USA > Indiana > Wayne County > Richmond > Memoirs of Wayne County and the city of Richmond, Indiana; from the earliest historical times down to the present, including a genealogical and biographical record of representative families in Wayne County, Volume I Pt. 2 > Part 8
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"The Messenger of Peace," the official organ of the Peace Asso- ciation of Friends in America, was begun in Ohio by Daniel Hill, general secretary of the association. The full title of the paper was at first "The Christian Arbiter and Messenger of Peace," but it was later given the shortened title. It was brought to Richmond in 1887 and has been published here, except for a short interval, ever since that time. After Mr. Hill's death, in 1899, it was continued a short time under the management of his wife, Mrs. Rachael Bailey Hill. It was then moved to Baltimore and conducted there for four years, when it was brought back to Richmond. This was in 1905. Miss H. Lavinia Bailey, the secretary of the association, has been editor since that time. The paper has been changed a few times during its existence, in size and form, and is now an eight-page sheet of 8x12 inches and is published monthly by the Nicholson Printing Company, and distributed at the merely nominal rate of twenty-five cents a year. The object of the paper is to uphold the doctrine of
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peace and scatter peace literature. It has a circulation of about 2,500, although it is probably unknown to most Richmond people. It goes to nearly every State in the Union, to several foreign coun- tries, and to nearly all the leading foreign mission stations.
The only magazine of the popular type ever published in the county was "Dignam's Magazine." J. B. Dignam came to Rich- mond from Chicago and began to publish the magazine in Septem- ber, 1904, with Robert Stimson as a partner in the business. It was a monthly paper of about twenty pages, with colored cover designs and numerous illustrations. The material was that of the present day general home magazine-short stories, poems, book reviews, articles on social and economic questions, domestic economy. hygiene, a fashion department, etc. The price was fifty cents a year and five cents a copy. It contained a number of good articles on local history and geography, issued as a "See Indiana First" series. One of these was by Prof. Wilbur A. Fiske on "The Won- ders of Wyandotte Cave;" another, "The Story of the Lost Vil- lage," by Capt. Paul Comstock, is an account of old Salisbury. The last number of the magazine was published in August, 1906, after which Mr. Dignam returned to Chicago.
Among the most interesting of Wayne county publications, to those who have attended the Richmond High School or Earlham College, are the school papers published while they were in school. "The High School Argus" was begun as a monthly paper in Feb- ruary, 1897. It contained many interesting articles by teachers and alumni, as well as pupils, but was so poorly supported by the stu- dents that it was finally given up. The last number was that of Jan- uary, 1903. In 1908 some high school boys got up a four-page sheet of school news and gossip, which they called "The Reflector." The teachers took up the matter and helped in bringing out a special orchestra number in April, 1908. It was made up much like the old "Argus" and was a success, but no further efforts were made to give the school a permanent paper.
The Earlham paper has, however, had a long and successful career. In December, 1873, the Ionian Literary Society, consisting of the boys of Earlham College, began "The Earlhamite," as a monthly during the school year. The first editor was Edwin Horney and the manager O. H. Bogue. It was a sixteen-page paper, about 6x9 inches. The first volumes seem quaint and sometimes humorous to the Earlham student of today, for as a college paper it reflected the college life and all can see the striking changes which have come since then. Work on "The Earlhamite" has been part
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of the training received by a large number of Earlham men. Among its editors and managers we find the names of many of the present Earlham faculty and of men who have become prominent educators, business, or professional men elsewhere.
In October, 1890, "The Earlhamite" announced that "The Phoenix," the girl's literary society, intended to also start a paper which would, however, only be written to read at their meetings and not printed at first. In May. 1891, the girls published the first printed number of "The Phoenixian." It contained fourteen pages and was a paper quite similar to "The Earlhamite." "The Phoenix- ian" made more rapid advance than "The Earlhamite" had done. however, for in March, 1892, illustrations were introduced as a new feature and more pages added. Both papers were continued by the college students during the school years of 1892, 1893. and 18944, but by this time they saw that a better and more representative college paper could be had by combining their efforts. So in October, 1894. when Vol. 22 of the old "Earlhamite" began, the "Phoenixian" was united with it and the new paper was issued semi-monthly. It is conducted by an annually elected staff of Ionian and Phoenix mem- bers. Since the "Phoenixian" and "Earlhamite" were joined, photo- graphs of members of the faculty, of the school's orators and debat- ers, and of the various athletic teams, have been a regular feature. The work of the paper does not depend entirely on the regular staff, for the various classes each take charge of one issue during the year and make it a special class number. Each of these numbers consist of articles written by members of the class and contains a picture of the class.
CONCLUSION.
No one can read this record of Wayne county journalism with- out observing the immense desire of large numbers of people to embark in the newspaper business, who have no sufficient equip- ment for the purpose, either in capital or ability, and whose enter- prises are therefore doomed to failure from the start. The growth of the press, like that of other institutions and of organic life itself has been an evolution, a gradual development from the simple to the complex, and accompanied by the destruction by the great mass of those who have been unable to survive.
CHAPTER XXI.
LITERATURE OF WAYNE COUNTY.
POETRY-ORATORY-HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY-FICTION-ART-EDUCA- TIONAL-PERSONAL MENTION OF VARIOUS WRITERS.
Wayne county, as we have seen, was originally settled by immigrants from North Carolina. These immigrants were of a bet- ter class than those who came to some of the counties farther south. They were largely of Quaker stock, a law-abiding, hos- pitable people, but they had the disadvantage of coming from a region where there was very little learning. Many of them were imperfectly educated, and as pioneers they naturally came to a country utterly destitute of culture. There was consequently a great deal of illiteracy in Wayne county in its earliest days. Many of the immigrants, no doubt, spoke a dialect similar to that which afterward went by the name of "Hoosier" and is so well illus- trated in Riley's poems. Yet nothing was written in this dialect. As soon as literature began to appear it was perhaps of a more classic and Addisonian variety than prevails at the present time, and except in a few of the poems of S. W. Gillilan it will be hard to find much in Wayne county literature setting forth this dialect, although Hoosier conditions and pioneer life are sketched in quite realistic fashion. ,
When it finally appeared, Wayne county literature flowed in many channels; in poetry, oratory, history and biography, fic- tion, music, art, etc.
POETRY.
No one can peruse the anthology compiled and edited by Benjamin S. Parker and Enos B. Heiney, entitled "Poets and Poetry of Indiana," without noticing the large proportion of poems that have emanated from those who were either born or who have long resided in this county. Out of the 144 names contained in this collection the following nineteen come from Wayne county :
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MEMOIRS OF WAYNE COUNTY
Louise Vickroy Boyd, Alice Williams Brotherton, Hannah E. (Brown) Davis, William T. Dennis, John Finley, Elizabeth E. Foulke, William Dudley Foulke, Strickland E. Gillilan, Narcissa Lewis Jenkinson, Henry Underwood Johnson, Dulcina M. Jordan, Isaac H. Julian, Isaac Kinley, Jennie G. Kinley, William P. Need- ham, Edwin E. Parker, Oran K. Parker, Robert E. Pretlow, and Cornelia 'Laws St. John.
The earliest name of any eminence is that of John Finley, who came to Richmond from Virginia in 1820, who represented Wayne county in the legislature, conducted the Richmond "Palla- dium," served for seven years as clerk of the Wayne county courts, and was for fourteen years mayor of the city of Richmond. In 1830 he printed, as a New Year's address in the "Indianapolis Journal," a poem called "The Hoosier's Nest," which afterward became well known throughout the State and elsewhere, not so much, perhaps, on account of its merits as because the word "Hoosier" seems to have made there its first literary appearance. The following extracts show the character of Finley's verses :
I'm told, in riding somewhere West, A stranger found a Hoosier's nest- In other words, a buckeye cabin, Just big enough to hold Queen Mab in: Its situation, low but airy, Was on the borders of a prairie; And fearing he might be benighted, He hailed the house and then alighted.
The Hoosier met him at the door- Their salutations soon were e'er. He took the stranger's horse aside, And to a sturdy sapling tied; Then having stripped the saddle off, He fed him in a sugar trough.
The stranger stooped to enter in- The entrance closing with a pin- And manifested strong desire To seat him by the log-heap fire, Where half a dozen Hoosieroons, With mush-and-milk, tin-cups and spoons, White heads, bare feet and dirty faces, Seemed much inclined to keep their places. But Madam, anxious to display Her rough but undisputed sway, Her offspring to the ladder led, And cuffed the youngsters up to bed.
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Invited shortly to partake Of venison, milk, and johnny cake, The stranger made a hearty meal, And glances round the room would steal.
One side was lined with divers garments, The other spread with skins of "varmints;" Dried pumpkins overhead were strung, Where venison hams in plenty hung; Two rifles placed above the door; Three dogs lay stretched upon the floor- In short the domicile was rife With specimens of Hoosier life.
Much controversy has arisen as to the origin of this word "Hoosier," which is most probably a corruption of "who's here," pronounced with a Southern accent, "who's hyar"; although others insist that the word arose because men of superior strength throughout the West, the heroes at log-rolling and house-raising gatherings were called "hushers" from their ability to hush their antagonists, and that the Mississippi boatmen carried the word down to New Orleans, where the foreigners pronounced it "Hoosier."
It is not claimed that Finley originated it, but his poem gave it a wide currency and had much to do with fixing it on people from Indiana. Such at least is the explanation of Meredith Nichol- son in his work, "The Hoosiers." Finley's poem was quoted in Eng- land as a graphic example of backwoods literature. It was fol- lowed by many other annual addresses, both in the "Indianapolis Journal" and the "Richmond Palladium," and in 1866 Mr. Finley published a collection of these poems, many of which were filled with interesting local allusions; to the legislature, Wayne county bar, etc. One of these, "Bachelor's Hall," written in Irish dialect, was attributed to Tom Moore, and actually published, it is said, in a collection of his poems. It begins thus :
Bachelor's Hall! What a quare looking place it is! Kape me from sich all the days of me life! Sure, but I think what a burning disgrace it is, Niver at all to be gittin' a wife.
Louise Vickroy Boyd, who became a resident of Dublin, Wayne county, in 1865, had already written in verse for various periodicals, and during her subsequent residence in Wayne county she wrote some poems of considerable beauty which were col- lected and published after her death in a volume edited by Esther
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Griffin White, 1911. Her poems had little connection with her immediate environment. They did not describe early conditions in Indiana, like those of Finley, nor set forth the dialect and homely characteristics of the Hoosier like those of Riley, but they strike the same chord that he and all other genuine poets touch, in the interpretation and love of nature. This is shown in "The Dear Old Woods," of which Riley wrote: "I have not read for a long time a poem that has given me such real pleasure." The following stanzas will illustrate its character :
A strip of woodland in a mountain glen Holds in my heart a holy place alway; I come from it when I awake at night, I wander there in many a dream by day.
I know the secret that its hawthorn keeps, I know the sorrow thrilling through its pine, The voiceless visions of its violets. The joy in all its buttercups ashine.
Of the wild woods the music echoes still, Deep in my heart, and not one tone has died;
The red bird's carol, and the robin's song, The cricket's chirp, along the streamlet side,
I hear them yet-I hear the breezes, too, Murmur and murmur endless melody About the far-off stars, and other lands, And streams unmeasured running to the sea.
Forever green, forever beautiful, Among the mist-wreathed mountains far away, The old wood lies, and seems like holy ground To one who dreams of it by night and day.
Her skill in metrical construction is well shown in a sonnet, "To the Bloom of the Indian Turnip," a title which does not quite correspond with the excellent quality of the verses :
O wonder of my childhood, still as dear As when I saw thee first in woodlands old, Where the dark pines made gloom, and waters cold Danced from the mountains down, the while mine ear Drank their wild music that to me did seem Brought out of Fairyland and thou the while A very priest of Fantasy did'st smile.
Jack-in-the-pulpit! while as in a dream I waited for thy sermon, half afraid
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To hear thee speak, as through the forest shade A drowsy wind came sighing; silence then Grew full of eloquence, and mem'ry still Reads in thy bloom the lore of rock and hill, And hears the voices of my native glen.
There is a fine burst of enthusiasm in her "Song of the Morn-
ing:"
Rejoice! I come once more! Swiftly uprising in my shining car, The brightness of my glory streaming far, From distant shore to shore.
I dart in sudden gleams Through the dim arches of the forest bowers, And send my sunbeams to awake the flowers And gild the laughing streams.
And where the ivy twines Round broken columns, temples ruined now, Forgotten cities, palaces laid low ;
And desolated shrines;
Where fierce volcanoes blaze, Or snow-capped mountains seem to prop the sky Or where on ocean's breast, bright islands lie- I pour my equal rays.
I walk o'er land and wave, Spurning the darkness, and go up the sky In triumph, as freed spirits mount on high, Spurning the gloomy grave.
The verses of Mrs. D. M. Jordan, who came to Richmond in the year 1851 and published a volume entitled, "Rosemary Leaves," in 1873, are imbued with a thoroughly poetic spirit. The following stanza, "To Poesy," reveals with delicacy her modest aspirations :
Not on the height of the fair mount of song, When full-voiced singers chant in rhythmic strains The lays that echo in the world's great throng, Winning the meed of praise and golden gains, But in the valley, where the daisies grow, I sing such songs as untaught ears may know.
The following verses from "The Blue Gentian," published in the "Cincinnati Commercial," illustrate her love of nature :
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In thoughtful mood I wandered through the field, Where fading grasses bent beneath my tread. To see if summer in her flight had spared One living flower from out the many dead.
With wistful eyes I gleaned the brown fields through, Finding no remuant of the flowers I sought, No bud of violet with tender Ime,
No dewy spray of sweet forget-me-not.
When o'er the margin of the stream I bent, To catch the reflex of the shining skies,
Low at my feet, with sedgy grasses blent, The blue-fringed gentian raised its radiant eyes.
O, dainty flower, that, like a dream of spring, Com'st back when all the fields are brown and sere,
Bringing the color of the glad May sky, To glorify the death-bed of the year.
The following, entitled "Rosemary," is filled with great depth of feeling and tenderness :
Only a little green and bitter spray Of fading leaves I give into thy keeping- A bunch of rosemary, chilled by the frost, And withered by the tears my eyes are weeping. "That's for remembrance;" love, O, pray remember Our springtime wanderings and our summer days, When you were all my world, and I was happy In winning from the world my meed of praise.
There's not a path which we have walked together, But seems a hallowed way forevermore; There's not a page whereon thine eyes have rested, But I have learned its lessons o'er and o'er ; There's not an hour, however dark and dreary, But hope revives with memories of thee. Then take this rosemary, 'tis for remembrance, And O, I pray you, love, remember me!
I left the heart's-ease and the purple pansy To fade and wither under wintry skies; I could not wear the one, nor bear the other, So much of thought was in their honest eyes; But from my garden bed this little spray I rescue from the pitiless November,
And bid you wear it for the thought it brings :- Wear it for me, and O. I pray, remember!
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Isaac H. Julian was best known by the older inhabitants of Wayne county as an anti-slavery man and a journalist, editor of the "True Republican" in Centerville, commencing in 1858 and continning at Richmond as "The Radical." But during this period, as well as later, when he removed to Texas, he was also a poet, and in the early days of the present century a collection of his verses was published, entitled "Late Gathered Leaves of Verse and Prose." Among these poems is one, "To the Genius of the West," contained in Parker and Heiney's collection, which sets forth the aspirations of the author and the spirit which ani- mated his journalism as well as his literary career :
Thou bad'st me tune with joy my rustic reed. While smiling love and fancy led the strain; And first my willing voice, as thou decreed, Essayed to sing the glories of thy reign. Since, wandering wide out o'er thy broad domain, Thy presence still has cheered me on my way,
And 'mid those vaster scenes, didst thou again Inspire a higher and a sadder lay
Than that of sportive love, to crown my manhood's day.
A lay of truth, inscribed unto my kind, Their joys and griefs, their liberties and wrongs;
The spirit that would every chain unbind, By thee invoked, inspired my later songs With stern rebukes of lying pens and tongues. O, still be with me, Genius of the West,
And grant the boon for which my spirit longs- To weave the verse which thou shalt deem the best, Ere 'neath my native soil I sink to rest!
Mrs. Alice Williams Brotherton, formerly of Cambridge City, has published several volumes of poems, among these being "Be- yond the Vale," the "Sailing of King Olaf," and "What the Wind told to the Tree Tops," both in prose and verse. The following, entitled "The Ragged Regiment," taken from the "Century Maga- zine," well illustrates a quality quite rare in authorship-the power to use the precise word which best applies to the thing she describes. The alliterations come so naturally that they are un- noticeable :
I love the ragged veterans of June: Not your trim troop, drill-marshaled for display In gardens fine-but such as dare the noon With saucy faces by the public way.
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Moth mullein, with its moth-wing petals white, Round dandelion, and flaunting bouncing-bet, The golden butter-and-eggs, and ox-eye bright, Wild parsley and tall milkweed bee-beset.
Ha, sturdy tramps of nature, mustered out From garden service, scorned and set apart! There's not one member of your ragged rout But wakes a warmth of welcome in my heart.
Mrs. Cornelia Laws St. John is best known by her verses en- titled, "Six Little Feet on the Fender," commencing as follows :
In my heart there lives a picture Of a kitchen rude and old, Where the firelight tripped o'er the rafters And reddened the roof's brown mold; Gilding the steam from the kettle That hummed on the foot-worn hearth, Throughout all the livelong evening, Its measure of drowsy mirth.
Robert E. Pretlow, formerly of Dublin, Wayne county, and a graduate of Earlham, has written some remarkable verses, of which "The Midnight Song of the Mocking Bird" is an illus- tration :
Wake! Wake! My darling, I sing to thee Under the moonlight alone and apart. List! List! O dear one, I bring to thee All of the love of my heart. Out from my tree top I see the moon shining Down on the river, all burnished like steel. Dimples the water, as if 'twere divining The wealth of the rapture I feel.
Swift! Swift! The river is flowing, Hurrying onward in musical glee. Soft! Soft! The night winds are blowing, Laden with fragrance for thee. Fair gleam the fields, lying out to the west, Stretching as far'as the star-studded skies; But the brown of the nest and the gray of thy breast Are lovelier far to my eyes.
Sleep! Sleep! Soft are my numbers; Rest till the rosy dawn purples the sky. Sleep! Sleep! sweet be thy slumbers, Rest till the morning is nigh.
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Gently blow, softly flow, night wind and river, Sing a low lullaby song to my love. Sing while the dewy leaves over her quiver. Softly play till the day shineth above.
Mary Wright Plummer, born in Richmond, where she grad- uated at the Friends' Academy, in 1872, has written a number of highly finished poems, collected in a volume entitled, "Verses" (De Vinne Press, 1896), of which the following, "Disillusion," is an example :
MORNING.
Come, Sweet, the world is wide; so, hand in hand,
Let us fare forth to win our victories.
Thou shalt be queen of beauty and of love,
As in the old bright days of tournament; And I will wear thy colors in my heart, And on my brow the seal invisible Of thy true kiss; so shall before me fall All shapes of evil that infest the light.
And when the jousts are ended, and the games, Thou shalt sit proudly upright in thy place, And while the world is wondering all agaze, Lo at thy feet my garlands shall be laid- For half my strength is thine, being come from thee And that sweet faith that armors me anew.
EVENING.
The days are short'ning. Wilt forgive me, heart, For the long turmoil I have led thee through And to no end? I meant it otherwise; But one right arm is weak against the world; Here on thy shoulder let me rest my head,. My weary head that aches from life's long din; And in thy comforting let me forget The disappointment, and the hidden foe, And all that made my days a vulgar strife, Unheralded, untrumpeted and uncrowned. My strength is weak beside thy steadfastness, And there takes refuge. If thou cherish it, Then to have failed and yet to win thy smile, Ah, love, is victory beyond desert.
Also the following, entitled, "The Birthday in Heaven":
What will they bring thee, Sweet, to-morrow's dawn- Our three-year-old, whose birthday is in heaven?
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For the earth-happiness thou hast foregone What will they do to make the balance even? Do the grave angels love as mothers love? And is there one, just one from all the rest, Whose arms were first to cradle thee above, . To whom thoa turnest whom thon lovest best?
Yea, surely mother-hearts in heaven must beat, Else 't were not heaven, and God were God no more- Could He be happy in His holy seat If any child stood, homesick, near the door? Tell that dear angel that doth keep our child To hold thee close to-morrow, and to press Upon thy brow grown radiantly mild All that we would of lingering caress.
Tell her on earth we brought thee toys and flowers, And told thee stories when thy birthday came; Say to her that when thon wast wholly ours With love unspeakable we called thy name: And when the shadows fell-rememberest thou? How thou didst nestle down in sheltered sleep! Who sings to thee? Whose arms enfold thee now? To whom has God my jewel given to keep?
Be not unhappy, Sweet. Enjoy her care; Go to her first of all the heavenly host; But, oh, do not forget me, is my prayer. I am thy mother-love me still the most.
William Dudley Foulke is represented in Parker and Heiney's collection by two short poems-"Clouds" and "Sapphics." The following is the opening portion of "Ad Patriam." a poem inscribed to the American Republic :
Light of the world! Even before thy birth God knew that He would love thee, for He gave To thee as to none other all His gifts- Stretched the vast deep around thee as a wall Fringed with a thousand harbors for thy fleets- The two great oceans glittering at thy feet With cliff and bay and headland and long range Of shining beach-on thee He hath bestowed All fruits, all climes, all seasons-the rude North, Bending thy pines with snow and strengthening The sinews of thy sons, and the soft South, Where the cane rustles and the summer winds- Breezes of endless summer-stir the palms And fan the orange groves.
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