William H. Townsend, a renowned scholar, raconteur, and lawyer, was born in Anderson County and was educated first in a one-room school at Glensboro before graduating from U.K. Law School in 1912. Among his books was Lincoln and the Bluegrass, published in 1955, and his talk on Cassius Clay, "The Lion of White Hall," became a taped classic. Townsend had the largest private collection of Lincolnania in the U.S., was recognized as a leading expert on Abraham Lincoln, and was a founder of the Ky. Civil War Round Table in 1953. He served as its first president until his death and was named posthumously to the Fayette County Bar's Hall of Fame in 1966.