Quintus Quincy Quigley
Colonel Quintus Quincy Quigley (July 17, 1828 – December 19, 1910) was a lawyer in Kentucky and founder of the city of Paducah. He kept a journal for nearly fifty years which has since been published as The Life and Times of Quintus Quincy Quigley. His house "Angles" was subsequently owned by US Vice President Alben W. Barkley and is still standing as of 2024.
Biography
[edit]He was born to James and Martha Quigley in Paris, Tennessee, on July 17, 1828, and grew up in Milburn, Kentucky.[1][2] He was educated at Cumberland College and studied law under Judge Crockett in Paducah, Kentucky, starting in 1848 and being admitted to the bar in 1850.[3][4]
He practised as an attorney in Ballard and McCracken counties.[1] He was instrumental in establishing Paducah as a city, serving on its board of trustees and framing the charter which incorporated it in 1856. He became the first city attorney for Paducah. He formed a law firm, Quigley and Quigley, with his son Isaac who was also a lawyer and who became Chief Justice of the Kentucky Court of Appeals.[5] They represented the Illinois Central Railroad for some time.[6] Isaac died before him, and Quintus then stopped practising law and retired to the country.[6][2]
In 1868, he built the house "Angles", named after the sharp angles of its three tracts of land.[7] The land cost $1,000 which had been allocated to buy a ring for his wife Mary.[8] They could not find a ring she liked in Chicago, but they fell in love with the farmland and so bought it with the money instead.[8] Construction of the house then cost $8,000 more which caused some financial difficulty.[9] The house was subsequently owned by Vice President Alben W. Barkley, who lived there from 1937 through 1956.[7] Its address is now 540 Alben Barkley Drive, Paducah KY 42001 (37°3.628′N 88°38.856′W / 37.060467°N 88.647600°W). A historical marker sign was placed at the entrance in 1964. This describes the house as a "good example of Greek Revival architecture". [7]
He kept a detailed journal from 1859 to 1908. This was handwritten but was transcribed and published in a limited edition in 2000 as The Life and Times of Quintus Quincy Quigley.[10][11] He and his wife had six children. One child died in infancy and the others were Bruce, Isaac, Quintus, John and Mary Quintina who was known as "Ina".[7][10] In his final years, he wintered with his daughter in Paducah, where he died from a congestive chill on December 19, 1910.[4] His household kept slaves and census returns show that there were twelve in 1850 and four in 1860.[7]
References
[edit]- ^ a b Quintus Quincy Quigley, Kentucky Historical Society
- ^ a b The Life and Times of Quintus Quincy Quigley – McCracken County, December 7, 2019
- ^ Mrs Julian M. Carroll (July 19, 1976), The Angles (Quigley-Barkley House), National Park Service
- ^ a b "Col. Q. Q. Quigley Dean of Paducah Bar Passes Away", Paducah Evening Sun, December 19, 1910
- ^ Justices of Kentucky's Highest Court: The Court of Appeals (1792-1975) & Supreme Court (1976-present), Louis D. Brandeis School of Law Library
- ^ a b "Aged Lawyer Dies – Col. Q. Q. Quigley Passes Away at Paducah", Hopkinsville Kentuckian, December 22, 1910
- ^ a b c d e Angles, Kentucky Historical Society
- ^ a b "Together again", The Paducah Sun, p. 48, June 26, 1988
- ^ "Family celebrates memories at Angles after 50 years away", The Paducah Sun, p. 58, June 26, 1988
- ^ a b Quintus Quincy Quigley (1999), George Quigley Langstaff (ed.), The Life and Times of Quintus Quincy Quigley 1828-1910: His Personal Journal 1859-1908, Paducah Area Community Foundation, ISBN 9780970288615
- ^ Leigh Landini (January 24, 2000), "This is the real life journal of Quintus Quincy Quigley", The Paducah Sun
Further reading
[edit]- Levin, H. (1897), The Lawyers and Lawmakers of Kentucky, Chicago: Lewis Publishing, pp. 407–408, 421–422