Madisonville Kentucky

Biographical Sketch of Hon. Charles N. Byles

HON. CHARLES N. BYLES. – This is one of the town builders of the west. Out of his farm on Mound Prairie he has made Montesano a place of twelve hundred people. His father was a Presbyterian minister of Madisonville, Kentucky. Charles was born in 1844. In 1853 the family crossed the plains, and upon reaching Wallula struck out northwestward to the Sound, crossing the mountains via the Nahchess Pass. Moving down on Mound Prairie, they located a place fourteen miles south of Olympia. Here on these healthful fields the boy grew up to manhood, and, becoming of age, took … Read more

Biography of Walter R. Pratt

Walter R. Pratt. In 1899 Mr. Pratt established himself in business in the City of Independence, Montgomery County, and he had not only continued as one of the representative factors in the business activities of this community, but had also so shown his civic loyalty and progressiveness as to be called upon to serve as mayor of the city, of which office he was the incumbent one term and in which he gave a most effective administration. Mr. Pratt is of Scotch and English lineage and the first representatives of the family in America settled in Virginia, in the colonial … Read more

Biography of James M. Givens

James M. Givens, attorney at law, who for almost three decades has been identified with the Muskogee bar, comes to this state from Kentucky where his birth occurred February 14, 1869, at the family home in Hopkins County, his parents being John W. and Margaret (Ross) Givens. His father was a planter, tobacco buyer and banker of Webster County, whence he removed with his family to Providence, Kentucky. James M. Givens supplemented his early education, acquired in the schools of Providence, by study in Center College at Danville, Kentucky, in which he completed a literary course with the class of … Read more

Biography of Richard Stoddert

Richard Stoddert, farmer, stock-dealer and merchant, Charleston; was born in Grayson Co., Ky., March 28, 1812; his early life was passed on his father’s farm, and when quite young, he was apprenticed to learn the tanner’s trade; about the year 1831, he went to Madisonville, Hopkins Co., Ky., where he remained until 1838, when he came to Charleston; he engaged in the tanning business with his brother, Thomas Stoddert, the firm being R. & T. Stoddert, the partnership continuing for about thirty years in tanning, merchandising, farming and dealing in stock; they had at one time about 800 acres of … Read more

Hopkins Co., Ky

HOPKINS CO. (M. Hanberry) [TR: also spelled Hanbery.] In this county practically no one owned more than one or two slaves as this was never a county of large plantations and large homes. These slaves were well housed, in cabins, well clothed and well fed, not overworked and seldom sold, were in closer touch with the “white folks” and therefore more intelligent than farther south where slaves lived in quarters and seldom came in contact with their masters or the masters’ families. When a gentleman wished a slave he usually went to Hopkinsville and bought slaves there. Occasionally one slave … Read more