Part 2
Since the war Kentucky periodicals have been, almost without exception, rather tame affairs. They have all been most mushroomish. A few of them may be singled out, such as _The Southern Bivouac_, which was conducted at Louisville for several years by General Basil W. Duke and Richard W. Knott; _The Illustrated Kentuckian_, founded at Lexington, in 1892; _The Southern Magazine_, of Louisville, published papers by Mr. Allen, stories by Mr. John Fox, Jr., and several other now well-known writers; and Charles J. O'Malley's _Midland Review_ ran for some time. These are the comparatively recent Kentucky periodicals which have bloomed in a day and wilted with the earliest winter. _The Register_, official organ of the State Historical Society, is still being issued three times a year. It is unique among Kentucky magazines in that it is the only one that has had adequate financial support, which, however, comes to it in the form of a State appropriation. For the last twenty-five years _The Courier-Journal_, of Louisville, has devoted space in its Saturday edition to reviews of new books; and in recent years _The Evening Post_, also of Louisville, has maintained a similar department.
J. W. T.
Lexington, Kentucky June 13, 1913
FOOTNOTE:
[1] The italics in which the three Kentucky lines are set, are my own.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The last several years have been devoted to the collecting and classifying of Kentucky books and authors from Filson, in 1784, to Mr. Allen, in 1912. While the author has done other things, this has been his most serious business.
Of the more than a thousand Kentucky writers, one hundred and ninety-six, or those who achieved considerable reputation in their day and generation, or others to whom fame came late, are now discussed. The author hopes to publish within the next two or three years a _Dictionary of Kentucky Writers_, which will attempt to bring together in brief biographical and critical notes all of Kentucky's literary workers from the beginning until the present time. The crossroads poet is a most elusive, most diffident figure, but I shall do my best to bring him into the _Dictionary_ that is to be.
I have received assistance from many quarters. Colonel Reuben T. Durrett, Dr. Henry A. Cottell, General Bennett H. Young, Colonel Robert M. Kelly, Mrs. Evelyn Snead Barnett, Mrs. Elvira Miller Slaughter, and Mr. George T. Settle, of Louisville, Kentucky, have aided me in many directions. Mr. George McCalla Spears, of Dallas, Texas, author of _Dear Old Kentucky_, and the owner of one of the best collections of Kentucky books ever gotten together, I have to thank for a catalogue of his library and a dozen informing letters. Judge James H. Mulligan, Miss Anna Totten, Mrs. Annie Gratz Clay, Miss Jo Peter, and Mr. James M. Roach, of Lexington, Kentucky, have loaned and given me many rare Kentucky items; to Mr. William Kavanaugh Doty, of Richmond, Kentucky, Mrs. Daniel Henry Holmes, of Covington, Kentucky, Mrs. Lucien Beckner, of Winchester, Kentucky, Dr. Thomas E. Pickett, of Maysville, Kentucky, State Librarian Frank K. Kavanaugh, of Frankfort, Kentucky, Mr. Alexander Hill, and Miss Marian Prentice Piatt, of Cincinnati, Ohio, Mr. Henry Cleveland Wood, of Harrodsburg, Kentucky, Mr. Paul Weir, of Owensboro, Kentucky, Mr. Ingram Crockett, of Henderson, Kentucky, Mrs. Mary Addams Bayne, of Shelbyville, Kentucky, Miss Leigh Gordon Giltner, of Eminence, Kentucky, and Mrs. Caroline S. Valentine, of New Castle, Kentucky, the majority of whom are writers, I am doubly indebted for facts regarding their own work, as well as for what I now more especially thank them--information concerning other Kentucky writers.
Death found the two best friends, perhaps, this work had during the course of its preparation, when it took Charles J. O'Malley, the Kentucky poet and critic, and Jahu Dewitt Miller, the Philadelphia lecturer and bookman. Both of these men had just gotten into the spirit of the work when they died within a year of each other. O'Malley wrote the most illuminating letters concerning Kentucky authors it has been my good fortune to receive; Miller made the most gratifying and surprising additions to my collection of Kentuckiana, exceedingly scarce volumes and pamphlets which he alone seemed able to unearth from the old bookshops of the country. The memories of them both must be ever green with me and in this work.
I have to thank Mr. Allen for his very fine introduction. To have one's name associated with his is reward sufficient for the years of toil and sacrifice this work has demanded of its author.
CONTENTS
JOHN FILSON 1 THE AIR AND CLIMATE OF KENTUCKY 2 QUADRUPEDS 3 BOONE'S FIRST VIEW OF KENTUCKY 4
JOHN BRADFORD 5 NOTES ON KENTUCKY. SECTION I 6
MATTHEW LYON 8 REPLY TO JOHN RANDOLPH OF ROANOKE 9
GILBERT IMLAY 11 THE FLIGHT OF A FLORID LOVER 13
ADAM RANKIN 17 ON THE EXTENT OF THE GOSPEL OFFER 18 UPON MARRIAGE BY LICENSE 18
THOMAS JOHNSON 19 EXTEMPORE GRACE 21 DANVILLE 21 KENTUCKY 21 HUDSON, WIFE-MURDERER 22 PARSON RICE 22 THE POET'S EPITAPH 22
GEORGE BECK 23 FIFTEENTH ODE OF HORACE 24 ANACREON'S FIFTY-FIFTH ODE 25 ANACREON'S FIRST ODE 26
HUMPHREY MARSHALL 26 PRIMEVAL KENTUCKY 28
STEPHEN T. BADIN 30 EPICEDIUM 31
CHARLES CALDWELL 34 GENERAL GREENE'S EARLY LIFE 35
ALLAN B. MAGRUDER 37 CITIZEN GENET AND JEFFERSON 38
HENRY CLAY 39 REPLY TO JOHN RANDOLPH 42 ADDRESS TO LA FAYETTE 43
JOHN J. AUDUBON 45 INDIAN SUMMER ON THE OHIO 48
HORACE HOLLEY 52 MR. CLAY AND COL. MEADE 53
CONSTANTINE S. RAFINESQUE 56 GEOLOGICAL ANNALS 58
MANN BUTLER 59 PIONEER VISITORS 60
ZACHARY TAYLOR 62 A LETTER TO HENRY CLAY 63
DANIEL DRAKE 65 MAYSLICK, KENTUCKY, IN 1800 67
MARY A. HOLLEY 69 TEXAS WOMEN 70
JOHN J. CRITTENDEN 71 EULOGY UPON JUSTICE MCKINLEY 73
JOHN M. HARNEY 74 ECHO AND THE LOVER 76 THE WIPPOWIL 77 SYLPHS BATHING 78
GEORGE ROBERTSON 78 ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 80 EARLY STRUGGLES 80 LITERARY FAME 81
SHADRACH PENN 82 THE COMING OF GEORGE D. PRENTICE 83
WILLIAM O. BUTLER 84 THE BOATMAN'S HORN 86
HEW AINSLIE 87 THE BOUROCKS O' BARGENY 89 THE HAUGHS O' AULD KENTUCK 89 THE INGLE SIDE 90 THE HINT O' HAIRST 91
JAMES G. BIRNEY 91 THE NO-GOVERNMENT DOCTRINES 93
THOMAS CORWIN 95 THE MEXICAN WAR 96
HENRY B. BASCOM 98 A CLERGYMAN'S VIEW OF NIAGARA 99
JAMES T. MOREHEAD 102 JOHN FINLEY 103
LEWIS COLLINS 104 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION 105
JULIA A. TEVIS 107 THE MAY QUEEN 108
ROBERT J. BRECKINRIDGE 112 SANCTIFICATION 113
CAROLINE L. HENTZ 114 BESIDE THE LONG MOSS SPRING 115
JOHN P. DURBIN 117 IMPRESSIONS OF LONDON 118
FORTUNATUS COSBY, JR. 119 FIRESIDE FANCIES 120
THOMAS F. MARSHALL 123 TEMPERANCE: AN ADDRESS 124
JEFFERSON J. POLK 126 THE BATTLE OF THE BOARDS 127
GEORGE D. PRENTICE 129 THE CLOSING YEAR 131 ON REVISITING BROWN UNIVERSITY 133 PARAGRAPHS 135
ROBERT M. BIRD 135 NICK OF THE WOODS 137
JOHN A. MCCLUNG 139 THE WOMEN OF BRYANT'S STATION 140
JAMES O. PATTIE 142 THE SANTA FE COUNTRY 143
WILLIAM F. MARVIN 145 EPIGRAM 146 THE FIRST ROSES OF SPRING 146 SONG 147
ELISHA BARTLETT 147 JOHN BROWDIE OF "NICHOLAS NICKLEBY" 148
SAMUEL D. GROSS 150 KENTUCKY 151 THE DEATH OF HENRY CLAY 152
THOMAS H. CHIVERS 152 THE DEATH OF ALONZO 154 GEORGIA WATERS 156
JEFFERSON DAVIS 156 FROM THE FAREWELL SPEECH 158
WILLIAM D. GALLAGHER 160 THE MOTHERS OF THE WEST 162
THOMAS H. SHREVE 163 I HAVE NO WIFE 164
ORMSBY M. MITCHEL 166 ASTRONOMICAL EVIDENCES OF GOD 167
ALBERT T. BLEDSOE 169 SEVEN CRISES CAUSED THE CIVIL WAR 171
RICHARD H. MENEFEE 173 KENTUCKY: A TOAST 174
GEORGE W. CUTTER 176 THE SONG OF STEAM 177
MARY P. SHINDLER 179 THE FADED FLOWER 180
MARTIN J. SPALDING 181 A BISHOP'S ARRIVAL 182
JOHN W. AUDUBON 185 LOS ANGELES 186 TULARE VALLEY 186 CHRISTMAS IN 'FRISCO 187
ADRIEN E. ROUQUETTE 187 SOUVENIR DE KENTUCKY 189
EMILY V. MASON 191 THE DEATH OF LEE 192
EDMUND FLAGG 194 THE ANCIENT MOUNDS OF THE WEST 195
CATHERINE A. WARFIELD 197 CAMILLA BOUVERIE'S DIARY 198 A PLEDGE TO LEE 199
J. ROSS BROWNE 200 LAPDOGS IN GERMANY 201
ROBERT MORRIS 205 THE LEVEL AND THE SQUARE 206
AMELIA B. WELBY 207 THE RAINBOW 209 ON THE DEATH OF A SISTER POET 210
CHARLES W. WEBBER 211 TROUTING ON JESSUP'S RIVER 212
LEWIS J. FRAZEE 216 HAVRE 217
THEODORE O'HARA 218 THE BIVOUAC OF THE DEAD 220 THE OLD PIONEER 223 SECOND LOVE 225 A ROLLICKING RHYME 225 THE FAME OF WILLIAM T. BARRY 226
SARAH T. BOLTON 228 PADDLE YOUR OWN CANOE 229
JOHN C. BRECKINRIDGE 231 HENRY CLAY 232
JAMES WEIR, SR. 234 SIMON KENTON 235
MARY E. W. BETTS 237 A KENTUCKIAN KNEELS TO NONE BUT GOD 238
REUBEN T. DURRETT 239 LA SALLE: DISCOVERER OF LOUISVILLE 241
RICHARD H. COLLINS 244 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION 245
ANNIE C. KETCHUM 247 APRIL TWENTY-SIXTH 248
FRANCIS H. UNDERWOOD 250 ALOYSIUS AND MR. FENTON 252 AN AMAZING PROPHECY 254
STEPHEN C. FOSTER 255 MY OLD KENTUCKY HOME, GOOD-NIGHT 256
ZACHARIAH F. SMITH 258 EARLY KENTUCKY DOCTORS 259
JOHN A. BROADUS 261 OXFORD UNIVERSITY 263
MARY J. HOLMES 265 THE SCHOOLMASTER 266
ROSA V. JEFFREY 269 A GLOVE 270 A MEMORY 271
SALLIE R. FORD 272 OUR MINISTER MARRIES 273
JOHN E. HATCHER 276 NEWSPAPER PARAGRAPHS 277
WILLIAM C. WATTS 279 A WEDDING AND A DANCE 280
J. PROCTOR KNOTT 282 FROM THE DULUTH SPEECH 283
GEORGE G. VEST 285 JEFFERSON'S PASSPORTS TO IMMORTALITY 286 EULOGY OF THE DOG 286
WILLIAM P. JOHNSTON 288 BATTLE OF SHILOH--SUNDAY MORNING 289
WILL WALLACE HARNEY 291 THE STAB 292
J. STODDARD JOHNSTON 292 "CAPTAIN MOLL" 293
JULIA S. DINSMORE 295 LOVE AMONG THE ROSES 295
HENRY T. STANTON 297 THE MONEYLESS MAN 299 "A MENSÁ ET THORO" 300 A SPECIAL PLEA 301 SWEETHEART 301
SARAH M. PIATT 303 IN CLONMEL PARISH CHURCHYARD 304 A WORD WITH A SKYLARK 305 THE GIFT OF TEARS 306
BOYD WINCHESTER 307 LAKE GENEVA 308
THOMAS GREEN 310 THE CONSPIRATORS 312
FORCEYTHE WILLSON 313 THE OLD SERGEANT 314
W. C. P. BRECKINRIDGE 319 IS NOT THIS THE CARPENTER'S SON 321
BASIL W. DUKE 323 MORGAN, THE MAN 324
HENRY WATTERSON 325 OLD LONDON TOWN 327
GILDEROY W. GRIFFIN 331 THE GYPSIES 332
JOHN L. SPALDING 334 AN IVORY PAPER-KNIFE 335
NATHANIEL S. SHALER 336 THE ORPHAN BRIGADE 337 TOM MARSHALL 339 LINCOLN IN KENTUCKY 341
WILLIAM L. VISSCHER 342 PROEM 343
BENNETT H. YOUNG 344 PREHISTORIC WEAPONS 345
JAMES H. MULLIGAN 348 IN KENTUCKY 350 OVER THE HILL TO HUSTONVILLE 351
NELLY M. MCAFFEE 353 FINALE 353
MARY F. CHILDS 356 DE NAMIN' OB DE TWINS 357
WILLIAM T. PRICE 359 THE OFFENBACH AND GILBERT OPERAS 361
GEORGE M. DAVIE 363 "FRATER, AVE ATQUE VALE" 363 HADRIAN, DYING, TO HIS SOUL 364
JOHN URI LLOYD 364 "LET'S HAVE THE MERCY TEXT" 366
KENTUCKY IN AMERICAN LETTERS
JOHN FILSON
John Filson, the first Kentucky historian, was born at East Fallowfield, Pennsylvania, in 1747. He was educated at the academy of the Rev. Samuel Finley, at Nottingham, Maryland. Finley was afterwards president of Princeton University. John Filson looked askance at the Revolutionary War, and came out to Kentucky about 1783. In Lexington he conducted a school for a year, and spent his leisure hours in collecting data for a history of Kentucky. He interviewed Daniel Boone, Levi Todd, James Harrod, and many other Kentucky pioneers; and the information they gave him was united with his own observations, forming the material for his book. Filson did not remain in Kentucky much over a year for, in 1784, he went to Wilmington, Delaware, and persuaded James Adams, the town's chief printer, to issue his manuscript as _The Discovery, Settlement, and Present State of Kentucke_; and then he continued his journey to Philadelphia, where his map of the three original counties of Kentucky--Jefferson, Fayette, and Lincoln--was printed and dedicated to General Washington and the United States Congress. This Wilmington edition of Filson's history is far and away the most famous history of Kentucky ever published. Though it contained but 118 pages, one of the six extant copies recently fetched the fabulous sum of $1,250--the highest price ever paid for a Kentucky book. The little work was divided into two parts, the first part being devoted to the history of the country, and the second part was the first biography of Daniel Boone ever published. Boone dictated this famous story of his life to the Pennsylvania pedagogue, who put it into shape for publication, yet several Western writers refer to it as "Boone's autobiography." Boone is the author's central hero straight through the work, and he is happier when discussing him than in relating the country's meager history. Filson's _Kentucky_ was translated into French by M. Parraud, and issued at Paris in 1785; and in the same year a German version was published. Gilbert Imlay incorporated it into the several editions of his _Topographical Description of the Western Territory of North America_ (London, 1793). And several subsequent Western writers also reproduced it in their works, seldom giving Filson the proper credit for it. The last three or four years of his life John Filson spent in Kentucky, Illinois, and Indiana. He was one of the founders of Cincinnati, which he named "Losantiville;" and a short time later, in 1788, he wandered into the Miami woods one day and was never seen again. Col. Reuben T. Durrett, the Louisville historian, wrote his biography, and established an historical organization, in 1884, which he named the "Filson Club." Filson's fame is secure in Kentucky, and Colonel Durrett and his work have made it so.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The Life and Writings of John Filson_, by R. T. Durrett (Louisville, Kentucky, 1884); _Kentuckians in History and Literature_, by John Wilson Townsend (New York, 1907); _The First Map of Kentucky_, by P. Lee Phillips (Washington, 1908).
THE AIR AND CLIMATE OF KENTUCKY
[From _The Discovery, Settlement, and Present State of Kentucky_ (Wilmington, Delaware, 1784)]
This country is more temperate and healthy than the other settled parts of America. In summer it has not the sandy heats which Virginia and Carolina experience, and receives a fine air from its rivers. In winter, which at most lasts three months, commonly two, and is but seldom severe, the people are safe in bad houses; and the beasts have a goodly supply without fodder. The winter begins about Christmas, and ends about the first of March, at farthest does not exceed the middle of that month. Snow seldom falls deep or lies long. The west winds often bring storms and the east winds clear the sky; but there is no steady rule of weather in that respect, as in the northern states. The west winds are sometimes cold and nitrous. The Ohio running in that direction, and there being mountains on that quarter, the westerly winds, by sweeping along their tops, in the cold regions of the air, and over a long tract of frozen water, collect cold in their course, and convey it over the Kentucky country; but the weather is not so intensely severe as these winds bring with them in Pennsylvania. The air and seasons depend very much on the winds as to heat and cold, dryness and moisture.
QUADRUPEDS
[From the same]
Among the native animals are the urus, bison, or zorax, described by Cesar, which we call a buffalo, much resembling a large bull, of a great size, with a large head, thick, short, crooked horns, and broader in his forepart than behind. Upon his shoulder is a large lump of flesh, covered with a thick boss of long wool and curly hair, of a dark brown color. They do not rise from the ground as our cattle, but spring up at once upon their feet; are of a broad make, and clumsy appearance, with short legs, but run fast, and turn not aside for any thing when chased, except a standing tree. They weigh from 500 to 1000 weight, are excellent meat, supplying the inhabitants in many parts with beef, and their hides make good leather. I have heard a hunter assert, he saw above 1000 buffaloes at the Blue Licks at once; so numerous were they before the first settlers had wantonly sported away their lives. There still remains a great number in the exterior parts of the settlement. They feed upon cane and grass, as other cattle, and are innocent, harmless creatures.
There are still to be found many deer, elks, and bears, within the settlement, and many more on the borders of it. There are also panthers, wild cats, and wolves.
The waters have plenty of beavers, otters, minks, and muskrats: nor are the animals common to other parts wanting, such as foxes, rabbits, squirrels, racoons, ground-hogs, pole-cats, and opossums. Most of the species of the domestic quadrupeds have been introduced since the settlement, such as horses, cows, sheep, and hogs, which are prodigiously multiplied, suffered to run in the woods without a keeper, and only brought home when wanted.
BOONE'S FIRST VIEW OF KENTUCKY
[From the same]
It was on the 1st of May, in the year 1769, that I resigned my domestic happiness for a time, and left my family and peaceable habitation on the Yadkin river, in North Carolina, to wander through the wilderness of America, in quest of the country of Kentucky, in company with John Finley, John Stewart, Joseph Holden, James Monay, and William Cool. We proceeded successfully; and after a long and fatiguing journey, through a mountainous wilderness, in a westward direction, on the seventh day of June following we found ourselves on Red river, where John Finley had formerly been trading with the Indians, and, from the top of an eminence, saw with pleasure the beautiful level of Kentucky. Here let me observe, that for some time we had experienced the most uncomfortable weather as a prelibation of our future sufferings. At this place we encamped, and made a shelter to defend us from the inclement season, and began to hunt and reconnoiter the country. We found everywhere abundance of wild beasts of all sorts, through this vast forest. The buffaloe were more frequent than I have seen cattle in the settlements, browsing on the leaves of the cane, or cropping the herbage on those extensive plains, fearless, because ignorant, of the violence of man. Sometimes we saw hundreds in a drove, and the numbers about the salt springs were amazing. In this forest, the habitation of beasts of every kind natural to America, we practiced hunting with great success, until the 22d day of December following.
JOHN BRADFORD
John Bradford, Kentucky's pioneer journalist, was born near Warrenton, Virginia, in 1749. He saw service in the Revolutionary War, and came to Kentucky when thirty years of age. He fought against the Indians at Chillicothe, and, in 1785, brought his family out from Virginia to Kentucky, locating at Cane Run, near Lexington. Two years later he and his brother, Fielding Bradford, founded _The Kentucke Gazette_, the first issue of which appeared Saturday, August 18, 1787--the second newspaper west of the Alleghanies. The following year John Bradford published _The Kentucke Almanac_, the first pamphlet from a Western press; and this almanac was issued every twelvemonth for many years. Fielding Bradford withdrew from the _Gazette_ in May, 1788, and "Old Jawn," as he was called, carried the entire burden until 1802, when his son, Daniel Bradford, assumed control. In March, 1789, under instructions from the Virginia legislature, Bradford discarded "Kentucke" for "Kentucky," one of the many interesting facts connected with the _Gazette_. John Bradford was the first state printer; and the first book he published was the laws passed by the first Kentucky legislature, which assembled at Lexington in 1792. The Bradfords published many of the most important early Western books, and a "Bradford" brings joy to the heart of any present-day collector of Kentuckiana. The column in the _Gazette_ devoted to verse, headed "Sacred to the Muses," preserved many early Western poems; but the little anecdotes which seldom failed to be tucked beneath the verse, were nearly always coarse and vulgar, giving one a rather excellent index to the editor's morals or the morals of his readers. Bradford appears to have taken a great fancy to the poems of Philip Freneau (1752-1832), the first real American poet, for he "picked up" more than twenty of them from the _Freeman's Journal_. The most complete files of the _Kentucky Gazette_ are preserved in the Lexington Public Library, though the vandals that have consulted them from time to time have cut and inked out many valuable things. John Bradford was a public-spirited citizen, being, at different times, chairman of the town trustees, and of the board of trustees of Transylvania University. He was a profound mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher, his contemporaries tell us, and in proof thereof they have handed down another of his sobriquets, "Old Wisdom." Though his fame as the first Kentucky editor is fixed, as an author his reputation rests upon _The General Instructor; or, the Office, Duty, and Authority of Justices of the Peace, Sheriffs, Coroners, and Constables, in the State of Kentucky_ (Lexington, Ky., 1800), a legal compilation; and upon his more famous work, _Notes on Kentucky_ (Xenia, Ohio, 1827). These sixty-two articles were originally printed in the _Gazette_ between August 25, 1826, and January 9, 1829. Upon this work John Bradford is ranked among the Kentucky historians. At the time of his death, which occurred at Lexington, Kentucky, March 31, 1830, he was sheriff of Fayette county.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. No biography of Bradford has been written, but any of the histories of Kentucky contain extended notices of his life and work.
NOTES ON KENTUCKY. SECTION I
[From the _Kentucky Gazette_ (August 25, 1826)]
This country was well known to the Indian traders many years before its settlement. They gave a description of it to Lewis Evans, who published his first map of it as early as 1752.
In the year 1750,[2] Dr. Thomas Walker, Colby Chew, Ambrose Powell and several others from the counties of Orange and Culpepper, in the state of Virginia, set out on an excursion to the Western Waters; they traveled down the Holstein river, and crossed over the Mountains into Powell's valley, thence across the Cumberland mountain at the gap where the road now crosses, proceeded on across what was formerly known by the name of the Wilderness until they arrived at the Hazlepath; here the company divided, Dr. Walker with a part continued north until they came to the Kentucky river which they named Louisa or Levisa river. After traveling down the excessive broken or hilly margin some distance they became dissatisfied and returned and continued up one of its branches to its head, and crossed over the mountains to New River at the place called Walker's Meadows.
In the year 1754 James McBride with some others, passed down the Ohio river in canoes, and landed at the mouth of the Kentucky river, where they marked on a tree the initials of their names, and the date of the year. These men passed through the country and were the first who gave a particular account of its beauty and richness of soil to the inhabitants of the British settlements in America.