USA > Kentucky > Biographical cyclopedia of the commonwealth of Kentucky > Part 33
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Mr. Cox was tendered the nomination of his party for Congress in 1888, and this would doubt- less have been equivalent to an election, but he declined, preferring to remain at home and serve his people in helping to build up his native city.
William Hopkinson Cox and Sue E. Farrow of Mount Sterling, niece of Chief Justice Peters of the Court of Appeals, were united in marriage in I880.
T HOMAS T. FORMAN, of Lexington. The Forman family in the United States are of English origin, being descended from Robert Forman, an Englishman who left England on ac- count of the persecution of Archbishop Land, in the reign of Charles I. and emigrated to Holland. From Holland he removed in 1645 to the Dutch possessions on Long Island, New York, where he was one of the incorporators of the town of Flushing. Robert's grandson, Samuel, removed from Long Island to Monmouth County, New Jersey, and became high sheriff of that county. Thomas Forman, a grandson of Samuel, removed with his wife and children from Monmouth County, New Jersey, to Mason County, Ken- tucky, in 1789. The Rev. Ezekiel Forman, D. D., is a grandson of Thomas Forman. The subject of this sketch, Thomas T. Forman, second son of Rev. Ezekiel and Ellen (Russel) Forman, was born in Richmond, Kentucky, December 29, 1852. His father was born in Mason County, Kentucky, and is now the pastor of Memorial Presbyterian
Church at New Orleans, where he has been in charge since 1890, until which time he spent all his life in Kentucky, and he was the oldest mem- ber in the Presbytery of Transylvania (as to seniority in its membership) when he left the state for the South. He is now, June, 1895, in the seventy-seventh year of his age. During his min- istry he has presided over many of the church courts and has commanded the respect and es- teem of all who know him. His brother, C. W. Forman, D. D., was a missionary in India for forty-five years, and died in 1894, aged seventy- three years. He was the first foreigner whose re- mains were borne through the streets of Lahore at a public burial. He was known in India as Baba (grandfather) Forman. At the time of his death he was at the head of schools aggregating some sixteen hundred native pupils, and was greatly beloved by them.
Ezekiel Forman (grandfather) was a native of New Jersey, and settled when quite a young man in Mason County, Kentucky, where he married Dolly Wood, who was the second white child born in what is now Mason County. He was a man of great enterprise and activity, was exten- sively engaged in farming and trading, and ran a line of flatboats from Maysville to New Orleans. He died in Mason County more than a half cen- tury ago, at the age of sixty-five years. The mother of Thomas T. Forman was a native of Danville, Kentucky, and died in her fiftieth year; was a devoted member of the Presbyterian Church, and the daughter of David A. Russel, who was born in Belfast, Ireland, and was of Scotch-Irish extraction. For many years he was a leading elder in the Presbyterian Church at Dan- ville, where he was for many years engaged in mercantile pursuits. He was a man highly re- spected in his community and of unblemished honor. His death occurred in 1860 at the age of sixty-five.
Thomas T. Forman grew up principally in Richmond and Danville, Kentucky, and received his education in the University of Virginia, and in the Kentucky University, and was graduated from several schools of both these institutions. After leaving school he taught one year at Bards- town, and then read law with Honorable John
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Quincy Ward of Cynthiana. He was admitted to the bar in 1873, and from May, 1874, to Sep- tember, 1890, he practiced law in Cynthiana, when he moved to Lexington, where he has since been in the active and successful practice of his pro- fession. Mr. Forman is a Democrat and while at Cynthiana served as attorney for that city; was attorney for one of the national banks, and was local counsel for the Kentucky Central Railroad Company. Since his residence in Lexington he has served-by the choice of his brethren of the bar-repeatedly as special judge of the Fayette Circuit Court.
Mr. Forman has been a member of the Presby- terian Church for nearly thirty years and an elder in the same for about fifteen years. Shortly after his coming to Lexington the First Presbyterian Church requested him to take charge of the Max- well Street Presbyterian Mission, a new brick church having been built on Maxwell, between Limestone and Upper streets, with parsonage at- tached, but without any church organization; and in June, 1891, Mr. Forman did the first work there in organizing an afternoon Sunday school. In May following the organization was made a separate church, and is now self-sustaining, hav- ing a membership of between two and three hun- dred. Mr. Forman has been one of the ruling elders of this church since its organization, and those best acquainted with the history of that church attribute its remarkable growth in a large measure to the work of the subject of this sketch.
In 1876 Mr. Forman was married to Miss Lelia Campbell Donohoo of Bardstown, Kentucky, and of this union four children have been born, three sons and one daughter, all of great promise. The first-born, M. Don. Forman, is expected to com- plete the course of Bachelor of Arts at Kentucky University in 1896.
In 1890 Mr. Forman was commissioner of West Lexington Presbytery to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, South, at Asheville, North Carolina, and has repeatedly represented his church in his Presbytery, and in the Synod of Kentucky.
Considering the few years he has been a resi- dent of Lexington, and the strength of the bar of that city, he has been employed in very many
important cases, and has won the respect of the community and the confidence of the bench and bar. He has never been an aspirant for office. He is a zealous Mason and at the time this is written is Master of Lexington lodge, No. I, the oldest lodge of Free Masons west of the Alle- ghanies, having been founded four years prior to the erection of Kentucky into a state.
THOMAS H. FRAYSER, who was an hon- ored citizen and well-known business man of Owensboro, was born in Cumberland County, Virginia, February 9, 1837, and died in Owens- boro, Kentucky, December 8, 1894. He received his early training and education in Virginia, and came to Kentucky when he was a young man and was associated for a time with his brother Wil- liam in the tobacco brokerage. He removed to Calhoun, Kentucky, and from that place to Owensboro, where he was engaged in various enterprises until the time of his death. He was a soldier in the Confederate army under General Mahone, Twelfth Virginia Regiment of the Army of Northern Virginia, and was in a number of en- gagements, including the battles at Manassas and Fredericksburg. During the last year of his service in the army he was detailed for duty in the commissary department.
During his long residence in Owensboro he was for a time engaged in the tobacco business, and for fourteen years was connected with the wholesale grocery establishment of McJohnson & Company. He was president of the Owensboro Board of Education for nine years, an office for which he was highly qualified, being a man of superior intelligence, of fine business capacity and having a deep interest in the cause of education. He was elected to this position upon the ground of his peculiar qualifications and not on account of his political affiliations, and he served his con- stituents faithfully.
He was for twenty years a member of the board of stewards of Settle chapel, Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and his business transactions were characterized by his fidelity to the principles which he professed. He was for twelve years the beloved and honored superintendent of the Sunday school, and in appreciation of his services
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and as a testimonial of their love for him, the school, since his death, has had his life-size por- trait hung in the Sabbath school room.
He was married in Petersburg, Virginia, in 1863, to Sallie Harris, and they had ten children, two of whom died in infancy. Those of his chil- dren who survive him are: Frederick Harris, Judith Bransford, Mary Susan, Thomas Hatcher, Sarah Catherine, Jessamine, Giles Harris, and Martha Bransford.
Thomas H. Frayser's father, William Frayser, was born in Cumberland County, Virginia, in 1807, and died there in 1882. He was a farmer, and a member of the Methodist Church. He mar- ried Judith Bransford, a native of the same county, and a daughter of Benjamin Bransford. Their children were: William; Mary, who mar- ried Y. N. French; Susan M., who married H. N. Brazey; Virginia, who married William Brozeal; Benjamin, who was killed while serving in the Confederate army; Robert, who married a Miss Allen of Owensboro; and Thomas H., the sub- ject of this sketch.
Benjamin Bransford (maternal grandfather) was a native of Cumberland County, Virginia, and a very wealthy farmer, whose wife was Lucy Hatcher, of the same county.
OHN P. PROWSE of Hopkinsville, Clerk J of the Christian County Court, was born in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, December 29, 1844. His father, Colonel George O. Prowse, was born in North Carolina in 1804 and came to Kentucky when quite young, locating in Muhlen- berg County, where he was a farmer and took a prominent part in military affairs, being a colonel of the militia by virtue of his knowledge of mili- tary tactics and his unquestioned bravery. He died at his home in Muhlenberg County, Febru- ary 24, 1862. His father came from England and became a prominent citizen of North Caro- lina.
Francis Wells (maternal grandfather) was a native of North Carolina, who came to Muhlen- berg County while quite young and was a pros- perous farmer.
John P. Prowse was educated in his native
county and lived on the farm with his father until he was twenty-six years of age, when he married and bought a farm, which he retained and oper- ated for three years. In 1873 he sold his farm and engaged in mercantile business in connection with his tobacco trade, in which he was interested for a period of fifteen years. In 1889 he was appointed deputy collector under John Feland, collector Second district, Kentucky, and had his headquarters in Hopkinsville, serving for one year, and in 1890 he was elected clerk of the Christian County Court and was re-elected in 1894 for a second term of four years
He is an ardent Republican and an active and influential leader in his party. His election to his present office was in a large measure due to his personal popularity, as well as his superior quali- fications for the performance of the duties of his office.
John P. Prowse and T. J. Atkinson of Chris- tian County were united in marriage January 13, 1873. They have an interesting group of chil- dren: Frank, Charles, Nonie and John P. Prowse, Jr., all of whom are members of the Universalist Church at Hopkinsville.
EDWIN FARLEY, ex-postmaster and promi- nent citizen of Paducah, Kentucky, son of Michael and Mary (Dolan) Farley, was born Au- gust 28, 1842, in Walworth County, Wisconsin, before that territory had been admitted to state- hood. His father was born in County Meath, Ireland, in 1809; received a good education and was interested with his father in the manufacture of linen there before he came to America in 1830. He first located in New York, remaining there until 1836, when he removed to the territory of Wisconsin, settling in Walworth County, where he purchased a tract of land, which he cultivated until recently, but is now living with his daughter in Iowa, retired from business, having accumu- lated a handsome fortune. He was one of the pioneers of Wisconsin and found Indians there at the time of his settlement, but they were not as troublesome as they had been to the early set- tlers of Kentucky.
While living in New York Mr. Farley married
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Mary Dolan, who was born in County Cavan, Ireland, in 1815, and died in Wisconsin in 1885. They were members of the Catholic Church, and prior to the war were strong abolitionists, Mr. Farley being quite active in political matters. Since the war he has been an ardent Republican.
His father was a linen manufacturer in Ireland, who succeeded his father (great-grandfather), in the business. The family is of English descent, one of the members having gone to Ireland a great many years ago, where he established the linen manufactory to which several generations have succeeded.
Ed. Farley was educated principally in the Elk- horn Academy and, soon after completing his course, in August, 1861, he joined the Eighth Wisconsin Infantry, which became famous as the "Live Eagle Regiment," and was in the thickest of the fight in many of the vigorous campaigns in Mississippi, including the battles of Farming- ton, Corinth, Jackson (in two engagements), Vicksburg, Champion Hill, Yazoo City, Wood- ville and Franklin, Mississippi, and was severely wounded at the latter place. He was taken prisoner at Iuka, Mississippi, in 1862, and was taken to Vicksburg, where he was paroled, re- turning to his regiment, January 1, 1863. He also took part in the charge upon Vicksburg, May 22, 1863, and was there during the siege. In Octo- ber, 1863, he was commissioned first lieutenant in the Third Regiment, United States Cavalry, and was in this service until mustered out, January 26, 1866.
One of the most desperate small battles in which he was engaged was that which resulted in the taking and burning of Black River bridge, November 27, 1864, thereby cutting off communi- cation between General Hood and the reinforce- ments of his army and his supplies, and prevent- ing Nashville from falling into the hands of the Confederates. This was accomplished by the regi- ment to which Mr. Farley belonged, after many unsuccessful attempts had been made by other commands. It was one of the most daring ex- ploits of the war, and was complimented by the department commander and the war department. Its accomplishment was attended with great ad- vantage to the Union army, and with disaster to
the southern forces. It may be said this was the beginning of the end of the fearful strife between the sections.
After leaving the army Mr. Farley was engaged for two years as a cotton planter in Cohoma County, Mississippi; and in February, 1868, he came to Paducah, where he was a merchant for a short time, subsequently engaging in the manu- facture of staves for flour barrels, in which he established a flourishing business.
In 1871 he was appointed deputy collector and gauger of the Second collection district of Ken- tucky, in which capacity he served the revenue department for five years. He resigned this posi- tion to engage in the wholesale grocery business in Paducah. This enterprise was successful for four years, when President Arthur appointed him collector of internal revenue for the Second col- lection district of Kentucky, with headquarters at Owensboro. He held that responsible office un- til the first election of President Cleveland.
In 1890 he was appointed postmaster of Padu- cah by President Harrison, without having made application for the office. There was a spirited contest for the office by other candidates, and some of the authorities of Washington wrote him to ask if he would accept the office. After con- sulting with a friend to whom he had previously given his support for that office, there being no prospect of a selection from other candidates on account of political complications, he accepted the appointment and served until June, 1894.
Captain Farley has been a prominent figure in local, state and national politics during the past twenty-five years. In 1884 he was the Republican candidate for the legislature in his district in op- position to Meyer Weil, and should have been declared elected, for he had a majority of six votes on the first count, but a lost (?) sheet was found the next day which gave his Democratic competitor a majority of twenty-eight votes and the honors and emoluments of the office.
In 1888 he was the Republican candidate for Congress in the First district, and reduced the majority of the opposing party in the "Demo- cratic Gibraltar" of the state 5,566 votes, the city of Paducah going Republican for the first time since the war. He was a candidate for the con-
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stitutional convention in 1890, but was defeated by Judge W. J. Bullitt.
Captain Farley has been an honored member of the Republican State Central Committee for many years, and is a trusted leader in his party in the state and in the local affairs which concern the welfare of his party and the people. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, Odd Fellows, Knights of Honor, Masons, Knight Templars and Ancient Order United Workmen, and is always ready to lend a helping hand in the cause of charity, benevolence and Christianity. His friends are not confined to the orders or the party to which he belongs, and he is one of the most universally popular citizens of Paducah.
Captain Farley was married October 3, 1871, to Ella M. Nunn, who was born in Paducah, May, 1852. They have three sons and four daughters: William H., Marie, Edwin Phillip, Maud, Rosela Ilda, Dora and Herbert Warren; and the family circle remains unbroken.
C HARLES F. JARRETT was born in Hop- kinsville, Kentucky, in 1843. He is the only child of G. W. and Emily (Gant) Jarrett. His mother was a daughter of Archibald Gant, a na- tive of Rockbridge County, Virginia, who re- moved to Hopkinsville at an early date. His father, G. W. Jarrett, was born near White Sul- phur Springs, Greenbrier County, now West Vir- ginia, in 1807. The old stone house in which he was born still stands as a specimen of the archi- tecture of 1720. At the age of eighteen he left this home for the Rocky Mountains, where for eight years he was a Santa Fe trader, leading a life of hazard and adventure, full of exciting ex- periences and hair-breadth escapes. During the greater part of this time his guide and companion was the world-renowned Kit Carson. After amassing a large fortune young Jarrett returned to his Virginia home and removed thence to Ken- tucky, where he married and spent the remainder of a successful and useful life.
James Jarrett (grandfather) was a planter of Greenbrier County, Virginia, a man of integrity and considerable influence.
Charles F. Jarrett received his early instruction in private schools of his native county and fin-
ished his education at Center College, Danville, Kentucky. When eighteen years of age, in July, 1861, he joined the Third Kentucky Regiment at Camp Boone under the command of General Breckenridge and Colonel A. P. Thompson. He was with General N. B. Forrest during the last two years of the war, and was in the foremost of the fight in the fierce battle of Shiloh. There was a fine fiber of dash and bravery in the Jarrett blood which he inherited, and his record as a soldier is full of heroic deeds and personal daring. He en- tered the army at the beginning of the war, and was there at its close, having never missed a day from duty.
In 1867 he went to Paducah and was a dealer in leaf tobacco for a time in that city. He removed to Hopkinsville in 1875 and continued in the same business in the market known as the "Clarksville district," which is the finest dark tobacco market in the world.
Mr. Jarrett was married in 1873 to Sudie, daughter of Jesse and Susan (Jeffries) McComb. They have one of the most desirable homes in Kentucky, which he has christened "Cedar Glade" -a stock farm embracing four hundred and ninety acres under fine improvement-seven miles southwest of Hopkinsville. Here is where the fine thoroughbred horses such as McCurdys, Hambletonian and Glen Gordon have their home, and where Mr. Jarrett raises standard bred horses, shorthorn cattle and other fine stock. He has a large number of standard brood mares and colts.
Among the big-hearted, public-spirited men of Kentucky he stands in the front rank. Mr. Jar- rett not only boasts of an illustrious ancestry, but he is a man of ability and wealth and has a heart that is full of charity. He is the last of the Jar- rett family, but he has nobly borne the name of his famous ancestors and will leave a record with- out stain or blemish.
JAMES FREDERICK POWELL, a promi- J nent tobacconist and highly esteemed citizen of Corydon, Henderson County, was born Sep- tember 21, 1841, and is a son of Thomas W. and Elizabeth (Dorsey) Powell.
His father was born in Virginia, October 4, 18II, and came to Henderson County when he
EX-GOV. JOHN YOUNG BROWN.
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was quite young, and subsequently owned a greater portion of the land upon which the town of Corydon is now situated. He married Eliza- beth Dorsey, daughter of Noah Dorsey, and was the father of fifteen children: John A., Mary F., Samuel H., William S., Eveline, Maggie, Pattie, Olivia, Ida, Richard, Henry, Allen, Thomas M. and Edwin R. Powell. Thomas W. Powell died April 2, 1892, and his wife, Elizabeth Dorsey, died December 14, 1891.
Harrison Powell (grandfather) was a native of North Carolina, who removed to Kentucky with his parents when he was a child and located in Henderson County, where he was a prosperous farmer. He married Elizabeth McClanahan. (See sketch of H. A. Powell.)
His father, Willoughby Powell, was a native of North Carolina, who lived for many years in Henderson County.
Thomas McClanahan (maternal great-grand- father) was a native of Virginia, who removed to Logan County, Kentucky, where he died. He was appointed captain of a squadron of Tennessee soldiers in the Revolutionary war. His appoint- ment was by General Nathaniel Greene, whose niece was Captain McClanahan's wife.
Thomas McClanahan (great-great-grandfather) was a Baptist minister of Virginia, whose wife was a Miss Marshall.
Noah Dorsey (maternal grandfather) was a na- tive of Maryland, of Irish extraction, and mar- ried a Miss Hall of Jefferson County. They re- moved to Henderson County very early in the present century, and are buried in the cemetery at Corydon.
James F. Powell was reared on his father's farm, attending the neighborhood schools and also an advanced school in Henderson. He en- tered the Confederate army at the beginning of the war and remained till its close, serving under Generals John H. Morgan and Basil W. Duke.
After the close of the war he was engaged in merchandising in Corydon, in which he con- tinued successfully for nearly twenty years. In January, 1884, he embarked in the tobacco busi- ness, buying and selling, and in connection there- with he soon established a large stemmery at Corydon, in which he prepares tobacco for the
European market. He is also extensively in- terested in farming.
Mr. Powell is one of the most highly respected citizens of Corydon, and is greatly admired for his upright Christian character.
He was married November 18, 1866, to Emma Wilson, daughter of James Wilson, and a native of Southern Arkansas. Mrs. Powell is a lady of very engaging manners, active and energetic in good work and of sterling qualities, which have made her very helpful in her worthy husband's successful career. They have nine children, whose names are as follows: James Basil, Olivia Nora, Della, Annie, Ruby, Ozella, John W., Ruth and Fanny May Powell.
JOHN YOUNG BROWN, who recently re- J tired from the gubernatorial chair of Ken- tucky, is one of the foremost orators and states- men of his Commonwealth. He is a son of Thom- as D. and Mary (Young) Brown, and was born in Hardin County June 28, 1835. His father was for several terms a member of the Legislature from Hardin County, and also represented that county in the convention which framed the state constitution in 1849-50. As a consequence the future governor spent several winters at the state capital, and received his first lessons in oratory from the many famous speakers of that day, who esteemed it an honor to secure an election to the law-making body of the state. Thomas Brown was himself an orator of no mean reputation, and the Youngs, the maternal ancestors of Governor Brown, were long famed in Kentucky for the brilliancy of their intellect.
John Young Brown entered Center College, Danville, when but sixteen years of age, and graduated from that institution three years later in the class which furnished so many of the famous statesmen of Kentucky and other states. Re- turning to Hardin County, he read law, and at the age of twenty-one commenced practice at the Elizabethtown bar. For the next few years Mr. Brown was in great demand as a campaign orator. The issue of "Know-nothing-ism" being at this time at its height, and Mr. Brown being one of its most formidable opponents, his life was often
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threatened by the adherents of this un-Demo- cratic party.
In 1859 the Democrats of his district met at Bardstown and nominated him, over his own pro- test, as their candidate for Congress. He lacked over a year of being the required age for a con- gressman, but his constituents would not listen to his oft-repeated declinations. Colonel Jewett, the outgoing congressman, opposed him as an independent, but the young orator met him at every appointment and carried the district by storm, beating his opponent by about two thou- sand votes. Being under age, he was not allowed to take his seat until the short session of the term, nearly two years after his election.
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