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Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
This is the order of nature; it must be
for the best." I
remembered this when we were called to
his obsequies.
Worthy fellow-man, public-spirited,
upright citizen,
generous, faithful friend, beloved
fellow-member, we
honor ourselves by placing this modest
wreath at the
shrine of his memory.
CLAUDE MEEKER
AS A YOUNG REPORTER
BY HAROLD G. SIMPSON
I think it probable that my intimate acquaintance
with Claude Meeker began earlier, and
therefore ex-
tended through a greater number of
years, than that of
any other man here present.
Fifty years ago, during the summer
vacation of the
High School, I held the lowly position
of cub reporter
on the Ohio Statesman, which was
published at the
northeast corner of Broad and High
streets. A small
room on the ground floor was then
occupied jointly as
the counting-room of the Statesman and
as the office of
Dr. Hawkes' stage-coach line, and the
daily arrival and
departure of the stage-coaches was a
very familiar sight
at that point. The room shared by the
editor, the city
editor and the cub reporter, which
three constituted the
entire force of those who wrote copy
for the Statesman,
was just over the counting-room, and on
the top floor
of the building was the large room
occupied as editorial
and composing-room of the Sunday
Capital, owned by a
man of very peculiar character whose
name was Arnold
Claude Meeker 613
Isler. Claude Meeker was the local man
for the Capital,
so we naturally saw a great deal of
each other and be-
came very well acquainted.
I think he had had some previous
experience as a
news-writer, but he was still just a
boy. He was tall,
thin, very active and industrious, and
he took a great
joy in his work. Those of you who knew
him only in
later years would have difficulty in
picturing him as he
was at that time, for he had no more of
the serenity and
dignity of manner and speech which so
characterized
him in after years than any other boy
who wrote for a
newspaper, got about town a great deal,
and did not
much care what people might think of
his behavior.
That was the way of even the older men
in newspaper
work in those days. I do not mean that
they were all
hard drinkers or that they were all
profligate. Claude
Meeker was not of that kind, but many
others were.
All newspaper men made it their
business to become
acquainted with everybody possible, in
every walk of
life, especially policemen and police
characters, and on
up to railroad officials, heads of big
business concerns
and bank presidents. Claude acquired an
unusually wide
acquaintance. His father had been mayor
of the city
some years before, and I think this
fact helped Claude
in getting acquainted with the
politicians of the city.
There were so few newspaper men in
Columbus at
that time that all of them knew one
another very well.
Those were the days of Allen 0. Myers,
famous, erratic,
political correspondent of the
Cincinnati Enquirer; of
Dan Bowersmith, city editor of the State
Journal, and
William G. (Bill) Thoman, my own city
editor, both of
whom later served as Enquirer correspondents;
of Sam-
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Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
uel J. Flickinger, then the news
correspondent of the
Enquirer; and of some others of consequence, notably
Morrow and Frank Carpenter, both
representatives of
Cleveland papers and both in after
times very noted in
their profession. Claude Meeker knew
all of these men
and no doubt he was fired with the
enthusiasm of a hope
that some day he, too, might become
connected with a
paper much greater than the Sunday
Capital--prefer-
ably the Cincinnati Enquirer. It
was the most natural
thing in the world that ambitious
reporters here should
long to be connected with the Enquirer
because of the
ascendancy of Enquirer representatives
here among the
newspaper writers, and it was not to be
wondered at
that Mr. Meeker became an Enquirer man
as soon as
the opportunity offered. He worked for
that paper as
a local reporter in Cincinnati. He
became an outstand-
ing member of the staff as a political
writer, and this
led to his preferment by President
Cleveland, who at
the request of Governor James E.
Campbell appointed
him United States consul at Bradford,
England.
I think that it may be truly said that
of all men work-
ing on newspapers of Columbus in the
days of which I
have been speaking, certainly no one
would have pre-
dicted then the successful career of
Claude Meeker.
The happy-go-lucky, improvident young
fellow about
town gave no promise of ever becoming
the staid, im-
pressive, substantial stock-broker,
moving in the inti-
mate companionship of many men who
occupied great
political, official and financial
positions throughout the
United States.