History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume I, Part 62

Author: Lee, Alfred Emory, 1838-; W. W. Munsell & Co
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: New York and Chicago : Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1202

USA > Ohio > Franklin County > Columbus > History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume I > Part 62

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George Nashee, another editor of the State Journal, died May 16, 1827, twenty years before which date he had come to Ohio and made his home at Chillicothe where, in conjunction with George Denny, he began publication of the Supporter, which paper was consolidated in February, 1821, with the Scioto Gazette, of which Mr. Nashee became part proprietor. During the winter of 1824-5 he was elected printer to the State, and consequently removed to Columbus where, in September, 1825, in conjunction with his former partner in the Supporter and Scioto Gazette, then editing the Columbus Gazette, he began publication of the Ohio State. Journal and Columbus Gazette, to the development of which paper Mr. Nashee devoted the energies of his last days. At the time of his death, which occurred when he was

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fortyone, Mr. Nashee was believed to be the oldest editor in the State. During his residence at Chillicothe he had been mayor of that city and had represented Ross County in the General Assembly.

Alexander Ewing Glenn was born at Spring Valley, Pennsylvania, December 20, 1811; came to Ohio in 1825, entered the office of the St. Clairsville Gazette as apprentice, and after learning his trade and working at it in various Ohio towns came to Columbus in 1832 and was for a time engaged on the Ohio State Journal, then published by John Scott, whose daughter Hannah he married. Removing, after his marriage, to Rising Sun, Indiana, he there published a Democratic news- paper until 1841, and was elected in 1836 to the Indiana Legislature, in which Oliver P. Morton was a contemporary member. In 1841 he returned to Columbus and became foreman in the office of the State Journal, then published by his brotherin- law, Charles Scott. In 1844 he began the publication of The Ark, with which he was connected for sixteen years. He held the highest offices that Odd Fellowship could bestow, and his paper was very successful. During the administration of Governor Chase he was Quartermaster-General of Ohio. He died July 26, 1872, in his sixtysecond year, leaving several children, one of whom was the late Charles S. Glenn, for several years editor and publisher of the Columbus Gazette.

Smithson E. Wright, who was at one time an editor and proprietor of the Ohio State Journal during the thirties, was born at Belmont, Ohio, in 1807. After learn- ing the printer's trade he came to Columbus while yet a young man, and formed a partnership with Charles E. Scott in the publication of the State Journal, married Matilda Martin, daughter of Hon. William T. Martin, was afterwards twice elected mayor of the city and twice County Auditor, served as Clerk of the House of Representatives, as Secretary of the Columbus & Xenia Railroad Company and was Treasurer of the Little Miami Railroad Company until 1888. He died in Cin- cinnati April 1, 1891, and his remains were interred at Green Lawn.

Frederick Fieser, who was for more than forty years actively connected with German newspaper publications in Columbus, had the honor of being the editor of longest continuous service in the city. The following sketch of his newspaper career, written by himself at the request of the author of these volumes, modestly outlines his connection with German journalism in this and other cities :

It may be said that my connection with the German press is due to an accident. While on my way to Lancaster in the autumn of 1841 I casually met Mr. V. Kastner, then publisher of the Lancaster Volksfreund. I had previously known neither him nor his paper, but in the course of our conversation he told me, among other things, that he had the contract for printing the message of Governor Shannon in the German language, and that he needed a translator for the same. I consented to do the work, and was soon at my task. Everything ran smoothly, and at the conclusion of my work I became the editor of his paper while he travelled about the country in a wagon peddling cheap literature. I believe he made more money in that way than he did with his paper and that without this resort his paper could not have existed.

The Volksfreund was a small weekly, printed with the type that had been used on the Ohio Adler in 1807. This type had been laid away for over thirty years, and was so much worn that it would not show up well on the wooden press. The readers justly complained of the bad appearance of the paper, and it was sometimes dithicult to make out the sense of the articles. But how coukl new type be obtained? It was often hard enough to get suf-

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ficient paper to print the edition from week to week. Yes, those were trying times for the publishers of German papers. The editors of today who sit in their wellequipped offices and have the railways, telegraph, telephone and all other modern inventions at their disposal, have no idea of the hardships and privations of the German newspaper pioneers.

In 1841 the publisher of the Volksfreund removed his paper to Columbus and published it here under the name of the Ohio Adler. It was printed on better type than before, was rather handsome in appearance and made a good impression on the people. I continned as the editor and worked hard as such. I even wrote a piece of poetry for the first number, in which the eagle was pictured as rising to higher regions. Columbus was at that time a very small town ; the pigs ran at large on the improved streets, and were considered better than the street commissoners. The new Statehouse was not built at that time, and the old one would not now serve even the smallest county as a courthouse. Bnt Columbus was the capital, and the Adler would have been successful had its proprietor rightly understood the problem. I became dissatisfied at last and resolved to go to Missouri, where at that time most of the German immigration was going. My resolve was to leave German journalism forever ; but man cannot escape from his fate.

A friend had given me a letter to George Walker, publisher of the Louisville Volks- bühne, of Louisville, Kentucky. Mr. Walker received me with great courtesy, and after reading the letter said : " You come at exactly the right time. I would like to have you stay here until the Rev. Kröll returns. I have promised to preach and attend to his other duties during his absence." Mr. Walker was so amiable that I concluded to grant his wish and remain. Instead of a few weeks I staid all winter in Louisville. In the spring, Mr. Walker removed his paper to Cincinnati, where he associated himself with a lawyer by the name of Renz. I went with him to Cincinnati. Mr. Walker was first a theologian, later an amiable journalist and an orator whose speeches were received with the greatest applause, but in real life he was highly impractical, careless in his appearance and one of those happy people who do not worry about anything. It was all the same to him whether bis paper, which was a tri-weekly, appeared regularly or not.

In Cincinnati, I made the acquaintance of Stephen Molitor, Henry Roedter, Emil Klauprecht, Edward Muehl, Carl Reemelin, and others prominent in German literature. Mr. Roedter. with whom I had become acquainted in Columbus, was the founder of the Volksblatt, which at a later date passed into the control of Mr. Molitor. Mr. Roedter at that time edited the Volksblatt and, as he was a candidate for the office of Justice of the Peace, could not give the paper proper attention. At his request, I assisted him and, when he retired to enter on the dnties of his political office, he asked me to take charge of the paper. That was quite an honor for a " beardless youth" like me, as the Whig organ of that place put it, since several others had asked for the position. The Volksblatt was at that time the only German daily in the United States; even the New York Staatszeitnng was published only thrice a week. With additional vigor I went to work. My relations with Mr. Molitor were of the best and I lived some of my happiest days there. I would probably have remained for years, had not a new opportunity suddenly presented itself.

The opportunity here referred to was an offer from Jacob Reinhard to join with Mr. Fieser in the publication of a German paper, the Westbote, in Columbus. This induced Mr. Fieser to resign his position as editor of the Volksblatt and come to Columbus, where the Westbote was begun in October, 1843. Mr. Fieser's suc- cessor as editor of the Volksblatt was George Ritz. Mr. Roedter was afterwards a member of the General Assembly. Mr. Molitor continued his paper successfully until age compelled him to retire, when he transferred the property to his sonin- law, Mr. HIof, and Frederick Hassaurek.

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Mr. Fieser's career of over forty years in this city as editor and one of the pro- prietors of the Westbote was full of profit for himself and for his fellowcitizens. His ability and traits of character were such as to inspire universal respect. For many years he was one of the trustees of the City Library, an institution in which he took a deep and valuable interest. He also served in the City Council, as Trustee of Green Lawn Cemetery and, for many years, as a member of the Board of Education.

The connection of the late distinguished Congressman and author, Hon. S. S. Cox, with Columbus journalism, began in April, 1853, when he bought a half interest in the Ohio Statesman and became its editor. The Ohio State Journal, which was at that time edited by William T. Bascom, greeted the new editor of the Statesman kindly but rather patronizingly, remarking that " Mr. Cox is a young gentleman of liberal education and considerable literary acquire- ments." Subsequent events have shown that Mr. Bascom did not overstate the case.

The incident of Mr. Cox's editorial career in this city which surpasses all others in interest was the writing of that now famous editorial, " A Great Old Sunset," which was the subject of a great deal of contemporary newspaper com- ment, some of which was written in jest approaching ridicule. But the article has lived as a brilliant bit of wordpainting, and is the subject of much curiosity and interest on the part of all who study the career of Mr. Cox -- not only so, but of all who seek out and admire the masterpieces of poetie fancy in American literature. It gave its author the soubriquet of " Sunset," bestowed derisively, strange to say, on account of a magnificent achievement in word-painting which should have clicited only admiration and respect. The phenomenon described was a sunset in May, and Mr. Cox's sketch of it, which was an offhand effusion and appeared in the Statesman of May 19, 1853, was as follows:

What a stormnful sunset was that of last night! How glorious the storm, and how splendid the setting of the sun! We do not remember ever to have seen the like on our round globe. The scene opened in the west, with a whole horizon full of golden, interpene- trating lustre which colored the foliage and brightened every object into its own rich dyes. The colors grew deeper and richer until the golden lustre was transfused into a stormeloud full of the finest lightning, which leaped in dazzling zigzags all around and over the city.

The wind arose with fury, the slender shrubs and giant trees made obeisance to its majesty. Some even snapped before its force. The strawberry beds and grassplots, " turned up their whites " to see Zephyrus march by. As the rain came, and the pools formed, and the gutters hurried away, thunder roared grandly and the firebells caught the excitement and rang with hearty chorus.

The South and East received the copious showers and the West all at once brightened up in a long polished belt of azure, worthy of a Sicilian sky. Presently a cloud appeared in the azure belt in the form of a castellated city. It became more vivid, revealing strange forms of peerless fanes and alabaster temples and glories rare and grand in this mundane sphere. It reminded us of Wordsworth's splendid verse in his " Excursion ":

The appearance instantaneously disclosed

Was of a mighty city ; boldly lay

A wilderness of buildings, sinking far,

And selfwithdrawn into a wondrous depth,

Far sinking into splendor without end.

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But the city vanished, only to give place to another isle, where the most beautiful forms of foliage appeared, imaging a paradise in the distant and purified air. The sun, wearied of the elemental commotion, sank behind the green plains of the West. The "great eye in Heaven," however, went not down without a dark brow hanging over its departing light. The rich flush of the unearthly light had passed, and the rain had ceased when the solemn church bells pealed, the laughter of children rang out and, joyous after the storm, was heard with the carol of birds ; while the forked and purple weapon of the skies still darted illumination around the Starling College, trying to rival its angles and leap into its dark windows.

C'andles are lighted. The piano strikes up. We feel it is good to have a home, good to be on the earth where such revelations of beauty and power may be made. And as we can- not refrain from reminding our readers of everything wonderful in our city, we have begun and ended our feeble etching of a sunset which comes so rarely that its glory should be com- mitted to immortal type.

This article produced a sensation in Columbus journalism. The State Journal styled it "one of the choicest specimens of literature that have been ushered into this round globe for we don't know how many years," and republished the article entire, with a number of annotations intended to ridicule it. Papers in other parts of the State broke into cachinnatory paroxysms in the contemplation of this derisively termed "sublime rhapsody," and an editor at Circleville, whom Mr. Cox refers to but does not name, produced a parody on the article which was entitled "A Great Old Henset." Mr. Cox took all this goodnaturedly and returned the ridicule with interest. Commenting on the State Journal's reproduction, he said : "Our landscape improves by being thus framed. If we can ever find anything in the Journal above the dry, dead level, we shall reciprocate favors by framing it in our best gilding - and the Journal knows that we can gild when it pleases our fancy. The Journal may now take out its advertisement for the sale of the establishment. That ' Sunset' will make the paper sell without further notice."

Referring to the Circleville parody, " A Great Old Henset," Mr. Cox wrote : "Apollo! Why didn't you shoot him in the gizzard ? The Journal threatens to copy it and would have copied it no doubt but for its vulgarity and personality. Well, when we reflected . . . that Walter Scott, Wordsworth, Byron, Southey, et id omne genus, had their parodists, we felt consoled and we may say elated. We felt like sitting right down and doing up a ' great old sunrise.' We may do it yet if we can get up early enough. In this day of newspaporial dearth, anything above the mud level will create a sensation."

This gives a faint idea of the comment occasioned by the article at the time of its publication. But that is not all. None of Mr. Cox's subsequent literary achievements served to throw this incident into eclipse. Frequent public references have been made to it, and it has been the chronic delight of the reminiscence- writer to reproduce the sketch and narrate its history.

Mr. Cox retired from the Statesman May 22, 1854, after a little more than a year's work as editor and proprietor. He had assumed the editorial duties, as he stated, " not unmindful of the responsibilities attending this position; not without hesitancy, yet with no timid apprehensions;" recognizing the difficulties even with past success; convinced that the " best line as well as the shortest line between two points is the straight line," and proposing to follow it " with an unswerving

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faith that good men and true will approve of such a course." Mr. Cox retired from the paper disappointed with the results of his labors. In his valedictory he said he had expected to have the cooperation of a practical printer and business manager, but had been disappointed. He bad managed the business and editorial departments himself and was worn out in spirit and body. Ile intimated that the paper had not been supported as he had expected it would be, and that it was in financial straits. The patronage had been divided between the Statesman and the Democrat founded by Mr. Knapp in the previous December, and the con- solidation of these two papers was a part of the agreement by which Mr. Cox was to retire. He was thirty years of age at the time of his editorial experience in Columbus. Quitting journalism, he devoted himself to politics and literature, and in both fields won success. In 1855 he went to Peru as Secretary of Legation ; in 1856-62 represented the Columbus District in Congress ; and in 1866 removed to New York City from one of the districts of which he was successively chosen as a Rep- resentative in Congress until he was appointed by President Cleveland as United States Minister to Turkey. Returning from this mission in 1887, he was again elected to Congress and continued to represent his New York district in that body until his death, September 10, 1889. The most notable of his last public efforts were in advocacy of the admission to the Union of the Territories of Washington and Dakota, and as champion of a bill for the relief of letter carriers, by which class of public servants a statue to his memory has been erected in New York, In his oration at the unveiling of this statue, General Thomas Ewing said : " His public career was so patriotic and useful, bis character so sterling and stainless, his intel- lect so strong, versatile and brilliant, and love of humanity so intense and bound- less that Samuel Sullivan Cox deserves to be commemorated as one of the best products of American civilization."

Mr. Cox's published writings are : " The Buckeye Abroad," " Eight Years in Congress," " Search for Winter Sunbeams," "Why We Laugh," and "Three Decades of Federal Legislation."

Samuel Medary, born in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, February 25, 1801, removed to Clermont County, Ohio, in 1825, and for a time boarded there as a teacher with the Simpsons, whose daughter had married Jesse R. Grant, father ot General U. S. Grant, then a child about three years of age whose mother, said Medary, frequently remarked as to the future General : " This boy will some day be President." Mr. Medary began his career as an editor in association with Hon. Thomas Morris, afterwards United States Senator, in the publication of a weekly paper at Bethel, Clermont County, in 1828. The paper was entitled the Ohio Sun, was a success from the start, and now survives under the name of the Clermont Sun. It was Democratic in politics, and warmly supported Andrew Jackson for the Presidency in 1828. On its first page it bore the motto: "Unawed by the in- fluence of the rich, the great, or the noble, the people must be heard and their rights protected." Mr. Medary served three terms in the General Assembly, first as the Representative of Clermont County in 1834-5, and immediately thereafter for two terms as State Senator from the Clermont District. When he began the publication of his first newspaper he was not, by trade, a printer, but did the edit-

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ing, assisted in the mechanical work of the office and supervised its business. Before the close of his service in the General Assembly he sold the Sun to his brothers, Jacob and A. C. Medary, and became connected with the Hemisphere, of Columbus, of which he assumed the management when he quitted the legislature, and changed the name to the Ohio Statesman. He was about the same time chosen by the General Assembly as State Printer, a position which he held for a number of years. He was also chosen Printer to the Constitutional Convention of 1851, and published the debates of that body. His connection with the Colum- bus press has already been narrated in the historical sketches of the Statesman aud Crisis. He was a sturdy partisan, a clear thinker, a vigorous and fearless writer and a man of rugged personality, possibly the strongest character that has appeared in the journalism of Columbus. His connection with the Statesman and Crisis gave to those papers a wide celebrity. President Buchanan tendered to Mr. Medary an appointment as Minister to Chili, but the honor was deelined. In 1857 Mr. Medary accepted an appointment as Governor of the Territory of Minnesota, and just prior to his departure to assume the duties of that position was given a complimentary dinner by his Columbus friends. Governor Chase was on that occasion president of the evening, and Chief Justice Bartley, Hon. Lester Taylor, Judge Allen G. Thurman, and Hon. Jacob Reinhard were Vice Presidents. Toasts were responded to by William Schonler, of the State Journal, and Joseph H. Gei- ger, Esq. Hon. Charles Anderson, United States Senator George E. Pugh, Judge Thomas W. Bartley and others delivered addresses, and John Greiner sang an original song. After serving two years in Minnesota Mr. Medary was appointed Governor of the Territory of Kansas, in which position he also served for two years Returning to Columbus in 1860, he began, in January, 1861, the publica- tion of the Crisis, which he continued until his death, November 7, 1864. Over his remains in Green Lawn Cemetery rises a costly and beautiful monument erected in 1869 by the Democracy of Ohio.

Charles B. Flood, born at Alexandria, Virginia, January 19, 1810, learned the printing business, removed to Zanesville, Ohio, in 1832 married there Miss Mary Dean, of Darke County, established the Democrat newspaper at Marietta in 1835, and was appointed Register of the Marietta Land Office by President Jackson. Having sold the Demoerat in 1838 he came to Columbus, was for several years engaged there on the Statesman, and early in the forties went to Detroit where he was for a short time connected with the Free Press. He soon returned to Colum- bus and resumed his work on the Statesman, was elected Clerk of the Ohio Senate in 1852, reelected to the same position in 1854, edited the Urbana State Democrat in 1857, and in that year went to Cleveland where he published the National Democrat until it expired in 1861. From Cleveland he went to New York, where he was for several years one of the editors of the News. Returning to Columbus, he assumed for the third time an editorial position on the Statesman, and in 1868 was once more elected Clerk of the Ohio Senate. In 1875 he was appointed Supervisor of Public Printing, from which position he retired in 1877. His later newspaper work was chiefly that of an occasional contributor. He died in this

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"Office of the Western Intelligencer, Columbus, Saturday Morning, Oct. 1, 1814.

We are gratified that it is in our with u zeal and precision highly eredit- powar. during the necessary suspen- mole tu - themselves and hocorablo to their country. sion of our paper, to lay before our Our loss is trifliog indeed, having only one officer and fifteen men killed, and one officer and 30 men wounded. Tcatlers in handbill form the most im- portaat new's that came to hand by yesterday's mail.

From the Scroto Gazette

The expedition against the hostile Indians is oot abandoned as stated 10 the general order published io our last . Do his arrival at Uorbana, Gea. M'Arthur received his instructions god proceeded to organize the troops then there .- We understand that they marched from Urbana on Monday

Glorious News.

We have the highest' satisfaction 1n Paying before our readers the following Easportant official letters, which at- nounec, the annihilation of the British Naval force on Luke ('hainpisin. . sod the defeat of a very large British at my at the head .of the Lake under the i:o. mediate command of Governor I're- Must ! ! - Nut Int.

Copy of a letter from com. M'Do- nough to the Secretary of the na- vy dated

U. S. ship Soratoga, cff Platts- burg, Sept. 11.

SIR-The Almighty has been bleund to grant us e sigoul victory on Luke Chainplain, in the capture of one Aigate, oue brig, and two sfoups of War of the enemy.

I have the hooor to be, sery respect- Kuny, ur, your od't sctv't.

T. M'DONOUGH. - Hon. Wm. Jones, Secretary of the Navy.

Appy of a letter from General Mo- como ( just received ) to the Sec- eetary of War. duted

FORT MODSAU, Sept. 13, 1814. Sir-I have the nouor to inform you that the British army, consisting of dour brigades, a corps of artillery, a squadloo ol norse, and. a strong light ourps amodoting in all to abuul fuur. teen thousand inco, ofier investing this place on ino 'north of the Sarrque giver unce the Sib maat. broko up their cump. and raised the serge this iburn- Sing at 2 o'clock. -

Thay ure now retreating precipitate- By. leaving their pick and wounded.

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History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume I, Part 62

Author: Lee, Alfred Emory, 1838-; W. W. Munsell & Co Publication date: 1892 Publisher: New York and Chicago : Munsell & Co. Number of Pages: 1202

Author: Lee, Alfred Emory, 1838-; W. W. Munsell & Co
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: New York and Chicago : Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1202