Franklin Pierce Straus

This is one of the recollections written by Wallace A. McKay and published in The Pioneer-News. Follow the "Recollections" link above to find others of his writings.

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The Pioneer-News, April 14, 1933, pages 1-2

An Intimate Sketch of The Life and Public Career of Franklin Pierce Straus, A Native of Spencer County

The subject of this sketch, Franklin Pierce Straus, was rather intimately known to the writer since the writer's early boyhood at Shepherdsville. After his marriage, Mr. Straus was for years a next door neighbor, living in a cottage on the lot of the present home of T. C. Carroll, while the home of the writer's grandfather and father was immediately to the East, an old two-story brick house, an alley only being between the two homes.

My grandfather was one of Mr. Straus' staunchest friends and his family physician, and Mr. Straus was the lawyer of his parents and was made the Guardian of the writer in his grandfather's will. When the writer conducted a weekly paper at Shepherdsville, Mr. Straus wrote for it a weekly editorial and was one of its best friends.

After we both moved to Louisville, our pleasant relationship continued with a few interruptions until Mr. Straus' death.

One of the greatest public honors received by Mr. Straus was at the request of the writer, in having him selected to speak at the great Bryan meeting at the Auditorium in Louisville about the year 1904. Mr. Straus introduced Mr. Bryan and acquitted himself with credit as was expected and the opportunity given him to make this address contributed in some degree at least to his subsequent success and prestige in the public life of Louisville.

Mr. Straus' active career as a lawyer covered a period of about forty-six years, the first half of which was spent in Bullitt County and the latter half in Louisville. For the last several years of his eventful and successful career as a lawyer, Mr. Straus' life was saddened and clouded, first: as a result of the death of his wife to whom he was deeply devoted, and second: on account of his nervous breakdown which caused him to be a hopeless invalid for the last six years of his life. He bore his suffering with wonderful patience and Christian fortitude, and died a devoted member of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Louisville.

Mr. Straus' active career was undoubtedly shortened by his very close application to his practice and hard study and his habit of reading into the night, to the neglect of his health, and regular rest. He was a constant and devoted student, not only of the law, but of general literature, and was one of the best informed men of his time on general topics and the public questions of the day.

One of the essential attributes for a long and happy life, which he unfortunately lacked, was his failure to have a hobby. He never learned how to play. He had few, if any, diversions or periods of relaxation and amusement, and did not love the outdoors sufficiently to take that degree of physical exercise which is indispensable to a professional man who in beset with difficult and abstruse daily problems. He was always lazy about physical exertion, work, or exercise During the first twenty-three years of his professional career in Bullitt County he took long rides constantly to the various sections of the county and to adjoining counties in attending to his professional duties and these rides gave him much more outdoor life and exercise than be ever enjoyed after he came to Louisville. He was very abstemious in eating and drink, never indulging in either to excess.

His wife was a charming hostess and a good mixer among the people, and he often expressed himself as greatly indebted to her for his many successful political races. He made enemies and many of them, and they were quite active and persistent, but his strong personal qualities and intellectual ability was such as to attract to his standard many of the best people of Bullitt County who were loyal to him to the last.

In the olden days one of his most devoted friends was O. Houston Bolton, a magistrate of Leaches District, and J. Buck Monroe, who was then quite a young man from the Knobs. In all his races Bolton and Monroe were among his most devoted followers. He accumulated quite a fine estate and left his children in very comfortable circumstances.

The Louisville Railway Company, after he became disabled granted to him a handsome annuity of $4000.00. He was a most faithful and devoted counsel for the Louisville Railway Company for more than twenty years and worked for the interest of this corporation with great zeal and industry and considerable success. All lawyers knew, who had claims and suits against the Railway Co. that they were up against a sure enough fight. In many cases Mr. Straus made the company, some- times went too far and showed too much asperity and thereby incurred the displeasure of many of the younger members of the Bar.

He unfortunately had little sense of humor. He took life too seriously. For the last twenty years before his break-down, he worked like a horse in a tread-mill, and wore out prematurely, an otherwise robust and well preserved body.

His life as a whole, judged by the world's standards, was a success and he left behind that which is more to be prized than great riches, viz: "A good name" and a record of fidelity to every duty of an eventful life.

To Be Continued

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The Pioneer-News, April 21, 1933, pages 1-2

Mr. Franklin Pierce Straus: His Times and Contemporaries

After Richard H. Field, Judge William R. Thompson, and R. J. Weyler, came Mr. Franklin Pierce Straus as the Shepherdsville lawyer most conspicuous in the writer's earliest memory.

At his very earliest recollection, Mr Straus was an active and prominent Bullitt County lawyer and his relations with him extended over a much longer period of time and were much closer and more intimate than with any of the other lawyers, who were much older men. Mr. Straus was born a Waterford, in Spencer County on the 8th. of May 1854 and named for Hon. Franklin Pierce who was at that time President of the United States and a great Democratic leader of that period. He came from the neighboring County of Spencer and located at Shepherdsville when a young man of 24. His mother was a native of Spencer County and was a Miss Marana Collins, a member of an old and respected Baptist family.

About ten years prior to the Civil War there came to Kentucky from Germany an intelligent and ambitious young Jew by the name of Simon Straus. He came from an old family of merchants and traders and soon embarked in the merchandise business at Waterford in Spencer Co. He was a man of a kindly and agreeable disposition, had a good education and was esteemed highly for his good character and fair dealing. Marana Collins' father was a well to do farmer in the Waterford neighborhood, of English extraction and she was well educated and popular. The young Jewish merchant fell in love with her, but parental objections to the match were based chiefly upon the difference in religion of the couple. About that time a great Baptist revival was going on in Spencer County which was attended by the Collins family, the daughter Marana, being escorted to these meetings by her Jewish lover, Simon Straus. Before the end of these meetings Simon Straus became a convert to the Christian faith and united with the Baptist Church. This action on his part settled the case in his favor and the fair young daughter of Spencer County, and devoted follower of Christ, became the wife of Simon Straus who remained a devoted Christian during the remainder of his life, which ended with his death in 1867, when his third son, Franklin Pierce Straus, was 13 years of age.

There were born of this wedlock five sons, Charles, Joseph, Frank, Eugene, Leon and Miss Georgia, all of whom are now dead, and each of them having lived to middle, or past middle, life. Mr. Straus' mother often visited her son at Shepherdsville, during his early married life, and is remembered by a number of our older citizens. She was a very intelligent woman of attractive manners and a devout follower of the lowly Nazarene. Both Charles and Joseph Straus were merchants, each of them having located in Texas, where they had successful business careers. Franklin Pierce Straus studied law in early manhood and graduated at the Law Department of the University of Louisville with honors, and had a successful career at the bar, covering a period of 46 years, which is still fresh in the memory of the people of this section. Leon Strauss studied medicine and practice at Shepherdsville for a number of years and afterwards moved to St. Louis, where he attained considerable reputation as a specialist. Eugene Strauss, the younger brother, was also a merchant and died rather early in life. Miss George Strauss married Mr. William L. Brown, and insurance man, and died several years ago.

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The Pioneer-News, April 28, 1933, pages 1-2

Mr. Franklin Pierce Straus: His Times and Contemporaries

Franklin Pierce Straus, after the deaths of Judge William R. Thompson and Richard H. Field, was the leading lawyer of Bullitt County for a number of years, or until he located in Louisville in 1887. He was always a hard student and very attentive to business und looked after his clients' cases with fidelity and care. His mother believed in education and made every sacrifice to give her children a good education.

After going through the common school of Spencer County, Franklin Straus attended, for two terms, Millersburg Academy in Bourbon County; taught school for two terms, making enough money to put him through the two years course at the Law Department of the University of Louisville; he graduated in a class with Horace J. Brannin, Judge George DuRelle, Aaron Kohn, the famous Criminal lawyer, and David W. Fairleigh who became his law partner after he located in Louisville. It was not many years after he located in Shepherdsville before he began to take an interest in politics as a Democrat and was elected and served for two terms as County Attorney and two terms as Superintendent of County Schools.

The holding of these positions not only assisted him financially but greatly aided him in the establishment of his law practice which became, even before he left Bullitt County, quite extensive and fairly remunerative. In 1885 1886 he represented the District of Spencer and Bullitt in the General Assembly at Frankfort, were he was a colleague of Ben Johnson, who represented Nelson County, forming a friendship with him which continued, without interruption, until Mr. Straus' death.

The climax of Mr. Straus political career was his election as a Member of the Constitutional Convention of 1890-1891 from Spencer and Bullitt Counties. He was opposed in this race by Judge Ashton Harcourt of Spencer County and Judge Wilhite Carpenter of Bullitt. Both of Mr. Straus' opponents were strong and worthy men but during the progress of the race in the joint debates which were held by the candidates, Mr Straus clearly convinced the people of his splendid qualification and his intimate knowledge of law and achieved a very sweeping victory.

His wife, Mrs. Katie Straus, was in her prime at that time and was a very intellectual and well liked woman and had a host of friends and relatives all over Bullitt County and her tact, diplomacy und good management and indefatigable work, contributed greatly to his success in this crucial campaign. Mr. Straus always gave his wife much credit for his success in this fight.

As a member of the Constitutional Convention, Mr. Straus took a most active part in its deliberations and was held in high esteem by his colleagues, among whom were his old friends and benefactors, Ex-Governor J. Proctor Knott and Mr. John Thompson Funk of Louisville. It was while a member of this Convention that Mr. Funk persuaded Mr. Straus to locate in Louisville, and after he came to Louisville it was largely through Mr. Funk's influence that Mr. Straus was appointed attorney for the Louisville Railway Company, which he filled most successfully and continued until the last illness which finally resulted in his death in Louisville on October 27, 1927.

Mr. Straus married in August, 1879 Miss Katherine Crist, one of the two daughters of Dr. Henry C. Crist, for years a very prominent and successful physician of Shepherdsville, who was the son of General Henry Crist, famous in the pioneer history of Kentucky, as an Indian fighter and the first member of Congress from the old Fourth District. Dr. Crist's younger daughter, Miss Hallie, became the wife of John W. Logsdon, former L. & N. agent at Shepherdsville and afterward. Superintendent of the Henderson Division of the L & N. R. R. Co. There were born to Mr. and Mrs. Straus three children who are now living. Harry Crist Straus, Ben Louie Straus, who is married and the wife of T. P. Hutchins Druggist and the wife of Frederick Eiler resides in Louisville, and Ruth Straus, who is married and resides in Los Angeles, California. Mr Straus, in his early life, followed in the religion of his parents and became a member of the Baptist Church. He was the first Sunday School Superintendent the writer remembers. His wife, however, was a devoted Methodist and in his latter years, Mr. Straus also united with the Methodist Church.

Mr. Straus' most prominent Criminal case was his defense of John R. T. Barbour, charged with the murder of Francis J. Hagan at Huber's Station, a number of years ago. In the last trial of this case Mr. Straus was confronted with, as one of the attorneys for the prosecution, the celebrated Criminal Lawyer, Aaron Kohn, of Louisville, and in his many bouts with Kohn, his old class-mate at the Law School, Mr. Straus acquitted him with great credit. He did not like Criminal practice and after the acquittal of Barbour, declined to take part in any other Criminal cases.

W. A. M.

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