226 UNION COUNTY PAST AND PRESENT
l HENRY FRANK RHEA (1855-1900), who achieved some
distinction as a poet in his day, was born in Madisonville, Ken-
tucky, the son of Dr. R. H. C. and Mary Priscilla Vaughn Rhea.
His parents moved to Union County when he was 5 years old, and
his early education was obtained in the Waverly public school,
I at the Military Institute of Maj. James Austin at Morganfield,
and later in the Medical departments of the University of Louis-
ville and Vanderbilt University, being graduated from the latter
in 1881. Dr. Rhea showed an aptitude for the writing of poetry
when a boy in his early ’teens, and during his lifetime he wrote
many poems and articles for publication in the various news-
papers. The only one that has any interest today is "The Dream
of Moses Caton," which is based on a love tragedy of early Union
County history. Both the "poetic genius" of Dr. Henry Frank
Rhea and the crime and trial of Moses Caton are treated at
length in the old History of Union County.
. HERMAN RHEA (1858- ) was one of the distinguished
sons of Dr. R. H. C. Rhea and Mary Priscilla Vaughn Rhea. He
and his brother Frank entered the medical school of Vanderbilt
University and were graduated together in 1881. He returned
to Waverly, his childhood home, where he practiced for many
years. He received flattering recognition from the McDowell
Medical Association for a successful and, for Union County, an
early ovariotomy; For a number of years Dr. Herman Rhea
lived in Louisville, but he now (1941) spends part of each year
in Morganfield.
CALVIN D. RICHARDS (1889- ), so distinguished himself as
a first lieutenant in the World War that he received the Dis-
tinguished Service Cross of the United States and the Croix de
Guerre with the Gold and Silver Stars from France.
Richards was born in Morganfield, where he received his
early schooling and, with the exception of his attendance at
Centre College, Danville, and two years of war service, has
lived here ever since.
Upon the entry of the United States into the war in April,
1917, he entered the Officers Training Corps at Fort Benjamin
Harrison, and in August of that year he was commissioned a `
second lieutenant of infantry and immediately volunteered for
overseas service. He was sent to England in September and
assigned to the Third British Army of the British Expedition-
ary Forces, then in France. He first served with the 2nd Royal