Samuel A. Hornbeck

The following sketch is taken from A History of Kentucky and Kentuckians: The Leaders and Representative Men in Commerce, Industry and Modern Activities, Volume III, by E. Polk Johnson, published by the Lewis Publishing Company in 1912. This text may be found on page 1314 of that volume.

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SAMUEL A. HORNBECK. - Noteworthy among the active and valued citizens of Shepherdsville is Samuel Hornbeck, a skilful carpenter and an enterprising and practical farmer, now serving as deputy sheriff of Bullitt county. A son of the late Dr. Preston Newton Hornbeck, he was born and reared in Bullitt county, his birth occurring February 1, 1844, in Shepherdsville. His paternal grandfather, Solomon Hornbeck, was born in Hardy county, Virginia, of Colonial ancestry. Following in the footsteps of that famous frontiersman, Daniel Boone, he penetrated the wilderness west of old Virginia, coming as a young man to Kentucky, and locating in what is now Bullitt county. Buying a large tract of timbered land, he cleared and improved a homestead, and was there a tiller of the soil until his death at a good old age.

Preston Newton Hornbeck was born, bred and educated in Bullitt county, Kentucky. Educated as a physician, he was graduated from the Cincinnati Medical School and began the practice of his profession at Shepherdsville, where he was likewise engaged in mercantile pursiuts for a time. He died in this place while yet in the prime of manhood, at the age of forty-five years. He married Mary Jane Smith, a daughter of Peter Smith. She survived him and married for her second husband, Joseph Myers, by whom she had three children, namely: Mary Joseph; Elizabeth G., wife of W. O. Foreman; and James B. Myers, of whom a short biography may be found elsewhere in this work.

Samuel A. Hornbeck was but a year old when the death of his father occurred. He attended the public schools in his youthful days, and in 1861 was apprenticed at the carpenter's trade. In 1864 Mr. Hornbeck volunteered his services and enlisted in Forrest's Cavalry, under the command of General Lyon. Subsequently transferred to the First Kentucky Cavalry, he served under General Wheeler until the close of the war. Returning home, he resumed his former occupations and continued farming and carpentering for many years. In 1910 he was appointed deputy sheriff of Bullitt county, and he is now serving in that capacity under his half-brother, James B. Myers. He joined the Masonic order in 1866, and has since been affiliated therewith.

Mr. Hornbeck married, in 1867, Lydia Edwina Fullenwider, a native of Meade county, Kentucky, and they are the parents of seven children, namely: Samuel Thomas, Mary E., Bettie G., Nannie R., Jaems P., Martha E., and Letitia M. The husband, wife and children are all living at this writing (1911).

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