JOSEPH WILLIAM EAKINS, son of John and Sally King Eakins, was born in the year
1840, in the County of Henderson, and was educated in the schools of
Henderson and at Franklin College, near Nashville, Tennessee. His life has
been devoted to agricultural pursuits, and to-day he is the possessor of
one of the best regulated farms in the county, lying a mile or more below
Geneva, on the Smith's Mills Road. He grows tobacco, corn, wheat and grass,
and deals largely in stock. He is strictly a business man, bringing to bear
at all times a well defined and well matured system of thought and action,
that enable him not only to meet the demands made upon him, but to lay by a
handsome interest for the so-called rainy day. He is a reader, fond of
books, and as a writer, is well known by local writers as one well up in
all he undertakes. On the twenty-fifth day of June, 1867, Mr. Eakins
married Miss Sallie Powell, of this county, a most estimable and loving
wife, who gave to hiim as the fruits of that union six children, Willie
King, Sallie, Bettie, Joe Barnett, and Mary, daughters and Ronald Donald, a
son. Mary, the youngest daughter, died when she was only four months old.
His is a happy household, a bright blooming family of children, shedding a
halo of sunshine around the parental head. Mr. Eakins joined the
Confederate army when quite young at Camp Coleman, Uniontown. He was
captured at Morganfield, Union County, October 21st, 1862, brought a
prisoner to Henderson, and there released. He is a man of positive
character, but liberal in his views, and humane in disposition. His
attachments are strong, yet, he has been called upon oftentimes to serve
his precinct in the capacity of magistrate. This he has done simply as a
duty he felt he owed as a citizen, and not as an office seeker. As an
official he has always been looked upon and regarded as one of the safest
and most painstaking. His term of service dates from 1879, and continues to
this day. He was never a member of the church, yet he holds to the faith
handed down by the Saints. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd
Fellows, and also of the Knights of Pythias.
The History of Henderson County, Kentucky by Starling 1887 page 684-85;
