The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1888-10-27

Mr. William Henry Perrin, OF LOUISVILLE
has also written an admirable sketch OF the
papers OF Kentucky. Looking over the old
papers and noting how very small the places
were in which some OF them were published
the wonder is that they lived at all. But all
food products were dog cheap" and printer
could get NJ much bread, meat, potatoes,
milk. butter, game and whisky for his fifty
cents a day then as he does for his 81 now.
The Injuries Of today he did without, and did
not know W hat he was losing. In fact, most
of them had not been invented.
Lexington. Ky. claims the honor Of hav-
ing had the first newspaper in the west, The
Kentucky Gazette, first issued Aug. II, l7S7
by John Bradford Kentucky was then a
county Of Virginia, and land of fighting
and fighters Buckle ought TO have analyzed
that state in his History Of Civilization" for
il is most perfect illustration of his theory
rs TO the development of fighting qualities.
No tribe Of Indians owned the region; all
fought for it, and only the most yarlike could
remain Thus itrequired the most determined
fighters from the older states to make settle
ments there and of these only the best fighters
survived; and as a result OF a century OF
natural selection and survival of the fighting
est, behold the Kentuckian Of 1900. 1t Is
not surprising, therefore, TO learn that the
second editor OF The Gazette, Thomas r.
Bepninp, was MORALLY shot March o, 1929,
by Charles Wickllffe, and that his successor,
George j. Trotter, killed Wickliffe in duel.
Bradford, founder OF The Gazette, was
veteran Of the Revolution and successful
printer of small books and pamphlets. He
also wrote a work on the early history OF
Kentucky. The Gazette was ardently Demo
cratic and opposed to the pride Of the Blue
Grass region, Henry Clay. 1t therefore Ian
gushed m the years Of Wing supremacy,
and died of inanition in lS4S.
The Guardian of Freedom was established
at Frankfort, KY, in 1893, also by John
Bradford, in partnership with his son, and Its
"long felt want" was tho public printing,
which kept 1t alive many years. The Ken
lucky Herald was established in Lexington in
1895, and in few years was absorbed by the
Bradfords. Between that date and 1871
thirty moro papers were started in Kentucky;
but by this time papers we're common in Ohio
and other western states Two features
about the old papers are amusng-they paid
no attention to local affairs, and rejoiced in
| long and high sounding titles. One was
called The Farmers Library or Ohio Intelli-
cencer, another The Repository OF Human
Freedom, and The Liberty Hall and Cincin-
natl Gazette survives to the present under
much curtailed name
The absence OF scarcity of local items re-
manned feature Of papers in the west, out
side the main cities, till after the war. And
this IL all the more surprising in view OF the
fact that the papers were generally started to
.boomn a new town. The Terre Haute paper
of 1896 devotes few lines to the fact that
the Ploughboy, the first steamer on the upper
, Wabash. had started for the regions
above, and whole pages to publishing
! speeches delivered in congress. In lS43
died Gen. Tilghman A Howard, charge
d'affaires from the United States to Texas,
and the paper in Rockville, Ind, where he
resided, devoted just half column to his
/ life, DEATH burial and the meeting OF the
citizens to pass resolutions. But every issue
for many weeks contained a full speech OF
Henry Clay, John ii. Stuart or other proni-
nent Wing, and frequently the entire paper
was filed by speeches, editorials and extracts
| from New York papers. Nowadays one may
find the complete social history for many
years Of any country town in the west in the
! files of the local paper.
The oldest existing paper of Kentucky is
| The Western Citizen, Of Paris, established in
1908. Two years later the noted Humphrey
Marshall established The American Republic
at Frankfort Later he established two
other papers, one Of which, The Harbinger,
had under its title head the cut Of a rattle
snake in coil, and the motto, Wake snakes "
Marshall did wake them and many other
enemies, and had q stormy life altogether.
| Shadrach Penn issued the first daily paper in
Kentucky, The Public Advertiser, at Louis
Vile. April 4, 1926 He was a native of the
state, and ruled despotically till George D..
Prentice came and set up The Louisville
Journal Nov. "a, 1880. 1t jumped in a
month to the highest place in popularity, and
the twelve years war between Penn and
Prentice was the sharpest known IN western
journalism. Penn was q radical Democrat
and able writer, but no match for Prentice,
whose pungent paragraphs were the delight OF
tho day. Penn removed to ST. Louis in
1872, and Prentice lived to fall into errors in
newspaper work that produced bloody con-
sequences. His last years we're gloomy in
the extreme. -
The Cincinnati Commercial was born in
1892 and may be said to have been born
again dozen years later, when Murnt Hal
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