William Elisha Hyde (1836-1898) was an American journalist, the managing editor of the ''

Missouri Republican The ''Missouri Republican'' was a newspaper founded in 1808 and headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Its predecessor was the ''Morning Gazette''. It later changed its name to ''St. Louis Republic''. After supporting the Whig Party, the paper bec ...

'' newspaper of

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

, for nineteen years.

Personal life

Hyde was born on August 27, 1836, in

Lima, New York Lima (, the name is a shibboleth) is a town in Livingston County, New York, United States. The population was 4,305 at the 2010 census. The town is in the northeast part of the county, south of Rochester. The village of Lima is located within ...

, the son of Elisha Hyde of Connecticut, a teacher at

Genesee College Genesee College was founded as the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, in 1831, by the Methodist Episcopal Church. The college was located in Lima, New York, and eventually relocated to Syracuse, becoming Syracuse University. Genesee Wesleyan Seminary ...

, and Amanda N. Gregory, also an educator, of Ithaca, New York. He had a brother, Horace L. Hyde, a journalist. William Hyde as a young man worked in the drug business, then became a teacher in a country district school.''History of St. Louis,'' page 918
/ref> He attended

McKendree College McKendree University (McK) is a private university in Lebanon, Illinois. Founded in 1828 as the Lebanon Seminary, it is the oldest college or university in Illinois. McKendree enrolls approximately 2,300 undergraduates and nearly 700 graduate ...

and then taught school. He received a legal education from

Transylvania University Transylvania University is a private university in Lexington, Kentucky. It was founded in 1780 and was the first university in Kentucky. It offers 46 major programs, as well as dual-degree engineering programs, and is accredited by the Southern ...

in Lexington, Kentucky."Death of Colonel Hyde," ''St. Joseph (Missouri) Gazette,'' November 1, 1898
/ref> Hyde registered for the draft in June 1865. He was married in June 1867 to Hallie Benson of Missouri, whom one newspaper described as a "southern lady," in St. James Cathedral,

Toronto, Illinois Toronto was an unincorporated rural community located in Woodside Township, Sangamon County, Illinois. It was located adjacent to what is now the ''Toronto Road'' exit at Mile 90 of the Illinois section of Interstate 55. Today, the Toronto neighbo ...

. Among those present were Jefferson Davis and Confederate General

Jubal Early Jubal Anderson Early (November 3, 1816 – March 2, 1894) was a Virginia lawyer and politician who became a Confederate States of America, Confederate general during the American Civil War. Trained at the United States Military Academy, Early r ...

. The couple had two daughters, Chaille F. and Amy. Hyde had a brother, Horace L., also a journalist, who was found dead on a railroad track near Jefferson City, Missouri, on January 23, 1879. A

coroner's jury A coroner's jury is a body convened to assist a coroner in an inquest, that is, in determining the identity of a deceased person and the cause of death. The laws on its role and function vary by jurisdiction. United Kingdom In England and Wal ...

ruled accidental death. William Hyde died in St. Louis on October 30, 1898, and was buried in Belleville, Illinois.

Professional life

Career

Hyde began his newspaper career around the time of the adoption by Congress in 1854 of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which effectively repealed the

Missouri Compromise The Missouri Compromise was a federal legislation of the United States that balanced desires of northern states to prevent expansion of slavery in the country with those of southern states to expand it. It admitted Missouri as a slave state and ...

, stoking national tensions over the extension of

slavery Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

. He wrote editorials for the Belleville Tribune in defense of

Stephen A. Douglas Stephen Arnold Douglas (April 23, 1813 – June 3, 1861) was an American politician and lawyer from Illinois. A senator, he was one of two nominees of the badly split Democratic Party for president in the 1860 presidential election, which wa ...

, the principal backer of the legislation, and then took a partnership in the newspaper. In 1856 he edited the ''Sterling (Illinois) Times'' and also worked actively for James Buchanan, the successful Democratic candidate for president. He next went to Springfield, the state capital, in the hope of being elected

clerk A clerk is a white-collar worker who conducts general office tasks, or a worker who performs similar sales-related tasks in a retail environment. The responsibilities of clerical workers commonly include record keeping, filing, staffing service ...

of the Illinois House of Representatives. Instead, on January 8, 1856, he became the correspondent there for the

while also being a committee clerk. He was said to have been the first reporter west of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...

to receive and send a news message on the wires. In 1859, he made a notable trip in a balloon with three other men, from St. Louis to

Jefferson County, New York Jefferson County is a county on the northern border of the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 116,721. Its county seat is Watertown. The county is named after Thomas Jefferson, third President of the United St ...

, an estimated eight hundred miles, a distance flight that was not bested for half a century. The others were balloon builder

John La Mountain John LaMountain (1830 Wayne County, New York – February 14, 1870 South Bend, Indiana) was a ballooning pioneer. He was privately contracted as an aerial observer by General Butler at Fort Monroe during the American Civil War and is accredit ...

, balloonist John Wise and Vermont businessman O.A. Gager. Under the editorship of Nathaniel Paschall, Hyde was promoted to

city editor A city editor is a title used by a particular section editor of a newspaper. They are responsible for the daily changes of a particular issue of a newspaper that will be released in the coming day. Mostly they stay at the publication at night and t ...

of the ''Republican'' in 1860. He became

managing editor A managing editor (ME) is a senior member of a publication's management team. Typically, the managing editor reports directly to the editor-in-chief and oversees all aspects of the publication. United States In the United States, a managing edit ...

in 1866, upon Paschall's death. He directed the editorial policy in that position for nineteen years."William Hyde," ''North Missouri Register,'' December 23, 1875, page 2
/ref> Hyde was a loyal supporter of Samuel J. Tilden and played an important part in bringing the

1876 Democratic National Convention The 1876 Democratic National Convention assembled in St. Louis just nine days after the conclusion of the Republican National Convention in Cincinnati. This was the first political convention held west of the Mississippi River. St. Louis was not ...

to St. Louis. He retired from the ''Republican'' in 1886 and, after a trip abroad, he was appointed by President

Grover Cleveland Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837June 24, 1908) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 22nd and 24th president of the United States from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. Cleveland is the only president in American ...

as postmaster in St. Louis. Later, he published an unsuccessful newspaper called ''The Ballot'' in

St. Joseph, Missouri St. Joseph is a city in and the county seat of Buchanan County, Missouri. Small parts of St. Joseph extend into Andrew County. Located on the Missouri River, it is the principal city of the St. Joseph Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includ ...

. Hyde then went to

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the capital and most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in Utah. With a population of 200,133 in 2020, th ...

, where he became an editor on ''The Herald'' and helped organize the Democratic Party in Utah. He resigned, returned to St. Louis, and took a job in the post office. He began work on an encyclopedia of the history of St. Louis, which was completed after his death by Howard L. Conard.

Quarrels

Hyde was reputed to be "a man of few words and of quick action"."Inside the Newsroom at the Republican", from Walter Barlow Stevens, ''St. Louis, the Fourth City,'' 1911 He was part of a delegation which went to Washington, D.C., to unsuccessfully lobby for the Democratic National Convention to be held in St. Louis. Articles in the ''Post-Dispatch'' accused the committee members of losing the bid because they were drunk. It was said that when Hyde returned to St. Louis, "he found that the alleged disgrace attached to the asserted Washington spree had preceded him, and his blood began to boil." One of the articles was reprinted in the ''

Globe-Democrat The ''St. Louis Globe-Democrat'' was originally a daily print newspaper based in St. Louis, Missouri, from 1852 until 1986. When the trademark registration on the name expired, it was then used as an unrelated free historically themed paper. Orig ...

,'' whose managing editor was Joseph B. McCullagh, and when Hyde and McCullagh met by chance at Fourth Street and Olive, a sharp-tongued quarrel ensued. The discord was ended when bystanders led the two in opposite directions. On March 1, the ''Post-Dispatch'' printed a verse which, according to the ''Minneapolis Star-Tribune,'' gave the idea "that Mr. Hyde had been mistaken by Washington people for a walking whisky-still." Hyde threatened to thrash the "gentleman from Austria" (

Joseph Pulitzer Joseph Pulitzer ( ; born Pulitzer József, ; April 10, 1847 – October 29, 1911) was a Hungarian-American politician and newspaper publisher of the '' St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' and the ''New York World''. He became a leading national figure in ...

, publisher of the ''Post-Dispatch'') "within an inch of his life." In the evening, Hyde encountered Pulitzer on Olive Street near Fourth; Hyde called him "a damned Austrian Jew" and struck him full in the face. The "stunning blow" knocked off Pulitzer's eyeglasses and scattered his papers. One witness said that Pulitzer drew a revolver, but it fell to the ground. The two grappled, and Pulitzer was struck again in the face; he fell to the sidewalk with Hyde on top of him, then they grappled in a gutter "full of mud and slush." Bystanders stopped the combat, and Hyde walked away. Pulitzer was helped into a

barber A barber is a person whose occupation is mainly to cut, dress, groom, style and shave men's and boys' hair or beards. A barber's place of work is known as a "barbershop" or a "barber's". Barbershops are also places of social interaction and publi ...

shop and rubbed down.

Building fire

Hyde narrowly escaped injury during a fire on May 24, 1870, which destroyed the ''Republican'' building on Chestnut Street. The '' St. Louis Globe-Democrat'' reported that Hyde "had a valuable private library in his room, ndrushed up to save some of the books" by throwing a dozen of them out a window before his retreat was cut off and he "incontinently plunged through the fire," escaping with a few minor bruises.

Legacy

In August 1918, the name of the Bremen branch post office at 2510 North Broadway in St. Louis was changed to the Hyde Station in his honor, as part of a move to eliminate "Teutonic names" from post office branches.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hyde, William 19th-century American newspaper editors 1836 births 1898 deaths Editors of Missouri newspapers People from Lima, New York McKendree University alumni Transylvania University alumni Editors of Utah newspapers