Kentucky: A History of the State, Battle, Perrin, & Kniffin, ed. 8-B, Boyd County Hon. William Wirt Culbertson, son of Samuel and Mary A. (Kennedy) Culbertson, was born September 23, 1835, in Mifflin County, Penn. His father was a merchant and became an iron manufacturer in Ohio and Kentucky, and besides being a thorough business man was eminently characterized for his religious and moral worth. He died in 1865, in Adams County, Ohio. The Kennedys and Culbertson were of Scotch origin and came to America as early as 1700. Mary A. Kennedy was the daughter of a Quaker merchant of Philadelphia. W.W. Culbertson received his education from private tutors and the common schools of the State. He early became a clerk in his father's store at Greenup Furnace, Greenup County, Ky., his father subsequently removing to West Union, Ohio. He had now become attached to furnace life, and soon leaving West Union, became a store-keeper at Clinton Furnace, book-keeper and assistant manager at Vinton Furnace (in which his father was interested), and subsequently clerk and manager at Ohio Furnace, Scioto County, Ohio. In 1861, at Ironton, he raised a company composed of men of both sides of the Ohio, and as its Captain went into the Twenty-Seventh Ohio Infantry, as Company F, the same as that of his brother, Captain K.R. Culbertson, in the Ninety-First Regiment. He first heard musketry at Lexington, Mo., was with Gen. Pope, at Blackwater, and with Gen. Fremont at Springfield, and was at Island No. 10, in the same State. He was at the siege of Corinth, in the battle of Iuka, in the second battle of Corinth, and left Memphis, Tenn., with Sherman's column for Chattanooga. He was mustered out in the spring of 1864, having served nearly three years, having been nearly all the time in active service and engaged in many important scenes of the war. He returned from the war and immediately took charge of Pine Grove Furnace, first remodeling and then putting it to work, at an actual increase of fifty per cent over any former yield, but he had established his reputation before the war in this direction. During his management of the Ohio Furnace, the actual production and business of the Furnace increased fifty percent, with a great reduction in the cost per ton. After the war of 1864, he and his brother, Capt. K.R. Culbertson, took charge of Buena Vista Furnace, Kentucky, and spent $25,000 in putting it in working order, after which its yield was greater and better than that of any other charcoal furnace in Kentucky Hanging Rock region. This furnace was afterward owned by Culbertson, Means & Culbertson, with William W. as general financier and superintendent. He was still later engaged with his brother in building the new furnace "The Princess," located ten miles from Ashland, on the Lexington & Big Sandy Railroad, and also owned by Culbertson. Means & Culbertson. Mr. Culbertson first introduced the Davis Hot Blast at Ohio Furnace, and he was mainly instrumental in the change of the form of the furnace, producing an average of between fifteen and sixteen tons a day, instead of eight or nine, as formerly. This change in the form of the application of the blast, and other improvements, he carried to a high state of perfection in other furnaces, and by this departure from old customs of iron superstitions, his good judgment and energy worked a revolution in the making of charcoal pig iron in his section. He built and started the present ferry at Ashland, which was originally designed more as an accommodation to the people than an investment for profit, but which has turned out to be a valuable investment for the owners. In 1871 he removed to Ashland, and has since been connected with most matters of interest to the town, serving in council, also as Mayor, and being otherwise prominent in its affairs. In 1871 he was the Republican candidate for the Lower House of the Legislature to represent the counties of Boyd and Carter. The vote resulted in an apparent tie and was left to the lot of the sheriffs, (one Democrat and one Republican) of the two counties, who disagreed and both candidates went up to the legislature with certificates of election. The House treated it as a contested case, and although the committee found a majority of one for Mr. Culbertson they assumed the existence of three illegal votes in his favor and so gave the seat to his Democratic opponent. In 1873, two weeks before the election, he became the Republican candidate for the State Senate and was elected over K.F. Pritchard, of Catlettsburg. Mr. Culbertson was a member of the Senate while his brother, K.R., was a member of the House of Representatives. In 1876 he was a delegate to the Cincinnati Convention that nominated Gen. R.B. Hayes for the Presidency and was also a delegate to the Chicago National Convention that nominated Gen. Garfield in 1880, and was one of the invincible "306;" he was a delegate at large in 1884, and was a pronounced "Arthur man;" and was chairman of the Republican District Committee several years. In 1882 he received the Republican nomination for Congress, and was elected by a large majority; he was temporary chairman of the State Republican Convention in 1883. In 1886 he was tendered the nomination for Congress by acclamation, but declined the distinguished honor. Mr. Culbertson was married in 1865 to Miss Jennie Means, daughter of the distinguished iron manufacturer, Thomas W. Means. After being a widower six years, Mr. Culbertson was married in 1880 to Miss Lucy Hardie, of Frankfort, a member of one of the oldest and one of the most prominent families of Kentucky. Culbertson Kennedy Hayes Pope Fremont Pritchard Means Hardie = Mifflin-PA Adams-OH Greenup-KY Scioto-OH Carter-KY http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/boyd/culbertson.ww.txt