J. T. G. Winlock Drowns Near Glasgow – Barren County

By Kentucky Kindred Genealogical Research on June 7, 2021 • ( Leave a comment )

*J. T. G. Winlock, born February 8, 1823, died August 5, 1897.*

The Courier Journal, Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky

Saturday August 7, 1897

Drowned

J. T. G. Winlock Loses His Life Near Glasgow

Well Known in Louisville

Borne Down to Death in the Waters of a Swollen Streamlet

Cloud-Burst in Southern Kentucky

Glasgow, Ky., Aug. 6 – Mr. J. T. G. Winlock, a prominent and wealthy citizen of this place and well known in Louisville, was drowned last night in a spring branch about two miles from town.

Mr. Winlock had been out to his farm, about six miles in the country, and started about dark to return. A very heavy rain had fallen and he was warned not to attempt to return until morning, as another thunder-storm was threatened. He had not been gone long before the rain again poured down in torrents.

Nothing was known of his fate until his horse was found with a portion of the harness on this morning roaming in a field near what is known as Huggins’ branch. Search being made, a part of his buggy was found and about a mile down the stream from the road Mr. Winlock’s body was discovered lodged against a wire fence.

The branch where he was drowned is an ordinary small spring branch running across the public road, but the heavy fall of rain last evening had turned it for the time being into a raging torrent.

Mr. Winlock was a director in the Glasgow Railroad company and was formerly president of the Growers’ Tobacco Warehouse Association in Louisville. He was frequently in Louisville, where he owned a lot of property, a valuable piece of which, at Eleventh and Water Streets, he recently sold to the Illinois Central Railroad Company for depot purposes. His sudden death was a shock to the whole town.

Reports from this and adjoining counties this morning are to the effect that there was a terrible rainstorm extending over a large area of country, and the smallest branches are flooded.

J. T. G. Winlock married Mary E. Clayton May 5, 1852, in Barren County. He was 30, she was 22.

J. T. G. Winlock and wife, Elvira, had no children. But she was very much a part of the community. In the 1868 October edition of The Louisville Courier, she won many premium awards in the eleventh annual exhibition of the South Kentucky Fair Ground Association. Some of the awards were for eight yards white flannel, eight yards plaid linsey, ten yards flax linen – I suppose Elvira spun these cloths. She also won for five pounds of butter, churned, I presume, a cooked ham, loaf of wheat bread, one-half bushel Irish potatoes. Her husband won awards for the best pair of work cattle, best fatted bullock, half bushel rye and best bull two years old and under three. When younger I received many blue ribbons in the Mercer County Fair for my needlepoint and counted cross-stitch, so I can truly appreciate crafting.

In 1866 Elvira Winlock entered a silk quilt. The description was ‘magnificent and gorgeously beautiful, displaying that patient skill and correctness of taste which a discriminating woman alone can exhibit.’ Other awards for this year included best pair bed-blankets, dye entries; best loaf of wheat bread, best jar pickles, half dozen head cabbages, display of vegetables.

Jane L. Winlock, sister of J. T. G., lived with her brother and sister-in-law, was a spinster who never married. Their mother, Martha Young Winlock Perkins, also lived with them until her death, April 17, 1872. Jane was also very handy with a needle and won entries in the county fair.

After J. T. G.’s death in 1897, Elvira and Jane lived together. In the 1900 census Elvira was 71 and Jane, 82. Jane Winlock made her will in 1900, and in it she leaves the house to ‘Joseph T. Winlock my home place in Glasgow, Kentucky, on Race Street, between the place of Mrs. Susie Harris and the place of J. E. Clayton, but subject however, to the occupancy of Mrs. Elvira Winlock for and during her natural life, and subject to her management and control.’ So perhaps J. T. G. and Elvira lived with Jane, although he was listed as head of household. It must have been a good arrangement since they lived together for 40+ years. The J. E. Clayton mentioned above was Elvira’s brother.

Elvira, wife of J. T. G. Winlock, born April 2, 1828, died October 21, 1908.

Elvira Winlock died October 21, 1908, at the age of 79.

The Courier Journal, Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky

Friday, October 23, 1908

Aged Woman Dies

Glasgow, Ky., Oct. 22 – [Special] – Mrs. Ella Winlock, of this place, died suddenly last evening, aged 79 years. Mrs. Winlock had been in her usual health when her brother went to her room to call her to supper and found her lying on the floor dead, thought her body was still warm. Mrs. Winlock was the widow of the late J. T. Winlock, one of the wealthiest and most prominent citizens of Southern Kentucky, and who, it will be remembered, met a tragic death a few years since by drowning while attempting to cross a small stream of water immediately after a rain. She leaves no children.

Jane L. Winlock lived less than four months after Elvira’s death.