James B . McCreary James Bennett McCreary ( July 8 , 1838 – October 8 , 1918 ) was a lawyer and politician from the US state of Kentucky . He represented the state in both houses of the U . S . Congress and served as its 27th and 37th governor . Shortly after graduating from law school , he was commissioned as the only major in the 11th Kentucky Cavalry , serving under Confederate Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan during the American Civil War . He returned to his legal practice after the war . In 1869 , he was elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives where he served until 1875 ; he was twice chosen Speaker of the House . At their 1875 nominating convention , state Democrats chose McCreary as their nominee for governor , and he won an easy victory over Republican John Marshall Harlan . With the state still feeling the effects of the Panic of 1873 , most of McCreary ' s actions as governor were aimed at easing the plight of the state ' s poor farmers . In 1884 , McCreary was elected to the first of six consecutive terms in the U . S . House of Representatives . As a legislator , he was an advocate of free silver and a champion of the state ' s agricultural interests . After two failed bids for election to the Senate , McCreary secured the support of Governor J . C . W . Beckham , and in 1902 , the General Assembly elected him to the Senate . He served one largely undistinguished term , and Beckham successfully challenged him for his Senate seat in 1908 . The divide between McCreary and Beckham was short - lived , however , and Beckham supported McCreary ' s election to a second term as governor in 1911 . Campaigning on a platform of progressive reforms , McCreary defeated Republican Edward C . O ' Rear in the general election . During this second term , he became the first inhabitant of the state ' s second ( and current ) governor ' s mansion ; he is also the only governor to have inhabited both the old and new mansions . During his second term , he succeeded in convincing the legislature to make women eligible to vote in school board elections , to mandate direct primary elections , to create a state public utilities commission , and to allow the state ' s counties to hold local option elections to decide whether or not to adopt prohibition . He also realized substantial increases in education spending and won passage of reforms such as a mandatory school attendance law , but was unable to secure passage of laws restricting lobbying in the legislative chambers and providing for a workers ' compensation program . McCreary was one of five commissioners charged with overseeing construction of the new governor ' s mansion and exerted considerable influence on the construction plans . His term expired in 1916 , and he died two years later . McCreary County was formed during McCreary ' s second term in office and was named in his honor . Early life . James Bennett McCreary was born in Richmond , Kentucky , on July 8 , 1838 . He was the son of Edmund R . and Sabrina ( Bennett ) McCreary . He obtained his early education in the region ' s common schools , then matriculated to Centre College in Danville , Kentucky , where he earned a bachelor ' s degree in 1857 . Immediately thereafter , he enrolled at Cumberland University in Lebanon , Tennessee , to study law . In 1859 , he earned a Bachelor of Laws from Cumberland and was valedictorian of his class of forty - seven students ; he was admitted to the bar and commenced practice at Richmond . Shortly after the Battle of Richmond on August 29 , 1862 , David Waller Chenault , a Confederate sympathizer from Madison County , came to Richmond to raise a Confederate regiment . On September 10 , 1862 , Chenault was commissioned as a colonel and given command of the regiment , dubbed the 11th Kentucky Cavalry . McCreary joined the regiment and was commissioned as a major , the only one in the unit . The 11th Kentucky Cavalry was pressed into immediate service , conducting reconnaissance and fighting bushwhacker s . Just three months after its muster , they helped the Confederate Army secure a victory at the Battle of Hartsville . In 1863 , the unit joined John Hunt Morgan for his raid into Ohio . Colonel Chenault was killed as the Confederates tried to capture the Green River Bridge at the July 4 , 1863 , Battle of Tebbs Bend . McCreary assumed command of the unit after Chenault ' s death . Following the battle , he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel on the recommendation of John C . Breckinridge . Most of the 11th Kentucky Cavalry was captured by Union forces at the Battle of Buffington Island on July 17 , 1863 . Approximately two hundred men , commanded by McCreary , mounted a charge and escaped their captors , but they were surrounded the next day and surrendered . McCreary was taken to Ninth Street Prison in Cincinnati , Ohio , but was later transferred to Fort Delaware and eventually to Morris Island , South Carolina , where he remained a prisoner through July and most of August 1863 . In late August , he was released as part of a prisoner exchange and taken to Richmond , Virginia . He was granted a thirty - day furlough before being put in command of a battalion of Kentucky and South Carolina troops . He commanded this unit , primarily on scouting missions , until the end of the war . Following the war , McCreary resumed his legal practice . On June 12 , 1867 , McCreary married Katherine Hughes , the only daughter of a wealthy Fayette County farmer . The couple had one son . Early political career . McCreary was nominated to serve as a presidential elector for the ticket of Democrat Horatio Seymour in 1868 ; though he declined to serve , he attended the national convention as a delegate . His political career began in earnest in 1869 when he was elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives . In 1871 , McCreary was re - elected to the state House without opposition . In the upcoming legislative session , the major question was expected to be the Cincinnati Southern Railway ' s request for authorization to build a track connecting Cincinnati , Ohio , with either Knoxville or Chattanooga , Tennessee , through Central Kentucky . The action was opposed by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad , a bitter rival of the Cincinnati line . Appeals to the $ 3 to oppose the bill on grounds that an out - of - state corporation should not be granted a charter in the state were successful in 1869 and 1870 , and an attempt by the federal Congress to grant the charter was defeated by states ' rights legislators there . Moreover , newly elected governor Preston Leslie had opposed a bill granting Cincinnati Southern ' s request when he was in the state Senate in 1869 . In the lead - up to the 1871 session , frustrated Central Kentuckians threatened to defect from the Democratic Party in future elections if the bill were not passed in the session . Supporters of Cincinnati Southern won a victory when McCreary , a staunch supporter of the bill to grant the line ' s request , was elected Speaker of the House . After approval of a series of amendments designed to give Kentucky courts some jurisdiction in cases involving the line and the Kentucky General Assembly some measure of control over the line ' s activities , the bill passed the House by a vote of 59 – 38 . The vote in the Senate resulted in a 19 – 19 tie ; President Pro Tem John G . Carlisle — a native of Covington , through which the proposed line would pass — cast the deciding vote in favor of approving Cincinnati Southern ' s request . With the will of the people clearly expressed through the legislature , Governor Leslie did not employ his gubernatorial veto . McCreary was again returned to the House without opposition in 1873 and was again chosen Speaker of the House during his term . First term as governor . In 1875 , McCreary was one of four men , all former Confederate soldiers , who sought the Democratic gubernatorial nomination — the others being John Stuart Williams , J . Stoddard Johnson , and George B . Hodge . Williams was considered the favorite for the nomination at the outset of the Democratic nominating convention , despite attacks on his character by newspapers in the western part of the state . However , McCreary defeated Williams on the fourth ballot . The Republicans nominated John Marshall Harlan , who had served in the Union Army . In joint debates across the state , McCreary stressed what many Kentuckians felt were abuses of power by Republican President Ulysses S . Grant during the Reconstruction Era . Harlan countered by faulting the state ' s Democratic politicians for continuing to dwell on war issues almost a decade after the war ' s end . He also attacked what he perceived as Democratic financial extravagance and the high number of pardons granted by sitting Democratic governor Preston Leslie . Harlan claimed these as evidence of widespread corruption in the Democratic Party . McCreary received solid support from the state ' s newspapers , nearly all of which had Democratic sympathies . Despite a late infusion of cash and stump speakers in favor of his opponent , McCreary won the general election by a vote of 130 , 026 to 94 , 236 . At the time of McCreary ' s election , his wife Kate was the youngest first lady in the Commonwealth ' s history . Due to the near completion of an annex to the state capitol building by the time of McCreary ' s inauguration , he was able to move the official governor ' s office out of the governor ' s mansion , freeing his family from the intrusion of public business into their private quarters . McCreary ' s receipt of the executive journal and Great Seal of the Commonwealth from outgoing Governor Leslie in the mansion ' s office is believed to be the last official act performed by a governor there . In the wake of the Panic of 1873 , the electorate was primarily concerned with economic issues . In his first address to the General Assembly , McCreary focused on economic issues to the near exclusion of providing any leadership or direction in the area of government reforms . ( In later years , McCreary ' s unwillingness to take a definite stand on key issues of reform would earn him the nicknames " Bothsides " McCreary and " Oily Jeems " . ) In response to McCreary ' s address , legislators from the rural , agrarian areas of the state proposed lowering the maximum legal interest rate from ten percent to six percent . The proposed legislation drew the ire of bankers and capitalists ; it was also widely panned in the press , notably by " Louisville Courier - Journal " editor Henry Watterson . Ultimately , the Assembly compromised on a legal interest rate of eight percent . Another bill to lower the property tax rate from 45 to 40 cents per 100 dollars of taxable property encountered far less resistance and passed easily . Few bills passed during the session had statewide impact , despite McCreary ' s insistence that the legislature prefer general bills over bills of local impact . This fact , too , was widely criticized by the state ' s newspapers . The issue of improving navigation along the Kentucky River was raised numerous times by Representative James Blue during the 1876 legislative session . Despite Blue ' s promises of manifold benefits to the state from such an investment , parsimonious legislators defeated a bill allocating funds for the improvements . The issue gained traction with some voters during the biennial legislative elections , however , which brought it back to the floor in the 1878 session . Prompted by recommendations from the Kentucky River Navigation Convention in 1877 , McCreary abandoned his typical fiscal conservatism and joined the calls for improvements along the river . In response , legislators passed a largely ineffective bill providing that , if funds could be raised through special taxes in districts along the river , the state would provide the funds to maintain the improvements . Also in the 1878 session , tax assessments for railroad property were raised to match those of other property . Agrarian interests were pleased that the legal interest rate was again lowered , now reaching the six percent they had proposed in the previous session . Non - economic reforms included the separation of Kentucky Agricultural and Mechanical College ( later the University of Kentucky ) from Kentucky University ( later Transylvania University ) and the establishment of a state board of health . Bills of local import again dominated the session , representing 90 percent of the acts and resolutions passed by the Assembly . Along with Democrats John Stuart Williams , William Lindsay , and J . Proctor Knott , and Republican Robert Boyd , McCreary was nominated for a U . S . Senate seat in 1878 . Democrats were divided by sectionalism and initially unable to unite behind one of their four candidates . After more than a week of caucusing among Democratic legislators , the nominations of McCreary , Knott , and Lindsay were withdrawn , and Williams was elected over Boyd . Historian Hambleton Tapp opined that the withdrawals were likely a part of some kind of deal among legislators , although the details of the deal , if it ever existed , were not made public . Service in Congress . Following his term as governor , McCreary returned to his legal practice . In 1884 , he sought election to Congress from Kentucky ' s Eighth District . His opponents for the Democratic nomination were Milton J . Durham and Philip B . Thompson , Jr . , both of whom had held the district ' s seat previously . McCreary bested both men , and in the general election in November , defeated Republican James Sebastian by a margin of 2 , 146 votes . It was the largest margin of victory by a Democrat in the Eighth District . During his tenure , McCreary represented Kentucky ' s agricultural interests , introducing a bill to create the United States Department of Agriculture . A bill containing most of the same provisions as the one McCreary authored was passed later in the session . He also proposed a successful amendment to the Wilson – Gorman Tariff Act that excluded farm implements and machinery from the tariff . An advocate of free silver , he was appointed by President Benjamin Harrison to be a delegate to the International Monetary Conference held in Brussels , Belgium , in 1892 . As chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs , he authored a bill to establish a court that would settle disputed land claims stemming from the Gadsden Purchase and the Treaty of Guadalupe - Hidalgo . He advocated the creation of a railroad linking Canada , the United States , and Mexico . In 1890 , he sponsored a bill authorizing the first Pan - American Conference and was an advocate of the Pan - American Medical Conference that met in Washington , D . C . , in 1893 . He authored a report declaring American hostility to European ownership of a canal connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans , and sponsored legislation authorizing the U . S . president to retaliate against foreign vessels that harassed American fishing boats . In 1890 , McCreary ' s name was again placed in nomination for a U . S . Senate seat to succeed James B . Beck , who died in office . John G . Carlisle , J . Proctor Knott , William Lindsay , Laban T . Moore , and Evan E . Settle were also nominated by various factions of the Democratic Party ; Republicans nominated Silas Adams . Carlisle was elected on the ninth ballot . McCreary continued his service in the House until 1896 , when he was defeated in his bid for a seventh consecutive nomination for the seat . In that same year , his was among a myriad of names put forward for election to the Senate , but he never received more than 13 votes . Following these defeats , he resumed his law practice in Richmond . McCreary campaigned for Democrat William Goebel during the controversial 1899 gubernatorial campaign . Between 1900 and 1912 , he represented Kentucky at four consecutive Democratic National Conventions . Governor J . C . W . Beckham and his well - established political machine supported McCreary ' s nomination to the Senate in 1902 . His opponent , incumbent William J . Deboe , had been elected as a compromise candidate six years earlier , becoming Kentucky ' s first - ever Republican senator . Deboe had done little to secure support from legislators since his election , however , and McCreary was easily elected by a vote of 95 – 30 . Following his election to the Senate , McCreary supported Beckham ' s gubernatorial re - election bid in 1903 . In a largely undistinguished term as a senator , he continued to advocate the free coinage of silver and tried to advance the state ' s agricultural interests . McCreary ' s senate term was set to expire in 1908 , the same year as Beckham ' s second term as governor . Desiring election to the Senate following his gubernatorial term , Beckham persuaded his Democratic allies to choose the party ' s nominees for governor and senator by a primary election held in 1906 – a year before the gubernatorial election and two years before the senatorial election . This ensured that the primary would occur during his term as governor , when he still wielded significant influence within the party . McCreary now allied himself with J . C . S . Blackburn , Henry Watterson , and other Beckham opponents , and sought to defend his seat in the primary . During the primary campaign , he pointed to his record of dealing with national issues , contrasting it with Beckham ' s youth and inexperience at the national level . Beckham countered by citing his strong stand in favor of Prohibition , as opposed to McCreary ' s more moderate position , and by touting his support of a primary election instead of a nominating convention , which he said gave the voters a choice in who would represent them in the Senate . Ultimately , Beckham prevailed in the primary by an 11 , 000 - vote margin , rendering McCreary a lame duck with two years still left in his term . Second term as governor and death . Despite Beckham ' s move to unseat McCreary in the Senate , the two were once again allies by 1911 , when Beckham supported the aging McCreary for the party ' s gubernatorial nomination . It is unclear whether McCreary sought the reconciliation in order to secure the gubernatorial nomination or Beckham made amends with McCreary because he thought he could control McCreary ' s actions as governor . In the Democratic primary , McCreary defeated William Adams by a majority of 25 , 000 votes . Republicans nominated Judge Edward C . O ' Rear to oppose McCreary . There were few differences between the two men ' s stands on the issues . Both supported progressive reforms such as the direct election of senators , a non - partisan judiciary , and the creation of a public utilities commission . McCreary also changed his stance on the liquor question , now agreeing with Beckham ' s prohibitionist position ; this also matched the Republican position . O ' Rear claimed that Democrats should have already enacted the reforms their party platform advocated , but his only ready line of attack against McCreary himself was that he would be a pawn of Beckham and his allies . McCreary pointed out that O ' Rear had been nominated at a party nominating convention instead of winning a primary , though O ' Rear claimed to support primary elections . He also criticized O ' Rear for continuing to receive his salary as a judge while running for governor . McCreary cited what he called the Republicans ' record of " assassination , bloodshed , and disregard of law " , an allusion to the assassination of William Goebel in the aftermath of the 1899 gubernatorial contest . Caleb Powers , convicted three times of being an accessory to Goebel ' s murder , had been pardoned by Republican governor Augustus Willson and had recently been elected to Congress . He further attacked the tariff policies of Republican President William H . Taft . In the general election , McCreary won a decisive victory , garnering 226 , 771 votes to O ' Rear ' s 195 , 435 . Several other minor party candidates also received votes , including Socialist candidate Walter Lanfersiek , who claimed 8 , 718 votes ( 2 percent of the total ) . Construction of the new governor ' s mansion . One of McCreary ' s first acts as governor was signing a bill appropriating $ 75 , 000 for the construction of a new governor ' s mansion . The legislature appointed a commission of five , including McCreary , to oversee the mansion ' s construction . The governor exercised a good deal of influence over the process , including the replacement of a conservatory with a ballroom in the construction plan and the selection of a contractor from his hometown of Richmond as assistant superintendent of construction . Changing societal trends also affected construction . A hastily constructed stable to house horse - drawn carriages was soon abandoned in favor of a garage for automobiles . The mansion was completed in 1914 . Because McCreary was widowed before his second term in office , his granddaughter , Harriet Newberry McCreary , served as the mansion ' s first hostess during her summer vacations from her studies at Wellesley College . When Harriet McCreary was away at college , McCreary ' s housekeeper , Jennie Shaw , served as hostess . McCreary authorized the state to sell the old mansion at auction , but the final bid of $ 13 , 600 was rejected as unfair by the mansion commission . Progressive reforms . Among the progressive reforms advocated by McCreary and passed in the 1912 legislative session were making women eligible to vote in school board elections , mandating direct primary elections , and allowing the state ' s counties to hold local option elections to decide whether or not to adopt prohibition . McCreary appointed a tax commission to study the revenue system , and the Board of Assessments and Valuation made a more realistic appraisal of corporate property . McCreary created executive departments to oversee state banking and highways , and a bipartisan vote in the General Assembly established the Kentucky Public Service Commission . Near the close of the session , McCreary County was created and named in the governor ' s honor . It was the last of Kentucky ' s 120 counties to be constituted . McCreary was not as successful in securing reforms during the 1914 legislative session . He advocated a comprehensive workmen ' s compensation law , but the law that was passed in the 1914 General Assembly was later declared unconstitutional . He also recommended a requirement for full disclosure of campaign contributions and expenditures , but the majority of legislators in the House of Representatives voted to send it back to the Suffrage and Elections Committee , from whence it was never recalled . Although they did not pass a law regulating lobbying at the capitol – a law that McCreary supported – legislators showed responsiveness to McCreary ' s desire for this reform by putting stricter regulations on who could be in the legislative chambers while the legislature was in session . Some reforms were made in the area of education . The school year was lengthened , school attendance for children was mandated , and the legislature created a Text Book Commission to assist local school boards in adopting textbooks . Public schools expenditures were increased by 25 percent . Part of the reason for the inefficacy of the 1914 session was that McCreary was engaged in a three - way primary race for the Democratic nomination to the U . S . Senate . The other major candidates were former Governor Beckham and Augustus O . Stanley ; a fourth candidate , David H . Smith , withdrew early from the race . McCreary ran a mostly positive campaign , touting his own accomplishments and speaking cordially about his opponents . Beckham and Stanley , however , were bitter political and personal enemies , and the campaign reflected their animosity . Without the support of Beckham ' s political machine that had helped him in the gubernatorial contest , McCreary never had a realistic chance to win the nomination . Beckham secured the nomination with 72 , 677 votes to Stanley ' s 65 , 871 and McCreary ' s 20 , 257 . Following the expiration of his term as governor , McCreary continued to practice as a private attorney until his death on October 8 , 1918 . He was buried in Richmond Cemetery .