Ferdinand E. Kuhn

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

Ferdinand E. Kuhn
Kuhn c. 1915
Born(1861-09-03)September 3, 1861
Nashville, Tennessee, US
DiedMarch 17, 1930(1930-03-17) (aged 68)
Nashville, Tennessee, US
Alma materUniversity of Notre Dame
OccupationShoe merchant
Employer(s)Kuhn, Cooper, & Geary
Known for"Father of the Knights of Columbus in the South."
President of 1908 Nashville Vols
SpouseKate Wall
Children9, including Oliver Wall Kuhn
Signature

Early years

Kuhn was born in Nashville, Tennessee, on September 3, 1861, to German immigrants from the Kingdom of Württemberg, Ferdinand and Barbara (Müller) Kuhn. He was the youngest of eight children. His father was a brewer who ran the Rock City Brewery shortly after the end of the Civil War.[2][3]

Studies

Kuhn attended the local parochial and public high schools, graduating from Hume High School, then went to the University of Notre Dame, where he was a member of the University Baseball Association and the "Lemonnier Boat Club", a boat and rowing club on Saint Joseph's Lake.[4][5][6] He graduated in 1883 with a BSc, a classmate of aeronautical expert Albert Francis Zahm.[7] Kuhn received his Masters in 1885, and while pursuing that degree would present the gold medal given to the best science undergraduate at Notre Dame.[8]

Personal

Kuhn was married to Katherine "Kate" Wall on April 15, 1885, in her hometown of Springfield, Kentucky.[9] The marriage was performed by Joseph A. Hogarty, whose father sculpted the Henry Clay monument in Lexington.[10] Kate Wall had attended Saint Mary's Academy, and was born in Wall, Pennsylvania, named for her father Frank Wall, a wealthy farmer and steamboat engineer from Ireland.[11][12][13]

They had nine children; six boys and three girls.[14] Kuhn was the father of prominent Vanderbilt quarterback Doc Kuhn[15] and, through another son, violinist Casper, the grandfather of NBC radio and television announcer Dick Dudley. He named one son Richard Dudley after Richard Houston Dudley.[16]

Kuhn's house from 1898 until his death is now called Frassati House, and is the building on Vanderbilt's campus that houses the University's Catholic campus ministry.[17][18] Kuhn was an active member of the Cathedral of the Incarnation.[6] His mother had also attended the Church of the Assumption.

Board of Public Works

Kuhn's first job out of college was as the private secretary to Mayor Claiborne Hooper Phillips. His brother Casper was city auditor.[19] Ferdinand Kuhn was then a secretary and city recorder for the Board of Public Works and Affairs from 1884 until 1903.[20][21][22] Upon his resignation he was dubbed "beyond question the most capable man that (sic) ever served the Board".[23]

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.[24][25]

Southern expansion

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'.[26]

He was appointed Supreme Knight Hearn as the first Territorial Deputy of Tennessee,[27] 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; Little Rock[28] and Fort Smith in Arkansas.[29][30][31] He was once Master of the Fourth Degree for Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas,[14][32] Later he remained Master of the Fourth Degree for Tennessee.[33][34] He is known as the "Father of the Knights of Columbus in the South."[15][35][36]

State deputy

Kuhn was the first state deputy of Tennessee from 1902 to 1908. Since 1903, the F. E.Kuhn sword has passed from State Deputy to State Deputy.[37] In 1920 Kuhn was Grand Knight of Nashville Council 544.[24]

Shoe merchant
Storefront
Fifth Ave North, Nashville

Kuhn was president and treasurer of the Kuhn, Cooper, Geary & Company shoe store, founded in 1903 with Ed P. Cooper and P. J. Geary.[38][39][40] The store was located on North Summer Street (Fifth Avenue North), Nashville.

It was once the largest retail shoe store in the South,[41] and earned a reputation as the premiere footwear store in downtown Nashville.[39] The most up-to-date electric lighting and holophone reflectors provided lighting for the store. Its front window displayed shoes on revolving pedestals. The inside walls were marble lined, and inlaid mirrors ran along the back wall.[39]

Kuhn was the president of the Retail Shoe Dealers' Association in 1906,[42] and of the Retail Credit Men's Association in 1920.[43] In 1921 he was awarded a trophy for his work in gaining members as chairman in Tennessee for the Retail Credit Men's Association.[44]

Nashville Vols

Kuhn was the president of the Nashville Vols baseball club from 1908 to 1910,[45] including the 1908 Southern Association championship team.[39]

The 1908 Nashville Vols. Kuhn is top left.

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); and 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.[39] He went on a trip to Ponce de Leon Park in Atlanta to observe a modern park and plan renovations.[46]

1908–1910

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".[39]

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

Nashville entered the final day of that season on September 19 with an opportunity to win the league pennant. The championship would be decided by the last game of the season 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, who sat next to Mayor James Stephens Brown, saw Carl Sitton hurl a three-hit, 1–0 shutout, giving Nashville their third Southern Association pennant by 0.1 percentage points (57.25% to 57.14%). Ted Breitenstein was New Orleans's pitcher.

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."[47]

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.[39]

Kuhn also invented a kind of electric scoreboard.[48] In the 1909 season, New Orleans, Mobile, Montgomery, Memphis, and Atlanta used his design. John Heisman was president of the 1909 champion Atlanta team.

Following the 1910 season, Kuhn resigned as the team's president. He was succeeded by Hirsig.[49] Kuhn was always careful with the team's money, and one newspaper called it the end of the "tightwad" regime.[50]

Hub Perdue, former pitcher for the 1908 Nashville Volunteers, worked briefly at Kuhn's shoe store in 1921.[51]

Other community service

He was once president of Tennessee's state Anti-Tuberculosis League,[52][53][54] established in 1906.[55][56][57] He was also on the Board of Directors of the Tennessee Association for the Relief of Ex-Convicts, established in 1917.[lower-alpha 1]

Notes
  1. Luke Lea and James G. Stahlman served on the Board in the next term.[58][59]

References
  1. Tennessee State Library and Archives; Nashville, Tennessee; Tennessee Death Records, 1908-1959; Roll #: 3
  2. 1860 United States Federal Census. Census Place: District 13, Davidson, Tennessee; Roll: M653_1246; Page: 216; Image: 232; Family History Library Film: 805246
  3. "Rock City Brauerei". Tennessee Staatszeitung. April 1, 1866. p. 4 – via Newspapers.com. open access
  4. "Athletic" (PDF). Thirty Ninth Annual Catalogue of the Officers, Faculty and Students of the University of Notre Dame: 77.
  5. "Oliver D. Kuhn". The Guardian. June 16, 1923. p. 5.
  6. "Ferdinand Kuhn, Merchant, K. C. Organizer, Dies". The Tennessean. March 18, 1930. p. 1. Retrieved November 9, 2017 – via Newspapers.com. open access
  7. Ind. University of Notre Dame (1883). Catalogue.
  8. "Prize Medals" (PDF). Notre Dame Scholastic. 18 (43): 686. July 1, 1885.
  9. "Gone After A Kentucky Bride". The Tennessean. April 14, 1885. p. 4 – via Newspapers.com. open access
  10. "Biographies". USGenWeb Archives. 13 November 2005. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
  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. open access
  14. "A Knight With A Rare Record". The Guardian. October 9, 1915. p. 22.
  15. "Deaths". The Notre Dame Alumnus: 245. April 1930.
  16. Talley, Rhea (December 14, 1952). "A Man From Here Satirizes His Profession". Courier-Journal. p. 74.
  17. Mrs. William W. Geraldton (1911). Social Directory, Nashville Tennessee. p. 50.
  18. "University Catholic - Contact Us". Retrieved January 31, 2015.
  19. "Scholastic Vol. 17 Issue 9" (PDF). archives.nd.edu. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
  20. "Professor Landreth's Report". Proceedings of the Engineering Association of the South. 16: 38. 1905.
  21. Elijah Embree Hoss (1890). History of Nashville, Tenn. C. Elder. p. 147.
  22. Annual Reports, City of Nashville. Nashville, Tenn. 1903. p. 5.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  23. "[No title]". The Tennessean. January 15, 1904. p. 4. Retrieved February 18, 2017 – via Newspapers.com. open access
  24. "Knights of Columbus Nashville 544". Retrieved 10 May 2023.
  25. "Michael McCormack Dies in Albany, Ga". The Bulletin, official organ of the Catholic Laymen's Association of Georgia. February 25, 1933.
  26. Faith and Fraternalism: The History of the Knights of Columbus 1882-1982 by Christopher J Kauffman; p. 106-107.
  27. cf. "F. L. Monteverde Succeeds F. E. Kuhn". The Tennessean. p. 2. Retrieved September 20, 2015 – via Newspapers.com. open access
  28. "Knights of Columbus". The Guardian. August 16, 1919. p. 28.
  29. "Brief History of Fort Smith Council K. of C." The Southern Guardian. Vol. 3, no. 48. February 7, 1914.
  30. "Pioneers To Take Two Leading Parts". The Southern Guardian. Vol. 4, no. 3. March 28, 1914.
  31. "Brief History of A Grand Order". p. 33.
  32. "Former Masters" (PDF). Retrieved February 26, 2015.
  33. "Big Fourth Degree Exemplification in Memphis Tomorrow". The Southern Guardian. Vol. 4, no. 35. November 7, 1914.
  34. "Ferd Kuhn Shows The Proper Spirit". The Southern Guardian. Vol. 4, no. 14. July 18, 1914.
  35. "Frederick E. Kuhn [sic]" (PDF). The New York Sun. March 18, 1930. p. 27.
  36. "FERDINAND EMERY KUHN.; President of the Nashville Baseball Team Dies at 69". The New York Times. March 18, 1930.
  37. "Knights of Columbus St. William's Council 6321 on Facebook". Facebook. Archived from the original on 2022-04-27.
  38. "What The Retailers Are Doing". Shoe Retailer and Boots and Shoes Weekly. 49: 61. 1904.
  39. John A. Simpson (2007). The Greatest Game Ever Played In Dixie. McFarland. pp. 32, 180. ISBN 978-0786430505.
  40. William Waller (1972). Nashville, 1900-1910. Vanderbilt University Press. ISBN 9780826511652.
  41. Curtis, Georgina Pell; Elder, Benedict (1911). The American Catholic Who's Who. Vol. 1. p. 342.
  42. "No Shoes On Approval". Shoe Retailer and Boots and Shoes Weekly: 39. July 28, 1906.
  43. The Notre Dame Scholastic (PDF). Vol. 54. October 2, 1920. p. 29.
  44. "Kuhn is Given Beautiful Trophy". Nashville Banner. September 2, 1921. p. 3.
  45. Spalding's Official Base Ball Guide. 1907. pp. 164, 308.
  46. Grantland Rice (January 22, 1908). "In Sulphur Dell". The Tennessean. p. 8. Retrieved January 9, 2016 – via Newspapers.com. open access
  47. Hamilton Love (October 10, 1908). "South Sayings" (PDF). Sporting Life: 16.
  48. "Kuhn Score Board Stunt Being Adopted; Will Be Used Here". The Montgomery Times. March 9, 1909. p. 8. Retrieved November 19, 2017 – via Newspapers.com. open access
  49. "W. G. Hirsig President Nashville B. B. Club". The Tennessean. December 13, 1910. p. 9. Retrieved October 1, 2015 – via Newspapers.com. open access
  50. "Nashville to "Can" Kuhn and Abolish "Tight-Wad" Regime". Atlanta Georgian. November 29, 1910. p. 11. Retrieved January 3, 2018.
  51. John A. Simpson (17 October 2013). Hub Perdue: Clown Prince of the Mound. McFarland. p. 195. ISBN 9781476602745.
  52. The American elite and sociologist blue book, progressive Americans, prominent in the social, industrial and financial world. Chicago, American Blue Book Publishers. 1922. pp. 315–316.
  53. "Tennessee". JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association. 57: 1773. 1911. doi:10.1001/jama.1911.04260110271018.
  54. "Four Red Cross Seal Commissions". Journal of the Outdoor Life. 8: 306. 1911.
  55. Journal of the Outdoor Life, Volume 12
  56. A Tuberculosis Directory Containing a List of Institutions, Associations and Other Agencies Dealing with Tuberculosis in the United States and Canada. 1916. p. 289.
  57. American Elite and Sociologist Bluebook. American Blue Book Publishers. 1922. p. 315.
  58. "Ferdinand Kuhn's Death Deplored". Nashville Banner. April 4, 1930. p. 3.
  59. A Compilation of the Tennessee Statutes of a General Public Nature, in Force on the First Day of January, 1917
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