My Genealogy Hound

JOHN L. SANDFORD, a native of Kenton County, Ky., was born December 7, 1837, and is a son of Cassius and Frances (Leathers) Sandford, natives of Kenton County. Gen. Thomas Sandford, the paternal grandfather of John L., emigrated from Virginia to Kenton County, Ky., about 1788. He was a farmer and large land owner, was a general in the militia, a member of the convention which framed the first constitution of Kentucky, and also a member of Congress from 1806 to 1810. John Leathers, maternal grandfather of our subject, was also a native of Virginia, and settled in Kenton County about the time that Thomas Sandford did. He was an officer in the war of 1812, and was with the Kentucky troops in the battle of the Thames. Cassius B. Sandford, the father of our subject, was the first cashier of the old Branch Farmers’ Bank, now extinct. He was elected mayor of Covington in 1867, and died in office in 1871. John L. Sandford was reared in Covington, entered Georgetown College in 1854, where he was graduated in 1856. Early in 1862 he joined the Confederate Army, and was assigned to general staff duty, and served all through the war, surrendering with Gen. Joe Johnston, at Greensboro, N. C., in 1865. In July 1865, he returned to Covington, and in January, 1866, was elected teller in the Branch Farmers’ Bank, where he remained until 1872. The bank at that time selling out to the Covington City National Bank, he remained with the Covington City National Bank as assistant cashier until 1882, when he resigned, and organized the Farmers’ and Traders’ National Bank, with himself as cashier. The bank has a capital of $300,000, a surplus of $45,000, and its aggregate deposits amount to about $900,000. April 2, 1872, Mr. Sandford married Miss Kate Marshall, a native of Henry County, Ky., and a daughter of James B. Marshall. Two children have been born to them: Marshall and Julia. Mr. Sandford owns sixty-five acres of land, and is a Royal Arch Mason.