The Biographical encyclopaedia of Kentucky of the dead and living men of the nineteenth century, Part 6

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

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citizens. He died in 1839, at Danville, Kentucky, and was universally honored and esteemed. He was married, in Virginia, to the daughter of Thomas Walker, one of the earliest explorers of Kentucky. His daughter, Lucy, became the wife of Judge John Speed. One of his daughters was the first wife of Judge John Green. An- other daughter became the wife of David Bell, the father of Hon. Joshua Fry Bell, and many of the worthy fami- lies of this State are numbered among their descendants.

RANE, JUDGE GEORGE CANNING, Law- yer, was born at New Castle, Kentucky, June 17, 1827. His father, Dr. Edward C. Drane, was a native of Maryland, and came to Ken- tucky in boyhood, his parents moving there in 1800, and settling in the wilderness of Shelby County. The family was thought to be of Swedish de- scent, and still may possess some characteristics of that people. His mother was Miss Judith Dupuy, whose an- cestors were of the colony of Huguenots who settled on the James river, Virginia, in 1680. He received a lib- eral education, having attended the best school of New Castle ; then entered the college at Louisville, where his preceptors were John H. Harney and Noble Butler, and completed the usual course at Hanover College, Indi- ana, which then enjoyed a fine reputation ; and, in 1849, graduated in the law department of Louisville Uni- versity, the professors being Judge Pirtle, Preston S. Loughborough, and Chief-Justice Ewing, and immedi- ately entered into partnership with Judge Pryor, of New Castle, with whom he practiced ten years. In 1862, he was elected Judge of the Circuit Court, his circuit embracing the counties of Franklin, Henry, Trimble, Carroll, Gallatin, Boone, Grant, and Owen, and held this office six years. He was then appointed by Gov. Leslie to fill a vacancy, and, in 1871, was re-elected Circuit Judge, in 1874 the term being yet unexpired. At the beginning of the war, he was an ardent Union man, but when President Lincoln issued his emanci- pation proclamation he joined the conservatives, and avoided the extremes of both parties; and, by his impar- tial course, was enabled to continue holding his courts during the disturbances occasioned by the war, without depending on military protection, the only interruption occurring in the Autumn of 1862, when Bragg was in possession of the State. Such was his popularity that, although a recognized Union man, he was re-elected Judge by a handsome majority, many of his warmest supporters being Southern men and Confederate soldiers. He has, since 1863, voted with the Democrats, and used his influence toward the reconciliation of differences as far as possible. He is not a member of any Church, but holds to the doctrines of the Unitarian denomination; is

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a man of unquestionable integrity, a general favorite among his associates, and devoted to his family; in per- sonal appearance, is prepossessing, of tall, commanding figure and engaging manners, and is one of the most able lawyers and upright and popular judges of Kentucky. He was married, in 1861, to Miss Mary Shipman, of Niagara Falls, sister of Rev. Dr. Shipman, of Christ Church, Lexington, and of Paul R. Shipman, well known in Kentucky as one of the editors, with Mr. Prentice, of the Louisville "Journal."

ODES, CLIFTON, Banker and Farmer, was born August 26, 1798, in Madison County, Ken- tucky. His father was one of the earliest set- tlers of Kentucky, and served for a time as As- sistant Judge, under the old régime, and was a native of Virginia, of English ancestry. Clifton Rodes received a good education, and was for a time a student of Transylvania University, under Dr. Holley. At the age of twenty-one his father died, and he took charge of the farm, which he carried on until within a few years. In 1853, he was elected President of the Deposit Bank, of Danville, and has held the position since. During the reorganization of the banking system of the country, his house became the Central National Bank, of Danville. He has long been the Treasurer, and one of the Commissioners, of the State Institution for Deaf Mutes. Was prominent in his county movement in securing and furthering the interests of the Southern Railroad, filling the position of Treasurer to the Boyle County organization for that purpose, and has lent a lib- eral hand toward all matters of interest to the commu- nity. He is a member of the Northern wing of the Presbyterian Church. In politics he was a Whig, subse- quently acted with the Republican party, and during the war took the side of the Government, and was always opposed to secession. In 1876, he voted the Democratic ticket. He has long resided in Danville, about which his interests have mainly centered. Mr. Rodes was married, December 23, 1823, to the daughter of Gov. Owsley. Seven of their children survive. Their son, Charles H. Rodes, is a rising young lawyer of Danville; and the well-known lawyer, Robert Rodes, of Bowling Green, is their son.

ARLAN, GEN. JOHN MARSHALL, Lawyer, was born June 1, 1833, in Boyle County, near Danville, Kentucky, and is the son of the late Hon. James L. Harlan, a prominent lawyer of the State. (See sketch of Hon. James Harlan.) Gen. IIarlan graduated in letters at Centre Col- lege, under the presidency of Rev. John C. Young, D. D.,

LL. D. He studied law with his father, and graduated, in 1853, in the law department of Transylvania Univer- sity, at Lexington, under the late Chief-Justices, George Robertson and Thomas A. Marshall, and entered upon the practice of his profession at Frankfort, Kentucky. In 1858, he was elected County Judge of Franklin County, holding the position one year ; in 1859, when but twenty- six years of age, was the Whig or opposition candidate for Congress in the Ashland district (then Democratic), and, after a most exciting contest, which attracted the attention of the whole country, he was defeated, by only sixty-seven votes, by the Democratic candidate, Col. William E. Simms, of Bourbon County; in the Spring of 1861, removed to Louisville, and continued the practice of the law with great success, associated with Hon. Will- iam F. Bullock; the civil war breaking out soon after, he relinquished the practice of his profession, and re- cruited and organized the Tenth Kentucky United States Volunteer Infantry, his regiment becoming a part of the original division of Gen. George H. Thomas, and being brigaded under Gen. M. D. Manson, of Indiana, and subsequently under Gen. Speed S. Fry. In 1863, having scrved for some time as commander of his brigade, his nomination for promotion to the rank of brigadier-gen- eral was made by President Lincoln. At that period, and just at the most auspicious point in his military ca- reer, the death of his venerable father compelled him to forego promotion, and it became necessary for him to resign his commission in the army, and return to his father's home at Frankfort. In his letter to Gen. Rosen- crans, explaining the necessity of his return to civil life, we find these words: "If, therefore, I am permitted to retire from the army, I beg the commanding general to feel assured that it is from no want of confidence either in the justice or ultimate triumph of the Union cause. That cause will always have the warmest sympathies of my heart; for there are no conditions upon which I will consent to a dissolution of the Union; nor are there any conditions, consistent with a republican form of govern- ment, which I am not prepared to make, in order to maintain and perpetuate that Union." In the Fall of 1863, he was nominated by the Union party as their can- didate for Attorney-General of the State, and was elected by an immense majority, holding the office until 1867, when, as the candidate of the Union party, he was de- feated in a race for re-election. At the expiration of his term of office, he returned to Louisville and resumed the practice of the law, and has continued the practice there ever since with great success. In 1871, he was unani- mously nominated, against his desire, as the Republican candidate for Governor, and made a thorough, able, and driving canvass of the entire State, largely augmenting the Republican vote; and, in 1875, was again induced to represent the Republicans of the State as their candi- date for Governor; and, although there had been con-

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siderable falling off in the Republican ranks in the North in 1874, he increased the vote over that of his former race for the chief executive office of Kentucky. In 1877, he was appointed by President Hayes as one of the Lou- isiana Commission, on the part of the Government, to bring about some amicable plan of adjusting the unfor- tunate political status of the State; and the result of the temperate and wise course of the Commission is a matter of present congratulation throughout the country. In 1856, he was married to Miss M. F. Shanklin, daughter of the late John Shanklin, of Evansville, Indiana, and has six children. Religiously he is connected with the Old School Presbyterian Church. Gen. Harlan is a man of striking and commanding person, powerfully and ad- mirably built; has a high order of administrative ability ; is an attractive and forcible public speaker; an able and successful lawyer; and is altogether undoubtedly one of the most able and valuable among the distinguished men of the West.

RECKINRIDGE, GEN. JOHN CABELL, Lawyer, Soldier, and Statesman, was born Jan- uary 21, 1821, near Lexington, Kentucky, and was the only son of Hon. Joseph Cabell Breck- inridge, and grandson of Hon. John Breckin- ridge. He was liberally educated, graduating at Centre College, Danville, in the Fall of 1839; studied law at Transylvania University ; practiced for a short time at Burlington, Iowa; returned to Lexington, Ken- tucky, where he continued his profession with success until the breaking out of the Mexican War, when he entered the volunteer service as Major of the Third Kentucky Regiment; and, although mustercd in too late to give him much opportunity for military service, he succeeded in winning distinction for his ability as an advocate for General Pillow, in the controversies between that officer and Generals Scott and Shields; was clected to the Kentucky Legislature in Fayette County, in 1849, and from that time he rose rapidly into public distinc- tion; in 1851, he was elected to Congress from the Ash- land (Henry Clay's) District, by the untiring energy of his canvass, his acknowledged ability, and his extraordi- nary personal attractions, defeating Leslie Combs, who, although then venerable, outlives his brilliant competi- tor; was re-elected in 1853, after a still more violent con- test with Governor Letcher; was barely thirty years of age when he took his seat in the House of Representa- tives, but in a few months was recognized as one of the finest orators who had ever been a member of that body ; was tendered the mission to Spain by President Pierce, but declined; in 1856, he was nominated for the Vice- Presidency by the Democratic National Convention, at Cincinnati, and was elected with Mr. Buchanan, being the youngest man who had ever filled that position ; for

the next four years presided over the Senate of the United States with great dignity and ability, and, in 1860, was nominated by one wing of the Democratic party as their candidate for President. The great historic events of that time are a part of the common history of the country. After his inevitable defeat for the Presi- dency, he was elected to the United States Senate, and took his seat March 4, 1861, in the midst of the great preparations for civil war. He made a brilliant but hopeless struggle for the compromise proposed by his predecessor, John J. Crittenden, but, in the Fall of 1861, resigned his splendid position, to which he had been elected for six years, and threw himself on the side of the South. He was appointed Brigadier-General, and placed in command of a brigade, at Bowling Green, un- der Albert Sidney Johnson, and, at the battle of Shiloh, was conspicuous for his gallantry and the valor he infused into his Kentucky brigade; was soon afterward promoted Major-General, and placed in command of a division ; in June, 1862, successfully resisted with his command the fa- mous bombardment of Vicksburg ; commanded in chief at the storming of Baton Rouge. At Stone river his division of Kentuckians was put in the front of the battle, and, in a desperate charge, lost nearly one third of its num- ber; soon after joined Gen. Joseph Johnston in Mis- sissippi, and was engaged in the battle at Jackson ; afterwards participated, under Bragg, in the battle of Chickamauga, and commanded a corps at Missionary Ridge; in the Spring of 1864, took command of the Department of Western Virginia, where he made a brilliant and successful campaign ; his troops were after- ward incorporated with Gen. Early's, and he placed in command of a corps; after the battle of Winchester, he returned to South-western Virginia, continuing in com- mand of that Department until February 4, 1865, when he was appointed Secretary of War, continuing in that position until the final surrender of Gen. Lee; he joined the Cabinet of Mr. Davis at Danville; assisted in nego- tiating the treaty of peace with Gen. Sherman, which President Johnson refused to ratify, and, after the final collapse of the Confederate cause, escaped from Florida to Cuba, and from thence went to England and Canada. After returning to his home, at Lexington, he lived in perfect quiet, so far as the political events of the day were concerned, even declining to express an opinion, and gave his attention to the interests of the Lexington and Big Sandy Railroad, of which he was Vice-Presi- dent. Very little of Gen. Breckinridge's life could have been given to the practice of law, so much of it being occupied in the various positions to which he was inces- santly called. Yet he was concerned in several import- ant cases, in which he displayed his extraordinary abil- ity; and, even as a lawyer, merely, he stood among the first men of the State. Descended from a family dis- tinguished in the annals of Virginia and Kentucky, he

John CBreckenridge.

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more than sustained its traditional fame. He was, phys- ically, a noble specimen of manhood; his features were classical, his head intellectual, and his figure at once elegant and commanding. His voice had the silver clarion ring that reminded old Kentuckians of Henry Clay in his youth, whom, in many respects, Gen. Breck- inridge strongly resembled. There never was an in- stance, in the history of this country, where a citizen was so rapidly advanced on the ladder of political emi- nence. Almost at a bound, he had vaulted into that chair which other able statesmen had devoted a life-time to secure, and failed. He was the favorite son of Ken- tucky. He joined the Confederacy because he believed its principles and cause were just; and what man, among them all, ever sacrificed more than he? When the cause was lost, he returned to Kentucky, with a consti- tution shattered by the exposures of war, and with all hopes of national distinction gone forever. His superb natural endowments, his energy, his endurance, and his splendid personal appearance, all combined to make him a man above his fellow-men; and had his days fallen upon less evil times, perhaps no name in our latter na- tional history would have been lifted so high as that of John C. Breckinridge. He died at his home, in Lex- ington, May 17, 1875.

ANDELL, LUNSFORD PITTS, SR., M. D., was born July 4, 1805, near Hartsville, Sumner County, Tennessee. His father, Dr. Wilson Yandell, a native of North Carolina, was a physician of high standing. His mother was Elizabeth Pitts, a Virginian by nativity. He acquired the rudiments of an English education in his native county. In 1818, he was entered as a student in Bradley Academy, at Murfreesborough, his father having removed to Rutherford County; there, studied Greek and Latin and the physical sciences, and became a good scholar; in 1822, began the study of medicine with his father; in the following Winter, attended a course of medical lectures at Transylvania University; took the degree of M. D. from the University of Maryland, in 1825, and entered upon his medical career; in 1831, was elected Professor of Chemistry in Transylvania Uni- versity. On the organization of the Medical Institute at Louisville, in 1837, he was elected to the same chair in that school. In 1849, was transferred to the Professor- ship of Physiology and Pathological Anatomy in that institution, which had then become the Medical Depart- ment of the University of Louisville; resigned his pro- fessorship in that institution in 1859, and accepted the Chair of Theory and Practice in the Memphis Medical College; continued in that position until the opening of the civil war, when he was actively connected, for a time, with the hospital service in that city. In 1862,

he was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Mem- phis; and, in 1864, was ordained pastor of the Dancy- ville Presbyterian Church; resigned his pastorate, in 1867, and returned to Louisville, Kentucky, where he has since engaged in the practice of medicine. In 1872, he was elected President of the Louisville College of Physicians and Surgeons, and, in 1877, was elected Pres- ident of the Kentucky State Medical Society. He was, for a time, editor of the "Transylvania Journal of Med- icine and the Associate Sciences," and, for many years, was editor of the "Western Journal of Medicine and Surgery," at Louisville. Although he has written no continuous work, probably no man in the West has contributed more to the medical journals; and his pen has not only been busy, for over forty years, in the interests of his profession, but he has also written quite extensively on other topics; and to him is the country indebted for a vast amount of reminiscences connected with the profession, and an invaluable fund of biography, presenting, in many cases, the only reliable history of distinguished physicians and others who have flourished in the State during his time. As a ready, easy, and agreeable writer, he has few equals in the medical pro- fession, and no man now living in the State is more favorably and widely known, either as a medical writer or lecturer. His name has been identified with the rise and growth of the medical schools of the State for nearly half a century; and, indeed, his history is largely that of the profession, as an organization, in the State. As a practitioner, he has been able and successful through- out his long career, as in all his other fields of effort, and deservedly ranks as one of the first physicians of the country. Dr. Yandell was married, in 1825, to Susan Juliet Wendel, daughter of David Wendel, of Mur- freesborough, Tennessee.

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REEN, REV. LEWIS WARNER, Presbyterian Clergyman, and one of the noted scholars of Kentucky, was born January 28, 1806, in Dan- ville, Kentucky, and was the twelfth and young- est. child of Willis and Sarah ( Reed) Green. His parents were married, at the place of his na- tivity, in the year 1783, and theirs was said to be the first Christian marriage solemnized in the State of Kentucky. Both parents were of Scotch-Irish descent, and were born and reared in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, where their ancestors had long resided. Willis Green, his father, was a cousin of Duff Green, and a grandson of Robert Green; came to Kentucky as a surveyor, but, ncar Danville, located for himself a beautiful tract of land, and settled on it for life; represented Kentucky in the Virginia Legislature; served in the Legislature of the State; was long Clerk of the Court, being the sec- ond incumbent of that office for the old county of Lin-

BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPÆDIA.

coln; held various important trusts, and was one of the early valuable men of the country; he died at the age fifty-one. The subject of this sketch, when at the age of seven, having lost his parents, spent the greater part of his youth under the guardianship of his oldest brother, Judge John Green, the other most noted mem- ber of his family. One of his first teachers was Duncan F. Robertson; he was subsequently a pupil of Joshua Fry; at the age of thirteen, with his brother Willis, entered the famous school at Buck Pond, under Dr. Lewis Marshall; spent some time at Transylvania Uni- versity, then under the Presidency of Dr. Holley; and graduated at Centre College, Danville, in 1824, under the Presidency of Dr. Jeremiah Chamberlain. He pur- sued the study of law for a time, but abandoned that, and entered the office of Dr. Ephraim McDowell, as a student of medicine, but that he also abandoned. In 1827, he was married to Eliza J. Montgomery, daughter of Hon. Thomas Montgomery, of Lincoln County. She survived the marriage but two years. Her death, and that of his brother Willis, so worked upon his mind that he determined to study for the ministry, and, in 1831, entered the Theological Seminary, at Princeton, New Jersey, previously having spent some time at Yale College, in the study of Hebrew. While at Princeton, he was elected Professor of Greek at Centre College, and, while filling that position, of Belles-lettres and Political Economy, in the same institution; and, in 1833, was licensed to prcach, by the Presbytery of Transylva- nia. In 1843, he was married to Mrs. Mary Laurence, daughter of Thomas Walker Fry, and granddaughter of his old teacher, Joshua Fry, and immediately afterwards spent two years in Europe, studying Biblical literature and Oriental languages at the Universities of Bonn and Halle; and, on his return, resumed his duties at Centre College, and was ordained minister in 1838; in the same year, was elected Professor of Oriental and Biblical Lit- erature in the Theological Seminary at South Hanover, Indiana; in 1839, was made Vice-President at Centre College, and returned to Danville; in 1840, was elected Professor of Oriental and Biblical Literature in Western Theological Seminary, at Alleghany, Pennsylvania; in 1847, removed to Baltimore to become pastor of the Sec- ond Presbyterian Church, at this time becoming univer- sally popular as an able and eloquent pulpit orator; in 1848, was elected President of Hamden Sidney College, Virginia, remaining in that position for eight years, refusing many valuable calls to minister for different Churches throughout the country; accepted the Presi- dency of Transylvania University, at Lexington, but re- signed, in 1858, to become President of Centre College, which position he continued to fill until his death, as well as engaging earnestly and laboriously in his pas- toral duties. In 1863, the College was converted into a hospital, after the battle of Perryville, and, during his

active participancy in the care of the wounded, he fell sick and died, May 26, 1863. He was an able and suc- cessful teacher ; a man of elevated and refined character, polished in his manners; and had few equals in the State, as a scholar; and in the Presbyterian Church, throughout the West, as a preacher. His widow and two daughters, constituting his family, survived him. Their daughter Julia is the wife of M. T. Scott; and Letitia is the wife of Hon. A. E. Stephenson, both of . Bloomington, Illinois.

cDOWELL, EPHRAIM, M. D., Physician and Surgeon, was born in Rockbridge County, Vir- ginia. His ancestors belonged to the clan of the Duke of Argyle, in Scotland, but, on ac- count of persecution during the reign of Charles I, they crossed over to the counties of Ul- ster and Londonderry, in Ireland, and, in 1737, rc- moved to Virginia, settling in Rockbridge County. His parents were Samuel McDowell, and his wife Mary Mc- Clung. (See sketch of Judge Samuel McDowell.) Dr. McDowell received a classical education at Georgetown and Bardstown, after which he went to Virginia, where he studied medicine two years at Staunton, under Dr. Humphreys, who was a graduate of the University of Edinburgh. In 1793-4, he studied medicine at the Uni- versity of Edinburgh, Scotland, and while there became a pupil of the famous Dr. John Bell, who was then not a member of the University Medical Faculty. After completing his studies, he returned to Danville, Ken- tucky, where he had located with his father, in 1784, and entered at once upon the practice of his profession. In 1823, unsolicited, the University of Louisville con- ferrcd upon him the degree of M. D .; the medical so- ciety of Philadelphia had sent its diploma to him, in 1807. He quickly rose to distinction in his profession, and for many years was recognized as the first surgeon of the West, and, in some respects, soon took rank as one of the first surgeons of the world. His practice ex- tended far beyond the limits of his own State, patients visiting him from a distance of hundreds of miles, and often being compelled to make long trips himself, es- pecially in connection with his surgical practice. He performed a large number of operations in lithotomy, without a single death, and is supposed to have oper- ated successfully in extirpating the parotid gland, long before McClelland and other American surgeons had at- tempted it; but he became greatly distinguished through- out the world as the first surgeon who ever operated for ovarian tumor. The first operation ever known in ovariotomy was performed by him in the Winter of 1809, long before the days of chloroform, on Mrs. Crawford, of Greene County, Kentucky. Mrs. Crawford was forty- seven years of age at the time of the operation, and

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The Biographical encyclopaedia of Kentucky of the dead and living men of the nineteenth century, Part 6

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