Cumberland County, Kentucky Genealogy Trails

 

 

[Source: Kentucky Ancestors; Genealogical Quarterly of the Kentucky Historical Society; Winter 2003; Vol. 39, No. 2; Submitted by Cathy Schultz]

 

Abstracts from the Cumberland

Courier, Burksville, July 29, 1874

The Cumberland Courier was published on Wednesdays by “Walker & Matthews, Editors and Proprietors.”  Subscriptions were $2 for one year, $1.25 for six months paid in advance. Joel Cheek was the authorized agent for advertisements and subscriptions. Jacob Bruton was also an agent. M.C. Gittings, of Judio, was also an  agent, for sales and collections.

The local postmaster was A.J. Phelps, who also advertised his “Cash Store,” which also accepted “Country Produce” in payment for his goods. Phelps also advanced cash or goods on pension claims. 

The pastor of the Presbyterian church was Rev. J.P. McMillan. Services were held in the Chapel of Alexander College.

The Burksville city administration was Police Court Judge Joseph P. Frank Sr., Marshal Ben Riall, and trustees Dr. W.G. Hunter, William F. Alexander, J.S. Benton, N.B. Cheatham, and C.L.S. Matthews. 

Cheatham was also running for county assessor, somewhat immodestly stating that “there is not a man in the county more thoroughly qualified to attend to the duties of this office than myself.

The local state senator was D.R. Haggard and the state representative was W.G. Hunter.1 

Officers of the Cumberland County Circuit Court, which convened on the second Monday of March and September, were Judge T.T. Alexander, Commonwealth’s Attorney A.M. Adair, Clerk J.W. Williams, and Sheriff H.M. Alexander.

Officers of the Cumberland County Court, which convened the second Monday of each month, were Judge John Q. Owsley; Clerk E.A. Waggener; Charles Smith, county surveyor; R. Gibson, poor-house superintendent; William Check, school commissioner; W. E. Paull, jailer; and J.T. Baker assessor.

A quarterly court was held the Tuesday after the second Monday in January, April, July, and October.   A Court of Claims was held on the second Monday in October.

Magistrate’s Court had six divisions: First District, A.G. Waggner and James Haggard; Second District, R.G. Cole and J. William Morgan; Third District, Reuben Hicks; Fourth District, J.E. Coop and Enoch Coop; Fifth District, C.F. Alexander and A. Carter; and Sixth District, John Vincent and Gid. Pharis.

S.H. Boles of Glasgow and W.K. Botts of Burksville advertised their law practice in the courts of Cumberland County.

Attorney William Cheek, with a office in the Bank Building in Burksville, advertised his work in collections.

A poem title “The Angel of the Hospital,” said to have been written by George D. Prentice, was apparently written by his son Courtland, deceased by 1874. The manuscript, said to have been in Courtland Prentice’s handwriting, was in the possession of “young” Harry Colston of Louisville before Colston was captured at the Battle of Shiloh.

The story “That Little Old Maid,” by Mary E. Clarke, was published. 

The death of D.S. Benedict, 76, “one of [Louisville’s] oldest and most enterprising merchants” was announced.

A. Dulworth led a group of 19 qualified voters of the Kettlecreek District of Cumberland County to the July term of Cumberland County Court and submitted a petition to place on the ballot a proposal to sell “spirituous and vinous liquors” in the district. 

It was reported that “Indians are raiding along our entire Southern and Western frontier.” 

In a testimonial for appellate court judicial candidate Martin H. Cofer2 reprinted from the Louisville Commerical, Cofer was identified as the “first Circuit Judge in Kentucky of the Democratic party who had the nerve to obey the laws of the United States and admit colored men to the witness-box.” Cofer, remembered as a “gallant Confederate soldier,” declared in a speech in Shelbyville that he would not run on his “rebel record.” In an advertisement, Cofer described himself as 42 and a licensed practicing lawyer since 1856 “except for a short period during the war.” He had also served as a circuit court judge in the Fifth District since 1870. Another item in the paper, presumably written by Walker and/or Matthews, stated: It is seldom indeed that we have two men offering for the same office who morally and intellectually are so equally matched as are the Hons. M.H. Cofer and W.B. Harrison.3 Personally we favor our old friend Judge Cofer, but they are both Christian gentlemen, and whichever may succeed, we will have in him as honest and upright Judge.”4

An item, referring to a similar one in the Louisville Courier-Journal, touted the candidacy for Court of Appeals clerk of Thomas C. Jones.

Druggists W.P. Alexander and A.G. Dougherty, with a store at 4 Court Place, advertised “Family Medicines, Perfumery, Pure Brandy & Whisky, sold by prescription, “accurately compounded at all hours, Day or Night.”

W.C. Hickey advertised boots and shoes manufactured by Harvey & Keith of Louisville.

Attorneys Craddock & Walker advertised their services as life and fire insurance agents.

The faculty of Burksville College for Young Ladies and Gentlemen was advertised as J.R. Hoover, principal; J.A. Hanby and G.C. Woodson, assistant principals; Miss Carrie Magrane, teacher of music; Mrs. Ellen Hoover, assistant teacher of music; and Madame Magrane, “French Instructress.”

State Auditor D. Howard Smith notified each county’s sheriff to “collect from the white taxpayers, for the present year (1874), 45 cents on each $100 worth of taxable property; 25 cents on each white enrolled militiaman; and $1 on each dog over two belonging to white persons, and you will also collect from the colored tax payers for said years, 45 cents on each $100 worth of taxable property, $1 on each male colored person over twently-one years of age; 31. on each dog over two belonging to colored persons; and 26 cents on each colored enrolled militiaman.

BIRTH.  On Monday the 27 inst., to the wife of Oliver G. Martin, an eleven pound son.

H. Clay Rogers announced himself as a candidate for jailer.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction H.A.M. Henderson announced that, in the first year of the “Colored school system,” the “colored school census reaches the surprising aggregate of 37,332 pupil children.”

James T. Williams announced that he had found jewelry.

“Primus,” correspondent from Amandaville, wrote that a debating society meeting at Hopewell Church on Crocus creek was being held. It was reported that “nothing this side of the moon, or the long-tailed comet that can equal them.” Reece Morgan was called “the champion declaimer.” “Uncle Ed Paull,” presumably jailer W.E. Paull, was reported as campaigning for re-election in the Crocus Creek area. “His face all radiant with the hope of success, in fact he was smiling away back of his ears, and says if he is elected he will feed us all well, quite an item these starvation times.”5

Political candidates could announce their candidacies at the rate of $8 for state and district races, $6 for county races, and $5 for town and other races. Advertising candidates were Martin H. Cofer and W.B. Harrison for appellate judge; C.W. Milliken6 for Third District congressman; James Garnett, of Adair County, and Major W.H. Botts of Barren County, for 6th Judicial District judge; David T. Towles, for Commonwealth’s attorney; John Q. Owsley and R.G. Cole for county judge; Scott Walker for county attorney; L.A. Waggener for county clerk; Republican J.S. Bruton for county clerk; Joseph A. Traylor for county assessor; P.M. Sewell, of Irish Bottom, “People’s Independent candidate” for county assessor; W.E. Paull for jailer; and H.W.D. Patterson for county surveyor. 

George Seaver, proprietor of the Burksville & Glasgow Stage Line, advertised the line’s new coaches, which made trips to Glasgow every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday at 6 a.m. Arrival time in Glasgow was 4:40 p.m., which connected passengers with the evening train of the Glasgow branch railroad. The coaches returned to Burksville every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7 a.m., arriving there at 6 p.m. “Ministers of the gospel, and children under ten years of age” were charged half fare.

“Hancock” announced that he could be found at his old stand until further notice. 

Jacob S. Bruton advertised his candidacy for county court clerk. He related that he submitted to a test administered by Adair Circuit Court Clerk Jas. T. Page. He satisfactorily passed the test, which was given under the supervision of Adair Circuit Court Judge Thomas T. Alexander, who certified the result. Bruton also said he possessed a similar certificate from “Judge Fox.”

G.A.C. Turner led a group of 19 qualified voters of the Marrowbone District of Cumberland County to the July term of Cumberland County Court. Under “Chapter 117, Acts of the Legislature, Session 1873-74,” Turner submitted a petition to place on the ballot a proposal to sell “spirituous and vinous liquors” in the district.

A.J. Phelps advertised to sell “cheap for cash” a “Portable or Stationary Engine of twelve horse power,” in addition to “several sets of well tools, suitable for boring a 41/2 inch chamber.”

Elder T.C. Frogge, of the Methodist Church, and Elder G.A. Coulson, of the Baptist Church, were to speak at a four-hour debate beginning on August 19 at Salem Church, “two miles and a half from Burksville.” The debate, which was to continue for as many days as necessary, was to explore four questions, including whether Methodist and Baptist baptisms were sustained by Scripture, if the Baptist Church could be traced to the Apostles, and if the Methodist Church was “part of the visible Church or Kingdom of Christ.

M.C. Gittings, postmaster of the Judio neighborhood, announced a new mail route, from Burksville to Judio, Centre Point, and Tompkinsville.

C.L.S. Matthews advertised “Cute or Sunbeam” framed chromos.

Scott Walker announced his candidacy for county attorney.

H.C. Baker notified the public that Southern Mutual Life Insurance Co. renewals, solicited by H.C. and Finish E. Baker, could be found at the office of Craddock and Walker. The company, based in Louisville, had assets of $705,462.

Emmons & Grissom ground cornmeal every Friday.

1 Dr. Whiteside Godfrey Hunter (b. 25 December 1841, near Belfast, Ireland, d. 2 November 1917, Louisville), was a medical doctor and Union Army surgeon during the Civil War.  Hunter moved to Burksville at the end of the war and served as state representative from 1874 to 1878. He later was U.S. minister to Guatemala and Honduras and served as a Republican in Congress from March 4, 1887 to March 3, 1889, from March 4, 1895 to March 3, 1897, and from November 10, 1903 to March 3, 1905. Hunter was buried in Louisville’s Cave Hill Cemetery. See Biographical Directory of the American Congress (Washington, D.C.), p. 1352.

2 Martin Hardin Cofer (b. 1 April 1832, d. 22 May 1881), was a son of Thomas Cofer and Mary Hardin. Largely self taught as a Kentucky youth, he was admitted to the bar in Illinois in the early 1850s. He married Mary Ellen Bush (b. 4 June 1835, d. 15 January 1895), a daughter of Christy Bush Jr. and Mary “Polly” Goodin, about that time and remained in Illinois for three years. He returned to Kentucky and set up a practice in Elizabethtown that continued until the early 1860s. Cofer was an activist for Kentucky’s secession from the Union, becoming editor of the Elizabethtown Democrat  newspaper and unsuccessfully running for the state legislature “on a Southern Rights ticket” in August 1861. Cofer helped organize the 6th Kentucky Infantry and became its lieutenant colonel under Colonel (later judge and congressman) Joseph Horace Lewis. Cofer was wounded at the Battle of Shiloh and commanded the 6th Kentucky at Chickamauga. Promoted to colonel in 1863, Cofer became provost marshal of the Army of Tennessee the following year. Returning to Elizabethtown after the war, Cofer resumed his law practice. He published A Supplemental Digest of Decisions of the Court of Appeals of Kentucky, 1853-67, which became the standard work on the subject, and served as a circuit court judge from 1870 to 1874. He was elected an associate justice on the state Court of Appeals—then Kentucky’s highest court—and served from August 1874 to 1881, when he became chief justice. Congress restored his U.S. citizenship in March 1871. Cofer was known for his 1871 ruling allowing African American testimony in Kentucky in accordance with the 14th Amendment. He died in office in Frankfort and was buried in Elizabethtown City Cemetery. William C. Davis, The Orphan Brigade: The Kentucky Confederates Who Couldn’t Go Home (Baton Rouge, 1980), pages 8, 34, 37-38, 99, 204, and 262. See also H.A. Sommers, Elizabethtown & Hardin County, Kentucky, 1869-1921 (1921; Reprint, Elizabethtown, 2001), pages 7-9.

3 W.B. Harrison’s ads identify him as a resident of Marion County. Cofer married Mary Ellen Bush (b. 4 June 1835, Hardin County, Ky.) on 8 May 1853.

4 The race was for the Third Appellate District seat on the Kentucky Court of Appeals, then the state’s highest court.

5 Paull also apparently owned a hotel in Burksville.

6 Biographical Directory of the American Congress (Washington, D.C.), pages 1567-68. Charles William Milliken (b. 15 August 1827, near Murray, Calloway County, d. 16 October 1915, Franklin, Simpson County) moved with his parents to Simpson County in 1829. After graduating from Wirt College in Sumner County, Tenn., Milliken was admitted to the bar in 1850 and began practicing in Franklin. He served as Simpson County prosecutor from 1857 to 1862 and Fourth District Commonwealth’s attorney from 1867 to 1872. Milliken was elected as a Democrat to Congress and served from March 4 1873 to March 3, 1877. He was buried in Simpson County’s Greenlawn Cemetery. See Biographical Directory of the American Congress (Washington, D.C.), pages 1567-68.

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