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Below is a family biography from the book, History of Kentucky, Edition 1 by J. H. Battle, W. H. Perrin and G. C. Kniffin and published by F. A. Battey Publishing Company in 1885.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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EMMET W. BAGBY, lawyer, was born on June 7, 1845, in Glasgow, Ky. His father, Albert K. Bagby, was a native of Kentucky, of Scotch and Irish descent, and a mechanic by occupation. His mother, Martha A. Wooten, was a native of Barren County, Ky., of Virginia parentage. E. W. Bagby received a good English and classical education, which he completed in Urania College, of his native town. He studied law with his uncle, Hon. John C. Bagby, of Rushville, Ill., an ex-congressman from the Tenth District of that State. In 1866 he was chosen principal of the second ward public schools of Paducah. After occupying that position for two sessions, in connection with John W. McGee, was placed in charge of the Paducah Male University, and in the meantime engaged in the study of law under Hon. J. Q. A. King. He was admitted to practice July 7, 1868, at the bar of Paducah, but did not enter regularly into the practice of his profession until 1869. In 1868 he began his political career, espousing the cause of Seymour and Blair. In 1870 he entered the ranks of the Republican party, believing the principles, on which the organization is based, to be conducive to the greatest good in his section and to the country at large. In 1872 he made the race for city attorney, of Paducah, and was defeated by seventy votes. In 1874 he was elected to that office by a majority of ninety votes. In 1872 he was Republican presidential county elector; and in 1876 was district elector on the Republican ticket, exerting his influence in favor of Hayes and Wheeler, and engaging in a joint discussion with the Democratic elector throughout his congressional district. In 1878 he made his third race for city attorney of Paducah, and was defeated by eight votes. He made the fourth race for city attorney in 1882 independently, and was elected by a majority vote of 500. He was the Republican candidate for congress in the First Congressional District of Kentucky in 1878, and in 1883, without his solicitation, was placed before the Republican State Convention in Kentucky for nomination for governor. Mr. Bagby is a man of decidedly advanced views. In 1880, in Princeton, Ky., he made a speech against the then existing capitation tax law, relating to the State fund for colored schools, collected of colored persons, and advocated the creation of a general State school fund by taxation, and its pro rata distribution among all the pupil children of the common wealth, irrespective of their race or color. Soon after this speech he had occasion to defend a suit against a colored man for the collection of his capitation school tax; of this suit he made a test case, carried it to the United States Circuit Court, where Justice Baxter decided the capitation tax law unconstitutional. This decision was the cause of awakening the Kentucky legislature, then in session, to the necessity of a more efficient law, and that body immediately passed the law now in force, which was first voiced by Mr. Bagby in his Princeton speech. He is an able and elegant public speaker, possesses many excellent qualities of mind, is controlled by manly and upright principles, prepossessing in person and manners, and has the necessary traits of character which insure his success and popularity. He was married, in 1873, to Miss Ellen D. Saunders, daughter of Dr. Reuben Saunders, one of the most worthy physicians in Paducah.

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This family biography is one of 165 biographies included in the McCracken County, Kentucky section of the book, The History of Kentucky, Edition 1 published in 1885 by F. A. Battey Publishing Company.  For the complete description, click here: History of Kentucky, Edition 1

View additional McCracken County, Kentucky family biographies here: McCracken County, Kentucky Biographies

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