William Wilson

The following salute to William Wilson was presented by Judge J. P. Hobson in 1916, and is transcribed in the Proceedings of the Fifteenth Annual Meeting of the Kentucky State Bar Association Held at Louisville, Thursday and Friday, July 6 and 7, 1916, on pages 188-190.

Wilson practiced law in Shepherdsville for several years prior to the Civil War before moving to Hardin County. He served as Bullitt County Attorney from 20 Jan 1851 to 11 Aug 1856 when he resigned.

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William Wilson was born in Nelson County on April 1, 1824; he was the son of Turner Wilson, a prominent citizen of that county. His early education was meager and in early life he served an apprenticeship at the plasterer's trade but after reaching manhood he began the study of law and practiced at Shepherdsville in Bullitt County until about the beginning of the Civil War, when he removed to Elizabethtown and practiced law there until his death in September 1891.

He had grown up at Bardstown in the atmosphere of Ben Hardin and in many respects he resembled that great advocate. He was not a great student of the law books but there was one book that he studied constantly; no man knew it better than he -the book of human nature. To his profound knowledge of the human heart he added great common sense and the zeal that made his client's case always his own. He was in fact a much more thorough lawyer than he designedly often appeared to those who did not know him well. He did not like the drudgery of office work or the dry details of practice; he did not read many books but he was an illustration of the adage, "Beware of the man with one book."

He knew Blackstone's Commentaries perfectly-he had mastered thoroughly Chitty on Pleadings and Chitty on Contracts. He understood well the intricate rules of law governing land litigation in Kentucky and no one understood better the rules of evidence or the principles of criminal law. He disliked chancery practice but was at home always before a jury. For many years he was employed in practically every important jury trial in the county in which he lived or in adjoining counties where he practiced. His power in a jury trial may be illustrated by the case of Jacobs v. The L. & N. Railroad Co., 10 Bush, 263.

Jacobs was a farmer living in the western part of Hardin County, a man in humble circumstances and of small earning capacity. As he was going home from Elizabethtown a passenger train on the L. & N. Railroad at a crossing about a mile south of Elizabethtown struck the wagon in which he was driving and he was killed. Mr. Wilson brought a suit against the Railroad Company to recover for his death; he had several other cases in Hardin County against the Railroad Company in which recoveries had been had and the Railroad Company under the statute obtained a change of venue to Laure County on the ground of local prejudice and undue influence.

When the case was tried in Larue the court instructed the jury that they might allow punitive damages if the neglect was willful. The jury returned a verdict in favor of the plaintiff for $150,000, the largest verdict, it is believed, ever rendered in Kentucky in such a case. The verdict was obtained largely by the power with which Mr. Wilson impressed upon the jury the point that punishment in money should be measured by the ability of the defendant to pay.

His speech portraying the wealth of the Railroad Company and the mode of life of its officials made the jury forget that a dollar in the hands of any litigant is still a dollar. Like Ben Hardin he had the power of trenchant sarcasm. His was not a Damascus sword but a kitchen knife or perhaps better a cleaver. He always struck the weakest point in the armor of his adversary and left behind an ugly wound. His forte was his power of handling facts; he took few notes during a trial and yet in summing up a case which had been on trial for several days, he could repeat to the jury practically in the words of each witness what he had said on the leading points in the case. He was essentially a home man; he disliked to go from home to attend to lawsuits. He never held office and was never a candidate; he had no desire to hold office; he said that an officeholder was under obligation to every one-gallus fellow in the district and he was a free man.

He was liberal in helping others and he did no kindnesses on the housetop; but followed literally the injunction, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth. He said he wished to give what he had for people in his lifetime and see their eyes shine, not leave them a legacy to be received after he was dead. He would never prosecute; though he defended many charged with crime, no fee could induce him to take the other side. ... Mr. Wilson ... looked upon a legal trial from the human side and his greatest skill was in unraveling the twisted chain of testimony and developing what was apparently the truth from the circumstances established. ... Mr. Wilson stayed in his office as little as possible, he was interested in folks rather than books. He had great power of ridicule and he spared nothing that stood in his way. ... With the multiplication of books and the tendency now of the bar to develop mere case lawyers, the old order of lawyers like Mr. Wilson is more seldom seen; but "as long as the heart has passions, as long as life has woes," the lawyer who knows mankind better than any of his fellows, will always be in demand in that smelting pot of the blind Goddess we revere-a jury trial.

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William Wilson married Henrietta Oldham on 27 May 1847, and they were living in Shepherdsville in the 1850 census with a son, Henry Turner Wilson, age 2, and Mary E. Wilson, just born.

Henrietta Oldham Wilson died in October 1852, and her daughter Mary E. Wilson died the next year. Both are buried in the cemetery in Shepherdsville.

William Wilson next married Julia Neill on 15 Jun 1853 in Bullitt County. They had a daughter named Mary Henrietta Wilson, born 1 Jun 1854, but she died on 28 Aug 1858 and was buried in the old Shepherd graveyard, as Julia was a granddaughter of Adam Shepherd.

William, Julia and young Turner Wilson were living in Shepherdsville in the 1860 census, but soon moved to Elizabethtown where William practiced law for the rest of his life.

He died from injuries sustained in an encounter with a vicious bull according to newspaper reports.

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