Union United States Army officer (1836?1917)
William Conant Church
(August 11, 1836 ? May 23, 1917) was an American journalist, author and soldier. He was publisher of several newspapers and magazines in association with his father and brother. He was the co-founder and second president of the
National Rifle Association of America
.
Life and work
[
edit
]
Church was born in
Rochester, New York
on August 11, 1836, to the Reverend Pharcellus Church. He was educated in the
Boston Latin School
. While still a youth, he helped his father edit and publish the
New York Chronicle
.
[1]
In 1860, he became publisher of
The Sun
and of the
New York Chronicle
. In 1861?62 he was
Washington
correspondent of
The
New York Times
.
[1]
He resigned his journalistic position on his appointment as captain in the
United States Volunteers
in 1862, and served for one year, receiving
brevets
of
major
and
lieutenant colonel
.
In 1863, he and his brother,
Francis Pharcellus Church
, established
The Army and Navy Journal
, which published under various names for 151 years, ending its run in 2014 as
Armed Forces Journal
. In 1866, the pair founded the
Galaxy Magazine
.
[2]
Church regularly called for a better standard of marksmanship amongst militia and
National Guard
soldiers.
[3]
In August 1871 he wrote in
The Army and Navy Journal
that “An association should be organized in this city [New York] to promote and encourage rifle-shooting on a scientific basis. The National Guard is to-day too slow in getting about this reform,”. With
George Wood Wingate
, he established the
National Rifle Association of America
that year,
[4]
[5]
and in 1872 he replaced its first president, the retired general
Ambrose Burnside
.
[6]
Church was government commissioner to inspect the
Northern Pacific Railroad
in 1882.
He wrote two biographies, of
John Ericsson
in 1891, and
Ulysses S. Grant
in 1899.
He published the
Army and Navy Journal
. In one issue he criticized the living arrangements aboard
USS
Monitor
, a vessel built by
John Ericsson
.
[7]
Church was also one of the founders of the
Metropolitan Museum of Art
, an original member of the
Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States
, and became a director and lifetime member of the
New York Zoological Society
.
Church died on May 23, 1917. His funeral took place at
Grace Church
in
Lower Manhattan
.
[1]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
"Col. W. C. Church, Editor, Dies at 80"
(PDF)
.
New York Times
(Obituary). May 24, 1917
. Retrieved
4 January
2013
.
- ^
"Walt Whitman to Francis P. Church and William C. Church, 15 November 1869"
. The Walt Whitman Archive.
Archived
from the original on November 2, 2014.
With his brother Francis Pharcellus (1839?1906), he established the Galaxy in 1866.
- ^
Donald N. Bigelow (1952).
William Conant Church & the Army and Navy Journal
. Columbia University Press. pp. 184?185.
- ^
"A Brief History of the NRA"
.
National Rifle Association
.
Archived
from the original on August 1, 2023
. Retrieved
2021-08-07
.
- ^
Rothman, Lily (November 17, 2015).
"The Original Reason the NRA Was Founded"
.
Time
.
Archived
from the original on May 29, 2019
. Retrieved
November 12,
2019
.
- ^
Bedard, Paul (April 14, 2018).
"Rare Abraham Lincoln tie to the NRA shows up at auction"
.
Washington Examiner
.
Archived
from the original on December 10, 2020
. Retrieved
November 14,
2019
.
- ^
Holzer, Harold (2013).
The Civil War in Fifty Objects
. New York: Penguin Books: New York Historical Society. p. 52.
Further reading
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
|
---|
International
| |
---|
National
| |
---|
Other
| |
---|
|
---|
Presidents
| |
---|
CEOs and Executive Vice Presidents
| |
---|
See also
| |
---|