Transcribed from: The History of Florida: Past & Present
The Lewis Publishing Co., Vol.III
Page 175, 1923.
APPLEYARD, Col. T. J., state printer since 1909, is
a veteran of his craft, and one of the most widely known and
influential old time journalists and newspaper men in Florida. Colonel
APPLEYARD is still hale and hearty at the age of seventy-two, and is
able to give his personal management to the responsible office and
extensive business he holds.
The Appleyard printing plant, near the capital in
Tallahassee, is a large industry in itself, one of the best organized
printing and binding plants in the state, equipped not only for the
special service of the state government, but also for general
commercial printing. The plant handles all the general and special
printing for the offices of the governor, secretary of state, state
treasurer, comptroller, commissioner of agriculture, attorney-general,
superintendent of public instruction, state chemist, the Supreme Court,
the Railroad Commission, Trustees of the Internal Improvement Fund,
Board of Education, Board of State Institutions, the state auditor, the
chief drainage engineer, the Road Department, Fish Commissioners and
other minor divisions.
THOMAS JEFFERSON APPLEYARD learned the fundamentals
to the printing industry and business when a boy. He was born at
Richmond, Virginia, August 19, 1850, and is of old English stock. His
father, JOHN APPLEYARD, came to this country in 1832. The APPLEYARD
ancestry is traced back in a straight line since the year 1162, and the
family in different generations became noted in English diplomacy. The
mother of Colonel APPLEYARD was SARAH WADSWORTH, a native of Yorkshire,
England, and her father subsequently was a manufacturer at
Poughkeepsie, New York. Colonel APPLEYARD attended school in Richmond,
and at the age of ten was awarded the first prize for general
excellence in his studies. This prize was a Bible, which he carried
through the Civil war and still later it was carried through the World
war in France by one of his sons. About the beginning of the war
between the states, Colonel APPLEYARD was apprenticed to GEORGE W.
GARY, then proprietor of the largest printing house in Richmond. He
soon resigned and early in 1862 entered the Confederate service on the
school ship Patrick Henry and later of the Virginia No. 2. He was with
the Confederate naval forces throughout the war, and finally
surrendered at Greensboro, North Carolina, where he was under the
command of Admiral RAPHAEL SEMMES. He was paroled May 1, 1865. After
the war he finished his apprenticeship in the office of the Southern
Opinion at Richmond, the editor of which was HENRY RIVES POLLARD. He
spent probably more time in the office of the editor than in the
mechanical department, and thus derived an invaluable experience for
his future career as a newspaper man.
After leaving the Southern Opinion he was assistant
foreman of the Republic at Richmond, but in 1871 became night editor on
the Columbus Enquirer-Sun in Georgia, and while there, in January,
1873, he married Miss SARAH E. KENNEDY. He was next associated with
Capt. DICK ENGLISH on the Selma Times in Alabama, and came to Florida
as mechanical superintendent of the Jacksonville Times in October,
1882. While he was at Jacksonville the firm was consolidated with The
Union, and in the spring of 1883, Mr. APPLEYARD was instrumental in
establishing the first newspaper post office in the South. Since that
time the newspaper post office has become a necessity in every daily
office. On leaving Jacksonville Colonel APPLEYARD acquired an interest
in the Southern Sun Publishing Company at Palatka, but this venture
proved unprofitable on account of the heavy freeze that killed the
citrus crops in that section. He then established a paper at Oakland
for the purpose of giving publicity to the country through which the
Orange Belt Railroad was being constructed. In 1891 he established the
Chronicle at Sanford, and eight years later bought the three daily
papers of Key West, consolidating them as the Inter-Ocean. Colonel
APPLEYARD was proprietor of the Lake City Index from 1901 until he
accepted his first contract as state printer at Tallahassee in April,
1909. After filling out an unexpired contract he was awarded the
regular contract, and has since developed a plant of such capacity and
efficiency for the general printing business that his assignment as
state printer has been more or less a matter of course.
While in the newspaper business Colonel APPLEYARD
made his papers the source of distinct benefit to the communities which
they served, and he became widely known and admired for his unique
skill as a paragraphed. Many of his editorials were copied by other
papers throughout the state.
Colonel APPLEYARD has represented Florida in seven
National Conventions of the democratic party. In 1896 he was a member
of the committee on permanent organization at Chicago, and in the 1904
convention was a member of the committee on credentials. In the San
Francisco Convention of 1920 he was a member of the committee on
platform and resolutions.
Colonel APPLEYARD for thirty-two years was secretary
of the Florida Press Association, and for two years, 1921-22, has been
historical secretary of the association. Many have regarded him, as the
most competent man of the state to write a political history of
Florida. He is executive officer of the Navy Division of the
Confederate Veterans, with the rank of commodore. He has been
affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks for
twenty-six years. He is a member of the Episcopal Church.
Colonel APPLEYARD lost the wife and companion of
over forty years on October 15, 1916. He is the father of eight
children, six living, and also has eight grandchildren. Two of his sons
were soldiers on the side of the allies in the great war. One was with
the artillery around Metz, and the other, who gave up his life for the
cause, had charge of a tank in training with the Tank Corps at
Gettysburg. This son was WILLIAM T.; the other deceased son was FLEMING
MITCHELL. Both of them were active in the Masonic order.
The living children are: THOMAS J., Jr., secretary
of the Chamber of Commerce of Lakeland, Florida; Mrs. EDWARD
FITZGERALD, Tallahassee; ALICE, wife of J. P. CLARKSON of Jacksonville;
SARAH E., wife of GEORGE A. MARION, of Rochester, New York; CHARLOTTE
EMELIE, Mrs. W. V. CULLEY, of Tallahassee; and PAUL S., who spent seven
months with the Sixty-first Artillery Corps in France, and is now
associated with his father in business, is a Mason and Shriner, and
married ELLEN MAY THAGARD.
Transcribed by Nancy Rayburn and used with permission.
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