Biographical cyclopedia of the commonwealth of Kentucky, Part 98

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

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Henry Martyn Skillman was educated at the old Transylvania University, and, after leaving that institution, he spent several years with an older brother in acquiring a practical knowledge of drugs. In 1844 Dr. Skillman commenced the study of medicine under Drs. B. W. Dudley, J. M. Bush and E. L. Dudley, who were among the leading physicians and surgeons of their day. Dr. Skillman was graduated from the medical department of Transylvania University in 1847, and in the following year was made demon- strator of anatomy by his Alma Mater, and was thence transferred to the chair of physiology and pathological anatomy in the same institution. This latter position he held until, owing to the exigencies of the Civil war, and the destruction of their building by fire, this college was closed. During the war Dr. Skillman served two years as a contract surgeon for the government. In 1869 he served as president of the Kentucky State Medical Society; is a permanent member of the American Medical Association, and 1876 was a delegate to the International Medical Congress which met in Philadelphia. In 1889 was elected the first president of the Lexington and Fayette County Medical Society. Dr. Skillman has trav- eled quite extensively, visiting principal capitals of Europe, also Mexico and Cuba, which, with his natural social accomplishments, renders him a particularly agreeable and entertaining com- panion. Dr. Skillman is one of the most skillful,

successful and accomplished physicians of Ken- tucky, and universally beloved.

Dr. Skillman's private practice and the many calls upon him by his professional associates in many of the surrounding counties sufficiently attest the high estimation in which he is held alike by the people and the medical fraternity.

M ILTON ELLIOTT, a distinguished educa- tor and Christian minister, president of West Kentucky College at Mayfield, son of Wil- liam and Sarah Harris Elliott, was born in Estill County, Kentucky, April 22, 1837. He was edu- cated at Irvine, Kentucky, under F. G. Gaylord, a distinguished educator of New York. Mr. El- liott assisted Professor Gaylord in the high school in Platte City, Missouri, from 1858 to 1859, and was afterwards placed in charge of the Kendrick Institute for Ladies and Gentlemen, at Monti- cello, Kentucky. This school building was de- stroyed by fire in July, 1870, and he then went to the College of the Bible at Kentucky Uni- versity, where he remained until December, 1873. His health failing, he went to Estill Springs, and while recruiting his health taught and preached in his native county for eighteen months. In August, 1874, he founded at Kirksville, Madison County, the Elliott Institute, and taught there for nineteen years and preached every Sunday during that time in the Christian Church. In June, 1893, he accepted the presidency of Gar- rard College, Lancaster, Kentucky; and in Sep- tember, 1895, became president of West Ken- tucky College at Mayfield and is still in charge of that institution of learning.

Professor Elliott is eminently successful as an educator. Although he has had control of West Kentucky College for so short a time, there is already a new impetus given to the work of the different departments. He is conscientious and painstaking in the extreme, and his natural apti- tude for the work is aided by broad culture and ripe experience. His conduct of the college has given great satisfaction to its patrons. There are two hundred and seventy pupils enrolled and ten teachers employed. President Elliott is a Mason and ardent prohibitionist.

He married Juan Phillips of Monticello, Ken-

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tucky, daughter of Micajah Phillips, October 15, 1867. They have nine children: Minnie Le Grand, a music teacher in West Kentucky Col- lege; Henry H., first assistant of the high school of Paris, Missouri; William M., member of the senior class of the Kentucky School of Medicine; Milton, Jr., teacher in West Kentucky College; J. Nathan, a member of the senior class of West Kentucky College, who won the championship medal of the Declamatory League of Kentucky in May, 1894, and also the first prize in the Blue Grass Declamatory League in 1894; Florence S .; Mary E. and Julian Gaylord, who are in school, and Lucy Cecil, an infant.

William Elliott (father) was born in Madison County, Kentucky, July 3, 1807, and was edu- cated there. He engaged in farming for a while in Kentucky; removed to Memphis, Missouri, in March, 1849, and died there September 5, 1849. He was a member of the Christian Church and a Whig in politics. He was a man of fine mind and of a kindly, sympathetic nature, but was earnest and firm in his convictions, and very conscientious in the discharge of duty.

He married Sarah Harris, February 21, 1828. She was born in Madison County, Kentucky, February 8, 1812. She was a devoted member of the Christian Church, in which faith she died, July, 1870. They had seven children: Milton, Nathan, Burgess, William H., Nancy B., married to Isaac B. Hon; Parmelia, married to Peter M. Hon, and Martha Jane, to Silas Campbell. Mr. Elliott's mother was married the second time to Pleasant M. Daniel, a man of sterling worth, whom Mr. Elliott loved as a father, and by this marriage there was one son, Pleasant Daniel, Jr.

Dawson Elliott (grandfather) was born in Vir- ginia of English parents. He was a soldier in the War of 1812 and lived for sixty years in Madison County. He was a Whig in politics and held some county offices, although his principal occu- pation was farming. In religious views he held to the belief of the Christian Church. He was a pioneer member of the Christian Church. He married Parmelia Parrish, who died in 1866, he having died in 1860, and both of them are buried on the old homestead in Madison County.

Webber Harris (maternal grandfather) was

born in Virginia of a family German by descent, and came in the early days of Kentucky history to Madison County. He was a farmer and amassed a handsome estate. His wife was Nancy Panley. He died March 7, 1865.

Mrs. Juan Elliott's mother was a Miss Jones, daughter of James Jones, who was a soldier in the War of 1812, and who afterwards represented his county in the legislature of Kentucky. His wife was Miss Mary Buster, whom he married in their native state, Virginia.

Mrs. Elliott's father, Micajah Phillips, was born in North Carolina, and when a boy emigrated with his parents, Cornelius and Rhoda Phillips, to Wayne County, Kentucky, where he spent the remainder of his life. As the schools of his county in his early life were very poor, his edu- cation was quite limited, but, having an ardent desire for knowledge, he became a man of un- usual intelligence. He might truly be said to have been a self-educated man. He reared a large family, and died at the age of eighty-seven years.

G OVERNOR GEORGE MADISON was born in Virginia about the year 1763. His career was one of distinction in arms as well as the cabinet. He was one of the soldiers of the American Revolution. Before he was of age, whilst yet a boy, he threw himself in the ranks, and with a gallant bearing passed through the scenes of his country's first and great struggle for independence. He was also engaged in the battles which were fought by the early settlers of Kentucky with the Indians of the North- western territory. At the head of his company, Captain Madison was wounded at St. Clair's de- feat in 1791; and he was again wounded in the attack upon the camp of Major John Adair by the Indians in 1792. Major Adair, in his report of that battle to Brigadier General Wilkinson, speaking of Captain Madison, whom he had or- dered to take a party and gain the right flank of the enemy, says: "Madison's bravery and con- duct need no comment; they are well known." This was his reputation in military life-to speak in favor of his courage was considered super- fluous-all who saw him in the field, both men and officers, knew him to be brave-that knowl-

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edge came, as if by intuition, to all who beheld him -his looks, his words, his whole demeanor on the field, were emphatically those of a soldier. No hero ever shed his blood in the cause of his country more freely than George Madison; when called into her service, there seemed no limit to his patriotism, no bounds to his zeal in her behalf. It did in truth appear as if he con- sidered himself-all he had, and all he could do -- a free gift, a living sacrifice, to be offered up on the altar of his country.

JUDGE ELIJAH C. PHISTER was born in Maysville, Kentucky, October 8, 1822; a stu- dent of the Maysville Seminary; graduated at Augusta College, August, 1840; studied law at Philadelphia with Hon. John Sergeant, one of the ablest jurists and purest public men in the United States, and with Payne & Waller, leading practitioners of the Mason bar, and began the practice, June, 1844; was elected mayor of his native city, January, 1847, and re-elected Jan- uary, 1848; circuit judge, 1856-62; representa- tive in the Kentucky legislature, 1867-69, and re-elected, 1869-71, in which body he took a dis- tinguished part; appointed by Gov. Leslie one of the commissioners to revise the statutes, 1872, but declined.

His profession, the idol of his early love, Judge Phister followed with an inflexibility of purpose which seldom fails to be awarded the very high- est positions in the judiciary. He was suggested by gentlemen prominent in the profession as one of the ablest, firmest and purest of living judges. Later he served one or two terms in Congress before his death.

B ENJAMIN W. PENICK, Cashier of the Greensburg Deposit Bank, son of Thomas Bailey Penick and Mary Ingram Penick, was born in Green County, June 3, 1841. He was educated principally in the schools of his county, and at Columbia High School and Georgetown College, graduating from the latter institution in 1860. He then returned to Green County and engaged in farming for a few years during the war, after which he studied law under General W. T. Ward, and, being admitted to practice at

the bar, located in Greensburg and was elected circuit clerk in 1868 and was re-elected, serving in all for four consecutive terms of six years each. At one time he was employed in a respon- sible position with the Cumberland & Ohio Rail- road Company.

Two years before leaving the clerk's office, in 1890, he was elected cashier of the Greens- burg Deposit Bank by the board of directors of that institution, and for two years served in the double capacity of circuit clerk and cashier of the bank. He combines the business of banker and lawyer in a very unique manner. People come to his bank, make their deposits and receive legal advice from him in regard to their business enterprises. That he is considered as a man of ability and integrity is evidenced by the posi- tions of trust he has held and still holds. His ability is measured by the success of the bank of which he is cashier, having in five years paid annually eight per cent. to stockholders, and accrued a surplus almost equal to that paid in capital stock.

Mr. Penick is a Democrat, a member of the Baptist Church, a Royal Arch Mason and an honorary member of the W. C. T. U.

He married (first) Bettie Brummal, daughter of Josiah and Mary Hundley Brummal. She was born in Green County in 1841 and was educated there and at the Shelbyville Academy. She was a Presbyterian, and died in that faith in 1872 and is buried at Motley Homestead, Green County. By this marriage he had four children: Brum- mal Penick of Green County; Mary Penick, wife of Dr. Archibald Stewart Lewis of Greensburg; William Clifton Penick of Green County, and Hundley Penick, his second son, deceased.

His second marriage was to Anna M. Hobson, daughter of General E. H. Hobson of Green County, whose sketch will be found in this work. She was educated at Danville, Kentucky, and is one of the pillars of the Presbyterian Church in Greensburg, Kentucky, and president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union in that town; a woman remarkable for fixedness of pur- pose and adherence to her faith.

Thomas Bailey Penick (father) was the son of William Penick, who was a native of Virginia

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and settled in the southern portion of Green County, Kentucky, where Thomas B. Penick was born and educated. On completing his edu- cation he engaged in farming and stock-raising. He was a Whig and a deacon in the Baptist Church. About the year 1834 he married Mary Ingram, daughter of Benjamin and Elizabeth Ingram of Green County.

Elizabeth Ingram's mother was an Irvine. Benjamin Ingram's father was Garnett Ingram. Mary Ingram Penick was a member of the Bap- tist Church. She died in 1847, three years before the death of her husband, and they are buried side by side at the old Ingram homestead in Green County.

N IMROD INGRAM BUSTER, Vice Presi- dent of the Mercer County National Bank, Harrodsburg, son of Charles Hayden and Marian Emerine (Ingram) Buster, was born in Wayne County, Kentucky, November 10, 1842; edu- cated at Somerset and Monticello under Profes- sors Burditt and Woolfolk; left school in 1861; was a Southern sympathizer, but did not go in the army on account of his father's feeble health; remained on the home farm until 1873, when he removed to a farm in Boyle County, where he is now engaged in stock-raising, making a spe- cialty of breeding fine horses.

In 1889 he was elected director in the Mercer National Bank at Harrodsburg, and was elected vice president in 1891.

Nimrod Ingram Buster is deservedly a very popular man, commanding to an unusual degree the esteem and confidence of the communities with which he is identified; is strong in his friend- ships, and willing to go to any length for a friend, which is one of the marked characteristics of the Buster family. He is a Democrat in politics and belongs to the Knights of Honor.

Mr. Buster was married March 30, 1865, to Sallie Stephens Bobbitt, daughter of Alex. Bob- bitt of Monticello. His wife was born and edu- cated in Monticello. They have five children: Emma Theresa, educated at Daughter's College, Harrodsburg; John, educated at Kentucky Uni- versity, Lexington; Sophronia, educated at Daughter's College; Nimrod, educated at Har-

rodsburg Academy, and Edward Everett, now in school at Harrodsburg.

Charles Hayden Buster (father), a native and farmer of Wayne County, Kentucky, was very much interested in politics for his friends, but not for himself, as he sought no office; was a mem- ber of the Christian Church and a Mason; died in 1867.

General Josiah Buster (grandfather), a native of Virginia, of English parentage, came to Wayne County, Kentucky, where he was a minister in the Christian Church. He was a farmer and tan- ner and a man of considerable property. He married a Miss Hayden.

Marian Emerine Ingram Buster (mother) was born in Wayne County, Kentucky; educated at St. Mary's Academy, an excellent school at Leb- anon; was a member of the Christian Church, and died May, 1893.

Her father, Nimrod Ingram, was a native of Virginia, and was educated in that state. He married Nancy Cecil; came to Kentucky and was a farmer in Wayne County. The Ingrams and . Busters are both of English descent.

G ENERAL WILLIAM PRESTON, son of Maj. William Preston of the United States army and Caroline Hancock, daughter of Col. George Hancock of Botetourt County, Virginia (an officer of the Revolution and a member of Congress), was born October 16, 1816, near Louisville, Kentucky; received a classical educa- tion at St. Joseph's College, Bardstown, Ken- tucky, which was afterwards completed at New Haven, and at Harvard University, where he graduated, 1838; was admitted to the bar in Louisville; married Margaret Howard, daugh- ter of Robert Wickliffe of Lexington, 1840; served as lieutenant-colonel of the Fourth Ken- tucky Infantry in the war with Mexico, 1846-47; was elected one of the three members from Jef- ferson County in the convention which formed the present constitution of Kentucky, 1849; took an active part in the debates of that body, espe- cially against the anti-Catholic and "Native American" views advocated by Hon. Garret Da- vis; represented Jefferson County in the lower house of the legislature in 1850, and in the senate,

GOV. W. O. BRADLEY.

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1851-53; was elector for the state at large in 1852; elected to Congress the same year to fill a vacancy, and re-elected, 1853-55; appointed envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to Spain by President Buchanan, 1858, but re- called at his own request in 1861; entered an energetic protest against the act of Spain in seiz- ing, in violation of the "Monroe doctrine," the bay of Samana, with a view of re-establishing her monarchy over San Domingo-for which, and for his entire fidelity to his duty, he received the special thanks of William H. Seward, then United States secretary of state. He returned to the United States shortly after the first battle of Manassas, August, 1861, and urged the people of Kentucky to prompt and active resistance to the Lincoln administration. Finding the state already occupied by Federal troops, he left Ken- tucky and entered the Confederate army, serving until the battle of Shiloh upon the staff of Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston, who fell and expired in his arms, in the instant of a victorious assault upon the enemy.

Col. Preston was immediately transferred to the staff of Gen. Beauregard; in a week after the battle was commissioned brigadier-general, April, 1862; was at Corinth, Tupelo, guarded the line of the Tallahatchie, and aided in the de- fense of Vicksburg-the first siege of which was abandoned July 27, 1862, by Admirals Farragut and Porter and the Federal land forces; reached Kentucky in October, 1862, but too late to take part in the battle of Perryville; commanded the right of Gen. Breckinridge's division at Mur- freesboro, and in the tremendous charge "into the jaws of death" across Stone river, in the face of two divisions and fifty-eight guns, when 1,700 men out of 7,000 fell; was transferred to the com- mand of the troops in southwestern Virginia, in the spring of 1863; commanded a division at Chickamauga, September, 1863, in which-after the repulse by Gen. George H. Thomas of the Confederate attack of General Longstreet with Hood's division under McLaws, and the repulse of another attack by Hindman's division-Pres- ton ordered Gracie's brigade to fix bayonets and renew the attack, and pressing after him his whole force with desperate enthusiasm, gained

the whole of Missionary Ridge, and drove the Federals in one long confused mass headlong down the ridge and through every avenue of escape to Chattanooga. It was a grand victory, but at terrible cost-losing, out of 4,078 men, 14 officers and 184 men killed, 63 officers and 1,014 men wounded, and 61 missing, a total of 1,336, or one-third.

JOHN BOYLE, for more than sixteen years

Chief Justice of Kentucky, was born of hum- ble parentage, October 28, 1774, in Virginia, at a place called "Castle Woods," on Clinch River, in the then county of Botetourt, near Russell or Tazewell. His father emigrated, in the year 1779, to Whitley's Station in Kentucky, whence he aft- erwards moved to a small estate in the county of Garrard, where he spent the remainder of his days.

On the 3d of April, 1810, Judge Boyle was pro- moted to the Chief Justiceship, which he contin- ued to hold until the 8th of November, 1826. The decisions of the Court, while he was upon the bench, are comprised in fifteen volumes of the State Reports, from Ist Bibb to 3d Monroe, and are marked with firmness and purity.

W ILLIAM O'CONNELL BRADLEY. Governor of Kentucky, son of R. M. and Ellen Bradley, was born in Lancaster, Kentucky, March 18, 1847. He is of Irish ancestry, as his middle name indicates, his paternal great-grand- mother being a relative of the Irish patriot and statesman, Daniel O'Connell. His parents were native Kentuckians, and his father, Robert M. Bradley, was one of the ablest lawyers in the state.

When Governor Bradley was quite young his parents moved to Somerset, where he lived until the breaking out of the war between the states. He then quit school and entered the Union army, first as a recruiting officer in Pulaski County, at the age of fifteen. He afterwards enlisted at Louisville as a private soldier, but remained in the service for a short time only.

He returned home and began the study of law and was prepared to practice before the legal age for admission to the bar. The Legislature, how-

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ever, in recognition of his proficiency in the knowledge of law, passed an act authorizing any two of the circuit judges to grant him license to practice. This was a very unusual occurrence, the general law requiring th applicant to be twen- ty-one years of age. As soon as he obtained li- cense, he entered upon the practice of his chosen profession, being associated with his father, who had returned to Lancaster.

In 1870, at the age of twenty-three, he made a brilliant race and was elected Prosecuting Attor- ney, and his service in that office was the step- ping-stone to his success and great popularity. In 1872 he was nominated by the Louisville con- vention as presidential elector on the Grant and Wilson ticket in the Eighth Congressional Dis- trict, and made a most brilliant canvass. At the age of twenty-five he was the Republican candi- date for Congress in his district, and although he was not elected, he reduced the Democratic Congressional majority from over two thousand to six hundred and fifty votes. In the winter of 1875, at the age of twenty-nine years, he was nominated by his party in the Legislature for United States Senator, and received the unani- mous vote of the Republican members of that body. In the fall of 1876 he again made the race as Republican nominee for Congress. He re- ceived nearly three thousand more votes than were ever polled before by any candidate of the Republican party in that district, but theDemo- cratic vote also being unusually large, he again failed of election.

He again made the race for Congress in 1882 and declined the empty honor of a nomination in 1884. He also declined the nomination for at- torney-general in 1879; was a delegate to the national Republican convention at Chicago and seconded the nomination of General Grant; was a member of the National Republican Committee for Kentucky; was selected in 1884 by President Arthur to prosecute the Star Route thieves, but the attorney-general refused to allow a full and impartial trial and he retired from the case.

His campaigns of later years, and the part he has taken as candidate for governor in 1891, his speech in the national convention in 1892, his brilliant address in the Kentucky department of

the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893, and above all his successful campaign as the Republican candidate for governor in 1895 are familiar to the people of his own state and to the whole country, no man having occupied a more prom- inent position in American politics in that time. In the late campaign he rendered the most sig- nally brilliant and unprecedented service for his party by breaking the record of the great solid Democratic South, knit together, as it was sup- posed, in bonds of indissoluble union. This last phenomenal success of Governor Bradley has made for him a national reputation, and, in the opinion of many in the state and out of it, his present political possibilities are immense, hav- ing received the enthusiastic endorsement of the larger part of his party in the Republican State Convention for the nomination for President of the United States.

Governor Bradley is a man of fine legal ability and executive finesse. He is a fluent and attrac- tive public speaker and possesses in an eminent degree that quality which is known as personal magnetism. Although he cannot be called a personally aggressive man, yet he has strong con- victions upon what he conceives to be right and necessary and has the courage and independence to maintain his opinions.

He was married July 13, 1867, to Margaret Robertson Duncan, daughter of Dr. B. F. Dun- can and a grand-niece of Chief Justice Robert- son. She is a most intellectual and charming woman, fully qualified for her dignified position in the governor's mansion and in Frankfort society.

R OBERT M'AFEE BRADLEY, father of Governor William O. Bradley, was born in Madison County, Kentucky, March 27, 1808, and died in Lancaster, August 31, 1881.' Of the great lawyers who were schooled and experienced in land legislation in the immediate history of Ken- tucky, none were more able or successful than Robert M. Bradley. So successful was he in his special work as land attorney that his opponents gave him the name of "land pirate."

In one of his many important land suits, forty witnesses were summoned by the defense and

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testified that the survey in question was made only ten years before. The only evidence Mr. Bradley introduced were blocks cut from the identified corner trees, showing the annulations since the marks were made. Standing before the jury with one of these blocks in his hand, and facing the court, he said: "I rely, not upon the testimony of man, the frail creature of the hour; influence, money or fear may corrupt him or warp his judgment. I offer the testimony of the Most High! Since these trees were marked by the surveyor's tomahawk, year by year, with His own immortal finger, He has drawn a line indi- cating the passing time. Tempest or sunshine, rain or storm, that invisible hand, with unerring certainty, recorded the fleeting years amid the stillness of the forest. No money can change, no power can warp the testimony. Not all the wa- ters of the ocean can wipe it out. God placed it there, and there it must remain as long as those majestic trees lift their heads toward the skies. Here are the thirty lines drawn by the Divine hand! Which will you believe-the evi- dence of God or man?" The jury found a verdict for Mr. Bradley's client.

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Biographical cyclopedia of the commonwealth of Kentucky, Part 98

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