George Denison Prentice (1802-1870) was a controversial figure in Louisville history. Born in Connecticut, educated at Brown, University Prentice taught school, and studied both law and medicine before embarking on a career in journalism. Henry Clay invited Prentice to Kentucky to promote Clay's bid for the U. S. Presidency. In 1830 Prentice launched the Louisville Journal as a partisan Whig paper, and attacked his political enemies with a sharp pen published in a widely distributed booklet called "Prenticeana.''
An avowed "Know-Nothing," Prentice's anti-Catholic/anti-immigrant rhetoric is said to have contributed to the "Bloody Monday" riots on Election Day, August 6, 1855. That event (See: historical marker at the Cathedral of the Assumption) overshadowed Prentice's personal appeal to calm the rioters. Journalists and editors agree that Prentice's stylistic contributions to their craft have endured, despite his tarnished legacy.
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