Smyrna times., 1921-12-28

the product of young Watterson's |
brain and pen.
While his fame is indissolubly link
ed with the Blue Grass state, Henry |
Watterson was not a native Kentuck |
ian, having been born in Washington,
when his father, Harvey M. Waiter
son, a distinguished Tennessee journ-
alist, was serving in Congress as the
member for district formerly repre-
sented by James Knox Polk, eleventh
president of the United States.
Becomes Confederate Colonel
Although his father was a loyal
Union man when secession plunged
the country into war of preservation
young WattersOn espOused the cause
of the south, went back to Tennessee,
where he became an assistant editor of
the Nashville Banner, subsequently
obtaining a bit of military experience
and his military title on the staff of
the Confederate General Forrest; but
his poor vision compelled his relin-
quishment of the sword for the pen.
He started a paper called the Rebel at
Chattanooga, this sheet having an
itinerant existence, owing to the APP
proach of the Union armies, and the
editorial and publication departments
being removed at times to various
camps of. Confederate soldiery. This
paper had a brief existence, suspend
ing publication in December, 1868.
"Made" the COprier-JOurnal
Henry Watterson's real newspaper
career may be said to have begun with
the merger of the Louisville Journal,
then controlled by Prentice, and the
Courier, owned by w. N. Haldeman,
the Democrat another daily being in
cidentally absorbed. This was in 1868
Mr.. Watterson having removed from
Nashville to Louisville and assumed
the post of assistant to the pictures
que Prentice. From the very first the
Courier-JouInal, under the auspices of
Prentice, Haldeman and WattersOn,
took foremost place in southern jour-
; nalism, and after Prentice's death, in
1870, the paper gained even greater
prestige as the exponent of the best
newspaper ethics and of modern enter
prise.
Watterson's personality dominated
the scintillating columns of the Cour-
= ier-Journal. His impetuous style gain
ed from him such sobriquets as "Hen'
= ry Of Navarro" Light Horse Harry
A etc., but the name most frequently ap-
| piled by his Kentucky and southern
friends and swiftly extended through
} out the country. "Marse Henry" was
the one which the doughty colonel i:
= said to have preferred to all others.
That a prophet is not without honol
: save in his own country has Scnptura
I and traditional authority, but that thi!
does not apply to an editor-at least il
t Colonel Waterson's case and among
:, his own associates-was proved IL
March, 1919. On the second of tina
e month appeared a "Marse Henry
d edition of the Courier-Journal.
n This unique publication, comprising
e thirty-two pages, profusely and ap
|, propriately illustrated, was a minia
: ture edition of the newspaper mad
o famous by Watterson.
o A few months prior to the issue o
the "Marse Henry Watterson Edition
e in 1918, Mr.. Watterson sold his inter
d est in the Courier-JOurnal to Judg
t, Robert w. Bingham, of Louisville, VIII
:, also purchased stock from other own
e ers, and Watterson retired from ed
/ torial responsibility and place, accept
1t ing for several months the title of ed
e tor emeritus. In the spring of 1919 n
le resigned that position and since the
l. he had been living a wholly retire
Ell life, interrupted only occasionally by
'e letter to a newspaper on public top
g or an interview granted to some ROY
L ing reporter.
1r Milford Red Men are Manning for