Biographical cyclopedia of the commonwealth of Kentucky, Part 97

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

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Dr. John J. Speed was the second son of Major Thomas Speed of Bardstown, born October 31, 1816; graduated from St. Joseph's College, Bardstown, and in medicine from Transylvania University in 1838. He first practiced medicine at Crawfordsville, Indiana. In 1846 he returned to Bardstown and practiced there until 1850 in connection with Dr. Alfred W. Hynes. In 1850 he moved to Louisville, where he resided until his death. He held a foremost position among the physicians of Louisville, having a thorough medical knowledge and great skill in practice. In 1874 he was elected president of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Louisville. For a number of years he was professor in the Hospital

College of Medicine, and for as many years was secretary of the State Board of Health. In 1861 he was appointed Postmaster of Louisville by President Lincoln, which office he held for eight years. He was a writer on medical subjects of considerable note. Many of his articles were published in the journals of the profession. He was a man of the highest personal character, frank and sincere in his nature, and of great culture and refinement.

He married Miriam Hawkins of Crawfords- ville, Indiana. Their children were Rose Speed, deceased, and Louise Speed. The latter married Thomas Moore of Indianapolis, Indiana. Dr. Speed married (second) Miss Belle Tevis of Shel- byville, who is still surviving and lives in Louis- ville.

Judge John Speed of Louisville, son of Captain James Speed, was born May 17, 1772, and was ten years of age when he came to Kentucky with his father. He was the partner of his brother, Major Thomas Speed, in merchandising, and in the salt works at Shepherdsville. He bought a large tract of land near Louisville, on the Bards- town road, and built a large house, naming the place "Farmington;" reared a large family, all of whom partook of his sterling qualities. He dis- pensed that lavish hospitality for which "Farm- ington" is noted. Although a slaveholder, he was an emancipationist. He deplored the ex- istence of slavery, but could not do otherwise than he did, and he treated his slaves humanely and made them comfortable and contented. He was a man of strong masculine characteristics, methodical and systematic in business; was Judge of the Quarter Sessions Court; was a volunteer Indian fighter in 1791 ; assisted in the equipment of troops and furnished supplies for the War of 1812; was a writer of great force for "The Focus," a paper published in Louisville. His first wife was Abby Lemaster, who died July, 1807. Two of her children, Mary and Eliza, survived her and lived unmarried to an advanced age. His second wife was Lucy Gilmer Fry. She was one of the large family of children of Joshua and Peachy Fry, and their marriage made an extensive kin- ship between the Speeds, Frys, Bullitts, Bells and others, The marriage occurred November 15,

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1808. Judge John Speed died March 30, 1840. His wife survived him and died in Louisville, January 27, 1874. Their children were: Thomas, born September 15, 1809, died 1812; Lucy Fry, born February 26, 1811; James (Lincoln's Attor- ney-General), born March 11, 1812; Peachy Wal- ker, born May 4, 1813; Joshua Fry, born Novem- ber 14, 1814; William Pope, born April 26, 1816; Susan Fry, born September 30, 1817; Philip, born April 12, 1819; John Smith, born January I, 1821; Martha Bell, born September 8, 1822; Ann Pope, born November 5, 1831, died 1838.

James Speed, Attorney-General under Presi- dent Lincoln, son of Judge John Speed of "Farm- ington," was born at the homestead, five miles from Louisville, and was perhaps the most il- lustrious member of the Speed family, whose rec- ord of public service and excellent personal char- acteristics are well known and too voluminous for a brief sketch in a work like this. He served in the City Council, in both branches of the Leg- islature, and, as a leader and counsellor in the time of war, he advised the military officers in command in Kentucky, and his influence was very great upon the Union sentiment throughout the state. In 1864, he was appointed Attorney- General in President Lincoln's cabinet, serving until his resignation under Andrew Johnson in 1866. He presided over a convention of South- ern Unionists in Philadelphia, which protested against the policy of Andrew Johnson; in 1868 he received the vote of the Kentucky delegation for Vice-President on the ticket with General Grant. After leaving the cabinet, he resumed the practice of law with Thomas Speed and continued in ac- tive work until his death in 1887.

He was married in 1841 to Jane Cochran, daughter of John Cochran of Louisville, sister of Garvin H. and Arch. Cochran, and her sister married Rev. John H. Heywood of Louisville. The children of James and Jane Cochran Speed were: John, Henry Pirtle, Charles, Brecken- ridge, James and Joshua.

JOHN SPEED, son of James Speed and Jane Cochran Speed, was born in Louisville in 1842. He was graduated at the Louisville High School and was a bank clerk, first in Louisville and later

in Chicago, where he and his cousin, James B. Speed, worked together in the banking house of Badger & Company. The war coming on both the young men entered the Union service. John Speed enlisted as a private in the Ninth Ken- tucky Cavalry. His intelligence and capacity caused him to be promoted to Second Lieuten- ant in August, 1862. He served with his regi- ment under General Nelson against Kirby Smith in the Richmond (Kentucky) Campaign; was on General C. C. Gilbert's staff in the battle of Per- ryville; also served on General Nelson's staff and a short time on the staff of General Rosecrans. In May, 1863, he was made Captain and Assist- ant Adjutant-General and then served on Divi- sion Staff in the Army of the Cumberland. Dur- ing the Atlanta campaign and march to the sea, he was on the staff of Major-General W. T. Ward, General Butterfield and others. In April, 1865, he was made paymaster with the rank of Major, but resigned June, 1865. His personal gallantry and valuable services were distinctly recognized by the commanding Generals in the West-Buell, Rosecrans and Sherman. After the war, when- ever General Sherman would meet any of the Louisville family he would inquire, "How's John?"

Returning home Major John Speed went into business as dealer in plumbing and gas-fitters' supplies. This proving unprofitable, he gave it up, and entered the law practice with Thomas Speed, who is now clerk of the United States Courts, and was one of the most successful attor- neys at the Louisville bar. After the appoint- ment of Thomas Speed as clerk of the United States Courts, Major Speed formed a partnership with Judge James Speed Pirtle, but he retired from this firm and from practice in July, 1894, and removed to his farm in Spencer County. He was married in 1864 to Aurore Combe of Owensboro, Kentucky. They have two sons living: James and Shippen Speed; one son, John, died in in- fancy.

William P. Speed, son of Judge John Speed, grandson of Captain James Speed, and brother of Joshua F. and Attorney-General James Speed, was born at the Farmington homestead in Jef- ferson County. He married Margaret D. Phil-

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lips, an elder sister of the wife of his brother, J. Smith Speed. She died without children and he afterwards married Mary Ellen Shallcross, daughter of Captain John Shallcross, whose de- scendants constitute one of the leading families of Louisville. Of this marriage James B. Speed was born, a sketch of whom is given below. W. P. Speed removed to Booneville, Missouri, his wife having died, and was married there to Ardell Hutchinson, and they had two children: Austin P. and Laura. Mr. Speed made his home in Booneville until his death, June 28, 1863. He was a man of fine ability, having great natural quick- ness of intellect, and exceedingly bright and jov- ial in his temperament, and combined with this disposition he had a strong intelligent judgment. His early death prevented his coming to that greater prominence to which his talents would have inevitably carried him had his life been pro- longed.

JAMES BRECKENRIDGE SPEED, one of the leading business men of Louisville, reputed to be the wealthiest man in the city, is the son of William P. Speed, late of Booneville, Missouri. He was educated in the schools of Louisville, and first engaged in business as a bank clerk in Louisville. He went to Chi- cago with his cousin, John Speed, and they were both employed as clerks in the banking house of Badger & Company. Both entered the Union service at the outbreak of the war, James B. Speed becoming Adjutant of the Twenty-sev- enth Regiment, Kentucky Volunteer Infantry, of which Charles D. Pennebaker was the first Colo- nel, and which was afterwards commanded by Colonel John H. Ward. He saw active service with his regiment in all the campaigns in the West, remaining with it until the spring of 1865. He then engaged in business in Louisville and his remarkable capacity for business was at once generally recognized. He progressed steadily until his standing to-day is such that it may be said he never had a superior in the city of Louis- ville. He is president of a number of large cor- porate enterprises, among which are the Louis- ville Cement Company, the Louisville Street Rail- way Company, and the Ohio Valley Telephone

Company; and is director in various others, in- cluding banks, besides being the head of the firms of J. B. Speed & Company, dealers in ce- ment, lime, salt, etc., and Byrne & Speed, dealers in coal. Any one of these enterprises would tax the powers of an ordinary man, but he has the ca- pacity to take the active management of all of them with unerring judgment and unvarying suc- cess. In addition to these labors he attends not only to his own private estate, which is very large, but also attends to other estates entrusted to his care.

With a steady energy and a strong intellect he has built up enormous enterprises, given employ- ment to thousands of persons, and everything in which he engages is solidly founded. He is en- tirely devoid of every semblance of ostentation and is generous with his means without a thought of publicity. With all his devotion to business he finds time to travel for health and pleasure in this country and abroad; is social in his nature and has a warm attachment for his friends and those allied to him by the ties of kinship.

He was married in 1867 to Cora Coffin, daugh- ter of George W. Coffin, a wealthy citizen of Cin- cinnati, Ohio. Their children are Olive and Wil- liam. Another child, Douglas Breckenridge, died in infancy.

Joshua Fry Speed, son of Judge John Speed, was born November 14, 1814. He was edu- cated at St. Joseph's College, in Bardstown. Aft- er spending two years in the wholesale house of William H. Pope in Louisville, he went to Spring- field, Illinois, where he spent seven years mer- chandising. At that place he became the friend and associate of Abraham Lincoln, Stephen A. Douglas, Colonel John Hardin, Colonel Baker, General Shields, Judge Gillespie, Nathaniel Pope and others. From his youth he regarded life with a businesslike seriousness, which led to great suc- cess. His acquaintance with Lincoln was very close, and when the latter became President Mr. Speed was his most trusted adviser. While in Il- linois he took a lively interest in politics, and as- sisted in editing a paper. He returned to Ken- tucky in 1842 and married Fannie Henning, sis- ter of James W. Henning of Louisville. Messrs. Henning & Speed became partners in the real

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estate business, and the partnership continued until Mr. Speed's death in 1882.

Mr. Speed's life was a very active one during the Civil War. He was the confidential adviser of President Lincoln concerning affairs in the West, and made frequent trips to Washington on mat- ters of public interest. He was offered the posi- tion of Secretary of the Treasury by Mr. Lincoln, but he declined it.

The following words are from the pen of Gen- eral John W. Finnell, Adjutant-General of Ken- tucky during the war:

"His position was peculiar. Without at any time an office, civil or military, he was the trusted confidant, adviser and counsellor of both the civil and military authorities of the state and nation all through the Rebellion. He was a man of few words, often painfully reticent; never in a hur- ry, never disconcerted. He seemed intuitively to know the right thing and the right time to do it. His compensation was found alone in the con- sciousness of duty performed. He uniformly de- clined to receive pay for any time or effort he was asked to give to the cause of his country."

From the close of the war until the end of his life he continued to live in Louisville, and was one of its most conspicuous citizens. He was en- gaged in many business enterprises, among oth- ers he was instrumental in building the Short Line Railroad.

Mr. Speed had no children. He died May 29, 1882, leaving a large estate. His widow, Mrs. Fannie Henning Speed, is still living in Louis- ville.

Major Philip Speed, son of Judge John Speed and Lucy Fry, was born at the old Farming homestead, April 12, 1819; married Emma Keats, daughter of George Keats, who was a brother of the poet, John Keats. He had a large family of bright and handsome children, and there was never a happier household; Mary Eliza married Enos S. Tuley. who was for nearly thirty years connected with the Louisville postoffice; George Keats Speed married Jennie Ewing, daughter of Dr. U. E. Ewing, a distinguished physician of Louisville, and died February 13, 1887; Peachy Austine (called Tiney) married Captain John F. Rogers of the United States army; Ella Keats

(deceased) married T. B. Crutcher; John Gilnier Speed, now connected with Harper's Weekly and engaged in literary work for magazines, married Mary Craik Poindexter; Alice married Harry P. McDonald, an architect of Louisville; Fannie married M. J. O'Connor, an engineer, contractor and bridge builder; Florence, wife of Josiah Mc- Roberts, patent lawyer of Washington, D. C .; and Thomas A. Speed, vice president of the Todd- Donigan Iron Company of Louisville, married Amelia Harrison.

J. Smith Speed, youngest son of Judge John Speed and Lucy Fry, was born February 21, 1821; was twice married, first to Elizabeth Wil- liamson, who died without issue, and second to Susan Phillips. Their children were Elizabeth W., married Richard Jouett Menefee, son of the Kentucky orator and statesman, Richard H. Menefee; William P. of Chicago, married Belle Ellis of Bardstown; Joshua F., married Martha Nicholson of New York; Arch. C. of Chicago, married Mary Burns, and J. Smith Speed of Little Rock, Arkansas, married Mary Stewart Shallcross.

Martha B., daughter of Judge John Speed and Lucy Fry, married Thomas Adams, whose chil- dren were Kate, deceased; Lucy Ness, deceased; Gilmer S .; Bessie Innis, deceased, and James St. John.

Gilmer Speed Adams is a member of the firm of J. B. Speed & Company, a first class business man, agreeable and exceedingly popular, and a man of extensive information gained in reading and travel. His wife is a daughter of the late John M. Robinson, who was one of the most prominent wholesale merchants of Louisville.

UKE P. BLACKBURN, Governor of Ken-

L tucky, 1879-83, was a son of Edwin M. Blackburn, and was born in Woodford County, June 16, 1816; graduated at Transylvania Uni- versity, Lexington, and practiced in Lexington and Versailles, giving gratuitous services throughout the cholera scourge at Versailles in 1835; was a member of the Kentucky legislature in 1843; removed to Natchez, Mississippi, in 1846, to practice his profession; became famous for his devoted and generous services and sac-

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rifices in the yellow fever epidemics of 1848 and 1854, in hygienic measures for the prevention and in the treatment of the disease; and made a national reputation for heroism and self-sacrifice in 1878, when he again volunteered his services and devoted his whole time to the sufferers from yellow fever at Hickman, Kentucky. His first wife, Ella G. Boswell, having died, he married in 1857 Julia M. Churchill of the distinguished family of that name in Kentucky. After taking a European trip he located in New Orleans, and there practiced medicine until interrupted by the Civil war, in which he took an active and im- portant part for the South. By request of the governor-general of Canada, he visited Bermuda Islands for the relief of sufferers there, for which he received the grateful acknowledgments of the highest colonial authorities. In 1867 he retired to his plantation in Arkansas, but returned to Kentucky in 1873, and, as previously stated, ren- dered distinguished services in the yellow fever epidemic at Hickman in 1878. He never fig- ured conspicuously in politics until 1879, when the grateful sentiment which existed in his state for his philanthropic labors in behalf of his fellow men made him governor of his native state, a re- ward for true heroism which the people had no cause to regret. He lived in retirement after serving his term, and died in Frankfort in 1887.

G EORGE B. BINGHAM of Cadiz, Judge of the Trigg County Court, son of Jabez and Virginia Daniel Bingham, was born in Trigg County, Kentucky, October 3, 1853. He was educated at Princeton College, Kentucky; at- tended the law department of the University of Louisville, and after leaving the law school in 1875 he went to Florida, and on returning to the state settled at Wallonia, Kentucky, his native place, where he engaged in the mercantile, farm- ing and milling business. In 1890 he was elected county judge of Trigg and was re-elected in 1894. In 1891 he purchased a half interest in the "Tele- phone," a Democratic newspaper published at Cadiz and established fifteen years ago.

Judge Bingham is a Mason and a Democrat, and he and his wife are members of the Christian Church.

He is one of the foremost men in his commu- nity and deservedly enjoys the confidence and esteem of all the people.

He married Miss Mary W. Mckinney, daugh- ter of Major Mat McKinney, January 29, 1880, and they have two children, Edith and Jabez.

Jabez Bingham (father) was born in Athens, Ohio, February 27, 1827. He came to Trigg County, Kentucky, when sixteen years of age, and was educated in the common schools. He learned mill-wrighting and followed that trade for a few years, and finally settled at Wallonia, Trigg County, and engaged in farming, and was a magistrate of his district. In 1861 he raised a company of soldiers for the Confederate army, of which he was elected captain, and this com- pany joined the Eighth Kentucky Regiment, un- der command of General Forrest. He was cap- tured at Fort Donelson and some time after being exchanged was promoted to the rank of major of the Eighth Kentucky Cavalry, and served until the close of the war in that capacity.

When he returned to Trigg County after the war he became a builder and contractor and was extensively interested in farming. He held the rank of colonel in the Kentucky State Militia; was a member of the Methodist Church and a Mason of very high degree, and was especially interested in the work of that fraternity. In early life he was a Wliig, but afterwards a Democrat. He was a man of strong convictions and had the courage of his convictions in a measure that dis- tinguished him as a man of great strength of character.

In 1851 he married Virginia Daniel, and they had five children, only two of whom reached maturity, George B. and William Cranston.

In 1883 he was elected to the Kentucky legis- lature from Trigg County, and died a short time after the session adjourned, October 13, 1884.

Silas Bingham (grandfather), son of Silas and Irene (Rice) Binghanı, was born in Vermont, on the southern shore of Lake Champlain, April II, 1792. In 1796 his father settled in Athens, Ohio, and assisted in opening up the land se- cured by Wayne's treaty. He, together with the family of his brother and of his widowed sister and three other families, were the first settlers

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in that county. They suffered all the privations incident to pioneer life. Judge Bingham thus writes of those early days: "When venison was eaten for bread and bear meat for pork. The sugar maple yielded its sweets and wild berries were their only fruit. Lessons were learned from 'Long S' spellers and old English readers by the light of log fires in winter and by tallow dips in summer. This, too, after a hard day's toil shrub- bing, plowing, hoeing and hunting for supplies for the larder. When the school master came it was esteemed a great privilege."

The wife of Silas Bingham, Sr., was a daugh- ter of Major Rice of the Revolutionary army, and a granddaughter of Prof. Wheelock of Dart- mouth College.

Silas Bingham, Jr., married Martha Cranston, whose father came to Ohio from Orange County, New York, in 1811. They had nine children: Royal, James, John, Jabez, Nira, Hannah, Irene, Martha and Ruth. Of this family only one son, John, and two daughters survive. Mrs. Bingham died in 1873.

The first of the sons who came to Kentucky was James, who settled in Union County, but removed to Trigg County in 1843, where he married a Miss Henry.

The first Bingham who came to the United States was an attache in the British naval service, who settled in Vermont.

Virginia Daniel (mother) was born in Trigg County. She was a member of the Methodist Church; died in 1867 and is buried at Wallonia. Her father, George Daniel, was born in North Carolina and came to Kentucky at an early age. He was high sheriff and a planter and trader in real estate. He accumulated a handsome estate, and was a leading citizen of the county.

H' ENRY MARTYN SKILLMAN, the oldest member of the medical profession now en- gaged in the active practice at Lexington, is the youngest child of Thomas T. and Elizabeth (Far- rar) Skillman, and was born in the city of Lex- ington, Kentucky, September 4, 1824

Thomas T. Skillman (father) was a native of New Jersey, born in 1786. Possessing only the rudiments of a common school education, but a

thorough knowledge of the printing business, he came to Kentucky in 1809 with little capital, but with indomitable will, and a fixed determina- tion to make a success of life. He located at once at Lexington, the seat of Transylvania Uni- versity, and center of all the social, literary and political influence of the state. In 1813, he took to wife Elizabeth, daughter of Ebenezer Farrar. She was a lady of rare attainments, born in New Hampshire in 1786, and came with her par- ents to Lexington in 1789. Here she became a recognized leader among the women in every good work; was one of the founders of the Lex- ington Female Bible Society, and was for many years the president of the Lexington Female Benevolent Society. To her husband she was always an efficient co-worker, sharing with him all his trials, and sustaining him by her earnest co-operation in all his plans and aspirations. She survived her husband nearly thirty-nine years, dying in February, 1872, at the advanced age of eighty-one years, leaving to her descendants as a precious heritage the remembrance of her nu- merous Christian deeds and her many good works. The assistance of the leading clergy- men of the day, prominent among whom was the Rev. John Poage Campbell, M. D., a man of distinguished ability, enabled Mr. Skillman, about the year 1813, to found the Evangelical Rec- ord and Western Review, a monthly magazine, having for its object the dissemination of sound evangelical truth, and the defense of the faith against every class of errorists. At a later date this magazine came under the editorial charge of Rev. John Breckinridge, the then gifted and brilliant young pastor of the McChord Church, and afterwards so well known throughout the country. In 1824 Mr. Skillman established the Western Luminary, the first religious newspaper in the West, and which continued to be published several years after the proprietor's death. He also founded in Lexington a publishing house larger than anything of the kind ever attempted in the Mississippi valley, from which was issued numerous standard religious works of perma- nent value, as well as tracts and pamphlets brought forth by the heated controversies of the day. It is appropriate to say that the name

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of Thomas T. Skillman on the title page of any book, tract or pamphlet as its publisher was suf- ficient evidence of its purity and fitness for the family circle. These various publications, through the agency of his brother, A. T. Skill- man, long and favorably known as the leading book merchant of Lexington, were widely scat- tered throughout the state. It is worthy of men- tion in 1823 an edition of several thousand copies of the entire Bible, with the imprint of Thomas T. Skillman, publisher, printed from stereotype plates sent out from New York by the American Bible Society, were issued from his establishment in Lexington. This eminently good man and elder in the Presbyterian Church, and a frequent member of its highest courts, was suddenly stricken down by cholera June 9, 1833.

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Biographical cyclopedia of the commonwealth of Kentucky, Part 97

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