USA > Kentucky > Jefferson County > Louisville > The city of Louisville and a glimpse of Kentucky > Part 21
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The company's books and papers are always open to the inspection of members, and the business is under the super- vision of the Insurance Commissioner of Kentucky. Losses are paid within ninety days after proof of death is filed. The policies issued are incontestible while in force, after three annual premiums have been paid thereon. The mortuary fund is exclusively used in payment of death claims and dividends to policy-holders. Insurance is issued iu sums of from $1,000 to $6,000 on any life under sixty years of age. The company, notwithstanding its name, is strictly undenot- inational. It is constructed on a plan that practically guarantees its perpetuity, and secures the desideratum that the cost of insurance will not have to be raised hereafter for incoming members. It is not one of those companies that is obliged, finally, to increase its rates because it began too cheaply. 109
The Courier- Journal.
WALTER N. HALDEMAN. characteristics of this newspaper. I N this age of the printing-press it may almost be said that a commu- nity is known by its newspapers; and this is the case especially of Louisville, which has gained its broadest and best advertisement through one newspaper-the COURIER-JOURNAL. Indeed, this journal has been, within itself, the history, not only of a city, but of the South, in all of the potent social, political, and economical factors that, since the war, have formed the internal motives of the South's progress and its present prosperity. At the same time that the COURIER-JOURNAL has been the reflection and record of the thought and events of an epoch, it has itself been a power in moldiug this thought aud controlling these events. Conservative only in the highest aud best sense, it has led the people of a section in all that could conduce to their advancement, polit- ically and socially. The importance of this newspaper in politics is, to a certain extent, due to location, and the same causes that should make Louisville the commercial head and front of the South and South-west have given to the two men who control the destinies of the COURIER-JOURNAL the opportunities for their great achievements. This, however, should be esteemed as merely fortunate. The essential power of the journal must be created within itself, and it is thus that the COURIER-JOURNAL has long occupied a position that is almost anomalous in the history of the newspapers of America. Leaving aside, for the moment, the consid- eration of pure news, and considering only the higher plane of journal- ism, the success of the COURIER-JOURNAL and its importance and power in the socio-political questions of the day are attributable alone to the most intelligent integrity. Ability to see the riglit aud courage to advocate it and exist in it alone are the most evident Souudly Democratic in politics, it has been the conservator of those fundament- al principles which are embodied in the constitution of the country, and which a hundred years of political history have demonstrated to be the safeguards to our govermental frame-work and national institutions. It has fearlessly led the fight against those fallacies that its editor recently described as political proprietary articles aud quack uostrums. Thus, while it has created many enmities which were vapid and unavailing, its justness aud policy have, in the end, been confirmed and estab- lished by the outcome of events.
The two directing geniuses of this journal form prac- tically a unit. They are Walter N. Haldeman, the President of the company and publisher of the paper ; and Henry Watterson, its editor. The untiring energy, limitless enterprise, great busi- ness sagacity, and fiue kuowledge of men pos- sessed by Mr. Haldeman have made the COUR- IER-JOURNAL, not ouly oue of the best newspa- pers of the country, but one of the best news- paper properties, the revenues of the journal having been unstintingly used for its own ad- vancement until it is now one of the richest newspapers in the United States. Its building is one of the handsomest and most costly business houses in Louisville. Above the ground it has a height of five stories. Ou Fourth street it has a frontage of one hundred and sixty-five feet, and on Green street a frontage of eighty-six feet. Its perfecting presses, stereotyping rooms, and engiues for heating and lighting it with electric lights are contained in the enormous basemeut. Its composing and editorial rooms are the most perfect in America. The cost of this magnificent structure was more than half a million dollars, and it certainly has no equal in Europe or Amer- ica. The COURIER-JOURNAL'S equipment is equally perfect in all other respects.
COURIER-JOURNAL BUILDING.
IIO
Daily and Weekly.
Besides the large staff of editorial writers, editors, and reporters, it has its special correspondents at all principal points throughout the United States, special wires running into its office from New York, Washington, and elsewhere, and, in its own peculiar territory, it has correspondents at every town and village. These, supplemented by the Associated Press service, daily furnish the office with the news of the world.
The more than uatioual reputation and influence of the COURIER- JOURNAL are mainly due to its editor, Mr. Henry Watterson, the most brilliant journalist in America. What has already been written of the paper may be said of him, since its policy is the embodiment of bis views. There is no man in journalism in this country who exerts, through his uewspaper, so powerful a personal influence as does Mr. Watterson. The dashing brilliancy of his literary style and its fearless originality are typical of the man bimself, and his personality delight- fully pervades all he writes. But it is neither as a literateur nor a politi- cian that Mr. Watterson claims and receives distinction. While the utterances of but few men are received with more attention by his party -and, indeed, the natiou at large-than are his, he is absolutely free from political entanglements and is thus able to discuss the questions of the day with no other motive iu view than that which he conceives to be the right. No man more quickly than he scents a danger or recognizes a fallacy. The most intimate acquaintance with men and events, both HENRY WATTERSON. of the past and of to-day, seems to give him an insight into the future that is commonly spoken of as the intuition of genius, hut which is really the inevitable logic of accurate knowledge. Mr. Watterson bas heen and is to be found in the van of the Democracy in all questions where Democratic and not mere factional principles are involved. With Car- lisle and Morrison, he leads the Democratic fight for a "tariff for revenue only," and is foremost in the opposition to the out-growing evil of the war tariff, the " Money Devil" of the South. It is due to him that the power and influence of the COURIER-JOURNAL are out of all proportion, even to the large circulation of the paper.
The COURIER-JOURNAL is essentially the "paper of the people." It is opposed to every form of monoply ; no one connected with it desires political office, or in any way seeks to benefit himself otherwise than through the legitimate functions of journalism. Those who have known it longest commend it most. Whatever it believes will tend to the bettering of the whole people of the country it advocates fearlessly and constantly. Its news features cover the widest field of the newspaper on all current subjects. It is recognized as the representative journal of the South and South- west, and has, in its weekly edition, hy far the largest circulation of any democratic newspaper in the country, no paper being more widely known and read. The circulation of the daily is 18,500; of the Sunday edition, 25,000; of the weekly, 110,000.
What has been said of the daily edition of this paper applies equally well to the weekly paper, which is the cheap- est and best family newspaper published in the United States. It possesses the same facilities that give the daily edition its standing in journalism, and for one dollar a year may be obtained the largest and best democratic newspaper in the land. The WEEKLY COURIER-JOURNAL is an eight-page paper, each page containing eight columns of matter, each issue therefore containing sixty-four columns, while other leading weekly newspapers contain but fifty-six columns. Not only is the quantity of matter so unusual, but its quality even surpasses the quantity. The great size of the paper enables its editors, by judicious selection and condensation, to put into each issue a complete summary of the news of the week previous, thus furnishing to the farmer or other man to whom a daily paper is inaccessible, a current history of the world in which he lives. Its information about political movements and its political gossip are especially com- plete. It, like the daily COURIER-JOURNAL, and under the same editorship as the latter, maintains a constant fight against the war taxes and other burdens with which agricultural classes are especially oppressed for the benefit of a lim- ited manufacturing class. By means of its enormous circulation of 110,000, which is national in character, but for the most part in the South and South-west, its views are spread throughout the entire country, and its influence is felt wherever it is read.
But the WEEKLY COURIER-JOURNAL is not only a potent political factor ; it is the best family newspaper in the country. While its general news is full and complete, its miscellany makes it serve the double purpose of a news- paper and a magazine. The best known writers of current fiction contribute to its columns, and its serial and short stories make a distinctive feature of this journal. Its selections are made with the greatest care. With every issue are pub- lished sermons from eminent divines, specially furnished to the COURIER-JOURNAL. Its several departments give the paper a value in the home circle ; one of these, the " Answers to Correspondents," has long been a most interesting, val- uable feature of the paper, containing as it does information on all conceivable subjects furnished at the request of the paper's readers. The "Children's Department," the " Women's Department," the " Agricultural and Live Stock Departments " are all maintained fully and regularly, thus causing the paper to embrace a field of news, politics, liter- ature, and general information not contained in any other journal in the United States. As an advertising medium the WEEKLY COURIER-JOURNAL is uuequaled. JTI
The Bradley & Gilbert Company.
7 HE BRADLEY & GILBERT COMPANY, booksellers, stationers, prin- ters, blank-book and paper-box manufacturers, is one of the oldest and most widely-known honses in Louisville. It is an incorporated company, its officers being James C. Gilbert, President ; John C. Hern- don, Vice-President ; William Harrison, Secretary and Treasurer. The firm was founded in 1858 by Thomas Bradley and James C. Gilbert. They were journeymen printers, having no capital, but a great deal of indus- try. They began business in a small way but were prosperous, and, in 1861, moved from their small quarters on Market street to their present location at Third and Green streets. Here they gradually enlarged their business and their facilities, the history of the house being one of un- broken success. In 1879 Mr. Bradley died, and in January, 1882, the stock company was organized, heing then called the Gilbert & Mallory Publish- ing Company. In March, 1884, the name of the company was changed to its present title. The company now occupies very extensive quarters, having a double house of four stories and another of three stories. The hands employed number 150, and there is the most complete equipment of machinery. The business is divided into four departments, the most important of which is the manufacture of blank and record books.
The hlank-book manufactory is as complete as any in the West or South, and the work done there is equal to any in the world. It has JAMES C. GILBERT. every facility, the most improved and complete machinery ; uses the best material, and employs the most skillful workmen, paying the high- est prices for labor. Here are made two-thirds of the record books used in the offices of the clerks of courts throughout Kentucky. The company makes a specialty of railroad work, and has a large trade with banks and merchants, and is the only one in America that will sell a bank outfit, and then, through its Vice-President, open the books and teach the officers of the bank the routine of the banking business. This company has the credit of having made the largest blank book in the world. It is a ledger that measures twenty-five inches in width, twenty-seven inches in length, and ten and a half inches in thickness. It weighs 250 pounds and cost $150. The work is of the handsomest kind, the binding being of Russia leather, tooled and carved, and beautifully inlaid with colored leathers, and ornamented in black and gilt.
The printing department, covering an area of three large floors, contains the latest patterns of perfected printing presses and cutting machines, an abundant supply of new and standard fonts of body and display types, and all modern appliances requisite to fully equip an office for quickly and artistically executing the varied demands made on a large and prosperons printing concern. It includes all the branches known to the " art preservative," and employs a compe- tent corps of artisans able to intelligently execute the ever-changing ideas of art and taste in letter-press printing. in a prompt and thorough manner. It keeps apace with the fluctuating trade of this progressive age of perfected printing, and adds new type faces as they appear, to meet the wants of a large and exacting trade. Among several important jobs, is now being issued a revised addition of the General Statutes of Kentucky, a hook of extraordinary size and neces- sarily prepared with the utmost care. It is promised that the publication will be as perfect as the printer's art can make it.
The company is one of the two manufacturers of paper boxes in Louisville, the other having been started at a com- paratively recent date. When the firm began making them, years ago, a very sinall equipment more than supplied the demand for them here. Now, with every modern improvement for making the boxes, and with many hands em- ployed, the factory can not nearly supply the demand, though there is another factory in Louisville. That of the BRAD- LEY & GILBERT COMPANY bas recently been entirely refitted and is now the largest anywhere west of Cincinnati.
When the firm first moved to Third and Green streets the city was withont the letter-carrier system, and all people were obliged to go or send to the post-office for their letters. Messrs. Bradley & Gilbert immediately saw that their loca- tion was an admirable one for a book and stationery store ; so they added that branch of business to their printing-office and bindery. The store rapidly became very popular and soon had to be enlarged in order to accommodate their increas- ing trade. This popularity it has never lost ; their business in this line has gone on increasing, and "Bradley & Gil- bert's" is a familiar household name in the city. The store now occupies the lower floors of the buildings fronting on Third street. It comprises two large and elegant rooms, thrown together by arches, and is, without doubt, one of the most handsome and attractive in the city. It has always been considered the headquarters for the retail trade in school and college books, and does an extensive business in office and fancy stationery.
Mr. James C. Gilbert, the practical head of the firm since its foundation, is a remarkable man, having many strong qualities, and would have made his mark in whatever walk of life he had selected. He was born on December 12, 1832, at Jackson, Missouri, but is descended from an old Kentucky family, his maternal grandfather, James Duncan, having been one of the early residents of Louisville. As a very young man Mr. Gilbert moved to Salem, Indiana, whence he came to Louisville. Here he has long been an important political factor. For seven years he was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Public Schools. In 1870 he was elected to represent the Ninth Ward in the Board of Alder- men, and has been returned at every election since then. Under Mayor Baxter's administration he was President of the Board for two years, and for several weeks acting Mayor. Under the present administration he is now in the third year of his term as President of the Board. He succeeded the late Hon. James Trabne as President of the Sinking Fund.
II2
Land and Building Companies.
THOMAS W. BLACKHART.
HE receut activity in the Louisville real estate market has had, among other results, that of causing the business men of this city to see how the commerce of Louisville could be materially bene- fited by the development of certain unoccupied portions of the city, and tracts of land lying just outside of the city limits. Although the West End of Louisville offers more advantages for the location of factories than does any other sectiou, it has been slowest in building up, a condi- tion of affairs due largely to the fact that this section was distant from any railroad connection. Now, however, a line of road, called the Daisy Route, runs into it aud conuects it with all the railroads running into Louisville. The DAISY REALTY COMPANY was incorporated in March, ISS7, its authorized capital stock being $500,000. Its officers are Thomas W. Blackhart, President; Davis Brown, Vice-President; Sidney J. Hobbs, Secretary ; R. C. Kerr, Treasurer. The directors are the forego- ing, and John T. O'Neil, S. W. Hegan, Dr. M. K. Allen, and C. R. Greg- ory. The purpose of the company is to develop West End property. It owns 125 acres of the most desirable land in the West Eud, on which it is proposed to build houses and establish factories, and, where necessary, take stock in factories desiring to locate on this ground. The land is all west of Twenty-eighth street, and south of Broadway. It lies along the line of the Daisy Route. Some of it has already heen sold to manufact- urers, and within a short time several factories will be built there.
Mr. Blackhart is also Vice-President of the WEST LOUISVILLE LAND AND IMPROVEMENT COMPANY, incorporated in June, 1887, with a capital of $1,000,000. The officers are W. C. Hall, President ; Thomas W. Blackhart, Vice-President ; Theodore Harris, Treasurer, and John A. Stratton, Secretary. The Directors are W. C. Hall, Jesse J. Brown, Morris McDonald, John Colgan, Henry J. Lewis, Bennett H. Young, S. S. Meddis, S. W. Hegan, and the officers of the company, The company owns and has options on 922 acres of land west of Twenty- eighth street, and south of Broadway, extending in one tract to the Ohio river, which makes a bend just below Louisville, skirting the city on the west. It is the purpose of the WEST LOUISVILLE LAND AND IMPROVEMENT COMPANY to build wharfs in the deep water of the river and make steamboat landings there, and connect the city by cable liues of cars. This will save the time and expeuse of going through the canal, and for freight shipped by water to or from the South, from or to factories in the West End, will cause a vast saving, both in time and money. The elevation of the ground is twenty feet higher than that on which Louisville is built, giving good drainage and preventing all danger of flood. It contains the most available factory sites about Louisville. Here the company expects to locate factories, build a town, and lay out an extensive park. The town will have its own water-works aud its own municipal government.
Another company interested in the development of this locality is the WESTVIEW BUILDING COMPANY, also recently organized with a capital of $200,000. Its officers are W. T. Pyne, President ; George B. Bahr, Vice-President ; George M. Crawford, Secretary, and Thomas W. Blackhart, Treasurer. The company is improving 100 acres of land known as the Homestead, a subdivision of Parkland, which is a suburb of Louisville. The land is the bighest tract west of Louis- ville. The object of the company is to build dwelling-houses and sell them on the monthly-payment plau. It is the only building association ever organized in Louisville that ever built a house. It has already sold and now has in course of construction thirty handsome frame houses, costing from $2,000 to $8,000 each, the cost of the ground being $16 a foot, in addition to the cost of the houses. The company has taken an active part in all the improvements in the West End, and was instrumental in locating the Daisy Route which runs through its land. It has also secured a post-office, and telegraph and telephone stations. It has already established one lumber-yard and will locate another. It is arrang- ing to double its building capacity, having already received applications for houses to be built next spring.
Another important enterprise in the West End is the PARKLAND HILLS HOTEL AND AMUSEMENT COMPANY, of which Mr. Blackhart is the President. E. C. Bohue, George M. Crawford, Newton G. Rogers, J. W. Beilstein, Vernou D. Price, and W. T. Pyne are the directors. The grounds chosen for the hotel comprise about ten acres in the most beautiful part of Parkland, adjacent to the depot of the Daisy Railroad. The lot is already a haudsome park, but will be still greatly improved. An artificial lake of three acres will be made in a corner of the grounds, with boat- houses and pleasure-houses. In the center of the grounds will be the large hotel, supplied with every convenience. Twenty or more villas, to be let to families, will be built about it, each containing parlor, three or four bed-rooms, bath- rooms, halls, and all conveniences. The grounds and houses will be lighted hy incandescent electric lights, and the small buildings will be connected with the hotel by telephone and electric bells. The hotel will furnish hot and cold water, and heat by pure hot air in winter to all the houses. The hotel servants will do the work in the villas.
Mr. Thomas W. Blackhart, the gentleman most largely interested in these several companies, is quite a young man. He is a native of Ohio, but came to this city when fifteen years old. In 1876 he entered the house of Price & Lucas and rose to have full control of the office of that establishment. Having located in Parkland, he invested there in real estate and is the largest individual owner of property in that town. His investments have quadrupled in value, and now demand his entire time and attention. Mr. Blackhart is a man of great energy and of a progressive spirit emi- nently fitted to manage large affairs.
113
The Glenview Stock Farm Company.
JONN E. GREEN.
0 F the numerous stock-breeding establishments of Jefferson county the most successful and the most famous is "GLENVIEW," formerly the property of the late J. C. McFerran, whose intelligence and enterprise caused his farm to take a foremost place among the trotting- horse establishments, even of Kentucky. At the executor's sale, after his death, his great number of horses brought the highest average price per head ever obtained at a sale. Such was the reputation of GLENVIEW. The reputation had been well-earned, for the farm was the home of the grandly-bred Nutwood, the speed-begetting Cuyler, aud the admirable Pancoast. Here, was bred Patron, Pancoast's .young son, which, this season, promises to lower the stallion record. Here also were bred Patrou's dam, besides Day Dream, 2:2134 ; Algarth, 2:23; and Elvira, 2:181/2, with others that figure in the 2:30 list.
When GLENVIEW was sold it was bought by some gentlemen who had the capacity and the will to sustain the high reputation of the place. if not to advance it still further. They then incorporated the com- pany, which is constituted as follows: J. I. Case, President ; S. H. Wheeler, of sewing-machine fame, Vice-President ; Johu E. Green, Secretary, Treasurer, and General Manager. Mr. Greeu understands as well as any one the fundamental principles that insure success in breed- ing trotting horses. He lives upon the place, and all of the details of the business are conducted under his supervisiou. The farm is five miles east of Louisville and lies in a rolling, limestone country that is not
surpassed in the State, the land being of the famous bluegrass formation. Besides the original GLENVIEW property other land has been purchased, so that the place now comprises 1,087 acres, all of it capable of the highest cultivation. Most of it, of course, is in meadow or pasture land, the general aim being to keep the farm in bluegrass. A large tract is heavily timbered, the woodland affording good shelter for horses running out in the winter time, though numerous sheds are also provided for this purpose. The barns and stables are ample for all the stock that the place will support. These are always in the best of repair. A good mile track enables the horses to be regularly trained. The land is divided into convenient paddocks and fields, all well fenced and well watered. But the great natural excellence of GLENVIEW consists in the quality of the soil, which is as rich as any land in the bluegrass country itself. Indeed, one may go all over that famous section of Kentucky and not find hetter fields of grass than are found here, where the herb- age is high and so thickly matted that one is impeded as oue walks. This grass affords good pasturage, except in the worst weather, and a horse could live on it quite comfortably all the year ; but at GLENVIEW a high system of feeding is maintained. The colts are taught to eat even before they are weaned and they are given all they will consume, while the mothers are similarly treated. This fact is evident in the appearance of the stock.
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