Bentley, William (22 June 1759–29 December 1819), clergyman, scholar, and journalist, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Joshua Bentley, a carpenter, and Elizabeth Paine, the daughter of a merchant. Bentley was raised in the home of William Paine, the prosperous grandfather for whom he was named, and he was educated at the Boston Latin School before entering Harvard College in 1773. After graduation in 1777, Bentley taught school. He returned to Harvard in 1780 as a tutor in Latin and Greek and prepared for the ministry. Ordained at the Second (East) Congregational parish in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1783, Bentley served in its pulpit until his death thirty-six years later....
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Bentley, William (1759-1819), clergyman, scholar, and journalist
Richard D. Brown
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Doten, Alfred (1829-1903), journalist and diarist
Lawrence I. Berkove
Doten, Alfred (21 July 1829–12 November 1903), journalist and diarist, was born in Plymouth, Massachusetts, the son of Samuel Doten, a ship captain, and Rebecca Bradford. The family was socially stable and financially comfortable, and the children were well educated. Alfred was briefly apprenticed to a carpenter when his schooling was completed and also spent a summer fishing for cod on the Grand Banks. In 1849, attracted by the news of gold, he took ship for California as a crew member....
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Jones, John Beauchamp (1810-1866), author and journalist
Joseph G. Dawson
Jones, John Beauchamp (06 March 1810–04 February 1866), author and journalist, was born in Baltimore, Maryland. The names and circumstances of his parents are unknown. Jones’s early days in Baltimore and his childhood on the frontier in Kentucky and Missouri are blank pages from an early life that is obscure at best. Evidently he received a basic education in local schools, for journalism and literature became his livelihood. In 1841 he edited the Baltimore ...
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Mencken, H. L. (1880-1956), author, editor, and journalist
Fred Hobson
Mencken, H. L. (12 September 1880–29 January 1956), author, editor, and journalist, was born Henry Louis Mencken in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of August Mencken, a cigar manufacturer, and Anna Abhau. Having emigrated from Germany during the mid-nineteenth century, the Menckens and Abhaus had quickly adapted to life in the United States, and they provided a home more Victorian than German-American for their four children. Henry Mencken, the eldest, did attend a private German school for his earliest education, but he completed his formal education at Baltimore Polytechnic, a high school primarily responsible for producing engineers and technicians....
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Mencken, H. L. (1880-1956)
Maker: Carl Van Vechten
In
H. L. Mencken Photograph by Carl Van Vechten, 1932. Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-USZ62-42489).
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Welles, Gideon (1802-1878), journalist, diarist, and secretary of the navy
John Niven
Welles, Gideon (01 July 1802–11 February 1878), journalist, diarist, and secretary of the navy, was born in Glastonbury, Connecticut, the son of Samuel Welles, a shipbuilder and merchant in the West Indies trade, and Anne Hale. Welles studied law with William W. Ellsworth in Hartford, Connecticut, but never practiced. In 1835 he married his cousin Mary Jane Hale. They had nine children, three of whom survived to adulthood....
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Welles, Gideon (1802-1878)
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Gideon Welles. Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-B8172-1375).
