Daviess County, Kentucky - Chapter 8: The Press Defunct Newspapeks, 1883

Chapter 8: The Press Defunct Newspapeks

Owensboro Bulletin. - The first newspaper in Daviess County was the Owensboro Bulletin, started in 1844 as a Henry Clay "Whig paper, by Thornton C. Pattee, and continued for several years.

Owensboro Gazette - The next was the Owensboro Gazette, a. Democratic organ, established about April 10, 1852, by George G. Yest, from Frankfort, Ky., now United States Senator from Missouri, and Eobert S. Triplett, of Owensboro, still a well-known business man of this place. Mr. Vest brought with him from Frankfort a good printer named Joseph H. Mayhall, and their paper was therefore a very line-looking sheet. The first year it had an average of about ninety advertisements in it. from the business men of Owensboro, - among them Tyler & Mayo, Moorman & Bros., Allen & Daveiss, W. H. Kerney & Co., J. Hyman &. Co., Adams & Shmutte, Wing & Weir, Megill & Bro., and Simmons & Millett. The proposed Henderson & Nashville Railroad was much talked of then, and was therefore a prominent topic in its columns.

Within a year after its commencement Mr. Vest sold the paper to Mr. Mayhall, who employed Alfred B. Johnson as editor. This man was a brother of Hon. James L. Johnson, and died in Owensboro, before the war. In the fall of 1854 Mr. Mayhall was thrown out of a buggy and killed, and his widow continued the paper for a short time and sold it to a Mr. Hawkins; i)ut it probably did not survive long.

National American, The Shield, and Ford''s Southern Shield. - During the Know-Nothing excitement of 1856 the Nationul American was started in Oweiishoro by Joshua G. Ford, proprietor, and George H. Teaman, editor. The tirst number was dated Aug. 6, 1856. A. G. Botts succeeded Mr. Yeaman as editor, and Colonel John H. McHenry was the next, in 1857-'8; and, about this time, Mr. Ford changed the name to Tht Shield, and soon after the outbreak of the war to lord's Southern Shield, which name it

^^ CoIoneV Jonhua G. lord was born, it is said, in Caldwell County, Ky., about 1831. When twelve years old he came to Owensboro on foot and learned the printer's art in the office of the Bulletin. In 1858 he married Miss Eliza Imbler. June 10, 1862, he was arrested by order of (loneral Boyle, Adjutant-General of Kentucky, and conveyed to Louisville, but was shortly afterward i-eleased. In 1875 he was elected to the Legislature and his paper discontinued. A few months after his term expired he removed, with_^the materials of his oftico, to Lacon, 111., where he edited the Mdt'shall Coiiihty Deinacrat a number of years. He is now editing the Siiuk CovMty Democrat ., in Baraboo County, Wis., whicli county, since his arrival there, has changed from Reiniblican to Democratic, apparently by his influence.

Oiocnshoi'o Deinocrat. - This j>aper was started a short time before the war, by Isaac P. Washburn, an illiterate man. It did not long survive the commencement of the war.

Oioenxtx)!'!) iVr.^w.y. - This was an eight-column folio, commenced in Issi, by Thomas Collins, as a liepublican local paper; but in a tew months it died and the office material was mostly sold to the Foitt. Mr. Collins next endeavored to establish a paper at Mt. Vernon, Ind., but failed.

Tlhe (hoi'iishi>i-o Monitor v/i\ii started in 1862 by Henry M. Woodruff, a strong Union man, who spoke outboldlj' in the face of war. The size of the jjajter at first was a twenty-inch six-column folio, and the first number is dated Aug. 13, 18G2. In the last week of May, 1SG4, Thomas S, Pettit became a jiart owner, "and changed the ])olit!cal tone of the paper, and spoke out as boldly against Lincoln's administration as his predecessor did agiiinst secession, alrliough for the Ujiion. Soon afterward Mr. Woodruff retired from the pa]>er altogether. In the autumn of this year Mr. Pettit was taken away by military authority, as more fully described a little further on, and the paper was discontinued for about six n.'onths, excej)t a few weeks, wIumi it was i-un by Rev. Richard C.

Gardner, a Methodist Chaplain of the Twenty-seventh Kentucky Infantry, who liad for his aid a few sc)ldiers who could set type. During these changes considerable damage was done to the material of the office.

The following May, Mr. Pettit returned from " Dixie Land " and resumed his old position, bought new press and typo, and battled away on the same old principles for which he was banished, and increased the circulation to more than 2,000 within a year. In the summer of 1869 he purchased a power press.

A. L. Ashby, from Mt. Sterling, Ky., was admitted as associate editor from May 27, 1868, to Aug. 7, 1872. He was afterward Secretary of the Owensboro & Nashville Railroad Company, and is now living at Louisville. lie has accumulated considerable property. July 21, 1869, the Monitor was enlarged to eight twentj'- six inch columns to the page.

In 1874 Mr. Pettit sold the Monitor to Robert Campbell, a native of Texas, who was educated at Baton Rouge, La., and served in Hood's Texas Brigade during the war. He was admitted to the bar in Texas, but in 1871, at the age of twenty-six, he commenced journalism in Mississippi.

The Monitor was suspended about the 1st of March, 1877, and the material of the office sold afterward to J. A. Munday, who started the Messenger the following August.

Henry B. Woodruff, proprietor and editor of the Owensboro Monitor during tlie first years of the war, was a man of fair ability and of zealous Union sentiments. He came to Owensboro as a school-teaciier, and taught school a number of terras. He married Miss Sallie Elam, a daughter of Mrs. John S. McFarland. He left Owensboro in 1863, when he sold out the Monitor, being appointed by Governor Bramlette tobacco inspector in Louisville. He now has- charge of the railroad station at Anchorage^ on the Louisville & Frankfort Railroad.

Thornas S. Pettit was born in Frankfort, Ky., Dec. 21, 1843, the son of Franklin Duane and Elizabeth (Zook) Pettit; father a native of Virginia and mother of Kentucky. He attended Georgetown College, and before he was grown up learned the printer's art, which came natural and easy to him, and he became an ade})t. In 1864 he came to Owensboro and purchased the Monitor of Mr. Woodruff, and began the publication of a lively local paper, ad- vocating Democratic principles. Unlike his predecessor, he freely criticised the acts of the Republican party and their conduct of the war, and consequently in a few months (Nov. 17, 1864) he was arrested by order of General Stephen G. Burbridge, imprisoned and banished south, under the general charge of being "notoriously disloyal." He was hurried away, and was sent under an escort to Memphis, Tenn., where he was transferred across the lines within the Confederacy, in whose territory he traveled until the following May, when he returned and resumed the publication of the Monitor, as already noted. He was the first to establish a successful, paying paper in Owensboro, which he did before he was twentyfive years of age; and he was the first to bring Gordon and power presses to Owensboro. In this paper he published, in several successive numbers, his " Trip to Dixie," giving his experiences during the whole of the " round trip." These exciting annals helped the circulation of liis paper to a wonderful degree, as already mentioned. In the South he underwent the many hardships and privations incident to a common soldier.

Subsequently he was elected Assistant Clerk of the House of Representatives of the State Legislature, which position he held for six years, when he was appointed Private Secretary to James B. McCreary. This position he afterward resigned, to accept the situation of Reading Clerk of the House of Representatives at Washington, D. C, for which duty he lias extraordinarily good -voice and articulation. On the death of lion. John S. McFarland, in 1S09, and through the influence and personal popularity of Senator T. C. McCreery, he was appointed by President Johnson Assessor of this Internal Revenue District, the duties of which position he filled with conscientious fidelity to the close of the terra.

Mr, Pettit has ever been recognized as a true Democrat. He has attended a number of State conventions of his party, and at, every one of them he was elected secretary; and at the last National convention, which nominated Hancock and Hendricks, he was one of the secretaries. He is still active in the political field. Last fall (1.SS2) he was a candidate for Congress against James B. Clay, of Henderson, but, after an exciting race, lie was defeated in the pivotal county of Union, by less than 150 votes.

Witii all this political work Mr. Pettit has also engaged heavily in industrial pursuits. (See account of Marble it Pettit's stave factory and lumber mills in the History of Murray Precinct.) He has befei active in many local and philanthropic entei-prises too numerous to mention here. He is a Freemason of high degree. Within four years after he entered the State Grand Lodge he was elected Past Grand Master, a distinction never before accorded to a member so young in that body. In December, 1870, he married Mies Margaret Blair, a native of this count}', and a daughter of James Harvey Blair, formerly a merchant of Oweusboro. Their only child is named Harvey Blair Pettit-

Living Newspapers

Owensboro Examiner. - This was started Jan. 1, 1875, and conducted five years by L. Lumpkin, sole editor and proprietor. It was a quarto of six columns to the page. Democratic. In 1880 it was consolidated with the Messenger.

Lee Lumphin was born in King William County, Va., in 1833. He lived there until the last war, in which he served, on the Confederate side, throughout the great struggle. He then came to Owensboro and entered into partnership with W. T. Courtney as a druggist. In 1866 he married Miss Florence Coffey. In 1868 he opened a book store, which he conducted successfully until he sold ont to the Messenger in 1880, along with the Ej'u-nilner. He is now a member of the firm of W. J. &, L. Lumpkin, merchant millers at the north end of Crittenden street.

The Messenger. - Aug. .7, 1877, was the date of the first number of this paper, an eight-colnmn folio, started by J. A. Munday, who, for the purpose, had bought the material of the old Monitor office, as before mentioned. C. W. Braiisford was admitted as partner in 1878. In March, 1880, these gentlemen bought out the Examinen\ consolidating it with the Messenger., still retaining Mr. Lumpkin, the proprietor of the former, as business manager. The latter, liowever, soon left to carry on a flouring mill. Tiie Messenger and Examiner has since been issued both as a weekly and a semi-weekly. The semi-weekly was commenced as a seven -column folio, and in 1882 enlarged to an ciglit-column. In the ^])ring ot 1881 Mr. Bransford purchased Mr. Munday's interest, and was alone until October, when he admitted to partnership Mr. Wrey Woodson. The former is senior and tiie latter junior editor.

This is a model local paper in respei-t to typography, mf,ke-iip. quality of paper, and more than all, editorial and business nianagc- Digitized by Microsoft®

The Messenger was issued also as a daily fur about two months in the i'all of 1S79, as a six-column folio. Inability to obtain the Associated Pro£s dispatches, and tlie consequent necessity of printing the paper at Evansville, led the proprietors to abandon the enterprise.

(;^In connection with the above is a large and nice job office, said to be tlie largest in the State west of Louisville, possibly the largest in the State outside of Louisville. The material fs tlie consolidation of two considerable offices. Their large power press, the Cottrel! & Babcock, is run l)y hydraulic force from the city waterworks, equal to four horse-power. A grammar lias just been printed at this office.

0. W. Bransford was born in Owensboro, Ky., Jan. 2-1:, 1858, a son of Benj. and Mary E.(Athy) Bransford ; attended schools here but graduated in tlie literary- course at Cumberland University Lebanon, Tenn., in June, 18T7. He then attended the law school at Louisville, wliere he completed the junior course, and was elected salutatorian from this class, as a testimonial to his proficiency. He next accepted a temporary position in Clarke & Crntcher's stemmery. At the close of the tobacco business for the season of 18T8 he became sub-editor of the Messenger, under J. A Muiiday. Within two months he was oflered a partnership in the papei'. wliich he accepted, in September, 1878, etc., as above noted.

L>cc. 21, IS-^.i!, Mr. Bransford married Virgie Lee Finle^, oJ Lebanon, Tenn., a daughter of Dr. W. M. Finley, a native of ('iarksville, Tenn., and a niece of Congressman Finlej', of Florida. Mr. Bransford is a young man of remarkable business and executive talent, and if lie lives will make a bright mark in the world. If lie .should rise to political prominence, he will not be a " hafk- '?'//.(/ dog,'' and he therefore might "bite," where tliore is occasion in eonie coniest. The Ilopkinsville South Kcnfuchi.un truly says of him: '- His -^tyie of wi-Jting possesses a degree of profundity far lieyond las years when he is handling editorial subjects. Ho is vury t'..'H]]ieratc. and is a model young man in hisliabits, although lie Ji.'Cs lut belong to any ch.urch. Concerning his piij'-sical ap- ]>caraii.'i; the South Kentneklan thus words it: " Ilia hair is- a

Histoey Of Daviess Ooonty

Urey C. Woodson was born at Madison ville, Ky., Aiic;. 16, 1859, the son of S. C. and R. J. (Hawthorn) Woodson, the former a native of Hopkins County, Ky., and the latter of Anderson County, Ky. When he was about five years old his parents moved to Evansville, Ind., where he grew to manhood, attending school, etc. At the age of sixteen he entered the newspaper business in that city first on W\QEvening Herald, afterward on the Sunday Argus, and later on the Evansville Daily Courier. He then went to Greenville, Ky., in the fall of 1877, and published the Muhlenhurg Echo, a weekly, which he enlarged and made prosperous. In the autumn of 1881 he sold this paper and became connected with the Messenger.

Hon. James A. Munday, born in Hancock County, Ky., Aug. 14, 1843, was a son of Redmond and Martha L. (Hamilton) Munday. His father was a descendant of Reuben Munday, one of the first settlers of Virginia. He came to Kentucky when a young man, and was married here. He had a family of two daughters and one son, the daughters both deceased. He died when his son was two years old. After the death of his father James A. and his mother moved to Hawesville, where he attended school till fourteen years of age. He then entered Greenville Academy, at that time flourishing under the presidency of Hon. Edward Rumsey, and superintendence of James K. Patterson, present President of the Kentucky State College. He afterward attended the Georgetown College, his junior year being interrupted by the political troubles preceding the war, on account of which tlie school was discontinued. Mr. Munday then returned home, and in August, 1S62, after several unsuccessful attempts, succeeded in reaching the Confederate lines and enlisted in Company II, Tenth Kentucky Confederate Cavalry, under command of (Japtain 11. 0. Meriweather. The regiment was afterward assigned to General Morgan's command, in all the engagements and movements of which he took an active part. He w.is iu a few months promoted to a Lieutenancy for soldierly conduct, and when Cajitain Meriweather was detailed for other duty, he to(;k charge of the company, in which capacity he did much service as a scout. His company and another under his command were assigned to the advance of the Second J3rigade on (reneral Morgan's memorable invasion of Indiana and Ohio, and were among the first to cha:';;c and carry the breast-works of Corjdon. After the most remarkable ride on record his command was foiled in its attempts to recross the river at Bnffington Island, Ohio, and in attempting to rally a few men and assist in covering a retreat, he with several of his regiment were surrounded and captured, and taken to Johnson's Island. Tlie Government having determined on special severity with those who had dared to invade "the sacred soil," sent half of General Morgan's officers to the Ohio penitentiary, and the other half to the western penitentiary of Pennsylvania at Allegheny, holding them as exempt from the cartel of exchange. After eight months of close coniinement, Mr. Munday witli his fellow officers were transferred to Point Lookout, and afterward to Fort Delaware. At the close of the war he returned to Hawesville, and soon after his mother was killed by being thrown from a buggy. Mr. Munday attended a course of lectures at the Louisville Law University. On his return liome he took charge of the Circuit Clerk's office as Deputy, and the following summer was elected Circuit Clerk - tlie youngest clerk ever elected in the State. He held the office two years. During the time he was elected Assistant Secretary of the Kentucky Senate. After the expiration ol' liis term of office lie commenced the practice of law in Hawesville. In 1870 he came to Owensboro and formed a partnership with Judge George W. Williams. In 1871 he was made Master Commissioner of Daviess County Circuit Court; resigned that office in 1875 and formed a business partnership with Thomas S. Pettit in the manufacture of staves. He sold out in 1879 and became the owner of the Owensboro Monitor office, and established' the Owensboro McS8enyi:i\ a weekly Democratic newspaper, a half interest in which was sold in 1878 to C. W. Eransford. After beginning the publication of the daily Messenger, in tlie fall of 1878, it was consolidated with the Examiner^ a weekly paper then owned by L. L\unpkin, forming the Owensboro Messenger and Ex<iiniiLCi\ published weekly and semi-weekly. Mr. Munday cjonrinued in editorial charge of these jjapers until the sjjring of 18M, when he severed his connection with them and eriL'-ageJ in tlie canvass for Senator in his district, comprising Daviess and McLean counties. He was elected Senator in August, 1881. and took an active ])ai't in the legislation of the session of 1881-'S2. He is a memb.-i; of the Siur Lodge, No. 19, K. of P.; Owcnsi;<ii'.. Loil^re. Nn. l3o, A. Y. &. X. M.,and Owensboro Lodge,

The Saturday Post. - This sprightly gazette was established hy A. T. Oraycroft and Greo. Y. Triplett, the first number appearing Sept. 3, 1881. Mr. T. is the business manager and editor. The paper is an eight-column folio, the columns a half-em wider than the standard measure, and it is issued every Saturday morning. It is sincerely and purely Democratic in politics, as the party has attested by sending its editor as their Representative to the Legislature. Jan. 26, 1883, Mr. Craycroft retired from the lirm, leaving Mr. Triplett alone. The typography and make-up of the paper is magnificent, its editorials spicy, and its selections rich. Mr. T. has a high degree of originality as well as of literary ability. See chapter entitled "Authors and Artists."

In connection with the Post is a fine job department. The editorial and composition rooms are models of neatness. OfiSce in Hill's new block, a few doors north of the Planter's Hotel.

George Vest Triplett was born in Frankfort, Ky., Jan. 30, 1856, and is a son of Robert S. and Louisa M. (Vest) Triplett. "When he was two or three years of age the family moved to Louisville, Ky., and soon afterward (which was about the beginning of the war) they came to Owensboro, where they have since made it their home. The subject of this notice has taken a course of study at Transylvania University, and also Central University, Richmond, Ky., finishing both an academic and a law course. His law preceptor was "Wni. Chenault, one of the finest instructors of law in America. He was admitted to the bar at Richmond, and on his return to Owensboro he commenced the practice of law in the office of "Williams & Brown, remaining there about two years, 1877-'9, when he became assistant editor of the Examiner. "When this paper was consolidated with the Messenger, Mr. Triplett went to "Washington City to accept a position on the Daily Post. In the beginning of the summer of 1880, he formed a partnei'ship with Camden Riley, Sr. In August, 1881, he was elected to the Legislature and immediately started the Saturday Post, as above mentioned.

As a lawyer Mr. Triplett still takes such buliness as will not interfere with the interests of his paper. He is a member of the order of Knights of Pythias, and is still one of "ye jolly bachelors," wii.>se doings in their clu'b room X?!; he so wittily writes up in his i)ai.cr.

Hmne and School. - This is a local educational monthly started in January, 1883, by O. T. Kendall ct Co. It has eight pages four columns to the page.

The Press Association of Kentucky met in Owensboro, June 7 and 8, 1871, when a good delegation was welcomed by the citizens. They met first in the court-house and then at the Baptist church, when Colonel R. M. Kelly, of the Louisville Commercial,. delivered a very amusing address, and Benjamin Casseday read an original poem. In the evening a sumptuous banquet was given at Allen Gilmour's, and also at Bransford's hall, - the latter given by the citizens. A large share of the credit for the success of the occasion is due E. II. Taylor, J. II. McHenry, T. C. Jones and J. G. Ford. The tables were supplied by F. T. Guenther. Kelly's address and Casseday's poem were published in full in the next number of the Monitor.

Authors And Artists

One of the oldest members of the Daviess County bar, and a prominent business man of Owensboro, was born in Greenville, Ky., June 16, 1821. His father, James "Weir, was born near Charleston, S. C, and belonged to a Presbyterian family of Scotch- Irish descent, that emigrated to America from the north of Ireland. His mother, Anna Rumsey, was born in Virginia, and was a niece of James Rumsey, who is justly entitled to tlie claim of being the first to apply steam as a means of propelling boats. His father came to Kentucky toward the close of the last century. He first adopted the business of surveyor, and afterward exchanged this for a mercantile career, and his business extended over a wide extent of territory. He carried on, and managed, under his own supervision at the same time, stores at Equality and Shawueetown in Illinois; at Henderson, Morganfield, Madisonville, Greenville, Lewisburg, Hopkinsville and Kussellville, in Kentu cky, a at Gallatin, in Tennessee. Although a large amount of capital was necessarily involved in this extensive and wide-spread business, it was his boast that he never borrowed a dollar, nor failed to meet a debt at its maturity.

James Weir, the subject of this sketch, was educated at Centre College, at Danville, Ky., one of the oldest institutions of the State. After graduating here he entered the law school of Transylvania University, in Lexington, where he prepared for the legal profession. March 1, 1842, he married Miss Susan C. Green, daughter of Judge John Green, of Danville. Mr. Weir settled in Owensboro in 1848, and devoted himself to the practice of law, gaining a high standing at the bar as a chancery lawyer. He found time, however, to give to literary pursuits, and in 1849-'60 three novels appeared, of which he was the author.

During his residence in Owensboro, Mr. Weir developed business qualities of no ordinary character, and when the Deposit Bank was organized in 1859, he was chosen its President, and still continues in that position. To his management is chieiiy due its present high standing among the banking institutions of Kentucky. He was the first President of the Owensboro & Eussellville (now the Evansville, Owensboro & Nashville) Railroad. This office he retained from 1869 till the latter part of 1878.

Mr. Weir has never minified in politics, nor has he ever been a candidate for any public office. Ho has attended strictly to his ])rofessional business, and since 1850 has had little time to indulge his inclination for light literature, or at least to no greater extent than to be the author of some fugitive pieces which have a])peared from time to time in the popular magazines of the day. His ample means have not had the effect of making him selfish or illiberal. He has taken part in e^'ery public enterprise which promised to be of benefit to the community. In 1880 he opened a large factory for the manufacture of carriage material^ a more full account of which is given in the history of Owensboro. Mr. Weir's charities have been wide, but unostentatious. While his abilities as a financier have been of service in building up his own fortune, they have also been exerted for the promotion of the interests of the city and county of which he is a resident.

Ml'- Weir's residence is one of the most magnificently frescoed buildings in this part of the world. The work cost over $12,000, and was done by an ex-officer of the Confederate array, of foreign birth and education. The elegant historic paintings on the ceiling of the library, in the groupings and combinations, are a constant source of study and pleasure.

Mr. Weir demonstrated his capacity as a literateur when comparatively young. Before he was thirty years of age he wrote and published three stories, which were bound in book form and supplied to the regular trade by the chief publishing house of Philadelphia, Lippincott, Grambo & Co. The works are the following :

1. Simon Kenton. This is a novel in which it is designed to give a sketch of the habits and striking characteristics of the population of the western portion of N"orth Carolina immediately following the war for independence, and in it to introduce Simon Kenton, the great scout and Indian fighter, and also his constant opponent and enemy, Simon Grirty, the tory and renegade. In this volume the character in which Kenton was interested and connected came off victorious.

tied; and in it are introduced many of the most striking characters of that period, and many incidents in the early history of Kentucky, with sketches of scenery, the Mammoth Cave, etc., and also the battles in which Simon Kenton and Simon Girty were engaged, and the habits and marked characters of the early pioneers. The name " Winter Lodge " is derived from the name of a cabin erected by Kenton for the hero and heroine of these two volumes, and ornamented with carpets of buffalo hides, lined with furs.

Mr. Weir intended in his younger days to write a sequel to this volume, running down to the War of 1812, and the death of Kenton and Girty, but increasing business on his hands prevented him. In Collins' History of Kentucky there is a sketch of the life and times of Kenton, and Girty was a desperado who figured largely among the pioneers of Kentucky and Indiana.

3. LoNz PowEKS ; or, the Regulators : A romance of Kentucky, based on scenes and incidents in this State. This interesting story was published in two duodecimo volumes, 319 and 364 pages, in the year 1850, by Lippincott, Grambo «fe Co., Philadelphia.

Hon. Geokge H. Teaman

now a resident of New York City, but formerly of Owensboro, wrote and published a work on the " Study of Government," while he was a resident at Copenhagen, Denmark, as a United States Minister. A biographical sketch of Mr. Yeaman appears in the chapter entitled, " Sketches of Public Men."

Colonel Egbert Scott Beviek

President of the Owensboro & Nashville Railroad, was born at Painted Post, Steuben Co., N. Y., April ^8, 1834. His father, Benjamin W. Bevier, was a farmer of that place, and about one year afterward moved to Michigan, and then to Kentucky. The family, whose name originally was De la Baviere, came from France, at the time of the "Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day," which event compelled them to seek refuge in Holland, where they remained about 100 years, and until they emigrated to this country with the New York Patroon, Van Rensselaer. After receiving a liberal education he commenced the study of law under the dirocuou of John Todd, Esq., of Russell ville, a distinguished lawyer of Logan County, and continued it at the law school at Lebanon, Tenn. On the completion of his studies, and his admission to the bar in 1852, he went to Bolivar, Polk Co., Mo., and commenced the practice of his profession.

In the winter of 1855 he went to Kansas as Prosecuting Attorney' and while there became engaged in the " Wakarusa war," and in the various conflicts with John Brown and his followers. In 1856 he located at Keokuk, Iowa, but in consequence of the strong Republican tendencies of that vicinity, he soon removed to Bloomington, Macon Co. , Mo. , where he continued to reside until the breaking out of the late civil war, having met good success in the practice of his profession. During that time he was selected as local attorney for the Hannibal, St. Joseph & North Missouri R. R. , County School Commissioner, Douglass Elector for his district, in 1859, and was appointed division inspector, by Governor Jackson, with the rank of Colonel. He was unanimously elected to the command of the regiment from Macon County, and, joining Henry Sterling Price, was soon engaged in the struggle, participating in the battles of Dry wood, Elkhorn, Farraington, Inka, Corinth, Grand Gulf, Port Gibson, Champion Hills, Big Black, and through the sieges of Lexington, Vicksburg, and Richmond. His regiment becoming greatly reduced in numbers by hard service and casualties, he was ordered to Richmond, as General Military Agent for the State of Missouri, continuing there until the close of the war, with the exception of the time consumed in a mission of carrying foreign dispatches to Cuba, in the accomplishment of which he was obliged to run the famous blockade. At the termination of the war he returned to his old home at Russellville, Ky., being prevented, by reason of political disabilities, at that time existing, from returning to Missouri. He again resumed the practice of law, and was elected Yice-President and General Agent of the Owensboro & Russellville Railroad.

Mr. Bevier possesses line literary qualities, and contributes to various magazines. While a resident of Russellville, Ky., he prepared a very fine history of the First and Second Missouri Confederate Brigades; also a "Military Anagraph," being a journal of his experiences in the army, " From Wakarusa to Appomattox. " The two accounts are published together in one volume of a little more than 500 octavo pages, by Bryan, Brand & Co. , St. Louis, Mo., in 1878. The work is ably written,being prepared with great care, and is illustrated with very line steel portraits of General Sterlintf Price, Senator F. M. Cockrell of Missouri, Dr. J. M. Allen, and of himself. The volume concludes with a list of survivors of those brigades, with present (1878) residence and occupation.

editor of the Saturday Post^ is a witty, original writer. "His Annals of the Bachelors' Club," published in the Post in the autumn of 1882, are rich and racy. The following poem has gone the " rounds of the press," and finally found its way into the play of the "Jolly Pathfinders," now so well known 'throughout the nation.

Song Of The Hammock

a/ Methodist minister of Owensboro, a short time ngo wrote and published a work entitled "The Papal Power in Politics; or, Rome aijainst Liberty." It was a duodecimo of 256 pag'es, written for popular reading, and from tlie standpoint of the citizen. It is not a work for the learned only, but for the masses. The p.iper and type are very fine, and no doubt every citizen of Daviess County is or ought to be interested in this great question.

son of Thomas W. and Susan (Fry) Gray, both natives of Virginia, was born in Elkton, Todd Co., Ky., April 9, 1824. His father was a merchant and farmer. When nine years of age his parents moved on a farm; remained two years and then went to Louisville, where his father became a merchant. He died in 1842. J. H. attended school at Louisville, and also at Georgetown College, Kentucky. Took up teaching near Frankfort; then had charge of an Academy in Burlington; went back to Louisville, taught in th."t neighborhood seven or eight years; then went to Russellville, Ky., and taught mathematics in Bethel College seven years; then came to Owensboro in 1869 and took charge of Central Baptist Institute, now the Upper Ward school building, for two years ; sold out to the town, on account of graded public schools. He was engaged as Superintendent of Public Schools, which he organized and conducted two years. He then taught a private school here one year, and returned to Bethel College and taught mathematics eight years. Returned in the summer of 1882 and started a private classical school on Bolivar street. He has thirty eight scholars, and is doing well. He was married May 8, 1861, to Miss Fannie Wirt Fry, daughter of W. W. Fry, of Louis ville, Ky. They had eight children, four living - Fannie W., Leslie Walker, Herbert S. and Eugenia D. Prof, and Mrs. Gray are both membsrs of the Baptist Church. Politically he is a Democrat.

Swinton, in the preface of his grammar, says that "at the time of its first publication (1872), it had become a conviction in the m^nds of many t^io^fj)g^^y^^Jj^croso^<l®'"^ *^'^* English gram- mar, as set forth in books and taught in schools, was failing to accomplish its avowed end, namely, 'to teach the art of speaking and writing the English language with propriety.' " He then says that his ^^Progressive Grammar was an attempt to break loose from the shackles of purely technical grammar - to strip it of fruitless formalism, and to introduce the constructive element. The experience of the school-room led the author to believe that a method of language-training quite different from that mainly in vogue was necessary; there arose, in fact, the thought oilanguage as one thing, and grammar as another thing."

I believed fully in this general failure in teaching grammar, but not in the implied cause, "The shackles of purely technical grammar," nor in the proposed remedy, "Language as one thing and grammar as another thing;" - by which is meant that the correct use of language should be taught rather by empirical practice, than by a logical examination of its structure. No grammar is freed from "technical shackles," and Mr. Swintoii's is as fall of them as the rest. Tlie plan applied for their removal is to anticipate or supplement them with endless respective wi'itten exercises. It is but eking out by rote the failure of clear analytic comprehension. It is falling upon what is called, in opposition to the analytic, the "na^wraZ" method, so much in vogue in teaching the modern languages. In my Report of the Owensboro Public Schools {_1872) occurs the following language : -

"A word upon the much praised natural methods in teaching. The correct name is infantile methods, or animal methods, sensitive methods, rote methods, repetition methods, versus rational or logical methods. It is the method of the French phrase book, by which young ladies learn to repeat a number of polite expression?, and call it the knowledge of the French language. If there is any thing which science means, it is the acquisition of knowledge through the medium of its organic laws and relations; it is the proposition that the Jiuman mind is competent to grasp the principles, and from these elaborate the formal modes of the subjectmatter. It means that we do not learn all things else, as we learned to babble our mother tongue; that we have not to become infants at the threshold of each new subject which we wish to learn, but by the unfolding of our rational powers, we can avail ourselves of rational conditions and methods."

the compreliension of a thousand facts, in their essential import and relation. Grammar is the science of the structure of language, and if it fails to teach its correct use, it is because it is not understood, or is willfully disregarded. The causes of failure in teaching it are:

5. The pedantry of the author and the presumed erudition of the pupil in making the examples a copious expression of the gems of literature - as intelligible and cogent as if they were written in Latin.

6. The address of the expression, the notes, the well-pointed r-'inarks to the literary public, instead of to the comprehension of the common school-boy who has to learn the meaning from the

7. Tlie presumption of an accurate knowledge of elementary grammar, philosophy, etc., in the reckless abruptness of the more advanced grammars - rendering them incomplete and impracticable as independent books for mature pupils.

8. The obscure and intricate culling ot one element at a time in empirica,! exercises obscured by the ignorance of the pupil of the other elements of the seutance - especially the erudite sentences of those advanced grammars which are presumed to teach the science of language.

In my own teaching I have generally used some one of the popular grammars, - floundering as best I could in the midst of its intricacies, - skipping, doubling, reversing in many ways to lead (not load) the mind of the pipil along a clear and consistent course. In organizing the Owensboro Public Schools, I recammended one for use, and had no thought of resorting to singular methods of instruction, only so far as the exigencies of the case should require. It was in endeavoring to remove the difficulties of the teachers that I suggested what 1 conceived to be a systematic course, an adequate nomenclature, and exhaustive analysis. I believe in the minimum use of text-books; and that in a graded school, the best i)lan is to teach grammar simply b.y diagrams and discussions, without the use of a book. But this was left to the teacher, and if mj analysis had gone no farther than the teachers' meetings, it would have served ray purpose, if the teacher did not need it in the schoolroom. The object was to teach the pupil the knowledge of the language, and not to introduce any special system of grammar.

In the expression of the analysis of the language, two general methods present themselves, - the one a descriptive analysis without technical nomenclature, which may be easily done; the other a technical notation of each principle. In my own teaching I might hesitate as to which I should adojit. In a casual suggestion to others - a mere synopsis, - a collection of diagrams and definitions, the use of nomenclature fixes and recalls the analysis. In chemistry the nomenclature is of great service in expressing the character and relations of the elements and compounds. In the midst of their multiplicity, the seemingly confusing terms and formulas reallj"^ give a succinct expression of the principles which could hardly be otherwise so simply presented. This must be the case in a thorough grammatical notation. A single illustration will exhibit the method:

Case was defined, in the books, to be the relation pi the noun to other, words in the sentence. Then we had the nominative case, "independent" or "absolute," implying and asserted to be without relation. Then we had the expression, O, thou good hoy! - no sentence at all, but the noun having a case, and the independent nominative having a relation to other words. The nominative was said to be generally the agent, actor or doer, and then we had the nominative equally prominent as the reverse of agent or actor. It WHS said to be always the subject of the verb (Pinneo), and then it was predicate and not subject. The nominative in apposition was anuexed for emphasis or explanation of tiie subject - contra-distinguished in the mind of the pupil, from the subject. We had the objective case as the object of action, contrasted to the nominative; then the nominative as subject and object of action; the objective case as agent, with the nominative as object. "We had the general definition of the noun as the name of an object, yet one was subject and the other object - an objective case because it was the tobject, and when it was not the object, and though an object, and he object of the ve rb yet not the objective, but the nominative. And air these intricate relations " were Init two cases. They are very clear to you - and so is Greek when yon understand it. But it is terrible Greek to the boy. A nomenclature which would elucidate all this, would have to bear the charge of introducing new and multiple cases; but it might, by calling distinct things by relatively distinct names, discriminate them and their relations to the struggling mind, and stamp with a term an idea which would save the endless repetition and circumlocution of rote parsing.

The verb is as barbarously mangled as the noun. It expressed action, ieing or state. The word action. expresses action, and is not a verb; the word being or existence expresses being, and is not a verb; the word state or condition expresses state, and is not a verb. The potential mode denotes not only power, but will, obligation, permission, etc. The imperative mode is used by the beggar, and by man in invoking his Maker. The infinitive mode is not infinite, the indicative mode does not "simply indicate."

Such are some of the beauties of most of the grammars. The teacher in such case should use every endeavor and device to remove the obscurities, and not thrust the senseless jargon into the unwitting memory of the child. If the verb be defined as the term employed to assert or make the statement, or affirm in the sense of making an affirmation, - in whatever mode declarative; and a sentence be defined to be a statement about some object, with which others may be swSordinately associative or otherwise illustrative; and s, preposition be termed a relative; then the distinctions of nominative and objective may be expressed as:

Affirmal. Sub-Affiemal

The above is sufl[icient to suggest the general method. Having been engaged in the exclusive teaching of mathematics for the last eight years, no further interest was felt in the system. The following diagram will illustrate the simplicity with which its principles were discussed:

4. Science is the explanation of principles - an explanation of the laws of the kind of connection, depending on the kinds of parts of which anything is composed.

6. Definition may give the meaning, dependent on the elements or constitution of anything; or its import, which is its meaning in relation to something, from which it may be discriminated.

John Feancis Allen, Painter

John F. Allan^ born March 4-, 1852, in Daviess County, Ky., is a son of Benjamin S. and Rebecca (Evans) Allan, natives of Jefferson County, Ky. His father came to Daviess County in 1851, and located on a farm eight miles from Owensboro, on the Hardinburg road. He lived there nine years and then sold it, and bought another seven miles east of Owensboro, where he still lives. John F. was the eldest of six children. He attended the district school of his neighborhood, known as the "Pleasant Yalley" school, and afterward spent three years at school in Louisville.

His earliest delights were connected with pictures, and his highest aspirations to be an artist. His visit to the Centennial in 1876, that sublime vista of art treasures, only impressed him the more with a higher appreciation and respect for that which he ever had a fondness - the fine arts. And though for a time his productions were undervalued by the community, scarcely obtaining for himself a subsistence, yet he was content to dwell in simple retirement, believing that labor would bring its own reward. The love of the beautiful was the law of his being; the beautiful in nature and art, his chief joy. It is said the sight of the mountain and sea moved him with unutterable thought. And that years ago, while on a visit to St. Louis, Mo., he became so interested and forgetful of self and his surroundings in the study of a statuette, he was unconsciously robbed of his watch, which was never captured. While Mr. Allen's portraits possess not the finish which are given by other artists of more experience, yet he is remarkable in securing a true likeness, and his productions seem to flow from his hand with freedom. He says while he neither expects profit nor fame from his profession, yet the pleasure derived from it have amply rewarded him; that it has multiplied and refined his enjoyments. His chief delight is in obscurity and repose, embodying the visions of beauty that rise before his spiritual sight, and they expand into full-blown beauty as he ponders over them.

Haeet I. Joy

There are many good violinists in Daviess County; but when a blacksmith tops them all as a note-reader and violin-plaj-er, like Mr. Joy, he ought to be honorably mentioned by name. This genius was born in Henderson in 1834, and has spent all his life in the South. He came to Owensboro in 1880, since which time he has resided here, an '-artificer]iu iron" at Guenther's Novelty Machine Shop, excelling in the manufacture of mill-nicks. He has no family.

W. S. Stone

Probably the most valuable autograph album in this part of the country is in the possession of Dr. Phil. T. Johnson, of Owensboro, but was originally the property of his aunt. Miss Eliza E. Triplett. It contains seventy-five leaves, nine and a half by eleven and a half inches in size, gilt-edged, and substantially bound in embossed morocco. But its remarkable value consists in its autographs of many of the most eminent statesmen and other prominent men of the nation, trom the days when Jackson, Van Buren and Clay were in the height of their glory to an indefinite period after the last war. The album was generally kept at Washington, D. C, where it was convenient to these great men. The reader can obtain a better idea of this remarkable heirloom if we give a list of the autographs, with either a quotation of the sentiments or some allusion to them in detail.

"My Dear Miss Eliza: - I comply with your request to record my name in your album with great pleasure. Independent of your personal claims to my friendship and esteem, you have valid hereditary titles. Besides recognizing among my valued friends your father and mother, almost every one in Kentucky who bore the honored name of Hopkins, your near and dear relations, were known to me and enjoyed my esteem and regard, as I did theirs. " May you live to realize every hope of your parents, every blessing and enjoyment anticipated by your young heart, and live and finally, at some far distant day, die, in a minnerdcceptable to God.

You ask, fair maiden, for one line ; but I must give you three ; For a couplet at the least, for the rhyme's sake, there must be ; And a triplet, for your name's sake, therefore take from

Francis S. Key, the reader will recollect, was the author of the celebrated patriotic song, '-The Star-spangled Banner." He follows the above with a quotation from the 103d Psalm, and then indites the following stanzas, based upon the quotation:

To Miss Eliza R. Triplett

At the above date Mr. Adams was seventy-five years old, and the handwriting is exceedingly labored, heavy and tremulous; the letters are upright, and they all seem to indicate that their maker put his whole soul into the loving task. The last stanza is a playful allusion to the fact that Henry Clay's dedication of the album above referred to, was inadvertently written in the back end of the volume, and therefore it was "downside up !"

The next is a specimen of " Stonewall " Jackson's writing; then fragments from E. S. Ewell, J. A. Earlj', W. L. Goggiu, J. S. Seddens, Dr. R. L. Dabney, John P. Kennedy, A. Tholuck, etc., and autographs of Stuart Eobinson, Moses D. Hoge, J. T. Morehead, J. J. Crittenden, N. P. Tallmadge, Geo. Evans, G. W. S. (Sargent), Thomas Clayton, O. H. Smith, Dollie P. Madison, A. W. J. "White, L. F. Linn, K. J. Walker, Levi Woodbury, Thomas H. Benton, Benj. Tappan, W. S. Fulton, William R. King, J. W. Miller, (of New Jeisey), J. C. Bates, Rufus Choate, Wm. Woodbridge, Macpherson Berrien, J. C. Calhoun, Alfred Allen, Wm. D.Merrick, Silas Wright, Jr., James F. Simmons, James Buchanan, W. C. Rivis, Willis P. Maugum, Isham G. Harris, Robert McClellan, John C. Breckenridge, C. L. Vallandigham, Rev. E. W. Sehon, Francis Granger, Thos. D. Arnold, Millard Fillmore, Mrs. M. A. Jackson (wife of "Stonewall"), Bryan Y. Owsley, Roger L. Gamble, A. Randall, Osmyn Baker, John Yan Buren, James I. Roosevelt, C. S. Todd, David Bronson, Garrett Davis, John M. Botts, Tho. Butler King, Louisa Catherine Adams (wife of John Quincy), C. Gushing, Henry A. Wise, J. R. Underwood, Alex. H. H. Stuart. Calvary Morris, Conrad Speece, Daniel Webster, Tliomas Tudd, Isaac Shelby, J.. S. Black, Hamilton Fish, T. C. McCreery, and many others. Among them is an autograph of Ne-quay, in Chinese character, of a Celestial convert whom Rev. E. W. Sehon brought over to this country. There is also in this album an envelope directed by Stonewall Jackson to Dr. Dabney.

Among the foregoing, Crittenden's chirography is a quick, light, nervous stroke of the pen, angular and indicative of olJ age; Benton's, steady and emphatic, but irregular as to the stand and s'aading of the letters; Wm. R. King's, neat, round, and apparently that of a literary man or bookkeeper; Choate's, liasty, light and aareless, like his speech; Calhoun's, light, gracei'ul and well inclined; Wright's, the same; Buchanan's, slow, careful, distinct, like setting a copy for a pu])il at school, but verging to the ju-inting style; John C. Breckenridge's, a liglit, regular and rajiid stroke; Yallandigliam's, a plain, running hand, apparently of a lawyer; Fillmore's, careful but unpretending; Cushing's, heavy, ])luiii and unpretending; Wise's, tall, bold and well inclined, indicating great determination; Daniel Webster's, irregular and nervous, but each stroke in itself smooth; Black's, a smooth, plain, and beautifully struck back-hand ; and Fish's, smooth, tall letters, well inclined. Pardon us for one more selection :