by David Cross

This Friday past, our county lost one of the finest men the county has ever produced, Samuel Van Buren (Sam) Brents, Jr., who died at age 95. Sam’s life was dedicated to serving the Lord and doing good works. Sam was the last of the Brentses, by name, to consider Clinton County as ‘home’.

The name Brents was never large in number in our county, but was large in influence. Sam was the son of S. V. Brents, Sr. (1881-1959) who for many years practiced law in Albany and who periodically was a candidate for various public offices, from Mayor of Albany to the United States Congress, running variously under the Democrat, Republican, and Socialist column.

Sam Brents, Sr., a Georgetown College graduate, was viewed as one of the smartest men in Albany. He had a sign on his law office door, “8 to 4 and No More”. He also published the local newspaper for a few years, later wrote many articles for the local paper, was involved in the oil business, and quite likely would have obtained an appointment in the administration of Governor Flem Sampson after his election in 1927 if his beloved wife had not died during the campaign. With four small children at home, leaving Albany at such a time was surely not the thing to do. Sam’s brother-in-law, Albany banker W. A. (Bill) Dicken, did become State Banking Commissioner under Sampson, one of the most important posts in state government.

Sam Brents also wrote letters to the editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal, the most noteworthy being his letter published December 3, 1939, which specifically and accurately explained that Clinton County was not in fact named for Dewitt Clinton. Sam liked newspaper. In fact, he had a room in his house stacked with many years worth of the Courier-Journal, sorted and in order.

Old Sam’s father was James F. Brents (1849-1905), who owned hundreds of acres in the Snow-Ida Community, from the Brents Cemetery east of U. S. 127 near “Brentsmeer Springs” westward nearly to the Burkesville Road. Much of this was previously the G. W. Hurt farm. The old Brents house still stands, now owned by the Mullins family. The Brents farm was considered by many as the finest farm in Clinton County and were known for raising fine horses. However, over the years, the Brents holdings diminished acre by acre, deed by deed, as their enterprises, including Sam’s political, newspaper, and oil ventures, failed to prosper.

James Brents had married the daughter of Thomas Van Buren Stephenson, prominent merchants of Cumberland City and Albany, who had been named for President Martin Van Buren. That explains the “Van Buren” in Sam Brents’ name, which is carried on by Van Flowers, great-grandson of S. V. Brents.

There was also the Moses Brents family, African-Americans, who had worked on the Brents plantation prior to emancipation, and continued to work for them for many years thereafter. They sold their small farm and left Clinton County for the Crocus settlement on the Adair-Russell county line in 1919, joining the majority of local African-Americans who left the county for other parts in the first half of the 20th Century.

One of the leading citizens of Clinton County in the decades following the Civil War was John Allen Brents (1822-1900), a half-brother to James F. Brents and 16 years his senior. Allen Brents had been elected Clinton County Circuit Court Clerk in 1856, prompting his defeated rival, Sam Bell Maxey, to leave the state for Texas where he was twice elected the United States Senate.

Allen Brents raised Company “C” of Wolford’s First Kentucky Cavalry to support the Union cause in the Civil War, and was thus known as “Major Bents” until his death in 1900. He wrote a book in 1863 (The Patriots and Guerrillas of East Tennessee and Kentucky) that was so critical of Champ Ferguson that Brents was marked for death. His father-in-law, county jailer John Groom, was, in fact, killed at his home on the southwest corner of the Albany square in January 1865 by Ferguson’s men.

Major Brents was Albany’s most prominent attorney, published the local newspaper (The Albany Banner) in the 1890s, and became a leader of the Republican Party, serving as State Representative, County Attorney, and delegate from Clinton and Cumberland counties to the convention that produced Kentucky’s most recent State Constitution of 1891.

Major Brents had one son who moved to Whitewright, Texas, where many from this area migrated to, and was appointed postmaster there by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1907. He was succeeded by his son, Beveridge Brents. Major Brents also had two other sons who were active in local politics, Charlie Brents, who sold insurance and made several races for local office, always running well but never being successful, and Claude, who worked as deputy postmaster, deputy county clerk and various other non-elected positions. He would write a deed for fifty cents, legs crossed in front of a typewriter, and do a good job at it.

After working around the courthouse for over fifty years, Claude, at age 75 in 1953, finally decided to run for county judge; another potential candidate talked about making the race and was told that “Eisenhower couldn’t beat Claude Brents.” Claude swamped his opposition, but his age had caught up with him and he could not manage the affairs of the office and resigned early in his term.

Sam “Junior” Brents, who delivered the Courier-Journal in Albany in the 1930s; who went on to graduate from the University of Kentucky, serve as one of the “Greatest Generation” in World War II; and work for many years as editor of the devotional magazine Open Window, was the last of the family prominent. Now, another name joins so many other once prominent families such as Perkins, Snow, Shipley, and Noland as extinct from our county rolls, but for an occasional road sign and their names etched in the silent cities that are scattered throughout the county.

Brentses in local politics

Members of the Brents family have long been involved in politics, on a local, state and even national level. Below are two candidate cards from the collection of local attorney and historian David M. Cross, involving the campaigns of Claude Brents and Samuel V. Brents, Sr.