Submitted by Sheila Watson
The following article appeared The Flemingsburg Democrat on
April 4, 1878.
Biographical Sketches
Of
Old and Young Men of Prominence
---Identified with---
The History of Fleming County
William Derrick Foudray was born in the city of Philiadelphia on
the 18th of November 1792. He was the third in a family of seven children. His
father Samuel Foudray, a hatter by trade, born in Wilmington, Delaware, was of
French decent, and married Nancy Wood, the mother-of-William, in the city where
he was born. She came of an old English family and was born in Philiadelphia,
never being outside the city limits until nearly thirty years old. Thus our
subject is of French-English origin, and his paternal ancestors are reported to
be extremely wealthy at the present day, being numbered among the first families
of France. When he was a mere child the FOUDRAY family took leave of the city of
brotherly love and located near the eastern shore of Maryland. Their next place
of residence was near the city of Baltimore, where William, though but little
over six years old, distinctly remembers the tolling of the bells that announced
the death of General Washington during whose administration he was born. From
Baltimore his parents returned once more to eastern Maryland, but soon afterward
emigrating to Fleming County, Kentucky, and settled about one mile south of the
present town of Poplar Plains. This was about the year 1806, and the history of
William Foudray has been a part of the unwritten history of Fleming County from
that day to this.
When the second War with Great Britain was declared, Mr. Foudray, then a young
man, scarcely more than nineteen years old, was among the first to enlist, which
he did in CAPTAIN JOHN HUNT'S COMPANY, Kentucky Militia. For several months
these troops, at the opening of the war was stationed on a branch of the Miami
River, in the, then, Territory of Indiana. From some cause or other, during this
time, they were never called into active service.
Returning from the war, within a few days of his twenty-first birthday, he was
united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Williams, six months younger than himself,
with whom he lived over thirty years, or until her death, March 18, 1844. The
result of this union was ten children, eight boys and two girls. Beginning with
the eldest, John Williams, who now resides in Cincinnati, Ohio, or one of the
suburbs of that city; Samuel Wood, died a few years ago in Missouri; Sabray Ann,
married David R. Hedges, died two years ago in Mason County, Ky.; Elbert Downs,
while a young man left Charleston, West Virginia, where he had been
merchandising, and went to San Francisco, California, to continue his business
during the gold excitement there. Fortune smiled and ere long he bid farewell to
the Golden shores of the newly discovered Eldorado, and set sail for other
lands, intending to travel over the world. But on the voyage to Southern Africa
the vessel on which he took passage was wrecked, off the barren coast of South
America, in doubling Cape Horn. The few survivors of the ill-fated steamer were
picked up by a vessel bound for New York. Having lost everything excepting his
life, Elbert D. Foudray returned to the Pacific coast, and when last heard from
was sheriff of a county in Oregon; Addison Monroe, now living ----line
missing------Herndon, Missouri; Jackson Lafayette, farming, at present near
Sherburne, Ky.; Jefferson, now living in Western Illinois, was a soldier in the
war with Mexico; William Washington, also in the Mexican war, enlisted in
company with his brother Jeff, in CAPTAIN COX'S volunteers, Flemingsburg, Ky.,
and died in service, City of Mexico; Oscar, drowned some years ago in Missouri
by a team plunging, terribly frightened, into a stream in that State. He and a
little son perished at the same time; Amanda, married Joseph Gillspie, died in
Lewis County five years ago; Thomas Pleasant, a soldier in the late civil war,
now living, a carpenter by trade, in Missouri.
Mr. Foudray has been married three times, and is the father of fourteen
children, ten by his first and four by his third and last marriage. His second
marriage was in 1845, to Mrs. Elizabeth Walton, nee, Miss Fawns, widow of Mark
Walton. With her he lived until her death two years thereafter. In 1847 he was
married to Miss Elizabeth Davis, his present companion, and mother of his four
youngest children. The two eldest of whom Milton Wallace and Helen, were twins,
the former now living, a farmer in Mason County, Ky. The latter died in early
childhood. The next Gustavus Adolphus, also lives in Mason County, and is a
farmer; Monteville, the youngest of his large family is now twenty-five years
old, and lives with and cares for his aged father and mother at their homestead
one and a quarter miles east of Hillsboro.
Resuming the personal narrative of Mr. Foudray, about the year 1829 he
purchased, for a mere pittance, ten acres of land, four miles south of his
father's home. He built a cabin on this tract, into which he moved with his
growing family. This, nearly sixty years ago, was the first house ever erected
on the site of the present town of Hillsboro, which for many years bore the name
Foudraysburg, in honor of its founder. On this ten acres, now covered by the
town of Hillsboro, his next step was to erect a hatter's shop, and, following in
the footsteps of his father, began the manufacture of hats, after having
traveled considerable as a journey man workman, during which time he learned his
trade. At that day this was among the most remunerative employments in which the
laboring class could engage; and continued to be so, until as he, himself says.
"In later years the large city manufactories coming into competition
severely crippled our business, and losing one shop after another by two
successive fires they were never rebuilt, and the hatters trade in Foudraysburg
came to an end." After disposing of the available effects, and good will of
the business to his two brothers, who continued it for some years at Wyoming,
Ky., and other points, he engaged in farming on Fox creek, in this, Fleming
County. Since then up to the present time he has pursued this occupation, always
living on a farm, in close proximity to the village, which he ushered into
existence, and has watched in its growth and progress for nearly sixty years.
The log cabin of 1820 was followed by the erection of a building by Mr. Foudray
of a much more pretentious size, indeed, one that was considered a grand house
for those days, being two stories high and containing several rooms. This had a
store connected with it, the first ever in Hillsboro, stood at what is now the
South-East corner of Main and Main Cross streets, occupied, at present, by the
dry-goods establishment of D.S. Barksdale & Son. At the corner of the street
for many years stood an old hickory tree, upon which the proprietor of the first
store nailed his sign. This tree became such a prominent feature of the infant
hamlet that it was named "Jackson" in honor of "Old
Hickory," and was called that ever afterwards. A short distance in the rear
of the present building stood the old hatters shop, burned in Hillsboro's first
fire, 1825. This shop was rebuilt by Mr. Foudray, but about a mile out of town
near his present house, and within one year shared the fate of its predecessor.
Nearly fifty years had passed away when it is a fact worthy of note, that the
corner, where the first hatters shop stood, was the only one that escaped
destruction by another conflagration, which swept away every other prominent
business house in Hillsboro, taking one from each of the other three corner,
besides one farther up Main street. The store of Barksdale & Son alone being
saved though badly scorched, from the disastrous fire of 1874.
The hats made by Mr. Foudray were far more durable than any of the common hats
of the present day, and would last almost a life time. Doubtless some of them
are yet in existence, for a few years ago the writer, then a mere child,
remembers----line missing---
same hats by the junior member of the above mentioned firm, with the view of
being made the recipient of a new one, when two of the old Foudray hats, which
had been stored away in an old case for years, were produced. They were of such
immense size as to cover the boys, big as his head was, eyes, ears and all down
to his shoulders. Not being old enough to appreciate the value of such old
relicts he very decidedly refused to accept one of them as a gift. Some time
afterward those old hats disappeared, no one knew where, but it may be possible
they yet cover the cranium of some human form.
Mr. Foudray enjoyed very little of the limited educational advantages of his
early life. Only a very few days of his boyhood being spent at school, yet he
grew up to be a remarkable well informed man, with a knowledge as varied,
perhaps, as that of any man now living in Fleming county. "Some people are
fools enough," said he during the writer's interview, " to think, if
they want to now anything they must come to me for information." He is far
from boastful, but in a modest communicative manner continued, "Nearly
everything that I know has come to me through books, which I have read with
eager interest ever since childhood or since I could distinguish one word from
another. This inborn love of reading seems yet to be his chief characteristic,
as he continues the perusal of books with unabated attention. For want of space
his religious views will not be given in the present sketch, suffice it to say
in his own words, "I have never been a member of any church and never
intend to be, but," placing his hand on the Sacred volume lying on a table
near him, "I suppose I have read that book about as much as any body. I
have read it through this winter after doing the same many times before."
To his grandson, a young music teacher, now in St. Louis, Mo., who visited him
some months ago, he said with apparent deep feeling, "I am a stranger in my
own land. All the friends of my youth have passed away. My children,
grand-children, and great-grand children have found homes scattered here and
there in different States, and many of them have gone to another world. I alone
am left, soon to follow the companions of my childhood. Were it not for my books
and that I am able to read them this world would afford no pleasure for me, and
I would care not how soon I am taken away." Thus he finds companions in
books, and when other sources of reading matter are exhausted he turns again to
his Bible, which still retains the freshness that it did in his youth.
In appearance this aged father is about the ordinary size, weighing perhaps one
hundred and fifty pounds, and quite hale for one so old. He often goes to
Hillsboro, riding in the winter season, and walking in the summer, which he says
he intends to do again when that season comes if permitted to live till then.
Since the writers interview he went to town and cast his vote in the election
for criminal judge. Once a year he goes and receives the pension of ninety-six
dollars per year, allowed him by the government in whose service he was more
than sixty years ago. His full face and tolerably-well preserved teeth would
give him a much more youthful appearance were it not for the luxuriant gray
hairs that hang closely about his shoulders, covering his entire head. This
together with an abundant beard of snowy whiteness appears more in conformity
with his age, and gives him a most venerable appearance. With a memory rapidly
failing, and a defective hearing, his eyesight remains exceptionally good.
William Derrick Foudray has survived his generation. His life has been prolonged
beyond the average of human existence, and now his long and eventful pilgrimage,
through varying seasons of prosperity and adversity is drawing to a close.
Bending beneath the storms of eighty-seven winters, that have left their silvery
crown of whitened locks upon his furrowed brow he stands ready to go when it
pleased the great Veteran of Heaven to call him to that unseen world where
trials and tribulations have an end.