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1_r'»11 OHIO VALLEY Craig T Friend Vice Chairs Elizabeth York Schiff HISTORY STAFF North Card#n State U,ii.uersity Otto Budig Merrie Stewart Stillpass Jane Garvey Robert Sullivan Senior Editor J.Blaine Hudson Dee Gettler John M.Tcw,Jr.,M.D. Christopher Phillips University of Louisville William C. Portman, III James L.Turner sabbatical) on Richard E.Wirthlin Department ofHistory R. Douglas HuK Treasurer Unircriity of-Cincinitati Pirdue Univmity Mark J. Hauser THE FILSON

HISTORICAL Associate Editors James C. Klotter Secretary SOCIETY BOARD OF A. Glenn Crothers G¢ College Martine R. Dunn orgetown DIRECTORS Department of History Uniwrsity ofLouisvilte Bruce Levine President and CEO President University ofMinois Douglass W.McDonald Henrv D. Ormsbv David Stradling Department ofHistory Harry N. Scheibcr Vice President of Vice-President Univenity of Cincinnati Uni·umity ofCalifornia at Museums Berkeley John E. Fleming Orme Wilson Ill Managing Editors Ashley D Graves Steven M. Stowe David Boht Secretary Fe Fihwi Historicd Society Indiana University Cynthia Booth Margaret Barr Kulp Ronald D. Brown Ruby Rogers Roger D.Tate Stephanie Byrd Treasurer Cinciniwiti Museum Center Somerset Commuitity College John E Cassidy J.Walker Stitcs, III Richard 0. Coleman Editorial Assistant Joe W.Trotter,Jr. Bob Coughlin David L Armstrong Brian Gebhart Caritegie David Davis Mello,1 Uiri71(ni ty J· McCarilcy Brown Department of Hi5( Edward D. Diller wy S. Gordon Dabney Uniuersity of Cinei,inti Altina Waller Deanna Donnelly Louise Farnsley Gardner University ofConitecticut Charles H. Gerhardt,III Holly Gathright Editorial Board Leslie Hardy A. Stewart Lussky C] NCINNATI Francine S. Hiltz Thomas T Noland,Jr. Stephen Aron MUSEUM CENTER Greg Kenny Anne Brewer Ogden UitiverSity ofcalifo:,rnia Gt BOARD OF Ronald A. Koetters H. Powell Starks Loi Angeles TRUSTEES Laura Long Dr. R.Ted Steinbock Kenneth W Lowe Joan E.Cashin Chair Craig Maier John R Stern William M. Street Ohio State Uriiversify Keith Harrison Shenan R Murphy Robert W Olson Ettcn T.Eslinger Past Chair Tim A. Peterman Director DePaut Uniq.Mrsify George Vincent Yvonne Robertson Mark V.Wctherington

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U;AU,»cabiTU HistoricalTbeFilsonSociety AT UNION TERMINAL OHIO VALLEY

HISTORY

Volume 7, Number 1, Spring 2007

A Journal of the History and Culture of the Ohio Valley and the Upper South, published in Cincinnati,Ohio,and Louisville, Kentucky,by Cincinnati Museum Center and The Filson Historical Societv.

Contents

Essays 1 The Forging of a Writer Lafcadio Hearn in Cincinnati

John Clubbe

32 Proto-Broadcasting in Cincinnati, 1847-1875

Ibe Flow ofTelegrap/0 News to Merchants and the Press Bradford W. Scharlott and Mary Carmen Cupito

47 The Persistence of Place

Alice Cary's Authentic Rural Settings Robert T Rhode

Collections 60 Edmund Dexterk Residence, Essays A Lithograph by Ehrgott, ForbrigerCo. &

63 Humphrey Marshall Papers at 1[he Bison Historical Society

Book 69 Reviews

On the cover:Lafcadio Hearn in Japanese Costume,The Life and Letters of Lafcadio Hearn 0 906).CINCINNATI MUSEUM

CENTER. CINCINNATI HISTORICAL SOCIETY LIBRARY Contributors

John Clubbe has a longstanding interest in cultural history with a particular focus the Ohio on Valley. In 2004 the( centenary of Hearn's death)he was an invited speaker to Lafcadio" Hearn in International Perspectives"at the University ofTokyo. Among his books are Cincinnati Obserged.·Architecture and History 1992)and Byron,Sully,and tbe Power of Portraiture 2005).He lives in Santa Fe.

Bradford W.Scharlott is associate professor at Northern Kentucky Uni- versity, where he serves as coordinator of the journalism program. His publications on the social and economic impact of the telegraph in the nineteenth-century Midwest have appeared in a variety of publications,including Ohio History,and Journalism 8 Mass Communication Quarterly.

Mary Carmen Cupito is associate professor of communication at Northern Kentucky University. Her entry on "Newspapers in Northern Kentucky" is in press for the Encyclopedia ofNorthern Kentucky Lexington: University Press of Kentucky,2008).

Robert T.Rhode is professor of English at Northern Kentucky University. He is the author of 7be Harvest Story:Recollections of Old-Time Ibresbermen' Classic American Steamrollers 2001)and, with Raymond Drake, 2001),as well as over one hundred and fifty articles,two-thirds of them on the sub- Black Earth and Duo- ject of rural history and literature. His work appears in ry Toiuer 2005),an anthology of contemporary writers on the present rural experience. 41- t\

1 The Forging of a Writer Lafcadio Hearn in Cincinnati

John Clubbe it

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f f the many travelers who have visited 0 and written about Cincinnati during its more than two hundred years of exis- and tence, none has left more probing, piquant, even seatidalous observations about the city than 1 FC\ I>IC) 1 ILRN Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904) Ifhis greatest fame U.ut 1873 lies as a ghoulish interpreter of the city's under- side, Hearn also limned its cultural scene Most Lafcadio Hearn, ca 1873, The Life and Letters

oflafcad/o Hearn (1906) CINCINNATIMUSEUM travelers passed through Cincinnati quickly, but

CENTER CINCINNATI HISTORICAL SOCIETY LIBRARY Hearn remained for over eight years from 1869 to 1877, and his stay had significant repercussions in his own life and for Cincinnati Along with the Now,in those days there was Beechers-sisters Harriet and Catharine, father a young man connected with Lyman and brother Henry Ward-he remains whose the Daily Enquirel tastes the best-known writer associated with Cincinnati

were whimsically grotesque and But whereas the Beechers had little specifically to arabesque, He by about the Hearn had deal. Uncle 3 was nature a say city, a great fervent admirer of He Tomk Cabin extremes draws upon Harriet Beecher Stowe's believed only the Revoltingly of Cincinnati but does not address fl#{, in experiences ltS 1 't Horrible the Excruciatingly life directly,while Hearn' by offer or 5,i{}1*i s essays, contrast, f ;i. Beautiful He worshipped the the' *#fullest account of Cincinnati during a time- French school of sensation,and .»the mid-187Os-when the city was undergoing reveled in thrusting a reeking t, ' rapid change Although historians have intermit- Lk',. i'2 ar mixture of bones,blood and hair tently recognized the value and extent of his Cin- 5 Lt-:C under people' at breakfast cinnati writings-well four hundred s noses St over essays, time He was only known to sketches,or notes-they are still little known to tri:,=2 fame by the name of The" Ghoul " Linannatians an d largely unknown to the larger American public They remain,to this day,unsur- Lafcadio Hearn, ' passed for their perspicuity and Insight Through Fttoj. self-description in 18741 them the city comes vibrantly alive 2

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Hearn ended his life a professor of Eng- lish literature the University of To- liI at kyo and briefly at Waseda University. He achieved personal happiness as well, 1 1 - marrying a Japanese woman,with whom It. he had four children. The Japanese of today recognize Hearn as the most acute and understanding foreign interpreter of I , 111 their customs, legends, and traditions. Achieving in their day wide popularity both in Japan and in the Western world, Hearn's Japanese books have maintained their appeal. Almost all of them, print 1-* C in f' :- both in Japan and in the United States,

continue to attract new readers.

This paper makes an additionalclaim: 4. Namely,that Hearn's American experiences,particularly the years he spent in 1 Cincinnati,enabled him to become the Lafcadio Hearn s In Ghostly Japan 1899) UNCINNAT,

MUSEUMCENTER CINCINNATIH STOR CAL SOCI[TY LIBRARY writer he became in Japan.'Ihe transition from youth to first manhood can be de- cisive. Hearn in Cincinnati underwent an astonishing maturation. Arriving in the city a bewildered, penniless youth of nineteen, he departed a grown man of twenty-seven, a respected if controversial reporter whose revelatory journalism had attracted local and even national attention. His .journalism reflected the enthusiasm and exuberance of a young writer encountering the richness and variety of the world around him. lhe city fostered the maturation of Hearn the man and Hearn the journalist. In Cincinnati his writing underwent its first flowering;when he left,he was already an author of marked, if unusual, distinction. His Cincinnati work may not often rise to the level of the mature masterpieces he wrote in Japan but it can be dazzling in its own right. Much of it remains surprisingly readable. In hind- sight,Hearn's early work is what we might expect it to be: The achievement of a writer of vast promise who in his twentles was In the process of finding himself and author.7 as a man

Few Cincinnatians recognized Hearn's genius at the time, and few have recognized it since. 1[he Cincinnati period remains the most undervalued, neglected, and misunderstood of Hearn's life. Scholars of American letters have often given Hearn short shrift,and Hearn scholars in other lands, lacking awareness of the American context, rarely have had much to say about his time in Cincinnati. Lack of material cannot be blamed for the

neglect of Cincinnati as the place where Hearn's career as a literary artist began. Hearn wrote an enormous amount about the city,virtually all for the pages of the Enquirer and Commercial,which survive in rare and fragile

4 OHIO VALLEY HISTORY JOHN CLUBBE

originals in the Cincinnati Public Library and also on microfilm. The appendix ofJon Christopher Hughes's Period of tbe Gruesome,building on an invaluable earlier bibliography by 0. W. Frost, lists some 439 sketches and pieces th·at Hearn wrote for the Cincinn'ati papers. Other pieces no doubt Tcad a that Hearn had remain to be unearthed. Probably no one has even Cincinnati.8 to sav about One key reason why scholars have neglected Hearn's Cincinnati vears is that during his time in the city he published no books. He did, however,lay in Cincinnati the groundwork for several l.ater volumes, including his trans- lations of Gautier,One of Cleopatrak Nights1 882),( ind ·, Some Chinese Ghosts 1887).Although his thirteen volumes on Japan gained him a considerable contemporary reputation,hardly less interesting and far less known is the approximately equivalent amount of material from Hearn's years in Cin- cinnati and New Orleans. With the possible exception of the articles on the gruesome Tanyard Murder, the initial impact of his Cincinnati pieces was limited to the city in which they appeared. The sixteen-volume collected edition of Hearn's writings that Houghton Mifflin put out in 1922, still the standard edition for English-speaking readers,omitted all Wis Cincinna- ti work. Those who consult it might justifiably assume Hearn wrote nothing about the city What was included guaranteed that the key years in Cincin- nati would be the last stage of his life to come into clear focus.' Hearn never went to college or university,but Cincinnati became his university of life. For a while the new immigrant worked as a proofreader at the Robert Clarke Co.,the city's chief publishing firm, an experience no doubt significant in inclining Hearn to a life of letters. One( of the stylistic preferences he acquired there earned him the affectionate nickname of"Old Semicolon, a mark of punctuation he often used though he claimed later the nickname came more from his careful use of syntax.)1[he books he read, the people he met and befriended,the city's human and urban diversity-311 influenced his growth. Hearn's gift of perception may have been innate,but he developed it by walking the city's streets and looking about him. Cincin- nati's urban scene honed his powers of perception. Hearn studied not only the physical city but also its inhabitants,mostly foreign-born and of diverse backgrounds. He delighted in noting the differences among people and peoples and reveled in their multifarious and multilingual variety. For a person with impaired vision he saw people and places more clearly and better than those blessed with normal eyesight. Although Hearn on several occasions wrote specifically about physiognomy,1° almost all his essays demonstrate his amazing skills in perception. He saw and heard and smelled and tasted things no one else had. Immersing himself in Cincinnati's colorful street life, he developed concurrently the verbal skills that allowed him to put his teeming impressions into memorable language. education need To realize how wide and deep Hearn's Cincinnati was we only glance at the breathtaking diversity of his writings and their impressive

SPRING 2007 5 THE FORCING OF A WRITER

command of-esoteric detail. In Cincinnati he became an exceptionally fine reporter. He was versatile, able to recount a hideous murder,recreate a ruined life, tell a spellbinding story,evaluate a new novel by a French author, assess an artist's work or discuss a musical performance. Equally he could inform his readers about practical matters-how to make a clay bowl, for instance, or find use for every part of a hog. Journalism allowed Hearn to develop his many selves and styles and shape into tangible form his newly acquired knowledge. Editors, once aware of'his talent, often allowed him to pick his subjects. That a relative youth like Hearn could write the arti- des and sketches ort the subjects he proposed to the Enquirer and later the Commercial is astounding·and -equally astounding to( modern eyes)is that newspapers accepted and published them. Toward the end of his life,the lectures he gave on English and American literature at the University ofTo- kyo demonstrate amazing breadth of crudition. With only his own books by him,he interpreted, with many original insights, a full spectrum of literature. Much of the knowledge displayed in his lectures derived from his readiiig and study in Cincinnati. Like the young Churchill in India,Hearn iii Cincinnati determined to make himself :man of wide and comprehensive knowledge. He succeeded brilliantly

When the American Cjvil War began iii 1861, Cincinnati was the largest metropolis west of the Appalachian Mountains, a major city in size, population,and economic vitality.Although by the time ofHearn's stay Cin- cinnati's economic growth had slackened somewhat,the city in the 18705 experienced a tremendous burst of civic energy. Community leaders began to direct their attention toward strengthening the city's cultur:illife and providing more public amenities. Civic improvements included Eden Park 1870),( the Tyler Davidson Fountain 1871),( the nation's first municipal university 1873),Hebrew Union College 1875),( the Cincinnati Zoo also( 1875),and the Cincinnati Art Museum 1881).( By 1880 the Cincinnati Southern Rail-

road linked Cincinnati to Chattanooga. Hearn was well aware of these de- velopments. A few he wrote about;most he did not. For all his brilliance Hearn was a highly selective interpreter of the urban scene. We would never guess from reading him that Cincinnati was an attractive if smoke-filled city,with a beautiful river before it and gentle hills theii( denuded of trees) rising behind its urban core,and a plethora of splendid buildings. In Hearn's day the city's physical attractiveness along with its burgeoning Cultural life led people to speak of it as the" Paris of America."But reading Hearn's vo- luminous writings about Cincinnati does not leave the impression of a city prospering. Hc was not hostile to Cincinnati,but he chose to write about aspects of its urban life that many inhabitants preferred not to notice. Hearn iii effect offered a Bohemian challenge to the bourgeois values and cornpla- cent attitudes of the city's clitc. Prosperity apparent or real usually rests upon a raw underbelly and Hearn made sure his readers realized that poverty and deprivation existed everywhere about them.11

6 OHIO VALLEY HISTORY JOHN CLUBBE

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St.Peterin Chains Cathedral,Charles Waldackstereograph photograph, ca. 1872.CINCINNATI MUSEUM CENTER, CINCINNATI HISTORICAL

SOCIETY LIBRARY

Hearns Cincinnati writings limn an extraordinary place. Readers learn of the city's vermin-ridden neighborhoods; of brutal murders, putrid corps- es, unanticipated cremations; of grave-robbers called resurrectionists";of prostitutes, abortions, and rag-pickers; of opium dens and morphine addie- tions; of Voudoo"and spiritualism; of comets and heat-waves; of bizarre foods; of the unusual customs of Jews, Hindus, and Chinese; of blacks and whites living together when American society placed a taboo on such pro- pinquity; and,above all perhips, of ruined lives eking out pitiable existences in the city's slums and riverfront. Hearn did not shirk from describing the less savory pursuits of the inhabitants. His riverfront s·agas take up its deni- zens'addictions to alcohol and drugs;the life of the brothels;and the unusual games of chance played in the notorious gambling dens. Hearn spares us no horrific detail. He treats his subjects in a clinical,straightforward manner,as if recounting such lives and such doings was the most natural thing in the world for him to do. One reason why Cincinnati today does not have the tourist cachet of New Orleans,where He·arn subsequently resided,is in part because of Hearn. His is a mixed evalu·ation,then,but one that rep·ays careful study. It is less that he was sometimes inaccurate or biased though( he could be both),more that he left much unsaid and what he did say of- fended many.i Most of the time Hearn roamed Cincinnati's Basin-the inner city fronted by the Ohio and encircled by hills behind. Except for the area nearest the river,the city's downtown street grid remains largely unchanged today though almost all buildings now standing postd·ate I Iearil's time. One celebrated Hearn that does not is St. Peter in Chains Cathedral. In a essav evoked the terror he felt iii ascending through the interior of its steeple,

SPRING 2007 7 THE FORGING OF A WRITER

then the highest overlook in the downtown, right to the top of the cross.13 The steeple remains, though not open to the public. Fifth Street between Vine and Walnut,the city's still extant symbolic center,underwent major al- terations during Hearn's first months in Cincinnati in 1869. In 1871 the city redesigned the area, and at its center installed the beautiful Tyler Da- vidson Fountain made in Germany. I learn's picturesque and not inaccurate description-"the old brass candlestick"-has survived,as has the fountain itself,though it now faces south, not east.14 One area that since I learn's day has changed less than the downtown is Over-the-Rhine. Immigrants from Germany,Ireland, and other countries-in fact, representatives of almost every race and religion on earth-crowded Over-the-Rhine's narrow streets. Only Manhattan then rivaled Cincinnati's Basin in density of population. As the city's main entert·ainment area,full of saloons and beer gar- dens, Over-the-Rhine would have drawn Hearn often. Many buildings he

saw still stand. In this Cincinnati neighborhood we best savor Hearn's city. Hearn also described locales in and around Cincinnati. He found the

view from Price Hill to the south little" short of enchanting."Below,the broad and ever-changing Ohio, so prominent a feature in the Cincinna- ti landscape, flowed placidly. In Hearn's day a ferry crossed to Ludlow on the far shore. At Gilead Station,further downriver,an insalubrious fertiliz- er plant wafted its malodorous odors over the nearby suburbs of Delhi and North Bend. Here, as often, Hearn evoked Cincinnati's smells no less than its sounds,sights, and tastes. North of the city,Hearn visited Spring Grove Cemetery,whose visually spectacular landsc·apes-laid out by the brilliant German-born designer Adolph Strauch-incarnated the aesthetic category of the Beautiful. But in Hearn's view such landscapes belied the cemetery's more somber purpose as a repository for the decaying dead.15 It was ever his way to keep reminding his readers of the temporal nature of Cincinnati's economic prosperity and cultural achievements.

Several of Hearn's best essays depict life on the levee, Cincinnati's port area. In the nineteenth century the city served as a major stopping point on a vast system of inland waterways th·at encompassed thirty thousand miles and included the Ohio and Mississippi rivers and their many trib- utaries. A network of cities and towns between Pittsburgh and New Or- leans had sprung up along these waterways;trade within this inland region provided Cincinnati with a significant portion of its commercial prosperity. Though river commerce had declined since its peak in the 1850s,the Public Landing,where most vessels docked, was still crowded. Steamboats, belch- ing black smoke, passed by,stopped,loaded and unloaded their goods, and departed. Often piled high with cotton bales arrival, they returned OPPOSITE: upon Cincinnati destinations mostly south and with metal products, machine tools to west waterfront,ca. 1869. whiskey,pork,housing kits, furniture. CINCINNATI MUSEUM

CENTER, CINCINNATI By the 18705 Cincinnati' wide waterfront had achieved notoriety s open HISTORICALSOCIETY throughout the Midwest. On either side of the Public Landing were two tteRARY

8 OHIO VALLEY HISTORY 101-IN CLUBBE

infamous Rows Sausage Row,largely inhabited by black stevedores and and roustabouts with a smattering of prostitutes, thieves, gamblers, pimps, the stretched to east from Bioadwav to Ludlow Rit Row,originallv Get- C. man,then Irish, and in Hearn'f dav ful[ or wnite tramps and roustabouts, stretched to the west from Main to Walnut Ihe' riverfront pullulated with life,white and black But it WaS Cincinnati's black levee underilass that riv- eted Hearn The 1870 census had turned up 5,904 blacks Even assuming and still left that more lived across the liver in Kentuckv more were uncount- ed by the census,blacks contituted only a small percentage of Cincinnati s hundred thousand Riverfront characters and theii social over two citizens interactions and aberrations fascinated Hearn,who lived only a few minutes walk from Rat Row In Levee" Life"he building by buildino gives a b,person by peison, occupation bv occupation, survey of what he saw Policing the area were two firm but fair patrolmen, officers Tighe and Brazil,whom Hearn accompanied on their rounds and seems to have known well I[he most troublesome elements on the riveifiont, he thought, were not lowdv blacks but white" trash"leveler% Peisistent, perceptive,,ind untiring in his

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attempts to understand what he experienced,Hearn depicts levee life as rife with tragedy and human sadness, death ever near at hand. I Ie captures it during periods of flood ind: during full summer mayhem, at night and by day, it·,dawn and at dusk,even under the serenc beauty of the moon. Always he reports what he saw carefullv and with sympathy for those concerned:b Many of Hearn's sketches of levee life date from late in his Cincinna- ti time, when he underwent his tortured relationship with Alethea Foley. 1[he hard-earned maturity gained from this painful and deeply felt experience allowed him to view the lives of Cincinnati's blacks with clear-eyed sympathy. In "_Dolly Hearn draws ·an unforgettable psychologic.il portrait of,1 handsome voung black woman,independent in her ways but whol- ly attached to her irresponsible riverhand lover Aleck. I-learn renders her being and moods in deft strokes. When Aleck betrays her for another woman upriver, she wrestles with incre·as- itig despair,abandons hope, and yearns for death. A Child of the Levee-brings to memorable life a black man little known to fame, Albert Jones, who had the uncanny gift of-being able to imitate the distinctive sound of the steam whistle of each boat that docked at the Public Landing. Even more brilliant is the portrait of"Ole Man Pick- ett, who fought his way to freedom to achieve Alethea"Mattie"Foley,CincinnatiTimes- in Cincinnati rivertront Star(July 14, 1906).CINCINNATI MUSEUM CENTER, success as a entrepreneur. CINC NNATI HISTORICAL SOCIETY LIBRARY Despite experiences that would have disillusioned a lesser man, Pickett trusted and helped his fellow blacks whenever he could. 1[hough often in and out of trouble with the law,Pickett earned the respect even of the police. Hearn developed a deep and genuine admiration for Henry Pickett. When" an exhaustive history of the Qpeen City comes to be written,"he began Ole" Man Pickett, among the of names those who labored both for her weal and woe,few will be more conspicuous than that of Henry Pickett, now the hero and chief proprictor of that flishionable boulevard known as Sausatze Row."Instead of a skewed history of Cincinnati that focuses on politicians and businessmen as( did and do most of the city:s histories),Hearn attempted in his essays to record I . a people's history, a contribution to that yet-to-be-written exhaustive" history"of Cincinnati that would tell ofthe poor ·and downtrodden,of the oth- crwise forgotten-and of the great of soul. Whatever" may have been the old mans sins, Pickett has a heart full of unselfish ch·arity sullicient to cover them all."Hearn believed men like Pickett were as interesting and important as their better-known white contemporaries:7 In a perceptive and often path-breaking analysis, Nikki M. Taylor has recently argued for the existence in Cincinnati it: this time of a black"

10 OHIO VALLEY HISTOllY JOHN CLUBBE

shadow community Encompassing the levee but also including a nearby slum,Bucktown,this community differed from and remained apart both 1 4,1 from white Cincinnati and the city s larger black community, creating ltS moral and own folklore,' folktiles,and music as ways of protesting elite social values. Almost ·all that is known about Cincinnati's black shadow community,Taylor tells us, derives from Hearn. Although slie considers some of his reportorial methods flawed and some of his sentiments racist, it is only in Hearn's ethnographic sketches that we glimpse the life and culture of a community otherwise lost to history.18 Hearn's relative l·ack of interest in the more respectable black commit- nity,and the unusualness of his desire to explore the sliadow riverine community,puzzled at least one of his white contemporaries,a man not cited by Taylor,Joseph Tunison. Tunison, a friend and fellow newspaperman,pot»- dered why Hearn felt compelled to satisfy what he, Tunison, termed for" the time and place,an abnormal desire [to pursue]study of the Negro race. Why,wondered Tunison,was it "not the Negro of the school and college, the thrifty,respectable, and sensible black man or man of color who interested him, but the half--savage, apparently irreclaimable outcasts of the riv- erside who spent their nights with the fiddle and the dance ·,ind their days in labor when there were steamboats to 10·ad and unload or in merry idle- Tunison with of his ness when ste·ambo:zts were away. ctime up no answer of Hearn' who be- own but offered an explanation by an unnamed friend s, lieved that beyond" the dusky faces"and rolling" eyes...of-the people of the Cincinnati levee,"Hearn saw the" mixed people of the West Indies, and the beautiful little folk ofjapan. For this friend,He·arn:s lifelong interest in exotic lands and peoples commenced during his investigations of the Cincin- nati waterfront.19

1[hough not the only individual to collect the folksongs he heard as he strolled about the levee,Hearn was among the first to recognize how unusu- ill and original they were. Stephen Foster, who wrote My" Old Kentucky Home,"had preceded Hearn in investigating this folk music. Oh!" Susan- from 1850, na,"deriving from Foster's time in Cincinnati 1846 to w·as sung by Forty-Niners streaming through Cincinnati on their way West. Eventu- ally it became an unofficial national anthem. Like Foster,Hearn h.ad ample opportunity in Cincinnati to hear music created by blacks,but whereas Fos- heard ter's songs often sentimentalize the situations depicted, those Hearn and collected picture individuals in situations of almost unbearable pathos. commented Henry Kreh- Slavery was the sorrow of the Southern blacks," biel; religion« was their comfort ·and refuge. Ultimately,most of the songs Hearn heard derived from the lives of blacks as plantation slaves,were religious in nature, and looked to an afterlife for salvation. Hearn's Dolly Arose and, overhears a group of women chanting the refrain of"My Jesus deeply moved,she resigns herself to her fate.2{)

11 SPRING 2007 THE FORGING OF A WRITER

Among the eleven songs he included in part in "Levee Life,"the longest of his riverfront pieces,are two that seem especially to ring true to the real- ities of black life in Cincinnati. Ihe' narrator of"Number Ninety-Nine"la- You talk ments: " may about yer railroads Yer/ steamboats and can-el /If't hadn' been for Liza Jane There/ wouldn' bin t t a no hell. The chorus roars Oh, in response: " ain't I gone, gone,gone, Oh,/ ain't 1 gone,gone, gone, / Oh,ain't I gone,gone,gone, Way/ down de ribber road."The second stan- I .... , establishes za the song s origin in Lincinnati s Bucktown: Whar" do you get ver whisky?Whar / do you get yer rum?I /got it down in Bucktown / At Number Ninety-nine. The most popular of the songs,Hearn believed, was Limber" Jim"or "Shiloh,"which displays dazzling verbal wit, haunting rhythms, and much profanity. His severely abridged version contains perhaps a tenth of-the whole. 71ie narrator sings each verse,then a chorus of up to twenty or thirty voices chant the refrain: Nigger ati'a white man playing seven-up, White man played an ace;an'nigger feared to take it up, White man played ace an nigger played a nine, White man died, an'nigger went blind. Limber Jim, All.]Shiloh! Talk it agin, All.]Shiloh!

Walk back in love, All._]Shiloh! You turtle-dove, All.]1 Shiloh!

Went down the ribber,couldn't get across; Hopped on a rebel louse; thought'twas a hoss, Oh lor',gals,t'aint no lie, Lice in Camp Chase big enough to cry,- Limber Jim, Bcc.21 In Cincinnati and subsequently in New Orleans and Martinique, Hearn collected and transcribed local songs and tales and proverbs. Not until the 18805-in the work of Sidney Lanier,Thomas Nelson Page, and Joel Chandler Harris-did interest in folklore become widespread in America. Hearn' recording-of folk decade before s customs and music a these more famous collectors places him among the pioneers in the field. Later his writings stimulated the study of folklore in Japan.22

Along with the levee, Hearn haunted the impoverished are·as east and west of Cincinnati's downtown. He compared the decrepit buildings of Buck- town-the mixed-black and white slum to the etist-to the "hideous haunts described by Eugdne Sue in his popular novel {lbe Mysteries of Paris

12 OHIO VALLEY HISTORY JOHN CLUBBE

Blanchard 1843)or drawn by Gustave Dord in his engravings for William London Jerrold's 1872).Hearn's Bucktown pieces recreate a lost enclave of unhappy lives. 1["hose who live in Bucktown live under a reign of terror,and only because thev can find nowhere else to live-no other rest for the soles of their sinful feet. In Pariah" People,

Hearn evoked in direct ·and pungent prose appall- ing social conditions and scenes of human misery Yet even amidst the dilapidated hovels in which Bucktown' impoverished inhabitants eked s out a 4,ivj' * + tenuous existence Hearn discerned glimmers of hope. He also retained his aesthetic REE&7322 sense; com- ph ing upon a c·ast-iron railing in the Greek" border" or Greek key pattern,he paused to admire its delicate design.23 In the West End across town, at the Freiberg Tannery on Findlay Street, the famous Tanvard murder took place on the night ofNovember 7-8, tlle 1874. In a front-page story for the Enquirer next day, under the five-column-wide headline

Violent Cremation,"Hearn recounted in graph- i'.I.....1,F.·'.. •..

ic prose the brutal assassination ofHerman Schil- Tanyard Murder Drawings by Henry Farny, Cincinnati Enquirer (November 9, 1874), ling. Three assailants, one the father of the young CINCINNATI MUSEUM CENTER, CINCINNATI HISTORICAL whom Schilling had seduced, stuffed woman SOCIETYLIBRARY him-reportedly still alive-into a furnace. Henry Farny and Frank Duveneck,two young Cincinnati artists,drew the faces of the murderers; Hearn added his own sketch of The" Remains of Schilling at the Undertakers. Hearn wrote in a characteristic passage:

like Shell lbe Skull bad burst a in the fierce furnace-heat; and· the

whole upper portion seemed as though it had been blown out by the steam from the boiling and bubbling brains....The brain had all boiled away,save a small wasted lump at the base of the skull about the size of a lemon. It was crisped and still warm to the touch. On pushing the finger through the crisp,the interior felt about the consistency of banana fruit,and the yellow fibers seemed to writhe like worms in the Coroner's hands. The eyes were cooked to bub- bled crisps in the blackened sockets,and the bones of the nose were gone,leaving a hideous hole.

Beginning with «Violent Cremation, Hearn reported day-after-day for a week the latest macabre details about the crime. The last of his articles,"The Quarter of Shambles, described the West End, the Cincinnati slum that, already hideous"" in its physical dilapidation,was now" cursed with the horror of the most frightful crime ever perpetrated in this country."24

SPRING 2007 13 THE FORGING OF A WRITER

Hearn's several pieces, collectively known as "The Tanyard Mtir- der,"caused a sensation in Cincinnati. " he[ Enquirer overwhelmed the competition with potent writing,gory detail,and sheer volume of coverage, note former Enquirer reporters Cameron McWhirter and Owen Findsen. Hearn' realistic s account of human depravity remains his best-known extended reportage. In the post-Civil War era,newspapers were often bought and read not so much for the news they contained as to see who had gotten lambasted or killed the day befbre, and· reporters were valued for their glad- iatorial style. The" Tanyard Murder"stimulated a latent public thirst,locally and even nationally,for the grotesque and sensational.25

Although Hearn's period" of the gruesome"pieces gave him loc·al renown, they only partially reveal the range of his talents and interests. Hearn also involved himself intimately in Cincinnati's cultural life as participant and chroniclen Both roles fostered his developing genius. With sever·al of the city's artists and musicians he established close relationships. And in creating with I lenry Farny what is easily the oddest journal ever to appear in the city,one given the unforgettable name of Ve Gig/ampz, I learn made a sig- nal if unusual contribution to Cincintiati's literary scene. Most nineteenth- century American writers and artists served an apprenticeship in journalism. Journalism provided a livelihood fc,r those in revolt against what George Santayana would later term the genteel" tradition."Literary rebels included Walt Whitman,William Dean Howells,Mark Twain, and Frank Norris.

Artists were no less actively involved in journalistic endeavors. In an era before photographic reproductions in publications were possible, they found outlets for their work iii books, periodicals, and newspapers. Writing or sketching for newspapers was good training for setting down thoughts and impressions quickly and effectively. Given the nature ofjournalism, most writers and artists, Hearn and Farny among them, perforce worked in a rcalist or naturalist mode. Indeed,perhaps most important or original styles of realism,in America at least,had their roots in journalism.26 Hearn donned many hats. He once closed an early sketch, appropriately entitled The" Reporter,"by referring to himself,self-mockingly as this curious bird, this witty bird, this laughing bird, tllis singulcir bird, this newsp:iper reporter. As they proliferated, daily newspapers assumed increasing importance in American life. All competed for stories and the talented individuals them. Hearn the talented to write was among individuals. In a basic sense he remained an observer,a reporter,sometimes an illustrator,all his life. Upon hearing of I learn'- s death,Hugo von Hotmannsthal, the eminent Aus- trian man of letters and cherished librettist of Richard Strauss, character- ized the contents ofwhat he believed to be the" most beautiful"of all Hearn's Kohoro Japanese books, 1896),as simply a product of journalism, of the most highly cultivated, of the most fruitful and serious journalism that can

14 OHIO VALLEY HISTORY 101IN CLUBBE

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Henry Farny's The Dis-assembly Line,lithograph by Ehrgott &Krebs, ca. 1873. CINCINNATI MUSEUM CENTER. CINCINNATI HISTORICAL SOCIETY LBRARY

lofniannstlial, exist."For I so artful W,15 1-IC,irll'S achieveinent that it became

3 - jourlialism beyond inv: newspaper,a work of artivithoiit pretension. - I Icirn probably met Henrv Fartly,the abnorinall'-" intellectual Bohemi- an paragon as he once wittily termed him, in AIarch 1873. Farny had started off,like other American artists of the time, as a painter of shop signs, and Hearn, who delighted in and often commented on downtown Cincin- nati's plethora of amusing or unusual shop signs-then a common feature in American cities-may have encountered his work locally. Farnv was then working on a huge pictitre, five feet high and thirty feet long,commissioned by the Chamber of Commerce and entitled Hog-Slaughtering and Pork-

Packing in Cincinnati. The artist depicted in unsparing detail the succes- sive stages by which pigs were slaughtered, dressed, pind became pork. The painting was shown at the 1873 Vienna Wc,rld Exposition, where the judg- cs deemed it worthy of a medal,and Hearn claimed he wrote a long review of it. Six months later,on March 21, 1874,preparing a story for the Enqui,-e, entitled Our" Artists,"he visited Farny in his studio in the Pike Building.28

Friendship between these two nonconformists soon ripened into collaboration, and I-Iearn and Farny decided to found a humorous journal called Ye Gig/ampz. Ye Gig/ampz means spectacles of a huge and owlish

SPRING 2007 15 THE FORGING OF A WRITER

INCINNATI No 1 P-' < 0 JUNE 11 VoL I A<*101 Fi With 4 18;/4 7 ( 4 IM htf (1 1 JouRNALILLUSTRATED 1 Al . 1, DLVOIED IO IL A#T, TERATURE AND SATIRE· , UP» , . li

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Ye Giglampz,firstissue June 21, 1874).

CINCINNATI MUSEUM CENTER

CINCINNATIHISTORICALSOCIETY

LIBRARY

16 OHIO VALLEY 11ISTORY 10] IN CLUBBE

description and was in efiect named after Hearn, who then wore them and whom Farny in cartoons depicted ·as small and bespectacled.2,) Half of each eight-page number consisted of writing, half of illustrations. Hearn took responsibility for most of the prose, Farny the art. Hearn wished t()model the Cbai-ivari, journal upon the somewhat risql»id Paris but Farny,three years older and iziore prictical .ind stiviry iii gauging conserv,itive t'aste ill respect- Pinch & able Cincinnati, thought London's Sater choice. Hearn acquiesced, but adopting fi,r his contributions the pen 11:ime of "Ghoul, quietlv intrc)- duced into the first issues bits from the unsafe modern French literature he

was then discovering and devc,Liring. Ye Giglanipz was to cause Hearn many frustr·ations-Farny sometimes excised or edited his lively contributions-but he believed in what he was doing and took pride in his work. In fitct, at one point he resigned his relatively well-paying job at the Engitirer to comniit himself fully to Ye Gig/ampz's uncertain fate. Tiventv-fozir years ld(, and editor of his own inagazine-what fun! Fc,r Hearn,this was an exciting time, and· the futzire the seemed full of possibilities. He hoped to base Ye u,glampz's fc)rtunes on kinds of ghoulish articles that had gained him success at the Enqui,y/:I Iis contributions reveal him, as did liis newspaper vork,tc,be a realist dealing with subjects from murder to prostitution. from gambling to opiut'n dens; a satirist of Anierican and Cincinnati ways; a (not always successful) humor- and ist; an enthusiast il,r and transl·ator of-the French" school of sensation." The orieinal publishers soon discovered that backing ·an essentially humor- oiis magazine put out by two inexperienced young incii ill their mid-trven- ties was a risky proposition. 1[lie journal's rollercotister ride-and virtually inevitable destiny-could have been predicted. During the nine weeks it took to issue the nine numbers, the temperamental Hearn resiened-and resumed-the editorship five times. Ihough' he contributed more frequently to earlier than to later issues, he stayed with Ye Giglantpz to tlie end. His pieces indicate his versatility,but perhaps because of deadline pressures, hardly reve·al him at his best. 1[he more significant of his Cincinnati essays appeared in the Enquirer and Commercial. Still, Ye Giglampz brought together two brilliant young men. Collaborating after their fashion, playing off each other in word and image,laughing and joking together,they had a grand time of it.1<,

Ye Giglampz allows us insights into Farny's early life as well as Hearn's. Like other talented young artists in the city,Farny believed Cincinnatians unsympathetic to art. His career started slowly in part because he had an easygoing temperament-Hearn later described him as a" fine man, and a superb sketcher-though lazy as a scrpentand -in part because he had not yet discovered his true subject as an artist: the American Indian. Only two of his oil paintings from the 18705-neither of Indian subjects-have been identified. In the mid-18605 while still a teenager Farny had begun produc- r i . ing sketches for harpers iviagazine. In the 1870s and after,ilong : with his

SPRING 2007 17 THE FORGING OF A WRITER

Iiaiperf work,he earned his living ilkistrating tlie McGuffev school Rad- ers published in Cincinnati, enormouslb' popular textbooks designed for the dcilion - iniprc,vement of yc,iing Americatis. His cartoons ti,r X' Gigltimpz str:itc hoth a practiced h:ind .ind a well-developed bent ti,r satire. lliey' ils0. reveal cotisider,ible coml()sitioiial skill. Evident is his study of-Japanese itkiyo-e prints,then already influencing art and design in the West.i' X' G*lainps i>less a signific.int .icliievenient iii itself th,in ,2 portent of I Icarti kind Farny:s potential. I learii was becoming the keenest interpreter of Cincinnati's multifarious lifc. Later he depicted Creole wavs in New Or- leans and Alartiniclue; later still he interpreted with subtlety alid skill Jap- anese customs and traditions. Farny went on to become, after his first trip West in 1881, one of the great painters of the Indian and of the Anieric:in Luidscal,e:-

11 1 Farny in ·211 likelihood introduced He.irn to other Cincinnati artists. inanKS COmmerCtill know about the to I learn's articles in the Enquire, and we niore city s painters during the mid-18 70s than we would otherwise. Iii Our" Art- ists,"I learn interviewed-besides Fartiv-Will R Noble and E. 1).Grtifton. Tiinid and shy abolit intritding zipon people he did not know well, Hearn fi,und interviewing diffic,ilt. lliat' he felt comfortable with his chosen artists indicates hci mav already have met them. One Cincinnati artist 1-learn did llc,t interview bitt with wil{)111 he also t-elt cotil fort,ible was the dazzling voting prc,digv lirkink 1)tiveneck. I learn's Bearitv Undraped:VIiat \ ·a Wicked Reporter Saw in an Artist's Studic), publislied in tlie October 18,1874, hymils a statuesqzle blond who ditring tlic siinimer of 1874 caused ctiic,tiotial havoc among 1(,cal painters. I. , 1#01- otivic)us 1-casotis not 11,imed, I le,11-0 identified the Studic) unly .15 tilat of- a"popular Young artist"inc] : described it as lar[Ic. 7-he stuclio was not D arny's-described by I learn as sm:ill atid full of curicis-but inost probably 1),iveneck's,li,cated at 231 W.Fc,tirth Street. For" some months past, rliaps<*lized 1 learn, the" kirtists of Cincinnati have been raving wildly aholit tlic charms of a ravishingly beautitii] female model wlio has only adopted tliat aesthetic profession witliin the last halt-vear,atid whose extrac,rdinarv loveliness of fi)1111 threw .111 Ivho had the gc,od tbrtiine to behold it into a condition of ecstatic trance. Nineteen years old atid six feet tall, the model quoted Bvrc,n br the page, spoke German anci French, and even drew and painted a little. She took no pay and declined to announce her visits iii advance.lliough ' long a standard practice in Europe, drawing froin tlie nude was then zincommon in Americati art acadeinies, and to appreciate so acclainied ati ·aesthetic phenomenon Hearn t-elt compelled to visit tlie studio. Beauty" Undraped,"niore abc,ut the model ind: the reporter s awed response th.111 ;tbout the Eawking ,irtists, tells a titillatine if delicately plirased tale. Not least reniarkable was I learn's devel(,ping sense of gentle

18 0 1[ 1 0 VALLICY III 577) RY Francis X. Dengler,Frank Duveneckand Henry Farny in Duveneck's studio,1874. ART ACADEMY OF CINCINNATI

satire. In a daring gambit, he used the naked model to poke tongue-in- cheek fun at Cincinnati's often well-justified reputation for prudery. Even John Cockerill, Hearn's strong-minded editor, worried that the unusual bre·ach of conventionality would result in a summons to the publisher's of- painted jointly by Far- fice. But none came. A nude of the beauteous blond, ny and Duveneck,presumably dates from this summer.- Duveneck was to become,with Farny,Cincinnati's best-known ·artist. tlle Upon his return from Munich in December 1873,the Enquirer,aware of acclaim garnered during his foreign study,announced in its pages that he had crowned with honors from the Art School Munich."Dur- come home " at ing nearly four years of intense work ·at the city's filmed Royal Academy of dazzled Art,Duveneck had professors and fellow students alike, German as They considered him, right- well as American,by his talent with the brush. ly,a genius in the making.34 In Beauty" Undraped"Hearn did not mention Duveneck by name,but his studio quickly became the place where the city s presided. young artists met and talked. Duveneck,always convivial,happily

19 SPRING 2007 THE FORGING OF A WRITER

An 1874 photograph shows him seated in the studio,pipe in mouth,con- versing with the long-limbed Farny. Francis X. Dengler,a talented young sculptor, listens respectfully. Behind them looms Prayer on a Battlefield,a 1: irge painting ofloan of Arc on horseback on which both litrnv ·and _Duve- neck worked. Farny w.as still in the process of finding himself as an artist,or rather of finding what besides the occasional portrait-and commissions to depict hogs- would earn him a living, and Duveneck,slightly younger,was his current artistic mentor. He and Duveneck would become, in the 1890s, the twin mainstays of an impressive Cincinnati art scene. In "Struggles and Triumphs,"published in the Commercia4 May 27, Hearn 1877, again interviewed several of the city's painters. On this occasion he focused on Charles T.Webber and Thomas C. Lindsay. Iii such good company reappears the genial Farny,whom Hearn praised here for his breadth of experience. Farny had already visited Europe on sever·al occasions, once with Ihomas Buchanan Read, artother noted Cincinn,iti pa»inter, and had later studied in the famous art ceiiters of Dfisseldorf and Munich. Hearn also took up, more briefly,H. Hensen, a young German, Dengler, and two of the city's women artists, Mary Spencer and Lotta A. Keenan. As his title Struggles" and Triumphs suggested, Hearn chronicled the tri- als under which local artists labored. Most of them,like Farny and Hearn himself,strove valiantlv to make a place for themselves in an America as indifferent tc,art as to literature. There" is not very much of a field in Cincin- nati,I'm afraid,for author or artist,Mr.Farnv?"Hearn had inquired in Our" Artists."Ilie ' painter in response did not mince words: Well," it is about the worst place fc,r a large city that a young artist could choose to make his debtlt 21." Farny may have exaggerated-he chose, after all,to live in Cin- cinnati until his death in 1916-but in such thoughts he was not alone.35 While in Cincinnati Hearn himself became an artist. 1[he pen and pen- cil sketches that adorn and( in some cases interpret)his essays and books may well derive from inherited talent-his father drew well and an art- uncle associated with the Barbizon ist school lived in P·aris-but it was en- cc,uragement from friends in the city's artist community that led him to utilize his gift. Hearn remembered fondly his experiences in art in Cincin- nati. For" there is certainly a period in life, he wrote in New Orleans a few ye·ars later,in " which young men can create such little glowing works of art as they could not in later years. Hearn was being unduly modest. His own artistrv continued as long as lie lived.16

Hearn' involvement Cincinnati' s in s rich and varied music scene ranged from collecting and writing down levee ballads,to listening to performances by Chinese laundrymen on rare Chinese instruments, to going to con- Commercial certs of Beethoven and Wagner. As the s arts critic, Hearn reviewed the city's theater life and performances of opera-French opera particularly. During the 1870s Cincinnati's classical music scene throbbed

20 OHIO VALLEY HISTORY JOHN CLUBBE

with vitality Choral music was a German and local specialty,and the city's first May Festival devoted to it took place in 1873. After a temporary structure proved inadequate, civic benefactors made possible the building of the city's gigantic Music Hall in 1878.37 Folk music never lost its appeal for Hearn. Drawing upon the rich traditions he found in Cincinn·ati, he and his close friend Krehbiel, four years younger but already a formidably learned musicologist,often exchanged ide·as. One imagines the diminutive Hearn and the amply proportioned Krehbiel- whose contours in m.aturity rivaled those of inother. Cincinnatian, William Howard Taft-walking the streets together passion·ately engaged in talk- Cincinnati Gazette and it»lg about their favorite subject. Music critic for the a committed student of music from all over the world, Krehbiel w·as appointed to the faculty of the newly founded Cincinnati College of Music. And he organized the concert of ·ancient Chinese music,which he prefaced with an ex- plicatory lecture. In 1880 Krehbiel left for New York,where he became the chief musical reviewer for the New York T,-ibune, a· post he held until his death 1923. He in read six languages,wrote numerous books,both introductory and 1 9 scholarly,and culminated a c:ireer as Gotnams musical arbiter and America's leading interpreter of music by editing and translating Alexander Wheelock Thayer's monumental Life of Beetboven 1921),still in its most recent (1964) revision the classic life of the composer. Hearn, after· moving to New Orleans, sent his friend long detailed letters about Creole music and dedicated 1887's Some Chinese Ghosts"To my friend Henry Edward Krehbiel the Musician."38 Fascinated by folk music wherever he found it,Hearn became-as Kreh- biel acknowledged in his groundbreaking Afro-American Folksongs of 1913-a pioneer of ethnomusicology. In his book Krehbjel bemoaned the 1·ack of"sci- entific study"of"songs created by the negroes while they were slaves on the plantations of the South. I 'made an effort to get some of these songs thirty-five years or so ago,"he recalled,thinking of the time he and Hearn lived in Cincinnati, when much rnore of this music was in existence than now,and, though I had the help of so enthusiastic a folktorist as the late Lafcadio Hearn, they eluded me. Perhaps not entirely,however,for his book shows awareness of Cincinnati's black folk music and frequently mentions Hearn. E·arly in his New Orleans stay Hearn met George Washington Cable,intent on writing a work on Creole music. 1"have helped Cable a little in collecting the songs, Hearn informed Krehbiel,but " he has the advantage of me in being able to write music by ear."39 Krehbiel knew Hearn" could not tell one tune from another,"but he also knew how passionately Hearn loved music. The two men planned a collaborative effort" to gather material for a study of creole music. However,Hearn's belief in a"relationship between physiology and negro music"left Krehbiel skeptical,and the book did not come to pass.4tj If Hearn never brought his teeming ide·as at)out the creole music of New Orleans to fruition,he avidly sought out other folkloristic materials. In 1885 Gombo Zbabes,and he published both a small volume of Creole proverbs, a

SPRING 2007 21 T HE FORGING OF A WRI'l' ER

Cuisine Criole.41 On book of local recipes,La Martinique,where he went next, Hearn continued collect to and transcribe crcole folksongs. He included sev- cral in his 7700 Years in the French West Indies 1890),and in frequent letters to Krehbiel evoked Martinique's vibrant and seductive musical culture. Krehbiel acknowledged the I learn' Afro-American Folksongs. importatice of- s work in his 0 When Antonin Dvofdk came to America in 1892, Krehbiel took him in hand and fortified his enthusiasm for American folk music. Dvoftik happily admitted he steeped the Largo of the New World Symphony In- the sorrow songs of African Americans. In" the Negro melodies of America,"he wrote, I"discover all that is needed for a great and noble school of music."42 Most ofwhat Krehbiel knew of the levee songs sung by Cincinnati's blacks he knew from Hearn. 1[hat the moving melodics in Dvoitik's most famous work owe their existence,indirectly ·at least,to Hearn is achievement indeed. Later in Japan, continuing to build on the musical investigations he had commenced in Cincinnati,Hearn wrote sympathetically and knowledgeably about Japanese folk music. As in America he delighted in the untbrgettable

1 . / clear,cool tense thread-gush of meloay or the celebrated coloratura Adeli- na Patti,so in Japan he melted before the sweet singing of a Japanese woman accompanied on the samisen:All " the sorrow and beauty,all the pain and the sweetness of life thrilled and quivered in that voice. Thoughts of Japan had entered early into Hearn's mind. Investigating the Japanese exhibit at the New Orleans Exposition of 1885 and reading a few ye·ars later Percival Lowell's 7be Soul oftbeliarEast 1888)( jogged long dormant feelings about this mvsterious latid. Ilic" seeds of his fascination go back to his time in Cincinnati.43

Nineteenth-century artist studios, unlike most studios today,often looked like curiosity shops. Artists,never knowing what they might need to impart verisimilitude to a painting's background, accumulated bric-a-brac. Farny filled his tiny studio chockablock with rare and unusual objects,and in 1874 Hearn came across in it "a very extraordin·ary little Japanese book, full of str·ange,fantastically picturesque designs,which he [Farny]had obtained at the Vienna Exposition."Ihis ' little book likely gave Hearn his initial contact with Japanese art.44 Artistic ties between Japan and America, specifically Cincinnati, were numerous ·,ind could t·ake unexpected, even surprising, turns. An instance of Cincinnati-made artifacts influenced by the Japanese mode is ·a m·ag- nificent bedroom suite, circa 1880, created in the Anglo-Japanese style by Mitchell Rammelsberg,& the city:s leading furniture maker,and in 2005 display the Cincinnati Art Museum. Comments Giglamps, put on in in Ye 0 some bv Hearn and some by Farny,indicate awareness of art and music currents abroad as well as at home, and its pages several times mention, often humorously,Col. George Ward Nichols. One of Cincinnati's best- ktiown public figures and all energetic local arts patron,Nichols endeavored

22 OHIO VALLEY Ill STORY JO] lN CLUBBE

to make Cincinnati the music capital of America. I-Ic lured to the newly established Cincinnati College of Music the nation's leading conductor,'Ille- odore Thomas, already the Alay Festivil's music director, and put Krelibiel on the faculty. Nichols involved himself in plans for Cincinnati's art museum and supported the efforts of his wife, Maria Longworth Nichols, in founding Rookwood Pottery in 1880. Sooti intern,itionally ktiown as the leading art pottery in America, Rookwood, reflecting the Japanese mode sweeping the country,had on its staff several Japanese artists, of whom the best known was Kit·aro Shirayamadani. Western scholars who have stud- 1 n ied Japans innuence upon the arts in in de sijcle America tend to slight the impact American artistic trends had upon Japanese art. Shirayamadani's career suggests, however,a certain reciprocity in the city's artistic ties with J·a_ pan,for in several visits home he introduced American pottery styles to his native land.45 While in Cincinnati Hearn almost certainly met a young art student named Robert Frederick Blum, a member of the gifted class Frank Duve- neck taught at the Ohio Mechanics Institute during the winter of 1874-75. Blum became smitten with Jap.inese art around the same time as Hearn. Whereas Hearn came upon a J·apanese book in Farny's studio, Blum purchased a Japanese fan from .2 street vendor at Cincinnati's first Mav Festi- val in 1873. These artifacts remind us thit Japanese ·artifacts circulated in America well before the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition of 1876. See- ing the fan had for Blum the" force and suddenness of a revelation."When 1- 1 . he visited the Centennial Exposition,the magnificent Japanese aisplay, he recalled,augmented " the wild desire that had grown up in me to some day visit this country of art."46 Not until April 1890, about· the same time as Hearn,did Blum finally arrive in Yokohama. As Hearn came with a com- Blum h·ad mission to write up his impressions ·about Japan for Harperk,so a from commission Scribners Magazine to illustrate a series of articles on Ja-

pan by Sir Edwin Arnold,well-known author ofe Libt*0 ofAsia. Among the first wave of American artists to visit Japan, Blum during his twenty-seven month stay painted delicate sketches of Japanese life to illustr,ite Arnold's articles and subsequent book.47 Japans aping ofWestern ways dis- tressed Blum as much as it did Hearn, and like Hearn he sought to depict older customs and ways of life before they disappeared. Blum also brought home several full-sized oils that render lovingly and in superb detail per- sonages and b·ackground settings. Ranking among the finest Western visu- ill representations of-Meiji society,they complement superbly Hearn's verbal recreations ofjapanese life.48 Shirayamadant and Blum reveal the breadth and variety of the cultural interchange that in the late-nineteenth century existed between Cincinna- ti and Japan. In addition to Blum,the Japanese artworks at the Centenni- al Exposition struck the Boston Japanophile Edward Sylvester Morse-as

SPRING 2007 23 THE FORGING OF A WRITER

iliv

Ill

Robert Frederick Blums The Silk Merchant,Japan,1890-93 CINCINNATIART MUSEUM GIFIOF TH[ PROCTERAGAMBLECOMPANY

the fan had Blum-"as a new revelation "Almost immediately the objects displayed in Philadelphia began to influence American artists, dichitects, and decorators They also influenced Hearn Although he did not attend the Exposition, the man who delighted in the exquisite Japanese book in Farny's studio and whose early curiosity about and longing for exotic lands never ceased, now eagerly began to immerse himself in the spreading enthusiasm for the from the East In coastal like Boston and new art cities Midwestern Sin Frincisco, soon to become bastions of japoni,nie,and in metropolises like Cincinnati and Chicago, this irt quickly f-ound idmirers Ukgo-e prints proved a ievelation for artists like Firny and John Twacht- man, as a little later did Hearn's Japanese books for an American public intensely curious about the Land of the Rising Sun As part of the larger Amellean-Japanese Interaction during these decades, the ties between Hearn's Cincinnati and Megi Japan are so numerous and interesting that the Cincinnati Art Museum,with its rich holdings in both Cincinnati artifacts and Japanese art, has in mind an exhibit on the theme in which, inev- 49 itably,Hearn would play a major role He remains in many ways an ideal

rare interpreter of]Japan,one of those Individuals who,if not entirely free of racial prejudice,was unconvinced of"the superiority of the white race or of 50 English-speaking peoples

Hearn could on occasion speak of Cincinnati with exaggeration or humor In 1874 he wrote of a wild" district like ours,"where the" noise of the pioneer's ax alternates with the aborigine's war-whoop,"and whele we" can almost fancy that our houses are painted red with Indian blood "Obvious- ly,by 1874 Native Americans had long departed the (no longer)wild " district"of Cincinnati and no pioneer"" painted his house with" Indian blood

24 OHIO VALLEY HISTORY JOHN CLUBBE

Enquirer readers would not have taken his words literally. Hearn's comic exaggeration,his tall tale telling,was part of a tradition of frontier humor typified by,among others,Twain, C·able,and Artemus Ward. Cultur·ally and otherwise he knew he was ·alive and well in the Qpeen City In 1878, living in dire poverty in New Orleans, he praised America as this" wonderful country"In 1895 in Kobe he recalled the energy and dynamism of Ameri- can life when he had first encountered it: Twenty-" five years ago there were chances in America for the industrious poor such as h·ad never been offered in:iny other country. Hearn was being autobiographical. Twentv-" five years ago, as one of the industrious poor,"he had made his w'ay to Cincin- nati. In Cincinnati he had come of age, had worked hard,and had become 1 a writer.'

After more than eight years Hearn left the city he once famously,if ironically,described as beastly" Cincinnati."He left less because of the people or the city than because he disliked the cold winters. In addition, his troubled relationship with M:ittie Foley had created a difficult personal situation and-understandable in a young man-he felt restless and wanted a change. Cincinnati ple·ased Hearn well enough while he was there. In Japan he lived in Matsue, Kumamoto,Kobe, and Tokyo, and spent time in Kyoto. He recorded mixed impressions of-these places,liking smaller Mat- sue and disliking larger Tokyo (as earlier, London)especially.2 Of other American cities, Philadelphia pleased him best. New York he thought a madhouse. Among dream cities, he yearned most for a Paris he probably never saw. Teutonic Cincinnati apparently did not connote in Hearn's imagination the literary and artistic life of the Paris idealized in a favorite book-Henry Murger's Sct,les de la uie' de bobtme1 851)-( and that helped shape his response to all cities.53 In America as in Japan Hearn lived in mid-sized provincial cities: Cin- cinnati and New Orleans, M·atsue and Kumamoto. Although Cincinna- ti and pre-Katrina New Orleans had about the same population relative to each other as they had in Hearn's day,they have different histories, were formed by different immigrant groups, and drew upon different traditions. In earlier cras the presence of these groups with their indigenous folklor- ic ways distinguished American cities more sharply from each other than in today's more homogenized nation. Most cities in Hearn's America,geo- graphically and ethnologically distinct,maintained largely independent cultural existences. A man who lived almost all his life in cities, Hearn doth protest too much his dislike of them. His writings reflect the ways of city life,and everywhere he went he accommodated himselfwell enough to that life. After all, in cities a writer can find a world that he can remake into any image he desires. Hearn observed the cities in which he lived through a Baudelairean lens and if,like Poe, he occasionally appeared to breathe in their foul" miasmal exhalations,"his verbal magic created places that remain enduringly alive.

SPRING 2007 25 THE FORGING OF A WRITER

For much of its trade Cincinnati looked south and west. 71ie city mairitained close commercial ties to ports on the inland rivers, and its manufactured goods often ended up in New Orleaiis near the mouth of the Mississippi. Evidence of that trade can still strike the eye: Look-as Hearn Orleans' Gar- no doubt did and one still can-at the old houses in New s

den District and one discovers that their cast iron gates, fences, and balco- nies often came from Cincinnati iron foundries. What' happened in New Orleans was of interest in Cincinnati,as the course of 1 Ie·arn's journalistic career suggests. Naturally and almost inevit·ably,that city was Hearn's next stop. Perhaps as he left on the train for Memphis he hummed Let" Her Go By,"one of the songs-he said-blacks generally" sung on leaving port, and sometimes with an affecting p·athos inspired of the hour,while the sweet- hearts of the singer watch the vessel gliding down stream":

I'm going away to New Orleans! Good-bye, my lover,good-bye! I'm going away to New Orleans! Good-bye,my lover,good-bye, Oh,let her £40 bv!54

Hearn died in 1904 a famous man. Even in faraway Japan he never quite lost touch with his Cincinn·ati friends. Two" or three acquaintances of his early years of struggle and preservation were always spoken of with the ten- I . derest regard, wrote one of them, Joseph Tunisort, and· their companion- ship was eagerly sought whenever possible."From " the earliest days of our friendship as fellow reporters in Cincinn·ati,"Krehbjel rec·alled after Hearn's death, we were in the habit of exchanging suggestions touching topics for study and our newspaper articles. The interchange continued, as we have before I-learn seen, for some years. Ihough' a rift developed between them left for Japan, Krehbiel showed himself liberal in his praise of He·arn's interest in folk music as well as considerate in allowing publication of Hearn's extraordinary letters to him. As an early biographer observed, Hearn" al- and ways remained generously sympathetic to [his friend's_]literary interests ventures. Hearn urged Tunison to visit him in Japan,even to settle there; and he kept up (as best one could)with the mercuri·al Farny and praised his artistic skill to Elizabeth Bisland, a friend from New Orleans days who would become his first biographer. In 1895 Hearn even had a pleasant en- counter in Japan with the gifted editor who had had him fired from the En- quirer,John A. Cockerill. Cockerill now found his shy one-time prodigy, though still as restless as Chatterton and as" indifferent to worldly matters Shellev."55 as Poe,"fully as" remarkable in liter'ature as Goldsmith, Keats or Cin- Hearn was not only famous, he was unforgettable.Ic ] and his cinnati circle had been voung together, and together they had shared

26 OHIO VALLEY HISTORY JOHN CLUBBE

aspirations,ideas, and struggles. In Cincinnati,as in New Orleans though perhaps less so,Hearn had sympathetic colleagues with whom he could talk Such would less often and from whom he could learn. a situation occur in Japan. He had formed his closest ties in Cincinnati, and his friends there

were of longest standing. A number of them achieved national reputations in Cincinnati or,more usually,elsewhere. In addition to Farny,Duveneck, ind Krehbiel, and close ties with older men like \Viltkin, Vickers, and the well-known photographer James Landy,Hearn's Cincinnati circle included a host of able newspapermen, among them Cockerill, Ch·arley Johnson of the Volksblatt,Henry L. Feldwisch as( well as Krehbiel and Tzinison)of the Gazette,and Henderson and Alurat Halste:id of the Commercial. Al-

though they had grown old apart, they did not forget the friendships of long ago. Grievances were forgotten and in their memories icalousy appears to have played little part. Success had also come to many of them. Tuni- son, 117 addition to a distinguished career tis 21 11CWSpilper editor,was a classical scholar who wrote a book on the Virgilian legend in medieval times and another entitled Dramatic Traditions of tbe Dark Ages,and Cockerill, Pu-"

litzer's Prize Editor,"had a spectacular journalistic career. In the years following Hearn's death what an carly biographer has called the "Cincinn·ati Brotherhood"careftilly guarded his reputation. M·any of-them-Hender- son, Tunison, Cockerill, and Krehbiel-wrote essays or left reminiscences about Hearn that have proved of considerable value to biographers.56 No sweetheart saw Hearn off that day of departure from Cincinna- ti-only three of his friends, Henderson, Halstead, and Watkin. 1he last- named would become the Dear" Old Dad"of countless letters written in

years to come, letters that Watkin faithfully kept ·and upon hearing of the death of his beloved Raven"" allowed to be published. Watkin was from the day they met Hearn's family,the only living relative"' he ever loved, arguably the deepest relationship he ever forged. The friendship ended with Wat- kin's death in Cincinnati only a few years after Hearn's in Tokyo. As long as Henry Watkin was there, however,Cincinnati was home to Hearn as no other place could be.

1 «Giglampz,"Enquirer,Oct.4,1874,cited in Albert 4 The" Cincinnati episode of his life is the point of which Mordell, vols. New( York: ed.,An American Misce/lany,2 I am least informed,"wrote Elizabeth Bisland,whose Dodd,Mead, 1924),1:16 hereafter( 11/1). * pioneering two-volume Life and Letters ofLafcadio Hann Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1906),was the 2 When [wrote Cincinnati Observed:Architecture alld first in the field;]unt«)Umemoto, ed.,7be U«nisbed History Columbus: Ohio State University Press, Biogiupby of Lafradio Hearn Tokyo. ( 07.or·asha.2002), hereafter CO-I found useful look 1992)- it to upon Bisland: 68. s narrative of 1-learns Lincinnati time the city in the detailed,inquiring manner of Hearn,and confused much, as did the biographies that followed he features prominently in its pages. by George M. Gould (Concerning L«adio Hearn Phil.idelphia: George W.Jacobs, and Nina H. 3 [-learn may have visited the city brefly in his youth, 1908]) see Milton Bronner,ed.,Lettersfrom the Raven.Beitig Kennard Lafadio( Hearn London:[ Eveleigh Nash, tbe Correspondence of Lafeadio Hearn and I Ienry Watkin 1911]).Bisland assigns Hearn's autobic,· graphical New York:Brentano's, 1907),165. reminiscence Intuition"" 1: (41-45)to New York,not

SPRING 2007 27 THE FORGING OF A WRITER

Cincinn·ati,where it clearly took place it( mentions relevant for the Cincinnati period. After the war,Henry Henry Watkin all but Indirectlv, in name). Bisland's Goodm·ans belected Wi·itings of Lafcadio Hearn New( account fi,stered the impression that Hearn spent a York: Citti(iel Press, 1949)reprinted five pieces from the Cincinnati long period of time-two vears or so-in New York, Tears. With ,in influctitial introdziction an impression further elaborated and embroidered in by Malcolm Cowley,Goodman's work remains to this studies of Hearn th'at appeared as late as 1988. No day the only ,inthology th,it draws upon work from all evidence exists that he New York than was in more a periods of Hearn's career. Sever·al post-war collections few days,if that. After landing in New York, most have filled out the picture of Hearn's Cincinnati years. immigr'ants went directly to their intended destination, Tliese include, 0. W. Frost, ed , C'bi/dre,i Gith:Leve:, in Hearn's c.ise,Cincinnati, where he had relatives and intro. by John Ball (Lexington: Jniversity[ of Kentucky anticipated funds. If Hearn had stayed longer in New Press, 1957);Hojin Yano,et al, A,ticles on Literature York, he would have mentioned the fact subsequently,so and Otber 1/14·itings from tbe Cincinnati Enquirer 1873 great was his dislike of the citv,and he never did. New York:AMS Press, 1975);William S.Johnson's 1979 selection oft learn's writings (see note 8);Hughes's 5 Vickers later acquired upon publication each of Plearn's Period oftbe Gruesome 1990);( Simon J Bronner,ed., books for his personal collection. Eighty years further Lafcadio Hearn's America:Etbtiographic Sketches mut on, his granddaughter donated his collection to the Editorials I.( exington: University Press of Kentucky, Cincinnati Public Library. Today it forms the core of 2002),titid most recclitly,Cameron Mchirter ·,ind the Library:s superb Hearn holdings, one of the finest Owen Findsen,eds.,Whimsically Grotesque:Selected America. See The" Lafcadio Hearn Collection, in Miritings of Lafcadio Hearti m the Crucinnati Enquirer, 1872-1875 brochure issued by the Rare Books and Special Tokyo: I)o-Jidai Sha Co.,2004).Since each Collections Department of the Public Library of of the above volumes includes only a small sampling Cincinnati and Hamilton Countv. of Hearn' Cincinnati material and troin the vast store s sitce editors have chosen what interests them most, 6 According his friend Joseph Tunison, it to was common each has a different focus. None comes close to being a knowledge the 1870s that Hearn lost his job iii Anquire,· definitive edition even ot-the essays it includes. Many because of" political 0. W Frost, rotten pressures";sce of Hearn's known Cincinnati writings remain to this Young Hearn Tokyo: Hokuscido Press, 1958),125. day uncollected in volume form. In addition, Hearn recalls his Cincinnati experiences in letters included 7 For overview ot Hearn' position in American an s in volumes,published in Japan and in America,too literature and of the contending claims by nations numerous to be cited here. seeking to attach him to their own national literatures, John Clubbe,"Lafcadio Hearn · American see as an 10 Sce,for example,F· "ace Studies,"in AM,2: 1-3. I learn Wrker,"in Laftadio Hearn in International Perspectives, frequently uses tlie word physiognoniy"' or derivatives ed. Sukehire,Hirakawa Folkestone,( Kent: Global thereof for( example, S. Bronner,ed.,La#adio Hearn) Oriental, 7hc Library of America has the 2007). in progress America, 91, 172;AM,2: 1, 171).Physiognomy,or volume selection devoted Hearn, ofwhich the a two- to reading of faces,was hugely popular in nineteenth- first will be devoted to his American writings. century America and much valued by Hearn.

Gruesome: I 8 Jon Christopher Hughes, ed.,Period of tbe 11 raris of America. Sce, for example, Olive Logan, CinrinnatiJoin· ofLafcadjo Hearn Cincinnati," Selected nalism Harper's New Monthly Magazine 67 Juty Lanham, MD: University Press of America,1990) 1883),247,264. Hearn told Henry Watkin in 1878 Frost's bibliography was originally published in William that it" was time for a fellow to get out of Cincinnati S.Johnson,ed,Lajeadio Hearn: Selected Writings,1872- when they began][ to call it the Paris of America";M. 1877 Indianapolis: Woodruff Publications, 1979) Bronner,ed..Lettersfrom tbe Raven.46.

9 Ibe' Writittgs ofLo#adio Hearn,16 vols.Boston: ( 12 Frost in his excellent Young Hearn argues that the Houghton Mifilin, 1922).Fortunately,a number of tzirn toward the sensational thzit took place in Hearn's collections devoted in part or in wliole to Hearn's writing during the summer of 1874 lasted little more Cincinnati writings have appeared in the decades since th,in fc,ur months (104-105).Homer W. King tllinks editor,who the Houghton Mifilin edition. Albert Mordell, in a it wasTe,lin Cockerill,the Enqi,irer's br'ave attempt to remedy th·at editic)n's deficiencies, instigated Hearn'" s explorations of the city's dark printed a generous selection of Hearn's early Cincinnati side'·,see Pulitzer's Prize Editor:A Bjograpby ofjobn1. / work in the first volume of both An American Misce/lany Cocker,74 1845-1896 Durham:( Duke University Press, cited in note 1)and Mordell, ed.,Occidental Cleanings, 1965),66. In regard to Hearn's Cincinnati subject 2 vols. New( York: Dodd, Mead, 1925).Before World matter,Albert Mordell,though overstating the point, War II,Tokyo's Hokuseido Press issued several volumes is still worth citing: The" reader...should remember of Hearn's essays edited by Ichiro Nishizaki,ofwhich that this myopic half-blind writer,who wrote about the Barbal'01,5 Barbers and Othe}·Stories1939) ( is most drab colors, and repulsive, filthy scenes, cared clliefly for

28 OHIO VALLEY HISTORY JOHN CLUBBE

Le' beautiful landscapes; that this man with keen sensitive ue:.Excellent as Frost's selections are, scholars have attributed Hearn well four hundred additional olfactories,who gave us pictures of fertilizing plants to over and slaughter-houses, specialized on the subject of studies of Cincinnati life, several of which take up life perfumes; that tllis seemingly heartless individual who in the city's mainstream black communities. See, for depicted brutes, murderers, suicides,ghouls, was chiefly example, S. Bronner,ed.,"Black Varieties,The Minstrels attracted bv tales of tenderness and self-sacrifice. He of the Row,Picturesque Scenes Without Scenery, in ad what psycho, llystS 111 'anibivilence of in· c, emotions,< Lafeadio Hearn's America,170-74·,"Mr. Handy's Life," and his 1(, ofbe and his tenderness illv ve puty were I e, Storv of a Slave,"and Blue" Blood, 'in Nishizaki, ed., unconsciously manifested in his interest in apparent Ba)·barous Barbers and Other Stories. Drawing upon a writing about tlic ugly and the cruel ; sce Mordell, ed., wider sampling of Hearn's Cincinnati work as a largely 0,cidental· G/ hereafter 71ie eanings, 1: ix ( OG). ineni>ry unconscious ethnographer might have honed and of Hearn in Cincinnati lives on in unusual ways. A deepened Taylor's argument. Even so, thanks to her we well-known Cincinn·ati restaurant long featured dish a gain a sharper perspective on levee songs and customs. called Hearnburner Chili. Hearnburner"" is apr for several reasons: Hearn liked good food, was fascinated 19 Umemoto,ed.,Un/inisbed Biograpbv,87-89. Foran by unusual dishes,relished crcole earlier overview of Hearn' interest Cincinnati' black specialties in Japan s iii s and New Orleans-iii fact prepared cookbook about a lit-e not cited by Talor,see Frost,YozinK Hearn,141-59. them-and probably well before delighted in a" thick, well-done beefsteak";see Nobushige Amenomori, 20 Ken Emerson,Doo-dab!Stephen Foster and tbe Rise of Lafcadio Hearn,the Man,"Atlantic Monthly,96 Americal] Popular Culticie New York: SimonSchuster, & Oct. 1905),524. Hearnburner also plays the word on 1997),120, 123, 127-35; Henry Edward Krehbiel,Aj-0- heartburn"and implies that the chili' s pungent taste. Anterican Folksongs:A St!,dy i,1 Racial,ind National Music like Hearn' Cincinnati sketches and s essavs,was so 1914, New York: Frederick Ung.ir, 1962),28, Frost, ed , stro ng it could m,ike the sti 0 tigest hear t palpi tate. Children oftbe Levee,21-22. Cincinnati-style chili happily remains a favored 1(K,11 specialtv. 21 Ibid.,65, 71. On how such songs were sung, sce Taylor, 192, 285 1140. 13 Steeple" Climbers,"7be Commetrial,May 26, 1876, reprinted in AM, 1: 196-205. 22 }frost, Young H,·a,n, 158-59; Krehbiel,lf,0-American Folksongs,Yoko NIakino,"Lafcadic,Hearn and Yanagita 14 CO,14. The phrase occurs on card Hearn sent to a Kunic):W]io Initiated Folklore Studies in Japan f in Henry Watkin (printed in M. Bronner,ed.,Letters Lafcadio Hearn in International PerspectivesProgr' ( am from the Raven, 35).Hearn, with his literary of cast of Comp·arative Literature and Culture, University of mind, typic·ally found points" of similarity between 7'okyo, Komaba, Symposium, Sept. 25, 2004),23-29. the fountain and a passage in Tennyson's Gareth' and 1«ynette in Idylls ofthe King (OG, 1: 19).Not scanting 23 Frost, ed.,Children oftbe Lever,34;S Bronner,ed., the City' economic base,Hearn positively of S wrote Some Pictures of Poverty,"in Lafcadio Hearit's America, Cincinnati:s then almost annual industrial expositions, 90, 85. among them, the Fourth Sept.( 1873)and Sixth Sept. 1875).The expositions advertised the city's 24 Violent" Cremation,"in McWhirter and Endsen, eds., m.inuflicturing might but ilso: n:ide a nod to culture Wbinisically Grotesque,256,299. Jon Christopher Hughes by djsplayitig paintings by well-known American and reprints,with interwoven commentary,Hearn's Tanyard European artists OG,( 1: x=vii;AM, 1. 58) Murder articles in Ibe' Tanyard Murder:011 tbe Case witt} Lafcadio Hearn Washington,DC: University Press of 15 Frost, Young Hearn,141; OG, 1: 160, 102-05 («Balm of America, 1982) Another recent study th.it discusses the Gilead: An Afternoon at the Stink Factory ),57-66. case is I-litomi Nabae,Let " the Body Speak: Lat-cadio In New Orleans Hearn pondered the unusual, above- I learn's Cincinnati Journalism, Studies in American ground tombs in city graveyards for( example,ibid.,1: Literature English number)1 Feb.( 2003),43-64. For 211-13). a modern perspective on this era,sce Zane Miller,Boss Coxk Cincinnati:Ui ban Politics 16 Levee" Life,"in Frost, ed.,Children ofthe Levee,79,1 in the Progressive Era New York: Oxford University Press, 1968). intrc).bvJohn Ball),81,55.

25 McWhirter and Findsen,eds., 17 Ibid.,13-22,9-12,54 78. Whimsically Grotesque, 171-72. Newspaper historians consider The" Tanyard

18 Ni\Ad M.'Daylor,Frontiers of Freedom:Cincinnati's Black Murder"a pioneering piece of reporting,a landmark Community, 1802-1868 Athens:( Ohio University in the evolution of American journalism;see John M. Press,2004),186-88. Unfortunately,Taylor limits Hartsock,A History ofAmerican Literary Journalism: her exaniination of Hearn's writings to a few of the Ibe Emergence ofa Modern Narrative FormAmherst: ( dozen sketches reprinted iii Frost's Children oftbe University of Massachusetts Press,2000)

SPRING 2007 29 THE FORGING OF A WRITER

26 Gentecl traditioii"is meant to ch·aracterize the" tiine admiring the model than actu·ally painting her. formidable elite that had governed nineteenth-century See illustration in 1)enny Carter,Henry Farny New( American taste and sensibilitv ;sec David Shi,Facijig York: Watson Guptill, 1978),38. K!:ts:Realism in Americanlbought ' and Culture,1850- 1920 New York: Oxford University Press, 1995),15 34 As found iii Enquirer,June 8, 1930. Among these carly works is oiie t]1.it h,ts become his best-ktiown paintint, 27 McWhirter and Findsen, cds.,M'binisically Grotesque, 7bc M/bixt/ing Boy (1872),loi,g a star oftlic Cincinnati Art Museum. 180;Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Gesamm,lte Herke in ED,ze/,impiben:Prom I/ (Frankfurt: S. Fischer Verlag, 1951),123-24 (autlior's trans]ation).· 35 "Strziggles and Triuniphs,"in Nishizaki, ed.,Barbatous Baibers mul 0/ber Sto,·ics, 211-19; Our" Artists,"iii 28 AM, 1: 13, 16; Irrost, Young Hearn, 90; Robert Allen, Johnson,ed.,Lajadjo Hearn:Selected Writings,194.

Cinchinati Studios Lafcadio IFIearn Knew,"Cjj?Cj!71?atj Enguiret, June 8, 1930, 3, 11. 1 have been unable to 36 American" Magazines"1879), ( in S. Brc,tiner,cd., Ltifcadio Ilearn' Ainerica,114;Edward Larocque trace Hearn:s review ot-Farny'.painting. Our" Artists," s Tinker,Lafcadio Hearn' American Deri NewYork·.( pziblished in the 7272,£ 1/.'1 the next day, is reprinted hi s Tinker' reproduces johnson,ed.,Lafcadio Iici,j-n:Selected Writings,190-200. Dodd, Mead, 1924),85-86. s book a number of Hearn's drawings. Hearn's American" Art 29 Giglampz,"" is Hearn's humorous retelling of his role Tastes,"published in the New Orleans Item,Sept. 30, in the creation of the journal in which he islhe " 1881, offers an acute analysis of the tr'anstormation AM, houl and his co-editor 0'" Pharney, cited in of American art in the 18706 rpt.( in S. Bronner, ed., The derive fu, 1: 16. word giglampz seen's to m gig- Lafradio Hearii's Am:riea,225-26). lamp, one" of the lamps on either side of a gig,"or liglit 37 71ie Chinese larindi' led bv Char Lce and tw(, carriage Ox»( re/Enq/irb Dirtionarv).Farny and 1 learn vmen deliberately and mischievously chose the word for its unnamed friends, their ;incient instruments, and the obscuritv; tlic two of-ther]7 intetided to "illutninate music they made led Hearn to write A" Romantic Cincinnatians. Episode at the Mfisic Club,"Conimerrial,Oct. 1, 1877 13).Fro 137- 1'Pt in AM,1: 206- st.Young Hearij, 39, 30 The Cincinnati Public Library, of the onlv owner cites titles and performances of Hearn's opera reviews. coziiplete set of-the nine issues, published sonic twenty Zane L. Miller and George E Roth, Cinrinnatik Music years ago a full-sized facsimile; Lafcadic,Hearn and Hall (Virginia Beach: JordanCompany, & 1978) 1-lenry Farny,eds.,Ye Gijampz, Jon Christopher intro. provides a full accoutit. Hughes Cincinnati:( Crossroads Books, 1983) 38 Krchbic]subsequently acquired Ch.ir Lee s instruments Lazy Kaoru Sckita,ed.,K·iled Letters 31 " as a serpent. in 13]sland, 1-/cin n, 1: 168).1 [i, epistc,1,lry aCCOunt Of 21 t)on,Lafiadio Hea,n (Tokyo: Yushodo Press, 1991),168. second concert caused Hearn, now iii New Orleans, Hearn continued: But" if imaginative vou ever want much initiscnient"(: ibid.,1: 212-13),.ind pronipted d ofit certai d, he is tlic do it" He,( r,iwing n iss, man to 11 11 him to write ti,r the New Orleans Item a piece entitled to Elizabeth Bisland, Sept. or Oct. 1889).Even iii Romanticism in Music,"in whicli he lavished much 1874 Ilearn had doubts about Farny' huge talent. no s praise upon Krchbiel (rpt. in Charles Woodward Hutson, by Farny that the acithoi has llic first Harperk sketch ed.,Ed,to,·ials [Boston: Houghton Mifilin, 19261, 25-28). discovered is Tlie' turner Festival at Cincinnati, Ohio, 1865,620-21. Ha,per)Weekly, Sept. 30, 39 Kiehbiel,A»o-American Folksongs,v,35; Bisland, Hearn , 1: 175. 32 For a depictic,n of Farny within the context of Cindnnati life and Westerii ·art generally,sce Clubbe, 40 Umemoto,ed.,Un#nisbed Biograpby,62. 1 learn and the Great West: The Case of Henry Cincinnati admitted ·as much: I"know nothing about music further YAny,"ANQ 9 Fall 1996), 20. 3- th,in 4 11,11 row the;itric·,11 expo ie i,ce and a n attir.· 11 sensibility ti) its sinlpler fi,rms of beauty enable nic 33 Frost believes that the studio Duveneck' L. dio was s (sce to do'P see "Letters c,f»ii loct ti) 1.Y[zisicimi: itc. Frost, Yoidn, 1-1. 106-09),though he have 4 0 n , m.iv Hearn to Henry E. Krchbiel,"7be C/·/tic 48 Apr.( 1906), shared it with Francis X. Dengler (OG,1: 50).Hearn 313; Krchbiel,/1/1·0-Ame/iran Pblksongs,37, 39. bc,wed to Victi,r i.in taste by itsing imb/ ic,r leg, bosom for Vrost, FIcarii, for breast>,im/ad ill,desee ( Youjig 41 The latter reprinted as Lifiailio Hearnk Crcole Cook Book 108).King,Pulitzerk Prize Editor,66. Once iii the Grettia, LA: Pelican Publishing Company,1990) possessic,n of Farny's son Daniel, the painting of loseph florowwl,Classical Mtisic A ica:A History the blond bomhshell-stylistically perhaps more 42 iii mei· New York: Norton,2005),227- Duveneck's th·an Farnv's-is now in the Cincinnati 01 its Rise und Firl/ Art Museum, though rarely exhibited. 7he work is 28. 1)vot;ik cited from the liner notes to New Wild Bohuslav Martinu' Syinpboity No. sketched, not finished;perhaps the artists spent more Symphony and s 2,

30 OHIO VALLEY HISTORY 10}IN CLUBBE

Root:wood performed by Ptiavc, 1..irvi atid thci Cincinnati Syin])11{,tly organized to coliiplenient anotlier clititled, Orchestra (Tclar:Cl)-80616). Jottery:ibe 01·(:/jousamble,\ (: tse\f tlic stibiect of a 1992 book with essays 1,>·Kenneth R. 1"rapp and Anita J. Koko,· 43 For I learn on Japanese folk music, sce o Boston: Ellis. Specificall,·on Roolavood and Japan, see Trapp, Houghtc, Nlifilin, 1896),336-38; and Kennard, n Rc)(ikvood and tlic J.panese Xlania in Cincinnati,"7be Lati· atijo Hecij·n.141.139. i),tinnati Histo)·kiii So:jety Bitlietin 39 CSpring 1981), 51-75. On the larser and ecintinuing Japanese impact 44 Our" Artists,"in Johnson, ed.,L,?h,dio Hea,·n:Select,·,/ upon the Aniericaii art pottery sce,ie,see Barbara Perry. H'ritinvs, 193. As a voungster,Hearn had visited a F,·agile Blossonts.Enduring Earth:7be Japanese I,flt,ence private niuseum iii North Bangor,IVales, where he 1merican Ceramics w'as on / Syracuse: Everson Muscuni ot perliaps entraticed by euric,sitics (,the Soutli inc,st t- Art, 1989). Pacific and China ; 14· c,st, Yoting He,trn,47. He prc,I,abl> nothing from Japan, fi, Com,iiodore Perry' cli- Jc,hn Ball. saw r s c],c, 50 intro.,in Frost, ed..Chi/,hen ot-the Le€,ee,6. opening visit dates from 1854. For ati over,·iew c,f I learn's place in the larger context of.japo,z istne,see Clax Lancaster,lhe ' Japa,tese Infitiene: 45 Shirayamad,ini s cerainic ·art, inuch .1(11}iired then, i Allie}'il' now as n a New K,rk:Abbeville I>ress, 1983),which commands extremel\·high prices. ()lunc 6, 2004. 11 a dewtes more attention to architecture and decoraticm Roc,kwoc,d Iris Glaze vase by him sc,ld at auction in tlian and literature. but art in:]zide:a brief but solid Cincinnati fi, r 5350,750,tlie largest sum ever paid fi,r discission of J learn. a piece of-American art pottery; Cincinnati Magazine Aug. 2004),23. 51 ' A,tri,nage,"iii 0(1, 1: 46;A I. Brc,nner,ed.,Letters/)·om b,·R, 48; Grinvtli" of Population iii America, S. Se}ibu,· 11,£11. in 46 Robert Frederick Bluni, An' Artist in Japan," 1·'s Bri, ed.,Li,/ Hearn' il erica,210. nner, i-,i,/io s m Mil,4!Zine 13 Apt. 1893),399-414, flay( 1893),624-36, June 1893),729-49. Blum misdated the fan episode i, 1 52 -Beastly Cindnnati,"in JI. Bronner,ed.,Lttersfi·om the nieinc,ry to 1872 399).( R,11·,9, 64. Ilte- phrase,iii a letter ti,Watkin, is teasing, mc,ck-heroic. licastlv"" was a fiwc,rite Hearn word, ciften 47 Ed,vin Artiold,./aponhy/(New l'ork: Ch,irles Scribner' s used tc, complain about veather, he didn't like. Not Sons,1892),with illustrations' by Robert Blum."Bluin' s that Hearn did ni,t h.n·e reservaticms about Cincinnati; drawings and watercol(, often less directh rs, more or Of sce ' All Places c,n Earth:'an editorial in the New transcrihed from pliotographs t:iken,were intended 01 leans Item, Apr.23, 1881, andVhat "\ is a Natile," tc) complement Artic,Id's book. See the brief but A lar 3, 1881, in 0(4 1: xiv;and S. Brc,nner,cd.,La/I·adio excellent ch:ipter on Bluni iti Julia Meech and Clabriel Hwm) AmAMAA. Hearn's first iquire,-/:, contribution P.\Weisherg,japonis,ne Comes to1 mei·/ ice:Ibe ' jitp,. inese was Lc," ndon Siglits: 12 Evening iii Vhitechapel,"\ Nov. Inipact Grapbic Arts New Y(,rk: I larr, 1\ oti tbe 1876-1925 Sekita, 4,1872. ed.,K'il,·,/L,·tt,·rs, 162-63; Umemoto, Abrams, 1990).Another American ·artist who visited ed.,Unfinisbe,/Biography,39. Japan, a fi,riner I)uvencek student in Mui·tich,was Tlieodc,re Vores.\ I le also recorded liis impressic,ns iii, 53 Sekita,ed.,Veiled Letters,162-63; Umemott),ed., An Atilel-kan Artist it Japan,with Illustrations bj·tlic Un,#nisbed Biog,·apbv,39. I-learn,wrote Krchbid, Authi,n"lb, Centurv 38 Sept. 1889),670-86. insisted that under" all the levin,of Henri AIGrger's picttiresque bohemianism,there is a serious phili,sophy 48 For example, 77,e Silk Morbant.Japan1 890-( 93, apparent,which clevates the ch,iracters of his romatice Cincinnati Art Museuni)and 73,·Amera-W./ap,inese tc)her<,ism. They ti,llc,wed one principle faitlitzilly,- Caildy Vejidor cjrca 1890,Metropolitan Museum of so faithfully that only the strong surviz'ed the ordeal,- Art,New York).Blum wrote to a friend after his arrival: never to abandon the pursuit ofan ·artistic vocation Can [give 37)u an idea f(,Japan? Nci,I'm afraid not. [ fi,r any other occit,ation however lucrative,-riot even expected Tiiuch f(,Et . Lit ],I was litirdly prepared to elic)11 when she [Murger's heroine Louise]remained deaf int<)1 tiew, wcirld! 1,...itc is oii ;idifi'crent pltine.'Bzit like and blind to her w<,rshippers";Letters " of a Pc,et tc,a 1 learn he also found that the" blind adi,ption of-Western Mtisician,"316. ideas"hmi caused havoc..." in traits,manners,and 11)Blum ; cust(,ms." is tc) I learn this trend enormcius 54 Frc, cd., was " st, Cbililren oftbe Lei,ce,67. and del,ressing";Bluin,"Aii Artist in Jai,an,"413. 55 Timison, cited in Umemoto,ed.,Un/inisbedlfiog/·apby, 49 Chrisk,plier Benfey,7be 96, Krchbic],citeel in "Letters ot lic, Alusici·, Great Hbi„·:68/,·i/Age Mispts, ii et to a in," Jape, Eccentrics.and tbe Openitig New zese of'OldJapan ( 315, Ketin·ard, 1.,1/;·adio He,/1-n,136;John A. C,ckerill, Yc,rk: Random House, 2003),57. Among tlie Museunis Lafeadio Hearn: Tlic Author of Kokoro,"Ctirrent Mfillic]iii CPIicinimti earlier exhibits was 7bi'/apanese Literature 19 (Izine 1896),476. 1993).Tlic accompanying brochitre useftilly lists parallel events in Cincinnati,Japan, the U.S.,Paris, 56 Citicinnati Brot]crliood, in Kennard,La#adio1,· /arn, and London between 1850 and 19()().llic exhibit ' was 136.

SPRING 2007 31 Proto-Broadcasting in Cincinnati, 1847-1875 Ibe Flow ofTelegraph News to Merchants and tbe Press

Bradford W.Scharlott and Mary Carmen Cupito

Sendingatelegraph The Te/egraph in America (1886).CINCINNATIMUSEUM CENTER. CINCINNATI HISTORICAL

SOCIETYLIBRARY

Toice transmission of news goes b·ack at least to the days of ancient

InGreece,Europewhenin therunnersMiddlespreadAges,informationtroubadoursofoftenmilitaryset newsimportance.to music and disseminated it in their performances. In England and the Ameri-

can colonies in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,town criers shouted news on street corners. Hence, there is little surprise that in the early days of radio,the broadcasting of news began soon after technological advances made transmission of the human voice possible. Radio, of course, allowed news to be transmitted to an entire metropolitan region, not just to those

32 OHIO VALI, EY HISTORY BRADFORD W. SCHA RLOTT ANI) MARY CARMEN C UPITO

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MERCHANTS' EXCHANGE- li,t/,t,tt treet,1,et. ttli ,t),cl r,tl,.

Merchants' Exchan ge,Boyd's Handbook of Cincinnati (1869) .c, N c i N N ATI MUSEUM CENTER, CINCINNATI HISTORICAL

SOCIETYLIBRARY

within earshot of a single voice; and it allowed listeners to receive distant news as soon as the broadcaster received and read it. For instance, the first commercial radio station, KDKA of Pittsbureh, beean operation in No-

vember 1920 with a broadcast of the returns of the Harding-Cox presidential election: However, such twentieth-century examples do not mark the first time that electronically transmitted news was disseminated by voice in harkened a citv. Instead,a transition·al mode of communication-one that back to town criers yet foreshadowed the coming of a national broadc·asting system-evolved in nineteenth-century Cincinnati (and probably in other cities as well).We call this transitional mode proto-broadcasting:'Ihe nearly immediate dissemination by voice to numerous listeners of electronically transmitted information. From 1847 to 1875 proto-broadcasting happened at the Cincinnati Merchants'Exchange. For nearly three decades, merchants flocked to the Exchange daily to hear of value of the Tele- wire news read aloud because the time news. graphed commercial reports from New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and other seaboard cities-plus, if a transatlantic vessel had just reached the East Coast, from Europe as well-was just the sort of information merchants needed to help them make buying and selling decisions. 1[he regularly scheduled reports they heard were,in some respects,like the radio news broadcasts their descendants listened to in the following century. But merchants were not the only people who craved the fresher news. Newspaper publishers in Cincinnati,like elsewhere around the country,were willing to

SPRING 2007 33 PROTO- BROADCASTING IN CINCINNAl [,1847- 1875

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Morse code alphabet, The Te/egraph in Amenca (1886) CIN(INNATI MUSFUM CENTER CINCINNATI HISTORICAL SOCIETY LIBRARY

pay handsomely for telegraphed news,even if some of what they published had flist been broadcast"" at the Exchange I]-le coming of the telegiaph to Cincinnati marked a piofound disconti- nuity in the speed at which infoimation reached the city, what formerly had taken days or weeks to be transmitted now took minutes or hours Com- munication theorit I I,irold Innis suggested th,it ch:inges m commiinication technology imparted biases in how civilizations operated,and that monop-" olies of knowledge accrued to those who contrc)lled the technologic,often confetring on them wealth or power 2 Innis's concepts are useful for un-

derstanding how proto-broadcasting came about,,ind foi comprehendinoh its consequences Ihe' coming of the telegraph helped tiansform the Cin- cinnati lcichants' Exch,inge,because it gave the Exchange a decades-long monopoly on the latest commerci,11 news to reach Cincinnati Ihe' voice broadcating of news,it the Exchange was a manifestation of how valuable this time-based monopoly was, merchants from far and wide gathered at the Exchange to heai the latest wite repoits and then act on them Howev- ei, tlie changes in how commercial news got to tlie Exchange had impoitant consequences for Cinilliniti liewspaperS £15 well

P[he Telegraph Comes to the Merchants'Exchange

0 71}e L«incinn,iti Mcicli,ziits' Exchinge ws founded in 1843 by tile city's E,zing Men's Alercantile Libiary Association,which ltelf had been founded in 1835,in part to help meet the inforinational needs of its members by

34 OHIO VALLEY 11] SFORY BRADFORD W. SCHARLOTT AND MARY CARMEN CUP] TO

acquiring books and periodicals such as newspapers from other cities. Ihe' board of the library wrote that it started the Exchange at" the urgent solic- itation ofleading merchants of the city,who sought to emulate tlie success of thriving merchants' exchanges in cities like Philadelphia and New Or- leans. The city fathers believed that a vibrant exchange would help Cincin- nati ·achieve the growth of its more established trading partners to the east and south.3

The Mercantile Library set up a separate room for the Exchange, ind: it hired a record-keeper,Adam Peabody,to collect ·and keep statistics such as imports to and exports from the city by canal,river,and railroad. Ninety members of the library association immedi.ztely paid an annual fee to belong to the Exchange. Ihe' key to the future of the institution was to be the period of'Change,when members engaged in buying and selling with each oth- en In August 1846,the library turned the Exchange over to the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce, which relocated it to ·a larger room, c·alled Exch:inoreb Hall, in the newly rebuilt Cincinnati College Building ne·ar the center of downtown. Like the library beti,re it, the chamber designated a period of- Ch·,inge to commence at noon. At first, trading on 'Change Failed to catch on in a significant way But the officers of the cliamber had reason to believe that might soon change; in 1846 telegraph lines were being strung along much of the Elist Co·ast ·and plans were being made to extend the wires to Cincinnati. Indeed, the officers of the chamber were to become key players in a struggle over who would control the telegraph in the West.4 Ihey' hoped that the telegraph would,in more ways than one,electrifir the Exchange.5 On August 20, 1847, the first telegraph line reached Cincinnati, and it terminated in the College Building in a room above the Exchange I Iall. The line stretched north to Columbus, northeast to Pittsburgh,and then east to Philadelphia and the rest of the great east coast trading centers. Tic coming of telegraphed news, as the bo·ard of the Chamber anticipated, greatly enhanced the usefulness of the Exchange. A month after the arrival of the telegraph the Cincinnati Gazette observed:

A year ago, when 'Change was established in this city,the experiment was considered one of doubtful issue. Now,the institution could not be gotten along without. Our merchants would not know where else to go for the" news,"and would feel quite awkward were they to undertake to operate elsewhere than on'Change.6

Richard Smith,Voice Broadcasting, and the Cincinnati Price Current

Two groups wanted immediate access to telegraphed news ·as soon as the first telegraph line reached Cincinnati: members of the Cincinnati Mer-

chants'Exchange and the ci.ty's newspaper publishers. But in August 1847,

SPRING 2007 35 PROTO- BROADCASTING IN CINCINNATI, 1847- 1875

when the first and only telegraph line reached the city,there was an obvious infrastructure limitation the of information that could be on amount con-

veyed. In today's jargon,we might say there was a bandwidth"" issue. Morse code had to be tapped out one symbol at a time,with one to six taps signi- fying a single letter or number. An experienced telegrapher could transmit no more than one thousand words an hour in the early years of telegraphy.7 Moreover,it would take time for institutions to evolve to meet the separate needs of the merchants and the newspaper publishers. As a result,at first a single, enterprising person could meet the needs of both groups by providing both with the same package of news that came over the telegraph. In Cincinnati. that person was Richard Smith. Adam Peabody,the superintendent of the Exch·inge,, hired Smith in 1846 to go around the city and collect the commercial statistics that were kept at the Exchange. Smith was on hand when the first telegraphed message to Cincinnati (consisting of commercial news from the East Coast)was received in the room above the Merchants' Exch·ange. He was thus ideally situated to see the value of telegraphed news-and how to make money by brokering it. Smith soon set up what he c.alled the Telegraph News Service in Cincinnati and began selling to ten" or twelve papers"wire news reports he received from his counterpart,Alexander Jones, in New York City. Jones,who later became the first general manager of the Associated Press,recounted in 1852 that he commenced sending and receiving commercial reports...early in 1847 between New York,Baltimore,Boston and Buffalo,and subsequently between New York and Cincinnati,New Orleans and St. Louis."8 Jones listed Rich- ard Smith from whom he received about the Cincinnati as an agent news are·a,which he could then bundle with other reports from around the country and sell to the newspapers of New York City and elsewhere. Jones wrote that he paid his agents in other cities either weekly salaries or in steamers newsthe -latest news from Europe obtained from steamships as they reached the cast coast often( at Halifax)-which Jones arranged to receive in New York City. Jones forwarded such news to Smith, along with reports from other cities,and Smith then sold the news to the newspapers of Cin- cinnati,charging each six dollars a week at first,then escalating the charge he anscribed until it reached twelve dollars a week. Smith recalled that tr· the telegraphed news as it came in over the wire, making multiple copies for the newspapers that used his service and providing a free copy to the Mer- chants' Exchange.'

It is easy to imagine Smith,soon after the telegraph arrived in the city, awaiting the transmissions, making his copies, and then immediately taking the news to Peabody in the Exchange Hall below. Peabody undoubtedly posted such news on the Exchange's bulletin boards, since its bylaws explicitly called for him to do so. Exactly when Peabody began the practice of reading telegraphed news aloud-that is, orally broadcasting it to the merchants assembled there-is difficult to ascertain from documentary

36 OHIO VALLEY HISTORY BRADFORD W. SCHARLOTT AND MARY CARMEN CUPITO

evidence. However,it certainly commenced soon after the arrival of the telegraph. 11]he practice of reading commercial news aloud ·at exchanges h.ad started at least three centuries earlier ·at the Ant-werp Exchange in the Netherlands and was subsequently followed at other important exchanges:0 Orally broadcasting commercial ensured that news everyone at an ex- I change received it at exactlv the s·ame time, meaning no one gained an advantage over others by getting valuable news first. Still, some members of the Cincin- nati Exchange tried to get telegraphed ahead of news others. Ihe first months after six or so the coming of the telegraph to Cincinnati must have been a period of trial and er- ror for all parties involved in telegraphy and news-brokering. For one thing, the city' first telegraph the Pitts- s company- f burgh, Cincinnati Louisville& Tele- graph Co.-would not incorporate until February 1848, h·alf a year after the arrival of the telegraph; until then, agents of the promoter, Henry O'Reilly, handled 1 sending ind receiving messages at the Richard Smith, undated.CINCINNATI telegraph oflice the College MUSEUM CENTER. in Building CINCINNATI HISTORICAL SOCIETY LIBRARY as the new technology proved its worth to the potential investors. Moreover,the New York Associated Press would fully not organize until later the same year. But it would be at least a few more years before the Associated Press absorbed independent wire-news brokerages like Richard Smith's.11 lius,'] for much of 1848, Smith continued providing the Merchants' Exchange with a free copy of the wire news for which he was charging the dailies. But in the autumn of 1848, things would change.

Smith applied to become the superintendent of the Exchange at the beginning of the new fiscal year that started October 1, 1848. Ihe' board of the Exchange turned down his proposal,however,and reappointed Peabody, who was willing to do the job for less. Snubbed,Smith stopped providing a free copy of the market reports to the Exchange-and members of the Ex- change immediately missed getting them. At their October 16 meeting,the membership instructed Peabody to arrange for the resumption of the reports-meaning he was to work out a financial arrangement with Smith to provide them-and they voted to institute an evening hour of 'Change from seven to eight p.m.,in addition to the noon to one-thirty p.m.session. Ihe time of the evening session is significant; by September of that year,

SPRING 2007 37 PROTO- BROADCASTING IN CINCINNATI, 1847- 1875

alitt¢inuatiric; *41,%£ X,il 1*ent. CM©Ii¥NATI, WEDNENDAT IARCH H, 1 866 10 98.

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I. 'ATE. . Ntt ...£ LLU TATLOR CO& YORK ES TO... EN.*6 Mer/huta' B*ch//ge BuildiNg 0$1)V610.CS= .En{RA BUSINESS IN.All CARDS 00**tsssoll AND FORWA*DINO 31, m.a"rm GROCERS _ __ 1*ALT*1105*. i-I'll2.- I:& -- -* ctl#arM, 4*1 0*10 MEES#Al,EE)·Commi•sionMerehants,I**N:m::, • 'CHARLES B PITT, STRAIGHT, DEMING &C° RA SUGAR41.B gUrB 1.. ".....M'...... 3* t:=.S,t=&11tl.**01 I,g wtl*ky 1,0„4 Commission Merchant, paa. ALEXANDER LEATHEM, Duil J A DRAKE CO& 118 Lombpd StreeD Balt==

Commission Merchants mg wl"'ky, arn:",b" CU*a 1 0// UCk 96'(' N/RALLY 44 VINE STREET PROVISION BROKER, Nc8* 01>*..D '. .*.#*.CHARLES DAVIS 00& I,R' DE., OT&UiNATI U:ITO Fle/r, Grain, Fork, Sate/,Lard 0 87.BOLD ST, fT' 2 n,·»2*57,# and all kinds of Prole/* n= HUm,w.,wrry a co Pork and Beef Packers, a.' ri' ¥* 2.' 21....#I M#:.:3;'=M. I. AMFRN*CEG ae.1...'... ..'.. Care* w 6 NE¢*/2/6 544 Hof Extra Felatly /= 2*iuck":..:2&., A L WEI.to . .* 4: CINCINNATI o 167 S'%' 2%*otr":1'G BRASHEARS*SON. -HA.MAR0 .. A{3TRO13]61*§ G*BRALiCO*; M*Ag]00 PURWARD:* -----« Wl, 1* . NE0. .11'ORS NE**F ------liIMMISM#A MEROUNTS, ---- BL#...... 0 MjlaOHAN* RICH WATSON,& OUREROFEXTRA HAMS, WHOLESALE GROCERS -1 m nIG![WINEb, ALColfel, HIM¥, PRODUCE] Lointizissmi Merchants,gi=: *„,-, Fiour C rikild'Provision. Commission Merchants po„,

JAS.A FRAZER, I ll// naiI P ...... 0 NITONCO, / B» a,04,0 WHOLESALE GROOER ©OMM N .8. tn:: . 41.-.**0.. ZilmiaL E::6.:U: I:e••1"v0....{C]ANTS f:* C.™I &:St=NT- anaailw,hter Pred,Ece and er rre. 71es. of surday. L,™ L Hi SARGENT 00& 2. 8 er R ...HENRI .

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*q,i„ 0**a © 01,w»ion MerchBn*$, 111111!!!W.*.Lf!!Eje&311] . ij!114Commis*i COMM]*MTOSKEEA= * B.CO.I1JR. . eRA.H- .*P* t. ]TS, 3ET, EEN,Rt'%:77-5 CHICACO 1CDrS#**LiZES:Arlock,Oe. RU ./ .* 21% reha4 AM, BA.* 4& Weste, R€, B§:ter, h, 1 T. .0 15627$676-„ , rB,U,¥8 SALMOP=aRONmISK . m crve 0se, Ir:«'. 163.@160 CD*4*re=4*Ar ©*0h**4i 0 Ii,* e«lone'. per 90>UUSLLY = Asth»0ds:an MAsON CfTY BALT COMPANY, 1' No 52 WALNUT STR:BT CRYNING**AM 4 NOTs 2",*AY*914£ Watau*.$**:,Cmelu.* M'8 '*"M#»W' * : 61, 8®,nffe.. .. *../... rork racker-, Commission Merchants w, l I w 1.'..... 0, Cixf.hl.EDWIDGRANT, . mo*.5 not 1 elt, . - d .... I,10,„4„4,-I„,Cellail#le#Aerthintis lAS T ...... No 179 louth Water Striet, 1„ , 44,„mned w -The„ „ er - I..h. I-...... U,!E,AMORR,r RT. t„* =§ h*, CTE...... exe...em.ene - .t. ./ tem-lluaee, - *. ='.'.7.:2724:.72: P h-**. t St,*,4e ate,1,na, AmiS$ °Ww- CONIMI INS ION a, * ZZ: banker. and 'mP<@1[8%fo 1513"-'-: NATX nat. go*[ COMMISSIONmil AGENTS '-'' gr wir,hoN,Gum• = a eu. MISCELLANEOUSc. i.;reb*str ** KTS'* WEk Ex©. W*11... BABE, HARDING a HOWElL, BER*R 0-AS.,**.01,eo . *.. . g... .. FORWABDING MERCHANTS, 1.....*of the I.... 8 E:, N*n,le*er by }@14 Dtr ca,T. 1,d*r * 46-- * I .*ul.thiE Umpone.... al..0Hf. 4=#.0' Wholwale Grown, ROM#18 k CO. Stencil Plates, For T m# I·ettr atid Cost of PHIL.DELP.IA TLO.I R(,. r... per Cl]MMISSION AND FORWARDING r®pe by bih be od bnited StesG COMMISSION MERCHANTS, „ A·,Bl cm Irs.Ir Copper ommi,sie Trerrhs,. Its, RODIAk URTEU, CO m cm"", 742: dExehge- the# outb- . W1*.O.Um-13:* MEREMANTS 1«hi *8,*-10*I slil.-ted. PRODUOE nol0 * vest*.We... 4 lilli...'0 CIN('INNATr,0-0 W K LANI'InAR & Steanibeat agents \ CO aild &:the Anes#000 1#©1. Reh ®r*=liy Commisaton Merchant*, . w,-0* .4 wy Th«.z*--a-*m* 6[3

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Cincinnati Price Current March( 22, 1865) CINCINNATI MUSEUM CENTER CINCINNATI HISTORICAL SOCIETY LIBRARY

4() OHIO VALLEY HISTORY BRADFORD W. SCHARLOTT AND MARY CARMEN CUPITO

could competing regional firms. The management of the Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company,which was founded in 1851, seemed to understand that point,because it began an aggressive campaign of buying up rival telegraph companies as its own lines moved west from New York. By 1855, that company had absorbed so many other companies in the West that it changed its name to Western Union:9 In 1866,Western Union bought out its last remaining significant com- petitor and became,at least for a while, the nation's first industrial monopoly. Western Union eventually became the dominant provider of commercial information to market institutions. In the same ye·ar it formed a Commerci·al News Department,which allied itself with the commercial-news-gathering operation ofthe Associated Press and began transmitting ·a synopsis ofpric- es in leading markets sever·al times a day to subscribers. In 1871, West- ern Union gained control of an innovative firm called the Gold and Stock Telegraph Company,which made use of an early ticker-a high-speed telegraphic device that printed readable type on a strip of paper-to update continuously certain stock or commodity prices in and around New York City. Two years later,Western Union merged its Commercial News De- partment and Gold and Stock,effectively establishing a subsidiary company, and began using its high-speed ticker technology to update constantly stock and commodity prices and send commercial news items to its subscribers throughout the day.20 The Cincinnati Merchants'Exchange made great use ofWestern Union's services. In 1856, the Merchants'Exchange awarded Western Union the right to place a desk with ·a telegraphic instrument and operator-in ef- feet a mini-office that could send and receive messages-in the Exchange Hall itself 1[he arrangement,which continued for decades and was in effect as late as 1875, certainly enhanced the ability of the Exchange to get wire news to its members quickly The volume of telegraphed reports increased dramatically in the 1860s and 1870s as the Exchange made use ofWestern Union's commercial-news service and the Gold and Stock tickers placed in the Exchange Hall. Indeed,in 1874,one year after the Exchange began using the Gold and Stock service, the Exchange doubled from two to four the number of bulletin boards on which it posted telegraphed news. Ihe' extra boards were needed to provide enough space for the increased volume of market reports.21 Perhaps in part because of the increased availability of commercial news, the Exchange Hall was nearly overflowing by 1875, with 1,162 members. The superintendent wrote in his annual report for 1874-75 that the Exchange Hall had been barely" adequate"to accommodate the members the previous winter. To help deal with the crowding,in 1875 the Exchange leased a second large room adjacent to the main room,into which it moved the provi- sions trade mainly( dealing with pork)as well as two of the bulletin boards. By that fall,with the Exchange split into two different rooms and with the

SPRING 2007 41 PRO TO- BROAI)CASTING IN CINCINNATI, 1847- 1875

Gold and Stock market updates and commercial news being transmitted and posted repeatedly throughout the day, the practice of broadcasting news by voice must have become unworkable. A significant portion of the membership could not hear oral reports because they were in the other room, and time constraints probably precluded reading aloud the large volume of news during'Change. Thus,in his annual report in September,the superintendent observed, The previous practice of reading the telegraphic reports during the Exchange session has been discarded during the past year."22 By 1875, broadcasting news by voice at the Exchange was dead. 1[he Cincinnati Merchants' Exchange continued to thrive thoughout most of the nineteenth century. Eventually,however,new communications technologies undermined it. Telephones were introduced into the city in 1877,and by 1882 at the latest the Exchange was making use of them. In his annual report for 1882-83, the superintendent noted that the Exchange had installed five telephones with three ·attendents. The use of phones in freed the Exchange some merchants from the necessity of being there because they could call the Exchange for the latest information they needed. Perhaps even more consequential to the Exchange th·an telephones was the spread of ticker-tape machines. By 1904 investment brokers in the city had begun using tickers in their own offices,thus offering distant market information to clients as quickly as the Exchange could. A Chamber of Com- merce publication noted in 1916 that trading at the Exchange was at that time limited to just a few items: Formerly," many other articles were dealt in, but with the advent of the telephone and other modern instruments ofbusi- ness, the barter on the Exchange has been limited to grain and hay. 1[he spread of telephones and tickers ended the Exchange's time-based monopoly on distant market information,ultimately dooming the institution.23

Conclusions

Voice broadcasting of telegraphed news began at the Cincinnati Merchants Exchange because it was the most efficient way to get news to members quickly. This type of broadcasting was similar to radio broadcasting that would sched- come in the next century.The broadcasts were to some degree regularly uled, they were heard by numerous listeners though( not a mass audience), and they brought distant news to those listeners almost immediately. There disseminated wide- was,however,an important difference: Messages were not attract listeners ly over a large geographical area. Instead, the reports helped from a large metropolitan region and beyond to a single place-the Exchange Hall. In doing so, the telegraphed news served as a catalyst to business at the Merchants'Exchange. Whereas trading on 'Change failed to catch on before the telegraph, reading aloud the wire news there acted as a magnet for buyers and sellers, helping turn the Exchange into a thriving business center. this In Innis's terms, the bias" of communication"in case was toward greater

42 OHIO VALLEY HISTORY BRADFORD W. SCHARLOTT AND MARY CARMEN CUPITO

market activity in interior markets like Cincinnati, since the telegragh helped equalize timely access to commercial information in cities across the nation. Utimately,later innovations in communication technology-notably tlie telephone and the ticker-undermined the Exchange. The time-based monopoly of knowledge conferred by the telegr·aph on the Exchange was eliminated by these new communications devices. Ihe' adoption of such rapid communication technology as tickers and telephones enabled places like the Chicago Board ofTrade and the New Orleans Cotton Exchange to gain national influence,and merchants no longer needed to ·attend local exchanges like that in Cincinnati to do business with each other.34

Like the Cincinnati Merchants'Exchange, Cincinnati's newspapers had to adjust to the coming of wire news. Soon after the arrival of the telegraph, the daily papers and the Exchange worked out issues relating to who would pay for the telegraphed news that they shared, and Rich·ard Smith recalled that his Telegraph News Service had to keep raising rates because the number of dailies that used his service kept dropping. Qpite possibly,the extra costs involved in obt·aining wire news forced some margin·al dailies out of business. Still,if some dailies faltered after the coming of the telegraph, Cincinnati Price Citi- at least one weekly,the rent,thrived, serving as an in- house chronicle of activities at the Merchants' Exchatige. li Finally,this study raises the question of whether voice broadcasting of telegraphed news happened at other places besides the Cincinnati Mer- chants' Exchange. One scholar estimates that about a dozen market institutions arose around the time the telegraph spread across the United States, adding to those already in existence.26 In alllikelihood,the Cincinnati Mer- chants' Exchange was not unique in how it disseminated telegraph news. Voice broadcasting ofwire news was probably the norm,at least for a while, at exchanges across the country following the coming of the telegraph.

Acknowledgements: truly revolutionary in the speed at which it transmitted commercial news; see, for example,John Nerone, 7be The authors wish thank John H.White and Christa to Culture oftbe Press in tbe Early Republic:Cincinnati, Kilvington as well as two anonymous reviewers for helpful 1793-1848 New York: Garland Publishing, 1989),37-

P-,1 , comments they made on the manuscript. 39. taking a long view,from 1793 to 1848,Ncronc irgues that the telegraph provided evolutionary,not 1 Michael Emery,et al,e Press* andimerica:An revolutionary,improvement in the tiine it took Interpretive History of tbe Mass Media,9th ed.Needham ( news to Heights,MA: Allyn Bacon,& 2000),269-70. appear in newspapers. That may be true with regard to speed at which news waspublisbed,but oral transmission 2 Harold Innis, 7be Bias of Communication Toronto: at exchanges meant business people did not have to University of toronto Press,1951),and Empire and wait for the information to appear in a newspaper to Communications Oxford: Clarendon Press,1950). make use of it. By going to exchanges, they could get the latest inforniation in of hours minutes For an overview of the impact of the telegraph and 21 m,ltter or other technology on the Exchange, see Bradford W. instead of days. Scharlott,Communication ' Technology Transforms the Marketplace: The Effect of the Telegraph,Telephone, 3 On the early history of the Mercantile Library,see Sallie The and Ticker on the Cincinnati Merchants' Exchange, H.Barringer and Bradford W.Scharlott," Cincinnati Obio History 113 Winter-Spring 2004),4-17. Some Mercantile Library as a Business-Communications historians have questioned whether tlie telegraph was Center,1835-1846;in ReadingsLibraries: * Proceedings

SPRING 2007 43 PROTO- BROADCASTING IN CINCINNATI, 1847- 1875

oftbe Library History Seminar VIII,ed.Don G.Davis, Louisville Telegraph Company: its first president Jr Austin:( The University ofTexas Graduate School was James C. Hall,who was also president of the of Library and Information Science,1991).On the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce and Merchants' America Philadelphia Merchants' Exchatige, see J.Thomas Scharf Exchange;sce James D. Reid, 7be Telegraph in anel"\hompsonWestcott,History ofPhiladelphia 1609- New York: Derby Brothers, 1886),179-84; and 1884,vol. 1 (Phil·adelphia: L. H. EvertsCo., & 1884), Robert L.Thompson, Wiring a Continent Princeton, 634-35; on the New Orleans Merchants' Exchange, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1947),121. For see Nero Orleans City Guide,Federal Writers'Project a description of the life of a news telegrapher,see Boston: Houghton Mifilin Co.,1938),232. On the Alex·ander Jones,Historical Sketeb ofthe Electrit·Telegrapb Cincinn·ati board's views about the urgency of st'arting Including Its Rise and Progress in the United StatesNew (] the Exchange,see Young Men's Mercantile Library York: George R Putn·am, 1852),149. Association, Minutes,Jan. 6, 1846, Records ofthe Young 8 Richard Smith, in George Mortimer Roe, cd., Men's Mercantile Library Association,Mercantile Library,Cincinnati hereafter( MLC).The board minutes Cincinnati:«Ibe Queen City ofthe West,Iler Principal Men and Instituions,Biographical Sketcbes,and Portraits of on Apr. 1, 1845 noted: It" cannot of course be expected Leading Citizens,Descriptive Accounts of her Enterprises th.it :in Institution like the Merch.ints Exchange in so Cincinn:iti: Tlie Cincinnati Times-Star Co.,1895), new a City as this should possess all the dttractions and advantages of similar Institutions in the Eastern and 266:lones.Historical Sketch ofthe Electriclblegrapt, ' 148. Note th.,Jones first started sending Southern Cities,but it is ...the nucleus of a future and t commercia] reports, general permanent Exclianee which shall be in time adequate to not news. the business wants ot our commercial community." 9 For Smith's memoirs of his time iii the Exchange, Roe, Queen City oftbe /*266. Sce also Reid, 4 Young Men's Mercantile Library Association,Minutes, see st, Telegrapb in America,168-69. Reid, the first July 8, 1843, Records of the Young Men's Mercantile manager Library Association,MLC; Constitution and By-Lasus of the pioneering Pittsburgh, CincinnatiLouisville & of the Cincinnati Chamber of Commeree and Merciallts' Telegraph Company,recalled that in 1851 market Exchange As Adopted At tbe Reorganization oftbe reports from cities such as New York,Philadelphia,and Pittsburgh according schedule Chamber,Aup't,st 11, 1846 Cincinnati,( 1847).For the were sent to a routine ich rning. He does make clear whet, thpit Chamber:s role in telegraph in Cincinnati, see Bradford e. mc, not W. Scharlott, The" Telegraph and the Integration practice started. of the U.S. Economy:1[he Impact of Electrical 10 The Cincinnati Merchant Exchange's bylaws,section Lommunications on Interregional Prices and the 4, stated: Bulletin" Boards shall be erected in the Hall, Commercial Life of Cincinnati,"Chapter 2 (Ph.D. diss., whereon the latest general interest, Universitv of'#Visconsin, 1986),37-83. news of recent reports of important mercantile transactions iii this and 5 Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce and Merchants other markets . shall be placed by the S uperintendent, Exchange, Minutes, Sept. 16,1846,Meetings of at the earliest possible moment";Constitution of tbe Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce and Merchants' Cincinnati Mmbants'Exchange. Whether any particular Exchange, Cincinnati I listorical Society Library wire report was read aloud before being posted probably hereafter CHSL).The members of the chamber depended on when it was transmitted. Items sent after unanimously adopted this resolution:Whereas " the the Exchatige had closed were probably posted on the project of connecting Cincinnati with the Eastern bulletin boards for merchants tc) read as they came in the morning;items during the day,particularly Cities,by means of the magnetic Telegraph, has already next sent been commenced in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh aroutid the period of'Change froin noon to one thirty probably read aloud. For description of and in a short period will probably be presented for pm,were a merchants exchanges throughout history, John J the consideration of our citizens; and w]1ere,ls its see M:Cusker, The" Demise of Distance: The Business termin·ation in the College Buildings is essential to the Press and the Origins of the Information Revolution in prosperity and success of the Merchants' Exchange; American Historical therefore Resolved that the members of the Chamber the Early Modern Atl,intic World," Review 110 Apr.( 2005),3 of Commerce pledge themselves individually to use all proper influence to effect this object." 11 Richard A. Schwarzlose,New " York City's Built Newsbroker· Emerge, in 7be Nationf Newsbrokers, 6 Recounted in Ohio Federal Writers'Project, 7,5,y ages vol.1: lbe« Foi ijidtil) Years:From Pi ddeg]-ap/to 1865 a City.·150 Years of Industrial CincinnatiCincintrati·. ( e J Cincinnati Post,1938),328-29; 7be Gazette Cincitin'ati) Chicago: Northwestern University Press, 1989),esp. Sept. 20, 1846. 100-01. Schwarzlose provides evidence that the New York Associated Press functioned as early as May 1848, 7 Ilie' first telegr'aph line to Cincinnati was incorporated and details how its first years were somewh·at chac,tic as on Feb. 18, 1848,as The Pittsburgh, Cincinnati & AP principals in New York, the telegraph companies,

44 OHIO VALLEY HISTORY BRADFORD W. SCHARLOTT AND MARY CARMEN CUPITO

and AP correspondents like Smith sorted out their and became a prominent Republican editor after the roles and responsibilities. Smith probably continued Civil War. See Roe, Queen City oftbe West,266-68;and to run his local news brokerage until he bought a Blondheim, News Over the Wires,176. Every sizable controlling the Cincinnati Gazette in 1854. interest in American exchange probably had a prices-current He later became leading figure the Associated a in publication associated with it; see McCusker,Demise " Press;see Schw·arzlose, 7be Nation's Newsbrokers,123- of Distance,"19-21. 68. Menahem Blondlicim suggests that, in some 18 Chmnber of Commerce and Merchants' Exchange, respects,the New York Associated Press organized as· Annual early as 1846;see Blondheim,"The Click: Telegraphic Reports of 1852, 1856, 1866,1875,CHSL. Amounts rounded Technology,Journalism, and the Transformations of-the are to nearest whc,le dollar.Ihe ' New York Associated Press,"American Joll-nalism 17 Chamber of Commerce changed its full name to the Fall 2000),27-52. Cincinnati Chaniber ot Coinmerce .ind Merchants'

Exchange in 1850, when it was chartered under that 12 Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce and Merchants' name by the state of Ohio. See Chamber of Commerce Exchange, Minutes,Sept. 12, Oct. 16, 1848,Meetings and Alerchants'Exchange, 100th" Anniversary Dinner, of Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce and Mercliants' Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce,"1939 (pamphlet), Exch.inge. CHSL. Indications about the importance Cl ISL. of the timing ofmarket reports can be gleaned from 259-98. datelines in the Cincinnati Daily Commercial,which 19 7hompson, Wiring a Continejit, show that from news east coast cities often came in Litid 1. thc befoic publicitic)! 2(») 1b· ·,1 d»j,i-iptioii of Ieskri» Union's 6.i'(,Irth, see aic, ten p.117.1 (, zter eveniilg 1 1 Blondhe im, News Over the Wires,143-68, 176. For the first half of 1848; however,the times dropped ill the more infi,rmation on Gold and Stock, sec Reid, second half of the year,generally arriving by seven p.m. Telegraph in America,822-24. For further information by Sept. 1hc c,irlier times perhaps reflect in part tlic fact about Western Union' tliat the Pittsburgh, CincinnatiLouisville & Telegraph s history,see David Hochfelder, Constructing Industrial Divide: Western Union, Co.built a second line in 1848,which presumably helped an AT&T,and the Federal Government, 1876-1971," eliminate bottlenecks in transmitting market reports in a 180. Business iii:story Review 76 Winter( 2002),705-32. timely way; sce Reid, Telegrapb in Anierica,

21 Cincinnati Chamber of Coinmerce and Nlerchants' 13 For the chinge in le.idership, see Cindnnati Chamber of Commerce and Merchants' Exchange, Minutes, Exchange,Minutes, Dec. 8, 1855,Jan. 14, 1856, Jan. 12, 19, 1849, Meetings of Cincinnati Chatiiber Sept. 14,1875, Meetings of Cincinnati Chamber of ofCommerce and Merchants' Exchange, CHSL. For Commerce and Merchants' Exchange,CHSL. Perhaps adding to the increased volume of telegrahic traffic the ch.inge in payinents for telegraphed news, sce ibid., was the fact that Western Unic, purchased from Thomas Oct. 2, 1848. Smith made his remarks about Peabody's n Edison the rights his quadruplex technology in the leaving the Chamber in Roe,Qi,een City oftbe Uf'st, 266. to early 18705,which essentially doubled the capacity of 14 Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce and Merchants' existing telegraph lines by allowing two messages to Exchange,Minutes, Nov. 1851, Meetings of Cincinnati be sent simultaneously in each direction over a single Chamber of Commerce and Merchants' Exchange, wire.See Western Union Telegraph Company,1851-1901 CHSL. New York:James Kempster, 1901),34. Whether this device was used on the lines to Cincinnati before 1875, 15 Cincinnati Price Current,Dec.12,1855 italics[ added_]. however,is unclear.

A permanent transattantic cable was not laid until 22 Cincinnati Cliamber of Commerce and Merchants' 1866. As a result,American merchants continued to Exchange,Minutes,Sept. Meetings rely on steamers for the latest European news. See also 14,1875, of Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce and Merchants' Thompson, Wiring a Continent,427-39. Exchange, CHSL. The Exchange was at this time 16 See McCusker, Demise« of Distance,"17. housed at Smith and Nixon Hall,having moved there iti 1869 after a fire destroyed the College Building;see 17 Ibid.,14. A perusal ofall extant copies ofthe weekly Charles E Goss,Cincinnati:The Queen City 1788-1912 Cincinnati Price Current from 1851-60,plus selected Chicago: S. J. Clarke Publishing Co.,1912),350-51. issues f-roni 1846-49 found no evidence th·at Smith, or Peabody before him,paid anything to the Cincinn·ati 23 On the introduction of telephones to the city,see Merchants' Exchange for the right to publish the Cincinnati Bell Centennial 1873-1973 Cincinnati, newspaper. Smith published the Price Current from 1973),6-7;and Chamber of Commerce and Merchants' 1849 to 1854, when lie bought an interest in a leading Exchange,Annual Report,1882, CHSL. For the Cincinnati daily,the Gazette. He later merged tlie reference on telephones at the Chamber,see Chamber of Gazette with another Cincinnati daily,the Commercial, Commerce and Merchants'Exchange, Annual Report,

SPRING 2007 45 PROTO- BROADCASTING IN CINCINNATI, 1847- 1875

1883, CHSL. For ticker-tape machine information, the daily newspapers of Cincinniti.like most dailies see Willia,izs'Cincinnati Dii-ectory,1904 Cincinnati: in the Utilted States, had to de.i] with the expenses of WilliamsCo., & 1904),36-37. For changes in trade membership in the Associated Press or competing iiews the Exchange, Charles R. Hebble and Frank p brokeraots. See Schwardose, 732 Nationk Newbrokers, at see b Goodwin,eds.,7be Citizew Book Cincinnati: Stew· art & vols. 1 and 2, f-or in. especially comprehensive tre,itment Kidd Company,1916),187-88. The Exchange lingered f the topic. While sonic newspapers may have been least until the Chamber' centennial in 1939; on, at s forced out of business by the telegraph, other research Chamber of Commerce and Merchants' Exchange see suggests that its coming spurred the appe'arance of looth Anniversary Dinner,Cincinnati Chamber of new daily newspapers in Wisconsin;see Bradford W Commerce,"1939 pamphlet),( CI ISL. This paniphlet Scharlott,The " Influence of the Telegraph on Wisconsin refers daily trading session-perpetuated this to a" to Newspaper Growth, Journalism Quarter/v 66 (Autumn day in the Mercantile Exchange."By the time the 1989),710-15. llie' apparent differential impact may Chamber moved building in 1965, however, urban to a new be because Cinc'innati was, 11-clativelv mature the Exchange dead and provisjons made was no were market with numerous dailies,while Wisconsin was for one; C." of C. Planning to Move Ollices," few substanti,11 outside a new still near the ti-ontier with cities Mar. 1965, Cincinnati Cincinnati Enqui/er,· 11, in of Milw,iukee when the telegriph spread. Their the Chamber of Commerce Scrapbook,CHSL. Cincinnati Price Cul·rent thrived is evident from its The circulation the close of the first 24 Cincinnati Chamber of-Commerce President Samuel own pages: " at volume 1843][ was about four hundred. In 1849,it had E Covington wrote in 1875: A' very large proportion- increased to eight hundred. Now we have an average perhaps ninety per cent,or more-of the business circulation of 2,200";Cincinnati P»rice Current,Oct.5, transacted upon the floor of this Merchants' Exchange 1853. In 1857, the paper as doing so well t]1at it began is done upon the basis oftelegraphic quotations."732 w· Postal Telegraph:Remarks of S. E Covington submitted publishing an abbreviated daily edition which contained in addition this ket, by telegraph to the Cincilinati Chamber of Commerce,Oct. 5,1875 to m.u reports of the New Orleans and New York markets. It is Op,11}plilet),CI ISL. For insights oil the role of the published each afternoon 4 clock,and is furnished telegraph in market development, sec Scharlott, at 0' Communication Technology Transforms the to subscribers at two celits per copy. 1 low lollg this daily edition continued is unclear; Cincinnati Price Marketplace,"4-17; and James W.Carey, Teclinolc,« gy see Curl· Dec.30,1857. and Ideology: The Case of the Telegraph,"Pro,perts 8 rent, 1983),303-23. 26 Richard B. DuBoff,The " Telegraph and the Structure of Markets in the United States,1845-1890,"Researcb in 25 Fc,r a description of the m·arketing oftelegraphed news, Iiistory 8 1983),( 258. see Roe, Qu,711 Ci(v tbe* fist,/ 266. Later, of course, Economic

46 OHIO VALLEY HISTORY 31*

iTfi

1» I »*:

College Hill, ca 1860 CINCINNATI MUSEUM CENTER CINCINNATI HISTORICAL SOCIETY LIBRARY

The Persistence of Place

Alice Cary's Authentic Rural Settings

Robert T Rhode

lice Cary,the nineteenth-century poet and romanticist from North College Hill, composed short stories that capture scenes of rural 1 1. America Readers of Cary's fiction, set in the pre-Civil War en- of carly Ohio, virons of Cincinnati, see the split-rail fences and cottages the bieezes feel the summer sunshine on the southein-facing hills, and hear wafting through the orchaids Cary's settings have not giown pale from the passing of time,rather,they are vivid descriptions of important places of her youth In the preface to Clovernook Or Recollections of Our Neighborhood in tbe Wert the first series, 1852),Cary explicitly stated her authorial program

The pastoral life of our country has not been a favorite sub]ect of illustration by painters, poets, or writers of romance Perhaps lt has been regarded as wanting in the clements of beauty,perhaps it has been thought too passionless and even,or it may have been deemed too immediate and familiar In the interior of my native state, and which was a wilderness when first my father went to it, iS now crowned with a dense and prosperous population, there is surely as

47 SPRING 2007 THE PERSISTENCE OF PLACE

much in the simple manners, and the little histories every day re- be those old vealed, to interet us in humanity,as there can in em- pires where the press of tyrannous laws and the deadening influence ofheteditary acquiescence necessarily destroy the best life of hollety The masters of literature who at,iny time have attempted the exhibition of ruial life, h,ive,with few exceptions,known scarcely anything of it trom participation,and however brilliant may have been their pictures, therefore, they have seldom been true I believe that for these ketches I may challenge of competent witnesses at least this testimony,that the circumst,inces have i. natural and prob- able air which should induce theii i eception as lic)nest relation. 1

Cary's evocations of the lural Ohio of her eitly years often take the forms of classical pastor,tls The tradition of the classical pastoral in Amet- lean literatule 15 based more often on Virgil, the Roman poet who lived between 70 and 19 B C.,th,in on Hesic,d, the Greek poet who lived in the eighth century B C Both 2)LLE(A: 11/LL Tpal Hesiod' 1 be Wil: 111£1 Davi 111] t 1„1 11 s Georcri ind Virgil' 6 i inspired IZ 64,,/ r * 5121 s 5- 1 7- 1 by Hesiodi poetry-focus on the land, the values of farmers,

I. - and the moiality detived from

Tr------rur'il culture, but the pei spec- T 441# 4 be ' 4' tives Of Virgil and Heiod dif- 104-* 4. ,- fered considerably Hesiod' 1, s V -, 1.0 F-!1171;*1 father fat who QH'f. was a poor mer 04, became · i fisherman to provide 1 food for hih family A ccor ding- 19 ly,Hesiod portrayed hard-nosed, tough-skinned farmers, whose 1 . 1 4.' 4, 434 struggle for existence made them pragmatic Hesiod wrote of rural life,Inferiotity ' be tE..,-2-64.,': Can j 035»W,-»E-di&& got in dioves, easily tlie ioad is 11 smooth, and she lives 4 \ es„.r. . .Z..'©*r#.* very neat 435€74 But in front of Supel ic)1 ltv the ki'i:Ari=t:1'-- immort,11 gods set sweat, it is d Location of property in College Hill owned by various members of long and fteep path tc) hei, and the Cary family,7-/tus'Atlas ofHam//ton Co Ohio (1 869) CINCINNATI rough fit 2 By MUSEUMIENTER CINCINNAIIHISTORICALSOCI[ TYIIBRARY at st " contrast, Virgil expiessed a mtich more positive view of countiy life, writing, If" they but knew' 1[hey're steeped in luck, countiy people, being far removed fiom grinds of war,where earth that's just showers them with all that they could evet ask foi "-'Vitgili cele- bration of a golden age of natute,which he hoped could be restored, derived

48 OHIO VALLEY HISTORY ROBERT T. RHODE

from his wealthy upbringing in a country estate surrounded by the protec- tive government of the most powerful civilization on earth. Prior to the Civil War,American authors tended to espouse a Virgilian perspective having little to do with real f-armers ·and their hard work;instead, they constructed a myth of an abundant and nurturing nature, available to anyone who would live in simple harmony with the woods and stre·ams. Cary's stories, however, have more in common with Hesiod,whose respect for his father's rock-strewn farm grew in proportion to the effort required to wrest a living from the unforgiving land. Cary created p·astorals that depicted a customarily hard but occ·asionally noble ·agrarian life,no matter how impoverished Farmers might have been. Cary recognized that in rural villages. regardless of how

backward residents might appear,people lived noble lives. The nobility Cary depicted is only partially dimmed by the ignorance, want, and greed that she also portrayed as aspects of rural cornmu- nities. Considering Cary a Hesiodic writer can help readers underst·and her work.

Alice Cary may well have located many of her short stories in real places in rural areas. While her treatment of cities was merely symbolic, Cary's de- A\\Cary,Ladies'Repository August 1855). scriptions of country scenes and villages were often ce CINCINNATI MUSEUM CENTER, CINCINNATI HISTORICAL enough for researchers accurate to serve as maps SOCIETYLIBRARY to follow. She situated key plot moments in specific rural locales to accentuate her themes. Cary not only celebrated the gifts of-various country people but ·also leveled critical judgments ag·ainst the paro- chial tendencies of others. She further portrayed the cruelty of nature in ways that differ markedly from her sentimental verses. In her fiction,Cary offered an authentic voice of rural mid-nineteenth-century America. Cary emphasized the disparity between the conflict within cities and

the cohesion of rural communities. In her story entitled Mrs." Wetherbe's Qyilting Party,"her narrator describes Cincinnati:

Mly home is in the 'hilly country' that overlooks this Western Qyeen, whose gracious sovereignty I Lim proud to acknowledge, and within whose fair dominions this hilly country lies. I cannot choose but pause and survey the picture: the Kentucky shore is all hidden with mist, so that I try in vain to see the young cities of which the sloping suburbs are washed by the Ohio,river of beauty! Except here and there the gleam of a white wall, or a dense column of smoke that rises through the silver mist from hot furnaces where swart labor drives the thrifty trades, speeding the march to elegance

SPRING 2007 49 THE PERSISTENCE OF PLACE

Cincinnati in 1832,"The Woman's Home Companion (February 1926).CINCINNATI MUSEUM CENTER. CINCINNATI

HISTORICAL SOCIETY LIBRARY

and wealth. I cannot see the blue green nor the golden green of the oat and wheat fields, that lie beyond these infant cities, nor the dark ridge of woods that folds its hem of shadows along their bor-

ders, for all day yesterday fell one of those rains that would seem to exhaust the clouds of the deepest skies, and the soaked e·arth this morning sends up its coal-scented and unwholesome fogs, obscur- ing the lovely picture th·at would else present itself. I can only guess where the garrison is. Long... before the sunrise I woke to the music of the reveille, that comes morn after morn floating over the waters and through the crimson daybreak,to chase the dream from my pillow. Faintly I discern the observatory crowning the summit of the mount above me, and see more distinctly at its base the red bricks of St. Philomena, and more plainly still the brown iron and glittering brass of its uplifted spire,with the sorrowful beauty of the

cross over all; while midway between me and the white shining of the tower of the cathedral,away toward the evening star,I catch the dark outline of St. Xavier. Beautiful!4

Details are filtered through the narrator,but readers suspect that the narrator reflects Cary's vision. Early in the story,the narrator may be less invare th:in Cary of the irony in the excl,imation that ends the quotation. Mist hides the picture of the Kentucky hills. Only white walls recalling whited sep- zilchers, thick smoke, and hot furnaces wherein laborers make the rich rich-

er can be discerned through the coal-" scented and unwholesome"fog. Rains that exhaust weeping clouds, garrisons that defend the land commandeered from the indigenous people, rusty iron girders in church spires, sorrows of the crucifixion,and shadowy outlines of churches are the full complement of the picture that the n:irrator calls beautiful." By the story's end, the narrator has become fully conscious that cities are sources of corruption.

50 OHIO VAI.I. EY HISTORY ROBERT T. RHODE

Cary's descriptions of rural places were less panoramic, less pejora- tive, more photographic, and more focused than her descriptions of urban areas. She deliberately sep·arated cities from farms and villages by treating metropolitan scenes symbolical- ly while portraying rural locales realistically She invoked specific rural places to underscore key elements in her plots. Her dia- lectic between city and farm was not a simplistic echo of a good- versus-evil theme, for she was fully capable of exercising critic·al judgments against farmers ind villagers. Half of-her short sto- Tollgate Hamilton Avenue,College Hill, undated. ries end unhappily wliile on CINCINNATI expos- MUSEUMCENTER CINCINNATI HISTORICAL SOCIETY LIBRARY ing the frequent limitations and

occ·asional abuses of country folk. She was equally able to depict the cruelty of nature. Cary was no sentimentalist. In her short fiction, she faithfully chronicled the rural life of her youth.

Cary's biography intertwined with that of her sister Phoebe, who also became an accomplished authon Mary Clemmer,who also published under her married name,Mary Ames,was a close friend of Alice and Phoebe. As their first biographer,her work emphasized the strong bonds between the 5 Alice and Phoebe the fourth and sisters. were sixth

of nine children. Alice was born in 1820, four vears before Phoebe. Ihey' grew up on a Farm along the H,lmilton Road, a mile south of Mt. He·althy,and they so cherished the of their youth that they often about Il' ts 4 - cottage wrote it I '» 0, 44#:.« se- ' .'5,st' :.. 6'. ' I 4%Sit' in later Their home set within an orchard,and 145» f' vears. was *a pink Old World climbing rose covered one side of the fS».11*#- A,53='F,# : Atif - humble dwelling. Clemmer portrayed Alice and Phoebe's j«*.b .;.<»Stl Ir/{*father,Robert Cary,as a soft-spoken,gentle,and sensitive who loved horses and who liked read. Despite his 41*»}-*:#.Ull/,0***1 man to respect for books, Robert had gathered only a few volumes Phoebe Cary,undated. the family' edification: Bible, hymnal, history of CINCINNATIMUSEUMCENTER, f-or s a a a

CINCINNATI HISTORICAL SOCIETY the Jews,a book on Lewis and Clark,a collection of Alex- LIBRARY ander Pope's essays, Charlotte Temple,and Black Penitents. The latter work was missing its final pages,which left Alice in suspense for life. Alice and Phoebe read and reread the the remainder of her Trumpet,a publication of the Universalists th·at included a Poet'" s Corner."Wie family's meager literary fare helps explain why Alice and Phoebe became writers of sentimental and religious rhymed verse. A frequently quoted anecdote in Clemmer's memorial to Alice and Phoebe involved the new house that Robert built in 1832. Before the family

SPRING 2007 51 TIIE PERSISTENCE OF PLACE

nioved in, a severe thunderstorm swept through North College Hill. At about four 0'clock in the afternoon,the sun broke through the clouds. Alice, Phoebe, and other f-emily members saw their sister Rhoda born( in 1818) with their sister Lucy (born ill 1829)in her arms. Rhoda was standing in the doorway of the new structure. Suddenly,the real Rhoda came down from the loft in the old cottage where the family was gathered. She said she had left Lucy asleep upstairs. Shocked and surprised, looked again rn everyone at the new house. ine apparition of Rhoda and Lucy slowly melted into the ground. By December of the following year,both Rhoda and Lucy had died. 111, family concluded e that the paranormal event had been an ill omen. In succeeding sightings years, of Lucy's ghost-wearing a red frock-were frequent,and Alice later incorpor·ated these ghostly occurrences in her stories. Ilie Carys noted that, begin-

ning in 1833, at least one death relative took place 64'4' :'ft_Y' ' of-d annual- :.i ,' *,: h " 5

ly,and they traced the melan- 4 choly years b·,ick to the incident f ../4 {Ii) Ii-1 .9«, ' 4+ f J' '),42 involving Rhoda and Lucy.Ihe ' loss of Rhoda was particularly 4417=- distressing to Alice, for she and -_-_- mperrir-- Li:,./--...... SESSES,Irr:. Rhoda were especially compat- r,2, ible. Throughout her life, Al- 6.

ice maintained thlt Rhod,1 had »» 50*» 2*4 been the best storyteller in the y-. tai-nily. At the outset of Alice' Cary Cottage,College Hill, undated. CINCINNATI MUSEUM CENTER. s CINCINNATI HISTORICAL SOCIETY LIBRARY literary career, at least one reviewer accused her of conjuring an excessively funcreal tone in her poems, but Clemmer reasoned that Alice was merely recording her life experience, which happened to include the deaths of so many of-the Cary family." In 1835,Alice and Phoebe's beloved mother,Elizabeth,passed away. In 1837, Robert remarried. Flis new wife,Anna Schmidt,was a childless wid- ow of the right age, but one wonders what Robert saw in her. According to Clemmer,Anna compulsively forced the family to adhere to a strict daily routine. There was no time for foolish indulgences,such as writing. At ages seventeen and thirteen, respectively,Alice ·,ind Phoebe began to compose At · verses. age fourteen,Phoebe secretly sent one of her poems to a Boston newspaper. In those days, papers freely borrowed from one another. Phoe- be was surprised to see her poem printed in a Cincinnati newspaper. She felt clated. Clemmer reported that Phoebe no longer cared that she was poor and that her clothes were plain. What mattered was that newspapers h·,id validated her talent.7

Anna was not thrilled with Phoebe's success. 1[he only break that Al- ice and Phoebe had from the chores of the daylight hours was at night, and Anna demanded th·,it candles be conserved. Ingeniouslv,the sisters

52 0 11 1 O VALLEY HISTORY ROBERT T. RHODE

devised a lamp made from a saucer, a· rag wick,and lard. By the light of this appar'atus, they created poems in the night. They hid their writings in the cubbyhole beneath the western staircase of the new house. Alice began to publish her verses in the Trunipet and in Cincinnati papers, but she also found her work acceptable to the editors of Grabani's,a leading literary journal,and 7be National Era,a ·weekly abolitionist newspaper published in Washington,D. C. Robert, meanwhile, recognized that Anna and his children were never going to bond. He built another cottage for Anna and himself,leaving the 1832 house for Alice,brother As·,born ( 1822),Phoebe, brother Warren

born 1826),and Elmina born( 1831).With their new freedom, Alice and Phoebe could act on their hunger for books, and they collected as many as they could acquire. By 1849, the widely published sisters were so well known that I Iorace Greeley,editor of the influential New York 7'1-ibune,paid them a visit at their home. In 1850, Moss and Brothers, a Philadelphi:i publisher,released Al- ice and Phoebe's first volume of poetry. Wie sisters earned enough money from their writing to visit New York ·and Boston. During their trip, they met the Qpaker poet John Greenleat-Illhittier in Amesbury. Ile metiiori- alized them in his poem entitled "Ihe Singer."In that same eventful year, Alice decided to move to New York. Clemmer suggested that Alice's love for a wealthy man,who had professed interest in Alice but married another, drove Alice to flee North College Hill. Notwithstanding her rom·antic mis- adventures, a writer as astute as Carv undoubtedly recognized that her best hope for lasting recognition lay in graduating to the center of publishing. Perhaps she sensed that brash and r,lwboned New York City would eventually eclipse refined Bralimin Boston ·as the national center of literary en- deavor.8

Ihe following year, Alice welcomed Phoebe and the youngest of the Cary sisters, Elmina, into her New York household. Clemmer wrote relatively little about Elmina, but she married Alex Swift and readers may presume that she eventu·ally made a home for herself. Initially,Alice and Phoebe lived frugally in rented rooms in ti rough neighborhood. Through long hours of literary toil and constant saving,they managed to purchase a house on Twentieth Street. Although Alice had been closest to Rhoda,the arniable Phoebe became Alice's const·ant companion and support for the duration of her life. Alice and Phoebe's Sunday evening receptions became legendary. On those weekly occasions,the sisters welcomed into their home such well-known figures as R T.Barnum,Henry Ward Beecher,Robert Dale Owen,1[homas B. Aldrich,Elizabeth Stoddard, and Mary E. Dodge.

Luminaries such as Edgar Allan Poe ·,ind Whittier hailed the sisters' poetry;doyens such as Rufus Wilmot Griswold and Horace Greeley cham- pioned them. Their legacies would seem to have been assured,but the stern fate symbolized by the ghost of Lucy intervened. In February 1871, Alice

SPRING 2007 53 THE PERSISTENCE OF PLACE

Alice died. Clemmer deduced that was overworked and led a life too sed-

entary for longevity. As a friend, Clemmer witnessed Alice's decline and fact speculated about her illness, but a mentioned by Clemmer may be significant: toward the end of her life,Alice grew lame. This clue suggests that Alice was afflicted with rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, or even rabics. Thinking that a trip with friends would help her to recover from the loss of her sister,Phoebe journeyed to Newport,Rhode Island,in July. Phoebe suf- fered pain during Alice's last illness,but she kept this information from her sister. In Rhode Island,Phoebe suddenly died. Hardly six months had elapsed

since Alice had passed away.9 Toward the end of the ninetcenth

century,a wide audience appreciated Al- ice's and Phoebe's poems, but the course ofAmerican poetry gradually left behind 4, the sentimental,often religious, quaintly crafted rhymes of th Cary sisters. Only antiquarians would remember these authors, but for the fact that Alice published three volumes of short stories that

have stood the test of time. Ihey' were Clovernook:Or Recollections of Our Neigh borbood in tbe West, published in 1 852; Ciouernook, Second Series, published in 1853; and Pictures of Country Life,published in 1859. Apparently,Alice was so rewarded for her poetry that she did not re'alize th·at her greatest strength was,ar-

Recollections of Frontispiece,Alice Cary's Clovernookor guably,her fiction. Our Neighborhood in the West 1852).CINCINNATI MUSEUM In 1987, biographer and critic Ju- CENTER, CINCINNATI HISTORICAL. SOCIETY LIBRARY dith Fetterley introduced Cary to a new generation of readers through the publication of Clovernook Sketches and Series. Fet- Other Stories as· a volume in the American Women Writers Second Series but also terley found Cary's best work predominantly in the praised the first of the Clovernook books. Fetterley's principal interest was in the unity of the narration.w Cary:s power as a writer of fiction appears in her use of a few well-chosen, realistic details revealing depths of charac- ten Cary's stories explore the physical nature oflocalities,as well as psychological realms. She often invoked open-ended plots that begged readers to sift b·ack through the text to discover clues overlooked on first reading. Ihe' quantity and the quality of detail in Cary's descriptions of rural scenes suggest that she wanted readers to associate specific places with the plots and themes ofher stories. A typical Cary story is like a painter's canv·as with real scenes in imaginary combinations. Readers intent on recapturing Cary's

54 01110 VALLEY HISTORY ROBERT T. RHODE

times and understanding her brand of the pastoral mode can visit locations portrayed iii her fiction.

Out An advertisement iii the back of early editions of Clo·ve,-nook singled C·ary's short story entitled llic" Wilderinings. »\Vritten by -lohn Greenleat- Whittier,the advertisement stated in who has reid p.irt, \0 one ever it can foreet the sad and beautiful storv of Alary TVilderinings;its weird fancy,tenderness,and beauty; its touching description of the emotions of a sick and suffering human spirit, ind: its exquisite rur·al pictures. Whittier added this afterthought: The" moral tone of Alice Carey's sic][ writings is un- objectionable always. Whittier must have felt obligated to mention the" moral tone"because the plc,t explores tlic taboo subject of a child horn out ofwedlock.11

C·,111 introduced Al·arv VildermitlgS 011 the second page of the narra-

tive, describincrb the character as more" sinned against than sinning."This euphemistic ad·age was Cary's modest hint that the unwed Alarv died in childbirth. Readers who fail to catch tlle full meaning of this phrase are likelv to misread the storv. The narrator incorrectly assumes that a young man and a fourteen-year-old girl are brother and sister when, iii tact, the the father of the He has returned Clovernook the man is girl. to to be near

grave of his daughter's mother,Alary. With more than a hint of-Renais- sance phallic iconography,he plays his flute orer Alary's place of interment, located within a ghoul-haunted cemetery. Whether the young man suffers from remorse or from a love cut short by death remains unclear. Cary's n·ar- rator ominouslv confides:

Of burial grounds generally I have no dread, but from this particular one I was accustonied, from childhood, to turn away with something of superstitious horror. I could never forget how Lau- ra Iastines] saw a lieht burning there pill one winter night, after the death ofJohn Hine, a wild, roving fellow,who never did any real harm in his life to any one but himself-,hastening his own death by foolish excesses. Nevertheless, his ghost had been seen more than once,sitting on the cold inound beneath which the soul's expression w·as fading and crumbling: so,at least, said some of the oldest and most pious inhabitants of our neighborhood.

Similarly,Mary Wildermings had" been heard to sing sad lullabies under the waning moon and had been seen sitting by her sunken grave,and braiding roses in her hair,as for a bridal. Ihe' narrator describes the cemetery as' oc- cupying a clay hill with stunted cypresses. A meadow slopes nearbv.12 With selective vision,present-day visitors to the Laboiteaux-Cary Cem- etery can perceive what Alice Cary saw,although the traffic noise ·and the metropolitan setting render her bucolic scene a bit difficult to resurrect. The widening of Hamilton Avenue reduced the size of the cemetery and forced

SPRING 2007 55 THE PERSISTENCE OF PLACE

the removal of several graves, including the most immediate members of the author's family,who were subsequently interred in Spring Grove Cemetery. All the the same, somber cedars and the stones,a few ofwhich memorialize citizens of the antebellum era, still crown a crest above a low-lying area to the north: the site of Cary's meadow. While no marker commemorates a Mary Wildermings, the Laboiteaux-Cary Cemetery is undoubtedly the graveyard that Cary had in mind when she penned her story of sin and its wages. After ill, the stones were within sight to the south of the home where she grew up,and she frequently referred to the cemetery in her non- fictional writing.

1[he opening story in Ciovernook is My" Grandfather,"which introduces a young narrator wres- tling with the meaning of death as her grandfather lies dying in October,when the shadow first

came over my heart,that no subsequent sunshine has ever swept entirely away."13 When news Creek Orchard, Twin College Hill, undated. CmCINNATT MUSEUM CENTER,

CINCINNATI HISTORICAL of the patriarch' mortal illness SOCIETY LIBRARY s reached the narrator, she and her mother walk to his gristmill. If present-day readers were to trace the characters'journey from the Cary home on Hamilton Avenue, they would reach their destination at the corner of Compton and Daly in Mt. Healthy, but no records indicate that a mill existed in that location. Cary provided detailed descriptions of the grandfather's house and mill:

A_]narrow lane bordered on each side by old and decaying cherry- trees, led us to the house, ancient fashioned,with high steep gables, narrow windows, and low,heavy chimneys of stone. In the rear was an old mill,with a plank sloping from the door-sill to the ground, by way of step, and a square open window in the gable, through which,with ropes and pulleys, the grain was drawn up. E[his mill was an especial object of terror to me, and it was only when my aunt Carry led me by the hand, and the cheerful smile of Oliver Hill- house lighted up the dusky interior,that I could be persuaded to enter it. In truth it was a lonesome sort of place,with dark lofts and curious binns sic],[ and la»dders leading from place to place;and there were cats creeping stealthily along the beams in wait for Inice or swallows, if,as sometimes happened,the clay nest should be loos- ened from the rafter,and the whole tumble ruinously down. I used

to wonder that aunt Carry was not afraid in the old place,with its eternal rumble, and its great dusty wheel moving slowly round and

56 OHIO VALLEY HI STO RY ROBERT T. RHODE

round,beneath the steady tread of the two sober horses that never gained a hair's breadth for their pains.14

Had Cary not mentioned the horses, readers might be unable to discover the structure that served as her model,but Joseph W.Corre's horse-pow- eyed mill,the first sawmill in Mt. Healthy,stood on the southe·ast corner of Perry and Adams Streets a little over a mile from the Cary home.15 As saw- mills occasionally housed the components necessary for the grinding of flour, Corre's establishment may well have served as both lumberyard and flour mill for early residents along Hamilton Avenue. The other mill within a reasonable distance of the Cary home was that of Jediah Hill. The waters of the west fork of Mill Creek powered its wheel. A photograph depicting the four-story structure and the accompanying house proves that these buildings did not inspire Cary's description. Unfortun·ately,neither mill has survived. However,a footnote may be in order: A short distance to the south of the 10- cation of Corre's mill stands a private home, now weather-boarded,that has evolved from the original cottage of the Cary family. Alice's parents began their married life in the cottage in 1814. In the 1·ate-nineteenth century,it was moved to Mt. Healthy and moved once again within Mt. Healthy.

In Ihe"' Country Cousin,"published in Pictures of Cozintry Life,Cary presented a story that is as pleasing as it is well crafted. A haughty sister marries a rich man from the city while her loving sister marries ·a farmer. The latter couple's deaths occur within a short time of one another,and the sisters kindly parents raise the loving sister's orphaned daughter,according- ly named Orpha. Having misinterpreted the message of a letter from the haughty sister, Orpha's grandparents propose a mid-winter visit to the city to see their daughter and her family Now a young girl barely of marriage- able age, Orpha greets the offer with her customary joy. What transpires is a word painting reminiscent of Currier and Ives

Nobody would notice that it was not the best sleigh in the world, Orpha thought,for grandfather had tied the newly painted wagon- body on the sled, and that was filled with straw,and overspread with the nicest coverlet of all the house. Wh·at a pretty pink the clouds made the she on snow-was never weary of looking at it, and how strangely the cattle looked in pastures of snow,and the haystacks, crusted like pound-cakes. Grandfather's horses would be the admiration of all the city,she was sure, so gay and fine they looked, their manes loose in the wind, and their ears trembling with the exhilara- tion of the snow-drive.16

As the distance from the grandparents' farm in Clovernook to the haughty daughter's city is fifty miles, Cary probably had Dayton in mind. After traversing twenty-seven snowy miles, the red-cheeked travelers stop

SPRING 2007 57 THE PERSISTENCE OF PLACE

inn. at an Cary set the scene:W] "[Ihere a painted sign erected at the forks of the road, and a curious old house, having no fence in front of it, stood, they stopped to procure an hour's rest and some refreshments for themselves and their horses. There was a great fire in the big room into which they were shown, before which sat half a dozen travellers,eating apples and cakes, and drinking cider and whiskey; across the middle of the floor ·a long table was spread."17 While the forking road suggests Red Lion,a crossroads that featured an inn by that name,the inn that Cary pictured was more likely to have been either the Greentree Tavern,which once stood northwest of Lebanon,or the Red Onion,which still stands in Monroe. As the Red On- ion was on a m·ajor stagecoach line,and as Cary mentioned the stagecoach, the Red Onion appears the better choice. A sign depicting a red onion alerted even the illiterate to the hostelry's location. Perhaps the most per- suasive fact in identifying Cary's tavern is that the Red Onion was closest to the correct distance from College Hill, the Clovernook of Cary's fiction.18 Despite the fact that the interior of the former tavern room has little to suggest its nineteenth-century appearance, present-day readers can enjoy a lunch within a structure that dates to ]850, the year that Cary moved to New York. At the time of this writing, the Brandywine Inn, a highly regarded restaurant, occupies the second story, while the first floor-originally the site of a tavern-is the Red Onion.which caters to a noontime crowd. When new, the inn had four stories and was the tallest building between Cincinnati and Dayton, but the uppermost story was removed many years ago. The tavern room is narrow: just right for a"long table." At the tavern in Cary's fiction, Orpha and her grandparents meet a gracious and handsome gentleman. The grandparents tell him that they are going to visit their daughter, who has recently chosen a man to marry her daughter. Inwardly,the gentleman is surprised as he is the man selected for the marriage, yet this is the first he has learned of the plan. Outwardly, he maintains his composure. At the invitation of the grandparents, he joins the party for the remainder of their journey. With considerable psychological complexity, Cary portrayed the haughty daughter's shock and momentary shame upon the unexpected arrival of her parents, as well as their embar- rassed reaction. Ultimately,the handsome gentleman rescues the situation. By the end of the story, Orpha and he are married-and happily, at that. Significantly,a convivial inn halfway between the rustic farm and the pre- tentious city has served as a meeting place nurturing the birth of love.

Acknowledgments Museum of the Mt.Healthy Historical Society; Roger Miller, Middletown historian;Barbara Petersen, Community Relations Witliout the enthusiastic contributons of-seven people,this Assistant, Clovemook Center for the Blind and Visually friend and col]:tborator ess:w could not have been written. In alphabetical order,they Impajred; Eleanor Yeager Stewart,my and Joyce A.Tannreuther, Executive are Clyde Ankenbauer of the North College Hill Historic·al on many wrting projects; Society;Marian Blum,Curator of the Free Meeting I Iouse Director of the Monroe Historical Society.

58 OHIO VALLEY IIISTORY ROBERT T. RHODE

1 Alice Cary,Preface," ' Ciovernook.Or Recollections of Our 9 Ibid.,79,86. Neighborhood in tbe West New York: Redfield, 1852),v- Clovernook Skekbes and Ot ber Stories Vll. 10 Judith Fetterley,ed., New Brunswick: Rutgers Universitv Press, 1987),xxigi. 2 Hesiod, 732 Works and Davs,in Ibeogolly' and 1*orks and Days, M. L. West New( York: Oxford University trans. 11 C·ary,Clove,·nook, 360. Press, 1999),45. 12 Cary;The " Vildermings,"\ in ibid.,49. 3 Virgil, Georgirs,trans. Peter Fallon New( York: Oxford University Press, 2006),43. 13 Cary,My ' Grandfather,"in ibid.,13.

Clovernook: 4 Cary, Mrs." Wetherbe's Quilting Party,"in 14 Ibid.,18. 01·Recoilections of Our Neighbo,hood· in tbe M/est,Second Series New( Yc,rk: Iohn W. Lovell, 1884),13-14. 15 One Square Mile Mt.( Healthy,OH: Alt. He·althv Historical Societv,1992),35-36. 5 Mary Clemmer,The Poetical Works ofAlice and Phoebe Cary,with a Me,norial of'Ibeir Lives by Mary Clemmer 16 Cary,"1[lie Countn' Cousin,"in Pidui es of Cotint,·y Life New York: Hurd ind: Houghton, 1876),1 New lf,rk: Hurd and Houghton, 1866),323.

6 Ibid.,9. 17 Ibid.,324.

7 Ibid. 18 George Crout,Monroe:A Developing City Oxford,( OH: 8 Ibid.,12-13. Letterman, 1992),29-30.

SPRING 2007 59 Edmund Dexter's Residence A Lithograph by Ehrgott, ForbrigerCo. & Collections Essay

he first quarter of the twentieth century saw the loss of many fine homes along East Fourth Street in Cincinnati. One such home was T the residence of Edmund Dexter located the northeast of at corner Fourth and Broadway,which fell to the wreckers in 1913. Fortunately,a beautiful color lithograph exists of the residence in the History Collections at Cincinnati Museum Center. The lithograph depicts the Dexter home in a romantic setting with thin white clouds and sunlit trees,and fash- ionably dressed men and women promenading along the street. A carriage has stopped in front of the home,and either a servant or Mr. Dexter himself stands at the front door ready to greet the Taken whole, the Edmund Dexter,Sr.,ca. 1858. visitor. as a scene gives a peace- CINCINNATI MUSEUM CENTER, ful and elegant impression of the affluent society CINCINNATIHISTORICALSOCIETY that resided this of during the mid- LIBRARY in part town nineteenth century. Entitled Edmund Dexter's Residence,the lithograph was produced by the firm of Ehrgott,ForbrigerCo. & around 1860. Peter Ehrgott and Adolph

Forbriger were German immigrants who started their namesake company in 1856. Ehrgott brought an expertise in lithography to the firm,while For- briger was an accomplished artist whose earlier work had been published by noted Cincinnati lithographer Otto Onken. By 1859 the firm had garnered the attention of Charles Cist who used four Ehrgott and Forbriger

lithographs in his Sketches and Statistics of Cincinnati. In addition, Cist rec- ommended these gentlemen outright in his book: those" who may require lithographic work cannot do better than give them a trial. They guarantee their work to be equal to ·any executed in the country,and at the most reasonable cost. They are experienced workmen, and strive to excel in their department."1 Originally known as EhrgottForbriger, & Lithographers, the firm began using the name Ehrgott, ForbrigerCo. & in the early 18605, and it continued in use until 1869 when Forbriger died. Ehrgott then took Adolph Krebs into partnership,and the firm became EhrgottKrebs. & In

60 OHIO VALLEY HISTORY t

r ' C d'....<411' - ''' 1 ' tliltill.'

Edmund Dexter's Residence,ca. 1860, lithographby Ehrgott, Forbriger Co.& CINCINNATIMUSEUM CENTER. CINCINNATI HISTORICAL SOCIETY

LIBRARY

September 1874 Erhgott severed his ties with Krebs to start another company; however,this new business venture was short-lived as Ehrgott died suddenly only a few months later. During the thirteen years Ehrgott and Forbriger were partners, they produced many lithographs of Cincinnati street scenes that included noted landmarks and businesses. Most if not all of these lithographs were commissioned, but who contracted for the Dexter print remains a mystery. 71»le most obvious person would be Edmund Dexter himself. Dexter was born in England around 1801,and by 1826 was living in Cincinnati. The city direc- tory of 1829 listed Dexter and his partner Arthur Harvie as grocers. By the early 18305, however,Dexter was in business for himself as a liquor deal- er. In the late 18505, Charles and Edmund Dexter,Jr.,joined their father as partners, and the company became Edmund Dexter and Sons. A business receipt from 1859 describes these partners as importers and dealers in foreign and domestic wines and liquors as well as manufacturers of"Dexter's Celebrated Whiskey."

Edmund Dexter's success as a liquor merchant enabled him to amass a large amount of property. In 1838 he purchased the lot on the northeast corner of Fourth and Broadway,and in 1850 he acquired an additional lot and structure adjoining this property to the north. While the city

SPRING 2007 61 EDMUND DEXTER' S RESIDENCE COLLECTIONS- ESSAY

directories listed Dexter as residing at this location as early as 1839, the beautiful home pictured in the Ehrgott and Forbriger lithograph was appar- Ci? Dat- ently constructed at a later date An advertisement in the ic,?inati ly Gazette of October 22, 1855 included the Residence" of Edmund Dexter,

Fouith and Broadway streets, Cincinnati"among the list of works erected" by or in the course of erection"by John R Hamilton, aichitect Four years included the I) later,in Sketibes and Statiftics of Cincinnati,Cist exter lesl- dence in a list of works by architect 1 ames W MeLaughlin The discrep- ancy in architects might be explained by the partnership known to exist between Hainilton and McLaughlin in 1858 i Perhaps Mclaughlin worked with Hamilton on f , the final planning of the Dexter home, or perhaps 40, 44=1.4--1 i ..:, McLaughlin was involved in some latel remodel- ing of the home following its original construe- 4- -- -- *' lion Nonetheless,by 1859 Hamilton had moved ti:2L*i <= to New@*:York and McLaughlin apparently as- 9 sumed credit for designing the Dexter home Dexter did have long his grand 1, not to enjoy home on Fouith Street Returning from a health- related trip tc, turope, he died 111 New York in

j 1862 The home passed to his wife Mary,who lived there with her son Julius until hei death 1.*%b#a » =T}q:. : in 1875 Julius Dexter resided in the home until ]886, at which time he began leiising it to the University Club The home served the club- Advertisement for Ehrgott,Forbriger & as 1 l)( m()S Co,Boyd's Hand-book ofCincinnati 1869) for the University Club until 1897, when

CINCINNATI MUSEUM CENTER CINCINNATI HIST3Rl(]Al the organization disbanded The following year SOCIETY LIBRARY Julius Dexter died,and in 1901 his heirs sold the property to Western and Southern Life Insurance Company Ille' company occupied the Dexter liome until 1913, by which time it had become much too cramped The company lazed the Dexter house, making way for West- ern and Southern's present office building,which was dedicated in 1916 Today,the Dexter family 15 best known by Cincinnatians for the laige Gothic mausoleum that st.inds as a landmark in Spring Grove Cemetery Tic handsome home at Fourth and Broadway would probably be long forgotten if not foi the craftsmanship and artistry of two local lithographers, Ehrgott and Forbrigei

Richard R Kesterman

Librarv Assistant

Cincinnati Hitorical Society Library

1 Charlch Cist.Sketche mid Statistiof„ Cini 11111(111

Cincinnati >n, 1859),302

62 OHIO VALLEY HISTORY Humphrey Marshall Papers at 11]he Filson Historical Society Collections Essay

Marshall Papers add significant- Alli'$;4- The1v recentlythe collectionscatalogedofHumphreyMarshall · to i YJA The 1[he Filson . manuscripts at Filson. 194.-* 1- already housed one small collection of i i, 1... Marshall' well · manuscripts s papers as as Vi#j= il.» scattered through several larger collec- 1/97'19'L/.0 Le==f.,1/ -- tions, including the Marshall Family 111 Papers and the Edward 0. Guerrant P· a- f * pers. While The Filson's earlier holdings ,, made it one of the largest repositories of Carte de visite of Humphrey Marshall, Marshall' this addition great- s papers, 1812-1872. THE FILSON HISTORICAL SOCIETY. ly increases FIhe Filson's Marshall collections in both size and content. Specific·ally,the collection contributes to a fuller understanding of Marshall's antebellum political career and his service in the Civil War.

Born in Henry County in 1812,Marshall attended West Point and after graduating in 1832 served briefly in the army.1 After resigning his commission in 1833, Marshall practiced law until 1846, when he led the 2nd Kentucky Cavalry in the Mexican War. Following his service in Mexico, he returned to Kentucky and became a prominent figure in the Whig Party In 1849,Marshall began serving the first of two terms as a Whig in the Unit- ed States House of Representatives, resigning his seat in August 1852 to act from China 1854, he found as Minister to China:When he returned in the Whig Party in dis·array and like many former Whigs joined the fledg- ling American Party,often called the Know Nothings. As a Know Noth- ing,Marshall was elected to an additional two terms in Congress. Vlith the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, Marshall allied with the Confederacy. He received a general's commission and was one of the leaders of the 1862 Confederate invasion of Kentucky. The following June,Marshall resigned his commission and represented Kentucky in the Second Confederate Con- gress. With the fall of Richmond in April 1865, he fled to Texas where he

63 SPRING 2007 HUMPHREY MARSHALL PAPERS COLLECTIONS- ESSAY

lived briefly before returning to Henry County to practice law. Marshall died in Louisville on March 28, 1872. Most of the collection is from the antebellum period, focusing on Mar- areer. shall's political c Like many Kentuckians, Marshall's first affiliation was to the Whig Party. Between 1849 and 1854, during most of which time Marshall served in the U.S. Congress, his correspondence addresses

political debates over slavery as well as the inner workings of the Whig Party and its anticipated collapse in the middle of the decade. Letters ifill 1£7. 9; C *:* written to Marshall during the summer of 1850 were often devoted to discussions of the compro- 2 3/MMS...rimi/"3*@*li"C*4> misc then being debated in Congress. For example, George D. Prentice, editor of the Louisville Journal,wrote to Marshall that he regretted" ... th.e opposition,active I fear, of President Taylor to the compromise bill."And E. H. Field offer- sailles encouraged Marshall to vote for the com- Walter N. Haldeman, 1821-1902. THEFILSON promise it is probably the best 3 HISTORICAL SOCIETY as ' we can get." 1[he extended debate over the Compromise of 1850 divided both the nation and the Whig Party,and by mid-century some had concerns th·at the Whigs were on their last legs. Writing about the August 1850 state election, Walter N. Haldeman, editor of the Lou- is'ville Courier,predicted the collapse of the party. Ihe "' Whigs,"Halde- man wrote, were exceedingly apathetic. Unless some vigorous prompt& measures are at once taken, the Whig party here will go to the devil, and in a hurry too."Ihe ' presidential elec- 5:.)., tion of 1852 also revealed the decline of the Whigs. Let- I jji*"j.. t']t. ters from Kentucky Whigs expressed uncertainty about * * 1 whether they would vote for General Winfield Scott,the Ic Whig candidate. 1[homas B. Stevenson, for example,told f 0- Marshall that his support for Scott depended on who the i .,2 El* f*52 Democrats nominated. In April, R. Brown, a Whig from { ,-ij New Castle, Kentucky,informed Marshall, I have yet to ;4 »'{ 0 meet the first Whig who expressed a preference for Genl. 49* Scott."Indeed," " Brown continued,I "have heard a great es many swear they would not vote for him if nominated,but ti, »3**83%9% j /, would Michigan Democrat Cass pref- support [ Lewis] in Millard Fillmore, 1800-1874. THE FILSON crence."4 The Democrat victory in 1852 marked the end HISTORICAL SOCIETY. of the Whigs as a national party. Although the Whigs did not officially disband until 1856,Marshall,like many Kentuckians,fled the party for the Know Nothings in 1854. A docu- labeled " for American ment Reasons the formation of a Native association"

64 OHIO VALLEY HISTORY JACOB F LEE

explains the nativist ideology of the Know Nothings Primary among their debris of worries was the infiUX of immigrants,which they believed to be the Europe Ihe" ' nativists were also concerned about preserving the Spirit" & Genius of Americanism"and the Preciousness' of Republican institutions After Joining the Know Nothings,Marshall quickly became a nationally recognized leader of the party In December 1855,Joseph C Dean wrote to Marshall,telling him he was regarded as" the head and front of the Amer- ican Party at Washington as well as throughout the Union By early 1856 Marshall was receiving correspondence inform- ing him of Know Nothing activity around the na- -£ A-1-,41-,t f R:. 61 . , tion J W Bryce from New York reported that » 4- Lt ,-,-„!Tic/Fkfitz';3.'r the National" American Congress MA-t },4„ party in is, ev- j., #. zix.c»..,-., J{-1 44„-..4 L..,t.x.1.-tk.}4 4- 1 4 -FJS day, strengthened the confidence and M - f 4 A,l'-1 4 ' L :, ' ery in sup- 4--,< 4.8".' - 61£64. 7- port of the people of this state "Bostonian Elihu C Baker wrote that ifjohn J Crittenden received 1:'322?3:zttils-li>&42*' the Know Nothing presidential nomination, he , 8 h p-,(.L.1 1.,. A-L.4-J 24 4 would wide New England receive support in ji j· 1-'-i f 4' A i.„„W , 4 . .'--4 6 1 i-.,1,„*t-+ta-.,L *»1 t- t.P= 44"- - Throughout the Marshall ieceived extensive L, year, 4 65 I..' '. 44.' correspondence about the presiden- upcoming 04'».,ft,i h,'ip*ilk i/'.' t-U -

t 4 tial election, but when the Know-Nothing tick- 4" l.(tyuv fu•-$-6*(.44 ·,1fui,* le.,%••-+ et of Millard Fillmore and Andrew J Donelson + t- 4,#.... i... f,+.-... -.. g..·..,-AS,l,44*am,- p Au»-, /,4 £4' lost, party supporters became disheartened By i, ' e '* f»•k #4 4 6 1, ; 4(A U-,- mid-1857 Marshall believed that Kentucky" has 4( c, - i 8 HLM- Joined the Democracyfol 5 Bv the good and aye " 0 -7 r*- election of 1860 Marshall himself had joined the Document entitled "Reasons forthe

Democrat Party Formation of a Native American Association " The collection also includes Marshall's corre- HUMPHREY MARSHALL PAPERS THE FILSON HISTORICAL SOCIETY spondence with prominent antebellum politicians Some of them wrote to Marshall only briefly and *k », occasionally For example, in May 1840, Vice ANLMY'* Ais. 210,46' 3151£ ' 41% '< President Richard M Johnson Mar- 14* wrote to S k© St \ , shall that he planned for the officeki:, 4** 'tf=flf{S= - stating to run 2- ««:'-4,4 again Johnson also defended his long and pub- 41' -1' K''«*3 »': { 4. lic relationship with one ofhis former slaves,argu- 4«,]%4%tjt'% ing"it is my bride,to be forced upon none"In an » i 1853 letter Marshall, United States Represen- <«, to p:* 19. K+ » tative Alexander H Stephens condemned Presl- * *,} dent Frank].111 Pierce for his attempt to unify"the 3:«+»== / "=*35"t-31%014 Imlip: Free Soilers of the North and the Fire Eaters of Ii,Wrilil)31'24,6.'.fic/ 1113:lipiti the South 'Others,however,had longer, more in- 6411., 74#John J Crittenden' October,19, 1851, letter 6,s collection several letters from John J Critten- 1' depth exchangesare with Marshall Included in the to Humphrey Marshall HUMPHREY MARSHALL den, a leading Kentucky politician During the PAPERS THEFILSON HISTORICAL SOCIETY

SPRING 2007 65 HUMPHREY MARSHALL PAPERS COLLECTIONS- ESSAY

political upheaval of 1850,Crittenden corresponded regularly with Marshall. In March, in the midst of the debates over what became the Compromise of 1850,Marshall informed Crittenden, I am scarcely ever in a private circle of my fellow representatives that the ·angry discontent does not reach my for Crittenden ears."Marshall also indicated that there might be a position in President Zachary Taylor's cabinet when it reformed,which Marshall believed it would. Crittenden responded that he appreciated Marshall's support for a cabinet post but that it has" no charms for me."Crittenden did,however,agree to become Attorney General in President Millard Fillmore's cabinet, from which post he unsuccessfully attempted to get Mar- st»shall a federal position in California: Supreme Court Justice John McLean was another frequent correspondent. Mclean's letters to Marshall discuss antebellum politics and his concerns over the status of the federal government. In May 1846,McLean wrote, I knew the government when it was pure elevated,& I & have marked its encreasing degeneracy. McLean hoped that the growing sectional crisis could be curbed and that Carte de visite of Alexander H. the nation could return to an er·a of good feelings, of a Stephens, 1812-1883. THEFILSON IHISTORICA! SOCIETY common patriotism."Ihe ' collection also includes an autobiography handwritten by Mclean. Probably written iii

the late 1840s or early 1850s,the twenty-nine page document describes McLeads early political career and includes his opinions on major figures of the time, including Henry Clay and Andrew Jackson.7

In addition to the references to the political impact of slavery in his correspondence, Marshall's papers also include extensive information about the institution itself

Among his correspondence are letters from January 1852 concerning Kentuckian Theodore S. Garnett's attempts to retrieve a female slave who ran away while visiting Cin- cinnati with her master. Garnett stated that because he

Carte de visite of John J. brought her into Ohio,his only recourse was to hire a po- Crittenden,1786-1863.

MARSHALL TURNER-CLAY- MCDOWELL lice officer to track her down, kidnap her,and transport

COLLECTION, THE FILSON HISTORICAL her back to Kentucky. However, he had little hope of re- SOCIETY. capture, writing, I"think there is very little prospect of re- covering Mary and...it is a thing almost impossible to find her and get her to Covington without a mob. One of the more interesting items included in Marshall's legal papers is testimony from the 1859 murder trial of. Jane, a slave girl accused of killing her mistress. According to witness state- merits,Jane's mistress,Jane Porter,was sick ·,ind when she asked her slave for some medicine, she received poison inste·ad. Witnesses confirmed that

66 OHIO VALLEY HISTORY JACOB F. LEE

1. • I Porter died after receiving the medicine" and that an autopsy revealed strychnine in her stom- ach. Jane, the slave,was sentenced to be hanged" « 6./ z=c. bv the neck until she be dead."8 When the Civil War began April PL+ iii 1861, 7.-' Marshall joined the Confederate cause, receiv- lhA 44. *+4 k.+0-7/. /34-0111ing ·a-general's commission. After resigning his commission on two separate occasions, Marshall 111 1125 3 03*-/, rr moved to Richmond where he returned to legal til 213 Er. practice. In November 1863, Marshall was elect- 5 1 4-- c.-=2. »--zzit1,= 77 , rG__ „ 7421]L„_ - 1 * C _ . ed of Kentucky' representatives the 6 <* 24_Liz 4,.. 2£-4U.ZIL-«C.-».EL -- as one s to Second Confederate Congress. The fc)llowing 4 3-313 ut.5 C¥--62=5 Februarv,Edward 0. Guerrant informed Alar- shall of his widespread support from the troops

L. 4--- r . i· ....-.- in the congressional election. Guerrant wrote, 9 t.znn_.tnu-1/12 You are, by far, the most popular man among a 6. U-+r -· r'·. 1. --6 .'··77 ·. these Kentucky Discuss- large majoritvI of bovs. 11 4.11' 4 L; 1 4 4 6-. - 6 _,9. 40,4- 12* itig the imptict of Marshall's support among the 4. troops, Guerrant continued, The pressure was so 4 9,- 4-*= - 1· truk,.<»ILL- . C>-1-4 6-*6.Z-4 9=-- C=Z.. LI---··. . -rcuz«es - great that Col. Hodge voted for you,Col. & Gilt- ner worked for you. Both dislike, if not hate you. The first of John McLean' twenty-nine page s page After learning the results of-the Gener- autobiography. HUMPHREY MARSHALL PAPERS. THEFILSON canvass, HISTORICAL SOCIETY. al Simon Bolivar Buckner wrote to congratulate Marsh·all on his election and urged him to become an"exponent of the views of the Executive. 1[he collapse of the Con- federacy abbreviated Marshall's term in the Confederate Congress. When Richmond fell on April 2, 1865, M·arshallfled the city with the rest of the Confeder·ate government. As Marshall headed for Texas, he kept a journal, now part of the Slarshall Papers, recording his escape. Although most of the entries brief,Marshall are I detailed his route and reported SUNpAY, 2. having Confederate Gen- 0 7.-*.794 4, #+An-U-14 3-10.-iravM met liwow#•Sk, 430-r, } fl n#„#- 1m-4 P,n·,4,,4 -, eralJubal Early,who was travel- 0**E 4 *# ing to Mexico under an assumed AU- %64,-30,•*,.fimc.1·,rm.44· 0;**«4-14 # i,+h.#'#32 ·1,„,L,ka 49. 1,4 ..6¢M 1* fi{A.*.4.vt#*'#·'Lerm.4- 4*t"4.#45* l On two occasions,Mar- 0 471' 369- ILAJJ:/ 44# 71#. f '. name. 66·, ZIiI#*4 - 4 shall also noted that his slaves -'*,W4»'44***lr'•64,h. 4,4 ' l 4 6 &4%4 94 home."deserted9 Theus herejournaland movedconcludeson 1 Entry for April 2, 1865, from Marshall's journal. HUMPHREY MARSHALL after Marshall settled in Texas PAPERS, THE FILSON HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

at the end of 1865. The material in Humphrey Marshall Papers continues beyond the Civ- il War and even beyond Marshall's death in 1872, but the bulk of the collection concludes in 1865. Following Marshall's career from a Whig in the United States House to a member of the Confederate Congress, the

SPRING 2007 67 BOOK REVIEWS

section deplc,ys a r·ationalist approach that this American icon. Rather,opponents of universalizes human experience, allowing the suicide theory believe that fc,ul play lay

Rom:tin to point to cultures in the past and behind the death of the governor of the present,in Ni,rth America and Europe, to Louisiana Territory,with motives r,inging explain evidence or practice in Hopewell from simple robbery to ·a conspiracy to si- society. While such an apprc,ach is impor- lence Lewis, who might have known too much of the machillations of Aaron Burr tant tc)his architectural an:ilysis iii part one, it is less convincing when applied to cultur- and James Wilki nson. al phenomena. After opening comments, the liter- Romain has written a book designed ary inquest in this collection proceeds to to appeal to a wide audience. The mativ examitie Lewis's death,with James Holm- asides and lack of historicization will frus- berg arguing in favor of suicide, John trate scholars but will likely attract lay Guice making the case fi,r murder, and Jav readers who otherwise would eschew such Buckley providing judicious closing com- a mathematically derived text. Still, the ments. Finally,readers are presented Jvitli value of this work is the unifying vision an excellent ·appendix, containing the key Romain offers. Few authors have provided sources surrounding Lewis's death-some transcribed and others facsimiles of the such a perspective,which makes this work mew()rthv. original manuscripts-with which to make their minds to what h·appened at William H. Bergmann up own tis Grinder' Stand iii the early hours of Oc- Northern Michigan University s tober 11, 1809.

uuice argues in his preface that Lew- John D.W.Guice,ed. By His Oeon death " the fasci- is's reinains one of most Hand?:'Ibe Mysterious Death of nating,puzzling,and enduring questions in Meriwetber Lewis. Norman: University all of American history"1). ( Ihis ' grandi- of Oklahoma Press,2006. 208 pp. ISBN claim is substantiated in the 080613780()cloth), ( 24. $95. ose not pages that follow, however. Indeed, the inabili-

By His O= Hand? Htmdf draw the ion reopens the itiqziest ty of By His O«ion to out of into the demise Meriwether Lewis, of larger significance of Lewis's de:ith iii the Lewis and Clark fame, who died under history of the early American republic,and

suspiciOUs circumstanc- more specifically the southwest borderland, the Natchez Trace failure. 1[his es on is the book's greatest is all the three in 1809, a mere more disappointing because Elliott West's foreword outlines the connections between years after his celebrated from the P.icific return Lewis's demise, the era'" s cutthroat pol- Northwest. While con- itics and the nature of political netavork- tempor·aries concluded ing,"and the" vic,lence that was chronic that Lewis driven was to across the yc,ung nation .ind at its w()rst iii take his life bec, own iuse the restless, 1(,osely governed region where of fatal a concatenation Lewis died"xi). ( None <,t-tliese interest-

of depression, alcohol- ing thones is developed by the essavs' au- ism, and the prospect thors. Consequently,while the collection of hnancial and disgrace, others liave ruin is an engaging svnthesis of scholarship on been less ready to accept the tr'agic end of I,ewis's de·ath, it does not ·advailce a new

7(} 011 10 VAI-I. EY 11 IST OR 3' BOOK REVIEWS

argument in favor of murder or suicide, labor; the growing importance of Republi- nor does it enhance our understanding of can Motherhood, and the temperance, an- life at the American periphery tislavery and woman's rights movements. All of these and ideas had di- Paradoxically,the greatest value of this movements a work lies in the reluctance of the authors to rect impact on Colby,as shown iii the jour- articulate a new argument. Instead, Ev His nals, diaries, and published works she left Oiut Ha)id? provides an introduction for behind, now deposited in the Colby Col- the popular audience to the process of his- lection at Illinois State University Brake- torical rese·arch. By ofTering well-reasoned bill has judiciously used these m·aterials to arguments both for and against verdicts of reconstruct the life of this intelligent but murder ·and suicide, the authors reveal the tortured woman who struggled" to obtilin a creativity born of controversy, disabusing harmony between family and personal am- readers of the common misconception that bition"31). ( historians are merely passive chroniclers of Colby's life tracked great histori- events and that facts speak for themselves. cal events, which provided impetus for her gradual radicalization. She married Lawrence B. A. Hatter in 1848, the same vear as the Seneca Fills University of Virginia utiventioti, about two hundred ·and fift, miles t- her home in Cherry Valley, Tina Stewart Brakebill. Cimimstances" away rom Ohio. As the wife of ·a dairy fariner, Col- are Destiny":An Antebellum Woman's by's domestic duties-in addition to giv- Struggle to Define Sphere. Kent, OH: ing birth to and bringing up four children Kent State University Press,2006. 255 pp. in the of five included cheese ISBN 9780873388641 (cloth),34. $95. span years- making, an arduous and time-consuming By all accou its, including her own, Celes- art practiced iii Ashtabula County,which tia Rice Colby led the outw·ardly ordinary contemporaries dubbed cheesedom."" Still, life of mid- ieteenth farm wife a ni century Colby fi,und time to write, publishing ap- iii Ashtabula County, proximately forty pieces between 1853 and

Ohio. I Ier family was 1857 that covered such topics as raising among the earliest to virtuous sons for the new Republic to pro- settle in the known area ducing proper cheese. Beginning in 1858, as the Western Reserve, Colby's writings became more political she sided with the ultras" the slave once part of Connecticut as on and considered cultural a question and women's rights and published the ultra, extension of New Eng- in Anti-Sla'very Bugle. As an land. Imbued with a Colby believed that the government sane- strict Calvinist sensibil- tioned slavery and thus the" Union was_][ ity,Colby-as Brakebill not worth saving"82). ( On the woman refers to her through- question, Colby hoped to stir" up a deeper out-came of-age during an era ofprofound hatred for domestic and home oppression religious, social, political, and economic which is so common that both oppres- change in the United States, a period that sor and oppressed are sometimes half con- included the Second Great Awakening;the scious of it (154).Colby likened women's of " contented development of a market economy and its situation to that the slave," consequent imptict on gendered spheres of a rhetorical, if not realistic, analogy often

SPRING 2007 71 BOOK REVIEWS

used by women's rights advocates before to something as fatal as James Boswell's the Civil War. Tbe Life of Samuel Johnson. Herndon an- Living in the land of-John Brown and swered that Lincoln had always consid- in the middle of the antislavery, temper- ered Goodrich weak-" headed."Heindon ance, and· women's rights speaking circuits, continued to probe but could not order Colby still seemed unable to find a sym- his thoughts. Unable to pathetic soul-not even in her husband, compose the book that who disappeared from family records after his extensive notes and 1884. Oh« for the presence of a kindred interviews warranted, he I . heart, she wrote, who could understand sold his files to Ward Hill me without words, and sympathize in si- Lamon,who employed a lence"58). ( Brakebill vividly depicts the ghostwriter to create ·a disconnect between Colby' personal life book fully outrageous - - s as 0 and her public writings, a separation she as anything Herndon would have w·as never able to reconcile. Sadly,Colby's written,even D observation th· circumstances des- at are going so far as to defend -- », » -' ». : tiny"predated twentieth-century notions Democrats. that for women, anatomy is destiny."In Herndon eventually fou d a collabot a- Colby's words, I"am a strange, incompre- tor in Jesse Weik,who organized the raw materials the book entitled Hern hensible being,and live in a hidden world. to create Wilson and Rod- My outward life and inner life are not the donk Lincoln. Douglas L. same,they have no points of resemblance. ney 0. Davis, both retired professors at arat- Herndon' In- Like two vast continents,they are sep Knox College and editors of s ed by an ocean of mystery"110). ( formants:Letters,Interviezos,and Statements about Abraham Lincoln Urbana: Universi- Susan A. Eacker,Ph.D. ty of Illinois Press, 1998), tackle the Independent Scholar now resultant biography,explaining its origins and cori-elating the text to the evidence. Iii Douglas L.Wilson and Rodney 0. Herndon' Lincol, receives the process, s 1 a re- Davis,eds. Herndon's Lincoln:William H. markable vindication. Despite the long in- Herndon andJesse W.Weik.Urbana: Knox terval between the original research and College Lincoln Studies Center and the the publication of the biography in 1889, University of Illinois Press, 2006. 481 pp. and the intermediation of Weik,the book ISBN 0252030729 (cloth),35. $00. remained faithful to the testimony of those Soon after Abraham Lincoln's death, his closest to Lincoln during his Illinois years. former law partner,William H. Herndon, Where time and carelessness created flaws, begin to collect information for a projected Wilson and Davis point them out. Still,the biography. In a series of lectures in Spring- message shines through that both Hern- field,Herndon outraged conventional opin- don and Weik,determined to present an ion in his description of Lincoln's religion authentic portrait through direct testimony, and his claim that Lincoln' love for Ann in s succeeded beyond normal expectations. the Rutledge was the only romance of the pres- Wilson and Davis present origi- ident's life. One of Lincoln's former law nal text of the 1889 edition, adding new associates, Grant Goodrich, warned that sections included in the 1892 edition as an continuing along such lines would lead appendix. The strength oftheir scholarship

72 OHIO VALLEY HISTORY BOOK REVIEWS

appears in the footnotes,which supplement Many foreign-born troops served in the the text by providing references to sources. Union Army during the Civil War,and a N . „ Ihey also include a section or corrigenda, significant fraction of them were ·attached accounting for spelling and typographi- to ethnic regiments in state militias. The cal errors in the original edition. At long most prominent of these ethnically distinc- last, a· major Lincoln text has received the tive military organiza- scholarly ·attention it richly deserves. tions were composed of born Ireland and David Donald, Herndon's 1948 biog- men iii rapher,tended to follow the pattern of his the German provinces, mentor,J. G. Randall of the University of the birthplaces of most August Willich' Illinois, in deprecating both the man and immigrants to the Unit- s his book. At the time,Donald thought that ed States in the mid- Herndon had created folklore Lincoln B a nineteenth century. The GALLANT rather than an acceptable portrait. Donald 32-1 Indiana Infantry, has since modified his verdict Herndon' on s formed in 1861, was a Ll-j"Iltlk DIAill German American CN11 War Letter'B ....Indiana .Infantry . ... character,and Wilson and D·avis, among unit TRMSLATED An EDITED HY JOSEMI RIEINHART others, have now restored Herndon the bi- organized by August ographen In the meantime, readers and Willich, whose previous experience includ- Lincoln scholars continue to profit from ed service as an officer in the Prussian army the honesty and integrity of Herndon's por- and in an ethnically German inflintry reg- In Patriotic Gore:Studies in the Liter- of the Ohio militia. Indiana' Ger- trait. iment s New York: atz,re of tbe American Ci,uil War man infantry had other ties to Ohio Valley Oxford University Press, 1962),Edmund states. Ihe' regiment's ten companies in- Wilson argued that the" cruelest thing th,it cluded a Cincinnati Company and units has happened to Lincoln since he was shot from various Indiana cities, including a by Booth has been to fall into the hands of Fort Wayne Turner Company containing Carl Sandburg,"whose treatment of Lin- recruits from Louisville, Kentucky.Ihis ' coln Wilson thought insufferable"" 115). ( German immigrant regiment engaged in On the other hand,Wilson ·admired Hern- frequent combat between 1861 and 1864, don the of book that stood as creator a as a" notably in the battles of Shiloh ·and Chick-

unique expression ofthe national character amauga, and serving in Kentucky,Tennes- 133).Douglas Wilson and Rodney Davis see,Mississippi,Alabama,and Georgia. have vindicated this judgment by validat- Joseph R. Reinhart's volume presents anslated and edited collection of six- ing the essential accuracy of Herndon's use a tr· of reminiscence. ty letters originally written in German by of the foreign-born officers and John y.Simon some en- listed of the regiment. The letters Southern Illinois University, men composed primarily in the 1861 Carbondale were years to 1863 and all were first published during the in three German-language Joseph R. Reinhart,ed. «,lugust Wimcbk war newspapers in Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana. Gallant Dutcbmen:Civil War Lettersftom The Louisville Anzeiger, the Cincinnati tbe 32"d Indiana Infantry. I

SPRING 2007 73 BOOK REVIEWS

persons authored about half of the let- Lois J. Lambert. Ninety-First Obio ters. Several letter writers concealed their Volunteer Infantry:Witb tbe Civil War

identities by using initi.ils or 21 pseudonym. Letters of Lt.Col.Benjamin Franklin Major William Mank (born in Hesse), Coates and an Annotated Roster oftbe Captain Carl Schmitt (born in Bavaria), MenCompany « C Milford,OH: Little and several others signed their names. Miami Publishing,2005. 211 pp. ISBN 7170 letters welcome addition are a to 1932250247 cloth),( 29. $50. the small number of existing book-length In the preface Ninety-First Ohio Voltln- collections of translated Civil War to cor- teer Infan try,Lois J. Lambert eplains, " y respondence by foreign-born Germans, goal was not to prove but their value f-or rese.irch scholars is had all that these men somewhat limited. Written for publica- been heroes. In tact,the tion, they reflect a public awareness and goal was not to prove lack of candor uncharacteristic of private anything at 2111. I just ;„ letters. Ihey often seem to put the best 0«: : wanted to know more = face the of the and t -4 on activities writer I about the livts of these -' his comrades or otherwise attempt tc) ill- men and their personal Buence the opinion of German language experiences duli that -, ig r,« «.::, .«. newspapers subscribers. These public let- trying time in our his- ters also l·ack the revealing intimacies of tory" ( From this in- j'. .. : kinship and friendship commonly found x). auspicious beginning, in private letters. As Reinhart admits, this Lambert's work proceeds tc) meet these correspondence alone cannot support gen- low expectations, though not without the eralizations concerning the views of Ger- occasional surprise. man-American troops in the Civil War or First, a word about what Ltimbert in the 32'''Indiana Infantry,because even does well. For those interested in the his- the number of letters in the collection is of C Company of the 91"Ohio Vol- small and the demon- tory too writers are not unteer Infantry-for despite the title, this strably representative of the group. is illy ·, volume devoted to the experi- Nevertheless, Reinhart' book offers re: 1 s solitary ences of a lone officer in a corn- interesting and useful firsthand informa- pany-I«ambert's book presents a wealth tion about experiences of soldiers in a Ger- of information. Chapter six,for example, man regiment ill combat and non-combat exhaustively surveys the personal histories actions, including accounts of battles and of Company C's soldiers. Here, Lambert skirmishes, the soldier's life in camp, and juggles a variety of sources-military ser- various statements that reveal the German vice records, pension files, the federal soldier' ethnic 1[lie volume' cen- s awareness. s in- sus, and state records-to provide details troduction, endnotes, and appendixes pro- about these men. Photographs depicting vide helpful background context pertinent a fair number of them also appear,reflec- tc, Indiana's German infantry, including tive of her effective presentation of visual explanations of the roles of the Turnuerein material throughout the volume. Subse- and the German Forty-Eighters. quent sections detail battle casualties and William W.Giffin provide a full roster of the regiment's sol- Indiana State University diers. One suspects that genealogists will

74 OHIO VALLEY HISTORY BOOK REVIEWS

be particularly thankful for Lambert's military significance,while missing an op- painstaking work. portunity to explore the social and cultural Lambert's archival labors, however, are worlds ofthe men of the 91st 33).( at variance with the presentation of her sub- Lambert's prose is generally good, al- ject. While the 91*spent most of the war though an attentive reader will tiote the oc- as a rear-guard unit,with the notable excep- casional run-on sentence and gramm'atic'al tion of a foray into the Shen:indoah Valley, misstep. At certain pc,ints,the author also Lambert' nonetheless s narrative is con- makes unsupported claims about the atti- structed around military affairs. At times, tudes of soldiers in the 91"and introduces

the work resembles nothing so much as a a wealth of information about her subject list of maneuvers compiled from an officer's without providing adequate citation. diary. Ihis' tendency is regrettably common Kevin Adams in Civil War studies,and Lambert' reliance s Kent State Universitv upon military history leads her to excise or otherwise ignore · host of consequential a Michael E.Williams, Sn Isaac Taylor topics-for example, soldiers' rationales for Ticbenor:De Creation ofthe Baptist enlistment, their dedication to the Lincoln New South. Tuscaloosa: The University administration's vision of the war,and the ofAlabama Press,2005. 256 pp. ISBN manifold interpretations of guerilla war- 081734741 cloth),( 42. $50. fare-all ofwhich make briefappearances iii

her sources. The disappointment is height- Probably few readers of this review will ened by Lambert's early declaration that have heard of Isaac Taylor Tichenor, and the letters of-Brevet Major General Ruther- it is the present-day obscurity of a min- whom ·author ford Hayes and Lt. Col. Coates are full of ister, heartwarming,"interesting," " and "touch- Michael E. »\Villiams looms ing"revelations concerning their Civil War argues " as one experiences-precious few of which appear of the most signifi- in her narrative xi).( cant figures in South- Since the 91' Ohio rarely made it into ern Baptist history the forefront of the Union Armv' great s 0 and in the history of southern Christian- campaigns, Lambert would have done a better job of interpreting her mostly camp- ity" 201),( that gives bound soldiers had she exchanged one old this book its impor- In this well classic, Whitelaw Reid's 1868 study of tance. Ohio during the war,for another,Bell Ir- researched biogra- vin Wiley's Life of Billy Yank:Tbe Common phy, Williams both Soldier of tbe Union 1952).With Wiley provides an ample to guide her, Lambert might have trans- survey of Tichenor's careet and an eval- formed her primarily antiquarian study of uation of his contributions to the rise to Civil War a minor regiment into an interregional dominance of-the Southern Bap- esting examination of military life behind tist Church. Williams carefully contextu- the front lines. Instead, like her soldiers alizes Tichenor within the history and the who had" become complacent and at times historiography of the region. bored with the duties to which they had Born in Kentucky in 1825 and been assigned,"Lambert gamely seeks named after his parents' Baptist minister,

S PRING 2007 75 BOOK REVIEWS

Tichenor educated local acade- was at a mote education·al work among them. Fi- my; although he showed academic Iirom- nancial problems in the First Baptist ise, he never went on to further training. Church led Tichenor to resign in 1868 A childhood bout with measles perma- and become president of a mining compa- nently weakened his throat, an affliction nv,where he honed his administrative and that became worrisome much later in his leadership skills. 1[hree years later he re- life. He began preaching in his teenage turned to the ministry,accepting a call to years, soon earning the sobriquet,the " boy the First Baptist Church ofMemphis. He orator of Kentucky"15). ( 1hroughout his also accepted the presidency of the SBC life his oratorical skills brought notice and Sunday School Board and served on the became the of his influence Committee Home Evan- essence and convention's on

leadership. As a young adult he went as a gelization. Ihe' following year, 1872, he missionary to Native Americans in Missis- left Memphis to accept the presidency of sippi, briefly pastored a church there, and Al·abama Agricultural and Mechanical made a revivalist trip to Texas before set- College,later renamed Auburn University. For the decade he served col- tling in 1851 as pastor of the First Baptist next as a Church in Montgomery,Alabama. Nev- lege president, working hard to improve er a creative theologian but rather a pro- educational opportunities and develop ac- ponent of traditional Baptist principles, ademic programs that helped promote Tichenor emphasized the importance of the agricultural, mining,and business in- individual salvation, evangelism, church terests of the state. He fully accepted the growth, and education. He opposed two tenets of the New South movement ad- potential schisms: Landmarkism, which vocated by I-Ienry Grady and others. All

traced a distinct line of B·aptist church- this seemed preparation for taking over, es back to Jesus; and Anti-Missionism, a in 1882, the SBC Home Mission Board. that attacked modern Now Tichenor found life' movement most in- his true s work and he used his atorical and administra- stitutional and educational aspects of the or· contemporary church. In opposing these tive skills for the next seventeen years to movements, Tichenor found himself promote his beloved SBC throughout the identifying more deeply with the growing South and beyond, even missionizing in Southern Baptist Convention SBC)( and Cuba. Tichenor defended his church and rising to a leadership position within it. re- His defense of his church fused with his gion against all competitors, aggressively growing sectional identification with and and effectively pushed church growth, es- defense of the South,and he gladly served pecially in Texas and Appalachia,advocat- as a chaplain in the Civil War. He gained ed educational programs, adopted highly some renown for actually taking up arms paternalistic programs for African Amer- on several occasions and shooting Union icans,and supported the regnant business- soldiers. industrial interests of the South. While he

When the war was over,Tichenor re- in effect became Mister" SBC,"he did not turned to his Montgomery church, and al- challenge white r·acial attitudes, gave lit- though he never admitted that slavery was tle attention to theology,was inattentive wrong, he did support black members' de- to the needs of the poor,and can only be sires to form a separate church and helped called chauvinistically southern. At times raise money for that project and to pro- he seemed to put church membership and

76 OHIO VALLEY HISTORY BOOK REVIEWS

budgetary growth ahead of spiritual issues. sentiment, its harmony of color and tone. Despite all of this,he both shaped and re- It suggests, she added,far " more than it flected the SBC, and as Williams con- describes"50). ( To prove the contention cludes, by" looking at his life, one may see that Tw·achtman was a painter'" s paint- devel- a picture of the Southern Baptist Conven- er,"Peters ably outlines his irtistic: tion itself"203). ( opment and then places his oeuvre in the American context of the art scene in the John B. Boles last quarter of the nineteenth century. Al- Rice University thozigh Twaclitmin spent inost of his working life iii New York and Connecti- Lisa N.Peters,with contributions by cut, Peters weaves Cincinnati into the nar- John Nelson and Simon Parkes. Jobn rative at v'arious junctures. Twacbtman1853- ( 1902):A Painterk" Published to accompany an exhibition Painter."New York: Spanierman Gallery, shown at New York's Spanierman Gallery LLC, 2006. 256 pp. ISBN 094593677x from May 4 to June 24,2006,Jobn Pracbt- cloth),83. $00. man 1853- ( 1902):A Painter'" s Painter"fea- Ihe Cincinnati-born artist John Twacht- tures five interpretive essays. Peters also man now ranks among America's finest wrote catalogue entries for each of the nineteenth-century painters. However, seventy-eight works selected for the ex- collectors rarely purchased paintings by hibition. The entries not only interpret ob- Twachtman during his life. Lisa Peters jects but also document their provenance argues th·at Twachtman lacked the entre- ownership history),exhibition, and pub- preneurial skills to market himself and his lication. Whereas oil paintings m·ake up work. Yet oth- of the exhibition, few watercolors, s · s,» most a artists, 1 3%k ,2. er es- «- i. .. pastels, drawings, and etchings add vari- sij'»·2.'g '- · pecially early etv to the mix that includes representative 1 - .,0 modernists, works from all phases of the artist's career. understood and Combined, the broad essays and detailed appreci,ited the catalogue entries reinforce one another 3 -· · ' formal qu;iIi- with complementary evidence that sup- Twacht- t.,» »,5-'4 »:.,0.' U. .f ties of ports Peters's main arguments. that Peters draws Twachtman man's art on s art as

were too ab- the foundation of her analysis. Among

str ict to attract the author's myriad primary and second- the collec- art ary sources are the published memoirs, the and diary of Twachtman' i tor or gen- papers, a s art- 7. 5»«:V #fik eral public of ist friends, including Edward Simmons, his day. Both Jerome Myers,Robert Blum,J. Alden Weir, admired Twacht- and Iheodore' Robinson. Peters also thor- artists and crit cs often

ma i's landscapes for their near-abstract oughly investigated how art critics received tonal arrangement, suggestive ot a mu- Twachtman's work,and influence of the 10- sical composition (57).Voicing a com- cations in which Twachtman painted. monly held view among the cognoscenti, For example, Peters characterizes critic Mariana Van Rensselaer praised his Miami Canal,Cincinnatica. ( 1874)as an work for its individuality,' its poetry of example of Twachtman's early work in

SPRING 2007 77 BOOK REVIEWS

the bravura realist style that he learned in Indeed, the reigning paradigm of Appala- Munich. She irgues that 1: later shift iii chian industrialization focuses on company Twachtman' s style, from sooty realism to towns, where class relations were perhaps poetic sensitivity to nuances in nature most sharply defined. Deborah Weiner's 50)-a change scholars usually attribute to study of coalfield Jews reveals how inad- his stay in France-began earlier iii paint- equate that paradigm is ings such as 11/inter iii Cincillitatitea.1 883) for understanding the that he created while residing with his in- regions transformation. laws in the Cincinnati suburb of-Avon- new Jews, she argues, discov- AN APPALACHIAN HISTORY dde. ered niche the for-" Springtinleca. ( 1 884)is one of the a in 1*11 rnost important works Twachtman creat- midable system"of- coal ed during his 1883-85 stay in France. That industry domination,al- 4*4.'4,*» 1.IMI/. t =32'1.j the painter Frank Duveneck presented the lowing them to carve painting to the Cincinnati Art Museum out opportunities while underscores that Twachtmans artists were simultaneously enabling strongest supporters. Similarly,Joseph Appalachian work- Gest, the who served director artist as of ing people to fashion" a the Cincinnati Art Museum, Twacht- gave modern Americ·an life-style and identity show in 1901. These few man a one-man through the purchase of inexpensive com- examples involving Cincinnati exemplify modities"82). ( Iii short, this distinct mi- how the painstakingly assembled details of nority helped transform the region and, in Peters's research feed her larger themes. the process,was itself transformed. 7710 plentiful illustrations are just one Weiner:s story begins with the concur- Tioacbtman that of the qualities of John rent processes of Jewish migration from readers will appreciate. No reproduction, European shtetls and Appalachi:in industri- however, can do justice to Twachtman:s alization. Coal development sprinkled this rugged with boomtowns that of- paintings, so take this as fair warning that terrain picking up this book will surely inspire a ten doubled as county seats and transship- which Twachtman' visit to a museum in s ment centers for the industry. Meanwhile, paintings are on view. emerging Jewish mercantile firms grabbed the this frontier"" Feav Shellman Coleman opportunity to tap market for goods with of University of Cincinnati consumer an army peddlers, some of whom seized their own chance at entrepreneurship in the coalfields. Deborah R.Weiner. Coa'jiddJetos:An these rapidly carved out Appalacbian History. Urbana: University newcomers a cru- cial economic role as middlemen, build- c,f Illinois Press,2006. 264 pp. ISBN ing upon their ethnic legacy that included 0252073355 ( 25.00. paper), $ for economic adapt·ability,a high tolerance A generation of scholars has worked to financial risk taking,ind : abilitv to start a break down the stereotype of Appala- business 011 1. slioestring"48). ( Jewish mer- chia as a homogenous and isolated region. chants walked an economic and political However,studies of the complexity and di- tightrope, satisfying consumers and build- versity of the coal fields have slighted the ing enterprises, while remaining careful not small- middle classes for the drama town to run afoul of the company store and the of conflict between operators and miners. powerful coal operators. If Weiner's book

78 01110 VALLEY HISTORY BOOK REVIEWS

limited lias a weaktiess, it is the attention in Pennsylvania. University Park: she gives to tlic impossible position of mid- Petinsvlvania State University lress,2006. dlemen in the region's stark and violent 237 pp. ISBN 9780271028767 cloth),( class relations. 37.5().

Once in Appalachia,Jews needed to 1 T,e Pennsylvania branch of tile Civilian build commutilties knowing that they Consen,ition Corps was one of the larg- would remain a small minority. Only est iii the countrv. Its size and the J':iriety in a few towlls were they able to attract of projects it under- sizeable numbers. In most, thev h,let t(, •,2,,jy br·463 y took make it ati ideal negotiate limitations that affected their re- study of of the ligious observ· their diets, the case one 11**ft< t.;YUI ances, oppor- it j*: I., tunities for their children to find sttitable New 1)cal' visible s most 4 progr,7173>. In At M,8,4 9.1 4, mates, and the creation of satisfactory so- 91 .. 14--6, ... cial lives. Remarkably,and despite stel CO - 8,Penng tbods,/ Joseph I,P,4! that diflicult amid ·'· types suggest a time a Spe. .:1 Jz- <* stronirikm.institutionalin pror idessur-a ip i < 8 Lcilerally int(,ler,int popiil,itic,n, Jews m.111- aired to fulfill 1. variety of roles in coalfield of ' veyOCC. theA Petinsylvatijaprofessor of ; lf:- tc,wns, from leading citizen to bootlegger 7 history at Alontgomery tc)brothel keepen County Communit\'College in Philadel- Weiner's study relies on court records, phia, Speakman inspired tc) write his and rich histories, atid was newspapers, or:i] book after conversations with his father, her writing brings to life the fascinatine who served in the Itnnsylvania OCC dur- life stories of young men and women who ing its early years. lliat' personal connec- escaped the pogroms and poverty off:111-(,pe tion drives some of the strongest passages foi : chance vill, 1 at security iii remote iges of At Work in Peit,z's Woods. Using excerpts or the wide-open rowdiness of a modern- from letters, testinionials and newspa- day Gomorrah like Keystone, West Vir- per articles, Speakman details the every- ginia. Moreover, she compares the Jewish day experiences of the men and boys who experience in the coilfields with that of worked in the camps. Unfortunately,these umunutiities in other regions. Equally sections are too few. Aluch of the book is the iniportant, CoalFeldfe·zus is sensitive to an institutional history,and although un- tr·ans-regional and even transnational iden- derstanding how the state CCE was cre- tity of Appalachia's immigrants. Certain- ated is important, reading in extensive ly it was a complex and conflicted identity, detail the process by which admitiistrators trying to balance allegi:ince to their Jew- stail-ed and structured the c·amps becomes ishness, their their family,and their town, tedious. economic success. In the end, the decline Tlic institutic,nal focus does, however, of the coal industrv ensured that their sto- contribute to Speakman:s overall argument. t'y continited elsewhere. He concludes that although the CCC was Ken Fones-Wolf successful in its initial go·als of forest res- West Virginia University toration and work relief, its administra-

tion was too haphazard and subject to the Work Penn' Joseph Speakman. At in s political will of Harrisburg and Washing- take effectivelv · brc,ader Woods:lbe Civilian Confer,vation Corps ton to on a or more

SPRING 2007 79 BOOK REVIEWS

permanent role. By the mid-1930s, CCC Overall, At Work in Penn;Woods is well leaders realized that many enrollees needed researched and comprehensive, and Speak- education and job training. State and re- man is a clean, efficient writer. Anyone gional administrators tried to provide these looking for an environmental history of services,but they always chafed against the the CCC's work in Pennsylvania, however, should look elsewhere. Ihis' CCC's military structure. The Corps was is an institu- administered by the U.S. Army, whose 10- tional, not an ecological history. More- cal commanders were ill-equipped and of- over, the book would have benefited from unwilling provide ten to comprehensive a stronger editor to encourage a better bal- education enrollees. to ance between administrative history and As the economy improved, the gen- the more interesting experiences of CCC enrollees. eral public started to see the CCC as an anachronism, causing larger problems for Rob Gioielli administrators. To justify their existence University of Cincinnati to members of Congress who held the purse strings, CCC officials provided ex- Douglas Knerr. Suburban Steel:7be panded military trading. However, this Magnificent Failure oftbe Lustron practice hurt recruitment because many Corporation,1945-1951. Columbus: The families were unwilling to subject their Ohio State University Press, 2004. 248 pp. sons to an experience that looked much ISBN 0814209610 cloth),( 44. $95. like the military. These inherent problems the CCC' in s structure and goals led to its Ihe evolution of the philosophy and prac- dissolution in 1942. With the country and tice of American housing,"Douglas Knerr the economy at war, there was no need for writes in his valuable history of the Lus-

work relief and forest conservation j..%/3 *** was no tron Corporation, is" y A longer a priority. a very messy story, :4*»., » /). «« of At Work in Penns The strongest parts full of econorn ic, polit- -: -' „, Woods are the third and fourth chapters. In f -« The CCC ical, and social 4 .. 42,<08 in Penn's Woods,"Speakman glements entan-deeply *,j* : i #004,1*t * woveninstitutional j describes day-to-day life in the camps, into our fabric well Ef- providing a vivid picture of what the CCC as as into our C- Ul- the millions of like his fa- meant to men psyches. Disentangling * ther who served.African " Americans in the threads is no easy ,**§* * Penn's Woods"chronicles the segregat- task" 2). ( More 2 ed of the COC. Although nature Speak- just a chronicle of the man could have weaved this material into rise and fall of the Lus- the broader narrative, his separate chapter tron Corporation,Knerr's book does an ad- emphasizes the essential Jim Crow expe- mirable job of disentangling these threads rience of African Americans in the CCC, and weaving the Lustron story into the and with New Deal programs generally. warp and weft of Americ,ill life. By sending African Americans exclusively 1[he Lustron Corporation was an ill- to designated camps,CCC officials limited fated, government-subsidized attempt to their numbers in the Corps, even though address the post-World War II housing cri- blacks desperately needed work relief and sis by making affordable, mass-produced, educational opportunities. permanent enameled-steel houses that

80 Oil I 0 VALLEY HISTORY BOOK REVIEWS

could be shipped anywhere in the Unit- materi·als, however, subtly undermines ed States and installed in days. Operat- at least part of his interpretation. Did ing out of a repurposed war industry plant the public really fail to support Lustron? Knerr' well-documented of the outside of Columbus, Ohio, the company s account fervid enthusiasm hundreds of thousands attempted for the first time to rationalize and industrialize fully a traditionally unre- of Americans displayed for the company's sponsive and disorganized housing sector products when they clamored for infor- toured model homes-well by bringing continuous production tech- mation or as the absolute devotion of surveved niques and economies of scale to bear on as near indicate other- the industry that capitalism forgot"5). ( Llistron owners-seems to

A capital-intensive new business that bor- wise. Similarlv,Knerr's adroit use of gov- documents demonstrate the rowed forty million dollars from the government to ernment to get running,Lustron produced politically and ideologically motivated op- only ·about twentv-five hundred homes be- position to Lustron by the new Republican fore succumbed financial difficulties it to Congress bent on blunting Truman ad- and increasing political opposition. ministration initiatives convincingly plac-

Although Knerr's narration of this es primary culpability for Lustron's death story is compelling enough, he also quite in the C·apitol. 1[hus, this part of Knerr's effectively and succinctly contextualiz- thesis seems to conflate public with polit- es the Lustron experiment within larger ie,11 will when the two might more profit- American architectural, technological, so- ably be disentangled. cial, economic, and political trends. Knerr This small quibble aside, Suburban Steel remains well-written volume that is argues that Lustron is a valuable case a study illustrating not only an original ap- an insightful addition to several literatures, proach to American housing that took including the histories of US. architecture, advant·age of a brief window of opportu- business and industry,and public poljcy. during which public and nitv private inter- Kevin Kern intersected immedi·ately after World ests The Universitv of Akron War II, but also the complexities of joint

public/private social improvement ven- Curt Dalton. Dayton. Charleston, SC: tures and the limits of governmental en- Arcadia Publishing,2006. 128pp. ISBN trepreneurship. Lustron ultimately failed, 073854079x paper),( 19. $99. Knerr maintains, bec·ause it" exceeded the acceptable limits of government sponsor- Dayton is the latest region·al addition to ship during the immediate postwar era by Arcadia Publishing's Postcard History Se- ria. The extending the business-government part- use of historical postcard images iici ship to serve a peacetime social need, a is not new,but this is the first publication goal the American public ultim·ately failed of a collection on this scale for Dayton, to support"12). ( Ohio. Ihe' author,Chris Dalton,is the Vi- Knerr largely succeeds in establishing sual Resources Manager for Dayton His-

his case by persuasively using a wide va- tory, the local historical society, and this riety of primary sources including govern- new postcard collection concentrates on ment documents, promotional materials, commercial and institutional buildings. hundred postcard trade publications, and Lustron company1 Over two images,se- files. His extremely effective use of source lected from the Dayton Metro Library and

SPRING 2007 81 BOOK REVIEWS

1-here are, however, inany post- concise nature of these essays make readable, while the tive aspects of Indiana's legal history. them extensive Ihe state possesses a strong heritage footnotes provide valuable research of support for education. Although tools for those who wish to study the Histo Indiana has a strong conservative tia- subjects in greater depth. The dition, the state was one of the first ry of Indiana Law provides significant to guarantee indigent defendants the insight into the legal system and so- right to counsel,and was an early in- ciety of middle Americti. The book novator of separate facilities for juve- demonstrates that America's legal nile and female offenders. Ihe' state system is an intricate pattern of fifty and each of which also has a pattern of protection of in- states constitutions, dividual rights that par·allels or is interfaces and compliments the fed- advance of the sometimes in nation- eral constitution but also possesses its al trends. own unique legal history. 1[he authors in this collection ex- C. Ellen Connally plore such Tried topics family v, as race, University of Akron law,education, and civil liberties. The

84 01110 VALLEY HISTORY ANNOUNCEMENTS

filsonhistorical.ore/fellowships.htm. standing and hiking hills and throus11 r·r 1 up Information aboutihe research woods and „. vitsons on uneven ct trails. I)ress collections be can fi,und 11(,tile online accorditigh·. 11()( Cat, hr. Fee: 7()$ fi,i- C]\IC members and 75$ for non-meti-lbers Filsoti Institute

Registratic,n Deadline: Alm·25 Hic Filson I Iistc,ric,11 Society presents the 16th Public Conference ofllie Fils<, ii Early Ohio' Colliding Cultures Institzite: s JVednesday,June 20: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mountain Top Removal 32)1»tr ic,zirne\'begins at Citicinnati Musetitii Center Iliursday -Saturday,May 17-19,2007 with Nec,ike,a Hazard,Keiitucky Shewand·asee storvtellen presenting the Contact historr t-the Shawnee. Travel 14) 1[he Filsc,n for more information c, t() rt 5()2- Anciciit at 635-5083 or visit c,ur iveh gite it: tt,re\'iew 15,(}()()Ae,1rs of Native Americ, history www.filsonhistorical.ortf tii in the Ohio Valley. Visit GLY,rge Rogers Clark State P.irk,site the of Cincinnati illuseum Center c,t- larisest battle the Re,·ciltition.in- War of tl, Alleglienies, Ilic r. ivest e ne.ir Liticinnkiti Heritage Progr.inis of hirthplace )t'Tecitinse]1. Fi'avel the Sinic,n Citicitinati .litisetin,Centet' ir·ill present Kent<,n A lemorial tc)a nearby p.ark fiir .1 bils tw<) toUrs ill Jlltle: box lunch. At the United Remnalit 13.ind

Big Bone Lick State Park Soutliwiiid Park near Bellefontaine, tiicet members ofthe Sh. tribe vlic,, still Friday,June 1;9 a.m. to 3:30 p.in. iwtice li\'in tlieir ancestral honieland. Explc,rers Lewis .ind Clark brc,u,ht e back animal reinains froin Big Bone Iree: ti, CAIC and for 58() r members 585 I.ick, considered the Birthplace" nibers now non-1-lic of Anierican Vertchr.itc Paleutitc)logv. St<, Registratic, 1)eadline: Jilne 13 1)1. (1;lenn rrs, Cincintiati Altiseum n Ce, paleont<,loeist,leads through iter ils All bus tc,lirs depart frc,iii the front of the trails of the Kentuck\'State Park Cincinnati illusezin}Center.Iliere - : ire while interpreting the Ice Age th, c\Ents lt 110 rettitids after tlie registration de;idline. liave preserved tlie fossilized remains of- Both t(,lirs include liinch. To register. mastodons, ly niaminoths and ground woc, please c,ill 513-287-7031. slc,ths. =Ilils tciur 111'olves 11,]()periods )f

86 0 HI O VALLE ' III S I'' ()14 ' Announcements

Rogers Clark Ballard'Thruston by prc,viding suppc,rt fi,r travel atid Photographs for Sale at"Ilie Filson loilging. Intertiships provide practical

A f of 1.ortisville' iciice 111 ccillections iget-lient ineniber (,one s mc,st expei" 1-nati: ind research ti,1- graduate stildents. promillent fainilies, Rogers Clark 13:illard 11 De]Ic,ws as well as interns are expected tc) Tlirlist<)11 (1858-1946),C()111 piled : 1 be residence The Filson. in continic,zis at photographic collection that showcased Application de;Kilines for all fellowships his interest iii fatiilly,history and tr;ivelillg, ind internships · October ind well hi Ic, cif Louisville atid irc 15th . as as s ve Feht- 15th each the Alonday Ketitzicky. 1 lis photogr·iphs, spanned the u:iry year (or froni thllowing the 15tll if it falls Saturday vears 1882 tc)1942. on a I,r Sutiday).Applicatic,tis are reviewed I[lire,tig] the gciler(,tls gift ot twi ce :1 ve,ir. his photc,gral,h collection, Rogers llic Society' Clark Ballard liruston[ showed his s collecticms are especial]\ sti-(,ng for the Frc,!itier,Antebellitin, ind. understallding oftlie inipoi-tance of Civil W, 1

14,1-111()re intl,1-111.ltioll,C(,litact A. llie Filson Fellowships and Internships Glenn Crothers,Director of Research fi,r Tlie Else,n 1 list<,rical Si,cien·invites 711e lilsin Institute,The Filson I listorical tipplicatic, fc, fellows] ind Sc,ciety,131()S.71iird Street, ns r iips , I.c,uisville, i,iternships. ilie" Filson t-ellowships alici KY 40208 or at crothers@filst,tihistorical. ititernships tlic 101,irlv encourage sc] ilse org. Applicatic)11 prc,cedures c,in he ind the Els<, c,t our nation.illy significatit c<,11ectiotls to, on 11's web site ,it www.

SPRING 2007 85 The [_Tiliversity Press of KENTUCKY

GENERATION ON FIRE CLAY LANCASTER'S KENTUCKY Voices of Protest from Architectural Photographs the 1960s, An Oral History of a Preservation Pioneer Jeff Kisseloff James D. Birchfield E] An invigorating collection of 15 testimonials Foreword by Roger W Moss objectors. from counter-cuiturists, conscientious Lancaster was an intense scholar with ON FIREB011. and artists."-Publishers Weekiy bountiful energy and imagination who Deeply moving and complex, it will come as preserved from ruin (if, alas, only on paper) di kiss01of a revelation aboul an era too often reduced historic buildings destined to be burned, to caricature."-Maurice Isserman bulldozed, and razed."-Pitch

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Anthony James Joes Ill!.'1'. The Story of the Singing Hilltoppers Fills a need for a succinct comparative Carlton Jackson examination of urban warfare....Will be £1511¥A 104 of great value."-Bard E. O'Neill A good story,well written, with snappy and meticulous research."-Bill Schurk The only work to undertake such a sweeping panorama 01 various urban insurgencies across A warm, lovely story 01 a wonderful group time and space."-Gabriel Marcella during a wonderful time"-Don Cusic 535.00 cioth 27.00 cloth

Submission Information for Contributors to Obio Valley History The refcrecing process for mamiscripts is blind. Referees arc members of our editorial board or other specialists in the academy We of Four paper copies of a manuscript should be sent by postal mail to. most appropriate ro each manuscript. have no quotas any kind with regard to authorship,topic,chronological period,or David Stradling, or A. Glenn Crothers, methodology.The practitioners via their submissions determine what Associate Editor Associate Editor we publish. Authors inust guarantee in writing that the workis Ohio Vatky History Obio Pil/hy History original, rhat ir has not been previouslv published, and that it is not for elsewhere form. Department of History Department of History under consideration publication in any RO. Box 210373 University of Louisville Should a manuscript be accepted for publication, the author will bc University of Cincinnati Louisville, KY 40292-0001 asked to provide a computer disk,clearly labeled with the name of Cincinnati,OH 45221-0373 Ihc author,file,and saved in Mkrosoft Word. Wedo nothave the capacity translate alternative Preferred manuscript length is roughly 22 to 25 pages,exclusive to programs. of endnotes,on one side of 8.5 x 11 inch paper Accepted manuscripts undergo a reasonable yer rigorous editing We will read the manuscript closely to style, Please use 12-point type. process. vcry as grammar,and argument. The edited manuscript will be submitted to Double-space text and notes,with notes placed at the end of the the author for consideration before publication. manuscript text. llic Filson Historic:,1 Society (Fl·IS),Cincinnati Museum Center Author's name and institutional affiliation on tit!c page only. CMC),and the University of Cincinnati UC)( hold jointly the copyrighr for all material published in Obio Ki/RyAtory // After Illustrations,rablcs,and maps that significantly enhance the a work is published in the journ,il,FI i S/CMC/LIC will grant the article are welcome. author,upon written requcst,permission to republish the work, fee, the author redir of Authors who submit photos should also provide citations,cut without subjecr to giving proper : prior publication Ohio Milh· History. E·ach author will receive five free lines,credits,and suggestions for placement o f images. to y copies of the journal in which thc published article appears. Regarding general form and style,please follow the 15' edition of :Cbirago MianualofStyl¢.

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