USA > Kentucky > Christian County > County of Christian, Kentucky : historical and biographical > Part 8
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rest, as go the faithful followers of her Redeemer, her fading eyes alight with the dawning beams, and her trusting soul alert for the coming joy s, which irradiate and fill the realms of the children of God. The portrait of Mrs. Sharp also appears elsewhere.
WILLIAM M. SHIPP, deceased, was born October 25, 1810, in Bourbon County, Ky .; he was the son of Laban Shipp, who came to Christian County about 1816, where he spent the remainder of his useful life, endearing himself to a large circle of friends ; he and his wife, Eliza- beth Shipp, were both natives of Virginia, and were among the pioneers of Bourbon County, Ky. William M. was among the younger of a large family and was educated under Prof. Rumsey in the old Hopkinsville Academy. In 1833 he married Elizabeth Hopson, of Christian County, who died in 1867, leaving two children, viz .: Mary S., wife of Dr. Will- iam Hopson, of Hopkinsville, and Sallie P., wife of W. J. Withers. His second wife, who still survives him, and who resides on the old homestead adjoining the city of Hopkinsville, was Miss Lottie LeMaster. Mr. Shipp himself improved the above mentioned farm, consisting of several hundred acres of valuable land, where he spent about forty years of his life, and where he died on Saturday, December 31, 1881. Mrs. Lottie (LeMaster) Shipp, is the daughter of John W. and Nancy Lee LeMas- ter (nee Allmond). The father descended from an early Huguenot family of South Carolina, and served as a soldier in the war of the Revolution. Capt. John W. LeMaster was born in South Carolina, but came from there in early life to Tennessee, where he was married to Miss Allmond ; he served in the war of 1812. Their union resulted in the birth of sev- eral children, of whom five grew to maturity. Mrs. Shipp, the third of this number, was born in 1832, in Columbia, Maury Co., Tenn .; was educated in her nativo town, and when about nineteen years old became a teacher in the old Columbia Athenaeum, in which relation she continued until her marriage with W. M. Shipp, in October, 1868. She has one daughter, Elizabeth Jones Shipp, born April 24, 1871.
GEORGE W. SMITHI was born in Virginia, February 2, 1828. He is the fourth of a family of five children of George W. and Delphia Smith (nee Wilburn). George W. Smith, Sr., was born in 1795 in Vir- ginia ; there grew to manhood aud was married ; his wife was also born in Virginia, and there died in 1835. A few years later Mr. Smith mar-
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ried Miss Jennie Bowen, and in 1844 the family removed to Kentucky, settling near the village of Fairview in Christian County, and near where George W. died in 1863; his wife survived him until 1872, and died in Montgomery County, Tenn. Of the five children born to them, but one is now living, viz., George W. Smith. He was reared to the pursuits of the farm, which he followed until 1870, at which time he engaged in livery business at New Providence, Tenn .. After remaining there three years he came to Hopkinsville, Ky., which has since been his home, and where he is conducting a livery business located on Bridge Street, west of Main. Mr. Smith was married in Christian County, in 1857, to Miss Sarah E. Vaughan, daughter of Henry Vaughan. She was born in Christian County, Ky., in 1842. Mr. Smith isa member of the Masonic fraternity, Ancient Order of United Workmen, and both he and Mrs. Smith are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Their family, consisting of nine children, are as follows : Florence, wife of Jolin Young, of Hopkins- ville ; George H., Bettie Lee, Mary Ellen, Jennie A., Howard, William, Thomas and James Smith. . JESSE W. I. SMITH'S father, Samuel C. Smith, a seaman, was of English descent, born in New Jersey on the 18th of August, 1806, and died near Goshen, Ohio, from sunstroke in August, 1877. In New Jersey he married Miss Louisa Bronaugh, of German ancestry, born February „ 20, 1807, and died in November, 1866. They were the parents of the following children : Dr. John C., a resident of Kansas; Maggie, who mar : ried Charles Armstrong, of Plainville, Ohio, and died in 1872; Lottic, who married W. II. Ross, now of Dakota; Emma L., wife of Whitfield Armstrong, of Ohio; Clara, wife of Samuel F. Emery of Minneapolis, Kas., and Jesse, the subject of this sketch, who was born in Jersey City, N. J., August 18, 1832. When he was nine years of age lie was brought to Goshen, Ohio, by his parents, and was there reared on a farm until he was seventeen years of age, when he entered the Delaware College and remained there for two years ; after which he engaged as a traveling sales- man and continued the same for three years. IIe then moved to Indiana, and located in Union County, where he engaged in the mercantile busi- ness, and continued the same until 1861, when he entered the Federal Army as Capt. of Co. G, of the 36th Ind. Vol. Infantry ; was afterward promoted to Major of the regiment, and served until he was mustercd
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out in September, 1864. He participated in the battles of Shiloh, Mis- sion Ridge, Chickamauga, Atlanta campaign, Stone River, and at Jones- boro, and was with Hooker on the top of Lookout Mountain. He was wound- ed at Stone River and Chickamauga. After the war he located at Connors- ville, Ind., in the employ of the Cincinnati & Indiana R. R. In 1872 he went to Clinton, Ill. ; in 1873 to Springfield, Ill .; in 1876 to Hopkins County, Ky., and in 1880 to Hopkinsville, Ky., where he is at present located in the position of Agent for the Louisville & Nashville R. R. In November, 1854, he married Miss Rosa, daughter of John A. and Rosanna (Manuel) Smith. Mrs. Smith was born in Dayton, Ohio, Novem- ber 3, 1836, and is the mother of the following children : Alfred C., Charles G., Annie F., Ida L., Harry C. and Jessie L. R. Mr. Smith and wife, with his five eldest children, unite with the M. E. Church, and he is a member of the order of A. F. & A. M. His eldest son is the operator at Hopkinsville and his second son is in the Western Union Telegraph office at Chicago as chief operator.
THOMAS L. SMITHI was born near Lebanon, in Wilson County, Tenn., January 4, 1842. His parents were Philip Smith and Elizabeth S. Smith (nce Walker), the latter a native of Smith County, Tenn., where she was born in 1816; is still living in Muhlenburg County, Ky. Philip Smith was born in Smith County, Tenn., and in 1856 met an aeci- dental death. While engaged in slaughtering hogs, he was thrown from his footing by a frightened hog and received injuries from the effects of which he died a short time subsequently. At this time the family of Mr. Smith consisted of his wife and two sons, Thomas L. and John E. Smith, the latter now living with his mother in Muhlenburg County. Thus early in life Thomas L. was thrown upon his own resources and required to con- tribute to his own support. On the 1st of March, 1865, he came to Hop- kinsville and engaged to drive stage from Hopkinsville to Russellville, which he did for about one year, when he became general agent of the route and manager of the stables. He continued in this position until the construction of railroad connection forever cut off the stage coach travel. He then on a limited scale opened a livery stable, which he conducted with success and in which he is still engaged. In the general conflagration of October, 1882, he met with the entire loss of both his stables. This great fire had its origin in one of Mr. Smith's stables and spread so rapidly that to save
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anything was impossible. Notwithstanding his reverses, he now has one of the finest stables to be found in Kentucky, built substantially of brick on the site of the former one on corner of Spring and Virginia Streets, with a capacity for about fifty horses. Mr. Smith was married in Octo- ber, 1871, to Miss Nannie C., daughter of W. W. Phipps. She was born in Kentucky, November 11, 1852. They havo two children, William Wallace and Harry G. Smith. Their family residence is on Russellville Street.
MICHAEL O. SMITHI is a native of Shelby County, Tenn. He was born February 13, 1848, and is the fourth son of Benjamin V. and Eva- line (Mahar) Smith ; his father's family consisted of eight children, six of these are now living. Their father was killed by Federal soldiers in Arkansas, October 12, 1863. Their mother resides in Arkansas and is now living in her sixty-eighth year. Mr. Smith, the subject, was edu- cated in the Cumberland University of Lebanon, Tenn., and remained there six years, graduating in literature in the summer of 1876. He united with the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in 1868, and entered the ministry in 1870. A faithful minister of Christ for five years, phy- sical disability then compelled him to abandon that field of usefulness. On October 1, 1883, he engaged in the grocery trade. June 29, 1880, he married Miss Annie E. Casky, daughter of James and Eliza (Wood) Casky. She was born in this county October 10, 1854. They have a daughter, born in Hopkinsville, May 10, 1881. Mr. Smith's mother was born in Florence, Ala., and removed in childhood with her father's family to Tennessee ; her father, Michael Mahar, was a pioneer school-teacher, and first settled the place where the city of Memphis has since arisen.
COL. SAMUEL M. STARLING; of Hopkinsville, is a worthy mem- ber of the illustrious historical family of McDowells, whose thousands of members, scattered throughout the States of Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Virginia, Kentucky and the entire South, have contrib- , uted so much to the brilliancy and solid fame of this nation. Among the most warlike and fiercest of the sept who ranged themselves with the Campbells, to whom they were allied by blood and marriage under the standard of McCallum More, in the series of struggles which led to the expulsion of the right line of the Stuarts from the British throne, were the sons of Dowell, Presbyterians of the strictest sect, and deeply imbued
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with the love of civil and religious liberty, which has ever characterized the followers of John Knox. One of these was one of the most respect- . able of the colonists from Scotland and England who settled in the north of Ireland during the Protectorate of Cromwell. Among other children of this colonist was a son, Ephraim, who, at the age of sixteen, joined in the heroic defence of Londonderry in 1688. In this defense young Mc- Dowell bore himself with conspicuous gallantry in a band where all were heroic as any Greek who fell at Thermopylae. On the 20th of May, 1729, several families of the McDowells, ten of whom died on the passage shipped for America, where they arrived in the following August and set- tled in Pennsylvania. This little colony was soon afterward joined by Ephraim McDowell, who remained here until the fall of 1737, and then with his son John removed to Augusta County, Va. One night they were joined by Benjamin Borden. This gentleman had obtained from Gov. Gorch, in exchange for a buffalo calf, the papers for 500,000 acres of land in the Shenandoah Valley, provided he would settle thereon 100 families. He offered any one who would conduct him to his grant 1,000 acres of land, which was promptly accepted by John McDowell. James Greenlee, a son-in-law, and the father and son soon removed their families to what has since been known as the " Borden Grant," covering much of Augusta and Rockbridge Counties, and in consideration of a liberal share of the claim, undertook to assist in carrying out Borden's contract for him. Their efforts resulted in soon bringing to this section other Scotch and Scotch-Irish families-McClungs, McCues, McCouns, McElroys, McCambells, Campbells, McKees, Caruthers, Paxtons, Lyles, Irvins, Caldwells, Calhouns, Stuarts-names which have since illustrated every page of Southern and Western history. Ephraim McDowell died here at an age exceeding one hundred years, just before the Revolution. His eldest son, John, received a military commission from Gov. Gorch, and was killed with eight of his men in a fight with the Indians on Christmas day, 1742. The common grave in which all were buried may still be seen enclosed by a brick wall, a short distance from Lexington, Va. The widow of John Young (nee Magdalene Wood) subsequently married Bor- den, and after his decease, Col. Boyer. She died at the age of one hun- dred and four years, leaving two sons and a daughter. Judge Samuel McDowell, the eldest son of Capt. John Young and Magdalene Wood,
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was the progenitor of the Kentucky branch of the family ; he married, when little over eighteen years old, Mary McClung, and with his family . in 1784 moved to Mercer County, Ky. The third son, Samuel, who had been a Revolutionary soldier, came with his father and was appointed by Washington 'Marshal of the State. Ile married Anna Irvine, a distant relative, and reared a large family, living within a few miles of Harrods- burg, Ky .; his oldest child, Polly, in 1805 married William Starling, who had with his father and many sisters and brothers emigrated from Meck- lenburg County, Va., in 1797. From this marriage was born Samuel MeDowell Starling, the subject of this sketch. The ancestors of Col. Samuel M, Starling on his father's side, though not so numerons as the McDowells, were no less honorable and respectable; his grandfather, Col. William Starling, was colonel of a Virginia regiment which was organized to repel the attacks of the traitor Arnold; he was High. Sheriff of his county, and was distinguished as a man of great coolness and undaunted courage. Of his grandsons, Col. Lyne Starling was aide to Gen. Critten- den through the war. Col. Edmund Starling was colonel of the Thirty- fifth Kentucky; his great-grandsons in the Federal Army were : Lieut. Fielding Starling, son of Col. S. M. Starling, died with camp fever ; Lieut. John Holloway, died also of camp fever ; Lieut. William Starling, son of Col. Lyne Starling; Dr. Starling Loving, of Columbus, Ohio; Lieut. Ned. Campbell. Col. S. M. Starling was the second son, and was born September 19, 1807, on Wilson's Run, a small tributary of Dick's River, a short distance from Danville, Boyle Co., Ky. It has always been a matter of pride to Mr. Starling that he is the most thorough Ken- tuckian in the State, both of his grandfathers being natives of Virginia, both Revolutionary soldiers; his mother a native of Kentucky, born in 1787, and both he and his mother being born in the center county of the State. When a lad of four years, his father moved to Frankfort, Ky., and settled on a tract of land containing 1,000 acres, just below the mouth of Benson Creek; his education at school was begun here, the lad walking over to Frankfort, where he enjoyed the instruction of Charles O'Hara; he was subsequently a student of Kean O'Hara, who taught school many years there, and who educated the young men of Frankfort from 1810 to 1820. In 1821 his father, William Starling, who had while a resident of Frankfort been a merchant and Warden of the penitentiary,
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moved to Logan County, Ky., and settled on a farm five miles south of Russellville. While living here Col. Starling married Elizabeth Lewis, a daughter of Gabriel Lewis and Mary Bibb; he worked as a farmer from the time of his marriage in 1831 until 1836, when he moved to Hopkins- ville, where he has since resided. From his earliest youth Col. Starling was educated in the Washington, Hamilton and John Marshall school of politics ; he believed the disintegration of the Union the great danger of the Government, and hence had great aversion to the resolutions of 1798 ; he distrustedl Mr. Jefferson and his school, who seemed to him to be doing all in their power to weaken the bonds that unite the interests of the whole nation. When the Rebellion of 1861 took place, and during the extreme violence of party spirit that preceded the outbreak, he was a most uncompromising and vigorous supporter of the Government ; he was con- vinced that the institution of slavery had outlived its day, that the age was too enlightened to longer tolerate the infamy, and though the heredi- tary possessor of a large number of slaves, hailed the promise and fact of emancipation. Entertaining these views, at great personal cost he en- tered the Union army in 1862, with a commission as Second Lieutenant in the First Kentucky Infantry, and was at once placed on the staff of Brig .- Gen. J. S. Jackson as Inspector of Division. There was for a few weeks a tremendous effort to concentrate troops and to provide for the protection of Louisville against Bragg. This done, the pursuit of the rebel General at once began, and overtaking him at Perryville one of the bloodiest battles of the war ensued. The three Generals of the Division -- Jackson, Webster and Terrill were killed, and Col. Starling rendered such efficient service at this juncture as to receive the highest compliments in the official reports for his gillantry. Gen. R. S. Granger, who suc- ceeded Gen. Jackson. retained Starling npon his staff in the same posi- tion ; he was soon afterward appointed by Col. James M. Shackelford, Captain in his regiment, and on the promotion of Shackelford to the posi- tion of Brigadier-General, Starling was commissioned as Major of the First Battalion in the Eighth Kentucky Calvary ; he commanded his bat- talion which was prominent in the pursuit and capture of Gen. John S. Morgan when he made his raid through Indiana and Ohio. At the ex- piration of his term of service, he was mustered out and made Colonel of the State Guard, and in this capacity had several vigorous skirmishes
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with guerilla parties who attempted to capture Hopkinsville. IIe is at this date, May, 1884, living a quiet, contented life near Hopkinsville, cultivating fruits and flowers, and entertaining his old political principles with unabated conviction and earnestness. Col. Starling is a well-in- formed and cultivated gentleman, of literary tastes and acquirements, a clear, incisive writer, and a cordial, hospitable host, remarkable even in this land of overflowing hospitality. Of the union of Samuel M. Star- ling and Elizabeth Lewis were born the following children: Mary, mar- ried to William R. Payne, who died soon after his marriage ; no children ; she resides with her father. Lewis married Virginia Duffield, of Bran- don, Miss .; he died at Pensacola, Fla., leaving one child-William. Thomas Starling married Nannie Killebrew, who died in 1870, leaving Nannie, Lizzie, Kate, Lewis and Ellis. George Starling is unmarried, and superintends the work of the homestead. He served throughout the war in the Confederate Army under Gen. Joe Johnston, but is now an uncom- promising Union man and Republican. Anna Irvine Starling died un- married.
IION. IIENRY J. STITES, son of Abram and Ann Stites, was born in Georgetown, Scott Co., Ky., in 1816. In infancy he was brought by his parents to Hopkinsville, where he grew up to manhood and con- tinued to live until 1862. At an early age he was sent to school to Dr. James Buchanan, a distinguished teacher, the father of Dr. Joseph R. Buchanan, afterward distinguished as a philosopher and essayist. His next and only teacher was James D. Rumsey, who was noted as an instructor throughout the Green River County. At the age of fourteen young Stites besought his father to permit him to learn some calling whereby he could support himself and relieve his father, who was then poor and encumbered with a large family. In compliance with his request his father bound him to service for a period of four years for his victuals and clothes as a merchant's clerk to George Ward, Esq., then a merchant of large business in Hopkinsville. During this service, which was most faithfully performed, he gave every moment that he could properly spare from his duty as clerk to reading and the culture of his mind. At the end of his term he was offered a partnership by his master but preferred to enter into partnership with a fellow clerk, Leander D. Holman, who had a small capital, for whom he entertained a strong attachment that
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. continued until Holman's death, which occurred in 1840. For over four years he with Holman pursued successfully the mercantile business, until the great financial crash of 1837. This firm of young men having but limited eapital was necessarily compelled to rely upon their eredit, and was always largely indebted to Eastern merchants. They however main- tained their credit and were never sned. But young Stites, always averse to debt, then resolved to adopt another calling which would enable him to live without debt. He selected the law, and at once began to study Blackstone, Kent and other elementary writers, giving all his time he eould spare from his business to his law books. In 1839 he formed a partnership as merchant with one of the best men that ever lived, John Bryan, of Hopkinsville, Ky., and continued successfully with him until 1841, all the time, however, pursuing his studies when his business would allow. In 1840, and while a merchant, he obtained license as lawyer from Judge John Marshall of Louisville and Judge Shackelford of Chris- tian. In 1841, after winding up his mercantile business, he began as a lawyer with Hiram A. Phelps, then also a young practitioner, but since a lawyer of fine repute and high standing. They soon had a fine practice, and derived great benefit in a business way from the favorable acquaint- ance of young Stites with the Eastern merchants with whom he had formerly had dealings. After his dissolution with Mr. Phelps, Stites con- tinued to pursue his profession until 1851. He was induced then to become a candidate for the office of Commonwealth's Attorney, but before the election was compelled by the overwhelming voice of his friends to run for the office of Circuit Judge. He was elected, and before the expi- ration of his term of office was reluctantly induced to become a candidate for the office of Appellate Judge as successor of Judge Elijah Ilise, who had declined a re-election. In August, 1854, he was elected Judge of the Court of Appeals by a majority of nearly 6,000 votes in a district which then had a majority of more than 3,000 politically opposed to him, and having as an opponent a distinguished lawyer and politician, once a Member of Congress and also of the convention which formed the Con- stitution. He continued on the Appellate bench until he became Chief Justice of the State and until the summer of 1862, when, because of his sentiments as a State Rights Democrat and his opposition to the war, he was compelled to leave his home to avoid the oppression of the military
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.on either side, which were then at one time or another alternately in con- trol of southern Kentucky. Arrest and imprisonment, an unconstitu- · tional oath or a departure from his section of the State were the alterna- tives presented, and he chose the last and went to Canada. There he remained over three years. After the termination of the war he returned to Kentucky. In 1867 he was appointed Judge of the Jefferson Court of Common Pleas, an important civil tribunal in the city of Louisville. To this office he has been three times elected without opposition, making when his present term expires over thirty years of judicial service among those who have known him during his life, his fellow-citizens of Ken- tueky. From 1868 to 1873 he held the position of Professor of Law in the University of Louisville as an associate of Judges Pirtle and Bullock, but was compelled to resign this place because of his judicial labors. In 1841, soon after Judge Stites began the practice of law, he intermarried with Miss Mary Jane Sharp, daughter of Dr. Maxwell Sharp, of Chris- tian County, with whom he lived most happily until her death in 1875. Afterward he married Mrs. Caroline M. Barker, a sister of his first wife and the widow of Richard II. Barker, a lawyer of New Orleans, with whom he is now living at his home near Louisville. No better testimonial to Judge Stites' worth could be given than the following editorial from the Courier-Journal of August 1, 1880. Speaking of Judge Stites' judicial service, it says : "The admirers of this eminent judicial officer rejoice that he enters upon the race for the Judgeship of the Court of Common Pleas without a competitor. It would have been a very foolish thing for any one to attempt opposition to him. He is so perfectly endeared to the hearts and minds of the people; he is so devoted to the responsible duties confided to his care; he is so thoroughly equipped in all the matters that pertain to his high office; he is so upright in every principle of action, so courteous and urbane to all with whom he comes in contact, without respect to party or condition, that running against him would have been about as bootless a thing as one could have undertaken. We are gratified in knowing that for the high position of Judge of the Court of Common Pleas Louisville is able to command the services of this eminent jurist. We have often thought, when watching the exercises of his high vocation, the quiek, sudden, clear rules by which he governs cases before him, of T. Arnold's appropriate limning of the high attributes belonging to such a
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