Abbott, Joseph Carter (15 July 1825–08 October 1881), senator and journalist, was born in Concord, New Hampshire, the son of Aaron Carter Abbott, a farmer and laborer, and Nancy Badger. After graduating in 1846 from Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, Abbott studied law. He began his practice in Concord in 1852, the year he became editor and proprietor of the ...
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Abbott, Joseph Carter (1825-1881), senator and journalist
Leonard Schlup
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Aiken, D. Wyatt (1828-1887), agricultural editor and congressman
William L. Barney
Aiken, D. Wyatt (17 March 1828–06 April 1887), agricultural editor and congressman, was born David Wyatt Aiken in Winnsboro, South Carolina, the son of David Aiken, a merchant and planter, and Nancy Kerr. Descended from an Irish family that had prospered in the United States, Aiken received an excellent education at Mount Zion Institute in his hometown and, as was common for the sons of planters, attended South Carolina College. He graduated in 1849 and taught mathematics for two years at Mount Zion. After traveling to Europe in 1851, he returned home to marry Mattie Gaillard in 1852. Before her death in 1855, they had two children. Aiken married Virginia Carolina Smith in 1857; they had eleven children. The following year he purchased a plantation from the estate of Virginia’s father in Cokesbury, Abbeville District. As the proprietor of “Coronaca” plantation, he became involved in the agricultural reform movement and in states’ rights politics. He fervently believed that “agriculture climbs high in the scale of science: it develops thought, matures judgment, and requires for the execution, untiring energy, perseverance, and industry.” He was instrumental in the formation of the Abbeville Agricultural Society and was a member of its executive committee. In 1858 he attended the Southern Commercial Convention in Montgomery, Alabama, a meeting that quickly became a forum for disunionist politics....
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Anthony, Henry Bowen (1815-1884), newspaper editor and U.S. senator
William M. Ferraro
Anthony, Henry Bowen (01 April 1815–02 September 1884), newspaper editor and U.S. senator, was born in Coventry, Rhode Island, the son of William Anthony, a cotton manufacturer, and Mary Kinnicutt Greene. Preparatory school in Providence preceded Anthony’s entrance into Brown University. He graduated in 1833, fifth in a class of twenty. His lifelong regard for literature and Brown University culminated in the bequest of an exceptional collection of poetry volumes....
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Barksdale, Ethelbert (1824-1893), editor and U.S. and Confederate congressman
John Ray Skates
Barksdale, Ethelbert (04 January 1824–17 February 1893), editor and U.S. and Confederate congressman, was born in Smyrna, Rutherford County, Tennessee, the son of William Barksdale and Nancy Lester. Ethelbert Barksdale was the younger brother of William Barksdale (1821–1863), commanding general of the Mississippi brigade in the Army of Northern Virginia, who was killed at the battle of Gettysburg. Ethelbert Barksdale moved to Mississippi while still in his teens and soon followed his brother William into journalism and Democratic politics. He married Alice Harris in 1843. Whether they had any children is unknown....
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Bartholdt, Richard (1855-1932), congressman and newspaper editor
Ernest C. Bolt
Bartholdt, Richard (02 November 1855–19 March 1932), congressman and newspaper editor, was born in Schleiz, Thuringia, Germany, the son of Gottlob Bartholdt, a liberal forty-eighter (i.e., a supporter of the liberal revolutions in the German states in 1848), and Carolina Louise Wagner. Following early education in the Schleiz Gymnasium, he immigrated in 1872 to Brooklyn, New York, and gained U.S. citizenship. He returned to Germany to study law in 1877–1878. He worked as a typesetter and printer (Brooklyn, Philadelphia, and St. Louis), reporter for the ...
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Borland, Solon (1811-1864)
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Solon Borland. Daguerreotype from the studio of Mathew B. Brady. Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-USZ62-109949).
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Borland, Solon (1811-1864), editor, U.S. senator, and diplomat
James M. Woods
Borland, Solon (08 August 1811–15 December 1864), editor, U.S. senator, and diplomat, was born in Suffolk, Virginia, the son of Thomas Wood Borland, a physician, and Harriet Godwin. His father was politically active, serving as a member of the Virginia House of Delegates from Nansemond County between 1815 and 1820. In 1831 Borland married Huldah Wright, with whom he had two children. Following in the medical footsteps of his father, he attended the University of Pennsylvania Medical School during the academic year of 1833–1834. He then practiced medicine in Suffolk, but upon the death of his wife in 1836 Borland moved to Memphis, Tennessee. There he entered into a medical career with his brother, who was also a physician. In 1839 Borland married Eliza Hart, who died just a few months later. They had no children. By this time he had forsaken pills for politics, becoming the founding editor of the ...
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Brentano, Lorenz (1813-1891), German political leader, journalist, and congressman
Patrick G. Williams
Brentano, Lorenz (04 November 1813–17 September 1891), German political leader, journalist, and congressman, was born in Mannheim, in the German state of Baden, the son of Peter Paul Bartholomaeus Brentano, a wholesale merchant, and Helene Haeger. He studied law at universities in Heidelberg, Freiburg, and Giessen and afterward practiced in Rastatt and Bruchsal before returning to Mannheim. In 1837 Brentano married Caroline Lentz; the fate of this union is unclear, but Brentano married a second time in later life. Elected to Baden’s chamber of deputies in 1845, Brentano fell in with a liberal faction clustered around ...
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Bristow, Joseph Little (1861-1944), newspaper publisher and U.S. senator
Virgil W. Dean
Bristow, Joseph Little (22 July 1861–14 July 1944), newspaper publisher and U.S. senator, was born in Wolfe County, Kentucky, the son of William Bristow, a farmer and Methodist circuit rider, and Savannah Little. After his mother’s death in 1868, Bristow lived with his grandparents, but in 1873 he was reunited with his father, who had been transferred by the denomination to Fredonia, Wilson County, Kansas. The younger Bristow returned to Kentucky at the age of fourteen to live with his grandfather and uncle. There he met Margaret Hester Hendrix. The couple married in 1879 and soon removed to Elk County, Kansas, where they purchased an eighty-acre farm and set up house in a one-room log cabin....
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Brown, Clarence J. (1895-1965), U.S. representative and publisher
Philip H. Viles Jr.
Brown, Clarence J. (14 July 1895–23 August 1965), U.S. representative and publisher, was born in West Union, Ohio, the son of Owen Brown, a schoolteacher, and Ellen Barerre McCoppin. Brown was descended from early Ohio settlers, and his paternal grandfather, Jehu Brown, drove the first horse car over the streets of Cincinnati. Brown’s birth year is sometimes given incorrectly as 1893, and his middle name is occasionally given incorrectly as “James” rather than just the initial....
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Bullard, Arthur (1879-1929), writer and government official
James Boylan
Bullard, Arthur (08 December 1879–10 September 1929), writer and government official, was born in St. Joseph, Missouri, the son of Henry Bullard, a prominent Presbyterian minister, and Helen Nelson. After graduating in 1899 from Blair Academy in Blairstown, New Jersey, Bullard enrolled at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York. Two years later his growing social consciousness led him to leave college to join New York City’s burgeoning reform community. In 1903 he became a probation officer for the New York Prison Association and a resident worker at the University Settlement on New York’s Lower East Side....
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Calhoun, William Barron (1796-1865), lawyer, writer, and politician
Sylvia B. Larson
Calhoun, William Barron (29 December 1796–08 November 1865), lawyer, writer, and politician, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Andrew Calhoun, a merchant, and Martha Chamberlain. His father was one of the founders of Boston’s Park Street Church. Calhoun was prepared for college by Harvard graduate William Wells, then he attended Yale, graduating in 1814. While a senior at Yale, Calhoun was one of the editors of a student publication, the ...
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Case, Francis Higbee (1896-1962), journalist and politician
Richard Allan Baker
Case, Francis Higbee (09 December 1896–22 June 1962), journalist and politician, was born in Everly, Iowa, the son of Rev. Herbert L. Case, a Methodist minister, and Mary Ellen Grannis. In 1909 his family moved to Sturgis, in South Dakota’s Black Hills. Entering Dakota Wesleyan University in 1914, he displayed skills as an orator and writer. Upon graduation in 1918, Case enlisted in the Marine Corps and served eight months but saw no service in World War I. Following the war he resumed his studies and in 1920 earned an M.A. degree in history from Northwestern University. While at Northwestern, Case served as assistant editor of the ...
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Copley, Ira Clifton (1864-1947), newspaper publisher, congressman, public utilities executive, and philanthropist
Edward E. Adams
Copley, Ira Clifton (25 October 1864–02 November 1947), newspaper publisher, congressman, public utilities executive, and philanthropist, was born in Copley Township, Knox County, Illinois, the son of Ira Birdsall Copley and Ellen Madeline Whiting, farmers. When Copley was two he was struck with scarlet fever, which left him blind. When he was three, the family moved to Aurora, Illinois, where he received treatment for his eyes. Even with the care of an eye specialist, his complete blindness lasted five years. With the move to Aurora, his father and his mother’s brother assumed ownership of the Aurora Illinois Gas Light Company, the beginning of a large utility company that Ira would one day manage....
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Creel, George Edward (1876-1953)
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George Creel. Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-USZ62-92526).
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Creel, George Edward (1876-1953), journalist and government administrator
Justus D. Doenecke
Creel, George Edward (01 December 1876–02 October 1953), journalist and government administrator, was born in Lafayette County, Missouri, the son of Henry Clay Creel and Virginia Fackler, farmers. He grew up in the Missouri towns of Independence and Odessa, where his mother supported the family by sewing, gardening, and operating a boarding house, because his father was often drunk and unemployed. As a teenager, Creel ran away from home to follow county fairs, then to roam the Southwest. In 1896 he was hired as a cub reporter by the ...
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Daggett, Rollin Mallory (1831-1901), journalist, congressman, minister to Hawaii, and author
Lawrence I. Berkove
Daggett, Rollin Mallory (22 February 1831–12 November 1901), journalist, congressman, minister to Hawaii, and author, was born in Richville, New York, the son of Eunice White and Gardner Daggett, farmers. Daggett was the youngest of seven children, the other six being girls. After his mother’s death in 1833, the family moved to Defiance, Ohio, in 1837. In 1849 Daggett became a printer, learning a trade which endowed him with an education and influenced his later choice of a journalistic career....
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Daniels, Jonathan (1902-1981), journalist, author, and government official
Lisabeth G. Svendsgaard
Daniels, Jonathan (26 April 1902–06 November 1981), journalist, author, and government official, was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, the son of Josephus Daniels, a journalist, and Addie Worth Bagley. Daniels attended public schools in Raleigh until 1913 and then St. Albans School in Washington, D.C., when his father assumed the post of secretary of the navy. In 1921 he received a bachelor of arts degree in English from the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill, where he served as editor of the campus paper and was a classmate of novelist ...
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Farrington, Joseph Rider (1897-1954), newspaperman and delegate to Congress
Rhoda E. A. Hackler
Farrington, Joseph Rider (15 October 1897–19 June 1954), newspaperman and delegate to Congress, was born in Washington, D.C., the son of Wallace Rider Farrington, a newspaper publisher, and Catherine McAlpine Crane. He was brought to Hawaii in 1898 when his father was appointed editor of the Honolulu ...
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Gallagher, William Davis (1808-1894), poet, journalist, and government official
Leigh Johnsen
Gallagher, William Davis (21 August 1808–27 June 1894), poet, journalist, and government official, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Bernard Gallagher, apparently a printer or journalist, and Abigail Davis. At the age of eight Gallagher headed west with his three brothers and mother (a widow since 1814) and settled in Mount Pleasant, Ohio. There he attended the Lancastrian Seminary and learned the printing trade through an apprenticeship....
