USA > Ohio > History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I > Part 103
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He decided to cast his fortunes with the Con- federacy; and on the 17th of August, 1861, he left Louisville for Bowling Green, then the head- quarters of the Kentucky secessionists. After reaching Bowling Green he was chosen a mem- ber of the Provisional Government of the State, having sat in the convention which formed that Government. He was a member of the Provisional Council, in which he served until January, 1862, when he was elected by citizens inside the Confederate lines to represent one of the Kentucky districts in the Confederate Con- gress. He took his seat at Richmond February 18th of the same year, and again in February, 1864, upon re-election. He took a prominent part in the councils of the Confederacy, making
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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.
a number of notable speeches, particularly one upon the bill introduced near the close of the war for recruiting negroes into the army. He was in Richmond when the break-up came a few weeks later, and made a rapid tour by rail south to Greensboro and Augusta, thence north to Hali- fax county, Virginia, Richmond, and so on to Washington City; whence he made his way homeward, arriving in Louisville June 19, 1865. After revisiting old friends and relatives in Lewis and Greenup counties, he settled down again in August in the city for law practice, in company with Samuel Russell, Esq. For three years he devoted himself to an important and growing business, and then, in August, 1868, he was called to the Bench of the Ninth Judicial District, then consisting of Jefferson, Bullitt, Oldham, Shelby, and Spencer counties. It is worthy of note that he was elected by the tremendous majority of 10,61 I in a total poll of 14,817.
Judge Bruce was one of the pioneers in Ken- tucky in favor of making negroes competent witnesses in all cases, as shown in the following extract from a letter written by him to the Chica- go Evening Post February 20, 1869:
I have for years been in favor of throwing wide open the doors in courts of justice for the investigation of truth, and making all persons competent witnesses, without regard to race, color, or interest. And this I feel authorized to say is the sentiment of the great mass of the late Confederates of this State, and of the legal profession, without regard to politics. I am not sure that I express their sentiments as to interest, but as to race and color I am sure I do. The chief opposition to making negroes competent witnesses here is outside the legal profession, and it is constantly growing weaker ; and, I am sure, it is only a question of time as to when all persons will be competent witnesses in all cases.
And he showed himself the impartial friend of the colored man while he was Circuit Judge, as evidenced by the following extract from an opin- ion delivered by him in the case of Common- wealth vs. John Conley, of color, on the ques- tion of admitting hs confession :
An uneducated, ignorant, helpless negro, lately a slave, and recently made free, is thrown into jail, charged with the murder of a fellow-negro, and there he lies without counsel or friends to advise him. The Superintendent (of Police) and a policeman call and take him into a private room of the building-no one else present-and the Superintendent inter- rogates him as to where he was on the day of the supposed murder, where the deceased was that day, what they were doing, whether he did not kill the deceased that day and hide him in the woods, and other questions tending to elicit information as to the supposed murder. Some of the ques- tions were repeated several times. How much, if any, aus- terity and imperiousness were employed at the time is not
shown. This poor negro had been raised in habits of obe- dience to the white race. His race is known to stand in awe of the constituted authorities, and particularly of the police- man. Should the statements of such a person, in such a place, resting under such a charge, made in the presence of such persons, in reply to repeated questions with which he is plied by one of them who is the active head of the Police Department, be used as evidence against the prisoner thus making them. Is it not violative of the maxim, "Nemo tenetur seipsum prodere ?"
Had an intelligent, free-born, free-raised man, with the advan- tages of friends and counsel, been subjected to such an ex- amination, I might have come to a different conclusion. But in this case, considering the situation of the accused and all the attending circumstances, and in favorem vitæ, I feel it my duty not to allow his statements thus obtained to be proven to the jury.
His course as Circuit Judge was so highly ap- proved that upon the death of Chancellor Coch- ran, of the Louisville chancery court, in 1873, he was appointed by Governor Leslie to the vacancy, was regularly chosen by the people at the special election in March, 1873, and re-elected in August, 1874, for the full term of six years. He made a marked impression upon the Bar and the public, even during his first and shorter term. The Louisville Democrat of March 1, 1869, speaking of the "prompt and efficient administra- tion of the law in the criminal cases brought before Judge Bruce," said:
Such a judge is worth his weight in gold to any commu- nity like Louisville or other large city infested by thieves, burglars, and law-breakers of every description. Such offenders are only restrained from the commission of crime by the activity of the police and the certainty and promptness of punishment. The law loses half its terrors to evil-doers when it is tardily or loosely administered.
Judge Bruce while still upon the Circuit Bench gave a number of memorable opinions in impor- tant cases; as upon the application for a new trial in the case of Washington Ferguson, con- victed of murder, and another in the case of William Kriel, sentenced to be hanged. His charges to the grand juries were also specially noticeable, and several of them were published. As Chancellor some of his more remarkable opinions were pronounced in the cases of the Emanuel Episcopal church property, the City vs. the Public Library of Kentucky (a suit to re- cover a large sum of back taxes), E. H. Paine et al. vs. the Pullman Southern Car Company (in which about $150,000 were involved), the city vs. the Louisville Bridge Company, the Loretto Literary and Benevolent Institute vs. Henry L. Pope et al., and the Williams and Newcomb marital cases.
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Hamilton Pape.
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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.
In the early part of 1880 Judge Bruce resigned the Chancellorship, to accept a more lucrative position as attorney and counsellor of the Louis- ville & Nashville Railroad company. Upon his retirement, in March, a very complimentary notice of it was taken by the local Bar at a meet- ing held in the Chancery court-room on the 5th of that month. The following minute was re- ported by a strong committee of prominent law- yers and unanimously adopted :
Horatio W. Bruce has held the office of Chancellor of the Louisville Chancery Court for eight years. He has been dis- tinguished as a judge by his promptness and dignity, his pa- tience and urbanity, and his research and firmness. He has conducted the great and difficult business of the court over which he has presided with such system and laborious appli- cation that perhaps in no court in the country have litigants obtained a speedier settlement of controversies. He has gained the confidence of the Bar by the entire absence of any discrimination between counsel, and of the public by the sound sense and justice that have characterized his decisions. He leaves an office which he might have retained by the common consent of the Bar and the people. He has sat worthily in the seat of his distinguished predecessor. The members of the Bar, while regretting his retirement from the Bench, with unfeigned pleasure welcome his return to their ranks.
A public testimonial was also given the retir- ing Chancellor in the shape of a reception at the Galt House, where many handsome things in his behalf were said by leading attorneys and other citizens.
Judge Bruce has since been engaged by the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company, occu- pying one of the elegant offices of that great corporation at the corner of Main and Second streets. It is needless, after the foregoing notice, to descant upon the ability with which the legal interests of the company are guarded and guided. Judge Bruce is also called somewhat frequently to address the public on literary and other gen- eral topics; and his address to the graduating class of the Law Department of the University of Louisville, in which he was a professor, was much admired. He served seven or eight years in this school as Professor of the History and Science of Law, the Law of Real Property and Contracts, and Criminal Law, but resigned some time after taking his attorneyship for the railroad company. He was also for a time President of the Board of Trustees of the Louisville Medical College, and has otherwise been conspicuously identified with the affairs of the city.
Judge Bruce led to the altar June 12, 1856, at
Helm Place, in Hardin county, Kentucky, Miss Lizzie Barbour Helm, daughter of Governor John L. Helm, and granddaughter on the mother's side of the Hon. Ben Hardin. They have five children surviving-Helm, a graduate of the Louisville High School and the Washing- ton and Lee University, and also very recently of the Law Department of the University here ; Lizzie Barbour, Maria Preston Pope, Mary, and Alexander ;- all still residing with their parents, in their pleasant home on the corner of Third street and Weissenger avenue,
As member of the State Legislature, Com- monwealth's Attorney, member of the Council of the Provisional Government of Kentucky, member of the Confederate Congress, Circuit Judge, and Chancellor, Judge Bruce has spent about twenty years in the public service of his State.
In person Judge Bruce is tall, erect, and well formed, stands six feet two inches in height, and weighs from 175 to 180 pounds ; has blue eyes and straight, dark brown hair, in which the gray has not yet appeared ; has straight nose and square, well-formed chin, His manner is very courteous and dignified ; he is known for his kind thoughtfulness and consideration for the feelings of others, and for his unswerving recti- tude and high moral character. He impresses people with his kindness and hospitality, and is a worthy representative of the pure, chivalric gentleman of the South.
WORDEN POPE
was born in the year 1776, on Pope's Creek, in Virginia, in sight of where General Washington was born. Indeed, between the latter and the Popes of that day there was a relationship, as General Washington's grandmother was a Pope. Such a relationship was an honor to the Pope family, which is recognized and claimed, as to them and to Americans; and it is grander and far more ennobling than a relation to kings or princes.
At an early day, probably in 1779, Benjamin Pope, the father of Worden Pope, determined to emigrate to Kentucky, and did so. In doing so he crossed, in his wagons, the mountains of Virginia, descended the Ohio river, and landed
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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.
at the Falls thereof, at Patton's Fort, then situa- ted on what is now the corner of Main and Seventh streets. Whilst there, he remained out- side of the fort, and, having no corn, he bought for $150 in the Continental currency, a bushel thereof; and, having submitted to his family how it should be used, they unanimously voted it should be made into mush, with milk, he having a cow, and whilst the same was so used and eaten, the cry of Indians, who had crossed the Ohio river from Indiana, was heard. Benjamin Pope and his wife, with their children, rushed into the fort; but their son Nathaniel, older than Worden, was missing, and they supposed he had been killed or captured by the Indians. In a short time, however, he entered the fort, and was upbraided, if not punished, by his mother, for his temerity; and he responded, "Indians or no Indians, I was determined to eat that mush and milk."
The "Falls," as they were then known, and Louisville now, being full of ponds, with no springs, and being unhealthy, Benjamin Pope, like all Virginians ther, who cared nothing for money, but health and water, left the Falls, and emigrated to Salt River, in Bullitt county, Ken- tucky, where he thought those advantages, as well as good land, could be had, and where he made his home. That home is now occupied by his grandson, James Y. Pope, his worthy de- scendant, a gentleman, a fine farmer, of the ut- most probity and the highest character.
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When Benjamin Pope, the father of Worden, removed to Bullitt county, he established a ferry at Shepherdsville, as it is now known, and placed Worden in charge thereof. One day the Hon. Stephen Ormsby, who was then the Clerk of the Courts at Louisville, and afterwards Judge there- of and a Representative in Congress, an Irish- man, distinguished for his knowledge of men, his independence of thought and action, and his good education and ready wit, as well as his large acquirement of property, was ferried over Salt River by Worden. Whilst doing so they talked, and Ormsby said: "I am going to Bardstown [where he practiced as a lawyer], and if, on my return, you will go with me to Louisville, I will make a man of you." Worden gladly accepted the offer, and on Ormsby's return Worden came to Louisville with him. He entered the then town with leather breeches and a coon-skin cap,
with the tail turned downwards, the prevailing style of dress.
Ormsby placed Worden in his office, where he soon acquired a knowledge of its duties ; and on the resignation of the former, the latter was ap- pointed Clerk of the Circuit Court and the Coun- ty Court. The former he held until 1834, when he resigned, and his third son, Edmund Pendleton, was appointed; and the latter he held until 1838, when he died, and his fourth son, Curran Pope, was appointed in his stead.
In the commencement of his career as clerk, Worden Pope studied law, and always, down to his death, studied and practiced it. Being forbidden to practice it in Jefferson county, the county of his office, he practiced in Oldham, Nelson, Hardin, Bullitt, and Meade, but, as he grew older, he confined it to Oldham and Bullitt. His name was a tower of strength, and he was engaged on one side or the other of nearly every case therein, and his employment was regarded as an assurance of success by those who em- ployed him.
The writer of this was informed by the Hon. R. J. Browne, formerly of Washington county, now of this city, himself an eminent lawyer, when the Hon. Benjamin Hardin was a candidate for Congress, he was rebuked by his clients for his consequent inability to defend large ejectment cases brought for their lands in that county, he replied, "I have asked my friend, Worden Pope, a greater land-lawyer than I am, and the greatest in Kentucky, to represent me, and he will do so, and that will satisfy you." It did satisfy them, and Mr. Pope did attend to and gain them.
In addition to this, he practiced in the Federal court, and, after his resignation as clerk, in the Louisville Chancery court. In the great case of Beard's heirs against the city of Louisville and others, in the former court, he was counsel for the latter. The case occupied weeks, and, said a gentleman, "Mr. Pope, you have beaten the Duke of Town Fork, but you can't beat 'Old Blue-skin"" (the late Judge Mills of the Appellate Bench); but Mr. Pope won the case, which in- volved thousands, and even against two of the greatest lawyers in Kentucky.
Thoroughly comprehending and preparing his cases, leaving nothing undone requisite thereto, loving work, and doing it well, he was masterly in his argument thereof, and won them."
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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.
He was a decided politician, and the consist- ent, unflinching friend of General Andrew Jack- son, whose first nomination was made by him, the late William Pope, and Alexander Pope, at the house of the last on Jefferson street, between Sixth and Seventh. This they made because they thought Hon. Henry Clay, the "Great Commoner," as he proved to be, and who was the most practical statesman and the great- est and most eloquent leader this country pro- duced, could have prevented the Hon. John Pope, their kinsman, from having been burnt in effigy at Lexington, and in the General they could produce and develop a candidate for the Presidency who would keep Mr. Clay, who aspired thereto, therefrom.
In this canvass Worden Pope, under the nom de plume of Publicola, was the urgent and con- sistent advocate of the General in the Adver. tiser, edited by S. Penn, Jr., then the oldest newspaper in the West, which exerted a power- ful influence therein. The General and Mr. Pope were intimate friends, and the latter, at his house, gave the former the largest party ever then given in Louisville, when the General visited it.
General Jackson was a great man, recognizing not only the loyalty of his friends, but their abil- ity and qualifications for office ; and upon his ac- cession, by election, to the Presidency, tendered to Worden Pope any position within his gift, but being near-sighted and wholly unable to see in the night, the latter declined it, and asked that the Hon. John Pope, his cousin, should be placed on the Supreme Bench. This the Gen- eral· agreed to do, but did not do so; but yet he made John Pope Governor of Arkansas.
In the memorable struggles in this State be- tween the old and new Court parties, which con- vulsed it, Worden Pope was the stern and bold and steady advocate of the former. His charac- ter, ability, and able articles, placed him in the front rank of its best leaders. It felt and recog- nized his wide-spread and powerful influence, and it sought him as their leader, and wished to nominate him as their candidate for Governor; but, for the reasons indicated, he declined their nomination.
In person he was six feet high and weighed about one hundred and ninety pounds. Labori- ous in the extreme, and loving work for work's sake, amassing a fortune, but giving it away for
his friends, until he reduced himself to poverty, he seemed to think his life was not for himself, but his people and friends.
In his charity he was munificent, and he gave without knowing or counting what he gave. The late Coleman Daniel, a staunch Methodist, one of the purest and noble citizens of our city, told the writer of this that when he would hand the box around in his church for charitable purposes, Worden Pope would empty his purse, not know- ing what he gave, and that, for curiosity sake, he, Daniel, would count it, and that "it would amount to hundreds of dollars."
His home was always open to the poor and needy, and his ear to the cry of distress. He was, it may be said, the adviser of his county, and in the advice he gave the utmost confidence was placed. For he never charged, nor did he ever charge a widow, orphan, or minister of the Gospel, or a young lawyer. He adjusted diffi- culties amongst his friends and prevented litiga- tion by his counsel; and when rebuked by those who thought suits should have been brought and fees obtained, he would respond, "My advice is my own, and I will give it." In his practice, however, he aided young lawyers, devoting his abilities to them, rejoicing in their success, but refusing fees they insisted on sharing with him.
Unflinching in his friendship, stern and un- yielding in his opposition to fraud or wrong, of the loftiest integrity, and bold in his assertion of right, he was yet placable in his hostilities, and charitable with the faults of others.
He had thirteen children-Patrick, the eldest, who defeated Hon. Henry Crittenden for Con- gress in a Whig district of a majority of six hun- dred; John Thruston, Edmund P., Edmonia, Curran, who was the Colonel of the Fifteenth Kentucky Regiment in the late war, and whose regiment behaved with so much gallantry on the battlefield of Perryville and covered itself with undying honors, where his gallant Lieutenant- Colonel Jouett and his brave Major Campbell were killed at his side, and he was wounded, from the effect of which, with typhoid fever he had at the time of the battle, he died at the Rev. E. P. Humphrey's in Danville ; Hamilton, Eliza- beth, Gideon Blackburn, Felix Grundy, Paul, Alfred, and Mary, and a child unnamed, and Hamilton, a practicing lawyer of the Louisville bar, who is his only surviving child.
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This sketch of Worden Pope, his life, charac- ter, and career, would be incomplete unless men- tion was made of what D. R. Poignard, a farmer, of Spencer county, now old, a cultivated gentle- man, of polished experience, wonderful accom- plishments, and an eloquent conversationist, said. It is this: "Sir, knowing Worden Pope as I did, and what he did for his country, it ought to erect to his memory a monument; it is due him, and I will subscribe thereto." He but echoed what people thought.
His funcral was attended by thousands. So many, for that day, who mourned his loss, re- vered his memory, and spoke of his life with pride and reverence. So large was that funeral that George D. Prentice, editor of the Journal, though a political opponent, spoke of it as a wonderful and just tribute to the dead.
To this day, among the old people, his char- acter, career, and deeds are spoken of and remembered, and his maxims quoted and cher- ished.
He was a constant reader of the Bible, and carried a pocket edition with him. In it he firmly believed, and often quoted from it, regard- ing it as the Word of the great God, by which he sought to be, and was, in all his actions, guided. That Bible is now kept and held by the surviving son. In his daily life he was gov- erned by its precepts, and tried to live on and be governed by it. When not engaged, he turned to it, and in his lonely hours he seemed to be supported and sustained by it.
ALEXANDER SCOTT BULLITT,
the subject of this sketch, was born in the year 1761 or 1762. The record on his tombstone is: " Died, April 13, 1816, in the 54th year of his age. Emigrated to Kentucky in 1783."
He was the son of Cuthbert Bullitt and Helen Scott, mentioned in a previous part of this work, and was born in Prince William county, Vir- ginia. His father designed him for the bar, and from his talent, courage, and enterprise, conceiv- ing great hopes of his future, kept him engaged in collegiate studies until his twenty-first or twenty-second year.
He thus laid the foundation of an education somewhat unusual in those days, but in after
years he informed his son, William C. Bullitt, that this rigid and long-continued course of study had disgusted him with books, and to his father's wish that he should enter upon the law, he replied that he would rather make his fortune in fighting the Indians. The thought of the years of further study necessary properly to pre- pare him for the bar was repulsive to him. Doubtless he was animated also by the love of adventure which characterized so many of the youth and even the older men of that day. Ac- cordingly he emigrated to Kentucky. The earlier and the latter portions of his life were in singular contrast.
Three times he crossed the mountains lying between Kentucky and Virginia, preparatory to his final settlement in the State; and in those days each passage of the mountains was fraught with hardship and with peril. On one of these trips he was seized with a violent fever and felt that it was impossible for him to proceed. But being in a wilderness, it was equally impossible for his party to remain. The certainty of death from the Indians or by starvation stimulated his expiring energies, and on horseback he accom- panied his companions to the stations.
He first settled on Bull Skin, in Shelby county. He resided there for a short time, and deeming his settlement too far from the Falls of the Ohio, he removed to Jefferson county, and purchased the farm Ox Moor, about eight and one-half miles from Louisville, which is still the property of his descendants.
In the fall of 1785 he married Priscilla Chris- tian, the daughter of Colonel William Christian, then scarcely fifteen years of age. He was with Colonel Christian on the 9th of April, 1786, when the latter was killed in an engagement with the Indians on the north side of the Ohio river. The exact date of this engagement, left uncer- tain in the Histories of Kentucky, is fixed by the inscription on the tombstone over Colonel Chris- tian.
The early and thorough education of Colonel Bullitt now proved of value to him. He soon became a man of influence, which he retained as long as he consented to remain in public life.
In 1792 (then about thirty years of age) he was elected and served as a member of the con- vention at Danville, which formed the first con- stitution of Kentucky.
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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.
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