History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I, Part 83

Author: Williams, L.A., & Co., Cleveland
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : L. A. Williams & Co.
Number of Pages: 814

USA > Ohio > History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I > Part 83

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This act of incorporation was not signed by the Governor, but became a law because he did not return it within the period fixed by the Con- stitution. It had all the validity of law, and pro- ceedings to raise money under the provisions of the seventh section were soon begun. We quote now from a history of the Library, prepared by Professor P. A. Towne, its first Librarian, and published in his Louisville Monthly Magazine for 1879. He says:

A contract was made between Governor Bramlette and as- sociates and Mr. Charles R. Peters, of San Francisco, to give a grand gift concert. By the terms of this contract fifty-five per cent. of the gross amount realized was to be dis- tributed as prizes to ticket-holders. After paying the ex- penses of the drawing, one-half of what was left was to be paid to Mr. Peters, and the other half to form the initial fund of the library. One hundred thousand tickets were offered for sale at $10 each. The drawing of this scheme took place December 16, 1871. Thirty-five thousand tickets had been sold, and seven hundred and twenty-one prizes, amounting to $192,500, were distributed to ticket-holders. The gross profits were $157,000. The net profits were $52,369.86, of which the library received $26, 184.93.

At this point in the history of the Library Mr. Peters with- drew from the management of the drawings, and Governor Thomas E. Bramlette took his place.

Temporary rooms were soon secured in the same building since purchased for and now used by the Library. Books were collected, so far as possible, from the old and extinct libraries of the city; some more were purchased; and on the 27th of April, 1872, the Library, numbering about eight thousand volumes, was opened to

the public. The Hon. J. Proctor Knott pro- nounced a suitable address on the occasion, and a poem was read by our oft quoted author, Mr. Ben Casseday, acting Librarian. In one of the rooms occupied, Dr. C. C. Graham deposited his remarkable cabinet of curiosities and speci- mens illustrating natural science, which he in- tended to present to the Library, but afterwards withdrew. We quote again from Mr. Towne :

On the signing of the contract with Governor Bramlette, preparations were made for the second of the gift concerts. One hundred thousand tickets at $10 each were placed on the market, and the drawing took place December 7, 1872. The number of tickets sold was seventy-five thousand, giving a gross receipt of $750,000. One-half of this amount was re- turned to ticket-holders as prizes. One-half of the net profits was paid over to the trustees of the library, namely, $76,211.39. From this amount a payment was made on the Public Li- brary Building. The property known at the time as the Central Market was bought for $210,000, on the basis of the ultimate success of the drawings. At the time of the purchase this sum was considered a fair price. As this build- ing now constitutes the sole revenue of the library, and as this history is intended for the future rather than the present, it is proper to give here a description of it:

The building is located on ground among the most desir- able of the city of Louisville, on Fourth avenue, between Green and Walnut streets. It has a front of one hundred and sixty-eight feet and a depth of two hundred feet. It is three stories high. The ground floor contains eight stores, from which rents are received. Festival hall, the library room, and what is now a gymnasium-the former museum depart- ment-are all on the lower floor; also a back room used as a carpenter shop for the building. The second story consists of rooms suitable for lecture and social purposes. One end of the building, including half the room on this floor, is oc- cupied by the Young Men's Christian Association. The other end, lately occupied for a conservatory of music, is now vacant. The third story, consisting of about the same space as the second, is occupied by the Southern Baptist Theo- logical Seminary and by the Odd Fellows' Association. The two wings have each a fourth story, unoccupied [ 1879].

The third gift concert took place July 8, 1873. One hun- dred thousand tickets were sold at ten dollars each, making the gross receipts one million dollars. Five hundred thou- sand dollars were returned to ticket-holders as prizes. One- half the net profits, or $122,000, was paid over to the library.

The fourth drawing took place March 31, 1874. The gross amount received for tickets was $2,250,000. One-half was returned to ticket-holders in prizes, and the library received the net sum of $100,000.

The fifth drawing took place February 27, 1875. The gross amount received was $1,900,000, of which $950,000 was returned to ticket-holders in prizes, and the library received the net sum of $100,000.

From the above statement, which has been taken from the official reports of the several managers of the drawings, it will be seen that the gross sum received from the five gift concerts was $6,250,000. Of this sum $3, 142,500 was re- turned to ticket-holders as prizes. From the remaining sum, namely, $3,107,500, the library received the total sum of $422,396.32. This is the gross sum forming the endowment of the Public Library of Kentucky.

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

The gift concerts were extensively advertised, and as extensively patronized. Mr. Towne says that tickets were purchased in all parts of the world. Hundreds of clubs were formed through- out this country for the purchase of tickets. It is estimated that two millions of buyers in all contributed to the success of the lotteries. On some single days $80,000 were received for tickets. Many of the smaller prizes, it is be- lieved, were never called for, thus swelling the profits of the managers. The total profits of the scheme, above prizes and expenses, are figured at $2,683, 103.68.

On the 1st of May, Professor P. A. Towne, just before a teacher at Paris, Kentucky, and now of the Astor Library, New York, became Librarian. There were then about ten thousand volumes in the Library, an exceedingly miscella- neous and largely useless collection. Twenty thousand volumes, however-many of them rare and valuable-were bought in Europe the same year, and a catalogue of the whole was prepared as soon as possible by Professor Towne and his assistants. The "Troost Collection " of thirteen thousand specimens, largely in mineralogy, and exceedingly curious and valuable, was bought of its owner, Dr. Girard Troost, and placed in the library, at a cost of $20,500. The statue of Hebe, by Canova, was bought for $10,000. The Library building and grounds cost $200,000. The Library Hall was refitted, and the old mar- ket-house transmuted into Festival Hall, at a cost of $60,000. About $50,000 were spent for books, the cataloguge cost $6,000, and the Pub- lic Library Paper, started May 17, 1873, and ed- ited by Mr. Casseday, cost $5,000 more. On the 19th of June, 1875, sixteen weeks after the last gift concert, the entire amount of the library fund left, according to the account of deposits in the Farmers' and Drovers' Bank, was $2.67. A long list of periodicals, numbering one hundred and thirteen, were now being taken by the library; but they had to be discontinued at the end of the next year, for lack of money. In 1875, lectures began to be delivered in the Library Hall by Professor Proctor the astrono- mer, Du Chaillu the traveler, and others; but not much was realized to the Library from this source. The annual course of lectures, however, has since been a standing feature of the opera- tions of the library. The splendid apparatus of

Professor Pepper, of the Polytechnic Institute in London, which had cost in that city $8,000, was purchased for $500, to illustrate one course, de- livered by local scientists.

In December, 1876, an organization was formed in one of the library rooms, under the leadership of the librarian, which was called the Polytechnic Society of Kentucky, whose objects, as stated in the first of its rules and regulations, " shall be the printing and publication of papers or works illustrative of the history of Kentucky, of literature and science, and the encouragement of original research and the diffusion of knowl- edge." Dr. Theodore S. Bell was made President of the Society, and Dr. Thomas E. Jenkins Secretary. The membership was unlimited, and by March, 1877, numbered one hundred and sixty, comprising many of the first citizens of Louisville. The Society, says Mr. Towne, "was divided by a committee into five academies, each officered with a president, vice-president, and secretary. The academies were of literature, sciences, art, philosophy, and technology, and during the remainder of the winter of 1876-77, and the spring of 1877, one of the academies met each night, either in the library or Room No. 1."

His narrative continues: "The Polytechnic Society was conducted as a purely literary and scientific organization down to May 22, 1878. It had no charter, and could obtain none till the meeting of the Legislature. In the autumn of 1877 steps were taken in that direction." After much opposition and delay, a charter was granted, approved by the Governor April 10, 1878, and an enabling act passed April 8, 1878, empowering the Public Library of Kentucky to transfer to the Polytechnic all its property, " of every kind and character." The library was already consid- erably in debt, through litigation and otherwise, and was threatened with utter ruin, from which it was believed only a transfer to the Polytechnic Society could save it. Accordingly the Public Library corporation, by resolution of May 7, 1878, authorized its president to contract for the transfer of its property to the Polytechnic; and eleven days afterwards, the latter accepted the conditions proposed, and the transfer was accom- plished on the 24th of the same month. The collection of books and curiosities has since been known as the Polytechnic Library of Kentucky.

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

The debts of the Library were assumed by the society, amounting to about $17,000, to- gether with $13,000 back taxes claimed by the eity corporation. December 12, 1878, attach- ments were taken out by some of the creditors, and levied upon the library and other property. A receiver of the revenues of the society was also asked of the court. After many maneuvers and difficulties, however, several prominent gentlemen of the Polytechnic- the Rev. Dr. Stuart Robinson, Colonel Bennett H. Youug, George W. Swearingen, Edward Wilder, W. T. Grant, J. H. Leathers, E. A. Grant, and Dr. D. S. Reynolds agreed to become responsible for the payment of the $17,000 of debt of the Polytechnic Society, which was sued upon. It is needless to follow the transactions further. The library and the society were saved, to be- come one of the greatest ornaments and bless- ings to Louisville, as may be seen further in our account of the Polytechnie in the chapter on Societies and Clubs. The Library and Museum are admirably conducted, not only by the re- sponsible officers and committees of the society, but by the efficient and polite librarian immedi- ately in charge, Miss Annie V. Pollard, and her capable assistant, Mr. Robinson.

CHAPTER XIX.

THE PRESS OF LOUISVILLE.

The Farmers' Library-The Louisville Gazette-The West- ern Courier-Contents of the Old-time Papers-The Daily Public Advertiser-The Focus-The Journal -The Morn- ing Courier-The Courier-Journal-The Democrat-The Local journals of 1847-The Louisville Times-The Volksblatt-The Daily Commercial-The Sunday Argus- Notes of Local Journalism-Biographical Sketches of Colonel R. M. Kelly, Hon. W. S. Wilson, and George D. Prentice-Personal Notices of Henry Watterson, Colonel R. T. Durrett, and Others.

THE FARMERS' LIBRARY.

A newspaper with this unique title, one more distinctively agricultural than would now be chosen if the city could have but one journal, enjoys the honor of leading the long and dis- tinguished line of the Louisville press. The nineteenth century, indeed, had but little more than come in, when, in 1801, the Farmers' Li-

brary saw the light. Its own light, however, soon went out, and so thoroughly that for many years its existence was only interred from a stat- ute of the Legislature in 1807, which directed certain laws to be printed in this paper. It was in being, then, for at least six years ; but we have no further record or hint of it. A partial file of it, the only one known to be in existence, is in the possession of Colonel R. T. Durrett, of Louisville.

THE LOUISVILLE GAZETTE.

A similar mention of this paper, in an act of the Legislature of 1808, is, we believe, the only existing evidence that such a paper was then published. Colonel Durrett, in his Centennial Address, says it was started the year after the Farmers' Library.

THE WESTERN COURIER.

Louisville journalism now emerges from the darkness, and dates and details begin to be defin- itely known. This paper was started in October or November, 1810, and was edited by Nicho- las Clark, who was also the publisher. Four years later Mr. Clark was joined in the editorial work by Mann Butler. But this arrangement was rather short-lived, Butler going out in 1814. He was an acknowledged man of ability. Con- nected long with educational interests in Louis- ville, he was also an historian for his own city and State, writing the sketch of Louisville history having a place in the first directory ever made of the city, compiled by R. W. Otis in 1832.

In 1821, Messrs. Bullen and A. G. Meriwether became associates with Mr. Clark, and the paper was re-christened The Emporium and Commer- cial Advertiser. It was also published semi- weekly, instead of weekly, as it had been. In February of the following year, Messrs. Clark & Meriwether transferred their interest to Messrs. S. H. Bullen & F. E. Goddard, and had no further connection with the paper. Subsequent- ly, Mr. Goddard was alone in the publication, the paper ceasing to exist while under his man- agement. Mr. Bullen changed his editorial work for that of cashier of the Bank of Ken- tucky, which position he is said to have filled the rest of his life with great efficiency and dig- nity. The latter quality, in fact, together with his courtly manners, gained for him the title of " Judge," by which he was universally known.

428

HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

Everybody loved and respected the old gentle- man.

Mr. Goddard became a teacher, and many of Louisville's best citizens still cherish his memory with that tenderness which a true teacher alone can inspire. . He was a man of more than ordi- nary intellectual attainments, and these, com- hined with a love for the humorous, a sympa- thetic heart, an unswerving sense of right, and an earnest desire to bring the lives of his pupils up to his own high standard, made him a genu- ine force in society, and the memory of what he was and did still has a power over the people of his much-loved city.

THE LOUISVILLE CORRESPONDENT.

The same year that the Louisville Courier be- gan, we hear of another periodical, bearing this title and conducted by Colonel E. C. Barry. It lived till 1817, but there seem to be no files of ot it now in existence.

THE OLD-TIME PAPERS.

The contents of the papers in those days were made up of war news, acts of assembly and do- ings in Congress, descriptions of huge cabbage- heads, beets, turnips, etc .; learned effusions from such writers as "Justice" and "Veritas," and se- vere local criticisms from the "Old Citizen," the "Tax-payer," and sundry other such personages, whose sharp letters still fill the newspaper's col- umns, but usually under different signatures; ad vertisements quaint, but right to the point; and always and everywhere steamboat news, for steam navigation was a great novelty, and every time a boat arrived or started, the wonders of inven- tion, the gain to commerce, etc., were topics of greatest interest-and this is not strange when we remember that the trade on the Ohio river gave Louisville its life-blood, and the principal part of all business affairs depended upon the same thing, day by day.

THE DAILY PUBLIC ADVERTISER,

the first journal of everyday issue here, was started July 1, 1817, by the well-known Shadrach Penn. This man, one of the traditional heroes of journalism in the city, is described as a per- son of most extraordinary tact, a forcible writer, and in politics having had a large experience. His paper speedily became the leader of its own local circle, and then extended its influence to all parts of the West. Being the acknowledged

Jackson organ, its power was felt in its own city, and not less in its own State. Without a rival, it was the representative of the dominant party for twelve years and more. Up to the year 1830 Penn had met "no foeman worthy of his steel," and at this date was confirmed in his position by a marked victory over the "New Court party," and his leadership in the party victorious in one of the sharpest struggles in the political history of Kentucky

Mr. Penn had many a bout with Mr. Prentice, of the Journal, who was then in his best days; but generally had the worst of it, and finally he left the field, receiving a very manly and gener- ous valediction from his antagonist. He went to St. Louis, where he established and conducted a new paper, which was deservedly successful until his death in 1846. The Advertiser, says Mr. Casseday, deprived of its master spirit, lin- gered along a few years, and finally expired in the arms of the Rev. W. C. Buck, of "Baptist Hymns" memory.

THE FOCUS.

Dr. Buchanan and Mr. W. W. Worsley were editors and publishers of this paper, which was started in 1826. It claimed to be decidedly anti-Jackson in politics, but was so largely devot- ed to literary, scientific, and commercial matters, that its opposition to the Advertiser was of little importance. Its first editors were recognized as men of ability, but for want of pecuniary profit they parted with it, and through Messrs. Cavins & Robinson, the purchasers, it was ultimately merged into the Louisville Journal, which for a brief time was in consequence known as The Journal and Focus. At this time Mr. George D. Prentice had editorial charge of the new journal.

THE JOURNAL.

A very notable event occurred in the late autumn of 1830, in the founding of the Louis- ville Daily Journal, chiefly by Mr. George D. Prentice, who had come to the State to write a biography of the Hon. Henry Clay, at the in- stance of the friends of the Great Commoner. He finished this work November 14, and ten days afterwards the first number of his Journal appeared, urged and assisted thereto by the op- ponents of the Jackson Democracy, who were anxious to have an able organ in the city. Mr. Casseday, in his essay on Louisville Journals and

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

Journalists, gives a detailed history of this fa- mous newspaper, from which we condense the following :

On the 24th of November, 1830, George D. Prentice and S. Buxton, the latter a practical printer of Cincinnati and owner of one-half of the paper, commenced the publication of the Louisville Journal. An article in the Courier-Journal of May, 1876, referring to this event, aptly says :

"Political excitement was at the time exceedingly violent, Henry Clay and General Jackson, then President, being the opposing candidates for the succession, and Kentucky having voted two years before for General Jackson. The Journal threw all its energies into the conflict for Mr. Clay, whose political friends were then known as National Republicans. Its appearance was cordially and enthusiastically greeted by its party, another National Republican paper, the Louisville Focus, having failed, although skillfully edited, to satisfy the party's demands for vehemence and spirit. The great suc- cess of the Journal was assured on the first morning of its publication, and notwithstanding the fact that Kentucky was a Jackson State and Louisville a Jackson city, it became in less than four weeks the most largely circulated paper in both the city and State."

The unparalleled success would in most cases have been destructive to the energies of an editor, but seemed only to stimulate Prentice to greater exertion. He had just served an apprenticeship of two years in the editorship of the New England Weekly Review, published at Hartford, Connecti- cut, and had made it one of the most popular periodicals of the day, having succeeded there, as he did in the Journal, in drawing around him a corps of correspondents composed of the brightest minds within his reach. At twenty-eight years of age he had resigned his editorial chair in Connecticut to John Greenleaf Whittier, and almost immediately begun his labors on the Louisville Journal. Mr. Penn, of the Adver- tiser, at once commenced an aggressive attack upon the Journal, and a war of wit was begun between the two editors which lasted for eleven years, and which attracted the at- tention of the whole country. It was in this contest that Prentice displayed that power of wit, humor, and satire that was irresistible, and that made his name and that of the Jour- · nal known and admired even in the remotest places in the whole country.

Edwin Byrant, since known for his connection with the early history of Americanized California, was the first asso- ciate editor of the Journal, but he did not remain in that posi- tion more than six months. In 1853 Mr. Buxton sold his interest in the Journal to John N. Johnson, and he in turn resold it to George W. Weissinger about two years later. After Weissinger's death his interest passed into the hands of Isham Henderson and John D. Osborne, and so remained until the consolidation with the Courier in 1868. Both John- son and Weissinger were good writers and men of talent. Weissinger had superior scholarship, dainty tastes, and wrote with singular grace and popularity. Neither he nor his predecessor, however, interfered at all in the editorship of the paper. Johnson rarely wrote for it, and Weissinger's articles, though always pleasant, were as rare as those of most other correspondents.

. Edmund Flagg, who has since been Consul to Venice, and who wrote, among other books, a clever history of that republic, was associated with the Journal in 1838, In De- cember of that year there was issued from the office of the Journal a weekly paper called the Literary Newsletter, and Flagg was appointed its editor, This paper was well con-

ducted, and contained many excellent literary contributions, but its existence was limited to about two and a half years. Leonard Bliss, whose tragic death is not yet forgotten, was the editorial successor of Flagg.

In 1842 Thomas H. Shreve became an associate editor of the Journal, and so continued until his death, in 1848. Shreve had formerly been associated with W. D. Gallagher in the editorship of the Hesperian, a literary journal of merit, published in Cincinnati. He was a man of good scholarship, educated taste, and of fluency and grace as a writer, and withal no inconsiderable politician. He was notably a Chris- tian gentleman, and his writings, of whatever kind, showed the purity of his mind and the excellent qualities of his heart. His style was accurate and vet ready and fluent, and his editorials were a potent element in the career of the Journal, and might, without disparagement, have been accredited to his chief, as, indeed, many of them were.

From the death of Shreve, in 1848, till the fall of 1852, there is no name of importance occupying an associate posi- tion on the paper, but the work of such an editor was done by a variety of correspondents, all of whom were excellent in their several specialities. In that year Paul R. Shipman suc- ceeded to the place. He brought to it commanding talents, inflexible integrity, and the matured views of a statesman. His style was terse, and his command of English masterly. He wrote with vigor and elegance, but without prettiness or redundancy of ornament. His views of the course proper for the paper were considered by all as sagacious and consist- ent, and no move was made without consulting him. His influence for good was felt by readers of the Journal during his whole connection with it, which lasted until the consolida- tion with the Courier.

This sketch of the editors of the Journal would be incom- plete without the mention of the name of Joe Bernde. "Joe', was for many years the commercial, local, and night editor of the Journal. In fact, he did what everybody else left un- done, and always performed his work with judgment and ability. "Joe" was as well known to the citizens who saw him in his daily rounds as the paper itself, though few of them ever heard his family name. In the office his judgment was respected, and he was often entrusted with the whole care of the paper. On such occasions, as he never professed any ability to write himself, he would hunt up some one qualified to treat the popular subject he had in view, and so manage to bring out the issue that it should be worthy of its place in the series. He was considered somewhat as the wheel-horse of the paper; slow and laborious, but steady and true to his work. He died at his post, and his memory is still green in the hearts of those who were associated with him, and, indeed, all who knew him.

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History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I, Part 83

Author: Williams, L.A., & Co., Cleveland Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : L. A. Williams & Co. Number of Pages: 814

Author: Williams, L.A., & Co., Cleveland
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : L. A. Williams & Co.
Number of Pages: 814