USA > Kentucky > Biographical cyclopedia of the commonwealth of Kentucky > Part 41
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William E. Aud was educated in Jasper College, which is a branch of St. Meinrad College, Indiana, and in Cecilian College, Hardin County, and also graduated from the commercial department of Cecilian College in 1890.
He began the study of law in the office of Pow- ers & Achison in Owensboro, and was admitted to the bar in March, 1891, when twenty-one years of age, and began the active duties of his chosen profession in 1893, and in the same year was ap- pointed public administrator for Daviess County. He at once met with encouragement and has en- joyed a young lawyer's full share of business at the Owensboro bar; and being attentive to busi- ness, a diligent student and an industrious worker in behalf of his clients, he has the promise of a brilliant future. Mr. Aud is a Democrat in politics, but is modest in his ambition for political prefer- ment.
H ON. CURTIS F. BURNAM, senior mem- ber of the Madison County bar, was born in Richmond, Kentucky, May 24, 1820.
His father, Thompson Burnam, was born near Raleigh, Wake County, North Carolina, February 4, 1789. At the age of about thirteen years he was employed as a clerk in a store in Richmond, his father having removed to that place from North Carolina. He soon developed superior
business qualifications and tact; was a man of fine intelligence and took a deep interest in the de- velopment of the new country and in the improve- ment of the educational facilities in the commu- nity, and took especial care in the education and training of his children. He was an old-line Whig of pronounced views, and while he never sought political preferment, honors were frequently thrust upon him. He represented Madison County in the Legislature in 1843. In early life he was a successful merchant, but the closing years of his life were spent on his farm of five hundred and sixty acres, one of the finest blue grass farms in Madison, in which county he died May 4, 1871. His wife's maiden name was Lucinda Field. Five of their children are living: John Field Burnam, a prominent business man of Pueblo, Colorado; Mrs. Mary Wilson, widow of Nathaniel Wilson of Columbia, Missouri, now a resident of Wash- ington City; Rev. Edmond H. Burnam of Luray, Virginia, one of the ablest ministers in the Bap- tist Church, and one of the most accomplished scholars in this country; Mrs. Eugenia Hume, widow of William Stanton Hume, who was a large distiller and capitalist of Silver Creek, Ken- tucky, and Major Curtis F. Burnam, the princi- pal subject of this sketch.
John Burnam (grandfather) was born in Cecil County, Maryland; was a soldier in the Revolu- tionary war; fought at Guilford Court House, North Carolina, and after receiving his honorable discharge from service in the patriot army, re- turned to his home in Maryland.
Thomas Burnam (great-grandfather), a native of England, came to this country and settled on the eastern shore in Maryland, near Georgetown, now in the District of Columbia, and acquired a large landed estate, from which, however, his descendants never reaped any benefit.
Lucinda Field Burnam, Major Burnam's mother, was born on the banks of the Rappahan- nock in Culpeper County, Virginia, and was a daughter of John Field, who removed to Ken- tucky in 1800, or about that time, and located in Bourbon County. He was a Whig and a great admirer and supporter of Henry Clay, and repre- sented Bourbon County in the Legislature a num- ber of terms.
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Colonel John Field (great-grandfather) was a native of Virginia and a member of a distinguished family whose people were identified with the early development of that state. He was killed at Point Pleasant.
Major Curtis F. Burnam was prepared for col- lege in the Madison Seminary and graduated from Yale College in the class of 1840, receiving the degree of A. B., and was valedictorian at the departure of the senior class from college. Two years later, in 1842, he graduated from the law de- partment of old Transylvania University at Lex- ington, Kentucky. He was admitted to the bar in the same year and began his brilliant career as a lawyer in Richmond, which has been the scene of his labors ever since.
He was a member of the Legislature in all the sessions of 1851-2, 1859-60 and 1861-2, being three times elected to that body, in which he served with honorable distinction. In the Presi- dential campaign of 1851 he was elector on the Scott and Graham ticket, and cast his vote for them in the electoral college. In 1853 he declined the nomination for Congress when a nomination by the Whig party was equivalent to an election. In 1875 and 1876 he was assistant secretary of the treasury under President Grant, and in the ab- sence of Secretary Bristow, was acting secretary of the Treasury and member pro tempore of the President's Cabinet.
He was honored in 1884 by his election as pres- ident of the Kentucky Bar Association, which held its annual session at Louisville.
In 1890-I he was a delegate to the convention which framed the present Constitution of Ken- tucky, and was one of the most active and able members of that honorable body.
In 1846 he received from Yale the degree of A. M., and at later dates received from Center College and from Ogden College the degree of LL.D.
He has been for more than fifty years a mem- ber of the regular Calvinist Baptist Church.
He was during the great war for the preserva- tion of the Union a devoted Union man, and has been a Republican in politics at all times since. In the Legislature of 1863 he received for thirty- five ballots the unbroken vote of his party for the
office of United States Senator. His last public service was as delegate to the convention at Min- neapolis in 1892, in which body he was chairman of the Kentucky delegation, and voted for Harri- son for nomination to the Presidency.
Major Burnam has applied himself assiduously to the practice of his profession, in which he has enjoyed a liberal share of the more important cases in the higher courts and has seldom indulged in recreation, but in 1883 he took a holiday and made a tour of Europe.
He has acquired a handsome estate, including many valuable tracts of land in Madison County and his elegant homestead, which is situated in the suburbs of Richmond.
Major Burnam was married in 1845 to Sarah H. Rollins, daughter of Dr. A. W. Rollins, and sis- ter of Hon. James S. Rollins, who was twice elect- ed to Congress from Missouri, a brillian. orator and patriotic statesman.
They celebrated their golden wedding May 6, 1895. They have eight children, five sons and three daughters: A. R. Burnam, who was collec- tor of internal revenue of the eighth collection dis- trict under President Benjamin Harrison, and is one of the ablest lawyers in the state; Thompson Burnam, a farmer and the owner of one thousand or twelve hundred acres of fine land in Madison County; James R. Burnam, judge of the Madison County Court and an ex-member of the Ken- tucky Legislature; Robert Rodes Burnam, teller in the Farmers' National Bank of Richmond; Hon. E. Tutt Burnam, now a member of the Leg- islature; Mary C., wife of Waller Bennett of Mad- ison County, now in Europe; Misses Sallie and Lucy, who are at home, ladies of the highest social rank and influence in their community.
M ALCOLM McNEILL, deceased, who was a prominent citizen of Christian County, Kentucky, was born in North Carolina, Febru- ary 18, 1786. He was the seventh child of Henry and Dorothy McNeill. His father was born in Scotland, and coming to this country, landed at Charleston, South Carolina, and engaged in mer- cantile pursuits with his brother John, afterward marrying Miss Dorothy Pryor of North Carolina. The children of Henry and Dorothy were: Hec-
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tor, Alexander, Angus, Pryor, John Pryor, Mal- colm, Margaret, Elizabeth, Amanda, Catherine and Henrietta. Henry McNeill (father) died near Hopkinsville, Kentucky, November 3, 1820. Dorothy, his wife, died March 17, 1824, at the same place.
Malcolm McNeill moved to Kentucky from North Carolina in the fall of 1816, going to Chris- tian County, near Hopkinsville, purchasing a large tract of land with his two brothers, and brought his father and mother from North Caro- lina to his place, which was known as the White House, seven miles from Hopkinsville on the Princeton pike. This house was built about 1816. Malcolm and John Pryor and their father owned at that time about ten thousand acres of land. Malcolm afterward purchased his brother John's interest, and became owner of other land in Christian County, living on this place until he sold it and moved near LaFayette. He purchased large lands in that vicinity, and there lived until his death, February 21, 1875.
Malcolm McNeill was educated at Chapel Hill University, in North Carolina; studied law but never practiced, turning his attention to farming and commercial life. He also purchased lands in Mississippi and engaged extensively in cotton raising.
His first wife was Miss B. Branch; his second wife Miss Juda Branch. There are no living chil- dren by these two wives. His third wife was Martha Rivers, daughter of Samuel Henderson and Eliza Culloney. This marriage was blessed by three children, two girls and a boy, Elizabeth and Martha, and Thomas Henry. His fourth wife was Miss Lizzie Lynch, and his fifth a Mrs. Bell, having no living children except by his third wife. He made large investments in Chicago, the first of which was in 1843, when he was compelled to reach Chicago by private conveyance-in a buggy or on horseback. In politics he was a Whig but opposed secession, but after the be- ginning of the war sympathized with the South. After the war he became a Democrat. He lost a great deal of property by the depredations of the soldiers. He gave largely to charitable in- stitutions and supported several Methodist churches, being of that faith. He was beloved and
respected by all who knew him. His business methods were exact and precise, meeting all obligations at the time specified, accumulating property worth one million dollars or more, which was equally divided among his grandchildren.
The oldest daughter of Malcolm McNeill, Eliza- beth, married John P. Caruthers of Memphis, Tennessee. Martha, the second daughter, mar- ried Wiley P. Boddie.
H ON. NORVAL L. BENNETT of Newport, Judge of Campbell County Court, is the son of George W. and Louisa (Perry) Bennett. His father is a native of Culpeper C. H., Virginia, and came to Kentucky with his parents when fifteen or sixteen years of age. He now resides on his farm at Cold Springs, Campbell County, where he has lived for the past thirty years. He is now eighty-one years old and has always been a farmer and is a stanch Republican.
George W. Bennett, Sr. (grandfather) was also a native of Culpeper County, Virginia, but re- moved to Kentucky in 1827 and owned a line of flatboats which ran between Pittsburgh and New Orleans. The Bennetts belonged to an old Vir- ginia family whose ancestors came from Ger- many.
Louisa Perry Bennett (mother) was a native of Kenton County. She died in 1872, aged fifty- two years.
Charles Perry (grandfather) was a native of England; came to America when a youth; was a soldier in the War of 1812, and was a farmer, miller and a millwright. He died at his home in Covington in 1860.
Judge Norval L. Bennett was born near La- tonia Springs, Kenton County, July 17, 1853. He was educated in the common schools of the coun- ty and was a farmer until 1878, when, having an adventurous spirit, he enlisted in the regular army. At the time of his enlistment there were thirty- three men examined and he was one of three who were accepted. He served five years, the full term of his enlistment, doing duty in the west, and from Canada to Mexico. He was all through the Rocky Mountain regions and was with his command through the Ute campaign. During the last three years of his service he was first ser-
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geant, Company H, Sixth Regiment United States Infantry. He was discharged at Salt Lake City April 28, 1883. After returning home he read law, graduated from the Cincinnati Law School and was admitted to the Newport bar in 1889.
In 1894 he was the Republican candidate for county judge and was elected, assuming the duties of the office January 7, 1895.
Judge Bennett and Mattie A. Dodsworth, daughter of Robert Dodsworth of Cold Springs, were married in 1883, soon after his return from the army. He is president of the board of deacons of the Christian Church; an active member of the Young Men's Christian Association; a Knight Templar; member of the Junior Order of United American Mechanics; the Maccabees, Order of Ben Hur, K. A. E. O., and commander of the Regular Army and Naval Union.
T HOMAS HENRY McNEILL, son of Mal- colm McNeill, was born in Kentucky in 1821. He graduated from Yale College at the age of eighteen, and at the age of twenty married Miss Rebecca Tuck, daughter of Dr. Tuck, who lived on an adjoining farm, and settled near his father's farm, near LaFayette, Kentucky. This marriage was blessed by the following children: Flora, Harry, Malcolm, Ellen Mesha, Thomas Henry, John Pryor, Benjamin Franklin and Rivers. His wife, Rebecca, died November 20, 1859.
His second marriage, to Miss Ann Eliza Ar- thur of Mississippi, resulted in two children: W. A. and Alexander C. McNeill.
For several years Thomas Henry and his father were acquiring large tracts of land in Mississippi, which he took charge of, and devoted his time to raising cotton until 1866, and was known as the largest cotton planter of the South. He was a man of great business ability and large acquaint- ance, and entertained his friends in the most elaborate style. His family spent the winter on his plantation in Mississippi; the fall and spring months in Memphis, Tennessee, and the sum- mer months traveling. After his death the younger children were taken by Malcolm Mc- Neill, their grandfather, to his home in Christian County, where they went to school during the
winter months, and were required to work on the farm in the summer. After the death of Malcolm, the younger children, Benjamin Franklin, Rivers, William and Alexander, moved to Chicago.
Flora, the daughter of Thomas Henry, mar- ried John P. Caruthers of Memphis, Tennessee. Several children were born to them.
Harry married, but had no children; died in 1883.
Malcolm married a Miss Burk of Mississippi, and was blessed with five children. Malcolm's second wife was a Miss Gillmore.
Ellen Mesha married John P. Crudup of North Carolina and had two children.
Thomas Henry married Miss Nannie Ham- mond of Chicago and had two sons.
John Pryor died young.
Benjamin Franklin married Miss Martha C. West of Chicago. The result of this marriage is five living children.
W. A. McNeill married Miss Rebecca Medcalf of Tennessee.
Alexander C. married Miss Humes.
P ARIS C. BROWN, Mayor of Newport, was born in Concord, Lewis County, Kentucky, May 5, 1838, and is a son of Thomas L. and Mary (Rowland) Brown.
His father was a native of Washington, Mason County, and died in De Witt County, Illinois, in 1866. His grandfather's name was James Brown, a well-known resident of Mason County.
Mary Rowland Brown (mother) was born in Adams County, Ohio, and died in Concord, Ken- tucky, in 1845. Her father's name was William Rowland.
Paris C. Brown was educated in Concord, where he attended the common schools and graduated from Smith's Commercial College in Cincinnati, in 1854. From 1859 to 1865 he was engaged in steamboating, first as a clerk and later as captain in charge of different boats running from Cincinnati to New Orleans and other points along the western rivers, and in this way became one of the best known and most popular men on the river.
In 1866 he abandoned the river proper and ac- cepted a position as bookkeeper for the Consoli-
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dated Boat Store Company of Cincinnati, then known as Harry Davidson & Co., of which he has been the efficient manager since 1870.
He was married in 1864 and became a resident of Newport, since which time he has been one of the most progressive and enterprising citizens of that flourishing city.
He is no politician, but has affiliated with the Democratic party, which has honored him by electing him to positions of honor and trust. He was a member of the School Board, in which he served for eight years, and was president of the board for two years. In November, 1893, he was elected mayor of the city of Newport, an office for which he was chosen on account of his business ability and splendid character as an upright and honest man, whose ideas of reform in municipal government were commended by the business men and substantial citizens. During the two years or more of his administration he has con- ducted the affairs of the city on business prin- ciples and with credit to himself, and the expecta- tions of those who elected him have been more than realized. His official deportment has been characterized by a faithful and conscientious dis- charge of his duties and by excellent business judgment.
Mr. Brown was married January 17, 1864, to Margaret E. Cummings, daughter of William and Eliza Cummings of Lewis County. They have four sons and one daughter: Frank M., Thomas C., George W., James G. and Nannie.
R OBERT S. COLEMAN, M. D., leading physician of Princeton, was born in Stewart County, Tennessee, March 8, 1830.
His father, William H. Coleman, was born in Rockingham County, North Carolina, in 1800, and removed to Stewart County, Tennessee, in 1818, and was a farmer in that county until his death, in 1850.
Robert S. Coleman (grandfather), a native of Rockingham County, North Carolina, removed to Stewart County, Tennessee, in 1820, and was a highly respected farmer there until the time of his death, in 1853. His father was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. The Colemans were de-
scended from an old Anglo-Saxon family of Eng- land.
Mary Gatlin Coleman (mother) was a native of Stewart County, Tennessee, and died at Mur- ray, Calloway County, Kentucky, in 1881. She was a member of the United Baptist Church, in which denomination her father, Rev. Ephraim Gatlin, was a distinguished minister. Her an- cestors were from South Carolina.
Dr. Robert S. Coleman received his early edu- cation in private schools and by hard study at the home of his parents in Stewart County, Ten- nessee. He then read medicine with Dr. A. J. Weldon, in Henry County, Tennessee, and sub- sequently attended the medical department of the University of Nashville, graduating in 1862. He was immediately ordered to report to General Pillow at Fort Donelson and was in the hospital service in the Confederate army until Septem- ber 23, 1863, when he was captured in Henry County, Tennessee, and taken to Fort Heiman, Kentucky, where, in a few days, he was paroled, this ending his military career.
He then formed a partnership with his former preceptor and practiced medicine with Dr. Wel- don in Henry County, Tennessee, for six years, when the firm was dissolved. Dr. Coleman con- tinued his professional work in Henry County until 1872, when he removed to Murray, Callo- way County, Kentucky, and practiced there until September, 1887, when he removed to Prince- ton, the scene of his present labors.
He was a member of the Board of Health in Calloway County from the time of its organization until he left that county in 1887, and is now a member of the Board of Health of Caldwell County. He was appointed a member of the Board of Medical Examiners for the First dis- trict by Governor Knott; is a member of a num- ber of medical societies, including the Southwest- ern Kentucky Medical Association, and the Callo- way County (Kentucky) Medical Association; is prominent in every movement for the promotion of the public health; and is a leading member of the Masonic fraternity and of the Knights of Honor.
Dr. Coleman was married in 1855 to Frances Williams, daughter of John H. and Anna Wil-
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liams of Henry County, Tennessee, and has three sons and two daughters living: Dr. John R. Cole- man, a physician and surgeon of Murray, Ken- tucky; James H. Coleman, an attorney-at-law in the same place; Thomas E. Coleman, a dry goods salesman in Princeton; and the two daughters, Mary and Frances Coleman, who are at home with their parents.
G EORGE NEWMAN BROWN, lawyer, statesman and jurist, was born September 22, 1822, on the banks of the Ohio, in Cabell County, West Virginia, on the site of the present City of Huntington.
His father, Richard Brown, was a native of Prince William County, Virginia, and an early pioneer with his brothers, Henry and Benjamin, to the Ohio Valley, between the Rivers Guyan- dotte and Great Tattaroy, now Big Sandy, where they settled in the wilderness. There Richard built his log cabin in the forest, and later, about 1810, the first brick residence ever erected in the County of Cabell, which was formed in 1809 out of part of Kanawha County. There his hospital- ity became proverbial.
That house is still standing, and in it Judge G. N. Brown was born and reared, and two of his sisters. His mother, grandmother and his uncle, Benjamin Brown, died in it.
Richard Brown was the fifth son of George Newman Brown of Prince William County, Vir- ginia, a son of George Brown of King George County, Virginia, and he the son of Maxfield Brown of Richmond County, Virginia, who was a son of William Brown of old Rappahannock County, Virginia, member of the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1659-60 from Surry County. He was the son of Colonel Henry Brown of Surry County, Virginia, member of the Virginia Coun- cil of State, and of the Grand Assembly from 1642 to 1651, and who was son of Sir William Brown of England, one of the original grantees and adven- turers in the Virginia charter granted May 23, 1609, by King James I. to Robert, Earl of Salis- bury, and several hundred others named therein, of whom the said Sir William Brown was the fortieth on the long list.
Thus the Brown family has been coeval with
the colony of Virginia and the settlement of the New World. And Richard Brown, a pioneer in the wilds of Western Virginia, where he and his brothers settled on lands held by them in the mili- tary survey of 28,527 acres, as run by George Washington under Governor Dinwiddie's procla- mation of 1754, and granted by Virginia to Cap- tain John Savage and his company of sixty men for military services rendered in the Indian and French wars.
George Newman Brown (grandfather) was a Virginia soldier in the War of the Revolution and was in the siege of Yorktown. His wife, Sarah, was a daughter of Henry Hampton of Prince Wil- liam County, Virginia, and a near relative of the first General Wade Hampton of South Carolina.
His sons, Captain John, Captain Robert of the Cavalry, William, George Newman, James and the son-in-law Reno, were in the War of 1812 with Great Britain in the east; John and Robert were cavalry officers, and Richard a lieutenant and major under General Harrison in the northwest and at Fort Meigs; while Benjamin, in the same war, was United States collector of internal rev- enue for Western Virginia, appointed by President Madison.
Judge Brown's mother, Frances H. was a daughter of Henry Haney of Bourbon County, Kentucky. She died in 1838, and is buried at Huntington, West Virginia.
Sarah, his grandmother, widow of George New- man Brown, Sr., after the death of her husband in 1814, removed from Prince William to Cabell County and resided with her son Richard till her death about 1828 or 1830, aged about eighty; and is also buried at Huntington, West Virginia. All her children died without issue except Richard, Benjamin and Elizabeth.
Richard Brown was born January 28, 1782; died August 8, 1843.
George Newman Brown, the subject of this sketch, was twice married, and had twelve chil- dren, five by the first marriage and seven by the second. The first marriage, November 18, 1847, to Sophia, daughter of Thomas Cecil of Pike County, Kentucky. She died June 6. 1858; was the mother of first Nancy Frances, born August 31, 1848, died January 3, 1878; married Alexan-
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der Martin July 1, 1873, son of John P. Martin, and was mother of two children, viz .: Elizabeth Sophia Martin, born August 8, 1874, educated at Staunton, Virginia, and George Brown Martin, born August 18, 1876, a graduate of Central Uni- versity, Richmond. Margaret Matilda, born No- vember 20, 1849, married to Rev. John D. Mc- Clintock June 26, 1871. He died in Columbus, Mississippi, December 12, 1881. She resides in Catlettsburg with her children, viz .: Wallace Cecil McClintock, born May 5, 1872; George Bay- less McClintock, born October 18, 1875, and John David McClintock, born November 6, 1878; Paul Brown McClintock, born December 10, 1880, and died September 1I, 1881. John Wil- liam Brown, born May 31, 1851, died July 1, 1851. Eliza Taylor Brown, born May 24, 1852, lives in Catlettsburg; unmarried. Thomas Richard Brown, born June 2, 1854, in Pikeville, Ken- tucky; educated in Catlettsburg, and at Dan- ville Collegiate Institute. In 1872 he entered the University of Virginia, afterward attended the Louisville Law School, from which he graduated in 1876, and at once began the practice of law in Catlettsburg, in partnership with his father. He soon took high rank in his profession, and is one of the first lawyers at the bar; was appointed com- missioner of public schools; elected president of the Big Sandy National Bank, and was one of its charter members. He married Mary, daughter of Greenville Lacky of Louisa, Kentucky, Decem- ber II, 1878. She was born December 13, 1859; educated in Wesleyan College, Cincinnati, Ohio. They are members of the Presbyterian Church, and enjoy high social standing in the community; have four children, viz .: Alexander Lackey, born December 6, 1879; Nannie McClintock, born April 19, 1883, died July 29, 1890; Mary Quinn, born October 26, 1887, and Florence Huston, born August 20, 1892.
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