Biographical Cyclopedia of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, Compiled and
Published by the John M. Gresham Company, Chicago--Philadelphia, 1896, pp
4-5 [Fayette Co]

MILTON JAMISON DURHAM, cashier of the Central Bank of Lexington, ex-Judge of
the Circuit Court, ex-member of Congress, ex-Comptroller of the United States
Treasury, etc., son of Benjamin and Margaret (Robinson) Durham, was born in
Boyle (then a part of Mercer) County, Kentucky, May 16, 1824.  He was
brought up on his father's farm, and at the age of nineteen entered Asbury
University, Greencastle, Indiana, from which institution he graduated in
1844, when Bishop Simpson was its president.  He taught school at Perryville
a short time and read law with the late Joshua F. Bell of Danville; attended
the Louisville Law School and was graduated in March, 1850; located the same
year in Danville, which was the principal scene of his labors and of a
remarkably successful career until his removal to Lexington in 1890.
     In 1861 and the year following he was circuit Judge of his district by
appointment of Governor Magoffin; in 1872 he was elected to Congress by the
Democratic party; was re-elected in 1874 and again in 1876, representing the
Eighth Congressional District.  While in Congress he served on many
important committees, including Banking and Currency, Coinage, Weights and
Measures, Expenditures in the Department of Justice; Chairman of the
Committee on Revision of Law, and the Committee on Appropriations.  In 1885
he was appointed First Comptroller of the United State Treasury by President
Cleveland, and held that office until April 1889.
     In 1890, Judge Durham's health being greatly impaired by a serious
attack of La Grippe, his physician advised him to abandon his law practice,
and following this advice, he sought another field and assisted in
organizing the Central Bank of Lexington, with a capital of 200,000[sic],
and was elected Cashier of the bank, in which position he has demonstrated
his ability as a financier. He is also treasurer of the Blue Grass Building
and Loan Association, one of the strongest organizations of the kind in the
State.

[Photo:  Hon. M. J. DURHAM.]

     From 1872 to 1876 he was Grand Sire of the Grand Lodge, I.O.O.F., of
the United States.
     Judge Durham is widely known throughout the state and country as an
active, energetic business man, and for many years as a distinguished member
of the Democratic party, while in his present sphere of action, he is
universally recognized as a zealous friend of every effort for the elevation
of the masses, especially the laboring community, and a willing helper in
every good work; an honest and upright business man, and, what is more rare,
an honest politician; has always taken an active and prominent part in
politics, and in every relation in life, public and private, he has been
noted for his uniform kindness and consideration for others.  Few men have
more staunch friends or enthusiastic admirers than Judge Durham.
     His history is an example of the possibilities, under the operation of
our free institutions, that are offered to rising young men, who, with
native talent, honorable purpose and industry, may surmount all difficulties
and attain success and honor without the patronage of the influential or the
arts of the demagogue.  He is strictly a temperance man, having never taken
a dram of spirituous liquors in his life, and never treated any person to
liquor in any of his canvasses or at any other time.
     Judge Durham was married in 1850 to Martha J. Mitchell, daughter of
Judge James P. Mitchell of Boyle County.  She died in 1879, leaving four
sons and one daughter:  Louis H., deceased; Benjamin J., James Wesley,
Robert M. and Ora B., who married Albert Morris of Louisville.
     He was again married in 1886 to Mrs. Margaret Letcher Carter, daughter
of the late Dr. Samuel M. Letcher of Lexington.
     Judge Durham is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church (South), as
were all of his forefathers since their settlement in this country.
     Benjamin Durham (father) was a native of the patriotic County of
Mechlenburg [sic], Va., which, in the days of the great struggle for American
independence, furnished six hundred men to serve in the siege and capture of
Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, October 19, 1781.  He removed to Kentucky with
his father when four years of age, and settled in what is now Boyle County
in 1782, and made his home there until the day of his death, in 1847, at the
age of sixty-nine years.  He was a blacksmith and a farmer, and was highly
esteemed by his neighbors.  He was a class leader in the Methodist Church,
and was known as a man of correct business principles, whose daily life was
the best evidence of the sincerity of his religious profession.  His aim in
life was to do all the good in his power for his friends and neighbors.  He
had no ambition to be great and the simplicity of his life was the source of
his strength and true greatness.  He was a believer in and a faithful
advocate of the Jeffersonian democracy, but was not an office-seeker.
     John Durham (grandfather), who removed from Mechlenburg County,
Virginia, to Kentucky in 1782, organized the first Methodist Church west of
Alleghany Mountains, which was located seven miles from Danville.  Humility
was the distinguishing trait of his character; and if at any time he brought
himself into prominence it was by an attempt to accomplish some good work.
He was through life an honest and upright man.  He was a farmer and a most
excellent neighbor, who left his impress upon the community in which he
lived.  He died at the age of seventy-six years.
     The Durham family was originally from England, and settled in Virginia
about the close of the Seventeenth Century.
     Margaret Robinson Durham (mother) was born in Virginia in 1776, and
died in Boyle County, Kentucky, in 1854.  She was a true and consistent
member of the Methodist Church.
     Jacob Robinson (maternal grandfather) was also a native of Virginia,
most of whose useful and exemplary life was spent in Boyle County, where he
died.  The Robinsons are of English and Scotch descent, and were noted for
their energy and thrift.

Bell Carter Cleveland Letcher Mitchell Morris Robinson
=
Boyle-KY Mercer-KY IN PA Mecklenburg-VA England

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