Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 09.pdf/343

 310

wife never believed he was dead and pa tiently watched for his return until her own death. Pryor J. Force is a very able lawyer. His home paper once said of him, " There is no question as to his ability. His record is a clear one and one that any man might well feel proud of. He is a good lawyer, an able debater, and a popular gentleman. He has made his own way and to-day stands the peer of any lawyer at the bar, the honored head of one fiduciary insti tution and the second in authority in an other, with the full confidence of his fel low citizens." Mr. Force took the second honor of his class, which was one of the brightest ever grad uated from the Louis ville Law School. He. is a great-nephew of Chief-Justice Mar shall, and, descended from an illustrious family, he is one of its cleverest members. He is president of a PRYOR J. trust company, president of one bank and attorney for another, and the local attorney for two railroads. EASTERN KENTUCKY. What Danville was to the Bluegrass region of Kentucky, Barboursville was to the wilder ness hill-country north of the Cumberland Mountains. " It was the Athens of the Ken tucky Highlands from the early days until the railroad penetrated that country," wrote a lawyer friend. The lawyers were few and made the circuit with the judge of the dis trict. They were dignified and learned.

Among the more noted were Judge Ballinger, who moved from Barboursville to Keokuk, Iowa; Judge W. P. Ballinger, who moved to Galveston, Texas; Hon. Green Adams, who moved to Philadelphia late in life and died there; R. P. Herndon; John G. Ell; Joseph Ell, ten years a member of Congress, a cir cuit judge and minister to the republic of Texas, where he died; William H. Randall of London, who was probably the first cir cuit judge in Ken tucky to permit ne groes to testify in court; he was a mem ber of Congress; and Charles Kirtly of Mt. Vernon. John White moved from Goose Creek Salt Works, in Clay County, to Rich mond. He was ten years a member of Congress and speaker of the Twenty-seventh Congress. He was judge of a circuit ex tending to the head of the Big Sandy. He was a very talent ed lawyer. President John Quincy Adams FOREE. said of him, " White is a man of fine talents and an able debater." His son, John D. White, is a brilliant lawyer and a clever gen tleman. He was the only Republican con gressman from Kentucky for years. A most eminent lawyer of eastern Ken tucky was Samuel F. Miller, for years an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Judge Miller first studied medicine and located at Barboursville. Mr. John D. White told me he had made pro fessional visits to patients at his grandfather's, driving twenty-one miles to do so. He be gan the study of law at Barboursville and