Person

Benjamin Gratz (Lexington atto & businessman)

b. 1792-09-04 d. 1884-03-17

Lexington, Kentucky, attorney and businessman. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, native. Married to Maria Cecil Gist on November 24, 1819. Married to Anna Maria Boswell Shelby on July 6, 1843. Father of Miriam Gratz and Anna Gratz. Graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in 1811. Earned a master's degree from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in 1815. Served in John Swift's Company as second lieutenant in Pennsylvania during the War of 1812. Admitted to the bar in 1817. Began practicing law in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1819. Trustee of Transylvania University in Lexington from 1819 to 1882. Established a hemp manufacturing business in partnership with James Morrison and John Bruce in 1819. Developed the Lexington & Ohio Railroad in partnership with Thomas E. Boswell and Robert Wickliffe in 1830. Member of the board of directors of the Bank of Kentucky in 1834. Member of the board of directors of the Northern Bank of Kentucky in 1835. President of the Kentucky Agricultural and Mechanical Association in 1850. Owned sixty-five enslaved persons in Fayette County in 1850. Member of the Henry Clay Monument Association in 1857. Owned twelve enslaved persons in Fayette County in 1860.

Details

Sex
Male
Race
White

Bibliography

Seventh Manuscript Census of the United States (1850), Slave Schedules, Kentucky, Fayette County, District 1, pp. 591 and 593, pp. 44-45 of microfilm.
Eighth Manuscript Census of the United States (1860), Population Schedules, Kentucky, Fayette County, Lexington, p. 433.
Eighth Manuscript Census of the United States (1860), Slave Schedules, Kentucky, Fayette County, Lexington Ward 2, p. 454B (p. 7 of microfilm).
"Benjamin Gratz" in The Kentucky Encyclopedia, John E. Kleber, ed. (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1992), 383-84.

Citation

Gratz, Benjamin. Accessed via the Civil War Governors of Kentucky Digital Documentary Edition, https://discovery.civilwargovernors.org/document/S32205640 (November 12, 2026).

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