The subject of this sketch was born in Ohio County, and is a son of William Bradford Wise, who was born in 1805, and Irene Blevins, born 1810. Bith his paternal and maternal ancestors were native Virginians.
In 1861, at the beginning of the War of the Rebellion, the father of our subject enlisted in the Union army at Calhoun, Ky., under Captain J. R. Wise, Company I, Colonel Hawkins' Eleventh Kentucky Infantry. He participated in all of the battles and skirmishes in which his regiment was engaged, notably Shiloh and Stone River, and was mustered out of the service, near the close of the war, at Louisville. He was a farmer before and after the war, and owned what was known as the handsomest place between Hartford and Paradise, Ohio County. the father died in 1875, leaving nine children, three boys and six girls, all of whom are living at this time.
Luther Ferdinand Wise was born on the ninth day of September, 1848, and, when arriving at school age, was sent to a private school at Hartford, where he, by industry and close application, gained for himself a good country education. He commenced business as a clerk in a store at Rochester, Ky., and, in 1869, removed to Henderson and accepted a clerkship with W. H. Lewis, then engaged in the boot and shoe business. On the twenty-sixth day of July, 1876, he married Mrs. Sarah A. Griffin (nee Hatchitt), daughter of James Hatchitt, for many years a leading and influential citizen of this county. As a result of that marriage, one child has been born unto them, Hatchitt L., born May 15th, 1877.
Mr. Wise remained with W. H. Lewis for eight years and then accepted a deputyship under William Hatchitt, Sheriff of Henderson County, an office he filled with signal ability up to the spring of 1882. On the twelth[sic] day of March of that year, he embarked in the grocery business, opening in the two-story brick, southwest corner of First and Elm Streets. Upon the completion of the new Opera House, a few years since, he removed his stock into one of the handsome stores of that building, where he is now doing a handsome and paying trade.
In politics Mr. Wise is an unswerving Democrat; in religion a firm and consistent Baptist. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias. Altogether he is a modest, unassuming gentleman, attending, as he has ever done, strictly to his business, and, by this mode of life, has accumulated a nice little estate. He has lately purchased the storehouse he originally occupied, and, in due course of time, will re-occupy it.
The History of Henderson County, Kentucky by Starling 1887 page 723;