USA > Alabama > Memorial record of Alabama. A concise account of the state's political, military, professional and industrial progress, together with the personal memoirs of many of its people. Volume II pt 1 > Part 19
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The great circulating medium, so far as reading matter was concerned during the colonial period of this country, was the pamphlet. . The second edition of Thomas' History of Printing in America contains in an appendix
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a catalogue of publications prior to the revolution of 1776. There are in the list 7.6-3 entries of titles, of which number nine-tenths, at least, are pamphlets or tract publications. At the beginning of the pamphlet form of publication the almanac was the favorite medium. The second issue from the Cambridge press was an almanac, and 6,000 copies of Ames's famous almanac, printed by John Draper. were annually sold in the New England colonies. As the political excitement of the revolutionary period increased, tracts and pamphlets came more in demand. They were usually made up of letters and were signed by fictitious names. and there is no question that they made a profound impression on the public mind.
As early as the year 1690, there was a venture in the journalistic field in this country. It was published in Boston under the name of "Publick Occurrences, both Foreign and Domestick." It never reached .a second issue, for no sooner did the first appear that the authorities of Massachusetts suppressed the paper. There are no extracts from its columns to show why the American newspaper, on its first appearance, should have been so violently treated. A few days after its appearance, however, it was spoken of in the general court as "a publication which came out contrary to law and contained reflections of a very high nature," and the court thereupon strictly forbade "any thing in print without license first obtained from those appointed by the government to grant the same." It was the intention of the promoters of the enterprise to publish it monthly. How much of a record of events it could contain can be judged by the fact that it was three pages of a folded sheet, one page being blank. two columns to a page and each page seven by eleven. It proposed to be a comprehensive publication, for the prospectus declared that "it is designed that the country shall be furnished once a month (or if any glut of occurrences happen oftener) with an account of such con- siderable things as have arrived unto our notice. In order, hereunto. the publisher will take what pains he can to obtain a faithful relation of all such things and will particularly make himself beholden to such per- sons in Boston whom he knows to have been, for their own use, the diligent observers of such matters. That which is herein proposed is, first, that memorable occurrences of Divine Providence may not be neg- lected or forgotten as they too often are. Secondly. that people every where may better understand the circumstances of Publique affairs, both abroad and at home; which may not only direct their thoughts at all times, but at some times also to assist their business and negotiations. Thirdly, that something may be done toward the curing, or at least the charming, of the spirit of lying. which prevails among us, wherefore noth- ing shall be entered but what we have reason to believe is true, repairing to the best fountains for information. And when there appears any material mistake in anything that is collected, it shall be corrected in the next. Moreover, the publisher of these occurrences is willing to en-
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gage, that whereas. there are many false reports, malicionsly made, and spread among us, if any well minded person will be at the pains to trace any such false report, so far as to find out and convict the first raiser of it, he will in this paper (unless just advice be given to the contrary) expose the name of such person as a malicious raiser of a false report. It is supposed that none will dislike this proposal, bur such as intend to be guilty of so villainous a crime." A paper based upon such principles might best have been given a second trial.
According to Thomas' History of Printing, thirty-seven papers were published in the colonies in 1775, of which one was in New Hamp- shire, seven in Massachusetts, two in Rhode Island. four in Connecticut, four in New York, nine in Pennsylvania, two in Maryland, two in Vir- ginia, two in North Carolina. three in South Carolina and one in Georgia. Of these journals, eight were in existence in 1810. the time Thomas' list was first published. In the year 1910 the number of newspapers in the United States had increased to 360. Not one of them, however, was credited to Alabama, while North Carolina had ten, South Carolina ten, and Georgia, thirteen. In the Mississippi territory, in which Alabama was then included, there were four publications, all at Natchez, and all long since suspended. In 1828, there were ten papers credited to Alabama, although double that number had been attempted up to that date.
THE PRESS OF ALABAMA.
It is a difficult matter to prepare a satisfactory paper on the journal- ism of Alabama. The details are meager and the sources of information widely scattered. There are but few records in the National Library, and the files of the papers of the present day furnish but little informa- tion concerning the publications of the earlier days of the state and territory. In April, 1865, the files of The Montgomery Advertiser were destroyed by fire. The compiler of this unsatisfactory sketch could have easily uncovered many of the missing links in the evidence, if those files were in existence to-day. Under these disadvantages he has to rely upon various sources of information, gathered here and there, and arranged as best could be done, under the pressure of exacting daily labor and lack of sufficient time in which to give as full information as the subject warrants. He here takes occasion to thank those who furnished him information and enabled him largely to prepare what is here submitted. There are indisputable evidences of the fact that the territory now com- prised in the state of Alabama was early sought out by men of the old world in search of fame and fortune. De Soto spent many weary days and nights traversing her hills and valleys. There were no such record- preserving devices in those days, as are now at hand to take down every word that is spoken, and to describe with the minutest detail every inci- dent that occurs. What volumes could be written if the famous explorer
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had carried along with him a printing press and committed to paper. for the benefit of future generations, a history of the trials through which he passed, the character of the people who obstructed his pathway, and a word painting of the beautiful country in all its freshness. Although there were settlements in Alabama long antedating the territorial or state organization there were no newspapers to tell of the daily life, the progress in business, and industries and population. All that is known of those days is from neighborhood traditions and individual letters that have been preserved and handed down from generation to generation until put into permanent form by a Pickett, Meek or Brewer.
The new states have great advantage over their older sisters, in that the first sign of growth in their towns is the appearance of the daily or weekly paper. The population may not be large enough to warrant a pretentious sheet. but enterprising men knowing full well the value of such an adjunct as a promoter of the public good, do not hesitate to meet the deficiency in receipts, until the better time when it can stand on its own ground. It should be the rule in every state to have a copy of every publication sent to the state librarian. How easy it would be at any time to obtain an insight into the records of each locality and of the thousands of events which go to make up the history of a state and people.
PIONEER JOURNALS OF THE STATE.
There were but few places of sufficient size to be dignified with the name of village when the tide of immigration began to flow in upon Alabama. Of those who came in at the time when the lands were first offered for settlement, a much larger proportion were blacks than whites, and in corresponding proportion were the reading classes. The blacks did not read and for years there was not sufficient white population to warrant the publication of many papers. This was not the case in the state and territories north and east of Alabama. The great bulk of settlers were white people, because the black race was kept out by climate as well as by the hostility of the whites themselves. It is no unusual thing, therefore, to find papers published in all portions of states no older than Alabama, which are as old as the states themselves.
In the beautiful city of Huntsville, the seat of justice of Madison county, in the far-famed rich Tennessee valley, Alabama journalism had its birth. It could have selected no fairer spot for its advent. In the year- 1812, which was 272 years. after the invasion of Alabama territory by the Spaniards under the leadership of Ferdinand de Soto (1540), five years before it became a separate political division as a territory (1817), and seven years before it entered into the sisterhood of states (1819) the initial number of the first Alabama newspaper was placed before the public. Its promoter, publisher and master-spirit was a man by the - name of Parham. The obtainable facts connected with it are few. It was called the Madison Gazette, and judging by the little that can be
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learned concerning its length of days, it is fair to conclude that it was a literary and financial failure. Huntsville, now a refined and flourishing city, was then scarcely a village and was unable to properly nurse the infant which it mothered.
Although this first venture in Alabama journalism was unsuccessful from every standpoint, so far as those pecuniarily and otherwise inter- ested in the project were concerned, yet it stands to-day as a monument to the industry, intrepidity, courage and enterprise of its founder. Some one had to be immolated upon the financial and literary altar, and to serve as the corner stone upon which the stately structure of journal- ismn must rest. Men of practical wisdom and of unquestioned sagacity thought the venture, as a business one, was the idle dreaming of an im- practical dreamer. The new business, heretofore unknown in that or any other locality in Alabama, not only proved to be a bad breadwinner for the first man who embarked in it, but he was forced to bear also the humiliation of failure and to be the subject of unjust and cruel remark. The people were not in sufficient numbers to properly support it, and more probably they were not ready for the newspaper. They were as ready then, however. as they would have been to-day, had not some one started a paper and put them to thinking. They no doubt had an igno- rant prejudice against the press, similar to that harbored to-day by many people against an innovation-an untried something. That same preju- dice would now exist against the press, if it was just being brought into use. The fact that Huntsville was a small place in 1812, and the country environing it was sparsely settled, of course, was not without significance in the matter of the failure of Alabama's first newspaper; but there were more potent reasons to which the supposed brevity of its existence may be ascribed. A paper could and would exist as long on Pike's Peak, as it could and would in London, Paris, or New York, without patronage, without the countenance and financial support of the public. The peo- ple were crude and old fashioned in their notions. They had to be edu- cated into a fondness for reading the newspaper, and of seeing their names-that is, those engaged in business-in print in the advertising column, just as the latter day politician, who has a knack of cunningly courting the interview. likes to see his views on political questions aired in the public press. Moreover. they had to be trained up to the idea of knowing and realizing the great material value of the press to the com- munity and the country, as well as its great advantage as an educator, an intellectual pabulum. To do this. somebody had to experiment at a sac- rifice: somebody had to make the break. The second newspaper venture in Madison county, was the Huntsville Advocate in 1815. The name of the founder of the paper is not ascertainable, from the material at hand. It, however, had a long life, and was a political power in north Alabama. It had many owners and editors, but became most widely known during
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the management of W. B. Figures for some years before, during and after the war. It was suspended aboat twelve years ago.
The first issue of the Alabama Republican in Huntsville was Janu- ary 1, 1817, by J. Boardman. It was still published in January, 1822, by Henry Adams. Again in 1:25, vol. I,, No. 1, of the Southern Advo- cate and Huntsville Advertiser appeared as the result of consolidation of the Alabama Republican and the Advocate, D. Farriss & Co. being the publishers.
The Huntsville Democrat made its debut in December, 1820, and still stands as one of the landmarks of Alabama journalism Philip Woodson was the original proprietor and conducted it for many years. It was long under the control of J. Withers Clay. It is to-day standing by the faith of its founders and of all who have been connected with it, and is unique in this, that it is edited, printed. and its business conducted by the Misses Clay, daughters of its former editor and proprietor, Mr. J. Withers Clay, who is disabled from paralysis. This was the fourth attempt at publishing a paper in the Spirng City, and two of them were at the same time in existence. In the meantime the place had grown considerably and numerically better able to support a paper when the Democrat was started, than it was when the first venture was made. By this time, a considerable taste had been developed among the young ambitious men of the state for literary pursuits, and the opportunity for writing offered some inducement to those having a view to business, as well as the glitter- ing gold that might be ground out of a printing press. Since that date Madi- son county has not been without one or more newspapers. It is impossible to recall from memory all those that have been established and ceased to exist. In the city of Huntsville, there has always been a number of strong and gifted writers who made the newspapers readable and whose articles on any subject were sure to attract attention. At the present time, three papers are published in the county. The Democrat, now in its seventy-third year, the Mercury and the Argus. The last two named have daily, as well as weekly, editions.
In the year 1813, there was a paper established by Thomas Easton, at Saint Stephens, the county seat of Washington county, in the southern part of the state, but we have a very obscure account of it. At that time, Saint Stephens was a place of considerable importance and was soon afterward the seat of government of the territory. To-day there is but little left to tell that. in the early days of the century, it bid fair to become the leading city of a great state. There was no complete file of this second entry into the field of journalism preserved. It was. however, published several years, for there is part of a file of it for one year in the Congressional Library at Washington. Vol. 4. This was pub- lished in 1819, and still under the management Thomas Easton, bearing the name of the Halcyon and the Tombickbe Public Advertiser. , In a number of the issue of this volume is an advertisement by B. F. Eslin
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and D. B. Sanderson for proposal to publish a weekly paper at Cahaba, to be called the Republican Constellation, and another by Gabriel F. Mott for proposals to publish the Sun and Alabama Advertiser at Blakely, now in Baldwin county. At that early date. Blakely bid fair to be quite a city by reason of its deep water facilities. but its glory long ago de- parted. It will figure in history as the scene of some of the tiercest fight- ing of the war in 1865. between the Federal and Confederate troops. After the lapse of seventy-nine years, another paper, the Washington County Times, was established at St. Stephens in 1892. There is nothing in history, the records of which are more imperfectly kept than those relating to a publication which springs into existence and dies, and some other publication is not established upon its ruins. This was particularly true in the early days of Alabama journals: and more particularly so where the field in which the paper was published became extinct as a journalistic field, and almost extinct as a place, as was the case with Saint Stephens. Thenadays. the people did not have the remotest appre- ciation of the value of historical material. St. Stephens is hardly known to people who live within fifty miles of it, and all that can be authen- tically said about its newspaper, which was begun in 1813, is that it lived, died and was covered up in oblivion. Like the exploded bubble upon the bosom of the great Pacific, it left no traceable mark behind it.
In 1814 a publication in French and English was established at Mobile by George Childs, and the next in that city, the Mobile Gazette and General Advertiser, was by a man named Cotton, in 1816.
In the latter part of the year 1819, John W. Townsend published in Mo- bile a paper, which was merged with some other paper in a year or two afterward. In 1821-2, the Mobile Daily Patriot was established, and shortly afterward the Mobile Register, the Morning Chronicle. Mercantile Adver- tiser, and in addition others that were only short-lived. The Register and the Patriot were merged into the "Register and Patriot," in the late thirties and the Mercantile Advertiser and Morning Chronicle into the "Advertiser and Chronicle" about the same time. They continued to occupy the field as rival journals, until during the winter of 1861-62, when the Register and the Advertiser united their fortunes (the dual nomenclature of both papers having long previously been abandoned) and became one paper known thenceforth as the "Register and Advertiser." About 1850. the Evening News was started by Sidney Benjamin and maintained a separate existence until about 1858-9, when the outfit was purchased by the proprietors of the Advertiser, who kept the paper in the field as an "evening edition" of the latter.
During the forties, the Mobile Daily Herald was started on its journal- istic career by Mr. H. Ballantyne, and near the same time the Alabama Tribune (L. A. Middleton, editor and proprietor) appeared, followed pretty soon by the Alabama Planter, a weekly agricultural publication of which Wesley W. McGuire was editor and proprietor. These three
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papers were merged during the decade as "the Herald and Tribune" and became known subsequntly as the Mobile Tribune, the name "Alabama Planter" being retained for a year or two as the designation of the weekly edition which. however, was shortly discontinued. The Mobile Tribune lived until 1872, and then died. Two or three efforts were made to revive it, but the new paper under an old name in each case was short lived, the last publication being about 1850.
About 1855-6, Messrs. W. W. McGuire, A. G. Horn and J. H. Gindrat commenced the publication of the Mobile Daily Mercury. This paper lasted two or three years, leaving the field to the three dailies, Mobile Advertiser, Mobile Register and Mobile Tribune; the Evening News hav- ing now become the afternoon edition of the Daily Advertiser, as previ- ously stated.
When the Federal troops entered Mobile in April. 1865, one of the first . acts of the military was the suppression of the newspapers -- "Register and Advertiser." and "Tribune." Shortly afterward the material of the "Reg- ister and Advertiser" was seized by order (or authority) of Gen. Canby, and with this was started by E. O. Haille. the Mobile Daily News. The News (name changed to the Times) continued in existence until 1868-69, when Col. W. D. Mann became purchaser of the Register and Advertiser and the Daily Times and merged the two papers in one, known thereafter as the Daily Register.
Since the war, there have been several newspaper ventures, but they have as a rule been of such an ephemeral character as to be hardly worth naming. The Morning Chronicle, estabished in 1878 (born and died the same year) by a joint stock company, Leslie E. Brooks, editor; the Tele- gram, W. A. Battaille & Co .. publishers, in 1934, the Monitor in 1880 and perhaps one or two others belong to this class.
The Daily News, an afternoon publication, began its existence about two years ago and is still on the boards. The Weekly Item. John F. Cothran. proprietor, is a non-political paper devoted principally to local topics, has entered upon the twelfth volume and is apparently in a pros- perous condition.
In addition to the above, several unsuccessful efforts have been made to establish literary magazines, weekly papers and advertising publica- tions. Of all the many efforts in this line, dating back as far as the rec- ords extend, the Register alone lives, a bright example of "the survival of the fittest."
It might have been stated. in connection with the papers of the ante bellum period, that they were all edited with signal ability. The Register was edited at different periods by such strong men as Thaddeus Sanford, Samuel F. Wilson and Alex B. Meek. The Advertiser passing from the hands of Solomon Smith, the noted theatrical manager of that period (1838), into those of Col. C. C. Langdon. became at once the organ of the whig party in Alabama, as it was in fact the first whig paper in the
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state; in 1852, Col. Langdon disposed of bis interest to Mr. Willis G. Clark, who wielded the tripod until the consolidation previously men- tioned. The Herald and the Triubne were started as independent in poli- tics, but soon after this consolidation championed what was termed the "Southern wing of the Democracy," and later still was an out-and-out secession organ favoring the election of "Troup and Quitman" and "Breckinridge and Lane," when these presidential candidates were in the field. Mr. Ballantyne was recognized as one of the able editors of his time and his editorials, though tinged at all times with bitter sarcasm, were considered by those of his political faith unanswerable; this paper, too, had many able outside contributors, among whom were Maj. H. G. Humphries, Hillary Foster, C. P. Robinson, Maj. W. T. Walthall and others.
The first educational journal that the state ever had was brought out in Mobile, October 1, 1843. twenty-five years after the establishment of the Academician, in New York city (1818), the first educational journal established in this continent. It was a monthly publication, and was called the Southern Educational Journal and Family Magazine. F. H. Brooks was the founder of the publication, and it was run under his management and editorship during its existence, but the precise length of the period of its existence cannot here be stated with due regard for accuracy. Mobile was also the birth place of the first magazine in Ala- bama. Its title was the Bachelor's Button. established in 1837 by William R. Smith, afterward famous in the literary and political history of the state. It was published monthly and lived though five issues.
The Register has been a central figure in the commercial and political life of Alabama. Commencing with the birth of the state, it has kept pace with its progress. It has always been a democratic paper and a political power from the date of its first issue. A record of those who have been connected with it. would disclose names known not only over the state, but the whole union. among them A. B. Meek. gifted as a scholar and a poet. One of its earlier editors. Thaddeus Sanford. was the Thomas Ritchie of Alabama. and in recognition of his party loyalty and zeal he was appointed to the collectorship of customs at the port of Mobile, in the days when its shipping and importing interests, were im- mensely greater than they are to-day. In the memorable campaign of Stephen A. Douglas for the presidency. and under the editorship of the gifted John Forsythe. the Register achieved greater reputation than it had ever before enjoyed. Its articles were widely copied and compli- mented for their vigor of thought and grace of expression. Mr. For- sythe's connection with journalism began in 1-42. He settled in Mobile to practice law and was soon afterward appointed United States district attorney for the southern district of Alabama. He returned to his old home in Columbus, Ga., where business interests, occasioned by the death of his father, demanded his attention and presence. While there he
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