Mankin Charles Champion (1853-1921)

Portrait from the Louisville Courier Journal, September 19, 1903.

   Another obscure Kentuckian discovered recently, Mankin Charles Champion was a lifelong resident of Anderson County who was elected to one term in the Kentucky General Assembly in the early 20th century. The son of Davis and Mary Rudd (Sweeney) Champion, Mankin C. Champion was born in Anderson County on May 27, 1853. No information could be located as to Champion's formative years or education, and he would marry sometime in the early 1870s to Sarah Frances Mullins (1855-1891). The couple later became parents to seven children, Susan Mary (1876-1949), John F. (1877-1878) Thomas Davis (1879-1968), Mattie, Charles Earldy (1883-1978), Elizabeth (1884-1954) and Etta Bell.

   Announcing his candidacy for the Kentucky House of Representatives in mid-1903, Mankin Champion proved successful at the polls that November, garnering 1,402 votes. During the 1904-06 session, he held seats on the following committees: Claims, Immigration and Labor, Legislative and Congressional Redistricting, and Public Morals. Little information exists on Champion's life following his term, excepting notices of his service as a member of the Kentucky State Board of Equalization from 1909 to at least 1914, and as Anderson county road engineer from 1912-13.

  Widowed in 1891, Mankin C. Champion died in Kentucky on January 9, 1921, aged 67. He was later interred at the same cemetery as his wife, the Sweeney Cemetery in Anderson County.

From the Louisville Courier-Journal.

Fallis Vernon Buky (1904-1998)

Portrait from a Buky campaign card.

   We continue our stay in Kentucky for a look at the life of two-term state representative Fallis Vernon Buky, a longtime resident of Jefferson County in that state. Born on February 6, 1904, in Kentucky, Fallis Buky was the son of Vernon (born 1870) and Mattie Hill Buky. Little is known of Buky's early years or education, except a brief mention of his attending the Clark College of Commerce in Kentucky. He married in Louisville on September 11, 1925, to Ms. Mildred Bibb (1903-1999), to whom he was wed for over seventy years. Their lengthy union saw the births of two children, Vernon C. (1927-1979) and Lois Jean. 

   For forty-five years "Pop" Buky was employed as a supervisor for the Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Company, and in 1961 was elected to represent Kentucky's 40th district in the state legislature. He would win a second term in 1963 and during this term represented the 40th legislative district, leaving office in 1967.

   In addition to his time in the legislature, Buky was for many years a parishioner at the Immanuel Baptist Church of Frankfort as well as being a member of the Masonic order and the Kosair Shriners. Fallis V. Buky died in Kentucky on September 4, 1998, at age 94 and was later interred at the Resthaven Memorial Cemetery in Louisville. 

Chadwell Fleming Campbell Nolan (1845-1923)

Portrait courtesy of the Kentucky State Historical Society.

   After several years of being a state that has been sadly underrepresented here on the site, Kentucky has recently started to yield many oddly named political figures, mainly due to the discovery of the following legislative roster listing the name of every Kentucky state representative that served between 1900 and 1948. Ryland Christmas Musick (profiled back on June 30th) was found here, as well as the name of today's "honoree", Chadwell Fleming Campbell Nolan!

  One of the most plentifully named men to serve in the Kentucky legislature, Chadwell F.C. Nolan (also spelled Nolen) was a Civil War veteran who, following his military service, became a leading citizen in Harlan County, where he was active in local mining and lumber concerns. He would serve one term in the Kentucky legislature and, like Ryland C. Musick before him, lost his life in a tragic accident in the early 1920s. 

   Born in Harlan County, Kentucky on March 5, 1845, Chadwell Fleming Campbell Nolan was one of thirteen children born to Joseph (1790-1872) and Mary Marsee Nolan (1793-1870). During the Civil War Nolan served as a member of the "Home Guards" in Kentucky and is mentioned as having been "actively engaged on several occasions with marauding bands of Confederate soldiers." He married on February 4, 1863, to Louisa Jane Turner (1845-1918), to whom he was wed for five decades. Their lengthy union would see the births of fourteen children, five of whom were still living at the time of Nolan's death in 1923.

   Following his war service, Nolan was affiliated with "several large corporations" that were responsible for locating mineral-rich properties in Harlan County. Later business ventures saw him dabble in the "lumber and stave business", and in the succeeding years, the name of Chadwell F.C. Nolan grew to be one of the most prominent in Harlan County, eventually resulting in two area communities (Chad and Nolansburg) being named in his honor. Nolan's obituary in the Harlan Enterprise relates that "no other man in Kentucky had the distinction of having two railroad stations named for him", and that his home in Chad was a source of entertainment and hospitality for many a traveler and friend who passed through town.

   Nolan's prominence in Harlan County eventually culminated in his being nominated for a seat in the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1901. Taking his seat at the start of the 1902-04 session, Nolan would represent not only Harlan County but also those of Bell, Perry, and Leslie and would sit on the committees on Public Warehouses and Granaries and Suffrage and Elections. During his brief time in state government, Nolan is referred to as an "active adherent" to the construction of a new state capitol building and introduced a bill that would change the name of the Harlan County seat from Mt. Pleasant to Harlan. Confusingly, Nolan's obituary in the Harlan Enterprise records him as having served two consecutive terms in the legislature (1900-1904). This happens to be false, as the aforementioned roster of Kentucky representatives lists Nolan as serving from 1902-04, with no mention of his name appearing in the 1900-02 roster. 

   Following his time in the legislature, Chadwell Nolan continued to be a figure of distinction in Harlan County, maintaining an active role in his community up until his death via a train accident on December 23, 1923. On that date, Nolan had taken a stroll when he stopped near railroad tracks to let a rapidly moving freight train pass by him. Having "stepped back" to let the train pass, Nolan was unaware of a "switch train" that was following close behind the freight train and was struck in the back by it. The injured Nolan was placed in a caboose on the train and was then taken to a hospital in Lynch, Kentucky, where he later died of his injuries. A burial location for him remains unknown at this time but is presumed to be somewhere in the vicinity of Harlan County, where Nolan had resided for all of his life.

Ryland Christmas Musick (1884-1924)

                                                           Portrait courtesy of the Kentucky Historical Society.

  One of the more humorous names you'll find while perusing a list of Kentucky state legislators, Ryland Christmas Musick represented the counties of Breathitt, Lee, and Magoffin in the Kentucky House of Representatives for one term in the late 1910s. Born (appropriately enough) on Christmas Day 1884 in Russell County, Virginia, Ryland Christmas Musick was the son of the Rev. Elexious F. and Rebecca Ann Musick.
  A student at both Georgetown College and the University of Kentucky, Ryland Musick graduated from the latter school's law department in the mid-1900s. He married in 1908 to Bessie Peoples (1887-1946), with whom he had four children: Juanita Lenora (died in infancy in 1909), Arthur Judson (born 1911), and twin sons Hansel Walton and Ryland Dalton (born April 19, 1914). 
   Prior to establishing his law practice, Musick engaged in "newspaper and journalistic work", being the editor of the Jackson Times. He began the practice of his profession in that city and in 1911 was elected as City Attorney of Jackson, serving in that capacity from 1912-13. In November 1917 he was elected to the Kentucky State House of Representatives from the counties of Breathitt, Lee, and Magoffin and during the 1918-20 term served on the committees on the Geological Survey, Juvenile Courts, and Children's Homes, Retrenchment and Reform, Legislative Redistricting, and Suffrage and Elections.
   A member of the Elks and Knights of Pythias Lodges, Ryland Musick continued to advance politically during his time in the legislature, being an unsuccessful candidate for Kentucky State Attorney General in the 1919 Democratic primary. Profiled in the July 26, 1919 edition of the Kentucky Irish American, Musick was touted as a "lawyer of ability" and:

"As a legislator he voted and made a speech for the eight hour law, the twice a month pay bill and other legislation and supported appropriation bills to make secure the Kentucky School for the Blind in Louisville, and the State Fair, all of which mean so much to Louisville"

  Despite carrying both Madison and Powell County in the vote count Ryland Musick was defeated for the Democratic nomination by Frank Daugherty. Four years later he was again a candidate for state Attorney General and lost out to the same man who had bested him in 1919, Frank E. Daugherty. 

                                                              From the Kentucky Irish American, July 26, 1919.

   In the year of his death, Ryland Musick was a candidate in the Democratic congressional primary from Kentucky's 9th district, running against future U.S. Treasury Secretary and Supreme Court Chief Justice Frederick Moore Vinson. On election day (August 2, 1924) it was Vinson who won out, defeating Musick by a vote of 18,284 to 7,308. 
   Just a few weeks following that primary loss Musick undertook a business trip to Virginia and on August 22, 1924, the car in which he was a passenger lost control and turned over several times. Pinned underneath the wreckage, Musick was extricated from the vehicle and later died at a hospital near Lebanon, Virginia, aged just 39. He was survived by his wife Bessie, with his funeral taking place at Jonesboro, Tennessee. A burial location for him remains unknown at this time.