from Mercer County, Kentucky – Biographies

George Bohon, a native of Wayne County, Kentucky, was born July 4, 1849.  His father, William F. Bohon, a merchant in Wayne and Mercer Counties, was born in November, 1810, in Mercer County.  He began the battle of life with no property, but by great industry and good financial management, left an estate of between $40,000 and $50,000.  After leaving his father’s house he entered mercantile business by clerking in a store of general merchandise in Wayne County.  He soon embarked in the business on his own account, which he followed in Monticello fifteen years, when in 1856 he sold out and removed to Harrodsburg, and opened a store of general merchandise.  His marriage occurred when he was about thirty years of age to Mrs. V. A. Hutchison, of Danville, Kentucky.  To this marriage were born seven children:  Dr. J. T. of Lincoln County; W. J., wholesale hats, of Louisville; H. C., cashier of First National Bank, Harrodsburg; Elizabeth H., wife of L. W. Hudson, an extensive farmer of Garrard County; George; Mattie B., wife of A. H. Peacock, a jeweler of Sherman, Texas, and Rane S., dry goods merchant, Decatur, Illinois, all of whom are living.  William F. Bohon, who during life was a faithful member of the Presbyterian Church, and a director in the old Commercial Bank, died in the sixty-third year of his age, in April, 1873.  Jack Bohon, the grandfather of George Bohon, was a native of Culpeper County, Virginia, but was one of the first settlers in Mercer county, after whom Bohontown is named.  He owned a large and valuable farm, and many slaves who were lost by the late war.  He married a Miss Martha Lightfoot, by whom he had nine children:  W.F., Reuben M., John, Lucy (Williams), M. M., Mildred (McAfee-Hudson), living in Frankfort; Martha (Fennell), J. W. and R. H.  Jack Bohon departed this life in 1860.  George Bohon received a good English education in Harrodsburg schools, and his boyhood was spent in his father’s store.  When he was in his twenty-first year, in 1869, he began traveling for a wholesale notion house of Louisville, which he continued five years.  He then opened a livery business in Danville, Kentucky, operating two years on a capital of about $5,000.  In 1876 he sold out, embarking in the grocery business, and two months later in the harness and agricultural implement business.  In 1883 he purchased a half interest in the Mercer Grain and Coal Company, remaining one year, when he embarked in his present business, as dealer in buggies, wagons and agricultural implements, operating on $15,000 to $20,000, and doing an annual business of $30,000.  Mr. Bohon, in December, 1871, married Miss Irene Saunders, a daughter of S. B. and Phoebe (Duncan) Saunders, of Jessamine County.  Three children have been born to them:  Minnie, Davis and Hanly, all living.  Mr. and Mrs. Bohon are members of the Christian Church.