USA > Kentucky > Biographical cyclopedia of the commonwealth of Kentucky > Part 54
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divided his estate. Thomas died on his portion of the old farm, leaving two sons, Thomas and James, who disposed of their property and re- moved to North Carolina, where they are now represented by numerous descendants.
Dr. Moore's lineage on his mother's side is traced back for more than two hundred and fifty years.
Nicholas Rochester (great-great-great-grand- father), the first ancestor who came to America, was born in Kent County, England, in 1640. The time of his settlement in Virginia is not re- corded, but he had been there many years before his death in 1719.
William Rochester (great-great-grandfather), son of Nicholas, was born in 1680, died October 23, 1750. He married Mrs. Frances McKinney, and they had two children: John, born in 1708, died November, 1754; William, born in 1710, died in July, 1767.
John Rochester (great-grandfather)-son of William-married Hester Thrift, who died in 1773. Their children were: William, who died in infancy; John, born 1746, died December, 1794; Ann, born 1748; Phillis, born 1750; Na- thaniel, born February 21, 1752, died May 14, 1831; Esther, born 1753. John Rochester was married the second time to Mrs. Annie McClan- ahan, nee South, June 9, 1793, and their only child was William Rochester.
John Rochester (grandfather)-son of John- married Anne Jordan in 1766. She died in 1789. Their children were: William John, Elizabeth (Lawson Moore's first wife), Robert, Nancy, Es- ther, Hannah, Nathaniel, Jane Murray (Lawson Moore's second wife), Sophia and Artemisia.
Dr. James H. Moore received a classical educa- tion, attending Centre College until he was ready for the senior class; went to St. Mary's College for a short time; was then under a private tutor and subsequently returned to Centre College; studied medicine with Drs. Fleece and Weisiger and graduated from Transylvania in 1841; at the age of twenty-one went to Mississippi, and prac- ticed medicine successfully for five years; re- turned to Kentucky in 1845 and located in Har- rodsburg, April, 1846. Here he engaged in mer- chandising with his brother, Christopher Collins
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Moore, in which business they were very success- ful. In 1852 he retired to his farm and engaged in raising and importing fine sheep, cattle and horses. He has been an active and leading mem- ber of county fair associations; was president of the Mercer County Association and director for a number of years; was sent as delegate to the Second Congress of Agricultural Associations, which met in Selma, Alabama, and has always taken a deep interest in agricultural matters; and besides his farm in Mercer County is engaged in cotton planting in the delta between the Missis- sippi and Yazoo rivers on Deer Creek, about forty miles from Vicksburg, where long staple cotton is grown.
During the war his property was destroyed, amounting to between $200,000 and $300,000, consisting of 1,200 bales cotton, new and costly steam gins, corn crib frames, quarters for 100 slaves, but he was not a man to be discouraged by misfortune, and he set to work earnestly to recuperate his fortune. He was one of the organ- izers of the Mercer County National Bank, and was its president from the time of its organiza- tion until he resigned in 1894; was a useful and diligent member of the Constitutional Conven- tion of 1890-91, having been elected over four opposing candidates by a majority of over one thousand votes. He has been an elder in the Presbyterian Church for many years, and has rep- resented his presbytery in the Synod and General Assembly a number of times; is liberal in his views of church doctrine and charitable toward those who differ with him; is a man of great strength of character and greatly honored and re- spected by the people who have known him dur- ing his long residence in Mercer County. Al- though advanced in years, he is active, energetic and enterprising, and is thoroughly imbued with the spirit of progress, an advocate for advance- ment in every direction, an exemplary Christian, a model gentleman and a valuable citizen. He has educated a number of poor young men who are now filling honorable positions, of whom the county is proud.
In 1891, when his time was up, according to the scriptural estimate of human life, he built him a beautiful home in Harrodsburg, a lovely place
which he has christened "Hillsdale," and in this he hopes to spend the remainder of his life.
Dr. Moore was married February 13, 1845, to Mrs. Mary S. Foster, nee Messinger, daughter of Hon. Daniel T. and Mary Messinger of Berkshire County, Massachusetts. Her father, Daniel Mes- singer, was a farmer and merchant in Massachu- setts. His father was George Messinger, who was a son of Nehemiah Messinger, who pur- chased lands in Massachusetts from the Indians. His brother Samuel was a surveyor of land in Massachusetts in colonial days. Her mother was Mary Bacon, a noble Christian woman from one of the oldest and most prominent New England families.
Dr. and Mrs. Moore, like many of the elder Moores, have two sons: Hon. Daniel Lawson Moore, born January 31, 1847; and Bacon Roch- ester Moore, born June 13, 1850.
Daniel Lawson Moore (elder son) was edu- cated under private tutors and at Centre College; studied law under Phil B. Thompson, Sr .; was state senator in Capital District; has large busi- ness interests in Colorado, Florida, Mississippi and New Mexico, and is president of the Mercer National Bank, succeeding his father; married Henrietta, daughter of Judge William H. Mc- Beyer, by whom three children were born: May Messinger, Wallace and William H .; married a second time to Minnie Ball, who is the mother of one child, Anneta.
Bacon Rochester Moore (younger son) was educated under private tutors at Centre College and at Washington and Lee University, Virginia; studied law with John Charles Thompson; was an extensive planter in the South; was appointed under Governor Knott delegate to Mississippi River Convention held at Vicksburg, and elected by his county as a director of the Levee Board and received the highest commendation on retir- ing; married Nannie Bowman of Mercer Coun- ty and had five sons and two daughters: Dudley Bowman, Mary Bacon, James Harrison, Virginia, Daniel Lawson, Bacon Rochester and John Bow- inan. Bacon R. (son) died at Harrodsburg, Au- gust 20, 1889, and at a meeting of the bar at that place on the day following his death the commit- tee appointed to prepare resolutions testified to
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the high standing in private and social life which he had reached through true merit; that his offi- cial career was marked by a strict observance of duty; that he was a true friend; a perfect husband and father; a dutiful son; a Christian gentleman; an estimable citizen and member of the bar and officer of the Court. His death was sincerely de- plored by all who had known him at home and abroad. He was bright, quick of perception ; pos- sessed great firmness and sound judgment.
JUDGE ALNEY McLEAN, in honor of whom
McLean County was named, was a native of Burke County, North Carolina; emigrated to Ken- tucky, and began the practice of law at Green- ville, Muhlenberg County, about 1805; had but little to do with politics before 1808; was a rep- resentative from that county in the legislature, 1812-13; a captain in the War of 1812; a repre- sentative in Congress for four years, 1815-17 and 1819-21; one of the electors for president in 1825, casting his vote and that of the state for Henry Clay; again in 1833 an elector for the state at large, when the vote of the state was cast a second time for the same distinguished citizen; and ap- pointed a circuit judge, and for many years adorned the bench.
F RANK H. SOUTHGATE, M. D., Pension Examiner and a popular young physician of Newport, son of James and Emma (Hills) South- gate, was born in the Highlands, near Newport, Kentucky, April 12, 1869.
His father, now a resident of Newport, was born in that city in 1848. He returned to New- port after a long residence in the Highlands a few years ago, and is engaged in the manufacture of shingles; a member of the board of aldermen and president of the Newport Commercial Club. He has been a director in the German National Bank ever since its organization and is now vice president.
Edward L. Southgate (grandfather) was also a native of Newport, where he lived until his death in 1852, when thirty-eight years of age. He was a lawyer by profession, and in addition to his law practice looked after his father's extensive busi- ness.
Richard Southgate (great-grandfather) was born near Richmond, Virginia, and came to New- port, Kentucky, in 1776. He was a lawyer by profession, but was more extensively interested in mercantile pursuits, in which business he accu- mulated a large fortune in money and realty. He owned about ten thousand acres of land in Camp- bell and Kenton Counties, and was considered one of the wealthiest men in the state. He was at one time a representative of his district in the Kentucky legislature. His wife was a Miss Hinde, daughter of the celebrated physician, Dr. Thomas Hinde, who was a native of England and a surgeon in the English navy. He at- tended General Wolfe at the time of his death in Quebec, and was the physician of Patrick Henry of Virginia; also served throughout the Revolu- tionary war as a surgeon. He was well known as a physician in Virginia and Kentucky.
Emma Hills Southgate (mother) is a native of Newport, of which city she is still a resident. Her father, B. F. Hills, a native of Massachu- setts, came to Newport, Kentucky, in 1814, and is still a resident of that city. Although about eighty-eight years of age, he is a stout man, in perfect health, and has never known what it is to have to endure illness. Most of his life has been spent in farming in the South. He went to Louisiana in 1867, and lived in that state for twenty years, when he retired from business and returned to his old home in Newport.
Dr. Frank H. Southgate spent the days of his youth in the Highlands and attended the excellent schools in Cincinnati, Ohio. After acquiring a good education, he entered upon his professional studies under Dr. B. K. Rockford of Cincinnati; and attended the Medical College of Ohio, from which he was graduated in 1892. He then took a post-graduate course in Germany, at the Uni- versity of Berlin.
In 1894 he began a general practice of medi- cine in Newport, and in the short time in which he has been known as a practicing physician, he has met with encouragement and every assur- ance of success.
Few men have been better prepared for the responsible duties of the physician; and this fact, together with genial manner and kindly disposi-
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tion, has won the favor and confidence of a host of friends. While doing a general practice, his special work, for which he has more fully pre- pared himself, is the treatment of diseases of chil- dren. He is assistant professor of physiology and clinician in the Medical College of Ohio at Cincinnati, two very responsible positions which are usually filled by older men. Dr. Southgate is a member of the Academy of Medicine of Cin- cinnati, and a member of the United States Board of Pension Examiners of Newport, and it is hard- ly necessary to add that he is a Democrat in good standing with Mr. Cleveland's adminis- tration.
G OVERNOR NINIAN EDWARDS was I born in Montgomery County, Maryland, in March, 1775, and died of cholera at Belleville, St. Clair County, Illinois, July 20, 1833-aged fifty-eight. His early education was in company with, and partly under the tuition of, the cele- brated William Wirt, whose bosom friend he was for forty-three years. His academic education was continued under other tutors, and at Dick . inson College, Carlisle, Pa. He studied law and medicine together, and became proficient in both. In 1794, at the age of nineteen, he was sent by his father to take care of his landed estate in Nelson County, Kentucky, where he opened and improved a farm (upon which his father settled in 1800), built distilleries and tanyards, and showed great capacity for business. Before he was quite twenty-one he was elected to the Kentucky house of representatives in 1796, and re-elected in 1797 by an almost unanimous vote. From the time he was nineteen until twenty-two, he indulged in habits of dissipation and gambling; but by a de- termined resolution broke loose from old as- sociates, removed in 1798 to Russellville, Logan County, and began the practice of law, both in Kentucky and Tennessee. Without a dollar of his own in 1799, in four years' practice and ju- dicious investment of what he made, he became rich; then went upon the bench as presiding judge of the General Court, and filled in rapid succession the offices of circuit judge in 1804, fourth judge of the Court of Appeals on December 13, 1806, and chief justice of Kentucky on January 5, 1808
-all before he was thirty-three years of age. In 1804 he was chosen one of the presidential elect- ors who cast the vote of the state for Thomas Jefferson. "The great secret of his success was owing to his powerful intellect, and to his energy and untiring industry."
On the 24th of April, 1809, he was appointed by President Madison governor of Illinois terri- tory, which he accepted; he was twice re-ap- pointed, November, 1812, and January, 1816. In advance of any action by Congress, he organized companies of rangers, supplied them with arms, built stockade forts, and established a cordon of posts from the Wabash river to the mouth of the Missouri-this preparing with extraordinary energy for defence against the Indians. In 1816, he was a commissioner to treat with the Indians; in 1818, when Illinois became a state, was sent to the United States senate for six years; then ap- pointed minister to Mexico, but declined; in 1826, was elected governor of Illinois for four years, retiring in 1831 to private life.
JOHN CLAY THOMASSON, M. D., leading Homeopathic physician of Georgetown, son of Julius V. and Mary W. (Yelton) Thomasson, was born in Butler, Pendleton County, Kentucky, April 21, 1857.
His father was born in Virginia in 1800; went to Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1819, where he lived and followed the trade of a plasterer until 1836, when he removed to Butler, Kentucky; and he spent the remainder of a long, industrious and useful life on a farm, and died there in 1890. He was a true man and a good citizen, and a member of the Christian Church for sixty years. He was pro- vost marshal during the war, and served several terms as magistrate in Butler County. He was a stanch Republican and an enthusiastic Union man during the war, and was descended from a line of noble English ancestors who were greatly distinguished in the early history of Virginia.
Mary W. Yelton Thomasson (mother) was a native of Virginia, a devout and earnest member of the Christian Church, and died in 1893, aged seventy-seven years. Her father was a Virginian by birth, and an early settler of Pendleton County, Kentucky.
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Dr. John Clay Thomasson was educated in the schools of Butler; read medicine with Dr. William Hunt of Covington, and graduated from the Pulte Medical College (Homeopathic) of Cincinnati. He began the practice of medicine the same year in Georgetown. In 1866 he took a post-graduate course in Hahnemann Medical College, Chicago, and claims Homeopathy as the true science of medicine. He is a man of great energy and per- severing industry, greatly devoted to his vocation, and is one of the most skillful and popular phy- sicians in Scott County. He is a member of the Kentucky State Homeopathic Medical Society, and is one of the most earnest advocates of that school of medicine in the state. He is not greatly interested in politics, but votes the Prohibition ticket, and has strong convictions on the tem- perance question.
Dr. Thomasson was married in 1881 to Rena Lucas, daughter of Mrs. Rebecca Lucas of Georgetown. They are active and influential members of the Christian Church, and enjoy a fine social position in the most cultured society.
A LEXANDER SCOTT BULLITT was born in Prince William County, Virginia, in the year 1761. His father, Cuthbert Bullitt, was a lawyer of some distinction and practiced his pro- fession with success until he was appointed judge of the Supreme Court of Virginia, which office he held at the time of his death. In 1784 he emi- grated to Kentucky, and settled in what is now Shelby County. Here he resided but a few months, being compelled by the annoyances to which he was subjected by the Indians to seek a less exposed situation. This he found in Jefferson County, in the neighborhood of Sturgus' Station, where he entered and settled upon the tract of land on which he continued to reside until his death.
In the year 1792 Colonel Bullitt was elected by the people of Jefferson County a delegate to the convention which met in Danville, and framed the constitution of Kentucky. After the adop- tion of the constitution, he represented the county in the legislature, and was president of the senate until 1799, when he was again chosen a delegate to the convention to amend the constitution,
which met in Frankfort. Of this convention, he was chosen president. The year following this convention (1800) he was elected lieutenant gov- ernor of the state, in which capacity he served one term. After this, his county continued to send him to the legislature, of which body he served either as a representative or senator, until about 1808, when he retired from public life, and resided on his farm in Jefferson County until his death, which occurred on the 13th of April, 1816.
JAMES ELLIOTT STEWART, attorney at J law, of Louisa, Kentucky, son of Ralph and America (Canterbury) Stewart, was born in Law- rence County, Kentucky, October 1, 1832.
His father, Ralph Stewart, was born in Virginia, March 4, 1799, and was educated in the county schools. When about twenty years of age he came to Lawrence County, Kentucky, and was a prominent farmer and citizen of that county until his death, April 15, 1882. He was a colonel of militia, having been promoted step by step from the ranks, and was familiarly known as Col- onel Stewart. He was a Democratic voter and took some interest in political matters without seeking office. He was more deeply interested in religious matters than in politics; exceedingly hos- pitable, his house was always open to the itinerant preachers of the Methodist Church. He was a highly cultured gentleman and sought the society of educated and refined people, who always found a genial companion and a hearty welcome in his home.
James Stewart (grandfather) was born in Vir- ginia, where he was a farmer and trader. In the War of 1812 he served as a private soldier; re- moved to Lawrence County, Kentucky, late in life, and died at the home of his son. His father was a native of Ireland.
America Canterbury Stewart (mother) was born in Greenup (now Lawrence) County, September 13, 1813. She was a lady of education and culture and a devout Christian; was married to Ralph Stewart July 2, 1829.
Reuben Canterbury (grandfather) was born in Southern Kentucky; settled near the Big Sandy River and cleared a farm from the canebrake and underbrush. This farm he cultivated with suc-
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cess, and was no less fortunate in the rearing of a family of twelve children. He first married a Miss Hornback, of Southern Kentucky, by whom he had three children: Jackson, Benjamin and Nancy. His second wife was a Miss Lykens, who was the mother of nine children: Jeremiah, Ben Franklin, Milton, Lawrence, Washington, Amer- ica, Flora, Sarah and Elizabeth. Mr. Canterbury was one of the commissioners appointed by the legislature to locate the official seat of Lawrence County. The Canterbury family were of English extraction.
James Elliott Stewart was reared on his father's farm, attending the common schools when oppor- tunity afforded. He left home when twenty years of age and was employed as a clerk in the store of William L. Geiger at Cannonsburg, Boyd County, and in August, 1853, he went to Louisa and began the study of law in the office of Ben F. Canterbury, and was admitted to the bar in Octo- ber, 1854. He went to Paintsville December 31, 1854, and opened a law office. He remained there 11ntil October II, 1871, when he returned to Lou- isa. In 1868 he was elected commonwealth attor- ney for the Sixteenth judicial district, and served six years. In 1876 he was elected judge of the Criminal Court for the Sixteenth judicial district, and served for four years.
Since his return to Louisa Judge Stewart has aspired to no office, but has devoted his time to the practice of law. He has never posed as a politi- cian and would accept no office that was not strictly in the line of his chosen profession. He is one of the best known and most popular lawyers in his section of the state. He is a prominent Mason and a member of the Methodist Church, and a liberal supporter of all religious work, especially that in connection with that denomination.
Judge Stewart was married January II, 1860, to Cynthia F. Mayo, daughter of Lewis and Maria (Jones) Mayo of Fluvanna County, Virginia. The Jones family were wealthy planters of Virginia. Lewis Mayo was a highly cultured gentleman, a fine scholar and linguist, and taught school for thirty years.
Mrs. Stewart was born December 22, 1840, and is a lady of culture and refinement.
Judge and Mrs. Stewart have had five children :
James Lewis, born October 31, 1861, died July 18, 1884; John Wesley Mayo, born December 13, 1863; Forrest L., born November 25, 1870; War- ren Franklin Canterbury, born July 16, 1868, died July II, 1869; Neva Sharon, born December 5, 1874.
John W. M. Stewart (son) is a graduate of the Michigan State University law department at Ann Arbor, and previously attended Vanderbilt Uni- versity at Nashville, Tennessee, and was admitted to the bar in 1887. He married Eva S. Southgate, daughter of W. W. Southgate, November 28, 1887. She was born September 19, 1867, and was educated in Wesleyan College, Cincinnati, Ohio.
James Lewis Stewart (deceased) was a graduate of the Michigan State University law department -having previously attended Vanderbilt Univer- sity-and was admitted to the bar before he was seventeen years of age. According to the United States census, he was the youngest attorney in the United States.
Neva Sharon Stewart graduated at Belmont Female College with high honors, May, 1896.
Forrest Lee (son), after attending the schools of his native town-studying civil engineering in the field-completed his education at Michigan University, since which time he has been in the mercantile business.
G ENERAL WILLIAM ORLANDO BUT- LER was born in Jessamine County, Ken- tucky, April 19, 1791; graduated at Transylvania University, 1812; postponed the study of law to volunteer as a private in Captain N. S. G. Hart's company at Lexington; was elected corporal and marched to the relief of Fort Wayne; promoted to ensign in Colonel Wells' Seventeenth United States Infantry; in the two battles of the River Raisin, January 18 and 22, 1813, he signalized himself by self-devotion and daring, was wounded and taken prisoner; captain of the Forty-fourth United States Infantry, in the attack at Pensacola; in the battles at New Orleans, December 23, 1814, and January 8, 1815, General Jackson says he "displayed the heroic chivalry and calmness of judgment in the midst of danger, which distin- guish the valuable officer in the hour of battle;"
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received therefor the brevet rank of major; was aide to General Jackson, 1816-17; resigned, stud- ied law and practiced at Carrollton; married a daughter of General Robert Todd; was represen- tative from Gallatin County in the Kentucky leg- islature, 1817, '18; in United States Congress for four years, 1839-43, and refused to be a candidate for a third term; was the Democratic candidate for governor in 1844, and reduced the Whig ma- jority to 4,624; June 29, 1846, was appointed major-general of the volunteers raised to support General Taylor in his invasion of Mexico; acted an important part (and was wounded) in the bat- tle of Monterey, September 19-24, 1846, and in subsequent events in that part of Mexico; Feb- ruary 18, 1848, succeeded General Scott in the chief command of the army in Mexico, until the treaty of peace, May 29, 1848; May, 1848, was nominated for vice president of the United States on the Democratic ticket with General Cass, but defeated by Taylor and Fillmore; 1851, supported by the full party vote for United States senator, but not elected; January 29 to February 27, 1861, one of six commissioners from Kentucky to the "Peace Conference" at Washington City.
G ENERAL JOHN ADAIR was born in I South Carolina in the year 1757. His char- acter was formed in the trying times and amidst the thrilling incidents of the Revolution. At an early age he entered the army as a volunteer, and was made prisoner by the British.
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