The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1914-11-20
NOTED JURIST
PASSES away
William S. Pryor Dies at
New Castle.
Served For twenty-five Years
On The Kentucky Court
Of Appeals.

Judge william Samuel Pryor, fol
twenty-five years a member and
some time Chief Justice of the Ken
lucky Court of ppeals, an active lie.
gal practitioner for more than three.
score years and considered among
foremost jurists of the United
States died Monday morning at 5
O'Clock at his home near New Cas-
tie. IN Henry county, within sight
OF the place where he was born.
Death came to Judge Pryor at
the age of So years. but up until
the very last he retained his bril-
liant faculties and the full possession
Of his brilliant mind. For the last
several months the Jurist had slow
~ been weakening physically and
his death is due to infirmities
An instance of his remarkable vi
tality was his rapid recovery from
tan in the autumn of 1912. when
h sustained a broken shoulder blade
liz was then 81 years old, but he
recovered and was up and about
within a remarkably short time.
Eorn in Henry County.
Judge Pryor was born in Henry
county Kentucky, April 1925,
near New Castle. and within sight Of
his present home. lie was the son
! %. Samuel Pryor. whose father. John
PRYOR removed from Virginia to
Kentucky in the pioneer days OF Henry
county. John Pryor entered tract
OF Government land in the vicinity
Of New Castle. and among his des-
ccadants have been numbered some
al the greatest jurists OF the Ken
tucky bar.
on the old Pryor homestead was
held .le first court ever convened in
Henry County. and tradition says
that the bench on which his honor"
sat was a stump, while the jurors
were ranged on a log nearby. Samuel
Pryor, the Judges father. was twice
Sheriff OF the county, and held a
number of other positions in those
early days. Judge Pryor's mother
was Miss Nancy Samuel. a daughter
OF William Samuel, who was long
a prominent farmer and politician in
that section of the State. The matur-
al grandmother of Judge Pryor was
daughter of William Marshall, a |
member of the distinguished family !
of that name in Kentucky and a rela-
tive OF Chief Justice Marshall.
Judge Pryor's mother. after the
death of her husband i'm the thirties,
married Capt. Barbour. who built
the first lock in the Kentucky River
Tor the Government. Her son was
Judge Joseph Barbour, Judge Pry-
or's hslf-brother. who was Judge of
the Superior Court at one time.
Reared to the invigorating influ-
ences of the old home farm young
Will Pryor began early to assist his
father in its management. His early
consisted of such advan-
tages as were afforded by the district
schools of the locality. AS a young
man he went to Trimble county,
where he worked at the courthouse
at Bedford, under the direction of
his uncle, Judge Jas. Pryor. of Cow
lngton. Judge James Pryor was
prominent lawyer of that day and
at one time was professor of law i'm
the University of Louisville. Later
he became Circuit Judge in his dis
Lrict. Young Pryor progressed in the .
study Of his chosen profession. and
so rapid was his absorption of the
science of jurisdiction that he was !
'eady to be admitted to the bar in
1914, a year after he began his
studies. s
AS he had not attained his ma I
ority II was necessary to have a A
pecial enactment of the Legislature n
rant him the right to practice in r
courts. Riding horseback d
wenty-eight miles to Frankfort he b
vas examined by Judge John ]. Mar s.
hall and then was given his license "
o practice, He Immediately opened
aw Offices in New Castle and in short t.
rider succeeded in building up "
arge and lucrative clientage. holding p
is own among such eminent men, +
ers OF the bar as former Justice p