The Biographical encyclopaedia of Kentucky of the dead and living men of the nineteenth century, Part 14

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 14

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).

ton, Kentucky; occupied the position three years, as- sociated with the late Rev. Dr. Lynd ; and, in 1852, was elected to the Presidency of Georgetown College, suc- cecding Rev. J. L. Reynolds. The College at once felt the influence of his administrative ability, the number of students increasing from year to year, and the man- agement becoming more complete and satisfactory. At the request of the Board of Trustees, he undertook, in 1855, to raise a hundred thousand dollars for the en- dowment of the institution. Traveling through many counties of the State, in the Fall of 1857, he had the gratification of announcing to the Board that the sum was secured in good, collectible paper. He was Vice- President of the American Bible Union, formed for the purpose of securing correct translations of the Scripture into all languages, in the advocacy of which he made many able addresses. He was a man of strong convic- tions, and of unconquerable energy, usually accomplish- ing whatever he deemed desirable to be undertaken, and, had he not been cut down in the prime of life, would undoubtedly have placed Georgetown College beyond the reach of pecuniary embarrassment. At the breaking out of the civil war, he took a decided stand in favor of the Government, of which he had early become a nat- uralized citizen, but his political views were never mingled with his pulpit and other duties; most cordial relations existing between him and the Churches for which he regularly preached during the continuance of the great contest. In 1856, the degree of LL. D. was conferred on him by the Madison University, of New York. Dr. Campbell was married, March 9, 1847, to the eldest daughter of Henry Wingate, of Frankfort, Kentucky. He died, August II, 1865, at Covington, Kentucky, while on his way home from New York. The remains of this good man rest in the cemetery at Frankfort, where his widow now resides.

INSLOW, WILLIAM BEVERLY, Lawyer, son of William Winslow, was born June 19, 1814, at Port William, Gallatin County (now Carrollton, Carroll County), Kentucky. His father was a lawyer by profession, and was Clerk of Gallatin Circuit Court, from 1805 until his death, in 1838. W. B. Winslow was educated at Gallatin Academy, and, from 1830 to 1838, was engaged with his father in the Circuit Clerk's office. Before he was twenty-one years of age, he was licensed to practice law, and has, since the death of his father, devoted himself with great earnestness to his profession, in which he has been very successful, for many years leading the bar of his section. From 1853 to 1864, he was President of the Carrollton branch of the Southern Bank of Ken- tucky, but has never had any aspirations for public or

BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPÆDIA.

political office, giving all his energies to his profession, in which he is yet actively engaged. He has always been a hard, persevering worker, depending more on his preparation and management of a case, than on any great oratorical efforts before a court; and his long, per- severing efforts, caution, business ability, and established integrity of character, have not only given him a high position at the bar and in the community, but have ac- cumulated for him a considerable fortune. He has sev- eral farms, and, although he has superintended their culture, and engaged in farming to some extent, he makes no pretensions in that way. In politics, he was originally a Whig, but is now associated with the Dem- ocratic party. He has long been one of the most ear- nest, consistent, active, and influential members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Southern branch, and, in 1874, was a member of the General Conference. He is a man of exemplary private and social, as well as pro- fessional, habits, not only standing deservedly high in his profession, but also as one of the most safe, reliable, and valuable men of his Church and community. Mr. Winslow has been twice married; in 1836, to Olive Olds. After her death, he was again married, in 1847, to M. Jennie Woolfolk. He has nine living children. Henry M., his oldest son, is a lawyer, and is now en- gaged in practice with his father, at Carrollton, where they have always resided; and his second son, James T., is now preparing for the law, at Vanderbilt Univer- sity, Nashville, Tennessee.

OLES, CAPT. SAMUEL, son of Benjamin and Hannah Coles, was born June 3, 1808, at Glen Cove, Long Island, New York. His father was a farmer; came to the West at an early day, first settling near Rising Sun, Indiana, but sub- sequently removing to Ohio, where he remained until his death. Capt. Samuel Coles was sent to school at Rising Sun, and received an ordinary English educa- tion. After removing to Franklin, Ohio, he engaged for a time in building a part of the Ohio canal; and, in 1830, removed to Portsmouth, where, with his brother- in-law, Lemuel Moss, he superintended the construction of the terminus of that canal ; and also the excavations for the present channel of the Scioto river, at its mouth. In the Summer of 1835, he became commander of the steamboat "Fairy Queen ;" and afterward built the steamer " Home," and ran her on the Ohio and Missis- sippi rivers. These were among the first steamboats built and operated on the Western rivers. He had pre- viously engaged for some time in flat-boating on the Ohio, and was largely successful in any thing he handled. From 1837 to 1849, he was one of the owners of Moss's Mill, near Portsmouth ; in 1849, he built the tannery at Spring-

ville, and was one of its owners until 1854; in that year he removed to Hanging Rock, Ohio; bought an interest in Pine Grove Furnace and Hanging Rock Coal Works, controlling the management of the coal works for ten years ; in 1864, in connection with his former associates and others, purchased the Eastern division of the Lex- ington and Big Sandy Railroad; in the Winter of the same year, moved to Ashland, Kentucky; was made President of the Company, and had the general super- vision of all its interests until his death. He was one of the most active, energetic, and upright business men of the country ; was a man of broad and liberal spirit, opening his hand to every worthy cause; of warm and generous friendship; strong in adherence of his convic- tions of right, and was one of the most valuable men of his community. Religiously, he was connected with the Presbyterian Church. In politics, he was originally a Democrat ; cast his last vote with that party for Stephen A. Douglas, in 1860, and was subsequently identified with the Republicans. He died at his residence in Ash- land, Kentucky, March 8, 1872. Capt. Coles was mar- ried, October 6, 1836, at Portsmouth, to Miss N. E. Peebles, daughter of Robert and Jane Peebles. His wife and eight children survive him. Their son, Lieu- tenant Thomas K. Coles, went out, at the age of six- teen, in 1861, as a private in the Ninety-first Ohio In- fantry ; was promoted lieutenant of his company for gallant conduct ; at times served as captain ; was nearly three years in the army ; was in Gen. Crook's campaign in Virginia ; was engaged in several hard-fought battles, and was killed, while commanding a scouting party, in a desperate conflict with some of Moseby's men, in West Virginia. He was a brave and worthy young officer. After the smoke of war had passed away, his remains were reinterred at Portsmouth, Ohio.

OMBS, HON. LESLIE, Lawyer, Soldier, and Patriot, son of Capt. Benjamin Combs and his wife, Sarah Richardson, was born November 29, 1793, in Clark County, near Boonesborough. His father was a native of Stafford County, Virginia; first came to Kentucky as early as 1775, and planted corn in what is now Clark County; returned to Virginia; served as a captain throughout the war of the Revolution; was present at the surrender of Cornwallis, at Yorktown; returned to Kentucky in 1782, and settled near Boonesborough, in a part of the territory organized into Clark County in 1792; was a great hunter, and was conspicuous in the Indian trou- bles of the times. On his tombstone is the inscription, " Revolutionary Officer and Hunter of Kentucky." His mother was born near Annapolis, Maryland. Iler par- ents never cmigrated to Kentucky. Hc received a

BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPÆDIA.

classical education under Rev. John Lysle, a distin- guished Presbyterian minister and teacher in the early days of Kentucky. He spent some time as deputy clerk in the office of S. H. Woodson, Clerk of the Courts of Jessamine County; and, when the second war with Eng- land began, went out as a cadet in the First Regiment of Kentucky Volunteers, belonging to the command of Gen. Winchester; was selected to bear dispatches from that officer to Gen. Harrison, which duty he performed under great hardships; was attached to the command of Gen. Green Clay, ordered to the relief of Fort Meigs; volunteered to carry news of Clay's approach to Gen. Harrison; in this perilous adventure, lost nearly all the men accompanying him, narrowly escaping with his own life ; subsequently, took a gallant part in the disastrous defeat of Col. Dudley, opposite Fort Meigs, May 5, 1813, and was twice wounded, taken prisoner and com- pelled, by the British and Indians, to run the gauntlet. After completing his education, at the close of the war, in 1816, began to read law at Lexington under Hon. Samuel Q. Richardson ; in 1818, was admitted to the bar, and entered upon the practice of his profession at Lexington, where he has ever since resided. In 1827, he was first elected to the Legislature; was several times re-elected; was Speaker of the House in 1846, and served his last term in that body from 1857 to 1859. He was defeated for Congress, in 1851, in a closely contested race, against John C. Breckinridge; and was Clerk of the Court of Appeals from 1860 to 1866, declining the race for re-election. In 1836, he raised a regiment for the South-western frontier, at the time of the Texas revolution. He was distinguished as an ardent Whig, and the warm personal friend of Henry Clay; was one of the Kentucky delegates, the other being Gov. Metcalfe, to the Harrisburg Gonvention, in 1840, and favored the nomination of Mr. Clay for the Presidency; delivered his first important political address in Philadelphia, on the night succeeding the nomination of Gen. Harrison; canvassed many States during that celebrated campaign, wearing, on his tour, a hunting-shirt and sash, such as Gen. Harrison had worn at the battle of Tippecanoe. At the successful close of the great contest, the Whigs of Delaware presented him a fine piece of plate, in- scribed, "To Gen. Leslie Combs, of Kentucky, from a number of his Whig friends of New Castle County, Delaware, in testimony of their high regard for him as a patriot and soldier, in the North-western campaign of 1812 and 1813, whilst yet a youth; and as the able and eloquent vindicator of his old General, the Hero of Tip- pccanoe and the Thames, in the political campaign of 1840." In 1844, he was conspicuous in the contest for Henry Clay, and received from the Whigs of New York a testimonial of esteem, in the shape of a fine piece of plate, bearing the inscription, "From the Whigs of Kings County, New York, to Gen. Leslie Combs, of

Kentucky, the friend of Henry Clay, November, 1844. Si pergama dextra, defendi possent, etiam hac defensa fuissent." During the war of the rebellion, he was dis- tinguished as an uncompromising and determined Union man, rendering great service in his State to the cause of the National Government. For nearly sixty years, Gen. Combs has practiced law, standing among the foremost men of his profession in the State; has been largely identified with many of the leading interests of the country, and in his own community; has been a brilliant speaker; greatly devoted to his principles, defending them at all hazard; of unblemished integrity; of great benevolence of heart and disposition ; graceful and court- eous in manners; was an able and cautious legislator; stands very high in the admiration and esteem of his fellow-citizens, and, after an eventful and useful life of eighty-four years, is still a vigorous and active man, al- though retired from business. Gen. Combs was married, in 1819, to Miss Margaret Trotter, of Fayette County, and by this marriage had eleven children. After the death of this wife, he was again married, in 1849, to Miss Mary Elizabeth Brownell, daughter of Bishop Brownell, of Hartford, Connecticut. By this marriage, they have had three children.

ONIPHAN, JUDGE JOSEPH, Lawyer and Judge, son of George Doniphan, a Virginian, was born August 19, 1823, in Augusta, Ken- tucky. He was educated at Augusta College, in his native town, leaving that institution, in 1839, a member of the Senior Class, without graduating. He was for some time afterwards engaged in his father's tan-yard; in the Winter of 1840, engaged in the grocery and tobacco business; was so occupied, as a clerk, until the Fall of 1842; in the following year, was engaged in the commission business in New Or- leans; in the Summer of 1843, returned home,. and devoted himself for some time to reading history and general literature; in the Fall of 1844, began to read law; in 1848, was admitted to the bar, and entered on the practice of his profession. In 1849, he was elected to the Legislature from Bracken County ; in 1850, served as marshal in taking the census of the State; in 1852, was elected Mayor of Augusta, and re-elected in 1853 and 1854; was elected Judge of the Court of Bracken County, in 1854, serving four years; was again elected Mayor of Augusta, in 1859, and re-elected in 1860 and 1861; in 1862, became Lieutenant-Colonel of the Six- teenth Kentucky Federal Infantry; soon resigned; was elected Circuit Judge of the Ninth Judicial District (now the Twelfth), in August, 1862; served six years; in 1869, was again elected Mayor of Augusta, and re-elected in 1870 and 1871; was elected Chancellor of the coun-

BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPÆDIA.

ties of Kenton, Campbell, Pendleton, and Bracken, in May, 1871, and held the position at the time of his death. He was a popular and just judge, an able law- yer, and one of the most industrious, energetic, and public-spirited, as well as one of the best men Bracken County has ever produced. He died, universally beloved and esteemed, May 2, 1873, at his residence in Augusta, Kentucky. Judge Doniphan was married, December 16, 1856, to Miss E. A. Ward, daughter of Washington Ward, of Bracken County. His widow and three chil- dren survive him.

ELAND, HON. JOHN, Lawyer, was born De- cember 23, 1837, in Barren County, Kentucky. His father was a native of Virginia, of Scotch descent ; was long a farmer in Christian County ; for ten years postmaster at Hopkinsville; and one of the substantial and valuable men of the community. The subject of this sketch received a lib- eral education, completing his studies in Centre College, at Danville. In 1858, he began the study of the law with Col. J. F. Buckner, now Collector of Internal Rev- enue at Louisville. He had barely commenced practice when the war broke out, in 1861. He entered the army as Quartermaster of the Third Kentucky Union Cavalry, and remained with that regiment until the battle of Shi- loh. He was then Quartermaster of the Eighth Ken- tucky Cavalry, with which he served until 1863, when he left the army, returned home, and resumed the prac- tice of the law at Hopkinsville. In the following year, he formed a law partnership with Gen. B. H. Bristow, which continued until Gen. Bristow's removal to Louis- ville, two years later. He then associated with Col. Walter Evans for nine years, and since that time has been connected with S. O. Graves, in the law prac- tice. In 1875, he became the Republican candidate for the Legislature, and was elected over his opponent, Hon. James McKenzie. In 1876; he was Presidential Elector for the State at large, on the Republican ticket. In the Spring of 1876, he was appointed by the State Legisla- ture, in connection with Judge Joshua F. Bullitt, of Louisville, to edit and publish the new code of practice, adopted by that body, and to take effect January 1, 1877. He is a man of sound practical ability; a good speaker ; a careful, thrifty, and successful lawyer; a man of great independence of character, espousing a cause and main- taining it at all hazards; is a man of fine appearance and agreeable manners; and stands deservedly high in the community of which he is an active and useful mem- her. Mr. Feland was married, February 12, 1863, to Miss Sallie Kennedy, daughter of the late S. W. Ken- nedy, of Todd County, and from this marriage they have four living children.

LEXANDER, HON. ROBERT, second son of William Alexander and his wife, Miss Aitche- son, of Airdrie House, was born in 1767, near Edinburgh, Scotland. His father was also a native of Edinburgh, where many of his ances- tors had lived, and, early in the seventeenth century, one of them had held the dignity of Lord- Provost of that city. His wife belonged to a family of considerable wealth and distinction in Lanark and Ren- frew Shires, in the west of Scotland. Of their two sons and six daughters, only three were ever married, and none of them are probably now living. After the death of his first wife, he came to the United States, and was here married to Miss Laport, and from this marriage one son, Charles, and two daughters, still survive. He died, in 1817, at the age of ninety, at Woodburn, the resi- dence of his son, in Woodford County, Kentucky. His oldest son, Sir William Alexander, by his first marriage, was a lawyer of very high standing; was elevated to the bench as one of the barons of the Court of Exchequer, and, for distinguished services, received the honor of knighthood. He lived in celibacy, and died at London, in 1842, at the age of eighty-two. Robert Alexander was educated at the University of Edinburgh; while young, went to France, where he spent several years ; there met Dr. Franklin, and, for some time, acted as his private secretary ; came to this country between 1785 and 1790, after his father's settlement here; and, in the Spring of 1791, bought the estate called Woodburn, in Woodford County, Kentucky, of the heirs of Gen. Hugh Mercer, who had obtained it, as a military grant, from the State of Virginia. This great estate then contained twenty-seven hundred acres of the celebrated Blue Grass land. It was afterwards reduced greatly by sales from it, but was finally increased to its present size, three thousand acres. He was a member of "The Ken- tucky River Company," the first company chartered in the State for the improvement of rivers, and was one of the three commissioners for the corporation in Woodford County. When the first Bank of Kentucky was chartered, in 1807, he was made its President and one of its Board of Directors. He was appointed to survey and fix the western portion of the boundary line between Kentucky and Tennessee, lying between the Tennessee and Mississippi rivers, and found that those who had run the eastern part of the line had made a mistake, by which Kentucky had been deprived of con- siderable territory. In 1795, he was elected to the State Senate; was re-elected, and served two or more terms with distinction in that body. He was one of the most thoroughly educated men of his day to be met with in the West, but was fond of a quict life, and made little display. He was somewhat less than six feet in height, very squarely built, naturally muscular, but not fleshy, and weighed one hundred and sixty or seventy pounds.

BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPÆDIA.

He died at Frankfort, in February, 1841, from hurts re- ceived in a fall. Mr. Alexander was married, when about forty-seven years of age, to the daughter of Daniel Weisiger, of Frankfort, Kentucky. They had five chil- dren, three of whom are now living: Lucy, the wife of J. B. Waller, of Chicago; Alexander John (see sketch) ; and Mary, the wife of H. C. Deedes, of London, Eng- land. William, their son, died in childhood, and Robert Aitcheson was the late proprietor of Woodburn. (See sketch of Robert Aitcheson Alexander.)

LEXANDER, ROBERT AITCHESON, son of Hon. Robert Alexander, and grandson of William Alexander and his wife, Miss Aitche- son, of Airdrie House, Lanarkshire, Scotland, was born October 25, 1819, in Frankfort, Ken- tucky. His father was born and educated in Scotland, and was one of the most intelligent, wealthy, and influential men of the famous Blue Grass region of Kentucky. (See sketch of Robert Alexander.) His mother was a daughter of Daniel Weisiger, one of the early valuable citizens of Frankfort, Kentucky. Robert Aitcheson Alexander was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated, about 1844, having gone to England for that purpose in 1837. He returned to Kentucky in 1851, with a view to making it his home, and with the determination to improve the stock of this country. The estate of the Misses Aitcheson, of Airdrie House, had passed, by entail, to his uncle, Sir William Alexander, and the entire estates in Scotland fell to him, by the law of entail in that country, on the death of his uncle, in 1842. In order to hold the Air- drie estates, he retained his British citizenship, and an act was subsequently passed by the Legislature of Ken- tucky enabling him, as a foreigner, to hold real estate in this commonwealth. The income from that estate amounted to one hundred thousand dollars annually, and gave him great advantage over the other stock- breeders and importers of the country. He imported largely short-horns and sheep in 1853, and for several succeeding years. In 1856, he purchased Lexington, the celebrated horse, from his owner, Ten Broeck, for fifteen thousand dollars; in the following year he bought and imported Scythian, another horse, which had be- come famous in England; and at various times imported many fine cattle and other stock. During his life the trotting and race stock of Woodburn, his home in Woodford County, was, doubtless, the most extensive and best in the United States. Equal attention was also given by him to the breeding of fine cattle. The race-horses of Woodburn are, Asteroid, King Alphonso, Australian, and Glen Athol; Belmont, Membrino, and Harold are celebrated trotters; there are others, young

horses, whose names are known among turf-men; and all the racers, cattle, sheep, and hogs are thorough- breds. During his life the stock of Southdowns on the farm sometimes reached eleven hundred head. On this great estate an annual public sale occurs, in which all young thorough-breds, racers, etc., are sold, the sales often reaching sixty or seventy thousand dollars; the private sales annually reaching nearly the same amount. But Robert A. Alexander's work was not confined to the improvement of the breeds of horses and cattle in this country. He brought over, from Scotland, Charles Hendry, his Scotch mining superintendent, and through his means discovered, in the Green River section of Kentucky, the " black band iron stone," or ore, so well known in Scotland. In Muhlenburg County, on the Green River, he purchased about fifteen thousand acres of the rich mining lands, and spent a quarter of a mill- ion dollars in building furnaces, etc., when the break- ing out of the civil war suspended all operations. This property, by his will, is now owned by his sisters and nephews, and is leased to a company of which Gen. Buell is president. Although many Kentuckians are now the rivals of the Alexanders, doubtless no man ever did so much in improving the horse and cattle stock of the United States as he. Mr. Alexander was a man of great energy and activity ; about five feet eight inches in height, and slightly built, weighing not over one hun- dred and forty pounds. He was never married. He died December 1, 1867, at Woodburn, Woodford County, Kentucky.

LEXANDER, ALEXANDER JOHN, only sur- viving son of Hon. Robert Alexander, and nephew of Sir William Alexander, of England, was born April 7, 1824, at Woodburn, his father's estate, in Woodford County, Kentucky. His mother was a daughter of Daniel Weisiger, of Frankfort, Kentucky. His father emigrated from Scot- land, and settled in Woodford County, in this State, sev- eral years before Kentucky became one of the States of the Union ; was for several terms member of the Legisla- ture, and was a man of great influence and learning. (See sketch.) Alexander John Alexander went to Eng- land, in 1841, and completed his education at Trinity College, Cambridge. He afterwards spent some time in a counting-house, to prepare himself for business, before returning to America. In the Spring of 1849, he returned to Kentucky, and, for a number of years before the death of his brother, Robert Aitcheson Alexander, lived in Chicago, where he still has property, which brings him an income of ten thousand dollars a year. At the death of his brother, the Woodburn estate, and the great Airdrie estate of Scotland, fell to him, by will. The Scotch estate had passed, by entail, to his brother, from

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 14

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