business for himself. He sold his fifty acres of land to Mr. John Hill for forty-five dollars per acre, sold his negro man Collins to Edwin Clark for $700 and his negro boy Alfred to John Jones for $500. A year before this he and Mr. Stone had bought Brother Robert's negros for $1,800, and he now sold his half interest in them to Mr. Stone for $1,100. The cash on hand from his share in our father's estate, with these other amounts, gave him about $6,000 on which to start in business. He was successful from the start and on, till he sold out early in 1856. Mar. 16, 1852, he married Miss Emily D. Myers of Garrard Co., Ky. They were both earnest and active members of the Methodist Church, South. In spring of 1857 he, with Richard Henderson, bought out a large dry goods store in Paris, Ky., and conducted the business with good success three years, when he sold out again at a fine price. While he lived in Paris a new Methodist church house was built in which he took an active part. Some of the leading members wanted to leave the word "South" off the inscription on the building, and make it simple "Methodist Church," but Jonathan said no, emphatically; said he did not believe in sailing under false colors; so it was made "M. E. Church, South." For nearly four years he lived in Paris and did not go in public business again, only loaned out his money and bought notes, but this was very profitable, as the crash of the Civil war made the rates of interest on money very high. In the progress of the Civil war, as the Northern army invaded the Southern territory, large amounts of cotton was captured and taken from the citizens, and shipped to the Northern cities. In conjunction with others Jonathan bought largely of this cotton at a ridiculously low price, and by holding a little while sold at enormous profits, clearing more than $100,000 for his part. The citizenship of the Bluegrass country where he lived were almost unanimously Southern, but Jonathan chose to be Union, as he termed it, and was so ultra in his views and course of life that it made it quite unpleasant for him to live longer among this people, and in the fall of 1863 he removed to Covington, Ky., and engaged in the wholesale boot and shoe business in Cincinnati, O., under the firm name of Hearne, Lee & Biggs. This proved a lucrative business, the first year's net profits being $36,000, and while not so much afterwards, was quite large. At the end of three years he sold out at a good profit and made investments in various enterprises, all with
Thanks to Catherine Bradford for transcribing this page.
Copyright (c) 1999, 2007 Brian Cragun.