Cynthiana Democrat, Harrison Co, Ky Newspaper, June 1896, Front Page & Page 1 From: Edie Suttle "jsattle9@idt.net" Date: Tue, 05 Aug 1997 11:36:54 -0700 This one file contains all of the six e-mail submissions of the Front page, page 1 and the introduction, below. ************************************************************************ USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. ************************************************************************ The Cynthiana Democrat 100 years ago.......The Cynthiana Historical Society/Museum printed a special edition of the local newspaper for Cynthiana, Harrison County, Kentucky called the Cynthiana Democrat. The paper is full of rich history and tells of the lives of the citizens of Cynthiana in June, 1896. The price of the newspaper was ten cents and included 24 pages. The following post will be of the contents of the Cynthiana Democrat as they appeared in June 1896. My intent is to start posting the articles included in this newpaper, since the paper is large, and contain a lot of Harrison County History, each subject heading will be CD (for Cynthiana Democrat) Harrison County, page 1 part 1 etc.... My roots run deep in Cynthiana Kentucky, Harrison County. So I hope you really enjoy reading these articles as much as I did. Sincerely, Edie Suttle,jsattle9@idt.net ------------------------------------------------------------------ Front Page CYNTHIANA DEMOCRAT *** SPECIAL EDITION *** CYNTHIANA, HARRISON COUNTY, KY. JUNE, 1896 *** PRICE, TEN CENTS THE MAYOR AND BOARD OF COUNCILMEN OF THE CITY M.W. Boyd, J.T. Hedges, Henry Yeager, J.R. Pope, Mayor F.S. Ashbrook, R.V. Bishop, J.I. Blanton, J.W. Megibben and J.B.Stevens -------------------------------------- From: Edie Suttle Date: Tue, 05 Aug 1997 12:24:21 -0700 Cynthiana Democrat, June 1896, Page 1, Part 1 THE W.L. NORTHCUTT CO. The Oldest Business House in Cynthiana After beginning active life as a carpenter, after clerking for several years, Mr. W.L. Northcutt, one of Cynthiana's most highly esteemed citizens, opened, in 1855, a dry goods house in the building now occupied by the The W.L. Northcutt Co., on the south-west corner of Main and Pike streets. The building in which business was begun in April, 1855 remains practically the same, though of course altered as to interior arrangemnts as the business continued to grow and flourish. In 1864 Mr. Northcutt removed to the corner now occupied by R.M. Collier, on account of his building across the street being cut up into so many rooms. After the experience of a year, in the meantime having been burned out of his new quarters, he returned to the original place, and has been there ever since. Mr. Northcutt is a native of Harrison county, born on a farm a few miles from town. He was married to a Mrs. Trimnell. They have four sons, Messers. J.K., Will, W.L. Jr., and Frank Northcutt, and one daughter, Mrs. J.G. Montgomery. He has always been recongized as a business man of superior ablility, and his present high standing testifies to what excellent use he puts his talents. W.L. Northcutt continued the business in his own name until January, 1894, when the W.L. Northcutt Co., was incorporated. The house has always had the reputation of carrying, not only the largest, but the highest class of goods in Cynthiana. If an article could not be found at Northcutt's it was useless to look further. Now, with the growth of competition and the advancement of trade, the W.L. Northcutt Co. has kept at the head of the procession, and today the same confidence and reliance is placed in the firm that has been its just reward during all the years that have passed. What would you have? Shall it be the handsomest silks, the daintiest muslins, the flimiest laces? Shall it be cottons, claicoes, or cambrics? Would you clothe the feet in lightest slippers or heaviest boots? Is it a carpet, a rug, a matting? Is there anything in the dry goods or notion line? The W.L. Northcutt Co. has them all. Run up and down the line----search the catalogue of human necessaries---consult the wardrobe of the wealthy or the poor----you will find it all here. And what of the prices? The very lowest commensurate with quality of the goods. Everything is good. Nothing bad. Special sales for those who like that sort of thing---continuous, everyday sales at figures that suit the purchaser. Watch carefully the weekly announcements in the DEMOCRAT, and clothe yourself comfortably and well. ------------------------------ Cynthiana Democrat, June 1896, Page 1, Part 2 F.J. Tebbs, Stock Dealer Out on the Connersville pike, about two miles from town, lies the sweet old Tebbs place. A grand old country house, smiling pastures, fertile fields, glorious groves through which roam the finest stock, constitute a picture appealing to the eye---inviting, attractive, almost irresistible. Here lives Mr. F.J. Tebbs who makes a specialty of fine stock. His attention is chiefly directed to short horn cattle and Chester White hogs. Six leading families of short horns are represented, the cream of an illlustrious family----Barrington Duchess, Garland Duchess, Kirk Livingston, Young Mary, Lady Troupe, and Flora. What more could appeal to a stock-lovers taste? They are all there---the greatest in the country and for sale cheap. Mr. Tebbs is proud of his Chester White hogs. They cannot be surpassed. To add a spice of variety and sport to the more solemn tribes, he has a lot of game chickens, a glimpse of which would drive a "dominicker" to suicide. Young stock always for sale. -------------------------------- Cynthiana Democrat, June 1896, Page 1, Part 3 THE CITY GOVERNMENT FIRST MAYOR AND BOARD OF COUNCILMEN Sam'l F. January Heads the List of Executives. Present City Administration.----List of Officers, Etc. Etc. Cynthiana may justly claim the reverence and respect due age, but as remarked elsewhere, compared to Damascus she is yet in her swaddling clothes. She is an old but ever young city. Evidences of her age remain in a few buildings that stood as monuments of the skill and substantial ideas of our fore-fathers, affections that cling about the few citizens who are left to connect us with the distant past. As in all other towns, a Board of Trustees controlled the affairs of Cynthiana for a great number of years before the dignity of a city, of any class, with a Mayor and Board of Council, was attained. The last board was organized on January 8th, 1859, when John W. Peck, now one of our wealthiest citizens, was elected chairman. The Trustees were: Messers, Thos. A. Frazier, F.A. Eveleth, Wm. Turtoy, Lawson Oxley. Of these all have gone to their last reward except Mr. Turtoy, who remains an honored citizen of Cynthiana, and who bids fair to round out a ripe old age. This Board elected Whiting Taber as Marshal of the city, and W.W. Cleary, now a distinguished lawyer and ex-judge, of Covington, was made city attorney. On April 11, 1860, the Board of Trustees passed out of existence, adjourning sine die, "to be supereceded by the Mayor and Board of Councilmen in pursuance of the city charter, approved March 2, 1860." Immediately after the retirement of the Board of Trustees, the first meeting of the City Council was held in Jno. W. Peck's store, on April 12, 1860. A count of the vote was had, and Mr. Samuel F. January was found chosen the first Mayor of Cynthiana. Mr. January is with us today. Entrusted with highest honor in the gift of the town, he wore it well and remains to testify to the struggles and embarrassments of getting the new machinery of government in motion. Ex-Mayor January keeps up with the times and has progressed with the age. In him we behold a model of the gallantry and chivalry of other days. Never a morning but the old gentleman appears with a fresh flower in his button-hole; never an acquaintance is met without a gallant lifting of the hat. He walks with all the vigor of youth, swings his cane with a winning non-chalance, and carries himself with the erectness of a soldier. Though deaf and dim of vision, he enters enthusiastically into the discussion of the themes of the day, eagerly devours the newspapers and keeps in perfect step with the age. The first city council was composed of these members: W.W. Cleary, Benson Roberts, Wm. Turtoy, M.L. Broadwell, Lawson Oxley, I.N. Miller, T.A. Frazier and John W. Peck. Thomas Ware was the first city clerk. John W. Peck, tresurer, and Wm. Smith, marshal and collector, the offices being combined. A.H. Ward, afterwards congressman and pronounced by one of the judgesof the Court of Appeals, the best criminal lawyer in Kentucky, was the first city attorney. By-laws were passed and the new order of things put into operation. As in the case of the early Harrison County government, the city government was for a long time a peripatetic one, meeting here, there and everywhere, sometimes in stores, sometimes in the court house, often wherever it happened to be most convenient. A faithful record of the proceedings of the Council from its organization to the present day has been kept, and the pages of the record books reflect accurately the growth and developement of the city government. The following is the list of Mayors and years in which they were elected: Samuel F. January, 1860 M.L. Broadwell, 1861 J.S. Frizell, 1862 C.G. Land, 1863 to 1866 Geo. Lemmons, 1866 to 1870 Joseph Fennell, 1870 F.G. Ashbrook, 1871 Cale Musser, 1872 to 1873 Thos. V. Ashbrook, 1874 Cyrus B. Cook, 1875 to Dec. 1880 W.S. Wall, Dec. 1880 to 1883 Wm. Addams, 1883 to 1887 P.H. Crane, 1887 S.J. Ashbrook, 1888 to 1889 Geo. T. Mattox, 1890 F.S. Ashbrook, 1890 to 1892 R.V. Bishop, 1893 F.S. Ashbrook, 1894 to 1898 The present city officers are: F.S. Ashbrook, Mayor L.S. Williams, Clerk J.W. Renaker, Treasurer Ed. W. Smiser, Collector J.H. Taylor, Assessor N.W. Frazer, Street Commissioner B.D. Berry, Attorney T.J. Whiteker, Engineer M.G. Land, Police Judge James Desha, Chief of Police Henry Robertson, Night Policeman. Councilmen: R.V. Bishop, J.T. Hedges, J.I. Blanton, M.W. Boyd, P.H. Crane, John Stevens, J.W. Megibben, Henry Yeager, J.R. Pope. While Cynthiana has probably never had a council that has not shown a disposition to keep abreast the progress of the times, probably to the present the immediately preceding councils may be attributed the longest strides in efforts toward putting the city on a plane with the best of its size in the country. The most popular and beneficial projects pushed to completion recently have been the thorough lighting of the town with our lights and the splendid system of water works, than which there is no better or more complete any where. Mayor Ashbrook and council elected under the new charter took up the work where the preceding adminstration left it in the face of more or less opposition, carried the matter through. Cynthiana's city government ranks with the best. Policemen Desha and Robertson look after offenders on the streets, and Police Judge Land attends strictly to their cases in court. The city attorney, the clerk, the assessor, the collector, the street commissioner, each is careful in the discharge of his duty, while no fire was ever known to get away from the city engineer. Before the advent of waterworks a steam fire engine stood between the city and the devouring element. It was, and still is, one of the best manufactured, and in its retirement the people regard the faithful old machine with a deep affection. The fire department, recognized as unexcelled amoung volunteers, is capitally officered and ably managed. The city's interest are always uppermost in the minds of the men in control of the government, and the regulations are so admirabley arranged and so firmly enforced, that new citizens are being constantly attracted within our gates. ----------------------------------- Cynthiana Democrat, June 1896, Page 1, Part 4 The assessment of Cynthiana property this year amounts to $1,318 - $885, a figure more than doubled within the past ten years. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Portraits of the city officers are printed in this issue. That of Mr. L.S. Williams, city clerk, is omitted because he is out of town and no picture could be secured. Councilman Crane is also omitted. He unfortunately met with an accident a short time before the DEMOCRAT was published and was too ill to have a photograph made. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A DANIEL COME TO JUDGEMENT A Scotch Judge has decided that if you can get anything out of a nickel-in-the-slot machine and still keep your nickel you can not be held quilty of robbery. He holds that there must be a possibility of reciprocity in the matter of penalties, and if the machine will take your coin and give you nothing in return----as it will when it is out of order, or out of the commodity it dispenses----you are entitled to take advantage of it when you can. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ BIOGRAPHY IN A NUTSHELL Born, welcomed, caressed, cried, fed, grew, amused, reared, studied, examined, graduated, in love, loved, engaged, married, quarreled, reconciled, suffered, deserted, taken ill, died, mourned, buried and forgotten. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ACCORDING TO THE LOCATION "I'm sorry I stole the preserves, ma." "Ah, your conscience is troubling you is it?" "I don't know, exactly. Where is my conscience, ma?" Cynthiana Democrat, June 1896, Page 1