USA > New York > New York City > History of New York City : embracing an outline sketch of events from 1609 to 1830, and a full account of its development from 1830 to 1884, Volume I > Part 28
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A project was set on foot about that time for the ladies of the city, " who had participated but slightly in the pleasure of welcoming their favorite bachelor home," to give him a grand fancy ball in the autumn, in which all the characters in his works would be represented.
The most prominent painters mentioned in the drama wore Trumbull, Jarvis, Weir, Leslie, Inman, Morse, Cole, Cummings, Agate, Durand,
* The writer of this work remembers going on some business, into the editor's room of the Mirror (a very small apartment in James Conner's type-foundry building, corner of Fulton and Nassau streets) in 1835. Morris was reading one of Willis's " Pencillings" in manuscript, just received, to four gentlemen who were seated there. The writer was invited to take a seat. At the conclusion of the reading he was introduced to the four gentlemen-Washington Irving, Dr. John W. Francis. Fitz-Greene Halleck, and Theodore S. Fay. Mr. Irving was much sunburned, for he had just returned from a tour on the prairies.
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and Hoyle. The most prominent engravers on metal were Durand, Smillie, and Ilatchi, and on wood, Mason, Adams, and Anderson.
Trumbull was a small man. He was the painter of four of the fa- mous pictures which fill panels in the rotunda at Washington, ordered and paid for by the National Government. They represent scenes in the history of the old war for independence. Trumbull was then nearly eighty years of age. Fifty-seven of his pictures are now in the " Trumbull Gallery"of Yale College. ITe presented them to the col- lege on condition of receiving an annuity of $1000. He died in New York in 1843.
John Wesley Jarvis was a native of England, where he was born in 1780, and was a nephew of Wesley, the founder of Methodism. Jarvis came to Philadelphia when five years of age, but was a citizen of New York most of his life, where he was the leading portrait painter many years. He was a diligent student of all information, especially that which pertained to his calling. Jarvis had a lucrative business, but his extravagant habits and irregular life kept him always comparatively poor. He earned 86000 in six months in New Orleans, where he had Henry Inman, his pupil, with him. He received six sitters a day. 1 sitting occupied an hour. The picture was handed to Inman to paint in the background and drapery under the master's eye.
Jarvis was a genuine humorist. Dunlap relates several stories illus- trative of this trait in his character. Stopping at the house of a planter near Charleston, Jarvis perceived a dog-kennel near the gate at the highway, which was some distance from the mansion. The planter was absent some days, leaving the house in charge of Jarvis. He-painted on the kennel. in large letters, the words " Take care of the dog." Everybody shunned the kennel, and took other routes to the house. When the owner came home, he too, seeing the words of warning, shunned the kennel.
" Why, Jarvis, " he said, " what have you got in the dog-kennel ?" " A dog, to be sure. Come and see. "
They went, and the painter took out of the dog-house a puppy whose eyes were not yet open.
" Poor little fellow," said Jarvis, as he stroked the puppy's back : " don't you think it necessary to take care of him ?"
On one occasion, while painting a portrait of Bishop Moore, the prel- ate asked Jarvis some question about his religious belief. The painter. as if intent upon catching the likeness of the sitter, said, quietly, " Turn your face more that way, and shut your mouth." Jarvis died in New York City, January 12, 1:40.
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Weir was at that time a little under thirty years of age. He had struggled with misfortune in early life, discerned his own genius for art and heeded its promptings, had become a pupil in art before he was twenty, and was now a successful practitioner of the delightful profes- sion of a painter. He had lately painted a fine portrait of the Seneca chief Red Jacket, and his designs were the delight of the engraver. Weir was not tall, but possessed an excellent physique, and was com- pactly built .*
C. R. Leslie was Weir's senior by nine years, and was at this time teacher of drawing at West Point. IIe resigned in 1834.+
Thomas Cole,# the fine landscape painter, was at that time in Eng- land, having gone there in 1829. He did not return until 1832.
* Robert Walter Weir was born in New Rochelle, Westchester County, N. Y., June 18, 1803. His father was a merchant, who failed in business when Robert was a lad. He was taken from school and placed in a cotton factory. Afterward he was engaged in a mercantile house, first in Albany and afterward in the South and in New York City. His fondness for sketching made him resolve to be a painter. He took lessons in drawing, and made excellent copies of paintings loaned him by Mr. Paff, a famous dealer in art productions, which brought young Weir fame and employment. So, at the age of less than twenty years, his art life began. His " Embarkation of the Pilgrims," painted to fill a panel in the rotunda of the Capitol at Washington, is regarded as the best painting under the roof of that building.
Mr. Weir was professor of perspective in the National Academy of the Arts of Design (1830-34), when he succeeded C. R. Leslie as instructor of drawing in the Military Acad- emy at West Point, where he remained about forty years in that capacity. He has pro- duced some exquisite paintings, remarkable for sentiment, accuracy of drawing, and admirable coloring. He now (1883) resides in the city of New York.
+ Charles Robert Leslie was born in London, October 17, 1794, and died near that city on May 5, 1859. His parents were natives of Maryland, and returned to America when Charles was five years of age. At six he could make sketches from memory with much accuracy. He studied art in Europe, and spent some time in England studying and painting. He was appointed teacher of drawing at the Military Academy at West Point, on the Hudson. That position he resigned in 1834, when he returned to England, where he died.
# Thomas Cole was an eminent landscape painter, a native of Lancashire, England, where he was born in February, 1801. His parents were Americans, and returned to America when Thomas was eighteen years of age. He began portrait painting at Steu- benville, Ohio, and in 1822 he left home as an itinerant portrait painter. Being unsue- cessful, he turned his attention to landscape painting, and became a master in that line of art. Enamored by the scenery of the Hudson River, all his talent was drawn out by the inspiration. He entered upon a very successful career. In 1829 he visited England ; he also went to Paris and Italy, and in 1832 returned to New York. He finally made Catskill, N. Y., his place of abode. There he painted his famous serial pictures. " The Course of Empire" (now in the gallery of the New York Historical Society) and " The Voyage of Life." He left an unfinished series, " The Cross and the World," at the time of his death, which occurred February 11, 1847.
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Henry Inman had then superseded his master, Jarvis, as a portrait painter. Ile was thirty years of age, possessed conversational powers of a high order, and an inexhaustible fund of anecdote and wit.
C. C. Ingham * was a very small and a very active man, and an exquisite painter of portraits, finishing them up with all the delicacy of touch of the small ivory portraits. Durand was then engaged in alter- nate labors with the brush and burin. Cummings was producing his exquisite small portraits on ivory and paper ; Hoyle, the gifted, was painting beautiful landscapes, but died a few years afterward, while Agate, who began the practice of the painter's art at an early age, was successfully painting portraits in Albany. + Morse was already a veteran in art, president of the National Academy of the Arts of Design, and at that time was about to return from England with the grand idea of an electro-magnetic telegraph about to blossom out of his brain and produce the wonderful fruit for which the civilized world is indebted for a great blessing.
Durand was then the foremost engraver of pictures on metals in the United States, especially in delineations of human flesh, while James Smillie was the most effective engraver of landscapes. Both are yet among living artists. Mr. Smillie, the younger of the two, is actively engaged with the burin at his pleasant home in Poughkeepsie.#
* Charles C. Ingham was a native of Dublin, Ireland, where he was born in 1797. He came to New York at the age of twenty, and with his brother held a front rank as a por- trait painter. His " Death of Cleopatra" gave him great notoriety and extensive busi- ness. He produced other beautiful compositions.
+ Frederick S. Agate was a native of Westchester County, New York, born in 1807. Showing a propensity for "sketching everything" in early childhood, he was placed under the tuition of John R. Smith, a teacher of drawing, when he was fourteen years of age. He became a pupil of S. F. B. Morse in painting. He began portrait painting as a profession in 1827, and became an exceedingly skilful artist in that line, as well as in historical painting. Mr. Agate died in New York City in 1844. His best known works are " Dead Christ and Mother," " Columbus and the Egg," " The Ascension," and " Count Ugolino."
# James Smillie is a native of Edinburgh, Scotland, where he was born on November 23, 1807. His father was a manufacturing jeweller and an enthusiastic mineralogist. The son at a very early age felt a strong desire to become an engraver, but did not at first receive much encouragement from his mother, for he was only eleven years of age -- " too young to think of it." But the boy determined to try his luck. He found a silver engraver willing to take him as a pupil, and he entered his service. This tutor soon afterward died, and James found a situation with an historical engraver, where, however, he did nothing more than make drawings.
Mr. Smillie's parents emigrated to Quebec when he was fifteen years of age. There, with very little experience, he began the practice of the art of engraving. He soon acquired skill in cutting letters, and he set up for himself, giving publie notice that he
a avant
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George Whitefield Hatch, then the partner in business with Mr. Smillie, was charming the public with his delicate designs and rare skill as an engraver. He had lately engraved on steel for the Mirror a fine portrait of Washington Irving, from a painting by Leslie.
Mr. Hatch was a native of Johnstown, Montgomery County, N. Y., where he was born April 27, 1804. A portion of his early life was passed at Auburn, Cayuga County, N. Y., where he began the study of law with his half-brother, Enos T. Throop, who became lieutenant- governor of New York. His love of art and his developing ability to pursue it successfully so predominated in his nature that with the sanc- tion of his friends he abandoned the study of the law and ever after- ward worked and dwelt in the realm of art.
While yet a lad young Hatch's exquisite designs attracted attention, and as he grew to manhood his skill with the pencil assured his future
was prepared to " engrave spoons, door-plates, and dog-collars." He afterward engraved maps for the Canadian government so skilfully that he was awarded a silver medal and was made a member of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts and Sciences, in Canada. He finally went to England to acquire a more thorough knowledge of his art. He suffered many vicissitudes there, and after receiving five months' instruction from an engraver in Edinburgh, he returned to Quebec and resumed the practice of engraving there. He etched scenery about Quebec and evinced great skill and promise in that line of art.
In 1830 Mr. Smillie went to New York, determined to push his way in landscape engraving exclusively, and succeeded to his heart's content. His first essay was getting up cheap labels for cigar-boxes, with Mr. Gimber, an engraver. There he made the acquaintance of Mr. Weir, the painter, who engaged him to engrave a convent gate, near Rome, which Weir had painted, and generously invited him to be his guest and to use his studio while engaged upon it. He was successful. He made the acquaintance of A. B. Durand, who engaged him to do some work on a steel plate, the first he had ever undertaken on that metal. He succeeded, and Mr. Durand generously gave him $10 more than he asked for his work. He returned to Canada. Soon afterward he received an invitation from a New York publisher to return and engrave views about New York for him, assuring him he would earn $10 a week. He accepted the invitation, arrived in New York in May, 1831, and was not disappointed. In the fall he sent for his mother and her family. He successfully engraved for a publisher " The Garden of Edlen," from a painting by Cole, and began to engrave plates for the New York Mirror and the " Annuals." He formed a partnership in engraving with George W. Hatch, which did not endure long, for that gentleman entered the firm of Rawdon & Wright, bank-note engravers. From that time Mr. Smillie was eminently successful in business, producing the finest landscape engraving in the country.
In 1831 Mr. Smillie was elected a member of the first Sketch Club, was made an asso- ciate of the National Academy of the Arts of Design in 1832, and an academician in 1851. He became a member of the National Bank Note Company in 1864. He left it in 1868 and joined the American Bank Note Company, of which he is now (1883) a member. He removed to the city of Poughkeepsie, where he is delightfully engaged in the pursuit of his favorite art, and has the happiness of seeing his sons successful artists.
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position. Dunlap says he took lessons in engraving from Durand-was his pupil. At the age of twenty-five he married Miss Mary Daniels, of Albany. He had then become a successful engraver as well as a designer and draughtsman.
About 1828 Mr. Hatch took up his abode in the city of New York, where he soon stood in the front rank in the practice of the graphic art. In 1831, perceiving the skill in landscape engraving of James Smillie, he formed a partnership with him. Not long afterward Mr. Hatch formed a business connection with Messrs. Rawdon and Wright, bank-note engravers. The firm of Rawdon, Wright, Hatch & Co. became very famous, and for many years they did most of the bank- note engraving of the country. Many of the most beautiful designs that embellished the bank-notes were from his hand. In 1858 this firm and other engravers of later distinction joined in forming the American Bank Note Company. Of this association Mr. Hatch was made the president, which office he held at the time of his death, which occurred on February 13, 1866, at his beautiful suburban seat at Dobb's Ferry, on the Hudson, in the sixty-second year of his age. His widow sur- vived him more than nine years.
Mr. Dunlap, in his " History of the Arts of Design," wrote of Mr. Hatch in 1834 : " He designs with taste, skill, and accuracy. That I am not able to give a detailed and accurate notice of this very estimable gentleman is owing to a reserve, on his part, that is to me inexplicable. IIe began a picture some years ago, which has been favorably spoken of, but he says he shall not finish it until he has made his fortune. He is a member of the National Academy of the Arts of Design, and I have admired his sketches at our Sketch Club."
Late in life Mr. Hatch went to Europe, where he visited the most famous art galleries in France, Italy, and Germany. It was a realiza- tion of a delicious dream of his youth, and he returned satisfied. In his business and social relations Mr. Hatch was always genial, and honor- able in all his ways. He was ever ready to assist the deserving and the needy. His remains repose in a beautiful cemetery at Auburn, N. Y. Mr. Hatch founded the (present) " Hatch Lithographie Company."
" Mason, Adams, Anderson," mentioned in the " drama," were the three principal engravers on wood then in New York : indeed there were only two others. Joseph A. Adams gave to his work most exquisite mechanical execution. He was a native of New Jersey, but was so reticent about his own career that no one ever had sufficient materials for the most meagre biographical sketch. He became widely known as the engraver of the illustrations of Harper's beautiful folio
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Bible. He spent many years in Europe after 1848, and died about the year 1578.
Dr. Alexander Anderson was a most remarkable man. IIe was born in the city of New York in April, 1775. His father was a Whig printer, and fled from the city when the British took possession of it in 1776. Ile evinced a taste and talent for art at a very early age, but studied medicine and graduated at the medical school of Columbia Col- lege. He preferred art, and especially engraving, as a life pursuit. Having engraved about half the illustrations for a book on type-metal, he discovered that similar pictures were made on wood, and he engraved the remainder on the latter material. This was the first engraving on wood done in America. He pursued the art consecu- tively for seventy-five years. or until the ninety-fifth year of his age. Ile died when within three months of ninety-five years of age, January 16, 1870.
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CHAPTER XIV.
THE beginning of this decade was the dawn of a new era in jour- nalism, not only in the city of New York but in both hemi- spheres.
In 1827 there were ten daily newspapers published in the city of New York, of which six were issued in the morning and four in the evening. The morning daily papers were the New York Gazette, the Mercantile Advertiser, the National Advocate, the Daily Advertiser, the New York National Advocate, and the Times.
The evening papers were the Commercial Advertiser, the Evening Post, the Statesman, and the American. Not one of the morning daily papers named is now in existence ; of the evening papers, the Commercial Advertiser and Evening Post are flourishing in green old age.
There were seven semi-weekly papers and sixteen weekly newspapers in the city in 1827. The former were issues of the dailies for the coun- try ; some of the latter were such issues, and some were independent publications. Of the weekly papers of that day, only one survives- the New York Observer-which ranked as a " religious newspaper." There are now published in New York twenty-one daily morning papers and eight daily evening papers. There are eleven semi-weekly papers and one hundred and fifty weekly papers. There are also five bi-weekly and fifteen semi-monthly papers. Of "periodical " publica- tions so called, there are one hundred and sixteen monthlies, two bi-monthlies, and six quarterlies.
It was at about this time that a new power in the realm of journal- ism appeared in the city of New York in the person of a young lieutenant in the army, who had lately resigned. He was then nearly twenty-six years of age.
In May, 1827, a daily newspaper had been started in New York called the Morning Courier. It had struggled with adversity a little more than six months when, in December, it was about to abandon the contest for life because of a lack of money to sustain it, when the young army officer referred to became its proprietor. Signs of new
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life and uncommon energy immediately appeared, and the resuscitated Courier started vigorously on a long and wonderful career.
Let us here pause a moment and take a brief survey of the antece- dents of this young newspaper proprietor. It will help us, by an insight into his character at this period, to better comprehend what follows in an outline picture of events at the dawn of the new era in journalism.
The new proprietor of the Courier was the son of a gallant officer of the army of patriots in the war of the American Revolution. His brother-in-law and guardian wished him to study law. Though only a boy of twelve years, he said, decidedly :
" No, I want to enter the army or navy, or study medicine."
" Out of the question," said his kinsman.
Both were obstinate, and a compromise followed. The boy was to try the mercantile profession. The experiment continued three months, when the boy decided it was a failure. His guardian insisted it was too late to make a change ; the boy thought not, and acted in accordance with his convictions. He endured the restraints of guar- dianship until he was about seventeen years old, when he suddenly dis- missed his overseers by a summary process, and started out in life free and independent.
The lad was then a resident of Cherry Valley, N. Y. Having pro- vided himself legitimately with means from his own inheritance, he sent word to his guardian that he no longer required his services as such, and then started for New York City to see Governor Clinton, whom he knew personally. He told the governor he was on his way to Washington to get a commission in the army, and asked him for a letter of introduction to Mr. Calhoun. the Secretary of War. It was given him, and the youth went on his way rejoicing.
After reading the governor's letter, the secretary said :
" It is impossible to give you a place. The graduating class at West Point is very large-more than sufficient to fill all vacancies."
IIere was a dilemma. The youth had only $3 left, and too proud ever to return home if he failed. After a moment's reflection he asked :
" If there had been no graduating class, would my claims have been respected ?"
"Certainly ; but why do you ask ?" Mr. Calhoun inquired, greatly interested by the business view of matters taken by the youth.
" Because." said the lad. " in that case I wish permission to address you a letter, examining into the justice of the ground upon which you
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have made a decision which cannot fail to have an influence upon my future life."
The astonished secretary readily granted the favor. It was in the middle of August, 1819. The young adventurer returned to his lodg- ings. The weather was extremely hot, but he sat down to his task. and did not leave it until it was finished. Ile wrote a long letter. in which he contrasted the position of the graduates of West Point with his own ; they being young men selected mostly from political consid- erations, educated, supported, and clothed at the expense of the gov- ernment for four years, and having no claims upon the country other than their fitness for military service. He, on the contrary, had been educated at his own expense ; his father had been a meritorious officer during the whole period of the Revolution, and had spent his fortune and his best years in the service of his country. The young man claimed to be as well qualified as they, in all respects save in military tactics ; and he proposed that a board of officers should be appointed to examine him in all studies pursued at the Military Academy, except- ing engineering and other purely military studies ; and if found com- petent, then he insisted that it was his right to receive a commission regardless of the graduating cadets and their claims. The letter closed with an intimation that he would call at the house of the secretary the next morning at nine o'clock to learn his decision.
The young man called at the appointed time, and was politely received.
" Young gentleman," said the secretary, rather coldly, " I suppose you have come to know your fate ?"'
Believing by Mr. Calhoun's manner that the decision was adverse to his wishes, the youth firmly answered, " I have, sir." The secretary's features relaxed into one of his blandest smiles as he took the young man by the band and said :
" I have carefully read your letter, and you have demonstrated your claim to be appointed, while the manner in which you have accom- plished your purpose is with me evidence of your fitness for the army."
A long conversation then ensued, in which Mr. Calhoun drew from him an admission that he was a runaway from home, only seventeen years of age. The secretary gave him a commission of lieutenant in the Fourth Battalion of artillery, with orders to report for duty at Governor's Island in the harbor of New York. For seven years this young soldier served his country faithfully and efficiently, chiefly in the North-West, when Chicago was only a military post and a trading station, and all the region now teeming with millions of inhabitants
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was a solitary wilderness, trodden only by the foot of the barbarian. In September, 1827, he resigned his commission, and, as we have ob- served, became the proprietor of a daily newspaper in the city of New York.
That energetic and determined runaway, that adventurous soldier, that inchoate newspaper editor and publisher, who was to speedily revolutionize the methods of journalism. was James Watson Webb, still a tower of intellectual and moral strength, and wearing the snow-white crown of an octogenarian.
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