- Title
- Early history of Raleigh, the capital city of North Carolina: a centennial address
-
-
- Date
- 1893
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-
- Creator
- ["Battle, Kemp P. (Kemp Plummer), 1831-1919."]
-
- Place
- ["Raleigh, Wake County, North Carolina, United States"]
-
- Local Call Number
- 975.6551 B336 (Text)
-
-
Early history of Raleigh, the capital city of North Carolina: a centennial address
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55
His was the first newspaper of our city, edited at first by
himself, then by himself in conjunction with his son-in-law,
William W. Seaton, afterwards the distinguished co-editor of
the National Intelligencer and Mayor of Washington City ;
then by himself alone, then by his son, Weston Raleigh
Gales, then by his grandson, Seaton Gales, a total of nearly
sixty years. He was for many years State printer. He
established the first paper-mill in this section, on Rocky
branch, thence removed to Crabtree creek. In politics he
belonged to the dominant party, the Republican, and when
that was disrupted in Jackson’s time he became a Whig.
Mr. Gales was ably seconded by his wife, whose maiden
name was Winifred Marshall, a remote connection of Lord
Melbourne. She was a woman of fine talents and accom¬
plishments, the authoress of a novel published in 1804
by her husband entitled “Matilda Berkeley.” My mother,
before her marriage, was the guest of Mrs. Gales, and years
afterwards loved to tell of her kindness of heart, her tact, her
power of making those around her bright and happy, her
fine conversational powers. It was from her that her chil¬
dren inherited their rare sprightliness, their father being of
a more quiet manner and staid temperament. The poetical
address of her daughter, Ann Eliza Gales, at her gradu¬
ating exercises, and her uncommonly agreeable manners and
witty speech, were never forgotten by those who knew her.
She died in the great sickness, almost the pestilence, of 1822,
attributed, as I have mentioned, to Hunter’s mill-pond.
The rival newspaper to the Raleigh Register, the Minerva,
was edited by William Boylan. It was transferred from Fay¬
etteville, where it was called “ The Fayetteville Minerva ,” in the
fall of 1799, a few months after the Register was started. The
firm of Hodge & Boylan published in 1800 one of the best
books ever printed in the State, “Haywood’s Reports,” and
in 1804 “Burkitt and Read’s History of the Ivehukee Bap¬
tist Association.” The Minerva advocated Federalist princi¬
ples, and, as might be expected, both papers occasionally
showed the heated temper which separated the parties
throughout the Union.
William Boylan came to North Carolina from New Jersey
one hundred and one years ago, joining his uncle, Abraham
Hodge, first at Halifax and then at Fayetteville. Until his
purchase from Peter Browne, the eminent lawyer, of the Joel
Lane homestead, just outside the city limits, he was often a
Commissioner of the city. He served for three years during
the war of 1812 and for one year thereafter, as a member of
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