William Davis Gallagher, poet and critic, was born at Philadelphia, August 21, 1808. When he was but eight years old he removed to Cincinnati with his mother, a widow. In 1821 he was apprenticed to a Cincinnati printer. At the age of twenty years Gallagher journeyed through Kentucky and Mississippi, and his letters concerning the country and the people won him his first fame as a writer. In 1831 he became editor of the Cincinnati Mirrow, the fifth or sixth literary journal published in the West. Three years later Thomas H. Shreve joined Gallagher in editing the paper. Like all Western magazines, the Mirrow's high hopes were utterly dashed upon the old rocks of failure from one cause or another. In 1835 Gallagher published Erato No. I., and Erato No. II., which were two small pamphlets of poems. Erato No. III. was published at Louisville, two years later. The chief poem in this was upon a Kentucky subject. Gallagher's anthology of Western verse, without biographical or critical notes, entitled The Poetical Literature of the West (Cincinnati, 1841), the first work in that field, was well done, and it strengthened his claim as a critic. In 1854 he became one of the editors of the Louisville Courier; but he shortly afterwards purchased a farm near Pewee Valley, Kentucky, some twelve miles from Louisville, and as a Kentucky farmer he spent the final forty years of his life. He took keen interest in agricultural pursuits, but he made nothing more than a meager living out of his farm. His essay on Fruit Culture in the Ohio Valley attracted the attention of persons interested in that subject. As a poet Gallagher submits his claim upon a rather long pastoral poem, entitled Miami Woods. This work was begun in 1839, and finished seventeen years later. This gives the title of his book of poems, Miami Woods, A Golden Wedding, and Other Poems (Cincinnati, 1881). A Golden Wedding is not an overly skillful production, and the poet is best seen in his shorter lyrics. Perhaps The Mothers of the West, which appeared in the Erato No. III., is the best thing he did, and the one poem that will keep his fame green. Gallagher began his literary career with great promise, and he pursued it diligently for some years, but when he should have been doing his finest work, he was winning some prize from an agricultural journal for the best essay on Fruit Culture in the Ohio Valley! He failed to follow the gleam. William D. Gallagher died at "Fern Rock Cottage," Pewee Valley, Kentucky, June 27, 1894.

Bibliography. Poets and Poetry of the West, by W. T. Coggeshall (Columbus, Ohio, 1860); Blades o' Bluegrass, by Fannie P. Dickey (Louisville, 1892).

THE MOTHERS OF THE WEST

[From Miami Woods, A Golden Wedding, and Other Poems (Cincinnati, 1881)]