More News from 150 Years Ago

A meme that appeared this morning on Facebook characterizes the period between Christmas and New Year's Day in this way:

An item that appeared in the Hudson Weekly Star on January 1, 1874, suggests that things were a bit different in Hudson 150 years ago. According to this report, in this period between holidays, hundreds of Hudsonians showed up to hear a temperance lecture.

Although the report doesn't indicate where the lecture took place, there's no doubt that it was City Hall, later to be called the Hudson Opera House and now known as Hudson Hall. The Franklin Library Association offered a lecture series every year, and notices in the newspapers (after 1855) always indicated that the lectures would take place at City Hall. From the time City Hall opened in 1855, the Franklin Library Association, which maintained a library as well as offering an annual lecture series, was headquartered in City Hall. That arrangement ended in 1874. On January 6, 1874, the Hudson Evening Register reported that the Common Council agreed to direct the city clerk "to notify the Franklin Library Association that they must vacant the room occupied by them on the first of May, next." The room the Franklin Library Association occupied became police headquarters. It is now where the Hudson Hall office is located. 

The Franklin Library Association was founded in Hudson in 1837. Its library room was originally on Union Street near the current site of Christ Church Episcopal. When they left City Hall in 1874, they relocated to a room in the building at 343 Warren Street. 

In his History of Columbia County, published  in 1878, Captain Franklin Ellis reports this about the Franklin Library Association: "The system of public lectures, given under the auspices of the association, was inaugurated in 1838, and was regularly continued for many years, but has recently been discontinued, on account of the extravagant demands of lecturers and the decline of public interest in them." 

The Franklin Library Association brought popular lecturers of the day to Hudson, among them Horace Mann, Henry Ward Beecher, and Bret Harte. John B. Gough may not be familiar to us in the 21st century, but in his day he was a very sought-after speaker. His popularity as a lecturer reportedly rivaled that of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry Ward Beecher. Gough spoke at least twice in Hudson as a Franklin Library Association lecturer, and he may have been one of the lecturers whose "extravagant demands" brought an end to the program. According to the website TeachUSHistory.org, "Gough turned temperance reform into a lucrative profession." The following is quoted from that source:

In 1842, John B. Gough took the pledge in Worchester, Massachusetts, and began a career of lecturing against the evils of drink. He frequently drew upon his own experiences. One contemporary called him "the poet of the D.T.s." Over the more than forty years he campaigned against drinking, Gough gave upwards of 9,600 lectures to more than nine million people in America, Canada, and Great Britain. When he died in 1886, the New York Times wrote that he "was probably better known in this country and in Great Britain than any other public speaker." He achieved such renown because of his success in converting drinkers. Hundreds of thousands took the pledge at the conclusion of one of his speeches. The parallel with the call from the revivalist to the converted to step forward and publicly renounce their sins is apparent.

Despite his celebrity and success as a temperance crusader, Gough fell off the wagon a few times. The most notorious incident occurred in New York City in 1845, just three years after he had taken the pledge. Stopping in New York on his way to Albany, Gough disappeared from his hotel for an entire week. His friends made efforts to find him, posting placards around the city with a description of him, suggesting that he might be the victim of an accident or foul play. A tip about his whereabouts was received "in a mysterious way" at the National Police Gazette, a newspaper known for sensation mongering. One of the owners of the Gazette followed up on the mysterious tip and found Gough in a brothel, in a part of the city known for crime and debauchery, "in a very intoxicated state." The story was published in the Gazette and picked up by newspapers all over the country. Gough maintained he had been tricked into drinking by someone named Jonathan Williams, or Williamson, who offered him a drink of raspberry soda and, when Gough unwittingly accepted the laced libation, "looked into my face with a devilish expression of exultation which I never shall forget." The entire account of the incident can be found here.

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