HISTORY OF KENTUCKY AND KENTUCKIANS, E. Polk Johnson, three volumes, Lewis
Publishing Co., New York & Chicago, 1912. Common version, 
Vol. III, pp. 1296-97.   [Montgomery County]

WILLIAM HENRY CORD--In the death of William Henry Cord not only the
community in which his interests were centered but the entire state of
Kentucky lost a splendid citizen of the truest type, an educator of the
most enlightened character, and the Christian church, of which he was a
presiding elder and an ordained minister, one of its pillars. Born in Mason
county November 6, 1864, on April 10, 1910, when in the prime of life, he
"Gave His body to the pleasant country's earth, And his pure soul unto his
captain, Christ, Under whose colors he had fought so long."
     The parents of William Henry Cord were both Kentuckians and both
father and mother were of Fleming county, the names of these worthy
citizens being Henry Thomas and Susan (Bently) Cord.  When the subject was
a young lad they removed to Mason county and secured a farm, and it was
amid rural scenes that his youth was passed.  Upon a foundation consisting
of knowledge and discipline to be obtained in the district schools he
erected a superstructure of higher education and in 1881 was graduated with
the degree of bachelor of arts from the Kentucky Classical and Business
College of Louisville, Kentucky.  After teaching for two years in the
county schools he received the degree of A.M. from Hiram College at Hiram,
Ohio. He then started a school at May's Lick and devoted his energies to
its instruction for a time.  In 1887 he accepted a position as bookkeeper
at Owington and in 1890 removed to Hazelgreen, Wolfe county, Kentucky,
where he assumed charge of a mission school conducted by the Christian
Women's Board of Missions of the Christian church.  This school, which
began its existence with eleven pupils, through his good judgment and
unflagging zeal eventually became one of the best schools in the state.
     In 1906 Mr. Cord came to Mt. Sterling and established a school to
which he gave the title, Collegiate Institute, this opening with
sixty-eight pupils.  The new and modern building which housed it was
completed in September, 1909, but he lived to enjoy its advantages only a
few months.  For years he had been an elder in the Christian church and
in 1890 he was ordained and during his residence at Hazelgreen preached in
connection with his school work.  His charges were Camargo and Somerset
churches, and he discoursed before Somerset congregations on Sundays and
before Camargo church on the afternoons on alternate Sundays.  One of the
fields in which has influence was most potently known was in Sunday-school
work, in which he took a heart-felt interest, and he was president of the
Sunday-school Association of this district.
     A man of large physical presence and splendid physique, his strength
was great and he had never been ill in his life, so that his dropping dead
in the school room was an even greater shock to his many devoted friends
than it might otherwise have been.  He was a prodigious worker of the type
who never give to themselves a spare moment and he literally worked
himself to death. His death cost the community one of its best educators
and honored Christian citizens, but his memory will remain green for
many a day.
     On June 15, 1887, Mr. Cord laid the foundation of an ideally happy
married life by his union with Edith Ireland, born September 5, 1866, at
Bainbridge, Indiana.  She is the daughter of Thomas A. and Susan (Black)
Ireland, the father born in Owen county, Kentucky, February 26, 1826, and
died in 1888, and the mother born in Bourbon county in 1835.  She
survives and makes her home with Mrs. Cord.  Mr. and Mrs. Ireland united
their hands and fortunes in marriage in the year 1852.  In February, 1846,
the father enlisted at Georgetown, Kentucky, and served as a cavalryman
during the Mexican war.  Less than a decade later when the question which
had been debated on thousands of platforms, which had been discussed in
countless publications, which thundered from innumerable pulpits, and
caused in their congregations the bitter strife and dissension to which
only cases of conscience can give rise, was about to be settled in the
life and death conflict upon the battlefield he enlisted in a company in
the Confederate service and was made captain, the company being a part of
Humphrey Marshall's command.  He was captured near Nashville, Tennessee,
put in prison for a while and then taken to Louisville, where for fourteen
months he was incarcerated at Camp Chase.  He was ill and in generally
serious condition of health and his brave and faithful wife journeyed to
Washington, D. C., where she obtained a personal interview with President
Lincoln and a pardon for him.  With this she returned to Louisville,
secured her husband's release and took him to her former home in Indiana,
where he recovered his health.  They subsequently return to Owington.
Mrs.Ireland, as said before, still lives to tell of her meeting with
"Father Abraham" whom she adores and venerates beyond all other heroes.
For eight years previous to the Civil war Mr. Ireland was sheriff of Owen
county and for twenty-four years was county clerk.
     Mrs. Cord was educated at North Middletown, Kentucky, and spent one
year at North Traverse, Missouri.  She proved a helpmeet to her husband in
no uncertain sense and from 1890 to 1899 assisted him in the school at
Hazelgreen, teaching music among other things.  They became the parents of
three children, all sons, whose names are Robert, Raymond and William.
     Robert Cord, the eldest son, was born June 9, 1888, at Owington,
Kentucky, and received his education under the tutelage of his father. He
graduated at Hazelgreen when sixteen years of age and then matriculated
at the Transylvania University at Lexington and was graduated.  He taught
at Mt. Sterling and was principal of the city schools at the time of his
father's death.  Upon that sad event he also assumed the responsibilities
of his father's place and conducted both until the close of the school
year.  He has now permanently taken up his father's work where it was left
and expects and hopes to carry on the work as it was started, his character
and ability making this indeed fortunate for all concerned.

Cord Bently Ireland Black
=
Mason-KY Fleming-KY Hazel_Green-Wolfe-KY Owenton-Owen-KY
Bourbon-KY MO IN

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/montgomery/cord.wh.txt