My Genealogy Hound

WILLIAM G. BULLITT, lawyer, Paducah, is a son of Cuthbert Bullitt and grandson of Hon. Alexander Scott Bullitt, who emigrated from Virginia in 1784, first settling in Shelby County, but afterward making a permanent settlement in Jefferson County. He was born in Virginia in 1761, and died on his farm in Jefferson County in 1816. He was elected in 1792 to represent his county in the convention, which framed the first constitution of Kentucky, and, after the admission of the State, was elected to the State senate, presiding over that body until 1799, when he was again chosen as a delegate to the second constitutional convention, of which he was president. In 1800 he was elected lieutenant-governor of the State, serving four years, after which he served in the State legislature until 1808, when he retired to private life and to his farm. He was married to a daughter of Col. W. Christian. Thus it is seen that the subject of this sketch is well descended. His father was a lawyer in early life, and represented Shelby County in the legislature. He married a Miss Harriett Willett, daughter of Dr. John F. Willett, by whom he had nine children, including five sons, all of whom became professional men. Cuthbert Bullitt died about 1854 in Louisville, Ky. William G. is the youngest of his sons, was educated in Shelby College and the South-Hanover College of Indiana; studied law with his brother Willett Bullitt, of New Albany, Ind., and was admitted to practice in 1854. He began the practice of his profession in Calhoun, McLean Co., Ky., coming thence to Paducah in 1858, since which time he has been connected with the bar of the city. In 1861 he became a member of the Third Kentucky Regiment of Confederate troops. Before taking the field, however, he was made lieutenant-colonel of the First Kentucky Cavalry, serving with that command until the organization of the Sixth Kentucky Cavalry, when he became major of that regiment, and followed the fortunes of the same until his surrender in Ohio in 1863. For the nineteen months following he was held a prisoner of war, and retained variously in the Ohio State prisons, Johnson’s Island and Fort Delaware, from which he was released at the close of the war. Immediately after the close of the war he resumed the practice of law in Paducah, where he is still engaged, having served as judge of the city courts, and as judge of the First Judicial District.