Biographical cyclopedia of the commonwealth of Kentucky, Part 72

Author: Gresham, John M., Co., Pub
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: Chicago, Philadelphia, J. M. Gresham company
Number of Pages: 726

USA > Kentucky > Biographical cyclopedia of the commonwealth of Kentucky > Part 72

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Mr. Meade was married January 10, 1894, to Mary Edith Fannin, daughter of J. L. and Mary (Lock) Fannin, of Boyd County. She was born March 29, 1873. They have one child, Delbert Quigley, born January 25, 1895.

Mr. Meade has two sisters and five brothers: Mary E. Meade; Richard; William R. Meade, served in the Fourteenth Regiment Kentucky In- fantry, Union army and married Melissa Shelton; Pierce L. Meade, married Ellen Ward; Anna Meade; Albert Gallatin Meade, married Pauline Molsvarger, and Luke Cullis, who has been twice married, first to Caroline Molsvarger, who died in March, 1888, and whose second wife was Ad- die Walters.

T HOMAS HENRY HINES, ex-Chief Justice of the Kentucky Court of Appeals and dis- tinguished attorney at law of Frankfort, son of Judge Warren W. and Sarah (Carson) Hines, was born in Butler County, Kentucky, October 9, 1838. His ancestors were of English and Scotch origin and were among the first settlers of Kentucky. Dr. McDowell states that these early settlers were the largest body of pure Eng- lish stock that has been separated from Virginia in two hundred years. They were descended from Romans, Saxons, Celts and Normans, the two latter predominating, the characteristics of whom were impressed upon their English de- scendants. They were noted for their love of lib- erty and were men of strong individuality. It was the same principle that produced the American 27

Revolution and made the people of the North American colonies free and independent.

Judge Hines is a true blue descendant of the old Roman and Norman blood of these English ancestors. His professional career has been suc- cessful and brilliant and his service on the appel- late bench, for a term of eight years ending in 1885, was distinguished by the highest legal abil- ity. The State of Kentucky never gave birth to a more daring and accomplished gentleman. Brave and generous, with that high sense of honor so characteristic of true representative Kentuckians, he has manfully performed his duty as soldier, ad- vocate, judge and citizen, and is admired and hon- ored by a host of friends and acquaintances.

In order to vary the monotony of a work of this character, as well as to show the daring and chival- rous courage of the man, an account of the escape of General Morgan, Captain Hines and six other Confederate officers from the Ohio Penitentiary during the war, which escape was planned by him and executed under his management, and is given in lieu of the usual details of his ancestry and the deeds and exploits of his fathers. History fur- nishes no more interesting facts, and romance is thrown in the shade by the reality of that most daring and successful venture.

In the exciting account of General Morgan's escape, in November, 1863, written by Samuel C. Reed, is seen the brave and defiant spirit of the old British blood in Captain Thomas H. Hines, who was then twenty-three years of age, of great nerve and endurance.

Merrion, the warden, feeling the importance of a little brief authority, on the morning of No- vember 3, 1863, grossly insulted Captain Hines, who determined that he would neither eat nor sleep until he had planned some means of escape. Prison life had become intolerable, and the thought of breathing the free air of heaven once more was inexpressibly sweet. He was engaged in reading Victor Hugo's graphic description in "Les Miserables" of the subterranean passages of Paris, and of the wonderful escapes of Jean Val- jean. He argued in his mind that the dryness of the cells must be owing to air passages or ventila- tors beneath, to prevent the moisture from rising, and that by removing the cement and brick in the

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cells they might strike the air chambers and thence escape by undermining the foundation walls. This plan was first communicated to Cap- tain Samuel B. Taylor-a grand nephew of Presi- dent Zachary Taylor-who was as agile, ingenious and daring as Captain Hines.

There were difficulties to overcome from the ar- rangement of the cells-five tiers or stories of solid stone masonry, six feet long, six feet high and three feet wide. General Morgan's cell was in the second story, and Hines' immediately be- neath.

With two case knives, which had been sent from the hospital with food for some of the sick men, the work was begun November 4 in Hines' cell, he assuming the responsibility and alone taking the risk of discovery and its consequent punishment by imprisonment in the dungeon. With these tools two men could work at a time, relieving each other every hour and spending four or five hours a day in labor. It was a work of love and progressed steadily, Hines keeping strict guard, and by a system of knocks or raps upon the cell door, indicating when to begin and when to stop work and come out. The cement and bricks removed were hidden by the men in their beds. The prison guards were always suspicious and watchful, and some privileged convicts were sometimes set as spies to watch the Confederate officers.

After digging in each of the seven cells for eighteen inches square through six inches of cement and six layers of brick, the air chamber was reached and found to be sixty feet long and three by three feet in height and width. There- after the rubbish was removed to the air chamber, while the holes in the walls were carefully con- cealed by their beds. But their patient work was scarcely begun. They worked thence through twelve feet of solid masonry, fourteen feet of "grouting" (the stone and liquid cement) and five feet of graveled earth, and on November 25th reached the yard of the penitentiary.

For the first time General Morgan was now made acquainted with the mysterious under- ground avenue, and was greatly surprised and delighted upon examining the work. A consulta- tion in Morgan's cell on the evening of the 27th

determined them to attempt their escape that night. The weather for some weeks had been perfectly clear, and for several nights succeeding their escape the ground and penitentiary walls were covered by a heavy sleet, which would have made it impossible to scale them. Late in the evening of the 27th light fleecy clouds gathered in the west, which with the feeling of the atmos- phere, betokened a cloudy sky and rain; and at nine p. m. a steady rain set in, lasting through the night. How to scale the outside wall, thirty-five feet high, was their greatest difficulty; besides, several sentinels were on post in the yard and two or three vicious dogs were unchained at night. Again, General Morgan was to be gotten out of his cell in the second story before the turnkey locked all the cell doors at five p. m. "Love laughs at locksmiths," and so did Morgan's men. Calvin Morgan, the general's brother, made out of his bed-ticking a rope seventy feet long, and out of a small iron poker a hook for the end of the rope. At five p. m. when the prisoners were or- dered to their cells, Colonel Dick Morgan went to his brother's cell while the general was locked up in Dick's, one of the seven on the ground floor. General Morgan was allowed the exceptional privilege of a candle to read by after nine o'clock, and the turnkey on going his rounds, finding Dick Morgan with a book before his face reading, mis- trusted nothing, but locked in the wrong prisoner.

In the stillness of the night, at 12:25 a. m., when even a whisper or the falling of a pin could be heard, Captain Sam Taylor dropped noiselessly into the air chamber, passed under the other six cells and touched the occupants as a signal to come forth, each one first so shaping his bed clothes as to resemble the sleeping form of a man, and prevent the suspicion of guards on their hour- ly rounds, until after daylight.

When they emerged from the hole under the foundation three sentinels stood within ten feet, but the steady rainfall drowned any noise from their footsteps. A few paces toward the wall were gone over when one of the huge dogs came run- ing with a howl within ten feet of them, barked once, and then went off, doubtless mistaking them for sentinels. They reached in safety the last gate of the wall, a double gate thirty feet high, of iron

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outside and inside of heavy wooden cross-timbers with open spaces. Wrapping a stone in a cloth to prevent noise and tying it to one end of the rope, Taylor threw it over the top of the inside gate, the weight of the stone drawing down the rope. Securing the hook to one of the timbers one of the parties climbed to the top of the gate and thence to the top of the wall. The rope was hauled up, the hook fastened to the iron railing on the main wall, and in a few minutes they had de- scended to the open street, within thirty steps of a guard, who stood near a bright gaslight. The party immediately separated, General Morgan and Captain Hines going together. By a letter in cipher to a lady friend who sometimes loaned books to the prisoners, Hines' need of money had been supplied, the money being hidden within the folds or binding of a book. Morgan wore goggles loaned by a sore-eyed fellow-prisoner, and kept from the gaslight, while Hines went boldly up to the ticket office and purchased two tickets, just as the Cincinnati train, at 1:25 a. m., came thundering along. Once in the car without suspicion they felt equal to the emergency, and by care and ingenuity made good their escape to the South.

Those who made their exit from prison walls on that memorable night were General Morgan and six of his captains: Thomas H. Hines, Jacob C. Bennett, Ralph Sheldon, James D. Hocker- smith, Gustavus McGee and Samuel B. Taylor.

The coolness and composure of Captain Hines was wonderful. He spent the evening from five to nine in reading one of Charles Lever's novels, and then slept soundly until aroused by Captain Taylor, just after midnight. He was too polite to part with his host Merrion without leaving his compliments and wrote a letter enclosing the tally of the time and labor expended in effecting the escape, which was as follows:

"Castle Merrion, Cell No. 27.

"Commencement, November 4, 1863; conclu- sion, November 20. number of hours for labor per day, three; tools, two small knives.

"'La patience est amere, mais son fruit est doux.' By order of my six honorable Confeder- ates.

"THOMAS H. HINES, C. S. A."

Four days after Captains Taylor and Ralph Sheldon were captured near Louisville and re- turned to the penitentiary. Captain Taylor died several years after the war; General Morgan was slain; Gustavus McGee was killed near Cumber- land Gap; Ralph Sheldon, a descendant of Ralph Sheldon, who was a member of the English Par- liament in 1645, died a few years ago, and Captain Hines still lives to hear the story of the greatest exploit in American history told by others.

Collins' History states that General Morgan and Captain Hines, after getting on the train, went through Dayton to Cincinnati, where they crossed the Ohio at seven p. m. in a skiff to Ludlow, just below Covington, took breakfast at the residence of an enthusiastic lady friend, where they were furnished with horses and traveled twenty-eight miles to Union in Boone County, thence by easy stages, with volunteer guides, through Gallatin, Owen, Henry, Shelby, Spencer, Nelson, Greene and Cumberland Counties, arriving at Overton, Tennessee, December 8, where Hines by quick wit again saved Morgan; was captured Decem- ber 13, but in five days made his escape. General Morgan escaped by way of Athens, Tennessee, across the mountains of North Carolina to Colum- bia, South Carolina, and thence to Richmond, Vir- ginia. The governor of Ohio offered five thou- sand dollars reward for his capture.

G UY M. DEANE, one of the most energetic and promising young business men of Owensboro, son of Silas Mercer and Sallie Moor- man Deane, was born in Owensboro, Kentucky, January 5, 1870.

His father was born in Breckenridge County, May 25, 1839; died June 14, 1894. He received a collegiate education and removed to Owens- boro when a young man and found employment as a clerk in the old Planters Hotel. For a num- ber of years he was engaged in the drug business in partnership with Mr. Courtney and became in- terested in the coal business; was the owner of several coal mines near Owensboro, and these being nearer the city than other mines, furnished most of the coal that was consumed in Owensboro for many years. He had been quite prosperous in business and had bright prospects for the future,

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but, as was common in the early tumult of the Civil strife, his heart was fired with zeal for the south- ern cause, and he abandoned his business and entered the Confederate army as a private in Cap- tain Noel's Company, First Regiment, Kentucky Volunteers. He was with Captain Noel at Shiloh when that gallant officer received his mortal wound. He continued with the army until the spring of 1863, when he was forced to return to his home in Owensboro, on account of impaired health.

He resumed the operation of his coal mines, at the same time having an interest in the drug business with Pointer & Conway, in which he con- tinued until 1887, at which time he was made pres- ident of the Owensboro Savings Bank, a posi- tion which he held until his death. He was one of the originators of the Falls of Rough Railroad, and was president of that company at one time.

Notwithstanding his many business interests and his contact with men of affairs, he was an ex- tremely modest man, and accomplished more by his quiet and unassuming manner than others who made more noise in the world. He was always ready and willing to aid and foster any charitable undertaking, whether public or private; he gave liberally to the poor, but did it quietly and with the stipulation that it must not be mentioned pub- licly. In business his word was as good as his bond, and he adhered to that principle through life, no one ever having known him to fail to keep his promise. He was a living example of manli- ness, gentleness, integrity and truthfulness. His death was a public calamity, for he was a most useful citizen and greatly loved and respected by all classes.

He was baptised and received into the fellow- ship of the Baptist Church in 1869, and remained a consistent member until his death, being one of the most liberal supporters of the church and its work. He was a Mason of highest degree.

Mr. Deane was married October 4, 1866, to Sallie Moorman, a highly educated and accom- plished lady, a graduate of the Georgetown Fe- male Academy and a member of one of the most honored families of Kentucky. The names of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Deane are: Guy M., born January 5, 1870; Allen, born December 13,

1871; Anna Belle, born November 25, 1873; and Edward, born May 18, 1876.

Somers Deane (grandfather) was a native of Breckenridge County, a prosperous farmer and large slave owner. He was quite prominent as a member of the Baptist Church and was well known as a Democrat of decided convictions. He married Elizabeth Moorman, daughter of James L. Moorman. Guy M. Deane graduated from the high school of Owensboro in the class of 1886, and began business as a retail coal dealer, and in 1890, formed a partnership with Boyd Micheson in the same business; was book- keeper in the Owensboro Savings Bank until April, 1895, when he began operating a coal mine at Deanefield, in which he is now successfully engaged; is also interested in real estate and is a stockholder and director in the Owensboro Sav- ings Bank. He is one of the most enterprising young business men of the thriving city of Owens- boro, well known for his energy, push, business sagacity, integrity and honesty.

Mr. Deane and Sue Griffith were married March I, 1892, and their only child, Ruth Griffith, was born May 1, 1893. Mrs. Deane is a daughter of Honorable Clinton Griffith, and was educated in Oxford Female College, graduating in 1889.

C HARLES ALBERT BIRD, a director in the Louis Snider & Sons Paper Company of Cincinnati, and one of the substantial citizens of Dayton, Kentucky, was born November 4, 1842, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, of English par- entage. He left his home when ten years of age and went to Chicago and subsequently to St. Louis and took a position as clerk on a steamboat plying between St. Louis and New Orleans, and was in this service when the Civil War began. He enlisted in the First Mis- souri Infantry, C. S. A., commanded by Colonel Bowen, who was afterwards a brigadier general, and continued in the service until 1863, and was present at the surrender of Vicksburg. He then came to Cincinnati and secured employment in the well-known paper house of Louis Snider & Sons, which has since been incorporated, and in which company he is a stockholder and director.

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Mr. Bird is deeply interested in the welfare and progress of the city in which he has made his home for many years, and was elected mayor of Dayton by the Democratic voters in 1893; has been an honored and trusted member of the city council for eight years; is courthouse commissioner of Campbell County; is a member and Past Master of the Henry Barnes Masonic lodge No. 607 of Dayton, and is one of the leading spirits in all affairs for the betterment of the community in which he lives.

Mr. Bird was married in November, 1873, to Isabella Twaddell, who was born in Cincinnati, April 17, 1852, and where she enjoyed unusual advantages in her school days. They have a group of five promising boys: Charles, Albert, Clarence, George and Nelson Mckibben.

W ILLIAM ROGERS CLAY, son of Samuel Clay, Jr., and Mary Rogers Clay ; grandson of Colonel Littleberry Bedford Clay (C. S. A.) and Arabella Maccoun, daughter of James Maccoun, of the McAfee Company, first settlers of Mercer County, Kentucky; great-great- grandson of Dr. Henry Clay, who emigrated to Kentucky in 1787 from Mecklenburg County, Virginia, and who was a descendant of John Clay, who settled in what is now Chesterfield County, Virginia, in 1613; great-great-grandson of Dr. David Rice, founder of Hampden-Sidney College, Virginia, and Transylvania Seminary, Kentucky, which subsequently became Transylvania Uni- versity, and a member of the Kentucky Constitu- tional Convention of 1792, who married Mary Blair, sister of Samuel Blair, Jr., President of Princeton College, New Jersey, and chaplain of the Continental Congress, and a daughter of Samuel Blair, founder of Fagg's Manor Seminary, Pennsylvania, and professor of di- vinity in Princeton College, who married Frances, the daughter of Judge Lawrence Van Hook, the first Dutchman to hold an official posi- tion in New Jersey. On his maternal side, William Rogers Clay is a grandson of Captain William S. Rogers (C. S. A.), and a great-great- grandson of Nathaniel Rogers, member from Bourbon County of the Constitutional Conven- tion of 1798, who was the great-great-grandson of

John Rogers, fifth president of Harvard College, and Elizabeth Denison, the only daughter of Major-General Daniel Denison, Governor of Massachusetts, and his wife, Patience, a daughter of Thomas Dudley, Governor of Massachusetts.

E RNEST LINNWOOD CRYSTAL, teach- er and a student of theology of Chiles- burg, Fayette County, son of George and Vic- toria (Deane) Crystal, was born in Fayette Coun- ty, Kentucky, May 13, 1872.

His father, also, was born in Fayette County, January 8, 1845; was educated in the county schools; and at the age of sixteen, enlisted in the Confederate army under General John H. Morgan, in Company A, Eighth Regiment, Ken- tucky Cavalry; was with his command in the famous raid through Indiana and Ohio in 1863 and was captured, taken to Camp Chase and then to Camp Douglas, where he remained until the close of the war.

Returning to his home in Fayette County, he engaged in blacksmithing, and has followed his trade with commendable industry and good suc- cess until the present time. He is a Democratic voter, a member of the Confederate Veteran As- sociation, a faithful member of the Christian Church and an honored citizen.

James E. Crystal (grandfather) was a native of Fayette County; married Mrs. Biven, whose maiden name was Sallie E. Hall. He was a de- vout member of the Baptist Church and followed the trade of blacksmithing at Brian Station.

Victoria Deane Crystal (mother) was born in Woodford County, March 9, 1844; was educated in the schools of her native county; married George Crystal in 1866 and died April 5, 1878. She was a member of the Christian Church.

Peter Francis Deane (maternal grandfather) was born near Culpeper C. H., Va .; removed to Kentucky and married Lucinda Smith of Jessa- mine County.

Ernest L. Crystal received his primary school- ing at Briar Hill; attended the Kentucky State College from 1887 to 1889, inclusive, and was in Transylvania University from 1890 to 1892, in- clusive. In the fall of 1892 he commenced teach- ing in Fayette County and taught one year; re-

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sumed teaching in 1894, continuing through 1895, since which time he has been a student in Bible College at Lexington, preparing for the ministry in the Christian Church.

Mr. Crystal has applied himself industriously in endeavoring to qualify himself for the high vo- cation which he has in view; his work has been very thorough and his friends and teachers speak of him as a young man who has the prospect of a bright and successful career.

J AMES BURNIE BECK, who was Senator in Congress for many years, was born Feb- ruary 13, 1822, in Dumfries-shire, Scotland. He received an academic education, and came to America in the spring of 1838, joining his father in Wyoming County, New York, where he had settled and engaged in agricultural pursuits many years previously, leaving his son to complete his literary education in Scotland. In 1843, he came to Lexington, Kentucky, and at once began to read law, and after a thorough preparation, grad- uated from the law department of Transylvania University, in March, 1846; and at once entered on the practice of his profession, at Lexington. In 1867, he was elected to Congress; was re- elected in 1869, and again in 1871 and 1873, serv- ing eight years, consecutively, in the National House of Representatives; during the sessions of the Fortieth Congress he was member of the reconstruction committee, of which Thaddeus Stevens was chairman, and was conspicuous in his influence over the acts of that committee; was member of the Committees of Reconstruction and Appropriation during the Forty-first Con- gress; was member of the Committee of Ways and Means in the Forty-second and Forty-third Congresses and distinguished himself by his great industry, ability, and zeal. In January, 1876, he was elected to the United States Senate, being selected, without opposition, by the Legislative Democratic caucus. His name had previously appeared, on several occasions, in the party caucuses, for the same position. He was a meni- ber of the Charleston and Baltimore Conventions of 1860, and assisted, at the latter place, in the nomination of John C. Breckinridge. He was identified with the Whig party until its dissolution,

casting his first presidential vote for Henry Clay, in 1844; was the law partner of John C. Breckin- ridge from 1854to 1860, and supported Mr. Breck- inridge in his race for the Presidency. Senator Beck was a man of powerful build and constitu- tion, his whole make-up indicating a man of great strength, determination, and self-reliance. He was a speaker of uncommon powers, and was un- doubtedly one of the ablest lawyers and most influential men of his adopted state. He was married February 3, 1848, at Louisville, to Miss Jane W. A. Thornton, of Loudoun County, Vir- ginia, step-daughter of Governor James Clark, of Kentucky, and daughter of George W. Thorn- ton, grand-nephew of General Washington. Senator Beck died in 1890.

C LARENCE CRITTENDEN CAL-

HOUN, principal of the Lexington Business College, was born in Daviess County, Kentucky, September 13, 1863, being a descend- ant of a Scotch-Irish Presbyterian family, who on their arrival in America first settled in Penn- sylvania but subsequently moved to Virginia. From this family John C. Calhoun, the immortal statesman of South Carolina, was descended. One branch of the family, in company with a body of settlers who were coming to Kentucky, were at- tacked by a band of Indians, and almost the entire party either killed or taken prisoners. Among the slain were the father and mother of George Calhoun, the great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, and George, their son, was taken prisoner by the Indians at the tender age of three years, and held by them until he was seven years of age, when he was rescued by a party of settlers under Judge Cotton, by whom he was tenderly cared for until he was grown, when he repaid the kindness of Judge Cotton by marrying one of his daughters. After which time he spent a part of his life in Henry County, Kentucky, but finally moved to Daviess County, Kentucky, where he lived until his death in 1835. He was First Lieutenant of a company of Pennsylvania Rangers during the Revolutionary War, serving from June 8, 1776, to January 1, 1781. He was often called on to act as courier, carrying mes- sages through the trackless wilderness from one

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Biographical cyclopedia of the commonwealth of Kentucky, Part 72

Author: Gresham, John M., Co., Pub Publication date: 1896 Publisher: Chicago, Philadelphia, J. M. Gresham company Number of Pages: 726

Author: Gresham, John M., Co., Pub
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: Chicago, Philadelphia, J. M. Gresham company
Number of Pages: 726