Hargrave - Arthur
Source: Waveland Independent newspaper, Waveland, Montgomery County, Indiana, April 14, 1938
The 50th anniversary of Arthur A. Hargrave as editor and
publisher of the Rockville Republican was celebrated by a banquet
in his honor at Turkey Run Inn, Wednesday evening April 13. The
Commerical Club of Rockville sponsored the meeting which was
attended by about 200 Rockville & Parke COunty citizens
besides newspaper friends of the editor over the state of
Indiana. J. Walter McCarty, managing editor of the Indianapolis
News was the principal speaker and louis B. Hopkins, president of
Wabash College acted as toastmaster. Curist Hostetter of the
Rockville Tribune was general chairman of the committee on
arrangements. Mr. hargrave's first issue fot he Rockville
Republican was dated April 11, 1888. He had just returned from
Oroomiah, Persia where for 4 years he was superintendent of the
printing department in the Presbyterian Mission. Here he met
Mrs. Hargrave and they were married. She was sent to Persia as a
missionary by the Presbyterian Church of Soliet, Ill (sic -
joliet?) . In his boyhodo he worked in the newspaper shops at
Rockville and earned his way thru college by working for the
crawfordsville newspapers as a hand typesetter and reporter. He
graduated from Wabash in the class of 1881 and wa s a member of
Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity. The Rockville Republican is the
descendant in a direct line of continuous publication of the
Wabash Herald which was started in Rockville in 1833 and
therefore is 105 years old. At that time there were only 29
newspaper in the state of Indiana. In the 50 years that Mr.
Hargrave has been editor, every issue has carried at least one
article written by him. His editorials, militanlty Republican,
have a state wide reputation and are frequently in metropolitan
dailies as well as in his weekly contempories. For over 25 years
Mr. Hargrave has been writing a feature each week called, "Club
Man," which is two columns long and consists of reminescences of
the pioneer days in Parke COunty, observations on current affairs
and trends and travel experiences. Besides his foreign travels
he has been in every state in the union but two. Since coming to
Rockville, Mr. hargrave has purchased six Parke COunty
newspapers, suspending publication of four of them. He now
publishes two - The Rockville Republican and Montezuma
Enterprize, a Democratic newspaper. Mr. hargrave will be 82 years
old this summer and rarely misses a day at his desk at the
office. In 1935 Editor and Mrs. Hargrave celebrated their 50th
wedding anniversary. All of their five children are living and
are located as follows: Palmer W. Hargrave, manufacturer of
lighting fixtures; Los Angeles, California; Clarence M. Hargrave,
retail painter, South Bend, Ind; Mrs. EG Henderson, Indianapolis;
William B. Hargrave associated with his father in Publishing the
Republican and Montezuma Enterprise; Mrs. WG Tyler, Birgmingham,
alabama. At the Turkey Run banquet, Mr. Hargrave received a flood
of telegrams and letters of congratulation sent by his newspaper
friends who were unable to attend the celebration.
Arthur A. Hargrave
Inducted 1975
Arthur A. Hargrave, renowned Indiana publisher was born to
William H. and Susan (Bishop) Hargrave on August 15, 1856, near
the historic town of Portland Mills. As a boy, Hargrave started
his newspaper career at the age of 14. He began as a printer's
devil in his hometown of Rockville.
While attending Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Hargrave
worked as a hand typesetter and reporter for the Crawfordsville
newspapers. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in
1881.
After college he worked for more than a year for the Kansas
City Journal, making $10 a week. He then accompanied Reverend
James W. Hawks and other missionaries from the Rockville
Presbyterian Church to Persia, where he took charge of the
printing department of a Presbyterian mission. It was there that
he met and married Marian Moore, originally from Joliet,
Illinois. When they returned to the United States, they brought
their first of five children who was then one-year-old.
Hargrave became assistant editor of the Terre Haute Express
after his arrival in the States, however, he wanted to return to
his hometown and soon was able to buy the Rockville Republican
for $2500.
The Rockville Republican was a weekly newspaper and Hargrave,
from the time he bought it until a few short weeks before his
death, had an article published in every issue.
One time while going through the office, he found an old "cut"
depicting a man with a mighty arm flexed and in his hand was a
club. From this illustration, he started his column "Club Man's
Talk." At first the column was one aimed at politics, but
Hargrave did not feel he had enough material for a long-running
column. He then made it into stories about his farm life in the
1860s and 70s, maple sugaring, butchering, or his travels.
In 1954 he received an honorary degree from Indiana
University. Soon after he had an attack of illness and his sight
was impaired by cataracts. Yet even this could not stop him from
writing and he dictated to one of his daughters until his
death.
After an air accident in 1956, Hargrave made a prediction that
"flight's next goal of conquest will be the moon."
At a party celebrating his 100th birthday, he was asked to
give his recipe for long life. He answered, "sitting in my old
rocker by the fireplace, smoking a good cigar and taking life
easy."
At the time of his death on September 13, 1957, Hargrave had
been the owner of the Rockville Republican for almost 80 years,
and he was believed to be the oldest newspaper publisher in the
United States.
By Sharon Griffey
Event(s):
18 JAN 1849 Mount Etna, Huntington, Indiana
application for
Marr License
I, William Baldwin do solemnly swear that I am personally
acquainted with the parties above named and that I have reason to
believe and verily do believe that they are both of lawful age to
marry w/o the consent of their parents or Guardian namely said
Wm. E. Jefferies is age of 21 years and upward and said Mary A.
Baldwin is of the age of (blank) years and upward; that I know of
no lawful reason why they should not marry and that Mary A.
Baldwin has the consent of her guardian and that said female
resides and has resided in Mont Co IN for one month and more
immediately previous to the making of this application for
license, which application is made this 28th day of August 1871
and that I, deponent, am also a resident of said county of
Montgomery and a disinterested witness in this behalf and of
lawful age. & Signed with a mark
William Baldwin on 28 Aug 1871
Attested: WK Wallace, Clerk of Mont CO Circuit Court)