Memorial Record of Western Kentucky, Lewis Publishing Company, 1904,
pp 495-497 [Caldwell]

     RUFUS W. LISANRY.  Practicing his profession in Princeton,
Rufus W. Lisanry has gained an enviable reputation as one of the
prominent and capable young lawyers of Caldwell county., and to-day
[sic] enjoys a distinctively representative clientage [sic], which
many an older practitioner might well envy.  He was born upon a farm
in Hopkins county, Kentucky, on the 4th of February, 1869, and is a
son of Monroe Walker and Winnie J. (Hicks) Lisanry.  The father was
a native of Tennessee and died when Rufus was but four years of age,
leaving two children, Charles M. and our subject.  The mother
afterward married again becoming, the wife of W. J. Eli, of Hopkins
county, Kentucky, where she is yet living.  By her second marriage
she has three children.
     At the age of six years Rufus W. Lisanry went to live with his
uncle, J. H. Hicks, a well known farmer and magistrate of Caldwell
county, by whom he was reared.  He worked in the fields upon his
uncle's homestead, and attended the district schools through the
winter months, thus acquiring his preliminary education.  He
continued upon his uncle's farm until twenty years of age, and later
resumed his studied, and when twenty-five years of age was graduated
from the high school of Princeton.  He then began the study of law,
and was admitted to the bar in 1897, since which time he has
practiced in this city.  In the meantime, however, he had earned his
living, for at the age of twenty years he obtained a teacher's
certificate, and for several years successfully engaged in teaching
in the public schools of Caldwell and Union counties.  For three
years he was the efficient principal of the schools of Dekoven,
Kentucky, and his earnings as a teacher aided him to further educate
himself and prepare for the practice of law.  In 1901 he became
county attorney by appointment, but has held no other office than
this, preferring to devote his energies to the private practice of
law, in which he has gained very enviable success.  His devotion to
his clients' interests is proverbial, and he prepares his cases with
great thoroughness and precision, while in their presentation he is
forceful, logical and convincing.
     In 1896 occurred the marriage of Mr. Lisanry and Miss Hattie
White, a daughter of C. J. White, a farmer of Caldwell county.  They
have one child, Charles Alvin, born in Princeton, August 4, 1899. 
Mrs Lisanry was born in Caldwell county, and is a representative of
an old and prominent family here.  She belongs to the Baptist
church, and Mr. Lisanry has been a member of the Christian church
from the age of fourteen years.  He exercises his right of franchise
in support of the men and measures of the Democratic party, and
belongs to the Masonic fraternity, in which he has attained to the
degree of Knight Templar, holding membership in Alida Commandery No. 21,
Knights Templar, at Sturgis, Kentucky.  Mr. Lisanry deserves
great credit for what he has accomplished in life, having been
dependent upon his own resources from an early age, not only for
what he has gained in a financial way, but also for his education. 
He is a man of strong intellectuality and marked force of character,
and has won a very creditable position in the ranks of the legal
fraternity of Caldwell county.

Lisanry Walker Hicks Eli White
=
Hopkins-KY TN Union-KY

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/caldwell/lisanry.rw.txt