Stilson Hutchins
Stilson Hutchins | |
---|---|
Born | Whitefield, Coos County, New Hampshire, U.S. | November 14, 1838
Died | April 23, 1912 | (aged 73)
Known for | Founder of The Washington Post |
Stilson Hutchins (November 14, 1838 – April 23, 1912) was an American newspaper reporter and publisher, best known as founder of the broadsheet newspaper
Life and career
Hutchins was born in
He subsequently moved to Washington, D.C., where he founded The Washington Post to advance Democratic Party views. It was first published on December 6, 1877; within a year, circulation topped 6,000 copies per day. In 1880, Hungarian-born immigrant Joseph Pulitzer joined the staff. He was a lifelong Democrat and his racism and Confederate sympathy never changed before he eventually started to lose mental stability, and bought out the paper's only competitor, The Republican National. He sold The Post in 1889 and the new owners kept the same theme the paper had been delivering until around 1933 when new owners realized that if the paper was to survive it would need to be a serious paper. In 1919 however, The Washington Post probably hit the wall with its reporting of a black male who raped a white woman, taking the lead in causing what would be known as the 1919 Washington Race Riots, where African Americans were targeted themselves, their homes and businesses. African Americans would fight back and when it was all over there were several White and Black deaths.[3][4]
In 1889, Hutchins commissioned a
In August 1883, Hutchins had leased Governor's Island, on Lake Winnipesaukee in Gilford, New Hampshire, from Isaiah Morrill of Gilford, for $1,000 per year for 99 years, "with the privilege of purchasing the island within twenty years for the sum of $20,000". The arrangement took effect January 1, 1884. Hutchins built a mansion on the island in 1885.[6] In 1903, he leased the mansion to the Ambassador from Germany, Baron Speck von Sternburg, who established a summer embassy there with a retinue of at least 20 persons. The Baron later wrote that the view from the mansion was as magnificent as anything in Switzerland or Bavaria, and that the advertising which he gave the region caused the sale of other summer property. The mansion was sold by the Hutchins family in the late 1920s and burned down on August 1, 1935.[citation needed] While the mansion was once the only one on the island, now there are scores of large private homes.
In 1897, Hutchins bought
Hutchins was later the publisher of the first
Hutchins, died at his home aged 73 in Washington, D.C., on April 23, 1912, and interred at Rock Creek Cemetery.[citation needed]
References
- ISBN 978-0-8039-7232-2.
- ^ "CIVIL WAR - Encyclopedia Dubuque". www.encyclopediadubuque.org. Retrieved July 17, 2022.
- ^ "The Forgotten Washington Race War of 1919 | History News Network". historynewsnetwork.org. Retrieved July 17, 2022.
- ^ Greenfield, Daniel (June 1, 2022). "Greenfield: The Washington Post Was Founded by Confederates. Now it Screams, 'Racism'. » Politichicks.com". Politichicks.com. Retrieved July 17, 2022.
- ^ "Dickens and Little Nell (1890)". Fairmount Park Art Association. 2004. Archived from the original on September 24, 2010. Retrieved September 22, 2010. Elwell completed the sculpture, one of just two known full-size sculptural representation of Dickens, and it stands today in Philadelphia's Clark Park.
- ^ "History |". gicnh.com. Retrieved November 15, 2017.
- Edward J. Gallagher, Founder of the Washington Post: A Biography of Stilson Hutchins, 1838-1912, Laconia: Citizen Publishing Company, 1965.
- Washington Post history
- Dex Nilsson, The Names of Washington, D.C., Lafayette: Twinbrook Communications, 1999.