The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1882-07-26
JOURNALISM IN MISSISSIPPI.
Extract from Chapter q, Volume 2,
Claiborne's History of Mississippi.
REAp BEFORE rHE PREss coxvexrlox

i READ BEFORE THE PRESS CONVENTION.
* Vicksburg, the brit
4 place of printing in Mississippi, has beer
! prolific in newspapers, famous for it
:, fighting editors, and for the number tha
: have been slain. VIM. H. Benton estab
: lished the Republican" in 1925. Mex
! came John N. Henderson, and after
! wards Marmaduke Shannon with the
"Whig," Judge Mills editor. Mex
!. Cyrus Griffin who sold to F. A. Tyler.
from whom the Wing passed to Col. w.
HI. McCardle, widely known as one OF
the most forcible writer's in this coun-
try. Other changes ensued-Shannon
, again became publisher, with Hon 4.
II. Arthur and r. E. Hammett as edi-
tors, who in turn were succeeded by
J. E. Carnes and r. r. Arthur, and
finally by Col. McCardle and Hon.
Walker Brooke, .. S. Senator.
{ About the same time James R. Marsh,
lawyer of decided ability, ofcombative
temperament, had paper called the
Advocate" and in 1887 DR.. James
Hagan and DIR. Willis Green "a Vir-
ginian, brother of the famous Gen.
4 Duff Green of the Washington Tele-
graph) established the Sentinel in the
interest of John G. Calhoun for the
Presidency. Hagan was an Irishman,
and had been employed in one of the
Departments at Washington. He was
graduate of the University of Dublin
was small man, not at ali demonstra-
tive, reserved, unobstrusive, ard appar-
emily amiable. But he came to Missis-
sippi with the conviction that all our
people were corrupt, and that he had a
mission to execute, even if the penalty
was martyrdom lie attacked all who
| did not second him, with extreme vio-
lence, and his editorials established the
impression that we lived in a community |
of scoundrels. They were written with |
extraordinary vigor, and men of the
highest position found themselves
wrecked in reputation by his ferocious
and persistent assaults. He was engaged |
in several due!s, and was finally killed |
in rencountre with Gen. D. w. Adams,
for libelous attack on his father, the
venerable George Adams, Judge of the
q. S. Court for this district.
James S. Fall, an Englishman, prac-
tical printer, associated with his brother
George r. Fall in the "Mississippian"
at jackson, now took charge Of the
Sentinel. He was not the man for the
position, but had the English pluck,
and soon had to exchange several shots.
His associate J. G. Partridge died with
the yellow fever. James Ryan, an
Irishman, succeeded him but soon fell
in duel with r. Z. Hammett of the
Vicksburg Wing. On the death of Ryan,
Walter Hickey, of Natchez, of Irish
parentage, took charge of the Sentinel.
He wrote his editorials with two revol-
vers kept cooked upon his table had
three engagements, and was wounded
every time; finally killed DR.. Maclin
in street fight, emigrated to Texas,
and there soon fell in a rencountre.
John LAWNS an Irishman succeeded
Hickey and was equally eombativc. He
got into a collision with the judicial au-
thority, and finally removed to Her
nando and established a paper.
John Jenkins, man Of genius and
culture, native of Claiborne county,
next took charge of the Sentinel, but
was soon killed in street fight with H.
A. Crabbe, who not long afterwards was
murdered in Sonora.
The paper subsequently passed sue
cessively into the hands Of DR.. J. D..
Mcconnell, D. Walker, Lester q Bon
sail, John NJ. Jewell, Edward Pickett,
VIM. w. W. Wood, Royal & Dickey
and Roy & McCullum, who merged it
into the Vicksburg Sun. Col. Roy ofl
course was soon killed.
Then came the Constitutionalist, a
native American paper by Col. James
R. Creecy; the Southern Intelligencer,
by VIM. H. Hurst, the True Issue, {
by H. H. Miller and c. L. Buck, with g
which the famous duelist A. K. Nc I
Clung was associated, and, of course
killed. 1
Next followed the southron, BY Col. r
VIM H. McCardle, famous in journal t
ism and an evening paper by Swords d
Byrne. q
These examples show the precarious a
position of editors-the evanescent t
nature of newspapers-the hazard in i
inadequacy of compensation c
for the talent employed-and that it is Q
less remunerative here than any other /
pursuit, although indispensable in an :
agricultural community. n
At present | believe the Herald and
frst-class journals are the I
only papers in Vicksburg.
The late Henry S. Foote-afterward r
Senator in Congress s-Governor-Super n
ntendent of the U. s. Mint-when a s
young lawyer in connection with Callett, 4
! brother Virginian, established the t
in Vicksburg' After two c
or three personal rencountres they trans {,
erred it first TO Clinton thence to .
Jackson, where Gee, R. Fall, an En- t
ylish printer, became the purchaser, e
md it soon became the leading Dem b
ocratic paper of the State. Fall sold a
o v. E. and R. D. Howard, who greatly z
increased its influence and circulation. t:
It subsequently was sold to Gen. Charles p
u. Price, man of mark in his day, e
rom whom it passed to Hon. L. Barks- n
lale. The CLARION long conducted by a
his distinguished gentleman assisted by d
he widely known indefatigable publisher tc
md philanthropist, j. L. Power, may ol
,e considered the legitimate represen- Il
ative Of the old Mississippian. s.
In the mighty East, as Franklin E. es
olummer christened those counties east a
# Pearl, running along Chickasawha d
nd Leaf rivers to the sea-board, news al
,apers we're comparatively unknown b
IntiI 1887, when Duncan & Need es- Vi
ablished the Paulding CLARION. There 81
Iad been long before small county &.
aper issued at Monticello, but nine So
enths of the people Of east Mississippi Of
raded with Mobile newspapers. John to
McRae, afterwards Representative ai
D Congress and Governor of the State u
"A man whose genius was only sur =
assed by his Virtues young ol
lwyer purchased the CLARION, and in di
year or SO sold it to Simeon r. Adams, tt
iho soon made it a mammoth sheet, j.
a. -