 |
| Gomer Taliesin Davis |
I mentioned Gomer Taliesin Davies (1855-1950) yesterday in relation to Lucas County's coal mining towns of Lucas and Cleveland and wanted to come back to him briefly before moving along. Davies, a major figure in the history of Kansas journalism, is more of a footnote here --- but an interesting one none the less.
Born during 1855 in Pontypridd, Glamorganshire, South Wales, he came to the United States with his family --- coal miners by trade --- in 1863 at the age of 8 and lived briefly in Pennsylvania and Livingston County, Missouri, before striking off on his own into the Iowa mines during 1868, age about 13.
By 1870, census records show, he was working as a miner at Beacon, a coal mining town just southwest of Oskaloosa in Mahaska County. From Beacon, he moved on to Coalfield, a mining camp in the Monroe County hills southwest of Eddyville, where he was involved in a mine-related accident that cost him his left leg to the knee and, most likely, changed the course of his life.
Coal mining took off in western Lucas County during 1876 and it seems likely that Gomer arrived soon thereafter --- still working as a miner, walking with a peg leg as he did for the remainder of his life. During October of 1879, he married Catherine Powell, who had arrived in Lucas with her miner brothers and widowed mother from Illinois the previous year. They eventually had seven children.
It was while living at Lucas/Cleveland that Gomer got his first taste of journalism --- as correspondent for The Patriot, compiling and sending off brief dispatches from the mines and the mining towns to Chariton once a week while working in the mines himself.
During 1882, the young Davies family moved west into Kansas and Gomer went to work full-time as a journalist, the profession he would follow for nearly 70 years. The Davies always maintained ties with Lucas County and visited frequently, however, because two of Catherine's sisters, Ann Williams and Elizabeth Batten, lived at Lucas and Chariton for the remainder of their lives, as did their mother.
The following article, published on the front page of The Herald-Patriot of Oct. 27, 1937, does a good job of covering those Kansas years. The headline reads, "Kansas Publisher, once Coal Miner in County, says Lewis 'Power Drunk." The reference is, of course, to John L. Lewis, that giant among U.S. labor leaders, who was born at Cleveland during 1880.
Davies knew the Lewis family and always identified himself with his roots as a coal miner, but his politics shifted as the years passed and by the 1930s he was a staunch Republican, horrified by organized labor and John L. Lewis in particular, as quotes in the story indicate. Here's the text:
+++
Gomer T. Davies, publisher of the Concordia, Kans., Kansan, and Mrs. Davies are visiting relatives in Chariton and Lucas this week.
Mr. Davies formerly lived at Cleveland, a mining camp near Lucas, and while working there as a coal miner gained his first newspaper experience as correspondent for the newspaper which is now the Herald-Patriot.
Mr. and Mrs. Davies were guests here Wednesday at the Parley Batten home. Mrs. Davies and Mrs. Batten are sisters. At Lucas, they have been at the home of another of Mrs. Davies' sisters, Mrs. Bob Williams.
Mr. and Mrs. Williams will celebrate their fifty-eighth wedding anniversary Oct. 11. They were married four days prior to Mr. and Mrs. Davies.
However, Mr. and Mrs. Davies already have celebrated their anniversary, at Concordia recently, due to the fact that their children could be home at that time but not at the later date.
Prominent for many years in newspaper and political circles of Kansas, Mr. Davies has had an interesting and colorful career. When he had completed 50 years of newspaper work, Alf Landon, former governor of Kansas, had this to say in a message of congratulation:
"Gomer T. Davies --- good old Gomer T. Davies --- fifty years a Kansas editor --- a real ring-tailed, rip-snorter, bellerin' Kansas editor."
Mr. Davies, born in Wales in 1855, came to the United States with his parents at the age of eight. The family lived for a time in Livingston county, Missouri. In 1868, when his parents moved to Kansas, Gomer Davies came to Iowa. Besides working at Cleveland, he also spent some time in a Wapello county (actually Monroe County) mining camp --- Coalfied. There, following an accident, it was necessary that he have a leg amputated. The operation was performed at Eddyville.
"You see," he explained Wednesday, "I have many interests in Iowa, including a leg buried at Eddyville. I'll have to stop and pick it up when Gabriel blows his trumpet."
After fifteen years in Iowa he rejoined his parents in Republic City, Kans. For $150 he purchased the Republic City News in 1883. He had two dollars of the purchase price at the time.
Thirteen years later, he bought the Kansan, a weekly at Concordia.
His interest in Republican politics took him to the lower house of the Kansas legislature from 1887 to 1891. However, he once turned down an appointment as state printer offered to him by Governor Allen.
He has held high offices in the I.O.O.F. and is a Rotarian and an Elk.
Mr. Davies has been experiencing difficulty in locating friends he knew during his residence in Lucas county. Most of them have moved away or are dead, he said.
 |
| John L. Lewis |
Questioned concerning another former resident of Lucas county --- John L. Lewis, president of the United Mine Workers of America and head of the Committee for Industrial Organization (later Congress of Industrial Organization, or C.I.O.) --- Mr. Davies said Lewis' program constitutes a distinct menace to the nation's welfare.
Like Davies, John L. Lewis worked in the Lucas coal fields in his youth. Davies was at that time a member of the Knights of Labor, one of the early labor organization.
"Lewis," he said, "who once condemned Communism, has incorporated principles of Communism in his C.I.O. The rule of reason has no place in the lexicon of the labor leader. He is ruthless in his methods and aspires to attain dictatorship."
Continuing, he declared, "Lewis is a fanatical zealot and an autocrat. He is power drunk, and as the nation's greatest menace since the Civil War must be denounced by those who would retain this nation as it was designed by the founders of the constitution."
+++
Gomer remained at the helm of The Kansan, in title at least, until his death in Concordia during 1950 at the age of 95. His son, Ralph, continued to operate the newspaper until his own death in 1965. New owners discontinued publication during 1988, ceding the field in Concordia to the competing daily. So The Kansan is no more.
John L. Lewis did not destroy America, as Mr. Davies apparently feared he might, and today is celebrated in his native Lucas at the John L. Lewis Museum of Mining and Labor.
In the annals of Kansas (and national) journalism, William Allen White --- the progressive Sage of Emporia --- still is celebrated. Gomer T. Davies, in both Kansas and Iowa, remains primarily an interesting footnote.
No comments:
Post a Comment