolution, following which he located on a farm in Augusta County, Virginia, near Staunton, where he died in 1812. A brother of Charles E. Hoge has in his possession a num-
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ber of letters written by General Washington to Captain Hoge (grandfather), from which it is seen that he was a man of worth, a soldier and a patriot who was held in the highest esteem by General Washington. The Hoge family in Scot- land trace their ancestry back for several cen- turies.
Sarah Keer Hoge (mother) was a native of Au- gusta County, Virginia, and a faithful member of the Baptist Church. She died in Albemarle County, Virginia, in 1872, four years prior to the death of her husband.
Charles E. Hoge remained in his native county until he was twenty-three years of age, receiving his education principally in the high school for boys in Scottsville, Virginia, taught by Professor David Pinckney Powers, an eminent educator of his day. It was Mr. Hoge's intention to prepare for the medical profession, but this purpose was interfered with by the Civil war, and in 1863 he enlisted as a private in Braxton's battalion of artillery. Soon after his enlistment he was de- tailed for duty as quartermaster's clerk, in which capacity he served until the final surrender at Appomattox Court House, April 9, 1865.
Returning to his home, he formed a co-part- nership with General James C. Hill, of Confed- erate fame, and J. I. Lewis, a capitalist, and engaged in a general mercantile business in Scottsville. In connection with this business the firm operated a line of canal boats between Lynch- burg and Richmond. The business of the firm prospered beyond their expectations, but Mr. Hoge withdrew from the firm in July, 1868, and went to Augusta County, Virginia, where most of his relatives lived, and embarked in the whole- sale grocery business in Staunton, Virginia, in which he is still the senior partner of the firin of Hoge & Hutchinson.
In 1870 he became a partner of Captain C. R. Mason of Virginia, one of the largest railroad contractors in the south, under the firm name of Mason & Hoge. Their first contract in which Mr. Hoge was interested was for the building of the "Big Fill" at Jerry's Run on the Chesa- peake & Ohio Railroad, seven miles east of White Sulphur Springs. This is probably the largest fill in the world, containing over one million
cubic yards. They also built the Lewis Tunnel on that road, which is four thousand four hun- dred feet in length.
In 1872 H. P. and S. B. Mason, sons of the senior member of the firm, were admitted to part- nership in the company and the name was changed to Mason, Hoge & Company. On the death of Captain Mason in 1885, the business was con- tinued by his sons and Mr. Hoge without change in the style of the firm. To give an idea of the magnitude of the business of this enterprising company, mention is made of a few of their larger contracts: They built the Elizabeth, Lexington & Big Sandy Railroad; the extension of the Ken- tucky Central from Paris to Livingston, Ken- tucky, a distance of thirty-three miles; the Mays- ville and Big Sandy Railroad from Ashland to Cincinnati, including the (now C. & O.) bridge over the Ohio river between Covington and Cin- cinnati; the Corbin extension of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad through Pineville and Mid- dlesboro, including the Cumberland Gap tunnel, also eighteen miles of road between that tunnel and Big Stone Gap for the same company; the Ohio & Atlantic from Bristol, Tennessee, to Big Stone Gap; the Louisville Southern Railroad from Louisville to Harrodsburg; the Kentucky Midland from Frankfort to Paris, a distance of forty miles; a section of twenty-six miles of the Norfolk & Western Railroad between Bluefield, Virginia, and Kenova, West Virginia, including one or two sections on the Ohio side of the river ; they had a large contract with William H. Van- derbilt on the South Pennsylvania Railroad, and after doing work to the amount of over half a million dollars the contract was terminated by the sale of the road to the Pennsylvania Central Rail- road Company. Their present contract, one of the largest they have ever undertaken, is for the building of six miles of the Chicago Drainage Canal, the work upon which will approximate five million dollars.
In August, 1889, the State National Bank of Frankfort, Kentucky, was organized, with a cap- ital of $150,000, the stock of which was taken by subscription in twenty-four hours. General Fayette Hewett, then auditor of state, was elected president, and Mr. Charles E. Hoge, the subject
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of this sketch, was made cashier. H. P. Mason, of the same firm, was elected vice president. The bank has flourished ever since its organization and there has been no change in its officers.
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