USA > Kentucky > Madison County > Glimpses of historic Madison County, Kentucky > Part 17
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ton discovered the error, he said, "Young man, I had nothing to do with getting you out of that prison, and if you will take the oath of allegiance, as these other men have done, ... I will cer- tainly not put you back." The man took the oath and Colonel Caperton gave him money to pay his way home. In due time this money was refunded.
Unfortunately Mr. Caperton's fee book contains no record of this case. Mrs. Caperton, however, had his checks of with- drawals from his bank for that year and she believed a check payable to himself for $800 and dated February 1, 1864, was for money to meet the expense of this trip to Washington and Chicago. Often the lawyers had to furnish the released prisoners money to pay their expenses home.
Fortunately the fee book of Burnam and Caperton for 1865 is available. It shows that in January and February, 1865, this law firm was engaged by a number of persons in and near Madison County to secure the release of their Confederate kinsmen from Camp Douglas. Messrs. Burnam's and Caperton's friendship with President Lincoln apparently encouraged this action. At any rate the firm agreed to procure the release of some thirty-four prisoners. It was a strictly business proposition in every instance and the fee was $100 in nearly every case. The exceptions were $50 for each of two others, and $150 for the release of two more.
Mr. Burnam went to Washington and obtained the President's order for the releases and Mr. Caperton took the approved list to Camp Douglas. In all, the liberty on parole of twenty prisoners was secured, seventeen from Camp Douglas and three from other prison camps-Fort Delaware, two, and Rock Island, one. Several prisoners whose freedom the lawyers had undertaken to secure were released before Caperton arrived in Chicago, and consequently his firm received nothing for those cases.
It should be noted that Burnam and Caperton also received (February 21, 1865) $300 for obtaining permission from the Federal authorities to allow Cabell Chenault's sons, David and Anderson, and Ira N. Scudder, escaped rebel prisoners, to take the oath of allegiance to the United States. These men on returning to Madison County were in danger of being arrested and returned to the prison camp from which they had escaped.
The fees which this law firm charged for services in these in-
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stances were not exorbitant, when compared with charges in similar cases at that time. "It appears that one hundred and fifty dollars was the usual fee charged by" pardon attorneys who ob- tained pardons for persons excepted from President Johnson's general amnesty of May 29, 1865 . - The above information was obtained from one of the fee books of the law firm of Curtis F. Burnam and James W. Caperton, belonging to the late Mrs. J. W. Caperton, Richmond, Kentucky. Also see the author's Pardon and Amnesty under Lincoln and Johnson, pp. 60-61.
CHAPTER XV Notables
DISTINGUISHED NATIVES
Madison County is the birthplace of many prominent men and women, some of whom attained national and international distinc- tion. The following list includes governors, foreign diplomats, jurists, philanthropists and other persons whose careers should cause the county of their nativity to be proud of their achieve- ments.
Robert L. Breck (1827-1915), the son of Daniel Breck and Jane Todd, an aunt of Mary Todd Lincoln, was born in Richmond. He graduated from Centre College, then studied theology at Allegheny and Princeton Colleges. He entered the ministry of the Presby- terian Church and supplied the pulpit of the Richmond church most of the time between 1866 and 1878, part of the time serving with- out pay. When the dissention came in the church in the sixties, and the church divided he went with the dissenters and with the organ- ization of their own Central University, became its first Chancellor in 1874. At the dedication of the new building, and the opening of the school, he as Chancellor, delivered the first address of the occasion, sketching the higher educational movement in Ken- tucky from the time of Daniel Boone to the present, when the occasion seemed to warrant the establishment of another institu- tion of higher learning. A tablet on the front of the edifice still bears these words, Lex, Rex-Crux, Lux, of which he said "The Law is our King, the Cross is our Light."
Chancellor Breck resigned in 1880 feeling that the university should close its doors because of its financial status and ac- cepted a pastorate at Louisville.
Elbridge J. Broaddus (1835-1918) was admitted to the bar in Richmond in 1858. He was a Captain in the C.S.A. during the war. In 1867 he moved to Missouri and was elected Judge of the Circuit Court of the 17th Judicial District in 1879 for six years. In 1890 he was mayor of Chillicothe. He was appointed Cir- cuit Judge in 1891 by Governor Francis to be re-elected as Judge the following year.
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William J. Stone, Governor of Missouri
David R. Francis, Governor of Missouri
James B. McCreary, Governor of Kentucky
Green Clay Smith, Governor of Montana Territory
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Curtis F. Burnam (1820-1909). See Chap. XIV.
A. R. Burnam (1846-1919). See Chap. XIV.
William H. Caperton (1798-1862). See Chap. XIV.
James W. Caperton (1824-1909). See Chap. XIV.
Cassius M. Clay (1847-1932). See Chap. X.
Laura Clay (1849-1941). See Chap. X.
David R. Francis (1850-1927). See Chap. XXIII.
Richard French (1792-1854), a son of James French, the first surveyor of Madison County, was born near Boonesborough and practiced law in Winchester. He served several terms in the State Legislature; was Circuit Judge, 1828-35, from which position he resigned and was elected to Congress and was elected again in 1843. In the 1837 campaign for Congress he opposed the recharter- ing of the National Bank and lost in a bitter contest to the brilliant Richard Menifee. He spent his last years practicing law in Coving- ton,
James B. McCreary (1838-1918), the son of Dr. E. R. and Sabrina Bennett McCreary, graduated from Centre College in 1857 and from the law school at Lebanon, Tennessee, in 1859. He began the practice of law in Richmond, but soon after the Battle of Richmond in August, 1862, enlisted and became a major in the David Waller Chenault regiment, which joined Morgan's men. He commanded a regiment on the Ohio raid and was in a northern prison for awhile. Later he fought with Breckinridge in Virginia. He was a member of the State Legislature '69-71-73 and was speaker the latter two terms. In 1875 he was elected Gov- ernor of the state and again in 1911. He was elected to Congress in 1886-88-90. He was in the Senate 1902-08.
Samuel Freeman Miller (1816-1890), regarded as the greatest son of Madison County, was born in Richmond. He graduated in medicine from Transylvania University in 1838 and at once began to practice in Richmond. He soon abandoned that profession, how- ever, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1844. He began the practice of law in Barbourville, Kentucky, where he rose very rapidly in the legal profession.
Mr. Miller was bitterly opposed to slavery, and when Kentucky made a new constitution in 1849, which more firmly entrenched the institution of slavery in the State, he moved to the free State of Iowa. After the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854
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he joined in organizing the Republican Party to prevent the ex- tension of slavery to the territories. In 1862 President Lincoln ap- pointed him Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, a position which he held with great distinction until his death. Justice Miller ranks with John Marshall and other great American jurists.
Green Clay Smith (1827-1895) was a son of John Speed Smith and a grandson of Green Clay. He was educated at Centre and Transylvania Colleges, having studied law at the latter. He served in the Mexican war and later in the Union Army, becoming a Major General in the latter. He was sent to Congress in 1863 and again in 1865. He declined to accept a mission to Spain under President Lincoln. He was a member of the convention that nominated Lincoln a second time and he himself came within one vote of being nominated as Lincoln's running mate. He was ap- pointed governor of Montana but resigned and quit politics in 1869 to enter the ministry in the Baptist Church. He was a can- didate for president on the Prohibition ticket in 1876. He later became pastor of the Metropolitan Baptist Church in Washington, D.C.
James C. Stone (1822-1880) was the first graduate of Bethany College at Augusta, Kentucky. He studied law at the Philadelphia School and was admitted to the Richmond bar. In 1858 he moved to Kansas, organized and became president of the Second Na- tional Bank and was one of the projectors of the Union Pacific, later known as the Kansas-Pacific Railroad. He was active in the raising of troops and was General Commander of the Kansas militia during the war.
William J. Stone (1848-1918) was born near Richmond. Prior to 1863 he attended the Madison County schools and the Richmond Seminary. That year he moved to Missouri and after three years at the University of Missouri, studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1869. In 1871 he removed to Nevada, Mo. In 1876 he was a Tilden Elector. From the 12th District, he was elected to the 49th, 50th and 51st Congresses, but declined to be re- elected in 1890. While in Congress he was a leader in the fight against land grants to the railroads, the extravagant pension legis- lation, and the aggressions of the Federal Judiciary on the re- served rights of the people. His speeches attracted attention all over the country and elicited numerous press comments.
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Jerre A. Sullivan (1862-1930), born in Richmond was a graduate of Central University. He was one of the promoters of the law of 1906 to establish teacher training schools in Kentucky, and was a member of the Board of Regents of Eastern Kentucky State Teachers College, 1906-1930. He was a prominent citizen and member of the Richmond bar. Sullivan Hall at E.K.S.C. was named for him.
Squire Turner (1793-1871) became a member of the State Legislature in 1824 being elected upon the issue of the new court. He received an honorary LL.D. degree from Centre College in 1843. He was elected to membership in the Constitutional Convention of 1849 and there played a dominant part in the writing of a new constitution. The bitter fight of the campaign cost the life of his son, Cyrus. He was twice offered an Ap- pellate Court Judgeship, but declined to accept because the salary was too small. He was considered a man of great means in this section and was generous with his friends. He supported the cause of slavery in spite of the following statement made in one of his speeches during the Constitutional Convention: "Now I make use of one observation which some gentlemen may probably take exception to. I say there is no man living who sees in the hand of Providence what I see that does not perceive that there is a power at work above us that is above all human institutions, one that will yet prevail [to liberate the slaves] even in Virginia, Maryland and Kentucky ... I do not say that I desire this, but it is coming."
Christopher Carson, the famous hunter, Indian fighter, scout, pathfinder, and soldier, better known as Kit Carson, first saw the light of day, December 24, 1809, on Tate's Creek pike in Madison County within three miles of Richmond. Soon after Kit's birth his father moved to Missouri, where the son grew to manhood.
At seventeen Kit Carson began his adventuresome career on the Sante Fe Trail. From 1826 to 1842 he was associated with such noted hunters and fur traders as Ewing Young, Peter Ogden, Bent, and St. Vrain. Perhaps he is better known for his valuable services to John C. Fremont in his three great expeditions through the West in 1842 to 1846, the last of which culminated in the conquest of California, in which he played an interesting part.
In 1847 Kit carried dispatches from California to the authorities
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at Washington, a distance of nearly four thousand miles, and in 1853 he drove 6,500 sheep over the mountains to California. A little later he was appointed Indian agent in New Mexico, where during the following years he rendered valuable service to the Indians and the Federal Government. He was brevetted Brigadier- General for meritorious service during the War Between the States. After the War he remained in the Indian service until his death on May 23, 1868. His grave is at Taos, New Mexico, which was his home the greater part of his life.
Kit Carson's picturesque career rivals that of either Daniel Boone or David Crockett. In many respects it is more deserving of honor. Carson City, the capital of Nevada, was named for him, and imposing monuments commemorate his life. Perhaps the most magnificent was erected at Denver, Colorado, in 1911.
About fifteen years ago a grandson of Kit and a physician of Calhoun, Georgia, had a monument erected on the site of the old Scout's birthplace on a hill overlooking Tates Creek Pike near Richmond (see map). In 1953, the Kentucky Historical Markers Committee had a mental marker placed on the Pike near the monument in honor of the famous scout. At Taos, New Mexico, a park and museum are being prepared in memory of Carson, and an effort is being made in Taos and Madison County to cause the United States postal authorities to issue a postage stamp in his honor.
Miss Belle Harris Bennett was born December 3, 1852, at "Home- lands," on the Lexington pike, about six miles from Richmond. She was the second daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Bennett .. . . The Bennetts were of excellent ancestry and being people of means they gave their children a good education. .
In spite of wealth and all that goes with high social position, Miss Bennett's interests turned to things of the spirit. Early in life she joined Providence Church near her home, ... On be- coming impressed by the need of special training for young missionaries before leaving for the foreign field, she was instru- mental in raising funds to establish the Scarritt Bible and Training School at Kansas City, Missouri, in the early nineties. This school was moved to Nashville, Tennessee, thirty years later and chartered as Scarritt College for Christian workers, with authority to confer graduate degrees. Within three years after the removal of the
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College to Nashville the women and children of Southern Meth- odism raised the sum of $639,584 for a Belle H. Bennett Memorial on the campus, and to endow the Bennett Biblical Department of the College.
Following the death, in 1892, of her beloved sister, Miss Sue Bennett, secretary of the recently organized Woman's Department of the Board of Church Extension, Miss Belle took up the work which her sister had started. She financed a trip through nine mountain counties of Kentucky in a jolt wagon to learn the needs of that region. ... Miss Bennett was impressed by the need of churches and parsonages in those counties, but to her the most crying need was education, The trip resulted in the establishment of Sue Bennett Memorial College at London, Laurel County, Kentucky.
Up to this time the Southern Methodist women had devoted their missionary efforts to the foreign field, and they feared therefore that the organization of a home missionary society might militate against the foreign work. Miss Bennett was severely criticized by some of her best friends in the foreign service, be- cause she took the presidency of the new Parsonage and Home Missionary Society in 1896. . .. Miss Bennett had a broad vision of Christian service, not only for the mountain people of the South but also for the large foreign element that was coming into the industrial communities. Her concern about urban social needs resulted in the organization of Wesley Community Houses in white sections of the cities and Bethlehem Houses in the Negro sections. The need of trained persons for this work led to the training of deaconesses to supervise the centers.
Miss Bennett was always seeking opportunities to influence gifted young people to consecrate their lives to Christian service. . . Looking always to the spiritual welfare of youth, she en- . couraged the establishment of church dormitories or religious centers at state colleges and universities. In this manner the church could continue its wholesome influence over young people during their college days.
Miss Bennett had always been interested in the Negro and his problems, but when she came to propose to a church group some helpful action in his behalf she found the question very delicate. After long and prayerful consideration she decided to
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present the need of organized work among the Negro women and girls to the women at the annual meeting of the Board of Home Missions. As president of that organization, she made her appeal in St. Louis, Missouri, in May, 1901. . . . As a result of her speaking a fund was started toward the building of a girls' hall at Paine College, Augusta, Georgia, where Negro girls could be trained in industrial arts. Miss Bennett started the subscription with $500 in memory, she said, of her old nurse, "Mammy Ritter. . . . '
For years Miss Bennett prayed that the Southern Methodist Church would enter the African mission field. One day while she was praying for Africa, God seemed to say to her: "Why not do something for Africa at home in the meantime?" Straightway she telephoned a Negro preacher, Rev. A. W. Jackson, and asked him if there was anything she could do for Negroes in Richmond. . . . This conversation resulted in Miss Bennett's teaching a Bible study class every Sunday afternoon for three years at the St. Paul's A.M.E. Church in Richmond. Negro preachers, leaders and mem- bers from other counties also came, and the attendance ranged from 200 to 500 people. This particular church was then in financial stress, so Miss Bennett loaned it $2,000, with no interest and no date of maturity in the note. For every hundred dollars the members paid on the loan she refunded ten dollars.
Miss Bennett assisted the Negroes at home in the organization of the Madison County Colored Chautauqua in 1915. This venture, also promoted by Mr. H. H. Brock (now deceased), Madison County Superintendent of Schools, was a great success, bringing to the people such distinguished men of color as Dr. George Wash- ington Carver and Dr. William E. B. DuBois. Many whites of the community, of course, enjoyed the chautauqua. Rev. J. W. Cobb was Secretary.
In the summer of 1916, before Miss Bennett left for a trip to China, a sort of farewell was given her at the chautauqua. Mr. Henry Allen Laine, the Negro Madison County State Agri- cultural agent and one of the chief promoters of the edu- cational program, stated that "Miss Belle, dressed in spot- less white, stood with bowed head [and] surrounded by colored friends, while Dr. [H. H.] Proctor, famous colored Congregational minister from Atlanta, Ga., stood by her side, with his hand lifted
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above her head, [and] prayed God to 'allow no deadly submarine to come near her bark.' Fervent amens were heard on every side."
Much more could be told about Miss Bennett's promotion, with the aid of Mr. Brock and Mr. Laine, of the interests of the Negroes in Richmond and Madison County. Her biographer states that "she entered into their civic affairs and stood for justice and fairness before the whole community .... "
In 1906, Miss Bennett had been president of the Home Mission- ary Society ten years and had reached the apex of popularity in Southern Methodism. Both the Home and the Foreign Mission- ary Societies were strong, with a combined membership of one hundred thousand women and an annual contribution of $250,000 to missions .... Notwithstanding this fine record of the women, the College of Bishops and the General Board of Missions, without con- sulting the groups of women, recommended to the General Confer- ence in 1906, at Birmingham, that the two woman's societies be consolidated and that they come largely under the control of the General Board of Missions. ... The women put up a losing fight to preserve their identities, for at the General Conference in 1910, they were united under the Woman's Missionary Council, with Miss Bennett as president.
. many of Miss Bennett's colleagues of the past criticized .. her very severely and continuously mourned: "Belle has sold her birthright." .... Her vision [however] was a generation ahead of most of her associates, and consequently she lived a very strenuous and fruitful life. During the almost twelve years that she was president of the Woman's Missionary Council, she saw its member- ship almost triple and its annual collection increased from $250,000 to near the million-dollar mark.
Belle Bennett was the one woman member on the joint board of Northern and Southern Methodism in the celebration of the Centenary of Methodist Missions in 1919-24. She was also one of a committee of five to visit war torn Europe in 1919, with the view of establishing the Methodist Church there and of helping rebuild those nations. Moreover, she made several trips to the Orient and South America, to keep herself well-informed of the progress in all the fields where women were engaged in religious work. ... In 1916, Kentucky Wesleyan College conferred upon her the degree of Doctor of Laws, being the first woman to be so honored by that institution.
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The last fight of Miss Bennett's long and eventful career was for laity rights for women in the Church. Most women were not clamor- ing for such rights, and her actions brought criticism from many sources. The contest covered a period of twelve years, and was not won until the session of the General Conference in 1918. She was eligible, thereafter, to election as delegate to the General Conference. She was so honored early in 1922, but to her great disappointment, she was too ill when the time came to share in the fruits of the long struggle. She passed on to her reward on July 21, 1922, in her seventieth year, leaving a record of service and achievement unequalled, perhaps, by any other Southern Meth- odist woman of her time-maybe for all time. .. . "-Verbatim from Chapter V in Methodism and the Home Church (1952) by the authors.
Mrs. Mossie Allman Wyker, was born in Richmond, Kentucky and spent her childhood much as did other children in a well disciplined household of several children. She is the third daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. John Allman, who were sturdy stock and saw that their home provided the proper Christian influences for their children.
An older sister, Carrie, was secretary to the pastor of their church. When she gave up her position to go to China as a missionary, Mossie was employed as her successor. Her pastor soon discovered that she was no ordinary young lady but one of promise, and through his influence the church board sent her to Transylvania College at Lexington for special training in young people's work. There she met James Wyker, a young theological student at the College of the Bible and they were married the following December, 1926. At the end of the semester Mr. Wyker left for New York City for further study while she attended Eastern State College in her hometown.
The following school year, she joined her husband in New York where she entered Columbia University and later received her B.S. degree. Also, she was ordained as a minister by the Dis- ciples of Christ in 1929.
With the completion of their special training, the Wykers ac- cepted the pastorate of a community church on Long Island for one year and after another year at Buffalo, they were called to the Larger Parish at West Grotton, New York. Besides the many
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duties as a preacher's wife and caring for her young daughter, Mrs. Wyker taught religious education in the public schools of West Grotton for two years.
Again they are found in rural work in the Federated Church of North Jackson, Ohio, where they did such outstanding work that they soon had a national and even international reputation. While engaged in this united church project Mrs. Wyker was on the lecture staff of the Extension department of the University of Ohio and as such she did very effective work among the women of rural sections and came to be much in demand as a public speaker. As may be seen, she had already become much interested in the problems of women not only of her own church but of all churches.
Mossie, as she is familiarly known at home where she often visits her sister, Mrs. Mary Baldwin and two brothers, James and John, is an eloquent and forceful speaker and fortunately is gener- ous with her talents which thrill and inspire her many old friends to a more useful way of life.
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