xt7p8c9r2n9f https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7p8c9r2n9f/data/mets.xml  1922  books b92-58-27063770 English American Historical Society, : Chicago ; New York : Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Kentucky Biography.Kerr, Charles. Kentucky . text Kentucky . 1922 2002 true xt7p8c9r2n9f section xt7p8c9r2n9f 





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SPECIAL LIMITED
    EDITION



THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY
     Chicago and New York
          1922




 



















































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HUMAN life is like the waves of the sea; they
       flash a few brief moments in the sunlight, mar-
vels of power and beauty, and then are dashed
       tipon the remorseless shores of death and disap-
pear forever. The passing of any human life, however
humble and unknown, is sure to give rise to a pang
of anguish in some heart, but when the "fell destroyer"
knocks at the door of the useful and great and removes
from earthly scenes the man of honor and influence and
the benefactor of his kind, it means not only bereave-
ment to kindred and friends, but a public calamity as
well.
  In the largest and best sense of the term the late
John Todd Shelby, of Lexington, was distinctively one
of the notable men of his day and generation, and as
such his life record is entitled to a conspicuous place
in the annals of the State of Kentucky. As a citizen,
he was public spirited and enterprising to an unwonted
degree; as a friend and neighbor, he combined the qual-
ities of head and heart that won confidence and com-
manded respect; as an attorney who had a comprehensive
grasp upon the philosophy of jurisprudence and brought
honor and dignity to the profession he followed with
such distinguished success, he was easily the peer of
any of his brethren of the Kentucky bar.
  To refer to him as a lawyer in the phraseology which
meets requirements when dealing with the average
member of the legal profession would not do him jus-
tice. He was, indeed, much more than eminently suc-
cessful in his legal career, as was indicated by his
long, praiseworthy record at the bar. He was a master
of his profession, a leader among men distinguished for
the high order of their legal ability, and his eminent
attainments and ripe judgment made him an authority
on all matters involving a profound knowledge of
jurisprudence and of vexed and intricate questions of
equity practice. His life and labors were worthy be-
cause they contributed to a proper understanding of life
and its problems.
  John Todd Shelby, the only child of Thomas Hart
Shelby and his first wife, Frances Stuart Todd, was
born in Springfield, Illinois, on the 25th day of Janu-
ary, 1851, while his mother was on a visit to her
parents, Doctor and Mrs. John Todd, of that city,
where they had located in 1827, after migrating from
Kentucky to Illinois ten years before, Doctor Todd
having been a surgeon with the Kentucky volunteers
in the War of s8sz and present at the battle and
massacre of the River Raisin, where he was captured.
Mr. Shelby's mother, who was a granddaughter of
Gen. Levi Todd, one of the early settlers of Fayette
County, whose son, Robert S. Todd, was the father
of Mary Todd, who married Abraham Lincoln, died
a week after his birth and he was brought to Ken-
tucky, where he grew to manhood at his father's



home, "Bel Air," a beautiful country seat in the
Walout Hill section of Fayette County.
  His father, Thomas Hart Shelby, who at the time
of his death in 1895 was collector of United States
internal revenue for the Seventh District of Kentucky,
was a grandson of Isaac Shelby, the first governor of
Kentucky and one of the heroes of the King's 'Moun-
tain campaign and battle, often referred to as the
turning point of the Rexolution in the South. in the
autumn of 1780. "And without venturing into any
controversy respecting this important event in the
War of the Revolution and the history of our couns-
try, it may be fairly said that he conceived the cam-
paign and was one of the main spirits in its prosecu-
tion to a successful termination."  There is no figure
more familiar to the reader of Kentucky history than
Isaac Shelby, who, again chosen governor, after an
interim  of many years, upon the commencement of
hostilities with Great Britain in 18t2, is no less famed
for his distinguished services in that conflict than for
his valor in the days of the Revolution, leading in
person the dauntless Kentucky volunteers on the battle-
field of the Thames, October 5, 181t., and winning for
himself lasting renown by the part he played is the
achievement of the sweeping victory oxer Proctor
and Tecumseh, which resulted in the rout of the allied
British and Indians by the Americans under Gien.
William Henry Harrison and the death of Tecurmseh.
an event which practically marked the lotse of British
and Indian operations in the Northwest.   Gov-ernor
Shelby, who was a son of Gen. Evan Shelbt. also a
Revolutionary soldier of note, and his wife, Lactitta
Cox, married Susanna Hart, daughter of the well-
known Capt. Nathaniel Hart. one of the first settlers
of Kentucky and one of the proprietors of the Colony
of Transylvania. Thomas Hart Shelby, the elder. soit
of Governor Isaac Shelby and grandfather of Mr.
Shelby, owned about 2,000 acres of the very best land
in Fayette County, it being located west of the Rich-
mond and Lexington Turnpike and near Walnut Hilt
Church.
  Mr. Shelby's paternal grandmother was 'Mary Ansi
Bullock, daughter of Edmund Bullock, the second
speaker of the Kentucky House of Representatives,
whose wife was Elizabeth Fontaine, of Jefferson Cotin-
ty, while his maternal grandmother. Mrs. John Todd,
was before her marriage, Elizabeth Fisher Blair Smith,
a daughter of Rev. John Blair Smith. D. D.. one of
the eminent Presbyterian divines of the eightee'ith
century, who was the second president of Hampdent-
Sidney College, Virginia, and later the first president
of Union College at Schenectady, New     York. and
who died in 1799 as pastor of the old Pine Street
Church, Philadelphia.  Doctor Smith married Eliza-
beth Fisher Nash, of Prince Edward County. \'ir-
ginia.  His brother, Rev. Samuel Stanihope S    i


 




JOHN TODD SHELBY



D. D., was the first president of Hampden-Sidney
and afterwards president of Princeton College.
  Gen. Levi Todd, great-grandfather of Mr. Shelby,
as a prominent figure in the early military and civic
annals of Kentucky, and a brother of Col. John Todd
and Gen. Robert Todd, both conspicuous in its early
history, the former having been killed at the battle
of the Blue Licks in 1782 and having theretofore been
appointed colonel commandant and county lieutenant
of Illinois, with the civil powers of governor, upon
its erection as a county of Virginia in 1778. These
three brothers sere nephews of Rev. John Todd, of
Louisa County, Virginia, long a leading spirit in Han-
over Presbytery, who, deeply interested in the early
imimigratloll to Kenttcky, was, like Col. John Todd
himself, one of those most influential in obtaining
from the Legislature of Virginia the charter and
endowment of Transylvania Seminary, and who was
instrumental in furnishing to that institution a library
that becanme the nucleus of the present invaluable li-
brary of Transylvania University at Lexington.
  Mfr. Shelby's preliminary education was obtained
principally in the schools of Fayette County. In 1866-7
he was a student at Centre College, Danville, Kentucky,
and in t867-8, attended Kentucky (now Transylvania)
University at Lexington. In the fall of s868, he entered
Princeton, from which he was graduated with high
honors, though one of the youngest members of his
class, in t87o, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts.
11l 1873 Princeton conferred upon him the degree of
Master of Arts, and in 1904 the Agricultural and Me-
chanical College of Kentucky (now the University of
Kentucky) conferred upon him the degree of Doctor
of Laws.
  After leaving college Mr. Shelby applied himself to
the reading of law under his uncle-in-law, Judge Wil-
liam B. Kinkead, of Fayette County, and on March 2,
1872, was admitted to the bar at Lexington, during the
incumbencv of Hon. Charles B. Thomas as Circuit
Judge. He entered the office of Bieckinridge  Buckner,
sit L exin gton, a firm composed of Col. William C. P.
Breckinridge and Judge Benjamin F. Buckner, where he
tracticed alone until he formed a partnership with
Judge J. Soule Smith, the style of the firm being Smith
 Shelby, an association which lasted until September
1, 187;, when he entered into partnership with Colonel
Breckinridge under the firm name of Breckinridge
 Shelby, a relation that continued unbroken until
tte  death  of Colonel Breckinridge   on  November
19. 1904   Thereafter  Mr. Shelby    was alone   in
practice until December 1, 1907, when with his son, John
Craig Shelby, who hid that year graduated from the
Harvard Law School, he formed the firm of Shelby 
Shelby. On July 1, tgto, R. L    Northcutt became a
member of the firm, the name of which was changed on
December t, 1913. to Shelby, Northcutt  Shelby, and
as thus constituted it continued until Mr. Shelby's
death. During his early practice he taught equity and
pleading, and somewhat later, pleading, evidence and
practice in the Law College of Kentucky (now Transyl-
ania) Unisersity.
   Mr. Shelby's active practice at the Fayette County
 bar covered a period of forty-eight years, to the day,
 his death occurring at his home in Lexington on March
 2, 1g9o, after an illness of comparatively short duration.
 1His life was to a remarkable degree intertwined with
 the history of Central Kentucky, and there is absolutely
 al(s question but that he ranked with the greatest who
 hiase honored and adorned the legal profession in Ken-
 tucky. During this period there were few notable cases



in which his services were not engaged and few public
movements in which he was not an influential factor.
  Though a Presbyterian in early life, Mr. Shelby had
been for nearly twenty-seven years a communicant of
Christ Church Cathedral at Lexington, the oldest Pro-
testant Episcopal parish in Kentucky, and continuously
during the same period an active member of the vestry,
being junior warden of the cathedral from 19o3 until
90c7, and senior warden from is07 up to the time
of his death. He was chancellor of the Diocese of
Lexington from 1898 until his death.
  In politics he was originally a Democrat, but during
the first McKinley-Bryan campaign, in s896, he changed
his support to the Republican party, with which he was
afterwards affiliated. For three years, from s9o8 until
ig9o, during the administration of Governor Augustus
E. Willson, he was the Republican member of the State
Board of Election Commissioners.
  On November 7, 1872, in Christ Church, Saint Louis,
Missouri, Mr. Shelby married Miss Elizabeth Morris
Brooking Craig, of that city, who was born in Carroll
County, Kentucky, near Ghent, and who had spent
much of her girlhood in the Walnut Hill neighbor-
hood of Fayette County, near Mr. Shelby's boyhood
home. She was a daughter of Robert Edward Brook-
ing and his wife, Elizabeth Morris Craig, but was
adopted in early childhood by her maternal uncle,
John Anderson Craig, whose name she thereafter bore.
To this union were born four children, Thomas Hart,
Francis Todd, John Craig and Christine, the second
of whom died in infancy. Mrs. Shelby died in Lex-
ington on December 12, 1917, and their three children,
Thomas Hart, who married Mary Agnes Scott, of Jessa-
mine County, John Craig and Christine, and a grand-
son, John Todd Shelby, son of their son Thomas
Hart, survive, residing  at Lexington.  Mr. Shelby
is also survived by his half-brothers, Thomas H.
Shelby, of Lexington, Wallace M. Shelby, of Fayette
County, and Edmund B. Shelby, of Charlotte, North
Carolina, and his half-sisters, Mary C. Shelby, of
Lexington, Elizabeth S. Post, of Kingston, New York,
Fanny S. Matthews, of Lexington, Florence M. Shelby,
of Lexington, Alice S. Riddell, of Irvine, Rosa S.
Richardson, of Lexington, Kate S. Scott, of Lexing-
ton, and Willie I. Shelby, of Charlotte, North Caro-
lina, children of his father's second marriage, to Flor-
ence  McDowell.   Another half-brother, George   S.
Shelby, of Lexington, predeceased him.
  In many ways Mr. Shelby had an important part in
the development of his section of Kentucky and was
financially and otherwise interested in a number of
important enterprises. He was one of a group of
citizens who built the Belt Line Railroad, which after-
wards passed under the control of the Chesapeake 
Ohio Railway Company. He also helped to organize
the Belt Electric Line Company, the Central Electric
Company and the Hercules Ice Company, predecessors,
respectively, of the present Lexington street railway
system, electric lighting system and ice plant, and was
at one time president of the First National Bank of
Lexington.
   For a long time he was attorney for the Lexington
 Waterworks Company and at the time of his death had
 for many years been counsel for the Chesapeake 
 Ohio Railway Company. He was a director of the First
 and City National Bank of Lexington, and of the
 Fayette Home Telephone Company, attorney for both,
 and one of the organizers of the latter. He was also
 attorney for the Adams Express Company and the
 Southern Express Company. For over thirty-five years
 he had been attorney for the Louisville  Nashville



2


 



JOHN TODD SHELBY



Railroad Company in Fayette and adjoining counties,
and for many years attorney for the Southern Railway
Company in Kentucky. In his early practice he served
as city attorney and later was a member of the Board
of Aldermen of the City of Lexington.
  He was for many years a director of the Young Men's
Christian Association at Lexington, and served for many
terms as vice-president of the Kentucky Society of
Sons of the Revolution, and for one term was its
president. From i8go until 1895 he was a member of
the Board of Commissioners of the Eastern Kentucky
Lunatic Asylum at Lexington, and from igso until 9Ij3,
a member of the Board of Trustees of the Lincoln In-
stitute of Kentucky at Simpsonville.
  Probably no better review of Mr. Shelby's personal
characteristics and mental qualities could be written than
was embodied in the splendid tributes paid him in the
press at the time of his death and also at a memorial
meeting of the Lexington Bar Association by those
who had known him long and intimately, as well as in
resolutions adopted by various bodies of which he was
a member, and from which excerpts are freely made as
follows:
  "No lawyer of his generation stood higher in the
estimation of this bar than did the distinguished
jurist whose passing we are this day called upon to
lament. For nearly fifty years past he has borne an
unsullied reputation as a leading exemplar of the highest
civic virtues as well as of the noblest ethics and tradi-
tions of the legal profession. His abilities and his at-
tainments were such as to excite admiration and com-
mand respect from friend and foe alike. No lawyer
in any era of Kentucky's history has ever surpassed him
in acuteness of intellect, in clarity of thought, or in
lucidity of expression. From the beginning to the end
of his busy career he met and mingled on equal terms
with those whom this bar and the bar of Kentucky
generally have accounted greatest in the profession of
the law, and we can recall no instance when he can
fairly be said to have been overmatched. His knowl-
edge of the law was varied, accurate and profound,
and his powers of logical analysis in presenting any
question or in advocating any cause were at all times
the despair of his adversaries as they were the subject
of enthusiastic and unqualified praise by his associates
and colleagues.    As a counselor, Mr. Shelby
was remarkably free from any appearance or sugges-
tion of aggressive self-assertion, and even when hfs
advice was most eagerly solicited he seemed to invite
the views of those who sought his guidance rather than
to impose upon them any opinion of his own. His
gracious, tactful and considerate manner toward all
who approached him has been a matter of constant
comment by every thoughtful member of this bar.   
  "Be It Resolved, That in the death of Honorable
John Todd Shelby, this bar has suffered a grievous
and irreparable loss; that his long and honorable career
has conferred imperishable lustre upon this bar, the
consciousness of which is not confined to this city and
county, but is widely recognized throughout our own
and other states; that his eminence as a laywer, his
leadership as a citizen, and his worth as a man are
most keenly appreciated by those of us who have en-
joyed the privilege of daily contact and association and
personal acquaintance with him; that none know better
than ourselves or can better appraise his studious habits,
his unflagging industry, his large experience, and his
absolute fidelity to his profession, and none can more
truthfully or more emphatically testify to his sterling
character, his liberal culture, his extraordinary legal



attainments, his public spirit, his unfaltering courage,
his flawless courtesy, and to that rare combination of
qualities, both of mind and temperament, which have
stamped him as a shining example of the Christian
gentleman, the erudite scholar, the upright counselor,
the faithful advocate, and, above all, as the exemplary
citizen; and that, while none had a better right to boast
of an illustrious ancestry, no man who has ever graced
the bench or bar of Kentucky had less occasion or need
to rely upon pride of birth or the blazon of lineage to
justify his title to distinction."-(From resolutions
adopted at a meeting of the Lexington Bar Association,
held on March 4, 1920.)
  "As an expounder of equity jurisprudence (referring
to his teaching in the Law College of Kentucky, now
Transylvainia, Unive.rsity), neither Yale nor Harvard,
nor any other great university of our country, could
produce his superior. I  
  "I believe I can say in all sincerity that of all the
lawyers with whom I have been thrown in contact,
Mr. Shelby had no superior in learning, in acuteness
of intellect, and especially in splendid powers of dis-
criminating analysis. His arguments in this court were
to my mind models of legal argument. He was always
courteous to the other side, though maintaining his own
position with firmness and force, never letting go a
proposition that he believed sound. W\e all know with
what great success he met in his practice.   
  "Mr. Shelby was tenacious of every opinion which he
believed to be valid, and presented it with an acuteness
of intellect, a power of logic, a lucidity of expression
that very few in my memory or knowledge equaled.
Not only that, but, above all, Mr. Shelby was a Chris-
tian. For many years he had been connected with
Christ Church, was senior warden of the church, a
member of the vestry for many years; and every one
who knew him in his daily life, in all his conduct, saw
that there ran through all his actions the faith that he
had in his belief in the precepts of the Christian re-
ligion. This bar has lost a great man, modest and un-
pretentious as he was. I desire to pay this tribute of
admiration for his character, this testimony of my
respect for him, and of my profound reverence for his
learning and ability. To the younger members of the
bar I can only say that they could have no brighter
example of all that is best in our profession than the
life and character of Mr. Shelby, and no young man
could do better than to follow, as far as he can, his
footsteps and his example.'-(From remarks by Col.
John R. Allen at the meeting of the Lexington Bar
Association.)
  "He was a man who had the tenderest and most
loving sympathy and solicitude for his friends when
they were in trouble or distress that I have ever known.
His simple, childlike, unwavering faith in the efficacy
of the redeeming blood of the crucified Christ was the
most beautiful thing I have ever seen. Ny talks with
him along this line, his abiding hope, his confident ex-
pectation to meet and be reunited with the loved ones
that had gone on before gave me stronger hope and
belief in a future existence and a happier state for man
than all the sermons of all the preachers I have ever
heard."-(From remarks by Hon. WV. C. G. Hobbs.)
  "Measured by all of the standards of human excel-
lence, he was a well-rounded and unusual man. All of
us, I trust, possess in some degree his great qualities
of mind and heart, as exemplified in his long, active
and useful life. But without intending to depreciate
the ability and character of this bar, it may be safely
said that no one of its living members possesses in the



3


 




JOHN TODD SHELBY



saniue high degree all of his great qualities."-(From
remarks by Hon. W. P. Kimball.)
  "I cannot realize that from this stand I shall never
again call from your number the name of John Todd
Shelby; that I can never again ask his counsel or
adv-ice; th; t I can never again counsel with him con-
cerning the things that are nearest and dearest to me.
I might, indeed say of him as Horace, the old Latin
poet, said of his friend Varus, 'He was modest, true,
just; he is mourned by all good men, and who is there
to take his place'
  "The silver cord has indeed been loosed, the golden
bowl been broken. I know, except for the memories,
the sweet associations of thirty-six years, that he has
gone forever out of a life into which he came at its
most critical period Without !ducation, without ex-
perience, with nothing to reconimend me to the con-
sideration of one who possessed all the graces which
education and culture supply, I went into his office and
introduced myself to him   and his partner, Colonel
Breckinridge, and asked them if they would lend me
some law books. From that moment until the very last
conversation I had v ith him, only last week, there was
never a time when I did not feel that I could go to
him with anything that troubled me, that I could ask
from him advice upon any subject, and flever did I go
when he did not receive me kindly, courteously, sweetly.
In all the vicissitudes through which I have passed,
many of which have been purely personal, I always re-
ceived just that encouragement I needed, that sympathy
I craved. I might say, too, on those occasions when
he knew I was perplexed, that I was bearing some un-
disclosed burden, he has, with gentle. sweet concern,
sought me. This to me is one of the most perfect
forms of true, enduring friendship."-(From remarks
by Judge Charles Kerr.)
  ''A Christian without reproach, a gentleman without
fear, a Kentuckian of Kentuckians, John T. Shelby
typified the loftiest traditions, exemplified the noblest
aspirations of his people.
  "A lawyer who met as equal the greatest of his gen-
eration, whose snind entitled him to be ranked in the
first flight of the great lawyers of the State, whose
erudition made him the cherished companion of the
most learned, John Shelby was greater as a man than
ah a lawyer or schola . With the utter courage of
ahiolute honesty he had the gentleness of a woman;
with the transparent veracity that is the companion of
twrfect fearlessness, he never had thought, even, of
expressing a harsh or bitter word. Only those priv-
ileged to be admitted to his intimacy could have full
appreciation of the combined elements of strength and
gentleness, of courage and kindliness, of duty and gen-
erosity, that made him long since aptly and justly
described as the 'First Gentleman of Kentucky.'
  "Simple of life, forgetful of self, he never sought
nor desired place or power, nor would accept public
position. He would have graced and have lent dis-
tiiction to the Supreme Court, for which he was most
eminently fitted, to which he might have been appointed
had he but indicated his desire to have a position thereon
tendered to him.
   'From early manhood he carried with never flickering
courage and ever present cheerfulness burdens that
would have crushed a weaker man. Frail of body, his
mind worked with unceasing and never flagging in-
dustry. But there wa' no labor so great, no bodily
frailty so poignant that could dim his sense of humor
or cloud his wit. No grief, it mattered not how des-
perately it wrung his heart, could make him lose mas-



tery of himself."-(From editorial by Desha Breckin-
ridge in the Lexington Herald of March 3, t920.)
  "Man may approach the perfect, but he cannot attain
it. And yet the late John T. Shelby did not fail in
any of the essentials which bring us within an appre-
ciable nearness of the ideal. His antecedents, his rear-
ing, his education, his innate sense of refinement and
culture, all lent their influence in producing the com-
pleted whole. His ancestry carried him back to a gen-
ration that was conspicuous in laying the foundation
of the State; in overcoming the vicissitudes of a frontier
community; in establishing homes for their descendants,
and founding a stable society. Whatever profession he
might have chosen, he would have adorned; whatever
pursuit might have won his endeavors, he would have
been recognized among its leaders. The legal profes-
sion was congenial to one of his inquiring mind. Rea-
son and logic were to him the coefficients of truth, and
no matter where truth led he followed it with relent-
less exactitude.  He reduced every proposition to a
syllogism. His conclusions were reached through a de-
ductive rather than through an inductive process of
reasoning. When his advice was sought he reasoned
from the facts presented to a determination that was
as accurate as a problem in Euclid. His was not a
mind that could predetermine what a result ought to
be and then construct a theory that would reach the
end desired. The final determination with him came
as the result of laying his premises in truth. In nothing
did he seem to delight more than an a priori argument.
Given the antecedent, he reached the consequent with
a skill and lucidity that baffled his most astute adver-
saries. So clear was he in statement that nothing was
left for argument.   
  "Every branch of the law yielded at his approach, but
in pleading and equity jurisprudence he had no su-
perior among the lawyers of Kentucky. With him
pleading was a science. As such he studied it, as such
he practiced it. Had he lived in the days of Chitty
and Mansfield he would have been, par excellence, one
of the most skillful among the English pleaders. For
an ill-prepared and loosely-drawn pleading he had a
repugnance that amounted almost to a contempt. He
delighted to parry in this branch of the profession with
one that was worthy of his own skill. Simple, quiet,
unobtrusive, many an adversary was forced to suffer
all the torments of that discomfiture that comes from
lack of skill or preparation, when he stood before the
bar with him as opponent.   I
  "With him equity was that branch of the law which
supplied all the deficiencies of the common law. It
was a system of common justice as well as common
morals. He did not believe there could be a wrong
without a remedy. Any system for the adjustment of
human relationship that did not accept this as a truism
was inherently defective. His innate sense of justice
was, therefore, naturally and irresistibly drawn towards
that branch of the profession which was founded on
the spirit rather than the letter of the law. 0 e 
But whether he followed the letter or the spirit, it
was justice, in the end, that determined his course. One
of the last acts of his professional life was to refuse
participation in an action which he conceived to be
wrong and wholly lacking in moral substance.
  "And thus it was he approached the ideal, not alone
in character, not alone in being the Shakespearian pos-
sessor of all those attributes that unite in making the
man, but in the ethics and practice of his profession, as
well. Of him it might be said, as it was said of another
distinguished member of the Lexington bar, 'He was a



4


 




JOHN TODD SHELBY



man before whom temptation fled.' So high was his
sense of honor, so correct the standards which he had
erected for his own conduct, that he never had to
combat those seductive influences to which so many
of the profession have fallen victims. He was the
embodiment of the best traditions of the bar. He per-
sonified a type that is passing. As Horace said of
Varus, there is none to take his place. He ennobled
a profession that could not ennoble him. His was a
nobility begotten of Nature."-(From an appreciation
by Judge Charles Kerr in the Lexington Herald of
March 7, 1920.)
  "He was a director of this company from its organ-
ization to the date of his death, was its vice-president
and general counsel, and in all those capacities he served
it with that intelligence, wisdom and fidelity which char-
acterized his performance of every duty.
  "Those who knew him best loved him most, and
we are grateful for the privilege of association with
him for so many years. We feel that any attempt
on our part to eulogize him would be-to use a
phrase which he frequently employed with refer-
ence to others-an effort to 'paint the lily'; and yet
we cannot forbear to record our admiration for the
gentleness and purity of his life, for the unfailing
courtesy and consideration for others which was as
much a habit with him as breathing, for the strength
and elevation of his character, for the upright-
ness and nobility of his conduct. The clearness of
his intellect, the vigor of his reason, were not more
remarkable than the directness and disinterestedness of
his action. His lofty ideals were not marred by in-
consistency of conduct. He had the faith of Lincoln
that might makes right; he sought the truth, and, hay-



ing found it, he dared to follow where it led. With
the gentleness of a woman he combined the courage
of a hon, and being true to himself, could not be
false to any man.'-(From resolutions adopted by the
Directors of the Fayette Home Telephone Company.)
  '"A man of unusual mental ability, of the highest
sense of honor, of keen appreciation of the service
which he should render to his fellow-man, of rare
Christian character, he brought to the discharge of
every duty a determination to give his very best efforts.
His counsels were wise, his judgment sound, and his
integrity above reproach. In the death of John T.
Shelby this community has lost one of its best citizens,
this bank a wise and safe counselor, his church a
Christian gentleman, and his friends one of their
choicest spirits-"-(From resolutions adopted by the
Directors of the First and City National Bank, of Lex-
ington-)
  "As a man, he was gifted, highly trained, of incor-
ruptible integrity; as counselor and adviser, clear-
visioned and wise; as a friend, loyal and true; as a
Christian, humble, devout and consistent We honored
him, we loved him, we shall miss him sorely. The
Church is better because he lived and worked in it.
It is poorer now because he has gone from us. While
our sense of bereavement is so fresh and vivid, we
shall not attempt to make a balanced estimate of his
life and work, or pay complete and fitting tribute to his
character. We would only express our thankfulness to
God for what Mr. Shelby was and for what he did
among us, and our sense of bereavement in his loss."-
(From resolutions adopted by the XVestry of Christ
Church Cathedral, Lexington.)



5




 




 




Watter Aebnman 3talbeman



W       HILE the personality of its great editor, Henry
         Wattersun, is so closely associated in the popu-
V  V       lar mind with the Courier-Journal the credit
         for making it a great business institution as
well as a great newspaper primarily belongs to its
founder, Walter Newman Haldeman, who up to the
time of his death in 1902, was its principal owner, had
entire control of its business interests, and who asso-
ciated with him Mr. Watterson as editor.
  The Haldeman family, which has had so conspicuous
a part in Kentucky affairs, originated in Switzerland,
where Honus Haldeman or Haldiman lived until 1727,
and in that year established his home its Lancaster
County, Pennsylvania, where he lived out his life. His
son, Jacob Haldeman, was born at Neufchatel, Ssvitzer-
land, October 7, 1722, and died in Lancaster County,
Pennsylvania, February 2, 1783. His son, Jacob Halde-
man, Jr., was born in Lancaster County August I4,
1747, married Elizabeth Muselman, and they spent their
last years in Virginia.
  Representing the fourth generation of the family in
America and the first Kentuckian of the name was John
Haldeman, who