USA > Kentucky > Biographical cyclopedia of the commonwealth of Kentucky > Part 60
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Lindsay felt at liberty to decline, and did decline to accept the appointment. In February, 1893, he was chosen by the Kentucky Legislature United States Senator to serve out the unexpired term of Senator John G. Carlisle, ending March 4, 1895. In January, 1894, he was re-elected to the United States Senate, without opposition, for the full term, that commenced March 4, 1895, and will end March 4, 1901.
In December, 1893, Judge Lindsay was united to his present wife, Miss Eleanor Holmes, a lady of great beauty and many rare excellencies of character, prominent in church and society, in which she is distinguished for the character of her receptions and entertainments, and who pre- sides with grace and tact over the hospitable home of her husband. Senator Lindsay has one living child: Miss Marion Semple Lindsay, a daughter by a former marriage.
D R. JOHN C. WELCH (father) was a native of Jessamine County, born July 3, 1823; the degree of Bachelor of Arts was conferred upon him by Transylvania University in 1844 and the degree of Doctor of Medicine by same institution in 1846.
For forty-one years he practiced his chosen profession in his native county with the excep- tion of four or five years, during the war. In 1861 Dr. Welch espoused the cause of the Union and entered the service as surgeon of the Twen- tieth Kentucky Volunteer Infantry. In 1863 he was made brigade surgeon and served in that capacity until the close of the war. He was an able physician, whose skill was known through- out the state.
In 1877 and 1879 he represented his county in the lower house of the legislature, and was chairman of the committee on charitable institu- tions and a member of the committee on educa- tion.
JOHN BREATHITT, late Governor of Ken- tucky, was a native of the State of Virginia. He was the eldest child of William Breathitt, and was born on the ninth day of September, 1786. His father removed from Virginia and settled in Logan County, Kentucky, in the year 1800. The
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old gentleman was a farmer, possessed of a few servants and a tract of land, but not sufficiently wealthy to give his children collegiate educations. The schools of his neighborhood afforded but few opportunities for the advancement of pupils. John made the best use of the means for im- provement placed within his reach, and by dili- gent attention to his books, made himself a good surveyor.
He taught a country school in early life, and by his industry and economy, as teacher and sur- veyor, he acquired property rapidly, consisting mostly in lands, which were easily obtained under the acts of the assembly appropriating the pub- lic domain. After his earnings had secured a cap- ital capable of sustaining him a few years, he re- solved to read law, which he did under the direc- tion of the late Judge Wallace. He was admitted to the bar in February, 1810. His industry and capacity for business soon secured him a lucra- tive practice, and from this time he rapidly ad- vanced in public estimation.
In 1810 or 18II he was elected to represent the County of Logan in the House of Representa- tives of the General Assembly, and filled the same office for several years in succession. In 1828 he was elected lieutenant-governor of the commonwealth, the duties of which station he filled with great dignity and propriety. In 1832 he was elected governor, but did not live to the end of his official term. He died in the gover- nor's house, in Frankfort, February 21, 1834.
B ENJAMIN B. WILSON, a popular young business man and Treasurer of the City of Lexington, son of Reuben B. and Elizabeth M. (Dunbar) Wilson, was born in Barnwell County, South Carolina, April 28, 1858. Reuben B. Wilson was born in Barnwell County, South Carolina, March 3, 1831; was educated at Charleston, South Carolina, at the Citadel Aca- demy, from which he was graduated in the class of 1853. He was engaged in the occupation of farming until 1875, when he removed to Au- gusta, Georgia, where for two years he was en- gaged in the grocery business, and was then in the cotton commission business. His health failed in 1888, when he removed to Lexington,
and died there in 1889. He was a devoted mem- ber of the Baptist Church and held a license to preach, but never had any regular charge. He was an enthusiastic worker in church affairs, and at the age of seventeen years was clerk of the con- gregation of which he was a member, and in 1853 was elected a deacon.
He enlisted in the First Georgia Confederate Regiment of Infantry under Colonel Johnson Haygood, and was at Charleston when the first gun was fired on Fort Sumter. He subsequent- ly joined a cavalry regiment under Colonel Col- cott, with whom he served during the war.
James J. Wilson (grandfather) was a native of South Carolina, and was well educated, but had to work hard for it; was a member of the House of Representatives in the Legislature for several terms, and later a member of the State Senate. He was a lawyer by profession, but on account of ill-health relinquished the work of his profession and retired to his farm and finally gave up business and went to live with his son, and died April 28, 1876.
James Wilson (great-grandfather) was one of the immortal signers of the Declaration of Inde- pendence, who was afterward one of the judges of the Supreme Court of the United States.
Elizabeth Dunbar Wilson (mother) was born in Barnwell County, South Carolina, August 17, 1835. She was educated in the high school of Barnwell Village, and this was supplemented by a course in Augusta Female Academy in Georgia, taught by William Hard, a Baptist minister and a teacher of distinction. She was a member of the Baptist Church and a most excellent Chris- tian woman.
Frank F. Dunbar (maternal grandfather) was a native of Barnwell County, South Carolina, where he received a common school education, and was for sixteen years tax collector of his county, and was familiarly known as Major Dun- bar
George R. Dunbar (great-grandfather) was a native of the same county and a farmer by occu- pation. He accumulated considerable property ; was modest and unassuming in his manner, and an elegant gentleman of the old school.
Benjamin B. Wilson is a native of Barnwell
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County, South Carolina; received his education in the best private schools of that section. At the age of seventeen years, he went to Augusta, Georgia, where he became engaged as a salesman in his father's grocery, where he remained for several years, afterwards becoming a partner, in which he continued for two years, and came to Kentucky with his father, in 1881.
After arriving in Lexington he became inter- ested in the livery business, in which he is now engaged. He was elected city treasurer of Lexington, of which office he is the present incumbent. Mr. Wilson is Past Grand Master of the Odd Fellows of the state and a member of several other secret and benevolent orders. He owns and manages a stock farm near the city limits in which he takes especial pride.
Mr. Wilson was married May 9, 1883, to Alice Hancock of Lexington, a graduate from Sayre Institute, class of 1882, taking the first honors of her class. They have four children: George H., Horace H., Benjamin Dunbar and Ethelbert Reed.
B ENNETT H. YOUNG, one of the most dis- tinguished citizens of Louisville, was born in Nicholasville, Jessamine County, Kentucky, May 24, 1843. He received his early education in Bethel Academy in Nicholasville and spent two years in Center College, Danville, leaving college to enter the Confederate army, in which he served with distinction, and spent three years following this service in Europe, completing his studies in the Scotch and Irish universities. He took the highest honors in the law department, and the third distinction in the literary depart- ment of the Queen's University. He began the practice of law in Louisville in 1868, and in a very short time acquired a large and lucrative practice. In 1872 he formed a partnership with St. John Boyle, with whom he became associated in the construction of railways in 1878. When Mr. Boyle was receiver of the Henderson rail- road Colonel Young was his legal adviser, and they united later in the construction of the New Albany & St. Louis Air Line Railroad, which is now controlled by the Mackey syndicate. The construction of this road was due to the energy
and enterprise of these two men. Later Colonel Young accomplished the reorganization and pur- chase of the Louisville, New Albany and Chi- cago Railroad, now known as the "Monon Route," and was its general counsel until 1883, when he was elected president of the company, which office he resigned in 1884. He was presi- dent of the Southern Exposition in 1884, and in the following year undertook the construction of the Kentucky and Indiana bridge, an enterprise which was carried on with an expenditure of over two and a half million dollars, and with its ter- minals has proven one of the most important fea- tures in the development of the commercial inter- ests of Louisville. The bridge itself is a remark- able structure and contains the largest cantilever system in the world. It has a length of 2,453 feet, with two spans of 500 feet each. Its five spans form a cantilever system extending a dis- tance of 1,843 feet. The draw span is 370 feet in length and is a marvel of mechanical exactness and can be opened and closed by one man in three minutes. The terminal lines include about sixteen miles of road in New Albany and Louis- ville, making one of the best terminal systems in America.
On the Indiana side the bridge connects direct- ly with the Ohio & Mississippi (or B. & O.) Rail- way, the Louisville, New Albany & Chicago Rail- road (or Monon Route), the J. M. & I. R. R. (or Pennsylvania system), and the Louisville & St. Louis Air Line Railroad; on the Kentucky side with the Louisville & Nashville R. R., the Chesapeake, Ohio & Southwestern Railway, the Louisville, St. Louis & Texas Railway, and the Louisville Southern Railway. It operates about sixty passenger trains daily between Louisville and New Albany. The belt lines of this com- pany have been largely instrumental in develop- ing and building up manufactories in the west- ern portion of the city, while the construction of the bridge caused a large reduction in tolls, and has relieved the traffic of Louisville of an expense of several hundred thousand dollars per annum. It has restored Portland to prosperity, added mil- lions of dollars to the taxable wealth of Louis- ville and has given the western portion of the city an impetus and growth that could never
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have been accomplished without the conception and completion of this enterprise whose chief promoter, director and president was Colonel Bennett H. Young. He had the able co-opera- tion of such men as W. S. Culbertson, Vernon D. Price, W. T. Grant, Thomas W. Bullitt, Mor- ris McDonald and James M. Fetter. John Mc- Leod was the chief engineer and the Union Bridge Company was the contractor. The pres- ent officers of the company are Colonel Ben- nett H. Young, president; W. T. Grant, vice- president; Charles P. Weaver, secretary and treasurer, and W. R. Woodard, general manager.
In 1886, upon the completion and opening of the bridge, seeing that its great value depended upon a southern connection, Colonel Young, in conjunction with some of the leading capitalists of Louisville, undertook the construction of the Louisville Southern Railroad, the building of which marked a new era in the development of the City of Louisville, and gave life and prosper- ity to a section of country tributary to Louisville which had no railroad facilities previous to the completion of this enterprise. It was built with- out aid from the state and gave Louisville a trunk line into the south similar to that which cost Cincinnati nearly $2,000,000. In these two gigantic enterprises alone Colonel Young prob- ably accomplished more for the substantial growth and prosperity of the City of Louisville than any other individual has ever undertaken, and he did this at a great personal sacrifice, as he came out of the hard struggles which they cost him with less money than he had when they were undertaken. But this is not all that he has done. He reorganized the Polytechnic Society and inaugurated a business policy which relieved it of embarrassment, made its valuable property pay handsome rentals, increased the number of valuable volumes in its great library, systema- tized, classified and catalogued its books, recon- structed its quarters and provided accommoda- tions for visitors, increased its membership and made it a library worthy of the great City of Louisville, and thus placed the means of educa- tion by reading and research within the reach of all who desire to avail themselves of its advan- tages. Few institutions have ever proven more
beneficial to a community; with its extensive library, its scientific lectures and its instructions in art, etc., it has met a great need, for until Col- onel Young gave it his attention it was not known as a valuable property or as a great library.
Colonel Young also organized and chiefly en- dowed Bellewood Seminary and the Kentucky Presbyterian Normal School, both of which have become successful and famous institutions.
In the face of many solicitations Colonel Young has steadily declined public office, except as a member of the State Constitutional Con= vention of 1890-I, to which he was elected, and which he accepted believing that he could serve his state to some advantage. In this body he oc- cupied a distinguished position, and probably wielded as much influence as any individual mem- ber in forming the present organic law of the state.
He is a strong and vigorous writer; was editor of the Evening Post for some time, giving it a force of character that no other newspaper in the city has ever enjoyed; is the author of a valuable book entitled "History of the Three Con- stitutions of Kentucky," also several pamphlets -- one on evangelical work in the State of Ken- tucky, and another the "History of the Division of the Presbyterian Church in Kentucky."
His valuable work in building the K. & I. bridge and the Louisville Southern Railroad and other public-spirited labors in behalf of his city has been recognized by the merchants and busi- ness men through their principal organization, the Board of Trade, by his unanimous election as an honorary member of that body. He was the youngest man upon whom this great honor was ever conferred.
Colonel Young is a man of great benevolence, and his kindness to the poor and needy is well known throughout the city in which he lives. He possesses qualities of no uncommon kind. His capacity for the transaction of business is re- markable. His mind is naturally capable of great research; he can divest difficult subjects of their obscurity, see readily through the mazes of intri- cate questions and propositions, and arrange and methodize a multifarious business and conduct doubtful plans to a successful issue. He is a
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warm friend and a generous opponent; has never been afflicted with the spirit of envy or jealousy, and the desire to be great among his friends and neighbors has never disturbed his equanimity. His chief characteristic is a desire to do all the good he can for his fellowmen.
Colonel Young was married in 1866 to Martha Robinson, eldest daughter of Rev. Dr. Stuart Robinson, the eminent Presbyterian divine. Mrs. Young died December 14, 1890.
Colonel Young was married again June 29, 1895.
Colonel Bennett H. Young is descended from a Scotch ancestry that settled in the Ameri- can colonies thirty years before the Revolution. His father, Robert Young, was born in Fayette County, Kentucky, in 1803, and died November 28, 1889. During the many years he lived in Jessamine County, no spot or blemish tarnished his good name. His high integrity as a man and his devotion to his church were unquestioned. All of the duties which society imposed upon him he discharged with scrupulous fidelity; as a husband and father no one could have been more tender; as a friend none were more faithful. Religion with him was an ever living and pure principle of action, prompting not only his duties as a professed Christian, but controlling and tempering his intercourse with his fellowmen. He married Josephine Henderson, daughter of Bennett Henderson, a native of Albemarle County, Virginia, and granddaughter of Colonel Joseph Crockett, a distinguished officer under General Washington in the Revolutionary war, who settled in Kentucky in 1784, and died in Jessamine County in 1829.
John Young (grandfather), son of Joseph Young and Hannah McCraney, was born No- vember 15, 1760. He and his brothers, Thomas and Robert, were soldiers in the Revolutionary war, serving in all the campaigns with General Greene against Lord Cornwallis in 1781 and 1782, in North and South Carolina. Robert Young was a sharpshooter at the battle of Kings Mountain, and shot and killed Colonel Patrick Ferguson, the British commander. (See Drap- er's Kings Mountain, page 275.) Soon after the close of the Revolutionary war John Young
(grandfather) left North Carolina and went to Brunswick County, Virginia, where he married Nancy Rymond, who died after the birth of her only child-John Young-in 1788, and in 1789 he came to Fayette County, Kentucky, and mar- ried Cynthia Mccullough, sister of Captain S. D. Mccullough. The late Dr. Archibald Young of Jessamine County was his eldest child by his second marriage, and Robert Young (father) was the youngest.
Joseph Young (great-grandfather) married Hannah McCraney in 1754. Their children were: Hannah Ann, born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, August 30, 1755; Thomas, born December 23, 1757; Mary Haddon, born January 30, 1759; John (grandfather), born November 15, 1760; Tabitha, born October 29, 1763, and Robert, March 15, 1765.
Archibald Young (great-great-grandfather), married Elizabeth McMurds in 1729. She was a daughter of Andrew McMurds and Margaret Hanford, and was born January 1, 1705. She was three years her husband's senior. Their children were: Nancy Elizabeth and Thomas (twins), born February 2, 1728; Clotilda, born March 6, 1730; Andrew, born December 6, 1732; Joseph (great-grandfather) and Martha (twins), in Philadelphia, November 14, 1734.
Archibald Young (great-great-great-grand- father), son of Archibald Young of Dundee, Scot- land, was born in Dundee January 26, 1708, and was married to Martha Drennan, also a native of Dundee.
C HARLES WALTER YUNGBLUT, a citi- zen of Dayton, Kentucky, and a bright and promising young attorney, whose office and prin- cipal business is in Cincinnati, was born in New- port, Kentucky, September 5, 1868. He is a son of John R. and Anna (Sweitzer) Yungblut, well known citizens of Dayton.
His father was born in Canton, Ohio, in 1835, and was partly educated before leaving his native place. He came to Newport early in life, and after serving his time as an apprentice in a drug store engaged in that business on his own ac- count, and was a successful druggist in Newport for a period of forty years. He is now retired
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and is living in Dayton. His ancestors came to this country from Belgium.
Annie Sweitzer Yungblut is a native of Lor- raine, France, now a province in Germany. She was born in 1843, and came with her father's fam- ily to this country when she was a child. They lived for a time in Cincinnati and then removed to Newport. Her father married a Miss Mignot of Lorraine.
Charles Walter Yungblut received his educa- tion in the public schools of Newport, graduating with honors in the class of 1887. He then began the study of law in the Cincinnati Law School, from which he was graduated in 1890, taking the forensic prize of his class.
He at once opened his office in Cincinnati, and in the five years or more of his professional career he has distinguished himself as a lawyer of ability, having already established a good business, which by careful attention and study and the wise and judicious management of his cases, has grown steadily in the number and im- portance of the cases entrusted to his care.
He was appointed city attorney of Dayton in 1893, and in that capacity has served the city in which he makes his home with credit to him- self and with the approval of the people.
Mr. Yungblut is an ardent Republican, and is one of the most prominent young men in local politics. Modest and unassuming, yet progres- sive and aggressive in politics and law, he is steadily preparing the way for a brilliant and use- ful career.
T 'HOMAS CRYSOSTROM BIRGE, Attor- ney-at-Law, Maysville, son of Ellen (Spell- man) and William C. Birge, was born in North- ampton, Massachusetts, December 3, 1857. His father was born in the same city in 1823 and after completing his studies went to the Sandwich Islands as a sailor; returned and enlisted in the Thirty-seventh Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry and was with the Army of the Potomac through- out the Civil war. When the war was over he returned to his old home and was a farmer the rest of his life. He was a man of fine intellect, a scholarly gentleman, a brilliant conversation- alist and highly respected by all who knew hin).
Thaddeus Birge (grandfather) was born in Northampton in 1785; he was a merchant and farmer; died in 1872. The Birge family came from Scotland and first settled in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Ellen Spellman Birge (mother) was born near Lake Killarney, Ireland, and came to America when she was fourteen years of age, and lived in Worcester, Massachusetts. She married Wil- liam C. Birge in 1851, and is now living in her old home. Her father, Thomas Spellman, was born in Ireland in 1770, and died in 1870, aged one hundred years. He was the manager of large estates which belonged to the nobility. Great- grandfather Spellman was an Englishman who went to Ireland in the early part of the eighteenth century.
Thomas C. Birge was educated in the North- ampton schools; came to Kentucky in 1879, and afterwards went to Cincinnati, and remained there a short time before removing to Covington, where he studied law with Judge Shine. He was ad- mitted to the bar in Covington September 6, 1890, and in the same year formed a partnership with T. B. Wise, which continued until June 30, 1894, when Mr. Birge came to Maysville, where he has already taken a position of prominence at the bar.
Mr. Birge married Mary Cunningham, daugh- ter of William Cunningham, April 27, 1882. She was born in Cincinnati in January, 1860, and was educated in her native city. They have five children: Ida, Nellie, Mary, William and Ben- jamin.
Mr. Birge is a Democrat without seeking prom- inence, and has accepted the religious belief of his mother, who is a Catholic, while his father was a Republican and a Protestant.
A LEXANDER JEFFREY, President of the Lexington City Gas Company, was born in the City of Edinburgh, Scotland, May 10, 1815, and is the son of John and Elizabeth (McCon- nell) Jeffrey.
His father was also a native of Scotland, a barrister by profession and solicitor for the Su- preme Court of Edinburgh. He was the father
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of nine children, of whom the subject of this sketch was next to the youngest. He wedded Elizabeth McConnell, a native of Scotland and a member of the Church of England. She emi- grated to the United States several years after her husband's death and after her son Alexander had arrived in this country and located at Canan- daigua, New York, where she died.
At the age of sixteen, having previously at- tended college in Edinburgh, Alexander Jeffrey came to this country with his aunt, Mrs. George Ross, who located on a farm in the vicinity of Canandaigua, New York, where he remanied three years. He then accepted a clerkship in a bank in New York City, remaining there for about six months, and then returned to Canan- daigua and was a clerk in the land office under ex-Congressman John Greig for about one year; was teller in a bank in Canandaigua for several years, when he became associated with his broth- er, John Jeffrey, who was a civil engineer and contractor and builder of gas works. They con- structed the gas works of Cleveland, Ohio, Nash- ville and Memphis, Tennessee, Covington, Ken- tucky, and in other cities throughout the coun- try. In 1853 Alexander Jeffrey built the gas works at Lexington and has been a resident of that city and president of the Lexington Gas Company since that time.
Mr. Jeffrey was married (first) to Delia Granger, a daughter of General John A. Granger of Canandaigua. She died, leaving three daugh- ters and one son.
His second wife was a well-known poetess, Mrs. Rosa Vertner (Griffith) Johnson of Lex- ington, who died October 6, 1894. She was born near Natchez, Mississippi, where her father, John T. Griffith, a gentleman of literary culture and a graceful writer in both prose and verse, lived for many years. Some of his Indian tales have at- tained celebrity on two continents. Her moth- er was a beautiful and accomplished woman, daughter of Reverend James Abercrombie, who was for forty years rector of old St. Peter's Episco- pal Church of Philadelphia. She died of yellow fever, leaving four little children. The youngest, Rosa Vertner, being only nine months old, was adopted by a maternal aunt, whose husband,
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