The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1912-07-23
TEN YEARS OF ALABAMA
No. Administration of Governor Parsons
1865-1874

The provisional governor came into Of
flee in a currency famine. There was
no money in circulation in Alabama.
On the other hand, political authorities
at the north were oppressed with the task
of reducing the government paper to q
safe measure of supply.
While the south still cried for money
ultimately the Congress, or fragment of
Congress, had the redundant paper cur
rency converted into non-taxable interest
bearing bonds and then burned it by the
hundreds of millions of dollars.
No recuperative agent was more ready
to resume its place or more potential
when successful in the attempt than the
newspaper press.
The Montgomery Advertiser had been
for long the political organ of the state.
Knowing this, when Wilson'S raiders
rode into the town, they struck a bee
line for The Advertiser office. They de-
stroyed all they found. The files, very
valuable, and some other property had
been hauled off to the eastern part of the
state. AS the raiders went on their
course toward Columbus, Ga, they over
took the wagons and completed the work
of destruction. The Mobile Register was
the organ of a great commercial pros
perity and had a general circulation
along the Alabama and Bigbee rivers,
carried by steam passenger boats. John
Forsyth was the editor, and he was a
strong man in any sphere of life. Among
other accomplishments, he was famous
for his tenor voice in the choir of the
church. The enemy entered Mobile from
ihe east. The Register people moved a
large part of the office property by the
river boats or Mobile and Ohio railroad.
A certain camp follower got permission
from General Candy, commanding the
invaders, to take possession of the Reg
lister office and issue the paper. In his
first number he apologized profusely for
the inferior quality of his work the
treacherous rebels had moved off a large
part of the outfit. He called upon the
military authorities to restore it.
Both papers now resumed with most
tenacious purpose. The Selma Daily
Times resumed, boasting its ability to
put out a sheet of four pages. each about
the size of a bandanna handkerchief, at
the low subscription price of SO per an
mum in advance.
At Greenville, youth. ]. B. Stanley,
resolved to set up a weekly. He had
been through the war. retaining the
knowledge he possessed of typesettng.
OF cash he had none. In his straits, he
applied to a number of citizens to sub
scribe to several copies of his proposed
weekly. The engineer, John T. Miner,
subscribed to % copies. The Greenville
Advocate began life and prospered to the
benefit of public sentiment
Robert Mckee, about 25 years of age,
header writer of the principal democratic
daily in Kentucky, the Louisville Courier,
came to the Confederate army with Gen
eral Breckenridge. He participated at
Shiloh where he was slightly wounded.
Poor health forced him off the field. With
his wife he remained in Jefferson county
most of the time, with the Tarrants, DR..
f. NJ. Prince and others near what is
now Woodward furnaces. The war over,
he went at once to Selma and was made
leader writer for the Times. Later he set
up a weekly. The Southern Argus, at
Selma. His enthusiasm was superb, his