Alexander St. Clair-Abrams

Alexander St. Clair-Abrams (March 10,1845–1931) was a writer who owned newspapers and railroads in the Southern United States and also published under the names A.S. Abrams and A. Sinclair Abrams.

Civil War

Born in New Orleans, he was known as a "volcanic Creole".During the American Civil War, he served in Company A, Withers' Light Artillery (in Carter L. Stevenson's division), as a private at the Siege of Vicksburg. In September, 1862 he was discharged from the army on account of sickness and being unable to return to his home, New Orleans, obtained a position in the office of the "Vicksburg Whig" where he remained until its destruction by fire in the early part of May, 1863, and was taken prisoner and paroled after the surrender when he moved on to Atlanta.While there he was associated with Jared Whitaker's Daily Intelligencer and published a description of Vicksburg's capture and a novel called "The Trials of the Soldier's Wife". In 1864, he again soldiered to protect a city under siege, this time Atlanta and fought the Battle of Jonesboro where he was wounded and no longer fit to bear arms.

Newspaper man

After the war, he took the loyalty oath and in December 1865 he moved to New York City with his wife and infant son to join the New York Herald. There he was schooled by the best, editor James Gordon Bennett, Sr., and promoted quickly through the ranks.By 1870, he was the foreign editor and handled all dispatches from the Franco-Prussian War.By the time of the surrender at the Battle of Sedan, he maintained rooms at the Astor House across the street from the Herald to receive encrypted dispatches to which he held the only key.

At this point his health broke and James Gordon Bennett, Jr. offered him positions in either California or Georgia. He chose Georgia and moved back with his family where his wife owned printing equipment stored on Forsyth St. which he used to found the Daily Herald. Soon after Robert Alston and Henry Grady joined the business; Abrams was managing editor, Grady was general editor and Alston the business manager.

Abrams' writing apparently never caught on in Atlanta which Grady explained by saying he had a certain coldness that "in small cities, there must be provincial touches in the journal – concessions that the journalist must make to circumstances" and when he ended up running the Atlanta Constitution, Grady made sure his personality shined unlike his former colleague. But back in 1872, Abrams maintained a feud with former governor Joseph E. Brown, denouncing the policy of the state leasing the Western and Atlantic Railroad and associated business deals with free rides but was pressured to relinquish control of the paper with a threatened foreclosure of a $5,000 mortgage by Citizens Bank unless he ceased the attacks on Brown. He sold his interests and moved south.

In Florida

In Florida, he was a prominent lawyer representing large companies such as Seaboard Air Line Railroad.He founded Tavares, Florida in 1880 and hoped to make it the state capital and while that didn't happen, in 1887 it was made the seat of Lake County. In Tavares he constructed a sawmill, hotel, office building, and opera house.In 1883 two companies he was a part-owner of — Peninsular Land, Transportation and Manufacturing Company and the Tavares, Orlando and Atlantic Railroad — were chartered by the state. By 1897, Abrams, Sr. was in Jacksonville where he successfully defended Edward Pitzer in the murder trial of Louise Gato in dramatic fashion (he fainted while making his concluding statement). [http://www.prairieschooltraveler.com/html/fl/St.Clair-Abrams.html] His home there was built in 1914 and designed by Henry John Klutho, it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. Abrams wife died in Atlanta in late 1901, her remains were dispatched to Jacksonville [A Magnificent Memorial, "Atlanta Constitution", May 13, 1902, p.12] where he built a family mausoleum in the St. Mary's section of Evergreen Cemetery was designed by Klutho in 1901. In 1914, he argued before the United States Supreme Court in "FLORIDA EAST COAST R. CO. v. U S, 234 U.S. 167" .

In 1928, he described himself in a letter to the Constitution as "84 years of age, feeble and crippled, but with my mental faculties unimpaired". He died in Jacksonville in 1931 at the age of 86.

Family

His only son Alfred was prosecuting attorney of Lake County when he surrendered to the shooting death of railroad man, E.C. Tucker, who had beat him in a run for state legislature in 1896. [Railroad Man Shot, "Portsmouth, Ohio Daily Times", July 27, 1896] Alfred was freed and later that year sought a divorce from his wife who had had an affair with Tucker and another man. [Caused by an Ohio Woman, "Lima, Ohio Times-Democrat", Nov 11, 1896]

Remembrances

*In 1887, the Dickson Manufacturing Company named a 4-4-0 locomotive with serial number 574 after Abrams.
*The major perpendicular road to Main Street in downtown Tavares is named St Clair Abrams Ave
*His Great Floridian plaque is located at the St. Clair-Abrams House, 305 New Hampshire Avenue, Tavares
*Alexander St. Clair-Abrams House, 1649 Osceola St., Jacksonville

Writings

*

* "Full and Detailed History of the Siege of Vicksburg" (1863), Intelligencer Steam Power Presses, Atlanta
* "The Trials of the Soldier's Wife: A Tale of the Second American Revolution" (1864), Intelligencer Steam Power Presses, Atlanta
* "Manual and Biographic Register of the State of Georgia, 1871-1872" (1872), Plantation Press, Atlanta

References

*"Joseph E. Brown of Georgia" (1977), Joseph H. Parks, Louisiana State University Press, p.478
*"Partisans of the Southern Press" (1994), Carl R. Osthaus, University Press of Kentucky, p.169
*"Vicksburg, 47 Days of Siege" (1969), A.A. Hoehling, Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg, PA
* [http://www.usacitiesonline.com/flcountytavares.htm Tavares Florida Profile and Resource Guide, City or community of Tavares, Florida Facts, Information, Relocation, Real Estate, Advertising ] at www.usacitiesonline.com
*Letter from Abrams to "Atlanta Constitution" dated June 10, 1928 but printed on June 14

Notes