Lawyers and Lawmakers of Kentucky, by H. Levin, editor, 1897. Published
by Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago.  Reprinted by Southern Historical
Press.  p. 88.  Jefferson County.

HENRY J. STITES, chief justice of the court of appeals, was born in Scott
county, Kentucky, in 1816, and died in Louisville, Kentucky.  His father
was Abram Stites, son of Dr. John Stites, who came to Kentucky from New
Jersey about 1808, Abram Stites following, after completing his law
studies in New Jersey.  On coming to Kentucky the latter located first in
Scott county, where he married Miss Ann Johnson, daughter of Captain Henry
Johnson, a Revolutionary officer, who had located in Scott county in 1818.
He removed to Christian county and entered in the practice with Robert P.
Henry, but was appointed clerk of the county court for Christian county,
which office he held for about twenty years.
     Henry J. Stites was educated in the schools at Hopkinsville.  He
entered into mercantile business at an early age and was successful in
that pursuit.  His temperament was not suited, however, to a long
continuance in trade and he determined to become a lawyer, taking up the
study while still pursuing his business career. After about three years of
reading and preparation he was examined and admitted to the bar in 1841.
He entered into partnership with a practicing lawyer at Hopkinsville and
was a successful practitioner there for some years.  In 1848 he was
presidential elector on the Cass ticket, and made a canvass of his
district--this being the only political office to which he ever aspired
and the only time in his life in which he appeared before the people in
advocacy of any political tenets of party.
     In 1850, on the adoption of the constitution framed by the convention
of 1849, Mr. Stites was elected circuit judge, and in 1854 he was elected
to the bench of the appellate court, resigning the office of circuit judge
to enter upon the canvass for the election of the higher office.  He served
as chief justice during the trying period of 1861-62, and declined a
re-election. Harassed because of his neutral position as a Unionist,--being
opposed to coercion,--he absented himself from the country and resided in
Canada until 1866, when he took up his residence in Louisville, where he
entered on the practice.  In 1867 he was appointed by Governor Stevenson
to a vacancy in the office of common-pleas judge, and was three times
elected to fill the same, his last term of office expiring in 1886.  Judge
Stites had a record of over thirty years' service on the bench, and was
regarded as one of the best jurists the state has produced; clear in his
understanding and elucidation of all subjects, honest and intrepid in
the discharge of his official duties.
     He was twice married.  In 1841 he wedded Mary Jane Sharp, daughter
of Dr. Sharp and niece of Solomon P. Sharp, one of the noted lawyers of the
state.  After her death he was married, in 1876, to Mrs. Caroline M.
(Sharp) Baker, a sister of his first wife.

Stites Johnson Sharp Barker
=
Scott-KY Christian-KY NJ Canada

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/jefferson/stites.hj2.txt