564 Chronicles of the Cape Fear River

patronage as the only evening daily is increasing by leaps and
bounds. Mr. R. P. McClammy is the proprietor, Mr. James
H. Cowan is editor, and Mr. William E. Lawson is city editor.

Dr. T. B. Kinessury.

A chapter on the newspapers of the Lower Cape Fear in these
Chronicles would be incomplete without particular reference
to the career of our veteran journalist and scholar, the late Dr.
Theodore B. Kingsbury, whose memory is venerated by those
who were his contemporaries and by our citizens generally,
who regarded him with great respect and admiration. We
learn from Captain Ashe’s fine tribute in his Biographical
History of North Carolina, that early in life after Mr. Kings-
bury left the University of North Carolina, he published a
literary weekly at Oxford, North Carolina, under the name of
the Leisure Hour, which attracted much attention and drew
high commendation from John R. Thompson, editor of the
Southern Literary Messenger, then the most meritorious liter-
ary magazine published in the South, and from Paul H. Hayne,
the poet, then editing Russell’s Magazine, a large monthly of
genuine merit, published in Charleston, South Carolina, and
from other gifted editors. In June, 1859, he was elected to
the chair of literature in Trinity College; but his thoughts and.
religious fervor led him into another field, and he entered the
ministry, and continued in that calling until 1869. It was
about that time, in March, 1869, that he was employed as an
associate editor of the Raleigh Sentinel, then conducted by Hon.
Josiah Turner, and for two years and more he continued in that
capacity. While on the Sentinel, a momentous crisis in public
affairs was precipitated by the Republican administration of
the State, and Josiah Turner, with unequaled boldness, made
the Sentinel the champion of free government and of the
traditional liberties of the people. No greater service was ever
performed by any press than that rendered to the people of
North Carolina by the Sentinel. In those exciting and perilous
times Dr. Kingsbury wrote much, and with strength and pa-
triotic fervor, for the editorial columns of the paper, and he
deserves to share in the great fame that is so justly awarded
Josiah Turner for his bold and resolute editorial work. On
three occasions Dr. Kingsbury declined the editorship of the
Raleigh Christian Advocate ; but he edited Our Living and Our

Peace Restored 565

Dead for several years, a publication of a high order of merit,
begun by Col. S. D. Pool; and he also edited the Educational
Journal in 1874 and 1875, doing much to advance the cause of
public education at that time in North Carolina. His contribu-
tions to Our Living and Our Dead were noteworthy, especially
his literary criticisms. About that time he was offered a posi-
tion as editorial writer on the Wilmington Star, and, accepting
it, began a long career of journalism that gave great satis-
faction to his friends and the patrons of that paper. He con-
tinued with the Star for nearly thirteen years, when he became
editor of the Wilmington Messenger, with which he remained
for about as long a period, having had an experience in journal-
ism in Wilmington of more than a quarter of a century. As an
editor, Dr. Kingsbury brought to the discussion of his subjects
a large store of varied learning, and his productions were read
with great avidity by a host of admirers and received the warm
commendation of many of the ablest men and best thinkers of
the State. In particular were his literary articles valued by
the most cultured among the readers of his papers. The teach-
ers and the professors of the various colleges, the lawyers, and
the ministers of every denomination were generous and un-
stinted in their praise, while his work was not without the
appreciation of the editorial fraternity. His style was clear
and perspicuous, elegant in diction and remarkably forceful,
and there ran through all his editorials a strain of patriotism,
a love of North Carolina, an appreciation of the excellence of
her great men, that was a distinctive characteristic of his work.
In particular was he as an editor at pains to perpetuate the
memory of the great feats performed by the North Carolina
soldiers in the War between the States, and to instill into the
minds of the present generation a correct understanding of the
Causes that led to the bloody contest. Indeed, no other editor
of the State has been more patriotic than Dr. Kingsbury, and
none has excelled him in elegance of diction and in a large
vocabulary and literary merit.

THE WILMINGTON BAR.

The Wilmington Bar has always been one of strength and
power, even from colonial days. Among the earlier members
who stood high were William Hooper and Archibald Maclaine;