History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 74

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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And there never was water half so sweet As the draught which filled my cup, Drawn up to the curb by the rude old sweep That my father's hand set up ; And that deep, old well-O, that deep, old well ! I remember now the plashing sound Of the bucket as it fell.

Our homestead had an ample hearth, Where at night we loved to meet ;

There my mother's voice was always kind, And her smile was always sweet ; And there I've sat on my father's knee, And watched his thoughtful brow,

With my childish hand in his raven hair- That hair is silver now !

But that broad hearth's light-O, that broad hearth's light ! And my father's look and my mother's smile, They are in my heart to-night !

The sisters had only the limited advantages for educa- · tion which the schools of their early day afforded. When Alice was eighteen her poems began to appear in the Cincinnati press, and Phoebe, though but fourteen, had been making rhymes for a year or two. The first of Alice's pieces published appeared in the Sentinel, and was entitled The Child of Sorrow. In 1849 their first book, Poems of Alice and Phoebe Cary, for which they received a hundred dollars, was published by Moss & Brother, of Philadelphia. The next year Alice went bravely to live in New York, and support herself by the labors of her pen. Phobe and a younger sister followed in the spring of the next year. Their subsequent life is known to all the literary world. The two series of Clovernook Papers, with Clovernook Children, Pictures of Country Life, Hagar, a Story of To-day, The Bishop's Son, Married, Not Mated-these in prose; with Lyra, and Other Poems, Lyrics and Hymns, Poems and Parodies, Poems of Faith, Hope, and Love, and other books in verse; and some good editorial work, as of Hymns for all Christians, published in 1869-these volumes, by one or the other, or both of them jointly, brought them money and renown. Alice died in New York city Feb- ruary 18, 1871; Phoebe in Newport, Rhode Island, July 3Ist, of the same year.

OTHER LITERATI.

Edward A. Mclaughlin was a native of Connecticut, and after many wanderings came to Cincinnati, where he wrote verses, and in October, 1841, published through the house of Edward Lucas a good sized volume of poetry, entitled The Lovers of the Deep, in four cantos, with the addition of miscellaneous poems. The first and longest was dedicated to Nicholas Longworth, and others to Messrs. Jacob Burnet, Bellamy Storer, Richard F. L'Hommedieu, Peyton S. Symmes, and other prominent citizens. We know nothing of his subsequent career.

James W. Ward came here in early manhood, as a student in the Ohio Medical college, contributed much in verse and prose to the Hesperian and other Cincinnati journals, made careful studies in botany, and in 1855 associated himself with the well-known Dr. John A. Warder, now of Miami township, in the publication of the

Western Horticultural Review. He wrote the comical parody upon Longfellow's Hiawatha, entitled Higher Water, which was published first in the Cincinnati Gazette, and then in book form. After several years' service here with the publishing house of Henry W. Derby & Company, he went to New York and devoted himself to musical and metrical composition, and other works for the publishers of that city.

James Birney Marshall, of the Kentucky Marshalls, was a prominent writer here for nearly twenty years. In 1836 he bought the Cincinnati Union, and changed its name to the Buckeye, but published it only a few months. The next year he bought the Western Monthly and also the Literary Journal and united the two in one publica- tion under the name of Western Monthly Magazine and Literary Review, with W. D. Gallagher as joint editor. After the failure of this venture, he entered the field as a political writer, and was concerned in the publication of several Kentucky and Ohio papers.

Cornelius A. Logan was a native of Baltimore, but came from Philadelphia to this city in 1840. He was a man of versatile talents-actor, playwright, novelist, and poet. He wrote many plays, mostly comedies, farces, and burlesques, and defended the stage with great vigor, but in perfect good temper, from the attacks made upon it. A Husband's Vengeance was a prize tale writ- ten for Neal's Saturday Gazette, and The Mississippi was a sketch which received the compliment of copying en- tire into the Edinburgh Review. Eliza, Olive, and Cecilia, three of his daughters, became noted actresses, and the second of these (Mrs. Wirt Sikes) has consider- able repute as a magazine and book writer. Thomas A. Logan, his only son, has been for many years a promi- nent lawyer at the Hamilton county bar.

Mrs. Sophia H. Oliver, wife of Dr. Joseph H. Oliver, for some years a professor in the Eclectic Medical col- lege, of this city, wrote poetry in 1841 for the Cincinnati Daily Message, before that for several Kentucky and Ohio journals, and afterwards for the Columbian and Great West, and other publications.

Mrs. Margaret L. Bailey was the wife of Dr. Gamaliel Bailey, who published the anti-slavery journals here and in Washington city-The Philanthropist in Cincinnati, in 1837 and after, The National Era at the capital, from 1847 until his death in 1859, when Mrs. Bailey became publisher, and kept the journal until its suspension next year. She was editor of the Youth's Monthly Visitor from 1844 to 1852, and made a bright, popular magazine of it. She also wrote occasional poems, which were recommended by the critic Griswold as "informed with fancy and a just understanding." Mrs. Bailey was the daughter of Thomas Shands, who came with his family in 1818 and settled near Cincinnati.

William Dana Emerson, a native of Marietta, came to Cincinnati sometime in the 40's, studied and practiced law. He wooed the muses to some extent, however, and in 1850 a little volume of his poems, Occasional Thoughts in Verse, was published by a brother for private circulation ..

Edwin R. Campbell, brother of the well-known politi- cian, Hon. Lewis D. Campbell, was editor of the Cincin-

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· nati Daily Times in 1841, and afterwards of the Daily Dispatch. He wrote a number of poems for the Knick- erbocker and the Hesperian.

Mrs. Rebecca S. (Reed) Nichols, wife of Mr. Willard Nichols, journalist, aided her husband for some years in St. Louis, and came with him to Cincinnati in 1841. Three years afterwards her first book appeared-Berenice, or the Curse of Minna, and other poems. In 1846 she edited a literary periodical here called The Guest, and was a contributor for many years to eastern magazines. Her sprightly papers in the Cincinnati Herald, signed "Kate Cleaveland," excited much attention and brought her no little praise when she was ascertained to be the author. In 1851 she was aided by Nicholas Longworth to publish a large and elegant book of poems, under the title, Songs of the Heart and of the Hearthstone. The publishers of the Cincinnati Commercial for a time paid her liberally for an original poem each week.

Mrs. Catharine A. (Ware) Warfield here first gave marked evidence of poetic talent, soon after completing her education in Philadelphia. She was married in Cin- cinnati in 1833, to Mr. Elisha Warfield, of Lexington. A book published in New York about 1842, entitled Poems by two Sisters of the West, is the joint production of Mrs. Warfield and Mrs. Eleanor Percy Lee. Another volume of poetry by the sisters, The Indian Chamber and other Poems, was published in 1846. Most of the poems in both are by Mrs. Warfield. Her sister, Mrs. Lee, also resided in Cincinnati for several years, and died in Natchez when about thirty years of age. Two or three of her poems are much admired.

Mrs. Susan W. Jewett frequently contributed in prose and poetry to the Cincinnati papers from 1840 to 1857, and for a time conducted a monthly juvenile magazine called The Youth's Visitor. The Corner Cupboard, a duodecimo volume published here by Messrs. Truman & Spofford in 1856, is a collection of her poems and sketches, setting forth "the every-day life of every-day people."

Mrs. Luella J. B. Case was wife of Leverett Case, who came to Cincinnati about 1845, and became an editor and proprietor of the Enquirer. They remained here but five years, during which she contributed to the paper several poems on western topics.

Miss Mary A. Foster, an English lady who formerly contributed poetry to the Gazette and the Commercial under the nom de plume of "Mary Neville," was a resi- eent of Cincinnati for a short time.

The book of poems entitled Buds, Blossoms and Leaves, published here in 1854, was the production of Mrs. Mary E. Fee Shannon, a native of Clermont county, who received her musical education in Cincinnati, and wrote much for the city papers.

Mrs. Celia M. Burr came with her first husband (Mr. C. B. Kellum) from Albany to Cincinnati in 1844, and did much literary work for the local papers under the sig- nature "Celia." In 1849 she became literary editor of The Great West, but dropped out when it was united with the Weekly Columbian, and then wrote for the east- ern monthlies and the New York Tribune.

Austin T. Earle, an editor of The Western Rambler,

here in 1843-4, wrote a number of pleasing lyric and other poems.

Horace S. Minor, another Cincinnati painter about 1845, often contributed to the city papers, finally assisting upon a small weekly called The Shooting Star. He died of consumption at an early age.

Benjamin St. James Fry, who assisted Mr. Earle in starting The Western Rambler in 1843-4, was a Methodist Episcopal minister and a teacher of repute. He contrib- uted much to the Ladies Repository and the Methodist Quarterly Review, and also wrote several prose works.

William W. Fosdick was born in Cincinnati January 28, 1825. His mother was Julia Drake, formerly a fam- ous actress. While still a youth he composed a drama entitled Tecumseh, which won him some fame. He was the author of a novel called Malmirtie, the Toltec, and the Cavaliers of the Cross, 1851; Ariel and other Poems, published 1855; and of other works. He was considered for some years the Poet Laureate of Cincinnati.

Peter Fishe Reed was for several years before 1856 a house and sign painter in Cincinnati, but found time to write, under the signature of "Viva Mona," some very pretty poems for the Weekly (afterwards Daily) Columbian. He was also a writer of romance and on art topics, and a man of generally versatile talents.

William Penn Brannan was a poet-painter, a native of Cincinnati, born March 22, 1825. He wrote many pleas- ing poems and humorous prose sketches, and was also a painter of some note. He removed to Chicago after he had grown to manhood.

Benjamin T. Cushing, author of the Christiad, an am- bitious sacred poem, and other works of poesy, was a lawyer here for a few months, in 1847-8, in the office of Salmon P. Chase.

Mr. Obed J. Wilson, over thirty years ago, then a young teacher in the city, wrote much in various depart- ments for the local press. He was for many years the literary referee of the great publishing house of Van Ant- werp, Bragg & Company, and the several firms which preceded it.

Alfred Burnett, English born, but a Cincinnatian since boyhood, has written many pleasant things in prose and poetry, and is widely known as a humorous lecturer and elocutionist. He is the author of a little work on Mag- netism Made Easy, a volume of original poems and se- lections, and of other productions.

Mrs. Helen Truesdell was the author of a good-sized book of poems published in 1856 by E. Morgan & Sons, of this city. She was then a resident of Newport, and had previously, for a year or two, contributed acceptably to the Parlor Magazine, published here in 1853-4 by Jethro Jackson.

Mrs. Anna S. (Richey) Roberts, said to be a native of Cincinnati, and resident here until her marriage in 1852, was a poetical contributor to the Columbian and Great West, and author of a volume of poems entitled Flowers of the West, published in Philadelphia in 1851.

Mrs. Frances (Sprengle) Locke, who in 1854 married Mr. Josiah Locke, then of the Cincinnati press, and came to reside here, was also a writer of many pieces of poetry,

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published in the magazines and newspapers of the day.

William D. Howells, editor of the Atlantic Monthly, author of several admirable books in prose and poetry, and one of the very first names in American literature, was for a time in the fifties an editor of the Daily Gazette, and while here contributed to the Atlantic and other eastern publications. His first book of poetry was pub- lished in a thin little volume at Columbus, in conjunction with John James Piatt.

General William H. Lytle was Cincinnati born, and of one of the oldest and most renowned families. He was a lawyer, but gave some time to writing poetry, and while serving as captain in the Mexican war wrote a series of letters home which were much admired for their grace and brilliant descriptions of tropical scenes. Gen- eral Lytle was also a soldier in the late war, and was killed at the battle of Chickamauga. His most famous poem is "Antony and Cleopatra." As this has acquired an al- most world-wide celebrity, and many of the readers of this work will be glad to have it conveniently at hand and in a permanent place, we here append it in full:

I am dying, Egypt, dying ! Ebbs the crimson life-tide fast, And the dark Plutonian shadows Gather on the evening blast ; Let thine arn, O Queen, enfold me, Hush thy sobs and bow thine ear, Listen to the great heart secrets Thou, and thou alone, must hear.

Though my scarred and veteran legions Bear their eagles high no more, And my wrecked and scattered galleys Strew dark Actium's fatal shore ; Though no glittering guards surround me, Prompt to do their master's will, I must perish like a Roman, Die the great Triumvir still.

Let not Cæsar's servile minions Mark the lion thus made low ;

'Twas no foeman's arm that felled him, 'Twas his own that struck the blow- His who, pillowed on thy bosom, Turned aside from glory's ray-

His who, drunk with thy caresses, Madly threw a world away.

Should the base plebeian rabble Dare assail my name at Rome, Where the noble spouse, Octavia, Weeps within her widowed home, Seek her; say the gods bear witness, Altars, augurs, circling wings, That her blood, with mine commingled, Yet shall mount the thrones of kings.

And for thee, star-eyed Egyptian ! Glorious sorceress of the Nile, Light the path to Stygian horrors With the splendors of thy smile ; Give the Cæsar crowns and arches, Let his brow the laurel twine- I can scorn the Senate's triumphs, Triumphing in love like thine.

I am dying, Egypt, dying ; Hark! the insulting foeman's cry ;

They are coming ; quick, my falchion, Let them front me ere I die. Ah, no more amid the battle Shall my heart exulting swell, Isis and Osiris guard thee- Cleopatra, Rome, farewell ! .

James Pummill was also a native of Cincinnati, and a practical printer there for a number of years. For some time he contributed to the magazines, and is author of a little collection of Fugitive Poems, published there in 1852, and of Fruits of Leisure, a small volume of poetry, privately printed.

John T. Swartz came to Cincinnati with his parents when still a boy, in 1841, graduated at the Woodward high school, and died while a teacher here, March 5, 1859. He was writer of the poem, "There are no Tears in Heaven," and other pieces.

Mr. John James Piatt, of the famous Ohio and Indi- ana family, is a writer of considerable note, and among the leaders of literature in Cincinnati. His first volume was published in 1860-"Poems of Two Friends" -- Mr. W. D. Howells being associated with him in its author- ship. He has since given the public Poems of House and Home, Western Windows and other Poems, the Lost Farm: Landmarks and other Poems, and Pencilled Fly- leaves: A Book of Essays in Town and Country. Mr. Piatt still lives near Cincinnati, at North Bend, the former home of Judge Symmes. Near the close of last year he gave to the public an elegant volume of Idyls and Lyrics of the Ohio Valley, containing thirty-six poems, many of which have a delightful local flavor.

Miss Eloria Parker, a poetical contributor to the local newspapers and magazines twenty to twenty-five years ago, was a native of Philadelphia, but educated at the Wesleyan Female college in Cincinnati, and afterward a resident of Reading, in the Mill Creek valley.

Mrs. Cornelia E. Laws was daughter of M. C. Wil- liams, of College hill, and was educated at the Female college of that place, but removed, upon her marriage in 1857, to Richmond, Indiana. She was writer of The Empty Chair, Behind the Post, and other meritorious poems.

CHAPTER XXIX.

BOOKSELLING AND PUBLICATION.

IN the many walks of trade and industry which have helped to form the material greatness of Cincinnati, the manufacture and sale of books has had prominent place almost from the beginning. South of the Ohio, the clus- ter of intelligent people at Lexington had an early book supply, but solely through the drug and other stores, as the custom is in new communities and small places, and in a very limited way, until 1803, when Mr. John Charles opened a regular book-store there. A printing press and newspaper, as we have seen, were there even before Lo- santiville was founded ; but Cincinnati can claim prece- dence, probably, over Kentucky, and certainly can over all other points in the Northwest Territory, in the matter of book publication. Nearly five years before the last century had gone out, the little village was in the field as a publishing centre; and the supremacy thus early ac-

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MOSS ILE DIN. Y

J. B. Chickering.

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

quired has been steadily maintained, over all other places in the western country, to this day.

The first publication in Cincinnati which had the vol- ume and dignity of a book was entitled, "Laws of the Territory of the United States Northwest of the Ohio, adopted and made by the governor and judges in their legislative capacity, at a session begun on Friday, the twenty-ninth day of May, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-five, and ending on Tuesday, the twenty-fifth day of August following, with an appendix of resolutions and the ordinance for the government of the territory. By authority. Cincinnati. Printed by W. Maxwell. M, DCC, XCVI." It is a respectable duodecimo of two hundred and twenty-five pages, with very fair paper, typography and binding, for that primitive time. It was known from the printer (who was also Postmaster and editor of the Centinel of the Northwest Territory) as the Maxwell code, and was sold by him at a moderate rate for cash, but a rather exorbitant price if credit were given-a necessary provision, very likely.

Two volumes of the territorial laws had been previ- ously printed, but in Philadelphia in 1792 and 1794, by Francis Childs and John Swaine, "Printers of the Laws of the United States." When the next volume of stat- utes after the Maxwell code came to be printed, Messrs. Carpenter and Friedley, also of Cincinnati, had become "printers to the territory." The volume issued by them contained two hundred and eighty pages, and included the laws passed by the general assembly of the territory in the fall of 1799, as well as "certain laws enacted by the governor and judges of the territory from the commence- ment of the government to December, 1792," with an appendix of resolutions, the inevitable "ordinance," the federal constitution, and the law respecting fugitives. The next two volumes of session laws were printed in Chillicothe, the new capital of the territory, in 1801-2.

Judge Burnet, in his Notes upon the Settlement of the Northwestern Territory, says of this first book:

This body of laws (enacted in the summer of 1795, at the legislative session of the Governor and judges at Cincinnati, from the codes of the original States) was printed at Cincinnati by William Maxwell in 1795, from which circumstance it was called the Maxwell code. It was the first job of printing ever executed in the Northwest territory, and the book should be preserved, as a specimen of the condition of the art in the western country, at that period, All the laws previously passed had been printed at Philadelphia, from necessity, because there was not at the time a printing office in the territory.

A careful reading between the lines of our chapter upon literature in Cincinnati will enable one to get a pretty good view of the progress and status of book publishing here at the several periods of its history. We shall add but a few notes of the business at different eras.

Mr. Cist, in his day, thought the second book pub- lished in Cincinnati was a twenty-five cent pamphlet en- titled "The Little Book: the Arcanum Opened," etc .- a very long and singular title, which was announced August 19, 1801.

The Liberty Hall and the Western Spy offices had each an extra press for book work, and several works of some size had been printed thercon by 1805. Between 181I and 1815 at least a dozen books, averaging over two hun- dred pages each, and many pamphlets, were printed upon

them and perhaps other presses. Suitable paper was ob- tained at first from Pennsylvania, then from Kentucky, and in due time from paper mills established on the Lit- tle Miami, as is elsewhere related. The earliest publica- tions here, and even so lately as 1810, when[Dr. Drake's "Notices concerning Cincinnati" was published, are printed in the old fashioned typography, with long s's, etc. Soon after this, however,-as when Dr. Drake's book of 1815, the "Picture of Cincinnati," was issued- the modern typography came into vogue.

In 1826 there were printed in this city sixty-one thou- sand almanacs, fifty-five thousand spelling books, thirty thousand primers, three thousand copies of the Bible News, fifty thousand table arithmetics, three thousand American Preceptors, three thousand American Readers, three thousand Introductions to the English Reader, three thousand Kirkham's grammar, one thousand five hun- dred Family Physicians, fourteen thousand Testaments, hymn and music books, one thousand Vine Dresser's Guide, five hundred Hammond's Ohio reports, five hun- dred Symmes' Theory, and some other books. It was certainly a very respectable output of the book press, for a western place, that had been a city but seven years.

The great interest of book manufacture made such progress in the Queen City, that, within about forty-five years from the date of the issue of the first book here-in four months of the year 1831- no less than eighty-six thou- sand volumes issued from the presses of Cincinnati pub- lishers, or twenty-one thousand five hundred per month -almost a thousand every working day. Twenty times the number are now turned out each secular day by a single house in the city; but, for half a century ago, con- sidering the state of American literature and book publi- cation at that time, the exhibit of production is note- worthy. Of the whole amount nearly one-fourth, or twenty thousand three hundred volumes, were of original works, and mainly of Cincinnati authorship.

The Cincinnati Almanac for 1839 contained the fol- lowing notice of the book interest as it stood locally that year :

Cincinnati is the great mart for the book trade west of the mount- ains, and the principal place of their manufacture. We believe the public have but an imperfect conception of its extent in this city. There are thirty printing offices, one type foundry, two stereotype foundries (being the only establishments of the kind in the west) ; and one Napier and several other power presses are in constant opera- tion. At E. Morgan & Company's printing establishment, Eighth strect, on the canal, four presses are propelled by water power.

The style of manufacture has been rapidly improved within a year or two past. Among other specimens, Mr. Dclafield's Inquiry into the Origin of the Antiquities of America, published by N. G. Burgess & Company, will bear comparison with any similar work from the Amer- ican press, for the beauty and accuracy of its typography. It is a royal quarto volume of about one hundred and fifty pages and eleven maps and colored engravings ; one of the maps is nineteen feet long, which, with all the engraving's, was executed in this city. The whole number of books printed and bound the past year, exclusive of almanacs, prim- crs, toys and pamphlets, was about half a million. The principal houses who have issued the largest number of volumes are-

Truman & Smith 153,500

N. G. Burgess & Co. 120,538

E. Morgan & Co ..

86,300

U. P. James. . 53,896

Ely & Strong. 35,766

Total ..

500,000

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

In 1840 the business of book publishing in Cincinnati was remarked by a local writer as already "a department of industry and enterprise of great extent." Books to the number of more than a quarter of a million were pub- lished here that year, of over half a million dollars in value, besides about one million in school books. Mich- igan, Western Pennsylvania, and Virginia, and much of the south, even to Texas, were supplied almost exclu- sively from Cincinnati. The large standard works were much reprinted here-as Josephus, Gibbon, Rollin, and the like, besides Bibles in great quantity, and many smaller publications, including some by Cincinnati au- thors. Stereotyping was now much in vogue, and three or four houses were reputed to own a total value of sixty thousand dollars in stereotype plates.

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History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 74

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