Hughes, Robert Henry
Birth Year : 1861
Death Year : 1935
Hughes was a wealthy African American who lived in Lexington, KY. With his death, the Lincoln Institute was saved from harder financial times: when Hughes died he left the school $10,000. He also left $100,000 in a trust fund for scholarships, half for white persons and half for colored persons. Robert Henry Hughes was the son of Ellen Davis, a former slave, and the wealthy horseman, John T. Hughes, who was white. Robert H. Hughes spent much of his life in Buffalo, NY, returning to Lexington after the death of his father in 1924. He lived at 340 East Third Street, where present day Smith & Smith Funeral Home is located. He is buried in the Calvary Cemetery in Lexington. Robert Henry Hughes' first name has often been mistakenly written as William or James. For more see Kentucky's Black Heritage, by the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights; and information on the Henry Hughes Educational Fund in the Fouse Family Papers in the Kentucky Digital Library. See also the sound recording interview of Charles F. Call, Jr. for more information on Robert Hughes; the recording is in the Blacks in Lexington Oral History Project, 1900-1989 at Special Collections, University of Kentucky Libraries. Hughes' death date and additional information on the cemetery and funeral home provided by Yvonne Giles - "The Cemetery Lady."
Subjects: Education and Educators, Inheritance
Geographic Region: Lexington, Fayette County, Kentucky