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From: Linne Gravestock <>
Subject: Re: Samuel Harper Boles
Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2005 11:59:05 -0800
References: <001601c4f33e$f60b63c0$f3334a0c@Leathel>
In-Reply-To: <001601c4f33e$f60b63c0$f3334a0c@Leathel>


Thank you, Leathel. And Roger, too! I'm wondering if we
have any descendants of Samuel Harper Boles on this list...?
Yours,
Linne


> 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


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