Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1888-02-24
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age. The immediate cause of his
death was consumption of the luags.
For period of over thirty years Mr..
Locke had been prominently before
the public as writer, an editor and
lecturer, and during all that tine
there were but few journalists in this
country more widely or favorab y
known. At the time of his death
Mr.. Locke was the editor and pro-
prietor of the Toledo Blade, one of
the most widely circulated and iniu.
ential journals in the West
Mr.. Locke was born IN Vestal,
Broome county. New YORK, on the
20th Of September, 1888. Hi father
Nathaniel Reed Locke, yet living
near Toledo at the advanced of "a,
was soldier in the War of 1912 and
among the very first in the whole
country to embrace anti-slavery sen.
timents, which he was always ready
every where to maintain boldly. From
him came naturally to the son his
strong love of liberty and his deter
mined opposition and hatred of the
institution of slavery. which made
him such power with his pen and
voice during the war. From his
father, too, came that decision of
character that rendered the son so ex-
tremely steadfast in all his enter
prises, no matter what the difficulties
might be in the way
Young Locke was given only the
advantages of village common
school education, which was the best
his native town could furnish in those
days, aud at the early age of ten
years he was apprenriced for seven
years to learn the trade of printer
in the office of the Cortland Demo
crat There he learned the trade of
printer, and he learned it, as he did
everything else, with complete thor
oughness. To those who knew him
only in later years his extensive ia.
miliarity with books and the readi-
ness with which be used his pen up
on all subjects seems wonderful, in
view of the fact that all oftbe regular
schooling which he ever had was Oh
tained during the first tender years
of boyhood In this case the preco.
cious child became the man of intel
lectual power
After he had mastered the art of
setting type he for several years led a
vagabondish life, at one time as a
compositor and at another time as o
reporter
During all this time he was in
reality frishing his education. His
wanderings for time took him
through good portion of the South
ern States, and what he saw confirm.
ed the strong anti-slavery sentiments
which he had received from his father.
He learned then and there to hate
everything connected with the pecu-
liar Institution and bis political bias
was determined for tnea future.
Finally he reached Pittsburg and
became there first reporter and then
assistant editor of the Chronicle.
Grown weary at last with not being
his own man, he joined fortunes with
friend, James g. Robinson, and the
two, in 1852, went to Plymouth, o.,
and started the advertiser, which
paper is still in existence.
For two years these young men,
rich in nothing but their brains and a
capacity for hard work, beginning
with but $42 between them, labored
night and day at an enterprise that
seemed about as hopeless as anything
that could be undertaken They
boughv a second hand outfit; they ed
tied the paper; they set the type, did
the presswork and everything else.
and it is needless to say they gained
the confidence OF the public and won
the success which they deserved.
When they sold out, at the end
of two years, they had $1,000 to be
divided between them; q small sum
it seems now, but mine of wealth
in those days. Afterward Mr.. Locke
became connected with several West
ern papers and was successfully edi-
| tor and publisher of the Mansfield
Herald. Bucyrus Journal and Find
ley Jefersonian. He was editing
the last named paper when the war
broke out, and in its columns appear
ed the famous "Nasby" letters, the
first one bearing the date of March
81, 1861.
These letters were political satiZes
on the Secession Movement" and
they sprang at once into great popu-
larity. They were copied into news
papers every where, quoted in speech
es, read around camp fires of Union
armies and exercised enormous iDfu-
ence in moulding public opinion
North in favor of vigorous prosecu-
tion of the war. The first letter was
dated at Wigert's Corners, a small
settlement in Crawford county, full of
Southern sympathizers. and the the
Corners resolved to secede from fire.
quent viol alton of its rights by the
tyrannical State A second letter
soon followed in the same vein, and
then others. They at once gained
wide popularity, were copied far and
wide and made for the author high
reputation as political humorist.
They have been written regularly for
twenty-five years and continued to
find eager readers. He obtained con-
troll of the Bellefontaine Republican
about 1865. wherein he published
many of his cleverest articles, notably
the series about Andrew Johnson's
Swinging round the circle" Being
practical printer he often went to
his case and set the articles up.
President Lincoln took keen de-
light in these satires, and, it was
said. always kept them in bis table
drawer, and when he was especially
weary would rest mind ard body by
their perusal 1t is also said that he
read one of these aloud to his Cabi.
net just before discussing with them
his draft of the emancipation procla-
nation.
George S. Boutwe II, Secretary of
the Tree sury under President Lin
coin, declared in speech at Cooper
Union, New York, at the close of the
war, that the success of the Union
army was due to three cause.-the