Washington B. Meredith (1862 - 1931)

Born 1 Mar 1862 in Edmonson County, Kentucky

Ancestors

Husband of Jane Meredith — married 23 Mar 1882 in Edmonson County, Kentucky

Died 30 Oct 1931 at age 69 in Edmonson County, Kentucky

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This profile is part of the Meredith Name Study.

Biography

Washington Meredith was born in 1862 to Miles Meredith and Tabitha Rich, and passed away in 1931.

Appointments: 16 Sep 1911, sublime degree of Master Mason, J.M.S. McCorkle (now Washington Meredith) Lodge No. 355, F.&A.M.; Brownsville, Kentucky.

Burial: Washington Meredith Masonic Cemetery, Bee Spring, Edmonson County, Kentucky

Ceremonial Biography

Washington Meredith by Charles Whittle^[1]

We are here tonight because while this was yet an untenanted wildwood, a hardy Virginia pioneer, having sojourned for a time on the headwaters of Green River, mounted his horse, laid his old, big-bore rifle across his saddle, and rode off down through the unbroken woods to the hills of Nolin and fell in love with the wilderness here. Those were the days when the bear stole out from his cavernous retreat, when the deer sped across the hill and valley, when the wolf and the wildcat at night fared forth for food, when the eagle and the turkey perched upon the craigs and in the treetops,----and this old pioneer was a hunter. His name was Joseph Meredith, and as early as 1809 he settled on Rock Creek near where it flows into Nolin from the west. Here he spent the rest of his life and with his good old spouse was laid to rest in death.

It is significant that he built a water-mill, (probably the first one in this immediate part of Kentucky,) to which his neighbors might repair with their breadstuff. It is also significant that he reared ten sons and a number of daughters to perpetuate the family traits of honesty, industry, neighborliness and love of the rifle and the wooded frontier.

For a hundred and twenty-five years his descendants have peopled these hills, and but few have strayed afar.

One of his sons, Charles, (generally known as Charles Wallace Meredith,) crossed Nolin and squatted a few miles down-stream on what is now known as the Old Jimmie Thompson place in the Fork.

One of Charles' sons, Bradley, moved on down into Piney, then across Nolin onto Dismal Creek, and lived for a time near Bee Spring before his death in 1872.

He was the father of Miles Meredith, (who was born November 11, 1826, and died March 11, 1869,) who, like his forbears, remained on Nolin. Marrying Tabitha, the daughter of John Rich, who lived above Dismal Rock, he made his home on the opposite hill, just across the river.

They loved these hills, and they were hunters,---these Meredith's: Miles and his brothers and uncles and cousins, descendants of the old pioneer immigrant. In the courthouse here is a bundle of wildcat bounty certificates dated 1847 to 1856. Of the one hundred and fifty-five in all, at least forty of them were issued to direct descendants of Joseph Meredith.

From this paternity Washington Meredith was sprung, When he was seven years of age, his father, then but forty-two, was suddenly snatched away by an attack of "brain fever," leaving his widow with ten small children to rear. She was a strong character and reared them well. It is fitting, therefore, to consider briefly her ancestry and innate qualities.

Her father, John Rich, was born in North Carolina about 1814, but at an early age migrated with his parents, William Rich and Lucy Lee Rich, through Kentucky to Illinois. At the age of eighteen he married Elizabeth Morris, the sixteen-year-old daughter of Reuben Morris, an immigrant from South Carolina. For a time the young couple lived in Illinois, whence their parents had removed; and wile there John Rich served in the Black Hawk War; but the wooded hills of Nolin kept beckoning to them, and soon after the war they left the prairie country and came to spend the rest of their days in the evening shadows of the Dismal Rock.

Dark of skin and strong of body, John Rich was reputed to be one-fourth Indian. Few could line the rifle-sights more true and none could fashion or handle the bow and arrow with greater efficacy. Quiet, peaceful, and unassuming, he led his life in the quietude of the hills, where he chased the deer, feasted on venison and wild turkey, and reared his thirteen children.

His daughter, Tabitha, was born December 10, 1830, was married at sixteen, and at thirty-eight was in the prime of womanhood, when death took her husband away and left her to rear their ten small children. Each of her sons took her name as part of his own as he grew to manhood,---hence Washington 'Bitha Mereditrh, as he was generally known.

Such was the background, such was the heritage of Washington Meredith. In his character and his life there was little of the dashing and dramatic. Quietly and unpretentiously he moved along serene pathways marked out for him by nature.

Born March 1, 1862; orphaned at seven; married at twenty to Jane Meredith, a distant cousin^[2], on March 23, 1882; died October 30, 1931;---these are his dates.

After spending his youth and young manhood at home with his mother, he purchased from her and his brothers and sisters the old homestead and spent his entire life there. Today he sleeps upon the brow of its beautiful hills within sight of his birthplace and almost within ear-shot of the resting-place of four generations of his fathers.

In boyhood he was stricken with "white swelling." In later years he suffered recurring attacks, and it left him childless. His health usually was good, however, until his old disease and an afflicted heart plagued the closing months of his life.

Physically he was a large man, easy-going of gait, and a pleasant smile usually played across his face and enlivened his conversation.

One of his most outstanding characteristics was his love of nature. Especially was he a hunter. A cousin of his own age relates that when she was a girl on her way to school one morning she met him sauntering along the road with his gun. When she suggested that he, too, should go to school, he replied, "Why Becky, I'd rather go a-hunting." So a-hunting he went; and although he never learned to read or write, and always signed his name by mark, there was probably not a home in Edmonson County adorned with so many trophies of the rifle as was his. In his young days the deer still frolicked upon these hills and in his older days their antlers still reposed in his halls; while upon a board across the gable of his smokehouse were nailed more than fifty wild turkey feet, one from each wild turkey he killed "after they began to get scarce," as he put it.

In January, 1902, his hounds led the chase and he helped to kill the last wolf in Edmonson County. He was a fox hunter, too, and kept a pack of good hounds. His kindly treatment of them was remarkable. He enjoyed no comfort and feasted on no delicacy which he failed to share with them. Even a dog could not be more faithful to him than he was to it.

In his earlier days he had his fish trap on Nolin. It was all his own; and although he shared the catch generously with all his friends, woe unto him who ttok fish from the trap without his permission!

Naturally, he loved the woods. For a time he worked a bit in the timber business; but he was not a real timber-man, for a real timber-man cleans out around home first, and around his home the forest still stands in all its primeaval virginity as it did when he was a boy. He neither touched it himself or permitted others to do so. A few years ago timber bouers longed to get their clutches on a choice walnut tree of his and offered him fancy prices for it; but he promptly made it known that that old walnut was not for sale at any price. All around the hillsides great oak and poplar and beech and walnut rise in all of their primitive grandeur and down at his ferry just above Dismal four stately sycamores, each measuring from fifteen to eighteen feet in circumference, stand sentinel in a row. A tree was a friend, and he loved a friend. Once in Louisville he feared that he and his companion had lost their way and was a bit perturbed about it until he recognized a large sycamore thrusting its body up through the sidewalk on Broadway. Skyscrapers and stone-fronts had failed to impress themselves upon his memory; but this old sycamore,---ah! it was a friend and he remembered it.

It has already been observed that he was illiterate. Moreover, until his latter years he could not identify one denomination of paper money from another. Yet by steady industry, constant saving and careful investment, he accumulated a fortune variously estimated at from $50,000.00 to $100,000.00. He was a good workman and steady, and he knew how to manage his farm to advantage. Having made a dime he put it into his pocket, for he lived and loved the simple life and his desires which nature could not satisfy were very few.

As his money accumulated, he began to lend it to his friends. He loaned it only to those he trusted and frequently handed them his pocket book to count it out for themselves. He could not count the paper money himself, and had he feared to risk his money with them he would not be making them the loan. Much of the time they need not even trouble about making him a note. Although for many years he kept several thousand dollars loaned out to his friends, and the interest on it must have added considerably to his accumulations, he appeared to make these loans more as an accommodation than for the profit which might accrue to him. He usually kept a quantity of gold which was not to loaned, yet he could not turn a real friend away and even his gold went on some occasions. His other investments were confined to a few thousand dollars in bank stocks and to liberty bonds bought during the war, for he had five nephews in the World War and followed with interest and anxiety the news of its progress.

That he was absolutely honest went without saying: the name of Washington Meredith implied honesty and fair dealing to all that knew him. He never took his troubles into court for settlement, was never arraigned there himself, and never sought political preferment; yet he was frequently found about the courtroom imploring mercy for some friend in trouble, and he always took a keen and active interest in behalf of his friends who sought office on his, the Republican, ticket. His brother served as Sheriff of this County; a brother-in-law was Representative, Assessor and County Judge; a nephew was Jailer; and these and many another close relative and near friend found him in their ready champion as the campaign went on. Usually he dictated in a genial but firm manner the way his whole neighborhood voted. He had such explicit faith in his neighbors that they tried to merit that faith and please him. He had loaned them money without note or security and let them count it out to themselves. Is it any wonder that they in return usually dealt honestly with him, paid him back scrupulously and tried to please him by their votes and otherwise?

His whole plantation beamed with neighborly cheer and hospitality. The very woods cloistered his house in a fond embrace; and his great open fireplace and his sunny smile made stranger or friend feel welcome and at home. They always found at his home a bountiful table and a jug of the best of corn whiskey. These he enjoyed regularly, though not to excess; and he loved to share them with others. among his friends he was the incarnation of hospitality. Yet he had his dislikes and could be firmly frigid when he chose. A minister of the gospel who had recently voted "dry" complained of some ailment and asked Uncle Washington for a drink; but Uncle Washington smiled and shook his head; "A fellow ought to drink the way he votes, and you can't have any of my whiskey."

Never very active in church affairs, yet he was a professed Christian; and as the shadows gathered, he expressed a readiness to go, facing death with the same calm serenity which had characterized him through life.

On September 16, 1911, he was raised to the sublime degree of a Master Mason in J.M.S. McCorkle (now Washington Meredith) Lodge No. 355, F. & A. M., at Brownsville, Kentucky, as many of his relatives and neighbors had been before him; and throughout the remainder of his life he attended his Lodge meetings and took a lively interest in them. He loved to sit in the Lodge with his brethren. A few years before his death he expressed a desire to do something substantial for his Mother Lodge and consulted with a number of his intimates about the erection of a hall for it. He decided to devise a fund for that purpose and prepared his will accordingly. Yet he was not satisfied with that arrangement. Having made up his mind to do this beneficence, he was not content to withhold it until his death. Instead, he delivered the fund at once to designated trustees and lived to lay the corner stone of this magnificent temple himself on Oct 22, 1931, just eight days before he passed away.

This is his epitaph:

A man of truth and trust,

Having served his friends well,

By the will of God he fell asleep,

With the hope of heaven in his heart,

There with his friends to meet."

Sources

1. ↑ Public address delivered at Washington Meredith Masonic Lodge No. 355 F. & A. M. on 3 Mar 1934, in commemoration the birthday of Washington Meredith and of George Washington.
2. ↑ Washington Meredith and his wife Jane Meredith were Second Cousins Once Removed

• Marriage Record found in Edmonson County, Kentucky, Office of the County Court Clerk
• Edmonson County Marriage Index (at KyGenWeb)
• US Census
• Death Certificate
• Find A Grave: Memorial #85308624