James E. Cantrill

James Edwards Cantrill (June 20, 1839 – April 5, 1908) was elected the 22nd lieutenant governor of Kentucky serving from 1879 to 1883 under Governor Luke P. Blackburn. Gravestones of Kentucky Lt Governor James Cantrill and wife Mary at Georgetown Cemetery.

Background James E. Cantrill was born in Bourbon County, Kentucky on June 20, 1838, to Susan F. and Edward F. Cantrill. He attended public school there until he was sixteen when he enrolled at Georgetown College in Georgetown, Kentucky. Upon graduation in 1858 he studied law with Marcellus Polk. He moved in 1859 to St. Louis, Missouri to practice law for a year before he returned to Kentucky to enlist in the Confederate Army.

Cantrill first married Jennie Moore of Fayette County on January 5, 1869. They lived in Georgetown, Kentucky where they had one son, James Campbell Cantrill (1870–1923), who went on to be a U.S. Representative from Kentucky. Jennie Moore Cantrill, granddaughter of Rev. Barton W. Stone died in 1876. Both he and his new wife invested in 1888 in the Home Construction Company which served as the funding mechanism for the construction of the Kentucky Midland Railroad (a company of which he was already a director). He served as President of Home Construction Company. In 1893, she was appointed to the Board of Lady Managers of the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago and supported the Kentucky Equal Rights Association lobbying efforts. They had one son, Cecil.

Cantrill served in the Kentucky House of Representatives from 1867 to 1871.

He served for several year as Master Commissioner of the Scott Circuit County before becoming Circuit Judge in 1892. and backed the Democratic takeover of state government. This perseverance made him a hero in his hometown of Georgetown and encouraged him to run (unsuccessfully) for a seat in the Kentucky Senate in 1901.

In 1904, Cantrill successfully campaigned for a seat on the Kentucky Court of Appeals. That year he suffered from a stroke from which he never recovered, however he traveled to Frankfort to be sworn in as a member of the Kentucky Court of Appeals.