Souvenir Edition, The Williamstown Courier, Williamstown, Ky, May 30, 
1901, reprinted September 19, 1981 by the Grant County KY Historical 
Society.

R. A. COLLINS was born in Grant County, in the village of Dry Ridge,
June 30, 1844, and was one of a family of five children, three boys and 
two girls, born to James W. Collins and Cordelia (Carlisle) Collins.  
Cordelia Collins was a niece of John G. Carlisle.  Richard, as he is 
mostly called, was reared to manhood in Williamstown.  His father kept 
a hotel at the place where the Johnson house now stands, and it was in 
and around this hostelry that young Collins grew up.  He received a 
good common school education, and when he came to man's estate started 
in life for himself as a miller, being a partner for a time with D. L. 
Cunningham; then he went into the grocery business, and for a number of 
years he supplied the wants of the people of Williamstown and vicinity 
in this line of trade.  At a later date he moved to Illinois, and for 
three years conducted a planning and flouring mill in that state.  
Selling out he came back to Kentucky and built a mill in the north end 
of Williamstown and operated it for a number of years.  More recently 
Mr. Collins has given all of his time to his large farming interest.  
He is an expert mechanic and builder, but does not work at his trade in 
the later days.  He and his wife own a lovely home in the north end of 
Williamstown, and with it a fine farm of thirty-five acres almost in 
the heart of the town.  About a mile east of town they own 350 acres of 
fine farming land, and this, together with their bank stocks and other 
investments, puts them on easy street financially.  November 20, 1869, 
Mr. Collins contracted a marriage with Phoebe Kendall, the daughter of 
the late Alfred Kendall, a very handsome and elegant lady.  To this 
union two children have been born.  Allie Mount, a grown young man, who 
now has a splendid position as electrician with the Cincinnati 
Traction Company, and is getting a fine salary.  The young folks know
him as "Mount".  The other son is James Howard, and he is in the employ 
of the Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railroad Company, and 
is a brakeman on the "Blue Grass Special" which passes through 
Williamstown twice each day.  R. A. Collins stands very high in secret 
society work.  He is an Odd Fellow in all of its branches, and a Knight
of Pythias of more than usual standing.  He takes high rank in the 
Uniform Department, and is today Lieutenant Colonel of the Fourth 
Kentucky Regiment.  He attends all of the Grand Lodge meetings and 
takes great pleasure in all secret society work.  Both he and his good 
wife are members of the Christian Church, and he is a deacon.  Nearly 
every winter he and his wife spend a few months in Florida.  They live 
in comfort and plenty, and are to be envied for the pleasures they get 
out of life.

Collins Carlisle Cunningham Kendall Johnson
=
IL FL

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