The Biographical encyclopaedia of Kentucky of the dead and living men of the nineteenth century, Part 115

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 115

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).

TEVENSON, HON. JOHN W., Lawyer, and Ex-Governor of Kentucky, was born May 4, 1812, in Richmond, Virginia; and is the only son of Hon. Andrew Stevenson and his wife, Mary Page White. His father was a man of considerable eminence, being for several ses- sions a member of the Virginia Legislature, serving as Speaker of the House; was Representative in Congress from 1821 to 1834; and for the Twentieth, Twenty-first, and Twenty-second Congresses, from 1828 to 1834, was Speaker; was appointed Minister to Great Britain in 1836, remaining there until 1841, when he was suc- ceeded by Mr. Everett ; subsequently, devoted himself chiefly to agricultural pursuits, and to the interests of the University of Virginia, of which institution he was rector at the time of his death; was greatly beloved and respected; he died at Blenheim, Albemarle County, Virginia, January 23, 1857, aged seventy-thrce. John W. Stevenson received a thorough education at Hamp- den Sidncy College and the University of Virginia,

652

BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPÆDIA.

graduating at the latter institution; read law with Willoughby Newton; after practicing for some time at Vicksburg, Mississippi, located in Covington, Kentucky, in 1841, and soon rose to distinction in his profession ; served in the Legislature, from Kenton County, in 1845, 1846, and 1848; was member of the Constitutional Convention of 1849, in which he took a leading part; was a member of the Democratic National Conventions of 1848, 1852, and 1856; was Presidential Elector in the latter year; was one of the three commissioners appointed to revise the Civil and Criminal Code of Kentucky, in 1850; was elected a Representative to the Thirty-fifth Congress, in 1857, serving on the Committee on Elections; was re-elected to the Thirty-sixth Con- gress, serving on the same committee; was a delegate to the Philadelphia National Union Convention of 1866; in 1867, was elected Lieutenant-Governor of Kentucky, on the Democratic ticket; but, on account of the death of Gov. Helm, he was installed Governor, on the thir- teenth day of September in the same year; was elected Governor, to fill the vacancy, in August, 1868; in 1869, was elected United States Senator, resigning the office of Governor, February 13, 1871; serving on the Com- mittee on Indian Affairs, the Judiciary, and Appropri- ations. Gov. Stevenson is a member of the Episcopal Church, and has taken a prominent part in its conven- tions. He is one of the most distinguished and able of the living lawyers of Kentucky.

UMMINS, RIGHT REV. GEORGE D., D. D., Assistant Bishop of the Episcopal Dio- cese of Kentucky, was born December II, 1822, in Kent County, Delaware. He was ed- ucated liberally, graduating at Dickinson Col- lege, Pennsylvania, in 1841; in 1845, was or- dained deacon; two years subsequently, priest, and became rector at Norfolk, Virginia; in 1853, was at Richmond, Virginia; from 1855 to 1858, at Washington City ; from that time until 1863, in Baltimore; was lo- cated in Chicago in 1863; and, in 1866, was conse- crated Assistant Bishop of Kentucky, in Christ Church, Louisville.

WSLEY, GOV. WILLIAM, Lawyer, in honor of whom Owsley County was named, was born in 1782, in Virginia, and in the following year was brought to Lincoln County, Kentucky, by his father, William Owsley. He obtained a good education ; taught school for a while; was deputy surveyor, and subsequently deputy sheriff, under his father, in Lincoln County. He studied law under Judge John Boyle ; received his license, and entered on

the practice of his profession in Garrard County. He was soon called to represent his county in the Legisla- ture, and rapidly rose to distinction in his profession. In 1812, he was appointed to the Supreme Bench of the State, by Gov. Scott, filling that position until the num- ber of the appellate judges was reduced ; but, a vacancy occurring in 1813, he was reappointed by Gov. Shelby, filling that position with great strength and honor until 1828, in that year resigning; retired to his farm in Gar- rard County, still continuing successful practice of the law. He subsequently represented Garrard County again in the Legislature; removed to Frankfort, having divided his farm among his five children; in 1843, from the pro- ceeds of his fine business, purchased a farm in Boyle County, to which he retired, and wholly abandoned the practice of his profession. In 1844, he was elected Gov- ernor of the State, as a Whig, over Gen. Wm. O. Butler, one of the most powerful candidates ever brought forward by the Democracy; and was distinguished as one of the most conscientious, upright, wise, and able Governors of the State. He was a man of irreproachable private character; simple and republican manners, somewhat re- served; and of characteristically even temper, being ac- tive and powerful under exciting circumstances; and in person was over six feet in height, slender and erect. Gov. Owsley died on his farm, near Danville, on the 9th of December, 1862.

UCHANAN, JOSEPH RODES, M. D., one of the few individuals who have devoted a life to the cultivation of philosophy, and one of the most original thinkers of the world, was born December 1I, 1814, at Frankfort, Kentucky, and doubtlessly inherited his powers of investi- gation from his father, Dr. Joseph Buchanan, a distin- guished philosopher and inventor, who died at Louis- ville, Kentucky, in 1829. (See sketch of Dr. Joseph Buchanan.) Dr. J. R. Buchanan was, even in child- hood, noted for his uncommon maturity of mind. At the age of seven, he studied geometry, astronomy, history, and the French language; at the age of thirteen, his father conducted him through the study of " Blackstone's Com- mentaries," designing him for the profession of law; but he chose the typographic and editorial vocation, and, for five years succeeding his father's death, he sustained himself by labor as a printer and teacher, at the same time prosecuting his studies with great vigor. He read medicine, and received the degree of M. D. from the faculty of Transylvania University, after their removal to Louisville. In 1835, he devoted himself to the study of the brain, having become satisfied of the substantial truth of the discoveries of Gall and Spurzheim; and, for six years subsequently, he traveled and lectured in

653

BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPÆDIA.

Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, ' - Florida, Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Indiana, and Illi- nois, making almost constantly some important discov- eries connected with the science of the brain and the laws of life. While dissecting the brain, and measuring remarkable heads, in New Orleans, in 1836, he discov- ered the incorrectness in the modes of determining cere- bral development, as taught by phrenologists, and uni- versally received by their adherents. He was soon enabled, by his investigations, to rectify the principles of cranioscopy, as well as to discover some material errors as to the location of several organs. The unfin- ished condition of the science, and the lack of what he believed to be true philosophical principles, led him to undertake a thorough revision of the works of Gall and Spurzheim, and the harmonizing of their teachings with the facts of nature. As a practical phrenologist, he de- tected the errors of Gall and Spurzheim; and, as a philosopher, he felt the necessity of a more perfect sys- temization of the science; and, in the first four years of his investigation, had revolutionized the current system of phrenology, in practical details and philo- sophical principles, and had also developed materially the science of pathognomy, physiognomy, and chiro- gnomy, which are fully illustrated in his Anthropology. His views were sustained by the observations of Prof. Powell, at that time the most eloquent and popular phrenologist in the United States, and were cordially indorsed by the most enlightened readers and audiences of the country. Although he had met with great suc- cess in his researches and as a lecturer, he felt that a re- mote posterity would alone reap the benefits of his toil, unless he could, by some demonstration which would remove all doubt, place phrenology among the positive sciences. This he succeeded in doing, as he thought, in 1841, while lecturing at Little Rock, Arkansas. IIe had already discovered and named the organ or faculty of sensibility, and he now discovered that when that or- gan showed more than ordinary development, it pro- duced an impressible temperament, capable of being controlled in its operations by the carefully applied hand of the manipulator, so as to concentrate action or excitement on any organ of the brain or body. The discovery created considerable stir in this country and England, and many repetitions of his experiments were successfully made in the principal cities. The an- nouncement that, by means of the human brain, the mind could be played upon as a musical instrument, producing any display of feeling or action which might be desired by the operator, aroused great interest among both the advocates and opponents of phrenology. One of the most notable repetitions of his experiments was made on the head of Joseph Neal, the editor, in Phila- delphia, by Dr. J. K. Mitchell, professor in Jefferson Medical College, and substantially vindicated the dis-

covery. In 1841, phrenology really entered upon a new era in its history, as his bold experiments and discov- eries began to place it among the fixed sciences. This end was subsequently greatly advanced by his paper, " Buchanan's Journal of Man," published for years in Cincinnati, and, also, by his "System of Anthro- pology," issued in that city in 1854. In 1843, J. L. O'Sullivan, editor of the " Democratic Review," after the experiments had been repeated in New York, be- fore a committee of learned gentlemen, wrote: "To Dr. Buchanan is due the distinguished honor of being the first to excite the organs of the brain by agencies applied externally directly over them, before which the discoveries of Gall and Spurzheim, or Sir Charles Bell, dwindle into insignificance." Robert Dale Owen, after witnessing his experiments, wrote in the "New York Evening Post," in 1842, " that, unless the discoveries of Buchanan were quickly exploded, they would rank among the first gifts of philosophy and philanthropy to the cause of science and the good of the human race." From 1841 to 1846, he was engaged in propagating his discoveries by popular lectures ; for the next ten years, he occupied a prominent position as a medical professor, in the Eclectic Medical Institute or College, one of the most flourishing, and doubtlessly the most liberal, Med- ical Schools of Cincinnati. He was the public defender of the Eclectic System, and his teachings added greatly to the reputation of the Institute, as did his manage- ment of its affairs, as Dean of the Faculty for six years. He largely represented the College in its public defense ; and, during that period, edited the "Medical Journal," as well as his " Journal of Man." From 1856 to 1861, he mainly devoted his attention to the care of his family and property in Louisville. In 1861, he married the accomplished daughter of Judge John Rowan, and, although of a delicate constitution, her life was pro- longed until December, 1876. Her father was one of the most successful and able lawyers of the country, as well as one of the most widely known and popular men of Kentucky. She was the mother of four children, who now occupy honorable positions in society. From 1861 to 1866, he took an active part in the politics of the State, at first as an opponent of secession, after- wards as Chairman of the State Central Committee of the Democratic party for three years, during which he guided the policy of the party in Kentucky in a wise and conservative manner, and finally, by calling the con- .vention of 1866, established the party in power. The wisdom of his course led his friends to urge him to ac- cept the nomination for Governor, which he declined. For several years he has been continuing his scientific researches, and is earnestly engaged in preparing for the press a series of ten volumes, embodying his anthro- pology and its application to medical science and gen- cral education.

654

BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPÆDIA.

OHNSON, GEN. RICHARD W., Soldier, was born in Kentucky, about 1827; graduated at West Point Military Academy, in 1849; rose to the command of a division in the Union army, during the late civil war; was at the head of his division at Stone river and at Chickamauga; served on various fields, and distinguished himself as a brave and skillful officer.

UCKNER, GEN. SIMON BOLIVAR, Soldier, Q was born April 1, 1823, in Hart County, Ken- tucky. He was educated at West Point Mili- tary Academy, where he graduated, in 1844; served for a short time as brevet second lieu- tenant; at the age of twenty-three, was ap- pointed Assistant Professor of Ethics at West Point; entered the army as Second Lieutenant of the Sixth Infantry, serving, in the Winter of 1846, on the Rio Grande; was at the siege of Vera Cruz, and participated in nearly every battle up to the City of Mexico; was brevetted first lieutenant, for gallant conduct at Cheru- busco; was brevetted captain, for bravery at Molino del Rey ; subsequently served for several years as assistant instructor in military tactics, at West Point. In 1852, he was promoted captain, while serving with his com- pany on the Western border; and, resigning his com- mission early in 1855, devoted his attention to business pursuits ; in 1860, became Commander-in-Chief of the Kentucky State Guard, bearing the rank of major-gen- eral; resigned his commission, when he saw the neutral condition of Kentucky to be untenable, and soon after visited Richmond, Virginia. When the Legislature of the State declared in favor of supporting the National Government, he offered his services to the Confederacy ; and soon afterwards, as a brigadier-general, occupied Bowling Green, Kentucky, with a division of troops. He was third in command at Fort Donelson ; and, on the morning of February 16, surrendered, with the forces remaining, to the Federal commander. After spend- ing some months as a prisoner of war, at Fort Warren, Boston Harbor, he was exchanged at Richmond, August 16, 1862. He was promoted major-general, and placed in command of a division of Hardee's corps, in Bragg's army ; participated in the great battle of Perryville, dis- playing there, as on other fields, a superior order of gen- eralship ; in the Winter of 1862, took charge of the de- fenses of Mobile; in the following Summer, was placed in command of the department of East Tennessee; com- manded a corps in the great battle of Chickamauga; in the following year, took charge of the district of Lou- isiana; was promoted lieutenant-general; and, with Gen. Price, of Missouri, negotiated terms of surrender with

Gen. Canby. For several years after the war, he en- gaged in business in New Orleans; and has also made his home, part of the time, in Louisville, Kentucky.

IBBITT, ROBERT F., Merchant, was born Jan- uary 25, 1793, at Exton, Ruthlandshire, Eng- Iand. He obtained a limited education, and afterwards served an apprenticeship as a florist ; came to America, and, after remaining at Pitts- burg one year, located in Louisville, Kentucky, and, for two or three years, engaged in gardening. He returned to England, in 1821, and married Susannah Cole, when he returned to Louisville; and, in the fol- lowing year, engaged in the grocery business, in which he became distinguished as one of the most successful and valuable business men of that city. His grocery was conducted on the temperance plan, the house never engaging in the whisky business. He met with great success, and yet did not escape the financial troubles which, at different times, seriously affected the business community, in which he was long a leading member. Under his son, George A. Hibbitt, and son-in-law, R. C. Armstrong, his house is still continued as one of the most substantial of this line in Louisville. Mr. Hibbitt was a man of indomitable energy and untiring persever- ance; and, although forced to submit to the momentary pressure, he overcame all difficulties, paying scrupulously to the last farthing of his indebtedness. He maintained the highest degree of personal and business integrity, and probably none of the old merchants of Louisville ranked more deservedly high as a public-spirited, up- right, and useful citizen. In his business, social, and domestic habits, he was above reproach; was a Chris- tian, and never failed to exhibit his principles in his daily walk; took a hearty interest in the highest wel- fare of the community, and left behind him an example every way worthy of imitation in a long and useful career. Mr. Hibbitt died July 25, 1871. In April, 1838, his first wife died; and, three years later, he was married to Mrs. Rachel Clapham, who died in 1852, leaving no children.

ATTON, JOSEPH, was born October 6, 1810, in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania. His father, John Patton, was a farmer and manufacturer ; was twenty-two years sheriff of his county, and a man of prominence in his community.

Joseph Patton received a common education, and started life as a boatman on the Pennsylvania Canal, operating for two years from Hollidaysburg to Philadel- phia. He was subsequently a passenger conductor on

جود ومزج

Eng d & Ped by Homer Le> & Co N. Y

GAMEall

657

BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPÆDIA.

the Portage Railroad in his native State. In 1838, he engaged in farming; in 1845, removed to Hanging Rock, on the Ohio river, in Ohio; was engaged for two years in connection with the Vesuvius Furnace; in 1847, re- moved to Greenup, Kentucky, where he was engaged in farming, and, at the same time had charge of the inter- ests of Pennsylvania Furnace in the Little Sandy; was subsequently, for the next three years, storekeeper at that Furnace; was afterwards, for several years, con- nected with Arglyte Mills in Greenup County, in 1857, was elected to the Legislature from that county; but in the following year removed to Missouri. In 1860, he re- turned to Kentucky and settled in Catlettsburg, where he has since resided; in 1866, he was elected Judge of Boyd County, serving four years; served many years as town trustee, and is now Chairman of the Catlettsburg Council; has, since 1862, carried on the Big Sandy Plow- ing Mill; and is one of the most useful, enterprising, and valuable men of his community. In politics, he has always been identified with the Democracy. Mr. Pat- ton was married, in 1840, to Ann Givan, of Pennsyl- vania. After her death, he was married to Mrs. E. A. Johnston, of Greenup County, Kentucky, who died in Missouri. In 1863, he was again married, to Mary C. Brookover. He has six living children, four from his first and two from his second marriage.

ELPH, JOHN MILLBANK, was born August 18, 1805, in Madison County, Virginia, and is the son of Daniel and Ann M. Delph. After the death of his father, his mother moved to Kentucky with her father, Mr. Millbank, who settled in Scott County. After obtaining a fair English education, at the age of sixteen he was appren- ticed to learn the carpenter trade, with Matthew Ken- nedy, at Lexington. Soon after completing the term of his apprenticeship, he married a Miss Spurr, of Fayette County, and located in Louisville, engaging with success in his business. Several years subsequently, he started a bagging and rope manufactory, in Lexington. He afterwards returned to Louisville, and became a col- lector of taxes, by appointment from the City Council. He held the office of Sheriff of Jefferson County; was a member of the City Council, and held other minor offi- ces of trust. In 1850, he was first elected Mayor, at Louisville, for one year, under the old charter; in 1851, was re-elected for two years, under the new charter, and his administration of the affairs of the city gave general satisfaction. In 1860, he again made the race for the mayoralty, and was elected, serving through the most exciting period of the city's history, with great credit to himself. He was elected to the Legislature, in 1865, serving one term, and has since taken no active part in

political affairs. Religiously, he is a Baptist, and is the oldest member of the Fourth and Walnut Street Church. After the death of his first wife, Mr. Delph was again married, to Miss Ellen Schwing, of Louisville, Ken- tucky. By this marriage he has eight living children.

RALL, HON. JOHN ANDREW, Lawyer, was born January 13, 1827, in Woodford County, Kentucky. His parents were John and Char- lotte S. Prall, the latter a daughter of Andrew Anderson ; and he was their only child. His ancestors were among the early settlers of New Jersey ; in that State his parents were born, and were brought when children to Kentucky, while it was a wilderness. He received a liberal education at Centre College and Transylvania University ; chose the profes- sion of the law, and at once began his legal studies ; the death of his father, for a time, changed his profes- sional plans; but, in 1854, he entered on the practice of the law, at Versailles; in 1851, he was married to Nannie, a daughter of Hon. George W. Williams, a lawyer of high standing, at Paris; and, in 1856, re- moved to that place, and formed a partnership with his father-in-law; entered upon a laborious and successful practice, being engaged on one side of almost every im- portant law case, and establishing himself in the confi- dence of a large body of clients, many of whom still continued to seek his services after his removal to Lex- ington, where he has resided since 1868. Prior to the civil war he was a Democrat, but differed from the great mass of that party as to human slavery, early in life taking strong grounds in opposition to that "institu- tion." In 1849, pending the call of the convention to frame the present State Constitution, he delivered his first public speech in his native county, then the largest slave-holding county, according to its population, in the State, in favor of the adoption of some plan of emancipation ; in the same year, he called a small meet- ing in Woodford County, composed of all the citizens favoring his sentiments, in which resolutions drafted by him were passed, denouncing slavery as a moral and social evil and a blighting curse, and urging the adop- tion of measures for its speedy extirpation ; these reso- lutions were substantially adopted as .the basis of the platform of the Emancipation Convention, subsequently assembled, in that year, at Frankfort; but the whole antislavery movement failed at that time, although sup- ported by some of the ablest men in the State. After the adoption of the pro-slavery Constitution, the opposi- tion acquiesced, but he removed his hereditary slaves, not related too intimately with those over whom he had no control, from the State, and emancipated them; the new Constitution making removal from the State necessary to

658

BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPÆDIA.

emancipation. In 1859, he was nominated for the State Senate, in the district of which Bourbon County was a

part, and where his party had always been in the mi-

nority; and, after a heated contest, eliciting general in- terest throughout the State, he defeated his opponent,

Hon. Brutus J. Clay, by thirteen votes. He entered

the Senate, and was Chairman of the Committee on Fed-

eral Relations continuously for six years-throughout the most eventful period of the State's history. During the frequent called and adjourned meetings of the Leg- islature, at the outbreak of the rebellion, he separated himself from the mass of his party, and opposed every

effort to involve Kentucky in the Southern secession ; his vote and that of Hon. T. F. Marshall, of Augusta, also a Democrat, doubtlessly preventing the passage of the ordinance of secession. During one of the sessions of 1861, he prepared and introduced a report from his committee, embodying an elaborate examination of all the grave issues of the day, and firmly declaring the loyalty of the State to the general Government. This document was distributed, in pamphlet form, by order of the Legislature, throughout the State, as an authori- tative announcement of the position of Kentucky. At the expiration of his term, in 1863, he published an ad- dress to his constituents, reviewing his legislative course and the events of the day; this address was republished, with expressions of high commendation, in the Union papers over the nation; and, at the convention which soon after assembled in his district, he was re-nominated by acclamation, and elected without opposition ; on his return to the Senate, he again became Chairman of the Committee on Federal Relations-the most important committee, and composed of some of the first men of the State. In the Legislature, he uniformly took posi- tion with those whose Union sentiments were most ad- vanced and unconditional; and, when the Union party divided into "Radical" and "Conservative," he unhes- itatingly united with the former wing, which, believ- ing no intermediate ground consistent or tenable, identi- fied itself with the National Republican party. In 1864, he was selected as a delegate to the National Convention at Baltimore, which re-nominated Mr. Lincoln ; in 1865, he introduced the first emancipation proposition ever made in the Kentucky Legislature, in the shape of a resolu- tion recommending the submission to the State of what was afterwards known as the Thirteenth Amendment, supporting his resolution by an elaborate discussion of the slavery question; in 1866, he was the champion of his party in the celebrated debate in the Senate with ex-Governor John L. Helm, on national affairs; in the same year, he was the candidate of his party for the Senate of the United States, and received forty-seven votes on joint-ballot, the largest Republican vote ever cast in the Kentucky Legislature. In 1868, he was selected as permanent Chairman of the second Repub-

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 115

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