John Y Conn
History of
Kentucky and Kentuckians, E. Polk Johnson, three volumes,
Lewis Publishing Co., New York & Chicago, 1912. Common version, Vol. III,
p. 1193.
Standing at the helm of two of Newport's most useful and thriving industries,
the Newport Coal Company and the Newport Ice Company, is John Y. Conn, who
served in the capacity of president of both of those institutions. These
two concerns give employment to nearly fifty men and thus contribute in good
measure to the material prosperity of the city, and Mr. Conn thus plays the
beneficent role of the citizen who furnishes honorable support for many of the
more dependent members of society.
Mr. Conn is a native Kentuckian and was born in
Jefferson county on September 4, 1859. His parents were Allen J. and
Elizabeth (Tyler) Conn, the former a native of Indiana and the latter of
Jefferson county, Kentucky. The father was a farmer and was very
successful in his chosen vocation, owning and operating a fertile tract of land
situated about
sixteen miles east of Louisville. Here he lived the greater part of his
life and from here was called to his reward at the age of seventy years.
The mother is the representative of an old Kentucky family and may be numbered
among the pioneers of the Blue Grass state, or if not strictly speaking among
the pioneers, Kentucky being one of the states earliest settled, she is,
nevertheless, one of those who well remembers the charming life of Kentucky in
ante-bellum days. Now at the age of seventy-six years she resides upon the
old homestead. She is the mother of five children, three boys and two
girls, two of whom are living at the present day, John Y and a younger sister,
Mary Miller.
John Y. Conn passed his boyhood days upon the farm and
enjoyed the manifold experiences of the lad who has an opportunity to live near
to the heart of nature. He received a common school education and had some
thought of following in the paternal footsteps in the choice of life work. In
fact he adhered to this resolution until after this thirtieth birthday, pursuing
his agricultural ventures independently in both his native county and in Shelby
county.
Somewhere near the year 1890 Mr. Conn located in Newport and organized
the Frigid Ice Company, and he has ever since been closely and prominently
identified with its fortunes, and for the past ten years has served in the
capacity of president, bringing to the solution of its problems judgment of a
distinguished character. The plant is equipped with the most modern
machinery, having indeed from the first employed the latest and best methods
known in the business. It has been enlarged from time to time until it has
a present capacity of seventy-five
tons daily and supplying trade in both Newport and Cincinnati. This
industry gives employment to about thirty people and is counted as one of the
very substantial concerns of Newport.
Mr. Conn's executive gifts are by no means of small
calibre [sic] and it is not strange that he has not been content to limit
himself to the management of one concern, even though it be of an important
character. On July 6, 1906, the Newport Coal Company began business, Mr. Conn
having organized it and from the first served in the capacity of president.
It has a capital stock of ten thousand dollars, and both a wholesale and retail
business is done. This furnishes employment to between fifteen and twenty
men and in the four years of its existence has experienced a steady growth, and
should its future progress prove proportionate to its past it
will eventually enroll itself among the large businesses of this part of the
Blue Grass state.
On the 25th of September, 1870, John Y Conn laid the
foundation of a happy household by his marriage to R. Belle Frederick, a native
of Jefferson county and a daughter of Blueford Frederick, a Jefferson county
agriculturist and the member of an old Kentucky family which originally came
from the "Old Dominion." Both Mr. and Mrs. Conn are members of the
First Baptist church of Newport, the former having for many years been active in
furthering the good and just measures promulgated by the church and having
served as trustee for a period of fifteen years. Although not partisan in
local matters Mr. Conn casts his vote with what its adherents are pleased to
call the "Grand Old Party."