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....
Article
Aiken, D. Wyatt (1828-1887), agricultural editor and congressman
William L. Barney
Article
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....
Article
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 ...
Article
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 ...
Article
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....
Article
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 ...
Article
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 ...
Article
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....
Article
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....
Article
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 ...
Article
Hanson, Alexander Contee (1786-1819), lawyer, newspaper editor, and U.S. representative and senator
Gary L. Browne
Hanson, Alexander Contee (27 February 1786–23 April 1819), lawyer, newspaper editor, and U.S. representative and senator, was born in Annapolis, Maryland, the son of Alexander Contee Hanson, a jurist and legislator, and Rebecca Howard. After graduating from St. John’s College in 1802, he practiced law in Annapolis, married Priscilla Dorsey, the daughter of a prominent planter, in 1805, and established his home, “Belmont,” near Elkridge. The couple probably had six children, three of whom survived until adulthood. In 1808 he founded the ...
Image
Hébert, Felix Edward (1901-1979)
In
Article
Hébert, Felix Edward (1901-1979), journalist and congressman
Michael E. Sabine
Hébert, Felix Edward (12 October 1901–29 December 1979), journalist and congressman, was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, the son of Felix J. Hébert, a trolley car conductor, and Lea Naquin, a schoolteacher. Hébert attended Tulane University (1920–1924, no degree), and throughout high school and college, he covered sports for local newspapers. His journalistic experience resulted in Hébert’s appointment in 1929 as the political editor of the ...
Article
Hitt, Robert Roberts (1834-1906), journalist, congressman, and diplomat
Thomas M. Leonard
Hitt, Robert Roberts (16 January 1834–20 September 1906), journalist, congressman, and diplomat, was born in Urbana, Ohio, the son of Thomas Smith Hitt, a Methodist minister, and Emily John. The family moved to Mount Morris, Illinois, in 1837. Hitt studied at the Methodist Rock River Seminary, which his father helped to establish. In 1855 Hitt graduated from Indiana Asbury University (now DePauw University) and two years later began working as a shorthand reporter in the Chicago court system and for area newspapers. In 1874 he married Sallie Reynolds; they had two sons....
Image
Huck, Winnifred Sprague Mason (1882-1936)
In
Article
Huck, Winnifred Sprague Mason (1882-1936), congresswoman and journalist
Leonard Schlup
Huck, Winnifred Sprague Mason (14 September 1882–24 August 1936), congresswoman and journalist, was born in Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of William Ernest Mason, an attorney, state legislator, and, later, congressman and U.S. senator, and Edith Julia White. After attending public schools in Chicago and Washington, D.C., she graduated from Central High School in the nation’s capital. In 1904 she married Robert Wardlow Huck, a steel company executive. The mother of four children, Winnifred Huck played an active role in Chicago’s social community....
Article
Johnson, Albert (1869-1957), journalist and congressman
Roger Daniels
Johnson, Albert (05 March 1869–17 January 1957), journalist and congressman, was born in Springfield, Illinois, the son of Charles W. Johnson, an attorney, and Anna E. Ogden. He grew up in Hiawatha, Kansas, attending the public schools there and in nearby Atchison. After graduating from high school in 1888 Johnson embarked on a peripatetic career in journalism, working as a cub reporter on the ...
Article
Ludlow, Louis Leon (1873-1950), congressman and journalist
Daniel J. Leab
Ludlow, Louis Leon (24 June 1873–28 November 1950), congressman and journalist, was born in a log cabin on a Fayette County farm, seven miles from Connersville in southeastern Indiana, one of eight children of Henry Ludlow, a farmer, and Isabelle Smiley. He grew up in a hardscrabble rural environment and attended grade school and high school in Connorsville. After his high school graduation in 1892, he began his journalism career as a reporter with the ...
Article
McLemore, Jeff (1857-1929), journalist, state legislator, and congressman
Lewis L. Gould
McLemore, Jeff (13 March 1857–04 March 1929), journalist, state legislator, and congressman, was born Atkins Jefferson McLemore near Spring Hill in Maury County, Tennessee, the son of Robert Anderson McLemore and Mary Howard McEwen, farmers. He had an “aversion to teachers” and recalled that he “never saw the inside of a schoolroom after he was fourteen years of age” ( ...
Article
Murdock, Victor (1871-1945), journalist, congressman, and editor
Francis W. Schruben
Murdock, Victor (18 March 1871–07 July 1945), journalist, congressman, and editor, was born in Burlingame, Kansas, the son of Marshall Mortimer Murdock, an editor and publisher, and Victoria Mayberry. In 1872 Murdock’s father founded the Wichita Eagle. Victor attended public schools and Lewis Academy in Wichita. As a boy, he learned to operate a linetype at the ...
