Lewis Craig Humphrey

Lewis Craig Humphrey (1875–1927) was a prominent Kentucky newspaper editor who began his journalistic career as a reporter at the Louisville daily newspaper, the Louisville Evening Post, under the supervision of editor and publisher Richard W. Knott. Upon Knott's death, Humphrey became chief editor of the paper.[1][2]

Lewis Craig Humphrey
Born(1875-09-28)September 28, 1875
Louisville, Kentucky
DiedFebruary 3, 1927(1927-02-03) (aged 51)
Jefferson County, Kentucky
Resting placeCave Hill Cemetery
Alma materCentre College
OccupationEditor, Evening Post, Editor, Louisville Herald, Associate editor, Louisville Herald-Post
Home townLouisville, Kentucky
Spouse(s)Eleanor Silliman Belknap
ChildrenEdward Cornelius Humphrey, Alice Humphrey Morgan, Mary Humphrey Gray, Cpl. William Belknap Humphrey
Parent(s)Edward William Cornelius Humphrey, Jessamine Barkley

Political activity

Humphrey was active in politics with the Democratic Party of Kentucky. The Kentucky Irish American, a newspaper in Louisville, reported on page 1 in an article headlined "Democrats Enthused by Reorganization of the Party in City and State" that Lewis Humphrey was a member of the organizational committee which wanted to "mark the end of Republican machine rule in Kentucky."[3] According to the Kingsport Times (Tennessee),[4] shortly after he became a reporter he was made news writer, city editor, and associate editor of the Evening Post "with full dictation of editorial and political policy" until it merged with the Herald, at which time he became associate editor of the Louisville Herald-Post. The merger was planned by publisher/financier James Buckner Brown to balance the influence of the Barry Bingham, Sr family newspapers, including the Louisville Courier Journal, but the Herald-Post lost its financial support when another of Brown's enterprises failed.[5]

Newspaper career

His fraternity Sigma Chi at Centre College announced in the Sigma Chi Quarterly an early editorial assignment for Humphrey as editor of The Cento, the Centre College newspaper.[6] After his tenure at the Louisville Evening Post with editor and publisher Knott,[7] Humphrey worked his way up through the ranks to become chief editor at the Louisville Herald. After the Herald's merger with the Louisville Post, he became associate editor of the Louisville Herald-Post, a broadsheet daily newspaper founded by its original owner, financier James Buckner Brown (1925–1930), in 1925.[8] After the source of Brown's own original wealth and capital investment failed, he relinquished the company in a bankruptcy sale.[9] After additional takeovers and bankruptcies, the Louisville Herald-Post ceased publication in 1936. According to their website,"The newspaper's photo morgue was then donated to the Louisville Free Public Library where it was used extensively as a research collection before being accessioned by the University of Louisville Photographic Archives in 1994." The University of Louisville Library's Herald-Post Collection has digitally archived the old editions of the now defunct newspaper for which Lewis Craig Humphrey was associate editor.[7] Of the 31 years Lewis Craig Humphrey worked as a Louisville journalist, all but three years were spent at the old Evening Post as chief editor.[1]

Biography

Humphrey was the son of Kentuckians Judge Edward William Cornelius Humphrey (1844–1917) and Jessamine Barkley (1846–1905). He attended public school in Louisville and graduated from Centre College in Danville, Kentucky in 1896.[2] He married Eleanor Silliman Belknap (1876–1964),[10] the eldest daughter of William Richardson Belknap (1849–1914) on December 19, 1904, the week before Christmas at Lincliff, the home of the bride's parents.[11]

Humphrey-McMeekin House

He and his wife, Eleanor Belknap Humphrey, commissioned in 1914 the design by Gray and Wischmeyer of their home in The Highlands considered one of the finest examples of colonial revival architecture in the city of Louisville. The house, built by the Alfred Struck Company is known as the Humphrey-McMeekin House and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.[12] The couple had two daughters, Alice Humphrey Morgan and Mary Humphrey Gray, and two sons, Edward Cornelius Humphrey and William Belknap Humphrey.

Lewis Craig Humphrey was a recipient of the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award medallion from the University of Kentucky, an award established by the New York Southern Society in 1925.

Humphrey contracted cancer and died on February 3, 1927 at the age of 51.[13][1][14] He was buried at Louisville's Cave Hill Cemetery.

gollark: Er, I can't see anything except bright colored blobs.
gollark: Hmm, maybe someone could run some of the deepfake things on him, that would be funny.
gollark: I'm assuming it's faked, yes.
gollark: They're gone now for whatever reason.
gollark: It looks like a gas mask of some sort, but with coronavirus-related things written on it.

References
  1. Springfield Herald (Springfield, Missouri) 3 February 1927, Page 10.
  2. "Prominent Journalist of Louisville is Dead." Kingsport Times (Kingsport, Tennessee), 3 February 1927, p. 7.
  3. Kentucky Irish American (Louisville, Kentucky), 20 March 1920, p. 1.
  4. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/1569325/louisville_editor_dies_kingsport_times/
  5. Time (September 21, 1931), Banker's Sideline, New York, NY: Time Life
  6. The Sigma Chi Quarterly: The Official Organ of the Sigma Chi Fraternity Life and Literature (an Ebook) Volume 14, 1894–1895. Chicago, Illinois, 1895.
  7. "Herald-Post Collection".
  8. History of The Herald-Post from the University of Louisville Libraries
  9. New York Times, JAMES B. BROWN, KENTUCKY BANKER; Former Bookkeeper Who Rose to Be Head of $50,000,000 Banco Corp. Dies at 68 LOST FORTUNE IN CRASH Publisher of the Old Louisville Herald-Post Had Been Tax Receiver for the City page 15, (October 26, 1940).
  10. Online Library, Library of Virginia. "Pedigree of Eleanor Belknap Humphrey". Library of Virginia. Retrieved 2 December 2015.
  11. "The Week Before Christmas Marked by Several Ceremonials". Louisville, Kentucky: The Louisville Courier-Journal. December 18, 1904. p. 20. Retrieved 9 January 2016. The first wedding of the present week will take place to-morrow evening at 7:30 o'clock. . . . It will be a Christmas wedding and the house will be decorated with holly and mistletoe.
  12. Mohney, Gregory A. Luhan, Dennis Domer, David (2004). The Louisville guide ([Online-Ausg.]. ed.). New York: Princeton Architectural Press. p. 302. ISBN 1-56898-451-0.
  13. Pittston Gazette (Pittston, Pennsylvania) February 3, 1927, p. l
  14. "Louisville Editor Dies Thursday Morning", The Daily Independent (Murphysboro, Illinois) 4 Feb.,1927, p. 2.
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