James W. Faulkner - Early Life

Early Life

James “Jim” Faulkner was born in 1863 to Irish immigrants John Faulkner and Ellen O'Connell (from County Cork, Ireland) in Cincinnati. His father operated the Gibson House on the south side of Fountain Square where he was born. He was a philosopher sorts at an early age. While chopping wood with an axe at the age of thirteen, he accidentally severed a finger. The wound was attended to but Faulkner lost the finger. Later in life he told a reporter after he got over the scare he thought "Well I am minus a finger, but nobody is going to make me practice piano for three hours a day!". Faulkner attended parochial elementary schools and graduated from St. Xavier High School in Cincinnati.

Faulkner worked as a telephone operator at the Ninth Street Police Station. He got his first newspaper job at the Cincinnati Times-Star in 1884 although some sources claim he got his start in the newspaper business in 1887. He tutored David Graham Phillips at The Cincinnati Enquirer circa 1888 to 1890.

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