The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1867-09-26
Ghe Senosha Telegraplt
THURSDAY. SEPTEMBER 26.
The Democratic Candidate for Superintend-
emf of Schools.

The Democratic Candidate for Superintend-
ent of Schools.
Lyman G.. Draper, nominated by the late
Democratic Convention for Superintendent
of Public instruction, it is said declines the
nomination The office is one Of the first
importance to the people of the State, and
whether MIR. Draper is candidate or not,
it may not be uninteresting to those unac-
quainted with this gentleman, to reproduce
notice we gave of him in the Telegraph
some six years ago. We do this because
Mr. Draper is one of the most extraordinary
antiquarians in Wisconsin, and perhaps III
the whole West. He has spent life time
in exhuming fosseis, aud snstching old in-
cidents from the ever approaching wave OF
oblivion Having spent his days in un,
earthing long time events, one would nat
uralIy suppose he could not be well fitted to
meet the present emergencies, and cornpre-
bend the future necessities of our Public
School system. 1t is proper to say that
Mr.. Draper is a christian gentlemeD~-a
quality which a Democratic paper at Prairie
du CHEN thinks decidedly Objectionable in
candidate for Office But to the article
published in the Kenoaha Telegraph, April,
1861:
sIGUTs IN MLDIsoN
"Whoever has passion fer sight seeing,
may spend little time quite agreeably, il
visiting curiosities and objects Of interest
in Madison Some of these sights are in a
high degree of literary character. Among
the literary men of Madison they have a
professional author; he is none OF your oc-
cisional pamphiteers. but gentleman
who writes for life; he began to write III
his boyhood, aud has kept on writing in
day time and night time, until now he
must be be over forty five, yet he doubtless
will continue to write for many years to
come, if nothing Providential interferes.
If you desire to see our author, you will
ring door bell on Street, and a
nice looking little gentleman opens The
door and bows you in this is no other than
the veritable l.. G. Draper himself You
announce the object of your visit is to see
his literary collections; therefore you fol-
low him up a stairway, walled on both
sides with immense piles of carefully folded
old newspapers and pamphlets. You
ing display of gilt edged and deliberately
as dingy az if they had Eeen housed for a
century in the catacombs of Egypt. But
for this the books are all the more interest
ing Our author is an antiquarian; he has
been engaged for nearly thirty years III
rescuing old books pamhlets, newspapers,
manuscripts, &c, from the wave of oblivion
He would give his fortune for mere scrap
Of the original manuscript OF Caesars Com
mentarias or Piutarch's Lives. He has
searched the bowels of many of the mounds
and earthworks of the great west, for the
means TO resurrect the history of the dead
past There are in his library many cover
less books, so tattered that no one would
think of picking them up in the street, yet
for mauy of these books, he has paid con.
siderable sums of because of their scarcity
antiquity and long ago out of print.
This curious library contains perhaps over
thousand volumes. His collection of
manuscripts is immense he has fifty letters
in the original handwriting of Patrick |
Henry, several original manuscript letters |
of Jefferson and Franklin, one of Washing
ton, and great many others written by
distinguished men of Revolutionary mem
Dry lie has 90, 900 manuscripts relating
to western history, fifty bound volumes Of !
manuscript of his own productions, and |
enough unbound manuscript to make fifty
more He has 10000 pages of manuscript
relating to old frsALier men-mostly of the |
west. lie has many thousand pages OF
manuscript copied from old newspapers,
pamphlets, &c, found in the Historical Ii
braries of New York, Philadelphia, Con
gressional Library at Washington, and
other old Library Collections. He has a
great many bound volumes of newspapers
printed during the Revolutionary war and
at subsequent periods.
But word must be said as to what this
author is doing in book writing. The
greatest and most attractive work on which
he is now engaged, is entitled "The Life
and Times of Daniel Boone'' Immense
labor has been expended in collecting facts
for this work the author has spent many
months III Southwestern Missouri, on the
Ozark Mountains, among the descendants
of Daniel Boone, for the purpose of collect
ing incidents besides, he has travelled tx
tensvely in Kentucky, and other of the
border states, for the same object. The
number of volumes the work will make
when completed, is not yet settled. "The
Life OF Gen. George Clark, the Washington
of the West" az Vols.) Life Of Colonel
William Preston" 6 VoIs) "Life of
Gen John Flemming," ''Life of Gen. Jas
Robertson" Life of Gen. Samuel Ken
ton, The Lives of Pioneers of West Yir
ginia,' Life of Gen. Martini" "Lifo of
Col. Witty "The Wetsels," Champaign
OF Hartman" Campaign of st. Clair and
Wayne" Annals of Border Wars" &c.
1t is possible do not give the titles of
the foregoing works with exactness, as my
memorandum is imperfect If any one
should marvel at the possibility of any one
man being equal to such Herculean liter
airy labors, he has only to visit the study of
the author and there he can see for himself
the ponderous piles of manuscript on tables
and on shelves there he can hear the tes-
tlmony Of the living writer himself, and
see the evidence of literary toll, such as old
Herodotus never could have endured.
When all these works will get through the
press, no mortal man knows; it is well
there has been such an invention as Hoes
cylinder press, and steam power to run it,
or else but few of these volumes woud
appear in print during the present genera.
tion. One thing may be set down as a
liked fact-no other man, now living or
| daah - Il.