Ollie M. James Birthplace

 

This is a post card of the birthplace of Ollie M. James.  He was born here July 27, 1871 to Lemuel and Elizabeth James.  I do not have a date for the publication of the postcard.

This log cabin, typical of the homes of that era, contained a center hall which separated the living room-bedroom from the kitchen.  The room near the chimney was added some years later.

The remains of this log cabin stood for many years near the community of Sheridan, on the now named, Coy Watson road.  At one time the mailbox was still visible. I've been told now there isn't anything that remains of the old historic home.  

In the 1933's when work was being done on State Highway 297, then called the Wallace-Ferry Road, which ran close by the cabin, it had been proposed that the cabin be acquired and preserved as a memorial to the memory of Senator Ollie M. James.  This was never done and is now just a part of our forgotten passages of time, with nothing to show the location. 

The James family didn't live here too long after Ollie was born.  Mr. James was a well-known lawyer, and when son Ollie got school age, they moved to Marion so he could get his education from the city schools and Mr. James could be near his business.

This is the James home on East Depot Street.  Ollie lived here during his years in politics.

It's still beautiful today.  A Marion treasure.

Marion and Crittenden County have always been proud of our own Ollie M. James who was elected to the United States House of Representative to serve in the 58^th Congress, and was re-elected to the same position in the 59^th, 60^th, and 61^st and 62^nd Congresses. He won the nomination for United States Senator in the 1911 Democratic Primary, and was elected to the Senate by the Kentucky Legislature for a six-year term beginning March 4, 1913.

Ollie James was elected Permanent Chairman of the 1914 Democratic National Convention. He was considered the Party's outstanding orator, and many thought him to be the favorite for the Democrat's 1920 Presidential Nomination.

His death in 1918 at John-Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, where he was taken after collapsing at his post in the United States Senate, cut short a most brilliant career. His death was from an incurable kidney disease.