From the Lexington Leader, September 7, 1941.
Kentucky earns its second article on the site for 2020 with Ashland Trenton Patrick, an attorney and circuit court judge who, appropriately enough, shares his first name with a Kentucky city (Ashland in Boyd County.) A lifelong Kentucky resident, Patrick had previously served as a county school superintendent, circuit court commissioner, and for four years was county attorney for Magoffin County. The son of John W. and Abigail (Salyers) Patrick, Ashland Trenton Patrick was born in what is now Magoffin County on June 2, 1859.
A student at Kentucky's Georgetown College, Patrick also attended Ohio Wesleyan University. Following his graduation, he followed a teaching career for three years and also read law under Judge John Cooper. Patrick was admitted to the bar in the early 1880s and by 1883 had established himself in practice. In either 1881 or 1882 (dates vary) Ashland Patrick married Amanda Louise "Lulie" Howes (1860-1942), to who he was wed for six decades. The couple's long union produced four children, Lenore Patrick Adams (1882-1969), Hortense Patrick Elam (1884-1967), Henry B. (birthdate unknown), and Effie Patrick Milby (1902-1991).
Ashland T. Patrick began his career in public service in 1885 when he was elected as Magoffin County superintendent of schools. He served in that capacity for a year and in 1886 was appointed as a U.S. circuit court commissioner for Kentucky, a post he held until 1896. This period saw Patrick as the partner of his father-in-law, attorney William Wiley Howse in Salyersville, a firm that continued until the latter's death in 1900.
In 1897 Patrick entered into the race for Commonwealth's Attorney but was defeated. In 1901 the citizens of Magoffin County elected him as their county attorney, where he served a four-year term. He returned to his law practice after his term concluded and in 1915 was elected as Circuit Court judge for Kentucky's 31st judicial district, defeating incumbent Democrat D.W. Gardner. In the following year, Patrick removed to Prestonsburg, and in 1919 was designated by Governor Augustus O. Stanley as a special judge for the Letcher County circuit, due to the illness of Judge John Butler.
Patrick won the Republican renomination for judge in October 1921, following the contested August primary instigated by his opponent, C.B. Wheeler. Despite his successful bid for renomination, Patrick was defeated that November by Democrat W.W. Williams, by a 4,000-plus vote majority. Several years following his defeat he returned to politics when he announced his candidacy for state senator from Kentucky's 13th district. He was defeated in the August Republican primary by Alex L. Allen, who polled 3,616 votes to Patrick's 2,119.
From the Park City Daily News, August 8, 1931.
From the Lexington Leader, July 26, 1932.
Several months following his senatorial dreams being dashed, Ashland Patrick set his sights on a higher office: U.S. Congressman. Announcing his bid in July 1932, Patrick was one of fourteen candidates vying for the Republican nomination from an at-large congressional district. In the days leading up to the August election Patrick's character and judicial service were profiled in the Louisville Courier-Journal, which wrote:
"He served on the bench for six years with credit to himself and honor to people of the district. He is a good speaker and belongs to a prominent and Republican family in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky, who have always fought faithfully for the party in all of its battles. His party can depend on him."
On primary election day, Ashland Patrick polled 17,728 votes but was one of several candidates who lost out at the ballot box. In 1939 Patrick established the annual Patrick reunion of Kentucky, and in 1941 was honored at this family reunion with an oil painting of himself. Designated as the Patrick family's "Grand Old Man", Patrick celebrated his 90th birthday in 1949 and died at the General Hospital in Prestonsburg on September 9, 1952. He had been preceded in death by his wife in 1942, and both were interred at the Gardner Cemetery in Salyersville, Kentucky.
From the Lexington Leader, September 9, 1952.
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