WILLIAM A. JAMES, of Caldwell County, Ky., is a native of Union County, Ky., and was born August 6, 1821. His father, Judge Thomas James, was born in Virginia in 1796, and came with his parents to Kentucky in about 1800, settling first in Logan County. The family moved a few years later to Union County, then to Hickman County, Ky., where Mr. James afterward became noted as a public spirited citizen and politician. He represented Hickman County in the lower house of the legislature for a period of eight years, and afterward served in the State senate for sixteen years, representing the First Senatorial District. He was a member of the constitutional convention of 1849, beside filling several other positions of trust, and died in 1870, aged seventy-four years. Subject's mother, Judith (Finney) James, died in 1856 at the age of fifty-six years. Mr. and Mrs. James were the parents of five children, William A. being the second. Subject remained with his parents until reaching his fourteenth year, when he started out in life for himself, engaging first as a clerk in a mercantile house at Charlotte, Tenn., continuing until he reached his majority, when he effected a copartnership with the proprietor, which was kept up for nineteen or twenty years. In 1857 he went to Nashville, Tenn., and engaged in the coal trade, which he carried on quite extensively until the breaking out of the war. For eighteen months following his coal trade he was engaged in steamboating. In November, 1864, he went to Cincinnati, Ohio, and went into the wholesale boot and shoe business, which he carried on for two years. In November, 1868, he came to Princeton, Ky., and opened a dry goods store, which he carried on until 1884, at which time he disposed of his business and retired from active life. For forty-nine years Mr. James has been a prominent business man, and during that long period he has sustained the reputation of being strictly honest and liberal in all his dealings. By successful management he has been enabled to accumulate a handsome competency for his declining years. Mr. James was first married in April, 1846, to Miss Mary J., daughter of John C. and Mary Collier, of Charlotte, Tenn. To this union were born the following children: Frances E., deceased; Sallie B., deceased; Mary, deceased; Belle, deceased; Henry, deceased; Judith E.; John T. and Willie A. Mrs. James died September 14, 1870, aged forty-six years. In April, 1872, Mr. James married Mrs. M. M. Reed, daughter of William and Susan Walker, of Covington, Ky. Mr. James belongs to the Masonic fraternity, and he and his wife are active members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.
Source: J. H. Battle, W. H. Perrin, & G. C. Kniffin. Kentucky. A History of the State. Louisville, KY, Chicago, IL: Battey, 1885. Pages 702-703.