of having built, in conjunction with his brothers, William and Burton, the first inclined-wheel grist and saw mills in the West.

They were descended from a hardy race of pioneers, braving the perils of the West, meeting the dangers which in that day were everywhere encountered, and thoroughly imbued with the courageous and manly spirit which eminently characterized the pioneers of "the dark and bloody ground." This spirit they have inherited from an ancestry of earnest men, the eldest of whom known to the family, namely, William Hearne, came to America from England, in 1681, after a brief sojourn in the island of St. Thomas, and settled in the then Province of Maryland. Cannon Hearne was a man of vigorous intellect, strong and active. He filled acceptably, for many years, the office of justice of the peace--no mean distinction in that day--and in that sparsely populated country, and in the absence of medical advisers, he was authority in sickness, a very Samaritan to the poor and afflicted. He died 1839, honored and respected by his neighbors. The family is a numerous one, and has made its mark by the integrity, sagacity, and intelligence of its several members. The grandfather, Clement Hearne, was born in Sussex Co., Del., Nov. 29, 1763, where he married Keziah Cannon, with whom he came to Kentucky in 1798, and settled near the present little city of Cynthiana. April 20, 1799, he purchased of Charles Smith and wife a tract of land containing sixty acres, near the present town of Leesburg, but within the boundary of the famous county of Bourbon; the consideration expressed in the deed being eighty-four pounds lawful money, which was about seven dollars per acre.

On this farm the pioneer grew to old age, dying in 1851, having reared a family of seven children. Jonathan D. Hearne, the subject of this sketch, was the third child of Cannon Hearne and Sallie Owen, his wife. Jonathan was but ten years of age when his father died, the mother dying very soon thereafter. Although the father had by frugality and industry become the owner of a good farm, the children thus left in tender years met in large measure the trials which were inseparable from orpahage among the pioneers. The fatherless boy spent two years under the roof of his grandfather, and at thirteen years of age began in earnest the work of self-sustaining labor. Working on a farm for the means of clothing himself and paying for a plain country school education, he alternated between a subclerkship in a country store and farm labor

[Continued on page 355]

Thanks to Catherine Bradford for transcribing this page.