Belo, Alfred Horatio (27 May 1839–19 April 1901), Confederate soldier and newspaper manager-publisher, was born in Salem, North Carolina, the son of Frederick Edward Boehlo, a mercantile businessman, and Amanda Fries, both Moravians. (Belo’s ancestors were northern European refugees who had settled in the Piedmont area, where they changed the spelling of the family name to match its English pronunciation.) Belo attended Moravian Boys’ Academy, where for four years he studied Latin, German, and geometry; a year and a half at the Masonic Institute at Germantown; and three years at the school of Dr. Alexander Wilson, a Presbyterian minister and cultural scholar, in Alamance County (N.C.). Instead of attending college, Belo succeeded his ailing father in the management of his general merchandise store, linseed oil mill, iron foundry, and roughly 450-acre farm....
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Belo, Alfred Horatio (1839-1901), Confederate soldier and newspaper manager-publisher
Gene A. Burd
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Birney, William (1819-1907), soldier, journalist, and lawyer
Edward G. Longacre
Birney, William (28 May 1819–14 August 1907), soldier, journalist, and lawyer, was born in Madison County, Alabama, the son of James Gillespie Birney, a lawyer, state legislator, and abolitionist leader, and Agatha McDowell. In 1818 his family had moved to Huntsville, Alabama, and in late 1835 they relocated to New Richmond, Ohio. Birney was educated at four colleges, including Yale University, and graduated from Cincinnati Law School in 1841. He began practicing law in that city and in 1845 married Catherine Hoffman. They would have nine children. For five years thereafter he resided on the Continent and in England. He contributed essays on the arts to English and American newspapers, and he upheld the activist reputation of his family by opposing French troops as a member of a Republican student battalion in Paris. In 1848 he accepted an appointment as professor of English literature at the lycée in Bourges....
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Colton, Walter (1797-1851), clergyman, journalist, and author
Robert L. Gale
Colton, Walter (09 May 1797–22 January 1851), clergyman, journalist, and author, was born in Rutland County, Vermont, the son of Walter Colton, a weaver, and Thankful Cobb. The family soon moved to Georgia, Vermont. Colton was apprenticed to a cabinetmaking uncle in Hartford, Connecticut, where in 1816 he joined the Congregational church. He attended classes at the Hartford Grammar School until 1818, entered Yale College, won a prize for excellence in Latin, and graduated as valedictorian poet in 1822. He studied at the Andover Theological Seminary, graduating in 1825. Later that year he became a Congregationalist evangelist and joined the faculty of the Scientific and Military Academy in Middletown, Connecticut, where he taught moral philosophy and belles-lettres and was chaplain. Publishing essays and poems signed “Bertram” in the Middletown ...
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Duffy, Francis Patrick (1871-1932), Catholic military chaplain, editor, and teacher
Scott Appleby
Duffy, Francis Patrick (02 May 1871–26 June 1932), Catholic military chaplain, editor, and teacher, was born in Cobourg, Ontario, Canada, the son of Irish immigrants Patrick Duffy and Mary Ready. The third of six children who lived to maturity, Duffy received his early Catholic education from the Sisters of St. Joseph but had to leave school at the age of thirteen to work in a mill. At fourteen, however, he was thought to be too frail to work, so he returned to school. Duffy earned a teacher’s certificate from the Cobourg Collegiate Institute in 1888. Feeling a call to the priesthood, he attended St. Michael’s College in Toronto, studying with the Basilian Fathers and graduating with a baccalaureate degree in 1893. In 1894 he accepted a position at St. Francis Xavier College in New York City, where he earned a master’s degree and applied for formal entry into the seminary. Archbishop ...
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Halpine, Charles Graham (1829-1868), journalist and soldier
William Hanchett
Halpine, Charles Graham (20 November 1829–03 August 1868), journalist and soldier, was born near Oldcastle, County Meath, Ireland, the son of Nicholas John Halpin, a clergyman ordained in the Church of Ireland (Episcopal), and Ann Grehan. The scholarly Halpin devoted considerable time to the education of his son, who early demonstrated gifts as a writer of both prose and poetry. By the age of ten, Charles was accomplished in French and Latin, and shortly before his fifteenth birthday he enrolled in his father’s alma mater, Trinity College, Dublin. He left Dublin before graduation and read law at Lincoln’s Inn, London; held a minor political office at Somerset House; and wrote articles and poems for a variety of English newspapers and magazines. In 1849 he married a childhood sweetheart, Margaret G. Milligan. They had seven children. In February 1850, soon after the birth of their first child, he left his wife with her parents and, in search of fame and fortune, joined the exodus of the Irish to the United States. The family was reunited in 1853....
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Harrison, Marguerite (23 October 1878–16 July 1967)
William Benton Whisenhunt
Harrison, Marguerite (23 October 1878–16 July 1967), journalist, spy, world traveler, and writer, was born Marguerite Elton Baker in Baltimore, Maryland, to Elizabeth Elton Livezey and Bernard Baker. Her wealthy family made its fortune in transatlantic shipping, and she spent many summers in Europe, where she enhanced her language skills. Her education was a combination of private tutors and attendance at St. Timothy’s School in Catonsville, Maryland, where she experienced some social awkwardness, but she also learned much about the wider world that would influence the rest of her life. After high school, she attended Radcliffe College for one semester and then in 1901 quickly married Thomas Harrison against her parents’ wishes. In contrast to her family’s high standing and social connections, Thomas came from a family of lesser means and status....
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Hawley, Joseph Roswell (1826-1905), soldier, editor, and politician
Edward G. Longacre
Hawley, Joseph Roswell (31 October 1826–18 March 1905), soldier, editor, and politician, was born in Stewartsville, North Carolina, the son of Francis Hawley, a Baptist minister, and Mary McLeod. Hawley’s father wrote and spoke widely against the sins of affluence and slavery, and when the boy was eleven, his family moved to his father’s native state, Connecticut. Young Hawley was educated there and in New York. In 1847 he graduated from Hamilton College, and during the early 1850s he taught school and embarked on a law career....
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Hawley, Joseph Roswell (1826-1905)
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Hill, Daniel Harvey (1821-1889), soldier, educator, and editor
Malcolm Lester
Hill, Daniel Harvey (12 July 1821–24 September 1889), soldier, educator, and editor, was born at Hill’s Iron Works, York District, South Carolina, the son of Solomon Hill, a farmer, and Nancy Cabeen. Signally influenced by the military and religious traditions of his forebears, Hill was descended from Scotch-Irish and Scottish Presbyterians who had settled in the Carolina upcountry before the American Revolution. Both grandfathers had fought with distinction under General ...
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Howell, Evan Park (1839-1905), newspaper editor, soldier, and public official
Daniel J. Foley
Howell, Evan Park (10 December 1839–06 August 1905), newspaper editor, soldier, and public official, was born in Warsaw, Georgia, the son of Clark Howell, a farmer, and Effiah Jane Park. The family moved to Marthasville—which soon was renamed Atlanta—where Howell grew up. He learned telegraphy, completed a two-year course at Georgia Military Institute in Marietta, studied law in Sandersville, Georgia, and enrolled in Lumpkin Law School (which later became the law department of the University of Georgia) in Athens. He was admitted to the bar in 1859 and returned to Sandersville to practice. Howell married Julia A. Erwin in 1861; they had seven children....
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King, Rufus (1814-1876), soldier, editor, and diplomat
Ethan S. Rafuse
King, Rufus (26 January 1814–13 October 1876), soldier, editor, and diplomat, was born in New York City, the son of Charles King, a merchant and the ninth president of Columbia College, and Eliza Gracie. After attending the preparatory academy of Columbia, Rufus entered the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1829. After graduating fourth in the class of 1833, he was commissioned into the elite corps of engineers but resigned three years later to accept a position as a civil engineer with the New York & Erie Railroad. In 1839 he began a career as a newspaper editor. After two years with the ...
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King, Rufus (1814-1876)
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Kuroki, Ben (16 May 1917–1 Sept. 2015), aerial gunner, public speaker, and journalist
Jean A. Lukesh
Kuroki, Ben (16 May 1917–1 Sept. 2015), aerial gunner, public speaker, and journalist, was born on a farm between Cozad and Gothenburg. Nebraska, the sixth of ten children of Shosuke (“Sam”) Kuroki and Naka Yokoyama, who immigrated from Japan in 1898 and 1906...
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Marshall, S. L. A. (1900-1977), soldier, reporter, and historian
Rod Paschall
Marshall, S. L. A. (18 July 1900–17 December 1977), soldier, reporter, and historian, was born Samuel Lyman Atwood Marshall in Catskill, New York, the son of Caleb Carey Marshall, a bricklayer, and Alice Medora Beeman. The family moved in 1912 to Niles, California, and Samuel, at age twelve, was involved in Hollywood productions as a child extra. He worked in Western Essanay Studio productions, including the ...
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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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O’Neill, Buckey (1860-1898), lawman, newspaper editor, and soldier
Dale L. Walker
O’Neill, Buckey (02 February 1860–01 July 1898), lawman, newspaper editor, and soldier, was born William Owen O’Neill, probably in St. Louis, Missouri, although his birth record is lost, and he gave variously St. Louis and Ireland as his birthplace. He was the son of Irish immigrant parents, John Owen O’Neill and Mary McMenimin, and was raised in Washington, D.C., where his father, disabled from wounds he received during the Civil War, worked for the Treasury Department....
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Pryor, Roger Atkinson (1828-1919), journalist, Confederate soldier and jurist
Daniel E. Sutherland
Pryor, Roger Atkinson (19 July 1828–14 March 1919), journalist, Confederate soldier and jurist, was born in Dinwiddie County, Virginia, the son of Theodorick Bland Pryor, a lawyer, and Lucy Eppes Atkinson. His mother died before Pryor was two years old, so he was raised by his father, who had become a Presbyterian minister. Pryor attended the Classical Academy in Petersburg before entering Hampden-Sidney College in 1843, where he graduated as class valedictorian in 1845. He went on to study law at the University of Virginia for two years, taking his degree in 1847....
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Sherwood, Isaac Ruth (1835-1925), editor, soldier, and politician
Philip R. VanderMeer
Sherwood, Isaac Ruth (13 August 1835–15 October 1925), editor, soldier, and politician, was born in Stanford, Dutchess County, New York, the son of Aaron Sherwood and Maria Yeomans. Orphaned at age nine, he lived thereafter with his uncle Daniel Sherwood, who served in the New York State legislature. After attending local schools Isaac was able to study at the Hudson River Institute in Claverack, New York, from 1852 to 1854 and at Antioch College from 1854 to 1856. He briefly read law with Judge Hoogeboom in Hudson, New York, and he then attended Ohio Law College in Poland, Ohio, graduating in 1857....
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Stahel, Julius (1825-1912), soldier, journalist, and diplomat
Edward G. Longacre
Stahel, Julius (05 November 1825–04 December 1912), soldier, journalist, and diplomat, was born Julius Stahel-Szamvald in Szeged, Hungary, the son of Andreas Stahel-Szamvald and Barbara Nagy. After receiving a classical education in Szeged and Budapest, he operated a bookstore in the latter city. In his early twenties he entered the Austrian army and rose to lieutenant. When Hungary waged a war for independence, Stahel joined the revolutionary forces of Louis Kossuth. The independence movement was suppressed in 1849, and he fled his native land, living in London and Berlin before coming to the United States in 1856....
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Trumbull, Henry Clay (1830-1903), army chaplain, editor, and author
Dewey D. Wallace Jr.
Trumbull, Henry Clay (08 June 1830–08 December 1903), army chaplain, editor, and author, was born in Stonington, Connecticut, the son of Gurdon Trumbull, a businessman and Whig state senator descended from an early New England family, and Sarah Ann Swan. Educated at Stonington Academy and Williston Seminary, Trumbull did not go to college because of poor health. In 1851 he moved to Hartford, Connecticut, where he was engaged successively in a railroad office, as a druggist, and in a wool and cotton brokerage. Shortly after arriving in Hartford he heard the evangelist ...
