USA > Ohio > Memoirs of the lower Ohio valley, personal and genealogical : with portraits, Volume I > Part 27
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corporation until 1883, when he became its president, a position he afterwards resigned to give his attention to affairs of great impor- tance to the city of Louisville and the State of Kentucky. Chief of the enterprises that occupied his attention at that time was, perhaps, the building of a second bridge across the Ohio river. This enter- prise, which involved an expenditure of $2,500,000, was pushed to com- pletion in 1886 by Colonel Young with characteristic energy. This was the largest cantilever bridge that had up to that time been con- structed. To make the Kentucky and Indiana bridge a success, a Southern railway outlet was needed. In company with other Louis- ville capitalists he inaugurated the Louisville & Southern railway, con- necting with the Cincinnati Southern at Burgin, which gave to Louis- ville another great Southern railway outlet. The completion of this line marked a new era in the development of Louisville and contributed vastly to her commercial importance. Thus without burdening herself with any obligations Louisville secured a trunk line railway connec- tion with the South, similar to that for which Cincinnati a few years before had expended nearly $20,000,000. At a still later date Colonel Young became interested in the organization of the Richmond, Nich- olasville, Irvin & Beattyville railway, but left its construction to other parties. To the development of Southern resources and the rehabilita- tion and rejuvenation of the Southland he has largely devoted his time and energies during the most active period of his life. Still a leading practitioner at the Louisville bar, a large share of his time is devoted to the legal business of corporations. With all movements designed to promote the prosperity of Louisville he has been very actively engaged. In recognition of his services to the city and state he was elected an honorary member of the board of trade, being the young- est man upon whom this honor had ever been conferred. In 1884 he was honored with the presidency of the Southern Exposition. In 1890 he was elected a member of the constitutional convention and was one of its most influential agents in forming the present organic law of the state. Notwithstanding the fact that he was a very busy man in his profession he has found time to devote to lit- erary pursuits. He is the author of a "History of the Three Con- stitutions of Kentucky," and "A History of the Division of the Presby- terian Church of Kentucky." He has contributed largely to every phase of church work; established and largely endowed the Bellwood seminary and the Kentucky Presbyterian Normal School at Anchor- age; was one of the reorganizers of the Louisville public library and has been its president for several years ; is president of the Kentucky
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Confederate Home ; president of the Kentucky institute for the blind ; commander of the Kentucky division of the United Confederate Vet- erans, and has established a reputation as one of the most successful and eloquent lawyers at the Kentucky bar. He enjoys a large and lucrative practice ; has declined all political honors ; has never held any office, and has persistently declined to seek any political preferment.
EMBRY LEE SWEARINGEN, presi- dent of the Kentucky Title Company and the Kentucky Title Savings bank, of Lou- isville, was born at Millwood, Bullitt county, Ky., Jan. 27, 1863. He is a son of George W. and Mary (Embry) Swear- ingen, and is of the tenth generation from Gerrit Van Swearingen, the first of the family in America. Gerrit Van Swear- ingen was one of the younger sons of a Dutch nobleman and a native of Beem- sterdam, North Holland. In 1656 he was sent to America in command of a vessel laden with supplies for the Dutch colony at New Amsterdam, now New York. The good ship was lost in a storm off the Atlantic coast, which led Captain Van Swearingen to abandon the sea and the same year he settled in Maryland. His wife was Barbara De Barette, of Valenciennes. Four generations of the family lived in Maryland. Toward the close of the seventeenth century the "Van" was dropped from the name and since that time it has been written "Swearingen." In the year 1804 some of the family came to Kentucky and settled in Bullitt county. At that time William Wallace Swearingen, the grand- father of Embry L., was an infant, having been born in Maryland in 1803. He grew to manhood in Bullitt county and in time became a wealthy farmer and slaveholder. He married Julia F. Crist, daughter of Hon. Henry Crist, a native of Berkeley county, in what is now West Virginia. Henry Crist was one of the distinguished pioneers of Kentucky. He was noted as an Indian fighter and served in the Kentucky legislature continuously from 1795 to 1806. In 1809 he was elected to Congress and served two years. William Wallace Swear- ingen died in 1869 and his wife in 1838. He was widely known in Bullitt and adjoining counties and was an influential citizen. George W. Swearingen, the father of the subject of this sketch, was born and reared in Bullitt county. He was educated at the Washington
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academy and Centre college, Danville, Ky., and after leaving school in 1856 taught for a year. In 1860 he purchased the old homestead and conducted it until 1866, when he removed to Louisville and there be- came actively identified with business enterprises. In 1869 he built the Mellwood distillery, which he successfully operated until 1890, its product being known far and wide as the equal of any in the market. In 1890 he organized the Union National bank and was elected president of the institution, which office he continued to hold by repeated re-elections until the time of his death. He was also one of the organizers of the Kentucky Title Company and was for some time its president. In addition to these two concerns he was con- nected as a stockholder and in other ways with various undertakings that tended to promote the industrial and commercial prosperity of Louisville. He was recognized as one of the liberal minded, public spirited men of the "Falls City," one who was always willing to con- tribute from his time and means to the public welfare. He was married in 1858 to Mary Embry, daughter of Samuel Embry, a veteran of the war of 1812, and a granddaughter of Henry Embry, who came from Virginia and settled in Green county, Ky., in 1790. One of her uncles, Ben T. Embry, was a prominent planter in Arkansas, served several terms in the legislature, and was once speaker of the state senate. During the Civil war he commanded a regiment of Confederate cavalry. In this connection it is worthy of mention that some of the Swearingen family have been in every war in which the people of the United States have been concerned since the middle of the seventeenth century. Their names appear on the muster rolls of the early Indian wars, the French and Indian war, the Revolution, the war of 1812, the Mexican war, and the great Civil war, many of them as commissioned officers. Embry Lee Swear- ingen was prepared for college at the Rugby school in Louisville. In three of the four years' course he carried off the first honors of his class and in the other year stood second. In 1878 he entered the University of Virginia but was soon compelled to leave on account of his health. A year later he returned to the university and after taking the academic course devoted three years to the study of special sub- jects, graduating from several different departments of the university. He then went to Philadelphia, where he became one of the partners in the establishment of a hosiery and knit goods factory. A year later, after thoroughly familiarizing himself with all the different processes of manufacture, he returned to Louisville and established a factory there for the manufacture of hosiery, knit goods, woolens and
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jeans, one of the first factories of the kind in the South. He con- tinued to conduct this business for about eight years, during which time he was constantly extending his trade into new territory, until his goods were sold in nearly every state of the Union. Toward the close of that period he employed about two hundred people. Al- though the concern was a good advertisement for the city the profits were not satisfactory to Mr. Swearingen and he disposed of the plant to become general manager of the Kentucky Title Company. He continued as general manager until 1895, when he was elected to the presidency, and he has been continued in that position ever since. As the chief executive officer of the company he has been brought into contact with the real estate interests and great financial institutions of the city, and has impressed himself upon the managers and directors of these interests and institutions as a man of sound judgment, sagacity, and correct business principles. In 1900 he or- ganized the Kentucky Title Savings bank. Mr. Swearingen is also a director in the Union National bank; was one of the first members of the Commercial club; and an active member of the first City Development committee. In all these capacities his enterprise and public spirit have been made manifest in the promotion of various plans for the advancement of the city's prosperity. He was married in 1887 to Miss Lalla Robinson, daughter of Lawrence and Amelia (Owsley) Robinson, a granddaughter of Rev. Stuart Robinson, and a great-granddaughter of Hon. William Owsley, who was judge of the Kentucky appellate court from 1812 to 1828, and who was elected governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 1844 and served four years. Mrs. Swearingen died in 1897, and in 1901 Mr. Swearingen was married to Miss Ada C. Badger, of Chicago, Ill., daughter of A. C. Badger, who came to Louisville from Portsmouth, N. H., when a boy and soon became identified with the business interests of the city as a partner in the well known banking firm of A. D. Hunt & Co. In 1850 he married Elvira C. Sheridan and in 1861 they moved to Chicago, where he became actively interested in banking and lumber business.
JOHN FREDERICK KELLNER, prominent among the busi- ness men of the city of Louisville, and equally prominent in fra- ternal circles and as a member of the numerous German-American societies of the city, has had a career which illustrates forcibly the strength of the German character and the tenacity of purpose which makes the typical German successful in life. He was born in
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Bavaria and is the son of John and Barbara (Boehlein) Kellner. His education was limited to attendance in the schools of his native city until thirteen years of age. In his native land, famous the world over for the excellence of its brews, he learned the art of brewing, or at least laid the foundation of his knowledge of the art. In 1864 he came to the United States, locating at Cannelton, Ind., where he found employment in the Cannelton coal mines. After six months' work in this field he went to Kankakee, Ill., where until 1868 he found fairly remunerative employment in various capacities. In that year he came to Louisville and went to work at his trade in the Zang & Vogt, now the Phoenix Brewing Com- pany's plant. He worked for this firm until 1872, when he ob- tained a better position in the brewing business just then estab- lished by Frank Fehr and Mr. Brohm. He soon became actively identified with the business management of this brewery, and when Mr. Fehr organized and became the head of the corporation known as the Frank Fehr Brewing Company, took full charge of its collec- tions .and outside business. During these years of hard, earnest toil he demonstrated that he possessed strong business capacity, and learned how to husband his means, investing his savings in the stock of the corporation with which he was connected. In 1890 he was elected vice-president of this concern. Sharing in its prosperity and in the conduct and management of the business, he has suc- ceeded in building up a fortune which he will know how to enjoy. His thorough knowledge of the business, his high standing in com- mercial circles and the intimate relationship that he sustained to Mr. Fehr made him the logical successor to the latter as head of the corporation, and on the death of Mr. Fehr in March, 1891, Mr. Kellner succeeded to the emoluments and responsibilities of that office. So successfully has he managed the affairs of the company that he still remains its chief officer. Mr. Kellner has at all times shown a broad liberality and a commendable public spirit. He and his business associates were the most liberal contributors to the enter- tainment of the thousands of veterans of the Civil war who visited Louisville in 1895, on the occasion of the National encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic. Hundreds of visitors were royally entertained by them, and among the most valuable souvenirs of the occasion was a vest-pocket scroll gotten up by the Frank Fehr Brewing Company, on which were printed the names and dates of all the battles of the great conflict between the states. When in 1901 the Frank Fehr Brewing Company was consolidated with five of
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the other leading breweries of the city, under the name of the Central Consumers Company, Mr. Kellner's ability as a leader was recognized by his associates, who unanimously elected him to the presidency of the new concern. Mr. Kellner is actively identified with a number of other important interests, one of which is the German Security bank. He is a Knight Templar, a Thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, a Knight of Pythias and holds membership in a number of the leading German societies of Louisville. In politics he is a Democrat. In 1871 he married Charlotte Stigner, who died in 1888, leaving six children. In 1889 he married Anna F. Boschen, daughter of George Boschen, of Louisville. To this union four children have been born.
GEORGE GARVIN BROWN, presi- dent of both the Brown-Forman Com- pany, wholesale liquor dealers, and the Brown-Forman Distilling Company, both incorporated, was born in Montfordville, Ky., Sept. 2, 1846. He is the son of John Thompson Street and Mary Jane (Garvin) Brown. His father was born in Hanover county, Va., April 7, 1793, and his mother was a native of London- derry, Ireland. His paternal grandfather, William Brown, a Virginian by birth, was a son of James Brown, a Scotchman who settled in Virginia about 1740. Wm. Brown with his brother Pat- rick first came from Hanover county, Va., to Kentucky in 1782. Following "Boone's Trail" or the "Wilderness Road" through Cumberland Gap, they reached Harrodsburg on July 24th, of that year. Here they met their brother James, who had been in Ken- tucky for several years and who had co-operated with Gen. George Rogers Clark in protecting the settlers and making expeditions against the Indians. James Brown is said to have built the first house in Kentucky in 1774, near the site of Danville. The meet- ing between him and his brothers proved a reunion and a fare- well meeting at the same time. On the following day he left them to go on an expedition against the Indians who had invaded Kentucky under the renegade Simon Girty, and was killed in the battle of "Blue Licks," Aug. 18, 1782. William and Patrick having joined the Logan command, visited the battlefield the following day and
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buried the victims of the savages. Both William and Patrick were conspicuous in later wars with the Indians, and Col. Patrick Brown was especially famous as an Indian fighter. Major William Brown, the grandfather of George G., was a man of culture and education, as well as an intrepid and enterprising frontiersman. After spending several years in Kentucky he returned to Virginia. In 1790 he made a second trip to Kentucky by way of the Ohio river. Returning to Virginia after an absence of two years, he married Hannah Street, daughter of John and Frances (Park) Street, and granddaughter of John Street, who was born in Bristol, England, and came to Hanover in early manhood. Here he purchased a plantation on which he resided the remainder of his life. After his marriage Major Wm. Brown remained in Virginia until his father's death, after which he returned to Kentucky and settled on a large tract of land near Elizabethtown. Both he and his wife were typical representatives of the fine old Virginia soci- ety in which they had been brought up. The maternal grand- parents of the subject were High and Mary (Orr) Garvin, Scotch- Irish Presbyterians who emigrated to America in 1828 and set- tled at Montfordville, Ky., where both of them died. John T. S. Brown, father of our subject, came to Kentucky with his parents in early manhood and settled at Montfordville, where he served as postmaster over fifty years and became the owner of several fine farms. He died in 1875, respected by his fellow townsmen. George G. Brown, the subject of this sketch, was educated in the schools of his native village and the Louisville high school. In 1865 he began his business career as a clerk in the wholesale drug house of Henry Chambers & Co., Louisville, serving as such for nearly five years. He next embarked in the commission and whiskey broker- age business as a member of the firm of J. T. S. Brown & Bro. In 1873 the firm was reorganized as Brown, Chambers & Co., becoming Chambers & Brown a year later. For six years it con- tinued under this name, when George G. succeeded to the business and admitted to partnership some young men who had been in his employ, the firm now becoming Brown, Thompson & Co. In 1889, on the withdrawal of Mr. Thompson, the firm became Brown, Forman & Co. When Mr. Forman died in 1901 the business was incorporated as the Brown-Forman Company, which name it still bears. The high regard and esteem in which Mr. Brown was held by his partners is shown by the fact that as the successor of each firm in the settlement of the affairs of the different firms, when
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hundreds of thousands of dollars were involved, such confidence was reposed in Mr. Brown that his partners declined to examine the books and accounts, relying solely on his honor for a strict account- ing. Mr. Brown has been president of the National Wholesale Liquor Dealers' association and for ten years president of the Louis- ville Presbyterian orphanage. He is also a member of the Filson, Pendennis and Tavern clubs. On Feb. 1, 1876, he married Mrs. Amelia (Owsley) Robinson, widow of Lawrence A. Robinson, of Louisville, who was the son of Rev. Stuart Robinson, an eminent Presbyterian clergyman of that city. She is the daughter of Eras- mus Boyle Owsley and granddaughter of Wm. Owsley, once gov- ernor of Kentucky and justice of the supreme court under the old constitution. Mr. and Mrs. Brown have six children living: Mary Garvin, Owsley, Elizabeth Bodley, Robinson Swearingen, Innes Akin and Amelia Bella.
ERNEST CHRISTIAN BOHNE, vice-president of the Southern National bank of Louisville, Ky., was born in Hesse-Cassel, Germany, Feb. 8, 1840. He is the son of Johann J. J. and Helen Maria (Wurtemberger) Bohne. His father was an officer in the army of the great Napoleon, and after the Russian campaign, in which he took an active part, settled in the city of Cassel, capital of Hesse-Cassel. Here he embarked in business as a publisher and bookseller. For twenty years prior to his death he was city treasurer of Cassel. He had served as city counselor for thirty years. Ernest C. Bohne was educated at the gymnasium in Cassel, a famous institution of learning, where the present German emperor and his father were educated. In 1854 he left school and went to Bremen to learn the book trade. This occupation not being congenial, he went to sea as sailor and finally landed at New Orleans in 1856. From New Orleans he came directly to Louisville. Here, until 1861, he served as bookkeeper in a wholesale dry goods house. He next took charge of the office management of the Louisville hotel. During the Civil war he was connected with a company of home guards and saw military service as quartermaster sergeant, which he was enabled to do without relinquishing his position in
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the hotel. In 1872 he organized the Western German Savings bank, becoming its cashier. Two years later this was reorganized as the Third National bank of Louisville with Mr. Bohne as cashier, a position he held until January, 1905, when he connected himself with the Southern National bank. He has proved himself to be a capa- ble and sagacious banker. A careful study of monetary problems, currency questions and banking methods has caused him to be recog- nized as an accomplished financier in the broader sense of that term. He has delivered several addresses before the American Bankers' association and, in each instance, has attracted marked attention in banking and financial circles. He has always taken an active part in the work of the Kentucky Bankers' association, frequently read- ing valuable papers at its stated meetings. In addition to his regular duties he has for several years transacted business for the British consul in Baltimore, the Imperial German consul in Cincinnati and the Imperial and Royal Austro-Hungarian consul in Richmond, Va. Ever since Mr. Bohne became a citizen of Louisville he has taken an active part in promoting the city's welfare. As a banker and busi- ness man he has aided in the development of the resources of the city as well as in the expansion of its commerce. As a city official he has aided in the building up and improvement of its civic institu- tions. He served as school trustee from 1867 to 1870, and as charity commissioner from 1877 to 1880. While on the school board he and Mr. L. L. Warren were instrumental in establishing the Louisville Normal school for teachers. In 1891 he was elected a member of the first board of park commissioners, and it was during his term that the present splendid park system was purchased and sprang into existence. He helped to select the sites of the present Cherokee and Shawnee parks and caused this park system to be placed in the hands of Ohmstead & Co., the most famous landscape gardeners in the United States, for improvement. This same firm laid out and improved the grounds on which the World's Columbian exposition at Chicago was held in 1893. The work done through Mr. Bohne has been highly gratifying to all parties interested in the adornment of the city's parks. As a charity commissioner he was instrumental in bringing about much needed reform at the city hospital and the alms house. He also served for three years on the board of managers of Lakeland Insane asylum, Lakeland, Ky.
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SAMUEL GRABFELDER, a promi- nent merchant of Louisville, Ky., was born in Rehweiler, Bavaria, Germany, Sept. 2, 1844. He is the son of Samuel and Regina Grabfelder. His early educa- tion was received in the schools of his native town. In 1856, when still a boy, he came to America and the following year located in Louisville. There he attended the Louisville high school, where he paid especial attention to the mastery of the English language and to those other branches most essential to his success as a business man. Relying entirely on his own resources, and with- out influential friends to give him a start, he went to work determined to make a success in life. How well he succeeded the sequel will show. His aptitude in acquiring a correct knowledge of business methods, his industry and his general intelligence com- mended him to those with whom he came in contact, hence he had little difficulty in securing employment. By the close of the Civil war he had developed into a capable salesman and business man. For several years after the war he was employed as traveling sales- man for one of the large wholesale liquor houses of Louisville,
his territory being the Southern states. Wherever he went he made friends and increased the business of the house he repre- sented. While employed in this capacity he saved his money, which fact enabled him to embark in business in 1873 as one of the partners of the largest wholesale liquor house of Louisville. After six years' connection with this firm he withdrew from it to found the house of S. Grabfelder & Co. The business of the firm aggregated but fifty thousand dollars the first year, but gradually increased until now it does a business of millions annually. This result has been accom- plished through close attention to all of the details of the business, unremitting efforts and an unswerving determination to be guided by the strictest principles of integrity and fair dealing. Traveling men now represent this house in every state and territory in the Union, and its famous brands of whiskies are known throughout the United States. Among the various houses engaged in the dis- tribution and sale of Kentucky whiskies, none has a higher stand- ing than that of the firm of S. Grabfelder & Co., and none more richly deserves abundant prosperity. Mr. Grabfelder is a member
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