Biography: Franklin Potts Glass born June 7, 1858

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FRANKLIN POTTS GLASS

GENEALOGY and BIOGRAPHY

(1858- 1934)

Bibb, Dallas, Montgomery, Jefferson County, Alabama

Franklin Potts Glass, of Montgomery, Alabama was born June 7, 1858, in Centreville, Alabama to Benjamin F. and Caroline (Potts) Glass, a planter and businessman in Centreville, Alabama.

The early education of Mr. Glass was received at private schools of Alabama, where he was equipped for entrance to Princeton University. He completed his education at Princeton University, being graduated with honor as a bachelor of arts in the class of 1877.

He returned to Centreville and established the quite successful Bibb Blade in Bibb County, Alabama in 1880 then purchased the Daily Times of Selma in 1881. He moved to Selma in 1881. In 1885, he bought a half interest in the Montgomery Advertiser and moved to Montgomery, where he afterward assumed the management of the paper. When the property interests of the newspaper were organized into “The Advertiser Company,” Glass was made secretary, treasurer, and manager. It was the largest paper in Alabama in 1900.

The company owned and occupied a handsome three-story building en Dexter Ave., equipped with every modern improvement. This building was constructed in 1902, Mr. Glass gave the work much of his personal attention.

He was a forceful and scholarly writer, and widely informed on current affairs. The paper was an ardent espousal of conservative Democracy, and he was a lifelong Democrat.

He was a member of the board of directors of the Montgomery Commercial and Industrial Association, an organization of businessmen, and also a member of the board of trustees of the Carnegie library of Montgomery. Glass was active in church work and an elder of the First Presbyterian church cf Montgomery. He gave to the church and its organizations a loyal devotion.

On April 2, 1884, he married Mattie Ann Purnell and they lived in a comfortable country home in Cloverdale, a suburb of Montgomery in 1900 while he owned the Montgomery Advertiser. They later moved to Birmingham, Jefferson County, Alabama.

They had the following children:

1. Frank Potts Glass (b. 1885 Selma, Al d. Jul 1962 FL) m. Carol Woodson and he attended Princeton University and was a writer for the Freeland Newspaper in Missouri in 1930.
2. John Purnell Glass (b. 1886 Selma, AL d. ) m. Willie Elmore (b. 1887 – d. Jan 15, 1979) in 1908 and he was manager of an Auto Renting Co., in Memphis, Tennessee in 1930
3. Christine Glass (b. 1888 Montgomery, AL – d. 1977 AL) was unmarried
4. Louise Glass(b. 1890 Montgomery, AL d. 1978 Birmingham, AL) m. Patterson B. Marzoni – a newspaper writer in 1930
5. Evelyn L. Glass (b. 1892 Montgomery, AL ) m. Arthur Lee Boorse in 1917, a reporter for the Newport News
6. Hugh Bryson Glass (b. Jun 28,1903 Montgomery, AL – Aug. 16, 1946) was unmarried and a Research Chemist living in Anniston, Alabama in 1930 census.

In 1922, Franklin Potts Glass was an associate in publishing The St. Louis Star and was the former president of the American Newspaper Association and one of the former owners and editors of the Birmingham News. He died in Birmingham in 1934.

Franklin Potts Glass, Sr. was appointed Nov. 1913 to fill a vacancy in the U. S. Senate caused by the vacancy of Joseph F. Johnston but his seat was denied by the Senate Feb. 4, 1914, by vote of 32 to 31, on construction of the seventeenth amendment, denying the governor the right of appointment under the existing statutes of Alabama. He was President of the American Newspaper Publishers Association in 1918-20.

Franklin Potts Glass, Sr. died January 10, 1934, and is buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Montgomery, Alabama.

SOURCES

1. Notable Men of Alabama edited by Joel Campbell DuBose
2. Find A Grave Memorial# 91746971 # 91746871 # 91746907 # 64768268 # 76733509

This biography is included in the Book Biographies of Notable and Not-so-Notable Alabama Pioneers Vol. III

About Donna R Causey

Donna R. Causey, resident of Alabama, was a teacher in the public school system for twenty years. When she retired, Donna found time to focus on her lifetime passion for historical writing. She developed the websites www.alabamapioneers and www.daysgoneby.me All her books can be purchased at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble. She has authored numerous genealogy books. RIBBON OF LOVE: A Novel Of Colonial America (TAPESTRY OF LOVE) is her first novel in the Tapestry of Love about her family where she uses actual characters, facts, dates and places to create a story about life as it might have happened in colonial Virginia. Faith and Courage: Tapestry of Love (Volume 2) is the second book and the third FreeHearts: A Novel of Colonial America (Book 3 in the Tapestry of Love Series) Discordance: The Cottinghams (Volume 1) is the continuation of the story. . For a complete list of books, visit Donna R Causey

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