Carbon-Laramie County WY Archives Biographies.....Kuykendall, W. L. 1835 - 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 October 23, 2011, 10:37 pm

Source: See below
Author: A. W. Bowen (Publisher)

HON. W. L. KUYKENDALL.

   A man of inflexible integrity, keen business ability, of broad and liberal
views, possessing a distinct individuality, Mr. Kuykendall has been eminently
successful in temporal affairs through his practical ability and he has served
in positions of trust and official stations with unbended rectitude and conceded
wisdom, ever commanding the confidence and esteem of the people, his personal
character being the basis of his success in every field of public or private
activity. In his ancestry the same characteristics run back through generations,
his great-grandfather, the emigrant, belonging to a family of high distinction
in Holland, a near relative being an admiral of distinguished fame. Locating
with capital in South Carolina very early in its history, he there developed a
fine estate and was one of the mountaineers engaged on October 7, 1780, in the
historic battle of King's Mountain under Colonel Campbell, where he was killed,
of which great victory over the British Thomas Jefferson said: "It was the
joyful enunciation of that time in the tide of success that terminated the
Revolutionary War with the seal of our independence." After the battle his
residence was burned by Tories, all the family records being destroyed. The
bewitching region of Kentucky was calling many pioneers then to its land of milk
and honey, and thither emigrated Richmond Kuykendall, the paternal grandfather
of our subject. In this fair land he developed a fine plantation in Barren
county, on which he passed the remainder of his life, exercising a potent
influence in the affairs of the new land as a citizen of strong mental powers
and patriotic impulses. His son, James Kuykendall, passed his early life in his
native state, then married Miss Celia Thompson, a native of Garrard county, and
after living in Kentucky until his family consisted of three children migrated
to Clay county, Mo., residing there until 1839, then becoming a resident of the
new county of Platte, where was thereafter his home with the exception of six
years passed in Kansas. At first an agriculturist, he fitted himself for and
engaged in the practice of law and became the first county judge of Platte
county, then in succession sheriff, county treasurer and judge of probate, in
the election of this last office defeating the prominent J. W. Denver, who gave
name to the Colorado metropolis. He was one of the most honored and respected
citizens of the state and died deeply mourned. Hon. William L. Kuykendall, son
of James and Celia (Thompson) Kuykendall, was born in Clay county, Mo., on
December 13, 1835. Remaining with his parents until he was seventeen years old
and diligently attending the best schools of the county, he then commenced his
long career of official life by accepting the appointment of deputy clerk of the
circuit court of Platte county, performing his duties to such public
satisfaction that he was elected the first county clerk of Jackson county, Kas.,
and later held the office of deputy clerk of the district court of the First
Judicial District of that state. Again removing to Missouri, in the great
struggle of the Civil War he was true to his teachings and environment,
enlisting as a private in the Fourth Regiment of the Fifth Division of the
Confederate army, commanded by General Price, holding a captain's commission on
detached service as a recruiting officer a portion of the time. The war left him
impoverished and he sought a new field of endeavor in the alluring regions of
the West, removing to Denver, Colo. A few months later he was engaged in the
building of forts for the U. S. government in the wild region now known as
Wyoming, passing the years of 1866 and 1867 in this employment, on one occasion
securing a contract to deliver 2,000 cords of wood by a bid of one cent less
than his closest competitor. Mr. Kuykendall and his associated partners made the
site of Cheyenne their headquarters, being its earliest settlers and having
timber on the ground to build houses before the land was surveyed. When Laramie
county was organized Mr. Kuykendall was first appointed and later elected judge
of probate and county treasurer and he was an ex-officio justice of the peace
and made his home in Cheyenne, holding office until 1874. These offices do not
constitute all the public positions occupied with credit by our subject, as
during the above period he was a member of the legislature, continuing in this
body until his removal to the Black Hills in 1876. He held a seat in the
legislature of the Dakotas during the four and one-half years he resided there,
and on his return to Cheyenne served as city clerk for three years, his service
terminating by his removal to Saratoga in the spring of 1891, and from 1888 to
1896 he was a member of the Democratic national committee from Wyoming. He is
now residing on his ranch estate of 1,200 acres, less than four miles south of
Saratoga postoffice, his land being all under irrigation, he also owing and
conducting the Pick ranch of 2,400 acres, seven miles north of Saratoga, also
well irrigated and both supporting large herds of stock of superior grade. The
matrimonial relations of Mr. Kuykendall have been most felicitous, his marriage
with Miss Eliza A. Montgomery, a native of Kentucky, being solemnized on July
14, 1857. She is the daughter of John and Elizabeth (Craig) [Montgomery, long
time residents of Rockcastle county. Ky., and later classed among the prominent
families of Buchanan county, Mo. Her ancestry in the paternal line stretches
through several American generations to the proud English familv of that name
that came to England in 1066 with William the Conquerer. The children of this
union are James, died in infancy; John M., now residing in Denver; Harry L., see
individual sketch elsewhere in this volume; William Arthur, who was killed in
Cheyenne on July 31, 1878, by his horse running away. Mr. Kuykendall maintains
high prestige in Odd Fellow. Masonic and Knights of Pythias circles, holding the
exalted rank of grand representative in Wyoming to the Sovereign Grand Lodge of
Odd Fellows, being at this writing the oldest member in continuous service in
that distinguished body, having been for the past sixteen years the grand
secretary of the Grand Lodge of Freemasons of the state of Wyoming, and also
being a past chancellor in the Pythian brotherhood.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

PROGRESSIVE MEN OF THE STATE OF WYOMING
ILLUSTRATED

CHICAGO, ILL.
A. W. BOWEN &CO.
PUBLISHERS AND ENGRAVERS
1903


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