H. C. HARL
Page 650
H. C. HARL
Page 650
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H. C. HARL. The journalistic profession is one of such peculiar nature, so complicated in its literary and business channels, that to call a man an editor has become equivalent to saying that he is apt in speech, acute imperception and well versed in mind. In this age of the world an uneducated man cannot conduct a paper even in what might be called the "back woods," and much less in the midst of an enlightened community, who demand that their local papers shall be spicy, newsy and readable. All these characteristics are true of the Bath Sentinel, which is edited by the subject of this biographical notice. Our subject was born in Metamora, Woodford County, this state, September 21, 1861, and is the son of G. L. Harl, whose birth occurred July 12, 1825, in Loudoun County, Va. The latter came with his parents to Beardstown, this state, their family including eight children. The paternal grandparents of our subject, James and Susan F. (Shoemaker) Harl, were natives respectively of Wales and Virginia. The time of their removal to this state was in the fall of 1833, and the father died the following year. His family resided in Beardstown for about six years, and in 1840 located in Jacksonville, where the father of our subject learned the printer's trade, working in the office "Goudy on the weather." After spending nine months in the above city, G. L. Harl went to St. Louis, where he thoroughly mastered the art preservative in the office of the St. Louis Republic, and soon thereafter took up his abode in Peoria, this state, working on the Independent. To him belongs the distinction of having done the first job work in the city. About 1856 he moves to Tiskilwa, where he engaged in the publication of the Tiskilwa Independent about one year, after which he published the Galva Watchman for six months. Upon selling the latter paper he returned to Peoria, and was employed on the Transcript until the fall of 1861, when he removed with his family to Metamora, finding employment in the office of the Sentinel. In 1866, in company with Thomas L. Powers, he purchased that plant, and they continued to publish the paper together until 1877. That year Mr. Harl bought his partner's interest, and was engaged in the publishing business until his decease, July 12, 1891. The lady whom G. L. Harl married March 12, 1860, was Miss Eliza Thurlow. She was born in London, England, and was a daughter of James and Ann (Golden) Thurlow, also natives of that city. Mrs. Harl came with her father and three brothers to America, and in the spring of 1847 located with them in Peoria. Her mother had previously died in London, and her father departed this life two years after coming to the New World. Mrs. Harl is still living, and makes her home in Bath with her two sons and daughter, Harry, Hervey and Jennie T. Mary C., the other member of the family, was born in 1864, and died two years later. Harry C., of this sketch, learned the trade of a printer in his father's office in Metamora, and entered upon that business in 1877. On his father's death, in 1891, he took charge of the paper and conducted it until December of that year, when he sold the plant, but again purchased it in June, 1892. That year he moved to Washington and with a partner began the publication of the Washington Herald. The following November he moved to Bath and established the Sentinel, the increasing circulation of which indicates that its editor has ability for journalism. |