USA > Kentucky > Biographical cyclopedia of the commonwealth of Kentucky > Part 56
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In the fall of this year, Boone went to North Carolina for his wife and family, who, as already
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observed, had supposed him dead, and returned to their kindred. In the summer of 1780, he came back to Kentucky with his family, and settled at Boonsborough. In October of this year, return- ing in company with his brother from the Blue Licks, where they had been to make salt, they were encountered by a party of Indians, and his brother, who had been his faithful companion through many years of toil and danger, was shot and scalped before his eyes. Boone, after a long and close chase, finally effected his escape.
After this, he was engaged in no affair of par- ticular interest, so far as we are informed, until the month of August, 1782, a time rendered mem- orable by the celebrated and disastrous battle of the Blue Licks. On this fatal day, he bore him- self with distinguished gallantry, until the rout be- gan, when, after having witnessed the death of his son, and many of his dearest friends, he found himself almost surrounded at the very commence- ment of the retreat. Several hundred Indians were between him and the ford, to which the great mass of the fugitives were bending their way, and to which the attention of the savages was particularly directed. Being intimately acquainted with the ground, he together with a few friends, dashed into the ravine which the Indians had occupied, but which most of them had now left to join in the pursuit. After sustaining one or two heavy fires, and baffling one or two small parties who pursued him for a short distance, he crossed the river below the ford by swimming, and returned by a circuitous route to Bryant's station.
Boone accompanied General George Rogers Clark, in his expedition against the Indian towns, undertaken to avenge the disaster at the Blue Licks; but beyond the simple fact that he did ac- company this expedition, nothing is known of his connection with it; and it does not appear that he was afterward engaged in any public expedition or solitary adventure.
The definitive treaty of peace between the United States and Great Britain, in 1783, confirmed the title of the former to in- dependence, and Boone saw the standard of civilization and freedom securely plant- ed in the wilderness. Upon the establishment of the court of commissioners in 1779, he had laid
out the chief of his little property to procure land warrants, and having raised about twenty thousand dollars in paper money, with which he intended to purchase them, on his way from Ken- tucky to the city of Richmond, he was robbed of the whole, and left destitute of the means of pro- curing more. Unacquainted with the niceties of the law, the few lands he was enabled afterward to locate, were, through his ignorance, swallowed up and lost by better claims. Dissatisfied with these impediments to the acquisition of the soil, he left Kentucky, and in 1795, he was a wanderer on the banks of the Missouri, a voluntary subject of the king of Spain. The remainder of his life was devoted to the society of his children, and the employments of the chase-to the latter es- pecially. When age had enfeebled the energies of his once athletic frame, he would wander twice a year into the remotest wilderness he could reach, employing a companion whom he bound by a written contract to take care of him, and bring him home alive or dead. In 1816, he made such an excursion to Fort Osage, one hundred miles distant from the place of his residence. "Three years thereafter," says Governor More- head, "a patriotic solicitude to preserve his por- trait, prompted a distinguished American artist to visit him at his dwelling near the Missouri river, and from him I have received the following particulars: He found him in a small, rude cabin, indisposed, and reclining on his bed. A slice from the loin of a buck, twisted round the ram- mer of his rifle, within reach of him as he lay, was roasting before the fire. Several other cabins, ar- ranged in the form of a parallelogram, markcd the spot of a dilapidated station. They were oc- cupied by the descendants of the pioneer. Here he lived in the midst of his posterity. His with- cred energies and locks of snow, indicated that the sources of existence were nearly exhausted."
Hc died of fever, at the house of his son-in-law, Flanders Callaway, at Charette village, on the Missouri river, September 26, 1820, aged eighty- nine. The legislature of Missouri in session at St. Louis, when the event was announced, re- solved that, in respect for his memory, the mem- bers would wear the usual badge of mourning for twenty days, and voted an adjournment for that
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day. It has been generally supposed that Boone was illiterate, and could neither read nor write, but this is an error.
The following vigorous and eloquent portrait of the character of the old pioneer, is extracted from Governor Morehead's address, delivered at Boonsborough, in commemoration of the first settlement of Kentucky:
"The life of Daniel Boone is a forcible example of the powerful influence which a single absorb- ing passion exerts over the destiny of an indi- vidual. Born with no endowments of intellect to distinguish him from the crowd of ordinary men, and possessing no other acquirements than a very common education bestowed, he was enabled, nevertheless, to maintain through a long and use- ful career, a conspicuous rank among the most distinguished of his contemporaries; and the tes- timonials of the public gratitude and respect with which he was honored after his death, were such as are never awarded by an intelligent people to one undeserving. * * *
* He came orig- inally to the wilderness, not to settle and subdue it, but to gratify an inordinate passion for adven- ture and discovery-to hunt the deer and buffalo-to roam through the woods-to ad- mire the beauties of nature-in a word, to enjoy the lonely pastimes of a hunter's life, re- mote from the society of his fellow men. He had heard, with admiration and delight, Finley's de- scription of the country of Kentucky, and high as were his expectations, he found it a second paradise. Its lofty forests-its noble rivers-its picturesque scenery-its beautiful valleys-but above all, the plentifulness of 'beasts of every American kind'-these were the attractions that brought him to it. * * He united, in * * an eminent degree, the qualities of shrewdness, caution, and courage, with uncommon muscular strength. He was seldom taken by surprise-he never shrunk from danger, nor cowered beneath the pressure of exposure and fatigue. In every emergency, he was a safe guide and a wise coun- sellor, because his movements were conducted with the utmost circumspection, and his judg- ment and penetration were proverbially accurate. Powerless to originate plans on a large scale, no individual among the pioneers could execute with
more efficiency and success the designs of others. He took the lead in no expedition against the savages-he disclosed no liberal and enlarged views of policy for the protection of the stations; and yet it is not assuming too much to say, that without him, in all probability, the settlements could not have been upheld, and the conquest of Kentucky might have been reserved for the emi- grants of the nineteenth century. * His manners were simple and unobstrusive-ex- empt from the rudeness characteristic of the back- woodsman. In his person there was nothing re- markably striking. He was five feet ten inches in height, and of robust and powerful proportions. His countenance was mild and contemplative- indicating a frame of mind altogether different from the restlessness and activity that distin- guished him. His ordinary habiliments were those of a hunter-a hunting shirt and moccasins uniformly composing a part of them. When he emigrated to Louisiana, he omitted to secure the title to a princely estate, on the Missouri, because it would have cost him the trouble of a trip to New Orleans. He would have traveled a much greater distance to indulge his cherished propen- sities as an adventurer and a hunter. He died, as he had lived, in a cabin, and perhaps his trusty rifle was the most valuable of his chattels.
"Such was the man to whom has been assigned the principal merit of the discovery of Kentucky, and who filled a large space in the eyes of Amer- ica and Europe. Resting on the solid advantages of his services to his country, his fame will survive, when the achievements of men, greatly his super- iors in rank and intellect, will be entirely for- gotten."
M ATTHEW WALTON, one of the leading attorneys of Lexington and a man of prom- inence in business and public affairs, was born near Germantown, Mason County, Kentucky, February 16, 1852, and is a son of John H. and Susan Isabelle (Frazee) Walton.
His father was a native of Bracken County, who removed to Mason when he was a young man and is still a resident and a large land owner and tobacco grower of that county; an influen- tial man in his community and highly esteemed for
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his integrity and noble Christian character. He is a faithful member of the Christian Church and his chief characteristic is his devotion to his church and its good work.
Matthew Walton (grandfather) was a native of Boone County, but removed to Bracken County, where he was engaged in farming and died there in 1843, aged forty-eight years. His father-the great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch- was a near relative of George Walton, a delegate in the Continental Congress and one of the sign- ers of the Declaration of Independence. This distinguished patriot was born in Frederick County, Virginia, his parents having removed from Culpeper to that county. His educational fa- cilities were limited, but he was a diligent student and under the most adverse circumstances he overcame all difficulties, and few young men of his time were better informed than he when he reached his majority. At the age of fourteen he was apprenticed to a carpenter, an ignorant man who considered the time spent in reading and study as time wasted, and he denied the boy any time for his studies; but Walton, using pine torches for candles, spent his evenings in studies, which prepared him for the important part he was destined to take in the affairs of the nation. After serving his time he went to the Province of Georgia and began the practice of law in 1774, a time when the colonies were ablaze on account of the various acts of the British Parliament, and he espoused the cause of independence. He bold- ly opposed the movements of the loyalists and soon called down upon his head the denunciation of the ruling powers. He labored assiduously to persuade the people of the province to take steps toward independence and freedom, which the parish of St. John had chosen. At first it seemed his labors would be in vain, but at length his zeal and enthusiasm began to bear fruit, and in the winter of 1776 the Assembly of Georgia, through his earnest labors, declared for the cause of the patriots, and in February appointed five delegates to the Continental Congress, and of these George Walton was one who signed the Declara- tion of Independence. When he died, February 2, 1804, aged sixty-four years, the State of Geor- gia went into mourning for twenty days.
George Walton's ancestors had come to this country from Norway just one hundred years be- fore he died, settling in Virginia in 1704. Many branches of the family are now scattered over the South and West.
Susan Isabelle Frazee Walton (mother) was born in Mason County, Kentucky, in 1829, and is now a resident of her native county, a zealous member of the Christian Church, and a lady of rare intelligence and amiability.
Joseph Frazee (maternal grandfather) was a large land owner in Mason County, and a highly respected citizen, who held many responsible posi- tions in that county.
Matthew Walton was educated principally in the Kentucky State University at Lexington, and read law with the late Judge Owsley and Benja- min M. Burdett of Lancaster; was admitted to the bar in the fall of 1874; practiced law in Lan- caster nearly seven years; was appointed master commissioner of the Circuit Court in 1877; was an active and interesting correspondent of some of the leading newspapers of the state; was chair- man of the Garrard County Democratic Commit- tee for four years; represented the Eighth Con- gressional District in the National Convention that nominated General Hancock for the Presi- dency; and was prominent in the politics of his county and district.
He removed to Lexington in 1881 and located there permanently in the practice of his profes- sion. His reputation had preceded him and he was by no means a stranger in the Blue Grass Capital, so that he at once stepped into a lucra- tive practice and into prominence among the many distinguished members of the bar. In 1885 he was elected judge of the Recorder's Court of the City of Lexington, which office he filled with credit and marked ability until 1890.
For seven or eight years past he has been one of the commissioners of the Eastern Asylum for the Insane, and is president of that board; is a director in the Safety Vault & Trust Company of Lexington; is attorney for the Phoenix Nation- al Bank, in which he is also a director; is attorney for a number of financial and industrial corpora- tions and president of the Lexington Charity Or- ganization, of which he was one of the leading
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promoters. He is well informed in all matters of public interest and is frequently called upon to represent Fayette County in political and other conventions. He is by no means a partizan in politics, but his ability and wide scope of infor- mation have brought him into prominence in his party, which has implicit confidence in his in- tegrity, wisdom and sound judgment.
After serving out his term as judge he formed a law partnership with J. H. Beauchamp, under the firm name of Beauchamp & Walton, which at present is one of the most successful firms in Lex- ington.
Judge Walton and Carrie Farra, daughter of B. F. Farra of Jessamine County, were married Octo- ber 3, 1878. They worship in the New Central Christian Church, one of the most beautiful church edifices in the Blue Grass region, the erection of which was under the supervision of a building committee of which Judge Walton was one of the most industrious members.
Judge and Mrs. Walton have only one child, a daughter four years old, Clara Belle Walton.
R OBERT ALLEN BURTON, President of the Farmers' National Bank of Lebanon, son of John Allen and Louisana (Chandler) Bur- ton, was born in Boyle (then Mercer) County, Kentucky, near the battle ground of Perryville, June II, 1834.
His father was born in Mercer County, April 3, 1801; was educated in the ordinary schools of his day and was a farmer and merchant at Perry- ville for forty years; retired in 1860, and died in 1874, aged seventy-three years. Hewas one of the stanchest Democrats of his time-not for the sake of office, which he did not seek, but from prin- ciple. He had large commercial interests and was a man of superior judgment and excellent busi- ness qualifications and was quite successful in business.
Robert Burton (grandfather) was a native of Virginia; came to Kentucky at a very early day, and married a Miss Ferguson, who was born in a fort at Harrodsburg.
Louisana Chandler Burton (mother) was born in Washington County, in 1810; was an amiable, Christian woman, greatly admired and respected
by her acquaintances and revered by her children. She survived her husband about five years, and died in 1879.
Richard Chandler (grandfather), a native of Maryland, came to Kentucky when he was a young man and located in Washington County, where he was a farmer and blacksmith. He mar- ried Elizabeth McNeal of Fayette County and died in 1855.
Judge R. A. Burton was educated in Boyle County, finishing at the Perryville Seminary in 1856; was engaged in farming while studying law, which he did without an instructor, and was admitted to the bar in 1858; removed to Marion County in the same year and continued farming; was elected to the Legislature in 1859; elected county judge in 1862 and was twice re-elected; elected State Senator in 1869 and served four years; was division deputy collector of internal revenue during President Cleveland's first admin- istration; was again elected county judge in 1890 and again in 1894 for a term of three years under the new constitution; represented his district in the Democratic National Conventions of 1874 and 1888, and was elected president of the Farm- ers' National Bank of Lebanon in 1890, a position which has required his best attention since that time.
Judge Burton has been a leading spirit in the Democratic councils of his county and section for many years, and his popularity is so great that he could have any office in the gift of the people. All men who know him have the utmost confi- dence in him; dignified and courtly, he is easily approached, and while his polished manner is such that a stranger will instinctively take off his hat to him, he is open and free with those who know him and is a friend who is always steadfast and true.
Judge Burton was married May 17, 1860, to Margaret Lowry, daughter of Hon. James Lowry of Jessamine County. She was born June II, 1837; was educated in St. Catherine Academy, Washington County, and in Lexington. They have four children living: John A. Burton, gen- eral deputy internal revenue agent for Kentucky under Colonel Yates; Mary A., educated at Daughter's College, Harrodsburg, and at Science
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Hill Academy, Shelbyville; Robert Lee, in col- lege at Richmond, Kentucky; and Marion County Burton, who is in school at Lebanon.
Judge Burton has shown his high regard for his county, the scene of his many political triumphs and business successes, by naming his youngest son for his county.
Colonel Richard G. Burton, the only brother of Judge R. A. Burton, who lived in Richmond, Kentucky, is now dead. His sister, Belle, now deceased, married Lee Irvine of Boyle County. Augusta Celesta (sister), married Dr. W. O. Robards of Mercer County. Eusebrie (sister), married J. G. Phillips of Lebanon.
M ATTHEW HEROLD, City Attorney of Bellevue, a popular young lawyer and Democratic politician, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, March 3, 1859.
His father, Andrew Herold, was a native of Germany, who came to this country in 1835 and located in Cincinnati, where he was engaged in organ building until his deatlı in 1860.
His mother, Susan (Barwick) Herold, now a resident of Cincinnati, is a native of Germany.
Matthew Herold was educated in the excellent public schools of Cincinnati. From 1882 until 1888 he was engaged in the grocery business in Bellevue, which he abandoned for the legal pro- fession. After reading law for two years he took a two years' course in the Cincinnati Law School, from which he was graduated in 1892. He was admitted to the bar and began the practice of law in Newport in the same year, and has met with great encouragement and a good degree of suc- cess in a field that he found pretty well occupied when he embarked in his new profession.
He takes quite an active part in politics, and being a resident of Bellevue he was elected a mem- ber of the City Council in 1890; served until 1892, when he was elected city attorney; was re-elected to this office in 1893, again in 1894, and again in 1896, a very high testimonial of his efficiency and personal popularity inasmuch as he is a Democrat and Bellevue is a stronghold of the Republican party. Mr. Herold was a member of the conven- tion held in Winchester in 1891 to frame charters for cities of the fourth class.
He is attorney for a number of corporations, including three building associations in Bellevue and one in Cincinnati, and has given much atten- tion to the legal business of these organizations.
Mr. Herold was married in 1885 to Caroline Herbert, daughter of Andrew Herbert of Cincin- nati, and they have three sons: Matthew, George and William Herold.
I TREY WOODSON, Editor of the Owens- boro Messenger and president of the Ken- tucky Press Association, was born at Madison- ville, Kentucky, August 16, 1859. Six years later his parents moved to Evansville, Indiana. In 1877, when only eighteen years of age, his spirit of independence began to assert itself, and he left home and started the Muhlenberg Echo, a small weekly, at Greenville, Kentucky. This paper still lives, a monument to the "nerve" displayed by its founder, though it soon became too small a medium for the exercise of his talent for journal- istic work.
At the annual meeting of the Kentucky Press Association, at Hopkinsville, in 1878, Mr. Wood- son, who was then only nineteen and looked five years younger, was christened "The Baby Editor," which appellation clung to him for sev- eral years. In September, 1881, Mr. Woodson sold his paper at Greenville and moved to Owens- boro, becoming a part owner of the Messenger, then a semi-weekly. The editorial control of the paper was in his hands, and there has been no interruption to the career of prosperity and in- creasing influence it at once entered upon.
He has since become sole owner of the Mes- senger, which is now said to be the most valuable newspaper property in Kentucky, using Mergan- thaler type-setting machines and all modern im- provements. Mr. Woodson's capacity for work is without limit. He is tireless, alert and never resourceless.
He was the first man in Kentucky to give an in- timation of the looseness about the office of James W. Tate, state treasurer, four years before he was proven a defaulter. With that instinct for news that amounts almost to intuition with him, he got an inkling of something wrong at Frankfort, and suggested that an investigation would be a good
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thing. The matter was laughed at and hushed up by Tate's associates, who declared that they knew his affairs were all straight, and for four years longer the stealing went on.
In his writings sarcasm and ridicule are his favorite weapons, and while he is personally jovial and witty, he makes but little pretensions to humor with his pen. He prefers to deal in a plain-spoken, business like style that is seldom mistaken for the "lighter vein." There is no more conscientious or influential editor in the smaller cities of Kentucky than Mr. Woodson.
His paper is a power in the politics of his state, and Democracy has no more ardent champion than he is.
When Governor John Young Brown was elected he tendered Mr. Woodson the appoint- ment of railroad commissioner, which position he filled for four years.
For eight or ten years he has been a member of the Democratic state central committee, and was for a term president of the Kentucky Press Association.
JAMES A. VIOLETT, Attorney-at-Law of Frankfort, and a member of the legislature, representing Franklin County, is a son of Leland and Polly (Walker) Violett. His father was a native of Owen County, where he was a farmer in good circumstances and a highly respected citizen of the county. He was a man of exem- plary habits, industrious and frugal, and was an active and energetic man until his death in 1882. His father's people were of French extraction.
Polly Walker Violett (mother) was a daughter of a Mr. Walker, who came to America from England and lived in Owen County until he reached the unusual age of ninety-seven years.
James A. Violett was born in Owen County, Kentucky, July 20, 1852, and lived the life of a farmer's boy until he was eighteen years of age, when, having obtained a good common school education, he attended the excellent school at Harrodsburg under the tutorship of Professor Edward Porter Thompson and then taught school in Owen and Franklin Counties, at the same time studying law without an instructor until 1876, when he placed himself under the care and in-
struction of Judge Coffee, one of the most eminent judges of the Court of Appeals. He was ad- mitted to the bar in Frankfort in 1879, and at once entered upon a career which has thus far proven highly successful and promises a brilliant future.
He was elected county attorney of Franklin County in 1882, serving four years, and in 1895 was elected on the Democratic ticket as repre- sentative of Franklin County in the legislature. In the remarkable contest for the United States Senatorship in the General Assembly of 1896, Mr. Violett was one of five sound-money Democrats who refused to support Senator Blackburn, the Democratic caucus nominee. He did this in spite of the tremendous pressure the friends of Black- burn brought to bear upon him. Believing, how- ever, that the majority of his constituents and the good of the state demanded the defeat of Black- burn, he steadily refused to cast his vote for that candidate.
Mr. Violett is one of the most active and able members of the legislature, and a faithful repre- sentative of his constituents.
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