Dr. Phillip Grable Trunnell

Dr. P. G. Trunnell was my great-grandfather and appears to have been a man of "strong opinions". I don't necessarily agree with him in all areas, but I hear that he was a good man. His wife, Hattie, was not interested in household duties or raising children and he took on most of those duties as well as running his medical practice.

Philip Grable Trunnell was the son of Henry Trunnell and Louisa Grable. He was the grandson of Dr. John Trunnell and Elizabeth Wells of Maryland and Philip Grable and Margaret Crawford of Pennsylvania, who were all early residents of Bullitt Co, KY. They were all in Bullitt County by approximately 1803. Philip was born February 28, 1846. When he was two years old his parents separated. His father Henry Trunnell married Mary Jane Field Bowman, the widow of Jacob Bowman. Louisa McDowell died in 1849 and Philip was raised by his step-mother Mary Jane Trunnell. They lived on a large farm that was located near the present-day location of Chapeze Road and Kool Springs Drive. There were many slaves to work the farm and help in the house. The children attended a school with the Chapeeze, Bowman and other children from the area. For several years they had ladies come from New York to teach at the school.

The farmhouse was large and filled with children. When the Civil War started Phil was only 14 years old, but loved to ride. He ran away from home with some other local boys and rode South to Bowling Green, KY where he lied about his age and joined the Confederate Cavalry. He stayed for the duration of the War until 1865. There is a lost photograph of him in his uniform holding his gun by his side. He eventually was a sharpshooter in General John Hunt Morgan's Cavalry Brigade.

After the close of hostilities Philip came to Louisville where he attended school. In 1872 he graduated from the University of Louisville and practiced medicine in Louisville for forty-one years. His wife said he put himself through Medical School by robbing graves. He did the first appendectomy in the area. Philip married Hattie Virginia Hatzell of Louisville in 1875. She was the daughter of William Henry “Billy” Hatzell and Margaret Ann Smith of Louisville. The Hatzell family were ardent supporters of the Confederate Cause. Billy had been crippled in a wagon accident as a young man and couldn’t fight. He had no sons , but near the end of the war he donated $30,000 to the cause and as a result was put in the Federal Prison in Louisville. Philip and Hattie had three children, Edna, George and Bradley. They divorced and he married Marguerite Weiss of Rhode Island about 1894.

He was elected a school trustee in Louisville. The following story was written about him in a Bullitt Co newspaper: “Hymie Cockrell started a little newspaper in Lebanon Junction once. He had a brother John who liked to sell liquors of all kinds. He frequently got in trouble with the law over it. One time he was selling a drink called Tonic which was pretty nippy. They had him up in court about it and the expert on liquor at that trial was Dr. Phil Trunnell. Dr Trunnell was said by some to be too good a judge of liquor, however; that may be. They asked him in court “Dr. Trunnell, is Tonicky intoxicating?” He swelled up importantly and gave out in rounded tones, “No Sir, Tonicky is not intoxicating, but; it is decidedly exhilarating”.

THE CAT AS AN ISSUE .............. Kentucky Candidate Would Get Into Legislature by Running Out Cats Louisville Courier-Journal, 23 July 1911

Dr. Trunnell, a candidate for the Kentucky legislature, advocates the extermination of cats as a salutary and sanitary measure, and makes cats the paramount issue in his campaign. As there is at present no law such as Dr. Trunnell would make to rid the country of cats he “takes the law into his own hands,” as the saying goes, and occupies himself with lynching such cats as he can reach. If he should be selected, and should wield sufficient influence among his colleagues, pussy would want a corner after the adjournment of the next session of the legislature, and would have to “go to the next neighbor” outside of the boundaries of Kentucky. Neither a corner nor a quarter would be given to her in this State. Cats constitute a local issue, together with flies, mosquitoes, municipal grafters, stock allowed to run at large, taxes, education, good roads, the speed of automobiles and the “toting” of deadly weapons. The issue is not confined, of course, to one State, but it is one to be dealt with locally. And local issues are the vital issues of State and City politics.

Dr. Trunnell evidently feels that Canadian reciprocity and the tariff in its broader aspects can, and must, be considered by the national law-making body, and that what a Kentucky legislator thinks about such matters is a matter of less importance than what he thinks about the pests of his country and State. A tariff wall between Canada and the United States breeds discontent, but cats breed disease; there are economical reasons by the score why we should not exclude a neighbor from our markets. But there are, according to Dr. Trunnell, bacteriological reasons why we should exclude the cat from the companionship of our sons and daughters. Protectionism is full of injustice to the ultimate consumer and full of graft for the manufacturer, but cats are full of pathogenic germs and the unlovely sin of ingratitude. Dr. Trunnell may rally many voters to his standard. The cat is not popular with men. Its habits of ripping the stillness of the night to shreds and driving Morpheus into interstellar space has caused many innuendos and household articles to be flung at it, and even in its quieter moods it has failed to make itself solid with the masculine half of the world.

But does not our hopeful aspirant for the honors and small emoluments of public service overlook the fact that as a man looking forward to a future in public life he errs in antagonizing feminine sentiment at a time when suffragettism is militant? May not the time come when the spinster vote will constitute the “balance of power” in his district, or in the State, if Dr. Trunnell is seeking for honors in a wider field? Is the candidate not toying with a live wire, teasing a hornet, tickling the teeth of a tiger, monkeying with a buzz saw or otherwise tempting the fates to do their durndest.

Said one of the poets:

“What will not woman, gentle woman dare,

When strong affection stirs her spirit up?”

“Beware of the dog” is a sign that most of us heed. “Beware of the cat” is good advice to a rising politician who hopes that his political life may be long in the land. The cat as an issue may prove in the long run to be heavily loaded and cat lynching is dangerous. .....................................................

WITH COMRADES

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Dr. Phillip G. Trunnell, Old Soldier, Plans Own Funeral

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Arrangements Made Before Death Yesterday

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Wanted to be Buried Beside Other Confederates

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WIDELY-KNOWN LOUISVILLIAN

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Dr. Phillip G. Trunnell, one of the youngest soldiers of the Confederacy, former School Trustee and prominent physician, is dead at his home at 914 South Fifteenth Street. Death occurred yesterday afternoon at 5 o’clock after a short illness of Bright’s disease. Six weeks ago on his sixty-sixth birthday anniversary Dr. Trunnell made all arrangements for his funeral and wrote a letter to Maj. John H. Leathers requesting that his body be allowed to rest with those of his comrades of the South in Cave Hill cemetery. Dr. Trunnell served throughout the entire Civil War in the famous Orphan Brigade. When he enlisted he was but slightly over 14 years of age and is said to have been the youngest soldier that Kentucky gave to the South, joining the Confederates in 1861

It was in the summer of 1861 that young Trunnell ran away from his father’s farm in Bullitt county and joined the Confederate forces near Bowling Green. He followed the flag of the “lost cause” throughout the conflict and after the close of hostilities came to Louisville where he attended school. In 1872 he graduated from the University of Louisville and had practiced medicine in Louisville for forty-one years. It was on the physician’s birthday anniversary, February 28, that he planned his funeral arrangements although he was apparently well and had been attending to his practice. He wrote to Maj. Leathers and to his friend Dr. George Simpson. Of Dr. Simpson he asked that his brother physicians see that his wishes were carried out.

Pallbearers Are Chosen ********* Fred Hatzel, Walter Hatzel, Joseph and Conrad Ploppert, young men at whose birth the physician officiated, are named among the active pallbearers. John Baird, dramatic editor of the Louisville Times, Dr. George Simpson and D. T. Smith also were named as pallbearers. A request that he be buried from the undertaking establishment of Lee Cralle, also was contained in the letter to Dr. Simpson. Besides his wife, who was Miss Margaret Weise, of Providence, R.I., Dr. Trunnell is survived by two half-brothers, Neal and Thomas Trunnell, of Bardstown Junction. The funeral, which will be carried out in accordance with the wishes of the physician, will be held to-morrow morning at 10:30 o’clock, and the burial will be in the Confederate lot in Cave Hill cemetery.

Johan and Emma Youngberg Family

Emma Youngberg and her children, Augusta (1891), Gina (1883) and Alfrida (1879). Her husband Johan died tragically of pneumonia in 1885 at age 30. Emma had her fourth child Frederick 8 months after her husband's death. The surviving family members had been exposed to TB by Johan's mother and eventually all died of it but Augusta. Emma owned a sucessful French laundry and fine sewing business and was able to support her family after Johan's death.

Augusta and Emma joined the LDS church in 1890 and emigrated to Salt Lake City, UT after the remaining family members had died of TB.

Johan Frederick Youngberg, born 1848 in Tunhem, Alvsborgs Lan, Sweden. He was an engineer on the world famous locks in Trollhatten, Sweden. He died at the age of 30.

Look Alike

L-R, My ggrandfather, Tom Rock, unidentified girl, my grandmother
Agnes Rock (Murray), my ggrandmother Ellen Harris Rock and Hilda Rock
(Lang). They are standing in the yard of their home in New Jersey
about 1915. Ellen died later this year of breast cancer. Hilda was
Agnes' younger sister. They both married during the next year, 1916,
Agnes was 26 and Hilda was only 16. I've always thought that I
looked like Agnes in this picture.

Henry and Mary Jane Trunnell

These photos of Henry and Mary Jane originally belonged to my grandfather, Bradley Trunnell.

Heber's ex-wife, Ann Trunnell gave them to me to share with the family. When Dad and I went to Tampa to meet Liz Kirkman, a Trunnell cousin there, we were shocked to walk in her front door and see these portraits hanging in her entry hall. They were quite large and in wonderful condition. It was obvious to me that they had been painted from the photographs. I asked Liz where they had come from and who had painted them. She said they were done by a family member who had moved West many years ago, but she didn't know the name. I knew immediatly who had painted them! My great-grandmother, Hattie Hatzell Trunnell was an artist who had trained with teachers in Louisville as a young woman. She married Henry's son, Dr. Philip Grable Trunnell and was the mother of my grandfather, Bradley Trunnell. She divorced Philip and moved her family to Chattanooga, TN where they joined the Church. She must have painted the pictures as a gift for her in-laws. I have several other things that she painted.

Henry Trunnell photograph

Henry Trunnell portrait by Hattie Hatzell Trunnell

Mary Jane Field Bowman Trunnell portrait

Mary Jane Trunnell photograph

Henry was the manager of the plantation owned by Jacob Bowman, Mary Jane's husband in Bardstown Junction, Bullitt Co., KY. Jacob became ill and before he died at the age of 30, he told his wife that Henry was a good man and that she should marry him. He said Henry would take good care of her and her son and would manage the farm well. Henry's wife Louisa Grable had divorced him and left him with two young children. Mary Jane had one child and they had nine children together.

Trunnell-Bowman Cemetery

I'm just learning and couldn't get these pictures in the right order. This is the cemetery in Kentucky that we have been trying to have restored for several years. It is near the Trunnell house outside Shepherdsville, KY where Henry Trunnell and his wife Mary Jane Field Bowman raised their large family. Mary Jane had been married before to Jacob Bowman who had a large farm/plantation. Jacob became ill, and died at the age of 30. Henry Trunnell ran the farm during Jacob's illness and was a divorced man with the custody of his two children, Philip and Arabella. Before Jacob died, he told Mary Jane that after his death she should marry Henry because he was a good man and would take good care of her and the farm. In his will he said he wanted the half-acre family graveyard maintained and never to be sold out of the family.

During the 160 years since Jacob's death the cemetery fell into disrepair. It was on a corner and an up-scale development grew up around it. Most people had no idea it was a cemetery, it just looked like a thicket of trees, weeds and junk that blocked their vision as they drove around the corner. In the summer vines grew up over all the graves, trees had grown up and broken stones and young kids on 4-wheelers had gotten in and knocked over and broken other stones. We were unable to find anyone to hire to clean it up until David Strange, the Director of the Bullitt County History Museum took it on as a project. Some of the nearby neighbors had voluntarily gone in and begun to clear out the brush and junk. David co-ordiniated a large group of people including surveyors, county road people, and neighbors interested in cleaning up the eyesore. Many in the extended Trunnell family contributed funds most of which were used to construct a fence. A local man donated his time and repaired the stones- one had been broken into 4 pieces. We only raised enough money to fence 2 sides and are hoping to fence one other short side that borders on the road. The long side on the back borders on the neighbors who do the mowing and they have requested that it be left open to their yard for ease of upkeep.