Ferdinand E. Kuhn

Ferdinand E. Kuhn

Kuhn c. 1915
Born Ferdinand Emory Kuhn
(1861-09-03)September 3, 1861
Nashville, Tennessee
Died March 17, 1930(1930-03-17) (aged 68)
Nashville, Tennessee
Cause of death Fournier gangrene
Residence 2004 Terrace Place, 'Frassati House'
Alma mater University of Notre Dame
Occupation Shoe merchant
Employer Kuhn, Cooper, & Geary
Known for "Father of the Knights of Columbus in the South."
President of 1908 Nashville Vols
Religion Roman Catholic
Spouse(s) Kate Wall
Children Catherine Agnes Kuhn
Francis Vincent Kuhn
Barbara Miller Kuhn
Casper Bernard Kuhn
Marie Clarke Kuhn
Ferdinand Emery Kuhn, Jr.
Oliver Wall Kuhn
Richard Dudley Kuhn
Paul Hubert Kuhn
Signature

Ferdinand Emory Kuhn (September 3, 1861 – March 17, 1930)[1] was a shoe merchant known as the "Father of the Knights of Columbus in the South."[2][3][4][5][6] He was also president of the 1908 Southern Association champion Nashville Vols baseball team.

Early years

Ferdinand Emory Kuhn was born to German immigrants from the Kingdom of Württemberg, Ferdinand and Barbara (Müller) Kuhn on September 3, 1861 in Nashville, Tennessee. He was the youngest of eight children. His father was a brewer.[7]

Studies

Kuhn attended the local parochial and public high schools, then went to the University of Notre Dame, where he was a member of the rowing team.[8] Kuhn was once part of a committee of the Boat Club appointed to make arrangements for a new boathouse.[9] He graduated in 1883.[10]

Personal

Kuhn was married to Katherine "Kate" Wall on April 15, 1884 in Springfield, Kentucky, the home of the bride. She was of Irish descent. Her father Frank Wall was a steamboat engineer on the Mississippi River born in County Londonderry in modern-day Northern Ireland and the namesake of Wall, Pennsylvania.[11][12][13] Frank's wife was from Columbus, Georgia; she was born in County Tyrone.

They would have nine children together, six boys and three girls.[14] Kuhn was the father of prominent Vanderbilt quarterback Doc Kuhn[6] and, through another son, the grandfather of radio and television announcer Dick Dudley.

Kuhn's house from 1898 until his death is now called Frassati House, the building on Vanderbilt's campus for the 'University Catholic'.[15][16]

Board of Public Works

Kuhn was a secretary and city recorder for the Board of Public Works & Affairs from 1884 until 1903.[17][18][19][20]

Knights of Columbus

Initiation

Kuhn was initiated into the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal service organization, in Louisville, Kentucky on July 1, 1899. He was one of the first five from south of Louisville to be initiated on that day.[14] The other four were Messrs. H. J. Grimes, Will J. Varley, William Smith, and Michael M. McCormack.[21][22]

Southern expansion

He was appointed Supreme Knight Hearn as the first Territorial Deputy of Tennessee,[23] and in that capacity organized councils in Memphis, Knoxville, and Chattanooga in Tennessee; Atlanta and Augusta in Georgia; Birmingham, Mobile, and Huntsville in Alabama, Meridian, Mississippi, New Orleans, Louisiana; and Little Rock[24] and Fort Smith in Arkansas.[25][26][27] He was once Master of the Fourth Degree for Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas,[14][28] Later he remained Master of the Fourth Degree for Tennessee.[29][30] In 1920 he was Grand Knight of Nashville Council 544.[21]

"Ferdinand Kuhn was one of the Nashville Catholics who had advocated expansion into Tennessee. The 1900 compromise allowed for the formation of Nashville Council No. 544. Kuhn, who became Tennessee's first State Deputy, succeeded Daniel J. Callahan as the master ceremonialist, presiding at the institution ceremonies of councils in Florida (1900), Alabama (1902), Louisiana (1902), and Georgia (1902). His degree work at the opening of New Orleans Council No. 714 in November 1902 was long remembered as "something out of this world."'[31]

Shoe merchant

Kuhn was president and treasurer of the shoe store of Kuhn, Cooper, & Geary. Kuhn and two other men, Ed P. Cooper and P. J. Geary, founded the store in 1903.[32][33][34] The store was located on North Summer Street (Fifth Avenue North).

Fifth Ave North, Nashville

It was once the largest retail shoe store in the South,[35] which earned a reputation as the premiere footwear store in downtown Nashville.[33] The latest in electric lighting and holophone reflectors lit the establishment. The storefront window displayed shoes on revolving pedestals, and on the inside marble lined the walls and inlaid mirrors trimmed the back wall.[33] Hub Perdue worked briefly at the store in 1921.[36]

Kuhn was once president of the Retail Shoe Dealers' Association.[37] He was also once president of the Retail Credit Men's Association.[38]

Nashville Vols

The 1908 Nashville Vols. Kuhn is top left.

Kuhn was the president of the Nashville Vols baseball club from 1907 to 1910,[39] including the 1908 Southern Association championship team.[33] He was preceded in that capacity by Bradley Walker. Kuhn was head of a group of men who purchased the team after a last place finish in 1907. Along with Kuhn the group consisted of James B. Carr (president of B. H. Stief Jewelry Co.), Thomas James Tyne (lawyer and state legislator), J. T. Connor (real estate), James A. Bowling (contractor), Robert L. Bolling (lawyer), Rufus E. Fort (physician), William G. Hirsig (automobile and tire dealer). Well known attorney S. A. Champion supplied legal services. The group envisioned an ambitious project of stadium renovations at Sulphur Dell, and managed to cull $50,000. Kuhn was selected to head the Board of Directors.[33] He went on a trip to Ponce de Leon Park in order to observe the modern park and plan renovations.[40]

1908

Kuhn hired Bill Bernhard as manager. In 1908 the team won the Southern pennant by beating the New Orleans Pelicans in the last game, described by Grantland Rice as the "greatest game ever played in Dixie."[33] The championship banner was presented to Kuhn by league president William Marmaduke Kavanaugh, and it hung over the window of Kuhn's shoe store until the banner raising ceremony on Opening Day, 1909.[33]

The game

"The greatest game ever played in Dixie"

Nashville entered the final day of that season on September 19 with an opportunity to win the league pennant. The championship was to be decided by the last game of the season between the Vols and the New Orleans Pelicans at Sulphur Dell. Both teams had the same number of losses (56), but the Pelicans were in first place with 76 wins to the Vols' second-place 74. A crowd of 11,000 spectators, including Kuhn sat next to mayor James Stephens Brown, witnessed Carl Sitton hurl a three-hit, 1–0 shutout, giving Nashville their third Southern Association pennant by .002 percentage points. Ted Breitenstein was New Orleans's pitcher.

Kuhn (middle) with Southern Association president William Marmaduke Kavanaugh (left)

One account reads "By one run, by one point, Nashville has won the Southern League pennant, nosing New Orleans out literally by an eyelash. Saturday's game, which was the deciding one, between Nashville and New Orleans was the greatest exhibition of the national game ever seen in the south and the finish in the league race probably sets a record in baseball history."[41]

Resignation

Following the 1910 season, Kuhn resigned as baseball president due to the heavy work of both the baseball team and his shoe store. He was succeeded by Hirsig.[42]

Anti-tuberculosis campaign

He was once president of Tennessee's state Anti-Tuberculosis League.[43][44][45][46]

References

  1. ↑ Tennessee State Library and Archives; Nashville, Tennessee; Tennessee Death Records, 1908-1959; Roll #: 3
  2. ↑ "Frederick E. Kuhn [sic]" (PDF). The New York Sun. March 18, 1930. p. 27.
  3. ↑ "F. M. Kuhn (sic) Dies". Kingsport Times. March 18, 1930.
  4. ↑ "FERDINAND EMERY KUHN.; President of the Nashville Baseball Team Dies at 69". The New York Times. March 18, 1930.
  5. ↑ American Elite and Sociologist Bluebook. American Blue Book Publishers. 1922. p. 315.
  6. 1 2 "Deaths". The Notre Dame Alumnus: 245. April 1930.
  7. ↑ 1860 United States Federal Census. Census Place: District 13, Davidson, Tennessee; Roll: M653_1246; Page: 216; Image: 232; Family History Library Film: 805246
  8. ↑ "Oliver D. Kuhn". The Guardian. June 16, 1923. p. 5.
  9. ↑ "Local Items" (PDF). Notre Dame Scholastic. 15 (32): 495. April 22, 1882.
  10. ↑ Ind. University of Notre Dame (1883). Catalogue.
  11. ↑ Cushing, Thomas. A Genealogical and Biographical History of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. Baltimore: Genealogical Pub., 1975; p. 505
  12. ↑ "Frank Wall Has A Few Words To Say About The Value Of Poor Farm Land." Pittsburg Dispatch 8 Dec. 1891 p. 2
  13. ↑ "[No title]". The Courier-Journal. July 30, 1896. p. 4 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. 1 2 3 "A Knight With A Rare Record". The Guardian. October 9, 1915. p. 22.
  15. ↑ Mrs. William W. Geraldton (1911). Social Directory, Nashville Tennessee. p. 50.
  16. ↑ "University Catholic - Contact Us". Retrieved January 31, 2015.
  17. ↑ e. g. Nashville City Directory 1894 p. 556
  18. ↑ "Professor Landreth's Report". Proceedings of the Engineering Association of the South. 16: 38.
  19. ↑ Elijah Embree Hoss (1890). History of Nashville, Tenn. p. 147.
  20. ↑ Annual Reports, City of Nashville. 1903. p. 5.
  21. 1 2 Sixty Years of Columbianism in Tennessee.
  22. ↑ "Michael McCormack Dies in Albany, Ga.". The Bulletin, official organ of the Catholic Laymen's Association of Georgia. February 25, 1933.
  23. ↑ cf. "F. L. Monteverde Succeeds F. E. Kuhn". The Tennessean. p. 2. Retrieved September 20, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
  24. ↑ "Knights of Columbus". The Guardian. August 16, 1919. p. 28.
  25. ↑ "Brief History of Fort Smith Council K. of C.". The Southern Guardian. 3 (48). February 7, 1914.
  26. ↑ "Pioneers To Take Two Leading Parts". The Southern Guardian. 4 (3). March 28, 1914.
  27. ↑ "Brief History of A Grand Order". p. 33.
  28. ↑ "Former Masters" (PDF). Retrieved February 26, 2015.
  29. ↑ "Big Fourth Degree Exemplification in Memphis Tomorrow". The Southern Guardian. 4 (35). November 7, 1914.
  30. ↑ "Ferd Kuhn Shows The Proper Spirit". The Southern Guardian. 4 (14). July 18, 1914.
  31. ↑ Faith and Fraternalism: The History of the Knights of Columbus 1882-1982 by Christopher J Kauffman; p. 106-107.
  32. ↑ "What The Retailers Are Doing". Shoe Retailer and Boots and Shoes Weekly. 49: 61. 1904.
  33. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 John A. Simpson (2007). The Greatest Game Ever Played In Dixie. McFarland. pp. 32, 180.
  34. ↑ William Waller (1972). Nashville, 1900-1910.
  35. ↑ The American Catholic Who's Who. 1. p. 342.
  36. ↑ John A. Simpson. Hub Perdue: Clown Prince of the Mound. p. 195.
  37. ↑ "No Shoes On Approval". Shoe Retailer and Boots and Shoes Weekly: 39. July 28, 1906.
  38. ↑ The Notre Dame Scholastic (PDF). 54. October 2, 1920. p. 29.
  39. ↑ Spalding's Official Base Ball Guide. 1907. pp. 164; 308.
  40. ↑ Grantland Rice (January 22, 1908). "In Sulphur Dell". The Tennessean. p. 8. Retrieved January 9, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  41. ↑ Hamilton Love (October 10, 1908). "South Sayings" (PDF). Sporting Life: 16.
  42. ↑ "W. G. Hirsig President Nashville B. B. Club". The Tennessean. December 13, 1910. p. 9. Retrieved October 1, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
  43. ↑ The American elite and sociologist blue book, progressive Americans, prominent in the social, industrial and financial world. 1922. pp. 315–316.
  44. ↑ "Tennessee". JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association. 57: 1773.
  45. ↑ "Four Red Cross Seal Commissions". Journal of the Outdoor Life. 8: 306.
  46. ↑ A Tuberculosis Directory Containing a List of Institutions, Associations and Other Agencies Dealing with Tuberculosis in the United States and Canada. 1916. p. 289.
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