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 Old News Is News Again!
The Cynthiana Democrat's
Special Edition of 1896
with a New Every-Name Index
In June, 1896 The Cynthiana Democrat published a "Special Edition," a 24-page edition chock-full of
photographs of Cynthiana and its business establishments, as well as
biographical sketches of its businessmen, government, and church leaders and
descriptions of its government, school, and church facilities. Like
its 1905 counterpart published by The Log Cabin, it is a "must-see" for anyone interested in life in
Cynthiana and the county as it appeared almost exactly a century ago.
Reprints of both The Cynthiana Democrat's
"Special Edition" and
The Log Cabin's
"Souvenir Supplement" are available for purchase through the
mails from the
Harrison
County Historical
Society or onsite at the
Cynthiana-Harrison County Museum.
Click on any letter to go to another page of the news index.
Notes on the Online Index
The index featured at this subsite of
HarrisonCountyKy.US is an every-individual index of the
approximately 450 persons whose names appear in the
issue, whether they have been profiled in full with a photograph, just
pictured, or profiled or just
briefly mentioned within the text of any article (* ~ Photograph only; **
~ Text & photograph).
None of the pages of this edition, at
least of the copy of this edition which was used in creating this index,
were numbered, and so the numbers below refer to the number of pages from
the beginning.
If, within the context of a profile, a
spouse's maiden name is mentioned, both of that spouse's names, maiden and
married, have been entered in tables which make up comprise the index.
Some names of business establishments are
listed in this index, but only those which include the given name or initials of the
apparent proprietor of the business.
Any name may appear more than once on any
given page, so be sure to check for other occurrences after the first one
you find.
What is not included in this index?:
-
Fictional names (such as used in quotes from literature or jokes)
-
Brand
names
-
Business names (unless it includes the full name of the proprietor)
-
Names of horses, even though they may have
"human" names. However,
the occurrences of all these instances are rare, and will not make this
index any the less useful.
To begin your research , just click on the letter which
begins the surname of any family in which you are interested at the top of
this page.
Complete
Texts Now Available Online!!!
The texts of the articles of both the
1896 and 1905 historical editions are now available online.
Once you find a match for your research
subject in the either index, just click on the desired page number and scroll down
the page to find the article.
Or you can simply browse through the
texts. To begin, just choose follow the following links for either the
Cynthiana Democrat texts or
Log Cabin texts.
Take a
L@@k! Images from the
1896
Cynthiana Democrat are Now Online!
Nearly
a hundred old photos of Cynthiana's most powerful, eligible, beautiful, and
interesting people are featured in an online photo album based on the
content of the 1896 Special Edition of the Cynthiana Democrat. None
of the images has ever before been seen on the web . . . until now!
Just follow
this link to begin your virtual visual visit to Cynthiana's past on the
worldwide web!
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An Excerpt from Cromwell's Comments
 The
columns of John M. Cromwell (1862-1951), lifelong resident and former mayor
of Cynthiana, appeared fairly regularly in the pages of The Cynthiana
Democrat for nearly three decades between the World Wars. He wrote
on a variety of topics, many times reminiscing about the life he knew
growing up in Harrison County.
Cromwell's columns
were full of details and facts, but his work also elaborated upon local
history as he saw it, helping to demonstrate to those of the modern era
which events many once held to be more important than others before the
event of World War II, and some reveal a distinctly Southern flavor with
their reminiscences about life in the South after the Civil War.
His articles expanded
upon those who had already written of Harrison County's history and
effectively brought the county' history up-to-date, at least as far as the
1940s, following in the footsteps of the Collins histories of Kentucky (1847
& 1874), W.H. Perrin's History of Bourbon, Scott, Harrison and Nicholas
Counties, Kentucky (1882), and the two special reprints of The
Cynthiana Democrat (1896) and The Log Cabin (1905). In 1934
he wrote a brief outline of the contents of The Democrat's Special
Edition, which follows:
ILLUSTRATED
EDITION
CYNTHIANA
DEMOCRAT
June, 1896
Almost four decades since
this old paper came out, and many, yes, the majority of the faces which
greet us from its pages, like the face of the brilliant young editor who
conceived it, are seen on our streets no more. Mr. Allen, he had had
charge of The Democrat just four years then, in introducing the
Illustrated Edition, said in part:
“In presenting to the
people of Cynthiana and vicinity ‘this’ Edition of The Cynthiana
Democrat, the editor feels that some acknowledgment is due the patrons
who have liberally backed the enterprise financially, as well as those
who have contributed to the columns. The edition is complete. The people
shall judge of its merits or demerits. Upon their approbation depends
the value of the work, and there should be no apprehension that
Cynthiana will fail to appreciate an enterprise solely for the city’s
benefit.
“When this edition of The
Democrat shall be fished from the depths of some old cedar chest one
hundred years from now, and new generations shall gaze on the faces of
people long since laid in peaceful slumber beneath earth’s emerald robe,
it would be interesting to hear the comments and listen to the
speculations upon what an unfortunate people we were. All the pride and
glory of our little city will have been swallowed in the advancement of
the ages. All marvels of electricity will have been eclipsed. The
systems of locomotion revolutionized, the art of photography
metamorphosed, printing brought to a mere matter of pushing the button
(almost prophetic here, and not half the ‘designated’ time elapsed).
“For the benefit of future
generations The Democrat desires to state that we people of the
nineteenth century believe ourselves “some pumpkins.” If by any
possibility pumpkins may have become an extinct vegetable, it may be
necessary to say that by considering ourselves “some pumpkins” we refer
to the fact that we are “up to snuff.” Now, snuff, a light, airy,
ephemeral sort of stuff, may have been gathered upon the wings of the
wind and wafted into oblivion; so that, in order to be perfectly
explicit and make our meaning as clear as the noonday sun, allow us to
explain that there are no flies on us. Flies never die. Their power of
suction shall never be lost so long as a bouquet of bald heads exist.
“We live in perfect
comfort. We have all the necessaries and a great many luxuries of life,
and, so far as temperance, morality and religion are concerned, the
world has never seen our equals. When the time for departure from this
existence shall arrive, the majority of us will be ready for the
journey, and will, we hope, leave for the benefit of those that are to
come the testimony of lives that have been well spent and work that
shall live after us.”
Coming now to our
“illustrations,” we find individuals, two street scenes, and some
business houses and residences. The work is well executed, the
individual portrayals especially; all standing out true to life, as I
recall their faces in the long ago.
We will first notice a
group of city officials found on the front page: F. S. Ashbrook, mayor,
and the following councilmen, James T. Hedges, J. Irvine Blanton, J. R.
Pope, Montgomery W. Boyd, John B. Stevens, R. V. Bishop, Henry Yager and
James W. Megibben. Then the city employees – Baily D. Berry, city
attorney; John W. Renaker, city treasurer; M. G. Land, police judge; N.
W. Frazer, street commissioner; T. J. (Grandpa) Whitaker, city engineer;
E. W. Smiser, city collector; James M. Desha, chief of police; Henry
Robertson, night policeman; Richard O’Hearn, member of rescue fire
department. Some county officials – Dr. Higgins C. Smith, chairman,
Democratic County Committee (including, his little daughter, Agnes); Dr. Lamme S. Givens, coroner; H. C. (Hix) Veach, magistrate.
Coming to the business
houses, and residences, we note an interior view of Hermann A. Rohs’
Jewelry Store (Hermann is still in the same business but on the opposite
[south] side of Pike street now); ditto, J. T. Reynolds & Co., Drygoods
Store (site now occupied by Daizelle & Patton), Licking Valley Mills
(now Crown Jewel); proposed new Christian church; residence of M. C.
Swinford (Mr. and Mrs. Swinford still live there); interior view of the
Lockhart School (now the site of Mrs. Effie Wills’residence); and
leaving Cynthiana here, an exterior view of J. W. Davis & Co. clothing
store, Paris, Ky.
Some individuals – James
S. Withers, cashier, National Bank; Gano Ammerman, Groceries; J. C.
Hamilton and J. L. McDonald, Dry Goods (Old Stone Front building); John
S. Richer, Barber; Dr. Hervey McDowell.
The two street scenes –
Pike street, looking East from Main street. Lots of trees in evidence
here; but we recognize the A. Goldberg & Sons building, with the tower
of the M. E. Church showing up in the distance. View taken on Main
street, trees in evidence again; but we can make out the flight of iron
steps leading up to the “old” National Bank building, and a delivery
wagon almost directly across the street, probably belonging to the John
W. Mattox grocery. Now for the standpipe, looming up majestically, and
the pumping station, both newly erected, in 1896, and we have done for
the time being at least.
To learn more of John
M. Cromwell and of Harrison County's rich history visit the pages at the
website of the Harrison County Historical Society devoted to
Cromwell's Comments, an edited anthology of his columns which
originally were published in The Cynthiana Democrat. The book
is one among several available for purchase from the
Harrison County Historical Society and at the
Cynthiana-Harrison County Museum in Cynthiana (An index of the book can
also be examined online, just by clicking on the link above).
This Cromwell's
Comments article was originally published in The Cynthiana
Democrat on Feb. 22, 1934
(p. 9, cols. 1-3), and was reprinted in Cromwell's Comments:
Newspaper Columns on the History of Cynthiana, Kentucky, from the Pages
of the Cynthiana Democrat, 1928-1940, edited by William A. Penn &
George D. Slade.
History@HarrisonCountyKy.US
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