Charles H. Grasty
Encyclopedia
Charles Henry Grasty was a well-known American newspaper operator who at one time controlled the Baltimore Sun, named among the great publishers, such as Joseph Pulitzer
and William Randolph Hearst
. Grasty owned the Evening News, which he ran for a number of years and later sold prior to acquiring the Minnesota Dispatch and the St. Paul Pioneer Press
in separate transactions and later divesting these newspapers to seek ownership of the Sun. Grasty was one of the developers of the Roland Park development, said to be an early innovation in community planning, including planned shopping centers and other aspects of the community prior to development.
In 1890 he married Leota Tootle Perrin, a woman with a daughter from another marriage named Sarah Perrin (Sarah Perrin was married to Lieutenant George de Grasse Catlin in Lake Placid New York August 18, 1909). That same year, Grasty became the general manager of the Manufacturers' Record, a weekly business journal in Baltimore, leaving the Kansas City Star.
, who lost the state senate seat from which he had dominated Maryland politics for years. In addition, he saw the unseating of I. Freeman Rasin, Gorman's ally in control of Baltimore, who was defeated for city council. Grasty’s 1893 accusations against democratic politicians for their involvement in gambling schemes earned him a libel suit, which he won.
In the great Baltimore fire
of 1904 took down much of the city including the Evening News. The Washington Post
agreed to print the News, and Grasty turned to Adolph S. Ochs to use the unused printing facilities of the Philadelphia Times. Ochs essentially gave Grasty the machinery. Grasty rebuilt the News and reopened within weeks. It is said that within 16 hours of the fire, Grasty had acquired a new plant and three new printing presses for $150,000. First Press Is Here, Baltimore American, Feb. 12, 1904; Charles Grasty to Richard Mansfield, June 30, 1906, NYPL/ms; See Mencken: the American iconoclast By Marion Elizabeth Rodgers.
On June 18, 1906, Grasty and Gen. Agnus (owner of the Baltimore American) purchased The Baltimore Herald and promptly shut it down and divided its assets for their existing newspapers. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F6061EFD355A12738DDDA10994DE405B868CF1D3
Grasty sold the News on 27 February 1908 to chain-maker Frank A. Munsey for $1,500,000. Grasty attempted to remain on as general manager, but resigned within weeks due to disagreements. Later in 1908 he bought a half-interest in a Minnesota evening paper called the Dispatch. Early the next year he bought the St. Paul Pioneer Press, which had both morning and evening editions, and combined its evening edition with the Dispatch. Grasty’s style was not well accepted in the Twin Cities and he soon sold the papers back to their original owners and took an extended trip to Europe. However, Grasty was already eyeing the Baltimore Sun, which was still run by the Abell family. Grasty found investors and struck a deal with the Sun founders to leave them with a majority stake, but took for himself preferred shares that guaranteed absolute control of the Sun by him personally. The Abells relented out of fear that Grasty would roll up the local competing papers and compete against the Sun.
After taking control of the Sun, Grasty acquired the Baltimore World at auction in April 1910 for $63,000, overpaying, but fearing a play by William Randolph Hearst
to enter the Baltimore market.
Grasty retired in 1915 and went to Europe as a war correspondent for the Kansas City Star. He returned to the U.S. in 1916, served as the Treasurer for the New York Times, before boredom caused him to return to Europe and his work as a war correspondent. In 1918 he published a book, Flashes from the Front. He continued living in London and working as a war correspondent for the Times until his death. He wrote a number of pieces that were published in the Atlantic while he was a correspondent in London.
in a successful contest for the Presidency against William Howard Taft
and Theodore Roosevelt
. In 1914, after the death of President Woodrow Wilson
’s wife, Grasty telegrammed the President with his regrets. A letter signed by Wilson on Whitehouse letterhead thanks Mr. Grasty for this.
http://www.galleryofhistory.com/archive/7_2005/presidents/30768-PRESIDENT-WOODROW-WILSON.htm
Acknowledging sympathy upon the death of the First Lady.
The White House, Washington, 1914 August 15. To Charles H. Grasty, Baltimore. In full: "I want you to know how real a comfort it was to me to get your telegram of sympathy. It is very delightful to feel the warm touch of a friend's hand at such a time, and your telegram has served to give me strength and courage." Nine days earlier, on August 6, 1914, Wilson's wife, Ellen Louise Axson Wilson, had died of Bright's disease at the age of 54. She was the last First Lady to die while her husband was President.
. Few men in newspaper history have the same resume. Grasty was among the greatest names of American industrialists in one book, which closed his biographical chapter by saying, "Mr. Grasty justly occupies a place as one of the real captains of American industry." 130 Pen Pictures of Live Men
http://books.google.com/books?id=IOQDAAAAYAAJ&lpg=PA174&ots=Wbze-FU2TJ&dq=charles%20grasty%20baltimore%20sun&pg=PA174#v=onepage&q&f=false
From 1915 until his death in 1924, Grasty lived mostly in London, where he also died. He was known as the local connection for information, and was at the Paris convention
of 1919.
While living in London, Grasty fathered a daughter with an Englishwoman named Louisa Bennett. This, his only daughter, Joan Bennett Grasty was born in 1919. Grasty and his wife Leota had no natural children together. Grasty remain involved in the life of his daughter, and paid for Joan's education in France and later moved Joan and her mother Louisa to the United States, where he financed their living, eventually leaving Joan “Winifred” Bennett Grasty as his sole heir. Joan Grasty became a world traveler, attended University of Southern California
, was a one-time Hollywood actress and later supported Ronald Regan in his successful bid for California Governor. Joan Grasty had only one child, Pete Robinson. His great-grandchildren are still living.
“Probably no citizen of Baltimore ever performed greater public services. Our municipal government today, whatever its defects, is at least a hundred times as honest, intelligent and efficient as it was in 1892. For that change we may thank Charles H. Grasty more than we may thank any other man.... His monument belongs in Baltimore, not in New York or in London, where he served the Times so long. He left an indelible mark upon journalism here, and he left a no less indelible mark upon municipal history. He changed our newspapers and he changed our politics, and both changes were for the better.”
Cited as a source for http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Literary_Digest_History_of_the_World_War/Sources
http://www.danarobinson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/grastyteamphoto.png
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictionary_of_Literary_Biography
Joseph Pulitzer
Joseph Pulitzer April 10, 1847 – October 29, 1911), born Politzer József, was a Hungarian-American newspaper publisher of the St. Louis Post Dispatch and the New York World. Pulitzer introduced the techniques of "new journalism" to the newspapers he acquired in the 1880s and became a leading...
and William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst was an American business magnate and leading newspaper publisher. Hearst entered the publishing business in 1887, after taking control of The San Francisco Examiner from his father...
. Grasty owned the Evening News, which he ran for a number of years and later sold prior to acquiring the Minnesota Dispatch and the St. Paul Pioneer Press
St. Paul Pioneer Press
The St. Paul Pioneer Press is a newspaper based in St. Paul, Minnesota, primarily serving the Twin Cities metropolitan area. Circulation is heaviest in the eastern metro region, including Ramsey, Dakota, and Washington counties, along with western Wisconsin, eastern Minnesota and Anoka County,...
in separate transactions and later divesting these newspapers to seek ownership of the Sun. Grasty was one of the developers of the Roland Park development, said to be an early innovation in community planning, including planned shopping centers and other aspects of the community prior to development.
Early life
Charles H. Grasty was born March 3, 1863 in Fincastle, Virginia, the son of a Presbyterian minister, the Reverend John Sharshall Grasty, and the former Ella Giles Pettus, and as a bright youth taught Latin while in high school. At age 16 he entered University of Missouri to study law, but left before graduating to enter the newspaper business. He stayed on at a summer job reporting for the Mexico Intelligencer paying $6 a week, and then was offered $7 a week to join the Kansas City Star, where he rose to managing editor within 18 months.In 1890 he married Leota Tootle Perrin, a woman with a daughter from another marriage named Sarah Perrin (Sarah Perrin was married to Lieutenant George de Grasse Catlin in Lake Placid New York August 18, 1909). That same year, Grasty became the general manager of the Manufacturers' Record, a weekly business journal in Baltimore, leaving the Kansas City Star.
Newspaper career
Grasty was involved in developing Roland Park in Baltimore when he also assembled investors to back his acquisition of the Baltimore Evening News in 1892. Through the Evening News he attacked local political corruption, but maintained political independence. He came out against the Baltimore Sun as a competing newspaper for its willingness to ignore Baltimore political corruption, at the time not knowing that over a decade later he would take control of that newspaper. His efforts to root out corruption in Baltimore politics ensured the loss of power by incumbent democrats Arthur Pue GormanArthur Pue Gorman
Arthur Pue Gorman was a United States Senator from Maryland, serving from 1881 to 1899 and from 1903 to 1906. He also served in the Maryland House of Delegates from 1869 to 1875...
, who lost the state senate seat from which he had dominated Maryland politics for years. In addition, he saw the unseating of I. Freeman Rasin, Gorman's ally in control of Baltimore, who was defeated for city council. Grasty’s 1893 accusations against democratic politicians for their involvement in gambling schemes earned him a libel suit, which he won.
In the great Baltimore fire
Great Baltimore Fire
The Great Baltimore Fire raged in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, on Sunday, February 7, and Monday, February 8, 1904. 1,231 firefighters were required to bring the blaze under control...
of 1904 took down much of the city including the Evening News. The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
agreed to print the News, and Grasty turned to Adolph S. Ochs to use the unused printing facilities of the Philadelphia Times. Ochs essentially gave Grasty the machinery. Grasty rebuilt the News and reopened within weeks. It is said that within 16 hours of the fire, Grasty had acquired a new plant and three new printing presses for $150,000. First Press Is Here, Baltimore American, Feb. 12, 1904; Charles Grasty to Richard Mansfield, June 30, 1906, NYPL/ms; See Mencken: the American iconoclast By Marion Elizabeth Rodgers.
On June 18, 1906, Grasty and Gen. Agnus (owner of the Baltimore American) purchased The Baltimore Herald and promptly shut it down and divided its assets for their existing newspapers. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F6061EFD355A12738DDDA10994DE405B868CF1D3
Grasty sold the News on 27 February 1908 to chain-maker Frank A. Munsey for $1,500,000. Grasty attempted to remain on as general manager, but resigned within weeks due to disagreements. Later in 1908 he bought a half-interest in a Minnesota evening paper called the Dispatch. Early the next year he bought the St. Paul Pioneer Press, which had both morning and evening editions, and combined its evening edition with the Dispatch. Grasty’s style was not well accepted in the Twin Cities and he soon sold the papers back to their original owners and took an extended trip to Europe. However, Grasty was already eyeing the Baltimore Sun, which was still run by the Abell family. Grasty found investors and struck a deal with the Sun founders to leave them with a majority stake, but took for himself preferred shares that guaranteed absolute control of the Sun by him personally. The Abells relented out of fear that Grasty would roll up the local competing papers and compete against the Sun.
After taking control of the Sun, Grasty acquired the Baltimore World at auction in April 1910 for $63,000, overpaying, but fearing a play by William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst was an American business magnate and leading newspaper publisher. Hearst entered the publishing business in 1887, after taking control of The San Francisco Examiner from his father...
to enter the Baltimore market.
Grasty retired in 1915 and went to Europe as a war correspondent for the Kansas City Star. He returned to the U.S. in 1916, served as the Treasurer for the New York Times, before boredom caused him to return to Europe and his work as a war correspondent. In 1918 he published a book, Flashes from the Front. He continued living in London and working as a war correspondent for the Times until his death. He wrote a number of pieces that were published in the Atlantic while he was a correspondent in London.
Roland Park
Grasty was one of the investors of Roland Park, a suburban development in Baltimore at about the same time that he first acquired the Evening News. Grasty lived at Fryer and Caprons in Roland Park, which today is the corner of Woodlawn Ave and Upland. The Roland Park development was said to be an innovation in early development of planned communities. Schlack, H. G. "Planning Roland Park, 1891-1900." Maryland Historical Magazine 67 (Winter 1972): 419-28. http://www.rolandpark.org/rphistory.html. Roland Park included a "store block" arranged in a linear pattern along a street to serve the commercial needs of a planned residential community. Similar store blocks were built in Los Angeles 1908 for the College Tract on West 48th St. http://homepage.mac.com/oldtownman/soc/shoppingcenter.html; http://www.baltimoremd.com/streetcar/carstock.htmlPolitics
By 1911, Grasty used the Sun to back Woodrow WilsonWoodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
in a successful contest for the Presidency against William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft was the 27th President of the United States and later the tenth Chief Justice of the United States...
and Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
. In 1914, after the death of President Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
’s wife, Grasty telegrammed the President with his regrets. A letter signed by Wilson on Whitehouse letterhead thanks Mr. Grasty for this.
Letter signed by Woodrow Wilson
Auction for a letter to Grasty signed by Woodrow Wilsonhttp://www.galleryofhistory.com/archive/7_2005/presidents/30768-PRESIDENT-WOODROW-WILSON.htm
Acknowledging sympathy upon the death of the First Lady.
The White House, Washington, 1914 August 15. To Charles H. Grasty, Baltimore. In full: "I want you to know how real a comfort it was to me to get your telegram of sympathy. It is very delightful to feel the warm touch of a friend's hand at such a time, and your telegram has served to give me strength and courage." Nine days earlier, on August 6, 1914, Wilson's wife, Ellen Louise Axson Wilson, had died of Bright's disease at the age of 54. She was the last First Lady to die while her husband was President.
Legacy
His life was that of a newspaperman. He was in the business from the time he was about 17 until his death at 61 years old. He ran papers from the perspective and ethic of a reporter. He was an idealist, and even in his bid for control of the Sunpapers, his focus for control was not financial, but an effort to ensure that he could separate editorial control from investor involvement. His retirement was that of a war correspondent, a well-informed writer, who is said to be the most informed in all of Europe in the years before his death. His leadership touched into Baltimore politics, and helped Wilson’s bid for presidential election. His name is associated with The Baltimore Sun, Evening News, Kansas City Star, New York Times, Washington Post, and half-dozen other regional newspapers. From 1900 to 1910, Grasty was a director of the Associated PressAssociated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
. Few men in newspaper history have the same resume. Grasty was among the greatest names of American industrialists in one book, which closed his biographical chapter by saying, "Mr. Grasty justly occupies a place as one of the real captains of American industry." 130 Pen Pictures of Live Men
http://books.google.com/books?id=IOQDAAAAYAAJ&lpg=PA174&ots=Wbze-FU2TJ&dq=charles%20grasty%20baltimore%20sun&pg=PA174#v=onepage&q&f=false
From 1915 until his death in 1924, Grasty lived mostly in London, where he also died. He was known as the local connection for information, and was at the Paris convention
Paris convention
The Paris convention might refer to:* The Paris Convention on Third Party Liability in the Field of Nuclear Energy* The Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property...
of 1919.
While living in London, Grasty fathered a daughter with an Englishwoman named Louisa Bennett. This, his only daughter, Joan Bennett Grasty was born in 1919. Grasty and his wife Leota had no natural children together. Grasty remain involved in the life of his daughter, and paid for Joan's education in France and later moved Joan and her mother Louisa to the United States, where he financed their living, eventually leaving Joan “Winifred” Bennett Grasty as his sole heir. Joan Grasty became a world traveler, attended University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
, was a one-time Hollywood actress and later supported Ronald Regan in his successful bid for California Governor. Joan Grasty had only one child, Pete Robinson. His great-grandchildren are still living.
Death
Grasty died January 19, 1924, and while many things were said about him at the time of his death, and after, the Sun’s editorial after his death stated:“Probably no citizen of Baltimore ever performed greater public services. Our municipal government today, whatever its defects, is at least a hundred times as honest, intelligent and efficient as it was in 1892. For that change we may thank Charles H. Grasty more than we may thank any other man.... His monument belongs in Baltimore, not in New York or in London, where he served the Times so long. He left an indelible mark upon journalism here, and he left a no less indelible mark upon municipal history. He changed our newspapers and he changed our politics, and both changes were for the better.”
Career highlights
- Managing editor, Kansas City Star (1884–1889)
- Publisher, Baltimore Evening News (1892–1908),
- St. Paul Dispatch and St. Paul Pioneer Press (1908–1909)
- President and general manager, Baltimore Sunpapers (1910–1914)
- War correspondent, Kansas City Star and Associated Press (1915–1916)
- Treasurer, New York Times (1916–1917)
- Special editorial correspondent, New York Times (1917–1924)
- Director, Associated Press (1915–1916)
Books
Flashes from the Front (New York: Century, 1918). http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/charles-henry-grasty/flashes-from-the-front-sar/1-flashes-from-the-front-sar.shtmlCited as a source for http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Literary_Digest_History_of_the_World_War/Sources
See also
Dana Robinson, Esq., great-grandson's Charles Grasty page: http://www.danarobinson.com/charlesgrastyhttp://www.danarobinson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/grastyteamphoto.png
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictionary_of_Literary_Biography