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BEGINNINGS OF LITERARY CULTURE

OHIO VALLEY

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES

BY

W. H. VENABLE, LLD.

Author of "A School History of the United States," " Foot-prints of the Pioneers, "June on the Miami," "Melodies of the Heart," "The Teacher's Dream," etc.

CINCINNATI

ROBERT CLARKE & CO.

1891

Copyright, 1891, By W. H. VENABLE.

PREFACE.

More than twenty years ago, in preparing for publica- tion a series of articles on the libraries of Cincinnati, the writer had occasion to glance through a good many books of western origin, and to examine files of the earliest newspapers and magazines issued in the Central States. This incidental rummage through the alcoves of a dozen dusty libraries led to further investigation, and awakened curiosity to study the intellectual agencies which created the first literary institutions in the Ohio Valley. Various items of information concerning local writers and writ- ings, from print and manuscript, and from the stored memory of persons acquainted with the general subject, furnished a stock of material which seemed worth pre- serving. A certain historical value attaches to memoranda derived from interviews with literary veterans whose minds are rich in authentic reminiscences of

" The days when we were pioneers."

Data obtained from the sources mentioned supplied the substance of a course of lectures on Western Poets and Poetry, delivered in College Hall, Cincinnati, in the win- ter of 1881, and afibrded topics for occasional contribu- tions to the Commercial Gazette, the Magazine of Western History, and the Ohio Historical and Archaeological Quar- terly, in the years 1886-7. Portions of the lectures and published sketches alluded to are reproduced in this vol-

(iii)

989496

iv Preface,

ume, in revised form, and with much additional matter, never before in print.

The discursive, and even desultory character of the present book — its defects as to arrangement, proportion, and unity, will be pardoned, in consideration of the fact that the work was not fore-planned, not a regularly de- veloped essay or treatise, but a repository of accumulated notes. To condense, classify, and connect the gathered fragments, and to dispose all under not unsuitable head- ings, so as to produce a convenient reference book, has been the unambitious endeavor of the author. It was at the urgent advice of several gentlemen prominent in let- ters, and interested in preserving for historical and literary purposes such ana as these pages record, that the decis- ion was made to put forth, in book form, the chapters here collected under the title Beginnings of Literar}^ Cul- ture in the Ohio Valley.

Though not confined strictly to the history of hegin- fiingSy this imperfect survey of the cultural elements of early western society is concerned, in the main, with per- sons and events belonging to the period closed by the Civil War. As a rule, the biographical parts of the nar- rative relate to the dead ; but exceptions are made in the case of many noted men and women, yet living, who achieved reputation before the year 1860. Brief mention of numerous living writers will be found, usually in foot- notes, in the chapter on Early Periodical Literature, which deals with years quite recent.

Doubtless there will be missed from the index names that should have appeared, but no invidious discrimina- tion is intended. The contents of this volume, far from exhausting the subjects discussed, are merely suggestive. These gleanings show only specimen sheaves, not a com-

Preface. v

plete harvest. The collector gathered most of his mate- rial from the sources nearest at hand, not having had leisure or opportunity to examine, with equal care, all parts of the wide field indicated by the title of the book. Whatever is wanting to complete it, this contribution to the history of early culture in the Ohio country is offered as a report of progress.

The author is indebted to a number of ladies and gen- tlemen, who, in several ways, have aided in the prepara- tion of this book. Special acknowledgment is made to Col. Reuben T. Durrett, of Louisville, Ky., for much in- formation in regard to literary matters in Kentucky ; to Mr. Henry Cauthorn, of Yincennes, Ind., who contributed an entire chapter on the literary beginnings of Indiana ; to William D. Gallagher, whose cyclopediac knowledge of western writers extends over a period of three-quarters of a century ; to Mr. Robert W. Steele, of Dayton, O., in whom courtesy and public spirit unite to help every good cause; and to Mr. Robert Clarke, of Cincinnati, without whose cordial feeling toward ventures of the kind, this volume would not have been issued. Thanks are due, also, for the loan of books and manuscripts, or for letters of information, or other polite favor relating to this pub- lication, to Mr. A. C. Quiseuberry, Lexington, Ky.; Hon. Harvey Rice, Cleveland, 0.; Hon. Horace P. Biddle, Lo- gansport, Ind.; Mrs. Mary M. Coggeshall, Chicago, III.; Mrs. M. E. Meline, Cincinnati; Mrs. Sarah H. Foote, Cin- cinnati; Mrs. E. T. Swiggert, Morrow, 0.; Mrs. Alice W. Brotherton, Cincinnati ; Hon. Chas. D. Drake, Washing- ton, D. C; Hon. A. H. McGuffey, Cincinnati; Mr. Wm. Anderson Hall, Cincinnati ; Mrs. Josephine Foster, Cin- cinnati ; Mr. Moncure D. Conway, Brooklyn, ]^. Y.; Mr. Nathan Baker and family, Cincinnati ; Mr. Emerson Ben-

vi Preface,

iicttj Philadelphia; Rev. James Freeman Clarke, Boston ; Rev. R. W. Alger, Boston ; E. C. Z. Judson, New York ; Mr. L. A. Hine, Loveland, 0.; Hon. Wm. Heary Smith, New York; Prof. Wm. G. Williams, Cincinnati; Dr. Ly- man C. Draper, Madison, Wis.; Hon. Benj. S. Parker, New Castle, Ind.; Mr. Jerome B. Howard, Cincinnati ; Mr. Sam- uel Bernstein, Cincinnati ; Mr. C. T. Webber, Cincinnati ; Hon. D. Thew Wright, Cincinnati ; Mr. Jacob P. Dunn, Indianapolis, Ind.; Mr. R. G. Lewis, Chillicothe, O.; Mr. Drew Sweet, Waynesville, 0.; Mr. J. L. Smith, Dana, Ind.; Dr. John Clark Ridpath, Greencastle, Ind.; Mr. I. H. Julian, San Marcos, Texas ; Mr. Alexander Hill, Cin- cinnati; Hon. Will Cumback, Greencastle, Ind.; and Miss Harriet Edith Venable, Cincinnati. Every convenience in library privileges was obligingly afforded the writer, by Mr. A. W. Whelpley, of the Cincinnati Public Library ; Mr. John M. Newton, of the Young Men's Mercantile Library; Mr. R. E. Champion, of the Ohio Mechanics' Institute ; and by the officers of the Ohio Historical and Philosophical Society.

Cincinnati, May 18, 1891.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

Some Early Travelers and Annalists.

Carlyle to Emerson on certain Quaint Books— Bossu's Travels— Bar- tram's Travels — Abundance of Literature concerning the Central States — Character and Influence of this Literature — Books on the Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi by French Travelers — John G. Shea's translations of these — First Accounts of the Ohio Valley— Christopher Gist and George Croghan Ex- plore Ohio in 1750-1 — Major George Washington's Journal — Boone Explores Kentucky in 1769 — John Filson, and his History of Kentucky — Captain Gilbert Imlay, and his Account of the West in 1792— Henry Toulmin— Travels of Isaac Weld— Weld's Description of the People of the Backwoods — Baily's Journal — The Travels of Michaux — Of Yolney — " The Infamous Ashe " — The Travels of H. M. Brackenridge— Of Thaddeus Mason Har- ris—Of Christian Schultz— Of Timothy Flint— Of John Brad- bury— Bradbury's Interview with Boone, in Missouri — Books of Travel by Lewis and Clarke, Cuming, Stoddard, Harding, Dana and Long — Morris Birkbeck's English Settlement in Illinois — Thomas Nuttall's Voyage down the Ohio — A Frolic — A Corn- husking — Louisville in 1821 — " Silence and Gloomy Solitude " — H. R. Schoolcraft's Travels— Along the Wabash in 1821— Albion — Harmony — Bullock's Journey — First Historians and Histories of the Ohio Valley— Humphrey Marshall's Kentucky — Butler's Kentucky — Collins's History — Haywood's Books on Tennessee — First Historical Sketches of Ohio — Nahum Ward's Rare Pamphlet — Salmon P. Chase's Preliminary Sketch — His- torical Labors of Caleb Atwater, Jacob Burnet, Henry Howe, and S. P. Hildreth — Historians of Indiana — John B. Dillon — Judge Law — 0. H. Smith's Reminiscences —Early Annals of Illinois — The Writings of Birkbeck, Dr. Peck, Henry Brown, Governor Reynolds, and Governor Ford — Extracts from Rey- nolds's Pioneer History — Historical Services of Judge James Hall — Compendiums of Western History by Timothy Flint, James H. Perkins, Dr. Monette, and Others — Patterson's His- tory of the Backwoods — Doddridge's Notes — Withers's Chroni- cles— Sketches by John A. McClung, John McDonald, and

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viii Contents.

James McBride — Books of Early Travel and History as Literary Material for the coming Historian, Novelist, and Poet 1

CHAPTER II.

The Pioneer Prbss and Its Product— Book Making— Book Selling.

The First Printing in America— The Pittsburg Gazette— John Scull — First Book Printed West of the Alleghanies— First Press in Kentucky— John Bradford — The Kentucky Gazette— Other Kentucky Newspapers— The Public Advertiser — The Focus — The Louisville Journal — The Centinel of the North-western Territory — The Western Spy — Other Newspapers in Ohio — The Early Press of Indiana and Illinois— First Paper Mills in the West— Early Book Printing in the Ohio Valley— First Books Made in Kentucky — First Books Made in Ohio — Beginning of the Book Trade — First Book-shops in the West — The Book Busi- ness in Cincinnati — Some Veteran Publishers — Sketch of U. P. James 36

CHAPTER III.

Early Periodical Literature of the Ohio Valley.

The Medley, 1803— Hunt's Western Review, 1819— The Cincinnati Literary Gazette, 1824— Flint's Western Monthly Review, 1827— Hall's Western Magazine, 1832— The Western Messenger, 1835— The Hesperian, 1837— Moore's Western Lady's Book, 1850— The Parlor Magazine, 1853— L. A. Hine's Periodicals— The Western Literary Journal, 1844— The Quarterly Journal and Review, 1846— The Herald of Truth, 1847— The Indies' Repos- itory, 1841— The Genius of the West, 1857— Conway's Dial, 1860— List of Periodicals Published in the Ohio Valley from 1803 to 1860 58

CHAPTER IV.

Libra RIBS —The Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio.

Libraries of Kentucky— Transylvania Library— Georgetown Li- brary—Danville Library— The Old Lexington Library— The first Library in Ix)ui8ville— Private Libraries— The Durrett Collection— Rare Books— First Libraries in Ohio— The Putnam Family Library— The Belpre Library— History of Putnam Library by Dr. I. W. Andrews— The Cincinnati Library— The Coon-Skin Lil)rary at Ames— The Cincinnati Circulating Li- brary—First Library in Dayton, O.— Historical and Philosophi- cal Society of Ohio— Its Charter Members— Early Publications of— Transfer from Columbus to Cincinnati— I/etter from J. Sulli- vant— Growth of the Library— Removals of the Society— The New England Society— Present Condition of the Historical Li- brary 129

Contents.f ix

CHAPTER V.

Backwoods Colleges, Schools, and Teachers.

Jefferson's Educational Doctrines— Influence of " Notes on Vir- ginia"— Founding of Lexington, Ky. — John McKinney and the Wild Cat — Another Schoolmaster John — The Virginia School Act of 1780— Transylvania Seminary — Kentucky Acad- emy— Transylvania University— A Distinguished Faculty — Dr. Horace HoUey — Dr. Charles Caldwell— Prof. Rafinesque — Dr. Joseph Buchanan — The College Library — The Literary Society Alumni — The First Seat ui Culture in the West— "Athens" and "Tyre " — New England comes to Ohio — The Ordinance of 1787 Dr. Manasseh Cutler— His Labors in Behalf of Education — Ohio University Founded — Thomas Ewing — Other Graduates — Miami University — Its Alumni — Dr. R. H. Bishop — Prof. R. H. Bishop — Lancaster Seminary — Cincinnati College — Dr. W. H. McGufFey — Other Early Colleges in Ohio, Indiana, and Illi- nois— The Course of Study— The Golden Age of Academies — First Schools in Ohio— The Classics in the Woods— First School House in the North-west — Pioneer Schools in Cincinnati — New- port Academy— Francis Glass— Pioneer Pedagogues — Getting up a School — Whisky and Tobacco — The School in Operation — Character of Early School Books— The Three R's— School-book Authorship— Publishers— A Dream of " Dillworth "—Cadmus Conquers 161

CHAPTER VI.

The Voice of the Preacher and the Clash of Creeds.

" My Church "—The Jesuit Missionaries— The French Catholics in Illinois and Indiana — The Moravians in Ohio — Heckewelder — Zeisberger- First Preachers in the Ohio Valley— The Baptists in Kentucky — Lewis Craig — Presbyterians — Catholics— The First Church in Marietta— Cutler— His Liberality— Rev. Daniel Story — Divine Service in Military Form — Putnam's "Two Horned" Church— The Baptists in the Miami Purchase — Founding of the First Church in Cincinnati — Rev. David Rice — Rev. James Kemper — Church Troubles— Rev. Joshua R. Wil- son and Son — War of Sects — Heresy and Infidelity — Origin of the Camp-meeting — "The Great Awakening" — Revivals of 1826-7-8-9— Barton W. Stone— The Cane Ridge Meeting-house- New Lights — Alexander Campbell — The Unitarian Revival — Dr. Flint— Lorenzo Dow — " Johnny Appleseed " — Dr. Peck in Illinois — His Useful Labors — Peter Cartwright — Dr. Bascom — Dr. W. H. Raper— Dr. Russell Bigelow— Dr. Lyman Beecher — His Battle with Dr. Wilson— The Proselyting Spirit— "New Lights" — Campbell's Work — Great Debates — Campbell v. Owen — Campbell v. Purcell— Campbell v. Rice — Rice v. Pin-

X Contents,

gree— Owen at New Harmony— Frances Wright—The Free En- quirer—The " Leatherwood God " 197

CHAPTER VII.

Political Oratory and Orators — The Lecture.

Fourth of July Eloquence — Judge Varnum at Marietta — Governor Bt. Clair's Response— Edward Everett at Yellow Springs in 1829— Toasts and Responses— A Reception to Webster in 1 833— Speeches and "Sentiments" — New England and Ohio — The Golden Age of Debating Clubs— The Danville, Ky., Political Club of 1786-90— The People's Lyceum— Education by thinking on the feet— Lincoln— The Circuit Court a School— " Every Man a Politician " — The Horse-race an Intelleetual Stimulus— Talking Politics and Theology — Party Strife— The Disgusted French- man— The Slavery Agitation— Stump Speaking— Clay's Power — His Speech in the Senate in 1842— Other Kentucky Orators- Tom Corwin — Ewing and other Ohio Orators — Oratory in Indi- ana and Illinois — Lincoln's Eloquence — Douglass — The Lecture '^^ ♦.form — Brilliant Teachers in Colleges— Scientific Lectures — Early Lectures in Cincinnati— Stowe — Lectures before the Mer- cantile Library Association — John Quincy Adams's last Speech— Dr. Locke— O. M. Mitchel— List of Eastern Lecturers in the year 1854 — List of Western Lecturers 227

CHAPTER VIII.

Planting of Literary Institutions at Vincennes, Indiana — Li- braries, Schools, and the Press.

Canadian and Creole Settlers— Bishop Benedict I. Flaget^-Roman Catholic Educational Influences— Bishop Brut^ — The Source of a Celebrated Address by Judge Law — The Oldest Library of the North-west— St. Francis Xavier Church— Old Church Records- William Henry Harrison, first Territorial Governor — Francis Morgan de Vincenne— Fort Sackville— Expedition Against the Chickasaw Indians — Harrison's Vincennes Mansion — Distin- guished Legislators and Educators— The Western Sun— Elihu Stent—" Thespian Society " — Vincennes University— Prominent Lawyers— Bar Association—" Vincennes Historical and Anti- quarian Society "—George Rogers Clarke— Vincennes Library — Youth's Library of Vincinnes— Working Men's Library- Township Lil)raries— Agricultural Society— Sy mines Harrison — H Benjamin Pji- t Bible Society — Physicians and Sur- 1 geons — First " Society— St. Gabriel College— Organized l.v I'ludi.^t PrifhtH 264

Contents. xi

CHAPTER IX.

Pioneer Poets and Story-Writers.

Aboriginal Poetry — French Wood-notes — Song on the Ohio Flat- boats — Negro Melody — " The Eolian Songster " — Popular Songs for Stage and Parlor—" Seat of the Muses"— The Verse Market Overstocked in 1824 — John Filson a Rhymester — R. J. Meigs, Jr., the first poet in Ohio — Byron a Favorite in the West— English and American Poets of Seventy Years Ago — Percival — Char- acter of Pioneer Poetry — Classical Aflfectation— Subjects of Poems — "The Mountain Muse" — Firet Anthology of AVestern Poetry— A List of Poets— Coggeshall's " Poets and Poetry of the West"— Worth's "American Bards"— "The Muse of Hes- peria " — Thomas Peirce the " Horace of Cincinnati " — John M. Harney — William Wallace Harney — Mrs. Julia Dumont — John Finley, Author of " The Hoosier's Nest "— Otway Curry— Har- vey D. Little— G. W. Cutter— Wm. Ross Wallace— Mrs. Frances D. Gage — Sarah T. Bolton — Rebecca S. Nichols — Hon. Harvey Rice — Theodore O'Hara — General AV. H. Lytle — Foreseythe Willson— Writers of Fiction — The Ohio a Romantic Stream — Themes for Story — "Modern Chivalry" — The First AVestem Novel — Tales and Sketches in the Cincinnati Literary Gazette, 1824— In the " AA'estern Souvenir," 1829-In the "Mirror"— In Hall's Magazine— Novels of F. AA". Thomas— Drake's "Tales of the Queen City," 1839—" Blood and Thunder " Serials— Em- erson Bennett — " Ned Buntline " — Letter from Judson — Fos- dick's " Malmiztic, the Toltec " — Alice Gary's Novels — Mrs. Warfield's " Household of Bouverie " — Mrs. Stowe's Literary AVork in Ohio-" Uncle Tom's Cabin " 267

CHAPTER X.

Dr. Daniel Drake, the Franklin of Cincinnati.

The Old Kentucky Home — Life on a "Clearing" — Home Manu- factures— Things before Words— Books and Schools— On Horse- back to " Cin."— Peach Grove— Dr. AVilliam Goforth— Drake's Marriage — His First Publication — " Picture of Cincinnati " — Rev. Joshua L. AViison— The Circulating Library — School of Literature and the Arts — Drake in Philadelphia — Dr. AA'istar — First Soda-Fountain in the AA^est — Drake at Lexington — Aled- ical College of Ohio — A Famous Medical Book — The AA'estern Museum — Audubon a Curator — The Infernal Regions — Powers, the Sculptor— Mrs. Trollope — Drake on Prohibition — Vine Street Reunions — The Literary Coterie of the 'Thirties — College of Professional Teachers — The Buckeye Dinner— A Native Menu — Mrs. Lee Hentz — " Drake's Discourses " — Destiny of the AA^est — AVritings of Drake— Death and Character 299

xii Contents.

CHAPTER XI.

Timothy Fi.in i -ionakv, < iKoi.uAi'HKit, P^ditor, Novelist, and

Poet.

The Flint Family in Salem, Mass.— Timothy Flint's Birth, Boyhood, and Education— Whimsical Reports of the Far West— Lunen- berg — Flint Resolves to be a Missionary— Over the Mountains in a Coach — Pennsylvania Wagons and Wagoners — A Brother Clergyman — A Shaggy Drover from Mad River, Ohio — Pittsburg —Wrecked on Dead Man's Riffle— Afloat in a Pirogue— River Scenery — Big Sycamores — Marietta — General Rufus Putnam — A Profane Boatman — Cincinnati — General AV. H. Harrison — In the Saddle— Lawrenceburg — A Bear in the Way — Vincen- nes — Vevay — Kentucky in 1816 — Heaven a "Kaintuck of a Place"— "A Preaching" at Frankfort— " The Athens of the West "—Backwoods " Culture "—Harry Clay— The Peach Trees in Bloom — All Aboard a Keel-boat— Sunshine and Storm — Up the Hills to Harrison's — Afloat Once More — Lawrenceburg — Shawneetown — Cairo the Wobegone — Up the Mississippi— A Half Day of Bliss— The Cordelle — Bushwhacking — Romance of the Night Camp — River Characters — The Skulking Shawnee — Ste. Genevieve — Other Old French Villages — St. Louis— The Missionary at Work— Quarrelsome Christians — A Sojourn on the Arkansas River — A Dreadful Summer — Pulpit Versus Bail- Room and Billiards — Up Stream Once More— The Extremity of Affliction— A Baby's Lonely Grave—" Thy Will Be Done "— A Learned Lady — Earthquake at New Madrid — Flint at Cape Girardeau — Fever and Ague — A Winter by Pontchartrain — Be- comes President of Rapide Seminary — Life at Alexandria, La. — Tour to the Sabine Country — A Twenty-Five-Hundred-Mile Journey— The National Road— Flint's "Recollections" Pub- lished— Residence in Cincinnati — The Novel, " Francis Ber- rean"— The Western Review— Hervieu, the Artist— His Paint- ing of Lafayette Landing at Cincinnati— Hiram Powers— A School of Fine Arts — Mrs. Trollope and Family — Jose Tosso — The Bazaar— Flint's Various Books— Flint Edits the " Knicker- bocker " — He Goes to Louisiana — Tornado at Natchez — Death of Flint 323

CHAPTER XIL

JuDOB Jambs Hall, Soldier, Jurist, Author, Editor.

Jameft Hall's Literary Kin— Rev. John Ewing, D.D.— Mrs. Sarah Hall— Her Writings— James Hall's Brothers— The Port Folio- Hall's Hchooling— Two Years in a Counting-house— Joins the Army—" The Dandies "—Becomes a Lieutenant— In the Battles of Chippewa and Lundy's Lane— A Cruise to Algiers— Studiee Law— Life at Pittsburg— The Young Man Goes West— From

Contents, xiii

Pittsburg to Shawneetown— The Deck of a Keel-boat— Hall's " Letters from the AVest "—Romantic Life in Southern Illinois —Pioneer Lawyers— A Den of Thieves— A Bargain with a Des- perado—Judge Hall's First Marriage— The Posey Family — "The Illinois Emigrant "—" The Illinois Magazine "—" The Western Souvenir "— Morgan Neville — Anecdote by Jose Tosso, the Violinist — The Illinois Magazine — The AVestern Monthly Magazine — Contributors — Hannah F. Gould — Caroline Lee Hentz — Harriet Beecher — The Semicolon Club — James Hall versus Lyman Beecher — The Catholic Question — Hall En- gages in Banking — Various Publications— Range and Character of His Writings — His Best Books — Style — His Poetry — Marriage to Louisa Anderson Alexander— Childreu—AVilliam A. Hall alias "Timothy Timid " — Passage from Judge Hall's Address on the " Dignity of Commerce " 361

CHAPTER XIII.

George Dennison Prentice, Journalist, Poet, and Wit.

Prentice's Childhood— His Mother — His Precocity — AVonderful Memory — Teaches School — Goes to Brown University — Taught by Horace Mann— Studies Law — Edits the New England Re- view—Is Succeeded by John G. Whittier — Goes to Kentucky in 1830— Prentice's Life of Clay— The Soaring Style— " The Broken-Hearted, a Tale " — Louisville Journal Founded — Per- sonal Editors— Prentice and Greeley — Hammond and Dawson — Shadrach Penn — Prentice, the AVit— " Prenticeana" — Brilliant Mots—" The Darling of the Mob "—The Code of Honor— Tip- pecanoe— Know-Nothing Party — Prentice and the Civil AVar — AVorship of Clay — Prentice in the Lecture Field — Mr. Prentice's Wife and Sons — Major Clarence Prentice and President Lin- coln— The Veteran Journalist in His Sanctum — Last Days and Death — Tombs in Cave Hill Cemetery — Statue of Prentice — Disposition and Character — A Patron of Literary People — Writers AVhom He Helped — Prentice as a Poet — His Poems Edited by J. J. Piatt — Sentimental Diction — The Substantive- Adjective " Eden " — Prentice like Bryant — Prentice a Social Favorite— His Tribute to His AVife 386

CHAPTER XIV.

Edward Deering Mansfield, Publicist and Author.

Colonel Jared Mansfiekl — Marietta in 1803 — Madame Blennerhas- sett — To Cincinnati in an Ark— Cincinnati in 1805 — Ludlow Station — First Astronomical Station AA^est of the Alleghanies — Mount Comfort — E. D. Mansfield's First Books — His Education at Cheshire Academy, West Point, and Princeton — Admitted to the Bar in 1825 — Distinguished Friends— Percival, the Poet — A

xiv Contents,

Poet's Description of Niagara— The Young Lawyer Goes West —The Columbia Street Theater—" Cincinnati in 1826 "—Assists Benjamin Drake to Edit the " Chronicle "—Marries Miss Mary Wallace Peck— Goes in Partnership with O. M. Mitchel— Sketch of Mitchel's Life— Mansfield Embarks in Literature- Literary Parties at Dr. Drake's— The Semicolon Club— The Footes— Other Members of the Club— Mrs. Stowe— Benjamin Drake — Nathan Guilford— William Greene— Cincinnati Society in 1834 — Charles Fenno Hoffman— The College of Profes- sional Teachers — Alexander Kinmont— The Common Schools — George Graham — Eminent Educators — Mansfield's Political Grammar — His Addresses — Connection with Cincinnati Col- lege— Edits the Railroad Record — Edits Cincinnati Gazette — "A Veteran Observer" — Made Commissioner of Statistics — His First Meeting with Governor Morton— Popularity of E. D. M. — His Books— " Personal Memories" — Family History — Second Marriage— Sons and Daughters — Home at Morrow, Ohio — Death— Character 409

CHAPTER XV.

William Davis Gallagher, Poet, Editor, and Government Official.

Birth and Parentage — The Gallaghers Move to Ohio — Settle near Cincinnati — Sir Woodworth's School — A Boy's Pleasures— " Billy " Goes to Clermont County — His few Books — Goes to the Lancastrian Seminary— Learns to Set Type — " The Remem- brancer "—" The Western Tiller"— "The Emporium "—" The Commercial Register" — "The Western Minerva" — Gallagher Visits Kentucky — Is Entertained by Mrs. James Taylor — Pays His Respects to Clay at Ashland — Writes for the " Chronicle " — Builds a House for His Mother — Edits the " Backwoodsman " at Xenia, O. — First Meeting with George D. Prentice — Marriage — Edits the "Mirror" — Makes His Maiden Speech — Debating Societies— "The Lyceum"— "The Inquisition "—" The Tags" —"The Forty-twos" — Publishes "Erato" — A Handsome Man -Hard up— The " Western Literary Journal "—The " Hesper- ian " — Assists Hammond on the Cincinnati Gazette — Secretary of the Whig Committee — Letters to Otway Curry— A New Lit- erary Comet— Issues "Selections of Western Poetry"— A Re- former—His Poems— Edits the " Daily Message "—Made Presi- tlent of the Ohio Historical Society— Address on " Progress in the North-west " — Becomes Private Secretary to Thomas Corwin —Conveys (Jold from New York to New Orleans— A Storm- Anecdote of Corwin— Goes to Ix)uisville— Connection with the " Courier " — Quarrel with Prentice— A Challenge— Rt'tires from Journalism— Life at Pewee Valley — Literary Associations with Kdwin Bryant, Noble Butler, Ross Wallace, Mrs. Warfield, and Others— Letter from Wallace to Gallagher— Delegate to the

Contents. xv

Chicago Convention — Carries the News to '' Old Abe " — Threat- ened with Violence in Kentucky — Becomea Secretary to Salmon P. Chase — Collector of Customs — Literary Activity — Reputation as a Public Official— Character of His Poetry—" Miami Woods" — A Pathetic Story— Mr. Gallagher's Family — His Serene Old Age 436

CHAPTER XVI.

Amelia B. Welby.

Amelia Welby and Alice Cary Compared — Birthplace, Parentage, and Infancy of Amelia — Her Childhood — A Born Singer — An Improvisatrice— The Emotions of Sweet Sixteen — Two Girls — "When Shines the Star" — Amelia and Prentice — A Sudden Blossoming — Enter George Welby — Amelia's Beauty and Bril- liancy— Ben Cassidy's Eulogy of Her — The Poets Worship Their Queen— "Ah ! Lovely Shade "—The Apotheosis of Senti- mentalism — Mourning for Amelia Dead — Threnodies — Popular- ity of the " Poems by Amelia " — Fourteen Editions — What Poe Wrote of Amelia — Character of her Verses — Subjects of Her Poems — Specimens — The " Rainbow " Faded — A Monument in Cave Hill Cemetery 471

CHAPTER XVII.

Alice Cary.

Genealogy — Robert Gary's Home — The New House — An x\ppari- tion — The Shadow of Death — Alice a Romp — A Country Girl's Tasks — Studying under Difficulties — What the Girls Read — First Appearance in Print — Alice Contributes to the Star in the West — John A. Gurley — Phoebe's Name in a Boston Paper — Letter to Lewis J. Cist — The Sisters Become Acquainted with L. A. Hine, Emerson Bennett, and Dr. Gamaliel Bailey — First Earnings of Alice — Praise from Poe — Help from Griswold — Horace Greeley — The Sisters Visit Whittier — Alice Moves to New York City — Publication of "Clovernook" — Letters to Wm. D. Gallagher — A Slave of the Pen — Author and Editor — A Merciless Criticism — Coates Kinney Reviews Alice Cary's Poems — Alice Cary Buys a House — Distinguished Guests — Bonner's Liberality — Novels — The Sorosis — A Brave Woman — Dissatisfied — Longing for the West — In Clover— A Love Story Remarks on Alice Cary's Poetry— Clovernook Dedicated— The House is Haunted 482

Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

CHAPTER I. ■'■'■

SOME EARLY TRAVELERS AND ANNAL'l'fea*S.' ^ ^ "'^ '^

In a letter to R. W, Emerson, dated July 8, 1851, Thomas Oarlyle wrote as follows : " I lately read a small old brown French duodecimo, which I m.ean to send you by the first chance there is. The writer is Capitaine Bossu •} the pro- duction, a Journal of his experiences in ' La Louisiana,' ' Oyo ' (Ohio), and those regions, which looks very genuine, and has a strange interest to me, like some fractional Odys- sey or letter. Only a hundred years ago, and the Mississippi has changed as never valley did : in 1751, older and stranger, looked at from its present date, than Balbec or Mneveh ! Say what we will, Jonathan is doing miracles (of a sort) under the sun in these times now passing. Do you know Bartram's ^ Travels f This is of the Seventies (1770) or so ; 'treats of Florida chiefly, has a wondrous kind of flounder- ing eloquence in it ; and has also grown immeasurably old. All American libraries ought to provide themselves with that kind of book; and keep them as a kind of future biblical article."

^ Nouveaux Voyages aux Indes Occidentales, Contenant une Relation des diffe rents peuples qui habitent les environs du grande fleuve Saint Louis, appelle vulgairement le Mississippi; leur Religion; leur Gouv- ernement; leurs Guerres, leur Commerce. Par M. Bossu, Amsterdam, 1768.

=* Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, the Cherokee Country, the Extensive Territories of the Musco- gulges, or Creek Confederacy, and the Country of the Choctaws. By William Bartram. Plates. 8vo. London, 1792.

(1)

2 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

Writing a month later to the same appreciative corre- spondent, the great Scotchman said : "Along with the sheets [of the life of Sterling] was a poor little French book for you — Book of a poor Naval Mississippi Frenchman, one *Bo88u/ I think; written only a century ago, yet w^hich already seemed old as the Pyramids in reference to those strange, fast-growing countries. I read it as a kind of de- faced romance; very thin and lean, but all truc^ and very marye^QUpja^ such." The books thus strikingly character- jzp4.l>y'Q^J^ryl.e represent a species of writings constituting .thi \^v Jfajfjiid^ation of western literature.

The archives of the Central Mississippi Valley are rich in records of discovery, exploration, adventure, and early scientific observation. The journals and memoranda of those who, from sight or hearsay, gave report of the In- dian country before it was reclaimed for the uses of civil- ization, show, as it were, the dark theater of history, ere yet the curtain had risen on the great play of State-making. How like a voice crying in the wilderness, fall upon the mind^s ear, the relations of Marquette and the other orig- inal explorers of the interior of the continent. When we read the strange travels of Spaniard, Frenchman, or En- glishman, in old Florida or Louisiana, in the years of the rivalry of Europe's leading nations for supremacy in the New World, we seem to realize the beginning of the be- ginnings. We stand on prehistoric ground, and wait the genesis of a people. We see the red- tribes begin to re- treat westward, fighting as they yield; and w^e behold the slow coming-in, from east, and south, and north, of the hunter, the chopper, the trader, the maker of farm and town. In dingy-paged volumes of old books we learn what manner of men and women were those who first set foot in the western forest, and dared the bloody game of Life-or-Death with the savages.

The beginnings of culture in the west were dependent on what was said about the country and the settlers. Many of the first books relating to the frontier were writ- ten by outsiders, sojourners, whose motive was to tell the Old World what the New was like. These books infiu-

Som.e Early Travelers and Annalists. 3

eiicecl migration, and made no slight impression on the minds of the pioneers. Narratives of travel, and sketches of backwoods' trial and adventure, naturally became the favorite reading matter of the log-cabin. The character of the families that had gone west to grow up with the country, was shaped by this kind of primitive literature.

As settlement proceeded, and society became organized, the settlers themselves took occasion to employ the goose- quill, in the way of chronicle and description, and thus arose a rude indigenous literature. The writers were jealous of the reputation of their adopted backwoods, and wrote with provincial zeal. The opinions of foreign travelers came to be quite generally read and discussed; especially the reports of the more critical tourists. The uncomplimentary account of the American common peo- ple, as rendered by such writers as Wald, Ashe, and Basil Hall, though very disagreeable to such as were satirized in the harsh pages, formed what a distinguished editor calls " mighty interesting reading," and no doubt had a whole- some effect, as did afterward the bitter medicines adminis- tered by Mrs. TroUope, Captain Marry att, and Charles Dickens. Of more importance than such books of general travel are numerous carefully prepared journals of sci- entific character, giving in a most delightful style observa- tions on the archaeology and natural history of the new regions. Bartram's " Travels," the " iiounderino^ elo- quence " of which so impressed Carlyle, belongs to the scientific department of our ancient literature. The Bartrams, John, born 1701, and William, born in 1739, w^ere Pennsylvanians, and both eminent in botany. The *' Travels " of William Bartram w^as first published in Philadelphia, in 1791. Coleridge honored it with his praise, calling it " a work of high merit every way."

Travels, anticipating by nearly a century those of Bossu, were undertaken by his countrymen, the French explorers of the Mississippi, in the last quarter of the Sev- enteenth century. Who that has read can ever forget the vivid and intensely dramatic " relations" of those de- voted actors in the romantic drama of discovery and con-

4 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

quest: Marquette, Allouez, Membre, Hennepin, Anastase Douay, Cavelier, St. Cosme, Le Sueur, Gravier, and Guignas, covering a period of fifty-live years, from 1673 to 1728. These heroic Jesuits tell the simple, but absorbing, story of a half century's endeavor to learn the mystery of the mighty Mississippi, and the shifting " nations " that dwelt along its shores. As one pursues the marvelous con- tinued tale, more strange than fiction, he floats along un- known waters in a bark canoe ; sees the herded buftaloes feeding on the shore; meets thronging savages in lodge or wild- woods, and smokes the calumet of peace ; visits rude temples of the sun-god; joins with the gentle messengers of a new religion as they erect the cross of Christ in the shadow of the forest and sing the holy mass to the naked chiefs who wonder the more the less they comprehend. The labors of the indefatigable John Gil- mary Shea^ have put within every reader's reach the complete series of narratives in clear translation, giving the French accounts of the discovery and exploration of the Mississippi, and early voyages up and down that mag- nificent stream. These " relations " draw a sort of irregu- lar line of uncertain history along the region of the Great Lakes, down the Mississippi, and out through the Gulf of Mexico. The early voyageurs kept close to the water- courses. They had acquaintance with the Wisconsin, the Illinois, and some other aflluents of the Mississippi, but, for the most part, their knowledge of the tributaries of the great stream was confined to what they could see in passing the mouths of the inflowing rivers, or what they could learn by inquiry of the Indians. But the time was soon to come when, ascending the Ohio, and every other stream that finds its way to the Father of Waters, the

' Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi Valley. With the Original Narratives of Marquette, Allouez, Membre, Hennepin, and Anastase Douay. By John Gilmary Shea. 8vo. pp. 268. New York, 1852.

Early Voyages up and down the Mississippi, by Chevalier, St. Cosme, Le Sueur, Gravier, and Guignas. With Introduction, Notes, and an In- dex. By John Gilmary Shea. 4to. pp. 191. Albany, 1861.

Some Early Travelers and Annalists. 5

French canoe should penetrate the mystery of the inland, and bring back authentic information of what the Indian, the Spaniard, the Saxon were doing or planning in the region between the Gulf and the Lakes, between the Mississippi and the Appalachians. French settlements were soon to be made in Southern Illinois and Indiana, and Gaul was to gain a foothold in the western part of the Ohio Valley three-quarters of a century before the first English settlements were made at the head-waters of la belle riviere. What La Salle may have said or thought of the " Fair River," which he discovered two centuries and a quarter ago, is left to conjecture. But we possess definite information concerning the impressions of many explorer's who spied out the Ohio and its basin in the eighteenth century. Christopher Gist, agent and surveyor for the Ohio Company of Virginia, made a venturesome trip to the West in the year 1750-1. From his southern home, on the Yadkin, this wood-wise scout and shrewd reader of Indian character wended his way to Logstown, an Indian village on the Ohio a few miles be- low the fork of the Allegheny and Monongahela, and pro- ceeded thence, in company with George Croghan,^ of Pennsylvania, across what is now the state of Ohio. The explorers examined and admired portions of the rich valleys of the Muskingum, the Scioto, and the Miamis. "First of white men on record," says Bancroft, "they saw that the land beyond the Scioto, except the first twenty miles, is rich and level, bearing walnut trees of huge size, the maple, the wild cherry, and the ash ; full of little streams and rivulets ; variegated by beautiful natural prairies, covered with wild rye, blue grass, and white clover. Turkeys abounded, and deer, and elks, and most sorts of game; of buftaloes, thirty or forty were frequently seen feeding in one meadow." The Indian town of

^Journal of Colonel George Croghan, who was sent, after the Peace of 1763, by the government to explore the Country adjacent to the Ohio River, and to conciliate the Indian Nations who had hitherto acted with the French. Small 4to, pp. 38. Burlington, N. J.

6 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

Piqua, on the Big Miami, had a population of about four hundred families. From Piqua, Gist took his departure, alone, at the beginning of March, 1751, and passed south- ward through the grassy valleys of the Miamis, in which wild herds grazed ; and, reaching the Ohio, followed down that stream to within fifteen miles of the Falls. As the old sea-captain, Othere, is said to have carried with him, from the North Cape, a walrus-tooth, to show King Alfred, in verification of his discovery, so Christopher Gist took with him from Kentucky -the tooth of a mammoth, to astonish his Virginia employers with a specimen curiosity of the West.

The name of Gist is immortalized by its intimate asso- ciation with that of Washington, whose guide and comrade he was on the memorable expedition^ sent by Governor Dinwiddle to Forts Venango and Le Boeuf, in the year 1753. The journal of Major George Washington, giving in crude but clear English, the official report of his forty-seven days' doings, from the time he set out from Williamsburgh to his return thitheis detailing the particulars of his interviews with the French officers in Pennsylvania, is one of the rarest and most interesting bits of Americana. The diary proper contains only twenty pages, ordinary octavo size, but every word tells. Surely this little book, the first fruits of Washington's pen, produced when the hero was but a youth, deserves to be kept as a " kind of biblical article." The Robinson Crusoe-like adventures which it relates, of the Virginia Major and his man Friday, Mr. Gist, ought to render the story a boy-classic. Tied up in their " match coats," with gun in hand and pack on shoulders, the two men tread the dangerous woods ; they pass " the murdering-town ;" Washington is shot at by an Indian who lay in wait for him ; in order to cross the freez- ing Allegheny, they set about making a raft, " with but one

* The Journal of Major George Washington, sent by. Hon. Robert Din- widdle to the Commandant of the French Forces on Ohio. To which are added the Governor's Ix'tter. and a Translation of the French Oihcer's answer. 8vo. pp. 32. Map. Williamsburgh, printed. London, reprinted 1754.

Some Early Travelers and Annalists, 7

poor hatchet," and the task requires a whole day's work ; they finally launch the raft, but are "jammed in the ice " in a most dangerous manner, and they expect to perish. " I put out my setting Pole to try to stop the Eaft, that the Ice might pass by ; when the Rapidity of the Stream threw it with so much violence against the Pole, that it jerked me out into ten feet of Water; But I fortunately saved myself by catching hold of one of the Raft Logs."

The incidental visit of Washino:ton to the border of white settlement, on the eve of the great contest of the English with the French and Indians, marks the commencement of mighty changes. Imagination pictures the resolute young American, who was to become the Father of his Country, as, bestriding his Virginia steed, he surveyed the land at the confluence of the Allegheny .and Monongahela. rivers, building a fort, and perhaps a city, in his mind. " I spent some time," he wrote, " in viewing the River, and the Land in the Fork: which I think extremely well sit- uated for a Fort." Might not a sculptor make something striking of that? — Young Washington, on Jiorseback, at the head-waters of the Ohio, looking westward !

On the second of January, 1754, Washington, then at Frazier's settlement on the Monongahela, saw " seven- teen horses loaded with materials and stores for a Fort at the Forks of Ohio," and the day after, " some families going out to settle." Those families going west to settle were of the pioneer van. The Saxon foot had begun its tramp into the backwoods.

Boone made his first exploration in Kentucky in 1769 ; and white settlements were established in Western Vir- ginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky, before the breaking oat of the Revolutionary War. It is estimated that in the year 1784, thirty thousand people moved into Kentucky. In that same year, and as if born of the impulse of the active time, came into existence the first historical sketch of Kentucky.

Seven years before the publication of Bartram's Travels^ there was issued from the press Filson's "Kentucky," a Volume which has now become such a rare curiosity that

8 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

I here trascribe the complete title. " The Discovery. Set- tlement, and Present State of Kentucky ; and an Essay towards the Topography and Natural History of that Im- portant Country; by John Filson. To which is added an Appendix containing: I. The Adventures of Col. Daniel Boone, one of the First Settlers, comprehending every im- portant Occurrence in the Political History of that Province. II. The Minutes of the Piaukashaw Council, held at Post St. Vincent's, April 15, 1784. HI. An Account of the Indian Nations inhabiting within the Limits of the Thirteen United States; their Manners and Customs; and Keflections on their Origin. lY. The Stages and Distances between Philadelphia and the Falls of Ohio ; from Pittsburg to Pensacola, and several other Places. The whole illus- trated by a new and accurate Map of Kentucky, and the Country adjoining, drawn from actual surveys. Wilming- ton, printed by John Adams, 1784."

Very few copies of Filson's book and map are in exist- ence, and a single copy of the work has been sold for as much as one hundred and twenty dollars. Next to noth- ing had been published, or was generally known about Filson, until quite recently, when Colonel R. T. Durrett^ gathered together the scanty memorials of the romantic pioneer, and gave them to the world in a small volume^ put forth by the Filson Club, Louisville. From this vol- ume (which contains a weird and shadowy portrait of John Filson) we learn that he was born near the Brandywine, Pennsylvania, about the year 1747, and that he canic' to Kentucky, probably in 1783, being, then, perhaps, thirty- six years old. He formed the acquaintance ot, and col-

* RonV>on Thomas Durrett, lawyer, editor, and aullH.r. horn in Ilcnry county, K.ntucky, January 22, 1824, founder of tli.- lils-.n (lul,. lives in I/<>uisvilli*. He possesses the finest historic:! 1 lil.i;n\ in Krntutky. A cornHponflent of the New York Tribune descrilx s ( olonri l>nn(ti ;w a'Mull. uliit(-licanl.-<l, l.Iuc-cyc.l man, witli tin- \\vm\ oi Longfellow and thr inaiin.Ts ..f Sir Ko;,n,'r dc ("owrly."

'.If.lm 1 il-(.ii. tlir l-'irst Historian of Kcntnck.w An A.vmuh; .,i" His Life uu<I WritiM--. i»rincipally from Original Sonrc. s. I'l-.pan.i lor ihe FilBOnChil.. l.y UruhruT. Durrett. Ix)ui8vilK' an.i Ciiuinnati. Is-i. ,

Some Early Travelers and Annalists. 9

lected iuformatioii from, Daniel Boone, Levi Todd, James Harrod, Christopher Greenup, John Cowen, William Ken- nedy, and other pioneers. The adventures of Boone were related by that hero directly to the enterprising school- master, speculator, and verse-maker, Filson, who pub- lished them, and who is therefore not only the first his- torian of Kentucky, but the original biographer of the typical backswoodsman of literature. The narrative of Filson furnished the basis of Bryan's " Mountain Muse," one of the early attempts to put Western scenery and pioneer romance into verse. Having prepared his manu- script and map, the author returned to the East and had them published. The next year he turned his face west- ward, and proceeded from his home to Pittsburg in a Jer- sey wagon, and thence in a flat-boat down the Ohio, to the mouth of Beargrass Creek, where Louisville now is. The entire journey consumed two months, from April 25, to June 27, 1785.

In the summer of the same year, Filson went in a canoe to Vincennes, on the Wabash, and walked back through the woods to Beargrass. This journey of four hundred and fifty miles he repeated in the autumn, the object of both excursions being to collect materials for a history of the Illinois country. On the first day of June, 1786, he set out from Yincennes for the Falls of the Ohio in a "perogue," accompanied by three men. The party was attacked by Indians, and compelled to land and take to the woods for safety. Filson, after many perils and sufierings, found his way back to Yincennes, exhausted by famine and sore with wounds. After this adventure, he returned safe to Kentucky, and again traveled over the long road to Philadelphia on horseback. In 1787 he once more appeared in the land of Boone, and advertised proposals in the Ken- tucky Gazette to start a classical academy in Lexington, the sylvan "Athens of the West." The project seems not to have been realized ; but Filson was fertile in expedients, and soon he engaged in the important enterprise which fixed his name in history. In August, 1788, he went into partnership with Mathias Denman and Robert Patterson

10 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

in the purchase of a tract of land on the north side of the Ohio River, opposite the mouth of the Licking, on which it was proposed to lay out tlie town of Losantiville, now Cincinnati. Filson invented the name Losantiville, which has been much ridiculed, but it is doubtful whether the word Cincinnati, which is either a genitive singular or a nominative plural, is not as absurd as the euphonious name compounded by the Lexington schoolmaster. Filson, who was a surveyor, marked out a road from Lexington to the mouth of the Licking, and, with his partners, ar- rived at the site of their town in September, and began to lay out streets, at least on paper. One of these was to be called Filson Avenue, but the name was changed to Plum street after Filson's tragic disappearance from the stage of affairs. The circumstances of his exit are shrouded in mystery. The supposition is that he fell a victim to the tomahawk and scalping-knife of some prowling sav- age. All that we know is he set out alone to explore the solitudes of the Big Miami woods, and was seen no more by his white comrades. Kor was any trace of his body ever found.

I pass from the story of Filson to that of another traveler and writer who, in some sense, took up the his- torical and romantic role which Filson had ceased to play. Gilbert Imlay, a Captain in the American army, and com- missioner for laying out lands in the back settlements, published, in the year 1792, a remarkably complete and entertaining book^ on Kentucky and the West. It was written in the form of a series of letters, and first appeared from a London press. This Captain Imlay was the man whose scandalous relation with Mary WoUstonecroft and cruel abandonment of her once made a considerable excite- ment in the world. He met Miss WoUstonecroft in France some time in 1792, and the two formed a free- love alliance which Imlay broke, thereby causing the lady to attempt suicide. She afterward became the wife of

* A Topographical Description of the Western Territory of North America, Containing an Account of its Climate, Population, Manners, and CustoniH, etc. By Captain (liibort Imlay. London, 1792.

Some Early Travelers and Annalists. 11

William Goodwiu, by whom she had a daughter who married the poet Shelley. Imhiy was the author of a novel entitled " The Emigrants," which appeared in three volumes, in 1793.

To the second edition of Imlay's "America," 1793, was appended John Filson's " Kentucky." The work was fur- nished with several useful maps. A third edition, much enlarged, was published in 1797. This contains : " Obser- vations on the Ancient Works," by Jonathan Heart ; ^' Description of Louisiana and West Florida," by Thomas Hutchins; Patrick Kennedy's "Journal up the Illinois River," " Description of the State of Tenasee, 1796," etc. Several of the chapters deal in general historical facts collected from other books. The writer dwells with prolix comment, on the American theory and form of government, and on systems of polity, religion, and so- ciety, evidently regarding himself as an authority in statesmanship and philosophy. His social views arc ex- tremely radical, and he indulges in divers rhapsodical flights on liberty, equality, fraternity, and millennial per- fection.

The interest of Imlay's book to readers of the present day consists in his descriptions of Kentucky, its products and people, as he saw them a hundred years ago. It is pleasant, for instance, to read what he wrote of the cane- brakes that once covered many parts of the Ohio Valley, and which were of value as fodder. " The cane," he says, "" is a reed that grows to the height frequently of ten or twelve feet, and it is in thickness from th6 size of a goose- quill to that of two inches in diameter. When it is slender, it never grows higher than from four to seven feet ; it shoots up in one summer, but produces no leaves until the following year. It is an evergreen, and is, per- haps, the most nourishing food for cattle upon earth, ^o other milk or butter has such flavor and richness as that which is produced from cows which feed upon cane. Horses which feed upon it work nearly as well as if they were fed upon corn."

The Captain's style is often picturesque and vivid,

12 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

but 8omc of his delineations of primitive customs in Ken- tucky are probably toiulicd with the hues of fancy. The following idylic paragraphs might have been written of Arcadia :

" The season of sugar making occupies the Avomen whose mornings are cheered by the modulated buifoonery of the mocking-bird, the tuneful song of the thrush, and the gaudy plumage of the paroquet. Festive mirth crowns the evening. The business of the day being over, the men join the women in the sugar groves where en- chantment seems to dwell. The lofty trees wave their spreading branches over a green turf, on w^iose soft down the mildness of the evening invites the neighboring youth to sportive play; while our rural Xestors, with calcu- lating minds, contemplate the boyish gambols of a grow- ing progeny ; they recount the exploits of their early age, and, in their enthusiasm, forget there are such things as decrepitude and misery. Perhaps a convivial song or a pleasant narrative closes the scene.

" Rational pleasures meliorate the soul ; and it is by familiarizing man with uncontaminated felicity that sordid avarice and vicioiis habits are to be destroyed.

" Gardening and tishing constitute some part of the amusements of both sexes. Flowers and their genera form one of the studies of our ladies; and the embellish- ment of their houses with those which are known to be salutary constitute a part of their employment. Domestic cares and music fill up the remaincK'r of the day, and social visits, without ceremony or form, leave them with- out ennui or disgust. Our young men are too gallant to peiMnit the wonicii to liavo separate amusements; and thus it is that we lind that suavity and politeness of man- ners universal, which can only be effected by female polish.

** The autumn and winter produce not less pleasure. Evening visits mostly end with dancing by the young people, while the more aged indulge their hilarity, or disseminate information in the disquisition of politics, or some useful art or science.

Some Eaiiy Travelers and Annalists. 13

" Such are the aniusemeiits of this country, which have for their hasis hospitality, and all the variety of good things which a luxuriant soil is capahle of producing W'ithout the alloy of that distress of misery which is pro- duced from penury or want. Malt liquor, and spirits dis- tilled from corn and the juice of the sugar tree, mixed with water, constitute the ordinary beverage of the coun- try. Wine is too dear to be drank prodigally ; but that is a fortunate circumstance, as it will be an additional spur to us to cultivate the vine."

Enough and perhaps too much of Captain Imlay's'rosy* rhetoric. Let us tarn from the perusal of his pages to the less florid volumes of his cotemporary, Henry Toul- min ^ (born, 1767 ; died, 1823) ; another historiographer of Kentucky. He was an Englishman, a disciple and fol- lower of Joseph Priestly. Migrating to Kentucky, he took a leading part in the public aftairs of the young state. For a time Toulmin was president of Transylvania University, at Lexington ; and he afterward became Sec- retary of State. A collection of the acts of the Kentucky Legislature, by him, w^as published at Frankfort in 1802. His " Description of Kentucky," and " Thoughts on Emi- gration," both published in London, in 1792, were valu- able in their day in spreading knowledge of the West, and inducing immigration.

In the years 1795-6-7, Isaac Weld, Junior, a young Irishman, of Dublin, made a journey through the United States and Canada, an account of which, as a collection of letters, was published in 1797. This volume,^ though written in a captious spirit, gives the reader a very definite if not very flattering running description of American life in the later days of Washington. The author's bitter and contemptuous comments on what he

' A Description of Kentucky in North America, to which are prefixed Miscellaneous Observations respecting the United States. Map, 8vo. Printed in November, 1792,

2 Travels through the States of North America, and the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, in 1795-97. By Isaac Weld. Maps and plates. 4to, pp, 464, London, 1799,

14 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

considered the rudeness and vulgarity of the lower orders of society were much resented by the newspapers of the period. In the last sentence of his pettishly scornful book, Weld says : " I shall speedily take my departure from this continent, well pleased at having seen so much of it as I have done; but I shall leave it without a sigh, and without entertaining the slightest wish to revisit it.'^ The narrative relates chiefly to the Atlantic States and Canada, though it contains lively descriptions of Niagara, Lake Erie and Detroit. The map which accompanies the book, showing the United States as far south as Florida and as far west as the mouth of the Kentucky river, indi- cates the location of but two towns in Kentucky, Lexing- ton and Lewistown, and only one in the " Western Terri- tory," namely. Marietta. The point farthest west which Mr. Weld reached in his Virginia explorations was the town of Fincastle. Speaking of the "great road, running north and south behind the Blue mountains, and which is the high road from the [N'orthern States to Kentucky," the traveler gives the following bit of personal observation and experience : "As I passed along this road, I met with great numbers of people from Kentucky and the new State of Tennessee, going toward Philadelphia and Balti- more, and with many others going in the contrary direc- tion, * to explore,' as they call it, that is, to search for lands conveniently situated for new settlements in the western country. These people all travel on horseback, with pistols or swords, and a large blanket folded up un- der their saddle, which last they use for sleeping in when obliged to pass the night in the woods. There is but little occasion for arms now that peace has been made with the Indians ; but formerly it used to be a very serious under- taking to go by this route to Kentucky, and travelers were always obliged to go forty or fifty in a party, and well prepared for defense. It would be still dangerous for any person to venture singly; but if five or six travel together they are perfectly secure. There are liouses now scattered along nearly the whole way from Fincastle to Lexington in Kentucky, so that it is not necessary to

Some Early Travelers and Anrtalists. 15

sleep more than two or three nights in the woods in going there. Of all the uncouth human beings I met with in America, these people from the western country were the most so; their curiosity was boundless. Frequently have I been stopped abruptly by some of them in a solitary part of the road, and in such a manner that, had it been in another countr}^ I should have imagined that it w^as a highw^ayman that was going to demand my purse, and without any farther preface, asked where I. came from ? if I was acquainted wdth any news? w^here bound to? and finally, my name ? ' Stop, mister ! Why I guess now you be coming from the new state?' ' ^o, sir.' ' Why then I guess as how you be coming from Kentuc' '^o, sir.' ' Oh ! Why then, now, where might you be coming from?' 'From the low country.' ' Why you must have heard all the news then ; now, mister, what might the price of bacon be in those parts?' ' Upon my word, my friend, I can't inform you.' 'Aye, aye ; I see, mister, you be'n't one of us ; now, mister, what might your name be?' A stranger going the same way is sure of having the com- pany of these worthy people, so desirous of information, as far as the next tavern, w4iere he is seldom suiFered to remain for live minutes, till he is again assailed by a fresh set of the same questions."

Another entertaining book of travel is the Journal of Francis Baily,^ who made a toar down the Ohio and Mis- sissippi in 1796-7.

The celebrated naturalist, F. A. Michaux, who, clad in a suit made of the skins of wild animals, traversed the Mississippi Valley, collecting materials for his " History of American Oaks," also published a book^ of travels. The descriptions which he gave of the West, and of his expe-

^ Journal of a Tour in Unsettled Parts of North America in 179(>-7. (Down the Ohio and Mississippi, and back to Knoxville, Tennessee.) By Brands Baily. 8vo, pp. 439. London, 1856.

2 Travels to the Westward of the Allegheny Mountains in the States of Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee, and return to Charleston through the Upper Carolinas. London, 1804.

16 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

riences of log-cabin life and woodland adventure, are well worth reading.

Not less entertaining and more general in its scope was a book of travels by the French savant, C. F. Yolney (1757-1820), a translation^ of which appeared in 1804, and was very generally circulated. It is chiefly geographical.

There was published in 1808, a book ^ that created a sensation in the Ohio Valley, and particularly in Cincin- nati. This was a pretentious but blundering narrative by Thomas Ashe, compiled from the " !N'avigator " and other books, with orrginal statements based on insufficient ob- servation, and^ not a few downright inventions of the au- thor's fancy. For example, the Big Miami river is repre- sented as flowing out of Lake Erie. Ashe went under the assumed name of D'Arville, and introduced himself by forged letters to leading citizens of the West. We are told by an early western writer that this imposter " be- guiled the late learned, ingenious, and excellent Dr. Go- forth of his immense collection of mammoth bones, and made a fortune of them, and of his book, in London." E. D. Mansfield brands Ashe as the " first to discover that a book abusing the people of the United States would be profitable by its popularity." Daniel Drake, whose pre- ceptor was the deluded Goforth, mentions Ashe, alias D'Arville, as that " swindling Englishman ;" but the favorite appellation by which indignant Cincinnatians ad- vertised the ofiending bone-stealer w^as " the infamous Ashe." The London Quarterly Review said of Ashe and

» View of the Climate and Soil of the United States of America, with Remarks on Florida. By C. F. Volney. London, 1804.

Volney was known to many readers from his celebrated book " The Ruins," which was published in 1791.

' Travels in America performed in 1806, for the purpose of exploring the Rivers Allegheny, Monongahela, Ohio and Mississippi, and ascer- taining the Produce and Condition of their Banks and Vicinity. By Thomas Ashe. 3 vols., 18mo. London, 1808.

Also, Memoirs of Mammoth and various other Extraordinary and Stupendous Bones found in the Vicinity of the Ohio, Wabash, Illinois, MissiBBippi and other Rivers. By Thomas Ashe. Plate. 8vo. Liver- pool, 1806.

Some Early Travelers and Annalists. 17

f his " Travels :" " He has spoiled a good book by engraft- ing incredible stories on authentic facts."

II. M. Brackenridge's Recollections^ of a journey from Pittsburg to St. Genevieve in 1792 ; Rev. Thaddeus Mason Harris's accouat^ of his tour from Boston to Marietta in 1803 ; Christian Schultz's diary ,^ detailing the particulars of a journey from Kew York city to the West and South in the years 1807-8; and, above all, Timothy Flint's story* of his travels in the valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi, begun in 1815, hold the reader's attention, with all the excitement of romance, and more than the interest of any fiction.*

An exceedingly delightful book of its class is Brad- bury's " Travels in the Interior of America,"^ a racy, off- hand, and manifestly true report of the author's personal observation of nature and man in the wilder parts of the Mississippi Valley, in the years 1809, '10, '11. John Brad- bury, an English botanist, came to the United States in 1809, and having consulted Thomas Jefferson concerning the best field for his scientific labors, decided to make St. Louis his head-quarters. He ascended the Missouri, made

^ Recollections of Persons and Places in the West. By H. M. Brack- enridge. 12mo, pp. 331. Philadelphia, 1868.

^ The Journal of a Tour into the Territory northwest of the Alle- ghany Mountains, with a Geographical and Historical Account of the State of Ohio. By Thaddeus Mason Harris. With five maps. 8vo, pp. 271. Boston, 1805.

^ Travels on an Inland Voyage through New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, etc., in 1807-8. By Christian Schultz. Portrait, maps, and plates. 2 vols., 8vo, pp. 207-224. New York, 1810.

* Eecollections of the last Ten Years, passed in occasional Residences and Journeyings in the Valley of the Mississippi, from Pittsburg and the Missouri to the Gulf of Mexico. By Timothy Flint. 8vo, pp. 395. Boston, 1826.

^ For a synopsis of these entertaining books, see Venable's Footprints of the Pioneers in the Ohio Valley.

® Travels in the Interior of America in the Years 1809-10-11, includ- ing a Description of Upper Louisiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Ten- nessee, with the Illinois and Western Territories. By John Bradbury. 8vo. Liverpool, 1817. 2

18 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

collections of i»lants and minerals, studied the habits and language of the Indians, and prepared an excellent gen- eral description of the Ohio Valley. His book is entirely original, a transcript of daily doings and seeings, written in simple but pittorial style, with that golden medium of skill in detailing particulars which gratifies but never cloys the reader. The diary pleasantly talks of natural scenery; of plants, birds, beasts; of Indians, S[)aniards, French and P]nglish men. Isow we have a lively descrip- tion of a bear hunt, then of a bee tree; now an account of a buitalo herd, then of a rattlesnake den. We are told how beaver meat tastes, and how to make bread of corn meal and pounded persimmons. We see the Indians dance and hear them sing; we enter the smoky wigwams, and sympathize with Mr. Bradbury in his embarassed at- tempts to escape the tender advances of squalid squaws.

One reads with curious interest that, on the morning of January 17, 1810, while proceeding up the Missouri river in a boat, Bradbury saw, standing on the shore, near the. French village of Charette, an old man, " Daniel Boone, the discoverer of Kentucky." "As I had a letter of in- troduction to him, from his nephew Colonel Grant, I went ashore to speak to him, and requested that the boat might go on, as I intended to walk until evening. I remained some time in conversation with him. He informed me that he was eighty-four years of age ; that he had spent a considerable portion of his time alone in the back woods, and had lately returned from his spring hunt, with nearly sixty beaver skins."

The several volumes of exploration, travel, or history, by Lewis and Clarke,^ Cuming,^ Pike, Stoddard,^ Hard-

* Sketches of a Tour to the Western Country, throu^^h the States of Ohio an<l Kentucky; a Voyage down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, and a Trip though the Mississippi Territory and Part of West Florida. By F. Cuming. KJino, pp. 504. Pittsburg, 1810.

" Sketches, Historical and Descriptive, of Louisiana. By Amos Stod- dard. 8vo, pp. 488. Philadelphia, 1812.

• The results of the expedition of Captuins Merriwether Ijewis and William Clarke were communicated to Congress by a message from the President, and printed by the government in an octavo volume of 178

Some Early Travelers and Annalists. 19

ing,^ Dana,^ Loiig,^ and others, publislied within the first quarter of the Nineteenth century, though not all treating of the Ohio Valley, furnished much information bearing upon common interest, and were widely read in Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. Their influence helped to form the opinions and motives of the people of the Cen- tral West.

In the year 1818, Morris Birkheck, an English specu- lator who founded the settlement of Albion, in Southern Illinois, published in London two little books, ^'Letters from Illinois," and " Xotes on a Journey in America." These very agreeable volumes were, in purpose, similar to the writings Toulmin had produced in Kentucky, thirty years before. They were designed to encourage migra- tion from Great Britain to Illinois.

Thomas jSTuttall, an American naturalist, who spent tea or twelve years traveling in various parts of the United States, for scientific purposes, made an extensive journey into Arkansas, in 1818-19. A journal ^ of his travels was published in 1821. The second and third chapters of this book, giving minute particulars of the author's descent

pages, in 1806. The best account of this important expedition, how- ever, was prepared for the press by Paul Allen, and published in Phila- delphia in 1814, in two volumes, 8vo, under the title of '' History of the Expedition, under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clarke, to the Sources of the Missouri, thence Across the Rocky Mountains, and down the River Columbia to the Pacific Ocean, performed during the Years 1804-5-6."

1 A Tour through the Western Country, a. d. 1818 and 1819. By Ben- jamin Harding. 8vo, pp. 17. New London, 1819.

^ Geographical Sketches on the Western Country ; designed for Emi- grants and Settlers, being the Result of Extensive Researches and Re- marks. Including a particular Description of the unsold Public Lands, etc. By E. Dana. 16mo, pp. 312. Cincinnati, 1819.

^ Account of an Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains in 1819-20. Compiled from the Notes of Major Stephen H, Long and others, by Edwin James. Colored Illustrations. 3 vols. 8vo. Lon- don, 1823.

* A Journal of Travels into the Arkansas Territory during the Year 1819. With occasional Observations on the Manners of the Aborigines. By Thomas Nuttall. Map and engravings. Svo, pp. 296. Philadel- phia, 1821.

20 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

of the Ohio river, from Pittsburg to the Mississippi, bear the stamp of photographic tidelity. They are written in a style somewhat dry and crabbed, but never dull. The naturalist, accompanied by a young man, left Pittsburg, October i^l, 1^18, in a skiff which he purchased for six dollars. On the night of the 22d the voyagers landed about two miles below Beavertown, and went to a tavern to obtain rest and shelter for the night which was cold. " Finding the tavern crowded with people met together for merriment," says the journal, " we retired to a neigh- boring hovel. Our prospect of repose was soon, however, banished, as our cabin, being larger than the tavern, was selected for a dancing room, and here we were obliged to sit as waking spectators of this riot till after one o'clock in the morning. The whisky bottle was brought out to keep up the excitement, and, without the inconvenience and delay of using glasses, was passed pretty briskly from mouth to mouth, exempting neither age nor sex. Some of the young ladies also indulged in smoking as well as drinking drams." According to ^N'uttall, pretty nearly every body along the banks of the river, white, black, or red, was devoted to the spirit of corn. That distilled on the Monongahela had the preference.

On the evening of November 7th, the travelers landed on the Kentucky shore just below the mouth of the Big Sandy. " We took up our lodgings where there happened to be a corn husking, and were kept awake with idle mer- riment and riot till past midnight. Some of the party, or rather of the two national parties, got up and harangued to a judge, like so many lawyers, on some political argu- ment, and other topics, in a boisterous and illiberal style, but without coming to blows. Is this a relic of Indian customs ? "

Arriving at Cincinnati, Nuttall went to see his friend Dr. Drake, whom he describes as " one of the most scien- tific men west of the Alleghany mountains." Descending the river to the neighborhood of the Swiss towns of Ve- vay and Ghent, the traveler lodged with a polite and hos- pitable Frenchman, with whom he drank some sour native

Some Early Travelers and Annalists. 21

wine, costing only twenty-live cents a bottle. The record in the diary for i^ovember 23d, reads : " At length I ar- rived at the large and flourishing town of Louisville, but recently a wilderness."

Nuttall was detained at Louisville until December 7th, and his stay there gave opportunity to observe the stir and bustle of migrating people seeking fortune in a new country. Our traveler reports his impressions in this lan- guage : "A stranger who descends the Ohio at this season of emigration, can not but be struck with the jarring vor- tex of heterogeneous population amidst which he is em- barked, all searching for some better country, which lies to the west as Eden did to the east."

Having purchased a flat-boat at Shippingport, Xuttall, accompanied by an " elderly gentleman and his son," em- barked, and was carried by the current alone at the rate of eighty miles a day. They see few inhabitants along- shore— only an occasional '^ hunting farmer," seeking wild turkeys in the woods or canebrakes. They pass a small town called Evansville, pass Diamond Island and the mouth of the Wabash, and, on the fourteenth, behold Shawneetown, Illinois, '' a handful of log cabins." They float by Battery Rock, Rock in the Cave, and other bold clifi^s, and drift into regions untouched by civilization. " The occidental wilderness appears here to retain its pri- meval solitude; its gloomy forests are yet unbroken by the hand of man, they are only penetrated by the wander- ing hunter and the roaming savage." The river, below Massac, was infested by professional wreckers — little bet- ter than robbers — a band of whom fleeced the unwary travelers at " Wolf's Island." Finally the flat-boat reached the Mississippi, and the voyage was continued without se- rious accident down to Arkansas. Borne along on the great bosom of the waters, the meditative naturalist gazed out upon the lovely panorama of nature. The result of his reflections is summed in the words of his journal: " How many ages may yet elapse before these luxuriant wilds of the Mississippi can enumerate a population equal to the Tartarian deserts ! At present all is irksome silence

22 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

and gloom of solitude, such as to inspire the mind with horror.'* Yet this was written in 1819 — not three-quarters of a century ago !

It was hut a few years after Nuttall made his journey to Arkansas that H. \i. Schoolcraft set out on his travels^ in the central portions of the Mississippi Valley. The book which records his adventures is dedicated to Lewis Cass, governor of the Territory of Michigan, under whose patronage, by the sanction of the general government, the author's explorations were undertaken. Indeed, Governor Cass accompanied Schoolcraft on some of his journeys. The tour was begun July 3, 1821, when the travelers started, from Detroit. The route chosen was up to the head-waters of the Maumee, thence across to the sources of the Wabash, and down that river to its mouth, thence across Illinois to St. Louis, and up the Mississippi to Fox river, and overland to Chicago.

Schoolcraft says, writing in 1821 : " The whole district of country between Fort Detiance and Fort AVayne is yet in a state of nature. The only shelter to be obtained in passing through it, is Brush's cabin ; a small log tenement put up during the present season as a 'kind of half-way house." At Fort AVayne he visited the Indian school, conducted on the " Lancastrian system." The number of pupils was forty-eight, most of them Pottowatamies.

On the portage between the Maumee and the Wabash, Schoolcraft and his excellency Governor Cass spent a night at an Indian village, making an effort to sleep in a wigwam, the lodge of a chief. But the Indians of the village were engaged in a drunken carousal, and made night hideous with wild noise. "As is usual when their liquor is exhausted," writes the traveler, " they fell to quarreling and fighting, and we momentarily expected that some murder would be perpetrated. At this critical period, we were pleased to observe an aged squaw, care-

' Travels in the Central Portions of the Mississippi Valley ; compris- ing obwrvations on its Mineral (reography, Internal Resources, and Aboriginal Population. By H. R. Schoolcraft. Map and plate. 8vo, pp. 45». New York, 1825.

Some Earhj Trarelers and AnnaUsts. 23

fully ir^ither ii|» all the knives about the loclo^e, two of whicii wore di-awn from crevices in the logs near our heads; and she eifectually concealed them."

The Indians along the AVabash practiced a peculiar mode of decoying deer, by niglit, r'alled "Fire-hunting." The hunter fixes a torch in the bow of his canoe, and floating slowly down stream, watches his opportunity to shoot the deer that seek the river banks, and are dazzled by the flame. " The light which they employ is prepared from the Avax separated from the wild honey. This wax is poured in the hollow stem of the cane, through which a strip of cotton cloth has been drawn, to serve the pur- ]30se of a wick."

In the vicinity of Terre Haute, flocks of showy green parroquets were common, and three red deer were seen swimming the Wabash.

The travelers spent several days at Vincennes, where the}' were entertained by J. C. S. Harrison, Esq., and wdiere they met " with several gentlemen who had borne a conspicuous part in the civil and miilitary transactions of the country." Among these was General Zachary Taylor.

Passing the little town of Albion, at the mouth of the Bonpas, the voyagers made inquiry concerning the place. It was the English settlement founded by Morris Birk- beck. The population in 1821 was two hundred. School- craft says : '' The town contains an hotel, where the in- habitants resort to drink beer in the English style; and a library of standard books, accessible to all, and much at- tention is paid to the improvement of the mind as well as the soil."

Schoolcraft gives a lengthy account of Harmony, Fred- erick Rappe's " fraternal " settlement, founded on the Wabash, in 1814.

The list of books of travel, throwing light on the con- dition of the Ohio Valley and its people in the flrst half of the Nineteenth century, might be extended indeflnitely. Our reference to this class of writings may close with the

24 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

mention of Bullock's " Sketch,"^ a volume of much local interest to the citizens of the metropolis of Ohio.

The hooks mentioned in the foregoing pages, and num- erous other sketches, journals, letters, and notes, furnished material from which local historians constructed state his- tories and gazetteers or compiled more general and com- prehensive manuals. The student of Ohio Valley annals may be assisted in his researches by having his attention called to some of the more important historical writings produced by early writers in the several states, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.

John Filson's "Kentucky," already described on a pre- ceding page, leads the catalogue of Ohio Valley historical compositions. This omnium gatherum , however, can hardly be ranked as a formal history.

One of the first to undertake the preparation of a regu- lar history ^ of Kentucky was Humphrey Marshall,^ a dis- tinguished Southern politician and orator, related to Chief-Justice John Marshall. He was born in Virginia, bwt came to Kentucky in 1780. He was elected to. the United States Senate over John Brecken ridge for the term of 1795-1801. He once ibught a duel with Henry Clay. Marshall died in 1842, at the advanced age of eighty-two. His history has a force and piquancy that make it readable to-day, and the bias in favor of Fed-

* Sketch of a Journey through the Western States of North America, from New Orleans to New York, in 1827. By W. Bullock. AVith a De- scription of the New and Flourishing City of Cincinnati, by Messrs. B. Drake and E. D. Mansfield. 12mo. London, 1827.

' The History of Kentucky. Including an Account of the Discovery, Settlement, and Present State of the Country. By Humphrey Marshall. Vol. 1. Frankfort., 1812. This is the first edition, the second volume of which was never published ; the complete edition, which embraced the above, n^viw^d and rewritten, was not published until twelve years later, under the following title: The History of Kentucky. An Ac- count of the Mo<lern Discovery, Settlement, Progressive Improvement, Civil and Military Transactions, and the Present State of the Country. 2 vols. 8vo, i>p. 47:1-524. Frankfort, 1824.

• A Life of Marshall, by A. C. Quisenbcrry, is aini(Mnu<'<l for publica- tion by tlie Filson Club.

Some Early Travelers and Annalists. 25

eralism acids a relish to its pages like that which one dis- covers in Hildreth's " United States."

Another historian of comparatively early time in Ken- tucky was Mann Butlei', a pioneer who deserves to be remembered for his virtues and services. Butler was born in Baltimore in 1784; visited England in boyhood; gradu- ated at St. Mary's College, D. C; came west in 1806, and began the practice of law at Lexington ; taught school at Marj^sville, Versailles, and Frankfort ; served some 3'ears as professor in- Transylvania University; located at Louis- ville, where he was a prominent educator and writer from 1831 to 1845 ; removed to St. Louis, where he resided from 1845 to the year of his death, 4852. He was the father of the educator, Xoble Butler.

Butler's history^ is agreeably written, and is specially interesting on account of its descriptions of life in the backwoods.

The History of Kentucky, by Judge Lewis Collins,^ first issued in 1847 (revised and enlarged fourfold, and brought down to 1874 by Dr. Richard Collins), gathers up all the fragments of Kentucky history, new and old, and is a standard reference book.

John Haywood's histories of Tennessee,^ dating from

^ A History of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, from its Exploration and Settlement by the Whites to the Close of the Northwestern Cam- paign in 1813. By Mann Butler. 12mo, pp. 396. Louisville, 1834.

2 Historical Sketches of Kentucky, embracing its History, Antiqui- ties, and Natural Curiosities, Geographical, Statistical, and Geologi- cal Descriptions. AVith Anecdotes of Pioneer Life, Biographical Sketches, etc. By Lewis Collins. Illustrated. 8vo, pp. 500. Mays- ville, 1S4S.

Anotlurr edition. Revised, enlarged fourfold, and brouglit down to the Year 1874, by his son, Richard H. Collins, embracing: Pre-historic An- nals for 331 Years, by Counties, Sketches of Courts, Churches, Free- masonry, etc., Pioneer Incidents, and nearly 500 Biographical Sketches of Distinguished Citizens. Map, portrait, etc, 2 vols. 8vo. Coving- ton, 1874.

^ The Natural and Aboriginal History of Tennessee, up to the First Settlement therein by the White People, in the Year 1708. By John Haywood. 8vo, pp. 375-|-liv. Nashville, 1823.

The Civil and Political History of the State of Tennessee from its

26 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

182o, have irrowii so valuable as to command fabulous prices.

Turniuu: our nftoution to tlie liistorical literature of the states north of the Ohio river, we find among the names of early annalists, that of Nahum Ward, who, as early as 1822, published a " Brief Sketch of the State of Ohio,"^ a pamphlet of only sixteen pages, and not of mucli in- trinsic value, but so rare that a copy has sold for $84.

'The "Preliminary Sketch of the History of Ohio," con- tained in the "Statutes of Ohio and of the ^Northwestern Territory," edited by Salmon P. Chase,^ and published in 1833, is justly regarded as a stand^ard of reference that can be relied upon, and it is, in fact, the iirst systematic presentation of the history of the Buckeye State. The volume in which it originally appeared was entirely of Western manufacture, the paper having been made at Zanesville, and the printing and binding, done in Cincin- nati. Before Chase's Sketch was issued, Mr. John H. James, of Urbana, had begun to print, in Hall's Western Magazine, his chapters on the history of Ohio. Caleb Atwater's^ history of Ohio, a book that has suffered more adverse criticism, and enjoyed less praise than it deserves, came out in 1838.

Earliest Settlement up to the Year 1796. Including; the Bouudaries of the State. By John Haywood. 8vo, pp. 504. Knoxville, 1828.

New editions of these two works have just been issued by Judge Haywood's great-grandson, W. H. Haywood. The latter contains a bio- graphical sketch of the author, by Colonel A. S. Colyar.

* A Brief Sketch of the State of Ohio, one of the United States in North America. With a Mapilelineating the same into Counties: Giv- ing the Opinion of Thomas Hutchinson, Esq., Geographer of the United States, and British Travelers in 1787, when that State was uninhabited by Civilize<l Man. Likewise exhibiting a View of the UnpanUleled Progress of that State since 1789 to the Present Day, it being now the Fourth State in the Union in Point of Population and Representation in Congress. By a Resident of Twelve Years at Marietta in that Stote. Map. 8vo, pp. 10. Glasgow, 1822. "

* A IVeliminary Sketch of the History of Ohio. By Salmon P. Chase. 8vo, pp. 39. Cincinnati, 1833.

* History of the State of Ohio. Natural and ('ivil. By Cal»'b Atwater. 8vo, pp. 407. Cincinnati, 1838.

Some Early Travelers and Annalists. 2T

Jacob Burnet's " Xotes,'' ^ a most useful contribution to pioneer bistory, and personally interesting to tbe descend- ants of tbe early settlers of Ohio, from tbe fact that tbe autbor was bimself a pioneer, and describes tbe Miami country as be saw it in 1796, was not pablisbed until 1847. In tbe same year Henry Howe^ gave tbe public bis won- derful " Collections," tbe best and most readable state history tbat bas yet been publisbed, a work entirely orig- inal and unique. Howe's '' Historical Collections of Obio " is correctly described as a " treasure-bouse of local and general information, of bistory, of legend and story, of geography and antiquities, of every tbing indeed pertain- ing to Obio and Ohio's history." Tbe autbor traveled over the state in tbe years 1846-7, collecting his material ; and again in 1886-7, be made a tour over tbe same ground, gathering fresh matter for a revised centennial edition of his great work, which bas just appeared, in two large volumes.

Ko enumeration of comparatively early works on Ohio is complete tbat does not name Dr. Samuel Prescott Hil- dreth's "Pioneer History of tbe Ohio Yalley,"^ and its companion volume, " Biographical and Historical Mem- oirs of tbe Pioneers."*

Most prominent of tbe early historians of Indiana Avas John B. Dillon, whose career falls in quite recent years, and whose first important book came out in 1843. This

^ Notes on the Early Settlement of the Northwestern Territory. By Jacob Burnet. 8vo, pp. 501. Cincinnati, 1847.

2 Historical Collections of Ohio. Containing a Collection of the most Interesting Facts, Traditions, Biographical Sketches, Anecdotes, etc., re- lating to the General and Local History, with Descriptions of its Coun- ties, Cities, Towns, Milages, etc. By Henry Howe. 8vo, pp. 599. Cin- cinnati, 1847.

' Pioneer History. Being an Account of the First Examinations of the Ohio Valley, and the Early Settlement of the Northwest Territory. Chiefly from Original Manuscripts, containing the Papers of Colonel Georgt Morgan, Judge Barker, Records of the Ohio Company, etc. By S. P. Hildreth. Plates and map. 8vo, pp. 525. Cincinnati, 1848.

* Biographical and Historical Memoirs of the Early Pioneer Settlers of Ohio. With Narrative of Incidents and Occurrences in 1775. By S. P. Hildreth. Portraits. 8vo, pp. 539. Cincinnati, 1852.

28 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

was the initial volume of a projected elaborate work which was never completed. The author, however, pub- lished, in 1859, a " History of Indiana from its Earliest Explorations to the Close of the Territorial Government in 1815." ' Dillon wrote other historical books. He was a most amiable gentleman and a useful citizen. For many years he was State Librarian of Indiana. He died in 1879.2

Judge John Law's address^ before the Historical So- ciety of Vincennes is a most valuable contribution to the history of the Hoosier State. Xor can any thing be more clear and suggestive, notwithstanding its discursiveness, than Smith's " Reminiscences.'' *

Illinois is quite rich in historial records. Having w^hite settlements in the southern part at a very early date, the Illinois country became the object of much attention from travelers and writers. I have referred to the letters of Morris Birkbeck,*^ which date back as far as 1818. The Rev. John Mason Peck,^ a distinguished Baptist mission- ary and educator, wrote "A Guide for Emigrants ; Con-

* A History of Indiana, from ite earliest Explorations by the Europeans to the close of tlie Territorial Government in 1810, including the Discovery, Settlement, etc., of the Territory north-west of the Ohio River, etc. By .John B. Dillon. 8vo, pp. xii, ()37. Maps and plates. Indianapolis, 1859.

' See Life and Services of John B. Dillon, liy (Jcneral John Coburn and Judge Horace P. Biddle. Published by tin- In. liana Historical So- ciety, 1880.

* The Colonial History of Vincennes, under thr French, British, and A mencan Governments, from its First Settlement down to the Terri- torial Administration of General W. H. Harrison. Being an Address before the Vincennes Histori(!al and Antiquarian Society, with addi- tional notes and illustrations. By John Law. Svo, pp. 157. \'in- cennes, 1858.

* Keminiscences. Early Indiana Trials and Sketches. Historical, Biographical, Political, et<\ Portrait. 8vo, pp. 040. Cincinnati, 1858.

* letters from Illinois. By Morris Birkbeck. 8vo, pp. 112. Ixjndon, 1818. Notes on a Journey in America, from the Coast of Virginia to the Territory of Illinois. By Morris Birkbeck. 8vo, pp. lO:). lx>ndon, 1818.

•Gaaettt^er of Illinois: Containing a General View of the State; a General View of each County, and a Particular Description of each Town, etc., By J. M. Peck. lOrao, pp. 376. Jacksonville, 1834.

Some Early Travelers and Armalisis. 29

taining Sketches of Illinois, Missouri, and the adjacent Posts," which was published in Boston in 1831 ; and also a " Gazetteer of Illinois," published in 1834. Henry Brown's ^ " Illinois " came out in 1844.

A book valued for its historical information, and amus- ing as a literary curiosity, is " The Pioneer History of Illinois," ^ written by John Reynolds, one of the early Gov- ernors of Illinois, an illiterate man of strong common sense. The volume was published at Belleville, Illinois, in 1852, and contains the history of Illinois from 1673 to 1818. The author says naively : " My friends will think it strange that I have written a book, no matter how small and unpretending it may be." He justifies his effort on the score that " many facts stated in the ' Pioneer History,' since the year 1800, came under my own observation, which may be relied on as true." Re- counting his personal history, he says : " The first Illinois soil I ever touched was on the bank of the Ohio, where Golconda now stands, in March, 1800. When we were about to start from the Ohio, I asked Mr. Lusk how far it w^as to the next house on the road, and when he told us the first was Kaskaskia, one hundred and ten miles, I was surprised at the wilderness before us. My father hired a man to assist us in traveling through the wilderness. We were four weeks in performing this dreary and desolate journey."

Governor Reynolds gives the following odd description of the French settlers of Illinois : " The French seldom plowed with horses, but used oxen. It is the custom with the French every-where to yoke oxen by the horns, and not by the neck. Oxen can draw as much by the horns as by the neck, but it looks more savage. Sometimes the

^ The History of Illinois, from its first Discovery and Settlement to the Present Time. By Henry Brown. Map. 8vo, pp. 492. New York, 1844.

2 The Pioneer History of Illinois: Containing the Discovery, in 1673, and the History of the Country to the Year 1818, when the State Gov- ernment was organized. By John Reynolds. 12mo, pp. 348. Belle- ville, 111., 1852.

30 Litcraru Culture in the Ohio Valley.

French worked oxen in carts, but mostly use horses. I presume that a w auon was not seen in Illinois for nearly one hundred years after its first settlement. A French cart, as well as a plough, was rather a curiosity. It was con- structed without an atom of iron. When the Americans came to the country, they called these carts ' barefooted carts,' because they had no iron on their wheels. .

*' The French generally, and the females of that nation particularly, caught u[) the French fashions from New Or- leans and Paris, and with a singular avidity adopted them to the full extent of their means and talents. The females generally, and the males a good deal, wore the deer skin mawkawsins. A nicely made mawkawsin for a female in the house is both neat and serviceable

. . . " The ancient and innocent custom was for the young men about the last of the year to disguise them- selves in old clothes, as beggars, and go around the village in the several houses where they knew they would be welcome. They enter the houses dancing what they call the Gionie, which is a friendly request for them to meet and have a ball to dance away the old year. The people, young and old, meet, each one carrying along some refreshment, and then they do, in good earnest, dance away the old year. About the 6th of January, in each year, which is called Lejourde Rais, sl party is given, and four beans are baked in a large cake ; this cake is distributed among the gentlemen, and each one who re- ceives a bean is proclaimed king. These four kings are to give the next ball. These are called ' King's balls.' These Kings select each one a queen, and make her a suitable present. They arrange all things necessary for tlie danc- ing party. In these merry parties no set supper is in- dulged in. They go there not to eat, but to be and make merry. They have refreshments of cake and coffee served round at proper intervals. Sometimes Bouillon, as the French call it, takes the place of coffee. Toward the close of the party, the old queens select each one a new King, and kisses him to qualify him into office ; then each new King chooses his new Queen, and goes

Some Early Travelers and Annalists. 31

throiigli tlie ceremony as before. In this manner the King balls are kept up all the carnival."

Another Illinois Governor, Thomas Ford, wrote a his- tory of the state, wliich was published at Chicago in 1854.^

Illinois is deeply indebted to the literary industry and enterprise of Judge James Hall, who resided in the State from 1820 to 1833, and there conducted the " Illinois Magazine," devoting much time and pains to historical subjects. To him, also, the people of the Ohio Valley owe gratitude for general labors in the field of local his- tory, and especially for his delightful volume, '' The Romance of Western History."

Supplementing and uniting the special histories, such as we have just glanced at, are many more general com- pends not easily classified. One of the earliest and most important of these is Flint's " The History and Geography of the Mississippi Valley," ^ 1833.

Another exceedingly important and useful digest of eve-nts, covering the whole ground of Ohio Valley history, is James H. Perkins's "Annals of the West," first issued in 1846 ; revised in 1850 by Rev. J. M. Peck, and re-revised by James R. Albach in 1852, and again in 1857. From this well-ordered store-house of valuable information, many compilers *and historians have borrowed, and many more will borrow.

Dr. Monette's painstaking and exhaustive *^ History of the Mississippi Valley," ^ 1846, and Hart's later and briefer

^ A History of Illinois, from its Commencement as a State, in 1818, to 1847. Containing a full Account of the Black Hawk War, the Rise, Progress, and Fall of Mormonism, the Alton and Lovejoy Riots, and other important and interesting Events. By Governor Thomas Ford. 12mo, pp. 447. Chicago, 1854.

* The History and Geography of the Mississippi Valley ; to which is appended a Condensed Physical Geography of the Atlantic United States and the whole American Continent. 2 vols. By Timothy Flint. 8vo. Boston, 1833.

' History of the Discovery and Settlement of the Valley of the Mis- sissippi by the great European Powers, Spain, France, Great Britain, etc. By John AV. Monette. 2 vols., 8vo. New York, 184G.

S'2 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

work* on the same subject, are books that sum up many facts with clear authenticity.

Far more attractive to the average reader than any la- bored compilation, however accurate, are divers and sun- dry volumes containing free, off-hand delineations of pio- neer life in the days when the Ohio Valley was still described as The Wilderness. These books consist largely of personal narrative, and have all the vividness and force of sketches from life. In many instances the artless di- rectness of an earnest teller of true adventures, has lent the illiterate pen a glowing power that rhetoric despairs to win. IN'ot a few of the heroic participants in border warfare, and the rude experience of log-cabin life, have set down the story of their hardy deeds and stern endur- ance in autobiography. But more frequently, the record of frontier events was left to hands not familiarly ac- quainted with the scalping knife or the hunter's trap and ^un.

A very succinct and satisfactory general view of the beginning of settlement in the Ohio Valley is that em- braced in Patterson's '^ Histor}^ of the Backwoods." ^ This •contains a remarkable map, engraved at Pittsburg in 1843, and showing '^the backwoods in 1764." Patterson's book is based, in part, upon those perennially fascinating old Virginia prose epics of the bor(Jer, Doddridge's " Notes," ' and Withers's " Chronicles." * To complete

* History of the Mississippi Valley. By A. M. Hart. 12mo, pp. 286. Cincinnati, 1853.

' History of the Backwoods; or, The Region of the Ohio. Authentic, from the I^arliest Accounts. Embracing many Events, Notices of Prom- inent Pioneers, Sketches of Early Settlements, etc., not heretofore pub- lished. By A. W. Patterson. Map. 12mo, pp. 311. Pittsburg. Printed for the author. 1843.

* Notes on the Settlement and Indian Wars of the Western Parts of Virginia and Pennsylvania, from the year 17(>3 to 178:5. Together with A View of the State of Society and Manners of the First Settlers of the Western Country. By Joseph Doddridge. 16mo, pp. 316. Wellsburgh, Va., 1824.

* Chronicles of Border Warfare ; or, a History of the Settlement by the Whites of Northwestern Virginia, and of the Indian War| and

Some Earhj Travelers and Annalists, 33

our select list of authors identilied with the pioneer period of Ohio Valley history, what names more suitable than those of the three Macs, McClung,^ McDonald,^ and Mc- Bride?^ Each of these authors has been admired by thousands of readers ; and their books should live as long as human nature continues to sympathize with heroism. McClung's Sketches were first published in Maysville in 1832.

Even a cursory perusal of the leading books of travel and history, inadequately sketched in the foregoing pages, reveals to the student a world of suggestive knowledge in regard not only to the material features of the diversified Valley of the Ohio, but still more concerning the inhabit- ants of the vast region, their origin, character, ideas, achievements and aspirations. In these books, as in a mirror, the first processes in the development of states and social institutions are reflected. We see the people at work, conquering savage nature, and laying the foundations of science, literature and art. Only by con- sidering the circumstances under which they did their mental work, only by estimating fairly their " means, culture and limits," can we judge, impartially, what they

Massacres in that section of the State ; with Reflections, Anecdotes, etc. By Alexander S. Withers. 16mo, pp. 319. Clarksburg, Va., 1831.

A new edition of the " Chronicles," with notes by Dr. Lyman C. Draper, of Wisconsin, is in press.

^ Sketches of Western Adventures. Containing an Account of the most interesting Incidents connected with the Settlement of the West, from 1755 to 1794, with an Appendix. By John A. McClung. Also, additional Sketches of Adventure, and a biography of the author by Henry Waller, with a portrait and other illustrations. 12mo, pp. 398. Louisville, Ky., 1879.

^ Biographical Sketches of General Nathaniel Massie, General Duncan McArthur, Captain William AVells and General Simon Kenton, who were Early Settlers in the AVestern Country. By John McDonald. 16mo, pp. 267. Cincinnati, 1838.

' Pioneer Biography ; being Sketches of the Lives of some of the Early Settlers of Butler County, Ohio. Contiiining detailed Accounts of Harmar's, St. Clair's, and Wayne's Campaigns, and many of the Early Conflicts with the Indians in Ohio and Kentucky. By James McBride. 2 vols., 8vo. Cincinnati, 1869-71. 3

34 Literal^ Culture in the Ohio Valley.

accomplished, and surmise what their successors may do in the future.

It is but a little while, in terms of history, since history began on the shores of the Ohio. Though crowded events 80 confuse our retrospect that Daniel Boone and George Rogers Clark appear in the deceptive vista of our past like far-off heroes of antiquity ; though the French ex- plorers of Louisiana seem, in the fancy of Carlyle, as re- mote as the Pelasgi, they are all of yesterday — French- men, Boone and all. The aborigines of the Backwoods, the invading European scouts and traders who penetrated the cane-brake and the tangled wild, the hunters and sur- veyors that tracked and measured the new lands on this side of the " Great Mountains " of Pennsylvania — are painted on the canvas of imagination, dim figures, yet to be vivified and vitalized by the touch of literary art. The dry bones of old journals and chronicles are to rise and move, and be clothed upon with flesh that bleeds and feels. From the catacombs of dusty libraries, shall be resurrected the eventful past, with all its stirring scenes and splendid characters — resurrected or recreated by the potent spell of the coming historian, novelist, and poet of the Ohio Valley.

GENERAL NOTE.

Much valuable service has, of late years, been rendered to students and readers interested in the history of the Ohio Valley, by the enthusi- asm and energy of several public spirited individuals, who have labored to collect, edit, or reprint the most important facts and records of a com- paratively recent but nevertheless fast fading past. The " Ohio Valley Historical Series," conceived, and, in some of its most interesting num- bers, edited, by its publisher, Mr. Robert Clarke, is a rich mine of knowledge of inestimable worth to the historian. The series embraces seven large octavo volumes, uniformly bound. The following are the titles in brief :

1. Bouquet's Expedition against the Ohio Indians, 1764.

2. Walker's Athens County, Ohio, and the first Settlement in State.

3. Clark's Campaign in the Illinois, 1778-79.

4. McBride's Pioneer Biographies. 2 vols.

6. Smith's Captivity with the Indians, 1755-59.

6. Drake's Pioneer Life in Kentucky.

7. Miscellanies: I. t^spy's Tour in Ohio, etc., in 1805. 11. Williams's

Som.e Early Travelers and Annalists. 35

Western Campaigns in the War of 1812-13. III. Taneyhill's Leather- wood God. In one volume.

Another notable series of i)ublications is that prepared by the Filson Club of Louisville, Kentucky, a vigorous historical society, largely pro- moted by its founder, Mr. R. T. Durrett. The following is a list of its publications :

1. The tife and Times of John Filson, the First Historian of Ken- tucky. By Reuben T. Durrett.

2. The Wilderness Road, or Routes of Travel by which our Fore- fathers reached Kentucky. By Thomas Speed.

3. The Pioneer Press of Kentucky. By William H. Perrin.

4. The Life and Times of Judge Caleb Wallace. By William H. Whitsitt.

5. The History of St. Paul's Church, Louisville, Ky. By Reuben T. Durrett.

6. The Political Beginnings of Kentucky. By John Mason Brown.

7. The Life and Times of Hon. Humphrey Marshall. By A. C. Quisenberry.

The publications of the several State Historical Societies of the Ohio Valley are generally known to those interested.

36 . Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

CHAPTER II.

THE PIONEER PRESS AND ITS PRODUCT. BOOK MAKING — BOOK SELLING.

The first printing done on the western continent was by Spanish priests in Mexico. Stephen Daye brought from England the first press used in our country, and it was set up in 1638. The first printed work of any kind done in what is now the United States was the " Free- man's Oath," impressed on one side of a small sheet of paper, in 1639. The first book printed was the " Bay Psalm Book," dated 1640. Cornelius Vanderbilt paid $1,200 for a copy of this book. In 1670 Sir William Berkley, Governor of Virginia, reported that there were no free schools or printing in the colony, and hoped that God would keep the people from both for *' these hundred years." But in fewer than twenty-five years from the time Sir William wrote, Virginia had both a college and a printing-press, at Williamsburg. And ninety-six years later Kentucky had her type and press, a little before Ohio could boast of the same aids to the progress of man.

The first newspaper established west of the Allegheny mountains was the Pittsburg Gazette, which dates its birth-day July 29, 1786. The founder of this pioneer sheet, a journeyman printer named John Scull, was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, in 1765, and he removed to Pittsburg at the age of about twenty-one. It is handed down as a tradition in the coal-and-iron city that Mr. Scull was distinguished in his days of advent as " the handsome young man with the white hat." Witli him was associated anotlier printer, Joseph Hall. Though a devout Federalist, the liberal editor opened the columns of his newspaper to welcome contributions from the distin- guished Republican leader, Judge II. H. Bracken ridge.

The Pioneer Press and its Product. 37

One of tlie first books printed west of the mountains was the third volume of Brackenridge's " Modern Chivalry," issued in 1793 from the Gazette press. The iirst and the second volume of the celebrated novel were published in Philadelphia. The Pittsburg Gazette survives, and is one of the leading newspapers of Pennsylvania.

The Iirst printing press in Kentucky was set up in Lex- ington, by John Bradford, in August, 1787. Bradford, a Virginian, born in 1749 — a soldier of the Revolution, migrated to Kentucky in 1785. His father was a printer, his sons were printers, and he was the first public printer of Kentucky, holding that office from 1792 to 1798. He wrote and published " i*Totes on the Early History of Ken- tucky ;" he was honored by his familiar cotemporaries with the rank and title of " Old Wisdom ;" and he is known to have played cards, and surmised to have sipped grog, with Henry Clay, as an agreeable relaxation from business.

In July, 1786, Lexington granted the use of a lot to John Bradford, on condition that he establish a printing- press. Accordingly he sent to Philadelphia for a printer's outfit — press, type, ink-balls, and ink. These novelties came, slowly climbing over the mountains in a wagon, and floating in an " ark," from Pittsburg to Limestone, now Maysville. Most of the type for the first number of the Kentucky Gazette was set up at Limestone, and fell into " pi " in transportation to Lexington by pack-horse. The matter was reset, and the first impression, upon Philadelphia paper in leaves about as large as a half- sheet of ordinary foolscap, appeared, August 11, 1787. The office of publication w^as a rude log-cabin, of which a picture is given in '' Perrin's Pioneer Press of Ken- tucky," one of the publications of the "Filson Club." The editor's inventive skill enabled him to add to his scanty fonts some larger types and rude engravings cut by his own hand from dog-wood, the American box. The initial copies of the Kentucky Gazette were carried hither and thither in the wilderness by post-riders and distrib- uted to be perused eagerly in cabins or read aloud to curious assemblies, from that backwoods forum, a stump.

38 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

Here, emphatically, we have civilization invading the sav- age hold of nature — we Bee the wilderness of privation and illiteracy blossoming into the rose of knowledge and thought.

The ('ii/Aite was, in the main, political and reportorial of the old news of the Atlantic States. Not much local matter appeared in its columns. Yet the advertisements reflect, with wonderful vividness, the primitive conditions of life in Kentucky, over a hundred years ago. Cattle, whisky, and pelts were legal tender in those days. Prom- inent among articles for sale this pioneer voice of the press advertises tomahawks, rifles, gun-flints, blankets, buckskin for breeches, saddle-bags, and saddle-bag locks. Besides these which so forcibly suggest the out-of-door roughness and rudeness of the war-path and the post- road through the wilderness, other articles belonging to the house are oftered for sale, such as spinning-wheels; and the fashions of yore are recalled to our thoughts when we are told where and of whom we may buy knee-buckles, and powder for the hair.

Bradford's enterprise proved successful — the Gazette came to stay ; it continued in existence down to the year 1848. Several other newspapers were started in Kentucky before the beginning of the nineteenth cen- tury. One of these, the Kentucky Herald, founded by James H. Stewart, February, 1795, at Lexington, lasted about ten years, and w^as merged in the Gazette. In 1797 Colonel William Hunter, an enterprising printer from New Jersey, oarae to Kentucky, and soon entered into lively competition with the Bradfords. He was one of the founders of the Washington Mirror, and also of the Frank- fort Tal hull mil, both of which newspapers were started in 1798. Hunter printed "Decisions of the Court of Ap- peals," "Littoll's Laws of Kentucky," 4 vols., and " Lit- telFs Political Transactions in and about Kentucky."

Colonel S. I. M. Major, m a sketch of the Frankfort press, gives a list of the papciv pnhlishcJ in Kentucky from 1787 to 1812, as follow^ :

1787, The Kentucky Gazette, Lexington.

The Pioneer Press and its Product. 39

1795, The Herald, Lexington.

1798, The Mirror, Washington.

1798, The Palladium, Frankfort.

1798, The Guardian of Freedom, Frankfort.

1798, The Kentucky Telegraph, .

1803, Western American, Bardstown. 1803, Independent Gazetteer, Lexington.

1803, Weekly Messenger, Washington.

1804, Republican Register, Shelby vi He.

1805, The Mirror, Danville.

1805, The Informant, Danville.

1806, Western World, Frankfort.

1806, Republican Auxiliary, Washington. 1806, The Mirror, Russellville. 1806, Impartial Review, J3ardstown. 1808, The Reporter, Lexington. 1808, Louisville Gazette, Louisville.

1808, Western Citizen, Paris.

1809, Farmers' Friend, Russellville. 1809, Political Theater, Lancaster. 1809, The Dove, Washington.

1809, The Globe, Richmond.

1810, The Examiner, Lancaster. 1810, American Republic, Frankfort.

1810, The Luminary, Richmond.

1811, American Statesman, Lexington. 1811, Western Courier, Louisville. 1811, Bardstown Repository, Bardstown. 1811, The Telegraph, Georgetown.

For interesting details concerning these and other Ken- tucky newspapers, the reader is referred to Perrin's Pioneer Press of Kentucky.

The first newspaper issued from Louisville was the Farmer's Library or Ohio Intelligencer, printed by Samuel Vail, a native of Vermont. This paper was started Jan- uary 7, 1801, and was discontinued in 1808.

The Western Monitor, a weekly paper devoted to the Federal party, was begun in Lexington in 1814, and edited by Thomas Curry. The Monitor passed into the hands of

40 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

William Gibbs Hunt, a New England man, who, in 1819, changed it into the Western Review, of which a full ac- count is given in the chapter on Early Periodical Litera- ture.

The first daily newspaper of Kentucky was the Public Advertizer, founded b}' Shadrach Penn at Louisville. The Advertizer was started in 1818 as a weekly. After some years it* became a semi-weekly, and then a daily. The first daily issue appeared April 4, 1826, one year be- fore the Cincinnati Gazette became a daily.

The Focus, established in 1826, in Louisville, by W. W. Woreley and Dr. Joseph Buchanan, was merged in the celebrated Louisville Journal, the history of which will be found in the chapter on George D. Prentice.

On November 9, 1793, William Maxwell sent out, from a little garret on Front street, west of Main, Cincinnati, the initial number of the " Centinel of the Northwestern Territory," the first newspaper published north of the Ohio river. Wm. T. Coggeshall says : "A wheelbarrow would have moved all the types, cases, and stands which this pioneer establishment contained. The press was con- structed entirely of wood, and, in order that the paper might be impressed, it was operated upon very much after the fashion that country boys operate on a cider press." The only copy of the Centinel known to the writer is owned by the Ohio Historical Society in Cincinnati. It was bought at auction for $148.

The Centinel bore the independent motto : " Open to all parties, but influenced by none." In 1796 the paper was sold to Edmund Freeman, who changed the name to Freeman^s Journal, and published it until 1800, when he removed to Chillicothe.

A much more important paper was begun May 28, 1799, when Joseph Carpenter issued the first number of the Western Spy, which was continued irregularly for about ten years. At the time when the Spy first came out, the village of Cincinnati probably contained fewer than eight hundred inhabitants. The paper, of course, was a weekly, and it frequently failed to appear on the appointed day of

The Pioneer Press and its Product. 41

issue, skipping a week whenever circumstances made it inconvenient to come to time.

Carpenter's Western Spy and Hamilton Gazette passed into the possession of Carney and Morgan, who, in 1809, renamed it The Whig. After fifty-eiglit numbers of The Whig had been issued, the paper again changed owners and names, becoming the Advertizer, which was discon- tinued in 1811.

A newspaper called Liberty Hall and Cincinnati Mer- cury, edited by Kev. John W. Browne and published by Looker and Wallace, first appeared in December, 1804.

The Cincinnati Gazette, founded in July, 1815, absorbed the Liberty Hall, and, in January, 1827, became a daily.

The press was propagated rapidly in Ohio.^ Newspa-

^ The following facts were kindly furnished by Mr. R. G, Lewis, of Chillicothe, O.:

" The Scioto Gazette " was started in Chillicothe, O., by Windship and Willis, April 25, 1800. Nathaniel Willis, grandfather of the poet N. P. Willis, took sole charge of it, October 25, 1800, and published it for several years. He afterwards retired to a farm in the south-west corner of Ross county.

August 10, 1815, the "Scioto Gazette " and the " Fredonian Chronicle " were consolidated under John Bailhache. The " Gazette " had been published by James Barnes; the *' Fredonian," started November, 1809, was published by John Bailhache.

" The Supporter " was started October, 1808 ; it was published in Jan- uary, 1816, by Nashee and Denny; in March, 1816, it was published by George Nashee.

In January, 1819, John Scott was publisher of the " Scioto Gazette and Fredonian Chronicle." In April of the same year Bailhache and Scott were the publishers. October 30, 1822, " The Supporter and Scioto Gazette" was edited by John Bailhache, but published by George Nashee. In 1825, it was published by J. Bailhache & Co., and in 1826. by J. Bailhache.

"The Ohio Herald" was started at Chillicothe, August 3, 1805, by Thomas G. Bradford & Co. It was not long lived.

" The Farmer's Watch-Tower " was started in Urbana, O., by Corwin and Blackburn, in June, 1812.

" Ways of the World " was started in Urbana, O., July, 1820. Pub- lished, in 1821, by A. R. Col well.

June 20, 1822, was issued No. 31 of Vol. XI of the " Columbus Ga- zette," Ohio, by P. H. Olmstead.

July 28, 1821, was published No. 1, Vol. VI, of the "Ohio Monitor and Patron of Industry," Columbus, O., by David Smith.

42 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

pers were 80on established at Williamsburg, Lebanon, Hamilton, Dayton, Urbana, Greenfield, Marietta, Chilli- cothe, and other centers of population. In the year 1819 there were about forty newspapers in the state.

Nor were Indiana and the other western territories much behind Kentucky and Ohio in spreading the news. The Vincennes Sun, Vincennes, Indiana, edited by Elihu Stout, dates from 1803.^ The Missouri Gazette, now the Republican, was started in St. Louis by Joseph Charless, in 1808. The Illinois Herald was founded at Kaskaskia in 1809 by Matthew Dunbar, the public printer. The Illi- nois Enquirer, the second newspaper in Illinois, was issued

Vol. VI, No. 52, of the "American Friend," was published May 24, 1822, by R. l^rentiss, at Marietta, O.

Vol. XIII, No. 38, of the " Western Herald and Steubenville Gazette " was published September 16, 1820, by James Wilson, at Steubenville.

1^0. 475 of the " Ohio Patriot " was published November 4, 1820, at New Lisbon, O.

No. XIV, Vol. I, " Miami Weekly Post," was published June 15, 1820, at Troy, Ohio.

No. 22, Vol. 2, "Olive Branch," was published April 16, 1819, at Cir- cleville, O., by Olds and Thrall.

No. 286 of "The Western Star" was published May 25, 1822, at Leba- non, O., by Van Vleet & Co.

No. 31, Vol. 1, of " The Galaxy," was published May 27, 1822, at Wil- mington, O.

No. 13, Vol. Ill, of the " Delaware Patron and Franklin Chronicle," was published May 27, 1822, at Delaware, O., by Griswold and Howard.

No. 24, Vol. I, "The Dayton Watchman or Farmers and Mechanics' Journal," was published at Dayton by G. S. Houston and R. J. Skinner.

No. 41, Vol. XII, "The Ohio Eagle," was published at Lancaster, May 9, 1822, by John Herman.

No. 205, " Hillsborough Gazette and Highland Advertiser," was pub- lished May 16, 1822, by Moses Carothers.

No. 46, Vol. 2, " The Piqua Gazette and Register of News, Agricult- ure, Arts and Manufactures," was published July 4, 1822, by William R. Barrington.

No. 25, Vol. VIII, " Mad-Kivir Courant," was published Nov. 21, 1828, at Urbana, O., by M. L. Lewis.

No. 77, "The Farmers' Friend," was published July 21 y Will-

Jam A. (^amron, at Williamsburg, O.

There are others, also, published in Portsmouth, Springfield, West Union, Washington C. H., Xenia, Waverlv, etc.

» See Chapter VHL

The Pioneer Press and its Product. 43

at Shawneetown in 1818, by Henry Eddy and S. H. Kim- mel. Judge James Hall succeeded Kimmel, and the name of the paper was altered to the Hlinois Gazette.

The whole number of newspapers in the United States, in 1813, is recorded as three hundred and fifty-nine, of which seventeen were published in Kentucky, fourteen in Ohio, and six in Tennessee.

The Postmaster-General reported in 1824 that there were then 598 newspapers published in the United States. Of these Ohio had 48; Kentucky, 18; Indiana, 12; Hli- nois, 5; and Tennessee, 16. The number at that date in New York was 137, and in Pennsylvania, 110.

De Quincey says : " I^ot any want of a printing art — that is an art for multiplying impressions — but the want of a cheap material for receiving such impressions, was the ob- stacle to an introduction of printed books even as early as Pisistratus." This obstacle continued as late as the time of John Bradford. The difficulty and expense of ob- taining paper was at first a great drawback to the progress of publication in the Ohio Valley. By and by, however, the supply came. The first paper mill of the West was begun in 1791 and completed in 1793, at Royal Springs, Georgetown, Kentucky, by Craig, Parkers & Co. This Craig was the Rev. Elisha Craig, the celebrated pioneer preacher. The Georgetown paper mill was a wooden building with a stone basement, and was sixty feet long by forty in width. It was destroyed by fire in the year 1836 or 1837. The first of the numerous paper mills on the Miami river was erected in the year 1814.

The first type foundry on the Ohio was established in 1820, when John P. Foote and Oliver Wells started the Cincinnati Type Foundry.

BACKWOODS BOOK-MAKING..

The newspaper offices were the first book publishing places in pioneer days, and it was not uncommon for the backwoods editor and publisher to sell his publications at retail. Almanacs, codes of local laws, and reprints of books in general demand, were manufactured and

44 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

vended by the enterprising newspaper man. We have mentioned that John Scull issued " Modern Chivalry " and other books from the job office of the Pittsburg Gazette, in 1793; and that Bradford and Hunter, rival editors in Kentucky, competed for the public printing of the state, and put forth histories of Kentucky from their active hand-presses. Hunter opened a book-store in Frankfort in 1808.

John Bradford, though he printed almanacs, circulars, and pamphlets from the year 1787, did not get out a book until 1793; and that was subsequent to the issue of a book by Maxwell and Cooch, who established a printing press in Lexington long after Bradford.

The first book published in Kentucky appeared in 1793, and it bears the following title :

"A Process in the Transylvania Presbytery, etc. Con- taining: Ist. The charges, depositions, and defense in which the defendant is led, occasionally, to handle the much debated subject of psalmody. 2d. His reasons for declining any further connections with the body to which he belonged. 3d, His present plan of proceeding with the pastoral charge. 4th. His belief and that of his peo- ple concerning the articles of faith contended between the reformed associate Sinod and the Sinod of New York and Philadelphia. 5th. An appendix on a late performance of the Rev. Mr. John Black, of March Creek, Pennsyl- vania. By Adam Rankin, Pastor at Lexington, Ken- tucky. Lexington : Printed by Maxwell and Cooch, at the sign of the Buffalo, Main street, 1793."

This voluminous title page fronts a duodecimo of 98 pages in the old-fashioned nonpareil type of the last century. It is bound in leather and has quite a venerable appearance. It grew out of a quarrel in the church as to whether the psalms of David or the hymns of Watts should be sung. No doubt each party sang well its psalms or its hymns, but there were discords enough to rend the church and send Rankin and his » party off sing- ing their psalms while the others sang their hymns. The following year, 1794, John Bradford published " A reply

The Pioneer Press and its Product. 45

to a narrative of Mr. Adam Rankin's trial," etc. It was an octavo of 71 pages. And then the quarreling and singing went on long after it had furnished Kentucky with its first printed book. Probably those who sang Watts's hymns were strongest, for, in 1803, Joseph Charless pub- lished a duodecimo of "hymns and spiritual songs for the use of Christians," at Lexington, containing 246 pages, while there seems to be no psalm-book published by the other party.

In 1793, John Bradford printed in folio the Acts of the Kentucky Legislature and the Journals of the Senate and House of Representatives for the June and November sessions of 1792. He continued to print the acts and journals in folio until 1797, after which the octavo form was adopted. In 1799, Bradford issued his general in- structor intended to furnish justices of the peace with the law forms necessary for their decisions, and the same year issued the first volume of his collected laws of Kentucky. In 1803, he issued the large quarto edition of the decisions of the Supreme Court of Kentucky, b}^ James Hughes, which, with its diagrams, was a wxMiderful work for the times. In 1807, was issued the second volume of collected laws of Kentucky, and in 1817, the third and last.

While Bradford was thus printing numerous law books and legislature proceedings, he was also doing something for the unprofessional reader. In 1798, he issued the cele- brated "Letter from George IN'icholas of Kentucky to his friend in Virginia," and in 1799, "An Account of the Re- markable Occurrences in the Life of Colonel James Smith, of Bourbon County, during his Captivity with the Indians from the Year 1755 to 1759, inclusive."

After the present century had well set in, there were other printers in Lexington besides those named, and Lex- ington became a publishing center not only for Kentucky but for the West. Besides the newspaper offices of the Ga- zette and the Herald and the printing-offices of Maxwell and Cooch, Thomas T. Skillman, Joseph Charless, Wessely and Smith, and Downing and Phillips, were prepared to issue books. So much capacity for turning manuscript into

46 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

print was calculated to produce the matter to be printed, and such was the result. Important works now began to come from the Lexington presses at frequent intervals. In 1800, Bradford published " Voyages, Adventures, and Lit- erature of the French Emigrants from the year 1789 to 1799;" in 1802, "A Review of the :N'oted Revivals in Ken- tucky, by Adam Rankin ;" " Wilson's Grammar, revised and corrected;" "IN'ew Travels to the Westward;" and " Trying the Great Reformation in this State, etc.;" in 1803, ''Political, Commercial and Moral Reflections on the late Cession of Louisiana," by Allan B. Ma- gruder ; " Poems," by J. R. Toulmin ; " The Stud Book," and David Barlow's "Defense of the Trinity;" in 1804, "Infernal Conference, or Dialogues of Devils ;" " IS'otes on the Navigation of the Mississippi River," by James M. Bradford, and "An Apology for Calvinism," by R. H. Bishop; in 1805, "The Chain of Lorenzo," by Lo- renzo Dow, and " Strictures on the Letters of Barton W. Stone," by John P. Campbell; in 1806, "A Map of the Rapids of the Ohio, with explanatory Notes," by Jared Brooks; and during these six years, numerous school books, such as Harrison's English Grammar, the Union Primer, School Master's Assistant, the American Orator, the Western Lecturer, the Monitor, the Kentucky Precep- tor, and the Kentucky English Grammar, by Samuel Wilson.

In 1815, " The History of the American Revolution," by David Ramsay, was issued in two octavo volumes by Downing and Phillips of Lexington. In 1816, Wesseley and Smith issued the " History of the Late War in the West- ern Country,' by Robert B. McAfee, and the same year, F. Bradford issued "A Complete History of the Late Amer- ican War with Great Britain and her Allies," by M. Smith. In 1821, William G. Hunt issued "A Collection of Some of the Most Interesting Narratives of Indian Warfare in the West," by Samuel L. Metcalf. In 1824, Thomas Skill- man issued "An Outline of the History of the Church in the State of Kentucky," by Robert H. Bishop.

It would be vain to pursue the history of Lexington publications further, unless a regular bibliography were

The Pioneer Press and its Product. 47

intended. It may be stated, however, that a large propor- tion of the books there printed was of a religious char- acter. Mr. D arret t ^ has whole shelves of them, and but few of them are of much value, except as showing the cast of thought in their day.

All the Kentucky books, however, were not pririted at Lexington. In the little town of Washington, in Mason county, books were printed at an early day. In Sep- tember, 1797, a w^eekly newspaper called the " Mirror " was established by Beaumont and Hunter, and the next year books began to issue from their press. " The Ken- tucky Primer," the " Kentucky Spelling Book," and the " Ohio Kavigator, comprising an Ample Account of the Beautiful River from its Head to its Junction with the Mississippi," were all issued from this press in 1798.

Toward the close of the summer of 1798, the enterpris- ing Beaumont and Hunter moved to Frankfort, Kentucky, and there established a weekly newspaper called the " Palladium." Soon thereafter, the " Mirror " was dis- continued and the printing of books transferred to the office in Frankfort. Here the school books, etc., begun at Washington were continued. The editors did not now, however, confine themselves to school books, but before the year 1798 had closed they issued " Speeches of Ers- kine and Kidd in the Trial for Publishing Paine's 'Age of Reason ;' " "A Summary of the Declaration of the Faith and Practice of the Baptist Church ;" " The Several Acts Relative to Stamp Duties ;" ''A Sermon on Sacred Music," by Rev. John A. Campbell; "A Yiew of the Administra- tion of Government," and "Steuben's Manual Exercises."

It was not long before more important books than those just named began to be pulished at Frankfort. In 1802, appeared "A Collection of all the Public and Permanent Acts of the General Assembly of Kentucky," by Harry Toulmin ; in 1806, " Political Transactions in and Con- cerning Kentucky," by William Littell ; "A Review of the Criminal Law of the Commowealth of Kentucky," by

' The author is under obligation to Col. Durrett for most of the infor- mation here given concerning Kentucky books.

48 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

Harry Toulmin and James Blair, and " View of the Pres- ident's Conduct," by Joseph Hamilton Daveiss ; in 1808, "Principles of Law and Equity," by William Littell, and the following year, by the same author, the first volume of his great work, ** The Statute Law of Kentucky," which closed with the fifth volume in 1819; in 1810, the great work of Joseph Hamilton Daveiss entitled " Sketch of a Bill for an Uniform Militia of the United States, w^ith Redections on the State of the Kation," etc.; in 1812, the first edition of Humphrey Marshall's great his- tory of Kentucky, followed in 1824 by the enlarged two- volume edition ; in 1814, '^ Festoons of Fancy," poems by Wm. Littell; in 1816, "A Xew Kentucky Composition of Hymns," by Rev. Wm. Downs ; and in 1824, ^'Ancient History or Annals of Kentucky," by C. S. Rafinesque.

During this time, however, the making of books was not confined to Lexington and Frankfort. In 1810, there was printed in the town of Richmond, Madison county, ** The American Medical Guide," by Thomas W. Ruble ; and in 1812, a large octavo, entitled " The Philosophy of Human Nature," by Joseph Buchannan. The same year, 1812, in the town of Paris, in Bourbon county, was printed "A Treatise on the Mode and Manners of Indian War," etc., by Colonel James Smith. In these early times, books were printed at Georgetown, Harrodsburg, Versailles, Bardstown, Bloomfield, Glasgow, Russellville, Covington, Bowling Green, etc. The celebrated " Sketches of Western Adventure," by John A. McClung, was printed at Maysville in 1832, and in 1847, Lewis Collins's *' History of Kentucky."

Nothing has been said about book-making at Louis- ville, and for the simple reason that the work did not be- gin there until it had long been successfully conducted at other places. In 1801, Samuel Vail established a weekly newspaper in Louisville, called the '* Farmer's Library, or Ohio Intelligencer." Pamphlets, hand-bills, circulars, etc., soon were issued from this office, but nothing that can be honored with the name of book, that has come down to our times. In 1800, F. Penniston establislii'd tlio second

71ie Pioneer Press and its Product. 49

newspaper in Louisville, which was called the " Western American ;" in 1808, the "Louisville Gazette" was estab- lished by Charless and Bruner, and in 1810, the " Western Courier," by Nicholas Clarke ; but nothing in the shape of a book has come down to us from any of these early printing offices. It was not until Shadrack Penn estab- lished the "Public Advertiser" here, in 1818, that any book Avas produced worthy of the name, and that has come down to our times.

In 1819, was issued from the press of Shadrack Penn, " Sketches of Louisville and its Environs," by II. McMur- trie. This was the first history of Louisville, and the first book worthy of the name printed in Louisville. Book-making, thus slow to begin in Louisville, dragged slowly on for a number of years, but still it went on. • As the old barges and keels gave place to steamboats in the w^ater, and turnpikes and railroads took the place of the buffalo paths upon the land, books took the place of pamphlets and hand-bills and circulars, in the printing offices. Those of an early date, "such as " Meditations on Various Religious Subjects," by David P. ' Nelson, in 1828 ; "An Account of the Law-suit," etc., by Rev. N. L. Rice, in 1837; and "Pulpit Sketches," by Rev. John ISewland Maffitt, in 1839, were not of a character to add lasting fame to the town as a publishing center. In 1832, the first directory of Louisville was published, containing a sketch of the city by Mann Butler, and tw^o years there- after, Mr. Butler's history of Kentucky was issued from the press of Wilcox, Dickerman & Co. This directory and history were far the most important books that had been published since McMurtrie's " Sketches," and it was some time before any others of equal value followed.

The first book printed in Ohio is known as " Maxwell's Code." It is a small octavo of 225 pages, entitled :

" Laws of the Territory of the United States, North- west of the Ohio, adopted and made by the Governor and Judges, in their legislative capacity, at a session begun on ' Friday the XXIX day of May, one thousand seven hiin- 4

50 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

dred and ninety-five, and ending Tuesday the 25th day of August following, with an Appendix of Resolutions and the Ordinance for the Government of the Territory. By Authority. Cincinnati : Printed by W. Maxwell, 1796."

The laws enacted by the territorial legislature in 1798, were published in the same year by Edmund Freeman, Cincinnati; and subsequent laws, by Carpenter and Find- ley, Printers to the Territory, in 1800. When the capital was removed from Cincinnati to Chillicothe, Windship and Willis, of the latter place, were made printers '* to the Honorable the Legislature," and issued volumes of laws in 1801 and 1802.

Carpenter and Findley, proprietors of the " Western Spy, and Hamilton Cazette," published in that paper, of date August 19, 1801, the following: "Now in press, and for sale at this office, to-morrow, price 25 cents, a pamphlet entitled. The Little Book : The Arcanum Opened^^ containing the fmidamentcds of a pure and most ancient theology— The Urim, or Halcyon Cabala, containing the platform of the spiritual tabernacle rebuilt, composed of one grand substantive — and Seven excellent Topics, in opposition to spurious Chris- tianity. A liberal deduction will be made to those who take a quantity. No trust."

Almanacs were published in Cincinnati by Wm. Mc- Farland, in 1805; by Carney and Morgan, in 1809; by John W. Browne & Co., at the Liberty Hall Office, in 1810; by Joseph Carpenter, in 1811; by Browne and Looker, in 1813; by Looker and Wallace, in 1814; by Williams and Mason, in 1816; by Morgan, Lodge & Co., in 1817; by Ferguson and Sanxay, in 1818; and by Oliver Farnsworth & Co., in 1822. The number of these names of publishing firms gives some idea of the activity of the printing business in Cincinnati, in her young days.

One of the earliest books published in Cincinnati was iMued from the press of David E. Carney, in the year 1807, and bears the title, "The Trial of Charles Vattier, convicted of the Crimes of Burglary and Larceny, for Btealing from the Office of Receiver of Public Monies for

The Pioneer Press and its Product. 61

the District of Cincinnati, large sums in specie and bank- notes, amounting to many thousands of dollars, etc."

Dr. Daniel Drake's " Notices Concerning Cincinnati," printed by John W. Browne in 1810, is declared by Peter G. Thompson, author of **A Bibliography of the State of Ohio," to be " without doubt the rarest work relating to Cincinnati." Drake's " Picture of Cincinnati," printed by Looker & Wallace in 1815, Mr. Thompson tells us is *' often erroneously catalogued as the first book printed in Cincinnati."

A very rare and curious volume printed by Browne & \ Looker for the author, in 1813, is *' The Indian Doctor's \ Dispensatory; being Father Smith's Advice respecting Diseases and their Cure; consisting of Prescriptions for many Complaints, and a Description of Medicines, Simple and Compound, showing their virtues and how to apply them. Designed for the benefit of his children, his friends, and the public, but more especially for the Citi- zens of the Western Parts of the United States of Amer- ica. By Peter Smith of the Miami Country." Mr. Thompson quotes from the preface of this primitive phar- macopeia this passage : " The author would notify the purchaser that he puts the price of one dollar on this book, well knowing that 75 cents would be enough for the common price of a book of this size ; but those who do not chuse to allow him 25 cents for his advice, may desist from the purchase. He claims this 25 cents as a small compensation for the labor and observations of fifty years, etc."

Doctor Drake, in his "Picture of Cincinnati," 1815, sa3'8 : " Ten years ago, there had not been printed in this place a single volume ; but since the year 1811, twelve difierent books, besides may pamphlets, have been exe- cuted. These works, it is true, were of moderate size ; but they were bound, and averaged more than 200 pages each."

The first publishers, as we have noted, were proprietors of newspapers. One of the earliest and most energetic of these pioneers of the press was Ephraim Morgan, a

52 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

Quaker (born 1790, died 1873), avIio was a proprietor of the "Whig" in 1809, of the "Spy" in 1815, and senior member of the firm of Morgan, Lodge & Fisher, which, in 1826, established the Daily Gazette. Mr. Morgan built up a large publishing business, and had perhaps the largest printing house and bindery in the city up to about the year 1830. In that year the house had " five power presses, propelled by water, each of which could throw off 5,000 impressions daily." They manufactured the Eclectic School Books prepared b}^ Truman & Smith.

The firm of Truman & Smith, founded by Winthrop B. Smith about the year 1830, which grew to be the most ex- tensive school-book publishing house in the world, and is now merged in the American Book Company, leaped to prosperity almost at the beginning of its career. Seven hundred thousand copies of their books had been sold up to the year 1841. The series at that time comprised only McGuffy's Readers and Speller, Ray's Arithmetics, Miss Beecher's Moral Instructor, Mansfield's Political Gram- mar, and Mason's Music Book.

When the Territory of Indiana was organized, under the governorship of Wm. Henry Harrison, the laws adopted by the governor and territorial judges were printed, and one of the few sets now known to exist is owned by Judge John H. Stotsenburg, of I^ew Albany, Indiana. The sessions of the governor and judges were held in the years 1801-2-3. The proceedings of the Territorial Gen- eral Assembly were published in the Western Sun, a news- paper established by Elihu Stout, at Vinceniics, in 1804. This was the first newspaper published in Indiana, and it is interesting to note that Mr. Stout came from Lexing- ton, that starting point of western culture. In 1807, a volume of revified statutes was printed at Vinroimc's with the title, "Laws of the Indiana Tcriitory." Tlu' pub- lishers were Messrs. Stout and Smoot, authorized [.ublic printers. The paper on which the code was printed was conveyed by pack-horse from Georgetown, Ky. A copy ot the "Revision of 1807" is owned by William Farrell, Paoli, Indiana.

The Pioneer Press and its Product. 53

THE BOOK TRADE.

The Western Spy of August 13, 1799, contains an ad- vertisement announcing that James Ferguson would sell in Cincinnati a large assortment of books, about 120 in number, among which were Young's ''Xight Thoughts," Watt's '' Psalms," '' Vicar of Wakefield," Fox's '' Book of Martyrs," and other religious, classical and standard works. In the same newspaper, of date January 30, J.802, Mr. A. Casey, of Philadelphia, has the following notice:

"PUBLIC AUCTIOX.

" Will be offered for sale on Tuesday, the second day of February, at the Court House in Cincinnati, a handsome collection of books and pamphlets."

Mr. Robert Clarke conjectures that the books offered for sale by Mr. Casey were purchased by public-spirited citizens and probably formed the basis of the first Cincin- nati library, organized in 1802. There was certainly no book-shop in the town at that time. One was in opera- tion in Lexington, Ky, in 1803, owned by John Charles. Frankfort, Ky., had a book-shop five years later. The wants of the people, in the line of books, were supplied at first through the newspapers, or by the keepers of general stores. Isaac Drake combined traflic in books and sta- tionery with the drug business, and John P. Foote made it an adjunct to his vocation as type-founder.

So far as I have been able to ascertain, John P. Foote was the orio^inator of the first regular book-store in Cin- cinnati. In 1820 (?), Mr. Foote, in company with Oliver Wells, started the Cincinnati Type Foundry, a branch of E. White's Xew York foundry. IN'ot long afterward Foote opened a book-store at-^o. 14 Lower Market street. The business was continued until 1828.

A rival book-store was established by Messrs. John T. Drake, of Massachusetts, and William Conclin, of ^ew York, who carried on business until 1829, when the partnership was dissolved, Mr. Drake going into business

54 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

with Phillips & Spear, paper-makers, and Mr. Conclin starting a new book-store at 43 Main street, where he re- mained a dozen years. Mr. John T. Drake died in 1830, and his brother, Josiah Drake, carried on the book busi- ness from 1831 to 1839. His store, No. 14 Main street, was the literary resort of the day. It is stated that his sales amounted to from eighty to a hundred thousand dol- lars a year.

There were several other book-sellers in the city in the period of which we are writing, among them Flash & Ryder, Thomas Reddish, Hubbard & Edmunds, Jacob Ernst, Nathan and George Gilford, and Desilver & Burr. But it seems that E. H. Flint, son of the Rev. Timothy Flint, and publisher of the " Western Review," was the principal competitor of Josiah Drake, and that his book- shop was a favorite loaiing-place for bibliophiles and mu- sicians. In the year 1827, Flint kept the following adver- tisement standing in the " Western Review :"

"E. H. FLINT,

HAS OPENED A BOOK-STORE,

Corner of Fifth and Walnut streets, south side of Upper

Market,

CINCINNATI :

Where he has a general assortment of school-books, geographies, atlases, stationery, &c. His assortment at present is small, but comprises many interesting and valu- able works, particularly upon the history and geography of the Western country. He has many books that were selected, to form part of a private library. He intends soon to import from Boston and Philadelphia a complete assortment of books, stationery, engravings, &c., and to keep on hand all the new publications of interest. Hav- ing recently commenced the business of sending books to all the chief towns and villages in the valley of the Mis- sissippi, he will be able to make up packages with neat- ness, and transmit them with safety and dispatch to any town in the Western and Southwestern country. Beiu^

The Pioneer Press and its Product. 55

determined to devote himself to that hiisiness, and to make annual visits to those towns and villages, he solicits orders of this kind, for which he will charge very moder- ate commissions. He will, also, sell books at auction, if transmitted with that object. He will endeavor to merit confidence by punctuality and attention, and will thank- fully acknowledge the smallest favor."

«

Flint's store was removed in 1828 to ]S'o. 160 Main street, " nearly opposite the First Presbyterian Church," and the proprietor advertised, by title, a long list of books and other articles, including '' quills," " silver pens," '' rice paper, assorted colors," " seal stamps," and a " large assortment of new and fashionable music."

The booksellers who advertised in " Cist's Cincinnati, in 1841," were Williamson & Strong, 140 Main street; Tru- man k Smith, Main between Fourth and Fifth streets ; J. W. Ely, "Sign of the Franklin Head," 10 Lower Market street; E. Morgan & Co., 131 Main street; George Conclin, 55 Main street ; and U. P. James, 26 Pearl street. Conclin issued quite a list of original publications, in- cluding the " Practical Farmer," " Texan Emigrant," " Life of Colonel Daniel Boone," " Life and Adventures of Black Hawk," "Western Pilot,'' and "Hall's Western Reader."

The name of U. P. James, more than that of any other early publisher in the Ohio Yalley, is identified with what is distinctively of a literary character. Without detract- ing from the merits of his cotemporaries, we may credit Mr. James with being the first Western publisher who ventured to embark any considerable capital in repro- ducing standard works in general literature, and who had the enthusiasm to bring out new books in prose and verse by home authors. His long, useful, and beautiful life has but recently closed, February 25, 1889, and the "American Geologist " and other scientific journals have honored his memory by recording, with praise, his eminent services as a paleontologist, geologist, and patron of natural science in general. The writers of the West

56 Liiterary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

also owe him that unpayable debt which gratitude incurs to a benefactor of their profession.

The following passage from a memorial printed in 1889 may fittingly end this chapter.

" Uriah Pierson James was born in the town of Goshen, Orange Co., JsT. Y., on December 30, 1811. Ilis father, Thomas James, was a carpenter, who followed his trade until h*is death in 1824, the result of an accident. His mother, Rhoda Pierson James, was a direct descendant of Thomas Pierson, a brother of Rev. Abraham Pierson, the first president of Yale College. He had two brothers and three sisters, all of whom he survived, so that he was in reality the last of his immediate family.

** In 1881, long before any railroad had crossed the Alle- ghanies, he and his brother Joseph traveled by stage and canal, west to Cincinnati, arriving in August, and wit- nessing the great flood of February, 1832. Having learned the trades of printer and stereotyper, he began to work at these soon after his arrival in Cincinnati, and followed them successfully for a number of years. In a short time he began publishing books, and his first venture, the " Eolian Songster," was printed in 1832, the copyright being dated June 15th. This book was followed at intervals by others until the complete list would num- ber hundreds. In 1847, he entered into partnership with his brother Joseph as publishers, printers, stereotypers, and type-founders, the firm name being J. A. & U. P. James. The business increased rapidly, book publishing became a prominent part of it, and the firm became widely known throughout the Mississippi Valley as the 'Harpers of the West.' Many of the books published by the firm and later by Mr. James himself have had a very wide cir- culation. The 'James's River Guide' and the ' Western Pilot* were standard works among river men on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. These books contained charts of the river channels and accounts of the cities and towns along their banks, and they were considered so ac- curate that in several instances they were used to settle disputed points in the courts.

The Pioneer Fress and its Product. 57

" He published an edition of ' Yestiges of Creation ' Boon after that celebrated book first appeared. He was a patron of many of the early authors of the West, and was the means of bringing many of them before a very wide cir- cle of readers. For many years he edited and published the ^ Farmer's and Mechanic's Almanac ' long considered a standard among the farmers, who looked upon its pre- dictions of the w^eather with the greatest respect and con- fidence. The flood of patent medicine almanacs and calendars finally made this unprofitable and its publica- tion was discontinued in 1869."

S9 Lit^ary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

CHAPTER HI.

EARLY PERIODICAL LITERATURE OF THE OHIO VALLEY. " THE MEDLEY, OR MONTHLY MISCELLANY.*'

It is recorded in numerous publications, and has been accepted as final, by bibliographers, that the Western Re- view, edited by William Gibbs Hunt, Lexington, Kentucky, in 1819-21, was the first literary magazine published west of the Allegheny Mountains. A recent discovery by Mr. A. C. Quisenberry, of Lexington, an accomplished and enthusiastic student of Kentucky literature and history, proves that the pioneers of the Ohio Valley could boast of a distinctively literary monthly, in the year 1803, full sixteen years before Hunt's Review appeared. The Medley^ or Monthly Miscellany, printed by Daniel Bradford, in Lex- ington, Ky., for one year only, from January to Decem- ber, 1803, must be considered the first magazine of the West, at least until somebody finds its predecessor. His- torians need be cautious in deciding wi^ow first events — the first child born, the first house built, the first institution established in a given settlement, or state, or territory.

Mr. Quisenberry, while engaged in gathering material for a biograpliical sketch of the elder Humphrey Marshall, author of MarshoWs History of Kentucky, had occasion to ransack the Lexington library, and to make diligent search through the files of the Kentucky Gazette, the earli- est newspaper published west of Pittsburg. His attention was attracted by the following announcement in tho Gazette, dated October 26, 1802:

Early Periodical Literature. 59

"PROPOSALS,

By Daniel Bradford,

For Publishing by Subscription

THE MEDLEY,

Or Monthly Miscellany.

I. The Medley shall be published in numbers, one of which shall be ready for delivery the first Tuesday in every month, and regularly forwarded to subscribers as directed.

II. Each number shall contain twenty-four pages, duo- decimo^ Printed with a neat type, on good paper.

III. The price to Subscribers will be One Dollar per an- num^ to be paid at the expiration of six months, oy seventy - five cents at the time of subscribing.

I@* The first number will issue on January 4th, 1803.

The design of this publication being to combine Amuse- ment with Useful information, it will be the Study of the Editor, by the variety of his Subjects, to attain that ob- ject, and suit the tastes of each reader.

It is expected that Literary Characters will accept the opportunity this Work will afford them of rendering the result of their lucubrations useful to the public.

Besides Original Essays, The Medley shall contain Se- lections in Prose and Yerse, from the most approved Authors.

As ' The proper study of Mankind is Man,' biograph- ical sketches of those whom talent or patriotism have rendered conspicuous shall be frequently introduced.

The advantages resulting from the publication of a Literary Miscellany must be obvious. The editor has only to add that Industry in the collection of materials, and particular attention to the merits and variety of Ex- tract, shall not be wanting on his part to entitle the Medley to the patronage of the Public."

According to this prospectus, the first number of the

60 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

Medley was to appear January fourth, eighteen hundred and three. On that date the following notice appeared in the Kentucky Gazette : *^ The Editor of the Gazette an- nounces that a disappointment in securing paper has obliged the Editor to defer the publication of the first number of The Medley until the last Tuesday in the Month, at which time it will certainly be commenced, and thereafter be continued regularly. The number of the subscription list for The Medley has already extended be- yond the most sanguine expectations of the Editor; but what peculiarly adds to his gratification is to find among the number a great proportion of ladies, under whose protecting auspices double diligence shall be used to make the work worthy of a patronage so amiable."

On January 3, 1804, just one year after the above notice was printed, the Editor of the Gazette addressed his read- ers as follows : " The subscribers to The Medley are in- formed that it will be no longer published. The twelfth number, which was issued on Tuesday last, completes the volume. Those who wish to preserve their volumes can have them bound on reasonable terms ; and any parts lost or destroyed will be replaced at 6d per number. A few sets, complete, may be had on the same terms."

These notices in the Kentucky Gazette aroused Mr. Quisenberry's curiosity and led him to discover a com- plete, bound copy of the Medley in the Lexington Library, He says, in a letter to the writer of this : " I had seen several vcjumes of Mr. Hunt's ' Western Review,' but had never even heard of * The Medley.' The Librarian stated that she had never heard of it, and that the library contained no copy of ' The Medley ' magazine. Not con- tent with this, I began on my own account a search of the library, and was finally rewarded by finding in an odd corner a full volume of the little magazine, bound in sheep, and in an excellent state of preservation. It was uncatalogued. The twelve numbers aggregate 276 pages, and the pages are about the size of those in the old * blue- backed' Webster's spelling book. I believe it to be the

Early Periodical Literature. 61

only copy of this pioneer Western magazine now in ex- istence."

The contents of the Medley are varied, comprising es- says, sketches, short stories, poems, and miscellaneous articles, original and selected. A series of papers on " Commerce " runs through the year. There is a bio- graphical study on Samuel Adams, by James Sullivan ; a History of the Virginian Mountains, by Thomas Jeffer- son, and an account of Monticello written by an English- man in 1797. Perhaps the most notable, original articles in the magazine are two on the " Character of Thomas Jefferson," from the pen of Allan Bowie Magruder, once a prominent lawyer in Kentucky, and afterward U. S. Sen- ator from Louisiana, in 1812. He was an author of some prominence, and wrote extensively on Louisiana, and on the Indians. His article on the character of Jefferson was reprinted in several European papers, and was copied in a New York paper which credited it to the London Times. Finally it came out in book form. Magruder was born in 1775 and died in 1822.

The index to the Medley shows more than a hundred headings, among which are "Advice to Married Ladies," " The Story of Alcander and Septimus," " History of Maria Arnold," " Character of Lord Chatham," " Captain Cook," "Dreadful Effects of Jealousy," " Comtesse Gen- lis," " The Experienced Man's Advice to his Son, on Drinking, Dress, etc.," " Charles James Fox," " Intemper- ance : Advice to the Bloods of the Hour," " Sir William Jones," " Thoughts on the Word ' Woman,' " " Volcanoes in the Moon, by Dr. Herschell," " The Vision of Hamid, an Eastern Tale." From a long list of titles of original poems, the following are taken as a sample : "A Tear to Hume," "An Ode (in Latin) to Thomas Jefferson," "Lines on Seeing Miss E. B. Shed Tears at the Celebration of her Marriage," " Ode to Hope, by a Voung Gentleman of Lexington," " Ode Addressed by a Physician to his Horse."

92 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

GIBBS hunt's western REVIEW.

More than twenty ephemeral periodicals of a semi-lite- rarj character were published in Kentucky between the years 1798 and 1820, of which some of the titles are given in the list appended to this chapter.

But the second literary magazine of historical im- portance published west of the Allegheny mountains appeared in Lexington, Kentucky. The title is " The Western Review and Miscellaneous Magazine : a Publica- tion Devoted to Literature and Science." It ran from August, 1819, to July, 1821, inclusive, making four vol- umes of 384 pages each. The editor and publisher was Mr. William Gibbs Hunt. A perfect copy of this rare periodical lies before me as I write.

The Western Review was a carefully edited, unpretend- ing, dignified publication, though in some respects crude and provincial. Its scientific, historical, and archaeological features have a permanent value. The geology, topogra- phy and natural history of the Ohio Valley received much attention in its pages. A series of articles entitled ** In- dian Antiquities," contributed to it by John D. Clifford, elicited much contemporary comment, and scientific men still regard the series w^ith interest. Mr. Clifford w^as a member of the Philadelphia Academy of N^atural Sciences, and also of the Antiquarian Society of Massachusetts. He was a citizen of Lexington, w^here he died May 8, 1820.

Caleb Atwater, born 1778, died 1867, Indian commis- sioner under Jackson and the author of a ** History of Ohio," wrote some letters to The Western Review from his home in Circleville, Ohio. Prof. C. S. Rafinesque, of Transylvania University, contributed numerous articles on the botony, zoology and meteorology of the West. He furnished several on the Ohio river and its fishes.*

* This was afterward published separately in pamphlet form. It is exceedingly scarce ; has sold for $50. Prof. D. S. Jordan has writttm a valuable monogram on this first effort to describe the fishes of the Ohio, which was published by the Smithsonian Institution.

Early Periodical Literature. ^

But perhaps the most important, and certainly the most readable part of the contents of the magazine, is the series of authentic narratives headed " Heroic and Sanguinary Conflicts with the Indians." In the opening number of his periodical the editor solicits, " from persons in every part of the western countr^^ who may be able to furnish them, au- thentic and well attested narratives of this kind, mentioning names and dates, and detailing all the valuable facts with the utmost minuteness and precision." In a foot-note he says further: '* Gentlemen who are not in the habit of writing for the public, and who are not even accustomed to composition of any sort, are still solicited to communi- cate, in the plainest manner, the facts within their knowl- edge." The solicitation appears to have called forth a good many responses, for almost every number of the magazine contains one or more '■'• thrilling narratives," chiefly relating to the early settlement of Kentucky.

Appearing, as it did, so soon after the close of the War of 1812-15, The Western Review contained much concern- ing the political and military characters and questions of the time. The first article in the first number of the work is a lengthy review of Reed and Eaton's " Life of Jack- son ;" and the same number contains a biographical sketch of Major Zachary Taylor, then a rising hero, in the thirty- fifth year of his age.

Consonant with the spirit of the day, the periodical pub- lished occasional "forensic" eflbrts, orations, eulogies and 80-forth, for the encouragement of eloquence. An elab- orate essay, by C. D., on ^'American Eloquence," startles the reader by the conclusion that the " time is at hand when American eloquence shall glow in the fervid fire of Demosthenes and roll in the copious magniticence of Tully." We ought to be thankful that a prophecy so ter- rible was not fulfilled.

The purely literary department of The Western Review was very prominent, and was evidently conducted with pride by Mr. Hunt and the " few^ friends of learning" who wrote the leading articles. The title, " Review," was no misnomer, for the magazine devoted more than half its

64 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

space to formal reviews of current books in general litera- ture. Within the brief twenty-four months of its exist- ence, it spread before its critical readers full synopses, with extracts and comments, of Scott's " Tales of a Landlord," ^' Ivanhoe," " The Monastery," " The Abbot," and " Kenil- worth," these five all coming out in two years. Among other new books reviewed were Southey's ^' Life of Wolsey" and Irving's " Sketch Book," of which last the critic says : '*' This work is not so well known in the w^estern country as from its literary merit and interesting character it ought to be." Alluding to the story of Rip Yan Winkle, the re- viewer betrays an amusing incapacity for humor by gravely objecting to the possibility of a man's sleeping for twenty years ! " We are only assured that it is an absolute fact," grumbles the literal commentator, *^and are, of course, un- able to conjecture how the story can be reconciled with reason or common sense."

No fewer than three of Byron's poetical productions are reviewed in this pioneer western magazine. These are ^' Mazeppa," the first part of " Don Juan," and the ' ^Vision of Dante." The moral character of " Don Juan " of course is reprehended. I wonder how the "Hesperian bards" relished the remark that Byron "seems to have no fixed principles upon any subject, but is entirely a poet."

The Western Review has but little to say on American poetry, for the reason that but little American poetry ex- isted in 1819. There is indeed a long article on " The Poetical Works of John Trumbull, XiL.D.," closing with some strictures upon the "school of poetry, in which Trumbull, Dwight, Barlow, Humphreys and some others who were educated at Yale College formed themselves.'^ The article concedes that these writers produced works that are "highly respectable," and caps the climax of faint literary praise by assuring us that " they were men of high minds, pure morals and ardent patriotism."

Halleck's " Fanny," published anonymously in 1820, was reviewed and commended cautiously by the Lexing- ton censors. The author was advised to employ his muse upon subjects more worthy of her.

Early Periodical Literature. • 65

Metrical composition was a copious element in Gibbs Hunt's periodical. Every number displayed from four to six pages headed " Poetry," for tlie most part original. There were enigmas, impromptus, inscriptions, elegies, epigrams, songs, odes, and " effusions," specifically so headed. There were album verses and lines mildly ama- tory '' To Julia," " To Malvina," " To Sylvia," " To Julia " again, " To a Little Bird," ". To a Rose-Bud," and, finally, " To Julia's Urn," which, being interpreted, happily means Julia's tombstone. The odes were most numerous. These and the elegies were written now in English and again in Latin. Several semi-erotic poems were written in French, and a few even in Italian — French and Italian of Lexington. For this versing in foreign tongue Transyl- vania University doubtless was responsible. The first commencement of that institution occurred July 12, 1820, with seven graduates steeped in classic literature.

The last number of the last volume of The Western Review, July, 1821, contains a genuine poem, entitled the " Boat Horn," by Orlando. This was the first draft of William Orlando Butler's ^ melodious lyric, the " Boat- man's Horn," afterward made familiar to the public in Coggeshall's " Poetry of the West." Coggeshall says it was first published in 1885, but he is mistaken. It came out, as I have said, in 1821, when the author was twenty- eight years old.

On the completion of the fourth and final volume of the " Review," the editor wrote : " If we have in any degree succeeded ia creating or fostering a literary taste ; if we have, to any extent, drawn out the resources of the schol- ars of the western country; if we have been instrumental in preserving for the future historian and for the admira- tion of posterity any of those interesting narratives, which contemporaries only could furnish, of the difiiculties and and dangers and almost incredible deeds of heroism that distinguished, and ought to immortalize, the early settlers

^ General Wm. O. Butler, soldier and politician, was born in 1791, and died in 1880. See " Life and Public Services," by F. P. Blair, Jr., 1848.

66 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

in the West; if, in fine, we have successfully repelled a single unjust aspersion cast upon the American character, our exertions have not been in vain, and we have no cause to regret the existence, feeble and short-lived as it may Ixave been, of The Western Review."

THE CINCINNATI LITERARY GAZETTE.

This is the age of gnagazines,

Even sceptics must confess it ; Where is the town of much renown

That has not one to bless it ?

— Thomas Peirce in the Literary Gazette, 1824.

Three months after the first number of Hunt's Monthly came out, Dr. Joseph Buchanan issued in Cincinnati the initial number of a weekly paper called the Literary Cadet, the pioneer literary leaf of the Queen City. Before six months elapsed the Cadet was merged in the Western Spy, a newspaper dating from 1799. In 1821-2 lived and died the Olio, a semi-monthly literary venture, published and edited by John li. Wood and Samuel S. Brooks. Among the contributors to the Olio were Robert T. Lytic, Solo- mon S. Smith, Dennis M'Henry, John H. James, Lemuel Reynolds, and Lewis Noble.

It was in the days of the Olio that John P. Foote started a bookstore at No. 14 Lower Market street. This became •a meeting place for men of literary inclinations. Mr. W. T. Coggeshall recorded in the Genius of the West that " One evening in the latter part of the year 1823, John P. Foote, Peyton S. Symmes, Benjamin Drake, John H. James, D. Dashiel, and one or two others, assembled in the back room of the bookstore, when the propriety of a literary gazette was taken up for discussion. There was no lack of confident hopefulness in the opinions of the counselors, and the publication was resolved upon."

The Literary Gazette was issued weekly from the press of A. N. Deming, corner of Main and Columbia streets, op- posite to the Western Museum. The first number ap- peared January 1,1824. Each number bore the motto: "Not to display learning, but to excite a taste for it."

Early Periodical Literature. 67

Whether any very eager taste for leartiing was excited in its readers, there is no means of telling, but it is certain the editor failed in the essential of securing a sufficient list of pa3nng subscribers. Mr. Foote laments, in his Christmas valedictory, that his readers must part " with the year and the Gazette together, and thus furnish one more instance of the futility of all hopes founded on the anticipated en- couragement of those intellectual exertions w^iich con- tribute to soften and adorn hfe among a people whose highest ambition would seem to be exhausted in acquiring the means of support." This long sentence, when chewed, will be found tinctured with the tempered bitterness of mild irony. After Mr. Foote abandoned it, the Gazette was revived, with Looker and Reynolds as printers, and was carried on for two-thirds of a second year, when a second death finally extinguished it.

Among the contributors to the Gazette were John H. James, Charles ]!!s'eave, Ethan A. Brown (afterward ijov- ernor of Ohio), David G. Burnet, 1789-1870 (president of Texas), Mrs. Julia Dumont, Mrs. Mary Austin Holley,^ wife of Dr. IIorac6 Holley, president of Transylvania Uni- versity, Miss W. Schenk, of Franklin, J. G. Drake, and Dr. John D. Godman.

The prevailing character of the Literary Gazette, readers of to-day would call heavy and dry. " It is our aim in this paper to be useful rather than original," wrote the editor. Yet the severely useful features of the paper were relieved l^y much original matter designed to be sprightly and entertaining without lapsing into frivolity. The fun is invariably serious and the serious writing never funny.

The Gazette flourished in the palmy days of Transyl- vania University and the Cincinnati College, and the pro- fessors in these and other academical institutions con- tributed much useful information to its columns. Pro- fessor C. S. R^afinesque, of Transylvania, who had written

^ Mrs. M. A. Holly was the author of a " History of Texas," 1833, and of a memoir of her hu&band.

68 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

many articles of a scientific kind for Hunt^s Review, wrote still more for the Gazette, furnishing a series of learned papers on the "Ancient History of Korth America," and another series on "Systematic Botany." Prof. John Locke, the respected head of Locke's Female Academy, contributed several un readably dr}^ discussions on botany and on mechanics. Prof. Locke was a pioneer in scien- tific teaching and investigation. He was born in Maine in 1792, and died in Cincinnati, in 1856. Prof. T. J. Mat- thews, father of Justice Stanley Matthews, projected a mathematical department, and there was printed from his pen a lecture on Symmes's Theory. In those days the usual place for lectures in Cincinnati was the Western Museum. Mons. J. Dorfeuille, the proprietor, was himself a cyclopedia of popular knowledge, and he gave didactic addresses on languages, books, birds, and I know not what besides. In the Gazette for November 7, 1824, it is advertised that " This evening Mr. Dorfeuille will lecture (for the second time and by particular request) on * The Pleasures and Uses Arising from the Study of Natural History and the Fine Arts,' and conclude with an address to the ladies."

The Gazette gave a summary of general news and brief notices of books and writers, native and foreign. It sym- pathized with the " cause of the Greeks," and with all struggles for popular liberty. The coming of La Fayette was heralded in its pages with paeans of praise.

Benjamin Drake contributed to the Gazette a series of sketches under the general caption, " From the Portfolio of a Young Backwoodsman." Several of these sketches were reprinted in the author's first volume, " Tales of the Queen City." The western verse-makers sent reams of rhyme to Mr. Foote, and he printed quires of it. The most prolific and also the cleverest of our local poets was Thomas Peirce, author of the " Muse of Ilesperia " and " Horace in Cincinnati." Peirce was wonderfully versatile. In addition to his rollicking original pieces in many meters, he made creditable versions from the French and Spanish. Some of his liveliest lyrics in the Gazette are

Early Periodical Literature. . 69

subscribed " Charlie Ramble." lie contributed to the Gazette a series of narrative and descriptive cantos, in the style of Byron's Don Juan, giving a lively and amus- ing account of his personal adventures during a river voyage to New 0^'leans and a sea voyage thence to Boston.

The poet, Fitz-Greene Halleck, contributed to Mr. Foote's paper at least three poems, *' Memory," ^' To Good Humor," and '^ The Tempest," which are all to be found in the author's published works. Halleck, when a very young man, used to visit at the house of Foote's father at iTut-plains Farm, near Guilford, Connecticut, and here it was that his literary tendencies were encouraged.

Mr. John P. Foote himself is described as bearing a striking personal resemblance to John Quincy Adams. He was an active man of affairs, with a taste for literature. Long after the demise of the Gazette, he produced two valuable books, " The Schopls of Cincinnati and its Vicinity" iind "A Memoir of Samuel Edmund Foote."

flint's western monthly review.^ It is stated incorrectly in "AUibone's Dictionary," "Duyckinck's American Literature," and similar works, that Timothy Flint began the publication of The Western Magazine and Review in 1834. The fact is that the first number of this pioneer literary journal was issued in May, 1827. The " Geography and History of the Mississippi Valley " appeared in the autumn of the same year in two large volumes from the press of E. & H. Flint. This use- ful work rapidly passed through numerous large editions. Many passages from "Flint's Recollections" are incor- porated in it. The peculiar criticism was made on this book that it was too interesting to be useful ! The reader searching for geographical or historical facts in its pages was carried away from his object by its absorbing narra- tive or brilliant description.

^ See Chap. XI.

T© Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

The Western Review was published onlj tliree ;years., ar ■until June, 1830. The editor was the principal contrib- utor, though James Hall, E. D. Mansfield, Micah F. Flint, and some others sent occasional articles. The magazine had the motto, ^^ Benedicire haud Maledicere.*^ The subjoined extracts from the "Editor's Address/' in the first number, are not without piquancy and local color :

- " We are a scribbling and forth-putting people. Little as they have dreamed of the fact in the Atlantic country^ we have our thousand orators and poets. We have not a solitary journal expressly constituted to be the echo of public literary opinion. The teeming mind wastes its sweetness on the desert air. . . . IS'ow we are of the number who are so simple as to believe that amidst the freshness of our unspoiled nature, beneath the shade of the huge sycamores of the Miami, or cooling the forehead in the breeze of the beautiful Ohio, and under the canopy ot our Italian sky, other circumstances being equal, a man might write as well as in the dark dens of a city. . . . Our literary creed is included in one word, simplicity. Our school is the contemplation of nature. . . . Review- ers who imagine that nothing good can be written beyond a circle of three and a half miles in diameter, of which circle they are the center, may have, as must certainly be conceded to Boston reviewers, a good deal of mechanical cleverness in manufacturing sentences and rounding periods."

The Review contained only original articles, not a few of which were long and dreary, on the " Philosophy of Ed- ucation," " Political Economy," "An American Uni- versity," " The Trinitarian Controversy," " Temperance/' and the like. One can not help thinking, as he turns the leaves of this sixty yesLVs old exponent of western letters, that the good editor felt it incumbent on him to show more than usual gravity, dignity, and learning. It seems as though he might have said to himseli', as he trimmed his goose-quill: "We will demonstrate to tliose carping

Early Periodical Literature. 71

eastern critics that our Review is a review indeed, solid and solemn enough for the most exacting scholar. We will prove to the workl that the west is by no means friv- olous, and that we ourself, though for relaxation we may dash off a novel now and then, are capable of much heav- ier things, and we do not forget we are a collegian and a clergyman."

To natives of the Ohio Valley, the Western Review contains much that is of local and historical interest. Flint was loyal to his adopted region, and gave prominence , to western topics. Every book or periodical published this side of the Alleglienies received attention in his monthly pages. All public addresses, orations, sermons, and debates were duly announced and generously com- mented on. The great discussion between Robert Owen and Alexander Campbell, which Flint attended, was made the subject of several editorial articles.

The Review was a magazine of fifty^six octavo pages; price three dollars a year. It was issued from the press of W. M. Farnsworth, Cincinnati, Ohio.

hall's western monthly magazine. TlaU's Illinois Magazine, 1830, and Western Monthly Magazine, 1832, are important repositories of western his- tory and literature. A detailed account of them is given in the chapter relating the life of Judge Hall, which see.

THE WESTERN MESSENGER.

The Western Messenger, a magazine devoted to religion and literature, and published by the Western Unitarian Association, was started in Cincinnati, June, 1835. The first volume comprised twelve monthly numbers ; the seven succeeding volumes included six numbers each, a volume every half year. The last issue appeared April, 1841. The magazine was edited until March, 1836, by Rev. Ephraim Peabody, an amiable young man of fine poetical ability, who was born in JS"ew Hampshire in 1807. Mr. Peabody was taken ill and was obliged to go south. The

72 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

management of the periodical devolved upon the Rev. James Freeman Clarke,^ and the place of publication was changed to Louisville, Kentucky, where Mr. Clarke was stationed as minister to a Unitarian Society. In 1840 Mr. Clarke returned to Boston, where he soon after founded the Free Church, of which he was the pastor until his death in 1888. The Messenger was removed to Cincinnati, and was edited by Ilev. W. II. Channing, who was ordained pastor of the Unitarian Church of that city May 10, 1839. Channing w^as assisted by his cousin. Rev. James II. Perkins, who indeed was a contributor j:o the Messenger from the start, and whose best literary work was published in it.

The Western Messenger was, of course, denominational, and derived support from eastern Unitarians, who took an active interest in planting their ideas in the west. Its subscription list was never large, and its pecuniary strug- gles were constant. Few comph:ite copies of the work are to be had, and I ani told that sets are very costly. Mr. U. P. James, the veteran publisher and dealer in. old and rare books, remembered sorting out a "great pile" of the Western Messenger, which Mr. Perkins brought to the store on Walnut street, about the year 1845.

The Western Messenger was essentially an eastern mes- senger— the organ of ]N'ew England liberalism in the Val- ley of the Ohio. Devoted to religion and literature, it was even more literary than religious, and both its theology and its literature were tinctured with transcendentalism. No other periodical that has appeared in the Ohio Valley is richer than it in original and suggestive contributions, and I doubt if any other contains so much tine and deli- cate writing.

The lirst editor, Mr. Peabody, and his enthusiastic friend, Mr. Perkins, were imbued witli the idea of ** en-

' JamcB Freeman Clarke, D.D., woh born in New Hampshire, April 4, 1810. GraduaUnl at Harvard in 182t), and at Cambridge Divinity School in 1833. Resided at Ixjuisville 18:^3-1840. Founded Church of Disciples, Boston, 1841. Author of ** l.ife of General Wra. Hull," 1848; "Eleven Weeks in Kuropt>," 1851; "Christian Doctrine of Forgiveness;" "Ten Great Rt^Ut'i«>T>H '' otc.

Early Periodical Literature. 73

eouraging" and developing the literary spirit of what was then "the west." They invited to their columns the aid of William D. Gallagher, Otway Curry, Thomas H» Shreve, and other western writers. " It ought to he one object of a western journal to encourage western litera- ture," wrote the editor. In accordance with this princi- ple, the magazine made prominent a series of carefully prepared articles on " Western Poetry." These articles gave conspicuous reviews of the literary productions of William D. Gallagher, F. W. Thomas, Lewis F. Thomas, C. D. Drake, J. G. Drake, Albert Pike, John B. Dillon,^ and Thomas Shreve. Readers of to-day will smile or sigh to read the critical opinion that " Mr. Shreve has a Bul- werian control over language and a Byronic grandeur of imagination and gloom of thought."

A leading w^estern contributor to the Messenger was Mann Butler, who furnished a number of valuable sketches on the " Manners and Habits of the Western Pioneers."

After James Freeman Clarke took hold of the maga- zine, the editorial tone was changed, and a new set of contributors began to write. Among the regular corre- spondents were Rev. George W. Hosmer, who, coming from Northfield, Massachusetts, organized a church in Rochester, and Rev. William G. Eliot, w^ho established his famous society in St. Louis.

In response to a letter of inquiry concerning the West- ern Messenger, Dr. Clarke kindly sent the following:

"Jamaica Plains, Mass., Feb. 19, 1886. "Dear Mr. Venable: — If I were not laboring under an indisposition, I should like to write you at length about

^ John Brown Dillon was born in Virginia in 1805. He removed to Ohio, and became a printer in Cincinnati ; began to write for the Gazette in 1826 ; went to Logansport, Indiana, and studied law ; afterward he removed to Indianapolis, where he was appointed state librarian ; held other public positions; wrote much in verse and prose. Among his works are "Historical -Notes," " History of Indiana," "Oddities of Fed- eral Legislation." Died in 1879.

T4 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

the Western Messenger and its contributors. It was rather a vivacious affair, ranging from grave to gaj, from lively to serious. We were the first to publish any of Emerson's poetry. We had a contribution from Dr. Cban- ning and a poem from John Keats not before printed, and one which Wendell Holmes sent to me.

"... The Messenger was a wandering star. First published in Cincinnati, it came to Louisville, where Eph. Peabody became an invalid, and went back again because the facilities were better in Cincinnati than in Louisville. While in the latter, I was not only editor, but also pub- lisher, and even went about once in Kentucky to get sub- scribers. I found I could import paper to print it on from Boston, via New Orleans, at less cost than I could buy in Louisville, and did so. When the number was ready for distribution, I recollect that Cranch or Osgood, or whoever happened to be with me, and I would fold, di- rect, and carry the copies to the post-office. Sam Osgood and I were carrying the basketful to the post-office one evening, when we met a stout negro, and offered him a " quarter" to take it for us. He lifted the basket and put it down again, saying: "Too heavy, massa !" So we took it ourselves.

" When you see Mr. Gallagher, give him my kind re- gards. He and Edward Cranch are the only survivors of the Messenger group that I know of now in Cincinnati. T have the original subscription book, and of the Cincin- nati names — Foote, Donaldson, Lawler, Yardy, Urner, Hastings, Sampson, Jos. Longworth^ Timothy Walker, Evart, Shoenberger, Thomas Bakewell, Ryland, etc. — I fancy all are gone.

" I am glad you propose to do justice to the forgotten magazine, which, in its day, was, I think, a rather respect- able effort for the young people who wrote in it. Yours,

"Jamks Freeman Clarkk.'*

The poem by John Keats, referred to in the above, is the " Ode to Apollo,'' beginning:

Early Periodical Litcratuir.. T5

" God of the golden bow, And of the golden lyre, And of the golden hair, And of the golden fire ; Charioteer Of the patient year; Where, where slept thine ire, When like a blank idiot I put on thy wreath. Thy laurel, thy glory, The light of thy story ; Or was I a worm, too low-crawling for death? O Delphic Apollo ! "

The original manuscript of this ode was presented to the editor by George Keats, a brother of the poet, who lived in Louisville, and a sketch of whose life was written by James Freeman Clarke. In the Messenger were also printed extracts from a journal kept by John Keats in England and Scotland, in 1818. Introducing these ex- tracts to his readers, the editor notes it as strange "to meet with the original papers of Keats at the Falls of the Ohio."

In October, 1836, there appeared in the Messenger a long letter written from Boston, in June of the same year, by the distinguished Dr. William E. Channing. This let- ter, I believe, does not appear in Dr. Channing's collected works, although some passages of it are finished in his best literary style. Readers of to-day will find food for reflection in what so eminent an observer thought of Bos- ton some fifty years ago :

" Shall I say a word of evil of this good city of Boston ? Among all its virtues, it does not abound in a tolerant spirit. The yoke of opinion is a heavy one, often crush- ing individuality of judgment and action. Xo city in the world is governed so little by a police and so much by mu- tual inspection and what is called public sentiment. We stand more in awe of one another than most people. Opinion is less individual, or runs more into masses, and often rules with a rod of iron."

Interesting also to dwellers in the Central States will it be to read the great preacher's views regarding the then W^eat. The letter says :

76 JJterary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

"All our accounts of the West make me desire to visit it. I desire to see nature under new aspects ; but still more to see a new form of society. I hear of the defects of the West ; but I learn that a man there feels himself to be a man, and that he has a self-respect which is not al- ways found in older communities ; that he speaks his mind freely ; that he acts from more generous impulses and less selfish calculations. These are good tidings. I rejoice that the intercourse between the East and the West is increasing. Both will profit. The West may learn from us the love of order, the arts which adorn and cheer life, the institutions of education and religion w^hich lie at the foundation of our greatness, and may give us in return the energies and virtues which belong to and dis- tinguish a fresher state of society.

" You press me to come and preach in your part of the country. I should do it cheerfully if I could. It would rejoice me to bear testimony, however feeble, to great truths in your new settlements. I confess, however, that my education would unfit me for great usefulness among you. I fear the habits, rules and criticisms under w^hich I have grown up and almost grown old have not left me the freedom and courage which are needed in the style of ad- dress best suited to the Western people. I have fought against these chains. I have labored to be a free man, but in the state of the ministry and of society here, free- dom is a hard acquisition. I hope the rising generation will gain it more easily and abundantly than their fathers."

The young men who uttered their opinions in the West- ern Messenger availed themselves of the intellectual free- dom which " a new form of society " afforded. They said their say more boldly than New England encouraged them to do. The iron rod of public sentiment was not so threatening' in Louisville and Cincinnati as in Boston. Thinkers, such as Samuel Osgood and C. P. Cranch, be- gan their literary career in this Western periodical. Cranch was for a time Clark's assistant in Louisville.

Clarke was an enthusiastic student of German literature

Early Periodical Lifrrfrtiuy. 77

and philosophy, unci he translated for the Messenger De Wette's " Theodore, or the Skeptic's Progress to Belief," afterward reprinted in George Ripley's "Specimens" of German literature. There was a department of " Orphic Sayins^s," from Ga3the;*and one or two of Goethe's stories were printed. Rev. Charles T. Brooks contrihuted many translations from Krummacher, Herder, Uhland and other German poets. J. S. D wight also wrote original poems and translations of both prose and verse for the Messenger. Dwight won a permanent place in literature by produc- ing the well-known verses beginning :

" Life is not quitting The busy career ; Life is the fitting Of self to its sphere."

It is not strange that the editor of the Messenger, satu- rated as he was with German literature and transcendental philosophy, should be one of the first to admire Carlyle, and among the first to discover the rising genius of Emer- son. When Emerson's " Kature " appeared in 1836, Os- good reviewed it in the Messenger. He said : " There are some things in this book that we do not understand ;" but he discovered in the luminous pages a *' wonderful dawn." Commenting on Emerson's oration before the Phi Beta Kappa Society in 1837, C. P. Crancli wrote : " It is full of beauties, full of original thought. Every sentence indi- cates the man of genius, the bold, deep thinker, the origi- nal writer."

It is a fact noteworthy in the history of letters that Em- erson first appeared in print, as poet, on the banks of the Ohio. He contributed to the Western Messenger, gratis^ the poems: "Each and All," "The Humble-bee," " Good-bye, Proud World," and " The Rhodora." These are among his best metrical pieces. " Good-bye, Proud World," is perhaps his most popular lyric, though the au- thor did not esteem it highly. It came out in April, 1839, but is subscribed "Canterbury Road, 1823." On compar- ing these verses as they were printed originally, with the

78 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

later copies as they stand in the author's volumes, one discovers many curious verbal changes. In some cases considerable addition has been made to the first version, and in other cases passages have been left out. The alter- ations are invariably obvious improvements. For instance, the expression, " Vulgar feet have never trod," is happily •ubstituted for '' Evil men have ever trod." The first line of the quaint and beautiful poem on ^* The Humble-bee,"

" Burly, dozing humble-bee,"

originally read :

" Fine humble-bee! fine humble-bee!"

In the letter from Mr. Clarke, allusion is made to a poem sent to the Western Messenger by Oliver Wendell Holmes. The poem was that entitled '' The Parting Word," Avhich admirers of the ''Autocrat " will recall from the first line :

" I must leave thee, lady sweet."

Another literary star, not of the first magnitude, yet of a clear and lasting luster, tbat rose from the East to shine in Clarke's Western galaxy, was the religious poet, Jones Very. This eccentric character, in March, 1839, sent the following letter from Boston to Louisville:

" Rev. J. .F. Clarke, editor Western Messenger :

** Hearing of your want of matter for your Messenger, I was moved to send you the above sonnets that they may help those in afiliction,for Christ's name is ever the prayer of me, his disciple, called to be a witness of his sufferings and an expectant of his glory. If you ask for more — as I have them — so will they be communicated, freely. Amen.

**The hope of Jesus be with you wlu n V(jii are called to be a partaker of his temptations.

"Jones Very."

Ear^y Periodical Literature. 7^

The letter was accompanied by twenty- seven sonnets, which were published, as were many other of Very's poems, from time to time, in the Messenger. Nearly all of these are included in the edition of Very's poems issued a few years ago.

Clarke was an appreciator of Hawthorne's early work. He reprinted "Footsteps on the Sea-shore" from the first edition of "Twice Told Tales," and wrote an editorial Comment : " Since the days of Elia we have seen nothing to compare with it. It lias all of Washington Irving's delightful manner with a pro founder meaning and a higher strain of sentiment."

Among the contributors to the Messenger were two women who afterward became well known in letters — Miss Elizabeth P. Peabody and the more celebrated Mar- garet Fuller. The latter sent her friend Clarke a number of articles, reviews on " George Crabbe and Hannah More," on " Bulw^er," on "Letters from Palmyra," and a paper on " Philip Van Arte veld." Her contributions were signed S. M. F. — Sarah Margaret Fuller.

When Clarke left Louisville for Boston, the Western Messenger ofiice was removed to Cincinnati, and Rev. W. H. Channing became editor, assisted by Rev. James H. Perkins. The magazine grew more than ever devoted to German translations and to transcendental, poetic theol- ogy. The many articles furnished by Perkins were filled with earnest, practical fact and thought, and possess a high value.

In June, 1840, the editor wrote : " Our friend, Mr. Bron- son Alcott, of Boston, has kindly given us his prose poem, 'Psyche, or the Growth of the Soul.'" But "Psyche'* never unfolded her silvery wings before the readers of the Western Messenger.

The magazine vanished in a sort of rosy mist in budding April, 1841. There was a conditional promise on the last page of the last number that the publication of it might be resumed in July; but the promise failed. The period- ix3al was an exotic — a Boston iiower blooming in the Ohio Valley.

80 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

The Western Magazine was a harbinger* of the famous Boston Dial, which made its first appearance in July, 1840. It is a very interesting and notable fact that at least ten of the contributors to the Messenger were also among the writers for the Dial. These were Emerson, Fuller, Clarke, E. P. Peabody, Dwight, Brooks, F. II. Hedge, W. H. Channing, Cranch, and Very. Miss Pea- body was the first publisher of the Dial, and Margaret Fuller and Emerson were its editors. Of the ten, all wer6 born between the years 1803 and 1813, and four, Cranch, Dwight, Brooks, and Very, were born in 1813. I can not better close this sketch than by quoting from the final volume and number of the Western Messenger this word of praise and prophecy :

" We have not said a word of the Dial, for we are slow to praise our own family, and the writers of the periodical are our dear friends. Therefore, one word only, readers — believe not the geese who have hissed their loudest at this newcomer. Such foolish creatures can not save the capi- tol. The Dial marks an era in American literature. It is the wind-flower of a new spring in the western world. For profound thought, a pure tone of personal and social morality, wise criticism and fresh beauty, the Dial has never been equaled in America."

w. D. Gallagher's " HESPERIAN."

No other man has done so much for the cause of western periodical literature as William D. Gallagher.^ He was connected editorially with numerous magazines and news- papers, including The Western Minerva, The Cincinnati Mirror, The Western Literary Journal, the Cincinnati Ga- zette, the Louisville Courier, the Ohio State Journal. But his most important literary venture was the Hesperian. He has given us the history of the publication in the fol- lowing words :

" In the winter of 1837-38 Mr. Gallagher projected at

' Mr. Gallagher's literary services to the West are giv6n in detail \A the biographical sketch, Chapter XV.

Early Periodical Literature. 81

Columbus, Ohio, where he was then residing, a work of larger size and more diversified character than any he had yet attempted in the West, or, so far as the writer knows, in the United States. This was the Hesperian, which ap- peared in May following, W. D. Gallagher and Otway Curry, editors ; John D. Mchols, publisher; Charles Scott and John M. Gallagher, printers ; ninety-four pages super- royal octavo, double column ; five dollars per year sub- scription. This work was so exclusively one of the writers own projecting; it was made to bend so entirely to his ideas of what such a periodical should be ; his own pen furnished such a large proportion of its entire con- tents ; his reputation was so intimately connected with it; his fame and fortune so staked upon its success, and his humiliation at its failure so deep and abiding, that he feels he is not the proper one to write its history. He is proud to say that no similar work was ever received in the United States with more decided marks of favor. Its characterizing feature was one of usefulness ; its numerous articles on the early history of the state, on its agricult- ural resources, on its manufacturing industry, on its com- mercial channels, on its mineral treasures, on its literary and humane institutions, on its geology, flora, etc., were appreciated by a circle of readers of which any periodical might boast. The best talent of the West was engaged contributing to its pages, and on its subscription books the names of the educated and intelligent were most lib- erally written. But notwithstanding all this, through the grossest remissness and most culpable mismanagement on the part of its publisher, the publication of the work was suspended at the close of the third volume — eighteen months from its commencement. Over the causes of this suspension the writer, then alone in the editorship, had no control, and he was in no manner pecuniarily responsible for the injustice done by it to that portion of the subscrib- ers who had paid for the full second year. He declined subsequent propositions from the publisher to recommence the work, in the first place, because his confidence in the 6

82 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

integrity of that individual had been shaken, and in the next, because the propositions were accompanied by con- ditions which would have made it necessary materially to modify the plan of the publication, which would have left him without an adequate support. In this manner, what was at first in reality only a suspension of the work be- came a discontinuance of it. His long and bitter regret at this mortifying termination of a venture on which he had staked so much, it is useless to speak of, as it can be measured by the feelings of no one who has not been cir- cumstanced similarly with himself"

moore's western lady's book.

Half a century ago "gentlemen's magazines" and "la- dies' books " were in demand and the supply was forth- coming. One of the oldest American lady's books is the familiar " Godey," now in its sixtieth year.

I have come across No. 1, Vol. I, of a Western Lady's Book, printed in August, 1840, by H. P. Brooks, Walnut street, Cincinnati. It is a thin pamphlet of twenty-eight pages, edited by an "Association of Ladies and Gentle- men," and bears the motto, " The Stability of Our Repub- lic, and the Virtue of her Institutions is with the Ladies." It does not appear that the patriotism and other virtues of the " ladies and gentlemen who projected the Western Lady's Book " were equal to the task of preserving its stability ; at least I have never seen a second number of the publication, nor met any one who ever did see a second number.

The leading article in No. 1, Vol. I, of the Western Lady's Book is by P. Sturtevant, and is entitled " The Heroine of Saratoga : a Tale of the Revolution," and it tells us how Emeline Wharton, for love of Henry Elverton, dis- guised herself as a soldier, saved her country and married her lover. Another story by "Jane," and having the cheerful caption, " The Village Graveyard," relates the languishing loves of Charles Anson and Caroline Lee, and how, soon after they were wedded, they breathed their last and were nicely buried in the same grave.

Early Periodical Literature. 88

A periodical of much vitality was Moore's Western Lady's Book, edited by A. and Mrs. H. G. Moore, Cincin- nati, and devoted to literature, biography, science and general miscellany. I have not been able to procure a complete set of the quite numerous volumes of this publi- cation, which was issued somewhat irregularly through a period of eight or ten years. It was started, I believe, in 1850, with the name " Western Magazine," but the pub- lishers and editors announced, early in 1854, that " having received such liberal patronage from the ladies of our country to the Western Magazine, they have concluded to change the name and make it more exclusively a ' Lady's Book.' " The magazine was made " more exclusively a Lady's Book," by introducing two new features — fashion plates and music. Ladies of to-day, who gaze with de- light upon the monthly array of illustrations in Demorest, the Bazaar, or the Delineator, would laugh at the pictures in the Lady's Book.

Much of the contents of Moore's Lady's Book is se- lected matter, yet a good many of the Western writers favored its pages with original pieces. Honorable Horace P. Biddle,^ of Lidiana, T. H. Burgess, Harriet jN". Babb, P. F. Reed, R. E. H. Levering, Osgood Mussey, and Alf Burnet wrote for it. The issue for January, 1855, con-

^ Horace P. Biddle, LL.D., Ph. D., was born March 24, 1811, in a log cabin near Logan, O. He was the son of one of the original Marietta settlers, and a protege of Thomas Ewing. He studied law with Hocking Hunter, of Lancaster, O. Began the practice of his profession in Ohio, but settled at Logansport, Ind., in 1839. Was elected Judge of the Cir- cuit Court in 1846, and called to the Supreme bench in 1857. Presided as Supreme Judge for twenty-five years. Judge Biddle is living and oc- cupies a fine old mansion on " Biddle 's Island," on the Wabash, at Lo- gansport. He has by far the largest private library in Indiana— a col- lection of over 7,000 standard books and bound newspapers, filling ten or twelve rooms. Biddle began his literary career in 1842 by writing for the Southern Literary Messenger. In 1850 he published his first volume, "A Few Poems." A second volume of his poems appeared in 1868 from the press of Hurd & Houghton. Other works by him are " The Musical Scale," a scientific treatise, 1850 ; " Glances at the World," 1873; "Elements of Knowledge," and "Prose Miscellany," 1881; and " Last Poems," 1882.

84 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

tains a biographical sketch of Alf Burnet from the pen of Coates Kinney. The best of the poetry contributed to the Lady's Book is that of F. B. Plimpton, whose " Mari- ners of Life," '' Poesie," '' Mount Gilbo," and " The Oak" appeared originally in this periodical.

Several continued stories were written for the Lady's Book — one a prize tale, '* The Twin Sisters," by Mattie Lichan ; another, " Elizabeth, or the Broken Vow," by Edward Clifton ; and a third, and by far the best of the three, " The Prophecy, or the Recluse of the Maumee," by U. D. Thomas.

Decidedly more interesting than these fictions are two illustrated articles by William T. Coggeshall. The first of these, published in March, 1854, describes a visit to Niagara falls, and opens with this paragraph :

" I was fortunate in the associations of my first visit to Niagara falls. I went with Kossuth and suite, and I found there Godfrey Frankenstein and his brother George, the artists who had been studying and painting the cata- ract, the rapids, the rocks, the river and the whirlpool, for several years, in order that they might be able to rep- resent them on canvas, and take Niagara to those people who could not go to it."

The second article by Coggeshall is called a " Trip to New York," and was printed in January, 1855. A local interest belongs to this, because it is illustrated by twelve wood-cuts by R. J. Telfer, representing views on the Little Miami Railroad. One of these is a picture of Jamestown, now Dayton, Kentucky.

The descriptive text says :

" On the right, and near two miles from the depot, you will see a handsome town on the Kentucky shore. This is Jamestown. It was laid out only three or four years since, and is now, as you see, a considerable village. In a few years the Kentucky shore, like the Ohio, will be lined with a continuous town. The three towns of Covington, Newport and Jamestown, now contain about twenty thou- sand inhabitants. Three-fourths of this is the growth of the last ten years."

Early Periodical Literature. 85

Among the objects shown by pictures are the Cincinnati water-works, Jamestown, the Columbia burying-ground, Milford, Miami railroad bridge, Deerfield station, and Mor- row's mill.^

Mr. Coggeshall discoursed on Gov. Morrow as follows :

" Just before you come to Foster's Crossings, you will notice on the left hand of the cars as you come from Cin- cinnati, on the west bank of the river, a large mill and plain frame house. This was the residence of one of the real statesmen of our country — Governor Morrow. He entered public life in 1802, and remained in the public service half a century, in which time he never lost the public confidence nor ever failed in any part of his duty. He was a member of the state convention to form the first constitution, was twelve years a member of the house ot representatives in congress, and most of the time the only representative of Ohio. He was six years in the United States senate, four years governor and several years, toward the close of his life, president of the Little Miami Railroad Company. The Duke of Weimer, after visiting him in 1825, described him as a faithful copy of ancient Cincin- uatus. "He was engaged, on our arrrival, in cutting a wagon pole, but immediately stopped his work to give us a hearty welcome."

To return from this excursion up the Miami to our " Lady's Book," we find, in the issue of March, 1854, and subsequent numbers, a feature worth noting. Mrs. E. A. Aldrich, having suspended the publication of a women's right's paper, the Genius of Liberty, made an arrange- ment with the proprietors of the Lady's Book, to continue the advocacy of her views by occupying eight or ten pages of the magazine, every month, with such articles as she or her sister reformers might choose to write. " In- dividual sovereignty," declared Mrs. Aldrich, " is our star. This is our deepest foundation. It is the motto on all

* The mill is still standing, a picturesque relic. ' Two pictures of it, painted by Gustave Frankenstein about the year 1855, may be seen in Springfield, Ohio.

86 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

our banners. It is the vitality of this movement. Per- sonal independence is the all in all. It is our center and circumference — the soul and body of our efforts." To the department headed " Genius of Liberty/' there were sev- eral contributors, viz., Melissa M. Taylor, M. E. Wilson, M. A. Bronson and Mary S. Legare. The most exciting passage in their discussions is entitled, " Women's Intel- lectual Inferiority or Horace Mann vs. Physiology," a stricture on the president of Antioch College, who, it seems, had accepted the theory that woman's mental powers are not equal to man's, because her brain is lighter than his.

The student of the history of western literature will find in Moore's Western Lady's Book a series of a dozen or more sketches on the '^ Poets and Poetry of the West." He will, perhaps, be surprised to read long biographical reviews of poets and poetesses w^hose names he never heard. M. D. Conway said in a review of Coggeshall's " Poets and Poetry of the West :" " Some filtration is necessary for all our western streams before they are drinkable. About half a dozen of these poets should have been omitted accidentally." The Lady's Book includes sev- eral names among its poets that Coggeshall did omit.

THE PARLOR MAGAZINE.

In July, 1853, appeared the first number of the Parlor Magazine, conducted by Jethro Jackson, 180 Walnut street, Cincinnati. It was handsomely printed on sixty-four large, double-columned pages, and illustrated with steel-plates and wood-cuts. Some of the fashion plates were printed in colors.

The Parlor Magazine thundered a good deal in the in- dex. The prospectus contains quite an ethical treatise. "In the high moral tone and scrupulous purity of senti- ment, the truthfulness and intelligence which will pervade our ])ages," wrote Mr. Jackson, *' we hope our most serious readers will find qualities to propitiate and secure their careful scrutiny and ])crmanent approbation. It will be our jiim to hlciid \-alual)U' i n In im nation and sound

Early Periodical Literature. 87

morality with the gratification of a literary and imagina- tive taste. Phases of history, illustrations of local inter- est, vivid portraitures of virtuous life and occasional dis- quisitions and reviews, embellished here and there with glittering gems of poetry, will, we trust, give value to our pages." This studied announcement of intention to in- struct and improve the public drew a certain patronage, but was not as attractive to people in general as Mr. Jackson hoped it would be. His plan was to make such a magazine as he judged the people ought to read, rather than one which they w^ould like to read. The maxim of Sleary, the circus manager, in Dickens' novel, that " Peo- ple mutht be amuthed," holds true of magazine readers. In his anxiety to keep every thing frivolous out of his publication, the conductor put in it too much that was dull. Yet, on the wdiole, the contents of the Parlor Mag- azine were attractive, and became more so as the months passed by and Mr. Jackson gave up a prejudice against romances.

The follow^ing is a partial list of contributors to the Parlor Magazine : Rev. S. D. Burchard, Dr. J. R. Howard, Thomas H. Shreve, W. S. Gaffney, Yirginius Hutchen, Mrs. Helen Truesdell, S. W. Irwin, Rev. Edward Thomson, Harriet E. Benedict, Mary Clemmer,^ Anne Chambers Bradford, M. Louisa Chitwood, Roley McPherson, Horace Rubley, J. H. Bone, D. F. Quinby, William T. Coggeshall, Mary E. Hewett, Kate Harrington, G. W. L. Bickley, W. W. Dawson, M. D., William Baxter, F. H. Risley, Miss M. E. Wilson, Thomas H. Chivers, J. H. Baker and Peter Fishe Reed.

At the end of six months Messrs. Applegate & Com- pany, 43 Main street, became the publishers of the maga- zine, Jackson continuing the general management, assisted by Alice Cary. The first semi-annual volume, from July to December, 1853, was issued as an independent work, under the title of " Family Treasury."

The accession of Alice Cary to the editorial control of

Afterward Mary Clemmer Ames, the biographer of the Cary sisters.

88 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

the periodical gave new life to its pages. She took a more cheerful view of the duties of an editor than Mr. Jackson had taken. But it is evident from her first editorial that she was not sanguine as to the success of the magazine, nor over-confident of her own powers of pleasing. There is a sprightly wit and a keen common sense about her salutatory that warrant me in quoting some sentences from it. She says : "As we seat ourself at the editorial table of the Parlor Magazine, an anecdote, which we have read somewhere, occurs to us :

"A French surgeon, who was in the habit of boasting of the performance of some very difiicult operation, hav- ing treated no less than sixteen patients, was asked how many of them he had saved. ' Oh,* replied the French- man with naivete^ ' they all died — but I assure you the ex- periments were yqvj brilliant ! '

" Our magazine is not greatly below the sixteenth one that has struggled for existence in Cincinnati, and if it should fail, why w^e shall congratulate ourselves with the reflection that it was at least a brilliant experiment. . . . Some years ago the editor of a small paper in the interior of Ohio announced in Viis salutatory that he had that day commenced ' the wielding of the tripod,' and, lest we should fall into a similar blunder, we will cut short our introductory, simply referring the reader to what we pre- sent, rather than to showy promises, for it is surely true that a bird in the hand, even if it be a common sort ot bird, is worth two in the bush."

Alice Gary contributed to the Parlor Magazine a story written in her best vein, entitled " The Actress." She also contributed a number of short poems, remarkable for their naturalness, pathos, and melody. One of these, doubtless the sincere expression of feelings she had recently experi- enced in New York City, is called " Homesick" —

Oh ! shall I ever be going

Back any more ? Back where the green woods are blowing

Close by the door !

Early Periodical Literature. 89

Back where the mowers are binding

Pinks with their sheaves — Where homeward the cattle are winding

Together of eves ?

The fresh-smelUng earth at the planting —

The blue-bird and bee, The gold-headed wheat fields aslanting

How pleasant to me !

I'm sick of the envy and hating

All efibrt brings on — I'm sick of the working and waiting,

And long to be gone.

Gone where the tops of red clover

With dew hang so low, And where all the meadow-side over

The buttercups grow.

I'm weary — I'm sick of the measures

Each day that I track— Of all which the many call pleasures.

And long to be back.

Back where the ivy-vines cover

The low cabin wall. And where the sweet smile of my lover

Is better than all.

Oh ! shall I ever be going

Back any more — Back where the green woods are blowing

Close by the door ?

The genius of Alice Gary did not bring financial pros- perity to the Parlor Magazine. She soon retired from the editorial chair to return to IN'ew York, and Mr. W. F. Lyons took her place. Mr. George W. L. Bickley, who had been publishing the West American Review, transferred bis subscription list to that of the Parlor Magazine, and in 1855 he became a partner in the concern. The merged magazines formed one, with the new name, The West American Monthly, which did not survive to greet the year 1856.

^ Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

LUCIUS A. hine's periodicals.

The literary magazines of the west have usually been private enterprises, undertaken by enthusiastic young men bent on carrying out ideals rather than making money. Only youth and enthusiasm have the strength and the rashness to venture on reforming the world without cap- ital and by means of printer's ink and a publication.

Something near fifty years ago, a handsome, stalwart,, all-hopeful student, fresh from I^orwalk Academy, Ohio, came to Cincinnati and took the regular course in the law school, then under the direction of Timothy Walker. This young gentleman was Mr. L. A. Hine, oldest son of Sheldon Hine, a thriving farmer who came from the good old Orthodox county of Litchfield, Connecticut, in 1818, and settled at Berlin, Erie county, Ohio, where he pros- pered. L. A. Hine was born at Berlin, February 22, 1819.

Though trained to conservative views and habits, both in theology and economics, Hine departed from the coun- sel of his family, having been indoctrinated with the rad- icalism of Horace Greeley, Robert Owen, and other agi- tators. He did not enter upon the practice of law, but, actuated by hopes of literary success, he started the West- ern Literary Journal and Monthly Magazine, the first number of which came out in November, 1844. In this venture he was associated with E. Z. C. Judson ("Ned Buntline ") — an ill-assorted partnership. Hine was to fur- nish one thousand dollars and Judson ^ve hundred dol- lars; but it turned out that Hine furnished nlore than one thousand five hundred dollars and Judson nothing. Both were very young men — Hine only twenty-five and his partner twenty-one. By and by they took into the firm a third ambitious young fellow from Tennessee — Hudson A. Kidd. Judson was nominally editor, he having already achieved some reputation as a writer for the Knicker- bocker Magazine, and as editor of Ned Buntline's Own, a story paper which he had started at Paducali, Kentucky. Unfortunately for liimself and for his associates, Judsoa

Early Periodical Literature. 91

got into a quarrel at IS'ashville, Tennessee, which led to a passage at arms, in which he killed a man who had shot at him. Judson was captured by a mob and almost hanged, w^as glad to escape with his life and fly to Pitts- burg. In consequence of this affair, the literary magazine was discontinued after six numbers had been issued, Iline paying the debts.

The contents of this unfortunate Journal and jReview are varied and entertaining. Almost all the leading writers of the West contributed to its columns. The post of honor in the first number was occupied by William D. Gallagher, who furnished a long historical article on " Periodical Literature." The same veteran, who, how- ever, was then no veteran, but a dashing young man but thirty-six years old, gave to the public, through the Jour- nal, a number of his best poems, such as " Truth and Freedom." Mrs. Julia L. Dumont, that Hannah More of the West, contributed column after column of moral sketch and story to encourage the magazine ; Mrs. R. S. Nichols, Mrs. An;ia Peyer Dinneis, Miss E. A. Evans, Mrs. S. M. Judson, Mrs. Lee Hentz, and Miss E. A. Dupay were con- stant writers for it.

It must not be thought that the has bleus monopolized the pages of our young men's magazine. Many male writers, grave and gay, kept the post-bags enriched with their offerings. Productions were printed from T. H. Shreve, Albert Pike, J. Ross Browne, J. B. Russell,. Charles Cist, J. L. Cist, Prof. Cross, J. B. Hickey, B. St. James Fry, Hiram Kaine, Otway Curry, L. C. Draper, Colonel Charles Whittlesey, J. R. Eakin, E. P. is'orton, F. Colton, C. B. Gillespie, W. B. Fairchild, J. C. Zachos, D. L. Brown, H. A. Kidd, Anson Nelson, H. B. Hirst, James W. Ward, H. C. Beeler, G. T. Stuart, J. J. Martin, W. H. Hopkins, John Tomlin, A. S. Mitchell, Dr. T. M. Tweed, Emerson Bennett, and Donn Piatt. The gentleman named last wrote on the subject of " Old Bachelors," and under the pseudonym "John Smith." The novelist, W. Gilmore Simms, contributed a poem, " The Grave of the

92 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

Bard." Emerson Bennett's contribution was a languish- ing sonnet to his " ladje love."

Many of the names just given will be recognized as holding a worthy place on the scroll of literary dis- tinction.

Albert Pike ' was well known and highly popular, not only in the West, but throughout the country, on account of his successful eftbrts as poet, law reporter, and editor in Arkansas and Tennessee. His poems, an '' Ode to the Mocking Bird," "Ariel," " Hymns to the Gods," were re- garded as products of genius. Pike was born at Boston in 1809. He seems to have struck up a jolly acquaintance- ship with "Ned Buntline," to whom he addressed a poetical letter, which was published in the Journal. It opens thus :

Dear Ned, your craft I see 's at length afloat,

A tight, sea-worthy, staunch, and well-manned boat.

Mr.L. C. Draper, named in the list, is Dr. Lyman C. Draper, of the Wisconsin Historical Society, whose col- lections of Western biographical and historical material are invaluable. Draper was born near Butfalo, New York, in 1815. Much of his work has been done in co-operation

* General Pike died in Washington City, April 2, 1891, in the eighty- second year of his age. He was Grand Commander of the Scottish Rite Masonry of the Southern Jurisdiction and Chief of the Royal Order of Scotland for this country. He was born in Boston in 1809. He was author, editor, lawyer, and soldier. He edited the Arkansas Advocate and the Memphis Aj)peal. It was stated in the New York Times that he had the largest and most costly library in the South. His " Hymns of the Gods " was published in 1839. Besides this he wrote three other volumes of poems. His writings on Masonry are considered the high- est authority. In 1874, he published a book on Philology. General Pike removed to Washington in 1868. Since the year 1875, he translated about twenty volumes from Sanskrit into English. A Washington cor- respondent of the Chicago News, writing of these, says : ** They are not printed, but are in manuscript, every word being written by Gen- eral Pike, and in all of the thousands of pages, there is not a scratched word or an erasure. If General Pike had given the same time and erudition to the world of literature, instead of to the secret order of which he was the head, his name would, undoubtedly, have been classed with the Raskins, Emersons, and Carlyles."

Early Periodical Literature 93

with Benson Lossing. Dr. Draper is deservedly distin- guished as the editor of the ten volumes of Wisconsin Historical Collections, and the author of " King's Moun- tain and its Heroes," and other historical works. He con- trihuted to Hine's publication an article on " General George Rogers Clarke."

Colonel Charles Whittlesey's important donations to the Journal include articles on " Indian History," " John Fitch," and " The Northern Lakes."

Judson, besides numerous editorials, furnished charac- teristic sketches in true " Xed Buntline" style — "The Last of the Buccaneers," " The Lost Chief of the Uchees," and reminiscential "Sketches of the Florida War."

Benjamin St. James Fry,. born 1824, now a Doctor of Divinity, and the editor of the " Central Christian Advo- cate," St. Louis, was very active in literary matters in the Ohio Valley. He edited in Cincinnati a periodical called the " Rambler," and was connected with Hall's Maga- zine. He became president of " Worthington College." To his pen we are indebted for the biographies of several prominent Methodist clergymen.

John Celevergoz Zachos,^ an occasional contributor to Hine's periodical, is a Greek, born at Constantinople in 1820. Coming to America, he graduated from Kenyon College, Ohio ; studied medicine in Miami University, Ohio ; became associate principal of Cooper Female Col- lege, Dayton, Ohio ; and afterward professor in Antioch College under Horace Mann. In 1852, he edited the Ohio School Journal. He is the author of several school books. For some years he was a Unitarian preacher. Since 1871, he has been curator of Cooper Institute, ^ew York City. •

L. A. Hine, by nature earnest and by reflection serious, felt an inward call to serve humanity by effecting social and educational reforms, especially by some great land re- form, to bring about such happy conditions as Henry

^ For some years teacher of mathematics in Rev. Dr. Colton's school, Cincinnati.

'94 Literary .Culture in the Ohio Valley,

Oeorge looks forward to. Hine "Busied his pen in the elu- cidation of his chosen themes. He wrote articles en- titled " Distinctions," " Standard of Respectability/* •" Teaching a Profession," " Union of Mental and Physical Labor," and " One Dollar." Occasionally he invoked the lyric muse, who inspired him with strains of a contem- plative and melancholy tone. The young man w^as loaded with a burden no less than the old, sad world with its im- memorial woes.

The Literary Journal w^ent to wreck in April, 1845. In the following January, Hine put forth, at his own ven- ture, as editor and publisher, the initial number of

THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL AND REVIEW.

This was published through the year 1846, and then merged in the Herald of Truth. In his Quarterly, he gave fuller scope to his opinion on political and social economy. His reviews took the form of radical discus- sion under such captions as "Association," " The Spirit of Democracy," " Obligations of Wealth," " Progression," " The Land Question," '^ Our Social, Political and Educa- tional System." One of his earliest out-and-out radical utterances was a review of E. P. Hurlbut's " Essays on Human Rights," published by Greeley in 1845. When Hine's father (prudent and sagacious money-maker that he was) saw this article, he dryly remarked, " Lucius will make nothing by writing in that way." Nevertheless Lucius did make — enemies.

The Quarterly was not wholly given up to radical dis- cussion. David Dale Owen contributed several scientific papers on " Geology." The editor continued also, as in his previous publication, to give prominence to literary topics, and to solicit contributions from purely literary writers. Albert Pike, Emerson Bennett, George F. Mar- shall, Alice Gary, Mrs. C. A. Chamberlain, Mrs. R. S. Nichols and Mrs. Sophia H. Oliver wrote poems for the Quarterly. A piece contributed by Mrs. Oliver entitled, ^* I Mark the Hours that Shine," went the rounds of the press and was printed in school-readers.

Early Periodical Literature. 95

George S. Weaver, of Dayton, Ohio, who became a ^celebrated Universalist preacher and writer, began his lit- erary practice in this Quarterly.

THE HERALD OF TRUTH.

" The Herald of Truth, a monthly periodical devoted to the interests of Religion, Philosophy, Literature, Science and Art," a magazine of eighty pages, the organ of a brotherhood of social and religious radicals who had a community on the Ohio river, was started in January, 1847, and was continued nineteen months, when the " Brotherhood " failed. L. A. Hine was employed to edit the periodical, but no effort was made by the society to push it, the leader believing it w^ould work its own way. The Herald partook somewhat of the character of its pre- decessor, the Quarterly, though it contained greater vari- ety and was superior in literary style and mechanical " make-up." The devotees of the " Philosophy of Uni- versal Harmony " used its free pages as a vehicle for con- veying their theories to the public. The editor resumed his efforts to set forth the facts, figures, and arguments to demonstrate the necessity of land reform. He made an exhaustive historical survey of the " Roman Land Laws " and of the " Hebrew Land System." Articles were pub- lished on various phases of socialism, on St. Simon and Fourier, and on Swedenborg. A long discourse on the history of " Labor," from the pen of Robert Dale Ow^en, found an acceptable place in the Herald.

Many of the men -and w^omen who wrote for the Lit- erary Journal and the Quarterly were personal friends of Mr. Hine and continued to favor him with their assist- ance. Among them were Alice and Phoebe Gary and Emerson Bennett. Several new contributors made the Herald of Truth their medium of communication with the " gentle reader." Among the contributors of prose I name John 0. Wattles, Dr. Diver, John Patterson, I. P. Cornell, John White, Thos. L. Boucher, Maria L. Varney, and Milton J. Sanders. Warner M. Bateman, now a prominent Cincinnati lawyer, made one of his earliest lit-

96 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

erary efforts in preparing for the Herald an article enti- tled "Education — Freedom," written from Springboro, Ohio."

The poetical contributors, besides those already men- tioned, were Mrs. Sarah T. Bolton, Mrs. Frances D. Gage, Mrs. Sarah J. Howe and Coates Kinney.

THE WESTERN QUARTERLY REVIEW.

In 1849 Mr. J. S. Hitchcock, who once kept a news room in the old post-office building in Cleveland, Ohio, and who was an able solicitor for journals, started in Cin- cinnati another- Quarterly Review, expecting to pay ex-- penses and more by canvassing for subscribers. Mr. Hine agreed to do the editorial work, which he did gratis until the proprietor mysteriously disappeared in Chicago, where he had gone on a soliciting tour. Whether Hitchcock was killed, or whether he died among strangers who gave no information of him, is unknown to this day. What- ever may have been his fate, it is certain that the Quar- terly failed. Two numbers only were issued, of about two hundred pages each. The first was illustrated with a steel engraving of the poet, William D. Gallagher ; and the second, with a portrait of John Locke. The volume contains, in all, twenty-eight articles, in prose and verse, the titles of the most important being : " The Youth of Christ," " The Land Question," " Ethology," "American Eloquence," "Neurology," "Powers's Greek Slave," " The Free-Soil Movement," " William D. Gallagher," " The Revolution of 1698 and Macaulay's History," " Decline of the Church," " The Republic," "Education and Crime," " Mission of Democracy," and " Ohio : Her Resources and Prospects."

In nine's Quarterly of 1849, the literary element is en- tirely subordinated to the controversial, though the work contains a few poems and a story with a purpose, called "A Philosophical Sketch," composed by the editor. In- deed, the battle of opinions had thickened around Hine, and henceforth he gave himself to his favorite " cause." He had drawn the tire of many conservative journalists,

Early Periodical Literature. 97

who hated his radicalism on general principles. We find him, in 1850, editing the Daily Nonpareil, a paper con- ducted on the co-operative plan by a company of printers. On ceasing to write for the I^onpareil, he commenced traveling as a lecturer on reforms, especially the land re- form and educational topics. His magnificent personal appearance, his fine voice, and eloquent, poetic style of delivery, make him a very impressive orator. He is the author of numerous . pamphlets on political and social economy, and of several radical stories, " The Unbal- anced," "Patty Parker," " Currie Cummings," "The Money Changer," etc. In 1869 Mr. Hine published three numbers of a reform journal called Hine's Quarterly, or the Pevolutionist, having for its motto the word^ '''■Taurus cornthus captusJ'

Mr. Hine now resides near Loveland, Ohio, living a recluse life, but still actively engaged in study and lite- rary composition.

THE ladies' repository.

By far the longest lived, most extensive, and most ex- pensive literary periodical ever published west of the Al- legheny mountains was the Ladies' Repository and G-ath- erings of the West, a- monthly which was started nine years before the first number of Harper's was issued. It was almost the only western magazine that had the good fortune to be sustained by any considerable capital and patronized from the start by a considerable class of read- ers. The periodical was owned and managed by the Methodist Book Concern, and naturally received the sym- pathy and support of the great denomination which, in a special way, it represented. It was conducted in a liberal spirit, according to a policy that extended a tolerant hand to all, and it was hospitable to the ideas of any writer who expressed himself with moral propriety and a fair degree of literary skill.

The Ladies' Repository contains thirty-six annual vol- umes, published in the years 1841-1876. Each of the first 7

98 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

* fourteen volumes has 380 pages, and the succeeding vol- umes each comprise 760 pages. The Repository was dis- continued after 1876, but, in its stead, the Book Concern published a still larger periodical, the ^N'ational Repository, which was kept up four years, 1877-1880. The life of the two magazines — they may be regarded as one and the same — covered forty years of the most interesting period of the history of the Ohio Valley.

The Ladies' Repository was started in consequence of a memorial suggesting the desirability of such a publica- tion, addressed to the M. E. Conference, at Cincinnati, in September, 1839, by Mr. Samuel Williams, of Mt. Auburn, the father of Professor Samuel W. Williams, now in the Methodist Book Concern, and of John Fletcher Williams, librarian of the Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul.

Samuel Williams was one of the early pioneers. He was a gentleman of literary tendencies, and he contributed to the Repository, under the name of "Plebius," a series of reminiscential papers called " Leaves from an Auto- biography," giving experiences in Pennsylvania and West Virginia from 1790 to 1850.

As the name would indicate, the Ladies' Repository was designed, originally, to furnish reading particularly ac- ceptable to women, or to the family circle. Hence, for the first year or two, its columns abounded with advices and admonitions, somewhat solemn and heavy, to the fe- male sex. Caleb Atwater, the pioneer historian of Ohio, contributed an article on " Female Education." An ad- dress by Samuel Galloway, A.M., to the pupils at Oakland Female Seminary, at Hillsborough, Ohio, on " Female Character and Education," was published. There also ap- peared in print a discourse to a Young Ladies' Lyceum, by Honorable Bellamy Storer, the distinguished jurist and statesman. As one glances over the introductory volumes of the long series of Repositories, and observes how im- measurably and unceasingly the misses, maids, and mat- rons were belectured and relegated to their "sphere," one feels sorry retrospectively. That was before the day of Kansas voting and Vassar College, Yet, it must be said

Early Periodical Literature, 9^

to the credit and honor of the early editors of the Repos- itory, that they opened their columns freely to female writers, and that, as time went on, the women had their full " say," to the exclusion, we trust, of some masculine severities on female education, which might have been printed.

The first editor of the Ladies' Repository was Rev. L. L. Hamline, A. M., afterward bishop, who held the manag- ing pen for nearly five years. As was expected, the lead- ing preachers of the Methodist Church in the West, and many of the presidents and professors in Western colleges, wrote for the magazine, which was expressly devoted to "Literature and Religion." A majority of the most prominent denominational ministers and educators con- tributed to the useful work. isTumerous writers not of the Methodist persuasion also proffered their aid, which was accepted, always with thanks, and often with pay in cash. The subscription list rapidly increased, and in its palmiest days, the Repository enrolled thirty thousand subscribers, and had three or four times that many readers. Every number was illustrated with one or more fine steel en- gravings. The subjects chosen for illustration in the early years of the periodical were local scenes and objects, drawn from nature by Western artists. The first number presented " Views on the Ohio." Other of these pictures made in the forties were "A Railroad Scene," '' View on the Miami Canal," and very beautiful sketches of the " Big Miami River" and " Indiana Knobs."

Among those who wrote for the Repository in its first decade, when the Book Concern was managed by Rev. J. F. Wright and Rev. L. Swormstedt, were many who had already risen to distinction and 'more who afterward achieved honored names for worthy public service in re- ligion, education, literature, legislation or law. This magazine was the seed-bed in which were germinated and nurtured hundreds of intellectual growths that in time bore fragrant blossoms and good fruits in the West, or were transplated to bloom and bear in other parts of the

100 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

world. The list of contributors is a very long one ; I will seleot from it a few leading names :

Prof. F. Merrick, of the Ohio Wesleyan University, wrote for the Repository on zoology. Rev. M. P. Gaddis, as early as 1841, contributed a " Scene in a School Room," and afterward he sent other pieces. Rev. J. L. Tomlinson, president of Augusta College; Bishop Morris, D.D.; Prof. W. G. Williams, of Woodward College ; Rev. Joseph F. Tuttle, of Wabash College; Rev. D. D. Whedon, D.D., president of Michigan University ; Rev. W. P. Strickland, Prof. Waterman, Rev. B. W. Chidlaw, Rev. L. D. Mc- Cabe, Prof. E. C. Merrick, Rev. A. M. Lorraine, Rev. S. McClure, Rev. W. C. Hoyt, Rev. J. R. Wilson, Rev. R. Sapp, Rev. T. Harrison, G. P. Disoway, Rev. R. W. Allen, Rev. J. B. Durbin, D.D., and Pro£ E. W. Merrill, all slione in the galaxy of contributors between the years 1840 and 1850.

Dr. Hamline was succeeded in the editorial chair by the Rev. E. Thompson, who, on being elected president of the Ohio Wesleyan Univerity in 1845, gave place to Rev. B* F. Teeft. Teeft was followed in 1845 by Prof. W. C. Larrabee, who acted as editor for five months, until Janu- ary, 1853, at which time Dr. Davis W. Clark, afterward Bishop Clark, took the responsible position. All of these had been generous contributors to the Repository before they were selected to edit it, and, of course, as editor, «ach in turn wrote much for its columns.

Dr. Thompson had been the much loved and respected head of a famous academy at ITorwalk, Ohio. His schol- arship and literary ability were very great, and few men have done more to advance civilization by individual ef- fort than he. Prof. Larrabee was a distinguished teacher in Asbury University (now De Pauw), Indiana.

Dr. B. F. Teeft wrote much and well on various sub- jects. He was of a literary turn, and he gave to the Re- pository a more decided literary character than it had be- fore his editorial connection with it. Through its pages he gave to the public a historical and philosophic story relating to the time of Louis the Thirteenth of France

Early Periodical Literalare. 101

and entitled " The Shoulder-knot." This was published in a separate volume by the Harpers, in 1850.

In 1840 and 1841, Rev. D. P. Kidder, who, in 1839, had made a visit to Brazil, furnished the Repository with a series of '' Sketches of Travel."

Colonel John McDonald, of Poplar Ridge, Ohio, author of McDonald's " Sketches of the Pioneers," contributed an account of " Logan, the Mingo Chief," whom he had seen. Another pioneer, illustrious in politics, the Honor- able Joshua R. Giddings, contributed in November, 1844, his personal recollections of the " Skirmishes on the Lake Peninsula in 1812." In June, 1846, the Rev. James B. Finley published in the Repository the first of several papers giving reminiscences of his early life. Finley came West with his father, down the Ohio river to Kentucky, in 1788, and his narrative is extremely interesting.

Mrs. Julia L. Dumont, who resided in Yevay, Indiana, from 1814 to the year of her death, 1857, wrote for the Re- pository " Sketches from Life," " Our Village," and other things. Her style is sometimes tedious and prolix, but her stories have the supreme merit of dealing with reali- ties, and the strata of dull paragraphs ai^e veined with the gold of good writing. Here is a specimen of her descrip- tive composition, valuable for its picturesque vividness, and for the true glimpse it gives of the customs of pioneer days along the Ohio river : '• We are watching the boats that are descending the stream — we have no eye for ob- jects of mere visual interest. Here is one at hand that has been heralded by some half dozen ' outriders ' — a store boat! laden with fancy merchandise — an exciting array of red and green and yellow, now quiet for the hearts of the demoiselles, both of our town and the back- woods. Why, look ! the stirring rumor has been out upon the wings of the ^vind. They are already hurrying, in not silent groups, down to the bank — the young, the fair, the gaileless-hearted. Beshrew the heart that would &corn their simple vanity. May every little purse (and well we ken they were light enough) prove sufiicient for the favor- ite want, for hardly have its contents been earned, and

102 Jjiterar.y Culture in the Ohio Valley.

carefully have they been treasured, doubtless for such destination."

An enormous quantity of very poor poetry lies entombed under the covers of the Ladies' Repository. To compen- sate for this rubbish, there is excellent poetry to be found, here and there, scattered through these forty volumes.

Mrs. Sarah J. Howe, a verse writer of considerable power, wrote her best pieces for the Repository. She achieved a good reputation on the merit of a poem, "Bolesdas II., or the Siege of Kiow." In 1849 she con- tributed to the Herald of Truth a scene from another orig- inal drama, of which the hero is an Indian chief. Mrs. Howe lived in Newport, Kentucky. Her poems were never published in a collected form.

Otway Curry, who in his lifetime divided with W. D. Gallagher the laurels of local fame, won his literary hon- ors by means of the Repository. He was a constant and valued contributor to its pages ; and when he died his life was written lovingly by Edward Thomson and by Wm. D. Gallagher.

Alice Cary began to write for the Repository in 1847. Her genius was soon recognized, and she was employed as a regular contributor of poetry and prose. She pub- lished about a hundred short stories and sketches, many of which were reprinted in her volumes called " Clover- nook."

Poems were contributed to the Repository by Mrs. Helen Truesdell, Mrs. A. L. Ruter Dufour, Mrs. L. H. Sigourney (who also contributed stories), Mrs. S. T. Bol- ton, Mrs. R. S. Nichols, Miss M. Louise Chitwood, Virginia F. Townsend, Hannah F. Gould and Phcebe Cary. The much admired, much ridiculed, Mr. Martin Farquhar Tupper, was a personal friend of Doctor Teeft, to whom he sent occasional letters and poems. The following note from him was written from Furze Hill, Brighton, England, and is dated September 28, 1848 :

" My Dear Sir : I hope you will long ago have received my letter, and that a response from you may be on its

Early Periodical Literature. 103

road. By the way of stirring up your mind to remem- brance, I send you the inclosed ballad, which I have just written, and which tells its own tale. I send it to you, my friend, as a newly forged link of love between our nations. Send any tidings likely to be of interest. Salute all unseen friends, and believe me, as ever,

" Truly yours, Martin F. Tupper."

The ballad inclosed is named, " Ye Thirty !N'oble IN'a- tions," and addresses the states of the Union in terms of general praise, tempered by a mild denunciation of slavery. The Repository published perhaps a dozen strings of verse from Mr. Tupper, who usually added to his name the let- ters " D. C. L., F. R. S." In September, 1848, appeared a " National Anthem for Liberia " and a monitory rhymed address "To America," beginning:

" Young Hercules thus traveling in might, Boy-Plato, filling all the West with light.

Thou new Themistocles of enterprise : Go on and prosper — Acolyte of fate !

And, precious child, dear Ephraim— turn those eyes— For thee, thy mother's yearning heart doth wait."

Turning the leaf illuminated by the verse of Tupper, we find on other pages of the Repository names familiar to the eye and ear, but which we do not associate with the idea of verse-making. Yet here they are prefixed or suffixed to eff'usions in measure and rhyme ! M. B. •Hagans, now a grave and dignified judge in Cincinnati, sent to the Repository, forty years ago, a little poem on " Memory." And here, in volume ten, is the " Emigrant's Lay," by Ben. Pitman, since the author of many phono- graphic books. And on another page not far from the " Emigrant's Lay," we read " The Christian's Fear," a hymn by the scholarly 0. J. Wilson. We are not sur- prised, after these discoveries, to find attached to a bit of blank verse, written in 1847, the name of Alfred Holbrook, the widely known president of the National Normal Uni- versity, Lebanon, Ohio. In volume sixteen the curious reader comes upon "Autumn Musings," a sentimental lyric

104 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

by Rev. J. H. Vincent, now bishop, the far-famed leader of the " Chautauqua Movement." Another volume brings to light a poem by Kev. Edward Eggleston, whose writings are now known wherever English is read.

After tracing the literary beginning of so many noted men to a fountain of verse, one is prepared to read Prof. "William G. Williams's article, in volume thirteen of the Repository, in answer to the question, " What is Poetry?" Or, the reader may turn to a critical and suggestive essay by Coates Kinney, on " Poetry and Poets." Kinney's own muse very well answers the query, " What is Poetry?" for she enabled him to produce many genuine poems, a few of which were printed in this same Ladies' Repository, for which he began to write, as a paid contributor, in 1855. The titles of his principal articles are, '' Clyde Sutven's Story," "Duty Here and Glory There," "Soma and Psyche," "Elocution," "Impressibility," "Pronunciation," and " The Future of the English Language."

A very able and eminent contributor to the earlier vol- umes was Rev. A. Stevens, who became the historian of the Methodist Church. His articles include " Sketches of New England Life," " Klopstock," " Meta Klopstock," and " Horse Sylvestrse " — a series of beautiful essays.

Mr. Erwin House, for many years assistant editor, wrote numerous articles for the magazine. He prepared many of the book notices.

Another writer, admired for his exact, varied, and thorough learning, and for his lucid and charming style, is Prof. S. W. Williams, who began to write for the Repos- itory in 1857, and who gave it much valuable aid for a number of years. His first article is entitled " The Myth- ical Character of William Tell."

In 1850 L. A. Hine, the reformer, published in the Re- pository a long and able article on the " Idea of Virtue." The paper gives the ethical views of many philosophers, ancient and modern, and rciiclK's the conclusion that "love is virtue," and tliat we '-vainly setk reform on any other basis than that of intellectual and religious improve- ment."

. Early Periodical Literature. 105

M. D. Conway, who began his public career as a Methodist preacher, wrote critical studies on " Gray's Elegy," on '' Ebenezer Elliott, the Corn-Law Rhymer," and " Ralph Waldo Emerson," for the Repository in 1850.

Other literary people who wrote for the Repository be- tween 1850 and 1860, were Isaac H. Julian,^ J. W. Roberts, George W. Hoss, Rev. J. W. Wiley, Rev. Robert Allyn, Hon. Horace P. Biddle, Dr. Cornelius G. Comegys, Horatio N. Powers, Rev. E. O. Haven, D.D., O. J. Victor, Metta V. Fuller, W. W. Fosdick, William T. Coggeshall, and Mrs. Donn Piatt, author of " Belle Smith Abroad;" Peter Fishe Reed, Rachel Bodley, late president of the Woman's Medical College, Philadelphia; Virginia F. Townsend, editor of Arthur's Home Magazine and author of a dozen or more volumes; and Charles Nordhotf, the Prussian, who wrote *' Man-of-War Life," " Kine Years a Sailor," and other popular works.

When Dr. Clark became editor of the Repository, 1853, the work was enlarged to double its original size, and several new features were added. Almost every number contained a finely engraved portrait of some favorite Amer- ican female writer, accompanied by a lengthy sketch of her life and works. A few of the women thus honored were L. H. Sigourney, Sarah Josepha Hale, Elizabeth Stewart Phelps, Alice Cary, Amelia B. Welby, Emily C. Judson,

^ Isaac H, Julian, noAV conducting a literary agency in San Marcos, Texas, has done much for the cause of general culture, as editor and otherwise. He writes under date of March 13, 1891 : " Since my happy release from the newspaper tread-mill, I am devoting most of my time to those lit- erary pursuits and recreations w^liich were the delight of my youth." Julian was born in Wayne county, Indiana, June 19, 1823. He was a contributor to the National Era, the Ladies' Repository, the Genius of the West, and other periodicals. From 1846 to 1850 he resided in Iowa. Returning to Indiana he became editor of the " True Republican," at Centerville. He has since edited several newspapers. In 1873 he re- moved to Texas. He published in 1857 a biief " History of the White- water Valley." A volume of his poems is now in preparation. Mr. Julian possesses a rare and valuable collection of western books and man- uscripts.

106 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

and Harriet Beecher Stowe. The picture of Mrs. Stowe represents her as almost ideally beautiful.

Portraits of many eminent preachers were also engraved for the Repository; and other illustrations — landscapes, fancy groups, reproductions of historical and classical paintings — appeared from month to month. It is said that the sum spent on pictures far exceeded the amount paid for all other matter in the magazine, and that con- tributors dropped off and the literary character of the Re- positoiy declined as the department of illustrations became prominent. Be that as it may, it is certain that the man- agers of the periodical concluded not to attempt to compete with the general illustrated literary magazines, such as " Harpers'," and decided to give a more specially re- ligious and denominational direction to their work. After 1860 the Repository gradually lost its hold as a representa- tive western literary journal, though it retained great vi- tality and continued to be a strong, intellectual, and moral force, not only within the church, but in the community at large.

I may record, as a point of historical interest, that for many years the editorial offices and binderies of the Methodist Book Concern were located in the old St. Clair mansion, at the corner of Main and Eighth streets, Cin- cinnati. I remember calling on Dr. Clark, in 1861, at the editorial room of the Repository, on which occasion he said, "Do you know that we are now sitting in the library of General Arthur St. Clair?"

The Evening Times of May 19, 1879, contains a his- torical sketch of the St. Clair house, to which, unfor- tunately, no name is affixed, but which was evidently pre- pared with care and accuracy. The writer says :

" Doubtless the foundation was laid in the summer of 1800, and the house followed closely the type that had ruled for years before in the East. It was the model to the West, the first dwelling of any pretensions, the first house of brick built in the Miami country. The very bricks were brought from Pittsburg in keel-boats. A large piece of freestone that forms the door-step came in the

Early Periodical Literature.. 107

same way, and was the wonder of the folks at the time. The building was a marvel and a matter of pride. Yet, in 1822, John I. Jones bought the house and lot at tax sale for twenty-five dollars. Then it was owned by the United States Bank, and in 1835, Crafts J. Wright deeded the property to Salmon P. Chase for $8,064. Chase deeded it back to Wright & Swan, agents for the Methodist Book Concern, for $11,200. The Book Concern made editor's offices of the bed-chambers and binderies of the parlors. It was at one time divided by a wood partition into two dwelling-houses, and finally it has become the litter place of a manufactory. St. Clair's home deserves a better fate than to perish, when so much life might be its lot. The walls are as sound as they were nearly a century ago. With us this building is the beginning, the ancient temple, the first step out of the wildnerness. St. Clair left no family of wealth to cover his faults and lift up his virtues. His name has been covered in the local history by the fame of those less worthy in many respects, and clouded by a disaster in his early history which some future historian will sweep away. Then General St. Clair and all he left here will assume a new value."

THE GENIUS OF THE WEST.

The Genius of the West, a monthly magazine of West- ern literature, was projected, and for a time conducted, by Howard Durham, a young Jerseyman, who came from his native state, in 1847, to the village of Mount Healthy, near Cincinnati. Durham was a shoemaker by trade, but, disregarding the proverb, " Stick to thy last," he forsook his humbler bench for a seat on the editor's tripod, and began his literary fortune by publishing a neat paper. The Western Literary Gem, which was presently united with another paper, the Temperance Musician. The last-named sheet was edited by Rev. A..D. Fillmore, author of a series of singing-books which followed the system of angular or "Buckwheat" notes once in vogue. Durham also joined John W. Henley in getting up a " moral and literary monthly for the young," which was christened " The Lit-

108 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

tie Traveler," a name afterward changed to " The Little Forester," by Durham, who bought his partner out.

The initial number of the Genius, printed in the rooms of the Phonetic Advocate, by Elias Longley ^ and Brothers, 169J Walnut street, is dated October, 1853. After issuing several numbers, Mr. Durham took into partnership with him Coates Kinney, a poet already famous on account of the popularity of his " Rain on the Roof." ^ Kinney had just re-

^ Elias Longley waB born at Oxford, Ohio, in August, 1823, while his father was still a student in Oxford College. His father moved to Lebanon, Ohio, in 1832, and thence to Cincinnati in 1840. Here the. boy was educated in the public schools and Woodward College, and then studied for the Universalist ministry, but he soon gave up the ministry for a newspaper life. In 1848, he learned Phonography, and in 1850, began the publication of a monthly magazine of thirty-two pages, entitled "The Phonetic Magazine." This paper was continued two years, then it became a semi-monthly, and later was enlarged to a weekly newspaper. Its publication was suspended in 1861. During the ten years previous to the war, Elias Longley, in connection with his brothers, compiled and published an American Manual of Phonography, and a primer, first and second readers in phonetic spelling, which ob- tained extensive sales all over the United States. From 1861 to 1884, he was engaged in daily newspaper reporting on the Commercial and the Daily Gazette, doing all of the short-hand speech reporting and much of the interviewing. Beginning with the speech of Lincoln, on the old Burnet House steps, before the election, he reported the ad- dresses of Johnson, Grant, Hayes, Garfield, and many other distin- guished statesmen. He was sent to report the re-hoisting of the flag at Fort Sumter, where he took down the speeches of Beecher and AVm. Lloyd Garrison. He was the first short-hand reporter of Cincinnati, where he was for two years official court reporter. He was also, for a time, official reporter of the Ohio legislature. Mr. Longley is now re- siding in South Passadena, California.

^"Rain on the Roof," unquf^stionably the most popular poem ever written in the Ohio Valley, an i xqiiisite lyric that has been everybody's favorite, now for over forty years, luis a very interesting history. TUe poem was written in the summer of 1840, while the author was visiting his father's family at Spring Valley, Greene county, Ohio. Colonel Kinney says, in a letter to the writer : " I slept one night next the roof, in the little frame cottage which our folks lived in, and which has since been torn away and replaced. In the evening there came up a gentle rain, which pattered on the shingle roof, two or three feet above my head, all the part of the niij;ht during which I was awake. Here I lay a.id ( oticeived the lyric , and then went to sleep. It haunted me till next day, which was brigiit, and green, and glorious; and, on a

Early Periodical Literature. 109

signed his professorship of languages and belles lettres in Judson College, Mt: Palatine, Illinois, and, on his return to Ohio, he hecame the leading editor of the new magazine. Some business difficulty having arisen between Durham and Kinney, the latter bought the concern, taking as com- pany Wm. T. Coggeshall^ and Durham retired. The fol- lowing curt valedictory appeared in the Genius of August, 1854:

" For numerous reasons, more interesting to myself than to the public, I have withdrawn from the Genius of the West and Forester, leaving my partners ' monarchs of all they survey.' Howard Durham."

In January, 1855, Durham issued the first number of a rival magazine, which he named " The New Western, the original Genius of the West." The enterprising young editor was overtaken by financial troubles, added to which he suffered a bereavement in the death of a child. He was obliged to abandon the " 'New Western," and not long after he was attacked by cholera, of which he died September 14, 1855, at the early age of twenty-seven.

By the terms of his partnership with Kinney, William Turner Coggeshall became the chief owner of the Genius of the West. Born at Lewistown, Pennsylvania, Septem- ber 6, 1824, Coggeshall came to Akron, Ohio, in early

walk from Spring Valley down to Mt. Holly — three miles — where I went to visit my uncle's folks, I composed most of the poem, finishing it the same afternoon during a sequestration of myself and a ramble in the woods just adjoining the town — woods now long since cleared away. It was the easiest production I ever wrote. It cost me no labor. . . . I sent it to the Great West, which was then edited by the nov- elist of Indians, Emerson Bennett. I was personally acquainted with Bennett, and he knew me as a writer, for I had contributed to a little literary paper of his. It was so long before the poem appeared that I had given it up as unaccepted. But finally it did appear, September 22, 1849. ... I learned later, from E. Penrose Jones, who was pub- lisher of the Great West, that the poem escaped oblivion through an accidental discovery of his. He was looking through Bennett's rejected manuscript drawer, and found it. Bennett had thought it not quite up to the standard of Indian-novelist literature, and had tossed it into that drawer."

110 Literary Culture in the OhioValley.

manhood, and embarked in the publication of a temper- ance paper, bearing the peculiar caption, The Roarer. At Akron he was married, October 26, 1845, to Mary Maria Carpenter. Mr. Coggeshall removed to Cincinnati in 1847, and became reporter for the Times, under the man- agement of " Pap " Taylor. In 1849 he worked on the Gazette with Wm. D. Gallagher. He traveled, in 1851-2, with General Louis Kossuth, reporting that eloquent Hungarian's speeches for both western and eastern papers. In the fall of 1852 he established a little paper called the Commercial Advertiser, but soon gave it up, and went into the office of the Daily Columbian as assistant editor. Having resigned his position on the Columbian, he took charge of the Genius, saying in brief salutatory : *^A11 I have and all I am are invested in the enterprise this maga- zine announces."

Coates Kinney's connection with the Genius of the West was severed June, 1855, when he wrote a " good- byographical " and retired, leaving Coggeshall sole pro- prietor. Early in 1856 Coggeshall was appointed state librarian by Governor Chase, and the Genius was disposed of to Mr. George True, who conducted it until July, 1856, when it was discontinued, five complete volumes having been issued. Three thousand copies of the Genius were the greatest number ever put forth in any single month.

Complete sets and even stray numbers of this periodical are very scarce, as, indeed, are sets and copies of most other western publications. This is accounted for, in part, by the circumstance that, during the civil war, the sanitary commission gathered and sent to the soldiers all the copies of unbound periodicals that could be procured. Every house was ransacked for reading matter, and tons of books and pamphlets were collected and shipped to Southern camps and hospitals.

The quality of a magazine is indicated by the character of its contributors. In the prospectus of the Genius of the West, the editor announced the following men and women as his pledged " assistants :'* Coates Kinney, Wm. T. Coggeshall, J. H. A. Bone, Peter Fishe Reed, Clement

Early Periodical Literature. Ill

E. Babb, J. W. Roberts, R. E. H. Levering, J. Hunt, Jr., J. M. Walden, Comly Jessup, U. P. Ewing, T. H. Burgess, Benjamin S. Parker, Mrs. Sarah T. Bolton, Alice Gary, Frances D. Gage, Harriet E. Benedict, Garrie Myer, M. Louisa Ghitwood, Miss M. E. Wilson, Mary A. Reeves, Kate Harrington, Julia M. Brown, Mary "Eulalie" Fee, Louise E. Vickroy. Goggeshall printed in his list of contributors most of the above names and these additional ones : Wm. D. Gallagher, Rev. Dr. E. Thompson, Rev. A. A. Livermore, James W. Taylor, James W. Ward, Donald Macleod, Don A. Pease, D. Garlyle McGloy, Florus B. Plimpton, Anson G. Ghester, E. S. S. Rouse, Thos. Hub- bard, Alfred Burnett, G. A. Stewart, General L. V. Bierce, S. S. Gox, John B. Dillon, J. B. Burrows, T. Herbert Whipple, Mrs. R. S. Nichols, Mattie Griffith, Carrie Piatt, Elvira Parker, Phoebe Gary, Harriet N. Babb, E. D. Mans- field, Dr. I. J. Allen, L. J. Gist, Gsgood Mussey, Prof. J» R. Buchanan, W. W. Fosdick, O. J. Victor, W. Albert Sutliffe, S. D. Harris, Isaac H. Julian, M. Halstead, J. H. Baker, Prof. E. E. Edwards, L. A.Hine, Y. M. Griswold, Sydney Dyer, T. J. Janvier, Metta Victoria Fuller, Mrs, Susan W. Jewett, Mrs. Frances S. Locke, Ida Marshall, Jane Maria Mead, Lydia Jane Pierson, Daniel Vaughn.

John Morgan Walden, born 1831, now Rev. J. M. Wal- den, D. D., a bishop in the M. E. Ghurch, contributed to the Genius of the West, in its first year, a religious sketch entitled " The Orphan's Prayer ; or the Superstitions of Yore," and a temperance story, ''The Contrast; or the Old Still-House and its Owner in Ruins." The scene of both these little stories is the bank of the Big Miami river, and the writer delineated with much fidelity local scenery and, to some extent, local customs.

Mr. Goggeshall took an active interest in history, and solicited competent writers to send him chapters recount- ing the annals of the West. James W. Taylor, author of the " History of Ohio," contributed some valuable matter ; John B. Dillon of Indiana, W. S. Drummond of Missouri, and Humphrey Marshall of Kentucky, all wrote special articles for the Genius. The veteran historian of Marietta,

112 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

Dr. S. P. Ilildreth, contributed an excellent article on "Heroic Women of the Early Western Settlements." Mr. Coggesliall, himself an indefatigable explorer, espe- cially in the fields of western literature and journalism, gave his readers the benefit of his researches.

Orville James Victor was one of the best writers for the Genius. He contributed a long and excellent review of " Gerald Massey, the Workingman's Poet." Victor was born in 1827, at Sandusky, Ohio, where, in 1852, he became assistant editor of the Daily Register. He was a frequent contributor to the Ladies' Repository and other periodicals. In July, 1856, he was married, in Mansfield, Ohio, to the accomplished writer. Miss Metta Victoria Fuller, and the Genius published a handsome account of the wedding, under the happy heading, " Victoria, the Victor." The couple moved to Kew York, and Mr. Vic- tor became editor of the Cosmopolitan Art Journal, and engaged in various other literary work. He is the author of a four-volume " History of the Southern Rebellion," which Horace Greeley pronounced an " admirable work " and used as an authority.

Mrs. M. V. Victor, nee Fuller, was born in 1831. She began to write verses and stories at the age of fourteen, and at sixteen she was known to a numerous circle of ad- miring readers, through various pieces contributed to Willis's Home Journal, under the sentimental pseudonym of the " Singing Sibyl." In 1847 she published her first book, " The Last Days of Tul." Then appeared " Poems of Sentiment," 1851 ; " Fresh Leaves from the Western Woods," 1852 ; " The Senator's Son " and " Fashionable Dissipation," 1854. The last two were temperance novels, and thousands of copies were sold. On her removal with her husband to N'ew York, Mrs. Victor continued her lit- erary career, publishing, in 1857, " The Two Mormon Wives ;" in 1858, " The Arctic Queen : a Poem," and, in 1860, " Mrs. Slimmon's Window." Another of her books, " The Dead Letter," is " believed to be," says J. C. Derby,, its publisher, " one of the most widely circulated Ameri-

Early Periodical Literature. 113

can novels — second only to ' Uncle Tom's Cabin.' " Mrs. Victor died in 1886.

Another writer of the Genius' fraternity, who, like the Victors, the Carys, and Wallace, and Whitelaw Reid and Howells, and many more, went East to better his fortunes, was James Warner Ward. Born in ^N'ew J ersey in 1818, and educated at Boston High School, Ward came to Cincinnati when a very young man, and studied natural sciences under the guidance of Prof. John Locke. He was a contributor to Gallagher's Mirror and to the Hesperian. Becoming a practical botanist, he joined John A. Warder in conduct- ing the Western Horticultural Review. A man of wide- ranging tastes and talents, he turned his attention, with success, to the composition of sacred music. Ward set- tled in ^N'ew York city in 1859.

Peter Fishe Reed, a man of weird and delicate fancy, almost a genius, but lacking in will-power and practical qualities — a painter, poet, and romancer — wrote for the Genius of the West some impressive verses and several prose pieces of remarkable insight and subtilty. " The Still Demon : A Fable," is the name of one of his queer allegories ; " The Devil's Pulpit : A Legend of Tullulah Falls," is a wild, strange story of Indian love and savage incantation. More skillfully wrought is a strange study of the conflict of pride and humility, presented in the form of a Poe-like story, called " The Wills of Arlam and Malra." But the most original and meritorious of Reed's prose contributions to the Genius is a short one, "The Triune Muse," a beautiful allegory showing the unity of poetry, painting, and music. Other contributions by Reed were three articles discussing the "Principles of Poetry," and the quaint poems, " The Poet-Zone," and " Dream- World Wonders : A Fantasia."

Reed was what is called " self-made " — that is, he was poor, and had not the benefit of schools or influential friends. He was born at South Boston in 1819. He has been, he tells us, "farmer, shoemaker, house and sign painter, editor, doctor, photographer, music teacher, and 8

114 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

painter of portraits and landscapes." He lived in Ver- mont, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Chicago, Santa Bar- bara, and Cedar Rapids, the last place being his home at the time of his death. His first writing was for the Weekly Columbian. In the days of the Genius of the West, he owned and tilled a farm near Vernon, Indiana. There he wrote a novel, in which the career of a self-made man was portrayed. This was never published. In 1868 he published, in Chicago, a volume, "The Voices of the Wind and Other Poems." Two years before, he brought out a very ingenious and amusing book for young people, under the title " Beyond the Snow," and he was engaged in writing a romance of a marvelous sort, which he named " The Moon City," when he died, in 1887.

William Whiteman Fosdick, a born poet, a true wit, a boon companion of artists and literary men, a courteous gentleman, loved and admired by every man, woman, and child who knew him, contributed to the Genius two poems — his stanzas, " To William Cullen Bryant," and a pretty love-story in rhyme, " The Maiden of the Mill." Fosdick was a native of the west, being born in Cincin- nati in January, 1825. He died in the same city in 1862, universally lamented. Ko reader possessed of sensibility can read Fosdick's collected pieces, "Ariel and Other Poems," without feeling that they sparkle with the divine light. Such lyrics as " The Maize," " The Pawpaw, " The Catawba," "The Thrush," have both the body and the soul of truth, and they deserve to be cherished.

The name of Florus B. Plimpton, another western born and western bred poet of high merit, whose recent death, in April, 1886, is fresh in the public memory, occurs on the pages of the interesting magazine of which we are giving a history. Mr. Plimpton was born in Portage county, Ohio, in 1830. The energy of his comparatively short life was spent chiefly in the arduous labors of news- paper editing. Most of his poetical compositions were produced in the period of his early manhood, from about 1850 to 1860. He wrote for Knickerbocker, Moore's Western Lady's Book, the New York Tribune, any many

Early Feriodical Literature. 115

other periodicals. Seventy of his select poems were col- lected and published in a most elegant and richly illus- trated volume by his wife. Plimpton contributed to the Genius of the West only two poems, " The Flight " and "Woman's Love in Woman's Eyes."

Hon. Benjamin S. Parker, whose pen and tongue have done so much to promote the cause of literature and the prosperity of writers, in Indiana, was a contributor to the Genius. Mr. Parker was born in a backwoods cabin, in Henry county, Indiana, February 10, 1833. He was edu- cated chiefly by his mother, who read aloud to him much of the best English poetry, fiction, and history. After at- tending a Quaker school at Rich Square, he taught school for a while, and then went into mercantile business. Later he became a newspaper editor. In 1880, he was elected to the state legislature, on the Republican ticket. President Arthur, in 1882, appointed him United States Consul to Sherbrooke, Canada. He is now clerk of the court of Henry county, Indiana.

Mr. Parker has written in prose and verse for numerous periodicals, including the Century Magazine. He has published two books, " The Session and Other Poems," in 1871 ; and " The Cabin in the Clearing and Other Poems,'' in 1887. It is announced that he is preparing for the press a comprehensive work on the "Poets and Poetry of Indiana." A competent and enthusiastic student of west- ern authors,. he has delivered excellent lectures on "West- ern Literature," " Poets and Poetry," and other subjects. A recognized and much respected leader in every local movement for the advancement of "the good cause," he was one of the founders and the second president of the Western Association of Writers, an organization now in the sixth year of its flourishing existence, and embracing in its membership about a hundred writers of Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, and Kentucky.

Coates Kinney's portion of the contents of the Genius was generous in quantity and excellent in quality. Be- sides editorial correspondence and " littlegraphs," he con- tributed two or three good poems and a number of finely-

116 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

written prose articles, including " Improvisations of an Opium-Thinker," " The Poetry of Alice Gary," and " Two Scenes of the War," the last a bit of dramatic word- painting, in two vivid scenes, one of the battle of Inker- man, the other of an English cottage home and a maiden, who receives news of the death of her lover at Inker- man. This composition is admirable; its brilliant merit was recognized throughout the country, and the piece was widely copied.

It remains for me to add something further about Mr. Coggeshall. A most industrious worker, he furnished nearly half the matter of the volumes of the Genius that he edited. A practical moralizer, he wrote sketches for young men on " State Governors," on '' Millard Fillmore," and " Young America." A sifter and compiler of facts, he prepared historical papers on the *' Origin and Prog- ress of Printing," " Men and Events in the West," and " Literary and Artistic Enterprises in Cincinnati." . He published an essay entitled " Genius and Gumption," sev- eral short stories, and one long one called " The Counter- feiters of the Cuyahoga : a Buckeye Eomance." In 1854 a collection of some of his stories was published by Red- field, New York, with the title, " Easy Warren and His Cotemporaries ; Sketched for Home Circles." In 1855 he brought out a volume called " Oakshaw ; or the Victims of Avarice : a Tale of Intrigue," and a lecture on " Caste and Character." In 1859 he published "A Discourse on the Social and Moral Advantages of the Cultivation of Local Literature," and in 1863, " Stories of Frontier Ad- venture in the South and West." . While connected with the Genius he announced himself as a public lecturer, and became quite popular on the platform.

He was appointed state librarian in 1856, and held the position during the administrations of Governors Chase and Dennison. His opportunities as editor, lecturer, and librarian, facilitated the task which he had set himself of collecting materials for his most important work, " The Poets and Poetry of the West." This well-known vol-

Early Periodical Literature. 117

ume was copy-righted in the year 1860, and was issued as a subscription book by Follett, Foster & Company, Co- lumbus, Ohio. It contains six hundred and eighty-eight large pages, and is a compendium rather than a selection of western poetry, presenting biographical notices of, and poems by, more than one hundred and fifty writers. Among the biographical contributors, the following were named in the canvasser's prospectus, with place of resi- dence and occupation : Rev. Edward Thomson, president of Ohio Wesleyan University ; William D. Gallagher, Kentucky ; Ben Cassedy, Louisville ; Rev. T. M. Eddy, editor Northwestern Christian Advocate ; W. W. Fosdick, Esq., Cincinnati; Orville J. Victor, editor Cosmopolitan Art Journal ; Frances Fuller Barritt, ]N"ew York city ; Honorable J. W. Gordon, Indianapolis ; Honorable Rob- ert Dale Owen, United States minister at J^aples ; Hon- orable Heman Canfield, Medina, Ohio ; William T. Bas- com, Esq., Columbus, Ohio ; Benjamin St. James Fry, president of Worthington Female College ; Prof. L. D. McCabe, Ohio Wesleyan College ; Lyman C. Draper, sec- retary of Wisconsin Historical Society; Lucius A. Hine, Loveland, Ohio ; Rev. M. D. Conway, Cincinnati ; Sulli- van D. Harris, editor Ohio Cultivator; William Henry Smith, city editor Cincinnati Gazette; T. Herbert Whip- ple, Chicago ; J. W. Hoyt, editor of Wisconsin Farmer ; Coates Kinney, Waynesville, Ohio; J. D. Botefur, Fre- mont, Ohio ; Thomas Gregg, editor Hamilton (111.) Repub- lican; Austin T. Earle, J^ewport, Kentucky; Abram Brower, Esq., Cincinnati; James S. Frost, Esq., Detroit ; Henry B. Carrington, Esq., Columbus, Ohio; Honorable William Lawrence, Bellefontaine, Ohio ; C. E. Muse, as- sistant editor of Louisville Democrat.

In 1862 Coggeshall removed to Springfield, Ohio, and purchased the Springfield Republic. In 1865 he returned to Columbus, and became editor of the Ohio State Jour- nal. At this time his health failed, from the effects of exposure while in secret service in the first year of the war, and he resigned his position as editor and accepted

118 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

the office of private secretary to Governor J. D. Cox.^ He received, in June, 1865, a government appointment as United States minister at Quito, Ecuador, and immediately removed to South America. His broken health was not restored ; he died at Quito, August 2, 1867, aged forty-two years, having accomplished a large amount of useful )vork, especially in the promotion of culture in the West. His "Poets and Poetry of the West" has done much to keep green the memory of our early authors, and much to give prestige to men and women who are yet living, and who, in many instances, were introduced to the public in its pages. The facts here printed concerning him were ob- tained from his widow, Mrs. Mary M. Coggeshall.

conway's dial.

" The Dial : A Monthly Magazine for Literature, Phil- osophy, and Religion. M. D. Conway, Editor. Horas non numero nisi serenas. Cincinnati. N"o 76 West Third Street. 1860."

Thus reads the title-page of a bound volume of one of the most original, peculiar, and audacious publications that ever issued from the press. The work is complete in twelve numbers, just filling the eventful months of the memorable year 1860, the year of Lincoln's first election, the year after John Brown's raid, and before the fall of Sumter. The opening article in the January number, en- titled, "A Word to Our Headers," concludes with the fol- lowing paragraph :

" The Dial stands before you, reader, a legitimation of the spirit of the age, which aspires to be "free ; free in thought, doubt, utterance, love, and knowledge. It is, in our minds, symbolized not so much by the sun-clock in the yard as by the floral dial of Linnteus, which recorded the advancing day by the opening of some flowers and

* Jacob Dolson Cox, diBtinguished in American history, military and civil, as general, governor, and cabinet officer, is eminent in the educa- tional world as dean of the Cincinnati Law School and late president of the Cincinnati University. He is an authority in science and his- tory.

Early Periodical Literature. 119

the closing of others ; it would report the day of God as recorded in the unfolding of higher life and thought, and the closing up of old superstitions and evils ; it would be a dial measuring time by growth."

When Moncure Daniel Conway penned this paragraph he had not completed the twenty-eighth year of his very active life, though he had begun an aggressive literary career ten years before. Born in Virginia in 1832, he graduated from Dickinson College in 1849, then studied law, and in 1851 entered the ministry as a Methodist preacher. Before ascending the pulpit he had written for the Southern Literary Messenger, the Richmond Examiner and the Ladies' Repository, and had put forth a vigorous pamphlet advocating the introduction of the lN"ew Eng- land system of free schools in Virginia. lie had, also, not only repudiated all sympathy with the system of slavery, but had begun a war on that institution as fierce as the pen could wage. Some time in 1852 he withdrew from the Methodist Church and went to Cambridge, where he entered the divinity school, from which he graduated a " broad-gauge " Unitarian, or, rather, an Emersonian transcendentalist. From 1854 to 1856 he was pastor of the Unitarian Society at Washington city. The reason for his leaving Washington for Cincinnati is thus given in his own language : " I was by a majority of five of the Unitarian congregation in Washington city declared to be too radical in my discourses on slavery for the critical condition of that latitude ; and, therefore, I was invited to become minister of the First Congregational church ia Cincinnati, Ohio." This was in 1856. Conway's think- ing, writing, and preaching became more and more inde- pendent, liberal, and unpopular with evangelical denomi- nations. He disbelieved in the supernatural elements of Christianity, and published what were regarded as flippant ** Tracts for To-day" and discourses in "Defense of the Theater," and on the "Natural History of the Devil."

Such was the history and record of the young man, M. D. Conway, at the period when the Dial was conceived and born, llis mind was saturated and dripping with

120 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

speculative philosophy and the thoup^ht and dream of the Concord seer. The very name of the new magazine was identical with that of the celebrated Boston " organ," conducted in 1840-5 by Margaret Fuller and R. W. Emer- son, of which the western journal, as Conway confessed, aspired " to be an Avatar."

The great majority of pieces in the Dial were written by Conway, even including several bits of poetry, " Eola," "Amor Respicit Coelum," etc. He wrote a series of ten papers, a sort of didactic story in the Carlylesque style, called " Dr. Einbohrer and His Pupils," in which are dis- cussed various problems of evolution, life and faith.* Other of his articles are : " Excalibur : A Story for Anglo- American Boys," being a dramatic history of John Brown's sword; "The God with the Hammer," "The Two Servants," " ^N'emesis of Unitarianism," " Sweden- borgian Heretic," "The Magic Duet," "The Word," " Moral Diagnosis of Disease," and " Who Discovered the Planet?" The last named was widely copied and the poet Longfellow praised it.

The Dial had a number of able contributors, several of them distinguished in letters. Among these was Rev. O. B. Frothingham, who published in the Dial a complete work running through nine numbers, entitled " The Christianity of Christ." This was the earliest published work of importance by the author.

Emerson honored his friend and admirer by sending oc- casional contributions in prose and verse to the Cincinnati periodical. The essay, " Domestic Life," was published October, 1860, and " The Story of West Indian Emanci- pation," in November. The quatrians — " Cras, Heri, Hodie," "Climacteric," "Botanist," "Forester," "Gar- dener," "Northman," "From Alcuin," "Nature," "Na- tura in Minimus," " Orator," " Poet," "Artist," were orig- inally printed in Conway's Dial.

A number of the early poems of W. D. Howells ^ adorn

* Ohio people take pride in knowing that Mr. Howells was a " Buck- eye boy," bred and educated in the thoughts, feelings, and customs of

Early Periodical Literature. 121

the pages of the Dial. Of these I name '' The Poet," '* Misanthropy," and the lines beginning

" The moonlight is full of the fragrance Of the blooming orchard trees."

It rests upon undeniable authority that the first printed notice of his work that Howells ever saw was a little review of the " Poems of Two Friends," published in the Dial for March, 1860. The notice says, " Mr. Howells has intellect and culture, graced by an almost Heinesque "familiarity with high things ; and if it were not for a cer- tain fear of himself, we should hope that this work was but a prelude to his sonata."

Translations from Taussennel, Balzac, and other French authors were furnished the Dial by Dr. M. E. Lazarus. The longest of these Avas a complete translation of Balzac's '' Ursula."

E. D. Mussey wrote for the Dial a striking allegorical composition on love, with the figurative title, " My Sculp- tured Palace Walls."

A very remarkable and, to most minds, shockingly ir- reverent article on ''Prayer," was .contributed by the late Orson S. Murray. The object of the writer was to prove that all prayer is unmitigated evil. Mr. Conway added a comment to the article, disclaiming responsibility for its sentiments and combatting them.

Orson Murray was a noted anti-slavery agitator, and opposer of the church. Whittier described him as a " man terribly in earnest, Avith a zeal that bordered on fanaticism, and who was none the more genial^ for the mob violence to which he had been subjected." He was born in Orwell, Vermont, September 23, 1806 ; removed to Ohio in 1844, where he published the radical paper. The Regenerator, which had been started in [N'ew York. He

the " old " West. Born in Belmont county, Ohio, he spent his boyhood and youth in the counties of Butler, Greene, Montgomery and Frank- lin. Delightful reminiscences of his early life are given in his autobio- graphical story, "A Boy's Town."

122 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

died at his residence, near Foster's, Warren county, Ohio, June 14, 1885, aged seventy-nine. lie had prepared his own funeral sermon, or "Death-bed Thoughts," which was read on the day of his burial.

An exceedingly attractive and suggestive feature of the Dial was a department called " The Catholic Chapter," a monthly collection of religious and moral aphorisms from all sources, ancient and modern, which, no doubt, was the beginning of Conway's " Sacred Anthology."

The best and most readable of Conway's own writing in the Dial is the part included under the head of " Critical iN'otices." In this sort of work the versatile editor was crisp, piquant and wonderfully discriminating. His gen- ius is essentially literary, and he reads and reviews books con amore.

The year 1860 was prolific of significant books, especially in the line of controversies, religious and political, and of discussion, scientific and philosophical. A few of the numerous works reviewed with more or less thoroughness in the Dial, were Henry Ward Beecher's " Views and Evi- dences of Religious Subjects," and Edward Beecher's " Concord of Ages," both progressive ; Sir William Ham- ilton's "Logic," the "Political Debates of Lincoln and Douglas," and " Redpath's " Life of John Brown," Darwin's " Origin of Species," Hawthorne's " Marble Faun," and George Eliot's "Mill on the Floss," and, in poetry, " Lucile " and Walt Whitman's " Leaves of Grass."

The editor's breezy criticism of Whitman contains an amusing passage, which is here quoted, because it kills two or more birds with a well-slung stone. It reads as follows: "A friend of ours told us that once, when he was visiting Lizst, a fine-dressed gentleman from Boston was announced, and during the conversation the latter spoke with great contempt of Wagner (the new light) and his music. Lizst did not say any thing, but went to the open piano and struck with grandeur the opening chords of the Tannhiiuser overture; having played it through, he turned and quietly remarked, * The man who doesn't call

Early Periodical Literature. 123

that good music is a fool.' It is the only reply which can be made to those who do not find that quintessence of things which we call poetry in many pages of his (Whit- man's) work."

In a short but cordial notice of Coggeshall's " Poets and Poetry of the West," published at Columbus in 1860, occur these resounding sentences : " But we do not fear that any man ^\\\\ carefully read this book without seeing that the West has a symphony to utter, whose key-note is already struck, and which is to make the world pause and listen. The world has heard the song of Memnon in the Orient; it must now turn to hear the Memnon, carved by the ages, as it shall respond to the glow of the Occident."

The very last one of the seven hundred and seventy-eight pages included in the Dial is devoted to a reverential and laudatory heralding of Emerson's " Conduct of Life," the sheets of which the Boston master furnished in advance to his Cincinnati disciple.

The Dial was self-supporting. It wa,s largely patronized by Jews.

In his " Parting Word " to the reader, the proprietor w^rote : ^' We confess to some complacency regarding what we have done, and can never be brought to look upon the Dial as, in any sense, a failure. We could name one or two papers that we have been enabled to lay before the public, and claim that they alone w^ere worth all the toil and expense which our project has involved w^ith editor or subscriber. Sweeter verses have never been sung in the land than some which have been wafted from the branches of the Dial through the country. And we rest from our labors quite sure that we shall see the day when the numbers remaining on hand will be insufficient to supply the demand for them."

124 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

PARTIAL LIST OF LITERARY PERIODICALS PUBLISHED IN THE OHIO VALLEY FROM THE YEAR 1803 TO 1860.

Note. — The list includes a few newspapers devoted specially, if not wholly, to literature, but does not embrace the numerous publications issued to represent sectarian and professional interests. The early West, teemed with periodicals of a religious character, nor were there lacking journals of law, medicine, and agriculture.

The Medley or Monthly Miscellany. Daniel Bradford, Lexington, Ky. From January to December, 1803.

The Western Review and Miscellaneous Magazine. Monthly. Wm. Gibbs Hunt, Lexington, Ky. August, 1819, to July, 1821.

Successor to the Western Monitor, a Federal weekly paper established in 1814, and edited by Thos. Curry.

The Literary Cadet. Weekly. Dr. Joseph Buchanan, Cincinnati, November, 1819. Twenty-three numbers were issued and then the Cadet was merged in the Western Spy, which was thereafter published as the Western Spy and Literary Gazette.

The Olio. Semi-monthly. John H. Wood and Samuel S. Brooks, Cincinnati, 1821. Continued for one year.

The Literary Pamphleteer. Paris, Ky., 1823.

The Literary Gazette. Weekly. John P. Foote, Cincinnati, January, 1824, to December, 1824. Revived by Looker and Reynolds, who con- tinued it for eight months in 1825.

The Western Censor. Indianapolis, Ind., 1823-24.

The Western Luminary. Lexington, Ky., 1824.

The Microscope. Louisville, Ky. Weekly. 1824.

The Western Minerva. Francis and Wm. D. Gallagher, Cincinnati,

1826. Survived less than one year.

New Harmony Gazette. New Harmony, Ind. Robt. Owen. 1825. 1 vol. Continued as the Free Enquirer in New York. 1828-35. 6 vols.

The Literary Focus. A Monthly College Paper. Oxford, Ohio, 1827-8. Published by the Erodelphian and Union Literary Societies. Printed by J. D. Smith.

The Western Review. Monthly. Timothy Flint, Cincinnati, May,

1827, to June, 1830.

Transylvania Literary Journal. A college paper. Prof. Thos. J. Matthews, Lexington, Ky., 1829.

Masonic Souvenir and Pittsburg Literary Gazette. A quarto weekly. Flint called it, "in form and appearance the handsomest in our valley." 1828.

The Shield. Weekly. R. C. Langdon, Cincinnati, 182-. Survived two years.

The Ladies' Museum. Weekly. Joel T. Case, Cincinnati, 1830. Sur- vived one or two years.

The Illinois Magazine. Monthly. James Hall, Shawneetown, 111., October, 1830, to January, 1832.

The Ladies' Museum and Western Repository of Belles Lettres. Cin-

Early Periodical Literature. 125

cinnati. Edited by Joel T. Case. . Printed by John Whetstone. Weekly. Begun in 1830, and merged in the Mirror in November, 1831. The Cincinnati Mirror and Ladies' Parterre. Edited by Wm. D. Gallagher. Published by John H. Wood. Semi-monthly. First num- ber issued October 1, 1831. At the beginning of the third year Thomrs H. Shreve went into partnership with Gallagher, and the two bought the paper, enlarged it, and issued it weekly under the name Cincinnati Mirror and Western Gazette of Literature. In April, 1835, the Chron- icle was merged in the Mirror and James H. Perkins became one of its editors. The Mirror was sold in October, 1835, to James B. Marshall, and bought again in January, 1836, by Flash and Ryder. It was dis- continued early in 1836.

The Olive Branch. Circleville, O. Scientific and Literary. Bi- monthly, $1.50. Edited by " a number of gentlemen." 1832.

The National Historian. St. Clairsville, O., Horton J. Howard.

The South-western Port Folio. Proposals were issued for publishing in Nashville, Tenn., the above, to be conducted by Thomas Hoge and Wilkins Tannehill. The periodical was to appear April, 1832. Price, $5.00. Came to naught.

Western Quarterly Review. In April, 1832, Messrs. Hubbard and Edwards, of Cincinnati, issued the prospectus of a quarterly, each num- ber to contain 250 pages. The projectors proposed to pay for all ac- cepted articles at the rate of $3.00 a page. The first number was to come out in November, 1832, but it never appeared.

[The two last named projects, and another of a similar sort by Mrs. Julia Dumont, all originating about the same time, attest the general literary interest and ambition of the writers of the third decade of the century.]

The Literary Cabinet. St. Clairsville, O., 1833. Monthly. 12 num- bers. Edited by Thomas Gregg.

The Academic Pioneer and Guardian of Education. Cincinnati, monthly, 1833. Forty 8vo. pages. Price, $2.00. Organ of the Western Academic Institute, and predecessor of the Academician. Albert Pickett, Editor.

Lexington Literary Journal. Lexington, Ky. John Clark, Esq., Editor and Proprietor. Twice a week. $3.00 a year, 1833.

The Western Monthly Magazine, a continuation of the Illinois Maga- zine. Cincinnati, James Hall, January, 1833, to February, 1837.

The Literary Pioneer. Nashville, Tenn., 1833.

The Kaleidoscope. Nashville, Tenn., 1833.

The Literary Register. Elyria, O., 1833.

The Schoolmaster and Academic Journal. Semi-monthly. B. F. Morris, Oxford, O., 1834.

The Western Gem and Cabinet of Literature, Science, and News. St. Clairsville, O. Semi-monthly, and afterward weekly. Gregg and Dufi'ey. Mrs. Dumont and Mrs. Sigourney were contributors. 1834. Kept up about a year.

The Western Messenger. Cincinnati and Louisville. Western Uni-

126 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

tarian ABSOciation. Edited by Ephraira Peabody, James Freeman Clarke, James H. Perkins, and VV. H. Channing. June, 1835, to April, 1841.

The Family Magazine. Cincinnati, Eli Taylor. Started in 1836 and published six years or more.

The Western Literary Journal and Review. Cincinnati, Wm. D. Gallagher, 183G. One volume.

Western Monthly Magazine and Literary Journal. Louisville, W, D. Gallagher and Lewis B. Marshall, 1837. Five numbers only.

The Hesperian ; or, Western Monthly Magazine. Columbus and Cincinnati, Wm. D. Gallagher and Otway Curry, May, 1838 to*1841. 3 vols.

The Literary New-Letter. Weekly. Louisville, Ky., Edmund Flagg and I^onard Bliss, December, 1838, to November, 1840. Published by Prentiss and Weissenger in the Journal office.

The Monthly Chronicle. Edited by E. D. Mansfield, Cincinnati, 0., 1839. Published by Achilles Pugh. One vol., 568 pages.

Literary Examiner and Western Review. Pittsburg, E. B. Fisher and W. H. Burleigh. Monthly. Eighty-four pages to a number. 1839. Published about a year by Wm. W. Whitney.

The Buckeye Blossom. Xenia, P. Lapham and W. B. Fairchild, 1839. 16 pages.

The Family Schoolmaster. Richmond, Ind., Halloway and Davis, 1839. Short lived.

The Western Lady's Book. Cincinnati. Edited by an association of ladies and gentlemen. 'Published by H. P. Brooks. Begun August, 1840.

The Ladies' Repository and Gatherings of the West. Cincinnati, Methodist Book Concern, 1841 to 1876. In the year 1877 the Methodist Book Concern began to publish the National Repository, which was kept up for four years.

Young Ladies' Museum. Cincinnati. Monthly quarto. J. P. and R. P. Donough, Publisliers. Circulation of 1,200. 1841.

Family Magazine. Jas. H. Perkins, Editor. J. A. and U. P. James, Publishers. Cincinnati. Monthly. Circulation of 3,000. Begun in 1841.

The American Pioneer. Vol. I, Chillicothe, 1842; Vol. II. , Cincin- nati, 1842. John S. Williams. Historical.

The Western Rambler. Cincinnati, Austin T. Earle and Benj. S. Fry. Started September 28, 1844. Survived only a few months.

The Youths' Monthly Visitor. Cincinnati, 1844. Quarto. Edited by Margaret L. Bailey. Transferred to Washington city in 1847, and con- tinued until 1852.

Southwestern Literary Journal and Monthly Review. E. C. Z. Judson ("Ned Buntline) and H. A. Kidd, assisted by L. A. Hine. Nos. 1 and 2 were published in Cincinnati; Nos. 3, 4, 5, 6 in Nashville, Tennessee. From November, 1844, to April, 1845.

Early Periodical Literature. 127

The Querist. Cincinnati, Mrs. R. S. Xichols, 1844. Continued a few months.

The Democratic Monthly Magazine and Western Review. Columbus, Ohio, B. B. Taylor, Editor; S. Medary, Publisher. June and July, 1844.

The Casket. Cincinnati, J. H. Green, " the reformed gambler," and Emerson Bennett, 1845.

The Semi-Colon. Cincinnati. Robinson and Jones, 1845. Monthly.

Indiana Farmer and Gardener. Devoted to Rural Affairs and Domes- tic Economy. Indianapolis, Ind., 1 845. Edited by Henry Ward Beecher. Continued in 1846, in Cincinnati, as Western Farmer and Gardener, ^lany of tht articles in the above were incorporated into Beecher's book, "A Pleasant Talk About Fruits, Flowers, and Farming."

The Cincinnati Miscellany or Antiquities of the West. Cincinnati. Edited by Charles Cist ; printed by Caleb Clark. Monthly. 2 vols. From October, 1844, to April, 1846. Very valuable.

The Quarterly Journal and Review. Cincinnati, L. A. Hine, January to October, 1846.

The Olden Time. Pittsburg, 1 846. Edited by Neville Craig. Monthly. Devoted to Preservation of Documents, etc., relating to Early Settle- ment of Upper Ohio Valley. Reprinted by Robert Clarke, Cincinnati, in 1876, in 2 vols. Valuable.

The Herald of Truth. Cincinnati, L. A. Hine, January, 1847, to June, 1848.

The Great AVest. Literary newspaper. Cincinnati, E. Penrose Jones, May 5, 1848, to March, 1850.

Sackett's Model Parlor Paper. Cincinnati, Egbert Sackett and F. Col- ton, December, 1848. Eight numbers issued.

The Shooting Star. Cincinnati, S. H. Minor.

The Western Mirror. G. W. Copelan and " Sam'l Pickwick, Jr.," Woodward College, Cincinnati.

Western Quarterly Review. Cincinnati, L. A. Hine, January to April, 1849.

Gentlemen's Magazine. Cincinnati, J. Milton Sandei-s and J.M. Hun- tington, 1849. A few numbers only.

The Hipean. Cooper Female Institute, Dayton, Ohio, 1849.

Moore's Western Lady's Book. Cincinnati. Edited by A. and Mrs. H. G. Moore. Begun in 1849, and continued about eight years.

The Western Pioneer. Chillicothe and Cincinnati, S. Williams, 1841-4. 2 vols.

The Western Literary Magazine. Columbus, Ohio. George Brewer.

The Columbian. Literary newspaper. Cincinnati, W. B. Shattuc and W. D. Tidball, October 20, 1849, to [March, 1850.

Buchanan's Journal of Man. Cincinnati. Begun 1850, and continued five or six years. Edited and published by Joseph R. Buchanan, :M.D. A valuable publication.

The Western Literary Magazine. Louisville, Ky., 1853. Monthly.

128 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

The Phonetic Magazine. 48 pages. Monthly. Partly in the reformed spelling. Longley Brothers, 1853.

Type of the Times. Successor to above. Weekly octavo. Same pub- lishers. Edited by L. A. Hine, Elias Longley, and William Henry Smith. 1853.

Columbian and Great West. Cincinnati, W. B. Shattuc, March, 1850, to September, 1854.

The Citizen. Lyons and McCormick, Cincinnati, 1851.

Pen and Pencil. Cincinnati, W. Wallace AVarden. Started January, 1853. . Eight numbers issued.

The Parlor Magazine. Cincinnati. Conducted by Jethro Jackson, assisted by Alice Cary. Begun July, 1853. 2 vols.

Genius of the AVest. Cincinnati. Edited by Howard Durham, Coates Kinney, and W. T. Coggeshall. October, 1853, to June, 1856.

The Literary Journal. Cincinnati, Mrs. "Ella Wentworth," Mrs. E. K. Banks, and H. Clay Pate, 1854. A few numbers.

West American Review. Cincinnati, G. W. L. Bickley, 1854.

The Forest Garland. Cincinnati, Smith and Lapham, 1854.

The Odd Fellows' Literary Casket. Cincinnati. Edited by W. P. Strickland ; published by Tidball and Turner. Begun in 1854.

Afterward published by Longley Brothers, who engaged William Henry Smith to edit it. Among the contributors were Rev. I. D. Will- iamson and Wm. Dean Howells, the latter then working on the Ohio State Journal. Howells contributed pieces under the pseudonym ^' Chipsa."

The Templars' Magazine. Monthly. Cincinnati, Dr. Wadsworth, Editor, 1854.

The Diadem. Attica, Ohio, J. C. Michell, 1854.

The Literary Messenger. Versailles, Ind., Ross Alley, 1854.

The National Cadet. Cincinnati, Forrest and Stevens. Monthly. A temperance paper. Short-lived. 1854.

The Western Literary Cabinet. Detroit, Mich., Mrs. Sheldon, 1854.

The Home Journal. Cincinnati, Alf Burnett and Enos B. Reed, 1855.

The Western Art Journal. Cincinnati. Edited by Rev. W. P. Strick- land ; published by J. S. Babcock, 1855.

The Message Bird. Waynesville, Ohio, J. W. Roberts, 1856 to 1860.

The Louisville Review. Louisville, Ky. Monthly. 1856.

The Dial : A Monthly Magazine for Literature, Philosophy, and Re- ligion. Cincinnati, M. D. Conway, January to December, 1860.

Libraries. 129

CHAPTER IV.

LIBRARIES-THE HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY

OF OHIO.

I. SOME EARLY LIBRARIES.

Reuben T. Durrett, an exact historical writer and biog- rapher, and himself the owner of by far the largest and best private library in Kentucky, writing from Louisville in 1888, says :

"As early as 1795, our provident neighbors of Lexing- ton began the work of gathering together books for a public library. On J^ew Year's day of that year, a few citizens met in the old state-house, and resolved to estab- lish a library, to be called ' Transylvania Library.' They appointed a committee to secure subscriptions and perfect the organization, and in a few days they secured the amount of |500, and the money was collected and sent to the East for books. In the following January the books, 400 in number, arrived, and the people of Lexington were made glad by their appearance. In 1798 the old Kentucky Academy was merged in Transylvania University, and its little library of 200 volumes wenfto swell the new collec- tion to 600. On the 29th of ]^ovember, 1800, the library thus started was incorporated by the legislature under the name of ' The Sharers of the Lexington Library,' and thus was permanently established the first library ever started in the State of Kentucky.

" By the same act of the legislature which established the Lexington Library, two others were incorporated in the state : one, called ' The Sharers of the Georgetown 9

130 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

Library/ at Georgetown, Ky., and the other, * The Sharers of the Danville Library,' at Danville, Ky. Among the incorporators of the last-named library appears the name of Ephraim McDowell, the early surgeon of Kentucky, who was the father of ovariotomy ; and who, as early as the year 1809, performed the first operation in the world for removing diseased ovaries.

" In 1804 a library was incorporated at Lancaster, in Garrard county ; in 1808 at Paris, in Bourbon ; in 1809 at [N'ew Castle, in Henry ; in 1810 at Shelbyville, in Shelby, and Winchester, in Clark ; in 1811 at Washington, in Mason; in 1812 at Versailles, in Woodford, and Frank- fort, in Franklin ; and in 1815 at Mount Sterling, in Montgomery county.

" Each of the dozen libraries thus incorporated ante- dated any movement of the kind in the city of Louisville. Kone of them, however, is entitled to any honors beyond antiquity and a name in the statute book except the first, the Lexington Library, established in 1795. This noble old pioneer of human knowledge has come down from the past century, bearing the treasures of other times. It has survived fires, removals, changes of rulers and book thieves, and stands to-day with its ten thousand volumes, one of the greatest honors of the city that has cherished it for nearly a century. On its shelves are valuable old works that can nowhere else be found, and among them may be named complete files of the Kentucky Gazette, the earliest paper published in Kentucky, from its first issue, August 11, 1787, to its last."

The Transylvania College Library here referred to by Mr. Durrett was in its day one of the largest and best in the United States.

A portion of its classical and miscellaneous collection was selected by a no less competent scholar than Edward Everett. The medical books were procured in Europe by Dr. Charles Caldwell. The university possessed an ana- tomical museum, a cabinet of specimens in natural history, and a botanical garden.

Libraries. 131

Besides the college library, there was an independent collection, the Lexington Library, which was begun by the citizens in 1795. To this four hundred volumes pur- chased in Philadelphia were added in 1796. Donations were made to this pioneer library by George Washington, John Adams, Aaron Burr, and other notables. Clay be- came its benefactor in his days of power.

The old Lexington Library contains, among other rare works, Rapin's History of England, printed more than two hundred years ago, a large number of old black-letter English law books from one to three hundred years old, and a London street directory of two centuries ago. Per- haps the most curious book in the collection is a huge volume comprising a large number of old parchment deeds. These deeds are written in the black-letter script, in a barbarous law Latin, and each of them conveys property to the Church of the Apostles Peter and Paul, at Ipswich, England. They are supposed to be older than the time of Edward the First (1272), in whose reign the statute of mortmain, forbidding the conveyance of land to the Church, was enacted. An inscription on the fly-leaf of the volume states that it was " presented to the Lex- ington Library by John Bobb, Esq.," but does not say when. The old Gazettes of almost a century ago have frequent references to Mr. John Bobb, and of such a char- acter as to lead one to suppose that he was a man of prominence in his day and generation, but it appears that he has now utterly vanished out of the memory of man. It is conjectured that this book was confiscated at Ipswich some time during the wars of the Commonwealth, about the middle of the seventeenth century, and brought to America by the confiscator or some member of his family. The vicinity of Lexington was settled almost exclusively by Virginians, a very great many of whom were from that portion of Virginia, " the Northern ISTeck," which in 1649 was largely settled by English cavaliers fleeing from the wrath of Cromwell after the execution of Charles the First.

132 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

I am indebted to Mr. Dnrrett for the following interest- ing sketch of

" The First Library in Louisville. "It was not until 1816 that the citizens of Louisville seem to have thought of the necessity of a public library. On the 8th of February of this year Mann Butler, "Will- iam C. Gait, Brooke Hill, llezekiah Ilawley, and William Tompkins obtained from the legislature a charter for the * President and Directors of the Louisville Library Com- pany.' This library was a joint stock association, with the right to issue as many shares as its directors might think necessary, and of any denomination they might wish. They had the authority to assess the shareholders, for the benefit of the library, to any sum per annum not exceed- ing one-fifth of the value of the shares of any one holder. In 1819, when Dr. McMurtrie published his history of Louisville, this library was located in the second story of the south wing of the old court-house, then standing in the place of the present city hall. Among its books were valuable histories collected by Mann Butler, and works on -scientific subjects obtained by Dr. McMurtrie. The whole number of volumes was about 500, and the young library may then be said to have been in its prime. It never ma- terially increased afterward, and when the malignant fever of 1822 almost depopulated the city, the library, as well as the people, seems to have taken the seeds of death into its system. The files of the first newspapers pub- lished in our city perished, and so did the early works upon the history of our city, state, and country. Only a few of its volumes have come down to our times, and these are of but little value in the collections in which they are now found. The most valuable books perished, and the unimportant ones which survived reached our times in such a mutilated condition as to be of little con- sideration except as relics of the past. There is a name connected with its organization, however, that should not pass from our memory as did its books from our use. This was Mann Butler, the first named among those who

Libraries. 133

appear in the act of incorporation. It was he who inau- gurated the gathering together of this first collection of books in our city, and if he had had as much money as he had love for books, he would have placed the library upon such a lasting foundation that it would have stood to our times."

As to private libraries in Kentucky, there have been none of any particular importance until of late years. The books owned by the pioneers were few in number and of an ordinary character. There were some respectable professional libraries, but none of a literary or general character worthy of note. George Nicholas, Henry Clay, John J. Crittenden, S. S. ISTicholas, Madison C. Johnston, and others, had good professional libraries. Colonel S. I. M. Major, who died at Frankfort a few years ago, had one of the best literary libraries in the state, but the number of its volumes did not exceed three thousand. The late Dr. T. S. Bell left a library of some two thousand volumes, and Dr. Eichard H. Collins left about twenty-five hundred volumes.

The largest private library ever collected in Kentucky, with a single exception, is that of the late Jas. P. Boyce. It numbers about ten thousand volumes, and is very valu- able as a theological collection. The only private library larger and more valuable than that of Mr. Boyce that has ever been collected in Kentucky is that of Mr. Durrett himself, now stored in his large mansion house, No. 202 Chestnut street, Louisville. Though the collections just named can not properly be called early libraries, they may, with propriety, be considered under that head, because they abound in material directly concerning the begin- nings of our history and literature. To the student inter- ested in the picturesque and romantic annals of pioneer days, in the newspapers, magazines, history, fiction, and poetry of the grand old State of Kentucky, the library of Colonel Durrett is a treasure-trove that can not be dupli- cated upon the globe.

Colonel Durrett's absorbing passion — he calls it his "hobby" — is the study of history and the collection of

134 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

books, pictures, and relics of an archaeological kind. His father was a book collector, and gathered, in early days, a considerable library, which the son inherited, and to which he has been adding for forty years. The collection is the largest and most valuable that has ever been made in the State of Kentucky. In Kentucky books this li- brary has no equal. The proprietor has made it a point to secure every book that was written by a Kentuckian or about Kentucky or a Kentuckian, or that was printed in Kentucky. While the library has pretty well exhausted the Kentucky State of publications, it also embraces the best works of all the other states, and of the United States and of Europe. The collection occupies six large rooms and a hall, and contains at least fifty thousand books and pamphlets. There are many old and rare works in the collection, and several valuable manuscripts relating to western history. The files of bound newspa- pers constitute an important feature of the library. There are numerous books that have severally a special interest as having belonged to distinguished men, or having passed- through strange adventures. For instance, there is a copy of " Gulliver's Travels," the identical copy which the pio- neer Keely read aloud to Boone and others in camp in the year 1770.

Among Colonel Durrett's manuscripts is a letter written by Boone, which I here reproduce :

" May the 1th, 1789. "Dear Sir: — This Instant I Start Down the River. My Two Sunes Eeturned anieadetely from Philadelphia and Daniel Went Down With Sum goods in order to Take in gensgn at Lim Stone. I hope you Will Wright me By the Bearer Mr goe how you Ccm on With my Ilorsis — I Hear the Indians have Killed Sum peple Neer Limstone and Stole a Number of horsis — Indeed I Saw one of the men Who Was iired on When the kiled also 5 pursons War Cirtinly kiled on the head of Dunkard Crick on this River a bout Six Dayes since 30 miles from Radstone I ' Likewise saw a Later yesterday from Muskingdom To Mr

Libraries. 135

Galaspey at the old fort that 300 Indans are Certinly Sitout from Detraight To Way Lay the Kiver at Deferent placis to Take Botes Sum Say 700 Sum Say 100 But the Later Cartiiies of 300 this accoumpt you may Rely on I am Dear Sir With Respect your omble Sarvent

" Daniel Boone.

" My Best comtm. To Mrs. Huntt Col Rochester and Lady."

The first settlers of the Xorth- western Territory, com- ing chiefly from the most cultured Xew England stock, considered books a necessary part of their household goods. Dr. S. P. Ilildreth, the historian of Marietta, in his " Pioneer Biographies," mentions that General Israel Putnam " collected a large library of the most useful books ; embracing history, belles-lettres, travels, etc., for the benefit of himself and children, called the Putnam Family Library. After his death they were divided amongst the heirs, and quite a number found their way to Ohio, being brought out by his son and grandchildren."

The first library in the territory north-west of the Ohio, like the first school, was at Belpre, near Marietta, 0. It was organized in 1796, probably in August or September, and called the Putnam Family Library, though the name was changed to Belpre Library, or Belpre Farmers' Li- brary. The library was owned by a joint stock company, with shares valued each at ten dollars. The hooka were kept at the house of Esquire Isaac Pierce, who was libra- rian. Dr. I. W. Andrews took the pains, in 1879, to trace and find, in the possession of several families, more than a score of volumes belonging originally to this pioneer col- lection, and bearing the inscription, "Putnam Library," or " Belpre Library." He gives the following particulars, which I copy from the Marietta Register of June — , 1879:

" The library formed in 1804 at Amesville, in what was then Washington county, now Athens, is a matter of gen- eral knowledge. It has been often referred to as a signal instance of the beneficial effects of good books in a

136 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

community. That township has produced some remark- able men, such as Bishop Ames and Thomas Ewing; and many of the families resident there at the beginning of the century, like the Browns, Cutlers, Walkers, and oth- ers, have been noted for their intelligence and elevated character. The formation of that library is a matter of familiar history, and the descendants of those who founded it may well be proud of the part there ancestors took in establishing such an association.

"Another library, formed by the early settlers in another part of the Ohio Company's purchase, is not so well known. When the writer prepared the centennial his- torical sketch of Washington county, three years ago, he was ignorant that such a company existed. His attention was arrested by seeing, among some old memoranda of early times, preserved by Colonel John Stone, of Belpre, a receipt for money paid for a share in a library in Bel- pre, in 1796. . He at once wrote, asking for information respecting that library, and for the facts presented in this article he and the public are indebted to Colonel Stone.

" In the ' Lives of the Early Settlers,' by Dr. Hildreth, there is an allusion to the library of General Israel Put- nam, from which the inference is possible that Colonel Israel Putnam, son of the General, might have brought with him to Ohio a number of books from the collection of his father, and that these became the nucleus of a pub- lic library. However this may be, there is abundant evi- dence of the existence of such a library at Belpre at a very early day. The receipt referred to above, and which is before me as I write, is as follows :

" ' Marietta, 2Qth Oct., 1796. " * Received of Johathan Stone by the hand of Benj. Miles, ten dollars for his share in the Putnam Family Li- brary. W. P. Putnam, Clerk'

" Here was a library organization with its stockholders and officers, the value of a share being $10. The organi- zation had probably been recently effected, as the Indian

Libraries. 137

war was not ended till 1795. Captain Jonathan Stone, father of Colonel John Stone, was doubtless one of the original shareholders, and this receipt was for the pay- ment of his stock. In the records of the Probate Office of Washington county, among the items in the inventory of the estate of Jonathan Stone, dated September 2, 1801, is this : ' One share in the Putnam Library, §10.'

"In the Ohio Historical Collections, by Henry Howe, under the head of Meigs County, is an account of pioneer life written by Amos Dunham, who settled in Washing- ton county about 1802, and afterward removed to Meigs. He says : ' The long winter evenings were rather tedious, and in order to make them pass more smoothly, I pur- chased an interest in the Belpre Library, six miles dis- tant. . . . Many a night have I passed in this man- ner (using pine knots in place of candles) till 12 or 1 o'clock, reading to xny wife, while she was patcheling, carding, or spinning.'

" Have we any testimony as to the library from those now living? Mr. Edwin Guthrie has distinct remembrance of his father having books taken from the Belpre Library. Colonel Otis L. Bradford remembers that the library was kept at the house of their nearest neighbor, Isaac Pierce, Esq. Mrs. Smith, of Pomeroy, remembers her mother say- ing that her husband (Amos Dunham, mentioned above) could always find time to attend the Belpre Library meet- ing, regardless of hurrying work. Colonel John Stone recollects that Esquire Pierce was the librarian and kept the library at his house. He remembers attending at sev- eral times the meeting for drawing books, and has a dis- tinct recollection that the association was dissolved by common consent, that he was present at the sale or dis- tribution of books, and selected the Travels of Johathan Carver. The time of dissolution he can not give pre- cisely, but thinks it was about 1815 or 1816. He is prob- ably the only person now living who was present at that time.

" But if the organization was thus dissolved and the books distributed, can not some of them be found? Mr.

138 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

Geo. Dana reports six volumes among his books. John Locke's Essays concerning the Human Understanding, London, 1793, has " Putnam Family Library, JS'o. 6," which is crossed, and underneath is written, " Belpre Li- brary, !N"o. 29." The Practical Farmer, title page gone, but dedicated to Thos. Jeiferson in 179.2, has " Putnam Family Library, JNo. 5," which is crossed, and underneath is writ- ten, "Belpre Library ITo. 6." He has also Robertson's History of Scotland, two volumes, inscribed, " Belpre Farmers' Library, JS'o. 24," and Johnson's Lives of the English Poets, three volumes, inscribed, " Belpre Farmers' Library, 'Eo. 10." Both the last two works were published in 1811. It would seem that the name was changed from Putnam Family Library, as the inscription on some of the books is Belpre Library, and on others is Belpre Farm- ers' Library.

" Mr. 1. W. Putnam writes that there are in his family, the History of Vermont, 1794, one volume ; Bassett's His- tory of England, four volumes; Hume's History of Eng- land, six volumes; and Goldsmith's Animated Nature.

"In the family of Mrs. O. H. Loring are five volumes of Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, pub- lished in England in 1783. Some of these contain the name of Wanton Casey, as well as the words * Belpre Li- brary.' Mr. Casey married the daughter of Major Good- ale, and returned to Rhode Island, probably before 1800.

" There are then in these three families twenty-three volumes belonging originally to the Belpre Library, and inscribed with one or the other of the designations men- tioned above.

" We have thus documentary evidence of the existence of this library, which is contirmed by the testimony of living witnesses, and by the production of more than twenty volumes having upon them the original library mark. How many volumes were in the library is not now known. One of those referred to bears the number 80. From titles quoted, it will be seen that the works were solid and good. The library was established as early as

Libraries. 139

1796, and continued in operation for twenty years or more.

'" That the settlers of the Ohio Company thus established two libraries at a very early day can not be disputed. And the communities where they were established were both such as we might expect in intelligence and charac- ter. A large number of the present families of Belpre are the descendants of the early settlers. The ancestors of all the families in whose possession are the old library books were in Farmers' Castle at Belpre during the In- dian war. And so w^ere the ancestors of nearly all "whose names are mentioned in this article."

Several of the volumes named by Dr. Andrews w^ere exhibited by the owners, in the great Centennial Exposi- tion at Cincinnati, in the summer of 1888.

The second library collected on the north side of the Ohio river was projected and organized by a number of gentlemen on Saturday, February 13, 1802, at Yeatman's Tavern, Cincinnati. The following subscribers each took one or. more shares, at ten dollars a share, contributing, in all, the sum of $340. The names are Arthur St. Clair, Peyton Short, Cornelius R. Sedam, Samuel C. Vance, James Walker, S. S. Kerr, James Findlay, Jeremiah Hunt, Griffin Yeatman, Martin Baum, C. Kilgour, P. P. Stewart, W. Stanley, Jacob White, Patrick Dickey, C. Avery, John Reily, John R. Mills^ Jacob Burnet, J. S. Findlay, Joseph Prince, David E. Wade, Isaac Van Huys, Joel Williams. The '' Cincinnati Library" went into op- eration March 6, 1802, with Lewis Kerr as librarian. It is of interest to know that the above list begins with the name of the governor of the ISTorth-western Territory, General St. Clair, and that it contains the name of John Reily, first teacher in Ohio, and that of Judge Burnet, the author of " Burnet's Xotes."

More interesting in its history than either of the libra- ries mentioned is the celebrated '^ Western Library," or " Coonskin Library," of Ames township, Athens county, Ohio. Ephraim Cutler, son of Manasseh Cutler, Sylvanus Ames, father of Bishop Ames, and Benjamin Brown, the

140 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

revolutionary soldier were among the organizers of this library. Mr. Walker, in his " History of Athens County," says: " Some of the settlers were good hunters, and^there being a ready market for furs and skins, which were bought by the agents of John Jacob Astor and others, they easily paid their subscriptions. Mr. Samuel Brown, who was soon to make a trip to Boston in a wagon, would take the furs and skins intended for the purchase of books and bring back the books in return- His trip was unavoidably delayed longer than he expected, but in . the summer of 1803 he went to Boston with the furs, etc., with which he purchased the first installment of books. These books cost $73.50, and comprised the following: ^ Robertson's North America,' ' Harris' Encyclopaedia,'

* Morse's Geography,' ^Adam's Truth of Eeligion,' ' Gold- smith's Works,' 'Evelina,' 'Children of the Abbey,' ' Blair's Lectures,' ' Clark's Disclosures,' ' Ramsey's Amer- ican Revolution,' ' Goldsmith's Animated Nature,' ' Play- fair's History of Jacobinism,' 'George Barnwell,' 'Ca- milla,' ' Beggar Girl,' and some others. Later purchases included Shakespeare, ' Don Quixote,' ' Locke's Essays,'

* Scottish Chiefs,' ' Josephus,' ' Smith's Wealth of Nations,'

* Spectator,' ' Plutarch's Lives,' 'Arabian Nights,' and ^ Life of Washington.'" A pleasant anecdote associates the name of Thomas Ewing with the organization of the " Coonskin Library." It is related that while a boy Ewing used to carry books to the field and read aloud to the workhands, and that the rumor of this caused the neigh- bors to make up a purse of $100 to buy a library, the young reader contributing ten coon -skins to forward the project.

The transubstantiation of rattlesnakes into bacon, "for the posterity of Adam," which so impressed Carlyle's im- agination, is not so striking and suggestive as this change and conservation of the force of traps and gunpowder into printed thought.

The second public library of Cincinnati was opened in 1814. Rare copies exist of a " Systematic Catalogue of Books Belonging to the Circulating Library of Cincinnati,

Libraries. 141

to which are prefixed au Historical Preface, the Act of In- corporation and By-Laws of the Society. Published by order of the Board of Directors. Cincinnati ; Printed by Looker, Palmer and Reynolds, 1816." The '' Historical Preface," evidently prepared by Dr. Daniel Drake, presi- dent of the society, tells us that, " in the autumn of 1808, several persons desirous of seeing a public library estab- lished in Cincinnati, assembled for the purpose of applying to the legislature of the state for a law of incorporation ;" that a petition and draft of the bill were forwarded, but, " for reasons not discovered to the petitioners, their prayer was not granted;" that in 1811 "the project was again re- vived and a subscription paper circulated by George Turner, Esq., with considerable success." A meeting of subscribers was held, a constitution adopted, and finally a charter of incorporation was secured. The "Preface" goes on to record that, " on the sixteenth of April, 1814, the library containing little over three hundred volumes was opened. To eifect an immediate increase of this di- minutive collection was regarded as a great desideratum; and in addition to a pressing call for the unpaid subscrip- tions, the directors resolved upon and succeeded in bor- rowing from several persons small sums of money on a credit of three years without interest, and of purchasing from others a number of valuable books on the same terms." The first purchase of books, two hundred and fifty volumes, was made at Philadelphia in the summer of 1815. Li the same year, " the trustees of Miami Univer- sity authorized a committee of that board to examine the books belonging to that institution and dispose of such as were not essential to its library. Of the books thus re- jected, a committee of the directors of the Library Society purchased, on credit, one hundred volumes, many of which are well suited to the popular tastes." " In the autumn the board vested one of its members, about to visit the eastern cities, with discretionary power to purchase books. The fruits of this delegation were about four hundred volumes, among which are many rare and valuable works." The interesting document we quote is dated October 17, 1816,

142 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

and signed by Daniel Drake, president, and Jesse Embree, secretary. The preface concludes as follows :

" For the present year it has been found absolutely nec- essary to increase the annual assessments ($1) a hundred per cent. To this measure no reasonable shareholder will object after a moment's reflection. In all similar institu- tions there is a contribution of this kind, and in most of those with which the directors have any acquaintance, it is greater than that under consideration. Without it no public library can flourish."

The directors of the Circulating Library in 1816 were: Daniel Drake, Jesse Embree, William 8. Hatch, Thomas Peirce, Peyton S. Symmes, David Wade, Micajah T. Will- iams. The librarian was David Cathcart.

The library contained about one thousand four hundred volumes, value estimated at three thousand dollars. The books were classified in the catalogue under these heads : Arts and Sciences, Agriculture and Veterinary Art, Bot- any and Medicine, Biography, Chemistry, Mineralogy and the Arts, Drama, Education, Geography and Topography, Oivil History, Law and Politics, Moral Philosophy, Mili- tary Tactics, Modern Classics, Miscellany, IN'atural His- tory, Philosophy and Mathematics, Kovels, Political Econ- omy, Statistics and Commerce, Philology, Periodical Works, Poetry, Theology and Ecclesiastical History, Voy- ages and Travels, Donations.

Among the donors to this ambitious collection were : Christopher Anthony, S. D. Baldwin, Wm. H. Burton, William Corry, Daniel Drake, Prof. Hosack of [N'ew York, William S. Hatch, Samuel Lowry, James H. Looker, Prof. E. D. Mansfield, of the Military Academy, West Point, Josiah Meigs of Washington, Richard Marsh, Thomas Rawlins, Peyton S. Symmes, Cleves Short, and David Wade.

In the departments of history, law, and theology, this early library was well supplied. It contained, in biogra- phy: Bosweirs "Johnson," Johnson's " Poets," Marshall's " Washington," Roscoe's " Lorenzo de Medici," Southey's "Nelson," Voltaire's "Peter the Great" and "Charles

Libraries. 143

XII." Under the head Modern Classics, it included " The Adventurer," ^' The Tattler," " The Spectator," " The Guardian," '''The Eambler," the works of Bacon, Beatty, Sterne and Swift, Johnson's '•' Rasselas," and Irving's *•' Salmagundi." Fiction and poetry were represented by Edgeworth, Hannah More, Madam D'Arblay, Madam De Stael, Cervantes, Mrs. Opie, Henry Brooks, Smollett, Mackenzie, Rousseau, Miss Porter, Mrs. Holfland, Hol- croft, Goldsmith, Akenside, Beattie, Barlow, Butler, Burns, Bloomfield, Byron, Crabbe, Cowper, Campbell, Darwin, Dryden, Freneau, Gray, Hogg, Homer, House, Moore, Montgomery, Pope, Southey, Thompson, Trum- bull, Scott.

Some of the by-laws of the Circulating Library Society are curious in the minute stringency of detail. For ex- ample :

" Every shareholder shall be entitled to receive from the library two volumes for each share he may hold therein.

"All persons are debarred from the privilege of lending any book taken out of the library to a non-shareholder; under the penalty of one dollar for every such offense.

" The time for detaining a book out of the library shall be : for a duodecimo, or any number of a periodical jour- nal, one week ; for an octavo, two weeks ; for a quarto, three weeks ; for a folio, four weeks. And if any book be not returned according to the time specified, there shall be paid a fine of six and one-quarter cents for a duo- decimo, twelve and a half cents for an octavo, and twenty- five cents for a quarto or folio volume ; and the fines shall be respectively doubled on every succeeding week, until they shall amount to the value of the book. Provided, that the above periods be extended two weeks to persons resident in the country.

"A deposit of Jive dollars shall be made with the librarian by every shareholder, on receiving a volume of the ' Cy- clopsedia' (Rees), Wilson's ' Ornithology,' or the 'English and Classical Dictionary.' "

Mansfield and Drake's " Cincinnati in 1826 " informs us that the Circulating Library " is kept in one of the lower

144 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

rooms of the college edifice, where access may be had to it every Saturday afternoon." The " college edifice" was the original Cincinnati College building, first known as the Lancastrian Seminary, from the fact that a large school on the Lancastrian method was conducted there in 1816 by Edmund Harrison, under the presidency of Jacob Burnet, author of " Notes on the Northwestern Territory." Eventually, for some reason unknown to the writer, the books were boxed up and packed away in the cellar of a bookstore on Main street. Here they remained for sev- eral years, gathering dampness and mold, until Rev. J. H. Perkins, author of the invaluable " Western Annals," as- sumed the responsibility of overhauling the boxes, and bringing their neglected contents to the light. The treas- ured volumes of "Wilson's Ornithology" fell to pieces of their own weight. Such of the books as were in tolerable condition were selected and placed on the shelves of the library of the Ohio Mechanics' Institute, a harbor des- tined to receive the drifting remnants of several pioneer <jollections. The history of the Circulating Library re- flects vividly the kind and degree of culture possessed by the Queen City of the West in her ambitious youth. The kind was practical, the degree high enough to grasp the relations of reading to academic training, and to stimulate several original literary enterprises. The Seminary, which grew up with the library and was nourished by it, was the first important school in the city. The men whose pro- vincial enthusiasm over a few hundred books provokes a smile, included in their number some authors not to be despised.

At the time of the formation of this library society, the entire population of the Queen City was less than six thousand. In 1813, according to a census taken by order of the town council, the population was only four thou- sand. However, there was a high degree of intelligence among the citizens, and a zealous public spirit. Many of the early settlers of Cincinnati were educated persons, and had a correct appreciation of the value of books, schools, and like means of intellectual cultivation. The decade

Libraries. 145

extending from 1810 to 1820, which includes the period of the establishment of the Circulating Library, seems to have been a time of considerable literary activity and pro- ductiveness in the young metropolis of the Miami country. It was then that permanent newspapers were established here, then that books were first made in Ohio, that schools received special attention, that libraries came into popular demand, and that science and art found here true devotees. An association for literary and scientific improvement was established, under the presidency of the accomplished Josiah Meigs.

Doubtless the patient investigator might find in the lo- cal records of the older Ohio towns many traces of pioneer libraries formed under circumstances not unlike those, which surrounded the citizens of new-sprung Marietta, Amesville and Cincinnati. The time has come when, resting from the exciting cares of business life and mate- rial conquest, western people are beginning to give atten- tion to the things of the mind, and to regard as important not only the history of war, legislation and commerce, but also the memorials of education and culture in the back- woods. Historical societies are forming in almost every important locality, and special writer are busy reviewing the intellectual progress of our short but busy past.

Among the quiet but enthusiastic workers in the field of Ohio history and literature, no one is more deserving of mention and gratitude than Robert W. Steele, of Day- ton, Ohio, who is doing for his city what R. T. Durrett has done for Louisville, in the way of founding institu- tions and preserving records of intellectual history. For many years the head and front of educational and literary enterprises in Dayton, Mr. Steele may justly be named the soul of the noble Public Library, which is the pride of his city. To the history of Dayton he has furnished a chapter on " Public Schools and Libraries," from which I extract an interesting passage concerning the first library in Dayton :

" In 1805," says Mr. Steele, " the citizens of Dayton ob- 10

146 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

tained from the legislature the first act of incorporation for a public library granted by the State of Ohio. The incorporators were Rev. William Robertson, Dr. John Elliot, William Miller, Benjamin Van Cleve, and John Folkerth. A pamphlet, stained and yellow with age, con- taining the constitution and rules of this library — proba- bly the only copy in existence — fortunately has been pre- served and deposited in the public library. A few of the rules are peculiar and may be worth presenting :

" Damage done to a book, while in the hands of a pro- prietor, shall be assessed by the librarian at the rate of three cents for a drop of tallow, or folding down a leaf, and so in proportion for any other damage."

In this day of gas and electricity, the fine for a " drop of tallow " is rather ludicrous, but no doubt books were often injured in that way when the reader was compelled to peruse them by the feeble light of a tallow-dip. Libra- rians are aware that the " folding down a leaf" is one of the common and annoying abuses of books at the present day.

Another rule prescribes that " the method of drawing books shall be by lot ; that is to say, it shall be determined by lottery who shall have the first choice, and so on for each proprietor." Unfortunately, we have no intimation how the lottery was conducted. Rule eighteenth declares " if a proprietor lends a book belons^ing to the library to any person who is not a proprietor, or sufiers a book to be carried into a school, he or she shall pay a fine equal to the value of one-quarter of said book." It is not easy to see what great damage could result to a book from being " carried into a school," but the whole tenor of the rulea illustrates the preciousness of books at that early day, and the vigilant care taken of them. Like all libraries sup- ported by voluntary subscription, every expedient had to be resorted to to raise money. In the Gridiron, a satirical paper published in Dayton in 1822, a file of which has been preserved in the public library, a play and farce are advertised to be given by the Thespian Society for the benefit of the library.

Libraries. 147

The library existed until 1835, when it was sold at auc- tion, as appears from the following advertisement in'che Dayton Journal of September 8, 1835 : " Library at auc- tion. The books and book-case belonging to the Dayton Library Association will be sold at auction at the clerk's office, at 2 o'clock p. m., on Saturday, the 12th inst. Henry Stoddard, William Bomberger, John W. Yan Cleve, Committee." Mr. Van Cleve thus speaks of the character of the library : " The number of the books is small, but they are well selected, being principally useful standard works, which should be found in all institutions of this kind. Among them are the ' North American and American Quarterly Reviews for the last few years.' Who can doubt that this library, during the thirty years of its existence, was of inestimable value to the citizens of Dayton ?"

An account of the early libraries of Indiana will be found in the chapter on Yincennes.

HISTORY OF THE HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF

OHIO.

In 1822 an effort was made to form an Ohio historical society. The legislature passed an act of incorporation, but the society failed to organize. Nine years later the project was revived, and on the 11th of February, 1831, the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio was chartered.^ The body was organized at Columbus, Ohio, December 31, 1831, by the adoption of a code of by-laws and the election of Benjamin Tappan president; Ebenezer

^ The following is a list of charter members : Benjamin Tappan, John C. Wright, and Dr. John Andrews of Steubenville ; Arius Xye and Dr. S. P. Hildreth, of Marietta; Appleton Downer, Dr. T. Planner, and E. Buckingham, of Zanesville ; Thomas James, B. G. Leonard, and James T. AVorthington, of Chillicothe ; Gustavus Swan, John M. Edmiston, Alfred Kelly, and Dr. Benjamin Piatt, of Columbus ; Joseph Sullivant, of Franklinton; Dr. E. Cooper, of Newark; R. H. Bishop, Thomas Kelly, and James McBride, of Butler county ; Dr. J. Cobb, Dr. Elijah Slack, X. Longworth, John P. Foote, and Timothy Flint, of Cincinnati ; John Sloan, of Wayne county ; Ebenezer Lane, of Huron county, and William Wall, of Athens.

148 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

Lane and Rev. William Preston, vice-presidents; Alfred Ke'ly, corresponding secretary ; P. B. "Wilcox, recording secretary ; John W. Campbell, treasurer ; and G. Swan, Edward King, S. P. Hildretli, B. G. Leonard, and J. K. Kirtland, curators.

Among the leading members of the society in its first years, beside the above, w^ere J. C. Wright, James Hoge, Arius Nye, C. B. Goddard, Joseph Sullivant, J. R. Swan, N". H. Swayne, M. Z. Kreider, J. H. James, I. A» Lapham, J. Ridgeway, Jr., R. Thompson, William Awl, Jacob Burnet, J. Delafield, Jr., J. B. Thompson, J. W. Aildrews, W. D. Gallagher, T. L. Hamer, J. L. Miner, William Wall, and Simeon Nash. Benjamin Tappan filled the office of president until 1836, when he was succeeded by Ebenezer Lane, who gave place to Jacob Burnet in 1838. During all these years P. B. Wilcox was recording secretary, and Alfred Kelly was corresponding secretary until 1836. J. C. Wright was chosen president in 1841, an^ was continued in the office until 1844, at which date Judge Burnet was again elected.

At the annual meeting of December, 1832, the presi- dent, Benjamin Tappan, gave an address on the general objects of the society, and S. P. Hildreth read a paper on " Floods in the Ohio River." In 1833 Hon. Ebenezer Lane delivered the annual address. In 1834 the annual address was by J. H. James, and a paper was read by Joshua Malin, on the " Meteoric Phenomena of November 13, 1833," and Mr. G. H. Flood pronounced a eulogy on the life and labors of Dr. Thomas F. Connor. In December, 1837, Hon. Timothy Walker delivered the annual address, and Mr. J. Delafield presented a series of letters from Hon. Jacob Burnet.

The society in 1838 issued its first publication, a pam- phlet of one hundred and thirty-one pages, entitled ** Jour- nal of the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio," containing Volume I, Part I, of the Transactions of the Society. It includes the act of incorporation, by-laws, list of officers for 1838, the annual address of Tappan and of James, Hildreth's paper on the "Floods in the Ohio

Libraries. 149

River," a " Brief History of the Settlement of Dayton," by John W. Van Cleve ; a " Brief Description of Wash- ing County, Ohio," by a member, and papers by James McBride on the " Topography, Statistics, and History of Oxford, and the Miami University," and on "Ancient Fortifications in Butler County, Ohio."

In 1839 the second part of the first volume of transac- tions was published, containing addresses by Timothy Walker, James H. Perkins, James T. Worthington, and Arius [N'ye ; a series of letters addressed to J. Delafield, Jr., by Jacob Burnet, on the settlement of the ITorth-west Territory, and an address on the aborigines of the Ohio Valley, by W. H. Harrison.

In 1841 Charles Whittlesey delivered an address on the expedition of Lord Dunmore, of Virginia, against the In- dian towns on the Scioto in 1774. The next annual meet- ing was held in 1844. At that meeting Mr. J. SuUivant was chosen corresponding secretary and curator. I am able to furnish an interesting letter from Mr. Sullivant, written from Columbus, March 11, 1869, and giving a his- tory of the transfer of the Historical and Philosophical Society to Cincinnati, an event which took place in Feb- ruary, 1849.

Mr. Sullivant wrote:

" I was one of the incorporators named in the char- ter, and attended every meeting ever held in Columbus ; was an ofiicer and curator of the society, and I am not aware that any of its meetings was ever held in Cincin- nati previous to its singular and informal transfer, the his- tory of which I now propose to give. After the organiza- tion of the society, the annual meetings and elections were held at Columbus in the winter, during the sitting of the legislature, at which time new members were proposed and voted for, some of them paying the initiation fee, and seldom or never attending afterward, or keeping member- ship by their annual subscription. And so it went on from year to year — an annual address, proposing new mem- bers, and occasionally listening to original papers on local history; but it is a fact that very few of these papers

150 Literacy Culture in the Ohio Valley.

actually passed the possession of the society, being re- tained by the writers or withdrawn under some plea of al- teration or revision. The meetings were usually in the representatives' hall in the old state house, the last two at the iN'eil House, and the one at which the transfer was made in a little bedroom third story of the same hotel. The first case belonging to the society was set up in the old room of the canal commissioners' ofiice when I. A. Lapham was clerk, and this case was well filled with min- erals, shells, fossils, antiquities, and specimens of natural history by Judge Benjamin Tappan, Lapham, and myself. Of books and pamphlets, Tappan and I deposited a num- ber on science, early histories, and antiquities, but other than these, few were received except from the general government, which sent many volumes of state papers, surveys, reports, etc. These books and collections were moved about from place to place, and finally pilfered and scattered beyond recovery, with the exception of two hundred and three moderate-sized boxfuls, which were turned over to a Mr. Randall, and he it was who first pro- posed and most importunately and persistently urged the the removal of the society to Cincinnati. Mr. Randall, I believe, went to California and died there. As has already been said, most of the papers read before the society were upon local history and antiquities, such as mounds and earthworks. The few prepared on natural history were so coldly received as to discourage the few of us en- gaged on those researches, and of course these papers did not pass under the control of the society.

" I well remember when the names of William McClure, the father of American geology, and of Thomas Say, the distinguished naturalist, both well known and appreciated in Europe, were proposed for membership. It was only after a good deal of explanation and some discussion that they were voted in.

" It will be perceived tliat the society never had much vigor or vitality, nor could it scarcely have been expected, with its members widely scattered and meeting but once a year; and finally even the annual address failed, and its

Libraries. 151

meetings had ceased for two years when Mr. Randall came during the winter and after the time of the annual meet- ing, and as he said, on behalf of the Cincinnati Historical Society, and proposed and urged a union of the two so- cieties. I was at that time secretary and curator of our society, and had the records in my possession, and ex- plained to him that the proper time was already passed, and I had no authority to call a meeting. He still per- sisted, and as there was but little of value either in books, manuscripts, or collections, and it was evident the society was failing of its purpose in its then existing condition, I thought there would be no objections, provided it could be legally done, if the charter would be of any use to a body of active and working members. Therefore, I con- sulted here with the nominal and residing members, and with Mr. Chase, w^ho was in the city and likewise favoring the change of locality.. Finding no particular objections, I issued without signature a call for a meeting of 0. H. and P. Society at the Neil House.

" Here let it be observed that of all those voted for as members, a large number failing to pay the initiation fee and conform to other requirements never really became members. When, at this time, Dr. John Thompson, the society's treasurer, came to examine into the matter, it was found that there were not enough legal members to fill the offices of the society, for continued membership depended on the paying of an annual fee, and at the time of this called meeting, not one person in Cincinnati was a member under the charter rules and regulations, and in this city but Dr. Thompson and the writer.

At the hour appointed, Dr. John Thompson, as treas- urer, and myself, as secretary, proceeded to Mr. Randall's room, in the l!^eil House, where we met Mr. Randall and Mr. Chase, and then and there handed over the records, telling them to make such entries and records as would give the transfer a formal and legal sanction, and if the records noio show any annual meeting of the society at that time in Cincinnati, where the ' members of the Cincinnati His- torical Society were then elected members, and a donation

152 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

of all the property of the Cincinnati Historical Society was then accepted/ I apprehend the entries were made in accordance with the above understanding."

The Cincinnati Historical Society was organized in August, 1844, with the following officers : President, James H. Perkins; vice-presidents, John P. Foote and William D. Gallagher; recording secretary, E. P. Norton; treasurer, Robert Buchanan ; librarian, A. Randall. These continued in office until 1847, when the following were chosen : President, D. K. Este ; vice-presidents, J. Hall and J. P. Foote ; recording secretary, James H. Per- kins; corresponding secretar}^ J. G.Anthony; librarian, A. Randall. In 1848, William D. Gallagher was made president, with James H. Perkins, Charles Whittlesey, and E. D. Mansfield as vice-presidents.

In 1847, Dr. S. P. Hildreth presented to the society the manuscript of his " Pioneer History," which was pub- lished in 1848.

The first meeting of the Historical and Philosophical Society in the city of Cincinnati was held in February, 1849. Then the two societies united ; the members of the Cincinnati society were elected members of the older or- ganization, and all the property of the Cincinnati society was donated. The election of officers for the year 1849 was held March 20th. The following were elected: President, William D. Gallagher ; vice-presidents, James H. Perkins, Edward D. Mansfield, Charles Whittlesey; treasurer, Robert Buchanan ; corresponding secretary, A. Randall ; recording secretary, Samuel B. Munson ; libra- rian, G. Williams Kendall; curators, John C. Wright, John P. Foote, David K. Este, Edwin R. Campibell, Restore C. Carter.

Early in 1850 the constitution of the society was recon- structed. The primary object of the society was an- nounced to be " research in every department of local his- tory, collection, preservation, and diffusion of whatever may relate to the history, biography, literature, philosophy, and antiquities of America, more especially of the state of Ohio, of the West, and of the United States." The

Libraries, 153

number of curators was increased from five to fifteen. The date of the annual meeting was fixed for the first Monday in December.

Mr. Gallagher was re-elected president for 1850, and Eobert Buchanan, treasurer. On the 8th of April, 1850, a meeting was held to commemorate the first settlement of Ohio, the sixty-second anniversary of which fell on Sun- day, April 7th. On that occasion Mr. Gallagher delivered an elaborate address entitled " Facts and Conditions of Progress in the North-west." This was published by the society, with an appendix containing a sketch of the his- tory of the society, the constitution, and the report of ofiicers for 1849. Hildreth's '" Memoirs of the Pioneer Settlers of Ohio " was published, under the auspices of the society, two years later.

The records of the proceedings of the society, from 1850 to 1868, unfortunately, are lost. According to the best recollection of several old members whom the writer interviewed in 1869, E. D. Mansfield succeeded Wm. D. Gallagher as president, and Colonel Johnson, the Indian agent, succeeded him. John P. Foote was the next presi- dent, and after him Robert Buchanan held the office down to 1870, when Hon. M. F. Force was made president.

When the society moved to Cincinnati, in 1849, it brought its library. The books and archives of the united societies were deposited in the front room of the fourth story of a new brick building on the corner of Third and Race streets, Cincinnati. They were removed, probably about 1853, to an apartment in the basement of the Cin- cinnati College, on Walnut street, between Fourth and Fifth. John P. Foote, in his " Schools of Cincinnati,'^ published in 1855, says :

" The room in the college building devoted to the so- ciety's library and its meetings is spacious and convenient, and the meetings which have been held there have gen- erally been remarkably interesting."

The late George Graham, one of the most eminent and useful members of the society, gave me his recollections- in writing, as follows :

154 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

" It was deemed advisable by the directors to discontinue the occupancy of the college, when the books, manu- scripts, etc., of the library were bound up and taken, I think, to Mr. Buchanan's store. After remaining there some time, they were transferred to the school library and placed in two alcoves, where they were to remain unmo- lested until called for by the Historical Society."

This removal took place in 1860, as the records of the public library show. The public library was then in the Mechanics' Institute building, corner of Sixth and Vine streets.

Hon. M. F. Force, referring to the struggling years of the society just after 1852, says :

" Meetings were regularly held, and while the attend- ance varied, some nine or ten members were quite constant — E. D. Mansfield, Robert Buchanan, George Graham, Peyton Symmes, James Lupton, J. G. Anthony, Osgood Mussey, John D. Caldwell, A. li. Spofiord, and ftiyself. There were constant though not large accessions to the library, and many papers were read, some of which were published in the newspapers. . . . Some members have died, others moved away, and at the close of the war there were four active members remaining in the city, Robert Buchanan, George Graham, John D. Caldwell, and myself. Julius Dexter, Robert Clarke, and E. F. Bliss became interested in reviving the society. Some of the four survivors, or possibly one, flocking by himself, held a meeting and elected a number of new members in May, 1868. Meetings were held about in offices till De- cember, 1868, when an arragement was made with the Literary Club,^ and what was left of the library was ob-

* The Cincinnati Literary Club was organized October 29, 1849, at the rooms of Mr. A. R. Spofford, now Librarian of Congress. The member- ship was originally limited to twenty-five, was increased to thirty in 1851, afterward to thirty -five, then to fifty, then to eighty, and, in 1875, to one hundr. ,1. On April 15, 1861, the club formed a military com- pany, the liiniH t Ivities, and subsequently fifty members entered the army. The following is a list of club members during the first club year 1849: John G. Baker, Henry B. Blackwelh, D. L. Brown, J. D. Buchanan, Francis Collins, Isaac C. Collins, Nelson Cross, W. M. Dick-

Libraries. 155

tained from the public library and moved into the rooms of the club."

At the meeting called for reorganization, May 23, 1868, the following officers were re-elected : President, Robert Buchanan ; corresponding secretary, M. F. Force ; record- ing secretary, Charles E. Cist ; librarian, John D. Cald- ■well. Robert Buchanan was re-elected in 1869. M. F. Force was elected president in 1870, and held the office until 1889, when he removed from Cincinnati, and Eugene F. Bliss was chosen to the place. Robert Clarke was treasurer from 1869 to 1873, since which he has been cor- responding secretary. E. F. Bliss became treasurer in 1874, and held the office till 1885, when A. H. Chatfield succeeded him. J. Mi J^ewton was librarian in 1869, Julius Dexter from 1870 to 1880, Miss E. H. Appleton from 1880 to September, 1886, since which time the im- portant position has been held by Mrs. C. W. Lord.

The society republished, in 1872, Part I, Volume 1, of its transactions, the Columbus edition of 1838 being out of print. In 1873 a new series of publications was begun, by the publication of the " Journal of Captain John May." The last publication, to date, of the society, is the " Jour- nal of David Zeisberger," translated from the German manuscript, with annotations by Eugene F. Bliss. This, the largest and most important work yet issued by the society, was put forth in 1885. The trustees of the Cin- cinnati College gave the society the use, rent free, of five rooms in the upper story of the college building, to which the society moved April 1, 1871, and where it remained fourteen years. The growth of the society in that period was constant and vigorous. Contributions toward a build- ing fund and an endowment fund were made, and care-

son, Edwin D. Dodd, Wm. Ferguson, Manning F. Force, Israel Garrard, C. A. Glass, Wm. Guilford, John Gundry, Rutherford B. Hayes, John W. Herron, L, A. Hine, Patrick Mallon, Stanley Matthews, John H. McDowell, W. C. McDowell, Charles C. Pierce, M. L. Sheldon, Albert Sheppard, J. R. Skinner, A. R. Spoflord, R. H. Stephenson, A. S. Sulli- van, H. G. Wade, W. A. Warriner, M. Hazen AVhite, A. T. Whittaker, J. K. Wilson, P. C. Wyeth, J. C. Zachos.

156 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

fully invested. In the siiramer of 1885, the society pur- chased a fine three-story building on Eighth street, No. 115, west of Race and next to the Lincoln Club building. Formal possession was taken of these commodious new quarters on October 15, 1885, when the president, Hon. M. F. Force, delivered a short address, concluding with the following words :

"We have not moved into this comfortable home to rest from labor. It is only vantage ground for renewed zeal and larger enterprise. Two works on interesting and obscure points in the early history of Ohio are in compe- tent hands, and will appear in due time. Twenty thou- sand dollars are due upon the purchase of the house, and there are only $1,400 dollars in the building fund. The deficiency must be made up. From the experience of the past, we can trust to the continued growth of the library. The cabinet must be enlarged. Ohio was the richest field for Indian implements and relics of the Mound Builders, but constant sale of collections to the eastern states and to Europe have carried off nearly all, and what little is left is apt to go in the same way. New Mexico has in like manner been parting with objects illustrating the life of the Pueblo Indians. Some collections are left, which can be got for a price small compared with their real value. Let us trust that some hand, guided by wise lib- erality, will rescue a portion before the opportunity passes away forever.

" Members of the society, press on with unflagging zeal. Let your collections become so full that they will form a monument worthy of the city and the state — so complete that no question can arise concerning the history of the Ohio Valley which can not find an answer on your shelves."

The object of the society, as defined in the present con- stitution, is to collect and preserve all things relating to the history and antiquities of America, more especially of the State of Ohio, and to diffuse knowledge concerning them. I have mentioned the various publications of the

Libraries. 157

society. It remains to give some account of the collec- tions of its library and cabinet.

The number of volumes in the library at the time of the removal from Columbus is not now known. An ac- cession of about four hundred volumes was received from the Cincinnati society. Sometime between 1849 and 1855 Mr. George T. Williamson made to the society a do- nation of several rare and costly works, chief of which was a set of " Lord Kinsborough's Mexican Antiquities," published at London, in nine large folios, elaborately il- lustrated. The first seven volumes of this magnificent publication are estimated to have cost $300,000. Among other works understood to belong to Mr. Williamson's contribution are a number of volumes of old English chronicles in Latin ; eleven volumes of English state pa- pers of the time of Henry YIIL; the " ^N'aval History of Great Britain," by Hon. George Berkley, a large folio of seven hundred and six pages, printed in 1756; " Kegister of the Great Seal of the Kingdom of Scotland from 1306 to 1324;" "Acts of the Lords' Auditors of Causes and Complaints of Scotland, from 1466 to 1494 ;" "Acts of the Lords of Council of Scotland, from 1478 to 1495," and a dozen or more other volumes of proceedings, ordinances, records, etc., relating to the early history of Scotland and England. Also the " Journal of the Proceedings of the General Assembly of the Colony of JSTew York," in two volumes, covering a period of seventy-four years, from 1691 to 1751; the "Laws of :N'ew York from 1691 to 1751 ;" and the " Laws of Maryland," by Thomas Bacon, rector of All Saints' parish, in Frederick county, and do- mestic chaplain in Maryland to the Right Honorable Frederick Lord Baltimore. All these highly interesting works are in the library in a state of good preservation.

Besides the contributions of Mr. Williamson, a number of important volumes were donated at about the same time by Mr. Peter Force, of Washington City. Among these are Mr. Force's own useful compilations, the " !N"a- tional Calendar," in several volumes, dating from 1820. The Smithsonian Institute favored tlje society with its

158 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

contributions to useful knowledge, and the national gov- ernment furnished Schoolcraft's " Reports on the Indians," and a vast number of valuable documentary works.

Some time before the year 1855, the books of the ]^ew England Society, numbering about three hundred and forty-three volumes, were deposited with the Historical Society and became its property. The [N'ew England So- ciety was organized for the purpose of " perpetuating the memory of early settlers of New England," " extending charity to the needy of New England birth, and their widows and orphans," and " promoting virtue, knowledge and all useful learning." ^ Timothy Walker was president of the society in 1847 and 1848. The formation of a his- torical and antiquarian library was undertaken about the end of the year 1847. Contributions in money and books were obtained from prominent New Englanders residing in Cincinnati, and from Nathaniel B. Shurtliff and Samuel G. Drake, of Boston. The books include a fair showing of reports of various historical societies, especially of the States of Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and Rhode Island, with some of Connecticut, Maryland and Louisiana ; directories of Boston and other cities, sketches of American antiquities and early history, chronological statistics, colonial records, accounts of early travel and ex- ploration, etc.

When, in 1869, the books were removed from the Me- chanics' Institute to the rooms of the Literary Club, the efficient librarian, Mr. J. M. Newton, set about overhauling and classifying the collection. The discovery of an old catalogue revealed the loss of a number of volumes and many valuable manuscripts. Mr. Newton found that the library comprised in all 700 bound volumes and 1,250 pamphlets.

* It was chartered March 1, 1845, on the application of Henry Star, Nathaniel Sawyer, Bellamy Storer, Ephraim Robins, Lot E. Brewster, Salmon P. Chase, R. D. Mussey, Nathan Sampson, Edward D. Mans- field, Lyman Beecher, Henry Crane, Edmund Gage, Calvin E. Stowe, M. Flagg, Alphonso Taft, Ira Athearn, T. Woodrough, C. K. Cady, Jona- than Bates, Charles Fisher and others.

Libraries, 159

But donations came in steadily. On the first of Janu- ary, 1872, Mr. Julius Dexter, then librarian, began the tedious task of cataloguing the growing collection. He gave, substantially, two years of his time to the work. At the close of the year 1874, the society owned 4,967 bound volumes and 15,856 pamphlets, accurately cata- logued and arranged.

There are at present (1890) in the library 10,850 bound volumes and 50,000 pamphlets.

A valuable special feature of the library is that know^n as the Centennial Collection, presented by A. T. Goshorn, and comprising 67 volumes, 303 pamphlets, and many photographs, etc., the whole relating to international ex- positions, and particularly to the Philadelphia Exposition, of 1876, of which Mr. Goshorn was manager.

Another highly important portion of the archives of the society is the collection known as The Torrence Papers, donated by Aaron Torrence in 1885. The manuscript part of this collection is fully described in a catalogue prepared by Mr. Bliss and published in 1887. A general description of the Torrence Papers is here quoted from Mrs. Lord's report for the year 1886 :

" In the last report of the librarian of the society occurs the name of Aaron Torrence as the giver of 67 volumes and 630 pamphlets; to these are this year added 40 volumes. But printed matter was the least part of his gift. He made over to the society a mass of letters and documents of every sort. Related as is his family to the Findlays, the Harrisons, the Whitemans, the Irvins, all of whom have been prominent in the development of Cin- cinnati, he had in' his hands documents of the highest value for the local history of our city and going back almost to its foundation. There are the curious orders of our earliest settlers and of the o:te.cers and soldiers of Fort Washington upon Smith & Findlay, suttlers or general traders ; the orders and vouchers of the military author- ities in the various campaigns against the Indians at the close of the last century; many certificates of the receiver in the land office here ; the muster rolls of the state

160 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

militia, and documents relating to the War of 1812. There is a great number of letters received by General Findlay when he was a member of Congress from hungry constituents, there are letters written by Samuel Torrence from West Point, when he was a cadet there in 1823-28, letters from General Wayne, from General Wilkinson and from General Jessup. In this collection all the prominent families of the early city and vicinity are represented, the Shorts, Worthingtons, Wrights, Lytles, Burnets, Long- worths, Schencks, Taylors, Southgates, Ludlows, Sloos, Mahards, Bullocks, Kilgours, Yeatmans, Euffins, Storers, Baums, Buchanans, Carneals, Dawsons, Drakes, Ham- monds, Kempers. There are letters and other papers of President Harrison from the time he was a lieutenant in the army. There are plats of the various subdivisions of the city, legal documents of many kinds, specimens of early paper money, invitations and visiting cards, accounts with individuals and lists of prices, a mine of treasure to the future investigator."

Teachers, Schools, and Colleges, 161

CHAPTER V.

TEACHERS, SCHOOLS, AND COLLEGES IN THE BACKWOODS.

The founders of the American IN'ation, whether residing in ^ew England, the Middle States, or the South, were advocates and promoters of popular education. Frank- lin, Washington, the Adamses, Jefferson, however much they might differ on other questions, were united in the conviction expressed hy Washington to Congress, that " Knowledge in every country is the surest basis of pub- lic happiness." Jefferson's writings are saturated with the doctrine that knowledge and thought are the safe- guards of democracy.

The celebrated " ISTotes on the State of Virginia," was written in 1781, and revised in 1782, just before the close of the Revolutionary War. The lirst American edition was issued in 1787, the year of the ordinance which or- ganized the " Old ISTorth-west." In the chapter on the charters and laws of Virginia, Jefferson outlines a plan for the revisal of the statutes, embracing a proposal " To establish religious freedom on the broadest bottom," and " To emacipate all the slaves born after the passing of the act." The chapter discusses the subject of education, and concludes with this noble passage : " Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves, therefore, are its only safe de- positories. And to render even them safe, their minds must be improved to a certain degree. This indeed is not all that is necessary, though it be essentially necessary. An amendment to our constitution must here come in aid of the public education. The influence over govern- ment must be shared among all the people."

With the possession of intelligence, Jefferson associates 11

162 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

the exercise of suffrage. He exerted an active and con- tinuous influence in favor of popular education in Vir- ginia, and the power of his word and example spread to Kentucky and other parts of the Ohio Valley. Mr. Dunn, in his history of Indiana, says : " If we look to the influ- ence of literature, we find nothing from the North that had more effect in Indiana than Jefferson's ^ Notes on Virginia.' "

But Jefferson is by no means entitled to all the credit for promoting the cause of education in the South.

In the year 1780, the legislature of Virginia passed " An Act to vest certain escheated Lands in the County of Ken- tucky, in Trustees for a Public School." The passage of this bill, which was brought about chiefly by Colonel John Todd, led to the founding of Transylvania University, the first important college in the Ohio Valley. Other laws enacted by the Kentucky legislature in 1796, provided for the establishment of an academy in every county of the state, and endowed twenty-six academies, each with six thousand acres of land. These academies were to become feeders of the great central university. Those patriots who conceived the splendid project of a school system for Kentucky, knew better than they builded.

When the embattled farmers at Concord Bridge "• fired the shot heard round the world," the swift report flying westward, saluted the ears of a party of hunters encamped near the Kentucky river. These, one of whom was Simon Kenton, were genuine *' Long Knives " — rangers, clad in garments stripped from the deer, the bear, and the wolf, and armed with rifle, tomahawk, and scalping-knife. By patriotic consent they named the place of their encamp- ment Lexington, and four years later, in April, 1779, a vil- lage was begun on the spot. Founded but five years after Boone led the vanguard of immigration through Cumber- land Gap, and broke the old Wilderness Road through primeval solitude, Lexington is only less ancient than a few stations like Harrodsburg and Boonesborough. It is now but little over one hundred years since the pioneers " Chopping out the night, chopped in the morn,"

Teachei^s, Schools, and Colleges. 163

and took the forest trees to fashion the rude stockade which was the beginning of the "Athens of the West."

A higher distinction than that derived from its rapid material growth, belongs to this town. Thither from the East, with commerce went culture. Lexington and its vicinity formed the first island of civilization in the green ocean of the western wilderness. Just outside the fort, the settlers built a school-house, perhaps the first in the Ohio Valley. The stockade was a defense against sav- ages, the school-house a redoubt against ignorance, and a magazine for mental stores. John McKinney, the school- master, deserves a monument or a statue. One morning, John, waiting for his pupils, was surprised by a visit from a most unwelcome examiner, a monstrous wild-cat, which stealthily came in at the open door, and sprang at the pedagogical throat. The unarmed man of letters, after a terrific combat, killed the powerful beast by choking and crushing it upon his desk ; and while its fierce teeth were yet locked in the flesh of his side, he said placidly to some men who rushed to his rescue :, " Oentlemen, I have caught a cat." The progress of civilization is symbolized by the picture of McKinney slaying the wild-cat in the rude hut dedicated to the education of children.^

About the year 1783, there appeared upon the scene of aftairs in Kentucky, a schoolmaster from the banks of the Brandywine — another John, whose figure, like that of McKinney, stands in picturesque relief in the mixed light of history and tradition. He wrote the first annals of Kentucky, and surveyed the first i^oad from Lexington to Cincinnati, or Losantiville, as he named the town ; he it was who, in the Kentucky Gazette, proposed to organize a seminary in Lexington, in which should be taught the " French language, with all the arts and sciences used in the academies," for a fee of '^ five pounds per annum, one- half cash and the other property," and who offended cer- tain citizens by announcing his intention to employ " northern teachers; " — John Pilson, who, as I have stated

' See the author's " Footprints of the Pioneers," Cincinnati, 1888.

164 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

in a preceding chapter, wandered from his comrades, en- camped on the northern shore of the Ohio, and took a lonely walk in the Big Miami woods — a walk from which he never returned.

The Virginia school act of 1780 is in the following lan- guage :

" Whereas, it is represented to this General Assembly tliat there are certain lands within the county of Ken- tucky, formerly belonging to British subjects, not yet sold under the law of escheats and forfeitures, which might be, at a future day, a valuable fund for the maintenance and education of youth; and it being the interest of this Com- monwealth always to promote and encourage every de- eign which may tend to the improvement of the mind and the diffusion of knowledge even among its remote citizens, whose situation, in a barbarous neighborhood and a savage in- tercourse, might otherwise render unfriendly to science; be it therefore enacted, that eight thousand acres of land within the said county, of Kentucky . . . should be vested in trustees as a free donation from this Commonwealth, for the purpose of a public school or seminary of learning, to be erected within said county as soon as its circum- stances and the state of its funds will admit."

Thus, fifteen years before lands were selected for the support of the first college in the North-western Terri- tory, at Athens, U., the Virginia Assembly provided en- do wiiimt for a seminary in Kentucky. The institution was in practical operation in 1785 in the private house of Rev. David Rice, near Danville. " Old Father Rice " was selected as the first teacher ; the school was christened Transylvania Seminary, a good name, meaning, literally, the nursery or seed-plat beyond the woods.

Three years after its organization the school was re- moved from Danville, the early capital of the district of Kentucky, to Lexington, the real seat of power, where, in 1788, a small two-story brick building was erected for its accommodation. For the first nine years the manage- ment of the seminary was in the hands of Presbyterians; but, in 1794, Rev. Henry Toulmin, nominally a Baptist,

Teachers, Schools, and Colleges. 165

but, in fact, an English Unitarian and disciple of Priestly, was chosen president.

The Presbyterians started a rival school at Pisgah, naming it Kentucky Academy. To this institution $1,000 were subscribed by friends of education in the East. Washington gave §100 ; John Adams, $100 ; Aaron Burr, $50. The Rev. Dr. Gordon,^ of London, gave £80 for the purchase of books and apparatus.

The two schools were, 1798, united under the presi- dency of an Episcopal clergyman, Rev. James Moore. At the same time the institution was reorganized, enlarged, and chartered as Transylvania University. Lexington was chosen as its permanent seat. The second president was Rev. James Blythe, D.D., whose administration ex- tended from 1804 to 1818.

Degrees were conferred by this backwoods university as long ago as 1802.' Yet it is no disparagement to say that during the period from its founding to 1818, Transyl- vania University was not much superior to a modern first- class grammar school. Just after the close of the war of 1812-15, literary institutions in all parts of the country took a new lease of life.

Dr. Blythe was succeeded in December, 1818, by Rev. Horace Holley, LL.D., a graduate of Yale College, and an admirer and favorite of Pi'esident Timothy Dwight. For several years he had been pastor of Hollis Street Unitarian Church, Boston, and his preaching power was much praised. One of his enthusiastic biographers claims that in pulpit eloquence he was not surpassed by Bossuet or Massilon, while he undoubtedly excelled Chalmers and Irving! All accounts agree that Holley was eloquent, learned, and handsome. Timothy Flint, who was of the same cloth and sect as the doctor, and possibly was touched with a slight jealousy, wrote that " Dr. Holley was fond of society, and not much given to seclusion ;

^ Rev. Wm. Gordon, D.D. (172^1807), preacher and author. From 1770 to 1786, he was minister of a church in Roxbury, Mass. Wrote " History of Independency in the United States."

166 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

and yet he seemed to be a living library, and to have a universal acquaintance with literature."

The new president was welcomed to his fresh field of labor, where his energy and many accomplishments wrought miracles for the university. His popularity drew students from far. The catalogues for 1823-4-5 show an average yearly attendance of about four hundred. The three departments of literature, law, and medicine were conducted by full faculties of eminent professors. At the head of the law school was Judge Jesse Bledsoe, LL.D. Among the medical teachers were Dr. Samuel Brown, reputed to be the first physician who practiced vaccination in the United States; Dr. Ben. W. Dudley, the famous surgeon ; Dr. Daniel Drake, the first prominent medical author of the West, and Dr. Charles Caldwell, a man of varied talents and achievements in science and letters, but chiefly noted as the "American Spurzheim."

Charles Caldwell was born in IN'orth Carolina in the year 1772. lie was a pupil and protege of Dr. Benjamin Rush, the signer; an intimate friend of Jefterson and Madison, and on terms of familiar correspondence with Washington. In 1795, he translated Blumenbacli's " Ele- ments of Physiology." In 1814, he succeeded Nicholas Biddle as editor of the Port Folio^ Philadelphia. He pub- lished a " Life of Nathaniel Greene," ^ in 1819, and in that year took up his residence in Lexington. He went to Europe in 1820 to purchase books and models for the medical school of Transylvania. A voluminous author, he wrote on various subjects ; his printed books comprise 10,000 pages. His writings are chiefly of a scientific character, though he contributed to literature the " Life of Greene," a "Memoir of Dr. Ilolley," and an entertain- ing "Autobiography." From 1837 to his death, in 1853, he lived in Louisville.

The literary department of Transylvania retained the servicea of ex-President Blythe, who, in after years, pre-

» Greene (Nathaniel). Memoirs of the Life and Campaigns of. By Charles Caldwell. Portrait. 8vo. pp. 452. Philadelphia, 1819.

Teachers, Schools, and Colleges. 167

sided over Hanover College, Indiana. R. H. Bishop, who subsequently became president of Miami University, was professor of history at Lexington. He published an " Outline of the History of the Church in Kentucky," in 1824. In the same year Thomas Johnson Matthews, father of Justice Stanley Matthews, was elected professor of mathematics and natural philosophy at Transylvania. He had been a canal surveyor, and in later years taught in Miami University and in Woodward College, now Woodward High School, Cincinnati. A very prominent figure in the Lexington Faculty was Prof. C. S. Rafinesque, who lectured on every thing in general and archaeology and natural history in special. Rafinesque was a Greek, a universal genius, whose very name some of his contem- poraries '' considered synonymous with literature and science," while others, and especially those who afi:ected his line of studies, suspected him of being a humbug and charlatan.

Constantine Samuel Rafinesque, born at Galata, near Constantinople, in 1784, came to America in 1802, returned to Europe in 1805, and, after spending ten years in Sicily, published in French a work called " The Analysis of I^a- ture." Sailing for ITew York, he was shipwrecked on Long Island. He resided a while in I^qw York, support- ing himself by tutoring, but came to Kentucky, in 1818, on invitation of the naturalist, John D. Clifford. He de- scended the Ohio, in an " ark," from Pittsburg, stopping at pleasure to botanize and to study the shells and fishes of the river.

At Henderson, Kentucky, he became acquainted with J. J. Audubon, the American ornithologist. He settled at Lexington in 1819, and remained there about seven years, lecturing in the college on his specialties, and teaching French, Italian and Spanish. During these years he collected materials for a proposed work entitled "• Tel- lus, or the History of the Earth and Mankind," which was never finished. In 1824 he published the "Ancient History of Kentucky," and in 1836, his " Life of Travels and Researches in ^N'orth America and South Europe."

168 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

Rafinesque died in Philadelphia in 1842. It is recorded of him in Collinses " Kentucky," that he claimed to be " a botanist, naturalist, conchologist, geologist, geographer, ethnographer, philologist, historian, antiquarian, poet, philosopher, economist, and philanthropist; also, a trav- eler, merchant, manufacturer, collector, improver, pro- fessor, teacher, surveyor, draughtsman, engineer, author, editor, bookseller, librarian, secretary, and chancellor."

Another professor in Transylvania was Dr. Joseph Buchanan (born 1785, died 1829). He must not be con- founded with his eminent son, Dr. Joseph Rhodes Bu- chanan, who was born in Frankfort, Ky, in 1814, and who was editor of the " Journal of Man " and originator of a system of "Anthropology." Joseph Buchanan was the author of a volume on the " Philosophy of Human Na- ture," published in 1812. He is credited with being the first to introduce into Kentucky the Pestalozzian method of teaching. He edited the Lexington Reporter, the Frankfort Palladium, and the Cincinnati Literary Cadet; and, in 1826, projected the Louisville Focus, which was merged in the Journal of George D. Prentice.

E. D. Mansfield said of Dr. Holley and his associates : "Altogether, a greater array of strength, of brilliant tal- ents and wide reputation, has scarcely ever been collected atone time and in one institution." The fame of Tran- B^ivania went abroad, and numerous visitors, native and foreign, made pilgrimage to Lexington to honor, and to be honored by, the colleges. Governor Barry, President Monroe, and General Jackson were among Dr. HoUey's distinguished guests. The Marquis de Lafayette wended bis triumphal way to Lexington, where he was formally received at the university, in a glowing address by the president. Lord Stanley, Earl of Derby, also journeyed throagh the " blue grass " to interview the professors and study the workings of the wonderful backwoods institu- tion of learning.

The college library was one of the largest and best in the United States. A portion of its classical and miscel- laneous collection was selected by a no less competent

Teachers, Schools, and Colleges. 169

scholar than Edward Everett. The medical books were procured in Europe by Dr. Caldwell. The university pos- sessed an anatomical museum, a cabinet of specimens in natural history, and a botanical garden.

In 1823 a literary society, called the Kentucky Institute, was established at Lexington. The membership was lim- ited to twenty-four, and half of these were college pro- fessors. It was a rule of the society that at least one essay or paper should be read and discussed every week* Some of the themes presented were : " The Manufacture of Pottery Earthenware and China in Kentucky," by Charles Humphreys ; " The Manufactory of Whisky and Gin," by the same ; " The Shawanoe E'ation " and " Geol- ogy of Kentucky," by Prof. Ratinesque ; '' The Peculiar Manners of the Inhabitants of IsTorth Virginia," by Dr. Ilolley ; " The Theory of Language," by Mr. Butler ; '' The Atomic Theory," by Mr. Best ; " The Influence of Climate upon Character," by Dr. Drake ; '' Roads and Schools in the West," by Mr. R. Wicklitfe.

In 1827 Dr. Ilolley resigned, on account of violent ob- jection to his theological views. Dr. Alva Woods, D.D., who had been at the head of Brown University, wa& called to the Kentucky institution, and though he was an able man, the literary department of Transylvania stead- ily declined. The palmy da3'S of the college had already passed. Sectarian differences divided public sentiment* The Presbyterians centered their forces at Danville, where Center College and the Theological School, incorporated in January, 1819, soon rose to prominence. From 1842 ta 1849, Transylvania University was a Methodist College, under the presidency of the influential Rev. Henry Bas- com. In 1849 the state resumed control of the institution ^ which, in 1856, was reorganized with a normal depart- ment, under the charge of Rev. L. W. Green. But the college did not flourish. After a languishing existence of ten years, it was merged into Kentucky University in 1865.

The alumni of old Transylvania are numbered by hun- dreds, and many of them won distinction in public life,.

170 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

and in the professions of law, medicine and journalism. Jefferson Davis was a son of this Lexington " alma mater," having taken his degree in 1824.

Among the prominent graduates may be mentioned Dr. Joseph Buchanan, Dr. Benj. W. Dudley, Wm. T. Barry, Jesse Bledsoe, Richard M. Johnson, Chas. S. Morehead, Thomas F. Marshall, Chas. A. Wicklifte, Richard H. Menifee and John Rowan.

"We linger, with peculiar interest, upon the early history of Transylvania. A Kentucky annalist has truly and im- pressively written that in the first years of its career the college " was often disturbed by the yell of the Indian and the crack of his rifle," and that " troops were almost con- stantly needed for defense, and even the women and chil- dren had to bear their part in defending the settlements against savages. The roll of the drum called many a youth from the quiet of the school-house, and the turbu- lence of the times often forced him to exchange books for rifle and tomahawk."

But the college grew apace, and the town of Lexington led the march of western civilization. When Kentucky became a state, Lexington was made the capital. In the year 1800, when Cincinnati could claim a population of only 750, her southern rival had 2,000.

Writing of Lexington in 1815, Timothy Flint says : " It is not so large and flourishing as Cincinnati, but has an air of leisure and opulence that distinguishes it from the busy bustle and occupation of that town. In the circles where I visited, literature was most commonly the subject of conversation. The window-seats presented the blank covers of the new and most interesting publications. The best modern works had been generally read. * The univer- sity, which has since become so famous, was, even then (1815), taking a higher standard than the other seminaries in the western country. There was generally an air of ease and politeness in the social intercourse of the inhab- itants of this town, which evinced the cultivation of taste and good feeling."

In the Literary Gazette of March, 1824, the editor, John

Teachers, Schools, and Colleges. 171

P. Foote, complainingly wrote : " It is certainly a source of regret that the talents, learning, and enterprise which should have been employed by us, in rearing up our own institutions, should be transferred to a rival town, and thus become a means of rendering the State of Ohio trib- utary to Lexington."

With her polite families, her professors, her Henry Clay,^ her schools, libraries, books and periodicals, Lex- ington was a center of culture. For many years the town outranked Cincinnati even as a mart. A rivalry, social and intellectual, was kept up between the two places. Lexington claimed to be the "Athens of the "West." A traveler, writing of Cincinnati in 1815 says : " Efforts to promote polite literature have already been made in this town. If its only rival, Lexington, be, as she contends, the ^Athens of the West,' this place is struggling to be- come its Corinth." But as years went by, the commercial importance of the Ohio city rapidly increased, and her citizens called her neither "Athens " nor "Corinth," but " Tyre." " Come, pass round the bowl," wrote a Queen City bard in 1823,

" Come, pass round the bowl ; let us drink to the health Of this city, the depot of beauty and wealth ; For we boast, do we not, of our city's success. And hail in full bumpers, ' The Tyre of the West.' "

But Lexington, proud in her classic pre-eminence, de- rided even the mercantile Tyrian claims of her rival, and Cincinnati bided her time. As late as 1827 the " Western Review," issued from the " Tyre of the West," while claiming great glory for its own city, was forced to admit that " Perhaps there is no town in the United States where, among an equal number of people, so many will be found able and disposed to join in a literary conversa- tion as in Lexington. There is, in fact, a rough-shod en- ergy of intellect diffused over all ' Old Kentucky,' which when properly trained will make her as fruitful in litera- ture as she is' now in flour and tobacco."

* Clay, born in Virginia in 1777, came to Kentucky in 1797.

1 Ti! Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

The first wliite people who settled on the north side of the Ohio — the " Indian side," as pioneers called it — formed institutions, social and civil, after the New England model, and strove to impress the stamp of Puritan ideas on fam- ily, school, church, and government. Their preliminary task was to cut trees, provide shelter, kill Indians, and plant seeds. Carlyle, in one of his picturesque letters to Emerson, writes : " How beautiful to think of lean, tough Yankee settlers, tough as gutta-percha, with most occult, unsubduable fire in their belly, steering over the western mountains, to annihilate the jungle, and bring bacon and corn out of it for the posterity of Adam. The pigs in about a year eat up all the rattlesnakes for miles around ; a most judicious function on the part of the pigs. Be- hind comes Jonathan with his all-conquering plowshare — glory to him, too ! "

Jonathan brought all of himself along when he steered over the mountains; brought brain to direct muscle, brought principles with his plow, and while speculation was in his eye it did not render him indifferent to public duty. As Massachusetts began her career with advan- tages not enjoyed in England, so Ohio, the '* Yankee State," or " New England of the West," was organized under circumstances more fortunate than had surrounded the colonists of the East.

The territory north-west of the Ohio was dedicated to liberty without reserve — to complete liberty, civil and re- ligious.

The Ordinance of 1787 was a new mold, in which were cast freer and better institutions than before had been de- vised. Therefore, the people of this region escaped the blighting influence of imported crimes, bigotries, and su- perstitions, that afflicted the inhabitants of the East and the South.

The Ordinance of 1787 places freedom, religion, moral- ity, and knowledge, as the corner-stones of civilization. The third article declares that " religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and to the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of edu-

Teachers, Schools, and Colleges. 173

cation shall forever be encouraged." The constitution of Ohio reiterates : " But religion, morality, and knowledge being essentially necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of instruc- tion shall forever be encouraged by legislative provisions, not inconsistent with the rights of conscience."

Ex-president R. B. Hayes said eloquently, in a speech at the Marietta centennial, in 1888 : " Putnam and his followers were the best educated men the world ever knew. For eight years, from 1775 to 1783, they went to school to George Washington." Manasseh Cutler, the prime promoter of the Ohio Company, though he did not *' go to school to George Washington," was educated by the Revolution, and was also a man learned in books and the art of speech. He was an excellent and exact scholar, and practical teacher. The cause of liberal education lay very near to his heart. To Congress he said, when urging such legislation as would insure the best good to the Ohio Company: " If we venture our all, with our families, in this enterprise, we must know beforehand what kind of foundation we are to build on." In his ser- mon of August 24, 1788, to the settlers at Marietta, he said : " An early attention to the instruction of youth is of the greatest importance to a new settlement. It will lay the foundations for a well regulated society. It is the only way to make subjects conform to its laws and regula- tions from principles of reason and custom rather than fear of punishment."

From the inception of the plan to colonize Ohio. Cutler cherished an enthusiastic idea of founding a noble institu- tion of learning in the new country. His views were dis- seminated by means of a pamphlet, from which the fol- lowing extract is taken : " In the late ordinance of Con- gress for disposing of the western lands as far down as the Scioto, the provision that is made for schools and the en- dowment of an university, looks with a most favorable aspect upon the settlement, and furnishes the presentiment that, by proper attention to the subject of education, un- der these advantages, the field of science may be greatly

174 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

enlarged, and the acquisition of useful knowledge placed upon a more respectable footing here than in any other part of the world. Besides the opportunity of opening a new and unexplored region for the range of natural his- tory, botany, and the medical science, there will be an ad- vantage which no other part of the world can boast, and which probably will never occur again ; that, in order to begin riyht, there will be no ivrong habits to combat, and no inveterate systems to overturn — there is no rubbish to remove before laying the foundations."

Again, the sagacious and indefatigable Cutler, looking forward, with great expectation, to the good of the future, wrote to Samuel Putnam, in July, 1789, saying : " So far as I have had opportunity, I have consulted the charters of public seminaries in Europe and America. Those in our own country are generally the most modern, and the best adapted to the purposes intended ; but none appear to me to accord with a plan so liberal and extensive as I think ought to be the foundation of the constitution of this university." The university here alluded to was that which Cutler proposed, and, in large part, founded, in Ohio — the lirst college north-west of the Ohio river. The name originally suggested for it was the "American Uni- versity." Cutler discussed the subject in these words : "There is a Columbian College, and a Washington Col- lege, etc., already in this country, but no American Col- lege. I hope the name will not be altered."

Such utterances prove that to the practical men who built the first villages and tilled the first farms on the north side of the Ohio, this about education was not a mere flourish of words. Fulfilling to the letter the spirit of the organic law, Congress, granting public lands, en- dowed Ohio University, at Athens, Ohio. Says a historian of the college : " It was the first example in the history of our country of the establishment and endowment of an institution of learning by the direct agency of the general government." The honor of it belongs chiefly to Manas- seh Cutler, and, in the nqxt degree, to Rufus Putnam.

The institution was to be called the American Western

Teachers, Schools, and Colleges. 175

University, but when established by act of the Ohio legis- lature, February 18, 1804, the less ambitious name waS' adopted. The original building, called the academy, a two-story brick house, about twenty-four feet by thirty, built in 1808-9, was for ten years the only edifice belong- ing to the university. The present main building dates from 1817.

The first academic degree bestowed in Ohio was con- ferred by Ohio University, in 1815, upon Thomas Ewing, afterward a distinguished United States senator and mem- ber of the cabinet. Ewing w^as '^ self-made," sold coon- skins to buy books, which he read aloud in the fields, earned money by hiring as a boatman on the Ohio river, labored in the Kanawha salt works, and so climbed the ladder of success. A correspondent from Athens writes me : " The woods around here are full of characteristic stories of him."

Governor Edward Tifiin was the first president of the university board.

Rev. James Irvine, the first president of the college, was succeeded, in 1824, by Rev. Robert G. Wilson, D.D., and he, in 1839, by Rev. Wm. H. McGuffey, LL.D.

Many of the graduates of Ohio University rose to emi- nence in the professions of law or divinity ; but the college is peculiarly distinguished for the large number of noted educators it has sent and is sending forth, annually, from its famous pedagogical department. Among the teachers who were taught at Athens may be mentioned : Dr. Daniel Read (born 1805, died 1878), who at the time of his death was " the oldest college teacher in continuous service in the United States," and whose professional services were enjoyed in turn by four state universities; Dr. Elisha Ballantyne, of Indiana, who devoted fifty years to teach- ing in university and college ; Dr. Lorenzo Dow McCabe, distinguished as clergyman, professor and author; Dr. James M. Safford, the geologist; Hon. Charles Sheldon Smart, school commissioner of Ohio in 1874; and Dr. "Wm. H. Scott, now president of the Ohio State Uni- versity.

176 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

The Ohio Company, in their contract with Congress in 1787, stipulated that two townships of land should be do- nated by the general government for the endowment of a college. The townships of Athens and Alexander were chosen, consisting of 46,000 acres of land.

The Miami Purchase made by John Cleves Symmes, also in the year 1787, provided for the grant of a town- ship of land, by Congress, for the support of an institu- tion of learning in what is now South-western Ohio. TJie land was selected and located in 1803, at Oxford, Butler county. The proposed college, named Miami University, was chartered February 18, 1809. A grammar school was established on the site of the contemplated college in 1818, and the university itself was organized in 1824. Hundreds of ambitious young men, trained at Oxford, went forth carrying the enthusiasm which begets its like, and which kindled a desire for culture in other hundreds toiling on solitary farm or in bustling village. The first commencement was held in 1826, when a class of twelve graduated. Among the distinguished names on the long list of men who were students at old Miami University are those of President Benjamin Harrison, Hon. Robert C. Schenck, Freeman G. Cary, Governor Charles Ander- son, Hon. Samuel S. Galloway, Hon. Wm. M. Corry, Hon. Wm. S. Groesbeck, Hon. Samuel F. Cary, Governor Will- iam Dennison, James G. Birney, Judge Jacob Burnet, Hon. Wm. M. Dickson, Hon. Whitelaw Reid, Dr. David Swing, Hon. John P. Craighead, Hon. Milton Sayler, Hon. C. F. Brown, Hon. D. W. McClung, Hon. Samuel F. Hunt, Hon. John W. Caldwell, Judge W. M. Oliver, Hon. J. J. Faran, Mr. R. W. Steele, and many others who are well known to history.

The iirst president of the college, Robert Hamilton Bishop, D.D., a Presbyterian minister, was born in North Britain in 1777, and came to the United States in 1802. For a time he resided in Kentucky, and was a professor in Transylvania University.. He was made president of Miami University March 30, 1825, and remained at the head of the institution until 1841, when he resigned. Dr.

Teachers, Schools, and Colleges. 177

Bishop was honored and loved hy his many papils from every part of the Ohio Valley. The venerable Barnabas Hobbs, himself a distinguished educator of Indiana, once school commissioner of that great state, pleasantly relates that he, a green, awkward lad, impelled by an unconquer- able desire to see what a college "was like, went to Oxford, with a note of introduction to the president. The doctor was not home, but his amiable wife welcomed the bashful boy to the parlor and also to the dining-table, introducing him to lier "baby," a pretty girl of about fourteen. When Dr. Bishop came in, he received the note of intro- duction with a cheery smile and a sociable "Well, well, well," which at once put the visitor at his ease.

l^ot less able, and perhaps more distinguished than Dr. Bishop, was his son, Prof. R. H. Bishop, who, from 1838 to the date of his death in 1890, was a most eminent teacher in the college which his father's energy made famous. Prof. Bishop was born near Lexington, Ky., August 20, 1815. He came to Oxford in 1824, and gradu- ated in 1831. For about a year he was professor of math- ematics in Hanover College, Indiana. Returning to Ox- ford in 1835, he became proprietor of a book-store and printing office, and carried on business until 1838, in which year he entered the grammar school of Miami Uni- versity as teacher. He was subsequently elected pro- fessor of Latin in the university.

On the twenty-second of March, 1889, Prof. Bishop and his wife celebratad their fiftieth wedding anniversary, re- ceiving the spoken or written congratulations of a host of friends, one of whom was the President of the United States. A gentleman who witnessed the interesting event made the following suggestive notes regarding it: "The anniversary to-day was in the same house where Prof. Bishop's father, then president of Miami, lived. After their wedding, Mr. and Mrs. Bishop went from Oxford to Hamilton by stage, thence to Cincinnati on the canal packet. When they returned to Oxford they entered the same room where they to-day received their guests. A 12

178 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

log fire burned in the grate to-day, as it did then, and the highly polished andirons of fifty years ago smiled to-day upon that same old-fashioned but ever cheerful burning log."

One of the first popular institutions of learning of Cin- cinnati was Lancaster Academy, which was opened Mon- day, March 27, 1815. A«uitable building was constructed on Fourth street, near Walnut, and the school was organ- ized by Mr. Emund Harrison, who had been converted to the " monitorial system " by a pupil of Joseph Lancaster himself, while that unfortunate reformer was sojourning in Philadelphia. Within a fortnight after the opening of the seminary, 420 pupils were admitted. One of these was Wm. D. Gallagher, the poet.

On January 22, 1819, Lancaster Academy was char- tered, with university privileges, under the name of Cin- cinnati College. To the literary department, schools of medicine and law were soon added, with strong faculties, and the college came into rivalry with Transylvania and Miami Universities. But it presently languished, and, in 1825, suspended operations, and the rooms were rented to private teachers. In 1832 an appeal to the public for the, revival of the college was published, signed by Morgan Neville, president of the board, and P. S. Symmes, secre- tary, but without success. The institution, however, was resuscitated in 1835, with Wm. II. McGuftey^ as president.

* "NVilliam Holmes McGuffey, D.D., was born in Pennsylvania in 1800, and In- •lit'd in Virginia, in 1873. He came in childhood to Trumbull county, Ohio, where he lived on a farm. He was educated in Washing- ton Colleges but in 1826, before finishing his course, he was called to Miami University as professor of ancient languages. In 1829 he was li- censed as minister of the Presbyterian Church. In 1832 he was ap- pointed to the chair of mental philosophy. In 1836 he resigned his jwmitldii \n Miami University, and was called to the presidency of Cin- •llege. Three years later he was elected president of Ohio I ju\' iMiy. He resigned in 1843, and returning to Cincinnati, became a profcHHor in Woodward College, but was called from this position, in 1 Hi'), to the chair of moral philosophy in the University of Virginia. A 1 if.- crowded with useful duties, and fragrant with noble results! Not least, but probably greatest of his services to education, was the prepa- ration of the series of school readers that go by his name. These were compiled in the true spirit of an apostle of culture. It is no exaggera- tion to say tliat millions of children have been favorably influenced in

Teachers, Schools, and Colleges. 179

Doctor McGuffey was aided in Cincinnati College by Professors 0. M. Mitchel, Asa Drury, E. D. Mansiield, and others. Lyman Harding^ was principal of the prepara- tory department. . He cheerfully speaks of himself as be- ing the last of the old college faculty *^ above ground." Cincinnati College retains its charter privileges, but its only actual department is the law school, of which Gen- eral Jacob D. Cox is now dean.

When Doctor Cutler projected a great "American Uni- versity " for the I^orth-west, he contemplated the central- ization of educational forces in one commanding institu- tion of learning. But the theory and practice which prevailed in the application of the democratic idea to edu- cation, led to diffusion rather than concentration, and produced many small colleges instead of a few large ones. Ohio is distinguished for the number of her educa- tional foundations. At least eight of her colleges were established within a third of a century from the organiza- tion of the state. Three of these have been mentioned. *' Kenyon College," starting as a theological seminary in 1824, was chartered as a college in 1826. In the latter year " Western Reserve College " was incorporated. A charter was granted to Granville College, now Dennison University, in 1832; to Oberlin, in 1834; and to Marietta College in 1835. A most delightful narrative, entitled *' How the Bishop Built his College in the Woods," re- counting the story of the founding of Kenyon, may be read in " Pencilled Fly -Leaves," ^ a book of essays by the poet John James Piatt, an alumnus of the college.

morals and intellect by the happy literary selections in these books. McGuffey's old "Rhetorical Guide" has led many a youth to the sources of " sweetness and light."

^ Lyman Harding a highly esteemed citizen of Cincinnati, for many years connected with the post-office, was born at Cazenovia, N. Y., in 1815. He graduated from Miami University in 1833. He was for six years superintendent of public schools in Cincinnati. A man of noble aspect, he has a correspondingly noble character, fruitful of good deeds.

2 Pencilled Fly-Leaves. A Book of Essays in Town and Country. "How the Bishop Built his College in the Woods," etc. By John James Piatt. 16mo.

180 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

The planting of educational institutions, once fairly be- gun, went on rapidly in the states formed out of the North-western Territory.

Though Indiana never had a school within her borders until after General Clark, the "Hannibal of the West," conquered the North-west, she was not much behind Ohio in carrying out the provisions of the Ordinance of 1787 in respect to education. The first school in the territory was opened at Vincennes about the year 1793, by M. Rivet, who is described in " The Schools of Indiana" as a polite, liberal-minded missionary, who was driven out of Europe by the French Revolution.

Vincennes University, like its predecessor at Athens^ Ohio, was endowed by a reservation of Congress lands. It was chartered by the territorial legislature of Indiana, September 17, 1807, and located at the old town of Vin- cennes. Wm. Henry Harrison was a member of the board of trustees.

It is not the purpose of this chapter even to outline the history of the numerous colleges that sprung up in the West, mainly under the impulse of denominational zeal. The important work of recording their history has been undertaken by the Bureau of Education. Our object is merely to sketch the beginnings of educational activity in the Ohio Valley, and to suggest what were the motives, means, and methods of the pioneers of letters. The early colleges of Indiana, as Vincennes University, Hanover College, Wabash College ; and those of Illinois, as Shurt- lilf, were not unlike their sister institutions of Kentucky and Ohio. In many instances college buildings were erected in the midst of the wilderness, repeating the his- tory of the Bishop's log college in the Ohio woods. In 1882, the site was selected for Wabash College, Craw- fordsville, Indiana, in the unbroken forest when the ground was covered with snow.

Judge James Hall, in the Western Magazine for A]. Ill, 1884, thus speaks of the rise of Illinois College, w hich may be taken as a representative type : " It is but five or six years," says Judge Hall, " since we attended a

Teachers, Schools, and Colleges. 181

meeting at Jacksonville — then a hamlet of log houses — held in an unfinished building, where the company stood among the carpenter's chips and shavings, and when an institution was organized and called Illinois College. From this small beginning has arisen a valuable institu- tion having a faculty consisting of a president and four other -gentlemen and a list of eighty-two students. Their buildings are commodious and their prospects cheering."

Let it riot be imagined that the curricula of the " fresh water " colleges of the new West were, like the build- ings, of green material from the woods. Dr. Jas. H. Fairchild, president of Oberlin College, says :

" The general course of study in the earlier colleges of Ohio was the same essentially as that found in the colleges of the older states. Yale, Harvard, Dartmouth, and Princeton were the models after which our college took form. It was thought necessary that a student should be able to pass from his college in Ohio to one of the east- ern colleges, entering ad eundem, and this was often ac- complished. The material of the regular curriculum was the Latin and Greek classics, mathematics, involving physics and astronomy, chemistry and a touch of natural science, psychology, ethics, and English literature, with a limited packing of history and other specialties. It was a good solid course, and it may very reasonably be ques- tioned whether any thing better has been discovered in our day."

Common school education, as it is now conceived— that is, primary instruction for the mass of children, was not possible in pioneer days. Even now in states where the public school system has been in operation for half a century, the rural districts are far behind the cities and towns in educational advantages. Almost the only efii- cient schools in the Ohio Valley in the early period of its history were located in centers of thick settlement, in en- terprising villages — capitals and county seats. The pur- pose of the fathers when they chartered universities to be organized in the woods, before the Indians were out of

182 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

sight, seems to have been to afford ambitious youths an opportunity to fit themselves for intellectual leadership ; and to keep alive and spread abroad the desire for learn- ing until secondary and primary schools could be started in every settlement. They were guardians of the sacred fiame. Though the whole people might not at first reap the harvest of education, the fittest young men cQuld go forth and gather the sheaves that the seed should not be lost. Therefore, colleges were projected and academies were founded. In fact, the colleges, or universities as they were ambitiously called, began as preparatory academies, and many of the collegiate institutions of these central states yet retain a preparatory department, which is a sur- vival of the original seminary out of which the college grew. Transylvania Seminary began its existence in 1783, fifteen years before it was chartered as a university. Twenty-seven years after Congress endowed Ohio Uni- versity, that institution first conferred college degrees. Miami University served a probation of nine years as a preparatory school. Cincinnati College was a develop- ment of the Lancastrian Seminary, the first important academy of the Queen City. I have spoken of the or- ganization of academies in Kentucky. The common- wealth of Ohio is known to have had at least two hun- dred academies. Indiana and Illinois were dotted with similar schools. The first half of the centuvy was the golden age of private academies for boys and of " female seminaries."

The Ohio Company carrying out tlie provision of the great ordinance, that ** schools and the means of educa- tion shall be forever encouraged," established schools as soon as first settlers were housed and protected by forts. It is generally admitted that the first school in Ohio was taught at Belpre, by Miss Bathsheba Rouse, in the sum- mer of 1789. A meeting of the agents and directors of the Ohio Company was held at Marietta in April, 1791, in which it was resolved to appropriate $160 to provide instruction for the children of Marietta, Belpre, and Waterford. The first school in Marietta was opened in

Teachers, Schools, and Colleges. 183

1789, at Campus Martius, in a block-house, used also as court-room and church. The lirst teacher, Major Anselm Tupper, was succeeded by Dr. Jabez True. Benjamin Slocumb and Jonathan Baldwin also taught in this ac- commodating place. Muskingum Academy, Marietta, was projected by General Putman 'in 1797, but w^as not opened until 1800. It was used as a place of instruction and of worship.

In the Rainbow Cemetery, seven miles above Marietta, on the west side of the Muskingum, stands a small monu- ment bearing the following inscription :

"MES. SARAH LAKE,

born at bristol, england,

Died at Rainbow, Ohio, April 27, 1796,

Aged 68 years.

Mrs. Lake taught a Sunday School in the Blockhouse at Marietta

from 1791 to 1795, the first school in Ohio and one of the first in the

U.S.

This monument erected by the Sunday School Scholars of Washing- ton Co., O., Oct. 1889."

At Belpre a school was opened in Colonel Battell's block-house, Farmer's Castle, and taught by Daniel Mayo, a Harvard alumnus.

Rufus Putnam wrote to Manasseh Cutler, from Marietta, in 1790 : " There are several academies in the neighboring parts of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Kentucky, where the Latin and Greek are taught, and the Muskingum Academy at Marietta is at present, and, I trust, will always in the future be supplied with a master capable of teaching the languages, and I think it can not be long before Latin schools are established in several other places in the terri- tory." Judge James Hall records in his " Romance of Western History," that the " Classical School " was among the earliest institutions of Virginia and Kentucky, that "in rude huts were men teaching not merely the primer, but expounding the Latin poets, and explaining to future lawyers and legislators and generals the severe truths of moral and mathematical science. Many a student who was preparing himself for the bar or the pulpit, held up

184 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

the lamp to younger aspirants for literary usefulness and honor, in those primitive haunts, while the wolf barked in the surrounding thickets and the Indians were kept at

Cincinnati has cause to honor the schoolmaster. To him she is indebted for much of the best that she is and has.

William Goforth, whom George Washington commis- sioned one of the judges of the Territorial Court of the North-western Territory, came to Columbia [Cincinnati] in January, 1790. He kept a diary, a brief chronicle of pioneer events, from which I quote what has been quoted often : " November 2, 1792. Last Monday night met at my house, to consult on the expediency of founding an academy, Rev. John Smith, Major Gano, Mr. Dunlavy" — afterward judge of the Court of Common Pleas — '^ and myself. Wednesday night, met at Mr. Eeily's school- house " — Mr. Reily, then the teacher, was for many years clerk of Butler Common Pleas and Supreme Court — " to digest matters respecting the academy. The night being bad and but few people attending, postponed until next night, which was Ist of November. Met at Mr. Reily's to appoint a committee."

John Reily's, at Columbia, was the first school-house in Cincinnati, and in the North-western Territory. Reily, a young man of twenty-seven, started a subscription school there June 21, 1790. Symmes and Filson were ex-teachers when they came to the Miami country. Reily was an ex- Boldier, who had fought at Camden, Guilford and Eutaw. He migrated from Pennsylvania to Lexington, Ky., and thence to Columbia. In 1791 Francis Dunlevy, a Vir- ginian, thirty years old, who had also been a revolutionary soldier, and a Kentucky settler, came to Columbia and joined Reily in the work of education, organizing a clas- sical department in the school. Tradition does not tell us what manner of pedagogues this pair of veterans made, or what system of new education they practiced. We are tolerably safe in assuming that they flogged the boys, a mode of punishment that Canon Kingsley considered the

Teachers, Schools, and Colleges. 185

best of all. Be that as it may, the educational firm of Reily & Dunlevy was maintained for about two years, when Reily withdrew, and then Dunlevy carried on the school for some years alone.

IN'ot long did the Columbia school remain without rivals. In 1792 a school was gathered in a log school-house near Fort Washington. A frame school-house was erected in 1795 on the north side of Fourth street, between Walnut and Main, on the ground occupied afterward by the Lan- castrian Seminary.

A Frenchman, Francis Menessier, opened a coflTee-house at the foot of the hill on Main street, in 1799, where he taught the French language and sold liquors and pies.

The following advertisement, copied from the Western Spy, of date October 22, 1799, gives some idea of the state of education in the metropolis of the Ohio Valley at the end of her first decade :

"English School. — The subscriber informs the inhabit- ants of this town that his school is this day removed, and is now next door to Mr. Thomas Williams, skin-dresser, Main Street. Gentlemen who have not subscribed may send their scholars on the same terms as the subscribers, (commencing this day). He also intends to commence an evening school in the same house on the third day of No- vember next, where writing and arithmetic, &c., will be taught four evenings in each week, from 6 to 9 o'clock, during the term of three months. The terms for each scholar will be two dollars, the scholars to find firewood and candles. He also furnishes deeds and indentures, &c., on reasonable terms. James White."

Advertisements in the Spy set forth the superior advan- tages of a rival school in I^ewport, Ky., conducted by Robert Stubbs, Philomath, an English gentleman, who thus announces :

" The subscriber intends opening his academy on Mon- day next at his farm, two miles from the Ohio, opposite

186 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

Cincinnati, Campbell County, Ky., where he will teach English grammar, Latin, Greek, arithmetic — all the most useful and some of the ornamental branches of mathe- matics.

" The situation of his academy is known to be healthy. Good board can be had in the neighborhood.

"Should he be so fortunate as to obtain young gentle- men of genius, united with diligence in their studies, he flatters himself, from his long approved and successful habits of teaching, not only in England, but during many years in America, that he will gratify the most ardent ex- pectations of those who may honor him with the tuition of their sons. He will have an assistant teacher for the lower forms, so that his time will be almost wholly occu- pied amongst the students of the higher classes, who are to have a separate apartment to themselves.

" Should any feel inclined, he will also teach the use of the globes, at stated periods in Cincinnati. His terms may be known by application to Robert Stubbs."

"The following gentlemen are trustees to the above- mentioned academy, viz : Washington Berry, Charles Morgan, John Grant, Thomas Kennedy, Thomas Sanford, Thomas Carneal, Richard Southgate, Daniel Mayo, Robert Stubbs, James Taylor and Bernard Stuart, who will pay strict attention to the regulations and management of the same. Washington Berry, Chairman''

In 1804, the following appeared in one of the Cincin- papers :

"Notice. — The public in general, and my former sub- scribers in particular, are respectfully informed that I pur- pose to commence school again on the 1st day of January, 1805. I shall teach reading, writing, arithmetic and En- glish grammar, indiscriminately, for two dollars per quar- ter. The strictest care will be given to the school, as my circumstances will then admit of my constant presence with the school. Those who place confidence in my abil-

Teachers^ Schools, and Colleges. 187

ities and fidelity may be assured that both will be employed to please the parents who shall commit, and benefit the children who shall be committed to my care.

"Ezra Spencer."

Dr. Drake, in his " Picture of Cincinnati," records the brief history of a school association formed in 1806, and incorporated in 1807, under the name of Cincinnati Uni- versity. "Its endowments," wrote the Doctor, "were not exactly correspondent to its elevated title, consisting of only moderate contributions, and an application was made to the legislature for permission to raise money by a lot- tery, which was granted. A scheme was formed and a great part of the tickets sold. They have, however, not been drawn, and but little of the money which they brought refunded. On Sunday, May 28, 1809, the school-house erected by the corporation was blown down, since which it has become extinct." Drake tells us that in the year 1811 " ten or twelve individuals purchased a small lot, erected a couple of school-houses, and employed two or three teachers. But notwithstanding their laudable ex- ertions this academy has not flourished."

Had the people waited to build college and academy walls before entering upon the work of educating their youth, an ignorant generation would have grown up in the Valley of the Ohio. They did not wait. They made tentative provision for schooling youth. ;N"ot in every new settlement was a school-house built as in Lexington, nor a John McKinney found in the woods ready to kill the wild-cats and tame the wild children. The seat of instruc- tion was frequently a room within a block-house, ^ot seldom the pioneer place of worship served also as a school- room, especially in the neighborhoods settled by new En- gland families. Cabins originally occupied as places of residence, when abandoned by their owner for better homes, were often made over to the public for the accom- modation of the school-keeper and the school he kept* Any hut or hovel was considered available for educational purposes. Dr. Daniel Drake, a distinguished pioneer, tells

188 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

U8 that he went to school in a Kentucky still-house. Rev. John Mason Peck, writing of the hardships of frontier life in Southern Illinois, in early days, says : " The oppor- tunity for these Illinois pioneers to educate their children was extremely small. If the mother could read, while the father was in the corn-field, or with his rifle upon the range, she would barricade the door to keep off the In- dians, gather her little ones around her, and, by the light that came in from the crevices in the roof and sides of the cabin, she would teach them the rudiments of spelling from the fragments of some old book. Even after schools were taught, the price of a rough and antiquated copy of Dillworth's Spelling Book was one dollar, and the dollar equal to live now."

Timothy Flint, describing the !N'orth Carolina school- house in which Daniel Boone learned his letters, says it *' stood as a fair sample of thousands of west country school-houses of the year 1834. It was of logs, after the usual fashion of the time and place. In dimensions, it was spacious and convenient. The chimney was peculiarly ample, occupying one entire side of the building, which was an exact square. Of course, a log as long as the building could be ^ snaked ' to the fire-place, and a file of boys could stand in front of the fire on a footing of the most democratic equality. Sections of logs cut out here and there admitted light and air instead of windows. The surrounding forest furnished ample supplies of fuel. A spring at hand, furnished with various gourds, quenched the frequent thirst of the pupils. A ponderous puncheon door, swinging on substantial wooden hinges, and shutting with a wooden latch, completed the appendages of this primeval seminary."

It appears that the frequent " thirst " of the Irish mas- ter of this school was not quenched from a gourd dipped into the spring, but from a bottle of whisky which the bibulous Hibernian kept hidden under a mat of vines in the greenwood.

The picture of the Boone school-house is matched by that of the log-iabin on the Virginia "slashes," in which

Teachers, Schools, and Colleges. 189

Henry Clay was taught the rudiments by an English school-master, who/says Carl Schurz, "passed under the name of Peter Deacon — a man of uncertain past, and somewhat given to hard drinking."

Lincoln, writing his experience as a boy, said of Perry county, Indiana : " It was a w^ild region with many bears and other wild animals still in the woods. There were some schools, so-called, but no qualification was ever re- quired of a teacher beyond ' readin', writin', and cypherin^ to the Rule of Three.' If a straggler, supposed to un- derstand Latin, happened to sojourn in the neighborhood, he w^as looked upon as a wizard. There was absolutely nothing to excite ambition for education."

Those famihar with the history of education in Ohio, will recall Jeremiah ]N^. Reynold's description of the school- house in which his preceptor, Francis Glass, author of the Life of "Washington, in Latin, expended enthusiasm and erudition upon a mob of Buckeye urchins. " The school- house now rises fresh on my memory," wrote Mr. Rey- nolds. " The building was a low log-cabin, with a clap- board roof, but indifferently lighted — all the light of heaven found in this cabin came in through apertures made on each side of the logs, and these were covered with oiled paper, to keep out the cold air, while they ad- mitted the dim rays. The seats or benches were of hewn timber, resting on upright posts placed in the ground to keep them from being overturned by mischievous lads who sat on them. In the center was a large stove, be- tween which and the back part of the building stood a small desk, without lock or key, made of rough plank over which a plane had never passed, and behind this desk sat Professor Glass when I entered his school. There might have been forty scholars present; twenty-five of these were engaged in spelling, reading, and writing ; a few in arithmetic ; a small class in English grammar ; and a half dozen, like myself, had joined the school for in- struction in Greek and Latin."

The evolution of the modern highly " differentiated," and often palatial school edifice, from its humble proto-

190 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

type of pioneer days, is wonderful. The low-eaved, " chinked," and " mud-daubed " hut, with clap-board roof, stick chimney, greased paper window, latch-stringed door, with no floor but the natural clay of the earth, was cer- tainly as primitive as can be conceived. Such a school- house stood in Zaiiesville, Ohio, in 1805, containing within it a large stump which served admirably for a "dunce- block." On one occasion, Mr. Samuel Herrick, a teacher in this educational institution, was foiled in his attempt to flog an incorrigible boy, who, weasel-like, resorted to the expedient of crawling under the lower log in the cabin and escaping into the free forest. The lirst developed form of school architecture gave place to an improved structure of hewn logs, with puncheon floor, stone chim- ney, and some attempt at clumsy furniture. This type of school-house is not yet extinct in Ohio. A few specimens of the pioneer pinfold for pupils may still be seen, though 1 am not aware that any log-cabin is now used in the state for school purposes. As one views the tumbled ruins of such a relic of the past, he is reminded of the Anglo- Saxon word for school-master, namely, " child-herd." Our fathers and mothers were herded and sheltered in wooden pens, but they were often fed on the bread of life.

James K. Parker, an honored educator, now past three score and ten, but still teaching in Clermont county, Ohio, graphi< ;ill\ described in a private letter the log school- houses in which he began his studies. " The first two were built of round logs, chinked with blocks of wood, and daubed with clay mortar. The roofs were of split clap-boards, weighted down with small logs. The third I helped to build. It was of hewn logs chinked with stone, an«l more neatly daubed with clay. The chimney was built of stone laid in lime and sand mortar. The others were what was known as " cat and clay chimneys." The floor was of boards ; many were of puncheon — i. e., split ami Ih uii. Ouf seats were long benches made of slabs, with long pegs for legs. Our writing-desks were long, broad boards, resting on long pegs inserted in the

Teachers, Schools, and Colleges. 191

log walls. The next log above this shelf was either left out in the building, or sawed out afterward. In this long space was inserted sash, one light wide, filled either with glass or oiled paper. The writing seats were usually so high that our feet did not touch the floor. There were no such things as supports for the back. Our ink was mostly home made — from oak-bark ooze and copperas. Our pens were all made from goose-quills, and our paper unruled ; each pupil ruled for himself, with a plummet made of common metallic lead. Copies were all set by hand. I never saw ruled paper until I had been a teacher several years, nor a letter envelope until this academy (The Clermont) was eight years old. My first steel pen cost me 25 cents. My first box of lucifer matches (100), while I was at South Hanover College, cost 18} cents — postage on a letter from home the same price."

Many of the backwoods teachers were Irish, others Scotch, others English. Often they were adventurers, adrift upon the world — fair scholars it might be, but worthless men — impecunious, and addicted to the pipe and the bottle, like Boone's preceptor, and Henry Clay's. The drinking habit appears to have been a pedagogical qualifi- cation exceedingly prevalent. An old gentleman in Ye- vay, Indiana, told me that it was not uncommon, in the days of his boyhood, for a school-teacher to manifest his goodwill toward the big boys by freely ofiTering them the use of pipes and tobacco, and also the refreshment of an occasional draught from his whisky jug. E. D. Mansfield records that one of his teachers made the school half tipsy with cherry-bounce. So, we see, time has changed public sentiment on the question of nicotine and alcohol. I imagine that such jolly pedagogues as Master Halfpenny and Peter Deacon thought little on the subject of " tem- perance physiology."

In the course of time, foreign teachers lost popularity, or rather they were ousted by the pervasive Yankee school- master, who asserted himself in the western wilderness, claiming almost a monopoly of the business, and giving

192 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

to the "people's colleges," a decidedly New England character.

The method of " getting up " a school in the period pre- ceding the mode by taxation and the appropriation of pub- lic funds, was this: The applicant for a school would draw an article of agreement, stating what branches he was able to teach, and for what rate of compensation. This paper was passed around from house to house for signatures, and subscriptions payable partly in money and partly in " pro- duce." The tuition of the children of the poor was paid customarily by public-spirited individuals of comfortable fortune. The school terms were usually short, from ten to fifteen weeks of six days each ; but the daily sessions were very long, extending over eight and even ten hours.

I scarcely need allude to the custom of "boarding round," which prevailed long before and long after the memorable days of Ichabod Crane. It was a custom that came from the East. It had this advantage, that it en- abled the teacher to become well acquainted with his patrons, and them with him.

In the work of the school-room, not much system was used in management or method in instruction. The pupils brought to the school such books as they could obtain, or no books at all. A county judge in Warsaw, Kentucky, told me that his father learned the alphabet from a shingle upon which the letters were scrawled with charcoal. I find no reference to the use of the horn-book in the Ohio Valley. The slate susperseded that ancient device. Class- ification and grading were next to impossible ; the schol- ars studied in their own way, with irregular and incidental help from the teacher. There were as many classes in a subject as there were pupils studying it. Ambitious farmer boys, " ciphering arithmetic," ran races to see who should first get through old " Pike." An odd miscellany of dog's- erred volumes came from cabin closets to furnish reading text. Happy he who possessed a copy of the English Reader, or the Columbian Orator. Wanting these, he must put up with -^sop's Fables, or Gullivers Travels, or a Dream Book, or even a torn Almanac. The Bible

Teachers, Schools, and Colleges. 193

was in general use as a reading book, and numerous are the stories told of ludicrous blunders made by blockheads in pronouncing hard scripture words. At an uncertain hour, all hands engaged in scribbling copies which the master had " set " in advance, beginning with " pot-hooks," and endinsf with moral sentences in " round hand." With pen-knife sharpened to the keenest edge, the master skill- fully fashioned into pens the goose-quills brought to his desk. But the culminating exercise was the spelling- match, which usually closed the duties of the day. The scholars, ranged in order along the walls, spelled or " missed " the words pronounced with syllabic precision by the master who stood with ferule in one hand, and Dillworth's Spelling Book in the other^ like the genius of education holding up the emblems of power and knowl- edge. The spelling school at early candle lighting, that nocturnal annex to the social and scholastic day, is em- balmed in Eggleston's story of the " Hoosier School- master."

The three E's — " readin', 'ritin', 'rithmetic," the trivium of a log-cabin course of study, are rudimental — basilar — essential. Where demand existed or was created for other branches, they were added, and manuals of information were forthcoming. In 1784, Jedediah Morse had prepared a text-book on Geography for the schools of ^^Tew Haven. This was issued from a Boston press in 1789, and by the year 1811, it had passed through sixteen editions, and was in use in all the states. Lindley Murray's English Gram- mar held the field as a popular text-book until about 1830. The author was born in 1745 and died in 1826. Supply is ever swift to form the acquaintance demand, and competion is never long idle. Dillworth'« field was soon invaded by Webster and Walker. Authors and compilers in Boston, Philadelphia, and !N"ew York, put themselves to the task of supplying a " long-felt want," by preparing series upon series for the use of schools, and soon rival authors and publishers appeared in the West, in Lexing- ton, Cincinnati, and elsewhere. In 1795, John Wood, of 13

194 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

New York, published the " Mentor, or American Teach- er*8 Assistant." Dillworth's "Schoolmaster's Assistant" was of earlier origin. In 1811 was issued, in Philadelphia, William Duane's " Epitome of the Arts and Sciences, be- ing a Comprehensive System of the Elementary Parts of a Useful and Polite Education ;" Albert Picket's series of "American School Class Books," including works on spelling, reading, grammar, geography, and writing, came out early in the century, published by D. D. Smith, l^ew York. " Gummere's Surveying," and James Ross's Latin Grammar, popular guides in their day, were not published until the year 1814.

The school books which I have just named or alluded to, and others from the Atlantic States, were used in the schools of the Ohio Valley, and stray copies of them may be found in old libraries and second-hand book-stores. They are now dead leaves, fallen from the deciduous tree of educational literature.

The history of school book authorship and publication in the Ohio Valley would furnish material for a long chapter. The local bibliographer discovers some curious instances of learned labor by backwoods scholars. The now rare Life of Washington, "Washingionii Vita," in Latin, by Francis Glass, was submitted in manuscript to the faculties of Ohio University and of Cincinnati College for criticism, in 1824. In the same year, the erudite Dr. Martin Uuter published, in Cincinnati, a "Hebrew Gram- mar" of ninety-six pages, a surprising fact, when we con- sider that the " Sacred Language " was not at that time taught in the West. One of the first books composed and published in the Ohio Valley was an elaborate " His- tory of Literature," by Watkins Tannehill (1787-1858), of Tennessee. Tannehill edited a literary paper called The Orthopolitan, in Nashville. As long ago as 1829, James Ruggles, of Cincinnati, published an original work on «* Universal Language "—the " Volapuk" of the day.

Among the early publishers of school-books in Cincin- nati were W. M. k 0. Farnsworth, who, in six months, in the years 1826-7, issued 9,000 spelling books, 7,000 Mur-

Teachers, Schools, and Colleges. 195

ray's Introduction and English Readers, 600 English Gram- mars, 2,000 Arithmetics, 15,000 Primers, and 60,000 Alma- nacs. N. & G. Guilford also published school books. So did Morgan, Lodge & Fisher, and others. The newspaper offices long continued to be places of book publishing. Of early western text-books popular in their day, mention may be made of Ruter's Arithmetic, Locke's Grammar, and particularly, Kirkham's Grammar, a little book widely known and valued by our fathers. Lincoln learned gram- mar from Kirkham's book.

There lies before me as I write the conclusion of this chapter, a copy of " Dillworth's Schoolmaster's Assistant," almost a hundred years old. The frontispiece is a fright- ful wood-cut of the venerated Dillworth himself — frightful and grim. On one of the fly-leaves is written, in a sprawl- ing hand, the inscription, " Martin Augspwiger, his assist- ant, Williamsburg, Virginia." What manner of man, what style of school-master was Martin? And how did " his assistant " find its way from Williamsburg to Cin- cinnati? Martin Augspwiger's queer name, perchance, exists only on a tombstone and on this dingy fly-leaf of old Dillworth's fossil book. But the names and the volume and its migration from Virginia to Ohio tell a suggestive story to him who has the fancy to repeople the past, and to reconstruct pioneer schools around a visible fragment of things that were.

The pioneer schools were the best that pioneer circum- stances would allow. They gave boys and girls a start in life. The children learned in order to read, write, and cypher in practical ways. Harsh, crude,. direct, were the instruction and the discipline. Among the branches not neglected by the teacher nor forgotten by the pupil were birch and hickory. The metaphor was, "give hickory oil." Flogging was a specific in well-nigh universal use both as cure and preventive. Our good fathers had to "toe the mark." But sometimes they got even with a despotic master by " barring him out " on Christmas, or smoking him in with burning sulphur, if he would not

196 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

come out, or even by ducking him in a pond, or such-like playful familiarity.

But, a hundred years ago, as now, and as will be a hun- dred years hence, the good teacher made a good school. There are always difficulties to overcome. Relatively, our ancestors did as well as we are doing now. Cadmus finds a dragon in his way, but Cadmus conquers, and founds his city, and dispenses arts and letters and laws.

Voice of the Preacher and Clash of Creeds. 197

CHAPTER YI.

THE VOICE OF THE PREACHER AND THE CLASH OF CREEDS.

" My Church ! my Church ! my dear old Church ! My fathers' and my own ! On Prophets and Apostles built,

And Christ the corner-stone ! All else beside, by storm or tide

May yet be overthrown ; But not my Church, my dear old Church, My fathers' and my own !"

— Gerberding.

The voice of the preacher was heard in the western for- est before political eloquence could command a hearing. As long ago as 1749, the French, taking possession of the Yalley of the Ohio, planted the emblem of the Holy Cath- olic Church at many points, and the Jesuit priests scat- tered among their Indian converts numerous little silver crosses, specimens of which have often been found.

The French who founded missions in Southern Illinois in 1682, and in Indiana about twenty years later, were all Roman Catholic. A mission was established at Yin- cennes by Father Sebastian Meurin, perhaps in the year 1700. Henry S. Canthorn, in the Catholic Record, Indian- apolis, says : " The first building erected for St. Francis Xavier's church was constructed of timbers set on end, and the interstices filled with adobe. It was built under the direction of the unknown Jesuit father who accompanied de Vincenne, when he came to build the fort in 1702. It was built before the fort, and many Indian converts as- sisted. It had a dirt floor, benches for seats and a very rude and plain altar. It had no windows, and no lights other than those upon the altar. The door was in the

198 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

north-west end, and faced the fort and river. The first church was located upon the site of the present cathedral." After the organization of the territory north-west of the Ohio river, and the introduction of courts, it appears that the new laws interfered somewhat with the customs of the Church. Mr. Dunn, in his history of Indiana, says that "Judge Symmes was considered a particularly dangerous heretic hy the French settlers, because, in a charge to a grand jury in Wayne county, he had tried to persuade these Catholics that their payment of tithes and devotion of so much time to worship were neither enjoined by Scripture nor conducive to temporal welfare."

The Moravian missionaries, Heckewelder, Zeisberger, Sensemann, Edwards, Jung and Jungmann, had pro- claimed the Gospel to the savages in the valley of the Muskingum for a number of years before the English came to Marietta.

The Moravian or " United Brethren " missionaries were, indeed, the first white people who established settle- ments within the limits of Ohio,^ and Rufus King calls them the " Pilgrims of Ohio." As early as the year 1772, they founded on the Tuscarawas river their rude villages, one of which was piously named Gnadenhutten, the tents or huts of grace. Like the Quakers in Pennsyl- vania, the Moravians were kind to the Indians, and like the Jesuits, they strove to propagate Christianity. The ruthless destruction of their settlements by American soldiers is a blot on our history, but their self-sacrifice^ even to death, illustrates the devotion to duty which is symbolized by the cross.

Rev. John Heckewelder was born at Bedford, England, in 1743; he came to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in 1756, and began missionary labors among the Indians in 1762. He was the founder of Salem on the Tuscarawas. Dur- ing nineteen years he was a fellow worker with Zeis- berger. Heckewelder died in 1823. He may be classed among the literary pioneers of the Ohio Valley, for his

* Some EDgliflh traders had a store at PkkawiUany, on the Big Miami, near Piqua, in 1752; but thin can hardly ho considered a settlement.

Voice of the Preachei^ and Clash of Creeds, 199

writings are of considerable importance. Dr. Wistar, of Philadelphia, induced him to publish, in 1819, his first work, "An Account of the History, Manners, and Cus- toms of the Indian Nations who once inhabited Pennsyl- vania and the neighboring States." But his most im- portant publication is, ''A J^arrative of the Mission of the United Brethren among the Delaware and Mohegan In- dians from 1740 to 1808, interspersed with Anecdotes, His- torical Facts, Speeches of Indians, etc." This appeared in 1820.

Rev. David Zeisberger was born in Moravia in 1721, and he died in Ohio in 1808. Perhaps he may be considered chief of the Moravian Evangelists. " The Diary of David Zeisberger," ^ presented to the Ohio Historical Society by Judge Ebenezer Lane, was translated, in 1885, by Eugene F. Bliss. It comprises two exceedingly interesting vol- umes, which, as the translator remarks, are as interesting from a psychological as a historical point of view. Mr. Bliss says : " The action of white men upon Indians, Christians upon heathen, the civilized upon savages, can well be studied in these pages. Here and there can be ob- served the re-action of the Indian upon the white."

I have found mention of Rev. David Jones, a Baptist missionary from New Jersey, who traveled in Ohio, in 1772 or 1773, and preached to the Indians. But, perhaps, the first Protestant preacher who ministered to a white congregation in the Ohio Yalley was the Rev. John Lythe, of the Episcopal church, who, in the year 1775, conducted divine service in the shade of a majestic elm tree at Boonesborough, Kentucky. It was in the event- ful year 1776 that the Rev. William Hickman, Sr., began to travel from station to station in the wilderness of Ken- tucky preaching to the settlers. He was a Baptist, the advance herald of a sect which has always outnumbered any other denomination in Kentucky. A principal reason why the Baptists came to the new state in large numbers

^ The Diary of David Zeisberger, Moravian Missionary among the In- dians of Ohio during the years 1781 to 1798. Translated from the Original Manuscript in German by Eugene F. Bliss. 2 vols. 8vo.

200 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

soon after the Revolution was, that they found in the West that freedom from religious persecution which even the law could not secure them in Virginia owing to the prejudices of the established church. We are told that " in 1780, Lewis Craig, one of the valiant champions of the dissenting cause, who was carried, singing, to prison in Fredericksburg, led the most of his church from Spott- sylvania county, Virginia, to Gilbert's creek, in Garrard county, where a church was organized in the following year." Other Baptist congregations followed the leading of Craig; and thus the denomination was securely planted in the new country at a very early day. The blue-grass region received from the older states many immigrants holding Calvinistic creeds, the Rev. David Rice, a Presby- terian minister, being one of the first famous leaders of his sect. He began his sacred duties in Kentucky in the year 1783. The Roman Catholic church also gained a foothold in the state at about the same period, its founders being emigrants from Maryland. Interesting particulars, in regard to the planting of religious denom- inations in the South-west, may be found in Spencer's History of the Baptist Church in Kentucky, Davidson's History of the Presbyterian Church in Kentucky, and Webb's Centenary History of Catholicity in Kentucky.

When we take up the story of how the church and the school were founded at Marietta, we seem to be reading some familiar history of a Puritan village in New En- gland. The colonists who accompanied General Putnam to Ohio in 1788 were Presbyterians, and religious service was never neglected by them. Rev. Manasseh Cutler,^ a director in the Ohio Company, and its chief founder, was a believer in " preachers and schoolmasters," and he made provieion for bringing both to the Muskingum settlement. Nathaniel Rogers, a graduate of Harvard, came to Mari- etta in May, 1788, expecting to teach ; but he returned to Massachusetts the same year. The Rev. William Breck

' Manasseh Cutler, LL.D. Life, Journal, and Correspondence of. By his Grandchildren, William P. Cutler and Julia P. Cutler. Portraits, etc. 2 vols. 8vo. Cincinnati.

Voice of the Preacher and Clash of Creeds. 201

is accredited with having preached the first sermon deliv- ered in Ohio to white people. This was at Marietta, in July, 1788. Probably the second sermon preached at Ma- rietta was a discourse by Dr. Cutler himself, w4io addressed the settlers assembled on the Campus Marti as, on Sunday, August 24, 1788, some four months and a half after the landing of the Ohio Mayflower. Dr. Cutler, though he preserved a Puritan antipathy toward Jews and " infidels," was in spirit and practice a very liberal Christian. In his Marietta discourse, he proclaimed that the " sum total " of the Gospel is " comprehended in love to God and man." He further declared, " We ought to allow others the same right of private judgment which we assume to ourselves." He added : " There are doubtless persons already here, who may be of difterent sentiments and difterent denom- inations. As the settlement advances they will enjoy the privilege, to ^vhich they are clearly entitled, of forming societies of their own persuasion. . . . Whatever you may hear which does not correspond with your own opin- ion, you are not obliged to receive as truth ; perhaps, how- ever, it may not be amiss to give it a candid examination, if nothing more ; it may extend your acquaintance with the principles and faith of others, and you will set an ex- ample that may have a most happy effect in our present state." This tolerant attitude toward dissenting views characterizes the generous and enlightened mind, and is in contrast with the spirit ascribed to some of the preachers in the South by a recent history of Kentucky, which asserts that the early preachers of that state were generally *' illiter- ate men," whose '' crude logic and vigorous declamation met with great acceptation in a society where . . . relig- ion meant the 'belonging' to some church, the earnest opposition to peculiar tenets of other sects, and the ab- staining from certain capital violations of the law-and- order sentiment of the community." This conception of religion was not confined to one locality, nor has it yet quite disappeared from the minds of sectaries.

The first regular minister or chaplain of the Marietta colony was Kev. Daniel Story, a tall, slender young man

202 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

from Dartmouth College, who came west late in 1789, on the agreement that he was to receive his board and four silver dollars a week for his professional services. Story went back to Massachusetts, but in 1798 returned to Ohio, having been ordained as the first regular Congregational minister west of the Allegheny mountains. The charge of the ordination was delivered by Dr. Cutler, at Hamil- ton, Mass., August 15, 1798. Story continued pastor of the church until March 15, 1804, when he resigned on ac- count of ill health. He died at Marietta, December 30, 1804, aged forty-nine years. There is a traditional homely comment current in old days, to the efiect that Daniel Story " was like a cow that gave a good pail of milk and then kicked it over," the explanation of which simile is that he began his sermons with Arminian liberality of promise of salvation to all, but closed them with se- verely Calvinistic limitations.

Mr. Story preached once a month at Belpre, going to and from his appointment in a canoe. Service was con- ducted every Sunday at Belpre, after the old Puritan fash- ion, some layman reading a sermon aloud when no clergy- man could be had. The services were held at the military quarters. Farmer's Castle. Sometimes the prayers were read according to the Episcopal form, but, as there were very few prayer books to be had, the ritual was followed with difficulty, and it is related that a certain bluff* revo- lutionary soldier, who acted as chaplain, used to give, at proper times, with "military promptness and sternness, the orders, " Read !" " Kneel !" " Rise !"

The congregation came together at the summons of a loud drum. This was at a date when the pillory, the stocks, and the whipping-post still maintained their places as instrumentalities of justice and adjuncts to religion. They came to Marietta and Cincinnati with the early im- migrants.

The first cliurch edifice in Marietta, 2k building planned by Samuel Putnam in 1807, is still standing, and is the regular place of worship for a Congregational society. It is known as the " two-horued " meeting-house, from the

Voice of the Preacher and Clash of Creeds. 203

pair of cupolas which arise, one from each corner of the end fronting the street. Many a celebrated preacher has officiated in its pulpit within the century, and many a famous lecturer has delivered his message from its high desk. The graduating classes of Marietta College have held their commencement exercises there annually for more than fifty years. Altogether, the old "two-horned" meeting-house is one of the most interesting historical buildings in the Ohio Valley. It is a permanent link uniting ^ew England to Ohio.

Land grants issued in July, 1787, for educational pur- poses in the North-west, provided that " Lot No. 29, in each township or fractional part of township, be given perpetually for the purposes of religion." This favor was confined to the Ohio Company and to the Symmes Pur- chase.

The first settlers of the Miami country were not less zealous in religious observances than were the colonists of the Muskingum, though they organized a church of different denomination to begin with. When, on the morning of November 18, 1788, the adventurous party of twenty-six, led by Major Stites, landed, about sunrise, at Columbia, the first thing they did, after making fast their boat, was to sing a hymn of praise and to fall upon their knees and offer thanks to God. The Baptists of Colum- bia organized a church in January, 1790 — the first church society in the state, it is claimed, and Rev. Stephen Gano was chosen pastor.

Memorial exercises celebrating the centennial of the first church erected in Cincinnati were held in the First Pres- byterian Church, on Fourth street, October 14, 1890. On that occasion the Rev. F. C. Monfort, D.D., read a his- torical sketch to which I am indebted for particulars in regard to the founding of the first Presbyterian society and church edifice.

Religious services were held during the Summer of 1789, by the Presbyterians of Losantiville, in the shade of forest trees, or in the settler's cabins, or, sometimes, in a mill on Vine street below third. In October, 1790, Rev. David

204 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

Rice, mentioned on a preceding page as one of the fathers of Presbyterian ism in Kentucky, came to Cincinnati and organized a church, of which Rev. James Kemper, then a theological student at Transylvania, was installed pas- tor a year later. Subscriptions were taken to defray the expenses of building a church, and the edifice was begun early in 1792. Dr. Monfort says :

" The building was of frame, 30 x 40 feet. It was oc- cupied in the fall both as a church and court-room. Presbytery met in it October 21, 1792. It was not plas- tered until 1794, when another subscription paper was passed round. Judge Burnet, in his ' Sketches of the West,' thus describes it : * It was inclosed with clapboards, but neither lathed, plastered, nor ceiled. The floor was of boat plank laid loosely on sleepers. The seats were of the same material supported on blocks of wood. There was a breastwork of unplained cherry boards, called the pulpit, behind which the clergyman stood on a piece of boat-plank resting on blocks of wood.' "

** Mr. Kemper's pastorate closed in 1796. The church under his ministration had prospered. He was an earn- est preacher and a fearless man. The journey from Cin- cinnati to Columbia, which he made every other Sabbath for several years, was one of danger. The woods w^ere full of Indians, and it was a time of war. He was the man for the time and place, and his name stands as the pioneer minister of this whole region. True, the Rev. David Rice preceded him, having preached a few weeks earlier, but he came to stay. He was the first installed pastor of any denomination north-west of the Ohio. He was a factor in the history of most of the early churches of the Miami Valley.

** The closing years of the century were a time of trial to the church in Cincinati. Peace had been established with the Indians, and this meant the scattering to farms and small villages. The church felt the loss of many who had been her support. Her loss, however, was the gain of the religion throughout a large section, for churches sprang

Voice of the Preacher and Clash of Creeds, 205

up, many churches were organized, and a revival spirit prevailed. Unfortunately this was marked by excesses which led to strife and weakness.

" In 1797 Rev. Peter Wilson took charge of the church. Little is known of him. He was not installed and died after a brief service. He was followed by Rev. Matthew G. "Wallace, a man of much ability, who remained part of the time as pastor and part as stated supply about four years. From 1804, the close of Mr. Wallace's labors, un- til 1808, was a time of controversy and danger. The New Light doctrines and methods w^ere in the ascendant throughout the Miami country. Three ministers, Rev. John Dunlevy, Richard Mc^N'ernan, and John Thompson, had seceded from Presbytery and been successful in lead- ing off or dividing their churches.

" The church in Cincinnati was seriously affected. In- deed it is on record that for allowing Xew Light preach- ers to preach their doctrines in its pulpit, it was refused representation in Presbytery. During this period Rev. Peter Davis and Rev. John Davies supplied the church each for a short time, the former dying before the time for which he was employed had expired."

On May 28, 1808, the " pulpit giant," Rev. Joshua L. Wilson, from Bardstown, Kentucky, was installed as pas- tor of the Cincinnati church, in which he continued to preach until the year of his death, 1846. He was succeeded by his son. Rev. S. R. Wilson, who held the pastorate un- til 1861. The Wilsons, father and son, ministered during a period of fifty-three years.

The first quarter of the present century witnessed a general religious activity, and the establishment of numer- ous sects.

Representatives of every old creed and propagandists of every new ism went about in the new country proclaim- ing what they held to be true, and denouncing what they held to be false, with a freedom of speech adapted to the unfenced fields and waving forests of the West. Jews, Catholics, Protestants, and agnostics alike sought freedom to worship or not to worship in the new country, and took

206 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

passage on the river craft at Pittsburg for Kentucky, or Ohio, or Indiana, or Illinois. Such churches as did not choose to take the field as aggressively " militant," were obliged at least to stand warlike in their own defense. Not always were the battles of theology between armies of different flags — civil wars arose, dissentions and bitter feuds within the borders of a camp professedly standing for the same tenets and forms. The Presbyterian Church, of Lexington, Kentucky, was rent in twain by a dispute on psalmody.

Charges of " infidelity " were rife, and heresy was spotted every-where. In 1823, Thomas T. Skillman, of Lexington, started the " Western Luminary," a religious periodical intended to " counteract the influence of in- fidelity." In 1824, Dr. Charles Caldwell, of Transylvania University, felt called upon to issue a "Defense of the Medical Profession against the Charge of Infidelity and Irreligion." The " Pandect," a religious periodical pub- lished by Rev. Joshua Wilson, of Cincinnati, without per- sonal rancor, charged Kev. Timothy Flint with skepticism. Flint, with dry sarcasm, questions the sincerity of some who profess extreme orthodoxy, and he gets oft* a sly joke at the expense of political oflice seekers in the fol- lowing ; " We saw a candidate, known to be a derider of religion, sitting at a camp preaching among the min- isters, and ever and anon uttering a dismal groan, as if seized with a colic pang, and a face of the more elongated and rueful sanctity."

The camp-meeting in some sections, especially in the Sonth, exerted an attractive control over multitudes, and its fervid, solemn, and picturesque methods wrought effects little short of miraculous. This was emphatically the case during the great revival of 1800, which shook the states of Kentucky and Tennessee to their spiritual center.

The origin of the camp-meeting is given by Rev. E. B. Crisman in a short history of the Cumberland Presby- terian Church. " The first camp-meeting ever held," says Mr. Crisman, " was i;i July, 1800, at Gaspar river, Logaa

Voice of the People and Clash of Creeds. 207

county, Kentucky. The circumstances which gave rise to it were as follows : A family who had just arrived in the country from one of the Carolinas were desirous of at- tending one of Mr. McGready^s meetings, hut were about to decline going, because the meeting was some distance from them, and they had no acquaintances in the country. A female member of the family suggested that they had camped with their wagon on the journey from Carolina , to the country, and they might still camp long enough to attend a meeting. They accordingly took their wagon and provision and camped near the church. This family, shared largely in the blessings of the meeting. At the next meeting several families followed the example, and were also blessed. This was a good omen, and suggested to Mr. McGready the idea of a camp-meeting, and he ac- cordingly appointed a meeting at Gaspar river, and an- nounced that the people would be expected to camp on the ground. For shelter they used their wagon sheets and cloth tents, as is the custom at the present time (1858) in Texas and other new countries. The first camp- meeting held from Friday until the next Tuesday, and resulted in forty-five conversions."

Twenty thousand souls are said to have attended the session of a camp-meeting at Cane Ridge, near Paris, Ky. About three thousand persons, mostly men, fell in a cataleptic state. Prof. Shaler estimates that perhaps half the entire population of Kentucky, were, by the power of this great revival, " brought under the infiuence of an en- thusiasm that for a moment took them quite away from material things." Extensive revivals spread over Ken- tucky in 1826-7-8-9.

Yivid descriptions of the camp-meeting and its im- pressive scenes are to be found in the writings of the early Western historians, poets, and novelists. The pioneer "revivals" furnish a theme for a sort of sacred romance or divine comedy.

The period was one of sect forming. The Cumberland Presbyterian Church was of recent origin. It sprung

208 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

from the great revival and was organized in Kentucky, February 4, 1810.

Rev. Barton W. Stone organized, in Kentucky, the " Stoneites," or Christians. The sect is locally powerful in the Ohio Valley.

They were dissenters from Presbyterianism, and met in the Cane Ridge Church on June 28, 1804, as the " Spring- field Presbytery," and ordained a " Last Will and Testa- ment," in which, among other things, they solemnly « "willed that this body die, be dissolved, and sink into union with the body of Christ at large ; " that " the Church of Christ resume her right of internal government ; " that " each particular church choose her own preacher and support him by free-will offering;" that "the people hereafter take the Bible as the only sure guide to heaven ; " that " preacher and people cultivate a spirit of mutual forbearance, pray more, and dispute less ; " and " that the oppressed may go free and taste the sweets of gospel liberty."

The Cane Ridge Church, a small log building much ruined by storm and time, is standing yet. The name was given from the fact that the site of the church was originally covered with a cane-brake ; and visitors to that ' locality say the cane still springs up in the old church- yard.

Another development of religious convictions took or- ganized form in societies known at first as Reformers, New Lights, and Free- Will Baptists. Alexander Campbell, originally an Irish Presbyterian, proposed to restore the spirit and letter of primitive Christianity, and drew after him a large following of earnest adherents who took the name "Disciples of Christ." Campbell wrote in 1824 ; "We neither advocate Calvinism, Arminianism, Socinian- ism, Arianism, Trinitarianism, Unitarianism, Deism, nor Sectarianism, but New Testamentism."

The first quarter of the century measures the duration of the movement known as the "Unitarian Revival," which really began in 1785, when James Freeman, at Bos- ton, broke away from the regular orthodox denomination

Voice of the Preacher and Clash of Creeds. 209

and took the name of Unitarian. As early as 1796, Rev. Henry Toulmin, a Unitarian, disseminated his views in Xentucky. Dr. Horace HoUey, a Yale graduate, and a favorite of Timothy Dwight, though a dissenter from Cal- vinism, came to Lexington, Ky., in 1819, and became president of Transylvania University. When it was known that he disbelieved in the Trinity, a sectarian war broke out and raged on the disputed grounds that lie be- tween orthodoxy and Unitarianism. The controversy ruptured the college, and caused Dr. Holley to resign the presidency. Unitarianism, however, got a foothold in the West and South. Several of its most famous champions have been stationed in Cincinnati, Louisville, and St. Louis. Universalism also set up strongholds in these and other western cities. " The Sentinel and Star in the West," a Universalist newspaper, was established in 1829.

Rev. Timothy Flint, who spent several years as a mis- sionary in the Mississippi Valley, commencing his travels in 1814, wrote from his personal observation as follows :

''A circulating phalanx of Methodists, Baptists, and Cumberland Presbyterians, of Atlantic missionaries, and of young eleves of the Catholic theological seminaries, from the redundant mass of unoccupied ministers, both in the Protestant and Catholic countries, pervades this great valley with its numerous detachments from Pittsburg, the mountains, the lakes and the Missouri, to the Gulf of Mexico. They all pursue the interests of their several denominations in their own way, and generally in profound peace."

Rev. John Mason Peck, a prominent Baptist missionary in Illinois, writing of the itineracy of other days, says : '' That minister's library was considered to be well sup- plied that contained a complete copy of the Holy Script- ures, a copy of Watts's Psalms and Hymns, and Russell's Seven Sermons. There were preachers then, who taught the people in the best manner they were able, without possessing, and without the power of obtaining, a whole copy of the Word of God." Yet these missionaries and 14

210 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

early preachers exerted a vast influence, and were person- ages of conspicuous importance. A recent popular writer says : " They were for a lon^ time the only circulating medium of thought and emotion that kept the isolated settlements from utter spiritual stagnation."

One of the most striking figures in the religious annals of the Ohio Valley is Lorenzo Dow, a sort of American Bunyan, whose pilgrimages are as surprising as the prog- ress of Christian in the allegory. " Few who have seen him,'' reports one of his contemporaries, " will forget his outlandish exterior, his orang-outang features, the beard that swept his aged breast, or the piping treble voice in which he was wont to preach what he called the Gospel of the kingdom."

This eccentric evangelist, born in 1777, made his first western tour in 1804. " I have been in each of the seven- teen states of the Union," wrote he in his diary.

Dow makes mention of many strange sects he met with in his travels— the jerking, leaping, and rolling converts, the A-double-L-partists, the Molechites and the Nichol- ites, a kind of Quakers, " who do not feel free to wear colored clothes." Peggy Dow, the wife of Lorenzo, left some impression upon the times by a book published in Philadelphia in 1816. It contains a ''Collection of Metho- dist Hymns," "A Short Account of the Camp-meetings in the United States," and the " Cosmopolite's Muse."

Lorenzo Dow's peculiar writings., published as a sub- scription book under the title, " History of a Cosmopolite ; or Lorenzo's Journal," passed through many editions, and was sold by tens of thousands of volumes, in all parts of the West. The book contains " Lorenzo's Journal," " Lo- renzo's Chain," "A Cry from the Wilderness," " Defense of Camp-meetings," " Vicissitudes, or the Journey of Life," and "Analects upon Natural, Social, and Moral Philos- ophy." Old people are frequently met with in the Ohio Valley who love to relate striking anecdotes concerning Lorenzo Dow, who is made responsible for as many relig- ions extravagances as Lincoln is for political jokes.

A picture to match that of Dow might be drawn of the

Voice of the Preacher and Clash of Creeds, 211

less noted Jonathan Chapman, or " Johnny Appleseed," as he was called, from the circumstance that he was the first nurseryman in the Ohio Valley, and brought bushels of apple seeds from the cider-presses of Pennsylvania, and planted them in many parts of Ohio and Indiana. He also was a preacher, or, as he said, a " messenger sent into the wilderness to prepare the way for the people." Born in Massachusetts in 1775, he was a regularly ordained Swedenborgian missionary. He always carried tracts and books, zealous to plant ideas as well as apple seeds. Fruit is still grown on surviving trees planted by Johnny Apple- seed, in the valleys of the Muskingum and the Scioto.

Dr. Peck deserves more than a passing notice in the an- nals of western intellectual labor. He ranks as one of the ablest and most worthy of the pioneer useful writers. Born in Litchfield parish. South Farms, Connecticut, Oc- tober 31, 1789, he began to preach in 1811, was ordained in 1813, and became associated with Kev. Luther Rice in efforts to arouse the Baptists of the country to a sense of their duty in foreign missions. He was appointed by the Baptist Missionary Union to labor in St. Louis and vicin- ity. Proceeding westward in a covered wagon, with his wife and three children, he journeyed four months, a dis- tance of 1,200 miles, reaching Shawneetown in the fall of 1817. For several years he resided in Missouri, where he and his family suffered extremely from sickness. In 1821 he removed to Rock Spring, Illinois, and established a seminary, into which were gathered at one time as many as one hundred students. In April, 1828, he began the publication of a paper called the Western Pioneer and Baptist. Vigorous and energetic, he made numberless extensive preaching tours, and took a prominent part in the affairs of the territory, preliminary to its becoming a state. Especially was he interested in promoting the cause of education and temperance. The Rock Spring Seminary became united with what is now Shurtleft* Col- lege.

Dr. Peck devoted himself to the study of local history, and to the encouragement of literary manifestation

212 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

among young men. Through his influence, Prof. John Russell, of Bluff Dale, Illinois, was induced to publish "The Legend of the Piasa" and other pieces. Russell was the author of a temperance essay called " The Ven- omous Worm," beginning with the sentence : " There is a worm whose bite outvenoms all the serpents of the l^ile." Thousands of school-children in the West learned the piece by heart and declaimed it.

Peck's writings include a " Guide for Emigrants," a " Gazetteer of Illinois," " Father Clark, or the Pioneer Preacher," and a " Life of Daniel Boone." He revised and enlarged Perkins's "Annals of the West." Dr. Peck died March 24, 1857. A memoir of him has been pub- lished by Rufus Babcock, in a book entitled " Forty Years of Pioneer Life."

It would require volumes to sketch the life and labors of the noted preachers of the West. Many of them were famed for eloquence. Who has not heard of the renowned Peter Cartwright,^ 1785-1872, the presiding elder of Illi- nois, the type of Methodist pioneer ministers? His preaching is rhetorically described by one who himself was a distinguished circuit preacher. Rev. W. H. Milburn, author of " Ten Years of Preacher Life." The following are Milburn's words on Cartwright's oratory : "A voice which, in his prime, was capable of almost every modula- tion, the earnest force and homely directness of his speech, and his power over the passions of the human heart, made him an orator to win and command the suffrages and sympathies of a western audience. And ever through the discourse, came, and went, and came again, a humor that was resistless, now broadening the features into a merry smile, and then softening the heart until tears stood in the eyes of all. His figures and illustrations were often grand, sometimes fantastical. Like all natives of the new country, he spoke much in metaphors, and his were bor-

* The Backwoods Preacher. An Autobiography of Peter Cartwright, for moro than fifty years a preacher in the Backwoods of America. Edited l -trickland. London, 1858.

Voice of the Preacher and Clash of Creeds. 213

rowed from the magnificent realm in which he lived. All forms of nature, save those of the sounding sea, were fa- miliar to him, and were employed with the easy familiarity with which phildren use their toys. You might hear, in a single discourse, the thunder tread of a frightened herd of buffaloes as they rushed wildly across the prairie, the crash of the windrow as it fell smitten by the breath of the tempest, the piercing scream of the wild cat as it scared the midnight forest, the majestic rhythm of the Mississippi as it harmonized the distant East and West, and united, bore their tributes to the far-off" ocean ; the silvery flow of a mountain rivulet, the whisper of groves, and the jocund laughter of unnumbered prairie flowers, as they toyed in dalliance with the evening breeze. Thunder and lightning, fire and flood, seemed to be old acquaintances, and he spoke of them with the assured confidence of friendship. Another of the poet's attributes was his — the impulse and the power to create his own language ; and he was the best lexicon of western words, phrases, idioms, and proverbs, that I have ever met."

The pioneer period produced an astonishing array of illustrious pulpit orators; men who swayed multitudes, and who were regarded with a veneration that bordered on idolatry. The immense popular control which these voices in the wilderness exerted is incalculable. They were the spiritual and moral custodians of the people. Their winged words set free in the unreporting air, have flown into oblivion. But the thought, the soul of the message, was recorded in the heart and the life of a gen- eration. Few books did these fervent ministers of the Gospel indite. Ko stenographer took down on paper and gave to the press their exhortations and their prayers. But the sermon was engraved upon listening hearts and the benediction was heard in heaven. Every section of the West had its evangelic Boanerges in those old camp- meeting years. I can not forbear to transcribe a descrip- tion of the favorite orator of Tennessee, the once cele- brated Dr. Bascom. A distinguished contemporary clergy- man of another denomination praises Bascom in the fol-

214 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

lowing language : " I would not wish to laud him in the same affected strain, with the encomiums of the blind minister of Virginia. But he is certainly an extraordi- nary man in his way. His first appearance is against him, indicating a rough and uncouth man. He uses many low words, and images and illustrations in bad taste. But perhaps, when you are getting tired, almost disgusted, every thing is reversed in a moment. He flashes upon you. You catch his eye and you follow him ; he bursts upon you in a glow of feeling and pathos, leaving you not sufficiently cool to criticise. We may affect to decry the talent of moving the inmost affections. After all, I am inclined to think it the most important qualification which a minister can possess. He possesses this in an eminent degree. He has the electric eye, the thrilling tones, the unction, the feeling, the universal language of passion and nature, which is equally known and felt by all people. He has evidently been richly endowed by nature ; but his endowments owe little to discipline or education."

A correspondent^ of the Cincinnati Commercial Gaz- ette, in 1890, thus graphically pictures two of the great pioneer preachers of South-western Ohio and Eastern In- diana :

" No history of the great Ohio Valley will be full and complete without giving a just meed of praise to the labors of the pioneer preachers who, amid all difficulties, dangers, and hardships, broke the bread of life to the early settlers, and so materially aided in laying broad and deep the moral sentiment of the community. Many of those men deserve a chapter in the future history of the country. In their labor of love, for it was a labor of love to them, they passed through dangers and endured toils and privations that few of the present day know any thing about, and the story of their lives and their devo- tion to the cause of God and humanity would be of thrilling interest. One of the most famous of those early pioneers was William H. Raper, well-known in his day in

* F. D. MuflBey.

Voice of the Preacher and Clash of Creeds. 215

South-western Ohio and Eastern Indiana. There are some living yet who rememher him and speak with love and admiration of his memory. In his travels he tra- versed forests and oftentimes was compelled to swim rivers and encamp all night in the midst of the wildest storms of rain or snow, with no covering but the heavens or the branches of a forest tree. On one occasion, while traveling his circuit, which embraced all the south-eastern part of Indiana, he got lost in the woods one dark night, and wandered about for several hours. At last in his wanderings he came to the bank of a stream. The rain had been falling steadily for several days, and he knew the water must be very high. He felt that to remain out all night in his exhausted condition meant death ; he deter- mined to cross the stream, if possible, and seek shelter on the other side. He dismounted and groped along in the darkness as best he could, until he-came to what he sup- posed to be a bridge. He carefully led his horse on to it. As he proceeded, he felt it giving under him step by step, but he kept on until finally he reached the other side in safety. A short distance from there he discovered a house, and, after arousing the inmates, obtained per- mission to stay all night. They asked him how he had been able to cross the creek, and when he told them he had crossed on the bridge, they were confounded, and told him there was no bridge there and never had been. In the morning they went to the place and discovered that in the darkness he had crossed on floating driftwood that had become jammed.

"At another time he had an experience which would have furnished the psychologist of those days a hard nut to crack. While crossing a very full stream at an early hour one morning, his horse threw him into the water. The accident occurred at a place near where the creek emptied into the Ohio, and he was being rapidly borne out into the current of the river when, by chance, he was swept near an overhanging branch, which he was able to seize and hold. To that he clung until his strength was almost exhausted. He was about to give up in despair,

216 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

as no help was near, when he seemed to hear a voice saying, * Mother is praying for you, and you will be saved/ This gave him new courage, and, making an- other and a final eftbrt, he reached the bank in safety. On reaching his mother's house, several days afterward, she told him she had a terrible dream about him. She said that one morning she was awakened in a great fright, and heard some one saying, * William is in great danger.' She sprang from her bed and began praying for him. This she kept up until at last a peace fell upon her spirit, and she was satisfied her son had escaped from the dan- ger which threatened him. On comparing the time, it was found to be at exactly the hour he was struggling with the raging waters a hundred miles distant. Let some one explain this on scientific principles. This same minister once had a watch stolen from him under peculiar circum- stances in Cincinnati. A man by the name of Washburne was condemned to death. On the day of the execution, Mr. Raper was called upon to act as chaplain. He visited the condemned man in his cell and offered up prayer. "While he was pra^'ing Washburne stole his watch from his pocket. The watch was not missed, and it was not until it had been found on the person of Washburne after his execution that Mr. Raper knew it had been stolen.

"Among the most gifted of those devoted men was Rus- sell Bigelow. He was about medium height, of slender frame, and feeble constitution. His head was large and forehead high and prominent. He wore his hair long, and as it was rather thin, it gave him a cadaverous ap- pearance. He had a wonderful power over an audience, and could sway the multitudes at his will by his elo- quence, which was lofty and fervent. Such was his fame that when it was announced that he was to preach, the people for many miles flocked to hear him. His appear- ance was much against him, for he was always clad in coarse and ill-fitting garments. He had a keen eye, prominent cheek bones, a projecting chin, large nose, ex- panding nostrils, and wide mouth. A noted skeptic who heard him on one of his great occasions as he preached to

Voice of the Preacher and Clash of Creeds. 217

a large audience at a camp-meeting near Dayton, 0., wrote thus of his sermon :

" ' Having stated and illustrated his position clearly, he laid hroadly the foundation of his argument, and piled stone upon stone, hewed and polished, till he stood upon a majestic pyramid, with heaven's own light around him, pointing the astonished multitude to a brighter home be- yond the sun, and bidding, defiance to the enemy to re- move one fragment of the rock on which his feet were placed. His argument being complete, his peroration commenced. This was grand beyond description. The whole universe seemed animated by its Creator to aid him in persuading the sinners to return to God, and the angels commissioned to open heaven and come down and strengthen him. !N'ow he opens the mouth of the pit, and takes us through the gloomy avenues, while the bolts retreat and the doors of damnation burst open, and the wails of the lost come to our ears ; and now he opens heaven and transports us to the flowery plains, stands up amid the armies of the blest, to sweep with celestial fin- gers angelic harps, and join the eternal chorus, '' Worthy, Worthy the Lamb." As he closed his discourse, every energy of his body and mind were stretched to the ut- most tension. His soul appeared to be too great for its tenement, and every moment ready to burst through and soar away as an eagle toward heaven. His lungs labored, his arms rose, the perspiration, with tears, flowed in a steady stream on the floor, and every thing about him seemed to say, " Oh, that my head were waters." But the audience thought not of the struggling body, nor even of the giant mind within, for they w^ere paralyzed by the avalanche of thought that descended upon them. I lost the man, but the subject was all in all.' "

" At one time the Conference was to be held in Steuben- ville, Ohio. A wealthy Episcopalian went to the Metho- dist pastor in that place and told him that if he would send him the most talented man in the Conference he would be glad to entertain him. Bigelow was sent to him. He made his appearance at the aristocratic resi-

218 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

dence in his homespun suit. His personal appearance was not prepossessing, and, upon meeting the pastor, the Episcopalian complained that he had not been rightly treated. He was reminded that he had asked for the most talented man, and he had been sent to him. The pastor said to him : ' He is to preach at the Presbyterian Ohurch to-morrow morning. You go and hear him, and then if you are still dissatisfied, I will change him and send you the bishop.' The host and his family attended the Presbyterian Church the next day. Mr. Bigelow took his seat in the pulpit, and when it was time to begin the services, arose and read his hymn. Such reading of poetry had never before been heard in Steubenville, and the host and his daughters exchanged surprised and sig- nificant glances. It was one of the preacher's grand days, and he electrified his audience. At the close of the ser- mon the host requested his daughters to accompany Mr. Bigelow to the house, saying that he had to attend to a little matter down the street. He made his way at once to the Methodist parsonage, and, calling the pastor to one side, told him that he would not trade off Mr. Bige- low and his homespun suit for all the bishops. Such is the power of eloquence."

Hon. E. 0. Smith, in his " Indiana Trials," writing of "Itinerant Preachers," remarks, "that early Indiana, nay, Indiana to-day, owes more to the itinerant Meth- odist preachers than to all other religious denominations combined." He mentions, with praise, the names of the following early preachers : James Jones, Augustus Joce- lyn, John P. Durbin, James Conwell, John Hardy, Aaron Wood, James Havens, Elijah Whitten, John Morrow, Thomas Silvey, John Strange, and Allen Wiley.

In 1832 Dr. Lyman Beecher came to Cincinnati, called to the presidency of Lane Seminary. Though a stanch Calvinist of the school of Mather, Edwards, and Dwight, his orthodoxy was impeached by Rev. Joshua Lacy Wil- son, D.D., the powerful preacher who from 1808 to 1846 ministered from the pulpit of the First Presbyterian Church. Mrs. Stowe described the theological battle be-

Voice of the Preacher and Clash of Creeds. 219

tweeu her father and Dr. Wilson as a '* Spiritual Arma- geddon, being the confluence of the forces of Scotch-Irish Presbyterian, Calvanistic fatalism, meeting with the ad- vancing rationalism of IN'ew England new-school theology." Beecher was tried and acquitted in his own church, be- fore the Presbytery of Cincinnati, on charges of heresy preferred by Wilson, and the proceedings of the trial were printed.^ While carrying on this defensive war, he published a long discourse, entitled, "A Plea for the West," which, while prophesying the future greatness of the Wesjfc, eloquently urged the necessity of universal educa- tion, and violently assailed the Roman Catholic Church. Lyman Beecher's sons, Edward, George, Charles, and Henry Ward, and his daughters, Catherine and Harriet, were, in a considerable degree, educated by western in- fluences, and they all began their aggressive life-work in the West. Henry Ward Beecher's first sermons were preached in Ohio and Indiana, and his first pastorate was at Lawrenceburg, and his second at Indianapolis.

The new sects of which I have spoken, and the newly inspired older sects, wrought zealously to infuse their doctrines every-where. Their active energy might be likened to that force of chemical elements which scien- tists observe in substances just set free from combination, and existing in what is called the nascent, or new-born state. The clash of beliefs, and the ardor to establish innovating systems, gave rise to many public debates on religious subjects. The most distinguished champion in the lists of the theological tournament, was Alexander Campbell, already mentioned as the founder of the Society of the Disciples. The appellation, " ISTew Light," ^ was frequently applied to him and his followers, sometimes opprobiously, sometimes approvingly. That name, however, originated long before Campbell's time ; certainly as far back as the

* See " Trial and Acquittal of Lyman Beecher, D.D., before the Pres- bytery of Cincinnati, on Charges preferred by Joshua L. Wilson, D.D,, Cincinnati, 1835."

• There is a species of edible fish in the Kentucky river locally dis- tinguished by the name of " New Light."

220 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

" Great Awakening " of 1740, which started in ITew En- gland. It was spoken of as the *' New Light Stir," and continued for twenty-five years or more, in which period 40,000 persons were " converted." A popular ITew Light hymn was often sung in religious assemblies of the period, in Rhode Island. I here transcribe two of its eleven stanzas, every one of which introduces the term, " New Light," in some connection :

" Despised by man, upheld by God, We're marching on the heavenly road ; Loud hallelujahs we will sing To Jesus Christ, the New Light's King.

" Though by the world we are disdained. And have our names cast out by men. Yet Christ our Captain for us fights ; Nor death, nor hell, can hurt New Lights."

The New Light movement spread to the South and to the West, and, no doubt, had a remote, if not a direct, bearing upon the various church reformers. Campbell disclaimed all sectarian badges, desiring simply to be con- sidered a restorer of old forms, not an inventor of things new.

Alexander Campbell was born in Ireland, September 12, 1788, and he died, March 4, 1866. His father, Eev. Thomas Campbell, a seceder, opened an academy at Eich Hill, and Alexander assisted in teaching. Thomas emi- grated to America in 1807, and Alexander followed in 1809. They settled at Washington, Pennsylvania, where the son wrote essays for the Washington Reporter, sign- himself " Clarinda." He made his first attempt at preach- ing in 1810. In 1823, he began the " Christian Baptist," espousing the principles of that ancient sect "Called Christians first at Antioch." From 1823 to 1830, " he is- sued of his own works, from his own little country print- ing office, no less than 46,000 volumes." His house near the Ohio river above Wheeling he named Bethany, and it was made a post-office, on account of the extensive miiil he received and dispatched. His numerous works, com-

Voice of the Preacher and Clash of Creeds. 221

prising about sixty volumes, include a '' N'ew Version of the Testament,'' a '' Life of Thomas Campbell," six vol- volumes of " Debates," seven volumes of " The Christian Baptist," and thirty-four volumes of " The Millennial Harbinger," a periodical which ran from 1830 to 1863 in- clasive. The use of such names as " Millennial Harbin- ger," *' Western Messenger," " Herald of Truth," suggest- ive of faith in the ^' good time coming," was character- istic of the reformers in the western country. Campbell was the founder of Bethany College, near which may be seen a monument erected to his memory.

Alexander Campbell challenged the whole theological field, ^nd assaulted the outlying territories of disbelief. He hurled a lance at young Mormonism in JSTorthern Ohio. His numerous debates, six of which were published, gave him widespread renown. As long ago as 1820 he held his first important discussion, on baptism, with Mr. John Walker, at Mount Pleasant, Ohio. Three years later he debated with Mr. McCalla, a Presbyterian, on the same subject, in a grove near Washington, Kentucky. More memorable was his dispute with Eobert Owen, which took place in Cincinnati, April, 1829,

Owen denied the truth of religion in general and Campbell afiirmed the truth of Christianity. People came to hear this discussion frorn 'New York, Pennsyl- vania, Virginia, Tennessee, and Mississippi. Twelve hun- dred persons crowded into the Methodist Church, where it was held, and many went away unable to obtain a sit- ting. The wordy battle was continued for eight days, and at the conclusion the audience decided by a rising vote that Campbell and Christianity were victorious. A still more exciting duel of dogmas was fought in Cincinnati, January, 1837, by Campbell and Bishop John B. Purcell, on Catholicism. This stirred up the polemic spirit of the city, caused mass meetings to pass resolutions, and brought the political press into the skirmish line.

Charles Hammond, of the Gazette, and James Birney, of the Philanthropist, drew their pens and rushed to the conflict. Soon after the Purcell debate, Campbell began

222 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

a discussion with Rev. Mr. Skinner, on Universalism, which was carried on for two years in the columns of the Harbinger. The last, and perhaps the most noted theo- logical tournament in which Campbell took part was that of November, 1843, when he encountered Rev. 'E. L. Rice, a Presbyterian clergyman of Danville, Kentucky, who had won a high reputation as an oral debater. The cham- pions met at Lexington, and Henry Clay presided during their sixteen days' disputation.

Dr. Rice and Rev. E. M. Pingree, a brilliant Universalist divine, held an eight-day discussion in the year 1845. The daily sessions took place in the Millerite Tabernacle, a large wooden structure in Cincinnati, and the multitude of auditors was greater than the inside of the building would accommodate, and numbers climbed upon the roof to listen to the speakers.

Propounders of original views, dissenters and reformers of all shades of belief and unbelief, came to the valley. They considered the new country a tabula rasa, upon which every man who had a positive idea was free to write a theory. Campbell declared that he began his re- ligious movement in the West because the West was the field of best opportunity. " Why," said he, " the western people believe in giving every man liberty of speech ; they gave Owen a fair chance."

Robert Owen, whose name is associated with St. Simon and Fourier, was a Welsh philanthopist of large fortune, who came to America in 1824 to propound and establish the principles of Socialism. In 1825 he bought of Frederick Rappe the village of New Harmony and twenty-live thou- sand acres of land on the Wabash, Indiana, paying $190,- 000, and there organized his celebrated community. His assumptions were that man is a creature of circumstances, and that favorable surroundings make good character. He repudiated the sanctions of the Church, relying wholly upon practical education as the source of correct conduct. Sin and misery he ascribed to ignorance and its transmit- ted effects. A strict materialist, he accepted nothing as true except that which he could prove by facts. The

Voice of the Preacher and Clash of Creeds. 223

school which was started at ^ew Harmony based its- methods on the writings of Pestalozzi, and made the name of that great educator familiar in the backwoods. Francis J. J^. Neef, the associate of Pestalozzi, was a teacher at ISTew Harmony. For the amusement of the men and women social parties were held in a large hall, with music and dancing. Sometimes four hundred persons were on the dancing floor at once. On Sunday scientific lectures were delivered in the hall; and itinerant preachers were invited^ and even urged, to use the same pulpit as a free arena. " Mental Independence" was the motto of the Communists. A paper, Xew Harmony Gazette, called by Campbell the "focus of the lights of skepticism," was started in 1825^ and in 1827 Owen issued a little volume called " 'New Views of Society."

The New Harmony experiment attracted a heterogeneous company. Several distinguished visitors from Europe so- journed with Owen for awhile. One of these was the Duke of Saxe- Weimar. Another was William Maclure^ the scientist. Another was Miss Frances Wright, who^ like Owen, was wealthy, and a reformer. Timothy Flint classed her among the " Wollstonecraftian ladies."

Frances Wright was born in Dundee, Scotland, in 1797^ and she died in Cincinnati in 1853. She lived for three years in France in the family of Lafayette. Coming to America, she bought a tract of wild land in Western Tennessee, and started a plantation, which she named I^ashoba, and devoted herself to the education of thirty negroes whom she purchased from slavery. In her own words, she devoted herself to a " race oppressed where liberty had planted her throne, and despised where man had first spoken the name of equality."

Several times Miss Wright went alone, on horseback,, from Kashoba to ;N"ew Harmony ; and, finally, her health failing, she abandoned the Tennessee scheme, and re- moved to the Owen settlement. For the New Harmony Gazette she wrote essays and a series of articles called "A Few Days in Athens," which afterward appeared in a volume. She traveled throus^h the United States and

224 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

gave lectures at the principal cities on "Knowledge," " Religion," " Morals," " Opinions," and other subjects. These were published in book form.

Noth withstanding its auspicious name, IN'ew Harmony l)i'(:i!iie a scene of discord, and declined.^ Robert Owen wont back to Scotland. His son, Robert Dale Owen, ac- companied Miss Wright to Xew York, where the latter bought a church, which she rechristened the " Hall of Science," and occupied as a lecture-room and an office of publication for the Free Enquirer, formerly the IS'ew Har- mony Gazette. This paper, its editors claimed, was " the first periodical established in the United States for the purpose of fearless and unbiased inquiry on all subjects."

A number of other papers, of a similar liberal charac- ter, soon sprang into existence, among which we may mention " The Investigator," " Comet," " The Beacon," and the " Herkimer Liberal."

Frances Wright composed a tragedy called "Altorf," and a work in two volumes entitled " England, the Civil- izer." It is recorded that she preferred the society of men to that of women, on account of the superior intelligence of the former. She contracted a marriage with Wilhelm Phiquepal D'Arusmont. It was stipulated that, should

* Owen's experiment at New Harmony was not the only communistic attempt to reform society in the Ohio Valley. A communistic store or " Model Bazaar " was in operation in Cincinnati in 1827. A " Commun- ity " was organized in Tuscarawas county, Ohio, in 1835. In 1844, the " Clermont Phalanx," an association according to Fourier, was formed on the Ohio river, in Clermont county, Ohio. This failed within less than three years. Its property was purchased by a company of reform- ers known as the "Brotherhood," at the head of which was John O. Wattles. The " Brotherhood's " principal building, an edifice of bripk, was undermined by the river in the flood of 1847, and seventeen per- sons were drowned. More interesting and successful was the establish- ment organized in 1847, also in Clermont county, by Josiah AVarren. This was the village of Utopia, founded by a small company in accord- ance with the maxim, " cost is the limit of price." The community broke up within a few years. Warren removed to New England. He is the author of several very remarkable pamphlets, which anticipate the writings of George and Bellamy. His " Equitable Commerce " was pub- lished at Utopia in 1840. Three other pamphlets of his on " True Civil- ization." were issued in Princeton, Mass., in 1873.

Voice of the Preacher and Clash of Creeds. 225

any children be born, the mother was to have no part in their education. On one occasion, when Miss Wright lectured in the court-house in Cincinnati, a mob cast stones at her. Picking up one of these rude missiles, she said, smiling, " This is a hard argument."

The action and reaction of colliding elements in the Ohio Valley struck out much intellectual heat and light. Civilized races met with savage, Christianity met Judaism, Protestant challenged Catholic. Calvinist encountered anti-Calvinist, Unitarian opposed Trinitarian, old denomi- nations split by contention projected new sects into being, and each new sect criticised all the others. Antas^onizing churches in general, and even assaulting the bulwarks of religion itself, the agnostics, the skeptics, and the avowed atheists joined the thick combat. Extremes grappled. What a swing of the pendulum of opinion, from the Catholic kneeling before the crucifix, or the rapt Protest- ant convert swooning at the mourners' bench, to the Cincinnati materialist who was offended when his child was taught that God exists, or to Mrs. Trollope, who, after witnessing a revival, said: "I confess that I think the coarsest comedy ever written would be a less detesta- ble exhibition for the eye of youth and innocence than such a scene."

How wide the contrast between the implicit faith of Lorenzo Dow, and the skepticism of Orson Murray who regarded prayer as a crime and whose funeral sermon, written by himself, insists that death ends all !

I doubt if the world has witnessed a more extraordinary series of religious events than transpired in the Ohio Val- ley in the first half of the nineteenth century.' Notwith- standing the dissensions within old denominations, and unprecedented splits and conflicts among new sects, and the utter repudiation of religion by some, the churches grew and flourished. The freedom to worship God, which the Pilgrims " sought afar," was found in the " Kew Eng- land of the West," as Ohio was called. Religious liberty ran riot, and was not distinguished, in some cases, from 15

226 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

license. Even Dilks, the Leatherwood God,^ who, in 1828, inaugurated his system by a loud snort and the cry of the single word " Salvation," was tolerated, and had a following who worshiped him. Smith, the inventor of the Mormon bible, found refuge in Ohio, in 1832, and though be was treated to a coat of tar and feathers, that did not prevent him from establishing the Latter Day Saints at Kirtland, and ordaining Brigham Young elder.

The clash of creeds gave origin to much discourse, oral and printed. Sermons and religious debates were heard by multitudes of listeners, and read by other multitudes. Every leading sect had its " organ " or periodical. Prop- agandists of new systems made extensive use of the press and the platform. Secular newspapers and magazines de- voted many columns to news and discussions bearing on religious, moral, and social matters.

In a word, religious worship, Scripture reading, hymn singing, sermon hearing, and the perusal of controversial periodicals and tracts, attendance at camp-meetings, " re- vivals," theological discussions, and the universal custom of thinking and talking on religious subjects, had an im- mense influence in shaping the literature of the Ohio Valley "in the beginning."

* The Leatherwood God. An Account of the Appearance and Pre- tensions of Joseph C. Dilks in Eastern Ohio, in 1828. By R. H. Taney- hill. 12mo. Paper.

Political Oratory and Orators, 227

CHAPTER VII.

POLITICAL ORATORY AND ORATORS— THE LECTURE.

The American veterans who survived the Revolutionary- War rejoiced in anniversaries. Emphatically did they celebrate Independence Day, with utterance of much im- passioned eloquence in oration and poem. On the 4th of July, 1788, the founders of Marietta, then a settlement only three months old, met to commemorate the nation's birth. Judge J. M. Yarnum ^ delivered an address abound- ing in balanced sentences and rhetorical phrases. Antici- pating the coming of his excellency. Governor Arthur St. Clair, the orator exclaimed : " May he soon arrive ! Thou gently flowing Ohio, whose surface, as conscious of thy unequaled majesty, reflecteth no image but the impending heaven, bear him, oh ! bear him safely to this anxious spot ! And thou beautiful, transparent Muskingum, swell at the moment of his approach, and reflect no objects but of pleasure and delight ! "

Having thus glowingly apostrophized the absent gov- ernor, the gallant general addressed his '^ fair auditors " in still more ornate style. '' Gentle zephyrs and fanning breezes, wafting through the air ambrosial odors, receive you here. Hope no longer flutters upon the wings of un- certainty. . . . Amiable in yourselves, amiable in your tender connections, you will soon add to the felicity of others, who, emulous of following your bright exam- ple, and having formed their manners upon the elegance of simplicity and the refinements of virtue, will be happy

^ James Mitchell Varnum was a member of the first class that gradu- ated from Brown University, in 1769. He became a brigadier-general in the Revolutionary army, and was a member of the Colonial Congress. He was an eloquent lawyer. He was one of the supreme judges of the North-western Territory. Died, January 10, 1789.

228 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

in living with you in the bosom of friendship." Such was the fashion of sentence-making in the days of yore. Ac- cording to Dr. Hildreth, Judge Yarnum was distinguished for his " brilliant language and thundering eloquence."

At the close of the oration a feast was served in a spac- ious bower, constructed on the point of land at the con- fluence of the Muskingum and the Ohio. From the four- teen toasts offered I select the following: *' The United States," "The Congress," "His Most Christian Majesty," "The ^ew Federal Constitution," " Patriots and Heroes," " Captain Pipe, Chief of the Delawares," " The Amiable Partners of our Delicate Pleasures."

The soldiers at Fort Harraar had commemorated the great national day in 1786 by firing a salute of thirteen guns, " after which," wrote Sergeant Joseph Buell, in his diary, " the troops were served with extra rations of liquor, and allowed to get drunk as much as they pleased."

St. Clair reached Fort Harmar July 9, and on the 15th he made his public entry, " at the bower, in the city of Marietta," and another grand ceremony took place. The Ordinance of 1787 w^as read, and appropriate speeches of welcome and response were spoken. The governor's ad- dress, though formal and stately, was warmed by a sincere eloquence evoked by the place and purpose of the meet- ing. In the course of his remarks he said : " The sub- duing a new country, notwithstanding its natural advan- tages, is alone an arduous task; a task, however, that patience and perseverance will at last surmount, and these virtues, so necessary in every situation, but peculiarly so in yours, you must resolve to exercise. IN'either is reduc- ing a country from a state of nature to a state of civiliza- tion 80 irksome as it may appear from a slight or super- ficial view; even very sensible pleasures attend it; the gradual progress of improvement tills the mind with de- lectable ideas ; vast forests converted into arable fields, and cities rising in places which were lately the habita- tions of wild beasts, give a pleasure something like that attendant on creation. If we can form an idea of it, the imagination is ravished and a taste communicated of even

Political Oratory and Orators. 229

the 'joy of God to see a happy world.' " General Rufus Putnam responded to St. Clair's speech.

The example set at Marietta of celebrating the " glorious Fourth" was imitated in hundreds of settlements subse- quently formed in the West. When General Moses Cleveland, with a company of surveyors, arrived on the Western Reserve on July 4, 1796, a patriotic demonstra- tion was made, with speeches and joyful noise. Doubt- less the orators of the day reminded their hearers that just twenty years had passed since John Adams wrote from Philadelphia to his wife, in Boston, that Indepen- dence Day " ought to be solemnized with pomp and pa- rade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of the continent to the other, from this time forward forevermore." With such warrant and exhortation, our patriotic fathers made the most of the anniversary, and " spread-eagle " eloquence was at a premium in the forensic market.

'The visit of Lafayette to America, in 1824, acted like a fanning breeze on the fire of patriotism, and revived the spirit of declamation. The marquis came to Ashland to see Clay, and was all-hailed in an eloquent speech de- livered at Transylvania College by Dr. Holley. At Cin- cinnati he Avas banqueted and welcomed in an address by Joseph II. Benham. This Avas in May. It was not until the 26th of August that Edward Everett, in a famous oration pronounced at Cambridge before the Society of the Phi Beta Kappa, addressed Lafayette, who was pres- ent at the delivery of the oration, using the familiar words: "Welcome, thrice welcome to our shores; and whithersoever throughout the limits of the continent your course shall take you, the ear that hears you shall bless you, the eye that sees you shall bear witness to you, and every tongue exclaim, with heartfelt joy, welcome, welcome Lafayette ! "

Mr. Everett, w^hose name will always be -associated with American oratory and culture, had a decided interest in the growth and development of the West. In the sum- mer of 1829, on his journey- homeward from a tour in the

230 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

Mississippi Valley, he visited the Yellow Springs, Ohio, then a fashionable watering-place and the favorite resort of the Cincinnati gentry. The distinguished sojourner accepted an invitation to partake of a public dinner, and, in accordance with the fashion, a series of toasts was offered and responded to. The toastmaster of the occa- sion was Daniel K. Este, who offered the following senti- ment: " On behalf of the proprietor and visitors at the Yellow Springs, I give a most cordial welcome to our fellow-citizen, Mr. Edward Everett — highly distinghed as a scholar and as a liberal and enlightened statesman."

Mr. Everett addressed the company in a neat speech, which was printed in full in the " Western Tiller," of July 7, 1829.

Mr. Everett spoke of the wonderful material progress of the West, the rapid increase in population, the con- struction of the National road, the establishment of stage routes, and " your canal policy — the glory and prosperity of the state." He reminded his listeners that, " Forty years since the only white population connected with Ohio was on its way in a single wagon from Massachusetts to this place." He referred to Drake's picture of Cincinnati as the work from which, while traveling in Europe thir- teen years ago, he had gained his first impressions ot the Ohio Valley. Flattering allusion was made, also, to Flint's Geography and History of the Mississippi Valley, and to Mansfield and Drake's Cincinnati in 1826. jS'or did he fail to refer to the near relation existing between New England and the West. Speaking of the system of public schools recently transplanted from Massachusetts to Ohio, he used the following words : " Regarding the mind of the citizen as the most precious part of the public capital, we have felt that an efficient plan of general edu- cation is one of the first elements of public wealth. The diffusion of intelligence has furnished us our best com- pensation for our narrow limits and moderately fertile soil; and the tax which has effected it has returned with the richest interest to the citizen. We rejoice to see you adopting the same policy, and providing for a posterity

Folitical Oratory and Orators. 231

instructed in the necessary branches of useful knowledge. Such a policy, besides all its other benefits, binds the dif- ferent members of the body politic by the strongest ties ; it lays the rich under contribution for the education of the poor ; and it places the strong watchman of public intelli- gence and order at the door of the rich. In the first adoption of such a system, difficulties are to be expected. It can not go equally well into operation in every quarter, perhaps not perfectly in any quarter, but the man or the body of men that shall efifectually introduce it will per- form a work of public utility of which the praise will never die."

At the conclusion of Mr. Everett's address, which was decidedly flattering to western pride, the following toasts were offered, which were certainly sufficiently appeciative of New England worth :

By l!Tathan Guilford, Esq. The North American Review — -It has done credit to the science and literature of our country, and raised our reputation abroad. Its founders and conductors are entitled to the honor and gratitude of the nation.

By John P. Foote. The Philosophers and Scholars of Our Country — May their usefulness be properly appre- ciated.

By Stephen Fales, Esq., of Dayton, 0. — The State of Massachusetts.

By Major William Ruffin. The New England School System — May it be extended through all the states and territories of America.

By Dan Stone, Esq. The Pursuits of Literature and the Studies of Political Science — How greatly are both assisted by the knowledge acquired by travel and personal ob- servation.

By Mr. Mills. The State of Ohio — With a climate equal to that of Italy, with a soil equal to that of Egypt — to be admired, she is only to be visited.

Whether Mr. Mills, the framer of the last sentiment, was an " Ohio man" or a compliment-paying traveler, we

232 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

are not able to decide. One fancies that he thought IsTew England was getting more than her share of laudation, and that he considered it but fair to balance the account between East and West by plumping Ohio into the west- ern scale.

Some four years after the Everett banquet, Daniel Web- ster visited Cincinnati, and he was waited on by a com- mittee of thirty prominent citizens, who invited him " to partake of a public dinner" at the Exchange, on Wednes- day, June 19, 1833, at four o'clock p. m. The following names appear on the roll of the committee : General James Findlay, Joseph Pierce, Kobert Buchanan, Judge Torrence, Bellamy Storer, Josiah Lawrence, Robert T. Lytle, Morgan IN'eville, Judge William Miller, General Samuel Borden, James Goodloe, Jacob Resor, Allison Owen, Peyton S. Symmes, Archibald Irwin, Jacob Burnet, D. T. Disney, William C. Anderson, Judge Goodenow, Daniel Drake, Ebenezer Hulse, General Edward King, Dr. L. Rives, Colonel Francis Carr, William Tift, William R. Foster, John H. Groesbeck, Dr. J. Caswell, E. S. Thomas, John P. Foote. Morgan Seville, chairman ; Bellamy Storer, secretary.

Mr. Webster accepted the invitation in the following formal note :

Saturday^ June 15, 1833.

Sir : — I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, as chairman of a committee appointed by the citizens of Cincinnati, inviting me to a public dinner on Wednesday. In this, my first visit to the West, it has been my object to see the country, as extensively as I could, and to enjoy an intercourse with the people, free from the restraints and inconveniences attendant on public manifestations of regard and kindness. On the present occasion, however, it seems to be thought that what is so kindly proposed may afford an opportunity of enlarging that intercourse, and of exchanging salutations with the citizens of Cincinnati, more favorable than may otherwise be presented. With these impressions, I accept

Political Oratory and Orators. 233

with pleasure the invitation which is given to me. I am, with much true regard, your obliged fellow citizen,

Daniel Webster. Morgan ]!^eville, Esq.

The dinner was given with due ceremon}', and the sub- joined report of it appeared in the Cincinnati Gazette :

" The dinner to Mr. Webster, on Wednesday, was what, in the language of truth, might be called a brilliant affair. Every thing passed off well. The company was full to overflowing, and no unpleasant incident occurred to mar the general hilarity. The mayor presided ; the Eev. Wm. Burke made an invocation to the Throne of Grace, at the commencement of the festivities. The dinner was a good one — abundant, well prepared ; the wines — but in them I have no skill. Mr. Webster was called out for a speech at the sixth toast. It was well conceived and happy — natural in all its aspects, a little flattering to the whole West, a little more so to Cincinnati in particular, and yet, perhaps, nothing short of the whole truth. He has prom- ised to furnish a sketch of it for publication, and we will not anticipate that sketch by giving one from mere mem- ory.

Mr. Barry (the Postmaster General, who happened to be in Cincinnati) declined to join in the festivities, in consequence of the visitations of the cholera among his friends at Lexington, very properly considering that these ought to preclude him of being one of a festive board.

REGULAR TOASTS.

1. The President of the United States.

2. The heads of departments.

3. The Federal judiciary.

4. The army and navy of the United States.

5. The memory of Washington.

6. Our distinguished guest, the Hon. Daniel Webster — the profound expounder of the Constitution, the eloquent supporter of the Federal Union, and the uniform friend and advocate of the western country.

234 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

7. Tbe patriots of the revolution.

8. The defenders of our country during the late war.

9. Our friend, fellow-citizen and guest, General William Henry Harrison — identified with the warfare and settle- ment, prosperity and glory of the western country — the laurels which he wears have heen well won, and are cheer- fully accorded.

10. The press — when conducted by learning and patri- otism, a national blessing; but in its licentiousness a curse to all mankind.

11. Common schools — ^NTew England has taught us their value, in the fruits she has produced from her nurseries of science.

12. The Union — '^ It must be preserved."

13. The State of Ohio — May the devotion of her sons to the institutions of the country keep pace with the im- provement of her soil, the increase of her population, and the enterprise of her citizens.

14. The Fair — While they are for union we defy the world.

VOLUNTEERS.

By Daniel Webster. The City of Cincinnati — A beauti- ful illustration of the co-operation between nature and art. May the prosperity of her citizens be commensurate with their hospitality and enterprise.

By Wm. H. Harrison. Daniel Webster — The true rep- resentative of the character and manners of his country. Skilled in all the labors of a farmer (his original profes- sion), he is able to instruct the chief justice of England in the principles of the law which are common to both coun- tries, and to compete with Lord Chancellor Brougham, or any other lord, for the palm of eloquence, and in explain- ing the principles of "good old English liberty."

Sent by a lady. Daniel Webster—

" Westward the eastern star has bent his way, May more than empire bless its cloudless ray."

By W. T. Walker, Esq. Daniel Webster— The Daniel

Political Oratory and Orators. 235

of his age. He may be cast among lions, as many as you please, but even there you will find him the master spirit.

By Marcus Smith. The Constitution of the United States — Ambiguous and obscure only to the ambitious and corrupt. When assailed by such, may there ever be found among the people a Daniel who can interpret the writing.

By Samuel Findlay. To him who yesterday came among a community of strangers, and to-morrow leaves a community of friends."

The western propensity or passion for discussion is strikingly exemplified in the proceedings of the remark- able '' Political Club," ^ a society which met on Saturday nights in Danville, Kentucky, from 1786 to 1790, and con- sidered, in parliamentary form, the great financial, judicial, and political questions of the period. The members of this somewhat famous organization were Hary Innes, Samuel McDowell, Christopher Greenup, John Brown, Thomas Todd, George Muter, Peyton Short, Thomas Speed, James Speed, Willis Green, James Brown, Baker Ewing, Robert Craddock, B. Tardiveau, Benjamin Sebas- tian, William Kennedy, John Belli, William McClung, Stephen Ormsby, Wm. McDowell, John Overton, Thomas AUin, Robt. Dougherty, John Barbee, and Abraham Buford.

The people's lyceum, or debating society, had its golden age in the seventy-five years following the great first Fourth of July. In fact, it took the place of schools in sections where education was neglected. The lyceum was a school for both young and old, though its benefits were usually limited to the male sex, and principally to young men. In these last years of the century, women are the leaders in such culture as may be obtained in literary clubs.

Prentice relates that Clay, coming from Virginia to Kentucky at the age of about twenty, joined a debating society at Lexington, in which, like another Burke, he

^ A history of the PoHtical Club, by Captain Thomas Speed, is prom- ised as a publication of the Filson Club.

236 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

won his first laurels as a speaker. Thomas Ewing, at Athens, and Thomas Corwin, at Lebanon, Ohio, by a sim- ilar experience, developed their powers of expression in the debating club. The great serviceableness of the de- bating society in early times can hardly be overestimated.

The ability to think to a point, to hold arguments in mind, to weigh evidence and to form a just opinion, was cultivated, and men learned by such mental practice to perform their public duty as electors, jurors, trustees, and presiding officers. The efforts of a boy to stand up in a country school-house and say, "Mr. President, I think pursuit is better than possession," or, " I believe the pul- pit affords a wider field of usefulness than the bar," put his whole mind and body to a test, and gave the tyro a start in thought, expression, and self-control. The aspiring youth, who in the Philomathean or the Eurodelphian So- ciety of the backwoods college, ventured to prove that state sovereignty is preferable to centralization, or that the government should abolish the national bank, or that Hannibal was greater than Scipio, took more interest, perhaps, in such exercise of his faculties than he did in his class-books. In every village were found a few am- bitious young fellows who had some real interest in cur- rent political issues, and who met in debate for debate's sake. They held spirited contests in argument, wit, and oratory.

The custom prevailed, too,, of attending public meetings of all kinds, and talking over the points made by the speakers. This was the way in which Abraham Lincoln began that brave education of his, which the events of the war completed, as he said. Dennis Hanks, when asked by Mr. Herndon how Lincoln managed to learn so much in Southern Indiana, replied : ** He learned by sight, scent, and hearing. He heard all that was said, and talked over and over the questions heard. Went to political and other speeches, and would hear all sides and opinions, talk them over, discuss them, agreeing or disagreeing."

The demand for orators and oratory brought forward the elocution teacher. The Philadelphia Portfolio, in

Political Oratory and Orators. 237

1815, announced that Mr. Ogilvie, of South Carolina Col- lege, had recently established a " new branch of educa- tion," and " had opened for himself a most splendid and useful career " as professor of eloquence. The new branch became popular in schools of all grades, was cultivated, also, in " exhibitions," thespian societies, and debating juntos.

A most practical adult school for instruction in the rights and duties of citizenship, and also an arena for the exhibition of argument and persuasive declamation, was afibrded by the circuit courts, which brought together, at their sessions, the active-minded men of a whole village or neighborhood. Judge James Hall, whose experience at the bar and on the bench, in the early days of Illinois, gave him ample opportunity to observe the facts, has left valuable testimony on this subject of the popular educa- tional influence of the courts. He says, in an article on " Western Character," written in 1833 : " Every man is a politician, and becomes, to some extent, acquainted with public aifairs. In some of the other states, few persons go into a court of law, unless they have business. It is not so here. Court week is a general holiday. ]!^ot only suitors, jurors, and witnesses, but all who can spare the time, brush up their coats, and brush down their horses, and go to court. A stranger is struck with the silence, the eagerness, and deep attention with which these rough sons of the forest listen to the arguments of the lawyers, evincing a lively interest in these proceedings, and thor- ough understanding of the questions discussed. Besides those alluded to, there are a variety of other public meet- ings. Every thing is done in this country in popular assemblies, all questions are debated in popular speeches, and decided by popular vote. These facts speak for them- selves. Not only must a vast deal of information be dis- seminated throughout a society thus organized, but the taste for popular assemblies and public harangues, which forms so striking a trait in the western character, is, in itself, a conclusive proof of a high degree of intelligence. Ignorant people would neither relish nor understand the

238 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

oratory which our people receive with enthusiastic ap- plause. Ignorant people would not attend such meetings, week after week, and day after day, with unabated inter- est ; nor would they thus go, and remain ignorant."

Intelligence and intellect increase, excited by the stim- ulus of social action and reaction. The camp-meeting, the Fourth of July celebration, the popular debate, the session of the circuit court, each, bringing many together for its special purpose, also became an occasion for the general interchange of ideas, and therefore a means of intellectual and moral culture. Even the horse race fur- nished a rough school for the betterment of the rude mass. Such, at least, was the opinion of bluff Governor Rey- nolds, the pioneer historian of Illinois, who compares the sports, of the turf to the Olympic games. He tells us that: "At these races almost every description of busi- ness was transacted. Horses were swapped and contracts made, debts paid and new ones contracted. Amusements of various species were indulged in. Foot racing, wrest- ling, and jumping were not neglected. Sometimes shoot- ing matches were executed ; so that, in old pioneer times, these horse races were names for meetings, where much other business, or pleasure, was transacted or experienced.

" Small kegs of whisky were often brought to the races — a keg in one end of a bag and a stone in the other, sometimes a keg in each end, was the manner of getting the liquor to the races. Old females, at times, had cakes and metheglin for sale."

Men's powers of thought and utterance were put to the test by the exercise of the democratic art known as " talk- ing politics." The leading themes on which opinion dif- fered in the very earliest pioneer period were, of course, those growing out of the reorganization of the national government, such as are discussed in the several volumes of the Federalist. The doctrines of Jefferson, as opposed to "Washington and Adams, excited much partisan talk. In educated circles, the writings of Gibbon, Hume, Vol- taire, Rousseau, Volney, were the theme of conversation, pro and con; while Tom Paine's utterances on politics or

Political Oratory and Orators, 239

religion were bandied about by the ignorant as well as the learned. The subject of slavery came up in the first ses- sion of Congress, and caused an exciting debate, though, at that time, all the states, except Massachusetts, held slaves. The War of 1812 almost obliterated the old polit- ical parties, Federal and Republican, and the administra- tion of Monroe, from 1817 to 1825, was called the Era of Good Feeling. Causes were at work, however, which soon again divided the people into distinct parties, under the leadership of John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jack- son.

Before the period in which party lines were strictly drawn, and politics became subject to the management of leaders and conventions, public officers were chosen on account of personal popularity rather than party affilia- tion. The pioneers voted iov men not measures; and the men, somewhat after the old Roman method, sought the individual ballots of the people, by visiting every voter, and being as " clever " as possible. In Illinois, at the be- ginning of the century, nearly all the citizens were Jack- son men, but they were divided into two factions, known as moderate Jackson men and "whole hog" Jackson men ; but in most parts of the West, as in the country at large, the spirit of partisanship drew a bold line of sepa- ration between Whig and Democrat. From that time, the Ohio Valley has been the arena of constant, intense party struggle. What an array of famous politicians the region has produced ! The excited state of partisan feel- ing in the early thirties is reflected amusingly by an inci- dent related of a Frenchman who, riding in a coach, in Kentucky, thus expressed himself to a fellow traveler: " Sare," said he, " I come to Amerique to see von grande nation enjoy de liberie. I look for find all broder, all vise. In my imagination I see von people dat vork to make the whole happy ; dat chose de vise men and de good men for ruler, and in de choice, act togeder like de friend. Mais, parbleu ! I find de same fight of dose in de power, and dose out of de power. I find de bribe, de quarrel, de hard word. I go to de hotel, and, ma foi, dey say, ha ! you

240 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

Jaqueson or Clay ? I get in de stage, and dej say 'gain, you sare, you Jaqueson or Clay ? Every-where dey vorry me to piece. Ah, Monsieur I you have von grande countrie, you have de people avec beaucoup de force, but vid all de liberti, I see much dat vould make me miserable. I shall go back to France, sare, dere we have von revolution, and all is still again ; here, it seems to me, revolution all de time. I shall go back to France, sare, tout a pres.'' '

As the country grew older, and the power of slavery increased, the Valley of the Ohio became the very tropic and battle- line of sectional interests and antagonisms. The atmosphere was surcharged, from Pittsburg to Cairo, with opposite electricities of passion and conviction. Every steamboat that plied up or down the Beautiful River carried in her cabin a committee of the whole, bur- dened with the responsibility of saving the country by compromise or by force. Well might Alexander Camp- bell prophecy, *' The time will come, when the controversy will be no longer between Whigs and Democrats, but be- tween North and South." " If the abolition excitement had stirred up Boston," wrote Mrs. Stowe, " it had con- vulsed Cincinnati." The pro-slavery advocates were not all on the south side of the Ohio, nor the anti-slavery agi- tators all on the north. In 1804, six Baptist ministers or- ganized a society of " Friends of Humanity," in Kentucky, declaring for the abolition of slavery. Henry Clay was an emancipationist, and Cassius M. Clay, in 1843, set up an anti-slavery paper, " The True American," in Lexing- ton. A committee of sixty, selected at a citizens' meet- ing, and acting under instructions of a resolution, took forcible possession of Clay's press, and shipped it to Cin- cinnati, to the care of January and Taylor. Clay entered suit on the charge of riot, but the jury brought in a ver- dict of "not guilty." James G. Birney, the first anti- slavery candidate for the presidency, a southern man, lib- erated his slaves, about forty in number, and, coming to Cincinnati, started an abolition paper, the Philanthropist.

* See Hairs Western Magazine.

Political Oratory and Orators. 241

He too was mobbed — his press, types, and other office property were taken out and sunk in the Ohio river. Prejudice ran so high that a large number of boarders left the Franklin House because Birney was received as a guest there.

Southern men of northern principles and northern men of southern principles were found on each side of Mason and Dixon's line, and their collisions led to persecution and even martyrdom. The " Underground Railroad " had many termini along the banks of the Ohio, and its agents were helped by friends and hounded by foes at every border station. Elijah P. Lovejoy was murdered in the free State of Hlinois for abolition sentiments, while slave-holding Kentucky produced Tom Corwin, the friend of the bondmen, and gave to the lN"orth Abraham Lincoln, the Emancipator.

It was the agitation of political questions, predomi- nantly of the slavery question, that developed the multi- tude of famous partisan orators for which the West is distin- guished. The English scholar and critic, John ]^ichol, in his comprehensive volume on "American Literature," ad- mits that, " in the eloquence of the pulpit the West has, from the first, excelled." He says, also, " The West has long been noted for fluency — often superfluency — of speech." These remarks, meant to apply to America in general, by Mr. Nichol, may be applied with special ap- propriateness to the Central West, in the time of which we are writing.

We have already considered the old-time patriotic ora- tory of the Fourth of July, much of which was for mere academic display of the "glittering generalities" of non- partisan politics ; but as time went on, speech-making be- came a practical art, and employed the ornaments of rhetoric, not so much for display as for the purpose of winning votes, gaining office, obtaining verdicts, and con- trolling legislation.

The ability to discuss themes of popular concern viva voce, was considered a prime requisite in civic training. 16

242 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

Perhaps the early patriots held the Roman conviction that it is every citizen's duty to learn how to fight and how to speak. They certainly cultivated the power of delivery as a patriotic duty, a mark of public efiiciency, not less than as a means of political distinction. The renown of the Adamses, Otis, Henry, Ames and Quincy, extending beyond their day and generation, kept alive the early pa- triotic sentiment, and furnished themes for later orators. The famous speeches of Calhoun, Clay, Webster and Choate, at the beginning of the century, stimulated every young politician to soar and every school-boy to declaim. The newspaper then had not subordinated the stump. Time has shown that of all these great speakers Webster was the greatest. The fact that his orations and speeches have become a part of permanent literature proves their intrinsic merit. Their aggregate influence, exercised through school-books alone upon the minds of American youth, must be vast.

Most distinguished of the orators of the Ohio Valley in the popular estimation was Henry Clay. The testi- mony of his contemporaries, both friends and opponents, is that his magnetic power, as a public speaker, was irre- sistible. But the cool verdict of criticism as to the qual- ity and style of his preserved speeches does not sustain the popular decision of fifty years ago. A recent careful and judicious writer has said that Clay's " speeches are too often tawdry and inelegant. Their cheap finery makes their bad English all the more apparent. What is worse, the underlying thought is, too often, neither profound nor valuable."

We should bear in mind that by far the greater number of eloquent political speeches addressed directly to the people, like the thrilling sermons of the camp-meeting, were never consigned to print or to writing. We are obliged to judge of Clay and others, not by their most moving efforts, but by such speeches as are preserved in congressional records. In selecting a specimen to illus- trate the average style of Henry Clay, I have chosen a passage which also conveys interesting particulars in his

Political Oratory and Orators, 243

own personal career. The extract is taken from the statesman's valedictory addressed to the Senate in 1842.

" Every- where throughout the extent of this great con- tinent I have had cordial, warm-hearted, faithful and de- voted friends who have known me, loved me, and ap- preciated my motives. To them, if language were capable of fully expressing my acknowledgments, I would now offer all the return I have the power to make for their genuine, disinterested, and persevering fidelity and devoted attachment, the feelings and sentiments of a heart over- flowing with never-ceasing gratitude. If, however, I fail in suitable language to express my gratitude to them for all the kindness they have shown me, what shall I say, what can I say at all commensurate with those feelings ot gratitude with which I have been inspired by the state whose humble representative I have been in this cham- ber ? [Here Mr. C.'s feelings overpowered him, and he proceeded with deep sensibility and difficult utterance.]

" I emigrated from Virginia to the State of Kentucky now nearly forty-five years ago ; I went as an orphan boy who had not yet attained the age of majority ; who had never recognized a father's smile, nor felt his warm caresses; poor, penniless, without the favor of the great, with an imperfect and neglected education, hardly suffi- cient for the ordinary business and common pursuits of life ; but scarce had I set my foot upon her generous soil when I was embraced with parental fondness, caressed as though I had been a favorite child, and patronized with liberal and unbounded munificence. From that period the highest honors of the state have been freely bestowed upon me ; and when, in the darkest hour of calamity and detraction, I seemed to be assailed by all the rest of the world, she interposed her broad and impenetrable shield, repelled the poisoned shafts that were aimed for my de- struction, and vindicated my good name from every malig- nant and unfounded aspersion. I return with indescrib- able pleasure, to linger a while longer, and mingle with the warm-hearted and whole-souled people of that state ; and when the last scene shall forever close upon me, I hope

244 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

that my earthly remains will be laid under her green sod with those of her gallant and patriotic sons."

Kentucky has produced a multitude of political orators scarcely inferior to Clay. Among those who, in the formative period of our history, made the force of their intellect and knowledge felt by the mastery of language in courts of justice, on the floors of congress, or from the stump, were George !Ni icholas, born 1743, died 1799 ; John Breckenridge, born 1756, died 1806; John Rowan, born 1783, died 1843; William T. Barry, born 1783, died 1835; and John J. Crittenden, born 1786, died 1863. These all occupied high positions in state and nation, and were of the mighty thunderers of their day. Barry and Critten- den were considered tit colleagues of Clay, and were com- petitors with him at the bar. Barry's eloquence is de- scribed as of that fiery and vehement character so much applauded by our ancestors. Judge Jesse Bledsoe, of Lexington, was another orator of note.

Coming down to later years, we find frequent mention, in political records, of the commanding eloquence of the Marshalls, Thomas F. and Humphrey ; Richard H. Meni- fee, after whom Menifee county is named ; Joseph Ilarfiil- ton Daveiss, the eminent lawyer and judge who spoke against Burr in 1837 ; the Breckenridges, especially John Cabell Breckenridge, Vice-President and U. S. Senator ; and also Benjamin Hardin and General John Pope.

An orator not inferior to Clay in his ability to sway and fascinate an audience, and more skillful than he in literary art, was Thomas Corwin.

Though born in Kentucky [July 29, 1794], Corwin was by adoption an Ohio man, and Ohio people will long con- tinue to revere his name. Though he himself said, with melancholy self-depreciation, near the end of his life, " I am but a tradition !" it was not so. Such a man does not pass quickly into oblivion. The remembrance of Corwin*s humor preserves liis name as in a precious balm. The recollection of his humanity and love of liberty keeps his fame fresh in history. This great and good man, whose lips nature touched with the living tire of eloquence,

Political Oratory and Orators. 245

began his public career, as a lawyer, in 1817. He went to Congress in 1830, and was chosen governor of Ohio in 1840. Subsequently he w^as United States Senator, Secre- tary of the Treasury, ancl Minister to Mexico. His speeches are now but little read, yet they possess the high- est order of excellence as to style and substance. A most delightful sketch of the life of Corwin has been written by Hon. A. P. Russell.^

Of the many striking incidents related by Mr. Russell, none is more impressive than that of Corwin's making a speech at Lebanon, Ohio, to his old friends, in defense of the position he had taken in Congress against the prose- cution of the Mexican War. The speech was not re- ported, but his auditors pronounced it the greatest orator- ical achievement of his life. Russell says : ^' The audience dissolved of itself, swarming over the streets and side- walks, nearly every auditor going his own way, alone. Schenk and Stevenson walked down the street together, but (]id not speak a word for a block or two. All at once Schenk ejaculated : '^ What a speech !" " Yes," responded Stevenson, with Kentucky emphasis, " what a speech ! I was born and bred in a land of orators*; have been ac- customed all my life to hear such giants as Clay and Menifee, but, blessed be Grod ! I never heard a speech like that !"

Mr. Russell tells us there was not a humorous word in this speech — '•' It was grave, sober, serious, tragic." The same can hardly be said of any other of his speeches, not even of that stern, dignified, and stately one of February 11, 1847, in the Senate, which contained the sentence that destroyed his political influence — the thousand times repeated sen-

^ Addison Peale Russell, of "Wilmington, Ohio, born and bred in the Buckeye State, after retiring from an honorable career of public serv- ice to his state and nation, has devoted himself for the last twenty years or more to reading and authorship. His reputation is estab- lished upon enduring foundations, as a "man of letters," in the true sense. His published works, besides the *' Sketch of Corwin," include "Half Tints," "Library Notes," "Characteristics," "A Club of One," and "In a Club Corner," the last four belonging to a species of pure literature, mi generis, and altogether delightful.

246 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

tence, " If I were a Mexican, I would tell you, * Have you not room in your own country to bury your dead men ? If you come into mine, we will greet you with bloody hands, and welcome you to hospitable graves.' "

" Tom " Corwin's humor was of that high order which is found associated with pathos and poetic sensibility. The fact that he deprecated his own reputation as a laughter-causer, proves the superior delicacy of his na- ture. The mere clown, buffoon, or " popular humorist," experiences no reactive compunctions, feels no self-disgust or humiliation in playing the part of the harlequin. Cor- win stooped to conquer by exercising his wonderful faculty of mimicry and ludicrous illustration, much as Lincoln did when he carried a point in statesmanship by telling an apt anecdote.

The long list of Ohio's distinguished orators is graced by the name of Thomas Ewing, once almost as popular as Corwin. He was born in 1789, in the State of Vir- ginia. In boyhood he came to Athens, Ohio, and there and afterward at Lancaster, Ohio, won his way, by hard work, to power and distinction. Ewing was the first graduate of Ohio University, the oldest college west of the Alleghenies and north of the Ohio river. Like Cor- win, he began his career as a lawyer, being admitted to the bar in 1816. He was elected to the United States Senate in 1830. He was appointed Secretary of the Treasury by Harrison, and Secretary of the Interior by Taylor. Ewing has often been instanced as a brilliant example of the class called self-made men. His oratory, though not so fervid as that of Clay, nor so entertaining as that of Corwin, was sound, practical, and persuasive. General James H. Baker said of Ewing, that " He was stately and superb. His speeches were as dignified as his person was erect and noble. He was like a Roman Senator, in the gravity of his discourse and the decorum of his style."

Previous to the years in which the slavery question be- came the customary theme of debate in Congress, an Ohio Senator — one who should not be forgotten — threw down the gage of battle, in the name of emancipation

Political Oratory and Orators. 247

for the black man, and read to Henry Clay a higher gos- pel of liberty than had hitherto been preached in public. That courageous man was Thomas Morris, born in the auspicious year 1776, whose plain eloquence was the in- spiration of men like Garrison and Chase. He died in 1830.

Thomas Lyon Hamer, born 1800, died 1846, a famed Ohio lawyer, was an orator of peculiar energy and direct- ness. Reminiscences of his powerful pleadings float in the air of Southern Ohio. Judge John McLean, born 1785, died 1861, who trained his vigorous native ability in a debating society, when young, was distinguished for solid and convincing speech, at the bar and on the bench. Hon. Bellamy Storer, born 1796, died 1875, impressive and stately in manner, profound in attainment, was one of the most potent, intellectual, and moral powers of an event- ful generation. Joshua li. Giddings, born 1795, died 1864, and Benjamin F. Wade, born 1800, died 1864— what American has not heard of their powers in debate, their intense zeal for the principles they championed, and their honorable triumphs in the lists of argument? Samuel Galloway, born 1811, died 1872, another valiant knight in the tournament of ideas, knew how to use his tongue as a lance. He was a great lawyer, with that command of language which controls juries; he had wit and humor to abet knowledge and logic. Salmon P. Chase, born 1808, died 1873; bold, earnest, aggressive, yet composed and sedate in deportment upon the platform or parliamentary floor, was an orator who, like Gladstone, made statistics eloquent. John Brough, born 1811, died 1865, Ohio's " war governor," is said to have been, in his earlier years, " a torrent of eloquence." Whitelaw Reid said Brough's " style was clear, fluent, and logical, while at times he was impassioned." The Hon. Henry Stanbery, born 1814, died 1883, possessed perhaps the surest and strongest element of conviction and persuasion, the eloquence of perfect lucidity. Many other eminent Ohio orators might be named, as Robert C. Schenk, John A. Bingham, Charles Anderson, James A. Garfield, Lewis D. Campbell, Durbin

248 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

Ward — but enougli have been mentioned for the illustra- tion of our subject.

Coming into the field of political action somewhat later than Kentucky and Ohio, the states of Indiana and Illi- nois, like their sister commonwealths, produced each a series of orators of more than local distinction. Indiana has a large share in the early history of President W. H. Har- rison, one of the most effective public speakers of his time. The name of Hon. Richard W. Thompson (born 1809), the prominent Whig politician, stands, perhaps, at the top of the list of the Indiana orators of the ante-bellum period. Other exceptionally eloquent men were Hon. Joseph Albert Wright (born 1810, died 1867), Hon. Tilgham A. Howard, Hon. Joseph G. Marshall, and the "brilliant but erratic " Hon. .Edward A. Hannegan. I^otable in the history of their state and nation, for com- manding powers of speech, are Hon. J. G. Dunn, Hon. Caleb B. Smith, and Hon. Oliver II. Smith. The names of Hon. H. S. Lane, Hon. David Turpie, and Hon. D. W. Voorhees could not be omitted from the catalogue of In- diana orators. Associated with the war period is the great name of Governor Oliver P. Morton, a very forcible speaker; and of the no less famous Democratic leader, Hon. Thomas A. Hendricks (born 1819, died 1885), Vice- President of the United States. The. Hon. Schuyler Col- fax won a reputation for eloquent speech, not only on the political rostrum, but also on the lecture platform.

Illinois furnishes an array of illustrious politicians and lawyers, many of whom are celebrated for oratorical ability. The intensely exciting political discussions wIi'k-Ii pre- ceclcd the civil war brought into conspicuous luoiniiionce two j)owi'rful debaters whose ''stuni])" j^poeches weiv }»ub- lished in pamphlet form and distiibutid all over the United States. The \\ (.i.l ( ..mhais of Stephen A. Douglas versus Abraham Lin< <»lii w.mc <lianiatic encounters, tour- naments of argument, i nil ^t- ..f wit. Douglas, the "Little Giant," was a Ht:i!. Hmm w.ithy of the steel of "Old Abe the Rail Splitter." But the latter was tlic born orntor.

The descriptions of Lincoln's oratory by thotie whu ac-

Political Oratory and Orators. 249

tually heard it usually dwell upon the effect rather than the style of the speaker's eloquence. Gaunt, ungainly, and peculiar, as were Lincoln's form and features, odd and awkward as were his gestures, we are told that audiences listening to his w^ords thought but little of his personal appearance or manner, but were interested to absorption by his ideas. He always had something important and forcible to say, and said it directly and simply. His elo- quence was in the substance, not the sound. And yet the form of his utterance was nearly perfect. The Gettysburg oration and the famous inaugurals were " born great." They are literature. They may be printed side by side with the choicest passages of Webster or Burke, and not suffer in the comparison.

The Lecture Platform.

In this and the preceding chapter, the subject of pulpit eloquence and political oratory has been treated very dis- cursively, but, perhaps, with sufficient method to show how large a part popular speaking played in forming and con- trolling opinion in the Ohio Valley, from the very begin- ning of western institutions. It remains to add a few sentences about another species of oral literature — the general lecture.

With the establishment of colleges, and schools of law and medicine, came, necessarily, courses of didactic lec- tures. In the several departments of Transylvania Uni- versity, Lexington, Kentucky, such men as Holley, Bledsoe, Caldwell, Drake, made their teaching attractive by em- ploying the arts of line delivery. Henry Clay himself was at one time a professor of law in Lexington.

When the Western Museum was organized in Cincin- nati, just after the War of 1812, a chief attraction offered by its trustees to the public was a course of scientific lec- tures. Mons. Dorfeuille, the manager of the museum, gave many lectures on birds, minerals, and other objects illustrative of natural history. Prof. T. J. Matthews de- livered an address before the museum society, confuting Captain Symmes's theory of Concentric Spheres.

250 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

In the autumn of 1828 Dr. John Locke, an 'eminent teacher, gave in Cincinnati a course of lectures on natural philosophy. By request he gave also a discourse on the utility of mechanics' institutes, which led to the incor- poration of the Ohio Mechanics' Institute, February 9, 1829. In the Winter of 1833-4, Calvin E. Stowe lectured before the Mechanics' Institute on the " History of Letters," and Judge James Hall gave an address on the " Import- ance of Forming a First Class Library in Cincinnati."

The Young Men's Mercantile Library Association was e^ganized in 1835, and, like the Mechanics' Institute, it employed the popular lecture as a means of interesting the public in matters of polite culture. Under the aus- pices of this body, many of the most able public lecturers of the country appeared before Cincinnati audiences. Among the more distinguished of these were Robert Dale Owen, Horace Greeley, Alexander Campbell, Cassius M. Clay, Eev. Henry Giles, Prof. 0. M. Mitchel, Park Benja- min, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Otway Curry, John G. Saxe, E. H. Chapin, E. P. Whipple, Orville Dewey, Thomas Starr King, George W. Curtis, Park Godwin, Bayard Taylor, Rev. John Pierpont, H. W. Bellows, 0. W. Holmes, George P. Marsh, and Wendell Phillips. In 1857, Ed- ward Everett delivered, his celebrated oration on Wash- ington, before the association, free of charge.

When, on November 9, 1843, the corner-stone of the Cincinnati Observatory was laid, an oration on astronomy .jvas delivered by John Quincy Adams — the last speech of importance made by the " old man eloquent." Many brilliant lectures were given in the West, by 0. M. Mitchel, on astronomy and other scientific themes. Another very distinguished lecturer on physical and chemical science was Prof. Daniel Vaughan, the " peripatetic " philosopher of the Ohio Valley.

The Herald of Truth, for February, 1848, has the fol- lowing editorial item :

" There is at this time an unusual degree of intellectual activity in Cincinnati. The Young Men's Mercantile Li- brary Association have a course of very able lectures iu

Political Oratory and Orators, 251

progress which are attended by a large portion of the first minds in the city. Then there is a course of lectures on early American eloquence, by Rev. E. L. Magoon ; on con- stitutional history, By William Green, Esq.; and on the duties and responsibilities of the American citizen, by Eev. C. B. Boynton : which aftbrd a rich treat to the in- tellectual and moralman. Then we have a debate on phrenology and philosophy, by and between Dr. IN". L. Rice and Prof. J. R. Buchanan, which call out large crowds to hear great principles discussed, such as — whether phrenology teaches a system of fatalism, and whether philosophy and Christianity are consistent with each other. Then we have recently had a course of lec- tures by F. W. Thomas, author of the popular novel, " Clinton Bradshaw," on those illuminated Methodist seers, Wesley, Whitfield, and Somerfield, which attracted so much attention as to induce a request for their repetition. These are only some of the most prominent of the sub- stantial mental doings of the city at present. There is nothing so important as keeping up a high mental ac- tivity, so that the great cause of truth may be advanced, goodness increased, and happiness promoted. This is, in- deed, the only true mode of procuring reform — get the mind right, and human institutions will become what they should be."

Early in the fifties, Horace Mann came to Ohio as presi- ident of Antioch College ; and, great apostle of education and culture that he was, he spoke in many cities and towns, to crowded audiences, on the great moral and intellectual questions, not of the hour, but of all time. His most cele- brated discourse, *' To Young Men," took strong hold on the memory and the conduct of its numberless hearers and readers.

The Genius of the West, for November, 1854, contains the following :

"We are informed that nearly every town in the West will this winter have one or more courses of lectures. That committees may have an ample list to select from,

252 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

we quote from the New York Tribune the list of eastern lecturers :

" Ralph Waldo Emerson, Concord, Mass.; Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, Brooklyn, L. I.; Rev. Edwin H. Chapin, New York city ; Rev. H. Giles, Rockport, Me.; John G. Saxe, Burlington, Vt.; Bayard Taylor, New York city; Edwin P. Whipple, Boston, Mass.; Park Benjamin, Guil- ford, Ct.; Wendell Phillips, Boston, Mass.; Geo. W. Cur- tis. New York city ; Rev. T. Starr King, Boston, Mass.; William Elder, Philadelphia, Pa.; Parke Godwin, New York city; Rev. John Pierpont, Medford, Mass.; Rt. Rev. Alonzo Potter, Philadelphia, Pa.; Josiah Quincy, Jr., Boston, Mass.; Rev. Jose^jh P. Thompson, New York city; William H. C. Hosmer, Avon, N. Y.; Henry D. Thoreau, Concord, Mass."

Now, from the Sandusky Register, we quote a list of western lecturers :

"Wm. D. Gallagher, Louisville; Hon. Bellamy Storer, Cincinnati ; Judge E. Lane, Sandusky ; Prof. Lorin An- drews, Gambier; Rev. A. A. Livermore, Cincinnati; Horace Mann, Yellow Springs, O.; Cassius M. Clay, Ky.; S. D. Harris, Columbus; Prof. Asa D. Lord, Columbus; D. W. Clark, D.D., Cincinnati ; Coates Kinney, Cincin- nati ; James W. Taylor, State Librarian, Columbus ; Prof. O. M. Mitchel, Cincinnati ; General S. F. Cary, College Hill; Jas. A. Briggs, Cleveland; Wm. T. Coggeshall, Cin- cinnati ; Prof. St. John, Hudson ; Prof. Kirtland, Cleve- land ; Rev. J. W. McClung, Indianapolis ; S. S. Cox, Esq., Columbus ; Prof. Hamilton Smith, Cleveland ; L. A. Hine, Loveland, 0.; H. Clay Pate, Cincinnati.

"According to the Tribune, prices for the eastern list must be ^quoted' at from $40 to $75 for a single lecture; and, according to the Register, * quotations ' for the west- ern list will range from $15 to $25. In the two lists there are * scope and verge' for the gratification of every taste as well as for the capacity of every purse."

In October, 1855, the Genius published another list of western lecturers, containing the names of Dr. Edward Thompson, Delaware, 0.; Dr. I. J. Allen, College Hill,

Political Oratory and Orators. 253

0.; Samuel Galloway, Columbus, 0.; James A. Briggs, Cleveland, 0.; Rev. Sidney Dyer, Indianapolis ; Rev. S. W. Fisher, Cincinnati ; Prof. Thoms, Cleveland ; J. H. Baker, Chillicotlie, 0.; Prof. Jos. R. Buchanan, Cincinnati ; W. H. Gibson, Tiffin, 0.; John C. Zachos, Yellow Springs, 0.; Prof. C. B. Jocelyn, Centerville, Ind.; D. Carlyle MacCloy, Piqua, 0.; 0. J. Victor, Sandusky, 0.; C. N. Olds, Circle ville, 0.; Rev. D. W. Clark, Cincinnati ; Donald MacLeod, Cincinnati ; Alphonso Wood, College Hill, 0.

254 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

CHAPTER VIII/

PLANTING OF LITERARY INSTITUTIONS AT VINCENNES, INDIANA— LIBRARIES, SCHOOLS, AND THE PRESS.

The beginning of literary culture at Vincennes, and, I may say, in the Indiana Territory, dates from the organ- ization of the territory in the year 1800. Before that, very little, if any thing, was done in the way of encour- aging literature. The inhabitants of this place were a mixture of Canadian settlers and Creoles, resulting from the intermarriage of the Canadian French with the native Indian races. The Canadian settlers were generally well educated, but devoted all their time and attention to trad- ing and making money. Some of these Canadian traders and the French commandants of the " Old Post" have left behind them writings and documents which fully attest that they were men of culture. Such were Francois Morgan de Vincenne, who built the first fort here in the year 1702, St. Ange Paul Gamelin, and many others I could mention. But they did nothing toward laying the foundation of any institution or organization designed to spread knowledge among the people.

The Catholic priests who resided here and ministered from about the year 1709 until the present time, as pastors of St. Francis Xavier church, were all learned and edu- cated men, and did all they could to educate the youth of the place. But their efforts were poorly seconded by the people. Benedict I. Flaget, who was the pastor here in 1792, and who afterward became widely known as bishop of Bardstown, Kentucky, may be said to be the first who moved in this direction with success, by establishing here

' For this chapter I am indebted to Henry S. Cautborn, Esq., of Vin- cennes, Indiana. — W. H. V.

Literary Institutions at Vincennes, 255

schools free for both boys and girls, without respect to re- ligious belief, and which schools so inaugurated by him in 1835 have been continued by the Catholic Church here ever since ; and these parochial free schools are now in a flourishing condition, having all modern facilities for edu- cational purposes, and rivaling the public schools in rank, attendance, and in every way. These free schools so es- tablished by Bishop Brute, and successfully continued by his successors, were the only ones available to the public until the present public system was inaugurated under the present constitution of the State of Indiana, about the year 1854.

Bishop Brute was a pious and saintly man, and devoted his entire life to benefit and ameliorate the condition of his fellow-men. After establishing the free schools above referred to, he was preparing to found in this place a free industrial school for the education of the young men of the place in the useful arts and trades. This was cer- tainly a novel undertaking, and the first attempt, at least in the ^orth-west Territory, to establish such a school. He had about completed his arrangements for the founda- tion of this school, when his useful career was terminated by his death in the year 1839. His successor did not pros- ecute the work and carry out his intentions in this matter, and, consequently, such a useful school was never actually established.

Bishop Brute was a learned man and also a hard student. The Catholic Church here, when he came as bishop, pos- sessed the foundation of a library, containing many valu- able manuscripts and old church records in several diflfer- ent languages, throwing much light on the early history of Vincennes. The valuable records and writings in the church library were neglected and never examined by any one, so far as the public knows, until he came here. He diligently examined and studied these manuscripts and old church records, and commenced the publication of a series of articles in the Western Sun newspaper on the early history of the church and town, which he continued up to the time of his death, on June 26, 1839. These

256 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

communications of Bishop Brute are the source from which Judge Law derived much of the matter contained in a celebrated address on Vincennes, and they threw a flood of light on all matters connected with the early his- tory of Vincennes. It was from these articles of Bishop Brute, published in the Western Sun during the years 1838 and 1839, .that the citizens of Vincennes were first advised how the town itself acquired its name.

The library of St. Francis Xavier church above spoken of is, without doubt, the oldest foundation in the entire North-west. Its foundation commenced with that of the church itself, as the church records constitute a valuable part of it. The church was founded about the same time the fort was built, in the year 1702. It is recorded in the Quebec Annals that a Jesuit father, as a preliminary step in the matter of building the fort, first offered up the holy sacrifice of the mass before the oflicers and soldiers who came to build the fort and many thousands of assembled savages. This was in accordance with French usage on commencing any important work or undertaking.

The records of the church, as preserved in the library, go back only to the year 1749. The book in which they are recorded is without cover or title-page, and bears evident marks of mutilation, and that something preceding has been torn off. The first entry in the record, as it appears at present, is the marriage, on June 21, 1749, of Julian Trattier, of Montreal, Canada, with Josette Marie, a Creole half-breed. The second entry is the baptism of an Indian child, named John Baptiste Siapichagane, on the 25th June, 1749. Both of these entries in the record are in beautiful handwriting in the Latin language, as all the church records are, and signed by Sebastian Louis Meurin, a Jesuit missionary, who was pastor of the church here at that time. These church records are the foundation or corner-stone of the church library, which therefore dates, beyond question, to June 21, 1749, and therefore it out- ranks, in the matter of antiquity, any similar institution in the North-west. This library has from time to time been enlarged and enriched by additions secured through

Literary Institutions at Vincennes. 257

the four deceased bishops, who all resided here, and died and were buried here. It was also added to by donations from the many learned pastors who have been stationed here, and from many other sources, until at present it con- tains as many as ten thousand rare and valuable volumes in four or five different languages, and many of them in manuscript form and found nowhere else. The library has a large and substantial brick building erected especially for its use. The bishops of the diocese who resided and died here were all natives of France, and some of them were descended from rich, influential, and noble families, and particularly Bishop De La Hailaudiere and Bishop De St. Palais. They all made many trips to France to collect funds, and otherwise to aid the diocese over which they presided ; and on account of the influence and standing of their families in France, as well as on account of their own merit and influence, they were able to secure many of the rare and valuable books now found in the church library.

But, notwithstanding what I have said, it may be taken as undoubtedly true that the great mass of the population here before the organization of the territorial government, and for many years afterward, were illiterate, not being able either to read or write.

On the 7th day of May, 1800, Indiana Territory was created by act of Congress, and William Henry Harrison was appointed the first territorial governor, and the capi- tal of the territory was fixed at Yincennes. The place where the capital was thus located was well known already throughout the country, and ranked as the most important place in the territory, which, at the time, embraced the entire North-west Territory outside of Ohio. The settle- ment of Vineennes may be said to date from the fall of the year 1702. It had been visited often prior to that date by fur-traders and Jesuit missionaries; but, in the fall of 1702, Francois Morgan De Yincenne came here from Detroit with French troops, and built the first fort here. This was one of that chain of forts by which the 17

258 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

French government designed to connect their Canadian possessions on the north with their southern possessions on the Gulf of Mexico. It was that historic fort which was afterward known as Fort Sackville, and which was, on February 24, 1779, taken, with Virginia troops, by George Rogers Clark, from the English under Hamilton, and which capture is one of the important events in the his- tory of the North-west Territory. About the same time the fort was built, Saint Francis Xavier Church was founded here by Jesuit missionaries, and it has continued in an almost unbroken succession to the present day. The records of this church, still preserved, go back in a con- nected series, as I have stated, to the year 1749. The records prior to that date have been destroyed, and, in all probability, in consequence of the death of the resident pastor of the church in 1734, who was Father Senat. In 1734 he accompanied De Yincenne on the unfortunate ex- pedition against the Chickasaw Indians, as the spiritual adviser of the troops. The French met with a severe re- pulse in an engagement with the Indians, and the troops were almost all killed, and both Father Senat and De Yin- cenne were captured by the victorious Indians, and, after being cruelly tortured, were put to death in the most in- human manner.

The population of Yincennes at the time the territorial government was organized was composed almost exclu- sively of Canadian French settlers and half-breed Creoles. But the organization of the territorial government and the location of the capital here greatly added to the ad- vancement and prosperity of the town, and its population rapidly increased. Aspiring and ambitious men came quickly in great numbers from all the old states, but more especially from New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Yirginia, the Carolinas, and Kentucky.

Governor Harrison, soon after his appointment, came to this place with his family and located here, and erected what may be called, considering the date, a princely man- sion. It is still standing, in a good state of preservation, as one of the few remaining monuments of territorial

Literary Institutions at Vincennes. 259

days, and is one of the most convenient and substantial brick residences of Vincennes.

With the advent of the governor and the sessions of the territorial legislature and the sessions of the territorial courts, some of the men who afterward acquired fame and distinction as jurists, legislators, and educators in the ITorth-west came and located here, and here began their brilliant career. Among these I mention Alexander Buckner, afterward United States senator from Missouri ; Thomas Randolph, the United States district attorney for the territory ; Zachary Taylor, afterward President of the United States, whose daughter, who afterward became the wife of Jefferson Davis, was born here ; Thomas F. Richardson, of the United States army, who was killed October 13, 1813, by Irvin Wallace in a duel; Walter Taylor, one of the first United States senators from Indi- ana; Benjamin Parke, afterward delegate in Congress and judge of the United States District Court ; Judge Johnson, Edward A. Hannegan, who married here, John Law, John Ewing, Moses Tabbs, a near relative of Charles Carroll, of Carrolton, Judge Blackford, George R. C. Sul- livan, Thomas Posey, Jonathan Doty, John Gibson, Will- iam Prince, John Rice Jones, and many others whose names are inseparably connected with the settlement and civilization of the great states that have since been carved oat of what at first constituted the Indiana Territory.

In 1804 Elihu Stout came here from Lexington, Ken- tucky, and commenced the publication of the Western Sun newspaper. This was the first newspaper printed in the Indiana Territory, and its publication has been contin- ued, with only slight interruptions, to the present time, and it is now one of the most influential newspapers in this section. Its establishment was attended with great difficulty. The material for the paper was transported from Louisville, Kentucky, down the Ohio river and up the Wabash, in what were then called " piroques." For many years after, the supplies for the paper were brought here on pack horses over the old buffalo trace. The first issue of the paper appeared on the fourth day of July,

260 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

1804. Mr. Stout was elected territorial printer, and was continued in that position as long as the capital remained here and for some years after. He published all the acts of the territorial legislature and the official documents of the territorial government, and, in book form, two compilations of all the territorial laws. All these publica- tions are in existence at the present time. A file of each number of the paper was carefully preserved, and each volume, containing the issues of a year, substantially bound. These files of the paper which have been pre- served date from 1806 to 1845, when Mr. Stout sold the establishment, on being appointed postmaster here. Mr. Stout was my grandfather, and from him I have in my possession the files of the paper. The issues from 1804 to 1806 were destroyed by fire in the latter year. The old files of this paper contain a vast fund of historic matter, throwing light upon public questions during territorial days. They also contain, in every number, able com- munications, written by some of the eminent men who lived here at that time, upon all subjects of public interest. It was the only medium through which they could reach the public. Its columns were free and open to all, and discussions "pro and con of all questions were permitted and can be found in its columns. At that time Yincennes may be said to have concentrated in its population all the literary culture and talent of the Indiana Territory.

As early as 1806, the talented and aspiring young men who had settled here established what they called a " Thespian Society," and gave entertainments as often as once a week and sometimes oftener. These histrionic ex- hibitions were liberally patronized by the citizens and were well attended, and were very entertaining, instruct- ive, and successful. The society continued to exist and flourish until several years after the admission of the state into the Union, and with a waning existence until as late as 1880. All the younger members of the bar, the sur- geons and officers of the army, the medical profession, and many of the merchants and those engaged in the trades took part in these literary performances. A programme

Literary Institutions at Vincennes. 261

of the play and the cast of characters was printed by the editor of the Sun, who also took part in the performances. I have files of many of these printed programmes.

In 1804 congress passed an act setting aside an entire township of land, for a seminary of learning in the In- diana Territory. The many able men who then made Vincennes their home, were not slow to take advantage of this liberal grant on the part of congress. In 1806 they procured an act to be passed by the territorial legis- lature, locating the proposed institution here, under the name and style of the " Vincennes University." A portion of the land in the township donated by congress was sold, and with the proceeds a large and commodious brick edifice Avas erected for the university. The territorial act named the board of trustees to manage and control the university, and constituted them a corporation with perpetual succession, and also gave them the power to fill any vacancy that might occur in the board from any cause. This board organized by electing Governor Har- rison president, and the institution at once started on its career of usefulness with the brighest prospects. All branches of education, including a classical course, were taught. This institution is now in a flourishing condi- tion, and every year is sending out graduates, thoroughly educated, and fully prepared to enter on the battle of life. It ranks with any similar institution in the West, but it has not had a prosperous and continued existence. It was hampered and suspended in its work in consequence of the state legislature attempting to change its location to Bloomington, and to divert the endowment of land do- nated by congress for its maintainance and support. But after a long and expensive litigation with varying results, in both the Supreme Court of Indiana, and the United States Supreme Court, the Vincennes University finally triumphed, and started anew on its career, and will not, it is to be hoped, be again 'interfered with. It is worthy of note, that in this litigation the state courts, in all their decisions, were adverse to the Vincennes University, and

262 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

its ultimate success was obtained through the decisions of United States Supreme Court.

In consequence of the immense advantages accruing to Vincennes as the capital of the territory, and the seat of the territorial courts, a large number of able lawyers from all the old states came to this place, and, by the time the' territorial capital was removed to Corydon, in 1812, Vin- cennes possessed the most gifted, eloquent, and able bar in the West. Among the many distinguished lawyers who settled and practiced here, I name the following : General W. Johnson, afterward circuit judge ; John Johnson, one of the first judges of thp Supreme Court; Isaac Blackford, also a judge of the Supreme Court, who obtained dis- tinction by his many and able decisions on the bench, but still more and lasting fame, as the author of the eight volumes of the decisions of that court that bear his name ; Thomas Randolph, a member of the distin- guished Virginia family of that name; Jacob Call, after- ward a member of congress, and judge of the Circuit Court when he died ; David Hart ; Samuel Judah, at one time United States District Attorney ; Charles Dewey ; William Prince ; John Rice Jones ; Henry Vanderburgh ; Benjamin Parke ; James Blake ; George R. C. Sullivan ; John Law, and Alexander Buckner. They organized and maintained, until a period as late as 1830, a bar association. Many of these continued to reside here until their death ; but many left Vincennes after starting on their career, and sought other homes in the North- west, and acquired fame and distinction as statesmen or jurists.

In 1808, the citizens of this place, realizing its historic importance, and desirous of preserving and perpetuating a lasting record of it, organized a society which they named the " Vincennes Historical and Antiquarian So- ciety." This society numbered among its members all the able and cultured residents of the place. Great inter- est was taken in this organization for many years, and its work was prosperous. Regular meetings were held, and occasionally lectures upon historic subjects connected with

Literary Institutions at Vincennes. 263

the early settlement of the place and the entire !N'orth- west were delivered under the auspices of this society. It was on such an occasion, on February 22, 1839, that Judge Law delivered his celebrated address on the Antiquity and Early Settlement of Yincennes. John Ewing and many others also delivered addresses before this society. All these addresses were published at the time in the Western Sun newspaper, but were never compiled and published in book form. This society created a cabinet of all kinds of historic relics, and during its active and healthy exist- ence had accumulated quite a numerous collection. These relics of historic value were kept in a room in the old " Town Hall," for many years after the society practically ceased to exist. But, upon the organization of the pres- ent city government in 1856, when this room was needed for municipal purposes, these valuable and interesting cu- riosities were rudely and carelessly thrown into an old garret. Among the many valuable historic treasures of this society which were thus carelessly and wantonly thrown aside, was an oil painting of George Rogers Clark, painted from life. It had been presented by General Clark's namesake, George Rogers Clark Sullivan, who was my great-uncle on my mother's side. This historic and valuable painting was luckily preserved from total destruction by one of our old citizens, who recognized it and knew its value, and the same is now deposited in the archives of the Yincennes University, where many other relics of the collection of this society are preserved.

In the year 1808, the " Yincennes Library" was founded, and incorporated by an act of the territorial legislature. This library was highly favored by the cultured men who then resided here, and they all liberally contributed to it rare and valuable works upon law, philosophy, medicine, history, fiction, and general literature. With these con- tributions the Yincennes Library, from its very inception, possessed a valuable catalogue of between three and four thousand volumes. The library was not increased as to the number of its volumes after the state was admitted to the Union. It was, however, a very prosperous institu-

264 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

from its foundation for many years, but was gradually permitted to expire for want of interest. Symmes Har- rison was, for a number of years, the librarian, and he took a deep interest in the library as long as he resided here. His father donated to it many volumes, as also did David Hart, Moses Tabbs, John Ewing, Walter Taylor, John Rice Jones, Irvin Wallace, and many others. It practically went out of existence in 1860. Many of the valuable volumes that were once in this library were car- ried off after the library was neglected, and can not be found. The volumes that remained were given over to the care and keeping of the Vincennes University, and are being cared for by the trustees of that institution.

In this connection I will further state that, in 1836, the young men of Vincennes formed a library association under the name of the " Youth's Library of Vincennes." This was very popular for many years, and a large num- ber of volumes of standard works were purchased. But interest in it waned, and it passed out of existence in a few years.

In 1850, with funds derived from the estate of McClure, a wealthy citizen of Posey county, Indiana, who by his last will left a large sum of money to found libraries in every county in Indiana for the exclusive use of working- men, the workingmen of Vincennes established a library association under the name of the "McClure Working- men's Library." A large number of valuable books was purchased, but the library never amounted to any thing as a beneficial institution. It lingered along in a sickly and waning condition, but the workingmen, who alone were entitled to the use of its books, never could be in- duced to take an abiding interest in it, and it soon met the fate of several predecessors.

In 1852, the state legislature passed an act appropriating money to found a library in each civil township in In- diana. A large sum was spent in the purchase of books, w]ii( li wcTC distributed to the different civil townships of the state, under the control of the township trustees. But they took very little interest in the township library, so far as

Literary Institutions at Vincennes. 265

I have any knowledge upon the subject, and the books very soon were either lost or destroyed. This attempt to establish libraries throughout the state resulted in signal failure ; and no one was beneiited by the attempt, except, perhaps, the persons who sold the books, and they only to the extent of the profits they realized from their sales.

In 1809, the citizens of Vincennes organized the first agricultural society ever formed in the West. It had for its object the stimulation of agricultural pursuits, and proposed to hold fairs and award premiums for the best specimens of agricultural products. It organized by elect- ing Symmes Harrison as president, and in the fall of the year 1809 held its first fair and distributed premiums amounting to four hundred dollars. It continued to exist and held several fairs up to 1817. In that year the society called a public meeting to take measures to have the fair association incorporated by an act of legislature, and thus place it on a sure and firm basis. This was the first at- tempt that I know of being made in the West to have such an association incoporated by law. It met with no success, but was again renewed in 1835, but no act of incorporation was brought about until 1852, when the legislature passed the general law incorporating the State Board of Agriculture.

In 1809, Benjamin Parke formed the first Bible Society that was ever organized here, or perhaps in the North- west. He was made president of this society, which was very successful as long as he was connected with it. But when he was appointed judge of the District Court of In- diana, he removed to Salem, Indiana, and the society was soon neglected and ceased to exist as an organization.

The United States troops, who were stationed here from a period as early as 1790 to a date as late as 1816, were the means of bringing here many skillful and learned physi- cians and surgeons connected with the army. Among those thus brought here were Elias MclS'amee, Edward Skull, who killed Parmenas Becker, then sheriff* of the county, in a duel, in October, 1813, John D. Woolverton, afterward receiver of public moneys here, Jacob Kuzken-

266 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

dall, and many others. In the year 1807, these resident physicians and surgeons of Vincennes organized a medical society. This was the first medical society ever formed in the Indiana Territory. It continued to exist and was maintained in full vigor until long after the admission of the state to the Union. But, like so many other worthy organizations that were formed here in territorial days, it gradually ceased to be.

In 1838, St. Gabriel College was organized here by the Eudists, a religious order of the Catholic Church. This college started on its career under very favorable auspices, and acquired a large and compact site in the center of Vincennes, composed of four of the squares of the town. It possessed a large and commodious brick building, suit- able for education able purposes, which had been con- structed and used by the Vincennes University before the litigation with the state suspended its operations. The attendance of students was large from the start, not only from Indiana, but from many states in the South and West. All branches of education usually taught in first- class institutions were taught in this college, and the training was thorough and excellent, as is always the case with institutions of learning conducted by such men as were employed in this college. It was a very successful institution as long as it was maintained, but it was aban- doned in the year 1845, owing to unfortunate difl:erences that sprung up between the bishop of the diocese and the Endists who founded it.

Pioneer Poets and Story- Writers. 267

CHAPTER IX.

PIONEER POETS AND STORY-WRITERS.

" For who shall stay The first blind motions of the May ? Who shall out-blot the morning glow ? Or stem the full heart's overflow ? Who? There will rise, till Time decay, More poets yet." .

— Austin Dobmn.

The American-English who took possession of the Ohio Valley, in the last years of the eighteenth century, were not the first to awaken the echoes of the western woods with melody. The red tribes were not only eloquent, as the rude oratory of Logan and Tecumseh testifies, but also poetical; they sang hymns of harvest, lays of love and war, death-songs, and religious incantations. The Indian names bequeathed to states, mountains, rivers, and lakes furnish a vocabulary rich in poetical qualities.

The semi-barbarous French runners of the wilderness, and rowers on la belle riviere and its tributaries, are known to have been of a musical turn, and to have cheered the solitude with amorous ditties, and timed their oars to singing.^

^ Schoolcraft, in his " Travels," describes the chanson de voyageur as a " species of merry chant, which no one can listen to without feeling the mercury of his spirit rise." Isaac Weld, an Irish gentlemen, who trav- eled in America in 1795-6-7, says of the Canadian boatmen: "They have one very favorite duet amongst them, called the ' rowing duet,* which as they sing they mark time to with each stroke of the oar ; in- deed, when rowing in smooth water, they mark the time of most of the airs they sing in the same manner." Bradbury, an English traveler, writing in 1809, tells us the songs " were responsive betwixt the oarsmen at the bow and those at the stern ;" and he quotes several stanzas of

268 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

The Saxon wagoner of the Alleghanies, driving his team to Pittsburg, roared rough songs to the mountains. The jolly crews that poled arks on the Ohio were especially addicted to vocal solo and chorus as well as to the " plink, plank, plunk" of the violin which lead the dance on deck. They sang many an ancient ballad, with interpola- tions befitting new scenery and events, and extemporized original lines to accompany the rythmic labor of the oar:

" Hard upon the beech oar ! She moves too slow ! All the way to Shawnee Town Long while ago ! "

The favorite river lyrics appear to have been madrigals of love or rousing peans in praise of Monongahela whisky. By and by the element of negro minstrelsy, coming from "Ole Virginia" and Kentucky, found a welcome on the river-craft, where it has ever since held place. Among the earliest original verses of the West were sundry African melodies celebrating the 'coon hunt and the vicis- situdes of river navigation.

The song-book, patriotic, sentimental, and comic, is al- ways in demand, even in the rudest society, and it was a species of literary manual not slow to migrate with the pioneer. Not until 1832 did the first publication in this line issue from a Cincinnati press. This was " The Eolian Songster," compiled and published by U. P. James, a man of taste, who had in view the elevation as well as the supply of the popular demand. ** The Eolian Songster " contains, besides many of the choicest songs of Burns, Moore, and other modern poets, a careful selection of the older lyrics, including Jonson's " Drink to Me Only With

one of the favorite songs, " to show their frivolity." Here is a sample stanza:

Derriere chdz-nous, 11 y a un etang,

Ye, ye ment. Trois canards s'en vont baignans, Tons du 16ng de la riviere, Leg^T^ment ma bergdre, Lieg^r^ment, ye ment.

Pioneer Poets and Story- Writers. 269

Thine Eyes." A local and native tone is given to the collection by its including several new pieces, as " The Kentucky Hunters " and " Perry's Victory."

Song-writing was an art much striven after by the American verse-makers of fifty or sixty years ago, attract- ive songs being then in much demand on the stage. The theater, indeed, was an active stimulator of literary effort in various departments, and one is struck, in reading the newspapers of the day, by frequent reference to original poetic addresses delivered on notable occasions by the au- thors from behind the footlights. Forty poetical addresses were presented to the manager of the Kew Orleans the- ater for a premium offered in January, 1824. The poets of the Ohio Valley contributed their full quota of popu- lar songs to platform and parlor, and not a few of these still live wedded to familiar music. The pioneer balladists who sang the century into Kentucky and Ohio, were the harbingers of Louisville's unique troubadour, Will Shake- speare Hays, of whose songs, it is said, six million copies have sold in the United States and England.

An exhaustive history of the numerous poets and poet- asters of the Ohio Valley, and of their offerings to litera- ture in the name of the muses, would fill a large volume. "Whoever examines the files of old western newspapers will be astonished at the immense quantity of verse, original and selected, to be found in the dingy columns. The poet's corner is sometimes multiplied by four, and be- comes a rectangle. The '' Western Spy " published poems under the heading, " Seat of the Muses," a caption after- ward changed to the. not less classic title, "The Par- nassiad." The* editor of the Cincinnati " Literary Ga- zette " (1824), in his notes to correspondents, declining offers of poetry from Prof. Rafinesque, of Transylvania University, Lexington, Kentucky, says, apologetically, " Poetry is in so flourishing a state on our side of the river that the limits allotted to that department are pre- occupied." That the art was in an equally flourishing condition on Rafinesque's side of the river is abundantly proven by the testimony of Dr. Collins, who, in his his-

270 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

tory of Kentucky, devotes sixty large pages to selections from representative writers of verse, Lorn or bred in that state.

The wilderness swarmed with migratory poets; they came in flocks like the birds; they chirruped from log- cabins, caroled from floating barges, chanted from new garrets in fresh-sprung villages. It has been discovered, in Louisville, that the restless John Filson set the dan- gerous example of verse-making at Beargrass as long ago as June, 1788. His only and therefore worst poem is in heroic rhymed couplets and bids

"Adieu to every joy which time evades, Adieu to faithful swains and beauteous maids, , Adieu Amanda whom my soul ensnares, Adieu till fate this mortal wound repairs, Adieu my peace, the busy world farewell, Adieu to all but plains of Asphodel."

Authorities all agree that the first person who appeared in the character of poet in the territory north-west of the Ohio, was Return Jonathan Meigs, Jr., son of Colonel R. J. Meigs, of Revolutionary fame. Both father and son came to Marietta, with tlie original settlers, in April, 1788. The latter, a graduate of Yale College, studied law, rose rapidly from honor to honor, becoming supreme judge. United States senator, governor of Ohio, and postmaster general. Always fond of intellectual pursuits, he was a life-long patron of literary men and institutions.

Young Meigs, on July 4, 1789, delivered at Marietta an oration which closed with an ** ornament of rhyme," de- scriptive of the Ohio Valley, and prophetic of its coming glory. From this artificial but certainly dignified and respectable " ode," stamped with the conventional mark of the eighteenth century, a few couplets are here given by way of sample :

" Here Hwift Muskingum rolls his rapid waves ; There fruitful valleys fair Ohio laves ; On ito smooth surface gentle zephyrs play, The sunbeams tremble with a placid ray.

Pioneer Poets and Story- Writers. 271

What future harvests on his bosom glide, And loads of commerce swell the ' downward tide,' Where Mississippi joins in length'ning sweep. And rolls majestic to the Atlantic deep."

American literature, in the year 1789, or in 1800, can hardly be said to have celebrated its Fourth of July. It was far from independent of the mother country. And yet, even in those early days, American books were hav- ing an influence in England, and English authors were ambitious to borrow the ears of an American audience. Lord Byron was not indifferent to the plaudits of readers in the backwoods of the ]N"ew World. He wrote in his diary, December 5, 1813, " Dallas' nephew — son to the American Attorney General — is arrived in this country, and tells Dallas that my rhymes are very popular in the United States. These are the first tidings that have ever sounded like fame to my ears — to be redde on the banks of the Ohio."

The general literary influences that wrought upon the writers of i^ew York and ^N'ew England also inspired or constrained the Western muse, though in less degree. The world of letters turns eastward, but it does turn, and in succession every meridian receives the intellectual sun- light.

The loud music of Scott's '* Marmion " and of Southey's "Thalaba" swelled across the sea before the nobler and sweeter strains of Wordsworth and Coleridge were ap- preciated.

The " Lake Poets " and their contemporaries, scourged or soothed in Byron's " English Bards and Scotch Review- ers," were known in the West when the immigrant poets began to thrum their imitative harps.

From the "Atlantick country " came the melody of Per- civars " Clio," the most celebrated poetry that had yet been produced in America. " Percival is deservedly the first of American bards," wrote the editor of the Cincin- nati " Literary Gazette," in 1824. The pioneer writers usually called a poet hard, and a village an emporium.

272 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

Pioneer poetry often went on stilts, and borrowed stilts at that. The style was either painfully labored and pedantic or ludicrously exclamatory and rhapsodical. The self-inspired geniuses felt it their duty to be extrava- gantly natural and " impassioned." Bards of classical am- bition frequently sent " odes " to the backwoods news- papers, and sometimes furnished stanzas in Latin. They wrote under such pseudonyms as " Juvenis," *' Favonius," " Puero," " Momus," and " Umbra." Others worked a vein severely didactic and moral. Much of the verse measured out on the Ohio side of the Ohio was, like the speech of Chaucer's clerk, " sounding in moral virtue."

The best of the early poets of the Ohio Valley wrote from a sincere impulse, and were loyal to their environ- ments, drawing their themes from indigenous subjects — the woods, the streams, the ancient mounds, and whatever was most novel and picturesque in the immigrant journey over the mountains, or in the scenes and incidents of frontier life. They were moved to sing of the boatman poling his raft on the Beautiful river; the hunter roaming the dark forest, clad in deer-skin and carrying his rifle and powder-horn; the "Longknives" sallying from the threatened station to repel the stealthy, savage foe.

The homely verse dwelt on the close-knit ties of the settler's family in the hospitable log cabin, with its latch- string out. The love song adapted its amorous imagery to the wild scenery and primitive customs of the " clear- ing." Ever the Western pen was quick to indite patriotic strains. To the pioneer Liberty was a Tenth Muse.

As literature, few of the innumerable verses written by the backwoods rhymers deserve to be remembered. As history, many a rude stanza is more valuable than much that is found in the pages of the professed annalists. Writing had not become a vocation, or so much as an avocation. The poets, like the farmers, traders, mechan- ics, were busy with life and its urgent first necessities. They had just drawn themselves away from loved homes in the East, and were fastening the lines of hope to a new

Pioneer Poets and Story -Writers. 273 j

mode of life in the West. The energy of body and mind j

was absorbed in the act of transplanting. \

The general feeling is well expressed in Laura M. j

Thurston's lines, " On Crossing the AUeghanies," written 1

near the beginning of the century : i

" The broad, the bright, the glorious West \

Is spread before me now ! i

Where the gray mists of morning rest ']

Beneath yon mountain's brow ! h

The bound is past — the goal is won — !

The region of the setting sun \

Is open to my view. 1

Land of the valiant and the free —

My own Green Mountain land — to thee, .\

And thine, a long adieu ! . \

" I hail thee. Valley of the West, I

For what thou yet shalt be ! j

I hail thee for the hopes that rest \

Upon thy destiny ! " ,

One of the first rhythmic compositions penned and \

printed concerning Kentucky is a poem called " The s

Mountain Muse," being a metrical account of Boone's ad- \

ventures, founded on Filson's history. The "Mountain j Muse " was written by J). Bryan, a Virginia senator, who published his poem at Harrisonburg, Ya., in 1813.

The first " anthology" of Western poetry was collected \

by W. D. Gallagher, and published by (J. P. James, Gin- \

cinnati, in 1841. The volume is called " Selections from \

the Poetical Literature of the "West," and bears on the I

title page these appropriate lines from Southey : \

" Here is a wreath,

With many an unripe blossom garlanded, ''

And many a weed, yet mingled with some flowers }

That will not wither." \

The one hundred and ten pieces contained in Mr. Gal- \

lagher's collection represent thirty-eight writers,^ seven ot ■ them women.

^ Wm. D. Gallagher, John M. Harney, John B. Dillon, George D.

18

274 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

The preface states that " much the greater number of the persons selected from are either western born or west- ern educated, or both ; and all of them who are now liv- ing, with a single exception, are citizens of this section of the Union." The exception was Ephraim Peabody. Commenting on the productions which make up his volume, the editor says : " For the most part, they have been the mere momentary outgushings of irrepressible feeling proceeding from the hearts of those who were daily and hourly subjected to the perplexities and toils of business, and the cares and anxieties inseparable from the procuring of one's daily bread by active occupation. As such let them be judged."

Three at least of the writers who figure in the " Selec- tions" still live, Mrs. R. S. Nichols, Hon. C. D. Drake, and Mr. Gallagher himself. All but eight of the names were included in W. T. Coggeshall's " Poets and Poetry of the West," a royal octavo volume of 688 pages, published in 1860. '

Coggeshall's work contains selections from one hundred and fifty-two writers, with biographical and critical no- tices. Xinety-seven men are represented and fifty-five women. By far the greater number of thefee resided in the Ohio Valley; sixty-nine were western born, thirty- nine belonging to Ohio, fifteen to Kentucky, and thirteen to Indiana. Twenty of these persons are known to be living now, April, 1891.

The poets. Prentice, Gallagher, Alice Gary and Amelia Welby, are the subjects of special chapters in this volume. Several other of the early singers of the Ohio Valley re- ceive more or less extended notice in the chapter on " Pe-

Prentice, Frederick W. Thomas, Nathaniel Wright, James Hall, Otway Curry, Thomas H. Shreve, James H. Perkins, Charles A. Jones, Charles D. Drake, George B. Wallis, Albert Pike, Micah P. Flint, Amelia B. Welby, Anne P. Dinnies, Laura M. Thurston, Sarah J. Howe, Ephraim Peabody, William Wallace, James Freeman Clarke, James W. Ward, James B. Marshall, Rebecca S. Nichols, Harvey D. Little, Lewis Ringe, Lewis J. Cist, Edwin R. Campbell, Lewis F. Thomas, Wm. B. Fairchild, Hugh Peters, Julia L. Dumont, Caroline Lee Hentz, G. G. Foster, Pey- ton 8. Symmes, William Newton, James G. Drake.

Pioneer Poets and Story- Writers, 275

riodical Literature," or are mentioned incidentally in the biographical sketches of Prentice, Gallagher, Hall, Mans- field and Flint. It is proposed, in this place, to present briefly the leading facts in the life and literary work of noteworthy poets not considered elsewhere in the vol- ume.

Jonathan Meigs in Ohio, and Daniel Bryan in Virginia, are not singular examples of the politician turned poet. A glance through Coggeshall's big book of poets sur- prises the inquisitive reader with the names of several characters well known to history, but seldom associated in the general mind with the idea of poetry. Such are the names of Charles Hammond and Salmon P. Chase, men who endeavored to become poets before they suc- ceeded in becoming statesmen. !N^ot only did lawyers, legislators, and political journalists " drop into poetry," like Silas Wegg ; the business men of pioneer times also strung strings of rhyme. The very first book of home- made verse printed in the West was a pamphlet of ninety- two pages, by a Cincinnati banker, Gorham A. Worth. The title is, "American Bards; A Modern Poem, in Three Parts." It came out in 1819, and had the honor to be re- published in Philadelphia — an honor not justified by the merit of the book, the value of which consists wholly in the fact that it is a first, and that it is rare.

The " Muse of Hesperia," a prize poem, produced by another business man, Thomas Peirce, and read before the Philomathean Society of Cincinnati College, in 1822, ad- vises the poets to defy all conventional rules of composi- tion, and to scorn all the critics.

" Nay, copy not the noblest lays Of ancient or of modern days.

The genuine bard Dashes all rules of art aside, And, taking nature for his guide, Reaps, as he roams creation wide, A rich reward."

This anarchic literary counsel did not avail to develop

276 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

any sudden-expanding genius. Though the bard," roaming " creation wide," strove wildly to be nat- ural and original and sublime, he found himself condi- tioned in the West as in the East by his " means, culture and limits," to use a compact phrase of Emerson's. Neither "going down East," nor "coming out West," makes the poet.

" The light that never was on sea or land," is not con- fined to special climates, nor geographical divisions, nor to the woods, nor to the city. Outer influences, scenery, so- ciety, may do something to stimulate or modify the mind's action ; the spirit of the age does more ; but, withal, poets are poets. They seek congenial surroundings as bees seek gardens; yet gardens do not cause bees.

Thomas Peirce, a verse-maker of considerable skill, originality and humor, born in Chester county, Pennsyl- vania, August 4, 1786, was, in early life, farmer, mechanic and teacher. He came to Cincinnati in 1813, and engaged in commercial affairs. But he also took interest in lite- rary concerns, and was a prominent member of a society of which Lemuel D. Howells, Robert T. Lytle, William Henry Harrison, and Daniel Drake were members. Peirce was a contributor to the Western Spy and to the Literary Gazette, in which papers appeared what he called his " Odes," a series of mildly satirical pieces criticising per- sons and events. These were reprinted, in 1822, in a di- minutive volume, with the title, " Horace in Cincinnati." Mr. Peirce died in 1850.

A poet of great promise and somewhat brilliant per- formance was John M. Harney^ (1789-1825), whose literary work was done in Bardstown, Kentucky. He published, in 1816, a long poem, " Crystalina, a Fairy Tale," which

* John M. Harney should not be confounded with the poet, William Wallace Harney, born at Bloomington, Indiana, June 20, 1831, and known to admirers of western verse from his poems, " The Stab," " The Buried Hope," "The Old Mill," "The Suicide," "Jimmy's Wooing," "The Reapers," and other pieces of true artistic work. Harney's poetry has the "gleam" in it. Mr. Harney's present home is in Florida.

Pioneer Poets and Story- Writers. " 277

was extravagantly praised by H. W. Griswold in his " Poets of America," and by John Neal in the Portico. But the only bit of his work which long held its place in popular estimation is the trifle often copied into newspa- pers and books, called " Echo and the Lover."

Mrs. Julia L. Dumont was the first woman who achieved reputation as a writer in the Ohio Valley. A daughter of one of the original settlers of Marietta, she was born on the banks of the Muskingum in 1794, nearly a decade be- fore Ohio was admitted to the Union. In 1812 she was married, and in 1814 removed with her husband to Vevay, Indiana, where for many years she was a distinguished teacher. She was the preceptress of Dr. Edward Eggles- ton, whose grateful pen has honored her by merited praise, Mrs. Dumont died in 1857.

Mrs. Dumont wrote much for the press, in prose and verse, and was greatly admired by her contemporaries. A volume of hers, entitled " Sketches, from Common Paths," was published by the Appletons in 1856. Her poems were never collected in book form. They reveal a pure and generous nature, saturated with philanthropy, patriotism, and womanly tenderness. Perhaps her best poem is one entitled " The Future Life."

John Finley was born in Virginia in 1797, and he died in Indiana in 1866. He may be described as the father of western humorous poetry. Besides him, only a very few of the early " bards " attempted the facetious. Among the few were Peirce, Harney, and Shreve. Finley came to Ohio in his young manhood ; was married at Yellow Springs in 1826; went to Indiana, and became editor, state legislator, and finally mayor of the city of Rich- mond. Thus his occupations were of a practical sort, leaving scant time for the side-play of rhyme. The happy verses which have kept his name alive for ninety years were quite accidental and incidental, being part of a New Year's Address, written in 1830 for the Indianapolis Jour- nal, a newspaper since distinguished for the encourage- ment it gives to western poets. The lines referred to are those entitled '* The Hoosier's Nest," a bit of realistic de-

278 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

scription, picturing very vividly the interior of an Indiana log-cabin, and the rude hospitality of a backwoods family entertaining a stranger. Finley was a born humorist, and nearly every thing he wrote is piquant and amusing. His lines "To My Old Coat,'' "A Wife Wanted," and the graphic piece in Irish dialect, " Bachelor's Hall," still hold their place as general favorites. The last-named went the rounds of newspaperdom credited to Tom Moore.

More than half a century ago, the name of Otway Curry was familiar to readers of verse throughout the United States, and the new-risen western star of poetry was con- sidered a remarkable phenomenon, even worthy to be ranked with Poe. The merit of his work is striking, and there is reason to regret that the collection of his poetry promised by a prospectus, some years ago, has not been published. Curry possessed subtile genius, and though his thought is not always clear nor his art satisfactory, al- most every thing he wrote is pleasing, melodious, and warm, if not luminous with sincere "inspiration." Such poems as " Kingdom Come," " The Armies of the Eve," " The Better Land," " The Lost Pleiad," " Chasadine," " A'aven," " To a Midnight Phantom," belong, in their con- ception and form, to the aristocracy of letters. There is something in their very titles suggestive of habitual medi- tation on high themes, and of a life devoted to the soli- tude of the ideal world.

Otway Curry was born in Highland county, Ohio, in 1804, and he died in 1855. He was farmer, lawyer, editor, legislator, as well as poet, and his general services in the cause of intellectual and moral progress in the West should not be forgotten. He was a bosom friend of W. D. Gallagher, and the latter relates that when the two were youths together in the town of Cincinnati, they used, on summer evenings, to sit on the bank of the Ohio, near the foot of Broadway, Curry playing the flute for his friend's pleasure. The high esteem and affection in which Otway Curry was held are manifested in a generous trib- ute from the pen of a contemporary, who, in 1855, wrote of the deceased poet :

Pioneer Poets and Story- Writers. 279

" Ohio ne'er has lost a son

More worthy her regret The West has comets yet of song, —

Her planet, though, has set. Our country weakens with the want

Of good, true men like him, To guard her tree of liberty,

Like Eden's cherubim."

Harvey D. Little (born 1803, died 1833), who spent the chief part of his short career in Central Ohio, a printer and editor, was endowed with two excellent qualities of the real poet, a vivid imagination, and the sense of rhythm, as his tine, spontaneous lyrics, " Palmyra," and " On Ju- dah's Hills," sufficiently prove.

Very energetic and taking in their way are the dashing melodies of Captain Greorge Washington Cutter, a na- tive of Kentucky, who served in the Mexican "War as captain of the Kenton Hangers, became a lawyer and legislator in Indiana, and afterward lived in Cincinnati and Washington City. He married Mrs. Alexander Drake, the celebrated western actress. Three volumes of Cutter's verse were printed, " Buena Vista and Other Poems," in 1848, and two others in 1857. Several of Cutter's eloquent and fervid patriotic pieces made a strong impression, and passages from them are still quoted and sung. '' E Plu- ribus Unum," beginning with the lines,

" Though many and bright are the stars that appear, In that flag, by our country unfurled,"

is a stirring anthem not likely soon to perish from mem- ory. But the acknowledged masterpiece of this tumultu- ous singer is the " Song of Steam," ^ a metrical shout and

^ It is stated on the authority of Mr. Alexander Williamson, of Cov- ington, Kentucky, that the " Song of Steam " was written in Covington, before its author went to Mexico, and that it was suggested by the pow- erful operation and noise of steam-propelled machinery. Mr. William- son says: " One morning he (Cutter) was down in the neighborhood of what was then called * Factory Row,' where John T. Lewis had his cot- ton factory ; and he looked at the immense wheels and cogs and shafts and pulleys, and listened to the noise and the whirr and the rumble of

280 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

exultation, befitting the advent of an age of material forces. The " Song of Lightning '* is its companion lyric. Another Kentucky poet, of very different style from that of Cutter — Fortunatus Cosby — was born on Harrod's creek, in May, 1802, and died at Louisville sometime in the fifties. His monument may be seen in Cave Hill Cem- etery, not far from those of Prentice and Amelia Welby. He was a college-bred gentleman of quiet tastes and care- ful cujture — one of the group of scholarly writers whom Prentice drew around him. His " Fireside Fancies "

" By the dim and fitful firelight,"^

will be read and remembered by many a reader in years to come.

William Ross Wallace, also a Kentuckian, born in 1819, was educated in Indiana, and, removing to ^ew York City, became a successful professional writer for news- papers. His poetical talents were recognized and flattered by Bryant and Poe, who prophesied wonderful successes for his muse. But the star of his fame has already set, though one can understand, when reading his vigorous and well-wrought verses, why his contemporaries praised him, and we wonder, as in many other similar cases, why compositions so much above mediocrity should be forgot- ten 80 soon.

Mrs. Frances Dana Gage, familiarly known by her pseudonym of '*Aunt Fanny," a "womanly woman," highly appreciated by the common people, was, in the day of her literary activity, perhaps the most popular writer of keen practical prose, and homely didactic verse, in the western country. She became identified with the cause of " woman's rights," and other reforms, and was a grace- ful and effective public lecturer. Her fluent, lucid lyrics of home aud heart, "The Sounds of Industry," "The

the maoliinery. And from there he wandered off to the McNickle rolling-mill, where they had an enormous trip-hammer, and the power of Bteam so imprensed him that he went home and wrote the poem; and a magnificent thing it is."

Pioneer Poets and Story- Writers. 281

Housekeeper's Soliloquy, " My Fiftieth Birthday," " Life's Lessons," and the delightful " Home Picture," which last tells about *' Ben Fisher " and his '^ good wife Kate," and the children, and the farm, and the poultry, were clipped from newspapers and pasted in the scrap-hooks of count- less housekeepers who found in these simple rhymes a photograph of their own domestic experience. Mrs. Gage was the daughter of a pioneer, Joseph Barker, one of the founders of Ohio, who came to Marietta with Put- nam in 1788. She was born in 1808; married James L. Gage in 1828 ; lived at McConnellsville, Ohio, for twenty- five years, and removed to St. Louis, Missouri, in 1853. A volume of her poems was brought out by a Philadel- phia publisher in 1867.

I venture to class with the pioneer poets of the Ohio Val- ley two honored women, both now residing in Indian- apolis, both active members of the Western Association of Writers — Mrs. Sarah T. Bolton and Mrs. Rebecca S. Nichols.

Mrs. Bolton, whose father, a Barritt, and mother, a Pendleton, w^ere of Virginia origin, w^as born in Newport, Kentucky, in December, 1814. The family moved to Jennings county, Indiana, thence to Madison, where Sarah, in 1831, was married to Nathaniel Bolton. The Boltons made their home in Indianapolis. From 1855 to 1858 Mr. Bolton was United States consul to Geneva, Switzerland, and his wife accompanied him to Europe. Mrs. Bolton's first poem appeared in the Madison " Banner." She wTote for the Columbian and Great West, the Ladies' Repository, the Cincinnati Commercial, and the New York Home Journal. Her poems, like those of Mrs. Gage, appeal directly to the common sentiment and emotion of the people, and inculcate the highest public and private vir- tue. Among her lyrics are " Hope on, Hope Ever," " Call the Roll," and " Paddle Yoar Own Canoe," melodi- ous sermons the lesson of which has quickened the worthy ambition of half the school-boys and girls in the Ohio Valley.

Mrs. Rebecca S. Nichols w^as born at Greenwich, New

282 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

Jersey, August, 1820. Her maiden name was Keed. She removed, with her parents, to Louisville, where, in 1838, she was married to Willard P. Nichols. She has resided in St. Louis, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, and Indianapolis. She published her first poems in the Louisville News Let- ter and the Louisville Journal. She became a contributor to the Cincinnati Commercial, the Cincinnati Herald, the Knickerbocker, and Graham's Magazine. In St. Louis she helped edit a daily paper called the Pennant, and in Cincinnati she conducted a literary periodical named The Guest. Her pieces have appeared under the pseudonyms "Ellen" and "Kate Cleveland." Mrs. Nichols enjoyed the friendship and encouragement of Otway Curry, W. D. Gallagher, George D. Prentice, and the generous patron- age of Nicholas Longworth, who brought out her poems in a sumptuous volume in 1851. Her first publication in book form was named " Bernice, or the Curse of Mina, and Other Poems," 1844 ; the second, " Songs of the Heart and the Hearth-Stone." No truer estimate of Mrs. Nich- ols can be stated in brief than that expressed in Cogges- shall's "Poets," by her biographer, Sullivan D. Harris, who says : " The strongest and brightest phase of her char- acter is that of a Christian mother, and the wail of be- reaved maternity is the most touching utterance of her pen."

There lives in Cleveland, Ohio, a poet and general writer, born in the first year of the century, June 11, 1800, in Conway, Massachusetts. After graduating at Williams College, he removed to Ohio, and became a lawyer and state legislator. His efiScacious labors in the promotion of educational and philanthropic institutions place him among the foremost benefactors of the people. This noble patriarch, Hon. Harvey Rice, LL.D., a true apostle of " sweetness and light," is the author of " Letters from the Pacific Slope," " Incidents of Pioneer Life in the Early Settlement of the Connecticut Western Reserve," and a volume of essays entitled " Nature and Culture." In his early manhood, Mr. Rice contributed many poems to the periodicals, and, in 1859, a collection of these was pub-

Pioneer Poets and Story -Writers, 283

lished in a volume called *' Mount Vernon, and Other Poems." This passed through several editions, and is still in demand. A second volume, " Select Poems," was is- sued in 1878. Perhaps the hest known poem of Mr. Rice is the lyric, "Unwritten Music," which has a good deal of written music. But the piece entitled " The Moral Hero " gives the key-note of the author's character, and the in- junction in its closing lines was never more fully obeyed than by him who penned them :

" Where duty calls, engage ; And ever striving, be The moral hero of the age."

In a letter written by Mr. Rice in the ninety-first year of his age, he says : " I am somewhat advanced in years, it is true, but still keep at work in my way, and mean to continue work until I fall in the harness."

This summary may close with a short account of three poets, who, though they came into the world somewhat later than most of those just mentioned, and who, though they died young, lived long enough to win enduring laurels. Theodore O'Hara, William H. Lytle, and For- ceythe Willson may be classed together as choice souls born possessed of the " vision and the faculty divine," and as patriotic spirits who each, without conscious effort, gained the world's recognition by composing lyrics of war. O'Hara and Lytle were, like Captain Cutter, officers in the Mexican War, engaging in those picturesque and romantic campaigns, the national glory of which was eclipsed by the brilliancy and gallantry of personal deeds. Battles such as that of Buena Yista, and marches like that to Mexico City, furnish inspiring themes for song.

Theodore O'Hara was born in Danville, Kentucky, Feb- ruary 11, 1820. He served through the war with Mexico, and came out of it a brevet major. He practiced law, ed- ited newspapers, and led a somewhat wandering life until the civil war, when he again became a soldier, on the Con- federate side, and served to the end of the conflict. He died of fever, June 7, 1867. In the words of his hi-

284 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

ographer, Robert Burns Wilson,* O'Hara " builded for him- self an enduring fame as a poet upon four lines." These four lines occur in the poem entitled " The Bivouac of the Dead," written to commemorate the Kentucky soldiers who fell in the Mexican War, and to whom a monument is erected in the cenietery at Frankfort. Few are the read- ers who need to be told that the verses referred to are :

" On fame's eternal camping-ground Their silent tents are spread, But glory guards, with solemn round, The bivouac of the dead."

William Haines Lytle was born in Cincinnati, Novem- ber 2, 1826. He served in the Mexican war as captain ; became a member of the Ohio legislature ; ran for lieu- tenant-governor in 1857 ; was major-general of the Ohio militia ; commanded the Fourth Ohio Regiment in Gen- eral 0. M. Mitchel's brigade in the civil war; was killed in the battle of Chickamauga, September 20, 1863. Illus- trious in arms, this well-loved Ohio hero is also admired in the field of letters. His best poem, "Anthony and Cleopatra," * seems to be booked for immortality. Period- ically, it goes the rounds of the newspaper press as an " old favorite," having about it that indescribable quality

* See Century Magazine for May, 1890.

'"Anthony and Cleopatra" was written at the Lytle Homestead, Law- rence street, Cincinnati, in July, 1858. The author dashed it off in a glow of poetic excitement, and left the manuscript lying upon the writing-table, in his private room, where it was found by his friend, Wm. W. Fosdick, the poet. " Who wrote that, Lytle ? " inquired Fos- dick. " Why, I did," answered Lytle, " How do you like it? " Fosdick expressed admiration for the poem, and, taking the liberty of a literary comrade, he carried the manuscript away, and sent it to the editor of the Cincinnati Commercial, with the following note : *• Eds. Com.:— The following lines from our gifted and gallant townsman, General Wm. H. Lytle, we think, constitute one of the most masterly lyrics which has ever adorned American poetry ; and we predict a popularity and per- petuity for it unsurpassed by any Western production.— W. W. F." The poem appeared in the " Commercial," on July 29, 1858. These facts are verified by the poet's sister, Mrs. Josephine R. Foster, who posseflBes a copy of "Anthony and Cleopatra" in the handwriting of its author.

Pioneer Poets and Story- Wi^iters. 285

of sustained excellence which marks it as permanently acceptable to the muse. Both the imagination and the ear of the critic must grant that there is melody, verve, dramatic vividness, and bold imagery in every stanza of the six which make up this line lyric which reaches its climax in the words:

"And for thee, star-eyed Egyptian I

Glorious sorceress of the Nile, Light the path of Stygean horrors

With the splendor of thy smile ; Give the Csesar crowns and arches.

Let his brow the laurel twine, I can scorn the Senate's triumphs,

Triumphing in love like thine."

Byron Forceythe VYillson was born in I^ew York, April 10, 1837; came west with his father's family in 1846; lived in Maysville and Covington, Kentucky, for seven years, and in ^ew Albany, Indiana, from 1852 to 1863 ; removed to Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the autumn of 1863, and remained there for three years ; died in Alfred, New York, February 2, 1867. He spent a year at Antioch College, Ohio, while Horace Mann was president, and then went to Harvard, but, having symptoms of consumption, he left college in his Sophomore year. Willson was an occasional contributor to the "Atlantic Monthly," and an interesting sketch of his life and writings, by his friend, John James Piatt, was published in that magazine in 1867.

Willson's reputation was achieved by the publication, in the Louisville Journal, of January 1, 1863, of the strik- ing and pathetic narrative poem, " The Old Sergeant," which, while realistic in the extreme, relating facts just as they occurred and giving actual names of persons and places, is yet so idealized and subjective that its hero be- comes a vivid type of the brave soldier-martyr of every country, and its patriotism breathes a universal air.

" The Old Sergeant " was made popular by public readers and reciters who, in the war time and after, de- livered it through the length and breath of the northern

286 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

states. A small volume entitled " The Old Sergeant and Other Poems" was published by Tichnor & Fields, in 1867, the year of the author's death, and the book is his monument. The lover of poetry who, from purpose or chance, takes time to peruse Willson's poems, linds on every page tokens of delicate genius and promise of rare fruit in the flower that death cut off untimely.

WRITERS OF FICTION.

With the bards came the romancers. The most delight- ful portion of the early literature of the West is semi-his- torical, semi-fictitious. Journals of exploration in un- known regions are usually marvelous. Imaginative trav- elers, designing to print a book, do not neglect to grace their pages with interesting rumors of facts they can not investigate. The story-tellers proper, never wearied in describing the perils and privations of border life — tales founded on fact. Volumes were written

" Of Boone and Kenton and the pioneers Of Pontiac and Ellenipsico, Of Logan, the heart-broken chief, of bold Tecumseh and the Prophet."

Among the desperate heroes depicted in border story are Girty, the renegade, and Big Harpe, the robber, who was stabbed to death at the foot of the Lonesome Post Oak, near Hopkinsville, Kentucky.

The many-named Ohio, flowing through wilderness and mystery from Fort Pitt to the far Mississippi, was to the settlers the very river of romance. The history of navi- gation on this great stream, from the day of pirogues to the day of steamboats, is a tissue of that truth which is stranger than fiction. Mike Fink, the " Last of the Boat- men," and 'Colonel " Plug," the river boat wrecker, were types of a character and class that seem as far away as Robin Hood. Mike Shuck, the Missouri trapper, was another worthy of a different sort. These and other unique figures furnished material for western tale-tellers before such writers as Emerson Bennett and " Ned Bunt-

Pioneer Poets and Story- Writers. 287

line " came to the Ohio Valley. Benjamin Drake, Morgan iNTeville, Mrs. Julia Dumont, Mrs. Lee Hentz, Wm. D. Gallagher, Otway Curry, and many others produced stories of considerable interest. Judge James Hall's ficti- tious writings have a permanent value as correct historical pictures of Indian life and of the customs in the old French settlements of Southern Illinois. Timothy Flint, who was an author by profession, and a good one, wrote several novels that are racy and readable to this day. The best of these undoubtedly is " Francis Berrian ; or The Mexican Patriot," published at Boston, by Cummings, Hilliard & Co., in 1826.

The writers and books that we are now to consider are such as seem most worthy of mention in their class, and are not treated of in other chapters of this volume.

The first novel produced in the West was the political satire, " Modern Chivalry, or the Adventures of Captain Farrago and Teague O'Regan, his Servant," by Judge H. H. Brackenridge, of Pittsburg.^ The first part of this now rare book was issued from the office of the Pittsburg Gazette, in 1793. Duyckink's Cyclopoedia gives long ex- tracts from the story, and says : " In the West, Modern Chivalry is, or deserves to be, regarded as a kind of abor- iginal classic." Xot many readers, in these days, will have patience to follow the satirical captain and his blun- dering Irish servant through their round of rough adven- ventures and critical conversations. The scene of the story is Pennsylvania, the period that of the Whisky Re- bellion, and the author gives graphic descriptions of some scenes which he had himself observed in the turbulent times just after the revolution. The humors of the popu- lar election, the absurdity of the duel, the savage fun of tar-and-feather justice, false learning and affected man-

^ Hugh Henry Brackenridge was born in Scotland in 1748 ; came to America in 1753 ; graduated at Princeton, 1771 ; went to Philadelphia in 1776, and became editor of the United States Magazine ; removed to Pittsburg in 1781, and was made supreme judge; died in 1816. He was author of several books.

288 Litei^ary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

nere, are well shown up in this century-old piece of Scotch wit and wisdom.

Sir Walter Scott was on the throne of fiction when am- bitious authorship began to sharpen the goose-quill pen west of the AUeghenies. Brackenridge, an imitator of his great countryman, was one of the very earliest writers of fiction in America. The smoke of the war of 1812 had lifted before Cooper and Irving were recognized as literary stars. The " Sketch Book " did not appear until 1819 — the " Spy " until 1821.

Those who, in the Ohio Valley, attempted story-writing within the first half of the century, usually published their efforts in the literary periodicals and family newspa- pers. Occasionally they put forth a book. The Cincin- nati Literary Gazette, in 1824, printed several short sketches or stories written by Benjamin Drake, under the general caption of "Leaves from the Port Folio of a Young Backwoodsman." The Western Souvenir, the first " annual " of the West, a dainty volume of 324 pages, bound in satin, was issued in Cincinnati in 1829. It con- tains a number of readable stories, of which may be named " Oolemba in Cincinnati," by Timothy Flint ; "A Tale of the Greek Revolution," by Lewis R. :N'oble ; " The French Village," " The Bachelor's Elysium," " The Forest Chief," " The Billiard Table," " The Indian Hater," " The Massacre," " Pete Featherton," by James Hall; " The De- scendants of Pangus," by S. S. Boyd ; and, best of all, " The Last of the Boatmen," by Morgan Neville. Several of these stories have a genuine local flavor — if not strictly indigenous products, they were at least cultivated in west- ern soil. " The Last of the Boatmen " is a study from life. " Pete Featherton " is a charming Kentucky legend, illustrating the superstition that a gun is subject to evil spirits and may be bewitched with the devil's aid.

The Cincinnati Mirror, 1831-6, was the repository of many original tales. Mrs. Dumont wrote for it "The Brothers," " Gertrude Beverly," and "Ashton Grey," the last a fifty-dollar prize story. Thomas H. Shreve contrib- uted the novelettes, " Ellen Landon," " The Old and the

Pioneer Poets and Story- Writers. 289

Young Bachelor," " The Ambitious Man," " Coquetry," and " Haarlem House." In the Mirror appeared " Hospi- tality, a Western Tale," by Mrs. Anna Dinnies ; " Origin of the White Indians," by Mrs. H. S. Haynes ; " Mahweeta, an Indian Story," by I. ]N'. McJilton ; and '* Charles Mor- sell, or the Elopement," by J. A. McClung, author of the novel " Camden," and " Western Sketches." Two stories, " The Broken-Hearted," and " The Bereaved Sister," by George D. Prentice, were reprinted in the Mirror, though not produced in the West. The editor of the paper, W. D. Gallagher, used its columns to utter " Cause and Effect," a story of forgery, and " The Heiress of Rock Hollow," an amusing study of Dutch life, after the manner of Ir- ving. Gallagher wrote other works of imagination, his most ambitious novel being " The Dutchman's Daughter," which ran through half a dozen numbers of the Hesper- ian, in 1840.

" The Doomed Wyandot," and " The Wolf Hunter," sketches based upon fact, were contributed by Otway Curry to the Hesperian. In the same magazine appeared a novel entitled " The Coquette," by Miss E. IST. Dupuy, author of " The Conspirators," of which last 24,000 copies were sold. Miss Dupu}' also wrote " Emma Walton," " Celeste," " Florence, or the Fatal Vow," and other popu- lar tales. She lived in Augusta, Ky.

Hall's Western Monthly Magazine, 1833-7, made itself the literary organ of its period, especially in poetry and fiction. The editor published several of his own stories in it, and gave prominence to sketches and tales by Mrs. Caroline Lee Hentz, and Miss Harriet Beecher.^ Rev. James H. Perkins, the author of " Western Annals," who was not only an accurate historian and good poet, but a graceful story-teller, contributed to Hall's Magazine and The Western Messenger a number of vigorous tales, a few of which msiy be found in W. H. Channing's " Memoir and Writings of James H. Perkins." Among the titles

1 See Chapter XII. 19

I 290 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

are " Dora McCrae," " The Hypochondriac," " The Judge's Hunt," " The Murderer's Daughter," " The Lost Child," and " The Hole in My Pocket," the last a decided " hit," and not unlike in style to the prudential writings of Poor Richard.

Highly esteemed by the readers and critics of fifty years ago, were the novels of Frederick W. Thomas, son of E. S. Thomas, author of " Keminiscences of the Last Sixty- five Years." F. W. Thomas was born in South Carolina in 1811. With his father's family he came to Cincinnati in 1829. His brother Lewis and his sister Martha are recognized as talented writers. A younger brother, Cal- vin W. Thomas, a prominent citizen of Cincinnati, also has a literary turn, and takes much interest in matters of general culture. The novels of F. W. Thomas are among the first, hailing from the West, that were given origin- ally to the public in book form. " Clinton Bradshaw," the adventures of a lawyer, at the bar and in politics, was published in 1835, at Philadelphia, and republished, in 1848, at Cincinnati. In 1836 appeared " East and West," a lively story, introducing scenery and incidents, vividly colored, from real life. *' Howard Pinckney," also a de- lineation of society as it was, came out in 1837. Mr. Thomas deserves mention, also, for the reputation he achieved as orator and poet. His descriptive and narra- tive poem, " The Emigrant, or Eeflections when Descend- ing the Ohio," dedicated to Charles Hammond, and pub- lished in pamphlet form in 1833, was popular, and is still quoted. More admired was the versatile author's love- lyric, "'Tis Said that Absence Conquers Love," a song familiar to the beaux and belles of a generation not yet all gone.

Benjamin Drake's " Tales and Sketches of the Queen City," a volume long out of print, was published in 1839. The student of pioneer life will find much to entertain him in the thirteen sketches that make up the contents of this simple volume, namely, " The Queen City," " The Novice of Cahokia," " Putting a Black-leg on Shore," ** The Baptism," " The Yankee Colporteur," " The Grave

Pioneer Poets and Story- Writers. 291

of Rosalie," " The Burial by Moonlight," "A Kentucky Election," "A Visit to the Blue Licks," "Trying on a Shoe," " The Battle of Brindle and the Buckeyes," " The Buried Canoe," and " The Flag Bearer."

The decade beginning about the year 1845 was prolific of light and sensational fiction, the general demand for which, in the West, was largely supplied by ephemeral magazines and semi-literary weekly newspapers. The Louisville Journal, the Cincinnati Commercial, and Great West, afterward Columbian and Great West, devoted hundreds of columns to exciting tales and romances — serials con- tinued from week to week for months. This was the golden, or at least the gilded, age of what came to be called " Yaller Kivers," the seed-time and the early har- vest day of the " Blood and Thunder " novelists, chief among whom were Emerson Bennett and E. C. Z. Judson. Both these, though eastern men, made western experience a stirring episode in their lives. The phase of intellectual development which they represent is curious, and their literary adventures in the Ohio Valley are not without interest.

Emerson Bennett was born on a farm in Massachusetts, March 16, 1822. At the age of seventeen he ran away from his country home, and led a wandering life, " seeing the world " and seeking adventures. In 1840 he settled in Kew York city, where he tried his genius by various attempts in art and poetry. He published a versified story called " The Brigand," which was ridiculed by re- viewers. In the winter of 1843 he went to Philadelphia, and became a contributor to the Dollar N'ewspaper. That paper having oftered a prize for the best story forwarded to the editor within a given time, Bennett entered the competitive field, and produced his first novelette, a ro- mance named " The Unknown Countess," which did not win the premium.

While in Philadelphia, the young romancer fell in love. A quarrel with his sweetheart caused Bennett to leave tne Quaker City. He journeyed to Baltimore, and thence to Pittsburg and on down the Ohio, arriving at Cincinnati in

292 Literary Culture .in the Ohio Valley.

the spring of 1844. For temporary subsisteilce, he re- sorted to selling a patent stamp for marking linen. His mode of life was Bohemian ; he slept in the cheapest lodgings, and did not disdain the luxury of free luncheon and a glass of beer. One day, in his wanderings, he chanced upon the office of the Western Literary Journal, a magazine edited by E. C. Z. Judson. Bennett offered for publication what he describes as a " hastily written sketch, literally written for bread," but it was rejected. The management, however, favored him with an agency to take subscribers for the Journal. L. A. Hine was at that time connected with the journal, and he took a very warm interest in young Bennett, who frankly told to this new friend the story of his fortunes and misfortunes.

Bennett made a tour through Ohio, soliciting subscribers for the Literary Journal, and returned to the city after a lapse of several months. While sitting in a restaurant one day, he heard a stranger mention the title of his story, " The Unknown Countess," contributed to the Dollar Newspaper in Philadelphia. The tale, printed after long delay, had been copied into the Cincinnati Commercial, then edited by L. G. Curtiss. Elated at the discovery of these facts, Bennett sought Mr. Hine, who immediately went with him to the Commercial office and introduced him to Curtiss. An interview led to an offer by the news- paper to pay Bennett a small sum for an original western story. The offer was gladly accepted, and the composition of a "thrilling" romance was at once begun. Some of the chapters were written in the Commercial office, in hot haste^ to meet the importunate demand for " copy." In 1846, Bennett wrote for the Commercial a novel called ** The League of the Miami," and a year or two after he wrpte the " Bandits of the Osage." The latter was pub- Ibhed in book form by Robinson & Jones, and five thou- sand copies were sold. This success was followed by other ventures and successes. Several of Bennett's novels were published by U. P. James. Among these were " Prairie Flower" and " Leni Leoti," each of which had a circulation of about a hundred thousand copies ! I was

Pioneer Poets and Story- Writers. 293

told recently, in Lancaster, Ohio, that Bennett's " Forest Rose," the scene of which centers in a cave near that city, is issued, in occasional small editions, from a newspaper office, to supply the local demand.

In 1846, in partnership with one J. H. Green, otherwise identified as " the reformed gambler," Bennett conducted, for nine months, a small literary paper, the Casket, pub- lished at Lawrenceburg, Indiana. To this paper the Gary sisters contributed, as did also Goates Kinney, under a pseudonym.

Bennett wrote stories and poems for Hine's Journal and Review, and for the Herald of Truth. He became one of the editors of the Columbian and Great West. He re- turned to the East in 1850. At present he resides in Philadelphia, and is busily engaged in producing charac- teristic stories, scores of which have appeared in print. In a letter dated August 9, 1881, he writes : " Of course I am hurried with literary work — have always been hur- ried, ever since I entered this field of labor between thirty- five and forty years ago." Criticism can not assign to Bennett a very high rank in authorship, yet let it be ad- mitted, in justice to him, that he has shown a surprising power of interesting the "lower million," and that with- out abandoning pure moral standards. There are grave and respectable ladies and gentlemen, not of the " lower million," who, if put to the confessional, must own that there was a time when, lured by the " Prairie Flower," or " The Forest Rose," or " Kate Clarendon," or the "Artist's Bride," or the " Outlaw's Daughter," they followed the complicated plot, sympathizing in the romantic adventures of brave young heroes, lovely orphan heiresses, impossible Indians, mixed up with love and prairie-fire, and the sharp crack of a rifle, with robbers and panthers, in woods and caverns, by land and w^ater, in city or solitude, to the breathless end of the last chapter, in which the villain is slain, and the lost bride is restored to her happy lover.

The sojourn of Judson, " ^N'ed Buntline," in the West, was not so protracted as that of Bennett, but it occurred

294 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

in the same period. Edward Z. C. Judson was born in New York in 1823. He ran away from home at the age of twelve, and joined the navy. He fought seven duels with midshipmen, thus persuading them to admit him to a social equality with them. Such a bloody beginning corresponds well with the later exploits of the man, who, a colonel in the civil war, had the honor of receiving twenty wounds ! The young seaman's naval experience perhaps furnished the basis for his first story, " The Cap- tain's Pig," which the Knickerbocker Magazine accepted and published, in 1838. This and other contributions to the same periodical gave Judson a start in literature. Sometime in 1844, he came to Cincinnati, and in ]S"ovem- ber of that year joined Lucius A. Hine and Hudson A. Kidd in establishing the Western Literary Journal and Monthly Review. The first two numbers were issued from Cincinnati; the third and subsequent numbers were published at Nashville, and the word South-western was substituted for Western in the title. It was about this time that Judson began the publication, at Paducah, Ken- tacky, of the celebrated story-paper called "Ned Bunt- line's Own." While in Nashville he was involved in a social scandal, ending in his killing a man who, in a jealous rage, had shot at him. Judson seems to have been mobbed, and, jumping from the second-story window of a hotel, was much bruised, and was hastened to a steamer, which carried him to Pittsburg, where his family resided.

The following letter from Colonel Judson gives some interesting personal facts :

"Headquarters "Ned Buntline," "Eagle's Nest, Stamford, N. Y., April 10, 1885. "Dear Sir: — Your very kind note of information and inquiry received. After resigning from the U. S. Navy, encouraged by successful contribution to the Knicker- bocker Magazine in New York, I turned to literature as a means of support. In 1844 and '45, I spent a portion of my time in Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee, and for a year

Pioneer Poets and Story- Writers. 295

or more edited the magazine you speak of. It was not a financial success, though it had some excellent contribu- tors— W. D. Gallagher, Cist, I think, and Albert Pike. My associations with Gallagher, Amelia B. Welby, Geo. D. Prentice, and Tom Shreve are among the most delight- ful of my memories.

" I have little to write about myself. I detest auto- biography. If a man has lived to merit it, his life will live after him, and be written by those who appreciated him. The early struggles of a literary man are only in- teresting to himself, and success only wipes away their bitter memories.

" In my own case I found that to make\a living I must write " trash " for the masses, for he who endeavors to write for the critical few, and do his genius justice, will go hungry if he has no other means of support. Is it not so ? "Yours ever truly,

'^E. Z. C. JUDSON."

Another letter from Judson, dated May 4, 1885, says : " Emerson Bennett wrote his first sketch for me, and, with many corrections, it was put in print. Hudson A. Kidd was a nephew of General Zollicoffer, of Nash- ville, Tennessee, with more ambition than talent. I have an idea " The Mysteries and Miseries of New York " was my most successful book. In four editions 100,000 copies were sold, and it had to be stereotyped here ; was repub- lished in England, France, and Denmark. Authorship has given me a comfortable living and a good home for my old age."

According to Appleton's Cyclopedia of Biography, Judson's income was said to be $120,000 a year.

Judson died in the summer of 1886, and of many obituary notices of him, none is more appreciative than that which appeared in the Chicago Current, sentences from which I quote :

" So ' Ned Buntline ' is dead ! Lives there a boy with soul so- dead — or lives there any man who was once a boy

296 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

with soul 80 dead — that this announcement will not afflict him ? These wonderful stringers-of-it-out — when they die, do we not owe them a death-notice like unto that which we give to the great dead ? Reader, has not your heart beaten fast to the imaginings of this wonderful writer, whose heart now throbs no more? Can we not all look back into the early years of life, when the lad sat bent over the dining-table, Ned Buntline in hand, push- ing the book under the evening lamp, eyes starting from sockets, and ears hearing the sounds of the tavern-keeper and his son, while those worthies were digging the grave in the garden where the guest (whom they thought asleep upstairs within doors) was to be buried? How hard it was for that lad to breathe while the tavern-keeper stealthily approached the bed and killed his own kinsman in mistake for the wayfarer! Truly, it was a night of horror! We all shall never forget it ! "

The sensational novel,'* New York: Its Upper Ten and Lower Million," by George Lippard, though not written in the West, was published in Cincinnati about the year 1854.

William W. Fosdick's romantic story, " Malmiztic, the Toltec, and the Cavaliers of the Cross," the fruit of the author's travels in Mexico, was published in 1851. Though criticized justly for cumbersome eloquence of style and excessive ornamentation, the novel is conceded to have great merit as a work of imagination, and much truth in its historical and descriptive passages. It was a worthy forerunner of Wallace's " Fair God." Fosdick's performance was extravagantly praised in some quarters and unmercifully ridiculed in other. The genial poet's familiar friends and boon companions would sometimes rally him with the exclamation, " Malmiztic, the Toltec, by Fostec, the Aztec." Notwithstanding its defects, the book was written in the spirit of true art, and was an ex- periment in the upward direction.

The several stories and novels written by Alice Gary, " Clovernook," 1851; "Hagar, a Story of To-day ,." 1852;

Pioneer Poets and Story- Writers, 297

"Clovernook Children," 1854; "Married, not Mated," 1856 ; and '^ The Bishop's Son," 1867, are drawn with a skill so clever that they attracted praise from the most cultivated readers of America and England.

Mrs. Catherine Warfield's " The Household of Bouverie," published in 1860, a romance of remarkable power, showed the reading world that Kentucky had a novelist whose talents were of a noble order, and near akin to genius.

Mention is made, on a preceding page, of Mrs. Stowe's literary work in Cincinnati. Coming to Walnut Hills be- fore her iharriage, Harriet Beecher exercised her awaken- ing genius by writing sketches and stories for Western magazines. She was an active member of the " Semi- Colon Club," of the Queen City, and dedicated her first volume, " The Mayflower," to that society. A residence of eighteen years in Cincinnati, when the slavery excite- ment was at white heat, gave her much of the material out of which was afterward shaped her masterwork. She visited Kentucky in 1833, and, as her autobiography dis- tinctly says, she witnessed there, and in her own house, scenes and incidents that were embodied in the story of " Uncle Tom." That famous novel, which Mrs. Cone happily characterizes as a " shot heard round the world," was published, in book form, in 1852, after its appearance as a serial in Dr. Gamaliel Bailey's National Era^ of Wash- ington, D. C. Though no part of " Uncle Tom's Cabin " was actually written in the Ohio Valley, the novel is, in a true sense, a Western product.

NOTE.

In addition to the foregoing, I have met with many other works of fiction produced in the Ohio Valley before the year 1860. The follow- ing titles may be interesting :

" Carrero ; or, The Prime Minister." 1842. Edmund Flagg.

" Francis of Valois." 1843. Edmund Flagg.

" Mrs. Ben Darby ; or, The Weal and Woe of Social Life." Cincin- nati, 1853. Mrs. Maria Collins.

"Drayton ; an American Tale." 1851. Thomas H. Shreve.

" Life's Lesson ; a Novel." 1855. Martha M. Thomas.

298 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

"Zoe; or, The Quadroon's Triumph." Cincinnati, 1856. Mrs, E. D. Livermore.

" The Old Corner Cupboard." Cincinnati, 1856. Susan B. Jewett.

"Emma Bartlett; or, Prejudice and Fanaticism." Cincinnati, 1856. Anonymous.

" Mabel ; or, Heart Histories." Columbus, 1859. Rosella Rice.

Dr. Daniel Drake. 299

CHAPTER X.

DR. DANIEL DRAKE, THE FRANKLIN OF CINCINNATI.

A year and a half before Rufus Putnam, with his col- ony of Ohio's founders, settled at the mouth of the Mus- kingum ; three years before the founders of Cincinnati landed at Yeatman's Cove, Daniel Drake was born, Octo- ber 20, 1785. He was a toddling baby, in his fourth year, when George Washington rode from Mount Yernon to !N'ew York, the ^N'ational Capital, to be inaugurated Presi- dent, on the balcony of Federal Hall.

Drake was born in I^ew Jersey. His parents were poor, and while Daniel was an infant they moved West, hoping to better their fortunes, and located in the woods near Maysville, Kentucky. The family made their temporary abode in a reconstructed sheep-cote. This was changed for a cabin, built on a hillside in such a way that under one end of it sheep were sheltered and protected from the wolves. Sometimes the young lambs were carried into the cabin and warmed, like the children, before the blazing logs of the big fire-place. The small farm which Isaac Drake tilled was an island of " clearing " in a sea of for- est. The family lived primitively, frugally, close to mother earth and her wholesome realities. The seasons' changing altered the tasks. Out of doors the boy Daniel learned to use the ax, the plow, the hoe ; he learned to take care of domestic animals, to yoke oxen, to harness and drive horses. The backwoods farmer depended upon no " mid- dle men " to supply his wants. Food he dug from the ground, or shot in the woods, or caught with a hook in the stream. Butter, cheese, soap, candles, were manufac- tured by the housewife. Shoes were cobbled at home on a home-made last. Wool was carded and spun and woven into garments at home. The bark of the butternut fur-

800 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

nished dyestuff ; oak-bark and copperas aftbrded ink ; the pen was a goose-quill, and the blots on the paper were ab- sorbed by a sprinkling of sand. Young Drake learned not only —

" To plow and to sow, to reap and to mow, And be a farmer's boy ;"

he did " chores " at the house and the barn, the yard and the garden. He could weave and churn, or help his mother make soap, cheese, and " root-beer." Like Lin- coln, he spent most of his boyhood out-of-doors, and was educated by " sight, scent, and hearing." Perhaps he was born under the influence of some scientific star, for it came natural to him to observe and note physical facts and phe- nomena. What his quick senses perceived his memor}^ held in firm grasp and his reason and imagination digested. "Whatever he had once seen or heard he never forgot. Shut oflT from access to books, he was drawn to study objects and to reach general conclusions by a slow process, but he escaped the disadvantages that often accompany the arti- ficiality of early reading. Words did not betray him by passing for things.

The "tongues in trees" and " books in running brooks," were not his only teachers. The Bible and ^sop's Fables and the Life of Franklin were in his father's cabin ; he read the history of Montellion in the line of romance, and Darwin's Botanic Garden in the line of poetry.

Several school-masters, in brief turns, helped the lad from Dillworth's spelling-book to the middle of arithmetic. One of these pioneer pedagogues kept school within the walls of a still-house. Daniel's last and best teacher — Master Smith — gave him some insight into the elements of natural science by way of preparing him to study medicine. This was in 1800, when the youth was only fifteen. Fifty years afterward he wrote to his grandchil- dren : " My greatest acquisition was some knowledge of surveying. Of grammar I knew nothing, and, unfor- tunately, there was no one within my reach who could teach it."

Dr. Daniel Drake. 301

When the pioneers wanted to know what was going on in the world, they hailed an Ohio river boat and got on board. Every type of men, and all sorts of knowledge, rode on the barges that floated down or were poled up the great rivers. It was on the deck of a boat that Isaac Drake fell into conversation with one Dr. William Goforth, of Cincinnati. The conversation resulted in the deter- mination that Daniel should go to the city and study medicine.

Cheered by the good wishes of friends and neighbors, and warned to shun the evil allurements of gay Fort Washington, in the town of " Cin," or Sin, as the Queen City was called dubiously, the excited boy, accompanied by his father and a Mr. Johnson, made the journey on horseback, from Maysville, in three days. The following description of Doctor Goforth's residence and its vicinity was given by Daniel Drake in 1852 :

" East of the fort, on the upper plain, the trunks of trees w^ere still lying on the ground. A single house had been built by Dr. Allison, where the Lytle house ^ now stands, and a field of several acres stretched off to the east and north. On my arrival this was the residence of my preceptor. The dry corn stalks of early winter were still standing near the door. But Dr. Allison had planted peach trees, and it was known throughout the village as Peach Grove. The field extended to the bank of Deer creek. Thence all was deep wood. Where the munifi- cent expenditures of I^icholas Longworth, Esq.,^ have col- lected the beautiful exotics of all climates — on the very spot where the people now go to watch the unfolding of the night-blooming cereus — grew the redbud, crab-apple, and gigantic tulip-tree, or yellow poplar, with wild birds

^ The Lytle mansion, built in 1809 by General Wm. Lytle, still stands (No. 66 Lawrence street), and is one of the landmarks of early Cincin- nati. It was the home of General Robert Lytle, and of his distinguished son. General W. H. Lytle, the poet ; and is now occupied by a daughter of General Robert Lytle, Mrs. Josephine Foster. Adjoining the Lytle lot is the old Washington McLean homestead, where General Grant was entertained in 1877. This is now a conservatory of music.

' Now the David Sinton residence, on Pike street.

302 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

above and native flowers below. "Where the catawba and Herbemont now swing down their heavy clusters, the climbing water-vine hung its small sour bunches from the limbs of high trees. The adjoining valley of Deer creek, down which, by a series of locks, the canal from Lake Erie mingles its waters with the Ohio, was then a recepta- cle for drift-wood from the backwater of that river when high. The boys ascended the little estuary in canoes, during June floods, and pulled flowers from the lower limbs of the trees, or threw clubs at the turtles as they sunned themselves on the floating logs. In the whole valley there was but a single house, and that was a dis- tillery ! The narrow road which led to it from the gar- rison— and, I am sorry to add, from the village, also — was well trodden."

Dr. Drake has left us a piquant short history of his ec- centric preceptor, Dr. Goforth. Mobbed, with other stu- dents, in New York city, for the alleged offense of dissect- ing human subjects, Goforth left the East and came to Cin- cinnati in 1800. He was the first, it is claimed, to practice vaccination in the West, and Drake was the first person he vaccinated. Violently opposed to bleeding, he would not 80 much as allow his pupils to read books advocating the use of the lancet. Inventive, but visionary, he devised a wonderful plan to clarify ginseng for the Chinese market. One of his schemes, on which much time and money were spent, was to extract silver and gold from the earths of the Ohio Valley; and he had emissaries who sought in the woods for the precious ores, aided by the potent di- vining rod. At least one of his wizards professed to use a magic-glass, through which he could peer into the very caverns of the gnomes, a thousand .feet below the surface of the ground. The versatile doctor had a propensity for Natural history, and he obtained from Big Bone Lick, at enormous expense and trouble, the skeleton of a mam- moth, which he intrusted to an English impostor, one Thomas Ashe, who ran away with the gigantic specimen and sold it for his own benefit.

When the War of 1812 broke out, Goforth went to

Dr, Daniel Drake, 303

Louisiana, as army surgeon. In 1814 he returned, with his family, on a flat-boat, being eight months on the way from Kew Orleans to Cincinnati. He died inj^817. Scru- i filllous in dress^Jiewore elegant gloves, powdered his hair, M. aiid,^rried agoId^Headed cane. His manner was digni^ fied, if not pompous ; but he was the soul of kindness and courtesy, and was loved and esteemed by every body.

Such was young Drake's instructor in the rudiments of medical science. Teacher and pupil agreed so well that they formed a partnership. The junior member of the firm was honored with a diploma from the senior, who seems to have taken upon himself the function of a med- ical college. But Drake was desirous of fuller informa- tion, and ambitious of higher honors. The fame of the University of Pennsylvania, at Philadelphia, had reached his ears. To that excellent medical school he went in J^ovember, 1805. "Writing home he said : " I learn all T can, I try not to lose a single moment, seeing I have to pay so dear for leave to stay in the city a few months." Again he wrote : '' I sleep only six hours in the twenty- four, and, when awake, try never to lose a moment. I had not money enough to take a ticket at the Hospital Library, and therefore had to borrow books."

lieturning to the West, Dr. Drake located for a time at Mayslick, Kentucky, and then removed to Cincinnati, where he settled, and soon had a good practice. He presently joined a young men's debating club, where he " ventilated his intellectual fires " in discussion with the rising men of the village, among whom may be named John McLean, afterward supreme judge ; Joseph G. Tot- ten, who became chief engineer in the army ; and Thomas S. Jesup, the quartermaster-general.

In the autumn of 1807, the young doctor was married to Miss Harriet Sisson, niece and adopted daughter of Colonel Jared Mansfield, of " Ludlow Station." Mans- field was surveyor-general for the North-western Terri- tory. His son, E. D. Mansfield, became very intimate with Drake, and in 1855 wrote his " Life."

Daniel Drake, at the age of twenty-two, established in

804 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

his profession and contented in his domestic relations, be- gan the long series of practical and varied labors which preserve his name from forgetfulness, and which will be more appreciated in the future than they have been hith- erto. So many good works did he undertake, so much did he accomplish, so effectually did he stimulate exertion in others, both friends and enemies, that I think he may be called with propriety the Franklin of Cincinnati. Much of what he did for this western metropolis reminds us of the philosopher who aided in founding the early institu- tions of Philadelphia.

In 1810, Dr. Drake published the first essay in medical literature that appeared in Cincinnati. This was a pam- phlet of sixty pages, bearing the title, " [NTotices of Cin- cinnati, Its Topography, Climate and Diseases." It was printed at the office of Rev. John W. Browne, and the type was set by Sacket Reynolds. From this rare pam- phlet we learn that, in 1809, the number of houses in Cincinnati was 360, the population 2,320 souls, " of which number 1,127 are males, 1,013 females, and 80 are ne- groes.'* *' The number of persons over forty-five years of age is 184." " The dress of our inhabitants is similar to that of the other inhabitants of the Middle States."

The call for copies of Drake's " N'otices " induced the author to enlarge his design and make a more complete handbook. In 1815 appeared the " ISTatural and Statistical View, or Picture of Cincinnati." This, in some features, was patterned after the "Picture of Philadelphia," an eastern publication issued some years previously. The "Picture of Cincinnati" is a sturdy little book, and has held its own for more than three-score years and ten, and is instinct with life and vigor yet. Like Flint's "Ten Years in the Mississippi Valley," it was written without the help of other books. The author, unaided, gathered his facts at first hand. Here is one man against the wilderness — a man without much scientific reading or method, and very mistrustful of his grammar, but with most inquisitive eyes, ears, nose, mouth and fingers. He starts his investigation at his own door, and pursues it in

Dr. Daniel Drake, 305

all his walks, rides, conversation and letters. With what avidity he gathers, assorts, arranges, and interprets his material ! How completely and vividly he observes and reports I In this book are bits of clear description that must have been written on the spot — spontaneographs. Drake's statements are invariably simple and earnest. His botany is tonic — it tastes of ginseng, snake-root and cherry-bark. As his particulars accumulate and his views enlarge, he suggests a general law or an ingenious theory. He struggled with the problem of the weather and of the hurricane. ^JBJe^speculated on the nature of the " miasma " ^-efLthjSj.'.bot^<^i^ lands." He compared the Miami country with the Atlantic country. JSTo one can read his brave pioneer book without admiring the original force and sa- gacity of its composer.

The "Picture of Cincinnati" is the Old Testament of Cincinnati in regard to local history. In it the vigilant annalist traced the progress of his town from its founding to the hour of his writing. The newness of the settle- ment, in 1815, is indicated by Drake's telling that " veni- son is brought from the woods during the proper season, and bear meat is now and then offered."

Dr. Drake was, conjointly with Rev. Joshua L. Wilson, a founder of Lancaster Seminary, the first large school of Cincinnati. Dr. Wilson proposed the establishment of the school. Drake was the secretary of the organizing board. The school went into operation in 1814, under the presi- dency of Jacob Burnet. The next year it was chartered as Cincinnati College.

Th^ r!in«->.ipr>flti Circulating Library Society was created by the exertions of Dr. Drake. The library was opened in 1814, in the College building. In 1816 the directors Were iDaniel Drake (who was president), Jesse Embree, Thomas Peirce, Peyton S. Symmes, David Wade and Micajah T. Williams. The librarian wag David Cathcart.

Thejj±>raix£iiiitadn_eii fciu^^ hundred volumes. About the^year 1830 the books were packed away in the cel-_ lar ofjthe book-store of Williamson & Strong, on Main 20

806 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

jtreet. Here they lay for several years gathering mold, until Rev. James H. Perkins took the liberty to overhaul the boxes and bring their contents to light. Many of the books were ruined. The treasured volume of " Wilson's Ornithology" fell to pieces when handled. Such of the books as were worth saving were placed upon the shelves of the ^brary of the Ohio Mechanics' Institute^where fiomej2f-iih*^^ mf^y^ow be seen.

I have alluded to the Young Men's Debating Society, of which Drake was a member. That society arose about 1806. A much more ambitious association w^as started in 1813, called the School of Literature and the Arts. The first president of this vigorous and confident organization was Return Jonathan Meigs, United States surveyor-gen- eral, a gentleman of many accomplishments. Before the " school " had been in operation a year, Mr. Meigs was appointed commissioner of the general land-office, and he removed to "Washington. Dr. Daniel Drake succeeded to the presidency of the " school," and delivered an elabo- rate anniversary address IN'ovember 23, 1814. The address was "published by order"— a small pamphlet of twelve pages, rudely printed on dingy, coarse paper.

It appears from the Anniversary Address that during the year no fewer than twenty-three essays and addresses were delivered in the meetings of this backwoods " School of Literature and the Arts." Most of the subjects treated pertain more to natural and physical science than to lit- erature or art. The first paper read was on "Edu- cation," the thirteenth on " Common Sense," and the sev- enteenth on " Enthusiasm," three forces on which the pioneers put much reliance.

Our grandfathers rhymed, as our grandsons will do. The address assures posterity that, in the School of Literature and Arts, the " exercise of poetical recitation has been strictly performed, and our album of poetry al- ready exhibits specimens indicative of a cultivated taste." With characteristic good sense and clear perception of his " environment ".Dr. Drake added that " literary excel- lence in Paris, London, or Edinburgh is incomparable with

Dr. Daniel Drake. 307

the same thing in Philadelphia, ISTew York, or Boston, while each of these in turn has a standard of merit, which may- be contrasted, but can not be compared, with that of Lexington or Cincinnati. Still, comparative superiority in Europe, the Atlantic States, or the backwoods is equally gratifying, and gives to him who possesses it the same influence over the community to which he belongs." Discussing the prospects of " backwoods " literature, he says, suggestively : " !N"ew countries, it is true, can not af- ford the elegancies and refinements of learning, but they are not so unpropitious to the growth of intellect as we generally suppose. The facilities for improvement which they furnish differ from those in an old country more in kind than in degree. In new countries the empire of prejudice is ^comparatively insignificant; and the mind, not depressed by the dogmas of licensed authority nor fettered by the chains of inexorable custom, is left free to expand according to its original constitution."

In the autumn of 1815, Dr. Drake went to Philadelphia and completed his course of medical studies, receiving the degree Doctor of Medicine, the first conferred upon an Ohio student. While in the city of Ben Franklin, with its opportunities and associations, the hungry-minded young student from the Buckeye State availed himself of more lectures than his professors gave, and other acquaintances than his immediate purpose required. Through the courtesy of Dr. Casper Wistar, president of the American Philosophical Society, he attended the meet- ings of that learned body which Franklin founded in 1744. He was invited also to select gatherings of literary men and woman who came together informally at Dr. Wistar's house and held what they called " Wistar parties." This Philadelphia idea Drake carried home with him, and when, in after years, he lived in his own elegant house on Vine street, he held levees there similar to those he wit- nessed in the Quaker City.

Having obtained his diploma he returned to Cincinnati, May, 1816. In addition to his professional duties and his general activity as a public-spirited citizen, this energetic

808 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

man embarked in several business ventures, most of which proved disastrous. Under the firm name, D. Drake & Co., » he and his brother Benjamin dealt in drugs and medi- cines. Later, in connection with his father, who removed to Cincinnati, he started a general store of dry goods, groceries, and hardware, putting out the sign, Isaac Drake & Co. A novel commodity was vended at Isaac Drake & Co.'s, namely, soda-water, the first that ever sparkled from a fountain in the West. But drugs, dry goods, groceries, hardware, and soda-water all deceived expectation, and the Drakes lost money.

^T^r more serious trouble had come upon Dr. Drake personally. Two children were taken from \\^m \j dpath^ f\f\\ and his wife's Jiftalth and his own were impaired^ Such private afflictions, though littleTS^said oi thenTto the world, are really to the individual the great events of ex- perience. Who forgets the grave of his child ?

The book of a man's life is divided into natural chap- ters. Dr. Drake turned a new leaf and began a second series of enterprises in the year 1817, being then thirty- two years old. To his friend, Colonel Mansfield, he wrote : ** I am now going to astonish you — so cling hold to every support within your reach — I am a professor.'^ The " Pict- tures of Cincinnati " had secured its author reputation and an appointment. He was called to the chair of Materia Medica in the newly-formed College of Medicine of Transylvania University, Lexington, Kentucky. This was the first medical college in the West. From the time Dr. Drake began to lecture in Lexington to the close of his life, thirty-two years later, his name was identified with the history of medical institutions, as founder, instructor, editor, and author. By hris exertions the^ Medical College of Ohio was oroatod : by his porsonftl- persuasion in the House of Reprise ni at i\ is, ilu- C incinnati Commercial Hospital was established ; he instituted an eye infirmary in the city ; he organized a medical department in the Miami University, and one in Cincinnati College. He conducted, for many years, the Western Medical and Physical Journal; he published a volume of essays on

I)i\ Daniel Drake. 309

" Medical Education," and, as the crowning achievement of his professional life, he gave to the world, after thirty years of preparation, his ^reat Aynrk nn th^ " Dis^jsej _ of the^Interigr Valley of [N'orth America." To collect the material for this treatise, the author traveled from Lake Superior to the Gulf of Mexico, and from the Alleghenies to the Rocky Mountains. Like the " Picture of Cincin- nati," it is a purely original book. AUibone's Dictionary mentioned it as " probably the most important and valu- K-A.^^^-^ able work ever" written in the United States."

The detail of Dr. Drake's professional quarrels, con- tests, victories, and discomfitures belongs to the history of medicine rather than that of literature. He has told the story of his hard-fought battles with much wit and candor. It was a peculiarly dramatic and grimly humorous inci- dent in his experience to be dismissed, by a formal vote, from directorship in the college he had founded. John P. Foote, discussing Drake's "belligerent propensities," re- marks that the early history of the Medical College of Ohio may, not inaptly, be styled a " History of the Thirty Years' War." More than thirty-five years have gone by since Foote wrote, and now Dr. Drake's name is honored by all sections of the noble profession to which he be- longed, and in which he did his duty as he saw it, fight- ing admirably. His praises are now the theme of gradua- ting speeches, and his portrait decorates programmes and diplomas. The distinguished Dr. Gross, in a " Discourse on the Life and Character of Daniel Drake," delivered in Louisville, in 1853, said : " Of all the medical teachers whom I have ever heard, he was the most forcible and elo- quent. His voice was remarkably clear and distinct, and so powerful that, when the windows of his lecture-room were open, it could be heard at a great distance. He sometimes read his discourse, but generally he ascended the rostrum without note or scrip."

Ijrjrake was a kniglit-errant in his profession. From Lexington he removed to Cincinnati, thence to Lexington again, thence to Cincinnati, thence to Philadelphia, thence to Cincinnati, thence to Louisville, and finally to Cincin-

810 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

nati. He belongs, therefore, to the whole Ohio Valley ; and more, his labors and his influence spread through many states. His reputation became national, and even international. In the Central West he was regarded as the great doctor. Many strangers consulted him by letter. Lamont tells us that Abraham Lincoln wrote to Dr. Drake, from his home in Illinois, soliciting advice in re- gard to the mental malady caused by the " rail-splitter's " love-distraction.

But it is with Drake as a man of general culture, and a promoter of intellectual interests, outside of his special vocation, that our present study is mainly concerned. Mention has been made of the part he took in organizing the Circulating Library, the School of Literature and Arts, and the Lancastrian Seminary. Another enterprise undertaken just after the war of 1812-15, was the forma- tion of a museum society, for the collection of objects in natural history. The father of this institution was Dr. Daniel Drake. The gathering of specimens was begun in 1818, but the museum was not formally opened until June 10, 1820. Dr. Drake, who was secretary of the society, delivered an address, at the opening, on the " Zoology, Geology, and Antiquities of the West."

I have an interesting autograph stating the " conditions on which the managers of the Western Museum Society are willing to place the museum in the edifice of the Cin- cinnati College." The article was agreed to by the trustees of the college, March 25, 1819, and it reads as follows :

"Whereas, it has been represented to this board that the trustees of the Cincinnati College are desirous of hav- ing the collections of this society placed in the college for the use and benefit of the students of that institution, therefore be it resolved,

" That the museum of the society shall be disposed of under the following conditions:

" 1. A proper room or rooms shall be appropriated by the trustees of the college, for which no rent shall be de- manded.

Dr. Daniel Drake. 311

" 2. The managers of the society shall continue to di- rect all its concerns.

" 3. The members of the society, with such persons as by the by-laws of the society they may be entitled to intro- duce, shall be admitted into the museum at such times as may be prescribed by the managers.

" 4. The pupils of the college shall have admission to the museum under the superintendence and responsibility of the president of the college, to whom, when the man- agers of the society do not direct otherwise, shall be con- fided the keeping of the room.

" 5. Articles of the museum may be used by the pro- fessors of the college in the illustration of their lectures.

" 6. Such articles as may be prescribed and designated by the donors, for the cabinet of the college, shall be con- sidered its property, and labeled as such when placed in the museum.

" 7. This museum shall not be removed by either party without giving six months' previous notice."

This document is signed by " Daniel Drake, Secretary," in a bold, free hand.

The society was a joint stock company, with shares of fifty dollars each. The first board of managers were Elijah Slack, William Steele, Jesse Embree, Peyton S. Symmes, and Daniel Drake. The naturalist, Audubon, was one of the artists and curators of the society in 1820. The board, in an appendix to Dr. Drake's printed address, solicited their " fellow-citizens of the backwoods gen- erally" to contribute to the museum.

Dr. Robert Best, afterward professor at Transylvania, was appointed by the society, with assistants, to collect specimens in archaeology and natural history from the region of the great lakes.

The collections seem to have been deposited at first in Cincinnati College, but they were soon removed to a build- ing on the north-west corner of Second and Main streets, and placed in custody of Mons. J. Dorfeuille, of Louisi- ana, who became manager and afterward proprietor of the Western Museum. The original character of the museum

312 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

was strictly useful ; the founders aimed to diffuse knowl- edge and promote scientific inquiry. Mr. Dorfueille gave didactic lectures on ornithology and on the faculties of the human mind. The learned and amiable proprietor dis- covered that people must be amused as well as instructed, and by degrees he added the usual stock of " curiosities " and monstrosities to his scientific attractions. Foote's Literary Gazette, for March 13, 1834, contains an original poem of ten eight-line stanzas, inspired by the marvels of the Western Museum :

" Wend hither, ye members of polished society —

Ye who the bright phantoms of pleasure pursue — To see of strange objects the endless variety,

Monsieur Dorfeuille will expose to your view. For this fine collection, which courts your inspection,

Was brought to perfection by his skill and lore, When those who projected, and should have protected

Its interests, neglected to care for it more.

Here are pictures, I doubt not, as old as Methusalem,

But done at what place I can't say, nor by whom ; Some of which represent certain saints of Jerusalem,

And others, again, monks of Venice and Rome; Old black letter-pages of far-distant ages.

Which puzzle the sages to read and translate. And manuscripts musty, coins clumsy and rusty,

Of which Time, untrusty, has not kept the date.

Lo, here is a cabinet of great curiosities, Procured from the Redmen, who once were our foes;

Unperiahing tokens of dire animosities- Darts, tomahawks, war-cudgels, arrows, and bows.

And bone-liooks for fishes and old earthern dishes, To please him who wishes o'er such things to pore ;

Huperb wampum sashes, and mica-slate glasses. Which doubtless the lasses much valued of yore."

An advertisement in the Mirror, in June, 1834, after enumerating the special attractions of the museum, a ** Beautiful moss-covered Fountain," the " Phsenakisto- Bcope," the " Enormous Elk," closes thus :

Come hither, come hither, by night or by day, There's plenty to look at and little to pay;

Dr. Daniel Drake. 313

You may stroll through the rooms and at every turn

There's something to please you and something to learn.

If weary and heated, rest here at your ease,

There's a fountain to cool you and music to please ;

And further, a secret I still have to tell,

You may ramble up-stairs, and on earth be in .

It is but natural that, favored by puffs so bappy as this, Mr. Dorfeuille advertised freely, and that in his generosity he announced that " the clergy of all denominations are admitted gratuitously." Rev. Timothy Flint, possibly availing himself of his clerical privilege, or perhaps of his editorial perquisite, being proprietor of tlie Western Monthly Review, often stepped down to the corner from his son's book-store, 160 Main street, to survey the wonders of Dorfeuille's Museum. The kindly editor writes in his magazine for May, 1827 : " To see such numerous and magnificent collections from the several kingdoms of na- ture, so happily arranged in such large and commodious apartments, in a city little more than thirty years old, is a circumstance that excites surprise. Taking into view the recent origin of the city, they struck us with more effect than any Ave had seen in the United States."

A morbid taste for the unnatural always brings the sup- ply it craves. There was a chamber of '' horrors " in the museum, in which were displayed, bloody knives and hatchets that murderers had used, and ropes that had strangled the murderers, and wax figures of criminals in the very act of taking innocent life. The supreme at- traction of the dreadful room was the *' Head of Hoover," the actual head of a murderer, swollen and distorted, in a huge glass jar of alcohol.

Mrs. Trollope, serving up Cincinnati with her usual piquant sour sauce, says Mr. Dorfeuille " is a man of taste and science, but a collection formed strictly after their dic- tates would, by no means, satisfy the Western metropolis. The people have a most extravagant passion for wax fig- ures, and the museums vie with each other in displaying specimens in this barbarous branch of art. As Mr. Dor- feuille can not trust to his science for attracting the citi-

314 Literal^ Culture in the Ohio Valley.

zens, he has put his ingenuity into requisition, and this has proved to him the surer aid of the two. He has con- structed a pandemonium in an upperstory of his museum, in which he has congregated all the images of horror that his fertile fancy could devise ; dwarfs that, by machinery, grow into giants before the eyes of the spectator ; imps of ebony, with eyes of flame ; monstrous reptiles devour- ing youth and beauty ; lakes of fire and mountains of ice ; in short, wax, paint, and springs have done wonders. To give the scheme some more effect, he makes it visible only through a grate of massive iron bars, among which 'are arranged wires connected with an electrical machine in a neighboring chamber. Should any daring hand or foot obtrude itself within the bars, it receives a smart shock that often passes through many of the crowd, and the cause being unknown, the effect is exceedingly comic ; terror, astonishment, curiosity, all are set in action, and all contribute to make ' Dorfeuille's Hell' one of the most amusing exhibitions possible."

" Dorfeuille's Hell," or, as it came to be more mildly called, the " Infernal Regions," was designed and con- structed by the afterwards famous artist, Hiram Powers. The hand whose cunning fashioned the statue of the Greek Slave, overcame the primary difficulties of the plastic art by shaping the hideous figures of the Western Museum somewhat as Wilhelm Meister's apprenticeship began with the acting puppets of his child's theater.

Powers was a very ingenious mechanic, and in the days when he was learning to use the clay and the sculptor's chisel in his little studio on Sixth street, he was often hired to come to the shop of his next-door neighbor, Mr. Lunian Watson, clock-maker, to design or complete some peculiarly difficult piece of work, such as a musical organ.

Powers was assisted in the creation of " Inferno " by Hervieu, the PVench artist, who accompanied Mrs. Trol- lopc to this country, and who decorated the panels of the Bazaar with classical designs.

He it was, also, who painted an immense canvas repre- senting the ** Landing of Lafayette in Cincinnati."

Dr. Daniel Drake. 315

A vivid description of the " Infernal Regions " may be found in Hall's Western Magazine for April, 1835. The diabolical exhibition was very popular, and it must have been kept up during a period of at least twenty years, for I well remember going with my father to witness it. I was a small boy, and I recall even yet the feeling of terror with which I beheld the glaring eyes of the frightful fe- male named Sin, who sat hard by the infernal gates, and who jumped at me with a horrid cry. The King of Ter- rors himself I recollect as a decidedly good-natured, though long-horned old gentleman, and I did not under- stand why all the visitors laughed so impolitely when he assured them he was very glad to see them in that place.

Dorfeuille finally transported the "Infernal Regions" to IN'ew York city. There the good Frenchman died, and his moral exhibition was closed on earth.

The Western Museum was rivaled by " Letton's," a similar institution, located many years in a building still standing on the north-west corner of Fourth and Main streets, Cincinnati.

Dr. Drake with ardent spirit opposed the use of ardent spirits. Among his works is a monogram of sixty-six pages, entitled "A Discourse on Intemperance ; delivered at Cincinnati, March 1, 1828, before the Agricultural So- ciety of Hamilton County, and subsequently pronounced by request, to a popular audience." It is dedicated to Joshua L. Wilson, D.D. The discourse discusses the whole subject of "rum" in its scientific, political and moral aspects. The doctor was a Prohibitionist ; he would suppress the sale of intoxicants, and not make the liquor trafiic a source of revenue. The drunkard should be sub- ject to legal disabilities, he should neither hold oflice, nor serve on a jury, nor be eligible as a witness in court. His property should be put in the hands of trustees.

Mr. Mansfield, in his " Life of Drake," relates a funny incident that happened on the occasion of the delivery of the speech on intemperance to a general audience. A large crowd assembled at the court-house at 3 o'clock of a hot afternoon in September, to hear the popular speaker

1

316 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

advocate an unpopular cause. Many purple-nosed heroes were present, and listened with good-natured disapproval to the condemnation dealt out to them and their vice. The discussion was not only exhaustive, but exhausting, being very long and rather dry, on which account a rubi- cund listener cried out, " Let's adjourn awhile and take a drink I" An intermission was actually taken, during which the thirsty regaled themselves at the bar of McFar- land's tavern, near by, after which the meeting came to order again, and the speech was concluded.

In 1825 Dr. Drake's wife died. This calamity over- whelmed him. Three children, a son and two daughters, left motherless to his care, he brought up with the utmost solicitude and aftection. Chiefly on account of his daugh- ters, when they grew old enough to see society, he brought about a series of social and literary receptions at his house, which stood on the lot now covered by "The Albany," on Vine street. E. D. Mansfield has recorded, with glowing personal interest, his. recollections of these " Vine Street Reunions." " We used to assemble early — about half-past seven, and when fully collected, the doc- tor, who was the acknowledged chairman, rung his little bell for general attention. This caused no constraint, but simply brought us to a common point, which was to be the topic of the evening. Sometimes this was appointed beforehand, sometimes it arose out of what was said or proposed on the occasion. Some evenings compositions were read on topics selected at the meeting. On other evenings nothing was read, and the time was passed in a general discussion of some interesting question. Occa- sionally a piece of poetry or a story came in to diversify and enliven the conversation. These, however, were rather interludes than parts of the general plan, whose main object was the discussion of questions belonging to society, literature, education and religion."

These pleasant meetings must have occurred about the same time as those of the " Semicolon Club," which were held, usually, at the houses of Sam. E. Foote, Wm. Green and Chas. Stetson, from 1832 to 1837. Among the lead-

Dr. Daniel Drake. 317

ing participants in both the companies were General Edward King, Judge Jas. Hall, Prof. Calvin Stowe and Mrs. Stowe, and Mrs. Caroline Lee Hentz.

When the Western Literary Institute and College of Professional Teachers was established in 1833, Dr. Drake took a leading part its great work. Many of his addresses are preserved in the published " Transactions " of the college. Drake's readiness of tongue and pen, and his so- cial accomplishments, fitted him for the sprightly and genial oratory of " occasions." At festivals, anniversaries, dedications, he was a central figure. A celebration in which he took a prominent part was held on December 26, 1833, the forty-fifth anniversary of the settlement of Cincinnati. The presiding ofi&cers were : President, Ma- jor Daniel Gano ; vice-presidents, "Wm. R. Morris, Henry E. Spencer, and Moses Lyon. Rev. J. B. Finley and Rev. Wm. Burke officiated as chaplains. The character of the celebration was purely western ; those who planned it were native citizens. One hundred and sixty invited guests sat down at the table '' in the Cincinnati Commer- cial Exchange, on the river bank, near where the first cabin was erected in 1788."

The unique feature of the ceremonies was the Buckeye dinner, with accompanying speeches, poems, and songs. The banquet itself was such as would delight Mark Twain, so abundant and American it was. Field, forest, and river contributed fruit, game, and fish to the bounteous board. A pair of fat racoons was served up smoking. The favorite potation of the feast was called " sangaree," a sort of innocent punch, which was dipped lavishly from four huge bowls carved from Buckeye wood. There was also plenty of wine furnished by Nicholas Longworth from his vintage of Catawba gathered on the hills of the Beautiful River. The formal exercises of the day con- sisted of an oration by Mr. Joseph Longworth, a poetical address by Peyton S. Symmes, and an ode by Charles D. Drake, the doctor's son, now Judge Drake, of Washing- ton, D. C. In response to the toast, "The Emigrants, whether from sister states or foreign climes," Edward

318 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

King presented a poem bj Mrs. Lee Hentz, in which the fair has bleu praised the " sires " who —

" First raised this city's heavenward spires, And based upon the unblessed sod The temples of the living God. The germs of science, genius, taste, They laid in the uncultured waste, And hallowed with the Christian's prayer, The wild beasts' then untrodden lair."

There was also an after-dinner speech by the veteran General Harrison, the hero by popular favor soon to be- come President of the United States.

But the speech of the occasion was called out by the fifth regular toast, to " The Author of the Picture of Cincin- nati." The doctor discoursed on the Buckeye Tree. Happily the address has been preserved in print, and one risks little in prophesying that it will hold a permanent place in our literature on account of both its subject and its style. The speaker said :

" Being born in the East, I am not quite a native of the Valley of the Ohio, and, therefore, am not a Buckeye by birth. Still, I might claim to be a greater Buckeye than most of you who were born in the city, fop my Buckeye- ism belongs to the country, a better soil for rearing Buck- eyes than the town.

" My first remembrances are of a Buckeye cabin in the depths of a cane-brake on one of the tributary brooks of the Licking river ; for whose waters, as they flow into the Ohio opposite our city, I feel some degree of affection. At the date of these recollections the spot where we are now assembled was a beech and buckeye grove, no doubt altogether unconscious of its approaching fate. Thus I am a Buckeye by engrafting, or rather by inoculation, be- ing only in the bud when I began to draw my nourish- ment from the depths of a buckeye bowl. . . .

" We are now assembled on a spot which is surrounded by vast warehouses, filled to overflowing with the earthen and iron domestic utensils of China, Birmingham, Shef- field, and I should add, the great western manufacturing

Dr. Daniel Drake. 319

town at the head of our noble river. The poorest and the obscurest family in the land may be, and is, in fact, ade- quately supplied. How different was the condition of the early emigrants ! A journey of a thousand miles over wild and rugged mountains, permitted the adventurous pioneer to bring with him little more than the Indian or the Arab carried from place to place — his wife and children. Elegances were unknown, even articles of pressing neces- sity were few in number, and when lost or broken could not be replaced. In that period of trying deprivation, to what quarter did the first settlers turn their inquiring and anxious eyes? To the buckeye ! Yes,. gentlemen, to the buckeye tree ; and it proved a friend indeed, because, in the simple and expressive language of those early times, it was a friend in need. Hats were manufactured of its fibers, the tray for the delicious ' pone ' and 'johnny-cake,' the venison trencher, the noggin, the spoon, and the huge, white family bowl for mush and milk, were carved from its willing trunk ; and the finest ' boughten ' vessels could not have imparted a more delicious flavor, or left an im- pression so enduring. He who has ever been concerned in the petty brawls, the frolic and the fun of a family of young Buckeyes around the great wooden bowl, overflow- ing with the ' milk of human kindness,' will carry the sweet remembrance to the grave.

" Thus beyond all the trees of the land the buckeye was associated with the family circle — penetrating its privacy, facilitating its operations, and augmenting its enjoyments. Unlike many of its loftier associates, it did not bow its head and wave its arms at a haughty distance, but it might be said to have held out the right hand of fellowship ; for of all the trees of our forest it is the only one with five leaflets arranged on one stem — an expressive symbol of the human hand."

Another pioneer celebration which took place December 26, 1838, the semi-centennial of the settlement of the Queen City, Dr. Drake was the orator.

So enthusiastic was this energetic and original student of realities; so much in love with the men and institu-

320 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

tions among which he lived, that he proposed to write the history of the West. A volume was promised in 1839, but professional duties prevented its completion. What the character of such a book would have been we may infer from reading Drake's " Discourse on the His- tory, Character, and prospects of the West," delivered to the Union Literary Society of Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, September 23, 1834. The sections of this discourse which interest us most are those relating to the litera- ture of the early West. The pamphlet from which I quote is so rare that few readers will see it, and the fol- lowing extracts are therefore given, no less for the inter- esting facts they contain than for the testimony they bear to the good sense and generous sympathy of the author. The orator said : " Many of our writers have received but little education, and are far more anxious about results than the polish of the machinery by which they are to be effected. They write for a people whose literary at- tainments are limited and imperfect ; whose taste is for the strong rather than the elegant, and who are not dis- posed or prepared to criticise any mode of expression that is striking or original, whatever may be the deformi- ties of its drapery — consequently but little solicitude is felt by our authors about classic propriety. Moreover, the emigration into the valley being from every civilized coun- try, new and strange forms of expression are continually thrown into the great reservoir of spoken language, whence they are often taken up by the pen, transferred to our lit- erature, and widely disseminated. For many years to come these causes will prevent attainment either of regu- larity or elegance ; but gradually the heterogeneous rudi- ments will conform to a common standard, and finally shoot into a compound of rich and varied elements ; in- ferior in refinement, but superior in force, variety, and freshness to the language of the mother country. . . . The literature of a yonng and a free people will, of course, be declamatory, and such, so far as it is yet de- veloped, is the character of our own. Deeper learning will no doubt abate its verbosity and intumescence ; but

Dr, Daniel Drake, 321

our natural scenery and our liberal political and social in- stitutions must long continue its character of floridness. And what is there in this that should excite regret in ourselves or raise derision in others? Ought not the lit- erature of a free people to be declamatory ? Should it not exhort and animate? If cold, literal, and passionless, how could it act as the handmaid of improvement ? In abso- lute government all the political, social, and literary insti- tutions are supported by the monarch — here they are orig- inated and sustained by public sentiment. In despotisms it is of little use to awaken the feelings or warm the im- agination of the people — here an excited state of both is indispensable to those popular movements by which so- ciety is to be advanced. Would you arouse men to voluntary action on great public objects, you must make their fancy and feelings glow under your presentations ; you must not merely forward their reason, but their de- sires and will; the utility and loveliness of every object must be displayed to their admiration ; the temperature of the heart must be raised and its cold selfishness melted away, as the snows which buried up the fields when acted on by an April sun ; then, like the budding herb which shoots up from the soil, good and great acts of patriotism will appear. Whenever the literature of a new country loses its metaphorical and declamatory character the in- stitutions which depend upon public sentiment will lan- guish and decline, as the struggling boat is carried back by the impetuous waves of the Mississippi as soon as the propelling power relaxes. In this region low-pressure engines are found not to answer — high steam succeeds much better ; and although an orator may now and then explode and go off in vapor, the majority make more pro- ductive voyages than could be performed under the in- fluence of a temperate heat."

Dr. Drake wrote many pamphlets, a complete set of which comprised in four volumes may be found in the Con- gressional Library at Washington. They relate largely to medicine, though some are literary, others economic. 21

822 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

One of his practical writings is on the desirability of constructing a railroad from the Ohio river to the head- waters of the Carolinas and Georgia.

In the years 1847-8-9, Dr. Drake wrote, from Louisville, a series of reminiscential letters, addressed to his children.^ These letters were collected into a volume, edited with notes and a biographical sketch by Judge Drake, and pub- lished by Robert Clarke & Co., under the general title, " Pioneer Life in Kentucky." Of these letters the Atlantic Monthly said :

" The letters of Dr. Drake are not merely personal reminiscences, but faithful pictures of local manners and customs. We can not advise any to turn to them for the realization of romantic ideas of the pioneers, but they are very interesting reading and very instructive. They form part of our own history, which daily grows more re- markable and precious ; and we most heartily commend the volume, not only to collectors of such material, but to- the average reader, as something very apt for his entertain- ment and then for his use."

Daniel Drake died at his home, in Cincinnati, Fri- day, November 5, 1852. One who knew him intimately writes these words : " The mere facts of Dr. Drake's pub- lic life give no just idea of his grand character. He was the greatest, most leonine yet the sweetest and most lov- ing-hearted man I have ever known."

* Drake's only son, Judge Charles D. Drake, now in his eightieth year, is residing in Washington. The eldest daughter became the wife of Hon. A. H. McGufTey. The second daughter, Harriet, married James P. Campbell, of Chillicothe. She is not living.

Timothy Flint. 323

CHAPTER XI.

TIMOTHY FLINT, MISSIONARY, GEOGRAPHER, EDITOR, NOV- ELIST, AND POET.

In the cemetery of Harmony Grove, Salem, Massachu- setts, there is a monument bearing the following epitaph, written by Rev. James Flint, D.D., in loving memory of his cousin and friend, Timothy Flint :

"He painted on his glowing page

The peerless valley of the West ; That shall, in every coming age,

His geniu's and his toils attest. But wouldst thou, gentle pilgrim, know

What worth, what love endeared the man? This the lone hearts that miss him, show

Better than storied marble can."

Thomas Flint and his brother William emigrated from Wales to JSTew England probably before 1640. Flint street, Salem, is on ground once belonging to their farm land. Timothy Flint was a descendant, in the sixth gen- eration, from Thomas. He was born at ^orth Eeading, Massachusetts, July 11, 1780, and died at the same town, in the house of his brother Peter, August 16, 1840. One of his uncles, Hezekiah Flint, came to Ohio in 1788, in the company of pioneers led by Rufus Putnam to the mouth of the Muskingum. Hezekiah Flint and family removed to Cincinnati, where he died in 1811. His son, named also Hezekiah, was a leading citizen of Cincinnati, whose death occurred in 1843, and whose portrait now hangs on the wall of the Mercantile Library. He was the grandfather of the late IN'athan F. Baker, a scluptor of much ability known by his statue of " Egeria," in Spring Grove Cemetery, and his " Cincinnatus," in front of 25 West

324 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

Fourth street. He was a pupil of Powers. Mr. Baker died in February, 1891.

Timothy Flint was not quite eight years old when his uncle accompanied Putnam and the other colonists to Ma- rietta.* Putnam started from Salem. The house of his father, Israel Putnam, " Old Put," is still standing near the old town, and is still occupied by Putnams. Flint distinctly remembered, as he tells us in the " Indian Wars of the West," the " wagon that carried out a number of adventurers from the counties of Essex and Middlesex, in Massachusetts, on the second emigration to the woods of Ohio." The wagon had a black cover, on which were painted in large white capital letters the words, " To Ma- rietta, on the Ohio." It was Flint's impression that about twenty persons accompanied this wagon under the direc- tion of Dr. Manasseh Cutler.

A ray of light is thrown upon the days and ways of yore by Flint's gossiping remark that " Dr. Cutler, at the time of his being engaged in the speculation of the Ohio Com- pany's purchase, had a feud — it is not remembered whether literary, political, or religious — with the late learned and eccentric Dr. Bentley, of Salem. Dr. Bentley was then chief contributor to a paper which he afterward edited. The writer [Flint] still remembers and can repeat doggerel verses by Dr. Bentley upon the departure of Dr. Cutler on his first trip to explore his purchase on the Ohio."

Temple Cutler, Manasseh's youngest son, has written a charmingly clear account of the departure of the Ohio- bound adventurers from old Ipswich. He says : " The little band of pioneers assembled at the house of Dr. Cut- li I , in Ipswich, Massachusetts, on the 3d day of Decem- ber, 1787, and there took an early breakfast. About the dawn of day they paraded in front of the house; and after a short address from him, full of good advice and hearty wishes for their happiness and prosperity, the men (one of whom was his son Jarvis, aged nineteen) went forward,

* The deflcription of Flint's journey down the Ohio is taken, with gome modification, from the author's " Footprints of the Pioneers."

Timothy Flint. 825

cheered heartily by the hy-standers. Dr. Cutler accom- panied them to Dan vers, when he placed them under com- mand of Major Hatfield White and Captain Ezra Putnam. He had prepared a large and well-built wagon ' for their use, which preceded them with their baggage. This w^agon, as a protection from cold and storm, was covered with black canvas, and on the sides was an inscription in white letters, I think, in these words, ''For the Ohio at the Muskingum,^ which Dr. Cutler painted with his own hand.

''Although I was then but six years old, I have a vivid recollection of all these circumstances, having seen the preparations and heard the conversation relating to this undertaking. I think the weather was pleasant and the sun rose clear; I know I almost wished I could be of the party then starting, for I was told we were all to go as soon as preparation was made for our reception."

The departure of the emigrant wagon, the leave-taking, and the general talk about the backwoods, kindled the imagination of young Flint. Doubtless he felt a strong desire to join the expedition and follow^ the black vehicle across the mountains. Most wonderful reports were spread abroad in !N'ew England concerning the inland country far toward the Mississippi. Romancing travelers tojd, with mock gravity, that watermelons as big as houses grew in the clearings of the West; that the flax plant in the Ohio Valley bore woven cloth on its branches; that honey trees were numerous along the Miami river; and that springs of brandy and rum gushed from the fortunate hills of Kentucky. But these blessings and de- lights were not unmixed with evil. Stories were invented which added ten-fold horror to the usual dangers of the hunt and the Indian fight ; stories of storm, and disease, and starvation, and of the frightful hoop-snake, which, like a rapid wheel, span through the swamps and brakes upon its victims, its tail armed with a sting so venomous that a tree pierced ever so slightly by it instantly withered and died. The hoop-snake was scarcely more appalling to the imagination than the whip-snake, which drove cat-

826 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

tie to frenzy and death by lashing them with its tail ; or the hissing serpent, which exhaled a subtile gas laden with mortal disease.

We do not know the particulars of Flint's boyhood. With his cousin, James, he attended Harvard College, graduating in 1800. Two years later he^ became pastor of the Congregational Church, at Lunenburg, Massachusetts, where he remained for twelve years. Before leaving col- lege he gained some skill in composition. While at Lunenburg, he wrote and published several essays, ad- dresses, and sermons, one of which was issued in a small volume with the title "Arguments, lN"atural, Moral, and Religious, for the Immorality of the Soul," Beginning his ministerial labors at the very time when a violent theological war w^as raging in Massachusetts between the forces of the old Calvanistic and the newer liberal ortho- doxy, and also .between the Trinitarians and the Uni- tarians, Flint became somewhat involved in the discus- sions of the day. He cared less for form and dogma than some of his brethren did, and was more than suspected of Arminianism. On theological questions he differed from his kinsman. Rev. James Flint, though on all other sub- jects they were as one. It was the spirit of controversial rancor that caused the peacefully-disposed Timothy to request a dismissal from his charge at Lunenburg. More- over, his health was poor, and he was advised by Dr. James Flint and by Joseph Peabody, a wealthy merchant of Salem, to go forth as a missionary and preach the Gos- pel in the Western wilderness. It seems that Peabody, to whom he dedicated one of his books, used a full purse very liberally to forward the good cause, sending remit- tances as often as they were needed.

The second war with England* had just closed, and the tide of migration was setting strongly toward the West, when, on October 14, 1815, Timothy Flint, with his wife and four or five children, took passage in a heavy travel- ing coach, bound for Pittsburg. They started as he had seen the emigrant wagon nearly thirty years before, from the ancient city of Salem. Many tears were shed as the

Timothy Flint 327

family bade their friends good-bye, for, at that time, though many went West, few came back. To the imagination the Alleghanies seemed a "barrier almost as impassable as the grave " to whomever had once crossed over.

The slow coach jostled on by the usual route, and near the end of the month began to toil over the mountains. The tavern signs, as if adapting themselves to the wild regions in which they hung, bore pictures of wolves and and bears as emblems. High above the Alleghany sum- mits the bald eagle soared. The road was difficult and dangerous. Frequently it became necessary to lift the carriage across gullies washed out by recent rains. Hun- dreds of " Pittsburg wagons " were seen on the way to or from Philadelphia. Many of these had broken wheels and axles. Places were pointed out where teams had plunged down the precipice to destruction. The moun- tain teamsters seemed to the travelers like a new species of man. They were " unique in their appearance, lan- guage, and habits." Flint describes them as being " more rude, profane, and selfish than either sailors, boatmen, or hunters." He says:

" We found them addicted to drunkenness, and very little disposed to help one another. We were told that there were honorable exceptions, and even associations, who, like the sacred band of Thebes, took a kind of oath to stand by and befriend each other." The amiable mis- sionary adds, with a touch of pious humor, that he often dropped among them, as if by accident, that impressive tract, " The Swearer's Prayer."

Among the traveling acquaintances of the Flints were a young Connecticut printer, with his pretty bride, going to Kentucky to start a " Gazette," and a burly Lutheran preacher bound for the Big Miami, who, with pipe in. his mouth, rode comfortably on his horse, while his wife and young ones trudged beside their wagon.

When Flint's carriage approached the last range of the Alleghanies, the passengers, gazing out, saw a great drove of cattle and swine, which animals looked shaggy like

328 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

wolves, and the chief drover was a being as wild looking as Crusoe's man Friday. The droves were destined for the Philadelphia market, and had been driven from the valley of Mad river, in Ohio, a name which suggested to our excited travelers the idea of a savage land.

The long journey on slow wheels was at last ended, but not without the usual disaster of an upset. Just as the coach was about to enter Pittsburg, another carriage, coming rapidly out of town, collided with it, and the next moment the Flint family were struggling and shouting under a confusion of boxes, bundles and trunks, from which predicament they were released uninjured. Right- ing the vehicle, they got in again, and were soon lodged in a hotel, where the charges were double the amount asked for the same accommodations in Boston.

Flint's remarks on Pittsburg are disparaging. His opin- ion was that Wheeling, Cincinnati, and Louisville would soon take the trade and wealth away from the town of " sin and sea coal." The opening of the ITational road and the multiplication of steamboats threatened to hasten the " decay of Pittsburg." Flint thought the decline of Pitts- burg w^as not to be regretted, for *' she used to fatten on the spoils of the poor emigrants that swarmed to this place."

The first steamboat that navigated the Ohio river, the Orleans, w^as built at Pittsburg in 1811, only four years after Fulton's Clermont made her trial trip on East river. The Orleans made her first trip from Pittsburg to New Orleans in the winter of 1812. It w^as several years, however, before steamboats came into such general use on western waters as to exclude the earlier modes of naviga- tion. Flint did not seem to think of waiting to take passage on a steamboat. Early in November, he em- barked on a small flatboat owned l.y a ^'ankee trader, and loaded with " factory cottons " and cutlery. The smiling river Beautiful proved not so placid as she looked.

The frail flatboat, instead of floating gently along, as its owner and its passengers had expected, was whirled

Timothy Flint. 329-

and tossed about in a manner altogether alarming to all on board, ^ow the helpless craft was carried swiftly through a chute; now it stuck on a bar; and now it was dashed upon the rocks of "Dead Man's Riffle" and al- most capsized, while the children shrieked, and the mer- chandise of cotton stuffs and hardware fell upon and buried poor Mrs. Flint. The scared Yankee trader and his reverend first mate forgot, in their confusion, to resort to their oars, but tried to save themselves by consulting the " Navigator," a guide-book descriptive of the Ohio and the Mississippi.

The reader will not wonder that, when they reached the village of Beaver, the family forsook the risky flat- boat and bought a pirogue, or large skiff, in which they continued their voyage. By the time they reached Wheeling they all were taken down with influenza, and were obliged to take lodgings at a house filled with other invalids. Sick, neglected, in a strange place, they helped one another as well as they could, but were so sensitive that their eyes filled with tears at the mere mention of Salem.

As soon as they had sufiiciently recovered their strength, the Flints resumed their journey, going from Wheeling to Marietta in one of those long, slender, and graceful ves- sels of the period, called distinctively a keelboat. The peculiar species of boat known as the barge, or bargee,, had almost passed into disuse, and was rarely to be seen at thertime of Flint's trip. The length of such boats was from seventy-five to one hundred feet, the breadth from fifteen to twenty.

" The receptacle for the freight was a large covered coffer, called the cargo-box, which occupied a considerable portion of the hulk. Near the stern was an apology for a cabin, a straitened apartment six or eight feet in length, in which the captain and patron^ or steersman, were gen- erally quartered for the night. The roof of the ^ cabin ' was slightly elevated above the level of the deck, and on this eminence the helmsman was stationed. The barge was commonly provided with two masts."

830 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

Flint's " Recollections " furnish an exact and vivacious account of how navigation was conducted on the Ohio and Mississippi. He says: "You hear the boatmen ex- tolling their powers in pushing a pole, and you learn the received opinion that a *Kentuck' is the best man at a pole, and a Frenchman at the oar. A firm push of the iron-pointed pole on a fixed log is termed a *• reverend set/ You are told, when you embark, to bring your plun- der aboard, and you hear about moving 'fernent' the stream ; and you gradually become acquainted with a co- pious vocabulary of this sort. The manners of the boat- men are as strange as their language. Their peculiar way of life has given origin, not only to an appropriate dialect, but to new modes of enjoyment, riot and fighting. Al- most every boat while it lies in harbor has one or more fiddles continually scraping aboard, to which you often see the boatmen dancing. There is no wonder that the way of life which the boatmen lead, in turn extremely in- dolent and extremely laborious, for days together requiring little or no efibrt and attended with no danger, and then on a sudden laborious and hazardous beyond Atlantic navigation, generally plentiful as it respects food and al- ways so as it regards whisky, should prove irresistible to the young people who live near the banks of the river. The boats fioat by their dwellings on beautiful spring mornings, when the verdant forest, the mild, delicious temperature of the air, the delightful azure of the sky of this country, the fine bottom on the one hand and the ro- mantic bluff on the other, the broad and smooth stream rolling calmly down the forest and floating the boat gently forward — all these circumstances harmonize in the excited youthful imagination. The boatmen are dancing to the violin on the deck of their boat. They scatter their wit among the girls on the shore who come down to the water's edge to see the pageant pass. The boat glides on until it disappears behind a point of wood. At this mo- ment, perhaps, the bugle with which all the boatmen are provided strikes up its note in the distance over the waters. These scenes and these notes echoing from the bluffs of

Timothy Flint 331

the beautiful Ohio have a charm for the imagination ; al- though I have heard a thousand times repeated, is even to me always new and always delightful."

This vivid and enthusiastic description recalls the melo- dious lines of Wm. O. Butler on " The Boat-horn," con- tributed to the Western Review, Lexington, Ky., in 1821 :

" 0, boatman ! wind that horn again,

For never did the listening air, Upon its lambent bosom bear

So wild, so soft, so sweet a strain ! What, though thy notes are sad and few,

By every simple boatman blown, Yet is each pulse to nature true,

And melody in every tone. How oft in boyhood's joyous days.

Unmindful of the lapsing hours, I 've loitered on my homeward way

By wild Ohio's bank of flowers ; While some lone boatman from the deck

Poured his soft numbers to the tide, As if to charm from storm and wreck

The boat where all his fortunes ride ! Delighted Nature drank the sound.

Enchanted 'echo bore it round In whispers soft and softer still.

From hill to plain,and plain to hill, Till e'en the thoughtless, frolic boy, • Elate with hope and wild with joy, Who gamboled by the river side.

And sported with the fretting tide. Feels something new pervade his breast,

Change his light step, repress his jest, Bends o'er the flood his eager ear

To catch the sounds far off, yet dear — Drinks the sweet draft, but knows not why

The tear of rapture fills his eye."

By the middle of ^N'ovember the convalescents were once again afloat, and, though the autumn season was so far ad- vanced, the weather was mild and delightful. The chil- dren, standing on deck, gazed with pleasure on the pass- ing scene. A flock of wild geese now and then sailed by, and sandhill cranes and pelicans could be seen stalk- ing upon the white sandbars. The novelty of the varied

882 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

vegetation along the fertile shores afforded a theme for observation and astonishment. There were wild grape- vines almost as thick as the body of a man. There were persimmon trees and clumps of pawpaw bushes. Cling- ing to the white bark of the sycamore were bunches of green mistletoe gemmed with pearl-like berries. Most impressive of all vegetable wonders were the gigantic syc- amores stretching their weird, snowy arms far out over the water, far up into the sky.

Some of these magnificent trees were so large that in reading of them we are reminded of the Sequoia of the Sierras, or the giant trees of Australia. Flint mentions a sycamore near Marietta which measured fifteen and a half feet in diameter, and another on the Big Miami that wa& still larger. Judge Tucker, of Missouri, caused a section to be cut from the trunk of a hollow sycamore which he covered with a roof and fitted up with a stove and other furniture, and used for the purposes of a law office. It was commodious and comfortable.

Flint's admiration of these big trees will recall to some readers the entries which Dr. Cutler made in his diary de- scriptive of the immense trees which he observed at Ma- rietta in 1788. One of them, a black walnut, near the Muskingum, was twenty-two feet in girth ; and another, a sycamore, was forty feet around. The sycamore had fallen, the trunk was hollow and burnt to a thin shell. Cutler says : " Six horsemen could ride in abreast, and pa- rade in the tree at the same time."

At Marietta the Salemites found themselves among old friends. The genial pater familias, writing home, said : "You can imagine the rapidity of discourse, the attempt of two or three to narrate their adventures at the same time, and the many pleasant circumstances attending the renewal of a long-suspended intercourse with congenial society." Flint had letters to General Putnam, the patri- arch of the colony, whom he found in the midst of rural plenty in a commodious house surrounded by fruit trees of his own planting.

At the end of November the sojourner purchased a flat-

Timothy Flint. 333

boat of forty tons burden, and departed from Marietta, with several passengers, besides his own family and an- other family consisting of a " line, healthy-looking Ken- tuckian, with a young and pretty wife, two or three negro servants, and two small children." This Kentuckian had been for years a boatman on the Ohio and Mississippi ; he had served in the war on the Canadian frontier, and was, upon the whole, a capital fellow, though he scandalized his clerical captain by terriiic swearing, and nettled the 'New England children by telling exaggerated stories about Yankees who sold " pit-coal indigo and wooden nutmegs." The aggravating Kentuckian usually followed his anec- dotes by a song, with the chorus :

" They will put pine-tops in their whisky, And then they will call it gin."

In accordance with plans formed before leaving Salem, the Flints stopped at Cincinnati to spend the winter with relatives there. Having secured a house for his family, the missionary took occasion to familiarize himself with the town and the adjacent country. Tjie..aQ^ty in .and^l about Cincinnati seemed to him to be copied after the ; ^ew England pattern. In one of his letters he remarks j that the people "have the same desire for keeping up schools, for cultivating psalmody, for settling ministers and attending upon religious worship; and unfortunately the same disposition to dogmatize, to settle, not only their own faith, but that of their neighbor, and to stand reso- lutely, and dispute fiercely, for the slightest shade of d\f^ ference of religious opinion." He noted that the ladies had formed a Bible and charitable society, and that the town had a character for seriousness, good order, and public spirit. Apologizing for the " bad taste visible in the literary productions of the region and time," he ascribes it to the forwardness of incompetent writers and speakers, and to an " unwarrantable disdain " that kept really refined and educated persons from displaying their powers in the newspapers, the pulpit, the bar, and the legislature.

334 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

At the residence of General Harrison, Korth Bend, Flint was received with great hospitality and politeness. The general kept an open table, which was loaded with plenty and free to all guests, like an old English board. The house was freely proffered for the convenience of public worship. Harrison's manner was ardent and viva- cious. "He has," wrote his guest, "a copious fund of that eloquence which is fitted for the camp and for gain- ing partisans."

Another distinguished citizen that Flint became ac- quainted with at Cincinnati was Dr. Daniel Drake, who is spoken of as a " scientific physician, a respectable scholar and natural historian."

In March, 1816, Flint set off on horseback for a tour through Indiana and Kentucky, for the purpose of view- ing the country and preaching to the people. Just west of Lawrenceburg, Indiana, he was surprised to. fall in company with a huge bear, which, to his relief, liked him »o better than he liked it, and sullenly trotted away. The stroke of the woodman's ax and the crash of falling trees were familiar • sounds in the forest. Newly-built cabins were seen here and there in the clearings. The singing red-bird and the gay, green paroquet flew like winged colors in the spring sunshine.

The traveler visited the old French village of Vin- cennes, and then went to Yevay just in time to attend a meeting of the inhabitants called to decide on the loca- tion of a town-house, a market, and streets First, Second and Third.

Flint crossed the Ohio at Carrollton, and pursued his Journey up the valley of the Kentucky, having for a traveling companion an educated young Suabian, who converged agreeably about Europe and America. The large size and fine appearance of the Kentucky people impressed the visitor, as did also the general prosperity, opulence and elegance of the towns. The contrast be- tween southern life and northern was striking, especially in those matters which were affected by slavery. Flint observed that hundreds of princely-looking young men

Timothy Flint. 335

were living in indolent luxury. He was delighted with the hospitality with which he was received, and amused by frequent proposals to " swap horses."

A prejudice prevailed against Yankees, but every Ken- tuckian was enthusiastically devoted to his own state. The supreme excellence of the grand old commonwealth was illustrated by a story of a Methodist preacher, who, en- deavoring to picture to his hearers the perfections of the world to come, capped the climax by saying : " In short, my brethren, to say all in one w^ord, heaven is a Ken tuck of a place !"

The. Yankee minister delivered his message in many villages, the people assembling on a half-hour notice of the court-house bell, for " a preaching " was generally held at the court-house, there being few churches. The place of holding the service at Frankfort was in the capitol building, where a large and gaily-dressed audience assembled.

Flint had letters of introduction to the governor, but his excellency was not in town. After two days' stop at Frankfort, the itinerant took the road to Lexington, the ^'Athens of the West." This was decidedly the literary center of the state. The fashion in good society was to read the latest books and to discuss all subjects, " profane and sacred." Dr. Blythe was at that time president of Transylvania University. The college classes were en- gaged in the same studies as were pursued in the eastern colleges.

Henry Clay had just returned from Ghent, and was so much fatigued by company that Flint, with a nice sense of propriety, forebore to seek an interview. But he wrote thus of the great statesman : " It seems to be gen- erally conceded that, as an orator, he received his diploma from nature. In the depth and sweetness of his voice, it is said he has no compeers ; and, in the gracefulness of his enunciation and manner, few equals. Although he was not publicly educated, yet it is far from being true that he is not a scholar, and that he is not possessed of classical taste and discernment."

336 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

Flint lingered about Lexington until the middle of March, when the unfolding of the gooseberry leaves and the flowering of peach trees warned him it was time to make ready to continue his journey down the Ohio. Bidding adieu to the Athenians, he mounted his steed and returned, by way of Georgetown, ^N'orth Bend, and Oeneral Harrison's, to Cincinnati.

There being but one steamboat, and that an unsafe one, at the Cincinnati wharf, Flint bought and fitted up a keel-boat about ninety feet long and of seventeen tons burden. The affectionate family had become so much at- tached to their Cincinnati friends that parting was an anguish similar to their Salem leave-taking. Their friends, who had secretly made many provisions for the <jorafort and convenience of the voyage, went down to the river shore, where the last good-byes were exchanged.

The family and some lady passengers being safely aboard, the "patron," or helmsman, pushed the keel from the bank, and away it floated on the sultry afternoon of April 12, 1816. If the hills and woods had been charm- ing in November, what were they now in the glorious bloom and verdure of a forward spring? The chronicle «ay8: "Nothing could exceed the grandeur of the vege- table kingdom on the banks of the broad and beautiful Ohio." The river was at flood height, and the strong current bore the boat swiftly on. But a transformation scene was soon witnessed.

After a lapse of two hours of ravishing enjoyment to the travelers, a thunder-storm gathered and burst furi- ously on the river. The ladies screamed, their gallant guardian busied himself dipping water from the boat's hold, the grim " patron," like another Palinurus, stood hopefully at the helm, undisturbed by the drenching rain, the buffeting wind, and the rolling thunder. The storm spent its rage, the sun shone out, the ladies recovered from fright, and the slender barque floated onward until evening, when the mansion of General Harrison was de- scried on its high hill. The boat was made fast to the shore and the passengers climbed the steeps and were

Timothy Flint. 337

made welcome by the urbane hero of Tippecanoe and his lovely wife.

That night and the next day and night were spent pleasantly at Harrison's in talking with the general and listening to his children say lessons in geometry. The next day the voyagers went to Lawrenceburg, where they left their lady passengers. At this place Flint's daughter fell into the river, and was rescued from drowning by a ^'providential" stranger.

The last settlenient they stopped at was Shawneetown, ^' an unpleasant looking village that had just emerged from an inundation." Here they made final arrangements for ascending the Mississippi, and engaged a complement of boatmen, perhaps ten or twelve.

On the 28th of April, their boat drifted from the com- paratively clear waters of the Ohio to the turbid, milk- white surface of the Mississippi, which seemed the ^' ' ultima thule ' — a limit almost to the range of thought."

The few houses of Cairo were under water, and the in- habitants were quartered promiscuously in a large flat- boat, provided with liquor shops for the cheap accom- modation of the men and women who desired to get drunk.

The gloomy feelings caused by the view of Cairo, and its debauched and miserable people, were dispelled as soon as the boat began to ascend the Mississippi. Neither the oar nor the pole could be used to advantage in propelling the craft against the sweeping current of the deep and muddy stream. Two new methods of locomotion were employed, viz., towing and " bush-whacking."

Tow-lines, or " cordelles," of great length were carried by every boat. One of these long ropes was used after the manner of the cable of a canal-boat, to pull the vessel up stream, not by horse power, but by the muscle of men. The " hands " would toil along the bank tugging at the cordelle. When they came to the mouth of a tributary, they either swam across, holding fast to the line, or used a yawl to carry the rope across. When they were im- 22

888 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

peded by a bluff, it was necessary to " warp " or cross tha river to the low ground on the other side. The margin was 80 obstructed in many places that towing became impracticable. If such was the case, one end of the cor- delle was made fast to some tree or " snag " far up stream, and the men standing on the deck would pull or with a windlass draw the boat toward the fixed point, while an- other line was carried still farther up stream and fastened.

The operation called " bush-whacking " was very sim- ple, the whole art consisting in grasping the branches of trees and bushes that lined the water's edge, and pulling 80 as to force the boat forward while the "bush-whacker" trod from bow to stern on the long deck. The novelty of the up-river navigation, the charm of the scenery, the de- lightful air, the cheering sunshine, and the majestic view of the Father of Waters, pouring his flood betwixt wonder- ful shores, filled the enthusiastic and poetical Flint family with ecstacy. They were rapt and seemed to float as in a delicious dream.

The cotton-wood trees that waved in strange loveliness, the fluttering green paroquets that seemed to the children like flocks from paradise, the innumerable wild ducks and other game birds that rose in airy flights from the reeds, the herds of deer now and then seen bounding through the distant thickets — all united to captivate the senses and to excite the fancy. The pungent odor of the willow flowers, which the voyagers crushed in their palms as they grasped the overhanging boughs to aid the north- ward motion of their boat, raised in their minds mytho- logical ideas of " nectar and ambrosia." Ten years after this delectable experience, Timothy Flint recalled it in these words : " Perhaps the first half-day that we passed in ascending the river, under every favorable omen, was the happiest period that we ever experienced as it regards mere physical enjoyment."

This exultant sensuous pleasure was followed by a natural reaction. The incessant, anxious, severe, and dan- gerous toil of struggling against the boiling current of the

Timothy Flint 339

Mississippi, beset with snags, sawyers, wreck-heaps, and rocks, exhausted the physical energies and depressed the spirits. Besides, every thing was rude, wild, savage, un- touched by civilization. The boat crept up the stream, or was forced up painfully, about twelve miles a day. At night all hands encamped, at some favorable spot on shore, built their camp-fires, cooked supper, and prepared couches for the night's welcome repose. Rations of whisky were distributed among the boatmen, who then sat down under some huge tree and told tales of their adventures.

Some had been hunters on the Missouri ; some had ex- plored the Mississippi above the Falls of St. Anthony; others knew the region of the great lakes and Canada ; others had wandered far south, on the Red river and on the lagoons near the Gulf of Mexico. They had stories to tell of river and forest, of war and the hunt, of Span- iard and Frenchman. ^' Sometimes," says Flint, " we had details of their dusky loves, that no feature of romance might be wanting."

The rough boatmen who, after emboldening themselves with strong drink, regaled their gentle auditors with stories of personal deeds as wonderful as the labors of Hercules, were not the only nondescript characters that haunted river and shore. Shawnee Indians, of panther- like aspect, prowled about the night encampment to the terror of Mrs. Flint and her daughter. Over-familiar desperadoes, in outlandish attire, armed with dirks, and smelling desperately of bad liquors, invaded the camp, and exchanged slang and profanity with the boatmen. IN'ot unfrequently some lawless wretch, minus one eye, was pointed out to Flint as a victim of the "gouger's" thumb. But the apprehensive clergyman was assured that no " gentleman " was in danger of being gouged.

The keel-boat, after many hairbreadth escapes from wreck and foundering, at length reached the village of Ste. Genevieve, a place older than Philadelphia. It was a pleasant town, the seat of government, and had a weekly newspaper. The houses were built of mud and white- washed. The French language and the Catholic religion

840 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

held sway there. The housetops and the gate-posts were surmounted by wooden crosses. The family landed at Ste. Genevieve and were entertained hospitably by the amiable and courteous people.

From Ste. Genevieve the Flints proceeded to St. Louis, where they arrived on the 24th of May, 1816. From St. Louis as a center of operations, Flint made many jour- neys in the capacity of missionary, to the various French and American settlements in Missouri and Illinois. Among the places visited were Florissant, Bellefontaine, Bon- horame, and Carondelet. He was accompanied in some of his excursions by a brother missionary from Connecti- cut, whose name is not given. Flint was the first Protest- ant clergyman who administered the ordinance of com- munion in St. Louis.

After four months of sojourn at St. Louis, Flint re- moved with his family to St. Charles, on the north bank of the Missouri, forty miles above its mouth. Here, on the 10th day of September, the family arrived, and took apartments in the house of Madame Duquette, a French widow, with whom they resided pleasantly for two years. He afterward settled on a small farm below St. Charles, on the prairie called " The Mamelle." The whole period of residence in Missouri was about five years. These were years of indefatigable labor, of privation, sickness, and hardship, relieved, however, by much that was exhila- rating and profitable to the soul. The devout and earnest preacher found much to distress him in his efibrts to propagate the spirit, rather than the letter of the benign religion of " love to God and love to man." He discovered to his disappointment that the professed followers of Christ were in rivalry and at bitter war about mere forms and dogmas, even as were ** the doctors and the schools of Andover and Princeton." He deplored the absence of the " religion of the heart " from the sectarians of the fron- tier, and exclaimed : " Happy, and thrice happy, in my judgment, if men laid less stress upon knowledge and more upon experimental acquaintance with the power of religion." He tells his cousin, in faihiliar confidence : " I

Timothy Flint 341

ooiild easily fill a volume with the details of trials, per- plexities, and suiFerings. 1 have labored much, not in the vain hope of obtaining either much compensation or much fame. Should I describe all that I was called to endure from sickness, opposition, and privation, and from causes unnecessary to be named, the most sober account would seem like the fiction of romance." In the same letter he w^rites with touching fervor : " I had my hours when debility, and concern for my family, and trials and oppo- sition all vanished, and I saw nothing but God and eternity."

We will not follow this devoted family through the years of vicissitude on the Mis^^ouri. Timothy Flint ground all his observations and experience into that bril- liant paint with which he afterward depicted western life in his writings. He saw thousands of Indians, of various tribes, and he has given from the life, the most exact and graphic description of these strange people that can be found in literature, his delineations being far more realis- tic than those of Cooper. At St. Louis he was formally introduced to the Cherokee chief, Richard Justice, with his wnves and thirty children. He was also acquainted w^ith the celebrated Spaniard, Manuel Lisa, the king of fur traders, of whom much is said in Irving's '*Astoria."

Having received an urgent call to the Lower Mississippi region, and half hoping to overtake fleeting health by a change of climate, the Flints again took boat and started for Post Arkansas, May 5, 1819. This destination was reached after a tedious and miserable voyage of many days. The post, situated far up the Arkansas, was the seat of government of the territory, then newly formed, with a population of about ten thousand. A dreadful summer was spent there; what with mosquitoes, Span- iards, Indians, French, swamps, alligators and ague, the zealous missionary well nigh lost his customary equinim- ity. Every Sabbath he preached in the court-house to a congregation which he addressed in the French language. Most of his auditors came costumed for the ball-room, to which they went as soon as the service ended. There was

842 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

a billiard-room near by the court-house, and many gentle- men bestowed their attention, alternately, upon the truths of the Bible and the pleasure of the cue. It was not to be wondered at that the preacher thought preaching, un- der these circumstances, a " heart-wearing agony."

When the summer heats prevailed, the whole family, excepting the father, were taken down with fever. As soon as they were able to move, they took boat, floating down the Arkansas to the Mississippi in twelve days. Without the assistance of a single boatman, Flint and his sons undertook the enormous task of navigating a flat- boat against the current of the Mississippi toward their former home at St. Charles, four hundred miles to the north. And now we have come, in the devious course of our narrative, to the saddest and most desolate episode in the history of this much-suflTering family. Let us read it in the simple and exquisitelv pathetic words of Flint him- self:

" We arrived opposite to the second Chickasaw Bluff on the 26th of November. The country on the shore re- ceives and deserves the emphatic name of ' wilderness.' At 10 in the morning we perceived indications of a severe approaching storm. The air was oppressively sultry. Brassy clouds were visible upon all quarters of the sky. Distant thunder was heard. We were upon a wide sand- bar, far from any house. Opposite to us was a vast cypress swamp. At this period, and in this place, Mrs. F. was taken in travail. My children, wrapped in blan- kets, laid themselves down on the sand-bar. I secured the boat in every way possible against the danger of being driven by the storm into the river. At 11 the storm burst upon us in all its fury. Mrs. F. had been salivated during her fever, and had not yet been able to leave her couch. I was alone with her in this dreadful situation. Hail and wind and thunder and rain in torrents poured upon us. I was in terror lest the wind would drive my boat, notwithstanding all her fastenings, into the river. No imagination can reach what I endured. The only al- leviating circumstance was her perfect tranquillity. She

rimothy Flint. 343

knew that the hour of sorro\y, and expected that of death was come. She was so perfectly calm, spoke with such tranquil assurance about the future and about the dear ones that were at this moment ' biding the pelting of the pitiless storm ' on the sand-bar, that I became calm my- self. A little after 12 the wind burst in the roof of my boat, and let in the glare of the lightning and the torrents of rain upon my poor wife. I could really have expostu- lated with the elements in the language of poor old Lear. I had wrapped my wife in blankets, ready to be carried to the shelter of the forest in case of the driving of my boat into the river. About 4 the fury of the storm began to subside. At 5 the sun in his descending glory burst from the dark masses of the receding clouds.

"At 11 in the evening Mrs. F. was safely delivered of a female infant, and, notwithstanding all, did well; the babe, from preceding circumstances, was feeble and sickly, and I saw could not survive. At midnight we had raised a blazing fire. The children came into the boat, supper was prepared, and we surely must have been ungrateful not to have sung a hymn of deliverance. • There can be but one trial more for me that can surpass the agony of that day, and there can never be on this earth a happier period than those midnight hours. The babe staid with us but two days and a half and expired. The children, poor things, laid it deeply to heart, and raised a loud lament. We were, as I have remarked, far away from all human aid and sympathy, and left alone with God. We depos- ited the body of our lost babe — laid in a small trunk for a coffin, in a grave amid the rushes, there to await the res- urrection of the dead. The grave is on a high bank opposite to the second Chickasaw Bluff, and I have since passed the rude memorial which we raised on the spot ; and I passed it carrying to you my miserable and ex- hausted frame, with little hope of its renovation, and in the hourly expectation of depositing my bones on the banks of the Mississippi. But enough and too much of all this."

With aching hearts the Flint family took leave of the

344 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

little grave and resumed their boat. Fortunately obtain- ing the assistance of two hands, they proceeded as far north as New Madrid, where they arrived about the mid- dle of December, 1819. Feeble from sickness and dejected by grief, they were induced to spend the winter at the vil- lage. They were kindly received in the family of an ex- cellent old lady, Mrs. Gray, a woman of seventy winters, who had witnessed the progress of the settlement of New Madrid from its beginning. Mrs. Gray possessed a library, was a classic scholar, who read Plato, and was familiar with the history of the ancients. Her daughter was also an accomplished woman, who had " lived in the great world in Natchez and New Orleans, in the family of Mr. Derbigny, and in the families of two of the greater com- mandants, and spoke and read French as well as English."

These agreeable ladies communicated to Mr. Flint a very clear and complete account of the great earthquake, the devastation of which they had witnessed. Flint re- corded the facts, and his description is the best one extant of the noted convulsions, which had not entirely ceased at the date of his visit to New Madrid. He says impress- ively : " In the midst of some of our conversations, pro- longed over the winter lire, we were not unfrequently in- terrupted for a moment by the distant and hollow thunder of the approaching earthquake. An awe, a slight pale- ness passed over every countenance. The narrative was suspended for a moment, and resumed."

When the winter was spent the Flints removed to Cape Girardeau, where they remained for more than a year, among rough and uncongenial people, to whom they formed no attachments, and from whom they received nothing valuable except the proverbial staple — experience. Flint*8 sense of propriety was shocked by the prevalence of 80-called relie^ious " spasms, cries, fallings, and faint- ings," at places of public worship, and he could hardly tolerate a species of worship called the " holy laugh,'' in which certain highly excited converts were wont to in- dulge.

In the autumn of 1820 the family were glad to return

Timothy Flint. 345

to the little farm on the " Mamelle," or the " Point," be- low St. Charles. No sooner had they arrived than five of the family, including Mr. and Mrs. Flint, were prostrated with a bilious fever. They were utterly helpless, and were quartered in different houses by benevolent neighbors. The fever lasted fort}^ <^^ays, and was followed by months of fever and ague. Flint endured seventy-seven shakes from this pleasant visitor, who walketh invisible by noon- day. Saturated with Peruvian bark, calomel, and despond- ency, they now turned their thoughts toward their Xew England home. It was decided to descend the Mississippi to !N'ew Orleans, and thence to embark by ship for Salem. Accordingly, Flint, joining with Mr. Postell, of St. Charles, built a flat-boat, the family took passage October 4, 1822, and were carried to the great metropolis of the South as rapidly as the current could bear them.

Upon arriving in J^ew Orleans, Flint and his family had improved in health, and he was induced to relinquish the purpose of going home, and to take charge of a seminary at Covington, and to preach for a season at that place and the neighboring village of Madisonville. Crossing Lake Pontchartrain in March, 1823, he took up his rcvsidence in Covington, and entered upon the discharge of his double duty as teacher and preacher. Health failed, as usual, and he returned to Xew Orleans in the autumn. During the winter he delivered a course of popular lectures in that city. About this time the Kev. Mr. Hall, principal of the Seminary of Rapide, at Alexandria, La., died, and Flint was impor- tuned to occupy the vacant position. Consenting, he went with his wife and children, by boat, to the new des- tination, on the west bank of Red river, one hundred and fifty miles above the mouth. The Seminary or College of Rapide was conducted in a large, ugly building, upon which much money had been spent. The school was nu- merous, many students boarding with the principal. The town of Alexandria was new, and the state of literary cul- ture very low. There were doctors, lawyers, and editors enough, and as many as three '' Presbyterian ministers had already laid their ashes" in the village graveyard.

846 Literaty Culture in the Ohio Valley.

Flint did not take ^his state of mortuary facts as a per- sonal suggestion, but went about his labors — serene op- timist that he was — and sucked all the honey he could draw from the weeds of tribulation and sacrifice. The Alexandrians were amiable. (Timothy seems never to have encountered other than amiable people in his wan- derings; French, Spanish, Dutch, German, English, half- breeds, full-blood savages — all were amiable to him. With equal hospitality of heart he met Yankee traders and Kentucky boatmen, Canadian voyageurs and Texas rang- ers.) The Creole planters on the Eed river lived in lux- urious elegance. All the work was done by black slaves, and the indolent gentlemen and ladies had no care except to plan easy pleasures. The women, beautiful and fasci- nating, intoxicated themselves by reading romance. The men were infatuated with the sport called "fire-hunting" — shooting deer by the glare of a flambeau in the dark woods, after the game had been started by dogs wearing bells.

Both out-of-door rides with hunters and in-door novel reading with the Creole mesdames failed to invigorate the health of the genial missionary. In the forlorn hope of becoming robust by " roughing it" in the saddle, he made a tour, in company with Judge Ballard, to " Cantonment Jessup," a military post within fifteen miles of the Sabine river, the station farthest to the south-west of any then in the United States. The post was commanded by Colonel Many. The journey was full of incident, and furnished much of the material for the novel, " Francis Berrian," but the exertion was too great for poor Flint's exhausted body. By the time he returned as far as Natchitoches, he was unable to sit upon his horse, so he took steamboat and descended the Red river to Alexandria. The strong probability that, unless he left the place, he might soon add a fourth to the three graves of Presbyterian preachers, led his family and physician to insist that he should make all possible haste to depart for his New England home, twenty- five hundred miles to the north-east. Accordingly, on an April day, in 1825, he bade his pupils farewell in the

Timothy Flint. 347

court-yard, parted from wife and daughter at the steps, and was conducted by his sons down to the steamboat. After kissing his little boy, a four-year-old lad, with a military hat and a tin sword, the sick man entered the steamer, took his berth, heard the parting gun boom the signal for departure, and was on his way to Natchez. At ^Natchez he took passage on the fine steamer Grecian, for Louisville. His journal records that: "On the 11th, we passed the place where our babe lies buried, and at mid- night, on the 14th, we arrived at Louisville." Thence, on board the steamer Pike, he proceeded to Cincinnati, where he stopped two days with friends, and received " medi- cine and counsel" from Dr. Drake. From Cincinnati he went by boat to Wheeling, and there took stage-coach for Baltimore, over the National road.

Treating of this celebrated old route of travel, he said : *'We have fine taverns and good entertainment all the way over the mountains. We were driven down the most con- siderable of them, a distance of between four and 1^yq> miles, at a furious rate, and at midnight, and just on the verge of precipices that it would be fearful to look down upon at mid-day." The longest journey has an end; the wanderer reached Salem, more dead than alive. A few weeks' rest, and a summer jaunt up the Hudson, with his most congenial companion, cousin James, gave him a fresh lease of life and hope. He was persuaded by his friends, Peabody and Dr. Flint, to write for publication an account of his travels and observations. This he was easily induced to undertake. The work of preparing the manuscript was commenced at Salem, and completed at Cincinnati, on September 25, 1825.

Flint's " Recollections of the Last Ten Years in the- Valley of the Mississippi " was published in Boston by Cummings, Hillard & Co., in the spring of 1826. The vol- ume gives, with much detail, the full history of the events slightly sketched in the foregoing pages. In the synopsis free use has been made of Flint's phrasing, and direct quotations have been given, for the double purpose of pre- serving important facts and illustrating the style of the

348 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

volume. Never was a more delightful book of the kind written. A more original book it would be impossible to conceive of. In fact, it seems not to be a book, but a fa- miliar talk — a picture from nature ; a man revealing him- self to the sympathetic world with unconscious and com- plete candor, confidence and enthusiasm. He tells the reader that he has not consulted a book on his subject from the beginning to the end of his composition.

Flint's "Recollections" met with immediate success, and was reprinted in London, and translated into French in Paris, though it never has been reproduced in the United States. The popularity of the work decided the author to make literature his vocation.

In the autumn of 1825, Flint's wife and four children joined him at Cincinnati, where the family remained for the next seven or eight years.

One of his sons, E. H. Flint, opened a bookstore on the corner of Fifth and Walnut streets, which was removed to 160 Main street, " nearly opposite the Presbyterian Church." An elder son, Micah P. Flint, who had studied law, and had been admitted to the bar at Alexandria, won a fair reputation as a poet. Several of his maiden eftbrts in verse were printed in his father's " Recollections," and were afterward, in 1826, issued in a thin volume, under the title, " The Hunter, and Other Poems." Micah Flint died in 1830, aged twenty- three.

In July, 1826, Timothy Flint took out the copyright of hie second book, the lively and entertaining novel, " Fran- cis Berrian, or the Mexican Patriot," issued in two vol- umes, from Boston. This is dedicated to Judge Henry 8. Ballard, the gentleman with whom the author made the tour to the Sabine country. It is a romantic story, founded on the fortunes of Iturbide, in the Mexican revolution. The hero, Berrian, is a dashing Yankee, who has many startling adventures with Comanche In- dians, Spanish hidalgos, and lovely seDoras. Literary judges praise the scenic descriptions of this novel very highly, but criticise its dramatic qualities and character painting. It is certainly not a tale of the Henry James

Timothy Flint. 349

type ; the autlior lias more '• to tell " than " to say." Mrs. Trollope placed Flint first among the American writers of his time. She says : " Several American nov- els were hrought me. Mr. Flint's ' Francis Berrian ' is excellent ; a little wild and romantic, hut containing scenes of first-rate interest and pathos." On another page she says : " Mr. Flint's ' Francis Berrian ' is delight- ful. There is a vigor and freshness in his writing that is exactly in accordance with what one looks for in the literature of a new country ; and yet, strange to say, it is exactly what is most wanting in that of. America."

'' Francis Berrian " has long been out of print, and has become exceedingly rare. Mr. U. P. James, the western publisher and book-dealer, when asked about the volume, said : " It always sells for a high price, but it is long since I saw a copy."

It is incorrectly stated in "AUibone's Dictionary," ^^ Duyckink's American Literature," and similar works, that Timothy Flint began the publication of " The West- ern Magazine and Review " in 1834. The fact is that the :first number of this pioneer literary journal was issued in May, 1827.^ The " Geography and History of the Missis- sippi Valley " appeared in the autumn of the same year in two large volumes from the press of E. H. Flint. This useful work rapidly passed through numerous large edi- tions. Many passages from the "Recollections" are in- corporated in it. The peculiar criticism was made on this book that it is too interesting to be useful ! — the reader searching for geographical or historical facts in its pages is carried away from his object by the absorbing narrative or brilliant description.

Citizens of Cincinnati can hardly fail to take an inter- est in Flint's account, published in the Review, February, 1830, of the locally celebrated historical picture, " Gen- Lafayette's Landing and Reception at Cincinnati," painted by August Jean Hervieu in 1829.

Hervieu was a French artist, born near Paris in 1794.

1 See Chapter III, page 70.

350 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

His father, who held the rank of colonel in IN'apoleou's army, was taken prisoner at Moscow, and he died in cap- tivity. Jean was a pupil of M. Gitodet and of M. Gros. Becoming involved in political disturbances, he was tried by the government and was condemned to pay a fine of 15,000 francs and to be imprisoned for fivQ years. But he escaped to England, where, under the patronage of Sir Thomas Lawrence, of the Royal Academy, he practiced his art at Somerset House, London. A study of his rep- resenting the battle of Thermopylae, which he sent to France, procured for him a medal and a membership in the Royal Academy of Lisle. In the year 1829 Hervieu sailed for N"ew Orleans, on the same vessel that brought Miss Frances Wright, on her second trip to America, from he*r French home in the house of Lafayette. Miss Wright lingered in the South, but the artist proceeded at once to the " Paris of America," though the city was then de- scribed by the less pleasing name of " Porkopolis."

The man of pigments was most cordially received by the virtuosi of Cincinnati, and, within a very short time after his arrival, he began to paint what his friend Mrs. TroUope calls " a noble historical picture of the landing of General Lafayette at Cincinnati." The painting is thus described by Mr. Flint :

" Its dimensions are sixteen feet by twelve. The popu- lar group is composed of Lafayette and the superior offi- cers who crossed the river with him, and w^ho are ad- vancing to meet Mr. Morrow, governor of Ohio. Amia- bility sits embodied in the countenance of this man, who is aftectionately grasping his hand. Among the persons of his suite are Generals Harrison, Lytle, and Desha, gov- ernor of Kentucky. Near them are the Hon. Judge Burnet and Messrs. Greene and Fletcher, Esqrs., persons deputed by the city to tender its welcome. By them is Major Larrabee, an officer who distinguished himself at Tippecanoe, and who lost an arm in the service. Near him are the late lamented Mr. Madeira and J. Lytle, captain of the Hussars. A little below, in the second group, are the governor's two aides-de-camp, Colonels

rimothy Flint. 351

Pendleton and King, and with them Major Ruffin, the sheriff. The young gentleman in the military costume of West Point, was introduced with a view to perpetuate the recollections of the nation's guest, who could never forget the reception given him by the pupils of that military school. In the same group are Messrs. Foster, Dorfeuille, Foote, P. Symmes, a man of letters ; Rev. Oliver Spencer, and Dr. Drake. Two veterans of the Revolution, the first the late Mr. Wyeth, formerly mentioned in this journal as one who aided in throwing the tea overboard in Boston harbor, venerable by his age, his mild countenance, his gray hairs, and the recollections associated with his per- son ; and the other an old negro servant in livery, who belonged to the suite of General Washington, are strik- ing figures in the crowd. This group terminates with H. Powers, a young sculptor of the city, of the highest prom- ise. He has given a strikingly faithful bust of the painter, and the latter has signalized his gratitude, and friendship, and respect for his talent by giving the sculptor a con- spicuous place in his painting. The circumstance, along with the introduction of Mr. Flint and Rev. Mr. Pierpont, who were not actually present at the landing, may, per- haps, suggest the objection of anachronism, and violation of historical fidelity. The most formidable difficulty of the artist was this cramping limitation to fact. One of the gentlemen, by his recent visit to this city, in which he received such a cordial welcome, had in some sense identified himself with us ; and as he is well and generally known in the Atlantic country, where this picture will be seen, it seems to us a fitting compliment to him. We im- agine, that any objection in regard to the presence of the other two, will be generally put to the account of hyper- criticism. We allow unlimited range to poetry. Surely the sister art may have some indulgence to episode ; especially if any connection exists between it and the leading idea.

" But to return to the picture. Among the hundred astonishing incidents that occurred to Lafayette in his journey through our Union, it happened that the same

852 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

woman mingled with the multitude in this welcome, who gave the nation's guest, as he came out of the prison of Olmutz, a three-franc piece and a cup of milk. Here was the good German women no longer in Germany, but at the landing in Cincinnati. General Lafayette every-where showed that such touching remembrances never escaped him. The artist has happily seized upon the circum- stances, and has made the eagerness of the good woman conspicuous by presenting her in her German costume.

" The lines are formed by companies of infantry from the city. They were commanded by three Colonels, Mc- Farland, Borden, and Ferris. JN'ear them are Daniel Gano and Davis B. Lawler, Esqrs. More to the left of the painting is the marshal of the day. Colonel Carr, and his aid, W. D. Jones. The group in this direction terminates with the fancy figures of which we have spoken, together with a number of young girls running with flowers toward the person who is the center of all thoughts for that day."

This picture was long on exhibition in the art gallery of Mrs. Trollope's Bazaar, where it attracted universal attention. According to a writer in the Cincinnati En- quirer, it was " finally taken to Liverpool, and locked up in the English Custom-house until the tariff should be paid. There it remained until a Cincinnati book-seller wrote to the custom-house officials, who answered that they, were unable to find it." Flint's allusion to " H. Powers " and the mutual admiration existing between him and Hervieu recalls that the latter lent his brush to enhance the lurid horrors of the " Infernal Regions," the waxen demons of which were created by Powers, as I have narrated in the chapter on Daniel Drake. Hervieu painted an excellent portrait of Robert Owen, which is «till preserved in the rooms of the Ohio Historical So- ciety. It is related in Mrs. Trollope's satirical pages that a German gentleman who had projected a chartered acad- emy of fine arts in Cincinnati, engaged Hervieu to join in conducting a drawing school, agreeing to pay him a sal- ary of $500 a year. The Frenchman conceived that good

Timothy Flint. 353

order and regular hours were necessary to the success of the boys and girls who sought instruction, and he there- fore drew up a set of rules. Mrs. Trollope tells us that " when he showed them to his colleague, he shook his head and said, * Yqyj goot, ver}^ goot in Europe, but America boys and gals vill not bear it ; dey will do just vat dey please; suur, dey vill all go avay next day.' ^And you will not enforce these regulations, si necessairh, mon- sieur!' 'O lor! not for de vorld.' 'Uh 6ien, monsieur, I must leave the young republicans to your management.' "

In this connection it will be fitting to tell something about Mrs. Trollope and her doings in Cincinnati. The iirst volume of her notorious book, " Domestic Manners of the Americans," is devoted almost wholly to the rela- tion of her experience in the Ohio Valley. She arrived at Cincinnati, from l^ew Orleans, February 10, 1828, and spent tAvo years in the town, leaving in the beginning of March, 1830. Her descriptions of the persons, places, and events she saw have been censured far more than they deserve, and she herself has been abused in print, more severely and less justly, than she ever abused the Ameri- cans. Mrs. Trollope came to America accompanied by a son and two daughters, with the intention of locating in busi- ness her son Henry ; and, hearing that Cincinnati was the most promising place for a young man to settle in, she sought that city, designing to " fix our son there," as she expressed it, and to " continue with him till he should feel himself sufiiciently established."

Thomas Adolphus Trollope, who, accompanying his father, paid a visit to Cincinnati in 1880, gives remi- niscences of the sojourn in his book, '' What I Remember," published in 1888. He says :

"We found my mother and two sisters and brother Henry well, and established in a roomy, bright-looking house, built of wood, and all white with the exception of the green Venetian blinds. It stood in its own " grounds," but these grounds consisted of a large field, uncultivated save for a few potatoes in one corner of it ; and the whole 23

354 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

appearance of the place was made unkempt-looking — not squalid, because every thing was too new and clean-look- for that — by uncompleted essays toward the making of a road from the entrance gate to the house, and by frag- ments of boarding and timber, which it had apparently been worth no one's while to collect after the building of the house was completed. With all this there was an air of roominess and brightness which seemed to me very pleasant. The house was some five or ten minute's walk from what might be considered the commencement of the town, but it is no doubt by this time, if it still stands at all, more nearly in the center of it.

" My father and I remained between five and six months at Cincinnati, and my remembrances of the time are pleasant ones. In the way of amusement, to the best of my recollection, there was not much besides rambling over the country with my brother, the old companion of those London rambles which seemed to me then almost as far off in the dim past as they do now. But we were free, tied to no bounds, and very slightly to any hours. And I enjoyed those rambles immensely. I do not remember that the country about Cincinnati struck me as especially interesting or beautiful, and the Ohio, la belle rivikre, dis- tinctly disappointed me. But it was a new world, and every object, whether animate or inanimate, was for us full of interest."

The house occupied by the Trollopes was one owned by Daniel Gano, and was called Gano Lodge, situated near Howard's woods.

If one may rely upon the recollection of the famous old musician, Jose Tosso, the young man Henry was not easy to " fix." Tosso remembered him as a gay fellow who spoke seven languages, was the " Invisible Lady " in Dor- feuille*8 "Museum," and played the part of Falstaff in "The Merry Wives of Windsor" under the influence of too much wine, and with a small feather-bed to magnify his rotundity.

" One night," related Tosso, " Mrs. Trollope gave a party to about a hundred guests, and a handsome one it was.

Timothy Flint 355

First we had * Les Deux Amis ' in French, and then ' The Merry Wives of Windsor.' The 'Deux Amis' went ojff very well. Mrs. TroUope spoke excellent French. So did Dr. Price, Mr. Morgan ^Neville, Mrs. Ameling, and Henry Trollope. But when the ' Merry Wives ' came on, Falstaff's good, round belly was found to be lined with sack instead of capon, and the play was incredibly funny, for he was very drunk, and had a small feather-bed tucked under his waistcoat. 'How was the music?' Fine. I played first violin ; Morgan Seville, second fiddle, and John Douglass, 'cello. After the play came supper, and then the dancing till daylight." ^

Probably it was to utilize the energy of this jolly roys- terer that their mother invested and lost her money by erecting and furnishing what she called the " Bazaar," but which came to be known, in the contemptuous phrase of popular judgment, as " Trollope's Folly." There is a good deal of romance, poetry, and pathos associated with this same quaint and curious arabesque, Egyptesque, oriental, Gothic, bizarre Bazaar. Marvelous it rose, hard by the Beautiful Kiver, with balconies looking out toward the Kentucky hills. Surprising it stood, on the very slope where the palisades of old Fort Washington used to stand. It was a large building, with an elegant front of native limestone, with a spacious and stylish coffee-house and bar in the basement, and a ball-room in the third story. The second story was devoted to the sale of useful and fanciful articles of dress, furniture*, and ornaments. There were to be had jewelry, pottery, statuettes, pictures, laces, and a hundred articles of taste and virtu^ imported from the Old World. The room was sixty feet long, adorned by two rows of white columns, and at the rear was a de- lightful recess or saloon, in which customers were served with oysters, ices, and sherbets. The ceilings and panels of the Bazaar were frescoed with classic designs by the versatile and obliging Hervieu. The spacious and mag- nificent ball-room was the pride of the Queen City. Long

^ From an interview with Tosso, published in the Cincinnati Gazette.

856 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

after Mrs. Trollope sailed homeward across the sea, with the unmanageable boys who were destined to become an-* thors, the beaux and belles of Cincinnati continued to re- sort to the gay dances held at " Trollope's Folly." There twinkled and flared, so tradition says, the first gas-lights that ever shone within a Cincinnati edifice. There the magic violin of Jose Tosso dignified the quadrille without degrading musical art. The lights are out ; the dancers have danced their last dance. The old musician has gone to sleep, and the violin is mute. Another building, the Lorraine, usurps the spot where stood the house of pleas- ure in which waltzed and whispered the dancers of sixty years ago, and Trollope's Folly has become only a name and a dream.

Here let be recorded a few sentences to the loving mem- ory of old Jose Tosso, " maitre de musique'^ courtly gen- tleman, and hero of much romance. Though he wrote no book, he himself was a living poem and novel. The son of an Italian father and a French mother, he was born in the city of Mexico in 1802. He died in Coving- ton, Ky., in 1887. After receiving a fine musical educa- tion in the Paris Conservatoire, he returned to America in 1816. He married a " black-eyed girl " at Louisville, and came to Cincinnati to live in the year 1827. '^ The Cin- cinnati Chronicle and Literary Gazette" of April 24,1830, contains a long advertisement announcing the opening of an Academy of Music and Dancing in the Ball-room of the Bazaar, by Messrs. Tosso and Pius, in which we read that " Mr. Tosso trusts that his residence of three years in this city has acquired for him the good feelings and confi- dence of its citizens. As Mr. Pius has but lately arrived in Cincinnati, he begs leave to publish one or two certifi- cates, and offer for reference Colonel Piatt, Mr. Carneal, Mr. McCandless, and Mr. Neville." Mr. Tosso certainly possessed the *'good feeling ami (<>nfidence" of every body, from the Marquis Do La Fayette down to the hum- blest "supe" of the C..liiiiil»ia Street Theater, where Tosso led the orchestra. Who has not heard of his most divert-

Timothy Flint. 357

ing musical monologue and medley, " The Arkansaw Traveler?"

Before dismissing Frances Trollope from our narrative, let us read the generous and peculiar tribute she pays to the man who is the chief subject of this rambling sketch. She wrote as follows : " The most agreeable acquaintance I made in Cincinnati, and indeed one of the most talented men I ever met, was Mr. Flint, the author of several ex- tremely clever volumes, and the editor of the Western Monthly Review. His conversational powers are of the highest order ; he is the only person I remember to have known with first-rate powers of satire, and even of sar- casm, whose kindness of nature and of manner remained perfectly uifinjured. In some of his critical notices there is a strength and keenness second to nothing of the kind I have ever read. He is a warm patriot, and so true- hearted an American that we could not always be of the same opinion on all the subjects we discussed ; but whether it were the force and brilliancy of his language, his gen- uine and manly sincerity of feeling, or his bland and gen- tleman-like manner that beguiled me I know not, but certainly he is the only American I ever listened to whose unqualified praise of his country did not appear to me somewhat overstrained and ridiculous."

Flint, having entered upon a literary career, produced many books — too many — and all within a period of eight years. Mr. Gallagher, who knew him well and admired him, said : " He writes as he talks — rapidly, eloquently, poetically, carelessly." About three-fourths of the con- tents of the Western Review were supplied by him. Yet he found time, or rather managed without the aid of time, to complete and publish three novels within three years. These were "Arthur Clenning," " George Mason, the Young Backwoodsman," and " The Shoshone Valley." The Review was discontinued in 1830, and the editor pro- posed to publish in its stead a quarterly, which should comprise two volumes annually, of at least a thousand pages each. This promised quarterly never appeared, but the demand for a literary journal was soon supplied by

858 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

James Hall, who, in January, 1833, started the Western Monthly Magazine in Cincinnati.

Flint, whose novels were histories and whose histories were novels, easily turned his attention from the tribes of the Shoshone Valley to the tribes of the Mississippi Val- ley, and wrote his pleasant short history of the '' Indian Wars of the West." In the same year, 1833, was pub- lished his "Lectures upon IN'atural History, Geology, Chemistry, the Application of Steam and Interesting Dis- coveries in the Arts." This curious book, an omnium gatherum from many sources, but chiefly from Aime Mar- tin's " Lettres k Sophie," and other French authorities, was intended to supply young men and women with a general education supplementary to their schoiol training. It touches upon every subject from the starry heavens to Prussian blue, from the deluge to vaccination, from agri- culture to the selection of books and the ritual of wor- ship.

At the time in which this volume came out, the author was every-where recognized as a leading writer, and he was enjoying the praise and -suffering the detraction inci- dent to reputation. Though a popular favorite with read- ers, he was frequently criticised with severity by reviewers for his unhappy choice of topics, and for his obvious faults of style. But his literary standing was so good that when, in 1833, Charles Fenno Hoffman retired from the editorship of the Knickerbocker Magazine, Flint was solicited to take the place. The Knickerbocker was orig- inated in 1832 in New York. Flint assumed editorial charge October, 1833, having previously contributed to the new magazine articles on " Phrenology" and on " Ob- stacles to American Literature." The salutatory remarks in which he presents his literary views to the public con- tain some suggestive sentences. He says :

"In proffering the customary editorial courtesies to brother editors, and in bearing my earnest testimony against the correctness of a prevalent opinion in the editorial creed, begotten in ignorance and born in politics, that malignity is inspiration, untiring volubility eloquence,

Timothy Flint. 359

abuse wit, and victory the last word, I distinctly affirm that I am not conscious of having ever in my life been the intentional aggressor in assailing the writings or dis- turbing the feelings of any writer before the public. My sympathies, on the contrary, have all been with those ill- fated and ill-paid beings whose hard destiny it is to grind and make sport for the Phillistines."

. Flint's constitution, always feeble, gave way under the strain of added cares. In order to save his shattered life, he gave up his editorial task, and went back to his former sub-tropical home, with his Creole friends, at Alexandria, away down on the Red river, in Louisiana. Though a confirmed invalid, he did not intermit his customary em- ployments. Aided by his daughter, he continued to write for the press. He translated and published two French books, " The Art of Happiness," by Droz, and " Celibacy Yanqaished, or the Old Bachelor Reclaimed." These were followed by a little volume, over whose charmed pages thousands of western boys have pored, as they sat by the winter fire, " The First "White Man of the West, or the Life and Exploits of Colonel Daniel Boone."

The book has much of the freshness and fascinating realism, much of the unliterary familiarity and colloquial directness, which made the " Recollections " so popular.

Almost the last product of Timothy Flint's prolific pen was a series of articles on American literature, contrib- uted in 1835 to the London Athenaeum.

Scant is the record of Flint's life in his last few and evil years. Meekly he bore the pain of disease, and pa- tiently he suffered woe which bodily weakness entails. Life is sweet ; love fights against death. The very sun- shine and the balmy air of flowery Louisiana were steal- ing away the little remaining vigor of the invalid. He was now an old man. "Let me go once more to the 1^0 rth ; let me go to Salem." Wife and daughter re- mained at Alexandria ; the father, accompanied by his youngest son, James, took passage on a steamboat and started on his last earthly journey. It was at the begin- ning of the month of May, 1840. Down to the Red

860 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

river's mouth, up the Mississippi to Natchez, the passen- gers are carried in safety. They take temporary lodging at Natchez in the Steamboat Hotel, kept by a Mr. Alex- ander. At one o'clock on the sultry afternoon of Thurs- day, May 7, a furious tornado sweeps along the river, whirls the shipping to destruction, tears the city. " Never, never, never was there such desolation and ruin," was the word of the Natchez Courier next day. The loss of property was immense, and not fewer than four hundred people were killed. From the ruins of the Steamboat Hotel many dead bodies were dug, and the living body of the landlord's wife, with two lifeless children in her arms. The Natchez Free Trader mentioned that among those who were taken out alive were " Timothy Flint, the historian and geoprapher, and his son, from Natchi- toches, La."

Imagine the state of body and mind in which the help- less father and anxious son continued their melancholy way on and on and on, to Cincinnati, to Wheeling, to Philadelphia, to Boston, to dear old Heading, the birth- place of the man who now, at the age of three score, had come home, to die in his brother Peter's house.

Soon after his arrival at Reading, Flint wrote a letter to his wife, bidding her farewell, and saying that before she received the message he would be no more. The mourn- ful tidings came to the broken-down woman in her lonely southern home, and smote out her sad life. Thus the wife and mother, the silent partner so little heard of in the bustling career of her husband, went on ahead to pre- pare the way. The papers said nothing of her but that she died. But when, a short time afterward, the man whom she and her children and the general public knew and loved had breathed his last — August 16, 1840 — and was gathered to his fathers in Harmony Grove, Salem, the press teemed with eulogies.

Judge James Hall. 361

CHAPTER XII.

JUDGE JAMES HALL, SOLDIER, JURIST, AUTHOR, EDITOR.

James Hall, Soldier, jurist, author, banker, came of lit- erary stock. His maternal grandfather. Rev. John Ewing, D.D., pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, Philadel- phia; provost of Pennsylvania University, and vice-presi- dent of the American Philosophical Society, was a man of learning, who wrote ably on theology and science, and w^ho possessed the faculty of rendering abtruse subjects familiar and agreeable.

Dr. Ewing's daughter, Sarah, who was carefully edu- cated by her father, was one of the few American women who, in the last century, achieved a considerable reputa- tion in authorship. This charming woman was born in Philadelphia, October 30, 1761, and her childhood and youth were passed in the days of the Revolution. She was married, in 1782, to John Hall, a patriot soldier, son of a wealthy planter of Maryland. When the Port Folia, was established, in 1800, by Mr. Dennie, at Philadelphia, Mrs. Hall became one of its most popular contributors, writing many graceful, piquant, and sensible essays for its pages. Through her father and other influential friends, she became acquainted with eminent writers in the United States and England.

The cares of a large family interfered much with her lit- erary undertakings, but she found leisure to write many charming letters, and to pursue polite studies. ^Not until she had passed the age of fifty did she publish a volume. It was a duodecimo of 365 pages, entitled " Conversations on the Bible," and passed through several editions, and had the distinction of being republished in London. The book, written in a cheerful spirit of piety, without aus- terity or cant, won favorable attention from critics. To a

862 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

Scotch lady who wrote with friendly interest, inquiring about Mrs. Hall's literary career, the latter replied : "Your flattering inquiry about my 'literary career' may be an- swered in a word — literature has no career in America. It is like wine, which, we are told, must cross the ocean to make it good."

Four of Mrs. Hall's sons were writers. The eldest of these, John Ewing Hall, was chosen professor of Belles Lettres in the University of Maryland, and he afterward published the American Law Journal. From 1816 to 1827, he edited the Port Folio, with considerable assist- ance from his mother and his brothers, James and Har- rison. The Hall family had met with a serious reverse of fortune in 1805, and years of heroic struggle were required in order to retrieve the loss. The father was called to the position of secretary of the land office, and afterward was appointed United States marshal for the District of Penn- sylvania. John Hall died in 1826, and his widow survived him but four years.

A small volume of " Selections from the Writings of Mrs. Sarah Hall," with a memoir and portrait, was pub- lished in Philadelphia in 1833, which well exhibits the versatility and general worth of the writer. Perhaps the most interesting part of the book is a delightful sketch, called " Reminiscences of Philadelphia," referring to the manners and customs of pre-Revolutionary days.

James Hall, son of John and Sarah Hall, was born in Philadelphia, August 19, 1793, and he died in Cincinnati, July 4, 1868. He was not sent to school until his twelfth year, but his mother taught him to read in his infancy, and he soon became extravagantly fond of books. When at length he was placed in the academy near Philadelphia, he found his studies repulsive, his school a prison, and his teachers tyrannous. The bitter men^ories which he has recorded of that dreadful "academy" recall Cowper's malediction on the English schools of his time. Hall says: "Kindness, amiability, politeness, forbearance, jus- tice had never been inculcated at this school, either by precept or example, and the opposite vices took root in

Judge James Hall, 363

the vacant soil. ... I imbibed a deep-seated disgust against schools, and schoolmasters, and school learning; and against grammars, dictionaries, slates, copy-books, ten-plate stoves, switches, cobwebs, and all other matters and things belonging or in any way appertaining to a school-house." This abhorrence to school did not destroy, but rather it intensified, his pleasure in general reading, and especially in poetical and romantic literature. A re- spectable knowledge of Latin and French he acquired in the hated school, and at home his mother directed his studies. Perhaps sympathizing with the boy's feelings, his parents removed him from the "academy," and placed him in a merchant's counting-house, where for two years he practiced the useful art of distinguishing the words debit and credit. The beginning and the ending of his active life were devoted to commercial affairs.

While yet in his teens, the youth began to study law. The breaking out of the war of 1812 naturally excited this son of a soldier to think of military fame. He joined the Washington Guards, the first company organized for the service in Philadelphia, and commanded by Captain Andy Ragnet, who was afterward distinguished as a writer of several works on the currency, free trade, etc., and minister to Brazil. The company was made up largely of stylish young fellows from the "best families," for Vv'hich reason they were known as " The Dandies," and they received many donations of delicate food, flowers, and smiles from the ladies of the city. Early in 1813, "The Dandies" encamped on the bank of the Delaware, near Wilmington, where, for some months, they watched a British fleet and enjoyed all the holiday pleasures com- patible with the discipline of a " tented field."

In the autumn of 1813, Hall received a commission as lieutenant in the Second Regiment of Artillery in the army, then commanded by Colonel Winfield Scott ; and stationed at Fort Mifflin. The next spring. Lieutenant Hall marched to Buffalo with a company commanded by Captain Thomas Biddle, and joined the army of General Brown.

The American army crossed over into Canada on the 3d

364 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

of July, 1814, and fought the battle of Chippewa, July 5th, Lundy*8 Lane, July 25th, and Fort Erie, August 15th. Hall was in all three of these engagement, and conducted himself with such bravery that he was complimented by his superior officers.

At the close of the war Lieutenant Hall, who was re- tained in the regular array, was chosen as one of the artil- lery officers who were appointed to accompany Commodore Decatur on the expedition against Algiers. He sailed in September, 1815, in the brig Enterprise, Lawrence Kearney commanding. The cruise to the Mediterranean and back occupied less than half a year, and was full of interest to the young officer. One day the vessel on which he voy- aged hailed a returning American ship in mid-ocean, and the question was asked : " What's the news ?" " Napoleon has gone to hell," was the reply, and this one brief but comprehensive particular was all that the passing bark could communicate concerning the loser of Waterloo.

On his return from Algiers, Hall, then a captain, was stationed at Newport, Rhode Island, until 1817, when he was ordered to Pittsburg. Here, while upon duty in the Ordnance Department, he resumed his law studies. He was admitted to the bar in 1818, and resigned his position in the army.

The vigorous, active, enthusiastic young gentleman was now twenty-five years old, buoyant with hope, overflow- ing with energy and ambition. His enjoyment of reading and observation had developed the kindred pleasure of writing. The Port Folio, his brother's magazine, afforded him a convenient medium through which to convey his words to the " gentle reader," and he wrote much for its pages. At Pittsburg he became intimate with Morgan Neville, then connected editorially with the Pittsburg Gazette. To this, the oldest newspaper west of the Alle- ghanies (founded in 1786), he became a contributor. The articles he wrote were of a practical kind, urging the state to construct roads and canals.

We may date the beginning of his carreer as author in the year 1820. He launched upon the stream of literature,

Judge James Hall. 365

and on the bewitching Ohio river at the same time. Smitten with the desire to go West and " explore the country," he took passage on a keel-boat for Shawnee- town, Illinois. The boat was of about forty-five tons burden, loaded with merchandise, and navigated by eight or ten roystering boatmen, stalwart, mischievous, and merry. The traveler's senses were alive to every impres- sion ; his curiosity was alert, and his sentimental tendency had full scope. The majestic river, the embracing hills, the forests clad in the verdure of spring, gay with blos- soms and musical with birds, the islands, especially that romantic one named Blennerhasset, all combined to de- light his eyes, kindle his imagination, and incite to the study of natural phenomena. Nor was the human inter- est of the journey less varied, novel, and absorbing. The new villages and the farmers' cabins on the river banks afforded busy scenes of activity in contrast to the solitude of the general landscape. Captain Hall carried a fowling- piece, and whenever his floating lodging-house stopped on the border of Ohio, Virginia, or Kentucky, he sprang ashore, ranged the woods, shooting squirrels, and made social calls at the settlers' houses, to drink milk, look at the girls, and learn the folk-lore of the backwoods by talking freely with the hospitable pioneers. At Cincin- nati our young gentleman economized the few hours in port, not so much in collecting statistics of the bustling young city, as in the more important and pleasing pursuit of personal improvement in the company of a lady friend of his '^ dancing days."

The deck of the keel-boat was a stage on which inter- esting scenes were presented. The person, dress, and con- versation of the boatmen were peculiar. Hall was par- ticularly struck with the boat-songs, which he describes as *' poetry dressed in rags and going on crutches." These rude melodies were usually of an amatory character, couched in the dialect of the river, and tinged with colors local and personal. Dance alternated with song, as the boat drifted down the lazy stream; the whisky-jug helped to put " life and metal " in the dancers' heels ; and a

366 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

vagabond musician, rejoicing in the familiar name of " Old Pap,'* paid for his passage and his potations by playing many a merry tune on " Katy," his beloved violin.

This trip from Pittsburg to Shawneetown furnished Mr. Hall material for a series of letters, which were published in the Port Folio. Some years afterward these letters were collected in a volume, and sent to London for pub- lication under the title, "Letters from the West by a Young Gentleman from Illinois." The friend to whom the manuscript was intrusted died in Europe, but the book was duly issued in 1828, from the house of Henry Colburn, London. The title, however, was expanded, without the knowledge or permission of the author, into the follow- ing : " Letters from the West, containing sketches of scenery, manners, and customs, and anecdotes connected with the first settlements of the western section of the United States, by Hon. Judge Hall." The explanation of this change of title is given by Colonel J. F. Meline, a friend of Hall's, in the following paragraph, fromthe Cin- cinnati Commercial of October 16, 1868 :

" Having been promoted to the bench, in the interval between the writing and publication of the letters, some officious friend had, it is supposed, indicated the author's official dignity in the kind purpose of placing his work before the publisher under the most imposing cir- cumstances. Thus, by an unauthorized act and without his knowledge or consent, the author was made responsi- ble, under his real name and in his judicial character, for pleasantries which, however witty or agreeable, were by no means suited to the grave character of the avowed author.

" The book which would almost certainly have a suc- cess, was thus made ridiculous. Several of the English reviews noticed it at length, in the bitter and jealous spirit which then dictated all their criticism of American literature."

The journey in the keel-boat took place in April, 1820. At that time Shawneetown was the principal village in Illinois, which stat^ had just been admitted into the Union.

Judge James Hall. 367

The white population of Illinois was about sixty thou- sand, confined to the southern third of the state, on the borders of the Mississippi, Ohio, and Wabash. Indians were still numerous in the northern portion of the state.

Hall, in the preface of " Legends of the West," frankly tells the reader that he *^ commenced the practice of the legal profession, at an early age, with about the usual stock of dreamy reminiscences of Coke and Blackstone, Kent and Chitty, but with a somewhat richer store than ordinary of history, poetry and romance." He adds : " It was the search of adventure, rather than of actions at law, that enticed him to the wilderness. The legends of the West, scattered in fragments over the land, were more alluring than imaginary clients or prospective fees."

The duties of a legal practitioner in the backwoods af- forded ample opportunity for pursuing the very studies and adventures that Hall was in search of. He spent four years in the office of prosecuting attorney, traveling the round of ten counties, and four more as judge for the same circuit. The scene and character of his labors are vividly described in his own language : '''• The lawyers not only rode large circuits, embracing nine or ten counties each, but those circuits were so arranged to follow each other in succession that the bar could pass from one to another through several of them, and an industrious practitioner passed half of his time on horseback. The counties were extensive, and the county seats being widely separated, the journeys were long and toilsome. There were no hotels, few roads and fewer bridges.

" The traveler often passed from county to county by some bridle-paths leading from one settlement to another, crossed streams where ' fords there were none,' and when the channels were filled with heavy rains, found both dif- ficulty and danger getting over. Sometimes the close of the day found him far from the shelter of a human habi- tation, and then, like the hunter, he must light his fire and encamp under a spreading tree, and the want of an inn obliged him to camp out. The more usual resting place was at the log house of a farmer, where a cordial

368 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

•welcome and a board spread bountifully with the products of the field and the forest awaited him.

"The seats of justice were small villages, mostly mere hamlets, composed of log-houses, into which the judge and bar were crowded, with the grand and petit jurors, litigants, witnesses, and, in short, the whole body of the county — for in new counties every body goes to court. Here was no respect to persons ; they ate together, slept together, congregated together in the crowded court- house, and assembled together around the stump to hear the bursts of patriotic eloquence from the candidates for office.

" Such were the scenes, and such the population among which the author spent twelve years in the exercise of a profession which, above all others, opens to its members familiar views of the whole organization of society and of much of all that passes in the business and bosoms of men. Traveling continually on horseback, over broad and beautiful prairies, and through forests shaded and tangled with all the luxuriance and majesty of their prim- itive state, encountering the hunter in his solitary ram- ble, or sitting with him by his fireside, breaking his bread and partaking of his convivial cup — living with them, in short, from day to day, and from week to week, as their fellow-citizen, their counselor and their guest — his oppor- tunities for becoming well acquainted with the haunts and homes of the backwoodsman were quite as favorable as could be well imagined."

The practice of law and the discharge of judicial duties in Illinois at the period here considered called for firm- ness and courage in the legal fraternity. Counterfeiters, horse-thieves, robbers, and other desperate characters in- fested the frontier settlements. Courts were set at defi- ance. Timid prosecutors and judges were threatened by desperadoes. Hall was not of the fearful kind, yet he had his full share of adventures. On one occasion he dis- covered the secret meeting-place of a gang of outlaws, in a concealed cabin several miles from Shawnee Town. Collecting a small party of reliable men, including in the

Judge James Hall. 369

number the sherifi, he led the way one night to the ren- dezvous of the dangerous fellows. The posse rode to within a few rods of the cabin, alighted, tied their horses to trees, and crept noiselessly toward their intended cap- tives. Then, after stationing his companions on guard. Hall entered the thieves' den alone. The surprised crim- inals were engaged in various ways, each with his arms beside him, gun, dirk and pistol. Startled by the intru- sion of a stranger, they all sprang to their feet, snatching up weapons. " Don't shoot, my friends," said the visitor, quietly, " but listen to me." One of the gang, recogniz- ing the representative of law, exclaimed : '' Why, is it you, 'Squire Hall ?" (They called him Captain Hall, or Oolonel Hall, or 'Squire Hall, indiscriminately — it was be- fore he was judge.) " Yes," — calling the man by name, for he knew the rascals — '' and I just want to say a few words peaceably to you fellows." So he went on and told them how their hiding-place had been discovered, and that the sheriff* with his posse was outside, and advised them to surrender at discretion and be treated as prisoners of war, and not venture to fight against odds and be beaten first and taken afterward. The result of it all was that the whole gang was captured without a struggle.

Judge Hall seldom spoke of his own achievements, mil- itary or civil, but he was fond of a personal anecdote, and he used sometimes to tell his family the following story of a whimsical adventure that befel him while he was once acting as a prosecuting lawyer at Yandalia : One day, on coming out of the court-house, a man stepped up to him, and, calling him by name, asked him to walk over to a grove one or two hundred yards distant, because he wanted to have a little private conversation with him. The judge was accustomed to tell, with a twinkle of the eye, how he followed the fellow with some internal trepi- dation, for, said he, " I did not know whether he intended to shoot me or only to horsewhip me, for I had shown no mercy to his sort while I was state's attorney, and I was a little fellow, you know, and he a great, stalwart back- 24

370 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

woodsman ; but I knew the only way was to put on a bold face." The man was under indictment for some crime, and his purpose in holding a conference with the renowned prosecutor was to try to induce him to under- take to defend him. He offered Hall a large fee, declar- ing that no other lawyer could save him from the peni- tentiary. ''You say/' answered the other, "that I can get you off, and no other man can ; well, now, I will make a bargain with you. I will not help you for money, but if you will comply with my conditions, I will defend you. First, you must promise to change your whole course of living — give up your violent and lawless prac- tices, leave the state and persuade your associates to do the same. Why not become an honest man and take a fresh start in the world ? Promise that you will quit this mean business of preying upon your fellow-creatures; go to farming, or cattle-raising, or some other decent occupa- tion, and I will undertake to get you off." The man promised; he was cleared by Hall's intercession ; lie kept his bargain and reformed.

Hall went to Illinois in the summer of 1820. Three years afterward, February 2, 1823, he married his first wife, Mary Harrison Posey, at the house of her father, Captain John Posey, in Henderson county, Kentucky. The Posey family is of old and highly respected Virginia stock. Mrs. Hall's grandfather, Thomas Posey, was a brave and efficient officer in the revolutionary army, who retired from the service with the rank of major-general. Removing to Kentucky, he was elected to the state sen- ate and chosen speaker of that body. Subsequently he was appointed governor and commander-in-chief of the Territory of Indiana, to succeed General Harrison. A sketch of his life was prepared by Judge Hall for Sparks's American Biography, second series.

Mrs. Hall's father, Captain John Posey, was a soldier and a man of gentle breeding. Her mother and grand- mother were both reigning belles in their young woman- hood. The latter was a relative of Washington, who

Judge James Hall, 371

spoke of her as his " charming cousin, the beautiful Miss Thornton."

Mrs. Mary Harrison Hall was a most beautiful, accom- plished, and lovable woman. She died August 18, 1832. Of the five children whom she bore to her husband only one is now living, the oldest daughter, Mrs. Sarah Hall Foote, wife of Charles B. Foote, president of the Com- mercial Bank, Cincinnati.

Returning to the story of Hall's public life and services in Illinois, we observe that he availed himself of his ad- vantages and recorded what he saw and heard. He took notes, not from books, but from men and things. The articles and books he made are like realistic pictures, such as painters compose from studies taken in the fields and woods.

The Illinois Emigrant, the second newspaper in the state, was started at Shawneetown in the fall of 1818, by Henry Eddy and S. H. Kimmel. Judge Hall succeeded Kimmel as editor, and changed the name of the paper to Illinois Gazette. His ofiice as judge having been abol- ished by a change in the judicial system of the state, he was elected treasurer of Elinois, and removed to the cap- ital, Vandalia. Here he edited the Illinois Intelligencer, and here he started the Illinois Magazine. In addition to his legal and editorial duties, he wrote occasional letters for the Port Folio, and essays, tales, and poems, under the pseudonym of " Orlando," for Timothy Flint's Western Review, published at Cincinnati from 1828 to 1830. In 1829 he prepared and issued the Western Souvenir.

The native or naturalized early writers in the West reached their audience mainly through the medium of newspapers and magazines. But that strong propensity to make books, which Solomon includes among the hu- man vanities, stirred in the breast of the backwoodsman, even as in the bosom of his "Atlantick " countryman, or his cousin " over the water." Publishers in eastern cities issued annual " Souvenirs," antetypes of our modern " gift books" — fancy volumes, with gilt covers, and pictures — to which the leading authors contributed essays, tales, and poems.

372 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

In due time, or perhaps a little before the time was due for such experiments in the West, Judge James Hall pro- jected and published the first literary annual of the Ohio Valley. It came from the press of I^. & G. Guilford, Cin- cinnati, as a Christmas and !N"ew Year's gift. The book is a small octavo of 324 pages, bound in satin cloth, and "embellished" with six steel engravings from original paintings by Hervieu and others.

The subjects of the pictures are " The Peasant Girl," "View of Cincinnati," " View of Pittsburg," " The Shaw- anoe Warrior," ** View of Frankfort," '^ The Deserted Children." The editor, Judge Hall, says in his preface : "The following work appears before the publick under the embarrassing character of being a first attempt to imitate the beautiful productions of art and genius, which have reflected so much honor upon the talents of our worthy countryman in some of the Atlantick States. . . . It is written and published in the western coun- try, by western men, and is chiefly confined to subjects connected with the history and character of the country which gives it birth."

The editor introduces his volume to its readers with the subjoined parody as prelude :

"THE NEW SOUVENIR.

" Oh ! a new Souvenir is come out of the West, Through all the wide borders it flies with a zest; For, save this fair volume, we souvenir had none — It comes unpreceded, it comes all alone ; 80 glossy in silk, and so neat in brevier, There never was book like our new Souvenir !

" It stays not for critic, and stops not for puflf, Nor dreads that reviewers may call it ' poor stuff!* For ere the dull praiser can rail or can rate, The ladies have smiled, and the critic comes late. And the poets who laugh and the authors who sneer, Would be glad of a place in our new Souvenir.

" So boldly it enters each parlor and hall, 'Mong Keepsakes, Atlantics, Memorials and all, That authors start up, each with hand on his pen. To demand whence it comes, with the wherefore, and when ;

Judge James Hall. 373

* Oh come ye in peace, or in war come ye here, Or what is the aim of your new Souvenir ? '

" We 've long seen your volumes o'erspreading the land, While the West country people strolled rifle in hand ; And now we have come, with these hard palms of ours, To rival your poets in parlors and bowers. There are maids in the West, bright, witty, and fair, Who will gladly accept of our new Souvenir.

" One hand to the paper, one touch to the pen, We have rallied around us the best of our men : — Away with the moccasin, rifle and brand ! AVe have song, picture, silk and gold-leaf at command — 'T is done ! — Here we go with the fleet foot of deer — They '11 have keen pens that battle our new Souvenir."

The contributors to the Western Souvenir, besides Hall, who supplied nearly half the articles, were Timothy Flint, ITathan Guilford, ^N'athaniel "Wright, Moses Brooks, Dr. Harney, Otway Curry, Harvey D. Little, Louis H. I^oble, Caleb Stark, S. S. Boyd, Ephraim Robins, John P. Foote, John B. Dillon, M. P. Flint, Benjamin Drake, and Mor- gan J^eville.

The venture was not a financial success, nor are its lit- erary merits of a very high order. Hall's own stories and poems are bright and lively. The gem of the casket is a sketch by Morgan IS^eville, a study of real life on the Ohio river, entitled, "Mike Fink, the Last of the Boatmen." This is an admirable piece of work in its way, and it won for its author immediate recognition and universal praise.

Morgan ^N'eville was highly admired and esteemed by his contemporaries. He was a son of the distinguished Major Presby Neville, aid-de-camp of La Fayette, and a grandson of General John Neville. His mother was a daughter of General Morgan. Morgan Neville was born in Pittsburg, December 25, 1783. At an early age he was sent to an academy, where he was taught Greek, Latin, and mathematics by Mr. Mountain and Rev. John Taylor. H. M. Brackenridge, in his " Recollections of Persons and Places in the West," writing of his school-fellows, says :

874 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

" I will name Morgan Neville, William Robinson, William 0*Hara, and Chas. Wilkins, of the first class. The first of these was the first of the first. The stories of the * Last of the Boatmen,' ' Chevalier Dubac,' etc., are sufficient to stamp him as a man of genius. But his accomplishments in every thing which can form a perfect gentleman leave him no superior in this country, and few equals. It is wonderful that such a man should not be sought and ten- dered the highest official stations in this pure government of wisdom and virtue, where the beau ideal of Fenelon might be expected to be realized ! "

Neville was admitted to the bar in 1808. Among his legal associates were Walter Forward, Alexander John- ston, Neville Craig, and Charles Shaler, all men of power and distinction in their day. Forward held several im- portant national offices, the highest of which was Secre- tary of the Treasury.

From October, 1819, to October, 1822, Neville was sheriff of Alleghany county, Pennsylvania. In 1 811, he was married to Miss Nancy Baker. He removed from Pittsburg to Cincinnati about 1824, and became connected with an insurance company as secretary. In 1826, he edited the Cincinnati Commercial Register, the first daily newspaper, I believe, west of Philadelphia. It survived but half a year. He wrote a good deal for the Western press, and took an active part in forwarding the educa- tional and literary interests of the Queen City.

When the Duke of Orleans, afterward Louis Philippe, visited Pittsburg in 1796, he formed a warm attachment for Neville, then a lad of thirteen, and long afterward the Prince expressed regret on hearing of his friend's death. Morgan Neville, like his father, was devoted to the French, and entertained many distinguished visitors from France at his hospitable home. His private library, which sold for only $300, was the foundation of the library of the Ohio Mechanics' Institute. Some of the books of the Neville collection, as it was called, are yet to be found in a fair state of preservation. They may be distinguished by labels on which, together with his name, the number of

Judge James Hall. 375

the volume, and an elegantly engraved pictorial design, the following motto from Horace is printed :

" Nocturna versate manu, versate diurna."

It was related by Jose Tosso, the violinist, who was one of the aids of La Fayette, and came with him from Louis- ville to Cincinnati, that the first inquiry of the venerable Marquis on arriving at the Cincinnati Hotel was for Mor- gan I^eville, whose father had been on his staff in the revolutionary war. Let me quote Tosso's words as given to a reporter of the Commercial Gazette :

" N'eville w^as ill with ague at his house, which stood where now is Chatfield & Woods' paper warehouse."

" I will go to him at once," the general said. He was shown the way, and after a little talk, he asked:

" ' Well, J^eville, what are your circumstances ? '

." ' ISTot good, general,' was the reply. ' I spent every thing I had to pay my father's debts.' The general then rang for pen and ink, and wrote an order on the United States Bank for stock to the amount of §4,000 in favor of Morgan Neville, and put it under the pillow. Neville was too proud to ever use a cent of it. His family, how- ever, inherited it, and also received a pension from Louis Philippe." • Morgan Neville died March 1, 1840.

The first number of the Hlinois Magazine was issued in October, 1830, and the periodical, a monthly, was contin- ued two years. This was the pioneer magazine of Illinois, and the editor, James Hall, wrote the most of it, doing a work in Shawneetown similar to that Gibbs Hunt did at Lexington, and Timothy Flint at Cincinnati with their *' Reviews." The contents were largely historical, relating to the early setttlement of the West. In a series of arti- cles headed, " Indian Relations," written in a noble and magnanimous spirit, and filled with facts and persuasive arguments. Judge Hall arraigned the government and the people for injustice to the red race, anticipating the plea so strongly made in these latter days by Mrs. Helen Jack- son in " Ramona." The magazine gave much prominence

876 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

to the subject of education, and kept pace with the prog- ress of literature. Under the caption, " March of Mind," the editor stated that within the last three months of the year 1831 eighty-five thousand volumes, mainly school- books, had been issued from the press of Cincinnati.

Several original stories appeared in the Illinois Maga- zine, and plenty of original verse. Salmon P. Chase, James H. Perkins, and Otway Curry were contributors. Mrs. Anna Peyre Dinneis, a once quite popular writer in the West, gained her reputation by poems published in the Illinois Magazine, under the signature, " Moina.'* Hugh Peters,, a young lawyer of great literary promise and much admired by his contemporaries, wrote his best pieces for Hall's publication. His poem, " Connecticut," enjoyed a school reader immortality.

Late in the year 1832 Judge Hall removed to Cincinnati, where he soon after began the publication of " The West- ern Monthly Magazine, a Continuation of the Illinois Monthly Magazine." The first number was issued in Jan- uary, 1833. Its aims were like those of its predecessor, though the scope was wider, and the contributors were numerous. Introducing his periodical to the public, the editor wrote : " Although devoted chiefly to elegant literature, it has always been our wish and endeavor to render it useful, by making it the medium for disseminat- ing valuable information and pure moral principles." Matters historical and statistical received much attention. The editor furnished "Notes on Illinois," Kev. J. M. Peck supplied pioneer reminiscences, Jno. H. James, of Urbana, Ohio, contributed many chapters of his valuable "History of Ohio," and E. B. Mansfield wrote various articles on the material economies of the West. Scientific and literary topics were discussed somewhat ponderously, and a number of heavy essays, original and selected, ap- peared on "Phrenology," "British Statesmen," "Amer- ican Literature." The editor, in a "message" to his readers in February, 1835, says : " To show that we have not been wanting in exertion to give variety to our pages and to cause the whole West, as far as practicable, to be

Judge James Hall. 377

presented in our pages, we will state the fact that the articles contained in the last volume were written by thirty-seven different individuals, who are known to us, besides several who are anonymous. Of these, four reside in Kentucky, two in Indiana, four in Illinois, one in Mis- souri, one in Tennessee, two in Alabama, one in Michigan, one in Mississippi, one in Pennsylvania, one in New York, one in Massachusetts, and the remainder in Ohio. Of these, six are ladies ; and it is due to them to say, that some of the most vigorous and popular articles which have adorned our periodical have been the production of highly-gifted females." Prominent among the " thirty- seven " contributors were Rev. Jas. 11. Perkins, Morgan Neville, Benjamin Drake, Charles D. Drake, Otway Curry, W. D. Gallagher, and Joseph Reese Fry. Of the "gifted females," at least three made names for themselves. Miss Hannah H. Gould, of Newburyport, Massachusetts, whose first volume, which appeared in 1832, was warmly praised by Judge Hall, contributed to the Western Monthly Mag- azine many of her most popular poems, including " The "Winter King," " The Bed upon the Beech," and '^ The Pioneers." It may be said that Hall brought this writer out.

Mrs. Caroline Lee Hentz, who, with her husband, car- ried on a private school in Cincinnati, wrote many stories and poems for the magazine. Her name was very familiar to readers of fiction. According to Allibone, ninety-three thousand volumes of her novels were sold within three years. She was a daughter of General John Whiting, of the United States army, and was born at Lancaster, Mas- sachusetts. Before she was thirteen, she composed a novel and a tragedy in ^yq acts. She was married to Prof. N. M. Hentz, and lived at Chapel Hill, North Caro- lina, before coming to Cincinnati. She removed from Ohio with her husband to Alabama, living first near Flor- ence, and then at Tuscaloosa. Among her books are : "Aunt Patty's Scrap Bag," "The Mob Cap," "Aunt Mercy," "The Blind Girl," "The Peddler," "Lowell's

378 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

Folly," and "Ernest Linwood." She wrote a tragedy/ " De Lara, or the Moorish Bride," for which a gold medal and a prize of $500 were awarded her by a Boston theatrical manager. She also produced a tragedy called " Constance of Werdenberg," and another, " Lamorah, or the Western Wild," which was written in Cincinnati, and represented there on the stage, and afterward printed in a newspaper. The scene of the play was laid on the banks of the Ohio, and the principal character, Lamorah, was a sentimental squaw most wretchedly in love.

The third famous lady contributor to Hall's Magazine was Harriet Beecher. She was born in Litchfield, Con- necticut, in 1812, and, at the age of fifteen, she became the assistant of her sister, Catherine, in a girls' school at Hartford. She removed to Cincinnati with her father's family, and not long afterward, at the age of twenty-four, she was married to Prof. Calvin Stowe, at Lane Semi- nary. Mrs. Stowe's literary career really began in Cin- cinnati. E. D. Mansfield mentions in his " Memories " that he had heard her read her first public composition at Miss Pierce's school, Litchfield, and that a few years afterward he published her first printed story in the Cincinnati Chronicle. In April, 1834, she contributed to the Western Monthly Magazine a "!N'ew England Sketch," for which she re- ceived a prize of fifty dollars. She wrote the delightful study, "Aunt Mary," for the same periodical. Her first volume, " The May Flower," published in 1849, was dedi-

*Thi8 tragedy was printed at Tuscaloosa in 1843. The preface says: *' Mr. Pelby, of Boston, offered five Imndred dollars for the best original tragedy, which was awarded to Mrs. Caroline Lee Hentz. Owing to pecuniary embarrassment, he felt unable to pay the whole amount of the award, and honorably returned to her the copyright." Mr. Robert Clarke, of Cincinnati, possesses a copy of " De Lara," on the fiy-leaf of which is inacribed the following " Notice :"

" This being the sole property of

Edwin E. Anderson, and supposed to be the only copy extant of this original play in the United States, the purloining of which will be punished to the utmost extent of the law.

Howard Atubneum, Boston, Mass., April 4, *58."

Judge James Hall. 379

cated to the " Semi-colon Club," a Queen City literary society, of which she was a member.

Judge Hall supplied the magazine with many stories, poems, critical sketches, and reviews. His life of General Harrison was printed as a serial. Much of tlie material of his several volumes first appeared in the periodical. A sharp and aggressive critic, he wrote humorous and sarcastic reviews of various contemporary writings and writers. He compared the works of Wilson and Audu- bon, to the disparagement of the latter. He very wit- tily ridiculed Flint's "Lectures on IN'atural History," and Caleb Atwater's antiquarian discussions. Mann But- ler's "History of Kentucky" was handled so severely by Hall as to call out a rejoinder in the form of a pamphlet.

The most heated controversy in which he engaged was precipitated in 1835, when, like a lone knight champion- ing an unpopular cause, he boldly struck the sounding shield of the doughty crusader, Dr. Lyman Beecher. Beecher had made Lane Seminary a militant post of of- fensive warfare against Catholicism and slavery. His little book, "A Plea for the TVest," was an argument against foreign migration, especially the migration of ig- norant foreigners, to the Mississippi Valley. The publi- cation of it excited much feeling, and was thought to have unjustly inflamed public opinion against the Church of Rome.

Hall took up the gauntlet in behalf of the Catholics, believing them to be misrepresented and abused. He re- viewed Beecher's discourse at considerable length and with caustic severity, calling it a " plea for Lane Seminary and against the Catholics." In May, 1835, a long article appeared in the magazine devoted to " The Catholic Ques- tion," in extenso. Other writers engaged in the contro- versy, especially Eli Taylor, the editor of the Journal, an anti-Catholic and anti-slavery newspaper, and former pub- lisher of Hall's Magazine. Many patrons withdrew their names from Hall's subscription list. Some accused the editor of disloyalty to his own sect ; some forsook him be- cause he had condemned the " heresy of abolition," he

380 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

favoring gradual emancipation instead of the Garrisonian method.

Financial disputes with Eli Taylor caused a change to be made in the publication of the magazine, which, in January, 1835, was transferred to Flash, liyder & Co. In June, having made engagements to enter other business, Judge Hall withdrew from the editorship of the magazine, which devolved upon James Reese Fry. At the close of the year. Hall sold out to James B. Marshall, who merged it in his Literary Journal and Review, at Louisville, in February, 1837. The joint subscription lists numbered only a thousand names. To these a new periodical, called the Monthly Magazine and Review, edited by Wm. D. Gallagher, was sent for five months only, and the languish- ing publication perished June, 1837.

Before his removal to Cincinnati, Judge Hall had pub- lished three books, in addition to his volumes of the Illinois Magazine. The first of these was the " Letters from the West," already spoken of. The second was a collection of short stories, " Legends of the West," issued from a Philadelphia press in 1832. The titles of the stories are, ** The Backwoodsman," " The Divining Rod," " The Sev- enth Son," " The Missionaries," "A Leg'end of Caron- delet," " The Intestate," " Michael de Coucy," " The Em- igrants," "The Barrack-Master's Daughter." In 1832 appeared " The Soldier's Bride and Other Tales." This was followed, in 1833, by " The Harpe's Head ; a Legend of Kentucky." The next year the diligent author put out " Sketches of the West," in two volumes, and " Tales of the Border." " Statistics of the West," " Notes on the Western States," and the " Life of General William Henry Harrison," were issued while the author was still connected with the magazine.

Before he relinquished the editorial chair Judge Hall was appointed cashier of the Commercial Bank, Cincin- nati. The charter of the bank expired in 1843, but the institution was reorganized under the same name, with Hall as president, which position he held until his death. For a period of more than thirty years, therefore, he was

Judge James Hall. 381

engaged in absorbing mercantile duties. The exactions of business did not cause him to abandon literary pur- suits. His most laborious task as a writer was undertaken after he assumed the duties of a bank cashier.

This was the composition of an elaborate " History of the Indian Tribes," in three huge folios, embellished by one hundred and twenty authentic portraits from the In- dian gallery at Washington. This splendid work was re- published in London. The original price was $120 per set, but the' fe"yv^ copies now attainable are held at a much higher rate. The projector and chief proprietor of the publication was Colonel Thomas L. McKenny, of the In- dian Department. He superintended the illustration, but the letter-press was written by James Hall, and consumed the leisure of eight years.

The long list of Judge Hall's published writings is com- plete when w^e add to those already named " The Wilder- ness and the War-path, 1845 ; " "Anniversary Address Be- fore the Mercantile Library Association of Cincinnati, 1846;" the "Life of Thomas Posey," contributed to " Sparks's American Biography ; " and the " Romance of Western History." In view of the useful and varied labors of Judge Hall, we may w^ell agree with the as- sertion in Allibone's Dictionary of Authors, that " few men have done so much for the cause of Western civiliza- tion and the intellectual improvement of the country at large."

The salt and substance of Judge Hall's writings, exclu- sive of what is found in the " History of Indian Tribes," may be read in two volumes, the " Legends of the West " and the " Romance of Western History." The first con- tains cullings from the author's best tales, among which is " Harpe's Head ; " and the second, though called " Romance," presents a vast array of historical facts and very little fiction. It is, indeed. Hall's most valuable con- tribution to literature, being a clear, vivid, authentic, real- istic survey of pioneer life, more interesting to the reader of to-day, because of its literal truth, than the author's novels, for they are now sought for the facts they contain,

382 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

and not for their literary art or other merit as works of imagination. Doubtless, Judge Hall realized this him- self, for he said in the brief preface to " Legends of the West " that the sole intention of his tales was " to convey accurate descriptions of the scenery and population of the country " in which he resided.

Judge Hall's volumes graphically depict the state of things in Virginia and Kentucky at a period just after the revolutionary war. We see in them the pioneer and the emigrant moving westward into the wilderness. The Long-knives encounter the red men; the "station" rises in the forest ; the deer speeds away before the hunter ; the paroquets flutter their green wings above the canebrake along the Ohio. Behold the train of pack-horses winding along the mountain road ; see the piroque and the flat- boat bearing adventurers from Fort Pitt to the Gulf of Mexico. Coming down to a later day, we are intro- duced to the indolent French settlers at their picturesque, semi-Indian villages, Yincennes and Kaskaskia.

We explore Southern Illinois, and listen to stories of Missouri trappers, and of the freebooters that rob by river and on land and hide in caves. Then the novels take us to hunt the raccoon and the wild-cat in the Kentucky woods. " Hank Short, the snake-killer," amuses us with his extraordinary feats; and we are horrified at the ghastly vision of Micajah Harpe's gory head severed from his body and stuck in the forks of a tree.

Judge Hall goes with us to the hospitable manor-house of the Virginia planter, introduces fine young officers, and beautiful young ladies who journey through the forests, and are captured by Indians. He takes us to the back- woods cabin, entertains us with feasts and weddings, ac- quaints us with the barbecue and the camp-meeting.

The style of his composition is correct, dignified, and graceful ; enlivened by humor and made piquant by satiric touches. Hall never loses enthusiasm nor vivacity, and, though his narrative is sometimes tedious, it is never dull, a remark that applies as well to Cooper and to Irving.

In the early part of his literary career, James Hall

Judge James Hall, 383

found exquisite pleasure in the works of the great poets, and, like many another young man of sensibility and lively passions, he wrote in verse. The " Western Souvenir " con- tains a score of metrical pieces from his hand to half a dozen of which he attached tlie nom de plume " Orlando."

Judge Hall's wife died in 1832, leaving a family of ^Ye children. -He was married September 3, 1839, to his second wife, Mrs. Mary Louisa Alexander, nee Anderson, a sister of Governor Charles Anderson and of the late Larz Anderson, of Cincinnati. Mrs. Hall, who is now deceased, was born near Louisville, Kentucky, '* Soldier's Retreat," the residence of her father. Major Richard Clough Anderson (aid to General LaFayette). She was a young widow when Judge Hall made her acquaintance. The wedding took place at Chillicothe, in the historically famous mansion of General Duncan McArthur, at Fruit Hill,' afterward the residence of Governor Allen.

The issue of this union was two sons and two daughters.

The oldest son, William Anderson Hall, secretary and treasurer of the Phoenix and Merchants' Mutual Fire In- surance Company, inherits, in generous measure, the lit- erary aptitude from both parents, and, had he devoted his energies to letters instead of business, he would have added another to the long line of authors of his name and kindred. As it is, he has written, as a pastime, much that is worthy of a more permanent repository than the news- paper columns, in which it has appeared from time to time, under the signature of " Timothy Timid."

In 1872, Mr. Wm. Hall wrote from Europe a series of de- lightful letters, which were published in the Cincinnati Commercial, w^ith the general title, "Timothy's Tour." He was the Philadelphia correspondent of the Enquirer in 1876, and furnished that newspaper capital reports of the Centennial. There appeared from his sprightly pen, in 1886, a charming short story, "A Romance of Vesuvius."

James Harrison Hall, younger brother of William, is now in the fire insurance business in Dayton, Ohio. He is a graduate of West Point Military Academy.

384 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

Maria Louisa Hall married Thomas II. Wright, and lives in Cincinnati.

Kate Longworth Hall, the youngest child of Judge Hall, is unmarried, and is now living at Mt. Auburn.

Judge James Hall's death occurred at his home in Cin- cinnati on the 4th of July, 1868. A biogrophical sketch of him was prepared by his friend, Colonel J. Fi Meline,^ and published in the Cincinnati Commercial, October 16, 1868.

The man of business seldom finds tim^ for literary pur- suits. The duties of a bank president are exacting, and he who discharges them faithfully will have little energy left for the mental toil of composing books. Judge Hall's period of literary invention closed soon after his mercantile labors began. But he never lost interest in the cause of education, culture, and polite studies. We can not better conclude our survey of his useful life and services than by quoting a passage from an address which he gave before the " Young Men's Mercantile Library Association," on the " Dignity of Commerce." He said :

" I am happy to believe that the acquisition of wealth does not necessarily, nor, as I hope, usually, blunt the sensibilities, nor destroy the manliness of a generous char- acter ; that it is not always a selfish and a mercenary occu- pation. If money be sought with moderation, by honora- ble means, and with a due regard to the public good, no employment affords exercise to higher or nobler powers

* James Florant Meline, an author of considerable distinction, was born in the United States fort at Sackett's Harbor, New York, in 1813. He came to Cincinnati in 1832, and taught in St. Xavier's College (then the Atheneum), and asssisted in editing the Catholic Telegraph. He studied law with William Greene, and was admitted to the bar about 1836. He traveled and resided in Europe, becoming master of several languages— French, German, Italian, Spanish. Returning to Cincinnati, he practiced law there for several years. Colonel Meline took a promi- nent part in the civil war. Besides writing much for the Cincinnati Commercial, the New York Tribune, the Nation, and other newspapers and magazines, he was the author of " Two Thousand Miles on Horse- back," and of many learned lectures. But his most noted work is that entitled " Mary, Queen of Scots, and Her Latest English Historian," a reply to Froude. He died in 1873.

Judge James Hall. 385

of the mind and heart. And such, gentlemen, should be the character of the merchant. He should guard his heart against the seductive influence of money ; he should carefully shield his mind against the narrow precepts of avarice. Money should be regarded as the agent and rep- resentative of the good it may be made to perform — it should be sought as the instrument of self-defense against the evils of poverty ; of parental love, enabling us to pro- vide for those dependent on us ; of public spirit, in afford- ing the means of promoting the public good." 25

886 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

CHAPTER XIII.

GEORGE DENNISON PRENTICE, JOURNALIST, POET, AND WIT.

George Dennison Prentice was born in an humble farm- house in Preston township, Connecticut, on Saturday, December 18, 1802. The natural scenery surrounding his home was impressive, and its varied beauty gave an early impulse to his poetical tendency. The child inherited bodily vigor, an active temperament, and bright intellect. His precocity was stimulated by a fond mother, who taught him to read in the Bible ere he had completed his fourth year. At the tender age of five he was sent to school, where he was kept until he reached the age of nine years ; then his father took him out of school and put him to work on the farm. A poor man's son, he must do manual tasks, in seed-time and in harvest, and help the family to earn and to save. Physical toil in the fields did not de- stroy the lad's inclination for study. What he had learned in the country school begat a longing for more knowl- edge.

Doubtless the beloved mother, whose ambitious care had induced George to con the alphabet as he sat on her knees, seconded his earnest desire to prepare for college. In his fourteenth year he was placed under the instruction of a clergyman who had been a tutor at Yale College, and he made extraordinary progress in his studies. Perhaps the foregoing years of sturdy service, with plow and scythe and ax, were well invested, and had established a sound bodily basis for a good mental superstructure. It is re- corded that young Prentice " completed the study of Vir- gil, Horace, Sal lust, Cicero, the Greek Testament, Xeno- phou, six books of Homer, the Greek Minora, most of the Greek Majora, and other works, with in six months after

George Dennison Fr entice, 387

his first introduction to English grammar." Tradition further declares that he learned Lindley Murray by heart in ^YQ days, and that he recited the twelfth book of the -^neid at a single lesson.

Making a discount of fifty per cent for exaggeration in the above assertions, the record would still prove Prentice a remarkable student ; and if we credit the statement as it stands, we must accord him a place with such prodigies as Macaulay and Stuart Mill.

Like thousands of other ambitious young people, before and since his day. Prentice used the vocation of teaching as a means of getting to college. At the age of fifteen he undertook to teach his first school in a country village ; undertook and succeeded. For about two years he con- tinued to teach, then entered the sophomore class of Brown University. The phenomenal memory which enabled him to prepare for college so rapidly gave great distinction and brilliancy to his college career. We have it on good authority that he could repeat, verbatim, " Kames's Ele- ments of Criticism," " Blair's Rhetoric," and " Dugald Stuart's Mental Philosophy." A poet says our teachers are the parents of our mind, which epigram adds interest to the fact that Prentice, while in college received instruc- tion from the once somewhat famous Tristram Burges, and the much more celebrated Horace Mann. Prentice entered college in 1820 and graduated in 1823, crowned with the reputation of being the best student Brown Uni- versity had then sent forth. Years afterward the care- worn and world-taught man, revisiting the scenes of his student life, meditated thus :

" Within your silent domes, how many hearts Are beating high with glorious dreams ? 'Tis well The rosy sunlight of the morn should not Be darkened by the portents of the storm That may not burst till eve. Those youthful ones Whose thoughts are woven of the hues of heaven, May see their visions fading tint by tint, Till naught is left upon the winter air Save the gray winter cloud ; the brilliant star That glitters now upon their happy lives,

888 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

May redden to a scorching flame, and bum Their every hope to dust."

"With a full mind and an empty purse, the honored graduate betook himself again to the wide-ranging art of school-mastering, finding employment in a seminary at Smithfield. Teaching became the stepping-stone to the profession of law, for which he soon began to prepare. He was admitted to the bar in 1827, being then twenty- five years old. The practice of law seems not to have been to his liking ; at any rate, there is no record of his ever having tried any case. Perhaps he delighted more in literary composition than in legal forms, or the patience- trying task of securing clients. While in college he had written for the press in verse and in prose.

The poet, J. G. Brainard, himself an editor in Hartford, Connecticut, was the direct cause of Prentice's launching in journalism. Brainard, only six years his senior, dis- covered Prentice's ability, and encouraged his literary en- deavors. Fifty years ago the knack of facile writing was rarer than it is now-a-days, when, as Tennyson said to George Eliot, '* every body writes well;" and ready pens were then in demand. The JS'ew England Review was started at Hartford in 1828, and Prentice was chosen ed- itor. The Review was an aggressive Whig newspaper that soon attracted popular attention, for readers perceived that it was ably conducted, and that its editor was a rising man. The precocious school-boy, toil-tried farmer, suc- cessful collegian, earnest teacher, disciplined law-student, was ready for his life-work. Henceforth he was the slave of the pen, yet its master.

When, in 1828, Jackson was elected president over Adams, political excitement was at a white heat. The memorable campaign arrayed the Whigs and the Demo- crats against each other in desperate partisan war of words, both on the stump and in the newspapers. The Whigs, stung by defeat, made tremendous efforts to re- gain their lost power. Political orators and writer^ brought all their batteries of wit, argument, and eloquence to bear in the hot controversy.

George Dennison Prentice. 389

Henry Clay was considered by many in the Whig party as a foeman more than worthy Jackson's steel, and he was to run as the Whig candidate in 1832. The Ken- tucky statesman's adherents in Kew England pushed his claims vigorously. The canvas demanded that an attract- ive "life" of the "great commoner" should be prepared for circulation among the people. Who so competent to prepare such a campaign book as the ambitious young editor of the !N'ew England Review ? Prentice was easily prevailed upon to undertake the task. As it was neces- sary for him to go to Kentucky to obtain material for his book, a provisional editor was wanted to carry on the Hartford paper. There was among the contributors to the Review a Quaker youth, five years the junior of Mr. Prentice — his name, John Greenleaf Whittier. This young man had been studying and teaching in the acad- emy at Haverill, Massachusetts. He had come back to his father's farm, and was one day hoeing in the field when a letter was brought him from the publishers of the Review, requesting him, in Prentice's name, to come to Hartford and edit the paper. " I could not have been more astonished," said Whittier, afterwards, relating the incident to John James Piatt, " if I had been told I was appointed Prime Minister to the Great Khan of Tartary." To J. C. Derby, the veteran publisher, Whittier said : " My first real work was done when George D. Prentice was editor of the Hartford Review ; although I had writ- ten considerable before, I wrote and sent him a few things, and he encouraged me. When he recommended me to take his place, the publisher met me, and I went down, and for two years I remained with the Review." When Whittier arrived at Hartford to assume his editorial duties, Prentice had already gone to Kentucky ; the two never met.

Prentice's " Life of Clay " was written at Lexington, Kentucky. The preface is dated November, 14, 1830. The book is intensely partisan, extravagantly eulogistic of Clay, savagely abusive of his political enemies. The style is lucid and vigorous, but the sentences often soar on

890 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

American eagles' wings. " Impassioned eloquence " was a commodity much in demand in the era of Henry Clay. The popular taste relished flowing periods, burning perorations, and scintillant rhetoric.

Prentice thus pictures Clay in the climax of oratoric fervor : " His keen eye kindles into new brightness from the irresistible fire within him; and his whole countenance discovers, like a mirror, the transit of star-like thought, which beam upon lips touched with the living coal of elo- quence." One more of these exuberant passages may be quoted because it exhibits Prentice's temper and early style, and, at the same time, afibrds a striking example of a kind of composition once admired :

" When the spirit of faction shall have spent its strength and died ; when the flood of calumny which, like the stream from the mouth of the Apocalyptic Dragon, has overspread the land with its pestilential tide, shall have passed off into the dead sea of common oblivion, the virtue of the last administration will be remembered, and will glow, undimmed over the waste of after-corruption, like * night's diamond star ' above the dark outline of a sky of storm."

The administration thus praised was, of course, that of John Quincy Adams, to whom Mr. Prentice refers in an- other part of his book in the following terms : " The tranquil majesty of his mind was like that of the ocean when its Controller has laid the finger of His silence upon every wave. A mild and chastened feeling of admiration might, indeed, steal upon the hearts of those who con- templated its quiet, yet noble manifestations ; but for the calling forth of enthusiasm, a wilder and more passionate moving of its elements was requisite. It needed the sublimity of the tempest — the cloud-fire's shock — the loud Bummons of the thunder, and the hoarse murmur of the answering waves."

Such luxuriant growth of expression, loaded with every flower of speech, but especially with metaphor, character- ized Prentice's early prose. I have read a short, senti- mental story of his, probably written about the time he

George Dennison Prentice. 391

left college. It is entitled " The Broken-Hearted," and is a tale of love and desertion. The heroine who dwelt in " a country village in the eastern part of Kew England " is described as " a creature to he worshiped — her brow was garlanded with the young year's sweetest flowers, her yel- low locks were hanging beautifully and low upon the bosom — and she moved through the crowd with such a floating and unearthly grace that the bewildered gazer," etc.

"The Broken-Hearted" is one of those maiden efforts that their authors blush for when they grow old and wicked, but which, notwithstanding their jejune senti- mentalities, are often more creditable to the heart than are the riper and less sincere productions of prudent maturity. The little story is spangled with rhetorical ornaments, but is really beautiful in thought and feeling, and abounds in moral and religious reflections very simply and devoutly expressed.

While Prentice was engaged on the '•' Life of Clay," propositions were made urging him to remain in Ken- tucky and conduct a newspaper to fight the Jackson party, and represent " Harry of the West." The project was realized in the establishing of the Louisville Journal by George D. Prentice and E. L. Buxton. The first number of this famous newspaper appeared November 24, 1830, a month after Judge Hall started the Illinois Magazine, and a year before Gallagher began the Cincinnati Mirror. Mr. Prentice was connected with the Journal till his death, a period of forty years. Henry Watterson, declares that *' From 1830 to 1861 the influence of Prentice was perhaps greater than that of any political writer who ever lived." "Wm. H. Perrin claims that the Louisville Journal " built the city of Louisville," and " prevented the secession of Kentucky."

To Thomas Jefferson is ascribed the distinction of mak- ing prominent in political warfare that mode of attack called personal' journalism, which he employed through the National Gazette, edited by Philip 'Frenau, the poet. The Aurora, a Democratic paper edited in Philadelphia by

392 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

"William Duane, is said to have secured the election of Jefferson by virtue of its fighting force. So intense was the partisan antagonism that a mob of Federalists, wear- ing the black cockade, attacked the office of the Aurora. Another powerful Democratic "personal" editor was Thomas Ritchie, who conducted the Richmond Enquirer from 1804 to 1845. On the other side, William Coleman was selected by the Federalists to ^* fight in their cause and lead the van," in New York, and the Evening Post was the weapon he wielded. The history of Coleman's personal encounters was notorious, and it is probable that Prentice emulated his example. Wm. C. Bryant succeeded Coleman, and all know his power as a writer and his apti- tude for applying a horsewhip on occasion, small of stature though he was.

Joseph Gales started the famous National Intelligencer, Democratic, in 1800. Robert Walsh, twenty years later, became editor of the Philadelphia National Gazette, the leading organ of the Whig party at that time, and a paper of great literary ability.

The individuality of such editors as Duane and Cole- man gave character to their journals. The man in the " sanctum " and his chief contributors stood before the eye of the public, known and personally responsible. Modern impersonal journalism is a drilled army behind a wall. The early editors were summoned to a tournament in the open field — spear to spear, sword to sword. The knights of greatest prowess conquered. Nor was the spear always a pen only, and the blood only ink. What the composing- stick said, the editor must stand bv when he showed his face on the street. The term " fighting editor " was not altogether figurative. He who ventured to fire a fierce leader at a political foe often had reason to expect a reply in the sharp rhetoric of a pistol. Richard Hildreth, the historian, says that " In the half century from 1765 to 1816 the peculiar literature of America is to be found in a series of newspaper essays, some of them of distinguished ability. Rich jev<'els now and then glitter in the general mass. But the editorial portion of the papers, and no

George Deyinison Prentice. 393

small part of the communications also, consist of declama- tory calumnies expressed in a style of vulgar ferocity."

This peculiar style did not go out of use in 1816, nor, indeed, is it likely to disappear until the general process of human evolution has gone much further. In all times of great political excitement, strong and aggressive editors are liable to relapse into the old fashion.

George D. Prentice was one of the first powerful per- sonal editors in the Mississippi Valley. He brought the Louisville Journal into the arena of action ten years be- fore Horace Greeley started the Tribune, and twenty years before Raymond began the x^ew York Times. The Ken- tucky champion was a warm friend of Greeley, though the two editors were often at variance. Prentice respected Greeley as a foeman worthy of any editor's steel, and ad- mired him as strong men ever must admire others of like power. The Louisville hero of the pen thus greeted the New York journalist, in verses addressed to '^A Political Opponent :"

" I send thee, Greeley, words of cheer, Thou bravest, truest, best of men ; For I have marked thy strong career. As traced by thy own sturdy pen. I 've seen thy struggles with thy foes That dared thee to the desperate fight. And loved to watch thy goodly blows Dealt for the cause thou deem'st the right."

Prentice was not the only famous and influential Whig journalist of his time in the West. Charles Hammond began his editorial connection with the Cincinnati Ga- zette in 1827, three years before the Louisville Journal was established. Hammond, born in Baltimore in 1779, educated in Virginia, was admitted to the bar in 1801. He removed to Belmont county, Ohio, where, in 1813, he started the Ohio Federalist, a newspaper which was dis- continued in 1817. From 1816 to 1821 he was a member of the Ohio House of Representatives. From 1823 to 1838 he was reporter for the Supreme Court of Ohio, and prepared the first nine volumes of Ohio Reports. From

394 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

1825 to the date of his death, April 3, 1840, this very ahle, industrious, and learned man was editor-in-chief of the Gazette. In his capacious mind he received and digested the knowledge which proved him a lawyer, political econo- mist, statesman, historian, and poet. An intimate friend and adviser of Clay, a correspondent of the leading pub- lic men of his generation, he was pronounced by Webster " the greatest genius that ever wielded the editorial pen."

Hammond's formidable antagonist in editorial warfare was Moses Dawson, conductor of the Cincinnati Adver- tiser, the Jackson newspaper of the Ohio Valley. Daw- son, whose " Memoirs " by Mr. Reemelin were published, I think, in the Commercial, was a writer of great force and clearness. He was the author of a life of Harrison.^ E. D. Mansfield has recorded some amusing recollections of the intercourse of Hammond with his respected Democratic opponent. "They would meet," says Mansfield, "at a noted colfee-house on Front street, where they would banter each other over their toddy. Dawson would say, " I'll beat you, Charley," and Hammond would say, " I'll give it to you in the morning.' "

Prentice found his Dawson, though a weaker one than Moses, in the person of Shadrach Penn, who edited in Louisville the Advertiser in advocacy of Jackson and Democracy. Penn was an able writer, but no match for Prentice. For a dozen years the Journal and the Advertiser maintained bitter war. Prentice disabled his adversary by the force of ridicule. Shadrach Penn was actually driven from the city and the state at the point of a terri- ble quill. Prentice recorded the departure in the follow- ing witty but not very generous sentences :

" Shadrach, after a residence of twenty-three years in this city, goes to spend the rest of his life and lay his

* Historical Narrative of the Civil and Military Services of Major- General William Henry Harrison, and a Vindication of his Character and Conduct as a Statesman, a Ciliz.n, and a Soldier; with a detail of his Negotiations and Wars witli the Indians, until the final Overthrow of the celebrated Chief, Tecumst»h. anl his Brother, the Prophet. By Moees Dawson. 8vo. pp. 472. Cincinnati, 1824,

George Dennison Prentice. 395

bones in St. Louis. Well, lie has our best wishes for his prosperity. All the ill-will we have ever had for him passed out long ago through our thumb and forefinger. His lot hitherto has been a most ungentle one, but we trust his life will prove akin to the plant that begins to blossom at the advanced age of half a century. May all be well with him here and hereafter. We should, indeed, be sorry if the poor fellow, whom we have been torturing eleven years in this world, should be passed over to the devil in the next."

Prentice rejoiced in controversy. His keen arrows of personal attack and defense flew to every part of the United States, and he was known in France and England as a poignant, epigrammatical writer. Punch appropriated his jests. He wrote with sustained force and with dignity on the political questions of his day. But his reputation, like that of Tom Corwin, depended much upon his wit and humor. His bright sayings were repeated in every newspaper. Readers looked every morning with eager curiosity for the last quip of the Louisville Journal. ^' Prentice says," was the introduction to the freshest an- ecdote of the breakfast table, and to the last swift-flying witticism on 'Change.

A collection of paragraphs from the columns of the Journal was published in 1859 under the title of Pren- ticeiana, a name suggested by Evart A. Duyckinck in 1855. The selections were first made by Mr. Prentice him- self; then reduced to one-third the original number by friends to whom they were submitted ; finally cut down still more by the publishers, J. 0. Derby & Co. It is fair to suppose that so much editing diluted rather than strengthened the wit of Prenticeiana. The critical friends doubtless rejected the most audacious and therefore best hits, and the prudent publishers expurgated the expurgated copy. The book is a sort of paragraph history of party politics for a period of twenty exciting years. In its pages we

" Catch the manners living as they rise,"

396 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

of a past generation. We learn the characteristics of the press in other days. We realize the meaning of political vituperation. Much of that terrific editorial warfare seems more barbarous than it really was. The tragedy lapses, on occasion, into pantomime, and we see that the clubs are stufted. Prenticeiana abounds in recommenda- tions and prophecies in regard to kicking, nose-pulling, cowhiding, shooting, hanging, and going to the peni- tentiary, or to a place still more confining and hotter. The style is vigor itself, for vigor means war-making ; almost every passage is an aggravating personality. The wit, for the most part, turns on the pun — the pun usually on a proper name. For example : " Messrs. Bell & Topp, of the N. C. Gazette, say that ^Prentices are made to serve masters.' Well, Bells were made to be hung, and Topps to be whipped."

The humor is broad, adapted to vulgar apprehension, the point never obscured from any qualm of delicacy. " There is a member of the Arkansas legislature whose name is Buzzard. Let him subscribe for the Louisville Advertiser ; it will be a feast for him." Not all the pass- ages in Prenticeiana are political nor written in the joker's vein. We meet maxims, philosophical, prudential, and moral. "A friend that you have to buy won't be worth what you have to pay for him, no matter how little that may be." " The pen is a formidable weapon, but a man can kill himself with it a great deal more easily than he can other people."

The following are straws from Prentice's sheaf of hon mots :

"A critic says of a late volume of poems that it is ' un- utterably stupid.' Pity it hadn't been."

" Doctor, what do you think is the cause of this fre- quent rush of blood to the head ?" " Oh, its nothing but an effort of nature. Nature, you know, abhors a vacuum."

" The New Haven Herald says : ' Does the editor of the Louisville Journal suppose that he is a true Yankee be- cause he was born in New England ? If a dog is born in an oven is he bread?' We can tell the editor that there

George Dennison Prentice, 397

are very few dogs, whether born in an oven or out of it, but are better bred than he is."

" ' The Louisville Journal professes to think that Mr. Clay can be elected to the Presidency. Is Brother Prentice a fool V — Westchester Herald. ITo, but if the editor of the Herald is our brother, we are next kin to one."

"A locofoco paper of Illinois calls the governor of that •state ' a temperate man.' We believe that his locofoco excellency did belong to a temperance society a few days, a year or two ago. He made a brief attempt at sobriety — merely made a stagger at it."

"A certain editor, who has had a controversy with us, -suggests that he and we should look each other in the face. But he would have the advantage over us ; he would have much the better prospect."

''- ' We feel that we can now go forward to our destina- tion with nothing to obstruct our progress.' — [Washing- ton Union. We suppose you can. The l^ew York papers say that the obstructions at Hell-gate have been all re- moved."

Henry Watterson says " Prentice was the darling of the mob." At the beginning of his career in Kentucky, the "Yankee School-master," as he was called, encountered some prejudice, and had to prove his personal courage. Adapting himself to his environment, he quickly learned the use of the pistol, and was accounted the best shot in Kentucky. On one occasion, he was fired at and wounded by a political antagonist on a street of Louisville. Prentice throttled the would-be assassin, threw him to the ground, and was about to stab him, urged by the excited crowd. Controlling his rage, he released his victim, saying, " I can not kill a disarmed man."

Prentice was neither a bully nor a respecter of bullies. " There is no more dishonor," he says, " in being knocked down by a bully than in being scratched by a catamount or kicked by a jackass."

He was opposed on principle to dueling, though he mildly defended Clay for fighting a duel. To a certain Mr. Hewson, who demanded satisfaction according to the

898 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

code, for some offense of Prentice's pen, he wrote : " I came here, from a distant state, because many believed I could do something to promote a great and important en- terprise, and as I have reason to think my labors are not altogether in vain, I do not intend to let myself be di- verted from them. There are some persons, and perhaps many, to whom my life is valuable, and however little or much value I may attach to it on my own account, I do not see fit, at present, to put it up voluntarily against yours. I am no believer in the dueling code. I would not call a man to the field unless he had done me such a deadly wrong that I desired to kill him, and I would not obey his call to the field unless I had done him so mortal an injury as to entitle him, in my opinion, to demand an opportunity of taking my life. I have not the least desire to kill you or to harm a hair of your head, and I am not conscious of having done any thing to enti- tle you to kill me."

Prentice's immense influence enabled him to dispense much political patronage. Hundreds of men were in- debted to him for public ofiice. His power reached its culminating point in 1840, in the memorable Harrison campaign — the campaign of endless processions, log-cab- ins and hard cider. " Pray, in what respect is hard cider an emblem of General Harrison ?" asked a Jackson editor. "All we know is," responded Prentice, " that it runs well." We can readily understand how the Louisville Journal did so much to secure the triumphant election of old Tip- pecanoe. Kentucky gave Harrison a larger vote than did any other state.

When, in the critical canvas of 1856, the Whig party went to pieces and out of its fragments two new combina- tions were formed, the Republican and the American, or Know-Nothing, party, Prentice went with the latter, and the Journal ran up the Fillmore flag. From 1856 to 1861, we know how men's souls were tried — how patriotism itself was bewildered. When the cannon of Sumter boom<'<1, ;i!h1 the echo rolled along the Ohio valley, Pren-

George Dennison Prentice. 399

tice wavered, and his indecision Avas fatal to his national influence. He opposed the rebellion, but not for radical reasons and not with zeal. The Journal was counted a Union newspaper, but the army of the Union did not recognize it as a strong ally. Whittier said Prentice was unfortunately placed.

The sympathies of his southern friends were with the Confederacy. His interests in Louisville were involved with southern business. His wife favored the Confederate cause, and his two sons enlisted in the rebel army. The eldest son, Courtland, was killed in the battle of Augusta.

Prentice worshiped but one hero, and that was the idol of Ids early political devotion — Henry Clay. Clay was his beau-ideal statesman. When Clay had gone, it seemed to him as if chaos had come to the world of politics. Just before the war. Prentice went the rounds of the prin- cipal cities as a public lecturer, his theme being "American Statesmanship."

The memorable part of his lecture is that which is eulo- gistic of the Ashland orator. On the occasion of the un- veiling of the Clay statue at Louisville, on May 30, 1867, Prentice read an ode, in which occur the lines :

"Alas! alas! dark storms at length,

Sweep o'er our half-wrecked ship of State, And there seem none with will and strength To save her from her awful fate,"

And again :

" Oh, he was born to bless our race As ages after ages roll ! We see the image of his face, Earth has no image of his soul!"

When a man comes to seek the companionship of Mem- ory, and averts his eye from the face of Hope, it is a pretty sure sign that his day is waning. Let him bind up his harvest swath and quit the field.

400 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

Alluding to Mr. Prentice's lecturing experience, I am reminded of an amusing story which the witty editor was in the habit of relating at his own expense. One summer evening he delivered an address at a country school-house in a somewhat benighted neighborhood in Kentucky, and on leaving the building at the close of the speech, his at- tention was arrested by the conversation of two perplexed farmers. " Say, Jim," asked one of them, " what was he a drivin' at ?" " Durned if I know — nor I don't reckon the old fool knows himself."

George D. Prentice was married in the spring of 1835 to Miss Henrietta Benham, daughter of Mr. Joseph B. Benham, a noted lawyer of Cincinnati. Mr. Piatt de- scribes her as he saw her in middle life : " Still fine looking, having a handsome and attractive face, a stately figure, an elegant and gracious manner." Mr. Watterson tells us that Mr. Prentice once said : "• I have not had credit for being a devoted husband ; but if I had my life to go over, that is the only relation I would not alter ; my wife was the wisest, the purest, the best, and the most thoroughly enchanting woman I ever knew." Mrs. Pren- tice's death occurred in 1868, two years before that of her husband.

Of the four children born to Mr. and Mrs. Prentice, two died in infancy — two, William Courtland and Clarence, attaining the years of manhood, both meeting violent death. The first was killed in the battle of Augusta, Kentucky, in 1862, fighting for the Confederate cause; Clarence was thrown from a buggy and killed since the death of his father. Clarence, like his brother, joined the Confederate army, against his father's protest. On one occasion the young man, who attained the rank of major, was arrested as a spy, and a court-martial was ordered by General Burnside to try him. Geo. D. Prentice tele- graphed to President Lincoln, and immediately set off for Washington to intercede in person for his son. Hasten- ing anxiously to the President's office, he was smilingly received^by " Old Abe," who said : " Did you think I'd let them hang your boy? Sit down, Prentice, and tell me a

George Dennison Prentice. 401

good story." The chief magistrate had already dis- patched an order that the court-martial for the trial of Major Clarence Prentice be dissolved.

George D. Prentice died January 22, 1870, aged sixty- eight. His last two years were spent almost wholly in a small room in the Journal office. There he wrote by day, with hand half-deadened from writer's paralysis, or dictated to an amanuensis. There he slept the uneasy sleep of sorrow and infirmity. His friend and successor, Henry Watterson, says : " Strangers supposed that he was de- crepit, and there existed an impression that he had re- signed his old place to a younger and more active spirit. He resigned nothing. I doubt whether he ever did more work or better work during any single year of his life than during this last year."

In the summer of 1869, returning from a tour to Mam- moth Cave, I stopped a few days in Louisville, and one afternoon paid a brief visit to the distinguished old jour- nalist, in his editorial room. I found him at the desk, a quill pen in hand. He greeted me with a hospitable smile, and talked freely about matters literary and per- sonal, giving me, I remember, a friendly message for John James Piatt, whom he pathetically called his " oldest friend," Mr. Piatt being thirty-three years his junior.

Mr. Prentice seemed older than he was, and, to me, he looked as men look whose work is done and whose ambi- tion has perished. My interview with him happened in his "closing year." "Time, the tomb-builder," had num- bered his months and days. He died at the house of his son Clarence, ten miles from Louisville, where he had gone to spend the holidays, taking Christmas gifts for his grandson, little George. The farm-house stands near the Ohio river, and as he lay dying in an upper room, a mighty flood came, and the swollen waters swept against the foundation of the house, the emblem of destruction and death, but also of immortality.

George D. Prentice is buried in Cave Hill Cemetery. He sleeps beside his son Courtland, over whose-grave a 26

402 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

marble canopy rises, resting on four Grecian columns, with a classic urn in the center and on the top a lyre with a broken string. This tribute, erected by the father to the son, is a touching memorial of himself, who in mourn- ful verse recorded :

" Once more I come at set of sun To sit beside thee, long-lost one."

In a lofty niche over the entrance to the Courier-Journal building in Louisville is a marble statue of Prentice, rep- resenting him seated in the editorial chair. This figure is perhaps the most prominent object of art in the city. It catches the eye of every visitor, and keeps fresh in the minds of the citizens the memory of one whose bright fame illuminated the Ohio Yalley, and shone even to dis- tant lands. Kot many months ago, I stood with the ven- erable poet, Wm. D. Gallagher, on the street, in front of the Courier-Journal office. " There," said he, with the sympathetic tone of one who is thinking of '-' the old fa- miliar faces," " there is George.''^ After a pause he added : " We had our political antagonisms ; but Prentice was always magnanimous."

It is proverbial that the world's fun-makers are at heart melancholy. " Comedy is crying." In 1853, on the occa- sion of the death of Thomas II. Shreve, assistant editor of the Journal, Prentice, then fifty years old, wrote : "We, the surviving editor of the Journal, feel that the prime of our life is scarcely yet gone ; yet, as we look back upon our long career in this city, we seem to behold, near and far, only the graves of the prized loved and lost. All the numerous journeymen and apprentices that were in our employ when we first commenced publishing our paper are dead; our first partner, our second partner, and our third partner are dead, and our first assistant and our last assistant are also dead. When these memories come over us, we feel like one alone at midnight in the midst of a church-yard, with the winds sighing mournfully around him through the broken tombs, and the voices of the

George Dennison Frentice. 403

ghosts of departed joys sounding dolefully in his ears. Our prayer to God is that such memories may have a chastening and purifying and elevating influence upon us, and fit us to discharge, better than we have ever yet done, our duties to earth and heaven."

The Louisville Journal ranked high as a literary me- dium, and Prentice deserves to be gratefully remembered for having encouraged and assisted many young writers. Mr. Piatt, himself one of the recipients of editorial recog- nition, says that " such a disposition as Mr. Prentice, in the midst of busy political engrossments, showed and long continued to show, sole of American editors before or since, to encourage poetical manifestation is memorable." W. W. Fosdick gives similar testimony, saying that " Mr. Prentice, by private correspondence and by timely notices in his Journal, has caused many a blossom of poetry to blow in hearts that otherwise might only have worn a purple crown of thistles." Among the poets of real ability, whose early rhymes were welcomed to the columns of the Journal, may be named Amelia B. Welby, Alice and Phoebe Gary, William W. Harney, William Ross Wallace, Fortunatus Cosby, Wm. D. Howells, Mrs. S. M. B. Piatt, and last, but not least, Forescythe Willson.

Many a timid little book of verse was dedicated to George D. Prentice. A prominent publisher says : " It may be said of Prentice that he made and unmade poets and prose writers, as well as politicians and statesmen." Through his influence Mrs. Catherine A. Warfield's ro- mance, " The Household of Bouverie," was published. He supervised the posthumous publication of M. Louise Chitwood's poems, and wrote a tender and sympathetic introduction to the book. Such deeds of kindness were habitual to his generous nature. He did, when his repu- tation was established, as he would have been done by when a literary beginner.

George D. Prentice began to write verses while a student at Brown University, and he continued to produce them occasionally to the last year of his life. His pieces gained wide newspaper popularity, and many of them found their

404 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

w&j into school readers and general collections. He as- serted no claim to the poet's laurels, and critics, with a few exceptions, have rather slighted the work of his muse. In 1848, when his faculties were in the flush of vigor, the following characteristic rhapsody appeared in the Journal from his pen : " Poetry is a smile, a tear, a glory, a longing after the things of eternity ! It lives in all created exist- ence— in man, and every object that surrounds him. There is poetry in the gentle influence of love and affection — in the brooding over the memory of other years, and in the thought of that glory that chains our spirits to the gates of paradise. There is poetry, too, in the harmonies of nature. It glitters in the wave, the rainbow, the light- ning, and star ; its cadence is heard in the thunder and the cataract ; its softer tones go sweetly up from the thou- sand-voiced harp of the wind, the rivulet, and forest ; and the cloud and sky go floating over us to the music of its melodies. . . . It is the soul of being. The earth and heavens are quickened by its spirit, and the great deep in tempest and in storm is but its accent and mysterious workings." This exuberant passage enumerates the princi- pal themes on which the author's poems are written — the grand features of nature, earth, sea, sky, with their phe- nomena.

" The Poems of George D. Prentice, edited, with a biographical sketch, by John James Piatt," appeared in a volume of 216 pages, in 1875, from the press of Robert Clarke & Co. The poems, sixty-five in number, are all short, and of very unequal merit, ranging from such mas- terpieces as " The Closing Year," and lines " To the River in Mammoth Cave," to slight conventional jingles and hasty verses composed for occasions poetic or prosy. At no time is his muse " poky," nor does she ever lack words or facility in versification. Now and then one wishes that Mr. Prentice had not learned so much of Kames and Blair at college. Rhetoric interposes an artificial veil be- tween his eye and nature. In his best and sincerest moods this veil is lifted, and he sees hill, river, and sky, as God shows them. Yet eloquence is his blemish in verse, as in

George Dennison Frentice. 405

his early prose. The taste of the times, and the example of the legislative halls, as well as of the har and the pul- pit, demanded sonorous periods and florid ornaments.

Mr. Piatt, an exacting critic, thinks that no other American poet excepting Bryant " has so finely handled blank verse as Mr. Prentice has done in several of his principal poems." In " The Closing Year," " The River in Mammoth Cave," "My Mother," "The Invalid's 'Re- ply," and other of the author's serious performances, we discover the texture of his mind — his prevailing emotions, his mode of conceiving and developing poetical ideas, his devotional fervor, his tenderness and delicacy, melancholy solemnity of feeling, pensive meditation on the past, chastened resignation to the Divine will; these are the frequent subjects of his blank verse. Occasionally the lines are surcharged with passionate energy, the words glow, the melody swells and resounds.

In reading Prentice one's pleasure is marred by the ob- vious evidence that the poet, in haste or carelessness, often left his work faulty where he was capable of perfecting it. Many of his fine descriptive pieces, while true to na- ture in general, are not true in detail. The stately rhythm of the lines conveys a sensuous pleasure, but the epithets are frequently inexact, and sometimes meaningless. The verse is strained and artificial in places where it should be simplest. Excessive imagery overloads the thought. Sim- ile is used too much, and metaphor is misused outrage- ously.

It is surprising that a writer, original, sensible, and ex- perienced as Mr. Prentice, should employ so many trite and puerile sentimentalities of diction as he does. He " sits me down " in " a fairy grot," or an " amaranth bower," to list "Eolian strains." Just fancy the sturdy proprietor of the Louisville Journal, with his keen appre- ciation of the absurd, sitting him in an " amaranth bower" — an " amaranth bower " in Kentucky ! Then he makes use of the words "erst," "myriad," "weird," "welkin," " specter," " wizard," " Eden," with " wasteful and ridicu- lous excess." These and their like are good poetical

406 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

counters, but, after graduating day, with its orations and ode, they are to he sprinkled sparingly in discourse. Of all " pet words," the word " Eden " used adjectively ap- pears to be the favorite with our western bards and bard- ines of yesterday. " Eden '' and its synonym " paradise," have performed prodigious poetical service in the Ohio Valley. I am afraid that Prentice's muse must be held responsible for this. As a matter of curiosity I have gone somewhat into the statistics of the substantive adjective " Eden." Mr. Prentice allures his readers with " Eden dyes," " Eden flowers," " Eden tones," '' Eden stream," " Eden message," " Eden isles," "- gales of Eden," " incense winds of Eden," " a dream of Eden," and " Eden's blessed bowers." Mr. Gallagher, in one short poem, introduces " Eden lore," " Eden bloom," and " Eden glories." In the poems of Mattie Griffith, a protegee of Mr. Prentice, the nouns " Eden," " Paradise," and " Heaven " occur eighty- seven times, averaging about thrice to every poem, and ag- gregating celestial syllables enough to compose seven stanzas, each of four iambic lines. Mrs. Welby avoids " Eden " except in two happy instances, and in Mrs. Piatt's verse " Paradise " is altogether lost. I wonder if it w^as not the influence of the verse-makers that inspired the Queen City to name her beautiful pleasure garden ''Eden Park?"

Prentice reminds us of Bryant, both in his choice of subjects and in a certain pensive quality and manner of expression. The touching verses on an "Infant's Grave " illustrate this :

" Each spring-time as it wanders past, Its buds and blooms will round thee cast, The thick-leaved boughs and moonbeams pale, Will o'er thee spread a solemn vail. And softest dews and showers will lave The blossoms on the infant's grave."

But the poet of Louisville was much warmer than he of New York, and meddles much more with that danger- ous fire — the poetry of the passions. A tinge Byronic is

George Dennison Prentice. 407

discernible in his lyrics, as also in some of his blank verse. Byron enchanted the " far West/' as he enchanted the older world. The reflection of his wild light is cast back curiously from pages penned by the pioneer rhymers of the wilderness before the time of Prentice.

In a letter dated December 25, 1855, addressed to Miss Sallie M. Bryan, Prentice wrote : " I have no doubt that your mind, as you intimate, has felt the unhealthful in- fluences of the pages of Byron. I have, like yourself, an almost boundless admiration for the genius of that extra- ordinary man, but I believe it would have been better for mankind if he had never lived."

Prentice was fond of society, and society eagerly sought him. An ardent admirer of bright and handsome women, he pleased them in conversation, and his graceful pen was facile in the pretty art of compliment. Forever was he gallantly inditing " Lines to a Lady." Exquisite, in their way, are his verses, " To the Daughter of an Old Sweet- heart ;" more refined and dainty still are the sentimental lines, " To a Bunch of Roses."

But it is likely that neither these nor even the noble and impressive " Closing Year " will hold their place in the memory and affections of readers so long as the simple, sweet, and pure tribute " To an Absent Wife."

" 'Tis morn— the sea breeze seems to bring Joy, health, and freshness on its wing ; Bright flowers, to me all strange and new, Are glittering in the early dew. And perfumes rise from every grove As incense to the clouds that move Like spirits o'er yon welkin clear : But I am sad — thou art not here !

'T is noon — a calm, unbroken sleep Is on the blue waves of the deep ; A soft haze, like a fairy dream, Is floating over wood and stream ; And many a broad magnolia flower. Within its shadowy woodland bower, Is gleaming like a lovely star ; But I am sad— thou art afar!

408 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

" *T is eve — on earth the sunset skies Are painting their own Eden dyes ; The stars come down, and trembling glow Like blossoms on the waves below ; And, like an unseen spirit, the breeze Seems lingering 'midst these orange trees, Breathing its music round the spot ; But I am sad — I see thee not !

" 'T is midnight — with a soothing spell The far tones of the ocean swell, Soft as a mother's cadence mild, Low bending o'er her sleeping child, And on each wandering breeze are heard The rich notes of the mocking-bird. In many a wild and wondrous lay ; But I am sad — thou art away.

" I sink in dreams : low, sweet, and clear. Thy own dear voice is in my ear ; Around my neck thy tresses twine ; Thy own loved hand is clasped in mine ; Thy own soft lip to mine is pressed ; Thy head is pillowed on my breast ; Oh ! I have all my heart holds dear, And I am happy— thou art here ! "

Edward Deering Mansfield. 409

CHAPTER XIV.

EDWARD DEERING MANSFIELD, PUBLICIST AND AUTHOR.

E. D. Mansfield was born at ^ew Haven, August 17, 1801. His father, Colonel Jared Mansfield, a good scholar, bred at Yale, was the author of '■' Essays in Mathematics and Physics." President Jefferson appointed him teacher at West Point, and afterward surveyor-general of the ITorth- western Territory, to succeed Rufus Putnam. Colonel Mansfield married Elizabeth Phipps, daughter of Captain David Phipps, of ^New Haven. She was a woman of superior character, refinement and culture.

In 1803, Colonel Mansfield brought his family to Mari- etta, where they resided two years, himself being away from home most of that time on his duties as surveyor in the Territory of Indiana. Edward remembered two things which happened while he was at Marietta, the great flood of 1805 and a visit which Madame Blennerhassett made to his mother, on which occasion the splendid lady brought along her splendid little boy, w^ho wore very fine clothes and a pretty sword.

In October, 1805, the Mansfields removed to Cincinnati, coming down the river in an ark like Noah. In his " Personal Memories," Mr. Mansfield says : " Cincinnati was the first town I had seen, except Marietta, for the va- rious towns now on the Ohio were then not in existence. But what was Cincinnati then ? One of the dirtiest little villages you ever saw. The chief houses at that time were on Front street, from Broadway to Sycamore ; they were two-story frame houses, painted white."

The family located on Mill creek, at Ludlow Station, now one of the most interesting landmarks of Ohio. Mr. J. M. Cochran, who has made a study of the homes and

410 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

haunts of the pioneers of the Miami country, writing in the year 1890, says :

"A part of the original Ludlow Indian fort, erected in 1790 in what is now Cumrainsville, Cincinnati, was incor- porated into the famous Ludlow mansion, which is still standing and occupied. Here, in the times of its distin- guished founder, Israel Ludlow, many of the great men of our country visited. Here stopped travelers on the old Hamilton or Wayne road, to accommodate whom the brick building that stands adjacent was erected. Here once visited Little Turtle, a celebrated Indian warrior and statesman ; and that was his last appearance in our valley. Within a short distance, on the beautiful grounds now occupied by the venerable Jacob Hoffner, stood Hutchinson's tavern, a well-known hostelrie of early days."

Referring to the same edifice, in a paper on " Some His- torical Persons and Places of the Miami Valley," Judge Joseph Cox says :

*^ There, too. Chief Justice Chase was married to a daughter of Israel Ludlow, and a square away from it, near the corner of Chase and Dane streets, stands an an- cient elm, nearly as large as the Washington elm at Cam- bridge, from under which marched the armies of St. Clair in 1791 and Wayne in 1793 on their mission of war against the Indians."

In one wing of the Ludlow mansion Colonel Mansfield established the first astronomical observatory west of the Alleghanies. Thomas Jefferson caused to be purchased, from the contingent fund of the President, a transit in- strument, a telescope, an astronomical clock and a sextant, which the surveyor-general used to determine .lines and boundaries. Colonel Mansfield remained at Ludlow Sta- tion from 1805 to 1809, and during part of that time he had in his employ Lewis Cass, afterward governor of Michigan, and Thomas Worthington, who became the second governor of Ohio.

Referring to his solitary life at Ludlow Station, Mans- field says : " The only lonely person was myself, a boy in

Edward Deering Mansfield. 411

the country with no other boy to associate with, no school to attend, always with older persons. I was not intoxi- cated with the levities, frivolities, and fancies of youthful life. On the contrary, I was of necessity lonely, timid and abstracted. The impress of that timidity and ab- straction remained upon my character until I had passed the meridian of life."

Colonel Mansfield went east in June, 1809, on a visit, taking his family to l^ew York and 'New Haven. In Philadelphia he bought for Edward, at the book-store of Matthew Carey, a small collection of books, two of which, " Mease's United States " and ^' London Cries," specially gratified the boy.

Returning west. Colonel Mansfield rented the place of Colonel Isaac Bates, afterward called Mount Comfort, two miles nearer Cincinnati than Ludlow Station. Here the family remained three years, in which Edward began to read, w^rite and cipher, aided by father and mother. He- tells us : " My particular admiration in the spelling-book was the picture of the man who pretended to be dead when the bear smelled him ; and the old man who called the boys dowm from the apple-tree, and when they laughed at him for throwing grass, pelted them with stones." "When nine years of age he read his first book, a short life of Bonaparte, which made him want to be a soldier. In 1811 he went to school a few months, in a log school- house, which stood nearly opposite the site of the present House of Refuge. Out of school, he learned much from nature ; set quail-traps, saw a herd of wild deer, and an army of squirrels, that ^' covered the fences in every direc- tion, devoured the corn and disappeared."

At the beginning of the War of 1812, Colonel Mansfield was called to the East and assigned to duty first at New Haven, and afterward at West Point. In New Haven Edward attended two schools, at the first pf which he learned nothing, he sa^^s, " unless it was to draw ships and pictures on a slate." In the other school he made a start in the study of Latin. When, in 1814, his father be- canie professor in the Military Academy, the youth was

412 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

Bent to Cheshire Academy, Connecticut, to continue the study of Latin. The town library, fairly stocked with novels, enticed him more than his grammar did; and the whortleberries on the hillsides were more alluring than the library. From Chesire the not over-studious student was recalled to West Point, in the summer of 1815, having received an appointment as cadet. He en- tered upon the course of study — algebra, geometry, trig- nometry, French, drawing — without much enthusiasm, and did not apply himself severely until two years had elapsed, when his father stimulated his ambition by prom- ising him a gold watch if he succeeded in winning a cer- tain rank in scholarship within a stated time. " From that moment I waked up and did a good deal of hard work be- fore my graduation." Having finished the course in his eighteenth year, he was offered an appointment which, at his mother's wish, he declined. It was planned that he •should go West after taking a college course and studying law.

Princeton was the college selected for him, and from this he graduated in 1822. Next on the programme came the law-school, and this was found at Litchfield, Connecticut. Mansfield was admitted to the bar in June, 1825.

To the advantages of constant home training and a triple school course — military, classical, legal — he added the benefits derived from access to much society and to many notable men, his father's acquaintances. Timothy Dwight was ^ visitor at his father's house. So were Colonel Wm. L. Stone, the historical writer, and DeWitt Clinton, the distinguished statesman. Theodore Wolsey, afterward president of Yale College, was one of the " nice boys " whom he knew. He was made welcome at the house of Noah Porter's father, and at that of Samuel E. Foote, governor of Connecticut. In Litchfield he boarded opposite the residence of Dr. Lyman Beecher, whose merry fiddle he often heard playing across the way, and whose powerful preaching he attended on Sundays. Mrs. Emma Willard used to instruct and amuse him with her talk ; and James G. Percival, the poet, who for a short

Edward Beering Mansfield. 413

time was professor of chemistry at West Point, occasion- ally visited the Mansfield family.

The following incident connected with the once famous author of " Clio " is from Mansfield's *' Memories :" " I remember one evening, in the early part of summer, the month of roses, Percival was at our house, and exhibited the true character of the poet, something to the annoy- ance of poor human nature. The evening had passed in conversation, when, at ten o'clock, my father, as he in- variably did, retired. Soon after my mother, quite unusual for her, stepped out, too. Percival, my sister, and myself, were left in the parlor. The lights were dim, but the moon cast its silvery rays through the window^, which probably suggested an idea to the poet. He began to de- scribe a visit to Niagara by moonlight ; the beauty which shone from r.ocks and waters ; and, finally, what certainly must have been a beautiful phenomenon — a rainbow under the falls of Niagara. All this was in the highest degree poetic and interesting ; but, alas ! never did I have such a time to keep awake."

E. D. Mansfield can not be classed with those who, in youth, were " self-made ;" for his educational opportuni- ties were unusually rich. His parents had procured for him all that books, schools, and intellectual companion- ship could bestow. So liberal had the young man's training been, so amply was he equipped for the campaign of life, that the original intention of sending him West was shaken by the afterthought that qualifications such as his would probably be better suited to New England than to Ohio. The balance turned, however, in favor of the new state and its rising city — the young Queen of the West. The time had come for Edward to be launched, that he might learn to " paddle his own canoe." In his case the self-making was to begin after taking the degree of bachelor in literature and in law. Accordingly, in June, 1825, the newly-fledged attorney journeyed to Cin- cinnati, accompanied by his devoted father.

The young man, now in his twenty-fourth year, was w^elcomed to the house of Dr. Daniel Drake, whose wife,

414 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

formerly Miss Harriet Sisson, was Mansfield's cousin and adopted sister. It is a staple topic of trite jest that be- ginners in the practice of law or n\edicine are likely to have more leisure than they desire. Manfield's experience was not exceptional ; the putting up of a sign, "Attorney- at-law," was not the signal for a rush of eager clients. On the contrary, the " briefless barraster " found plenty of time to review his studies, to attend parties, and to frequent the Columbia Street Theater, where he once saw Junius Brutus Booth in " Richard III.," and often heard Aleck Drake and his talented wife. But he soon tired of having nothing to do but to enjoy himself. Eager to engage in any dignified work, he was easily induced to join Benja- min Drake in some literary projects. Though without marked aptitude for composition and little inclined to cultivate the art of expression, he was destined to become a professional writer. In connection with Drake, in the summer of 1826, he undertook to compile a little hand- book descriptive of Cincinnati, designed to induce immigra- tion. Dr. Drake's " Picture of Cincinnati " was out of print and out of date, therefore a demand came for the later information in '* Cincinnati in 1826." To obtain materials for their work, the authors took the census of the city, and gathered other statistics, Drake canvassing the town west of Main street, and Mansfield that east. The facts collected were presented in attractive language, and the small volume of one hundred pages, printed by Morgan, Lodge & Fisher, furnished an excellent guide and directory for the day, and is still valuable as history.

In less than a year after the publication of " Cincinnati in 1826," circumstances influenced Mansfield to share with Benjamin Drake the editorship of the Cincinnati Chronicle, a weekly newspaper which had been started January 1, 1826, by F. Burton. As Mr. Mansfield was connected with this paper, interruptedly, for fifteen years, a brief outline of its history will be appropriate here. It was edited by Ben Drake and Mansfield until 1884, when it was merged in the Cincinnati Mirror, which was dis- continued October, 1836. The subscription list was bought

Edward Deering Mansfield. 415

by Dr. Drake and others, who re-established the Chronicle, with Mansfield as editor. The next year it was bought by Achilles Piigh, who retained Mansfield, and in Decem- ber, 1839, it was changed to a daily. The Chronicle finally lost its identity in 1850, when it was purchased by E'athan Guilford and merged in the Atlas.

In 1828 Mansfield's health declined to such a degree that he returned to New England. The three or four years that ensued were years of struggle, years of stern self- discipline and severe preparation for the real duties of suc- cessful life.

In the autumn of 1832, Mansfield came back to Cincin- nati, and soon afterward formed a law partnership with a young Kentuckian, who, like himself, was a graduate of West Point. This was Ormsby Macknight Mitchel, who rose to distinction as an astronomer, and to fame as a general in the civil war. Referring to their companion- ship, Mansfield wrote : " He was my partner in a pro- fession for w^hich, I think, neither of us was well adapted.

" We were really literary men, and our thoughts wan- dered ofi* to other subjects. The scene in our ofilce was often a remarkable one, though observed by no eyes but our own. Mitchel was fond of the classics, and instinct- ively fond of eloquence, which, in his after lectures on astronomy, he so brilliantly exhibited. The scene I refer to was this : Mitchel sat in one corner reading Quin- tilian, a Latin author on oratory. He was enamored of the book, and would turn to me and read passages from it. I, on the other hand, sat at my desk in another corner writing my Political (Grammar now the Political Manual). Thus we were two students, each occupied with his own literary pursuits, and neither thinking of what both professed, the practice of the law. The conse- quence was, what might have been expected, Mitchel re- sorted to teaching classics, and I became a public writer."

0. M. Mitchel was born August 28, 1810, near Morgan- field, Union county, Kentucky. Before he had reached

416 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

his tenth year, his parents removed with him to Lebanon, Ohio, where the lad obtained his elementary education. At the age of about fifteen, he was admitted as cadet to West Point Academy. On leaving the military school, he was assigned to post duty m Florida, and, in that state, he was married to a widow, Mrs Trask. Coming to Cin- cinnati he entered the law with Mansfield, as above re- lated. Presently he started an academy, a species of mili- tary institute, in which he was assisted by John Augustine Wilstach,^ now of Lafayette, Indiana, and eminent in law and letters. Mitchel was chosen to teach in Cincinnati College. For a time he was civil engineer on the Little Miami Railroad. Becoming deeply interested in astrono- my, he gave a course of lectures on that science and formed a plan for the establishment of an observatory. A joint stock company was organized. IN'icholas Longworth gave a lot on Mount Adams, and the corner-stone of an ob- servatory building was laid, with imposing ceremonies, John Quincy Adams pronouncing an oration. A tele- scope was put in place in the spring of 1845.

In the summer of 1833, 0. M. Mitchel published in Cin- <;innati a volume which he entitled " The Works of Quin- tilian. Digested and Prepared for the Use of the American Public." Mansfield's Political Grammar appeared in 1834, a text-book on the constitution, which is still in de- mand. It was reprinted in London.

Mansfield traces the causes which led him to embark in writing as a vocation to an informal literary club, the meetings of which were held at the house of Dr. Daniel Drake.

The coterie which assembled in Drake's parlor must have been stimulating to such young men as Mitchel and Mansfield. There was vigor in it. Drake was himself a galvanic battery of mental energy. Mansfield did not al-

* Mr. Wilstach is the author of a notable translation of Virgil, pub- lished by Houghton, Mifflin & Co.; and also of a translation of Dante. Other writings from his scholarly pen are *' The Virgilians," a study of Dante, and an original Western epic, " The Battle Forest," a versified story of the Tip»"" '»ti..o battle.

Edward Deering Mansfield, 417

together sympathize with the crude and audacious origin- ality of some of those pioneer writers who set authority at naught and wrote from "• inspiration." Recently, from an Eastern college, it was hut natural that he sought to impress the classic proprieties on the unconventional literati of the backwoods. To Flint's Review, he contributed, in March, 1830, a carefully prepared article on "• Literary In- dustry," in w^hich he says : " There is a strong tendency in the West to prefer the unassisted energies of nature in literary efforts to the refinements of culture and the re- strictions of rule. Learning is frequently thought idle and criticism little. This feeling springs from a principle of independent action, noble and just in the abstract, but inapplicable to the pursuits of literature. They are the growth of artificial life, nor can even genius, without the discipline of labor and the observance of rule, hope to be distinguished in them."

The years 1832-7 may^J3e regarded as an era of intel- Igctual activity in^Cincinnati and its^lifefai-yllepeiTderncies^ During this time it was that'the'Tocally famous Semicolon Club rose and flourished. This club seems to have been\ organized~in XWd'A. MrTJohn P. Foote gives some account of__it_iu_his ^'Memoir" of his~ brother, Samueh Edmund Foote, at whose house, at the corner oTTlhe and Third streets, Cincinnati, many of the meetings were held. Mr. Samuel E. Foote, generally known as Captain Foote, was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, in 1787. He amassed a fortune by marine commerce, and then settled in Cincin- nati. His sister Roxana was the first wife of Lyman Beecher, and the mother of eight children, Henry Ward being the youngest. Captain Foote and his brother John P. were intellectual men, and they, in alliance with the Beechers, were leading members of the Semicolon Club. Another prominent figure in the club was James H. Per- kins, who came from Boston to live in Cincinnati in 1832. He married Miss Sarah H. Elliott, a sister of Mrs. S. E. Foote. The Elliott family was one of distinguished in- tellectuality ; one of its members, Mr. C. W. Elliott, who 27

418 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

also belonged to the club, was the author of a " History of New England."

To the names just given may be added those of three Misses Blackwell, Mr. C. D. L. Brush, Mr, E. P. Cranch, Mr. C. G. Davies, Dr. Daniel Drake, Mr. Benjamin Drake, Mr. Charles D. Drake, Mr. Nathan Guilford, Mr. George Guilford, Mr. William Greene, Rev. E. B. Hall, Judge James Hall, Prof. Hentz, Mrs. Lee Hentz, Mr. U. L. Howe, Mr. C. P. James, General Edward King, Mr. Lawler, Mr. T. D. Lincoln, Mr. Joseph Longworth, Mr. E. D. Mans- field, Mr. J. F. Meline, Prof. O. M. Mitchel, Mr. L N. Perkins, Dr. Richards, Mr. W. P. Steele, Prof. Calvin Stowe, Mr. C. Stetson, Judge Timothy Walker, Mr. D. Thew Wright, and his sister, the accomplished Mrs. Cur- wen.

Not one of these names is unknown to honorable repu- tation, and most of them hold a conspicuous place in the annals of literature, law, theology, science, or philan- thropy.

Miss Harriet Beecher, who was born in 1812, and who at the age of twenty-four became the second wife of Prof. Calvin Stowe, at Lane Seminary, may be said to have be- gun her literary career in Cincinnati. She read many original papers before the Semicolon Club, and_ her first book, the " Mayflower," published in 1849, was dedicated tolhe club. In April, 1834, Miss Beecher contributed to the Western Monthly Magazine a ** New England Sketch," for which a prize of fifty dollars was awarded her by the " enterprising publishers of the magazine." In a review of this " Sketch " the editor of the Cincinnati Mirror said : " Miss Beecher has evinced the possession of vivacity, versatility, and power sufiicient to enable her to write well and pleasantly — a union exceedingly desirable."

At the date of the formation of the club Dr. Daniel Drake was about fifty years of age, and had won celebrity as a general and professional writer. His brother Benja- min had not yet written his " Black Hawk," " Harrison," or ** Tecumseh," but was known as a sprightly editor, and writer of " Tales of the Queen City." Charles D. Drake,

Edward Deering Mansfield.' 419

the doctor's son, now chief judge of the Court of Claims, Washington, was one of the young poets of the Semicolon Club.

!N'athan Guilford, born in Massachusetts in 1786, edu- catecl at Y ale College, was known not only as the apostle of the .p,ulilic--ach(>oLsygtem in Ohio, but also as publisher, editor, legislator, business man, and general writer. He was one of the leading contributors to Hall's Western Souvenir, and no doubt he was prominent in the club. A sketch of Guilford's life was furnished to the Genius of the West, March, 1855, by Rev. A. A. Livermore.

WUliflm Greane was one of the organizers and sustain- ers of the club. Of him a well-known Cincinnati gentle- man, who has graced the bar and the bench, writes : " Mr. William Greene was one of the most glorious characters on the face of the earth, and affiant is aware of that which he affirms. He is dead — God rest his soul — but his works still live. We always called him Billy Greene. He was the most amiable man I think I ever saw, and a good deal more so than many I have never seen. There never yet was the wind or cyclone of adversity that ever blew that could rustle a feather of his serene plumage ; and there never was a time when he was not in trouble, and trouble by the solid yard and ton weight, too. He was once wealthy, and lost all his money ; but, Lord bless you, it made no difference to him. . . . Discussing a profound theological question, a crank (a crank, you know, is the fellow who is on the other side of the debate) thought to wind him up by the following stunning remark : ' But, you know, Mr. Greene, Paul says so and so.' 'Ah, yes ! but that is where Paul and I differ.' In the latter part of his life some property greatly enhanced in value, and again made him rich. He went back to his original home in Rhode Island, and became governor or lieutenant-gov- ernor of that state." Mr^ Greene lectured^ in ISSO,,^ "Constitutional Law," in the Ohio Mechanics' Institute.

The^TnFStih'gs "of~tEe"^miCi5ton~"Club were held, as' I have said, at the house of Mr. S. E. Foote, and at the ad- joining residences of Charles Stetson and William Greene.

420 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

One of the members says : " My recollections of the Semicolon are but scant. I was at that uncertain age in human life when I took my big sister to parties, and stood in the front entry and was spoken of as ' nothing but a boy/ I remember that this occurred, I think, every two weeks. We went to difterent houses of the folks, and certain manuscript articles were read, which were sup- posed to be interesting and instructive. I suppose they were, as there is no evidence to the contrary. Personally, however, I remember thinking that most of them were stupid. Most of us were glad when the readings were over, for then we did something else, the principal of wjiichj^as dancing."

Another "old member" furnishes me with an explana- tion of the club name : " You probably know that the name Semicolon meant (Christopher Colon discovered a new world) whoever gives us a new pleasure deserves half as much credit as the discoverer of a new world— hence Semicolon."

Mrs. Stowe, in a biographical sketch of Salmon P. Chase, gives a graphic characterization of Cincinnati society about the year 1834. It is reasonable to conclude that she derived her impression from experience among the members of the club. The Queen City is described as a " newly-settled place, having yet lingering about it some of the wholesome neighborly spirit of a recent colony. With an eclectic society drawn from the finest and best cultivated classes of the older states, there was in the gen- eral tone of life a breadth of ideas, a liberality and free- dom, which came from the consorting together of persons of different habits of living."

The Semicolon Club had its eastern lion, who, however, was both hunter and hunted. He was none other than pharloo Fotio lloffmanr-of- New York. This versatile and pleasing author visited Cincinnati, and was a frequent guest of the club. On his return to New York, he pub- lished a book of experiences entitled <^ A Wiiitog^4aJiie West."-- TfetfMMmie out iu 1836. Here is an extract from Hoffman's book : " What would strike you in the streets

Edward Deering Mansfield. 421

of Cincinnati would be the number of pretty faces and stylish figures one meets in a morning. A walk through Broadway here rewards one hardly less than to promenade in its IS'ew York namesake. I have had more than one opportunity of seeing these western beauties by candle- light, and the evening display brought no disappointment to the morning promise. I^othing can be more agreeable than the society which one meets with within the gay and elegantly-furnished drawing-rooms of Cincinnati."

E. D. Mansfield appeared upon the stage of public af- fairs at that most vital time wben social institutions were taking fixed form in the West. His tastes and training fitted him well to participate in educational movements. For his life-long services in behalf of the common school system, Ohio and the country at large owe him a debt of gratitude. The happy phrase, " People's colleges," now so hackneyed, was first applied to the public schools by E. D. Mansfield. He says, modestly enough, at the age of seventy-nine: " In forming educational institutions I had' some part myself, and I look upon that work with unal- loyed pleasure."

In 1831, an effort was made to convene in Cincinnati thgecutors of the Mississippi Valley^ TEis~failed, but inA /[ June of the same year a general meeting of teachers was held, which organized the " Western Literary Institute and College of Professional Teachers." The idea of cre- ating such a body rose in the brain of Albert Pickett, sr., and it was first discussed in the Academic Institute, a pi- oneer educational association started in 1829. Pickett was a veteran school-master and pedagogical writer, who came to the West from I^ew York city, where he had long held an honored position as principal of the ^' Man- hattan School." He and his son, J. W. Pickett, con- ducted in Cincinnati a very successful private school for girls. In the year 1833, there were twenty-four private schools in the city, with thirty-eight teachers and 1,230 pupils, and in the public schools but twenty-one teachers and two thousand pupils.

The College of Professional Teachers was a popular

422 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

body, grounded on democratic principles, and its mission was to create a public opinion in favor of the free school system. Albert Pickett was the permanent president of the organization, and he opened each annual session with an address. Mansfield said of him : " He presided over the college with great dignity, and I never knew a man of more pure, disinterested zeal in the cause of educa- tion."

The proceedings of the convention of June, 1831, were printed in the first number of the Academic Pioneer and

• Guardian of Education, a monthly conducted by the ed- itorial committee of the Academic Institute. The object of the second meeting, in 1832, as announced in the news- papers throughout the West, was '' to promote the inter- ests of education, and to secure the co-operation of parents and the friends of science in aid of scholastic institutions, whether they are of a public or private character." The Cincinnati Mirror described the association as a " congress of talent, the several displays of which were a treat of the highest gust." The meeting of 1833 was held in Septem- ber, at the Second Presbyterian Church. In November of the same year, a similar convention took place at Lexing- ton, Kentucky.

I would fain pay tribute to the leading spirits whose devotion to popular education in this pioneer congress of teachers, builded so broadly and well the basement walls of our school system. There was Lyman Beecher, who, as Judge Hall said, " burst out occasionally like a vol- cano, with a brilliancy that astonishes while it enlightens." There was Calvin E. Stowe, whose report on the " Prussian Education " remains one of the ablest papers of its kind in pedagogical literature. There were Wm. H. McGuffey, and Milo G. Williams, and Joshua L. Wil- ^^", and Alexander Campbell, and John B. Purcell, and

/^^ Th?'"^ S' Grimkej and twenty others almost as eminent who deserve not only passing mention, but grateful eulogy for the helping hands they lent to the struggling cause of literature and learning in the days of the Teachers* College.

Edward Deering Mansfield. 423

One conspicuous worker, perhaps the most forceful and aggressive man in the college, was the Scotchman, Alex- ander Kinmont, who came to Cincinnati in 1827, and died there in 1838. Western bibliography would be incom- plete without a notice of his " Lectures on the Natural History of Man," a posthumous volume, distinguished by the praise of Henry James, who regarded its author as a man of genius, born before his time. George Grraham, one of Cincinnati's most honored citizens, who died in 1881 at the advanced age of eighty-three, gave me some personal anecdotes of Kinmont, which I will reproduce. Kinmont was educated in Edinburgh for the pulpit. His arm was torn off in a cotton factory. He came to the United States to try his fortune. Passing through !N'ew Bedford, Pennsylvania, with his bundle on his arm, he met the father of George Graham, who persuaded him to take a school in the town. He afterward came to Cin- cinnati, where he was adored by his pupils. He believed in great freedom in school, allowing the boys to study aloud. It was his theory that a student ought to be able to get a lesson in the midst of the confusion of a steam- boat wharf. If two of his boys got into a quarrel, he or- dered them to leave the room and settle their dispute by a fair fight. He was strict in his way — his disorder was not anarchy, but liberty subject to self-control. !N'o one trifled with him. He was very prompt. Xinmont's school was devoted to classic learning. Over the school- house door he inscribed the motto :

" Nil dictu foedum visuque haec limina tangat,

Intra quae puer est." " Procul, O ! procul este profani ; " "Maxima debetur puero reverentia."

Kinmont was offered a position in the Cincinnati Col- lege at a salary of $2,000. But he declined on the ground that to accept would be to surrender his liberty. Said he to Mr. Graham, who tendered him the place : " Your college will be under the control of a faculty ; I wish to be not directed by a faculty or by trustees ; think of my

424 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

being told how to teach school by a set of professional donkeys."

The ordinance of 1787 proclaimed that education should forever be encouraged in the North-western Territory; the constitution of Ohio repeated the same, and, in 1825, Nathan Guilford and other legislators secured the passage of a bill providing for school taxes and teachers' exam- inations, and imposing educational duties upon the town- ship clerks and county auditors. The city of Cincinnati in 1829 secured the passage of laws giving an independ- ent organization to the city schools, and the power to levy special taxes. The statutes also provided for the erection of ten school-houses.

The cautious city council were reluctant to tax the people for the support of free schools, the richest objecting most to what they called the " charity schools." The common school advocates did all they could to advance the efficiency and promote the dignity of the " people's colleges." Showy public examinations of the children were held ; distinguished visitors were invited to visit the schools; the pupils were paraded to band music along the principal streets on the Fourth of July. It was George Graham who conceived the idea of marching the schools through the city for popular effect. When the teachers refused to march he had them discharged. Graham asked the council for an appropriation to build a suitable school-house in his ward, then the Second "Ward. They voted a pittance insufficient to build a good edifice. " I will not have such a house ; I will build to suit myself." " Where will you get the money ? " "None of your business!" was the saucy, but good- humored reply. The "model school-house," as it was called, was erected in the year 1833, on the west side of Race street, between Fourth and Fifth, nearly opposite the present Arcade. The cost was $5,500. Graham sur- mounted it with a cupola to catch the general eye. When he demanded of the city the cost, it was at first refused, but finally paid all except the price of the cupola. Eight

Edward Deering Mansfield. 425

other similar buildings were afterward erected, the total expense for lots and buildings amounting to $96,159.44.

Fifty years ago the city teachers formed an association that met twice a month. The classification of pupils was perfected. Courses of study were improved. Changes took place in the organization and methods of the board of education. Provision for instruction in the German language was made in March, 1840. JSight schools were started in 1842. The Central High School was created in 1747, and it continued in operation until 1851, when it w^as merged in Hughes and Woodward, whose funds were united and put in trust of a union board. In 1850, the office of superintendent was created, and four years later the gradation of the schools was improved by the intro- duction of intermediate schools. Since that date a normal school has been added to our educational facilities, and, to crown the system, the Cincinnati University and the Public Library have been established on secure founda- tions.

The principles formulated by Guilford and Lewis, and discussed in the College of Teachers, have been accepted by all classes. The unpopular experiments of George Graham, succeeding, have become historical events grate- fully remembered. The model school-house of 1833, propagating its kind by multiplication, has produced fifty-seven buildings, some of which are palatial in size.

The proceedings of the college in the years 1834-1840, inclusive, are contained in six volumes of " Transactions," a set of books now rare and valuable. The proceedings of the year 1837 were first made public in the pages of the " Western Academician and Journal of Science and Edu- cation," a periodical edited by John W. Pickett, to which the principal contributors were Albert Pickett, Alexander Kinmont, Joseph Ray, Rev. Elijah Slack, Wm. Wood, John D. Craig, Rev.'^B. P. Aydelott, W. H. McGufiey, Samuel Lewis, and Julia L. Dumont.

The ''College of Teachers" continued to assemble an- nually for some years after it ceased to publish its transac- tions. The sessions of 1843 and 1844 were held in Louis-

426 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

ville. The far-reaching influence of the body is indicated by the fact that delegates came to its meetings from the states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Vir- ginia, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Michigan, Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, JS'orth Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, and the Territories of Iowa and Wisconsin. People crowded to its daily sessions, which were held in the largest churches, and listened to the essays and ad- dresses with breathless attention and semi-religious en- thusiasm.

The professional teachers called to their support the shining lights of the pulpit, the bar, and the press. Such distinguished representative men as Beecher, Campbell, Purcell, J. M. Peck, Drake, Grimke, joined in the dis- cussions with all their force and fervor. The best scholars of the West brought their best learning to the convoca- tion. Mansfield thought it doubtful " whether in one association, and in an equal time, there was ever concen- trated in this country a larger measure of talent, informa- tion, and zeal." Mr. Gallagher said : " Perhaps the most important literary institution in the West, and certainly one of the most interesting in the world, is the College of Professional Teachers." Through its influence the oflice of State Superintendent of Schools was created for Ohio, and one of its members, Samuel Lewis, was the first to administer the office.

The college encouraged formation of adjunct societies, being in fact the mother of the teachers' institute sys- tem in the West. It gave birth, in 1841, to the " Cincin- nati Society for the Promotion of Useful Knowledge." This " Great Western Academy of the Sciences and Lit- erature " was planned on a most ambitious scale, mainly by Prof. 0. M. Mitchel, and was to embrace fourteen sec- tions devoted to teaching exact science, natural science, practical arts, fine arts, medicine, law, politics, philosophy, history, language, commerce, literature, and statistics. The membership included most of those in the Teachers' College, with many additional notables.

The organization had too many aims to hit any thing

Edward Deering Mansfield. 427

in particular. The most important section that survived was the astronomical, which, under the fostering care of Mitchel, came to fruition in the Cincinnati Observatory.

The energy of the College of Teachers was transmitted to different institutions — the Mechanics' Institute, various libraries, schools of medicine and law, the Historical So- ciety, and the Academy of Fine Arts. The impulse which it gave to popular education spread throughout the State of Ohio and throughout the nation, and the schools of to-day inherit a legacy of vital force from that vigor- ous pioneer institution.

Mr. Mansfield took a leading part in the discussions and business of the College of Teachers. The proof-sheets of his Political Grammar were submitted to that body for criticism in 1834. Several of his addresses are published in the " Transactions," among them one on " The Study of Mathematics," and another on ^' The Qualifications of Teachers."- Years after the " College " had ceased to ex- ist, he produced a book entitled " American Education ; its Principles and Elements," which was published by A. S. Barnes & Co., and which still holds its place in the popular series known as '* The School Teachers' Library." Mansfield suggested the formation of a complete library of education in Cincinnati. He was urgent for the establish- ment of normal schools ; and in 1835 he proposed that a great national association of teachers should be founded by delegations from " New England, the Middle States, the South, and the Great Yalley of the West." His labors in the furtherance of education continued to the close of his life. One of his favorite projects undertaken in connec- tion with 0. M. Mitchel was to form a convocation of Ohio colleges, that is, '^ to unite them in general and university purposes, not interfering with the particular rights and instruction of the colleges."

Cincinnati College was revived in 1835, with depart- ments of medicine, law, and literature. The faculty of the literary department consisted of Wm. H. McGufiTey, presi- dent and professor of moral and mental philosophy ; 0. M. Mitchel, professor of mathematics and astronomy ;

428 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

Asa Drury, professor of ancient languages ; Chas. L. Tel- ford, professor of rhetoric and belles-lettres ; E. D. Mans- field, professor of constitutional law and history ; Lyman Harding, principal of the preparatory department ; and Joseph Herron, principal of the primary department.

Mr. Mansfield's duties as professor were light, being confined to a series of lectures on the law of equity and another series on the history of civilization. But the task of editing the Chronicle, which was devolved upon him, also, was by no means a sinecure. Writing for the press was, in fact, the business of E. D. Mansfield's life. Though he wrote ten books, and twice as many pamphlets, we may regard this form of authorship as but a large in- cident in a career dedicated to journalism. In the last chapter of his last book he says : " My first newspaper article was published in 1824, at Litchfield, Connecticut. In the more than half century which has elapsed there has been no year in which I have not written for the press." The manuscript articles found in his library after his de- cease cover more than 200,000 pages.

From 1853 to 1871 he edited the Eailroad Record. In 1857 he was editor of the Cincinnati Gazette, and he con- tinued on the editorial staft* of that newspaper as long as he lived, writing over the familiar initials, E. D. M. To the New York Times, edited by his friend, H. J. Ray- mond, he contributed a series of political articles under the signature of " Veteran Observer." He was a publicist, a writer on current subjects of common interest. In such hand as his the pen becomes a material power to bring about tangible results. Manufacture, trade, financial ex- pedients were affected by his newspaper columns. Though never rich himself, his practical thinking enriched corpo- rations and individuals. Especially was he active and ef- ficient in promoting railroad enterprises. The Cincinnati Southern Railroad was projected in his mind fifty years before it was completed. Not only was his pen diligent for near half a century in the advocacy of a railroad to the South ; he traveled, made maps, made speeches, and persuaded capital for the accomplishment of the plan.

Edward Deering iMansjield. 429

Mansfield's familiarity with the material conditions of the country was such that when, in 1858, Governor Chase made him Commissioner of Statistics for Ohio, the puhlic saw the fitness of the appointment. For ten years he held the oflace, making a reputation as a specialist, and winning the honor of an election to the *"' Society of Uni- versal Statistics," in Paris. In his own state he was re- garded as the highest authority in facts and figures. In the war-time, his calculations and prophetic judgments were eagerly read and much trusted by the people. Al- most every day an article appeared over his initials in the Gazette. I have a vivid recollection of a scene which I witnessed in the counting-room of that newspaper, on the north-east corner of Vine and Fourth streets, in one of the early years of the civil war. Mr. Mansfield was there, and a crowed of citizens had gathered to hear his views of the *' situation." While he was talking, a thick-set, weather- tanned, push-your-way man, wearing a plain dress and a slouched hat, appeared at the door. Some one imme- diately recognized the sturdy war governor of Indiana and spoke the name Morton. Mansfield caught the word, and instantly his tall, erect, and somewhat gauntly muscu- lar form pressed through the crowd. "Are you Governor Morton?" he asked, for he had never met the man, though he admired him and had applauded his course. "Yes; and you are—?" " E. D. M.," replied the editor; and the two embraced each other with a heartiness that brought a storm of applause from the amused spectators. Mansfield's books, like his other writings, are of the useful or the expository order, rather than the purely lite- rary. His "American Education " is a concise, suggestive and philosophical treatise, clear in statement, correct in facts, earnest in the advocacy of learning, virtue, patriot- ism and religion. The chapter on " The Education of Women," based on the proposition that " the human soul has no sex," is the best chapter in the book. The author's estimate of woman was always high ; he regarded the sex with chivalrous respect, and at the same time conceded its claims to legal equality with men. To gallantry he

430 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

added justice. One of his first books was on " The Legal Rights of Women."

In 1846 Mansfield published "The Life of Winfield Scott," and in 1848 its sequel, a history of " The Mexican War." Twenty years later he published a "Life of U. S. Grant." All these books are clear, authentic, and digni- fied. They abound in historical and political truth, and glow with ardent love of whatsoever things are right and pure. Though an intense partisan, a Whig of the Whigs, and a Republican of the Republicans, he never allowed party dust to obscure his vision of the field of conduct ; his public character was untainted, and his name was above suspicion.

The volumes by which he will be remembered longest are his " Daniel Drake" (1855), and his " Personal Memo- ries" (1879). These contain the true juice of the man — the wine of his nature. The two books are really one, for the " Personal Memories " reproduces the more interest- ing parts of the " Life of Drake." In the earlier work the author, with a young man's literary pride, put forth his best efibrts at fine writing ; the last book, composed when the veteran was in his eightieth year, is simple and direct, without waste of words, or rhetorical vanities of any kind. The old man tells his story, with delightful frankness, from the date of his ,birth to the year 1843. The volume is a rich sheaf gleaned from a wide field of recollection.

E. D. Mansfield was married twice. His first wife, Mary Wallace Mansfield, nk Peck, was a lovely and accom- plished lady of Litchfield, Connecticut. I think four children were born of this union, only two of whom sur- vived infancy. The eldest of these, Edward Jared, be- came a civil engineer; he died in 1870, unmarried. A second eon, Charles, graduated at Marietta College, and studied law with his kinsman, Alexander H. McGuffey. He practiced his profession for some years in Cincinnati, then received an appointment as paymaster in the navy. He married a Miss Beck, of Missouri, and now lives, I be- lieve, in Rhode Island, at Narragansett Pier.

Edward Deering Blansjield, 431

The second wife of E. D. Mansfield was Margaret, the fourth daughter of Hon. Thomas "Worthington, second governor of Ohio. The marriage took place April 24, 1839, in the old capital of Ohio, Chillicothe, at the historic homestead, "Adena," which Benson J. Lossing describes in his "Field-Book of the War of 1812," in these words : *' It is situated upon the same ridge, two hundred feet above the Scioto, and half a mile north from McArthur's mansion. It overlooks the same valleys, and, because of the beauty of its situation, it was called 'Adena,' or Paradise. The building is of hewn sandstone, and was erected in 1805, at great expense, under the supervision of the elder Latrobe, of Washington city."

Another daughter of Governor Worthington became wife of General Edward King, and mother of his son, Hon. Rufus King,^ the honored Cincinnati lawyer, and

^ Hon. Eufus King, son of General Edward King, and grandson of Rufus King, the statesman, who helped to make the national Constitution and the Ordinance of 1787, was born in Chillicothe, Ohio, May 30, 1817. His mother, Sarah, the eldest daughter of Governor AVorthington, was distinguished as a philanthropist and patron of art and literature. By a second marriage (in 1844) she became Mrs. Peter, the name by which she is remembered in Cincinnati, A memoir of her has been pub- lished. She founded the ''Ladies' Academy of Art," the forerunner of the Cincinnati School of Design.

RufusKing began his education at Kenyon College, Ohio, and was

gra^Ha^ed at Harvard, first "ffOmthe academic department and then"

fromthe law school. He was admitted tQ-the" bar In Cincinnati in 1841."

Ki"l843 he was married to Miss Margaret Rives, daughter of Dr. Landon^

Rives. He rose to distinction in his profession, and was very active and

efficient in serving the higher interests of the public. Much of his

time, energy, and fortune were given for the promotion of education,

science, history, and art. Mr^_Kingwas for years a leading member

of the Public School Board, and was~a founder of the Public LibrafyT

'KrHe was one of the incorporators of the Law Library, anH' perhaps its

p Mchief sustainer. He was a trustee of Cincinnati University, and of

I /Cincinnati College. Th^re_js_scarcely a literary institution in the

p Queen City that has not been aided by his counsel ^ajid liberality.

TEe~geHeTatT5CbgiiitioTr75f his worth was voiced by Hon. AVm. S. Groes-

beck^who^,jJt a memorial meeting in the United States Court room,

/^ \J^arch^28jl89i^, said: "Rufus King was the most valuable citizen Cin-

cinnati everliad . ' ' Mr. King died March 25, 1891. Always interested

in literary matters, a reader of books and a friend of authors, Mr. King

was himself a strong and graceful writer. In the days of his early man-

432 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

author of the " History of Ohio." Thus, by relationship of marriage, Mr. Mansfield was closely allied to the King

family.

Mrs. Margaret Mansfield died at the homestead, " Ya- moyden," near the village of Morrow, Warren county, Ohio, in 1863. She left one son, now Lieutenant F. W. Mansfield, of the regular army, and three daughters, Mrs. Dudley, wife of Rev. A. S. Dudley, of Granville, Ohio ; Mrs. Eleanor M. Svviggert, wife of Rev. Swiggert, of Morrow, Ohio ; and Miss Edith D. Mansfield, of Morrow.

I am indebted to Mrs. Swiggert for a succinct and ad- mirable account of her father's leading characteristics. The impartial fidelity of the portraiture will be recognized by all readers who knew Mr. Mansfield :

" Mr. Mansfield was a thorough American — a believer in both the present and future of this nation, an encour- ager of American institutions, American education, Amer- ican manufactures, and American people. For the latter he worked with brain, heart, and pen as long as he lived. He had a great contempt for those Americans who can see no good in America, but try to ape Europeafl ways.

" He was also thoroughly a nineteeath century man, a believer in progress, a despiser of all croaKrsIwlro say *the former times were better than these.' He was a great believer in work as a blessing, not a curse; a more industrious man never lived. He would say, when it was urged in his later years that he should take more rest, 'Better wear out than rust out!' His mind was vigorous, clear and cheerful ; his interest in all the affairs of life wonderful. He was in every thing a radical ; a believer in sides, he would often say laughingly to me, * My daughter, I am a partisan ;' he could not be neutral or indifferent. He was a Christian in every sense of the word, and a believer in the coming of Christ as the ruler of the whole earth. He had neither patience nor

hood he was a contributor to the Evening Chronicle, a paper conducted by his uncle, Mr. E. D. Mansfield. The only volume liejjave_to the . world is a History of Ohio, one of the American Cominon wealths series, /\publiHhed in 1888. "^

Edward Deering Mansfield, 433

toleration with infidels, and was_strongly opposed jto_the fQreign_jQ]oinpnt of infide1ity_fitruggling-ioF rule-ia^Jids^ country. He was brought lip an Episcopalian, but united Li with the Presbyterian Church after his marriage with my ^ mother, his second wife, in 1839, and was long an elder in the_Second Presbyterian Church of Cincinnati. One of the pioneers of Cincinnati, no man better loyed her inter- ests, or was more thoroughly identified with them, or did more for the growth and good of the city. Eyer inter- ested in the public school system, he was both a professor and a trustee of the Cincinnati College of Teachers. He is best known as a writer. Besides writing for and at dif- ferent times, editing both the Cincinnati Gazette and Chronicle, he .wrote (^during the war) for the ^ejy^York ka^ Times as a ^Veteran Obseryer/ and his articles attracted great attention. Besides these and other papers, he wrote for many difierent periodicals, the Railroad Journal, and

also—many pamphlet^ jfor^ the different railroads of the

country j also for the manufacturing interests of the coal and iron men. In fact, it would be impossible to enumer- ate all his writings, which were marked, according to the subjects, by clear, strong knowledge, statements of facts, and, when on ethics, by a broad, hopeful. Christian tone. There was neyer an uncertain ring to any of his enuncia- tions by mouth or pen. He neyer, in religion, politics or morals, stood ^ on the fence,' or hid behind sophistries ; and I laughed the other day oyer an old letter, written by some political enemy forty or more years ago, adyisihg him to take more pains to hide his sentiments ! An old- tijga«-^W^hig_arLd.a_strong RepubHcan, he was neyer ashamed ofJiis-*iews. His last writing for the public was his ral- Ijing cry to the men of his party for Garfieldj ' Forward, Republicans.' TrTpnyaXe^ife^he wp the most delightful of companions, cheerful and entertaining, with a fund of anecdote which did more to educate us, his children, than all the preachments and lectures of the most learned dom- inie could do. He knew so much, and knew where to get information, and shared it with us all — read his articles 28

434 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

aloud to us before they went to press, and asked our opin- ions of them. He was so modest and unassuming always — approachable by all, and yet too dignified to permit the elighififit familiarity^ He was wonderfully charitable and courteous. Surely, it might be said of him that he had malice toward none. A graduate of Princeton, also of West Point, the son of a man himself learned and distin- guished, with a mother of strong mind and literary tastes, and of a social position which gave him unusual facilities for knowing the best society, he had, of course, great ad- vantages, and used them well. But God gave him his strongest weapons in a broad mind, cheerful disposition, and a constitution not vigorous but of wonderful vitality. His life was pure and he had nothing to hide ; no * wild oats' were ever sown by him. His records at West Point and Princeton were unassailable, either as a student or man. He was a hard worker, using the morning hours and part of the afternoon for writing, up to the last ten years of his life, then only the morning, rarely or never writing at night. Fond of society and fitted to shine in it, yet a great lover of nature; enjoying companionship, yet never afraid to be alone, full of resources, he was

never at a loss for occupation." / -^.^^ _

Edward Deering Mansfield died October 27, ISSOjat his country home, " Yamoyden," near Morrow, Ohio. The following tribute to his memery was written at Fern Kock, Pewee Valley, Kentucky, October 28, 1880, by his old friend, Wm. D. Gallagher.

I.

Yamoyden's halls are filled with grief,

Miami's groves are sere; Where lies the fallen autumn leaf,

Falls many a heartfelt tear ; For one has passed from life who knew

These haunts from side to side, While yet rang loud the settler's ax

As fell the forest's pride. No devious courses led astray

His feet ; from earliest youth He sought and found and kept the way

Of Justice and of Truth.

Edward Deering Mansfield, 435 1

i

No wild ambitions fired his heart, 1

Or clothed his arm with might ; j

His manhood struck resounding blows,

But ever for the Eight. )

II. j

Yamoy den's halls are silent now, \

Miami's waters moan, 1

As present, though afar, I bow |

In grief, but not alone ; \

For round me living spirits close l

That knew him well through life, \ But who before him passed away

From earthly toil and strife ; ' His place is vacant now, but long

Shall his example live, \

And to the heart that would be strong ]

Its better lessons give. J

Lean to him, youth, and tread the ways \

So long he nobly trod ; ■

Regard him age and follow him . :

From manhood up to God. \

486 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

CHAPTER XV.

WILLIAM DAVIS GALLAGHER, POET, EDITOR, AND GOV- ERNMENT OFFICIAL.

William Davis Gallagher, poet, editor, and public official, was born in Philadelphia, August 21, 1808. His father, Bernard Gallagher, familiarly called " Barney," was an Irishman, a Roman Catholic, a participant in the rebel- lion that, in 1803, cost Robert Emmett his life. " Barney " Gallagher migrated to the United States, landing at the City of Brotherly Love, where, by the aid of John Binns, editor of the " Shamrock," he obtained work. Some time afterward he became acquainted with Miss Abigail Davis, of Bridgeport, I^Tew Jersey, who had been sent to Phila- delphia by her widowed mother, to complete, at Quaker school, an education begun at home. "Abbey " Davis was the daughter of a Welsh farmer, who, volunteering in the Revolutionary War, lost his life under Washington at Valley Forge. The Irish refugee and the Welch patriot's daughter were so much attracted to each other that they joined their lives in wedlock. Four sons, Edward, Francis, William, and John were the issue of this marriage. The third was a child not eight years old when the father died. On his death-bed Bernard Gallagher refused to confess to his ministering priest the secrets of Free Masonry, which order he had jomed, and the church not only refused him burial in consecrated grounds, but also condemned his body to be exposed to public derision in front of his own door; and the execution of this sentence was prevented by application for police interference. This was in 1814.

Two years after her husband's death, Mrs. Gallagher and her four sons, joining a small "Jersey Colony," removed West, crossing the mountains in a four-horsed and four-belled wagon of the old time, and floating

William Davis Gallagher. 437

down the Ohio river from Pittshurg to Cincinnati in a strongly built and well-provided flat-boat of the period. The boy "William amused himself during the whole " river voyage " by fishing out of the window of the boat. " I was sorry," said he, " when the boat landed and put an end to my fun."

The widow and her family located on a farm near Mount Healthy, now Mount Pleasant, Hamilton county, in the neighborhood of the Carys. Mrs. Gallagher and the mother of Alice and Phoebe Cary were near of kin, and the chil- dren of the two families were, of course, intimate. ' Young William was put to work by his mother and his uncle at the various tasks a country lad is expected to do. In winter he attended school in a log school-house. The teacher's name was Samuel Woodworth, whose scholars always addressed him as " Sir " Woodworth, such was the law of manners and the dignity of the preceptor's office in those days. Under guidance of " Sir" Woodworth, Master Gallagher grew familiar with the literary treasures of the ^'American Reader " and the " Columbian Orator." The boy was fond of these books, and still more enamored of the rosy-cheeked girls of Mount Healthy. Envious rivals taunted him by calling him " girl-boy," and the jeer caused fist-fights and bleeding noses. N^ot even the charms of the bare-footed maidens at spelling-school "worked with such a spell " on " Billy " (for that was his nickname), as did the attractions of the woods. What so seductive to the natural boy as the unfenced forests ? What so much cov- eted as freedom to ramble over the hills and far away ? Gallagher's ruling instinct, in boyhood and manhood, was admiration of nature — especially love of woodland scenery.^ His young feet trod every hill and valley about Mount Healthy and along Mill creek, whose remembered banks he long after celebrated as " Mahketewa's Flowery Marge." Well did he know the wild flowers and native birds. He plucked spicy grapes, or luscious pawpaws,

^ In the summer of 1890, Mr. Gallagher, then in his eighty-second year, visiting friends in the suburbs of Cincinnati, took a long ramble, every day, in the woods, with a company of girls and boys.

488 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

in season, and gathered hoards of hickory nuts to crack by the winter fire. In summer weather, he found hidden springs, and traced wandering brooks from source to month.

One day the prepossessing boy, with his cheerful, ruddy face, was observed by a Mrs. Graham, of Clermont county, Ohio, who was visiting at Mount Healthy. Mrs. Graham was so much pleased with " Billy " that she begged his mother to allow him to return to Clermont county with her, and live there for a time and do " chores." " Want my boy ?" said the widow mother, with tears of protest. Yet, on reflection, she consented to the proposal, and Will- iam went with the lady to Clermont county, where, for perhaps a year, he worked at " Graham's Mill." After his return home he resumed farm-work on the place of David Jessup. The toil was hard, but relief was found in stolen escapes to the woods; or to Cummins's tan-yard, where some pet bears were kept ; or to Spring Grove, where was a herd of tame buffaloes. Sometimes he was sent to Irv- ing's Mill, and while waiting for his grist he would sit un- der a certain tree, which to-day stands within the inclosure of Spring Grove Cemetery, and read one of his few books, usually the " Columbian Orator."

The routine of the youth's drudgery was broken by the thoughtful interest of his oldest brother Edward, who, vis- iting the Jessup farm, saw that William was working " like a nigger," as he expressed it, and insisted that the boy should be put to school. A consultation of mother, brother, and uncle was held, and it was decided that Billy should go to town and attend the Lancastrian Seminary, he prom- ising not to waste time by truancy in the woods or along the alluring shores of the Ohio. The Lancastrian Semi- nary, conducted by Edmund Harrison, was opened in March, 1815. George Harrison, one of the sons of the principal, took a kindly interest in the ingenuous country boy, and gave him an opportunity, while yet a student in the school, to learn to " set type," in the oflice of a small paper called The Remembrancer, edited by Rev. David Root, pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church. The

William Davis Gallagher. 439

paper was printed at 'a small office in a building up " old post-office alley," west of Main street, between Third and Fourth streets. Here Gallagher received his first lessons in the printer's art and in proof-reading. The most puz- zling part of the work was to understand and correct the poetry, which seemed, to the embryo editor, absurd for the reason that it was not written in prose. " I wondered," said he, referring to this experience after a lapse of sixty years, '' why the stupid contributors didn't put what they had to say plainly, instead of cutting it up ridiculously, in short lines, with capitals at one end and rhymes at the other."

In 1826, Hon. James W. Gazlay started an agricultural paper called The Western Tiller, and young Gallagher was employed as general assistant in its management. ^N'ot only did he attend to the mechanical department, but he also ventured to write, and became so expert with the pen that, on occasion, Gazlay left him in charge of the paper, jokingly declaring that " Billy" had superseded him as editor.

Mr. Gazlay disposed of The Tiller in 1828 to Wm. J. Ferris, and Gallagher's services were then engaged, for a time, by Mr. S. J. Brown, proprietor of the Cincinnati Emporium, a newspaper founded in 1824. Brown was per- sonally remarkable for his lisping, and he often boasted that he was " thole editor of the Thinthinnati Emporium." Gallagher's connection with the Emporium was brief. His next newspaper experience was with the Commercial Reg- ister, the first daily in Cincinnati. This journal, edited by Morgan ^N'eville and published by S. S. Brooks, survived only six months. While engaged on the Eegister, Galla- gher was requested by his brother Francis to take part in the joint production of a new literary periodical. With precipitate zeal the brothers plunged into the enterprise, and the Western Minerva was born almost as soon as con- ceived. This new daughter of Jove was named in the classic style of the time, and after an eastern magazine then flourishing. The Western Minerva, notwithstanding its divine name, died in about a year, and hardly deserves

440 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

an epitaph. In the year 1824, Mr. John P. Foote pub- lished the Literary Gazette, for which W. D. Gallagher wrote his first verses. He was then only sixteen, and the tripping " Lines on Spring," which he sent through the mail to Mr. Foote, were signed " Julia."

On January 1, 1826, F. Burton began to publish the Cincinnati Saturday Evening Chronicle, with Benjamin F. Drake as editor. Mr. Gallagher wrote for the Chroni- cle, under the pseudonym "Roderick," and his friend, Otway Curry, contributed to it also, signing his articles "Abdallah."

In the summer of 1828, Gallagher, not yet of age, went to Mt. Sterling, Kentucky, to visit his brother John, who attended school there. A violent contest for the governor- ship was raging between the Whig candidate, Thomas Metcalfe, " Old Stone-Hammer," and the fierce Democratic orator, W. T. Barry, one of Clay's respected forensic rivals. Gallagher espoused the Whig cause by writing for a party newspaper conducted at Mt. Sterling by Weston F. Birch. While meditating editorials, laudatory of " Old Stone- Hammer," the sojourning knight of the goose-quill re- ceived intelligence that his brother Francis was lying ill at Natchez. William bought a horse and rode from Mt. Sterling to Louisville ; thence, by steamboat, he completed the journey to Natchez. The horseback trip through Kentucky was crowded with incident. One evening the traveler came to the gate of a large house, which a black servant told him belonged to General James Taylor. The general was not at home, but his wife, a stately lady, very hospitably invited the young stranger to dismount and rest awhile under her roof. The black slave put the horse in the stable, and the bashful rider followed the courteous southern matron into the big house, and was there treated to a glass of " Metheglin," mixed by her own fair hands. Pursuing his further adventures, the romantic "Roder- ick" arrived at Ashland and announced himself as a ** young Whig from Ohio, who desired to pay his respects to Henry Clay. The distinguished " Harry of the West" came out and cordially greeted the pilgrim, and asked

William Davis Gallagher. 441

him to stay all night, but the honor was gracefully de- clined.

Passing through Louisville, he saw, where now the finest part of the city is built, a swampy wilderness, populous with beaver. The open-eyed traveler observed every thing, and wrote from Mississippi a series of descriptive letters for the Chronicle. These were read by many, and their author was talked about as a smart young fellow, worthy to be encour- aged. One of the first to recognize his talents and speak in his praise was the educator, Milo G. Williams.^ Galla- gher returned to Cincinnati to find himself quite a local lion. Doubtless, the people thought still better of him when it was known he had saved a few dollars by self- denial, and that he was desirous of securing for his mother a home of her own. He bought a ground lot of Mcholas Longworth, the eccentric pioneer millionaire, but had not the means to build a house. " See here, Billy," suggested Mr. Longworth, " I want you to build a house for your mother; now, can you raise money enough to buy the lumber? Get the lumber, and I will build the house, and you may pay me when you are able." The offer was ac- cepted; the house was built, and paid for in easy pay- ments. The house was situated on the north side of Fourth street, between "Western Eow," now Central avenue, and John street, and overlooked the sloping plain that lay between the bluff on which it stood and the Ohio river, and the mouth of Mill creek ; and took in, most pic- turesquely and charmingly, what is now the town plot of Covington, and the beautiful hills of Ludlow, one of which was crowned with the celebrated Carneal House, or " Egyptian Hall."

We have seen that Gallagher was an enthusiastic Whig and a worshiper of Clay. It is not strange that, in 1830, he was persuaded by some of the prominent Whigs of Green county to cast his fortunes on the hazard of a

^ Milo G. Williams was a celebrated teacher in Cincinnati, Dayton, and Urbana, Ohio. He had a large school in Cincinnati. From 1844 to 1850 he was at the head of the Dayton Academy. Died in 1880.

442 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

" tooth-and-toe-nails " campaign newspaper, at Xenia, Ohio. Even the mother's new house was sold to provide an outfit for a small printing office, and, in a short time, the JBackwoodsman ^ was issued, a sheet devoted generally to hurrahing for Clay and specially to using up Jimmy Gardner, editor of the Jackson organ at Xenia. Galla- gher was elated to see his first leader copied in the i^a- tioual Journal, and to learn that Clay himself had read it with approval. In the course of the campaign, a banquet was given to the Ashland hero, at Yellow Springs, Ohio, on which occasion the modest editor of the Backwoods- man was surprised and abashed on finding that the com- mittee of arrangements had trapped him into a seat just opposite the great statesman, who, it appears, requested to have an opportunity of talking with " that bright young man from Xenia who writes so well."

All this was pleasant enough ; but the Backwoodsman, despite its cleverness, was doomed to fail with the failing political fortunes of its idol. The man who "would rather be right than be President " was not chosen Presi- dent, and consequently Gallagher's labor of love was lost, and with it all his money and much of his self-confidence.

One of the pleasant incidents of Gallagher's life at Xenia took place in the office of the Backwoodsman in the summer of 1830. One day a gentleman called and asked to see the editor. The printer's devil ran up stairs where Gallagher was at work, and gave the message : "A man down there wants to see you ; he says his name is Prentice." He of the Backwoodsman, in a flurry, would brush up and wash his inky hands before presenting him- self to the late editor of the New England Review, but George sliouts from below, ** Never mind black fingers ! " and the next minute the two young journalists meet and join hands. Prentice was on his way to Lexington to pre- pare his " Life of Clay."

By far the most important event of Mr. Gallagher's life

» The Backwoodsman was started March 20, 1830. The price was two dollars a year. The paper had literary features, and gave some space to agriculture.

William Davis Gallagher. 443

at Xenia was his marriage to Miss Emma Adamson, a daughter of Captain Adamson, of Boston.

Some brilliant worldly expectations had been built on the assumption that Clay w^ould be President ; and when the campaign ended in disappointment, the newly wedded pair knew not which way to look for a living. Just about this dark time it came into the mind of John H. "Wood, a Cincinnati book-seller, to start a literary paper in connec- tion with his business, and he invited Gallagher to take editorial charge of it at a guaranteed salary. The oftfe^ was accepted gladly, and, turning over the care of the fast-expiring Backwoodsman to his brother Francis, Will- iam took stage with his pretty wdfe and hastened to Cin- cinnati, and presently began his first important literary labor, the management of the Cincinnati Mirror. . This was the fourth literary periodical published west of the Alleghany mountains. Its prototype, the ^ew York Mir- ror, was a well established and influential journal. The new paper, a quarto, excellently printed on good paper, and of attractive appearance, was issued semi-monthly. The first two volumes were edited by Gallagher solely. At the beginning of the third year Gallagher formed a partnership with Thomas H. Shreve, and the two became proprietors of the publication. It was enlarged and issued weekly under the name, Cincinnati Mirror and Western Gazette of Literature. In April, 1835, the Chronicle, then owned by Kev. James H. Perkins, was merged in the Mirror, and Perkins shared the editorship of the period- ical. The concern was sold, October, 1835, to James B. Marshall, who united with it a publication called the Buckeye, and named it the Buckeye and Cincinnati Mir- ror. Within three months Marshall sold out to Flash and Eyder, book-sellers on Third street, who engaged Gal- lagher and Shreve to resume control of the once more plain Cincinnati Mirror. All now went on smoothly un- til Gallagher offended Mr. Ryder by refusing to print mat- ter indorsing Tom Paine's irreligious views. A quarrel followed, and both Gallagher and Shreve resigned. They were succeeded by J. Reese Fry, who, though he had fair

444 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

editorial ability, could not prevent the Mirror from sink- ing to final extinction within two months.

The Mirror never paid its way, though it had an exten- sive circulation in the Mississippi Valley. Its contents embraced original and selected tales, essays, poetry, bio- graphical and historical sketches, reviews of and extracts from new books, and a compendium of the news of the day. Nearly all the leading western writers contributed to it. Among these were Timothy Flint, J. A. McClung, John B. Dillon, Harvey D. Little, Morgan Neville, Benja- min Drake, Mrs. Julia Dumont, and Mrs. Lee Hentz. From the East, Mr. Whittier contributed at least one poem — " Lines on a Portrait."

When, in 1832, Mr. Gallagher held this literary " Mir- ror" up to nature and art on the banks of the Ohio, Bry- ant was but thirty-eight years old, Longfellow and Whittier but twenty-five, Poe twenty-one, and Howells lacked five years of being born. The backwoods editor's comments on contemporary literature read curiously in the light of present reputations. Encouraging mention is made of a fifty-dollar prize story, "A New England Sketch, by Miss Beecher, of this city." The reviewer says the story " is written with great sprightliness, humor, and pathos," and that " none but an intelligent and observant lady could possibly have written it." In a notice of " Mogg Me- gone," Whittier is discriminatingly heralded as a "man whom his countrymen will yet delight to honor. Some of his early writings are among the happiest juvenile pro- ductions with which we are acquainted." The complacent editor mentions "Outre Mer" favorably, saying that it was written by Professor Longfellow, " who is very well known to American readers," and that " it is for sale at Josiali Drake's bookstore on Main street."

Mr. Gallagher wrote much for the Mirror in prose and Terse, and his editorials, sketches, and poems were widely copied. One of his pieces, a carefully finished short es- say, entitled "The Unbeliever," was credited to Dr. Chalmers, and appeared in a school read* r witli that classic divine's name attached.

William Davis Gallagher, 445

While editor of the Mirror, Gallagher made his debut as a speaker, by delivering before the " Lyceum," an " Eulogium on the Life and Character of William Wirt." The old Enon Church, where the " Lyceum " met, was crowded, and the orator, w^hen he rose to speak, was so frightened that he could not at first open his mouth, but the reassuring smile of the president. Doctor Daniel Drake, restored his self-command, and the address was pro- nounced satisfactorily.

The *' Lyceum " was a society for popular edification, conducted under the auspices of the Ohio Mechanics' In- stitute. Before it, Calvin E. Stow^e delivered a course of lectures on the '^ History of Letters," and Judge James Hall read an address on the " Importance of Establishing a First-Class Library in Cincinnati."

The old Enon Church on Walnut street, w^as also the meeting-place of a club called the " Franklin Society," the members of which, w^e are told, '' met w^eek after week, with much benefit to all concerned." " Many a cold and cheerless evening," wrote the editor of the Western Quar- terly, " have w^e seen half a dozen enthusiastic youths gathered about and shivering over the stove in the corner of the large apartment, while the President, wrapped in dignity and a large cloak, sat chattering his teeth, apart from the group, and member after member stepped aside and made speeches, many of which were distinguished by brilliancy and true eloquence."

A more popular debating society was the " Inquisition," mentioned in Channing's "Memoir of James H. Perkins." The " Inquisition " was attended by the beauty and fashion of Cincinnati. Mr. Gallagher shone w^ith the young gen- try who read polite essays at Dr. Drake's parlors, and shivered with the talented plebeians of the Franklin So- ciety. He was also the very soul of a unique private junto numbering but eight members, and named the Tags, or the T. A. G. S., these cabalistic letters being the initials of the four who originated the conclave, namely, Fred- eric William Thomas, Samuel York Atlee, William Davis Gallagher and Thomas Henry Shreve.

446 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

Still another very interesting club may be referred to here, though it arose somewhat later than those mentioned. It was called the " Forty-Twos," from the circumstance that, at its founding, all of its members were over forty- one years of age and under *forty-three. The "Forty- Twos" met in the law office of Salmon P. Chase, on Third street (the office in which Donn Piatt says the Eepublican party was born). Among its members, besides Chase and Gallagher, were Samuel Eels, Jordan A. Pugh, and Charles L. Telford. The club was larger than that of the " Tags," and had more of a social nature, but it did a great deal in the way of developing a literary taste in Cincinnati.

It was before the appearance of the Mirror that W. D. Gallagher, won his first laurels for poetical achievement. Some verses of his called *' The Wreck of the Hornet," published anonymously, went the rounds of the American press, and were ascribed to the pen of Bryant. The suc- cess of this fugitive piece gave its author confidence to produce others, and he was soon recognized as the lead- ing imaginative writer of the West.

In the spring of 1835 he published a little book of thirty-six pages, entitled " Erato !N'o. I," dedicated to Tim- othy Flint. The naming of his collection after a lyric muse was suggested, probably, by the example of Percival, who, a dozen years before, had put forth " Clio IN'o. I." and "Clio No. II." Gallagher's maiden venture was re- ceived with favor ; and, in August, 1835, " Erato No. II." was issued, and this was followed, two years later, by "Erato No. III." A long and laudatory review of these booklets appeared in the Southern Literary Messenger for July, 1838. The reviewer says : " It is to be regretted that, in justice to the poet, these volun^es were not pub- lished in one of the Atlantic cities, inasmuch as it would have extended the reputation of the author, and given currency to liis works, which a Western press can not se- cure to them. The Atlantic side of the Alleghanies is sufficiently controlled by that kind of prejudice in rela- tion to ultramontane literature, that led one, some two

William Davis Gallagher. 447

thousand years ago, to say, ' Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?' These prejudices should not be ne- glected or despised by Western writers. The names of Messrs. Harper & Brothers, or Carey, Lea & Blanchard, on the title page of many a book has often proved a better indorsement to the public than the author's. How natural it is to condemn a book unread that has the im- print of a country town. There is the same kind of faith extended to an unknown, book as to an unknown bank-note ; if it bears city names, and is of a city bank, it is received with confidence, and if it is a country bill it is taken with hesitation and suspicion." The alleged Eastern prejudice to Western literary outputs was met by Gallagher with obstinate provincial pride and defiance. To him the building up of Western literature was a duty which he exalted to the rank of patriotism and religion. He advocated the fostering of home genius with a fervor like that which protectionists manifest in discussing do- mestic industries. Instead of seeking Eastern publishers, Gallagher did not even comply with their voluntary re- quests to handle his books, though this was owing, in part, to his careless disposition. Under date of March, 1881, he wrote to a friend : " I have been solicited repeat- edly by Eastern publishers ; never but twice, that I re- member, by Western publishers." In the same letter, alluding to the volumes he wrote, and magazines he ed- ited, he says : " I do not possess a copy of any one of them."

Returning to the ambitious and sentimental period of Gallagher's career, we find that he was admired for his handsome looks. One of his contemporaries wrote : " He has a manly figure, tall and well proportioned, with a lofty and somewhat haughty carriage. His complexion is very fair and ruddy ; his face exhibits a remarkably youth- ful appearance, as if but nineteen and not twenty-eight years had passed over his head. In conversation he is an- imated and energetic, evincing the man of quick sensi- bility, the bold thinker, the acute critic and severe satirist. His eyes are lively and of a piercing blue. His forehead

448 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

is fair and open, denoting intellectual strength, with soft- ened outlines, and is the index of the graceful character of hie mind." The allusion in this description to Gallagher's "haughty carriage," recalls the fact that the boys in the printing office used to call him William " Dignity " Gal- lagher.

Neither his handsome person, nor his versatile talents brought much hard cash. Deprived of the salary which he had received as editor of the Mirror, the poet found himself in the unpoetical condition of a man with a wife to support on no income whatever. He wrote to Otway Curry : " I must do something to raise a little money, for I am almost too badly clad to appear in the street." Grasping at an invisible straw, he issued a prospectus for a weekly paper, the Cincinnati Spectator and Family News-Letter, but the name was all of the pa- per that ever appeared. However, in June, 1836, Messrs. Smith and Day projected a Western Literary Journal and Monthly Review, and Gallagher was called to edit it. Mark the western tone and confident air of this passage from the opening number : " Let us, who are in the enjoyment of a triune youthfulness, being young as a people, young in years, and young as a literary commu- nity, endeavor to approach the fathers of English poetry. Let us discard the aifectation of parlor prettiness, wax- work niceties, and milliner-like conceits. Let us turn our lady-pegasus out to pasture, and mount coursers of speed and mettle. Let us give over our pacing and ambling, and dash off with a free rein." To these imperative appeals the readers of the journal were probably insensible ; at any rate they did not pay liberally for such exhortation, and the starving editor's starving periodical gave up the ghoBt, aged one year. The lively ghost flew to Louisville and was there re-embodied, being merged in the Western Monthly Magazine, which Judge Hall sold to James B. Marshall in 1886. The combined publication forming the Western Monthly Magazine and Literary Journal was to be issned simultaneously from Cincinnati and Louisville. Gallagher was employed to edit it, and he entered upon

William Davis Gallagher. 449

this new labor with unflagging zeal. The Western Acade- mician (think of a Western Academician in 1837) says of this new venture : " It is replete with good articles." ]N'otwithstanding its exuberance of merit, the journal expired with the issue of the fifth number, perhaps being too good to live, and William D. Gallagher was left once more a man without a periodical. But now a star of hope appeared in the North. John M. Gallagher, the poet's youngest brother, had become manager of the Ohio State Journal, at Columbus, Ohio, and he invited William to assist him. Such an opportunity was not to be slighted, and we may imagine the strong Whig, who had begun his journalistic labors as editor of the Clay newspaper at Xenia, now using the language of Leigh Hunt :

" I yield, I yield. — Once more I turn to you, Harsh politics ! and once more bid adieu To the soft dreaming of the muse's bowers."

Gallagher removed with his family to Columbus, and entered upon editorial duties, also writing political letters from the capital for the Cincinnati Gazette under the signature of " Probus." But his connection with the State Journal was of short duration. Standing by his convictions with his usual stubborness he opposed, edi- torily, the publication of the laws in the German lan- guage and the teaching of any foreign language in the public schools. Finding that his views were unpopular and injurious to the business interests of the paper, he chose to resign rather than suppress his honest opinions.

Before withdrawing from the Journal he projected what proved to be his most important enterprise in litera- ture, a magazine named " The Hesperian." This was a monthly miscellany of general literature. The first num- ber came out in May, 1838. Otway Curry assisted in edit- ing the first volume. Two volumes were published in Columbus — the third and last in Cincinnati. The senior 29

450 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

editor, in his opening "Budget," confesses that his past ten years' exertions in behalf of literature " have been Iraitless to himself of every thing but experience," yet he finds courage to make one more attempt, "because he loves the pursuit— because he thinks he can be useful in it— because he is convinced there is, throughout the whole West, a great demand and a growing necessity for labor in

it and because he believes that under present auspices it

can be made to yield at least a quid pro quo."

The Hesperian was jealously Western, as its name suf- ficiently suggests, but it was by no means narrow, shal- low, or provincial. Its watchwords were Freedom, Edu- cation, Manhood, Fair Play. The contents were wide- ranging — geographical, historical, biographical, political, poetical, agricultural, theological, romantic, and fictitious. Among his contributors were the Drakes, Shreve, Perkins, Neville, Prentice, W. G. Simms, S. P. Hildreth, C. P. Granch, I. A. Jewett, A. Kinmont, R. Dale Owen, Jas W. Ward, Mrs. Sigourney, Mrs. Lee Hentz, Amelia B. Welby, and many others worthy to hold a permanent place in lit- erature. Gallagher himself wrote copiously and very ably for the Hesperian. In its pages appeared his most ambi- tious story, " The Dutchman's Daughter," which, though crude and ill-sustained as a whole, has descriptive passages that would grace the pen of Irving.

The Hesperian was transferred from Columbus to Cincinnati in April, 1839. The editor procured a room in the third story of a brick house on Third street, east of Main — a room ten by twelve, with a door and a single window. "And in this small place," writes he gayly to his wife, " Emma, dear," on May Day, " the renowned edi- tor of the Hesperian is to read, write, eat, drink, go to bed, get up, and entertain his friends." To. Curry he wrote, lugubriously quoting Mother Goose, " I have so many children I do n't know what to do." Again to Mrs. Gallagher, on May 15, " I inclose you three dollars, all the money I have, and I hope it will last you till I can get and furnish you some more." This period was the pro- verbial darkest hour just before day-break. The " Probus "

William Davis Gallagher. 451

letters had made a favorable impression on Charles Ham- mond, the chief editor of the Cincinnati Gazette, and in- duced him to oiFer Gallagher an important position as his assistant. Hammond was at that time the most influential journalist in the country. A series of profound and lu- minous essays which he wrote, in 1820, for the !N'ational Intelligencer, on the Constitution, compelled the attention and commanded the praise of Jefferson. He was an inti- mate adviser of Clay, and had been called, by Webster, the " greatest genius that ever wielded the political pen." Thomas Ewing had said of Hammond that he used a lan- guage as pure as that of Addison. It was no light honor to be called and chosen by so eminent a man. With the honor came also a liberal salary. " Emma " and the " so many children " were now well provided for. The Hes- perian was discontinued, and the duties of the new career were begun in the latter part of 1839, to be continued, with little interruption, for ten years. Mr. Gallagher at first attended mainly to the literary department of the paper, but after the death of Mr. Hammond, in 1840, he did much political writing. He became more and more interested in state and national questions, and took an ac- tive part in party management. For many years he was secretary of the Whig committee for the First Congres- sional District of Ohio. In 1842 he was nominated candi- date for the state legislature, but declined to run.

The love of literature continued to hold sway over him. In 1840 he planned a literary undertaking of praiseworthy character and generous scope, as may be gathered from the following letter to Otway Curry :

" To Otway Curry, Esq.,

Marysville, Union County, Ohio.

" Cincinnati, Nov. 7, 1840. " My Dear Curry : — I thank you for your original con- tribution to the Poetical Volume, and shall insert it as the second selection from you, 'The Goings Forth of God' being the first. It was not my original design to have ad- mitted any thing not before published, but Jones thought

452 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

he could do better than he had yet done, and Shreve ditto ; and, while I held their requests for the privilege of insert- ing an original, under advisement, along came your volun- tary* This, as there was no impropriety in deviating from the first plan thus made, decided me. Perkins, I think, will have an original likewise; and, in the forewritten verses,* you have one of my own. I do not wish it known, however, that the volume contains any thing specially pre- pared for it.

" I had not room in my last letter to detail to you the whole of my design. The volume of ' Selections from the Poetical Literature of the West ' is but the first feat- ure of it. My intention is to follow this up in regular order by three other volumes, of * Selections from the Polite Literature of the West,' * Selections from the Pul- pit Literature of the West,' and ' Selections from the Political Literature of the West.' Don't wipe those old specs of yours so hard, now. I 've been looking over the level prairies of these intellectual regions, and I find in them materials enough for all I have contemplated. The truth is, Curry, this Transmontane world is a most glori- ous one, and I can't help trying to do something for its literary character, engage in whatsoever else I may, and starve, as I fear I must at this. I suppose these several volumes will come out at intervals of from five to six months, till the whole shall have been published.

"About your * Veiled Prophet,' I feel some anxiety. Burton's new theater, I understand, has been open for a number of weeks, yet I hear nothing either of Jemmy Thorn or from him. The first one of our citizens whom I find starting for Philadelphia I shall get to call upon Burton and make personal inquiry, etc., with reference to it.

"About that congress of lunatics which you suggest: Perkins thinks well of it, Shreve thinks well of it, Curry thinks well of it, and Gallagher thinks well of it; and each of these distinguished men, doubtless, will willingly

* A poem entitled " Little Children," inclosed in the letter to Curry,

William Davis Gallagher. 453

meet, lunaticise, and go home again. What further than this, while the matter is so entirely a new suggestion, can I say ? Give us your plan, and if it be as good and feasible as I presume it is, you will find us readily and actively seconding your motion.

"And now, my dear fellow, a word in your ear confiden- tially. I am very busy now-a-days, and should not there- fore have replied to your last so promptly but that I want very much to be ' astonished jist.' So crack your whip, and let us know what that 'something' is, about which you prate so bigly. Thine as ever,

'' W. D. Gallagher.

" P. S. — Write me down, if you please, richer since day before yesterday, by another child, and poorer by what it will cost to keep it. This makes the fifth, all alive and kicking, and able to eat mush with the children of any Clodhopper in the land."

That Gallagher's inclinations kept pulling him toward literature for some years after he became a political editor, is evident from a breezy letter written to Curry in August, 1844:

"Dear Curry: — Upon accurate calculation, the time of the rising of the new literary comet of the West has been determined. You and other benighted people in your region may look for a luminous streak in the heavens at 9 h. 10 m. 11 sec, October 1, 1844. After this announce- ment, my dear fellow, can you remain idle ? I hope not, for the sake of the new experiment, the credit of your name, and the honor of your friend, who pledged to Messrs. Judson and Hine an article from your pen for the first number, and probably one for the second, and another for the third. The work is to be gotten out in the hand- somest style, and you will have the pleasure of appearing in good company. Lay aside your political pen, there- fore, shut up your law books, mount Pegasus, or some comely prose nag, and away to the free fields ! What do you say ? Shall I have something from yon to hand over

454 Literary Culture in tlie Ohio Valley.

by the 6th to 10th prox.? Do n't make it later, for the first copy is now in hand, and they want to be out early. Think of the olden time — your first love — wipe your specs — stick in a Havana — hum a madrigal — and dash into the thing pell-mell. Let me hear from you at once."

The new " literary comet " thus announced was (pathetic repetition!) still another Literary Journal and Monthly Review, edited by L. A. Hine, and referred to by him some years later as " my first literary wreck." It was published at Nashville, Tennessee, and conducted nominally by E. Z. C. Judson— " Ned Buntline."

In those years of prosperity and constant pen-wielding, Mr. Gallagher's muse was liberal. Then it was that the poet, caring more for the sentiment than the form of his utterance, dashed off' the strong and fervent lyrics, by which he became really recognized as a man of original power. He sang the dignity of intrinsic manhood, the nobleness of honest labor, and the glory of human free- dom. Much that he wrote was extremely radical; his poetry was tinctured with the gospel of Christian social- ism, and the example he set was imitated by many other writers of verse.

" Be thou like the first Apostles- Be thou like heroic Paul ; If a free thought seek expression, Speak it boldly!— speak it all !

" Face thine enemies — accusers ; Scorn the prison, rack, or rod ! And, if thou hast truth to utter. Speak! and leave the rest to God!"

Such lines as these, and as compose the poems " Truth and Freedom," " Conservatism," " The Laborer," " Radi- calos," "The Artisan," "The New Age," "All Things Free," went to the brain and heart of many people ; and it is not to be doubted that they exerted a deep and lasting influence. Of a more distinctly poetical type were his melodious pieces describing the West and the life of the pioneer; and still more popular, in their day, were his

William Davis Gallagher. 455

songs, many of which were set to music and sung in thea- ters and at the fireside. In 1845 was written his famous ballad, " The Spotted Fawn," which everybody knew by heart.

A man of Gallagher's principles could not be other than an opposer of slavery. When the ofiice of the Phi- lanthropist, the anti-slavery paper established in Cincin- nati by James G. Birney, was mobbed, and the press thrown into the Ohio river, Gallagher was one of the citi- zens who, meeting with Hammond, Chase, and others at the Gazette office, arranged for a public meeting to be held at the court-house, for the purpose of sustaining free speech. Years afterward, in 1848, probably, Gallagher's feeling on the slavery question became so positive that he felt it a political duty to withdraw from the Gazette in order to edit the Daily Message. " The most I remember about this paper is," so he wrote in 1884, " that I gave its editorial columns altogether too anti-slavery (not abolition) a tinge to make it acceptable to business men in Cincin- nati, who had commenced transactions with business men south, and that soon after publishing the address of the first national convention of the anti-slavery party of the United States (which even the Cincinnati Gazette refused to publish), the paper was almost kicked out of the stores on the river tier of squares, and I made up my mind that I must leave the paper very soon, or the time would not be long before it would leave me (and my wife and babies) without any thing to eat. So I left it and went back to the Gazette."

While connected with the Gazette, Gallagher did much to encourage the literary eftbrt in the Ohio Valley. It is interesting to learn that of the young writers whom he brought before the public, Murat Halstead is one. Mr. Halstead humorously says, " I was ruined by Mr. Galla- gher; he accepted and published in the Gazette a story which I had written and carefully copied over three times."

Gallagher was twice elected president of the " Histori- cal and Philosophical Society of Ohio." The sixty-second

456 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

anniversary of the settlement of Ohio was commemorated by the society on April 8, 1850, when the president deliv- ered a discourse full of information and vigorous thought on the " Progress in the North-west." This address was published byH. W. Derby, and copies of it are now much sought after.

The year 1850 marks the beginning of a new line of experiences for Mr. Gallagher. His experiments in lite- rary journalism ended with the Hesperian. His ten years^ editorial service on the Gazette came to a close, for rea- sons which we give in his own written words :

" While I was connected with Judge Wright and L. C. Turner, in the editorship of the Cincinnati Daily Gazette, * Tom ' Corwin was appointed to the head of the Treasury Department at Washington, and immediately offered me the place of private secretary, which I was urged to ac- cept. This, I believe, was in the year 1850. I was what I considered in advance of both Wright and Turner, in re- lation to sundry questions of public and party nature, and on several occasions had felt it my duty to commit the paper, much to Wright's dissatisfaction. Finally a count- ing-room consultation was determined upon, and the L'llommedieus were called into the editorial room. Stephen, the elder brother, sympathized with me from principle, Richard, the younger, agreed with Wright, as he said, from policy. <What, Judge,' Stephen after a while inquired, 'is Gallagher's besetting sin in editorial matters?' * Why,' promptly replied the Judge, without any exhibition of ill-nature, ' he is forever treading upon Bomebody's toes — and causing dissatisfaction in the party aa well as among business men.' Until this I had said nothing, but now I quickly responded, ' That, gentlemen, will never be a cause of complaint against Judge Wright — because be is forever behind the life and soul of his party, or at the best, stumbling against somebody's heels' There was an instantaneous pause, when Stephen left and beckoned me out of the room. I followed him, and much to his dissatisfaction, notified him that I should withdraw from the Gazette and accept Mr. Corwin's ofter."

William Davis Gallagher. 457

Soon after his going to Washington and entering upon the discharge of duties in the Treasury Department, the United States Senate called upon the secretary for a re- port upon the merchant marine, internal and coastwise, Reliahle materials for such a report were not at hand, and Gallagher, having the reputation for ability to "hold hia tongue," was directed to proceed to the various interior customs districts of the United States and collect infor- mation in regard to the revenue, and Edward D. Mansfield was appointed to proceed upon similar business to the dis- tricts upon the Atlantic sea-coast. All the materials in^ Gallagher drew up the report, which was much com- mended in the department.

This over, he was immediately dispatched to the city of Xew York for a million of dollars in gold, out of the sub-treasury, with which he was instructed to proceed to jS'ew Orleans, by sea, and to deposit with the United States treasury in that city. This was to be a secret re- moval of gold, required in the settlement of Mexican claims. The specie was quietly conveyed to the steam- ship Georgia, of the Howland and Aspinwall line, and placed in a chest under the floor of the ladies' cabin be- fore any passengers were received on board. Besides Mr. Gallagher, the captain and the purser were the only soula on the ship who were aware that it bore golden freight. The voyage was in mid-winter; the weather proved stormy.

Key West was reached without accident, but within an hour after the voyage was resumed from that point the ship struck a rock. By skillful piloting, the rock waa cleared ; and, after a much longer than average trip, lN"ew Orleans was finally reached on a Sunday morning. As soon as the passengers were ashore, the gold was loaded in. a wagon, and hauled to the office of the Assistant United States Treasurer, where Gallagher had it securely placed under lock. With the key in his pocket, he went to the St. Charles Hotel and got breakfast. That over, he proceeded to the telegraph office, and sent the follow- ing dispatch : " Hon. Thomas Corwin, Secretary of the

468 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

Treasury, Washington. All Right. W. D. Gallagher, New Orleans." Keturning to Washington, Gallagher resumed his labors as private secretary. One day he found among the papers which it was his duty to examine a letter signed by some of his old Cincinnati friends, sug- gesting that an extra compensation of not less than 11,000 should be given him as an appropriate acknowl- edgment of his general services to the Whig party and to the government. He showed the letter to another officer of the department, who was pleased with it, saying : ** There is precedent enough for such extra compensation for similar services, and it is all right — but do you think the secretary will consent to it ?" " I don't think he will ever have an opportunity to consent to it," Gallagher replied, and threw the letter into the grate and burned it up. " You ought not to have done that, Gallagher," remarked Mr. H — , " but — " " Perhaps not ; but no per- sonal friends of mine shall ever be tempted by other personal friends to do any thing for me like that pro- posed." Within an hour Mr. Corwin came back to the department from a visit to the president. Mr. H — , good- naturedly, mentioned the matter to him, whereupon he sent, by messenger, a request that Gallagher would step into his room. When the latter presented himself, Cor- win, with a very solemn expression upon his face, said, not angrily, but with sternness in his tone, " Gallagher, are you in the habit, as my private secretary, of destroy- ing such of my private letters as you happen not to like?" "Governor, you have no idea that I could do any thing of the sort. I destroyed one such letter awhile ago, which concerned me more than it did you, and which, though meant as an act of friendship, ought not to have been written without my knowledge and consent. But I suppose you know all about it." The expression on Cor- win's face at once relaxed, as he continued*, " I wonder

j^ and really supposed I would use the public

money in that way. If they did, they were most damna- bly mistaken." .

In the summer of 1852, Gallagher had an opportunity of

William Davis Gallagher. 459

going into the New York Tribune with Horace Greeley ; and another of taking a one-half interest in the Cincinnati Commercial, then controlled by his friend, M. D. Potter. He was advised and urged by such old anti-slavery friends as Gamaliel Bailey, Thomas H. Shreve, Koble Butler, and others, in Washington, Cincinnati and Louisville, to pur- chase half the stock of the Louisville Daily Courier, and to assume the editorship of that paper, which was to be a southern organ for the advocacy of Corwin's nomination to the presidency. After long consideration, a decision was reached in favor of the Courier, and Gallagher re- turned to the West with his family, arriving at Louisville the first day of January, 1853. IN early thirty years after- ward he wrote : " My connection with the Courier proved to be an unfortunate one. There was little sympathy with my editorial tone and teachings, either in Louisville or throughout Kentucky. I worked hard and lost money. So in 1854 I sold my interest in the concern and withdrew from the paper, having been stigmatized again and again, in southern and south-western localities, as an abolition adventurer on the wrong side of the Ohio river, as former president of the underground railroad through Ohio for runaway slaves, etc., etc." Personal animosity was in- flamed against the unpopular editor from his boldly at- tacking John J. Crittenden for consenting to defend Matt. Ward, who killed the young teacher, Butler, in his own school-room. Young Butler was a brother of Noble But- ler, one of Gallagher's dearest friends.

Even George D. Prentice {et tu Brute!) joined in the hue and cry against the Courier editor, partly because Galla- gher was an Irish anti-know-nothing, but mainly on the sore question of slavery. Prentice came up to Cincinnati and spent several days looking through the files of the Gazette to find in Gallagher's editorials abolition senti- ments that might be used against him in Louisville. An article appeared in the Journal branding Gallagher with the crime of managing the underground railroad. This direct and personal attack roused the Celtic resentment of its subject, and he replied in the editorial columns of the

460 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

Courier, over his signature, denying the allegation, and closed his card by denouncing the author of the calumny as '* a scoundrel and liar." He had caught the spirit of personal journalism. The consequences were, if not dra- matic, at least theatrical.

Upon a day the Louisville train brings to Pewee Valley, in Oldham county, where Mr. Gallagher had bought a little farm, a military gentleman of chivalrous appearance, who inquires the way from the station to Fern Eock Cot- tage. Finding the house, he knocks, and is admitted to the parlor by a colored servant. The master of the house is indisposed, is resting upon his bed, but clothed and in his right mind, and able to receive his visitor. The military gentleman will wait. To him presently enters William " Dignity " Gallagher, who, recognizing Colonel Churchill, cordially greets him, and asks his pleasure. The colonel, with equal politeness, takes from his pocket a letter, which he hands to the convalescent editor. The missive is opened, and it proves to be a challenge from the proprietor of the Louisville Journal. Gallagher reads, tears the communication into a handful of bits, and throws the fragments on the floor. "Colonel Churchill, tell Mr. Prentice that is my answer to his foolish chal- lenge.'*

Free once more, and now finally, from political journal- ism, Gallagher began to plant orchards, earning bread and butter for the time by editing an agricultural paper, the Western Farmer's Journal, and by writing for the Colum- bian and Great West, a Cincinnati paper, published by his friend, W. B. Shattuc. He also contributed poems to the National Era, edited by Dr. Bailey. With wonderful energy, he set about organizing industrial and educational institutions. He established a Kentucky Mechanics' In- stitute, a Kentucky State Agricultural Society, and was instrumental in forming the South-western Agricultural Society, of which he was made secretary. In the way of useful literature, ho wrote a prize essay on " Fruit Culture in the Ohio Valley," and prepared materials for a social and statistical view of the Mississippi Valley.

William. Davis Gallagher. 461

Pewee Valley (at first named Pewee's !N"est by Noble Butler, from tbe circumstance that, when locating a build- ing site there, he wrote letters in a ruined cabin in which the pewees had built) is a beautiful village, on the Louis- ville and Nashville Railroad, about sixteen miles east of Louisville. It became a chosen resort of people of culture and taste. There lived Edwin Bryant, who had been the Alcalde of San Francisco in the gold-seeking days; Noble Butler, the educator, resided there ; the wealthy and accomplished Warfield family made their refined and hospitable home at Pewee Valley. Mr. Gallagher's house, a rambling frame cottage, covered with American ivy, was built in the midst of great forest trees — beech, oak, maple, poplar, and a newer growth of sassafras, dogwood, black-haw and evergreens. Gray squirrels barked and skipped about the door-yard, and the cat-bird, the red- bird, and the unceremonious blue-jay came near the porches for their daily bread.

Mr. Gallagher greatly enjoyed the picturesque surround- ings and the congenial society of Pewee Valley. Being of a generous and friendly disposition, he was liked by all who knew him. Western literary people were especially attached to him. His correspondence with that class was extensive. The following letter may stand as a fair rep- resentative of the many that were sent him. It was writ- ten from New York, over thirty years ago, by one who, at that time, was regarded as the coming man in literature, Mr. William Boss Wallace.

[ William Boss Wallace to W. D. Gallagher^

" N. Y., August 17, 1860. " My Dear old Friend : — Your most kind and welcome letter came to hand several days since ; and I have delayed an answer until I could read your lady friend's novel. This I have done with very great interest, as it is brimful of genius and a most peculiar, startingly original power. Mrs. Warfield is certainly endowed with great talent and moral force. Her style is rich, yet chaste — full of a ma- ture and lasting splendor. I should think that this Ro-

462 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

mance will place her, at a bound, at the head of our fe- male authors — while she will compare favorably with the masculine. Of course, I will do all in my power in the way of newspaper notices; although the work needs no bolstering. T am very glad, my dear friend, that you like my poems — as it is pleasant to be admired by those whom we admire.

"Do send me a copy of your wood-thrush-note when it rings, at last, through the grand old woods. I hope to publish soon a long national poem, entitled * Chants in America " — devoted to our glorious scenery and deeds. I take a motto from yourself for the first part. Do you ever see Noble Butler? and Mr. Bryant ? Mr. Fosdick told me that you were all neighbors. I have dear memories of both B's.

" I shall publish a notice of Mrs. W.'s great novel in a few days, and send you a copy of the paper containing it.

" Please let me know when you receive this, and believe me to be yours, afiectionately,

" William Ross Wallace.

Wm. D. Gallagher, Esq."

The novel here referred to was " The Household of Bouverie," published in 1860 by J. C. Derby, and by him described as a " wonderful romance." ^

Busied with the labors of peace, Gallagher little antici- pated how soon he was to assume important duties of war, not in the capacity of a military man, but as a civil officer of the Government, which he had served so faithfully be- fore. A new President of the United States was to be chosen. He attended several political conventions — one State convention — was a delegate from Kentucky to the National convention at Chicago, in 1860, and was made somewhat conspicuous there by a response which he gave in reply to an address of welcome. Though his personal preference was for Mr. Chase, he went with the current for "Old Abe," working hard and voting for his nomination,

•Fifty Yeaw Among Aothore, Books and Publishers. J. C. Derby, 1884.

William Davis Gallagher. 463

against that of William H. Seward ; and was one of those who carried the news to Springfield. In these and other public ways, he rendered himself so objectionable to the great mass of the people in his neighborhood, who were opposed to the election of Mr. Lincoln, that a public meet- ing was called and held within a mile of his house, for the purpose of giving him notice to leave the State. The sit- uation was now dramatic in earnest, and might have be- come tragic, had it not been for the personal friendship of some of his political opposers. On the day of the threat- ened violence, Mr. Gallagher had intended to go from his home to Cincinnati. At Pewee Station, his friend, Mr. Haldeman, called out : " Gallagher, have you seen Dr. Bell ?" " ]N'o." " He says they are going to mob you ; there is a crowd at Beard's Station, and they swear you must leave the State." Dr. Bell came up and advised Gallagher to go on to Cincinnati. " ^N'o, gentlemen ; if violence is meditated, my family are the first considera- tion, and home is the place for me. Mr. Crow" — this to the station-keeper — '^ let it be known that I am at home." Haldeman forced into Gallagher's hand a navy revolver, though the poet had never fired a pistol in his life ; an- other political enemy, but personal friend, gave him a big bowie-knife, and thus grimly over-armed he returned to Fern Bock, to the amazement of his wife and daughters.

The meeting at Beard's Station was a dangerous one, but Gallagher's rebel neighbors, with warm respect for the man and chivalrous regard for fair play, demanded a hearing. A stalwart young mechanic took upon himself to champion the cause of free opinion. " I hate Galla- gher's politics as much as any of you," said this gallant Kentuckian to the crowd, " but he has as good a right to his ideas as we have to ours, and " — with a string of terri- ble oaths — " whoever tries to lay a hand on him, or to give him an order to leave the State, must first pass over my dead body." The notice was not served ; but after hours of talk, the assemblage contented itself with providing for the appointment of a " vigilance committee " for the neighborhood and dispersed. The excitement died away,

464 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

and the Gallagher family lived in comparative safety ; the stars and stripes floated above the roof of Fern Rock Cot- tage during the six gloomy years of the war.

When Mr. Chase was made Secretary of the Treasury, Gallagher was invited to accept the same position under him that he had held under Mr. Corwin. As the war went on, it became necessary for the Government to ap- point a special Collector of Customs for the ports of de- livery in the interior, on the Mississippi river and else- where. Mr. Lincoln selected Gallagher for this important office. He was also made special commercial agent for the upper Mississippi Valley. By his vigilance, pro- visions and stores, to the value of millions, intended for the aid and comfort of the Confederates, were intercepted and saved to the Union.

In the summer of 1863, he was appointed to the office of Surveyor of Customs in Louisville, and at the close of the war he was made Pension Agent. His public duties were all discharged punctually and with the strictest in- tegrity. He made no money out of his country's mis- fortunes.

In the midst of official labor he found time and inspira- tion for the occasional use of his good goose-quill (for he never uses a steel pen), and he produced several stirring poems that did better work than many bullets. Chief of these were the patriotic ballad " Grandpa IS'athan," and the timely lyrics, " Move on the Columns," and " The President's Gun," the last a poem on the emancipation proclamation.

The echoes of battle died away and Mr. Gallagher re- turned to his quiet farm, planted flowers, made rockeries, and planned new buildings. He resumed the useful pen, writing masterly communications for the " Louisville and Ohio Valley Manufacturer and Merchant." One of his articles is on " Cotton and Tobacco," another on " Our Commercial Exchanges." Perhaps his ablest statistical discourse is one published in pamphlet form in 1879, en- titled " The Area of Subsistence, and its Natural Outlet to the Ocean and the World," a discussion of the resources

William Davis Gallagher, 465

of the great South-west, and a counterpart to his address in 1850 on the North-west.

In the reaction that followed the seeming prosperity stimulated by the war, Mr. Gallagher suffered financially, as did thousands of others. His property at Pewee Val- ley depreciated and he also lost money by unfortunate investments. Driven by necessity he earned his living by spending patient hours at the clerical desk as salaried secretary of the " Kentucky Land Company." In 1881, he was working, as he expressed it, " like a beaver," a statement that recalls his brother's complaint, more than sixty years before, that Billy was toiling " like a nigger."

If ever a citizen was entitled to government appoint- ment on the score of faithful public service, Gallagher was. Several of his political friends presented his claims to the President and the Secretary of the Interior, in 1871, His indorsers in Kentucky were such men as B. H. Bris- tow, G. C. Wharton, and John M. Harlan. Hon. Charles P. James wrote to President Hayes from Washington, " I am able to say that his reputation, whether as an officer or business man, has been absolutely without imputation of wrong or neglect. He has always been known as a remarkably hard worker, and as a man of great moral courage." A letter written by General E. C. Schenck said of Gallagher, " He can bring to the public service, high character, undoubted integrity, and great literary ability." On the back of this is written, with bold emphasis, " I concur in the foregoing recommendation. J. A. Garfield." It was Guiteau's bullet that prevented Gallagher from re- ceiving an appointment from the man of Mentor.

Incidental mention is made, in the foregoing narrative, of Mr. Gallagher's ringing lyrics of reform, and his songs celebrating the days of the pioneer. These made their author famous half a century ago, and were praised in the magazines by Percival, Sprague, Brainard, and James F. Clarke. There. is music as well as mental vim, and the huzza of " progress," in such poems as " Conservatism," which opens with th^ satiric stanza : 30

466 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

" The owl, he fareth well

In the shadows of the night ; And it puzzleth him to tell Why the eagle loves the light."

There is manly pride and moral vigor in the lines ad- dressed to the "Laborer," beginning abruptly with the admonition —

" Stand up— erect! Thou hast the form And likeness of thy God ! — who more ?"

Sincere emotion and faithful imagery give genuine poetic qualities to the buoyant rhythm and easy rhyme of " The West "—

" Land of the West — green forest land !"

And to the brave and breezy " Song of the Pioneers."

Fine and forcible as these eloquent and melodious pieces are, they are surpassed in poetical merit by the author's delicate lyrics descriptive of nature, such as his poems on " May " and on "August," and his lines to " The Cardi- nal Bird." These have been reprinted so often that they are accessible to most readers. There is a little poem, written by Mr. Gallagher in 1852, called " The Brown Thrush," which has qualities of sweetness and tenderness and open-hearted spontaneity. I quote :

" We trilled our morn and evening songs together, And twittered 'neath green leaves at sultry noon ; We kept like silence in ungenial weather, And never new blue skies come back too soon. • We sang not for the world ; we sang not even

For those we loved ; we could not help but sing, — There was such beauty in the earth and heaven, Such music in our hearts, such joy in every thing !"

The brief preface to Mr. Gallagher's "Miami Woods and Other Poems," published in Cincinnati in 1881, tells U8 that nearly the entire contents of the volume, except- ing the miscellaneous poems "appear in print now for the first time, though written at various periods between

William Davis Gallagher. 467

twenty-five and forty-two years ago." A subsequent vol- ume, in which will be embraced " The Ancient People," " Ballads of the Barder," " Civile Bellum," w^as promised, but it may never appear, for the first volume was not a financial success. The book, a handsome octavo of 264 pages, has its contents ranged in ^yq sections : I, Miami Woods ; II, A Golden Wedding ; III, In Exaltis ; lY, Life Pictures ; Y, Miscellaneous.

" Miami Woods " is a long work divided into seven parts, corresponding to seven periods in which it was composed. The first part was written in 1839, the seventh in 1856. The poem is essentially descriptive, though it abounds in meditations and reflections on various sub- jects— political, social, moral, religious, and philosophical. This didactic quality reminds the reader of Wordsworth's " Excursion."

Gallagher's verse paints the forest and field with na- ture's own color, and glow^s with the warmth of human iove and joy. " Miami Woods " is a sort of Thompson's ^- Seasons," adapted to the Ohio Yalley.

The following lines afford a fair sample of the verse :

i " Now from the stormy Huron's broad expanse, From Mackinaw and from the Michigan, "Whose billows beat upon the sounding shores And lash the surging pines, come sweeping down Ice-making blasts, and raging sheets of snow ; The heavens grow darker daily ; bleakest winds Shriek from the naked woods ; the robber owl Hoots from his rocking citadel all night."

Mr. Gallagher painted a true and quite complete pano- rama of the changing year in western woods. It can be said, in the words of Pope, that he made the groves

" Live in description and look green in song."

It can not be doubted that his book will be sought in the future, not only for its literary value, but because it

468 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

will be recognized as the historical daguerreotype gallery of woodland scenery forever passed away.

Very appropriate are the lines selected from " Comus," 88 a motto or key-note to " Miami Woods :"

" Well known to me is every alley green, Dingle, and bushy dell, in this wild wood, And every bosky bourn from side to side, My daily walk, and ancient neighborhood."

I have heard Mr. Gallagher repeat these lines, lingering upon each noun and epithet with a poefs relish of their deliciousness.

True, beautiful, and pleasing as are the best descriptive passages in " Miami Woods," tliere is a minor strain of subjective melancholy in the poem that moves the heart more than any delineation of inanimate nature. The im- pulse and motive of the composition are discovered in the simple, pathetic narrative, which, like a musical air, runs through the variable and wandering song of seven- teen years. Never was sweeter or sadder story told in prose or verse. No utterance more sincere ever fell from pen. It is the record of a fath<er's ineffable love for a fa- vorite child — a sympathetic, affectionate, and beautiful little girl, who, after manifesting extraordinary mental powers, was stricken with an illness that deprived her of memory and reason. After the lapse of many months, during which father and daughter were seldom separated, her faculties were restored, marvelously, by the direct in- fluence of sights and sounds acting upon her senses, in the depths of the forest. The first awakening, or emerg- ence of the mind from eclipse, occurred in a certain chosen haunt in Miami woods, associated by parent and child with many pleasures of " thought, sight, and admiration,'* in the years before the shadow fell upon them. The revived intellect seemed, for a time, more brilliant than ever, but a change came — Mary's health declined once more ; she faded away and died, leaving her heart-broken father the

William Davis Gallagher. 469

mournful solace of recording his grief and embalming her memory in verse. The central theme of " Miami Woods " is delicately suggested in the line from Keats, quoted as a prelude to the poem :

"A solitary sorrow anthemina: A lonely grief."

Mrs. Emma Adamson Gallagher, the poet's wife, died suddenly, of heart disease, at the family home. Fern Eock, Pewee Valley, December 26, 1867. She was the mother of nine children, of whom four are still living, one son and three daughters. The son, Edward Galla- gher, a business man of Louisville, Kentucky, is married and has a fine family. Mrs. Jane Cotton, the poet's eldest daughter, a lady of intellect and sensibility, and the wife of a well-known lawyer of Louisville, is, at the present, residing at Pewee Valley. There, also, taking affection- ate care of their father, in the old homestead, live his two unmarried daughters, Emma and Fanny.

In the seclusion of his quiet country-seat, surrounded by trees and birds and wild flowers, the pioneer poet of the West passes his tranquil days. To him life has always been worth living, and his serene piety doubts not that death is worth dying. Ten years ago or more, he wrote, in a strain not unlike that of Whittier's " Psalm :"

" We wait for the gates to open, We wait together, Faith and I ; And the twilight of life comes sweetly. As the years glide gently by."

This trust in the spiritual hereafter is the natural exten- sion and outcome of the hope for humanity on earth, ex- pressed by the young man, Wm. D. Gallagher, in a speech on " Progress in the West," delivered in 1850, which closes with the inspiring sentence :

"As comes the cloud over the parched land, and the rain from the cloud — as comes the green plant out of the

470 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

earth, and the flower out of the plant — as comes the bird with the spring-time, and the song with the bird — so, it 18 my faith, will yet come to man the full love of the Creator, and with it the Kingdom of Heaven upon. earth."

Amelia B. Welhy. 471

CHAPTER XVI.

AMELIA B. WELBY.

There were two women in the West who, by the pecu- liar charm of their poetry, and by their winning personal character, secured the admiration and love of the people in the fullest measure — Amelia B. Welby and Alice Gary. They were born but a year apart, Amelia in 1819, and Alice in 1820 ; but Alice lived almost twice as long as Amelia. In girlhood both were left without a mother's care ; each of them was fondly attached to her father ; both began to write while very young ; both preferred to sing of nature, love, and religion. I^either one of them had special, or even ordinary advantages of school educa- tion. Both attracted the attention of the critical Poe, and both were " encouraged " by Rufus Griswold. Pren- tice interested himself, as a journalist, in Mrs. Welby, as Greeley ^lid in Alice Gary. The southern poetess was born in Maryland, near the ocean, and is buried in Gave Hill Gemetery, Louisville, Kentucky ; her northern sister first saw the light at Mount Pleasant, Ohio, and now sleeps in Greenwood Gemetery, within a mile of the Atlantic.

Wm. D. Gallagher wrote in the Hesperian, of January, 1839 : " It is now more than two years since the sweet and thrilling notes of an anonymous poetess burst start- lingly upon the ear of the literary world, from the wilds of Kentucky. At once and eagerly were those enraptur- ing strains caught up by the melody lovers throughout the Union, and sung in every peopled valley, and echoed from every sunny hill-side, of our vast domain." The fervid and florid enthusiasm of this language fairly describes the effect of '^Amelia's " lyrics upon her contemporary west- ern admirers. She must have been in the mind of Pren-

472 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

tice when he made the simile : " The song of the poet, like that of the nightingale, bursts sweetest from the bosom of the wilderness."

Amelia B. Coppuck was born February 3, 1819, at St. Michaers, Maryland, on Miles river, an estuary of Chesa- peake bay. Her father, to whom Amelia's poems are dedicated, was a cabinet-maker by trade. The Coppuck family, consisting of the father, mother, and four daugh- ters, removed to Baltimore, which city of monuments was their home for fourteen years. Here the mother and one of the daughters died, and here Amelia's surviving sisters, both older than she, were married. In 1834, when Ame- lia was in her fifteenth year, her father removed with her to Kentucky, and ijaade their home, first in Lexington, but soon afterward in Louisville.

The memorials of Amelia's childhood and youth are few and vague. She refers to her early home and to fam- ily events in her poem, " My Sisters :"

" Like flowers that softly bloom together,

Upon one fair and fragile stem, Mingling their sweets in sunny weather,

Ere rude strange hands have parted them, So were we linked unto each other.

Sweet sisters, in our childish hours, For then one fond and gentle mother

To ufl was like the stem to flowers."

Born with the poetical temperament, she acquired facil- ity in versification almost without effort. Her nature was rhythmical ; melodious expression seemed instinctive to her. She did not " take up " poetry as an art — poetry took up her. Instead of wooing the muses, she was wooed and won by them. The spirit of song sought her and played with her " on the green mossy bank where the buttercups f^v^yr" and knelt with her " upon the dewy sod beside the moaning seas." Like Pope, she lisped in num- bers. Before she attained her twelfth year she was in the habit of improvising verses, which she would sometimes write in the solitude of her private room, or sing to airs of her own invention, while she rambled in field or wood

Amelia B. Welby. 473

or by the shore of the sea. Poe said that " Thomas Moore, singing his own songs, was, in the most legitimate manner, perfecting them as poems." This Amelia was doing, unconsciously, as she wandered along the ocean beach, and heard the tunes of the " dancing waves," " the laughing wind," and the " night-bird warbling o'er its soft enchanting strain." Emulous of song-birds, she exclaims, in her early poem, " Musings :"

"I'd give the world for their sweet art, The simple, the divine — I 'd give the world to melt one heart As they have melted mine,"

The fanciful girl did, in some sense, catch the '^ sweet art " of the birds, so spontaneous is the carol of her melo- dious lines.

The wild, wayward, passionate Maryland maiden blos- somed into full womanhood in Kentucky, surrounded by romantic, southern influences. We may imagine the emo- tions of the transition period. With the later teens come to impressible youth the melancholy days, the saddest of life's year. To the susceptible, introspective, sentimental girl, " sweet sixteen " brings tears without sorrow, dreads without danger, lamentations without grief, longing with- out definite object.

i^ot long after her removal to Louisville, Miss Coppuck formed the acquaintance of a '' kindred spirit," to whom she revealed her feelings without reserve. "Among her earliest associates," writes an old friend of Amelia, " was a lovely girl about her own age, w^iose heart was as warm and susceptible as her own, and whose genius was only a lesser light in the same constellation. They were for a time bosom friends — confidantes — inseparable compan- ions; and of this cherished counter-part the young poetess sang in the stanzas beginning :

" I have a fair and gentle friend."

A few weeks and this companion was a tenant of the tomb ! A slight injury received during a pleasure excur-

474 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

Bion threw lit r upon a bed of unabating pain, from which she never arose. This melancholy incident affected the young poetess deeply, and weeks elapsed before she could allnde to her late companion with composure."

This bereavement seemed to develop Amelia's emotional nature, awaken her deepest sympathies, and give activity to her poetical impulses. One of her first pieces was written in memory of her deceased friend, a poem entitled ** "When Shines the Star," of which the following verse is a fair sample :

" Lost one ! Companion of the blessed !

Thou who in purer air dost dwell, Ere froze the life-drops in thy breast,

Or fled thy soul its mystic cell, "We passed on earth such hours of bliss

As none but kindred hearts can know, And, happy in a world like this,

But dreamed of that to which we go, Till thou wert called in thy young years m

To wander o'er that shoreless sea, Where, like a mist. Time disappears

Melting into eternity."

Amelia made her first appearance in print in the year 1837, before she was eighteen years old. Her first poem 18 entitled " To a Tear Drop," and the second is called " Oh ! Dark is the Gloom ! " These, like most of her sub- sequent productions, were published in the Louisville Journal, after passing the criticism of the editor, George D. Prentice. Mr. J. C. Derby, in his " Fifty Years Among Authors," says : " Many persons surmised that Prentice himself wrote the poems signed 'Amelia,' until he denied it one day by saying, * I recognize their priceless beauty too well to spoil it in that way. I- never wrote a word of any of her writings. On the few occasions when she had used a word I would not have used, I sent her manuscript back with the defective word marked, and she corrected the diction herself. I never once aided or had occasion to aid.'"

Having begun to write for publication, Amelia put forth poem after poem with wonderful rapidity. It was like

Amelia B. Welby. 475

the sudden and beautiful blossoming of a peach-tree on a sunny day in spring. The seventy-five or eighty pieces which constitute the complete " Poems by Amelia " were produced within seven years. The publifc complained that after her marriage she ceased to sing.

Miss Amelia B. Coppuck was married to Mr. George Welby, a Louisville merchant, in June, 1838.

" There's a whispered vow of love,

As side by side they stand, And the drawing of a snow-white glove

From a little trembling hand. And the glitter of a ring,-

And a tear that none may chide — These, these have changed that childish thing,

And she is now a bride."

Mrs. Welby died, May 3, 1852, not quite thirty-three years of age. Her only child, a son, George Welby, was born two months before his mother's decease. He is now living, I believe, in Florida.

Ben Cassidy, author of a " History of Louisville," an intimate and valued friend of Mrs. Welby, thus described her personal appearance and character :

••'In person, Mrs. Welby was rather above the middle height. Slender and exceedingly graceful in form, with exquisite taste in dress, and a certain easy, floating sort of movement, she would at once be recognized as a beauti- ful woman. A slight imperfection in the upper lip, while it prevented her face from being perfect, yet gave a pecu- liar piquancy to its expression, which was far from de- stroying any of its charm. Her hair was exquisitely beautiful, and was always arranged regardless of the pre- vailing fashion, with singular elegance and adaptation to her face and figure. Her manners were simple, natural, and impulsive, like those of a child. Her conversation, though sometimes frivolous, was always charming. She loved to give the rein to her fancy, to invent situations and circumstances for herself and her friends, and to talk of them as if they were realities. Her social life was full of innocent gayety and playfulness. She was the idol of

476 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

her friends, and she repaid their affection with her whole heart. Her character was as beautiful as her manners were simple. Courted and flattered as she was, perhaps a little willful, and sometimes even obstinate, an appeal to her affections always softened and won her."

The praise, adulation, almost adoration bestowed upon this pretty, capricious, charming lady singer of the South, by the literary and artistic gentlemen of her acquaintance, were extravagant. The editor of the "Literary Journal and Monthly Review," began a laudatory notice of the fair favorite's poetry in these words : " There is something in this simple, three-syllabled word, 'Amelia,' that thrills the hearts of us western men whenever it is spoken." Prentice, Gallagher, Shreve, Fosdick, Plimpton, and many other Buckeyes and Kentuckians, gallantly tuned their harps and poured out th^ir souls in music to the Louisville idol. Amelia-worship raged epidemic. It was the very apotheosis of " Platonic " sentimentalism. One infatuated bard inscribed warm " Lines on a Picture of Amelia," be- ginning—

" Ah ! lovely shade, where beauty's image sleeping Rests like the sunlight on the crimson rose."

The homage offered to the living "Amelia," gave place to universal lamentation when she died. The literary pa- pers teemed with elegiac tributes. Both meYi and women wreathed flowers of loving verse to deck Amelia's grave. Floras B. Plimpton composed a dirge in which are the lines —

** Weave me a garland of the asphodel, The dark-leaved cypress and the mournful yew, Bring hither locust boughs from yonder dell, Wall-fiowem of scarlet, night-shades palely blue. And grave-grown myrtle weeping wet with dew. They do accord with mournfulness, and bear A sympathy to sorrow, and renew The hope of happiness, and breath a prayer For those who from our sight have gone where angels are."

Amelia B. Welby. 477

W. W. Fosdick published a passionate lament from which I make the following extract :

" Her glowing genius mantled her in rays, As seraph's presence sets the air ablaze ; And goodness, from her glances, like a charm, Fell e'en on frozen hearts, and they grew warm ; Her speech was ever liquid on the tongue, But music stood enraptured when she sung. And sounds, like pearls, fell from her mouth in song, Or rained like roses when the breeze is strong. Alas I in vain the traveler shall seek, Sweet child of song, beside broad Chesapeake, Thy childhood's home to find thee now ! And where Ohio's bright blue waters flow, Bearing the sunshine's gold upon his breast, Through the green valleys of the woody AVest ; There vainly shall the eye which reads thy lays Look for thy form, to bless thee and to praise."

The volume entitled " Poems of Amelia," was brought out in Boston, in 1844, and four thousand copies were soon sold. A new edition enlarged was issued in 1845 in ]^ew York. In a short preface to the seventh edition the pub- lishers, D. Appleton & Co., expressed their gratification that they had been " the humble instruments of making so widely known the beauties of this poet of the West." In 1850 the poems were printed in a sumptuous volume, 8vo and 12mo, illustrated with designs by Weir. Copies of this elegant book are carefully preserved among the house- hold treasures of western families. The Appletons pub- lished fourteen supplies of the " Poems of Amelia." The earlier editions were 1,000 each ; later only an edition of 250 copies was printed ; the last impression was in 1866.

The popularity of Mrs. Welby, unprecedented in the case of any American female poet up to her time, calls for some explanation. How did it happen that "Amelia's " untrained muse pleased so many people ? What was the charm of those simple verses that led children to commit them to memory, musicians to set them to note, lovers to learn them by heart, editors to keep them in the " poet's corner," and compilers of school readers and popular col- lections to reproduce them in conspicuous profusion ?

478 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

Edgar A. Poe says : " Mrs. Amelia B. Welby has nearly all the imagination of Maria del Occidente, with a more refined taste ; and nearly all the passion of Mrs. ]^orton, with a nicer ear, and (what is surprising) equal art. Very few American poets are at all comparable with lier in the true poetic qualities. As for our 'poetesses (an absurd but necessary word), few of them approach her." (The sig- nificance of Poe's reference to Maria Brooks — Maria del Occidente — is heightened when we remember that Southey pronounced her "the most impassioned* and the most im- aginative of all poetesses.) Poe goes on to say : " With some modifications, this little poem would do honor to any one living or dead." He then gives in full the piece called " The Bereaved," and proceeds to criticise it minutely at a length of three printed pages, closing the criticism in this language : " Upon the whole, there are some poets in Amer- ica (Bryant and Sprague, for example), who equal Mrs. Welby in the negative merits of that limited versification which they chiefly affect — the iambic pentameter — but none equal her in the richer and positive merits of rhyth- mical variety, conception, invention. They, in the old routine, rarely err. She often surprises, and always de- lights, by novel, rich, and accurate combination of the ancient musical expressions."

Mrs. Welby's vivid imagination, her luxuriant fancy, her susceptibility to rhythmic beauty, needed no other in- fluence than that of nature to inspire them. Her poems are purely original. They are remarkable for the absence of literary allusion. They are independent of mythology. The odor of the library does not mingle with the perfume of their flowers. The author appears not to have thought of what others might think of her writings. As the poem came to her, she gave it to the world, unconscious of its faults as of its felicities. Expression was a neces- sity and a relief. I imagine that the untrained writer, penning her exhuberant verses In new Kentucky, did not bother herself much about the critics. The impulses of her heart were not scared back by the vision of some fierce editor sharpening his pencil, in New York or Boston, and nurs-

Amelia B. Welhy. 479

ing an undying diabolical intention to stab her to death. IS^ov was she worried by that still more miserable fear that " the paper" would reject her " piece ;" nor did she cramp her genius or prod it for the sake of a five dollar bill.

The objects which excited "Amelia's" imagination and fancy, and called out her earliest poetical performances, were ocean, earth, sky, in their many aspects. The me- chanic's inspired daughter was enraptured with stars, clouds, rainbows, streams, trees, flowers and birds. Inan- imate nature was Aot inanimate to her, but instinct with life, intelligence and passion — instinct with communicable feeling. She does not labor to describe particular scenes or objects with pictorial minuteness — she uses her theme suggestively, seizing upon its " true poetic qualities." "What she does describe is truly depicted, both in external features and in its eliects upon the beholder. For exam- ple, her poem on " Entering Mammoth Cave " is singu- larly happy in its graphic realism, while it also conveys an impressive image of the solemn and awful character of the place described. The poem is very faulty in many ways, and yet its effect upon the imagination is powerful, because it gives a realizing sense of the vague, weird, gloomy fascination of Mammoth Cave. Prentice's excel- lent verses on the same subject lack the subtile elements which are the airy fabric of Mrs. AVelby's ode.

Whoever has trodden the gloomy labyrinths of the great Kentucky cavern will appreciate the lines —

" Hark ! hear ye not those echoes ringing after

Our gliding steps — my spirit faints with fear — Those mocking tones, like subterranean laughter —

Or does the brain grow wild with wandering here ? There may be specters wild, and forms appalling

Our wandering eyes, where'er we rove, to greet — Methinks I hear their low, sad voices calling Upon us now, and far away the falling

Of phantom feet."

Contrast with these resonant, slow-flowing, solemn ca- dences, the equally majectic poem, " The Stars," and mark how the measure soars to its brilliant theme — the verse

480 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

seems luminous. In this, as in other of Mrs. Welby's de- scriptive pieces, the utterance gives the impression of im- provisation—as if the singer were reciting impromptu, out under the open heavens, not framing verses at a studi- ous desk. The following is the closing stanza :

" But all in vain to thought's tumultuous flow I strive to give the strength of glowing words ; The waves of feeling tossing to and fro

In broken music o'er my heart's loose chords, Give but their fainting echoes from my soul, As through its silent depths their wild, swift currents roll."

This stanza reveals the working of that irresistible cre- ative impulse, which is called inspiration. Thoughts, emo- tions, images rush upon the singer's mind until she is overwhelmed. Her effort is not to think of some thing to say, but rather to resist the '^ thick-coming " visions that confound expression. Mrs. Welby's art is often de- fective, as the critic, and even the composition -teacher can easily show, but she has the inventive faculty, the origin- ating capacity which art can not give, but which, per- fected by art, produces faultless poetry. She chooses po- etical themes, and treats them with poetical skill. Her lines " To a Humming-Bird," and those entitled " A Dew-Drop," are as bright and dainty as the exquisite ob- jects they describe. The familiar song, " When Soft Stars are Peeping," coaxes the tuneless tongue to sing, and the lyric " Music," is music indeed. Then those delicious verses on " May," though excessively florid, are certainly charming:

" Sweet season of love, when the fairj' queen trips,

At eve through the star-lighted grove— What vows are now breathed where the honey-bee sips! What checks, whose bright beauties the roses eclipse, Are crimsoned with blushes! What rose-tinted lips

Are moist with the kisses of love ! "

Hardly anybody now reads the " Poems of Amelia." The children of this generation never learn the lines de- scribing " The green mossy bank where the butter-cups grow." School readers do not now contain " Musings "

Amelia B. Welby. 481

the *' Freed Bird," or '* Pulpit Eloquence," poems once fa- miliar to every household. Young ladies do not to-day quote " Hopeless Love," in their hopeful love-letters. And who any more sings to his light guitar :

" When soft stars are peeping

Through the pure azure sky, And Southern gales sweeping

Their warm breathings by, Like sweet music pealing.

Far o'er the blue sea, There come o'er me stealing.

Sweet memories of thee."

No ; Amelia's voice is hushed. Her book is closed. Now and then one turning the pages of some book of " Family Poetry," may chance to find the once favorite poet's favorite lines on the " Rainbow," and the title sug- gests the evanescence of shining reputation.

On a summer day I strolled through Cave Hill Ceme- tery with the " pioneer poet," W. D. Gallagher. Seeking the tombs of Prentice and Fortunatus Cosby, I wandered away alone, and presently lost signs of my venerable guide. Nor did I encounter him again until an hour had elapsed, when, in the course of my ramble I unexpectedly came upon him where he sat in meditation on a low wall of stone that encompassed a monument, on which was. carved in relief a woman's face. " I have found ' Amelia * for you," said the poet, in playful sadness. 31

482 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

CHAPTER XVII.

ALICE GARY.

Alice Gary claimed to be a lineal descendant of Thomas Gary, a cousin of Queen Elizabeth. Thomas Gary was the direct ancestor of John Gary, a Separatist, who came from England to Plymouth,- Mass., in 1630. Robert Gary, the father of Alice, was the second child of the sixth gen- eration from this Pilgrim father John. When Robert was but fifteen years old he migrated from IS'ew England with his father, Ghristopher, to Gincinnati. This was in 1802.

Robert Gary married Elizabeth Jessup in 1814, and set- tled upon a farm near Mount Healthy, Hamilton county, Ohio. He bought the farm on credit, and built him a small frame house. Robert and Elizabeth Gary had nine children, two of whom are yet living, Warren, aged sev- enty, and Asa, aged sixty-three. Alice, the fourth child, was but eleven years old when the ninth was born.

There was plenty of work to do there in the

" Woods upon woods, with fields of corn Lying between them,"

and in that make-shift farm-house,

" Low and little and black and old, With children many as it can hold."

The patient father toiled in the field, the gentle mother kept house with frugal care, and at last the farm was paid for (a twenty years' struggle), and then, in 1832, a new dwelling was erected. ** It cost many years of toil and privation — the new house," Alice said. The first to dedi- cate the new house were — two ghosts. The building was just finished; it stood near the old one, separated from it

Alice Gary. 483

by a little hollow. One evening, at the close of a sudden storm, Alice and others of the family, looking toward the new house, saw at its threshold, " Rhoda with Lucy in her arms."

But when they called across the hollow, to their awe Ehoda came downi stairs to them, having left Lucy fast asleep above. They all, including Rhoda, saw^ the appari- tions sink slowly into the ground in front of the very door of the new house ! Rhoda died the next autumn, Lucy a month after her. " Since the apparition in the door," said Alice to her friend and biographer, Mrs. Clemmer, " never for one year has our family been free from the shadow of death."

In a poem contributed by Alice to L. A, Hines's Herald of Truth in 1847, entitled " To Lucy," are the following characteristic lines :

" I see the willow and the spring

O'ergrown with purple sedge ; The lilies and the scarlet pinks

That grew along the hedge ; The meadow where the elm-tree threw

Its shadow dark and wide, And, sister, flowers in beauty grew

And perished side by side. O'er the accustomed vale and hill

Now winter's robe is spread ; The beetle and the moth are still,

And all the flowers are dead."

In 1835, two years after the death of the sisters, Rhoda and Lucy, the beloved mother died.

ISTo wonder that such a baptismal of grief saddened the whole life of Alice Gary. She was naturally buoyant, ac- tive, joyous. As a child she was fond of outdoor sports, running, climbing, swinging, and rambling in field and wood. Her brother Asa pointed out to me the identical rafters to which her swing w^as fastened in the barn. At school she was regarded as a tom-boy. Her will was strong, her observing faculties w^ere keen, her love of beauty was passionate.

Two years lapsed after his wife's decease, when Robert

484 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

Gary married again. The second wife, it is said, was not altogether congenial to her husband nor sympathetic with his children. Her temperament may have been incom- patible with that of the Carys, and, according to gossip, the part she played in the family was that which fairy tales usually ascribe to the implacable stepmother. But let us do her justice. Probably she had her share of provo- catiou to endure.

Mrs. M. E. Banta, of Franklin, Indiana, who, when a girl, lived just across the ""pike" from the Gary house, remembers the second wife of Robert Gary, a '' sweet- faced, gentle, old Danish lady."

At the time of the marriage, Alice was about seventeen years of age. She had thoughts and feelings of ber own. Nature, books, and maiden fancies were molding her silently. She was ambitious; she cherished an intense desire to study, and she had alread^j begun to scribble verses and stories. An irrepressible conflict arose between her and her father's wife. The stepmother insisted that the girl must work and let books and writing alone. She had no patience with what she conceived was foolish wasting of time.

So Miss Alice did work as long as daylight lasted — scrubbed, swept, milked cows, washed dishes, made beds — but when night came she read and wrote. Her sister Phoebe, about thirteen then, aided and abetted Alice in nocturnal disobedience. The mother will not permit the girls to burn a candle, but a " saucer of lard with rag wick " is the invention of their necessity. Here is Lincoln's pine knot over again. Here is the will making the way.

What did they read ? " History of the Jews," " Lewis and Clarke's Journal," " Charlotte Temple," " Pope's Es- say on Man," and the Trumpet, a Universalist newspaper from Boston. Yet more than books, they read what the best books are made of. They pored on nature. Books gave them an idea of expression. They readily imitated such literary models as they had. Very pathetic is the case of Alice Gary at seventeen — a shy girl in her loveli- est age — cramped by circumstances, but making sure

Alice Cary. 485

progress in spite of all. Well done, brave lass! Write verses by the lard lamp ; shut yourself up in your small, low-ceiled room, and think and write, and never mind if the hot tears fall upon the paper and blot the lines. Put your heart into your thought and your thought into your rhymes.

The world will acknowledge one of these days that a country girl, without a librarj^, without a seminary, with- out influential friends, without money, without a mother, with younger brothers and sisters to take care of, with irksome drudgery to do, may yet succeed in author- ship.

Alice Cary made her first appearance in print in her eighteenth year. She sent a poem, entitled " The Child of Sorrow," to the Sentinel, afterward the Star in the West,^ the Universalist paper of Cincinnati. " The Child of Sorrow " — theme befitting her case — apt key-note to the many mournful variations that followed.

The Star was for a long time almost the only publica- tion for which Alice wrote. Mr. Elias Longley, a com- positor in the Star ofilce when John A. Gurley^ edited that paper, remembers that the Cary sisters used to come to the ofiiice, sometimes with their father, but more frequently unattended, and bring little, nicely folded manuscripts. One day two contributions were handed in, and Mr. Gur- ley held up one of the neat papers, saying : ''Ah, another poet ; this is Phoebe's beginning."

Do the annals of literature afibrd a prettier picture?

Alice Cary had chosen her career. She had also entered into the self-reliance of womanhood. She was gentle and reasonable, yet as firm as grim Bess, her ancient kins- woman. The conflict with the stepmother ended in a compromise, with the responsibilities of victory on Alice's

* "The Sentinel and Star in the West" was started in October, 1829, by Jonathan Kidwell, J. C. Waldo, and S. L. Tizzard. Among its con- tributors were John B. Dillon, W. D. Gallagher, and Otway Curray.

^ Rev. John A. Gurley was an eminent Universalist preacher. He went into politics, and was elected to Congress, on the Republican ticket, in 1860.

486 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

aide. Robert Gary built a new house on the farm, and moved into ilj with his new wife, leaving Alice, Phoebe, Warren, Asa, and Elmina to occupy the old homestead, and order it as they would.

Alice and Phoebe now devoted a good deal of time to the service of the muses. They wrote for several different papers, and were cheered by friendly recognition. Mrs. Clemmer relates how Phoebe " laughed and cried " over her first appearance in a Boston paper. '• I did not care any more if I were poor, or my clothes plain. Somebody eared enough for my verses to print them, and I was happy. I looked with compassion on my schoolmates. You may know more than I do, I thought, but you can't write verses that are printed in a newspaper ; but I kept my joy and triumph to myself." How sustaining this universal, " I can do something that you can't?" Proud Thomas Carlyle, like modest young Phoebe Gary, required the support of conscious victory. ** One or twice among the flood of equipages at Hyde Park Gorner, I recollect sternly thinking, ' Yes ; and perhaps none of you could do what I am at.' "

The enthusiastic, practical Phoebe seems to have been a sort of business agent for the poetical firm at its outset. Very soon the girls began to speculate on the possibility of earning something by means of the pen. To be a con- tributor is much — but to hQ 2i paid contributor — that were fame — for them. 1 have before me the original of a letter written to Mr. Lewis J. Gist,^ in 1845, and signed P. Gary, for A. and P. Gary. The letter is without an envelope,

* U«wb J. Cist, the gentleman to whom this personal appeal was ad- ditMiHMl, was a well-known citizen of Cincinnati, a brother of General Henry M. Cist. He was born in Harmonyf Pennsylvania, November 30, 1818. He came to Cincinnati in 1827, and died there March 31, 1885. The work of his life was the accumulation of autoj^raphs, of which he had the most complet4^ collection in the United States, and one of the lailgest in the world. It comprised about twelve thousand letters and docomento, illustraUMl with fifteen thousand engraved portraits and viewt. Mr. Cist was a poet of local celebrity A volume from his pen, entitled "Trifles in Verse," was published in 1845, by Robinson and Jones, Cincinnati.

Alice Gary. 487

folded and wafered, in the old-fashioned way, and was mailed at Mount Healthy, the five cents postage prepaid :

" Mt. Healthy, November 2, 1845. " Mr. L. J. Cist :

" Dear Sir — If (being a spirit of his order) you agree with the poet that a ' necessary act incurs no blame,' I shall be permitted to waive apologetic formula, as I am under the necessity of troubling you for information rela- tive to the compensation usually given by Eastern maga- zines for poetic contributors.

"Awaiting an answer at your earliest convenience, I am, with sentiments of regard,

" P. Gary, for A. and P. Gary."

In 1846, Alice and Phoebe both wrote for the Gasket, a literary paper published in Gincinnati by Emerson Ben- nett, the voluminous writer of sensational stories.

Among the Western editors who encouraged the Gary sisters in the beginning of their career was L. A. Hine, the reformer. Mr. Hine's first periodical, the Quar- terly Journal and Review, was begun and ended in 1846. Miss Alice Gary wrote two poems for this journal, one called " The Past and Present," the other " Hannibal's Lament for His Brother." When Hine's Herald of Truth appeared, in 1847, Alice and Phoebe contributed to its columns very often. Indeed, Hine and the Gary girls were intimate friends, " like brother and sisters."

It was through the influence of Gallagher and Hine that Alice Gary became acquainted with Dr. Gamaliel Bailey, who was the first editor that paid her any thing for her contributions. Dr. Bailey went from Gincinnati to Washington in 1847, and started the i^ational Era, famous afterward as the paper in which " Uncle Tom's Gabin " was first printed, and for which Mr. Ilowells wrote some of his early pieces. Alice wrote poems and sketches for the Era under the pseudonym, " Patty Lee." After she had been writing several months. Dr. Bailey sent her ten dollars, the first pecuniary overflow of her ink bottle.

488 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

Referring to the beginning of her literary experience, she says : " The poems I wrote in those times, and the praises they won me, were to my eager and credulous ap- prehension the prophecies of wonderful things to be done in the future. Even now, when I am older, and should be wiser, the thrill of delight with which I read a letter full of cordial encouragement and kindness from the charming poet, Otway Curry, is in some sort renewed. Then the voices that came cheeringly to my lonesome and obscure life from across the mountains — how precious they were to me ! Among these the most cherished are Edgar A. Poe and Eufus W. Griswold."

Qriswold's "American Female Poets " was issued in

1848. The editor says of the Gary girls : " It is but two or three years since I first saw the name of either of them, in a western newspaper, and of nearly a hundred of the poems which are now before me, probably not one has been written more than that time." He then quotes from a letter of Alice Gary's, in which she says : " We write with much facility, often producing two or three poems in a day, and never elaborate. We have printed, exclusive of our early productions, some three hundred and fifty, which those in your possession fairly repre- sent."

Here is a prolific pen ! In this copiousness of expres- sion is a secret of success ; and, alas ! also of failure. " We never elaborate." Fatal omission.

Poe's clieering words are in reference to the poem enti- tled a " Picture of Memory," which he says is one of the most musically perfect lyrics in the language.

Through the agency of Mr. Griswold, the first volume of poems by Alice and Phoebe Gary was brought out. This was published by Moss & Bro., of Philadelphia,

1849. " We are to receive for it $100," wrote the thrifty Phcebe to a friend.

The red-letter year, 1849, dates the beginning of the Caryg* acquaintance with Whittier, by letter, and with Horace Greeley, who that year visited them at Mount

Alice Cary. 489

Healthy. Greeley must have known them as contributors to the Universalist newspaper.

The book was published and went its way, finding friends. The next year the sisters made their first pil- grimage to the East — to New York, to Boston, to Ames- bury. Whittier thus describes their appearance at his home :

" Timid and young, the elder had Even then a smile too sweetly sad ; The crown of pain that all must wear Too early pressed her midnight hair.

" Yet, ere the summer eve grew long, Her modest lips were sweet with song, A memory haunted all her words, Of clover-fields and singing birds.

" Her dark, dilating eyes expressed The broad horizons of the West ; Her speech dropped prairie flowers, the gold Of harvest wheat about her rolled.

" Fore-doomed to song she seemed to me ; I queried not with destiny, I knew the trial and the need, Yet all the more, 1 said, God speed !"

The " trial and the need " lay hard ahead. This visit to the East prepared the way for permanent residence there. Mrs. Clemmer says : " In I^ovember of the same year (1850), Alice Cary, broken in health, sad in spirit, with little money, but w^ith a will which no difficulty could daunt, an energy and patience which no pain or sorrow could overcome, started alone to seek her fortune and to make for herself a place and a home in the city of N'ew York." Referring to this, the year before her death, she said : " Ignorance stood me in the stead of courage. Had I known the great world as I have learned it since, I should not have dared ; but I didn't. Thus I came."

From Clovernook to the metropolis — what a change of worlds ! She went to the great, roaring city, but she took the tranquil country along ; she removed to the East, but

490 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

the West was in her heart ; and in her heart was the sting of a disappointed love, not yet quite hopeless.

And now began a grim struggle, I might almost say for bread. Yet she had one staunch, practical friend, her brother-in-law, Alexander Swift. Mr. Swift had married Susan, an older sister of Alice Gary. He accompanied the sisters on their first journey to the East, and he as- sisted them afterward in obtaining a place to live.

Alice came to New York in November, 1850; Phoebe and Elmina, the youngest of the Gary family, joined her the next spring. The sisters spent the first year of their life in New York at the American Hotel, a favorite resort of literary folk, kept by a refined and agreeable ex-pub- lisher, Daniel Bixby, from Lowell. Gooper, Irving, Hal- leck, and other notables had occupied apartments in the American Hotel, and their patronage had given the place a sort of classic charm.

Having come to New York to try her literary fortunes, Alice Gary went to work systematically to make a book. She collected for the press thirty-five of her short stories and studies of country life in Ohio, under the title, " Glov- ernook; or. Recollections of our Home in the West." The volume was published in 1851. The author said in her preface: "I confess I have no invention, and I am alto- gether too poor an artist to dream of any success which may not be won by the simplest fidelity."

The exact truthfulness and felicitous local coloring of the Clovernook papers must be acknowledged and appre- ciated by every reader who has seen or studied farm-life in the Ohio Valley. The blemish of these exquisite stories is that which attaches also to Alice Gary's poetry, namely, the all-pervading sadness of the themes chosen. There is scarcely a story in either volume of the " Recollections " (a second series was issued) that comes out happily. How- ever cheerfully the tale may begin, and however comical may be its incidents, there is sure to be a death -bed some- where in the narrative, and a tombstone at the finis. Not- withstanding the depressing quality interfused throughout

Alice Gary. 491

the book, it was popular, and still holds a place in the market, a new edition having been brought out in 1884.

Early in 1852, Susan, the first wife of Alexander Swift, died in Cincinnati. Elmina returned from ISTew York to attend her sister in her last illness. Bereaved and lone- some, Alice and Phoebe kept on at their bread-winning labors, writing for various journals and preparing material for new books. Melancholy meditation deepened the gloomy habit already fixed upon Alice's mind. In Feb- ruary, 1852, she wrote as follows to her kinsman, Wm. D. Gallagher, then the private secretary of Thomas Corwin at Washington City :

ALICE GARY TO WM. D. GALLAGHER.

" :NrEW York, February 11, 1852.

^' My Dear Mr. Gallagher — It is a long time since I had a very kind letter from you, for which I thank you most sincerely. I have been for two months unable to write, or it should have been acknowledged before. I hoped to see you in Washington during the winter, but all my plans failed most unhappily. The illness and death of a sister in Cincinnati called Elmina from us in ]^ovember, so we have had a lonesome time. Indeed, life has little charm for me any more.

" In April I shall probably go West myself. I am weary of this continual effort to live — beside, I like the simple way of life to which I have been used.

" Will you not come and be my neighbor? How I wish you would — and sometimes we can meet in some ' homely beanvine bower,' and talk of poetry. By the way, I am getting a little volume ready for the press, but I don't sup- pose it will bring me either ' love or money.'

" You did not come to see us when here, as I hoped — ' The w^orld and your great ofiice,' I suppose, as Mark Antony said.

" It is a dull, rainy day, and I am dull, too. What would I not give to feel once more young at heart — as though there were anything to live for.

492 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

" But I did not mean to inflict all this upon you — par- don me.

" You see I am a sorry correspondent, but I shall be just as happy to hear from you as though I were ever so gay, and perhaps next time I shall do better — that I am scarcely able to sit up may be some excuse for me.

" With every wish for your happiness, I am sincerely yours, Alice Gary."

About three months later the following letter was written :

ALICE GARY TO WM. D. GALLAGHER.

" New York, Aj>ril 26, 1852.

" My Dear Mr. Gallagher — It is a long time since I had your very kind letter, and I have been delayed writing because I had a great deal to do, because my health has been wretched, and because I have been in sad spirits, and you scolded me for writing sadly before. How, my dear friend, am I to help it? My youth of years, my youth of heart is gone. Since I was old enough to think the plummet of agony has been sinking deeper and deeper in my soul. Since I came from home a dearly loved sis- ter has gone down to death ; a brother with whom I played about the old homestead has gone far away, a crushed and miserable wanderer ; between Phoebe and myself the close sympathy has been broken by religious difter- ence. God knoweth I would fain be right, if in the wrong, but I see not as she does, and this grieves me and that grieves her, and that grieves me again. I think I have good feelings and right impulses sometimes — perhaps not — but what is all this to you ?

" I do not mean to write sadly, and yet I want to pour out my heart somewhere, and you wrote to me kindly, and seem to be my friend, and I have known so little kindness you can not know how I prize it. I wish you knew me better. I wish we could see more of each other. Yes, with all my faults and failings, I wish you knew me better. I should like to talk to you on all the past and the future, with no reserve and formality, but as friend

Alice Gary. 493

with friend. But what will you think of me for writing as I do? I don't know. My mood unfits me for writing at all to-day, and I should still delay but that I leave this afternoon for Cincinnati, and have much work waiting me, and when I am there and find vacant places and new graves, and my father, old and bowed with sorrow, I shall be in no gayer mood to write to you.

"Will you not come West this summer? I hope so. And write soon. I will reply promptly — more cheerfully, if I can.

" Dr. Bailey came to see me twice, a week ago, but I chanced to be away from home, the first time I have been out of the city for a year and a half. I am very sorry I did not see him, and especially under the circumstances.

'^ He is not much my friend, I fear. I had never quite given up the idea of coming to Washington till now. I have enough to do, more than I can do worthily, I am afraid, but I must write — chiefly because I must live, and not that I have an idea that I have much influence, good or bad. I would fain do something before my little life is rounded by a sleep, but I never shall — they will fit a slab of granite so gray and Alice lie under the stone, one of these days.

" The world flourishes with you, I hope. Address me at Cincinnati. I shall be there for the present, but I only see my way clear for a month or two, and shall probably drift with the current. I have some half-formed schemes of traveling. Forgive my egotism — I see I have Avritten of nothing but myself. Very truly your friend,

"Alice Cary."

From the time that Alice Cary began to write girlish rhymes, by the light of a rag soaked in lard-oil, to the year of her death, she worked with the pen incessantly. When, at the age of thirty, she left Clovernook and took up her residence in New York, resolving to become a pro- fessional author, she had had fully twelve years' practice in the art of written expression. She had tried her " 'pren- tice ban'" in a dozen periodicals, and had accumulated

494 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

abundant material for the composition of books. Besides writing for publication, she wrote many letters. One of her correspondents, at the time of her busiest activity in New York, was Miss S. I^. Venable, of Ridgeville, Ohio, now Mrs. Lundy, of Los Angeles, California.

The first lengthy story by Alice Gary was contributed as a serial to the Cincinnati Dollar Weekly Commercial. This was " Hagar, a Story of To-day." Redfield published it in 1852. A second series of " Clovernook " stories was the next fruit of the prolific Cary pen. Then came a book of verse, " Lyra, and Other Poems," issued in 1853. The following year Ticknor & Fields brought out " Clovernook Children," a charming juvenile that should not be sufiered to go out of circulation.

It is not generally known that in 1854 Alice Cary was the assistant editor of the Parlor Magazine, a monthly literary periodical started by Jethro Jackson, and pub- lished by Applegate & Co., Cincinnati.

A complete collection of Miss Cary's poems to date, dedicated to R. W. Griswold, was published by Ticknor & Fields in 1855. The edition unquestionably contains the best, though not the maturest of the author's productions. The volume met with general favor, and established the reputation of Alice Cary as a poet. But it was mercilessly criticised in some quarters.

A reviewer in Putnam's Monthly said : " It is a sob in three hundred and ninety-nine parts. Such terrific mor- tality never raged in' a volume of the same size before. It is a parish register of funerals rendered into doleful rhyme." These sentences and their like caused Alice much pain. Perhaps, had the critic known the dismal history of the poet's disappointments and griefs, he would have restrained his witty ridicule. Mrs. Clemmer touch- ingly says : " Remembering the bereaved and lonely girl, whose daily walk ended in the graveyard on the hillside, where her mother and sister slept, how could her early song escape the shadow of death and the vibration of sor- row? With her it was the utterance of actual loss, not the morbid sentimentalism of poetic youth."

Alice Gary. 495

The critic, however, could not be supposed to know the peculiar misfortunes of the author, and his strictures, though disagreeable, were not altogether unjust. He ad- mits, at the end of his review, that " Miss Gary writes much better verse than most women who publish poetry." The very extravagance of his ridicule helped to sell the abused book, and while the criticism pained Alice Gary, it must have taught her the bitter-sweet truth that Irving puts upon the lips of Buckthorn : " Take my word for it, the only happy author in this world is he who is below the cares of reputation."

While the vivisecting critic of '' Putnam's " was anato- mizing " Lyra," an equally pungent but more generous reviewer in the West, Goates Kinney, was writing an elab- orate article on the " Poetry of Alice Gary." Kinney, like the Putnam critic very humorously ridicules the ele- giac element of " Lyra," but he heals all wounds by pro- nouncing Alice Gary "emphatically the first poetess of the ISTew World." He adds : " There has, as yet, been no other female intellect in our literature equal to the produc- tion of such poems as many in this book, and especially " The Maiden of Tlascala."

The year 1855 brought Alice Gary full in the eye of the reading and writing public. She realized her situation, appreciated her "means, culture and limits." She had crossed the Rubicon, and must go on with the war. She had her living to earn, and her reputation to sustain and increase. The resolute Puritan blood in her said, Perse- vere. Sensitive she was, but not timorous. She will fol- low the light of the " rag in the saucer," and find whither its glimmer shines. Something at least is won ; every sweet apple has a bitter speck. Dash aside the quick ris- ing tear of mortification, and take up the pen. Think, think, think — write, write, write; make the best of a scanty education, and go your own way.

Before 1856, the Gary sisters had given up apartments which they had rented and moved to No. 53 East Twen- tieth street. After the death of his first wife, Susan, Alexander Swift married her youngest sister, Elmina, the

496 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

"baby " of the Gary family. Elmina's health failed, and she desired to go to New York and live with Alice and Phcebe. Accordingly, Mr. Swift bought a house on Twentieth street, and the three sisters moved into it. Elmina, an invalid, continued with her sisters until her death, in 1862.

After Elmina's death, Alice Gary bought the property on Twentieth street. Mrs. Clemmer has given charming descriptions of this poet's nest — Alice's room and Phoebe's room and the library ; the pictures of " The Huguenot Lovers," " The Barefoot Boy," Rosa Bonheur's " Oxen," and the " Gupid," brought from Paris by Mrs. Greeley; the neat table, with books, magazines and sewing work ; Alice's writing-desk of rosewood; the pretty curtains; the stained windows; the furniture, trinkets and treasures collected, little by little, as the years sped by. The library passed into the possession of Major Glymer, Govington, Kentucky. The elegant mahogany table and two ecclesi- astical bronze candlesticks were presented to Mr. A. W. Whelpley, of Gincinnati, librarian of the Public Library. Mr. Whelpley is also the fortunate owner of valuable Gary autographs, and of Alice Gary's copy of Heine's Poems, with autograph.

Horace Greeley wrote reminiscences of the orginal Sunday evening receptions held in the parlor of the Gary sisters, at which Henry Wilson, Oliver Johnson, Edwin Whipple, Bayard Taylor, John G. Whittier, R. H. Stod- dard and wife, T. B. Aldrich, E. H. Ghapin, Julia Dean, Ole Bull, Robert Dale Owen, Justin McGarthy, and others not less distinguished were frequent attendants. It is said that some objected to these receptions because they were held on Sunday, and others aftected to disdain them on account of the "queer people" found in the assem- blage.

One of Alice Gary's warmest admirers and best friends was Robert Bonner, of the New York Ledger. This lib- eral man testified his appreciation by paying good sums for the poems which Alice wrote weekly for the Ledger. Greeley said that Bonner paid perhaps as much for lite-

Alice Gary. 497

rary contributions as did all the rest of the Kew York journalists put together.

Alice Gary's second novel, "Married; ]^ot Mated," came out in 1856. " Pictures of Country Life," one of her best books, was published in 1859. Then followed several volumes of her poems, including *■' Lyrics and Hymns " and "A Lover's Diary." " Snow Berries," a de^ lightful volume for children, was published in 1868. Then appeared another novel, " The Bishop's Son," first printed as a serial in the Springfield (Mass.) Republican. The author commenced writing a story called " The Born Thrall " for the Revolution, but her death prevented its completion.

This daughter of a western farmer was public spirited, patriotic — a politician in her way and a social reformer. Of course, she knew only the life that she did know, and formed her opinion accordingly. Naturally enough, she took special interest in the " Woman Question," which somewhat involves the man question. Alice Cary, the shy maid of Clovernook — is it not remarkable that she was chosen the first president of the celebrated Sorosis, or Woman's Club, in E'ew York city? On taking the ofiicial chair, she made her first and last public speech — simple, sensible, dignified and aggressive.

Alice Cary cherished her domestic instincts. She liked to sew. She superintended her own housekeeping; she went to market and bought her own beef-steak and vege- tables.

Regarding herself a "born thrall," under the sover- eignty of immemorial Wrong, she did not waste her en- ergy in repining. She lifted her woman's arm in self-re- liant courage, and cast off the shackles. She was of the self-sacrificing signers who dated a new Fourth of July for the subjected sex.

But literary composition was her vocation. As she grew older she became dissatisfied with the quality of her pen products. To her brother Asa, and to other of her inti- mate friends, she used to say : " I have done nothing ; oh ! 32

498 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

that I could live ten years longer !" The feeling is bit- terly yet sweetly expressed in the poem, " To the Spirit of Song — Apology," prefacing a volume of her poems.

. . . " Hear me tell

How much my will transcends my feeble powers :

As one with blind eyes feeling out in flowers Their tender hues, or, with no skill to spell

His poor, poor name, but only makes his mark,

And guesses at the sunshine in the dark, So have I been."

In 1862, when Elmina Swift passed away, Alice^ Cary wrote : " My darling is dead. My hands are empty. My work seems done." But the fates spun out the thread of life eight years longer. They were years of physical feeble- ness and suft'ering. Cancer, paralysis — terrible ministers of death, dragged the brave woman slowly out of the world. Alice Cary died February 12, 1870. Phoebe, her dear companion, died the next year on the 31st of July. The friendship of these congenial sisters is memorable in the annals of human tenderness and fidelity.

The history of Alice Gary's life in New York is mixed with painful incidents. The ambitious girl gained fame, but she lost the pensive delights of seclu'sion, and the soul- soothing pleasures derived from communion with nature. She fled to the city to escape memory and grief, and lo ! memory and grief met her on Broadway and went with her to her new house.

The solace of her days and nights w^as in recollecting " Clovernook." Forever she was sighing for the fields, the " new furrows," the " pasture green," tlie " clover blossoms," the " flocks," the " bees," and even the " toad stools " and the " thistle-flower " of beautiful Ohio. The longing for things loved in girlhood is told in poem after poem, but in none more forcibly than the lines appropri- ately named, " My Dream of Dreams," beginning:

" Alone within my house I sit ; The lights are not for me, The music, nor the mirth ; and yet I lack not company.

Alice Cary. 499

" So gayly go the gay to meet, Nor wait my griefs to mend — My entertainment is more sweet Than thine to-night, my friend.

" Whilst thou, one blossom in thy hand, Bewailst my weary hours, Upon my native hills I stand Waist-deep among the flowers."

J. C. Derby, the veteran publisher, gives the following anecdote, which amusingly illustrates Alice Gary's ex- travagant passion for the plants she loved : " I remember on one occasion all three of the sisters accompanied me on a brief visit to my residence on the Hudson near Yonkers ; it was in the summer time, and the lawn of clover in front of the house was fragrant with its blos- soms. .My wife had hardly greeted them before Alice sat down on the steps and deliberately took ofi' her shoes and stockings, and literally waded through the clover."

I have alluded to Alice Gary's disappointed love. The story is that of Evangeline realized — a true story, not stranger but not less moving than the Acadian fiction. A young man — the prince — came to Glovernook and wooed and won an expectant heart. This youth, the only beloved of Alice Gary, wears many names in her verses. It is understood that he was a person of high social standing. Alice was but a poor farmer's daughter. Objection was made to the alliance by the family and friends of the suitor.

The match was prevented. The lover, it would seem, was not equal to rope-ladders and a galloping steed. He was not Lochinvar, but the other young man, who stood dangling his bonnet and plume. Alice confessed her love for this unsatisfactory hero. Love is — love. Like " Jessie Carroll," she long continued to hope that he would return to her and make her his bride. Years went by, but he did not come — did not write. At last she saw in a newspaper the notice of his marriage.

Time wrought time's changes. The " sweetheart,'* in widowhood, did return.

500 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley.

A gray-haired man, he journeyed to New York and found his first love, a gray-haired woman, on the bed of her last sickness. That Alice Cary was the Evangeline and the Gabriel, too, of this sentimental story adds to its pathos. We may afi^ect to ridicule the fact, nevertheless it is a fact, as Alice Cary has intensely written that

" There are griefs more sad

Than ever any childless mother had — You know them who do smother nature's cries Under poor masks Of smiling, slow despair — Who put your white and unadorning hair Out of your way and keep at homely tasks, Unblest by any praises of men's eyes,

Till Death comes to you with his piteous care. And to unmarriageable beds you go. Saying, * It is not much, 'tis well if so We only be made fair. And looks of love await us when we rise.' "

Like Wordsworth's Wanderer, Alice Cary was a " poet sown by nature." She was endowed amply with

" The vision and the faculty divine."

Bacon thought that "' a painter may make a better face than ever was ; but he must do it by a kind of felicity (as a musician maketh an excellent air in music) and not by rule." By some such " felicity," Alice Cary acquired the accomplishment of verse. The prime quality in the poetical experiments of her girlhood, that won recogni- tion and praise, was the melodious quality ; her song sings. Much practice in the management of a few familiar meters gave her surprising facility in rhythm and rh}- me, and in the choice of agreeable words and apt figures. Having trained her art to fly on a bold, free wing, she sent it forth on new adventures. One is struck with ad- miration of tlie range and versatility of her power. Per- haps she wrote too much, too easily, and often for the ear rather than the understanding, especially in her younger years. However, the spontaneous outpourings of her

Alice Cary. 501

girlish muse are, as a rule, more poetical and pleasing than her later and more correct productions. There is a deli- cious flavor in her early harvest apples, not to be found in her fall pippins. She became prosaic, practical, merely useful toward the close of her career; thought more of doing good than of surrendering her emotions to the influence of mood and circumstance.

She excels in descriptive poetry. Her very best pieces are those which sketch the scenery and life most familiar to her childhood's experience. Her vivid pictures of per- sons and things observed by her in the vicinity of Mount Healthy, whether painted in prose or verse, will last, be- cause they are absolutely true and entirely original. Like the etchings of Diirer, they are inimitable.

Alice Cary transplanted to her verses, as to a garden, the characteristic trees and flowers of the Ohio Valley. She knew them all, not as a botanist knows, but in that passionate and sympathetic w^ay in which Burns knew the "gay green birk," and the '' crimson tippet" daisy. IN'or was she less lovingly interested in the form and history of animate things, brute and human. The flocks of the field, the birds, and the

" Sweet bees at sweet work about the rose, Like little housewife fairies round their fire."

were the objects of her attentive study, and the theme of her lyrics. Then, what a collection has she hung on the walls of memory, of portraits of real men, women, and children! There is the long procession of lovers, " Jessie Carroll," and "Annie Clayville," and " Mildred Jocelyn," and the rest. There is " The Farmer's Daughter," a char- acter drawn wdth Wordsworthian vividness. There is " Crazy Christopher," and, almost as good, " Uncle Joe," who dug graves and played the fiddle. How touching the story of " The Water Bearer," how strong that of " The Fisherman's Wife."

Many of Alice Cary's poems are so profoundly personal and introspective that criticism shrinks from examining

602 Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,

them as works of art ; they seem not to have been made by the author, but born of her laboring mind — children begotten of sorrow.

Through struggle and under tribulation she attained a serene faith, and a saintly piety. oS'o other poet has more beautifully expressed religious aspiration and trust in Providence.

A suitable companion piece to Whittier's " My Psalm," is Alice Gary's poem entitled " My Creed," which opens with the words :

" I hold that Christian grace abounds Where charity is seen ; that when We climb to Heaven, 't is on the rounds Of love to men."

On Saturday, June 24, 1881, the home of the Carys, situated about eight miles north of Cincinnati, was in- formally dedicated to the memory of the sisters. The ceremonies were simple. The place belongs to Alexander Swift, and it was his desire to associate permanently with it the .names of those whose literary genius made the word " Clovernook " known to the w^orld. A Quaker picnic party assembled on the grounds. Among the invited guests were several literary friends of the sisters.

Mr. Swift was persuaded to give reminiscences of the old times, more than forty years ago, when he first became acquainted with the Cary family. He read the poem, " Our Old Brown Homestead," and pointed out objects to which the verse referred. Then Phcebe's hymn, "- JS'earer Home," was sung, and short addresses or conversational monologues were given by B. F. Hopkins, Joseph Kinsey, Judge A. G. W. Garter, Dr. John B. Peaslee, and others.

The venerable brothers, Warren and Asa Cary, were on the grounds, pleased with the honors bestowed in the memory of their gifted sisters. Asa, a quiet, dry humor- ist, was induced to relate several anecdotes. To him Alice was wont to submit her verses almost before the ink was dry, asking his opinion. Often he would tease her by some such remark as " I can *t bother with

Alice Gary. 503

your poetry, I must go feed the hogs f or, " Well, I 'spose ni have to stand it — read away." Asa thinks the secret of Alice's fame was her truthfulness.

He can trace nearly every one of her poems to some reality which was its origin. He walked with me to the old spring and to the barn, and lifted a decaying board from over the deep, deep well, now without curb or sweep. I asked if he himself had ever committed the folly of rhyme, at which he smiled, shook his head, and answered : " I have no skill, but I know the real stuff when I read it,'' Of Alice, he said she was " melancholy by nature," not through circumstances, and he added, speaking of her misfortunes and his own, "I hope we will strike something better in the next world."

There was a very touching suggestiveness in the sub- dued, almost religious reverence with which men, women, and children moved about, contemplating the home and haunts of Alice Gary on that beautiful June day, set apart for commemoration. The sky was bright, and the land- scape seemed to give back a corresponding radiance, as if conscious that human associations had hallowed the place. Poetry had idealized every feature of the scene; each clover blossom had become sacred, and the dead leaf that lay in the path once trodden by the songstress was now a precious souvenir that the school-girl, picking up, placed on her heart.

I stood by the door, in the shadow of which they say Hhoda, with Lucy in her arms, vanished into air, a phan- tom— a spirit. I do not believe in ghosts, yet how sensi- bly true it seemed that June day that the spirit of Alice Gary lived and moved and had its being in the trees, and the grass, and the damask rose ; in the earth beneath, and the sky above, and the air around the Homestead of Glovernook.

INDEX.

Academic Pioneer, the 422.

Academies, planned in Kentucky, 162 ; the golden age of, 182.

Academy, the Kentucky, 165 ; Lan- caster, 178; Muskingum, 183; " Great Western," 426.

Adams, John Quincy, his last im- portant speech, 250 ; praised by Prentice, 390.

"Adena," home of Hon. Thomas Worthington, 431.

African Melodies, on steamboats, 268.

Agricultural Society, an early, 265.

Albach, James R., 31.

Albion, 111., founded by Birkbeck, 19 ; visited by Schoolcraft, 23.

Alcott, Bronson, his " Psyche," 79.

Alexandria, La., in 1823, 345.

AUouez, 4.

Almanacs, first printed in Cincin- nati, 50, 57.

Ames, Mrs. Mary Clemmer, bi- ographer of Gary sisters, 87; quoted, 486.

Andrews, Dr. I. W., on first library in Ohio, 135-9.

Anthology of "Western Poetry, the first, 273 ; list of poets represent- ed in, 274.

Antony and Cleopatra, W. H. Lytle's origin of, note, 284.

Anti-slavery agitation, 240, 246, 297.

Appleseed, Johnny, notice of, 211.

Ark, 37, 409.

Ashe, Thomas, the " bone-stealer," 16, 302.

Atwater, Caleb, Historv of Ohio, 26, 98, 379.

Audubon, J. J., ornithologist, 167, 311.

Aurora, The, Philadelphia, 391.

Backwoods, 32; Patterson's His- tory of, 32 ; strange rumors con- cerning, 325.

Bailey, Francis, down the Ohio in 1796, 15.

Bailey, Dr., Gamaliel, editor, 487.

Baker, Nathan F., sculptor, 323.

Ballard, Judge Henry S., and Mr. Flint, 346.

Ballentyne, Dr. Elisha, 175.

Bancroft, Geo., Ohio in 1750, 5.

Baptists, the, in Kentucky, 200; in Ohio, 203 ; in Illinois, 209.

Bar, the, of Yincennes, 259.

Barge or Bargee, described, 329.

Barry, Hon. Wm. T., orator, 244.

Bartram, John, botanist, 3.

Bartram, Wm., botanist, travels of, 1 ; praised by Coleridge, 3.

Bascom, Rev. Henry, D.D., Meth- odist preacher, 169, 213.

Bazaar, the, or " Trollope's Folly," 352 355

Bear, 'the," and Mr. FUnt, 334.

Beecher, Miss Harriet, begins her literary career, 378 ; early writ- ings of, 418.

Beecher, Henry Ward, his first sermons, 219.

Beecher, Dr. Lyman, 218; tried for heresv, 219; his children, 219, 412, 422.

Beecher, Roxana Foote, wife of Lyman Beecher, 417.

Belpre, Ohio, first Library, 135 ; books of, 138.

Benham, Miss Henrietta, marries G. D. Prentice, 409.

Bennett, Emerson, novelist, sketch of, 291.

Best, Dr. Robert, 310.

Bethany College, W. Va., 221.

Bible Society at Vincennes, 265.

Biddle, Hon. Horace P., sketch of, 83.

Bigelow, Rev. Russell, Methodist preacher, 216 ; his eloquence de- scribed, 217 ; anecdote of, 216.

Big Harpe, the robber, 286. (505)

506

Index,

Birkbeck, Morris, founds Albion, 111., 19; his settlement, 23; his books, 28.

Birney, Jas. G., and the Philan- anthropist, 240, 455.

Bishop, Dr. Robert H., sketch of, 176.

Bishop, Prof. R. H., sketch of, 177.

Bivouac of the Dead, the, quoted, 284.

Blackford, Judge Isaac, author, 262.

Bledsoe, Judge Jesse, 16G.

Bliss, Eugene F., 154; translates Zeisberger's Journal, 155; Pres- ident Ohio Historical Society, 155; makes catalogue of Tor- rence Papers, 159 ; quoted, 199.

Blythe, Rev. James, 165.

Boathorn, the, Butler's poem on, 331.

Boatmen, on the Ohio, habits of, 330; on the Mississippi, their wild ways, 339.

Boat-Songs, the French, 267; on the Ohio, 268.

Bolton, Mrs. Sarah T., poet, sketch of, 281.

Book, the first printed in the U. S., 36; the first in Kentucky, 44; in Ohio, 49 ; in Indiana, 52.

Books, of early travel, 1-24; his- torical, 24-34; the first printed in Kentucky, 44-49 ; the first in Ohio, 49-52 ; in Indiana, 52.

Book-making, in America, 36; in newspaper offices, 43; in Ken- tucky, 44-49 ; in Ohio, 49-52 ; in Indiana, 52.

Book-stores, 53-55 ; the first in Kentucky, 53 ; the first in Cin- cinnati, 53.

Boone, Daniel, explores Kentucky in 1796, 7 ; relates his life to Fil- 8on, 9; in Missouri, 18; a manu- script letter of, 134; where he went to school, 188.

Bonner,, Robert, editor, 496.

Bossu, Capitaine, French traveler, 1 ; admired by Carlyle, 2.

Boyce, Jas. P., of Kentucky, his library, 133.

Brackenridge, Judge H. H., writes for Pittsburg Gazette, 36; his " Modern Chivalry," 287.

Brackenridge, H. M., "Recollec- tions" of, 17.

Bradbury, John, botanist, his

"Travels," 17; meets Daniel Boone ; his lively style, 18.

Bradford, Daniel, conducts the " Medley," in 1803, 58-59.

Bradford, ' John, first printer in Kentucky, sketch of, 37 ; prints books, 44-45.

Brainard, J. G., poet, and Prentice, 388.

Breck, Rev. \Vm., pioneer preach- er 200.

" Brotherhood," the, on the Ohio, 95, 224.

Brough, John, his oratory, 247.

Brown, Henry, his " Illinois," 29.

Browne, Rev. John W., publisher, 41, 50-51.

Brown, Dr. Samuel, 166.

Brut^, Bishop, fosters learning in Indiana, 255.

Bryan, Daniel, poet, 273.

Bryant, Edwin, 461.

Bryant, Wm. C, as editor, 392.

Buchanan, Dr. Joseph, editor of the "Focus," 40, 48; of the "Cadet," 66; author and pro- fessor, 168.

Buchanan, Dr. Joseph Rhodes, ed- itor end author, 168.

Buchanan, Robt., 152, 153, 154.

Buckeye dinner, a, described, 317.

Buckeye tree, the, Drake's speech on, 318.

Buflaloes, 5, 6, 18.

Bullock, W., his travels in the West, 24.

" Buntline, Ned, and L. A. Hine, 90 ; and Albert Pike, 92 ; sketches by, 93.

Burnet, Alf, 84.

Burnet, Judge Jacob, his " N'otes " on North-western Territory, 27, 148, 149.

Bushwhacking described, 338.

Butler, Mann, sketch of ; his Ken- tucky, 25, 49; writes for West- ern Messenger, 73 ; founds Louis- ville Library, 132.

Butler, Noble, educator, 459, 461.

Butler, General Wm. O., his " Boat- horn," 65.

Byron, Lord, reviewed by Gibbs Hunt, 64.

Cadet, the Literary, 66.

Cairo, in 1815, 337.

Caldwell, Dr. Chas., the "American Spurzheim," sketch of, 166, 206.

Caldwell, John D., 154.

Campbell, the liev. Alexander, or- ganizes Disciples of Christ, 208;

Index.

507

sketch of, 220; his debates, 221, 422.

Camp-meeting, the, origin of, 206 ; influence of, 207.

Cane, described, 11 ; used as torch, 23.

Cane Ridge church, the Ky., 207, 208.

Carlyie, Thomas, on the travels of Bossu and Bartram, 1-2; ad- mired in the West, 77 ; on Brother Jonathan, 172, 486.

Carpenter, Joseph, pubHshes West- ern Spy, 40.

Cartwright, Rev. Peter, Methodist pioneer preacher, his eloquence, 212-213.

Cary, Alice, edits Parlor Magazine, 87 ; poem by, 88 ; birth and par- entage, 482 ; the " two ghosts," 483 ; her youth, 484; first poems, 485 ; contributes to " Herald of Truth," 487; first volume of poems, 488 ; and Whittier, 489 ; life in New York, ** Clovernook," 490 ; letters to Gallagher, 491-3 ; poems and stories, 494 ; her home on Twentieth street. New York, 496; writings, 497; death, 498; her disappointment in love, 499 ; her poetry characterized, 500-2 ; her brothers, 502.

Cary, Phoebe, 484 ; first poems of, 485, 486; letter of, 487; first volume of poems, 488; in New York, 490, 496 ; death, 498.

Casket, the, 487.

Cass, Gov. Lewis, travels with Schoolcraft, 22, 410.

Cassidy, Ben., author, quoted, 475.

Catholic Church, the, 197, 200 ; in Indiana, 254.

Cauthorn, Henry S., quoted, 197 ; chapter by, 254.

Cavelier, French explorer, 4.

Center College, Ky., 169.

Centinel, the, first newspaper in Ohio, 40.

Chaiming, Dr. Wm. E., a letter of, 75 ; compares East and West, 76.

Channing, Rev. W. H., edits Western Messenger, 72.

Chase, Salmon P., his History of Ohio, 26 ; and the Ohio Histori- cal Society, 151 ; his oratory, 247 ; his verse, 275 ; his marriage, 410, 429.

Chitwood, M. Louise, 403.

Christian Church, the, founded, 208.

Church, first in Marietta, 202 ; first in Indiana, 254.

Cincinnati, first named Losanti- ville, 10; and Thos. Ashe, 16; visited by Nuttall, 20 ; first news- paper in, 40; early publishing in, 50-52, 66; first library, 139, second, 140; in 1813, 144^5; the Historical Society, 152; Literary Club, 154; the "Tyre of the West," 171 ; first schools of, 184; in 1805, 409; society in 1815, 333; intellectual activity in, 417; schools in 1833, 421, 424-5.

Cincinnati Chronicle, sketch of, 414, 428.

Cincinnati College, history of, 178 ; revived, 427 ; faculty of, 427-8.

Cincinnati Gazette, edited by Hammond, 393; by Gallagher, 428.

Cincinnati Society for the Pro- motion of Useful Knowledge, 426.

Circuit Courts, the, as educational agents, 237.

Cist, Lewis J., sketch of, 486.

Clarke and Lewis, their travels, 18.

Clark, Bishop Davis W., edits " Ladies' Repository," 100.

Clark, General Geo. Rogers, por- trait of, 263.

Clarke, Rev. Jas. Freeman, edits Western Messenger, sketch of, 72 ; letter from, 73-4 ; publishes writings of Keats, 75 ; and poems by Emergen, Holmes, and Very, 77-78 ; praises Hawthorne, 79.

Clarke, Robert, his Ohio Valley Historical Series, 34; a con- jecture of, 53 ; and the Ohio His- torical Society, 154-5, 378.

Classical schools, earlv in the W^est, 183.

Clay, Cassius M., mobbed in Lex- ington, Ky., 240.

Clay, Henry, and John Bradford, 37, 171 ; his schoolmaster, 89 ; his oratory, 242; extract from speech of, 243 ; at Ashland, 335 ; "Life of," by Prentice, 389 ; ad- mired by Prentice, 399.

Clemmer,*Mrs. Mary. See Ames, Mrs. Mary Clemmer.

Clermont Phalanx, the, 224.

Cleveland, Gen. Moses, 229.

Clifford, John D., naturalist, 62, 167.

508

Index,

Clinton, De Witt, statesman, 412.

Club, the Cincinnati Literary Club, 154 ; the Filson, 8, 35.

Cochran, J. M., quoted, 410.

Coggeshall, Wm. T., trip to New York, 84 ; on Gov. Morrow, 85 ; buys "Genius of the West," 109 ; reports Kossuth's speeches, 110; made state librarian, 110; writings of, 116 ; his " Poets and Poetry of the West," 110-17; Minister at Quito, and death, 118.

Coleman, Wm., editor, 392.

Coleridge, S. T., praises Bartram's "Travels," 3.

Colfax, Hon. Schuyler, as orator, 248.

College of Professional Teachers, the, 317, 420-21, 425.

Collins, Judge Lewis, his History of Kentucky, 25.

Collins, Dr. Richard, Ky., his- torian, 25 ; his library, 133.

Communism in Ohio Valley, 224.

Conclin, Wm., book-seller, 53-55.

Conway, Moncure D., early writ- ings, 105; edits Dial, 118; early life, 119; articles by, 120; his book reviews, 122.

Conway's " Dial," history of, 118-23.

Coppuck, Amelia B. See Welhy, Amelia B.

Cordelling, on the Mississippi, 337.

Corn-husking, 2 ; in Kentucky, 20.

Corwin, Thomas, sketch of, 244; his eloquence and humor, 245-6; and Gallagher, 456.

Cosby, Fortunatus Kentucky poet, 280.

Course of study in early Western colleges, 181.

Cox, Governor J. D., note, 118, 179.

Cox, Judge Jos., quoted, 410.

Craig, Rev. Lewis, Baptist preacher, 200.

Cranch, C. P., poet, writes for Western Messenger, 7(>-77.

Creoles, the, on the Red river, 346.

Crisman, Rev. E. B., on camp- meetings, 206.

Crittenden, Hon. J. J., orator, 244.

Cumberland Presbyterian Church, origin of, 207.

Cummg, F., travels of, 18.

Curry, Otway, poet, 73, 81, 102;

sketch of, 278; tribute to, 279; assists in editing Hesperian, 449, 488.

Curtiss, L. G., editor, 292.

Cutler, Rev. Manasseh, on educa- tion, 173-4 ; on religious liberty, 201.

Cutler, Temple, quoted, 324.

Cutter, Captain George W., poet, sketch of; his " Song of Steam," 279.

Dana, E., travels of, 19.

Dawson, Moses, editor, and Ham- mond, 394.

Dayton, O., first library, 146.

Debating societies, golden age of, 235; their utility, 236.

Deer, 5, 23.

Delafield, J., 148, 149.

De Lara, tragedy of, a rare copv, 378.

Derby, H. W., publisher, 456.

Derby, J. C, publisher, 462; quoted, 474, 499.

Dexter, Julius, 154; librarian of Ohio Historical Society, 159.

Dial, the Boston, 80, 120.

Dial, Conway's, 118.

Dickens, Charles, 3.

Dillon, John B., historian of Indi- ana, 27-28 ; note on, 73.

Disciples of Christ, the, organized, 208.

Doddridge, Joseph, " Notes," 32.

Dorfeuille, Mons. J., as lecturer, 68, 311 ; collects curiosities, 312; his " Hell," 314.

Douay, Anastase, French ex- plorer, 4.

Douglass, Stephen A., his debates with Lincoln, 248.

Dow, Lorenzo, sketch of, writings, 210.

Drake, Benjamin, writer, 68; his Tales of the Queen City, 290, 418.

Drake, Hon. C. D., his poems re- viewed in Western Messenger, 73, 418.

Drake, Dr. Daniel, on Cincinnati books, 51 ; his parentage and boyhood, 299; schooling, 300; goes to Cincinnati, 301 ; his pre- ceptor, Dr. Goforth, 302 ; studies medicine in Philadelphia and marries, 303; publishes notices of Cincinnati, 304; his picture of Cincinnati, 304-5; a founder of Cincinnati College, 305 ; creates a Circulating Library, 305 ; pres-

Index.

509

ident of School of Literature and Arts, 306; obtains his de- gree, 307 ; business ventures, 308 ; becomes a professor in Lex- ington, Ky., 308; founds social institutions, 308 ; his great med- ical work, 309 ; an admirable fighter, 309; his wide reputa- tion, 310 ; founds the Western Museum, 310 ; on intemperance, 315; his Vine street reunions, 316; aids the College of Profes- sional Teachers, 316; his speech on the Buckeye Tree, 318 ; views on western literature, 320; his writings, 321 ; death and charac- ter, 322; life of, by Mansfield, 430.

Drake, Isaac, book-dealer, 53.

Drake, Josiah, book-seller, 54.

Drake, J. G., contributor to West- ern Messenger, 73.

Drake, John T., book-seller, 53.

Drake, Samuel G., 158.

Draper, Dr. Lvman C, notice of, 92.

Drury, Asa, professor in Cincinnati College, 428.

Duane, Wm., editor, 392.

Dudley, Dr. Ben. W., 166.

Dumont, Mrs. JuUa L., 91 ; de- scribes a store boat, 101 ; sketch of, 277 ; tales by, 288.

Dunlevy, Francis, early teacher in Cincinnati, 184.

Dunn, Jacob P., jr., quoted, 162.

Durham, Howard, editor, founds "Genius of the West," 107, and the " New Western," 109.

Durrett, Colonel R. T,, brief sketch of, his life of Filson, 8; founder of Filson Club, 35 ; on old Ken- tucky books, 47; on Kentucky libraries, 129-133.

Dwight, Timothy, 412.

Earthquake, the great New Mad- rid, 344.

Eggleston, Dr. Edward, 104 ; taught by Mrs. Dumont, 277.

Eliot, Rev. Wm. G., contributor to the Messenger, 73.

Elks, 5.

Elliott, C. W., author, 417.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, Carlyle to, 1-2; contributes his first Poems to the Western Messen- ger, his genius recognized in the West, 77-78 ; writes for Con- way's Dial, 120; his "Conduct of Life," 123.

Eolian Songster, the, 56, 268.

Este, Daniel K., 152 ; sentiment of, 230.

Eudists, a religious order, 266.

Evening Post, New York, 392.

Everett, Hon. Edward, 229 ; speech at Yellow Springs, O., 230.

Ewing, Rev. John, 361.

Ewing, Hon. Thos., first college graduate of Ohio, 175; his ora- tory, 246.

Fairchild, Dr. Jas. H., quoted, 181.

Fawn, the Spotted, poem by W. D. Gallagher, 455.

Fiction, writers of, their themes, 286.

Fiddles, on western boats, 330.

Filmore, Rev. A. D., edits " Tem- perance Musician," 107.

Filson, John, his "Kentucky," 7; life of, by Durrett, 8 ; his adven- tures and death, 9-10, 163.

Filson Club, the, founded, 8 ; list of publications of, 35.

Fink, Mike, the Last of the Boat- men, 286.

Finley, Rev. James B., his narra- tive, 101.

Finley, John, first humorous poet of the West, 277.

Fire-hunting, 23 ; in Louisiana, 346.

Flaget, Bishop Benedict I., 254.

Flint, E. H., book-seller, his ad- vertisement, 54.

Flint, Hezekiah, portrait of, 323.

Flint, Rev. Jas., epitaph by, 323.

Flint, Micah P., poet, 70; notice of, 348.

Flint, Timothy, "Recollections," 17; his history and geography of Mississippi Valley, 31, 69; his " Review," 70-71 ; his literary creed, 70 ; birth and family con- nection, 323 ; early recollections, 324 ; becomes a preacher, 326 ; goes west as missionary, 326 ; crosses the mountains, 327 ; de- scends Ohio river, 328 ; describes river navigation, 330; visits Ma- rietta, 332; stops at Cincinnati, 333; visits General Harrison, 334 ; tour through Indiana and Kentucky, 334-5 ; describes Henry Clay, 335 ; descends to the Mississippi, 336-7 ; residence in Missouri, 340 ; at Post Arkan- sas, 341 ; describes the great earthquake, 344; at New Or- leans, 345; at Alexandria, La.,

510

Index.

345; visits the Sabine country, 346; returns to Salem, 347; his recollections published, 347; lives in Cincinnati, 348; writes Francis Berrien, 348; edits West- ern Magazine and Review, 349 ; a voluminous writer, 357 ; his translations, 358-9 ; edits Knick- erbocker Magazine, 358 ; returns to the South, writes life of Boone, 359; returns to Salem, and dies, 360.

Foote, John P., starts Cincinnati Type Foundry, 53; edits Lite- rarv Gazette, 66 ; his appearance, his'books, 69, 147, 152, 417.

Foote, Governor Samuel E., 412; sketch of, 417.

Force, Hon. M. F., president Ohio Historical Society, 153 ; quoted, 154, 156.

Force, Peter, 157.

Ford, Governor Thomas, his his- tory of Illinois, 31.

Fosdick, W. W., 114; as novel- ist, 296; quoted, 403, 477.

Francis Berrian, novel by Mr. Flint, 348 ; praised by Mrs. Trol- lope, 349.

Frankenstein, Godfrey and George, paint Niagara Falls, 84.

Free Enquirer, the, 224.

Freeman, Edmund, buys Centinel, 40 ; prints territorial laws, 50.

Frenau, Philip, poet, 391.

French explorers, the, in Louisi- ana, 1 ; on the Mississippi, 3-4 ; on the Ohio, 5; in Southern Illi- nois, 29 ; odd customs of, 30 ; at Vincennes, Ind., 197, 254, 256.

Friends of Humanity, the, in Ken- tucky, 240.

Frothingham, Rev. O. B., writes a work for Conway's Dial, 120.

Fry, Dr. Benj. St. James, notice of, 93.

Fuller, Sarah Margaret, contributor to Messenger, 79.

Fuller, Miss Meta V., sketch of, 112.

Gage, Mrs. Frances D., sketch of, 280; her popularity, 281.

Gales, Joseph, editor, 392.

Gallagher, Mrs. Emma A., 469.

Gallagher, John M., 81, 449.

Gallagher, Wm. D., reviewed in Western Messenger, 73, 74; his Hesperian, 80-1 ; president Ohio Historical Society, 152-3; edits Ohio State Journal, 449; edits

The Hesperian, 449; writes '*The Dutchman's Daughter," 450; his "Probus" letters, 450; assistant editor of Cincinnati Gazette, 451 ; candidate for state legislature, 451 ; letter to Curry, 451; to the same, 453; charac- teristics of his poetry, 454; his poem, *'The Spotted Fawn," 355 ; an opposer of slavery, 455 ; edits Daily Message, 45o; and Murat Halstead, 455 ; president Historical and Philosophical So- ciety of Ohio, 455 ; " Progress in the North-west," 456; withdraws from editorship of Cincinnati Daily Gazette, 456; takes one million dollars in gold from New York to New Orleans, 457; an anecdote about Corwin and Gal- lagher, 458 ; connection with Louisville Daily Courier, 459; a challenge from Prentice, 460 ; life and writings at Pewee Val- ley, Ky., 460-1 ; connection with the war, a threatening mob, 463 ; positions of trust under Lincoln and Chase, 464 ; war poems, 464 ; his poetrv described and quoted, 466-7 ; "Miami Woods," 467-8 ; his wife and family, 469; and Amelia Welby, 471 ; quoted, 426 ; Alice Gary to, 491-3.

Galloway, Samuel, orator, 98, 247.

Gano, Rev. Stephen, Baptist preacher, 203.

Garfield, Jas. A., praises Galla- gher, 465.

Gazette, The Cincinnati Literary,

Gazette, Cincinnati, becomes a

daily, 40 ; established in 1826, 52. Genius of the West, the, 66, 107 ;

contributors to, 110-11. Giddings, Joshua R., orator, 101,

247. Girty, the renegade, 286. Gist, Christopher, surveyor, crosses

Ohio, 5; in Miami Valley, 6;

with Washington, 6. Glass, Prof. Francis, his backwoods

classic school, 189; his life of

Washington in Latin, 189, 194. Goforth, Judge Wm., his diary

quoted, 184. Goforth, Dr. Wm., 301 ; sketch of,

302. Goforth, Dr., robbed of mammoth

bones by Thos. Ashe, 16. Gordon, Dr. Wm., 165.

Index.

511

Goshorn, A. T., donates Centen- nial Collection to Ohio Historical Society, 159.

Gouging, prevalence of, 339.

Gould, Miss Hannah F., contrib- utes to Hall's Magazine, 377.

Graham, Geo., 153; quoted, 154, 423-5.

Granville College, Ohio, founded, 179.

Gravier, French explorer, 4.

Greeley, Horace, and Gallagher, 459; visits Cary sisters, 488, 496.

Greene, Wm., Eulogy of, 419.

Grimke, Thos. S., 422.

Griswold, Rufus AV., author, 488.

Guignas, French explorer, 4.

Guilford, Nathan, writer and ed- itor, 419, 424.

Gulliver's Travels, a rare copy, 134.

Gurley, Rev. John A., 485.

Halstead, Murat, and W. D. Galla- gher, 455.

Hall, Judge James, historical writ- ings, 31 ; writes for Flint's Re- view, 70 ; his magazines, 71 ; lec- tures in Cincinnati, 250 ; his an- cestry, 361 ; birth and parentage, 362; schooling, 362; joins the army, 363 ; military career, 364 ; descends the Ohio, 365 ; his first book, 366; describes the back- woods, 367 ; law practice in Illi- nois, 368; breaks up a thieves' den, 369; his marriage, 370; starts the Illinois Magazine, 371 ; edits the AVestern Souvenir, 372 ; publishes the Western Monthly Magazine, 376 ; his controversial writings, 379 ; his books, 381 ; character of his writings, 382; second marriage, 383; his mer- cantile career, 384.

Hall, Captain James Harrison, 383.

Hall, John, 361.

Hall, John Ewing, professor, 362.

Hall, Joseph, and John Scull, printers, 36.

Hall, Mrs. Mary Harrison, 371.

Hall, Mrs. Sarah, writer, 361.

Hall, Wm. Anderson, his literary work, 383.

Halleck, Fitz-Greene, poet, writes for Cincinnati Literary Gazette, 69.

Hamer, Thos. Lyon, orator, 247.

Hamline, Rev. L. L., edits "La- dies' Repository," 99.

Hammond, Chas., journalist, writes

verse, 275; sketch of, 393-4; ed- itor, 451.

Hanover College, Indiana, 177.

Harding, Benjamin, travels of, 19.

Harding, Lyman, note on, 179 ; professor in Cincinnati College, 428.

Harmony, Rappe's fraternal settle- ment at, 23.

Harney, John M., Kentucky poet, 276.

Harney, Wm. Wallace, Indiana poet, note on, 276.

Harrison, President Benjamin, 176.

Harrison, Symmes, librarian at Vincennes, 264 ; president of Ag- ricultural Society, 265.

Harrison, Wm. Henry, governor Iildiana Territory, 52, 149, 180 ; toasts Daniel Webster, 234; as public speaker, 248, 257; his house at Vincennes, 258, 318; keeps open table, 334, 336, 337 ; life of, by INIoses Dawson, 394 ; his presidential campaign, 398.

Hart, A. M., his history of Mis- sissippi Valley, 32.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel, appreci- ated, 79.

Haves, ex-President R. B., quoted, lY3.

Havs, Will. Shakespeare, ballad- ist, 269.

Haywood, John, his histories of Tennessee, 25.

Hecke welder. Rev. John, Moravian missionarv, 198.

Hendricks, Thos. A., 248.

Hennepin, French explorer, 4.

Hentz, Mrs. Caroline Lee, quoted, 318; her novels, 377; her trage- dies, 378.

" Herald of Truth," the, 95 ; con- tributed to bv the Cary sisters, 487.

Herron, Joseph, 428.

Hervieu, August Jean, artist, 314 ; sketch of, 349 ; his pictures, 350 ; and the School of Fine Arts, 352 ; his portrait of Robert Owen, 352.

Hesperian, the history of, 80-81 ; started, 449 ; contributors, 450.

Hickman, Rev. Wm., sr.. Baptist preacher, 199.

Hildreth, Richard, historian, quoted, 392.

Hildreth, Dr. S. P., historical writ- ings, 27; writes for Genius of the West, 112, 135, 148, 153.

512

Index,

Hine, Lucius A., sketch of, 90; conducts " Literary Journal," joined by E. Z. C. Judson, 90; a reformer, 93; edits "Quar- terly Journal," 94 ; edits " Her- ald of Truth," 95 ; and " Quar- terly Review," 96 ; lectures and writes stories, 97 ; on virtue, 104 ; encourages the Gary sisters, 487.

Historical and Antiquarian Society of Vincennes, 262.

Historical and Philosophical Soci- ety of Ohio, 147-160; list of charter members, 147 ; the Cin- cinnati, sketch of, 152.

Hitchcock, J. S., 96.

Hobbs, Hon. Barnabas, anecdote of, 177.

Hoffman, Chas. Feno, author, 420.

Holy laugh, the, 344.

Hoop snake and whip snake, the, 325.

Holley, Rev. Horace, president Transylvania University, 165 ; his popularity, 166 ; his theol- ogy, 169.

Holmes, O. W., writes for Western Messenger, 78.

Hosmer, Rev. Geo. W., 73.

Household of Bouverie, the, a novel, 462.

Howe, Henry, his wonderful " Col- lections" of Ohio, his travels, 27.

Howe, Mrs. Sarah J., poems by, 102.

Howells, Wm. Dean, an Ohio man, 120; writes for Conway's Dial, 121 ; poems first noticed by Con- way, 121.

Hunt, Wm. Gibbs, writer, 40, 58; his Western Review, 62.

JJjinois College, beginning of, 180-1.

Illinois, State of, Filson in, 9 ; his- tories of, 28-31; first college, 180.

Indiana, State of, as seen in 1821, 22-23; histories of, 27-28; its earl^ press, 42 ; territorial organ- ization, 52 ; early schools, 180.

Indians, the, fight as they yield, 2. aii<l the Jesuits, 4; visited by (iisi ;iim1 Croghan, 5; at Piqua, Ohio, 'i; kill Filson, 10; on the Wabash, -L' ; their mode of de- coying dt*er, 23; conflicts with, 63, 170; the Moravian, 196; and French Catholics, 254.

Infernal Regions, the, of Western Museum, 314.

Jackson, Jethro, starts "Parlor Magazine," 86.

James, Hon. Chas. P., and Gal- lagher, 465.

James, IJ. P.,- sketch of, 56 ; pub- lishes Eolian Songster, 268.

Jefferson, Thomas, 161, and per- sonal journalism, 391.

Johnny Appleseed, notice of, 211.

Judson, Edward Z. C. (Ned Bunt- line), and L. A. Hine, 90 ; sketch of, 294 ; letters from, 295 ; obitu- ary, 296; conducts Literary Journal, 454.

Julian, Isaac H., sketch of, 105.

Justice, Richard, Cherokee chief, 341.

Keats, George, 75.

Keats, John, 74-5.

Keel-boat, the, 329, 336.

Kemper, Rev. Jas., Presbyterian preacher, 204.

Kentucky Institute, the, 169.

Kentucky, State of, 6, 7, 9-12, 14, 24-5, 38; first books, 44; first magazine, 58 ; libraries, 129 ; schools, 162 ; churches, 200, 206; orators, 244; society, 335, 382; people and customs, 334-5.

Kidd, Hudson A., 90.

Kidder, Rev. D. P., 101.

King, General Edward, 431.

King, Hon. Rufus, sketch of, 431.

Kinmont, Alexander, sketch of, 423.

Kinney, Coates, 96, 104; his Rain on the Roof, 108, 110, 495.

Kingsborough, Lord, 157.

Kossuth, 84; reported by Cogge- shall, 110.

Lady's Book, Moore's Western, 82 ; contributors to, 83-4.

Lafayette, the Marquis, praised, 68; in Lexington, Ky., 168; in the West, 229 ; historical picture of, 350; meets an old friend, 352 ; and Morgan Neville, 375.

Lancaster Academy, Cincinnati, 178.

Land Reform, 93-6.

Lake, Mrs. Sarah, first Sunday- school teacher in Ohio, 183.

Lane, Ebenezer, 148.

Larrabee, Prof. W. C, 100.

La Salle discovers Ohio river, 5.

Law, Judge John, his history of Vincennes, 28.

Index.

513

Laws, territorial, 49, 52.

Lawyers of early Indiana, 262.

Lazarns, Dr. ^I. E., translations from French, 121.

Leatherwood God, the, 226.

Lecturers in the West, 249, 252; from the East, 252.

Le Sueur, French explorer, 4.

Lewis and Clarke, their travels, 18.

Lexington, Ky., Filson in, 9 ; first printing press in, 87; libraries, 129-31; founded, 162; first schools, 163 ; a rival to Cincin- nati, 170 ; a seat of culture, 171 ; visited by Mr. Flint, 335.

L'Hommedieu, Richard, 456.

L'Hommedieu, Stephen, 456.

Library, the Transylvania, 129, 168; the Lexington, Ky., 129; its treasures, 131 ; first in Louis- ville, sketch 'of, 132; Colonel Durrett's, 133; curiosities in, 134; first in North-west Terri- tory, 135 ; the Putnam, the Bel- pre, 135 ; history of by Dr. An- drews, 135-9; the Cincinnati, 139; the Coon-skin, 139-40; the Circulating, 140; curious by- laws of, 143 ; strict rules, 146 ; the Ohio Historical, 157 ; Young Men's Mercantile, of Cincinnati, organized, 250 ; first in Indiana, 255 ; Vincennes, 263.

Libraries, 129 et seq.; private in Kentucky, 133; of Dayton, O., 145.

Lincoln, Abraham, boyhood of, 189; how he learned, 236; his eloquence, 249 ; consults Dr. Drake, 310 ; anecdote of, 400.

Lippard, George, novelist, 296.

Lisa, Manuel, king of fur traders, 341.

Literary Club, the Cincinnati, original members, 154.

Literary Journal and Monthly Eeview, 454.

Literary Periodicals, list of, 124- 128.

Little, Harvey D., Ohio poet, 279.

Lizst, anecdote of, 122.

Locke, Prof. John, a pioneer in science, 68, 113; lectures in Cin- cinnati, 250.

Long, Stephen H., travels of, 19.

Longley, Elias, phonographic pub- lisher, sketch of, 108, 485.

Longworth, Joseph, an oration by, 317. 33

Longworth, Nicholas, 282, 317; gives lot for Cincinnati Observa- tory, 416.

Lord, Mrs. C. W., librarian Ohio Historical Society, 155; describes Torrence Papers, 159-60.

Losantiville, named by Filson, 10.

Louis Philippe and Morgan Neville, 374, 375.

Louisville Advertiser, edited by Penn, 394.

Louisville Daily Courier, 549.

Louisville Journal, established, 391 ; rank, 403 ; contributors to, 403.

Louisville, Ky., Filson Club, 8 ; visited by Filson, 9 ; by Nuttall, 21 ; first newspaper, 39; McMur- trie's sketches of and Mann But- ler's sketch of, 49 ; the home of George Keats, 75; first library, 132.

Ludlow Station, sketch of, 410.

Lundy, Mrs. Newel Venable, 494.

Lytle mansion, the, 301.

Lytle, General Wm. Haines, sketch of ; his "Anthony and Cleopatra," 284.

Lythe, Rev. John, 199.

Magazine, " The Parlor," 86 ; con- tributors to, 87 ; edited by Alice Cary, 87.

Magruder, Allan Bowie, as politi- cal writer, 61.

Major, Colonel S. I. M., his list of Kentucky newspapers, 38 ; his library, 133.

Mammoth bones, 6, 16.

Mann, Horace, President Antioch College, 86, 93, 251.

Mansfield, Edward Deering, birth and early life, 409 ; life at Lud- low Station, Cincinnati, 410 ; at Mt. Comfort, 411 ; education in West Point, Princeton, and Litchfield Law Schools, 412 ; his father's distinguished friends, 412; goes to Cincinnati, 413; literary connection with Ben- jamin Drake, 414; edits Cincin- nati Chronicle, 414; forms law partnership with 0. M. Mitchel, 415 ; his " Political Grammar," 415-16 ; contributes to Flint's Review, 70, 417 ; services to the common schools, 421 ; educa- tional books, 427; professsor in Cincinnati College, 428 ; as news- paper writer, 428 ; Commissioner of Statistics for Ohio, 429; and

514

Index.

Governor Morton, 429; on the education and rights of women, 429-30 ; historical writings, 430 ; married life, 430-31 ; portraiture of, 432.

Mansion, the old St. Clair, 106-7.

Marietta, first school in, 182.

Marietta College, founded, 179.

Marquette, French explorer, 2, 4.

Manrat, Captain, 3.

Marshall, Humphrey, his History of Kentucky, and sketch of life, 24 ; life of, 35, 58.

Matthews, Prof. T. J., lectures on iSymmes's Theory, 68 ; teaches in Lexington, 167.

Maxwell, Wm., first Cincinnati printer, 40 ; publisher, 44.

Maxwell's code, 49.

McBride, James, his Pioneer Biog- graphy, 38.

McCabe, Dr. Lorenzo Dow, 175.

McClung, Rev. John A., his Sketches, 33.

McClure, Wm., geologist, 150.

McClure Working Men's Library, the, 264.

McDonald, John, his Sketches, 33, 101.

McGuffey, Dr. Wm. H., sketch of, 178, 422; President Cincinnati College, 427.

McKinney, John, and the wild cat, 163.

McLean, Judge John, orator, 247.

Medical College of Ohio, organ- ized, 308.

Medley, the, 58 ; prospectus of, 59 ; its contents, 61.

Meline, Colonel James, Florant, Sketch of, 384.

Membre, French explorer, 4.

Messenger, the Western, 71.

Methodist Book Concern, 97; lo- cated in St. Clair mansion, 106.

Mexican Antiquities, 156-7.

Miami Purchase, the 176.

Miami University, founded, dis-

• tinguished alumni, 176.

Miami Woods, poem by Gallagher, 467-8.

Michaux, F. A., his travels in the West, 15.

Mill, Morrow's, on the Little Mi- ami, Frankenstein's picture of, 85.

Millerite Tabernacle, the, in Cin- cinnati, 222.

Mitchel, General 0. M., professor

in Cincinnati College, 179; sketch

of, 415-416, 426-7. Monette, John W., his History of

Mississippi Valley, 31. Monfort, Rev. F. C., account of

first Presbyterian church in Cin- cinnati, 204-5. Moore, Rev. James, 165. Moravian Missionaries, the, 189. Morton, Hon. Oliver P., orator,

248 ; anecdote of, 429. Morgan, Ephraim, pioneer printer,

51-52 ; his large business, 52, 55. Mormonism, 221. Morris, Hon. Thomas, orator, 247. Morrow, Governor Josiah, account

of, 85. Mound Builders, relics of, 156. Murray, Orson S., described by

Whittier, 121 ; writes his own

funeral sermon, 122. Muse of Hesperia, the, a poem,

275. Museum, the Western, lectures at,

68, 311-15 : Letton's, 315. Muskingum Academy, founded,

183. •Mussey, F. D., editor, on pulpit

orators, 214-18. Mussey, R. D., writes for Conway's

Dial, 121. National Era, the, 487. National Gazette, 391, 392. National Intelligencer, started, 392. National Road, the, in 1825, 347. Nashoba, Tenn., and Fannv

Wright, 223. Navigation, on the Ohio, 330. Neville, Morgan, writes " Mike

Fink," 288 ; sketch of, 373. New England Review, edited by

Prentice and Whittier, 388-9. New England Society, the, of Cin- cinnati, 158. New Harmony, Indiana, Owen's

Community in, 222. New Light doctrines, 205, 208, 219 ;

hymn, 220. New Madrid, Mo., in 1819, 344. Newspapers, first, in Ohio Valley,

36, 37, 40; list of Kentucky,

38-39 ; list of Ohio, 41-2 ; whole

number in 1813 and 1824, 43. Newton, John M., librarian Ohio

Historical Society, 155-158. Nichols, Mrs. Rebecca S., sketch

of, 281. Nonpareil, the Cincinnati dailv,

97. Nordhoflf, Charles, 105.

Index.

515

Novel, first western, 287.

Novels, earliest western, 287 ; of Scott, Cooper, and Irving, 288.

Nuttall, Thomas, his travels, 19 ; description of a river tavern, 20 ; impressions of Louisville, 21.

Observatory, the, Cincinnati, dedi- cated, 250; first west of Alle- ghanies, 410, 416, 427.

O'Hara, Theodore, Kentucky poet, 283 ; his " Bivouac of the Dead," 284.

Ohio River, the French on, 4; dis- covered by La Salle, 5 ; visited by Washington, 7; navigated by Filson, 9; by F. Baily, in 1796, 15 ; by other travelers, 17 ; by Nuttall, 19-21.

Ohio, State of, in 1751, 1 ; explored by Gist and Croghan, 5 ; histories of, 26-27 ; early press in, 49 ; first book printed in, 49; first library, 135 ; first schools in, 182, et seq.

Ohio University, the, founded, 174 ; distinguished graduates, 175.

Ohio Valley, explored by white men, 5 ; canebrakes of, 11 ; early travels in, 17-18 ; books concern- ing, 23 ; histories of, 31, 32, 33.

Ohio Valley Historical Series, 34.

Orators, of Kentucky, 244; of Ohio, 246-7 ; of Indiana and Illinois, 248.

Ordinance of 1787, the, encourages education, 172.

Osgood, Rev. Samuel, begins lit- erary career in West, 76,

Owen, David Dale, 94.

Owen, Robert, debate with A. Campbell, 221 ; his community at New Harmony, 222 ; portrait of, by Hervieu, 352.

Owen, Robert Dale, and Miss Wright, 224.

Packhorse, 37, 52.

Paper-mills at Zanesville, O., 26 ; the first in Georgetown, Ky., and on the Miami, 43.

Parke, Benjamin, founds first Bible Society in Indiana, 265.

Parker, Benj. S., poet ; sketch of, 115.

Parker, Prof. James K., a pioneer teacher, letter by, 190.

Parlor Magazine, 86^9.

Paroquets, 12, 23 ; the green, 334, 338.

Patterson, A. W., History of the Backwoods, 32.

Peabody, Miss Elizabeth P., writes for Western Messenger, 79 ; for. the Boston Dial, 80.

Peabody, Rev. Ephraim, starts Western Messenger, 71, 72 ; be- comes an invalid, 74.

Peabody, Joseph, patron of Tim- othy Flint, 326.

Peck, Rev. John Mason, his books, 28, 31 ; on early Illinois schools, 188 ; on pioneer preachers, 209 ; sketch of, 211-12.

Peirce, Thomas, author of Horace in Cincinnati, 68 ; sketch of, 276.

Penn, Shadrach, issued Advertiser in 1819, 40; publishes books in 1819, 49 ; and Prentice, 394.

Percival, Jas. G., poet, 412 ; anec- dote of, 413.

Periodicals, literary, list of, 124-8.

Perkins, Jas. H., his Annals of the West, 31 ; edits Western Messen- ' ger, 72, 149, 152, 417.

Perrin, Wm. H., quoted, 391.

Pewee Valley, home of Gallagher, 460.

Philanthropist, the, anti-slavery paper, 455.

Piatt, Hon. John James, his " Pen- ciled Fly-Leaves," 179 ; edits G. D. Prentice's Poems, 404.

Pickett, Albert, Sr., organizes Col- lege of Professional Teachers, 421-22.

Pike, General Albert, travels of, 18 ; poems reviewed, 73 ; writes for " Western Literary Journal ;" sketch of, 92.

Pingree, Rev. E. M., Universalist preacher, debates with Dr. Rice, 222.

Piqua, Ohio, an Indian village, 6.

Pirogue, 329.

Pittsburg Gazette, the, first issued 36, 44.

Pittsburg wagons in 1815, 327.

Plimpton, Florus B., 84 : poet and editor, 114, quoted, 476.

Plug, Colonel, the boat-wrecker, 286.

Poe, Edgar A., quoted, 473 ; praises Amelia B. Welbv, 478, 488.

Poetry, in the Medley of 1803, 61 ; American, in 1819, 64; of the Literary Gazette, 1824, 68-69; of the Western Messenger, 73, 77, 78, 102 ; vast quantity of, 269.

Poets and Poetry of the West, Coggeshall's account of, 274.

516

Index.

Political Club, the, of Danville, Ky., its members, 235.

Portfolio, the, Philadelphia, 3(32, 364, 360.

Posey, Captain John, 370.

Posey, Thomas, 370.

Post Arkansas in 1819, 341.

Potter, M. D., 459.

Powers, Hiram, makes wax figures and clock-work, 314 ; and Mons. Herv'ieu, 351.

Prayer, a strange view of, 121.

Prentice, George Dennison, early life and education, 386-7 ; edits New England Review, 388 ; and Whittier, 389; his ''Life of Clay," 389; and Greeley, 393; and Shadrach Penn, 394; pub- lishes " Prenticeiana," 395 ; "the darling of the mob," 397 ; rela- tions with the war, 399; his wor- ship of Henry Clay, 399 ; a lec- turing experience, 400; mar- riage, 400 ; last days and death, 401 ; statute of, in Louisville, 402 ; his poems, 404-5-6 ; his opinion of Byron, 407 ; "To an Absent Wife," quoted, 407 ; at- tacks Gallagher in an editorial, 459 ; challenges him, 460.

Prenticeiana, 395.

Presbyterian church, 164; in Ken- tucky, 200 ; in Ohio, 200-205.

Press in Mexico, in New England, in Pittsburg, 36 ; first in Ken- tucky, 37 ; first in Cincinnati, 40 ; the early, in Ohio, 41 ; in Indiana, 42; the early periodi- cal, 58 et seq.

Psalmody splits the church, 44.

Publishers, the backwoods, 43 ; first in Kentucky, their product, 44-49; in Lexington, 44-46; in Washington and Frankfort, K^., 47; in Louisville, 48-49; in Cm- cinnati, 49-52, 55-56; in Vin- cennes, Ind., 52.

Pulpit oratory, 213.

Purcell, Bishoj) John B., debate with Campbell, 221, 422.

Putnam, Kuius, and Ohio Univer- sity, 174; on Latin schools, 183; in 1815, 332.

Quisenberry, A. C, 24; discovers a copy of the Medley, 58; ac- count of the discovery, (JO.

Rafinesque, Prof. C. S., writes for Hunt's Review on Ohio river and its fishes, 62 ; writes for Lit-

erary Gazette, 67 ; sketch of, 167-8.

Ragnet, Captain Andv, writi r, :>(i;5.

" liain on the Roof, history of, 108-109.

Raper, Rev. Wm. H., pulpit ora- tor, 213; anecdote of, 215.

Rappe, Frederick, his fraternal set- tlement at Harmony, 23.

Rattlesnakes, 18; eaten by the pigs, 172.

Read, Dr. Daniel, 175.

Reed, Peter Fishe, painter, poet, and story writer, 113-114.

Regenerator, the, radical paper, 121.

Reid, AVhitelaw, on Governor Brough, 247.

Reily, John, teacher, first school- house in Ohio, at Columbia, Cin- cinnati, 184.

Repository," the Ladies', 97 ; con- tributors, 100; also 105.

Revivals, religious, in Kentucky, 207.

Reynolds, Jeremiah N., descrip- tion of Francis Glass's school, 189.

Reynolds, Governor John, his " Pioneer History of Illinois," description of French settle- ments, 29; his account of the king's balls, 30.

Rice, Rev. David, teaches, 104-200 ; in Cincinnati, 204.

Rice, Hon. Harvey, noble life of, 282.

Rice, Rev. N. L., debate witli Campbell and Pingree, 222.

Richmond Enquirer, 392.

Ritchie, Thomas, editor, 392.

Rouse, Miss Bathsheba, teaches first school in Ohio, 182.

Russell, Addison Peale, author, note on, 245.

Ruter, Dr. Martin, 194.

Sackville, Fort, 258.

Saflford, Dr. James M., 175.

Sav, Thomas, 150.

Schenck, Cxeneral R. C, and Gal- lagher, 4()5.

School, the first in Kentucky, 1()3; in Ohio, 181; in Indiana, 180, 255.

School of Literature and the Arts, 306.

School-books of the Backwoods, 192, 193.

Schoolcraft, H. R., his "Tmvels"

Index.

517

in 1821, Indian school at Fort Wayne, a night in a wigwam, a savage carouse, 22 ; tire-hunting on the Wabash, Vincennes, Al- bion, Harmony, 23.

School-house, the, in pioneer days, 187-8; the ''model," 424.

Schurz, Carl, quoted, 189.

Scott, Dr. Wm. H., 175.

Scull, John, founds Pittsburg Ga- zette, 36; issues books, 44.

Semicolon Club, 297, 31G, 417; members of, 418, 420.

Seminary of Rapide, La., described, 345.

Sentinel and Star in the West, the, 485.

Shawneetown, 111., in 1818, 21,337.

Shea, John Gilmary, his historical labors, 4.

Shreve, Thos. H., writer, praised, 78.

Shuck, Mike, the trapper, 286.

Simms, W. Gilmore, 91.

Sisson, Miss Harriet (Mrs. Daniel Drake), 414.

Smart, Hon. Chas. S,, 175.

Smith, Hon. 0. H., his " Reminis- cences," 28,

Smith, AVinthrop B., starts firm of Truman & Smith, 52,

Soda water, first, in the West, 308.

Song-book, first, in the West, 268.

Song- writing in early days, 269.

Sorosis, the, Woman's Club of New York city, Alice Cary first president of, 497,

Souvenir, the Western, 372.

Spaniards, 2, 5.

an early teacher.

Ezra,

Spencer,

186. Spofford, A. R. Stanbery, Hon.

154.

Henry, orator, 247. 'in

Stanlev, Lord, Earl of Derbv Kentucky, 168.

St. Charles, Mo., in 1816, 340.

St, Clair, General Arthur, his mansion, 106-7; a speech of, 228.

St. Cosme, French explorer, 4.

Steamboat, the first on the Ohio, 328.

Steele, Robt. W., on Dayton libra- ries, 145, 176.

Ste. Genevieve, an old French town, 339.

Stetson, Charles, 419.

Stevens, Rev. A,, writings of, 104.

St. Gabriel College, Vincennes, 266.

St. Louis in 1816, 340.

Stoddard, Amos, travels of, 18.

Stone, Rev. Barton W., founds Stoneites, 208.

Stone, Colonel Wm. L., historian, 412.

Storer, Hon. Bellamv, orator, 98, 247.

Stories in Hall's Western Souve- nir, 288 ; in Cincinnati Mirror, 288.

Story, Rev. Daniel, chaplain of Marietta colony, 201-2.

Stout, Elihu, starts Vincennes Sun in 1803, 42; publishes laws of Indiana Territory, 52; first printer in Indiana, 259, 260.

Stowe, Calvin E., lectures in Cin- cinnati, 250, 421,

Stowe, Mrs. Plarriet Beecher, 106 ; her first writings, 278; "Unde Tom's Cabin," 297, 418, 420.

Stubbs, Robert, founds Newport Academy, Ky., 186.

Sullivant, Jos., 147; quoted, 149.

Swift, Alexander, 490.

Swiggert, Mrs. Eleanor M,, de- scribes E, D, Mansfield, 432.

Sycamore Tree, huge trunk of, 332,

Symmes, John Cleves, 176, 198.

Tappan, Benj., 147, 150,

Tavern Signs, pictorial, 327.

Taylor, Jas. W., 111.

Taylor, Zachary, at Vincennes, 23; a rising hero, 63, 259.

Teachers, the College of Profes- sional, 317, 421, 422, 426.

Teeft, Rev. B. F., edits Ladies' Re- positorv, 100; writes "The Shoulder Knot," 101.

Telfer, R. J., woodcuts by, 84.

Telford, Chas. L,, Professor in Cin- cinnati College, 428.

Tennessee, State of, first settle- ments, 7 ; histories of, 25 ; news- papers, 43.

Theater, the, stimulates literary eflfort, 269.

Thespian Society, the Vincennes, 260,

Thomas, Calvin W,, 290,

Thomas, E, S,, pioneer author, 290.

Thomas, Frederick W., po^ and novelist, 290.

518

Index,

Thompson, Rev. E., notice of, 100.

Thompson, Peter (i.. author, 51.

Thompson, Hon. nicliai.l W., ora- tor, 248.

Thurston, Laura M., poet, qnoted, 273.

Todd, Colonel John, an education- al benefactor, 162.

Torrence, Aaron, gift to Ohio His- torical Society, 15{)-60.

Torrence Papei-s, the, in Ohio His- torical Library, 159.

Tosso, Jose, violinist, and the Trol- lopes, 354 ; sketch of, 356 ; on Morgan Neville, 375.

Toulman, Henry, in Kentucky, his publications, 13, 1(>4.

"Transactions" of the College of Teachers, rare books, 425.

Transylvania University, 62; first commencement of, 65; writers in, 67 ; library of, 129-30 ; found- ed, 162, 164; organized, 165; fac- ulty and librarv, 168; alumni, 169.

Trees, 5, 15, 21, 70 ; immense size of, 332.

Trollope, Mrs. Frances, 3; de- scribes Western Museum, 313 ; in Cincinnati, 353 ; her house, 354 ; gives a party, 355 ; builds the Bazaar, 355 ; admires Mr. Flint, 357.

Trollope, Henry, plays " Falstatf," 354.

Trollope, Thos. Adolphus, remi- niscences of Cincinnati, 353.

Tupper, Martin Farquhar, writes for " Ladies' Repository," 102-3.

Type, cut from dog- wood in Ken- tucky, 37 ; first foundry of, in Ohio Valley, 43, 56.

" Uncle Tom's Cabin, origin of, 297 ; first appearance, 487.

Unitarian revival, the, 208.

Unitarianism, in Ohio Valley, 201 >.

Universulism, in the AVest, 209 ; debates on, 222.

University, Transylvania, 62, (>5, 67, 129-30, 162, 164, 165, 168, 169; the Ohio, founded, 174; distin- guished graduates, 175; Miiuiii, 176; Vincennes, 2()1.

Utopia, foumled by Josiah War- ren, 224.

Van Cleve, John W., 147, 149.

Varnura, Judge J. M., orator, 227.

Vaughn, Prof. Daniel. U'cturer, 250.

Very, Jones, letter of to J. F. Clarke, 78 ; sonnets by, 79 ; writes for Boston Dial, 80.

' \'eteran Observer," nom deplume, iA v.. D. Mansfield, 428.

\ ('va\ . Indiana, founded, 334.

Victor, Mrs. M. V., novelist, sketch of, 112.

Victor, O. J., editor and author, 112.

Vincenne, Francois Morgan De, 254, 257 ; his death, 258.

Vincennes, John Filson at, 9 ; in 1821, 23; the Western Sun, 42; early printing, 52 ; first school and college, 180; the first church, 197; literary institutions at, 254; its settlers, 258.

Vincennes Historical and Anti- quarian Society, 262.

Vincennes Library, the, 263.

Vincennes Universitv, 261.

Vincent, Rev. .1. H., "104.

Virginia School Act, tlu-, of 1780, 164.

Virginia, State of, Ohio Company of, 5 ; sends Washington west, 6.

Volney, ('. 1\. his travels in America, IG.

Wabash College, Indiana, founded, 180.

Wade, Benjamin F., orator, 247.

Wagner, Richard, heralded, 122.

W^agon, a famous, 324-5.

Wagoners of the AUeghanies, their songs, 268 ; described, 327.

Walden, Bishop J. M., early writ- ings of, 111.

Walker, Hon. Tim-.tliv. 11^. 1 I't. 158.

Wallace, Wm. Ross, Keutuckv poet, 280 ; letter to W. D. Gal- lagher, 161.

Walsh, Robert, editor, 392.

Ward, Nahurn, his rare panii)hKt on Ohio, 26.

Ward, James Warner, author and music composer, 113.

Warfield, Mrs. C. A., author of the "Household of Bouverir/' '_'*i7. 4()1, 403.

Warren, Josiah, Ins conuiuini.^tic ideas, 224.

Washington, Cieorge, his journey to the Ohio country, adventures on the Alleghany, 6; at the Forks of the Ohio, 7 ; on educa- tion, 161.

Watterson, Henry, praises Pren- tice, 391.

Index.

519

Wax figures made by Hiram Powers, 314.

Weaver, Rev. Geo. ^., 95.

Webster, Daniel, banquet to, in Cincinnati, 280 ; his speech, 233 ; praises Hamraonti, 394, 451.

Welby, Mrs. Amelia B., early life, 471-2-3; praised by Gallagher, 471 ; her first poems, 474 ; her marriage, personal appearance, and character, 475 ; "Amelia- worship," 476; "Poems of Amelia," 477 ; praised by Poe, 478; her tomb in Louisville, 481.

Weld, Isaac, Jr., his travels in America, 13 ; his pettishly scorn- ful book, 14; amusing descrip- tion of Western people, 14-15.

Western Academician, 425.

Western Association of Writers, the, 115, 281.

Western Museum, the, 310 et seq.

Western Reserve College, Ohio, founded, 179.

Western Review, the, Hunt's, 62-66.

Western Souvenir, the, first an- nual of the West, 288, 372.

Western Spy, the, 40, 41, 66.

Western Sun, the, first newspaper in Indiana, 42, 52.

Whelpley, Albert W., 496.

Whiskv, drinking, 13, 20, 22, 188, 191. "

White, Jas., advertises English school in 1799, 185.

Whitman, Walt, praised by Con- way, 122-123.

Whittlesey, Colonel Charles, 93, 149, 152.

Whittier, John G., edits New

England Review, 389 ; and the

Gary's, 488 ; poem of, 489. Wild turkeys, 5, 21. Willard, Mrs. Emma, 412. Williams, MiloG., 422. Williams, John Fletcher, 98. Williams, Samuel, pioneer writer,

98; on William Tell, 104. Williamson, Geo. T., 157. Willson, Byron Forceythe, poet,

sketch of, 285. Wilson, Rev. Joshua L., 205 ;

charges Lvman Beecher with

heresv, 218, 422. Wilson, Rev. Peter, 205. Wilson, Robert Burns, poet, artist,

284. Wilson, Rev. Robert G., 175. Wilson, Rev. S. R., 205. Wilstach, John A., lawyer and

author, 416. Wistar, Dr. Casper, 307. Withers, A. S., his " Chronicles,"

32. Wollstonecraft, Mary, and Captain

Imlay, 10; marries Wm. Good- win, 12. Wolsey, Theodore, 412. Worth, Gorham A., prints first

book of verse in Ohio, 275. Worthington, Governor Thomas,

410. Wreckers on the Ohio, 21, Wright, Miss Frances, her career,

223-4. Zachos, John C, sketch of, 93, 155. Zeisberger, Rev. David, his diary,

199.

1

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