USA > Kentucky > Biographical cyclopedia of the commonwealth of Kentucky > Part 82
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He stands well in polite circles, is a thirty-sec- ond degree Mason, a member of the Maccabees, a Knight of Pythias and a member of the Metho- dist Episcopal Church South.
JOHN D. COLLINS, M. D., a prominent phy- sician of Covington, was born in Winchester, Clark County, Kentucky, July II, 1823. His father, Dr. Orville Collins, was born in Clark County, near Winchester, in 1797, and was a resident and practicing physician of Winchester for fifty years, retiring some years prior to his death in 1880. He was an active member of the Christian Church, and during his latter years often preached the gospel. Being a man of strong convictions and great firmness of purpose, he was naturally a leader and a man of wide influ- ence.
Dillard Collins (grandfather) was a native of Virginia, of Scotch-Irish parentage, who came to Kentucky and located in Clark County, within a mile of Winchester. He was colonel of a regi- ment in the War of 1812 and died when young.
Mary Christie Collins (mother) was born in Clark County, four miles from Winchester, in 1799, and died in 1859. She was a lady of un- usual intelligence and refinement and was a be- loved member of the Christian Church.
John Christie (grandfather) was a Virginian and an early settler and prosperous farmer of Clark County, a soldier in the War of 1812, after which he was known as Colonel Christie. High- ly educated and exceedingly courteous in manner, he was a very popular man, in fact, a true Ken- tucky gentleman.
John D. Collins attended the schools of Win- chester until twelve years of age, when he went to Hopkinsville and received a classical education in the seminary in that place. He read medicine with his father; graduated from the Missouri Medical College at St. Louis, March, 1845, and subsequently took a course in the Eclectic Med-
ical Institute at Cincinnati, Ohio, graduating in 1853. He began the practice of medicine in 1845 at Madisonville and was one of the leading phy- sicians in that section at the beginning of the Civil war, when he entered the Confederate army as a surgeon, and served in that capacity until the war was ended. In 1865 he located at Hen- derson and was engaged in the line of his pro- fession in that city until 1881, when he removed to Covington and was for several years a general practitioner, but for the past several years has devoted his time and attention especially to the treatment of diseases of women. He is a member of the Kentucky State Medical Society; is prom- inent and active in the Christian Church, in which he is a communicant, and as a citizen enjoys the esteem of the best people of Newport.
Dr. Collins has been twice married; first in 1845 to Elvira Hatchett, daughter of Captain John A. Hatchett of Henderson. She died in 1866, leaving three daughters, two of whom are living: Lela, wife of J. D. Gunn of Tennessee, and Rosalie A. Collins, who is now and has been for twelve years past a teacher in the high school of Evansville, Indiana. He was married (second) in October, 1879, to Sallie McMillan of Mays Lick, Kentucky.
JOHN ROWAN ADAMS, Circuit Clerk of Oldham County, son of Allen Adams and Susan (Vance) Adams, was born in Oldham County, Kentucky, in 1848. He was educated in the common schools of the county and in George- town College. Leaving school in 1863, he taught for several years in Henry and Oldham Counties, and then engaged in farming and trading, selling his stock in the markets between Louisville and New York.
He was enterprising and successful as a trader; was elected sheriff of Oldham County in 1879 and re-elected in 1883. In 1886 he was elected county and circuit clerk, and discharged these offices so efficiently that he was re-elected in 1890. He is a Knight Templar in Masonry and a Knight of Honor, and was master of Lodges Nos. 156 and 47, F. & A. M., for twelve years.
Allen Adams (father) was born in Jefferson County, Kentucky, and educated in the common
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schools of that county. When Oldham County was formed in 1824 from parts of Jefferson, Shel- by and Henry Counties the Adams farm was transferred to the new county, and there Mr. Adams engaged in general farming; was first a Whig and afterwards a Democrat in politics, and was a member of the Presbyterian Church. He married (first) Susan Vance, a native of Jefferson County, and she was the mother of four children, who survived her: Robert F., James A., John R., and Mary Agnes, wife of Dr. Alonzo Morrison, all of whom are living in Oldham County.
He married (second) Mrs. Thornton, nee Au- gusta Taliaferro, a native of Oldham County, and by this marriage there were five children: Mayo, Coleman C. and Richard (twins), Thorn- ton and Sue.
Frank Adams (grandfather) was a native of Pennsylvania and came to Jefferson County, Ken- tucky, where he was a farmer.
Robert Vance (maternal grandfather) was born in Virginia and came to Jefferson County and married Nancy Adams.
C TIS SETH TENNEY, LL. D., one of the most accomplished and influential members of the Lexington bar, a practitioner in doubtful and intricate cases and thoroughly familiar with interstate and national laws, a native of New Hampshire, graduate of Norwich University, Northfield, Vermont, taking the degree of A. B. in 1845, A. M. in 1847, and LL. D. in 1889, has been a resident of the Blue Grass State since 1847, and has been practicing law in Lexington for ten years. His ancestry, taken from a volume devoted entirely to the genealogy, history and biographies of the Tenney family, is briefly given as follows:
Thomas Tenney, a member of the Reverend Ezekial Rogers' company from Yorkshire, Eng- land, arrived at Salem, Massachusetts, in 1638, and settled at Rowley, Massachusetts, in April, 1639. This Thomas Tenney was the great-great- great-great-great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch. Of his children, Deacon John Ten- ney (great-great-great-great-grandfather), born December 14, 1640, was the next descendant. He married (first) Mercy Parrat, born July 23, 1646; married (second) Susanna Woodbury,
born February 16, 1648. Deacon John Tenney died April 13, 1722.
His son, Deacon Samuel Tenney (great-great- great-grandfather), was born November 20, 1667; married (first) Abigail Bailey, daughter of Dea- con Joseph Bailey; married (second) Sarah Boyn- ton, daughter of Captain Joseph Boynton and Sarah Swan Boynton; was a lieutenant in the Continental army; member of the Colonial As- sembly in 1725, when, fifty years before the Decla- ration of Independence, he was one of thirty who voted against receiving the King's Charter, "a step more bold than that of the fifty-six signers of 1776." He died February 3, 1747, in his eighty- first year.
Joseph Tenney (great-great-grandfather) was born in Bradford (now Groveland), Massachu- setts, March 16, 1698; married Abigail (Annie) Wood, daughter of John and Elizabeth Wood, February 14, 1722; members of the Congrega- tional Church; removed to Norwich, Connecticut, in 1723, and afterwards to Woodbury, Connecti- cut, and died April 20, 1775.
John Tenney (great-grandfather) was born in Norwich, Connecticut, September 2, 1729; mar- ried Olive Armstrong, March II, 1755; resided at Hanover, New Hampshire, where he arrived with an ox-team June, 1770. Mrs. Tenney died April 18, 1806, and John Tenney died February 19, 1810.
David Tenney (grandfather) was born in Nor- wich, Connecticut, May 15, 1759; married (first) Susanna Durkee, who was born November 7, 1765, and died February II, 1788; married (sec- ond) April 9, 1789, Anna Jacobs, who was born August 23, 1765, and died May 8, 1813; married (third) Mrs. Priscilla (Smith) Dole. He was a soldier and pensioner of the Revolutionary War; died March 14, 1851. He raised thirteen chil- dren, ten of whom were living at his death, and at that time had eighty-nine descendants.
Captain Seth Tenney, father of Major O. S. Tenney, son of David and Anna Jacobs, was born in Hanover, New Hampshire, October 8, 1792; was married in Lyme, New Hampshire, Decen- ber 31, 1818, to Esther Miller, who was born in Lyme, November 17, 1794, and died May 4, 1882. "Residence, Hanover; a farmer and Captain in
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State Militia; served at Portsmouth, New Hamp- shire, in the War of 1812; died October 16, 1869." "He was a man and officer worthy of the name."
The children of Captain Seth Tenney and Es- ther Miller, his wife, were: Infant, born Decem- ber 22, 1819, lived only a few days; Benjamin M., born June 14, 1821, died April 24, 1857; Otis Seth (subject), born December 4, 1822; Samuel Claflin, born February 27, 1825, farmer of Lon- don, Ohio; Esther Angeline, born December 12, 1826; Mary Marinda, born April 18, 1829, resi- dence at Etna, New Hampshire; Charles Carroll, born November 22, 1831 ; David Culver, born De- cember 28, 1834.
Major Otis Seth Tenney was born December 4, 1822, in Windsor County, Hanover Township, New Hampshire. His father was a Captain in the Continental Army during the War of the Rev- olution and carried a very handsome sword, which was brought to Kentucky by his son, from whom it was captured during the Civil War. Major Ten- ney received his education in the common schools of New England until the age of thirteen, then prepared for college at Norwich Institute, New Hampshire, and graduated at the Military Uni- versity, at Norwich, in 1845.
After leaving college he began teaching a mili- tary school at Wilmington, Delaware, but re- moved to Kentucky shortly afterwards and es- tablished a school of the same kind at Mt. Sterling, at Old Fort Mason. In 1847 he commenced the study of law with Colonel Walter Chiles of Mt. Sterling, and in March, 1849, was admitted to the bar and began the practice of his profession in that place and continued without interruption un- til October, 1862, when he enlisted as a private in the Confederate army, but soon became Major of the Second Kentucky Cavalry, serving in that capacity until the close of the war when he re- turned to Kentucky and was paroled at Lexing- ton.
Soon after his return from war he attempted to resume practice, but was not permitted to do so by the presiding judge, except by courtesy shown to a non-resident lawyer, it being decided that he was not a citizen according to the Expatriation Act passed by the Legislature in 1861-62. He ap- pealed to the higher court at Frankfort and Judge
Robertson rendered a decision (2 Duvall, Ky. Rep., p. 351) by which not only he but other ex- Confederate soldiers were allowed to practice at the bar. He continued his residence at Mt. Ster- ling, actively and successfully engaged in his pro- fession, and in 1868 was a candidate for Circuit Judge of his district, and again in 1874, but was defeated by small majorities.
He removed to Lexington in 1882, and is now a distinguished member of the bar of that city, and is not only one of the first lawyers in Central Ken- tucky, but one of the most active and enterprising men in the community.
Major Tenney was married May 18, 1848, to Junia M. Warner, daughter of James Warner of Delaware, who is connected with some of the most distinguished families of the East. She was born September 29, 1820.
Their children, only two of whom are now liv- ing, were: Otis Seth, born February 20, 1849, died in infancy; Harriet H., born September 19, 1850, died July 25, 1854; Robert P., born Decem- ber 2, 1852, died July 22, 1854; Lilian H., born July 17, 1855, married Joseph B. Russell of Cam- bridge, Massachusetts, May 20, 1880. Her hus- band is a brother of ex-Gov. W. E. Russell; Anna M., born April 6, 1857, married W. W. Hamilton of Mt. Sterling, February 5, 1878; Harriet H., died November 26, 1863.
J
JAMES GARRARD was born on the 14th of
January, 1749, in the County of Stafford, in the (then) Colony of Virginia. At a very early period in the Revolutionary struggle, he engaged in the public service, and in the capacity of a militia officer, shared in the dangers and honors of that memorable war. While in service, he was called by the voice of his fellow-citizens to a seat in the Virginia Legislature, where he contributed, by his zeal and prudence, as much, or perhaps more than any other individual, to the passage of the famous act securing universal religious lib- erty.
He was an early emigrant to Kentucky, and was exposed to the perils and dangers incident to the settlement and occupation of the country. He was repeatedly called by the voice of his fellow- citizens to represent their interests in the Legis-
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lature of the state; and finally, by two successive elections, was elected to the chief magistracy of the commonwealth, a trust which, for eight years, he discharged with wisdom, prudence and vigor.
As a man, Governor Garrard had few equals; and in the various scenes and different stations of life, he acted with firmness, prudence and de- cision. At an early age, he embraced and pro- fessed the religion of Christ, giving it, through life, the preference over all sublunary things. In the private circle he was a man of great practical usefulness, and discharged with fidelity and ten- derness the social and relative duties of husband, parent, neighbor and master. He died on the 19th of January, 1822, at his residence, Mount Leb- anon, in Bourbon County, in the seventy-fourth year of his age.
C OLONEL CURRAN POPE, son of Hon. Worden Pope, was born at Louisville, Ky .; graduated at West Point; promoted to brevet Second Lieutenant of Second United States Ar- tillery, July, 1834, but resigned December, 1834; assistant engineer improvement of Kentucky and Cumberland Rivers, 1835; clerk of Jefferson County Court for seventeen years; Colonel Fif- teenth Kentucky Regiment United States Infan- try during Civil War; wounded at battle of Per- ryville, October 8, and died therefrom November 5, 1862.
C OLONEL WM. B. ALLEN was born near Greensburg, Kentucky, May 19, 1803; edu- cated in the celebrated schools of Rev. John How of Greensburg, and of Dr. Jas. Priestly of Nash- ville, Tennessee; taught school awhile; studied law with Samuel Brents, and began the practice before he was twenty-one; postmaster at Greens- burg, 1823-28; Representative in Kentucky Leg- islature 1829, and made a speech in favor of a sys- tem of common schools; attorney Greensburg branch of Bank of the Commonwealth, 1829; an editor, 1834; clerk Greensburg branch of Bank of Kentucky, 1835-37, and cashier of same, 1837-57; master in chancery for Green County, 1843-45; resumed practice of law, 1858; compiled "The Kentucky Officer's Guide," 400 pp., 8 vo., 1859; county attorney, 1862-70; again master in chan-
cery, 1866-70; was for many years Colonel Six- teenth Kentucky Militia; and for nearly fifty years has been one of the most active and prominent members and officers of the Masonic order in the state. But the crowning act of a long and useful life is his "History of Kentucky," issued Novem- ber, 1872, 449 pp., 8 vo.
G OV. WILLIAM OWSLEY, born in Vir- I ginia in 1782, was the son of William Ows- ley and Catherine Bolin, whose sons were Samuel, Nudigate, William, who became Governor of Kentucky; Dr. Joel, Thomas and Major Jona- than. The daughters were Ann Middleton, Mar- garet Bayne, Mary Pearl, Patience and Chloe. Governor William Owsley became the most dis- tinguished of this large family, and the fourteenth Governor of the commonwealth. He was one of those men who rose to distinction through en- ergy and perseverance. His father was a man in moderate circumstances and of some political in- fluence. Young Owsley was ambitious, ener- getic and industrious, and allowed no obstacle to deter him from accomplishing an object when once he made up his mind to that end. This en- ergy and industry carried him from the humble position of a deputy surveyor to the Supreme Bench, and to the Chief Executive of the state. Judge Owsley was born in 1782, in Virginia. His father, also named William Owsley, emigrated to Kentucky in 1783, when his son was an infant but a year old. He settled in the vicinity of Crab Orchard, in Lincoln County, where he lived an honored citizen, and finally became High Sheriff of that county. Young William received a good education for the time, better than the majority of the youths. He taught school several terms, then became, under his father's administration, a Deputy Sheriff. It was in this latter position that he attracted the attention of Judge John Boyle, for many years a judge of the Court of Appeals of Kentucky, and its Chief Justice. Judge Boyle conceived a strong interest in the young man, and perceiving that there was something in him if properly developed, encouraged him to study law. He tendered him the use of his library, then one of the most extensive in the state, and the advantage of his own instruction. Young Owsley eagerly
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grasped the offer, and so studiously did he em- ploy his time that he was admitted to the bar and commenced the practice of law in Garrard Coun- ty. His success was assured from the start, and he soon attained to the highest rank as a lawyer. He became the warm, personal friend of Judge Boyle, and their friendship remained unbroken through life. Judge Owsley served several terms in the Legislature, in the Lower House in 1809- II and'31, and in the Senate in 1832-34, where he distinguished himself as a young statesman of rare promise. In 1812, when then but thirty-one years of age, so highly was his legal ability re- garded, that Governor Scott appointed him a Judge of the Court of Appeals. This position, however, he held but a short time, in consequence of the Legislature passing an act reducing the number of judges to three. Owsley being the youngest, both in age and appointment, resigned. But a vacancy occurring in 1813, he was ap- pointed to that august tribunal by Governor Shel- by. Judge Boyle had him appointed a Judge of the Court of Appeals some years before, and was now Chief Justice. The other member of the court was Benjamin Mills, a prominent member of the Bourbon County bar. Judge Owsley re- mained upon the bench until 1828, a longer period than any man in the state up to that time (except Judge Boyle) when he resigned and re- tired to private life. He finally removed to Frank- fort, remaining there until 1843, when he pur- chased a fine farm in Boyle, upon which he lo- cated, giving up his law practice. In 1844 he was elected Governor of Kentucky on the Whig ticket over General William O. Butler, one of the most popular Democrats in the state, by 4,624 majority. As a Governor he devoted his best energies to a faithful discharge of the high and important duties of the office, and upon the expiration of the term he retired to his farm, where the remainder of his life was spent in peaceful retirement. He died in 1862, at the age of eighty years. "In personal appearance Governor Owsley was tall, slender and erect. In his private character he was ir- reproachable; in manner simple, though some- what reserved. He held perfect command of his temper at all times, yet never failed to act with promptness and decision in times of emergency."
A member of the Owsley family, Harry Byran Owsley, has gathered together in book form the records of the Owsley family, in which a clear and unbroken record has been established, that "from facts and actual data" one is "enabled to look through the generations of the family back to the time of the Restoration, and, by inference, catch glimpses of its past, to a period much more re- mote."
T THOMAS C. McCREERY, of Owensboro, was born in Kentucky, in 1817; was a student at Center College, Danville, Kentucky; studied law, but turned his attention to agricultural pur- suits; was a candidate for presidential elector in 1852, and defeated; but in 1860 was elected, and voted for Breckinridge and Lane; was elected United States Senator February, 1868, as a Demo- crat, vice James Guthrie, resigned, and served until March 4, 1871, and again elected December 19, 1871, for six years from March 4, 1873 to 1879. He was an elegant, forcible and popular speaker.
R EV. CARTER HELM JONES, pastor of McFerran Memorial Baptist Church, of Louisville, was born in Cakley, Nelson County, Virginia, November 30, 1861. His father, so well known to Baptists in general and to Southern peo- ple in particular, is Rev. J. William Jones, D. D., at present the chaplain of the University of Vir- ginia, and is perhaps best known as the author of several comprehensive works on the lives of R. E. Lee, Jefferson Davis and others. On his mother's side Mr. Jones is a lineal descendant of Carter Baxton of Virginia, one of the signers of the Dec- laration of Independence, and otherwise his ances- try embraces many of the most noted names in the history of Virginia. The two institutions at which he studied with marked ability are Rich- mond College and the Southern Baptist Theolog- ical Seminary, at both of which he was fully grad- uated, being chosen at the former of these insti- tutions as the valedictorian of the literary so- cieties. He afterwards pursued special studies for a year under Prof. Noah K. Davis, at the Uni- versity of Virginia. Though the general col- legiate and the special theological training of Mr. Jones have been most thorough, we are persuaded
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that the influences which have contributed most powerfully to his usefulness and reputation are not to be sought for in the class room. It is our conviction that the two most powerful factors in a man's life are to be determined in answer to the questions: Who is he? And what were the in- fluences that surrounded him in his early life? In answering these we believe that we shall arrive at the true source of Mr. Jones' power as a preacher and as a man. It has already been said that his family is an illustrious one, and to say that he is the son of his father may seem trite, but it fur- nishes a clue to the real estimation of his char- acter. What was said concerning another mem- ber of the family by one of the faculty of the seminary might be in many other respects applied to him: "The son of your father could not but write well." We are convinced, too, that the apparently paradoxical union of sweetness and force to be found in both the man and his sermons is decidedly traceable, in a large measure, to the influence of his mother.
In answer to the second question we are brought to perceive the great moulding force of his life. The home of his father was the resort not only of Baptist ministers from every section of the country around, but of men whose names have become celebrated in the history of the South. Mr. Jones delights to tell of the times when a child he was brought into contact with such men as Lee, Davis and others. We have dwelt upon these things because of the conviction that it is absolutely inpossible to know a man or understand his power by simply inquiring what churches he has served or what stations he may have occupied. After leaving the University of Virginia, Mr. Jones accepted the pastorate of the First Baptist Church at Elizabeth, New Jersey, and it was there that his really remarkable career began. It was not long before he took a high position among the ministers, not simply of the state of his adoption, but of New York city and state as well, and the honors conferred upon him were distinguishing in the extreme. At one time he preached the sermon before the Baptist State Convention of New Jersey, at another, following O. P. Gifford and Wayland Hoyt, in an address before the Baptist Social Union of New York
city. Before long, neighboring churches began to appreciate his abilities and the invitations he received to speak were numerous and compli- mentary. He, however, preferred to give his best efforts to his own church, which rapidly grew in numbers and efficiency under his preaching.
In 1889, in response to a unanimous call from the First Baptist Church of Knoxville, Tennessee, Mr. Jones removed to that city, and as a slight tribute to his work there, we copy the following from the Knoxville Tribune of April 30 of that year: "The story of Mr. Jones' career as the pastor of the First Baptist Church is a familiar one to the church going people of Knoxville. Since he accepted the pastorate there have been nearly four hundred and fifty names added to the church roll. Every Sunday the large and com- modious First Church has been crowded with Baptists, numbers of other denominations and people of no denomination at all, who came there attracted by the power of his oratory and the sympathetic force of his appeal to the human heart. His departure from the city is a distinct loss to the community. He was and is an ideal citizen and one of practical benefit and a graceful ornament to any community. It is with pro- found regret that the citizens of Knoxville see him go." In 1891 Mr. Jones delivered the ser- mon before the Southern Baptist Convention at Birmingham, being the youngest man who ever enjoyed that distinction. As a lecturer he has attained considerable reputation, and his ad- dresses on commencement occasions are particu- larly worthy of notice. In 1892 he preached the baccalaureate sermon at Lake Forest College, and in 1893 he delivered the address before the Y. M. C. A. of Washington and Lee University to one of the most cultured audiences ever assem- bled in Virginia, in a style entirely worthy of the brilliant occasion. Many of the seminary men will remember his stimulating address before the Broadus Literary Society recently. It is an overwhelming tribute to his popularity in Ten- nessee that a number of colleges asked him to deliver to them farewell addresses on leaving that state. As a preacher, he possesses unusual mag- netism, a wealth of diction rarely equalled and a princely imagination. Perhaps the leading char-
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