HISTORY OF KENTUCKY AND KENTUCKIANS, E. Polk Johnson, three volumes,
Lewis Publishing Co., New York & Chicago, 1912. Common version, Vol. III,
pp. 1190-91.   [Jefferson County]

JOHN C. STROTHER--There is no part of a biographical history of more
general interest than the record of the bar.  It is well known that the
peace, prosperity and well being of every community depend upon the wise
interpretation of the laws, as well as upon their judicious framing, and
the records of those who are connected with this administration are of
importance to present the future generations, John C. Strother is one who
has been honored and is an honor to the legal fraternity of Kentucky.  He
stands to-day prominent among the leading members of the bar of the state,
a position to which he has attained through marked ability.
     Mr. J. C. Strother is a native son of Kentucky, born in Trimble
county on February 25, 1846.  His genealogy is so well defined in direct
descent of his ancestry of such unassailable quality that it is only due
to give a short sketch of it.  Mr. Strother is descended from four pioneer
families of the commonwealth: The Strothers, the Owsleys, the Maddoxes and
the Duncans.  The Strother family is an ancient one and is supposed to have
been of Scandinavian origin, and the name now exists in Sweden and Denmark.
It is supposed to have crossed over into Northumberland, England, in the
tenth century and has been conspicuous in the latter county for centuries,
many members of different generations having held high official positions
and belonged to the nobility.  The original Strother settler in Kentucky
was the Rev. George Strother, grandfather of our subject, who was born in
Culpeper county, Virginia, on February 14, 1776, and there in 1796 married
Mary Duncan.  Immediately following their marriage they came to Kentucky.
He was the son of John F. Strother and his wife Ann Strother (cousins).
John F. was the son of Jeremiah, who married Catherine Kennerly, of
Culpeper county, Virginia, and removed thence to South Carolina about the
time of the Revolutionary war.  Jeremiah was the son of James, who married
Margaret French, of Culpeper county, Virginia, and he was the son of
Jeremiah, who was a freeholder of Westmoreland county, Virginia, as early
as 1703.  He (Jeremiah) was the son of William, who was born in Virginia
in about 1665, was a planter, and lived in the original country seat of
his father William, who was the original emigrant from Northumberland,
England, and settled in King George county, Virginia.  His name first
appeared in the records of Virginia on July 12, 1763, when he came into
Rappahanock Court House and designated the mark of his cattle.
     Rev. George Strother was a pioneer Methodist minister in Bourbon
county, Kentucky, where he first settled.  In 1801 he removed to Gallatin
county, now Trimble county, where he and his wife lived the remainder of
their lives.  The father of our subject was the Rev. French Strother, son
of Rev. George, and was born in Trimble county, Kentucky, in April, 1811,
and died there in October, 1870.  He married Lucinda Owsley Maddox, who
was born in Trimble county, Kentucky, in April, 1823, and died in that
county in March, 1883.
     John C. Strother was born in Trimble county, Kentucky, on February 25,
1846.  He attended the common schools and read law under the preceptorship
of the late Hon. W. S. Pryor, chief justice of Kentucky, and the late
Joseph Barbour, of the Kentucky superior court, was graduated from the law
department of the University of Louisville with the class of 1869, and that
same year began the practice at Owenton, Kentucky.  During his first year
at Owenton he was elected school commissioner of Owen county, a position he
held for seven years.  In 1873 he was one of five candidates for the
nomination of commonwealth attorney of the Owenton district, and after a
heated contest was second in the convention and but for a dispute which
arose over the nomination of judge would have been first, as he went into
the convention with votes enough pledged to give him success.  He took
high rank at the bar of Owen and adjoining counties and maintained it as
long as he practiced there.  In 1885 he removed to Louisville to become
chief deputy under the late Attila Cox, collector of internal revenue.
In July, 1889, Mr. Strother returned to the practice of law, this time in
Louisville, and in 1890 formed a partnership with Thomas R. Gordon under
the firm name of Strother & Gordon, which continued for over ten years.
In 1901 Mr. Strother and his son Shelby French Strother formed the firm of
Strother & Strother, of which later on Rowan Hardin became a member under
the firm name of Strother, Hardin & Strother.  In 1903 Shelby Strother
withdrew from the firm and entered Harvard University, and the firm
continued as Strother & Hardin until November, 1904, when it was dissolved,
since which time our subject has practiced alone.
     Mr. Strother was for a number of years chief attorney for the
Louisville Title Company.  He was one of the organizers of and attorney for
the Louisville Savings, Loan & Building Association, which loaned several
million dollars and was very successful.  The firm of Strother & Gordon was
attorneys for the Mutual Life Insurance Company of Kentucky.  Mr. Strother
has been prominent and successful at the Louisville bar and has appeared in
many celebrated cases.  He was attorney for J. G. Mattingly & Company,
against J. G. Mattingly, which suit involved valuable trade marks; the case
was carried to the Kentucky court of appeals, which enjoined Mr. Mattingly
from the use of his own name, on of two instances of the kind ever
occurring in the United States.  Another celebrated case was that of John
Loree against William Abner and others, which suit was brought to recover
patent for over thirty thousand acres of Kentucky land, and in which noted
case Mr. Strother was council for the defendants.  The case was tried
before Judge W. H. Taft, now president of the United States, was won by
Mr. Strother, then carried to the United States circuit court of appeals,
where the lower court was reversed and the case sent back for retrial.
The story of this case reads like a romance and is very interesting.  In the
second trial before Judge Taft Mr. Strother won a decided victory and the
suit ended.  Mr. Strother also defended John Etly, indicted for the murder
of his wife, which was one of the most celebrated criminal cases ever tried
in Kentucky.  Mr. Strother has always taken an active interest in politics,
but has never sought nor held office since coming to Louisville except that
of member of the Board of Education of the city under the new school law,
to which he was elected in 1910 without solicitation.
     Mr. Strother is a member of the Jefferson County and Kentucky State
Bar Associations and is a Mason and Odd Fellow, a member of the Filson
Club, Sons of the American Revolution and of the Methodist Episcopal
church, South.  He married Mary Frances Greenwood, who was born in Bedford,
Trimble county, Kentucky, the daughter of Isaac S. and Catherine Morton
(Young) Greenwood, and Mr. and Mrs. Strothers are the parents of the
following children: Catherine Pryor, Shelby French, Eugene Thomas (died
in December, 1903) and Ralph Greenwood.

Strother Owsley Maddox Duncan Kennerly Pryor Barbour Young Cox
Hardin Mattingly Loree Abner Etly Greenwood
=
Gallatin-KY Bourbon-KY Bedford-Trimble-KY Owenton-Owen-KY Culpeper-VA
Westmoreland-VA King_George-VA SC Sweden Denmark England

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/jefferson/strother.jc.txt