Representative Asher Graham Caruth

Asher Graham Caruth (February 7, 1844 – November 25, 1907) was a U.S. Representative from Kentucky who served four consecutive terms in the United States Congress from 1887 to 1895. A member of the Democratic Party, he represented Kentucky’s Fifth Congressional District during a significant period in American political and economic history and took part in the legislative process on behalf of his constituents.

Caruth was born in Scottsville, Allen County, Kentucky, on February 7, 1844, the third child of Henry Clay Caruth and Mary (Mansfield) Caruth. During his youth his family moved, and he attended the public schools of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, before returning to Kentucky. He completed his secondary education in Louisville, graduating from the Louisville high school in June 1864. Later that year he entered public service in a supporting role to the legal profession, becoming the law librarian of the city of Louisville, an early position that acquainted him with the workings of the bar and the courts.

Pursuing a formal legal education, Caruth matriculated in the law department of the University of Louisville (now the Louis D. Brandeis School of Law) and graduated in March 1866. Shortly thereafter he was admitted to the bar and commenced the practice of law in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. While residing in Hopkinsville he also engaged in journalism and public affairs, founding the Kentucky Weekly New Era newspaper, which contributed to the civic and political discourse of the region. On February 23, 1871, he married Ella Terry, marking the beginning of a family life that accompanied his rising public career.

In 1871 Caruth moved to Louisville, where he continued the practice of law and quickly became active in local educational and political matters. From 1873 to 1880 he was annually elected attorney for the Board of Trustees of the Louisville Public Schools, reflecting his involvement in the governance of public education in the city. His prominence in Democratic Party politics grew during this period, and in 1876 he served as a Democratic presidential elector for the national ticket of Samuel J. Tilden and Thomas Andrews Hendricks. In 1880 he was elected Commonwealth’s Attorney for the Ninth Judicial District of Kentucky for a six-year term, a position of considerable responsibility in the state’s criminal justice system. He was re-elected to that office without opposition in 1886, underscoring his professional reputation and political support.

Caruth resigned as Commonwealth’s Attorney in March 1887 after being elected to the United States House of Representatives to represent Kentucky’s Fifth District. He entered Congress with the Fiftieth Congress and served in that body and the three succeeding Congresses, holding office from March 4, 1887, to March 3, 1895. His eight years in the House of Representatives coincided with debates over tariff policy, monetary issues, and federal regulation during the late Gilded Age. As a Democratic member of the House, Asher Graham Caruth contributed to the legislative process over four terms in office and participated in the democratic governance of the nation while representing the interests of his Louisville-area constituents. In 1894 he was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination, bringing his congressional career to a close at the end of the Fifty-third Congress.

Following his departure from Congress, Caruth returned to Louisville and resumed the private practice of law. He remained a respected figure in Kentucky’s legal community and continued to hold public responsibilities. In 1902 he was chosen to serve as judge of the criminal division of the Jefferson County Circuit Court, further extending his long association with the administration of justice in the state. Two years later, in 1904, he was appointed a commissioner of the St. Louis Exposition (the Louisiana Purchase Exposition), representing Kentucky in the organization and oversight of the state’s participation in the world’s fair held in St. Louis, Missouri.

Asher Graham Caruth spent his later years in Louisville, where he continued to be identified with the legal profession and public service until his death. He died in Louisville on November 25, 1907. His remains were interred in Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville, a burial place for many of the city’s notable citizens, marking the final resting place of a lawyer, prosecutor, legislator, and judge who had played a sustained role in Kentucky’s public life in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.