Col. John E. Hatcher ("G. Washington Bricks"), a newspaper humorist
who won wide fame in his day and generation, but who is now quite
sealed over and forgotten, was born near Charlottesville, Virginia, in
1828. When a boy his parents emigrated to Tennessee. At the age of
twenty years Hatcher became editor of _The American Democrat_ at
Florence, Alabama; and in 1852 he purchased _The Mirror_, a paper
which General Zollicoffer had established at Columbia, Tennessee. Some
time later Hatcher disposed of that property, and accepted a position
on the _Nashville Patriot_. He was fast gaining a reputation for his
humorous sketches, paragraphs, and rhymes, which were floating through
many Southern newspapers under his pen-name of "G. Washington Bricks."
Hatcher relinquished the pen for the sword when the Civil War began,
becoming an officer on the staff of General Cheatham. After the war,
or in 1867, Colonel Hatcher settled at Louisville, Kentucky, joining
the staff of Prentice's then fast-expiring _Journal_. When, in the
following year, the _Journal_ was united with the _Courier_, he became
editor of the _Daily Democrat_; and when that paper was consolidated
with the other two to make _The Courier-Journal_, he became one of the
editors of the new paper, and continued to write for it so long as he
lived. For a short time he did some special work for a Louisville
publication known as _The Evening Express_, conducted by Mr. Overton.
A few years before his death Colonel Hatcher returned to his old home
at Columbia, Tennessee, and founded _The Mail_; but he became "outside
editor" of _The Courier-Journal_, laying down his pen for that paper
only with his death, which occurred at Columbia, Tennessee, March 26,
1879. Consumption caused his demise and robbed Southern journalism of
one of its finest minds. Colonel Hatcher married Miss Lizzie
McKnight, daughter of a prosperous merchant at Iuka, Mississippi, and
the early death of their only child, a daughter, coupled with
consumption, hastened his own death. As an editorial paragraphist
Colonel Hatcher has never had a peer in Kentucky or the South.
Prentice, the father of the paragraph, was a wit; Hatcher was a
humorist; and his writings were often credited to Prentice by those
who were not acquainted with the inner workings of the office. Henry
Watterson has written this fine tribute to Colonel Hatcher's memory:
He was one of the silent singers of the press, but he lacked nothing
of eminence except good fortune; for he was a humorist of the very
first water, and had he lived under different conditions could not
have failed of the celebrity to which his talents entitled him. Born
not merely poor, but far inland, with no early advantages, and later
in life with none except those furnished by a rural newspaper; ill
health overtook him before he had divined his own powers.... His wit
was not so aggressive as that of Mr. Prentice. But he had more humor.
He died in the prime of life and left behind him a professional
tradition, which is cherished by the little circle of friends to whom
a charming personality and many brilliant gifts made him very dear.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The Courier-Journal_ (March 27, 1879); _Oddities of
Southern Life_, by Henry Watterson (Boston, 1882).