My Genealogy Hound

JUDGE THOMAS C. DABNEY was born in Louisa County, Va., on September 20, 1828. He is the second son of Albert G. Dabney and Ann Eliza Catlett, his wife, formerly of Louisa County, Va., who came to Christian County in the fall of 1880, with a family of four sons. Albert S. Dabney (now deceased), was the third son and held the offices of County and Circuit Clerk of Trigg County for a number of years, and afterward was cashier of a bank in Hickman, Ky., where he contracted a disease from which he died in Cadiz, leaving three sons and one daughter. The brothers, E. W. and C. J., removed to Austin County, Tex., in 1853, where E. W. Dabney now resides, and C. J. Dabney died in June, 1882, both having large families. The subject of this sketch was educated by Elder George P. Street. After receiving a good education, at the age of eighteen he took up the study of the law and came to Cadiz, and lived with the family of the late J. E. Thompson, who was at that time County and Circuit Clerk. Our subject became the Deputy in both offices, and while discharging these duties continued the study of law, under the direction of Hon. C. D. Bradley, now deceased. He procured license to practice in the fall of 1844, and located in Cadiz, where he has since followed the profession. Though at all times decided in his political convictions he has never sought any political offices; he was several times elected and served as County Attorney of Trigg County, Upon the adoption of the new Constitution in 1852, he was elected the first County Judge in Trigg County, under the new Constitution. In July, 1857, he was elected Circuit Judge in the Second Circuit Court, Judicial District in Kentucky, which at that time extended across the State, and included the counties of Trigg, Christian, Todd, Muhlenburg, Hopkins, Henderson and Caldwell. Judge Dabney’s term expired in August, 1862, and he declined to be a candidate for re-election and retired to the practice of his profession, to which he has since devoted his entire attention. On March 7, 1848, Judge Dabney was married, in the city of Hopkinsville, to Miss Susannah, only child of the late James D. Rumsey. Mrs. Dabney was born and reared in Hopkinsville, Ky. Her father was a lawyer by profession, a teacher by occupation, a man of much learning and marked ability and descended from a family noted for their rare talent. He was near kinsman and named after his uncle James Rumsey, who is the first to have discovered and applied steam power to navigation, and experimented in propelling a small steamboat on the Potomac in 1784 ; he died in London, England, of apoplexy, while lecturing on the application of steam-power to navigation before the Royal Society. This union has been blessed with nine children, one of whom (Thomas C., Jr.), died at the Kentucky University (at Lexington), on April 13,1878. Eight children-four sons and four daughters—are now living. Judge James R., the eldest son, is a lawyer by profession and is now County Judge of Henderson County, Ky. Lieut. Albert J., the second son, is now a Lieutenant in the United States Navy, where he has been for the past seventeen years. E. F., the third son, is a graduate of the Louisville Law School, and is now a partner with his father in the practice of law. Dr. Archie S., the fourth, has lately graduated at the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, and has since opened dental rooms at Cadiz. Of the daughters, Minnie is now the wife of Judge Robert Crenshaw, now County Judge of Trigg County; Cornelia, the eldest daughter, was recently made a widow by the death of her husband, John R. Averitt, who was a young lawyer of promising attainments, and was filling the office of County Attorney at the time of his death; Misses Annie and Carrie, the two youngest daughters, are still living at home with their parents.