KYBIOGRAPHIES-L Archives

From: Sandi Gorin <>
Subject: BIOS 3411 THRU 3415 - ROGERS, LASSING, WYLIE, COBLIN, PROWSE
Date: Mon, 26 Jul 1999 07:17:45 -0500

3411 BARREN CO - ROGERS, EDMUND - Rogers Cornwallis Clark Chapline
Muldrough Shirley Underwood Pitman Butler M'Call
3412 BOONE CO - LASSING, MORRIS - Lassing Hume
3413 CALDWELL CO - WYLIE, JOHN R - Wylie Whitnell Pollard
3414 CARROLL CO - COBLIN, LOUIS - Coblin, Powell, King, Coghill
3415CHRISTIAN CO - PROWSE, JOHN P - Prowse Wells Feland Atkinson Baily

#3411: HISTORY OF KENTUCKY, by Lewis Collins, and J.A. & U.P. James,
published 1847. Reprinted by Henry Clay Press, Lexington, Ky., 1968, pp.
175-176 [Barren county]. EDMUND ROGERS, one of the pioneers of the Green
river county, was born in Caroline county, Virginia, on the 5th of May,
1762. He served as a soldier in the memorable campaign of 1781, in his
native State, which resulted in the capture of Cornwallis. He was in the
battles of Green Springs, Jamestown, and at the siege of York. For these
services he refused to apply for a pension, although entitled under the
acts of congress. It was the love of his country's liberty and
independence, and
no pecuniary reward, which induced him to fight her battles. He emigrated
to Kentucky in 1783, and became intimate with most of the early pioneers.
He possessed a remarkable memory, and could detail with accuracy up to the
time of his death, all the important events of the Indian wars and early
settlement of Kentucky. He had enjoyed better opportunities to learn the
history of these transactions than most persons, in consequence of his
intimacy with General George Rogers Clark (his cousin), and captain John
Rogers (his brother), and captain Abraham Chapline, of Mercer, in whose
family he lived for years. Mr. E. Rogers was the longest liver of that
meritorious and enterprising class of men who penetrated the wilderness of
Kentucky, and spent their time in locating and surveying lands. It is
confidently believed that he survived all the surveyors of military lands
south of Green river. He began business as a surveyor in the fall of 1783,
in Clark's or the Illinois grant as it was called, on the north side of the
Ohio river, opposite to Louisville. In the spring of 1784, his operations
were changed to the military district in this State, on the
south side of Green river. He made most of the surveys on Little and Big
Barren rivers and their tributary streams. Muldrough's hill was the
boundary of the settlements toward the south-west in Kentucky, when Mr.
Rogers commenced surveying in the military district. He settled upon a
tract of land, upon which he afterwards laid out the town of Edmonton in
Barren county, in the year 1800. He married Mary Shirley in 1808. She
died in 1835, leaving seven daughters and one son. In 1840 owing to his
advanced age, he broke up house keeping and removed with his single
daughters to the house of John T. Rogers, where he died on the 28th day of
August, 1843. His remains were taken to his own farm and buried by the
side of his wife near Edmonton. In purity of life and manly virtues, Mr.
Rogers had but few equals. His intercourse with mankind was characterized
by great benevolence and charity, and the strictest justice. He was ever
ready to lend a helping hand to the needy and deserving. He raised and
educated his nephew, the honorable Joseph Rogers Underwood. He was not
ambitious of distinction. He accepted the office of justice of the peace
shortly after he settled in Barren county, at the solicitation of his
neighbors. Perceiving as he thought, an act of partiality on the part of
the court, he resigned his commission at the first court he ever attended,
and thereafter persisted in his resolution to hold no office. Mr. Rogers
believed that the distinctions made among men, arising from the offices
they filled, without regard to their intellectual and moral attainments and
qualifications, were often unjust. He therefore spurned official stations
and those who filled them, when he thought
genuine merit was overlooked, and the shallow and presumptuous promoted.
He believed that the fortunes of men, were controlled by things apparently
of little moment, and that there was in regulating and governing the
affairs of this world, if not the whole universe, a chain of causes and
effects or consequences, in which every link was just as
important as every other in the eyes of God, although in the estimation of
men, they were regarded as very different in importance. To his
philosophic mind, he saw what mankind usually call great things, springing
as results from very little things, and he was not disposed to concede that
the effect was entitled to more consideration than the
cause. He admitted a controlling providence, which operated in a manner
inscrutable to man; and hence he never despised what were called little
things, and never became great excited with passionate admiration for what
were called great things. He admited there were two great principles at
work in the earth, one of good, the other of evil. His affections and his
actions were all with the good. In illustration of his idea that apparent
trifles were important
affairs, he often told the writer that the most consequential events of his
life, had been the result of his falling off a log and getting wet, in
attempting to cross a creek. This happened on the day he left Pitman's
station to go into the wilderness south of Green river. He got his papers
wet, and was induced to return to the station to dry them,
and then to take a new start. Upon his return, he met with a stranger who
had a large number of warrants, and made a contract with him for their
location. Under this contract he secured the land around Edmonton where he
lived, and upon these facts he reasoned thus: "If I had not fallen into
the creek, I should not have turned back; if I had not
returned to the station, I should not have made the contract by which I
obtained the land on which I settled; if I had not got that land I should
not have lived upon it; if I had not lived there, I should have been thrown
into a different society, and most probably would never have seen the lady
I married, and of course, would not have had the wife and children I have;
and as a further consequence, the very existence and destiny of those
children and their descendants through all coming generations, and the
influence they may exercise in families, neighborhoods and counties,
depended upon my falling from the log." Mr. Rogers and his brother captain
John Rogers, made a very
singular contract. It was firmly agreed between them, that he who died
first, should return from the world of spirits, and inform the other what
was going on there. This engagement between the brothers, was most
seriously entered into. Mr. Rogers has often told the writer, that there
could be no such things as visits from the spirits of the dead,
and holding intercourse with the living; for said he, if such a thing could
be, I know my brother John would have kept and fulfilled his promise. He
discountenanced everything of a superstitious character. The motto upon
which Mr. Rogers acted through life, was "to do justice, love mercy and
walk humbly before God." He often repeated
these words as containing man's whole duty. His last illness was of short
duration. He was in his perfect mind to the last breath. About an hour
before he expired he was seen to smile, and being asked what occasioned it,
he said, "he was thinking of the vain efforts of three of the best
physicians in the country, to save the life of an old man when his time had
come." He died with perfect composure and without a struggle. Inscription.
- Mr. Butler, in his History of Kentucky, states, upon the authority of
Judge Underwood, that Edmund Rogers had discovered on a beech tree,
standing under the margin of the east fork of the south branch of Little
Barren river, before there was any settlement south of Green river, the
following inscription: "James M'Call, of Mecklenburg county, North
Carolina, June 8th, 1770." These words were cut in very handsome letters,
with several initials of other names.

#3412: A History of Kentucky Baptists, From 1769 to 1885, by J. H. Spencer,
1886, Reprinted by Church History and Archives, 1976, Lafayette, TN.
Licking Association. Boone County. MORRIS LASSING was raised up to the
ministry within the bounds of Licking Association. He was born in Bavaria,
Germany, Aug. 3, 1800. He was
liberally educated by Catholic parents. But after coming to mature years,
he became a free-thinker, or a disbeliever in revealed religion. In 1824,
he emigrated to the United States, and shortly afterwards settled in Boone
county, Ky. In 1843, he was awakened from his delusive dream of
infidelity, and, after seeking and finding peace in the Savior, was
baptized by William Hume, in August of that year. He possessed an
extensive stock of knowledge, and gave his church satisfactory evidence of
his call to the ministry. Accordingly, he was ordained to that sacred
office, April, 29, 1854. He immediately assumed the pastoral care of
Sardis church, in Boone county, and continued to serve in that position,
during the remainder of his earthly life. He also traveled considerably,
and preached to the churches of his order, in Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio.
He was afflicted with disease of the heart, some time before his death,
and died of that malady, Jan., 9, 1867.

#3413: Kentucky: A History of the State, Battle, Perrin, Kniffin 2nd ed.,
1885 Caldwell Co. JOHN R. WYLIE, circuit clerk of Caldwell County, was
born November 9, 1859, and belongs to one of the oldest families of this
part of Kentucky. His grandfather, John Wylie, was born in Ireland in 1789,
and came to America with his parents in 1793, the family settling near
Charleston, S.C. He came to Caldwell County, Ky., as early as 1817,
located in Princeton, and later purchased the homestead farm, two miles
east of the town, on which he died in 1862, at the age of seventy-three
years. Subject's grandmother, on the father's side, was Elizabeth
(Whitnell) Wylie, a daughter of Josiah Whitnell, of Virginia, who came to
Caldwell County, about the year 1805. Mrs. Elizabeth Wylie was born in
Sullivan County, Tenn., in 1794, and was but eleven years of age, when her
parents came to Kentucky. She lived nearly all her life in and around
Princeton, and died August 10, 1884. Subject's father, James S. Wylie, was
the son
of John and Elizabeth Wylie. He was a farmer and active business man of
Caldwell County, and died in July, 1874, at the age of forty-four years.
Subject's mother, Sarah L. (Pollard) Wylie, was born in Caldwell County,
and is a daughter of Wilson L. Pollard. She is now living in Princeton.
Mr. and Mrs. Wylie were the parents of eight children, named as follows:
Virginia (deceased), Robert S. (deceased), John R. (subject), William
(deceased), Maggie, James (deceased), Albert and Sallie. John R. Wylie
received a good education; attended Princeton College for a period of
several years, and early displayed those business qualifications which have
characterized him in his office capacitites. After leaving school, he
entered the circuit clerk's office as deputy, under his brother, Robert S.
Wylie, and at the latter's resignation, was appointed to fill the unexpired
term. August, 1882, he was elected to the place without opposition. He
votes with the Democratic party. He is also one of the trustees of the
town of Princeton (in which he lives), having been elected to that
position in April, 1884, for a term of two years.

#3414: Kentucky: A History of the State, Battle, Perrin, & Kniffin, 7th
ed.,Carroll Co. LOUIS COBLIN, M. D., a practicing physician in Carroll
County, Ky., was born in Henry County, Ky., February 9, 1852, and is the
third of eight children born to Granville and Sallie (Powell) Coblin,
natives of Kentucky. Louis Coblin was reared on the farm in Henry County,
received his education at Brookston, Ind., and soon afterward commenced the
study
of medicine with Dr. W. T. Coblin, at Turner's Station, Henry County. He
graduated in medicine from the Miami Medical College at Cincinnati, in
1876, and then located at Turner's Station, where he practiced his
profession until 1879, and then moved to Carroll County, where he has been
constantly and actively engaged in his practice ever since. He owns 170
acres of well-improved land. His wife was Sallie King, a daughter of Robert
and Sallie (Coghill) King, of Carroll County. To this union one child has
been born, St. Elmo. Mr. Coblin is a member of the Baptist Church, and
also of the F. & A. M. and K. P. Politically he is a Democrat.

#3415: Memorial Record of Western Kentucky, Lewis Publishing Company, 1904,
pp 531-533 [Christian] JOHN P. PROWSE, county clerk of Christian
county, Kentucky, is a native of this state and dates his birth in
Muhlenberg county, Kentucky, December 29, 1844. America has been the home
of the Prowses for a number of generations. Their original nationality is
not known. It is supposed, however, that the progenitor of the family in
this country came here from England. Thomas and Colonel George O. Prowse,
the grandfather and the father of John P., were born in North Carolina and
passed their lives as farmers. When George O. was two years old the family
came to Kentucky, where he was reared. He was an old line Whig and then a
Republican, and when
the Civil war broke out he showed his colors as a Union man. He was a
colonel in the state militia and was a recruiting officer. He died
February 24, 1862. His wife was Miss Mary J. Wells. She was a native of
Kentucky, and a daughter of Francis Wells, who came from North Carolina to
Kentucky at an early day and settled in Muhlenberg county, where he engaged
in agricultural pursuits. The Wells family traced its origin to England.
Colonel George O. and Mary J. Prowse became the parents of fifteen
children, thirteen of whom reached adult age, and of that number only three
are now living, namely: Mark L., ex sheriff of Muhlenberg county, Kentucky;
I. S., a farmer of Muhlenberg county; and John P. John P. Prowse was the
twelfth in order of birth in this family. He was reared on the home farm,
receiving a common school education, and remained with his mother until his
twenty-fourth year, having charge of the farming operations after his
father's death. Then he left the home place, married and settled on
another farm. He continued farming in Muhlenberg county until 1873, when
he sold his farm, came to Christian county and turned his attention to
merchandising. He opened a country store, which was known as
Johnson's Postoffice, and dealt in general merchandise and tobacco, making
a specialty of the latter. He continued in business at this point until
1885, when, in order to give his children better educational advantages, he
moved to Hopkinsville. He served one year as deputy collector, under John
Feland, and in 1890 he was elected county clerk, in which official capacity
he is still serving, having been re-elected four times. Mr. Prowse was
married January 13, 1870, to Miss T. J. Atkinson, who was born in Henderson
county, Kentucky, but reared in Christian county, daughter of S. C. and
Theodosia (Baily) Atkinson, who came to Kentucky from North Carolina. Mr.
and Mrs. Prowse had four children, two of whom are living. The eldest son,
Frank O., died at Columbus, Georgia, June 11, 1899, while a soldier in the
Spanish-American war. Their next son, Charlie, is a prominent attorney of
Hopkinsville. Nonia A. died February 24, 1901. John P., Jr., is deputy
clerk in his father's office. Mrs. Prowse died September 20, 1903, at
Battle Creek, Michigan. In both religion and politics Mr. Prowse has
followed in the footsteps of his worthy father, being a Republican and a
member of the Universalist church.

Colonel Sandi Gorin
205 Clements,Glasgow, KY 42141
(270) 651-9114 or E-fax (707)222-1210

Gorin Genealogical Publishing:
http://members.delphi.com/gorin1/index.html

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