Page:The Afro-American Press.djvu/169

Rh endeavored, with all the life and power of the free press, to demonstrate and carry out; and it may be added that the right conception" of its mission among a class of emancipated freemen has been the secret of its success. Its history has been made eventful, useful and authoritative, by its numeronsnumerous [sic] representative and versatile contributors. The leading men of the race, as Douglass, Lynch, Bruce, and others, have been upon its staff of contributors. Its editors and proprietors, men of push and men of the hour, are Messrs. William H. Anderson, Benjamin B. Pelham, William H. Stowers, and Robert Pelham, Jr., a brief sketch of whom we now give.

William H. Anderson, one of the four original members of The Plaindealer Company, first saw the light in Sandusky, O., August 13th, 1857. He attended the common schools there until he came to Detroit with his parents at 16. On graduating from the High School in '75, he commenced as parcel boy with Newcomb, Endicott & Company, and steadily rose to the position of bookkeeper. He is now one of their most trusted employesemployees [sic], beside doing his editorial work upon The Plaindealer. His first newspaper experience was with The Detroit Free Press. He then corresponded with The New York Globe, and since his connection with The Plaindealer conducted the series of articles that attracted such wide mention, "Our Relation to Labor."

Benjamin B. Pelham was born in Detroit, February 7, 1862. He began his school life at the age of nine years at the Everett School, and was a member of the first class which graduated from that school to the Detroit High School. At the termination of his course in the High School, he accepted a position with the Detroit Post and Tribune Company. His first experience in journalism began with the publication of The Venture, an amateur paper, which he edited three years. He has been connected with The Tribune in various capacities for fifteen years, during a portion of which time