USA > Kentucky > Biographical cyclopedia of the commonwealth of Kentucky > Part 64
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Martin J. Brown came to Newport with his parents when nine years of age, and received his primary education in the Catholic schools of Delhi, Ohio, and at St. Michaels in Cincinnati. He then spent some time at St. Vincent, West- moreland County, Pennsylvania, finishing at Xavier College, Cincinnati; studied law with A. T. Root, then city attorney of Newport, and was admitted to the practice of law September 25, 1880. He has had a very successful career as an attorney at law, having a large general prac- tice and being attorney for a number of building associations, to which he has given much atten-
tion. He is a Democrat, but takes no active part in politics. He and his mother are members of the Roman Catholic Church, as was his father.
Mr. Brown was married January 10, 1882, to Hattie Kearney, daughter of James Kearney, de- ceased, of Newport. She died in 1892, leaving two sons and three daughters: Hattie, Mary, Lilian, George and Martin J. Brown, Jr.
I SAAC P. GOULD, M. D., one of the rising young physicians of Bellevue, was born in Newport, Kentucky, April 28, 1871, and is the son of Isaac P. and Dora A. (Martin) Gould. His father was a native of Raleigh, North Carolina, who came to Newport in 1865, and while living there was engaged for twenty years in the whole- sale shoe business in Cincinnati. He subsequent- ly removed to Lexington. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and was Grand Master of the State Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons. He died in Bellevue in 1895, aged forty- five years. His father was a native of Raleigh, North Carolina, and a minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church. He died in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1867, while on a visit to that city, aged forty years. The Goulds are of English descent.
Dora A. Martin Gould (mother) is a native of Newport, now living in Bellevue, and is one of the honored members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
John Martin (grandfather) was a native of Memphis, Tennessee. He came to Newport in 1860 and made that city his home most of the time until his death. He was a ship builder, and built gunboats during the war, and was extensively engaged in shipbuilding in Baltimore. He reached the age of seventy-eight years and died in 1893 at Dayton, Kentucky. He was of Scotch- Irish extraction. Mr. Martin was a Republican and a man of great force of character. He was quite prominent during the war, serving his coun- try in the line of his business as faithfully as many who served upon the battlefield.
Dr. Isaac P. Gould is a graduate of the Belle- vue High School and spent several years in col- lege. After leaving school he read medicine with Professor Fred Kabler of Cincinnati for a time, and then attended the Ohio Medical College at
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Cincinnati, graduating in 1891. He then took a year's course in the New York Polyclinical Medi- cal College, and in 1892 began the practice of medicine in Bellevue. His thorough preparation for his high calling enabled him to take rank al- most at once among older and more experienced physicians, and he has met with phenomenal suc- cess, both from a business point of view and as a physician of the highest qualifications.
JOHN H. LEATHERS, Cashier of the Louis- J ville Banking Company, son of William and Elizabeth (Hess) Leathers, was born in Middle- way, a small town in Jefferson County, near Mar- tinsburg, now West Virginia, April 27, 1841. There are few business men in Louisville or else- where who have been more successful through strictly honest and legitimate means than has Captain Leathers. He holds many offices of trust and honor, which have been thrust upon him on account of his business qualifications, fine judgment and his unswerving integrity, and, as will be seen from this brief sketch, he has reached his present enviable position among the first men of the city by his own efforts and without financial aid from friends or relatives.
His father, William Leathers, was born in Orange County, Virginia, where he was a farmer for some years, but removed to Berkeley County (now West Virginia), in 1850, and died there in 1872. He was a member of the Methodist Church and was licensed as a local preacher. His sym- pathies were with the South during the Civil strife, but he was then past the military age and did not enlist.
Captain Leather's mother was a daughter of Peter Hess, a sturdy German blacksmith of Berks County, Pennsylvania, who removed about the year 1810 to the Shenandoah Valley, where there was a large settlement of Pennsylvania people. She was educated in Virginia and during her early years was a member of the Lutheran Church, but after her marriage she joined the Methodist Church, of which she was a faithful member until her death, which occurred in Martinsburg in 1870.
The Hess family came from Germany and set- tled in Pennsylvania. The Leathers are of Eng- lish descent.
Captain John H. Leathers was educated in Mar- tinsburg, Virginia, receiving the best instruction afforded in the common schools, and then pur- suing his studies in the higher branches under the teaching of his uncle, John Hess, a man of great learning, who held the office of county sur- veyor almost during his whole life and taught school in connection with his duties as surveyor. He belonged to the old school and was a thor- ough teacher, under whose guidance some of the most distinguished men of Virginia-who will remember him most kindly and gratefully-re- ceived their early training.
When about fifteen years of age Mr. Leathers began his business career in a country store, and after about two years' experience there he came to Louisville in 1859. He lost no time in finding employment in the drug store of Cary & Talbot, then located on Market, near Fourth street, and after working for that firm about eighteen months, he secured a place as bookkeeper for William Terry & Company, wholesale clothiers, Sixth and Main streets. He held that position until the spring of 1861, when the war began, and went back to his home in Virginia and enlisted as a private in Company D, Second Regiment Vir- ginia Infantry, which was afterward a part of the famous Stonewall Brigade. Mr. Leathers served with this regiment in most of its campaigns; was taken prisoner at the battle of the Wilderness and was released only a month or two before the final surrender. He was a prisoner at Point Look- out, Maryland, and Fort Delaware. He was wounded in battle at Gettysburg, after two days' fighting, and had many other thrilling experi- ences, escapes and exploits. The highest rank he attained in actual service was that of sergeant- major of his regiment, which rank he held at the time of the surrender, his present military title of captain, by which he is familiarly known, having been earned in the militia in the service of his state.
After the close of the war he returned to Louis- ville and secured employment as bookkeeper for the wholesale clothing house of Jones & Tapp, and after two years became a member of the firm of Jones, Tapp & Company. Mr. Jones retired in about a year and the firm name was changed
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to Tapp, Leathers & Company, in which he con- tinued an active member until 1885, when he was offered the position of cashier of the Louisville Banking Company. This he accepted, retaining his interest in the firm of Tapp, Leathers & Com- pany for several years, but finally sold out, the firm still continuing in the same name.
Captain Leathers is a deacon in the Second Presbyterian Church and president of the Board of Trustees of that congregation; vice-president of the Kentucky Humane Society; president of the Board of Managers of the School of Re- form (House of Refuge), president of the News- boys' Home, grand treasurer of the Grand Lodge of Masons, president of the National Building & Loan Association of Kentucky, resident vice- president of the National Security Company of Kansas City, Missouri, and many equally im- portant offices, mostly of a financial and business nature, which have not been sought by him, but have been urged upon him.
Captain Leathers was married March 12, 1868, to Kate Armstrong, daughter of C. Q. Arm- strong of Louisville. She was educated in Mrs. Nold's Louisville Female College, graduating in 1867. They have four children: Charles F., em- ployed by the Louisville Banking Co .; Annie, graduate of Hampton College, Louisville; Allen, assistant superintendent of the registry depart- ment of the Louisville postoffice, and Stuart Rob- inson, now in the public schools.
W ALTER HOLLADAY DADE, physician and surgeon of the penitentiary at Frank- fort, and practicing physician in that city, was born February 28, 1865, in Edgehill, Louisa County, Virginia, a small village near the head of the Shenandoah Valley.
His father, Henry Fitzhugh Dade, is a native of Albemarle County, Virginia, whose wife and General Fitzhugh Lee's wife were cousins. He entered the Confederate army at the beginning of the Civil war and was captain of the Monticello Guards from Charlottesville, and was with Gen- eral Lee throughout the war and at the final sur- render at Appomattox. His father, Albert Gal- latin Dade, would have been exempt from mili- tary service on account of his age, but he served
throughout the war as chief of the commissary department of General Lee's army. He was a very wealthy man when the war began and had great confidence in the success of the Confeder- acy, contributing largely to the cause, and this, with the ravages of war, left him almost penniless when the war was over.
The Dades are of pure Anglo-Saxon ancestry, which is traced to William, Earl of Sterling. The family was one of the most prominent in Vir- ginia, where they were among the very earliest settlers.
Captain Jack Dade (uncle) is mentioned in Rid- path's History of the World as having been killed in the Seminole war. He and several others were on a reconnoitering expedition when they were surprised and surrounded by the Indians and every one of the party was killed. Captain Dade was one of the bravest men of his time and was a principal in a number of duels, surviving his chivalrous antagonists only to be slain by the sneaking Indians.
Mary Holladay Dade (mother) was a daughter of Walter and Sallie Barrett Holladay of Louisa County, Virginia. Her father's parents were natives of Scotland.
Dr. Walter H. Dade left Virginia when seven years of age and removed with his parents to Henderson, Kentucky, where he attended Reu- belt's select school and the Henderson High School, graduating when sixteen years of age. He was a clerk in a shoe store in that city for three years when he began the study of medicine with Dr. Archibald Dixon; went to college two years and in the spring of 1886 entered Bellevue Medical College, from which he was graduated in 1888. He served two years in the Harlem dis- pensary of Bellevue Hospital doing surgical work exclusively, after which he served on the New York Board of Health, an appointment which he received after a competitive examination, in which there were one hundred and sixty-two applicants for the seventeen places which were to be filled. Dr. Dade stood second in this examination and received the highest compliment from the Board of Examiners. He held this important position in New York City for one year, when, on account of failing health and at the instance of Governor
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Brown, he removed to Frankfort, February 10, 1892. There he accepted the appointment of the sinking fund commissioners as physician and surgeon of the State Prison, which position he holds at present. Dr. Dade, although a general practitioner, has been remarkably successful in surgery, making that his specialty; and there are few more skillful surgeons in the state. In order to improve his knowledge and proficiency in that important branch of his profession he contem- plates taking a full course in surgery and in the treatment of diseases of women in the University of Vienna.
Dr. Dade is a member of the Knights of Pythias, a member of the New York County Medical As- sociation, of the Kentucky State Medical Society and the Franklin County Medical Society. He is a regular contributor to the medical journals, writing about one article a month, and lectures on physiology in the Frankfort High Schools.
Dr. Dade was married June 1, 1893, to Blanche Farra of Lexington, and she died April 22, 1894.
C HURCHILL HADEN BLAKEY was born August 26, 1829, on his father's farm near Shakertown, Logan County, Kentucky, in the first brick house ever built in the county. He spent his boyhood days there, and was educated at Russellville, Kentucky, Academy, first under the superintendency of Mr. French and later under Professor William Wines. He married Mary C. Becker in March, 1855, daughter of Theodore Becker, who was a native of France, and a soldier under Bonaparte, having been brought to America by the English as a prisoner of war. Their children were: Thomas W., Theo- dore B., Churchill, Nellie, Hubert, Clayton B., George D., Lou and Mary. He was a farmer, and served as magistrate for a number of years, succeeding his father; was elected three times as member of the Kentucky Legislature as a Demo- crat, first in 1871, serving contemporary with John G. Carlisle, J. C. S. Blackburn and James B. McCreary; was chairman of Committee on Charitable Institutions and other important com- mittees. He was distinguished for his quaint humor, and had an inexhaustible supply of anec- dotes, which he could relate with great zest and
with good effect to illustrate a point or entertain his friends. While in the Legislature he opposed the bill for establishing an immigration bureau, and in his speech said: "I am in favor of keeping Kentucky for Kentuckians." He was credited with being the originator of the expression, "He bit off more than he can chaw."
He was a Master Mason, a member of the Bap- tist Church, superintendent of the Sunday school, and served as moderator of the Baptist Associa- tion for several years, an office seldom conferred upon a layman; was a strong advocate of the temperance cause, and secured while in the Leg- islature the prohibition of the liquor traffic in Auburn, Logan County, Kentucky. He died at his home in Auburn, Kentucky, April 28, 1895. His parents were Ann Whitsitt and Thomas Blakey, early settlers of Logan County, Ken- tucky. His father was a physician and farmer. Also served as magistrate under the old constitu- tion for a number of years, and also by succession as sheriff of the county. He lived and died on the old Blakey homestead, near Shakertown, in 1842, aged sixty-three years.
George Blakey (grandfather) was born in Cul- peper County, Virginia, November 22, 1749, and married Margaret Whitsitt. He was a soldier of the Revolution under Washington, and died on his farm, "Rural Choice," Logan County, Ken- tucky, September 8, 1842, aged ninety-four years. His maternal grandmother was Margaret Douglas of Scotland.
George Douglas Blakey, a son of George and Margaret W., and uncle of Churchill H. Blakey, was quite prominent as a politician and statesman. He was one of the early advocates of the abolition of slavery, and being a large slave holder emanci- pated them several years before the war of the re- bellion. He was a candidate for governor of Ken- tucky on the abolition ticket with Cassius M. Clay; was a member of the Constitutional Con- vention in 1849, and was internal revenue col- lector under Lincoln. He died at Bowling Green, Kentucky, in 1885, aged seventy-five years. Thomas and Ann Hadin Blakey (great- grandfather and mother) emigrated from Eng- land to America and settled in Virginia.
Churchill Blakey (great-great-grandfather)
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married Miss Sallie George of Wales. Churchill H. Blakey had no brother, but a cousin, George T. Blakey, was raised in his fath- er's family. And they loved and esteemed each other as brothers during their entire lifetime. George T. Blakey, being the elder, was born in Logan County, Kentucky, in 1821. He was sheriff of his county, and though of different poli- tical faith (being a Republican) they alternated as members of the Kentucky Legislature. He was several times a delegate to the National Repub- lican Conventions, and was one of the faithful three hundred and six who stood by General U. S. Grant in his memorable contest for a third term in 1880. He lives at Auburn, Logan County, Kentucky.
JAMES D. BLACK, leading lawyer of Bar- boursville, son of John C. Black and Clarissa Jones, was born in Knox County, Kentucky, in 1850. His father was born in South Carolina in 1805 and came to Knox County with his father when three years of age and became a well-to-do farmer in that county, in which he made his home until his death in 1876. He was devoted to farm- ing and held no office except that of justice of the peace, in which he served his county for many years.
Alexander Black (grandfather) was a native of Ireland, who came to South Carolina when he was a young man, and removed to Knox County, Kentucky, about 1808, and was a farmer there during the remaining days of a well spent life.
Clarissa Jones Black (mother) was a native of Clay County, Kentucky, and died in Knox Coun- ty in 1862, aged sixty-five years. Her father, Isaac Jones, was a prosperous farmer in Clay County. The great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, on his mother's side, came from France to this country during the Revolutionary war, it is said, with Lafayette, and was a soldier on the side of the colonies in their struggle for independence. So there is an intermixture of French and Irish blood in Mr. Black's veins.
James D. Black found time during his farm life to attend such common schools as were then in his neighborhood, and by close application he acquired such education as these scanty op-
portunities afforded. He was never known to ignore any chance within his reach to learn, and before he reached his legal age he was employed as a teacher. By this means he acquired sufficient means to enter college. He did not miss this op- portunity, for from early boyhood he was pos- sessed with a strong and abiding ambition to enter the profession of the law, and applied him- self with much zeal to preparing himself for this higher pursuit. He attended school at Green- ville and Tusculum College in East Tennessee, where he reached a high standing in scholarship. Returning home he again went to teaching for the purpose of replenishing his finances and to enable him to take up the study of law. He began reading law; was duly admitted to the bar, and subsequent events have shown the wisdom of his choice in selecting that profession, for no man in his section of the state has achieved greater suc- cess than has come to him. He is a profound civil lawyer, and a fine practitioner. As an advocate he has no superior within the range of that entire section of the state, if, indeed, he has an equal. He has never shown any predilection to politics, having time and again been urged by admiring friends to enter the arena of politics, but he has uniformly declined. But notwithstanding his aversion to office seeking for himself he has many times done valuable services in that direction for his friends. When barely of eligible age he was, even against his own desire, taken up by his friends and elected to the Legislature of his state over an adverse political majority of more than one thousand votes, and after one of the most exciting and hard fought battles ever known in that legislative district. In the Legislature he at once took a high standing, and maintained a com- manding prestige during the entire session, giv- ing to his constituents universal satisfaction. He was petitioned by leading men of both parties to announce himself for re-election, but declined to do so. He then began actively the practice of law, and from that time till now his career has been brilliant and successful, bringing to him not only more than a competency but a constantly widen- ing and increasing practice. His people still re- cognizing his merits elected him school commis- sioner of his county, giving him the vote of every
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elector over a number of opponents. In 1873 he became a member of the Masonic fraternity, and in 1886 was elected Grand Junior Warden and successively Grand Senior Warden, Deputy Grand Master and Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Kentucky. While holding the highest office within the gift of the Masons of Kentucky a seri- ous question of Masonic jurisdiction came up for adjudication by him, and by his able handling of that question he permanently settled the contest, and his decision was sustained by the Grand Lodge when that exalted body assembled to pass upon the acts of the Grand Master.
In 1893 the governor of Kentucky, recognizing Mr. Black's worth, made him commissioner to the World's Fair for the State of Kentucky. By the division of the duties among the members of that commission the Departments of Minerals and Forestry were given to Mr. Black. When the great fair was opened but few states in the Union had any better exhibit in minerals or timber than Kentucky. This gratifying result was largely due to the efficient services of Mr. Black.
It may be truthfully said that in all the varied experiences and wide range of this man's active life he has never failed to do his whole duty.
James D. Black and Nettie Pitzer, daughter of Thomas J. Pitzer of Barboursville, were united in marriage December 2, 1875. Mrs. Black be- longs to old Virginia families on both sides and is a most accomplished and refined lady. The children of this union are: Pitzer D. Black, Ger- trude D. and Georgia C.
L EWIS MAJOR SANFORD, a wealthy and worthy citizen of Henry County, son of Charles and Martha (Major) Sanford, was born in Henry County, Kentucky, September 15, 1824.
Charles Sanford (father) was born in Virginia February 6, 1790. When he was eight years of age his parents removed to Bourbon County, Kentucky; subsequently moved to Henry Coun- ty, where he lived until his death, January 24, 1867. He devoted his life to agricultural and kindred pursuits, and was the leading farmer and one of the most prominent citizens of the county. He married (first) Sallie Foree, daughter of Berry Foree, a native and wealthy planter of North
Carolina, who removed to Henry County. Mrs. Sanford was born in North Carolina and was educated in the best schools of Henry County. She was the mother of one child, Berry Foree Sanford.
Mr. Sanford was married (second) to Martha Major (mother), who was a native of Woodford County, daughter of John Major. Her two chil- dren were Lewis Major and Charles B. She died in September, 1836, and Mr. Sanford survived her for thirty-one years, but did not marry again. Charles B. Sanford (brother) died December 20, 185I.
Daniel Sanford (grandfather) was a native of Virginia, who came to Bourbon County in 1798, and subsequently removed to Henry County, where he owned large and valuable tracts of land. He was a schoolmate of George Washington and his brother in Virginia, and was a captain in the War of the Revolution. After coming to Ken- tucky he was wholly engaged in the cultivation of his lands. He was a son of Richard Sanford of Virginia.
John Major (maternal grandfather) was also a native of Virginia, who became a successful farmer in Woodford County, where he died many years ago.
Lewis Major Sanford, familiarly known by his middle name, which has no military significance, was educated in the best schools of his day and was hurried from the school room at the age of seventeen to take charge of his father's farming interests. This proved a valuable part of his education, affording business experience which, with great industry and good management, has made him one of the most prominent and wealthy farmers in Henry County. The life of the farmer is uneventful, and Mr. Sanford has found his chief pleasure in the quiet and peaceful pursuit of an occupation which is first in importance, but in which notoriety is seldom sought and less fre- quently attained. He has other business inter- ests and investments, however, and has been president of the Bank of New Castle for many years.
He was married in 1869 to Fannie M. Smith, daughter of A. O. Smith and Harriet L. Hunter Smith, natives of Virginia and residents of Henry
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County, where Mrs. Sanford was born July 26, 1846. She was educated in convent schools in St. Louis and Louisville. She was a member of the Christian Church, of which she was a liberal supporter and faithful in good work until the day of her death, February 16, 1892.
The children of L. M. and Fannie M. Sanford are: Charles, Abram, who married Mary Pryor, daughter of Chief Justice Pryor, of the Kentucky Court of Appeals; Lewis Major, Jr., Hallie Hun- ter, who married John D. Carroll, whose sketch is given in this work; Robert Hunter, Daniel Lawrence, James Goslee, Francis Symmes, Marie Humes and Martha Major.
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