Lawyers and Lawmakers of Kentucky, by H. Levin, editor, 1897. Published
by Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago.  Reprinted by Southern Historical
Press.  p. 219.  Jefferson County.

JAMES EDWARD GAITHER, of Louisville, is a native of Hardin county,
Kentucky, born June 1, 1853.  His father, John Richard Gaither, was born
in Washington county, this state, and during his childhood removed to
Hardin county where he married in early manhood, and then settled on a
farm.  His grandfather, Edward B. Gaither, was a physician of prominence
in his county and when quite young served as captain in the war of 1812.
The great-grandfather of our subject, Greenbury Gaither, removed from
Montgomery county, Maryland, to Kentucky, in 1802.  He had served as an
officer in the war of the Revolution, as did John and Henry Gaither,
prominent in the colonial history of Maryland about 1630.  His family was
prominently represented in the late civil war; Burgess Gaither was a member
of the Confederate congress from Georgia; George R. Gaither, a colonel of
a Maryland regiment in the Confederate army; and Nathan Gaither was a
member of the constitutional convention of Kentucky in 1849.  The mother
of our subject bore the maiden name of Ann Eliza Bland, and was a daughter
of Henry Bland, of Hardin county, Kentucky, whose father, James Bland,
emigrated from Fauquier county, Virginia, about 1800, and took up his
residence in this state.  Members of this family were prominent in
Virginia in colonial days; one a member of the council of state; another
a lieutenant-general under Nathaniel Bacon and associated with him in the
rebellion against Governor Berkeley for refusing to suppress Indian
outrages and otherwise oppressing the people.  Members of this family are
leaders now in business and political circles in the south and west.
     James Edward Gaither attended the common schools of Hardin county,
working on the farm in the seasons of vacation, and at the age of
nineteen was graduated at the Lynnland College in Hardin county, in 1872,
of which his father was one of the founders and a member of the board of
visitors.  After his graduation he was appointed deputy clerk of the
Hardin county court, thus serving until 1876.  He studied law during that
time and in the centennial year was admitted to the bar upon examination
by two judges of the court of appeals.  He completed his legal education
at the University of Virginia, during the season of 1877-8, and the
following year began practice at Elizabethtown, Kentucky, where he
remained until 1886, since which time he has been identified with the bar
of Louisville as one of its leading members.
     Mr. Gaither is a member of the Democratic county committee, and was
mayor of the suburban town of Crescent Hill for a number of years. Other
than such local and gratuitous service, he has refused to enter politics
though frequently urged by his friends to do so.  His retention as
counsel on some of the leading cases that have come up for trial in the
state demonstrates his high standing at the bar.  He is a man of strong
mentality, keen, analytical powers, and the mastery of any case
entrusted to his care is shown by the skillful arrangement of facts and
logical deductions and argument.  He represented large interests in the
celebrated case of the Central Trust Company, of New York, versus
Richmond, Irvin & Beattyville Railroad Company in the United States
district court for the district of Kentucky; was counsel in the case of
Nehoff & Company versus Owensboro & Nashville Railroad Company, in the
court of appeals of Kentucky, wherein the liability of common carriers
as warehouse men in care of baggage is fixed, reported in the Kentucky
Law Reporter.  Mr. Gaither is chief attorney for the Columbia Building
and Loan Association of Louisville, and is attorney for the towns of
Crescent Hill and Clifton, suburbs of Louisville, in cases against
annexation of those towns to that city.
     Mr. Gaither was married in 1881 to Miss Nannie Martin Kennedy, of
Jefferson county, Kentucky, and they have one son, Thomas Richard Gaither.

Gaither Bland Kennedy
=
Hardin-KY Washington-KY Fauquier-VA Montgomery-MD

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/jefferson/gaither.je.txt