History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 73

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Cleveland, O., L.A. Williams & co.
Number of Pages: 666

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Perhaps to this head may also be referred Mr. William Russell's octavo on Scientific Horse-shoeing for the Dif-

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

ferent Diseases of the Foot; and also J. R. Cole's A Book for Every Horse-owner: The Horse's Foot, and How to Shoe It, giving the most approved methods, together with the Anatomy of the Horse's Foot and Its Diseases.

LAW BOOKS.

A goodly number of these, some of them of high value, have emanated from the Cincinnati bar and Cincinnati presses. Among them are the Hon. Stanley Matthews' Summary of the Law of Partnership, for the use of busi- ness men; J. R. Sayler's American Form Book, a collec- tion of legal and business forms; Florien Giauque's The Election Laws of the United States, being a Compilation of all the Constitutional Provisions and Laws of the United States relating to Elections, the Elective Fran- chise, to Citizenship, and to the Naturalization of Aliens, with Notes of Decisions affecting the Same; and M. D. Hanover's Practical Treatise on the Law of Horses, embracing the Law of Bargain, Sale, and Warranty of Horses and other Live Stock, the Rule as to Unsound- ness and Vice, and the Responsibility of the Proprietors of Livery, Auction and Sale Stables, Innkeepers, Vet- erinary Surgeons, and Farriers, Carriers, etc., which has reached a second edition.

RELIGIOUS BOOKS.

A large number of books, presenting religious interests in various ways, have been published in various stages of Cincinnati history. Some of these have been inci- dentally named among historical and biographical works. Many others, by writers at some time resident here, appear upon the lists of the Methodist Book Con- cern; as Dr. W. P. Strickland's Manual of Biblical Lit- erature; the same writer's autobiographies of Peter Cart- wright and of Daniel Young; Bishop Morris' Treatise on Church Polity; Dr. D. W. Clark's Death-bed Scenes: Dying with and without Religion; the same author's Fireside Reading, in five volumes-Traits and Anecdotes of Birds and Fishes, Traits and Anecdotes of Animals, Historical Sketches, Travels and Adventures, True Tales for the Spare Hour; his Life and Times of Bishop Hed- ding, and his powerful treatise, Man all Immortal, or the Nature and Destination of Man as Taught by Reason and Revelation; also his valuable little work on Mental Discipline; Rev. M. P. Gaddis' Footprints of an Itiner- ant; Rev. J. B. Finley's Autobiography, and his Life Among the Indians; the work of Dr. J. M. Reid on the Missions and Missionary Societies of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and Dr. Strickland's on a similar topic-the History of the Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church; Dr. William Nast's Introduction to the Gospel Records, and his Commentary on Matthew and Mark; Rev. Jacob Young's Autobiography of a Pioneer; Dr. Strickland's Pioneers of the West; M. P. Gaddis' Sacred Hour; Bishop Morris' Sermons on Sacred Subjects; Rev. Erwin House's Sunday-school Hand Book, Literary and Religious Sketches, and his Mission- ary in Many Lands; Bishop Wiley's China and Japan; and many others now out of print bear the imprint of this great publishing house.

The Western Tract society carries also a number, but not so many, of books by local writers. The Rev. A. Ritchie, secretary of the society, is author of a small 16mo. published by it, entitled The Christian's Friend, another work, a duodecimo of one hundred and twenty- five pages, called My Savior and My Home, and another, much larger, on Matter and Manner for Christian Work- ers. The Rev. Dr. B. P. Aydelott, long its president, wrote a brief treatise on the fall of man, entitled The First Sin, a refutation of the skeptical philosophy, under the name, The Great Question, and a little book of Thoughts for the Thoughtful. A compilation of the ful- minations of Rev. Drs. Beecher, McDill, and Blanchard against secret societies has been made in a small volume. The Rev. Dr. Robert Patterson, late a Presbyterian pas- tor here, wrote a large duodecimo upon Facts of Infidel- ity and Facts of Faith, and another work entitled The Sabbath, Scientific, Republican, and Christian. The first edition of the Autobiography of Levi Coffin, the leader of the Cincinnati abolitionists, was published by this house; the second, with an additional chapter, by Clarke & Company.

The great religious work, in point of size and repute in the Roman Catholic church, which is due in any measure to Cincinnati brain and hands, is a translation of the massive work of Dr. John Alzog, professor of theology at the University of Freiburg, entitled A Man- ual of Universal Church History, done by the Rev. F. J. Pabisch, D. D., president, and Rev. Thomas S. Byrne, professor, of Mount St. Mary's of the West, Cincinnati, and published in three octavo volumes, at fifteen dollars. It is said to be standard in the Catholic theological sem- inaries and among the clergy of that faith.

Among later books on religious topics are Creed and Greed: Lectures by the Rev. Dudley Ward Rhodes, rector of the Church of our Saviour; and Sixteen Sav- iours, or One? The Gospels not Brahmanic, by Mr. John T. Perry, of the editorial staff of the Cincinnati Gazette.

Authors of Sunday-school books have not abounded in this region. The most noted is one of quite recent immigration, and one still actively at work-Mrs. G. R. Alden, of Cumminsville, best known as "Pansy." Either alone, or in conjunction with her sister, Mrs. Livingston, she has published a large number of books for the Sun- day-school, among which are: Nannie's Experiment, Bernie's White Chicken, Helen Lester, Docia's Journal, Jessie Wells, Ester Ried, Three People, Julia Ried, The King's Daughter, Wise and Otherwise, Household Puz- zles, The Pansy Library, A New Graft, Ruth Erskine, Links in Rebecca's Life, and The Randolphs.

THE JEWISH LITERATURE

of Cincinnati has now no small volume. The learned rabbis of the city have put forth their energies as vigor- ously in the direction of literature as in other directions. The Rev. Dr. Isaac M. Wise is author of valuable and somewhat elaborate works on the Hebrews' First and the Second Commonwealth, and others on the Martyrdom of Jesus of Nazareth, Three Lectures on the Origin of Christianity, The Cosmic God, The Wandering Jew, and

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an Essay on the Temperance Question, written against the principles and policy of sumptuary laws. To the department of books for the Jewish schools he has con- tributed a concise compendium of Judaism, its Doctrines and Duties ; and another local writer has given a series of Scriptural Questions for the Use of Sabbath-schools. Several historical romances are also from the pen of Rabbi Wise; as the Combat of the People, or Hillel and Herod ; and the First of the Maccabees. Into this field of novel writing some other Cincinnati Hebrews have ventured-Mr. H. M. Moos, in the publication of Han- nah, or a Glimpse of Paradise, and its sequel, Carrie Harrington, and Mortara, or the Pope and His Inquisi- tors, a Drama. Nathan Mayer is author of Differences, a novel; M. Loth of Our Prospects, a tale of real life; and The Forgiving Kiss, or Our Destiny ; and H. Ger- soni of Sketches of Jewish Life. These are but examples of a local Israelite authorship which is already somewhat prolific. A collection of sermons by prominent Cin- cinnati and other rabbis, entitled The Jewish Pulpit, has also been published.

In addition to his occasional labors in the field of literature, Rabbi Wise is editor, assisted by a son, of The American Israelite, a weekly periodical in English, and we believe also of Die Deborah, a similar publica- tion in German. Rabbi Lilienthal is editor of The Sab- bath School Visitor, another weekly issue.

The local Jewish publishers are Messrs. Bloch & Com- pany, No. 169 Elm street, from whose presses nearly all the works we name have issued, and many others.

MISCELLANEOUS.

Under this head may be rapidly classified a number of Cincinnati books, most of them of recent publication, which have not been elsewhere mentioned. Among them, of earlier books, are W. C. Larrabee's Rosabower : A Collection of Essays and Miscellanies, 1855; H. M. Rulison's The Mock Marriage, or the Libertine's Victim, 1855; and the Legends of the West, by James Hall, 1832. Judge Hall was a voluminous writer. He wrote, besides this, the Winter Evenings, a Series of American Tales; The Soldier's Bride, and other Tales ; The Harpe's Head, a Legend of Kentucky; Tales of the Border; The Wilderness and the War-path ; The West- ern Souvenir, for 1829 ; also a volume of Letters from the West, Sketches of History, Life and Manners in the West, Statistics of the West at the close of the year 1836, Notes on the Western States, The West, its Com- merce and Navigation ; The West, its Soil, Surface, and Productions; and an Address before the Eurodelphian Society of Miami University, September 24, 1833. In poetry, besides what has been mentioned, there were published in Cincinnati Selections from the Poetical Literature of the West, reputed to be by William I). Gallagher; and Poems on Several Occasions, by Moses Guest, 1823. Of a miscellaneous character are O. S. Leavitt's Strictures on the New School Laws of Ohio and Michigan, with some General Observations of the Sys- tems of other States, published in 1839 ; Gallagher's Facts and Conditions of Progress of the Northwest ;

Dr. Lyman Beecher's Plea for the West ; Peter Smith's Indian Doctor's Dispensatory, a curious early book of 1813 ; Hon. Stanley Matthews' Oration at the" Reunion of the Army of the Cumberland, 1874; and numerous other books and pamphlets.

Among later issues-from the press are the books of travel by Dr. N. C. Burt, on the Far East, or Letters from Egypt, Palestine, and other Lands of the Orient, and R. G. Huston's Journey in Honduras and Jottings by the Way; the Hon. Frederic Hassaurek's historical ro- mance entitled The Secret of the Andes; Charles Reeme- lin's Treatise on Politics as a Science, and his Wine- Maker's Manual; E. & C. Parker's translation of Du Breuil's Vineyard Culture improved and cheapened; Mr. S. Dana Horton's book on Silver and Gold and their Re- lation to the Problem of Resumption, and his address on the Monetary Situation; Colonel C. W. Moulton's Refer- ences to the Coinage Legislation of the United States ; General Durbin Ward's paper on American Coinage and Currency ; Hon. William S. Groesbeck's Address on Gold and Silver, delivered before the Bankers' Association of New York, September 13, 1877; Hon. Job E. Stevenson's campaign book on the Third Term, in advocacy of the renomination of General Grant, 1880; Nicholas Long- worth's translation of the Electra of Sophocles; the His- torical and Literary Miscellanies, by the well-known edi- tor, Mr. G. M. D. Bloss, published by subscription in 1875; J. Ralston's Skinner's Key to the Hebrew-Egyp- tian Mystery in the Source of Measures ; Colonel Nichols' little book on the Cincinnati Organ, with a brief descrip- tion of the Cincinnati Music Hall; H. J. Mettenheimer's Safety Book-keeping; Louise W. Tilden's Karl and Gretchen's Christmas, a poem ; Professor W. H. Venable's June on the Miami, and other poems, of which two edi- tions have been published; and Felix L. Oswald's Sum- inerland Sketches, or Rambles in the Backwoods of Mexico and Central America, illustrated by Farny and Faber, and published by the Lippincotts, in Philadelphia. Among the many school-books of Cincinnati authorship are those of Professor Venable, already mentioned, the Graded Selections for Memorizing, by Superintendent Peaslee, of the public schools, the well-known mathemat- ical text-books of Professor Joseph Ray, Brunner's Ele- mentary and Pronouncing Reader and the Gender of the French Verbs Simplified, and many others.

SOME EARLIER WRITERS.

Returning from this long excursus through vari- ous fields of literature trodden by the Cincinnati au- thors, which has led us far from anything like a chrono- logical account of the local literature, we desire to close with some further notices of the older writers. For many of the facts embraced in them we are indelxed to Mr. W. T. Coggeshall's valuable compilation and series of brief biographies, the Poets and Poetry of the West.

Mr. E. D. Mansfield mentions as among the young men of Cincinnati about the year 1806, one Joseph Pierce, whom he styles a "poet of decided talent." We are not aware that any writings of this young versifier are extant. In 1821 afmerchant named Thomas Pierce was living

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here, who was the reputed author of the amusing local satires contributed that year to the Western Spy and the Literary Chronicle, and published the next year in a little book under the title of Horace in Cincinnati-the first book of distinctively Western poetry, it is said, that was printed in the city.

In 1815 this paper, the Spy, became the pioneer jour- nal in town to print original home poetry in its columns. Four years later, there was a sharp rivalry for literary pre- eminence between Cincinnati and Lexington-the college here and the Transylvania university there; the Western Review at the latter place, and the Spy, the Gazette, and Liberty Hall at the former. The result was the produc- tion at each end of the line, but particularly in Cincin- nati, of much good prose and verse. The Spy was about this time, and for a year or two afterwards, the general favorite of the local rhymers; but when a new paper, The Olio, was started, their affections were transferred to that.

This year (1819) the first book or pamphlet of original verse printed anywhere in the West, appeared in Cincin- nati-a duodecimo pamphlet of ninety-two pages, entitled American Bards: A Modern Poem in three Parts. It was anonymous; but its author was understood to be Gorham A. Worth, cashier of the United States branch bank, who sometimes wrote for the papers under the sig- nature of "Ohio's Bard."

Another active business man, a merchant and lawyer, who wrote for the papers and magazines in both prose and verse, was Moses Brooks, who came to Cincinnati in 18II.

Between 1817 and 1820 a club of talented young men was maintained here, whose members contributed articles to the local newspapers "from an old garret." Among them were Bellamy Storer, Nathan Guilford, Nathaniel Wright, Benjamin F. Powers, and others, most of whom soon abandoned the muses to meet the demands of in- creasing business and domestic cares.

In 1818 the students of Cincinnati college had a liter- ary society called the Philomathic, to which a branch was attached for scholarly gentlemen not belonging to the college-as General Harrison, the Drakes, Peyton S. Symmes, Pierce ("Horace"), and others. After a year or two the prize of a gold medal worth fifty dollars was of- fered for the best original poem by a Western man, writ- ten between January 15, 1821, and April 1, 1822, and containing not less than four hundred lines. The commit tee of judges consisted of Messrs. John P. Foote, Josh- ua D. Godman, and Benjamin Drake. Twelve poems were submitted; and after careful examination the award was made to The Muse of Hesperia, a Poetical Reverie. Its authorship, however, was not disclosed, and not until long after its publication was announced in 1823, did it come to be known that Thomas Pierce was the success- ful contestant. The Philomathic society undertook its publication in handsome style, with heavy paper and a clear, beautiful imprint. Mr. Coggeshall reprints it in full, as an appendix to the preliminary matter in his Poets and Poetry. One specially notable and fitting feature of it is the appeal it makes to the bards of the West for or- iginal study and the use of local themes.

The same Mr. Pierce wrote the prologue used at the opening of the Cincinnati theatre in September, 1821, for a prize of a silver ticket of admission to the theatre for one year. He also penned the Ode to Science for an extra night of the Western museum. In 1824-5 he was a frequent contributor to the Literary Gazette, and his last poem, Knowledge is Power, was written for the Gazette in 1829. He was a translator from the French and Spanish, as well as a highly original writer.

William R. Schenck, who was born here in 1799, wrote many short poems for the Gazette in 1824-5. Charles Hammond, Esq., afterwards editor of the Gazette, wrote many satirical verses for it.

Otway Curry, the remarkable young poet from High- land county, came to Cincinnati in 1823, and worked at his trade of carpenter for a year; went away, came back in 1828, and began to write under the signature of "Ab- dallah." He contributed some admirable poems to the Mirror and the Chronicle.

WV. D. Gallagher was a printer in Cincinnati between 1821 and 1824. While still an apprentice he published a creditable little literary journal, and afterwards contribut- ed largely to the other local papers. In 1828 he wrote a capital series of letters from Kentucky and Mississippi to the Saturday Evening Chronicle, then published here. He removed to Xenia in 1830, and became editor of the Backwoodsman, a Clay campaign paper. The next year he was invited to return to Cincinnati by John H. Wood, a publisher; and came back. He took editorial charge of the Mirror, and followed it for some years through its various vicissitudes and changes of name. In 1836 he started the Literary Journal and Western Review, which was discontinued the next year. His first book of poems was printed early in 1835, under the title Erato No. I. In August of the same year appeared Erato No. 2, and No. 3 soon after. The pamphlets, for they were little more, were very favorably received, and won the author much repute. After doing editorial work in Columbus upon the Hesperian, he came back to Cincinnati in 1839, as editor of the Gazette, and remained upon it until 1850, except one year, when he had a daily penny paper of his own called the Message. In 1841 he edited a compila- tion of the Poetical Literature of the West, containing selections from thirty-eight writers. Mr. U. P. James, who still survives in a good old age, was publisher of this work. In 1850 Mr. Gallagher went to Washington as confidential clerk in the Treasury, and never returned to reside here. He is still living, spending his declining days upon a farm near Louisville.

About the time Mr. Gallagher was getting prominently to the front as a literary man in Cincinnati, between 1828 and 1835, two local poets of some note appeared-both natives of Connecticut-Hugh Peters, author of "My Native Land" and other poems, who died in this State in June, 1832, and Edward A. Mclaughlin, a printer, who lived in this city ten to fifteen years. He is noticed more fully hereafter.

John B. Dillon was another Cincinnati printer who became a poet and historian of note. His first poem, "The Burial of the Stranger," was contributed to the

Alice Cary /

Phale leary

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

Gazette. He also wrote for the Western Review and other publications, until 1834, when he removed to In- diana, where he became the author of two or three his- torical works of authority.

Mrs. Sarah Louis P. Hickman was one of the poetical writers of Cincinnati about 1829-30. She died in New York city February 12, 1832.

Salmon P. Chase, when a young attorney here, besides editing the Statutes of Ohio, with an historical sketch of the State, and writing for the North American Review and the Western Monthly Magazine, also wrote poems in his student days, and occasionally afterwards.

Charles A. Jones, about 1835, had some local distinc- tion as a poet. In 1836-9 he wrote for the Mirror, and in 1840 for Mr. Gallagher's paper, the Daily Message. In 1835 Josiah Drake published a little collection by Jones, entitled The Outlaw, and Other Poems. In 1839 a series of Lyrics Aristophanea, by the same, attracted much attention in the Gazette. Another series by him was subscribed "Dick Tinto." He went to New Orleans some time after, but returned to Cincinnati in 1851, and died at Ludlow Station (Cumminsville) the fourth of July of that year.

Some of the editors of that day had bright sons. Rev. Timothy Flint had frequent poetical contributions to his Western Review from his son, Micah D. Flint. Freder- ick W. Thomas was associate editor with his father upon the Commercial Advertiser and Daily Evening Post. In 1832 a poem of his, headed The Emigrant, and dedi- cated to Charles Hammond, was published in a thin pamphlet, and gave him much transient repute. He was the author of numerous other poems and many prose sketches. Upon his return to Cincinnati in 1850, he served for a time as a Methodist minister.

His father, Mr. Lewis F. Thomas, editor of the Louis- ville Herald in 1839, and afterwards of St. Louis and Washington City, was a resident of Cincinnati for a few years after 1829. About that time he and his brother William assisted in the management of the Commercial Advertiser and the Evening Post of this place. He was also a welcome contributor to the Mirror and the West- ern Monthly, especially in poetry. After his removal to St. Louis, he put in print the first book of poetry pub- lished west of the Mississippi-"Inda and other poems." The first of these was delivered before the Cincinnati Lyceum in 1834, and afterwards before the Lyceum in St. Louis.

Mr. James H. Perkins, long afterwards a Unitarian clergyman, began his literary career by writing for the Western Monthly Magazine. Early in 1834 he became editor of the Saturday Evening Chronicle. He wrote also for the New York Quarterly and the North American Review. He was the author of the first edition of The Annals of the West, published in Cincinnati by James Albach, in 1847.

Thomas H. Shreve, a Cincinnati editor and merchant, wrote many essays and poems of uncommon excellence . for the Mirror, the Hesperia, the Western Monthly Magazine, the Knickerbocker, and other periodicals.

The Hon. James W. Gazlay, sometime member of

congress, was the author of a pretty large volume of Sketches of Life, and other poems; also of a humorous book in prose, entitled Races of Mankind, or Travels in Grubland, by Captain Broadbeck.

William Ross Wallace, the well-known New York poet and song-writer, laid the foundation of his fame with Cincinnati publishers. He was born at Lexington, Ken- tucky, in 1819, received his collegiate education in Indi- ana, and before he was seventeen years old gave the world a poem, the Dirge of Napoleon, which at once gave him rank among western writers. About the same time, in 1836, the Cincinnati Mirror pronounced a poem of his, "Jerusalem," published in one of its issues, to be "beautiful, exceeding beautiful." In 1837 P. McFarlin pub- lished in this city Mr. Wallace's first book of poetry, The Battle of Tippecanoe, and other Poems. The first of these is said to have been recited by its young author, when he was but sixteen years old, at a celebration on the j, Tippecanoe battleground. He was soon persuaded to embark in literary pursuits in New York city, where the rest of his days were spent.

THE CARY SISTERS.

Alice and Phœbe Cary were born near Mount Pleasant (now Mount Healthy), in Springfield township, the fourth and sixth children of Robert and Elizabeth Jessup Cary. The former was born April 26, 1820, the latter Septem- ber 4, 1824. They are the brightest stars in the literary galaxy of Cincinnati or of Hamilton county. They were of good blood on both sides. Their father was des- cended from Sir Thomas Cary, a cousin of "Good Queen Bess," and a Pilgrim Father in New England. Robert, of the sixth generation from Sir Thomas, came with his father Christopher to the Northwest Territory in 1803, and in due time settled as a farmer near Mount Healthy, upon the site known as Clovernook in Alice's stories. The mother was of a family in which poetic talent was developed. The following lines, by one of the sisters, descriptive of many another pioneer home in the Miami valley, as well as of the Cary dwelling, deserve a place just here :

OUR HOMESTEAD.

Our old brown homestead reared its walls From the wayside dust aloof, Where the apple-boughs could almost cast Their fruit upon its roof ; And the cherry-tree so ncar it grew That, when awake I've lain In the lonesome nights, I've heard the limbs As they creaked against the panc; And those orchard trees-O, those orchard trees ! I've seen my little brothers rocked In their tops by the summer breeze.

The sweet-brier under the window-sill, Which the early birds made glad,

And the damask rose by the garden fence Were all the flowers we had. I've looked at many a flower since then, Exotics rich and rare,

That to other eyes were lovelier, But not to me so fair ;

For those roses bright-O, those roses bright ! I have twined them in my sister's locks, That are hid in the dust from sight.

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We had a well-a deep, old well, Where the spring was never dry, And the cool drops down from the mossy stones Were falling constantly ;

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History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 73

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Cleveland, O., L.A. Williams & co. Number of Pages: 666

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Cleveland, O., L.A. Williams & co.
Number of Pages: 666