USA > Kentucky > Biographical cyclopedia of the commonwealth of Kentucky > Part 37
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Few young men have realized upon their in- vestments as quickly and surely as Mr. Steele. By close application to business and indefatigable industry, he has built up a remunerative practice and has succeeded in securing an excellent libra- ry. If the first five years of his professional career are a fair index of the future, he will make his mark as one of the leading lawyers of the state.
His father, Daniel Webster Steele, was born in Lebanon, Russell County, Virginia, August 4, 1837, and removed to Kentucky with his par- ents in 1838. He received his education prin- cipally in the county schools of Boyd and Greenup Counties, and taught school before the war.
He enlisted September 23, 1861, in Company B, Twenty-second Regiment Kentucky Volun- teer Infantry, as a private, and at the organization of the company was elected second sergeant, after- wards first sergeant and was subsequently pro- moted to second lieutenant, promoted to first
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lieutenant December 14, 1863, and was afterwards transferred to Company H as captain.
He participated in the capture of Cumberland Gap; the battle of Tazewell, Tennessee; was in the march from Cumberland Gap to the Ohio river under command of General George W. Morgan; then joined the army of West Virginia at Charleston; afterwards transferred to the army of the Tennessee at Memphis; then in the expe- dition against Vicksburg; was in the battles of Chickasaw Bluffs, Arkansas Post, Grand Gulf, Port Gibson, Raymond, Champion Hills and Big Black River; was in the general assault on Vicks- burg, May 22, 1863; participated in the forty-nine days' siege and the capture of the city on the 4th of July, and the battle of Jackson, Mississippi, July 12, 1863.
Captain Steele is a most ardent Republican, and is a member of the Masonic fraternity. He taught school immediately after the war; tilled the soil until 1873, when he became manager of the Star Furnace in Carter County, Kentucky, and was employed there for one year. He was employed by the Ashland Coal & Iron Railway Company from 1874 till 1881, when he removed to Ashland in order to afford his children the bene- fit and advantages of the educational facilities of that city, from which place he still controls the management of the farm.
He was married March 2, 1865, to Aremetha R. Ulen. They have six sons and two daugh- ters, the subject of this sketch being the eldest child.
Daniel Steele (grandfather) was born in Stokes County, North Carolina, May 9, 1791. He en- listed in the Twenty-first North Carolina Bat- talion in 1813, and served until the close of the war in 1815. He was elected to the North Caro- lina legislature in 1818, and served until 1820, when he removed to Washington County, Vir- ginia, where he married Nancy Spears. He was a bricklayer by trade and built the first courthouse at Lebanon, the county seat of Russell County, Virginia. He afterwards studied medicine, and began his work in that profession about 1825, and continued in the practice until his death in 1863.
Aremetha R. Ulen Steele (mother) was born
in Boyd County, March 21, 1843. She was edu- cated in the schools of Catlettsburg, Ashland and Greenup, Kentucky.
Benjamin Ulen (maternal grandfather), a phy- sician and farmer, was born in Virginia in 1790; served in the war of 1812; died in Boyd County, Kentucky, in 1861. He was married three times, and Aremetha Steele was a daughter of his third wife, whose mother was the wife of Louis Napo- leon Raison, whose father emigrated from France to San Domingo, where he owned extensive coffee plantations and many slaves. The negroes re- belled against their master, and in order to save his life, he emigrated to Kentucky. This loss impoverished him.
Benjamin Ulen (great-grandfather) of Virginia was pursued at one time by Indians, and rather than be captured and tortured by them, he leaped over a cliff, making a miraculous escape by fall- ing into a grape vine in a buckeye tree. The spot was called "Ulen's Leap," now known as "Lovers' Leap," in West Virginia.
JUDGE CHARLES B. THOMAS, for many years judge of the Circuit Court of the Lex- ington district, was one of the most popular judges of the state in his day. He was a son of Barak G. and Sarah Ann (Howe) Thomas. Barak G. Thomas was a native of Elkton, Maryland, and was descended from Welsh ancestors, and when quite a young man emigrated from his native state and settled in Charleston, South Caro- lina. He remained there until 1833, when he re- moved to Lexington with his family, which was his home until his death, which occurred in 1849 in the sixtieth year of his age. He was a master machinist by trade and was one of the first men who ran a high pressure steam engine in this country. This was on a steamboat which plied the Pedee River in South Carolina. He had two sons and two daughters by his marriage to Sarah Ann Howe: Judge Charles B., and Major Barak G. Thomas of Lexington (see his sketch); the daughters were Salina A. and Sarah A., both of whom died young. Judge Thomas distinguished himself as an able advocate and an upright judge. Before his elevation to the bench he practiced law for many years before the Lexington bar
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and was a contemporary of some of the most brilliant men the State ever produced, who were members of the same bar; such men as James B. Clay, George Robertson, M. C. Johnson, F. K. Hunt, R. A. and B. F. Buckner, G. B. Kin- kead, J. B. Beck, and John B. Payne. When quite young, Judge Thomas served as city judge, and about the year 1860 was elected circuit judge, his circuit being composed of the counties of Fayette, Scott, Jessamine, Woodford, Clark, Mad- ison, and Bourbon. He remained on the bench until his death in December, 1873, in the fifty- fourth year of his age. He served continuously and most acceptably to the people for a period of thirteen years. During the Civil war, Judge Thomas served in the Southern army as judge- advocate, with the rank of colonel. During the whole of the war he was with the Army of Vir- ginia. He was one of nature's noblemen and had a strong hold upon the affections of the people. Suave and courteous in manner, warm-hearted and kind to his friends, but when upon the bench he was dignified and firm, and his decisions were always just and equitable. Like his father, he was trained in the political school of Jefferson and was a stanch Democrat. He was a man of great courage, determination and force of char- acter, and when he once made up his mind that his judgment was correct, he was firm and un- changeable. His literary education was received at the University of Indiana. He read law with Samuel Shy, Esq., and was soon afterward ad- mitted to the bar. A friend, speaking of him, said: "Charles B. Thomas was truly the people's judge, and this universal sentiment was due large- ly to his natural impartiality and high sense of honor in all matters. No decision of his could be questioned, because the people said whatever he said was right. He was neat in his dress and pleasant in his manner, and was a 'good mixer' with the people, but when on the bench he seemed not to know his most intimate friend. His prompt decision in almost all cases made the juries and the people generally style him a 'judge by nature.' His great moral courage and high sense of honor tended very much to make him a most popular man."
After Major Thomas left the office of Judge
Robertson, his preceptor, writing of him in a let- ter, said: "I can, without hesitation or qualifi- cation, vouch for his intelligence, his high honor, his excellent character and exceptional habits. He will deceive nobody. He will not say what he does not believe, and will faithfully do what- ever he undertakes."
M AJOR BARAK G. THOMAS, a promi- nent horse breeder of Lexington, son of Barak G. and Sarah Ann (Howe) Thomas, and brother of Judge Charles B. Thomas, was born in Charleston, South Carolina, June 9, 1826. He was educated in the University of Indiana, Bloom- ington, remaining there nearly four years, when he returned to Lexington and entered Transyl- vania University, in which he studied for two years and graduated in 1845. He then attended the law department of that time-honored insti- tution, graduating in 1847; was admitted to the Fayette County bar and began the practice of law. He soon relinquished this, and accepted a position with the Lexington & Frankfort Rail- road Company as civil engineer, and after the completion of that road he was made general freight and passenger agent at Lexington. He served in this capacity some twelve or fourteen years, until the beginning of the Civil war, and in 1861 he enlisted in the Southern army, first under the command of General Kirby Smith, but at Knoxville his regiment was assigned to the brigade of General Abe Buford. Here for a short time he served as chief of commissary, when he was transferred to chief of commissary of Gen- eral Wheeler's Cavalry Corps and served in this line of duty until the time of his discharge, May 3, 1865.
After the close of the war, Major Thomas ac- cepted a clerkship in a grocery, which was only temporary, as he soon became manager of the Lexington Observer and Reporter, and was thus employed for three years. He was then appointed teller in the Farmers' and Traders' Bank of Lex- ington and held that responsible position for three years. In 1875 he was elected sheriff of Fayette County, and was re-elected to the same office, serving two full terms. He then turned his atten- tion to the breeding and training of thoroughbred
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horses, in which he has been remarkably success- ful and has established a most enviable reputa- tion. He now owns Hirailla, one of the most beautiful country seats and stock farms in central Kentucky. It is located about six miles from Lexington on the Huffman Mill pike, where he keeps about eighty horses. Hirailla is run in connection with Timberland, which belongs to Thomas Gardiner. Among others, Major Thomas has bred the following horses, which in their day were among the very best performers in the coun- try: Hertzog Aureola, Himyar, Lelex, Jewel Band, Ban Fox, King Fox, and Domino.
Major Thomas has held many positions of trust in the county of Fayette and the city of Lexing- ton; has been guardian and administrator of many large estates, and from 1870 to 1875 he filled the office of master commissioner of the Fay- ette Circuit Court. He is a Democrat of the old school, and it can truthfully be said that in every relation of life he has performed his part with the strictest integrity and honesty. He is a true friend and is universally popular.
W ILLIAM THOMAS AULL, chief deputy clerk of the County Court, Owensboro, son of James and Charlotte (McDaniel) Aull, was born in Daviess County, Kentucky, March 16, 1840.
His father was born in Nelson County, January 4, 1818, and received a part of his education in that county before removing to Daviess County in 1832, and completed his schooling in the last named county. He has devoted his life during more than a half century to the honorable busi- ness of farming in Daviess County, where he is now living in quiet retirement. He is a faithful member of the Catholic Church.
Benjamin Aull (grandfather) was a native of Frederick, Maryland, who came to Nelson County when he was a youth; married a Miss Redman, daughter of Richard Redman; was a farmer in comfortable circumstances; a member of the Catholic Church, and a highly respected citizen of his county. He died in Daviess County, aged eighty-three years. His father, Aquilla Aull (great- grandfather) was a Virginian of German descent.
Charlotte McDaniel Aull (mother) was born in
Nelson County in 1818. Her parents removed to Daviess County with the Aull family, and they bought adjoining farms in the Knottsville pre- cinct. She married James Aull May 6, 1839, and they lived happily together for fifty years. She died as she had lived, in the Catholic faith, in 1893, aged seventy-six years.
Abraham McDaniel (grandfather) was a native farmer of Nelson County, whose ancestors were from Ireland.
William Thomas Aull was educated in Daviess County in the public schools; and on the 30th day of September, 1861, he enlisted in Dr. C. T. Noel's company, First Regiment Kentucky Cav- valry, which belonged to the famous Orphans' Brigade. Dr. Noel, the captain of Company A, was killed in 1862, and W. J. Taylor, first lieuten- ant, took command of the company, with whom Mr. Aull served until the close of the war. He was in the battles of Murfreesboro, Perryville, Chickamauga, Mission Ridge, Round Top Moun- tain, Atlanta, and other engagements in which the army of Tennessee took part. In the battle of King's Salt Works, Virginia, October 4, 1864, he was severely wounded, necessitating the ampu- tation of his right leg. He was left in the hospital at Liberty, Tazewell County, Virginia, until Feb- ruary 19, 1865, when he was taken to Yorkville and a second amputation was performed. He re- mained there until he was able to travel, July 10, 1865, when he returned to his home in Daviess County.
He resumed his studies at Pleasant Valley Academy, which he attended for two years, and then taught school for four years.
In 1873 he was elected assessor of Daviess County for a term of four years; in 1878 he was elected constable for a term of two years; in 1880 he became proprietor of a hotel in Owensboro, which was burned January 24, 1882, and in the same year he was elected superintendent of city scales; in 1886 he was employed by Collector Hunter Wood, in the Internal Revenue Depart- ment, serving until the close of President Cleve- land's first administration, since which time he has been chief deputy clerk of the County Court, a position for which he has the highest qualifica- tions and which he has filled with great satisfac-
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tion to his employer, the members of the bar and the general public. He is personally very popular, being of a genial disposition, courtcous and obliging, and is highly respected for his hon- esty, candor and loyalty to his friends. He is a fair-minded and honorable politician, an active worker in the Democratic ranks, and enjoys the unbounded confidence of the entire community, regardless of politics. He is the secretary and a leading spirit in the Daviess County Confed- erate Association, a purely social organization, in which the embers of the camp-fire are kept burn- ing for memory's sake.
Mr. Aull was married August 29, 1869, to Mary E. Bruner, daughter of George W. and Isabella (Head) Bruner. They are members of the Chris- tian Church, and are social favorites in the church and in Owensboro society.
They have four children living: James G., born November 19, 1871; Leroy, born December 13, 1873; Maude L., born June 26, 1876, wife of Charles Usher of Owensboro; W. Jessie, born October 28, 1882.
C HARLES W. NAGEL, Mayor of Bellevue and a prominent real estate dealer in that progressive young city, was born in Detroit, Michigan, April 25, 1852, and is a son of William F. and Catherine (Bodemer) Nagel.
His father was a native of Baden, Germany, who came to the United States in 1847, and located in Detroit, where he married. He re- moved to Newport in October, 1857, where he was engaged in manufacturing rope until the be- ginning of the Civil war in 1861. He enlisted in the Fourth Ohio Battery, in which he served throughout the war. During his absence in the service of his adopted country, his family lived in Cincinnati. When he returned he removed to Bellevue, where he resumed his business of mak- ing rope, in which he continued until the time of his death, January 19, 1890, his death being due to a complication of diseases contracted while he was in the army. He was quite prominent as a Republican politician, and was a Michigan dele- gate to the convention that nominated John C. Fremont for President in 1856.
Charles W. Nagel's mother, Catherine (Bode-
mer) Nagel, is a native of Baden, Germany, and came to America in 1845, when she was twelve years of age. She is now living in Bellevue.
During the years of his boyhood, Charles W. Nagel was a resident at different times of New- port, Cincinnati and Bellevue; and received his education principally in the Cincinnati public schools, finishing with a course in a commercial college in that city. After leaving school he learned the printing trade with Jewett & Adams, by whom he was employed for twenty years. He abandoned his trade in 1885 and engaged in the real estate business in Bellevue, in partnership with T. F. Beyland, whose biography will be found in this volume. In 1891 he was elected secretary of the Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Newport, and in connection with L. J. Craw- ford purchased the Newport abstract office and completed its records up to date.
He has been quite prominent in politics, and during his residence in Bellevue has held a num- ber of offices; he was a member of the City Coun- cil for three years; was city clerk for seven years; examiner of teachers for three years; dep- uty sheriff for four years, and is now serving his second term as mayor of Bellevue, this being a popular endorsement of his administration during his first term. He was also police judge of his city for one term. From all this it may be inferred that Mr. Nagel is a very useful and popular citizen and trusted official.
He began his career without capital and has accumulated considerable property, including valuable real estate in Bellevue and vicinity.
Mr. Nagel was married in 1881 to Julia Sut- kamp of Dubuque, Iowa, and has one son and one daughter living: Herbert Lincoln Nagel and Elfrida Nagcl.
N TEWTON COOPER, a well-known business man and public spirited citizen of Mays- ville, was born two miles below that city on the hill overlooking the Ohio river in Mason County, Kentucky, May 19, 1820, and is a son of Hugh Cooper and Catherine (Rickerts) Cooper. Hugh Cooper was a native of Spottsylvania County, Virginia, and was born near the boundary line between that state and North Carolina October
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I, 1792. He emigrated with his father from his native state to Kentucky in about the year 1794 and settled in the vicinity of Mt. Sterling. He was a soldier under General Harrison in the war of 1812 and was at the siege of Fort Meigs. He came to Mason County and purchased a farm southwest of Maysville, containing sixty acres, in 1808. Here he carried on farming in connec- tion with shoemaking for two years. He learned his trade under G. Vannatta, and followed it for a short time until his marriage with Catherine Rickerts, who was born in Bedford County, Penn- sylvania, in 1792. Shortly after his marriage he built a stoneware pottery one mile below Mays- ville, which he operated until 1829, when he re- moved to Maysville, continuing in the same busi- ness till his death in 1831. His father, John Coop- er, was a South Carolinian by birth; removed to Virginia, and there married Patsey McDaniel, a daughter of Henry McDaniel, a native of Scot- land, then living in Spottsylvania County, Vir- ginia, where he owned a plantation and a large number of slaves. He removed to Kentucky about 1793, first making his home in Montgomery County and subsequently removed to Morgan County, where he died.
Hugh and Caroline (Rickerts) Cooper had ten children, of whom four are living: Milton, born April 24, 1815; Newton, Lucy and Mrs. Marian Power. The Coopers are of English, the Mc- Daniels of Scotch and the Rickerts of Welsh an- cestry. Ruliff Rickerts was a native of Cecil Coun- ty, Maryland; removed to Pennsylvania and from there to Kentucky in 1797.
Newton Cooper was reared at the old home- stead, and received one year's schooling, but his principal education, which is by no means mea- gre, has been acquired through an active business career. When quite young he was apprenticed to John C. Reed of Maysville, under whom he served for four years, learning the trade of tin plate and sheet iron making. After the expira- tion of his apprenticeship in 1838, he formed a partnership with Thomas J. Nicholson in the tin business, which relation continued about one year, when Mr. Cooper purchased Nicholson's in- terest and conducted it alone the greater part of the time until 1883, when he sold out to two of
his apprentices, McClanahan and Shea. In the same year he built his present fine grain storage and tobacco warehouse on Front street, which is 60x145 feet and six stories high.
While attending industriously to his many pri- vate interests, he is well known as a public spirited citizen and has been identified with the best in- terests of his city and county. He is a director in the Gas Company and the Electric Light Com- pany, and owns a one-third interest in the Mays- ville Electric Street Railway. Messrs. Cooper, Cochran and Cox were the promoters and build- ers of this road, one of the first constructed in the state. Mr. Cooper has had no time or inclination to seek public office, but under President Grant's first term, and without his knowledge, he was appointed revenue collector of the Tenth District, which place he accepted and for four years admin- istered the affairs of that office most acceptably to the administration and the people of the dis- trict.
H ON. WILLIAM M'DONALD SHAW, City Solicitor of Covington, son of Lafayette and Harriet McDonald Shaw, was born in Coving- ton, September 27, 1857. His father was born in Campbell County, July 3, 1825, and was edu- cated in the public schools of the county and in the law department of Louisville University. After graduating he began the practice of law in Cov- ington, where he has continued successfully until the present time.
He was judge of the Kenton County Court from 1865 to 1869, and was county attorney for four years. He is thoroughly devoted to his profession and cares little for politics other than a desire for the success of the Republican party, with which he has always affiliated. He is a Uni- versalist. His father, Robert Shaw, was born in Pennsylvania, March 13, 1783.
James Shaw, great-grandfather of W. McD. Shaw, was born in Ireland in 1754.
W. McD. Shaw was educated in the public schools of Covington and the High School of Cincinnati and at Princeton College, graduating in 1882. He then entered the Cincinnati Law School and graduated in 1884, taking the ora- torical prize of his class.
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He at once began the practice of law with his father, and from 1886 to 1890 he was county at- torney of Kenton County. July, 1891, he was appointed assistant United States district attor- ney for Kentucky, in which capacity he served with signal ability until September, 1893, and in the following November was elected city solicitor of Covington, which office he still holds, in con- nection with a lucrative law practice.
Mr. Shaw is an ardent Republican and a trusted leader in his party, not only in his county, but throughout the state. In 1888 he was Republic- an elector for the state at large and made a bril- liant campaign for General Harrison for Presi- dent. He is one of the finest stump orators in the political arena, and a man who makes a friend of every one he meets.
Mr. Shaw is an exemplary member of the Presbyterian Church.
His wife, Ruth Evelyn, daughter of N. M. Holliway of Los Angeles, Cal., was born in Kan- sas City, Missouri, December 21, 1864, and was educated in that city. They were married Octo- ber II, 1893.
W ILLIAM W. BLACKWELL of Hender- son, past supreme chancellor of the Knights of Pythias of the world, was born in Henderson, April 5, 1849, and is the son of Paul A. and Martha S. (Crymes) Blackwell, natives of Lunenburg County, Virginia, who came to Hen- derson in 1848. Paul A. Blackwell has been a prominent wholesale and retail hardware mer- chant in Henderson for thirty years. During the war he held the office of police judge, but never sought or held any other public office.
Chapman Blackwell (grandfather) came to Henderson from Lunenburg County, Virginia, in 1832, and was a son of Robert Blackwell, who was a native Virginian. His ancestors are traced to three Blackwell brothers who came from Eng- land two hundred years ago, one of whom located in Blackwell's Island, New York, another in Dur- ham, North Carolina, and the other settled in Vir- ginia. Robert Blackwell (great-grandfather) was a magistrate in Virginia under King George III.
Mr. Blackwell's mother, Martha S. Crymes Blackwell, was a daughter of Leonard Crymes, a native of Virginia.
W. W. Blackwell, after making good use of his school days, and while yet a mere boy, entered his father's hardware store and learned the de- tails of the business thoroughly. He soon dis- played remarkable business talent and it was not long until he was given an interest in the estab- lishment, and the growth of the business with his valuable assistance soon attested the wisdom of his father in giving him a responsible position in the management of the business. This part- nership has continued until the present writing, under the firm name of P. A. Blackwell & Co. The latter was president of the Gas Commission in 1887, a position which he filled with great credit to himself and to the entire satisfaction of the public.
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