USA > Kentucky > Biographical cyclopedia of the commonwealth of Kentucky > Part 30
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Mary L. is the wife of Dr. L. Worsham, of
Antonia M. is the wife of Henry Soaper, of Henderson, and has two children: William and Mary Lavinia.
Nellie D. is the wife of Charles Hunter Dish- man, of Pensacola, Florida, and has three chil- dren: Susan Hodges, Charles H. and Dorothy.
The two unmarried children of Dr. Hodge, William Anthony and Emma, are at home with their father.
R OBERT A. WATTS, deceased, late secre- tary and treasurer of the Louisville Rail- way Company, son of Philip H. and Elizabeth (McCampbell) Watts, was born in Shelby County, Kentucky, December 18, 1823. His father was a native of Albemarle County, Virginia, who came to Kentucky in 1818 and located in Shelby Coun- ty, where he lived until 1846, when he went to the territory of Iowa. He remained there only a short time, removing to Indiana, near Terre Haute, where he died at the age of seventy-three years, in 1865. He was one of the prominent educators of his day and most of his life was spent in teaching private schools. He was a soldier in the war of 1812, a loyal citizen and a devout member of the Presbyterian Church.
Charles Watts (grandfather) was a native of Virginia, a soldier in the Revolutionary war and a farmer in Virginia and in Indiana, to which territory he removed before its admission to state- hood, and died there in 1846, at the age of ninety- one years. -
David Watts (great-grandfather) was a resident of Virginia and was probably born in England, as he was of English descent.
Elizabeth McCampbell, mother of R. A. Watts, was born in Rockbridge County, Virginia, in 1784 and died in Shelby County in 1844. Her father, Robert McCampbell, was born in Penn- sylvania and went to Rockbridge County, Vir- ginia, where he was a planter, and died in 1815, aged seventy-one years, He was a patriot soldier
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in the Revolutionary war. The McCampbells are a distinguished Virginia family of Scotch-Irish extraction.
Robert A. Watts spent his youth in Shelby- ville and was carefully educated by his father. He began business early in life as a merchant in Shelbyville; and removed to Danville in 1845, where he lived until 1855. While there, he was secretary and treasurer of the Lexington & Dan- ville Railroad Company, of which General Leslie Combs was president. This contemplated road was the beginning of one of the divisions of the present line of the Cincinnati Southern Railroad. Under the direction of the celebrated engineer, John A. Roebling, who afterwards built the Brooklyn bridge, the towers for the high bridge over the Kentucky river were built by this com- pany. But the company failed while the towers were in process of erection.
In 1856 Mr. Watts went west and spent two years in Minnesota, then a territory, and in Chi- cago, where he was in the real estate and banking business. Returning to Kentucky in October, 1858, he became a permanent citizen of Louisville, which was his home until the time of his death, with the exception of one year which he spent in Colorado. He was engaged as clerk in a bank for two or three years. When the Southern Tele- graph Company was organized by General J. T. Boyle, who was its first president, Mr. Watts was made secretary and treasurer of the company, holding the office two or three years and until the consolidation of the Southern with the West- ern Union Telegraph Company. This line was constructed between Cincinnati and Memphis and was the means of reducing the rates one-half, and the terms of the consolidation provided that the former exorbitant rates should not be restored. The consolidation took place under the presi- dency of General E. Kirby Smith, who succeeded General Boyle.
Mr. Watts' next venture, in which he was quite successful, was as agent for the University Pub- lishing Company of New York City, of which General John B. Gordon was president. This company published text books prepared especially for southern schools by the professors in the University of Virginia, which were exceedingly
popular in the south after the war. The house is still in existence and from its presses are issued many of the most popular school books of the present day. Mr. Watts was the agent for this publishing house until 1872. After spending a year in Colorado, he became chief clerk in the auditor's office of the Louisville & Lexington Railroad while it was in the hands of a receiver.
In 1878 he was elected secretary and treasurer of the Louisville City Railway Company. In 1891 this company and the Central Passenger Railway Company were consolidated under the name of the Louisville Railway Company, embracing all of the street-car lines in the city and its suburbs. Mr. Watts was elected secretary and treasurer of the new company, which office he held at the time of his death, March 6, 1896.
Mr. Watts was married in 1851 to Margaret Mills Anderson, daughter of Honorable Simeon H. Anderson of Lancaster, Kentucky, who died in 1840 while a member of Congress. Mrs. Watts' maternal grandfather was Governor Wil- liam Owsley of Kentucky. Mr. Watts left his wife and one son and one daughter: Robert A. Watts, Jr., and Julia B., wife of W. W. Mead, a commander in the United States navy. His daughter, Gretta, wife of Archibald Wilson of Nelson County, died in 1893.
Mr. Watts and his family were Presbyterians, and he had been a member of the church of his father and ancestors since 1837.
M ITCHELL CARY ALFORD, Lawyer of Lexington and ex-lieutenant-governor of Kentucky, was born in Fayette County, Ken- tucky, July 10, 1856. At an early age he entered the Kentucky University at Lexington, and was graduated from that institution in the class of 1877, and in the following year took up the study of law. In 1879, after two years' study in the law department of the Kentucky University, he graduated with high honors.
He immediately commenced the practice of law, forming a partnership with Z. F. Smith, a college mate, under the firm name of Alford & Smith, which partnership existed for some seven or eight years and was terminated by the death of Mr. Smith, Mr. Alford then became associated
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with Judge Matt Walton, with whom he practiced for five or six years, when this partnership was dissolved, since which time Mr. Alford has been engaged in his profession alone.
About two years after his admission to the bar he was appointed master commissioner of the Fayette Circuit Court and held that office for four years. The next office he held was that of judge of the Recorder's Court of the city of Lexington, to which he was elected and served one full term of two years; was re-elected to the same office, but resigned just prior to the expiration of the term to make the race for State Senator in the Lexington district. He was elected to this office and served the full term of four years, taking an ac- tive part in that body, of which he was the young- est member. In the first session of his term, Mr. Alford served as chairman of the committee on appropriations, and in the second session was chairman of the committee on railroads. While a member of the Senate, Governor Alford's pop- ularity became so general throughout the state, that in the gubernatorial convention of 1891 he was nominated without opposition for the office of lieutenant-governor on the ticket with John Young Brown, and was elected. For several years he held the position of chairman of the State Democratic Central Committee, and was only recently succeeded in that place by General John B. Castleman, of Louisville. He is presi- dent of the State League of Democratic Clubs, composed of some 400 organizations through- out the state, which is a high honor and is the best evidence that the Democratic party of Kentucky recognizes and appreciates his ability as an or- ganizer and campaigner. Governor Alford is a "sound money" Democrat and was one of the sev- eral candidates for the office of governor on the Democratic ticket to succeed Mr. Brown. His defeat in the convention was due to political con- ditions rather than to the lack of willing sup- porters. Had he received the nomination he would have been elected by the usual Democratic majority.
Aside from his successful career in politics, he has been identified with various extensive busi- ness enterprises. He was one of the promoters and organizers of the First National Bank in
Middlesborough, and at the first meeting of its board of directors, was elected president of that corporation. Shortly afterward he sold his en- tire stock in the bank, for prudential reasons, and resigned the presidency. During the "boom- ing" days of Middlesborough he was president of several important land companies of the "Mountain City." He is also one of the stock- holders and the treasurer of the Phoenix Hotel Company of Lexington, and is in possession of other valuable property.
With his fine ability as a lawyer and business man, and with the young Democracy of the state ready and willing to honor him, his success in the future is assured and he can afford to wait for honors that have only been deferred.
JOHN R. GRACE, who was one of the most able judges of the Court of Appeals, having had an experience of nearly forty years upon the bench prior to his induction into his late exalted position, was born in Trigg County, Kentucky, May 27, 1834, and died suddenly in Frankfort, February 20, 1896.
His father, William Grace, and his grandfather, George Grace, were native farmers of Trigg County, their ancestors having settled in the county during the eighteenth century. His mother, Mary (Organ) Grace, was a native of Wilson County, Tennessee.
Judge Grace was educated in the common schools of his neighborhood, and being of a studious turn of mind, acquired a fund of infor- mation unusual for a boy of his limited opportuni- ties, and at the age of nineteen years he took up the study of law in the office of Matthew Mays of Cadiz. After a careful course of reading he attended the law department of the University of Louisville, from which institution he graduated in 1855.
In the same year he returned to Cadiz, and being duly admitted to the bar, began the prac- tice of his profession. In a short time he formed a partnership with his former preceptor, under the firm name of Mays & Grace. This business relation continued without interruption until 1865, when the firm was dissolved and Judge Grace
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became associated with Judge Burnett, whose death occurred in the following year.
In 1858 Judge Grace was elected county judge of Trigg County, and served a term of four years. In 1868 he was elected circuit judge of the then Second Judicial District (embracing the coun- ties of Trigg, Christian, Muhlenberg, Hopkins, Caldwell and Lyon) and was re-elected for a series of terms aggregating twenty-six years, which is sufficient proof of the high esteem in which he was held by the people of his district. But a higher endorsement was given him in his election as judge of the Court of Appeals from the First Appellate District, composed of eighteen counties in the western part of the state. He was inducted into that office January 7, 1895, for a term of eight years, succeeding Judge Caswell Bennett, deceased, but after serving a little more than a year, he died, unattended, in his room at the Capital Hotel in the morning of February 20, 1896. He had been complaining for some days, but had so far recovered that he was able to go to the breakfast table on the morning of his death, and had just returned to his room and was alone when he received the fatal stroke. The funeral services were held in the court house at his old home in Cadiz, no church in the place being large enough to accommodate those who desired to pay a last tribute of respect to the most distinguished citizen. His remains were accom- panied to his home by committees from both branches of the legislature and by members of the Court of Appeals.
Judge Grace was married to Emily Terry in 1859 and she died in 1861, so that he enjoyed only about two years of married life.
JAMES HERVEY BARBOUR, M. D., an eminent physician of Falmouth, son of Nathaniel and Hannah (Ashburn) Barbour, was born in New Richmond, Clermont County, Ohio, February 29, 1824.
His father, Nathaniel Barbour, was a native of Hunterdon County, New Jersey, where he was engaged in agricultural pursuits; but removed to Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1808, prior to the war of 1812, in which he participated as a member of Captain Snell's Light Horse Cavalry. After the
war he removed to New Richmond (1817), where he was for many years a merchant, removing to his farm in that vicinity in 1832, where he died in 1848. He was seriously wounded by the firing of a swivel, a custom adopted by the steamboat men as a signal for their departure. This acci- dent caused the City Council of Cincinnati to pass an ordinance prohibiting the firing of the swivel in that port.
Nathaniel Barbour (grandfather) followed his son to Cincinnati in 1809 and settled in Clermont County, near Mulford, where he died. The Bar- bours were among the early settlers of New Jer- sey, and were conspicuous in the war of the Revo- lution against England.
Dr. Barbour's mother, Hannah (Ashburn) Barbour, a native of Bolton, England, was a daughter of Thomas Ashburn, an English manu- facturer for the American market. The embargo in 1807 brought him to Cincinnati, where he owned fifty acres in the city, afterwards the Litel property, and was quite wealthy. After the war of 1812 he became the owner of one thousand acres of land in Clermont County, Ohio, upon which he laid out one-half of the town of New Richmond. He left a family history showing his direct lineage from 1688 down to the present time.
Dr. J. H. Barbour was raised on a farm in Clermont County, Ohio, and attended the dis- trict school during the winter months. At the age of seventeen he entered the Clermont Acad- emy, where he studied for three or four years, and in 1847 and 1848 he took a more thorough course in classics and science in the Miami Uni- versity at Oxford, Ohio. While acquiring his education, he spent some time in teaching in order to obtain means to defray his expenses.
In 1848 he began to read medicine with Dr. Daniel Barbour of Falmouth, Kentucky, a noted physician of that time. He attended two courses of lectures in the Medical College of Ohio at Cin- cinnati, and graduated in 1852. He at once be- gan the practice of medicine in Falmouth, and was soon known as one of the leading physicians of the county; and after a professional life of forty-three years in that place he is still an active and busy physician of the highest professional standing.
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Dr. Barbour has been a prominent and influ- ential politician ever since he was old enough to exercise the right of suffrage. His first presi- dential vote was cast for General Taylor. While the Whig party was in existence he was its faithful supporter, and in the presidential election in 1860 he voted for Bell and Everett. In 1864 he voted for Abraham Lincoln for president. During the war of the Rebellion, he was an earnest supporter of the National Government, and since that time has been identified with the Republican party.
He was a delegate to the national Republican convention in Chicago in 1880, and was one of the "big four" Kentuckians in that body who broke the unit rule, the state convention having in- structed delegates to vote as a unit, and voted against General Grant, defeating his aspirations for a third term, and in this he voted according to the instructions of his district. The national convention recognized the right of districts to instruct. He has attended nearly all the Repub- lican state conventions held in the state since the war and has been prominent in the councils of his party.
He is a member of a number of medical asso- ciations, and keeps step with the advancement in medical science; has written numerous articles for the medical journals and has been an active and useful citizen during all of the years of his residence in Falmouth. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church, and has been an elder for many years. In all of his relations to the com- munity he has maintained an unimpeachable character and enjoys the respect and confidence of all men. Dr. Barbour is related to many prom- inent people in Clermont and Hamilton Counties, Ohio; the late Judge Ashburn of Milford and that eminent lawyer of Cincinnati, Thomas Barbour Paxton, and others of the same name were his cousins.
Dr. Barbour was married December 27, 1852, to Emaline Houser, daughter of Samuel T. Houser, who was a prominent lawyer of Fal- mouth. Dr. Barbour has four sons and three daughters living:
Ashburn Kennett Barbour, an attorney at law in Helena, Montana.
Hervey Barbour, a graduate of Centre College,
Danville, Kentucky, now private secretary of ex- Governor Houser, Helena, Montana.
Dr. George Houser Barbour, a graduate of Centre College and also of the Ohio Medical Col- lege, Cincinnati, a practicing physician in Helena, Montana.
Max Wilson Barbour, a student in the Ohio Medical College, Cincinnati.
Mary, wife of John A. Sutton of Cincinnati, Ohio.
Louise Barbour Spradling, wife of J. H. Sprad- ling, a prominent young lawyer of Louisville, Kentucky; and Miss Sue Barbour.
Mrs. Emiline (Houser) Barbour is a sister of ex-Governor Houser of Montana, who was one of the pioneers of that state. They trace their an- cestry back for many generations, and the pro- genitor of the family in America settled in North Carolina before the Revolutionary war. The family formed a part of the Moravian colony that settled at Bethania, North Carolina, in 1759.
Dr. Barbour's brothers, Daniel, Wilson and Nathaniel J., have been prominent in public and professional life; Daniel, now dead, stood very high as a physician and a man of superior intel- lect, and Wilson, now a resident of New Rich- mond, Ohio, and a farmer, was a soldier in the Seventh Regiment Ohio Cavalry, enlisting as a private, and was promoted to a lieutenancy ; Nathaniel J., a physician, was assistant surgeon of the Fifty-ninth Regiment Ohio Infantry, and was in many of the most serious engagements of the war, serving until the fall of Atlanta. He was a leading physician of New Richmond, Ohio, where he died in 1885, when forty-seven years of age.
J JAMES A. MITCHELL, Attorney-at-Law of Bowling Green, son of James and Martha (Stockton) Mitchell, was born in (now) Metcalfe County, Kentucky, July 4, 1843. His father was a native of the same county and was born in 1817. He lived in his native county until 1877, when he removed to Glasgow and died there in 1894, when seventy-seven years of age. He was a farm- er and dealer in live stock, a highly respected citi- zen and a faithful member of the Christian Church.
Elzy Mitchell (grandfather) was born in Green
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County and was a prosperous farmer. He died in 1856 at the age of sixty-five years.
William Mitchell (great-grandfather) came from West Virginia, near Wheeling, and was one of the early settlers of Green County. The Mitchells originally came from Ireland.
Martha Stockton Mitchell (mother) was born in Edmonton, Barren County, in 1824, and died in the same county (now Metcalfe) in 1845, when twenty-one years of age.
Dr. Joseph B. Stockton (maternal grandfather) was a native of Virginia who removed to Barren County with his parents when he was a mere child and became one of the most prominent phy- sicians and distinguished citizens of his county, serving one term as representative in the legis- lature, in 1840, and otherwise aiding his people in the capacity of public servant. He died in Barren (now Metcalfe) County in 1870, aged sev- enty-two years.
Rev. Robert Stockton (maternal grandfather), a native of Virginia and a Kentucky pioneer, was a noted Baptist minister who distinguished him- self as such in the Green River country in the early years of the present century. His ances- tors were from Scotland.
James A. Mitchell grew to manhood in his native county, attended Columbia Seminary and was in Center College in 1862, when he joined the Confederate army under General Morgan. While on the noted Ohio raid in 1863, he was captured and was a prisoner of war at Camp Chase, Columbus, Ohio, for one month, and at Camp Douglas, Chicago, for eighteen months, when he was exchanged. He then went to Rich- mond, Virginia, arriving there February 28, 1865. After General Lee's surrender, Mr. Mitchell, with a remnant of General Morgan's command, crossed the mountains to Charlotte, North Caro- lina, where Jefferson Davis and the members of his cabinet halted in their retreat from Richmond. An escort for the distinguished party was made up under command of Major Theophilis Steel, now a prominent physician in New York, and Mr. Mitchell was made orderly sergeant of the escort. They conducted Mr. Davis and his cab- inet as far as Greenville, South Carolina, at which place the escort was given charge of the Con-
federate treasury; and, loading the coin and paper money in wagons, they crossed the state of South Carolina and halted near Washington, Georgia, at which point the money in the treasury was divided among the soldiers, there being $32 in coin for each man. Here the president and the members of his cabinet dispersed, each one being permitted to look out for himself. The soldiers then organized a private squad under the com- mand of the late W. S. Edwards of Louisville and proceeded as far as Athens, Georgia, where they were paroled May 7, 1865. Mr. Mitchell still has his parole of that date in his possession.
He returned to Kentucky and taught school in his native county for one year. In the autumn of 1866 he entered the law department of Washing- ton College, Virginia, of which General Robert E. Lee was then president. There were twenty- two members in the class of that year and twenty- one of them were ex-Confederate soldiers. He was graduated in the class of 1867, and the diplo- ma which he received at that time bears the signa- ture of General Lee.
Mr. Mitchell began his professional career at Madisonville, Kentucky, in partnership with Polk Lafoon, remaining there until August, 1868, when he removed to Bowling Green and located perma- nently. He has devoted himself exclusively to the practice of his profession, having no political ambition, asking and accepting no office, except that of member of the school board, which he has held since its organization thirteen years ago, and in which he feels a commendable pride. For eleven years past he has been the trusted attorney of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company, representing a district of five counties, and has rendered the company efficient service in a legal capacity. With this responsible position and a large general practice, Mr. Mitchell's time is fully employed and lie enjoys a handsome income as a reward for his arduous services.
James A. Mitchell was married in 1869 to Sallie Barclay, daughter of the late Samuel A. Bar- clay of Bowling Green. She died in 1883, leaving three sons and two daughters: Robert, now regi- mental clerk of the Sixth Regiment of United States Cavalry, stationed at Fort Meyer, near Washington, D. C .; Martha, wife of George Ellis,
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merchant of Glasgow; Samuel B., a student in Ogden College; Louise and Julius B., who are living at home. He was again married Septem- ber 22, 1886, to Carrie Burks, daughter of the late Henry H. Burks, of Barren County, and they have one daughter, Katherine. Miss Burks grad- uated with the first honor in 1878 from the Louis- ville Female High School, thereafter spent several years in the Boston School of Oratory, and at the time of her marriage occupied the chair of elocu- tion and physical culture in the Southern Business and Normal College of Bowling Green.
Mr. Mitchell is a member of the First Presby- terian Church and has been an elder for twenty- five years. His wife is a member of the Meth- odist Church.
A LEXANDER C. TOMPKINS, member of the legislature from Daviess County and an extensive dealer in tobacco of Owensboro, is a native of Virginia and a descendant of a distin- guished and honored family of that state. He is a son of William W. and Frances Samuellor (Pen- dleton) Tompkins, and was born in Charlottes- ville, Virginia, February 28, 1840.
His father, William W. Tompkins, was born in Bedford County, Virginia, in 1812. After at- tending excellent private schools in Charlottes- ville, he was elected county clerk of Albemarle County, which office he held for several years. During the Civil war he served the Confederacy in the commissary department, and died April 5, 1865, a few days before the surrender of General Lee. He married Frances Samuellor Pendleton, daughter of Henry Pendleton, and was the father of five children: Henry Pendleton, Alexander C., John N., Frederick Windon and Joseph B. Tompkins.
Dr. John Tompkins (grandfather) was educated in Bedford County, Virginia, and was a practicing physician in that county. His wife was a Miss Montgomery of Nelson County, Virginia.
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