Ferdinand E. Kuhn

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.1860 United States Federal Census. Census Place: District 13, Davidson, Tennessee; Roll: M653_1246; Page: 216; Image: 232; Family History Library Film: 805246{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/20884406/tennessee_staatszeitung/|work=Tennessee Staatszeitung|page=4|date=April 1, 1866|via=Newspapers.com|title=Rock City Brauerei}} {{Open access}}

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.{{cite journal|url=http://archives.nd.edu/bulletin/AC_39.pdf|page=77|title=Athletic|journal=Thirty Ninth Annual Catalogue of the Officers, Faculty and Students of the University of Notre Dame}}{{Cite news|url = http://arc.stparchive.com/Archive/ARC/ARC06161923p05.php|title = Oliver D. Kuhn|date = June 16, 1923|work = The Guardian|page = 5 }}{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/14787200/kuhn_ferdinand_e_jr_03181930_death/|date=March 18, 1930|page=1|title=Ferdinand Kuhn, Merchant, K. C. Organizer, Dies|access-date=November 9, 2017|via=Newspapers.com|work=The Tennessean}} {{Open access}} He studied chemistry, physics, and surveying, graduating in 1883 with a BSc.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/nashville-banner/142254329/|title=Notre Dame College|page=4|date=July 20, 1882|work=Nashville Banner|via=Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IJvOAAAAMAAJ&q=Ferdinand+E.+Kuhn+nashville&pg=PA80|title=Catalogue|author=Ind. University of Notre Dame|date=1883}}{{efn|At Notre Dame, Kuhn was a classmate of aeronautical expert Albert Francis Zahm.}} 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.{{cite journal|url=http://archives.nd.edu/Scholastic/VOL_0018/VOL_0018_ISSUE_0043.pdf|journal=Notre Dame Scholastic|date=July 1, 1885|volume=18|number=43|title=Prize Medals|page=686}}

Kuhn was married to Katherine "Kate" Wall on April 15, 1885, in her hometown of Springfield, Kentucky.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4607336/the_tennessean/|title=Gone After A Kentucky Bride|date=April 14, 1885|page=4|work=The Tennessean|via=Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}} The marriage was performed by Joseph A. Hogarty, whose father assisted with the Henry Clay monument in Lexington.{{cite web | website=USGenWeb Archives|title=Biographies

| date=13 November 2005 | url=http://files.usgwarchives.net/ky/washington/bios/hogarty61bs.txt | access-date=10 May 2023}} 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.[https://books.google.com/books?id=4IDdaF-3HBsC&dq=Frank%20Wall%20Pittsburgh&pg=PA505 Cushing, Thomas. A Genealogical and Biographical History of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.] Baltimore: Genealogical Pub., 1975; p. 505"Frank Wall Has A Few Words To Say About The Value Of Poor Farm Land." Pittsburg Dispatch 8 Dec. 1891 p. 2{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/1906162/the_courierjournal/|title=[No title]|work=The Courier-Journal|date=July 30, 1896|page=4|via=Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}}

They had nine children; six boys and three girls. Kuhn was the father of prominent Vanderbilt quarterback Doc Kuhn{{cite journal|journal=The Notre Dame Alumnus|page=245| date=April 1930 |title=Deaths}} and, through another son, violinist Casper, the grandfather of NBC radio and television announcer Dick Dudley. Kuhn named yet another son Richard Dudley after Richard Houston Dudley.{{Cite news |last=Talley |first=Rhea |date=December 14, 1952 |title=A Man From Here Satirizes His Profession |pages=74 |work=Courier-Journal |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/15689166/the_courierjournal/}}

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.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NBNUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA50|title=Social Directory, Nashville Tennessee|author=Mrs. William W. Geraldton|page=50|year=1911}}{{cite web|url=http://universitycatholic.org/contact-us|title=University Catholic - Contact Us|access-date=January 31, 2015}} Kuhn was an active member of the Cathedral of the Incarnation. His mother had also attended the Church of the Assumption.

Kuhn's first job out of college was as the private secretary to Mayor Claiborne Hooper Phillips. His brother Casper was city auditor.{{cite web |url=https://archives.nd.edu/Scholastic/VOL_0017/VOL_0017_ISSUE_0009.pdf|title=Scholastic Vol. 17 Issue 9|website=archives.nd.edu

|access-date=10 May 2023}} Ferdinand Kuhn was then a secretary and city recorder for the Board of Public Works and Affairs from 1884 until 1903.{{cite journal|journal=Proceedings of the Engineering Association of the South|page=38|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y64YAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA38|volume=16|title=Professor Landreth's Report|year=1905}}{{cite book|page=[https://archive.org/details/historyofnashvil00wool_0/page/n156 147]|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofnashvil00wool_0|title=History of Nashville, Tenn.|publisher=C. Elder|author=Elijah Embree Hoss|year=1890}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s280AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA5|page=5|title=Annual Reports, City of Nashville|year=1903|location=Nashville, Tenn.}} Upon his resignation he was dubbed "beyond question the most capable man that (sic) ever served the Board".{{cite news|title=[No title]|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/8988714/the_tennessean/|work=The Tennessean|date=January 15, 1904|page=4|access-date=February 18, 2017|via=Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}}

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.{{cite news|url=http://arc.stparchive.com/Archive/ARC/ARC10091915p22.php|title=A Knight With A Rare Record|work=The Guardian|date=October 9, 1915|page=22}} The other four were: Messrs. H. J. Grimes, Will J. Varley, William Smith, and Michael M. McCormack.{{Cite web|url=http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~tnmcmin2/knights_of_columbus_nashville_544.html|title=Knights of Columbus Nashville 544|accessdate=10 May 2023}}{{cite news|url=http://scr.stparchive.com/Archive/SCR/SCR02251933p10.php|title=Michael McCormack Dies in Albany, Ga.|date=February 25, 1933|work=The Bulletin, official organ of the Catholic Laymen's Association of Georgia}}

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'.Faith and Fraternalism: The History of the Knights of Columbus 1882-1982 by Christopher J Kauffman; p. 106-107.

He was appointed by Supreme Knight Edward L. Hearn as the first Territorial Deputy of Tennessee,cf. {{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3257700/the_tennessean/|work=The Tennessean|page=2|title=F. L. Monteverde Succeeds F. E. Kuhn|access-date=September 20, 2015|via=Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}} 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{{cite news|url=http://arc.stparchive.com/Archive/ARC/ARC08161919p26.php|title=Knights of Columbus|page=28|work=The Guardian|date=August 16, 1919}} and Fort Smith in Arkansas.{{cite news|work=The Southern Guardian|title=Brief History of Fort Smith Council K. of C.|url=http://arc.stparchive.com/Archive/ARC/ARC02071914p09.php|date=February 7, 1914|number=48|volume=3}}{{cite news|url=http://arc.stparchive.com/Archive/ARC/ARC03281914p01.php|title=Pioneers To Take Two Leading Parts|work=The Southern Guardian|number=3|volume=4|date=March 28, 1914}}{{cite news|url=http://arc.stparchive.com/Archive/ARC/ARC08101912p33.php|title=Brief History of A Grand Order|page=33}} He was once Master of the Fourth Degree for Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas,{{cite web|url=http://www.kofc-ms.org/vicksburg/masters.pdf|title=Former Masters|access-date=February 26, 2015}} Later he remained Master of the Fourth Degree for Tennessee.{{cite news|work=The Southern Guardian|number=35|date=November 7, 1914|volume=4|title=Big Fourth Degree Exemplification in Memphis Tomorrow}}{{cite news|work=The Southern Guardian|date=July 18, 1914|number=14|volume=4|title=Ferd Kuhn Shows The Proper Spirit|url=http://arc.stparchive.com/Archive/ARC/ARC07181914p01.php}} He is known as the "Father of the Knights of Columbus in the South."{{cite news|url=http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%2018/New%20York%20NY%20Sun/New%20York%20NY%20Sun%201930/New%20York%20NY%20Sun%201930%20-%202063.pdf|title=Frederick E. Kuhn [sic]|work=The New York Sun|date=March 18, 1930|page=27}}{{cite news|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9C0CEEDD1139E03ABC4052DFB566838B629EDE|newspaper=The New York Times|title=FERDINAND EMERY KUHN.; President of the Nashville Baseball Team Dies at 69|date=March 18, 1930}}

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.{{cite web | url-access=limited |archive-url = https://ghostarchive.org/iarchive/facebook/511499392359415/1407768442732501 |archive-date = 2022-04-27| url = https://www.facebook.com/Kofccouncil6321/posts/d41d8cd9/1407768442732501/ |title = Knights of Columbus St. William's Council 6321 on Facebook |website=Facebook}}{{cbignore}}{{User-generated source|certain=yes|date=March 2022}} In 1920 Kuhn was Grand Knight of Nashville Council 544.

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Kuhn was president and treasurer of the Kuhn, Cooper, Geary & Company shoe store, founded in 1903 with Ed P. Cooper and P. J. Geary.{{Cite journal|journal = Shoe Retailer and Boots and Shoes Weekly|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=htY-AQAAMAAJ&q=Kuhn+P+J+Geary&pg=RA2-PA61|year = 1904|title=What The Retailers Are Doing|pages = 61|volume = 49}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7-kTAAAAYAAJ&q=In+1903+a+new+retail+shoe+store+%E2%80%94+Kuhn-Cooper+%26+Geary+%E2%80%94+opened+for+business+at+217+North+Summer+Street|title=Nashville, 1900-1910|year=1972|author=William Waller|publisher=Vanderbilt University Press |isbn=9780826511652}} The store was located on North Summer Street (Fifth Avenue North), Nashville.

It was once the largest retail shoe store in the South,{{cite book|volume=1|title=The American Catholic Who's Who|year=1911|page=342|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J6wNAQAAIAAJ&q=Kuhn+Cooper+Geary|last1=Curtis|first1=Georgina Pell|last2=Elder|first2=Benedict}} and earned a reputation as the premiere footwear store in downtown Nashville. 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.

Kuhn was the president of the Retail Shoe Dealers' Association in 1906,{{cite journal|journal=Shoe Retailer and Boots and Shoes Weekly|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7tw-AQAAMAAJ&pg=RA3-PA39|page=39|date=July 28, 1906|title=No Shoes On Approval}} and of the Retail Credit Men's Association in 1920.{{cite book|page=29|title=The Notre Dame Scholastic|url=http://www.archives.nd.edu/Scholastic/VOL_0054/VOL_0054_ISSUE_0002.pdf|volume=54|number=2|date=October 2, 1920}} In 1921 he was awarded a trophy for his work in gaining members as chairman in Tennessee for the Retail Credit Men's Association.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/89157803/nashville-banner/|title=Kuhn is Given Beautiful Trophy|date=September 2, 1921|page=3|work=Nashville Banner}}

Kuhn was the president of the Nashville Vols baseball club from 1908 to 1910,{{cite book|title=Spalding's Official Base Ball Guide|pages=164; 308|year=1907|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E6gpAAAAYAAJ}} including the 1908 Southern Association championship team.{{cite book|title=The Greatest Game Ever Played In Dixie|author= John A. Simpson|publisher=McFarland|date=2007|pages = 32, 180|isbn=978-0786430505}}

File:1908NashvilleVols2.jpg

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. He went on a trip to Ponce de Leon Park in Atlanta to observe a modern park and plan renovations.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3956517/the_tennessean/|work=The Tennessean|date=January 22, 1908|page=8|access-date=January 9, 2016|title=In Sulphur Dell|author=Grantland Rice|author-link=Grantland Rice|via=Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}}

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".

File:SouthernBaseballGuys.jpg (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."{{cite journal|title=South Sayings|journal=Sporting Life|page=16|date=October 10, 1908|author=Hamilton Love|author-link=Hamilton Love|url=http://library.la84.org/SportsLibrary/SportingLife/1908/VOL_52_NO_05/SL5205016.pdf}}

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.

Kuhn also invented a kind of electric scoreboard.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/15213250/the_montgomery_times/|date=March 9, 1909|page=8|work=The Montgomery Times|title=Kuhn Score Board Stunt Being Adopted; Will Be Used Here|access-date=November 19, 2017|via=Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}} 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.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3331730/the_tennessean/|work=The Tennessean|title=W. G. Hirsig President Nashville B. B. Club|date=December 13, 1910|page=9|access-date=October 1, 2015|via=Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}} Kuhn was always careful with the team's money, and one newspaper called it the end of the "tightwad" regime.{{cite news|url=http://gahistoricnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu/lccn/sn89053728/1910-11-29/ed-1/seq-11/print/image_616x817_from_0,0_to_4035,5351/|title=Nashville to "Can" Kuhn and Abolish "Tight-Wad" Regime|work=Atlanta Georgian|page=11|date=November 29, 1910|access-date=January 3, 2018}}

Hub Perdue, former pitcher for the 1908 Nashville Volunteers, worked briefly at Kuhn's shoe store in 1921.{{cite book |author=John A. Simpson |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dfXaAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA195 |title=Hub Perdue: Clown Prince of the Mound |date=17 October 2013 |isbn=9781476602745 |page=195| publisher=McFarland }}

He was once president of Tennessee's state Anti-Tuberculosis League,{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/stream/americanelitesoc00herrrich#page/314/mode/2up|pages=315–316|title=The American elite and sociologist blue book, progressive Americans, prominent in the social, industrial and financial world|year=1922|publisher=Chicago, American Blue Book Publishers}}{{cite journal|journal=JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association|volume=57|page=1773|title=Tennessee|year=1911|doi=10.1001/jama.1911.04260110271018|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LUgcAQAAMAAJ&q=%22F.+E.+Kuhn%22+nashville&pg=PA1773|url-access=subscription}}{{cite journal|journal=Journal of the Outdoor Life|volume=8|page=306|title=Four Red Cross Seal Commissions|year=1911|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7PABAAAAYAAJ&q=%22f.+e.+kuhn%22+nashville&pg=PA306}} established in 1906.[https://books.google.com/books?id=fPEBAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA80 Journal of the Outdoor Life, Volume 12]{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9-4RAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA289|page=289|title=A Tuberculosis Directory Containing a List of Institutions, Associations and Other Agencies Dealing with Tuberculosis in the United States and Canada |year=1916}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Db09AQAAMAAJ&q=kuhn+cooper+geary&pg=PA315|title=American Elite and Sociologist Bluebook|page=315|date=1922|publisher=American Blue Book Publishers}} He was also on the Board of Directors of the Tennessee Association for the Relief of Ex-Convicts, established in 1917.{{efn|Luke Lea and James G. Stahlman served on the Board in the next term.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/89156021/nashville-banner/|title=Ferdinand Kuhn's Death Deplored|date=April 4, 1930|page=3|work=Nashville Banner}}[https://books.google.com/books?id=LQ9OAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA1365&lpg=PA1365 A Compilation of the Tennessee Statutes of a General Public Nature, in Force on the First Day of January, 1917]}}

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Category:1861 births

Category:1930 deaths

Category:Businesspeople from Nashville, Tennessee

Category:American people of German descent

Category:Private secretaries

Category:Baseball people

Category:Catholics from Tennessee

Category:State Deputies of the Knights of Columbus