Biographical cyclopedia of the commonwealth of Kentucky, Part 44

Author: Gresham, John M., Co., Pub
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: Chicago, Philadelphia, J. M. Gresham company
Number of Pages: 726

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Captain Benjamin C. Milam was reared on his father's farm until he had reached the age of four- teen years, when he went to Frankfort and learned the trade of watchmaking and silver- smithing with J. F. & B. F. Meeks. He received only the advantages of a common school educa- tion, but being of robust physique and strong common sense, he overcame every obstacle and has succeeded where many would have failed. At the expiration of his apprenticeship the firm name of J. F. & B. F. Meeks was succeeded by J. F. Meeks & Company, which continued only twelve months, when B. F. Meeks withdrew and the old firm was succeeded by Meeks & Milam, J. F. Meeks giving his time and attention to the watch and jewelry business, while Captain Milam devoted most of his time to the manufacturing of fishing reels. This partnership lasted until 1854, when it was dissolved by mutual consent, Mr. Meeks taking the jewelry and watch department and Captain Milam the reel department, and in this line he continued successfully and built up quite a reputation and is known throughout the country as a maker of fishing reels. In later

years his son John W. has been in partnership with him, the firm name being at present B. C. Milam & Son. In January, 1893, Captain Milam was elected president of the Deposit Bank of Frankfort, succeeding the late William J. Chinn, Sr., which position he now holds.

After returning from the Mexican war, Cap- tain Milam was married in 1848 to Martha Shock- ley, daughter of Thomas Shockley of Frankfort. She died in December, 1885, leaving one son and a daughter, Annie, who is now the wife of Uberto Keenon of Frankfort; and John W. Milam, who is now in partnership with his father. Captain Milam is descended from a patriotic ancestry. He is a nephew of the celebrated General Ben- jamin R. Milam, who was one of the most daring men in the Texas Revolution of 1836, when the in- dependence of Texas was won at the battle of San Jacinto. History does not mention more daring acts of bravery and hair-breadth escapes made in defense of the people of Texas than is recorded of General Milam in the annals of that state. He was a man of invincible courage, to which was added coolness in action and perseverance in ef- fort. The predominant inclination of his mind was to a military life, and by close attention to the studies connected therewith he prepared him- self to perform those duties which afterward de- volved upon him, and thereby established his character as one of the great heroes of Texas freedom. Milam County in that state perpet- uates his memory.

D. HARRY STINE, Deputy County Clerk of Campbell County, Kentucky, son of Frederick A. and Glorvina (Carlisle) Stine, was born in Lewistown, Pennsylvania, May 7, 1857.

His father, Frederick A. Stine, was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; came to Newport in 1859 and is still a resident of that city. He was for many years connected with the lumber firm of I. W. Livezey & Company, and for thirteen years was engaged in the internal revenue service in the Sixth District of Kentucky. He is a stanch Republican and takes a lively interest in all po- litical contests. His antecedents were of German extraction and have lived in Pennsylvania for several generations.

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Glorvina Carlisle Stine (mother) was a native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where her father, William Carlisle, Jr., was a leading merchant prior to 1854, when he became identified with the Pennsylvania Railroad and was auditor of the canal department of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company for many years. He died in Philadel- phia in 1889, aged eighty-eight years.

D. Harry Stine came to Newport with his par- ents in 1859, when he was two years of age. He received a liberal education in the public schools of Newport; and after leaving school, was em- ployed with his father in the lumber establish- ment of Livezey & Company. Beginning as an errand boy, he remained with the firm for twenty years and was promoted from time to time until he was manager of the establishment, in which capacity he was employed the greater portion of his long term of service with Livezey & Com- pany.

In January, 1895, he was appointed deputy clerk of the Campbell County Court, a position in which he has proven a very accommodating and efficient officer.

He is now, and has been for several years past, secretary of the Republican State League of Ken- tucky and takes an active interest in state and local politics. He is also secretary of the Com- mercial Club of Newport, Kentucky.

In 1890 he was elected mayor of Newport over Albert S. Berry, but was counted out. He con- tested the election and was declared to have been elected by the Circuit Court. The case was car- ried to the Court of Appeals, and the term of office had expired before the case was reached. In 1892 he was a candidate for the office of clerk of the Circuit Court, but everything went Democratic that year, and he was not elected.

While Mr. Stine has not been successful in get- ting into office by election, he has accomplished a great deal for his party and has helped to elect other Republicans to office, and enjoys this as much as if he had been the favored candidate. Mr. Stine is very popular in his party and enjoys a very large acquaintance in the city, county and state in which he has lived nearly all of his life.

He is a member of the Robert Burns Lodge No. 163, F. and A. M., and has served as master

of the lodge for four years. He is also a popular member of the Knights of Pythias.

Mr. Stine was married September 25, 1878, to Nellie Georg Holt, daughter of William Holt of Newport, formerly a wholesale grocer of Cin- cinnati.

S TEPHEN GARLAND SHARP of Lexing- ton is a son of Allenton B. and Mary (Gen- try) Sharp and was born at the "Indian Old Fields" in Clark County, Kentucky, April 2, 1843. Allenton B. Sharp (father) was born and reared in Fayette County, where he resided all his life, excepting the short time he lived in Clark County. He was a tailor by trade, and for several years carried on merchant tailoring at Athens, Fayette County. He died at the age of fifty-four years, in 1874. He was the son of Stephen Sharp, who was also born in Fayette County and was a farmer by occupation.

William Sharp (great-grandfather) was a na- tive of Virginia, who emigrated to Fayette Coun- ty and was one of the earliest pioneers of that section, and was one of the first teachers in Ken- tucky, teaching at Boonesboro several terms. The father, grandfather and great-grandfather of Stephen G. Sharp lie buried on a farm, adjoining the old Sharp homestead, in Fay- ette County. The Sharps are descendants of Scotch-Irish ancestry. Mary Gentry Sharp (mother) was born in Fayette County and died in 1894, in the seventy-second year of her age. She was a daughter of Garland Gentry, a native of Fayette County, and one of the industrious and well-known farmers of his section. The Gen- trys were of Scotch descent and, like the Sharps, were among the early settlers of Fayette County.

Stephen Garland Sharp was reared near Athens and was educated in the country schools, and in 1861 he entered the Confederate army, under the command of General Zollicoffer, as a private sol- dier, and served till the 30th of September, 1864, when he was severely wounded. In March, 1865, he was again wounded while serving with Gen- eral Morgan in the second battle of Cynthiana and was wounded at Carter Station, East Ten- nessee, while under the command of General Duke. The wounds he received at Carter Sta-

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tion were severe and painful, being shot through the lung and liver, and receiving a severe sabre wound on the head. There was no braver man nor more devoted soldier to the "lost cause" than Captain Sharp. In every battle his bravery and daring were conspicuous, and in all the posi- tions he was called to fill he did his duty like a soldier and with marked ability. He was captured in 1862, and when General Kirby Smith invaded Kentucky, Mr. Sharp made his escape and joined Smith's army in its march through the Cumber- land Gap. In the spring of 1863 he joined Colo- nel Roy Cluke's regiment of cavalry. It was with Cluke's regiment that he was captured on the Ohio raid when the rear of Morgan's com- mand was firing on the Federals. Senator Rod- ney Haggard of Winchester and Colonel Calvin Morgan rode back and informed Mr. Sharp not to fire any more, that General Morgan had sur- rendered. After the surrender many of the soldiers of General Morgan were sent to four different prisons: Rock Island, Camp Douglas, Fort Delaware and Camp Chase. Mr. Sharp was sent to Camp Chase, where he remained in prison for six weeks, when he was transferred to Camp Douglas, and from there made his escape on the night of March 18, 1864. Passing through Ken- tucky and Virginia, he rejoined a part of the com- mand of General Morgan, who succeeded in making their escape across the Ohio river at Buck- ingham Island. He remained with Morgan until the latter was killed at Greeneville, Tenn.

In March, 1865, without his knowledge or con- sent, he was retired from the army on account of his severe wounds, and in the spring of 1865 returned to his home in Fayette County. The many severe hardships and sufferings endured by Mr. Sharp, in prison, and the painful wounds received in battle reduced his weight from one hundred and sixty pounds to ninety-eight pounds. In the fall of 1865 he returned to Virginia and there wedded Jennie Hill, daughter of Elijah Hill of Jonesville. He soon returned to Kentucky and engaged in school teaching on Marble Creek in Jessamine County. In 1866 he was appointed deputy jailer of Fayette County. In 1870 he was graduated from the law department of Tran- sylvania and practiced law at the Fayette County

bar until 1874, when he was elected jailer of Fayette County; in 1880 he was elected city attorney, which office he filled for one year; was elected county attorney in 1884 and served four years, and in 1886 was elected county judge, which office he resigned two years later, to accept the office of state treasurer to fill out the unex- pired term of James W. Tate, to which he was appointed by Governor Buckner. After serving the nineteen months of his term by appointment, he was elected to that office for a term of two years, but resigned the office of treasurer in March, 1890, to accept a position as general manager of the Pine Mountain Iron & Coal Co., at Pineville, and after holding that position for one year he re- signed and returned to Lexington, since which time he has served one term as president of the City Council; and in the spring of 1892 was elected city collector.

Judge Sharp has three children living, whose names are Virginia, Leslie and Stephen G. Sharp, Jr.

T HEODORE M'DONALD HILL of New- port, Kentucky, ex-judge of the Campbell County Court, is a self-made man in the true sense of that term; born and reared in humble life on a farm in Campbell County, he prepared himself for the legal profession unaided and was admitted to the bar and commenced the practice of law in 187I.

He was elected police judge of Alexandria in 1872, to the state legislature in 1877 and re-elected in 1879. After retiring from the legislature, he de- voted himself exclusively to the law until the death of County Judge Makibben in April, 1888, when the Board of Magistrates appointed him to fill the vacancy. His party since that time has twice nominated and elected him to that office by sweeping majorities. His practice as a law- yer from 1871 to 1888 was largely of a nature to acquaint him with county affairs, and he met every requirement of his important office. His popularity is attested by his several nominations without opposition in his own party and by the liberal vote he has always received from the peo- ple at the polls. Looking carefully after every detail of county affairs, keeping county taxes at

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the lowest possible figure; correcting errors of the assessments for hundreds of people; appearing with the assessor twice before the State Board of Equalization and by argument, facts and figures, he prevented in part the threatened increase of land and lot valuations over the assessors' fig- ures that would have been very oppressive upon the taxpayers of Campbell County. In brief, Judge Hill performed all the duties and require- ments of the people's court with marked ability. Since his retirement from the bench he has been engaged in the practice of law in Newport.

In 1861 he left school to join the Confederate army and enlisted in the Fifth Kentucky Infantry as a private, serving under different commanders -notably Colonel Giltner of Morgan's command -until the close of the war. He was with General Lee at Appomattox, and received his parole at Charleston, West Virginia, when on his way home. After arriving at Alexandria, Kentucky, he read law with Honorable R. T. Baker, a noted lawyer and Republican politician, and was admit- ted to the bar February 22, 1871.

January 1, 1868, Judge Hill was united in mar- riage to Mary Isaphine White, a daughter of H. E. White of Campbell County, Kentucky. Of the five children born of this marriage only one survives, Fay Fern Hill.

Theodore M. Hill is a son of William and Elizabeth (Nation) Hill. William Hill was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1794, and removed to Campbell County in 1841, where he remained a resident until his death, which occurred in 1873. He was a stone mason and bricklayer by trade and a Democrat in politics. He was a soldier of the war of 1812 and of the Mexican war. In the war of 1812 he was at the massacre at River Raisin, the battles of the Thames and Lundy's Lane and others, and in Mexico with General Scott from Vera Cruz to the City of Mexico.

He married Elizabeth Nation, daughter of Joel Nation and Mary Albright of Eaton, Ohio, to which place they had removed from North Caro- lina.

William Hill (grandfather) was a native of County Antrim, Ireland, and his wife, Jane Mac- Donald, of the Isle of Skye, off the west coast of Scotland. Both of them were first cousins of the

celebrated Scotch beauty, Flora MacDonald, the plain narrative of whose life touches all hearts.

William Hill and his wife came to America in colonial days (1767) and first settled in Pennsyl- vania, and, during his residence there, he was in the Continental army in the war of the Revolu- tion. In 1794 he came with his family to Cin- cinnati, Ohio, where he lived until some time prior to his death in 1833, having reached the remarkable age of one hundred and three years. For some years after his settlement at Cincinnati, he kept a tavern known as the "Black Bear," which was one of the pioneer inns of that city. The latter years of his life were spent on a farm in Butler County, Ohio.

Mrs. Elizabeth Hill (mother) was born in East Tennessee, while her parents were en route from North Carolina to Ohio. She died in Campbell County at the early age of twenty-four years. She was a daughter of Joel Nation, a native of North Carolina, who removed to Prebble, and later to Champaign County, Ohio, where he died in 1864. 1

Mr. Hill is now engaged in the practice of law in Newport, Kentucky.

D R. JOHN W. SCOTT, deceased, of Lexing- ton, was the son of the late Matthew T. and Winnie (Webb) Scott. He was born in Fayette County, Kentucky, January 6, 1821. He received a fair primary education and at the age of four- teen entered the Transylvania University and was graduated from there in the class of 1838, while that college was under the temporary presidency of Dr. Louis Marshall. Afterward he studied medicine with Dr. Benjamin W. Dudley and James M. Bush; and received his degree of M. D. from the medical department of Transylvania in 1842. In the same year he went to New York City, and after spending one year in general hos- pital practice settled down there in general prac- tice of his profession, where he remained for about twelve years. In 1855 he purchased a country seat on Long Island, where he removed and re- sided until 1866, when he returned to Kentucky and lived in quiet retirement at Lexington until his death, which occurred July 22, 1888. He was twice married: First to Jane Heyer Suydam,

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. daughter of Cornelius R. Suydam, a prominent merchant of New York, by whom he has one child surviving, Cornelius Suydam Scott, a lawyer at Lexington, Kentucky. The only other child, Mat- thew Thompson Scott, was a prominent and suc- cessful physician at Lexington, Kentucky, and died in the thirty-ninth year of his age, on January 25, 1894. He was married the second time, in 1874, to Elizabeth B., daughter of Abraham T. Skill- man, who was an old and prominent citizen of Lexington, and an uncle of Dr. H. M. Skillman. By the second marriage, there are three children living: John W., a graduate of Center College and of the College of Physicians and Surgeons. He is now in his twentieth year, and when a little past his eighteenth year he was graduated from Center College. The other living children are Henry Martyn Skillman Scott and Margaret Skill- man Scott. Dr. Scott was an elder in the Second Presbyterian Church of Lexington, and took a great interest in church affairs; a decided believer in the doctrines of the Calvinistic faith and sys- tem; enthusiastic and public-spirited and a man of marked individuality. He never aspired to public office and had no taste for politics. He gave largely and liberally to the boards and ob- jects of his church, to the Center College at Dan- ville, Kentucky, and to other forms of social, educational and religious beneficence. He was deeply interested in the moral, religious and gen- eral elevation of the freedmen, and established and long conducted the first Sunday school for their benefit, managed by white persons in Lex- ington, Kentucky; was a student all his days and was accurately informed on a great variety of subjects.

His father was Matthew T. Scott, born at Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, January 5, 1786, of Scotch-Irish parents, both of whom died when he was quite young, and he came to live with his relative, Dr. John M. Scott of Frankfort, before the town plat of the present capital had been placed on record. In 1808 he became a clerk in the Bank of Kentucky and was transferred to the Lexington branch of the same institution about two years later. In June, 1810, soon after his arrival in Lexington, he wedded Winnie Webb, daughter of Isaac Webb, who had recently emi-

grated from Virginia. Mr. Scott subsequently occupied the positions of teller and cashier of the United States Bank, and when the paper of that institution was taken by the Northern Bank of Kentucky, which was founded in 1833, he be- came cashier of the new bank, and was an officer in the Northern Bank until his death in 1858, hav- ing for the last six years of his life been the presi- dent of the bank. He came to Kentucky a poor boy, but by good judgment, honesty and indus- try, attained a comfortable position in later years, and during his residence of a half century in Lex- ington had the respect of the best families in that section. He was one of the original subscribers of $500 to the cemetery fund and the first treas- urer of the Lexington Cemetery Company. He was the father of fifteen children, nine of whom reached maturity: James, Isaac W., Joseph N., Mary, the widow of Dr. E. L. Dudley, John W., Winnie, deceased; Margaret, wife of Dr. H. M. Skillman; Lucy W., Matthew T., Joseph and William T., who was colonel of the Third Ken- tucky Infantry, and who led his regiment through the war, died at Frankfort in 1875, leaving a widow and three children. In the early history of the country the Scotts were Federalists and in more recent times were all Republicans. The father was an old line Whig. For many genera- tions the Scotts have been of the same religious faith and the younger representatives may not inaptly be termed "hereditary Presbyterians," but are none the less members by conviction.

Matthew Scott, the grandfather of Dr. John W. Scott, was a lieutenant in Miles' Pennsylvania Regiment in the War of the Revolution. He vol- unteered March 5, 1776; was taken prisoner at Long Island August 27, 1776, exchanged Decem- ber 8, 1776, and promoted to captain in a Penn- sylvania State regiment April 18, 1777, to rank from October 24, 1776. The regiment was desig- nated as the Thirteenth Pennsylvania, November 12, 1777; retired July 1, 1778. His brother, Moses Scott, was in the same war, and lived and died in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and Wil- liam Scott, another brother, was commissary.

John Scott (great-grandfather) was a son of Robert Scott, who was a member of the old Scot- tish parliament, and opposed the union of the

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crown during the reign of Queen Anne; the ignor- ing of the Scottish crown and name in the new parliament of Great Britain was further offense to him, and he, with a number of others, who were members of the two houses of the old parliament, suffered in the Tower of London, with the risk of their heads, until they were released by an am- nesty of George I., when he was brought over from Hanover to take the throne, by virtue of being descended of the Stuarts. Robert and his friend, the Earl of Belhoven, a member of the Upper House of the old parliament, emigrated in disgust to the North of Ireland. John W. Scott was a double cousin of Mrs. Lucy Webb Hayes, the wife of President Hayes, who was a daughter of Dr. James Webb of Fayette County, and a first cousin of Dr. Scott, the father of Mrs. Ben- jamin Harrison.

A NDREW JACKSON CASEY, President of the Inquirer Publishing Company of Owens- boro, son of A. W. and Mary (Cagle) Casey, was born in Russellville, Kentucky, November 15, 1860. His father was born in De Kalb County, Tennessee, August 19, 1827; married Mary Cagle August 19, 1846; was a farmer; served in the Confederate army and was colorbearer in Colonel J. W. Caldwell's regiment, and was killed in the battle of Shiloh April 6, 1862.

His mother, Mary Cagle Casey, is a daughter of Charles Cagle, whose wife was Mary Demon- breun, daughter of Timothy Demonbreun, who lived near Nashville, and for whom Demonbreun street in that city was named. She was educated in the public schools; is now a resident of Rus- sellville, Kentucky, and although past seventy- two years of age, still retains a vigorous intellect. Her grandfather, Timothy Demonbreun, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war.

Andrew J. Casey, after leaving school, which he did at an early age, found employment in the office of the Russellville Herald, and beginning as an office boy he was promoted step by step, learning the duties and how to perform them, in every department of the newspaper office, until, in 1885, he bought a half interest and became the editor of the Herald. He sold his interest in that paper in 1891 and purchased the Owensboro In-

quirer, a daily and weekly Democratic newspaper, which, under his able management, has become one of the best papers published in the western part of the state, and a valuable property. Mr. Casey is of a retiring disposition, and has never sought political preferment or distinction, though he has numerous friends who would gladly thrust these honors upon him. His legion of admirers is the best evidence of his popularity. Mr. Casey was married April 17, 1894, to Lida Walker, daughter of the illustrious Judge E. Dudley Walker of Hartford, whose biography is given in this volume. She is of that type of woman who have made Kentucky famous. They have one son, Walker Casey.

H OMER HUDSON, formerly a prominent business man, but now retired, of Coving- ton, was born in that city March 5, 1824, and is a son of John and Ann (Chance) Hudson. His father was born near Staunton, Virginia, in 1787. He received his education in his native county and emigrated from there to Kentucky in 1818, or about that time. For many years he was one of the leading merchants of Covington. His store was on the corner of Third and Garrard streets, and he owned a block of buildings known as Hud- son Row. He served for a time as magistrate, but his principal ambition was to succeed in com- mercial pursuits, and to this he gave his entire time until his death, which occurred in 1825. James Hudson (grandfather) was a native of Vir- ginia, and died in Staunton. He was a lineal de- scendant of Hendrick Hudson, the Holland noble- man who discovered the Hudson River and the Hudson Bay.

Ann Chance Hudson (mother) was a native of Maryland, whose first husband was a Quaker, and after her marriage came west with her hus- band and located in Cincinnati. After the death of her first husband she married John Hudson in 1820. She died in 1886 aged eighty-seven years, and is buried in Highland Cemetery.

Homer Hudson received his education in the private schools in Boone County, and also at Kempt's Academy. After leaving school Mr. Hudson studied law in the office of Judge James Prior of Carrollton, who is the uncle of Chief Jus-

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Biographical cyclopedia of the commonwealth of Kentucky, Part 44

Author: Gresham, John M., Co., Pub Publication date: 1896 Publisher: Chicago, Philadelphia, J. M. Gresham company Number of Pages: 726

Author: Gresham, John M., Co., Pub
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: Chicago, Philadelphia, J. M. Gresham company
Number of Pages: 726