BOWLES-L Archives

Archiver > BOWLES > 2005-01 > 1104940347


From: "Leathel Bowles" <>
Subject: Samuel Harper Boles
Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2005 10:52:27 -0500


Judge Samuel Harper Boles, 1825 - 1902

Samuel Harper Boles was born in Cumberland Co, Ky, Jan 12, 1825, the eldest
son of Elam Farmer Boles & Mary Harper Jones, b Sept 18, 1800 In Virginia,
and d Aug 9, 1873 in Cumberland Co Ky . His paternal grandfather was Thomas
Boles, b May 5, 1775 in Chesterfield Co, Va, and paternal grandma was
Tabitha Farmer, b Feb 13, 1775 in Chesterfield Co, Va & died Nov 13, 1846
in Cumberland Co, Ky.

As a youth, Judge Boles attended the Burkesville school, later going to
Todd Co, Ky, where there was a school of some note, conducted by professors
from New York. As a young man, he was fond of sports and was considered
quite an athlete. Sports at the time consisted of racing, running,
jumping, wrestling & horseback riding. The Rev James Lewis, Methodist
minister, had this to say of Boles. "Sam Boles came as a teacher, He was a
spare young man, five feet eleven inched tall, keen blue eyes, thick black
hair, and a very florid complexion. I have seen him lay his hand on his
saddle & vault into it with perfect ease. In the single broad jump, his
record, cut in the stone curbing in front of the old White Hall Tavern, was
13 feet 8 inches. He whipped fiercely if the boy was small enough to lay
across his lap. How the blows did rain down. He was an excellent, honest,
capable, conscientious & generally popular teacher. His private life was
clean, his morals good & at that time he was a member of the Christian
Church. Rev Lewis happenned to be one of the small boys laid across his
lap.

In 1848 Boles married to Mary Rebecca Parham, of Montgomery Co, TN, b Oct
14, 1828 in Henrico Co, Va & d.March 1, 1902, Barren Co, Ky, the daughter of
Charles Lewis Parham & Mary Ann Smith, both natives of Va, but resided at
that time in Montgomery Co, TN

Sam Boles & Rebecca Parham had 10 children:

Mary Tabitha Boles, b May 9, 1849, md W D Wade
Charles E Boles, b June 21, 1851 md Eliza Jewell
James Thomas Boles, b May7 25, 1853
Samuel Junius Boles, b aug 21, 1855
Jennie Lou Boles, b Feb 17, 1858
Jimmie B Boles, b feb 24, 1860, md John T Hall
Sallie J Boles, b May 1, 1862, md Joseph T Altsheler
Sidney L Boles, b Sept 12, 1864
Sam Ella Boles, b Mar 3, 1868, md Chris C Hall
Jessie Boles, b Jul 15, 1870, d June 27, 1875

Sam Boles gave up teaching & returned to Burkesville in 1850 or 51 to study
law. He took a law course at the University of Louisville, at the age of
26 began to practice law. At age 33, he was elected to the State Senate.
In 1866, They moved to Glasgow, Ky. He formed a law practice under the
name of Lewis, Boles, & McQuown. In 1883 he was elected to the State
Senate & in 1892 as a member of the Constitutional Convention. As a
lawyer, he was noted for his intense loyalty to his clients, holding on
when others would have surrended. He was ever a friend of the poor &
oppressed, his charity reaching out to the colored man, who at that time,
he did not believe received justice in the courts. He was of a generous
nature and liked to share what he had with others. He was a great family
man & enjoyed the home circle in the love of his wife & children. He was
never puritanical in his outlook on life, as many were in those days, and
liked to see his children enter into and enjoy the pleasures of the day.
Dancing & card playing were not taboo with him, these he regarded as
innocent pleasures.


Judge Boles died Aug 22, 1902, at his home 3 miles north of Glasgow. his
portrait hangs in the law library of the Barren County Courthouse. He was
a most delightful speaker on the stump, and the bare announcement that he
would deliver an address on a political subject was suffieient to attract a
crowd that included every white male of voting age for ten miles around.

As a lawyer, Judge Boles stood among the foremost for half a century. His
wonderful hold upon the people was due to his sincerity of purpose, his
charm of personal magnetism & his commanding ability. Through all his
long public career, he was ever the friend of the masses. He was a man of
strong convictions, dauntless courage, boundlaess evergies, & magnificent
abilities.

The following incident in his life was printed in the Glasgow Times, a
letter by Govorner P H Leslie. He says" I was in Burkesville attending
court when the first blow of the Civil War was struck at Ft Sumpter. The
town was full of people from all over the county, and many lawyers from
adjoining counties. The excitement was intense & in a few moments Judge
Bramlett, later Governor, adjourned the court and a mass meeting was held
in the courthouse, Judge Zack Wheat led off in a vigorous denunciation,
comdemning the Southern side of the then great question. He was followed
by Wm Simpson, later a judge of the Court of Appeals, adding fuel to the
flames. All of these speeches were listened to and the allpause was long &
loud. After they had spoken and the crowd was beginning to disperse, then
young Sam Boles walked through the crowd and took his place upon the
platform from which they had spoken. All eyes looked him in the face, all
noise was hushed. He looked upon & over the large crowd & upon the three
distinguished gentlemen. his speech was a fire brand thrown into the
crowd. His words were burning cinders and his voice was emotionally
projected. I had never before, nor have I since, witnessed a more
courageous outspeaking of a mans sentiments than displayed by Boles." Gov
Leslie continued, " The crowd was overwhelmingly against him & scarcely
anyone gave out compliments to him, as then Cumberland Co was a strongly
Union as it is strongly Republican today. By this speech, his life was
placed in jeopardy by the lower elements of the county, some of whom had
vowed to take his life. In later years, I heard him say that it was
better that the nation as a Union had been preserved. He came to realize
that there was something great & good in Abraham Lincolm & believed that
had his life been spared, the South would have fared better than it did."

Copied from notes by Judge Boles daughter, Mrs Jennie Lou Boles Ellison,
and obituries, submitted by Roger M Parrish, Bowling Green, Ky


This thread: