The Biographical encyclopaedia of Kentucky of the dead and living men of the nineteenth century, Part 110

Author: Armstrong, J. M., & company, pub
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Cincinnati, J. M. Armstrong
Number of Pages: 946

USA > Kentucky > The Biographical encyclopaedia of Kentucky of the dead and living men of the nineteenth century > Part 110

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

624

BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPÆDIA.

and successful; as a citizen, a paragon for imitation ; as a son, husband, father, and friend, affectionate, devoted, and true; as a Church member, most exemplary."

CAFEE, MAJOR ALLEN L., Lawyer, was born August 15, 1825, in Mercer County, near Harrodsburg, Kentucky. His parents were Robert and Ellen ( Moore) McAfee, the former a native of Mercer County, Kentucky, and the latter of Westmoreland County, Virginia, and daughter of George Moore, of that State. His father was a lawyer and farmer 'by profession, and died in 1859. McAfee Station, in Mercer County, was named in honor of his family, and was probably established as early as 1773, by Robert, William, James, and George McAfee. He was educated at St. Mary's College, in Marion County ; chose the law for a profession, and, in 1843, began his profession, under his father, at Harrods- burg; was admitted to the bar, and soon after located for practice at Paraclifta, Arkansas. In the following year he entered the army, as Lieutenant of Company G, First Regiment Arkansas Cavalry, under the command of his relative, Col. Archibald Yell, and served through the Mexican War. He was wounded at the battle of Buena Vista. In 1848, he returned to Kentucky, and began merchandising and practicing his profession, at Nicho- lasville. In 1862, he entered the Confederate army, as Major of the Sixth Battalion, under Humphrey Mar- shall. In 1864, he was taken prisoner, and held until January, 1865; was then discharged on parole, and served until the end, as Confederate Commissioner, to look after supplies for the prisoners at Camp Douglas. He then returned to Nicholasville; was pardoned by Presi- dent Johnson, and at once resumed the practice of law, which he has since continued with great success. In 1857, he was elected to represent Jessamine County in the Legislature; and, in 1868, was elected to the State Senate. He has always been a Democrat in politics, and, in 1860, was a delegate to the Baltimore Conven- tion, which nominated John C. Breckinridge. Relig- iously, he is Episcopalian. Major McAfee was married, December 21, 1848, to Elizabeth R. Shely, daughter of George W. Shely, a farmer of Jessamine County.

RATTON, REV. JOHN SAMUEL, Minister of the Baptist Church, was born March 14, 1843, in Nelson County, Kentucky. He is of Irish ancestry. His father now resides in Muhlen- burg County, where he is still engaged in ag- ricultural pursuits. His early education was received in the county schools; and, at the age of

twenty-one, he entered Bethel College, Russellville, Kentucky, and graduated from that institution in 1869. His theological course at Bethel College was under the tutorage of Dr. W. W. Gardner. He was reared a Roman Catholic, but, at the age of seventeen, was con- verted to the Protestant faith, under the ministry of Revs. J. S. Colman and J. M. Peay. He immediately joined the Baptist Church, and began holding prayer- meetings in his neighborhood; his parents, who were Roman Catholics, bitterly opposing his course. He soon felt a call to the ministry, and need of means to aid him in his education; his father refusing help unless he would study for.the priesthood or bar, thinking in this, way to lead him to deny his faith; but there were brighter days in store for him. In 1865, his parents were converted to Christ, and joined the Baptist Church. This was during the first meeting in which he engaged in ministerial labors. Upon leaving college, in 1869, Mr. Gratton was at once called to the pastorate of the Baptist Church in Elizabethtown, the first Church of that denomination organized in Kentucky; and, during eight years of Church labor, his time has been spent in Elizabethtown and the surrounding country. During this time, he has baptized about three hundred persons, and witnessed the conversion of five hundred. He is a faithful pastor and preacher, willing to endure many hardships for the sake of the Master. Having perse- vered in the midst of difficulties, he has surmounted great obstacles, and partially gained his reward. Mr. Gratton was married, August, 1870, to Miss Amy C. Smallwood, of Elizabethtown, Kentucky.

HERRITT, PERRY, Clerk of the County Court of Harrison County, was born November 24, 1807, in Jessamine County, Kentucky. His par- ents were Thomas and Margaret (King) Wher- ritt, and were both natives of St. Mary's County, Maryland. His father came to this State about the year 1792; settled in Scott County; in 1798, removed to Jessamine, where he died, in 1811. He was a sol- dier throughout the entire war of the Revolution, and served in Howard's line of the Maryland troops. He followed agricultural pursuits through life. The Wher- ritts were among the early settlers of Maryland, from England, under Lord Baltimore. The subject of this sketch was raised on the farm, and inured to its hard- ships. His education chiefly consisted of what he could gather from the Winter schools of the neighborhood ; but, in 1823, he attended a select school at Danville for several months. He has been a careful observer and an extensive reader, and very few men in any com- munity are found more thoroughly well informed than Mr. Wherritt. He learned the tanner's trade in Dan-

625

BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPÆDIA.

ville, and worked there, and at Richmond, Lexington, and Mt. Sterling, until 1829. In that year he located at Cynthiana, where he carried on his own tannery for the next ten years. A part of 1840, he served as Dep- uty Marshal in taking the census. In 1842, under the old Bankrupt Law, he was appointed Assignee in Bank- ruptcy, and held the office until 1849. The act be- ing repealed in 1842-3, he continued until his cases were wound up. In the mean time, in 1844, he had gone to merchandising in Cynthiana. In 1851, under the "New Constitution," he was elected Clerk of the County Court of Harrison County ; has been continually re-elected, and held the office ever since, with the excep- tion of four or five years. In 1861, soon after the commencement of the war, he was arrested by the Gov- ernment military, and was held for four or five years as a citizen prisoner, in various Federal prisons. His sym- pathies were warm for the cause of the South, yet he never took any part in furthering the war against the National Government, and hence his imprisonment was hard and foundationless. Soon after returning home, he was again elected to the position he now occupies. Religiously, Mr. Wherritt is a Universalist. He is a man of courage, and great determination in adherence to his conscientious convictions ; is a man of fine habits, and has been distinguished through life for his unflinching integrity of character. He was married, February 24, 1831, to Miss Zerelda A. Morrison, a native of Cynthi- ana, and daughter of David Morrison, a tanner of that place.

PALDING, MOST REV. MARTIN JOHN, Archbishop of Baltimore, was born May 23, 1810, near Lebanon, Kentucky. His parents were Marylanders, and were descendants of the Catholic pilgrims of that State. At the age of fourteen, he became Tutor of Mathematics in St. Mary's College, where he graduated at the age of sixteen, studied theology for several years at St. Joseph's College, Bardstown ; continued his studies from 1830 to 1834, at Rome, where he was ordained a priest; from 1834 to 1843, was pastor at St. Joseph's College ; was subsequently its president; from 1843 to 1848, served at the Cathedral; in the latter year was consecrated Bishop of Leugone ; finally succeeded Bishop Flaget, of Louis- ville, from 1850 to 1854; was one of the editors of the " United States Catholic Magazine ;" was the author of the works, "Sketches of the Early Catholic Missions to Kentucky," " Life and Times of Bishop Flaget," "Re- view of D'Aubigné's History of the Reformation," " Miscellanea," and "Lectures on the Evidences of Christianity ;" in 1864, was installed seventh Arch- bishop of Baltimore; distinguished himself in the Coun- cil of the Vatican at Rome, in 1869; erected many new

churches, and founded many works of charity; and was one of the most able men of the Catholic Church. He died, April 21, 1872, at Baltimore.

URMAN, W. B., M. D., was born May 4, 1844, in Camden County, Georgia, and is the son of Dr. Samuel Furman, a prominent physician of that State. His family is of English descent, his great-grandfather coming to America in 1776; figured largely in the Revolutionary War. His mother was a native of Georgia, and came of a notable English family, her grandfather being Sir John Bernard, once Lord Mayor of London. Dr. Fur- man received a good education, mainly under private tutors; and, when on the eve of entering college, the civil war began, and he, like the great mass of Southern youth, hastened to take up arms in support of their cause. He participated in many of the battles of the Peninsular campaign, and was also in the seven days' fighting around Richmond. In 1863, he was transferred to the department west of the Mississippi, and was pres- ent in the engagements at Mansfield, Pleasant Hill, Brashear City, and the severe campaign in Louisiana. At the close of the war, he began the study of medicine with his father, and graduated in the Winter of 1870, at the Louisville Medical College, previously having spent some time in the hospitals of New York City, and taken a course of lectures in the Bellevue Medical Col- lege. He began the practice of his profession at Hen- derson, Kentucky, where he has since resided, having acquired a valuable business, and taken a fine position among the profession in that part of the State. Relig- iously, he is associated with the Baptist Church; is a progressive, hard student, scholarly in his attainments, broad and liberal in his views; is punctilious in his re- gard for conscientious convictions of right and wrong ; and stands deservedly high as a physician and citizen. Dr. Furman was married, in 1867, to Miss Jessie Col- lins, daughter of Dr. J. D. Collins, of Henderson.

URMAN, DR. SAMUEL MILLER, Dentist, was born October 28, 1843, in Camden County, Georgia, and is the son of Dr. Samuel Furman, a distinguished physician, who practiced his profession for many years at Savannah, and was favorably known as a physician of ability, and a man of great public and private worth, through- out a large part of Georgia. He received a good edu- cation, and, at the age of fifteen, began life as a merchant. When the civil war commenced, he entered the Confederate army, and served under Gencrals Ma-

626

BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPÆDIA.

gruder, Jackson, Lee, and Kirby Smith, participating in the battles of the Seven Pines, and the battles around Richmond in 1862, including those at Savage's Station, Gaines's Mill, and Malvern Hill, and was for several months a prisoner. At the close of the war, he began the study of dentistry, with Dr. F. G. A. Frierson, of Shreveport, Louisiana; and, in 1868, entered into prac- tice at Henderson, Kentucky, where he has since re- sided, with the exception of two years spent in Leaven- worth, Kansas, and has been actively and successfully engaged in his profession. He is an earnest, active member of the Baptist Church, with which most of his family have been connected for several generations. He is a man of admirable personal and social habits; is extremely open and liberal in his charities; is conscien- tious and ardent in his attachments to honorable and manly principles; is tall and erect in person ; and is, physically and mentally, a fine type of the true Southern gentleman. Dr. Furman was married, in 1869, to Sarah E. Martin, daughter of Le Roy Martin, a former citizen of Henderson, but now a resident of Kansas.

ASCOM, BISHOP HENRY BIDLEMAN, D. D., LL. D., Clergyman of the Methodist Church, was born May 27, 1796, in Hancock, Delaware County, New York, and was the son of Alpheus and Hannah Bascom. In 1812, his- parents settled in Mason County, Kentucky, but soon after permanently located near Ripley, Ohio. Henry B. Bascom received a very limited early educa- tion, never attending school after reaching his twelfth year. He joined the Methodist Church in 1810; in 1813, was licensed to preach, and was admitted on trial in the Ohio Conference of that year, and appointed to Deer Creek Circuit; in the following year, to Guyandotte Cir- cuit in Virginia. His first years in the ministry were ac- companied by great hardships, requiring uncommon self- denial, even for a Methodist minister; the Conference and the people largely opposing him on account of his uncommonly fine personal appearance, style of dress, and brilliant display of oratory; but he uncomplainingly pursued his upward way; was finally taken into the pat- ronage of Bishop McKendree; and, in 1816, was placed on the Danville and Madison Circuits in Kentucky; in 1818, he was the first preacher of his Church ever sta- tioned in Louisville, and there became exceedingly popu- lar, but was changed about for several years to insignifi- cant and trying positions until, discouraged, he sought again for appointment in Ohio; in 1823, was stationed at Steubenville, and, in that year, through the friendship of Henry Clay, was made Chaplain to the Lower House of Congress; at times preached to large congregations throughout the Eastern and Middle States, and every-

where excited great enthusiasm, and gained to himself thousands of admiring friends; after serving two years as a Chaplain in Congress, was appointed to a charge in Pittsburg; in 1825, became Conference Missionary, where his talents were displayed to the greatest benefit of his Church; in 1826, preached at Uniontown, Penn- sylvania, and was President of Madison College for two years; was agent for the American Colonization So- ciety in 1829 and 1830; in 1831, was again transferred to the Kentucky Conference, and elected Professor of Belles Lettres and Moral Science in Augusta College, holding the position for ten years; was, for several years subse- quently, President of Transylvania University, and re- vived much of the former glory of that institution; in 1828, was elected delegate to the General Conference; was continually reappointed until his election as Bishop, in 1850, at St. Louis; in 1846, he was elected, by the General Conference, as editor of the "Methodist Quar- terly Review;" was appointed by that body as Chair- man of the Board of Commissioners, having in view the adjustment of the difficulties of the Church, North and South; in 1849, a volume of his sermons was published, and met with universal favor; in 1850, sat the only time as Bishop in the Conference at St. Louis, and after- wards, on a visiting tour, preached his last sermon in that city in July of that year; on his way to his home in Lexington, Kentucky, he took sick, and died Sep- tember 8, 1850, at the residence of Rev. Mr. Stephen- son, at Louisville. About 1840, he received the degree of D. D., from two colleges and two universities, and also the degree of LL. D., from La Grange College, in Alabama. Bishop Bascom died in the prime of life, and doubtlessly yet below the meridian of his fame; and was one of the most earnest, eloquent, able, influential, at- tractive, useful, powerful, and godly of all the ministers of the Methodist Church in the United States.

ARR, JOHN W., was born August 17, 1844, in Cleveland, Ohio, to which city his parents had emigrated, from England, in 1820. He was liberally educated in the public and private schools of Cleveland, and at Baldwin Uni- versity, Berea, Ohio. He commenced active life as a tutor in Baldwin University; subsequently organized a Commercial College at Painesville, Ohio, which he afterwards consolidated with the Bryant & Stratton Business College, at Cleveland. In 1868, he removed to Louisville, and put in operation Bryant & Stratton's Business College of that city, which now ranks as one of the finest and most thoroughly con- ducted Business Colleges of the country. He also acted, for several years, as Cashier of the Kentucky and Tennessee Department of the St. Louis Mutual

627

BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPÆDIA.

Life Insurance Company, during its continuance in Louisville. He was one of the editors of the " Li- brary Paper;" has contributed numerous articles to the "Courier Journal;" is a regular writer for the " Louisville Saturday Review;" has written several works on Mathematics; and is the inventor of the "Sliding Scale Ruler," an ingenious contrivance for computing time, interest, discount, etc., almost instan- taneously. At the commencement of the civil war, he entered the Eighty-seventh Ohio Infantry as a pri- vate; and, a few months subsequently, was captured and paroled by Stonewall Jackson at Harper's Ferry. He is a member of the International Business College Association, and probably the only member of that or- ganization residing in Kentucky. He is a man of pol- ished manners and scholarly attainments; is a thorough business man ; and ranks as one of the first mathemati- cians and commercial teachers in the country. Mr. Warr was married, January 7, 1866, to Miss Harriet M. Smith, of Louisville.

OWMAN, JOHN BRYAN, Regent of Kentucky University, is one of the first citizens of Ken- tucky; and, by reason of his great ability and his long and arduous labors in the cause of edu- cation, his name deserves a conspicuous place on these pages. He was born on the 16th of October, 1824, in Mercer County, Kentucky. His fam- ily is of German stock, and settled in Virginia early in the history of this country. His grandfather was a colonel in the Revolutionary War, and was one of the first pioneers in Kentucky, with Daniel Boone. His father, Col. John Bowman, settled in Harrodsburg, Mer- cer County, Kentucky, in 1779. His mother's name was Mary Mitchum, a descendant from a prominent fam- ily of Virginia, that settled early in Kentucky. Col. John Bowman, the father of Regent Bowman, studied law in the office of Henry Clay, and was one of the life-long, devoted, and acknowledged friends of the great statesman. Of course, he was an ardent Whig; his son inherited the political convictions of his father. Col. John Bowman and his wife were zealous members of the Baptist Church ; but, having embraced the views of Alexander Campbell, they were among the large num- ber of Kentuckians that entered into what has been popularly known since as the Reformation, and, throw- ing off party names, called themselves Christians. Re- gent Bowman, the subject of this sketch, at the early age of fifteen, united with the Church of which his parents werc members, and entered at once, with great zeal, into the Christian life, and has at all times becn prominently connected with the educational and mis- sionary enterprises of his Church. Hc attended college

for a short time at Georgetown, Kentucky; and after- wards at Bacon College, at Harrodsburg, from which in- stitution, under the presidency of James Shannon, he graduated, in 1842. He subsequently studied law, in the office of Major James Taylor, in Harrodsburg, pro- cured his license, but never practiced. He was married, on the 16th of February, at the early age of twenty- one, to Miss Mary D. Williams, daughter of Dr. C. E. Williams, of Paris, Kentucky, a member of a very con- spicuous family in the history of this State. His wife is a sister of John Augustus Williams, President of Daugh- ters' College, at Harrodsburg, Kentucky. Having rc- ceived from his father a large estate in Mercer County, he devoted himself with great success, for ten years, to farming. At the age of thirty, he conceived the idea of founding and building up a great, free, liberal, and un- sectarian university in his native State. To this work, he has devoted twenty years of the best part of his life, with a zeal and energy and success not often seen in the lives of men. As this is the great outward work of his life, a short history of it, published by order of the Board of Curators of Kentucky University, in 1866, will be appended to this sketch. The fol- lowing paragraphs, from the pen of his friend, the late Dr. Richardson, will suffice in this connection : " For some years after the failure and suspension of Bacon College, there seemed to be not the slightest prospect of its reorganization. The ill success which had attended all efforts to effect its endowment, and the apparently hopeless embarrassment of its financial affairs, had so discouraged its friends, that no one seemed to have the courage to attempt any thing in its behalf. At length, in 1856, one of its Alumni, John B. Bowman, who had watched with regret the declining fortunes of the institution, until the last hope had expired, resolved to undertake the work of restoration, and devote his life to the establishment of a first-class university upon the ruins of Bacon College. Full of this noble and generous purpose he determined to abandon his pleasant home in the country, to sacrifice his personal and private interests, and to spend his life in the great work to which, as the event has shown, he has been providen- tially called. It is to him, therefore, that the country is indebted for the establishment of Kentucky University, of which he is to be justly regarded as the projector and founder." While engaged in his educational work he has also been connected with many other important enterprises, looking to the building up of his own State and the country at large. Mr. Bowman, though a na- tive of Kentucky and a large slave-holder, did not hesi- tate when the war broke out to take a strong stand for the Government and the Union, and to support with unwavering devotion the measures of lie administra- tion of Abraham Lincoln for the suppression of the rebellion. Since the war, though not actively engaged

628

BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPÆDIA.

in politics, he has been identified with the Republican party. Without his solicitation, President Grant ten- dered to him the position of Minister Plenipotentiary to Ecuador, South America, which, however, in view of his educational work, he declined. Regent Bowinan is a man of very fine presence and figure ; his manners are at once dignified and easy ; his conversation is intensely interesting, and few persons can be long in his presence without feeling the spell of his power; and he is equally attractive to the cultured and the uncultured. He is a man of very positive character, aggressive, tenacious, determined. In the prosecution of his educational enterprise he has had hot conflicts with some of his "brethren in the Church," as to the proper management of the University, but he has, at all times, been sus- tained by a majority of the Board of Curators, and has been able to hold his ground against all attacks. He is a man of large hope ; is never despondent ; does not an- ticipate disaster, but confidently expects success. While he is a shrewd business man, he is remarkably libcral and generous. He gives vigorous blows in controversy, but he is most forgiving and kindly disposed to his fel- low-men. Malice does not rankle in his bosom. In any sphere of life he would be accounted a strong and marked character, and that at once, and without controversy. It is only to his intimate friends that his real gentleness and magnanimity of nature are fully known. The following financial history of Kentucky University, published by order of the Board of Cura- tors, in 1866, will give the reader some conception of the work and plans of Regent Bowman, and some idea of the strength and vigor of his manhood. "The efforts of the Christians of Kentucky to establish a college for the education of young men began in Georgetown, about the year 1836; and, after repeated failures to raise an endowment for their institution, which was removed, in 1840, to Harrodsburg, the enter- prise was virtually abandoned, in 1850. An unsightly building, a small library of almost worthless books, and a small fund of eight or ten thousand dollars, called at that time an endowment fund-but, which was, in fact, a loan and incumbrance-was all that remained of the results of thirteen years of labor. A few Alumni of Bacon College-as the institution at Ilarrodsburg was called-watched the struggle and decline of their Alma Mater with concern and mortification; and a few brethren of liberal views and some philanthropy sympa- thized with them. But one only seemed to cherish the least hope of a resurrection of the college; he regarded its failure as a sad but suggestive lesson, providentially given, and in his heart resolved to profit by it in future. John B. Bowman conceived the idea of concentrating the distracted energies and means of the brotherhood of Kentucky, and the influence of all the liberal citizens of the Commonwealth, upon the great work of erecting a

university, in the full sense of the term, upon the ruins of Bacon College. His simple appeal to them was : Brethren, you have failed to build up a college; now, then, let us establish a great university. The boldness of his logic at first merely surprised them. He asked the co-operation of some already distinguished for their zeal and patience in every good work; they deemed the enterprise as the chimera of a young man, and discour- aged his dream as idle, if not dangerous to the Church. Almost alone, and in the face of every adverse circum- stance, he began his work. Sacrificing his professional aims, abandoning his farm, and foregoing the comforts of a pleasant home, he started out, in the dreary Winter, to lay the foundation of a great university in the hearts of a people already sick of college en- terprises, hopeless by reason of past failures, and suspicious of any new undertaking. The county of Mercer, in which he lived, and in which Bacon Col- lege was located, having, at his instance, and through the efforts of himself and of its leading citizens, raised conditionally the sum of thirty thousand dollars, he went abroad, with this encouragement, to secure from other communities the nucleus of his proposed en- dowment. In many places he met the shrug of the cold shoulder, or received the grave admonition to re- turn home and be wise. He met with harsh criticisms upon the former management of the affairs of Bacon College, and still harsher prophecies of mismanagement and failure in the future. He met with these discour- agements, and dealt with them as with facts. He went from house to house, through the few central counties of Kentucky, disarming prejudice, rekindling the hopes of his brethren, and enlarging their ideas of education. In one hundred and fifty days, he obtained one hun- dred and fifty thousand dollars! Thus, without the use of the press or the pulpit, he quietly laid the corner- stone of his university. The simple financial idea, in his endowment scheme, deserves special mention. The notes for money subscribed werc made payable in easy installments, and, when collected, the principal was at once safely invested. A certificate of stock was issued to each subscriber, with coupons attached, bearing value equal to one year's tuition, and made transferable. The coupons were redeemable in tuition only, so that the stock, without interest, would be gradually refunded to the subscriber. But, by the scheme devised, while the capital subscribed was refunded in the form of tuition, it remained in the form of cash as the permanent, unin- · cumbered endowment, the interest on which should pay the expenses of the institution. As soon as this amount of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars had been ob- tained, he called together the donors and friends of the movement, in a meeting held at Harrodsburg, in May, 1857. The meeting was numerously attended, chiefly by the representatives from the seven or eight central

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

The Biographical encyclopaedia of Kentucky of the dead and living men of the nineteenth century, Part 110

Author: Armstrong, J. M., & company, pub Publication date: 1878 Publisher: Cincinnati, J. M. Armstrong Number of Pages: 946

Author: Armstrong, J. M., & company, pub
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Cincinnati, J. M. Armstrong
Number of Pages: 946