USA > Kentucky > Biographical cyclopedia of the commonwealth of Kentucky > Part 91
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established will be only one of his monuments, for Professor Giltner has accomplished a great work in the ministry and in building churches and procuring means to pay for them. He was the originator of the plans for building the Christian Churches in Eminence and Paris and other places, and solicited the funds to pay for their erection. He is a man of large scholarly attainments and of sincere religious convictions, self-sacrificing and earnest in his endeavors to promote the cause of education and untiring in his efforts to spread the gospel.
Professor Giltner was married in 1856 to Eliza- beth Raines, daughter of Ayelette Raines; and they have six children: Anabel, now married to H. A. Brewer; Lizzie D., a skillful and accom- plished musician, who completed her musical studies in Leipsic, Germany; Leigh Gordon Gilt- ner of Eminence, Kentucky; Robert Raines, president Eminence Roller Mills Company ; Frank Carleton and William Henry, a lawyer of Louisville.
Elizabeth Raines Giltner (mother) died June 8, 1894; was educated in private schools in Paris, and was a lady of rare culture and ability, who took an active part in her husband's work, penned many poems of merit, chiefly in memory of her departed friends, and wrote a number of plays, which were enacted by the school, always taking charge of the public entertainments of the college. She died June 8, 1894.
John Giltner, father of Professor W. S. Gilt- ner, was born in Bourbon County, Kentucky, March 4, 1797, and died March 14, 1863. He was a member and an elder in the Christian Church, or the Church of the Reformation; was a friend and associate of Alexander Campbell, the founder of that church, and of Barton W. Stone and others who were prominent in the or- ganization of that denomination in Kentucky.
Mr. John Giltner married Rosanna Sidner, and they had eight children: Martin, Archibald, Abram, William S., Mary Ann, Frances, Maggie and Henry Clay.
Abraham Giltner, grandfather of Professor Giltner, was a native of Bourbon County and lived in Bryant's Station when that fort was so frequently attacked by Indians. He married
Katherine Lighter, a native of Bourbon County, daughter of Henry Lighter, who was a native of the same county.
John Giltner (great-grandfather) was a native of Maryland, who came to Bourbon County at the close of the Revolutionary War.
Bennett Giltner (great-great-grandfather) was a native of Amsterdam, Germany, and his father was John Giltner, one of three brothers who were of the body guard of King Frederick the Great. This John Giltner married Katherine Weber, daughter of a wealthy Amsterdam gentleman, who was so indignant because his daughter mar- ried a soldier that he disinherited her, but left the strange provision in his will that her portion of his property should be held in trust and allowed to accumulate for her children's children of the fifth generation, to whom it should be paid. This John Giltner, or Gildner, as the name was writ- ten in Germany, emigrated to New Amsterdam, where he lived, and his descendants settled in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Kentucky.
Mary Rosanna Sidner, Professor Giltner's mother, was born in Bourbon County, and her father and mother, Martin and Margaret Sidner, were natives of the same county, being members of Virginia families and pioneers of Kentucky.
Rev. Aylette Raines, Elizabeth Giltner's father, was one of the most distinguished preachers of the Christian Church. He was born in Spottsyl- vania County, Virginia, January 22, 1798, and died at Eminence College, September 7, 1881. His father, Jesse Raines, and his mother, Mary Dodd, were of English ancestry. On the occa- sion of the death of Rev. Aylette Raines, Rev. S. W. Crutcher preached a memorial sermon from the text: "Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen in Israel this day?"
TUNE W. GAYLE, Sheriff of Owen County, D son of James and Sallie (Green) Gayle, was born in Owen County, Kentucky, February 22, 1865. He received his education at Concord Col- lege in his native county and at Georgetown Col- lege. He left school at the age of sixteen and was appointed Deputy Sheriff and in 1892 was elected Sheriff.
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He was married February 3, 1886, to Minnie Alexander, daughter of Phillip and Martha (Ba- ker) Alexander. She was a native of Owen County, Kentucky, and was educated at Bell- wood Seminary. They had two children: Mattie Belle and Lula, who died June 19, 1889. Mrs. Gayle died December 1I, 1891.
James Gayle (father) was born in Owen Coun- ty, Kentucky, June 28, 1825. He attended school until he was eighteen and then devoted himself to farming. He located at New Liberty, in 1865, and kept a hotel there for twenty-two years, when he retired from active business pursuits. He is a Democrat, a Mason and an Odd Fellow. He married Sallie Green in October, 1846. His wife was a native of Owen County and was educated in the schools of that county. They have nine living children: Lula, wife of Dr. Madison M. Riley, President of the Greenville Female Semi- nary, Greenville, Tennessee; Emma Eva, wife of Ben E. Garvey of New Liberty, Kentucky ; D. Howard, Cashier of Citizens' Bank at New Lib- erty, Kentucky, who married Jennie Orr; Robert H., Secretary and Treasurer of the Daviess Coal Mining Company of Knoxville, Tennessee; June W .; Walter S., Cashier of the First State Bank of Monterey, who married Sarah Byrnes; Corrine, who married Charles M. Alexander, and died March 4, 1895; James Gayle, Jr., and Albert De Long Gayle. John Gayle (grandfather) was born in Caroline County, Virginia, November 26, 1777. He immigrated to Gallatin, now Owen County, Kentucky, in 1806.
He was a wealthy planter and large slave owner. He married Melinda Brassfield, a daugh- ter of James Brassfield, a native of Woodford County, and they had ten children :
Elizabeth, John, Joanna, George, William, Sarah, Robert, James, Melinda and Thomas.
John Gayle (great-grandfather) was a native of Virginia, of Scotch-Irish ancestry. He owned plantations and slaves. He married Joanna Wal- den, who was also a native of Virginia.
Paschal Green (maternal grandfather) was born in Culpeper County, Virginia, in 1799, of Eng- lish parents. He came with them to Gallatin County, Kentucky, in 1802. Twenty years later he went to New Liberty and engaged in mei- 34
chandising. He was a Whig and a Mason of high rank, and he married Agnes Blanton, July 4, 1825. She was a native of Franklin County, Kentucky, and daughter of William Blanton and Eliza (Ware) Blanton.
John Green (maternal great-grandfather) was a native of Culpeper County, Virginia, a planter and slave owner. He married Anna Rhoderfer, who was born in the same county May 14, 1771.
JAMES W. SAYRE, Cashier of the Sayre Bank of Lexington, son of E. D. Sayre and Mary E. (Woodruff) Sayre, was born in Lexing- ton, Kentucky. He was educated in private schools in Lexington and in the New York French Institute, from which he graduated in 1873. Returning to his home, he entered his father's bank as messenger and received a thor- ough training in the banking business, filling all of the intermediate positions from messenger up to his present office as cashier. So indefatigable has he been in the performance of his duties and in his attention to business, he has been absent from his post not more than six weeks altogether during the past seventeen years. He is a gentle- man of broad culture and fine business ability; active in all public spirited enterprises, popular as a citizen, interested in the success of the Dem- ocratic party; is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, Odd Fellow and Knight of Pythias; a member of the Presbyterian Church, and is a director in the Lexington Savings, Building & Loan Association, an organization that is con- ducted by some of the best business men of Lex- ington.
Mr. Sayre's wife is a daughter of H. L. Lovell of Covington, and was educated in the Sayre Institute at Lexington, and in the Southern Home School, Baltimore. They have two chil- dren, Willie Louise and Howell L. Sayre.
E. D. Sayre (father) was born in New Jersey in 1830, and came to Kentucky when he was a boy, and lived on a farm which is now a part of the site of Louisville. After receiving his educa- tion in the common schools, he was employed as a clerk in the foundry of Glover M. McDougall & Co., and after a time went to Lexington and began his remarkably successful and honorable
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career as a clerk in the bank of David A. Sayre. A more extended sketch of E. D. Sayre will be found in this work.
Mary E. Woodruff Sayre (mother) is a daugh- ter of William Woodruff. Her mother died when Mrs. Sayre was an infant, and she was reared by her step-mother at Henderson and edu- cated in that city. She is a devout member of the Presbyterian Church. The children of E. D. and Mary E. Sayre are E. D. Sayre, Jr., Sydney S. (Mrs. Carey), Mary L. (Mrs. Williams) and James W. Sayre.
J'
UDGE WILLIAM H. HOLT of Frankfort, Kentucky, was born November 29, 1842, in Bath County, Kentucky. His father, Joseph Holt, died in that county when his son was an infant. The maiden name of his mother was Miss Fanny Tyler. She is still living at Mt. Sterling, Kentucky, her name being now Mrs. Fanny Gossett, honored by all who know her, and yet in possession of all her faculties, although ninety-three years of age. Both lines of ancestry are English. The parents came to this state in their early married life from Connecticut.
Judge Holt received his early education at the common schools in his native county; after- ward attended school at Twinsburg, Ohio; Fort Edward Institute, New York, and graduated at the Albany, New York, Law University in May, 1862, with the highest honors of his class. He was admitted to the bar May 5, 1862, and in June, 1863, began the practice of his profession at Mt. Sterling, Kentucky. Here he continued in ac- tive and lucrative practice until 1884, when he was elected a judge of the Court of Appeals of Kentucky. During all this time he avoided be- ing a candidate for any office, although frequent- ly urged to do so, but preferred to attend strictly to his practice, being the recognized leader of the bar in Eastern Kentucky. During the time he was an occasional newspaper writer and was Grand Master for one year of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. While not aspiring to office, he took an active interest in politics, hav- ing always been a Republican. When a very young man he canvassed Eastern Kentucky for the thirteenth constitutional amendment,
abolishing slavery; was twice a presidential elector; seconded the nomination of Hon. John Sherman at the Chicago convention in 1884 and has long been known as one of the Repub- lican leaders in Kentucky. The district from which he was elected judge in August, 1884, was composed of over forty counties, and he enjoys the distinction of being the first and only Re- publican who has ever served his state as the chief justice of its highest court. Of undoubted integrity, untiring industry, fine intellect, elo- quent in speech, he is known and recognized as one of the leading men of the state. Judge Holt is recognized throughout the state as one of the ablest all-round lawyers in Kentucky, and is on one side or the other of many of the most im- portant cases that come before the courts of the commonwealth.
He was married October 19, 1864, to Miss Sarah Roberts, Gloucester County, New Jersey, who was of Quaker parentage. They have five children, the oldest, M. J. Holt, being a practicing lawyer in Oklahoma, and the oldest daughter being the wife of Hon. A. J. Carroll, late speaker of the Kentucky legislature.
S IMON BOLIVAR BUCKNER, ex-Gov- ernor of Kentucky, one of the leading states- men of his state and section, was born in Hart County, Kentucky, April 1, 1823. He graduated at West Point in 1844, and as second lieutenant was assigned to the Second Regiment, United States Infantry, but was called to West Point the next year as professor of ethics, from which he requested to be relieved, that he might engage in the Mexican war, and this request being grant- ed, he was with General Taylor in active service from the mouth of the Rio Grande to Saltillo. He landed at Vera Cruz with Worth's division in January, 1847, and in the siege there and at Cerro Gordo, at San Antonio and Cherubusco, at Molino del Rey and around the City of Mex- ico, he bore himself bravely and was brevetted first lieutenant and then captain for conspicuous gallantry. Returning from the Mexican war, he was appointed assistant instructor of infantry tactics in the United States Military Academy, and was thus employed from 1848 to 1855. He
JUDGE W. H. HOLT.
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served in the regular army in the Indian country and elsewhere with a commission as captain. In 1860-61, as major-general, he was chief in command of the Kentucky State Guard, which command he resigned to enter the Confederate army. At Fort Donelson he was left in com- mand after the escape of Generals Floyd and Pillow, and after vainly seeking an armistice, surrendered to General Grant with about twelve thousand prisoners, who were sent to Camp Mor- ton and held six months for exchange.
General Buckner bore himself throughout that conflict with that distinction and ability of gen- eralship which characterized him throughout his military career, and he determined to share the fortunes of his prisoner soldiers and was taken to Camp Morton, Indianapolis, from whence he and General Tilghman were soon after trans- ferred to Fort Warren, near Boston, and there closely confined in a narrow prison, where they were denied all correspondence with family or friends. After five months of captivity he was exchanged at Richmond, Virginia, in August, 1862, when, promoted to the rank of major-gen- eral, he reported to General Bragg at Chatta- nooga. Subsequent to this his distinguished ser- vices at Mumfordsville, at Perryville, in charge of the defense at Mobile, at Chickamauga, in charge of the Southwest department of Missis- sippi, Alabama and Louisiana, and to the close of the war-during which time he was advanced to the high rank of lieutenant-general-all these enter too broadly with the general history of the war to be treated of in this volume.
His public career since the war, while he has been disposed to lead a quiet and retired life, has been one of which the people of Kentucky have been proud, and his election to the office of governor in 1887 was largely due to a desire on the part of the people to honor a man for whom they had the highest admiration, rather than from the usual political conditions which attend such elections. His administration of the affairs of the state was endorsed by men of all parties, and as, after the war, he had no truer, warmer friend than General Grant, to whom he surren- dered in the early days of the Civil war, so he had no greater admirers in his own party than those
who were of opposite political views. Naturally gifted with a high order of intellect, General Buckner has improved these with a thorough education in the highest institutions of learning in the country, and has largely improved his intervals of pleasure in his Hart County home with study and the perusal of the best literature of the day. Though modest in self-assertion be- fore the public, he is held in high esteem by his friends, and is to-day one of the most conspic- uous figures in the state of Kentucky.
M ATTHEW M'KINNEY, a prominent jour- nalist of Cadiz, son of Samuel and Char- lotte Walker Rowlett Mckinney, was born De- cember 26, 1826, in Campbell (now Appomattox) County, Virginia. He attended school at Cadiz and Princeton, Kentucky; left school in 1848 and read law with Judge Collins D. Bradley, who was circuit judge of his district.
In 1852 he commenced to publish the "Ken- tucky Rifle" at Hopkinsville, which he continued to edit until 1854; was then engaged in farming in Trigg County for five years; from 1861 to 1864 was clerk of the County Court; was editor of the "Kentucky Yeoman" at Frankfort during the Til- den campaign, and in 1881 he began the publica- tion of the "Telephone" in Cadiz; was a member of the Kentucky legislature from 1873 to 1875, and was elected county superintendent of schools in Trigg County in 1888.
Major Mckinney was married August, 1855, to Jennie B. Watson, daughter of Thomas T. Watson, and they have three children: Mollie, wife of Judge Bingham; Charles, attorney-at-law, and Jennie.
Major Mckinney and his family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Samuel Mckinney (father) was born in Char- lotte County, Virginia, and educated in the com- mon schools; was a merchant and farmer of Hali- fax County, Virginia; came to Christian County, Kentucky, in 1832; removed to Trigg County in 1838, and was a merchant at Cadiz and Wallonia. He was a member of the Methodist Church and a very ardent Whig, although not an aggressive politician. He died in November,
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1858, and is buried on his farm, four miles from Cadiz.
Charles Mckinney (grandfather) married Miss Watkins, sister of Philip Watkins, whose son, William Watkins, is now on the plantation which has been in the Watkins family since grant- ed them by the Crown of England for services rendered. The Mckinney family originally came from England.
Charlotte W. Rowlett McKinney (mother) was born in Charlotte County, Virginia. She was married to Samuel Mckinney in 1821, and died in 1873. She is buried near Cadiz; was a member of the Methodist Church and a woman of lovely Christian character.
Matthew Jewett Rowlett (maternal grandfath- er) married Miss Pettuss and lived and died in Halifax County, Virginia. The Rowletts also came to this country from England.
JOHN WILEY MATHEWS, Cashier of the Bank of New Castle and Secretary of the Henry County Trust Company, son of Caleb M. Mathews and Frances S. Edwards, was born in New Castle, Kentucky, November 20, 1843. He was educated principally in the Henry Male Seminary, under the special instruction of Rev. E. D. Isabel; left school when sixteen years of age and was employed as private tutor in his uncle's family, and in 1863, when twenty years of age, was appointed quartermaster at Camp Nelson, in the Union army, and was thus em- ployed for two and a half years-until the close of the war; in 1866 he was a clerk in the Capital Hotel at Frankfort, and following this was su- perintendent of the Kentucky River Navigation Company, a position which he resigned in 1879, when he was appointed to his present position as cashier of the Bank of New Castle. He is also secretary of the Henry County Trust Company, and is interested in other financial and business enterprises of his city; was mayor of New Castle for several terms, being elected and re-elected by the people without his solicitation; projected and helped to organize the New Castle Cemetery Company; was chairman of the committee ap- pointed by the Bankers' Association in connec- tion with the revising committee of the constitu-
tional convention (1891-92), which formulated the present banking laws of the state, and was there- by acknowledged one of the best informed bank- ers in Kentucky. He is, moreover, one of the substantial business men of New Castle. Mr. Mathews is a Democrat and is not afraid to say that he belongs to the sound money wing of that party, being able to give a reason for his con- victions. He is a member of the Christian Church, of the Masonic order and of the historic Filson Club, and is active and useful in all of these.
Mr. Mathews was united in marriage, in 1865, with Yeba Hewitt, daughter of Judge Hewitt of Frankfort, and she has borne him thirteen children, ten of whom are living. The oldest was Mattie, deceased, wife of M. K. Weems of Quincy, Illinois, proprietor of the largest laundry in the West. (It was his great-grandfather who wrote the history of George Washington con- taining the first account of the story of the hatchet and the cherry tree.) The names of the other children of Mr. and Mrs. Mathews are. Caleb M., Pryor, John, Joseph, George, Yeba, Lawrence D., Ruth E., Margaret G., Albert K., St. John, deceased, and Joanna, deceased.
Caleb M. Mathews (father) was born near Staunton, Virginia, and was educated with a view to the legal profession in the old Transylvania University, having previously enjoyed excellent advantages in private schools in Woodford and Jessamine Counties. He began the practice of law in Versailles and subsequently removed to New Castle, where he became known as one of the leading lawyers of that section, and continued in active practice there until the time of his death, which occurred in 1892. He was a prom- inent Mason, and was for many years a member of the Baptist Church. He married Frances S. Edwards and reared an illustrious family. His eldest daughter, Laura, was the wife of Dr. Wil- liam B. Oldham of New Castle, now deceased; John W. (subject), and Dr. Joseph M., an emi- nent surgeon of Louisville, member of the faculty of the Kentucky Medical College, president of the State Board of Health, and author of a num- ber of medical works.
Mrs. Mathews, nee Edwards, was the widow of
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Hiram Beazley when she married Caleb M. Mathews, and had one daughter, Aphia, by her first marriage, who married Chief Justice Pryor of the Court of Appeals, and died January, 1895.
John Mathews (grandfather) was a native of Staunton, Virginia, and was only a small boy when he came to Kentucky with his parents. He was a wealthy farmer and owned large tracts of land in Woodford County. He married Sarah McDowell, daughter of Joseph McDowell, who was a brigadier-general on General Washington's staff, and a member of the Continental Congress. His father was also one of Washington's gen- erals and a native of Virginia. The father of the elder General McDowell and the great-great- grandfather of John W. Mathews, was a native of Ireland, who came to this country and was the progenitor of the Virginia McDowells, and there is a tradition that one of his ancestors was a Gaelic king.
Wiley Edwards (maternal grandfather) was a native of Kentucky and a grandson of Robert Edwards, who made the ninety-nine years' lease of the Edwards estate, embracing valuable prop- erty in that city and including the site of Trinity Church. Mr. Mathews (subject) has in his pos- session a chest which that same Robert Edwards brought over from Wales when he came to America.
JOSEPH C. S. BLACKBURN, senior United States Senator from Kentucky, resident of Versailles, was born in Woodford County, Ken- tucky, October 1, 1838; educated at B. B. Sayre's school in Frankfort and at Center College, Dan- ville, graduating from Center in 1857. He read law with George B. Kinkead at Lexington, was admitted to the bar in 1858 and practiced law until 1861, when he entered the Confederate army and served throughout the war; resumed practice in 1865; elected to the legislature in 1871, and again in 1873; was elected to tl.e Forty-fourth Congress and re-elected, and was serving his fifth term in the Forty-eighth Con- gress when he was elected to the United States Senate in the Forty-ninth Congress, in which position he will remain until March 4, 1897, when, his successor not having been chosen, he will in
all probability succeed himself. Senator Black- burn is one of the most conspicuous figures in American politics, and a leader of the free silver wing of the Democratic party. His extended experience in Congress and in politics has char- acterized him as a man of rare gifts and great power. He has few equals as a speaker; well informed, of instinctively quick perception, he is formidable in debate, whether in the deliberative assembly or before the people. His powers of elocution are exceptionally fine and his oratory is equalled by few men in public life. Of im- pulsive and ardent temper, behind a genial and chivalrous spirit, he is a general favorite with his friends, whose admiration rarely stops short of the wildest enthusiasm.
A NTHONY J. CARROLL, Attorney-at-Law and prominent politician of Louisville, was born at Buckners, Oldham County, Kentucky, September 2, 1864; attended the local schools and received valuable assistance from his tal- ented mother in gaining the rudiments of his education, after which he attended Funk Acad- emy, a collegiate school in La Grange, grad- uating in 1881. He then began his successful career in Louisville as a reporter for the Courier- Journal, serving as reporter and city editor until 1887, when he was transferred to the Evening Times, of which he was city editor until 1891, when he was elected to the legislature to repre- sent the district comprising the Sixth and Sev- enth wards; continued his work in the Times office, with leave of absence during the sessions of the legislature of 1891-93; was re-elected in 1893 and nominated for speaker without oppo- sition and by acclamation in the Democratic cau- cus and was elected speaker of the house, being the youngest man ever elected to that honor with a single exception, and being the first man ever elected or chosen in the caucus by acclamation in the history of the state. He was re-elected to that body in 1895, and had the Democrats con- trolled the house he would have been again chosen speaker without opposition, having re- ceived the Democratic caucus nomination with- out opposition. During his occupancy of the speaker's chair, there was never an appeal taken
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