St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-02-16
A JOURNALIST DEAD.
ID. r. Locke, Better Known as ''Petro.
leum v. Nasty" Is Dead.
A REMARKABLE CHARACTER,
Sketch Of His Lite and Some of His
Work In the Editorial
Harness.

ToLEDo, Feb. l5.-D. X. Locke. ed
ltor OF the Blade, of this city. widely
Known as petroleum V. Nasby," died
ati6:30 this morning. The immediate
cause of his death was consumption of
the lungs.
David Ross Locke was born at Vestal,
broome county, n. Y, Sept. so, 1889.
ana hence was i'll his fffty-fifth year.
his father, N. Il. Locke, veteran OF
tfe war OF 1872, is still living Ill this
city at the advanced age of ninety-four.
The father was one of the original anti
slavery men of the country, and young
Locke Inherited intense hatred of the
peculiar institution" and love of free
uom which made him such power with
his pen during the civil war. In his
eleventh year he was apprenticed to
the printing trade in the Office of
the Cortland, N. Y, Courier. After
serving his seven years he travelled
through the United States, working at
ms trade, and acting as Il reporter. In
1867 he founded the Plymouth. O., Ad-
vertiser, conducting it two years. In
1866 he founded the Bucyrus journal
and afterward was SUCCESSFULLY COLI
nected with the Mansfield Herald, and
FIndlay JetferSOnian. He was editing the
latter paper when the war broke out.
ana III its columns appeared the first
numbers of the renowned
NASTY" LETTERS,
the first bearing the date of April 81,
1861. These political satires sprang at
once into tremendous popularity. They
were copied into newspapers every
where, quoted in speeches, read around
camp fires of Union armies, and exer-
clsed enormous influence in mOlding
public opinion North in favor of vigor-
Gus prosecution OF the war. Secretary
Boutwell, declared in speech at Cooper
Union, New York. at the close of the
war, that success of the Union army was
due to three cause.-the army, the navy
and the Nasty letters.
Charles Sumner declared: ''Unques-
tionably they were among the influences
and agencies by which disloyalty i'm all
It's forms was exposed, and public opin-
ION assured upon the right side. 1t is
impossible to measure their value.
Against the devices OF slavery and its
supports, each letter was like speech.
OF one OF those songs which stir the peo-
pie"
These letters were a source of the
greatest delight to President Lincoln.
who always kept them in his table
drawer for perusal at odd times. Mr..
Locke once raised troop of volunteers
and applied TO Gov. Brough, of Ohio, for
commission as captain, which was
refused on the ground that he could do
more good for the Union cause with his
pen than in the field. Immense popu-
larity of the Nasty letters led to the de-
mand for Mr.. locke to enter the lecture
field, and he appeared in all the prin-
cipaI cities of the North. Though
as he himself acknowledged, not
a master of oratory, he ALWAYS
had crowded and delighted audiences.
He was offered official positions bv
President Lincoln, and also by Presi-
dent Grant, but steadily declined, as
his only ambition was in the editorial
field. In 1865 he assumed charge of the
Toledo Blade. first OH salary, after
wards purchasing an interest, and fin
ally entire control. 1t had always been
his dream to found great national
weekly, which he saw carried ont. He
was one of the founders OF the Republi-
can party of Ohio, and the Nasty let
tiers were but part OF the powerful work
he did i'll political fields. He also did a
vast deal i'll literary works, having writ
ten two or three successful plays, books
of travel and many sketches for his
own paper. He was also poet of no
mean order. and several of his devo-
tl0nal poems can be found in various
church hymnalS. Some four or five
years ago his health began to fail. after
twenty-five years of active labor. and he
gradually withdrew himself from active
work. Since then he has written very
little save the occasional "Nasby'' let
tiers that have appeared, and few
special articles, chiefly on prohibition.
He became convinced that prohibition
must be the final solution of the LIQUOR
question, and for six years has strongly
advocated it i'll his paper. but always
through nOn-partiSan methods. He re-
manned faithful TO the Republican ideas
and deprecated any attempt to build up
a separate Prohibition party Consump-
ton was inherited. it being in his moth
er's family, and several brothers and
sisters dying of it. Its approach was
very slow, and it was not till last No
vember that he was confined to the
house. His literary labors and news
papers were very profitable, and i'm his
latter years he was largely interested in
building and manufacturing in Toledo
uiS fortune is estimated at a million.
exclusive of the Blade. He was mar
ried while at Plymouth to Miss Martha
BOdine. who, With her three sons. all
grown to manhood, survive him. The
eldest, Capt. Robinson Locke. has been
associated with his father on the Blade
for the last dozen years. except while
consul at Newcastle-on-Tyne, England,
to which office he was appointed by
President Arthur.