USA > Kentucky > Biographical cyclopedia of the commonwealth of Kentucky > Part 40
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John McCutcheon McConnell (grandfather) was born in Washington County, Pennsylvania, December 25, 1789; was educated at Cannons- burg (Pennsylvania) College; served time as a shoemaker's apprentice, but ran away and was then apprenticed to a tailor, completed his term of service and received as a reward a horse and bridle and saddle, a suit of clothes and $25 in money. He rode to Chillicothe, Ohio, thence into Kentucky, locating at Prestonsburg; taught school and studied law; removed to Greenup
and practiced law there for many years; served in both branches of the Legislature, and was in the Senate in 1824, when General Lafayette visit- ed that body.
He died July 5, 1835, in the prime of his splen- did manhood and in the height of his prosperity. He had a very large practice and had accumulated considerable property.
He was married December 17, 1817, to Lucy Bragg Lewis, daughter of Charles Nelson Lewis. She died April 10, 1849. The ancestors of the McConnells came from Londonderry, Ireland, and were Protestants.
Charles Nelson Lewis (great-grandfather) was a native. of Greenup (now Carter) County; was a member of the Kentucky Senate, and died while there and was buried in Frankfort. He married Elizabeth Bragg, a descendant of the Braggs of North Carolina, and daughter of Ann Blakemore Bragg, a member of the Virginia fam- ily of Blakemores.
James Henderson (maternal grandfather) was born in Belleville, Pennsylvania; married Sarah Spangler of Zanesville, Ohio, September 17, 1826; was a member of the Ohio Senate for two terms and a very talented lawyer; died March 19, 1844.
Sarah Spangler Henderson was born in Zanes- ville, Ohio, January 1, 1804; died May 29, 1883.
Clinton Spangler (maternal great-grandfather) was born May 14, 1772, and was a merchant of Zanesville. Ann, his wife, was born January 8, 1773; died February 27, 1828.
C LIFTON ARNSPARGER, County Attor- ney of Bourbon County, one of the ablest young lawyers of Paris, son of Stephen and Martha Todd Arnsparger, was born in Scott County, Kentucky, July 17, 1860.
His father was a native of Bourbon County and was a man of superior intelligence and edu- cation. His primary instruction was received in the country schools, but this was followed by a course under the private tutorship of Lyman J. Curtis, one of the ablest educators in the county at that time. He continued his studies after he was twenty years of age. His father having only limited means, he was compelled to earn the money to defray his expenses at school, and this
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he did by working at the shoemaker's trade. For some time he lived at Centerville, Bourbon Coun- ty, but subsequently removed to Newtown, Scott County, where he followed his trade and opened a general merchandise store. In connection with that he was postmaster of Newtown for a period of nearly twenty years. Having purchased a small farm he attended to that in connection with his store until 1894, when he retired to his farm, upon which he is now living with his family.
He married Martha Todd of Bourbon County in 1857, and they have four children living: Clif- ton; James D., married Josie Jones; George and Lizzie. Two others, Fanny and Martha, died in infancy.
Stephen Arnsparger and family are members of the Christian Church. Although a Democrat, he was appointed postmaster under a Republican president, and held that office from time to time through the several changes of administration.
Christopher Arnsparger (grandfather) came to Kentucky from Pennsylvania and was of German descent.
James O. Todd (maternal grandfather) was a farmer and raiser of fine stock in Bourbon County, and took great interest in the famous Bertram stock. His wife was Elizabeth Austin, of Scott County, and they were Presbyterians.
Clifton Arnsparger obtained his primary train- ing in the county schools, and in 1877 went to Georgetown College, from whence he was gradu- ated in 1881; was first employed as a bookkeeper in the wholesale and retail grocery of John S. Gaines at Georgetown, Kentucky, for a short time, and then taught school, but soon gave that up and read law with Judge James E. Cantrill, ex-lieutenant governor, now judge of the Cir- cuit Court. He then attended the Cincinnati law school and graduated in law in 1886; was ad- mitted to the bar and began the practice of his profession in Paris in 1886; was city attorney from 1888 to 1892; was public administrator and guardian for several years by appointment; was elected county attorney in the fall of 1893 to fill a vacancy, and at the November election, 1894, was elected to succeed himself in that office, his present term beginning January 1, 1895.
Among the members of the legal profession
and the citizens of Paris he bears the name of a good and faithful servant and a lawyer of more than ordinary ability.
He is a member of the Christian Church, and of Bourbon Lodge No. 23, I. O .O. F.
Mr. Arnsparger and Ruby Lowry, daughter of William and Sobrina (Neal) Lowry of Scott County were married October 16, 1889. There were born to them three children: William S., born August 18, 1890; Sobrina, born June 28, 1892, died in infancy; and Lucien Marion, born February 3, 1896.
JAMES WEIR, lawyer, author and banker and pre-eminently one of the first citizens of Owensboro, is a son of James and Anna (Rum- sey) Weir, and was born in Greenville, Kentucky, June 16, 1821.
His father, James Weir, was of Scotch-Irish parentage and was born near Charleston, South Carolina. He came to Kentucky about the close of the last century, or one hundred years ago. He was a man of excellent education, and was employed as a surveyor or civil engineer for some time, but eventually engaged quite extensively in mercantile pursuits, his business extending over a vast territory. He owned stores in Shawnee- town and Equality in Illinois, Henderson, Mor- ganfield, Madisonville, Greenville, Lewisburg, Hopkinsville and Russellville in Kentucky, and Gallatin, Tennessee. He had a very large and profitable trade with the Spaniards in New Or- leans and in Cuba, and this at a time when all freight between New Orleans and Kentucky was carried on flatboats. Mr. Weir's business, being scattered over so much territory, required him to travel extensively, as an instance of which he often told his son that he had made the journey from New Orleans to Philadelphia and return on horseback not less than twenty-five times, with no other companion but Titus, his faithful old negro servant. He was eminently successful in his many business ventures and left a valuable estate.
James Weir's paternal grandfather was a resi- dent of Charleston, South Carolina, and a soldier in the Revolutionary war, serving from the be- ginning to the end of the war under General
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Sumter. The only compensation he received for his faithful and patriotic service was a little negro girl who had been confiscated from the estate of a Tory. His son David, also a soldier, was killed at Sumter's defeat.
Anna Rumsey Weir (mother) was a lineal de- scendant of Charles Rumsey, who came to the United States from Wales in 1665 and settled in Maryland. Her uncle, James Rumsey, was the inventor of the application of steam to boats and other vessels, whose son, James, upon proof that his father had run the first vessel by steam in the United States, received a gold medal from Con- gress as an appreciation of his father's valuable invention. The inventor, James Rumsey, dropped dead while delivering a lecture before the Phil- osophical Society in London.
James Weir received a collegiate education in Centre College, Danville, Kentucky, from which he graduated in the class of 1840. Very few, if any, of his classmates are now as actively engaged in business as is Mr. Weir. He studied law at the Lexington law school when Judges Robinson, Wooley and Marshall were professors in that grand old institution, and graduated in the win- ter of 1841. In the following year he began the practice of his profession in Owensboro, where he was a leading member of the bar for over forty years. At the time of his coming Owensboro was a village of two hundred and fifty inhabitants. In 1860 he was made president of the Deposit Bank of Owensboro, which position he has held for thirty-five years. In 1869 he was elected presi- dent of the Owensboro & Nashville Railroad Company, and held that position for three years.
When the reporters entered the city of Owens- boro to obtain information for the compiling of this volume, they called on a number of the best citizens and asked for a list of the prominent men in the city, and every one of the lists thus given was headed with the name of James Weir. It is hardly necessary to add that among his fellow- citizens he stands pre-eminently as the first citi- zen of Owensboro. A lawyer of the highest rank, a banker whose judgment and ability are recog- nized in financial and business circles, and a citi- zen of great purity of character, he is known of all men as a man of generous nature, kindliness
of spirit, and of the highest scholarly attainments. Dignified and withal courteous and obliging, un- ostentatious in his bearing and unconscious of his superiority, he is greatly loved and respected by everyone in the large circle of his acquaint- ance.
He is, moreover, a man of letters and an author of celebrity, although he has not recently aspired to literary fame. In 1850 he wrote "Lonz Pow- ers," and in 1852-53 "Simon Kenton" and "Win- ter Lodge," which novels were published by Lip- pincott of Philadelphia, and gave promise of a brilliant future, but since that time he has been too much engrossed in his profession and other business matters to devote much time to litera- ture, and his work in that direction has been lim- ited to an occasional sketch for the newspapers and magazines.
He has never posed as an active politician, hav- ing never sought or held any political office. He was a Whig in his younger days, and has voted with the Democratic party since the war.
Mr. Weir was married March 1, 1842, to Susan C. Green, daughter of Judge John Green of Dan- ville, Kentucky. Her maternal great-grandfather was Joshua Fry, who was a commander of the Virginia troops under General Braddock in his unfortunate campaign, and was taken sick and died before the battle. Joshua Fry, her grand- father, the son of General Joshua Fry, married Peachey Walker, a member of a distinguished Virginia family.
Mr. and Mrs. Weir have six children, three sons and three daughters: John E. Weir; Dr. James Weir; Paul Weir; Anna Belle, wife of Clinton Griffith; Susan, wife of James L. Maxwell, now residing in Knoxville, Tennessee; and Nora, wife of R. S. Triplett, Jr., now a resident of Waco, Texas.
The stories referred to were written before Mr. Weir was thirty years of age. They were pub- lished in book form and supplied to the trade by the Philadelphia house of Lippincott, Gambo & Co. The first of these (1850) was "Lonz Powers, or the Regulators"; a romance of Kentucky, based on actual scenes and incidents of the early days of the "Dark and Bloody Ground."
The second novel, "Simon Kenton," was de-
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signed to give a sketch of the habits and striking characteristics of the people of Western North Carolina, immediately following the Revolution- ary times, and to introduce Simon Kenton, the scout and Indian fighter, and also his opponent and enemy, Simon Girty, the Tory and renegade. In this volume the character which Kenton rep- resented came off victorious.
"Winter Lodge" is a sequel to "Simon Ken- ton," in which the author introduces many of the most striking characters who were prominent in the early history of Kentucky, with numerous incidents of the times, descriptions of scenery, Mammoth cave; the battles in which Kenton and Girty were engaged and the habits and marked characteristics of the pioneers. The name, Win- ter Lodge, is derived from a cabin erected by Kenton, for the hero and heroine, which was ornamented with carpets of buffalo hides and lined with furs. Mr. Weir intended in his younger days to write a third volume of this series, coming down to the War of 1812 and the death of Kenton and Girty, but his increasing business prevented him from accomplishing this, and his literary work of late years has been un- dertaken as a pastime and recreation rather than a matter of business.
C APTAIN JOHN F. DAVIS of Louisville, deputy collector of internal revenue, was born in Shelby County, Kentucky, January 8, 1832. His father, Theophilus Davis, was born in Virginia in 1797, and removed to Kentucky when a boy, receiving his education in the com- mon schools of Shelby County, where he en- gaged in farming. He was an active member of the Baptist Church, taking great interest in church work. He was not a politician, but always voted the Whig ticket. He died at his home in Shelby County in 1845, and is buried in Grove Hill cemetery. James Davis, father of Theophilus and grandfather of Captain John F. Davis, was a native of Virginia, where he died in 1831. He was a member of the Baptist Church and a Whig. Captain Davis' mother, Elizabeth (Foster) Davis, was a native of Nelson County, Kentucky, born in 1810; educated in Shelbyville; member of the Baptist Church; died January 22, 1832. She was
the daughter of John Foster, a native of Fauquier County, Virginia; a member of the Baptist Church and a Whig; died 1829.
Captain Davis received a good education in the Shelby County schools, finishing in the fresh- man class of Shelby College in 1849. After leav- ing college he was a "clerk" in a dry goods store for a year and then, following the example of his ancestors for several generations, he chose farm- ing for his occupation, which he followed suc- cessfully until 1861, when he espoused the cause of the Southern Confederacy, enlisting as a pri- vate soldier at Bowling Green, September 15, 1861. He was not long a private, however, for he was almost immediately appointed assistant commissary of subsistence, with the rank of cap- tain of cavalry, and assigned to duty with the Sixth Kentucky Regiment of Volunteer Infantry. He remained on duty with that regiment until October, 1862, when he was promoted to acting chief of subsistence of General John C. Brecken- ridge's division. He was elected a delegate by representatives of his county to the Russellville convention, October, 1861, and voted in the con- vention for a resolution declaring Kentucky to be one of the Confederate states. He was painfully wounded in the battle of Shiloh, April 6, 1862. In the winter of 1864-65 he organized the Twen- tieth Alabama Regiment of Cavalry in North Alabama, with headquarters at Gadsden, and joined General B. J. Hill's brigade, remaining on duty in command of his regiment until the close of the war, surrendering at Gunthersville, Ten- nessee, May 10, 1865. His commission as colonel never reached him.
Returning to his home in Shelby County, he found that a previous legislature had enacted a law disfranchising all persons who had served in the Confederate army, but this law was repealed by the legislature of 1865-66, and Captain Davis again became a citizen and voter.
In August, 1866, he was elected sheriff of Shelby County, and was re-elected in August, 1868. Under the laws of Kentucky he could not serve a third term as sheriff; but in 1870 he was elected clerk of the Shelby County Court by a good majority, after an exciting contest. He was twice re-elected to this lucrative office, declining
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to make another race at the expiration of his third term of four years, in 1882, but entered the race for the nomination of his party for clerk of the Court of Appeals, with eleven candidates, receiv- ing a highly complimentary vote, but yielding the victory to Captain Tom Henry of West Liberty, Morgan County, for the nomination of his party.
In January, 1884, Captain Davis was appointed by Governor Knott Commissioner of Agriculture, Horticulture and Statistics, which office he held until May, 1888. He was also appointed State Statistical Agent for Kentucky by the Agricul- tural Department at Washington, serving in that capacity until August, 1888. In May, 1888, he returned to his farm in Shelby County, resuming the cultivation of the soil, until August, 1894, when he was appointed deputy collector of in- ternal revenue by Hon. Benjamin Johnson, col- lector of the Fifth collection district of Kentucky, and is now serving in that office at Louisville.
Captain Davis was married June 17, 1869, to Mrs. Mary P. Gray, widowed daughter of Judge W. J. Steele of Versailles, Kentucky. He is the father of six children, one of whom, Andrew J. Stcele Davis, died in 1875. His eldest daughter, Lizzie J., is the wife of Dr. W. T. Buckner of Shelbyville. William J. S. Davis is in business in Loogootee, Indiana. John C., George T. and Mary Stoddard Davis are in school in Louisville, where Captain Davis has purchased a homestead in which he expects to spend the remainder of his days.
W TILLIAM EDWARD BATES of George- town, Judge of the Scott County Court, son of George W. and Maria (Burgess) Bates, was born in Scott County, Kentucky, August 8, 1830.
George W. Bates (father) was a native of Mas- sachusetts, who came to Kentucky in 1826, locat- ing in Scott County. In 1834 he removed to Indi- ana and after spending two years in that state he returned to his former home in Scott County, where he continued to reside until his death in 1886. He was a fuller by trade, but after com- ing to Kentucky he devoted his attention to farm- ing. He was a major of militia under the com- mand of General John T. Pratt. He was a highly
respected citizen and a worthy and upright mem- ber of the Christian Church.
William Randall Bates (grandfather), also a native of Massachusetts, came to Kentucky in 1830 and located in Boone County, where he died in 1837. He was a merchant and a man of won- derful energy and enterprise. The Bates family is of English descent. Two brothers came over to this country in 1635, settling in Boston. Some of their descendants emigrated to the colony of Virginia. The late Honorable Edward Bates, who was President Lincoln's first attorney-gen- eral, belonged to the Virginia branch of the fam- ily.
Maria Burgess Bates (mother) was born in Scott County, and was a resident of her native county until her death, April 4, 1888. She was a most excellent woman, whose chief characteris- tic was her devotion to her religion and to the Christian Church, of which she was a member.
Edward Burgess (grandfather) was born in Cul- peper County, Virginia, in 1783, and was one of the first settlers of Scott County, where he was a farmer and died in 1857. The Burgess family is descended from the Huguenots who were driven out of France by Louis XIV. in 1685, many of whom settled in Virginia and the Carolinas, and their descendants are everywhere highly honored and respected; being enterprising and intelligent, they are found in legitimate business pursuits and in the professions in almost every community. The ministers especially who belong to this sturdy race have wide influence in the South and West.
William Edward Bates lived on his father's farm until he was twenty-four years of age. He was educated in the common schools of his day, and by close application he became well advanced in many of the English branches. He was mar- ried in 1860 to Annie E. Reed, daughter of James Reed of Scott County, after which event he re- turned to the farm, where he remained until 1890, during a part of which time-about nine years -- he served as justice of the peace.
In 1890 he was elected judge of the Scott Coun- ty Court, and in 1894 was re-elected to that office, in both of which elections he was the candidate of the Democratic party.
Judge Bates is a man of great energy and force
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of character, possessing many of those qualities without which few men rise to distinction. What is true in the wide field of universal history is none the less true in the limited range of a town or neighborhood. A determined and persistent pur- pose, practical sense and integrity, are traits which mark the outlines of Judge Bates' chief characteristics. He has been a member of the Christian Church since 1848.
Judge Bates is the eldest of twelve children- eleven sons and one daughter-of George W. Bates, eight of whom are now living. During the Civil strife the family was divided; two of the sons were in the Federal and two in the Con- federate army, the latter two serving under Gen- eral John Morgan. Two other brothers served for a short time only, one on each side of the conflict.
JOHN W. BREATHITT of Hopkinsville, Judge of the Christian County Court and ex- postmaster of that city, was born in Hopkinsville, Christian County, Kentucky, January 9, 1825. His father, James Breathitt, was born in Virginia in 1794 and came to Kentucky in his youth; at- tended school in Christian County; subsequently read law and was admitted to the bar before he was twenty years of age. He was quite prominent as a lawyer and politician; had a large practice in different parts of the state as well as locally. For several terms he was commonwealth attor- ney for his district, and was an active and leading member of the Presbyterian Church. His father, William Breathitt, was a native of Virginia, who came to Kentucky in the early days of the cen- tury and located in Logan County.
Peyton Short (maternal grandfather) was a native farmer of Christian County. His daugh- ter, Elizabeth Short, married James Breathitt.
John W. Breathitt attended school in Chris- tian County until he was fourteen years of age, when he went to North Bend, Ohio, and lived with his uncle while attending school in that place. At the age of seventeen he went to Kenyon College at Gambier, Ohio, and studied for two years, after which he attended school for a short time in Augusta, Kentucky. In 1844, when only twenty years of age, he returned to his native place and engaged in merchandising, in which he continued
three years, and then went to farming and devoted his time to agricultural pursuits until 1861, when he joined the Federal army and was major of the Third Kentucky Regiment of Cavalry. He participated in the battles of Shiloh, Pittsburg Landing, Stone River, Lookout Mountain and many other engagements during the four years of his active service in the field.
After the close of the war, he returned to his farm, and in 1874 was elected county clerk, which office he held for sixteen years; was appointed postmaster of Hopkinsville by President Harri- son in 1890; served until October, 1894, and one month later was elected judge of the Christian County Court for a term of four years.
John W. Breathitt is connected with the Mis- sionary Baptist Church, and is a member of the Masonic fraternity.
He married Catherine A. Webber in 1847 and they have had nine children, seven of whom are living: Peyton S., Augustine Harvie, Harry W., James, Elizabeth S., Mary Caroline and Cath- erine A.
W ILLIAM E. AUD, one of the talented young lawyers of Owensboro, was born in Knottsville, Daviess County, Kentucky, March 19, 1870.
His father, Hilliary T. Aud, was also a native of Daviess County, and was educated at St. Mary's College, graduating when quite young. He be- gan as a clerk in a store in Knottsville, and after serving in that capacity for four years, in 1860 he and his brother purchased the property of his employer and established the firm of J. B. Aud & Brother, which is still in existence, and is the oldest mercantile establishment in that town. Mr. H. T. Aud was married September 29, 1863, to Victoria Jarboe, and they had seven children: Guy G., Henry T., William E., Regina, Mary Joseph, Mary Rock and Victoria. Of these Guy G., Regina and Victoria are deceased.
Thomas C. Aud (grandfather) was a native of Nelson County, Kentucky, a highly educated man and a practicing physician in Knottsville, Daviess County, where he died in 1853. He married Alice Birkhead of Nelson County, Kentucky, daughter of Abraham Birkhead, and had seven
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children: Joseph B., Ellen, Maggie, Hillary T., Charles Z., Atha Matilda J. and George, all of whom are living except George and Matilda.
Ignatius Jarboe (maternal grandfather) was born in Nelson County, Kentucky, about 1805, and was a farmer in that county until a short time prior to the Civil war, when he removed to Daviess County and located about three miles from Knottsville and was a farmer there until the time of his death in 1884. His wife was a Miss Martina Speaks of Nelson County, and they had six children: Raymond, Henry, Benjamin, Vic- toria, Josephine and Edward, all of whom are dead except Victoria and Edward.
The parents and grandparents of the subject of this sketch and their antecedents were members of the Catholic Church. His grandfathers were Democrats, but his father is a Republican and is very active and influential in his party.
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