Individuals >> Church, William Conant (1836-1917)

Editor, Journalist, Biographer.

William Church's first brush with the world of journalism occurred at age nineteen when he began helping his father edit the New York Chronicle. Five years later he moved on to become editor of the New York Sun. In 1861 he traveled to Europe, but returned to the United States after the start of the Civil War. As a volunteer soldier he served under General W. T. Sherman and wrote about Sherman's victories for the New York Evening Post. Church rose quickly through the military ranks, eventually becoming a lieutenant-colonel. In 1863 he left the fighting behind to start the Army and Navy Journal. During this time he married Mary Elizabeth Metcalf (Kasten).

In 1866 William and his brother, Francis P. Church, started Galaxy Magazine. After twelve years Galaxy merged with the Atlantic Monthly. The first stories of Henry James and early writings of Mark Twain appeared within the Galaxy's pages.

Louis Starr identifies Church as one of the "Bohemian Brigade," a group of reporters who "were men of energy, style, and perception. If they lacked the magic touch, all of them wrote well enough to bring a sense of participation in the war to their readers, and at times they did it superbly. Through the reprint circuit the work of each, in varying degree, elevated standards of reporting the country over" (266). In his New York Times obituary, Church was lauded as one of the greatest journalists in the nation (Kasten). He published in the Century, Scribner's, the North American Review, the New York Times and others. He also wrote biographies of John Ericsson and Ulysses S. Grant.

Outside of the journalistic world, Church is best known as a co-founder of the National Rifle Association. He also helped found the Metropolitan Museum of Art and was a longtime member of the New York Zoological Society.

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References & Biographical Resources

Allen, Gay Wilson. The Solitary Singer: A Critical Biography of Walt Whitman. New York: MacMillan, 1955. [more about this work]

William C. Church and his brother Francis were the owners of the Galaxy magazine, started in New York in the spring of 1866. The magazine was intended to be a competitor to the Atlantic Monthly in Boston and Lippincot's Magazine in Philadelphia (388). [pages: 388,389,394]

Kasten, Marie A. "William Conant Church." Dictionary of American Biography. Base Set. American Council of Learned Societies, 1928-1936. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale, 2006. http://www.galenet.com/servlet/BioRC. [more about this work]

Starr, Louis Morris. Bohemian Brigade; Civil War Newsmen in Action. New York: Knopf, 1954. 367 p. [more about this work]

Starr writes that in the days prior to the Civil War, like many others in New York, the "Pfaffians were exposed increasingly to the clamour of a world beyond their ken. Something like a revolution was afoot in the realm of journalism, a revolution that would lift these light-hearted pranksters from their subterranean retreat ad whirl them in its vortex. Soon O'Brien, Aldrich, Thomson, Williams, and Stedman, together with others in Clapp's happy coterie--Charles G. Halpine (who stammered to fame at Pfaff's, speaking inadvertantly of 'H-H-Harriet Beseecher Bestowe'), William Conant Church, William Swinton, E.H. House, Charles Henry Webb, a couple of artists, Frank H. Bellew and Thomas Nast: in all more than half of the identifiable clientele at the Cave--would take the field along with hundreds of other youths of like mind to participate in the greatest undertaking in the history of journalism" (9).

Church, of the Times, sometimes known as "Pierrepont," twenty-six, produced a "notable" account of the battle at Fair Oaks. Starr writes, "though shot in the leg by a spent ball, [Church] produced an account to make Charle Pfaff proud of him." Church's account of the battle would fill the front page of the June 3, 1862 issue to the Times (109). Church was joined in Virginia, near McClellan's army, by the "alert, immaculate little Henry J. Raymond." The rest of the "Times crew" included Franc Wilkie, Whittemore, Travis, "Argus," and others (110).

Starr mentions Church as one of the "Bohemian Brigade," a group of reporters who "were men of energy, style, and perception. If they lacked the magic touch, all of them wrote well enough to bring a sense of participation in the war to their readers, and at times they did it superbly. Through the reprint circuit the work of each, in varying degree, elevated standards of reporting the country over" (266).

Church founded the Army and Navy Journal (357). [pages: 9,109,110,266,357]

Whitman, Walt. Letter to William D. O'Connor. 1867. 342-343. [more about this work]

Wilson, James Grant and John Fiske, eds. Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Volume I, Aaron-Crandall. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1888. [more about this work]

Church received the rank of captain in the US Volunteers in 1862 and, later, was promoted to lieutenant-colonel on March 11, 1865. [pages: 613]