The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1876-05-11
From the Abbeuil2e Medium.
PEN PICTURES OF THE PRESS.
A. A. GILBERT.

ant and agreeable gentlemen we have
ever met, and for more than quarter of
a century has been closely identified with
the journalism of South Carolina either
as compositor or as an editor and pub
Usher in his own right. He halls from
Sumter, and is the editor-in-chief of the
Sumter Watchman, one of the most in
fuential newspapers in the State, and
fair index of the conservative sentiment
of the section in which it is published.
At the organization of the State Press
Association in May, 1875, Mr.. Gilbert
took an active and important part, and
was unanimously elected Recording Sec
retary of the Association.
Mr.. Gilbert was born at WATERFORD,
Colleton county, South Carolina, on
November 10Th, 1929, and is now in the
forty-seventh year of his age. He is
direct descendant of that band of hardy
and adventurous spirits who, taking their
lives in their own hands, braved the
storms and tempests of the wide Atlantic
and landed at Plymouth Rock in 1920,
his paternal ancestor making one of the
passengers and crew of the Mayfower.
His father was native of New Haven,
in the good old State of Connecticut, re-
moved to South Carolina in his early
youth and settled at WATERFORD, where
he was married to Elizabeth Thornton,
and to which union the subject of this
sketch was born. Elizabeth Thornton,
the mother of Mr.. Gilbert, was connected
by direct line of descent with the old
English Thornton family, now so widely
known throughout the world. Mr.. Gil
bert now has in his possession family
tree, with its trunk and branches,
wrought by his mothers hand, which
traces this connection back from his own
household to the landing of John and
Thomas Thornton at Boston in 1862, and
from there back to the first establishment
of the family in England. This tree
contains the names Of all the several
branches of the family, with birth, mar
riage and death dates, the collection of
which data formed the work of Mrs. Gill
bert's lifetime, and which she succeeded
in completing only a few weeks before
her death, which occurred about four or
five years since. There is a good deal in
"blood," the OF polloi to the contrary not
withstanding.
Mr.. Gilbert was christened in the old
PRESBYTERIAN church at WATERFORD,
when a small boy, by the father of the
distinguished DR.. B. M. Palmer, of New
Orleans. His fathers resources being
limited he did not enjoy the advantages
of frst-class collegiate education. He
was put to school at the Walterboro'
Academy, which from 1885 to 1840 was
one of the most famous schools in that
part of the State, and which received a
generous and rather extensive patronage
from all of the surrounding parishes. It
was here that young Gilbert received his
first mental instruction, and it is said
that he was most earnest and devoted
student. He was quick to learn, and had
an expansive mind and retentive mem
ory. The death of his father in 1841
sadly interfered with his progress at
school, and forced him to partial aban-
donment of his books to look after the
welfare of a family of six almost helpless
children, whose support mainly devolyed
upon him for number of years.
Mr.. Gilbert's first connection with the
press was an employee in the Office of
the Southern Chronicle at Columbia, it
being under the editorial charge of Sam
uel Weir, and the only Wing paper ever
published in South Carolina. Here Mr..
Gilbert received his first lessons in the
art of printing, and acquired that taste
for journalistic work which induced him
to make it his fixed and single employ
ment for life. In 1850 he began the
publication of the Watchn,an at Sumter,
and issued the first number of that paper
on April 29th. This venture proved
eminently successful, and has held up
nlanf1lly against hundred reverses
since its first establishment. In 1866 the
paper was suspended for about six
months, on account of the depredations
of Potter's colored raiders, who visited
Sumter and destroyed the Office and fix
lures of the Watchman. This was in
April, 1865, when money was scarce and
the country was rent and torn by the re-
suits of the war, but such was the indom-
table energy and perseverance of Mr..
Gilbert that he had his paper on its legs
again, and tried to educate the people to
the changed condition of things and the
necessities of the situation. He advo-
Gated the acceptance of the results of the
war in good faith, and argued that quiet
submission to the United States Govern
ment did not necessarily destroy loyalty
to the State. He had been to the front,
had fought the Yankees for three years,
and knew the folly and sin of longer re-
sistance. He favored q strictly conscrva-
tive policy on the part of the people, and
has kept this one idea steadily in view
in the conduct of his newspaper ever
since the war, and has been so persistent
in behalf of peace and reconciliation
that he has been severely censured by
many of the extreme men on both sides
of the political fence. He feels death
less interest in the welfare of the State in
all her interests, and while many good
men may differ with him in their notions
of "policy," his patriotism has been
proved, and he is now above reproach.
Mr.. Gilbert belongs to that excellent
class of gentlemen who went into the
war and Stayed there, and has an army
record of which he may well be proud.
lie enCereQ Gne SouieuoldCO SoLfiCO %
senior First Lieutenant of the Washing
Light Artillery, one of the most chiyal-
rous and best drilled corps sent out by
this State. He enlisted in June, 1862,
and continued in service until the final
surrender at Greensboro, North Carolina,
in May, 1865. In the early part of his
service MIR. Gilbert was stationed at
Battery Wagner, in Charleston Harbor,
and took part in repellng several of the
most terrible assaults made on that de-
fence. He fought his guns with despe-
rate courage, and behaved himself with
the greatest gallantry. He was a long
while in service on James Island, and
from there along the line of our coast de-
fences to Savannah, Georgia. He took
part in the fercely fought battle Of
Honey Hill, near Grahamville, where
the Arsenal boys, under General Chest
| - Ill hot Mr.