Narciso Gener Gonzales

Who was Narciso Gener Gonzales?

Narciso Gener Gonzales was born in Eddingsville, Edisto Island, South Carolina. He and his brother, Ambrose E. Gonzales, were the founders of The State newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina.

Gonzales was the son of Colonel Ambrosio José Gonzales and Harriet Rutledge Elliott. His father was a Colonel in the Confederate Army who played an instrumental role in the defenses of South Carolina during the American Civil War. Prior to this his father was a Cuban revolutionary leader, who opposed oppressive Spanish rule. His mother was the daughter of the wealthy South Carolina rice planter, state senator and writer, William Elliott.

Although his formal education ended at the age of seventeen, Narciso Gonzales became a telegraph operator in 1875 in order to help support his extended family. He worked in railroad depots in Varnville, South Carolina, Savannah, Georgia, and Valdosta, Georgia. While working as a telegrapher and handling news reports, he developed an interest in journalism and state politics. In 1880, he left the telegraph office in Valdosta to become a reporter for the Greenville, South Carolina, Daily News.

While working in Varnville in 1876, Narciso Gonzales had written a report on a local uprising of plantation workers and telegraphed it to the Charleston, South Carolina, Journal of Commerce. This came to the attention of the editors of a rival newspaper, the Charleston News and Courier. Shortly after going to work for the Greenville Daily News, Gonzales accepted a position as the Columbia, South Carolina correspondent for the News and Courier.