My Genealogy Hound

JUDGE WILLIAM S. BISHOP was born July 18, 1839, in Trigg County, Ky., and is the youngest of seven children born to Joseph and Elizabeth (Howard) Bishop, who were married in Cumberland County, Ky. The father died, while in the Confederate Army, in March, 1862 at Columbia, Ky.; the mother died about one week later. William S. was reared on a farm and received a common school education, then attended Transylvania University, Lexington, Ky. He taught five terms of school in Ballard and McCracken Counties, and then commenced the study of law in 1859, in his twentieth year, with Oscar Turner, then living in north Ballard, and who is now representing his district for the third term in United States Congress. Mr. Bishop enlisted, November 7, 1861, in Company F, Seventh Kentucky Confederate Infantry, under Capt. Sherrell, Col. Wickliffe commanding, and was in the battle at Corinth, Miss., Brazos Cross Roads, Baton Rouge and the bombardment of Port Hudson. He was captured on Big Black River just before the general surrender, and received a final parole in the spring of 1865, when he returned home and engaged in teaching, and then to the practice of law. He was admitted to the bar, in 1861, by Judge R. K. Williams and Judge Joseph M. Bigges, of Paducah, and was very successful in his practice. He was elected common pleas judge of First Kentucky Judicial District in 1879, for a term of six years. He was married, June 29, 1867, to Miss Mollie A. Hart, of McCracken County, Ky., a native of Tennessee, and a daughter of Samuel and Emeline (Leigh) Hart. This union has been blessed with four children: Henry L., Emma E., Willie R., Lee and Joseph. Mr. and Mrs. Bishop are members of the Methodist Episcopal and Baptist Churches, respectively, and he is a member of the I. O. O. F. He is the possessor of a good farm, and also a house and lot in Blandville. He is a self-made man, having started in life in humble circumstances, but by energy and perseverance has attained an honorable and enviable position in life. The father of our subject was a slave-holder, but since the war submits with grace to the new order of things.