USA > Kentucky > Biographical cyclopedia of the commonwealth of Kentucky > Part 28
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M. Porter and Thomas H. Hines. After reading in this office for one year he went to Cumberland University, his preceptors being Judge Nathan Green and Robert L. Carothers, and was grad- uated and admitted to the Tennessee bar in 1877.
In the following year he was admitted to the bar in Kentucky and began the practice of law in Russellville, where he has since distinguished himself as a lawyer of ability and excellent judg- ment.
In March, 1890, he was appointed master com- missioner of the Logan Circuit Court for a term expiring in 1897.
During the whole time in which he has prac- ticed law in Russellville, he has been extensively interested in stock raising on his farm in the coun- ty; is a silent partner in the firm of W. C. Seward & Company, and from 1880 to 1885 was a member of the firm of Clay & Bass, but took no active part in the management of the business; in 1893 was elected president of the Russellville Tanning & Harness Company, and is interested in a cat- tlc ranch in Presidio County, Texas. But with all of these interests and investments he is devot- ed to his profession and gives his law business his best attention.
Mr. Bass was married November 18, 1879, to Mrs. Anneta Seward, whose maiden name was Carter. She was born July 7, 1853, and was edu- cated in the Louisville high school and at Mrs. Tevis' Science Hill Academy in Shelbyville. Her first husband was William J. Seward, of Franklin, dcceased.
The children of Scyon A. and Anneta Carter Bass are: Edwin Lucas, born January 16, 1881 ; Mary Ellen, born August 5, 1882; Russell Mar- tin, born May 6, 1884, and Minnie Louise, born November 29, 1889.
R EV. JOSEPH RENNIE, Pastor of Stuart Robinson Memorial Presbyterian Church, Louisville, was born in Richmond, Virginia, July 15, 1860. His father, Rev. Joseph R. Rennie, is also a native of Richmond, now residing in Amelia Court House, Virginia, and is pastor of the Presbyterian Church in that place. He was a farmer until he was forty-eight years of age, when he entered the ministry from a conviction of duty.
He has been remarkably successful, and is exceed- ingly popular with his congregation, one of the most intelligent in the state. He served through- out the war; was with Stoncwall Jackson in his Valley campaign, and with the Richmond How- itzers as driver of a caisson, a very dangerous and much exposed position. He was a good soldier, a highly respected citizen, and is a very influential preacher.
Joseph Rennie (grandfather) was a native of Kelso, Scotland, who came to New York with James Thorburn, the celebrated seed man. He removed to Virginia about the year 1835, and died in Richmond in 1865, aged sixty-five years. Hc was an elder in the First Presbyterian Church of Richmond. He was the first landscape gard- ener that came to Richmond.
Mr. Rennie's mother, Ella (Powell) Rennie, was born in Richmond in 1839. She is, of course, a member of the Presbyterian Church at Amelia Court House, of which her husband is pastor ..
After his primary education, Mr. Rennie spent two ycars in Richmond College and then entered Hampton-Sidney College, whence he graduated in 1885. He then attended the Union Theological Seminary in Prince Edward County, Virginia, graduating in the spring of 1888. In 1887 he was licensed to preach by the East Hanover Presby- tery, which he had supplied a year previous while pursuing his theological studies. Immediately after graduation, he was called to the pastorate of the Chase City (Virginia) Presbyterian Church, of which he had charge for three ycars. In Octo- ber, 1890, he went to Oxford, North Carolina, and supplicd the church at that place until 1892, when he came to Louisville and took charge of the Stuart Robinson Memorial Presbyterian Church, located in St. James Court, in which he has met with gratifying success, the membership of the congregation having been more than doubled under his preaching and numbering at the present writing about one hundred and fifty members.
Mr. Rennie was very popular in his college days, and usually represented his college society on public occasions, carrying off the honors. He graduated with high honors, and has sustaincd the reputation he made then as a profound thinker and eloquent speaker,
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During his residence in Richmond he was a member of the Second Presbyterian Church, of which the Rev. M. D. Hoge was the pastor.
Mr. Rennie was married in October, 1888, to Ellen Eugenia, daughter of Dr. Charles Parke Goodall of Richmond, Virginia. She is related to the large Christian family of Virginia.
JOSHUA T. GRIFFITH, Clerk of the Daviess County Court, Owensboro, son of Daniel M. and Virginia Shelby (Todd) Griffith, was born in Owensboro, April 1, 1861, and received his educa- tion in the schools of that city. During President Cleveland's first administration he was deputy col- lector of Internal Revnue under Hunter Wood, collector of the Second district. He was elected clerk of the Daviess County Court, and is now serving his second term in that office, in which his faithful attention to business and gen- tlemanly demeanor have won for him a popu- larity which few men in the county enjoy. He was married June 11, 1891, to Jettie Rothchild, and has one child, Virginia Griffith, born January 29, 1895.
Mr. Griffith is a descendant of a long line of ancestry on both sides of the family, who figured conspicuously in the early history of the Repub- lic, state and county; and he reveres the names and deeds of his noble ancestry, whose lives were unblemished by word or act, while he cherishes the laudable ambition to emulate their good works and to preserve their name unspotted be- fore the world, as becomes the scion of a noble ancestry.
William Griffith, the first of the name to come to America, arrived from London, England, in June, 1675, and settled on the Severn River in Anne Arundel County, Maryland.
He was married to Sarah Maccubbin, daugh- ter of John and Elinor Maccubbin, and had the following children, viz .: Orlando, born October 17, 1688; Sophia, born April 27, 1691; Charles, born January 20, 1693; William, born April 15, 1697.
William Griffith died 1699, leaving a will, proved at Annapolis, Maryland, October 23, 1699. Sarah Griffith, his widow, married Thomas
Reynolds, sheriff of Anne Arundel County, Maryland, and died April 22, 1716.
Orlando Griffith, born October 17, 1688, eldest son of William and Sarah, married June 6, 1717, at Annapolis, Maryland, Katherine Howard, daughter of John and Mrs. Katherine Greenberry Ridgely, and had the following children, viz .: Sarah, born May 13, 1718; Nicholas, died in in- fancy; Henry, born February 14, 1720; Green- berry, born December 31, 1727; Joshua, born January 25, 1730; Benjamin, born November 22, 1732; Lucretia, born February 5, 1739; Orlando, Jr., born April 27, 1741; Charles Greenberry, born May 17, 1744.
Orlando Griffith died March, 1757, leaving a will dated April 8, 1753; proved April 25, 1757, at Annapolis, Maryland.
His wife, Katherine Howard Griffith, died February, 1783.
Henry Griffith, born February 14, 1720, son of Orlando, married second time-June 4, 1751- Ruth Hammond, daughter of John and Ann Hammond, and had the following children, viz .: Samuel, born May 7, 1752; John H., born April 20, 1754; Philemon, born August 29, 1756; Charles, born December 16, 1758; Ann, born February 24, 1762; Joshua, born March 25, 1764; Eleanor, born March 9, 1766; Elizabeth, born December 16, 1768, and Ruth.
Henry Griffith died September 28, 1794. His will was probated at Rockville, Maryland, Octo- ber 10, 1794. Ruth, his wife, died January 27, 1782.
Joshua Griffith (great-grandfather) of Mary- land, born March 25, 1764, was twice married: first in 1783 to Elizabeth Ridgeley of Anne Arun- del County, Maryland. She was born in 1765 and died in 1797. His second wife's name, county and state were the same as that of his first wife. She was born in 1769; married Joshua Griffith in 1798 and died in 1803. By the first marriage there were three children: Lydia, married in 1808 to Warner Crow; Remus, born 1786, married in 1809 to Sallie Handley, died 1845; and Ruth, married Moses Cummins. By the second mar- riage there was one child: William (grandfather), who was first married to Aria Mosely, in 1822; and again to Martha Hopkins, in 1848, and one
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child of this union, Carey, died in infancy. His land. Titles for larger landed possessions passed children by his first wife (Aria Mosely) were Ridgely, born in 1823, died in 1841; William Henry, born in 1825, married Margaret Calhoun in 1845, died in 1848; and Daniel M. (father), born February 28, 1826, married Virginia Shelby Todd in October, 1857, died November 3, 1893.
Joshua Griffith (great-grandfather) was one of the most charitable men of his day. The follow- ing instance of his love and generosity towards his neighbors is remembered: At a time when there was a great scarcity of provisions in the county, a number of men came to him wanting to buy his large stock of provisions, but he posi- tively declined to sell, saying, if they had money to buy provisions with they would not suffer, and he must care for his neighbors and supply the wants of those who had neither money or meat. He had some knowledge of medicine and, al- though he was not an educated physician, his medical advice was sought by his neighbors for miles around. He cheerfully rendered what service he could to ameliorate the sufferings of others, but he never charged one cent for such services. He was one of the few men who lived and died in the county without an enemy. His useful life, so helpful to others, was spared until he reached a ripe old age, being eighty-two years old when he died.
William Griffith (grandfather) was born in Maryland, and died in 1845. He was eleven years of age when he came to Kentucky and, owing to the primitive condition of the country, schools were impossible, but he received a fair education in schools at Hartford and at St. Joseph College. He was a soldier in the War of 1812-14; and, upon the organization of Daviess County and the opening of the County Court, he was appointed the first clerk of the court. He was afterward admitted to the bar and practiced law for several years. In 1822 he married Aria Mosely, daughter of Captain Thomas Mosely, an early settler in Kentucky, who came from Virginia. She died in 1828; and, in 1841, he married Martha Hopkins, daughter of General Edmund Hopkins of Henderson County. He became largely interested in real estate, owning at different times many thousands of acres of
through his hands than were ever given by any other individual in Daviess County, unless by his son, who succeeded him. He encouraged and secured the settlement of a great number of fami- lies in different parts of the county, selling land at low prices and on favorable terms. He was gifted with superior business qualifications and was generous to a fault. He would say to the surveyors of the land which he proposed to sell to throw in five or ten acres rather than make it short by a rood. He was prominent in the de- velopment of the county and was a popular leader in every movement for the public weal. He served his county in the legislature for a number of terms and his district in the senate three or four terms, and in this he served his constituents industriously and conscientiously.
The excellent name of his honored father was kept in remembrance by the noble deeds of the son, whose life was full of charitable deeds, gen- erous consideration for others and whose public spirited enthusiasm and enterprise did so much to make his county one of the best in the Ohio Valley.
Daniel M. Griffith (fatlier) was the eldest son of William Griffith. He received a collegiate education at Centre College and at old Transyl- vania, graduating from the latter in the class of 1847. He studied law and was duly admitted to the bar, but abandoned the active practice of his profession in order to attend to the large landed estate of his father; and became quite as ex- tensively interested in real estate as his father had been. His legal training served him well in this business, as he was especially well versed in the intricate laws relative to titles and conveyances. His personal knowledge of almost every acre of land in the county, together with an unerring judgment as to its value, gave him great ad- vantage in the purchase and sale of property, and he was the owner of or the agent for thousands of acres of land in Daviess and adjacent counties.
Business reverses, such as are liable to all men of large enterprises, came to Mr. Griffith and he virtually had to begin at the bottom again and rebuild his fortune; and, by patient persever- ance, business tact and large experience, he fully
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recovered his losses and owned a larger estate at the time of his death than he had ever owned before. Like his father and his grandfather, he was in his day the most widely known and popu- lar citizen in the county. He was a man of un- impeachable character; few men could have been concerned in as many real estate transactions, large and small, without incurring the displeasure of some of the parties to such transactions. His honesty and integrity were never questioned. He never deceived anyone to gain a personal advan- tage. Only those who knew him personally and intimately could appreciate the true nobility of his character, his kindness and gentleness toward all, his generosity and liberality to those who needed assistance, his fidelity to his friends, and above all, his sacred devotion to his family. Al- way calm and self-possessed, he never deviated from the courtesy which he held was due to every man, whether prince or pauper. There was no harshness in his nature and the humblest menial could approach him with the assurance that he would be kindly received. By his uprightness and straightforwardness he won friends from among all classes. He left the impress of his strong personality upon the community in which he was a prominent figure, and his death was looked upon as a public calamity. Popular as he was and qualified as few men are for public service, he never aspired to office and only once, in 1847, did he yield to the solicitation of friends, who elected him to the legislature. Some few years before his death, which occurred November 3, 1893, he adopted the faith of the Catholic religion, having contemplated that step for many years.
Daniel M. Griffith was married in October, 1857, to Virginia Shelby Todd, daughter of Charles S. Todd and granddaughter of Governor Isaac Shelby. Her father was minister plenipo- tentiary to Russia under President Harrison's ad- ministration. The maternal ancestry of Joshua T. Griffith were prominent in the early history of the state and nation, and their lives and deeds having become a matter of history a repetition is uncalled for in this volume. The names of the children of Daniel M. and Virginia Shelby Todd Griffith were as follows: Letitia, born in 1858,
married H. C. Watkins in 1880, and died in 1894, leaving two children-Virginia, born in 1883, and Shelton, born in 1888; Virginia, born in 1859, died in 1877; Joshua T., born April 1, 1861, mar- ried June II, 1891, to Jettie Rothchild, has one child, Virginia, born January 29, 1895; Florence, born 1863, married H. A. Miller, now living in Asheville, North Carolina, her children are Amelia, born in 1886; Virginia, born in 1888; Griffith, born in 1889, died 1890; Daniel M., born September 19, 1867, married Susan M. Herr, No- vember 7, 1895; Rose, born 1865, married Dr. E. S. Watkins in 1887 and had three children: Sue R. and Rose Yandell (twins), born in 1888, Rose Yandell died 1884; Ruth, born 1870, died 1884; Todd, born 1871, died 1880; Clinton, born 1873; Mary Ridgeley, born 1876.
JOHN S. FRITZ, Chief of Police of Hopkins- J ville, was born in Christian County, Kentucky, June 21, 1864. His father, John G. Fritz, was a native of the same county, born in August, 1825; was educated in the public schools of the county; at the age of eighteen years began farming on his own account, giving especial attention to the cultivation of tobacco and eventually doing a very extensive tobacco brokerage business. He was a member of the Methodist Church, a Mason and Democratic voter who could always be re- lied upon by his party.
Solomon Fritz (grandfather), a native of Ken- tucky, was the inventor and manufacturer of the celebrated Fritz gun.
Jane F. Hord Fritz (mother) was a native of Christian County, daughter of William Hord, a Virginian by birth, who removed to Christian County and was one of the representative farm- ers until the time of his death in 1880.
John S. Fritz, after receiving his primary schooling in Hopkinsville, went to Cumberland University, Lebanon, Tennessee, and later to a commercial college in Evansville, Indiana, from which he was graduated in 1883. His first em- ployment was as bookkeeper for the tobacco firm of Gant & Gaither, of Hopkinsville, with whom he remained two and a half years. He was then in the livery business with his brother for two years, and was subsequently appointed deputy
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under Sheriff Boyd. He served one year on the police force in Hopkinsville and was re-appointed, but resigned to accept the position of bookkeeper for Sheriff West and gave up that position in 1891 to accept his appointment as chief of police, in which office he has rendered valuable service to the city and to which he has been re-appointed from year to year until the present time.
John S. Fritz and Mary Rogers, daughter of ex-Sheriff Rogers, of Christian County, were mar- ried November 11, 1890, and they have two chil- dren: Cora Ruth and Jane.
He is a prominent Knight of Pythias. He takes some interest in politics and always puts his cross under the rooster.
I EW B. BROWN, Lawyer, and Editor of the Spencer Courier, Taylorsville, Kentucky, was born in Madison, Arkansas, June 13, 1861. His father, George Llewellyn Brown, was a native of Paris, Tennessee, who traveled extensively and finally settled in Madison, Arkansas, where he es- tablished the Pioneer newspaper before the war. He bitterly opposed the secession in his paper, but when the war began he enlisted in St. Francis County, Arkansas, served as a special messenger and was subsequently promoted to the rank of major in the Confederate army. He returned to Arkansas after the war closed and died in Ozark in 1875, being then the editor of the Ozark Ban- ner. He was a man of fine intelligence and held a high rank in the Masonic Order.
George Young (maternal grandfather) was a native of Kentucky and a tailor by trade. He was engaged in business in Bardstown for a number of years, and subsequently removed to Arkansas, where he died in 1870.
Lew B. Brown attended the common schools in Madison, Forrest City and Ozark, Arkansas, and in Cloverport, Kentucky; and supplemented a meager English education by active work as reporter for the Louisville newspapers, including the Courier-Journal, Evening Times and Sunday Truth, and as accredited correspondent for the New York Morning Journal, Chicago Herald, Pittsburg Leader, New Orleans Times-Demo- crat and others. After an apprenticeship of four- teen years in this capacity and as a practical
printer, he removed to Taylorsville and purchased the Spencer Courier, now owned and edited by lıim. His first newspaper venture was the Monthly Visitor, which he conducted at Ozark at the age of fourteen.
He read law under Hon. G. G. Gilbert, of Shel- byville, and Hon. Charles A. Wilson, of Louis- ville, and in June, 1894, was licensed to practice by the Court of Appeals. He is now a full-fledged lawyer-editor and one of the best practitioners at the Taylorsville bar. He won his first case be- fore a jury and made a reputation which he has easily sustained and which has given him a large share of the legal business of his county.
Mr. Brown is an able journalist, a fine lawyer, an enterprising citizen and a popular member of the Odd Fellows Lodge, Knights of Labor, Typo- graphical Union, and is secretary of the Demo- cratic County Committee, and chairman of the Democratic campaign committee. He makes good use of his opportunities in political work, and is an acknowledged leader in his party and an im- portant factor in the advancement of the material interests of his town and county.
He was married February 11, 1885, to Emma J. Struby, of Louisville, who was the mother of three children: Llewellyn Chauncey, Albert Young and Barbara Sunshine. Mrs. Brown died of heart failure December 19, 1895, superinduced by the excitement and grief occasioned by the sudden death of her little son. She was a member of the Baptist Church, in which she and her hus- band were recognized as among the leading and most earnest and liberal workers in the cause of Christianity. After Mr. Brown's law business had grown so rapidly, Mrs. Brown assisted him as local editor of the "Spencer Courier" and had developed great talent in newspaper work.
S AMUEL HOUSTON of Paducah-a lawyer of prominence and fine ability, of strict in- tegrity and high moral standing in his profes- sion and as a citizen-was born in Paducah, Ken- tucky, on November 25, 1838.
His ancestors on his father's side were of the hardy Scotch-Irish stock, who immigrated to America in the early part of the eighteenth cen- tury, and became soldiers in the colonial and
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revolutionary wars, and when independence and peace were declared were pioneers and farmers, who aided in reducing the aboriginal west to civilization.
His father, Eli M. Houston, was a native of Miami County, Ohio, a contractor and builder, who removed to Paducah in 1834, and in the following year was married to Sarah Best. In 1842 he removed to Hickman, Kentucky, and in 1846 to Memphis, Tennessee, where he was superintendent of construction in the navy yard. In 1850, when gold was discovered, he went to California, and afterward was one of the dis- coverers of the Washoe mines in Nevada, where he died and was buried at Gold Hill in 1860. He was a man of fine intellect-handsome, bold, restless and ambitious, who followed the star of empire westward.
David Houston (grandfather) was a native of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, who in 1785 migrated west with his father's family, and resided in Garrard County, Kentucky, for many years. In 1806 he married Miss Mckinney, and in 1808 removed to Miami County, Ohio, where he lived and died on his farm, in 1833. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church.
William Houston (great-grandfather), a native of Belfast, County Antrim, Ireland, came to America about 1735 and settled on a farm in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, where he married Mary Montgomery (great-grand- mother). He was in the colonial army at Brad- dock's defeat, and having served through the war, removed to Virginia, thence to Mecklen- burg County, North Carolina, where he lived many years. In 1785 he removed to Garrard County, Kentucky, and in 1800 removed to Dick- son County, Tennessee. In 1808 he removed to Miami County, Ohio, where he settled on a farm, and died in 1810 at an advanced age.
Sarah Best Houston (mother) was a daughter of Thomas and Margaret Best, who immigrated from England to America in 1800, and first located in Cincinnati, Ohio, and in the following year settled and lived for over a quarter of a century in Lebanon, Ohio. In 1834 Thomas Best and his family removed to Paducah.
Eli M. and Sarah Best Houston (parents) had
nine children, four only of whom are now living. Sam Houston's education was conducted with a view to professional life, and at an early age chose the law as best suited to his inclination. For this he fully prepared himself, and in 1859, when twenty-one years of age, was admitted to the bar and began the practice of his profession in his native city. He was city attorney from May, 1862, to September, 1872, being elected and several times re-elected as a Democrat. He has never permitted himself to become a politician, nor has he held any other office, preferring to devote himself to his law practice, which requires his undivided time and attention. . He has always been active in matters looking to the substantial prosperity of the city. He suggested the build- ing of the city hall, and gave his influence toward its construction and completion, and was one of the leaders in the movement of citizens to secure the construction of the United States government building in Paducah. Mr. Houston is a quiet, dignified gentleman, but has always been at the front, where the advancement of the public in- terest requires ready thought and steady purpose.
S TEPHEN K. SNEED. It has been said that the time to commence the training of a child is when its grandmother is an infant. The rule is a good one, and Stephen Kutesoff Sneed owes much to its application. His good training reaches farther back than the limits of this sketch per- mit us to go.
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