History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I, Part 104

Author: Williams, L.A., & Co., Cleveland
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : L. A. Williams & Co.
Number of Pages: 814

USA > Ohio > History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I > Part 104

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He was president of the convention of 1799, which formed the second constitution of the State. In 1800 he was elected and served one term as Lieutenant Governor of the State, and from that time until 1808 served as Representa- tive or Senator in the State Legislature.

At this time he retired from public life, being about forty-six years of age.

Meanwhile, having acquired a handsome for- tune-his farm Ox Moor being a very fertile and beautiful tract of about 1,000 acres, and having a considerable family of slaves-his habits of life changed. From the active and energetic youth, who courted all the hardships of frontier life, he now became sedentary, devoting himself to books and to the retirement of a country life. Doubtless the death of his wife, which occurred November 11th, 1806, exerted an in- fluence in this direction. He married a second time. This lady was a Miss Churchill, who sur- vived him, but there is no living posterity de- scended from this marriage.

Colonel Bullitt displayed excellent judgment in his library, which was extensive for those days and well selected, and is still in existence.

He was a man of stern will and quick temper, but withal a man of social disposition. Society was in those days a thing to be sought, and fre- quently Colonel Bullitt would walk to the road to waylay travelers to bring them for the night under his roof. His sedentary habits during the latter years of his life brought on disease, and to this his family attributed his death at the early age of fifty-three years.

We have referred several times in this article to the records upon the tombstones. These are found in the old graveyard, located on the farm belonging to Colonel Christian and adjoining Colonel Bullitt's farm, Ox Moor. It is doubtless the oldest graveyard still existing in Jefferson county, and perhaps in the State. It is sur- rounded by a strong and substantial stone wall. The earliest burial in it was that of Colonel Christian, in 1786, and it now contains the remains of five successive generations; three of which generations have all passed from the stage of human life. A corporation known as the "Ox Moor Burying-ground Company," has been created and a considerable sum of money been provided by the descendants of Colonel Bullitt to keep the grounds permanently in order.

WILLIAM CHRISTIAN BULLITT.

William C. Bullitt, son of Alexander Scott Bul- litt and Priscilla Christian, was born at the farm Ox Moor, in Jefferson county, on the 14th of February, 1793. His father dying in the year 1816 devised to him this farm, upon which he lived the greater part of his life, and owned it at his death. He was admitted to the bar in Louis- ville in December, 1812, being not twenty years of age. He practiced at that bar with con- siderable success until the year 1817, when he came under the ban of the dueling law, by rea- son of a challenge sent to the Hon. Ben Hardin. By the operation of that law he lost the right to practice his profession, but returned to it within a few months, the Legislature by a general law having relieved the then existing disabilities of all persons who had incurred its penalties. On the first of September, 1819, he married Mildred Ann Fry, the daughter of Joshua Fry, who was early distinguished as a teacher in Kentucky. Finding the law too great a strain upon a some- what delicate constitution, he retired from the bar early in 1820, and settled upon his farm, where his family were all raised. His education was derived almost entirely from his father, hav- ing attended school but a very short time during his youth. He at all times took a deep interest in politics, was a constant student and well versed in history, but never entered upon public life, the only public office which he held being that of a member of the convention in 1849, which formed the present constitution of Ken- tucky. In youth he was of a gay and joyous disposition, but of quick temper. In later years he became reserved and somewhat stern. Clear, strong sense, and unyielding firmness of purpose, perfect candor in his dealings with men, and a strong sense of justice, were his marked charac- teristics. While he mingled but little in society, his home was distinguished for that rare hospital- ity which marked the early days of Kentucky. During the late war the disturbed condition of society in the country induced him to remove to the city of Louisville, and he never afterwards resided on his farm. He died August 28, 1877, in the eighty-fifth year of his age, and his wife died July 12, 1879, in the eighty-third year of her age. They left surviving them six children, Hon. Joshua F. Bullitt, of Louisville; John C. Bullitt, of Philadelphia; Thomas W. Bullitt, of

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

Louisville, all of whom are lawyers; and Henry M. Bullitt, a farmer, who resides upon a part of the old farm. The daughters are Mrs. Sue B. Dixon, wife of Hon. Archibald Dixon, of Hen- derson, Kentucky, and Helen M. Chenoweth, wife of Dr. Henry Chenoweth, of Jefferson county.

JOSEPH B. KINKEAD, EsQ.

This well-known resident of the Kentucky city at the Falls of the Ohio, long one of the prominent members of the Bar in Louisville, is a native of Versailles, Woodford county, Ken- tucky. He was the second son of Robert and Elizabeth (Bryson) Kinkead. His father was a prosperous owner of a large flouring-mill and cotton-spinning establishment in Versailles, and also Postmaster of that place for about a quarter of a century, under the administration of Presi- dents Monroe (appointed about 1827), Jackson, Van Buren, Harrison, Tyler, Polk, Taylor, and in part that of Fillmore. He had become a citizen of Woodford county about 1812, immi- grating thither from Rockbridge county, Virginia. The inother's family was from Washington, Pennsylvania. On both sides the stock is from the excellent Scotch-Irish, which has given so many reputable and useful citizens to the New World.

Young Kinkead was trained in elementary ed- ucation in the schools of the period at Versailles, and also prosecuted a preparatory course for a time at Augusta College, below Maysville, on the Ohio, then one of the most famous institutions of learning in the State. At the age of eighteen he received an appointment as midshipman in the United States Navy, through the voluntary kindness of Senator Thomas H. Benton, Vice- President Richard M. Johnson, and Major Her- man Bowmar, Sr., of Versailles. Ordered at once to the steamship Missouri, he found the second in command of it Alexander Slidell Mac- kenzie, who shortly afterwards hanged at the yard-arm of the Somers young Spencer, son of the Secretary of the Navy, for mutiny. Captain John Thomas Newton was the superior com- mander. By request at Pensacola some time after, he was transferred to the receiving-ship Ontario, at New Orleans, with which he remained but a few months while awaiting a leave of ab-

sence. It being granted, he returned to Ken- tucky, and there resigned his commission, at the instance of his father, who preferred to have his son nearer home; and resolved to study law. He entered the office of a distant relative, George B. Kinkead, Esq., at Versailles, with whom he completed a course of professional reading, and was granted in 1845 a license to practice, by the Hons. John Mason Brown and Richard A. Buckner, two of the then Circuit Judges of Kentucky.

He began practice at once in his native place, alone; but presently joined his interests with those of Caleb W. Logan, who had then a fine local business, but afterwards removed to Louisville, and there became Chancellor of the Chancery Court in that city. This removal closed the partnership; Mr. Kinkead assumed the practice of the firm single-handed, and maintained it until 1850, when he also re- moved to Louisville, where he has since resided as a practitioner at the bar. He was at first alone in the business here; but, in 1854, was joined by the present Judge John W. Barr, of the United States District Court, who was also a native of Versailles, and is the subject of another sketch in this chapter. The new firm was Kin- kead & Barr, and it lasted about eight years, when it was dissolved.

In 1855, June 20th, Mr. Kinkead was united in marriage to Miss Lucy Ridgely Short, fourth daughter of Dr. Charles W. and Mary H. (Churchill) Short. Her father was widely known as one of the most learned and industrious botanists and professors of medicine in the Ohio Valley, and his distinguished life and public services form the subject of a biographical no- tice elsewhere. She departed this life April 8, 1868. They had children as follow: Eliza- beth, married Mr. William O. Eastin, of Ver- sailles, now of Lexington, Kentucky, and died in January, 1880; Peyton Short, married Miss Sallie Johnson, of Lake Washington, Mississippi, February 8, 1882, and resides in Versailles; Robert C., married Julia, daughter of William F. Grinstead, of Louisville, February 24, 1881, and is a practicing lawyer in partnership with his father, at No. 8 Center street, in this city ; Mary Churchill, Charles Short, and Annie Lucy, still residing with their father, in their pleasant residence at 917 Second street, near . Broadway.

J.B. Skinheads

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

After the dissolution of Kinkead & Barr, the former remained alone in practice for many years, but spending most of his time necessarily in discharging the duties of large fiduciary trusts committed to him. In 1880 he took his son Robert into professional partnership, as above noted, under the name and style of J. R. & R. C. Kinkead, by which it is now well and repu- tably known.

Mr. Kinkead has often been solicited to em- bark in politics, and to accept various local, State, and Federal offices; but has almost in- variably declined, and studiously avoided the vicissitudes and excitements of official or political life. Many years ago, however, he occasionally made speeches in the campaigns of the Demo- cratie party, with which he trained until the Presidential canvass of 1860, during and since which he has been quietly identified with Re- publicanism. He was also Pension Agent in Louisville from 1854 to 1861 ; but has never been in any way an office-seeker or professional politician. He is a Presbyterian in religious con- victions, a member of the College Street church ; was one of the founders of the ITouse of Refuge, and for years a member of the Board of Direc- tors ; has long been associated with the Order of Free and Accepted Masons, and was a charter member of De Molay Commandery of Knights Templars; and has otherwise been somewhat conspicuously identified with affairs in the city of his adoption. He has served in both branches of the City Council, and also in the Directory of two of the heaviest local moneyed institutions-the Bank of Louisville and the National Bank of Kentucky.

PERSONAL NOTES.

Judge Fortunatus Cosby was born in Georgia in 1766, December 25th. After graduating at William and Mary College and studying law, he was married to Mary Fontaine, daughter of Cap- tain Aaron Fontaine, who was then but sixteen years of age. In 1798, he came to Kentucky, and with his father-in-law's family settled near Louisville. After a time he moved into Louis- ville and began law practice, in which he met with marked success. In place ot his little log cabin he built the second brick residence put up

in Louisville. In 1810, he received the appoint- ment of Circuit Judge. This place he held for a period of years, establishing, meanwhile, the reputation of being an able lawyer and an im- partial officer. At one time he was the owner of a large part of the land where Louisville now stands. Possessing, too, the capability of quickly and easily amassing wealth, he with this quality had a heart full of generous impulses, which prompted him to do for others as much or more than he did for himself. Brilliant and scholarly, he became the chosen friend of many people of note, among them Henry Clay. His noble wife, also, made their home ever an attractive place. He died October 19, 1847.

Fortunatus Cosby, Jr., son of the preceding and one of a family of seven children, was widely known as a poet and scholar. He was born at Harrod's Creek, near Louisville, May 2, 1801. First a student at Yale, he finally graduated at Transylvania University. A student of law, he never practiced his profession. During a period of years he was the able principal of a female school of great reputation, and afterward became the Superintendent of Public Schools in Louis- ville. While engaged in educational pursuits he was a constant contributor of criticisms, poems, essays, etc., of a high character of excellence. At one time he was editing the Louisville "Ex- aminer," and at another was employed in a Gov- ernment office at Washington. In 1861, he be- came Consul to Geneva, Switzerland. In 1826, he was married to Miss Ellen Blake, a beautiful and accomplished lady, whose death occurred in 1848. Mr. Cosby died June 15, 1871. The oldest child, Robert Todd, a poet of ability, died in 1853, aged twenty-five years. George, who received his education at West Point, finally became a General in the Confederate army. Frank C. is an officer in the United States navy. Of the remaining four children Ellen married John S. Carpenter, and Mary was first the wife of Colonel Lucius Rich, Confederate States army, and, after his death, married Thomas Bradley, Washington, District of Columbia. The writings of the Cosby family have never been put into book form.

The Hon. Richard Clough Anderson, Jr., was a native of Louisville, born August 4, 1788, son of the celebrated surveyor, Colonel R. C. Ander- son, Sr., and Elizabeth (Clark) Anderson, sister

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of General George Rogers Clark. He graduated at William and Mary College, read law with the celebrated Randolph Tucker, in Virginia, re- turned to Kentucky and practiced for many years with eminent success, served several terms in the Legislature and twice in Congress, where he added materially to his fame, was appointed by President Monroe in 1823 Minister to Colom- bia and negotiated an important treaty with that Government, and in 1826 was Envoy Extraor- dinary to Panama, but died on his way thither, at Turbaco, July 24, 1826. His successor to Co- lombia was General W. H. Harrison. He was engaged in his last years in writing a History of that Republic and its political institutions. He is remembered as a pure, upright, and very able man.

William Rowan, father of the distinguished lawyer, statesman, and orator, John Rowan, a resident of Louisville for about thirty years, was a pioneer in the Indian period at the falls of Green river. The son was trained at Dr. Priest- ley's famous school, in Bardstown, and studied law under George Nicholas. Only four years after his admission to the bar he was chosen, in 1799, a member of the State Constitutional Con- vention. He removed to Frankfort in 1800, and was Secretary of the State during Governor Greenup's administration. In 1807, then resid- ing in Nelson county, he was chosen to the Fed- eral House of Representatives, and served with distinction. Ten years after this election, when he had become a resident of Louisville, he was appointed a Judge of the Supreme Court, and in 1824 was elected by the State Legislature to the Senate of the United States. Here, among other notable occurrences, he took part in the great debate upon the Foote resolutions in 1829, and it is said that after his speech Mr. Webster de- clared to a fellow-Senator that the States'-rights party had displayed consummate generalship in bringing up Mr. Rowan as a reserve, since his effort was one of the most masterly of the debate. His family-of whom Hon. John Rowan, for several years American charge d'affaires at Naples, was one-had also remarkable talent, and of his law-pupils at least five became mem- bers of Congress. He died in Louisville July 13, 1843.

Judge Samuel Smith Nicholas was born in Lexington, Kentucky, in the year 1797. He

was the son of George Nicholas, who was an in- fluential member of the convention which framed the constitution of the State of Kentucky, and whose family figure prominently in the history of Virginia. His mother came from a well-known Maryland family named Smith, members of which were statesmen and patriots during the Revolution, and held important Cabinet posi- tions in early times of the Federal Government. General Samuel Smith was United States Sen- ator from Maryland for twenty-nine years, and for distinguished services during the War of 1812, received a sword from Congress. The subject of our sketch was the twelfth of thirteen children, the two youngest alone remaining out of the entire family at the end of eight or ten years. Through security debts and the misman- agement of executors, these children came penni- less upon the care of relatives, although their father had been in possession of a large fortune. General Samuel Smith, of Baltimore, the uncle for whom the subject of our sketch was named, received him into his family and gave him work in his counting-room, where, during intervals of leisure, he pursued several studies alone with wonderful success. His early education was received entirely in three or four years at a coun- try school. When sixteen years old he was sent on one of his uncle's vessels on two voyages to South America and China, during which he gained the Spanish language and kept an ex- cellent journal of his travels. On his return he be- gan mercantile life at New Orleans, but becoming satisfied of his unfitness for that business he ex- changed it for the study of law in Frankfort, Kentucky. In 1825 he began law practice in Louisville, and was soon appointed agent and lawyer for the old United States Bank. He was first married in 1829 to Matilda Prather, of Louisville. She died fifteen years later, leaving him seven children. Four years from her death he was again married, to his cousin, Mary Smith, the granddaughter of General Samuel Smith, of Baltimore, who became the mother of three chil- dren. She died after her husband in 1874. In 1831 Judge Nicholas was appointed by Gov- ernor Metcalfe to that office in the Court of Ap- peals, but six years later resigned. He after- wards was appointed to the place of Chancellor at Louisville by Governor Letcher, which he also resigned from principle when the office became

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elective. In 1850 he was appointed with others by Governor Crittenden, to revise the Code of Practice in Kentucky. In the emancipation movement in this State he was a zealous leader, although himself owning slaves. After retiring from the position of Chancellor he resumed the practice of his profession, but limited his work to the most difficult cases, giving much of his time to writing and study. A patriot of the higher type, he could never be called a party man. During early secession times, he probably did more than any other man to keep his State loyal to the Union. His death occurred in No- vember of 1869. While in the social circle he seemed cold and distant, as a judicial officer he was ever courteous and just. Always interested in the advancement of those about him, he did a great work in education and benevolence.

Hon. Patrick H. Pope was born March 17, 1806, in Louisville, Kentucky, and' was the eldest son of the distinguished Worden Pope. Graduating as valedictorian from St. Joseph's College, Bardstown, Kentucky, he began the practice of law in the city of his birth, in 1827. Speedily rising to distinction in his profession, he declined the place of Secretary of State under Governor Breathitt, but, in 1834, was elected to Congress, which position he filled with credit to himself and acceptance to his electors. In 1836 he represented Jefferson county in the State Legislature. His death occurred May 4, 1840. He was a consistent believer in Chris- tianity, being a member of the Presbyterian church. In politics he was a Jackson Demo- crat. July 17, 1827, he was married to Sarah L. Brown. Their son, Worden, lost his life at 19 years of age, in Walker's expedition to Nicar- agua. Their other children are Elizabeth T., wife of Dr. William H. Galt; Urith, wife of J. Fry Lawrence; Ellen E., wife of Dr. John T. Thrus- ton ; and Mary A., wife of George Nicholas. Although dying so early in life, Mr. Pope held in possession rare qualities socially, and had gained an enviable public rank. His conversa- tional powers, integrity of character, and elo- quence made him one of the first lawyers of his time.

Hon. Joshua Fry Bullitt was born in Jefferson county, Kentucky, February 22, 1822. During his boyhood he attended a private school, and then spent some time clerking, before entering

Centre College. Following his course here he attended the University of Virginia one year, when he returned home and studied law, and was admitted to the bar in Louisville, in 1844. He has been associated in business at various times with Messrs. F. Fairthorne, J. C. Bullitt, Ballard Smith, S. B. Smith, Henry Stites, W. O. Harris, and Thomas W. Bullitt. He has filled a number of public offices-one of the Board of Aldermen of Louisville, a member of the State Legislature, member of the Court of Appeals, and then Chief Justice of that Court. On the 5th of July, 1863, on the pretense that certain persons were conspiring to invite the Confeder- ates into the State and so bring about civil war, the Government authorities caused the arrest of Judge Bullitt and other prominent citizens, and either sent them to prison or banished them from the State. Subsequently he was appointed to aid in revising the Code of Practice in Ken- tucky, and afterwards one of the editors of the Civil Code. In politics he was a Whig up to 1855, after which he became a Douglas Deino- crat. December 6, 1846, he was married to Miss Elizabeth B. Smith, of Louisville. They have three children.

Andrew J. Ballard, son of James Ballard and grandson of Bland Ballard, the famous pioneer and Indian fighter, was a native of Shelby coun- ty, received an academic education in the Shel- byville Seminary, read law with Hon. George M. Bibb, and attended Transylvania University in 1835-36. He was admitted to the bar at Louis- ville in 1837, and at once began practice, which he continued ably and successfully for a quarter of a century, or until his appointment as Clerk of the United States Circuit and District Courts for the District of Kentucky, in which office he served from 1862 to 1870. The next year he became the chief political writer for the Louis- ville Commercial ; but remained with the paper little more than during the campaign of General John M. Harlan as a candidate for Governor. He then retired substantially from active bus- iness, and during the next five or six years made two visits to Europe. April 27, 1848, he was married to Miss Frances Ann, only daughter of Charles M. Thruston, and a grandniece of Gen- eral George Rogers Clark.

Addison W. Gazley was born at Edmiston, Otsego county, New York, December 31, 1818.

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

He was educated in the public schools and an academy near Rochester till his fourteenth year, when for five years he was a clerk in a store at Binghampton. In 1837 he borrowed $100 from his brother and started west. After visiting a number of the larger cities he came to Louisville, and soon found employment with Mr. A. Bay- less, with whom he remained three years. Be- tween 1840 and 1845 he divided his time between commercial affairs and the study of law, at the latter date was admitted to the bar, and one year later began practice in Louisville, where he has since labored. His professional life has been a success, affording him the means of discharging long-standing, burdensome debts, some of them contracted while a student, and one to his older brother dating back to his twelfth year. In 1874 he organized the Louisville Plate Glass company, and refusing the presidency, he accepted the vice-presidency. He has long been identified with the order of Masons. On the IIth of February, 1851, he was married to Miss Sallie I. Wheeler, daughter of Josiah Wheeler, of Oldham county, Kentucky. They have five living children. Mr. Gazley has had a busy and laborious life, but his pecuniary success and the eminence he has gained in his profession have given him ease and competency, with the esteem of all who know him, for his old age.

Judge Bland Ballard was born September 4, 1819, in Shelby county, Kentucky. His early education having been gained at Shelby and Hanover Colleges, he entered upon the study of the law in the office of Hon. James T. More- head. The year following, he graduated in the law department of the Transylvania University, and at once began practice in Shelbyville. The winter of the same year he removed his practice to Louisville. In 1846 he was married to Miss Sarah McDowell, daughter of Dr. William A. Mc- Dowell and granddaughter of Samuel McDowell, the first marshal of Kentucky. She was sister, also, to the distinguished surgeon, Dr. Ephraim McDowell. In 1861 Judge Ballard received the appointment from President Lincoln of United States District Judge, and long retained the position. He was President of the Kentucky Na- tional Bank, President of Cave Hill Cemetery Company, and a Trustee for the Institution of the Blind. For years he was one of Louisville's most enterprising and public-spirited men. A

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History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I, Part 104

Author: Williams, L.A., & Co., Cleveland Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : L. A. Williams & Co. Number of Pages: 814

Author: Williams, L.A., & Co., Cleveland
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : L. A. Williams & Co.
Number of Pages: 814