Biographies W
James Weir
James Weir of Greenville Was Kentucky's First Historical Novelist
The late James Weir, banker, author and civic leader, a native of Muhlenberg County, is the subject of an article entitled, “James Weir Was the First Kentucky Writer of Kentucky Historial Novels,” written by Gayle R. Carver, curator of the Kentucky Museum at Western Kentucky State College in Bowling Green. Mr. Carver is a native of Greenville and former County health officer.
Mr. Weir was born in Greenville in 1821 and moved to Owensboro at the age of 21. He was the son of James Weir, born in South Carolina, banker and pioneer merchant of Kentucky. He was in turn a descendant of James Weir, of Blackwood, Leamabagow Parish, Lanarkshire, Scotland, who was proclaimed by Charles II in 1681 “a Treasonable Convenanter,” and dispossessed of his property. He fled to Antrim, Ireland, and his descendants, the Weirs of South Carolina and Kentucky, were Scotch-Irish Presbyterians.
Grandchildren of the author Weir include residents of Owensboro and Louisville.
The story of the life and work of James Weir III, now part of the history of Muhlenberg County, follows:
The Bible for the student of early Kentucky literature, John Wilson Townsend's Kentucky In American Letters (1913), gives credit for the first Kentucky novel to Gilbert Imlay who spent a few years in Kentucky and in 1793 published The Emigrants, a love story presented in the form of a series of letters. Otto A Rothert in his Local History In Kentucky Literature (1915) says: “Not until 1850 did a Kentuckian produce a Kentucky Historial novel. In Lonz Powers, or the Regulators, by James Weir (Sr.), we have not only the first but also one of the longest novels by a citizen of the State.”
James Weir was born in Greenville, Kentucky, June 16, 1821. He was the second child of James and Anna (Rumsey) Weir, pioneers of western Kentucky, and a grandson of a soldier of the Revolutionary war.
His father came to Muhlenberg county in 1798 from near Charleston, South Carolina, and was the county's first important business man. As a merchant he was a forerunner of a modern phase of business involving the centralized management of a chain of stores. With Greenville as the headquarters, pioneer Weir operated other establishments at Henderson, Morganfield, Madisonville, Lewisburg, Hopkinsville and Russellville, Kentucky, also in Gallatin, Tenn. and Shawneetown, Ill.
[The author] James Weir's early education was acquired in the two-room schoolhouse of his birthplace. One of his instructors was Ezias Earle, whom he later presents as a character in one of his novels. From the Greenville school he went to Danville where he entered Centre college, receiving a literary degree from that institution in 1840. The following year Transylvania university conferred upon him the degree of Bachelor of Law, and in 1844 Centre college granted the degree of Master of Arts. At a meeting of the alumni of Centre college in 1860, Weir was the principal orator.
On March 1, 1842, Weir married Miss Susan C. Green, of Danville, daughter of Judge John Green. Mr. and Mrs. Weir were the parents of ten children, eight of whom reached maturity. Today, none of them are alive, but numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren live in Owensboro, Louisville and various other places throughout the country.
When, in 1842, the Weirs settled in Owensboro, the place had only a few hundred people. From that time until about the close of the War between the States, Mr. Weir was a prominent member of the Owensboro bar, gaining a high standing as a chancery lawyer. After the war he was never again actively engaged in the practice of law; however, for a number of years, he was a member of the law firm of Weir, Weir and Walker, but solely in an advisory capactiy. It was said that he paid very little attention to criminal practices. One of his contemporaries could not recall having seen him appear in a criminal case.
Shortly after the organization of the Owensboro Deposit bank, about 1860, Weir was elected.
The rarest of James Weir's novels is, undoubtedly, his Simon Kenton, or the Scout's Revenge. Originally published to sell for seventy-five cents in cloth binding or fifty cents in paper binding, it is almost impossible today to buy a copy at any price. As far as has been learned only two copies of it are to be found in Kentucky at the present time. One is in the Filson club library in Louisville which acquired it in 1939 after a twenty year search, and the other has recently been secured by the Kentucky library of Western Kentucky State college. This book was printed in 1853, also by Lippincott, Grambo and Company, and is the only one of Weir's works that carries illustrations. It is a novel designed to give a sketch of the habits and striking characteristics of the population of the western portion of North Carolina immediately following the War for Independence. In it are introduced Simon Kenton, the great scout and Indian fighter, and Simon Girty, the Tory and renegade.
Weir's third novel, The Winter Lodge or Vow Fulfilled, is a sequel to his second. In it all the characters are transported to Kentucky and many of the most outstanding personalities of that period are introduced, with sketches of Kentucky history, the Mammoth Cave scenery, etc. and battles in which Kenton and Girty were engaged. The title is derived from the cabin built for the hero and heroine of the story.
Edna Kenton, in her recent work dealing with the life of Simon Kenton, says, “James Weir's Simon Kenton or The Scout's Revenge, and its sequel The Winter Lodge, are magnificent examples of the loose and easy romantic historical novels of the period.”
One of the interesting features connected with James Weir's novels is the not-generally-known fact that all three of them were translated into German and published in Leipzig, Germany. Ernest Susemihl translated Lonz Powers, and it was printed in four volumes by Kollman of Leipzig in 1853.
Simon Kenton was translated by the same firm in two volumes in 1856. This work also appeared in an English edition, published in London in December 1854, under the title Sharp Eye or the Scout's Revenge.
Winter Lodge was translated by the same man who translated Lonz Powers. It was published prior to 1856 by the same firm and bears the title Die Winterhutte.
The German editions of these volumes are not in the Library of Congress.
Related: Article Image.
Source: “James Weir of Greenville Was Kentucky's First Historical Novelist.” The Times-Argus [Central City, KY], 23 June 1949.
From the files of Mary Lynn Weir. Courtesy of Charlene Gillespie Deutsch
Via Google Books
Sharp-eye, or The Scout's Revenge (London edition of Simon Kenton)
Updated July 4, 2018