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EDWARD WARE BARRETT

BIOGRAPHY and GENEALOGY

(1866-aft. 1921)

Jefferson County, Alabama

Edward Ware Barrett was president of the Birmingham Age-Herald company and editor of that paper. He was born in Athens, Georgia Sept. 4, 1866, the son of Thomas Glasscock Barrett and Grace Arrington (Ware) Barrett. He was reared in Augusta, Georgia, received his early education in the public schools of that city, and later graduated from Richmond academy, subsequently taking a three-year course in civil engineering at Washington and Lee university, Lexington, Va.

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In 1885, after only a few days' experience in practical engineering, he was persuaded by Patrick Walsh, editor of theAugusta Chronicle and afterwards United States senator from Georgia, to learn the newspaper business. He started on the Chronicle, setting type. After working at the case for a year, he was made proof-reader, later telegraph editor and finally city editor. He left the Chronicle to become the correspondent of the Charleston News and Courier at Augusta, and in January, 1888, was appointed, by Henry W. Grady, Washington correspondent of the Atlanta Constitution. He remained in Washington from 1888 to 1897, and during this time was for four years the political secretary of the speaker of the house, Hon. Charles F. Crisp, of Georgia.

In the early part of 1895 he went to Japan and China to handle the war new of the Chinese-Japanese war for the Atlanta Constitution and the New York World, and spent four months in the Orient. Up to 1897 Mr. Barrett had retained his residence in Augusta, Ga., but in that year, having purchased a controlling interest in theBirmingham Age-Herald, he removed to Birmingham.

He was always active in politics. In 1892 he was elected a delegate from Georgia to the Democratic National convention in Chicago, and in 1896 was a delegate fromAlabama in the National convention of the same party at Kansas City. Through the Age-Herald, Mr. Barrett devoted much attention to the advancement of education in Alabama. He constantly urged the adoption of the latest methods and equipment in the schools. He gave much time to the development of the State and its upbuilding from every point of view, his ideas being thoroughly up to date. Mr. Barrett was married Dec. 18, 1895, to Janie Southerlin Smith, daughter of Francis L. Smith and Janie (Southerlin) Smith, of Virginia.