USA > Kentucky > Biographical cyclopedia of the commonwealth of Kentucky > Part 68
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tain; Benjamin was midshipman in the navy and served with his brothers Richard and John.
After the death of Rachel Gibson, his wife, Col. George Taylor was married a second time to Mrs. Sarah Conway, nee Taliaferro, and had one son, George Conway Taylor, who was at one time a member of the Virginia Council.
Edmund Taylor, the third son of Col. George Taylor, served throughout the Revolution as a soldier and officer of militia; he received for his services several thousand acres of bounty land, which he located in Jefferson County, Kentucky, and to which he removed shortly after the close of the war. He died in 1784-5, leaving ten chil- dren, one of whom, Mary Taylor, married her first cousin, Richard Taylor, Jr., son of Captain Richard Taylor of the Virginia Navy.
Richard Taylor, the fifth son of Col. George and Rachel Gibson Taylor, was born in Orange Coun- ty, Virginia, January 6, 1749. On the recom- mendation of General Washington he was ap- pointed a captain in the Virginia Navy of the Revolution in 1776 and served until the close of the war. He commanded at various times the state boats "Liberty," "Patriot" and "Tartar," and captured several armed British cruisers, one of which, the "Speedwell," was afterward sent to the West Indies for ammunition and supplies so badly needed by the Patriot army.
At one time Captain Taylor's boat was be- calmed just inside of the Virginia Capes, in sight of a British ship, and he determined to attempt the capture of the ship in his open boats, and made the attack. The British fired on his boats, killing six of his men and putting a ball through his thigh, which lamed him for life, but he urged his men on to the attack and finally overpowered the British crew and took them into Norfolk harbor.
For his services during the war he received several thousand acres of bounty land, most of which he located in what was then Jefferson Coun- ty, Kentucky, about twenty miles above the Falls of the Ohio, and in 1794 removed to his land with his large family.
In addition to bounty land, Captain Taylor re- ceived a pension of $300 per annum on account of the wounds received in action.
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Captain Richard Taylor married Catharine Davis of Orange or Culpeper County, Virginia, and left a very large family; his son, Col. Richard Taylor, was appointed surveyor of the lands set apart for the officers and soldiers of the Revolu- tion, west of the Tennessee river, in Kentucky, and settled at Columbus, Kentucky.
Col. Richard Taylor, Jr., married his first cous- in, Mary, daughter of Edmund Taylor, and had, among other children, John Eastin Taylor, who married Rebecca Edrington, and was at one time clerk of Hickman County, Kentucky; born 1803; died at Point Coupee, Louisiana, February, 1835, leaving three children, the eldest of whom is living.
Edmund Haynes Taylor, son of John Eastin and Rebecca (Edrington) Taylor and grandson of Richard Taylor, Jr., and Mary Taylor, was born in Columbia, Kentucky, in 1832. He was left an orphan at an early age and was adopted, raised and educated by his uncle, Col. Edmund H. Tay- lor of Frankfort, who gave him every educational facility, and who started him out in his business life as he did his own son.
In early life, with limited patrimony, but with an ambition born of laudable desire, he began to carve out the career which has achieved success and given him distinction and prominence as a leader among nien. The foundation was fortu- nately laid in a good education and personal disci- pline under that master of his art, B. B. Sayre, who was not surpassed as an educator in Ken- tucky. His training applied to the entire per- sonality of the pupil, and to this Mr. Taylor owes, besides his mental culture, that grace and dignity of address and that suavity and charm of expres- sion which adds so much to the popularity of character and potency.
At the age of twenty-one he was united in mar- riage with Fannie, daughter of William Staple- ton Johnson of Frankfort. He was at that early age cashier of the Commercial Bank of Kentucky at Versailles. Soon after he was engaged with men of capital in private banking in Lexington. The great disturbing event of the Civil war led lıis adventurous spirit to embark in other enter- prises of the troublous times. In 1868, with little more than his business qualifications to bank on,
he began the manufacture of whiskey at Frank- fort, and in this struck the flood-tide of his career. His ready intuitions soon mastered all details of the science of distilling and its products, and placed him far in advance of the day in perfecting his novel and improved methods which have ac- quired fame for superior purity and excellence wherever fine Bourbon whiskies have become famed over the world. Since 1868, barring some incidents of reverses and financial troubles, this great enterprise has steadily grown in prestige and prosperity, and to-day stands unsurpassed by any other in the distilling interests in the United States. From 1871 to 1891 he was repeatedly elected mayor of the city of Frankfort, serving in all sixteen years, and until he removed to his new and beautiful residence one mile beyond the city limits. On his resignation as mayor he was elect- ed with unanimity by the people of the county to. serve them in the legislature of 1891-2, at a period of supreme interest and importance to his constituents and to the state. He was subse- quently elected to the state senate to complete the unexpired term of Judge Lindsay, who was elect- ed to the United States Senate, and narrowly es- caped membership in the present (1896) legisla- ture, having been happily defeated in the nom- inating convention of his party.
Few men have shown the qualities of high cour- age and invincible power of will of Edmund H. Taylor, Jr., and these have given him a force of character and prestige that make him an acknowl- edged leader of men. His generosity is equal to his splendid abilities, and his charity and public beneficence are as notable as his other traits of character. Mr. Taylor's ample fortune enables him to dispense in munificent style that old fash- ioned Kentucky hospitality in which he has al- ways taken a delight and pride.
JUDGE HORATIO W. BRUCE, son of Alexander and Amanda (Bragg) Bruce, was born February 22, 1830. His father was born in Garrard County, Kentucky, in 1797, and re- ceived a thorough education in the academy in Lancaster; studied law in the office of Samuel McKee, and after his admission to the bar he
JUDGE H. W. BRUCE.
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practiced law for a short time and then removed to Vanceburg, Kentucky, and engaged in mer- chandising. He accumulated a handsome for- tune, which was largely invested in farms and timberlands, and for many years he gave his at- tention to his farms and his several saw mills. He was an intense Whig and took an active part in state and national politics, serving his country in the State Legislature in 1825 and 1826. He died in 1851 and was buried at Vanceburg, Ken- tucky.
John Bruce (grandfather) was born in Pittsyl- vania County, Virginia, in 1748. He was a farmer, of good education, and a patriot, serving as a soldier in the Revolutionary war within the Virginia State line. After the war he removed to Kentucky and settled in Bourbon County, but afterward removed to Garrard County, where he died in 1827. His wife was Elizabeth Clay, daughter of Henry Clay, Jr., of Mecklenburg, Virginia, who survived him a few years. His father, H. W. Bruce's great-grandfather, was a native of Scotland, who came to this country and settled in Virginia.
Mrs. Amanda (Bragg) Bruce (mother) was born in Lewis County in 1805. She and Alexan- der Bruce were married in 1818. She died and was buried at Vanceburg in 1852. She was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Her father, Thomas Bragg, was a native of Fau- quier County, Virginia, who came to Kentucky and located in Nelson County in 1800, and after- ward moved to Lewis County. He served in the Revolutionary war; was a farmer and a mem- ber of the Episcopal Church. His wife, Lucy Blakemore, daughter of Thomas Blakemore, who married Anne Nevil, was born near Battle- town (now Berryville), Frederick (now Clark) County, Virginia. She was born in March, 1764, and died in November, 1862, so that, if she had lived until the following March, she would have been ninety-nine years of age. She was reared in the Episcopal Church, but was for many years member of M. E. Church. Her father, Joseph Bragg (maternal great-grandfather), was a native of and was reared on Albemarle Sound, not far from Norfolk, Virginia. His brother, Peter Bragg, was the great-grandfather of Walter L.
Bragg of the Interstate Commerce Commission. The Braggs belonged to the old English New- port family, for whom Newport News and the City of Norfolk were named.
Hon. H. W. Bruce is a native of Lewis Coun- ty. He was educated in private schools in Ken- tucky and in Manchester, Ohio; studied law in the office of L. M. Cox of Flemingsburg and after admission to the bar, at the age of twenty-one, practiced law in Flemingsburg until Christmas, 1858, when he came to Louisville, which has been his home ever since, although voluntarily absent during the war. While living in Flem- ingsburg he represented his county in the Legis- lature in 1855 and 1856; and in 1856, when twenty-six years of age, he was commonwealth attorney for that district. He was also a member of the Board of School Trustees of Flemings- burg.
When he came to Louisville he formed a co- partnership with his brother-in-law, Ben Hardin Helm, under the firm name of Helm & Bruce. Mr. Helm was afterward a general in the Confed- erate army. He was a brother-in-law of Presi- dent Lincoln, having married Miss Emily Todd, a sister of Mrs. Lincoln. Mr. Helm went into the Confederate army as a colonel and was pro- moted to the rank of brigadier-general on the recommendation of Albert Sidney Johnson. He was desperately wounded in the battle of Baton Rouge and was killed in the battle of Chicka- inauga.
Judge Bruce also cast his lot with the Southern Confederacy, but in a civil capacity, after having been a States' Rights candidate for United States Congress in 1861 in opposition to Robert Mal- lory, the successful candidate. He was a mem- ber of the Russellville conventions, the second of which passed the ordinance of secession, de- claring Kentucky out of the Union. That con- vention established a provisional government for Kentucky, the Legislature of which was called the Provisional Council. He was a member of that council, and during his term of service in the council, Kentucky, by act of the Congress of the Confederate States, was admitted as a member of the "Confederate States of America."
Judge Bruce was elected a member of the
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House of Representatives of the Confederate Con- gress, in which capacity he served until the end of the war. In 1861, at Montgomery, Alabama, eleven states (not embracing Kentucky, Mis- souri, Delaware and Maryland) formed a provi- sional government under a provisional constitu- tion as the Confederate States of America on an equal footing. The first congress was organized at Montgomery, Alabama, but was transferred to Richmond, Virginia. It was of one body and was known as the Provisional Congress. It adopted a constitution for the Confederate States of America, which was accepted by those states. The constitution provided for a Legislature designated as the "Congress of the Confederate States of America." That congress was bicau- dal in character. It was ordained that that congress should assemble in Richmond, Virginia, on the eighteenth day of February, 1862, when its House of Representatives should elect a speak- er and other officers. It was also ordained that the President and Vice-President of the C. S. A. should be inaugurated on the 22d day of Febru- ary, 1862.
As stated, Judge Bruce, who was then thirty- two years of age, was elected a member of that House of Representatives which assembled Feb- ruary 18, 1862. The Congress of the permanent government also assembled on that day. About one hour previous to the assembling of the House of Representatives, the Provisional Con- gress, with Howell Cobb as President, adjourned sine die. Immediately after the adjournment of the Provisional Congress, the first session of the House of Representatives convened, and Thomas S. Bocok of Appomattox Court House, Virginia, was elected speaker. The President, Jefferson Davis, and the Vice-President, Alexander H. Stephens, were to be formally inaugurated on the 22d of February, four days later; and a reso- lution was adopted by the house directing the speaker to appoint a committee of thirteen, one from each state, on inaugural ceremonies, which committee was charged with the duty of arrang- ing and conducting all the ceremonies incident to the induction of the President and Vice-Presi- dent into office. The State of Kentucky was rep- resented on that committee by Judge Bruce,
whose career as a member of Congress of the C. S. A. during the remaining years of its existence has long passed into history.
He left Richmond April 2, 1865, with the other members of Congress, and with President Davis, and went to Danville, Virginia, where he re- mained until the surrender at Appomattox Court House; and after remaining for a while at Greensburg, North Carolina, and Augusta, Georgia, he returned to Richmond. President Johnson had issued his amnesty proclamation, and the attorney-general, Hon. James Speed of Kentucky, being a personal friend of Judge Bruce, he determined to go to Washington and have a settlement with the United States govern- ment. When he arrived in Washington Mr. Speed informed him that he had been pardoned.
In August, 1865, he resumed the practice of law in partnership with a former pupil, Mr. Sam- uel Russell (late president of the Bank of Louis- ville), under the firm name of Bruce & Russell. This partnership was dissolved in August, 1868, when Mr. Bruce was elected judge of this judicial district, which he held as circuit judge until 1873, when he was appointed chancellor of the Louis- ville Chancery Court by the governor of Ken- tucky. He remained chancellor, by election, un- til March 10, 1880, when he resigned to accept his present position of attorney for the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company, the duties of which demand his exclusive attention.
From 1872 to 1880 he was a professor in the law department of the University of Louisville, holding the chair of history and science of law, the law of real property, contracts and criminal law. He was not a graduate of any college or university, which is usually required of profes- sors in chartered institutions of learning. He was for a number of years president of the Louis- vill Medical College.
Judge Bruce married Miss Lizzie Barbour Helm, June 12, 1856. She was a daughter of John L. and Lucinda Barbour Helm. Her mother was a daughter of Ben Hardin. Mrs. Bruce was born at Helm Place, Hardin County, April 11, 1836, and was educated in Elizabethtown and Louis- ville. She is a member of the Presbyterian Church. They have five children: Helm, Liz-
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zie Barbour, Maria Preston Pope, Mary and Alexander.
Helm Bruce is a lawyer in Louisville in part- nership with his uncle, James P. Helm, who is a brother of General Ben Helm-the former part- ner of Judge Bruce-and the firm name of Helm & Bruce is the same as that which existed before the war. Young Mr. Bruce is a graduate of Washington and Lee University, taking two scholarships, one in moral philosophy and one in mathematics, in both of which he received very high honors. He was orator of the literary so- ciety to which he belonged at college, and when he graduated in the law department of the Uni- versity of Louisville he received the medal for the best essay, choosing for his subject "Con- tributory Negligence."
Two daughters of Judge Bruce, Preston and Barbour, after receiving the best instruction in the schools at home, spent three years in Europe studying the languages, arts and literature.
W ILLIAM J. RANKINS, retired merchant of Augusta, was born in Mason County, September 1, 1823; son of Blackstone H. and Elizabeth (Barker) Rankins. His father was born in Virginia, November 4, 1794, and removed to Mason County when a boy, receiving a part of his education in Mason County, where he died August 31, 1868. In politics he was a Whig and in religion a Universalist. His father, William Rankins, came from Virginia and located in Ma- son County early in the present century, where he was a successful farmer. He died April 12, 1838. His ancestors came from Ireland.
Elizabeth Barker Rankins (mother) was born in Maryland, June 26, 1797, and died in Bracken County, November 20, 1853. Her father, Joseph Barker, was born July 25, 1759; died May 10, 1821. His wife (maternal grandmother) was a sister of John Quincy Adams; born June 2, 1769; died May II, 1854.
William J. Rankins received a good education in the Mason County schools, after which he en- gaged in a general merchandising, commission and forwarding business, having large transac- tions on the Ohio river, in which he continued from 1849 until 1884, when he retired. During
the war his sympathies were with the Union, but he took no active part, giving attention to com- mercial affairs and having little interest at any time in politics. He is an elder in the Presby- terian Church, and one of the most honored and substantial citizens of Augusta.
He was married July 5, 1852, to Hannah J. Silverthorn, daughter of Samuel and Isabella Sil- verthorn. She was born December 1, 1831; died July 22, 1878.
He was married the second time, in Brooklyn, New York, September 20, 1883, to Mary Ann, daughter of James and Mary (De Cue) Sproule. She was born February 9, 1853.
C HARLES WILLIAM AITKIN, M. D., of Flemingsburg, Kentucky, son of Dr. George and Jennie Holiday (Duty) Aitkin, grand- son of George Aitkin, was born December 16, 1859, at Sherburne, Kentucky. He was edu- cated in the public schools of Fleming County, Kentucky, and at Threlkeld's Select School, Lex- ington, Kentucky. Commenced the study of medicine in 1877 at Sherburne under his father, George Aitkin, A. M., M. D .; attended two courses of lectures at the Medical College of Ohio, Cincinnati, and was graduated March 2, 1880; he also took a post-graduate course of instruction in microscopy, bacteriology, physical diagnosis and ophthalmology at the Ohio Med- ical College in 1890, and at the New York Poly- clinic in 1891. He practiced his profession in Sherburne, Kentucky, with his father from the time of his graduation until 1889, then alone till September, 1890; since April, 1891, in Flem- ingsburg in partnership with Drs. McDowell &
Garr, with whom he is now associated under the firm name of McDowell, Garr & Aitkin. (See sketch of Dr. Charles R. Garr in this volume.)
Dr. Aitkin is a member of the Fleming Coun- ty Medical Society; Northeastern Kentucky Medical Association; was treasurer of the same in 1893, and re-elected at the May meeting, 1894; was elected president of the Northeastern Ken- tucky Medical Association in January, 1896; member of the Kentucky State Medical Society, elected first vice president at June meeting, 1894; member of Alumni Association of the Medical
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College of Ohio; member of the American Med- ical Association; secretary of the Fleming Coun- ty Board of Health, 1891-98; secretary of the Flemingsburg Board of United States Pension Examiners, 1890-93; president of the Fleming County Farmers' Bank since August, 1892; di- rector of local board of the Blue Grass Building & Loan Association; member of Board of Mis- sions, and of the Board of Church Extension of the Kentucky Conference, Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
He has published articles on "Pleuritic Effu- sions," Medical Progress, July, 1890, and Amer- ican Practitioner and News; "Diagnosis and Treatment of Diphtheria," Transactions of Ken- tucky State Medical Society, New Series, Vol. I .; "Wound Closure After Empyema Operation," Ohio Medical Journal, April, 1892; "Some Points on Physical Examinations of the Chest," ibid., January, 1894; "A Complicated Pleurisy," ibid., July, 1894. He is also the author of a paper on "Post-Scarlatinal Nephritis," "Report of Three Atypical Cases of Cancer of the Stomach," read before local societies; also a paper on "The Clergyman, the Doctor and the Religious Press," Ohio Medical Journal, October, 1895.
Dr. Aitkin was married September 20, 1881, to Miss Ida J. Browning of Mason County, Ken- tucky. Mrs. Aitkin is a daughter of William Reed Browning and Mary A. Ball, his wife, na- tives of Mason County. The children of Dr. and Mrs. Aitkin are Jennie Browning, born Novem- ber 13, 1883, died October 25, 1888, of diphtheria; and Maurice Duty Aitkin, born April 8, 1890.
Dr. Aitkin is a man of great energy and in- dustry, devoted to his profession and to the im- portant work of the church which is entrusted to his care; an exemplary Christian gentleman, whose professional and other business interests are conducted upon correct principles, and in every relation of life his deportment is character- ized by the faithful and conscientious discharge of duty.
George Aitkin, A. M., M. D. (father), was born near Knoxville, Tennessee; was a graduate of the academic, theological and medical depart- ments of Transylvania University; taught as a supply in academic department for one term;
practiced medicine at Sherburne, Kentucky, dur- ing his whole professional career, and died there in 1889. For a number of years he preached to Presbyterian congregations at New Hope, Gilead and Battle Run; was president of the Sherburne Board of Trustees of the public schools and of the Town Council for many years; owned a farm near Sherburne, which was used principally for grazing; was a Republican in politics until four years before his death, when he bccame associated with the Prohibition party; was married in 1848 to Jennie Holiday Duty, who was born in Bath County, Kentucky, and was educated in private schools in Sharpsburg. They had four children: Nathan Rice, Emma, wife of Charles H. Daugherty, Daniel D. and Dr. Charles W. Aitkin.
George Aitkin (grandfather) was born in Scot- land about 1770; graduated in medicine at Edin- burgh; emigrated to America in 1800 and lo- cated in Tennessee; was not fond of his profes- sion and virtually abandoned the practice of medicine and followed farming. He removed to Lexington, Kentucky, where he died some years later. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church and a devout Christian gentleman.
Rev. William Aitkin (great-grandfather), a na- tive of Scotland, was educated in Edinburgh Col- lege, and was a Presbyterian minister. His two sons were also educated in the University of Edinburgh.
Littleton Duty (maternal grandfather) was a native of Virginia; came to Kentucky about 1810 and located in Bath County, where he died; was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church; married Sallie Lyle McAllister, who was a na- tive of Richmond, Virginia, daughter of Charles McAllister and Jennie Holiday, his wife, both of whom were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
AMES C. CARRICK, a leading physician of J Lexington, is of Scotch-Irish origin. He is a grandson of Robert Carrick, who served in Colonel Richard M. Johnson's mounted regi- ment, and is a son of Alexander and Mary Helm (Cantrill) Carrick, and was born in Scott County, Kentucky, January 25, 1867.
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Alexander Carrick was also a native of the same county and was a well-known farmer and breeder of thoroughbred horses for many years. He was born in 1802 and died in 1875. He was a member of the Christian Church in New Town, and performed his duties in every relation of life well. He was a Democrat and espoused the cause of the Confederacy and served through that struggle as a captain of a company. He was the owner of three thousand acres of land in Scott County at the time of his death.
His father, Robert Carrick, died in the same year, 1876, and was also a member of the Chris- tian Church, and held the office of magistrate. He was born in 1791. He father was a native of Scotland and, when a young man, emigrated from his native land and settled in Kentucky.
Alexander Carrick married Mary Helm Can- trill (cousin of Lieutenant Governor Cantrill), who was born in Scott County, Kentucky, and is now living in the old homestead in that county. Her father was John F. Cantrill, a native Ken- tuckian, and during the greater part of his life an extensive farmer and stock breeder of Bour- bon County, where his death occurred in 1890, in the eighty-third year of his age. He was a worthy member of the Baptist Church. He mar- ried a Miss Barlow, a member of an old Virginia family who settled in Bourbon County. He had four sons, who served in the Southern army un- der Generals Morgan, Forrest and Wheeler. The Cantrills are descended from the Huguenots who settled in England in 1695, when Louis XIV. issued an edict forbidding the return to France of all refugees who had fled to England to escape being publicly burned alive for the crime of heresy. The Cantrills were silk dyers in France, and followed that profession when exiled in Eng- land from 1695 to 1698. Peter De Cantrill set- tled in Virginia in 1728.
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