USA > Kentucky > Biographical cyclopedia of the commonwealth of Kentucky > Part 22
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He was reared on his father's farm, remaining until fourteen years of age, when he entered Au- gusta College and continued his studies there until 1878, when, for the want of means, he with- drew, having reached a high grade of proficiency in his studies. He taught school for several years in Bracken County and in the spring of 1884 com- menced the study of law in the office of IIon. R.
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K. Smith, and in the fall of the same year entered the senior class in the Cincinnati Law School, graduating in 1885. He returned to the school- house, however, after completing his law course, and for seven years was engaged in teaching be- fore commencing the practice of law in Brooks- ville, in the spring of 1892.
Mr. Byron is a versatile writer and an eloquent speaker.
C HARLES M. COWLES of Falmouth, junior member of the distillery firm of O. W. Cowles & Son, and Clerk of the Pendleton County Court, was born in Butler, Pendleton County, January 24, 1866.
His father, Ovid W. Cowles, is a native of Litch- field County, Connecticut, who came to Kentucky in 1856 and located at Butler, where he still re- sides.
Maria Ducker Cowles (mother) was born in Butler in 1840.
Charles Cowles has been identified in business with his father since he was eighteen years of age. He takes especial interest in their large grazing farm, which is devoted principally to the breeding of Southdown sheep.
In November, 1894, he was elected clerk of the Pendleton County Court, being the first Repub- lican elected to any office in the county for thirty years. He is an active politician and the success of the ticket was largely due to his efforts. He is a most efficient officer.
Mr. Cowles was married in 1889 to Marguerite Jeffries, daughter of R. B. McDonald of Fal- mouth.
H ON. JOHN BLADES CLARKE of Brook- ville, Bracken County, was born April 14, 1833.
His father, John Clarke, was born in Bracken County in November, 1804, and was educated in the county schools. He was one of the most in- telligent and progressive farmers of his day. He was an exceptionally honest man, a devout Chris- tian, a great lover of his home and a good citizen. He died October 21, 1875, and was buried in Mount Zion Cemetery, near Augusta.
Abner Clarke (grandfather) was born in York-
shire, England, March 16, 1775; and when quite young came to the United States and settled in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia. In 1797 he came to Bracken County, near Augusta, where he died September 14, 1850. He married Rachel Howard, daughter of John Howard of Bracken County. She was born in 1774 and died March 20, 1835. Abner Clarke was the fourth and youngest son of Stephen Clarke (great-grand- father), who was born in Yorkshire, England, February 14, 174I.
Hon. J. B. Clarke's mother, Mary (Blades) Clarke, was a native of Jessamine County; was married to John Clarke May 15, 1829. She was a devout member of the Presbyterian Church. Her father, Samuel Blades, was a native of Mary- land, who came to Kentucky, first settling in Jessamine, and afterward in Bracken County, where he died. He was a pillar in the Presbyter- ian Church and a consistent Christian. The Blades were of Scotch descent.
Hon. John Blades Clarke received a good edu- cation in the Augusta schools and under the tutel- age of Harvey King. After leaving school in 1851, he returned to his father's farm, and in the winter of 1851-2 taught school in the county, after which he read law for three years with Judge Joseph Doniphan in Augusta. He passed a critical examination by the late Julge Alvin Duval and William Moore and received his certificate April 20, 1854. In January, 1855, he went to Rockport, Indiana, where he commenced the practice of law, but on account of his wife's ill-health returned to Bracken County in the following September, and located in Brookville December 10, 1855, where he has continued to reside until the present time.
He was elected county attorney in 1857, and was elected on the Democratic ticket as state sen- ator in 1867, serving four years. In 1874 he was elected to Congress from the then Ninth Con- gressional District, and was re-elected in 1876, serving until 1879.
He married Cordelia A., daughter of Christo- pher and Elizabeth (Bradford) Robertson, who was born September 4, 1835; died December 26, 1884. There were six children: Bion, born June 23, 1858, died November 2, 1885; William R.,
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born October 22, 1861; John B., born February 19, 1864; Cordelia, born September 1, 1867, died August 10, 1868; Harry, born July 18, 1869, and Clarence, born June 23, 1873.
John B. Clarke, Jr. (son) married Alice Dud- ley of Falmouth, May 1, 1887. They have three children: Katharine, Bion and Robert.
H ON. ASHER GRAHAM CARUTH of Louisville, Kentucky, is the son of Henry Clay Caruth, who was born July 10, 1814, in Ten- ncssee; educated in Allen County, Kentucky, and was for many years a merchant and banker in Louisville, but retired several years ago. He was a member of the Board of Aldermen a number of years. He is still a resident of Louisville. His father, Captain Walter Caruth, served in the Revolutionary war, in which he gained his mili- tary title. He camc to Kentucky over one hun- dred years ago, before the state was admitted to the Union.
Asher G. Caruth's mother was a daughter of George Washington Mansfield. She was born in Allen County, Kentucky, where she received her education. Her father was a member of the Kentucky Legislature for several years, and was also a member of the convention which framed the constitution of the state in 1850. He died in Allen County in 1851.
A. G. Caruth was born in Scottville, Allen County, Kentucky, February 7, 1844. He at- tended school in Philadelphia and graduated at the High School of Louisville in June, 1864. He finished his law course in the law department of the University of Louisville in 1866, and has prac- ticed his profession ever since.
He was a presidential elector in 1876, and was attorney of the Board of Trustees of the Louis- ville Public Schools by annual election from 1873 to 1880, when he was clected commonwealth attorney for the Ninth Judicial District of Kcn- tucky for a term of six years and was re-clected without opposition in 1886.
He resigned this office in March, 1887, to take his seat as a member of the Fiftieth Congress, to which he had been elected in November, 1886. He was three times re-elected, and served in the
Fiftieth, Fifty-first, Fifty-second and Fifty-third Congresses as a Democrat.
Since retiring from the public service he has resumed the practice of law, which he did not relinquish entirely during his eight years in Con- gress.
Mr. Caruth was married February 23, 1871, to Miss Ella Terry, daughter of John Terry, for many years a wholesale grocery merchant in Louisville. She received her education in Louis- ville, and is a lady of many attainments, and en- tirely worthy of the many honors which she has shared with her very popular husband.
W ALLACE McDOWELL SHELBY, Col- lector of Internal Revenue at Lexington, is descended from Revolutionary ancestry. His great-great-grandfather, Isaac Shelby, first gov- ernor of Kentucky, was a brave and patriotic sol- dier from the beginning to the close of the War of the Revolution. Hc was born December II, 1750, in the vicinity of Hagerstown, in the colony of Maryland, whence his father, General Evan Shelby, and grandfather settled after their arrival in the colonies from Wales. Governor Shelby was a lieutenant in his father's company in the great battle with the Indians at Point Pleasant October 10, 1774, at the mouth of the Kanawha, at the close of which battle Evan Shelby was the commanding officer, Colonels Lewis Fleming and Field being killed or disabled. The result of this battle gave peace to Northwestern Virginia at the critical period of the colony. Coming so close upon the eventful contest of the Revolution it deterred the Indians from uniting with the British until 1776. Isaac Shelby was the true hero of the battle of King's Mountain. His great victory here over Colonel Ferguson October 7, 1780, occurred at the gloomiest period of the Revolution and was the first link in the great chain of events in the South which cstablished the independence of the United States. History has heretofore, though improperly, ascribed demerit to the battle of Cowpens in 1781, but it belongs justly to the victory on King's Mountain, which turned the tide of war in the South as the victory under Washington at Trenton and of Bennington
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under Starke did to the North. Isaac Shelby was the first man to organize the expedition that terminated in the victory of King's Mountain, and after the close of the war settled in Kentucky, and upon the admission of Kentucky into the Union in 1792 he became her first governor. In 1812 he was the second time elected governor and entered the field in person in the War of 1812, and was in the battle of the Thames October 5, 1813. No greater patriot nor braver man ever lived than Isaac Shelby. His zeal and love for his country knew no bounds .. His death occurred July 18, 1826, at the age of seventy-six years.
Wallace McDowell Shelby is a native of Fayette County, Kentucky. He was born July 17, 1860, and is the son of Thomas Hart and Florence (McDowell) Shelby. His father, the son of Thomas Shelby, was also a native of Fayette County, where he resided on a farm until 1893, when he removed to Lexington, where he was appointed revenue collector of the Seventh Dis- trict by President Cleveland. He took charge of this office October 1, 1893, and died February 19, 1895, aged sixty-six years. He was a man of lofty character and unswerving integrity. He was a prominent member of the Walnut Hill Presbyterian Church. He was reared on the farm and became an extensive farmer and cattle breed- er. His farm was one of the finest tracts of land in the "Blue Grass," embracing seven hundred acres.
Thomas Shelby (grandfather) was born in Lin- coln County, Kentucky, and was with his father and brother James in the second war for inde- pendence. At the age of twenty years Thomas Shelby removed to Fayette County, where he took charge of three thousand acres of land that had been given him by his father, Governor Isaac Shelby. His death occurred February 14, 1869, in the eighty-second year of his age. At his death he deeded his children each seven hundred acres of land.
Florence McDowell Shelby (mother) is also a native of Lincoln County, and is a member of the Presbyterian Church. Her father, William Wal- lace McDowell (see sketches of McDowells on an- other page), was a nephew of Thomas Shelby, who was born in Lincoln County, Kentucky, and
emigrated to Marion County, Missouri, where he resided many years and died.
Wallace M. Shelby was reared on his father's farm in Fayette County and received his educa- tion at Central University, Richmond, Kentucky. After leaving college he went to Missouri and accepted a position as chief clerk under his uncle, Shelby McDowell, who was superintendent of the Pacific Railway Company. In 1885 Mr. Shelby returned to Kentucky and received the appoint- ment of United States gauger under General James F. Robinson, who was collector of internal revenue under President Cleveland's first admin- istration. He held this position until February, 1889, when he resigned. He was then en- gaged in mercantile business in Lexing- ton until his father's appointment as collec- tor, when he was appointed chief deputy, and at his father's death he received the appointment of collector. In 1886 Mr. Shelby married Margaret Bryan, daughter of Joseph H. Bryan of Fayette County, and has two children, Florence McDow- ell and Joseph Bryan. The Harts, McDowells, Bryans and Wallaces are all families of prom- inence and many of them were Revolutionary sol- diers.
R EV. WARNER T. BOLLING, D. D., pas- tor of Hill Street Methodist Church, Lexing- ton, one of the most eloquent pulpit orators of Kentucky, was born in Greene County, Alabama, May 25, 1846, and is a son of Warner T. Bolling and Harriet Smith, his wife. He is descended from a distinguished family who settled in the col- ony of Virginia with the Randolphs, Madisons, Meades and Taylors in 1685. The Bollings are of English ancestry, and intermarried with the Bland and Randolph families.
Warner T. Bolling (father) was a native of Petersburg, Virginia, and when quite a young man emigrated to Alabama, where he resided some years, afterward removing to Nashville and thence to Knoxville, Tennessee, where he died in 1856, in the fifty-sixth year of his age. He was a planter in Alabama, but retired from active busi- ness some years before his death. He was an aristocratic, scholarly gentleman, and a consistent member of the Episcopal Church,
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Harriet Smith Bolling (mother) was born in the vicinity of Richmond, Virginia, and died in Knoxville, Tennessee, in the same year that her husband died, when she was fifty-four years of age. She was a devout member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and a woman of many rare accomplishments and personal attractions.
Warner T. Bolling was reared in Knoxville and in Memphis, Tennessee, removing to the lat- ter place some time after the death of his parents. He was a student in Emory and Henry College in 1861; and in that year, at the age of fifteen, he enlisted in Company C, Second Regiment Ten- nessee Infantry, in which he served four years in the Confederate army. He received a severe wound, breaking his right arm, in the battle of Chickamauga, and also received a flesh wound in the battle of Lookout Mountain. His regiment belonged to the division commanded by General Cleburne, who was killed in the battle of Franklin in 1864.
Mr. Bolling left college to join the army at such an age that his education was by no means complete and after the war the South was left in such a state that he was unable to resume his studies in college. But by wonderful energy, great perseverance and close application, he pur- sued his studies alone and acquired a well ground- ed and thorough education, and in the truest sense may be styled a self-made man. His fine scholar- ship was recognized by the faculty of St. Charles College, who conferred upon him the degree of doctor of divinity in 1886.
After four years of study Mr. Bolling entered the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1869, since which time he has preached the gospel in Tennessee, West Virginia, Missouri, Colorado and Kentucky. For three years he was pastor of one of the leading churches in Denver and for six years in Missouri, and came to Ken- tucky in the early part of 1890 and had charges in Covington and Winchester, and in 1894 was sent to Lexington and placed in charge of Hill Street Methodist Church. Under the itinerant system of the Methodist Episcopal Church Dr. Bolling has several times been transferred by order of the bishops to do special work in the states of Colorado, Missouri and West Virginia.
He is universally esteemed and appreciated as a minister and as a citizen by the people of Lexing- ton, regardless of sect or class, being an eloquent speaker, a profound scholar and a man of sound judgment and acknowledged ability.
Rev. Dr. Bolling has been twice married. His first wife, to whom he was married in 1870, was Mary Coley, by whom he had three children, two of whom are living: Robert E. Bolling, who is engaged in business in Cincinnati, and Margaret E. Bolling. His present wife, to whom he was married in 1882, was Willie R. Jeter of Virginia, a woman of rare judgment and Christian charac- ter. By this union there have been five children: Louise, Warner, Arthur, Mary Randolph and Helen Meade. Of these Warner and Arthur are deceased.
Dr. Bolling is president of the Board of Educa- tion, of the Kentucky Conference, of the M. E. Church, South, and takes an active interest in the educational movements of the day.
V ERY REVEREND FERDINAND BROS- SART, B. G., is a native of Buchelberg, Rhenish Bavaria, and was born October 19, 1849, and since 1888 has been the popular and able rec- tor of St. Mary's Cathedral at Covington. He was the sixth child born to Ferdinand Brossart and his wife, Catherine Diesel, who were both natives of Buchelberg, Rhenish Bavaria. His parents, like many others of Germany, had con- ceived a great distaste and horror of militaryism and longed to take their five sons and one daugh- ter to a country free of those feudalistic environ- ments, and soon emigrated to the United States and located at Cincinnati in 1851. The father re- turned to his native country and there sold his property and then returned to this country and bought an extensive farm in Kentucky, upon which he resided until his death in 1883. Father Brossart commenced his clerical and preparatory studies for the priesthood at St. Francis' Col- lege at Cincinnati and at Mount St. Mary's of the West. His philosophical studies were taken at the Petit Seminary of St. Nicholas, in the diocese of Ghent, in Belgium, and his theological studies were taken in the University of Louvain, Bel- gium, where he finished his course in 1872, and
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returned to the diocese of Covington. In October of the same year he was appointed by the Right Reverend Bishop Toebbe to the pastorate of St. Edward's Church at Cynthiana. In 1876 Father Brossart was transferred to St. Pius' Church in Scott County, where he remained for sixteen months. He was next appointed pastor of the Church of Annunciation at Paris, where he at- tended to the spiritual wants of that church until November, 1878, when he succeeded the late Father Bekkers as pastor of St. Paul's Church at Lexington. Father Brossart remained as its pas- tor until July, 1888, when he was selected by the Right Reverend Bishop C. P. Maes, D. D., vicar- general of the Covington diocese, as rector of St. Mary's Cathedral, where he is at present stationed. He is also the editor and manager of the "Cathe- dral Chimes," which is published at Covington.
JOSEPH BRYAN, M. D., one of the leaders J in the medical profession in Lexington and Fayette County and a descendant of a noble an- cestry, was born in Fayette County, Kentucky, December 24, 1849, and is a son of Daniel Bryan and Sarah (Pettit) Bryan.
Dr. Bryan was educated in the Kentucky Uni- versity at Lexington and studied medicine in the Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York, one of the leading medical colleges in the United States, and after graduating in 1873, he spent two years as house surgeon of the first surgical division in Bellevue Hospital. After passing a competitive examination by the examining board he was given his choice of six positions and chose the first surgical division. There was no pay at- tached to this position, the appointment being purely honorary, but it was a high compliment to his faithfulness as a student and to his ability as a surgeon. After holding this position his al- lotted time, and gaining much valuable expe- rience in surgery, Dr. Bryan returned to Lexing- ton in 1875 and began the practice of medicine and surgery, to which he has given his whole time and attention for a period of over twenty years.
Few men in professional life have enjoyed greater success or personal popularity. A man of education, culture and refinement, genial in
his manner and of kindly disposition, he is re- spected by all who know him and revered by those who have enjoyed an intimate acquaintance with him. 'An able physician and a scholarly gen- tleman, he is accorded a leading position among the members of the medical fraternity.
As a citizen he is public spirited and enterpris- ing and is always ready to assist in furthering any good cause. His only office is that of a member of the Board of Health, in which he serves the city without a monetary consideration.
Dr. Bryan and Mrs. Jessie M. Brown, widowed daughter of Thomas McGrath, were married in 1884.
An interesting history of the Bryan family and its connections is given in an old newspaper which is in possession of a member of the family, the essential points of which are as follows:
Morgan Bryan, the first of the name of which there is any authentic account, was born in Den- mark and was the only son of William Bryan. He was a Dane by birth, but not by origin, as the Bryans were Irish, and Morgan Bryan re- moved to Ireland and lived there a while before coming to America. He located in Pennsyl- vania and there married Martha Stood, a Dutch girl who had lived in France, but fled from that country on account of religious persecution. Her father and mother died on the voyage to America, and she was adopted by strangers, and after reach- ing womanhood married Morgan Bryan. They removed from Pennsylvania to Virginia and lived near Winchester until two of their sons were grown, married and settled. They then removed to the Valley of the Yadkin River in North Caro- lina, where they owned lands, as the records show. Morgan Bryan and Martha Stood had seven sons and three daughters: Joseph, Elenor, Rebecca, Mary, Samuel, Morgan, John, William, James and Thomas. Of these William married Mary Boone and Rebecca married Daniel Boone, the noted pioneer of Kentucky.
Many years after the Bryans had settled in North Carolina there was a great exodus from that state on account of political persecution and illegal taxation, and the Boones and Bryans, being united by the intermarriage of their families, be- came possessed of the idea of living in a country
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where they would be untrammeled by unjust and obnoxious laws and regulations; and, being at- tracted by the accounts of the fertile fields, beau- tiful rivers and fine forests of Kentucky, they left their homes and took up the tedious journey to the land in which they afterward became distin- guished citizens.
William Bryan (great-great-grandfather), son of Morgan Bryan, was the first settler at Bryan Station. That he came to the station many years prior to the date given in history is evident from the records at Salisbury, North Carolina, which show that he disposed of his lands there prior to that date. It was in 1779 that he, with his family and three of his brothers, Joseph, James and Morgan, arrived at the fort. William Bryan (great-great-grandfather) headed a hunting expe- dition in company with eleven others and in a skirmish with Indians he was wounded and died in the station a few days later, greatly lamented by his companions and family. He was born March 7, 1733, and died in 1780. His wife, Mary Boone, was born November 10, 1736, and died July, 1819. Their children were: Samuel, Daniel (great-grandfather), William, Phoebe, Hannah, John, Sarah, Abner, Elizabeth and Mary. Daniel, the second son, was born Febru- ary 10, 1758, and died February 27, 1845. He married Elizabeth Turner and their children were: William, Louis, Samuel, Joseph and Mary.
Joseph Bryan (grandfather) was born in 1799 and died in 1887. He married Mary Cartmell, who was born February 9, 1804. Her father, Elijah Cartmell, was born February 25, 1763. Joseph Bryan and Mary Cartmell's children were: Elijah, Daniel, Joseph and Mary.
Daniel Bryan, second son, is Dr. Joseph Bryan's father. He was born May 5, 1825, and was graduated from Bethany College in the class of 1848. He was a distinguished mathematician and a good scholar, but chose no profession, pre- ferring the life of a farmer. He lived in Fayette County for many years and in 1880 removed to Houstonia, Pettis County, Missouri, which is his present place of residence.
Sarah Pettit Bryan (mother) was born in 1829 and was educated in Mr. Broadus' school in Lex- ington. Her marriage to Daniel Bryan was cele-
brated January 25, 1849. She died in 1882. Her grandfather, Harry Pettit, was a native of Fay- ette County, and a farmer. He married Julia At- chison, daughter of Hamilton Atchison and sis- ter of Dr. Thomas Atchison, professor of theory and practice in Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee. Harry Pettit died in 1874. The At- chisons were of Irish extraction. Mrs. Bryan's grandfather, Pettit, was a native of France.
H ON. GEORGE W. MORRIS, president of the Louisville Gas Company, is the son of John and Elizabeth (Jones) Morris. He was born in Gloucestershire, England, January 27, 1823. His father and mother were natives of England, who came to the United States in 1827, locating in New York City, and afterward, in 1831, removing to Troy, New York, where they continued to reside until the time of their death. They gave careful attention to the education and religious training of their children. Mr. Morris was a ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church for fifty years. He was for many years a manufac- turer of carriages, but retired long before his death, which occurred in 1881, when he was in his eighty-eighth year. Prior to the late war he was a Democrat, but after the beginning of the war he became a Republican, but took no active part in political affairs.
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