JOSEPH S. COTTER, SR.
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TI was born in Nelson County, Ky., February 2nd, 1861,on a farm owned by my great grandfather, Daniel Stapp,a tanner. In 1829 he bought himself and a part of hismaster’s farm. Later he bought his daughter, Lucinda,my mother’s mother. _ Martha, my mother, was born on a nearby farm ownedby her English-Indian father, Fleming Vaughan. Priorto my birth she lived in Bardstown and was a servant at“My Old Kentucky Home.” “She took me to Bardstownsoon after my birth and brought me to Louisville in myfourth week, and here I have lived ever since. I attended a private school and could read before myfourth year. Conditions were such that my attendance atschool was very irregular. I quit school in my eighthyear, having completed the third grade, and did not returnuntil my twenty-second year. During this time I picked up rags in the streets andworked in tobacco factories and brick-yards. My nine-teenth year found me a distiller in one of the largestdistilleries in Kentucky. A turn of fortune made me ateamster. I hauled cotton and tobacco and made up mymind to enter the prize ring. Another turn of fortuneput me into a Louisville public night school. Here JI JOSEPH 8. COTTER, SR. ll began in the third grade where I left off in my eighthyear. At the end of two school sessions of five months eachI was promoted to the high school. I keep this diplomaunder lock and key, for it is the only one I have everreceived. The man who turned my attention from prize-fighting tonight school and then to school teaching, and who dis-covered my knack for writing verses, was Dr. W. T.Peyton of Louisville. He was my greatest benefactor. My talent of whatever kind comes from Martha, mymother. She was poet, story-teller, dramatist and musi-cian. My published works are: A Rhyming, Links ofFriendship, Caleb, the Degenerate, a poetic drama, A WhiteSong And A Black One and Negro Tales. My unpub-lished works are: Life’s Dawn And Dusk, poems, CaesarDriftwood and Other One Act Plays and My Mother AndHer Family. THE TRAGEDY OF PETE /} THERE was a man Whose name was Pete,And he was a buck
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