from Mercer County, Kentucky – Biographies

John G. Handy was born April 2, 1801, in Scott County, Kentucky, where he was reared to manhood, and early turned his attention to construction and building, at which he rose to considerable eminence, erecting many of the finest buildlings in the central portion of the state.  He was preeminently a self-made man and his successful career was largely due to his untiring energy and well known integrity.  In his later life he engaged in farming, and was long a magistrate and a member of the court of claims of Mercer County.  Democratic in politics, he sustained a loss of thirty slaves as a result of the late war.  As a Christian he united with the church under the ministrations of Rev. Barton W. Stone and remained a consistent member until his death, which occurred March 19, 1867.  Firm in his convictions, he was a man of marked decision of character.  On October 30, 1825, he was united in marriage to Miss Mary, daughter of Benjamin and Jane (Minter) Watkins, of Woodford County, (born October 30, 1802, died August 6, 1877) and their union was favored by the birth of William A., Martha J., Benjamin W., Walter W., George N. and Mary E. (McElroy).  George Nuck0ls Handy was born August 12, 1840, in Woodford County; in 1842 removed with his parents to Mercer County, locating on the old Gabriel Slaughter farm, and in 1870 settled on “Adair Place”, three miles east of Harrodsburg, where he has since resided.  June 1861, he enlisted in Captain McNairy’s Company, Tennessee Confederate Cavalry, with whom he remained until after the evacuation of Nashville, when he united with Captain Phil B. Thomson’s company, Kentucky Cavalry, and after the battle of Shiloh entered Company E, Second Kentucky Confederate Cavalry, colonel, Basil Duke.  He was captured in 1863 in Mercer County, and remained a prisoner of war at Camps Chase and Douglas, until near the close of the contest.  August 19, 1882, he was united in marriage to Miss Mary H., daughter of Dr. David S. and Amelia (Handy) McGaughey, of Morristown, Shelby County, Indiana (born March 31, 1843), and to them has been born one daughter, Georgie, September 3, 1884.  Mr. Handy is a farmer, having 362 acres of well improved land.  This place was formerly the home of General John A. Adair, and here his body reposed until removed by the state and placed among the remains of other eminent men of the commonwealth.