Civil War Publisher

— Carolinas Campaign —

Across the street is the Hale-Williams House, notable for the variety of architectural styles it incorporates as well as for the prominence of its builder, Edward Jones Hale. Hale bought this property in 1847 and constructed the house in the 1850s.

Hale born in Chatham County on September 9, 1802, received an education in journalism on the Raleigh Register and the National Intelligencer in Washington, D.C. From 1825 to 1865, he published the Fayetteville Observer, which Francis W. Waldo had launched in 1817 as the Carolina Observer (North Carolina's oldest newspaper still published). During the years before the Civil War, the paper became a leading political journal, with Hale acting as a major spokesman for the Whig party. Because of the newspaper's strong pro-Southern tone and its editorial policy supporting Gov. Zebulon B. Vance, the destruction of the newspaper plant was among Union Gen. William T. Sherman's objectives when he occupied Fayetteville in March 1865. Brig. Gen. Absalom Baird, military governor of Fayetteville during the occupation, reported, "Before leaving the town, I destroyed 2 foundries of some importance, 4 cotton factories, and the printing establishment of 3 rebel newspapers." Although the Observer office, a large three-story brick building on the corner of Hay and Anderson Streets, was destroyed, the files had been sent to Pittsboro and were saved.

In 1865, Hale moved to New York and established the E.J. Hale publishing house, then sold his home here in 1869. In 1882, he returned to Fayetteville, where he died on January 1, 1883. His sons resumed publishing the Fayetteville Observer in 1883.

The Hale-Williams House is a private residence, not open to the public.

(captions
(left) Edward J. Hale Courtesy Fayetteville Publishing Company
(right) Early edition of the Carolina Observer, predecessor of the Fayetteville Observer — Courtesy Fayetteville Publishing Company

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