Eliza Calvert Obenchain (Eliza Calvert Hall) has attracted universal attention.
John Wilson Townsend in "Kentuckians in History and Literature" and "Kentucky in American Letters" has done a great work for an appreciative public.
William C. Watts" "Chronicles of a Kentucky Settlement" is a great pen picture of early times; and Irvin S. Cobb"s "Back Home" and "Cobb"s Anatomy" have won him undying fame as a story teller and humorist.
In other lines of prose we find John Bradford"s "Notes on Kentucky,"
histories of the state by Marshall, Lewis and R.H. Collins, Z.F. Smith, Elizabeth Kinkead, and Ed Porter Thompson; also the works of Humphrey Marshall, Mann Butler, Thomas Corwin, Fornatus Cosby, Samuel D. Gross, Henry Watterson, Bennett H. Young, and others.
Since our first poet, Thomas Johnson, there have been many who have won credit in verse.
Theodore O"Hara"s immortal elegy, "The Bivouac of the Dead" is known to all. John Wilson Townsend has called Madison Cawein the successor of Sidney Lanier; Edmund Gosse calls him the "hermit thrush," while others have named him the "Kentucky Keats." Cale Young Rice has won fame in dramatic verse. Thomas H. Chivers, a native of Georgia, spent some time in Kentucky. He accused Poe of stealing some of his words in "The Raven"
from him.
Robert Burns Wilson, the poet-painter, has published several volumes of the highest merit. Bishop John L. Spalding, William O. Butler, Fornatus Cosby, Jr., George D. Prentice, Sarah T. Bolton, Mary E. Betts, Henry T.
Stanton, Sarah N. Piatt, and a host of others have written verse that will compare favorably with that of many writers more renowned.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Madison Cawein.]
KENTUCKIANS IN HISTORY
Whether we write of the hardy pioneer facing danger and privation, of the volunteer soldier freely offering up his life on the altar of his country, of the great general leading his men to victory, of the mature-minded statesman helping to guide the ship of state, or of the brilliant orator swaying thousands by his eloquence, we find Kentuckians in every role. Likewise we find the skillful surgeon severing the diseased part from that aglow with health, the learned lawyer tactfully pleading his client"s cause, the able heads of our government discharging well their duty, the learned judge of our highest court presiding with wisdom and justice, and the consul to foreign countries shedding l.u.s.ter upon the post he holds. Again we note the scholarly heads of universities training the youth of the land, the sound business man striving for a better city, the patriot answering in any form his country"s call, the great naturalist finding the many secrets of mother Nature, the historian cautiously collecting data and describing important incidents, and the sweet singer bringing cheer into every place. Further we find the humorist bringing smiles to every face, the consecrated minister leading thousands to a new life, the inventor bringing comfort and ease, and the artist skillfully using his brush or chisel to imitate Nature. Indeed, the roll call of eminent Kentuckians will show that they have played such important parts in both military and civil affairs that one or more, and often many, Kentuckians have filled each of these posts with credit to themselves and glory to their state.
None have been found braver, none more brilliant, and none more beloved, whether serving in their native or their adopted state.
More than eighty have represented us in foreign countries; more than fifty have been governors in other states; more than thirty have been United States senators from other states; and more than eighty have been representatives in Congress from other states.
Scanning the pages of our national history, you will find the names of Henry Clay, Zachary Taylor, Jefferson Davis, Abraham Lincoln, John C.
Breckinridge, Linn Boyd, John G. Carlisle, Adlai Stevenson, Thomas Corwin, Isaac Shelby, John M. Harlan, Ninian Edwards, Roger Q. Mills, and hundreds of others of the native or adopted sons of our commonwealth. Without their worth and works many chapters could not have been written, many policies could not have been perfected, and many victories could not have been won.