Ashland Daily Independent obituary & articles, death of Charles Kitchen.

Ashland Daily Independent

Thursday, August 30, 1923

Front Page Headline: Charles Kitchen, President of Second National Bank, Dies

AGED CAPITALIST PASSES AWAY AT HUNTINGTON HOME

Banks Close In Respect For Pioneer Citizen

Charles Kitchen, 78 years old, president of the Second National Bank, and one of Eastern Kentucky's best known men, died at his home in Huntington, 525 Sixth Avenue, at 4:30 a.m. this morning and in the presence of his immediate family.

Mr. Kitchen had been in declining health for several months, but had kept up his daily visits to his office here until a few weeks ago. Two years ago he suffered a fall on an icy porch and his hip was broken. It was feared that he would never recover from the shock but his unusual vitality prolonged his life. He had been ill in his recent sickness about two weeks.

The funeral will be conducted at the First Methodist Episcopal Church South, Thirteenth Street and Winchester Avenue, Ashland, at 2:30 o'clock Saturday afternoon.

The funeral sermon will be preached by the Rev. John B. Jenkins, pastor of the Johnson Memorial Church of Huntington.

The body will be brought to Ashland to lie in state at the church from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Saturday, so that his many friends who want to see their departed comrade for the last time may do so. After the funeral the body will be placed in the Vansant vault at the Ashland cemetery to remain there until a suitable mausoleum can be built.

The Second National Bank will be closed at noon on Saturday while the Ashland National and the Third National banks will close their doors at 2:30 o'clock, the hour of the funeral out of respect for the memory of Mr. Kitchen.

The news of Mr. Kitchen's passing away this morning caused profound sorrow throughout the city where he had been known for many, many years. Scores of friends and acquaintances telephoned their sympathy to the family and offered their condolences.

Mr. Kitchen was born on a farm in Carter County, Kentucky, four miles from Willard, on January 28, 1845. He was the son of Andrew J. and Winnie (Bays) Kitchen. Andrew J. Kitchen, his father, was a native of Greenbriar County, W.Va., was of English ancestry, while his wife (Mr. Kitchen's mother) was born in Scott County, Va., and was of Scotch-Irish descent.

Andrew Kitchen, the grandfather of Charles Kitchen, was a native of Greenbriar County, W.Va., but left there about 1830 and brought his family to Kentucky, locating on a farm in Carter County, near Willard, becoming a successful agriculturalist and remaining in that business the rest of his life. He became an extensive farmer raising large quantities of corn which found ready market in that section. Soon after coming to Kentucky he was elected to the legislature and served one term being a leading Democrat. He had served in the War of 1812 in a Virginia regiment, and was known thereafter as Major Kitchen.

Andrew Kitchen, the father of the late Charles Kitchen, was reared in Carter County and was also a farmer. He died at the age of seventy-four years. He filled many important positions in the state and county. His widow survived him for many years. .She was the mother of ten children, Charles being second in order of birth.

Charles Kitchen, whom this section today mourns, was reared on a farm in Carter County and early in life was disciplined to the task of hard work in the mountains of Kentucky. He was a young man when the Civil War broke out and in that strenuous period, educational advantages were almost at a standstill, and Charles Kitchen was unable to attend school for only a few weeks out of each year. However, he had a wonderful mind and learned in the school of experience. He was at the home place until a young man, and in the fall of 1865 engaged in the merchandise business for himself near Leon, then known as Deer Creek Postoffice, the postoffice being in his store. Mr. Kitchen was postmaster for many years. Later he bought a farm of two hundred acres from his grandfather on which a store was located. He continued farming and merchandising for many years and during that time bought more land adjoining, having 1200 acres in one piece besides large holdings in other places. He enjoyed farming and all phases of country life. He continued to increase his holdings and at one time owned 2000 acres of land. In 1880, Mr. Kitchen engaged in the lumber and sawmill business, building a mill at Leon by the banks of Little Sandy River, buying logs in Elliott County and floating them to the mill. He has been in this line of manufacturing lumber ever since and is recognized as a leader in the lumber business in Kentucky, his business having increased to enormous proportions.

In 1895 he became interested in lumber manufacturing at Ashland and engaged in the lumber business under the firm name of Vansant-Kitchen & Co. They bought the poplar timber on 27,000 acres of timberland in Breathitt County and it was shipped by trainloads to Ashland.

Mr. Kitchen helped organize the Second National Bank here and has been director from the first and was president at the time of his death, owning the handsome Kitchen building in which the bank is located. He has large business holdings in many places but such was his energy and the cognizance of a fact that a man to prosper must attend presumably to his affairs that he supervised his various interests as long as he lived. In politics, Mr. Kitchen was a Democrat. At the time of his election on the State Board of Education by vote of the people he was elected from the congressional district and served one term of two years. During the early days of Carter County being always interested in public affairs and the good of a community he was elected and served as the school superintendent of that county. Mr. Kitchen was a member of the Masonic order allied with the Blue Lodge of Grayson and with the Royal Arch Chapter and the Commandery and the Knights Templar of Ashland.

In February of 1866, he was united in marriage to Loretta King, a woman of high Christian character and a native of Carter County. To this union ten children were born. The following survive him, all of whom are grown to useful manhood and womanhood, and an honor to their parents. They are: James H. Kitchen, Mrs. Marion Clevenger, Mrs. Giles Wright, Mrs. Ephriam Saulisbury of Fayette, Tenn., John W. Kitchen, Mrs. James King. Mrs. Will King,, Mrs. Charlotte Florence Kitchen and Charles J., Junior. These children were all reared in pleasant entertainments, having advantage of the best education and enjoying the luxuries of life. Mr. Kitchen and family were all members of the Methodist Episcopal Church South.

His first wife died in 1904 and a few years later he was married again. His second wife and their children, Harold and Andrew, survive him. They live in Huntington.

He is also survived by the following brothers: James, Marion and John, all of Carter County, Mrs. Jas. Mobley and Mrs. George Vincent of Carter County.

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Ashland Daily Independent

Friday, August 31, 1923

Page One

ASSOCIATES TO BE PALLBEARERS FOR KITCHEN FUNERAL

Veteran Lumberman To Be Buried Here

Honorary pallbearers for the funeral of the late Charles Kitchen, 78, pioneer and wealthy Eastern Kentucky lumberman, and president of the Second National Bank, who died at his home in Huntington early yesterday morning, will be Mayor William Salisbury, D.J. Raft, Charles F. Weaver, L.N. Davis, J.B. King, B.B. Fannin and T.S. Kitchen.

The active pallbearers will be W.R. VanSant, Campbell VanSant, S.L. Kitchen, Guy Fannin, George Ballard and Henry Shanklin. The funeral, as announced in yesterday's Independent, will be held at the First Methodist Episcopal Church South, at 2:30 o'clock tomorrow afternoon. The body will later be placed in the VanSant vault at the Ashland cemetery to remain until a mausoleum is erected for Mr. Kitchen.

The body will be brought direct from the home in Huntington to the church here at 11:00 a.m. tomorrow. It will remain in state at the church until 1:30 o'clock, when the coffin will be closed in preparation for the funeral. Friends who want to view the body may do so between 11:00 and 1:30.

The Second National Bank, of which Mr. Kitchen was a director since its organization and in later years its president, will close its doors at noon tomorrow. The other banks of the city, the Ashland National and the Third National, will close their doors for the day at 2:30, the hour of the funeral.

The Rev. John S. Jenkins, pastor of the Johnson Memorial Church at Huntington, will conduct the services at the South Methodist Church here. Special music will be provided by the Rotary Quarter, composed of Nelson Weedon, John S. Hager, Charles McIntosh and Harry Moore. They will sing two of Mr. Kitchen's favorite hymns.

Mr. Kitchen's death was the cause of general grief throughout Eastern Kentucky where he was born and lived his whole life. He had literally thousands of friends who mourn his passing.

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Ashland Daily Independent

Saturday, September 1, 1923

HUNDREDS ATTEND LAST RITES FOR CHARLES KITCHEN

Funeral Held At Home Saturday Afternoon

Throngs of people from every section of eastern Kentucky and the tri-state region composed the body of human beings who attended today the last rites of Charles Kitchen, 78 years old, wealthy lumberman of eastern Kentucky and president of the Second National Bank of Ashland, who died at his home in Huntington early Thursday morning after a lingering illness.

For the past forty years Mr. Kitchen had been one of the leading figures in Eastern Kentucky's industrial and financial business. He was identified in some of this section's greatest and most powerful enterprises.

Mr. Kitchen was born and reared in the eastern section of this state where he probably had more friends than any other man in this section.

The doors of the Second National Bank and the First and Third National Banks were closed yesterday at 2:30 p.m. at which time the funeral was held.

The funeral was held at the First Methodist Episcopal Church South yesterday by the Rev. John S. Jenkins who is the pastor of the Johnson Memorial Church at Huntington which church Mr. Kitchen attended in Huntington. The body was temporarily placed in the VanSant mausoleum pending the construction of a vault in the Ashland cemetery.

The honorary pall bearers at the funeral yesterday were Mayor William Salisbury, D.J. Taft, Charles F. Weaver, L.N. Davis, J.B. King, B.B, Fannin and T.S. Kitchen.

The active pall bearers were W.S. VanSant, Campbell VanSant, S.L. Kitchen, Guy Fannin and T.S. Kitchen.

Special music was provided by the Rotary Quartet which was composed of Nelson Weedon, John S. Hager, Charles McIntosh and Harry Moore.

Thank you,

Becky Fox

(Beckfox@aol.com)