Biography: Joseph Alexander Humphries, Woodford County
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Submitted by Sandi Gorin <http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00002.html#0000404
Date: 7 Jul 1998
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As originally posted to the KYBiographies mail list:

From:  Kentucky: A History of the State, Battle, Perrin, & Kniffin, 5th ed., 1887,
Woodford Co. 

JOSEPH ALEXANDER HUMPHREYS (deceased) was a member of one of the most
distinguished families of Kentucky. He was born in Woodford County July 29,
1826, and was the eldest son of David C. and Sarah (Scott) Humphreys,
natives respectively of Staunton, Va., and Chillicothe, Ohio. David C.
Humphrey was one of the earliest settlers of Woodford County, and one of
its most influential and substantial farmers. He was the son of Alexander
Humphreys, a native of Ireland, a polished gentleman, and a graduate of the
Edinburgh University, Scotland. He married Miss Mary, daughter of John
Brown. She was a native of Virginia, of Scotch extraction, a sister of John
Brown, Jr., and was born in Rockbridge County, Va., in 1856; came to
Kentucky in 1782; became a member of Congress under the old confederation;
was in 1792 elected the first United States senator from Kentucky, and was
twice re-elected. He died in Frankfort in 1836. His two sons, Mason and
Olando Brown, was also prominent and influential men. Mason Brown was born
in 1799, was a law graduate of Yale, and was secretary of State under Gov.
Morehead. His son, B. Gratz Brown, was governor of the State of Missouri,
was a United States senator, and was the candidate for the Vice President
of the United States on the Democratic ticket with Horace Greeley in 1872.
Olando Brown was born in Franklin County, Ky., in 1801, graduated from
Princeton College in 1820, and for many years was editor and proprietor of
the Frankfort COmmonwealth; he was secretary of State under Gov.
Crittenden, and commissioner of Indian affairs under President Taylor. Both
these brothers died in 1867. Joseph A. Humphreys, whose name heads this
sketch, was educated at Centre College, Danville, then attended Yale
College, and finished his medical studies in Europe; but he never practiced
medicine, his inclination being for agriculture, a vocation he never
abandoned. June 21, 1853, he married Miss Sarah T. Gibson, a native of the
Parish of Terre Boone, La., a daughter of Hon. Tobias Gibson, and sister of
United States Senator, Gibson, of that State. She is highly intelligent and
of fine literary attainments. She was left a widow in 1863 and is the
mother of three children: Lucy A. (married Lewis S. Johnstone, of South
Carolina, February 12, 1884), Salle and Joseph A. Humphreys. The Humphreys
are also connected with the Harts, another prominent Kentucky family.
Nathaniel Hart was born in North Carolina; was an associate of Daniel
Boone, and his sister, Chenoe, was probably the first white child born in
Kentucky. Gov. Shelby married Nathaniel Hart's sister, and Henry Clay also
married into the family. Mr. Hart was also the owner of the first negro
born in the State. 

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