Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1897-01-07
be left alone,

doctor, but his intellect was all right.
He never gave any signs of mental
breakdown during his illness.
HE suffered from profound nervous
exhaustion, complicated with a recur-
ring kidney trouble and an asthmatic
affection. The late political campaign
had undermined his health"
No writings were found in Mr.. Nc
Cullagh's room explaining his act or
leaving instructions for the arrange
ment of his affairs.
Mr.. McCullagh's illness first came
upon him shortly after the close of
the late Repu blican national conven-
ton. 1t took the form of acute asthma,
complicated with nervous depression.
When he passed through the acute
stage he found himself slow in recov-
cry. His limbs had lost their vigor,
his arms were numb and there were
premonitions that the brain had come
undec the same shadowy spell.
Mr.. McCullagh would not admit that
he was failing either physically or
mentally. He insisted on managing
his newspaper from his bedroom. Ali
through the day he sat in his arm
chair wrapped in blankets, received
reports from his subordinates and
gave them orders for the conduct of
the paper.
Joseph B. McCullagh was born In Dublin,
Ireland in November. 1912 and when but II
years of age came to this country on a sailing
ship, working his passage before the mast"
imbued even in that early time of life with an
ambition to make his fortune in the new coun-
try across the seas. Arriving in New York
city in 1858, he was apprenticed to learn the
printing business in the office OF the Free
mans Journal.
Five years later, in 1858, he came to St Louis
and entered the Office of the Christian Advo-
cate, then edited by DR.. McAnelly, and while
engaged on that paper studied the art OF pho
biography, in which in short time he became
an expert. Mr.. John Frazier, who was fore
man of the Advocate office at the time, and af-
forwards went to the Missouri Democrat
ONCE, recommended Mr.. McCullagh to Messrs-
Mckee and Fishback as promising reporter,
and he was finally, in 1859, given place on the
daily paper.
He proved himself Industrious and capable
and in the winter of 1890 was sent to Jefer-
son City as legislative correspondent He was
faithful and fearless in the discharge OF his
duties at the state capital, and incurred the
luminosity of many democratic members Of
both houses, but on the whole was liked for
his fearless, truthful style of reporting In the
spring of 1860 he severed his connection with
the Democrat to accept o very advantageous
offer from the Cincinnati Gazette.
When the war broke out, he changed TO the
Cincinnati Commercial, and continued as its
war correspondent throughout all the noted
campaigns in the west undergoing great
fatigue and deprivation, and taking many
chances Of his life He was with Commodore
Foote in the attack on Fort Donelson, the only
reporter in the pilothouse of the gunboat with
She gallant old naval oflcer when he was so
severely wounded By q shell from confeder-
ate battery. He was afterwards one OF
the correspondents who ran the confederate
batteries at FickSburg, and narrowly escaped
with his life. Throughout the whole war he
was ever at the front shrinking from no labor
or risk, and writing home to his newspaper,
the Commercial, q series Of descriptive letters
which were not surpassed in the whole utora-
ture OF the war. Those letters gained him
great reputation, and contributed largely to
the immense circulation OF the paper Find
ing him so capable In his letters, the CONNER
cial, after the war, established him as its
Washington correspondent
The letters Of Mack from the capital only
enhanced his reputation as writer While In
this service he invented" so to speak. the art
of interviewing. which In later years has been
SO much used and abused by the American
press. In that admirable series Of interviews
with President Andrew johnson and Senator
Ben F. Wade. Of Ohio, Mr.. McCullagh won
wide fame.
Mack" By means of his shorthand ac-
COAp4lSuAucASs AldOS II punt uOb only 70 pro- |
serve the matter OF the interview. but also the |
manner of the man. his actual speech. phrase. |
information, gesticulation, all that the subject |
was and said and did At the moment, SO that |
his talks with ANDY Johnson and Ben |
Wade" excited the attention and contributed |
to the information and amusement of the /
whole country. In 1868 he severed |
his connection with the Commercial and /
became editor of the Cincinnati Enquirer, and |
subsequently. in 1870, went to Chicago and |
fo0k rha a of taaE n /
which he conducted with remarkable ability |
and success till the great Ere of the following |
year, which swept his newspaper out OF ex- |
istence-
In this extremity he invited by the |
proprietors Of the Missouri Democra: to /
take the editorial management of that pa
per. His work on the Democrat and on |
the Globe. and subsequently on the Globe |
Democrat, Of which paper he became part pro-
prietoF. is thoroughly familiar not only In st. /
Louis, but all through the country.
His active connection with the paper contin- |
aed practically to the moment Of his death.l