USA > Kentucky > Biographical cyclopedia of the commonwealth of Kentucky > Part 79
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After the war he returned to his father's farm; married Miss Bettie Nooe, daughter of Nimrod and Lucy P. Nooe, June 22, 1870; was elected to the legislature from Jessamine County, whence he removed in 1875; was one of the original four- teen in the house who voted for Joe C. S. Black- burn in his race for the United States Senate and says, "I'm still for Joe." It is hardly necessary to say that Mr. Lillard is a Democrat. He and his wife are members of the Christian Church. They have three children living, and two have died.
Mr. Lillard is now in the internal revenue ser- vice in Louisville under appointment of Ben Johnson, collector of the Fifth district. He was special deputy appointed to superintend the in- come tax collection, before that law was declared unconstitutional, and after that was transferred to duty in the internal revenue service in same dis- trict.
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E UGENE K. WILSON of London, county attorney of Laurel County, son of Dr. John M. Wilson and Nancy Kerr, was born in Wil- liamstown, Grant County, Kentucky, February 2, 1869.
Dr. John M. Wilson was born in Pendleton County, Kentucky, in 1832, and has been a resi- dent and practicing physician of Williamstown
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for forty years. He is very prominent in his profession, useful as a citizen and vigorous and aggressive as a Republican politician; has been chairman of the county committee for twenty-five years, and three times a delegate to national con- ventions; is still active and skillful in his pro- fession and always ready for a campaign, in which he is a foe worthy of the best of the Democrats in his bailiwick. He is, moreover, a Christian gentleman and a consistent member of the Meth- odist Episcopal Church.
Dr. James M. Wilson (grandfather), a native of Culpeper County, Virginia, came to Kentucky when he was a young man, locating at Falmouth, where he practiced medicine and took a lively interest in political affairs. He served his county and district in both branches of the legislature; was a captain in the Mexican war, and was in all things faithful, honest and true, living up to his religious profession as a member of the Meth- odist Church. He reached his full seventy-eight years, and died in 1880.
James Wilson (great-grandfather) was a na- tive of England. He was a major in the patriot army during the Revolutionary war and was among the slain in that great conflict.
Nancy Kerr Wilson (mother) was born in Fayette County, Kentucky, in 1839; is now living in Williamstown and is a member of the Presby- terian Church.
James Kerr (grandfather), a native of Henrico County, Virginia, came to Kentucky with his father, James Kerr, who came with Simon Ken- ton, and was killed by the Indians near Lexington. He was a lineal descendant of Robert Bruce. His son, James Kerr, became a farmer in Fayette County; was a large slaveholder; a Union man during the Civil war and a citizen of the highest respectability.
Eugene K. Wilson was reared in Williamstown and received his primary education in the schools of that place; attended Center College, from which he graduated in the class of 1887; read law and attended the law department of the University of Louisville, graduating and receiving his diplo- ma from that institution in 1889; edited and pub- lished "The Eagle," a weekly Republican news- paper in Williamstown, for one year, while wait-
ing to reach his majority; went to London in 1890 and began the practice of law, meeting with encouragement and a liberal share of the legal business in the Civil Courts; was Republican elector for the Eleventh Congressional district in the presidential campaign of 1892, making a brilliant canvass, and establishing a reputation as a young politician of more than ordinary ability; in November, 1894, was elected to his present office as county attorney, which will require his attention until January, 1898.
This is a fine record for a young man, now in his twenty-seventh year, but it is only the prelim- inary work for future honors and successes that must come to one of Mr. Wilson's ability and industry. He is also a star-route mail con- tractor, in which he has large interests, London being a point of great interest in that line of government work. There were twenty thousand contracts let during the past year from London. Mr. Wilson is a member of the Methodist Church, and is a leading Knight of Pythias, having been twice elected chancellor commander of London Lodge No. 102.
C HARLES BRIDGES PEARCE, Cashier of the State National Bank of Maysville and one of the ablest financiers in the state, was born near Flemingsburg, Kentucky, May 7, 1823. For nearly half a century he has been closely identified with the growth and development of Maysville, where he is highly esteemed as a citizen and rec- ognized as one of the most successful business men in all that section of the state.
His father, William Pearce, was a native of England, and one of the most prosperous mer- chants of his day. He received only an ordinary education, but was a man of strong character and remarkable individuality. He was a merchant, private banker and farmer, and became one of the wealthiest men in northern Kentucky. He died of cholera, aged forty-eight years, June 14, 1833.
Mary Bridges (mother) was a Virginian, daugh- ter of a Welshman who, coming from Virginia, settled in Flemingsburg, Kentucky, before the Revolutionary war.
Samuel Pearce (grandfather) was a native of
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England who came to this country and settled at Little Egg Harbor, New Jersey, and was a soldier in the war for American independence, as was also his brother William, who came to this country with him. Samuel Pearce removed from Pittsburg to Kentucky, and for a time lived in the vicinity of Lexington, subsequently removing to Flemingsburg, where he spent the remainder of a useful life.
Hiram T. Pearce (brother) was born in 1813 and was the guardian of Charles B. Pearce. He died in 1866 or 1867, leaving an estate worth half a million dollars, which was considered a very large fortune, as there were few wealthier men at that time.
Charles B. Pearce was only seventeen years of age when he became associated with his elder brother, Hiram T. Pearce, in the wholesale dry goods business at Maysville, under the firm name of L. C. & H. T. Pearce. This firm was suc- ceeded by Pearce & Company, and afterwards by Pearce, Wallingford & Co., and the jobbing business was removed to Cincinnati in 1861.
In 1860, principally through the efforts of Charles B. Pearce, the banking house of Pearce & Wallingford was formed, and in 1866 H. T. Pearce was admitted to the firm, which became Pearce, Wallingford & Co .; in 1872 Charles B. Pearce and Joseph Wallingford bought the bank stock belonging to the estate of Hiram Pearce and continued in business until 1882, when Mr. Pearce purchased Mr. Wallingford's interest and organ- ized the State National Bank of Maysville, the capital stock of which is $150,000, while the aver- age deposits show it to be equal in point of busi- ness to any bank in that section. Its predecessors were the banking house of Pearce, Wallingford & Company and the branch of the Farmers' Bank of Kentucky, the assets of which Mr. Pearce bought.
Mr. Pearce was made cashier of the State Na- tional Bank at the time of its organization and has been at the head of its management until the present time, being the owner of one-half of the stock. Of all the members who constituted its board of directors in 1882, Mr. Pearce alone sur- vives.
He is largely interested in other business en-
terprises and is sole proprietor of the Limestone Flouring Mills, which cost him $85,000.
From 1843 to 1858 he was a leading dry goods merchant and it is no vain boast to say that in those years he sold more dry goods throughout northern Kentucky and southern Ohio than any other jobber. He made regular journeys to and from Philadelphia to buy goods, by stage coach on the old National Pike, and found no better mode of travel until 1847.
He has never aspired to office, having no time to devote to politics, but has performed his duty as a citizen at the polls with commendable punc- tuality.
Mr. Pearce was married in 1848 to Maria Shultz, daughter of Christian Shultz, who came from York, Pennsylvania, to Maysville, where he established a large bagging factory and also owned a commission house in New Orleans. Mrs. Pearce died in 1885, leaving five children: L. E. Pearce; Christian S. Pearce of Nashville; Charles D. Pearce, whose first wife was a daugh- ter of W. N. Haldeman and who was business manager of the Louisville Courier-Journal for many years; and two daughters, residents of Louisville.
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G EORGE FRANKLIN THOMPSON, M. I D., an eminent and popular physician of Frankfort, son of William B. Thompson and Sarah Franklin, a native of Virginia, was born at Bryant Station, Fayette County, Kentucky, June 20, 1848. His father was for forty years a large stockholder in the celebrated Phoenix Hotel of Lexington, and died in March, 1891.
Dr. Thompson was educated in the schools of Lexington and under Professor Smith at Ver- sailles, but his studies were interrupted by the war, and in 1862, when only fourteen years of age, he enlisted in Company A, Fifth Regiment Kentucky Cavalry, C. S. A., and was detailed as escort to Gen. Abe Buford. He followed the varying fortunes of the Confederacy until the last and was in the thickest of the battles of Murfrees- boro (Christmas, 1862), and later at Chickamauga and Mission Ridge and other important engage- ments in that vicinity. He was with Gen. Mor- gan in his raid through Kentucky, Indiana and
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Ohio, and on this excursion he rode an excellent horse, covering 109 miles from four o'clock in the morning until nine in the evening. The trip was through a section of the country in which it would not have been safe for a man (or boy) of his views to venture alone, but he was of a daring spirit and rather enjoyed the excitement and espe- cially the consternation of the people.
He was wounded in the left breast at Mt. Ster- ling (1864); escaped to Cynthiana, where he was captured on Sunday; escaped the same day and was recaptured the following Sunday at Hall's Gap; escaped again the same day and joined his command at Alberene, Virginia, with which he remained until paroled at Athens, Georgia, in May, 1865.
Returning to his home, he resumed his studies at Danville, where he completed his literary course in 1867, and began the study of medicine with Dr. J. W. Foster of Lexington; attended the Hospital College of Medicine in Louisville, from which he was graduated in 1874.
In the following year he located in Frankfort and began a professional career which has been eminently successful. Among the physicians with whom he has labored for over twenty years he stands in the front rank, while the people who have enjoyed the benefit of his professional skill regard him as a most competent, obliging, cour- teous and skillful physician. His popularity is fully attested by the liberal share of the work of the many able physicians in his field of labor.
Dr. Thompson was married November 28, 1877, at Maysville, to Kate Byrne, and they have an interesting group of six children: Agnes, Frank, Lewis, Nellie, Mason, Mary and Harry.
G I EORGE DURELLE, Judge of the Court of Appeals from the Louisville District, son of George O. J. Durelle and Frances Mary Peirce, was born in Livingston County, New York, Oc- tober 18, 1852.
His father was a native of New Hampshire and was educated in Bowdoin and Dartmouth Col- leges. He graduated in medicine and surgery at Dartmouth in 1838 and practiced in Livingston County, New York, until his death, making a spe-
cialty of surgery, in which he was particularly skillful. His career was short but successful and promised to be far above the mediocre, and he had made a reputation for fine work in surgical cases when, in 1853, he died at the age of forty. He was an exceedingly kind man, of tender sym- pathies, of courteous demeanor, and made a host of friends both socially and in his profession. His ancestors were Huguenots who came to this country and settled in New England, where many of the name are found to-day.
Frances Mary Peirce Durelle (mother) was born in Livingston County, New York, in 1831; was educated in private schools in Rochester, New York, and is now a resident of Louisville. Her second husband was Professor S. B. Barton, at one time of Center College, and well known as a teacher in Danville and Louisville.
Shepard Peirce (grandfather) was the second white child born at Avon, New York. He was engaged in mercantile pursuits in that state, and was Justice of the Peace, Commissioner of Loans, and Postmaster of Livonia. He married Mary Cone Pitkin, a native of Connecticut, and a mem- ber of the Pitkin family, whose men were famous in law and in the ministry. In the direct line of ancestry in this family were William Pitkin, the founder, who was appointed by the King, Attor- ney-General of Connecticut, Chief Justice William Pitkin, Colonel Joseph Pitkin of the Crown Point Expedition, and Captain Richard Pitkin of the Revolutionary Army. Mary Lord, the wife of Colonel Joseph Pitkin, was a great-granddaugh- ter of Governor John Haynes, the first Governor of Connecticut.
George Durelle's primary education was re- ceived from Professor Barton in Louisville and at Walnut Hill, Kentucky. He subsequently attend- ed Pingry's School in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and graduated from the Hopkins Grammar School at New Haven, Connecticut-the oldest school ex- cept one in the United States. He was then fully prepared for college. He entered Yale in 1868, and continued his studies there until 1871. Re- turning to Louisville he was a teacher in the Sixth Ward public school for two years, and at the same time attended the Louisville Law School, from which he was graduated in 1874.
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After practicing law for some time without an office associate he formed a partnership with Horace C. Brannin, which relation continued un- til 1882, when he was appointed Assistant United States District Attorney under President Arthur's administration and served four years. In 1886 he returned to the practice of law, and in 1889 was reappointed Assistant District Attorney under President Harrison's administration. After serv- ing two years he resigned and resumed the gen- eral practice of law in the Civil Courts. He was frequently called on to act as Special Master of the United States Circuit Court in important and complicated railroad litigations.
In 1894 he was the leading counsel in the con- tested election case of Boyle vs. Toney, which re- sulted in favor of Judge Toney, but under such circumstances that he declined his seat on the Ap- pellate bench; whereupon Major George B. East- in was appointed to fill the vacancy until the No- vember election, 1895. Mr. Durelle lost his case after a vigorous and well-managed contest, but his ardent labors against what he considered a great political wrong, brought him more con- spicuously before the public than any former work he had done. His efforts in behalf of a profes- sional brother and political friend were so gener- ally appreciated that when he himself became a candidate for the seat which had been the sub- ject of the contest, there was no one among the many Republican lawyers in the Fourth Appellate District who offered to contest the nomination with him, and he was nominated in the conven- tion by acclamation.
Major Eastin was nominated by the Demo- crats, and Judge John G. Simrall was an inde- pendent candidate. The Democrats were confi- dent of success, but Mr. Durelle received a plu- rality of two thousand five hundred and seventy- five votes, and a inajority of over thirteen hun- dred over both opponents.
The new Judge left politics when he went to Frankfort to take his seat with Chief Justice Pry- or, Judges Lewis, Guffy, Hazelrigg, Grace (since deceased) and Paynter; and after being duly in- stalled he settled down to his new duties with in- dustry and zeal, fortified by an extended knowl- edge of the law, and at once established himself
in the confidence and good will of his associates and the members of the bar.
Mr. Durelle was married June 3, 1886, to Miss Louise Leib, daughter of the late Fred Leib of Louisville. She was educated in Miss Belle Peer's school, and attended the Warren Memorial Pres- byterian Church, of which she was a member at the time of her death, November 23, 1895. She left two children: Frederic, born May 20, 1889, and Louise Marie, born November 13, 1895.
THOMAS C. DABNEY, deceased, of Cadiz, one of the most distinguished lawyers and jurists of Kentucky, son of Albert Gallatin Dab- ney and Ann Eliza Catlett, was born in Louisa County, Virginia, September 20, 1823, and died in Cadiz, Kentucky, November 12, 1886. He was educated under the able direction of Elder George P. Street, and after finishing his literary and scien- tific course at the age of eighteen, he took up the study of law, and soon afterwards came to Cadiz and was domiciled with the family of J. E. Thomp- son, who was then County and Circuit Clerk. Mr. Dabney became deputy clerk, at the same time pursuing his studies for the legal profession un- der the late Hon. C. D. Bradley, which having completed, he commenced to practice law in Ca- diz in 1844.
While always deeply interested in politics, he never sought, nor would hold, a political office outside of the legal profession. He served for several terms as County Attorney; in 1852 was elected County Judge of Trigg County; in July, 1857, he was elected Judge of the Second Circuit Court District, which extended across the state at that time, embracing seven counties. His term expired in 1862, when, declining further election, he returned to the practice of law.
"Full forty years he walked hand in hand with law, the love of his youth, and with untiring per- severance and devotion he won a prominent and enviable place among her votaries. Envy and jealousy found no abiding place in his heart, but rejoicing in his brother's prosperity he gracefully yielded the palm to the victor, feeling as much pride in the clear judgment of the Court and in the energy and talent of the bar as he did shame in any act that would bring contempt upon the pro-
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fession. Most truly did he ennoble a noble pro- fession, ever striving to honor and exalt the adopt- ed child of Blackstone, the legitimate offspring of Divinity. The dignity that characterized his every act and thought never forsook him 'e'en when his feet were slipping o'er the brink.' Vain and worse than useless are the eulogies of the dead, and unavailing indeed are clamorous praises of him whose life has been as a white tablet."
In his family circle Judge Dabney was kind, affectionate and unselfish to a fault. Wherever his name was known it was strongly fettered with piety, honor and fidelity on the one hand and modesty, purity and benevolence on the other. Chaste and delicate in his tastes he could not brook that which savored of coarseness or unre- finement. He was the proudest of men and yet the humblest, and so rare was the blending, so admirable the balancing that he was the esteemed friend of the prosperous and the ready counselor and help of the poor. Not even to his jealous and exacting profession-to which his heart was ever loyal-would he yield a moment of his hours of study and communion with the Book of Books. At the close of every day, and for hours, he would pore over and study the sacred history, which, like a golden beam of light, threaded his library, lending its hue to his favorite volumes. Such a life is written of no other man in this volume.
Judge Dabney was married March 7, 1848, to Susanna Rumsey, only child of the late James D. Rumsey of Hopkinsville, Kentucky, in which city she was born July 10, 1826. She died at her home in Cadiz, August 10, 1890. Her father, a native of Maryland, was a son of Dr. Edward Rumsey of Christian County, and they belonged to a family of gentlemen by inheritance. Pos- sessed of the very first order of common sense, they supplemented their native talent with fine classical attainments, extensive reading and with such grace of manner that made any one of them a central figure in polite circles and as truly the valued guest of every cultivated household. It was in such an atmosphere that Mrs. Dabney was born and raised. She was carefuly educated by her father and was as familiar with the dactyls of Homer as Longfellow was with the spondees of poor Dick Kirk. She continued her reading
through life, and at her death had studied and un- derstood more books than any other lady in the commonwealth. 1
Her great uncle, James Rumsey, and her own uncle, Edward Rumsey, were men of great am- bition. To the former the credit is now univer- sally conceded of discovering and adding the power of steam to the navigation of boats; and the latter, when quite a young man, was a representa- tive in Congress from the Second District of Ken- tucky and was the intimate associate and peer of such men as Richard H. Menifee, Wise of Vir- ginia, Ingersoll of Pennsylvania, and Prentiss of Mississippi. As a public speaker his points were as incisive as Wise, his rhetoric as rich and fertile as Sargent S. Prentiss, and his declamation as graceful as Menifee. In the early dawn of his brilliant career he was summoned home on ac- count of the illness and death of his entire family of children, the loss of whom so humbled his spirit that he refused to return to his seat or appear again before a public audience. And he kept his word.
James Rumsey, the inventor mentioned above, possessed the delicate temperament of true gen- ius-nervous, sensitive and refined. He died in London, England, of sudden heart failure, caused by intense personal excitement while lecturing on the application of steam power to navigation before the Royal Society.
"But the chief charm of this estimable lady (Mrs. Dabney) did not lie in the long line of her dis- tinguished ancestry, her ripe scholarship, exten- sive reading, or finished culture, but in her na- tive goodness as a woman, her kind and tender care as the mother of a large family, and the soli- citude she manifested for the enjoyment and pleasure of a host of friends who were her almost constant companions and welcome guests."
The children of Thomas C. Dabney and Su- sanna Rumsey were: James R. Dabney, a gradu- ate of Kentucky University, and late County Judge of Henderson County, died in Hopkins- ville, September 23, 1895. Albert J. Dabney, lieu- tenant in the United States Navy, educated at Kentucky University and the Annapolis Naval College, Maryland, now living in Staunton, Vir- ginia. His health having failed, he resigned his
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position in the United States Navy, and has since filled important chairs as teacher in colleges in Tennessee, Kentucky and in the military academy in Staunton. Cornelia, widow of J. R. Avcritt, whose early death closed a prospective brilliant political career. Thomas C. Dabney died April 13, 1873, at the Kentucky University, Lexington. Annie S .; Minnie, wife of Judge Robert Cren- shaw; E. F. Dabney, attorney at law of San Jose, California, a graduate of the Louisville (Ky.) Law School; Dr. A. S. Dabney, dentist of Paducah, graduate of the Baltimore Dental College. The Doctor, though a young man, is prominent in his profession, a bookworm and well-known genealo- gist; and Carrie Lee, wife of Edward Higgin of Denver, Colorado.
Judge Dabney's father, Albert Gallatin Dab- ney, was born in Louisa County, Virginia, in 1798; was a planter and owned many slavcs; re- moved to Christian County, Kentucky, in the fall of 1830, with a family of four sons. While in Vir- ginia he was a Major in the State Militia. He was a typical, old-time gentleman, and carried him- self as he wore his title, with stately dignity.
Cornelius Dabney (grandfather) and his wife, who was a Miss Winston, lived in Louisa Coun- ty, Virginia. He was a prosperous planter, a man of fine character and a worthy descendant of one of three brothers-Cornelius, John and Isaac- who fled from France upon the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. They wrote their names D'Aubigne, a name which is well known in France. The family crest was "Faithful and grate- ful." Judge Dabney's grandfather, Cornelius Dabney, was a descendant of Cornelius D'Aubigne from France, and he could trace his pedigree in an almost unbroken line to St. Bar- tholomew's historic eve of terror and persecution.
R OBERT CRENSHAW, leading lawyer and honored citizen of Cadiz, son of Robertson Crenshaw and Mary Frances Walden, was born in the precinct of Roaring Springs, Trigg County, Kentucky, June 4, 1847.
His father was born in Halifax County, Vir- ginia, September, 1816, and came to Trigg Coun- ty with his parents in 1819. He married Mary Frances Walden in 1839 and was a resident and
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