KENTUCKY: A History of the State, Battle, Perrin, & Kniffin, 4th ed., 1887,
Nelson Co.

CHARLES T. ATKINSON, lawyer, is a native of Nelson County, Ky., and is the
third of three children  born to John and Lucinda (Ela) Atkinson, the
father a native of New Jersey and the mother of New Hampshire.  The
grandfather of Charles T. was Joseph Atkinson, a native of New Jersey, and
a son of Thomas Atkinson, whose father, Timothy Atkinson, came from England
in colonial times and settled in Maryland.  Joseph Atkinson was a farmer
and a miller; spent all his life in his native State, and died early in the
present century.  Rev. John Atkinson was born in Flemington, N.J.,
September 30, 1797.  He early in life united with the Methodist Episcopal
Church, entered the ministry, August 14, 1814, when but seventeen years of
age, and began preaching in New Jersey.  He was assigned a circuit in the
Northwest Territory in an early day and spent a number of years among the
sparse settlements of the present States of Indiana, Ohio and Illinois.  He
came to Kentucky in 1837, and located in Oldham County, where he remained
until 1839, at which time he moved to Bardstown, and about one year later
founded the Bardstown Family Institute, with which he was connected for
sixteen years.  He retired from the active work of the ministry in 1839,
but still preaches, and is probably the oldest minister of the Methodist
Church now living in the United States, his period of service extending
from 1814 to 1886, a period of seventy-two years.  He resides near
Bardstown, and is widely and favorably known throughout the counties of
central Kentucky.  Lucinda (Ela) Atkinson was the daughter of Jacob Ela, a
native of New Hampshire.  She was born in that State and died in Nelson
County, Ky., in 1863.  John and Lucinda Atkinson reared a family of three
children whose names are as follows: Mrs. Sarah Winans, Mrs. E.B. Newcomb
and Charles T. Atkinson.  Charles T. Atkinson was born in Bardstown,
December 8, 1846.  He received his early education in the schools of his
town, which he attended until his seventeenth years, when, in 1864, he
entered Toronto University, Canada, from which he graduated in 1868.  After
graduation he began teaching in Bardstown, which profession he followed two
years.  At the end of that time he began reading law with W.R. Grigsby, and
E.E. McKay of Bardstown, under whose instructions he continued for a
limited period.  He engaged in the practice of his profession in 1871,
since which time he has done a lucrative business in the courts of Nelson
and other counties. Mr. Atkinson married, September 1, 1870, in Bardstown
Miss Odessa Robertson, daughter of Rev. G.W. and Sarah M. Robertson of
Nelson County.  The children born to this union are as follows: Alma,
Florine and Allan Atkinson.  Mr. Atkinson was elected county attorney in
1874 and held the position one term of four years.  He is a Democrat in
politics, and takes an active interest in the political issues of the
county.  Mrs. Atkinson is a member of the Bardstown Baptist Church.

Atkinson Ela Winans Newcomb Grigsby McKay Robertson
=
Nelson-KY Oldham-KY NJ NH MD IN OH IL England Canada

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/nelson/atkinson.ct.txt