Kentucky: A History of the State, Perrin, Battle, Kniffin, 8th ed., 1888,
Jefferson Co.

HON. JOHN T. GATHRIGHT, surveyor of customs for the port of Louisville, is
a native of Shelby County, Ky., and was born August 11, 1841.  He is a
son of Owen and Eliza A. (Austin) Gathright, the former a native of Shelby
County, and the latter of Oldham County, and both descended from prominent
families of Kentucky.  Subject's paternal grandfather came from Virginia,
and his maternal grandfather from Maryland.  The latter was with Gen.
Jackson at New Orleans, and died at the age of eighty-eight years.  The
Garthrights are of Scotch-Irish extraction, and the family pedigree can be
traced back two hundred years prior to the American Revolution.  Owen
Garthright (subject's father) came to Louisville in 1858, and for a time
conducted a hotel.  He was also engaged in the stove and tinware business,
which he discontinued at the close of the war.  He has been married fifty
years, and both he and his wife are living.  John T. Gathright, the subject
of this sketch, if the second son (his brother, James R., was killed at the
battle of Murphysboro, in the C.S.A. army).  He was brought up on the farm
in Shelby County until he was fifteen years old, when he came to Louisville
and entered school in 1856, two years before his father moved to the city.
He enlisted in Company A, Twenty-second Kentucky Infantry (Federal), and on
the organization of the regiment was made quartermaster's sergeant, but
soon after was captain of Company H.  He  resigned in 1863 and came home
and was appointed colonel of the Sixty-fourth Regiment of State Guards,
and shortly after was placed in command of ten regiments of the State
Militia, which he held until the close of the war.  When the war closed
he engaged in mercantile pursuits until 1879, when he was elected to the
State senate for four years.  In this new field he became one of the most
energetically working members of the body.  In the first session he was
chairman of the Committee of Internal Improvement, and in the second
session he was chairman of the Committee of Banks and Insurance. In both of
these important positions he discharged his duties with credit and general
satisfaction to all, and in the latter he particularly distinguished
himself by inaugurating various needed reforms in his district, as well
as the State at large.  He introduced a bill, and succeeded in getting it
passed, amending the general statutes of the State regulating the
compensation of county officers, and a similar measure for the city of
Louisville.  In 1885 he was appointed by President Cleveland surveyor of
customs for the port of Louisville.  For this appointment he received the
hearty endorsement of the business men of Louisville, as well as warm
testimonials from all parts of the State, such as the following from Hon.
D. W. Lindsey, of Frankfort: "Since the war Mr. Gathright has been an
active and industrious business man in Louisville, Ky., and has always
enjoyed, as he was entitled to, the confidence and respect of his
community, and of all who knew him, being one elected to your State senate.
Mr. Gathright has been, and is, in politics, a consistent Democrat, while
the writer has been a Republican."  Col. Gathright was married in November,
1864, to Miss Sallie Dunlap, of Shelby County.  He is a prominent member
of the Presbyterian church, and has been an elder for eighteen years. For
the past six or eight years he has devoted much time to the development
of the resources of the State; was one of the original promoters of
Louisville, St. Louis & Texas Railway, now about completed, and through
his efforts, both in the State senate and as a citizen, the attention of
many capitalists has been drawn to the rich mineral and timber regions of
the State which are now being developed so rapidly, and was always active
in measures looking to the advancement of the business and manufacturing
interest of the city of Louisville or State of Kentucky.

Gathright Austin Garthright Dunlap
=
Oldham-KY Shelby-KY VA MD

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/jefferson/gathright.jt.txt