Centennial history of Cincinnati and representative citizens, Vol. I, Pt. 2, Part 52

Author: Greve, Charles Theodore, b. 1863. cn
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1048

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wrote an elaborate history of the Indian tribes, which fills three huge folios. In 1839 he mar- ried Mrs. Mary Louisa Alexander, a daughter of the Revolutionary soldier, Maj. Richard Clough Anderson, and sister of Governor Charles Ander- son and the late Larz Anderson. The four children of this marriage are William A. Hall, James H. Hall, Mrs. Thomas H. Wright and Miss Kate Longworth Hall.

William Davis Gallagher, distinguished as poet and editor, was born in Philadelphia, Penn- sylvania, August 21, 1808. His father was an Irish refugee and his mother a daughter of a Welsh farmer who died in Washington's army at Valley Forge. Gallagher was educated near the Cary homestead at a log school house pre- sided over by one Samuel Woodworth and after- wards at the Lancaster Seminary in Cincinnati. While studying in this school he learned to set type in a small printing office belonging to Rev. D. Rootes, which was located in old Post Office alley, west of Main, between Third and Fourth. In 1826 he was employed by Gazlay on the Western Tiller. When this paper was sold by Gazlay in 1828 to William J. Ferris, he took service under Browne of the Cincinnati Em- porium, which had been founded in 1824. Shortly afterwards he joined the staff of Cincinnati's first daily, the Commercial Register. In quick succession he was connected with such literary periodicals as the Western Minerva, Foote's Literary Gasette and afterwards with the Even- ing Chronicle, then edited by Benjamin Drake. He wrote for this paper under the pseudonym "Roderick." In the summer of 1828 circum- stances led him to make a trip through Ken- tucky and the South. This trip resulted in a number of descriptive letters in the Chronicle, which gave him quite a reputation. Upon his return he was enabled by the generosity of Nicholas Longworth to build for himself a home on the north side of Fourth between Western row and John, which soon was sold to engage in a publishing venture at Xenia, where he mar- ried Mrs. Emma Addison. His venture at Xenia- proved a failure ; as a result Gallagher was in- duced by John Wood, who was about to start a literary paper in connection with his business as bookseller, to take editorial charge of this paper, the Mirror, the fourth literary periodical pub- lished west of the Alleghanies. He remained with this paper throughout its varying fortunes almost to the end of its life. The Mirror con- tained contributions from many of the leading Western writers, among whom were Timothy

Flint, J. 'A. McClung, Morgan Neville, Ben- jamin Drake, Mrs. Dumont and Alrs. Hentz. Gallagher also took part in the various literary societies of the city as a speaker and in 1835 he began the publication in book form of his poems. In 1836 he edited the Western Literary Journal, a monthly review, afterwards merged in the Western Monthly Magasine. Five num- bers of the latter magazine sufficed to prove that the supply exceeded the demand and Gallagher went to Columbus, to connect himself with the Ohio State Journal. In 1838 there appeared the first number of his most important enterprise, The Hesperian. Two volumes appeared in Co- lumbus and in 1829 the paper was transferred to Cincinnati, where in the third story of a brick house on Third street east of Main, in a room 10 by 12 feet, with a door and a single window, he fixed his office and residence. The Hesperian made for itself a permanent place in the literature of the West and numbered among its contributors Shreve, Perkins, Neville, Dr. and Benjamin Drake, Prentice, N. G. Symmes, Hildreth, Cranch, Robert Dale Owen, Mrs. Sigourney and Mrs. Hentz and others. In 1840 Hammond gave Gallagher a place as assistant editor of the Gasette and after the death of his friend he did much writing for this paper. He afterwards wrote for a number of literary jour- nals, but his career as a Cincinnati editor ended about 1850, when he was appointed to an official position in Washington. During his residence in the city he was twice president of the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio and delivered an historical address before the society on the occasion of the 62nd anniversary of the settle- ment of Ohio. For a short time in 1848 he edited an anti-slavery paper called the Daily Message, which, however, was too radical for Cincinnati business men anxious for Southern trade. He afterwards acted for a time as editor of the Louisville Conrier, where his independent course on the slavery question finally resulted in a con- troversy with his old friend, Prentice, which led to a challenge to a duel. After leaving Cincin- nati he took an active part in politics holding a number of official positions ; at the same time he wrote much for the journals of the country on economic and political subjects as well as in verse. His later years were spent at Pewee Val- ley, near Louisville. His poems, all of which were written in his carly life, were subject to a process of selection which resulted in 1881 in a publication of "Miami Woods and Other Poems," which, however, did not prove such a

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financial success as to warrant any further publi- cations. He died in 1894.

In the literary history of Cincinnati no names are more prominent than those of Alice and Phoebe Cary. They were the daughters of Rob- ert Cary, who at the age of 15 came with his father to Cincinnati in 1802. He married Eliza- beth Jessup in 1814 and settled upon a farm ficar Mount Pleasant (now Mount Healthy) in Springfield township. To them were born nine children, of whom his daughter Alice, born April 26, 1820, was the fourth; Phoebe was born four years later, September 24, 1824. The family were people of good education and training, but their lonely life on the farm and the privations incident to such life seem to have introduced an element of the mysterious which was character- istic of the two girls to the end of their lives. They saw visions and dreamed dreams and un- fortunately the visions were usually portents of evil and the dreams, dreams of sorrow. While still a child, Alice, looking towards their new dwelling which was just finished but had not been occupied, saw standing at the threshold her sister Rhoda with Lucy, another sister, in her arms, but when she called to them she saw the two sink into the ground in front of the very door of the house; both died within a short time. This vision seems to have made a marked impres- sion upon the Carys. Shortly after the death of these two sisters, the mother of the family died and two years later a stepmother came to the house. Around the memory of this personage, who is recalled by a friend as a sweet-faced, gentle, old Danish lady, has waged. the conflict that is usual in the case of stepmothers of children of genius. It is not necessary to place the fault at her door for it is easy to see that to a practical mother of a family, anxious to do justice to her husband's own daughters, both of whom were strong willed and somewhat in- tractable, Alice and Phoebe Cary would present a problem difficult of solution. Alice Cary was determined to indulge her literary aspirations. During the daytime she and her sister were will- ing to aid to the full extent of their strength in the labors of the household, but when the day's work was done they persisted in a determination to study and write. To the average country woman living upon a farm there is no waste of time so absolutely without excuse as the time spent upon reading unless it be of a religious character. Books always produce an atmosphere of unreality which unfits the reader for the practical work of life. Mrs. Cary the second was

strongly imbued with the feeling that the girls entrusted to her care should let books and writing alone. However, the craving for literary stim- ulus, whether it be that for the so-called dime novels or the higher forms of literature, must be satisfied. Although Alice did work during the day, scrubbed, swept, milked cows, washed dishes and made beds, at night she read and she wrote. Not permitted to burn a candlle, she and her sister Phoebe invented a light by aid of a sancer of lard with a rag wick. The books that they had to read were the usual extraordinary collection found in such houses. Of course there was the Bible, also hymn books, "Ilistory of the Jews," the "Journal" of Lewis and Clarke, Pope's "Essay on Man" and other poems, Char- lotte Temple and a novel called the "Black Peni- tents" of which unfortunately the last pages were lost, so that they remained throughout life in ig- norance of the fate of the hero and heroine. They also read the Trumpet, the Universalist news- paper from Boston. In spite of the narrowing influences of such life and such reading, they had before them the greatest inspiration,-nature it- self,-and within them the highest appreciation of its beauties. Before Alice Cary was 18 years old, she sent a poem called "The Child of Sor- row" to a Cincinnati Universalist paper, the Sen- tinel. To this paper, afterwards known as the Star in the West, she contributed regularly for some time. The day came when Phoebe added her little contribution and the Cary sisters were both launched on the career of letters. Eventually the father, who secretly aided and abetted his daugh- ters in their literary recalcitrancy, built a new house on the farm and moved into it with his wife, leaving his daughters in the old homestead. The two girls from this time wrote regularly for publication. Emerson Bennett's Casket and L. A. Hine's periodicals and finally Dr. Bailey's National Era were favored with their produc- tions. It was from Dr. Bailey that after several months' writing Alice received the sum of $10, the first pecuniary results of her work. R. W. Griswold's "American Female Poets," published in 1848, speaks of nearly one hundred poems written within the preceding two or three years. Hle enclosed a letter of Alice in which she men- tions three hundred and fifty poems already pub- lished. The sisters at that time often produced two or three poems in a day "and never elab- orated." Mr. Griswold was instrumental in pro- curing the publication of their first volume by Moss & Brother of Philadelphia; this was in 1849 and they received $100 for it. Alice,

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"broken in health, sad in spirit, with little money, but with a will which no difficulty could daunt, an energy and patience which no pain or sorrow could overcome, started alone to seek her for- tune and to make for herself a place and home in the city of New York," leaving "Clovernook" in November, 1850. Phoebe and her sister El- mira followed Alice in the following spring, and there they lived in the American Hotel, which had been the home of Cooper, Irving and Hal- leck. Alice collected some thirty-five of lier sto- ries and studies of country life, under the title "Clovernook, or Recollections of Our Home in the West." This book, published in 1851, was tinged throughout with sadness, but nevertheless it was quite successful and has run through sev- eral editions. She also wrote for the following

magazines : Atlantic, Harper's, Putnam's, Ledger and the Independent. Her first long story, contributed as a serial to the Cincinnati Weekly Commercial, was entitled "Hagar." Shortly afterwards came a second series of Clo- vernook stories, followed by another book of verse and "Clovernook Children." Her collected poems were issued by Ticknor & Fields in 1855. They, too, were tinged with sadness, and one reviewer, speaking of the book, said that "it is a sob in three hundred and ninety-nine parts. Such terrific mortality never raged in a volume of the same size before." The reviewer, how- ever, concluded with the statement that she wrote "much better verse than most women who pub- lished poetry." Coates Kinney, on the other hand, denominated the writer as "emphatically the first poetess of the new world." The pub- lication of this book gave her a definite position in the world of letters. The two sisters finally moved to a house on East 20th street, and this home became the center of attraction for many of the brightest people in America. Their ,Sun- day evenings "At Home" and their weekly re- ceptions for 15 years were among the most de- lightful known to the literary guild of New York. They were quite informal, giving welcome to people of many classes, including many so-called "queer people." Among the visitors were Hor- ace Greeley, Bayard Taylor and his wife, Rich- ard and Elizabeth Stoddard, Robert Dale Owen, John G. Whittier, Thomas B. Aldrich, Mrs. Croly, Julia Dean, Ole Bull, Justin McCarthy, Oliver Johnson, Mrs. Mary E. Dodge, Edwin P. Whipple, Rev. E. H. Chapin, Samuel Bowles, Anna E. Dickinson, George Ripley, Henry Wil- son, Robert Bonner, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Rev. Charles F. Deems and Rev. Henry M. Field,

in short all the noted contemporaries in litera- ture 'and art were to be found at these assemblies, which have never been rivaled in New York City. In 1856 Alice published her second novel, "Mar- ried; Not Mated," and three years later "Pic- tures of Country Life," regarded as one of her best books. After this followed several volumes of poems and "Snowberries," a book for children published in 1868. Another novel, "The Bishop's Son," was published as a serial in the Springfield Republican, and a story called "The Born Thrall" was commenced, but death intervened before its completion. She took an interest in the uplift- ing of her sex, which she thought had not been treated with sufficient consideration, and she was the first president of Sorosis, the woman's club of New York City. Her last illness was quite protracted and attended by great suffering. She was nursed by her sister Phoebe until the time of her death, February 12, 1871. Phoebe, appar- ently in robust health until the time of her sis- ter's death, gave way immediately to intense sor- row, which with the long strain of nursing un- dermined her constitution and she died six months later, July 31, 1871. Much of the lat- ter's work had been in collaboration with her sister Alice and she had also taken the larger share of household duties. She wrote very little prose, but her poetry was to many readers more attractive than that of Alice. One of her earliest poems, written in 1842, entitled "Nearer Home," and beginning "One sweetly solemn thought comes to me o'er and o'er," has achieved a world- wide reputation. Her verses in the main were more cheerful than those of Alice, and it is said that the verses of one sister were never wrongly ascribed to the other. Of the book of poems published by the two sisters about one-third were written by Phoebe. She also published a volume of poems in 1854 and 1868 and contributed largely to the collection of hymns published in 1869 by Dr. C. F. Deems.

"Clovernook," the home of the Carys, situated about eight miles north of the city, was infor- mally dedicated to the memory of the sisters on Saturday, June 24, 1881, at a picnic party at which were present two of the brothers and a number of prominent citizens. It is at present, owing to the generosity of William A. Procter, occupied as a Home for the Blind, in charge of the Misses Trader.

Heinrich Roedter was born in 1805 at Neu stadt, Germany. He served for a time in the Bavarian cavalry and studied the law. He after- wards became involved in the so-called "July

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Revolution" of 1830 and took part in the well known German May Festival at Hambach on May 22, 1832, and as a result found it necessary to leave his country to avoid prosecution. He came to Cincinnati temporarily in 1832 and per- manently located here in 1836. He soon made the Volksblatt, which he edited from 1836 to 1840, a power among the German papers of the country. He was very active in the organization of the German Society of the city and became its first president. He was also the first captain of the German Lafayette Guards, organized in 1836. In 1840 he sold the Volksblatt to Stephen Moli- tor. He himself moved to Columbus, but after a short absence he returned to Cincinnati. He was at various times member of the City Council and of the State Legislature. Although a Demo- crat, his sympathies were not with slavery and he supported Chase for the senatorship. He was for a short time a partner of Judge J. B. Stallo. In 1850 he bought the Ohio Staats Zeitung, whose name he changed to that of the Demokrat- ische Tageblatt. He died in 1856.

Charles Reemelin (Karl Gustav Rümelin) was born at Heilbronn, Germany, March 19, 1814. He studied in the schools of his native town and afterwards was a clerk, but in 1832 he made his way to America, arriving at Philadelphia after a voyage of 87 days. There he took employment in a store belonging to an Irishman, which gave · him an opportunity to meet many people of that nationality. He became a Democrat at the start and continued so until his death. About a year later he concluded to go West and arrived in Cincinnati during the cholera period of 1833 in time to be attacked by the disease. He soon found employment and took an active part in public life, particularly in that of the German element, which was very strong in the city. When Der Deutsche Franklin, the only German paper, changed from a Democratic organ to the opposition in 1836 he assisted in the foundation of the Volksblaat. He not only gave a printing room to the enterprise rent free, but learned type- setting and printing in order to be of assistance. In the campaign of 1836 he, with Roedter and others, took an active part and Hamilton County, which had gone for the Whigs in 1834, became Democratic and remained so for some years. Reemelin served several terms in the State Leg- islature, both in the Senate and in the lower house. In 1846 he began the study of the law and two years later was admitted to the bar, although he never practiced. He was a member of the constitutional convention of 1850. In

the campaign of 1856 he favored Fremont, al- though he never became a Republican. During this year hemmade a third trip to Europe to study reform schools, as he had been commissioner for such schools in Ohio. A result of his investiga- tions there was a law for the erection of a re- form school and he became one of the superin- tendents. He also served as member of several other State commissions. About the beginning of the war, his fondness for country life induced him to retire to a country place near the city, where during the rest of his life he gave much attention to horticulture. In 1876 he was elected a member of the Board of Control and in 1879 was the nominee of his party for State Auditor. Reemelin was a voluminous writer throughout his life, both for periodical publications and for the newspaper press. He made at various times six trips to Europe, and almost every trip re- sulted in some valuable report upon a matter of public interest. He published several books on cultivation of the grape, and in 1875 a treatise on politics.

Stephen Molitor, born at Cheslitz in 1806 and educated at Wurzburg, came to the United States in 1830. He conducted for a time the Staats Zeitung in New York, but in 1837 made Cincin- nati his home. Here he was associated with Roedter upon the Volksblatt, which he finally owned and conducted until 1863. He was a man of very broad education and wide informa- tion and made a marked impression upon the public mind. He died in 1873.

Georg Walker was from Wurtemburg, Ger- many, where he was born in 1808.' He was one of the young men of Tubingen and came to this country in 1833. He came to Cincinnati about 1839 and brought with him his paper, Der Pro- testant, which lasted but a short time. At va- rious tinies he was associated in the publication of the Volksblatt, Deutsche Amerikaner, l'olks- buhne and Hochwaechter. He died from cholera in 1849.

Ludwig Rehfuss, another German of pront- inence, was born in Ebingen, Germany, in 1806, and was educated as a chemist. After the "July Revolution" of 1830 he left his native country and came to Cincinnati some time after 1833. Flere he established the well known drug store, which for so long a time was a sort of German headquarters. He was active in the founding of the German Society and on the Folksblatt, and also in the Lafayette Guards. He died in 1855. after having established for himself a place as a leader among the Germans of the city.

CHAPTER XLIII.

CINCINNATI IN WAR TIME.

THE OUTBREAK OF WAR - LINCOLN'S VISIT-FORT SUMTER-HOME GUARDS -THE UPRISING -THE CASE OF KENTUCKY-GEORGE B. MCCLELLAN-THE LITERARY CLUB-CAMP HARRISON-CAMP DENNISON - OTHER CAMPS IN HAMILTON COUNTY - THE SIEGE OF CINCINNATI - MORGAN IN KENTUCKY - KIRBY SMITH-LEW WALLACE IN COMMAND - MARTIAL LAW PROCLAIMED-THE MARCH OF THE SQUIRREL HUNTERS-THE BLACK BRIGADE-THE VALLANDIGHAM CASE-MOR- GAN'S RAID OF 1863-CONTROVERSY BETWEEN COURT AND MILITARY-A CONFEDERATE SPY- THE UNITED STATES SANITARY COMMISSION - THE GREAT WESTERN SANITARY FAIR - INCI- CIDENTS OF WAR TIME.

THE OUTBREAK OF WAR.

Cincinnati's share in the war for the Union has been well told by a number of her sons. All call attention to the warm sympathy felt by the people of the city towards its neighbors of the South. Not only were many of its families of Southern origin, but they were connected with that section by ties of marriage, friendship and social relationship, as well as by the strongest bonds of commercial interest. Slavery, it is true, existed at the city's very door, but the institution of slavery, as it was developed in Kentucky, lost much of its repulsive character. The apparently contented condition of most of the slaves who were with few exceptions well treated by their masters, and the prevalent idea of inferiority of the black race that pervaded the minds even of its strongest sympathizers served to blind the people of the community to the fundamental error involved in the institution. The general sentiment of the community was to let well enough alone. Slavery as a principle was prob- ably condemned by the majority of the better type of citizens. The people of that day, how- ever, were confronted with a condition and not a theory and the condition as they saw it had become so much a matter of course that they

resented any undue discussion or excitement about the theory. The abolitionist was regarded as a fanatic who sought to do impossible things, and his conduct was felt to have no other result than to strain the relations between the various sections of the country. Any possible attempt at slavery north of the Ohio River would undoubt- edly have been bitterly resented by the ahnost unanimous sentiment of the citizens. Any inter- ference with the institution in its home was re- garded as impolitic and tending to embarrass the relations of the city with the section with which it was most intimately connected. The fact that Wendell Phillips was driven from the stage of Pike's Opera House by an infuriated mob, and that the mayor apparently made no effort to sup- press this mob, clamoring, it is said, for the life of the great abolitionist, while at the same time the inflammatory William L. Yancey was per- mitted to utter the most disloyal sentiments to- wards the country, is not as significant of the situation as many seem to think. At any rate these episodes are not to be interpreted in the light in which so many writers have viewed them. They do not indicate such an overwhelni- ing Southern sentiment as many seem to believe. The people of Cincinnati were a peace-loving

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community and were fond of the comforts af- forded by the rapidly developing business inter- ests of their community. The dissensions that were inflaming the nation threatened to disturb these comforts and many felt that the underlying current of feeling in favor of freedom was so strong that the vehement speeches of Phillips might be the instruments to cause the seething undercurrent of feeling to burst forth into an unquenchable conflagration. Phillips was dan- gerous because it was well known that there was a responsive chord to his appeals in the hearts of most of the Cincinnatians. Yancey was harm- less because, from the time when the first Legis- lature indignantly rejected any overtures to- wards introducing slavery into this community, there never was any real slavery sentiment here. The feeling of the community with regard to slavery was that of passive tolerance rather than that of active approval. The various riots against anti-slavery printing presses, anti-slavery meetings, anti-slavery speakers and the negroes were simply the result of the fear of the awak- ening of the public conscience. As had happened so many times in the history of the world, the people knew perfectly well what was right, but feared the disagreeable consequences to their interests if that right should prevail. This may not be a complimentary view of the conditions of the character of Cincinnati people of those days, but there is very little doubt that it is a correct one. After all, the position of the community was never subject to the criticism of cowardice or a direct approval of injustice, for the moment the issue was made the community arose with a wave of patriotic fervor that swept before it all considerations of self interest and washed out the last lingering doubt from the minds of the do-nothings. In no city of the Union and in no State of the Union was the response to the coun- try's call for aid in preserving its integrity more immediate and more effective.

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Centennial history of Cincinnati and representative citizens, Vol. I, Pt. 2, Part 52

Author: Greve, Charles Theodore, b. 1863. cn Publication date: 1904 Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1048

Author: Greve, Charles Theodore, b. 1863. cn
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1048