Being in the word business and hoping people buy those words we put in print, one looks for opportunities to promote the craft.

Without too much effort, one can find yet another voice that predicts the ultimate end of the written word. To these futurists, communication will continue with words but through channels that will relax strained eye muscles. Finger taps will replace page turning, and ears rather than eyes will become the medium for the message.

Delivery systems may be updated and changed, but the ability to engage in the digestion of information through a printed medium probably will survive another test of time. One hopes so, particularly when assuming the mantle of leadership for the Tennessee Press Association.

There is a lot to be learned through combing the writings of those who have led the TPA for more than 100 years.

Frank Gibson, the executive director of the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, shared the printed proceedings of the Tennessee Press Association’s 25th annual meeting, held in Chattanooga June 4-6, 1895.

Reading the book, one is awed by those who chose journalism as a profession in the 19th century. Their writing is somewhat quaint but in its own way, eloquent. For the editor and publisher of a newspaper in Chattanooga with roots sown from the planting by Adolph Ochs, it is interesting to read of his hand in advancing newspapers.

There were other jewels and connections inside the pages of the book that Frank Gibson uncovered.

There was a section that highlighted past presidents of the Tennessee Press Association. Flipping through the biographical sketches, one hopes to find a few gems that might be inspirational today for an industry in transition.

A name with a line-drawn picture appeared on Page 36 of the purple-bound proceedings — a former TPA president, H.F. Griscom. The name is familiar as it was carried forward with future generations. The connection to newspapers in Chattanooga was not known.

He was elected president at the 11th annual convention of the TPA, held here on June 16, 1881. Harry F. Griscom started a “diminutive paper” called Now and Then, described as “a modest little sheet that was not long in attracting attention to the amateur editor and publisher.” He took charge of the Chattanooga Commercial, “a paper that had met with ill success under another management and built it up to be one of the best and most flourishing weeklies in the state.”

The attributes listed for my ancestor are those that any journalist seeks and even more so for an aspiring family member: “Mr. Griscom possessed to a remarkable degree the journalistic instinct, and

what is called in newspaper parlance a nose for news. He had a fine sense of humor, a keen insight into matters under discussion. He made (the Commercial) one of the brightest, most readable and acceptable of newspapers in the state.”

These words described the 11th president:

“He was frank, yet considerate, in speech; firm in his convictions, yet tolerant of the opinions of others; genial and tender hearted and generous to a fault. Though sometimes sharp in newspaper controversies, he was not personally vindictive.”

Traditions, especially those attached to family, are road marks for guidance.

One hopes that another Tennessee Press Association president with the same family name is able to follow a lead set 127 years earlier. Time will be the judge.

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