John Russell (25 December 1821 – 24 December 1896) was an Irish-American industrialist active in the development of Ashland, Kentucky, and the founding of Russell, Kentucky, which was named in his honor.

History

John Russell was born near

Derry Derry, officially Londonderry (), is the second-largest city in Northern Ireland and the fifth-largest city on the island of Ireland. The name ''Derry'' is an anglicisation of the Old Irish name (modern Irish: ) meaning 'oak grove'. The ...

, Ireland, and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1830. His father, also named John Russell, was a farmer and settled in Tyler County, Virginia (now West Virginia). At 16, Russell left for Wheeling, where he clerked at a hardware store for five years. In 1850, he moved to Kentucky to serve as bookkeeper for the Amanda Furnace in

Greenup County Greenup County is a county located along the Ohio River in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 35,962. The county was founded in 1803 and named in honor of Christopher Greenup. Its co ...

for $400 a year. After two years, he was given a quarter interest in the concern and his salary increased to $1000 a year. Upon the 1855 death of the senior partner, Archibald Paull of Wheeling, he bought an eighth interest in the Belle Fonta Furnace and formed a partnership with its owners, Thomas and Hugh Means. As president of the Means and Russell Iron Company,Perrin, William Henry & al. ''Kentucky: A History of the State, Embracing a Concise Account of the Origin and Development of the Virginia Colony, Its Expansion Westward, and the Settlement of the Frontier Beyond the Alleghanies, the Erection of Kentucky as an Independent State, and Its Subsequent Development'',
Greenup County
. F.A. Battey, 1887. Accessed 29 September 2013. he purchased the land of the former Amanda Furnace and, in 1869, platted out a new city named "Riverview" along the expected route of a new

C&O Railroad The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was a Class I railroad formed in 1869 in Virginia from several smaller Virginia railroads begun in the 19th century. Led by industrialist Collis P. Huntington, it reached from Virginia's capital city of Richmond t ...

spur between

Huntington, West Virginia Huntington is a city in Cabell and Wayne counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia. It is the county seat of Cabell County, and the largest city in the Huntington–Ashland metropolitan area, sometimes referred to as the Tri-State Area. A h ...

, and Cincinnati, Ohio. This town was renamed "

Russell Russell may refer to: People * Russell (given name) * Russell (surname) * Lady Russell (disambiguation) * Lord Russell (disambiguation) Places Australia *Russell, Australian Capital Territory *Russell Island, Queensland (disambiguation) **Ru ...

" in his honor in 1873.Rennick, Robert. ''Kentucky Place Names''
pp. 258–259
University Press of Kentucky (Lexington), 1987. Accessed 29 September 2013. He subsequently served as president of the Catlettsburg National Bank, the Means & Russell Iron Co. in Russell, the St. Clair Coke Works (in

Fayette County, West Virginia Fayette County is a county in the U.S. state of West Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,488. Its county seat is Fayetteville. It is part of the Beckley, WV Metropolitan Statistical Area in Southern West Virginia. Histor ...

), and the Norton Iron Works in Ashland. John Russell married Anna Mead in 1856 and sired five children: Mollie, Helen Virginia, John III, Emma Clancy, and Charles.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Russell, John People from Ashland, Kentucky 1896 deaths 1821 births