From: KyArchives [Archives@genrecords.org]
Sent: Tuesday, February 15, 2005 8:07 AM
To: Ky-Footsteps
Subject: Woodson.Urey.1859.Hopkins.BIOS


Urey Woodson August 16, 1859 - August 6, 1939
Hopkins County KyArchives Biography

Author: From "The Woodsons and Their Connections". 

Urey Woodson. Born August 16, 1859 at Madisonville, KY, where he received his 
early education.  He entered the newspaper business at the age of eighteen, 
publishing a paper at Greenville, KY.  He went to Owensboro, KY, in 1880 and 
has lived there continuously ever since.  He soon became the owner and 
publisher of "The Messenger" a daily and weekly democratic newspaper of wide 
circulation and great influence.  He was married February 12, 1885, to Miss 
Elizabeth Ford who was born and reared in Owensboro.  She is a daughter of 
Salem H. Ford and Sarah Beauchamp. He has for many years been prominent in 
politics.  From 1891 to 1895 he was a member of the Kentucky Railroad 
Commission. from 1896 to 1912 he was the Kentucky member of the National 
Democratic Committee and was secretary of that committee form 1904 to 1912, 
since then he has been devoting his time and talent to the management of his 
newspaper, "The Messenger." From "The Political Graveyard": Woodson, Urey of 
Owensboro, Ky. Delegate to Democratic National Convention from Kentucky, 1932. 
Burial location unknown. Greatest of his Time Woodson owned, edited Owensboro Messenger 1 June 2000. By Glenn Hodges, Messenger-Inquirer. Urey Woodson, the editor of the Owensboro Messenger for more than 40 years, was considered the greatest Owensboro newsman of his time. Born in Madisonville on Aug. 16, 1859, he entered the newspaper business at the age of 18 and published the Muhlenberg Echo in Greenville before coming to Owensboro. From 1881 to 1888, he and C.W. Bransford printed the Messenger. In 1888 he bought Bransford's interest and continued as sole owner and editor of the Messenger until Jan. 2, 1929, when he sold it to Lawrence and Bruce Hager and George Fuqua. A man of too much energy and talent to be satisfied with voluntary retirement, Woodson then went to work for the Roosevelt administration in Washington. In 1933, FDR made Woodson director of the Alien Property Bureau, a post he occupied until June 26, 1939. Urey Woodson became co-owner-editor of the Messenger with C.W. Bransford in 1881. He sold the paper to Lawrence W Hager, Bruce Hager and George Fuqua in 1929. File photo by M-I. Besides the newspapers in Owensboro and Greenville, Woodson also published or managed papers in Louisville and Paducah. He headed the Paducah News-Democrat from 1901 to 1912, employing the soon-to-be famous Irvin S. Cobb as one of his managing editors. In 1897 Woodson was also general manager of the Louisville Daily Dispatch. One of the best stories told about Woodson was his taking Cobb away from the Louisville Post because editor Dick Knott would not add $2 a week to Cobb's salary. Woodson was then publishing the Dispatch at Louisville and the News-Democrat in Cobb's home town in Paducah. Woodson knew at the time that he couldn't hold on long to a genius like Cobb. He helped Cobb on his way to New York where he established a career as the most illustrious journalist, fiction writer and humorist of his day. Woodson paralleled his newspaper career with an equally impressive involvement in national politics. He was a member of the Democratic National Committee of Kentucky from 1896 to 1916 and from 1924 to 1928. He was secretary of the national committee from 1904 to 1912. During his life, he held public office twice. In addition to the post he had in Washington, he was appointed railroad commissioner in 1891 by Gov. John Y. Brown and served in that position for four years. Woodson attended every Democratic national convention held between 1880 and 1936 and was a delegate at large from Kentucky to the Chicago convention in 1932, serving as a member of the platform committee at that convention. At the time of his death, Woodson was one of only two surviving witnesses who saw William Goebel  sworn in as governor of Kentucky in 1900 as he lay on his bed in Frankfort mortally wounded. In the last year of his life, Woodson published a book in which he outlined incidents of the stormy period of Kentucky history surrounding the Goebel campaign for governor and Goebel's assassination. In the book which he titled "The First New Dealer," Woodson captured the spirit of the campaign of 1899 in Kentucky, expounded on the central issues of the election race and described the hostilities and the lines of division in the two contending parties.  In his book, Woodson expounded the theory that Governor Goebel was the "First New Dealer" and that Theodore Roosevelt had used his ideas of social reform during his presidency. After his retirement from the position in Washington, many people were insisting that Woodson write another book about the national leaders he had known over the past 60 years. Woodson had a close association with William Jennings Bryan and was at the national convention in Chicago in 1896 when Bryan made his famous "Cross of Gold" speech. Previously, Bryan had been Woodson's guest in Owensboro, addressing a record crowd here. Woodson also recalled meeting President Grover Cleveland at his first inauguration, remembering him as a "bejeweled, wheezing individual who was slimmer, trimmer and more elegant" by the time of his second inauguration eight years later. But Woodson's contemporaries said his real worth and ability were demonstrated in his work as an editor. "He had a vast fund of information, made readily accessible by a remarkable memory, and his quickness of perception and facility of expression made a rare equipment for editorial writing," said William Foster Hayes in the history "Sixty Years of Owensboro.'' Woodson's style was clear, straightforward and vigorous, Hayes noted. "And he had courage, a valuable if not indispensable asset for an editor, and a ready wit, which could be caustic on occasion but was usually genial." After he finished his job in Washington in early summer, Woodson was anticipating some quiet restful years at his Owensboro home, and looking forward to traveling about the nation and abroad. But the 79-year-old editor, author and political leader died suddenly at his home at 1227 Frederica St. on Aug. 6, 1939. Shortly after his death, the Owensboro Messenger reflected on Woodson's contribution to Kentucky journalism in an editorial. "He spoke with authority that carried weight in his words. He wrote with equally daring independence. If there were giants in those days when he entered the arena he was a surviving gladiator whose spear was ever ready to repell assaults and whose shield grew rusty because unused. "His stocky figure, his heavy white hair, his strong face, singled him out to strangers, and to talk with this veteran of so many battles in journalism and politics, was to learn first-hand of men and moments that have made the history of this nation since the War Between the States. He was an individual. He feared no man in declaring his opinions. "His kind will not appear again on the Kentucky stage."
 


Submitted by: Sandi Gorin http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00002.html#0000404



This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/kyfiles/