Biographies
of Fayette County, Kentucky
CLAY, Mrs. Mary Barr, woman suffragist
and farmer, born in Lexington, Ky., 13th October, 1839. She is a daughter of
Cassius M. Clay and Mary J. Warfield. Her childhood and youth were passed in the
country, and she was educated mainly by private tutors from Yale College. She
became the wife of John Frank Herrick, of Cleveland, Ohio, 3rd October, 1860.
She was divorced from him in 1872. The position of her father as an advocate of
free speech and of the emancipation of the negro slave in a slave State, gave
her, who sympathized with him, the independence of thought and action that was
necessary to espouse the cause of woman's political and civil freedom in the
same conservative community, and she met much opposition, ridicule and slights
with equal fortitude. Her realization of the servile position of women under the
laws was brought about by attending a convention held in Cleveland, Ohio, by
Lucy Stone, in 1868 or 1869. She then and there subscribed for books and
pamphlets and gave them to any one who would read them and wrote articles for
the local papers, which the editors published with a protest, declaring that
Mrs. Clay alone was responsible for them. She was the first native Kentuckian to
take the public platform for woman suffrage. She went to St. Louis in 1879, and,
presenting herself to Miss Susan B. Anthony, who was holding a convention there,
asked to be admitted as a delegate from Kentucky. Miss Anthony warmly welcomed
her and appointed her vice-president for Kentucky, which office she held in that
association as long as it existed. In 1879 she organized in Lexington a suffrage
club, the first in the State. In 1880 she and Mrs. James Bennett organized one
in Richmond which has continued to this time. Mrs. Clay was a member and
vice-president for Kentucky for many years of the American Suffrage Association,
and was, in 1884, elected president of that association, when it held its
convention in Chicago. She was the leading Kentucky organizer of the first State
association, formed in Louisville after the convention held there by Lucy Stone
in 1881. Living in Ann Arbor, Mich., for some years, educating her two sons, she
organized a suffrage club there and was invited by Mrs. Stebbins to help
reorganize the State association. She was made president pro tem, of the
convention in Flint, where the present Michigan State Association was
reorganized. She edited a column in the Ann Arbor "Register" for some time on
woman suffrage. By invitation of the Suffrage Association of Michigan, she spoke
before the Legislative Committee, and was invited by the senior law class of the
University of Michigan to address them on the "Constitutional Right of Women to
Vote." She has petitioned Congress and addressed House and Senate committees for
the rights of women. For years she has visited the State Legislature and laid
the wrongs of women before that body, demanding as a right, not as a favor, the
equality of women under the laws. Mrs. Clay was for years the only worker in the
cause except her sisters, and she was the first to demand of the late
constitutional convention that they emancipate the women of Kentucky, one-half
the adult people of the State. Her letter was read before the convention, and
she was the spokesman of the committee of women who were invited to the floor of
the convention to hear the plea from the Equal Rights Association of Kentucky.
To accomplish the civil and political freedom of women has for years been her
chief aim and labor. She is now vice-president of the Kentucky Equal Rights
Association.
(American Women Fifteen Hundred Biographies
Vol. 1, by Frances Elizabeth Willard & Mary Ashton Rice Livermore, Publ. 1897.
Transcribed by Marla Snow)
JONATHAN
C. ROYLE.
Judge Royle was born in Lexington, Kentucky, October 30, 1828. His father
was a woolen manufacturer. His early education was received in the district
school, which he attended as opportunities offered. He applied himself
assiduously to study and selected law as his field of endeavors. His family
moved to
Lexington
,
Mo.
, where he studied law in the office of Judge Woods, afterwards forming a
partnership with him. In 1853 he was admitted to the bar. In that year he
married Eliza Kirtley. He became Circuit Attorney of the Sixth Judicial Circuit,
which office he held until the outbreak of the Civil War, when he enlisted in
the cause of the South. He was made Judge Advocate General, with the rank of
Colonel. After the close of the war, he went to Central City,
Colo.
, where he remained until 1870, when he moved to
California
. A year later he came to
Salt Lake City
. Almost immediately upon his arrival in
Salt Lake City
, he formed partnership with Judge Thomas Marshall, under the firm name of
Marshall & Royle. This firm occupied a position of eminence. It handled a
great deal of the big mining litigation for many years. The firm was local
counsel for the Southern Pacific and Wells, Fargo & Co.
Judge Royle died in Salt Lake City, June 1910. He was always an exemplary
citizen, a kind loving husband, an indulgent father, and a credit to the legal
profession. He was content to pursue his avocation without strife and was always
a man of peace. Throughout his career he was devoted to his profession,
thoroughly earnest, remarkably able and will stand as an example for the younger
members of the bar. [Source:
History of the bench and bar of Utah; By Interstate Press Association; Publ.
1913; Transcribed and submitted by Andrea Stawski Pack.]
JAMES
BURNIE BECK
Beck, James Burnie, lawyer, congressman, United States senator, was born Feb. 13, 1822, in Scotland. He came to the United States with his parents; and settled in Lexington, Ky. In 1867-75 he was a representative from Kentucky to the fortieth, forty-first, forty-second and forty-third congresses. In 1877-89 he was United States senator from Kentucky. He died May 3, 1890, in Washington, D.C.
[Herringshaw's National Library of American Biography: Contains Thirty-five Thousand Biographies of the Acknowledged Leaders of Life and Thought of the United States, by William Herringshaw, 1909 – Transcribed by Therman Kellar]St. Louis, MO
PEYTON
FOSTER-- Born
in Fayette County Kentucky October 18, 1791; died in La Plata, Missouri,
September 05, 1872. He served in the war of 1812. He moved from
Kentucky to Illinois about 1831, and after living in that state came to Adair
County Missouri. He moved to La Plata three years prior to his
death. [Source: "The
History of Adair County Missouri" by E.M. Violette (1911) Submitted by
Desiree Rodcay]

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