Local & State Headlines

Defining history

• The daughter of a former Albany Herald editor gives the newspaper a piece of its history.

Carlton Fletcher

SAVANNAH — The book itself, a well-worn 1855 edition of “An American Dictionary of the English Language” by Noah Webster — yes, the Noah Webster — is an incredible piece of literature, way more than a collection of word definitions.

Perhaps even more intriguing, though, is the dictionary’s circuitous trip home, to the offices of The Albany Herald.

Previously owned by Herald founder H.M. McIntosh and rescued by ’60s-era City Editor Pete Rockett, Webster’s handiwork was returned to The Herald recently by Rockett’s daughter, Carol Megathlin.

“I’m so glad to bring the dictionary back home to The Herald,” Megathlin said. “It’s completed the circle now.”

Much more detailed than the scaled-down version of the modern-day dictionary, the 1855 version of “An American Dictionary of the English Language” includes Webster’s memoir, prefaces by both Webster and editor Chauncey A. Goodrich, a series of directions, explanations and alphabets, as well as an introduction that includes an account of the origin of language, all before the first word in the dictionary — “a” — is defined in painstaking detail.

In between “a” and the dictionary’s final definition (“zythum — a beverage; a liquor made from malt and wheat.”) are 1,281 pages that offer insight into an era as far removed from the 21st-century digital age as it was from the Industrial Revolution that began in the late 1700s.

“I went through the book a couple of times while it was in my possession, and it is fascinating,” said Megathlin, a retired public information officer with the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography who now lives in Savannah with her husband Bill. “But the dictionary belongs at The Herald; it is a link to the paper’s earliest history. I wanted to make sure it was taken care of.”

The dictionary was in Herald founder McIntosh’s office when former Albany mayor and Herald owner James H. Gray took over operation of the paper. Gray was cleaning the office and was about to throw the book away when, Megathlin said, her father “rescued” it.

“Dad said Mr. Gray was about to throw out a lot of the old books of Mr. McIntosh’s when he saw this huge, thick book with the cover falling off,” she said. “He asked Mr. Gray if he could take the book and brought it home. It stayed on dad’s book shelf until he died in 1969.”

Megathlin found the book among her father’s belongings in the mid-70s and decided to bring it to her home. It remained there until she recently decided to donate it to The Herald. She said her fond memories of visiting The Herald newsroom with her father inspired her to offer the historic book to the newspaper.

“I was always at The Herald newsroom with my dad,” Megathlin said. “I remember climbing up those stairs to the composing room and smelling the printer’s ink in that stairwell. I love that smell to this day.”

Rockett, who began his newspaper career at the Americus Times-Recorder and later founded the weekly Americus Journal, left the South to take a job as general manager of the Philadelphia Phillies’ Terre Haute (Indiana) minor league baseball team. When that team relocated to Reidsville, N.C. — a move that proved disastrous from a financial standpoint — Rockett reached a pivotal point in his and his young family’s lives.

“I was in the fifth grade, and we got word that the team was going to move again,” Megathlin said. “I just freaked out. I was at a point in my life where I needed some stability. I will forever be indebted to my father that he realized how important it was for our family to establish roots.”

Rockett left the well-paying general manager’s job and brought his family back to Americus. The Rocketts moved in with relatives until Pete Rockett landed a job in 1955, as state editor of The Herald. In 1960 he was promoted to city editor, a position he held until his death.

At the time of his death, from a heart attack, Gray wrote of Rockett: “He was, strangely enough, for so intent a City Editor, the gentlest of men. There are those who have labored with him for a lengthy period, bearing witness to his stubbornness with an idea, who have never seen him lose his temper or make those flamboyant gestures that often provoke without significance. By the nature of his job — from reporter to chief of the newsroom — he walked with the various leaders of Albany and Dougherty County, and he was known and respected by them all. ...

“An able, unvarnished quiet man, not without a twinkle of humor in his eyes, he never stooped to make an effect, nor wrote a line in which he did not believe. His loss is real.”

Current Herald Editor Jim Hendricks said the dictionary will serve as a tie to the newspaper’s past.

“We certainly appreciate this gesture,” he said. “The dictionary is a tangible connection to the beginnings of the newspaper, the oldest continuous source of news in our area. It’s good to have it back in house, where you can literally touch the newspaper’s history.

“We’re appreciative of Ms. Megathlin’s gift, and we plan to take good care of it as a way of preserving The Herald’s history for future generations.”