Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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YOLOTE L. NOIBEB 20. NEWBERRY, SOUTH CAROLINA, FRIDAY, MARCH S, 1012. TWICE A WEEK, $1.50 A YEAR. Looking Backt Tisla The Editor Recalls Some 01 periences During His < Paper For Twe (By E. H. Aull.) Looking backward twenty-five years 1? *- ?? Vin+ o cnnn. seem uut <x iiLtic v>u.nc?uu?. ?, ? Looking forward, especially from the "viewpoint of a young man, it seems a long time. He dreams and he has visions and there are great possibili ties ahead of every young man. Sometimes, however, a very small circumstance may change the whole course of a young man's life and the visions which he saw in a certain direction all vanich TThon t left, college I had great visions of what a great lawyer . and powerful advocate T would be ' a ' v'^-. n .iUM _j . ' m. * ; ELBERT HERMAN AULL. some day. How I would plead before ^ tthe jury and argue to the judge. The law is a great profession when he who follows it has the right conception the* rpsnonsibility resting upon him. Even after teaching for two or three years 1 cherished the hope of my earlier visions, but circumstances chang'ed the plans, and while I was admitted to the bar and practiced for a little while, I found my bread and meat * in the newspaper work, and I found also that journalism was a jealous mistress and I would have to give ur .one or the other. 1 desire, however, to write some thing of the twenty-five years tnai have gone which embrace my active and continuous connection with one .newspaper. My going into the newspaper business was not an inherited preference, for my people on either :?ide had never engaged in journalism so t'ar as I know. They had ben car^ penters and millers and farmers, earning an honest living by the sweat 01 > k^Wm. " lfcnBgw -' _ ;: MISS AMMIE TAYLOR, Bookkeeper and Stenographer. their brows. The first article that I "wrote that was printed in a newspaper .was the neighborhood news from Breeze Hill, as we called my father's home, at that time in Edgefield county, and it was written for the Xinetj Six Guardian, then printed and editec by Gov. McSweeney. After coming tc college at Newberry in 1S77 I became + -"-.AcnAnHont in U W9V for th< (/L1C L'Ul IVOjwiiuvuv >u News and Courier, but not regularlj for several years after that date. ] have kept that connection for mon ^ than twenty-five years. V I am going to write entirely fron n-emory and my dates may not be en vard nh).Firw? Years ?? - ? ? ? f His Struggles and ExperConnection With The nty-Five Years. | tirely accurate, because ir.y memory | is not as good as to dates as the mem I ory of my former partner, Mr. \V. P. Houseal. Of course, what I say in this connection will be largely personal, and as it is to be used in the connection in which it is i deem no apology necessary. On the 7th of March, 1887, Mr. W. P. Houseal and myself bought The Herald and News from Mr. A. C. Jones, who had acquired the property from Mr. T. F. Greneker. When Mr. Houseal proposed to me to go into the ; business with him I told him I had no money and did not know whether I rniilri raise mv nart of the cash, but 1 | would try. I went to Mr. McCaughrin ; at the National bank and told him what I wanted. We had only one bant here then. He told me I could gee the money with the proper papers. I secured five friends to endorse the firsl note with me for $125 and took tha' to make my first payment, and we started business. And I have had 2 struggle with bank notes from thai rinv tr? this, hut somehow I have al* 7 ways managed to pay the interest anc the banks have been good enough tc carry me. The plant then consisited of a country Campbell, one job press, a papei i cutter and a small lot of old type, and the circulation of the paper was less than 600. It was then a four-pags paper the size of the News and Courier, and Mr. Jones was sending the Weekly News and Courier as a sup plement, using The Herald and News as cover. We immediately changed : \ i '\ <k / ; V*> A ? |S? / x m %\ * 4 / \ . -J?? ' : v / \| : I m/ :r Xv; w7 , i ?? j elbert Herman*, jr., I Born May 15, 3SS6, and Died Augusf & 1902. the size of the paper and dropped the i supplement determined to' tvin or lose i on our merits and not on the merits ol 1 a. rim* r?irr>i;Intinn Sffad 1.11(3 BUJL/^ICIUCUU \J\JI ~ ? ? ually grew and for many years it has been around the two thousand mark The paper has also grown from a four-page paper to an eight-page papei and from a weekly to a twice a week The people of Newberry have beer kind in many ways. We now hav* TT-VtQt T r>rmsiripr an lin-to-date COUntrj printing office. We were among the first country papers to install a linotype machine. We have a Cottrel! press for the newspaper and a newspaper folder. We have two moderr job presses, a power paper cutter, 2 wire stitcher, a Whitlock book press a Brown book folder, and stacks 0! ' modern type for the job and advert tising departments. : j I had been in the newspaper busi ' | ness in one way and another tor severJal years before the partnership with Mi ' Houseal was formed and The Heralc } and News purchased. This- partnershii - lasted for seven years. I came to Newberry in the fall o: '11877 to enter Newberry college. Af ^ ter graduating in 1SS0, I went tc * Ninety Six and engaged in the busi ness of selling farm machinery, anc i spent two months in the summer o - 1S80 in that town. I decided, however S to branch out from the pursuits folI lowed by my forebears, and hearing 1 {hat there was a vacancy in the j schools at Abbeville I applied for the } position and was elected, and taught I one year in the Abbeville graded I ?v> Tw I* Trvl'* n n s; j v\ iui lji. xj. u. .iu.Aiiwvn I superintendent. I did a little news! ;;aper work while in Abbeville lor Gen. R. R. Hemphill, editor of the Abbeville Medium, and, in fact, edited the paper several weeks during his absence. One of the happiest years of my life ! was spent in tr.is good old town, i : was a stranger, but tl:ev took me in. j Friendships were forn.ed which have i lasted to this day and which I trust' will last to the end. Tho most im-! portant event in my life took place: during this year in Abbeville. It was ; .. i BH j PRESENT FORCE OF THE on the 14th day of February, 188], when a sweet little Newberry girl agreed to share the burdens and the sorrows of life and enjoy whatever good there might be with me. For nearly thirty-one years she was the power behind the guns and the inspiration and the guiding genius oil my life, and if I have accomplished anything the credit is due to ner. jusi when it seemed that we might enjoy the fruits of our labor the shadows fell athwart my pathway and all is now dark and gloomy. I trust some day there may be a rift in tli-e clouds and. I may understand the mystery. After a year in Abbeville I came to Newberry to take a professorship in Newberry college. I taught in the J college one and one-half years. In __ _ r.oo t ; + tn j LilO spring Ol 1d<>0 1 Hc.O uu:mucu Lvy I the bar and opened a law office, first i i. j f j. v<s*>vp% 'f^c \ "" ' I f ; THE HERALD AND NEWS FORCE F , I OFFICE ABOUT TE in the l'oom over the drug store of Dr. \Y. K. P-alham. For a while I liad a partnership with Gen. A. C. Garlington, who was then living on his farm near Old Town. During several months hile occupying that office I did editorial work on rhe Xe wherry News then published by R. H. Greneker, Sr. nnd .Tr. Upon the d-sath of Mr. Edw. F. Greneker, who was proprietor of the Newberry Herald, the two papers were consolidated. This must have been about 1S84. I continued to do some work on the consolidated paper in the way of writing editorials and locals and reporting generally. In 1S85, in partnership with Mr. M. S. Hallman, T was the editor of the Prosperity Reporter and ran it for five months, -..hen I withdrew from that publica :: : " . | ^ V. ' . V % V . . . , v::;v. HERALD vAND NEWS. tion and came to Newberry 0:1 a contract with Mr. A. C. Jones, who bad bought The H-erald and News, to edit the paper for him. I continued in ! this capacity for several months, and subsequently opened a law office in j the building now owned by Summer Bros. The office was just at the head ' +v>o eHirc in vpdr At that time UjL tuc Otuuo ill x . Mr. Geo. S. Mower had bis law office , in the corner where the telephone exchange is now. Hr. H. II. Blease occupied the rooms over the Anderson . 10c. store, as a trial justice office. Prior to that, however, I had gone j to Greenwood and purchased the Greenwood Argus from Mr. J. P. Gary, who desired to return to Pickens. He and I were admitted to the bar in the same class. My purpose was to practice law in the town of Greenwood, and at tIiq same time to euir rao paper. ^ ./ ~-V 83-^ ,J?&S U IB Mfe ..... - ^ u'q -*;"% sp&zjgh* J?.--? - ? * ;' ,. v ' >? . -' ,: ROM PHOTOGRAPH IX FRONT OF X YEARS AGO. ai Grednvood. Greenwood was then a part of Abbeville county. I had arrangements with Mr. Eugene B. Gary, who is now chief justice, for a law partnership with him. He was *- I n u* r? f A K cil liI0 ]JI cHJLA^Ail^ ia?> c* t -rxiy ville court house. I got out two issues of the Grenwood Argus and put up $40.00 as a bonus, it bsing all the money I received from my interest in tuition fees at Newberry college, and agreed to pay the balance of the purchase price by a certain date or forfeit the bonus. I had arrangements with Mr. Jas. M. Seignious, a cotton broker in Charleston, to get the balance of the money and to ship him some cotton in the fall or pay $1.50 per bale on cotton not shipped. He sent the check, but in some way it went to I J wam e/\ T I jjyson, ana my nine nuui wets uui, x | forfeited the $40.00 (all the money I j had) and returned to Newberry. | I - 1 T" \'-y ' "V JAS. L. AULL. * " " While practicing law in 1887, (with 'very few clients), I took testimony I for Mr. Blease in his trial justice court, and practiced there when I had clients. He was exceedingly kind to me during those days of struggle, when I needed a friend, and I shall always honor his memory. I should mention that I established the first paper printed at the county seat of Saluda county, the Saluda Sentinel and published it for about one year, a part of the time with N. E. Aull and W. B. Aull as editors, and a part with B. Frank Sample as editor. I finally sold out to joint stock company. I On the 1st of March, 18S7, I received a letter from Mr. C. H. Prince, of ! Florence, making me an offer to come j to Florence and edit the Florence Times for him. I decided to accept his proposition, but before \ answered the letter, Mr. Houseal submitted & proposition to me to go into partnership With him, and purchase The Herald and News. I had no money, but j through the kindness of friends, I i - HUMBERT M. AULL. managed to raise the first payment, and so all my efforts to engage in nou*c;nar>pr work elsewhere failed. ** V/ " Jf"" There have been many changes in the life of Newberry during these twenty-five years. In fact, examination of the files of the paper will show that there are very few business concerns in the city today who were in ^business here in 1SS7. The firm of C. & G. S. Mower occupied the same corner that is now occupied by C. & G. S. Mow. r company. Mr. Jos. Mann is still in business and I believe occupying the same stand that he did then. However, when I first came to Newberry his store and residence were on the first floor of Salter's Art gallery, and the first session of Newberry college opened in the rooms now occupied by Salter's gallery. I think Mr. 0. Klettner was in business at that time and Mr. William Johnson, probably, but not on his own account. Dr. / W. JE. Pelham had a. drug store the* where now E. M. Lane & Co. hare their fancy grocery. R. Y. Leavell think, was in business with Leavell k. Speers. I do not recall another firm now in business that was in business at that time. i Mr. Robt. L. McCaughrin was president of the National bank, but there is no on a in the bajik now who held position then and there was only one bank in the county of Newberry. Mr. Jno. B. Carwile was cashier, and Mr. T. S. Duncan, assistant cashier. After7 t wards Mr. T. J. McCrary became assistant cashier, and Mr. J. W. M. Simmons bookkeeper. Ail of these are dead, and now there are four banks ia Newberry beside several in the county. I had an idea in my earlier days that I could establish in Newberry a big printing plant and wanted to print books and do all kinds of printing that anybody else did. Our first venture Lin the book printing was the Annals of Newberry. This book was printed on the country Campbell. We the* printed the history of South Carolina by John A. Chapman and were instrumental in having it adopted as school , j history of the State. Later I printed | Dickert's History of Kershaw's Brigade, which by the way, is the best history of the war that has ever bee* written. It is written from the standpoint of the private. I also printed rhanman'e TTistnrv of "RVIsrpfiplri rniin | ty. None of these ventures were fi \> YxvA HZ TTTT/iTr-nr* I J?\U. YV. VVlV^IVlliXV. / nancially profitable, but since they * < thus preserved I feel that I have doi a good service to my county and State, because if I had not undertaken the work they possibly would not have been printed. Carrying cut my purpose to establish a printing plant in Newberry I was instrumental in organizing the first Lutheran publication board in the South. For several years this board published the Book of Worship and several other publications of the church. But somehow - - " -J- T n_ ] I did not nave xne support ui cut; Lutherans and I could not accomplish my purpose. In looking back over these twentyfive years I see many places where possibly I might have aided the counting room of the office if I had run the editorial room with that in view. I have no regrets, however, because I have always said those things which I believed were right as I saw them and without regard to the financial end and that is worth more than money - * ?~ J gained by trimming. I nave suneieu one or two boycots during these years and have had people to withhold business because they did not agree with positions taken by the paper on public questions, but afterwards some of these same people became the best friends because I did not give up what I thought was right that I might gain a few subscribers or secure some adj vertising. I have always ti led to be honest and fair and give the nther fellow credit for the san:e honesty of i