Sealed with brilliance

One hundred and twenty-eight years ago this week John Henry Seals sat down at his desk to write a wistful column of reminiscences prompted by a visit to Penfield, GA.

The “cool shades, green lawns, and restful quiet” of the community led his “overworked brains” back to early childhood scenes and “a thousand incidents.” Seals, an 1854 graduate of Mercer University, was brilliant. We can say that without hesitation because the word was repeatedly attached to his name by, it seems, everyone who described him. It ran in the family; his older brother William was considered brainy, his younger brother Thomas was valedictorian of Mercer's 1856 class, and John Henry's son was ... brilliant.

Initially educated at Powelton Academy, John Henry Seals received an A.B. and A.M. from Mercer. He only took third honors at graduation though, it was said, he could easily have taken first had he cared to do so. "He was not ambitious ... and being naturally lively and fun-loving, and fond of society, he did not devote his entire time to his books," wrote journalist and biographer Wallace Putnam Reed in 1899. "It was easy for him to master a lesson at a single reading, and his exceptionally fine memory never failed him. When other students were burning the midnight oil this bright youngster was enjoying himself after the fashion of the average light-hearted college boy. He felt that he could afford to do it for his experience had assured him that a glance at his text books would enable him to hold his own with the brightest members of his class."

Born in Warren County, he was the son of a planter father, Thomas Seals, and a mother with a respected lineage of her own, Mary Ann Burnley. John Henry, like his siblings, did the family name proud. He married the daughter of Mercer's first president Mary Ellen "Mamie" Sanders; their only child was tragically killed in 1876 when he fell off an excursion railroad train crossing a bridge near Port Royal, SC. In his "eighteenth year," Henry Millard Seals was considered "one of the most brilliant youths of the State" and if all reports are true, he was. His parents were understandably crushed.

Brokenhearted or not, the ever impressive Mercerian found value in the life given to him and contributed broadly to his community and the state as a writer, editor, educator, publisher, and lawyer, never wavering from his public duty until his death in 1909.

Career for John Henry Seals began upon graduation from Mercer when he purchased a weekly newspaper, The Temperance Banner, then published at Penfield, and moved it to Atlanta. He changed the name to The Georgia Literary and Temperance Crusader. Despite youthfulness, Seals succeeded "brilliantly" as he took over both the editorial and business departments.

Contributors flocked to him and before long the temperance aspect of the paper was fading fast. "Stories, sketches, essays and poems of more than average merit were furnished by southern writers, and some of these contributors were destined to be come famous," said Reed. "Editor Seals was the master spirit of the enterprise. His genius, tact, ready sympathy and cultured taste brought him in touch with his writers, and his kindly words of encouragement had judicious praise had the effect of developing and bringing to the front a new school of story-tellers and poets."

This ascendancy was interrupted as a national war of words lead to a conflict much more deadly and devastating to the South Seals knew and loved. During the 1860s war years, he suspended the paper's operation and ran a publishing house for the Confederate government, furnishing printed matter for the post office and the military. He was known for publishing the first code of Georgia which was the work of Thomas R. R. Cobb, Judge David Irwin, and Judge Richard H. Clark. When the war ended, Seals read law and was admitted to the bar in Greensboro. Prosperity came again though he was unhappy as he "cared little for such triumphs in a distasteful profession."

Turning to education, Seals established the Robert E. Lee Academy at Greensboro and subsequently was principal of the Cuthbert Male High School. Following a few pleasant years in this field, he returned to Atlanta in 1874 and in November published the first issue of a literary weekly known as The Sunny South. After almost bankrupting himself with the first issues, money began to pour in and the enterprise turned golden for Seals who reveled in the opportunity to paint the "local color and flavor" of the South for a national audience. With long a full mustache and goatee, Col. Seals wrote, edited, and spoke with natural-born enthusiasm and gusto for readers and hearers on a vast scale. His dashing self was considered a one and only.

With the newspaper booming, he and Mamie sent their son to Macon for his sophomore year of college. Predictably Millard was dogged by consummate good fortune as he was roundly approved socially and academically; he took first honors. For reasons now unknown, Millard did not return to Mercer the next year but joined his father's business and it was during that intermission of education he took the fateful trip.

His father eventually regained himself and continued his life's pursuits, apparently never letting his broken heart tarnish his ability to touch his world. "The personality of Colonel Seals is striking and attractive," said Reed of Seals when he was 60ish. "Tall, slender and graceful, of the brunette type, with flashing eyes, animated features and a ringing, musical voice, he never fails to sway and please his hearers. Time and again he has followed some dull speaker who has nearly emptied the hall, and in a few moments the crowd returned, packing the house and applauding the silver-tongued orator to the very echo. He has received so many invitations to speak that he has missed hundreds of barbecues simply because he did not like to be almost forced to make an off-hand speech at a time when he was seeking rest and recreation."

Mamie died first and her husband, who was always partial to outdoors activities such as hunting and fishing, lived as a widower on the outskirts of Atlanta in Chamblee where he was allowed the luxury of chickens, cows, and pigs. Throughout his life he remained "thoroughly versed" in worthy reading material--he adored Shakespeare and Milton--and disdainful of the "trashy fiction" popping up in post Reconstruction and turn-of-the-century Georgia. With his interest in and knowledge of politics, business, and industrial development, Seals was asked to run for mayor of Atlanta though he withdrew his name.

His giftedness, his tender heart, and his achievements are impossible to summarize or detail. We get a glimpse into the man when we read his written words. When he sat down in 1883 to review his life at Penfield and the recent visit there, his emotion took over the retrospection and the ardor of his heart was revealed.

Wrote Seals: “The warm grasp of the good old citizens and the bright eyes of hundreds of jolly college mates he could see, and feel as of yore. As he sat again in the familiar old chapel and gazed once more upon the solemn cenotaph of the venerable Mercer, he could hear in imagination, the fiery, Demosthenic eloquence of the boys, and the persuasive eloquence of the grand old preachers, all of which were delivered from the same rostrum. And more than this, he could hear too, the indignant voices of Mercer, Billington M. Sanders, Absalom Janes, Vincent Thornton, Thomas Stocks and others crying aloud: ‘Beware O, ye my descendants! Beware how ye pull down the work of our hands. Yea, let it be established and nurture ye this tree where we have planted it!’ But the old halls are deserted, the college has long since been removed, and a solemn stillness broods in unbroken monotony over the once gay and beautiful campus.”

From this it is obvious Seals, though it was more than a dozen years after the removal of Mercer University to Macon, GA, still regretted the university's change of venue from Greene County's jealous environs and regretted its loss to the affectionate ones who dedicated their lives to the school's cherished care.

While there Seals visited some who remained from the old guard including Mrs. Billington (Cynthia) Sanders, Nathan Hobbs, J. R. Sanders, Benjamin Spencer, and W. A. Colclough and mentioned prominent “solid” younger leaders such as Charles M., Jerry, and Dr. Joseph Sanders; Joe, William, and Luther Boswell; Felix Malone, Doc Champion, and Jesse Fluker. He ended the column with a promise of more on Penfield and said those current “random thoughts” had been delayed by severe illness.

Life had moved on, and John Henry Seals--like all of us--knew the cost of passing years in a way he could not have imagined at college graduation time. We cannot find a follow-up by Seals with additional Penfield reflections. By that time he had sold the newspaper and was working diligently every day in the production of the literary periodical which became almost synonymous with his name. Today a glimpse into the life of this one and others who wrote copiously of their thoughts and lives can be found by us mostly by scanning microfilm or online digitized copies of literary documents.

Here and there are a few originals exist, kept by people of the past so that people today can "see" their lives more than a century and a quarter later. And we thank all those who have a part in holding up the line of preservation so these glimpses are available to us. What a trip it is when we are conducted through time by the engineers who mapped the way when they gave to us, saved and sealed, that time machine known as a newspaper. John Henry Seals was a brilliant conductor on the train of time.

Sources: Sarah Donelson Hubert, Genealogy of Part of the Barksdale Family of America, 1895, 30-31; Georgia Marriages, 1699-1944 (online database); U.S. Federal Census 1860, 1870, 1900; "A Visit to Penfield," The Sunny South, John Henry Seals, 15 September 1883, 4; "Some Georgians of Our Day," The Sunny South, Wallace Putnam Reed, 15 April 1899, 7; Mercer University Triennial Register; Henry Millard Seals and John Henry Seals biographical files, Mercer University Tarver Library Special Collections.

Compiled by Arlette Camp Copeland with information researched by Arlette Copeland and Peer Ravnan, Special Collections assistants.