USA > Ohio > Clark County > The history of Clark County, Ohio, containing a history of the county; its cities, towns, etc.; general and local statistics; portraits of early settlers and prominent men, V. 1 > Part 55
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CITY OF SPRINGFIELD.
In the summer of this same year, the first Ohio State Temperance Convention of those interested in the crusade work convened at Springfield, and organized the entire crusade element into an association to- be known as the Woman's Chris- tian Temperance Union. This union (or the women connected with it) did not prosecute liquor-sellers under the law, but left this feature of the labor to the supervision of the Advisory Committee, depending upon prayer and missionary labor for their success. "Picket duty," or the watching of those who entered saloons, by committees appointed for that purpose. was less extensively practiced in this county than in many other places.
On the 16th of February, 1877, a call was issued by many of the leading tem perance ladies of the city for a series of Sunday afternoon Gospel tempereance meetings, to be held in the city hall. This was done at the suggestion of Mrs. Bishop Morris, then President of the Clark County League, and who had wit- nessed the good effect of such meetings among reformed men in Cincinnati.
These meetings were so well attended, and became so powerful for good, that the workers determined to put forth a still greater effort for the advance- ment of the canse, and. on the second week of April, 1577, Col. Richard Realf, of Pittsburgh, a convert of Francis Murphy's, came to Springfield upon invita- tion, and, with the aid of the ladies and the Young Men's Christian Association. inaugurated that phase of the temperance work known as the " Murphy Move- ment." This phase of temperance reform interested a large number of citizens. A series of Gospel temperance meetings were held nightly in the city hall. at- tended by vast audiences. Col. Realf remained in Springfield one week, during which time large numbers signed the pledge. The object of this movement was to win both drinker and seller by kindness, love and persuasion to forsake their
career. Citizens gave liberally of their means to secure experienced workers from abroad to conduct the public services, and for many weeks, night after night, Black's Opera House was crowded " from pit to dome " with eager listen- ers, who came forward in vast numbers at every call and signed the pledge, each signer receiving his own pledge and carrying it away with him. During the time when the meetings were conducted by Messrs. Clancy and Smithson, also of Pittsburgh, the people would go hours beforehand, packing the lobby long before the opening of the doors. It was found necessary, also, at this time, to exclude eve y woman from the lower part of the building and reserve its use for the men, so anxious were they to give a full opportunity to all men who desired to be present and sign. At this time, also. a rigorous attempt was made to exclude the ladies from all participation, in order to favor the preju- dices of any man who might desire to become a "Murphy," but who was op- posed to the crusade, and to woman's public work in moral reforms. No enter- tainment ever " drew " with the magnetic force of the Murphy meetings. at which reformed men told their experiences in their own natural language, and these were often both pathetic and amusing. A choir was formed of fine sing- ers, unequaled by any church choir in the city, and this was by no means a slight source of attraction, as their selection of music was of the most choice and affecting character.
About the middle of May, a " Murphy Club " was formed, of which Mr. A. R. Indlow. a prominent manufacturer and well-known citizen, was made Presi- dent. and this club was fully equipped for entering actively upon the work. After the departure of Messrs. Clancy and Smithson for other fields of labor. the meetings were removed once more to the city hall. All persons who would sign the pledge and the constitution of the club could become members, the men paying a small stipend weekly into the treasury, but the women were ad- mitted free. In order to utilize and harmonize all the temperance elements, the ladies were also invited to speak from the platform, and did so with good effect.
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HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
Clark County never experienced so forcible an influence as that exerted upon it during the course of this work. From the formation of.the club, in April, 1877. to December. 1880, 15,621 persons signed the pledge, only 1,117 of whom re signed. A very Jarge majority of these signers were adult males.
THE CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION.
The 100th anniversary of American independence was appropriately ob- served in Springfield. The morning of the 4th day of July, A. D. 1876, was ushered in by the firing of cannon and ringing of bells. The business streets of the city were properly decorated with flags, banners and pendants, expressing patriotic sentiments, while many private residences gave evidence of the indus- try and enthusiasm of their occupants. At 8:30 o'clock in the morning. in ac- cordance with the suggestion of President Grant's proclamation, union prayer- meetings were held in the Center Street Methodist and First Presbyterian Churches. One of the largest processions which was ever held in Springfield paraded the streets. It was a complete representation of the triumphis of the century. All the industrial arts were represented, the various departments of the city government, secret societies, choral unions, ete., making several miles in length.
The Declaration was read by Rev. H. H. Morell, and an oration delivered by Thomas F. McGrew.
MILL RUN IMPROVEMENT.
The stream which was once the principal motive power of the village, but which, in later years, had become a mere sewer and a useful receptacle for the city's garbage, had been for years a source of great annoyance to the property owners from High street west, as its waters were confined within narrow limits by the improvements which had been made along its borders. Every spring. freshets would flood the streets and cellars adjoining High, Market and Center streets, causing continual damage. The City Council, in 1877, proposed to rem- edy this evil by arching over with stone the stream from the shops of Whitely, Fassler & Kelly, on High street, to Center street. This work was completed in the following spring. This arch was eighteen feet in diameter, with a radius of nine feet. It cost $19.869.90, of which amount $582.44 was paid by the city. and the residue by the property holders between Mam, Jefferson, Market and Center streets.
The density of population had become, under the old number of city wards, inconvenient and cumbersome in the transaction of the business of the city, as well as in its elections. The subject or the division of the city into a greater mun- ber of wards had long been discussed. In September, 1879, by the death of Coun- cilman S. C. Warner, from the Fourth Ward, a vacancy was created in the Council. which, by the neglect of the proper authorities, was not filled in the proper time, so that the vacancy continued until April, 1880. Meanwhile, a special act of the General Assembly, passed February 27, 1880, amending Section 1,693 of the Revised Statutes, was passed, which provided that, in cases like this, where there was a vacancy unfilled by the neglect or omission of the proper authorities, a majority of the members qualified to vote should be sufficient to pass any ordinance, etc. Under this amended act, the five remaining members of the City Council (which had been equally divided politically) succeeded, on the 24th day of March, A. D. 1880, in passing an ordinance re-districting the city into nine wards, as it is now constituted. This measure was made a polit- ical issue in the City Council, and created a great deal of interest. As the Coun. cil, on political questions, was a tie, there were grave doubts whether five Coun- cilmen could pass the ordinance re-districting the city, and the death of one and
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the absence of the other four, so as to prevent a quorum, was relied upon in an injunction proceeding to restrain the Mayor from issuing the proclamation; but the proclamation was issued before the notice was served on the Mayor, and the injunction proceedings were dismissed. The measure of establishing the nine wards was therefore successfully carried into effect.
THE FINE ARTS.
This sketch would not be complete without reference to the condition of art among us, as an evidence of culture and progress. Within a decade of years. the city has advanced in the fine arts to a remarkable extent, and several gentle- men of refinement and culture have added to the attractions of their homes quite a number of very choice and costly art works, conspicuous among which were many very beautiful and exquisite oil paintings, Messrs. B. H. Warder and J. W. Bookwalter being among the leading and most prominent collectors. Mr. B. H. Warder's collection of paintings were mostly imported direct from Europe by himself. The majority of the pictures in his possession are from the studios of eminent German artists. Conspicuous among them are the following well- known names: We have, in a large painting, by Adelsteen Norman, an admir- able rendering of a Norwegian scene, a lake of sparkling fresh water among the snow-clad mountains, a large and very vigorously treated picture; a large canvas by Carl Boker, with a deep vein of humor running through it; it tells its own story ou sight; another very large picture by Hugo Katzenreuter, peasants bringing tithes to the monastery, is an admirable work of art; a superb cattle piece by A. Braith, of Munich, king of cattle painting; also, a strong and ex- cellent piece of cattle painting by J. H. L. De Haas, one of the most eminent cattle painters of the day: a beautiful and enchanting spring morning, repre- senting a German home among the peasantry, thatched roof, etc., a lovely pic- ture, by C. Matchin, of Weimar; and others, by such masters as Schlessinger, Carl Hoff, F. Voltz, F. Schauss, Meyer Von Bremen, Meyerheim, Vautier, Otto Gunther, J. Geizer, G. Major. P. Van Chendel, P. G. Compte. Ch. Hoguet, Her- man Kalbauch, Hugo Kauffman, P. Robbe, Alfred Bohm, Herman Ten Kale, Louis Lassalle, Louis Ritter Koek-Koek. A. Kowalski, M. F. H. De Haas: an exquisitely beautiful painting by A. Amberg, of Berlin, the "Lovers by the Lake:" a fresh out of-door effect by E. Chialina, and yet a number of other pictures by as many more artists, and bronzes, clocks and bric-a-brac in endless array. Mr. Warder is in possession of three paintings by F. Schauss, and two by Schless- inger. The Kowalski has been thus far Mr. Warder's last purchase, having procured it at Ganpil's, New York. It is a small canvas, and is treated very artistically. The subject is " The Vidette Outpost." Three mounted scouts have proceeded as far as has been considered safe, and, while one of them is left in charge of the half-weary looking chargers, the other two proceed to some distance; clambering up on a rocky eminence, they survey the surrounding landscape by the light of the newly risen full moon, apparently with the design or purpose of locating the enemy's outpost pickets and familiarizing themselves with the lay of the ground. There is a ghostly weirdness suggested by the picture -- a vague feeling that danger is lurking about the rock and bushes. The time of year seems to be early November-a windy, cheerless night. com- fortless and gloomy; the artist has reproduced the whole incident with admira- ble skill and faithfulness. Of the collection of paintings in the possession of Mr. John W. Bookwalter, much can be said in praise of the good taste and judg- ment evinced in their selection. With only a few exceptions, they are excellent works of art, and. as they are grouped together on the walls of the beautiful picture hall, or gallery, which Mr. Bookwalter caused to be constructed for the above purpose at the residence of Mrs. James Leffel, on Maple avenue, North
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HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
Side, they are shown to the best advantage that good light, properly intro- duced, and tasteful and intelligent grouping, will admit.
Among the leading pictures will be found L. Knau's "Old Beau," painted in 1551, at Dusseldorf; a not very large canvas, but certainly a very -valuable one, artistically and pecuniarily; the treatment is very masterly: the colors are brilliant as though painted yesterday. The leading personage in the painting is the one that gave the picture its name; the " Old Beau " stands quite erect, with feet pompously set apart. a quaint-looking skull cap set jaunt- ily upon his head. and an immense button-hole bouquet stuck in the lappel of his coat, with scarlet waistcoat. long stockings and big shoes with buckles: he is airing himself ostentatiously before two young ladies, one of whom is appar- ently attentive enough, while the other but illy conceals her repugnance at his assumption: the female figures are posed on a garden seat in the shadows. while the light falls full upon the "Old Beau's" very ugly and repulsive coun- tenance, and about his shoulders and bouquet, seeming actually like real instead of painted light. It is a peculiar picture, this, one moment attracting you by its wonderful painting and consummate art, the next inoment you are repelled by the hideous "mug" of the conceited egotist.
The picture has quite a history of its own. The last owner but one of the "Old Beau" was Mr. John Taylor Johnston. of New York, who exhibited it, with a number of other paintings, at the loan exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum, on Fourteenth street, in centennial year.
The "Story of the Battle." by Julian De Vriendt, is also a very fine pic- ture, and a very costly one. "The Mountain Brook," by A. Bierstadt, is the largest canvas in the collection, and is considered one of Mr. Bierstadt's very best efforts.
"The Embroidery Lesson," by Hugues Merle, is also a large canvas (for this collection), and is a really very beautiful picture, in Merle's most charac- teristic style. "Six Weeks till St. John's Day," by Hughes, is a full life-size bust portrait of an old woman in extreme Dutch costume, counting upon her stout fingers the number of weeks as yet until St. John's Day. It is an admirable piece of painting, wonderful, and wonderfully realistic.
"The Beach at Newport," by William T. Richards, of Philadelphia, is an extremely characteristic picture, not only in its resemblance to Richards' best style of sea-coast painting, but also in its likeness to nature.
"The Convalescent," by Felix Schlesinger, is full of emotion and senti- ment-a picture that would endear itself to any person in a short time on ac- count of the tender feeling in the subject, and of the charming and vigorous manner in which it is rendered.
There is a fine moonlight scene by L. De Winter. The "Iconoclast," by the late and lamented Emanuel Leutze, is said to have been one of the artist's best efforts. It is certainly a most effective and masterly production. A Puri- tan father returns to his home to find his daughter upon her knees before a small shrine in ivory, representing the crucified Christ upon the cross. The angry father rushes into the room. and with his left hand he grasps his daugh- ter by the arm. and. with his gauntleted right hand fiercely clenched, he at one blow is about to crush the forbidden emblem.
Cherictrie's picture of children and the doll is an exquisitely lovely work of art. They are endeavoring to teach the doll how to warm its hands at the fire, and the artist has certainly succeeded in presenting the scene in a very wonderful manner. It doesn't seem like paint, but nature. The treatment is very realistic.
The " Duet." by A. Gues, of Paris, a pupil of Gerome, is also a very fin- ished picture, and painted in the artist's most careful manner.
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CITY OF SPRINGFIELD.
Among the smaller paintings, yet not an iota less attractive, are such pic- tures as "The Donkey Boy of Cairo," by F. A. Bridgeman, a young American artist, of whom all Americans should be proud. He has spent the last dozen years of his life in Europe. and has taken a very high position at home and abroad as an artist of very great merit, and still greater promise. The " Don- key Boy of Cairo" is a picture which in every respect is truthful in subject and detail. The boy, while waiting for a passenger. has tucked himself into the corner of a doorway, to avoid, as much as possible. the tropical rays of the sun. while the donkey (the street-car of Cairo) stands reined up, arrayed in the gaudy trappings peculiar to oriental countries. The facade of the old building gives one the idea, to some extent. of the peculiar style of building and ornament of many of the older structures of the ancient capital of Egypt.
John F. Kensett, our great and lamented landscape painter is represented in a broadly treated picture called the "Secluded Brook." The manner in which it is painted suggests the Munich school very much.
C. Brillouin, in the " Bookworm." shows one what can be done in good draw- -ing and extremely close treatment. It is a very wonderful piece of painting.
Vrolyk's "Cattle" are real, and his sunlight is really warm, and his shad- ows cool and comfortable. It certainly is a very fine picture. V. Codina Laughlin "Christening." Wordsworth Thompson's "Political Consultation." V. ( havet's "Connoisseurs." Eastman Johnson's "Young Housekeeper," "The Cavalier," by Leon Y. Escosura, "On the Beach," by F. H. Kammerer. as well as the "Coquette, or Springtime," by the same, are all very admirable works of art, and really deserve a much more extended mention.
There are still other as fine pictures in the same collection, viz .. J. C. Thom's "Winter Sunset," "The Sisters," by A. Toulmouche. "Early Devotion." by Mever Von Bremen, "Sunset on the Rhine" and "View on the Delaware." by A. C. Houland. "Evening in the Campana," by J. F. Cropsy. "Scene on the Nile," by Theodore Frere. " Winter," by A. Schenck. " Wood Scene." by E. D. Nelson (finished by Kensett), "Autumn," by William Hart. "Bashful. vet Fond," by George H. Baughton. "Venice," by C. P. Cranch, "Waiting at the Rendezvous," by Worms, "A Venetian Lady," by Jean Aubert, " Straits of Gibraltar," by Samuel Colman. "The Young Navigator," by J. S. Guy, "Adirondacks," by A. H. Wyant, and two of a series of four pictures represent- ing the seasons, by J. W. Casilear.
Mr. Bookwalter has also half a dozen very fine water-color drawings. by such artists as Emile Adan. W. H. Powell. T. Moran, etc .: also a beautiful statue. "A Young girl's First Sensation of Cold Water." modeled in the true Italian school of your art: the finish is completeness itself: the texture of skin, hair, linen, earth. water, etc., is as perfect as can apparently be done in marble. Mr. Bookwalter has still other paintings. "After the Raffle," a French paint- ing, by Maurice Leloir. a brother of Louis Leloir, both very eminent artists. Another is an old man's head and shoulders, life-size. He wears jeans coat and vest, muskrat fur cap, and a smile -- almost a grin .. The picture throughout is a perfect wonder of close painting; every detail is put there with the utmost fidelity. Q. Becker is the artist. There are said to be only a very few of this artist's works in America. The companion piece to it. an old peasant woman's head, same sized picture, is in August Belmont's gallery, Fifth avenue, New York.
An exquisite little picture by A. Savini, among Mr. Bookwalter's last pur- chases, is a gem. a Meissonier in finish. "The Lovers' Tete-a-tete," a young lady sitting at a spinning wheel, while her lover bends over her in true cavalier. like elegance, and whispers something apparently infinitely interesting to her. as her tell-tale face indicates. They are dressed in seventeenth century costumes.
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"The Shepherd," by Tiratella, "The Sunset in the Bahamas," the latter painted to order for Mr. and Mrs. Bookwalter, by Albert Bierstadt, very tropical. and also very typical of the West India Islands at certain seasons of the year.
"Absorbed," by E. Lentze, is a very charming work; a young lady sitting in a library engaged in perusing a book; a canary bird sits on the chair she is sitting in, singing as though its little throat would fail under the ordeal. And a "Moonlight," by A. Bierstadt, about completes this brief and incomplete notice of the Bookwalter collection of paintings.
Mr. John Foos, of East High street, has, on the walls of his palatial resi- dence, several very excellent paintings. One very fine landscape by an Italian artist of eminence, T. Diano, is worthy of a place on the walls of any gallery in the State. The scene depicted so graphically is evidently located in Switzer- land. There is quite an expanse of country in the foreground; then comes, in . the grand distance, a mass of snow-clad mountains, all aglow with sunlight, such as is seldom as perfectly painted on canvas. The clouds lift themselves joyfully from the dizzy mountain heights, while the foreground is all alive with a turbulent stream of green water, fresh from the newly melted snows and avalanches of the mountain heights. On the left of the picture is a rough, rocky roadway. with a rude shrine in the wayside, and a group of peasants in a devotional attitude before it; and in the distance come into view a peasant with a straw basket held on his head, and a flock of sheep following him in close proximity. It is a very strongly painted and excellent picture.
Mr. J. J. Barber, landscape and cattle painter, of Columbus, Ohio, is also represented here by three very good pictures, in his characteristic and best vein .; A marine picture by Nicholson, of Philadelphia, is a foggy morning on the ocean, and a very good picture. Mr. Foos also owns one of our former towns- men's, the late Godfrey N. Frankenstein, best efforts, a scene on Buck Creek (the Lagonda below the city). Also a wooded glen, a quiet retreat, by Uhl: a babbling brook, rippling along through the middle foreground of the picture.
William Warder, Esq., of East High street, has in his possession what evi- dently has been handed down to us from the old masters. . The subject is " St. Peter," with the inevitable bunch of keys clasped in his fingers.
An eccentric picture collector, a Mr. Joseph Phillipson, an early resident of St. Louis, a gentleman of culture and wealth, in abont 1514 had represented to him by a German gentleman that he knew of a collection of old masters' works. some four hundred in number, which could be purchased at a very low figure. Mr. Phillipson went to Paris and purchased the entire collection for $14,000. and brought them to St. Louis. Afterward, having failed in business, he was compelled to part with a large part of the collection. This happened about twenty-five years ago. They were scattered broadcast over the land. Mr. War- der's mother purchased the above picture at the time, afterward coming into his possession. The name of the artist has unfortunately been lost, but the picture is very old, as is evident from its having been re-backed, the old canvas becom- ing entirely too frail to hold the paint. It is certainly a wonderfully painted and excellent, as well as capitally preserved, picture. It is no doubt a work of great value intrinsically.
Capt. A. S. Bushnell is the fortunato owner of the replica of David Neal's famous painting of the finding of Rizzio by Mary Stuart. It is a medium-sized canvas, but it is a gem. a masterpiece of draughtsmanship and color, admirable in design, and full of the literature of the subject.
Two paintings, considerably larger in size, entitled "Going to" and " Com- ing from the Fair," by Breitback, tell the story they are intended to tell per- fectly. They are well painted. It is a very cheerful and exhilarating sight to see the fresh and bright-looking young people start out in pairs (and paired in
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the good old way) for the fair, with their countenances full of happiness and hope, full of anticipations of the pleasures of the day; everything seems so bright and promising: then comes the second scene - the return from the fair by the pale light of the moon, so tired and weak-entirely discouraged. The young men have imbibed too freely during the day, and now must be assisted home by the young women. The rendering of maudlin drunkenness in the latter canvas is admirable.
A small but exquisitely painted picture, by Lossow, a full length figure of a lady, in a costume of the eighteenth century, in a boudoir, all of which is very charmingly rendered.
A lovely mountain landscape, painted in Hertzog's best style; small, and there certainly is enough material in it to fill a much larger canvas, which sug- gests its richness and fullness.
Mr. Bushnell owns a wood interior, with a hunter on the trail. accompanied by a dog. It is a very sparkling and attractive painting. The picture is painted by Claugh, an American artist of fine reputation.
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