Editor’s note: The Courier & Press and The Gleaner are marking Black History Month with a collection of stories about people, places, and events from local Black history.
Various memories of the Cabell family were pioneering Black businessmen in Henderson, Kentucky, for generations.
Aaron H. Cabell was born in Henderson in 1855 as an enslaved person. He went on to establish a grocery store in Henderson in 1874 and, later, a successful mercantile store. He owned a good deal of stock and property in Henderson and was described in a “Who’s Who” publication in 1915 as being “regarded among (the) most substantial colored men in (the) state.” Cabell was a delegate to the Republican Convention in Chicago in 1888.
His brother George, who was born in 1860 before emancipation, as a young man drove a grocery wagon for Aaron but acquired his own grocery and general merchandise business in 1895 that he operated for at least a quarter-century. He was also a director of the Cemetery and Burial Company in Henderson.
Their relative Atwood Cabell, who was born 1897 in Tennessee, was the first African American pharmacist in Henderson and was one of three pharmacist brothers, including Roger.
Roger W. “Doc” Cabell operated the Acme Drug Store at 701 Dixon St. (now Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue) in Henderson from 1936 until retiring in 1970 at age 77.