Henry Justin Allen. Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-USZ62-96805).
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Allen, Henry Justin (1869-1950)
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Allen, Henry Justin (1869-1950), politician and newspaper editor
Patrick G. O’Brien
Allen, Henry Justin (11 September 1869–17 January 1950), politician and newspaper editor, was born in Pittsfield, Pennsylvania, the son of John Allen, a farmer, and Rebecca Goodwin. In 1870 the Allens settled on a farm in Clay County, Kansas, which they lost in 1879. The family relocated in Osage County, Kansas, where Allen graduated from Burlingame High School. Working as a barber to attend Baker University in Baldwin City, Kansas, he excelled at forensics, which led to his first newspaper job and forecast his later stature as one of America’s most popular public speakers. While at Baker, he met Elsie Jane Nuzman, and they were married in 1892. Only one of their four children survived to adulthood....
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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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Brough, John (1811-1865), journalist and governor of Ohio
Frederick J. Blue
Brough, John (17 September 1811–29 August 1865), journalist and governor of Ohio, was born in Marietta, Ohio, the son of John Brough, a tavern keeper, and Jane Garnet. Born in the building that housed both the county courthouse and his father’s tavern, Brough was orphaned at age eleven. Provided a home by a local editor, he soon became a printer’s apprentice. In 1830 he briefly attended Ohio University and the next year organized a Democratic newspaper in Marietta, the ...
Article
Brownlow, William Gannaway (1805-1877), minister, newspaper editor, and governor of Tennessee
Jonathan M. Atkins
Brownlow, William Gannaway (29 August 1805–29 April 1877), minister, newspaper editor, and governor of Tennessee, was born in Wytheville, Virginia, the son of Joseph A. Brownlow and Catherine Gannaway, farmers. Born into a moderately comfortable, slaveholding family, Brownlow was taken in by a maternal uncle after both parents died in 1816. From ages eleven through eighteen he worked on his uncle’s farm and attended the local common schools when possible, although most of his education came through his own private reading. In 1823 he moved to Abingdon, Virginia, to learn the carpentry trade from another uncle. His work as a carpenter ended abruptly when he experienced a religious conversion at a Methodist camp meeting in nearby Sulphur Springs in 1825. Following this meeting, he completed his current carpentry jobs and moved back to Wytheville to study for the ministry with William Horne. After a year of training, he was licensed for the ministry by the church’s Holston Conference and began a career as an itinerant preacher....
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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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Cox, James Middleton (31 March 1870–15 July 1957)
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James M. Cox [left to right] Franklin D. Roosevelt and James M. Cox, c. 1920. Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-USZ62-96173).
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Cox, James Middleton (31 March 1870–15 July 1957), newspaper publisher and politician
James Cebula
Cox, James Middleton (31 March 1870–15 July 1957), newspaper publisher and politician, was born in Jacksonburg, Ohio, the son of Eliza Andrews and Gilbert Cox, farmers. He attended a one-room school until he was sixteen. His parents divorced, and in 1886 Cox moved to nearby Middletown to live with his mother. Cox’s brother-in-law John Q. Baker, who published the ...
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Faubus, Orval (07 January 1910–14 December 1994)
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Orval Faubus [left to right, foreground] President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Orval Faubus, after a meeting, 1957. Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-USZ62-107805).
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Faubus, Orval (07 January 1910–14 December 1994), publisher and governor of Arkansas
James H. Willbanks
Faubus, Orval (07 January 1910–14 December 1994), publisher and governor of Arkansas, was born Orval Eugene Faubus in Combs, Arkansas, the son of John Samuel Faubus and Addie Joslen, poor farmers. The elder Faubus was a follower of the Socialist party presidential nominee ...
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Hall, Abraham Oakey (1826-1898)
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A. Oakey Hall. Daguerreotype from the studio of Mathew B. Brady. Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-USZ62-109931).
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Hall, Abraham Oakey (1826-1898), politician and journalist
Phyllis F. Field
Hall, Abraham Oakey (26 July 1826–07 October 1898), politician and journalist, was born in Albany, New York, the son of Morgan James Hall, a wholesale merchant whose business was in New Orleans, and Elsie Lansing Oakey. In 1830 his father died of yellow fever and his mother moved to New York City, where she ran a boardinghouse. Relatives helped his mother finance his education, and Oakey (as he preferred to be called) graduated from New York University in 1844. He attended Harvard Law School for one term but decided that study in a law office would allow him to practice law sooner. Living with an uncle in New Orleans, he studied under noted states’ rights Democrats ...
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Hill, Isaac (1788-1851), editor and politician
Donald B. Cole
Hill, Isaac (06 April 1788–22 March 1851), editor and politician, was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the son of Isaac Hill and Hannah Russell, farmers. Hill had a difficult childhood because his family was poor, his father became insane, and he himself was left permanently lame by an early accident. In 1798 his mother moved the family to Ashburnham on the New Hampshire border, where Hill received a few months of formal schooling before being apprenticed in 1802 to the publisher of the ...
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Hobby, William Pettus (26 March 1878–07 June 1964), newspaper publisher and governor
Lewis L. Gould
Hobby, William Pettus (26 March 1878–07 June 1964), newspaper publisher and governor, was born in Moscow, Texas, the son of Edwin E. Hobby, a state senator and district judge, and Eudora Adeline Pettus. The family lived in Livingston, Texas, until 1893 when they moved to Houston. Hobby quit school in 1895 to work as a circulation clerk for the ...
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Holden, William Woods (1818-1892), editor and political leader
William C. Harris
Holden, William Woods (24 November 1818–02 March 1892), editor and political leader, was born near Hillsboro, North Carolina, the illegitimate son of Thomas Holden, a relatively prosperous mill owner, and Priscilla Woods. When he was two or three years old, he went to live with his father. He briefly attended a local “field school,” and at age nine or ten he became a printer’s apprentice in the office of the ...
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Johnson, John Albert (1861-1909), newspaper editor and governor of Minnesota
William E. Lass
Johnson, John Albert (28 July 1861–21 September 1909), newspaper editor and governor of Minnesota, was born in a log cabin near St. Peter on Minnesota’s agricultural frontier, the son of Swedish immigrant parents Gustav Johnson, a farmer and blacksmith, and Caroline Christine Hedén. Because of his father’s alcoholism and shiftlessness after the family had moved into the town of St. Peter, his mother supported the family by taking in washing. Johnson and his older brother Edward assisted her by delivering laundry to customers. Years later, after he had entered politics, his humble beginnings and youthful poverty worked to his advantage; his boosters freely likened his past to that of ...
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Martin, John Alexander (1839-1889), journalist, army officer, and governor of Kansas
Robert S. La Forte
Martin, John Alexander (10 March 1839–02 October 1889), journalist, army officer, and governor of Kansas, was born in Brownsville, Pennsylvania, the son of James Martin, a justice of the peace, boardinghouse keeper, and postmaster, and Jane Montgomery Crawford. He attended public school in Brownsville and at age fifteen was apprenticed as a printer on the town newspaper, the ...
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Maxwell, William (1766 or 1767?–10 September 1809), pioneer printer, newspaper editor, and office holder
Manon Théroux
Maxwell, William (1766 or 1767?–10 September 1809), pioneer printer, newspaper editor, and office holder, was long thought, based on statements made by his descendants, to have been born about 1755 in New York or New Jersey, the son of William Maxwell, an immigrant from Scotland. Current scholarship infers a probable birth date of 1766 or 1767 from a contemporary newspaper obituary and suggests several additional mid-Atlantic states (Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland) as possible places of origin. Little is known of Maxwell’s early life, including his mother’s identity. Although he is reputed to have served as a revolutionary war soldier, his participation has not been confirmed by extant military records....
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McClellan, George Brinton (1865-1940), educator, author, and mayor of New York City
Dennis Adams
McClellan, George Brinton (23 November 1865–30 November 1940), educator, author, and mayor of New York City, was born in Dresden, Saxony, the son of Civil War general George Brinton McClellan and Mary Ellen Marcy. McClellan attended St. John’s Boarding School in Sing Sing, New York. He then entered Princeton University in 1882. Upon graduating with an A.B. in 1886, he spent two years traveling in Europe. Afterward, he reported for New York daily newspapers, including the ...
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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” ( ...
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