The Biographical encyclopaedia of Kentucky of the dead and living men of the nineteenth century, Part 120

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

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ARSHALL, HON. HUMPHREY, Lawyer and Historian, was born in Virginia, and was the son of John Marshall and his wife, Jane Quis- enberry. He received a thorough education, studied law, and soon assumed a conspicuous place among the public men of the State. He was a strong partisan Federalist, and took an active part in the political contests of his day. He was a mem- ber of the Convention of Virginia that ratified the Consti- tution of the United States; represented Fayette County, in which he had located in 1780, in the Convention at Danville, in 1787; subsequently removed to Franklin

County, which he represented in the Lower House of the Legislature, for several terms; was afterwards a State Senator; and, from 1795 to 1801, was a Senator in Con- gress. The first history of Kentucky ever published was written by him, and issued in 1824, and, although displaying a great deal of strong partisan feeling, is one of the most valuable early records of the country. He was a man of brilliant talents, and great force of charac- ter. In 1808, he fought a duel with Henry Clay. He had three children : John J. Marshall, who graduated at Princeton College, served in both branches of the Ken- tucky Legislature, and was a long time Judge of the Louisville Circuit; one daughter, who was killed by lightning in infancy ; and Thomas A. Marshall was his son. (See sketch of Thomas A. Marshall.)

ALE, JOSIAH, M. D., was born January 25, 1829, in Ohio County, Kentucky. The family is originally English, came to Virginia at a very early period, where the family is yet represented. From this family came the Hales found throughout the United States. His father, Caleb Hale, was a farmer in Ohio County, and died at the age of seventy-four; his mother was a daughter of Charles Huff, of the same county, origi- nally Virginians. His parents being in moderate cir- cumstances, his early education was pursued in the schools of his county ; but he was ambitious, and, by close study and persevering effort, he succeeded in making himself a very fair scholar; and, at the age of twenty, having chosen the profession of medicine, be- gan his studies at home, under the instructions of Dr. N. L. Lightfoot, a country practitioner, where he pur- sued his studies diligently for one year. He then went to Fordsville, Kentucky, and entered into a partner- ship with Dr. H. Wells, and practiced his profession for two years; then went to Louisville, and became a pupil of the celebrated Dr. D. W. Yandell, of that city; at the same time attending lectures at the Louis- ville University, where he graduated, in 1856. He now entered upon the practice of medicine in Hartford, Ken- tucky, continuing three years; then went to New York, and attended a course of lectures at the New York University, also at the New York Ophthalmic Hospital; in 1860, 'returned to Hartford, resumed his practice there for two years; then removed to Owensboro, Ken- tucky, where he practiced for nine years; then, being determined to stand among the first in his profession, went again to New York, and attended lectures at the Bellevue Hospital Medical College; and also took a course of private instruction at the Ophthalmic Hos- pital, under the celebrated Prof. H. Knopp; then re- turned to Owensboro, where his success has fully repaid

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him for his long and persistent study. In his experience as a physician, he has had a large practice as surgeon, performing many difficult operations. Recently he has devoted himself more especially to the diseases of the eye, and surgical diseases of women, and has attained great distinction, and a very large practice. In 1866, he became a member of the Kentucky State Medical Soci- ety, and, in 1871, was elected senior Vice-President of that body ; is a permanent member of the American Medical Association, a member of the McDowell Medi- cal Society, of the Owensboro Medical Society, and a member of the Board of Medical Examiners for the Fifth District of Kentucky ; was a delegate to the Interna- tional (Centennial ) Medical Congress, at Philadelphia, in 1876; and has written many valuable articles for the medical journals of this country, several of which have been republished, both in this country and Europe. He is a member of the Baptist Church and a Freemason. Dr. Hale was married, in 1853, to the daughter of J. W. Willis, of Ohio County, Kentucky; his wife died at Hartford, in 1861 ; he again married, in 1873, Miss E. McHenry, daughter of Hon. Y. H. McHenry, an ex- member of Congress, and noted lawyer of Owensboro, Kentucky. Dr. Hale has devoted himself to his pro- fession with an energy which has made him a successful physician and a useful man; his high sense of honor rendering him always regardful of the rights of others, and his urbane, kindly manner winning him the esteem of all.

ROCTOR, JOHN WILLIAMS, Banker, was born September 30, 1828, in Garrard County, Kentucky. His father, George Proctor, was a farmer and teacher, and died in 1834. His family emigrated from Virginia, and were of English origin. His mother was Nancy Graves, daughter of William Graves, of Garrard County, and sister of William J. Graves, who was several times elected to Congress from the Louisville district. J. W. Proctor received a good English education, and, at the age of eighteen, began school-teaching; afterwards went to farming and trading, in Garrard County, which he continued nntil 1858; in the following year became Cashier of the Deposit Bank of Stanford; in 1864, took the same position in the Central Bank of Kentucky, at Danville; in the following year, assisted in the organiza- tion of the Central National Bank, and was elected cashier; in 1866, started a private bank, under the name of Tilford, Proctor & Co., at Lexington; and, in 1868, on solicitation of the Directors of the Central National Bank, of Danville, he again became cashier of that institution, a position he still occupics. In 1869, he was elected member of the City Council; was, for some years, member of the Board of Commissioners

of the State Institution for Deaf Mutes, at Danville; was the original mover in the organization of the Dan- ville Gas-light Company, and has been its president since ; has long been a leading working member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, usually being a delegate to the annual conferences; takes an active in- terest in every thing looking to the advancement of his city and community; and is one of the most public- spirited, enterprising, and useful citizens of Danville. Mr. Proctor was married, in 1851, to Miss Eliza A. Green, daughter of Henry M. Green, of Garrard County, Kentucky. They have two children, a son and a daugh- ter. Their son, William Graves Proctor, is a book- keeper in the Central National Bank.

ENNEY, JOSEPH BONAPARTE, Farmer, was born January 19, 1806, near Paris, in Bourbon County, Kentucky. His father, James Ken- ney, was a Virginian who settled, in 1781, on the banks of the Stoner river, in Kentucky. He was twice married; first to Miss Froome, and afterwards to Margaret Johnson, by each of whom he had eight children. Joseph B. was the fourth child by the second wife. His father was considered one of the finest farmers of his day. He died when Joseph was but eight years old. The early education of Joseph B. Kenney was quite moderate, and the early years of his life were passed upon a farm. Upon the death of his father, the five sons inherited a large farm of two thousand acres, which they divided among themselves. Joseph at once became an enterprising farmer and stock- breeder upon a large scale, raising cattle, sheep, hogs, and mules. He drove his own cattle and hogs to mar- ket-first in Virginia and the South, and finally to Cin- cinnati, Ohio. In 1829, he sold out in Bourbon County, and removed to Scott County, continuing his previous business until 1865, when he divided his property among his children, and settled at Georgetown. He was a magistrate for sixteen years, under the old Constitu- tion. He also served for eight years after the adoption of the new Constitution. He was for sixteen years a Director of the Lexington and Covington Turnpike Company, and, for twenty-one years more, president of that corporation. He has been for ten years a trustee of the town in which he resides, and has always been identified with the progressive enterprises of his neigh- borhood. He was the first man in his county who used the following method of sowing wheat: he sowed the wheat in a field which had grown corn the previous season, and which had been left standing in the stalk, and the hogs, as they ate the standing corn, trampcd down the wheat into the ground. This method has since becn largely adopted. He has been a member of

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the Presbyterian Church for forty years. In March, 1827, he married Lavinia, daughter of Henry Lauder, a farmer of Bourbon County, who was considered one of the neatest farmers of that vicinity. By this marriage he had ten children, nine of whom united with the Presbyterian Church, and grew up useful and honored members of society. Six of his children now survive : Margaret A., widow of B. C. Glass; James H., who married Norah Graves; Sallie, wife of Joseph Force ; Charles O., who married Miss Grisham ; Alice V., wife of Samuel Davis; and Victor M., who married Alice Warren, of Illinois. These all live in Scott County, except Victor M. Kenney, who lives in the State of Illinois.

EORGE, WILLIAM WALKER, Judge, was born September 25, 1811, in Jessamine County, Kentucky. His ancestors were natives of Vir- ginia; his father, John George, was among the early emigrants to Kentucky, settling in Jessa- mine County as far back as the year 1800. He married Miss Mary Haydon, of Virginian parentage ; and they were blessed with a family of four children, of whom William was the second child. His early educa- tion was of a plain, practical character, such as could be obtained in the common-schools of his neighborhood. His first teacher was William Campbell, and he com- pleted his studies under James O'Hara, of Versailles. He at once entered into mercantile pursuits, taking a clerkship in the store of an uncle, in Versailles. Here his industry and integrity soon gained for him the high- est esteem and confidence of his employers. He con- tinued in the capacity of clerk for a period of five years, when, in appreciation of his services and ability, he was given a half interest in the concern, the firm name be- ing " Haydon & George," he succeeding to the entire management of the business. This firm continued to do a thriving business for three years, when, the senior member of the concern retiring, Mr. George was left sole proprietor, and he remained in the business for two years longer. In 1837, he decided to close his business in Versailles, and, removing to Vicksburg, Mississippi, he reopened as a commission merchant, dealing mainly in produce and cotton. He had been here but a short time when the disastrous financial panic of 1837 swept over the country, causing depression among the mer- cantile classes. Unable to accomplish any thing in the general paralysis and stagnation of industry which fol- lowed, he concluded to return to Versailles, where he took a situation as salesman in a dry-goods house. He held this position for two years, when he com- menced farming in the vicinity of that town, fol- lowing that pursuit for four years. At this stage of his career, he was induced to enter into public life.

The first office to which he was chosen by his fel- low-citizens was that of Sheriff of Woodford County ; and, having shown such ability and integrity in the discharge of the duties of his office, he was honored with a re-election, two years later, serving the full term of the office, as limited by law. He was appointed Master Commissioner of Woodford County Circuit Court, and served creditably for two years; at the end of which time, being eligible, he was again elected to the office of sheriff of the county, his whole term of service in that office being eight years. After leaving the office in which he had served so long and faithfully, he was elected Presiding Judge of Woodford County Court, for a term of four years; and at the end of that time was again chosen to the office, and is at present the worthy incumbent. He was a member of the old Whig party, in his political principles; but is now a member of the Democratic party. At the opening of the war, although his sympathies were with the Southern people, he was opposed to secession, and was in favor of the measures proposed by Hon. J. J. Crittenden. He was married, in 1832, to Miss Bohannon, by whom he had five chil- dren, all sons. He lost his first wife by death, in 1865 ; and was remarried, in 1870, to Miss Davidella Neet, daughter of the late John Neet, a worthy citizen of Woodford County. He is a member of the Presbyte- rian Church, and takes a deep interest in the moral and temporal welfare of the community ; and has been for a number of years deacon of his Church. He is also a Mason, having been for twenty-five years a member of that order. Judge George is a man whose character- istics are such as to win the good will and esteem, and to command the respect, of his fellow-men; of unsullied integrity, and actuated by the highest of motives, he has been an honor to the trusts bestowed upon him.

ICHOLAS, JUDGE SAMUEL SMITH, Law- yer, was born in Lexington, Kentucky, in April, 1797. His father was the distinguished George Nicholas, whose family was closely connected with the history of Virginia, and who was himself a prominent member of the Virginia Convention, a zealous advocate of the Federal Constitution, and an influential and prominent member of the Convention which framed the Constitution of the State of Kentucky. On the maternal side, he was descended from an old and well-known Maryland family named Smith, two members of which, Robert Smith and General Samuel Smith, of Baltimore, were prominent patriots and statesmen during the Revolution, and, in the early days of our Government, Robert Smith held Cabinet positions, under Jefferson and Madison. Gen. Samuel Smith was United States Senator from Maryland

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for twenty-nine years, and rendered distinguished military service in the war of 1812, for which he was rewarded by Congress with a sword. Samuel S. Nicholas was a nephew of these two men. He was the twelfth of thir- teen children, all of whom, except himself and the child younger than himself, were short-lived. He was but two years old when his father died, and but eight or ten when he lost his mother. Being thus orphaned, he was thrown, at a tender age, upon the world, without means and without advantages. His father died sup- posing himself (and thought by others) a very rich man; but, through security debts, which his estate had to pay, and for which valuable property was sacrificed, and through the gross mismanagement of executors, his fam- ily had small means left, and, at the death of his wife, his younger children became dependent for support and

education. Gen. Samuel Smith, of Baltimore, a wealthy merchant, as well as a distinguished politician, sent for his nephew and namesake, Samuel Smith Nicholas, to come to Baltimore to live with him. He took him into his counting-house, intending his education to be entirely that of a merchant; but the boy pursued, in his leisure hours, his studies with great diligence, keeping up his knowledge of Latin and teaching himself French; and, although he had, up to this time, only the barest rudi- ments of an education, such was his advancement in thought and his facility with his pen, that, at the age of fifteen, when an old Presbyterian clergyman of Balti- more published a very vulnerable article, he undertook to reply to it. Two or three articles and their answers were published before the reverend doctor discovered that, instead of a foeman worthy of his steel, he was battling with a counting-house lad, and great was his vexation and chagrin on making the discovery. Samuel Nicholas never went to but one school, and that a coun- try school, near Danville, Kentucky, kept by Joshua Fry, the grandfather of the. Hon. James Speed, of Louisville, and to that school he went only three or four years. He was almost entirely self-educated and self-raised, never having had assistance from any one, except the situation given him in the commission-house of his uncle. He was also sent as supercargo, when six- teen years old, on one of his uncle's vessels, to South America and to China. He made two voyages, and was absent altogether about five or six years. During that time he acquired the Spanish language, and kept an in- teresting journal of his voyages and the countries he visited. After returning from these voyages, having been trained for mercantile life, he went to New Or- leans, and began his career there as a merchant; but, soon discovering his unfitness for that life, he withdrew from it, and went to Frankfort, Kentucky, where he studied law with Chancellor Bibb. In 1825, he moved to Louisville, where he first engaged in the practice of law. He was soon appointed agent and lawyer for the

old United States Bank, and rose rapidly in his profes- sion from that time. In 1829, he married Matilda Prather, daughter of Thomas Prather, a wealthy mer- chant of Louisville, and in this marriage he had seven children. This wife died in 1844; and, in 1848, he married Mary Smith, a cousin, and the granddaugh- ter of General Samuel Smith, who had taken him to live with him when a boy. She survived him, but died in 1874. In this second marriage, he had three children, making in all a family of ten children- seven daughters and three sons. He was appointed Judge of the Court of Appeals, in 1831, by Governor Metcalfe, and held the place until 1837, when, finding that it compelled his absence from home for a large portion of the year, and separated him from his chil- dren, who needed his superintendence of their edu- cation, he resigned what was a most congenial pro- fessional position, for what he considered to be higher duties-those of the home circle. In 1844, he received the appointment of Chancellor, at Louisville, from Gov. Letcher, and this position he retained until a change in the State Constitution made it elective, when he resigned. His friends urged him to run for the office, but he declined, knowing that he had no personal popularity, and being unalterably opposed to an elective judiciary. In resigning the position of Chancellor, he probably made the greatest sacrifice of his life, for it was a position well suited to his taste and inclination. In all the deep and life-long interest he took in profes- sional and public affairs, he was never a self-seeker- never a candidate for office but twice in his life -in his early life, for the Legislature, when he was defeated once, and elected once. He took a great delight in politics. It was an inherited passion with him, but he knew he lacked the manners and the disposition to be successful with the people, and, except when he wished to have some legislation carried out for the benefit of Louisville, he never offered for any public position. Such honors as he received during his life, were, in a . sense, thrust upon him. Certainly he did not seek them. They sought him. In 1850, he was appointed, by Gov. Crittenden, to revise the Code of Practice in Kentucky, in connection with Charles Wickliffe, and 'Squire Turner ; and to him the State is indebted for some of the most important and valuable changes in its laws. He was often heard to say, that there was but one position in the gift of the Government which he ever allowed him- self to covet, and that was a judgeship in the Supreme Court of the United States. Andrew Johnson was most anxious to appoint him to that position after the death of Judge Catron, of Tennessee, and he tendered him the nomination, but Judge Nicholas declined it, believ- ing the Republican Senate would refuse to confirm him, because of his well-known hostility to them and their measures. In the emancipation movement in Kentucky,

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he was one of the most prominent and influential lead- ers. Although a slave-holder himself, he ardently de- sired the gradual emancipation of the slaves in his State, for the furtherance, as he supposed, of its material pros- perity. During the agitation . of the movement, and until it became a hopeless undertaking, he gave much time and thought to the means by which emancipation could be accomplished within Kentucky; so as best to subserve the interests of both masters and slaves. After retiring from the chancellorship he took up again the practice of his profession, but only to try cases of great importance. At this time, he began to occupy himself with his pen, and gave his time almost wholly to writing, reading, and study. He gave thirty years of study and reflection to a new plan for electing the President. This scheme when perfected, according to his views, became the intellectual pet and pride of his life. He thought it the best creation of his mind, and claimed that he had bestowed upon it his best thought and labor. This scheme was presented to the United States Senate, by Senator Powell, of Kentucky, is now on file among Congressional records, and has been re- published and discussed, during the past year, by some of the New York papers. In politics, Judge Nicholas was remarkable for his perfect independence of thought, expression, and action. It was his boast that he was never hide-bound to any party, and that he placed patriot- ism, and the common weal of his countrymen, far above the obligations of mere party ties. He especially loathed and abhorred every thing like narrow partisanship, sec- tionalism, and the selfish, sordid, interested motives which actuate many men in public life. He had more affiliation with the Whig party than with any other, but he was in no sense a party man. He was a patriot and a statesman of the highest type, for upon all public ques- tions he took the largest, broadest, most liberal, most na- tional, and disinterested views. He labored unceasingly, with his pen and by his personal influence, to turn the revolutionary tide which threatened at one time to drag Kentucky into secession, and he probably did more than any other man toward saving this State to the Union. He was a profound thinker, and an able writer and expounder. In moral force he may be said to have been truly great. Had he lived in a wilderness, he would have done what he believed to be right as if the eyes of the whole world had been upon him. He was in all things a law unto himself, and he lived up to that law most rigidly. " His attachment to the Constitution of the United States amounted almost to a passion. He saw from afar the first symptoms of a waning reverence for the spirit and tenor of that instrument, and he was unceasing in entreaty and warning; appealing to patri- otism, reason, national pride, and to sacred traditions, to a just concern for the future, to the reverence for the past, to justice, to integrity, to the sanctity of oath, in

behalf of the Constitution." The last years of his life were spent in interpreting and expounding the Constitu- tion, and his papers on that subject are a rich legacy to the constitutional law of the land. The day must come when they will be held as authority, and occupy the place they so richly deserve. His reputation as a wise judge, a learned lawyer, and expounder of the law in all its branches, won for him the respect and friendship of the most able, and distinguished statesmen and jurists of the land. He was a man of cold manners and exterior, and his affections and friendships were limited, but they were ardent and strong. His charities were great, but his left hand knew not what his right did. He was always interested in all measures for the advancement of the people, and probably did more than any other man to establish the public-school system of Louisville. He took an unfailing interest in every thing relating to edu- cation, the improvement in school books and the training of teachers. While his manners in the social circle were cold and forbidding, his demeanor upon the bench, as judge, was unexceptionable-always courteous, patient, respectful, and attentive. He died, after a brief and painless illness, in November, 1869. His body lies buried in "Cave Hill Cemetery," near Louisville, Ken- tucky.

IRTLE, HON. HENRY, Lawyer and Judge, was born November 5, 1798, in Washington County, Kentucky ; and is the son of Rev. John Pirtle, distinguished in the early history of Methodism in Kentucky. He acquired a fair education, and, after reaching manhood, studied law at Bardstown, under Hon. John Rowan; entered on the practice of his profession at Hartford, Ohio County, but soon after removed to Louisville; was appointed Judge of the Circuit and General Court, serving from 1826 to 1832, when he resigned; in 1846, was appointed Circuit Judge, and also resigned that position, towards the close of his first term; was State Senator, from 1840 to 1843; and, in 1832, published his "Digest of the De- cisions of the Court of Appeals;" was appointed Chan- cellor of the Louisville Chancery Court, in 1850, by Gov. Crittenden; was elected to the same office under the new Constitution, and held the position until 1856; was re-elected in 1862, and held the office until 1868, in the mean time engaging in the practice of the law; and was professor in the law department of the Univer- sity of Louisville, from 1846 to 1869. He arose to emi- nence as a judge, few men ever succeeding in establish- ing a higher reputation on the bench, both on the part of the legal fraternity and the people; and, in his posi- tion as Chancellor of the Louisville Chancery Court, he made an admirable record, and took a place among the most able and just lawyers of the State. In 1868, he

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The Biographical encyclopaedia of Kentucky of the dead and living men of the nineteenth century, Part 120

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