Page:The Poets and Poetry of the West.djvu/47

PEYTON SHORT SYMMES. Peyton Short Stmmes, a nephew of John Cleves Symmes, the well known pio- neer of the Miami purchase, may be recorded as one of the earliest bards of the West. He is very nearly of the same age as the city of Cincinnati. He saw the first Legisla- ture of the North- West Territory in session in Cincinnati, in 1799, and he was a wit- ness of the festivities in honor of the visit of the Legislatures of Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio to that city, in January, 1860. His recollections of men and places, of writ- ers, of periodicals and of books, extend over the entire history of Hteraiy enterprises in Ohio. He deserves to be remembered, not only for what he has written, but for what he has done to encourage others to write. For fifty years at least he has been the ready referee on questions of art and literature for nearly all the journalists and authors of Ciacinnati, and a kindly critic for the inexperienced who, before rushing into print, were wise enough to seek good advice. In 1817, and for many years thereafter, Mr. Symmes was Register of the Land Of- fice at Cincinnati. From 1830 to 1833 he was a member of the City Council. Li 1833 he was chosen one of the School Trustees, and until 1849 was an active member of that Board. Several of its most elaborate reports were from his pen. From 1830 to 1850 he was a member of the Board of Health. We remember him well in that ca- pacity, as a self-sacrificing public servant, when, in 1849, the cholera was epidemic in Cincinnati. Mr. Symmes was one of the Trustees of the old Cincinnati College, and an earnest supporter of the Western College of Teachers which met annually in Cincinnati, from 1831 till 1845. He was identified with nearly all the early hterary societies of that city. In 1816 he wrote the New Year's Lay for the carriers of the Cincinnati Ga- zette. Those carriers were Wesley Smead — since well known as a Banker — and Ste- phen S. L'Hommedieu, now known throughout the West as the President of the Hamil- ton and Dayton Railroad. The " Lines on Winter." hereafter quoted, are from that lay. In 1824-25, Mr. Symmes was one of the principal writers for the Literary Ga- zette — edited and published for two years by John P. Foote, then a bookseller — a quarto journal which appeared semi-monthly. It was conducted with spirit and good taste. Its chief contributors were Benjamin Drake, Ethan Allen Brown, Fitz Greene Hal- leck, John H. James, Julia L. Dumont, Thomas Peirce, Daniel Drake, John P. Durbin, John Locke, David T. Disney, and Mr. Symmes. For the Cincinnati Chronicle, conducted by Benjamin Drake, in 1826, and the Mirror, edited by Wm. D. Gallagher, between 1831 and 1835, Mr. Sjanmes wrote often both in prose and verse. In later years he has rarely written for either news- papers or magazines, but it is understood that he has been preparing a biography of his uncle, John Cleves Symmes. We trust it will be completed, because it must pos- sess peculiar interest, as a picture of early times in the West. (31)