The Life of Judge H.H. Lovett
Part One:
The Early Years
Written by Justin D. Lamb
Note: Over the next several weeks, we will begin a multi-part series on the life of Judge H.H. Lovett, Sr. Once an institution in Marshall County public life, Judge Lovett has almost been forgotten by later generations. It is my hope to introduce this noteworthy individual to a whole new generation of Marshall Countians.
The year was 1882. America was in the middle of the Gilded Age and Chester A. Arthur was President of the United States. The “Electrical Age” was born when Thomas Edison flipped the switch to the first commercial electrical power plant in history and industrialization was moving the country forward. Notorious outlaw Jesse James was shot and killed by Robert Ford in Saint Joseph, Missouri and Charles Guiteau was hanged for the assassination of President James Garfield.
Back in Kentucky, Governor Luke P. Blackburn passed extensive penal reform and construction began on the new Kentucky State Penitentiary in Lyon County. In nearby Marshall County, local officials were marketing a large sink hole in the south end of the county as a tourist oddity and talks began on constructing a new courthouse in the county seat of Benton. That same year, the subject of this piece, Henry Hardin Lovett, was born to George Newton Lovett and Mary Ann Ross Lovett on Saturday, October 21, 1882 in the southeastern section of Marshall County near Jonathan Creek.
Named after his mother’s ancestor, H.H. Lovett came from one of the oldest families in Marshall County, and for that matter, one of the oldest in the United States. Lovett’s great-great grandfather, Joseph Lovett, was a Revolutionary War veteran and came to America in 1773 as an indentured servant to the Batso Furnace in New Jersey. After a year and a half in servitude, Joseph Lovett escaped and joined the militia in New York. Joseph Lovett fought in the Battle of Long Island in August 1776 with General George Washington and after the militia was forced to retreat, he spent the winter with Washington’s troops and was among those who crossed the Delaware on Christmas Eve 1776.
By June of 1777, Joseph Lovett enlisted in the Continental Army for a term of three years and became a member of Colonel Nathaniel Gist’s famed “Rangers”. The company fought in the battles of Brandywine and Germantown and spent the harsh winter at Valley Forge. After surviving the cold winter at Valley Forge, Joseph Lovett fought at the Battle of Monmouth where he was wounded after he received buckshot in the hip which he carried for the rest of his life.
By September 1778, Joseph Lovett’s wounds were healed and he and his company were on the march south to resist the British. Joseph Lovett fought in the Battle of Charleston in South Carolina and was wounded and taken prisoner when General Benjamin Lincoln surrendered to the British. Joseph Lovett eventually escaped British capture sometime around June or August of 1780 and fled to Guilford County, North Carolina where he joined the local militia. After the defeat of the British in 1781, Lovett made Guilford County, North Carolina his home and married Sarah Hodgson in 1782. The couple had eight children together including H.H. Lovett’s great grandfather, Moses Lovett.
The Lovett family first arrived in Marshall County, Kentucky from North Carolina through Tennessee in the late 1840s when H. H. Lovett’s grandfather, John L. Lovett (son of Moses Lovett) along with his brothers, settled in the Unity community near Jonathan Creek. This area of Marshall County was sparsely occupied in the mid-1800s which allowed John L. Lovett to purchase a large farm for a very cheap price. According to the Lovett Family History written by John Clay Lovett in 1995, when a public land office was first established in Wadesboro in 1822, the land price was fixed at one dollar per acre and then five years later reduced to fifty cents per acre. The lowest price paid during that time was twelve and a half cents per acre. These prices stayed relatively the same until the beginning of the Civil War in 1861. John L. Lovett eventually came to own one hundred and twenty five acres of prime farming land near Unity and Olive and was one of the largest farmers in the Jonathan Creek area.
John L. Lovett was married twice and had several children. His first marriage was to Mary Emaline Burpoe on December 19, 1838 and the couple had four children: Daniel Alexander Lovett born in 1841, William F. Lovett born in 1843, George Newton Lovett born in 1845, and Sarah A. “Elizabeth” Lovett born in 1847. On February 12, 1849, John L. Lovett was left widowed when his wife passed away at the young age of twenty-five. The cause of death is not known, but it has been speculated that she died during childbirth. A few years later, John L. Lovett married Missouri Anne “Elizabeth” Burpoe of Hickman County (who was a cousin to his first wife), and they had nine children together: Mary Lovett born in 1856, Louisa Lovett born in 1859, Margaret Jane Lovett born in 1861, Joseph Thomas Lovett born in 1863, John Grant Lovett born in 1865, Leander J. Lovett born in 1867, Rachel T. Lovett born in 1869, Sophrone Lovett born in 1872, and Allen Lovett born in 1875. John L. Lovett passed away in Marshall County on December 3, 1884 and was buried in the Lovett lot in Palestine Cemetery in Calloway County.
Henry H. Lovett’s father, George Newton Lovett, was the third son of John L. Lovett. Known to everyone as “Uncle Tank” Lovett, he was born in Tennessee on February 15, 1845 and moved with his widowed father and two older brothers to Marshall County sometime in the late 1840s. It was here in Marshall County where Uncle Tank would spend the remainder of his life.
As a teenager, Uncle Tank Lovett witnessed the beginning of the Civil War and saw firsthand the chaos brought on by the war. He often recalled to his children and grandchildren that both Union and Confederate soldiers plundered and looted the farms in Marshall County and disorder was rampant during the war years. The Lovetts of Olive never owned slaves, but like the majority of Marshall Countians, they sympathized with the Confederate cause. According to Lovett family oral history, Uncle Tank’s older brother, William F. Lovett, volunteered to serve in the Confederate Army and was killed in battle. Family tradition states that he was killed in the Battle of Shiloh, but his death took place in December 1863 and the Battle of Shiloh took place in 1862. It has never been confirmed where William F. Lovett died or where he is buried. Nevertheless, the Lovett family was strongly behind the cause of the South.
H.H. Lovett’s father, George “Uncle Tank” Lovett.
Shortly after the war, Uncle Tank Lovett married Louvina Ross on November 8, 1866 and Hugh Franklin Lovett was born to this marriage in 1869. Louvina Lovett passed away in 1874 and shortly after, Uncle Tank went to Calloway County and met Mary Ann “Annie” Ross, the daughter of John Allen Ross and Elizabeth Brown of Calloway County. After a short courtship, Uncle Tank and Annie married in late 1874 and had their first child on July 26, 1875 when their daughter, Gautie Mala Lovett was born. A son, John Alexander Lovett followed in 1877 and died on October 16, 1882, possibly of typhoid, just days before H.H. was born. Maude Bell Lovett was born in 1879 and died at the age of eighteen in 1897. Another infant, Minnie Floyd Lovett was born and died in 1881. Their youngest child, Henry Hardin Lovett arrived in October 1882.
On January 22, 1885, tragedy struck the Lovett home when H.H. Lovett’s mother died during childbirth. For the remainder of his childhood, H.H. Lovett’s older sister, Gautie, became his primary caretaker and the two formed a very close bond. Unfortunately during research of this book no photographs have surfaced of Gautie, but family members who remember her recall that she and H.H. strongly resembled one another.
Gautie was a strong, resilient woman. She married Thomas Henson in 1892 and was widowed by the year 1913 and was left to take care of her six children alone. She lost two homes to fire and after a bolt of lightning killed her daughter, she was left to rear her seven small grandchildren at the age of sixty-seven. Gautie passed away in 1968 and is buried in the Olive Methodist Church Cemetery.
After the death of his second wife, Uncle Tank Lovett married Nancy Kennedy McLeod Henson in late 1885. Nancy was widowed and raising her son, Lorenzo Valdo Henson, and her three stepchildren, Mary Henson, Mattie Henson, and John Napoleon Henson. Lorenzo Valdo Henson would later become a respected Baptist minister throughout Western Kentucky and was often called the “Fanning Preacher” because he was known for standing to the right of the pulpit and fanning while he preached a sermon. John Napoleon “Poly” Henson would also become a Baptist preacher and he also served two terms as Marshall County Court Clerk from 1902 until 1910. The addition of four step siblings and a step mother made a strong family structure for young H.H. Lovett.
As you can imagine family was very important to H.H. Lovett and many of his relatives played an important role shaping his life early on. His uncle, Daniel Alexander Lovett, had a profound impact on him at an early age. Known to everyone as “Uncle Bud,” Daniel Alexander Lovett was a large landowner in Olive and bought his first farm when he was only twenty-two years old, and by his thirtieth birthday, he had accumulated over two hundred and forty acres.
In addition to farming, Uncle Bud Lovett was very successful in business and politics as well. He was one of the founding board members of the Bank of Benton in 1890 and for several years served the people of Olive, Heights, Unity, and Bishop Mills as Magistrate of Marshall County’s First District. He also ran a close, but unsuccessful race for Sheriff in 1888, losing by only a handful of votes to Sheriff Joseph Little (grandfather of George Little who also served a term as Sheriff in the 1950s). Uncle Bud’s involvement in politics sparked H.H. Lovett’s interest at an early age.
Another uncle, John G. Lovett, had a significant impact on young H.H. Lovett as well. John G. Lovett was very successful in Marshall County politics and for the most part a self-made man. At age eighteen, both of John G. Lovett’s parents passed away leaving him penniless. He had never attended school and did not possess the ability to read or write, so he went to live with his older brother, Daniel Alexander “Bud” Lovett, to work on his farm. According to Lovett family history passed down by the late Grover T. Lovett, grandson of Daniel Alexander Lovett, John G. Lovett was a bookworm and had no interest in farming whatsoever, so his brother sent him to school to make something of himself.
Although he started well behind the other students at Wadesboro School in Calloway County, John G. Lovett eventually excelled in his studies and he ultimately earned a teaching certificate and began teaching at several rural common schools in Marshall County. By 1889, he enrolled at Kentucky State College in Lexington where he excelled in debate and he became interested in politics. After graduating, John G. returned to Marshall County and studied law under County Judge John Dycus. By the 1890s, John was admitted to the Bar and became a very skilled and brilliant attorney. In 1894, he was elected County Attorney for two terms. The successes of John G. Lovett, gave young H.H. Lovett hope that there was more to be offered in life than working long, back-breaking days on the farm for little or no pay. Throughout his life, H.H. Lovett often cited his uncle John G. Lovett as his inspiration of becoming an attorney.
The Lovett family in the 1880s near Olive. A young H.H. Lovett is in the front row in the white baby gown.
H.H. Lovett’s school days began in the Olive community where he went to the two-room country school located near the present day crossroads on Olive-Hamlet Road on the land now owned by Shirley Gipson. Lovett took an active interest in reading and history and became a star pupil. After completing studies in the common schools of Marshall County, Lovett’s father scraped up enough money to send his sixteen year-old son to study at Marvin College in Clinton, Kentucky. Built in 1884, Marvin College was one of the premier learning institutes in the Purchase Area of Kentucky at the time. Some of Marvin College’s alumni include Marshall County State Senator Walter G. Dycus and United States Vice President Alben W. Barkley. In his memoirs, Barkley gave his description of the college, “Marvin College was a Methodist Institution named after a bishop of what was then the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. It was one of two colleges in the town, the other being Clinton College, under Baptist auspices. While not a full-fledged college by today’s standards, Marvin was a thorough, well run institution that granted Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees.”
In the autumn of 1902, H.H. Lovett enrolled at Southern Normal School in Bowling Green, Kentucky (now Western Kentucky University). The president of the college was named Henry Hardin Cherry and the coincidence in names led to an early relationship between the two. H.H. Lovett graduated from South Normal College with a Bachelor’s Degree of Science in 1904 and he returned to Marshall County to begin teaching in the local common schools. He was one of the very few teachers in the area at the time to have earned a bachelor’s degree and he would soon make his mark on the educational field in Marshall County.