Person:Elam Christian (1)

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Obituary from Page 1 of the Marietta (Ga.) Journal, Friday, December 12, 1913:

Headline: AFTER ILLNESS OF A WEEK REV. ELAM CHRISTIAN IS DEAD

Was Confederate Veteran And Was Wouned in First Battle of War. _____________

After being in bed only one week, Rev. Elam Christian passed into the repose of death last Tuesday morning (December 9, 1913) just before dawn. He had been for many years in delicate health, having been seriously wounded in the first volley fired at the first battle of Manassas on the 21st of July, 1861, when he was only 19 years old, and he never recovered from that wound. After he could walk he became a drill master of Southern troops at Kennesaw, then known as "Big Shanty," and was there when the Northern soldiers stole the "General" and ran away with a W. & A. freight train from that station. He was a Methodist local preacher, but not a member of a conference, and was editor of various papers in cities and towns in Georgia, Texas and North Carolina. He was a good writer, both in prose and verse, and his pen was always on the right and best side of every problem. He loved his fellow man and was always present at meetings of citizens, funerals, church and veterans. He was adjutant of the camp 763, U.C.V. of Cobb county, and was active in all its good works. He was also a faithful aid to his pastor, Rev. G. W. Duval, in many ways. He will be sadly missed by his many friends in Marietta. The funeral was conducted by Mr. Duval Wednesday morning and the interment was in the cemetery at Acworth. He leaves his wife, three sons, John Christian, of Marietta; W. H. Christian of Atlanta, and P. M. Christian, of Lawrenceville, Ga., and three daughters, Mrs. W. L. Abbott, of Acworth; Mrs. A. S. Chewning. of Atlanta, and Mrs. Charles Bolden, of Detroit, Mich., who is here on a visit to her mother.

In the 1860 Spalding County, GA, census, Elam Christian, was shown as 18, living with James H. Logan Jr., 36, an editor, whose wife was Sophia, 36. Page 182, 163/163, and this appears to be where he got his tutoring in journalism.

ON THE CIVIL WAR In the "Georgia Division - United Daughters of the Confederacy Ancestor Roster, Vol. 2 (C-D), 1992, it shows this: Elam Christian - Prvt. - Co. 'F' 8th Ga. Infantry. b. 28 Dec 1842 Ga d. 09 Dec 1913 Ga m Helen Katherine Burr 19 Oct 1865 Ga b. 25 Jan 1850 Ga d. 29Dec 1922 Ga Enlisted 5/22/1861 Discharged Aug. 1, 1861 Disability

And the records of the 8th Regiment of Georgia, Volunteer Infantry, Army of Northern Virginia, C.S.A., reflect on March 10, 1862, Elam enlisted as a private in Co. I of the 42nd Regiment of the Georgia Infantry. Those records show "no further record," but the following exerpt from an article found at www.thehistorynet.com on the Civil War indicates just what was happening in Georgia on that fateful day on March 10, 1862:

Headline: The hard-fighting 44th Georgia suffered some of the heaviest losses of any regiment in the Civil War By Gerald J. Smith On March 10, 1862, companies of Georgians from Henry, Jasper, Clarke, Spalding, Clayton, Putnam, Fayette, Pike, Morgan, Henry and Greene counties all assembled at Camp Stephens, outside Griffin. Responding to Governor Joseph Brown's mandate to raise forces from each county, the companies were hastily mustered in as the 44th Georgia Regiment Volunteers. On April 4, the new regiment was ordered to Goldsboro, N.C. For some soldiers, it would be the first leg of a three-year sojourn; for many others, it would be the first step toward eternity. The 44th was soon allied with the 3rd Arkansas, the 1st North Carolina and the 3rd North Carolina to form a brigade under Brig. Gen. John G. Walker, in the division of Maj. Gen. Theophilus H. Holmes. On May 27, the brigade was ordered to Richmond to counter Union Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan's advance up the Virginia Peninsula. The Battle of Seven Pines was just over when the brigade arrived on June 1, and the men assumed picket duty, with some skirmishing, until the Seven Days' campaign began later that month. During the lull, the 48th Georgia was added to the brigade to replace the 3rd Arkansas. Also, Brig. Gen. Roswell Ripley succeeded Walker at the helm, and Maj. Gen. D.H. Hill assumed command of the division. The 44th Georgia "washed its spears" at the June 26 Battle of Mechanicsville. The Union left lay along a ridge on the east bank of Beaver Dam Creek, strongly entrenched and supported by superb artillery--a position of great natural strength. (The Georgia records reflect no 42nd Regiment, indicating it must have been hastily assembled, and perhaps folded into another regiment.)

ON ELAM'S TIME AS A METHODIST MINISTER In the book "Methodist Preachers in Georgia 1783-1900, edited an compiled by Harold Lawrence, member North Georgia Conference, the United Methodist Church, copyright 1984, The Boyd Publishing Co., Ltd. Tignall, GA, it shows on page 101:

Christian, Elam North Ga. Conference: 1875 OT; 1876 Sparta Factory Mission (Augusta); 1876 Discontinued; 1879 Deacon (L); 1883 Elder

(This last seems to be in question, since the Atlanta Constitution in 1883 showed Rev. Elam Christian preaching every Sunday at the West End Methodist Church in Atlanta. This was gleaned from an electronic search of AC files on Ancestry.com.)

Enlisted as a private on 22 May 1861 Enlisted in Co. F, 8th Inf. Reg. Ga 22 May 1861 Received a disability discharge on 1 Aug. 1862 Enlisted in Co. I, 42nd Infantry Reg. GA on 10 March 1862

---Roster of Confederate Soldiers of Georgia, 1861-1865 (GARosterC) Published in 1955-58 by Longino and Porter

In The Land Between – A History of Hancock Co., GA to 1940 by Forrest Shivers 1990 On pg. 237 – Chapter XVII – Social Life and the Growth of Sparta. "Another paper that began about the same time was the Times & Planter, known variously also as the Southern Times Planter and the Sparta Times and Planter. The founder of this paper cannot be determined but in 1874 Little, Jordan & Co. were the proprietors. In 1874 John R. Christian became the editor and was later joined by Elam Christian, his son or brother. (Ed note: his brother.) The Christians remained until 1879 when they both began preparations to take up new endeavors. In April the paper reported that John R. Christian had returned from a visit to New York where he had purchased the equipment necessary to publish a newspaper he and Mr. Callaway had planned to establish in Americus. The same issue reported that Elam Christian had been admitted to the bar after being examined by a committee of local lawyers. Earlier that year the Times & Planter had printed the prospectus for the Sparta Ishmaelite, to be published by Sidney Lewis and Sidney L. Forbes. The first issue appeared on March 12, 1879. Whether the Christians had made known their intention to leave and thus encouraged the Ishmaelite founders or been scared off by the appearance of competition is not clear, but the former seems more likely since the Times & Planter was well established and known." --- This note from the Atlanta Constitution, March 30, 1888:

"ABOUT GEORGIAN EDITORS Elam Christian, who is a well known Georgian editor, is getting rich in Tallapoosa. He never started a paper that failed."

The same paper, in its July 28, 1888, edition, had a brief article that Elam Christian, along with David Freeman, had taken over the Carterville Courant.

From the Atlanta Constitution, Sunday, Feb. 2, 1890:

(Included in a wrap up story about 11 Georgia newspaper editors – including one woman.

Elam Christian, Douglasville South (See line drawing in scrapbook)

Mr. Christian is president of the Georgia Weekly Press Association. He was a printers' "devil" at twelve years of age at Dalton. He entered the war with the Atlanta Grays at eighteen years old. He was in Macon when the war closed. The "Telegraph and Confederate" suspended for three weeks after the fedrals entered Macon, during which he published a small paper called the Evening News, the first evening daily in the state. He subscribers were received. Sold them at 5 cents in specie or $2 in confederate money. When the Telegraph resumed he became city editor, which place was resigned when A. P. Burr died, to take his place as editor of the (Macon) Journal and Messenger. In February ‘66, Mr. Christian went to Dawson and started the Dawson Journal in connection with J. E. Christian. While running that paper he bought the old Lumpkin Palladium office, moved it to Cuthbert, took J. P. Sawtelle as a partner there and started the Cuthbert Appeal. He next started the Calhoun Times. Next the Courier, the forerunner of the present prosperous American Recorder. He next ran the Sparta Times and Planter six years.Then the Macon Evening Herald some two years. Then with Atlanta as headquarters, started papers in several new and ambitious towns which are still living and doing well. He was local editor of the Atlanta Journal the first six months of its existence. He started the Talapoosa Journal "in the woods." He was next induced to buy the Cartersville Courant-American with D. B. Freeman. He ran it one and a half years, during which time the town built waterworks and gasworks and took on its present boom. On the 1st day of December last he bought the Douglasville New South, put in a splendid outfit, and nearly doubled the subscription list in a few weeks.

(Elam Christian’s son, William Henry Christian, worked for many years as a typographer at the Atlanta Journal in Atlanta, Ga. He mentioned the following incident to his boss, Cole Jones, at the Journal. At Jones’ request, he wrote the following item. Don’t know just when it ran in the Journal, as the clipping I got had no date on it.)

“About 1874, Elam Christian, who had been active in the newspaper field in Georgia during and after the War Between the States, felt the urge to preach the Gospel, joined the Methodist Conference and was sent to Hancock County. Difficulty with his voice arose when and old war wound in the throat began giving him trouble again, so that he was forced to give up his preaching. “He organized a stock company in Sparta for the purpose of publishing a newspaper there and went on to Cincinnati to buy an outfit. Just before his train arrived in Cincinnati the detective department received information that notorious counterfeiter -- named Smith, I believe -- was aboard the train, disguised as a circuit riding preacher, with two satchels of counterfeit money. When my father started to leave the train two of the city’s finest immediately recognized the unmistakable marks of the old-time circuit rider and proceeded to carry him, not withstanding strenuous protestations and efforts to identify himself, to the police headquarters. Arriving there hatless, with his old traveling bag and walking cane taken away by the crowd which gathered around them, he soon convinced the detective chief it would be better to allow him to communicate with a Mr. Dickinson, I believe, who was vice president and general manager of the old Cincinnati Type Foundry, and boyhood friend of his in Dalton, Ga. “Mr. Dickinson was a member of the city police board -- possibly chairman -- and the detectives believed their man was endeavoring to put over a ruse of some sort to secure his freedom. Imagine the consternation when, after receiving Mr. Christian’s note, Mr. Dickinson hastened to see him and fell upon his neck in delighted recognition! “Suffice it to say the chagrined detectives hastened to re-outfit their victim in a new circuit-rider hat, an appropriate walking cane and a traveling bag. “So when Elam Christian sought a name for the new (newspaper) venture, ‘The Ishmaelite’ presented itself as a natural sequence of his experiences. Mr. Christian’s brother, John Christian, was associated with hm on the Ishmaelite, and to the best of my knowledge and belief, three of his wives, who were daughters of Colonel Evans, of Marshallville, Ga., are buried in the cemetery at Sparta.”