CHARLES T. ATKINSON, lawyer, is a native of Nelson County, Ky., and is the third of three children born to John and Lucinda (Ela) Atkinson, the father a native of New Jersey and the mother of New Hampshire. The grandfather of Charles T. was Joseph Atkinson, a native of New Jersey, and a son of Thomas Atkinson, whose father, Timothy Atkinson, came from England in colonial times and settled in Maryland. Joseph Atkinson was a farmer and a miller; spent all his life in his native State, and died early in the present century. Rev. John Atkinson was born in Flemington, N.J., September 30, 1797. He early in life united with the Methodist Episcopal Church, entered the ministry, August 14, 1814, when but seventeen years of age, and began preaching in New Jersey. He was assigned a circuit in the Northwest Territory in an early day and spent a number of years among the sparse settlements of the present States of Indiana, Ohio and Illinois. He came to Kentucky in 1837, and located in Oldham County, where he remained until 1839, at which time he moved to Bardstown, and about one year later founded the Bardstown Family Institute, with which he was connected for sixteen years. He retired from the active work of the ministry in 1839, but still preaches, and is probably the oldest minister of the Methodist Church now living in the United States, his period of service extending from 1814 to 1886, a period of seventy-two years. He resides near Bardstown, and is widely and favorably known throughout the counties of central Kentucky. Lucinda (Ela) Atkinson was the daughter of Jacob Ela, a native of New Hampshire. She was born in that State and died in Nelson County, Ky., in 1863. John and Lucinda Atkinson reared a family of three children whose names are as follows: Mrs. Sarah Winans, Mrs. E.B. Newcomb and Charles T. Atkinson. Charles T. Atkinson was born in Bardstown, December 8, 1846. He received his early education in the schools of his town, which he attended until his seventeenth years, when, in 1864, he entered Toronto University, Canada, from which he graduated in 1868. After graduation he began teaching in Bardstown, which profession he followed two years. At the end of that time he began reading law with W.R. Grigsby, and E.E. McKay of Bardstown, under whose instructions he continued for a limited period. He engaged in the practice of his profession in 1871, since which time he has done a lucrative business in the courts of Nelson and other counties. Mr. Atkinson married, September 1, 1870, in Bardstown Miss Odessa Robertson, daughter of Rev. G.W. and Sarah M. Robertson of Nelson County. The children born to this union are as follows: Alma, Florine and Allan Atkinson. Mr. Atkinson was elected county attorney in 1874 and held the position one term of four years. He is a Democrat in politics, and takes an active interest in the political issues of the county. Mrs. Atkinson is a member of the Bardstown Baptist Church.